On today's episode, Jason gets the party started with a deep dive into what's next for the Golden State Warriors. Everyone is clamoring for the club to trade Jordan Poole, but the reality is they may actually be better off trading Klay Thompson and/or Draymond Green. Speaking of change, all eyes will be on the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night as we find out which also-ran will win the rights to take French phenom Victor Wembanyama; Let's just say some spots are definitely sexier than others. Later, The Athletic Lakers beat writer Jovan Buha swings by to discuss why he was a little shocked to see this current group in the Western Conference Finals, the evolution of Austin Reaves and his long-term future with the club, how the Lakers might try to defend the supersized Denver Nuggets front court, the matchup problems Nikola Jokic presents, why he expects the LeBron James-Anthony Davis two-man game to be lethal against Denver and much more! Finally, our fearless leader closes the show with his Best Bets for Game 1 between the Lakers and the Nuggets.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
What is up Straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Tuesday, May sixteenth. It was a bizarre night
in sports where there was no NBA. I did not
have to watch any basketball. I did watch Aaron Judge
Go Deep, I did not watch hockey, and I finally
(00:37):
dug into Ted Lasso. I'm way behind on the season,
you know, Listen, it's tough during NFL NBA to really
watch these shows on streaming. It's just tough. And now
starting tonight with Lakers Nuggets, I think we go two
straight weeks with NBA every night and obviously, like I'm
(00:57):
into the games, do you guys know that probably, I
mean there's a chance of Celtics quoted three nothing on
the heat which is in play. Sorry to report Miami
fans that there's a chance, small chance that I will
skip a game here or there. But very exciting times
as we get down final four in the NBA. We
have tonight the NBA Draft lottery. Somebody's gonna win the
(01:19):
Victor Wembiniama sweepstakes. I will give you shortly the leaders
in the clubhouse for the French superstar who I think
he's They're saying he's now seven foot five, which is
just insane. We have a great guest today, I've had
him on before, Jovon Buja covers the Lakers for the Athletic.
(01:39):
He's in Denver. We break down all the nerdy, nitty
gritty matchups, which guard may be left out of the
Lakers rotation. You know Lonnie Walker's cracked it now. You
know he's out there on the wing. What are they
gonna do is bigs against Yokis where we see Lebron
Ruey Hajimor. It's good stuff and he has a good,
interesting X factor for the series. Potential gambling winnings could
(02:01):
be had based on what Jovann has to say. But
before we get to that, I just will do two
things and I'll give my pick at the end of
the podcast. Number one, so the ringer had a big story.
That's a Bill Simmons website. Had a big story on
the Warriors foundation cracking after Draymond Green punched out Jordan
Poole and things were never patched up. And this writer,
(02:24):
I guess, got as close to Jordan Pool as possible
and said, even though after the punch at the beginning
of the season. Even though like they kind of made up.
It wasn't like they made up and became friends. And
of course not you got sucker punched in practice, and
yes it was a sucker punch. And so this writer
(02:45):
asked Jordan Poole about the divide between the team. Remember
there's some young guys that COAMINGA Wiseman was there at
the time, Moses Moody Pool. They thought they had next
they were ready, and the Warriors determined they were not,
led by Draymond Green, and Pool's response on relationships being
repaired was, I don't have an answer for you other
(03:07):
than that we was just on the court and teammates.
We was out there trying to win games. It's just
been business. It's been basketball, and that's like what it is.
They're not hanging You expect these guys to hang out afterward.
Tell me the last guy that punched you in the face,
that was your friend that you ended up hanging out
with after that, Like, think about it. I've never experienced
(03:29):
that in my life. Now, listen, friends scrapping in high school. Fine,
these are teammates and he punch them in the face
and then the video goes out, But listen, regardless of
what happened this season for the Warriors, that was gonna
be brought up like the punch. Can it be repaired?
What do they have to do in the offseason to
get back on top? And listen, there's what do we
(03:52):
got essentially two months to go, a little less than
two months until free agency and the summer begins. And
here's the biggest problem for the Golden State Warriors is
there's no easy fix. There's no obvious move. I can
only imagine that their war room is just it's gonna
there's gonna be a lot of haggling. Because Cary got paid,
Corrie salary goes to fifty one million next year. Klay
(04:15):
Thompson wants to get paid this offseason. He doesn't want
to go into this next season as a lame duck.
Well that that's what they call coaches, but essentially without
a future contract because then you get hurt and you're
not getting anything in the next contract. So he want
some money this summer. And you know, Cary got fifty one.
Clay's been right there by his side throughout it all.
(04:36):
He's got to assume he's getting in the forties. Andrew
Wiggins got his money. He's making twenty four next year.
Draymond Green is another guy. He has a player option
for uh Draymond is a player option for twenty seven. Well,
he's obviously gonna pick up the option, but he wants
a new deal too. Gary Payton's on the hook for
eight mil Kevon Looney eight mil Kuminga Devincenzo has a
(05:00):
player option. I don't know if he's played well enough
to opt out and test the market. I don't know.
I like he had a couple of good games. I
like him. He would you rather win in Golden State
or go somewhere else and maybe get paid And then
Jordan Poole's make a twenty eight mil Moses Moody's on
the books. There are a lot of unanswered questions for
this team, and it's not as easy as trade Jordan Poole.
(05:21):
It does not work like that, guys. You know that.
So in the NBA salaries have to come kind of
close to matching. I forgot what the exact number is.
It's like six percent or the ESPN trade machine has it.
But the idea that you could just move Jordan Poole
It's definitely not that easy. First of all, everyone around
the league knows, well, I'm not giving you a deal.
Jordan Poole's stock is way down. Why am I going
(05:42):
to overpay for a guy you guys overpaid for. And oh,
by the way, if you don't move him, you got
to pay the pool thirty the year after that, then
thirty three, then thirty five. So the Warriors, I don't
think you can move Jordan Poole. Honestly, I'm sure they
will end up doing it or talk themselves into it
because of the Draymond situation. But this is gonna be difficult.
(06:02):
Hard choice is easy life. Easy choice is hard life.
You know that saying, And it's gonna the idea of
moving on from Draymond and Clay is very, very difficult,
And it's easy for me to say, is an armchair GM,
hey see what you get for Draymond. But if you
were to ask gms around the league, my guess is
(06:23):
there's more value in Draymond Green right now on the
market and Clay Thompson than there is Jordan Poole. I
know Pool is younger. I know Pool averaged twenty points
a game when Curry was out. But this is a
guy who doesn't play any defense. He's always coming in
looking for a shot. Do you remember scill was it
scary Terry Rogier a few years back was like awesome
(06:47):
in Boston, instant offense off the bench, and ultimately he
ends up leaving. Let me look it up exactly, but
Terry Rogier essentially was one of these guys who could
just get buckets, and ultimately the Celtics decided, you know,
like Rosier is very, very good, he's skilled, but this
guy's not for us. We're not gonna end up paying him.
So you look at Rosier, who, by the way, twenty nine,
(07:09):
he's still relatively young. He can still score. But like
with Boston, he was an eleven point a game guy
coming off the bench, and they were just like, yeah,
that this is not our kind of guy. So he
goes to Charlotte on a bad team. He's making a
lot of money and he's putting up points eighteen a game,
twenty a game, nineteen a game, twenty one a game.
He's shooting low field goal percentage. He shot forty percent
(07:33):
from three to twenty twenty, then thirty eight, then thirty seven,
now thirty two, Like I mean, basically, Terry Rosier, his
stock is continues to fall and he's on a losing team.
You know. I just that's the kind of guy that
Jordan Poole can go turn into if he goes to
the wrong team. And again, nothing against Terry Rogier. I'm
(07:53):
sure he's thrilled. The guy is slated to make twenty
three million dollars next year, So Jordan pools making more
than him, and what are they winning? Like, what do
you do with Rosier? Like again, I like him, he's
a good player, but if he's starting for you, you're not winning.
So that's the other question. Like, okay, fine, let's say
someone's interested in Jordan Poole, Like you could actually go
(08:16):
through all the lineups and you're like, well, Jordan Poole's
a scorer. We could use him alongside Cunningham. Could you
really you think he's gonna help or hurt Kate Cunningham's growth.
I mean, in essence, Jordan Poole is kind of like
a Monta Ellis. Remember Curry was there with Monte Ellis
scoring machine bucket getter didn't play defense athletic fun. I
had to move on from him, Like I think He
(08:38):
kind of reminds me of Monte Ellis, and I like
Jordan Poole a lot. I mean, this guy's an electric score,
can get by anybody, and he gets going lookout when
he gets going downhill. Hello, But is that the kind
of guy you want? So I don't see any market
for him.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
If you tell me Kay Thompson is on the market,
I'll tell you right now. There's a lot of teams
that haven't sniffed the playoffs that would be like, oh
heck yeah, we'll take culture. Check. Winning, attitude check, great
three point shooter check, locker room guy. Check that Clay
checks all the boxes. We will pay him. Orlando Magic
would overpay him. Washington Wizards, who haven't been in the
playoffs forever, would take him. And obviously he's not gonna
(09:17):
be your one, not gonna be your two, but you
have him as a culture guy helping young dudes learn
how to win. Like there's some teams that just don't
have players who know how to win Indiana Pacers, you know,
like it obviously won't happen. But like a buddy healed,
he isn't a winning one. Good year in Oklahoma went
to the Final four, like Buddy Hill. I mean, I
(09:39):
like him, but all he is, you know, he's off
the bench chucker who could get hot. He can be
a scoring machine, a microwave off the bench. But ultimately,
Indiana is desperate to win. Remember, this is a franchise
in a small market that needs to host playoff games
to make that postseason money. They don't have a big
TV deal, They're not. Indiana's in a tough market. They
(10:01):
need to be in the playoffs. They would kill for
a guy like Klay Thompson. I'm sure the Clippers would
love to have Klay Thompson in the building. Now, Warriors
don't want him in the Western Conference. Obviously, you don't
want to see Clay in the playoffs. And these tough decisions.
I mean, listen, man, Draymond Green has a ton of value. However,
how is Draymond Green gonna aid you sign him to
a three year deal? What's that looking like two years
(10:24):
from now. It's just it's very difficult right now for
the Golden State Warriors. I don't know that there's a
way that Pool and Draymond can make up, and I
think most people will land all Jay, you just trade
Jordan Poole. You get whatever you can you get off
that deal, even if you got to take a bad deal.
Oh really, you gonna what if they say, hey, we
want Kaminga too, You're just gonna part ways with Kaminga.
(10:45):
I saw someone float Kaminga and Pool for Drew Holliday,
and I'm like, I'm trading two of my top seven guys,
two of my young guys who are gonna be with
me in the future for Drew Holliday, who I like.
And it's a good defender. But you're ripping apart your
bench and listen, Curry's getting old guys. I just it's
(11:06):
very difficult in Golden State. I don't know that there's
an easy solution. And Bob Myers, it seems like is
looking to get the hell out of Dodge. At least
that would be my read in Golden State because the
ship not be sinking, but it's close quickly to the
Victor wembin Yama sweepstakes. Tonight they do the draft lottery
(11:28):
Big Night. I will have a mock draft for Fox
Sports next week. Currently, the best odds to get Victor
Wembinyama are tied between Detroit, Houston, and San Antonio. I'm
sure there are a lot of Spurs fans who are thinking, boy,
if we can duplicate the magic when we got Tim Duncan,
(11:50):
that would be amazing. Houston has an interesting scenario. Let's
say you get the top pick are you Are you
still adding James Harden to that? Now there's a chance
you could win quickly. But does Harden hurt or help
Victor wem bin Yama's growth as a young player. And
I asked that because we know James Harden is kind
(12:10):
of touch and go. We know in Houston he loves
the nightlife scene. James Harden'll show up one night and
the next night he's invisible. We know in the playoffs
it's even worse. I don't know. I mean, Detroit is
kind of interesting. I just don't know that they have
enough talent to really do anything. Now you could argue
the East is weak, and actually you could argue the
(12:32):
West is getting old, the East is a little wee
is a little weaker. But here are the highest paid
players on the Pistons next year. No Cheez Bogdanovic Baggley, Cunningham,
Alec Burks, James Wiseman, Jaden ivy Oh my gosh, this
is a bad team. Kelly and Hayes, Jalen Duran, Isaiah Stewart.
(12:53):
I mean they're gonna have to make a lot of
moves if they're bringing on one Ban Yama, I don't
see it there. Houston, if they opt not to go
the James Harden route is somewhat spicy because there is
a lot. I think there's more talent in Houston, young
talent than there is in Detroit. Jalen Green, I like
Jabari Smith. We don't really know a lot about just
(13:17):
Sean Tait, the kid from Ohio State. He's pretty good.
Seng Gooon is very good. Can you imagine Seng Gooon
on the front line with Benyama. That's not bad. Tari Easton,
who I loved coming out last year. I think he
made second team All Rookie. Kevin Porter is highly paid.
I think he'll probably be gone. I think this Houston
team has talent. If you're asking me where do I
(13:37):
would I like one Ben Yama to go?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Well.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Portland certainly is interesting. They bricked on the number one
pick with Greg Odin. They have a ten percent chance.
The top three teams have a fourteen percent chance. Charlotte
twelve and a half, Portland ten. When Ben Yama get
Damian Loders to stay? Or does that make trading Dame
a lot easier because you just build around one Ben
(14:00):
Yama Simons whatever else you get? Shaden sharp like it's
kind of interesting. Orlando seems to always in the lottery, Indiana,
Washington never ever gets good things. Utah at four percent,
Dallas at three percent. How about that one min Yama
and Luca but only a three percent chance? And then
there's Orlando. OK see Orlando via Chicago, OK see Toronto,
(14:24):
New Orleans? When min Yama sweepstakes will be very fun?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
All right?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Without further ado, let's get to our guests, the athletics.
Jovann Buja.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I know what sports fans want.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But for everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's welcome into straight Fire. A guy. He's been on
the podcast before it covers the Lakers. He has had
some really good some bangers this year. If you've been
following the team, Yovann Boja, how are you, man?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm doing well, man, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, you are now in Denver for the Western Conference Finals.
I'm gonna imagine that when the Lakers are two and ten,
you were not envisioning a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I was not. I was not as recently as the
trade deadline, when they were thirteenth in the West. You know,
even with the moves at the time, I thought the
team would be better, you know, maybe make a late
playoff push. But I don't think anyone even with the
team saw this coming, this type of turnaround, this type
of run.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, it feels like and I don't want to try
to make too much of this yet because nothing's determined,
but it feels like Lebron and ad by getting Westbrook
out of there kind of sort of killed the super
team vibes and getting in a bunch of role players
around them Vanderbilt, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, Ruy Hachima, like
(15:55):
any one of the Dennis Shudder. They've got basically five
solid role players. Any one of them are liable to
go off on a night, And that's almost better than
the three big headed that then the three big stars
that used to be in vogue. Would you agree with
that at all?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Are Yeah, No, I totally agree with you. I think
that was really the Lakers issue for their their season
and a half with Russ was uh, you know, last
year it was all the old guys and uh, you know,
running it back with the DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Trevor Reza,
guys who over half that roster's out of the NBA
(16:27):
right now and not getting back in.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And then this year at the start of the year,
it was a lot of guards and and kind of
smaller guys where you always had these weird three guard
lineups where Russell Westbrook or Patrick Beverly is like the
small forward uh out there and just didn't have enough shooting,
didn't have enough size. And I really think, uh, you know,
(16:50):
there was an addition, by a subtraction element with the
Russ trade where uh you know, as I've reported, others
have reported, uh, just the chemistry in the locker room,
it was not great. Uh just the situation with Russ
was not great for all parties involved. But but then
you also, as you alluded to, got a bunch of
depth and brought in a D'Angelo, Russell, a Malik Beasley,
(17:14):
a Jared Vanderbilt at the time three starters. Uh, then
bring a guy like Ruey off the bench.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And then at the time having Dennis and Austin off
the bench. You know, now the rotations reworked a little bit.
Austin is a full time starter. Dennis started game six.
But the depth with this group, and and just the
fit with those guys, the shooting, Uh, Like, you know,
D'Angelo doesn't have to be a point guard. He doesn't
like to refer to himself as a point guard, but
(17:42):
he can be a spot up shooter, catch and shoot
guy that you know, Russell Westbrook could you know, just
could never be. So I think the the there's kind
of a randomness with this group where you know what
you're getting from Lebron and Ad every night, but one
night it could be Austin one night, it could be
Dennis one night, it could be Delo one night, it
could be RUI like, these guys are just kind of
going off game by game, and it really makes it
(18:04):
hard I think for opponents the game plan for them.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, it's so weird. I mean, I don't know if
you totally agree, but I'm talking like February, like you said,
or a trade deadline. It was like a poo poo
platter of Oh, it's gonna be Malik Beasley night, you know,
and it's like it's, of course it's not gonna be.
But then Austin Reeves becomes like, I mean, geez, I
don't even is he the third best player on the team.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Now, yes he is, And honestly, I think he was
all season like I think those who followed the Lakers closely,
you know, I was, you know, when I would talk
about lineups and rotations and stuff like I was saying,
I mean this like we saw it last year. You know,
Austin towards the end of the season really started to
establish himself. As you know, he grew up playing point
(18:44):
guard and I think kind of came in as a
two three where, you know, playing more on the wing,
more as a catch and shoot guy. But like you've
seen with him with the ball in his hands, you know,
magic happens. And I think because of the way he looks,
because of him being on drest, people didn't really view
him in that light. But I think we're starting to
see he is much more of an on ball guy
(19:05):
than he is an off ball and he can drive
off the ball, he can cut, he can spot up,
he can do those things. But he is much more
of a point guard, I think, than he has a wing.
I forgot to mention among the role players Lennie Walker. Hello,
I mean had one of the great the dusted the
cobbs off him. He was starting for the first half
of the season.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I need to ask you about that. I went to
the opener and I could have sworn that Loney Walker
was the third best player in the Lakers, and then
I kept saying that for like a month, and then
I don't know what did he get in the doghouse?
Like what do you know what happened with him?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, there was a little bit of dog I think
there's there's some revisionist history now of oh, he had
this injury, and uh, that's the reason why he wasn't playing.
It was no like he you know, he stopped shooting
the ball as well as he had earlier in the season.
I think at times he was a little too kind
of me first in the offense and looking for his
own shot, and then the defense slipped a little bit.
(19:57):
That was the one thing was early in the season
he was the defending at a high level, and I
think as the season progressed, he stopped defending at that level.
And then once they brought in a guy like Malik Beasley, well,
that guy's making sixteen million dollars a year. He's expecting
to start or play a certain role. And then you
bring in a D'Angelo Russell, Austin's breaking out, Dennis is
still playing a key role off the bench. So I
(20:19):
just felt like they kind of overcrowded the back court
and Lonnie was the one guy who was a bit replaceable.
I'm interested to see his role in this series because
it did feel like Golden State was very much a
series for him. With them playing small, them playing a
lot of guards, the Lakers needed that offensive burst, that athleticism.
I don't know if that's necessarily the case of this series,
where I think it's going to be much more of
(20:40):
a defensive battle. You know, can you defend? You know,
Jamal Murray, can you make enough shot? So we'll see
with that. But again to your point, like the Lakers
finding fifteen points in the fourth quarter out of nowhere
with a guy who hadn't played in two months. It
just feels like, right now they've had found in seemingly
(21:01):
every series.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
This is insane Because you said that Beasley's making sixteen million.
I was like, no way, I got to look this up.
He's making sixteen million next year. But I'm assuming the
Lakers are going to decline the team option, right, I
would think, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So Danzelo
Russell thirty one mil. How did this happen? How did
I miss this? Mobamba, who I don't think has done
anything all playoffs, is making ten million dollars a year?
(21:23):
What is that about.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
He's also got a team option, so I wouldn't be
surprised if that was declined as well. And he's either
brought back on a minimum contract or you know, he
signs elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It's crazy. Austin Reeves one point five million, Dennis Shooter
two point.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Six that Austin's going to go up a lot more.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get to all that. But
so one of the big changes, and I was banging
on Darvin Ham. I didn't like the rotations when he
was playing Troy Brown heavy minutes in the play in
the regular season, and he makes a couple of good
moves in the series against Golden State, specifically shrewder two
point guard or shooter to the starting lineup and putting
Vanderbilt out. I am curious do you think he goes
(22:02):
back to that to start against Denver? And if not, like,
where does Vanderbilt fit in? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
From what I've been told that they're still debating whether
they want to go back to Vanderbilt or not. Kind
of the pros and cons. I think the pros are,
you know, defensively, I think he makes a lot of
sense against either an Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Junior.
And if you start with a Dennis, I mean just
looking at Denver's frontline, you know, Jokich is six ' eleven,
(22:32):
Aaron Gordon's six ' nine, Michael Porter Junior six ten. Like,
if you're going with three guards in Austin, Dilo, and Dennis,
that is a tiny lineup that you're throwing out there.
One of those guys has to guard MPG. I suspect
Lebron will be on Aaron Gordon, Ad will be on Jokic,
and then which one of those guys is guarding MPG?
And maybe you want Denver. It's almost like a tactic
(22:55):
to get Denver to run more of their offense through
him versus Jamal Murray or Nikolay. But I don't really
love the thought of Austin Reeves giving up five or
six inches against the Michael Porter Junior and kind of
the ways that Denver can exploit that matchup. So I
do think either Ruy Hachimora or Jared Vanderbilt plays a
big role in this series defensively against Gordon and MPJ.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. You're
saying you can see a d Lebron and Ruey on
the floor at the same time.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, I mean they've done that before that, it's not
something that they've done as much recently that they have
tried to, you know, have more spacing and shooting out there.
I think Rui's actually, you know, I have a preview
going up tomorrow. He's gonna be my X factor for
the Lakers, just because he's actually defended well in the
post against bigger guys Karl Anthony Towns during the regular season,
(23:47):
in the playing game Jared Jackson Junior in that first
round series. So I think the Lakers are actually gonna
put Ruey on Jokic at times and have Ad as
that roamer that helped defender, kind of simil or to
the way Memphis played a D where they would often
put Xavier Tillman or a smaller guy on AD and
(24:08):
then have Jared Jackson Junior roaming the paint to try
and block shots altar shots because it's usually easier to
block shots as a help defender rather than on the ball.
So I think what we'll see some of that really
kind of trying to body Jokic. It's a big body,
you know, we'll see if that works. Maybe Tristan Thompson
gets gets I'm serious, like, you're gonna probably you're probably
(24:31):
gonna need another big and ideally it's Mobamba. But he's
doubtful for Game one.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Was his injury. He hasn't played forever.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
He's had an ankle injury that that he's been dealing
with for for for several weeks now, so he had
he decided to get a p RP injection. The Lakers
announced he's back in LA will be joining the team tomorrow,
but doubtful for Game one. We'll see if he can
play in Game two or three, but I think the
Lakers are gonna need one more big Like one thing
Anthony Davis talked about was Dwight Howard was essential for them.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Twenty matchup against Jokich. If you remember, he dubbed himself
the Batman because of Jokic's joker nickname, and he really
disrupted Yo. I mean, you know, did as good of
a job as you can reasonably do against Jokic. Now
Jokic is much better since then, yes, but I don't
know if you want to put ad on him for
forty minutes a night and risk the potential foul trouble
because you know that that's I think inevitably going to
(25:21):
come with that. So, whether it's Ruey, whether it Tristan Thompson,
when you and Gabriel like, Lakers are going to have
to find another guy who could defend Jokic, I think
for ten, twelve, fifteen minutes a night and have you know,
give Ady a little bit of arrest defensively where you
can got to protect the rim.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Okay, you mentioned a lot of guys. You did not
mention Lebron James. Do you see Lebron getting frustrated enough
with the way everybody's defending Kic on his team that
he says, bleep this, let me, let me get in there.
I want to crack at Jokic.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It's always it's always, uh, you know, a possibility. But
I do think you know, we saw Lebron defend jer
And Jackson Junior in the first round and it did
not particularly go well. In that Game one, he defended
him a lot, and Jared Jackson Junior had thirty one points.
So I think for Lebron likes to be that roamer
as well. He's someone who likes to go for the
(26:09):
weak side blocks and you know, kind of that ignite
fast breaks that way. So I suspect he'll be on Gordon,
he'll be on Jeff Green, He'll be on kind of
the lesser front court options and then help off those guys.
So you know, potentially, if it's not getting done or
eighties in foul trouble, maybe the Lakers go small with
(26:29):
Ruey and Lebron, and Lebron gets eighty, I mean, gets Jokich,
But I think they're probably going to look for other guys,
you know, try those out first and then go to
Lebron more as the last resort.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So Lakers have way better depth than Denver. But a name,
and again I hadn't heard his name this postseason at all,
but he has given the Lakers major problems when he
was with the Clippers. Is Reggie Jackson? He played a
grand total of ten minutes against the Suns. Now, I
don't know, you know, what's going on with him there
in Denver, but historically I believe Yovan He's destroyed the
(27:04):
Lakers and the Clippers have owned them. Do you think
we see some Reggie Jackson in this series? Because again Denver,
you know, they basically their backup guard is like Bruce Brown, right,
that's it. Christian Brawn, I think is more of like
a small forward. Do you think we see some Reggie Jackson?
Could that be an X factor?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, potentially, you never know. I think there's just
something with those someone putting on a Clippers jersey where
they get superpowers against the Lakers and they just can't
miss shots. You know, I used to cover the Clippers,
and I was on the other side of it where
it's just guys just shoot so much better against the
Lakers for whatever reason. So I think, you know, maybe
(27:42):
he puts on a Clippers jersey under his Nuggets jersey
and gets that mojo back. But I feel it feels
like Denver's condensed their rotation to like seven and a
half eight at most. He's not in that. So I
suspect they'll they'll stick with that, but you never know,
you know, maybe they need an offensive, you know, punch
off the bench, someone gets injured, someone gets in foul
trouble that they mix things up. But based on the
(28:04):
way you know Michael Malone has used his rotation, I
would guess.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Not is former Laker teammate or form Lebron teammates currently
on the Nuggets, Jeff Green, KCP, anyone else.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I believe that's it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, I'm just curious what you think if that's anything
a factor in this series, especially KCP, who was on
the Lakers team that beat Denver a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, I mean, it's some some KCP revenge. He after
joining Denver, said that he felt or that he was
speaking on the Lakers' behalf, saying that the Lakers felt
Denver was the better team and would have won that
series had Anthony Davis not made that shot that game
winning three in Game two. So I don't think the
(28:53):
Lakers love those comments. He also had a comment a
couple of years ago saying he no longer saw the
spot and the joy in Lebron. So CACP, despite being
a clutch client, despite having ties to Lebron in ad,
has had some interesting comments over the past couple of years,
kind of against Lebron and the Lakers. But you know,
(29:16):
Lebron spoke highly of him today at practice, and I
think he is kind of an X factor with just
his energy, his ability to get out and transition, make threes,
defend multiple positions. I wouldn't be surprised if he defends
Lebron at times. I think, yeah, Eron Gordon will be
the primary matchup, and I think Eron Gordon's actually done
a pretty good job against Lebron the past couple of
(29:37):
years in La Denver matchups. But CACP will will probably
get a crack at times. I suspect he'll be more
of an Austin Reeves guy and and his job will
just be you're living in Austin Reeves, Jersey. You're you're
trying to shut him down this series. But yeah, I
mean with with him. Jeff Green of course played with
Lebron in Cleveland and you know it was part of
some of those finals runs there.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So yeah, oh, I forgot Thomas bro Is. He's on
the Nuggets card Thomas Bryant, Yes, correct, So he was
on the Lakers earlier this season, but he did with
him he.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Wanted a bigger role and asked the Lakers to trade him.
He ends up getting traded to Denver and now at
times has been their third string center and just not
really playing. So he went from you know, being the
backup center, getting a starting role with the Lakers when
eighty was out playing well, and then being upset with
his role after eighty came back, asking out, and then
(30:28):
now just doesn't play at all. So you know, it's
like a couple of guys actually because DeAndre Jordan's also
on this team, so oh that's right, Yeah, it is.
It's adding up that there's multiple former Lakers on this Denver. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Interesting, it's crazy. I was at a Laker game, I
think around Christmas. They might have played Charlotte, and I
thought Thomas Bryant, Yeah, eight points and thirteen boards. He
had like a good game. He was like a factor,
played thirty three minutes.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
He was balling when eighty was out, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, and twenty one in a game, twenty one and
ten and he's not getting off the bench. And I
know Denver's good, but I mean they're young, they're they're
problem something guys. They have one guy who's over thirty
years old, Jeff Green.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That's it. The problem with Thomas Bryant is his defense.
I mean, that's just it. And that was the reason
why the Lakers were willing to move on from him.
It's just, you know, I think he's statistically one of
the worst defensive bigs in the league. He's a bit
of a sieve. He can be taken advantage of in
the pick and roll. So I think if he if
(31:31):
they dust off the cobwebs with him for whatever reason
and Lakers play some small backup units again, we'll see
if they change the lineup to get Tristan or oneion
in there. More. If Thomas Bryan's out there, Lakers are
going to go at him in the pick and roll
and target him for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah. I mean, I think if lebron SI's Christian brawn
on the court, he's going to go right at him
every single time. I would assume he's going to go
after Michael Porter Junior too.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Even Jokic. I think, like that's really one of the
interesting things is that LA has played teams that have
been able to switch the Lebron AD pick and roll
pretty well, Dylan like Memphis, Dylan Brooks and Jared Jackson Junior.
You know, even like Tillman did a good job against Lebron.
He was a Lebron funder at times. Obviously Lebron got
(32:16):
the best of him and the end of that game four,
But in Golden State Draymon and Andrew Wiggins were able
to switch those actions. But Denver can't necessarily do that,
you know, unless they go Aaron Gordon on AD and
like KCP on Lebron, Like maybe you know, even then
though now kcp's on AD, like they don't really have
(32:37):
great options. Maybe again, Bruce Brown maybe in there, but
he's not starting so like, but if Jokic is in
the the action, like Lebron is gonna target him. And
I'm interested to see what Denver does, uh when when
the Lebron AD pick and roll happens and Jokic either
has to show and hedge and Lebron's trying to go
(32:58):
past him, or he's switching on a Lebron on Like,
I'm not really sure what Denver.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Does with those actions. So you mentioned CACP probably trying
to be in Austin Reeves's jersey. I'm just you know,
I see all these people on social media put saying
Austin Reeves is going to get ninety million, eighty million,
whatever the number is, and I just think back to
Alex Caruso, who is not as good of a player
as Reeve's obviously really really good defender, but Reeves has
a larger skill set. You've been around Reeves all year.
(33:24):
Does this guy strike you as the dude who's just
looking at Chase paper or does he love being in La,
love being with Lebron and would take not a hometown discount.
But given the choice of hey, if the Lakers are
offered me ten million less, I'll take the Lakers. But
if it's like twenty million, I mean, come on, I
gotta go to you know, Charlotte or whatever. Well.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
So, so one factor here that I think is an
important context is Austin's going to be a restricted free agent,
so any contract he signs the Lakers can match.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Ah, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
So even if it gets up to you know, I
think ninety eight point seven or you know, around ninety
nine is the most he can get if he gets
that contract, the Lakers can match that. Now, of course
that's a very high number, and I think they would
think hard about whether they'd want to pay him that
much money. I think they probably would match that. But
you know, so the Lakers have I think that that
(34:15):
kind of gets lost in some of this is people
act like Austin's just going to leave for X amount
of money. Now, the most the Lakers can offer him
is fifty point eight million over forty years. From what
I've been told, the Lakers are going to offer that.
And now there's different versions of you know, maybe Austin
signs a smaller deal so he can hit freegency again
and earn a bigger contract in a year or two.
(34:37):
But you know, whatever Austin wants, whether it's a one
year deal, two year deal, four year deal, Lakers are
going to offer that to him, you know, the second
they're eligible to. And now it's on Austin and his
representation of you know, do you accept that? Do you
field offers from other teams?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Now?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Again, so four years, fifty point eight million. If he
gets a four year seventy million, four year eighty million,
four year ninety million, that's hard to turn down. But
the Lakers, it doesn't mean in the Lakers can match though.
That's the thing. So even if he like, there's a
way where you know, that's kind of the loophole here
is like he can get a bigger offer with when
basically tell the Lakers, I'm going to take this. You know,
(35:17):
I really want you guys to match. You know, ideally
you guys do match. And you know, now I'd sign
this four year, seventy million dollars deal, and now the
Lakers can actually pay him more than the fifty point
eight which is the max they can offer him. So
that's kind of the thing here. I suspect Austin will
be back, you know, but it's it's gonna start at
fifty point eight. Like he's not going to make less
than that, unless again he's signing a short term deal.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
But even if, like again I think we need some context, right, Like,
it's one thing to look amazing playing with ad and Lebron,
two of the top twelve fifteen players in the league, Right,
I mean, like Detroit isn't going to say that's our
guy seventy mil we need Austin Reeves in the back
court with cave cutting it like, that's not gonna happen,
I would think, right, I mean, I think so.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
The one thing here is I think if you really
look at the free agent market, it's pretty bad this summer,
and there are some things with the new CBA that
that are going to be kicking in the following summer,
where like some of the luxury tax stuff isn't as
punitive and just some of the penalties and the cat flexibility.
So I do think there are some incentives for teams
(36:21):
to spend money this summer versus when things start to
kind of change the following summer. So I think looking
at it, like it's really not that crazy to be
like among the younger wing options, like Austin Reeves is
near the top of that list, potentially at the top
of that list. Like if you really look at who's
out there, there aren't many great young guys out there.
(36:42):
And Austin since becoming a starter, you know, seventeen points
a game. Lakers are sixteen and six with him in
the starting lineup. Over that stretch, Like he's shooting around
fifty percent from the floor, forty percent from three, so
like he's been really at that number three level. And
I said this towards the end of the regular season,
and like I stand by it, Like I think he's
(37:04):
really making a case to be the third best player,
you know, not only on this roster right now, but
of the Lebron eight era. Like I don't really like
right now, you could put Casey p in there, you
can put Kuzma in there. I mean russ I guess
gets to mention all those disasters after that, you know,
like the Angela Russell to me, has just been too
inconsistent compared with like Austin gives you kind of a
(37:26):
baseline of like twelve points, four or five assists, four
or five rebounds every night up off. Yeah yeah, and
he hasn't been paid yet, so you know. And and
to your point about like the Cruso, I think it's
like they are kind of the spiritual successors that they're
you know, white guys, they're undrafted. Their fight so hard,
they hard, they hustle. But I think Austin's way more
(37:47):
skilled offensively than Cruso. And again to kind of have
some of these moments that he's had. He's had four
twenty point games across the Lakers twelve playoff games, and
like that's not something Cruso is no, And I think
he's showing like even now, Lakers have a lot of
mouths to feed, of course Lebron and Ad, but d Lo, Ruie, Dennis,
(38:10):
Like there's a lot of kind of guys that they
almost have an egalitarian offense. Yeah, I think if Austin
was featured more, he could easily be a guy averaging
eighteen to twenty two. And so I think the contract
he's gonna get he deserves. And it really is a
hell of a story of just this guy coming out
of nowhere, being undrafted, not even you know, being a
two way guy, not even having a roster spot until
(38:31):
a couple of days before training camp, and then to
go from that to a year later being a full
time starter about to get paid, having several big moments
in these playoffs with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
It's just some remarkable one right last one, Yovan real Quick,
who do you believe will be the odd man out
of the backcourt in this series? Reeves unlikely shooter or Russell.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
If you're giving me those three, I'm gonna say, Russell, Yeah,
that was my guest too. I think it just really
like with D'Angelo, it just comes down to is he
making his shot or not because he doesn't provide the
defense that Austin and Dennis provide. He's not providing the
rebounding that Austin provides at that position, and just kind
(39:17):
of that energy and that spark that those guys can have.
He is a really good playmaker, and I think that's
been even with some of his bad offensive performances, he'll
still get you five, six, seven assists, and I think
that's kind of flown under the radar with him, where
he's still been really good in the pick and roll,
still been good in transition finding guys. So I think
(39:37):
D'Angelo has probably been a little underrated at times. But
if you're asking me between those three, you know, I
think Austin is the lock where if you just look
at his game log, like he's constantly thirty plus minutes
a night, you know, no matter what Lebron, Lebron loves him,
Dennis Darvin loves and you know, no matter he's had
some bad offensive performances, but even when he's you know,
(40:00):
the ball poorly. Darvin loves his defense and he's gonna
hound Murray up and down. He's gonna hound Murray and
did a really good job against stuff. So I think
those two guys are locks, and it comes down to
to d Low. Is he shooting the ball well? Is
he engaged? You know, what's his disposition? And if not,
you know, maybe they do go a Lottie Walker or
they just play a little bit of a bigger lineup.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, all right, Jovan Booja The Athletic enjoy Denver, enjoy
the series. I can't wait. Very exciting out here in
La Man. Thank thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
The only thing better than sitting on your couch watching
the game. He's making money while you do it. Here's
your best bet.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Great stuff from jovann Ooja of the Athletic. I really
like some of his insights onto Ruey Hatchimra possibly defending Jokic.
That was something I had not considered at all in
this series, and I will be again. I don't think
you can come in guns blazing in game one and
drop a ton of bets, but I will look to
(41:03):
see what the matchups are what kind of adjustments could
be made for Game two. I think there's probably more
value in game two.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Something interesting happened to this line. When I mentioned it
Sunday night, the line was five and a half for Denver.
It went up in Monday afternoon to six circa hit
six and a half. As I'm recording this late Monday night,
six and a half. Somebody, I guess, knows something for
(41:32):
it to go up an entire point in a day,
and NBA A point an NBA line is not as
significant as NFL obviously, but the Lakers arrived early. I
don't know. I don't see there's it why this would
be moving. So something's going on here. Some of the
player prop totals Lebron twenty five and a half, Anthony
Davis twenty two and a half, D'Angelo Russell fifteen and
(41:55):
a half. That feels a little high, but then again,
you don't know which Russell is showing up, the guy
who's gonna shoot one of ten, or the guy's gonna
go for nineteen points and a nice win. Austin Reeves
fourteen and a half, Jokics twenty seven and a half,
Jamal Murray twenty four and a half. Like it's again,
this is not that different from the early rounds of
(42:16):
a boxing match, right. You feel each other out, Like,
I don't know who's gonna guard Murray. Is Vanderbilt gonna
start on Murray? Does Vanderbilt startup Porter? Does Vanderbilt even
start Dennis Shrewder perhaps gets the start. Does he chase
Murray up and down the court? Remember he hounded Curry,
just like the Kings put Davion Mitchell. I thought it
was a catastrophic error. You want to go back two
weeks from two weeks ago and listen to it like
(42:37):
Game seven, pulling Davey on Mitchell and fair of Terrence
Davis for offense like that was insanely stupid by Mike Brown,
the coach of the year KCP over nine and a half. Again,
this has been a theme for years now. Role players
at home usually step up. I let me see if
I can see a number for Bruce Brown. Bruce bown
is eleven and a half coming off the bench, shoter
(43:00):
eight and a half. Uncle Jeff Green four and a half.
No number for Christian Brown. These are at FanDuel. But
Bruce Brown is the kind of guy like how many minutes.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Is he gonna play?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Does Denver need to go big? Will they have to
go small? Is there foul trouble to someone? KCP is
the kind of guy you know he's gonna come out
seeking revenge on the Lakers, right he played for the Lakers.
As Booja said, he had some comments. Nine and a
half for KCP is very light. This is a guy.
Nine and a half basically means you hit three threes
(43:29):
and boom. All you need is like a free throw
or a two pointer at some point. Now, if you
look my computer's also if you look at kcp's numbers,
he had his moments against the Suns, and he also
kind of did not show up. Game six in Phoenix
twenty one points, Game one at home ten, Game two
at home fourteen. Now that was the game where Murray
was putrid and KCP kind of went off with the
(43:52):
threes in the third and fourth quarter. Then he goes
to Phoenix two points, he goes to Phoenix ten points,
comes home seven. So he's really and miss. But he
did shoot forty one percent from three against Minnesota, same
deal fifteen eight, fourteen five, ten, Like he's basically a
ten point a game guy. So I guess the question becomes,
the Lakers have a better defensive Minnesota, the Lakers have
(44:14):
a better defensive Phoenix. If this game is gonna be
Lakers showing up playing tough defense, why would you take
Porter over? I'm sorry, why would you take KCP over?
Porter's a guy I would look at at home. I
would bet his overs on the road. I would lean
under in Game one just because he's my guy. You know,
I'm a huge fan. I will look at Jamal Murray
(44:36):
over twenty four and a half. Another is slight juice
to the over. Listen, somebody's gonna have to cook. This
is not gonna be a game in the nineties. Nuggets arrested,
they're at home. They want to push tempo. Lakers coming
off a huge win taking down the Warriors on SAT.
Friday Night, both teams kind of rested. I don't see
a lot of sluggishness here. These teams are familiar with
(44:57):
one another. They play in the West, they faced off
in the BAB I don't see the Jazz like being
a slow down attack despite the Lakers defense being very
very good. I mean, in Game one against the Warriors,
Warriors scored like and they were coming off the seven
game series. Let me see the Warriors. I think they
had one hundred and thirteen points in Game one or
was the final? Or was I thinking about the Memphis Yeah?
(45:19):
Uh game one, Yeah, one seventeen to one twelve, and
that was what the Warriors getting no rest, So Lakers
gave up one hundred and twelve one hundred twenty seven
ninety seven, one oh one, one twenty one, one oh one.
This idea that the Nuggets are going to be held
in check at home in Game one is kind of
very ridiculous. I would look at my I guess my
(45:40):
top three overs would be Jamal Murray, Michael Jamal Murray
twenty four and a half, Michael Porter Junior fourteen and
a half. And I'm gonna get a little crazy and
go KCP over nine and a half, which is risky
because his he might get like seven shots and if
he if he's not hitting three or four, it's over.
So yeah, that one's not for the faint of heart. Yeah,
(46:04):
I'm very excited for this series. I'm my official pick.
You guys know, I have two futures bets on the
Lakers to win the title. From February, I posted them
on the Gram. I think the Nuggets win this series.
Nuggets haven't lost at home in the series in the playoffs.
Lakers haven't lost at home in the playoffs. Which one breaks.
(46:24):
I mean, obviously in that scenario, you're like, oh, well,
Lebrono come through. Because it's lebron.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I'll go Nuggets in seven. I'm rooting Lakers obviously. And
in the player points pool, by the way, because I
know you care. I have surged up to second and
the guy sent that, my buddy Josh sent the text
of how many players have left for each competitor as
of now. Your boy is in second place. I am
(46:54):
like seventy points behind the leader. He has one guy left.
I have three. The guy in third place had four,
but he has shrewder Reeves lebron a stroke of genius,
or you could say, look whichever one. So I'm I'm
in a great spot with Gordon Murray and Malcolm Brogden.
I think Brogden gets by and goes to the finals,
(47:14):
which is gonna be key for me. Obviously, you need somebody.
You're not gonna have any chance to win this thing
if you have nobody left. So player point. I know
you guys care. It's like several may be low four figures.
I don't even know the total at any rate. That's
a long Tuesday podcast. Enjoy the game. We'll record right after.
Talk to you tomorrow.
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
What is up Straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Tuesday, May sixteenth. It was a bizarre night
in sports where there was no NBA. I did not
have to watch any basketball. I did watch Aaron Judge
Go Deep, I did not watch hockey, and I finally
(00:37):
dug into Ted Lasso. I'm way behind on the season,
you know, Listen, it's tough during NFL NBA to really
watch these shows on streaming. It's just tough. And now
starting tonight with Lakers Nuggets, I think we go two
straight weeks with NBA every night and obviously, like I'm
(00:57):
into the games, do you guys know that probably, I
mean there's a chance of Celtics quoted three nothing on
the heat which is in play. Sorry to report Miami
fans that there's a chance, small chance that I will
skip a game here or there. But very exciting times
as we get down final four in the NBA. We
have tonight the NBA Draft lottery. Somebody's gonna win the
(01:19):
Victor Wembiniama sweepstakes. I will give you shortly the leaders
in the clubhouse for the French superstar who I think
he's They're saying he's now seven foot five, which is
just insane. We have a great guest today, I've had
him on before, Jovon Buja covers the Lakers for the Athletic.
(01:39):
He's in Denver. We break down all the nerdy, nitty
gritty matchups, which guard may be left out of the
Lakers rotation. You know Lonnie Walker's cracked it now. You
know he's out there on the wing. What are they
gonna do is bigs against Yokis where we see Lebron
Ruey Hajimor. It's good stuff and he has a good,
interesting X factor for the series. Potential gambling winnings could
(02:01):
be had based on what Jovann has to say. But
before we get to that, I just will do two
things and I'll give my pick at the end of
the podcast. Number one, so the ringer had a big story.
That's a Bill Simmons website. Had a big story on
the Warriors foundation cracking after Draymond Green punched out Jordan
Poole and things were never patched up. And this writer,
(02:24):
I guess, got as close to Jordan Pool as possible
and said, even though after the punch at the beginning
of the season. Even though like they kind of made up.
It wasn't like they made up and became friends. And
of course not you got sucker punched in practice, and
yes it was a sucker punch. And so this writer
(02:45):
asked Jordan Poole about the divide between the team. Remember
there's some young guys that COAMINGA Wiseman was there at
the time, Moses Moody Pool. They thought they had next
they were ready, and the Warriors determined they were not,
led by Draymond Green, and Pool's response on relationships being
repaired was, I don't have an answer for you other
(03:07):
than that we was just on the court and teammates.
We was out there trying to win games. It's just
been business. It's been basketball, and that's like what it is.
They're not hanging You expect these guys to hang out afterward.
Tell me the last guy that punched you in the face,
that was your friend that you ended up hanging out
with after that, Like, think about it. I've never experienced
(03:29):
that in my life. Now, listen, friends scrapping in high school. Fine,
these are teammates and he punch them in the face
and then the video goes out, But listen, regardless of
what happened this season for the Warriors, that was gonna
be brought up like the punch. Can it be repaired?
What do they have to do in the offseason to
get back on top? And listen, there's what do we
(03:52):
got essentially two months to go, a little less than
two months until free agency and the summer begins. And
here's the biggest problem for the Golden State Warriors is
there's no easy fix. There's no obvious move. I can
only imagine that their war room is just it's gonna
there's gonna be a lot of haggling. Because Cary got paid,
Corrie salary goes to fifty one million next year. Klay
(04:15):
Thompson wants to get paid this offseason. He doesn't want
to go into this next season as a lame duck.
Well that that's what they call coaches, but essentially without
a future contract because then you get hurt and you're
not getting anything in the next contract. So he want
some money this summer. And you know, Cary got fifty one.
Clay's been right there by his side throughout it all.
(04:36):
He's got to assume he's getting in the forties. Andrew
Wiggins got his money. He's making twenty four next year.
Draymond Green is another guy. He has a player option
for uh Draymond is a player option for twenty seven. Well,
he's obviously gonna pick up the option, but he wants
a new deal too. Gary Payton's on the hook for
eight mil Kevon Looney eight mil Kuminga Devincenzo has a
(05:00):
player option. I don't know if he's played well enough
to opt out and test the market. I don't know.
I like he had a couple of good games. I
like him. He would you rather win in Golden State
or go somewhere else and maybe get paid And then
Jordan Poole's make a twenty eight mil Moses Moody's on
the books. There are a lot of unanswered questions for
this team, and it's not as easy as trade Jordan Poole.
(05:21):
It does not work like that, guys. You know that.
So in the NBA salaries have to come kind of
close to matching. I forgot what the exact number is.
It's like six percent or the ESPN trade machine has it.
But the idea that you could just move Jordan Poole
It's definitely not that easy. First of all, everyone around
the league knows, well, I'm not giving you a deal.
Jordan Poole's stock is way down. Why am I going
(05:42):
to overpay for a guy you guys overpaid for. And oh,
by the way, if you don't move him, you got
to pay the pool thirty the year after that, then
thirty three, then thirty five. So the Warriors, I don't
think you can move Jordan Poole. Honestly, I'm sure they
will end up doing it or talk themselves into it
because of the Draymond situation. But this is gonna be difficult.
(06:02):
Hard choice is easy life. Easy choice is hard life.
You know that saying, And it's gonna the idea of
moving on from Draymond and Clay is very, very difficult,
And it's easy for me to say, is an armchair GM,
hey see what you get for Draymond. But if you
were to ask gms around the league, my guess is
(06:23):
there's more value in Draymond Green right now on the
market and Clay Thompson than there is Jordan Poole. I
know Pool is younger. I know Pool averaged twenty points
a game when Curry was out. But this is a
guy who doesn't play any defense. He's always coming in
looking for a shot. Do you remember scill was it
scary Terry Rogier a few years back was like awesome
(06:47):
in Boston, instant offense off the bench, and ultimately he
ends up leaving. Let me look it up exactly, but
Terry Rogier essentially was one of these guys who could
just get buckets, and ultimately the Celtics decided, you know,
like Rosier is very, very good, he's skilled, but this
guy's not for us. We're not gonna end up paying him.
So you look at Rosier, who, by the way, twenty nine,
(07:09):
he's still relatively young. He can still score. But like
with Boston, he was an eleven point a game guy
coming off the bench, and they were just like, yeah,
that this is not our kind of guy. So he
goes to Charlotte on a bad team. He's making a
lot of money and he's putting up points eighteen a game,
twenty a game, nineteen a game, twenty one a game.
He's shooting low field goal percentage. He shot forty percent
(07:33):
from three to twenty twenty, then thirty eight, then thirty seven,
now thirty two, Like I mean, basically, Terry Rosier, his
stock is continues to fall and he's on a losing team.
You know. I just that's the kind of guy that
Jordan Poole can go turn into if he goes to
the wrong team. And again, nothing against Terry Rogier. I'm
(07:53):
sure he's thrilled. The guy is slated to make twenty
three million dollars next year, So Jordan pools making more
than him, and what are they winning? Like, what do
you do with Rosier? Like again, I like him, he's
a good player, but if he's starting for you, you're not winning.
So that's the other question. Like, okay, fine, let's say
someone's interested in Jordan Poole, Like you could actually go
(08:16):
through all the lineups and you're like, well, Jordan Poole's
a scorer. We could use him alongside Cunningham. Could you
really you think he's gonna help or hurt Kate Cunningham's growth.
I mean, in essence, Jordan Poole is kind of like
a Monta Ellis. Remember Curry was there with Monte Ellis
scoring machine bucket getter didn't play defense athletic fun. I
had to move on from him, Like I think He
(08:38):
kind of reminds me of Monte Ellis, and I like
Jordan Poole a lot. I mean, this guy's an electric score,
can get by anybody, and he gets going lookout when
he gets going downhill. Hello, But is that the kind
of guy you want? So I don't see any market
for him.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
If you tell me Kay Thompson is on the market,
I'll tell you right now. There's a lot of teams
that haven't sniffed the playoffs that would be like, oh
heck yeah, we'll take culture. Check. Winning, attitude check, great
three point shooter check, locker room guy. Check that Clay
checks all the boxes. We will pay him. Orlando Magic
would overpay him. Washington Wizards, who haven't been in the
playoffs forever, would take him. And obviously he's not gonna
(09:17):
be your one, not gonna be your two, but you
have him as a culture guy helping young dudes learn
how to win. Like there's some teams that just don't
have players who know how to win Indiana Pacers, you know,
like it obviously won't happen. But like a buddy healed,
he isn't a winning one. Good year in Oklahoma went
to the Final four, like Buddy Hill. I mean, I
(09:39):
like him, but all he is, you know, he's off
the bench chucker who could get hot. He can be
a scoring machine, a microwave off the bench. But ultimately,
Indiana is desperate to win. Remember, this is a franchise
in a small market that needs to host playoff games
to make that postseason money. They don't have a big
TV deal, They're not. Indiana's in a tough market. They
(10:01):
need to be in the playoffs. They would kill for
a guy like Klay Thompson. I'm sure the Clippers would
love to have Klay Thompson in the building. Now, Warriors
don't want him in the Western Conference. Obviously, you don't
want to see Clay in the playoffs. And these tough decisions.
I mean, listen, man, Draymond Green has a ton of value. However,
how is Draymond Green gonna aid you sign him to
a three year deal? What's that looking like two years
(10:24):
from now. It's just it's very difficult right now for
the Golden State Warriors. I don't know that there's a
way that Pool and Draymond can make up, and I
think most people will land all Jay, you just trade
Jordan Poole. You get whatever you can you get off
that deal, even if you got to take a bad deal.
Oh really, you gonna what if they say, hey, we
want Kaminga too, You're just gonna part ways with Kaminga.
(10:45):
I saw someone float Kaminga and Pool for Drew Holliday,
and I'm like, I'm trading two of my top seven guys,
two of my young guys who are gonna be with
me in the future for Drew Holliday, who I like.
And it's a good defender. But you're ripping apart your
bench and listen, Curry's getting old guys. I just it's
(11:06):
very difficult in Golden State. I don't know that there's
an easy solution. And Bob Myers, it seems like is
looking to get the hell out of Dodge. At least
that would be my read in Golden State because the
ship not be sinking, but it's close quickly to the
Victor wembin Yama sweepstakes. Tonight they do the draft lottery
(11:28):
Big Night. I will have a mock draft for Fox
Sports next week. Currently, the best odds to get Victor
Wembinyama are tied between Detroit, Houston, and San Antonio. I'm
sure there are a lot of Spurs fans who are thinking, boy,
if we can duplicate the magic when we got Tim Duncan,
(11:50):
that would be amazing. Houston has an interesting scenario. Let's
say you get the top pick are you Are you
still adding James Harden to that? Now there's a chance
you could win quickly. But does Harden hurt or help
Victor wem bin Yama's growth as a young player. And
I asked that because we know James Harden is kind
(12:10):
of touch and go. We know in Houston he loves
the nightlife scene. James Harden'll show up one night and
the next night he's invisible. We know in the playoffs
it's even worse. I don't know. I mean, Detroit is
kind of interesting. I just don't know that they have
enough talent to really do anything. Now you could argue
the East is weak, and actually you could argue the
(12:32):
West is getting old, the East is a little wee
is a little weaker. But here are the highest paid
players on the Pistons next year. No Cheez Bogdanovic Baggley, Cunningham,
Alec Burks, James Wiseman, Jaden ivy Oh my gosh, this
is a bad team. Kelly and Hayes, Jalen Duran, Isaiah Stewart.
(12:53):
I mean they're gonna have to make a lot of
moves if they're bringing on one Ban Yama, I don't
see it there. Houston, if they opt not to go
the James Harden route is somewhat spicy because there is
a lot. I think there's more talent in Houston, young
talent than there is in Detroit. Jalen Green, I like
Jabari Smith. We don't really know a lot about just
(13:17):
Sean Tait, the kid from Ohio State. He's pretty good.
Seng Gooon is very good. Can you imagine Seng Gooon
on the front line with Benyama. That's not bad. Tari Easton,
who I loved coming out last year. I think he
made second team All Rookie. Kevin Porter is highly paid.
I think he'll probably be gone. I think this Houston
team has talent. If you're asking me where do I
(13:37):
would I like one Ben Yama to go?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Well.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Portland certainly is interesting. They bricked on the number one
pick with Greg Odin. They have a ten percent chance.
The top three teams have a fourteen percent chance. Charlotte
twelve and a half, Portland ten. When Ben Yama get
Damian Loders to stay? Or does that make trading Dame
a lot easier because you just build around one Ben
(14:00):
Yama Simons whatever else you get? Shaden sharp like it's
kind of interesting. Orlando seems to always in the lottery, Indiana,
Washington never ever gets good things. Utah at four percent,
Dallas at three percent. How about that one min Yama
and Luca but only a three percent chance? And then
there's Orlando. OK see Orlando via Chicago, OK see Toronto,
(14:24):
New Orleans? When min Yama sweepstakes will be very fun?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
All right?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Without further ado, let's get to our guests, the athletics.
Jovann Buja.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I know what sports fans want.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But for everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's welcome into straight Fire. A guy. He's been on
the podcast before it covers the Lakers. He has had
some really good some bangers this year. If you've been
following the team, Yovann Boja, how are you, man?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm doing well, man, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, you are now in Denver for the Western Conference Finals.
I'm gonna imagine that when the Lakers are two and ten,
you were not envisioning a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I was not. I was not as recently as the
trade deadline, when they were thirteenth in the West. You know,
even with the moves at the time, I thought the
team would be better, you know, maybe make a late
playoff push. But I don't think anyone even with the
team saw this coming, this type of turnaround, this type
of run.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, it feels like and I don't want to try
to make too much of this yet because nothing's determined,
but it feels like Lebron and ad by getting Westbrook
out of there kind of sort of killed the super
team vibes and getting in a bunch of role players
around them Vanderbilt, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, Ruy Hachima, like
(15:55):
any one of the Dennis Shudder. They've got basically five
solid role players. Any one of them are liable to
go off on a night, And that's almost better than
the three big headed that then the three big stars
that used to be in vogue. Would you agree with
that at all?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Are Yeah, No, I totally agree with you. I think
that was really the Lakers issue for their their season
and a half with Russ was uh, you know, last
year it was all the old guys and uh, you know,
running it back with the DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Trevor Reza,
guys who over half that roster's out of the NBA
(16:27):
right now and not getting back in.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And then this year at the start of the year,
it was a lot of guards and and kind of
smaller guys where you always had these weird three guard
lineups where Russell Westbrook or Patrick Beverly is like the
small forward uh out there and just didn't have enough shooting,
didn't have enough size. And I really think, uh, you know,
(16:50):
there was an addition, by a subtraction element with the
Russ trade where uh you know, as I've reported, others
have reported, uh, just the chemistry in the locker room,
it was not great. Uh just the situation with Russ
was not great for all parties involved. But but then
you also, as you alluded to, got a bunch of
depth and brought in a D'Angelo, Russell, a Malik Beasley,
(17:14):
a Jared Vanderbilt at the time three starters. Uh, then
bring a guy like Ruey off the bench.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And then at the time having Dennis and Austin off
the bench. You know, now the rotations reworked a little bit.
Austin is a full time starter. Dennis started game six.
But the depth with this group, and and just the
fit with those guys, the shooting, Uh, Like, you know,
D'Angelo doesn't have to be a point guard. He doesn't
like to refer to himself as a point guard, but
(17:42):
he can be a spot up shooter, catch and shoot
guy that you know, Russell Westbrook could you know, just
could never be. So I think the the there's kind
of a randomness with this group where you know what
you're getting from Lebron and Ad every night, but one
night it could be Austin one night, it could be
Dennis one night, it could be Delo one night, it
could be RUI like, these guys are just kind of
going off game by game, and it really makes it
(18:04):
hard I think for opponents the game plan for them.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, it's so weird. I mean, I don't know if
you totally agree, but I'm talking like February, like you said,
or a trade deadline. It was like a poo poo
platter of Oh, it's gonna be Malik Beasley night, you know,
and it's like it's, of course it's not gonna be.
But then Austin Reeves becomes like, I mean, geez, I
don't even is he the third best player on the team.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Now, yes he is, And honestly, I think he was
all season like I think those who followed the Lakers closely,
you know, I was, you know, when I would talk
about lineups and rotations and stuff like I was saying,
I mean this like we saw it last year. You know,
Austin towards the end of the season really started to
establish himself. As you know, he grew up playing point
(18:44):
guard and I think kind of came in as a
two three where, you know, playing more on the wing,
more as a catch and shoot guy. But like you've
seen with him with the ball in his hands, you know,
magic happens. And I think because of the way he looks,
because of him being on drest, people didn't really view
him in that light. But I think we're starting to
see he is much more of an on ball guy
(19:05):
than he is an off ball and he can drive
off the ball, he can cut, he can spot up,
he can do those things. But he is much more
of a point guard, I think, than he has a wing.
I forgot to mention among the role players Lennie Walker. Hello,
I mean had one of the great the dusted the
cobbs off him. He was starting for the first half
of the season.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I need to ask you about that. I went to
the opener and I could have sworn that Loney Walker
was the third best player in the Lakers, and then
I kept saying that for like a month, and then
I don't know what did he get in the doghouse?
Like what do you know what happened with him?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, there was a little bit of dog I think
there's there's some revisionist history now of oh, he had
this injury, and uh, that's the reason why he wasn't playing.
It was no like he you know, he stopped shooting
the ball as well as he had earlier in the season.
I think at times he was a little too kind
of me first in the offense and looking for his
own shot, and then the defense slipped a little bit.
(19:57):
That was the one thing was early in the season
he was the defending at a high level, and I
think as the season progressed, he stopped defending at that level.
And then once they brought in a guy like Malik Beasley, well,
that guy's making sixteen million dollars a year. He's expecting
to start or play a certain role. And then you
bring in a D'Angelo Russell, Austin's breaking out, Dennis is
still playing a key role off the bench. So I
(20:19):
just felt like they kind of overcrowded the back court
and Lonnie was the one guy who was a bit replaceable.
I'm interested to see his role in this series because
it did feel like Golden State was very much a
series for him. With them playing small, them playing a
lot of guards, the Lakers needed that offensive burst, that athleticism.
I don't know if that's necessarily the case of this series,
where I think it's going to be much more of
(20:40):
a defensive battle. You know, can you defend? You know,
Jamal Murray, can you make enough shot? So we'll see
with that. But again to your point, like the Lakers
finding fifteen points in the fourth quarter out of nowhere
with a guy who hadn't played in two months. It
just feels like, right now they've had found in seemingly
(21:01):
every series.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
This is insane Because you said that Beasley's making sixteen million.
I was like, no way, I got to look this up.
He's making sixteen million next year. But I'm assuming the
Lakers are going to decline the team option, right, I
would think, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So Danzelo
Russell thirty one mil. How did this happen? How did
I miss this? Mobamba, who I don't think has done
anything all playoffs, is making ten million dollars a year?
(21:23):
What is that about.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
He's also got a team option, so I wouldn't be
surprised if that was declined as well. And he's either
brought back on a minimum contract or you know, he
signs elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It's crazy. Austin Reeves one point five million, Dennis Shooter
two point.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Six that Austin's going to go up a lot more.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get to all that. But
so one of the big changes, and I was banging
on Darvin Ham. I didn't like the rotations when he
was playing Troy Brown heavy minutes in the play in
the regular season, and he makes a couple of good
moves in the series against Golden State, specifically shrewder two
point guard or shooter to the starting lineup and putting
Vanderbilt out. I am curious do you think he goes
(22:02):
back to that to start against Denver? And if not, like,
where does Vanderbilt fit in? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
From what I've been told that they're still debating whether
they want to go back to Vanderbilt or not. Kind
of the pros and cons. I think the pros are,
you know, defensively, I think he makes a lot of
sense against either an Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Junior.
And if you start with a Dennis, I mean just
looking at Denver's frontline, you know, Jokich is six ' eleven,
(22:32):
Aaron Gordon's six ' nine, Michael Porter Junior six ten. Like,
if you're going with three guards in Austin, Dilo, and Dennis,
that is a tiny lineup that you're throwing out there.
One of those guys has to guard MPG. I suspect
Lebron will be on Aaron Gordon, Ad will be on Jokic,
and then which one of those guys is guarding MPG?
And maybe you want Denver. It's almost like a tactic
(22:55):
to get Denver to run more of their offense through
him versus Jamal Murray or Nikolay. But I don't really
love the thought of Austin Reeves giving up five or
six inches against the Michael Porter Junior and kind of
the ways that Denver can exploit that matchup. So I
do think either Ruy Hachimora or Jared Vanderbilt plays a
big role in this series defensively against Gordon and MPJ.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. You're
saying you can see a d Lebron and Ruey on
the floor at the same time.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, I mean they've done that before that, it's not
something that they've done as much recently that they have
tried to, you know, have more spacing and shooting out there.
I think Rui's actually, you know, I have a preview
going up tomorrow. He's gonna be my X factor for
the Lakers, just because he's actually defended well in the
post against bigger guys Karl Anthony Towns during the regular season,
(23:47):
in the playing game Jared Jackson Junior in that first
round series. So I think the Lakers are actually gonna
put Ruey on Jokic at times and have Ad as
that roamer that helped defender, kind of simil or to
the way Memphis played a D where they would often
put Xavier Tillman or a smaller guy on AD and
(24:08):
then have Jared Jackson Junior roaming the paint to try
and block shots altar shots because it's usually easier to
block shots as a help defender rather than on the ball.
So I think what we'll see some of that really
kind of trying to body Jokic. It's a big body,
you know, we'll see if that works. Maybe Tristan Thompson
gets gets I'm serious, like, you're gonna probably you're probably
(24:31):
gonna need another big and ideally it's Mobamba. But he's
doubtful for Game one.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Was his injury. He hasn't played forever.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
He's had an ankle injury that that he's been dealing
with for for for several weeks now, so he had
he decided to get a p RP injection. The Lakers
announced he's back in LA will be joining the team tomorrow,
but doubtful for Game one. We'll see if he can
play in Game two or three, but I think the
Lakers are gonna need one more big Like one thing
Anthony Davis talked about was Dwight Howard was essential for them.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Twenty matchup against Jokich. If you remember, he dubbed himself
the Batman because of Jokic's joker nickname, and he really
disrupted Yo. I mean, you know, did as good of
a job as you can reasonably do against Jokic. Now
Jokic is much better since then, yes, but I don't
know if you want to put ad on him for
forty minutes a night and risk the potential foul trouble
because you know that that's I think inevitably going to
(25:21):
come with that. So, whether it's Ruey, whether it Tristan Thompson,
when you and Gabriel like, Lakers are going to have
to find another guy who could defend Jokic, I think
for ten, twelve, fifteen minutes a night and have you know,
give Ady a little bit of arrest defensively where you
can got to protect the rim.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Okay, you mentioned a lot of guys. You did not
mention Lebron James. Do you see Lebron getting frustrated enough
with the way everybody's defending Kic on his team that
he says, bleep this, let me, let me get in there.
I want to crack at Jokic.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It's always it's always, uh, you know, a possibility. But
I do think you know, we saw Lebron defend jer
And Jackson Junior in the first round and it did
not particularly go well. In that Game one, he defended
him a lot, and Jared Jackson Junior had thirty one points.
So I think for Lebron likes to be that roamer
as well. He's someone who likes to go for the
(26:09):
weak side blocks and you know, kind of that ignite
fast breaks that way. So I suspect he'll be on Gordon,
he'll be on Jeff Green, He'll be on kind of
the lesser front court options and then help off those guys.
So you know, potentially, if it's not getting done or
eighties in foul trouble, maybe the Lakers go small with
(26:29):
Ruey and Lebron, and Lebron gets eighty, I mean, gets Jokich,
But I think they're probably going to look for other guys,
you know, try those out first and then go to
Lebron more as the last resort.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So Lakers have way better depth than Denver. But a name,
and again I hadn't heard his name this postseason at all,
but he has given the Lakers major problems when he
was with the Clippers. Is Reggie Jackson? He played a
grand total of ten minutes against the Suns. Now, I
don't know, you know, what's going on with him there
in Denver, but historically I believe Yovan He's destroyed the
(27:04):
Lakers and the Clippers have owned them. Do you think
we see some Reggie Jackson in this series? Because again Denver,
you know, they basically their backup guard is like Bruce Brown, right,
that's it. Christian Brawn, I think is more of like
a small forward. Do you think we see some Reggie Jackson?
Could that be an X factor?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, potentially, you never know. I think there's just
something with those someone putting on a Clippers jersey where
they get superpowers against the Lakers and they just can't
miss shots. You know, I used to cover the Clippers,
and I was on the other side of it where
it's just guys just shoot so much better against the
Lakers for whatever reason. So I think, you know, maybe
(27:42):
he puts on a Clippers jersey under his Nuggets jersey
and gets that mojo back. But I feel it feels
like Denver's condensed their rotation to like seven and a
half eight at most. He's not in that. So I
suspect they'll they'll stick with that, but you never know,
you know, maybe they need an offensive, you know, punch
off the bench, someone gets injured, someone gets in foul
trouble that they mix things up. But based on the
(28:04):
way you know Michael Malone has used his rotation, I
would guess.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Not is former Laker teammate or form Lebron teammates currently
on the Nuggets, Jeff Green, KCP, anyone else.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I believe that's it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, I'm just curious what you think if that's anything
a factor in this series, especially KCP, who was on
the Lakers team that beat Denver a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, I mean, it's some some KCP revenge. He after
joining Denver, said that he felt or that he was
speaking on the Lakers' behalf, saying that the Lakers felt
Denver was the better team and would have won that
series had Anthony Davis not made that shot that game
winning three in Game two. So I don't think the
(28:53):
Lakers love those comments. He also had a comment a
couple of years ago saying he no longer saw the
spot and the joy in Lebron. So CACP, despite being
a clutch client, despite having ties to Lebron in ad,
has had some interesting comments over the past couple of years,
kind of against Lebron and the Lakers. But you know,
(29:16):
Lebron spoke highly of him today at practice, and I
think he is kind of an X factor with just
his energy, his ability to get out and transition, make threes,
defend multiple positions. I wouldn't be surprised if he defends
Lebron at times. I think, yeah, Eron Gordon will be
the primary matchup, and I think Eron Gordon's actually done
a pretty good job against Lebron the past couple of
(29:37):
years in La Denver matchups. But CACP will will probably
get a crack at times. I suspect he'll be more
of an Austin Reeves guy and and his job will
just be you're living in Austin Reeves, Jersey. You're you're
trying to shut him down this series. But yeah, I
mean with with him. Jeff Green of course played with
Lebron in Cleveland and you know it was part of
some of those finals runs there.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So yeah, oh, I forgot Thomas bro Is. He's on
the Nuggets card Thomas Bryant, Yes, correct, So he was
on the Lakers earlier this season, but he did with
him he.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Wanted a bigger role and asked the Lakers to trade him.
He ends up getting traded to Denver and now at
times has been their third string center and just not
really playing. So he went from you know, being the
backup center, getting a starting role with the Lakers when
eighty was out playing well, and then being upset with
his role after eighty came back, asking out, and then
(30:28):
now just doesn't play at all. So you know, it's
like a couple of guys actually because DeAndre Jordan's also
on this team, so oh that's right, Yeah, it is.
It's adding up that there's multiple former Lakers on this Denver. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Interesting, it's crazy. I was at a Laker game, I
think around Christmas. They might have played Charlotte, and I
thought Thomas Bryant, Yeah, eight points and thirteen boards. He
had like a good game. He was like a factor,
played thirty three minutes.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
He was balling when eighty was out, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, and twenty one in a game, twenty one and
ten and he's not getting off the bench. And I
know Denver's good, but I mean they're young, they're they're
problem something guys. They have one guy who's over thirty
years old, Jeff Green.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That's it. The problem with Thomas Bryant is his defense.
I mean, that's just it. And that was the reason
why the Lakers were willing to move on from him.
It's just, you know, I think he's statistically one of
the worst defensive bigs in the league. He's a bit
of a sieve. He can be taken advantage of in
the pick and roll. So I think if he if
(31:31):
they dust off the cobwebs with him for whatever reason
and Lakers play some small backup units again, we'll see
if they change the lineup to get Tristan or oneion
in there. More. If Thomas Bryan's out there, Lakers are
going to go at him in the pick and roll
and target him for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah. I mean, I think if lebron SI's Christian brawn
on the court, he's going to go right at him
every single time. I would assume he's going to go
after Michael Porter Junior too.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Even Jokic. I think, like that's really one of the
interesting things is that LA has played teams that have
been able to switch the Lebron AD pick and roll
pretty well, Dylan like Memphis, Dylan Brooks and Jared Jackson Junior.
You know, even like Tillman did a good job against Lebron.
He was a Lebron funder at times. Obviously Lebron got
(32:16):
the best of him and the end of that game four,
But in Golden State Draymon and Andrew Wiggins were able
to switch those actions. But Denver can't necessarily do that,
you know, unless they go Aaron Gordon on AD and
like KCP on Lebron, Like maybe you know, even then
though now kcp's on AD, like they don't really have
(32:37):
great options. Maybe again, Bruce Brown maybe in there, but
he's not starting so like, but if Jokic is in
the the action, like Lebron is gonna target him. And
I'm interested to see what Denver does, uh when when
the Lebron AD pick and roll happens and Jokic either
has to show and hedge and Lebron's trying to go
(32:58):
past him, or he's switching on a Lebron on Like,
I'm not really sure what Denver.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Does with those actions. So you mentioned CACP probably trying
to be in Austin Reeves's jersey. I'm just you know,
I see all these people on social media put saying
Austin Reeves is going to get ninety million, eighty million,
whatever the number is, and I just think back to
Alex Caruso, who is not as good of a player
as Reeve's obviously really really good defender, but Reeves has
a larger skill set. You've been around Reeves all year.
(33:24):
Does this guy strike you as the dude who's just
looking at Chase paper or does he love being in La,
love being with Lebron and would take not a hometown discount.
But given the choice of hey, if the Lakers are
offered me ten million less, I'll take the Lakers. But
if it's like twenty million, I mean, come on, I
gotta go to you know, Charlotte or whatever. Well.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
So, so one factor here that I think is an
important context is Austin's going to be a restricted free agent,
so any contract he signs the Lakers can match.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Ah, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
So even if it gets up to you know, I
think ninety eight point seven or you know, around ninety
nine is the most he can get if he gets
that contract, the Lakers can match that. Now, of course
that's a very high number, and I think they would
think hard about whether they'd want to pay him that
much money. I think they probably would match that. But
you know, so the Lakers have I think that that
(34:15):
kind of gets lost in some of this is people
act like Austin's just going to leave for X amount
of money. Now, the most the Lakers can offer him
is fifty point eight million over forty years. From what
I've been told, the Lakers are going to offer that.
And now there's different versions of you know, maybe Austin
signs a smaller deal so he can hit freegency again
and earn a bigger contract in a year or two.
(34:37):
But you know, whatever Austin wants, whether it's a one
year deal, two year deal, four year deal, Lakers are
going to offer that to him, you know, the second
they're eligible to. And now it's on Austin and his
representation of you know, do you accept that? Do you
field offers from other teams?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Now?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Again, so four years, fifty point eight million. If he
gets a four year seventy million, four year eighty million,
four year ninety million, that's hard to turn down. But
the Lakers, it doesn't mean in the Lakers can match though.
That's the thing. So even if he like, there's a
way where you know, that's kind of the loophole here
is like he can get a bigger offer with when
basically tell the Lakers, I'm going to take this. You know,
(35:17):
I really want you guys to match. You know, ideally
you guys do match. And you know, now I'd sign
this four year, seventy million dollars deal, and now the
Lakers can actually pay him more than the fifty point
eight which is the max they can offer him. So
that's kind of the thing here. I suspect Austin will
be back, you know, but it's it's gonna start at
fifty point eight. Like he's not going to make less
than that, unless again he's signing a short term deal.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
But even if, like again I think we need some context, right, Like,
it's one thing to look amazing playing with ad and Lebron,
two of the top twelve fifteen players in the league, Right,
I mean, like Detroit isn't going to say that's our
guy seventy mil we need Austin Reeves in the back
court with cave cutting it like, that's not gonna happen,
I would think, right, I mean, I think so.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
The one thing here is I think if you really
look at the free agent market, it's pretty bad this summer,
and there are some things with the new CBA that
that are going to be kicking in the following summer,
where like some of the luxury tax stuff isn't as
punitive and just some of the penalties and the cat flexibility.
So I do think there are some incentives for teams
(36:21):
to spend money this summer versus when things start to
kind of change the following summer. So I think looking
at it, like it's really not that crazy to be
like among the younger wing options, like Austin Reeves is
near the top of that list, potentially at the top
of that list. Like if you really look at who's
out there, there aren't many great young guys out there.
(36:42):
And Austin since becoming a starter, you know, seventeen points
a game. Lakers are sixteen and six with him in
the starting lineup. Over that stretch, Like he's shooting around
fifty percent from the floor, forty percent from three, so
like he's been really at that number three level. And
I said this towards the end of the regular season,
and like I stand by it, Like I think he's
(37:04):
really making a case to be the third best player,
you know, not only on this roster right now, but
of the Lebron eight era. Like I don't really like
right now, you could put Casey p in there, you
can put Kuzma in there. I mean russ I guess
gets to mention all those disasters after that, you know,
like the Angela Russell to me, has just been too
inconsistent compared with like Austin gives you kind of a
(37:26):
baseline of like twelve points, four or five assists, four
or five rebounds every night up off. Yeah yeah, and
he hasn't been paid yet, so you know. And and
to your point about like the Cruso, I think it's
like they are kind of the spiritual successors that they're
you know, white guys, they're undrafted. Their fight so hard,
they hard, they hustle. But I think Austin's way more
(37:47):
skilled offensively than Cruso. And again to kind of have
some of these moments that he's had. He's had four
twenty point games across the Lakers twelve playoff games, and
like that's not something Cruso is no, And I think
he's showing like even now, Lakers have a lot of
mouths to feed, of course Lebron and Ad, but d Lo, Ruie, Dennis,
(38:10):
Like there's a lot of kind of guys that they
almost have an egalitarian offense. Yeah, I think if Austin
was featured more, he could easily be a guy averaging
eighteen to twenty two. And so I think the contract
he's gonna get he deserves. And it really is a
hell of a story of just this guy coming out
of nowhere, being undrafted, not even you know, being a
two way guy, not even having a roster spot until
(38:31):
a couple of days before training camp, and then to
go from that to a year later being a full
time starter about to get paid, having several big moments
in these playoffs with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
It's just some remarkable one right last one, Yovan real Quick,
who do you believe will be the odd man out
of the backcourt in this series? Reeves unlikely shooter or Russell.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
If you're giving me those three, I'm gonna say, Russell, Yeah,
that was my guest too. I think it just really
like with D'Angelo, it just comes down to is he
making his shot or not because he doesn't provide the
defense that Austin and Dennis provide. He's not providing the
rebounding that Austin provides at that position, and just kind
(39:17):
of that energy and that spark that those guys can have.
He is a really good playmaker, and I think that's
been even with some of his bad offensive performances, he'll
still get you five, six, seven assists, and I think
that's kind of flown under the radar with him, where
he's still been really good in the pick and roll,
still been good in transition finding guys. So I think
(39:37):
D'Angelo has probably been a little underrated at times. But
if you're asking me between those three, you know, I
think Austin is the lock where if you just look
at his game log, like he's constantly thirty plus minutes
a night, you know, no matter what Lebron, Lebron loves him,
Dennis Darvin loves and you know, no matter he's had
some bad offensive performances, but even when he's you know,
(40:00):
the ball poorly. Darvin loves his defense and he's gonna
hound Murray up and down. He's gonna hound Murray and
did a really good job against stuff. So I think
those two guys are locks, and it comes down to
to d Low. Is he shooting the ball well? Is
he engaged? You know, what's his disposition? And if not,
you know, maybe they do go a Lottie Walker or
they just play a little bit of a bigger lineup.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, all right, Jovan Booja The Athletic enjoy Denver, enjoy
the series. I can't wait. Very exciting out here in
La Man. Thank thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
The only thing better than sitting on your couch watching
the game. He's making money while you do it. Here's
your best bet.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Great stuff from jovann Ooja of the Athletic. I really
like some of his insights onto Ruey Hatchimra possibly defending Jokic.
That was something I had not considered at all in
this series, and I will be again. I don't think
you can come in guns blazing in game one and
drop a ton of bets, but I will look to
(41:03):
see what the matchups are what kind of adjustments could
be made for Game two. I think there's probably more
value in game two.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Something interesting happened to this line. When I mentioned it
Sunday night, the line was five and a half for Denver.
It went up in Monday afternoon to six circa hit
six and a half. As I'm recording this late Monday night,
six and a half. Somebody, I guess, knows something for
(41:32):
it to go up an entire point in a day,
and NBA A point an NBA line is not as
significant as NFL obviously, but the Lakers arrived early. I
don't know. I don't see there's it why this would
be moving. So something's going on here. Some of the
player prop totals Lebron twenty five and a half, Anthony
Davis twenty two and a half, D'Angelo Russell fifteen and
(41:55):
a half. That feels a little high, but then again,
you don't know which Russell is showing up, the guy
who's gonna shoot one of ten, or the guy's gonna
go for nineteen points and a nice win. Austin Reeves
fourteen and a half, Jokics twenty seven and a half,
Jamal Murray twenty four and a half. Like it's again,
this is not that different from the early rounds of
(42:16):
a boxing match, right. You feel each other out, Like,
I don't know who's gonna guard Murray. Is Vanderbilt gonna
start on Murray? Does Vanderbilt startup Porter? Does Vanderbilt even
start Dennis Shrewder perhaps gets the start. Does he chase
Murray up and down the court? Remember he hounded Curry,
just like the Kings put Davion Mitchell. I thought it
was a catastrophic error. You want to go back two
weeks from two weeks ago and listen to it like
(42:37):
Game seven, pulling Davey on Mitchell and fair of Terrence
Davis for offense like that was insanely stupid by Mike Brown,
the coach of the year KCP over nine and a half. Again,
this has been a theme for years now. Role players
at home usually step up. I let me see if
I can see a number for Bruce Brown. Bruce bown
is eleven and a half coming off the bench, shoter
(43:00):
eight and a half. Uncle Jeff Green four and a half.
No number for Christian Brown. These are at FanDuel. But
Bruce Brown is the kind of guy like how many minutes.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Is he gonna play?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Does Denver need to go big? Will they have to
go small? Is there foul trouble to someone? KCP is
the kind of guy you know he's gonna come out
seeking revenge on the Lakers, right he played for the Lakers.
As Booja said, he had some comments. Nine and a
half for KCP is very light. This is a guy.
Nine and a half basically means you hit three threes
(43:29):
and boom. All you need is like a free throw
or a two pointer at some point. Now, if you
look my computer's also if you look at kcp's numbers,
he had his moments against the Suns, and he also
kind of did not show up. Game six in Phoenix
twenty one points, Game one at home ten, Game two
at home fourteen. Now that was the game where Murray
was putrid and KCP kind of went off with the
(43:52):
threes in the third and fourth quarter. Then he goes
to Phoenix two points, he goes to Phoenix ten points,
comes home seven. So he's really and miss. But he
did shoot forty one percent from three against Minnesota, same
deal fifteen eight, fourteen five, ten, Like he's basically a
ten point a game guy. So I guess the question becomes,
the Lakers have a better defensive Minnesota, the Lakers have
(44:14):
a better defensive Phoenix. If this game is gonna be
Lakers showing up playing tough defense, why would you take
Porter over? I'm sorry, why would you take KCP over?
Porter's a guy I would look at at home. I
would bet his overs on the road. I would lean
under in Game one just because he's my guy. You know,
I'm a huge fan. I will look at Jamal Murray
(44:36):
over twenty four and a half. Another is slight juice
to the over. Listen, somebody's gonna have to cook. This
is not gonna be a game in the nineties. Nuggets arrested,
they're at home. They want to push tempo. Lakers coming
off a huge win taking down the Warriors on SAT.
Friday Night, both teams kind of rested. I don't see
a lot of sluggishness here. These teams are familiar with
(44:57):
one another. They play in the West, they faced off
in the BAB I don't see the Jazz like being
a slow down attack despite the Lakers defense being very
very good. I mean, in Game one against the Warriors,
Warriors scored like and they were coming off the seven
game series. Let me see the Warriors. I think they
had one hundred and thirteen points in Game one or
was the final? Or was I thinking about the Memphis Yeah?
(45:19):
Uh game one, Yeah, one seventeen to one twelve, and
that was what the Warriors getting no rest, So Lakers
gave up one hundred and twelve one hundred twenty seven
ninety seven, one oh one, one twenty one, one oh one.
This idea that the Nuggets are going to be held
in check at home in Game one is kind of
very ridiculous. I would look at my I guess my
(45:40):
top three overs would be Jamal Murray, Michael Jamal Murray
twenty four and a half, Michael Porter Junior fourteen and
a half. And I'm gonna get a little crazy and
go KCP over nine and a half, which is risky
because his he might get like seven shots and if
he if he's not hitting three or four, it's over.
So yeah, that one's not for the faint of heart. Yeah,
(46:04):
I'm very excited for this series. I'm my official pick.
You guys know, I have two futures bets on the
Lakers to win the title. From February, I posted them
on the Gram. I think the Nuggets win this series.
Nuggets haven't lost at home in the series in the playoffs.
Lakers haven't lost at home in the playoffs. Which one breaks.
(46:24):
I mean, obviously in that scenario, you're like, oh, well,
Lebrono come through. Because it's lebron.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I'll go Nuggets in seven. I'm rooting Lakers obviously. And
in the player points pool, by the way, because I
know you care. I have surged up to second and
the guy sent that, my buddy Josh sent the text
of how many players have left for each competitor as
of now. Your boy is in second place. I am
(46:54):
like seventy points behind the leader. He has one guy left.
I have three. The guy in third place had four,
but he has shrewder Reeves lebron a stroke of genius,
or you could say, look whichever one. So I'm I'm
in a great spot with Gordon Murray and Malcolm Brogden.
I think Brogden gets by and goes to the finals,
(47:14):
which is gonna be key for me. Obviously, you need somebody.
You're not gonna have any chance to win this thing
if you have nobody left. So player point. I know
you guys care. It's like several may be low four figures.
I don't even know the total at any rate. That's
a long Tuesday podcast. Enjoy the game. We'll record right after.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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