Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you
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Speaker 1: We're continuing our player rankings today with number two, mister
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. You guys know the drill before we get started.
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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: why do I have Steph Curry at number two? Like
Speaker 1: I said yesterday, I view a clear cut top tier
Speaker 1: in the form of Giannis, Steph and Nikolea Jokic. The
Speaker 1: gist of it is is those three guys. We have
Speaker 1: six current active former Finals MVPs, right but with Lebron
Speaker 1: there's been a little bit of a decline that we've
Speaker 1: seen in the last few years. Kawhi Leonard literally can't
Speaker 1: stay healthy and on the court for an entire playoff run,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant hasn't won a Finals MVP since twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen and is coming off of two of his lesser
Speaker 1: playoff runs in his career. So I wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of make a clear delineation between number four and the
Speaker 1: rest of the field and three up because these are
Speaker 1: the last three guys who all in the last twenty
Speaker 1: five months have been consistently great regular season players. Each
Speaker 1: of them have won a Finals MVP. Nikole Jokich and
Speaker 1: Giannis in particular have won MVPs as well during that span.
Speaker 1: Those three are clearly a level above the rest of
Speaker 1: the field, at least in terms of the level of
Speaker 1: re cognition that they deserve for what they've accomplished recently. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason why I have him below Jokicz pretty simple.
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokicz just dominated everybody, including a bunch of his
Speaker 1: Peers on his way to winning the title. He deserves
Speaker 1: to be the clear cut number one this year. I
Speaker 1: have him above Yannis because Yannis is demonstrating some clear
Speaker 1: signs of regression in terms of his skill set, particularly
Speaker 1: free throw shooting and really anything away from the paint
Speaker 1: and away from the rim, I should say. And in
Speaker 1: addition to that, it like straight up cost his team
Speaker 1: in the first round series against Miami, as the Bucks
Speaker 1: lost the series they had no business losing, even if
Speaker 1: we acknowledge the Yannis injury. So I think it makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense to have Steph in there at number two.
Speaker 1: I'll go even further. I personally very much regret not
Speaker 1: putting Steph at number one in my list last year. Now,
Speaker 1: the reasoning was at the time I was so impressed
Speaker 1: by Yannis in that second round loss to the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: and how without Chris Middleton and with the complete combustion
Speaker 1: of every spot up player on the roster, he still
Speaker 1: had them this close to winning that series and advancing
Speaker 1: to the conference finals. And I didn't think Giannis deserved
Speaker 1: to get knocked off simply because his team was injured.
Speaker 1: But I should have applied the same amount of appropriate
Speaker 1: credit and respect for getting the job done that I'm
Speaker 1: applying to Jokics right now. I should have applied that
Speaker 1: to Steph last year. So I regret making that particular decision.
Speaker 1: So when I look back on the twenty twenty two season, now,
Speaker 1: I feel like we as a basketball community should view
Speaker 1: Steph as having been the best player in the world
Speaker 1: during that twenty twenty two season. But you know, can't
Speaker 1: go back and erase the past. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I regret it, but as of right now,
Speaker 1: I feel very comfortable putting Steph in at number two. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about last year. So in
Speaker 1: this previous season, as I predicted, because the year before,
Speaker 1: the year that they won the title, he actually had
Speaker 1: a down regular season. If you remember by it was
Speaker 1: like the first time he shot below forty percent from
Speaker 1: three in a full season in a long time. It
Speaker 1: was just a weird season where he just wasn't quite
Speaker 1: the same productive player. And I think it was fluky.
Speaker 1: I thought it was fluky in the time at the moment.
Speaker 1: And I remember after they won the title, I was like, clearly,
Speaker 1: this playoff run demonstrates that the regular season was fluky
Speaker 1: Steph should get back on track this season, and he
Speaker 1: absolutely did. Twenty nine points per game, six rebounds and
Speaker 1: six assists, sixty six percent through shooting, which is obviously
Speaker 1: completely outrageous, played in fifty six games. It was a
Speaker 1: really weird Warrior season. A bunch of young players were
Speaker 1: dissatisfied in their roles. This is one of the big
Speaker 1: reasons why I've been so critical of the two timelines plan.
Speaker 1: It's one thing if in a perfect world, if you
Speaker 1: can navigate everyone's personalities, it can make some sense. But
Speaker 1: the big downside is is that's not how life works.
Speaker 1: In life, like everyone has a personality, everyone has an ego,
Speaker 1: everyone has expectations in a situation. And so if you're
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga, or you're James Wiseman, or you're Jordan Poole,
Speaker 1: you have a certain expectation of what your life should
Speaker 1: be like, you have a certain expectation of your what
Speaker 1: your role on an NBA team should be. And like,
Speaker 1: imagine being James Wiseman or Jonathan Kminga in particular, players
Speaker 1: that were the you know best, some of the best
Speaker 1: players in the country coming up and suddenly you're riding
Speaker 1: Pine in the NBA, and even though you probably deserve
Speaker 1: to play, and your buddies, who are also at the
Speaker 1: top of their classes in high school, are elsewhere in
Speaker 1: the league just off making mistakes. You're watching them be
Speaker 1: able to play thirty minutes a night, no matter how
Speaker 1: many turnovers they get, no matter how many misshots they get. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you're on the Golden State Warriors, and you can't get
Speaker 1: in because Steve Kurr doesn't trust you to defend and
Speaker 1: to make the right decisions offensively. Now, for the record,
Speaker 1: no one's wrong, Like Steve Kerr as an obligation to
Speaker 1: lead his team to win basketball games, and Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: wasn't ready, and James Wiseman wasn't ready, And when Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole was struggling in this playoff run, he had to
Speaker 1: make a move in a different direction in terms of
Speaker 1: the rotation. Right, he had no choice. His obligation is
Speaker 1: to win basketball games. So is it for Steph for
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson, for Raymond Green, for Andrew Wiggins, for Con
Speaker 1: Looney for all those guys, Right, And so I'm not
Speaker 1: blaming anybody on the Warriors front. It's just the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation. You're asking a bunch of younger players who,
Speaker 1: like everyone else in their early twenties, kind of lacks
Speaker 1: long term perspective, right, Because I would argue that there's
Speaker 1: great value in learning how to play basketball in that environment.
Speaker 1: But try telling that to a twenty one year old
Speaker 1: who's watching his buddy drop twenty seven on twenty seven shots,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, so, I understand where
Speaker 1: those guys were coming from. I don't blame anybody, but
Speaker 1: that's what happened. There was a clear, you know, fissure
Speaker 1: taking place between the younger players and the roster and
Speaker 1: the older players on the roster, and you combine that
Speaker 1: with the Draymond punch and the fact that the team
Speaker 1: just couldn't gel on the road at all all season,
Speaker 1: and it just was kind of a disaster. I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph did everything he could to float the shit, but
Speaker 1: things just never really settled down. I Mean, Steph scored
Speaker 1: forty or more points six times this season and the
Speaker 1: Warriors were only five hundred in those games. He had
Speaker 1: fifty twice and they lost both of those games. He
Speaker 1: was like the lighthouse in the storm, but there's just
Speaker 1: nothing he could do with all of that chaos around
Speaker 1: him to really get them to settle down and get
Speaker 1: into a groove. As a matter of fact, the Warriors
Speaker 1: were just thirty and twenty six in the game Steph
Speaker 1: played this season, despite how good he was offensively. Now,
Speaker 1: let's take a look at the play some of the
Speaker 1: play type data, as you can imagine, was Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: His half court creation numbers were just completely off the
Speaker 1: damn charts. He ran seven hundred and seventy eight picking
Speaker 1: rolls this year, which led to nine hundred and fourteen points.
Speaker 1: That's one point one eight points per possession. Now, that
Speaker 1: didn't qualify for a high volume list, right because our
Speaker 1: high volume list was a minimum of one thousand. But
Speaker 1: if I had just that list from one thousand to
Speaker 1: seven to fifty, there are thirty four players in the
Speaker 1: NBA this year that ran at least seven hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty picking rolls, and Steph ranked number one in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA pick and roll efficiency at one point one
Speaker 1: eight points per possession. We're gonna talk a lot more
Speaker 1: about pick and roll here in a few minutes, because
Speaker 1: I want to highlight the Lakers series as a demonstration
Speaker 1: of Steph's superpower, how completely unguardable he is, and the
Speaker 1: way that he solved the Lakers pick and roll coverage.
Speaker 1: We will get to that here in a little bit.
Speaker 1: One point zero seven points per ISO. That was in
Speaker 1: the seventy sixth percentile. Although very low volume compared to
Speaker 1: some of his peers. Steph just doesn't run its on ISOs.
Speaker 1: He certainly could, It's just it's not what he needs
Speaker 1: to do in that particular offense, although he does end
Speaker 1: up having to lean on that a little bit more
Speaker 1: when he gets to the postseason off screen actions the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Just so you guys know, this is actually a crazy stat.
Speaker 1: The Warriors run more off ball screens than any team
Speaker 1: in the NBA. To give you an idea, the Warriors
Speaker 1: took a shot off of an off ball screen nine
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight times this year, nine to fifty eight,
Speaker 1: almost one thousand. Right the Jazz we're in second place
Speaker 1: at seven to twenty four. In twenty four of the
Speaker 1: thirty NBA teams ran fewer than four hundred off screen
Speaker 1: plays leading to shots. So that when I talk about
Speaker 1: how the Lakers are, excuse me, the Warriors run more
Speaker 1: motion than everybody. They run more sets than everybody. They
Speaker 1: take more shots and sets than everybody. It's literally not
Speaker 1: even close. The Warriors just run more organized offense than
Speaker 1: anybody in the league by mile. Steph personally shot fifty
Speaker 1: two percent effective field goal percentage and off screen plays
Speaker 1: scored one point zero three points per possession. Here's a
Speaker 1: little bit of trivia for you guys. Which guy do
Speaker 1: you think led the NBA this year in points coming
Speaker 1: off of off ball screens? Take a guess. The correct
Speaker 1: answer is Klay Thompson at four hundred and seven. This
Speaker 1: is how crazy this is. Klay Thompson led the league
Speaker 1: in points off screens at four hundred and seven. Second
Speaker 1: place was Lori Markinen at two thirty five. So Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson in and of himself is like the only guy
Speaker 1: in the league that leans that heavily on off screen
Speaker 1: stuff himself. Steph was also the very best drible handoff
Speaker 1: player in the league last year, one point two points
Speaker 1: per possession. He was number one out of twenty players
Speaker 1: to run at least one hundred dribble handoffs. He was
Speaker 1: one point three four points per spot up possession, which
Speaker 1: is absolutely outrageous. Sixty seven percent effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: now low volume because obviously Steph doesn't get a ton
Speaker 1: of spot up looks. But if I run a filter,
Speaker 1: there were one hundred and eighty two players in the
Speaker 1: NBA last year, basically half the league, who took at
Speaker 1: least one hundred and fifty spot up possessions, and you
Speaker 1: guessed it, Steph was number one on that list with
Speaker 1: his one point three four points per possession number. So
Speaker 1: how do you become the best pick and roll player
Speaker 1: in the league, the best drible handoff player in the league,
Speaker 1: the best spot up player in the league, basically the
Speaker 1: best half court shot creator in the league. How do
Speaker 1: you do that through incredible shot making and just just
Speaker 1: get ready because these numbers are just completely ridiculous. Catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shot STEPH two percent effective field goal percentage,
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot STEPH sixty one percent effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage. That's best in the league. Only player in
Speaker 1: the league over sixty percent in effective field goal percentage,
Speaker 1: forty five percent on floaters, seventy three percent in the
Speaker 1: restricted area on volume. Not only is seventy three percent
Speaker 1: insane for a guard in the restricted area, but two
Speaker 1: point two makes per game. That's more than Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: That's more than Kevin Durant. That's more than James Harden.
Speaker 1: He actually got to the rim quite a bit during
Speaker 1: this season. I've said, you guys might remember there was
Speaker 1: kind of a crazy sequence like a month ago where uh,
Speaker 1: Steph hits that like crazy putt wheor it like puts
Speaker 1: it up the hill and then it like slowly rolls
Speaker 1: down and goes into the hole and he starts walking
Speaker 1: away before it goes in, And I tweeted out, I
Speaker 1: was like, Steph has the best hand eye coordination in sports,
Speaker 1: and literally the very next day he hits a hole
Speaker 1: in one in the same tournament. You get, but like
Speaker 1: that hand eye coordination you can specifically see in the
Speaker 1: shot making. Nobody is better in all of sports at
Speaker 1: precise body movements and muscle memory the way that Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is. That's his superpower and that's the reason that
Speaker 1: despite being below six y four, he's really the only
Speaker 1: player that's below six ' four that will probably ever
Speaker 1: get consideration in the top twenty all time NBA players.
Speaker 1: If you ask people to build their top twenty list,
Speaker 1: it's a bunch of dudes sixty six and taller and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, and every once in a while you might
Speaker 1: find somebody who throws Dwayne Wade in there on that
Speaker 1: list somewhere he's six 's four in freaky athletics. Steph
Speaker 1: has completely broken the mold for what succeeds in the NBA.
Speaker 1: You can be a small guard and be good in
Speaker 1: the NBA, but to be truly transcendently, unbelievably, historically great,
Speaker 1: it's unheard of except for Steph. And that hand eye
Speaker 1: coordination superpower, I think is what drives that. So looking
Speaker 1: at the playoff runt, he absolutely eviscerated the Sacramento Kings,
Speaker 1: despite the Warriors road struggles continuing as they fell down
Speaker 1: two zero in that series, averaged thirty four to five
Speaker 1: and five on sixty two percent true shooting and drops
Speaker 1: fifty in Game seven, And I went back and watched
Speaker 1: most of that game this morning, and he missed a
Speaker 1: lot of shots that he normally makes in that game,
Speaker 1: So like that fifty could just easily have been sixty
Speaker 1: or sixty five. The Lakers series wasn't his best statistical series,
Speaker 1: but it was the first time I could just say, like,
Speaker 1: the stats don't really tell the story there. Because Jordan
Speaker 1: pul and Klay Thompson both kind of like spontaneously combusted
Speaker 1: in that series. They both combined to take one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty seven shots and only scored one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty seven points on them. And with that and some
Speaker 1: of the offensive limitations in the front court, it really
Speaker 1: became Steph solo versus the entire Laker defense, and so
Speaker 1: obviously there was going to be a dip inefficiency. And
Speaker 1: I can say personally is, as you guys know, the
Speaker 1: only team that I'm really a fan of right now
Speaker 1: is the Lakers because I'm a fan of Lebron James,
Speaker 1: and when he retires that I pretty much won't have
Speaker 1: a team that I specifically root for, and so like that,
Speaker 1: this is one of the last times that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be experiencing like what it's like rooting for a series
Speaker 1: as a fan. And I can tell you rooting against
Speaker 1: Steph Curry that series was absolutely terrifying. It was like
Speaker 1: there was literally nothing they could do with them. And
Speaker 1: so this is where I want to get to the
Speaker 1: Steph pick and roll thing, because you know, we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about the skills necessary to be a successful
Speaker 1: pick and roll ball handler on the show, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you got to have a really good handle so that
Speaker 1: you can set your man up for screens. You've got
Speaker 1: to be able to shoot off the dribble really well,
Speaker 1: which forces players to go over the top of screens
Speaker 1: when they're guarding you from there. You've got to be
Speaker 1: able to score anywhere between there in the basket, whether
Speaker 1: that's a long mid range pull up, a floater in
Speaker 1: the short range, or anything around the rim, right, And
Speaker 1: then you've got to be able to make all of
Speaker 1: the reads. But that's just like the actual tactle skills
Speaker 1: involved with UH with pick and roll, except for the reads. Right.
Speaker 1: Another big part of it is just the basketball IQ element,
Speaker 1: the chess match element, figuring out different angles and spacing
Speaker 1: and different little tricks to generate better openings. And Steph
Speaker 1: was just unbelievable in that chess match in the Lakers series,
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to quick kind of breakdown Games
Speaker 1: one through Game four and kind of go over that
Speaker 1: chess match because I thought it was a great example
Speaker 1: of just how malleable Steph is and how he can
Speaker 1: figure out things over the course of a playoff series.
Speaker 1: So in Game one, the Warriors primarily run their motion offense.
Speaker 1: The Lakers basically top lock all of the guards, forcing
Speaker 1: them to backcut, and Lebron James and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: ignoring Draymond Green and Kevon Looni and just trolling the paint,
Speaker 1: patrolling the paint, and they just shut down the Warrior offense.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I got close slate because the Lakers let
Speaker 1: their foot off the gas a little bit. But then
Speaker 1: after they tied it, they didn't score a bucket the
Speaker 1: rest of the game because the Lakers defense shut them
Speaker 1: down again, and the Lakers actually led by fourteen and
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. So the Lakers kind of dominate
Speaker 1: Game one, right, and Steph only runs nine pick and
Speaker 1: rolls in the entire game. So in Game two, the
Speaker 1: Warriors want to run more pick and roll, but they
Speaker 1: want to generate more space in that pick and roll,
Speaker 1: so they bench Kevon Looney, they bring on Jamichael Green,
Speaker 1: they space the floor, and they just start spamming pick
Speaker 1: and roll. Steph runs nineteen pick and rolls, which would
Speaker 1: have been more if the game was closer, but the
Speaker 1: Warriors bloom out. The Lakers get absolutely cooked by the
Speaker 1: pocket pass. Steph finishes with twelve assists, and the Warriors
Speaker 1: win big. Then we go to Game three and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis puts on a defensive masterpiece. So essentially this is
Speaker 1: where you know. And again, Anthony Davis got a high
Speaker 1: spot on this list in large part because of what
Speaker 1: he was able to do to the Warrior offense. But
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about the yo yo right, the
Speaker 1: ability to get up to the level of the screen
Speaker 1: to do something to disrupt the pocket pass, then to
Speaker 1: sprint back to the basket and be able to protect
Speaker 1: the paint. And Ady just put on a clinic in
Speaker 1: Game three, was really really good at the level of
Speaker 1: the screen, being active with his hands, enforcing deflections and
Speaker 1: turnovers on that interchange there at the high ball screen right,
Speaker 1: So Ady dominates the game defensively. The Lakers win big.
Speaker 1: Game four is the game that I want to use
Speaker 1: as an example of Steph's basketball IQ. So Ad is
Speaker 1: causing problem up at the level of the screen with
Speaker 1: his hands, right, how does Steph counter it? He counters
Speaker 1: it by holding onto the ball longer. Sometimes he'd just
Speaker 1: drag Ad off to the side, so set the screen
Speaker 1: and just make a bunch of lateral dribbles which pulls
Speaker 1: Ad over which created a much bigger pocket for him
Speaker 1: to make that pass. We didn't have to pass around
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's hands as much. Sometimes two he would just
Speaker 1: get over the screen and kind of work his way
Speaker 1: to the top of the key. He'd pin the dude
Speaker 1: on his backside and kind of get keep him in
Speaker 1: jail and just hold it until the big man actually
Speaker 1: got past Anthony Davis, and then he would like use
Speaker 1: pass fakes and wrap around ad. I was watching the
Speaker 1: film this morning. It was like Game four was one
Speaker 1: of the most magnificent pick and roll performances I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were literally throwing the kitchen sink at Steph.
Speaker 1: He ran twenty eight pick and rolls and the Warriors
Speaker 1: scored thirty eight points on them. That's one point three
Speaker 1: to six points per possession in pick and roll in
Speaker 1: a pivotal playoff game on the road against the best
Speaker 1: defense in the league, and they just literally could not
Speaker 1: do anything with him. And if it wasn't for Lonnie
Speaker 1: Walker getting hot at the end of the game and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry again. Now this is another thing. To Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's credit. The final possession, he switched the pick and
Speaker 1: roll and turned Steph into an ISO player and he
Speaker 1: got a couple of stops. So credit to Anthony Davis there.
Speaker 1: But and again we'll talk about it in a second,
Speaker 1: but like the reality is is the Warriors eventually just
Speaker 1: ran out of gas in that series because they weren't
Speaker 1: getting anything out of Klay Thompson, because they weren't getting
Speaker 1: anything out of Jordan Pool, because the Lakers were able
Speaker 1: to throw the kitchen sink at Steph. Eventually he fatigued,
Speaker 1: and over the final three games of the series, Steph
Speaker 1: was just ten for thirty nine from three And I
Speaker 1: do think that that's a huge I think that in
Speaker 1: large part is a kind of a residual effect of
Speaker 1: all of the fatigue that built up over the course
Speaker 1: of the series. But then again that's where Chris Paul
Speaker 1: should come in. Like that, that's where having the ability
Speaker 1: to offload some of that slow down, methodical pick and
Speaker 1: roll attack to a different guard in giving Steph more
Speaker 1: off ball possessions where he can relax a little bit more,
Speaker 1: I think that will help a lot with that specific dynamic,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why they went that dynamic with
Speaker 1: or that way with that trade. But make no mistake,
Speaker 1: like in that situation, thirty eight points on twenty eight
Speaker 1: pick and rolls when Anthony Davis is in almost every action,
Speaker 1: it was just unbelievable. So here's the bottom line. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of really great offensive players in this league,
Speaker 1: but there are only two that I view is truly unstoppable,
Speaker 1: where even if they don't shoot particularly well, you cannot
Speaker 1: prevent them from consistently generating great shots for themselves or
Speaker 1: their teammates. And that's a great example that game that
Speaker 1: the game that I pointed out that thirty eight points
Speaker 1: on twenty eight pick and rolls. Steph didn't shoot particularly well,
Speaker 1: but he manufactured points come hell or high water with
Speaker 1: his ability to consistently warp the defense and make the
Speaker 1: right play. And that's what I'm saying, Like almost every
Speaker 1: offensive player down the list as we go further down,
Speaker 1: whether it's Giannest, whether it's Kevin Durant, whether it's Lebron,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Kawhi, Jason Tatum, Joel Embiid, all those guys
Speaker 1: are to a certain extent dependent on shot result. Like
Speaker 1: Joel Embid's mid range jumper stopped going in his offensive
Speaker 1: impact fell off a cliff right Lebron James couldn't get
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shot or spot up jump shot
Speaker 1: to go at all in this playoff run. Suddenly he
Speaker 1: dropped from thirty points a game to twenty five points
Speaker 1: per game. Wasn't even the best player on his team anymore, right,
Speaker 1: You know, Jason Tatum is so much depends on whether
Speaker 1: or not he's making that pull up three. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to Steph Curry and Nikole Jokic, they're the
Speaker 1: only players in this league or no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: no matter what you throw at them, you cannot stop
Speaker 1: them in their offense from consistently generating high quality shots
Speaker 1: which are going to go in over the course of
Speaker 1: a game and certainly over the course of a series.
Speaker 1: There's no coverage they can't beat. Like again, the Lakers
Speaker 1: literally threw everything at Steph Curry in that series, and
Speaker 1: there was just nothing that he couldn't solve. There's no
Speaker 1: adjustment that Steph can't make to find an opening. No
Speaker 1: matter how great your defense is. Steph is the very
Speaker 1: best shot maker in the league. He is consistently a
Speaker 1: threat with or without the basketball, and he's worked incredibly
Speaker 1: hard to turn himself into a positive defensive player despite
Speaker 1: his physical limitations. And lastly, and this is the last
Speaker 1: thing I want to say on the Steph Curry front,
Speaker 1: He's got a nasty streak. He is one of the
Speaker 1: most competitive players in the league. I talk a lot
Speaker 1: about this idea of the difference between loving basketball and
Speaker 1: hating losing. In my time playing the game, I've met
Speaker 1: so many players that are incredibly talented, but when I'm
Speaker 1: in a situation, whether it's in an open gym when
Speaker 1: I was in college or pick up basketball here in
Speaker 1: town now as an adult, like I would see that
Speaker 1: guy and I'd be like, man, he's super talented, but
Speaker 1: I'd rather not play with him today, not because of
Speaker 1: touches or anything like that, but because I don't think
Speaker 1: he hates it's losing enough. And I have a feeling
Speaker 1: that even if he makes a couple of nice plays,
Speaker 1: that it's gonna be a hard it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: chore to win this game because he's just not gonna
Speaker 1: give a shit enough about doing all of those things
Speaker 1: and like, and that's just something as I've grown older,
Speaker 1: I've noticed the difference between that with players. And then
Speaker 1: you'll meet a lot of guys like I'm even in
Speaker 1: my time coaching in high school, there are specific players
Speaker 1: where it's like he's not as talented as the dude
Speaker 1: that's in front of him in the rotation. But like
Speaker 1: sometimes like us and the coaching staff would decide, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we should play him instead, because like he's just gonna
Speaker 1: go out there and freaking fight. He's just gonna fight,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, winning basketball games
Speaker 1: is like fifty percent talent, skill execution, and fifty percent
Speaker 1: of it is just a knockdown, drag out fight. And like,
Speaker 1: that's what I love about Steph is like there's a
Speaker 1: nastiness to him. There's a fight to him, and he
Speaker 1: is obviously the most gifted shot maker in the league,
Speaker 1: but none of that matters if he's not nasty. And
Speaker 1: Steph also has that nasty he's been. You know what's
Speaker 1: funny because like I during the Steph Lebron rivalry in
Speaker 1: the mid twenty ten's, I was younger, right, So I
Speaker 1: was like, what in my early mid twenties, what twenty
Speaker 1: four to twenty five years old, And I couldn't stay
Speaker 1: in Steph obviously because I was rooting against him all
Speaker 1: the time, and I was a big Lebron fan. Also,
Speaker 1: I was just younger, so I struggled to compartmentalized stuff,
Speaker 1: and as I've grown older, like I have just completely
Speaker 1: fallen in love with Steph's game. And it's funny now
Speaker 1: looking back, because like he's legitimately my second favorite player
Speaker 1: in the league behind Lebron, and I like absolutely love
Speaker 1: watching him play and I've become such a huge fan
Speaker 1: of his and like it took time and distance from
Speaker 1: that to kind of figure it out, but like I
Speaker 1: it's just been kind of a cool like journey as
Speaker 1: a fan to kind of see the difference in the
Speaker 1: way that I viewed Stephan now versus the way that
Speaker 1: I viewed him ten years ago or so I should say,
Speaker 1: like eight seven, eight years ago. Hey, guys, that puts
Speaker 1: Steph at number two. We got number one tomorrow, big shock,
Speaker 1: It's going to be Nicole Jokic. I'm excited to talk
Speaker 1: about that for a little bit tomorrow, and then heading
Speaker 1: into next week, we're gonna be doing our all time
Speaker 1: player rankings. Actually, I think we're just looking at the
Speaker 1: last twenty five years to basically everything post MJ. So
Speaker 1: that'll be fun as well. Three weeks of that, and
Speaker 1: then we have three weeks of season previews heading into
Speaker 1: training camp, and from there we'll be breaking down actual basketball.
Speaker 1: That's all I have for today is always I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow. The
Speaker 1: volume