June 6, 2019 • 33 mins
Doug feels like the NBA Finals are over after the Raptors win game 3 and the injuries continue to add up for the Warriors. He talks to Warriors analyst Kelenna Azubuike to find out if they can still comeback despite missing Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant. Plus, NBA Insider Ric Bucher joins the show to share why the Nets clearing up more cap space means they're probably signing Kyrie Irving in free agency.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
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(00:21):
of the Doug got Leave Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottleib Show, Fox Sports Radio. I
hope you're having a great day. M M. What an
interesting game last night. It's amazing, amazing. The takeaway some
(00:46):
people have are far afield from what normal people have,
but we'll get to those. The Doug Gotlip Shows brought
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a lot to get to. Let's start with last night's game,
(01:09):
in which the Toronto Raptors ho Hum beat the very
depleted Golden State Warriors. And I've operated under this premise
for the most part, which is if the Warriors were healthy,
either the better team the Warriors will win the championship
because together Clay Steph, K D. Draymond and Andrea Goodala
(01:32):
form a not a perfect team, but a close to
perfect team, especially in the two thousand nineteen world In
the NBA last night, they didn't have Cavan Loone either
starting center. Um, they they have a banged up Andrea
Goo Dolla. Clay Thompson didn't play, and Kevin Durant didn't play.
(01:56):
And again I operate under the premise that if they're
all healthy, then what Draymond said would in fact be true.
You know, not having anyone makes a difference because everyone
when you assemble the team, everyone brings something different. You know,
no one cared that guys are hurt. Everybody want to
see us loose. I'm sure people are happy to hurt.
We just gotta continued to battle and win the next game.
(02:20):
Go back Toronto, win game five, come back to Oracle,
win game six, and then celebrate fun Times Ahead, Fun
Times Ahead. The problem with that is we assume that
the superpowers of Clay Thompson will return the second he
steps out in the court. We assume that the superpowers
(02:43):
of Kevin Durant will return as soon as he steps
out in the court. And you guys, ever pulled a hamstring?
Do you know what doesn't happen when you pull a hamstring?
You're not fine and a dent and the same guy
a week later, let alone five days later. And you
can tell me like me understand modern medicine. Yeah, yes,
(03:07):
I actually do understand modern medicine. Even if they had
were able to surgically put a new hamstring in there,
you don't have five days for that thing to heal.
Anyone who's ever pulled their hamstring knows you feel fine,
you feel fine, you feel fine that it feels like
somebody shot a baby in the back of your leg
and you don't feel fine. So Clay Thompson goes from
(03:29):
unable to run down the floor, take me out right now,
I can't even hug and congratulate my teammates to five
days later he'll be back fine. And Kevin Durant probably
is a you know, a pull is like you know,
it's a partial tear really of his calf muscle. Even
if he returns, he's not going to be the same guy.
(03:51):
I don't think the Raptors are better, but I think
the Raptors are healthier. And that's why I think the
Raptor is gonna win this thing, because you do get
to a point of you get to that point of
no return. It's not like the Raptors are gonna lay
down anyway. They're not gonna play good basketball anyway, and
(04:11):
they're pretty damn good. And when playing against even if
it's seventy five of Clay, that's not the superpowers we
came to expect. And and this isn't like you know
in the olden days. First of all, like Willis read
the whole Willis Read story like he didn't play that well.
It was an emotional game and he came in and back.
(04:33):
Then you can hide a big guy because you could
just stay in the lane and push people when they
came near him. You can't hide anybody now, that's the sport.
That's why DeMarcus Cousins can't be out on the floor.
You're already trying to hide Steph Curry some because he's
not a great defender and you need all his energy
and offense. I think you can hide Clay Thompson, who's
(04:55):
your best on ball defender or hide Kevin Durant, Like,
what makes Kevin duran special is not just that he's tall,
that he can run, jump, moved, latterly handle the basketball
like all those things you need your cap muscle to do.
Oh and you can't hide him on defense. This is
in baseball. Or Kirk Gibson can come limping up and
hit a home run, Kirk Gibson would have to go
(05:18):
play in the field, and in basketball we can actually
make sure we hit it to your position. I think
the Raptors are gonna win the championship. I don't think
they're the best team. I'm not sure that the second
best team, but that doesn't matter. They're the only healthy
team remaining in this thing, or healthy er than the
(05:41):
Golden State Warriors. It doesn't mean there's been an asterisk by.
There's no asterisk by the two thousand fifteen championship for
the for the Warriors. And can we also stop with
the well, Steph couldn't do it by himself. Nobody can.
(06:04):
Nobody can. Here's here's Steve Kerr talking about Steph Curry
last night. Steph was incredible stuff he does. He does
things that honestly I don't think anybody has ever done before.
The way he plays the game, the way he shoots it,
and the combination of his ball handling and shooting skills. Um,
it's incredible to watch. He was amazing, you kid me,
(06:28):
It was incredible to watch. Anyone who took away anything
other than Steph Curry is awesome. You need to learn
to get HD put into your your watching standard deaf,
or you have completely unrealistic expectations for what a great
player looks like. I mean even the people are like, well,
(06:51):
this is what Lebron was like last year. No, wasn't.
By the way, Lebron didn't win. They did get swept,
did they not? That did happened last year? Didn't? I
believe it did. The year before it was a gentleman's sweep.
They won one game, gentleman sweep. But even in those
(07:15):
even in those circumstances, Lebron wasn't without his starting to
his starting three, starting center. Like, dudes are backups for
a reason. And then once you get to the bench bench,
you're like, man, I totally forgot he was even on
the Warriors, Ye're like, you're like, wait, who is that?
(07:38):
I saw Kevin rant dapping guys up in the hallway
after the game, and I was like, I don't even
know who that is. I don't I actually don't know
who that is. Like I'm a basketball guy, I know
most everybody in the NBA. And then once I looked
about like, ah, that's right now, I remember, but it
(08:04):
took me a while. It took me a while ago,
and go, oh, that's right. They drafted Jacob Evans. I forgot.
So lots of things should be put to bed after
last night. We can probably when we get this later,
stop with the Draymond and Iggy are Hall of famers, right,
(08:28):
because even if you're not a Hall of Famer, in
terms of your production, when you have Clay and k D,
you would think there'd be a little bit more production
when you don't have Clay and k D. We've somehow
misassociated great role player with a great team, which is
a completely necessary position and role to fill with historically
(08:53):
great player. Those two things are not one and the same.
Robert Roy is not a Hall of Famer. Derek Fisher
is not a Hall of Famer. They both made egg plays,
and championships don't happen if they're not in those situations.
Steve Kerr was a great role player. He is not
a Hall of Famer. Neither is uh not. Neither is
Andrew Goodala And frankly, you know, I don't actually think
(09:17):
empirically Draymond Green should be. But the idea that Steph
somehow wasn't good enough when it's one on five, and
the idea that the Warriors they're gonna be fine, they'nna
be fine. Glen comes back, Katie comes back, but boom
(09:39):
but bang but bang, another championship dynasty lives on. Tell
me when that's ever happened? When dudes come off of
pulled muscles and they're like, no, no, no, I'm good.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug dot
Leap Show week days in noon eastern three pm Pacific
(10:00):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Clena has book At is a foreimer player and a
good one. Grew up in Tulsa playing a k UK
like Kentucky, then playing the NBA, including playing for the Warriors.
He's now an analyst for NBC Bay Area. You can
fall m on Twitter and on I g at Klenda
that's K E L E N and A seven. He
(10:22):
joins us in the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Um,
how would Clena, thanks for joining us. How would you
characterize last night's game? I would characterize it as the
Warriors being underman Honestly, steps played its hard out and
forty seven points and people underestimate how hard that is
(10:43):
to do when an incredible defensive team is focusing their
entire defensive game plan on you. They're helping on every
screen you come off of. And he goes out there
and gets forty seven boys and eight rebounds by the way,
and seven assists. So he was wonderful, but he just
didn't have enough help. The Warriors didn't have enough firepower,
(11:04):
and honestly, the Raptors had to win that game. If
they lost that game, to me, the series is pretty
much over because the Warriors are probably getting reinforcements BacT
for Game four in the rest of the series. So
the Raptors did what they had to do. They wrote,
let it rip on the board. I guess they did that.
Danny Green, you get eighteen points out of him, it's
gonna be a tough night for the Wars And we
knew that when we saw Danny Green knocking down all
(11:26):
those shots after pretty much every run the Warriors tried
to make, it seemed like he had an answer for it.
Or Kyle Kyle Lowry was knocking down threes having answers
for the Warriors runs. And then for the Warriors. There
was lineups out there that probably had never played together.
I didn't play together as much. And there were guys
guys passing up open shots that normally Clay Thompson would
(11:47):
take and Kevin Durant would take if those guys are
out there. Defensively, the Warriors just weren't good enough, and
there was some defensive possessions where they weren't able to
rotate rotate out the shooters. They were just to step
late with their rotations at times. There are too many mistakes,
bad transition defensive. The Warriors had to be close to perfect,
and they probably needed the Raptors to not play as
(12:07):
well as they did it, not shoot the ball as
well as they did. But the Raptors had way too
many guys playing well and Steph Curry was the only
one that really had it going to the Wars, which
you kind of expected. But the war is just needed more. Yeah, um, okay,
there's there's a bunch of stuff I want to get
to here. First. The idea of reinforcements on paper makes
total sense. But did you played long enough? I played,
(12:30):
you pull your hamstring and five days later you're good?
Like I just that that's a we We were all
operating in the assumption that if, in fact Clay and
k D come back, they'll be fine. But the reasonable
expectations are they won't whether or not they can go hard,
or if they go hard, they pull that thing again.
(12:50):
Like I just, I do think we're operating under this
false sense of what they'll look like when they return.
I kind of agree with you. We do have to remember, though,
that it was kind of characterized as a mild strain,
not pull all the way. And I'm like, yeah, I've
I've pulled my hamstring before. It took me longer than
(13:10):
five days. I know that. And I remember I had
a teammate, Corey mcgetty, who I played with, and he
had a string of hamstring injuries. And the reason was
because he just kept coming back when it was sevent
when it was and he almost felt like he was good,
but his his hamstring didn't feel like the good hamstring.
His his his legs didn't feel the same. You could
(13:31):
still kind of still kind of tell a difference between
the two hamstrings, and he would come back don't like
he was good, and then he would restrain it or
pull it again. So he went through a season of
that and and the hamstring injuries one of those where
if you do come back in your eighty even nine,
you're susceptible to restrain it or pull it. And you
can ask Chris Paul about ham strings. He's had some
(13:53):
missues there too, and it's one of those injuries where
you just have to take your time. So I'm like you,
I'm I'm hoping that when he steps out there he's
a percent just for his future and not having to
deal with hamstring injuries going forward, just the string of
hamstring injuries is if he's coming back and he's not
all the way right. But I am incourased though, because
(14:15):
I watched him warm up before Game three, and I
think they had already decided way ahead of when they
actually released that he was not playing, that he was
not going to play, and I think that was the
right decision to make, even if he was moving well.
But he was really moving well, and it didn't really
seem really seemed like he was trying to compensate for
that hamstring or he was laboring at all. He really
(14:38):
he wasn't going full speed, but he was going at
a good pace and there was no limp. It didn't
seem like he was having issues with it. And if
you listen to him talk, he was saying he found
it hard to believe that he wouldn't play in game three.
Before game three, that's kind of the way he was talking.
So that's how good he was feeling. So I think
(14:59):
it's great that the war you're sat him out for
game three and he's got another game a day in
between here where he gets there treated and all the
nuance treatments you want to give him in all those things,
and then hopefully he's ready to go for game four. Okay,
so let's get to the Mark Stevens thing. He's a
minority owner of the team, and there's a weird sequence
there where Quinn Cook twice in a row, drives in
(15:22):
and do just battish shot, like, Bro, you need to
we need to work in your finishing package there or
getting to where it's a goalten um. So Kyle Lowry
goes diving in the stands and Stevens just kind of
you know, pushes him, and Lowry gets him ejected says something.
Now he's he's barred for the games, you know upon
further investigation, Um, look, you've played. But like, I almost
(15:47):
feel like we're getting to kind of a reasonable sense.
Do I think Mark Stevens behavior was um, was acceptable. No,
it was completely unacceptable. But it's it's actually not that
far a step from the Drake thing, right where guys
guys on the sideline think they're part of the game
and they get into trash talking with the other team.
They think like it's all cool and like they're not
(16:09):
part of the game. I don't know, I just I
feel like we're going a little bit overboard in our
reaction to a dude. I I understand that you want
to be completely unacceptable, but like, all right, you can't
come to the rest of the finals and you've gotten
embarrassed on national TV. Feels like enough for me? What
about you? Oh? The difference between what happens with Drake
(16:30):
and what happened with Kyle Lowry and Mark steven last
side is Drake isn't laying hostile hands on the opponent.
You know what I mean. He's he's a massage in
his coach. He's talking trash with his friends from the
other team, Katie and O. Katie hasn't played, but Steph
and and Clay and other guys. He's just talking trash.
But there's no hands being laid on on Clay Thompson
(16:54):
or the other players, or that would be an issue.
And I think in this situation, Kyle Lowry dives in there.
He's just doing his job. He's on the court. If
you're sitting in the front seat, you have to keep
your head on the swivel because a guy could come
flying over there going for a loose ball. And that's
what Kyle Lowry did. You can say maybe he was
a little extra or whatever, but that's what he did.
(17:15):
And as a fan, you can't put your hands on
a player in that way. Now, if you're trying to
help him up, or you're trying to push him off
of you, trying to save someone that's sitting close to you,
if you're protecting your wife, that's one thing. But I
think in this situation, the Warriors in the league looked
at it and they're going, yeah, he shoved him. That's
(17:35):
kind of a hostile act. Obviously, Kyle Lowry took it
that way, and it looked that way, and just by
the interaction afterwards where they were a kind of yelling
at each other whatever, you could tell that was the case.
So in this these pase, I just I just feel
like he crossed the line, and I feel like the
Warriors handled it pretty well. Now he is a minority
(17:56):
owner or investor in oars. You can't ban him for life,
I don't think. But obviously they banned him for the
rest of the playoffs in this finals, and I think
that was the right thing to do. And then Kyle
Lowry also said he felt like he uttered some really
hostile words that crossed the line. I don't know if
there was racist stuff said there, but Kyle Lowry felt
(18:18):
really strongly about So I think the Warriors really had
to do that. Let's get to uh, let's get to
the the k D stuff. Um, what what do you
think he does? Honestly, it's it's kind of like what
we were talking about with Clay. I'm I'm optimistic that
he'll be back for Game four, but this is really
(18:39):
the first day. Today is the first day that he's practicing,
and everybody just kind of assuming that it's gonna go great.
But that cat is another one of those injuries where
if you're a on that thing, you could restrain it.
That's really close to the achilles. You don't want to
mess with the achilles. So it's gonna be tough to
(19:01):
simulate the kind of action that you're gonna see from
him in the game where he's pushing off of that
same leg and trying to explode. But he's gonna be
going against coaches and and I don't know, maybe some
players throw him in there with some token defense and
just trying to simulate some of the movements that you'll
see from him in the game where he's pushing off
that leg trying to get to his spot. Maybe you
(19:21):
have him on defense, you try to attack that leg,
or you try to make him push off that leg
sideways his latter movement. What's that gonna be like? But
we'll be able to tell once he gets in the game,
if he does play, if he's favoring that leg, or
if he seems to be hampered by that at all,
Because he's not gonna be as explosive and best believe
the Toronto Raptors are gonna try to attack him on
(19:43):
the defensive side and really test that leg and Clay
pounds the same thing. They're gonna try to attack him
on the on the other side of the floor and
see if they're really healthy. And and the wars are
gonna do their best to to make the right decision,
because again, you don't want to put these guys at
risks of re injuries. And this could be a long series. Obviously,
you want to get guys back and healthy. And and
(20:05):
it was rough watching the Warriors super shorthanded and and
just being taken advantage about Toronto rap There's a great
Toronto raptrew team, but you have to think about the
guy's overall career in the big picture here, and it's
not just about this one game. So is KTI better
than no Katie? Of course, but for him, is that
(20:27):
the case? And if he's more at risk of re injury,
is it's smart for KD to play, So they'll make
the right decision. And to me, if he's out there,
if either one of those guys are out there, it
means they're pretty much to me, yeah, they're not. I
just I don't don't know. We're all making huge, huge assumptions.
All right, if they come back and they're close, you
(20:48):
still have faith the Warriors win the series. I do,
I do. I think there's gonna be an adjustment period
with k D. He's probably gonna be a little rusty,
more rusty than Clay obviously because Clay hasn't sat out
as long. But I really think, fully healthy, the wars
are still the more talented team, and I trust the
Warriors defense and key moments to come up with a
(21:09):
big stop, and I trust the Warrior's ability to close
and close games. I think these two teams are maybe
closer than people think. And the Toronto Raptors are are
really really talented, and Kawhi Leonard will just kill you
without saying a word. He's a silent assassin and it's
almost annoying to watch him play because it doesn't even
really look created at me. But he's just so effective
and he gets it done. His pull up jumper game,
(21:31):
he comes off a ball screen super slow and just
gets his spots. He's a bulldozer. He's pretty much the
guy that ended Loony his playoff career. Although I'm here
and he may come back, which is incredible, But I
just feel like the Warriors as a team are still
better talent wise, and then they have the closers, the
(21:51):
guys with ice in their veins. I was DeAndre is
Alla hitting that huge shot in Game two to get
the job done. It could be a six or seven
game series, but I trust the Warriors and their closing ability,
in their championship mentality and the confidence they have in
the swag that they play with to get it done.
If fully healthy. Awesome stuff. Clenna has a book, of course,
(22:11):
it works for NBC Bay Area fallm on Twitter at
Klenna seven. Clinna, thanks so much for joining us man,
I really appreciate it. No problem about That's like Clena
has a bouquet joining us on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug dot
Leap Show week days at noon eastern three pm Pacific.
Brick Buker Bleacher Report, Fox Sports One joins us on
(22:33):
on The Doug Gotlip Show. Buke Um, do you buy
the pulp here story? No, not at all? Which and
which one? Because I think he's denied it at this
point that it was. I mean, first it was he
soiled himself, and then it was no, I only soiled
the Lakers in that series. So I don't know what
to believe, but I am not going to get carried
(22:55):
off the way he was carried off. If indeed, I'm
worried about me having soiled myself. Correct, correct that that
was it was an overreaction. He thought he'd torn up
his knee, and maybe maybe there was a little maybe
there was a little uh leakage in the backside, but
that's not why he was carried off like he was
dying exactly exactly, and it took him all an awful
(23:17):
I mean, he was carried that way. If it was,
it's just that the whole story doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. And yeah, I just know so ultimately, no,
I'm not buying any of it. Okay, So let's get
to Let's get to today, and then we will work
back to last night. Steve Kerr said, just said moments
ago there was no setback. He thought today would be
(23:37):
the day that Katie be back out in the court.
And there's still some uh some sort of hurdle to
be cleared. Uh, you actually kind of predicted this thing.
You're like, look, I don't know he plays at all
in the series. Why is he going to Toronto? I
thought that's the way in which he could get back
on the court because all their guys would be in Toronto.
What's what's really going on with his calf? Well, essentially,
(24:00):
it is a very it's a serious injury, and k
D wants to find a way to get back on
the court, and he wants to convince people that it's
worth the risk and that he can that he can play.
So he he's pushing to get back on the court
and cooler heads are simply prevailing as far as the
people around him who are saying, you know, this is
(24:20):
what I heard from the very beginning. They think it's
too high of a risk for him to play in
this series. There's we keep looking at this and measuring
it in terms of days, and the type of injury
that he has and the fact that it is a
recurrent thing for him is not something that you measure
by days. Clay Thompson very likely to play in Game four.
Why because he didn't have a history of hamstring issues
(24:42):
and this is in a different category. This is something
that is borderline chronic for k D. And as he
said when he first did it, it's the worst that
I've ever had, so looking at free agency, looking at
where he is in his career, looking at what the uh,
you know, the opportunities and the options that he'd like
(25:04):
to weigh this summer doing something catastrophic to his calf,
which is there's a great degree of possibility for that
if he were to come back and play in these finals,
is simply not worth it. So today you're supposed to
play three on three. I don't know whether he played
three on three or not, but there is a certain
(25:28):
physical hurdle that he has to get past in order
for them to even consider playing him, and quite clearly
he didn't get past that today. Why or maybe how
is Clay Thompson gonna play when he just pulled his
hamstring a couple of days ago. I you know, I
will say this. I had a hamstring pull once upon
(25:50):
a time, and I'm not in any way comparing myself
to Clay Thompson, but I did go to a doctor
who was able to take me up in a way
that alleviated the stress on that hamstring for where it was,
and I never thought that that was even possible I thought,
once you had strained it, pulled it, whatever you did,
(26:12):
you have to wait for it to recover. And he
taped me up in a way in which I was
able to play. Now was I able to go that
I fully trusted. No, but I could, I could run
without pain. And so I believe there's a way for
them to get there. And uh and and it obviously
all of it is the degree and the severity. But
(26:33):
I'm kind of I'm kind of on this too, which is, um, Look,
Steve Kerr wouldn't be giving him to go ahead if
if there was still any question that he's not he's
not capable of playing. So I'm going to because Steve
Kerr and what I know about him, and that he
would air on the side of caution. The fact that
they've already cleared Clay to play in game four. I
(26:54):
don't understand it is you don't. But I know that
it's possible. I know that we operate, we all upring
on this assumption that they can win without k D.
But but that's assuming Clay is healthy, Like he's not healthy.
I just I don't I don't see it. It's also
are we going to get what we got? From DeMarcus
(27:16):
Cousins in Game two, And is Andrew Bogett going to
give you even more than he's given you at any
point in the series because or is Jordan Bell suddenly
going to become something that we've never seen him, become
the guy that nobody is talking about that I think
his absence was had a profound effect on Game two
or Game three. Excuse me, with Cavan Luney, they don't
(27:39):
have anybody who can replace with Cavan Luney does. And
I'm less worried about adding another offensive weapon for the
Warriors than I am adding some defense that's going to
prevent the Raptors from shooting overall plus from three and
(27:59):
from the free throw line. I think the Raptors are
only going to get more comfortable against this impaired Warriors team.
And any time they didn't allow themselves to be trapped
on one side of the floor and there was player
movement and ball movement, they got anything they wanted. And
I don't know that Clake Thompson coming back is going
to change that. This just in from Woads. Brooklyn is
(28:21):
trading Alan crab and the number seventeen pick in the
two thousand nineteen draft and a protected first round pick
in two thousand to Atlanta for Torrian Pin, Torrian Prince
and a second round pick. So what this does is
it clears eighteen million dollars in salary cap space, gives
them two max contract slots, open the door for Kevin
(28:45):
Durant to join Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. And uh if
I'm I mean, yes, this is interesting because Brooklyn has
actually been here before, right. People forgetting there was the
we want we want Darren Okay, Darren Williams and we
want Dwight Howard and they got Darryn Williams and they
(29:07):
couldn't get Dwight Howard and they never got to where
they went. Now we're kind of they're they're back, They're
back in this in this place. Um, look, I lived
I lived in the Trista area for the last three
for three years, and I can tell you that Brooklyn
is on fire. Right. It's a place Williamsburg is as
expensive as any place in New York to live. It's
(29:28):
it's it's hot, and it's a cool, but it's it's
not on the island of Manhattan. It's still the Nets.
And I just wonder if like Are those guys really
gonna go to the Nets? Does that? Is that a reality?
Do you think that ultimately becomes a reality? Uh? I
believe that Kyrie is going to be there one way
or another. That's where Kyrie is going to end up.
(29:50):
Who joins him is the real question. And I know
that Katie and Kyrie have talked about playing together. I
know that they want to play together. The plan is
to play together. But the allure of Brooklyn for k
D is the part that I'm still having a difficult
(30:11):
time wrapping my head around. I I still see him
and this was the first, you know, first heard of
him going anywhere. It was to the Knicks. And he
has a lot of ties and connections to the Knicks
organization already. And so it's until I the struggle and
(30:32):
I just told somebody this, uh, in the last twenty
four hours. What I don't know is the depth of
the relationship between Kyrie and k D, because ultimately that
would have to win out for everything else that I
know about what k D aspires to and the connections
that he has with the Knicks, the Knicks just make
(30:53):
more sense on that level. But if there is a hey,
you know what if this is a rush Westbrook, Paul George,
we have a connection, and regardless of where I'm playing,
it's more important to me that I'm playing with this
guy that would have to win the day. And I
just don't know at this stage if that is what's
going to win the day. And if somebody else said
(31:14):
to me, whatever you think, Kady is probably gonna change
his mind twenty five times between now and when he
ultimately makes the decisions. So don't go too hard with
anything at this point. Where are we with Anthony Davis?
Anthony Davis is a matter of, Uh, let's see what
what the what the best deals are on the table,
(31:38):
And I would imagine that the Knicks are measuring Okay,
Kyrie is indeed going to Brooklyn. What is it that
we have to do to be able to make sure
that k D comes here? If it's acquiring a D,
then they sweeten it, maybe a little bit more than
they would like, but ultimately that's where they go. I
(32:00):
just I don't see anyway anyhow. I know that the
Lakers are the preferred destination. Just everything that I know
about what Gail Benson has said and the opportunity to
make a deal equal or better someplace else. I just
find it hard to believe that a D is actually
gonna liigned up with the Lakers. And then what about
the Celtics, Like I've been told the Celtics they don't
(32:22):
care that A D hasn't listed them as as a
team he'd like to go to. Where are they if
they lose Kyrie Irving? I it's hard for me to imagine,
and and and you can say all you want, we
don't care. We still't make a deal for him. But
if he's not going to re up with you, uh
other people, what you would have to give up to
(32:42):
get him is not going to be commensurate with what
New York or even the Lakers for that matter, are
willing to offer, because Boston would have to give up
some of their their young talent, and you would have
to do it knowing that A D is gonna walk
out the door a year from now. It just seems
like a bad business maneuver. This is this is posturing
(33:04):
and saying we're not afraid of you, saying we're not
going to be on the list. The reality is the
risk is too great if he if he holds true
and says I'm happy. I'll happily come there and play
for a year, but I'm not signing up long term.
That's a deal that the that the Celtics can't ignore.
Rick Bucker from bleacher Report and Fox Sports One great stuff.
(33:24):
Talk to you soon. You got it.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
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or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:21):
of the Doug got Leave Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottleib Show, Fox Sports Radio. I
hope you're having a great day. M M. What an
interesting game last night. It's amazing, amazing. The takeaway some
(00:46):
people have are far afield from what normal people have,
but we'll get to those. The Doug Gotlip Shows brought
to by Farmers. At Farmers we've seen almost everything. Someone
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experience in a play aff armors dot com. We have
a lot to get to. Let's start with last night's game,
(01:09):
in which the Toronto Raptors ho Hum beat the very
depleted Golden State Warriors. And I've operated under this premise
for the most part, which is if the Warriors were healthy,
either the better team the Warriors will win the championship
because together Clay Steph, K D. Draymond and Andrea Goodala
(01:32):
form a not a perfect team, but a close to
perfect team, especially in the two thousand nineteen world In
the NBA last night, they didn't have Cavan Loone either
starting center. Um, they they have a banged up Andrea
Goo Dolla. Clay Thompson didn't play, and Kevin Durant didn't play.
(01:56):
And again I operate under the premise that if they're
all healthy, then what Draymond said would in fact be true.
You know, not having anyone makes a difference because everyone
when you assemble the team, everyone brings something different. You know,
no one cared that guys are hurt. Everybody want to
see us loose. I'm sure people are happy to hurt.
We just gotta continued to battle and win the next game.
(02:20):
Go back Toronto, win game five, come back to Oracle,
win game six, and then celebrate fun Times Ahead, Fun
Times Ahead. The problem with that is we assume that
the superpowers of Clay Thompson will return the second he
steps out in the court. We assume that the superpowers
(02:43):
of Kevin Durant will return as soon as he steps
out in the court. And you guys, ever pulled a hamstring?
Do you know what doesn't happen when you pull a hamstring?
You're not fine and a dent and the same guy
a week later, let alone five days later. And you
can tell me like me understand modern medicine. Yeah, yes,
(03:07):
I actually do understand modern medicine. Even if they had
were able to surgically put a new hamstring in there,
you don't have five days for that thing to heal.
Anyone who's ever pulled their hamstring knows you feel fine,
you feel fine, you feel fine that it feels like
somebody shot a baby in the back of your leg
and you don't feel fine. So Clay Thompson goes from
(03:29):
unable to run down the floor, take me out right now,
I can't even hug and congratulate my teammates to five
days later he'll be back fine. And Kevin Durant probably
is a you know, a pull is like you know,
it's a partial tear really of his calf muscle. Even
if he returns, he's not going to be the same guy.
(03:51):
I don't think the Raptors are better, but I think
the Raptors are healthier. And that's why I think the
Raptor is gonna win this thing, because you do get
to a point of you get to that point of
no return. It's not like the Raptors are gonna lay
down anyway. They're not gonna play good basketball anyway, and
(04:11):
they're pretty damn good. And when playing against even if
it's seventy five of Clay, that's not the superpowers we
came to expect. And and this isn't like you know
in the olden days. First of all, like Willis read
the whole Willis Read story like he didn't play that well.
It was an emotional game and he came in and back.
(04:33):
Then you can hide a big guy because you could
just stay in the lane and push people when they
came near him. You can't hide anybody now, that's the sport.
That's why DeMarcus Cousins can't be out on the floor.
You're already trying to hide Steph Curry some because he's
not a great defender and you need all his energy
and offense. I think you can hide Clay Thompson, who's
(04:55):
your best on ball defender or hide Kevin Durant, Like,
what makes Kevin duran special is not just that he's tall,
that he can run, jump, moved, latterly handle the basketball
like all those things you need your cap muscle to do.
Oh and you can't hide him on defense. This is
in baseball. Or Kirk Gibson can come limping up and
hit a home run, Kirk Gibson would have to go
(05:18):
play in the field, and in basketball we can actually
make sure we hit it to your position. I think
the Raptors are gonna win the championship. I don't think
they're the best team. I'm not sure that the second
best team, but that doesn't matter. They're the only healthy
team remaining in this thing, or healthy er than the
(05:41):
Golden State Warriors. It doesn't mean there's been an asterisk by.
There's no asterisk by the two thousand fifteen championship for
the for the Warriors. And can we also stop with
the well, Steph couldn't do it by himself. Nobody can.
(06:04):
Nobody can. Here's here's Steve Kerr talking about Steph Curry
last night. Steph was incredible stuff he does. He does
things that honestly I don't think anybody has ever done before.
The way he plays the game, the way he shoots it,
and the combination of his ball handling and shooting skills. Um,
it's incredible to watch. He was amazing, you kid me,
(06:28):
It was incredible to watch. Anyone who took away anything
other than Steph Curry is awesome. You need to learn
to get HD put into your your watching standard deaf,
or you have completely unrealistic expectations for what a great
player looks like. I mean even the people are like, well,
(06:51):
this is what Lebron was like last year. No, wasn't.
By the way, Lebron didn't win. They did get swept,
did they not? That did happened last year? Didn't? I
believe it did. The year before it was a gentleman's sweep.
They won one game, gentleman sweep. But even in those
(07:15):
even in those circumstances, Lebron wasn't without his starting to
his starting three, starting center. Like, dudes are backups for
a reason. And then once you get to the bench bench,
you're like, man, I totally forgot he was even on
the Warriors, Ye're like, you're like, wait, who is that?
(07:38):
I saw Kevin rant dapping guys up in the hallway
after the game, and I was like, I don't even
know who that is. I don't I actually don't know
who that is. Like I'm a basketball guy, I know
most everybody in the NBA. And then once I looked
about like, ah, that's right now, I remember, but it
(08:04):
took me a while. It took me a while ago,
and go, oh, that's right. They drafted Jacob Evans. I forgot.
So lots of things should be put to bed after
last night. We can probably when we get this later,
stop with the Draymond and Iggy are Hall of famers, right,
(08:28):
because even if you're not a Hall of Famer, in
terms of your production, when you have Clay and k D,
you would think there'd be a little bit more production
when you don't have Clay and k D. We've somehow
misassociated great role player with a great team, which is
a completely necessary position and role to fill with historically
(08:53):
great player. Those two things are not one and the same.
Robert Roy is not a Hall of Famer. Derek Fisher
is not a Hall of Famer. They both made egg plays,
and championships don't happen if they're not in those situations.
Steve Kerr was a great role player. He is not
a Hall of Famer. Neither is uh not. Neither is
Andrew Goodala And frankly, you know, I don't actually think
(09:17):
empirically Draymond Green should be. But the idea that Steph
somehow wasn't good enough when it's one on five, and
the idea that the Warriors they're gonna be fine, they'nna
be fine. Glen comes back, Katie comes back, but boom
(09:39):
but bang but bang, another championship dynasty lives on. Tell
me when that's ever happened? When dudes come off of
pulled muscles and they're like, no, no, no, I'm good.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug dot
Leap Show week days in noon eastern three pm Pacific
(10:00):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Clena has book At is a foreimer player and a
good one. Grew up in Tulsa playing a k UK
like Kentucky, then playing the NBA, including playing for the Warriors.
He's now an analyst for NBC Bay Area. You can
fall m on Twitter and on I g at Klenda
that's K E L E N and A seven. He
(10:22):
joins us in the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Um,
how would Clena, thanks for joining us. How would you
characterize last night's game? I would characterize it as the
Warriors being underman Honestly, steps played its hard out and
forty seven points and people underestimate how hard that is
(10:43):
to do when an incredible defensive team is focusing their
entire defensive game plan on you. They're helping on every
screen you come off of. And he goes out there
and gets forty seven boys and eight rebounds by the way,
and seven assists. So he was wonderful, but he just
didn't have enough help. The Warriors didn't have enough firepower,
(11:04):
and honestly, the Raptors had to win that game. If
they lost that game, to me, the series is pretty
much over because the Warriors are probably getting reinforcements BacT
for Game four in the rest of the series. So
the Raptors did what they had to do. They wrote,
let it rip on the board. I guess they did that.
Danny Green, you get eighteen points out of him, it's
gonna be a tough night for the Wars And we
knew that when we saw Danny Green knocking down all
(11:26):
those shots after pretty much every run the Warriors tried
to make, it seemed like he had an answer for it.
Or Kyle Kyle Lowry was knocking down threes having answers
for the Warriors runs. And then for the Warriors. There
was lineups out there that probably had never played together.
I didn't play together as much. And there were guys
guys passing up open shots that normally Clay Thompson would
(11:47):
take and Kevin Durant would take if those guys are
out there. Defensively, the Warriors just weren't good enough, and
there was some defensive possessions where they weren't able to
rotate rotate out the shooters. They were just to step
late with their rotations at times. There are too many mistakes,
bad transition defensive. The Warriors had to be close to perfect,
and they probably needed the Raptors to not play as
(12:07):
well as they did it, not shoot the ball as
well as they did. But the Raptors had way too
many guys playing well and Steph Curry was the only
one that really had it going to the Wars, which
you kind of expected. But the war is just needed more. Yeah, um, okay,
there's there's a bunch of stuff I want to get
to here. First. The idea of reinforcements on paper makes
total sense. But did you played long enough? I played,
(12:30):
you pull your hamstring and five days later you're good?
Like I just that that's a we We were all
operating in the assumption that if, in fact Clay and
k D come back, they'll be fine. But the reasonable
expectations are they won't whether or not they can go hard,
or if they go hard, they pull that thing again.
(12:50):
Like I just, I do think we're operating under this
false sense of what they'll look like when they return.
I kind of agree with you. We do have to remember, though,
that it was kind of characterized as a mild strain,
not pull all the way. And I'm like, yeah, I've
I've pulled my hamstring before. It took me longer than
(13:10):
five days. I know that. And I remember I had
a teammate, Corey mcgetty, who I played with, and he
had a string of hamstring injuries. And the reason was
because he just kept coming back when it was sevent
when it was and he almost felt like he was good,
but his his hamstring didn't feel like the good hamstring.
His his his legs didn't feel the same. You could
(13:31):
still kind of still kind of tell a difference between
the two hamstrings, and he would come back don't like
he was good, and then he would restrain it or
pull it again. So he went through a season of
that and and the hamstring injuries one of those where
if you do come back in your eighty even nine,
you're susceptible to restrain it or pull it. And you
can ask Chris Paul about ham strings. He's had some
(13:53):
missues there too, and it's one of those injuries where
you just have to take your time. So I'm like you,
I'm I'm hoping that when he steps out there he's
a percent just for his future and not having to
deal with hamstring injuries going forward, just the string of
hamstring injuries is if he's coming back and he's not
all the way right. But I am incourased though, because
(14:15):
I watched him warm up before Game three, and I
think they had already decided way ahead of when they
actually released that he was not playing, that he was
not going to play, and I think that was the
right decision to make, even if he was moving well.
But he was really moving well, and it didn't really
seem really seemed like he was trying to compensate for
that hamstring or he was laboring at all. He really
(14:38):
he wasn't going full speed, but he was going at
a good pace and there was no limp. It didn't
seem like he was having issues with it. And if
you listen to him talk, he was saying he found
it hard to believe that he wouldn't play in game three.
Before game three, that's kind of the way he was talking.
So that's how good he was feeling. So I think
(14:59):
it's great that the war you're sat him out for
game three and he's got another game a day in
between here where he gets there treated and all the
nuance treatments you want to give him in all those things,
and then hopefully he's ready to go for game four. Okay,
so let's get to the Mark Stevens thing. He's a
minority owner of the team, and there's a weird sequence
there where Quinn Cook twice in a row, drives in
(15:22):
and do just battish shot, like, Bro, you need to
we need to work in your finishing package there or
getting to where it's a goalten um. So Kyle Lowry
goes diving in the stands and Stevens just kind of
you know, pushes him, and Lowry gets him ejected says something.
Now he's he's barred for the games, you know upon
further investigation, Um, look, you've played. But like, I almost
(15:47):
feel like we're getting to kind of a reasonable sense.
Do I think Mark Stevens behavior was um, was acceptable. No,
it was completely unacceptable. But it's it's actually not that
far a step from the Drake thing, right where guys
guys on the sideline think they're part of the game
and they get into trash talking with the other team.
They think like it's all cool and like they're not
(16:09):
part of the game. I don't know, I just I
feel like we're going a little bit overboard in our
reaction to a dude. I I understand that you want
to be completely unacceptable, but like, all right, you can't
come to the rest of the finals and you've gotten
embarrassed on national TV. Feels like enough for me? What
about you? Oh? The difference between what happens with Drake
(16:30):
and what happened with Kyle Lowry and Mark steven last
side is Drake isn't laying hostile hands on the opponent.
You know what I mean. He's he's a massage in
his coach. He's talking trash with his friends from the
other team, Katie and O. Katie hasn't played, but Steph
and and Clay and other guys. He's just talking trash.
But there's no hands being laid on on Clay Thompson
(16:54):
or the other players, or that would be an issue.
And I think in this situation, Kyle Lowry dives in there.
He's just doing his job. He's on the court. If
you're sitting in the front seat, you have to keep
your head on the swivel because a guy could come
flying over there going for a loose ball. And that's
what Kyle Lowry did. You can say maybe he was
a little extra or whatever, but that's what he did.
(17:15):
And as a fan, you can't put your hands on
a player in that way. Now, if you're trying to
help him up, or you're trying to push him off
of you, trying to save someone that's sitting close to you,
if you're protecting your wife, that's one thing. But I
think in this situation, the Warriors in the league looked
at it and they're going, yeah, he shoved him. That's
(17:35):
kind of a hostile act. Obviously, Kyle Lowry took it
that way, and it looked that way, and just by
the interaction afterwards where they were a kind of yelling
at each other whatever, you could tell that was the case.
So in this these pase, I just I just feel
like he crossed the line, and I feel like the
Warriors handled it pretty well. Now he is a minority
(17:56):
owner or investor in oars. You can't ban him for life,
I don't think. But obviously they banned him for the
rest of the playoffs in this finals, and I think
that was the right thing to do. And then Kyle
Lowry also said he felt like he uttered some really
hostile words that crossed the line. I don't know if
there was racist stuff said there, but Kyle Lowry felt
(18:18):
really strongly about So I think the Warriors really had
to do that. Let's get to uh, let's get to
the the k D stuff. Um, what what do you
think he does? Honestly, it's it's kind of like what
we were talking about with Clay. I'm I'm optimistic that
he'll be back for Game four, but this is really
(18:39):
the first day. Today is the first day that he's practicing,
and everybody just kind of assuming that it's gonna go great.
But that cat is another one of those injuries where
if you're a on that thing, you could restrain it.
That's really close to the achilles. You don't want to
mess with the achilles. So it's gonna be tough to
(19:01):
simulate the kind of action that you're gonna see from
him in the game where he's pushing off of that
same leg and trying to explode. But he's gonna be
going against coaches and and I don't know, maybe some
players throw him in there with some token defense and
just trying to simulate some of the movements that you'll
see from him in the game where he's pushing off
that leg trying to get to his spot. Maybe you
(19:21):
have him on defense, you try to attack that leg,
or you try to make him push off that leg
sideways his latter movement. What's that gonna be like? But
we'll be able to tell once he gets in the game,
if he does play, if he's favoring that leg, or
if he seems to be hampered by that at all,
Because he's not gonna be as explosive and best believe
the Toronto Raptors are gonna try to attack him on
(19:43):
the defensive side and really test that leg and Clay
pounds the same thing. They're gonna try to attack him
on the on the other side of the floor and
see if they're really healthy. And and the wars are
gonna do their best to to make the right decision,
because again, you don't want to put these guys at
risks of re injuries. And this could be a long series. Obviously,
you want to get guys back and healthy. And and
(20:05):
it was rough watching the Warriors super shorthanded and and
just being taken advantage about Toronto rap There's a great
Toronto raptrew team, but you have to think about the
guy's overall career in the big picture here, and it's
not just about this one game. So is KTI better
than no Katie? Of course, but for him, is that
(20:27):
the case? And if he's more at risk of re injury,
is it's smart for KD to play, So they'll make
the right decision. And to me, if he's out there,
if either one of those guys are out there, it
means they're pretty much to me, yeah, they're not. I
just I don't don't know. We're all making huge, huge assumptions.
All right, if they come back and they're close, you
(20:48):
still have faith the Warriors win the series. I do,
I do. I think there's gonna be an adjustment period
with k D. He's probably gonna be a little rusty,
more rusty than Clay obviously because Clay hasn't sat out
as long. But I really think, fully healthy, the wars
are still the more talented team, and I trust the
Warriors defense and key moments to come up with a
(21:09):
big stop, and I trust the Warrior's ability to close
and close games. I think these two teams are maybe
closer than people think. And the Toronto Raptors are are
really really talented, and Kawhi Leonard will just kill you
without saying a word. He's a silent assassin and it's
almost annoying to watch him play because it doesn't even
really look created at me. But he's just so effective
and he gets it done. His pull up jumper game,
(21:31):
he comes off a ball screen super slow and just
gets his spots. He's a bulldozer. He's pretty much the
guy that ended Loony his playoff career. Although I'm here
and he may come back, which is incredible, But I
just feel like the Warriors as a team are still
better talent wise, and then they have the closers, the
(21:51):
guys with ice in their veins. I was DeAndre is
Alla hitting that huge shot in Game two to get
the job done. It could be a six or seven
game series, but I trust the Warriors and their closing ability,
in their championship mentality and the confidence they have in
the swag that they play with to get it done.
If fully healthy. Awesome stuff. Clenna has a book, of course,
(22:11):
it works for NBC Bay Area fallm on Twitter at
Klenna seven. Clinna, thanks so much for joining us man,
I really appreciate it. No problem about That's like Clena
has a bouquet joining us on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug dot
Leap Show week days at noon eastern three pm Pacific.
Brick Buker Bleacher Report, Fox Sports One joins us on
(22:33):
on The Doug Gotlip Show. Buke Um, do you buy
the pulp here story? No, not at all? Which and
which one? Because I think he's denied it at this
point that it was. I mean, first it was he
soiled himself, and then it was no, I only soiled
the Lakers in that series. So I don't know what
to believe, but I am not going to get carried
(22:55):
off the way he was carried off. If indeed, I'm
worried about me having soiled myself. Correct, correct that that
was it was an overreaction. He thought he'd torn up
his knee, and maybe maybe there was a little maybe
there was a little uh leakage in the backside, but
that's not why he was carried off like he was
dying exactly exactly, and it took him all an awful
(23:17):
I mean, he was carried that way. If it was,
it's just that the whole story doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. And yeah, I just know so ultimately, no,
I'm not buying any of it. Okay, So let's get
to Let's get to today, and then we will work
back to last night. Steve Kerr said, just said moments
ago there was no setback. He thought today would be
(23:37):
the day that Katie be back out in the court.
And there's still some uh some sort of hurdle to
be cleared. Uh, you actually kind of predicted this thing.
You're like, look, I don't know he plays at all
in the series. Why is he going to Toronto? I
thought that's the way in which he could get back
on the court because all their guys would be in Toronto.
What's what's really going on with his calf? Well, essentially,
(24:00):
it is a very it's a serious injury, and k
D wants to find a way to get back on
the court, and he wants to convince people that it's
worth the risk and that he can that he can play.
So he he's pushing to get back on the court
and cooler heads are simply prevailing as far as the
people around him who are saying, you know, this is
(24:20):
what I heard from the very beginning. They think it's
too high of a risk for him to play in
this series. There's we keep looking at this and measuring
it in terms of days, and the type of injury
that he has and the fact that it is a
recurrent thing for him is not something that you measure
by days. Clay Thompson very likely to play in Game four.
Why because he didn't have a history of hamstring issues
(24:42):
and this is in a different category. This is something
that is borderline chronic for k D. And as he
said when he first did it, it's the worst that
I've ever had, so looking at free agency, looking at
where he is in his career, looking at what the uh,
you know, the opportunities and the options that he'd like
(25:04):
to weigh this summer doing something catastrophic to his calf,
which is there's a great degree of possibility for that
if he were to come back and play in these finals,
is simply not worth it. So today you're supposed to
play three on three. I don't know whether he played
three on three or not, but there is a certain
(25:28):
physical hurdle that he has to get past in order
for them to even consider playing him, and quite clearly
he didn't get past that today. Why or maybe how
is Clay Thompson gonna play when he just pulled his
hamstring a couple of days ago. I you know, I
will say this. I had a hamstring pull once upon
(25:50):
a time, and I'm not in any way comparing myself
to Clay Thompson, but I did go to a doctor
who was able to take me up in a way
that alleviated the stress on that hamstring for where it was,
and I never thought that that was even possible I thought,
once you had strained it, pulled it, whatever you did,
(26:12):
you have to wait for it to recover. And he
taped me up in a way in which I was
able to play. Now was I able to go that
I fully trusted. No, but I could, I could run
without pain. And so I believe there's a way for
them to get there. And uh and and it obviously
all of it is the degree and the severity. But
(26:33):
I'm kind of I'm kind of on this too, which is, um, Look,
Steve Kerr wouldn't be giving him to go ahead if
if there was still any question that he's not he's
not capable of playing. So I'm going to because Steve
Kerr and what I know about him, and that he
would air on the side of caution. The fact that
they've already cleared Clay to play in game four. I
(26:54):
don't understand it is you don't. But I know that
it's possible. I know that we operate, we all upring
on this assumption that they can win without k D.
But but that's assuming Clay is healthy, Like he's not healthy.
I just I don't I don't see it. It's also
are we going to get what we got? From DeMarcus
(27:16):
Cousins in Game two, And is Andrew Bogett going to
give you even more than he's given you at any
point in the series because or is Jordan Bell suddenly
going to become something that we've never seen him, become
the guy that nobody is talking about that I think
his absence was had a profound effect on Game two
or Game three. Excuse me, with Cavan Luney, they don't
(27:39):
have anybody who can replace with Cavan Luney does. And
I'm less worried about adding another offensive weapon for the
Warriors than I am adding some defense that's going to
prevent the Raptors from shooting overall plus from three and
(27:59):
from the free throw line. I think the Raptors are
only going to get more comfortable against this impaired Warriors team.
And any time they didn't allow themselves to be trapped
on one side of the floor and there was player
movement and ball movement, they got anything they wanted. And
I don't know that Clake Thompson coming back is going
to change that. This just in from Woads. Brooklyn is
(28:21):
trading Alan crab and the number seventeen pick in the
two thousand nineteen draft and a protected first round pick
in two thousand to Atlanta for Torrian Pin, Torrian Prince
and a second round pick. So what this does is
it clears eighteen million dollars in salary cap space, gives
them two max contract slots, open the door for Kevin
(28:45):
Durant to join Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. And uh if
I'm I mean, yes, this is interesting because Brooklyn has
actually been here before, right. People forgetting there was the
we want we want Darren Okay, Darren Williams and we
want Dwight Howard and they got Darryn Williams and they
(29:07):
couldn't get Dwight Howard and they never got to where
they went. Now we're kind of they're they're back, They're
back in this in this place. Um, look, I lived
I lived in the Trista area for the last three
for three years, and I can tell you that Brooklyn
is on fire. Right. It's a place Williamsburg is as
expensive as any place in New York to live. It's
(29:28):
it's it's hot, and it's a cool, but it's it's
not on the island of Manhattan. It's still the Nets.
And I just wonder if like Are those guys really
gonna go to the Nets? Does that? Is that a reality?
Do you think that ultimately becomes a reality? Uh? I
believe that Kyrie is going to be there one way
or another. That's where Kyrie is going to end up.
(29:50):
Who joins him is the real question. And I know
that Katie and Kyrie have talked about playing together. I
know that they want to play together. The plan is
to play together. But the allure of Brooklyn for k
D is the part that I'm still having a difficult
(30:11):
time wrapping my head around. I I still see him
and this was the first, you know, first heard of
him going anywhere. It was to the Knicks. And he
has a lot of ties and connections to the Knicks
organization already. And so it's until I the struggle and
(30:32):
I just told somebody this, uh, in the last twenty
four hours. What I don't know is the depth of
the relationship between Kyrie and k D, because ultimately that
would have to win out for everything else that I
know about what k D aspires to and the connections
that he has with the Knicks, the Knicks just make
(30:53):
more sense on that level. But if there is a hey,
you know what if this is a rush Westbrook, Paul George,
we have a connection, and regardless of where I'm playing,
it's more important to me that I'm playing with this
guy that would have to win the day. And I
just don't know at this stage if that is what's
going to win the day. And if somebody else said
(31:14):
to me, whatever you think, Kady is probably gonna change
his mind twenty five times between now and when he
ultimately makes the decisions. So don't go too hard with
anything at this point. Where are we with Anthony Davis?
Anthony Davis is a matter of, Uh, let's see what
what the what the best deals are on the table,
(31:38):
And I would imagine that the Knicks are measuring Okay,
Kyrie is indeed going to Brooklyn. What is it that
we have to do to be able to make sure
that k D comes here? If it's acquiring a D,
then they sweeten it, maybe a little bit more than
they would like, but ultimately that's where they go. I
(32:00):
just I don't see anyway anyhow. I know that the
Lakers are the preferred destination. Just everything that I know
about what Gail Benson has said and the opportunity to
make a deal equal or better someplace else. I just
find it hard to believe that a D is actually
gonna liigned up with the Lakers. And then what about
the Celtics, Like I've been told the Celtics they don't
(32:22):
care that A D hasn't listed them as as a
team he'd like to go to. Where are they if
they lose Kyrie Irving? I it's hard for me to imagine,
and and and you can say all you want, we
don't care. We still't make a deal for him. But
if he's not going to re up with you, uh
other people, what you would have to give up to
(32:42):
get him is not going to be commensurate with what
New York or even the Lakers for that matter, are
willing to offer, because Boston would have to give up
some of their their young talent, and you would have
to do it knowing that A D is gonna walk
out the door a year from now. It just seems
like a bad business maneuver. This is this is posturing
(33:04):
and saying we're not afraid of you, saying we're not
going to be on the list. The reality is the
risk is too great if he if he holds true
and says I'm happy. I'll happily come there and play
for a year, but I'm not signing up long term.
That's a deal that the that the Celtics can't ignore.
Rick Bucker from bleacher Report and Fox Sports One great stuff.
(33:24):
Talk to you soon. You got it.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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