First, (3:00) Colin explains why Steph Curry has overtaken Magic Johnson as the greatest point guard in NBA history.
Then, Hoops Tonight host Jason Timpf react to Steph Curry dropping 50 in the Warriors road Game 7 elimination of the Kings, if he’s the NBA’s best player right now, how Golden State flipped the switch after a rough road regular season, and how they match up against LeBron and the Lakers in the 2nd round. They also discuss the Heat rolling over the Knicks in their 2nd Round Game 1, why the Knicks still have a chance to win the series, and if the Suns have any answers for the Nuggets after suffering a Game 1 blowout.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Hi, everybody, We're going to have a great
forty minute Colin Coward podcast today Jason timp hoops Tonight,
we're going to talk about Warriors, Kings, Warriors, Lakers, give
(00:22):
some love to the Knicks and the Heat series and
where do we put Steph as best player in the
league that category? Now? Has he surpassed Yannis who had
a clunker in his series? But I wanted to talk
specifically about Steph Curry. So you never really know at
the time how a player will age Historically. I'll give
(00:45):
you an example. At the time, a Joe Namath or
a Brett farv is viewed as an all time talent,
but the gunslinger label because there are so many players
Aaron Roddy, Tom Brady, Mahomes Burrow that play at such
a highly efficient level, that gunslinger quarterback looks like dumb football.
(01:09):
It's just not efficient enough. And so Joe Namath, who
had more interceptions than touchdowns, it's not really discussed as
an all time great quarterback, which was unthinkable when he retired.
Brett Farvre doesn't really feel like a top ten quarterback.
Top ten iconic, top ten, most popular, Yes, top ten
all time quarterback, just not efficient enough, too many mistakes.
(01:33):
He's not even the best Green Bay quarterback ever, Aaron
Rodgers is. So you never really know how a player
in his prime is going to age. And so when
I look at the all time starting five in NBA history,
I've always felt it's Magic at the point, Michael Jordan
at the two, Lebron at the three, Larry Bird the
(01:54):
other forward, and Kareem Abulo Jabbar. Michael did everything well,
Lebron does everything well, and Kareem similarly, was a dominant defender,
a dominant scorer, and I always thought Magic was really
going to be virtually impossible to replace. But unlike Michael,
Magic was not a great defender. He was not a
(02:16):
great scorer. He had a very short career. And I
think if you look at basketball over the next one
hundred years and beyond, the three point shot makes Magic
less significant. Two things Magic had that were unique. One
his sheer size. But now Jannis brings the ball up
(02:38):
the court. Jokic is a point center. Kevin Durant can
handle the ball. At the time, a six ' eight
point guard felt like one of one all time, such
a unicorn, so unique. Everybody handles the ball now, so
over the test of time, that's not a unique scar
(03:00):
gill by Magic. Secondly, Magic was not a great shooter,
certainly not a great three point shooter. You really need
to be and if you aren't Michael Jordan, then you
have to be great at other things. Michael was the
best on ball defender in the league, the best score
the best mid range player, the most relentless player, the
(03:22):
greatest effort, the best player in crisis or clutch situations.
Michael did so many things well. He over the test
of time, age is better. Lebron halfway through his career
became a much better perimeter shooter. He agedes well. We
don't expect our centers to be great three point shooters,
(03:44):
but Kareem was a dominant offensive and defensive standard in
the league in his prime for ten to fifteen years.
I think Steph Curry and Magic. Now, if I have
to size him up, if you take the Finals MVP
from Steph and the fifty point performance in Game seven,
I think there's a valid argument Steph's the greatest point
guard of all time. He's a much greater scorer than Magic.
(04:05):
He's a much greater offensive player than Magic. Johnson a
terrific ball handler. Neither are great defenders. It's not that
Magic doesn't age well, but he doesn't age as well
as other stars because Magic was never a great defensive player.
He was never a great score his ability to do
many things. He could def he could play center, he
(04:26):
could play forward. It's not that he couldn't score, but
the most important thing in basketball has always been putting
the ball in the basket. That's why Lebron and Larry
Bird and Kareem and Michael Jordan are in that starting five.
And I just I look at Steph Curry and it's
(04:47):
not just that he's a great scorer. He's the greatest
shooter of all time. That now is just that is
game changing. Magic didn't change the game. He was just
uniquely gifted. Hasn't really changed the game. He's just uniquely gifted.
Steph has changed the game. So when you add that
(05:07):
component that he's literally revolutionized the sport aau high school, college,
pro basketball, international basketball with a three point shot. If
I had to choose an all time team, I think
I choose Steph Curry. I know it feels hyperbolic, but
not everybody ages perfectly. Magic had a very short career.
(05:30):
Steph's career is longer. Steph won pre KD with KD
post KD at this age. To drop fifty in a
game seven, to reduce Daron Fox, Klay, Thompson, Wiggins, Draymond Green,
Sabonis to bystanders looked like rotational players in that second
(05:53):
half is all time stuff. And this sounds like Colin
you're overreacting. But if you take the MVP of the
Finals last year and that stuff matters probably more than
it should, and you combine it with this, I think
over the course of time, we're gonna look at basketball
(06:13):
as two different sports. Pre three, post three, and post
three is never relinquishing. It's important to pre three. That's jurassic.
That's dinosaur basketball. Nobody cares about it. Gunslinger for quarterback
(06:34):
is dinosaur football. It's not going to age well and
Farv and Magic are both all time talents. But I
don't know how you watch basketball going forward the last
twelve years forward and not consider Steph Curry the most
lethal and dangerous and gifted point guard of all time.
(06:54):
And because of the way he plays, he's got four
five more years, three more peak years, four five or
six more years. It's going to be a longer career
than Magic Johnson. I think Steph to me feels like
the best point guard in the history of the sport.
(07:16):
The NBA Playoffs are upon us. Twenty teams get in
all trying to get that one crown. For last minute
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(08:00):
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(08:23):
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and this year. Download the game Time app. Last minute
ticket deals, lowest prices guaranteed. So let's bring in my
man Jason Timph host of Hoops Tonight. We are on
(08:44):
two or three times a week together. Now my go
to NBA guy. I got Draymond playing, Timph talking, and
I love both as well as, by the way, Jenkins
and Jones, who are culturally hysterically funny, and we love them.
(09:04):
That was I think that was the first of the
second podcasts I ever found Jenkins and Jones. So let's
start with this with Yannis being reduced to bully ball,
being liability at the end of that series, didn't want
to shoot, almost seems scared to get the ball, missed
(09:25):
thirteen free throws. We have kind of believed for the
last two years he's the best player in the league.
But if Steph with a fifty pointer in Game seven
gets to the finals again, where he's really in the
world of basketball as we know it now he's a
limitless player. Mid range floaters at the glass, three point
(09:52):
unlimited range. Do we have to go back and say, listen,
we've got to have a real discussion here. Is that
as good as Jannis is, he can be defended. You
can barricade, you can do you know, what Miami did
build a wall, go ahead. I think the combination of
Jannis's rough series and what Steph Curry did against Sacramento,
(10:18):
I think that's a legitimate discussion. I think, literally, Steph Curry, Jason,
you know somebody's great when among other great players they
feel small. Darren Fox smelt felt insignificant. I mean, he
looked like a rotational player in the second half of
this game. That's how great Steph was. Andrew Wiggins looked
(10:42):
like a rotational player. That was one of the best
Game sevens I've ever seen. It may have been the
best Game seven I've ever seen. So your thoughts on
the Yannis argument, is Steph in the world we know
this three point game, Is he now the best player
in the world.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, there's a bunch of guys that are all at
a pretty similar level, and I don't think anybody's wrong
for picking one or the other. I have a certain
system that I use. I'm going to prioritize playoff success.
I couldn't care less about raising the regular season floor
if you can't succeed in the playoff stage. You know
what I mean, And I mean we're seeing this again
with Joel embiid where it's like he just had another
(11:20):
great season, but his body just can't hold up under
the physicality of the NBA playoffs. With the honest what's
really disappointing is he's progressed and like, don't get me wrong,
he was hurt. The back injury was real. There's a
lot of intel about some of his struggles behind the scenes.
But even if you are dealing with some issues with
your body missing thirteen free throws on twenty three attempts,
(11:42):
especially two years after your crowning achievement was being locked
in at the free throw line against the Phoenix Suns,
that's discouraging to me. But even deeper than that, like
he couldn't shoot over the top of anyone. He doesn't
even have a reliable hook shot in the lane, and
that's problematic. I'm not as big on the jump shot
as everyone else, Like I think it's more important for
(12:03):
him to be able to pass himself open than it
is for him to be able to soften the defense
with jumpers. But he needs to have something over the
top and look, Steph Curry will never be able to
impact the game athletically the way someone like Giannis does
He's an outlier in that regard. When we're talking about
the top ten to fifteen players in the league, they're
all centers in big perimeter players. Steph is the outlier.
He's the one guy that's different there. But what puts
(12:26):
him on that list is, no matter what, at any
point in any matchup, he is going to be able
to successfully generate quality shots somehow. On offense, he's the
best in the league. Get I think he's still even
better than Jokic still in my opinion, at generating quality
shots in the playoffs. And the last thing I'll say
about it, and I'm sure you may have noticed this too, Colin.
(12:48):
Early on in Steph's career, inconsistency was an issue for
him in the postseason. Actually, through his first several playoff runs,
he was good for a clunker about one out of
every three times. As a matter of fact, I can't
remember exactly the window of years. It was either his
first three years or four years in the postseason, but
like literally a third of his games he shot forty
percent or worse from the field in the postseason. That's gone.
(13:10):
He hasn't had a single game in this postseason or
he shot forty percent or worse from the field. So
he's completely figured out how to maintain a level of
consistency offensively in the playoffs that no one else in
the league can touch. And that's what makes him the
best player in the world in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
We learn a lot about the NBA in the regular season.
There are things we do know, and then there's a
bit of fools gold because young teams tend to flourish
more in the regular season because it's such a marathon.
They've got the legs. They play back to backs, and
that's that's not an old man's game, right, But dynasties
(13:45):
are different. And the fear of Golden State on the
road was solved about a game in.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
They've went from the Houston Rockets to the same old Warriors,
and I think there is a reservoir for championship teams
that and I'd liken it to a baseball team that
goes on a long stretch and you ask all your
top pitchers to throw another thirty intense innings. They come
into spring training and they're they're not ready to pitch.
(14:14):
And I think Golden State tried to bridge the old
guy young guy gap there's the Draymond punch. It's a
long postseason for an old team, and I think they
just kind of thought, like, listen, man, we're gonna win
our home games. We're going to get into this thing.
It was road trips. Man, We've done a lot of this,
but I thought the last two road second halfs. I mean, Jason,
(14:37):
it was a master's class. They There was one point
Mike Breen said, the oxygen is out of the building.
There was about six minutes left, and you're like, it's over.
It's it's over. Not only the game was over, the
fight was over. And I think a lot of it
was on the defensive end, So that we have to
(14:58):
is it fair to say we kind to have to
judge dynasties differently. They do flip switches. They've got that
reservoir of experience and guile and toughness, and also when
they have issues, there's sort of this get over it, right,
Like guys get over it, Draymond, Steph Pool. You know,
(15:21):
like Pool was the first guy in the arena today.
He wasn't great, but he was more focused. So I
kind of feel like we all, I'm as guilty as anybody.
This is going to be a good road team. We
don't have to worry about that. That's fair, right.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Again, it was the same players. It was the same
players that were the dominant road team that they were
last year. Again, like I the whole year, the one
thing that I kept coming back to was there was
no personnel reason for a decline. It was all. It
was clear to me that it was effort. Even in
this series, Like they came out super lackadaisical in Game six.
(15:57):
In the first half, they would like score at the
rim of dear and Fox would just dribble around all
of them and score transition layup after a made basket.
They just weren't really focused in that Game six. And
they've had some issues with effort and focus during the
regular season, some of which that have manifested in this
postseason run. I thought you saw a little bit of
that at the end of Game four where they were sloppy.
You saw a little bit of that in Game six.
But at the end of the day, it's the same personnel,
(16:19):
And like you know, here's the thing. The regular season
still matters, I think, specifically when it comes to building
your basketball character. So, for instance, I don't think it's
a coincidence that the Lakers played really good basketball after
the deadline, and that continued into the postseason. Like you
build habits and you build things that go along. However,
seeding matters less than ever because all the teams are good.
(16:42):
So if you get the seven seed, you're going to
play a two seed that's not that much better than you,
whereas back in the day it was different. Right, But
like once again, we look on Friday night and we
saw the defensive player of the Year and then suddenly
there was a guy in a Lakers jersey that looked
way better than him at defense because in the postseason
it's just an different level that he can get to.
Tonight we saw the clutch player of the Year and
(17:04):
Darren Fox in a Game seven at home get thoroughly
out executed because the dude boring number thirty for the
Warriors is just way better at closing basketball games than hit.
So the reality is is there is a difference between
regular season and playoff basketball. It's about surviving and it's
about building continuity and building habits that will carry you
(17:25):
in the postseason. And there was such a clear delineation
between what the Warriors were at home and what they
were on the road that it was obvious that it
was effort and focus related. Like you said, they just
had a long run. They were worn down, they were
injured a lot this year. Steph was out for extended stretches,
Andrew Wiggins were OpEd for extended stretches. I think we
tend to overthink these things. But again, Colin, that's why
(17:48):
you and I were on the Lakers and Warriors in
this first round. We've learned this lesson too many times.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, by the way, Cleveland, Memphis, Sacramento, talented young teams
all shrink at defark time. Lakers best players are older,
Warriors are older. Celtics now are getting longer than the tooth.
Although Milwaukee folded. So let's talk Lakers Warriors series. Here's
what would worry me now. Anthony Davis is going to
(18:13):
have a very good series. We know that. But the Warriors,
and this is what I think makes them a dynasty,
is that they've got and this. Michael Jordan's Bulls had
this too. Where Rodman was a great rebounder, Jordan was
a great score Pippen was a great defender, Kerr was
a great shooter, Phil Jackson was a great coach. They
had a lot of great Peyton's a great defender, Draymond's
(18:37):
great defender, Steph's a great score, Clay is a great
spot up shooter, Kerr's a great coach, Looney's a great rebounder.
There's a lot of great There are limitations to many
of their greatest players, Draymond offensively, Looney offensively, But because
they're so selfless, everybody understands their role. This is a classic.
(18:59):
You know, Ron Harper was a scorer with the Bulls.
He knew he didn't have to be like the great dynasties.
There's a hierarchy within it, you know, like everybody knew
Michael ran the show, step Roves the show. The Lakers
don't have a lot of great now. Ad is a
great defender, he's a great player, and lebron In Spurts
(19:21):
now is a great Swiss Army knife. But they're players.
Dangelo Russell's game to game, Jared Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley. I
think it's really hard to beat the Warriors because you
kind of know Jason Draymond's a good defender every game,
(19:42):
and Looney's a great rebounder every game. The Lakers will
steal some wins here, but what the Warriors do. Those
individual players bring that same thing every night. I mean,
even Clay horrible first half, great second, they never bring
four quarters. Draymond never bad defensively for four quarters. And
(20:03):
I just think the difference is you're gonna get more
consistent great play from more players, and it feels like
a six gamer to me, and eventually you'll look up
and go, Okay, this is what the Warriors do. More
guys doing what they do at a premium level, whereas
I don't know what I get from Ruey and D'Angelo.
(20:25):
They have great moments, but they're not consistently great at stuff.
That's my take.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I think this series is going to be a slog
I think both defenses are uniquely equipped to give each
other problems. So the Lakers, and we've already seen this
in every one of their matchups with the Warriors this year,
but they're gonna put Anthony Davis on Kevan Looney, They're
gonna put Lebron James and Draymond Green, and they're just
gonna have both of those guys play center field underneath
the basket, and a lot of the damage that Steff
did in this series, in particular, was at the rim.
(20:52):
I'm sure you notice that in the fourth quarter tonight
he's just beating dudes off the dribble and get into
the basket. Yet there's no there's no rim protection in Sacramento,
So Anthony Davis is going to be around the basket
for most of the series. So I expect that, and
the Lakers did a lot of top locking and forcing
the Warriors guards away from the screens and trying to
get them to back door cut into all the traffic
(21:12):
where Anthony Davis and Lebron was. I expect the Lakers
to put Jared Vanderbilt on Steph Curry, Austin Reeves on
Klay Thompson, try to hide D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins,
and I expect him to cause the Warriors offense some problems.
Here's the problem. The Warriors are also going to cause
all sorts of problems for the Lakers. Draymond Green is
going to be on Jared Vanderbilt and pay zero attention
(21:33):
to him and just be a wrecking ball everywhere on
the floor. Kevon Looney is the type of physical rebounding
center that has always given Anthony Davis problems and Andrew Wiggins.
I think one of the biggest swing factors in this
series is going to be Lebron James because offensively the
guy he was in the first round. If that translates
into this series, the Lakers are going to be gone
in five or six games. They have to have Lebron
(21:56):
James dominate the Andrew Wiggins matchup. I think he's going
to do it in the post. Andrew Wiggins on the
perimeter is devastating. You saw that against Luka Doncic last
year at the Conference finals. Lebron has Lebron struggle with
Dylan Brooks because he has a very low center of gravity,
so he has had a hard time bumping him off
of his spots. Wiggins has a higher center of gravity,
so I expect Lebron to try to maul him more,
(22:17):
take him down to the block. I think this is
I think this entire series comes down to Lebron James.
If Lebron James plays Steph Curry to a draw, I
think the Lakers win in six. If Lebron James averages
twenty two points a game relatively inefficiently, like he did
against Memphis, I think Golden State wins the series. So
all eyes on Lebron for me.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So let's let's give some credit to the Miami Heat.
It's such an they're the opposite of the Dolphins. It's
all culture, it's all toughness, it's all resiliency. There's no
hype is that they shoot forty two. Butler's limping at
the end, they get out rebounded, they're on the road,
they've lost Tyler hero. He won't play in the series. Right,
(22:59):
They come off a really a stunning upset. You'd feel
a letdown. They're on the road and they win kind
of comfortably. Now Julius Rannold didn't play. But when I
watched that series, I thought, this really is Maybe it's
because Miami and we just think of the aqua water
and the beach. This is such a great basketball culture
(23:24):
and their ability to come off that a young, immature team.
I mean, they got four undrafted guys. Three are playing,
they're on the road. The next are tough as hell.
And as I watched that series, I thought, yeah, Julius
Randall will matter, but god, Miami is the opposite of
(23:45):
what every great Miami you know, the Marino Dolphins, the
Miami Hurricanes. They're like LA teams. They feel like they're
on the beach. They're flashy, and they're fun. This organization
is so well run and so smartly coached. I'm watching
their roster against the Knicks and I'm like, you know,
(24:05):
the Mix had five star high school guyers, great college guys.
Cody Zeller looks like my accountant. I'm like, what is happening?
I just as I watch Miami, I'm like, I have
such appreciation to get pro athletes to all buy in.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I did think tib has made a mistake. They didn't
attack Butler late when he was limping around the floor.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's like, dude, it was a huge mistake.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Like, you know, Tim's a defensive coach, but you're kind
of your your thoughts on this series as a whole
and sort of this sort of grind out, rust belt,
no flash Miami culture.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Well, I think I think you and I have been
on this for a couple of years now. The idea
we basically refer to the Heat as Warrior East, but
with less talent, you know, and and like the most
the most impressive parted about it to me is despite
the talent, they've become the safest bet in the Eastern
Conference to be there. Colin this is the third time
in the last four years they've played it at least
(25:14):
the second round. This is like, that's crazy to me.
This is this is the fourth time in nine years
since Lebron left that the Heat have made it to
the second round. That's very impressive given the level of
personnel that they've had. Eric Spolstra is, in my opinion,
the very best coach in the league. I love their
modern approach to the game of basketball. They just bring
(25:36):
the most out of these undrafted types of players, and
even the veterans like Kyle Lowry got a lot of
crap from Heat fans for kind of underwhelming in his
time here. So far, he's been incredible through the first
six playoff games, especially especially on the defensive end. And
four Kyle Lowry torched the Knicks tonight in pick and roll,
(25:58):
just getting over the top oft screens and knocking down
little shots. That was probably the story of the game,
in my opinion, was so schematically. The Heat do a
ton of switching and that's very different from other teams.
And they do that because bam Atabio is gifted at
being able to guard on the perimeter, and most of
their players are trunky and strong, it can hold up
against bigger players. So when you switch everything, it stagnates
(26:19):
teams and because all their actions don't work anymore because
instead of coming off that screen open, he's coming off
and just another defender switched on to him. So it
turns into an isolation contest. And at the end of
that game, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the
Knicks just went hard on the RJ. Barrett thing, yes,
and that was just not working like and Jalen Brunson
was very uninvolved late in the game. And this is
(26:40):
where the Julius Randall thing I think does matter because
he is the master switch attacker going at smaller players
in the post and just trying to bully them to
the basket. They're gonna need him to win this series, unfortunately,
just because of the personnel gap. That said, I thought
the story of this particular game was the Nick's guards
(27:01):
are better than the Heat's guards on paper, that's a
better core, but the Heat Guards outplayed than Nick's guards tonight,
and they're never gonna win like you like, even at
home and that Rockus Madison square guarden crowd that got
soundly outplayed because the guards for the Heat outplayed them.
If you're gonna, like Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry, be
better than your guards, you're gonna be in some problems
(27:21):
in this series.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So let's move back to the West. So it's not
that I don't respect Denver, it's I don't watch them
a ton because I pay so much attention to the
Celtics and the Sixers and the Bucks and the Warriors
and the Lakers, and so Denver is not a huge
basketball brand. So if I'm on my treadmill or they're
(27:45):
playing one of those teams, I'll watch them. So my
takeaway has always been there deep. They're highly efficient. You
kind of know what you get every time from Yoki.
Jamal Murray's a little more hot and cold, but he
has stretches. We saw it in the bubble can be
a dominant player. But the one thing I took away
and I watched about half of it because I was
(28:06):
out with a friend from the from the the game
with Phoenix is boy. They score easily. They score comfortably
like the points you watch. You watch a Sacramento at
the in this series more than once, and You're like,
where did their wings scoring go? Like they get dry fast?
If Daron Fox is an hitdiot, It's like, where's the offense?
(28:28):
It's just easy. It's just it's like watching an NFL
offense that gets easy completions and I'm like, it doesn't
even feel like it's much of an effort. They're deeper
than Phoenix, you know, Phoenix has some holes defensively, and
I'm like, I don't know, like Phoenix will win a
game or two because they'll out you know, KD and
(28:49):
Booker will have great offensive nights, but I don't know
if Phoenix can slow them down. What's your thought on that?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So Phoenix has a very specific way that they need
to win, and Denver beat the Suns at their own
game in game one. I was so interested when I
was watching the film this morning. So, for instance, Phoenix
is the best pick and roll team in the league.
They ran twenty four or they ran twenty nine pick
and rolls and only scored twenty four points. Denver scored
fifty points in pick and roll in that game, so
(29:18):
they did. They were twice as effective as Phoenix at
their bread and butter. Phoenix is a huge pull up
jump shooting team. I've been talking to you of this
for months now. They rely heavily on knocking down contested
pull up jump shots off the dribble. Phoenix had an
effective field goal percentage in Game one of thirty one
percent on pull up jump shots. Denver had an effective
field goal percentage of sixty four percent on pull up
(29:40):
jump shots in Game one. Jamal Murray scored twenty one
points on pull up jumpers alone in that game. Chris Paul,
Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant combined to score eighteen points
on pull up jump shots in that game. They just
completely outplayed the Suns at their own game. I will
say on film, I actually thought Phoenix held that better
defensively than you would have expected. They contested shots pretty well.
(30:04):
Jamal Murray hit a lot of tough shots in that game.
Devin Booker was two for nine on pull of jumpers,
so there was some shot variant stuff there. For instance,
Denver scored twenty six points on sixteen spot up possessions.
The Sun scored seventeen on seventeen possessions, so they just
did bet like for instance, Aaron Gordon is the one
guy that you want to ignore and help on everything right,
(30:24):
and so they put kd there so that he can
be super tall around the basket, bothering shots, and Aaron
Gordon was making all of his jump shots. So like
it was, I do think shot variation played a huge role.
The one schematic thing I noticed, Denver was very aggressive
on Phoenix's pick and rolls bringing Jokic out, and so
there was a lot of role possessions where eight and
(30:45):
is catching the ball on the middle of the floor
and he needs to either score or make a decision.
And both eight And and Biambo were terrible in this game
in the role making decisions. So this is going to
be a big DeAndre eighton series. He's going to have
to be a monster, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So I still think the Knicks will make the Miami Series.
I think it's going to go seven. I'll take the
Warriors and six more interested now to own in on
the Suns. Denver. Over all these playoffs, the Warriors Lakers
(31:23):
is going to get a massive number, just a huge
f in number. Is you know when I look at
the NBA playoffs, the one thing I really appreciated about
the Warriors King series is they kind of let guys play.
I mean I was I was joking. Sabonis was called
(31:45):
for thirty fouls. He felt about sixty times to eighty times,
but they kind of, like the referees sort of acknowledged
that's who he is. He sort of leads with his shoulder.
He's a physical player. I really thought the Warriors Kings series.
I thought they let guys play, and I really appreciate it.
(32:06):
I mean, there's obviously the Draymond Green gets ejected, but
it was physical at times. It was it was never chippy.
I almost wonder that the teams were so highly skilled.
I hope it wasn't the best series. You know, I'm
watching the Knicks in Miami and there were some ugly stretches.
(32:27):
You're like gods, like nineteen eighty nine. I just I
think overall, we complain a lot about officiating in this sport.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong here. I thought the Warriors Kings,
there's so much skill and the refs kind of got
out of the way of it and they kind of
let guys play. Now, maybe the box score doesn't show that,
(32:50):
but I thought it was a really elegant, artful series.
It really was, And the fact that road teams won
three games. That's hard to do in this league. So
what happened is the team that played harder won. There
was no question Golden State today played harder. I mean
they just the rebounding disparity was I mean, Mike Brown's
(33:10):
saying it in the huddles. It's like, guys, they're just
they just want it more.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I thought the officials did a good job in the series.
Did you one hundred percent agree? I think they've done
mostly good in this postseason. There's been a handful of
games that I haven't liked. Here's the thing. It's more physical.
It can be ugly at times with the steel players
struggling a little bit under that physicality. But the reality
is calling it's it's so much better as a television
product when the game has flow.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
It's not simple like. There are two problems with the
NBA regular season. In my opinion, it's too long, so
the urgency, like you can't play eighty two games and
have twenty of the thirty teams get into the postseason,
Like how how can you ever expect anybody to care
on a nightly basis? That said, there's another problem, and
it's the game during the regular season can be very
stilted by officiating. The tic TAC calls all the time.
(33:58):
That stops the game, and then you're waiting thirty seconds
for someone to walk up to the free throw line
because once again, you know, Damian Lillard just dropped his shoulder,
ran into a guy, threw up some crazy eighteen foot
And I'm not trying to pick on Dame because so
many guys do it. But like in the postseason, that
stuff doesn't happen anymore. And yeah, can get physical, and
yeah can get ugly sometimes, but the game has real flow,
(34:19):
there's real like it's easier to stay invested in the game.
It's just a better television product. I wish they would
officiate games like this during the entire season.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Jason Temp host of Hoops Tonight. He's fantastic, good stuff.
Little breakdown of the Warriors, Lakers, Golden State's winning game seven,
Steph Curry's fifty point game. As always, buddy, great senior.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Thanks calling. See you next time.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The volume.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Make sure to 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.
The volume. Hi, everybody, We're going to have a great
forty minute Colin Coward podcast today Jason timp hoops Tonight,
we're going to talk about Warriors, Kings, Warriors, Lakers, give
(00:22):
some love to the Knicks and the Heat series and
where do we put Steph as best player in the
league that category? Now? Has he surpassed Yannis who had
a clunker in his series? But I wanted to talk
specifically about Steph Curry. So you never really know at
the time how a player will age Historically. I'll give
(00:45):
you an example. At the time, a Joe Namath or
a Brett farv is viewed as an all time talent,
but the gunslinger label because there are so many players
Aaron Roddy, Tom Brady, Mahomes Burrow that play at such
a highly efficient level, that gunslinger quarterback looks like dumb football.
(01:09):
It's just not efficient enough. And so Joe Namath, who
had more interceptions than touchdowns, it's not really discussed as
an all time great quarterback, which was unthinkable when he retired.
Brett Farvre doesn't really feel like a top ten quarterback.
Top ten iconic, top ten, most popular, Yes, top ten
all time quarterback, just not efficient enough, too many mistakes.
(01:33):
He's not even the best Green Bay quarterback ever, Aaron
Rodgers is. So you never really know how a player
in his prime is going to age. And so when
I look at the all time starting five in NBA history,
I've always felt it's Magic at the point, Michael Jordan
at the two, Lebron at the three, Larry Bird the
(01:54):
other forward, and Kareem Abulo Jabbar. Michael did everything well,
Lebron does everything well, and Kareem similarly, was a dominant defender,
a dominant scorer, and I always thought Magic was really
going to be virtually impossible to replace. But unlike Michael,
Magic was not a great defender. He was not a
(02:16):
great scorer. He had a very short career. And I
think if you look at basketball over the next one
hundred years and beyond, the three point shot makes Magic
less significant. Two things Magic had that were unique. One
his sheer size. But now Jannis brings the ball up
(02:38):
the court. Jokic is a point center. Kevin Durant can
handle the ball. At the time, a six ' eight
point guard felt like one of one all time, such
a unicorn, so unique. Everybody handles the ball now, so
over the test of time, that's not a unique scar
(03:00):
gill by Magic. Secondly, Magic was not a great shooter,
certainly not a great three point shooter. You really need
to be and if you aren't Michael Jordan, then you
have to be great at other things. Michael was the
best on ball defender in the league, the best score
the best mid range player, the most relentless player, the
(03:22):
greatest effort, the best player in crisis or clutch situations.
Michael did so many things well. He over the test
of time, age is better. Lebron halfway through his career
became a much better perimeter shooter. He agedes well. We
don't expect our centers to be great three point shooters,
(03:44):
but Kareem was a dominant offensive and defensive standard in
the league in his prime for ten to fifteen years.
I think Steph Curry and Magic. Now, if I have
to size him up, if you take the Finals MVP
from Steph and the fifty point performance in Game seven,
I think there's a valid argument Steph's the greatest point
guard of all time. He's a much greater scorer than Magic.
(04:05):
He's a much greater offensive player than Magic. Johnson a
terrific ball handler. Neither are great defenders. It's not that
Magic doesn't age well, but he doesn't age as well
as other stars because Magic was never a great defensive player.
He was never a great score his ability to do
many things. He could def he could play center, he
(04:26):
could play forward. It's not that he couldn't score, but
the most important thing in basketball has always been putting
the ball in the basket. That's why Lebron and Larry
Bird and Kareem and Michael Jordan are in that starting five.
And I just I look at Steph Curry and it's
(04:47):
not just that he's a great scorer. He's the greatest
shooter of all time. That now is just that is
game changing. Magic didn't change the game. He was just
uniquely gifted. Hasn't really changed the game. He's just uniquely gifted.
Steph has changed the game. So when you add that
(05:07):
component that he's literally revolutionized the sport aau high school, college,
pro basketball, international basketball with a three point shot. If
I had to choose an all time team, I think
I choose Steph Curry. I know it feels hyperbolic, but
not everybody ages perfectly. Magic had a very short career.
(05:30):
Steph's career is longer. Steph won pre KD with KD
post KD at this age. To drop fifty in a
game seven, to reduce Daron Fox, Klay, Thompson, Wiggins, Draymond Green,
Sabonis to bystanders looked like rotational players in that second
(05:53):
half is all time stuff. And this sounds like Colin
you're overreacting. But if you take the MVP of the
Finals last year and that stuff matters probably more than
it should, and you combine it with this, I think
over the course of time, we're gonna look at basketball
(06:13):
as two different sports. Pre three, post three, and post
three is never relinquishing. It's important to pre three. That's jurassic.
That's dinosaur basketball. Nobody cares about it. Gunslinger for quarterback
(06:34):
is dinosaur football. It's not going to age well and
Farv and Magic are both all time talents. But I
don't know how you watch basketball going forward the last
twelve years forward and not consider Steph Curry the most
lethal and dangerous and gifted point guard of all time.
(06:54):
And because of the way he plays, he's got four
five more years, three more peak years, four five or
six more years. It's going to be a longer career
than Magic Johnson. I think Steph to me feels like
the best point guard in the history of the sport.
(07:16):
The NBA Playoffs are upon us. Twenty teams get in
all trying to get that one crown. For last minute
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(07:37):
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They've got NHL tickets, Major League Baseball tickets. They've also
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(08:00):
game Time app and the redeem code is Colin co
l i n twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply.
Download the game Time app, enter the code colin col
i in for twenty dollars off. NBA Playoffs, Baseball season
just starting here in April, NHL as well. No matter
(08:23):
where you live, get out have some fun this week
and this year. Download the game Time app. Last minute
ticket deals, lowest prices guaranteed. So let's bring in my
man Jason Timph host of Hoops Tonight. We are on
(08:44):
two or three times a week together. Now my go
to NBA guy. I got Draymond playing, Timph talking, and
I love both as well as, by the way, Jenkins
and Jones, who are culturally hysterically funny, and we love them.
(09:04):
That was I think that was the first of the
second podcasts I ever found Jenkins and Jones. So let's
start with this with Yannis being reduced to bully ball,
being liability at the end of that series, didn't want
to shoot, almost seems scared to get the ball, missed
(09:25):
thirteen free throws. We have kind of believed for the
last two years he's the best player in the league.
But if Steph with a fifty pointer in Game seven
gets to the finals again, where he's really in the
world of basketball as we know it now he's a
limitless player. Mid range floaters at the glass, three point
(09:52):
unlimited range. Do we have to go back and say, listen,
we've got to have a real discussion here. Is that
as good as Jannis is, he can be defended. You
can barricade, you can do you know, what Miami did
build a wall, go ahead. I think the combination of
Jannis's rough series and what Steph Curry did against Sacramento,
(10:18):
I think that's a legitimate discussion. I think, literally, Steph Curry, Jason,
you know somebody's great when among other great players they
feel small. Darren Fox smelt felt insignificant. I mean, he
looked like a rotational player in the second half of
this game. That's how great Steph was. Andrew Wiggins looked
(10:42):
like a rotational player. That was one of the best
Game sevens I've ever seen. It may have been the
best Game seven I've ever seen. So your thoughts on
the Yannis argument, is Steph in the world we know
this three point game, Is he now the best player
in the world.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, there's a bunch of guys that are all at
a pretty similar level, and I don't think anybody's wrong
for picking one or the other. I have a certain
system that I use. I'm going to prioritize playoff success.
I couldn't care less about raising the regular season floor
if you can't succeed in the playoff stage. You know
what I mean, And I mean we're seeing this again
with Joel embiid where it's like he just had another
(11:20):
great season, but his body just can't hold up under
the physicality of the NBA playoffs. With the honest what's
really disappointing is he's progressed and like, don't get me wrong,
he was hurt. The back injury was real. There's a
lot of intel about some of his struggles behind the scenes.
But even if you are dealing with some issues with
your body missing thirteen free throws on twenty three attempts,
(11:42):
especially two years after your crowning achievement was being locked
in at the free throw line against the Phoenix Suns,
that's discouraging to me. But even deeper than that, like
he couldn't shoot over the top of anyone. He doesn't
even have a reliable hook shot in the lane, and
that's problematic. I'm not as big on the jump shot
as everyone else, Like I think it's more important for
(12:03):
him to be able to pass himself open than it
is for him to be able to soften the defense
with jumpers. But he needs to have something over the
top and look, Steph Curry will never be able to
impact the game athletically the way someone like Giannis does
He's an outlier in that regard. When we're talking about
the top ten to fifteen players in the league, they're
all centers in big perimeter players. Steph is the outlier.
He's the one guy that's different there. But what puts
(12:26):
him on that list is, no matter what, at any
point in any matchup, he is going to be able
to successfully generate quality shots somehow. On offense, he's the
best in the league. Get I think he's still even
better than Jokic still in my opinion, at generating quality
shots in the playoffs. And the last thing I'll say
about it, and I'm sure you may have noticed this too, Colin.
(12:48):
Early on in Steph's career, inconsistency was an issue for
him in the postseason. Actually, through his first several playoff runs,
he was good for a clunker about one out of
every three times. As a matter of fact, I can't
remember exactly the window of years. It was either his
first three years or four years in the postseason, but
like literally a third of his games he shot forty
percent or worse from the field in the postseason. That's gone.
(13:10):
He hasn't had a single game in this postseason or
he shot forty percent or worse from the field. So
he's completely figured out how to maintain a level of
consistency offensively in the playoffs that no one else in
the league can touch. And that's what makes him the
best player in the world in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
We learn a lot about the NBA in the regular season.
There are things we do know, and then there's a
bit of fools gold because young teams tend to flourish
more in the regular season because it's such a marathon.
They've got the legs. They play back to backs, and
that's that's not an old man's game, right, But dynasties
(13:45):
are different. And the fear of Golden State on the
road was solved about a game in.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
They've went from the Houston Rockets to the same old Warriors,
and I think there is a reservoir for championship teams
that and I'd liken it to a baseball team that
goes on a long stretch and you ask all your
top pitchers to throw another thirty intense innings. They come
into spring training and they're they're not ready to pitch.
(14:14):
And I think Golden State tried to bridge the old
guy young guy gap there's the Draymond punch. It's a
long postseason for an old team, and I think they
just kind of thought, like, listen, man, we're gonna win
our home games. We're going to get into this thing.
It was road trips. Man, We've done a lot of this,
but I thought the last two road second halfs. I mean, Jason,
(14:37):
it was a master's class. They There was one point
Mike Breen said, the oxygen is out of the building.
There was about six minutes left, and you're like, it's over.
It's it's over. Not only the game was over, the
fight was over. And I think a lot of it
was on the defensive end, So that we have to
(14:58):
is it fair to say we kind to have to
judge dynasties differently. They do flip switches. They've got that
reservoir of experience and guile and toughness, and also when
they have issues, there's sort of this get over it, right,
Like guys get over it, Draymond, Steph Pool. You know,
(15:21):
like Pool was the first guy in the arena today.
He wasn't great, but he was more focused. So I
kind of feel like we all, I'm as guilty as anybody.
This is going to be a good road team. We
don't have to worry about that. That's fair, right.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Again, it was the same players. It was the same
players that were the dominant road team that they were
last year. Again, like I the whole year, the one
thing that I kept coming back to was there was
no personnel reason for a decline. It was all. It
was clear to me that it was effort. Even in
this series, Like they came out super lackadaisical in Game six.
(15:57):
In the first half, they would like score at the
rim of dear and Fox would just dribble around all
of them and score transition layup after a made basket.
They just weren't really focused in that Game six. And
they've had some issues with effort and focus during the
regular season, some of which that have manifested in this
postseason run. I thought you saw a little bit of
that at the end of Game four where they were sloppy.
You saw a little bit of that in Game six.
But at the end of the day, it's the same personnel,
(16:19):
And like you know, here's the thing. The regular season
still matters, I think, specifically when it comes to building
your basketball character. So, for instance, I don't think it's
a coincidence that the Lakers played really good basketball after
the deadline, and that continued into the postseason. Like you
build habits and you build things that go along. However,
seeding matters less than ever because all the teams are good.
(16:42):
So if you get the seven seed, you're going to
play a two seed that's not that much better than you,
whereas back in the day it was different. Right, But
like once again, we look on Friday night and we
saw the defensive player of the Year and then suddenly
there was a guy in a Lakers jersey that looked
way better than him at defense because in the postseason
it's just an different level that he can get to.
Tonight we saw the clutch player of the Year and
(17:04):
Darren Fox in a Game seven at home get thoroughly
out executed because the dude boring number thirty for the
Warriors is just way better at closing basketball games than hit.
So the reality is is there is a difference between
regular season and playoff basketball. It's about surviving and it's
about building continuity and building habits that will carry you
(17:25):
in the postseason. And there was such a clear delineation
between what the Warriors were at home and what they
were on the road that it was obvious that it
was effort and focus related. Like you said, they just
had a long run. They were worn down, they were
injured a lot this year. Steph was out for extended stretches,
Andrew Wiggins were OpEd for extended stretches. I think we
tend to overthink these things. But again, Colin, that's why
(17:48):
you and I were on the Lakers and Warriors in
this first round. We've learned this lesson too many times.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, by the way, Cleveland, Memphis, Sacramento, talented young teams
all shrink at defark time. Lakers best players are older,
Warriors are older. Celtics now are getting longer than the tooth.
Although Milwaukee folded. So let's talk Lakers Warriors series. Here's
what would worry me now. Anthony Davis is going to
(18:13):
have a very good series. We know that. But the Warriors,
and this is what I think makes them a dynasty,
is that they've got and this. Michael Jordan's Bulls had
this too. Where Rodman was a great rebounder, Jordan was
a great score Pippen was a great defender, Kerr was
a great shooter, Phil Jackson was a great coach. They
had a lot of great Peyton's a great defender, Draymond's
(18:37):
great defender, Steph's a great score, Clay is a great
spot up shooter, Kerr's a great coach, Looney's a great rebounder.
There's a lot of great There are limitations to many
of their greatest players, Draymond offensively, Looney offensively, But because
they're so selfless, everybody understands their role. This is a classic.
(18:59):
You know, Ron Harper was a scorer with the Bulls.
He knew he didn't have to be like the great dynasties.
There's a hierarchy within it, you know, like everybody knew
Michael ran the show, step Roves the show. The Lakers
don't have a lot of great now. Ad is a
great defender, he's a great player, and lebron In Spurts
(19:21):
now is a great Swiss Army knife. But they're players.
Dangelo Russell's game to game, Jared Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley. I
think it's really hard to beat the Warriors because you
kind of know Jason Draymond's a good defender every game,
(19:42):
and Looney's a great rebounder every game. The Lakers will
steal some wins here, but what the Warriors do. Those
individual players bring that same thing every night. I mean,
even Clay horrible first half, great second, they never bring
four quarters. Draymond never bad defensively for four quarters. And
(20:03):
I just think the difference is you're gonna get more
consistent great play from more players, and it feels like
a six gamer to me, and eventually you'll look up
and go, Okay, this is what the Warriors do. More
guys doing what they do at a premium level, whereas
I don't know what I get from Ruey and D'Angelo.
(20:25):
They have great moments, but they're not consistently great at stuff.
That's my take.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I think this series is going to be a slog
I think both defenses are uniquely equipped to give each
other problems. So the Lakers, and we've already seen this
in every one of their matchups with the Warriors this year,
but they're gonna put Anthony Davis on Kevan Looney, They're
gonna put Lebron James and Draymond Green, and they're just
gonna have both of those guys play center field underneath
the basket, and a lot of the damage that Steff
did in this series, in particular, was at the rim.
(20:52):
I'm sure you notice that in the fourth quarter tonight
he's just beating dudes off the dribble and get into
the basket. Yet there's no there's no rim protection in Sacramento,
So Anthony Davis is going to be around the basket
for most of the series. So I expect that, and
the Lakers did a lot of top locking and forcing
the Warriors guards away from the screens and trying to
get them to back door cut into all the traffic
(21:12):
where Anthony Davis and Lebron was. I expect the Lakers
to put Jared Vanderbilt on Steph Curry, Austin Reeves on
Klay Thompson, try to hide D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins,
and I expect him to cause the Warriors offense some problems.
Here's the problem. The Warriors are also going to cause
all sorts of problems for the Lakers. Draymond Green is
going to be on Jared Vanderbilt and pay zero attention
(21:33):
to him and just be a wrecking ball everywhere on
the floor. Kevon Looney is the type of physical rebounding
center that has always given Anthony Davis problems and Andrew Wiggins.
I think one of the biggest swing factors in this
series is going to be Lebron James because offensively the
guy he was in the first round. If that translates
into this series, the Lakers are going to be gone
in five or six games. They have to have Lebron
(21:56):
James dominate the Andrew Wiggins matchup. I think he's going
to do it in the post. Andrew Wiggins on the
perimeter is devastating. You saw that against Luka Doncic last
year at the Conference finals. Lebron has Lebron struggle with
Dylan Brooks because he has a very low center of gravity,
so he has had a hard time bumping him off
of his spots. Wiggins has a higher center of gravity,
so I expect Lebron to try to maul him more,
(22:17):
take him down to the block. I think this is
I think this entire series comes down to Lebron James.
If Lebron James plays Steph Curry to a draw, I
think the Lakers win in six. If Lebron James averages
twenty two points a game relatively inefficiently, like he did
against Memphis, I think Golden State wins the series. So
all eyes on Lebron for me.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So let's let's give some credit to the Miami Heat.
It's such an they're the opposite of the Dolphins. It's
all culture, it's all toughness, it's all resiliency. There's no
hype is that they shoot forty two. Butler's limping at
the end, they get out rebounded, they're on the road,
they've lost Tyler hero. He won't play in the series. Right,
(22:59):
They come off a really a stunning upset. You'd feel
a letdown. They're on the road and they win kind
of comfortably. Now Julius Rannold didn't play. But when I
watched that series, I thought, this really is Maybe it's
because Miami and we just think of the aqua water
and the beach. This is such a great basketball culture
(23:24):
and their ability to come off that a young, immature team.
I mean, they got four undrafted guys. Three are playing,
they're on the road. The next are tough as hell.
And as I watched that series, I thought, yeah, Julius
Randall will matter, but god, Miami is the opposite of
(23:45):
what every great Miami you know, the Marino Dolphins, the
Miami Hurricanes. They're like LA teams. They feel like they're
on the beach. They're flashy, and they're fun. This organization
is so well run and so smartly coached. I'm watching
their roster against the Knicks and I'm like, you know,
(24:05):
the Mix had five star high school guyers, great college guys.
Cody Zeller looks like my accountant. I'm like, what is happening?
I just as I watch Miami, I'm like, I have
such appreciation to get pro athletes to all buy in.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I did think tib has made a mistake. They didn't
attack Butler late when he was limping around the floor.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's like, dude, it was a huge mistake.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Like, you know, Tim's a defensive coach, but you're kind
of your your thoughts on this series as a whole
and sort of this sort of grind out, rust belt,
no flash Miami culture.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Well, I think I think you and I have been
on this for a couple of years now. The idea
we basically refer to the Heat as Warrior East, but
with less talent, you know, and and like the most
the most impressive parted about it to me is despite
the talent, they've become the safest bet in the Eastern
Conference to be there. Colin this is the third time
in the last four years they've played it at least
(25:14):
the second round. This is like, that's crazy to me.
This is this is the fourth time in nine years
since Lebron left that the Heat have made it to
the second round. That's very impressive given the level of
personnel that they've had. Eric Spolstra is, in my opinion,
the very best coach in the league. I love their
modern approach to the game of basketball. They just bring
(25:36):
the most out of these undrafted types of players, and
even the veterans like Kyle Lowry got a lot of
crap from Heat fans for kind of underwhelming in his
time here. So far, he's been incredible through the first
six playoff games, especially especially on the defensive end. And
four Kyle Lowry torched the Knicks tonight in pick and roll,
(25:58):
just getting over the top oft screens and knocking down
little shots. That was probably the story of the game,
in my opinion, was so schematically. The Heat do a
ton of switching and that's very different from other teams.
And they do that because bam Atabio is gifted at
being able to guard on the perimeter, and most of
their players are trunky and strong, it can hold up
against bigger players. So when you switch everything, it stagnates
(26:19):
teams and because all their actions don't work anymore because
instead of coming off that screen open, he's coming off
and just another defender switched on to him. So it
turns into an isolation contest. And at the end of
that game, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the
Knicks just went hard on the RJ. Barrett thing, yes,
and that was just not working like and Jalen Brunson
was very uninvolved late in the game. And this is
(26:40):
where the Julius Randall thing I think does matter because
he is the master switch attacker going at smaller players
in the post and just trying to bully them to
the basket. They're gonna need him to win this series, unfortunately,
just because of the personnel gap. That said, I thought
the story of this particular game was the Nick's guards
(27:01):
are better than the Heat's guards on paper, that's a
better core, but the Heat Guards outplayed than Nick's guards tonight,
and they're never gonna win like you like, even at
home and that Rockus Madison square guarden crowd that got
soundly outplayed because the guards for the Heat outplayed them.
If you're gonna, like Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry, be
better than your guards, you're gonna be in some problems
(27:21):
in this series.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So let's move back to the West. So it's not
that I don't respect Denver, it's I don't watch them
a ton because I pay so much attention to the
Celtics and the Sixers and the Bucks and the Warriors
and the Lakers, and so Denver is not a huge
basketball brand. So if I'm on my treadmill or they're
(27:45):
playing one of those teams, I'll watch them. So my
takeaway has always been there deep. They're highly efficient. You
kind of know what you get every time from Yoki.
Jamal Murray's a little more hot and cold, but he
has stretches. We saw it in the bubble can be
a dominant player. But the one thing I took away
and I watched about half of it because I was
(28:06):
out with a friend from the from the the game
with Phoenix is boy. They score easily. They score comfortably
like the points you watch. You watch a Sacramento at
the in this series more than once, and You're like,
where did their wings scoring go? Like they get dry fast?
If Daron Fox is an hitdiot, It's like, where's the offense?
(28:28):
It's just easy. It's just it's like watching an NFL
offense that gets easy completions and I'm like, it doesn't
even feel like it's much of an effort. They're deeper
than Phoenix, you know, Phoenix has some holes defensively, and
I'm like, I don't know, like Phoenix will win a
game or two because they'll out you know, KD and
(28:49):
Booker will have great offensive nights, but I don't know
if Phoenix can slow them down. What's your thought on that?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So Phoenix has a very specific way that they need
to win, and Denver beat the Suns at their own
game in game one. I was so interested when I
was watching the film this morning. So, for instance, Phoenix
is the best pick and roll team in the league.
They ran twenty four or they ran twenty nine pick
and rolls and only scored twenty four points. Denver scored
fifty points in pick and roll in that game, so
(29:18):
they did. They were twice as effective as Phoenix at
their bread and butter. Phoenix is a huge pull up
jump shooting team. I've been talking to you of this
for months now. They rely heavily on knocking down contested
pull up jump shots off the dribble. Phoenix had an
effective field goal percentage in Game one of thirty one
percent on pull up jump shots. Denver had an effective
field goal percentage of sixty four percent on pull up
(29:40):
jump shots in Game one. Jamal Murray scored twenty one
points on pull up jumpers alone in that game. Chris Paul,
Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant combined to score eighteen points
on pull up jump shots in that game. They just
completely outplayed the Suns at their own game. I will
say on film, I actually thought Phoenix held that better
defensively than you would have expected. They contested shots pretty well.
(30:04):
Jamal Murray hit a lot of tough shots in that game.
Devin Booker was two for nine on pull of jumpers,
so there was some shot variant stuff there. For instance,
Denver scored twenty six points on sixteen spot up possessions.
The Sun scored seventeen on seventeen possessions, so they just
did bet like for instance, Aaron Gordon is the one
guy that you want to ignore and help on everything right,
(30:24):
and so they put kd there so that he can
be super tall around the basket, bothering shots, and Aaron
Gordon was making all of his jump shots. So like
it was, I do think shot variation played a huge role.
The one schematic thing I noticed, Denver was very aggressive
on Phoenix's pick and rolls bringing Jokic out, and so
there was a lot of role possessions where eight and
(30:45):
is catching the ball on the middle of the floor
and he needs to either score or make a decision.
And both eight And and Biambo were terrible in this game
in the role making decisions. So this is going to
be a big DeAndre eighton series. He's going to have
to be a monster, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So I still think the Knicks will make the Miami Series.
I think it's going to go seven. I'll take the
Warriors and six more interested now to own in on
the Suns. Denver. Over all these playoffs, the Warriors Lakers
(31:23):
is going to get a massive number, just a huge
f in number. Is you know when I look at
the NBA playoffs, the one thing I really appreciated about
the Warriors King series is they kind of let guys play.
I mean I was I was joking. Sabonis was called
(31:45):
for thirty fouls. He felt about sixty times to eighty times,
but they kind of, like the referees sort of acknowledged
that's who he is. He sort of leads with his shoulder.
He's a physical player. I really thought the Warriors Kings series.
I thought they let guys play, and I really appreciate it.
(32:06):
I mean, there's obviously the Draymond Green gets ejected, but
it was physical at times. It was it was never chippy.
I almost wonder that the teams were so highly skilled.
I hope it wasn't the best series. You know, I'm
watching the Knicks in Miami and there were some ugly stretches.
(32:27):
You're like gods, like nineteen eighty nine. I just I
think overall, we complain a lot about officiating in this sport.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong here. I thought the Warriors Kings,
there's so much skill and the refs kind of got
out of the way of it and they kind of
let guys play. Now, maybe the box score doesn't show that,
(32:50):
but I thought it was a really elegant, artful series.
It really was, And the fact that road teams won
three games. That's hard to do in this league. So
what happened is the team that played harder won. There
was no question Golden State today played harder. I mean
they just the rebounding disparity was I mean, Mike Brown's
(33:10):
saying it in the huddles. It's like, guys, they're just
they just want it more.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I thought the officials did a good job in the series.
Did you one hundred percent agree? I think they've done
mostly good in this postseason. There's been a handful of
games that I haven't liked. Here's the thing. It's more physical.
It can be ugly at times with the steel players
struggling a little bit under that physicality. But the reality
is calling it's it's so much better as a television
product when the game has flow.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
It's not simple like. There are two problems with the
NBA regular season. In my opinion, it's too long, so
the urgency, like you can't play eighty two games and
have twenty of the thirty teams get into the postseason,
Like how how can you ever expect anybody to care
on a nightly basis? That said, there's another problem, and
it's the game during the regular season can be very
stilted by officiating. The tic TAC calls all the time.
(33:58):
That stops the game, and then you're waiting thirty seconds
for someone to walk up to the free throw line
because once again, you know, Damian Lillard just dropped his shoulder,
ran into a guy, threw up some crazy eighteen foot
And I'm not trying to pick on Dame because so
many guys do it. But like in the postseason, that
stuff doesn't happen anymore. And yeah, can get physical, and
yeah can get ugly sometimes, but the game has real flow,
(34:19):
there's real like it's easier to stay invested in the game.
It's just a better television product. I wish they would
officiate games like this during the entire season.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Jason Temp host of Hoops Tonight. He's fantastic, good stuff.
Little breakdown of the Warriors, Lakers, Golden State's winning game seven,
Steph Curry's fifty point game. As always, buddy, great senior.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Thanks calling. See you next time.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The volume.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Make sure to 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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