Hoops Tonight - NBA Media Day Reaction: Warriors new look, Lakers SKY-HIGH vibes, Nuggets & Russ fit - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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see DKNNG dot co slash ft ball. All right, welcome
to HOOPSADI. You're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody, Oh PA.

(02:08):
If you guys are having a great week so far,
we got a jam packed show for you today. NBA
Media Day was Monday, and we've assembled quotes from eight
different teams that we're going to bounce around the league.
Talk a little bit about some of the stuff we
heard in the season opening press conferences, and then at
the tail end of the show, we're continuing our season
preview series power Ranking style with number seven the Minnesota Timberwolves,

(02:31):
so deep dive on the Timberwolves, and then eight additional
teams in Media Day quotes off the top. You guys
know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to Hoops
Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
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It's also helpful if you leave a rating and a
review on that front. And last but not least, keep
dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We will be

(02:53):
doing a mailbag on Friday that centers around the media
day all of the quotes and stuff that we're floating
around from media Day. So if you have anything related
to a specific quote that you saw that you thought
was interesting, or maybe just some notes from the first
few days of training camp, drop them into comments and
we'll get to those on Friday. And then, last but

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(04:39):
Game time? All right, let's talk some basketball. So eight
different teams were hitting with media Day quotes. I wanted
to start with the Golden State Warriors. So there's two
different things I want to hit on. Both actually involved Draymond.
The first was Draymond and what Kyle Anderson said Draymond
has been saying to him behind the scenes, which is
that Kyle anders is a five now, meaning at the

(05:02):
center position. So there was a little bit of a
hoopla there from Warriors fans semming around the fact that
they kind of view themselves as too small at this
point and the idea of Kyle Anderson playing center not
being a great idea right now. It remains to be
seen how often Kyle and Anderson will actually play center.
I didn't interpret that as like, oh, Kyle Anderson is

(05:23):
going to be playing the majority of his minutes at center.
I think Trace Jackson Davis is going to play a
lot of center. I think Kavon Looney is going to
play a lot of center. Draymond Green obviously is going
to play a lot of center. I would imagine all
three of those guys will play a lot more center
than Kyle Anderson. I looked at it more as like
the way that I've always viewed Golden State's offensive system
is basically three guys who run action and two guys

(05:43):
that are dribble handoff fulcrums are screening fulcrums from the perimeter.
This is a kind of a concept within five out
that we talk a lot about, right Like, if you imagine,
let's say on the strong side of the floor in
years past, you got let's say it's Kay Thompson. Actually,
let's just look forward to this year. So let's say
it's Steph coming out of the corner, and you've got
let's say, Andrew Wiggins screening down for him. As Steph

(06:07):
comes off into a dribble hand off with Draymond right.
What ends up happening is Draymond throws the dribble hand off,
then he kind of rolls into open space, right. But
if Steph comes off that action and nothing's open, like
he can't get a three, he's not getting downhill into
the lane, or maybe he gets a little bit downhill
but doesn't get too much in the way of dribble penetration.
Draymond's rolling, he's not open. The next read there, Kyle Anderson.

(06:30):
In this case, the second big would be flashing to
the high post so that he can catch a swing
pass from Steph and then flow into a dribble handoff
on the other side of the floor, right, and it's
gonna work back and forth. And this is been of
basically what the Warriors have done offensively for years, whether
it's Draymond and Kevon Looni, whether it's Draymond and Andrew Boget,
whether it's Draymon and JaVale McGee, whether it's Draymond even

(06:52):
with Andre Guidala out there sometimes back in the day. Right. So,
like Golden State's system is kind of typically built around
two non shooters who are more dribble handoff Folkrum's and
then three guys that are typically more aggressive shooters that
are looking to score coming off of these actions. So
the way I interpreted that is like, yeah, Kyle Anderson,
guess what like you're slotting into when you're playing next
to Draymond, What Kevin Looney did, what Trace Jackson Davis did,

(07:15):
what Andrew Bogat did, which is functioning as a center
on offense. That was more the way that I looked
at it. That said, I do think that Kyle Anderson
will see some minutes at the five, and it's something
that he's done periodically through his career and done a
good job of why. He's a very vocal communicator on
defense and just general, very smart defensive player, and so
like if he's calling out coverages and dictating when to

(07:36):
help or when to stay home, he's typically pretty good
at that sort of thing. He's a good rebounder for
his position. Kyle Anderson's just a good basketball player, and
so like, I didn't read too much into that. I think, like,
trust me, guys like the Warriors are still going to
be looking if they can see a decent option to
upgrade somebody at the center position. I still think you're
going to see a lot of Trace Jackson Davis. I
still think you're gonna see a lot Kavon Loney. There's

(07:57):
a rumor that Trace Jackson Davis has grown an inch
that came out of camp. Now I shouldn't say rumor
was directly mentioned in interviews, but like you always got
to take some of that stuff with the grain of salt,
like the I lost a bunch of weight, or I
gained a bunch of weight, or I got taller, like
all that kind of stuff I'm always a little bit
skeptical of. But like, I'm not necessarily worried about the
center position as much for the Golden State Warriors as

(08:19):
I am. Just who's going to be the primary second,
I should say, the secondary shot creator whenever STEP's not
trying to create offense. That's really where I see issues
on this particular team. But I'm not worried about Kylie
Anderson in his fit, and he does function as a
center in the offensive system that Golden State wants to run.
The second thing was that heated interaction that Draymond had

(08:40):
with that reporter, And basically I'm not gonna get too
far into it. Basically the reporter was kind of beating
around the bush to confront Draymond on the idea of
his availability, which has been not related to injury. It's
been related to his behavior, right, And like last year
it was an issue they Draymond missing as much time
as he did hurt the basketball team, and so Draymond

(09:02):
got kind of defensive and got a little snippy with
the reporter. Some of this I think, like I think
like athletes struggle to understand, like like that's his job,
you know, like that specifically is that reporter's job? Now,
do some reporters go too far in the way that
they try to manipulate questions or try to bait guys
into saying something, Yeah, you're right about that. But at

(09:23):
the end of the day, like if like in the
same way that my job is to break down games
and give my opinions on the teams, for those beat reporters,
in many cases, they're going into that like they're they're
going into that press conference with the job of trying
to get a quote, okay, and typically they're going to
try to get quotes that are centered around the biggest
stories of the team, and like it or not, One

(09:44):
of the stories surrounding the Golden State Warriors in the
last year was Draymond's availability, in large part because of
his inability to control his emotions when he's on the floor,
and so, like my thing. In Draymond's response, he was like,
I'm here. I've been here for thirteen years now, been
here pretty much every night for thirteen years, and you're right.
For the most part. Over the course of his career,
he has been available, but in big spots he's been unavailable.

(10:08):
Right twenty sixteen makes himself unavailable for Game five of
the NBA Finals. Obviously last year misses substantial chunks of time.
And so my thing is, like, it's fair, Draymond, for
reporters and for your teammates and for coaching people in
the coaching staff to be like, hey, like, dude, are
you going to be professional on a night in a
night out basis this year so we don't have to

(10:30):
worry about whether or not you're gonna be available to play.
I think it's a reasonable question. This isn't like I
can't remember what her name is. The female reporter who
like questioned Dejona Carrington about like a celebration that she
had with one of her teammates and like trying to
insinuate that it was like mimicking her poking Caitlin Clark
in the eye, which, in addition to just being wrong,

(10:50):
was like a blatant false attempt to try to like
bait Dejeona Carrington into saying something that was damaging that
to me has like crossed the line, right, But like
questioning Draymond on his ability to be available for his team,
I think is completely fair and quite frankly, he should
have expected as he went into that press conference that
that was something that was going to be asked of him.

(11:11):
And you know what, it wouldn't hurt to just sit
there and be like, yeah, you know what, I let
my team down last year. This year, it's not going
to happen. You guys can count on me. Boom. End
of story. There's a quote for you. It's a quote
that everyone takes to the article and it makes you
look like a self aware and dedicated teammate. So, like,
I was a little disappointed in that, but at the
end of the day, I do think Draymond gets it.
Even if that even if that interaction with the reporter

(11:33):
was a little nasty, I do think Draymond gets it,
Like I think he knows that he can't do what
he did last year, that this team isn't talented enough
to compete when he's not there. Moving on to the
Philadelphia seventy six ers, a quote from Joel Embiide, I
think me, Daryl will tell you this. As soon as
we lost last year, I texted him. Embiid said, I
was like, we got to do whatever it takes to

(11:56):
make sure I'm in the postseason healthy. This year, there's
no agenda, no All Star, there's no All MBA, there's
none of that. There's whatever it takes to make sure
that I get to that point and that I'm ready
to go. Embid also insinuated that he has lost somewhere
between twenty five and thirty pounds. Now, as I mentioned earlier,
the weight loss, the weight gain that I put on muscle,

(12:17):
the I grew taller stuff. I'm always a little bit
skeptical of that. But let's just say for the sake
of argument, that this is Embiid's approach, that he's improved
his physical conditioning, and that his order of operations in
terms of what he've used as important within this season
is just simply get to the postseason healthy rather than
pursuing regular season accolades. That's exactly what their approach should be.

(12:39):
The team is built in a way that kind of
managed that right. Like Andre Drummond is one of the
better backup center options that you have in the league.
He's a guy that could certainly start thirty forty games
at center if you needed him to. You've got tons
of shock creation with Paul George and Tyrese Maxi. You
hit on some veteran minimum signings that I liked. That
team is built to be able to withstand and be

(13:00):
missing games and for them to float around five hundred,
which is all you really need in the Eastern Conference
to be a team that's above the play in And
so if that's the approach and they combine that with
himb being in better physical conditioning from the start, I
think that makes it more likely that he is ready
to go when he gets to the postseason. And there's
like everything's theoretical with Embiid, Like Embiid's always struggled in

(13:23):
the postseason, but it's been a combination of like injuries
and some of his shortcomings and his approach right relying
on the jump shot, relying on foul drifting right, not
having too much of a physical aggressive play towards the basket, right,
And it's not any one thing or the other. Like,
I do believe that Embiide has consistently dealt with injuries
and that that would certainly be a benefit to him

(13:44):
if he could get to April and be ready to
rock and roll. Right. But the flip side of that is, like,
there are some legitimate shortcomings for him in the postseason,
but step one is he's got to get their healthy,
and that's something that we haven't seen in the last
couple of years. So I did think that that was
an encouraging sign of Philly's approach coming into the season,
even if it was the obvious direction that they needed
to go. On the Lakers front, there was kind of

(14:06):
a weird a bunch of interesting stuff. I wanted to
talk a little bit about D'Angel Russell off the top,
and then we'll talk a little bit more about some
of the other quotes that we saw. So quote from
dlo I think for me, honestly, I think I really
wanted to apologize in the sense of showing a lack
of professionalism at times, showing a lack of team first
perception at times. So for me, I think just kind

(14:28):
of keeping that maturity in that professionalism throughout the year,
no matter the ups and downs. I guess I appreciate
that Delo wants to be better, But like I didn't
think a lack of professionalism was an issue for dl
last year. Like I thought, you know, I said before
the season last year, and I was wrong. But I
said before the season last year, I thought the safest
bet in the NBA was that Delo would get traded.

(14:50):
I just like I still feel like a Delo trade
is coming down the pipeline simply because he's not a
part of the big picture for the Lakers. He's a
large expiring salary, but most importantly him and us and
or redundant. It's a matter of like you need to
pair Austin with somebody that actually compliments his skill set
more than he actually does. It's a lot of people
talk about the you know I have I have comments
still to this day from people are like, why you

(15:11):
sit down on Delo? Why so down on Dela? I
my opinion of de Lo has skyrocketed since he joined
the Lakers. I do. I think that he has major
shortcomings that consistently show up in the postseason. Yeah, but
the dude is a good leader. He is. He absolutely
handled it with professionalism last year. As I said, I
said it was a safe bet that he got traded

(15:32):
all year long, he was in trade rumors, and he
kind of just handled that like a champ and just
handled it like a professional. So like I didn't see
that as being an issue. And then as far as
Dela as a player, I still think he's a very
very good regular season player, a very useful regular season player.
Spaces the floor, can run action, can kind of be
an offensive hub for stretches if you want. In general,

(15:53):
just a very very good off ball player with really
with a knack for like screening and cutting and slipping
and all those little different read and react things that
make a good basketball player. My opinion of Dlo as skyrocket,
And as far as the trade thing goes, I don't
even necessarily think Dlo needs to be traded this year.
I just think his spot or Rui's spot needs a
massive upgrade, Like if one of those two becomes a

(16:17):
supreme athlete who can play on both ends of the floor.
That makes the Lakers demonstrably better. So if it's like
Austin Dilo and then a massive upgrade at the three
and then Lebron and Ad, I think that can work.
If it's Austin Ruey, Lebron and Ad and then a
massive upgrade of Delo spot, I think that could work.
But like all of my talk about trading Dlo, has

(16:37):
nothing to do with who Dilo is as a player.
It has everything to do with just finding more roster
balance within the Lakers. I am a huge fan of
d Lo. I'm excited to watch him this year. He's
a big part of why I'm optimistic about the Lakers
to start this season. I think the Lakers are going
to be a good team right away this year. In
A big part of that is the continuity and the
offensive firepower, of which a big chunk is D'Angelo Russ.

(17:00):
Do I have issues with them as a potential team
that could win four playoff rounds? Yeah, And one of
the pathways to fix that is via d Loo. But
I don't think he needs to apologize. I don't think
he needs to do anything different. If he came out
and had the exact same season he had last year.
I would be pleased. Obviously, it would help for him
to be a little bit better on the defensive end,
a little bit more attentive, fewer mistakes, and I think

(17:21):
he will have a better defensive season on the strength
of some of the structure that JJ Reddick is putting in.
But like I thought, dlo is a little too hard
on himself with the way that he approached that specific concept.
A couple other just notes from Laker media Day, there's
a lot of positivity coming around, just the vibes. Yovann Bouja.
You guys know, he comes on the show quite a bit.

(17:43):
We're actually looking at potentially having him back on here
in the next couple of weeks. But Yovan is an example,
said that he's been covering the team for five years
and that it was the best like kind of vibes
and positivity that he had seen in his time covering
the team. That's encouraging, right, talk about structure, a lot
of talk about systems being put in, a lot of

(18:04):
talks about productivity and their practice approach, a lot of
talk about emphasizing shooting more threes. A lot of really
encouraging stuff out of Lakers camp. I'm really really excited
to watch that team start playing some games. The Celtics.

(18:31):
Jason Tatum had an interesting quote. He said, I just
always feel like, overall, I can still get better. You
haven't seen the best version of Jason Tatum, and you shouldn't, right,
I'm only twenty six. I should continue to keep getting better.
I one hundred percent agree with him. I generally am
of the opinion that a basketball player hits their peak

(18:52):
between age thirty and thirty two. I think that's the
sweet spot, where like their physical gifts are still like
ninety ninety five five percent of what they were when
they were young, but they have a decade of experience
playing professional basketball and now just their overall understanding of
how to read and react at the NBA level, little
details about how to win basketball games, all of the

(19:15):
ups and downs of losing to a team that's a
bad matchup, or experiencing the highs and the lows. The
I talk about that scar tissue of losing, Like Tatum's
just seen so much already, all the big games that
he's been in, and I think Tatum will hit his
ceiling a little earlier just because he's been playing in
really big games for so long, So for Tatum, it's

(19:37):
probably more like twenty eight to thirty. But I do
think there's a better version of Jason Tatum in there.
There's a Jason Tatum in there that takes fewer bad shots.
I think Jason Tatum has clearly made a commitment to
becoming a good pull up shooter. He is not a
good pull up shooter. But eventually, just by process of repetition,
there's a good chance that by the time he's twenty
eight to thirty that eventually he'll come around and at

(19:59):
least become a little bit better. Will he ever become
the type of pull up shooter that some of his
small forward piers around the leagues are around the league are?
I don't know, Probably not, but like he certainly will
be able to come. I think there's still a considerable
amount of improvement that he can show there, just by
virtue of the fact that he's working so hard at it.
Like you know, he's working hard at he's taken so

(20:19):
many every single game, the repetition will eventually lead to improvement,
and then just again, like the by age twenty eight
age thirty, he's going to have a decade of NBA
experience and just he's gonna have been in so many wars. Hell,
he's already been in so many wars. I do think
Jason Tatum will be a better basketball player in the
next you know, three four years. Will he ever be

(20:41):
the best player in the league. I don't think that
is really in the potential outcome for him. I think
the players at the top are just they have like
just these true super like superpowers that kind of reach
a level that that Tatum can't reach. But I do
think that Jason Tatum will continue to improve over the
next several years, and that is scary for a Boston
Celtics team that I believe has by far the most
talent in the NBA. Denver Nuggets a lot of interesting

(21:04):
stuff surrounding Russell Westbrook. Mike Malone had some quotes. He said,
russ was in the gym yesterday and there was just
a different energy. I can't explain it. His voice, his leadership,
his competitive spirit are all things that are not only
going to help this team, but they're really going to
help individual players achieve their potential and push them to
be the best that they can be. I love that
he's here. I love guys that bring it every single night,

(21:26):
and that's what he's done every single game he's ever played.
Jokic said, I know who he is a little bit
outside of the court, great teammate, vocal leadership, the guy
you want to listen to, the leader you want to
follow in the gym. So one additional I have two
additional Westbrook kind of topics that I want to get to,
but before we move forward, I want to just hit

(21:46):
touch on these really quick. Is the energy piece is
always the thing that people are initially drawn to with Russ,
and anybody who's actually covered Russ very closely or rooted
for him on a team that he was actually playing for,
you know that like Russ does every single night have
moments where he gets very emotionally worked up and brings

(22:07):
a lot of energy. And so that consistency can lead
to a reputation of being a guy who plays hard
every single game that he's played in. Right, Like Mike
Malone said, but the issue with Russ isn't about whether
or not he can get to that level every night.
It's whether or not he can get to that level
every possession. Russ has a tendency to float on defense

(22:31):
off the ball, he'll kind of drift into the paint
to hunt defensive rebounds, consistently loses a track of shooters,
consistently falls asleep within the game plan discipline, and it
can be damaging because there are always like there will
be dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of highlights
this year, I should say low lights of Russell Westbrook

(22:52):
where like he's standing out of the defensive stands, not
paying attention and a dude just swoops right behind him
and gets an offensive rebound or backcuts him for a
or like he's guarding the ball and he just isn't
paying attention to the guy just drives right around him,
or like just in general, like a lack of attention
to detail. There's we're gonna talk about Russ's defense in
a minute. Russ is still when he's trying, not just

(23:15):
a good point of attack defender, like a devastatingly good
point of attack defender. And that's the real upside here.
We're gonna get to that in a minute. But in
terms of like this idea of like I'm just trying
to warn Denver fans, like if you're under the impression
that Russ is going to play hard every single possession
and avoid mistakes. That is not who he is. It
just never has been. He is a guy that brings

(23:35):
emotion every night, that comes in waves, but he has
actually really poor possession to possession focus and it will
drive you crazy. I'm just saying that from experience. Talk
to Clippers fans will say the same thing. Talk to
Rockets fans will say the same thing. Talk to thunder
fans will say the same thing. Talk to Wizards fans,
they'll tell you the same thing. It's a consistent thing,

(23:57):
and and he's been in the league for so long now.
I just don't see it as something that he's going
to dramatically change at this point in his career. A
specific quote from Westbrook talking about previous teams. To be honest,
it was unique. They just didn't put me in position
to make it unique. I was in a position where
I was not playing my position. Being able to be
here and Coach Malone allowing me to be able to

(24:18):
use my speed, use my transition skill to be able
to make other guys better, makes the game easy for
everybody surrounding me. And that's what I love to do best.
The idea that the Lakers and Clippers didn't give Russell
Westbrook opportunities to be Russell Westbrook is completely asinine. Both teams,
at extended stretches gave Russ the keys. Both teams also

(24:43):
asked Russ to do things off the ball. Those were
a struggle. The on ball reps with Russ are a
mixed bag. You'll have stretches where it looks great. You'll
have games where it looks great, but in the large sample,
there's just as many mistakes as there are productive plays,
and it doesn't really net out to a quality offensive hub.

(25:07):
Not at this point in his career. He's lost a
little bit of a step. His rim finishing is atrocious,
and he can't shoot the basketball. He's a very gifted
playmaker still at this point in his career, and you
will have stretches where it looks really good. But the
idea that the Lakers and Clippers didn't give Russ an
opportunity is completely asinine. He will be asked to do
the exact same stuff with Denver that he was asked

(25:27):
to do with the Lakers and Clippers, and his success
and efficiency in those situations I expect to look roughly
the same. So let's look at one other quote and
let's talk a little bit about the upside with Russell Westbrook.
Michael Lohan said, it's funny. I think when people talk
about Russell Westbrook, no one really mentions defense. When we
went back and watched as a staff as defense last
year with the Clippers, end of games, he was on

(25:48):
the opposing team's best player every night. So you have
a guy that you can close games with. You have
a guy that you can close games with, Russell Westbrook,
who knows the league, knows personnel, and has the respective officials,
and has competitive I'm going to get in your mindset
that I love. So again, as we talked about, it's
all about making sure that Russ is on the right
type of matchup. Russ at this point in his career

(26:09):
is still a devastatingly good on ball defender, especially against
players that have athletic traits, because he's got really quick
feet and he's got a low center of gravity and
he's super strong, so he will beat you to spots
and disrupt your base as well as anybody in the league.
He's excellent guarding forwards. He's excellent in his back pressure

(26:30):
to Mike Malone's point when I watched Russ's playoff footage
from both of the last two years with the Clippers,
the on ball defense is legitimately terrifyingly good, Like that
is legitimately real. But everything I said about him off
the ball is also real. His attention to detail within
the defensive game plan, the lapses, they are damaging. And

(26:53):
so have you asked me, like, what does it look
like for Russell Westbrook within Denver for everything to work,
work and to come together. It is about on the
offensive end, when he's playing with the starters. I want
to kind of like shelve that for a second, Okay,
but it's about just within those bench units when he

(27:13):
gets handed the keys, making fewer mistakes, having the good
plays outweigh the bad plays. And then on the defensive
end of the floor, it's about unleashing him in an
on ball roll because when he is on the ball,
he makes fewer mistakes and he leverages his athletics gifts
at a higher level. Russ like takes it personal, and
so he gets very very focused on a possession by

(27:34):
possession basis when he's on the ball. But if you
put him on an off ball roll to track a shooter.
That's where you're going to start to get some of
the negative plays that come with Russell Westbrook. Let's zoom
in on Russ with the starters though, because this is
the other thing, Like to Russ's point about like playing
his style and being allowed to be unique, you can't

(27:54):
do that with the starters. When it's Aaron Gordon and
nikoliokicch and Michael Porter Jr. And Jamal Murray. He's not
going to be playing Russell Westbrook basketball. He's going to
be sliding into the KCP role or the Christian Brown role,
right and in that specific role, it is so much
about off ball read and react, meaning like screening for

(28:18):
a guy like Michael Porter Junior, or screening for a
guy like Jamal Murray, reading where the defenders are going
and slipping to the basket. Over the course of the
last three seasons with the Lakers and the Clippers, there
was a lot of moments where where Russ when he
was off the ball, teams were like both of those teams,
the Lakers and the Clippers, were trying and begging Russ

(28:41):
to function more as an off ball screener and cutter
and he simply would not do it. He didn't do
it with the Lakers, he didn't do it with the Clippers.
And so again, like this is my last kind of
thing on the Russell Westbrook stuff, there is a version
of this that works. There is a version of this
where Russ with the core lineups, works hard as an

(29:03):
off ball screener and cutter. Make sure that he only
takes wide open corner threes instead of above the breakthrees,
and doesn't hunt them but looks more to take really
really high quality ones. You focus him on an on
ball defensive role, and you get a positive outcome out
of Russell Westbrook. But his personal history tells us that
he doesn't want to do that stuff. And so let's

(29:26):
just put it this way. If it worked, and this
is the one I'm just saying this in defense of
the Lakers and Clippers. If it does work out with
Russell Westbrook this season in Denver, it will be because
Russell Westbrook changed who he was as a basketball player
and became more focused on the things that Denver specifically
needed him to do. It is not because Denver finally

(29:48):
unleashed Russ when the Lakers and the Clippers and the
Rockets and all these other teams couldn't. That's not what
it is. It like both of those teams. Like as
much as you want to talk about Darvin Ham and
some of his limitations as a coach, tylou is one
of the best coaches in the league. That team needed
a point guard and it still had all of the
same issues that you saw with the Lakers, and like,

(30:11):
and I even thought it fit a little better with
the Clippers within the Lakers because they needed his specific
position group, but it still had all of those same
specific issues. So again, like, maybe it works, but stop
blaming everybody else for the issues that have perpetually plagued
you over the course of the tail end of your career.
Russ needs to change in order for things to work

(30:33):
in Denver. We have three more teams win him pretty quickly.
The Milwaukee Bucks quote from Lillard. When I look back
at last year, I was just trying to get through
the year. My teammates, my coaches, they're going through the
real They're going to get the real version of me.
I definitely feel more on the same page with him
now than I did last year regarding the honest So

(30:54):
that was one of the big stories from last year,
Damian Lillard obviously going through a bunch of stuff in
his personal life, substantial decreases in scoring volume and efficiency,
him getting back to form and looking like the real me,
as he mentions, that would be a big swing factor
for the Bucks. So hopefully those aren't just words and
that's the reality of what the Bucks get to get
out of Dame this year. Several quotes about the Bucks

(31:17):
being overlooked. Doc said, well, we all pay attention to it.
On the Bucks being overlooked in the East, Giannis said,
I think we've always been overlooked. Look, here's the thing, guys, Like,
if you win forty nine games in the in the
Weak Eastern Conference, with dam and Giannis both playing seventy
three games, like, it's going to affect the way teams project.
I should say people in the like fan bases, media,

(31:40):
they're going to project you based on the basketball that
they saw. And last year you had plenty of opportunity
to make sure that people didn't overlook you and you
were a mediocre team. So like again, like I understand
why internally they may feel like they're better than their reputation.
I think they're probably a little better than their reputation,
but they don't don't have the pedigree with this group,

(32:03):
not the past, they don't have the pedigree with this
group in recent play. To justify being lumped in with
the top tier contenders in the NBA, Clippers, James Harden
said aggressive, aggressive on his mentality entering this season. We
tried last year to where I'm trying to figure out
guys the roles. It was kind of difficult when you

(32:24):
get that high caliber of players or Hall of famers
and basically the same position with everybody trying to figure
out the roles. It was pretty difficult. But this year
for me, I got a clear space on what I
need to be doing on fitting in with Kawhi and Russ.
Last year, I got a clear space on what I
need to be doing. End quote that was relating to

(32:45):
his fit with Kawhi and Russ last year. I'm excited
about having an opportunity to be who I am again.
I'm going to tell you one thing. It is definitely
going to involve a lot of me, not just because
I can create a shot and get guys involved. There's
always going to be tough. There was talk when I
was in Houston when I was doing what I was doing.
You can't win like that. You just seen a guy

(33:05):
last season make it to the Finals playing the exact
same way that I play. So there is a way.
Your team has to be constructed very well, and you've
got to have a little bit of luck and make
sure that you are healthy. So this is interesting because,
like I actually see upside with this approach for the
regular season. If you build the offense around James Harden
and you have the type of perimeter defense personnel that
the Clippers have and a rock solid starting center like

(33:27):
i Vikazubats, I think that they're gonna win a lot
of basketball games. I've said this before, but like I
think if they get just like kind of like baseline
health out of James Harden and Kawhi, like even just
like fifty games out of Kuhi and sixty five games
out of James Harden, I think that they're going to
stay out of the plane. I think that James Harden's
just a really good kind of baseline offensive engine, and
I think they're just a scrappy, athletic young team on

(33:50):
the perimeter, and I think that that's going to drive
a lot for them. Right. However, there's a huge difference
between James Harden and Luka Doncic, and like, there is
a reason why that the Harden style hasn't worked at
the highest level of the NBA playoffs, And there's a
reason why people say you can't win like that in
respect to James Harden in a different way than they
say with Luka Doncic. And this is a take that

(34:12):
I've had many times on this show, But there is
a huge difference between Luca and James Harden's attack. Luca
has so much variety in his offensive attack and can
score from so many different places on the floor, with
so many different types of shots that he has more
resilience to different types of defenders and defensive coverages. James
Harden is a step back jumper, almost always going to

(34:33):
his right, or a hard dribble drive to the left,
or a crossover to the right, an occasional floater. Everything
else is at the rim. It is nowhere near the
level of variety that Luca has, and that is why
James Harden has the reputation that he has. So even
though I was encouraged by that in the sense that
that's the right way for the Clippers to go about

(34:53):
this regular season in order to rack up wins and
just pray that Kawhi's healthy come April. I thought it
was all also kind of an interesting little example of
a lack of self awareness for James Harden in realizing
what makes him different from a guy like Luka Dawcic.
Last one the Spurs, Greg Popovich talking about there was
kind of like a little bit of a difference between
some of the ways the players were talking about their

(35:15):
expectations versus the coaching staff. So Popovich says, our expectations
are the same as they've been from the first year
that I coached. We want to be the best possible
team that we can be. That's individually, as far as
development goes, that's obviously been a big factor of the
last couple of years. Then team wide learning how to
play and what it takes to win. So Popovich is
a little bit more reserved, a little bit more talk

(35:36):
about development, a little bit talk about this being a process.
Devin Vessel said, playoffs, that's it, That's all I see,
and Chris Paul said, I'm going to be away from
my family, then I want it to be meaningful. I
want to play and compete. This was the best opportunity
to do that, and I feel like this would be
the best fit. So I don't read too much into
popovich comments because I think he's just being realistic. And

(35:57):
I obviously think that Greg Popovic's approach is going to
be a try to win every single game. As far
as the overall idea about like the Spurs and going
for it at this phase, I never think there's a
bad reason to try to win every game, Like, can
you potentially stunt development to some degree when you don't
give guys opportunities even though it might not be the

(36:18):
best thing for the team. Yeah, there's some diminishing returns
that you can get there. However, the counter is you
have to you have to account for the fact that
like actually playing winning basketball, actually teaching young players winning concepts,
and everything built around the idea of like a hatred
of losing and losing attitudes and losing behaviors being unacceptable

(36:43):
to me is a rock solid foundation to build an
organization on, and so like, even if the Spurs internally
don't think that they have championship potential, approaching it as
though that you're going to try to make a playoff
run is the right way to go because it's about
character building, and when you're in this kind of like
fledgling state of a franchise, as you're getting ready to
move into an era of contention with Victor wiman Yama,

(37:06):
it's very important. It's very important for you to build
that character in this particular phase. All right, Let's get

(37:27):
into our season preview from Minnesota Timberwolves. So they lost
Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin, Monty Morris, and Karl Anthony Towns.
They added Rob Dillingham, who's a scoring guard that the
guy with the eighth overall pick, Joe Ingles, Dante DiVincenzo,
and Julius Randall as the returns in the Karl Anthony
Towns trade. I also found out that Key Debates Job
is coming over as well, a guy that I'm not

(37:50):
sure will play that much, but he does play at
the forward position, which is probably the area that they're
least deep, so there's some value there, but I'm not
sure how much of an NBA rotation player he is.
Let's take a look at the Cat trade real quick. So,
as I talked about a little bit on the Monday Show,
I understand why they did it. Julius Randall has a
player option after this year for thirty one million dollars

(38:10):
that he will most likely decline and try to work
out some sort of long term deal a new deal. Right.
Carl Anthony Towns has a sixty one million dollar player
option in twenty twenty seven that he will almost certainly
pick up. So Kat's contract is three additional years longer
and almost twice as expensive. That is just really difficult

(38:34):
to deal with financially, right. Dante DiVincenzo at twelve million
a year is just a more manageable salary as well
to work with, So there's substantially more financial flexibility in
the next few years after this deal. Let's look at
the payroll real quick, even without Carl Anthony Towns. If
Gobert picks up his player option, that's forty seven million

(38:56):
dollars on the book books next year. If he doesn't
pick up the player option and you resign him. Judging
by what Jared Allen got this summer and what Isaiah
Hartenstein got the summer, Isaiah Hartenstein got almost thirty million.
Jared Allen got more than thirty million. Rudy Gobert even
I personally would rather have Jared Allen as my center
than Rudy Gobert, but because he's just more functional as

(39:17):
an offensive piece. But like Rudy Gobert in terms of reputation,
is considered by many to be a better player than
both of those guys. So you're looking at like thirty
five million to forty million a year in some sort
of four year deal for Rudy Gobert after this season,
So like that's expensive. Anthony Edwards makes forty six million
dollars next year. Jaden McDaniels makes twenty five million dollars

(39:40):
next year. Mike Conley is on the books for ten
million dollars next year. Nas Reed is doing a new deal.
So it was a sacrifice. You sacrifice to run a
chance to run it back with a Western Conference finals
team and a young superstar that will improve year over
year for long term flexibility. I personally don't like the
Julius rand. We'll go into more detail about that later,

(40:02):
but most star trades don't bring back a star, so
to get real long term flexibility comparatively to your other situation,
also have the potential upside. Again, I don't like the fit,
but there's potential upside because he's a star of Julius
Randall and then depth with Dante DiVincenzo. If there was
some sort of directive from ownership to shed money, get

(40:25):
out of the second apron, build long term flexibility. If
that was a directive from ownership, this is about as
good as you can do because you've got a star back,
you got a depth piece back, and you built in
that flexibility. So even if we don't necessarily like the
fit of the star, if you were in the same
position where you were asked to trade a star for

(40:47):
financial flexibility, it's difficult to do much better than Tim
Connolly did. Right. So now from that perspective, let's look
at the basketball. So Julius Randall, the upside is what
he can do on the ball. And I told you guys,
I promised i'd get into more detail in the season previous.
So let's talk a little bit about some of these
specifics with Julius Randall on the ball. The last time

(41:09):
Julius Randall was healthy for a whole season was twenty
twenty three. Played seventy seven games. He averaged twenty five points,
ten rebounds, and four assists on fifty eight percent for shooting,
which is obviously very good. He made the All Star
team and he was third team All NBA. He was
also an efficient, high volume shot creator over at point
per possession on pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups
including passes. To give you an example of the difference

(41:31):
in volume and efficiency, Karl Anthony Towns ran five hundred
and twenty four pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups
last year for five hundred and thirteen points including passes.
That's just zero point nine to eight points per possession.
Julius Randall in that twenty twenty three season, ran nine
hundred and ninety six pick and rolls, ISOs and post
ups including passes, got one thousand and thirty eight points,

(41:55):
which is one point zero four points per possession. So
Julius in his last time healthy season basically did twice
the volume of shot creation that Kat did last year
and was considerably more efficient. So like Julius is just
a much better on ball shot creator than Karl Anthony
Towns is. He's a deadly face up player. On like

(42:17):
face up jabstep jump shots, he got over a point
per possession. He shot sixty four percent at the rim
he shot fifty six percent on floaters and hooks. He's
got like a really efficient little left shoulder fade when
he's posting up on that left block and he kind
of gets into the middle of the floor, And that
specific type of on ball shot creation beyond Ant is
something that Minnesota didn't have last year, and it's a

(42:39):
big part of why they struggled offensively. If you look
at the numbers, when Ant was on the floor, the
Timberwolves had a one to eighteen offensive rating. That's very good.
It's not elite, it's not like the best teams in
the league, but it's very good. When Ant was off
the floor, they had a one to eleven point four
offensive rating that's very bad. So improved secondary shot creator.

(43:00):
An improved secondary shot creator like Julius Randall, will one
give you a better chance of scoring when Ant's off
the floor, and will two, when Ant is off the ball,
give you a better opportunity to create quality shots. So
I think Julius two and two man game like. He's
not going to be the pick and pop player that
Cat was, But when they face any sort of switching,
Julius is a better matchup attacker in terms of using

(43:22):
his size to bullie smaller defenders. I like that fit
in terms of Julius as an on ball creator. The
downside of this particular fit is when Ant has the ball.
Last year, even with Kat in the lineup, the Wolves
struggled to space the floor for Ant. Jada McDaniel's converted
spot up possessions at just zero point ninety nine points
per possession. Teams were comfortable helping off of Jaden and

(43:44):
just throwing a late close out at him. Rudy Gobert,
as I've said so many times on the show, everyone
talks about him on the defensive end of the floor
and low lights of him getting scored on in isolation.
That's not the issue with Rudy. I still think he's
an awesome defensive player. The issue with Rudy is he
basically has to be completely open to finish around the
basket anything that's in traffic. He's so bad at catching

(44:06):
and finishing surrounded by bodies in the middle of the floor.
That's the real reason Rudy deserves criticism. That's the real
reason that France benched him with the Olympics. That's the
real reason why at stretches it seems like, oh man like,
this doesn't work offensively with Rudy on the floor. It
comes down to him being able to catch and finish

(44:27):
in traffic, and so with Jaden Kat and Rudy it
already was kind of janky. Now you're subbing in cat,
subbing out cat for Julius Randall, and he's just not
a good off ball player on the offensive end of
the floor. His spot of efficiency has been way below
average basically every season of his career. He did peak
in the twenty twenty three season at one point zero

(44:49):
seven points per possession, which is slightly above average, but
he dipped right back down to the thirty third percentile
last year to zero point nine to three points per possession,
and in all of the previous seasons he was well
below a point per possession. So he's not a good
point like spot up guy. He's basically a one point
per possession catch and shoot guy. He shoots about thirty

(45:11):
eight percent when he's unguarded on jump shots, but he
shoots poorly when he's guarded. He scores on a cut
maybe once every two games. He's in the twenty fifth
percentile for frequency, so he's never been a high volume cutter.
He did some pick and popping with Brunson. He had
a decent pick and pop season in twenty twenty three,

(45:31):
but it wasn't as effective last year. So, like, there's
some issues there with how you can make use of
Julius Randall off the ball. It's not going to be
easy for Anthony Edwards. His development is a pull up shooter,
which really came to the surface in the postseason last year.
That's going to be huge for this team's potential and
hopefully that translates forward into this season. But again, like

(45:53):
that fits specifically, having Jaden, Julius, and Rudy all on
the floor at the same time, that could be an
absolute disaster for spacing, and so I'm a little bit
concerned about that. Health is also an issue for Julius.
He's a rhythm player, so when he gets out of
the lineup for a while, it takes some time to
get back to form. In addition to missing a bunch
of time this year, if you go back to the

(46:14):
previous year, he missed some time right before the playoffs,
and then when he came back, he just didn't look
like Julius Randall. He looked really bad. But then At
the same time, I don't really view that as a
factor in this trade because Karl Anthony Towns has a
lot of the same health question marks that Julius Randall did.
Dante DiVincenzo I think he's just a rock solid starting
NBA guard and he may not even start on this

(46:36):
particular team. He's a very good athlete at the guard position.
He's six ' four, he's strong, he runs and jumps well.
He's very good on ball defender. He's got a great motor.
He always plays hard. He gets good physical ball pressure
on the ball handler, and then he turned into one
of the best shooters in the league. He shot over
forty nine to three point attempts per game last year.
He was one of only three players in the entire

(46:57):
NBA to attempt at least eight threes per game and
to hit at least forty percent of them, him Steph
Curry and CJ. McCollum. He converted spot up possessions at
one point two to three points per possession. Thirty seven
players in the NBA logged at least thirty three hundred
spot up possessions. Dante ranked fourth on that list. He's
just a very, very good offensive off ball guard. He's

(47:19):
an absolute gamer, plays both ends of the floor, plays
hard leverages, athletic gifts. I think Wolves fans are going
to love him. I think he's a better player than
Nikhil Alexander Walker, for instance. Like I think that's a
legitimate upgrade. So in summary, looking at the trade, very
rarely can you trade a star and get a star
back while also getting a legit depth piece and get

(47:42):
the financial flexibility, Like if you were under this directive,
it's about as good as you can do. My concerns
about this trade mostly center around fit. Again, kat is
a much better offensive fit with Anthony Edwards off the ball,
but there is upside to the Randall fit with his
on ball creation. Right, add that starting two way caliber

(48:02):
guard in starting caliber two a guard in Dante DiVincenzo. Right,
So like it's about as I would have preferred if
the Timberwolves ran it back, because you got a really
bad matchup in the conference finals. Anthony Edwards is ascending,
You've got this beautiful front court to fight against the
against the Nicole Jokic problem. I would have preferred if

(48:23):
they run it back, And I'm sure some Wolves fans
feel the same, but I understand why they did it,
and they did about as good a job of doing
it as you could do under that type of directive.
Let's talk about ants development, because this is a huge
piece of the Wolves this year. The postseason leap last
year was real. He entered into that like bona fide
top tier superstar territory. In the playoff run, he averaged
twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent Troy shooting,

(48:46):
which is insane. Took his team in the Western Conference finals.
Really special stuff right. What facilitated that rise his combination
of jump shooting and playmaking. He took seven threes of
games a game in the playoffs and made forty percent
of them. He shot forty three percent on pull up
jump shots, getting one point zero eight points per shot,
which is great. Did a really nice job though, in
the playmaking front, driving and kicking to generate advantage opportunities

(49:11):
for a season, averaging six and a half assists per
game in a playoff run that's three rounds long. That's
a legitimate playmaking leap from Anthony Edwards. Now, the question
is how much of that was real? I believe most
of it was, But the reality is they're going to
need it to be real. Teams are going to consistently
pack the paint on him and force him to hit

(49:31):
shots over the top of the defense. That's going to
be an important counter for him. So that jump shot development,
that being real goes a long way to confronting some
of the spacing issues. Because this is a clunky fit.
It's going to be a challenging season for Ant on
the offensive end of the floor. How much is he
up to that challenge because if he can overcome a
lot of that, that's where you can get the upside

(49:52):
of Julius Randall when he's on the ball. And I'm
not worried about Ant off the ball at all. He's
just turned into too good of a shooter. At this point.
I have one last little kind of like a point
that I want to hit before we get into more
of a big picture summary the backup forward spot. The
Wolves bench got better with the addition of Dante DiVincenzo.
You're actually really deep at bench guard, right, Like given
Nakil Alexander Walker, you have Dante DiVincenzo, Rob Dillingham, he's

(50:15):
top ten picks. You gotta find minutes for him there,
right you actually have five guards in the rotation. That's
something that I think will be interesting to watch the
rest of the season. You have an excellent backup center
nas Reads, about as good as you can do in
the backup center's position in the NBA. But with the
loss of Kyle Anderson, you're now looking at Joe Ingles,
Luca Garza, and Keida Bates job basically as your backup forwards,

(50:38):
and none of those are great options. Right. So, like,
I think the initial setup is fine. I think having
Jada McDaniels, Julius Randall, Rudy Gobert, nas Red, I think
you're you got enough there to fill most of the
front court minutes. It's more of a depth issue. If
one of those four guys goes down with injury, that's

(50:58):
where you could be looking at twenty plus minutes a
night for guys like Joe Ingles, Luca Gar's key debates job.
That's where it could get a little bit tricky. Right, So,
there's two ways to confront that. One is a balancing trade, Like,
you have five guards that are all really good rotation players.
If you could turn one of them, let's say the
worst one, like Nikhail Alexander Walker, if you could turn
him into a full word, that balances things a little

(51:21):
bit right. Another direction they could go is look to
build out some three guard looks. Dante plays bigger than
he is. He rebounds really well for a guard, and
he's strong and is a good center of gravity, so
he could slide his feet well. So like, I think
you could like kind of account for the fact that
he plays a little bigger than he is. And then
Anthony Edwards is one of the most physically imposing guards
in the league. So like, I actually think in Anthony Edwards,

(51:43):
Mike Conley, Dante DiVincenzo lineup with Gobert and one of
Julius Randall or JD. McDaniels could work. So like keep
an eye on the backward of the backup forward spot.
But one of the ways they could confront that outside
of a trade is just trying to build out some
more three guard looks. All right, segment, why don't you
have Minnesota with the top tier contenders. I have Minnesota

(52:06):
in the if things go right tier. I'm a huge
ant fan. I'm rooting for this team to succeed. So
this is not about any sort of like personal Vendetta.
I actually really like Anthony Edwards. I think he might
be my favorite player of this next era. Right, but
they have some gaping holes and specific matchup weaknesses that
could get them beat, specifically teams that do a really
good job of protecting the rim. We saw this in

(52:26):
the Dallas series. Right. In the Denver series, Anthony Edwards
attempted seven point one restricted area shots per game and
shot seventy four percent there. In the Dallas series, he
attempted just five point eight restricted area shots per game
and shot just fifty five percent there. So, going from
a guy who is having a bad rim protection postseason

(52:46):
run in Jokic to legit rim protection and Gafford and
Lively completely changed Minnesota's ability to get into the basket,
specifically with ants. Then it also extended into the regular season.
The top eight opponent point in the paint team. So
let's call that rim protection teams the top eight rim
protection teams, not counting Minnesota in the league, where the

(53:08):
Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, the New Orleans Pelicans,
the New York Knicks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Orlando Magic,
in the Boston Celtics. The Timberwolves went ten to ten
against that group, and they went forty six and sixteen
against everyone else. So that's like a pretty substantial sample
size that demonstrates that the teams that can really pack

(53:30):
the paint and protect the rim are going to bog
down this Minnesota offense and cause them to be vulnerable
in a real way. So like now we can kind
of exacerbate that concept by swapping in Julius Randall for
Karl Anthony Towns. So like that, that to me is
like a legitimate matchup weakness that could get them into
some trouble there are like they if they run into

(53:54):
teams that can really protect the rim, they could end
up getting beat in the playoffs. Teams that I look
got there, Like if they faced Dallas again, I think
they'd lose. If they face Oklahoma City, I think they'd lose.
Even some of the lower teams in the West, like
a team like the Lakers that has Anthony Davis on
that front line. That's a team that could really pack
the paint against Minnesota and cost some issues for their defense.

(54:16):
The Lakers struggled to guard on the perimeter, but they
have guys in Minnesota that don't necessarily need to be
accounted for on the perimeter that they can stash bad
defensive players on. So like, I think that's a significant weakness.
The second big weakness that I want to talk about
is trapping ant. This was something we saw towards the
tail end of the Denver series and then a lot

(54:38):
in the Dallas series. It's copycat league, right. Denver showed it,
Dallas copied it and kind of perfected it with rim protection.
Ant got blitzed in ball screens twenty two times in
the playoffs. The Wolves scored just ten points on those possessions,
and they shot just three for sixteen from the field.

(55:00):
It is. It is a copycat league. Teams will all
of the good coaching staffs in the league, when they're
game planning for Minnesota will watch that footage and go, man,
just put two on an There's nothing they can do,
So what is your game plan for that. I'm a
huge believer in their defense. Yes, they struggled in the
Luca matchup, but there's really only a small handful of
guys in the league that can really make Luca uncomfortable.

(55:23):
But there are a lot of ways that this offense
can be really bogged down by packing the paint, by
trapping Ant in his ball screens, and it could potentially
be worse now that Cat is gone, and so like
that's something that they got to have a game plan for.
Whether that's aligning things so that you have a good
playmaker as the first read for Ant when he gets

(55:44):
into the trap, whether that's just a lot of internal
improvement for guys like Jaden McDaniels, whether that's Julius Randall
improving as a spot up player. They've got to find
a way to convert those four on threes into easy shots.
Because the book is out. With Minnesota pack the paint,
trap Ant, you can bog down their offense. So in summary,
I think this team is built to win regular season games.

(56:06):
They've got young, energetic talent. I think they will likely
end up in the three or the four seed this year,
but I think they need to catch some matchup luck
in order to win four playoff rounds. As I mentioned earlier,
there are some teams in the Western Conference that I
think would just beat them because of their ability to
protect the rim. So that puts them in the mix
with all of these teams below the top tier for me.

(56:27):
I'm not worried about Ant. I think he's ready to
do this. I just think the rest of the roster
has some holes that are tough to account for. All right, guys,
That is all I have for today is always is
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll see
for Friday. We might have some preseason reaction depending on
what happens in that Denver Boston game. If not, we
will have another season preview as well as a mailbag.
I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.

(56:52):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.

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Hoops Tonight - NBA Media Day Reaction: Warriors new look, Lakers SKY-HIGH vibes, Nuggets & Russ fit

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Hoops Tonight - NBA Media Day Reaction: Warriors new look, Lakers SKY-HIGH vibes, Nuggets & Russ fit