On today's episode, Jason discusses the reports indicating that Jaylen Brown and the Celtics are absolutely headed for a divorce, why it's so hard to find a logical trade partner for Boston that would satisfying the wants of needs of both the franchise and JB, whether or not Brown has a point when he says analytics has ruined the way people evaluate NBA players, and why trading for Kawhi Leonard would be a mistake for the Dallas Mavericks as it would surely stunt the growth of star pupil Cooper Flagg.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well is up straight fire by am It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Bowyer or Monday, June the twenty ninth, folks strap
in today. Three amazing World Cup games, fine too amazing
and Germany Paraguay Paraguay stacks. But today is going to
be a phenomenal day. We're in the knockout rounds. I
(00:32):
think we're down to thirty matches left in the World Cup.
It's gonna be tight from here on out. The first
knockout round game happens Sunday, South Africa, Canada. I just
did an action play for fun under two and a
half and I'm just telling you the'se knockout rounds. Everybody's
playing it close to the vest, not too aggressive. You
(00:53):
don't want to get caught on a counter. And this
was zero zero to like the ninety second minute in
Canada scores. Crazy game. It's so far and Canada advances
to the round of sixteen, which is pretty good for Canada, right,
I mean they I think they never won a World
Cup game before and now they're in the round of sixteen,
which is good. These home teams nice home court advantage,
(01:15):
Brazil Japan is at nine a m oh, I'm sorry,
ten am Pacific Brazil Japan, that should be an absolute banger.
I don't know that Brazil's a lock to win that guys,
it's gonna because I guess you would have to ultimately
lean Brazil. But Japan's really good. This will be the
you know, the best team they've played since Morocco. In
Morocco tiede Brazil. So I think the under two and
(01:37):
a half is what I look at. I just don't
know if I could pull the trigger on Japan to win,
and then Germany should beat Paraguay. Netherlands in Morocco. I
know everybody likes Netherlands. I'm on an island. Six o'clock,
I'm on Morocco. I think they win this outright, which
should be a phenomenal game. And by the way, this
is the round now where penalty kicks happen. If it
(01:58):
goes zero zero, they go to extra time and then pks.
So should be a very fun Monday. Obviously, Tuesday, let's
see what the games are. Tuesday Ivory Coach Doorway should
be fun. A lot of goals in that one. France Sweden.
France should win, and then Mexico Ecuador over under one
and a half. Almost every game is two and a half.
(02:19):
That's gonna be a defensive slug fast Now Ecuador travels well,
but Mexico a home game, I don't it's gonna be
tough to beat them. And then of course Wednesday you
get England playing the Congo Belgium Senegal and the nightcap
USA Bosnia USA big favorites, big favorites. I already laid
the lumber on the USA to win World Cup. It's
(02:40):
in full swing. I don't know what we do without it.
I guess we'd have to talk about NBA, which is
fortunately we got some NBA news over the weekend, and
it's not pretty. This is weird. You know, Rob and
I have done this podcast. What are we on? Like
year six? I think it started during COVID. It definitely
started during COVID. I don't know if it was twenty
or twenty one. I think it was twenty. And we've
(03:01):
had a lot of superstar movement, not like we had
in the teens, the twenty tens, but it feels like
we're about to see Jalen Brown move and it's just
a bizarre set of circumstances. I don't think people realize
since he's been on the Celtics, they've been a playoff
team every year. They made six conference finals. Undeniably, Tatum
(03:23):
plus Brown works six conference finals. You made the finals twice,
you won one, the other one you lost a Curry,
no harm in that, and it's like, why would you
break up the greatness? It just doesn't really add up.
They have proof of content. Now. Obviously the players are
getting expensive. That makes it difficult. But we're at the
(03:46):
point where Jalen Brown just kind of sort of seems unhappy.
I don't know how that could be given all the success,
And of course you've got people out here talking about like, well,
if Jalen Brown said his most fun season ever was
this one where they didn't get out of the first round,
but he was the man because Jason Tatum was coming
back from injury, maybe we got a problem. So now,
(04:06):
by all accounts, the Celtics are shopping Jalen Brown. And
you had Bobby Marx, the like salary cap guy at ESPN.
He had a report where he went on the radio
and was like, hey, so, uh yeah, it's a weird
market for Brown. I got some stats guys telling me
(04:28):
he's maybe their seventh best player on the team. And
of course, when you say something like that, and honestly,
I bet you Bobby Mark's got a little rap on
the knuckles from ESPN management. You'd rather have that go
on on your air. This was on some kind of
radio show, I believe, and it's like, whoa, whoa seventh
best guy on the Like, you can't say that shit,
that's just goofy. He was the NBA Finals MVP. Now,
(04:50):
if you would try to add context and say based
on salary, maybe you could craft an argument. I don't
think it's a great one, but people forget, like I'm
just gonna turn back the clock. Right before the playoffs,
everybody had the Celtics one of the finals. Everybody. Now
I have picked the Knicks, but everyone had the Celtics.
(05:10):
They were, oh, well Celtics, they were good without Tatum.
Then Tatum comes back and they're good. Oh it's Celtics.
And then of course they're up three to one on
the sixers, Tatum gets hurt, he's ineffective missus Game seven
and they lose, and now it's like whoa, wait, I
don't know, does it work, and I'm like, guys, can
we pump the brakes? It works financially is where it
(05:33):
gets interesting. And of course when Bobby Marks has this comment,
it goes viral and Jalen Brown then starts to fire back,
and then his dad gets in the mix and starts
saying stuff. Jayalen Brown's dad is a seven foot former boxer.
He essentially told Perkins and Stephen A. Smith watch your mouth,
(05:53):
you know, in a manner that conveys he's not messing around.
And it's weird because now you've got all these guys
making this a racial thing. With Jalen Brown, well, you know,
when a black man speaks up, what huh wa even
speaks up? Jalen Brown wasn't even interview answering a question
(06:14):
from the media. Jalen Brown went on Twitch and decided
to come out forthright and be like, hey, this was
my favorite season. That's not a racial thing. That's his opinion.
He likes being the man, the alpha. We get it.
I don't know how you could have more fun losing
in the first round but getting a million shots as
opposed to I don't know, winning the title or going
(06:34):
to the finals. But that's not my style. I want
to win. I don't want to put up stats. And
it's just weird because then again, I'm not criticizing Jail Brown.
This is the facts. He's had success in Boston. He's
won a title, he's been All NBA twice, he was
NBA Finals MVP. He's wealthy beyond belief. And that's not
(06:55):
enough success money. What's he not happy about? I don't know.
That's a question you've got to ask Jayleen Brown. But
if he's not happy despite major success as a pro,
and he's the quick to point out, I've won more
games since I joined the NBA than anybody, wonderful. So
you have a ton of success and you're still not happy.
(07:17):
I think that's a U problem, bro. So I'm not
surprised they're shopping him to anybody. I mean, ship up
to New Orleans, get trade Murphy and whatever. But that's
where it gets interesting, Rob. His teams are reluctant to
trade for Brown, A because his salary's enormous now and
b because he's going to be eligible to make even
more when he's thirty two years old. So are you
(07:38):
giving up the farm for a guy who might leave
in three years? If it's me, probably, I don't know
about the farm, but I'm giving up a lot. And
again I think I said this on the pod. I
definitely staid on the herd. We just watched the Knicks
acquire Jalen Brunson, build around him, and three years later
got a title. If you acquire Jalen Brown, you build
(07:58):
around him. Don't worry about Jalen Brown sinks contract is
maybe it doesn't work for you. Build around him and
see if you can make a run. I don't think
it's that hard. It's clear he's not gonna be able
to go to He's not gonna pair with Luca. You can't.
Then you have like no other players because there's no
money left. But if you want to send her to
New Orleans, Portland has assets. You know there's other teams
(08:21):
out there that don't have a huge payroll. I'm surprised
there's not a bigger market for Jalen Brown. Rob, I'm
a little surprised by this.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well. See the other reason why you might have a
hard time finding a trade Jalen Brown trade is because
you mentioned it. He wants to be the man wherever
he ends up, and depending on who you talk to
or who you follow, who your favorite reporter is. Chris
Mannix has said about a week ago now that the
Boston Celtics were canvassing the league in Jalen Brown trade
(08:50):
because they wanted a big man. And that's when they
want to be honest. They didn't get you honest. So
if you go down the list and you say, all right, well,
wherever we send him, we got to get a big
man in return, like, all right, well, that gives us
about ten to fifteen teams we can look at. That's
gonna be yea might be you're not gonna get a
player that's better than Jalen Brown, because you know big
men were better are what Jokic Giannis. And then you're like,
(09:11):
all right, well, now we're dipping out a tear. So
either you're gonna get someone who's a tier right below him,
or even two tiers below him. You're like, all right, well,
we gotta get a big man. And then you say,
all right, well, wherever we send him, it's got to
be salary wise. You mentioned sixty million dollars. All right,
well that narrows down a little bit more. They say,
all right, well it's got to be he's got to
get he's got to be the man wherever he goes.
He's got to get a big man. He's got to
(09:31):
be a big salary. He's like, well, shit, well now
there's only like three teams we can send him to,
and that becomes really, really tricky. And that's a big
reason why you saw on Saturday coming into Sunday in
the overnight hours, Sam Mamick reported, of all the teams
in the entire NBA, they have a chance at Jalen Brown.
For the record, as a Laker front I would love
(09:52):
to get Jaylen Brown on my team. The one that's
in the front running is the Portland Trailblazers. You're like, well,
why what could you possibly do with Jalen Brown, Denny
Abdia and stuff in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh, I don't know. You don't think you could do
anything with.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Them because you win a championship.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
With them in three years.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It's potentially by then he's thirty four or thirty three. No, no, no, no, no,
he's twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You'll be thirty two and three years. I think, hold on,
hold on. So you're what would you give up in
the in the trade for for Brown with Portland Obdias, staying.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Of course, he's probably the only non starter there. Age.
I mean, you have to give up one of the
young guys, whether it's him, whether it's Shade and Sharp.
I'm assuming Schoot Hunteringson has to be in the deal
just because you have to sell me on a young
star kind of thing. But it's like it gets really tricky,
really quickly. And I'm one of the people who thinks
(10:47):
that analytics has kind of ruined sports because it takes
just go with me here, it takes away the beauty
of sports historically, right, Like if you were to go
back and watch all of your favorite players of whatever
sport you're talking about. If you're just talking analytically, right,
a Magic Johnson behind the back pass in the middle
of traffic is not a good pass, right, Magic Johnson
(11:11):
passing up a wide open layup to dish it off
to James Worthy for a fifteen foot jump shot is
not good analytically, Okay. If yeah, sure, if you are
Shack and Shaq is not junking the ball through somebody's face,
it's not a good analytics shot for him, just statistically, right.
If you go in baseball and it's like, oh, well,
Tony Gwynn get ten thousand, Bay says, well, that's not
(11:33):
good Analytically, it's got to be a home run, home run,
a strikeout, that's what we want. And so I'm one
of the people who thinks that analytics should be used
in conjunction with the ideas should all bleed together like
a beautiful portrait. If it's all one or all the other,
it's not going to be great. And as much as
I am a fan of Jalen Brown, which I am,
(11:53):
analytically he does not grade out as a great NBA
player all right. This past season the Boston Celtics, he
was a plus six and a half net rating, which
was ninth on their team. Their net rating was actually
five and a half points worse with him on the
court than it was without him. In the postseason, Historically,
(12:15):
Jalen Brown has had a negative net rating swing in
six of his nine playoff appearances. Again, that's just what
numbers say, and I don't think that that should be
the be all, end all, but that does have to
factor in at some point.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Okay, hold up, pulled up, pulled up? That is so
net rating is just one number that that's intrigue I
had not seen.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Let's go to Player Efficiency rating per supposed to be
the gold standard for analytics for NBA players individually, it
seems to skew toward large, taller players. Giannis was one,
he only played thirty six, Jokic two SGA than Wemby
then Luca was five. Jalen Brown was seventeenth, tied with
Yonis Valentunis. However, he was ahead of Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxi,
(13:14):
and Jamal Murray, but at the same time behind Zion Donovan, Mitchell,
Jimmy Butler. So, I mean, I don't know, Rob, do
you think when you take those two together, Like, does
he tumble out of the top ten as players in
the league. No, First of all, do you think he's
(13:35):
a top ten player in the league.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think he's right there, Like he's somewhere between eight
and twelve.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And it depends like some guys were hurt, right, so
they don't qualify. Okay, So he's a top twelve player
in the league and the analytics like him, but not
all of them like him, right sure, because he does
the mid range.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Though exactly, And that's the big reason why, especially on
this Celtics team, his net rating and his efficiency is
going to be way down because everybody on their team
is just bombs away from three or lay up at
the rim. And Jalen Brown, to his credit, was the
only guy, as far as I know, in the NBA
who said, I am going to skew all of that
and put a contested mid range jumper into my repertoire. Well,
(14:14):
SGA does it too, but I mean like he did
it willingly, like SGA did it because he had to,
Like that was his game from the beginning. Jaylen Brown's like,
not screw that. We got to be able to score
it another way. And so I understand why the numbers
wouldn't like him. But it's like he is walking around
puffing it again. And I like Jalen Brown, but he's
puffing his chest out like he is the best two
way player in the league. F all of y'all, you
(14:35):
guys wish you had someone like me. His dad's going
on radio interviews, you mentioned it. He's going on Twitch
before after games in the playoffs talking about X, Y
and Z, and it's like, is he kind of lost
the plot a little bit? And that's why or that's
one of the reasons why the real contenders don't want
him or not willing to give up what they have
to get up to get him, because he's gonna go
(14:57):
wherever he winds up. I think he's never gonna play
Feltics again. Wherever he goes is going to be a
worse situation than Boston.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't hold on, hold on, what about the Detroit Pistons.
I don't think they have the amo to get him.
You'd probably have to rope in other teams. But if
Jalen Duran's going to Boston, picks are going to Boston
and you rope in a third team Jalen Brown and
Kate cunning him, I mean Kate cutting him by himself
won over sixty games.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And I would normally agree with you. I would normally
agree with you were it not for Jalen Brown reiterating
over and over that he wants to be the man,
that he wants to be the guy. He can't go
to Detroit and take over and be the man on
that team, that's Kate's team. So it's like, how do
you navigate all of this? What he wants I believe
(15:43):
is virtuous. I think it's noble. I think it's great.
I love when guys challenge themselves like this. But the
reality is, if you're gonna challenge yourself like this, you're
going to go to a bad situation or a situation
that is much lesser than what you're currently at.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So when you rule out, like if you say, Okay,
he wants to be the man, you can't send him
to Detroit. I mean that really, I guess Portland is
his number one option. They have a lot of assets. Yeah, Portland, man,
you know things like that, mid majors of the NBA.
I gotta just say, Jalen, be careful what you wish for, Bro,
(16:20):
You just you gotta be careful what you wish for.
You might think it the grass is greener being the man,
and the next thing you know, you go to Portland
and your seventh in the West, you know, mm hmm.
I mean, if Portland would have to give up clinging
Camara Kamara, the wing who's really good defensively, I mean,
you can have Scoot or shading picks whatever. I think
(16:42):
Portland could have something real nice. I thought they were
good man with Avdy eleading the way, but now Avdy
asked to share duties. It's so weird these guys not
wanting to like share duties, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, I mean it's the Kobe ification. Kobe started it,
someone's got to finish it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
But that's the thing. Kobe didn't win anything when it
was by when it was his show he needed.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
But it was still his show. He just had better
players around him.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And it took a while.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
No, I mean when he basically ran shack Off, right,
they didn't win anything.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
No, and it took a while. And I don't think
Jaylen Brown has a while. I don't think he can
wait three four years.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
First they needed like Gasol, right, who wasn't a superstar,
but he had I mean, like he's a version of
the Og in itob a better one, right, just not
not the same player, but like you needed a key
guy around you who's gonna unlock a lot. Guessol was that,
right for for Kobe Og and you guys, I guess
Towns was that. But I don't that that's so weird.
(17:41):
Joe so you you you think this is like a
good thing, that he wants this and he wants to
take mid range. I mean, Rob, I'm gonna remind you
for the better part of the last decade, when threes
became in vogue, the Rockets were always knocking on the door.
The Warriors were the best team in the league. The Cavs, well,
I guess we got to eliminate them because they had Lebron. Uh,
the Celtics won a title. There's proof of concept for
(18:03):
the three point strategy. You know, the nuggets they had, but.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
They're probably the only one. That Celtics team is probably
the only, you know, predominantly analytic driven team that has
won a championship in the last decade.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, you don't think the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Were, No, I think that they I mean steplay pre Kate's. Yeah,
they get a lot of credit for, you know, shooting
the three and that, and of course they did, but
you remember living through that time. They weren't all threes
or nothing. They were back cuts. They were mid range
with Sean Livingston right, but they did all kinds of stuff.
They were deadly from everywhere. The difference was that you
(18:41):
had to stretch your defense to cover Stephan Clay thirty
five feet in the basket, which allowed Barbosa, which allowed Livingston,
which allowed you know, uh, Andrew Boget to get his
little flip shot in there. Like they had ways to
manipulate the defense. And then Houston came along with D'Antoni
and James Harden and they said, no, we're gonna do
threes and layers. It's all were gonna do. And they
(19:01):
had a lot of success, but they never quite broke through. Well,
they ran into some of the greatest sure, sure, but
then everybody decided like that's the only way to play.
We're gonna turn this game into a math problem. And
the only team that actually succeeded doing that was the
Boston Celtics, where Jalen Brown's trying to leave that's so weird.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So let me. I'm trying to look up three point stats. Uh,
so what do you prefer three point percentage or volume?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Like, what's the better indicator of success?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, because the Knicks led the playoffs in three point
percentage thirty nine percent. They won the title. Last year
in the playoffs, the Pacers shot thirty nine percent and
lost in Game seven. Their star got hurt twenty four
the Sixers, they only played six games.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I would assume attempts is probably the better indicator, okay,
because if you're shooting at a high clip, of of
course you're gonna win it. Just you know, are you
not taking you're taking the fourth or fifth most attempts
versus an the team.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I mean, it's funny that the most attempts were Golden
State made the play in, had injuries. Hornets had their
best season ever. Oh not ever, sorry, best season in
like the last ten years. Portland they're back with the
three point shooting Celtics. They were for eighty five percent
of the regular season the best team in the East.
Sons made the play Oh they lost in the first round, right, yeah,
(20:23):
they got You.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Just mentioned a team that lost in the play in,
lost in the play and lost in the first round.
Lost in the first round.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
But a lot of the So four of those five
teams like had no play well not four Warriors, they
had injuries. It put in asterisk. Celtics had Tatum hurt
and still were amazing thanks to the three Charlotte, Portland
and Phoenix. I mean, I don't think they've made the
playoffs recently and they adopted the three point strategy and
made the play in. So to me, those are wins.
(20:51):
But you're saying it's you don't think those are wins.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, I mean it depends on your perception. Like, if
you are Charlotte Portland, who has had any success in
a decade, then just making the playoffs, of course is great.
So this analytics driven offense is going to be a
good idea for you. But if you are a team
like you know, Boston, of course you mentioned them the Knicks,
if you are Denver, if you're Oklahoma City, if you're
San Antonio, your idea of success is much higher. And
(21:15):
I think you know one thing that NBA players know,
especially hear I'm talking on podcast interviews, they'll say, the
analytics get you a regular season, we get to the playoffs,
just get a bucket, it doesn't matter what it looks like. Yes,
and these guys are like, hey, that's cool, but you
can't play like that the deeper you get into the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, I definitely agree. Regular season to get there, you
need the threes. So three point attempts in the playoffs.
The thunder were fifth, Spurs were seventh, Knicks for eight
or eighth in terms of attempts, but the Knicks just
made so many threes super efficient. Thunder were third, Spur
Spurs were fourth. So three of the top four playoff
(21:57):
teams in terms of field goal percentage were Awesome were
second by the way, and they somehow when nobody expected
to beat the Rockets, they beat him. So I think
there's definitely proof of concept that hey man, this does work.
But I think you're right. You need some kind of
CounterPunch in the playoffs. You can't just jack threes because
I don't know. And I saw David West chiming in
(22:18):
the former Power Forward. It's so funny because and I've
said this and people roll their eyes. I'm like, Patrick
hub is one of my favorite players. I don't know
what he would be in this NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't It's like a different sport.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, I'm not saying it's bad. That's just how it is.
It's like rob for in the World Cup, all these
hydration breaks, so that's a new thing, and so many
people are like, oh, this is bullshit, what's happening. Why
do we have this? It's like, guys, this is just
how it is. You could complain or you can adapt
to the hydration breaks. And I don't know if you've noticed,
but like some of these, like Canada in the game
(22:52):
on Sunday, they were getting they were looking awful early
in the first like twenty minutes, hydration break comes, coach
makes some adjustments. Canada took the game over, like you
just got to adapt. And frankly, I'm I'm kind of
with the three point strategy. I mean it's essentially Wemby
and four guards. You know, David West is probably jealous.
You guys remember him. He's a good power forward? Like
(23:13):
where does he fit now? Is he irrelevant? Look at
the top power forwards in the league, Carl Anthony Towns.
You got a guy like Jalen Duran, right, he was
an All NBA guy. He's really is he a center
or power forward?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Rob? It's probably a center in today's NBA.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
What about Duran?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
He's a center? Here's no jump shot. Hey, you and
be power forward if you are useless outside of the paint.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It just feels like if you're a power forward now
you have to stretch the floor or they'll just craw.
They just load up in the lane and take away
the big from doing anything. I mean, honestly, you could, Yes,
you could. I would agree that like the nerds have
taken over. They took over baseball like twenty years ago,
remember the moneyball stuff. And it's pretty clear they're taking
(24:00):
over and hacking, if you will, the NBA. I think
they've hacked the NFL because for a while you saw
the NFL was like, hey, we just want these bombs,
we want the deep plays, and then the defenses came
in and said, no, we're going to play the two
safeties high. You're gonna have to go down the field
and beat us, and it slowed down. I mean, look
at Mahomes. He's kind of remember how dominant he was
(24:20):
with the bombs to Tyreek Hill. That's kind of been
the water has been turned off on that. Teams are
not giving up the bomb the way they used to.
They want to keep everything in front and make you
play slow. So if I'm in the NBA, I'm definitely
taking away the three, and if I'm an offensive team,
I'm definitely shooting it.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Which brings us to Kawhi Leonard rob who is in
La with the Clippers for now. But according to The Athletic,
it sounds like Massi Ujerie who rolled the dice famously
and traded for unhappy Kawhi in San Antonio and brought
the Raptors one of the luckiest titles this century. Sorry,
(25:14):
but when kd plays ten minutes and Clay gets hurt,
yeah it's lucky. They would have got smoked by the
full strength Warriors, that's obvious, but they got their title,
and now Massai may be reconnecting with Kawhi. According to
the Athletic, I will say Rob, the package for Kawhi
seems very light. Now he is thirty four years old,
but he's coming off a great season. But if we're
(25:36):
talking PJ. Washington, Klay Thompson, gafferd Or Lively and then
some picks, that to me is like a weak asshole.
And it sets up the MAVs with Kyrie, super Max,
Christy Cooper, flag Kawhi and then whoever's left over of
Gafford or Lively and then the who they drave Mores
(25:59):
Johnson from Michigan. Dusty made the coach, that's a pretty
sick lineup, prob If I'm the MAVs and I can
actually do that trade. The problem is that they're supposed
to be picks involved, but Dallas's picks they don't have them.
Twenty seven goes to Charlotte and they have no control
over their twenty nine first round pick. Twenty eight and
(26:20):
thirty are tied up in pick swaps. So I think
a third team needs to get involved here. And by
the way, if I'm the Clippers, what am I doing
with Klay Thompson? He's wash washed and PJ Washington, I
mean's solid, but he's a good piece of a contender,
not a Clippers team that would kind of be rebuilding.
(26:40):
They're not going to the playoffs without Kawhi. I mean,
I like Keaton Woggler and Ben Matherin and Garland, but
that that's not a playoff team in the West. If
the MAVs pull this off, that's a pretty great trade.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Rob Oh one thousand percent. It's a great trade if
you're Dallas, because you know, say what you want about
Kawhi and Williar. Wouldn't he play on a night to
night basis? He's the poster child for load management. When
he does play, he's freaking awesome. And from the Clopper's perspective,
maybe it's one of those things where like, hey, Kawhi
wants a new deal, we don't want to give him
a new deal. We get to al aspiration thing hanging
(27:13):
over our heads. We just got to get rid of
him for something. And if Dallas, you know what, baby,
we'll get to the other team a second. But if
Dallas is offering you enough picks or enough swaps or
what have you to make it worth your while, And
Kawhi has already said that if I go there, I
would sign the extension, then then maybe. But if you're Dallas,
the one thing that I'm confused about him, I'll get
(27:35):
your a pain on it on In theory, that starting
five sounds great. My question is, though, if you're making
that kind of move, Kyrie's going to be entering his
age what thirty five season, He's coming off a torn
acl The expectation would be to win a championship, which
means I'm assuming if you make this deal, you believe
that Cooper Flag can be at worst the second best team,
(27:57):
a second best player in a championship team. At age nineteen.
Does that sound a little rich for your blood?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, I don't know. Is the second best player Kyrie
Irving if he's healthy. I saw him at some basketball
camp on Instagram roasting folks.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Roasting guys at a basketball guy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Some guy in China was like, yeah, you're you're destroying it.
But you can't score on me, you know, just some like,
you know, random Asian high school maybe not high school,
maybe college or whatever. And Kyrie didn't score on him
the first play. And then and then he started clapping
at Kyrie and it was like, all right, come on, bro,
stop and then Kyrie scored on him. But like, that's
what Kyrie Irving's up to, you know, going around the
(28:32):
world beating teenagers one on one.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I mean, next year Flag will be he turns
twenty in December. Bro, he's not. I don't know that
he's already gonna be the second best player on a
title winner. I just the only thing I don't love
about this is are you screwing with the potential for
Flag over the next five years putting him alongside a
(28:57):
guy with no work ethic Kawhi Leonard, A guy like
Kyrie Irving who you know, he seemed to have cleaned
up his act going to the finals with Luca, but
then he got hurt. I just don't know. I kind
of sort of like how the Spurs had Wemby, Castle
and Harper and they said, you know, we're just gonna
(29:17):
go get a guy like dearon Fox, the veteran, you know,
and plug him in. And year two Wemby gets the
blood clot. Year three they go to the finals. Like,
I don't know, if you build around Cooper Flag, Rob,
couldn't you theoretically get to the conference finals, conference semifinals
by year three with Cooper Flag, I don't know. He's
(29:38):
younger than Wemby, but I just don't know. I I
honestly didn't watch a lot of Dallas after they were
tanking in a dumpster fire, but I like Flag a lot.
I just I wonder if his growth will be hindered
alongside guys like Kyrie and Kawhi who were always looking
for their shot. You know, no, I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I think he's growth would be hindered. But what we
saw this season, because I did I did watch a
lot of MAVs basketball because they happen to be on
during the radio show, so we have all the TVs,
like can catch a lot of his games. Is he
is not a one trick pony by any stretching. He's not.
I'm just a scorer, I'm just a rebounder. I'm just
a three point shooter, like whatever. He really can fill
(30:19):
a lot of gaps because his game is so well rounded.
He's an unselfish player, but he can score right. He
is a good defender up and down, you know, basically
two through five. He can rebound pretty well for his size.
So if like, hey, your individual growth will probably be stunted,
but you would be able to fill the void so
(30:39):
easily and so seamlessly between guys like Kawhi and you know,
we'll say Derek Lively and Kyrie Irving and super Max Christy.
So he could absolutely fit the role and be a
better scoring version of like an ogn and Obi. You know,
in that situation, the question just becomes is when you
make a move like that, you're doing so with the
(31:01):
expectation that you're going to be really good right away,
and if you're not, then why would you mortgage the
future when you have this nineteen year old super phenom
sitting right there on your bench, Like, that's the confusion
for me because he should have been in this draft class.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, and he would have well let's see, uh yeah,
he would have gone one.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I'm pretty sure. I mean, I've got a I hope so.
But it's like, that's just how good he is. He
should have been in this class, but instead he declared
you know, he jumped up a grade and he was
in last year's class.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, huh. Interesting. I don't know. We'll see what happens
with the MAVs. I'm really really down on I mean again, Kyrie,
Kyrie and Kawhi, like, can you imagine that locker room?
I just want to remind people of what it was like.
And you could say, well, Jay, he's grown up since then,
but remember Kyrie, Harden and Durant in Brooklyn. It's just
such a disaster. I'm surprised at thirty for thirty hasn't
(31:55):
been made. That was where Kyrie was like burning sage
and James Harden's like what the what are you doing
well and just fall apart. Now, obviously Kyrie is a
different guy, but Kawhi Leonard like, I don't know, I
want leaders around my young superstar. I just don't. We
haven't seen that from Kawhi. So n if NBA free
(32:15):
agency starts, let's see what Tuesday. Oh, what a day
that is. USA soccer in the knockouts, an NBA free
agency man and then no, we don't have any real
Lebron updates. It still feels like it's retirement or Lakers
for Lebron. I'm sorry, I'm not buying this. Go to
(32:35):
the Miami Heat with.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Don stupid Goofy.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
There's no chance of that. The only Lakers thing I
saw was the Lakers are showing interest in Jack Landale
and Dean Wade.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I mean, I don't know time Lakers, snow time is back.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I think you got to get credit for that. Snow
time Lakers. All right, well we're back. There's a big
week for soccer for n B A man ah, what
a time to be alive. We'll see tomorrow.
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well is up straight fire by am It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Bowyer or Monday, June the twenty ninth, folks strap
in today. Three amazing World Cup games, fine too amazing
and Germany Paraguay Paraguay stacks. But today is going to
be a phenomenal day. We're in the knockout rounds. I
(00:32):
think we're down to thirty matches left in the World Cup.
It's gonna be tight from here on out. The first
knockout round game happens Sunday, South Africa, Canada. I just
did an action play for fun under two and a
half and I'm just telling you the'se knockout rounds. Everybody's
playing it close to the vest, not too aggressive. You
(00:53):
don't want to get caught on a counter. And this
was zero zero to like the ninety second minute in
Canada scores. Crazy game. It's so far and Canada advances
to the round of sixteen, which is pretty good for Canada, right,
I mean they I think they never won a World
Cup game before and now they're in the round of sixteen,
which is good. These home teams nice home court advantage,
(01:15):
Brazil Japan is at nine a m oh, I'm sorry,
ten am Pacific Brazil Japan, that should be an absolute banger.
I don't know that Brazil's a lock to win that guys,
it's gonna because I guess you would have to ultimately
lean Brazil. But Japan's really good. This will be the
you know, the best team they've played since Morocco. In
Morocco tiede Brazil. So I think the under two and
(01:37):
a half is what I look at. I just don't
know if I could pull the trigger on Japan to win,
and then Germany should beat Paraguay. Netherlands in Morocco. I
know everybody likes Netherlands. I'm on an island. Six o'clock,
I'm on Morocco. I think they win this outright, which
should be a phenomenal game. And by the way, this
is the round now where penalty kicks happen. If it
(01:58):
goes zero zero, they go to extra time and then pks.
So should be a very fun Monday. Obviously, Tuesday, let's
see what the games are. Tuesday Ivory Coach Doorway should
be fun. A lot of goals in that one. France Sweden.
France should win, and then Mexico Ecuador over under one
and a half. Almost every game is two and a half.
(02:19):
That's gonna be a defensive slug fast Now Ecuador travels well,
but Mexico a home game, I don't it's gonna be
tough to beat them. And then of course Wednesday you
get England playing the Congo Belgium Senegal and the nightcap
USA Bosnia USA big favorites, big favorites. I already laid
the lumber on the USA to win World Cup. It's
(02:40):
in full swing. I don't know what we do without it.
I guess we'd have to talk about NBA, which is
fortunately we got some NBA news over the weekend, and
it's not pretty. This is weird. You know, Rob and
I have done this podcast. What are we on? Like
year six? I think it started during COVID. It definitely
started during COVID. I don't know if it was twenty
or twenty one. I think it was twenty. And we've
(03:01):
had a lot of superstar movement, not like we had
in the teens, the twenty tens, but it feels like
we're about to see Jalen Brown move and it's just
a bizarre set of circumstances. I don't think people realize
since he's been on the Celtics, they've been a playoff
team every year. They made six conference finals. Undeniably, Tatum
(03:23):
plus Brown works six conference finals. You made the finals twice,
you won one, the other one you lost a Curry,
no harm in that, and it's like, why would you
break up the greatness? It just doesn't really add up.
They have proof of content. Now. Obviously the players are
getting expensive. That makes it difficult. But we're at the
(03:46):
point where Jalen Brown just kind of sort of seems unhappy.
I don't know how that could be given all the success,
And of course you've got people out here talking about like, well,
if Jalen Brown said his most fun season ever was
this one where they didn't get out of the first round,
but he was the man because Jason Tatum was coming
back from injury, maybe we got a problem. So now,
(04:06):
by all accounts, the Celtics are shopping Jalen Brown. And
you had Bobby Marx, the like salary cap guy at ESPN.
He had a report where he went on the radio
and was like, hey, so, uh yeah, it's a weird
market for Brown. I got some stats guys telling me
(04:28):
he's maybe their seventh best player on the team. And
of course, when you say something like that, and honestly,
I bet you Bobby Mark's got a little rap on
the knuckles from ESPN management. You'd rather have that go
on on your air. This was on some kind of
radio show, I believe, and it's like, whoa, whoa seventh
best guy on the Like, you can't say that shit,
that's just goofy. He was the NBA Finals MVP. Now,
(04:50):
if you would try to add context and say based
on salary, maybe you could craft an argument. I don't
think it's a great one, but people forget, like I'm
just gonna turn back the clock. Right before the playoffs,
everybody had the Celtics one of the finals. Everybody. Now
I have picked the Knicks, but everyone had the Celtics.
(05:10):
They were, oh, well Celtics, they were good without Tatum.
Then Tatum comes back and they're good. Oh it's Celtics.
And then of course they're up three to one on
the sixers, Tatum gets hurt, he's ineffective missus Game seven
and they lose, and now it's like whoa, wait, I
don't know, does it work, and I'm like, guys, can
we pump the brakes? It works financially is where it
(05:33):
gets interesting. And of course when Bobby Marks has this comment,
it goes viral and Jalen Brown then starts to fire back,
and then his dad gets in the mix and starts
saying stuff. Jayalen Brown's dad is a seven foot former boxer.
He essentially told Perkins and Stephen A. Smith watch your mouth,
(05:53):
you know, in a manner that conveys he's not messing around.
And it's weird because now you've got all these guys
making this a racial thing. With Jalen Brown, well, you know,
when a black man speaks up, what huh wa even
speaks up? Jalen Brown wasn't even interview answering a question
(06:14):
from the media. Jalen Brown went on Twitch and decided
to come out forthright and be like, hey, this was
my favorite season. That's not a racial thing. That's his opinion.
He likes being the man, the alpha. We get it.
I don't know how you could have more fun losing
in the first round but getting a million shots as
opposed to I don't know, winning the title or going
(06:34):
to the finals. But that's not my style. I want
to win. I don't want to put up stats. And
it's just weird because then again, I'm not criticizing Jail Brown.
This is the facts. He's had success in Boston. He's
won a title, he's been All NBA twice, he was
NBA Finals MVP. He's wealthy beyond belief. And that's not
(06:55):
enough success money. What's he not happy about? I don't know.
That's a question you've got to ask Jayleen Brown. But
if he's not happy despite major success as a pro,
and he's the quick to point out, I've won more
games since I joined the NBA than anybody, wonderful. So
you have a ton of success and you're still not happy.
(07:17):
I think that's a U problem, bro. So I'm not
surprised they're shopping him to anybody. I mean, ship up
to New Orleans, get trade Murphy and whatever. But that's
where it gets interesting, Rob. His teams are reluctant to
trade for Brown, A because his salary's enormous now and
b because he's going to be eligible to make even
more when he's thirty two years old. So are you
(07:38):
giving up the farm for a guy who might leave
in three years? If it's me, probably, I don't know
about the farm, but I'm giving up a lot. And
again I think I said this on the pod. I
definitely staid on the herd. We just watched the Knicks
acquire Jalen Brunson, build around him, and three years later
got a title. If you acquire Jalen Brown, you build
(07:58):
around him. Don't worry about Jalen Brown sinks contract is
maybe it doesn't work for you. Build around him and
see if you can make a run. I don't think
it's that hard. It's clear he's not gonna be able
to go to He's not gonna pair with Luca. You can't.
Then you have like no other players because there's no
money left. But if you want to send her to
New Orleans, Portland has assets. You know there's other teams
(08:21):
out there that don't have a huge payroll. I'm surprised
there's not a bigger market for Jalen Brown. Rob, I'm
a little surprised by this.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well. See the other reason why you might have a
hard time finding a trade Jalen Brown trade is because
you mentioned it. He wants to be the man wherever
he ends up, and depending on who you talk to
or who you follow, who your favorite reporter is. Chris
Mannix has said about a week ago now that the
Boston Celtics were canvassing the league in Jalen Brown trade
(08:50):
because they wanted a big man. And that's when they
want to be honest. They didn't get you honest. So
if you go down the list and you say, all right, well,
wherever we send him, we got to get a big
man in return, like, all right, well, that gives us
about ten to fifteen teams we can look at. That's
gonna be yea might be you're not gonna get a
player that's better than Jalen Brown, because you know big
men were better are what Jokic Giannis. And then you're like,
(09:11):
all right, well, now we're dipping out a tear. So
either you're gonna get someone who's a tier right below him,
or even two tiers below him. You're like, all right, well,
we gotta get a big man. And then you say,
all right, well, wherever we send him, it's got to
be salary wise. You mentioned sixty million dollars. All right,
well that narrows down a little bit more. They say,
all right, well it's got to be he's got to
get he's got to be the man wherever he goes.
He's got to get a big man. He's got to
(09:31):
be a big salary. He's like, well, shit, well now
there's only like three teams we can send him to,
and that becomes really, really tricky. And that's a big
reason why you saw on Saturday coming into Sunday in
the overnight hours, Sam Mamick reported, of all the teams
in the entire NBA, they have a chance at Jalen Brown.
For the record, as a Laker front I would love
(09:52):
to get Jaylen Brown on my team. The one that's
in the front running is the Portland Trailblazers. You're like, well,
why what could you possibly do with Jalen Brown, Denny
Abdia and stuff in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh, I don't know. You don't think you could do
anything with.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Them because you win a championship.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
With them in three years.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It's potentially by then he's thirty four or thirty three. No, no, no, no, no,
he's twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You'll be thirty two and three years. I think, hold on,
hold on. So you're what would you give up in
the in the trade for for Brown with Portland Obdias, staying.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Of course, he's probably the only non starter there. Age.
I mean, you have to give up one of the
young guys, whether it's him, whether it's Shade and Sharp.
I'm assuming Schoot Hunteringson has to be in the deal
just because you have to sell me on a young
star kind of thing. But it's like it gets really tricky,
really quickly. And I'm one of the people who thinks
(10:47):
that analytics has kind of ruined sports because it takes
just go with me here, it takes away the beauty
of sports historically, right, Like if you were to go
back and watch all of your favorite players of whatever
sport you're talking about. If you're just talking analytically, right,
a Magic Johnson behind the back pass in the middle
of traffic is not a good pass, right, Magic Johnson
(11:11):
passing up a wide open layup to dish it off
to James Worthy for a fifteen foot jump shot is
not good analytically, Okay. If yeah, sure, if you are
Shack and Shaq is not junking the ball through somebody's face,
it's not a good analytics shot for him, just statistically, right.
If you go in baseball and it's like, oh, well,
Tony Gwynn get ten thousand, Bay says, well, that's not
(11:33):
good Analytically, it's got to be a home run, home run,
a strikeout, that's what we want. And so I'm one
of the people who thinks that analytics should be used
in conjunction with the ideas should all bleed together like
a beautiful portrait. If it's all one or all the other,
it's not going to be great. And as much as
I am a fan of Jalen Brown, which I am,
(11:53):
analytically he does not grade out as a great NBA
player all right. This past season the Boston Celtics, he
was a plus six and a half net rating, which
was ninth on their team. Their net rating was actually
five and a half points worse with him on the
court than it was without him. In the postseason, Historically,
(12:15):
Jalen Brown has had a negative net rating swing in
six of his nine playoff appearances. Again, that's just what
numbers say, and I don't think that that should be
the be all, end all, but that does have to
factor in at some point.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Okay, hold up, pulled up, pulled up? That is so
net rating is just one number that that's intrigue I
had not seen.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Let's go to Player Efficiency rating per supposed to be
the gold standard for analytics for NBA players individually, it
seems to skew toward large, taller players. Giannis was one,
he only played thirty six, Jokic two SGA than Wemby
then Luca was five. Jalen Brown was seventeenth, tied with
Yonis Valentunis. However, he was ahead of Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxi,
(13:14):
and Jamal Murray, but at the same time behind Zion Donovan, Mitchell,
Jimmy Butler. So, I mean, I don't know, Rob, do
you think when you take those two together, Like, does
he tumble out of the top ten as players in
the league. No, First of all, do you think he's
(13:35):
a top ten player in the league.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think he's right there, Like he's somewhere between eight
and twelve.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And it depends like some guys were hurt, right, so
they don't qualify. Okay, So he's a top twelve player
in the league and the analytics like him, but not
all of them like him, right sure, because he does
the mid range.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Though exactly, And that's the big reason why, especially on
this Celtics team, his net rating and his efficiency is
going to be way down because everybody on their team
is just bombs away from three or lay up at
the rim. And Jalen Brown, to his credit, was the
only guy, as far as I know, in the NBA
who said, I am going to skew all of that
and put a contested mid range jumper into my repertoire. Well,
(14:14):
SGA does it too, but I mean like he did
it willingly, like SGA did it because he had to,
Like that was his game from the beginning. Jaylen Brown's like,
not screw that. We got to be able to score
it another way. And so I understand why the numbers
wouldn't like him. But it's like he is walking around
puffing it again. And I like Jalen Brown, but he's
puffing his chest out like he is the best two
way player in the league. F all of y'all, you
(14:35):
guys wish you had someone like me. His dad's going
on radio interviews, you mentioned it. He's going on Twitch
before after games in the playoffs talking about X, Y
and Z, and it's like, is he kind of lost
the plot a little bit? And that's why or that's
one of the reasons why the real contenders don't want
him or not willing to give up what they have
to get up to get him, because he's gonna go
(14:57):
wherever he winds up. I think he's never gonna play
Feltics again. Wherever he goes is going to be a
worse situation than Boston.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't hold on, hold on, what about the Detroit Pistons.
I don't think they have the amo to get him.
You'd probably have to rope in other teams. But if
Jalen Duran's going to Boston, picks are going to Boston
and you rope in a third team Jalen Brown and
Kate cunning him, I mean Kate cutting him by himself
won over sixty games.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And I would normally agree with you. I would normally
agree with you were it not for Jalen Brown reiterating
over and over that he wants to be the man,
that he wants to be the guy. He can't go
to Detroit and take over and be the man on
that team, that's Kate's team. So it's like, how do
you navigate all of this? What he wants I believe
(15:43):
is virtuous. I think it's noble. I think it's great.
I love when guys challenge themselves like this. But the
reality is, if you're gonna challenge yourself like this, you're
going to go to a bad situation or a situation
that is much lesser than what you're currently at.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So when you rule out, like if you say, Okay,
he wants to be the man, you can't send him
to Detroit. I mean that really, I guess Portland is
his number one option. They have a lot of assets. Yeah, Portland, man,
you know things like that, mid majors of the NBA.
I gotta just say, Jalen, be careful what you wish for, Bro,
(16:20):
You just you gotta be careful what you wish for.
You might think it the grass is greener being the man,
and the next thing you know, you go to Portland
and your seventh in the West, you know, mm hmm.
I mean, if Portland would have to give up clinging
Camara Kamara, the wing who's really good defensively, I mean,
you can have Scoot or shading picks whatever. I think
(16:42):
Portland could have something real nice. I thought they were
good man with Avdy eleading the way, but now Avdy
asked to share duties. It's so weird these guys not
wanting to like share duties, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, I mean it's the Kobe ification. Kobe started it,
someone's got to finish it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
But that's the thing. Kobe didn't win anything when it
was by when it was his show he needed.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
But it was still his show. He just had better
players around him.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And it took a while.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
No, I mean when he basically ran shack Off, right,
they didn't win anything.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
No, and it took a while. And I don't think
Jaylen Brown has a while. I don't think he can
wait three four years.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
First they needed like Gasol, right, who wasn't a superstar,
but he had I mean, like he's a version of
the Og in itob a better one, right, just not
not the same player, but like you needed a key
guy around you who's gonna unlock a lot. Guessol was that,
right for for Kobe Og and you guys, I guess
Towns was that. But I don't that that's so weird.
(17:41):
Joe so you you you think this is like a
good thing, that he wants this and he wants to
take mid range. I mean, Rob, I'm gonna remind you
for the better part of the last decade, when threes
became in vogue, the Rockets were always knocking on the door.
The Warriors were the best team in the league. The Cavs, well,
I guess we got to eliminate them because they had Lebron. Uh,
the Celtics won a title. There's proof of concept for
(18:03):
the three point strategy. You know, the nuggets they had, but.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
They're probably the only one. That Celtics team is probably
the only, you know, predominantly analytic driven team that has
won a championship in the last decade.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, you don't think the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Were, No, I think that they I mean steplay pre Kate's. Yeah,
they get a lot of credit for, you know, shooting
the three and that, and of course they did, but
you remember living through that time. They weren't all threes
or nothing. They were back cuts. They were mid range
with Sean Livingston right, but they did all kinds of stuff.
They were deadly from everywhere. The difference was that you
(18:41):
had to stretch your defense to cover Stephan Clay thirty
five feet in the basket, which allowed Barbosa, which allowed Livingston,
which allowed you know, uh, Andrew Boget to get his
little flip shot in there. Like they had ways to
manipulate the defense. And then Houston came along with D'Antoni
and James Harden and they said, no, we're gonna do
threes and layers. It's all were gonna do. And they
(19:01):
had a lot of success, but they never quite broke through. Well,
they ran into some of the greatest sure, sure, but
then everybody decided like that's the only way to play.
We're gonna turn this game into a math problem. And
the only team that actually succeeded doing that was the
Boston Celtics, where Jalen Brown's trying to leave that's so weird.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So let me. I'm trying to look up three point stats. Uh,
so what do you prefer three point percentage or volume?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Like, what's the better indicator of success?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, because the Knicks led the playoffs in three point
percentage thirty nine percent. They won the title. Last year
in the playoffs, the Pacers shot thirty nine percent and
lost in Game seven. Their star got hurt twenty four
the Sixers, they only played six games.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I would assume attempts is probably the better indicator, okay,
because if you're shooting at a high clip, of of
course you're gonna win it. Just you know, are you
not taking you're taking the fourth or fifth most attempts
versus an the team.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I mean, it's funny that the most attempts were Golden
State made the play in, had injuries. Hornets had their
best season ever. Oh not ever, sorry, best season in
like the last ten years. Portland they're back with the
three point shooting Celtics. They were for eighty five percent
of the regular season the best team in the East.
Sons made the play Oh they lost in the first round, right, yeah,
(20:23):
they got You.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Just mentioned a team that lost in the play in,
lost in the play and lost in the first round.
Lost in the first round.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
But a lot of the So four of those five
teams like had no play well not four Warriors, they
had injuries. It put in asterisk. Celtics had Tatum hurt
and still were amazing thanks to the three Charlotte, Portland
and Phoenix. I mean, I don't think they've made the
playoffs recently and they adopted the three point strategy and
made the play in. So to me, those are wins.
(20:51):
But you're saying it's you don't think those are wins.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, I mean it depends on your perception. Like, if
you are Charlotte Portland, who has had any success in
a decade, then just making the playoffs, of course is great.
So this analytics driven offense is going to be a
good idea for you. But if you are a team
like you know, Boston, of course you mentioned them the Knicks,
if you are Denver, if you're Oklahoma City, if you're
San Antonio, your idea of success is much higher. And
(21:15):
I think you know one thing that NBA players know,
especially hear I'm talking on podcast interviews, they'll say, the
analytics get you a regular season, we get to the playoffs,
just get a bucket, it doesn't matter what it looks like. Yes,
and these guys are like, hey, that's cool, but you
can't play like that the deeper you get into the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, I definitely agree. Regular season to get there, you
need the threes. So three point attempts in the playoffs.
The thunder were fifth, Spurs were seventh, Knicks for eight
or eighth in terms of attempts, but the Knicks just
made so many threes super efficient. Thunder were third, Spur
Spurs were fourth. So three of the top four playoff
(21:57):
teams in terms of field goal percentage were Awesome were
second by the way, and they somehow when nobody expected
to beat the Rockets, they beat him. So I think
there's definitely proof of concept that hey man, this does work.
But I think you're right. You need some kind of
CounterPunch in the playoffs. You can't just jack threes because
I don't know. And I saw David West chiming in
(22:18):
the former Power Forward. It's so funny because and I've
said this and people roll their eyes. I'm like, Patrick
hub is one of my favorite players. I don't know
what he would be in this NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't It's like a different sport.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, I'm not saying it's bad. That's just how it is.
It's like rob for in the World Cup, all these
hydration breaks, so that's a new thing, and so many
people are like, oh, this is bullshit, what's happening. Why
do we have this? It's like, guys, this is just
how it is. You could complain or you can adapt
to the hydration breaks. And I don't know if you've noticed,
but like some of these, like Canada in the game
(22:52):
on Sunday, they were getting they were looking awful early
in the first like twenty minutes, hydration break comes, coach
makes some adjustments. Canada took the game over, like you
just got to adapt. And frankly, I'm I'm kind of
with the three point strategy. I mean it's essentially Wemby
and four guards. You know, David West is probably jealous.
You guys remember him. He's a good power forward? Like
(23:13):
where does he fit now? Is he irrelevant? Look at
the top power forwards in the league, Carl Anthony Towns.
You got a guy like Jalen Duran, right, he was
an All NBA guy. He's really is he a center
or power forward?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Rob? It's probably a center in today's NBA.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
What about Duran?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
He's a center? Here's no jump shot. Hey, you and
be power forward if you are useless outside of the paint.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It just feels like if you're a power forward now
you have to stretch the floor or they'll just craw.
They just load up in the lane and take away
the big from doing anything. I mean, honestly, you could, Yes,
you could. I would agree that like the nerds have
taken over. They took over baseball like twenty years ago,
remember the moneyball stuff. And it's pretty clear they're taking
(24:00):
over and hacking, if you will, the NBA. I think
they've hacked the NFL because for a while you saw
the NFL was like, hey, we just want these bombs,
we want the deep plays, and then the defenses came
in and said, no, we're going to play the two
safeties high. You're gonna have to go down the field
and beat us, and it slowed down. I mean, look
at Mahomes. He's kind of remember how dominant he was
(24:20):
with the bombs to Tyreek Hill. That's kind of been
the water has been turned off on that. Teams are
not giving up the bomb the way they used to.
They want to keep everything in front and make you
play slow. So if I'm in the NBA, I'm definitely
taking away the three, and if I'm an offensive team,
I'm definitely shooting it.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
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Speaker 2 (24:52):
Which brings us to Kawhi Leonard rob who is in
La with the Clippers for now. But according to The Athletic,
it sounds like Massi Ujerie who rolled the dice famously
and traded for unhappy Kawhi in San Antonio and brought
the Raptors one of the luckiest titles this century. Sorry,
(25:14):
but when kd plays ten minutes and Clay gets hurt,
yeah it's lucky. They would have got smoked by the
full strength Warriors, that's obvious, but they got their title,
and now Massai may be reconnecting with Kawhi. According to
the Athletic, I will say Rob, the package for Kawhi
seems very light. Now he is thirty four years old,
but he's coming off a great season. But if we're
(25:36):
talking PJ. Washington, Klay Thompson, gafferd Or Lively and then
some picks, that to me is like a weak asshole.
And it sets up the MAVs with Kyrie, super Max,
Christy Cooper, flag Kawhi and then whoever's left over of
Gafford or Lively and then the who they drave Mores
(25:59):
Johnson from Michigan. Dusty made the coach, that's a pretty
sick lineup, prob If I'm the MAVs and I can
actually do that trade. The problem is that they're supposed
to be picks involved, but Dallas's picks they don't have them.
Twenty seven goes to Charlotte and they have no control
over their twenty nine first round pick. Twenty eight and
(26:20):
thirty are tied up in pick swaps. So I think
a third team needs to get involved here. And by
the way, if I'm the Clippers, what am I doing
with Klay Thompson? He's wash washed and PJ Washington, I
mean's solid, but he's a good piece of a contender,
not a Clippers team that would kind of be rebuilding.
(26:40):
They're not going to the playoffs without Kawhi. I mean,
I like Keaton Woggler and Ben Matherin and Garland, but
that that's not a playoff team in the West. If
the MAVs pull this off, that's a pretty great trade.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Rob Oh one thousand percent. It's a great trade if
you're Dallas, because you know, say what you want about
Kawhi and Williar. Wouldn't he play on a night to
night basis? He's the poster child for load management. When
he does play, he's freaking awesome. And from the Clopper's perspective,
maybe it's one of those things where like, hey, Kawhi
wants a new deal, we don't want to give him
a new deal. We get to al aspiration thing hanging
(27:13):
over our heads. We just got to get rid of
him for something. And if Dallas, you know what, baby,
we'll get to the other team a second. But if
Dallas is offering you enough picks or enough swaps or
what have you to make it worth your while, And
Kawhi has already said that if I go there, I
would sign the extension, then then maybe. But if you're Dallas,
the one thing that I'm confused about him, I'll get
(27:35):
your a pain on it on In theory, that starting
five sounds great. My question is, though, if you're making
that kind of move, Kyrie's going to be entering his
age what thirty five season, He's coming off a torn
acl The expectation would be to win a championship, which
means I'm assuming if you make this deal, you believe
that Cooper Flag can be at worst the second best team,
(27:57):
a second best player in a championship team. At age nineteen.
Does that sound a little rich for your blood?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, I don't know. Is the second best player Kyrie
Irving if he's healthy. I saw him at some basketball
camp on Instagram roasting folks.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Roasting guys at a basketball guy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Some guy in China was like, yeah, you're you're destroying it.
But you can't score on me, you know, just some like,
you know, random Asian high school maybe not high school,
maybe college or whatever. And Kyrie didn't score on him
the first play. And then and then he started clapping
at Kyrie and it was like, all right, come on, bro,
stop and then Kyrie scored on him. But like, that's
what Kyrie Irving's up to, you know, going around the
(28:32):
world beating teenagers one on one.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I mean, next year Flag will be he turns
twenty in December. Bro, he's not. I don't know that
he's already gonna be the second best player on a
title winner. I just the only thing I don't love
about this is are you screwing with the potential for
Flag over the next five years putting him alongside a
(28:57):
guy with no work ethic Kawhi Leonard, A guy like
Kyrie Irving who you know, he seemed to have cleaned
up his act going to the finals with Luca, but
then he got hurt. I just don't know. I kind
of sort of like how the Spurs had Wemby, Castle
and Harper and they said, you know, we're just gonna
(29:17):
go get a guy like dearon Fox, the veteran, you know,
and plug him in. And year two Wemby gets the
blood clot. Year three they go to the finals. Like,
I don't know, if you build around Cooper Flag, Rob,
couldn't you theoretically get to the conference finals, conference semifinals
by year three with Cooper Flag, I don't know. He's
(29:38):
younger than Wemby, but I just don't know. I I
honestly didn't watch a lot of Dallas after they were
tanking in a dumpster fire, but I like Flag a lot.
I just I wonder if his growth will be hindered
alongside guys like Kyrie and Kawhi who were always looking
for their shot. You know, no, I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I think he's growth would be hindered. But what we
saw this season, because I did I did watch a
lot of MAVs basketball because they happen to be on
during the radio show, so we have all the TVs,
like can catch a lot of his games. Is he
is not a one trick pony by any stretching. He's not.
I'm just a scorer, I'm just a rebounder. I'm just
a three point shooter, like whatever. He really can fill
(30:19):
a lot of gaps because his game is so well rounded.
He's an unselfish player, but he can score right. He
is a good defender up and down, you know, basically
two through five. He can rebound pretty well for his size.
So if like, hey, your individual growth will probably be stunted,
but you would be able to fill the void so
(30:39):
easily and so seamlessly between guys like Kawhi and you know,
we'll say Derek Lively and Kyrie Irving and super Max Christy.
So he could absolutely fit the role and be a
better scoring version of like an ogn and Obi. You know,
in that situation, the question just becomes is when you
make a move like that, you're doing so with the
(31:01):
expectation that you're going to be really good right away,
and if you're not, then why would you mortgage the
future when you have this nineteen year old super phenom
sitting right there on your bench, Like, that's the confusion
for me because he should have been in this draft class.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, and he would have well let's see, uh yeah,
he would have gone one.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I'm pretty sure. I mean, I've got a I hope so.
But it's like, that's just how good he is. He
should have been in this class, but instead he declared
you know, he jumped up a grade and he was
in last year's class.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, huh. Interesting. I don't know. We'll see what happens
with the MAVs. I'm really really down on I mean again, Kyrie,
Kyrie and Kawhi, like, can you imagine that locker room?
I just want to remind people of what it was like.
And you could say, well, Jay, he's grown up since then,
but remember Kyrie, Harden and Durant in Brooklyn. It's just
such a disaster. I'm surprised at thirty for thirty hasn't
(31:55):
been made. That was where Kyrie was like burning sage
and James Harden's like what the what are you doing
well and just fall apart. Now, obviously Kyrie is a
different guy, but Kawhi Leonard like, I don't know, I
want leaders around my young superstar. I just don't. We
haven't seen that from Kawhi. So n if NBA free
(32:15):
agency starts, let's see what Tuesday. Oh, what a day
that is. USA soccer in the knockouts, an NBA free
agency man and then no, we don't have any real
Lebron updates. It still feels like it's retirement or Lakers
for Lebron. I'm sorry, I'm not buying this. Go to
(32:35):
the Miami Heat with.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Don stupid Goofy.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
There's no chance of that. The only Lakers thing I
saw was the Lakers are showing interest in Jack Landale
and Dean Wade.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I mean, I don't know time Lakers, snow time is back.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I think you got to get credit for that. Snow
time Lakers. All right, well we're back. There's a big
week for soccer for n B A man ah, what
a time to be alive. We'll see tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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