July 19, 2025 • 31 mins
Jason answers mailbag questions from listeners of the show including one on why the Los Angeles Clippers are making a commitment to winning behind an older core of James Harden and Kawhi Leonard while the Los Angeles Lakers are standing pat around LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Then he discusses the media's view of Kobe Bryant being different than player’s views, whether the Oklahoma City Thunder will get contributions from young players, whether the Minnesota Timberwolves can be better than last year, and whether Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs can have a better trio than OKC.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume heavy Friday everybody. Hope all of you guys
are having a great end of your week. It's mail
bag Dave a bunch of good questions from you guys. Again,
(00:22):
I'm grabbing these questions from the YouTube comments. So if
you want to get questions into our mail bag, go
to our full episodes. Put mail bag with the colon,
write your question and we will get to them once
a week throughout the remainder of the year. You guys
know the drill before we started subscribing to Hoops to
and o my YouTube channel. You don't miss any more
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You guys don't miss youw announcements. Don't forget about ourocast
feed whever your podcast on Hoops Tonight. It's also super
(00:44):
helpful for you leave a rating in a review on
that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you
guys follow us over there. And then the last but
not least, keep dropping those mail bag questions like I mentioned,
and we'll get to them. In our mail bags throughout
the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So I have to start with a fake question. I
shouldn't say it's fake question, and it actually be in
from a tweet that I saw last night. Why do
(01:07):
the Clippers feel comfortable making substantial efforts to capitalize on
the end of the Kawhi James Harden era then the
Lakers ever did with Lebron and Anthony Davis, and now
again with Luka Dancic. I find this conversation to be
very interesting. So the Clippers have doubled down on Kawhi
(01:28):
and James Harden this summer. Right, They gave James Harden
a new deal. They traded Norman Powell for John Collins
to improve their front core depth, and replaced Norman Powell
with Bradley Beale in upgrade at the position. They signed
an older veteran center in Brook Lopez to improve their
depth and matchup versatility. They have improved dramatically. The Lakers
(01:49):
got a castaway and DeAndre and who obviously isn't improved.
And I don't want to undercut that, but he's super
high risk. That's a big part of why he was
available at the number that the Lakers were able to
get him at right. Most importantly, they let Dorian Finney
Smith walk. He was a player that was so valuable
to the Lakers last year that they were seventeen points
per one hundred possessions better when he was on the
(02:10):
floor versus off. He was clearly because of his just
intelligent positional defense, his ability to knock down wide open
catch and shoot threes, and just his veteran leadership just
greased the wheels for the Lakers on both ends of
the floor. He made them better. Lakers fans were pleading
with JJ Raddick to start him at small forward almost
immediately after the trade, and yet they let him walk.
(02:36):
He was one of their most valuable role players and
they just didn't want him. They replaced him with Jake
Loravia and he's fine. I don't want to make this
about Jake Lorave. He's a fine player, but he's a
substantial downgrade. And the premise behind it all is that
the Lakers want flexibility, flexibility to sign a star in
twenty twenty seven, or flexibility to trade for a star
(02:57):
at some point in the future. In other words, words,
the Lakers were hesitant to invest in Lebron and ad
and now they're hesitant to invest in Lebron and Luca,
and they keep an eye on the future in both cases.
And again, even with the Lebron piece, I want to
be like, Okay, you're looking for the next player that's
going to play alongside Luca. Lebron is an all NBA
(03:18):
level talent. It's very possible that you don't get an
all NBA level talent the entire time that you have
Luka Doncic there. They're not just growing on trees. There's
fifteen of them in the entire league. That is. This
piece with Lebron here next to Luca might very well
be the best roster that you're ever able to put
(03:40):
together alongside Luka Doncic, and yet their eye is on
the future, while the Clippers seem more focused on getting
the most out of this group, on capitalizing on this era.
It's particularly interesting to me because both teams are second
pier teams. Neither of these teams are on the level
of the top teams in the league. They're just kind
of that next level down. A move could potentially move
(04:03):
them into that range, right, and both teams have an
obvious retirement drop off coming, whether it's James Harden's potential
downfall over the next couple of years, Kawhi Leonard's knee trouble,
or Lebron being forty one years old at the end
of next season. Right, they both are in very similar positions.
There's reasoning for both teams to go in either direction.
(04:25):
So why are they going in different directions? I think
the answer to this is simple. The Clippers trust their
basketball philosophy. They know they'll be able to pivot when
the time comes without too much of an issue. They
just did it. They let Paul George walk, which ended
up being perfect timing, as his knees have just failed
(04:47):
him since he went to Philly. And they signed Derek
Jones Junior and Chris Dunn for about fifteen million a year,
thirty five million less than Paul George, and they got better.
Why did they get better because of that lack of redundancy? Because,
like we talked about in yesterday's pod, a role player
(05:07):
that fills a specific team need can be more valuable
to winning basketball games than a star talent, a concept
that has eluded the Lakers ever since Jerry Buss left
the team or passed away. I should say, what is
that strong basketball philosophy? The Clippers know what works in
(05:27):
the modern NBA, and they know they'll always be able
to find the next player that they need to fill
a role. That philosophy is everything that we've discussed at
length over the previous couple of years. The value of
advantage creation. When you have a player like James Harden
that can set up players with an advantage, meaning a
defenders sprinting at them from an opening rather than having
(05:49):
to play against a loaded up defense. If you do that,
every single one of those role players will overachieve based
on those advantages. James Harden is one of the highest
floor offensive players in the NBA. The value of jump shooting.
The Clippers have consistently been one of the best jump
shooting teams in the league, year after year after year.
(06:09):
The value of a strong defensive foundation in the form
of a versatial center. They saw the value in Zubots
that the Lakers did not see in his ability to defensive, rebound,
protect the rim, defend even in switches. He's a better
switch defender than he ever gets credit for. He has
given them the strong defensive foundation. The value of perimeter
(06:30):
defense and overall team speed. This was the beauty of
getting Derek Jones Jr. And Chris Dunn players that were available.
Derek Jones Jr. Just had a playoff run with Luka
Daancis where he made the finals in was immensely important
as the primary point of attack defender did a wonderful
job on Anthony Edwards, but all the other teams looked
at it and they went, oh, he's just benefiting from Luca.
(06:52):
The Clippers saw this is one of the most important
traits that an NBA player can have, the ability to
guard the opposing best player and to be able to
run up and down the floign transition. Chris Don as
well a fact similar of that, at five million dollars
a year. They saw the value there, the value of
coaching the Lakers let Tyleru walk. The Clippers saw value
(07:15):
in tylu For the Lakers. They were like, oh, Lebron
won the title, Yeah he did, but Tyleru was one
of the best coaches in the league. The Lakers didn't
see that. The Clippers did. The value of schematic approach
on both ends of the floor. Look at what Darvin
Ham failed to do with the Lakers. This has been
apparent to me for a while, and it's why I
(07:36):
was so high on the Clippers going into last season.
I know people like to roast the Clippers and their failures,
but we all know what that was. I'm not sitting
here and pretending like the bubble wasn't a disaster. The
bubble was a disaster. But every other year they've been there,
it's Kawi's looked great, They've looked like a team with
a real chance to go, and then his knee just
(07:57):
breaks down. Why I stays healthy, they most likely win
the title in twenty twenty one. This is a team
that has been there, They've just had really poor luck
with their injuries. Right, the Lakers have no basketball ideology
beyond how do we get the next star. It's why
they wanted Kawhi first before pivoting to a championship corp
(08:19):
of role players. It's why they traded for Russell Westbrook.
It's why they wouldn't trade picks for Lebron and ad
when they were trying to win, at least not all
of them. Right, It's why they wouldn't retain Dorian Finney Smith.
A couple of weeks ago, It's why they won't trade
their first round pick this summer to upgrade a starting
two or a starting three, because it's just not flashy
(08:42):
enough to bring in a role player quality to guard.
It's not press conference worthy. They want cap space and
draft picks so that maybe, just maybe they can get
Giannis and Tenna Kumbo or Nikola Jokic. Look at the
Jaclavia signing, for example, and again I like Jake Lerevia.
(09:04):
I think he's a fine player. This is not about
him in a vacuum. What is the one thing that
this Lakers roster has been sorely missing for years? Athleticism,
especially on the perimeter speed, team speed. Jacularevia doesn't materially
(09:24):
move the needl on that at all. They've needed athleticism
for years, and they've made quite literally no attempt to
address that need. I had Lakers fans tell me this morning, Well,
the Lakers have a title in the Lebron era and
the Clippers literally have zero titles in franchise history. You're right,
(09:46):
Lebron James chose the Lakers because he wanted to live
in Los Angeles, and he used his friendship with Anthony
Davis and his agency to bring Ad over and they
won a championship. But then Rob Polinka O almost immediately
blew up that core in a way that literally everybody
knew was dumb in the moment. You'll be hard pressed
(10:08):
to find a Lakers fan that was like, oh, this
is smart KCP and Kyle Kuzma for Russell Westbrook and
will let Alex Crusoe walk in the ensuing salary crunch.
Everyone knew it was a bad idea. They blew it
up right away, and if you zoom out, for over
a decade from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty five, the
Lakers have mostly been a massively underachieving mess relative to
(10:33):
the talent when they had Lebron and AD and obviously
the inability to put together a competent basketball team around that.
While the Clippers have consistently been in the upper echelons
of the NBA, they've even pivoted multiple times in that span.
Do you guys remember that feisty playoff team I think
it was twenty nineteen, the team with Patrick Beverly and
(10:53):
Low Williams, That team that like straight up was causing
some problems for the Golden State Warriors. They they were
feisty even before Kawhi and Paul George joined the team.
The Lakers in their star driven approach it works really well.
It worked really well in the Jerry Buss era. And yeah,
you still need a top tier star to win the title.
(11:15):
I'm not trying to undercut that. But after you have
that top star, the rest of the job comes entirely
down to quality team building and understanding what works. In
the modern MBA. We've seen so many examples of over
indexing on stars not work, the latest being this Kevin Durant,
Devin Booker, Bradley beil Sun's team, it doesn't work. Let's
(11:40):
say things go south with the Nuggets and the Lakers
getting Nikola Jokic. You don't think Nikola Jokic and Luka
Doncic have some redundancies. They're two of the best advantage
creators in the league. There's a redundancy there. It would
have diminishing returns. In my opinion, the Lakers will not
experience sustain success in the NBA until they learn this lesson.
(12:06):
End of story. And I just think it's really fascinating,
Like the Clippers are just like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna
go for it. With this, and then you know, when
when kawhis done and James Harden's done, we'll just do
it again because we know what works. We know how
to win in the NBA, so we'll just do it
again from scratch or you know, half pivot, whatever it
is that they end up doing at that point in time,
(12:27):
and they'll be fine. They've had sustain success because they
understand how to win basketball games. And it's not what
you can say in a press conference about who you obtained,
but rather what you can accomplish on the basketball court.
Perimeter defense and speed, a strong defensive foundation in the
form of rim protection and defensive rebounding, and the ability
to switch the value of jump shooting at every position.
(12:49):
Like they just get it organizationally and the Lakers don't.
And until that changes again, there will not be sustained
success from the Lakers. All right, Let's go to our
next question. Are real questions, I should say, why is
the media's view of Kobe and where he ranks as
a player all time so far off from where players
(13:11):
passed and current view him. Bleacher Report had him at
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see DKNG dot co, slash audio. I did a deep
dive into this concept in yesterday's show, so you guys
can go find that over there. But the short version
is everyone just looks at the efficiency. Kobe never had
(14:56):
a season over fifty one percent in effective field goal percentage,
and it just breaks people brains. But if you do
any research, every perimeter star who was a jump shooter
in that era was actually less efficient than Kobe. And
it just was a sign of the times, so to speak.
And I think just people they look at Devin Booker,
and they look at you know, James Harden and some
of these other two guards that put up crazy efficiency
(15:17):
numbers which were a product of spread, pick and roll
in great spacing and all these modern offensive concepts that
make all this work. And they just they sit there
and look at, you know, Kobe's basketball reference page, and
they can't piece together why it looks the way that
it looks. Again, Kobe's most efficient scoring season was the
last season of his career before he tore his achilles,
because it was the year that was closest to the
(15:38):
modern game and what we understand about basketball now. But again,
I did a deep dive into that into yesterday's show,
So head back over to our feed and look back,
and you will see I went in depth into that
concept with a bunch of numbers. I explained statistically some
of the other some of Kobe's peers and how they performed.
You guys can find that over there. Which of the
Thunder Summer League players do you think will make sidera
(16:00):
considerable impact on the team this year or next year?
I think Topitch, aj Mitchell, Brooks, Barnheiser could all get
some decent playing time. Nikoletopitch is the guy that I'm
looking at. And again, it's going to be a similar
kind of problem to what happened with Josh Gitty. A
big part of it is going to be can Topich
hit wide open, catch and shoot threes? And again, like
there's been stretches where that's been the case, in stretches
where that's not and we'll see. But overall, ball handling
(16:22):
was the biggest weakness that I think was demonstrated. There
were other weaknesses overall offensive process and some of the
spot up shooting stuff, but I thought the Pacers in
particular exposed a ball handling deficit for Indiana just them
succumbing and fatiguing under some of the ball pressure that
they just pose to them throughout the entire series. And
so the cool topic is getting another reliable ball handler
(16:43):
that can run action and set guys up with advantages.
That's the kind of thing that we'll be able to
loosen things up for Oklahoma City. On the offensive end
of the floor, can you do a deep dive into
the Timberwolves They're ceiling and floor and what you think
good moves will be for their future. So you know,
obviously Nikaile Alexander Walker on paper, losing him affects the
talent level on the roster the depth on the roster,
(17:05):
and I want to undercut that. I would argue it's
a little more complicated because they did bring in Dante
DiVincenzo last year, so it's not like they don't have
options at that two guard spot. But to me, everything
just continues to fall on Anthony Edwards. I really like
the roster. You talk about ceiling and floor. The floor
is super high because they are just this big, physical
defense full of a bunch of ass kickers that causes
(17:27):
real problems in physical playoff basketball, and that's why they've
made the conference finals two years in a row. I
love the front court thing. I like the versatility. I'm
not a big go bear guy, but like, especially in
the regular season, it helps to have like a shooting
center that you can use in nasried while also having
like a rim protecting center. The center, they can give
you a high defensive floor in the regular season. I
love their overall defensive foundation. They have better jump shooting
(17:49):
than I think people give them credit for. That was
the big kind of like takeaway from the beginning of
last season, or was like, okay, Ken Jaden McDaniels and
Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert is a front court, provide
enough spacing and like Julias, shot the ball pretty well.
Jada mcdanield showed some real scoring chops, especially in the
Lakers series. They're a little bit more resilient offensively than
(18:10):
I expected them to be. But to me, the ceiling
still just comes down to Anthony Edwards. When they got
into that series shake Gildos. Alexander was able to turn
his back to the basket or generally work off the
bounce in that thirteen to seventeen foot range and get
reliable baskets that allowed him to score at volume in
that series in a way that Anthony Edwards was not
(18:33):
Anthony Edwards because of the ball pressure from Oklahoma City
and their improtection. He was chased off the line, didn't
shoot well enough on pull up threes anyway, and did
not have that refined mid range short range scoring that
made Shay such a reliable scorer there. That to me
is the ceiling. The ceiling for Minnesota is Ant's development.
If Ant can close the gap between where Shay is
(18:56):
and where he needs to be. If he can close
that gap, that is what will allow the Timberwolves to
get over the hump Hey, Jason loved the show. As
a casual NBA fan that never played any high school
basketball or high level basketball. Your breakdowns have really expanded
my knowledge and my joy for watching the game. So
thank you, thank you so much for the kind words.
You talk a lot about shot result and the impact
(19:17):
of being in rhythm as someone who played at a
high level. Would you please elaborate as to what that
actually means and why that has such a big impact
on shot results? Is it just confidence when you don't
shoot for long stretches in games as your shooting form
not as precise. Also, how can a team of five
players be in rhythm versus one guy just catching fire?
Keep up the great work and welcome to Denver. Thank you.
(19:38):
I'm very very excited to be here. So this is
a very very complicated concept, right, the concept of rhythm,
and I don't want to synthesize it down to any
one thing. There's a bunch of different elements to it.
I do think there's a physiological element to it in
the sense that I mean, you guys don't know what
it's like if I handed you a basketball and I
was like, okay, take a twenty seven foot three right now,
(20:01):
or not even that. I was just say an NBA
three above the break three, a twenty three foot ter
off of the wing. If I asked you to take
that shot and you didn't touch a basketball at all
today and you just went up there and shot it,
you have a very small percentage chance of making it
because your elbow is just not warm, right Like, the
muscle and the tendon and everything. It's just not loose,
it's not warm right now. In a game, I think
(20:23):
that happens to a much lesser extent, right, Like, if
you go twenty five minutes of real time without doing
the jump shot motion and then suddenly you need to
take a shot. Your muscle in your tendons, it's not
like in that, so to speak, physiological rhythm to be
able to knock a shot down, right Whereas like you
(20:43):
get three four shots over the course of a couple
of minutes, on that third or fourth shot, you're gonna
feel a lot more comfortable physiologically in your elbow. But
there's also a bunch of other elements to it that
involve rhythm on the team level, right, like is overall
the team operating with a lot of confidence shooting is
tages tends to be. You know, like when the team
is shooting well, more and more guys tend to shoot
(21:04):
well because there's just a vibe around the team where
you feel in rhythm, everyone's having fun, everyone's in that flow.
It can manifest in making shots, right. I also think
there's a defensive element to rhythm, Like there's a big
difference between on there and I have a hand up
versus I made you uncomfortable. Maybe I swipe it the
ball down low. Maybe I bring a level of intensity
(21:24):
to the closeout that affects the player mentally to where
he's just not as like confident or comfortable in that shot.
There's the work before the shot, like am I physically
wearing you down? And all the other elements of the
game so that when you like, let's say it's a
super physical playoff game and you have a wide open
wing three, maybe your legs are more beatn so you
(21:46):
don't get as much lift into the shot. And when
there's not as much lift into the shot, it throws
the whole calibration of your energy transfer off. Right Now,
all of a sudden, you have to compensate with more
power in your follow through well, now you're shooting a
different shot than the shot you shoot when you're practicing, right, Like,
all of these things factor in to whether or not
a shot goes in. And I've always said, like, when
(22:08):
it comes to variance, there is absolutely variance, right because
even if you're playing under perfect conditions with no defense
and your arm is physiologically warmed up and ready to go,
you're still gonna make some and miss some, right, So,
Like I'm not sitting here and pretending like variance doesn't exist.
It's just when I'm evaluating what's happening in a game,
(22:29):
I'm gonna put variants further down the list behind, Like
is this player getting touches? And is he involved in
the offense? What did the closeout look? Like? How physical
of a game is this overall? Just like pressure like
mental pressure on the shot, right, Like there's I'm gonna
be looking at stuff like that more than I'm gonna
(22:49):
be looking at just like, all right, we rolled the dice,
let's see what happens. If that makes sense, But it's
hard to explain, Like I am yet to find a
basketball player, like an actual person who played basketball at
a high level. I am yet to find a basketball
player who looks me in the face and goes, it's
just variance. I just I don't see. I've never met
that person, so like like it's usually an analytics professional
(23:14):
or you know, just a person who's who hasn't been
close to the game who's telling me that, Like variance
is the thing that's dictating everything in basketball. It certainly
plays a role, but it to me is further down
the list than some of the controllables inside of offensive
and defensive process. Would it be smarter for Damian Lillard
(23:34):
to wait and sign with another team until after next season?
He's getting paid twenty two million anyway, would he be
losing out on more money? Is there a chance or
is there an incentive to join a team now? So
I think you can this can be played out in
a bunch of different directions. One like, I think it'd
be good for Damian Lillard to be around a team right,
to be still in the NBA process, to be to
(23:55):
have access to the to the facilities and to the
training staff and all those different things. I also think
there's benefit in terms of chemistry to being around a team,
But there's also obviously a financial benefit in the form
of him signing, you know, a veteran minimum contract to
be on a team. Right. My thing is the reason
why I think it's worth exploring is like, let's say
(24:16):
it doesn't work out. Let's say he signs a one
year minimum contract and he does spend time around the team,
and he does build some chemistry, but then all of
a sudden, you get to next summer and the contract
expires and he's like, well, you know, I I think
I'd rather go play over there. Okay, then he can
go play over there. Or you know, let's say you're
a team. Let's say you're a team that has some
cap space or has the mid level exception still available
(24:39):
to you. You can pay Dame the one plus one
that most midlevel exceptions usually manifest ads. So let's say
a two year deal with player option. You pick him
up and like, maybe maybe you can get it. Maybe
you can incentivize him, like instead of meeting him at
the minimum contract, pay him closer to the mid level
exception and take out the player option and be like,
(25:00):
we will pay you for this year under the condition
that you play for us next year. Right, Like, there's
a bunch of different ways that'll work out, and It
all depends. It all depends on which teams are interested.
It all depends, like maybe Damian Lizard's like, I'd rather
take a sabbatical, and you know, I'd instead like, Okay, cool,
You're offering me ten million for each year for the
next two years to play, but I have a lot
of money and I'd rather just hang out with my
(25:21):
family and be home and rehab without having to travel.
And or maybe I do want to travel, but for
cushy vacation spots instead of traveling with an NBA team. Like,
all of those different factors have to come together, like
how much does Dame want to stay home and relax
while he's rehabbing, or does Dame want to be close
to a team? You know, is a team willing to
pay a veteran minimum just for Dame to rehab with
(25:43):
the team? Or do they want to put together a
two year deal to try to tie him up when
he's actually playing basketball again. All those factors will come
together to dictate what his playing situation looks like, Hey,
Jason Love the studio looking into the future for the
Lakers post Lebron, how would you build the roster around
Luca to maximize the window of his prime. Would you
(26:04):
surround Luca plus Reeves with two way athletes similar to
Dallas a couple of years ago, or would you try
to get another All Star caliber player interested to hear
your thoughts, Thanks again for the great content. So specifically
Luca and Reeves is tricky because Austin's not a great athlete.
But then again, like you could say that Kyrie Irving
and Jalen Brunson were averaged to blow average athletes as well.
(26:26):
So I don't want to sit there and discount it entirely,
but I do think that the Dallas experiment from two
years ago is the method that I think all teams
need to consider. Rim Protecting vertical spacers, so centers that
can be strong defensive foundations, but they can also roll
hard to the rim and catch and finish lobs. Specifically,
Derek Lively, in his ability to switch on defense, also
(26:47):
gave them a layer of versatility there as well. Surrounding
him with defensive players that can play with an advantage,
guys like PJ. Washington and Derek Jones Junior. They could
hit wide open threes at a reasonable enough clip. It
ended up being a problem in the Celtics series. But again,
that Celtics team had one of the most dynamic rosters
in recent NBA history. They had the ability to put
Jason Tatum on a center and things like that. We
(27:09):
may not see teams like that that they run into
in the future. Right to me, with the Lakers, I
would be less focused on finding the next superstar to
play alongside Luca and I'd be looking for really high
level two way athletes, upgrades at the two upgrades at
the three guys that are big, strong athletes that can
guard multiple positions, that can hit an open three and
(27:30):
drive a close out, and then at the center position.
I mean, I don't like as far as the DeAndre
Ayton thing goes. I think he's a great option for
this year because he's in a contract year. He has
no choice but to behave and to give his best
in order to get his next contract. But let's say
that that happens and he signs a you know, let's
say a four year, one hundred million dollar deal or
something along those lines. All of a sudden, I look
at DeAndre and then I go, I'm not sure i'd
(27:50):
want to be in the DeAndre Eaton business. When he's
got one hundred million dollars coming his way no matter
what over the next four seasons. That could be when
he spirals back down into some of the unper pfessionalism
issues that he had in Portland. Right, So, like I
do love the eight and fit, but in the long run,
if you could have a big athletic center that could
defend and drop and and switches and roll to the
rim with the real vertical spacing threat, I think the
(28:13):
Dallas mold Is is the way to go to take
it a step further. Like Luca, to me uniquely is
less dependent on star supporting talent because he's just this magnificent,
high volume advantage creator. I think Steph Curry kind of
falls into a similar role, and he demonstrated that clearly
(28:35):
in twenty twenty two. Right when you have such a
gifted advantage creator that even like lesser offensive players are
thriving offensively, like PJ. Washington did in the playoffs two
years ago, like Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins did in
twenty twenty two, When you have that type of talent,
that type of world beating offensive talent, I think it
(28:56):
becomes more about like star role players, really really really
gifted role that can fill gaps and raise your floor defensively,
and all these other things defensively are in terms of
your floor so high that Luca's greatness can carry you
over the top. There are other stars that that changes
and it becomes different and you need more substantial surround
(29:16):
like Yannis for instance. Yannis is the kind of guy that,
like probably needs a really high level perimeter player next
to him in order to reach his absolute peak as
a superstar. There are gonna be those types of players
out there, but to me, a guy like Luca, it's
less about finding the star next to him and just
giving him really really high level role players. I think
(29:37):
it's proven to work like we saw two years ago,
and that's the direction I would go if I was
the Lakers. Last question, which trio do you think will
be better Victor wemin Yama, Dylan Harper and Steph Castle
or Shae Gildess, Alexander chet Holmgren and Jay dub This
is complicated because there's two completely different angles here. I
(29:57):
think Wemby's ceiling is substantially higher than SHA's, Like I
think Wemby has a chance to be far and away
the best player in the league one day. I don't
think she has any potential to be far and away
the best player in the league. So if Victor wemen
Yama reaches that point, that gives him the potential to
be a part of a more dependable core in the
long run than Shaye je Chet and Jay Dubb. But
(30:20):
Chet and j Dub are both pretty close to all
NBA level talents right now and like, and I believe
I think Chet will certainly be and Ja Dubb has
that potential within the next couple of years. Right, Dylan
Harper will see man like literally hasn't played an NBA
game before, and Steph Castle shows all sorts of upside,
but he's still super raw. Like Steph is still years
(30:41):
away from being like a truly great you know, the
type of player that say Jay Dubb is, for example.
And so it's kind of those two bits of variants, right, like,
how much better will Wemby become than Shay? And can
Dylan Harper and Steph Castle reach the level that Chet
and Jay Dubb have reached? And that will be the
determining factor at this point. I think I'd lean Shae
(31:03):
Chat and Jadub just because They're already there. Shay is
already a top tier superstar, even if he's not at
Jokic's level. Chet and JDub are already like well worth
max contracts. There's just too much variance in terms of
Dylan Hartbur and Steph Castle and the players that they
can become. But I don't want to sit there and
say that Spurs Core can't be better. They certainly can.
I just think the Thundercore is a little bit of
(31:24):
a safer bet. All right, guys, It's all I have
for today and all I have for this weekend. As always,
I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting
the show. We will be back next week. Not sure
what we're I think we're beginning our off season plan.
At that point, Jackson and I need to get together
and do some planning. But again, we will be back
next week. I'll see you guys then
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume heavy Friday everybody. Hope all of you guys
are having a great end of your week. It's mail
bag Dave a bunch of good questions from you guys. Again,
(00:22):
I'm grabbing these questions from the YouTube comments. So if
you want to get questions into our mail bag, go
to our full episodes. Put mail bag with the colon,
write your question and we will get to them once
a week throughout the remainder of the year. You guys
know the drill before we started subscribing to Hoops to
and o my YouTube channel. You don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore j asnlts.
You guys don't miss youw announcements. Don't forget about ourocast
feed whever your podcast on Hoops Tonight. It's also super
(00:44):
helpful for you leave a rating in a review on
that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you
guys follow us over there. And then the last but
not least, keep dropping those mail bag questions like I mentioned,
and we'll get to them. In our mail bags throughout
the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So I have to start with a fake question. I
shouldn't say it's fake question, and it actually be in
from a tweet that I saw last night. Why do
(01:07):
the Clippers feel comfortable making substantial efforts to capitalize on
the end of the Kawhi James Harden era then the
Lakers ever did with Lebron and Anthony Davis, and now
again with Luka Dancic. I find this conversation to be
very interesting. So the Clippers have doubled down on Kawhi
(01:28):
and James Harden this summer. Right, They gave James Harden
a new deal. They traded Norman Powell for John Collins
to improve their front core depth, and replaced Norman Powell
with Bradley Beale in upgrade at the position. They signed
an older veteran center in Brook Lopez to improve their
depth and matchup versatility. They have improved dramatically. The Lakers
(01:49):
got a castaway and DeAndre and who obviously isn't improved.
And I don't want to undercut that, but he's super
high risk. That's a big part of why he was
available at the number that the Lakers were able to
get him at right. Most importantly, they let Dorian Finney
Smith walk. He was a player that was so valuable
to the Lakers last year that they were seventeen points
per one hundred possessions better when he was on the
(02:10):
floor versus off. He was clearly because of his just
intelligent positional defense, his ability to knock down wide open
catch and shoot threes, and just his veteran leadership just
greased the wheels for the Lakers on both ends of
the floor. He made them better. Lakers fans were pleading
with JJ Raddick to start him at small forward almost
immediately after the trade, and yet they let him walk.
(02:36):
He was one of their most valuable role players and
they just didn't want him. They replaced him with Jake
Loravia and he's fine. I don't want to make this
about Jake Lorave. He's a fine player, but he's a
substantial downgrade. And the premise behind it all is that
the Lakers want flexibility, flexibility to sign a star in
twenty twenty seven, or flexibility to trade for a star
(02:57):
at some point in the future. In other words, words,
the Lakers were hesitant to invest in Lebron and ad
and now they're hesitant to invest in Lebron and Luca,
and they keep an eye on the future in both cases.
And again, even with the Lebron piece, I want to
be like, Okay, you're looking for the next player that's
going to play alongside Luca. Lebron is an all NBA
(03:18):
level talent. It's very possible that you don't get an
all NBA level talent the entire time that you have
Luka Doncic there. They're not just growing on trees. There's
fifteen of them in the entire league. That is. This
piece with Lebron here next to Luca might very well
be the best roster that you're ever able to put
(03:40):
together alongside Luka Doncic, and yet their eye is on
the future, while the Clippers seem more focused on getting
the most out of this group, on capitalizing on this era.
It's particularly interesting to me because both teams are second
pier teams. Neither of these teams are on the level
of the top teams in the league. They're just kind
of that next level down. A move could potentially move
(04:03):
them into that range, right, and both teams have an
obvious retirement drop off coming, whether it's James Harden's potential
downfall over the next couple of years, Kawhi Leonard's knee trouble,
or Lebron being forty one years old at the end
of next season. Right, they both are in very similar positions.
There's reasoning for both teams to go in either direction.
(04:25):
So why are they going in different directions? I think
the answer to this is simple. The Clippers trust their
basketball philosophy. They know they'll be able to pivot when
the time comes without too much of an issue. They
just did it. They let Paul George walk, which ended
up being perfect timing, as his knees have just failed
(04:47):
him since he went to Philly. And they signed Derek
Jones Junior and Chris Dunn for about fifteen million a year,
thirty five million less than Paul George, and they got better.
Why did they get better because of that lack of redundancy? Because,
like we talked about in yesterday's pod, a role player
(05:07):
that fills a specific team need can be more valuable
to winning basketball games than a star talent, a concept
that has eluded the Lakers ever since Jerry Buss left
the team or passed away. I should say, what is
that strong basketball philosophy? The Clippers know what works in
(05:27):
the modern NBA, and they know they'll always be able
to find the next player that they need to fill
a role. That philosophy is everything that we've discussed at
length over the previous couple of years. The value of
advantage creation. When you have a player like James Harden
that can set up players with an advantage, meaning a
defenders sprinting at them from an opening rather than having
(05:49):
to play against a loaded up defense. If you do that,
every single one of those role players will overachieve based
on those advantages. James Harden is one of the highest
floor offensive players in the NBA. The value of jump shooting.
The Clippers have consistently been one of the best jump
shooting teams in the league, year after year after year.
(06:09):
The value of a strong defensive foundation in the form
of a versatial center. They saw the value in Zubots
that the Lakers did not see in his ability to defensive, rebound,
protect the rim, defend even in switches. He's a better
switch defender than he ever gets credit for. He has
given them the strong defensive foundation. The value of perimeter
(06:30):
defense and overall team speed. This was the beauty of
getting Derek Jones Jr. And Chris Dunn players that were available.
Derek Jones Jr. Just had a playoff run with Luka
Daancis where he made the finals in was immensely important
as the primary point of attack defender did a wonderful
job on Anthony Edwards, but all the other teams looked
at it and they went, oh, he's just benefiting from Luca.
(06:52):
The Clippers saw this is one of the most important
traits that an NBA player can have, the ability to
guard the opposing best player and to be able to
run up and down the floign transition. Chris Don as
well a fact similar of that, at five million dollars
a year. They saw the value there, the value of
coaching the Lakers let Tyleru walk. The Clippers saw value
(07:15):
in tylu For the Lakers. They were like, oh, Lebron
won the title, Yeah he did, but Tyleru was one
of the best coaches in the league. The Lakers didn't
see that. The Clippers did. The value of schematic approach
on both ends of the floor. Look at what Darvin
Ham failed to do with the Lakers. This has been
apparent to me for a while, and it's why I
(07:36):
was so high on the Clippers going into last season.
I know people like to roast the Clippers and their failures,
but we all know what that was. I'm not sitting
here and pretending like the bubble wasn't a disaster. The
bubble was a disaster. But every other year they've been there,
it's Kawi's looked great, They've looked like a team with
a real chance to go, and then his knee just
(07:57):
breaks down. Why I stays healthy, they most likely win
the title in twenty twenty one. This is a team
that has been there, They've just had really poor luck
with their injuries. Right, the Lakers have no basketball ideology
beyond how do we get the next star. It's why
they wanted Kawhi first before pivoting to a championship corp
(08:19):
of role players. It's why they traded for Russell Westbrook.
It's why they wouldn't trade picks for Lebron and ad
when they were trying to win, at least not all
of them. Right, It's why they wouldn't retain Dorian Finney Smith.
A couple of weeks ago, It's why they won't trade
their first round pick this summer to upgrade a starting
two or a starting three, because it's just not flashy
(08:42):
enough to bring in a role player quality to guard.
It's not press conference worthy. They want cap space and
draft picks so that maybe, just maybe they can get
Giannis and Tenna Kumbo or Nikola Jokic. Look at the
Jaclavia signing, for example, and again I like Jake Lerevia.
(09:04):
I think he's a fine player. This is not about
him in a vacuum. What is the one thing that
this Lakers roster has been sorely missing for years? Athleticism,
especially on the perimeter speed, team speed. Jacularevia doesn't materially
(09:24):
move the needl on that at all. They've needed athleticism
for years, and they've made quite literally no attempt to
address that need. I had Lakers fans tell me this morning, Well,
the Lakers have a title in the Lebron era and
the Clippers literally have zero titles in franchise history. You're right,
(09:46):
Lebron James chose the Lakers because he wanted to live
in Los Angeles, and he used his friendship with Anthony
Davis and his agency to bring Ad over and they
won a championship. But then Rob Polinka O almost immediately
blew up that core in a way that literally everybody
knew was dumb in the moment. You'll be hard pressed
(10:08):
to find a Lakers fan that was like, oh, this
is smart KCP and Kyle Kuzma for Russell Westbrook and
will let Alex Crusoe walk in the ensuing salary crunch.
Everyone knew it was a bad idea. They blew it
up right away, and if you zoom out, for over
a decade from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty five, the
Lakers have mostly been a massively underachieving mess relative to
(10:33):
the talent when they had Lebron and AD and obviously
the inability to put together a competent basketball team around that.
While the Clippers have consistently been in the upper echelons
of the NBA, they've even pivoted multiple times in that span.
Do you guys remember that feisty playoff team I think
it was twenty nineteen, the team with Patrick Beverly and
(10:53):
Low Williams, That team that like straight up was causing
some problems for the Golden State Warriors. They they were
feisty even before Kawhi and Paul George joined the team.
The Lakers in their star driven approach it works really well.
It worked really well in the Jerry Buss era. And yeah,
you still need a top tier star to win the title.
(11:15):
I'm not trying to undercut that. But after you have
that top star, the rest of the job comes entirely
down to quality team building and understanding what works. In
the modern MBA. We've seen so many examples of over
indexing on stars not work, the latest being this Kevin Durant,
Devin Booker, Bradley beil Sun's team, it doesn't work. Let's
(11:40):
say things go south with the Nuggets and the Lakers
getting Nikola Jokic. You don't think Nikola Jokic and Luka
Doncic have some redundancies. They're two of the best advantage
creators in the league. There's a redundancy there. It would
have diminishing returns. In my opinion, the Lakers will not
experience sustain success in the NBA until they learn this lesson.
(12:06):
End of story. And I just think it's really fascinating,
Like the Clippers are just like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna
go for it. With this, and then you know, when
when kawhis done and James Harden's done, we'll just do
it again because we know what works. We know how
to win in the NBA, so we'll just do it
again from scratch or you know, half pivot, whatever it
is that they end up doing at that point in time,
(12:27):
and they'll be fine. They've had sustain success because they
understand how to win basketball games. And it's not what
you can say in a press conference about who you obtained,
but rather what you can accomplish on the basketball court.
Perimeter defense and speed, a strong defensive foundation in the
form of rim protection and defensive rebounding, and the ability
to switch the value of jump shooting at every position.
(12:49):
Like they just get it organizationally and the Lakers don't.
And until that changes again, there will not be sustained
success from the Lakers. All right, Let's go to our
next question. Are real questions, I should say, why is
the media's view of Kobe and where he ranks as
a player all time so far off from where players
(13:11):
passed and current view him. Bleacher Report had him at
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see DKNG dot co, slash audio. I did a deep
dive into this concept in yesterday's show, so you guys
can go find that over there. But the short version
is everyone just looks at the efficiency. Kobe never had
(14:56):
a season over fifty one percent in effective field goal percentage,
and it just breaks people brains. But if you do
any research, every perimeter star who was a jump shooter
in that era was actually less efficient than Kobe. And
it just was a sign of the times, so to speak.
And I think just people they look at Devin Booker,
and they look at you know, James Harden and some
of these other two guards that put up crazy efficiency
(15:17):
numbers which were a product of spread, pick and roll
in great spacing and all these modern offensive concepts that
make all this work. And they just they sit there
and look at, you know, Kobe's basketball reference page, and
they can't piece together why it looks the way that
it looks. Again, Kobe's most efficient scoring season was the
last season of his career before he tore his achilles,
because it was the year that was closest to the
(15:38):
modern game and what we understand about basketball now. But again,
I did a deep dive into that into yesterday's show,
So head back over to our feed and look back,
and you will see I went in depth into that
concept with a bunch of numbers. I explained statistically some
of the other some of Kobe's peers and how they performed.
You guys can find that over there. Which of the
Thunder Summer League players do you think will make sidera
(16:00):
considerable impact on the team this year or next year?
I think Topitch, aj Mitchell, Brooks, Barnheiser could all get
some decent playing time. Nikoletopitch is the guy that I'm
looking at. And again, it's going to be a similar
kind of problem to what happened with Josh Gitty. A
big part of it is going to be can Topich
hit wide open, catch and shoot threes? And again, like
there's been stretches where that's been the case, in stretches
where that's not and we'll see. But overall, ball handling
(16:22):
was the biggest weakness that I think was demonstrated. There
were other weaknesses overall offensive process and some of the
spot up shooting stuff, but I thought the Pacers in
particular exposed a ball handling deficit for Indiana just them
succumbing and fatiguing under some of the ball pressure that
they just pose to them throughout the entire series. And
so the cool topic is getting another reliable ball handler
(16:43):
that can run action and set guys up with advantages.
That's the kind of thing that we'll be able to
loosen things up for Oklahoma City. On the offensive end
of the floor, can you do a deep dive into
the Timberwolves They're ceiling and floor and what you think
good moves will be for their future. So you know,
obviously Nikaile Alexander Walker on paper, losing him affects the
talent level on the roster the depth on the roster,
(17:05):
and I want to undercut that. I would argue it's
a little more complicated because they did bring in Dante
DiVincenzo last year, so it's not like they don't have
options at that two guard spot. But to me, everything
just continues to fall on Anthony Edwards. I really like
the roster. You talk about ceiling and floor. The floor
is super high because they are just this big, physical
defense full of a bunch of ass kickers that causes
(17:27):
real problems in physical playoff basketball, and that's why they've
made the conference finals two years in a row. I
love the front court thing. I like the versatility. I'm
not a big go bear guy, but like, especially in
the regular season, it helps to have like a shooting
center that you can use in nasried while also having
like a rim protecting center. The center, they can give
you a high defensive floor in the regular season. I
love their overall defensive foundation. They have better jump shooting
(17:49):
than I think people give them credit for. That was
the big kind of like takeaway from the beginning of
last season, or was like, okay, Ken Jaden McDaniels and
Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert is a front court, provide
enough spacing and like Julias, shot the ball pretty well.
Jada mcdanield showed some real scoring chops, especially in the
Lakers series. They're a little bit more resilient offensively than
(18:10):
I expected them to be. But to me, the ceiling
still just comes down to Anthony Edwards. When they got
into that series shake Gildos. Alexander was able to turn
his back to the basket or generally work off the
bounce in that thirteen to seventeen foot range and get
reliable baskets that allowed him to score at volume in
that series in a way that Anthony Edwards was not
(18:33):
Anthony Edwards because of the ball pressure from Oklahoma City
and their improtection. He was chased off the line, didn't
shoot well enough on pull up threes anyway, and did
not have that refined mid range short range scoring that
made Shay such a reliable scorer there. That to me
is the ceiling. The ceiling for Minnesota is Ant's development.
If Ant can close the gap between where Shay is
(18:56):
and where he needs to be. If he can close
that gap, that is what will allow the Timberwolves to
get over the hump Hey, Jason loved the show. As
a casual NBA fan that never played any high school
basketball or high level basketball. Your breakdowns have really expanded
my knowledge and my joy for watching the game. So
thank you, thank you so much for the kind words.
You talk a lot about shot result and the impact
(19:17):
of being in rhythm as someone who played at a
high level. Would you please elaborate as to what that
actually means and why that has such a big impact
on shot results? Is it just confidence when you don't
shoot for long stretches in games as your shooting form
not as precise. Also, how can a team of five
players be in rhythm versus one guy just catching fire?
Keep up the great work and welcome to Denver. Thank you.
(19:38):
I'm very very excited to be here. So this is
a very very complicated concept, right, the concept of rhythm,
and I don't want to synthesize it down to any
one thing. There's a bunch of different elements to it.
I do think there's a physiological element to it in
the sense that I mean, you guys don't know what
it's like if I handed you a basketball and I
was like, okay, take a twenty seven foot three right now,
(20:01):
or not even that. I was just say an NBA
three above the break three, a twenty three foot ter
off of the wing. If I asked you to take
that shot and you didn't touch a basketball at all
today and you just went up there and shot it,
you have a very small percentage chance of making it
because your elbow is just not warm, right Like, the
muscle and the tendon and everything. It's just not loose,
it's not warm right now. In a game, I think
(20:23):
that happens to a much lesser extent, right, Like, if
you go twenty five minutes of real time without doing
the jump shot motion and then suddenly you need to
take a shot. Your muscle in your tendons, it's not
like in that, so to speak, physiological rhythm to be
able to knock a shot down, right Whereas like you
(20:43):
get three four shots over the course of a couple
of minutes, on that third or fourth shot, you're gonna
feel a lot more comfortable physiologically in your elbow. But
there's also a bunch of other elements to it that
involve rhythm on the team level, right, like is overall
the team operating with a lot of confidence shooting is
tages tends to be. You know, like when the team
is shooting well, more and more guys tend to shoot
(21:04):
well because there's just a vibe around the team where
you feel in rhythm, everyone's having fun, everyone's in that flow.
It can manifest in making shots, right. I also think
there's a defensive element to rhythm, Like there's a big
difference between on there and I have a hand up
versus I made you uncomfortable. Maybe I swipe it the
ball down low. Maybe I bring a level of intensity
(21:24):
to the closeout that affects the player mentally to where
he's just not as like confident or comfortable in that shot.
There's the work before the shot, like am I physically
wearing you down? And all the other elements of the
game so that when you like, let's say it's a
super physical playoff game and you have a wide open
wing three, maybe your legs are more beatn so you
(21:46):
don't get as much lift into the shot. And when
there's not as much lift into the shot, it throws
the whole calibration of your energy transfer off. Right Now,
all of a sudden, you have to compensate with more
power in your follow through well, now you're shooting a
different shot than the shot you shoot when you're practicing, right, Like,
all of these things factor in to whether or not
a shot goes in. And I've always said, like, when
(22:08):
it comes to variance, there is absolutely variance, right because
even if you're playing under perfect conditions with no defense
and your arm is physiologically warmed up and ready to go,
you're still gonna make some and miss some, right, So,
Like I'm not sitting here and pretending like variance doesn't exist.
It's just when I'm evaluating what's happening in a game,
(22:29):
I'm gonna put variants further down the list behind, Like
is this player getting touches? And is he involved in
the offense? What did the closeout look? Like? How physical
of a game is this overall? Just like pressure like
mental pressure on the shot, right, Like there's I'm gonna
be looking at stuff like that more than I'm gonna
(22:49):
be looking at just like, all right, we rolled the dice,
let's see what happens. If that makes sense, But it's
hard to explain, Like I am yet to find a
basketball player, like an actual person who played basketball at
a high level. I am yet to find a basketball
player who looks me in the face and goes, it's
just variance. I just I don't see. I've never met
that person, so like like it's usually an analytics professional
(23:14):
or you know, just a person who's who hasn't been
close to the game who's telling me that, Like variance
is the thing that's dictating everything in basketball. It certainly
plays a role, but it to me is further down
the list than some of the controllables inside of offensive
and defensive process. Would it be smarter for Damian Lillard
(23:34):
to wait and sign with another team until after next season?
He's getting paid twenty two million anyway, would he be
losing out on more money? Is there a chance or
is there an incentive to join a team now? So
I think you can this can be played out in
a bunch of different directions. One like, I think it'd
be good for Damian Lillard to be around a team right,
to be still in the NBA process, to be to
(23:55):
have access to the to the facilities and to the
training staff and all those different things. I also think
there's benefit in terms of chemistry to being around a team,
But there's also obviously a financial benefit in the form
of him signing, you know, a veteran minimum contract to
be on a team. Right. My thing is the reason
why I think it's worth exploring is like, let's say
(24:16):
it doesn't work out. Let's say he signs a one
year minimum contract and he does spend time around the team,
and he does build some chemistry, but then all of
a sudden, you get to next summer and the contract
expires and he's like, well, you know, I I think
I'd rather go play over there. Okay, then he can
go play over there. Or you know, let's say you're
a team. Let's say you're a team that has some
cap space or has the mid level exception still available
(24:39):
to you. You can pay Dame the one plus one
that most midlevel exceptions usually manifest ads. So let's say
a two year deal with player option. You pick him
up and like, maybe maybe you can get it. Maybe
you can incentivize him, like instead of meeting him at
the minimum contract, pay him closer to the mid level
exception and take out the player option and be like,
(25:00):
we will pay you for this year under the condition
that you play for us next year. Right, Like, there's
a bunch of different ways that'll work out, and It
all depends. It all depends on which teams are interested.
It all depends, like maybe Damian Lizard's like, I'd rather
take a sabbatical, and you know, I'd instead like, Okay, cool,
You're offering me ten million for each year for the
next two years to play, but I have a lot
of money and I'd rather just hang out with my
(25:21):
family and be home and rehab without having to travel.
And or maybe I do want to travel, but for
cushy vacation spots instead of traveling with an NBA team. Like,
all of those different factors have to come together, like
how much does Dame want to stay home and relax
while he's rehabbing, or does Dame want to be close
to a team? You know, is a team willing to
pay a veteran minimum just for Dame to rehab with
(25:43):
the team? Or do they want to put together a
two year deal to try to tie him up when
he's actually playing basketball again. All those factors will come
together to dictate what his playing situation looks like, Hey,
Jason Love the studio looking into the future for the
Lakers post Lebron, how would you build the roster around
Luca to maximize the window of his prime. Would you
(26:04):
surround Luca plus Reeves with two way athletes similar to
Dallas a couple of years ago, or would you try
to get another All Star caliber player interested to hear
your thoughts, Thanks again for the great content. So specifically
Luca and Reeves is tricky because Austin's not a great athlete.
But then again, like you could say that Kyrie Irving
and Jalen Brunson were averaged to blow average athletes as well.
(26:26):
So I don't want to sit there and discount it entirely,
but I do think that the Dallas experiment from two
years ago is the method that I think all teams
need to consider. Rim Protecting vertical spacers, so centers that
can be strong defensive foundations, but they can also roll
hard to the rim and catch and finish lobs. Specifically,
Derek Lively, in his ability to switch on defense, also
(26:47):
gave them a layer of versatility there as well. Surrounding
him with defensive players that can play with an advantage,
guys like PJ. Washington and Derek Jones Junior. They could
hit wide open threes at a reasonable enough clip. It
ended up being a problem in the Celtics series. But again,
that Celtics team had one of the most dynamic rosters
in recent NBA history. They had the ability to put
Jason Tatum on a center and things like that. We
(27:09):
may not see teams like that that they run into
in the future. Right to me, with the Lakers, I
would be less focused on finding the next superstar to
play alongside Luca and I'd be looking for really high
level two way athletes, upgrades at the two upgrades at
the three guys that are big, strong athletes that can
guard multiple positions, that can hit an open three and
(27:30):
drive a close out, and then at the center position.
I mean, I don't like as far as the DeAndre
Ayton thing goes. I think he's a great option for
this year because he's in a contract year. He has
no choice but to behave and to give his best
in order to get his next contract. But let's say
that that happens and he signs a you know, let's
say a four year, one hundred million dollar deal or
something along those lines. All of a sudden, I look
at DeAndre and then I go, I'm not sure i'd
(27:50):
want to be in the DeAndre Eaton business. When he's
got one hundred million dollars coming his way no matter
what over the next four seasons. That could be when
he spirals back down into some of the unper pfessionalism
issues that he had in Portland. Right, So, like I
do love the eight and fit, but in the long run,
if you could have a big athletic center that could
defend and drop and and switches and roll to the
rim with the real vertical spacing threat, I think the
(28:13):
Dallas mold Is is the way to go to take
it a step further. Like Luca, to me uniquely is
less dependent on star supporting talent because he's just this magnificent,
high volume advantage creator. I think Steph Curry kind of
falls into a similar role, and he demonstrated that clearly
(28:35):
in twenty twenty two. Right when you have such a
gifted advantage creator that even like lesser offensive players are
thriving offensively, like PJ. Washington did in the playoffs two
years ago, like Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins did in
twenty twenty two, When you have that type of talent,
that type of world beating offensive talent, I think it
(28:56):
becomes more about like star role players, really really really
gifted role that can fill gaps and raise your floor defensively,
and all these other things defensively are in terms of
your floor so high that Luca's greatness can carry you
over the top. There are other stars that that changes
and it becomes different and you need more substantial surround
(29:16):
like Yannis for instance. Yannis is the kind of guy that,
like probably needs a really high level perimeter player next
to him in order to reach his absolute peak as
a superstar. There are gonna be those types of players
out there, but to me, a guy like Luca, it's
less about finding the star next to him and just
giving him really really high level role players. I think
(29:37):
it's proven to work like we saw two years ago,
and that's the direction I would go if I was
the Lakers. Last question, which trio do you think will
be better Victor wemin Yama, Dylan Harper and Steph Castle
or Shae Gildess, Alexander chet Holmgren and Jay dub This
is complicated because there's two completely different angles here. I
(29:57):
think Wemby's ceiling is substantially higher than SHA's, Like I
think Wemby has a chance to be far and away
the best player in the league one day. I don't
think she has any potential to be far and away
the best player in the league. So if Victor wemen
Yama reaches that point, that gives him the potential to
be a part of a more dependable core in the
long run than Shaye je Chet and Jay Dubb. But
(30:20):
Chet and j Dub are both pretty close to all
NBA level talents right now and like, and I believe
I think Chet will certainly be and Ja Dubb has
that potential within the next couple of years. Right, Dylan
Harper will see man like literally hasn't played an NBA
game before, and Steph Castle shows all sorts of upside,
but he's still super raw. Like Steph is still years
(30:41):
away from being like a truly great you know, the
type of player that say Jay Dubb is, for example.
And so it's kind of those two bits of variants, right, like,
how much better will Wemby become than Shay? And can
Dylan Harper and Steph Castle reach the level that Chet
and Jay Dubb have reached? And that will be the
determining factor at this point. I think I'd lean Shae
(31:03):
Chat and Jadub just because They're already there. Shay is
already a top tier superstar, even if he's not at
Jokic's level. Chet and JDub are already like well worth
max contracts. There's just too much variance in terms of
Dylan Hartbur and Steph Castle and the players that they
can become. But I don't want to sit there and
say that Spurs Core can't be better. They certainly can.
I just think the Thundercore is a little bit of
(31:24):
a safer bet. All right, guys, It's all I have
for today and all I have for this weekend. As always,
I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting
the show. We will be back next week. Not sure
what we're I think we're beginning our off season plan.
At that point, Jackson and I need to get together
and do some planning. But again, we will be back
next week. I'll see you guys then
Host
Jason Timpf
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