Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors STUN Thunder, SGA drops 52, OKC's biggest WEAKNESS costs them
January 31, 2025 • 32 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors' 116-109 win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jason discusses Golden State's second win over OKC this year, why a second shot creator will fix many of the Warriors' problems, and what may doom the Thunder in the NBA Playoffs. Later, Jason discusses the top three trade destinations for Jimmy Butler including Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors, Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks, and Kevin Durant's Phoenix Suns.
Timeline:
4:15 - Introduction
5:30 - Warriors beat Thunder
15:30 - Why Warriors are closer than you think
20:30 - What may doom Thunder in playoffs
30:00 - Top 3 Jimmy Butler Trade Destinations
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Episode Transcript
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see d KNG dot co. Slash audio. All right, welcome
(01:45):
to hob tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
hope all you guys are having a great week. We
were doing an instant reaction to last night as the
Golden State Warriors not their seventh win against teams that
have top six records in the NBA beating the Oklahoma
City Thunder. We're gonna break that game down. The We're
going to continue our trade deadline content with my three
favorite destinations for Jimmy Butler. You guys know the drill
(02:06):
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
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content throughout the year and then last but not least,
keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments for
(02:28):
our mail bags that we record on Fridays throughout this season.
I do want to hit pacers and I also want
to talk about that Nuggets Knicks game from last night,
but I need more time to go back and watch films,
so we're gonna be covering that in the mail bag tomorrow.
We also have a really nice game tonight to react
to between the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies. So
(02:49):
more to get into tomorrow today, just or yours Thunder
and the Jimmy Butler trade destinations all right, let's talk
some basketball. So shake Gil Just Alexander was absolutely frying
everyone to start this game. He outscored the Warriors by
himself in the first quarter, a good chunk of picking
on specific matchups on the floor. But he was also
giving it directly to Andrew Wiggins. He hit him with
(03:11):
this ridiculous, like high hesitation move like he was gonna
go to his left, and then just scissor dribbled over
to his right and went right around him to the basket.
He was hitting jumpers, He's getting to the rim, he
was getting to the foul line. The Warriors offense was
also in a funk in the first quarter. Both Buddy
Hill and Steph Curry got off to really rough starts.
Andrew Riggins Wiggins was the only guy really hitting shots,
(03:31):
and so they ended up going down by fourteen. Just
an absolute disaster start to the game for the Warriors,
a continuation of a lot of the things that they've
struggled with over the course of the last few months.
But in the first shift, without Steph on the floor,
the Warriors finally got a good bit of offensive production
from Andrew Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Wiggins like post up
(03:53):
on the left block, gets into the middle, hits a
little hook shot over his left shoulder. Dennis Schroeder comes
downhill in a ball screen and just hits a little
foul line jump shot. Andrew Wiggins gets Isaiah Hartenstein on
a switch on the left wing, hits a little step
back three in his face. Guys were creating offense, and
when guys create offense for the Warriors, it unlocks the
strength of this roster, which is that the Warriors have
(04:16):
a depth of really good role players that can defend,
that can play in transition, and that can play with
an advantage. They were scoring so they could set their
defense so that they could get more stops so that
they can force more turnovers. They held OKC to twenty
four points in that second quarter. They turned OKAC over
five times, and they scored eleven points in transition. Just
(04:37):
in the second quarter. They got the lead back to four.
Okay See goes on a little run capped by a
Shae Gills as Alexander three off of an offensive rebounder
that puts the lead back up to gets a lead
up to thirteen. And then Andrew Wiggins it's a big
three on the right wing that cuts it down to ten.
In the third quarter, Steph finally gets going hits a
couple of threes. Steph was amazing down the stretch of
the game too. I want to get into in a minute,
but I really want to zero in on the non
(04:59):
State four Riors tonight because it's kind of indicative of
the flawed in this roster, which is that top end
shot creation beyond Steph Curry, it really was from a
bunch of different guys like Andrew Wiggins and Dennischroder were
amazing all night, even into clutch time. Both of them
were creating shots all night. Schroeder more is like a
playmaker and Wiggins more is like a score but they
were doing it throughout. But even when it got into
(05:21):
crunch time, which by the way, the Thunder didn't go
down easily in this game. Shay and Jay Dub were
both fantastic down the stretch as they continued to generate
offense for the Thunder to keep them close and every
time someone came up and hit a big shot. Andrew
Wiggins hit one of the biggest shots of the game
out of the right corner, a really nice pinin flare
from Dennis Schroeder where Dennis Schroeder saw that his man
(05:41):
was helping, and so he screened Andrew Wiggins man to
create a little passing angle into the right corner. Steph
hit him. Wiggins hits a big three. Wiggins hit a
floater off of a euro step and a ball screen
that was a big shot. In the fourth quarter of
this game, again, Schroder only had nine points, but they
were all self created mid range jump shots, driving to
the basketball Isaiah Joe for a layup. He had a
(06:02):
movement three that he hit on the right wing off
of a post split for the Warriors where they they
had the ball. I think it was Looney, kind of
around the right elbow area, and Looney just handed it
off to Schroeder coming off of a wide screen and
he set his feet moving to the right, which is
a shot you almost never see Dennis Schroeder take, and
he knocked it down from three point land. But it
was his shot creation, getting downhill and generating openings that
(06:25):
really kept things flowing for the Warriors on offense. He
had a play late in the game. The Warriors were
trying to get the ball to Steph at the top
of the key, but the Thunder were doing a good
job of denying him, and so Dennis kind of had
to turn and self create. He had Shay on him.
Just beat Shay off the dribble to the right, Drew
Hartenstein up in a low man help situation, dropped it
off to GP two, and he dunked on Hartenstein bad.
(06:49):
It was a really really impressive athletic play from Gary Payton.
But like those two guys, through Andrew Wiggins scoring and
through Dennis Schroder's playmaking kind of roughly approximated a second
star shot creator would look like. And the Warriors looked awesome.
The announcers were talking early in the game, They're like,
you know, Buddy healed in the last two months. He's
shooting thirty percent from three after his hot start. And
(07:11):
then one of the guys that I can't remember who
it was, but said like, oh, well, well, when Buddy
was shooting well, the Warriors were winning. It's like, yeah,
no shit. This Warriors roster has actually a plethora of
really good role players that can play on both ends
of the floor when they have roles that are manageable,
but they just don't have that reliable secondary shot creation.
(07:32):
I'm gonna share the stats with you guys later here
in a minute. But the Warriors pretty consistently are good
when they score the basketball. That's why I always talk
about the idea of value in a vacuum versus value
for your specific team. Like Jamal Murray is immensely valuable
to the Nuggets in a way he wouldn't be for
someone else because his specific skill set helps the two
(07:52):
man game with Jokic in such a way that makes
them unguardable in the half court right. Similarly, on a
Warriors roster, a secondary shot creator is going to be
immensely valuable there in a way that they wouldn't be
elsewhere in the league because it's such a need on
that specific roster. Again, we're gonna circle back to that
(08:12):
in a minute. But it naturally just created easier opportunities
for everyone. Randon pajamskate eleven points. He had a couple
of nice self creation shots too. He had a second
half three off the dribble on the right wing. Moses
Moody had a couple of nice buckets, one driving a
close out, one off of an offensive rebound. I thot
Kevon Looney was amazing in terms of his physical leverage,
creating passing angles on seals and just catching everything in
(08:35):
traffic and either finishing it or drawing a foul. And
what that does is it puts Steph Curry in a
position where instead of needing to create everything, he can
just focus on making the big shots that put the
team over the top, which is something that at his
even at this phase in his career, he can be
excellent at. Like they he had there was the league
(08:56):
got cut to three after shayet I think it either
Shay or JDub got a couple of buckets in a
row after they had been up seven or eight, they
cut it down to three. One possession game. Steph comes
off and it's a thirty foot bomb off of a
ball screen, and it's like like, yeah, Steph didn't have
the biggest scoring game of the night, but he was
able to get the big shots when they needed him,
and that really is all that matters. Right, Like, if
(09:18):
you have Steph in a position where his offensive trades
can be used as a little bit more of a
ceiling razor instead of like the primary offensive engine of
everything that you do, that's a more useful way to
make to make use of Steph at this phase in
his career, and I thought that kind of screamed off
of the screen last night. And then on defense, the
(09:40):
Warriors got better with their game plan discipline as the
game went along. One of the things I noticed about
on film and once again I did a whole film
thread on this game, So you guys can go over
to my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT and just
look for the video of it starts with Andrew Wiggins
hitting a spin move on Shay and it just kind
of goes through. I just got a bunch of clips
from the game. But one of the things I was
calling out in the film thread this morning was the
(10:01):
concept of gifting driving angles or defending with an open stance.
So a lot of times, what will happen when you're
guarding a guy like Shae. You're not keeping Shae in
front throughout the entire game. He's just too good with
the dribble drive. His first step is too quick, his
dribble combinations, and his ability to just completely pause and
hesitation moves in freeze defenders. He's just too good as
(10:22):
a drible drive guy. So if you set your defense
up in a way that says like, hey, you contain
Shae like that, That's just that's not going to work
right Like, more more likely it's going to be Shae
getting downhill into the teeth of your defense. And that
way is fine as long as you have a plan
for it. And so one of the things I noticed
early in the game when Shae was playing really, really well,
(10:43):
they were a lot of guys were defending Shae with
an open stance towards his left hand, so they were
like playing up on his right hand and kind of
funneling him towards the left and hopes that he'll be
more willing to take a This is kind of a
just a general thing with most basketball players. When they
drive right handed player when they drive left, are most
likely going to take a pull up jump shot. When
(11:03):
they drive right, they're most likely going to go all
the way to the rim. Now, a guy like Shaye
is really good shooting or going to the rim both ways,
but still that tendency tends to exist regardless. It's it's
as a game plan thing, your best bet. Even though
obviously Shay is so damn good that he can hit
pull up jumpers going right and he can hit layups
going left. But the Warriors were doing a lot of
(11:24):
like kind of shading Shaye towards his left hand side.
But in the first quarter, he was getting that dribble
penetration and there was nobody there like there'd be. There
was a play where he got a dunk where there's
just literally no one even in the picture and help
side defense. There was a play in the post where
I think Pods was like overplaying him towards the middle
(11:44):
and giving up the baseline and Shaye just ripped baseline
but there was no help there. Looney was all the
way on the opposite block, and Shae just made a
little left handed shot in the lane, and so it
was like, Okay, we're not doing our job here within
the game plan, which is like if we're going to
give up dribble penetration, we're sending him left and we
need to have the help ready. And you could just
visibly see a difference in their help side and how
(12:07):
on time they were in the second, third, and fourth
quarters where guys were still kind of opening up to
the left and letting Shay go, but he was running
into the running into bodies, like no further than ten feet,
sooner than ten feet from the basket, so like he
was running into traffic, which is gonna test one of
Shay's weaknesses as a playmaker, which is that he is
(12:29):
a good playmaker, but he does he will sometimes shoot
through multiple bodies instead of making kickout passes, and you
can force him into some misses in situations like that. Now,
I want to be clear, like Shay cooked him all
night long, but they just did a much better job
of making him less efficient and less impactful over the
last three quarters than they did in the first quarter,
just simply by doing a better job in their game
(12:51):
plan discipline of rotating earlier as you were sending Shay
into help. The Warriors now have two wins against all
Lahoma City, a win against Boston, two wins against Houston,
and two wins against Memphis. That's seven wins against teams
with top six records in the NBA. According to Cleaning
(13:12):
the Glass, Golden State now has eleven total wins against
teams in the top ten in point differential. Only Houston
and Oklahoma City have more. No other team in the
league has double digit wins against teams in the top
ten in point differential, and one of the things that
consistently stands out in these situations. When they score, they
(13:33):
can beat anyone because they play really good defense and
they get out in transition. In those eleven wins against
teams in the top ten in point differential, the Warriors
have a one to nineteen offensive rating. When they score,
they can beat anyone, and that extends throughout their entire
schedule when they score at least one hundred and eighteen
points just total points in a game. This year they're
(13:56):
fourteen and two. They lose almost every time they fail
to get a hunt. It's a consistent trend. And so
like when I'm talking about the Warriors and I'm pitching
things like, hey, this is why it's worth making a
move for a secondary shot creator, it's based on two
simple concepts. One, I don't think you should be in
the Steph Curry Draymond Green business unless you're trying to
(14:17):
win now. I just don't see the point. I don't
think it's fair to Steph to try to rebuild while
he's on the roster. There's time for that in the future.
You may never have a player like Steph again, let
alone for a very long time. So One, if you're
in the Steph and Draymond business. It's got to be
a win now business. And then two, I really do
think there's a kind of a mischaracterization of this Warrior's
(14:39):
roster is bad when what it really is is deficient
in a key area. Right now, all of their subsidiary
offensive talent, guys like Wiggins and schroeder Pods, Buddy Healed,
these guys are all playing up a role like Wiggins
should really be your third or fourth best offensive player
on the team, not your second best offensive player. Dannis
Schroderz should still be your third or fourth best player
(15:02):
offensive player on the team, not your second or third
best offensive player on the team. You need to slot
these guys down. When you slot these guys down, they
were lying, like think of it like this. Where you
land in the hierarchy is how often you have to
rely on difficult shot making. Right the superstar, he's gonna
have to rescue a lot of possessions, he's gonna face
the toughest coverages, he's gonna have to take and make
(15:24):
a lot of really difficult shots. The secondary shot creator,
he's going to be leaned on in that type of
role when the superstars off the floor. So he's gonna
have to do that for like fifteen minutes a game.
He's gonna have to take a lot of the rescue
shots and the tough shots at the end of possessions
that coverage the coverage beating shots. Right, But then he's
also gonna have to occasionally take tough shots when he's
(15:45):
on the floor the superstar and that guy's tired. Right,
go down to the third guy. It's like he's never
gonna lead a unit, but he will occasionally have to
take a tough shot when the main shot crater on
the floor is tired or in a bad matchup and
you have to try to rescue that possession. Right, go
down to the fourth guy. He's probably never gonna take
a super tough shot or very rarely going to take
(16:07):
a super tough shot. Everything is with an advantage, second
side action, all that kind of stuff, right, and so
on and so forth. As you get down the hierarchy,
the difficulty in your shot diet goes down. It's not
exactly hard to figure out. So just for example, if
you were to take a let's say a guy like
(16:28):
Cam Johnson, who's just a better offensive player than Andrew
Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Okay, if you were to put
him into that second role and everyone goes down a role,
everyone's shot diet gets easier. Not to mention, Cam Johnson's
shot diet in Brooklyn is harder than the types of
shots that he'll be getting in the Golden State system.
That's why I emphasize that right now, the Warriors have
(16:50):
excellent coaching. I still think Steph is capable as a
top tier superstar of lifting a team over the top
with the right type of team, and you've got this
incredible depth of role player talent that can play on
both ends of the floor as long as they're in
roles that are manageable. But you just simply do not
have a guy that can consistently create shots off of
(17:11):
Steph and every time the guys that are in their
roles that they're a little underqualified for but they thrive
every time, they thrive, which is inconsistent. Why because they're
not qualified for those roles. Andrew Wiggins is an inconsistent
number two, you know why, because he shouldn't be a
number two. So, like with that being the case, if
you can slot everybody down properly and put someone in
(17:31):
that role, it is literally the one gaping weakness on
this team. There are other moderate weaknesses, Oh yeah, you
could probably use a little bit bigger of a center, right, Like,
there are little things that you can get into in
terms of moderate improvements here or there. But there's one
gaping hole in this Warriors roster and it is in
secondary shot creation or secondary star behind Steph Curry. And
(17:55):
that's why I've been harping on that as much as
I have this year on the thunderfront, Shay is truly unbelievable.
He had fifty two and even with the better game
plan discipline that the Warriors showed in the later portions
of the game, they still couldn't really do anything with them.
Shay has a trait that I think is something that
(18:15):
makes him really gifted at getting to the foul line,
in the sense that, like, when he sees a small
gap that he can't necessarily get through, but that he
has enough of an angle to have the defender out
of position, He'll just keep attacking that gap with physicality.
So like the defender will slide over and kind of
hold him on the like kind of give him some
contact on that first drive, but Shaye will just keep
(18:36):
pounding and trying to get through that gap, and inevitably
the leverage angle he has where the guy's kind of
on his side, that guy ends up holding or hanging
on to him a step too long, and then the
reff will blow the whistle. He just kind of puts
the refs in predicaments where they have no choice but
to blow the whistle. The pump fakes where he gets
someone out of position and jumps into him, that sort
of thing. He just is a complete master of his
(18:59):
craft and single facet. But the Warriors counted on something
that many teams count on when playing the Thunder, that
other guys will just misshots. And with the exception of
Isaiah Joe who's been shooting really well as of late,
and Jay Dubb who put up twenty six although he
took him twenty six shots, every other Thunder player struggled
(19:19):
in this game. Isaiah Harden signed Lou Dort, Keeson Wallace,
Jay du or Jay will I should say, Ken ridg
Williams and Aaron Wiggins combined to make five shots they
attempted it looks like twenty thirty two, so they were
(19:40):
five for thirty two from the field. Between those guys,
that's just not going to get the job done. And
you know, and like, as a result of that, over
the final three quarters, the Thunder offense generated just zero
point eighty four points per half court possession. And look,
I've been preaching all season with the Thunder that this
team is prone to offensive lulls. I want to I
(20:03):
want to emphasize this because I get into this sort
of discussion. A discussion is the wrong word, but I
get this kind of feedback from fans and the comments.
Often when I'm talking about teams, I'm talking about them
with respect to the tier that they're in. So when
I'm talking about flaws and strengths for a third tier contender,
(20:23):
call it like the Lakers, for instance, It's going to
be different than the way I discuss the second tier
contender teams like Dallas or Denver, New York, versus the
way I discuss a top tier contender like Cleveland, Oklahoma
City in Boston. I know Oklahoma City is a lot
better than Golden State. I think even Warriors fans would
admit that if they face Golden Okay See in a
(20:43):
first round playoff series, that they would get beat. It's
not about that we're talking about Oklahoma City has real
championship pressure, and so when I discuss them, I'm discussing
them as in terms of like what could get them
beat in the conference finals or in the NBA Finals.
What could get the Thunder beat if they ran into
a game six against Dallas or a game six against Denver,
(21:08):
or a game six against Boston or a game six
against Cleveland if they make it to the NBA Finals.
That's what I talk about there. There has been a
trend from last year's playoffs into the n season tournament
into some of these high leverage games this season that
Shay is resilient in those situations. He might have a
(21:29):
game where he struggles to shoot a little bit, but
like Shae seems resilient and Jada sometimes but everyone else
it's like you don't know what you're getting when it
gets into those situations, which is to be expected. These
are young players, all of these guys at Hartenstein, dort
case I, Wallace, Jawill, Kenrick Williams, Aaron Wiggins. Like, there
are some guys in there that have there are veterans
(21:50):
with some playoff experience, but like it's a lot of
youth that you're depending on in those sorts of situations.
And here's the thing. Lou Dort has offensive upside, but
he is a little bit streaky. Case On Wallace has
offensive upside, He's a little bit streaky. Aaron Wiggins is
a little bit streaky. These guys are capable of being
(22:10):
really hot and they are capable of being really cold.
And so again, like I want to be clear, like
the thunder to me, are have played better than anybody
in this regular season. I'm not trying to deny that
in any way, shape or form. I view them as
a top tier contender. Earlier in the season, I viewed
Boston on a tier by themselves. I have moved Oklahoma
(22:32):
City into that tier. I'm a believer in what Oklahoma
City can do. But will they win the championship this year?
That's in doubt to some extent. And if they lose,
this is what I think it will look like. If
they lose, it will look like their half court offense
falling apart because everyone not named Shay struggles to find
(22:53):
a level of comfort on the offensive end of the floor.
It's just something to keep it up, all right. Jimmy
Butler my top three trade destinations. Jimmy had one goal
(23:16):
when he decided he was going to make a giant
mess of things in Miami. He wanted to force pat
Riley's hand into trading him before this year's deadline, and
according to all of the reports that I've seen, it
has worked and he are at least intent on getting
him moved before next Wednesday's deadline. So with that being
the case, here are my top three destinations. Number three,
(23:40):
the Milwaukee Bucks not necessarily the greatest fit in the world,
putting him next to Gianni's teams would likely guard any
action that involves Jimmy and Giannis directly by switching, which
means that they would have to be able to be
off ball threats for each other, because if they're both
in the action, that's great, but if they switch, one's
going to have to go create space for the other,
(24:01):
which means they're gonna have to play off of each other. Now,
Jimmy has become a knockdown, catch and shoot guy, but
he has a slow release and he doesn't take many
of them. Jannis obviously would be more of a dunker
spot guy off of Jimmy, which is a form of spacing,
but it's not great, so like it's not necessarily the
perfect fit, but it is a massive talent play. The
deal with likely center around Chris Middleton and Bobby Portis.
(24:24):
Now both of those guys have been valuable to Milwaukee
in different ways throughout this year. Chris Middleton, for instance,
hasn't shown much in terms of top end offensive talent,
but his ability to handle a ball in the half
court and kind of set up his teammates with some
advantages has been really helpful. He had like another seven
assistant game the other day, and Bobby Portis is scoring.
(24:45):
His spot up shooting and particularly his rebounding have been
missed on this road trip where the Bucks have been
struggling a little bit. But neither of those guys have
been particularly good, and both of them have large salaries
that can be used to facilitated deal as long as
pat Conington can be moved in order to get out
from underneath that second apron. So if you make that
(25:07):
sort of move, there's a drawback, which is Yannis basically
becomes your backup center. But you have a player in
Jimmy Butler that is much much better at basketball on
both ends of the floor than either of Bobby Portis
or Chris Middleton. He gives you another athlete to deploy
on the perimeter defensively for a team that desperately needs
these types of athletes. He gives you a better chance
(25:28):
of surviving Yannis off minutes. This is one of the
more exciting parts of it. Both the offense and defense
have been bad this year. When Dame is on the
floor without Yannis, Jimmy just gives you a better chance
to survive or maybe even thrive in those minutes when
Yannis is sitting. And then in the playoffs, Jimmy is
still just one of the most versatile weapons in the league.
There's a very specific reason why Jimmy is always great
(25:50):
in the playoffs, and no, it's not just because he
has that dog in him or any other meaningless platitude.
It's because he's big, he's strong, and he's really good
at a lot of different things on a basketball court.
The size and strength makes him less vulnerable to the
playoff physicality when you get into that setting, and then
his versatility allows him to adjust his approach on either
(26:11):
end of the floor from opponent to opponent. This is
a team I'm gonna run a lot of high ball screens.
It this is a team like. If you need Jimmy
to run high ball screens and pick teams apart, he
can do that. If you need Jimmy to attack mismatches
in the post, he can do that. If you need
Jimmy to stand in the corner and knock down wide
open stains still jump shots, he can do that. If
you need Jimmy to be a transition player, he can
(26:32):
do that. If you need Jimmy to defend on the ball,
he can do that on a variety of different guys.
If you need Jimmy to defend off the ball, he
can do that. He can rebound. He is such a
versatile player that he can plug and play into anything
his team needs him to do. And he's big and strong,
which allows him to thrive in the physicality. That's what
makes him such a unique playoff player. So I think
(26:54):
bringing him in would be just a talent play for
Milwaukee that would give him a better chance to hang
with the top team in the conference, number two, the
Golden State Warriors. Now, this would be much more complicated
to pull off because the Warriors have six players that
make between five and ten million dollars so it's just
really tough for them to match salary, and any deal
would likely have to include would basically have to include
(27:15):
Andrew Wiggins or Draymond grad My guess is Miami would
want Andrew Wiggins because he would be able to immediately
help Miami at the same position Jimmy place right now,
Hey what high Smith is in that role? So Miami
would be getting an upgrade in the form of Andrew Wiggins,
who just had another great game last night against the Thunder.
So the deal would in all likelihood center around some
combination of Wiggins and Cominga plus another two salaries, probably
(27:38):
Buddy Healed and Kyle Anderson. Maybe you can convince them
to let you keep Kaminga if they like to draft
compensation enough. I would sert again every time I talk
about this with Warriors fans. I don't think you give
up Kaminga just for poops and giggles. You try to
keep Kaminga out of the deal. I'm just saying, if
that's what it takes, that's what you gotta pay. You'd
get back something like Jimmy Butler and Josh Richardson something
along those lines, and the Heat obviously get plenty of
(28:01):
talent that can help right away with their goals. And
apparently I was reading a Mark Stein piece yesterday that
said that Miami really needs to make the playoffs this
year in terms of future draft compensation that they owe
to other teams. So if you were to make that deal,
this is what you'd be left with. In this case,
we'll call it Buddy Heald and Kyle Anderson plus Kaminga
just for the sake of the worst case scenario. Obviously,
if you get to keep Kaminga and you get to
(28:22):
include a different player, that's ideal. But in that case,
you'd be left with Steph Jimmy and Draymond Dennis and
tray Jackson Davis probably your starting five right off the bench.
You still have Kavon Looney, you still have Moses Moodie,
you still have Gary Payton. Second, you still have the
gem Ski, you still have Lindy Waters, Gee Santo's, Quinton
Post and Pat Spencer. Again, this is the advantage of
having the depth of role player talent that they have,
(28:44):
and Josh Richardson would be in that mix too. You
just have so many damn good players that you can
afford to lose a few in order to bring back
a primary shot creator. You get a star to anchor
units with Steph off the floor, you get an offensive
star to run two man game with Steph that teams
will not want to swim, so you can get teams
into rotation consistently. And most importantly, on this team that
(29:05):
has an enormous amount of role player depth but a
complete lack of top end talent, you turn some of
that role player depth into star talent to better balance
out your roster. I also don't think Golden State would
have to include much in the way of draft compensation
to make it work, especially if Kamingo was in the deal.
I would actually be trying to include draft compensation at
the expense of keeping Kaminga out of the deal, just
(29:27):
for the talent. Now, again, the biggest challenges for the
Warriors to make this work will be matching salary. The
Heat apparently do not want to take back any contract
that lasts past next season. Andrew Wiggins has a player option,
but I have a feeling he might be willing to
opt out and resign somewhere else or maybe even with
the Heat. At that point. Kyle Anderson's last year is
non guaranteed, so You're good there, Buddy. Heeld is the
(29:49):
tough one Buddy held has. But I think it's possible
that I read something that his deal might not be
guaranteed after last year either, so that might work. But
I would just do everything I can to not include
Gary Payton second, because I think he's an excellent rotation
piece in the playoffs. And then I would try like
hell to leave Kaminga out of it. But again it's
a long shot, but I actually think it pieces together
(30:11):
kind of nicely for the Warriors if they could pull
it off. Number one, though by far from me, is
my favorite destination for Jimmy Butler, is still the Phoenix Suns. Now,
there's a huge roadblock in this deal. You got to
get a team that is willing to take on Bradley
Beal and that Bradley Beal is willing to waive his
no trade clause for now. That makes things tough, which
is why other teams like Milwaukee, like Golden State are
(30:32):
in the mix right now. But I think this is
the team that Jimmy can help the most. By far.
Jimmy is everything that the Sons don't have. He can
legit pressure the rim on offense, as both a bullyball
player and as just an overall matchup attacker. But in
a way that's more impactful because he's also excellent at
passing out of those situations, and the Sons can provide
(30:54):
him with real spacing thanks to what Kevin Durant and
Devin Booker do. He's a star that can play on
both the floor in a way that Bradley Beale can't,
but that Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can. He can
meet them at that level, and then he fundamentally alters
their physical profile. As currently constructed, the Suns are too thin.
They can be pushed around. But if you get a
(31:15):
frontline that has Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, Nick Richards, it's
just more physically imposing in terms of length, athleticism, and
size and strength. I also think it can help them
with their ball pressure issues. Part of the reason why
Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can struggle with ball pressure
from time to time is they're a little thin. They
can struggle under physicality. Jimmy Butler thrives under physicality. Now
(31:36):
they're going to have to find another team to help
facilitate that. But that's a type of deal that I
think could really really help the Sons get to another
level that they can't reach at this point under their
current roster restrictions. All right, guys, it's all I have
for today. Like I said, be back tomorrow with the
mailbag and a bunch of the game reactions that I
wasn't able to get to today. As always, sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll
(31:57):
see you guys then the volume. What's up guys? As always,
I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
It would actually be really helpful for us if you
guys would take a second and leave a rating and
a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
but if you could take a minute to do that,
I'd really appreciate it.
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(01:45):
to hob tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
hope all you guys are having a great week. We
were doing an instant reaction to last night as the
Golden State Warriors not their seventh win against teams that
have top six records in the NBA beating the Oklahoma
City Thunder. We're gonna break that game down. The We're
going to continue our trade deadline content with my three
favorite destinations for Jimmy Butler. You guys know the drill
(02:06):
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys
don't miss you how announcements. Don't forget about our podcast
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also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
review on that front. Also, don't forget about our new
social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing
content throughout the year and then last but not least,
keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments for
(02:28):
our mail bags that we record on Fridays throughout this season.
I do want to hit pacers and I also want
to talk about that Nuggets Knicks game from last night,
but I need more time to go back and watch films,
so we're gonna be covering that in the mail bag tomorrow.
We also have a really nice game tonight to react
to between the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies. So
(02:49):
more to get into tomorrow today, just or yours Thunder
and the Jimmy Butler trade destinations all right, let's talk
some basketball. So shake Gil Just Alexander was absolutely frying
everyone to start this game. He outscored the Warriors by
himself in the first quarter, a good chunk of picking
on specific matchups on the floor. But he was also
giving it directly to Andrew Wiggins. He hit him with
(03:11):
this ridiculous, like high hesitation move like he was gonna
go to his left, and then just scissor dribbled over
to his right and went right around him to the basket.
He was hitting jumpers, He's getting to the rim, he
was getting to the foul line. The Warriors offense was
also in a funk in the first quarter. Both Buddy
Hill and Steph Curry got off to really rough starts.
Andrew Riggins Wiggins was the only guy really hitting shots,
(03:31):
and so they ended up going down by fourteen. Just
an absolute disaster start to the game for the Warriors,
a continuation of a lot of the things that they've
struggled with over the course of the last few months.
But in the first shift, without Steph on the floor,
the Warriors finally got a good bit of offensive production
from Andrew Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Wiggins like post up
(03:53):
on the left block, gets into the middle, hits a
little hook shot over his left shoulder. Dennis Schroeder comes
downhill in a ball screen and just hits a little
foul line jump shot. Andrew Wiggins gets Isaiah Hartenstein on
a switch on the left wing, hits a little step
back three in his face. Guys were creating offense, and
when guys create offense for the Warriors, it unlocks the
strength of this roster, which is that the Warriors have
(04:16):
a depth of really good role players that can defend,
that can play in transition, and that can play with
an advantage. They were scoring so they could set their
defense so that they could get more stops so that
they can force more turnovers. They held OKC to twenty
four points in that second quarter. They turned OKAC over
five times, and they scored eleven points in transition. Just
(04:37):
in the second quarter. They got the lead back to four.
Okay See goes on a little run capped by a
Shae Gills as Alexander three off of an offensive rebounder
that puts the lead back up to gets a lead
up to thirteen. And then Andrew Wiggins it's a big
three on the right wing that cuts it down to ten.
In the third quarter, Steph finally gets going hits a
couple of threes. Steph was amazing down the stretch of
the game too. I want to get into in a minute,
but I really want to zero in on the non
(04:59):
State four Riors tonight because it's kind of indicative of
the flawed in this roster, which is that top end
shot creation beyond Steph Curry, it really was from a
bunch of different guys like Andrew Wiggins and Dennischroder were
amazing all night, even into clutch time. Both of them
were creating shots all night. Schroeder more is like a
playmaker and Wiggins more is like a score but they
were doing it throughout. But even when it got into
(05:21):
crunch time, which by the way, the Thunder didn't go
down easily in this game. Shay and Jay Dub were
both fantastic down the stretch as they continued to generate
offense for the Thunder to keep them close and every
time someone came up and hit a big shot. Andrew
Wiggins hit one of the biggest shots of the game
out of the right corner, a really nice pinin flare
from Dennis Schroeder where Dennis Schroeder saw that his man
(05:41):
was helping, and so he screened Andrew Wiggins man to
create a little passing angle into the right corner. Steph
hit him. Wiggins hits a big three. Wiggins hit a
floater off of a euro step and a ball screen
that was a big shot. In the fourth quarter of
this game, again, Schroder only had nine points, but they
were all self created mid range jump shots, driving to
the basketball Isaiah Joe for a layup. He had a
(06:02):
movement three that he hit on the right wing off
of a post split for the Warriors where they they
had the ball. I think it was Looney, kind of
around the right elbow area, and Looney just handed it
off to Schroeder coming off of a wide screen and
he set his feet moving to the right, which is
a shot you almost never see Dennis Schroeder take, and
he knocked it down from three point land. But it
was his shot creation, getting downhill and generating openings that
(06:25):
really kept things flowing for the Warriors on offense. He
had a play late in the game. The Warriors were
trying to get the ball to Steph at the top
of the key, but the Thunder were doing a good
job of denying him, and so Dennis kind of had
to turn and self create. He had Shay on him.
Just beat Shay off the dribble to the right, Drew
Hartenstein up in a low man help situation, dropped it
off to GP two, and he dunked on Hartenstein bad.
(06:49):
It was a really really impressive athletic play from Gary Payton.
But like those two guys, through Andrew Wiggins scoring and
through Dennis Schroder's playmaking kind of roughly approximated a second
star shot creator would look like. And the Warriors looked awesome.
The announcers were talking early in the game, They're like,
you know, Buddy healed in the last two months. He's
shooting thirty percent from three after his hot start. And
(07:11):
then one of the guys that I can't remember who
it was, but said like, oh, well, well, when Buddy
was shooting well, the Warriors were winning. It's like, yeah,
no shit. This Warriors roster has actually a plethora of
really good role players that can play on both ends
of the floor when they have roles that are manageable,
but they just don't have that reliable secondary shot creation.
(07:32):
I'm gonna share the stats with you guys later here
in a minute. But the Warriors pretty consistently are good
when they score the basketball. That's why I always talk
about the idea of value in a vacuum versus value
for your specific team. Like Jamal Murray is immensely valuable
to the Nuggets in a way he wouldn't be for
someone else because his specific skill set helps the two
(07:52):
man game with Jokic in such a way that makes
them unguardable in the half court right. Similarly, on a
Warriors roster, a secondary shot creator is going to be
immensely valuable there in a way that they wouldn't be
elsewhere in the league because it's such a need on
that specific roster. Again, we're gonna circle back to that
(08:12):
in a minute. But it naturally just created easier opportunities
for everyone. Randon pajamskate eleven points. He had a couple
of nice self creation shots too. He had a second
half three off the dribble on the right wing. Moses
Moody had a couple of nice buckets, one driving a
close out, one off of an offensive rebound. I thot
Kevon Looney was amazing in terms of his physical leverage,
creating passing angles on seals and just catching everything in
(08:35):
traffic and either finishing it or drawing a foul. And
what that does is it puts Steph Curry in a
position where instead of needing to create everything, he can
just focus on making the big shots that put the
team over the top, which is something that at his
even at this phase in his career, he can be
excellent at. Like they he had there was the league
(08:56):
got cut to three after shayet I think it either
Shay or JDub got a couple of buckets in a
row after they had been up seven or eight, they
cut it down to three. One possession game. Steph comes
off and it's a thirty foot bomb off of a
ball screen, and it's like like, yeah, Steph didn't have
the biggest scoring game of the night, but he was
able to get the big shots when they needed him,
and that really is all that matters. Right, Like, if
(09:18):
you have Steph in a position where his offensive trades
can be used as a little bit more of a
ceiling razor instead of like the primary offensive engine of
everything that you do, that's a more useful way to
make to make use of Steph at this phase in
his career, and I thought that kind of screamed off
of the screen last night. And then on defense, the
(09:40):
Warriors got better with their game plan discipline as the
game went along. One of the things I noticed about
on film and once again I did a whole film
thread on this game, So you guys can go over
to my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT and just
look for the video of it starts with Andrew Wiggins
hitting a spin move on Shay and it just kind
of goes through. I just got a bunch of clips
from the game. But one of the things I was
calling out in the film thread this morning was the
(10:01):
concept of gifting driving angles or defending with an open stance.
So a lot of times, what will happen when you're
guarding a guy like Shae. You're not keeping Shae in
front throughout the entire game. He's just too good with
the dribble drive. His first step is too quick, his
dribble combinations, and his ability to just completely pause and
hesitation moves in freeze defenders. He's just too good as
(10:22):
a drible drive guy. So if you set your defense
up in a way that says like, hey, you contain
Shae like that, That's just that's not going to work
right Like, more more likely it's going to be Shae
getting downhill into the teeth of your defense. And that
way is fine as long as you have a plan
for it. And so one of the things I noticed
early in the game when Shae was playing really, really well,
(10:43):
they were a lot of guys were defending Shae with
an open stance towards his left hand, so they were
like playing up on his right hand and kind of
funneling him towards the left and hopes that he'll be
more willing to take a This is kind of a
just a general thing with most basketball players. When they
drive right handed player when they drive left, are most
likely going to take a pull up jump shot. When
(11:03):
they drive right, they're most likely going to go all
the way to the rim. Now, a guy like Shaye
is really good shooting or going to the rim both ways,
but still that tendency tends to exist regardless. It's it's
as a game plan thing, your best bet. Even though
obviously Shay is so damn good that he can hit
pull up jumpers going right and he can hit layups
going left. But the Warriors were doing a lot of
(11:24):
like kind of shading Shaye towards his left hand side.
But in the first quarter, he was getting that dribble
penetration and there was nobody there like there'd be. There
was a play where he got a dunk where there's
just literally no one even in the picture and help
side defense. There was a play in the post where
I think Pods was like overplaying him towards the middle
(11:44):
and giving up the baseline and Shaye just ripped baseline
but there was no help there. Looney was all the
way on the opposite block, and Shae just made a
little left handed shot in the lane, and so it
was like, Okay, we're not doing our job here within
the game plan, which is like if we're going to
give up dribble penetration, we're sending him left and we
need to have the help ready. And you could just
visibly see a difference in their help side and how
(12:07):
on time they were in the second, third, and fourth
quarters where guys were still kind of opening up to
the left and letting Shay go, but he was running
into the running into bodies, like no further than ten feet,
sooner than ten feet from the basket, so like he
was running into traffic, which is gonna test one of
Shay's weaknesses as a playmaker, which is that he is
(12:29):
a good playmaker, but he does he will sometimes shoot
through multiple bodies instead of making kickout passes, and you
can force him into some misses in situations like that. Now,
I want to be clear, like Shay cooked him all
night long, but they just did a much better job
of making him less efficient and less impactful over the
last three quarters than they did in the first quarter,
just simply by doing a better job in their game
(12:51):
plan discipline of rotating earlier as you were sending Shay
into help. The Warriors now have two wins against all
Lahoma City, a win against Boston, two wins against Houston,
and two wins against Memphis. That's seven wins against teams
with top six records in the NBA. According to Cleaning
(13:12):
the Glass, Golden State now has eleven total wins against
teams in the top ten in point differential. Only Houston
and Oklahoma City have more. No other team in the
league has double digit wins against teams in the top
ten in point differential, and one of the things that
consistently stands out in these situations. When they score, they
(13:33):
can beat anyone because they play really good defense and
they get out in transition. In those eleven wins against
teams in the top ten in point differential, the Warriors
have a one to nineteen offensive rating. When they score,
they can beat anyone, and that extends throughout their entire
schedule when they score at least one hundred and eighteen
points just total points in a game. This year they're
(13:56):
fourteen and two. They lose almost every time they fail
to get a hunt. It's a consistent trend. And so
like when I'm talking about the Warriors and I'm pitching
things like, hey, this is why it's worth making a
move for a secondary shot creator, it's based on two
simple concepts. One, I don't think you should be in
the Steph Curry Draymond Green business unless you're trying to
(14:17):
win now. I just don't see the point. I don't
think it's fair to Steph to try to rebuild while
he's on the roster. There's time for that in the future.
You may never have a player like Steph again, let
alone for a very long time. So One, if you're
in the Steph and Draymond business. It's got to be
a win now business. And then two, I really do
think there's a kind of a mischaracterization of this Warrior's
(14:39):
roster is bad when what it really is is deficient
in a key area. Right now, all of their subsidiary
offensive talent, guys like Wiggins and schroeder Pods, Buddy Healed,
these guys are all playing up a role like Wiggins
should really be your third or fourth best offensive player
on the team, not your second best offensive player. Dannis
Schroderz should still be your third or fourth best player
(15:02):
offensive player on the team, not your second or third
best offensive player on the team. You need to slot
these guys down. When you slot these guys down, they
were lying, like think of it like this. Where you
land in the hierarchy is how often you have to
rely on difficult shot making. Right the superstar, he's gonna
have to rescue a lot of possessions, he's gonna face
the toughest coverages, he's gonna have to take and make
(15:24):
a lot of really difficult shots. The secondary shot creator,
he's going to be leaned on in that type of
role when the superstars off the floor. So he's gonna
have to do that for like fifteen minutes a game.
He's gonna have to take a lot of the rescue
shots and the tough shots at the end of possessions
that coverage the coverage beating shots. Right, But then he's
also gonna have to occasionally take tough shots when he's
(15:45):
on the floor the superstar and that guy's tired. Right,
go down to the third guy. It's like he's never
gonna lead a unit, but he will occasionally have to
take a tough shot when the main shot crater on
the floor is tired or in a bad matchup and
you have to try to rescue that possession. Right, go
down to the fourth guy. He's probably never gonna take
a super tough shot or very rarely going to take
(16:07):
a super tough shot. Everything is with an advantage, second
side action, all that kind of stuff, right, and so
on and so forth. As you get down the hierarchy,
the difficulty in your shot diet goes down. It's not
exactly hard to figure out. So just for example, if
you were to take a let's say a guy like
(16:28):
Cam Johnson, who's just a better offensive player than Andrew
Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Okay, if you were to put
him into that second role and everyone goes down a role,
everyone's shot diet gets easier. Not to mention, Cam Johnson's
shot diet in Brooklyn is harder than the types of
shots that he'll be getting in the Golden State system.
That's why I emphasize that right now, the Warriors have
(16:50):
excellent coaching. I still think Steph is capable as a
top tier superstar of lifting a team over the top
with the right type of team, and you've got this
incredible depth of role player talent that can play on
both ends of the floor as long as they're in
roles that are manageable. But you just simply do not
have a guy that can consistently create shots off of
(17:11):
Steph and every time the guys that are in their
roles that they're a little underqualified for but they thrive
every time, they thrive, which is inconsistent. Why because they're
not qualified for those roles. Andrew Wiggins is an inconsistent
number two, you know why, because he shouldn't be a
number two. So, like with that being the case, if
you can slot everybody down properly and put someone in
(17:31):
that role, it is literally the one gaping weakness on
this team. There are other moderate weaknesses, Oh yeah, you
could probably use a little bit bigger of a center, right, Like,
there are little things that you can get into in
terms of moderate improvements here or there. But there's one
gaping hole in this Warriors roster and it is in
secondary shot creation or secondary star behind Steph Curry. And
(17:55):
that's why I've been harping on that as much as
I have this year on the thunderfront, Shay is truly unbelievable.
He had fifty two and even with the better game
plan discipline that the Warriors showed in the later portions
of the game, they still couldn't really do anything with them.
Shay has a trait that I think is something that
(18:15):
makes him really gifted at getting to the foul line,
in the sense that, like, when he sees a small
gap that he can't necessarily get through, but that he
has enough of an angle to have the defender out
of position, He'll just keep attacking that gap with physicality.
So like the defender will slide over and kind of
hold him on the like kind of give him some
contact on that first drive, but Shaye will just keep
(18:36):
pounding and trying to get through that gap, and inevitably
the leverage angle he has where the guy's kind of
on his side, that guy ends up holding or hanging
on to him a step too long, and then the
reff will blow the whistle. He just kind of puts
the refs in predicaments where they have no choice but
to blow the whistle. The pump fakes where he gets
someone out of position and jumps into him, that sort
of thing. He just is a complete master of his
(18:59):
craft and single facet. But the Warriors counted on something
that many teams count on when playing the Thunder, that
other guys will just misshots. And with the exception of
Isaiah Joe who's been shooting really well as of late,
and Jay Dubb who put up twenty six although he
took him twenty six shots, every other Thunder player struggled
(19:19):
in this game. Isaiah Harden signed Lou Dort, Keeson Wallace,
Jay du or Jay will I should say, Ken ridg
Williams and Aaron Wiggins combined to make five shots they
attempted it looks like twenty thirty two, so they were
(19:40):
five for thirty two from the field. Between those guys,
that's just not going to get the job done. And
you know, and like, as a result of that, over
the final three quarters, the Thunder offense generated just zero
point eighty four points per half court possession. And look,
I've been preaching all season with the Thunder that this
team is prone to offensive lulls. I want to I
(20:03):
want to emphasize this because I get into this sort
of discussion. A discussion is the wrong word, but I
get this kind of feedback from fans and the comments.
Often when I'm talking about teams, I'm talking about them
with respect to the tier that they're in. So when
I'm talking about flaws and strengths for a third tier contender,
(20:23):
call it like the Lakers, for instance, It's going to
be different than the way I discuss the second tier
contender teams like Dallas or Denver, New York, versus the
way I discuss a top tier contender like Cleveland, Oklahoma
City in Boston. I know Oklahoma City is a lot
better than Golden State. I think even Warriors fans would
admit that if they face Golden Okay See in a
(20:43):
first round playoff series, that they would get beat. It's
not about that we're talking about Oklahoma City has real
championship pressure, and so when I discuss them, I'm discussing
them as in terms of like what could get them
beat in the conference finals or in the NBA Finals.
What could get the Thunder beat if they ran into
a game six against Dallas or a game six against Denver,
(21:08):
or a game six against Boston or a game six
against Cleveland if they make it to the NBA Finals.
That's what I talk about there. There has been a
trend from last year's playoffs into the n season tournament
into some of these high leverage games this season that
Shay is resilient in those situations. He might have a
(21:29):
game where he struggles to shoot a little bit, but
like Shae seems resilient and Jada sometimes but everyone else
it's like you don't know what you're getting when it
gets into those situations, which is to be expected. These
are young players, all of these guys at Hartenstein, dort
case I, Wallace, Jawill, Kenrick Williams, Aaron Wiggins. Like, there
are some guys in there that have there are veterans
(21:50):
with some playoff experience, but like it's a lot of
youth that you're depending on in those sorts of situations.
And here's the thing. Lou Dort has offensive upside, but
he is a little bit streaky. Case On Wallace has
offensive upside, He's a little bit streaky. Aaron Wiggins is
a little bit streaky. These guys are capable of being
(22:10):
really hot and they are capable of being really cold.
And so again, like I want to be clear, like
the thunder to me, are have played better than anybody
in this regular season. I'm not trying to deny that
in any way, shape or form. I view them as
a top tier contender. Earlier in the season, I viewed
Boston on a tier by themselves. I have moved Oklahoma
(22:32):
City into that tier. I'm a believer in what Oklahoma
City can do. But will they win the championship this year?
That's in doubt to some extent. And if they lose,
this is what I think it will look like. If
they lose, it will look like their half court offense
falling apart because everyone not named Shay struggles to find
(22:53):
a level of comfort on the offensive end of the floor.
It's just something to keep it up, all right. Jimmy
Butler my top three trade destinations. Jimmy had one goal
(23:16):
when he decided he was going to make a giant
mess of things in Miami. He wanted to force pat
Riley's hand into trading him before this year's deadline, and
according to all of the reports that I've seen, it
has worked and he are at least intent on getting
him moved before next Wednesday's deadline. So with that being
the case, here are my top three destinations. Number three,
(23:40):
the Milwaukee Bucks not necessarily the greatest fit in the world,
putting him next to Gianni's teams would likely guard any
action that involves Jimmy and Giannis directly by switching, which
means that they would have to be able to be
off ball threats for each other, because if they're both
in the action, that's great, but if they switch, one's
going to have to go create space for the other,
(24:01):
which means they're gonna have to play off of each other. Now,
Jimmy has become a knockdown, catch and shoot guy, but
he has a slow release and he doesn't take many
of them. Jannis obviously would be more of a dunker
spot guy off of Jimmy, which is a form of spacing,
but it's not great, so like it's not necessarily the
perfect fit, but it is a massive talent play. The
deal with likely center around Chris Middleton and Bobby Portis.
(24:24):
Now both of those guys have been valuable to Milwaukee
in different ways throughout this year. Chris Middleton, for instance,
hasn't shown much in terms of top end offensive talent,
but his ability to handle a ball in the half
court and kind of set up his teammates with some
advantages has been really helpful. He had like another seven
assistant game the other day, and Bobby Portis is scoring.
(24:45):
His spot up shooting and particularly his rebounding have been
missed on this road trip where the Bucks have been
struggling a little bit. But neither of those guys have
been particularly good, and both of them have large salaries
that can be used to facilitated deal as long as
pat Conington can be moved in order to get out
from underneath that second apron. So if you make that
(25:07):
sort of move, there's a drawback, which is Yannis basically
becomes your backup center. But you have a player in
Jimmy Butler that is much much better at basketball on
both ends of the floor than either of Bobby Portis
or Chris Middleton. He gives you another athlete to deploy
on the perimeter defensively for a team that desperately needs
these types of athletes. He gives you a better chance
(25:28):
of surviving Yannis off minutes. This is one of the
more exciting parts of it. Both the offense and defense
have been bad this year. When Dame is on the
floor without Yannis, Jimmy just gives you a better chance
to survive or maybe even thrive in those minutes when
Yannis is sitting. And then in the playoffs, Jimmy is
still just one of the most versatile weapons in the league.
There's a very specific reason why Jimmy is always great
(25:50):
in the playoffs, and no, it's not just because he
has that dog in him or any other meaningless platitude.
It's because he's big, he's strong, and he's really good
at a lot of different things on a basketball court.
The size and strength makes him less vulnerable to the
playoff physicality when you get into that setting, and then
his versatility allows him to adjust his approach on either
(26:11):
end of the floor from opponent to opponent. This is
a team I'm gonna run a lot of high ball screens.
It this is a team like. If you need Jimmy
to run high ball screens and pick teams apart, he
can do that. If you need Jimmy to attack mismatches
in the post, he can do that. If you need
Jimmy to stand in the corner and knock down wide
open stains still jump shots, he can do that. If
you need Jimmy to be a transition player, he can
(26:32):
do that. If you need Jimmy to defend on the ball,
he can do that on a variety of different guys.
If you need Jimmy to defend off the ball, he
can do that. He can rebound. He is such a
versatile player that he can plug and play into anything
his team needs him to do. And he's big and strong,
which allows him to thrive in the physicality. That's what
makes him such a unique playoff player. So I think
(26:54):
bringing him in would be just a talent play for
Milwaukee that would give him a better chance to hang
with the top team in the conference, number two, the
Golden State Warriors. Now, this would be much more complicated
to pull off because the Warriors have six players that
make between five and ten million dollars so it's just
really tough for them to match salary, and any deal
would likely have to include would basically have to include
(27:15):
Andrew Wiggins or Draymond grad My guess is Miami would
want Andrew Wiggins because he would be able to immediately
help Miami at the same position Jimmy place right now,
Hey what high Smith is in that role? So Miami
would be getting an upgrade in the form of Andrew Wiggins,
who just had another great game last night against the Thunder.
So the deal would in all likelihood center around some
combination of Wiggins and Cominga plus another two salaries, probably
(27:38):
Buddy Healed and Kyle Anderson. Maybe you can convince them
to let you keep Kaminga if they like to draft
compensation enough. I would sert again every time I talk
about this with Warriors fans. I don't think you give
up Kaminga just for poops and giggles. You try to
keep Kaminga out of the deal. I'm just saying, if
that's what it takes, that's what you gotta pay. You'd
get back something like Jimmy Butler and Josh Richardson something
along those lines, and the Heat obviously get plenty of
(28:01):
talent that can help right away with their goals. And
apparently I was reading a Mark Stein piece yesterday that
said that Miami really needs to make the playoffs this
year in terms of future draft compensation that they owe
to other teams. So if you were to make that deal,
this is what you'd be left with. In this case,
we'll call it Buddy Heald and Kyle Anderson plus Kaminga
just for the sake of the worst case scenario. Obviously,
if you get to keep Kaminga and you get to
(28:22):
include a different player, that's ideal. But in that case,
you'd be left with Steph Jimmy and Draymond Dennis and
tray Jackson Davis probably your starting five right off the bench.
You still have Kavon Looney, you still have Moses Moodie,
you still have Gary Payton. Second, you still have the
gem Ski, you still have Lindy Waters, Gee Santo's, Quinton
Post and Pat Spencer. Again, this is the advantage of
having the depth of role player talent that they have,
(28:44):
and Josh Richardson would be in that mix too. You
just have so many damn good players that you can
afford to lose a few in order to bring back
a primary shot creator. You get a star to anchor
units with Steph off the floor, you get an offensive
star to run two man game with Steph that teams
will not want to swim, so you can get teams
into rotation consistently. And most importantly, on this team that
(29:05):
has an enormous amount of role player depth but a
complete lack of top end talent, you turn some of
that role player depth into star talent to better balance
out your roster. I also don't think Golden State would
have to include much in the way of draft compensation
to make it work, especially if Kamingo was in the deal.
I would actually be trying to include draft compensation at
the expense of keeping Kaminga out of the deal, just
(29:27):
for the talent. Now, again, the biggest challenges for the
Warriors to make this work will be matching salary. The
Heat apparently do not want to take back any contract
that lasts past next season. Andrew Wiggins has a player option,
but I have a feeling he might be willing to
opt out and resign somewhere else or maybe even with
the Heat. At that point. Kyle Anderson's last year is
non guaranteed, so You're good there, Buddy. Heeld is the
(29:49):
tough one Buddy held has. But I think it's possible
that I read something that his deal might not be
guaranteed after last year either, so that might work. But
I would just do everything I can to not include
Gary Payton second, because I think he's an excellent rotation
piece in the playoffs. And then I would try like
hell to leave Kaminga out of it. But again it's
a long shot, but I actually think it pieces together
(30:11):
kind of nicely for the Warriors if they could pull
it off. Number one, though by far from me, is
my favorite destination for Jimmy Butler, is still the Phoenix Suns. Now,
there's a huge roadblock in this deal. You got to
get a team that is willing to take on Bradley
Beal and that Bradley Beal is willing to waive his
no trade clause for now. That makes things tough, which
is why other teams like Milwaukee, like Golden State are
(30:32):
in the mix right now. But I think this is
the team that Jimmy can help the most. By far.
Jimmy is everything that the Sons don't have. He can
legit pressure the rim on offense, as both a bullyball
player and as just an overall matchup attacker. But in
a way that's more impactful because he's also excellent at
passing out of those situations, and the Sons can provide
(30:54):
him with real spacing thanks to what Kevin Durant and
Devin Booker do. He's a star that can play on
both the floor in a way that Bradley Beale can't,
but that Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can. He can
meet them at that level, and then he fundamentally alters
their physical profile. As currently constructed, the Suns are too thin.
They can be pushed around. But if you get a
(31:15):
frontline that has Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, Nick Richards, it's
just more physically imposing in terms of length, athleticism, and
size and strength. I also think it can help them
with their ball pressure issues. Part of the reason why
Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can struggle with ball pressure
from time to time is they're a little thin. They
can struggle under physicality. Jimmy Butler thrives under physicality. Now
(31:36):
they're going to have to find another team to help
facilitate that. But that's a type of deal that I
think could really really help the Sons get to another
level that they can't reach at this point under their
current roster restrictions. All right, guys, it's all I have
for today. Like I said, be back tomorrow with the
mailbag and a bunch of the game reactions that I
wasn't able to get to today. As always, sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll
(31:57):
see you guys then the volume. What's up guys? As always,
I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
It would actually be really helpful for us if you
guys would take a second and leave a rating and
a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
but if you could take a minute to do that,
I'd really appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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