Sports at 7

Luka should be the MVP dammit, and we're going to tell you why 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the Downbeat on ninety sevento one the Freak. All right,
So in an hour you'll have achance to win a pair of tickets to
see Steve V and Joe Satriani MusicCall at fair Park. You'll call in.
You'll choose your horse, Me orMikey, because Danny is in charge

(00:22):
of running the Downbeat Duel today aswe give away a pair of tickets to
see Steve I and our good friendJoe Satriani. That'll be a five to
four May fourth music Call it fairPark. It's time the true og quiz
master of this show got some damnshine. It's your day. It's a

(00:44):
big Danny Day. It's a BigDanny Day. Yeah, it really is.
Nine o'clock today. I've got anaudio bubble bath featuring a lot of
things, some of these more recent. And one of these is actually something
that I found that I know thatDanny and I will really like, and
I think you'll enjoy it too,Mike. A new story from nineteen eighty
five but involving and it's a reallyinches the story of how our metroplex has

(01:07):
grown. It's about a local highschool who at the time didn't have enough
kids past high school, so thefootball season had to end. And now
the idea of that high school havingfifteen kids is insanity and much more fun
stuff. I promise a listener sentin some audio him doing the skin fart

(01:30):
walk captured on a ring doorbell camera. I mean, there's so many good
things, all right, audio bubblebath coming for you at nine, But
right now we have an argument tomake for our young king in sports at
seven. Now, sports MAVs whenMAVs, When MAVs when one to eleven

(02:00):
to ninety two pretty much crushed theheat from the beginning. They were not
playing around on a back to backtoo. The man have said, screw
it, let's go get win numberfifty. I think, first of all,
before we talk about the main thesubject of this segment, for the
most part, I do think forall of the hand ringing and question marks

(02:22):
about what this team was fifty gamesinto the season, we should probably take
a second and just say, NikoHarrison, Mark Cuban, great job,
guys, Holy crap, this isa fifty win team. And I'm not
sure that anyone saw that coming.When you make trades to go get PJ.

(02:43):
Washington, Daniel Gafford, and reallysolidify things. Not to mention the
offseason signing of Dante Exhem, becauseit'd be really easy for a team to
go, well, that's okay,We'll just let Josh Green and Jaden Hardy
play a ton. We gotta domuch here. They're like, no,
we have and it's time to win. Now, let's go. And a
lot of that is based on theurgency of having Luca. MAVs do good

(03:06):
stuff last night. Twenty nine forLuca, twenty five for Kyrie, a
balanced effort from Gafford, Daniel,Derrick, Jones, Junior, PJ.
Washington all at twelve, and that'sget their fiftieth win of the year,
and they can just kind of hangout right now. They're locked in in
a top six seed and it lookslike it's gonna be the five. Uh
kind of crash coursing for a fivewith the Clippers, although the Mavericks are

(03:27):
just a game back at the Clippers, so technically they could pass them if
the Clippers were to lose their lasttwo, the Mavericks were to win their
last two. The Clippers are playingwho I'm glad you asked Daniel, look
at that and Jazz and the Rockets, who are not going to be trying.
So the Matvericks are gonna be thefive, the Clippers are going to

(03:50):
be the four. Me he asked, uh Tyrone Lou after the game,
head coach of the Clippers, arelike, when do you start preparing for
the Mavericks And he said, alreadyhave and he walked off the stage.
Yeah, hell yeah, it's ashowdown. That's good. I mean,
look at it. This is gonnabe fun series. And it's I told

(04:12):
you as this for last months.The team outside of the probably the Nuggets
that I didn't want to play isthe Clippers. Now they've had a little
injury though. I do think theMavericks offense now is going to cook James
Harden on defense, so and JamesHarden might cook us a little bit too.
But I that's if I want totalk about that when it's time.

(04:32):
The point is right now, weneed to talk about Luca. There's a
big MVP debate. I just thinkhe's done enough in the last stretch of
the season that he should be theMVP. And I don't know that he's
going to get the votes here.Well, all signs point to him not,
but I guess so they don't submittheir votes till the end of the

(04:54):
regular season. Yeah, I don't. I don't understand how. It's almost
like you're just sticking with what theodds were a month ago, you know.
Yeah, I mean Jokic is aheavy favorite to win the MVP and
Luca's I mean, you could finddifferent numbers everywhere, but I mean he's
like ten to one some places.Like it seems like they Vegas believes that

(05:17):
it's just a done deal. Andit's like, if the voters haven't submitted
their votes yet, are you notfactoring in the massive charge that the Mavericks
have made at the end of thisseason and one, what the hell is
it sixteen or eighteen or something crazyburrow themselves into a quality seed in the
West from being right on the brinkof the playoffs and doing it behind.

(05:40):
Yeah, good play from Kyrie andgood play from the new guys, but
essentially, this juggernaut freight train thatwill be it's undeniable. I don't know
how you can't look at that andsay, all right, you know,
and then forget the fact that he'sjust a highlight reel and Jokic throw some
awesome passes and I'm not trust Imean, Jokic is amazing, but it

(06:03):
should matter a little bit, justlike the Sports Center highlight plays that the
dude does. He's got everything thatthe league would want an MVP. So
even if if there is anything nefarious, and there is like whispers of you
know, what's better for the league, that would all lean toward Luca.
He's a sexier MVP, sexier,hasn't won it yet, deserving and then

(06:25):
just the best player in basketball overthe course of the season. What is
it? Thirty thirty five nine andnine? Yes, like the first player
ever? He has thirty four ninefor rounding up which they will, isn't
it the and since the NBA merger, the highest total if you add points,
rebounds, and assists, add theaverages together if you're just a box

(06:46):
score machine, just production, thehighest in NBA history since the ABA merger.
I have a notion that the peoplebuy and large that are voting on
this are not watching every Nuggets game, They're not watching every MAVs game.
They're probably looking mostly at stats andwhatever clips they can find of that whoever's

(07:13):
lobbying for their particular players that they'rereceiving right I mean, there's no way
you can consume that much basketball ifyou're a voter, Yeah, and you've
got to do the eyeball test,you know. But if you're an MVP
voter, you're entrusted with go aheadand watch fair the candidates that you're going
to be voting on, and thefact that the dude is figured out.

(07:34):
And like I said weeks ago,he's not a great defender, but he's
a good defender, and he's avastly improved defender. He's no longer a
liability on defense. Luca is tryingand he's got We all know he has
incredible footwork on offense and that translateswith some effort and want to to defense,

(07:58):
and it's shown. There's no questionhe's added elements to his game this
year that are now common for him. The QB one passes, you know,
we saw a little bit of thatlast year, but nothing like now.
His assist dude, his his Ipromise you, the sizzle factor of

(08:18):
his passing is better than jokers.Oh yeah, there's no doubt. Now
if you're looking at pure numbers,I don't have him in front of me.
I okay, what's the numbers?Comparison, Well, you start at
points. Yeah, let's start atpoints, Luca thirty four. I'm gonna
round up on the points, Okay, Luca thirty four, Jokic twenty seven,

(08:41):
Assist Luca ten, Jokic nine,rebounds Luca nine, Jokic twelve.
Now, I think they're the oneseed with fifty six wins, so the
five seed with fifty wins. Jokichas played in seven more games than Luca.
I mean, if you're gonna saythat, you could go there.

(09:03):
But Luke also makes three more threepointers a game than Jokic. He shooting
percentage is I mean, I'm sureJoki, yeah, philler percentage a little
higher, just but not by much. I mean, Joki is fifty eight,
Lucas forty nine on the field.That's a pretty big dispair from three
Lucas thirty eight percent just thirty sixpercent. I mean, look, the

(09:24):
argument for Jokic is fine. Ithink it's just the idea that it's seen
as Jokic is the guy. Itshould not be fair to complete that jok
is the Guy's about as even asit's ever been with these guys. I
mean, based on stats alone.The only thing I'm seeing there is a
better shooting percentage. Keep in mind, Jokic is playing closer to the basket

(09:46):
to Luca in most cases and thenrebounds. Okay, he's a little bit
bigger than Luca. You gotta alsolook at what what how valuable he is
to the team. I mean,and the Mavericks did not make the playoffs
last year, and if they ifthese guys that these voters are looking at
the MAVs and just seeing that,oh they did all this after the trade.

(10:09):
This is because of PJ and Gafford, and Kyrie has figured out how
to excel with Luca on the floorhandling the ball most of the time.
That's my opic. That is incrediblymy opic if you're watching this team on
a daily basis or consuming them probablymore than they are. To me,

(10:33):
it's kind of not really even anargument. We're gonna sound like homers.
Should we watch the MAVs. Yeah, and there is that, but you
can show me stuff too. Murraywas out. Jamal Murray was out for
good portion of the year two.I just go back to that first half
of the season when Kyrie was outand they were trying to keep their head
above water, winning games with justLuca. Is it because he's teamed up

(10:54):
with Kyrie? Would that be theonly thing that keeps him? Because who's
who's you catches Kyrie? It's JamalMurray. Jamal Murray probably on some nights
Michael Porter Junior will get hot andyou know, but his but is Murray
in the same zone, elite zoneas Kyrie. No, okay, that's

(11:15):
probably what's keeping Luca from the oddsbeing where they are is because well,
he's playing with Kyrie. Of courseon the basketball reference, which to me
makes no sense because it seems likehis numbers would go down with Kyrie,
but they've exceeded. No one's askedto handle the ball more than Luca,
no one's asked to do more thanLuca. Make more decisions, change the

(11:37):
game, and the things he's added, the three point percentage is going up.
I mean, just a little thing, like just the little hat tip
to the free throw percent throw shooter. Now, dude, he seems to
be adding the full court pass morethan he ever has. I mean,
that's that's changed the sport type stuff. Not that he invented the full pass,

(12:00):
but I mean, you're it throwsthem very accurately and I saw Jokic's
last so Embi won the MVP lastyear, and then Yokic won the year
before that, And all of Luca'snumbers are better than Yokic in that season
his last MVP, and they werethe sixth seed in the West in Jokic's
last MVP. Se yes, solike okay, so all the numbers are
better and they were a six seedand Luca's got him up to a five

(12:24):
and all the numbers are better.I I don't know, I don't know
if they're And this might conspiracy.Maybe the league just doesn't run a reward
that one little down shot of Lucaof bitch and moaning. I don't know,
but how can it not be justeven fight right now? And even
if Jokic then wins, but youwant to give it Jokic his third MVP.

(12:45):
It's not like Yokic is like misterpersonality, like the league is just
salivating. Oh, let's get let'sget Nicola Jokic in front of that mike
one more time. He's the guywho didn't want to go to his championship
parade right, like to go homething and just the highlights alone and game
winners and yeah, Yokic has someof those. I get it. Well,

(13:07):
Luca doesn't have a scoop underhand,you know, or a bank shot
last second, fourth quarter. Youknow, it's just endless. And Luca's
not walking a donkey through an airporteither. It's not yet. Yeah,
but there's a seven point difference inpoints. Like there rebound difference. Okay,

(13:30):
yo, Yokich has two more reboundsa game, assistant, they're even
Lucas seven more points per game.We're setting scoring records out here. I
mean, I just I sit hereand kind of go, okay, sid
the NBA, I'm sorry, theBasketball Reference Awards tracker has Yokic at fifty
nine percent probability, fifteen percent forLuca in second place. That's not that's

(13:54):
too far. And then you getto Tatum and Shay Gilgess, Alexander and
then on I mean, at leastshake Yogas. Alexander's sexy and fun and
new. Yeah, but that's whatsome of his numbers are. His numbers
clearly don't stack up to Lucas orJokic's. Like when you think of sex,
appeal, newness, the future ofthe league, all this stuff,

(14:16):
I would think those are reversal evenyeah, fine, yeah, and hot
like team wise, hot charging.I don't know why all the intangibles don't
lean toward Luca, right, yeah, so all the tiebreaker stuff leads to
Luca. Then just look at thenumbers and yeah, a guy who's seven
feet sorry, is out rebounding,you know, a ball handling guard.

(14:37):
Essentially. The fact that Luca isone of the league's leading rebounders, yes,
is insane. Yeah, top ten, ridiculous for a guy who holds
the ball and produces more offense thananyone, and he's yeah leading then rebounds
and steals, he's top ten andsteals. And again we've done on this

(15:00):
before. But you want to say, oh, is Luca a good defender?
A number one? Yes, he'simproved a ton number two, tangible
numbers, defensive rebounds, Yeah,there you go, it steals, think
about and you think about, uhoh, I mean, how many times
did Steph win it MVP? Acouple one two? I think later the
show, Mike's going to read offall the NBA MVPs. I actually haven't

(15:24):
memorized the first one nineteen fifty six. Bob Pettitt please God, and Bob
Coosey let's they read off. Ididn't read. I worked hard on that.
I'm just trying to think about.I'm trying to think of a comparison
for staph two for the Greek freesteph went back to back fifteen and sixteen.
Okay, Lebron won back to backtwice two different times. It's four.

(15:48):
Yeah, I don't know. Well, if you don't believe us,
do you think we're a bunch ofHomers. Here's Dirk last night with Kevin
Hart. Kevin Hart does his ownlike a you know, Manning cast style
thing during the game on ESPN two, and he had Dirk on and there,
Man, I'm so mad. Yeah, he's breaking every one in my
record. Man was it was overuh on trail for him obviously. Uh,

(16:11):
I got to know him. Somy last year was his first year
in the league, and you know, uh, it was just great to
see him get to know him alittle bit. And I think we saw
that in year one that the sky'sthe limit for him. But I honestly
didn't think he could go there.I mean the way he has no offensive

(16:32):
holes in his in his in hisgame, he can do it all.
He can shoot the step back,he can go both ways, he can
post, he's got the mid range, he's got the flow, he's got
all the horse shots. Every year, I'm saying, this kid can can
possibly get better, and then sureenough next year comes back with more in
his repertoire and hopefully mass fans enjoyingfor a long long time. He's got

(16:53):
horse shots, horse shots that shouldbe a quarter of a percent. Is
just the bits that Luca does pregamebecause guess what, we gave you another
gift for you to put on youryou know, NBA website, Like here's
more stuff. Well, the reasonI was asking about about Steph, look

(17:15):
at it's not like Luca's just campedout beyond the arc, you know,
just the fact that he is leadingthe league or at the I think he's
either second or third in free throwsattempted. He's not getting to the line
because guys are flicking his pinky whenhe launches a three. He's banging.
He's bleeding every game, getting mauledand going to the line and getting getting

(17:41):
rewarded for it, which kind ofmakes you wonder, why are you arguing
so damn much going to the freethrow line more than anybody else in the
league exact how I heard. Sothey're finishing that, you're on a sixteen
and two run, and in thatrun, Dallas has the number one defense
in the NBA. Yeah, andI guess you can't say Luca is not
the main reason and are a bigpart of that. He might be hurt
by the enforcements because the league doesknow that Gafford PJ. Washington are good

(18:03):
players. They know what you know. Maybe he's getting because of that.
Why are you overvaluing a team's finalrecord as much as you are? Because
when Dirk Won is MVP, heaveraged twenty five points a game, nine
rebounds, three, three assists.Let me tell you something else the twenty
nine the league wasn't talking about howgreat players that PJ and Gafford were before
they got here. I mean youyou had to kind of be a pretty

(18:29):
watch the game fairly closely to evenknow who those guys were. PJ was
a stud in fantasy circles, justputting up points on a bad team,
but no one knew Gafford was likethe field goal percentage King Gafford with the
MAVs. He is an elite bigman in this line. I think we're
proving the point, yes, becausethey're playing with that guy. But we're
also proven the other point that justbecause we didn't know any hardly anything about

(18:52):
Daniel Gafford and PJ. Washington meanswe weren't watching Charlotte. We didn't care.
Yeah, Luca's been a name farabove either one of those game for
a much longer time. I dothink it's us staring at Luca every game
and everything on. You know,your social media feed is mav centric versus
Hornet centric or nugget centric in thiscase, that impacts you. So yes,

(19:17):
I would imagine on Denver radio theycould argue, of course, you
Kich is the MVP, like whatare you even talking about? Yeah,
Luca's done this and this, butthey could probably present eight to ten things
that we haven't thought of to validate, you know, his candidacy. But
when Dirk won, they won sixtyseven games and there are one seed.
I just don't want it to bebest player on best team. Yeah,

(19:40):
I don't know. It's well,it is five days till votes are due,
I think, or four days ormaybe they're I guess they do.
I don't know what he's in thenext two games to win them over.
I don't know what he would haveto do. Yeah, and I'd be
okay with that. But is itthe league? Is it the league MVP
or the I've never understood the thedefinition of it is. I don't even

(20:02):
know what it is, but itseems nebulous at best. I mean,
is he the the is it theteam MVP? Is the MVP of the
team or is the MVP of theleague. Then I guess you do give
it to the best team and thebest player on that team. Sure,
pravy m v P provy Luca.That's the thing that MAVs are pushing.

(20:22):
They're trying to wear the shirts.They're wearing shirts like they're starting their own
campaign, which I don't know how. It's too late and it's too too
late, but prave means top orreal in Slovenian, so they're wearing uh
provy m VP shirts. I thinkLuca does care. He wasn't going to
lose to one guy. I don'tthink he'd mind losing to Jokic. But

(20:44):
I also don't know that Luke orthat Joki, not that this matters,
but I only jokis really care.I don't either, and I think it
does, Luca absolutely, I meanyou when you're building that portfolio, I
mean it he wants helps Dirk thathe won the league MVP, even if
it was in a terrible season,a terrible post season. Yeah, I
mean that helps build the argument ofwhere Dirk ranks all time, agreed,

(21:07):
And if Luca wants to be inthe top five of all time, which
he absolutely can be or higher.And you know in an argument he's titles
obviously, but you also need torack up some MVPs and the dude deserves
this one this year and fingers crossed. But those Vegas ods just it's a
legacy bullet point. Yeah, sure, an important one. Yeah, yeah,
but Vegas scares me. Like whenwhen we saw the interview, I

(21:30):
guess it was a little Tony Parkerand Dirk and Gasol, Is that right?
Yeah? They all sat down together. Yeah maybe there was one of
the way. Way. Yeah,that's what the guy that hosted it,
I forgot him. There's something aboutsitting at that table, Dirk with the
championship and an MVP. It putshim at those tables. Yeah forever,

(21:52):
and Luca, you know, ifhe doesn't get it this year, I
believe he will get one because Idon't think his numbers are going to do
any type of drastic decline over thenext five years. I hope not,
but uh, dude, this ishis year. This is one hundred percent.
He has earned it, earned it. Coming up next DFW Manhunt.

(22:14):
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