Episode 10: Harden, Kyrie, LeBron and Mailbag

and we're gonna do a season preview. That's what I'll give most of my thoughts about who I think is gonna win, which conference, you know, which players I think are gonna be you know, uh, set up for specific awards, and and just basically all of your typical prediction stuff

for the NBA season. Like I said, Friday at about eleven o'clock for that one, Um, today, I'm going to be touching on this this whole fiasco with James Harden, and then I'm gonna be touching on this Kyrie thing with the media, and then a bunch of the stuff that Lebron talked about in his most recent podcast with r J and Channing on that road on the road trip in podcast, I thought he had a lot of interesting things to say, a lot of stuff that that

we can really dive into. And then I had quite a few good questions um that were asked at the tweet that I sent out earlier today, which I'll respond to those as well. But again, thank you guys for jumping for jumping on and and hanging out for a little bit. Um. Let's get started with James Harden. So this James Harden fiasco is similar but different to a lot of the different star Power um you know flexes in the player empowerment movement here in the last ten years.

It's similar in the sense that it's the same basic structure. Player with multiple years left on his contract decides that he no longer wants to play where he's playing, uh, privately declares that he wants to be traded, doesn't really say much publicly, and then privately releases a list of teams that he deems are uh, you know, satisfactory to him, even though in this particular case he doesn't have any leverage.

And so what we've heard from woaeses that he wants to go to Brooklyn, and we know that he wants to go to Philly. The big difference between this one and the ones that we've seen elsewhere are that Harden has made his own dead and that's the hardest thing for me to try to sympathize with him on and for the record, I am one of the biggest hardened detractors that you'll meet on NBA, Twitter or really anywhere

that you go to talk basketball. I don't like the guy I personally, I I basketball is very sacred to me. Basketball has not not just as a fan, not just as somebody wants who wants to watch the game. But basketball has done great things for me. It's paid for my school, it's it's prevented me from having massive amounts of college debt. It's opened doors for me that that have made my life easier, and I'm eternally rateful for that.

And James Harden bastardizes basketball in my opinion, Like I've said on many times before, I think he commits basketball blasphemy. He does things that hurt the health of the game. And I think it's good that he has failed as often as he has because it prevents the things that he has done from becoming mainstream. I never have hidden from that. So it's important for us to, you know, start from there, so that everybody understands that where I

come from in my individual bias in that regard. That said, even in within that lens, I still think what James Harden is doing here is different from what these other stars have done. If you look at Kawhi Leonard, you know that's the team he was drafted by, and you know he never really had a chance to be a free agent and choose where he wanted to go. He didn't like his role on that particular team. He didn't like the way the team was managing his injury. Even

with Paul George, same exact thing. He had a private agreement with the upper management of Oklahoma City like, Hey, I'm gonna resign here, but if I don't like it, like, let's work something out with the trade And in the okay See front office agreed with him on that. James Harden willingly signed his future into uh into the Houston Rockets organization at an extremely high salary, and he willingly committed to them. There was no expectation that he would

want out in the middle of the contract. In addition to that, he has dictated the vast majority of their player movement le UHUM decisions over the last few years. It was him that decided that CP three wasn't a good fit. It was him who publicly went into a press conference after that season and said, I know what we need to fix. We need to and basically subtly hinted at not so subtly hinted at the fact that

he wanted Chris Paul out of there. We now have heard after the fact that you know through back channels that Russell Westbrook was not happy with what he had going on in UH. In Houston, James Harden has made his own bed, and so from that, from that stame

point really difficult to sympathize with his plight. So if I'm Houston, I'm sitting there and I'm saying I've got him under contract for two years, and you know that third year as a player option, that is such a massive number that regardless of where James Harden ends up, there's actually a pretty good chance that he ends up accepting that player option, especially given what we know with the stuff with China and the stuff with COVID in the way it's impacted the way the salary cap has

gone up each year UH potentially moving forward. So the reality is is James Harden has no leverage and he's just throwing his he fit because he doesn't like the bed that he made for himself. And so from that standpoint, like I said this on Twitter the other day, you know, I feel a great deal of vindication from the last few years watching the way in which James Harden performed in the playoffs and the way in which his team fell short, because it justified the way I felt about

him as a basketball player. My basketball related takes about James Harden, we're proven to be right based on those results. But this incident is an example. It's vindication for the people who didn't like the kind of guy that James Harden was. The reality is is the reason why he plays basketball the way he does is because of his personality. He is a guy that cares more about himself than the team. He is a guy that cares more about his own personal experience as a member of the Houston

Rockets rather than that ultimate team goal. Now he's so good that he nearly accomplished the team goal. I'm not

trying to undercut his basketball successes. I'm just saying it's it's it's it's been refreshing for all of us who suspected that this was the kind of guy he is to see, you know, the comparison between the way he's handled this, in the way that Russell Westbrook has handled this, or the way that CP three has handled this, or the way that all of these other stars who have been put into circumstances that are less than ideal the

way that they've chosen to handle their circumstance. And I think I think that, you know, I'm a big believer that people inevitably will tell on themselves. I think that if you're a certain type of person, you can put forward a an image for a certain amount of time, but inevitably you're going to reveal who you really are. And that's what James Harden is doing right now. But again, like that that that's just my opinion on the actual

Harden saga in and of itself. The reality is that James Harden is a top ten player in the NBA. I think he I think I put him at eight in my list, so I had him above Yokich and um Dame I believe at nine and ten. And so the reality is this, here's a top ten player in the NBA who realistically can be had in a trade this season, and so it's time. If you're one of those teams who has never really had an opportunity to

sign a star. If you're one of those teams that when big free agent money is available and big free agent classes are available, you're incapable of signing those players. Uh, this is the kind of guy that can be had,

And so too. I think there's two my talk surrounding Brooklyn and Philadelphia as the inevitable trade destinations for James Harden, ignoring the fact that Houston's gonna trade if if you know anything about Tillman for Tita, if you know anything about this new general manager that's in the situation who would probably like to start fresh, They're not beholden to trade James Harden anywhere. They can trade him wherever they want to trade him, especially considering the fact that he's

tied up for two probably three years. So from that standpoint, you've got to learn from the history of the NBA in the sense that risks are the only way to eventually accomplish your ultimate goal, and our last two champions are the best example of that. The Los Angeles Lakers traded away a great deal of draft control. The Los Angeles Lakers traded away almost all of their young talent.

The Los Angeles Lakers traded all of that away for a player who had missed the playoffs five of the previous seven years, who had had some injury concerns, and you know, just in general was oh, he's only locked up for one year. You only had one of remaining on his contract before player options. So there was a risk.

The Los Angeles Lakers took a risk trading for Anthony Davis, and it paid off because what we've learned about NBA his in throughout NBA history is if you can put multiple, you know, top ten NBA players on the same team, you have a chance to win an NBA championship. And that's what happened. Go back a year further here we have Toronto. It's an even crazier risk when you factor in Kauai's situation. He hadn't played basketball in over a year. He was dealing with what a lot of people thought

was a degenerative knee issue. He was dealing with you know, Popovich and a lot of his teammates saying he was a bad leader in the public, that that that uh Kawhi Leonard situation was a much worse situation than the Anthony Davis situation. It was a much bigger risk than the the Anthony Davis trade, and Toronto pulled the trigger anyway. And I mean now in retrospect we can parse out whether or not san Antonio got hosed in that deal, and I think we can all agree that they definitely did.

But the reality is is they could have lost Kawhi Leonard for nothing the following summer. Kawhi Leonard could have come in and gotten hurt again. Kawhi Leonard could have come in and been like, Hey, my knees still messed up. I think I'm just gonna sit out for the entire season and then blame it on an injury. Or he could have been healthy and just pulled the straight up boycott like he threatened to at one point in the media.

I can't remember whether it was his uncle or his agent, but he basically privately threatened, Hey, if you don't trade me to l A, I might sit out this season. So the point being is Toronto took a big risk in going after Kawhi Leonard and it paid off and then winning an NBA championship. So your last two NBA champions are teams that took significant risks and it ended

up paying off in them winning a title. Now that also comes with another side of the coin that means you can very well trade for that guy and it might not work out. But my question for you if you're in that fringe contender list and the and the list that I've it out today was Denver, you know, Toronto Philly. Teams like that that are you know, they're really really good, but they're not good enough to beat the Lakers. They're not good enough to beat you know,

the other top tier teams around the league. The reality is is you're probably gonna lose with whoever your core is right now anyway. So you have to ask yourself, would I'd rather lose by pushing all my chips into the middle and taking a legitimate, you know, potential path to a title that may may go off the rails, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe we get to hoist the trophy.

Or do you stick with the status quo with the team that you know isn't enough to beat the more talented teams in the league, but you know, maintain your culture all those things that you keep telling yourself as the reason why you won't go after James Harden and so from that same point, Like if I was one of those French contenders, if I was one of those teams that had a lot of talent and you know it wasn't really going anywhere these last few years, I

would be I would be more. I would be looking really really hard at what I have and whether or not this is feasible, And I would throw something at James Harden because he's locked up under contract for like I said, probably three years. If you look at that massive I think it's almost fifty million dollars he's gonna get paid in that third year. I'm guessing he's gonna

take that option. So the reality is, you could lock up James Harden long term and give yourself a legitimate chance to win a title, and if it goes poorly, if he comes in and tries to ruin your culture, you get to trade him again. You can trade him again after this season. He's gonna have just as much value with one year left on his deal as he does with two two years left on his deal. Somebody's gonna want him. I think it's I think it's a risk that somebody out there needs to take. M HM.

And the reality is, like I said, You're not winning the title unless you take some kind of risk. So whether it's you know, whether it's Denver trying to throw Jamal Murray, because like if you swap Jamal Murray for for James Harden and you know, give up Michael Porter Jr. Yeah, you're giving up some young talent. You know, Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray is is a is a star level player who is locked up under contract. It's kind of thing

that Houston has been asking for. You give up some draft picks, You give up Michael Porter Jr. Sounds like a lot. But now I've got your kitchen Harden on the same team. Now I've got two of the most versatile, skilled, uh you know, offensive creators in the league on the same team. That's something that's something that I can build around. That's something that has a legitimate chance to win a title.

You know, But it's a risk. You could potentially ruin your culture, you could potentially set yourself up for failure. But the the truth of the matter is, ask yourself, if you're a Nuggets fan, am I winning a title? Whichamal Murray and Nicola Yokich And the answer is probably not unless there's catastrophic injuries to several teams in the league. So those are the kinds of risk that I'm talking about that I think teams need to at least look

at as it pertains to James Harden. Alrighty, we're gonna talk about Kyrie here in a second. So, um, Kyrie Irving came out a couple days ago release the statement basically said, you know, because of this incident recently where I feel like the media has been twisting my words, I'm gonna be releasing a statement to convey, you know, my thoughts on this season. And it was very you know, like uh even kosher and very safe, very safe statement.

Then that same day, Brian Windhorse comes out and says, Kyrie has made it clear that he's not talking to the media this year. And as is usually the case, Kyrie kind of reminds me a little bit of LaVar Ball. Not the same kind of guy. They're totally different stories, but it's a similar dynamic in terms of the intellectual conversation surrounding the two guys in that they have undisputed success. LaVar Ball has put three kids in the NBA. One of them, we'll see if he actually makes the opening

day roster. But he's put three kids in the NBA. Three kids have signed NBA contracts. Like that's undeniable success his brand, I'm not I'm not sure how big baller brands doing anymore, but I'm sure he's made a great deal of money. LaVar Ball is a success story, and a lot of times that is you used to cover up the fact that he's done a lot of stuff that I don't think is okay morally. I think he's, you know, he's he's There's been some examples of misogyny.

There's been some examples of I, in my opinion, taking you know, the spotlight off of his children in a way that I didn't think was uh necessarily the right thing to do. But the truth of the matter is, like I wish people were more honest and when they were talking about LaVar Ball to cover both sides. Yes, he was a success story, he also did some stuff that I think isn't right. I think that should be the way that we discussed this stuff. Kyrie kind of

falls into that same boat. He's an undisputed success story. He's got a Nike shoe deal. As Lebron was saying in that road trip in podcast. A Nike shoe deal is nothing to slout chat. It's an extremely uncommon thing that Nike gives out. Not only does he have a Nike shoe deal, his shoe deal is doing. It's his shoes performing extremely well. Kyriees are one of the most popular basketball shoes out there. Although funny side story, for whatever reason, I've never owned a pair of Kyriees. Don't

have any idea why. It's just just kind of you know, by happenstand But anyway, the point is is, you know, he's doing very well in that department. He's one of the best ball handlers in the history of the league, if not the best. He's hit arguably the biggest shot in NBA history. Kyrie Irving is an NBA success story, but because of his incessant, you know, flapping of the gums and not thinking about what he says before he talks.

On various occasions throughout his career, he's put his foot in his mouth and he's done stuff that has made

him look bad. And in addition to that, he has absolutely, flat out, unequivocally been a bad teammate in several instances, not always, He's been a good teammate sometimes, but he's his you know, his personality is flaky, and it's kind of an emotional roller coaster in the respect that on any given situation, if he goes into one of his you know, moody seasons, like he can pull away from the team, he can make questionable comments to the press,

He can, you know, do things that fracture the chemistry and culture of a locker room. That is a fact about Kyrie, and it bothers me that with Kyrie we can't have that honesty and just focus on the good

and the bad. You know, I would like to think that if if a couple of my friends, for whatever reason, sat down and had an honest conversation about me, they could sit and talk about the things that they like about me, and they could sit and talk about the things that I do that they disagree with for whatever reason. You know that that that's a normal part of human conversation. No one's perfect. Everybody brings things to the table that

are positives. Everybody brings things to the tables that are negative. And and the reality is is that Kyrie Irving has made some mistakes in his career, and so that's what bothers me so much about this most recent saga because one of my biggest pet peeves is people who think they're above the struggle. The reality is is everybody experiences some amount of struggle. It's not equal. Some people experience

more struggle, some people experience less struggle. Not really going to dive into that, but it bothers me when people think they're above that in their particular path in life that they chose. Being an NBA player is awesome. You get lots of money, you get lots of fame, you get to literally play a game for a living, you get to do all of these things that that that seemed like a dream existence for all of us working folks out there, or you know, doing a lot less

fun thing for a limit. But the truth of the matter is an NBA player's life is not all perfect. It comes with downsides. You know. It comes with Ricky Rubio getting traded. You know, Uh, he signs a multi year deal with Phoenix, wants to settle his family there and bam they ship him off to Okay. See who

bam shifts him off to to Minnesota. That's a negative part of the NBA player experience, you know, there's wear and tear on your body, There's risk of injury, there's you know, most NBA players end up dealing with joint problems when they're older. There's a lot of downsides to choosing this path in life, and one of them is the intricate relationship between the NBA media and the NBA player. The reality is is that the m A media is part of what makes the n B a a cash cap.

The reason why the NBA generates so much revenue is because of the power of their stars, and their stars have a great deal of power because they're marketed so well, and they are marketed so well as a combination of the media and just their on court performance. But the media is part of that experience. And so I'm not an expert on the way the player contract works, but as far as I know, I'm pretty sure there are there's terminology in the contract that requires these players to

communicate with the media. Why Because the NBA knows that they need Kyrie Irving's face in interviews on camera, doing these sorts of things to try to be uh, to try to expand his profile and make himself a larger figure in the NBA landscape. And so from that standpoint, it bothers me. The Kyrie Irving thinks he's above that, and the reality is as it comes with the downside, every single NBA player in the entire league, at least stars, have had something they said or something they did covered

unfairly by the media. It has literally happened to every single star. Kyrie is not unique in that regard. He's had some recent instances that are not really fair. But the truth of the matter is that's part of the NBA player experience because in the same way that NBA players are not perfect, in the same way that Kyra Irving has made mistakes in his career, the NBA media is not perfect, and they have made mistakes in their careers.

And while there are some guys in the NBA that you know, make dirty plays or or have bad attitudes and fracture locker rooms and all the different bad things that they can do, it's also possible for a journalist who works in the NBA to misrepresent a statement or to flat out lie in some cases. But you do

the same thing that every other NBA player does. When that stuff happens, you refute it and you tell them why they're wrong, and you defend yourself and then you understand that for the most part, nine plus percent of the time him when you say stuff, the NBA will the NBA media will treat you fairly. That struggle that Kyrie has experienced is the same struggle that every other NBA star deals with with the NBA media. So that's why I don't like in his you know, insistence on

feeling like he's above that. And so, you know what, go ahead, if you want to skip on press conferences, if you want to release statements and do it that way, that's fine. I just think the NBA is well within their rights to you know, find him, to find some way to to try to hold him to his player contract. It's a similar thing to the James Harden thing. James Harden can hold out all he wants, James Harden can

miss training camp all he wants. The reality is, though, per the contract, there's recourse, and I think the teams are well within their rights to find them and to do whatever it takes to get them to stick to their original agreement per the contract. That's just part of being a grown up. It's literally part of how a life works, and and it just like I said, it's just I'm not not cool with him being viewed as above that. And you know what's fun is the NBA

media relationship. There's all of there's always a focus on the examples where a player says something and it's misrepresented, but we always just forget about the times when the NBA media says something through good reporting and then the player denies it publicly, and then time ends up showing that the original reporting was correct. How many times in NBA history have you seen star A requests to trade you know, journalists reports it, you know, whoever it is

that reports it. Star A then immediately goes on a social media account denies it, and then all of a sudden we find out it's true or it's abundantly clear to all of us who are watching the situation, like, oh, these two guys don't like each other. Report comes out, these two guys don't like each other. These two guys then go on their social media and go, we are brothers, we love each other. And the next thing you know, they get traded a from each other and they look

way happier when they're not around each other. So there that relationship goes both ways. Players lie, players are dishonest. That's just part of that dynamic if if you know, the media is always going to be an imperfect system and and and no one is immune to that struggle. Like I was saying earlier, Alright, we're gonna talk about Lebron's podcast with our Jane Shanning on the road trip and podcast. Alrighty, so there was all sorts of good

stuff in that Lebron podcast with r Jane Shanning. That's what happens when you get some tequila flowing. And that's what happens when you get guys like our Jane Shanning, who are you know, very They don't take themselves seriously. They're very uh, easy going, relaxed, funny, you know, lighthearted, that sort of thing. That sort of thing always finds a way to get people around them to kind of meet them at their level. It's say, it's contagious. I've

always people are contagious. If we spend time around people who are who are condescending and rude and talk a bunch of ship, chances are you're gonna like eventually kind of delve into that a little bit yourself. Spend time around people who are really happy. It will it will inevitably rub rub off on you. That's what happens with R. Jane Shannon. You get it. You get into a room

with those guys, and these stars just lighten up. They become the funny, free flowing, you know, locker room version of themselves, and then all this good stuff comes out, and it'll led you a lot of good stuff from

from Lebron. But I want to start with the Kyrie comments because I think it's actually super interesting and I'm gonna call Lebron out on a little bit of hypocrisy here, because Lebron goes on this long speel where he basically says that you know, Kyrie uh made his comments saying that Kevin Duran was the first player he played with

who he trusted to make a last second shot. So Lebron says that he wants to find the full transcript to find out exactly what he says, and then he calls his people and then he finds out that it's it is as bad as it sounds, and then he go, damn, I was really upset. It hurt me a little bit. I can't believe that, you know all I did was trying to help Kyrie and lift him up and and this is the way he's treating me now. And then later on in the same podcast, he basically did the

same thing to Janice. And I know they're not teammates, but the point is is like it's it was a little bit hypocrisy in my opinion. So Janice just got done an interview in Greece where he's saying Lebron's praises like we've never seen, calling him the best player in the world, calling him the player he'd most likely would want to win m v P if he didn't win it. A guy he roots for, a guy he looks up to, a guy he looked up to a lot when he

was younger. Janice just absolutely just showered Lebron with love in that interview with Greece, and then in his podcast with r J and Shanning, he goes out of his way to basically defend Shanning fry By for saying that Janice can't score, and in the reality is just like I agree, honest can't score, at least in the context of what Channing was trying to say, which is which is playoff half court scoring, which is extremely difficult, and

Janice definitely has a weakness there. But the point is is Lebron went public with the fact that he believes that you're honest can't score or at least he understands what Channing was trying to say when he was saying that. So my point is is, like, you can't really necessarily get mad at Kyrie for saying something that bothered you, uh you know, that you thought was disrespectful and inaccurate, and then you kind of turn around and go do the same thing to be honest. You know that that

that's the hypocrisy in that regard. But again that's like, that's that's part of that uh NBA media relationship. Players make mistakes too, you know, Like Lebron is the kind of guy he says, I found it uninterrupted to make sure that my words don't get you know, parsed out and and taken out of context and all this stuff. But the truth is is, like Lebron, sometimes you contradict yourself to That's part of the game. No one's perfect, but like it goes, it goes both ways. That's part

of that relationship. You know, you're not perfect, you know, Dave McManaman is not perfect. Brian win Horse is not perfect. Adrian mor Zanowski is not perfect. Those guys are gonna make mistakes. That part of that relationship. You guys all need each other, the players in the media need each other for the league to succeed, Alright. So the last one, there's obviously so much to talk about from that podcast, But the last one I really want to touch on

is this Katie and Steph thing. So r J basically brings up the Katie Lebron relationship, the fact that there's a lot of mutual respect there and the fact that the two of them, you know, push each other in a similar way to the way that Magic and Larry Bird pushed each other. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen this brought up. This was originally brought up by Lebron and Kadie themselves, I believe in the fall of two thousand seventeen. No, it was All Star Break

two thousand. In that two thousand seventeen two thousand and eighteen seasons, so Kevin Durant had just won his first title with the Warriors, and in All Star Break, Lebron and Kevin Durant went on a taxi ride with Carrie Champion, and in this taxi ride, Lebron and Katie basically we're talking with each other and carry Champion about the fact that they viewed themselves. This is the two best players in the league in a tier by themselves. Now, part

of this, I think is, you know, positional similarities. You know, Lebron and Katie are both small forwards. Lebron and Katie are both like, you know, versatile basketball players. Lebron and Katie are have faced off in the finals at that

point twice. There's a lot of mutual respect there. But the truth of the matter is, and this is something that has bothered me for a long time about the about the Katie moved to Golden State, is that Katie's claim to that tier with Lebron is flawed and there's actually a player that has a much better case to be in that tier, and that's Steph Curry. You know, there's a tweet that I sent out a long time

ago that kind of encapsulated this. But you know, in two thousand, fifteen and sixteen, there were two players who were clearly better than everyone else in the league. It was Lebron and Steph Curry, and they were both on teams that were, you know, reasonably similar levels of talent. The Golden State I thought I had a little more talent in that two thousand and sixteen years just because Kevin Kevin Love wasn't playing super well. But Kevin Durand

also had a very good team in that year. Him and Russell Westbrook was peaking as an athlete and Uh entering his mental prime as well. And Sergebaka was on that team as a shot blocker. Stephen Steven Adams was on that team. There's a lot of athleticism, and they really overwhelmed Golden State, and they're athletically and defensively in

the two thousand sixteen Western Conference Finals. But the point is is that all three of those guys, Lebron, Stephen, k D, We're on the similar level, with similar level teams, pursuing the similar goal. And there was a clear result. Steph beat k D and then Lebron beat Steph. The hierarchy was very clear. You know, Lebron is clearly the best player in the league. Staff is right there behind him,

and Katie is right there behind Steph. But then KD decides to leave the thunder and go to Golden State, which inevitably led to success. You know, there there was oh conceivable method for that team to lose. With the amount of talent that they had and with how boughten they were to start that season. They absolutely obliterated everybody they played all season long. And yet, for whatever reason, after that season, we landed at Kevin Durant and Lebron

at the top tier of the league. We landed at Kevin Durant outplayed Lebron in the two thousand seventeen finals. We landed at this concept that Kevin Durant had somehow leap frogged possibly both, if not just Steth to that top tier of the league. And to me, that was always illogical. It didn't make any sense to me to begin with. You know, my favorite example is just the efficiency numbers that you look at. Kevin Durant is frequently called the greatest scorer in NBA history by a lot

of people, not something I agree with. I think that guy's MJ. But you know, he's a guy who gets a lot of credit as a score. But you look at two thousand sixteen, Kevin Duran's sufficiency was tanking. Why because he was the focus of the defense. Anytime Kevin Durant was dribbling with the basketball, they're running around off the basketball. The defense was keyed around stopping Kevin Durant,

and it led to his efficiency tanking. When he went to go play with Steph, every team strategically, you know, directed their defense towards stopping Steph, and it left k D in single coverage almost every single time he had the basketball, and as a result, his efficiency went way way up from not mistaken he went it was something, it was over double digits. He went up like sixteen and affected field goal percentage from two thousand and sixteen

two seventeen in the playoffs. There's some absurd number like that. That is the natural progression of things when you go from playing with a traditional contender to joining a team that is already a traditional contender as the third or fourth best player in the league or whatever you think Kevin Durant was at that point, and it always it's been one of the most confusing things that I've seen

in terms of you know, honest basketball discourse. In the last decade, Steph earned the right to be the guy who's measured against Lebron Steph earned that right for a long time, for several years with flawed rosters, with teams that weren't your traditional drug or not contender. There. There, Lebron and Steph Curry are the only two players that belong in that conversation. Kevin Durant might belong in that conversation, but it's based on you know, subjectivity or whatever your

aesthetic thing is that you love about Kevin Durant. None of it ever really made sense, you know, logically, none of it ever really made sense in the results and the stuff that we were actually seeing on the court.

And so I feel I feel bad for step in that regard, and honestly, like I'm confused by Lebron's methodology there, because if your case is that you know you're better than Steph or that if your case is that the two thousand sixteen Finals is the greatest accomplishment in NBA history, and if your case is that you know you lost because Kevin Durant joined that team, then your case needs to be that Steph Curry is that guy your Steph.

Your case needs to be that Steph Curry is the guy who is at your level because it lifts up your accomplishment in two thousand and sixteen. It doesn't make sense to marginalize Steph because it takes some of the gloss off of your accomplishment in that two thousand sixteen finals come back with the Cavs, in two with the Cavs, and in that three one come back. I I just

don't understand the methodology of it. If I was a UH, if I was Lebron, I would be talking all about how great stuff is, because that's the guy that is your pathway to, you know, solidifying your hold on the goat debate. You know, I I played Steph Curry. It was a bona fide top ten player all time, at the absolute peak of his powers in an under an undisputed m v P season, and I beat him. That's the guy that you need to to to UH to

cling to. And I, you know, I went at length in the in My Player Hierarchy pot a couple of weeks ago about why I think k D is behind Stepp and it all just stems from the similar stuff that I've talked about, you know, with aesthetics being overvalued. You know, Kevin Durant makes it look so easy when he scores that people ignore the results, which are that every season that Kevin Durant played away from Step, you know, he was less efficient and when push came to shove

in late round playoff series, he couldn't get in. He couldn't do enough to get his team over the top, even though he spent his entire career playing with perennial MVP candidates. And you know it's from that same point I've never really I've never really understood, you know, why a guy who has bona fide results based evidence that he is better than k D and Step, and why that always gets put on the back burner. Alrighty, So I'm gonna look real quick at our questions that we have.

I wrote a few of them down that I want to respond to when I would see if any new ones popped up. And we have one from the uh the live comments here. Do you think Harden gets dealt before the season starts? I do. My guess is that he ends up in Philly. Um that's where my That's what my gut tells me. I think the trade makes you know, I think the trade it makes absolute sense. I think Darryl Moorey is a really smart guy. I think Daryl Morey is cutthroat. I don't think Darryl Moorey

is scared to hurt any feelings. And I know Darryl Moorey, deep in his heart of hearts, knows damn well that James Harden is a much much better basketball player than Ben Simmons. I like Ben Simmons. He's good players probably like I probably haven't around sixteen or seventeen in the league. But the truth of the matter is, you know, James Harden is a bona fide top ten player who is has famously in his career always stayed healthy. He is he's like, you know, a little bit of a uh,

you know, an iron man in that regard. It's in And it's also a much better complimentary piece with Joel embiat you know, instead of having two players that operate in the paint who caused major problems for spacing, why not swap one of those spacing concerns for a player like James Harden, who's a you know, bona fide clear uh fit with Joel embiid and it just makes a

lot more sense. And so I think I think you'll end up seeing I think uh uh if I think if Philly was patient, they could get James Harden for just Ben Simmons. I just think that I'm a big believer in continuity. I'm a big believer in training camp mattering. I'm a big believer in, you know, getting lots and lots of reps with your guys so that when they get to the postseason they know how to play together.

I think the smart tactical move is, if you're gonna go after James Harden, go after him now, even if you have to overpay a little bit, because you're better off getting a veteran minimum. You know, uh, buyout guy to fill out whatever other pieces you have to lose, and and give James Harden and and and Joel Embiad as many reps as possible to learn how to play together. And I'm also a big believer in James Harden as a winner. If you surround him with all the guys

you can make up for his shortcomings. If you put James Harden around a really, really good defensive team, if you put James Harden around an alpha who can go toe to toe with other stars, which I really believe joe El Embiad is just like CP three was and if you give him enough shooting, I think James Harden can succeed Joel embiad is that alpha you know, uh, if they if they surround you know, Matisse Thyble and with Joel Embiide, you could that's the Tobias Harris, that's

the core of a good NBA defense. If you get James Harden to buying in that regard, and as long as Seth Curry, you know, remains a serviceable defensive player, you could have a team there with pretty good spacing because Tobias can shoot. Because Seth Curry can shoot you, and you have the good like Yin and Yang with

with embiating Harden, that makes sense. And then you've got em beats alpha mentality to make up for when Harden can kind of fade later in postseason games as he has a tendency to well the league find hardened for his behavior. Are they're even able to so? From what I understand, and again I'm not an expert in this stuff, From what I understand, this falls to the team, So

the league, uh doesn't necessarily have recourse here. However, the player contract with the team gives the team the ability to find a player for not showing up to practice, or to suspend a player for not showing up to practice. But there's another side of that coin. M and I believe it was Zach Low that talked about this in his pot the other day. There is a fear that exists between you know, teams and the agent pool that if you punish a star player for misconduct, it might

scare other stars away. And I heard that today when I was actually today when I was listening to the pod, and I actually I kind of disagree with that ideology. You know, I would feel confident if I was a general manager and I had to find James Harden for not showing up to practice, I would feel confident that in a free agent class in the future that if I had, you know, Bradley Beale sit down at a table with me and he's like, all right, tell me why I should come to Houston. You know what the

heck happened when you find James Harden. I look Bradley in the face and I'd say, look, man, I'm trying to run a tight ship here. You know, I am a leaver that you know in this organization, we have accountability. And it's my opinion that by setting that culture, it makes our team better, you know, by showing that no one is immune to to you know, uh, you know, disobeying the rules of our team. I I'm setting a culture that will lead to good things for the team

in the future. And you know what, if Bradley Beal looks back at me in that situation and he goes like, well, I don't want to be a part of something like that where you're not going to have my back, then you know, maybe that's not the kind of star that I want. The truth of the matter is is that this is a guy who is blatantly violating his player contract. In any sort of punishment that you lever levy on him is not a sign of weakness in my in

my opinion, it's a sign of strength. And the kind of guys you're gonna turn away who might be offended by that aren't the kind of guys that I want to be in my organization anyway. And I'm not saying you have to make some big public thing. Maybe it's private, but you you you you punish James Harden for obeying his player contract, you know why, so that if the tenth man on the bench, you know, sleeps in in in skips practice some day during the season, and you

have to find him. You don't have him like sulking in the corner and or going to the press or doing something to complain about how he doesn't obey. It doesn't have to, uh, you know, follow the same rules that James Harden does, and that that's the tightrope that you walk when you start giving special treatment to players. All right, let's look at what other questions we have here. How excited are you to see Lebron play more off the ball this season with Dennis and Gasol being able

to initiate the offense. So I talked about this a lot with the Clippers last year. I hope that things still stay with Lebron on ball as much as possible. And the reason for that is is that I'm a big believer in rhythm and flow, and I'm a big believer that you know, with exception of fatigue related uh, you know, his civity, you need to keep the ball in the hands of your best players as much as

you can. You know, when Lebron is on the bench, when Lebron is on the court and resting, you know, as he likes to do especially when he, you know, starts to step up his minutes. I'm a big believer that, you know, you want to put the ball in someone else's hands because he can, because Lebron can spot up, shoot, because Lebron can cut, because Lebron can do the stuff

off the ball. But when Lebron is feeling good, and when Lebron's on the court, you need to run the run, run the offense through him as much as possible because he's the second or first or second best player ever and he's the best player in the world, and you're you're doing your team at disservice if you don't have him be aggressive, you know. So, I'm excited for what Dennis can do in the second unit. I'm excited for what Marc Gasol can do as a high i Q

off ball player. But the truth of the matter is is that, you know, uh, those guys don't need to be taking your too many of the touches away from Lebron and Anthony Davis. They need to they need to remain aggressive. Of the teams that made a eeper playoff run in the bubble, do you think there's any team that may have actually benefited from the short turnaround, So

the one to look at for me would be Boston. Um. The reason why is because Kemba is gonna be sitting out anyway with the stem cell injection that he got in his kneecap. So from that standpoint, like your only real veteran player on the roster is resting. Your other old guy on the roster, Gordon Hayward has been shipped off UM and Tristan Thompson, the guy you brought into play center is has had a ton of time off, and uh Jeff Teague has also had a ton of

time off. So you're starting lineup fatigue. Marcus Smart, Jason Jason Tatum, and and uh M Jalen Brown and Tristan Thompson are all either young guys who are capable of having a quick turnaround because of their youth, or guys

who have had a lot of time off. So Boston is a team that I think has a good chance to come in and attack the season early on and have a lot of success early that the teams that are gonna struggle early are going to be your older veteran teams that take distance from basketball in the short break. You know a lot of teams You've heard a lot

of talk from Clippers players, Lakers players. I've heard it from a lot of like veteran players that you know, they stopped stribbling a basketball and just for their own mental health, just got away from the game over these last two months. And I think those guys are smart to have done that, and I think that those uh,

it will hurt them in the short term. They're gonna see teams like that suffer some early season losses to more zealous teams, to more you know, uh, you know, to hire effort teams, younger teams early in the season, but it will benefit them in the long run. And then teams that like Boston who have young talent and influx of newer players that haven't been dealing with the bubble turnaround, those are the teams that are going to have some success early in the season and jump to

the top of the standings. Don't be surprised if Boston is the one seed, you know, a ten fifteen games through the season. All right, see what else we got? All Right, this is the last one I'm gonna do. Dark Horse m VP candidate and dark Horse Championship contender. So I haven't dug too much into my m VP stuff. I'm gonna be doing that on Friday, so I'm gonna leave that one. But I really do think that Philly is an interesting dark horse championship contender. The idea there

is if they make a trade for James Harden. And I know I'm down on James Harden, but I do believe that there is an opportunity in the Eastern Conference because of the lack of high end talent. You know, there is high end talent there now with the influx of Kevin Durant and and James Harden in this theoretical situation where he gets traded to Philly, but the Eastern Conference is being duked out by Jimmy Butler, Jana Santana Coombo,

Jayson Tatum, really flawed stars, stars that you know. Joanna Santana Coopo, I think is the sixth best player in the league, but he has some big holes in his game that make him a less you know, imposing playoff player. And then Jimmy Butler is kind of the opposite of that. He's not that talented of a player, but he has so much playoffics variants that he brings a lot to

the table in that regard. So from that standpoint, you know, there's there's an opening in the East for an alpha type personality to step in and have a lot of success. There's an opening in the East for someone to do what Lebron did in two thousand eighteen, is what I'm saying.

And I have my doubts about Brooklyn strictly stemming from Katie's health, Kyrie's health, the weird personality mix in that locker room, the lack of guys who do dirty work, the lack of your traditional championship level role players, and that roster. Philly's already got all of that seth Curry is an awesome to guard, one of the highest percentage three point shooters in the league, a really really solid role player to put along to two stars. Tobias Harris.

Is massively overpaid, but he's a really good player. He's massively overpaid, but when he's your third best guy, that kind of works. And then Joel Embiid and any given night can be the best player in the world. And so James Harden is kind of in the perfect situation there to vault a flawed team that's the middle of the pack. Eastern conference team into a team that could

just as easily win that conference. James Harden can go toe to toe with any of those other stars in that conference except for maybe k D and can beat them and his The supporting cast around James Harden in Philly under those circumstances is better than the supporting cast that Kevin Durant would have in Brooklyn. And I think if it pushed came to shove and you had a Philly Brooklyn Conference final or a Philly Brooklyn showdown, that would lead to the team that would inevitably win the East.

I think James Harden can come out of top of that matchup. Then in the NBA Finals, anything can happen. It's about injuries, it's about fatigue. It's a war of attrition. You know, look at last year with UH. You know, Miami brings it to one and if you guys remember UH in the I think it was in the close out game and when it was three one, but Anthony Davis, you know, looked there for a second, can might to towards Achilles. Now he didn't. He was fine in the

in the in the Lakers one. But the truth of the matter is like something like that happens, and you know, I think Lebron still would beat Miami, but who knows, anything could happen. An injury like that could swing things, you know, and a lot of times injuries happened in previous rounds and then they drag on and then fatigue can play a role. So if you're James Harden and you can get to if you can get to Philly and that amazing supporting cast there in Philly, all it

is you gotta knock out Kevin Durant. If you do, you've got the best team. You're gonna get it to the You're gonna get to the finals. And then who knows, you know, the two l E teams beat the ship out of each other. Lebron's fatigue, Lebron's hurt. Who knows what the deal is there, but there's an opportunity there. And so my dark horse Championship contender is Philly under the circumstance where they can trade for James Harden. Alrighty,

that's all I have for today, guys. Like I said, Friday, eleven am Pacific Standard time, we're gonna be doing the season preview with Tommy. Um. I know a lot of you guys get annoyed because he can be an anti Lebron guys sometimes. But first of all, like we're all fans, we're all biased, we all have our issues. If you have a you know, Tommy is just a guy like you guys. He just feels differently. And most importantly, it makes for fun discussion. I'm a pro Lebron guy, so

it leads to more debate. It's no fun to just have someone come on here and agree with me on everything. And most importantly, it's not that serious. It's bad. It's not that serious. It's basketball discussion. And so Tommy's gonna come on, We're gonna disagree on some stuff. It's gonna be fun. If if Tommy says something that is unfair and that you disagree with, chances are I'm gonna be there to advocate for whatever your side of of that

debate is. So it should be fun. Like I said Friday eleven am, thanks again as always for you guys to support I really, really truly appreciate it. If you haven't done so yet, you know, subscribe, if you could write a review, if you could drop a rating for me, it would mean a lot to me. But as usually appreciate your guys to support and I'll see you guys on Friday.