Gottlieb - All Ball - w/guest Ethan Strauss

deadlines bring deals. And though there was no hard, hard deadline, there was the meeting that took place in San Diego to which I've been told and most people believe. Greg pop Fitch after hearing Kawhi Letard out said I'll trade you. I can't tell you. We're been trade you. We're gonna get the best deal possible. I'll trade you. Now. He wants Kauai to play with USA Basketball. USA Basketball is

getting together in Vegas, so it had to be. He'd like it to been done because otherwise, is Kawai gonna put himself out there and play and be healthy If he's on the trade block and he said to be trade the answer is probably not in addition to the idea of if he was traded somewhere that was not respectable, would he even suit up, would he play or would he pretend to still be hurt. I don't think Kawhi Leonard ever pretended to be hurt. I don't I don't

ever thought. I don't think he thought he was right. I'm guessing if he plays now he does think he's right. He absolutely does. But I think that actually san Antonio did right by him and did right by themselves san Antonio. What what they can only be accused of doing is uh is overvaluing themselves on the market and potentially chasing the market. You know, their list price initially was ridiculous, you know, Kuzma Ingram Heart picks, picks picks, and then

they wanted even more. They wanted um They wanted a similar sort of bounty from teams like Philadelphia. But the other reports that we had heard was, hey, if you can get us the top twenty player in the NBA, wim of Kawa is lit for you. And that's what they got into. Martin Rosen. I don't love de Rosen's ability to shoot the three. I don't love the fact that he disappeared against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But I've seen Martin Rosen take over an NBA game, absolutely take over.

And while Toronto looks like bad guys because they said initially they weren't going to trade him, if you had to, Martin rose and you can trade him for Kawhi Leonards and oh yeah, by the way, get Danny Green as an ancillary piece. You make that deal. To me, it comes down to timelines. Toronto's timeline is we gotta win. We gotta win now. If it doesn't happen this year with no Lebron in the East, it's never gonna happen with this group, and we got to rethink things. So

you go all in. You go all in, just like when you're in poker. When you go all in in poker, it doesn't mean you've got a great hand. It just means that at some point in time, we gotta go all in now because everybody else's hand might not be great, and it might be just good enough hand to win this thing or to get to an NBA finals, and then maybe you get quite a come back, or maybe you don't. You move all your pieces. As for the Spurs,

does de Rosan fit their their championship mold. Probably not, But now that is the Marcus Aldridge Aldrich scores in the post that's not really needed anymore and mard Rozen scores in the mid range that's not really desired anymore either. But San Antonio Spurs will once again find a way to remain competitive for a longer period of time than anybody's remained competitive in recent NBA history. As for the Lakers,

I think they're fine. Look at Josh Hart and his value and how much that skyrocketed winning the Summer agam v P. And it wasn't like he was the Summer League MVP because his team won. He was the best player in Summer league. A. Lonzo will be better, Ingram should be better, Kuzma should be better, and oh yeah, by the way, Lebron will help them be even better. I like that the Lakers are gonna take this year to figure out what they got and what they want

to add. It's just not quite letter right now. Let me give you one kind of recruiting college basketball thought. I've been you go back a year ago, and if you follow me on Twitter, I've been a huge proponent of coal Anthony being the number one player in the class of two, doesn't where he's gonna go to high school next year. It's Greg Anthony's son um. And and

here's what's what's fascinating about Cole Anthony. I've talked to a a lot of NBA players about this is how do I how do I give my kid a better life than I've lived, Teach him all that I know about the sport that I love, and on the other hand, create kind of the hunger and toughness that I had in order to get to this point. And the guy that somehow has been able to achieve that is Cole Anthony.

Cole Anthony has an astoness to him to which nastiness and competitive streak to him, which I love and is needed and is missing. Asking these former NBA players, and I'll tell you, like my kids too nice. My kid went to a private school. My kid grew up in a great neighborhood. My kid is and Cole Anthony has um you know, growing up in New York City, kind of has that chip on his shoulder and will just attack you and try and tear your heart out and

feed it to you for lunch. He's incredible, incredible, he's bigger than his dad. UM needs to improve his shooting, but a better shooter than than his dad was. UM. I don't know if he's as good a defender as his dad was a great defender, but he can pass, he can dunk on, you can score, he can lead, he can win, and he is tougher than a two

dollar steak. I know there are other guys in two thousand nineteen competing with him for best in class, but being a point guard, having that sort of pedigree and having the toughness that so many with that pedigree, lack boy.

Whoever gets him is absolutely gonna love him alright. Last thing before we get to some of the interviews here on the All Ball Podcast is the potential for a rules change in college basketball high school basketball in terms of recruiting, and whether or not the n c A will have the NBA and NBA G League runs some of these camps for them. PEGM took place last week. Team Takeover one it they'd beat Team why Not and

it was a great celebration of basketball. Victor Oladipo with Team why Not, and of course Russell Westbrook, excuse me, Russell Westbrook with Team why Not? And Victor Oladipo with

team takeover. The idea that so many of these and I know they're Nike guys and Nike legends, but Nike guys will show up and we'll give some of their money and some of their time to these kids who you know, want to look and believe that one day and somebody that Jim will be the next Kevin Garnett, will be that Kevin Durant was there, will be the next to Russell Westbrook will be the next victory of

the depot. I think speaks well for where basketball is, uh, the part I would be really cautious of if I was the n c A and I'm not as sensitive to peach Jam because look, when when I played, we didn't have Peach Jam. We had AU tournaments or there was the AU National Championship, which nobody went to on the West Coast. The West Coast, we always did Vegas and Phoenix, and there would be Riverside Church would come out from New York, the Gauchos would come out from

from New York. You get teams from Utah, Nebraska and all over the country. And then that was after ABC D Camp and there was a B c D, which was Princeton abc D which became Converse abc D, and Nike had their own camp and then it was Adidas abc D. We've done the camp thing, We've done the tournament thing. I do think the one thing that the E y b L has is they have a competitive

spring structure. They have pretty darn good coaching and the end of the day, you have to win something in order to achieve the right amount of acclaim, whereas some of these other events now are no longer true tournament forms. They have to guarantee you games or your teams won't play in their event, and they're just kind of made for TV. You lose, you don't care as much as we cared. I remember losing in Vegas. Every time we lost in Vegas, I remember I we never never won

the championship. We lost to be ABC. I think in the finals my senior year, Um, we lost to a Nebraska team. My junior year, you know, I think we lost to a team from Pennsylvania with Pete Less City my sophomore freshman or sophomore year. Like, I remember those losses more than any of the wins. And I do think that the one thing you've got to be cautious

of with true camps. And I think, what what old school people whatever that came that commission came up with, is this kind of idealistic Hey, we'll have the old five star, will have stations and this is needed. Truly teaching is needed. But some of that exists with the Nike Skills Academy, some of that exists with some of these other events and other camps. It's it's not it's not perfect in any way, UM, but in completely tearing apart the system that's taking place, especially the good, like

take some of the good out of it. True shoe companies UH can push guys in the direction of their representative schools, and that's not supposed to be what Showcase basketball is about. AU basketball is about teaching kids the game while getting them opportunities to play in college. There are some events which are really good. There are some events that are bad, and you have to be judicious

with striking things down with one rule. Now, the caution to people who believe pech GM is the end all be all and if it goes away, all is good that goes away in the summer. My point is only that PHM has not been forever there will be some of their event, there will be some other way to do it. And while uh basketball coaches wouldn't be able to a college basketball coaches wouldn't be able to attend events during a live period. And can't you just be

virtually there? I mean, wouldn't it just be about things being televised or is there is there a loophole to which college basketball coaches could be like in a viewing room next door. They've always found a way to go around the rules. They've always found a way to see the kids. The kids for the most part, the good ones have been seen. One or two follow through the cracks. And so I don't think it's an arm Again, if these rules which were suggested are enacted again, that doesn't

mean I think it's a good idea. Um. I just think there has to be things within reason. There should be more coaching, more teaching. It should be more about winning games than it is about showcasing players. On the other hand, you want to showcase guys. You want to give guys as many opportunities to be seen as humanly possible so that fewer and fewer slipped through the cracks. And you want to see the East versus the West,

and the North versus the South. You want to see competitive basketball, So did you get a sense, you know, instead of watching film, we're watching kids compete against his high school team or is AU team? What it looks like against the other kids are let's buck come in from the athletic Ethan Strouss. He joins us here in the All Ball podcast, and Ethan, let me ask you

your reaction to the quiet Leonard to mar de Rosen trade. Yeah. Well, the first action, like much of the basketball intelligentia, is that it seems like a good deal for the Raptors and uh less of a great deal for the Spurs. And then that gives me a pause, because sometimes we're just wrong about saying, you know, especially when we when

we all agree, that can tend to have. And remember when the Paul George trade was one of the Pacers got flattered in if if memory serves, I mean, that was the contentsist and now now look at it, look

at Oladipo. So um, I don't love it for the Spurs in a vacuum, I don't, But I also didn't think that LaMarcus Aldred was really good for them, and he had quite a good season last season, so I just wonder if they look at the Martyr Rose and they see that he does something that has fallen out of fever in the mid rate jumper as LaMarcus didn't feel as though they can leverage that in the better shots and that they know what they're doing. So I

had to guess a great deal for the Wraps. But I I'm still a little little little suspicious that maybe the Spurs pulled off something there. I um, look, I

let's start with the Spurs side. I do think they were asking for too much and they chased the market away a little bit, right they You just you just start asking for like listen, we'll we'll think about Ingram or Kuzma, but Ingram and Kuzma and uh, you know, and then you start going through and you're like, well, we want Josh Hard of course, and obviously the Lakers had to know something about I don't know if they knew he would perform as well at some releg as

he performed, but they really really like Josh Hart for as much of their culture as much as anything else. And then you start talking about because I just I feel like they were asking for the Moon, the stars in the sun, and most of the league sitting there going, hey, you kind of got a depreciating asset there. Whereas the Raptors did want to get out of that deal. There are some limitations to derosan. I actually think San Antonio

did well with all things considered. It's just are you closer that much closer to winning a championship when you have two players who are kind of players from a foregone era, right, like a post up a post up big in Aldrich and a mid range pull up guy in DeMar de Rosen. If this was you'd be great, but it's not. It's two thousand nineteen, and you know, you save face, but it's not like we're gonna pencil the Spurs in as a championship contender. Is that fair? Yeah?

And as the side, doesn't it feel as though they never really respected Danny Green for all he did for them. Just I don't know what's up with that. It seems that that was always the guy that popped with yell at and scream at. And I know that last season wasn't a great season him and maybe maybe he's fallen off, and but he seems like somebody who could provide good value for a team, and so that's that's not a bad that's not a bad piece at all for for

the Rappers. I will say this if I'm I'm trying to Devil's advocate, the position of maybe the Raptors aren't going to be as impressed, aren't going to be as happy as how this all goes. They've invited a lot of drama into their team and it's all based on this this this kind of that, you know, in a funny way, this isn't even basketball analysis. This is more of a look at how the culture of a city

and how it changes in its self assessment. Canada has always had a little bit of that little Brother syndrome, and they've got that insecurity that Vince Carter is so so pressed on when he when he actually it out of there in the way that he did it. But

now they're riding high. Now Toronto is cool. Now Drake has given it a little bit of verve, and now they think they're the city that if you come here you might not know it's great, but my you know, my god, you're going to be so impressed and you're not going to leave. I don't know if that's going to happen as somebody from and you can also have this perspective as well as somebody who also grew up in southern California. You can show me the law city of Atlantic and you told me that it gets the

thirty below. I'm not going back under my own polition. I do NBA book. NBA players love Toronto though, right, I mean, like I'm not speaking out of turn. They love Toronto. And guy might be a different kind of guy. Correct. Anyway, That's that's the part that people are missing there, Like NBA guys love Toronto. They do, but he's not sure normal NBA guy. And I would also say that there is well, everyone's hitching their wagon to the Hey, you

know Paul George. Paul George said he was coming. Um. The one thing that's interesting about the Paul George thing is, you know, Russell Westbrook was his best friend. They were so close man leading up. Then he signs a new deal and I fall Russell Westbrook on Instagram and I've noticed that he continues to travel the world. I've also

noticed Paul is not traveling with him. But they're like, you are best friends to a point, so uh, you know, look, I think Kauai ends up likely in Los Angeles, and I think Toronto knows this, and they're willing to roll the dice because on their kind of timeline, they gotta win and win now, otherwise they canna blow that thing up and start over. Anyway. Yeah, that's I don't want to burst anybody's bubbles listening, but most NBA players are

not actually friends with one another. It's very similar to when you go into the office and you see Gary and the cubicle, and you you know, Gary's the Packers fans. So maybe you go, oh, the Packers one, and then you you know, that's that's about it, and that's the arrangement. It's not you know, most of these guys aren't friends and most of them aren't enemies. It's somewhere in between,

just looking any working en firement. But with Paul George, I mean, I wonder if that was just taked by his agent not having a great relationship with the Lakers after what happened to Angela Russell. That was the stubble bud coming out of the summer League, So that might have been a special situation that isn't necessarily applicable to the Kauai Leonard situation where it looks like you would saw off his left left arm in order the good Los angel Ethan Strouss joining us House of Strauss is

his podcast. It's a really really good when a smart way at looking at the game. Uh, that that we all love. I encourage you to download it. He's kind of to join us here on the All Ball podcast. Um, I'm Doug gottlieb Okay, so ah, what about Summer League? I know you spend time there. I don't want to go too crazy about it. Most people know Miles Simon is my best friend in basketball. He did a great job. He's done an incredible job helping these young players develop.

And I really think that people are starting to see what the Lakers are building around Lebron James slowly kind of morphin come together. Am I overvaluing what I saw from Josh Hart and the assumption that others in the Purple and Gold are going to improve, maybe not at the exact same level, but at a similar level around him. I don't know if you're overrated because they loved Josh Harten Turtley and have loved Josh Harden. Maybe the thing to um, maybe the negative be the downside is more

the organizational chaos is chaos is too strong word. I'm not sure that this odd situation where Lebron effectively is an agent as well as a superstar basketball player, where the Lakers love Josh Hart. Okay, so they love Josh Hart, then why would you give contagious call twelve million dollars considering everything going to happen last year? I think we

all know why. I think we know it doesn't have a lot to do with how well because he's play of last year, right, because he's wrapped by Chris Paul, Right, And you want to say that I didn't like it either, and I know he was. They didn't love him, But I think that's what that's about, right, Yeah, That's what that's about it. And so I guess the question is is that can you can you have things happen like

that on the margins and still be successful. You certainly could in the past with Lebron and his full prime, and it's why it's very difficult. I think it's le brought anything because you can tell him that a lot of the things you do with his teammates aren't the best A lot of things you knew might be a little destabilizing too, anganization, and he can point to absolutely just a ruinous situation in Cleveland that he turned into a championship. So I think it's difficult to tell him anything.

But I do wonder if, at this phase in his career, um if it's if you can have things like that continue to happen on the margin and have the level of success that you want to have in a conference that, let's face it is almost like an entirely different lead than the East. It's almost like the East is triple A and this is the Major's I don't know if you can do that, and maybe you can, but I have my suspicions. I have my reservation. I do I do as well. What do you make of the Jimmy

Butler situation? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know. I mean, is it is it fair just to not have a good take on that one? Let's hear what? Okay? This is now, this is not what you want from a guest at all, But I'm going to ask you for your take and maybe I'll riff on it. What is your take on the Jimmy Butler situation. If I'm honest, If I'm honest, all I really wanted to talk about when I came on here was the war that you're having on Twitter over this whole soccer US soccer player situation.

That was the conversation. Well, we'll get to that one. We'll get to that in one second. I know it's all, but but real, real quickly. And Jimmy Butler, I think he knows those dudes, those aren't his kind of dudes. Um, it's just not he's not buying into it. I think he wants to be frankly in l a uh. If not, he would find some other big market. But I think he's tired of messing around with it. I think like

that guy's we talked about guys being wired differently. I think Jimmy Butler is wired to where he wants a chance to compete for the whole thing, and I just don't think they he thinks they have it. Yeah, I wonder if it's a bit of a referendum on cat um and if that's a guy who so talented, so much buzz we hyped him up. We instantly for a second forgot about Anthony Davison. Made him the next guy, and I just don't know defensively he's ever going to

be an impact player. And that's a big problem for a big It is the responsibilities aren't evenly divided. More of your response ability is defensive, the bigger you are or the bigger position that you play. And I I just wonder that's a bit of a referendum because if he was somebody who fit the potential, I'm not sure that you see that. And I I just that situation. I don't think it's gone. It hasn't gone as well.

It's not going as well given the talent level. And I wonder, I just wonder if Thibodeaux in his role has has done everything he needs to do, I would agree, and I agree with you, all right, let's get to the let's get to the soccer thing. My assertion is my my assertion is really really simple, and that I understand there are other issues with US soccer, completely understand um. But we also look, we live in a country with incredible resources, not just financially but in terms of the

the volume of quality athletes. And because of football and because of basketball, I think that the best players, the best athletes all around athletes. And if people think of athleticism may simply think of speed and jumping ability. There's a lot more to it than that. Um. You know, by and large, they all go away from soccer, whether they have access to it when they're five or six or not, or many of them do not. They don't

pick up a soccer ball. And if they were to, if we were to create a way in which it was cool to play soccer growing up, then I think we would dominate because we have just go look at I mean, take a look at your favorite incredible athlete in basketball. You mean to tell me that Russell Westbrook wouldn't be a great soccer player had he played it from a young age. Um, if if the size, if the size of Lebron James, Like, well, there's no not that kind of athlete. Not think there's no six seven

guys playing soccer. Okay, that's fine. Like if you want to keep this to a six ft four or below, just look at the guards and the Patrick Beverley's and the Nate Robinson's of the world. These freak athletes that choose to play basketball or football above soccer. Until we change that, we're always going to be dealing with you mentioned j V versus varsity. That's really what it is. Whereas the best athletes in these other countries, they grew up playing soccer and then maybe they grow too big

and they have to become basketball players. It works the opposite way. So I agree with you in the macro. But I think one of the reasons why you're getting the push factor getting despite regular soccer snobbery, which can be obnoxious, UM, is that it's not necessarily always completely

translatable and all about athleticism. And you know this idea that we take a really athletic guy, I mean we have him in a soccer context, he might not have the foot coordination because that specific skill set UM, that would be necessary to dominated as a soccer player. So I think that you are right. I think of the country of our size, with our resources, if we were actually devoted to it, if you're actually committed to do it, if we have the pipeline that you're talking about, then

yes we would dominate, um. But we would also need is to be trained in that specific skill set. You know. It reminds me a little bit of how football snobs will get angry when people would say that Lebron could have dominated as a tight end and they would say, Oh, if you don't understand the intricatees of blah blah bla, you would have dominated. But that's or they say, like, you know, he's a basketball guy. He doesn't want to take contact. Like here's the thing. What wide receiver goes like?

You know, I can't wait, I can't wait to get ear hold. You know that doesn't doesn't exist. He's six ft seven two hundred sixty pounds six two d sixty pounds, Like I think it's a tight end wide receiver, he'd be Okay, do I think he wants to get your hold? No, I don't think anybody wants to get your hold quite quite frankly, No, so and and you're right right, and and you're and you're right. There are things about soccer

that you have to play to learn. But I also think that we're under selling the level of intelligence, spatial recognition, how to you know, also how you move your hips, how you move your feet. The great basketball players, great football cornerbacks. Wide receivers have incredible feet, incredible feat a matter of fact, if you ask NB, I guess like one of the reasons that the Lakers weren't high on Julius Randall, even after having his best statistical career as

a pro. Is like he just has he just has really bad footwork that they've they're trying. They tried all season desperately to kind of fix, but you can only clean up so much. And so the idea isn't just like, hey, we got more speechs. Look and Bob Ay. I understand he has a lot of skill, but a lot of what he was able to do is just pure raw

speed quickness that so few have. And I do think that we have hundreds, if not thousands of those caliber athletes that are being developed in other sports and they're not being developed in soccer. I would generally agree with that.

I would, And I'm reminded how much Jerry West, when he was at the Warriors, was frustrated with Harrison Barnes, who's foot work and that was constant lamentum is And that is an aspect that can take you from a pretty good NBA player maybe something a little bit better. So I agree. I think people, for whatever reason, blanche at the idea that a lot of what what what's

good in sports is translatable. I don't know why. We could come up with various theories as to why, but I think they want to feel as though their sport is very, very special, and maybe that's what you're bumping up against is. And then you're also bumping up against the idea that oh of you know, ugly American, arrogant American blah blah blah blah blah. But I'm mostly with you.

It's very uh. For whatever reason, I was just so amused to see it become such a fight in people to be so so passionate about this, this hypothetical, and I enjoy it. I love conversations like the last last thing, and then we gotta run. Um sure, okay, So now the East. Let's say assume Kauai place, because I don't think you can sit for two straight years rank the East as quickly as you can. These are such tough questions. I think I would go, Oh, that's top. I mean,

I just flipped Boston and Philly in my mind. You know, I struggle. I struggle with both of those. I guess I'm gonna go Philly based on talent. I'll go Boston, and I'll go Toronto. And after that it gets a little bit it gets a little bit murky for me. But that's my top three. What is your top sie? I go Boston far and away number one. Oh, I go, you know what, I might bump up Indiana about Toroada. I might. I might just do it. I like what the Wizards have done. I kind of like what the

Bucks have done. I think the East is pretty good. Do I think it's as deep as the West? I don't. I do think we're forgetting how good if healthy Kyrie is and Gordon Hayward is, and assuming Jason tam improves in his second year, which he should, Jalen Brown continue has improved, I still put Boston one. I put put it with Marcus, with Marcus Smart coming back to uh, you know, maybe I slipped that. Maybe I go Okay, Now I'm all over the place. I like the Piecers,

like what the Pacers did a lot. I'm into the UM and I think Miles Turner is very underrated and still on the upswing. So I gotta say this idea that the Rappers are automatically the best in the East is not something I'm on board with, especially because we just don't know what we're getting from Kauai and with what motivation and they have brand new and they have brand new coach. And I like Nick I played for him, but I'll be interested to see House of Strauss is

the podcast etan great stuff, awesome conversation. Really appreciate you joining us, Thanks for having me. So that's it for this episode of All Ball. Make sure you subscribe, you download, you rate us. Listen to The Dug Gottlieb Show live on Fox Sports Radio daily three to six Eastern time, twelve to three Pacific in Stay tuned. Next week we'll have a great recap of the first couple of weeks of the open recruiting period, and we think, now that the dust is settled, will begin to take a look

at all that has changed the NBA rosters. Keep listening, We appreciate it. I'm Doug Gatland. This is all Boston. H