This is Prime Cuts! The best of The Colin Cowherd Podcast. First, why he has the same size concerns for Bryce Young in the NFL as oft-concussed Tua.
Then, The Athletic NBA Writer Marcus Thompson on why Andrew Wiggins Game 1 performance has the Warriors brimming with confidence despite the loss, if the Warriors will limit Jordan Poole’s minutes due to his lackluster D, if anyone on Golden State has a problem with Draymond putting out podcasts after playoff games, and if the Lakers are a serious threat to make a deep playoff run.
Finally, Hoops Tonight host Jason Timpf and Colin to discuss the Lakers abysmal Game 2 blowout loss to the Grizzlies, where Memphis is better without Ja Morant in the lineup, what to expect in Game 3, if Draymond Green’s Game 3 suspension was justified, what the Warriors need to do avoid an 0-3 hole without him, if KD and the Suns are title pretenders.
Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates, and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! #Herd #Volume
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward Podcast.
So I saw the story where Tua quarterback Miami Dolphins,
acknowledged and admitted that he strongly considered retirement this past
year when he dealt with concussions, and that's something. Had
it happened to me, it happened to a family member,
you should consider retirement. You know, we get into these
(00:36):
things in sports, these tunnels where everybody's afraid to get
canceled and called out, and so people don't acknowledge stuff
which is like obvious. And I felt like three or
four years ago when I brought up that Kyler Murray
was a little too small for my taste or that
size mattered at quarterback, I got a lot of pushback
(00:58):
on this stuff. And it's like, now, can we all
admit it that Bryce young size is a little concerning
out of Alabama, and it should be. That Tua is
small and Jalen Hurts is not ideal, though I wouldn't
classify him as small. He's been dinged up. And that
Baker Mayfield, you know, for a number one pick, Baker's
(01:20):
six feet tall and not a great athlete. Tried to
size up a safety after an interception, banged on his shoulder,
got hurt. Never the same quarterback. We have to be
honest about this stuff. Is that Mahomes and Herbert and
Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. These are
bigger than average men. It matters. Go look at the
(01:43):
list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's,
your Peyton Mannings, your big Bends, You're Joe Montana's, and
Steve Young's not a lot of five ten guys there.
So and I think it's a I think it's a
real concern about Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback
for Tennessee that may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker.
The knock on him is that he had an ACL injury.
(02:04):
But he's a big, strong kid who throws a beautiful football.
He may be your best bet. He may be your
best bet in this draft. I don't know that to
be true. But he is big, he's strong, he's got
a big arm, and you know he's older. So he's
a more mature kid, right than your average twenty one
twenty two year old quarterback coming in. He's you know,
he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua
(02:28):
is you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up.
I just I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't,
you know the way I look at Tua, great kid,
great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level,
and I said, we're to a point now where the
media is not going to give you a pass on concussions.
(02:48):
And not only are they not going to give you
a pass concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive.
And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion,
you can't plan for a month minimum. I mean if
third week of the year, September concussion, if you plan
before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's
(03:09):
the one injury where the media is relentless, and no
company wants to get banged on by the media for
eight to ten weeks. They don't all right, So it's
a bummer like some guys, you know, I've seen it
at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built
for high school and college. It's not quite built for
(03:29):
the NFL. And I don't know if Twua is I mean,
he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement,
and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see
over the offensive line. It's okay, we can acknowledge this
right like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why
Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very
very careful about not going prototype in the first ten
(03:51):
to fifteen picks. Do not get an offensive tackle that's
six two or sixty three. You got to be six
five and a half minimum, you know. Don't take a
small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think
the Dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Two is
a really good guy. They want to protect him. They should.
Tua also needs to be protected, like most pro athletes
(04:12):
from themselves, because they're all competitors and all want to play.
But that news that Tua considered retirement, how do you
not consider that? If you're the Miami Dolphins going forward,
how do you not Now, we bring in the great
Marcus Thompson. We use him as often as we can.
He's a busy guy. I came out last week and
I thought Sacramento would win the opener. I'll take the
(04:34):
Warriors in six. My question was how much do you
get out of Andrew Wiggins? Were you surprised how effective
Andrew Wiggins was having not played for three months?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I was, I mean, he's such a freak athlete that
how do you do that. He's bouncing around, he had
three blocks, he's playing defense, he's rebounding, he's getting to
his spots and it looks like normal. It is wasa
even if you know, like this dude is a unique athlete,
(05:06):
Like really he is special in a very like created
in a lab kind of way. Right, he could run
all day before this year, he never missed games, Like
he's just a guy who could just play all day.
And he looked like that it did catch up with him, right,
he was winded. I think it was one for eight
from three. He missed the three that would have won
the game, basically wide open from the corner. So you
(05:26):
could see like the effects of it. But man, let
me let me tell you Kyler. After the game in
a loss, you could feel that they're like, oh we
got wigkets back. Oh oh okay, Like even after the loss,
it we're like, oh we got we got wigkets back.
And that was kind of the sentiment like we're jet
(05:47):
we're fine, our whole squad is here, and Wiggins looks
like that already, Okay, we're pretty good. That's one of
the words to never get down. They very rarely get down.
That's still one of the higher moments I felt in
locker room after a loss where they felt like brooding confidence.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, now with Kaminga and Wiggins, Peyton will get to
him in a second, and Dante DiVincenzo. They do have
a seven to an eight man rotation here of you
know veteran players. You know a player the Warriors don't
have to mention Jordan Poole by name, but it's pretty obvious.
(06:27):
Kerr and Draymond take turns, you know, firing shots at
him defensively, Marcus, he's it's a problem, like he's not engaged.
I thought he had three or four lapses defensively, and
I honestly thought it cost them the game. Are his minutes?
I mean last year in the playoffs, Marcus, the longer
(06:48):
they went, the fewer minutes he played like there was there.
Do you think there's real concern about what he gives
up on the defensive end? He's just not engaged a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I don't know if it matters if he's engaged or not.
He's just not very good at it, so it doesn't
matter at this level, right, Like you could be as
intuite as you wanted. He made a few good plays,
but in the end, he's not guard deer in Fox.
So what he's not guarding Malik Monk. So the thing
that is important for him is to be able to
(07:20):
go back at you, Like they need somebody to go
back at it. They don't have a guy outside of
Steph Curry who can catch the ball at the three
point line and end up at the rim. He's the
only other guy who can do it. He's the only
guy who can dribble well enough and create, so they
need him for that. But he also gives up stuff
on defense, and that's kind of to catch twenty two
with Jordan Poole. If he's rolling and his shot is falling,
(07:44):
all right, you broke with him. Like there was a
stretch where they couldn't score and it was him and
Milik Monk going at each other, and it was like,
what the heck is this is this Michigan verus Kentucky?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Like I know, but.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Crunch time, you just get the sense in this series
against the most efficient offense team that could explode like this.
He probably won't be playing down the stretch, not that much.
He didn't play that much this game, Like he just
wasn't there. And Steve Kerr is going to leave defense,
He's going to lean defense. Every time they scored one
hundred and twenty three points, they should win that game.
They gave up one twenty six. That was the problem.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What are they going to get now from Peyton who
left the game some sort of core injury. What's the
latest on him?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
He seemed to be fine. He said he felt good.
He came back in. He just you know, Peyton is
one of them, dudess. He's like a football player in
that sense, like a running back, Like he's all his
whole bodies on the line. He's running, he's jumping, he's falling,
he's playing big right, and you just feel like he's
got a few years of this, So you need to
(08:45):
get him because there's always something with him, right. He's
just he's so physical with the way he plays. He's
a revelatory. He changes everything to them. He gives him something.
I feel like he might get a lot of Pool mints.
If it's not Wiggins, it'll be Gary Payton. I honestly
think that Peyton's a better fit. I think when I
(09:07):
watch Pool on the floor with the Warriors can I
feel like Draymond's body language isn't great sometimes Kurt isn't.
I feel like they hold their breath a little with
Jordan Poole. They don't trust him. They know he's gifted,
but they don't trust him. I think they trust Peyton
though he's limited. Yeah, the problem with Jordan is he's
(09:31):
just very young, and the mistakes and the stuff he's
got to learn, there's literally no other way around it.
Like he gets the ball at the end of the
quarter in the game and Steph is on a court
and it's Jordan Poole and he goes one on one
with Fox and he turns it over and it's like,
you got to get a ball to Stephan in that situation, right,
But in the same vein, he's taking that play and
(09:54):
he's gotten the bucket out of it. He just does
so many things that nobody else on the team can do.
So they gotta live with it. And you know what,
here's the reality. They created that monster, right, they taught
him out to play. So if he's taking bad shots,
he watched him take bad shots. He learned from them, right.
He his swagger, his confidence, they reeded it. So this
(10:19):
is just part of it. Like it reminds me of like,
you know, you're messing with a teenager, right, Like you're
raising a teenager. Like there's just parts of raising a
teenager that are tough. You got a young dude with
that much talent, that much confidence, that much arrogance, that
much belief in himself and also that many flaws. You
just gotta live with it because they can't without him.
(10:39):
But also it's some things on the court that frustrates you.
And they're all thirty thirty plus years old, they've got
four championships, they're veterans, right, you know, they make mistakes too,
so they just have to live with it. I feel
like they just have to live with it no matter what,
because bottom line, if Gary Payton's out there, that's one
less score. And if Klay's not making his shots like
he wasn't, especially down the stretch. Now, it's just all
(11:01):
on Steph. They run a boxing one on Steph. Who
creates offense at that point. Now it's like, yo, you
kind of need your pool of the game, so figure
out what to do on defense. But that dude could
go get a bucket.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So Draymond does podcasts right after the games he did
last year. You know, it's I see people take shots
head him. It's not like he divulges game plans. How
does it sit though with the team? I mean, Draymond
gives you insight that literally nobody in basketball gives you.
He's off the floor for the dynasty. Does it sit
(11:36):
uncomfortably with a team? How do they feel about it?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I don't think so. Number, if there's one thing the
I mean, first off, the only people who could possibly
say something are like the Ogs, right, Steph Curry, Clayton Thompson,
andre right, But anybody else, it probably doesn't matter what
they say. Is there any team more brand conscious than
the Warriors? Right there? Any that spends as much time
(12:02):
building like who they are? I mean Clay's riding boats
to games, right like, he's got his whole shtick. Steph,
you know, has his thing, like even andre Igandala is
the super smart tech guy, right Like they look at
Draymond as that's Draymond's thing. As long as he's playing, well,
it's fine. I haven't heard anything negative about it, right, Like,
(12:24):
you know, Draymond is a guy who will do some
things that irritates people. The podcast ain't one of them.
From what I can hear, it's just Draymond. Plus, I
don't know how much of this is Like, Yo, this
is Draymond. We've known he's dude for ten years now.
Like why we get mad about the sky being blue?
Like Draymond likes to talk. He's gonna talk. He's pretty smart,
so he knows what he's doing. It's gonna be calculated. Why, Like,
(12:46):
why worry about it? I think the fans don't like
it more than the players don't.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think he's very
measured and calculated. He knows exactly what he's saying. I
love it. I find the accents us fascinating.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But there's a there's like an other element to to it.
I think that people should probably know, like like he's
essentially putting his team on notice, right, Like if he's
out there talking, they they kind of got to go
back him up, right, And the only reason you would
complain about him doing that is if you are afraid,
(13:24):
you can't back it up. And that's just not worries basketball. Right,
They're gonna go into arena and they're gonna talk, and
then they're all going to back up the one who's talking.
Like that's just how it is. So I do think
there's a little bit of it, like an ulterior motives,
like all right, I'm gonna put us on notice and
we're gonna have to live. We're gonna have to rise
up to the occasion because nobody else on the team
(13:45):
will do that. I do feel like this is a
little bit of team chemistry situation as well.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Outside of the Warriors. Was there any takeaway for you
this weekend, Marcus? That was anything you took a step
back and went, you know, once Giannis got hurt, it's
gonna be a different game. Celtics are going to dispose
very quickly. Uh, Philadelphia is going to dispose of Brooklyn
very quickly. Anything surprised you at all? Not necessarily surprising.
(14:11):
I thought Memphis would be a tougher fight for the
like the Lakers kind of wax them.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I mean it was like the Ruy and and re right,
like they were cooking the Lakers look like, uh oh,
but if you're reminded of the ceiling they had, right,
they've played below it for so long you forget they
have it. But it's like, wait a second, if this
(14:37):
thing clicks, it might click click right. They could like
if Memphis doesn't put up a fight here and the
Warriors Kings go six or seven of a brawl, the
right track race right now, whoever comes out of it.
You got to deal with the size of Phillip, physicality
of the Lakers. Well, you could see this kind of
(14:58):
kind of shaping up for them in a way that's
a little bit like, wow, we just would have never
thought this two months ago. We would have ever thought this,
like they would have this ride to the you know,
to the Western Conference Finals. I was I'm interested in
the Miami Milwaukee series. I think this was more of
(15:18):
a blue kind of game. One like I think even
without Giannis, the Bucks are so used to playing without
them that they might figure something out. So I'm interested
to see what they have left. I think this is
a phenomenon. The team that comes in off the playing
usually a little bit rolling and and now you know,
I remember I think it was Memphis got Game one
(15:39):
against Utah afterday, if you win two games to get
into the playoffs, your nice little rhythm, and you're playing
a team that was just sitting, was just rested. I
think that's a little bit of thing. So I really
want to see what Miami has. Actually they lost one
in World One, but I want to see if Miami
is legit. If they could really extend the series, that
changes the entire East. And for Walking he's out entire East.
(16:02):
It blows everything up. Now, another team could sneak in,
like like the Knicks to the East Finals.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I don't think they will, but you know, going back
to what you said about the Lakers, I thought they'd
beat Minnesota and I thought they'd beat Memphis. But I
did feel like the longer it goes, it's more of
a disadvantage. Because if you could get in and out
of this series with Memphis in five games and Lebon
gets like four days to rest, then you have a
real chance to win Game one. It gets whoever you
(16:31):
play like I think play. There is a path that
the Lakers need to hit to win the Warriors. Don't
you know a lot of the good teams don't the
Lakers do. There's a path to success, and it's getting
rid of Memphis fast.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
But doesn't look feasible. I mean, like even like Joh
got hurt and this is becoming a thing. Joh gets hurt, right,
this is obviously a thing where this is now the
second playoffs and he got hurt. And remember before they
were like better without him, They like played in a
(17:07):
way where it was like, yo, they actually lock in
on defense, right, But no Steven Adams, no Brandon Clark.
That that that's a problem. Missles might be in trouble
even if Josh somehow plays. You're down one and they've
got Anthony Davis, Huka at any moment just dropped forty
(17:27):
on you, right, well, like they got the guy who
can do it, lebron Can just dropped forty on you,
and you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I mean they were trailing by four. That was
an offensive foul on jaw. The Lakers were getting the
ball and were hot. And by the way, the Lakers
had their best quarter of the season and the third
quarter and John was on the floor, so's he wasn't
stopping anybody. I thought the Lakers got so many good looks.
(17:53):
I mean the first half, the whole game. They got him,
They just didn't hit him in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But they were.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Getting fun nominal looks. Their ball movement was excellent. That's
the part though, that makes you think, how real is this?
I mean, it is Ruy hitting all those the whole series.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He won't No, you know, you not sold on the
Hotchi Bower bandwagon, not hop it on? You not ready
for the twenty four average of twenty four for the
series for Hottie Bower. You ate, I'm signing up Ruy
hotchiburrs average of twenty four for the entire series. Put
me down, I got.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, But I will say their third leading score Russell
Ruy reeves. They've got a collection of guys who are
all I mean, D'Angelo Russell is capable of drop twenty six,
going to give you a game, right, yeah, no question,
no question. He can be a little yep. Dennis Shrewder
by the way the playing game, Dennis shrewder was their
(18:52):
third guy. So they don't have a they don't have
a nail down three. But I mean, listen to Celtics
got to the finals last year and Marcus Smart is
hot and cold. You don't know exactly what you're getting
offensively from Marcus Smart. So I mean, if you have
two legitimate scores, I mean, what's impressible. We can do
the number three by committee, right, you can kind of
(19:13):
do it by committee. So all right, So you still
feel good about the Warriors before we let you go.
I still think they went it in six.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I mean this is how I played it out, like
I think they lose the first game. I just felt
like Sacramentdo is gonna make everything. This was like everybody
to be like Sherman Club, Right, this is thirty five
years of wanting and won't it Like they've been waiting
for this moment forever. I feel like they were going
to make every shot, and there was a stretch when
they did, and now the adjustments happened. Let's see if
(19:41):
they can handle it. I feel like Warriors get game
to hold Servant home and we go back. We either
go back to Sacramento tie to too, or we go
back to Sacramento with them playing for their lives to
stay alive. That's how I'll see it shaking out. I
wouldn't be shocked though, if Sacramento one.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I think any Laker fans saw it coming, like you
gotta win. In Memphis, energy was low early and this
team isn't you know, they're not Sacramento young, They're not
you know, they're one of those teams like they got
to be engaged. Like, is Lebron over the last two
(20:22):
or three years really lets the game come to him?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
He didn't.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I mean the first quarters for Lebron, it's like a
boxer in the first three rounds, like he feels the
game out right, He's basically hoping somebody else does the
heavy lifting early he's conserving energy. So when Anthony Davis
can't hit shots and Lebron's sort of working his way
into a game and it's like, oh, we trailed by fifteen, okay,
(20:46):
Like that's where the game became very quickly.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, you put it perfectly. Every Laker fan saw this coming.
This has been it. You know, this Lakers season has
been such a bizarre journey, Colin, because everyone's going to
focus on the fact that they've been really good since
the deadline, and they have and like so good that
they've deserved the attention that they've received in a way
that they may not have deserved the attention they've received
in the previous year. And a half. It was more
(21:10):
of just like everyone watching the ship crash and burn,
you know. But there have been two really interesting stretches
this season that I think are very very under discussed,
I should say, to get the Lakers where they were.
There's a stretch where Lebron James missed extended time and
Anthony Davis carried the team. Actually two stretches like that,
but the big one the foot issue towards the end
(21:30):
of the year. And then there was the stretch where
Anthony Davis missed a ton of time and Lebron James
stepped in. And in each of those stretches, Lebron and
ad the one that was available put forth incredibly desperate basketball,
playing at the absolute top of their games to drag
the team to wins, just to float things long enough
until the trade deadline could happen, or until Lebron James
(21:52):
could return, right, And every single time there has been
a return, they've collectively exhaled, and they I don't play
well as the favorite. It's basically what I'm saying. When
Lebron James came back, they immediately lost to Chicago because
they didn't think they had to play as hard as
they did they lost that desperation and yeah, this game textbook.
They go out there in Game one, they dominate that game,
(22:13):
and it was I heard a lot of people saying
it wasn't as close as it looked. I agree, But
did anybody think Memphis was winning Game one or did
it feel like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled
it throughout right, But then after that game they flipped
from being a slight underdog in the series to being
a slight favorite in the series than John Morant's out
and Lebron James and Anthony Davis are two players that
liked to do the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games.
(22:35):
They tried that tonight. And that's a young, scrappy Memphis
team that's always played super well at home. They played
super physical, really bothered the Lakers, particularly around the rim,
and they got a big win.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And the other thing is they are a better defensive team.
Memphis is when jaws not on the floor and the
ball moves better. And I've said this before, I said
it today on FS one. I said, flashy point guards
like sports cars. They're not built for bad weather or
a trip cross country, but god, they're fun, really fun.
Trey Young, you'll throw even Steph Curry and Steph Curry,
(23:08):
Trey Young, John Wall, John Morant, Dereck Rose. They are
players that get exposed defensively. They're usually a little I mean,
they're all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was
more stocky, but again he plays defense when he feels
like it. But when you get these Jahn Morant type players,
(23:32):
is they're exhilarating and ball movement slows down. You kind
of stare, you, kind of watch Derrick Rose perform, watch
John Wall, and they're not great. They give you so
much energy on the offensive end, they don't give you
a ton on the defensive end. Now, Steph Curry and
the Warriors, they've built the team Draymon Clay when he
was a great defender. They bring in Gary Payton, they
(23:53):
see his weaknesses and they build around him. But when
I watch Memphis, and I've seen this now three years,
Tyas Jones played better defense. I've seen this the last
you know, ten times that he's played. They're a better
defensive team. He's not a great scorer, but the forwards
and the wings move the ball really, really, really well.
And by the way, I remember John Wall years ago
(24:13):
a missing games for the Wizards. They won like nine
or ten straight. It doesn't mean Wall's not great, but
you know, everybody then feels like when the flashy point
guards out, hey, I'm gonna get touches tonight, like I'm
going to be included in this game plan, and you
really want to play well, showing the coaches Okay, when
the guy comes back, I want touches. And I think
(24:34):
Memphis tonight played a lot of energy, moved it really
really well. Everybody just the ball moves better. And it's
not a knock on John Rant. He's exhilarating. But I
see this sometimes even with the Warriors, Like sometimes if
Draymond's not setting screens, it's a lot of guys watching
Steph do is you know, Harlem globetrotter ball movement flying
(24:58):
around And I just I looked at me Emphis tonight,
and I'm like, they're a good team without Jaw. They're
a different team, but they're a good team without him.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
The way you broke it down is perfect, Like it's
a there's a baseline kind of like fundamental list of
things that if you do well as a basketball team,
you have a chance to win no matter what right, Like,
even without a top tier superstar, if you can protect
the rim really well, if you compete really hard in
all of the effort and energy parts of the game,
like sliding your defensively on the perimeter, beating guys to
(25:27):
the to the rim on help situations, crashing the offensive glass,
crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super hard and
having a couple of baseline pieces that you need, you
can win in the NBA, especially since a lot of
these NBA players are good. Like we spend a lot
of time talking about role players in the Shortcomings, but
a lot of these guys were all conference dudes in
(25:48):
college and guys who average twenty five thirty points a
game in high school. So if you give them close
out situations, even against good NBA defenses, they're gonna be
able to score. And so if you don't guard the
ball and you give give up dribble penetry, the guys
are attacking closeouts all night long, they're going to score.
That's why, Like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game,
I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are going to
(26:08):
win the series. The only thing that really stood out
to me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem, and it too,
it's twofold. Half of it is Jared Vanderbilt and the
fact that he's such a non threat offensively that Memphis
can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything
up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it
is Ruey Hatchimura is ascending in front of us. This
(26:31):
is something that has We've seen the two twenty point
point game, the two twenty plus point games in this series,
but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now. His
original His initial tenure with the Lakers went a little
bit rough. He got moved to the bench after the trade.
But Phil hand he's been working with him relentlessly before
games and in practice on polishing up some things in
his skill set. He's been working with Darvin Ham really
(26:53):
hard to find little areas of the game where he
can impact the game. Defensively, He's become kind of a sneaky,
solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots, grabbing contested rebounds.
They're gonna he's big. He's big, he's huge. They're gonna
slide him into that starting lineup at some point in
this playoff run, maybe even in Game three of this series,
and I think they're gonna cut way back on Jared
Vanderbilt's minutes. That was really the only schematic thing that
(27:15):
bothered me, uh or concerned me. I should say about
the Lakers, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But I will say they didn't play well. Started slow,
were on the road, ad didn't give you much offensively,
and they were in the game with two minutes ago.
You know, I mean, when the Knicks play poorly, they
get rolled Miami, not even Yannis on the Florida Nights
(27:41):
getting rolled. Lakers were on the road without or with
John Morant. Memphis is a very upper echelon team, and
they competed, and they really didn't play their best basketball.
It was like, I since the trade, I think they're
much more competitive team. I think they have more options.
(28:03):
I like, I watched the night and I thought, you
very early, it's like, it's not going to be their night.
It's not going to be their night. But they competed,
they hung in the game. You know, it wasn't a blowout.
They were you know, there was a little brief moment
with about four and a half five left, You're like, oh, okay,
we got it. It's six. So My takeaway is go
back home, win both games. Jaw's not going to be
(28:24):
playing much in this series, and the faster you can
close it out the better because this is this is Lebron.
James is old and you can see it like he
can't go seven game series or they'll pay for it
next series.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, I think the way you broke it down is perfect.
Like the there's a competitiveness that you'd like to see
when a team loses that shows them that they're just
a victim of victims, not even the right word, but
just shows them that this is a natural ebb and
flow in the series. From the point that the Grizzlies
went up sixty six to forty six, they were up twenty.
This was the early third quarter. I thought the Lakers
(29:01):
really controlled the rest of that game. They just were
a little bit too far away, especially with Dangel Russell
being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing
everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the
offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that
they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in
that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now the
problem is and you just said this, and this is
(29:22):
so important this particular Lakers team. Rest is going to
be key for them, and dying this series quickly is
so important because there will be long series ahead. The
next series against Sacramento of Golden State probably a longer
series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the
way that they run their coverage is going to leave
some things open for the Kings guards and the Warriors guards.
(29:45):
In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or
the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for
a long series. Whoever comes out of the West or East.
That's a six or seven game series. So if they
could buy little tiny chunks of like three or four
days off here or there for Broughn and Anthony Davis
to rest ending this series in five would go a
long way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us
(30:06):
of backing up our volume guy, which I think is
ridiculous because it's just.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I don't know what's gotten into everybody, Colin, because I
feel like this is the most reasonable opinion in the world,
and everyone's calling me immoral. You know how it goes.
But I could see the case for the I could
see the case for the ejection. Now I disagreed with it,
but I could see the case, and the case was
Draymond's history fair. I thought the decision to suspend him
(30:34):
was completely outrageous. Where did you land on that?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
The reality is if I went up and punched you,
and you punched me back, and you knocked me out
and I just grazed you, you could say, well, he
started it, and that's a real defense. If you broke
into my house and I shot you and you had
a terrible injury, and maybe maybe I didn't need to
(30:59):
be as violent. Again to you, I would say, he
broke into my house, right, Sabonis got a technical and
initiated the circus. Draymond pulling out then added to it.
But that's a real defense, which is you know, he's
swung first, or he broke in, or he grabbed my leg.
(31:20):
So to me, that's not why they threw him out
for the next game. I believe at my core because
Sabonis a started it and played the remaining seven and
a half minutes. He was fine. And you know, again,
if there would have been an injury, then there's a
different component. But I think and I don't blame Adam
(31:41):
Silver for this. Deep in the DNA of the NBA,
the Malice at the Palace was their darkest moment. And
when Draymond got up as a road player and started
taunting the crowd and Adam Silver's in the building, I
think that's a non starter. If you're at Chase Center,
(32:03):
it's different. But if you're on the road, Adam's there,
he hears those fans, he sees the double birds. He
It's like, no way, we're not going there. That even
though I defended the players in Malice of the Palace
because if you went back and looked at the people
and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records.
They were just there to be trouble. I defended run
(32:26):
our Test. I defended the players because I would have
been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena.
But it does matter what arena it is. You can't
do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment, Jason,
you just can't do it.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
There's the old saying you can't yell fire in a
crowded theater. You can't. So I think Silver being there,
and cause you know, when Draymond's doing that. Adam's hearing
those fans and he's seeing those double birds and he's like,
I'm not going there repercussions. Again, Draymond's a veteran, He's
(33:03):
not a rookie. Like you could see a rookie losing
their shit.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
You could.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I mean, seriously, a nineteen year old kid gets worked up.
This is a wise NBA sage. You know, Draymond's been
in these wars forever. So I think it's like resume
road insiding. Because I'm with you, if you do something first,
you do have a right a cheap shot. To me,
(33:29):
you do have a right to cheap shot back. And
that would have easily been two technicals keep playing. But
that that crowd and that even somebody said it today
on my show. I forget who it was, but it
was me. Have been Sam Amick. He just said, you know,
if he'd just run through the tunnel, it would have
felt different. Just I'm out out.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It was like.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Ninety seconds of come on, you want a piece of me.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I didn't like it.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Well, there are things that are debatable about this, and
there are things or not debatable, Like the debatable side
of it is should he have been suspended. Sure, you know,
like we can go back and forth about that. Here's
what's not debatable. Draymond brought this on himself and his team.
That goes like, regardless of what the decision making process was,
the risk was willingly took on by Draymond with his
(34:18):
behavior and especially what you're talking about after the timeout,
because again, like and I think I think it's a
complicated topic, and I know you've talked about this a
little bit on your show, yeaally, but like the dynamic
between the fans and players is super complicated because like,
you're heated, you're super competitive, and you're riled up, and
now some dudes saying some wildly disrespectful stuff from to you,
(34:39):
like twenty feet away, and there's really like this barrier
between you that extends beyond the distance. It's also like
Adam Silver standing there between you because it could literally
mess up your entire season and everything that you and
your team are trying to build towards. But again, like
there's a difference between like I think I personally would
not have suspended him. That said, that's a debate, that's
(35:01):
a fair debate. There's no question that Draymond brought it
on himself at least through his decision making process and
knowing what kind of history he had. Now with this
series gets really interesting from here. I don't think it's
overcallin and I'm still pretty confident that Golden State's gonna win.
I know it sounds crazy, but a couple of different things.
(35:22):
They kind of started to figure out some stuff in
Game two that I believe might have led them to
a victory had Draymond been able to stay in the game.
When Andrew Wiggins is on the floor and when Gary
Payton is on the floor, they have straightforward matchups for
Fox and Monk and they're actually doing a decent job
(35:42):
containing him there. Then they have to go to pick
and roll to get rid of the on ball defender,
and Draymond is blowing all of that stuff up as
the screen defender. At the end of the game, they
had to go to Looney and then they went to
pick and roll, and Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim,
so that ended up being the problem problem. But functionally
from the lineup, you can kind of see the two
(36:02):
teams finding their five that works. The Kings are going
with Davion Mitchell because he can guards death credibly right.
And then they're going with Malik Monk and Deer and
Fox with Harrison Barnes and Demanta Sabonis. With the Warriors,
it's Draymond with Andrew Wiggins and then Gary Payton Stephen Clay.
That's where they've got their lineups that are working. That's
where these two teams are going to go down with
(36:24):
the ship. If the Warriors can survive Game three, which
is totally possible with how well they play in front
of their home crowd even without Draymond, especially against the
King's team that cannot be overly physical sometimes. If they
can survive Game three, Draymond comes back for Game four,
I believe they will win that game on the road.
In Game five, as long as they can stay in
(36:45):
it long enough to get to their core lineup at
the end, I think they have a really good chance
to win this series. As bad as Golden State was
on the road in Sacramento, expects Sacramento to look just
as bad in Golden State.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
In my opinion, Well, what I worry about without draim
On He's a great passer on the offensive end. He's
also a great screen setter, and he's now they have
plenty of smart players, but he does add an intellect.
He's just got a real good sense. I mean, it's
all this sort of intellectual bandwidth the Celtics play with.
(37:16):
When you've got four guys who are on the floor
for six years, Like the Celtics passing is excellent. Whereas
Atlanta's got a new GM, a new coach, a new system.
I mean, it's just a bunch of new parts. And
I think, I think when I watch the Warriors with
Draymon's Steph Clay on the floor, Man, there are times
it's just they can really read each other's minds. And
(37:37):
that's the kind of capital that load management eats away at.
It's what I mean. We've talked about this. It's why
the Clippers sometimes in a half court set are amful
to watch. There's no play together. So if they can
get through this game, I agree with you. But man,
sometimes without Draymond, the passing's not as the ball movements
(38:01):
not quite as good. You know, Clay is not a
great ball handler, and now he's not a great defender,
so you get two different versions of Clay. There's catch
and shoot, and he's hot at home, Clay great, and
then there's on the road struggling handling the ball, guys
blowing by him. You know, you used to kind of
know with Clay that if he wasn't on, you got
(38:22):
a great defender. Now and he's not on, you get
a sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender. So his
game doesn't necessarily you'd think, because he's a catch and
shoot guy, his game would age well. But he's got
to play better. He and Jordan Poole have got to
help Steph. Jordan Pool's been awful in the series. Awful.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I agree, you're the Draymon thing is certainly a threat.
And this is where I fundamentally disagree with the suspension, Like,
make the Kings go earn the damn series, make them
go beat Golden State in Golden State, make them beat
him with Draymond, like especially on it, like especially I've
been getting on my soapbox again. I didn't like that
that suspension at all, Like because now if the Kings
win the series, it's gonna feel a little cheap, but
(39:08):
it is.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
You know, Jason, I've always felt I will always give
an athlete a pass in the moment. Tom Brady yelling
at a coach, Peyton Manning barking, I'll always give an
athlete they can leave their body. It's an out of
body experience. Emotionally, I mean, your testosterone's going you've been putting.
So the Draymond kick, it's like, I get it. That's
his style. He's the bouncer at the night club. He's
(39:30):
a tough guy. It's the Okay, I've been ejected. Now
I'm gonna go and taunt the crowd. Come on, you're
a mid thirty year old player, Like, like, I have
a right to be mad if I'm on the air
and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking, But
three minutes later, I've got to go, Okay, we have
a show to do. Take a deep breath, get over yourself.
Let's do the show. So I that part, I'll defend
(39:53):
Draymond in the moment guy grabs your foot, you stomp
him back. I'll defend him forever on that. But you
got to know better already, four to thirty five year
old guy on the road to get that crowd riled up, Like,
that's just not the play.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
I can't argue with anything. You're saying, Colin, So I'm
gonna change. I'm gonna change my take as a basketball fan.
I'm annoyed that Draymond's not playing in Game three. How
about that? Right, We'll just go with that.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So that's I do.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I do still think. I think that if the Warriors
can survive the Draymond suspension in Game three, I think
they still have a very good chance to win the series.
So Clippers versus Suns, this is the series that I
have been most wrong about in my pre playoffs previews.
I expected the Clippers to get swept. They very much
did not, as they went into Phoenix and stole game one.
(40:40):
You know what's interesting about this series, Colin? The numbers
coming out of of the like kind of shot profile
stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This is wild.
So the Suns have attempted just seventeen shots excuse me,
nineteen shots in the restricted area in this series, and
the Clippers have attempted thirty seven, so like almost double
(41:05):
and then in wide open threes, which by NBA dot
Com is factored in as defender at least six foot
six feet away. The Clippers have also generated about twice
as many as the Suns. The reasons why this, the
reason why the Suns won Game two is what's the
other shot that's available. So, if you're not scoring at
the rim and you're not making these kickout threes to
(41:25):
guys that are wide open, it's contested pull up off
the dribble long jump shots in the mid range.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
What's crazy is the Suns shot thirty five percent in
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots in
game one and they lost. They shot sixty one percent
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots off
the dribble in Game two and they won. And so
everything for me for the Suns comes down to can
they continue to knock down these tough, contested pull up
(41:56):
jump shots.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
And I'm just not.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
I believe they'll make enough to beat the Clippers, but
I after two games feel less confident than ever that
the Sons can get out of the conference because they're
just not generating enough easy shots.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Well, I feel these are opposite teams. The Clippers have
depth but are missing a star. The Sons have stars
and are missing depth. And when they made the move
to get KD, you had to give up Michale Bridges.
That was the gem but they gave up two other players,
and one of those players had twenty eight the other
(42:32):
night for Brooklyn against Philadelphia. And when I watch the Suns,
I feel I said this on TV today, they're a
guy shy. If I just said Norman Powell's on the Suns,
I'm like, okay, they're a finals team. I almost think
they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into
foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is hurt and he may
(42:55):
not play in Game three. Booker doesn't really have a backup.
They don't really have have backups for their stars, and
it almost makes them a little tentative defensively, Whereas the
Clippers have depth, play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in
foul trouble, you can throw in man Norman Powell, they go.
They've got depth. So I think it makes them play
(43:16):
a little more tentative defensively. Monty Williams knows that we
can't go to the bench early. We just can't. And
the other thing is Chris Paul's the one guy that
needs a break and until his backup comes in who's
been out, that's I know he may play in Game three.
But I think that's a big thing. Like Chris at
this point in his career need to spell. And so
(43:40):
when I've been watching Chris Paul in the second half,
his jumpers are short. His just stuff that went in
three years ago is just not there, and it's I
mean it was the other night he missed a couple
seventy eight footage. I'm like, that was a seventy percent
shot three years ago, Like just Chris didn't miss those.
So I feel like I feel like to get Kevin Durant,
(44:02):
they had to give away a bunch of picks and
three dudes. If they give away two, they can be
more aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys.
I mean, they're gonna have to play Durant and Booker,
They're gonna have to play them forty minutes. That's who
they are now, That's who they are.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
I said this before the playoffs, and I still feel
very strongly about this, Like I have no idea what's
gonna happen with this Sun's team, but I do know
what's gonna happen this summer. They're gonna sign somebody and
it's gonna be like, hey, listen, do you want to
be a start the starting forward, like guaranteed starting spot
alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Deandraton. They're gonna
(44:40):
be able to pitch that position like that using the
mid level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer,
and they are going to get some massively underpaid forward
that can play on both ends of the floor that
wants to just go win a championship next to the
two of them. They're gonna get two or three more
veteran minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar similar mold,
and they're gonna be awesome next year. I feel very
(45:02):
strongly about that. This team is kind of playing with
house money a little bit because I think I think
the expectations are a little lower on them because of that.
The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less concerned about
it on the offensive end, because workload matters, Like splitting
a heavy duty shot creation workload between just Kyrie and Lebron.
(45:26):
That can get a little fatiguing and you need an
other worldly athlete like Lebron to survive that. But like
all of a sudden, you throw a third guy in there,
and it's like they're haters. Splitting those duties three ways,
it becomes a little more achievable. The defensive end is
where is where you hit the nail on the head.
You can't win a title in the NBA without playing
elite defense. You can't play elite defense without committing to
(45:49):
devote physical resources to it. And when you devote physical
resources to it to the tune of forty four minutes
a night, one of two things is going to happen.
They're either going to not devo the necessary physical resources
to it and coast and not reach the defensive ceiling
they need to reach. Or they're going to pour in
the necessary effort for forty four minutes to get stops
(46:09):
and they're gonna suffer on the offense and end when
they're fatigued. So like, that's where it gets difficult, and
I don't really have a good answer for them. Kevin
Durant famously said this after they lost to the to
the Bucks in at Crazy Game seven, that won't his
toe is on the line. I don't know if you
remember the turner on tipper he said that.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Of course he said this.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
After the series he goes, everyone thinks if I was
won the inch further back, we would have won the championship.
He's like, that was the second round. He's like, he's
like we had He's like James Harden was playing on
a bad hamstring. Kyrie was completely unavailable. I had to
create every single shot. He's like, we were winning the
title that year. Like it's just too much to ask
a guy to do that that much without any depth
(46:50):
behind it.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, I think if they get paying the backup to
Chris Paul, I think if they get him back, I
think that helps, you know, like there's like I don't
know what he plays eighteen minutes, sixteen minutes. That helps
a little bit. But I to your point, they'll get
a couple of mid level exemptions, and they'll get a
couple of veterans that want to win, you know, like
the Heat did when they went and grabbed like Ray Allen.
(47:12):
You'll get a guy like that that's like, man, I
just want a title. When David West came to the Warriors,
there's a guy out there that like can give you
like twelve really good minutes in the postseason. Jay Crowder's
bounced around and become kind of like that guy. At
the end of his career, so, and they Jay Crowder
got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so,
you know Michale Bridges, yes, And then you start moving
(47:33):
a couple other pieces and you look up and it's like, oh,
Cam Johnson dropped almost thirty against Holy and you're like,
they need that so bad. The volume. Make sure to
(48:00):
check out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green
into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices
in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope also chops
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Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get
your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward Podcast.
So I saw the story where Tua quarterback Miami Dolphins,
acknowledged and admitted that he strongly considered retirement this past
year when he dealt with concussions, and that's something. Had
it happened to me, it happened to a family member,
you should consider retirement. You know, we get into these
(00:36):
things in sports, these tunnels where everybody's afraid to get
canceled and called out, and so people don't acknowledge stuff
which is like obvious. And I felt like three or
four years ago when I brought up that Kyler Murray
was a little too small for my taste or that
size mattered at quarterback, I got a lot of pushback
(00:58):
on this stuff. And it's like, now, can we all
admit it that Bryce young size is a little concerning
out of Alabama, and it should be. That Tua is
small and Jalen Hurts is not ideal, though I wouldn't
classify him as small. He's been dinged up. And that
Baker Mayfield, you know, for a number one pick, Baker's
(01:20):
six feet tall and not a great athlete. Tried to
size up a safety after an interception, banged on his shoulder,
got hurt. Never the same quarterback. We have to be
honest about this stuff. Is that Mahomes and Herbert and
Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. These are
bigger than average men. It matters. Go look at the
(01:43):
list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's,
your Peyton Mannings, your big Bends, You're Joe Montana's, and
Steve Young's not a lot of five ten guys there.
So and I think it's a I think it's a
real concern about Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback
for Tennessee that may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker.
The knock on him is that he had an ACL injury.
(02:04):
But he's a big, strong kid who throws a beautiful football.
He may be your best bet. He may be your
best bet in this draft. I don't know that to
be true. But he is big, he's strong, he's got
a big arm, and you know he's older. So he's
a more mature kid, right than your average twenty one
twenty two year old quarterback coming in. He's you know,
he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua
(02:28):
is you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up.
I just I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't,
you know the way I look at Tua, great kid,
great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level,
and I said, we're to a point now where the
media is not going to give you a pass on concussions.
(02:48):
And not only are they not going to give you
a pass concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive.
And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion,
you can't plan for a month minimum. I mean if
third week of the year, September concussion, if you plan
before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's
(03:09):
the one injury where the media is relentless, and no
company wants to get banged on by the media for
eight to ten weeks. They don't all right, So it's
a bummer like some guys, you know, I've seen it
at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built
for high school and college. It's not quite built for
(03:29):
the NFL. And I don't know if Twua is I mean,
he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement,
and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see
over the offensive line. It's okay, we can acknowledge this
right like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why
Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very
very careful about not going prototype in the first ten
(03:51):
to fifteen picks. Do not get an offensive tackle that's
six two or sixty three. You got to be six
five and a half minimum, you know. Don't take a
small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think
the Dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Two is
a really good guy. They want to protect him. They should.
Tua also needs to be protected, like most pro athletes
(04:12):
from themselves, because they're all competitors and all want to play.
But that news that Tua considered retirement, how do you
not consider that? If you're the Miami Dolphins going forward,
how do you not Now, we bring in the great
Marcus Thompson. We use him as often as we can.
He's a busy guy. I came out last week and
I thought Sacramento would win the opener. I'll take the
(04:34):
Warriors in six. My question was how much do you
get out of Andrew Wiggins? Were you surprised how effective
Andrew Wiggins was having not played for three months?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I was, I mean, he's such a freak athlete that
how do you do that. He's bouncing around, he had
three blocks, he's playing defense, he's rebounding, he's getting to
his spots and it looks like normal. It is wasa
even if you know, like this dude is a unique athlete,
(05:06):
Like really he is special in a very like created
in a lab kind of way. Right, he could run
all day before this year, he never missed games, Like
he's just a guy who could just play all day.
And he looked like that it did catch up with him, right,
he was winded. I think it was one for eight
from three. He missed the three that would have won
the game, basically wide open from the corner. So you
(05:26):
could see like the effects of it. But man, let
me let me tell you Kyler. After the game in
a loss, you could feel that they're like, oh we
got wigkets back. Oh oh okay, Like even after the loss,
it we're like, oh we got we got wigkets back.
And that was kind of the sentiment like we're jet
(05:47):
we're fine, our whole squad is here, and Wiggins looks
like that already, Okay, we're pretty good. That's one of
the words to never get down. They very rarely get down.
That's still one of the higher moments I felt in
locker room after a loss where they felt like brooding confidence.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, now with Kaminga and Wiggins, Peyton will get to
him in a second, and Dante DiVincenzo. They do have
a seven to an eight man rotation here of you
know veteran players. You know a player the Warriors don't
have to mention Jordan Poole by name, but it's pretty obvious.
(06:27):
Kerr and Draymond take turns, you know, firing shots at
him defensively, Marcus, he's it's a problem, like he's not engaged.
I thought he had three or four lapses defensively, and
I honestly thought it cost them the game. Are his minutes?
I mean last year in the playoffs, Marcus, the longer
(06:48):
they went, the fewer minutes he played like there was there.
Do you think there's real concern about what he gives
up on the defensive end? He's just not engaged a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I don't know if it matters if he's engaged or not.
He's just not very good at it, so it doesn't
matter at this level, right, Like you could be as
intuite as you wanted. He made a few good plays,
but in the end, he's not guard deer in Fox.
So what he's not guarding Malik Monk. So the thing
that is important for him is to be able to
(07:20):
go back at you, Like they need somebody to go
back at it. They don't have a guy outside of
Steph Curry who can catch the ball at the three
point line and end up at the rim. He's the
only other guy who can do it. He's the only
guy who can dribble well enough and create, so they
need him for that. But he also gives up stuff
on defense, and that's kind of to catch twenty two
with Jordan Poole. If he's rolling and his shot is falling,
(07:44):
all right, you broke with him. Like there was a
stretch where they couldn't score and it was him and
Milik Monk going at each other, and it was like,
what the heck is this is this Michigan verus Kentucky?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Like I know, but.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Crunch time, you just get the sense in this series
against the most efficient offense team that could explode like this.
He probably won't be playing down the stretch, not that much.
He didn't play that much this game, Like he just
wasn't there. And Steve Kerr is going to leave defense,
He's going to lean defense. Every time they scored one
hundred and twenty three points, they should win that game.
They gave up one twenty six. That was the problem.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What are they going to get now from Peyton who
left the game some sort of core injury. What's the
latest on him?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
He seemed to be fine. He said he felt good.
He came back in. He just you know, Peyton is
one of them, dudess. He's like a football player in
that sense, like a running back, Like he's all his
whole bodies on the line. He's running, he's jumping, he's falling,
he's playing big right, and you just feel like he's
got a few years of this, So you need to
(08:45):
get him because there's always something with him, right. He's
just he's so physical with the way he plays. He's
a revelatory. He changes everything to them. He gives him something.
I feel like he might get a lot of Pool mints.
If it's not Wiggins, it'll be Gary Payton. I honestly
think that Peyton's a better fit. I think when I
(09:07):
watch Pool on the floor with the Warriors can I
feel like Draymond's body language isn't great sometimes Kurt isn't.
I feel like they hold their breath a little with
Jordan Poole. They don't trust him. They know he's gifted,
but they don't trust him. I think they trust Peyton
though he's limited. Yeah, the problem with Jordan is he's
(09:31):
just very young, and the mistakes and the stuff he's
got to learn, there's literally no other way around it.
Like he gets the ball at the end of the
quarter in the game and Steph is on a court
and it's Jordan Poole and he goes one on one
with Fox and he turns it over and it's like,
you got to get a ball to Stephan in that situation, right,
But in the same vein, he's taking that play and
(09:54):
he's gotten the bucket out of it. He just does
so many things that nobody else on the team can do.
So they gotta live with it. And you know what,
here's the reality. They created that monster, right, they taught
him out to play. So if he's taking bad shots,
he watched him take bad shots. He learned from them, right.
He his swagger, his confidence, they reeded it. So this
(10:19):
is just part of it. Like it reminds me of like,
you know, you're messing with a teenager, right, Like you're
raising a teenager. Like there's just parts of raising a
teenager that are tough. You got a young dude with
that much talent, that much confidence, that much arrogance, that
much belief in himself and also that many flaws. You
just gotta live with it because they can't without him.
(10:39):
But also it's some things on the court that frustrates you.
And they're all thirty thirty plus years old, they've got
four championships, they're veterans, right, you know, they make mistakes too,
so they just have to live with it. I feel
like they just have to live with it no matter what,
because bottom line, if Gary Payton's out there, that's one
less score. And if Klay's not making his shots like
he wasn't, especially down the stretch. Now, it's just all
(11:01):
on Steph. They run a boxing one on Steph. Who
creates offense at that point. Now it's like, yo, you
kind of need your pool of the game, so figure
out what to do on defense. But that dude could
go get a bucket.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So Draymond does podcasts right after the games he did
last year. You know, it's I see people take shots
head him. It's not like he divulges game plans. How
does it sit though with the team? I mean, Draymond
gives you insight that literally nobody in basketball gives you.
He's off the floor for the dynasty. Does it sit
(11:36):
uncomfortably with a team? How do they feel about it?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I don't think so. Number, if there's one thing the
I mean, first off, the only people who could possibly
say something are like the Ogs, right, Steph Curry, Clayton Thompson,
andre right, But anybody else, it probably doesn't matter what
they say. Is there any team more brand conscious than
the Warriors? Right there? Any that spends as much time
(12:02):
building like who they are? I mean Clay's riding boats
to games, right like, he's got his whole shtick. Steph,
you know, has his thing, like even andre Igandala is
the super smart tech guy, right Like they look at
Draymond as that's Draymond's thing. As long as he's playing, well,
it's fine. I haven't heard anything negative about it, right, Like,
(12:24):
you know, Draymond is a guy who will do some
things that irritates people. The podcast ain't one of them.
From what I can hear, it's just Draymond. Plus, I
don't know how much of this is Like, Yo, this
is Draymond. We've known he's dude for ten years now.
Like why we get mad about the sky being blue?
Like Draymond likes to talk. He's gonna talk. He's pretty smart,
so he knows what he's doing. It's gonna be calculated. Why, Like,
(12:46):
why worry about it? I think the fans don't like
it more than the players don't.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think he's very
measured and calculated. He knows exactly what he's saying. I
love it. I find the accents us fascinating.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But there's a there's like an other element to to it.
I think that people should probably know, like like he's
essentially putting his team on notice, right, Like if he's
out there talking, they they kind of got to go
back him up, right, And the only reason you would
complain about him doing that is if you are afraid,
(13:24):
you can't back it up. And that's just not worries basketball. Right,
They're gonna go into arena and they're gonna talk, and
then they're all going to back up the one who's talking.
Like that's just how it is. So I do think
there's a little bit of it, like an ulterior motives,
like all right, I'm gonna put us on notice and
we're gonna have to live. We're gonna have to rise
up to the occasion because nobody else on the team
(13:45):
will do that. I do feel like this is a
little bit of team chemistry situation as well.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Outside of the Warriors. Was there any takeaway for you
this weekend, Marcus? That was anything you took a step
back and went, you know, once Giannis got hurt, it's
gonna be a different game. Celtics are going to dispose
very quickly. Uh, Philadelphia is going to dispose of Brooklyn
very quickly. Anything surprised you at all? Not necessarily surprising.
(14:11):
I thought Memphis would be a tougher fight for the
like the Lakers kind of wax them.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I mean it was like the Ruy and and re right,
like they were cooking the Lakers look like, uh oh,
but if you're reminded of the ceiling they had, right,
they've played below it for so long you forget they
have it. But it's like, wait a second, if this
(14:37):
thing clicks, it might click click right. They could like
if Memphis doesn't put up a fight here and the
Warriors Kings go six or seven of a brawl, the
right track race right now, whoever comes out of it.
You got to deal with the size of Phillip, physicality
of the Lakers. Well, you could see this kind of
(14:58):
kind of shaping up for them in a way that's
a little bit like, wow, we just would have never
thought this two months ago. We would have ever thought this,
like they would have this ride to the you know,
to the Western Conference Finals. I was I'm interested in
the Miami Milwaukee series. I think this was more of
(15:18):
a blue kind of game. One like I think even
without Giannis, the Bucks are so used to playing without
them that they might figure something out. So I'm interested
to see what they have left. I think this is
a phenomenon. The team that comes in off the playing
usually a little bit rolling and and now you know,
I remember I think it was Memphis got Game one
(15:39):
against Utah afterday, if you win two games to get
into the playoffs, your nice little rhythm, and you're playing
a team that was just sitting, was just rested. I
think that's a little bit of thing. So I really
want to see what Miami has. Actually they lost one
in World One, but I want to see if Miami
is legit. If they could really extend the series, that
changes the entire East. And for Walking he's out entire East.
(16:02):
It blows everything up. Now, another team could sneak in,
like like the Knicks to the East Finals.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I don't think they will, but you know, going back
to what you said about the Lakers, I thought they'd
beat Minnesota and I thought they'd beat Memphis. But I
did feel like the longer it goes, it's more of
a disadvantage. Because if you could get in and out
of this series with Memphis in five games and Lebon
gets like four days to rest, then you have a
real chance to win Game one. It gets whoever you
(16:31):
play like I think play. There is a path that
the Lakers need to hit to win the Warriors. Don't
you know a lot of the good teams don't the
Lakers do. There's a path to success, and it's getting
rid of Memphis fast.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
But doesn't look feasible. I mean, like even like Joh
got hurt and this is becoming a thing. Joh gets hurt, right,
this is obviously a thing where this is now the
second playoffs and he got hurt. And remember before they
were like better without him, They like played in a
(17:07):
way where it was like, yo, they actually lock in
on defense, right, But no Steven Adams, no Brandon Clark.
That that that's a problem. Missles might be in trouble
even if Josh somehow plays. You're down one and they've
got Anthony Davis, Huka at any moment just dropped forty
(17:27):
on you, right, well, like they got the guy who
can do it, lebron Can just dropped forty on you,
and you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I mean they were trailing by four. That was
an offensive foul on jaw. The Lakers were getting the
ball and were hot. And by the way, the Lakers
had their best quarter of the season and the third
quarter and John was on the floor, so's he wasn't
stopping anybody. I thought the Lakers got so many good looks.
(17:53):
I mean the first half, the whole game. They got him,
They just didn't hit him in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But they were.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Getting fun nominal looks. Their ball movement was excellent. That's
the part though, that makes you think, how real is this?
I mean, it is Ruy hitting all those the whole series.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He won't No, you know, you not sold on the
Hotchi Bower bandwagon, not hop it on? You not ready
for the twenty four average of twenty four for the
series for Hottie Bower. You ate, I'm signing up Ruy
hotchiburrs average of twenty four for the entire series. Put
me down, I got.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, But I will say their third leading score Russell
Ruy reeves. They've got a collection of guys who are
all I mean, D'Angelo Russell is capable of drop twenty six,
going to give you a game, right, yeah, no question,
no question. He can be a little yep. Dennis Shrewder
by the way the playing game, Dennis shrewder was their
(18:52):
third guy. So they don't have a they don't have
a nail down three. But I mean, listen to Celtics
got to the finals last year and Marcus Smart is
hot and cold. You don't know exactly what you're getting
offensively from Marcus Smart. So I mean, if you have
two legitimate scores, I mean, what's impressible. We can do
the number three by committee, right, you can kind of
(19:13):
do it by committee. So all right, So you still
feel good about the Warriors before we let you go.
I still think they went it in six.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I mean this is how I played it out, like
I think they lose the first game. I just felt
like Sacramentdo is gonna make everything. This was like everybody
to be like Sherman Club, Right, this is thirty five
years of wanting and won't it Like they've been waiting
for this moment forever. I feel like they were going
to make every shot, and there was a stretch when
they did, and now the adjustments happened. Let's see if
(19:41):
they can handle it. I feel like Warriors get game
to hold Servant home and we go back. We either
go back to Sacramento tie to too, or we go
back to Sacramento with them playing for their lives to
stay alive. That's how I'll see it shaking out. I
wouldn't be shocked though, if Sacramento one.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I think any Laker fans saw it coming, like you
gotta win. In Memphis, energy was low early and this
team isn't you know, they're not Sacramento young, They're not
you know, they're one of those teams like they got
to be engaged. Like, is Lebron over the last two
(20:22):
or three years really lets the game come to him?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
He didn't.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I mean the first quarters for Lebron, it's like a
boxer in the first three rounds, like he feels the
game out right, He's basically hoping somebody else does the
heavy lifting early he's conserving energy. So when Anthony Davis
can't hit shots and Lebron's sort of working his way
into a game and it's like, oh, we trailed by fifteen, okay,
(20:46):
Like that's where the game became very quickly.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, you put it perfectly. Every Laker fan saw this coming.
This has been it. You know, this Lakers season has
been such a bizarre journey, Colin, because everyone's going to
focus on the fact that they've been really good since
the deadline, and they have and like so good that
they've deserved the attention that they've received in a way
that they may not have deserved the attention they've received
in the previous year. And a half. It was more
(21:10):
of just like everyone watching the ship crash and burn,
you know. But there have been two really interesting stretches
this season that I think are very very under discussed,
I should say, to get the Lakers where they were.
There's a stretch where Lebron James missed extended time and
Anthony Davis carried the team. Actually two stretches like that,
but the big one the foot issue towards the end
(21:30):
of the year. And then there was the stretch where
Anthony Davis missed a ton of time and Lebron James
stepped in. And in each of those stretches, Lebron and
ad the one that was available put forth incredibly desperate basketball,
playing at the absolute top of their games to drag
the team to wins, just to float things long enough
until the trade deadline could happen, or until Lebron James
(21:52):
could return, right, And every single time there has been
a return, they've collectively exhaled, and they I don't play
well as the favorite. It's basically what I'm saying. When
Lebron James came back, they immediately lost to Chicago because
they didn't think they had to play as hard as
they did they lost that desperation and yeah, this game textbook.
They go out there in Game one, they dominate that game,
(22:13):
and it was I heard a lot of people saying
it wasn't as close as it looked. I agree, But
did anybody think Memphis was winning Game one or did
it feel like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled
it throughout right, But then after that game they flipped
from being a slight underdog in the series to being
a slight favorite in the series than John Morant's out
and Lebron James and Anthony Davis are two players that
liked to do the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games.
(22:35):
They tried that tonight. And that's a young, scrappy Memphis
team that's always played super well at home. They played
super physical, really bothered the Lakers, particularly around the rim,
and they got a big win.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And the other thing is they are a better defensive team.
Memphis is when jaws not on the floor and the
ball moves better. And I've said this before, I said
it today on FS one. I said, flashy point guards
like sports cars. They're not built for bad weather or
a trip cross country, but god, they're fun, really fun.
Trey Young, you'll throw even Steph Curry and Steph Curry,
(23:08):
Trey Young, John Wall, John Morant, Dereck Rose. They are
players that get exposed defensively. They're usually a little I mean,
they're all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was
more stocky, but again he plays defense when he feels
like it. But when you get these Jahn Morant type players,
(23:32):
is they're exhilarating and ball movement slows down. You kind
of stare, you, kind of watch Derrick Rose perform, watch
John Wall, and they're not great. They give you so
much energy on the offensive end, they don't give you
a ton on the defensive end. Now, Steph Curry and
the Warriors, they've built the team Draymon Clay when he
was a great defender. They bring in Gary Payton, they
(23:53):
see his weaknesses and they build around him. But when
I watch Memphis, and I've seen this now three years,
Tyas Jones played better defense. I've seen this the last
you know, ten times that he's played. They're a better
defensive team. He's not a great scorer, but the forwards
and the wings move the ball really, really, really well.
And by the way, I remember John Wall years ago
(24:13):
a missing games for the Wizards. They won like nine
or ten straight. It doesn't mean Wall's not great, but
you know, everybody then feels like when the flashy point
guards out, hey, I'm gonna get touches tonight, like I'm
going to be included in this game plan, and you
really want to play well, showing the coaches Okay, when
the guy comes back, I want touches. And I think
(24:34):
Memphis tonight played a lot of energy, moved it really
really well. Everybody just the ball moves better. And it's
not a knock on John Rant. He's exhilarating. But I
see this sometimes even with the Warriors, Like sometimes if
Draymond's not setting screens, it's a lot of guys watching
Steph do is you know, Harlem globetrotter ball movement flying
(24:58):
around And I just I looked at me Emphis tonight,
and I'm like, they're a good team without Jaw. They're
a different team, but they're a good team without him.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
The way you broke it down is perfect, Like it's
a there's a baseline kind of like fundamental list of
things that if you do well as a basketball team,
you have a chance to win no matter what right, Like,
even without a top tier superstar, if you can protect
the rim really well, if you compete really hard in
all of the effort and energy parts of the game,
like sliding your defensively on the perimeter, beating guys to
(25:27):
the to the rim on help situations, crashing the offensive glass,
crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super hard and
having a couple of baseline pieces that you need, you
can win in the NBA, especially since a lot of
these NBA players are good. Like we spend a lot
of time talking about role players in the Shortcomings, but
a lot of these guys were all conference dudes in
(25:48):
college and guys who average twenty five thirty points a
game in high school. So if you give them close
out situations, even against good NBA defenses, they're gonna be
able to score. And so if you don't guard the
ball and you give give up dribble penetry, the guys
are attacking closeouts all night long, they're going to score.
That's why, Like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game,
I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are going to
(26:08):
win the series. The only thing that really stood out
to me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem, and it too,
it's twofold. Half of it is Jared Vanderbilt and the
fact that he's such a non threat offensively that Memphis
can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything
up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it
is Ruey Hatchimura is ascending in front of us. This
(26:31):
is something that has We've seen the two twenty point
point game, the two twenty plus point games in this series,
but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now. His
original His initial tenure with the Lakers went a little
bit rough. He got moved to the bench after the trade.
But Phil hand he's been working with him relentlessly before
games and in practice on polishing up some things in
his skill set. He's been working with Darvin Ham really
(26:53):
hard to find little areas of the game where he
can impact the game. Defensively, He's become kind of a sneaky,
solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots, grabbing contested rebounds.
They're gonna he's big. He's big, he's huge. They're gonna
slide him into that starting lineup at some point in
this playoff run, maybe even in Game three of this series,
and I think they're gonna cut way back on Jared
Vanderbilt's minutes. That was really the only schematic thing that
(27:15):
bothered me, uh or concerned me. I should say about
the Lakers, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But I will say they didn't play well. Started slow,
were on the road, ad didn't give you much offensively,
and they were in the game with two minutes ago.
You know, I mean, when the Knicks play poorly, they
get rolled Miami, not even Yannis on the Florida Nights
(27:41):
getting rolled. Lakers were on the road without or with
John Morant. Memphis is a very upper echelon team, and
they competed, and they really didn't play their best basketball.
It was like, I since the trade, I think they're
much more competitive team. I think they have more options.
(28:03):
I like, I watched the night and I thought, you
very early, it's like, it's not going to be their night.
It's not going to be their night. But they competed,
they hung in the game. You know, it wasn't a blowout.
They were you know, there was a little brief moment
with about four and a half five left, You're like, oh, okay,
we got it. It's six. So My takeaway is go
back home, win both games. Jaw's not going to be
(28:24):
playing much in this series, and the faster you can
close it out the better because this is this is Lebron.
James is old and you can see it like he
can't go seven game series or they'll pay for it
next series.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, I think the way you broke it down is perfect.
Like the there's a competitiveness that you'd like to see
when a team loses that shows them that they're just
a victim of victims, not even the right word, but
just shows them that this is a natural ebb and
flow in the series. From the point that the Grizzlies
went up sixty six to forty six, they were up twenty.
This was the early third quarter. I thought the Lakers
(29:01):
really controlled the rest of that game. They just were
a little bit too far away, especially with Dangel Russell
being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing
everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the
offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that
they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in
that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now the
problem is and you just said this, and this is
(29:22):
so important this particular Lakers team. Rest is going to
be key for them, and dying this series quickly is
so important because there will be long series ahead. The
next series against Sacramento of Golden State probably a longer
series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the
way that they run their coverage is going to leave
some things open for the Kings guards and the Warriors guards.
(29:45):
In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or
the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for
a long series. Whoever comes out of the West or East.
That's a six or seven game series. So if they
could buy little tiny chunks of like three or four
days off here or there for Broughn and Anthony Davis
to rest ending this series in five would go a
long way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us
(30:06):
of backing up our volume guy, which I think is
ridiculous because it's just.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I don't know what's gotten into everybody, Colin, because I
feel like this is the most reasonable opinion in the world,
and everyone's calling me immoral. You know how it goes.
But I could see the case for the I could
see the case for the ejection. Now I disagreed with it,
but I could see the case, and the case was
Draymond's history fair. I thought the decision to suspend him
(30:34):
was completely outrageous. Where did you land on that?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
The reality is if I went up and punched you,
and you punched me back, and you knocked me out
and I just grazed you, you could say, well, he
started it, and that's a real defense. If you broke
into my house and I shot you and you had
a terrible injury, and maybe maybe I didn't need to
(30:59):
be as violent. Again to you, I would say, he
broke into my house, right, Sabonis got a technical and
initiated the circus. Draymond pulling out then added to it.
But that's a real defense, which is you know, he's
swung first, or he broke in, or he grabbed my leg.
(31:20):
So to me, that's not why they threw him out
for the next game. I believe at my core because
Sabonis a started it and played the remaining seven and
a half minutes. He was fine. And you know, again,
if there would have been an injury, then there's a
different component. But I think and I don't blame Adam
(31:41):
Silver for this. Deep in the DNA of the NBA,
the Malice at the Palace was their darkest moment. And
when Draymond got up as a road player and started
taunting the crowd and Adam Silver's in the building, I
think that's a non starter. If you're at Chase Center,
(32:03):
it's different. But if you're on the road, Adam's there,
he hears those fans, he sees the double birds. He
It's like, no way, we're not going there. That even
though I defended the players in Malice of the Palace
because if you went back and looked at the people
and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records.
They were just there to be trouble. I defended run
(32:26):
our Test. I defended the players because I would have
been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena.
But it does matter what arena it is. You can't
do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment, Jason,
you just can't do it.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
There's the old saying you can't yell fire in a
crowded theater. You can't. So I think Silver being there,
and cause you know, when Draymond's doing that. Adam's hearing
those fans and he's seeing those double birds and he's like,
I'm not going there repercussions. Again, Draymond's a veteran, He's
(33:03):
not a rookie. Like you could see a rookie losing
their shit.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
You could.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I mean, seriously, a nineteen year old kid gets worked up.
This is a wise NBA sage. You know, Draymond's been
in these wars forever. So I think it's like resume
road insiding. Because I'm with you, if you do something first,
you do have a right a cheap shot. To me,
(33:29):
you do have a right to cheap shot back. And
that would have easily been two technicals keep playing. But
that that crowd and that even somebody said it today
on my show. I forget who it was, but it
was me. Have been Sam Amick. He just said, you know,
if he'd just run through the tunnel, it would have
felt different. Just I'm out out.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It was like.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Ninety seconds of come on, you want a piece of me.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I didn't like it.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Well, there are things that are debatable about this, and
there are things or not debatable, Like the debatable side
of it is should he have been suspended. Sure, you know,
like we can go back and forth about that. Here's
what's not debatable. Draymond brought this on himself and his team.
That goes like, regardless of what the decision making process was,
the risk was willingly took on by Draymond with his
(34:18):
behavior and especially what you're talking about after the timeout,
because again, like and I think I think it's a
complicated topic, and I know you've talked about this a
little bit on your show, yeaally, but like the dynamic
between the fans and players is super complicated because like,
you're heated, you're super competitive, and you're riled up, and
now some dudes saying some wildly disrespectful stuff from to you,
(34:39):
like twenty feet away, and there's really like this barrier
between you that extends beyond the distance. It's also like
Adam Silver standing there between you because it could literally
mess up your entire season and everything that you and
your team are trying to build towards. But again, like
there's a difference between like I think I personally would
not have suspended him. That said, that's a debate, that's
(35:01):
a fair debate. There's no question that Draymond brought it
on himself at least through his decision making process and
knowing what kind of history he had. Now with this
series gets really interesting from here. I don't think it's
overcallin and I'm still pretty confident that Golden State's gonna win.
I know it sounds crazy, but a couple of different things.
(35:22):
They kind of started to figure out some stuff in
Game two that I believe might have led them to
a victory had Draymond been able to stay in the game.
When Andrew Wiggins is on the floor and when Gary
Payton is on the floor, they have straightforward matchups for
Fox and Monk and they're actually doing a decent job
(35:42):
containing him there. Then they have to go to pick
and roll to get rid of the on ball defender,
and Draymond is blowing all of that stuff up as
the screen defender. At the end of the game, they
had to go to Looney and then they went to
pick and roll, and Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim,
so that ended up being the problem problem. But functionally
from the lineup, you can kind of see the two
(36:02):
teams finding their five that works. The Kings are going
with Davion Mitchell because he can guards death credibly right.
And then they're going with Malik Monk and Deer and
Fox with Harrison Barnes and Demanta Sabonis. With the Warriors,
it's Draymond with Andrew Wiggins and then Gary Payton Stephen Clay.
That's where they've got their lineups that are working. That's
where these two teams are going to go down with
(36:24):
the ship. If the Warriors can survive Game three, which
is totally possible with how well they play in front
of their home crowd even without Draymond, especially against the
King's team that cannot be overly physical sometimes. If they
can survive Game three, Draymond comes back for Game four,
I believe they will win that game on the road.
In Game five, as long as they can stay in
(36:45):
it long enough to get to their core lineup at
the end, I think they have a really good chance
to win this series. As bad as Golden State was
on the road in Sacramento, expects Sacramento to look just
as bad in Golden State.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
In my opinion, Well, what I worry about without draim
On He's a great passer on the offensive end. He's
also a great screen setter, and he's now they have
plenty of smart players, but he does add an intellect.
He's just got a real good sense. I mean, it's
all this sort of intellectual bandwidth the Celtics play with.
(37:16):
When you've got four guys who are on the floor
for six years, Like the Celtics passing is excellent. Whereas
Atlanta's got a new GM, a new coach, a new system.
I mean, it's just a bunch of new parts. And
I think, I think when I watch the Warriors with
Draymon's Steph Clay on the floor, Man, there are times
it's just they can really read each other's minds. And
(37:37):
that's the kind of capital that load management eats away at.
It's what I mean. We've talked about this. It's why
the Clippers sometimes in a half court set are amful
to watch. There's no play together. So if they can
get through this game, I agree with you. But man,
sometimes without Draymond, the passing's not as the ball movements
(38:01):
not quite as good. You know, Clay is not a
great ball handler, and now he's not a great defender,
so you get two different versions of Clay. There's catch
and shoot, and he's hot at home, Clay great, and
then there's on the road struggling handling the ball, guys
blowing by him. You know, you used to kind of
know with Clay that if he wasn't on, you got
(38:22):
a great defender. Now and he's not on, you get
a sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender. So his
game doesn't necessarily you'd think, because he's a catch and
shoot guy, his game would age well. But he's got
to play better. He and Jordan Poole have got to
help Steph. Jordan Pool's been awful in the series. Awful.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I agree, you're the Draymon thing is certainly a threat.
And this is where I fundamentally disagree with the suspension, Like,
make the Kings go earn the damn series, make them
go beat Golden State in Golden State, make them beat
him with Draymond, like especially on it, like especially I've
been getting on my soapbox again. I didn't like that
that suspension at all, Like because now if the Kings
win the series, it's gonna feel a little cheap, but
(39:08):
it is.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
You know, Jason, I've always felt I will always give
an athlete a pass in the moment. Tom Brady yelling
at a coach, Peyton Manning barking, I'll always give an
athlete they can leave their body. It's an out of
body experience. Emotionally, I mean, your testosterone's going you've been putting.
So the Draymond kick, it's like, I get it. That's
his style. He's the bouncer at the night club. He's
(39:30):
a tough guy. It's the Okay, I've been ejected. Now
I'm gonna go and taunt the crowd. Come on, you're
a mid thirty year old player, Like, like, I have
a right to be mad if I'm on the air
and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking, But
three minutes later, I've got to go, Okay, we have
a show to do. Take a deep breath, get over yourself.
Let's do the show. So I that part, I'll defend
(39:53):
Draymond in the moment guy grabs your foot, you stomp
him back. I'll defend him forever on that. But you
got to know better already, four to thirty five year
old guy on the road to get that crowd riled up, Like,
that's just not the play.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
I can't argue with anything. You're saying, Colin, So I'm
gonna change. I'm gonna change my take as a basketball fan.
I'm annoyed that Draymond's not playing in Game three. How
about that? Right, We'll just go with that.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So that's I do.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I do still think. I think that if the Warriors
can survive the Draymond suspension in Game three, I think
they still have a very good chance to win the series.
So Clippers versus Suns, this is the series that I
have been most wrong about in my pre playoffs previews.
I expected the Clippers to get swept. They very much
did not, as they went into Phoenix and stole game one.
(40:40):
You know what's interesting about this series, Colin? The numbers
coming out of of the like kind of shot profile
stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This is wild.
So the Suns have attempted just seventeen shots excuse me,
nineteen shots in the restricted area in this series, and
the Clippers have attempted thirty seven, so like almost double
(41:05):
and then in wide open threes, which by NBA dot
Com is factored in as defender at least six foot
six feet away. The Clippers have also generated about twice
as many as the Suns. The reasons why this, the
reason why the Suns won Game two is what's the
other shot that's available. So, if you're not scoring at
the rim and you're not making these kickout threes to
(41:25):
guys that are wide open, it's contested pull up off
the dribble long jump shots in the mid range.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
What's crazy is the Suns shot thirty five percent in
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots in
game one and they lost. They shot sixty one percent
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots off
the dribble in Game two and they won. And so
everything for me for the Suns comes down to can
they continue to knock down these tough, contested pull up
(41:56):
jump shots.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
And I'm just not.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
I believe they'll make enough to beat the Clippers, but
I after two games feel less confident than ever that
the Sons can get out of the conference because they're
just not generating enough easy shots.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Well, I feel these are opposite teams. The Clippers have
depth but are missing a star. The Sons have stars
and are missing depth. And when they made the move
to get KD, you had to give up Michale Bridges.
That was the gem but they gave up two other players,
and one of those players had twenty eight the other
(42:32):
night for Brooklyn against Philadelphia. And when I watch the Suns,
I feel I said this on TV today, they're a
guy shy. If I just said Norman Powell's on the Suns,
I'm like, okay, they're a finals team. I almost think
they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into
foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is hurt and he may
(42:55):
not play in Game three. Booker doesn't really have a backup.
They don't really have have backups for their stars, and
it almost makes them a little tentative defensively, Whereas the
Clippers have depth, play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in
foul trouble, you can throw in man Norman Powell, they go.
They've got depth. So I think it makes them play
(43:16):
a little more tentative defensively. Monty Williams knows that we
can't go to the bench early. We just can't. And
the other thing is Chris Paul's the one guy that
needs a break and until his backup comes in who's
been out, that's I know he may play in Game three.
But I think that's a big thing. Like Chris at
this point in his career need to spell. And so
(43:40):
when I've been watching Chris Paul in the second half,
his jumpers are short. His just stuff that went in
three years ago is just not there, and it's I
mean it was the other night he missed a couple
seventy eight footage. I'm like, that was a seventy percent
shot three years ago, Like just Chris didn't miss those.
So I feel like I feel like to get Kevin Durant,
(44:02):
they had to give away a bunch of picks and
three dudes. If they give away two, they can be
more aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys.
I mean, they're gonna have to play Durant and Booker,
They're gonna have to play them forty minutes. That's who
they are now, That's who they are.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
I said this before the playoffs, and I still feel
very strongly about this, Like I have no idea what's
gonna happen with this Sun's team, but I do know
what's gonna happen this summer. They're gonna sign somebody and
it's gonna be like, hey, listen, do you want to
be a start the starting forward, like guaranteed starting spot
alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Deandraton. They're gonna
(44:40):
be able to pitch that position like that using the
mid level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer,
and they are going to get some massively underpaid forward
that can play on both ends of the floor that
wants to just go win a championship next to the
two of them. They're gonna get two or three more
veteran minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar similar mold,
and they're gonna be awesome next year. I feel very
(45:02):
strongly about that. This team is kind of playing with
house money a little bit because I think I think
the expectations are a little lower on them because of that.
The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less concerned about
it on the offensive end, because workload matters, Like splitting
a heavy duty shot creation workload between just Kyrie and Lebron.
(45:26):
That can get a little fatiguing and you need an
other worldly athlete like Lebron to survive that. But like
all of a sudden, you throw a third guy in there,
and it's like they're haters. Splitting those duties three ways,
it becomes a little more achievable. The defensive end is
where is where you hit the nail on the head.
You can't win a title in the NBA without playing
elite defense. You can't play elite defense without committing to
(45:49):
devote physical resources to it. And when you devote physical
resources to it to the tune of forty four minutes
a night, one of two things is going to happen.
They're either going to not devo the necessary physical resources
to it and coast and not reach the defensive ceiling
they need to reach. Or they're going to pour in
the necessary effort for forty four minutes to get stops
(46:09):
and they're gonna suffer on the offense and end when
they're fatigued. So like, that's where it gets difficult, and
I don't really have a good answer for them. Kevin
Durant famously said this after they lost to the to
the Bucks in at Crazy Game seven, that won't his
toe is on the line. I don't know if you
remember the turner on tipper he said that.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Of course he said this.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
After the series he goes, everyone thinks if I was
won the inch further back, we would have won the championship.
He's like, that was the second round. He's like, he's
like we had He's like James Harden was playing on
a bad hamstring. Kyrie was completely unavailable. I had to
create every single shot. He's like, we were winning the
title that year. Like it's just too much to ask
a guy to do that that much without any depth
(46:50):
behind it.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, I think if they get paying the backup to
Chris Paul, I think if they get him back, I
think that helps, you know, like there's like I don't
know what he plays eighteen minutes, sixteen minutes. That helps
a little bit. But I to your point, they'll get
a couple of mid level exemptions, and they'll get a
couple of veterans that want to win, you know, like
the Heat did when they went and grabbed like Ray Allen.
(47:12):
You'll get a guy like that that's like, man, I
just want a title. When David West came to the Warriors,
there's a guy out there that like can give you
like twelve really good minutes in the postseason. Jay Crowder's
bounced around and become kind of like that guy. At
the end of his career, so, and they Jay Crowder
got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so,
you know Michale Bridges, yes, And then you start moving
(47:33):
a couple other pieces and you look up and it's like, oh,
Cam Johnson dropped almost thirty against Holy and you're like,
they need that so bad. The volume. Make sure to
(48:00):
check out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green
into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices
in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope also chops
up with guests like Gary Payton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady.
Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get
your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network
Host
Colin Cowherd
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