June 3, 2024 • 45 mins
Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Jason discusses whether Luka Doncic has overtaken Nikola Jokic as the best player in the world following the Mavericks' run to the NBA Finals vs. the Celtics. Later, Jason discusses if the Nuggets should make any major offseason moves following their loss to Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs, whether Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are still top tier contenders, and what trade options LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers should pursue.
Timeline:
04:00 - Introduction
04:51 - Jason's criteria for ranking players
17:28 - Is Giannis in best player conversation?
17:50 - Is Jokic still best player in the world?
25:50 - Thank you for listening 22:32 - Should Warriors trade Wiggins?
29:46 - How often Jason attends live games?
30:27 - Sam Presti on Gordon Hayward
32:21 - Which defensive players are most valuable?
33:03 - Are Bucks still top tier contenders?
34:53 - Lakers trade scenarios
36:30 - Does Jason eat before games?
37:23 - Thoughts on Star Wars franchise right now
42:35 - Should Nuggets make changes?
44:24 - Jason's new look
45:39 - How Lakers would have fared as 8 seed
47:27 - Will rest help Team USA players
48:29 - Should Ant start over Tatum on Team USA?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops
(02:08):
to night here at the volume Havy Sunday. Everybody, hope
all of you guys are having a great weekend as
promised our third mail bag today. On Friday, we hit
the Western Conference Finals and all the fallout, some stuff
big picture with Luca and the MAVs, and then also
just looking forward for the Timberwolves. You can find that
on the feeds. Earlier Saturday, we did an NBA Finals
mail bag, just some kind of preliminary stuff before we
(02:30):
get into our real prep starting next week on Monday. Today,
all the mail bag questions that surrounded anything else, stuff
about the non basketball stuff, stuff about the rest of
the league. We're fitting that into today's mail bag. You
guys are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to
the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Jason lt so you guys don't miss youw announcement sont
forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
(02:51):
under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag questions
in those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout
the rest of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
first question, there has been a lot of talk about
who the best player in the world is. After this series.
It seems like most people would consider that to be
Luka or Jokic. What is your criteria for judging what
(03:12):
makes one player greater in a vacuum than another? Do
you compare basic stats like points per game, rebounds per game,
assist per game, etc. Do you look at any advanced stats,
team success a combination of them all. I'd love to
hear about what your measuring stick is for comparing one
player to another. Thanks for all the fantastic content and
for making the playoff watching experience greater for me this year.
(03:33):
Thank you for supporting the show and for the kind words.
It means a lot to me. Again, all throughout the
mail diag, so many of you guys drop so many
kind words, and I really truly appreciate it and all
the support, and obviously the performance of the show has
helped me realize just how much you guys support me,
and it's something that I greatly appreciate. Best player in
the world stuff. Everybody has different criteria, and so don't
(03:58):
confuse me to talking about who I think the best
player in the world is. As like the end all
be all, you might have different criteria than me. I
keep two separate lists. I keep two separate lists for
my all time players as well. I separate permitter players
in BIGS because I don't really feel comfortable saying Tim
Duncan's better than Kobe or vice versa, when the two
of them played such profoundly different positions in the NBA,
(04:20):
their jobs just were not the same, right, And that's
kind of how I feel about this particular type of discussion.
To me, there's the in a vacuum, who's the best player? If,
like I had a franchise with a number one pick
and every single player in the league was a free agent,
who would be the first guy I'd pick to build
(04:40):
a team around for that season from the start of
training camp hopefully through the end of June. Who am
I picking? Right? That's one debate. Then there's like the
bragging rights debate that to me, has nothing to do
with any sort of specific traits of a basketball player.
It has everything to do with the the importance of winning.
(05:08):
For instance, we play these games for a reason. We
play to win. We don't play for Instagram highlights. We
play to see who's going to get the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
And to me, that Larry O'Brien trophy is sacred. When
I grew up as a kid and I'd turn on
the NBA Finals and they'd have that long, you know,
minute long kind of intro that they'd air with all
(05:31):
the footage of like Magic Johnson yelling back to back
and like Bill Russell in the locker room and Red
Hour back smoking a cigar, and you know, Lebron hunched
over crying in the later years, Lebron hunched over crying
after winning in twenty sixteen, like all of the example,
Anything's possible, Kevin Garnett screaming to the rooftops like that
(05:52):
real to me is a representation of why we do this.
We do this for Thearry O'Brien Trophy. It's all that matters.
There's other stuff that matters, but this is the ultimate
thing that matters. And so for me, like I believe
in referencing the best player in the league in these
two different lists so that we can properly account for
(06:15):
those two things. For instance, in a vacuum, I think
Lebron James was the best player in the world from
about twenty twelve to twenty twenty. If I was picking
a franch I was picking a player to start a
franchise with He's the guy I'm picking every single time.
From twenty twelve to twenty twenty, I thought he was
the best. I didn't think I thought a couple players
(06:35):
got close, but I never thought a player actually surpassed him. Right,
But in terms of bragging rights, it's different, Right, Like,
I totally understand why some Warriors fans would be like, Hey,
what about Steph or KD or even Kawhi Leonard in
twenty nineteen, Right like that, I understand why some fan
(06:55):
bases feel like their dude had the bragging rights for
that season, And that makes sense to me. So that's
what the purpose of the two lists are. How do
we account for Lebron obviously being the best player in
the world in twenty nineteen, because like what happened in
twenty eighteen and what happened in twenty twenty twenty eighteen,
Lebron was by far the best player in the world,
(07:16):
kicked ass through the entire playoff run, had like eight
forty point playoff games, had a fifty point playoff game,
and then ran into the KD Steph Warriors when he
didn't have another top fifteen player on his team, and
he lost right, but he was clearly the best player
in the world twenty nineteen, sprains is growing, the strains
is growing and misses the playoffs, right because he got hurt.
(07:36):
Twenty twenty, he comes back best player in the league
start to finish. Should have one MVP team started twenty
four and three dominated the playoff Run had a crazy efficient,
high volume scoring, and a playmaking and rebounding Playoff Run
was also an elite defender that year one finals MVP
was clearly the best player in the world, right, Like,
(07:57):
he was the best player for that entire stretch. He
just got hurt in the middle and was on a
different team that didn't have enough talent after he went
to Los Angeles before the Anthony Davis trade, Right, But,
like I understand why Kawhi would have the bragging rights
that year. But if you were an NBAGM and you
didn't know that Lebron was gonna get hurt and he
(08:18):
had just had that twenty eighteen playoff run, you bet
your ass you're drafting Lebron James over Kawhi Leonard to
start the twenty nineteen season. That's kind of why I
keep those two lists separate. Now, the question is if
the bragging rights one is more focused on team results
and just and again, just because you win doesn't mean
you get that in my opinion. In my opinion, it's
(08:38):
like who played the best basketball that specific year, combination
of all those things you just mentioned, production in statistics,
team success, degree of difficulty, all of that, to me
gets factored in on the bragging right side of things.
When it comes to the inn of vacuum side, I'm
actually less concerned about some of the statistical stuff. It's
more like actually analyzing what that player is good and
(09:01):
bad at, because so much the statistical output has a
lot to do with what the team construct is. It's
no different than Jokic being a better scorer in the
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two seasons when he
didn't have Jamal Murray, but then when Jamal Murray came back,
his scoring took a little dip as he offloaded some
of those responsibilities. Like, that doesn't mean Yokic became a
worst scorer. It's just a difference in the way the
(09:22):
team was constructed, Right, So like that's kind of the
way I look at the in a vacuum piece. I'm
more looking at traits. Now, I wanted to rank the
traits for the purpose of this question. I wanted to
rank what I think are the most important traits in
a vacuum for a basketball player. Number one, no question
for me, half court shot creation. And the reason behind
(09:45):
this is very simple. Defensively, you can scheme an elite defense.
Just look at Luca this year or Jokic last year.
Both of those guys are doing a good job defensively,
but they're not elite defensive players. But both of those
defenses were elite. Why Because they were able to construct
through coaching and a few pieces of good defensive personnel
(10:07):
and effort, execution, intention to detail for an entire season,
those two teams built elite defenses. It's a lot easier
to do that than the opposite. If you've got it
is really, really difficult to replicate what Luka doncicch does
in half court. You can't just scheme like Eric Spolser
(10:27):
can't turn Tyler Harrow into Lukadancic. Sorry, right. So like
for me, the ability in the slow down half court
environment to consistently generate quality shots for yourself and your teammates.
That to me is the number one trade, I look
at one of the valuating basketball players in a vacuum,
specifically versatility. What that means is different types of matchups
(10:50):
require different forms of offensive attack. So Anthony Edwards, for instance,
through the first two rounds, looked like one of the
best offensive players in the world. The Dallas Denver started
doubling him. Towards the end of that series, he kind
of crumbled a bit. Then Dallas presents some rim protection
(11:10):
and perimeter athleticism issues, he completely crumbles, right, So I
shouldn't say completely crumbles. He was pretty good in the
last couple of games, but like he was pretty bad
overall in the series, right. So to me, the versatility
element says, regardless of which type of opponent I play against,
can I consistently generate quality shots for myself and my teammates?
(11:32):
And that to me comes down to like, can you
attack in different ways? Can you function both as a
playmaker and as a score if you need to? Can
you deal with hyper aggressive defensive schemes? Can you attack
as an individual in different ways, like out of the post,
out of ISO, out of pick and roll. Can you
beat small guys and big guys? Can you beat strong
guys and long guys. Right, those are all the different
(11:54):
types of versatility elements offensively that I factor in there.
But half court shot creation is unquestionably the number one
thing the list. Number two I put size, strength, and athleticism.
At the end of the day, you get into these
playoff environments, it gets super damn physical and being bigger,
stronger and faster than people matters last year or this year. Looks,
(12:15):
Look at Luca He's bigger and stronger than the vast
majority of the perimeter players in the league. Right, Nicole
Jokicic bigger and stronger than the vast majority of big
guys in the league. Steph Curry Again, every time you
look at Steph Curry, he is the exception that proves
the rule, both in NBA history and in a recent context.
Anything Steph does, it just doesn't make sense in the
big picture. So you just kind of have to pick
(12:36):
Steph up and put him off to the side and
discuss him separately. Right, We've been consistent about that on
this show. Giannis bigger, stronger and faster than every forward
in the league. Right, Lebron James in twenty twenty, bigger, faster,
stronger than most forwards in the league except for Giannis
right twenty nineteen, Kawhi Leonard bigger and stronger than most
forwards in the league. Right eighteen and twenty seventeen, Kevin
(12:58):
Durant seven foot shooter, He's just taller than everybody. Right.
And then obviously the Steph piece, which is weird. Twenty
sixteen Lebron twenty fifteen, Steph again, twenty fourteen Finals MVP
was Kawhi. That's also a weird team. They're like the
team version of Steph. You just pulled them out and
remove them from the equation, right, Lebron. The years before that,
Dirk was seven feet tall. Kobe Bryant was one of
(13:19):
the freaky athletic two guards in the league. Right. So like, again,
you have to have real physical tools unless you're Steph
Curry to win an NBA history. That's the second piece.
Third piece I put defensive versatility. There are a lot
of problems that get presented in playoff series that only
superstar defensive talents can handle, right, Like, we've seen this
(13:42):
a lot over the years. But like when you have
a superstar like Giannis that could show on a Devin
Booker floater bait him into a pass and then recover
an erace eight and at the rim. That is a
play that Giannis and maybe two other guys in the
world can make, and it won them the finals game.
(14:02):
Like that is the type of defensive versatility that can
shine through in a big way. Lebron James is a
guy like this. Kawhi Leonard is a guy like this.
Kevin Durant is a guy like this. Right. To me,
defensive versatility the ability to impact the game defensively in
multiple ways. Lebron James in twenty twenty switched on to
Jamal Murray in the tail end of the series and
shut him down, Like he can't do that anymore. But
(14:25):
when he was thirty five he could do that, right.
That was a huge piece of his defensive versatility in
his way to impact the game. He could be a
backline guy, he could be an on ball guy, right,
you know like that? That, to me is an important
piece of that in a vacuum evaluation of players, But
it ranks lower than the other two pieces because it's
(14:46):
easier as a front office to get a Yokich and
get an Aaron Gordon than it is, in my opinion
to get a Yannis and then to get a high
level offensive player to compliment him. And so for me,
that's why I I ranked that half court shot creation
piece number one. I think it's just the hardest thing
to replicate on a team wide basis. Whereas defensive versatility
(15:09):
can be a roster strength and it can be like elite,
half court shock creation has only been a roster strength
with the twenty fourteen Spurs. Like generally speaking, you need
a superstar offensive player that can do that to address
that problem. So again, hopefully that answers that question for
you guys. Those are the rankings of the three things
I look at in a vacuum in a in bragging
(15:29):
rights and primary looking at production and team success and
who just gets to brag for that particular season. Why
does everyone just cut Giannis out of the best player
in the world chat? Now, he's still on part with
these guys. To me, I think he's in that tier,
but I think he's firmly below Luca and Nicole Jokic
for the exact same reasons I just explained. I don't
(15:51):
think he's I think he's a good half court shot creator,
but he's not in the same stratosphere as a half
court shock creator as Jokic and Luca some solid analysis
as usual, but the man which you jumped off Jokich
as the best player in the world is a bit
prisoner of the moment. Joker's shooting performance the decline, as
you put it, against the Wolves was because they were
built to defeat him and have the favorable matchups to
(16:11):
wear him down. Conversely, the MAVs have matchup advantages over
the Wolves, and the truth of that out. You don't
lose the title a best player in the league because
your team loses in the playoffs in seven games, while
you still perform very well. A larger sample size is
needed otherwise the moniker becomes whoever plays best and wins
in their title run. If next year Luca dominates and
is better than Nicola, then I think it's fair to
(16:31):
then hand him the belt, as Bill Simmons would put it,
as the best player in the world. But right now
it's a bit premature. One of your great strengths as
a basketball analysts is that you generally are not reactionary.
Don't get caught up in this one. Let's see if
Luca can win the title and MVP how can the
best player in the league not have at least one
MVP and dominate once more in the playoffs before we
declare him the best player over Nicole Jokic, who has
(16:52):
had years of sustained excellence. A couple of things. What
I said right off the top, your criteria for best
player in the world is probably different. It's clearly different
than mine. That's okay. It's okay that I have different criteria. So, like,
I don't care that Luca doesn't have an MVP. Regular
season MVP to me is like, for me personally, is
(17:12):
an achievement that I almost just don't care about. Like,
it's just the problem with regular season MVP is it's
so much based on media narratives, and like I believe
Jokic deserves the MVPs he has, I'm not trying to
undercut the accomplishment. Just regular season MVP. It just doesn't
matter to me. There's too many examples like Russell Westbrook
winning it, like James Harden winning it. There's just too
(17:33):
many Joel Embiid winning it. There's just so many examples
of a guy that's clearly not the best player in
the world winning MVP, and that to me, just makes
it really difficult to tot to tie much success to
that accomplishment. Even when Yannis won MVP in twenty twenty,
I didn't think he was better than Lebron. So like
to me, regular season MVP doesn't factor in. If you
factor in regular season MVP, more power to you. I
(17:55):
don't care about that. Joker's shooting performance. The decline, as
you put it against the Wolves, was because they were
built to defeat him. That's not true. He shot poorly
all season. Last year. In the regular season, he was
one point one to seven points per jump shot. This
year he was one point zero one. That's a what
sixteen percent decline, So a substantial decline in Yokic's jump
shooting from last season to this year. In the regular season,
(18:18):
last year, in the postseason, for the entire postseason, he
averaged one point two to one points per jump shot.
In this postseason he was below zero point nine, so
massive sample from start of training camp through to what
he got eliminated in the second round. He wasn't as
good as a jump shooter. That's just a fact. He
(18:38):
did decline on that front. He also was not as
good defensively as he was last year. That is a fact.
All you have to do is look at the fact
that they couldn't get stops against Minnesota, a mediocre offense
when it mattered in big games, had a one sixteen
defensive rating against Minnesota in those four losses. So like
he just won as good and I think that has
to be factored in there as far as like the
(19:00):
he needs to have sustained success for multiple years in
the postseason. By that logic, Jokic doesn't deserve it because
he only did it for one year in the postseason.
Luca's doing it for his first year in the postseason.
To me, I'm giving it to Luca because in this
particular postseason run, Luka Doncic played better basketball and achieved more,
(19:24):
and so for this season he gets the bragging rights.
In a vacuum, I still lean Jokic a little bit,
and we'll see how I feel about that when we
get into the summer. But for me, in a vacuum,
if I was GM of the Charlotte Hornets and I
had the number one pick going into a full NBA
(19:44):
wide four hundred and fifty player draft, I'm probably taking
Nikola Jokic first. That to me is separate from the
bragging rights title, which to me, Luca has at this
point because he just took the team that beat didn't
just beat Denver, but shut down their offense, which is
Jokic's strength. Luca eviscerated them. He averaged twelve additional points
(20:09):
per one hundred possessions against that Minnesota defense than Jokic did.
He deserves it for now in terms of bragging rights.
That hopefully will kind of explain where I stand on
those things. And you're right, like kicking me kicking a
player off of the vacuum list, that's gonna take a
lot more sample size for me. But the bragging rights
(20:29):
list is very much a year to year thing. I
had Luka Dancic tenth in my bragging rights list last year. Tenth.
Do I think lucas the tenth best player in the world. No,
But he missed the playoffs last year, and Jimmy Butler
took his team to the finals, Jason Tatum took his
team in the Eastern Conference finals. Lebron James took his
team to the Eastern Conference Final. Like, all those guys
accomplished more last year, so they just were higher in
(20:50):
their back in the bragging rights list. For me, I
don't have a question. I just want to say I'm
a real hoophead. And when I found you a few
years back, when you were just getting this thing going,
I was super excited to hear someone talk about the
game in a way that I had been waiting for
and to see how far you've come. It's just great
to see. I tell everyone about you, Bro. Thanks, thanks man,
keep doing you, Bro. This comment meant a lot to me.
(21:14):
When I started this show, I had this, you know,
I had this like belief system in place where, like
I wanted to talk about the game the way I
wanted to talk about it. But I was worried that
it might not perform super well because it's a little
more niche, right, It's a little bit more in the weeds.
(21:34):
And I wasn't willing to do the stuff that so
many other shows out there do in terms of like
just countless lebron MJ debates and who's under more pressure
and like all those like classic first takey type of headlines. Right,
I didn't want to do that, and I was really
nervous that I had to have a hard time getting
the show off the ground because of that and to
(21:54):
see me start this show and to not compromise on
any of that stuff, Like does my behind the scenes
package and make thumbnails and titles that are a little clickbait? Yeah,
but that's just smart business. I've never built a show
like that. That's just smart business that they do that.
But like, to me, the actual show, I've never compromised on.
(22:16):
I've only talked about the game that I want about
the I've only talked about the game the way that
I want to talk about it, and to get to
see it have success and to see where we've gotten
to is has just like literally been everything to me
because that means that my vision for what the show
should be like was actually capable of being a real
(22:37):
show that actually had a little bit of a following.
And so what it means to me is that there's
a lot of you guys out there that love basketball
as much as I do, and that is that's that
that to me is incredible because I love the game
so much it's literally gone everything that I have came
from basketball, Like I got my school paid for by basketball.
A lot of my travel over my life has been
(22:58):
because of basketball and understanding of the game. Most of
it comes from playing basketball, right, Like every my love
of basketball has given me everything I have and so
like to see that get returned in the form of
the support of this show is just meant everything to me.
And to hear comments like that and to know that
you guys wanted to hear analysis like this, it makes
(23:20):
me feel vindicated for believing that this is the way
that the game should be talked about. So just thank
you all for supporting the show. And like again, I
just I can't put into words how much I appreciate
you guys for helping the show get to the point
where it's at right now. Hey, Jason, love watching your analysis.
I wanted to ask, with all of these rumors the
Warriors trading Wiggins, do you think it's the right move
(23:42):
with all these elite guards looking in the west, to
give up on the only point of attack defender who
has been able to keep the force of Luca at
bay Or should they put him in the Jada McDaniels
lou Dort role, move him to two and add a
big who can shoot to add size. So I've seen
a lot of Warriors fans talk about potentially trading Andrew
(24:02):
Wiggins and I disagree in the sense that for two reasons. One,
I think Andrew Wiggins' ability to defend on the perimeter
is a profoundly valuable trade his athleticism in general is
profoundly valuable trade. And lastly, for all of his struggles,
his trade value is not very high. So it's not
likely that you can actually get much back for Andrew
Wiggins that would replace the things that he's pretty elite at.
(24:26):
So I would look for moves on the margins, and
I would try to not include Andrew Wiggins as far
as playing him at the two. I think that you
need another shot creator, and so if you moved him
at the two, it to me that would require you
to have a three out there that can really run offense.
What you can't do is go back into next season
where Steph's the only guy on the team that can
(24:47):
create his own shot. That to me would be a disaster.
How often do you attend live games and are you
planning to attend the finals? Somel across your vance's postseason.
Love the work you put into them, so not going
to the finals, but we are planning on trying to
do a ten more games next year. I think our
plan is to at least go to the Ncason Tournament
next year. My guess is in the long run we'll
(25:09):
go to more games, like when we talk about like
five ten years in the future. But so much of
it just has to do with like the volumes growing
really fast, and we're still kind of working through all that.
Like I'm still recording the show in my guest bedroom,
so like we'll see how that turns out in the
long run. Right, So, Like again I right now this
is kind of the format that works. We will go
to more events, not going to the finals this year,
(25:29):
but in the long run, we'll see if we end
up at more of that stuff. What did you think
of Sam Presci's comments on trading for Gordon Hayward. Do
you believe more gms? Do you believe more gms should
take accountability? Like this more great content, keep up the
great work. So the comment from Sam Presci basically just
said he missed on that Gordon Hayward trade. One of
(25:50):
the things that I appreciated about it, there's this I
didn't even really realize this until like started in this business.
There's this belief. I've seen it from fans and it's
like this, there's this expectation that basketball is just easy
to figure out and that the solution is just obviously
right in front of you, and that you should just
you know, if you make a mistake, it's a sign
(26:11):
that you're incompetent. I could not disagree more Like sports
has such a variability element to it. Right as a
Lakers fan, I experience this personally all year long. Ruey
hatch Murrow is better than Torrian Prince, and I advocated
all year long to play Ruey more than Torrian Prince.
And it was the right decision all year long until
(26:31):
the Denver series when Rui was terrible and Torrian was good. Right, Like,
is that just the weirdness of basketball? Or am I incompetent?
You know what I mean? Like, that's where it gets
really tricky, right, Like, Sam pressI is regarded as one
of the best gms in the league, and he can
(26:52):
make a mistake. I think he was just looking at
a player that he could potentially slot in for Josh
Giddy in those lineups as kind of like a connective
piece that would just be a higher level offensive player,
and it turned out that it was better for him
to go with Isaiah Joe or Aaron Wiggins or even
maybe even some big looks with Jay will Right, it
(27:12):
just turned out it wasn't the right move, right, But
you got to take You gotta take chances, you got
to take shots, you got to take risks. And I
always will advocate for people doing that sort of thing,
and inherently there are mistakes that can be made in
those processes. Hey, Jason, what have we learned this playoffs?
About which types of defensive players are the most valuable
perimeter defenders, wings or rim protector centers. How does that
(27:34):
influence team building? Thanks so much for all that you do. Again,
for me, it's the versatility element. It's the guys like
Aaron Gordon that can guard on the back line, defensive
rebound and guard on the perimeter. Jason Tatum can do
that too, right. PJ. Washington has showed some of that.
It is the versatile defensive players. Derek Lively is a
great example. It is the versatile defensive players that can
(27:56):
do both that bring the most value. A big, strong
athlete that you can hang around inside and defend on
the perimeter is by far the most valuable type of
defender that you can have. Do you think that the
Bucks are still top tier contenders. I feel their entire
defensive system revolved around what Brook Lopez could do and drop,
which was only enabled by elite screen navigation by Drew.
(28:16):
Without that, Lopez's defensive flaws are magnified, and I don't
think they have the assets to fix the issue. I
know the offense has been poor, but all the pieces
are there. Giannis just needs to be more familiar without
a role with Dame. Agree with everything you said. I
agree that the point of attack defense was an issue
in terms of complimenting Lopez and drop coverage one hundred percent.
Agree about Giannis and Dame just kind of needing more
reps figuring out how to play together. I would use
(28:38):
Dallas as an example of optimism if I was a
Milwaukee fan. Dallas missed the playoffs last year. But they
have two superstars or two superstar and a star that
both compliment each other really well, and they made some
tweaks to the roster. Now they're in the finals. That's
what you got to look at. Look at if you're Milwaukee,
you have Giannis and Tenna Kombo, the third best player
in the world in a vacuum. In my opinion, and
you have Damian Lillard, a guy is in that like
(29:00):
top twelve, top thirteen, right, so you are capable of
making a similar pivot. And all it is is you
got to hit on a veteran minimum signing or two.
You got to hit on some sort of other move
in the summer, whether it's a sign and trade or
it's a mid level exception deal, and you got to
hit on a trade or two between the offseason and
on the deadline. If you hit on those deals, you
have the top tier talent to build an elite team
(29:22):
around them. You just have to make the appropriate tweaks.
To me, I would go in on athleticism. I think
this is a team that needs to be very, very
fast and long and athletic. I think that, especially since
brook Lopez like that was part of the issue last year.
We're just too slow everywhere. And I would pivot in
the direction towards length and athleticism, especially considering to get
(29:43):
out of the conference, You're gonna have to deal with
the Knicks team, which is gonna come at you with
overwhelming layers of physicality and size and length, and Boston's
gonna come at you with a ton of speed and
spread you out on the perimeter to survive that conference.
I think they need to get faster on the perimeter.
Do you believe that it would be better to include
(30:03):
Vanderbilt into the trade package if you're getting a role
player like me, or if you're getting a player like
Mikhale Bridges rather than trading him for another guard like Dejonte.
I feel like he's the third most, third or fourth
most valuable player on the team. One hundred percent agree
in the sense that he feels a very specific need.
Jared Vanderbilt is the only elite perimeter defender that the
Los Angeles Lakers have under roster control, So if you're
(30:26):
going to include him in a trade, you damn well
better get back a real perimeter defender. I personally would
like to have at least two. If you look through
the let's just look at the conference finalists. Minnesota had
two of them, right, They had Jada McDaniels Anthony Edwards
just in the starting lineup. Right. If you look at
the Dallas Mavericks, they had two of them, Derek Jones
(30:47):
Junior PJ. Washington. I even argue that Kyrie can guard
on the perimeter, right, you can say the same thing
about Mike Conley. For the record, Boston has four of
them in the starting lineup Indiana. Even if you look
at Andrew Nemhard and AARONI. Smith, those are two very
two very good perimeter defensive players. Siakam is a guy
who can guard on the perimeter as well, So like
you got to have multiple guys that can guard on
(31:08):
the perimeter. So like I would, I would if I
was the Lakers, I would not include Jared Vanderbilt unless
it was a team demanding including Jared Vanderbilt and you
were getting back a high level perimeter defender that I
prefer to keep him, and I'd prefer to use trade
chips like Ruya Chimura gave Vincent other mid level contracts
that do not involve including Vanderbilt, and then I but
(31:30):
I like the idea of going after Michel Bridges, a
Jeremy Grant, a de Jontey Murray, that sort of thing.
But I'd try to keep Vanderbilt if you can do
you eat before and or after you play a game
of basketball. So what do you go for from James?
I prefer to eat two to three hours before I
had a late night run that I played on Wednesday,
(31:50):
a private run here in Tucson, and I went to
dinner with my wife beforehand, and we had dinner at
like six point thirty and the run started at like eight,
and I didn't eat my food until like seven, and
it felt like I was playing with a cannonball in
my stomach and it was literally the worst. So like,
preferably a long time before, preferably lighter. I prefer to
have stuff like like usually just like some rice and
chicken like that. Chipotle is like the best pregame meal
(32:12):
of all time because it's just rice and chicken, right.
I just don't get beans in it for me personally,
But like again, like that, it's really just something light
two three hours before. I'm a big believer in loading
up the day before. I do a lot of like
heavy protein carbloating in the day before to try to
prepare for playing the next day. Hey, I'm wondering about
your perspective on the Star Wars franchise. I like some
(32:33):
of the shows that have come out, but I also
feel like some are getting away from what Star Wars
was originally about. I think they should release less content
and focus more on quality rather than spinning out a
new show every few months. What's your take on where
they should go. I don't think that there's a I
don't think that they're inundating us with content. It's not
like there's a ton of it. I actually think that,
especially when it comes to dedicated teams, like, as long
(32:55):
as there's oversight, dedicated teams can do a quality job.
It's not like they're cutting corners there. To me, it's
more just focusing on the right kind of storytelling. To me,
Star Wars what makes it great is there's a very
basic good versus evil and then there's deep lore building.
It's the same thing that makes all those shows great, right,
Like what is Game of Throne? What makes Game of
Thrones great? You know who the villains are. You know
(33:16):
you're rooting against Sercy the whole time. You know you're
rooting against you know, uh Ramsey Snow, you know you're
rooting against the Night King, right Like, you have your
clear antagonists and there's an obvious like good versus evil
type of thing going on, and then there's deep lore building.
Everything is connected. And Disney has just gotten really sloppy
with the lore, like shitting all over the Skywalker Skywalker
(33:40):
storyline by making it about Palpatine at the end, Like
they literally destroyed the entire Skywalker storyline by reincarnating or
saving Palpatine and making it about Ray and Palpatine. Right
like that that was stupid. That was that was shitting
all over the lore. Right, they stupid things like for
cool special effects, they'll have the like the Millennium Falcon,
(34:03):
hyperspace jumping in between buildings like in Revenge of the
Sitty or in Rise of Skywalker when literally in a
New Hope. In the very first Star Wars movie in
nineteen seventy seven, there's a scene where Han Solo's talking
to Luke and Luke goes, why don't you just jump
the light speed? And Hank goes, if I don't calculate first,
there will be bits of us scattered all over the galaxy,
(34:24):
like because if you travel at the speed of light
and you run into something, something bad would happen. So like,
why is it that that was established in nineteen seventy seven,
And then it's like, oh, but it'd be cool for
CGI if the Millennium Falcon just appeared right in between
some buildings, flying around like that's the kind of stuff
that Disney's dropped the ball on. If they get back
into the deep story building and into the lore and
into the good versus evil, I think it could work. Which,
(34:45):
by the way I saw. I've seen some people dislike Ahsoka.
I enjoyed Ahsoka. It's a slow start. Season one was slow,
but it's no different than Game of Throne Season one
was really slow, right, give that story some time. Theron's
a really interesting character. They're gonna keep building him out.
There's all that interesting stuff going on with Balen Skull
and Ahsoka and all them in that other galaxy. Like Ahsoka,
(35:06):
Season two I think is gonna be more fast paced
and a little bit more interesting. Right. This Acolyte series
is something I'm super super excited for. It dives back
into the good versus evil thing I saw. I had
this theory that I put out on my other podcasts.
I have another podcast. It's called The Two Sun's Podcast.
You can see the link for it, or not the link,
but the logo for it right there. I do it
with my buddy Luke here in Tucson. We cover all
(35:29):
that stuff, TV series, movies, all that kind of thing.
Star Wars is a major like Star Wars is my
favorite bit of nonfiction, so that's what we spend a
good amount of our time on. But like, we're gonna
be covering every single episode of The Acolyte starting next week.
We're gonna cover every single episode of House of the Dragon.
We're recording tomorrow an episode that's covering the end of
(35:50):
Bad Batch as well as we're doing We're gonna do it.
There's a book that we both just read called Revin,
so we're gonna do a like kind of a summary
action to the Revin book. That's obviously legends, but it's
another Star Wars, a bit of Star Wars content. So, like,
make sure you check out the Two Sons podcast hop
over there. If you guys would subscribe and support that show,
I'd really appreciate that. But I was talking about The
(36:12):
Acolyte with my buddy Luke, and in that show, I
was hoping for them to get into some of the
history of the Sith, which is by far my most
interesting element of the Star Wars universe. I'm really fascinated
by Palpatine's a grand plan to overthrow the Republic, right.
I find it super fascinating. It dates all the way
back to Darth Baine destroying the Sith, going into hiding
(36:36):
and trying to take over the galaxy with subterfuge rather
than through force of arms. Right, that's if you've ever
read the Darth Baine books, you know what I'm talking about.
But the Acolyte, I think is going to target that concept.
And I had a theory about that, and then I
saw an interview yesterday that the Star Wars Instagram feed
released where Dave Filoni was interviewing the director and he's like, so,
tell me about the Accolte, and she's like, I've always
(36:57):
been fascinated by the Sith and the idea of an
apprentice who crazy their master's power and needs to go
find a new apprentice so that they can do that.
And I was like, yes, Like this is exactly what
I want from a Star Wars show. So I'm very
very excited for the Acolyte. I most importantly now that
Dave Filoni is their creative director. Dave Filoni is someone
that I think has the appropriate amount of respect for
(37:18):
what makes Star Wars great, and so I think that
we can kind of take the twenty fifteen stretch to
now in all of the stuff that they botched with
the sequel trilogy and some of the weird stuff they've done.
I think we can kind of just put that to
the side. Now Dave Filoni has real authority to fix stuff.
Let's see if Dave Filoni can can write the ship here.
(37:41):
You said early in the season you would not change
the Nuggets starting five. After losing to the Wolves, do
you still believe it should be those five, and what
changes would you make overall to the team come back
better next season. I would try to run it back.
They were up twenty in Game seven, you win that game.
I think they beat Dallas and I think they're in
the finals, and I think they would have beat Boston.
Don't overthink it. You got a bad matchup and you
(38:04):
still had him on the ropes. You just blew it.
And Jamal Murray didn't play well. He was also injured,
and Yokic had a bad shooting season and wasn't as
good defensively. I think both of those guys are gonna
come back way better next year. I think they're gonna
come back as the hungry team. So like I wouldn't
tweak anything that said, there's some of the realities of
the roster situation, It's very possible that Contavious called what Pope,
(38:25):
ends up being poached by another team. We'll see if
they do. Then obviously what you're sliding like a Christian
Brown into that spot. But I'll be curious to see
if they are able to kind of replace him with
a more of like a league average type of replacement player.
That said, in terms of who I should who I
think they should be looking to add, I think the
main piece that they need is they need another offensive
(38:47):
player that can compromise the defense through dribble penetration. One
of the issues for Denver was they initiate through two
man game and through Jokic's ability to impose himself physic
in the post Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards erased Jamal
Murray from that series for the most part, and Nikole
Jokic was just getting overwhelmed by size on the inside.
(39:10):
Another way to compromise the defense is through dribble penetration.
Denver just didn't have a guy who can do that.
Last year they had Bruce Brown. They didn't have that
this year. So, like I would be looking for an
athletic guard that can beat somebody off the dribble, because
if you can beat somebody off the dribble, that's just
another way for them to have some more resilience on offense.
(39:31):
What's up with the sunglasses new style? So I've had
sunglasses on for a couple of these episodes, just holding
my hair back. To make a long story short, I've
never had hair this long, and I'm trying to figure
out how to do it. It's my hair super curly
thanks to my mom, and I have literally no idea
what to do with it. So I'm learning the sunglasses.
(39:53):
They just hold it back for right now. I don't
know if I'll end up. I'm not going to get
into the specifics, but I'll try a few more things.
But something that's like something about me. I am very
much a practically minded person. Practical like, I'm obsessed with practicality.
I want things to be convenient. I like things to
(40:15):
be easy, and my hair is irritating the shit out
of me. I've been growing it out for like nine months, though,
so I'm not about to cut it right away. I'm
gonna try to see if I can make it work.
But like if it's a few months from now and
I'm still struggling, like I'm gonna cut it just because,
like I hate dealing with inconvenient shit like constantly having
to do stuff with my hair. But yeah, the sunglasses,
(40:36):
I'm just putting them on my head to hold my
hair back. I'm aware that it's tacky. I'm trying to
figure it out. Just bear with me as I try
to work through this new phase of hair problems. You
touched on a couple of videos ago that every series
should be looked at in a vacuum. How do you
think the Lakers would have fared if they would have
been the eighth seed instead of the seventh. Would they
(40:57):
have dethroned okay See Dallas in Minnesota? I think they
would have beat I think they would have beat okay See.
I think that they presented similar challenges to Oklahoma City
that Dallas did, right. I think that specifically, one of
the things that the Lakers could have done to Okase's
front line that even Dallas couldn't do is Anthony Davis
can just bully his way around the basket against that
(41:19):
front line, and I think that that would have caused
a lot of problems. I think the Lakers would have
beat Okay. See. By the way, I was consistent about
that all season. I thought the Lakers were the fifth
best team going into the postseason run, and I thought
that they should have. I thought that they would have
beat Oklahoma City. Dallas is tough. Dallas is a matchup
that the Lakers have struggled with pretty consistently over the
last two years. I would have picked the Lakers over
(41:40):
Dallas if Jared Vanderbilt was healthy, but he was not.
He wasn't healthy. So with Jared, because Jared Vanderbilt was
the one guy the Lakers had that could actually bother
Luca kind of fits into that big, strong forward type
that you need, like an Aaron Gordon, like a Jason
Tatum type of player. But Jared Vanderbilt was out, so
I think the Lakers would have just lost to Dallas. Now,
in a to see world where Jared Vanderbilt was healthy,
(42:04):
I think they would have beat OKAC. It would have
been roughly a coin flip to beat Dallas. I probably
would have picked the Lakers, but it would have been close.
And then Minnesota, I think the Lakers would have beat
Minnesota because I think Minnesota would have struggled against the
Laker defense for the exact same reasons that they struggled
against the Dallas defense. But the Dallas matchup is just
really tough. The Lakers have struggled with Luca pretty consistently,
(42:27):
and because Vanderbilt was injured, I think even if they
were the eight c they would have lost to Dallas.
A lot of Team USA players didn't go on a
deep run in the playoffs, for example Lebron, Steph kd,
Anthony Davis, Embiid. Will that rest help Team USA? Absolutely,
not just the rest, but also the competitive motivation. Not
being able to compete for a championship will make them
want to compete for this Olympic trophy. I have a
(42:51):
feeling that the Team USA is going to go on
a crazy run. I think that they're going to dominate,
and I think they're going to win the gold. I
think that this is going to be an opportunity for
the American basketball players to prove that even though the
world is catching up, that as a country individually, they
are still head and shoulders above the rest of the
teams individually. Now, if you I think if we combined
(43:12):
all the players of the world into a single world
team against USA, that's where It gets tricky, right because
now we're talking about Luca Jokic gianness like that. That
could get really tough, really fast, shake shake Gilders. Alexander's
on that team, right, But like and that would get complicated.
But in terms of individual countries, no country in the
world can hold a candle to a Team USA, and
(43:34):
I think they're going to demonstrate that this year. Should
Anthony Edwards start over Jason Tatum and Team USA, No,
I think Jason Tatum should play the two. I would
go Steph Tatum, kd Lebron, Anthony Davis. That would be
the lineup that I'd use. And then in specific matchups
against really big front lines, guys that like Jokic in Serbia,
(43:57):
that's where I would play Embiid because I think matches
up better with Jokic. But I think alongside other stars,
AD is a better player, and I think Tatum is
better than Anthony Edwards in a vacuum, but especially within
the context of playing alongside the other stars, I think
Tatum would be their route to go. But I mean,
Steph Tatum, Katie Lebron, Ad, they should beat the shit
out of everybody. That's that's a legendary team. I'm very
(44:18):
lucky the Volume sending me out on Wednesday in July,
right before the right before the summer league, to see
a scrimmage for Team USA versus the Canadian national team.
Very very excited for that. I think that should be
a fun game, especially if Jamal Murray plays, because it'll
be Shay, Jamal Murray, Dylan Brooks like that. That should
(44:40):
be a really fun game to watch. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today, and we're gonna
be back on Monday morning covering some the first side
of the ball for the NBA Finals. We're recovering Boston
on offense, film and everything. Then we'll get into Dallas
on offense on Tuesday, and then we'll get into some
interview stuff on Wednesday. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
(45:02):
guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. I'll
see you on Monday. The Volume
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(02:08):
to night here at the volume Havy Sunday. Everybody, hope
all of you guys are having a great weekend as
promised our third mail bag today. On Friday, we hit
the Western Conference Finals and all the fallout, some stuff
big picture with Luca and the MAVs, and then also
just looking forward for the Timberwolves. You can find that
on the feeds. Earlier Saturday, we did an NBA Finals
mail bag, just some kind of preliminary stuff before we
(02:30):
get into our real prep starting next week on Monday. Today,
all the mail bag questions that surrounded anything else, stuff
about the non basketball stuff, stuff about the rest of
the league. We're fitting that into today's mail bag. You
guys are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to
the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Jason lt so you guys don't miss youw announcement sont
forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
(02:51):
under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag questions
in those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout
the rest of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
first question, there has been a lot of talk about
who the best player in the world is. After this series.
It seems like most people would consider that to be
Luka or Jokic. What is your criteria for judging what
(03:12):
makes one player greater in a vacuum than another? Do
you compare basic stats like points per game, rebounds per game,
assist per game, etc. Do you look at any advanced stats,
team success a combination of them all. I'd love to
hear about what your measuring stick is for comparing one
player to another. Thanks for all the fantastic content and
for making the playoff watching experience greater for me this year.
(03:33):
Thank you for supporting the show and for the kind words.
It means a lot to me. Again, all throughout the
mail diag, so many of you guys drop so many
kind words, and I really truly appreciate it and all
the support, and obviously the performance of the show has
helped me realize just how much you guys support me,
and it's something that I greatly appreciate. Best player in
the world stuff. Everybody has different criteria, and so don't
(03:58):
confuse me to talking about who I think the best
player in the world is. As like the end all
be all, you might have different criteria than me. I
keep two separate lists. I keep two separate lists for
my all time players as well. I separate permitter players
in BIGS because I don't really feel comfortable saying Tim
Duncan's better than Kobe or vice versa, when the two
of them played such profoundly different positions in the NBA,
(04:20):
their jobs just were not the same, right, And that's
kind of how I feel about this particular type of discussion.
To me, there's the in a vacuum, who's the best player? If,
like I had a franchise with a number one pick
and every single player in the league was a free agent,
who would be the first guy I'd pick to build
(04:40):
a team around for that season from the start of
training camp hopefully through the end of June. Who am
I picking? Right? That's one debate. Then there's like the
bragging rights debate that to me, has nothing to do
with any sort of specific traits of a basketball player.
It has everything to do with the the importance of winning.
(05:08):
For instance, we play these games for a reason. We
play to win. We don't play for Instagram highlights. We
play to see who's going to get the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
And to me, that Larry O'Brien trophy is sacred. When
I grew up as a kid and I'd turn on
the NBA Finals and they'd have that long, you know,
minute long kind of intro that they'd air with all
(05:31):
the footage of like Magic Johnson yelling back to back
and like Bill Russell in the locker room and Red
Hour back smoking a cigar, and you know, Lebron hunched
over crying in the later years, Lebron hunched over crying
after winning in twenty sixteen, like all of the example,
Anything's possible, Kevin Garnett screaming to the rooftops like that
(05:52):
real to me is a representation of why we do this.
We do this for Thearry O'Brien Trophy. It's all that matters.
There's other stuff that matters, but this is the ultimate
thing that matters. And so for me, like I believe
in referencing the best player in the league in these
two different lists so that we can properly account for
(06:15):
those two things. For instance, in a vacuum, I think
Lebron James was the best player in the world from
about twenty twelve to twenty twenty. If I was picking
a franch I was picking a player to start a
franchise with He's the guy I'm picking every single time.
From twenty twelve to twenty twenty, I thought he was
the best. I didn't think I thought a couple players
(06:35):
got close, but I never thought a player actually surpassed him. Right,
But in terms of bragging rights, it's different, Right, Like,
I totally understand why some Warriors fans would be like, Hey,
what about Steph or KD or even Kawhi Leonard in
twenty nineteen, Right like that, I understand why some fan
(06:55):
bases feel like their dude had the bragging rights for
that season, And that makes sense to me. So that's
what the purpose of the two lists are. How do
we account for Lebron obviously being the best player in
the world in twenty nineteen, because like what happened in
twenty eighteen and what happened in twenty twenty twenty eighteen,
Lebron was by far the best player in the world,
(07:16):
kicked ass through the entire playoff run, had like eight
forty point playoff games, had a fifty point playoff game,
and then ran into the KD Steph Warriors when he
didn't have another top fifteen player on his team, and
he lost right, but he was clearly the best player
in the world twenty nineteen, sprains is growing, the strains
is growing and misses the playoffs, right because he got hurt.
(07:36):
Twenty twenty, he comes back best player in the league
start to finish. Should have one MVP team started twenty
four and three dominated the playoff Run had a crazy efficient,
high volume scoring, and a playmaking and rebounding Playoff Run
was also an elite defender that year one finals MVP
was clearly the best player in the world, right, Like,
(07:57):
he was the best player for that entire stretch. He
just got hurt in the middle and was on a
different team that didn't have enough talent after he went
to Los Angeles before the Anthony Davis trade, Right, But,
like I understand why Kawhi would have the bragging rights
that year. But if you were an NBAGM and you
didn't know that Lebron was gonna get hurt and he
(08:18):
had just had that twenty eighteen playoff run, you bet
your ass you're drafting Lebron James over Kawhi Leonard to
start the twenty nineteen season. That's kind of why I
keep those two lists separate. Now, the question is if
the bragging rights one is more focused on team results
and just and again, just because you win doesn't mean
you get that in my opinion. In my opinion, it's
(08:38):
like who played the best basketball that specific year, combination
of all those things you just mentioned, production in statistics,
team success, degree of difficulty, all of that, to me
gets factored in on the bragging right side of things.
When it comes to the inn of vacuum side, I'm
actually less concerned about some of the statistical stuff. It's
more like actually analyzing what that player is good and
(09:01):
bad at, because so much the statistical output has a
lot to do with what the team construct is. It's
no different than Jokic being a better scorer in the
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two seasons when he
didn't have Jamal Murray, but then when Jamal Murray came back,
his scoring took a little dip as he offloaded some
of those responsibilities. Like, that doesn't mean Yokic became a
worst scorer. It's just a difference in the way the
(09:22):
team was constructed, Right, So like that's kind of the
way I look at the in a vacuum piece. I'm
more looking at traits. Now, I wanted to rank the
traits for the purpose of this question. I wanted to
rank what I think are the most important traits in
a vacuum for a basketball player. Number one, no question
for me, half court shot creation. And the reason behind
(09:45):
this is very simple. Defensively, you can scheme an elite defense.
Just look at Luca this year or Jokic last year.
Both of those guys are doing a good job defensively,
but they're not elite defensive players. But both of those
defenses were elite. Why Because they were able to construct
through coaching and a few pieces of good defensive personnel
(10:07):
and effort, execution, intention to detail for an entire season,
those two teams built elite defenses. It's a lot easier
to do that than the opposite. If you've got it
is really, really difficult to replicate what Luka doncicch does
in half court. You can't just scheme like Eric Spolser
(10:27):
can't turn Tyler Harrow into Lukadancic. Sorry, right. So like
for me, the ability in the slow down half court
environment to consistently generate quality shots for yourself and your teammates.
That to me is the number one trade, I look
at one of the valuating basketball players in a vacuum,
specifically versatility. What that means is different types of matchups
(10:50):
require different forms of offensive attack. So Anthony Edwards, for instance,
through the first two rounds, looked like one of the
best offensive players in the world. The Dallas Denver started
doubling him. Towards the end of that series, he kind
of crumbled a bit. Then Dallas presents some rim protection
(11:10):
and perimeter athleticism issues, he completely crumbles, right, So I
shouldn't say completely crumbles. He was pretty good in the
last couple of games, but like he was pretty bad
overall in the series, right. So to me, the versatility
element says, regardless of which type of opponent I play against,
can I consistently generate quality shots for myself and my teammates?
(11:32):
And that to me comes down to like, can you
attack in different ways? Can you function both as a
playmaker and as a score if you need to? Can
you deal with hyper aggressive defensive schemes? Can you attack
as an individual in different ways, like out of the post,
out of ISO, out of pick and roll. Can you
beat small guys and big guys? Can you beat strong
guys and long guys. Right, those are all the different
(11:54):
types of versatility elements offensively that I factor in there.
But half court shot creation is unquestionably the number one
thing the list. Number two I put size, strength, and athleticism.
At the end of the day, you get into these
playoff environments, it gets super damn physical and being bigger,
stronger and faster than people matters last year or this year. Looks,
(12:15):
Look at Luca He's bigger and stronger than the vast
majority of the perimeter players in the league. Right, Nicole
Jokicic bigger and stronger than the vast majority of big
guys in the league. Steph Curry Again, every time you
look at Steph Curry, he is the exception that proves
the rule, both in NBA history and in a recent context.
Anything Steph does, it just doesn't make sense in the
big picture. So you just kind of have to pick
(12:36):
Steph up and put him off to the side and
discuss him separately. Right, We've been consistent about that on
this show. Giannis bigger, stronger and faster than every forward
in the league. Right, Lebron James in twenty twenty, bigger, faster,
stronger than most forwards in the league except for Giannis
right twenty nineteen, Kawhi Leonard bigger and stronger than most
forwards in the league. Right eighteen and twenty seventeen, Kevin
(12:58):
Durant seven foot shooter, He's just taller than everybody. Right.
And then obviously the Steph piece, which is weird. Twenty
sixteen Lebron twenty fifteen, Steph again, twenty fourteen Finals MVP
was Kawhi. That's also a weird team. They're like the
team version of Steph. You just pulled them out and
remove them from the equation, right, Lebron. The years before that,
Dirk was seven feet tall. Kobe Bryant was one of
(13:19):
the freaky athletic two guards in the league. Right. So like, again,
you have to have real physical tools unless you're Steph
Curry to win an NBA history. That's the second piece.
Third piece I put defensive versatility. There are a lot
of problems that get presented in playoff series that only
superstar defensive talents can handle, right, Like, we've seen this
(13:42):
a lot over the years. But like when you have
a superstar like Giannis that could show on a Devin
Booker floater bait him into a pass and then recover
an erace eight and at the rim. That is a
play that Giannis and maybe two other guys in the
world can make, and it won them the finals game.
(14:02):
Like that is the type of defensive versatility that can
shine through in a big way. Lebron James is a
guy like this. Kawhi Leonard is a guy like this.
Kevin Durant is a guy like this. Right. To me,
defensive versatility the ability to impact the game defensively in
multiple ways. Lebron James in twenty twenty switched on to
Jamal Murray in the tail end of the series and
shut him down, Like he can't do that anymore. But
(14:25):
when he was thirty five he could do that, right.
That was a huge piece of his defensive versatility in
his way to impact the game. He could be a
backline guy, he could be an on ball guy, right,
you know like that? That, to me is an important
piece of that in a vacuum evaluation of players, But
it ranks lower than the other two pieces because it's
(14:46):
easier as a front office to get a Yokich and
get an Aaron Gordon than it is, in my opinion
to get a Yannis and then to get a high
level offensive player to compliment him. And so for me,
that's why I I ranked that half court shot creation
piece number one. I think it's just the hardest thing
to replicate on a team wide basis. Whereas defensive versatility
(15:09):
can be a roster strength and it can be like elite,
half court shock creation has only been a roster strength
with the twenty fourteen Spurs. Like generally speaking, you need
a superstar offensive player that can do that to address
that problem. So again, hopefully that answers that question for
you guys. Those are the rankings of the three things
I look at in a vacuum in a in bragging
(15:29):
rights and primary looking at production and team success and
who just gets to brag for that particular season. Why
does everyone just cut Giannis out of the best player
in the world chat? Now, he's still on part with
these guys. To me, I think he's in that tier,
but I think he's firmly below Luca and Nicole Jokic
for the exact same reasons I just explained. I don't
(15:51):
think he's I think he's a good half court shot creator,
but he's not in the same stratosphere as a half
court shock creator as Jokic and Luca some solid analysis
as usual, but the man which you jumped off Jokich
as the best player in the world is a bit
prisoner of the moment. Joker's shooting performance the decline, as
you put it, against the Wolves was because they were
built to defeat him and have the favorable matchups to
(16:11):
wear him down. Conversely, the MAVs have matchup advantages over
the Wolves, and the truth of that out. You don't
lose the title a best player in the league because
your team loses in the playoffs in seven games, while
you still perform very well. A larger sample size is
needed otherwise the moniker becomes whoever plays best and wins
in their title run. If next year Luca dominates and
is better than Nicola, then I think it's fair to
(16:31):
then hand him the belt, as Bill Simmons would put it,
as the best player in the world. But right now
it's a bit premature. One of your great strengths as
a basketball analysts is that you generally are not reactionary.
Don't get caught up in this one. Let's see if
Luca can win the title and MVP how can the
best player in the league not have at least one
MVP and dominate once more in the playoffs before we
declare him the best player over Nicole Jokic, who has
(16:52):
had years of sustained excellence. A couple of things. What
I said right off the top, your criteria for best
player in the world is probably different. It's clearly different
than mine. That's okay. It's okay that I have different criteria. So, like,
I don't care that Luca doesn't have an MVP. Regular
season MVP to me is like, for me personally, is
(17:12):
an achievement that I almost just don't care about. Like,
it's just the problem with regular season MVP is it's
so much based on media narratives, and like I believe
Jokic deserves the MVPs he has, I'm not trying to
undercut the accomplishment. Just regular season MVP. It just doesn't
matter to me. There's too many examples like Russell Westbrook
winning it, like James Harden winning it. There's just too
(17:33):
many Joel Embiid winning it. There's just so many examples
of a guy that's clearly not the best player in
the world winning MVP, and that to me, just makes
it really difficult to tot to tie much success to
that accomplishment. Even when Yannis won MVP in twenty twenty,
I didn't think he was better than Lebron. So like
to me, regular season MVP doesn't factor in. If you
factor in regular season MVP, more power to you. I
(17:55):
don't care about that. Joker's shooting performance. The decline, as
you put it against the Wolves, was because they were
built to defeat him. That's not true. He shot poorly
all season. Last year. In the regular season, he was
one point one to seven points per jump shot. This
year he was one point zero one. That's a what
sixteen percent decline, So a substantial decline in Yokic's jump
shooting from last season to this year. In the regular season,
(18:18):
last year, in the postseason, for the entire postseason, he
averaged one point two to one points per jump shot.
In this postseason he was below zero point nine, so
massive sample from start of training camp through to what
he got eliminated in the second round. He wasn't as
good as a jump shooter. That's just a fact. He
(18:38):
did decline on that front. He also was not as
good defensively as he was last year. That is a fact.
All you have to do is look at the fact
that they couldn't get stops against Minnesota, a mediocre offense
when it mattered in big games, had a one sixteen
defensive rating against Minnesota in those four losses. So like
he just won as good and I think that has
to be factored in there as far as like the
(19:00):
he needs to have sustained success for multiple years in
the postseason. By that logic, Jokic doesn't deserve it because
he only did it for one year in the postseason.
Luca's doing it for his first year in the postseason.
To me, I'm giving it to Luca because in this
particular postseason run, Luka Doncic played better basketball and achieved more,
(19:24):
and so for this season he gets the bragging rights.
In a vacuum, I still lean Jokic a little bit,
and we'll see how I feel about that when we
get into the summer. But for me, in a vacuum,
if I was GM of the Charlotte Hornets and I
had the number one pick going into a full NBA
(19:44):
wide four hundred and fifty player draft, I'm probably taking
Nikola Jokic first. That to me is separate from the
bragging rights title, which to me, Luca has at this
point because he just took the team that beat didn't
just beat Denver, but shut down their offense, which is
Jokic's strength. Luca eviscerated them. He averaged twelve additional points
(20:09):
per one hundred possessions against that Minnesota defense than Jokic did.
He deserves it for now in terms of bragging rights.
That hopefully will kind of explain where I stand on
those things. And you're right, like kicking me kicking a
player off of the vacuum list, that's gonna take a
lot more sample size for me. But the bragging rights
(20:29):
list is very much a year to year thing. I
had Luka Dancic tenth in my bragging rights list last year. Tenth.
Do I think lucas the tenth best player in the world. No,
But he missed the playoffs last year, and Jimmy Butler
took his team to the finals, Jason Tatum took his
team in the Eastern Conference finals. Lebron James took his
team to the Eastern Conference Final. Like, all those guys
accomplished more last year, so they just were higher in
(20:50):
their back in the bragging rights list. For me, I
don't have a question. I just want to say I'm
a real hoophead. And when I found you a few
years back, when you were just getting this thing going,
I was super excited to hear someone talk about the
game in a way that I had been waiting for
and to see how far you've come. It's just great
to see. I tell everyone about you, Bro. Thanks, thanks man,
keep doing you, Bro. This comment meant a lot to me.
(21:14):
When I started this show, I had this, you know,
I had this like belief system in place where, like
I wanted to talk about the game the way I
wanted to talk about it. But I was worried that
it might not perform super well because it's a little
more niche, right, It's a little bit more in the weeds.
(21:34):
And I wasn't willing to do the stuff that so
many other shows out there do in terms of like
just countless lebron MJ debates and who's under more pressure
and like all those like classic first takey type of headlines. Right,
I didn't want to do that, and I was really
nervous that I had to have a hard time getting
the show off the ground because of that and to
(21:54):
see me start this show and to not compromise on
any of that stuff, Like does my behind the scenes
package and make thumbnails and titles that are a little clickbait? Yeah,
but that's just smart business. I've never built a show
like that. That's just smart business that they do that.
But like, to me, the actual show, I've never compromised on.
(22:16):
I've only talked about the game that I want about
the I've only talked about the game the way that
I want to talk about it, and to get to
see it have success and to see where we've gotten
to is has just like literally been everything to me
because that means that my vision for what the show
should be like was actually capable of being a real
(22:37):
show that actually had a little bit of a following.
And so what it means to me is that there's
a lot of you guys out there that love basketball
as much as I do, and that is that's that
that to me is incredible because I love the game
so much it's literally gone everything that I have came
from basketball, Like I got my school paid for by basketball.
A lot of my travel over my life has been
(22:58):
because of basketball and understanding of the game. Most of
it comes from playing basketball, right, Like every my love
of basketball has given me everything I have and so
like to see that get returned in the form of
the support of this show is just meant everything to me.
And to hear comments like that and to know that
you guys wanted to hear analysis like this, it makes
(23:20):
me feel vindicated for believing that this is the way
that the game should be talked about. So just thank
you all for supporting the show. And like again, I
just I can't put into words how much I appreciate
you guys for helping the show get to the point
where it's at right now. Hey, Jason, love watching your analysis.
I wanted to ask, with all of these rumors the
Warriors trading Wiggins, do you think it's the right move
(23:42):
with all these elite guards looking in the west, to
give up on the only point of attack defender who
has been able to keep the force of Luca at
bay Or should they put him in the Jada McDaniels
lou Dort role, move him to two and add a
big who can shoot to add size. So I've seen
a lot of Warriors fans talk about potentially trading Andrew
(24:02):
Wiggins and I disagree in the sense that for two reasons. One,
I think Andrew Wiggins' ability to defend on the perimeter
is a profoundly valuable trade his athleticism in general is
profoundly valuable trade. And lastly, for all of his struggles,
his trade value is not very high. So it's not
likely that you can actually get much back for Andrew
Wiggins that would replace the things that he's pretty elite at.
(24:26):
So I would look for moves on the margins, and
I would try to not include Andrew Wiggins as far
as playing him at the two. I think that you
need another shot creator, and so if you moved him
at the two, it to me that would require you
to have a three out there that can really run offense.
What you can't do is go back into next season
where Steph's the only guy on the team that can
(24:47):
create his own shot. That to me would be a disaster.
How often do you attend live games and are you
planning to attend the finals? Somel across your vance's postseason.
Love the work you put into them, so not going
to the finals, but we are planning on trying to
do a ten more games next year. I think our
plan is to at least go to the Ncason Tournament
next year. My guess is in the long run we'll
(25:09):
go to more games, like when we talk about like
five ten years in the future. But so much of
it just has to do with like the volumes growing
really fast, and we're still kind of working through all that.
Like I'm still recording the show in my guest bedroom,
so like we'll see how that turns out in the
long run. Right, So, Like again I right now this
is kind of the format that works. We will go
to more events, not going to the finals this year,
(25:29):
but in the long run, we'll see if we end
up at more of that stuff. What did you think
of Sam Presci's comments on trading for Gordon Hayward. Do
you believe more gms? Do you believe more gms should
take accountability? Like this more great content, keep up the
great work. So the comment from Sam Presci basically just
said he missed on that Gordon Hayward trade. One of
(25:50):
the things that I appreciated about it, there's this I
didn't even really realize this until like started in this business.
There's this belief. I've seen it from fans and it's
like this, there's this expectation that basketball is just easy
to figure out and that the solution is just obviously
right in front of you, and that you should just
you know, if you make a mistake, it's a sign
(26:11):
that you're incompetent. I could not disagree more Like sports
has such a variability element to it. Right as a
Lakers fan, I experience this personally all year long. Ruey
hatch Murrow is better than Torrian Prince, and I advocated
all year long to play Ruey more than Torrian Prince.
And it was the right decision all year long until
(26:31):
the Denver series when Rui was terrible and Torrian was good. Right, Like,
is that just the weirdness of basketball? Or am I incompetent?
You know what I mean? Like, that's where it gets
really tricky, right, Like, Sam pressI is regarded as one
of the best gms in the league, and he can
(26:52):
make a mistake. I think he was just looking at
a player that he could potentially slot in for Josh
Giddy in those lineups as kind of like a connective
piece that would just be a higher level offensive player,
and it turned out that it was better for him
to go with Isaiah Joe or Aaron Wiggins or even
maybe even some big looks with Jay will Right, it
(27:12):
just turned out it wasn't the right move, right, But
you got to take You gotta take chances, you got
to take shots, you got to take risks. And I
always will advocate for people doing that sort of thing,
and inherently there are mistakes that can be made in
those processes. Hey, Jason, what have we learned this playoffs?
About which types of defensive players are the most valuable
perimeter defenders, wings or rim protector centers. How does that
(27:34):
influence team building? Thanks so much for all that you do. Again,
for me, it's the versatility element. It's the guys like
Aaron Gordon that can guard on the back line, defensive
rebound and guard on the perimeter. Jason Tatum can do
that too, right. PJ. Washington has showed some of that.
It is the versatile defensive players. Derek Lively is a
great example. It is the versatile defensive players that can
(27:56):
do both that bring the most value. A big, strong
athlete that you can hang around inside and defend on
the perimeter is by far the most valuable type of
defender that you can have. Do you think that the
Bucks are still top tier contenders. I feel their entire
defensive system revolved around what Brook Lopez could do and drop,
which was only enabled by elite screen navigation by Drew.
(28:16):
Without that, Lopez's defensive flaws are magnified, and I don't
think they have the assets to fix the issue. I
know the offense has been poor, but all the pieces
are there. Giannis just needs to be more familiar without
a role with Dame. Agree with everything you said. I
agree that the point of attack defense was an issue
in terms of complimenting Lopez and drop coverage one hundred percent.
Agree about Giannis and Dame just kind of needing more
reps figuring out how to play together. I would use
(28:38):
Dallas as an example of optimism if I was a
Milwaukee fan. Dallas missed the playoffs last year. But they
have two superstars or two superstar and a star that
both compliment each other really well, and they made some
tweaks to the roster. Now they're in the finals. That's
what you got to look at. Look at if you're Milwaukee,
you have Giannis and Tenna Kombo, the third best player
in the world in a vacuum. In my opinion, and
you have Damian Lillard, a guy is in that like
(29:00):
top twelve, top thirteen, right, so you are capable of
making a similar pivot. And all it is is you
got to hit on a veteran minimum signing or two.
You got to hit on some sort of other move
in the summer, whether it's a sign and trade or
it's a mid level exception deal, and you got to
hit on a trade or two between the offseason and
on the deadline. If you hit on those deals, you
have the top tier talent to build an elite team
(29:22):
around them. You just have to make the appropriate tweaks.
To me, I would go in on athleticism. I think
this is a team that needs to be very, very
fast and long and athletic. I think that, especially since
brook Lopez like that was part of the issue last year.
We're just too slow everywhere. And I would pivot in
the direction towards length and athleticism, especially considering to get
(29:43):
out of the conference, You're gonna have to deal with
the Knicks team, which is gonna come at you with
overwhelming layers of physicality and size and length, and Boston's
gonna come at you with a ton of speed and
spread you out on the perimeter to survive that conference.
I think they need to get faster on the perimeter.
Do you believe that it would be better to include
(30:03):
Vanderbilt into the trade package if you're getting a role
player like me, or if you're getting a player like
Mikhale Bridges rather than trading him for another guard like Dejonte.
I feel like he's the third most, third or fourth
most valuable player on the team. One hundred percent agree
in the sense that he feels a very specific need.
Jared Vanderbilt is the only elite perimeter defender that the
Los Angeles Lakers have under roster control, So if you're
(30:26):
going to include him in a trade, you damn well
better get back a real perimeter defender. I personally would
like to have at least two. If you look through
the let's just look at the conference finalists. Minnesota had
two of them, right, They had Jada McDaniels Anthony Edwards
just in the starting lineup. Right. If you look at
the Dallas Mavericks, they had two of them, Derek Jones
(30:47):
Junior PJ. Washington. I even argue that Kyrie can guard
on the perimeter, right, you can say the same thing
about Mike Conley. For the record, Boston has four of
them in the starting lineup Indiana. Even if you look
at Andrew Nemhard and AARONI. Smith, those are two very
two very good perimeter defensive players. Siakam is a guy
who can guard on the perimeter as well, So like
you got to have multiple guys that can guard on
(31:08):
the perimeter. So like I would, I would if I
was the Lakers, I would not include Jared Vanderbilt unless
it was a team demanding including Jared Vanderbilt and you
were getting back a high level perimeter defender that I
prefer to keep him, and I'd prefer to use trade
chips like Ruya Chimura gave Vincent other mid level contracts
that do not involve including Vanderbilt, and then I but
(31:30):
I like the idea of going after Michel Bridges, a
Jeremy Grant, a de Jontey Murray, that sort of thing.
But I'd try to keep Vanderbilt if you can do
you eat before and or after you play a game
of basketball. So what do you go for from James?
I prefer to eat two to three hours before I
had a late night run that I played on Wednesday,
(31:50):
a private run here in Tucson, and I went to
dinner with my wife beforehand, and we had dinner at
like six point thirty and the run started at like eight,
and I didn't eat my food until like seven, and
it felt like I was playing with a cannonball in
my stomach and it was literally the worst. So like,
preferably a long time before, preferably lighter. I prefer to
have stuff like like usually just like some rice and
chicken like that. Chipotle is like the best pregame meal
(32:12):
of all time because it's just rice and chicken, right.
I just don't get beans in it for me personally,
But like again, like that, it's really just something light
two three hours before. I'm a big believer in loading
up the day before. I do a lot of like
heavy protein carbloating in the day before to try to
prepare for playing the next day. Hey, I'm wondering about
your perspective on the Star Wars franchise. I like some
(32:33):
of the shows that have come out, but I also
feel like some are getting away from what Star Wars
was originally about. I think they should release less content
and focus more on quality rather than spinning out a
new show every few months. What's your take on where
they should go. I don't think that there's a I
don't think that they're inundating us with content. It's not
like there's a ton of it. I actually think that,
especially when it comes to dedicated teams, like, as long
(32:55):
as there's oversight, dedicated teams can do a quality job.
It's not like they're cutting corners there. To me, it's
more just focusing on the right kind of storytelling. To me,
Star Wars what makes it great is there's a very
basic good versus evil and then there's deep lore building.
It's the same thing that makes all those shows great, right,
Like what is Game of Throne? What makes Game of
Thrones great? You know who the villains are. You know
(33:16):
you're rooting against Sercy the whole time. You know you're
rooting against you know, uh Ramsey Snow, you know you're
rooting against the Night King, right Like, you have your
clear antagonists and there's an obvious like good versus evil
type of thing going on, and then there's deep lore building.
Everything is connected. And Disney has just gotten really sloppy
with the lore, like shitting all over the Skywalker Skywalker
(33:40):
storyline by making it about Palpatine at the end, Like
they literally destroyed the entire Skywalker storyline by reincarnating or
saving Palpatine and making it about Ray and Palpatine. Right
like that that was stupid. That was that was shitting
all over the lore. Right, they stupid things like for
cool special effects, they'll have the like the Millennium Falcon,
(34:03):
hyperspace jumping in between buildings like in Revenge of the
Sitty or in Rise of Skywalker when literally in a
New Hope. In the very first Star Wars movie in
nineteen seventy seven, there's a scene where Han Solo's talking
to Luke and Luke goes, why don't you just jump
the light speed? And Hank goes, if I don't calculate first,
there will be bits of us scattered all over the galaxy,
(34:24):
like because if you travel at the speed of light
and you run into something, something bad would happen. So like,
why is it that that was established in nineteen seventy seven,
And then it's like, oh, but it'd be cool for
CGI if the Millennium Falcon just appeared right in between
some buildings, flying around like that's the kind of stuff
that Disney's dropped the ball on. If they get back
into the deep story building and into the lore and
into the good versus evil, I think it could work. Which,
(34:45):
by the way I saw. I've seen some people dislike Ahsoka.
I enjoyed Ahsoka. It's a slow start. Season one was slow,
but it's no different than Game of Throne Season one
was really slow, right, give that story some time. Theron's
a really interesting character. They're gonna keep building him out.
There's all that interesting stuff going on with Balen Skull
and Ahsoka and all them in that other galaxy. Like Ahsoka,
(35:06):
Season two I think is gonna be more fast paced
and a little bit more interesting. Right. This Acolyte series
is something I'm super super excited for. It dives back
into the good versus evil thing I saw. I had
this theory that I put out on my other podcasts.
I have another podcast. It's called The Two Sun's Podcast.
You can see the link for it, or not the link,
but the logo for it right there. I do it
with my buddy Luke here in Tucson. We cover all
(35:29):
that stuff, TV series, movies, all that kind of thing.
Star Wars is a major like Star Wars is my
favorite bit of nonfiction, so that's what we spend a
good amount of our time on. But like, we're gonna
be covering every single episode of The Acolyte starting next week.
We're gonna cover every single episode of House of the Dragon.
We're recording tomorrow an episode that's covering the end of
(35:50):
Bad Batch as well as we're doing We're gonna do it.
There's a book that we both just read called Revin,
so we're gonna do a like kind of a summary
action to the Revin book. That's obviously legends, but it's
another Star Wars, a bit of Star Wars content. So, like,
make sure you check out the Two Sons podcast hop
over there. If you guys would subscribe and support that show,
I'd really appreciate that. But I was talking about The
(36:12):
Acolyte with my buddy Luke, and in that show, I
was hoping for them to get into some of the
history of the Sith, which is by far my most
interesting element of the Star Wars universe. I'm really fascinated
by Palpatine's a grand plan to overthrow the Republic, right.
I find it super fascinating. It dates all the way
back to Darth Baine destroying the Sith, going into hiding
(36:36):
and trying to take over the galaxy with subterfuge rather
than through force of arms. Right, that's if you've ever
read the Darth Baine books, you know what I'm talking about.
But the Acolyte, I think is going to target that concept.
And I had a theory about that, and then I
saw an interview yesterday that the Star Wars Instagram feed
released where Dave Filoni was interviewing the director and he's like, so,
tell me about the Accolte, and she's like, I've always
(36:57):
been fascinated by the Sith and the idea of an
apprentice who crazy their master's power and needs to go
find a new apprentice so that they can do that.
And I was like, yes, Like this is exactly what
I want from a Star Wars show. So I'm very
very excited for the Acolyte. I most importantly now that
Dave Filoni is their creative director. Dave Filoni is someone
that I think has the appropriate amount of respect for
(37:18):
what makes Star Wars great, and so I think that
we can kind of take the twenty fifteen stretch to
now in all of the stuff that they botched with
the sequel trilogy and some of the weird stuff they've done.
I think we can kind of just put that to
the side. Now Dave Filoni has real authority to fix stuff.
Let's see if Dave Filoni can can write the ship here.
(37:41):
You said early in the season you would not change
the Nuggets starting five. After losing to the Wolves, do
you still believe it should be those five, and what
changes would you make overall to the team come back
better next season. I would try to run it back.
They were up twenty in Game seven, you win that game.
I think they beat Dallas and I think they're in
the finals, and I think they would have beat Boston.
Don't overthink it. You got a bad matchup and you
(38:04):
still had him on the ropes. You just blew it.
And Jamal Murray didn't play well. He was also injured,
and Yokic had a bad shooting season and wasn't as
good defensively. I think both of those guys are gonna
come back way better next year. I think they're gonna
come back as the hungry team. So like I wouldn't
tweak anything that said, there's some of the realities of
the roster situation, It's very possible that Contavious called what Pope,
(38:25):
ends up being poached by another team. We'll see if
they do. Then obviously what you're sliding like a Christian
Brown into that spot. But I'll be curious to see
if they are able to kind of replace him with
a more of like a league average type of replacement player.
That said, in terms of who I should who I
think they should be looking to add, I think the
main piece that they need is they need another offensive
(38:47):
player that can compromise the defense through dribble penetration. One
of the issues for Denver was they initiate through two
man game and through Jokic's ability to impose himself physic
in the post Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards erased Jamal
Murray from that series for the most part, and Nikole
Jokic was just getting overwhelmed by size on the inside.
(39:10):
Another way to compromise the defense is through dribble penetration.
Denver just didn't have a guy who can do that.
Last year they had Bruce Brown. They didn't have that
this year. So, like I would be looking for an
athletic guard that can beat somebody off the dribble, because
if you can beat somebody off the dribble, that's just
another way for them to have some more resilience on offense.
(39:31):
What's up with the sunglasses new style? So I've had
sunglasses on for a couple of these episodes, just holding
my hair back. To make a long story short, I've
never had hair this long, and I'm trying to figure
out how to do it. It's my hair super curly
thanks to my mom, and I have literally no idea
what to do with it. So I'm learning the sunglasses.
(39:53):
They just hold it back for right now. I don't
know if I'll end up. I'm not going to get
into the specifics, but I'll try a few more things.
But something that's like something about me. I am very
much a practically minded person. Practical like, I'm obsessed with practicality.
I want things to be convenient. I like things to
(40:15):
be easy, and my hair is irritating the shit out
of me. I've been growing it out for like nine months, though,
so I'm not about to cut it right away. I'm
gonna try to see if I can make it work.
But like if it's a few months from now and
I'm still struggling, like I'm gonna cut it just because,
like I hate dealing with inconvenient shit like constantly having
to do stuff with my hair. But yeah, the sunglasses,
(40:36):
I'm just putting them on my head to hold my
hair back. I'm aware that it's tacky. I'm trying to
figure it out. Just bear with me as I try
to work through this new phase of hair problems. You
touched on a couple of videos ago that every series
should be looked at in a vacuum. How do you
think the Lakers would have fared if they would have
been the eighth seed instead of the seventh. Would they
(40:57):
have dethroned okay See Dallas in Minnesota? I think they
would have beat I think they would have beat okay See.
I think that they presented similar challenges to Oklahoma City
that Dallas did, right. I think that specifically, one of
the things that the Lakers could have done to Okase's
front line that even Dallas couldn't do is Anthony Davis
can just bully his way around the basket against that
(41:19):
front line, and I think that that would have caused
a lot of problems. I think the Lakers would have
beat Okay. See. By the way, I was consistent about
that all season. I thought the Lakers were the fifth
best team going into the postseason run, and I thought
that they should have. I thought that they would have
beat Oklahoma City. Dallas is tough. Dallas is a matchup
that the Lakers have struggled with pretty consistently over the
last two years. I would have picked the Lakers over
(41:40):
Dallas if Jared Vanderbilt was healthy, but he was not.
He wasn't healthy. So with Jared, because Jared Vanderbilt was
the one guy the Lakers had that could actually bother
Luca kind of fits into that big, strong forward type
that you need, like an Aaron Gordon, like a Jason
Tatum type of player. But Jared Vanderbilt was out, so
I think the Lakers would have just lost to Dallas. Now,
in a to see world where Jared Vanderbilt was healthy,
(42:04):
I think they would have beat OKAC. It would have
been roughly a coin flip to beat Dallas. I probably
would have picked the Lakers, but it would have been close.
And then Minnesota, I think the Lakers would have beat
Minnesota because I think Minnesota would have struggled against the
Laker defense for the exact same reasons that they struggled
against the Dallas defense. But the Dallas matchup is just
really tough. The Lakers have struggled with Luca pretty consistently,
(42:27):
and because Vanderbilt was injured, I think even if they
were the eight c they would have lost to Dallas.
A lot of Team USA players didn't go on a
deep run in the playoffs, for example Lebron, Steph kd,
Anthony Davis, Embiid. Will that rest help Team USA? Absolutely,
not just the rest, but also the competitive motivation. Not
being able to compete for a championship will make them
want to compete for this Olympic trophy. I have a
(42:51):
feeling that the Team USA is going to go on
a crazy run. I think that they're going to dominate,
and I think they're going to win the gold. I
think that this is going to be an opportunity for
the American basketball players to prove that even though the
world is catching up, that as a country individually, they
are still head and shoulders above the rest of the
teams individually. Now, if you I think if we combined
(43:12):
all the players of the world into a single world
team against USA, that's where It gets tricky, right because
now we're talking about Luca Jokic gianness like that. That
could get really tough, really fast, shake shake Gilders. Alexander's
on that team, right, But like and that would get complicated.
But in terms of individual countries, no country in the
world can hold a candle to a Team USA, and
(43:34):
I think they're going to demonstrate that this year. Should
Anthony Edwards start over Jason Tatum and Team USA, No,
I think Jason Tatum should play the two. I would
go Steph Tatum, kd Lebron, Anthony Davis. That would be
the lineup that I'd use. And then in specific matchups
against really big front lines, guys that like Jokic in Serbia,
(43:57):
that's where I would play Embiid because I think matches
up better with Jokic. But I think alongside other stars,
AD is a better player, and I think Tatum is
better than Anthony Edwards in a vacuum, but especially within
the context of playing alongside the other stars, I think
Tatum would be their route to go. But I mean,
Steph Tatum, Katie Lebron, Ad, they should beat the shit
out of everybody. That's that's a legendary team. I'm very
(44:18):
lucky the Volume sending me out on Wednesday in July,
right before the right before the summer league, to see
a scrimmage for Team USA versus the Canadian national team.
Very very excited for that. I think that should be
a fun game, especially if Jamal Murray plays, because it'll
be Shay, Jamal Murray, Dylan Brooks like that. That should
(44:40):
be a really fun game to watch. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today, and we're gonna
be back on Monday morning covering some the first side
of the ball for the NBA Finals. We're recovering Boston
on offense, film and everything. Then we'll get into Dallas
on offense on Tuesday, and then we'll get into some
interview stuff on Wednesday. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
(45:02):
guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. I'll
see you on Monday. The Volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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