178. What full-time Kyrie can bring to the Nets

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And yes, we had a lot of stars missed the games for various reasons, but I still feel like we learned a lot. We're gonna get into a bunch of games. We're gonna get into Lakers sixers here at the start, and then we're gonna get into that game, that huge matchup between Katie and the Nets and the Grant in Memphis. After that, we're gonna get into the Jazz absolutely just

folding in Boston against the Celtics. And then for those of you guys who stick around for the end, we are going to talk about the Phoenix Suns, a big road win on in Minnesota. We're gonna get to all

of it. We're gonna start with the Lakers though, So obviously I was really looking forward to this game tonight because you know, obviously the Lakers are starting to build some positive momentum, right, you know, we get this big win on the road in Toronto, then yeah, you have this really disappointing loss in Washington, but they're in control for the vast majority of that game, and then they go win in Cleveland and look better than they have

all season, even with Anthony Davis for large stretches, because they just have a kind of an identity figured out, right, Like they're they've kind of leaned into this five out identity for a few months now, but the effort was super inconsistent, and they didn't really have the offense figured

out because they were playing all of these nonshooters. Well now they're playing all their young players, they're playing all their athletes, so they've got the five out identity, mixed with their best personnel, mixed with some effort in some belief, and as a result, we've been getting some good outcomes. Right, And so here we go to Philly at home on

a Wednesday night in the Crypto dot Com arena. I thought it was a really good opportunity for the Lakers to get a big win, especially since Philly has some very specific weaknesses. They're a better are basketball team in the Lakers, but they have a weakness with their transition defense, which we'll talk about in a minute. And they have a low foot speed which will typically cause them to have issues against five out teams that really spread them out.

And unfortunately, Lebron had to sit, and we're gonna get to that in a second because I'm gonna go positive on the whole Lebron sitting thing. But what you saw, which was really interesting is all of the things minus Lebron, everything that I just talked about, all of those things minus Lebron materialized tonight and as a result, you had a very competitive showing against that Philadelphia seventy sixers team. The Lakers played super fast up and down the floor.

They played incredibly hard when they got into the half court. It was a lot of driving, kick five out basketball and attacking matchups with Carmelo and with Russ and with Malik. That is the best way for this team to maximize it's set of talent, and as a result, you saw a competitive game. Obviously, they just didn't have the horses to win a game like that, especially without Lebron. With this team already struggling on the size front, that was

gonna be an issue. Obviously, the Lakers have to sharpen up a lot of things as well. We'll get a little bit deeper into some Laker stuff in a minute, but I did want to talk about the Sixers because something seems a little bit off with them, because, like we talked about in our power rankings just recently, they're starting to trend downward and some things are starting to not look right. James Harden is not looking anywhere near as good as he did in that first couple of games.

And what you're seeing is those weaknesses that I described start to be start to show up in a in a rather ugly manner. Teams know how to attack this team. So, for instance, if you've got James Harden, who was actually a pretty good athlete, but he's lazy, right, Like, he's not dedicated to sprinting up and down the floor. In transition.

You've got Joe lm Bead who's a very very good player and definitely cares about that kind of stuff, but he operates around the basket on offense, and he's slow footed in a straight line speed, so he can struggle in transition even you look further down the roster, like Danny Green. Danny Green is a great spot up shooter. He's great at defending bigger wings because he's got good

size and strengthen. He's a great positional defender, but he's not a great sprinter, Like he's not gonna sprint up and down the floor and hang with teams that play with a ton of pace. Georgia Sneeing another one of those guys, great shooter shoot from three, got good size, he rebounds well, but if you get him in a track meet, he's gonna be probably one of the two or three slowest guys on the floor. And so what you're seeing is, you know, five five out basketball is

like the half court version of transition. You have to cover the most space, and then transition is literally a foot race. So if you can get Philly in a position or they have to cover a ton of ground, they're going to struggle because they're just not a very fast team. And then in the half court, so for instance, if I got Joel Embiid and my defense is constructed around having Joel Embiid at the basket defending everything that

comes my way, but I'm running a five out sist him. Now, Obviously when Dwight Howard's on the floor doesn't work this way. But when when they're playing without Dwight Howard and they're playing five out with Lebron's at the five, or when you and Gabriel's at the five, or Carmelos at the five. Now Joel Embiid has to be in help side by leaving a shooter open on the perimeter so he can still protect the rim. But all it takes is one or two rotations before Joel Embiid has to close out

to the perimeter. And when he has to close out to the perimeter, now there's nobody on the back side that has that same rim protecting presence that Joel Embiad has. This is the issue with one dimensional teams. When you play a certain style. When you can keep the game in your style, when you can play really slow, keep things in the half court, they're gonna be really tough to beat. Joel Embiad and James Harden draw a ton

of fouls. All of the shortcomings that James Harden has as a postseason player, Joel Embiid counters a lot of that. They have a good amount of shooting, and then on the defensive end of the floor, and they have their defense set. They are very big and long and athletic right or they are a lot of they're not super athletic, but they're very long and all. So they can do a lot defensively in the half court. But if you can force them to change styles, that is where they

can start to fall apart. If you make them play your style, fast track, meet up and down the floor, five out basketball, it plays directly into their weaknesses and they start to have issues. And we've seen a ton of that as of late, and it's something to keep an eye on. One of their Note on the Sixers. You know this thing and I've been talking about this for weeks with them, they are the most appalling team in the NBA to watch because it's not basketball a

lot of the time. You know, when I say what what is basketball? I mean like playing the game the way that we all did from the time we were kids to the time that you're playing in your men's league or women's league or whatever it is you're doing now, whether you played in high school or college or not. Basketball is about putting the ball in the basket, within

a within a five on five concept basketball. You would never see a guy at the gym, you know, do the kdie rip through to try to draw two free throws. That's not basketball, right, And what you saw what you see so often with this team, and it actually hurts them on a lot of occasions, especially since the refs, you know, are allegedly supposed to be paying closer attention to this sort of thing. But they go, they deviate from playing basketball, and they start to do their gimmick

key bullshit, and it starts to hurt the team. There was a pivotal possession late I think it was early fourth quarter or James Harden's running transition and he's got Danny Green on his left side and Malik Monk's kind of closing out to James Harden at the top of the key. And when you Gabriel's back in transition defense, he did his job. He sprinted back to the rim because that's what he does, and he's super fast, great

transition big. So when you Gabriels waiting under the basket, Malik monks on James Harden, Danny Green is standing completely unguarded right to his left on the wing. James Harden, if he's playing basketball, will just make a swing pass to Danny Green, who is one of the all time great three points. You're especially in transition, used to kill

with that when he was with the Spurs. He did a lot with the Lakers as well, running to the corner great shooter instead of playing basketball and king that read. He drove into Malik tried to hook his arms when you and Gabriel's right there and help. He piles into when you in Gabriel's chest and just throws his arms arms up in the air and turns the ball over and in the process. I don't know, we don't know what it is yet. It's either a need a knee kind of deal, like like kneecap bruise, or like a

bruise in his thigh. He's fine. He came back to playing the game, but he heard himself doing it. So not only did he turn the ball over, not only did he miss his wide open teammate, but he got himself hurt just by doing gimmicky bullshit instead of playing basketball. And that's gonna always be my biggest pet peeve with that team. There's a huge difference between guys who draw fouls because they play basketball so well that teams have to foul them and guys that do gimmicky stuff to

try to draw fouls. That's the that's the huge difference. Jannis Antenna Coopo draws a ton of fouls because he's just ripping through and going to the basket like he's not looking for the whistle. He's just going to the basket, and people are hitting him because they can't keep him in front. Katie, it's the same thing. Katie's just doing his thing, operating with this dribble, get into his spots, and guys get out of position and they have to hack or Katie's gonna rise up and make shots. That's

a completely different type of foul drawing. What Kateie? What what? Joe Empiad and James Harden do is fake basketball. It disrupts the flow of their offense. It literally is. It goes against making normal basketball reads. And as we know, even though they can get foul calls in bunches during the regular season, we know that stuff just doesn't work

in the playoffs. And so if they don't get over that and start to play real basketball, that's gonna be an issue, especially you know, so much of this now is gonna come down on their defense and James Harden controlling the basketball, because, like I said, they have to set the tone. They have to control the pace, and in order for them to do that, they have to get a ton of stops to keep to keep their

defense set. And then on offense, they need James Harden to play slow and keep the ball in the half court. They have a formula. Their formula still works, and that formula, in conjunction with their talent, will give them a punch

or chance to beat anybody. But if you ask me what's the most likely outcome, I think the most likely outcome is they run into some team that directly attacks their weaknesses, runs them off the floor with their foot speed, and James Harden and Joel Embiid go down doing their bs that they always do. So moving on to the Lakers, first of all, shout out to the Lakers for actually trying.

This is the fourth game in a row where for the vast majority of the game they gave a really good effort, which obviously makes that Washington Wizards game so much more frustrating because what a blown opportunity that was. Like the Sixers game tonight, if Lebron plays Philly, probably comes a little bit more intense, and that game is still close. It's still is a tough one for them to win without Anthony Davis, but you damn well should have won that game at Washington. That was a huge

missed opportunity. But overall, this team is trending in the right direction in a lot of different ways. There's a belief there, there's a scheme that makes sense. They have settled on, for the most part, what their rotation is going to be in terms of the gout, the primary guys that are gonna play alongside Lebron, A d and Russ in various shifts at various moments of the game. They're starting to kind of round into form in so many different ways. So I get why it can be

frustrating to have Lebron and a Dan Street clothes. I get that, but I'm gonna go positive here. So obviously, the Lakers haven't played since Monday, so Lebron spent the night in Cleveland on Monday, so he didn't have to do rest on an airplane right that night. So he gets Tuesday completely off, he gets Wednesday completely off. The Lakers don't play Thursday, the Lakers don't play Friday, the

Lakers don't play Saturday. So he gets this full week basically to rest that knee for what's gonna be an incredibly difficult playoff run if they have the juice to do it, if they if they have, if they get past Phoenix and make a run at this, it's gonna

be incredibly grueling. They're gonna have to probably win a road playoff game single game elimination in New Orleans if they're very lucky that I'll be at home, but that's still a tough matchup, right then they're gonna have to go play whoever wins that other playing game to then have to play the Phoenix Suns. That's a grueling stretch of high level single elimination. And then and then uh, playoff basketball, So it's gonna be grueling. Giving Lebron some

time off is smart in my opinion. Now, Anthony Davis. Today was exactly five weeks to the day since Anthony Davis got hurt, and we've heard all kinds of reports that he's doing a ton of on court work. He actually looks pretty good when I've seen him. So the way I look at this, Anthony Davis is probably coming back in the next two or three games. Lebron is getting six days off. The identity of the team is coming into form. The rotation is starting to get narrowed

down to the right guys. Russ is playing better basketball than he has all season. He shot poor, like really poorly from the perimeter tonight, which I predicted. He shot like on jump shots in the previous three games. It was inevitable that that was gonna come down. He went two for ten tonight outside on jump shots. But outside of that specific thing, he finished around the rim great tonight. He applied a ton of rim pressure, still classic Russ stuff.

He was really bad defensively in the fourth quarter or whatever. We can get into that another time. But Russ is playing better now then he has this entire season. So with all of that coming together, the scheme, the players, the stars, you can actually start to see a like an actual functional route that the Lakers can take. There's a path taking shape. It's a narrow path, it's gonna be a very difficult path, but there's a path taking shape.

And that's very exciting. And that's why I wasn't too concerned about Lebron taking the night off tonight, even though I wanted to see him play. I think he's gonna I think Anthony Davis will be back soon. Lebron looks

great physically, whatever this knee injury was. Obviously there's issues with swelling and fluid that come with the knee, but as you guys have noticed watching the game, uh these games over the course of the last couple of weeks, it looks like he's regaining a lot of his explosiveness.

So whatever was going on with the knee, I and obviously we will probably learn a lot more about this knee issue when we get to the off season, just like he did with his ankle and with his groin, But he at least looks as explosive as he needs to in order to legitimately do what he needs to do to be, you know, playoff Lebron and to do everything that like because, like I said from from the All Star break, from the trade deadline, when they didn't make a deal, the only way this works now because

they their margin for air massively shrunk when they screwed up the off season and butchered all their signings. The only way this works now is if Lebron and Anthony Davis go on a playoff run for the Ages. They need to look like the first and second best players in the world in order for this to work. But Lebron very much looks like that guy right now. And Anthony Davis literally was destroying everybody he was playing in the handful of games before he hurt his foot, because

he looked lighter. He just looked he looked more confident, he was more mobile. Is his lift was better if he has that still when he comes back from this foot injury, and Lebron is still that guy, and Russ is a a slight net positive instead of a big net negative and they're playing their best players. Now we're talking about a team that legitimately has a chance. It's gonna be extremely difficult. They have the hardest path because they have to go through Phoenix in the plan, but

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really really interesting and entertaining game tonight in Memphis. I was very disappointed that John Moran didn't play. But you know, there's this interesting phenomenon that happens in the NBA, and I think you saw it a little bit in that Minnesota Timberwolves Sons game in the early stretches of the game,

when Minnesota was in control. When you have really the young teams that have a lot of athleticism and size, that are at home and that are motivated for whatever reason, they can be like a buzz saw that you're running into. You see this a lot in the NBA playoffs. Better team at home goes up two games to nothing. They're the better team, they're usually the older team, they're the higher seed, they have the veterans. Then they go on

the road. It's like the Calves when they go on the road when they go on the road to Indie, or the Miami Heat with Lebron when they go on the road to Indie, uh and play Game three when they're up two games to none. That raucous environment, super motivated team, young athletic feeding on the energy of the crowd. It is literally a buzz saw. And I remember seeing once upon a time a stat from Vega as somebody was looking at Vegas results of this kind of thing.

Underdogs game three down two oh at home. I think they win, like they covered the spread like six of the time. It's it's it's a there's data that backs this kind of thing up. Don't quote me on that specific number, but there is data that backs that kind of thing up. I think that's what happened at the Brooklyn Nets tonight. You have John Morant out, you had like all you have to do is look at the Memphis Grizzlies fans and the way they were acting on

Twitter all day. They were so excited for this game. The the the arena was electric. They like we talked about in the show on Monday night, when you sub John Morant out, who is not a good defensive player, even though he's very important to that team, he's not a good defensive player, you put another athlete on the floor. Obviously, when Tyas Jones was out there, it's not great either.

But when Thyas Jones was off the floor and they're playing, you know, they're basically letting Dylan Brooks are on the point. They are super super athletic. Now that even further makes that concept that I'm talking about more complicated, and you saw the basically the Nets run into the buzz saw, fall way behind. They gave up a million points in training.

I think they had twenty two fast break points that they gave up in the first half, and like eleven offensive rebounds, those are two stats that are irrevocably attached to effort and athleticism. If you're a bigger, stronger, faster team that's playing harder, they're gonna get a ship ton offensive rebounds and you're gonna run up and down the floor and get dunks. And that's what they did in that first half. Then the Nets settled down in the

second half and got to what they were doing. Through the entire game, Katie and Kyrie were getting whatever shot they wanted, even without Seth Curry as a spacing threat, even playing a lot of minutes of Andre Drummond and Bruce Brown in the front court, which we're gonna get to in a minute, but they were just getting whatever they wanted. So I knew as soon as they kind of tightened up some of those details, as soon as they started getting back in transition, as soon as they

started boxing out, they go on a run. And they did and the Nets. Actually, I think they went up one oh four, one of one. They kind of had control there for a minute, and then that buzz saw came back and their defense locked in. They got a bunch of stops and Desmond Bane made a bunch of threes to Anthony Melton made one. They made a bunch of threes in that fourth quarter run, and it was just too much for the Nets. I don't read too much into that. I'm still a huge believer in what

they do. For a couple of specific reasons I wanted to dive in. First of all, we got the word today that basically for the rest of the season, Kyrie Irving's gonna play in every home game. So I told you guys that while I was worried about that, it didn't count them out. For me. I still believed in them as a threat. So that even that takes it to another level. With Kyrie's availability, He's playing some of the best basketball of his careers. Had over a hundred

points in his last two games. Kyrie is clicking right now, so having him for every game is a huge asset. But what is so what is so fascinating to me about this team is the way they can get away with poor spacing. So we learned a lot about this over the course of the last few years with the Lakers. Right when you have guys like Dennis Schroeder or Russell Westbrook or Lebron James or Anthony Davis basket attackers, guys that their bread and butter is putting their head down

and going to the rim. Maybe Anthony Davis doesn't deserve that credit, that's another conversation. But for those other guys they get and put their head down to the rim. Spacing is via totally important for those guys because spacing means driving lanes. Spacing means I just have to beat my guy off the dribble and maybe one help defender

instead of driving into a thicket of bodies. But Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are uniquely equipped to handle tight space environments because of their polish in their ability to create shots off the dribble. So, for instance, if I made any slasher play basketball with Andre Drummond and Bruce Brown on the floor, they would have absolutely no luck getting to the basket. They would struggle with that throughout

the game. It would be a problem for them, you know, especially like early Lebron before he became a jump shooter, he would have really struggled with something like that. But Katie and Kyrie, because they are at their most comfort beating one defender in a one on one situation to get to a ten to fifteen foot jump shot, they

don't care how many bodies are under the basket. They will they go to the basket as a counter, they'll drive to the raim and try to finish a layup here and then as a counter to their bread and butter, which is operating in that mid range space. A great example of this was Kobe Bryant in the late two thousands.

You know, with with Paugasol and Andrew buying him. You know, the Paugasol and Andrew buying him, they clogged things up in there, which is so good for the defensive end and for their offensive rebounding, their ability to control the paint. But Kobe's ability to functionally operate in that mid range space when there was no space to operate under the basket is why he was the perfect star for that team, and it's why that team was the best team in

the league over that stretch. It's a very interesting concept that I've had to feel like because I've been concerned about that Andre Drummond Bruce Bound fit for a while. Whether or not that would become an issue now will be We'll see over time, because maybe when they get James Johnson in there, some of these other guys, let's

say seth or he does get hurt. It'll be interesting to see if a better defensive team that's got a little bit more length and athleticism, if like a like a Milwaukee Bucks or a Miami Heat, if a team like that can find a way to make them pay more. But it's the ability, the luxury of keeping Bruce Brown and Andre Drummond on the floor. That's defense guys, that's rebounding, that's physicality that raises the physical profile of those lineups. That that makes it so that Katie and Kyrie don't

have to carry as much of a load. I'm a big, big believer in what they've got going on. I I don't care that they lost tonight in Memphis. I still think their top tier contender absolutely very well could be the team holding the title. They're not my number one pick. I'm probably gonna go with Phoenix still, but Brooklyn I have them right there with Boston, like right underneath Phoenix. Really a couple quick notes on the Grizzlies. No, they're

not better without John Morant. We went over this last night. It's great that they keep winning these games of fifteen and two now without John Rant. It's week schedule up until tonight. Tons of size and athleticism defense that will manufacture wins in the regular season. But the Nets are not a great defensive team. They actually had a really bad defensive night, even though they've been pretty good defensively overall.

Against a really good defensive team, a team like Boston, if you don't have a guy like John Morant, they can break the team down off the dribble at the start of possessions. Their offense is going to completely fault to pieces. So I I I like Memphis. It's their cool story. They need John Morant in order to have any chance, and I still have them like they're they're they're on level below the Boston's and the Brooklyn's and the teams that have like a real chance to win

the title. Alright, moving on to the Jazz Celtics, so really quickly on this one. So the Celtics continue to just completely beat the ship out of everybody they're playing, including good teams they wanted to Denver and demolished. On the other night, they demolished the Jazz Tonight, I said.

I mentioned a while back that when we did our first power rankings, I think it was like a month ago, and I talked about how the Celtics were playing so incredibly well, but that Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown weren't making threes. They were both shooting like thirty from three over that span when they were doing so well, and so I was like, wait till they start making shots like this could get even crazier. Well, Tatum in the last three weeks of shooting damn near from three, and

then tonight Jalen Brown was making them. Tatum and Brown tonight went eight for four from three. They lit the Jazz on fire. There was nothing they could do with them. But the most interesting subplot about that entire game to me was not only are the Celtics really good, but there their identity, their specific style of play, switching everything five out basketball directly attacks what the Jazz do well. Like we talked about earlier with Joel embiid Oh, I'm

not gonna get into it again. In five out basketball, when you're driving and kicking, you can get a guy like Rudy Gobert out of the paint on a rotation or two, which generates space to get to the rim. That's the advantage of having Al Horford in the corner and Robert Williams setting the high ball screen. There's nobody under basket and that just opens things opens things up and makes Rudy Gobert cover in space. But most importantly,

the Utah Jazz are a screen and roll offense. Almost everything they do offensively involves a high screen with Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell trying to create stuff off of that. The only guy they have that does, the only guys they have that do isolation are Jordan Clarkson and bog Boyan Bogdanovich, and they're just not very great. They're not very good basketball players. They're gonna play isolation basketball against really good scores. They're gonna lose those matchups

on most nights. So when you switch these high ball screens that involved Conley and and Donovan Mitchell, it disrupts everything that they do. Offensively, and it kind of turns them into a It kind of turns them into a jump shooting team. You know, Donovan Mitchell's taking like eleven threes a game over this last couple of months. That's for for for their best score are you believe their best athlete, the guy that's supposed to be living at

the rim, that's really dependent on jump shooting. Which kind of takes me to one kind of larger topic that I wanted to hit on that I think is relative to all of these teams and a lot of the things we've been talking about lately, because we have, you know, this up and coming class of centers, right, like we have Joel Embiid and we have Nicola Yoki's, two players that many folks think there are the best players in

the league, this this revival of the centers. And then we have these really good guards, right We've got John Murray, We've got Donovan Mitchell. You know, we've got these up and coming guards in the league. But then we've got our wings. We've got our Janice Lebron and Kevin Durant, who have seemingly followed by the wayside in these conversations

about who the best players in the league are. And what blows me away that people keep glancing over with this kind of thing is those guys, those big guys, those are those wings. They don't have weaknesses that you can directly attack. I can run on Oil Embiide and Nicola Yokich all day long. They're way too slow. I can put them in a five out system and make them rotate on the perimeter and massively limit their defensive effect. You're not gonna getting a track meet to beat Lebron,

Kevin Durant and Joannice. They're gonna win the track meet. You're not gonna make Lebron, Janice and and k D guard too much on the perimeter. They're gonna lock people up out there going to the guards. This is the This is the key. This has been one of my biggest issues with Steph, and I got in trouble saying this years ago. We won't get into it, but the thing with Steph is when you're a smaller guard, you

can't rely on your physicality to create shots. So when you're switching defenses right and those screen and roll actions don't work, all of a sudden, you're looking at a

guy eye to eye and you have to score. Now, what made Steph Curry so great is he could also do that to a certain extent, right, But all these other small guards like Donovan Mitchell and and you know, Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley, like, if they're in an isolation situation against the set elite defense with all the wings and help and everything, they're gonna struggle to create

their own shot because they're small. Whereas if I'm Lebron and it's the pivotal possession of the game and the crowd's going crazy and it's with three minutes left and there's eight seconds left on the shot clock, I'm fighting for a position at fifteen feet. I'm leaning on you with my two seventy pound frame. I'm catching the ball and I'm fading over either shoulder, and I know I'm

getting that shot off. That's the advantage of that. These wings, these hyper versatile Swiss army knife wings that we have Kevin Durant, Janie and Lebron, they are the best players in the league. That archetype will always be the most functional archetype to succeed in any basketball environment. We got way too ahead of ourselves with these big guys, and we always get way to us ahead of ourselves with these little guards. Don't forget that the Wings are the

guys that run the league. All right, Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk about the Sons and the Wolves. So another team that the Timberwolves played that was a uh, you know, top to your team, right, or whatever you wanna called playoff team. And like we talked about, every time they've played one of these teams, there's been a star missing, and once again tonight they get to play one of them without a star Chris

Paul at home, and they lost. And they lost for a lot of the reasons that I have been hammering home about these two teams in particular, Like I told you guys, one of my biggest fears with Minnesota, I like Carl Anthony Towns is a huge matchup problem, even though he's not a great defensive player. They have so much athleticism on the wings with uh, they have so much athleticism on the wings now that it kind of

covers for that. Everything in the front court for the Timberwolves I like a lot, but they have two volatile guards in the back court. They've got D'Angelo Russell, and they've got Anthony Edwards, who's young. The two of those guys tonight combined for twenty five points, seven rebounds, and eleven assists combined, and they went ten for twenty six from the field and three for thirteen from three. Those are the guys determining the outcome of most of these

possessions for the Timberwolves. And I really like Anthony Edwards. I think he's gonna be a great player one day, but he's young. Young guards. Decision making is the number one thing young guards struggle with. They don't see the floor well enough yet. Anthony Edwards is way too reliant on his jump shot at this point in his career. That's something he's gonna learn as he gets older. And then D'Angel Russell, He's fine. D'Angel Russell's fine. He's just he's a what what what will we call him? A

league average starting guard? Right? Like? He's fine. Like he's not gonna be the guy that's going to go toe to toe with Devin Booker. Hell no, certainly not Chris Paul. He's not gonna go toe to toe with Steph Curry. He's not gonna go toe to toe with John Moran. That backcourt is gonna be what inevitably spells the doom of this Minnesota Timberwolves team. And that's the part that they got to figure out. I don't know who they can go for, but that's gonna be the piece that

they have to build out. Love the front court, love all the athleticism, love car Anthony Towns. They got to figure out the back court. And then with the sons. I keep telling you, guys, DeAndre Ayton and Mikhail Bridges are the future stars of this team. Well, DeAndre Ayton tonight thirty five and fourteen, he's averaging one point zero six points per possession on post ups, which is the same as Lebron this year. That's how good of a

post player DeAndre Ayton has been in a small role. Well, he's not getting touches to build rhythm, and all he's allowed to do is should jump books, which has been awesome. That that like power dribble, little turning right hand jump book. He can make it out to like ten feet now too, It's crazy. He like there was this whole conversation earlier this season about whether or not Robert Sarvers should pay him the max. If they let him go, that is

a catastrophic mistake. The future of this team is Devin Booker, Nicle Bridges, and DeAndre at you get rid of Chris Paul before you get rid of DeAndre Campaign was awesome again to night. Campaign is always awesome. Campaign is a really good backup guard to have to get dribble penetration and stuff. We talked about this a lot in previous podcast.

You find any other option before you get rid of DeAndre Ayton, he and he gives you the best option to hang with the big he's especially with the Yokiches and the Embides out there and the honest is out there, you need to have somebody like that that can hang with these bigger bodies. I think it would be absolutely insane if they let Deandreton go. I think he's a star in the making. He's he's so good that it's not that stupid that the Sons didn't take Luca instead.

That's how good Deandreton has been. He's averaging over twenty points since the Chris I think he's averaging right around twenty points since the Chris Paul injury on like sixty percent shooting. That's just outrageous numbers alongside all of the talent that's on that roster. The Phoenix Suns top the bottom, are by far the most talented team in the league. And they have a guy who can create shots for the shots first teammates and a guy who create shots

firms self. That's why I think they're the favorites right now. One last note before we get out of here on Devin Booker, and just kind of applies to John Morant as well. But once again, we had a statement. I gosh, I think it was Isaiah Thomas. I think it was Isaiah Thomas, can't remember. Somebody, somebody famous, some NBA player said something about how Devin Booker should be in the

m v P conversation. And then Devin Booker quoted the tweet and said, like, yeah, but they changed the criteria for based on your name, and I wanted to talk about that, but just a minute, because it's something that bothers me. You know, everybody's got different criteria for m v P, that's clear. But there are a couple of things that we've all kind of agreed on, you know,

like one, we care about team record. We want to have the best player on the best team in the league, right, and then two, we want, you know, the guy who's the most valuable. What happens when that guys off the floor? How does it impact how reliant is the team on that guy. That's part of it. But the last part, and it's always been something that I thought is important, is the guy's gotta be one of the best players in the league. Like the guy's gotta be in the

conversation for best player in the league. Those are the criteria for the m v P in my opinion, And Devin Booker and John Moran are having unbelievable seasons. I do not want to undercut that to any extent. You guys have heard me say I think John Moran is better than Russell Westbrook ever was. That's how high I revere that guy. I think John Moran is better than Derrick Rose, uh, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, any of those guys. He's the evolutionary next step in that in that type

of archetype of hyper athletic point guard. I love John Moran. He's not a top tier superstar. I really like Devin and Booker one of the most polished scorers we have

in the league. I've said on the show, he was one of the few bright spots ins when Chris Paul was fading, when DeAndre Aton was struggling with foul trouble, when they were getting run rough shot over by by by Johannis Antenna Coopo, when all that was crumbling around them in the four losses, there was this guy on Phoenix, Devin Booker, who's showing some flashes of all time great scoring over an unbelievable defensive player and Drew Holiday. That's

how much I revere those guys. But they're closer to the tenth player in the league, tenth best player in the league, than they are to the first best player in the league, which to me automatically disqualifies them from m v P guys. Let's be honest, why are the Phoenix Suns in the Memphis Grizzly so good? Is it because Devin Booker and John Moran are m vps or is it because those two teams are incredibly talented. It's

because they're incredibly talented. The Memphis Grizzlies are unbelievably athletic and big job. Jaren Jackson Jr. Literally looks like the next version of Anthony Davis on some nights, you know, Desmond Bains having kind of like a weird Clay Thompson mixed with Shawn Marion slashing defending type of season. He's awesome, you know. And then Phoenix, I literally just said, is the most talented team in the entire NBA. So it's

awesome that John Rand Devin Book are playing well. But those teams are not winning because those guys are m vps. Those teams are winning because they're incredibly talented. There are much much better m VP candidates out there who are on teams with really good records, who are also immensely valuable to the product that the team is putting on the floor, and are comfortably in the conversation for best player in the world. Those are the guys that should

be considered at this point. I love Devin Book or John Morant, just this ain't your year, guys, and that's it's okay. Maybe one day, if you get better, maybe one day on a on a in a different situation, you can have that consideration. But I I'm not gonna lose any sleep over those two guys not being in the m v P conversation. Alright, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate you guys taking the time to come hang out. We have a few

nights off here. We will be back on Sunday. As always, I appreciate your support and I'll see you in a few days. The volume