Jason Timpf answers a range of listener questions from the mailbag! He charts the best path forward for Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors and whether Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets can overcome the loss of Kentavius Caldwall-Pope. He assess the ceiling for an upstart Orlando Magic team, whether Jayson Tatum and the Celtics will be buried under the weight of so many big contracts and more!
5:30 - Should Warriors have bent to Klay’s requests
8:00 - Warriors’ path forward
13:00 - Lakers best possible trades/signings
17:00 - Will Celtics contracts hamper them?
21:00 - Thoughts on Flagstaff, Arizona
27:30 - Good minimum signings for Mavericks?
31:30 - Ceiling for the Orlando Magic
33:00 - Nuggets losing KCP
36:00 - Could OKC win 2-3 titles in next 6 years?
38:00 - Eastern conference power rankings
40:00 - New CBA
42:15 - Favorite Star Wars character
44:00 - Becoming a better ballhandler
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
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(01:34):
Slash baseball, all right, welcome to hoops today. You're at
the vaul, you nail Bob. You guys are having a
great week. As promise for getting to our mailbag today.
I sent out a tweet this morning, and you guys
(01:57):
left a bunch of questions and there a bunch of
good ones. Obviously we can't get to all of them,
but we're gonna get to a bunch of them, We're
gonna talk about some Warriors where they go from here,
some Lakers offseason stuff. We're gonna talk about what's going
on with the Denver Nuggets and them not having done anything.
We're gonna talk about what Jason Tatum needs to do
to be revered as the best player in the world.
Are the Orlando Magic poised for a leap. There's literally
(02:17):
tons and tons of stuff that we're gonna get to today.
As always, I appreciate you guys for participating in the mailbag.
We're gonna get too as many as we can. You
guys are the job. Before we get started, to subscribe
to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't
miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss ow announcements.
Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
podcasts on Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mailback questions
in the YouTube comments so we keep getting them throughout
(02:38):
the rest of the summer.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And then quickly before we get started, just.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
To give you guys an update on the schedule, We're
trying to take the rest of this weekend off to
give our team a little break over the holiday. Obviously,
if any sort of significant trade or massive signing comes through,
I will stop and get an instant reaction video out there.
But unless something crazy happens, we will be done after
this video until next Monday, just to give you guys
(03:02):
a scheduling note. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
first question, do you think the Warriors should have bent
to what Clay requested from them? Assuming it's difficult, but
I doubt it's super difficult. They pay the player what
they think the player can contribute to the future, but
they shouldn't pay more to what they have done. So
this is an interesting kind of dynamic with the Klay
Thompson deals, like did the Warriors owe something to Clay?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Most of this has to do with timing, Like even
just the difference between when Draymond renegotiate his deal versus
Clay is massive and first of all, a couple different things.
I think Draymond's a better player right now than Clay is,
because Draymond is still one of the best defensive players
in the world. Clay has taken steps back on both
ends of the floor, right But even then, within even
(03:45):
if we remove that context. Draymond's deal was negotiated at
a time when the Warriors felt closer. They missed the
playoffs this year. Out of fifteen teams in the Western Conference,
they were in the bottom five. They allowed ten teams
in and they didn't even make that list. In addition
to that, Steph had a rough end of the season.
For roughly the last third of the season, he didn't
look like himself. He looked like a shell of himself.
(04:08):
And now I think there's some context there. There was fatigue,
wear and tear. I think he was a little banged up.
I personally think Steph's gonna come into next season kind
of on a little bit of a revenge tour. And
I think Steph is going to look a lot like
the old Steph next season. But at the same time,
the ownership group in the front office, I think they
view that as kind of like a risk element there.
(04:29):
Then in addition to that, when you look at Klay
Thompson in terms of loyalty, if I'm the Warriors, I'm saying, well,
you know, remember when you got hurt and we paid
you max dollars two years to basically rehab a back
to back injuries, Right, like the Warriors extended him a
massive olive branch and a massive demonstration of loyalty when
(04:50):
he tore his ACL after the twenty nineteen finals, and
so again like I don't necessarily think loyalty plays much
of a role here. I think it was just an
honest evaluation of the situation. I think the Golden State
front office and ownership group does not think they're close enough.
And I think their moves have demonstrated that letting Clay
go for nothing, letting Chris Paul go for nothing, not
using his salary, you know, turning down some sort of
(05:12):
fringe aggressive deals. I think that that's an indicator of
what the Warriors front office is telling us. They're telling
us that they don't think this team is particularly close,
and if they did, I think that we should we
would see more aggression from them. We have some more Warriors. Actually,
we'll get to this next Warriors question first and then
we'll go back what is the realistic Warriors path forward?
(05:32):
They effectively lost Pool and Clay for nothing, plus more
considering the gave Pool plus assets to get Chris Paul
Markenen is the only realistic obtainable improvement. But is there
enough trust in Steph Andre to make one more run.
So here's the thing, even if they don't do anything,
you still have some high quality starters. You have four
high quality starters. In my opinion, Steph ANDREYMND. I think
(05:54):
the Anthony Melton's high quality starter. If he's healthy, I
think Warriors fans are gonna love that guy. I think
he helps in a ton of different way. I'm a believer, right,
Andrew Wiggins I've view as a high quality starter. Obviously
he's had his lumps over the last couple of years,
but it's you know, he's one of those guys where
like you start talking about Andrew Wiggins trades and then
the players that come back in a deal like that
are gonna have some flaws of their own, right, So
(06:15):
you still have four high quality starters, right. So, Like,
let's say that they do just slide kaminga in there
and they just rock with that five, and they start
the season thirty two and twenty two, like they just
get off to a good start.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
In that case, then I think you could potentially convince
the Warriors' front office to make a more aggressive deal
at the deadline. And to be clear, there's not a
lot of great options right now. You want to trade
for Jeremy.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Grant, Well, there's a little bit of a you.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Know, Jeremy Grant's a guy that, like over the last
few years, has wanted to play in smaller markets under
low pressure and put up scoring numbers. The Warriors are
gonna need him to score the basketball, but they're also
gonna need him to do a lot of dirty work
and buy into a five out system. Is more of
a cog right, Like, is that a great back basketball fit?
I have the same concerns about Jeremy Grant for the Lakers,
Like I think it could work great, but I also
(07:05):
think it could work poorly. Like, there's real risk there.
Jeremy Grant's a risky pick. Brandon Ingram kind of a
kind of a funky basketball player that's tough to plug
and play because he needs to have the ball in
his hands and he's a mid range pull up shooter.
What about you know what about Zach Lavine, Well, all
of the injury issues in his massive contract that he
has moving forward, Like, right now, the options don't look great,
(07:27):
but we don't know what the options are going to
look like in February and So, honestly, like the most
realistic Warriors path forward is they nailed the mL signing
in my opinion, for okay, so let's take a look
at the bigger picture. You release Chris Paul, you let
go of Klay Thompson. Those pull you out of that
second apron back into the non tax payer mid level
exception that opened the door for you to go sign
(07:48):
the Anthony Melton. Now, is that the best option? No,
Obviously the best option would have been re signed Klay Thompson.
Try to trade Chris Paul's contract for a star of
some kind out They're a higher powered player out there
of some kind, and you include Kaminga's the asset or
draft compensation, whatever it is. Obviously that's the most aggressive move.
But that's really over extending yourself with a lot of
(08:10):
associated risk. Right, So the Warriors took a low risk,
low expense move. They got out of the second apron,
They get down into that non textpayer mid level exception
range where they could get d Anthony Melton a high
level starter in my opinion when he's healthy. The market
on d Anthony Melton is low because he got hurt
last year. But I look at the Anthony Melton as
kind of like a rough approximation of Contavious Colwell Pope.
(08:32):
He is a similar type of do everything, rock solid
NBA starter at the two guard position. So you've got
Stephan and d Anthony, it's really good one too, Andrew Wiggins,
Draymond Green three four, three, five, whatever you want to
call it. You've got your kind of starting foundation there.
You go into next season. If Steph plays like a superstar,
if d Anthony Meltain is healthy, if those guys just
(08:52):
have a good camp and Jonathan Comunica gets a little
better for year over year, you go into the season,
then maybe you can re invigorate the front office into
believing in Steph Curry and Draymond Green as a championship
potential core again. But like, I don't think we're gonna
get a super aggressive Golden State move this summer. It
just doesn't seem like it's on the tap. Maybe I'm wrong.
(09:14):
I'm hoping they do. I want Golden State to be aggressive.
I just don't love any of the options out there
right now. I don't think they can afford LORI marketing.
Maybe they can, we'll see, But like judging on the
Michale Bridges deal, which is a similar type of deal,
I don't know. And then also, like you set trade
for marketing, you have to immediately extend him to a
long term max probably in the department of four years
and one hundred and sixty million dollars. So, like, there's
(09:36):
just a lot that goes into an aggressive move right now,
So I kind of understand it. But at the same time, like,
I'd hate to see Steph go down with a mediocre team,
and so from that standpoint, I'd like to see them
eventually do something aggressive, but this just feels more like
a deadline type of move.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
If you go into next season and Steph looks like
the same player he did at the end of last year,
which is like a guy that's below the super star tier.
If he looks like that, then that's kind of the
writing on the wall anyway for where this whole dynasty
was going to begin with, right So, like, I think
that that's the route that's most realistic for that front office.
It's what I expect. It's not necessarily what I prefer,
(10:13):
but I think it's the direction we're going to see
them go. And most of that the all in type
of deal is more just me thinking like a basketball
fan because I want to see Steph Curry compete for
championships because he's one of my favorite players ever. Right Like,
that's just a basketball fan opinion. Like in terms of
the actual logistical realities of doing that. As a front office,
it's just complicated. What is the Lakers' best move from
(10:34):
here after missing out on their Plan A options and
can they still do enough to have a chance at
a title this year possible trades signees. So I want
to start with the Demarta Rozen kind of rumors that
are going around there, and I'm kind of skeptical about
him to begin with, because this is not the first
time Demarta Rozen is hinted at potentially taking a pay
cut to go to the Los Angeles Lakers. I also
(10:55):
have heard from Adrian Worganowski. He went on TV yesterday
and said that Lebron's pro we're gonna take the full
max now, which if he does, takes the Lakers out
of the non tax payer mid level and puts them
in the regular tax payer mid level, which is a
smaller deal, which would make it even less likely for
them to get Derozen. So I don't necessarily think that's realistic.
I also don't love the DeRozan fit. To me, DeRozan
presents a lot of the similar issues for that backcourt
(11:17):
that Austin and D'Angelo Russell presented. It's like a pull
up shooter score type. Who Now, DeRozan and de lo
are very different players, but like the gap between DeMar
Derozen and D'Angelo Russell is not that big in terms
of their playoff impact, Like they are two guys that
struggle in the playoffs. They're they're two guys that are
(11:38):
like skill guards that are good playmakers that like DeRozan's
more of a pull up mid range shooter. You know,
Delos more of like an aggressive three point shooter. But
they're both good playmakers. They've got like some similarities there,
but they're similar in redundancy in the sense that, like,
if Austin's gonna be your point, the two has to
be a freaky, athletic, defensive minded guard. Like that's just
(12:00):
the only star guard that I liked next to Austin Reeves.
I know there's talk about Donovan Mitchell. I just didn't
view Hims a realistic option. The only guy that I liked.
There was Dejon Tay Murray because he brought real athletic traits,
real defensive capability, even if he hasn't been that since
leaving the Spurs, while also bringing some offensive upside. Dejonte
was the guy that I thought made sense as a
(12:20):
star guard at the two next to Austin. I would
have viewed DeMar de Rosen as just another redundancy there,
so from there, if you're gonna get a high powered option,
I still think I leaned towards Jeremy Grant as a
target at the three. I think that influx of offensive
firepower would be helpful for the Lakers. I think that
Jeremy Grant kind of brings the layer of athleticism to
(12:41):
that front line with him Lebron and Anthony Davis. That
could be really imposing. I like that fit a lot.
I just I am not sure if they're gonna be
able to get him. In the event that they can't
get Jeremy Grant, that's where I would lean back on
your role player types. A guy like Bruce Brown at
the two is someone I'd really like. A guy like
Dorian Finney Smith at the three is the guy that
i'd really like, but no matter what I think, if
(13:02):
you get Jeremy Grant, you can get away with playing
a Max Christy at the two, or get away with
playing a skill guard like a maybe even a Gabe
Vincent at the two. But if I think, if you
don't have that star power, and Jeremy Grant's not really
a star, but he's like he's a fringe star, Like
he's a guy who can get you twenty points in
any given night, right, Like that's kind of what I'm
getting at there. Like Jeremy Grant basically is basically is
(13:25):
like a way better version of Ruby hot Chi Mura
in my opinion. But like you get Jeremy Grant, there's
a firepower element that would kind of counteract a lesser two.
But if you don't get a guy with that kind
of firepower, I think you need to upgrade the two
and the three. And so that's why I look at
it at like two separate deals for a Bruce Brown
or for Dorian Finney Smith. In terms of the center position,
I view that as important as well, especially within the
(13:46):
context of what are you gonna do with Anthony Davis
when he has to miss ten games here or there?
That sort of thing. I think a center is important,
but I view that is less important than the guards
in the sense that you're not winning the title unless
Anthony Davis stays healthy anyway, because you can't crawl down
from the seven seed to win the crawl up from
the seven seed to win the title. It's just too difficult.
I think that it's the version of this story where
(14:06):
the Lakers win the title is they start the season
really well and healthy and they have all hands on deck,
and then you're going down with Ad at the five
next to Lebron. You're not going down with Ad at
the four. So like again, I think the backup center
position is important. I just think it's less important than
upgrades at the two and at the three. What do
you make of the large contract extensions that the Celtics
(14:27):
have been handing out. Do you think that exceeding the
salary cap by so much will come back to bite them?
Do you see other owners following in the footsteps of
Wick Gruspeck. I'm going to tail in a set like
kind of put a second question on top of this,
do you think the Boston Celtics will keep their starting
five going into twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, when
all the extensions kick in, they are projected to pay
five hundred million in luxury tax that year because of
(14:48):
the second Apron rules. I think Porzingis might be in
another team that year personally. So let's start with the
kind of looking forward piece. As we heard, the Celtics
are looking to trade to sell trade. They're looking to
sell the Boston Celtics with the finalization around the year
twenty twenty eight. What that means is the new owner
ownership groups that are gonna be considering purchasing the Boston
(15:11):
Celtics are gonna be groups that have an enormous.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Amount of money.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
They have to be because you're buying that team under
the impression you're gonna pay a massive luxury tax bill
off the top, right. That goes without saying that's like,
that's kind of a prerequisite. So like you're not gonna like,
there's not gonna be anybody that's gonna be hesitant to
pay that kind of money that's gonna take over ownership.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of the Celtics.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
In addition to that, they know that that comes hand
in hand with championship contention. The Celtics are a substantial
favorite to win the title next year. I think they
will be again the following year. So like at least
two years here you're looking at a team that's the
championship favorite. Like there's like a I would say there's
roughly a fifty percent chance that the Celtics get one
of the next two. That is a really really high
(15:53):
percentage chance of getting an NBA title. So it's like, basically,
an ownership group can purchase the ability to most likely
win an NBA title. That's that is that's an exciting
proposition for any sort of ownership group.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
As far as the.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Stuff goes with the with the Second Apron, all it
really affects is your flexibility, not your ability to retain players.
As long as you're willing to pay you can keep
those guys together. You just can't. All of those restrictions
have to do with tweaking the roster. And so I
actually tweeted this last night and I mean it sincerely.
If you're gonna be a second Apron team, it's for
(16:29):
these five guys. It's for Derek White, Drew Holliday, Tatum Brown,
and Porzingis. Now, if Porzingis continues to get hurt and
it just becomes an obvious you know, kind of like
liability in the sense that you're paying tons and tons
of money for a guy who's just consistently unavailable. Then yeah,
they might look to move Porzingis to try to get
a less expensive, you know, more reliable in terms of
(16:51):
health center option. But like again, it's about flexibility, Like
do you want to be in the second apron as
the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Clay and Raymond, like
with all that money on the books and the potential
to have to pay you know, Jonathan cominga in the future.
Obviously not, which is why they made the moves they
made to get out of that second apron. Why because
(17:11):
they're looking at it like we're gonna need to make
substantial roster tweaks in the coming years. Doing that out
of the second Apron is damn near impossible. This is
our way to get out of that situation. Boston. They
have like literally the perfect starting five. So for them,
it doesn't They're not in a position where they're gonna
have to make substantial tweaks. And as long as you
have those guys together at the top, like Porzingis is,
(17:33):
like Derek White, Drew Holiday, Tatum and Brown. They all
clearly have several years left and they all compliment each other,
so well, like, that's just such a clean fit. It's
just that center position that's gonna be tricky, and they
have a couple of years to figure it out what
they want to do, what direction they want to go there.
But yeah, like as far as going into the second Apron,
you just can't go into the second Apron unless you
(17:55):
know you're five. So let's take the Thunder for example.
Let's say the Thunder become a second Apron team. If
they're a second Apron team, but they've got Shay Jalen Williams,
Lou Dort or case On Wallace, whoever it is that
ends up filling that position in the long run chet
And let's say that they end up getting some forward
in the long run where it's like a cleanly fitting
(18:16):
obviously like easily mixed five players that fills all the
needs of a basketball team. Then it's like, who care,
we can work on the margins with the bench. We've
got our five. You know, they're all on the same
timeline that you know. That's what I think we're gonna see.
I think teams that enter into the second apron are
going to be teams that legitimately have sustainability with their
(18:39):
core five guys into the future. The Celtics have thirty
million dollars players that all play positions that kind of
coalesce nicely into a five man unit, so it makes
perfect sense. Hey, Jason, nice nobull hoodie. How do you
like flag Staff? It's beautiful. I love it here. So
flag Staff is about four hours up the road from Tucson,
and my wife and I go there usually two or
three three times a year. It's our favorite place for
(19:02):
day trips to go skiing because we'll wake up at
like four am, hit a McDonald's outside of Phoenix on
the way up to town, gets some you know, mcgriddall's.
It's kind of a little tradition for my wife and
I and then we book it up to the mountain
and it's always beautiful because the sun is always rising,
like just as you're kind of coming through that valley
up into Sedona and flag Staff. And for those of
(19:24):
you guys who don't know what Flagstaff is, Flagstaff is
a old volcanic area in northern Arizona, kind of near
where the Grand Canyon is. But it's really cool because
most of the mountain ranges in Tucson are like typical
tectonic activity, I say Tucson. In Arizona, they're like typical
tectonic activity. These are volcanic mounds in flag Staff. So
(19:48):
they're like the they look like, you know, they look
like the volcano UO see in the Cascade arc arc right,
Like they're like Mount Rainier or you know Mount Baker
or Mount Shasta, that kind of thing. They just look
like giant like cones, right. And so as you like
kind of come down into that valley right before flag Staff,
you look out in the distance and it's like kind
of flat everywhere except for you just see these giant
(20:11):
like twelve thirteen thousand foot peaks. Well, they have this
really nice like state of the art, a state of
the art for a small facility, I should say ski
facility there. They got taken over by a large ownership
group a few years back. And so it's like for
a single day where we can leave at four am
and be back by eight thirty, we can get like
a legit day of skiing in and my wife and
(20:31):
I will typically go up on like a weekday on
like a Tuesday or a Wednesday when there's just nobody
on the mountain and we just cruise because it's a
little bit on the small side. It's not the biggest
ski resort in the world, but they've got really high
quality skiing conveniently located next to us. That we usually
do multiple like destination trips where we'll go to like
Park City or like Tahoe or to Breckenridge or something
like that, and then we'll have like several day trips
(20:53):
where we go up to flag Staff. But Flagstaff has
always been a kind of a special place for me,
my friends, and my family. My favorite restaurant there is
Pizza Collecta. They have a really good pizza and beer.
We stop in town usually at the end of the
day and get drinks there. Sometimes we'll stay there for
multiple days, but it's kind of a getaway from the
heat to being from Tucson.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
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Speaker 2 (22:15):
Hey, Jason big Navs fan, here, are there any minimum
signings out there that could move the needle for them
defensively the way that Derek Jones Junior did. I was thinking,
Dennis Smith Junior, if not schematically, how do you think
the MAVs can orient their offense to compete with the
likes of Oklahoma City in Boston. I did a massive
deep dive into the Dallas offense and what I expected
to look like in the future in yesterday's show, So
(22:35):
make sure you guys get to a little bit further
back in my feed yesterday when we were breaking down
m clay Thompson Signing. I went into excruciating detail on
the offensive fits. You guys can find that stuff there
other like kind of like two way wings that they
can look at that I looked at in the free
agent market for like veteran minimum type of guys Alec Burks,
Caleb Martin, Gary Trent Junior, Dennis Smith Junior. Some of
(22:59):
those guys end up getting mls at other places, but
they're at least potential veteran minimum guys, and they are
guys that they can keep an eye on. What's your
favorite PRS model? I think the Silver Sky, the Paul
Reid Smith makes guitars. I think that the Silver Sky
is my favorite model in terms of it's just the
easiest to pick up and play. It's basically their version
(23:20):
of a Fender Stratocaster. It's their signature model for John Mayer.
But I think my favorite one that I own is
probably my hollowbody two Pezo. It's that purple one that
you've seen behind me sometimes. That one just has like
a lot of versatility because it can do acoustic guitar
stuff and it can do electric guitar stuff. And the
fifty eight to fifteen humbuckers that they have on that
guitar just sound absolutely beautiful. So that one, I'm gonna
(23:42):
say is my favorite overall, the easiest to play, easiest
to pick up and play. In terms of like the
tactle nature of it, I'd go with the Silver Sky.
What's the ceiling on this magic team for the upcoming season?
Could we see an OKC twenty twenty three twenty twenty
four type leap? So looking at their offseason, they upgraded
Gary Harris to Contavious Callwell Pope while also resigning Gary Harris.
(24:04):
They brought back Goga Bitadze. They brought back Wagner this morning,
so they're basically running it back with an upgrade of
a starting spot. I have to look at their draft picks.
I mean I didn't even take a look at that
for I pulled this up. But the East in general
is gonna be better next year. So even though I
expect Orlando to be better, I still kind of think
they're going to be right in that four or five
slot again. And I think they're probably gonna lose in
the first round to one of Philly, Milwaukee, or New York.
(24:26):
I think those are the clear top four right, Boston, Philly, Milwaukee,
New York in some order, with Boston at number one.
I don't think Orlando's ready to leap into that group
yet this year. That said, I think they're gonna be
a huge pain in the ass. I think they're gonna
win a lot of regular season games. I think they're
gonna be right up there in the mix. But I
just I think there's still quite a ways away. They
need so much improvement and offensive skill, and collwoll Pope
(24:49):
is gonna really help as just a better version of
Gary Harris. But I still think that that doesn't alleviate
the main concern, which is there's just not enough perimeter
shooting ability in their starting lineup. Now, if Franz Vagner
and Palabankara both take substantial leaps as shooters, then we
can have another conversation. It's just hard to believe at
this point. You always said you'd be skeptical of the
Nuggets if they lost any of their starting five. So
(25:11):
with KCP gun, do you see a path of their
starting lineup being just as good next year with Christian Brown?
Although it would be different stylistically. Also does rust to
Denver move you? So here's the thing. To put it
very simply, the Nuggets are worse than they were last year,
and last year they weren't good enough. Now I think
they were better than they looked last year. I think
KCP and Jamal Murray were both a little banged up
(25:33):
by the time they even got into the Minnesota series,
and that ended up being where one of their main
areas of underperforming in that series. But despite all that,
they were up twenty in the second half of Game seven.
So like, I'm of the opinion that, like, yeah, losing
KCP makes them worse. Yeah, them being banged up played
a role last year. Yeah, they're a little bit vulnerable
(25:54):
to specific matchups. But like, I still think, gun to
my head. If I had to pick one team to
be my favorite in the Western Conference next year, even
with Christian Brown sliding into that starting two spot, I
think I still lean Denver. I just I think Jokic
is the best player in the world. I think they're
gonna come into next season angry and motivated. Their margin
(26:16):
for error is smaller. If they win the title next year,
it'll be much harder than when they won in twenty
twenty three. But I think writing them off is foolish,
and they have some time. They have some time to
figure some things out. Like my guess is that in
the long run, this ends with them trying to flip
Michael Porter Junior into two quality starters at some point
in the future. But that Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Nikola,
(26:36):
Jokic corp. Is still one of the best three man
corps in the league, and I think it'd be foolish
to write them off. Does Russ to Denver move you?
I here's the thing I've gotten in a lot of
trouble with Russell westbrook fans. As a basketball fan, I
loved watching Russell Westbrook when he was in his prime,
but as he declined out of his prime, he became,
in my opinion, one of the most unlikable players in
the NBA, the amount of stupid stuff that he does
(26:57):
in the mistakes that he makes. Like all I'm gonna
say is, as somebody've covered him closely with the Lakers
and now the Clippers don't want him either, Like Denver,
do not make this mistake like this is It'd be
really interesting too, because Lebron made the same mistake Yokich
is about to make. Apparently all the intel is Yokich
is kind of pushing for that behind the scenes, Like
there's some elements that you like, right, Like, he gives
(27:19):
you an athletic guard to put on the floor.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
He's a guy that.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Brings dribble penetration, which is something that as we all know,
Denver lacked last year. But just there's got to be
a better option than Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook. It's just
trust me, guys. For every good play he makes, he'll
make at least one bad play and in the aggregate
is going to be something that has a negative impact
on the team. How big are you on the Grizzlies
(27:43):
going into next season? What moves do you think they
need to look at in the offseason? Cheers from India,
Thanks for supporting the show. I'm really high on the Grizzlies.
It's hard to say where they match up with the
top teams in the league because it's just been so
long since we've seen them all put together and playing that. Like,
I want to see you a larger sample size before
we start like ranking them.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Gigi Jackson and Zach Edy ad a bunch of athleticism
on the wing and size on the front line. They're
gonna have big looks, they're gonna have small looks. John
Morant played like just a few games last year and
looked like one of the best players in the world.
So like, I think they're gonna be right there in
the top of the conference next year, in the top
four seeds. We'll see what they amount to as a
playoff team. But I'm a huge believer in Memphis and
(28:22):
I would be stunned if they didn't have a dominant
regular season this year, and if they didn't, it would
probably be.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Related to health.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I think Oklahoma City could have two to three championships
in the next six years. They're a well organized franchise
and they are for me, the top three best team
in the league right now, behind Denver and the Celtics.
To you agree, I do. I don't quite have them
up on Denver's level yet, but I think they're clearly
the second best team in the West, and right now
I'd take them over any Eastern Conference team not named Boston.
Originally I thought there was Denver, Boston and then a gap.
(28:48):
I think a couple teams are gonna enter into that
tier this year, but Oklahoma City's definitely one of them,
and right now, before we see all this shakeout, because
I want to see if Philly ends up arounding out
their roster with like I want to see if the
Lakers end up making some sort of trade. Like, There's
a bunch of stuff that I want to see. But
for right now, without having seen the rest of the
player movement, Oklahoma City, to me is the third best
(29:09):
team in the league. Hey, Jason love the pod. How
big of a deal is Denver losing KCP With Okay
See adding Hartenstein? Are they now the clear favorites in
the West? As I talked about earlier, I still think
I leaned slightly towards Denver. But that said, Oklahoma City
adding Hartenstein gives them more resiliency against Denver. I would
have given Oklahoma City a zero percent chance to beat
Denver in a playoff series last year. This year, I
(29:29):
give them a substantial chance even though I picked Denver.
So that to me is a substant like a significant
move in that direction. If Tatum were to become a
good to great half court shot creator, would he be
in the conversation for best player in the world. That's
really the difference. He does everything else, so well, he
just has to get a Like, I don't think playmaking
is the weakness for him, it's his shot making ability.
(29:50):
He just has to become a guy who can be
a sixty percent true shooting, thirty point per game guy
consistently in the playoffs in order to justify being in
that conver station. There's just been too much inconsistency on
that end of the floor. Again, like to put it simply, like,
is Tatum as good a half court surgeon as shake
Yill's as Alexander?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
No? Not, probably, not really close.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Is Shae gives us Alexander as good a half court
shot creator as like the Luka Jokic tier, No, not
really close. So like I almost look at Tatum as
like a third tier half court shot creator, and so like,
from that standpoint, like, I still think he's got a
ways to go to enter into those best player in
the World conversations. What do you see the power rankings
in the East being and do you see the redistribution
(30:33):
of talent has made it a strong enough conference that
Boston would now be equally or less likely than Philly
or the NIXT to make it the finals. Still think
Boston's a clear favorite. I think they're clearly number one.
I think they're clearly better than the next group Nicks, Sixers, Bucks.
It all depends on what Milwaukee and Philly accomplished over
the next couple of months, But for right now, it's
all up in the air. For me, I'd probably go
(30:53):
Nicks too, Philly three, Milwaukee four, just because of some
of the health questions surrounding Philly. But Boston's a clear
number one, and we'll settle that out when we get
into the end of the summer and we do our
contender rankings. What do you think will be the next
unexpected star to get traded because his team decides to
throw in the towel to go into full rebuilding mode.
The four guys that wrote down were James Harden, Brandon Ingram,
(31:15):
Jimmy Butler, and Trey Young. Those are the guys that
I think, in the next twelve months could become available
for trade. Harden's on a discounted deal now like an
affordable deal. Thirty five million. It's a lot of money,
but it's not an absurd amount of money, and it's
only a two year contract. And if Kawhi gets hurt again,
I just think if you're the Clippers trade Harden as
part of a rebuild, brandon Ingram is the odd man out,
(31:35):
the weird fit in New Orleans, so I could see
him getting moved. Jimmy Butler kind of feels like the
end of the window. We're going to talk about him
in just a minute. And then Trey Young. You know,
like if Atlanta just decides that they want to move
into a full rebuild, that's the guy that's obviously going
to go. Thoughts on the Miami Heat consistently deciding to
run it back a year after year instead of improving.
At what point do we need to call out pat Riley.
(31:56):
I've called that pot pat Riley every summer for the
same problem. And the main issue here is now it
doesn't even make sense to go all in. Last summer
was the last summer where it made any sense, or
last deadline was the last time it made any sense.
They didn't get it done. Now, at this point, it
feels like Jimmy's starting to kind of tail off a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Bam.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That doesn't seem like there's much more of a ceiling
there than what we've seen, So like, at this point,
it doesn't even make sense, and I think the window
might be closed, and so it is what it is.
There was an opportunity to be aggressive there, pat Riley
never jumped on it, and I feel bad for Miami
Heat fans. Jason, what do you make of the CBA?
Are there any things you wish to see improved? And
what do you make of the cap aprons? My only
issue with it is, like I think that those restrictions
(32:33):
need to be reconfigured to player movement rather than the draft. So,
for instance, like I don't think you should have to
pay the price for drafting a bunch of good players
and having to pay them all. But yeah, if you
want to go out into the open market and trade
for players or sign players in free agency, there should
be punishments for just overspending, right, just to try to
(32:54):
level the playing field. But like, it's stupid to me
that a team could just trade, could just draft extremely
well and end up and end up getting squeezed out
of retaining talent.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Now there's caveats there. What about traded draft picks? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Like, Oklahoma City has a million first round draft picks,
so of course they have a bunch of really good players. Right, Well,
there's an easy fix there. You just make it for
your own draft picks. Like if you draft to pick
with your original team's actual pick that belongs to you originally,
then that player should not count towards those sorts of
sorts of cap exceptions essentially, Like imagine it as like
a spending budget outside of your own draft picks.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
That would be the way that I would look at it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
But right now, it just it seems like it was
really heavily geared towards the teams that were big spenders.
But those teams weren't even the best teams in the
league really, They just had giant payrolls. And like I mean,
the teams that had to get out of it, the
Clippers and the Warriors, how much of a threat were
they this season? They won two playoff games combined between
the two of them, Right, So, like it's one of
those things where, like I think it was kind of
like a reactionary thing to some large payrolls, but it
(33:55):
doesn't really serve the purpose of creating fairness around the league.
What is do you see as then next step in
Derek Lively's development is adding the three point shot realistic
I think it's less about the three point shot. Even
though I do think that Derek Lively has that capability,
it's more about just becoming the quintessential five out fulcrum.
I think Dallas is gonna shift to more five out
movement next year. I talked about it a lot in
(34:15):
yesterday's show, and there's gonna be a lot of pressure
on Derek Lively to be a decision maker and a
playmaker in that role. And there was a report I
saw this morning from Tim McMahon that they're leaning towards
putting Derek Lively full time into the starting lineup, which
is another thing I talked about yesterday as an indicator
of them shifting more towards five out. So like that,
I think is going to be his main area of
development as being more of like a fulcrum. Great guy
(34:36):
for him to watch film of would be Isaiah Hartenstein.
That's a player that I think he can learn a
lot from. Favorite Star Wars character of all time. I
would go with either Darth Baine or Darth Plagas I'm
a big Sith guy. I find him to be the
most fascinating entity in that universe. Darth bain And has
three books that you can find in the Legends could
continue him and then Plagas has one. Those are like
four of my favorite books ever. Highly recommend you guys
(34:58):
check him out. Thron is going to be my third
place guy, Grand Admiral Thron. Those of you guys who
have watched Rebels or read the Throng books will know
why Thron is such a cool character. I also have
a podcast where I talk Star Wars and not just
Star Wars, but other TV shows, in media, in movies
and stuff. It's called Two Sons. You can see it
right down there. Two Sons have a YouTube channel as
(35:20):
well as a podcast feed there. Me and my best
friend Luke break all that stuff down. We just talked
House of the Dragon yesterday. Tonight we're talking the Acolytes.
You can find that on the feeds later tonight as well.
How do you gauge which opinions are common in the
NBA world when a lot of times the loudest people
are a minority that doesn't always believe logic is a
necessary ingredient in forming an opinion. This is one of
(35:41):
the biggest things I've just learned in general since I
got into this industry. Loudness on social media is almost
always not the public opinion. It is the fringes that
are the loudest. In addition to that, there's just not
a lot of people on Twitter, for instance, there's just
not a lot of people on Twitter in the real world,
like a very small percentage of at least of Americans.
(36:03):
I'm not sure if it's like this in other countries,
but a very small percentage of Americans are active Twitter users.
So the idea that like, if you see some opinions
on Twitter, that that's reflective of a specific, large, nationwide opinion,
that that's just not the case. And so in general, like,
I've had to work on not reacting, and it's still
a weakness of mine that I'm getting better at, but
I have to a not reacting to the loud fringes
(36:25):
on social media. The last question, how do slash did
you approach becoming a better ball handler for both yourself
and your high school kids you work with. You've touched
on this when covering Jabari Smith identified it as a
pretty big weakness of his, but last summer you were
really impressed with him.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I know it sounds silly, but it's just about drills
and the main thing specifically with the drills are like
body language, Like the actual move of a crossover, behind
the back move or behind the back dribble. The success
of that move has way more to do with whether
or not you actually sold that you're going the other
way than how dramatic you whip the ball across a
(37:00):
basic push cross where you don't do anything fancy but
just kind of push the ball to the left. As
long as you had your body geared up to the
right and your eyes to the right and everything to
the right, that's going to be more effective than a big,
sweeping Allen iverson crossover and so like again, like the
body language is a big piece of it, and then
tight and under control, Like a lot of people think like, oh,
it's about dribbling through cones, and you gotta dribble through
(37:22):
cones as part of your skill development piece, Like that's
how you become better at ball handling. But the major
piece of it is can you protect the ball in traffic?
Like real ball handling in real basketball games is about
like when you make a move and the dude's riding
your hip and swiping at your other arm, can you
fend him off while dribbling with your left hand as
you go into traffic, can you split two defenders and
(37:42):
gather the ball strong before you make that next pass
or dribble like the low gathers that you see guys
like Tatum or Jalen Brunson use like, or Trey Young like.
There are so many different like little intricacies of it,
but most of it is about learning how to dribble
in traffic. And so it's a good mix of practicing
with cones but also doing ball handling against live defense.
So like one on one drills where you tighten off
(38:04):
an area and you make multiple counter moves. That's like
your turn your man five times drill that you see
sometimes in high school where you go from like the
lane line over to the sideline and you just have
to try to turn your man five times. The ball
handler is working against ball pressure that way. But it's
a good mix of against live defense and cone dribbling.
And again it just guys, it's incremental. Just like jump shooting.
(38:25):
You have to put thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands and thousands of reps in over the course of
multiple summers to improve. It's a very painstaking process, all right, guys.
It is all I have for today. As I said,
we'll be back Monday unless we have some sort of
major news release. Regardless of when that happens, I will
see you guys. When I see you guys, The volume
The volume.
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(01:34):
Slash baseball, all right, welcome to hoops today. You're at
the vaul, you nail Bob. You guys are having a
great week. As promise for getting to our mailbag today.
I sent out a tweet this morning, and you guys
(01:57):
left a bunch of questions and there a bunch of
good ones. Obviously we can't get to all of them,
but we're gonna get to a bunch of them, We're
gonna talk about some Warriors where they go from here,
some Lakers offseason stuff. We're gonna talk about what's going
on with the Denver Nuggets and them not having done anything.
We're gonna talk about what Jason Tatum needs to do
to be revered as the best player in the world.
Are the Orlando Magic poised for a leap. There's literally
(02:17):
tons and tons of stuff that we're gonna get to today.
As always, I appreciate you guys for participating in the mailbag.
We're gonna get too as many as we can. You
guys are the job. Before we get started, to subscribe
to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't
miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss ow announcements.
Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
podcasts on Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mailback questions
in the YouTube comments so we keep getting them throughout
(02:38):
the rest of the summer.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And then quickly before we get started, just.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
To give you guys an update on the schedule, We're
trying to take the rest of this weekend off to
give our team a little break over the holiday. Obviously,
if any sort of significant trade or massive signing comes through,
I will stop and get an instant reaction video out there.
But unless something crazy happens, we will be done after
this video until next Monday, just to give you guys
(03:02):
a scheduling note. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
first question, do you think the Warriors should have bent
to what Clay requested from them? Assuming it's difficult, but
I doubt it's super difficult. They pay the player what
they think the player can contribute to the future, but
they shouldn't pay more to what they have done. So
this is an interesting kind of dynamic with the Klay
Thompson deals, like did the Warriors owe something to Clay?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Most of this has to do with timing, Like even
just the difference between when Draymond renegotiate his deal versus
Clay is massive and first of all, a couple different things.
I think Draymond's a better player right now than Clay is,
because Draymond is still one of the best defensive players
in the world. Clay has taken steps back on both
ends of the floor, right But even then, within even
(03:45):
if we remove that context. Draymond's deal was negotiated at
a time when the Warriors felt closer. They missed the
playoffs this year. Out of fifteen teams in the Western Conference,
they were in the bottom five. They allowed ten teams
in and they didn't even make that list. In addition
to that, Steph had a rough end of the season.
For roughly the last third of the season, he didn't
look like himself. He looked like a shell of himself.
(04:08):
And now I think there's some context there. There was fatigue,
wear and tear. I think he was a little banged up.
I personally think Steph's gonna come into next season kind
of on a little bit of a revenge tour. And
I think Steph is going to look a lot like
the old Steph next season. But at the same time,
the ownership group in the front office, I think they
view that as kind of like a risk element there.
(04:29):
Then in addition to that, when you look at Klay
Thompson in terms of loyalty, if I'm the Warriors, I'm saying, well,
you know, remember when you got hurt and we paid
you max dollars two years to basically rehab a back
to back injuries, Right, like the Warriors extended him a
massive olive branch and a massive demonstration of loyalty when
(04:50):
he tore his ACL after the twenty nineteen finals, and
so again like I don't necessarily think loyalty plays much
of a role here. I think it was just an
honest evaluation of the situation. I think the Golden State
front office and ownership group does not think they're close enough.
And I think their moves have demonstrated that letting Clay
go for nothing, letting Chris Paul go for nothing, not
using his salary, you know, turning down some sort of
(05:12):
fringe aggressive deals. I think that that's an indicator of
what the Warriors front office is telling us. They're telling
us that they don't think this team is particularly close,
and if they did, I think that we should we
would see more aggression from them. We have some more Warriors. Actually,
we'll get to this next Warriors question first and then
we'll go back what is the realistic Warriors path forward?
(05:32):
They effectively lost Pool and Clay for nothing, plus more
considering the gave Pool plus assets to get Chris Paul
Markenen is the only realistic obtainable improvement. But is there
enough trust in Steph Andre to make one more run.
So here's the thing, even if they don't do anything,
you still have some high quality starters. You have four
high quality starters. In my opinion, Steph ANDREYMND. I think
(05:54):
the Anthony Melton's high quality starter. If he's healthy, I
think Warriors fans are gonna love that guy. I think
he helps in a ton of different way. I'm a believer, right,
Andrew Wiggins I've view as a high quality starter. Obviously
he's had his lumps over the last couple of years,
but it's you know, he's one of those guys where
like you start talking about Andrew Wiggins trades and then
the players that come back in a deal like that
are gonna have some flaws of their own, right, So
(06:15):
you still have four high quality starters, right. So, Like,
let's say that they do just slide kaminga in there
and they just rock with that five, and they start
the season thirty two and twenty two, like they just
get off to a good start.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
In that case, then I think you could potentially convince
the Warriors' front office to make a more aggressive deal
at the deadline. And to be clear, there's not a
lot of great options right now. You want to trade
for Jeremy.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Grant, Well, there's a little bit of a you.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Know, Jeremy Grant's a guy that, like over the last
few years, has wanted to play in smaller markets under
low pressure and put up scoring numbers. The Warriors are
gonna need him to score the basketball, but they're also
gonna need him to do a lot of dirty work
and buy into a five out system. Is more of
a cog right, Like, is that a great back basketball fit?
I have the same concerns about Jeremy Grant for the Lakers,
Like I think it could work great, but I also
(07:05):
think it could work poorly. Like, there's real risk there.
Jeremy Grant's a risky pick. Brandon Ingram kind of a
kind of a funky basketball player that's tough to plug
and play because he needs to have the ball in
his hands and he's a mid range pull up shooter.
What about you know what about Zach Lavine, Well, all
of the injury issues in his massive contract that he
has moving forward, Like, right now, the options don't look great,
(07:27):
but we don't know what the options are going to
look like in February and So, honestly, like the most
realistic Warriors path forward is they nailed the mL signing
in my opinion, for okay, so let's take a look
at the bigger picture. You release Chris Paul, you let
go of Klay Thompson. Those pull you out of that
second apron back into the non tax payer mid level
exception that opened the door for you to go sign
(07:48):
the Anthony Melton. Now, is that the best option? No,
Obviously the best option would have been re signed Klay Thompson.
Try to trade Chris Paul's contract for a star of
some kind out They're a higher powered player out there
of some kind, and you include Kaminga's the asset or
draft compensation, whatever it is. Obviously that's the most aggressive move.
But that's really over extending yourself with a lot of
(08:10):
associated risk. Right, So the Warriors took a low risk,
low expense move. They got out of the second apron,
They get down into that non textpayer mid level exception
range where they could get d Anthony Melton a high
level starter in my opinion when he's healthy. The market
on d Anthony Melton is low because he got hurt
last year. But I look at the Anthony Melton as
kind of like a rough approximation of Contavious Colwell Pope.
(08:32):
He is a similar type of do everything, rock solid
NBA starter at the two guard position. So you've got
Stephan and d Anthony, it's really good one too, Andrew Wiggins,
Draymond Green three four, three, five, whatever you want to
call it. You've got your kind of starting foundation there.
You go into next season. If Steph plays like a superstar,
if d Anthony Meltain is healthy, if those guys just
(08:52):
have a good camp and Jonathan Comunica gets a little
better for year over year, you go into the season,
then maybe you can re invigorate the front office into
believing in Steph Curry and Draymond Green as a championship
potential core again. But like, I don't think we're gonna
get a super aggressive Golden State move this summer. It
just doesn't seem like it's on the tap. Maybe I'm wrong.
(09:14):
I'm hoping they do. I want Golden State to be aggressive.
I just don't love any of the options out there
right now. I don't think they can afford LORI marketing.
Maybe they can, we'll see, But like judging on the
Michale Bridges deal, which is a similar type of deal,
I don't know. And then also, like you set trade
for marketing, you have to immediately extend him to a
long term max probably in the department of four years
and one hundred and sixty million dollars. So, like, there's
(09:36):
just a lot that goes into an aggressive move right now,
So I kind of understand it. But at the same time, like,
I'd hate to see Steph go down with a mediocre team,
and so from that standpoint, I'd like to see them
eventually do something aggressive, but this just feels more like
a deadline type of move.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
If you go into next season and Steph looks like
the same player he did at the end of last year,
which is like a guy that's below the super star tier.
If he looks like that, then that's kind of the
writing on the wall anyway for where this whole dynasty
was going to begin with, right So, like, I think
that that's the route that's most realistic for that front office.
It's what I expect. It's not necessarily what I prefer,
(10:13):
but I think it's the direction we're going to see
them go. And most of that the all in type
of deal is more just me thinking like a basketball
fan because I want to see Steph Curry compete for
championships because he's one of my favorite players ever. Right Like,
that's just a basketball fan opinion. Like in terms of
the actual logistical realities of doing that. As a front office,
it's just complicated. What is the Lakers' best move from
(10:34):
here after missing out on their Plan A options and
can they still do enough to have a chance at
a title this year possible trades signees. So I want
to start with the Demarta Rozen kind of rumors that
are going around there, and I'm kind of skeptical about
him to begin with, because this is not the first
time Demarta Rozen is hinted at potentially taking a pay
cut to go to the Los Angeles Lakers. I also
(10:55):
have heard from Adrian Worganowski. He went on TV yesterday
and said that Lebron's pro we're gonna take the full
max now, which if he does, takes the Lakers out
of the non tax payer mid level and puts them
in the regular tax payer mid level, which is a
smaller deal, which would make it even less likely for
them to get Derozen. So I don't necessarily think that's realistic.
I also don't love the DeRozan fit. To me, DeRozan
presents a lot of the similar issues for that backcourt
(11:17):
that Austin and D'Angelo Russell presented. It's like a pull
up shooter score type. Who Now, DeRozan and de lo
are very different players, but like the gap between DeMar
Derozen and D'Angelo Russell is not that big in terms
of their playoff impact, Like they are two guys that
struggle in the playoffs. They're they're two guys that are
(11:38):
like skill guards that are good playmakers that like DeRozan's
more of a pull up mid range shooter. You know,
Delos more of like an aggressive three point shooter. But
they're both good playmakers. They've got like some similarities there,
but they're similar in redundancy in the sense that, like,
if Austin's gonna be your point, the two has to
be a freaky, athletic, defensive minded guard. Like that's just
(12:00):
the only star guard that I liked next to Austin Reeves.
I know there's talk about Donovan Mitchell. I just didn't
view Hims a realistic option. The only guy that I liked.
There was Dejon Tay Murray because he brought real athletic traits,
real defensive capability, even if he hasn't been that since
leaving the Spurs, while also bringing some offensive upside. Dejonte
was the guy that I thought made sense as a
(12:20):
star guard at the two next to Austin. I would
have viewed DeMar de Rosen as just another redundancy there,
so from there, if you're gonna get a high powered option,
I still think I leaned towards Jeremy Grant as a
target at the three. I think that influx of offensive
firepower would be helpful for the Lakers. I think that
Jeremy Grant kind of brings the layer of athleticism to
(12:41):
that front line with him Lebron and Anthony Davis. That
could be really imposing. I like that fit a lot.
I just I am not sure if they're gonna be
able to get him. In the event that they can't
get Jeremy Grant, that's where I would lean back on
your role player types. A guy like Bruce Brown at
the two is someone I'd really like. A guy like
Dorian Finney Smith at the three is the guy that
i'd really like, but no matter what I think, if
(13:02):
you get Jeremy Grant, you can get away with playing
a Max Christy at the two, or get away with
playing a skill guard like a maybe even a Gabe
Vincent at the two. But if I think, if you
don't have that star power, and Jeremy Grant's not really
a star, but he's like he's a fringe star, Like
he's a guy who can get you twenty points in
any given night, right, Like that's kind of what I'm
getting at there. Like Jeremy Grant basically is basically is
(13:25):
like a way better version of Ruby hot Chi Mura
in my opinion. But like you get Jeremy Grant, there's
a firepower element that would kind of counteract a lesser two.
But if you don't get a guy with that kind
of firepower, I think you need to upgrade the two
and the three. And so that's why I look at
it at like two separate deals for a Bruce Brown
or for Dorian Finney Smith. In terms of the center position,
I view that as important as well, especially within the
(13:46):
context of what are you gonna do with Anthony Davis
when he has to miss ten games here or there?
That sort of thing. I think a center is important,
but I view that is less important than the guards
in the sense that you're not winning the title unless
Anthony Davis stays healthy anyway, because you can't crawl down
from the seven seed to win the crawl up from
the seven seed to win the title. It's just too difficult.
I think that it's the version of this story where
(14:06):
the Lakers win the title is they start the season
really well and healthy and they have all hands on deck,
and then you're going down with Ad at the five
next to Lebron. You're not going down with Ad at
the four. So like again, I think the backup center
position is important. I just think it's less important than
upgrades at the two and at the three. What do
you make of the large contract extensions that the Celtics
(14:27):
have been handing out. Do you think that exceeding the
salary cap by so much will come back to bite them?
Do you see other owners following in the footsteps of
Wick Gruspeck. I'm going to tail in a set like
kind of put a second question on top of this,
do you think the Boston Celtics will keep their starting
five going into twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, when
all the extensions kick in, they are projected to pay
five hundred million in luxury tax that year because of
(14:48):
the second Apron rules. I think Porzingis might be in
another team that year personally. So let's start with the
kind of looking forward piece. As we heard, the Celtics
are looking to trade to sell trade. They're looking to
sell the Boston Celtics with the finalization around the year
twenty twenty eight. What that means is the new owner
ownership groups that are gonna be considering purchasing the Boston
(15:11):
Celtics are gonna be groups that have an enormous.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Amount of money.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
They have to be because you're buying that team under
the impression you're gonna pay a massive luxury tax bill
off the top, right. That goes without saying that's like,
that's kind of a prerequisite. So like you're not gonna like,
there's not gonna be anybody that's gonna be hesitant to
pay that kind of money that's gonna take over ownership.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of the Celtics.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
In addition to that, they know that that comes hand
in hand with championship contention. The Celtics are a substantial
favorite to win the title next year. I think they
will be again the following year. So like at least
two years here you're looking at a team that's the
championship favorite. Like there's like a I would say there's
roughly a fifty percent chance that the Celtics get one
of the next two. That is a really really high
(15:53):
percentage chance of getting an NBA title. So it's like, basically,
an ownership group can purchase the ability to most likely
win an NBA title. That's that is that's an exciting
proposition for any sort of ownership group.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
As far as the.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Stuff goes with the with the Second Apron, all it
really affects is your flexibility, not your ability to retain players.
As long as you're willing to pay you can keep
those guys together. You just can't. All of those restrictions
have to do with tweaking the roster. And so I
actually tweeted this last night and I mean it sincerely.
If you're gonna be a second Apron team, it's for
(16:29):
these five guys. It's for Derek White, Drew Holliday, Tatum Brown,
and Porzingis. Now, if Porzingis continues to get hurt and
it just becomes an obvious you know, kind of like
liability in the sense that you're paying tons and tons
of money for a guy who's just consistently unavailable. Then yeah,
they might look to move Porzingis to try to get
a less expensive, you know, more reliable in terms of
(16:51):
health center option. But like again, it's about flexibility, Like
do you want to be in the second apron as
the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Clay and Raymond, like
with all that money on the books and the potential
to have to pay you know, Jonathan cominga in the future.
Obviously not, which is why they made the moves they
made to get out of that second apron. Why because
(17:11):
they're looking at it like we're gonna need to make
substantial roster tweaks in the coming years. Doing that out
of the second Apron is damn near impossible. This is
our way to get out of that situation. Boston. They
have like literally the perfect starting five. So for them,
it doesn't They're not in a position where they're gonna
have to make substantial tweaks. And as long as you
have those guys together at the top, like Porzingis is,
(17:33):
like Derek White, Drew Holiday, Tatum and Brown. They all
clearly have several years left and they all compliment each other,
so well, like, that's just such a clean fit. It's
just that center position that's gonna be tricky, and they
have a couple of years to figure it out what
they want to do, what direction they want to go there.
But yeah, like as far as going into the second Apron,
you just can't go into the second Apron unless you
(17:55):
know you're five. So let's take the Thunder for example.
Let's say the Thunder become a second Apron team. If
they're a second Apron team, but they've got Shay Jalen Williams,
Lou Dort or case On Wallace, whoever it is that
ends up filling that position in the long run chet
And let's say that they end up getting some forward
in the long run where it's like a cleanly fitting
(18:16):
obviously like easily mixed five players that fills all the
needs of a basketball team. Then it's like, who care,
we can work on the margins with the bench. We've
got our five. You know, they're all on the same
timeline that you know. That's what I think we're gonna see.
I think teams that enter into the second apron are
going to be teams that legitimately have sustainability with their
(18:39):
core five guys into the future. The Celtics have thirty
million dollars players that all play positions that kind of
coalesce nicely into a five man unit, so it makes
perfect sense. Hey, Jason, nice nobull hoodie. How do you
like flag Staff? It's beautiful. I love it here. So
flag Staff is about four hours up the road from Tucson,
and my wife and I go there usually two or
three three times a year. It's our favorite place for
(19:02):
day trips to go skiing because we'll wake up at
like four am, hit a McDonald's outside of Phoenix on
the way up to town, gets some you know, mcgriddall's.
It's kind of a little tradition for my wife and
I and then we book it up to the mountain
and it's always beautiful because the sun is always rising,
like just as you're kind of coming through that valley
up into Sedona and flag Staff. And for those of
(19:24):
you guys who don't know what Flagstaff is, Flagstaff is
a old volcanic area in northern Arizona, kind of near
where the Grand Canyon is. But it's really cool because
most of the mountain ranges in Tucson are like typical
tectonic activity, I say Tucson. In Arizona, they're like typical
tectonic activity. These are volcanic mounds in flag Staff. So
(19:48):
they're like the they look like, you know, they look
like the volcano UO see in the Cascade arc arc right,
Like they're like Mount Rainier or you know Mount Baker
or Mount Shasta, that kind of thing. They just look
like giant like cones, right. And so as you like
kind of come down into that valley right before flag Staff,
you look out in the distance and it's like kind
of flat everywhere except for you just see these giant
(20:11):
like twelve thirteen thousand foot peaks. Well, they have this
really nice like state of the art, a state of
the art for a small facility, I should say ski
facility there. They got taken over by a large ownership
group a few years back. And so it's like for
a single day where we can leave at four am
and be back by eight thirty, we can get like
a legit day of skiing in and my wife and
(20:31):
I will typically go up on like a weekday on
like a Tuesday or a Wednesday when there's just nobody
on the mountain and we just cruise because it's a
little bit on the small side. It's not the biggest
ski resort in the world, but they've got really high
quality skiing conveniently located next to us. That we usually
do multiple like destination trips where we'll go to like
Park City or like Tahoe or to Breckenridge or something
like that, and then we'll have like several day trips
(20:53):
where we go up to flag Staff. But Flagstaff has
always been a kind of a special place for me,
my friends, and my family. My favorite restaurant there is
Pizza Collecta. They have a really good pizza and beer.
We stop in town usually at the end of the
day and get drinks there. Sometimes we'll stay there for
multiple days, but it's kind of a getaway from the
heat to being from Tucson.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
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Speaker 2 (22:15):
Hey, Jason big Navs fan, here, are there any minimum
signings out there that could move the needle for them
defensively the way that Derek Jones Junior did. I was thinking,
Dennis Smith Junior, if not schematically, how do you think
the MAVs can orient their offense to compete with the
likes of Oklahoma City in Boston. I did a massive
deep dive into the Dallas offense and what I expected
to look like in the future in yesterday's show, So
(22:35):
make sure you guys get to a little bit further
back in my feed yesterday when we were breaking down
m clay Thompson Signing. I went into excruciating detail on
the offensive fits. You guys can find that stuff there
other like kind of like two way wings that they
can look at that I looked at in the free
agent market for like veteran minimum type of guys Alec Burks,
Caleb Martin, Gary Trent Junior, Dennis Smith Junior. Some of
(22:59):
those guys end up getting mls at other places, but
they're at least potential veteran minimum guys, and they are
guys that they can keep an eye on. What's your
favorite PRS model? I think the Silver Sky, the Paul
Reid Smith makes guitars. I think that the Silver Sky
is my favorite model in terms of it's just the
easiest to pick up and play. It's basically their version
(23:20):
of a Fender Stratocaster. It's their signature model for John Mayer.
But I think my favorite one that I own is
probably my hollowbody two Pezo. It's that purple one that
you've seen behind me sometimes. That one just has like
a lot of versatility because it can do acoustic guitar
stuff and it can do electric guitar stuff. And the
fifty eight to fifteen humbuckers that they have on that
guitar just sound absolutely beautiful. So that one, I'm gonna
(23:42):
say is my favorite overall, the easiest to play, easiest
to pick up and play. In terms of like the
tactle nature of it, I'd go with the Silver Sky.
What's the ceiling on this magic team for the upcoming season?
Could we see an OKC twenty twenty three twenty twenty
four type leap? So looking at their offseason, they upgraded
Gary Harris to Contavious Callwell Pope while also resigning Gary Harris.
(24:04):
They brought back Goga Bitadze. They brought back Wagner this morning,
so they're basically running it back with an upgrade of
a starting spot. I have to look at their draft picks.
I mean I didn't even take a look at that
for I pulled this up. But the East in general
is gonna be better next year. So even though I
expect Orlando to be better, I still kind of think
they're going to be right in that four or five
slot again. And I think they're probably gonna lose in
the first round to one of Philly, Milwaukee, or New York.
(24:26):
I think those are the clear top four right, Boston, Philly, Milwaukee,
New York in some order, with Boston at number one.
I don't think Orlando's ready to leap into that group
yet this year. That said, I think they're gonna be
a huge pain in the ass. I think they're gonna
win a lot of regular season games. I think they're
gonna be right up there in the mix. But I
just I think there's still quite a ways away. They
need so much improvement and offensive skill, and collwoll Pope
(24:49):
is gonna really help as just a better version of
Gary Harris. But I still think that that doesn't alleviate
the main concern, which is there's just not enough perimeter
shooting ability in their starting lineup. Now, if Franz Vagner
and Palabankara both take substantial leaps as shooters, then we
can have another conversation. It's just hard to believe at
this point. You always said you'd be skeptical of the
Nuggets if they lost any of their starting five. So
(25:11):
with KCP gun, do you see a path of their
starting lineup being just as good next year with Christian Brown?
Although it would be different stylistically. Also does rust to
Denver move you? So here's the thing. To put it
very simply, the Nuggets are worse than they were last year,
and last year they weren't good enough. Now I think
they were better than they looked last year. I think
KCP and Jamal Murray were both a little banged up
(25:33):
by the time they even got into the Minnesota series,
and that ended up being where one of their main
areas of underperforming in that series. But despite all that,
they were up twenty in the second half of Game seven.
So like, I'm of the opinion that, like, yeah, losing
KCP makes them worse. Yeah, them being banged up played
a role last year. Yeah, they're a little bit vulnerable
(25:54):
to specific matchups. But like, I still think, gun to
my head. If I had to pick one team to
be my favorite in the Western Conference next year, even
with Christian Brown sliding into that starting two spot, I
think I still lean Denver. I just I think Jokic
is the best player in the world. I think they're
gonna come into next season angry and motivated. Their margin
(26:16):
for error is smaller. If they win the title next year,
it'll be much harder than when they won in twenty
twenty three. But I think writing them off is foolish,
and they have some time. They have some time to
figure some things out. Like my guess is that in
the long run, this ends with them trying to flip
Michael Porter Junior into two quality starters at some point
in the future. But that Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Nikola,
(26:36):
Jokic corp. Is still one of the best three man
corps in the league, and I think it'd be foolish
to write them off. Does Russ to Denver move you?
I here's the thing I've gotten in a lot of
trouble with Russell westbrook fans. As a basketball fan, I
loved watching Russell Westbrook when he was in his prime,
but as he declined out of his prime, he became,
in my opinion, one of the most unlikable players in
the NBA, the amount of stupid stuff that he does
(26:57):
in the mistakes that he makes. Like all I'm gonna
say is, as somebody've covered him closely with the Lakers
and now the Clippers don't want him either, Like Denver,
do not make this mistake like this is It'd be
really interesting too, because Lebron made the same mistake Yokich
is about to make. Apparently all the intel is Yokich
is kind of pushing for that behind the scenes, Like
there's some elements that you like, right, Like, he gives
(27:19):
you an athletic guard to put on the floor.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
He's a guy that.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Brings dribble penetration, which is something that as we all know,
Denver lacked last year. But just there's got to be
a better option than Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook. It's just
trust me, guys. For every good play he makes, he'll
make at least one bad play and in the aggregate
is going to be something that has a negative impact
on the team. How big are you on the Grizzlies
(27:43):
going into next season? What moves do you think they
need to look at in the offseason? Cheers from India,
Thanks for supporting the show. I'm really high on the Grizzlies.
It's hard to say where they match up with the
top teams in the league because it's just been so
long since we've seen them all put together and playing that. Like,
I want to see you a larger sample size before
we start like ranking them.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Gigi Jackson and Zach Edy ad a bunch of athleticism
on the wing and size on the front line. They're
gonna have big looks, they're gonna have small looks. John
Morant played like just a few games last year and
looked like one of the best players in the world.
So like, I think they're gonna be right there in
the top of the conference next year, in the top
four seeds. We'll see what they amount to as a
playoff team. But I'm a huge believer in Memphis and
(28:22):
I would be stunned if they didn't have a dominant
regular season this year, and if they didn't, it would
probably be.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Related to health.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I think Oklahoma City could have two to three championships
in the next six years. They're a well organized franchise
and they are for me, the top three best team
in the league right now, behind Denver and the Celtics.
To you agree, I do. I don't quite have them
up on Denver's level yet, but I think they're clearly
the second best team in the West, and right now
I'd take them over any Eastern Conference team not named Boston.
Originally I thought there was Denver, Boston and then a gap.
(28:48):
I think a couple teams are gonna enter into that
tier this year, but Oklahoma City's definitely one of them,
and right now, before we see all this shakeout, because
I want to see if Philly ends up arounding out
their roster with like I want to see if the
Lakers end up making some sort of trade. Like, There's
a bunch of stuff that I want to see. But
for right now, without having seen the rest of the
player movement, Oklahoma City, to me is the third best
(29:09):
team in the league. Hey, Jason love the pod. How
big of a deal is Denver losing KCP With Okay
See adding Hartenstein? Are they now the clear favorites in
the West? As I talked about earlier, I still think
I leaned slightly towards Denver. But that said, Oklahoma City
adding Hartenstein gives them more resiliency against Denver. I would
have given Oklahoma City a zero percent chance to beat
Denver in a playoff series last year. This year, I
(29:29):
give them a substantial chance even though I picked Denver.
So that to me is a substant like a significant
move in that direction. If Tatum were to become a
good to great half court shot creator, would he be
in the conversation for best player in the world. That's
really the difference. He does everything else, so well, he
just has to get a Like, I don't think playmaking
is the weakness for him, it's his shot making ability.
(29:50):
He just has to become a guy who can be
a sixty percent true shooting, thirty point per game guy
consistently in the playoffs in order to justify being in
that conver station. There's just been too much inconsistency on
that end of the floor. Again, like to put it simply, like,
is Tatum as good a half court surgeon as shake
Yill's as Alexander?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
No? Not, probably, not really close.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Is Shae gives us Alexander as good a half court
shot creator as like the Luka Jokic tier, No, not
really close. So like I almost look at Tatum as
like a third tier half court shot creator, and so like,
from that standpoint, like, I still think he's got a
ways to go to enter into those best player in
the World conversations. What do you see the power rankings
in the East being and do you see the redistribution
(30:33):
of talent has made it a strong enough conference that
Boston would now be equally or less likely than Philly
or the NIXT to make it the finals. Still think
Boston's a clear favorite. I think they're clearly number one.
I think they're clearly better than the next group Nicks, Sixers, Bucks.
It all depends on what Milwaukee and Philly accomplished over
the next couple of months, But for right now, it's
all up in the air. For me, I'd probably go
(30:53):
Nicks too, Philly three, Milwaukee four, just because of some
of the health questions surrounding Philly. But Boston's a clear
number one, and we'll settle that out when we get
into the end of the summer and we do our
contender rankings. What do you think will be the next
unexpected star to get traded because his team decides to
throw in the towel to go into full rebuilding mode.
The four guys that wrote down were James Harden, Brandon Ingram,
(31:15):
Jimmy Butler, and Trey Young. Those are the guys that
I think, in the next twelve months could become available
for trade. Harden's on a discounted deal now like an
affordable deal. Thirty five million. It's a lot of money,
but it's not an absurd amount of money, and it's
only a two year contract. And if Kawhi gets hurt again,
I just think if you're the Clippers trade Harden as
part of a rebuild, brandon Ingram is the odd man out,
(31:35):
the weird fit in New Orleans, so I could see
him getting moved. Jimmy Butler kind of feels like the
end of the window. We're going to talk about him
in just a minute. And then Trey Young. You know,
like if Atlanta just decides that they want to move
into a full rebuild, that's the guy that's obviously going
to go. Thoughts on the Miami Heat consistently deciding to
run it back a year after year instead of improving.
At what point do we need to call out pat Riley.
(31:56):
I've called that pot pat Riley every summer for the
same problem. And the main issue here is now it
doesn't even make sense to go all in. Last summer
was the last summer where it made any sense, or
last deadline was the last time it made any sense.
They didn't get it done. Now, at this point, it
feels like Jimmy's starting to kind of tail off a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Bam.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That doesn't seem like there's much more of a ceiling
there than what we've seen, So like, at this point,
it doesn't even make sense, and I think the window
might be closed, and so it is what it is.
There was an opportunity to be aggressive there, pat Riley
never jumped on it, and I feel bad for Miami
Heat fans. Jason, what do you make of the CBA?
Are there any things you wish to see improved? And
what do you make of the cap aprons? My only
issue with it is, like I think that those restrictions
(32:33):
need to be reconfigured to player movement rather than the draft. So,
for instance, like I don't think you should have to
pay the price for drafting a bunch of good players
and having to pay them all. But yeah, if you
want to go out into the open market and trade
for players or sign players in free agency, there should
be punishments for just overspending, right, just to try to
(32:54):
level the playing field. But like, it's stupid to me
that a team could just trade, could just draft extremely
well and end up and end up getting squeezed out
of retaining talent.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Now there's caveats there. What about traded draft picks? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Like, Oklahoma City has a million first round draft picks,
so of course they have a bunch of really good players. Right, Well,
there's an easy fix there. You just make it for
your own draft picks. Like if you draft to pick
with your original team's actual pick that belongs to you originally,
then that player should not count towards those sorts of
sorts of cap exceptions essentially, Like imagine it as like
a spending budget outside of your own draft picks.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
That would be the way that I would look at it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
But right now, it just it seems like it was
really heavily geared towards the teams that were big spenders.
But those teams weren't even the best teams in the
league really, They just had giant payrolls. And like I mean,
the teams that had to get out of it, the
Clippers and the Warriors, how much of a threat were
they this season? They won two playoff games combined between
the two of them, Right, So, like it's one of
those things where, like I think it was kind of
like a reactionary thing to some large payrolls, but it
(33:55):
doesn't really serve the purpose of creating fairness around the league.
What is do you see as then next step in
Derek Lively's development is adding the three point shot realistic
I think it's less about the three point shot. Even
though I do think that Derek Lively has that capability,
it's more about just becoming the quintessential five out fulcrum.
I think Dallas is gonna shift to more five out
movement next year. I talked about it a lot in
(34:15):
yesterday's show, and there's gonna be a lot of pressure
on Derek Lively to be a decision maker and a
playmaker in that role. And there was a report I
saw this morning from Tim McMahon that they're leaning towards
putting Derek Lively full time into the starting lineup, which
is another thing I talked about yesterday as an indicator
of them shifting more towards five out. So like that,
I think is going to be his main area of
development as being more of like a fulcrum. Great guy
(34:36):
for him to watch film of would be Isaiah Hartenstein.
That's a player that I think he can learn a
lot from. Favorite Star Wars character of all time. I
would go with either Darth Baine or Darth Plagas I'm
a big Sith guy. I find him to be the
most fascinating entity in that universe. Darth bain And has
three books that you can find in the Legends could
continue him and then Plagas has one. Those are like
four of my favorite books ever. Highly recommend you guys
(34:58):
check him out. Thron is going to be my third
place guy, Grand Admiral Thron. Those of you guys who
have watched Rebels or read the Throng books will know
why Thron is such a cool character. I also have
a podcast where I talk Star Wars and not just
Star Wars, but other TV shows, in media, in movies
and stuff. It's called Two Sons. You can see it
right down there. Two Sons have a YouTube channel as
(35:20):
well as a podcast feed there. Me and my best
friend Luke break all that stuff down. We just talked
House of the Dragon yesterday. Tonight we're talking the Acolytes.
You can find that on the feeds later tonight as well.
How do you gauge which opinions are common in the
NBA world when a lot of times the loudest people
are a minority that doesn't always believe logic is a
necessary ingredient in forming an opinion. This is one of
(35:41):
the biggest things I've just learned in general since I
got into this industry. Loudness on social media is almost
always not the public opinion. It is the fringes that
are the loudest. In addition to that, there's just not
a lot of people on Twitter, for instance, there's just
not a lot of people on Twitter in the real world,
like a very small percentage of at least of Americans.
(36:03):
I'm not sure if it's like this in other countries,
but a very small percentage of Americans are active Twitter users.
So the idea that like, if you see some opinions
on Twitter, that that's reflective of a specific, large, nationwide opinion,
that that's just not the case. And so in general, like,
I've had to work on not reacting, and it's still
a weakness of mine that I'm getting better at, but
I have to a not reacting to the loud fringes
(36:25):
on social media. The last question, how do slash did
you approach becoming a better ball handler for both yourself
and your high school kids you work with. You've touched
on this when covering Jabari Smith identified it as a
pretty big weakness of his, but last summer you were
really impressed with him.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I know it sounds silly, but it's just about drills
and the main thing specifically with the drills are like
body language, Like the actual move of a crossover, behind
the back move or behind the back dribble. The success
of that move has way more to do with whether
or not you actually sold that you're going the other
way than how dramatic you whip the ball across a
(37:00):
basic push cross where you don't do anything fancy but
just kind of push the ball to the left. As
long as you had your body geared up to the
right and your eyes to the right and everything to
the right, that's going to be more effective than a big,
sweeping Allen iverson crossover and so like again, like the
body language is a big piece of it, and then
tight and under control, Like a lot of people think like, oh,
it's about dribbling through cones, and you gotta dribble through
(37:22):
cones as part of your skill development piece, Like that's
how you become better at ball handling. But the major
piece of it is can you protect the ball in traffic?
Like real ball handling in real basketball games is about
like when you make a move and the dude's riding
your hip and swiping at your other arm, can you
fend him off while dribbling with your left hand as
you go into traffic, can you split two defenders and
(37:42):
gather the ball strong before you make that next pass
or dribble like the low gathers that you see guys
like Tatum or Jalen Brunson use like, or Trey Young like.
There are so many different like little intricacies of it,
but most of it is about learning how to dribble
in traffic. And so it's a good mix of practicing
with cones but also doing ball handling against live defense.
So like one on one drills where you tighten off
(38:04):
an area and you make multiple counter moves. That's like
your turn your man five times drill that you see
sometimes in high school where you go from like the
lane line over to the sideline and you just have
to try to turn your man five times. The ball
handler is working against ball pressure that way. But it's
a good mix of against live defense and cone dribbling.
And again it just guys, it's incremental. Just like jump shooting.
(38:25):
You have to put thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands and thousands of reps in over the course of
multiple summers to improve. It's a very painstaking process, all right, guys.
It is all I have for today. As I said,
we'll be back Monday unless we have some sort of
major news release. Regardless of when that happens, I will
see you guys. When I see you guys, The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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