Episode 11: NBA Western Conference Preview with Tommy Gunn @TGunn21

But look, man, STEP's not gonna play well. I'm gonna call him out for So we are going to do a serious, grown up podcast about the NBA Western Conference today.

But I do want to get started with this, this situation you've gotten yourself into with with Warriors Twitter, because I do actually think it's interesting and and before we actually talk about it, I want to start by making a point about being a fan of a player, because I do think that it's important to acknowledge that that's a normal part of the experience of being a fan.

If you're going to watch NBA basketball and you're a fan of NBA basketball, you're gonna naturally gravitate towards certain players, and you're gonna dislike other players. I'm a huge Lebron James fan, and I greatly dislike James Harten for instance. That's just two random examples and that sort of, you know, bias I have to acknowledge. Otherwise I'm never gonna have any hope of trying to come back and find my center.

And the reality is is that it's gonna cover, it's gonna I'm gonna have like rose colored glasses towards anything that I originally see with Lebron and the exact opposite to anything I see what James Harden and I think we're obligated, if we're gonna try to be you know, grown ups about this, to try to at least attempt to see the other side of any of these sorts of topics. And it's been interesting for me to see you the last couple of days just saying like, hey,

like Steph hasn't played well in a little while. He's a little guard you know, I'm a little bit worried about what this means for him moving forward. And to see people say ridiculous things that you're like, you know, half joking, but people saying things that you're like some sort of clutch operative and that you're a fake Golden State fan, and clearly you're just you know that you have some major problem because they can't fathom the idea that you, as a Steph Curry fan, might say something

that they disagree with. And I hate I hate that. I think it's I think it's a terrible foundation for any sort of conversation. And the reality is, it's like, if you disagree, tell us why you disagree, and chances are, if we're as crazy as you say we are, it's gonna bear out in the results. And then have some fun with it. Talk some trash. We're good sports. I mean, at the end of the day, this is sports. It's not politics, it's not anything that's serious. Have some fun

with it. I had a classic example. This happened to me last year in the playoffs. After Game four against Denver. I made a comment that I thought lebron On had lost some confidence in his jump shot. I thought that he was starting to doubt himself as he was going up, and I thought I could potentially be a problem for

them moving forward. And then I was proven wrong, Like he shot the lights out in Game six and executed a Game five and executed Denver and then literally shot from three in the finals, and I had to own up to the fact that I jumped the gun on that and I was wrong. But who cares? Like no one's perfect in this regard, and and it bothers me

that people have that sort of expectation. So for starters, why don't you brief everybody on exactly what you were trying to say about Steph and what got everybody is so upset? So I think an important way to look at it. And it's hard to convey like context and tone over Twitter. I obviously was like feeding the beast a little bit after a while when people kept coming after me and saying, you know, you're an idiot, I'm like, okay,

I'll just I'll lean into this a little bit. But my general point is that if Steph Curry isn't Steph Curry two thousand fourteen to two thousand, seventeen eighteen Steph Curry, then all of these roster editions on the margins, which I think the Warriors did a very good job with considering circumstances, considering Clay goes down, and then they add Ubre bays Moore want to make a really nice veteran pieces. They have some nice young guys. We'll see how Wiseman looks.

I'm a little bit um skeptical. I think there's gonna be a bit of learning companies or rookie so let's expect it. But point being, none of these moves matter if Steph Curry isn't top three player Steph Curry, the thing about as a fan is titles. I don't care about anything else. I want to win NBA championships. And if Steph Curry isn't the top three guy that he used to be very clearly used to be, then all

these conversations are moot um. And I think it's you know, people want to look at Lebron, how Lebron's aging, how Durant may begin to age um. And you pointed this out briefly. Steps a small guard, it's different for him, right. His game is based on quickness and agility and being able to create the slightest martins of separation because he is that much shorter now, he does have maybe the quickest release ever that we've seen from a jump shooter.

But if defenders are now six inches closers him, that margin is a little bit smaller. And the shooting percentages dropped maybe two to three points, which might not seem significant, but it is significant when you're playing the best defenses in the league. And so my point has really been out of most of the stuff that we've seen from Steph Curry after the Western Conference Finals, it hasn't looked great, right. It still looked like, oh, he's probably a top ten

player right just through impact alone. But is he a top three guy? I don't know. And when we did our our player rankings, I still had him at two UM and a lot of that was based off the one Toronto game that he came and played UM in the regular season, right before Covid hit. I thought he looked awesome that night, and it had nothing to do with whether he was making or missing shots. He was getting to his spots easily, he was creating he looks

super quick. To look cry and maybe look maybe him looking slow in the first three season game a relatively slow is him just not having played basketball in nine months. That could easily be it. UM, But like I said, it's hard to convey that stuff on Twitter, and as soon as I say anything remotely that's not like Steph Curry is the best player of the last twenty years, then I'm gonna get crushed and I know that, um So, yeah,

I lean into it sometimes. But my only point is he needs to be a top three guy or a top five guy that for them to have honestly any shot even making like the Western Conference finals this year, um and he would have to be the best player in the league for them to even have a chance of winning the championship. So those that's what my concern is rooted in, right, and we just haven't seen it in a while. And I think that's a lot of it too. It's been you know, eighteen plus month since

we've actually seen him be that guy. So it's it's tough to really project where he's gonna go, especially when he turns thirty three and a couple of months now turns three March. Yeah, agree with the premise of the idea of what might be happening to Steph Curry smaller guard aging. He's in a position where he's gonna have more offensive responsibilities than he has basically since two thousand

thirteen or so. So I understand the pathway in which you could, uh you know, eventually see a decline from Steph Curry. Where I would push back is that I I'm not really I'm not really thinking it's fair to accept The most recent examples of him playing basketball is evidence. For instance, in the two thousand nineteen finals, Steph was kind of retooling on the fly as a result of injuries. Very similar thing happened to Lebron in two thousand fifteen.

A lot of the reason why I think his efficiency tanked in that finals is because he was accustomed to playing basketball a certain way all season with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, and then they dropped UH to injury, and all of a sudden in the middle of an NBA Finals against a sixty seven win team with the m v P, against one of the best teams in the league. He had to completely relearn how to play with that team, and it took time and it's and as a result, I think that he had some struggles

there on the offensive end. And then the same thing happened with Stephen two thousand nineteen. You know, he missed a lot of shots. UH, he struggled to get separation. But he was playing against a really, really good defense, and he was playing in a situation where he had to play with different players than he was accustomed to playing with all season long, So that would be where

I give him some some slack in that regard. You had mentioned on a couple of occasions that his shooting percentage since the two thousand finals, like over that span, and I can't remember how many games it was. Do you have some numbers on you, binny chance it was? It's not significant, but I mean, so he shot forty one percent from the field from three in the finals. Um.

He shot from three last year in five games. UM. And then I think he had one good preseason game last year out of you know, the four or five day played. UM. Just in terms of the percentages, right, um, and a lot of it in the finals. He was missing open looks, which is weird for him. UM. So you could just say, you know, it's a significantly small sample,

shouldn't look too much into it. But is it also a sign of him when him getting older and now his legs wearing out quicker in games and those open looks don't go down the same clip that they used, because that's a real thing, especially for jump shoters, um, you know, especially as he takes on more offensive responsibility. Is you're pointing to. And in those finals, he had to take on more offensive responsibility. He was creating basically

everything because of how bad the roster was. Um And I think that led him to be more tired and to miss more open shots. Um And I don't see if that is any indication he's gonna have almost as much responsibility this year. Um Like, the Warriors have made some nice editions and I and I liked a lot of the additions they've made, but it's still not a roster on the level of but he's played. But the last you know, three years where he's been healthy. Um So, I think that would be more of my cause can

than anything. It's just been so long since he had to play this type of role where he's like he's gotta do everything. It's gonna be him and Draymond basically doing most of the creation. Um So, yeah, I mean, look, your points are valid for sure. Right about comparing the two thousand fifteen finals and two thousand nineteen finals, that

Worries roster was got awful. By the end of those finals, they didn't have If you look up and down that roster, it's like literally seven of the ten guys that we're playing, if you're not including Clay, aren't in the league anymore. And that includes young an old guys, so really bad roster, um, and he should be given some grace for that. You know, we shouldn't be looking too much into those numbers, um.

But look, you know the he's been struggling shooting recently, which is we for the greatest shooter of all time, and we only have twelve games over the last eighteen months. So that's what I'm gonna look at, right, That's the only way I can be fair. So when I'm so essentially like I had. I got into a big argument with Jeremiah about this last year because he was projecting Lebron's downfall based on the idea that there was nobody at age thirty five who had produced at that level.

And my counter to him was like, yeah, I get that, but I mean, this is a guy who's used to being the best at everything his whole life. So I I what I always asked Jeremiah to do was wait for evidence. Wait for evidence, wait for evidence. I tweeted about this yesterday. The burden of proof is on other people to prove why these guys have fallen off. We cannot,

you know, essentially project their downfall before it happens. So when it comes to Steph, I guess what I would say is the evidence that I would look for that he has started that downward trajectory trajectory would be based on a larger sample size over the course of the season. And the example I would use would be what happened to me in my second year of college. So the summer between my first and second year pointing basketball, broke my foot and as a result, I had to take

It wasn't even that significant of an injury. I was out for I think three months, and I came into training camp or whatever as my first basketball activity in three months, which so it was tough because I was going against guys who were in much better shape than me and I and I had put on some weight and I was getting back into the flow of things.

And I remember that season when we started playing games, I got off to a really rough start, and there was actually a stretch early in the season where the coach took me out of the starting lineup for two games based on the idea that I had not been rebounding, which was something that I had done really well the previous season, and he was doing it to send a message I think to the team into myself that I just just kind of light a fire under me and to kind of get it going again. And I ended

up making the All Conference team that year. I played really really well at the tail end of the season, and I attribute a lot of my early season struggles to just being away from the game for a while and the time it takes and the rhythm that you have to build through playing a lot of basketball games over an extended period of time, so that so that you really really get into your routine. I think I think we see a lot of guys do this, Like Lebron is famous for kind of trying to build up

into his postseason runs and things along those lines. So if Steph Curry, you know, after two after two days rest, in the twenty third game of the season against the middle of the pack defense, when he should theoretically have fresh legs and be in good shape and be ready to go out and light him up, and he doesn't do well, and it's part of a larger trend, That's

when I think we can start having that conversation. But just that would be the that would be where I would push back against what you're saying, but percent agree. I see where the skepticism arises from. I understand I am.

We're gonna talk about the Warriors as a whole here in a minute, and I'm gonna explain why I am less optimistic about them than other people, And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Steph Curry is going about to go from basically not playing competitive basketball for you know what, almost five days, but basically not like, very inconsistently playing, and then now he's going to hop into being in one of the biggest offensive roles he's going to have carried in his entire career,

So that that could that that could very well end up manifesting in him either breaking down. That's my big thing that I'm looking out for with him, is not so much that he'll play poorly, but that he'll succumb to injuries, miss fifteen to twenty games, and end up missing the playoffs just by virtue of a similar path to what happened to the Lakers Lebron's first year. You know what I mean totally? No, I mean, yeah, I think I do share some of those concerns. So we

want to move to more Warriors right now? Yeah, for sure. So, um, I guess you know with that, with all these teams, I wass look at it and through the lens of you know, how it could go right and for how it could go wrong. And you know, for instance, like we look at Brooklyn and we'll talk about them on Friday, like there's a million ways to perceive how that could go extremely well and then the highest ceiling maybe, but that they might also have the lowest floor if it

doesn't go well. They are a super interesting team exactly. So So with the Warriors, I want you to start, because you're you are an optimist, I want you to start by telling me how this Golden say Warrior season could go right and what their ceiling is. Um. So I think just to kind of to prevace everything, I think they probably will struggle a little bit out of the gates, and a lot of that will probably be based on Steph and Draymond too to a certain extent,

regaining rhythm. You know, those guys haven't played a lot of Draymond played last year, but he wasn't playing serious basketball um and Steff obviously hasn't played in a while. UM, So I I've been saying this, you know, for a couple of weeks. Now I think they will struggle out of the gates. UM. The preseas, that first preseason game actually did make me a little bit more optimistic from a team standpoint. UM, I thought their defense looked really

good against a good offense. UM. I thought they looked really good defensively. They're really long, they've been really active, UM and I mean Draymond wasn't even out there and they still looked, you know, pretty solid defensively. So I think early they might actually have to win a lot of games office strength of their defense, UM, which is not what I would expect from this team. Kind of entering the off season before they kind of made some

some moves. But looking at it now, I think they actually do have a chance to be a top ten defense. And both Steve Kerr and Draymond have kind of projected that same energy. They said, you know, we've got a long way to go, but we think we can go and be really special. UM. So to be as entirely office like as possible, I think the ceiling is a title for this team. Right they would have to have a lot of things go right. Basically everything you gotta get at least sixty good steph Curry games to make

the playoffs. You gotta get healthy Draymond, and then all of the are most of the young guys take a step forward. Wiggins takes a meaningful step forward. UM. Uprais that consistent second third score. Wiseman is able to give you fifteen to twenty good minutes a game at the center spot, even as a rookie. And then I actually have a lot of faith in most of the role guys off the bench. Bays Moore want to make her

pass goal. UM, even Damian Lee for spot minutes. UM. I think a lot of those guys can be rotation level players for a playoff to team UM. So you know they would, like I said, they would have to have a lot go right. UM, they would probably have to have some type of Lakers injury. UM. But if if things do go how I think they can, meaning that step is still a top five guy, UM, and then all of the young guys, like I said, make meaningful improvements. Nobody in the playoffs would scare me besides

the Lakers. That'd be the only team, especially out West. UM. The East is a little bit more of a toss up because I think a lot of the East teams right now are wild cards and we'll get into that on Friday. Um. But is if if the Lakers aren't fully healthy. Um, I honestly don't see any team come

playoff time that would be better than the Warriors. Once again, huge qualifier if Steph Curry is still a top five player and it all comes down to at at the end of day, because if he is, then great, this guy is the limit and it always will be as long as he's that guy. But that's where most of

my skepticism is held at this point. So yeah, so I think I think this season, you know, the optimistic view would be a version of what happened to the two thou and eighteen Calves because I remember on Twitter vividly around the time that the that the Rockets took a three two series lead and Chris Paul got hurt. I said that if the Rockets managed to knock out the Warriors and they go into the finals to play against Lebron's Calves with just James Harden, I think that

the Calves would have beat them. And I said that in the moment, because I thought that Lebron was capable of winning that head to head match up with James Harden by such a wide margin that it would make up for a lot of the other deficiencies on the Cleveland roster. And you were No. CP three in those finals three because hamstring injury. You know, like I've had one hamstring injury in my life and I remember consistently re injuring it and a lot of other issues, like

it's a huge pain in the butt. So but the point is is that like there was a version as flawed as that roster was, where the two thousand eighteen Calves could have won the title based on the strength of having in my opinion, the best player in the world and some injury luck Chris Paul getting getting knocked out and that team somehow upsetting the two thousand eighteen Warriors.

Now didn't happen, and they ended up getting absolutely railroaded in the in the finals, and that very well maybe end up end up being what happens to this Warrior's team.

But that would be the path steph Curry elevating himself to that first or second best player in the league type of level, playing that way consistently being the better alpha in the early round playoffs series, allowing himself to beat teams that had better records, and then ending up in a late round playoff series against a team that's worn out from some other fight and having a chance to upset, which, for the record, is a completely legitimate

title because part of winning a title is winning the war of attrition. So they'd have to win the war of attrition. They'd have to have Steph Curry played an extremely high level, and they're not going to be as good offensively as the two thousand eighteen Caps in my opinion, which I'll explain in a minute. So that means that they would end up having to defend extremely well. And I think a lot of that is depended on Draymon, right.

I Mean, I've been talking about step but a lot of it's depended on Draymon too, And early indications are that he looks really good. He looks like he's in really good shape. Um, and as long as he's in good shape, I don't really doubt his impact much, especially with the length and they put around him. If they hadn't put the necessary length in athleticism around him, I would be a little bit worried about it, but he is.

He is such an outlier from a mental processing standpoint in the defensive end, I think he'll be able to get these guys to at least figure out rotations at a at a capable enough level to where they they're so disruptive that they're able to cause almost every NBA team trouble in a half court offensive sense. Um. So

Draymond is Draymond. And that doesn't even necessarily mean two thousand and sixteen, But just give me two thousand nine team wass or Conference finals Draymond, where you're the most active guy on the floor, You're all over the place, you're tripled up the machine, um, and you're the best defensive player in almost every game they step on the floor. So yeah, I agree, and and and they're do they have the necessary components to at least have a closing

five that can defend. That would be the thing to look at as like an optimistic view. So here's where I could see it going off the rails the you know, uh, actually it's pretty simple. We talked a earlier with injuries. Injuries could be the first thing. Well, the other thing is I'm a big believer in Steph Curry and Lebron James is offensive impact without scoring. It's something you and I have talked about at length in these in these forums, and one of the biggest reasons why it works is

the rosters historically have been built around their strength. So for instance, you know Lebron when he was in Cleveland, when he would captain those amazing offenses that didn't necessarily have a ton of talent, they all could shoot the hell out of the ball. So it was built around this idea that Lebron would put pressure on the rim, which would inevitably draw and defenders where he could kick out the threes and they shoot the lights out, and then it would invert and he'd be scoring at the

rim all day long. And then the for Steph Curry, that was simply based on the idea that he would attract attention away from the basket, which would leave your offense perpetually playing four on three, which would allow you to get all sorts of dunks and easy corner threes and easy shots based on the gravity of Steph Curry

away from the basket. Now what I what I what worries me about this team is something I'm going to talk about a lot today, especially when we get to talking about the Lakers and Clippers, and it's their collective i Q. So, for instance, Steph Curry is an extremely high i Q player, Draymond Green is an extremely high

i Q player. But when you go down the rest of the roster, you're running into a lot of names of guys that aren't the same level of basketball i Q as Andrea Gudala was, or that Sean Livingston was, or that Kevin Durant was, or that lean Andrew Barbosa was, or that Andrew Boget was, or that any of those extremely smart, savvy veterans that could make really really quick and easy and simple and consistent reads in those four

on threes to get easy shots. And so what worries me is that it's going to turn into Steph needing to shoot a lot because of the fact that his offense may not be able to capitalize on the attention that he's drawing. Because Andrew Wiggins, who has a ton

of talent, has not shown himself. Now. I know you've been pointing out in some film that he's made some good reads in some of these preseason games, and that would be the optimistic way of looking at it, But looking back at his career, that has not been one of his strengths. Kelly Yubre, same thing, a super athletic player, great in transition. He's been really good at defending at

the four, great small ball four all around. But the reality is that Kelly Yubre is not viewed around the league as a high i Q quick decision maker in close out situations, which is something that he would need to do. So that would be what would worry, I mean, especially as you get into a postseason series, is that teams might be able to take the ball out of Steph Curry's hand relatively easily, and that the Warriors wouldn't be able to necessarily capitalize on that. Yeah, So I mean,

I hear you there. There's definitely concerns Um. Like you pointed out, though, I am an optimist in terms of um wiggins projection as a play maker maker. UM, He's shown and that's not just based on something limited. That's based on his last year in Minnesota too, where he was doing a lot more ball handling, UM and just doing a lot more decision making overall, and he was actually making some at reads. He's never gonna be you know, he's never gonna be on Great Goudala Like, I'm not

gonna sit here and tell you that. But he certainly made improvements, and I would assume that that just continues to get better UM in the Warrior system, because if if Kur has shown anything, he doesn't develop shooters he actually developed that are playmakers, which is just a bizarre I mean, it doesn't make any sense because the guy

is one of the greatest shooters ever. UM. But I would be optimistic UM from that standpoint with Wiggins, and I think what's important to note is the veterans they've added. I want to make her in bays more specifically, those

guys are actually pretty good passors. UM. So if Kerr mix and matches lineups the right way, you don't have to have a ton of time where Wiggins and Uber are actually sharing the floor together, right, you can always have kind of you almost stagger those two guys are playing thirty minutes to night, and you're keeping more veteran presence on the floor guys for higher i Q better decision makers UM. And I think Marquis Chris is actually really good in that area. He's a really good short

role passer. Um. He understands the dripple handoff game really well. Um, and he showed that all of last year. Um and then UM. I feel the same way about Eric Passal actually, um, he's actually a pretty good pastor as well. Um. And so well, I do understand the concerns for sure, like they're those are totally avoid concerns. I'm a little bit more optimistic in that area than I think that most people are. And that's because I've watched way too much

Warriors over the past nothing else to do. Um. Yeah, But if anybody's questioning my movement to being a Warriors fan, I was scouting draft prospects for free. So let's relax with that days and hour studying the twelve pick in the NBA draft. Okay, so let's let's relax with me not being a Warriors fan. I'm not putting all that

time in for my health because I love Warriors. Yeah, I mean I think, I think I mean to put a bone on it, like the I Almost every time I keep coming back to the Warriors this year, I come back to almost like a coin flip type of outcome in the scenario where Steph Curry is healthy, I think that they're going to be a three or four seed, and I think that they are going to be a team that is going to beat all of the teams that are not from l A and be an absolute

upset threat to the l A teams based on injury luck, even and maybe even more than an upset threat against the Clippers for reasons we'll talk about here in a minute, But I just by judging, you know, when I was building the the the itinerary for this podcast, it's it's crazy to look at the level of talent in the Western Conference. We are not even going to talk about Oklahoma City, Memphis, San Antonio, and Minnesota today. In Minnesota has Karl Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and the number one

overall pick. San Antonio has you know, la Marcus Aldridge and Martin Rosen, two players who have made the playoffs several times. In San Antonio and Memphis that did make make it into the playing around last year and was the eight seed before the bubble and has one of the more talents guards in the league. The point being that there's so much talent in the Western Conference that the reality is is if Steph goes down, it's gonna be extremely difficult for them to win any game. And

that's what happened. More than five or time games. If he miss games, it's over. Especially with the condensed season, it's only two. That actually is gonna be a big difference, especially with COVID. And and that's I mean, that's the whole wrention all of this. Anyway, if a guy gets COVID and he's out for two or three weeks, kiss your season goodbye. It's one of your best players. That's I mean, that's over, especially in the West because you

could go over in that time. And and and it's it's true, and like you know, and the reality is what The example I bring up all the time is that the two thousand and nineteen Lakers had a winning record when Lebron James played, and they missed the playoffs by a mile. And I can't remember exactly what the numbers were, but they basically just about went winless when he didn't play. So there were three games over when he did play, I want to say, and it was

one game over. I think it went twenty seven and twenty six or something like that. When when he did play and then I can't remember the exact numbers, but they were they were atrocious when he didn't play. At the point being is that when you're in the Western Conference, when you're playing that level of talent night in and night out, and you were reliant on one player to to generate the varie eighty or the majority of your offense, chances are you're gonna drop a lot of games when

someone gets hurted. So that would be the that would be the the the the coin flip there for me, And honestly, like as a basketball fan, I'm rooting for Steph to stay healthy because I thought two thousand eighteen Lebron was one of the more fun seasons of my time rooting for him because he had to be great every night for them to win, and it was fun to watch. And I look forward to to Steff having some of those moments this year. I'm here, man, I'm

rooting for it. I know people think that I'm not, but I that I want nothing more than you have

a throwback Steph Curry season. So now I was on your side the whole time, Like, even though I disagreed with some of the elements of your point, I was on your side the whole time, because genuinely, I've been there, and like I can't tell you how many times I have people UH getting in my mentions was something crazy, over over something completely out of context, or not paying attention to what I was trying to do, which was just trying to be fair, you know, and and and

it's it's one of the frustrating elements of that platform. But anyway, so we're gonna move on to the Lakers, and I'm gonna start with this one because I am going to right now as part of the UH the season previews say that I predict the Lakers to win the Western Conference and for the Lakers to win the NBA Championship. And the reason why is really simple. So first of all, all of the reasons that they won

last year are still in play this year. They have Lebron in a D two of the top in my opinion, four players in the league. I think Lebron's number one and Anthony Davis is number four, and they are alpha's that on any at any given moment in an playoff series can go toe to toe with any player in the league and can come out on top or at least play them to a drop too. They defend the hell out of the basketball. As I said last year, they I thought they were the best defense in the league.

There were a couple of Eastern Conference teams that defended better statistically, but the level of offensive talent in the Western Conference doesn't even come close to resembling what's in the Eastern Conference, and so getting a stop in the Western Conference to me is a little bit more impressive. So I thought the Laker defense all year long was

the best defense in the league. And I believe they showed that in those late round playoff series against Denver and against Miami UH and just absolutely shutting down those

offenses for stretches. And then, last but not least, they had a really simple team construct where even though their role players were less than perfect than what you would hope for in your you know, three through fifteen on a roster, they were players that had really really small roles, roles that they were able to knock out of the park. And as a result of those three things, I believe

they won. And the reason why I'm even more optimistic about this team than it was about last year's team has to do with the fact that they they kept those three core tenants of their championship identity, and they fixed two key flaws that they had, flaws that never actually amounted to anything in terms of their uh, you know, ability to be knocked out of the playoffs, but the flaws that were still there nonetheless, and that was i Q at the center position, something that I thought was

a huge problem. Javayal McGee and Dwight Howard brought athleticism to the defensive end of the floor. Um Dwight Howard brought i Q to the defensive end of the floor, but both of them were really really bad on the offensive end. They frequently didn't know where to stand. They frequently messed with the Lakers spacing. Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee almost entirely took Anthony Davis's post up game away

in the sense that he almost always had to fade away. Now, he made a lot of those, but he was forced into a lot of shots that weren't your traditional Anthony Davis power post up game because of the fact that there was a guy sitting in the dunker spot and he never really had an opportunity to move around. I think Marcosol completely fixes that adds this huge high i Q element to the center position on the offensive end.

He'll bring enough on the defensive end to you know, he he's he's already better than JaVale who was a low i Q defender. He may not quite be what Dwight was, but he'll be some percentage of that. I really do think that Marc Asol is a vast improvement at the center position. And then secondly, they had inconsistency in backup ball handling. So Region Rondo when it looked good, it was awesome, and and they were they looked unbeatable.

But he was bad more than he was good in in the playoffs where he had this weird impression as a guy who had proved everybody wrong, you know, playoff Rondo had come back. I thought he had a lot of horrible basketball games in that playoff run. And I thought there were games that the Lakers lost largely because of inconsistency from from Region Rondo in that playoff run.

And I believe that adding the sixth man UH one of the six Men of the Year candidates a guy who is known for being a consistent bench producer out of the guard position, and Dennis Shrewder is a massive, massive upgrade over the region Rondo experience, especially on the defensive end. Rondo when he was dialed in, was a decent defender, but he was so aloof half the time because he overthinks the game on the defensive end, He's always jumping out of position and trying to get steals

that put their entire defense in a compromised position. And having Shrewder taking over all of Rondo's minutes and then some I think fills another hole in another weakness that that Laker team has. So it's kind of a hybrid between what they were last year and and they repaired some of the potential flaws that they had last year, and it makes me all the more optimistic that they're going to be really, really difficult to beat this year.

So just kind of at the start here, I basically agree with you that they're probably gonna win the West and then there probably the title favorite still. UM. That being said, I do have reservations about some of the moves they've made. UM. I thought Truder was a good edition. UM. But to push back on your point a little bit, has he really been seen as a consistent bench guy before the last twelve to twenty four months. Um, the reputation he had was more of always pretty hit or miss.

You know, you're not always sure what you're gonna get get from him from an effort standpoint. Um, You're not always sure if he's going to be mentally focused. And now he had a really good year in Oklahoma City. Let's not to take anything away from him, UM, but I know there was those concerns early in his career, and maybe that's just the case of a young player needing to figure out the NBA and needing to figure

out what he has to do to produce consistently. And maybe he's ironed out out all those inserts, um, because he's definitely a better player than he was a couple of years ago. It's not you know, choice that at all, But my concern would be with him and Tres are definitely gonna boost those Bensho units, especially during the regular season.

I thought those are huge regular season additions for them, especially with Lebron and a D coming off, carrying heavy loads into the finals and normally getting what was its seventy days basically of rest between the end of the finals, and I think, yeah, it's something it's I mean it's the shortest span and I think league history, I don't

see how there was ever a shorter off season. Um. So I think between Treads and Shruder, those are really good regular season moves, and I think it will absolutely help them as a regular season team. It will help Lebron probably not have to do much the same with Anthony Davis um, and they'll go into the playoffs feeling fresher. But what I would worry about is maybe some diminishing

returns in terms of how possessions look on the offensive end. Right, if you're taking possesions away from Lebron or Anthony Davis, your offense is probably gonna be worse for it. Um. So the things that you pointed out were definitely flaws. I could just I see a path for it to go wrong as well. And I mean that's the case or any team. But I think I'm a little bit less optimistic on their playoff ceiling um than um. I think most are at this point. UM. I think it's

all is definitely a good addition. Obviously, I wanted this Hall on the Warriors really badly, and I think he might have ended up there if Quay doesn't go down. How incredible was that preseason game. Oh my god, he's such He's such an insane passer. Um, he's just gonna he's gonna get the Lakers TENNESSI buckets or five easy buckets they just weren't getting last year, you know. Um. So, yeah, he's an incredible player. UM. And he's obviously a really

good addition. But in terms of defense, I don't know if he's as good as Dwight was in those situational moments where I mean Dwight really frustrated Yogis for like a good portion of that Denver series, and nobody else was really able to do that against you Oka go there a little bit, but not at the level of Dwight did um and Dwight got a little bit too crazy with it for a while. He was like instigating too much and not playing real basketball at a certain point.

But point being, the Lakers definitely made some improvements to the roster in terms of if we're just looking player A for player B. You know, Sure's obviously a better player than Rondo. Um. Tres is probably a better scoring big than anybody they had on the roster last year not named Anthony Davis and this always certainly a better all around player than Dwight or Devel at this point, so they did add better players of the roster. I could just see, especially with the short off season not

a long training camp. Um, role delineation doesn't happen properly and it kind of goes sideways. Um. Just in terms of the playoffs, I think regular season they'll be totally fine because I think, like I said, Treads and Shooder were necessary moves for the regular season. They needed guys who could take the load away from Lebron and a d especially after the short off season. Um. But yeah, playoffs, Like I said, I still think that's probably the best

team in the league. But I have more reservations than most do. Yeah, So I I agree with you about Trudder. His The concerns about him coming into the season were that the jump shooting performance in Oklahoma City was an outlier performance because he was a poor jump shooter in

the season's leading up to that. Uh. And you know, to be honest, who knows, you know, we've seen examples of guys learned how to shoot later in their career, like Tony Parker, and then we've seen examples of guys who had outlier shooting performances and then never did it again, like how Kuzma. So the reality is that certainly you

know that's a potential outcome there. What I would push back on at it is to say that you know, Region Rondo was one of the most miserably inconsistent jump shooting backup guards that I've ever add on a team that forward in my life, so that that would be part of that there. I am I where I've parted from a lot of Laker fans as I thought the Tread's move was a mistake for starters. Um a hard cap the team, and as a result of that, you know they may not have from what I understand, And

this is so complicated because I've seen mixed things. I've seen some Laker fans say that they absolutely can add a fifteenth player, and then I've seen Bobby Marks, who's a cap experts, say that they've already added their fourteenth player and they can't add another player. Hard caps are we go with a last year with Golden stated it's weird, but um, if they actually are hardcaps, then they could only they actually can't add any money over that number

not at all. Yeah, that's how the hardcap works, literally a cap, so they might have to literally sign you know, rookie players who don't you know, fall under the Vetoman veteran minimum scale, allowing them to stay under the cap, which takes them out. Like if you wanted to sign pau Gasol as like a leadership role, you can't do that. Now. If Trevor Reason becomes available, you can't do that. Now some killer buyout guy comes up later in the season,

you can't go after him. Now. Those are those are problems with the hardcap that I thought weren't necessarily worth the Montrese Harrold experience. I said from the very beginning that I thought the only player that was worth the hardcap with Serge Baca, because I thought Sergebaca would have been an amazing uh you know, a center to put alongside marcosol In in that front court. Uh. That said, it is what it is. He's in the picture. I agree with you. He's absolutely a net positive during the

regular season. Whether or not he can be, you know, of any sort of positive impact in the in the postseason is gonna come down to what he can do on the defensive end. And the reality is is that what you hope for is that in the playoffs last year it was not pretty. It was not it was worse than not pretty. He was expectually hurting his team.

So the question becomes, does Frank Vogel, who you know by all accounts as an incredible defensive scout, uh, you know, his his his allegedly his scouting reports, would have U Laker players give him a round of applause after as weird as that, yeah, I heard that. I don't know. That sounds like a little bit of Lebron propaganda, but Lebron approves of the coach. Uh yeah, and then uh and then you had um and then you have Lebron and Anthony Davis, who Anthony Davis is arguably the best

defensive player in the league. And Lebron, who's a really really high i Q defensive player who at when he's really focused on that end, can still be a first team All Defense level player. So the reality is you hope that those guys can bring the most out of him. But the pushback there would be Paul George and Kawhi Leonard were two first team All Defense level players, and Doc Ruver's is famous for being a defensive coach. So the reality is that they couldn't get it out of him.

I don't see how they expect, you know, Paul George and Kawai to get it out of him. But the reality is, and what I said from the beginning is they don't need Montrese Harold, which so they don't need Montres Harold to win. He doesn't like He doesn't even necessarily make sense in their closing lineup. I think they're closing line ups are gonna be eighty at the five or Marcus All at the five with a D at

the four. And the reality is, and they might even they might even play a little bit of Markis Morris at the five like they did in the finals. So the reality is that Marquis Montrez is a luxury, not a necessity. And if it if it works out, great, If it doesn't, who cares. But the point is is why did you hardcap the team then for somebody that wasn't that wasn't a necessity. That would be where I

pushed back on that move. And they are hardcapped um at a hundred and thirty eight mill believe it is just a little over a hundred and thirty eight mill. They have a hundred thirties six million right now on the roster with Quinn Cook's contract, so it looks like they could maybe add somebody, um like at if somebody gets bought out late. You know, the contracts shorter, it doesn't cost as much, and you can probably do it at the biout deadline. I'm guessing that's how they tried

to structure this um. But yeah, I don't think they'll be able to add any more veterans this preseason, so and like and so let's say so yeah, And for the record of the way, the way the veteran minimum works, as far as I understand it is, it's a contract for like two point six million and some change, but it only hits your cap for one point six million and some change in the league actually pays the remaining

one million of the deal. It's like a special provision in the in the c b A. But like I said, what was weird about that was I saw a tweet from Bobby Marks a while back that said that they didn't have room for fifteen. So but regardless, let's say that let's say they can add one, then they can

only add one. So if you know, if the Lakers decided to cut Quinn Cook, if they decided to cut whoever it is that they want to cut at some point down the line in the season, if it's a guaranteed tracked like, you just can't and Quinn Cook's NONI yeah,

I think, and you're still trapped. So, like my question was from the beginning was like, you know, unless you thought this guy was gonna be a huge like Searchebaca unquestionably could have played crunch time in the finals for the Lakers as a five, that that to me, would have been worth the risk of hardcapping the team. I didn't agree with the idea of adding a player that had, you know, as little impact on the ceiling of that team as Montre Montrez did to hardcap the team. That

was my one big push back there. Um, But yeah, so yeah, like I I think they're gonna win. That's my pick. But agree with you, Like, there's absolutely scenarios where can go south, most of which center around injuries, which are certainly like if they're knock on wood, if there was a scenario where an injury could happen to a player like Lebron and a D would be a scenario like this on a shortened off season with funky

circumstances in accelerated season. So I just think they need to be very careful with their load managing and try to avoid that as much as possible. But the reality is, as as you and I both know, as anybody who's played has ever known, like, the reality is, his injuries aren't really associated with that. They're kind of flukey and they just happen and there's not really anything you can do about it. Um. Alright, So the Clippers I am.

I am in the weird position of being lower on the Clippers than most people while simultaneously thinking they're the

biggest threat to knock out the Lakers. UM. The reality is is their biggest flaw coming out of last season, which was low collective basketball i Q. In my opinion, Kawhi Leonard, who's an extremely gifted player player, he's basically Michael Jordan's without the high end basketball i Q, and I think that's the big difference between the two of them, and then Paul George, who has received plenty of slander

in the last week. So you don't need to hear anything from me, but the realities is they were missing they were missing that they're missing that it factor in terms of that that confident offensive decision maker that can consistently make good decisions decisions at the end of these games. And then they added Surgebok, who I actually think was a legitimate improvements of the team. But but but it

doesn't fix their fatal flaw. So what concerns me with them is regardless of how much talent they have, they have the exact same flaw they had last year. And what do they lose to an extremely smart basketball team with a really smart coach and a top ten player who's known for being one of the smarter players in the league. So that would be where I could see

them going off the rails. But their ceiling, to me, is just the idea that they're built to beat the Lakers tons of switching wings, the ability to force Lebron and a d to play a ton of io, and then they are built to attack the soft spot in the Lakers defense, which is the mid range area, because the Lakers like to chase everybody off the three point line and force them to drive into their size. Yep. So I mean I'm with you. I I was lower on the Clippers dating back to last you know, February

March before kind of COVID shut down. I just didn't. I didn't see it, um, And I think it's a lot of the stuff that you're referencing, kind of collective low basketball I Q um and I didn't. I mean, the surgeon was a good move, for sure, but I didn't understand keeping Lou Williams on the roster. And I don't understand not like trying to get somebody like Ricky Rubille or I mean, Kyle Lowry would have been a

limit trickier because his contracts much bigger. But I don't know how they didn't make a move for a legit point guard, Like are you gonna run back with Reggie Jackson and Lou Williams good luck? Like those guys aren't gonna make good decisions at the end of playoff games. We've Lou Williams is like one of the historically worst playoff players in NBA history, And if we're looking at regular season performance relative to playoff performance, he falls off

a cliff every single year. So expecting him to change that at age thirty four or thirty five or whatever, he is now that's not gonna happen. Um. So, like you said, I think they definitely could still beat the Laker just because, Um, they have a ton of guys who are switchable who could give Lebron n D problems at Let's say Lebron slows down two to three more, um, Kauai and PG can make give his life that much tougher. Um. But yeah, it looks like they really just built their

team with how can we beat the Lakers? Right? And maybe that sends up it matters, but you've got to get to that matchup first. You have to be able to get to the Lakers to actually beat the Lakers. But I mean, I could see them becoming an even better defense this year if they figure out the rotations correctly, um, because instead of playing Montrez Harrald minutes or playing Surge minutes, um.

And you could really just bank on becoming the best defensive team in the league and beating the Lakers like that. But I just I don't see it, man, I don't see it like you. I have all the same concerns, so we aligned too much on this one. I have no point back anything you said. It felt like it felt like they lost the postseason. And I know it seems like such a clean thing to say, I shouldn't

say the postseason the off season. I apologize. It felt like they lost the off season, like it felt like they took a patient approach, looking for some sort of big move that would that would flip the scales, and then all of a sudden there was there wasn't really anything, and they got Ibaka, which seems to be on the strength of the relationship between him and Kwaieline or But the reality is is that, like you know, if I was a Clipper fan, I'd be sitting there like what

are you guys doing? Like like these guys are better than us, and they keep getting better and and we basically swapped a power forward for a better version of the same exact position, and that wasn't really our problem, Like what in the world, what what in the world's going on here? And and so that that would be my thing if I if I was a Clipper fan, I'd just be extremely frustrated that they didn't do enough.

But then again, at the same time, like you know, Ricky Rubio, is that makes sense, that's like a solid and for the record, they could still go after someone like that in Minnesota. If they fall out of the playoff picture, they'll be they'll be sellers as we get into the into the trade season. But it's like creature. Rubio is expiring or he has two years left on his deal, so he's definitely a movable contract. And he's

a good player. Yeah, he's a solid player. And he'd be the perfect example of a guy that if you put him in that lineup to basically run the offense for Paul George and Kawhile Leonard and he can hold his own defensively. That's the kind of guy that would have made a gitimate improvement to that roster. Now, it still would have ended up coming down to Kauai and Paul George versus Lebron and a d I think that

kind of stuff usually does. But that would have taken away their fatal flaw, which is that low I q uh, you know that that lack of decision making with the start and filling in the hole that their stars had. And and so I guess I guess what I'm saying is like, why in the world isn't Rubio in with the Clippers right now? Why wasn't that in pursuit, like what like and is it is it as simple as they gave away all their draft picks for Marcus Morris and for Paul George, Like is it is it that simple?

I don't know. And that was the other thing and Marcus Morris contract, like and this is something we talked about with with the Lakers a minute ago. But as you said, any possession that doesn't run through Lebron and Anthony Davis is a wasted possession unless they are, you know, actively fatigued and they're trying to save their legs, which is something that I think is you know, important, Like you can't just run it through them, but you do need to have the lion's share of your offense run

through your best players or you can have problems. And what Bob there me about Marcus Morris is it felt like every time he touched the damn ball, he wanted to go do his damn his do his own thing. And then you've got George. He thinks he actually is better than Paul George. So you can see it. You can see it on his face. And that's not just us making like jokes like that's and that is I would bet my life that he thinks that and and like it was basically reported that he said that about

Paul George, like that he thought he was a better player. Yeah, exactly, and and and the reality is is like he he is a player who is too good for the role they're asking him to fill, which is basically a three and D guy, and too often he breaks off from the offense and too often he does his own thing.

If you raise the collective i Q of your team with someone like Rubio, you get you get into a position where that kind of stuff just happens less and players just like it's kind of like a rising tide that floats all boats kind of concepts. But when I look at that offseason and I see you overpay Marcus Morris, the only net positive move is the bringing in of Sergebaka. You completely failed to fix the key flaw and the roster.

It just I really don't understand what they're doing, especially from a friend, Like we're a long way away from last offseason where the Lakers were considered a dumpster fire and the Clippers were considered one of the smarter franchises in the league. Like that it was so bad that like as as reporters like Wojan Shams were properly explaining

the situation. Laker fans were like losing their mind, thinking they're bias, but it's like they looked like a tighter run ship at the time and the Lakers, the Lakers had their president of Basketball Operations going on first take, burning down the GM and for the world to see. And now we're one and a half years later in the Lakers are just completely running circles around this franchise.

I've never seen anything like it in my time. Following like, I've done an outstanding job, man, Like I have nothing about to say about point. He's every move and whether some of it was luck or not. I mean a lot of this stuff with GM ng is and the movies made has seemed has better the franchise, you know,

every roster move. So yeah, it really has been a ridiculous about face and now the stuff about Jerry West, like um, that guy paying him like two point five million just to ensure that like like it's just it doesn't even seem real at this point, like happens up that's coming out was like this sounds like something out

of a movie. I know. It has been one of the most fascinating things I've seen in my life, like from rioting outside a Staples Center because that because they're sick and tired of the Laker front office to to this too. Just like you said, a complete about face, it's really strange. But I mean again, matchups, you know,

styles make fights. Matchups win playoff series. The Clippers have some legitimate matchup advantages over the Lakers, and if it can make a solid deadline move, if they can stay healthy, they absolutely have a punch of chancer. But I would say they need to make that deadline move. They need to bring in a point guard, and maybe the guy ends up being Kyle Lowry at the deadline, I don't know what that trade would be a huge addition, and

I don't know. I mean, the only way to make the numbers work would be like Marcus Morris plus Pat but Marcus Sports designed for four year sixty for millions, where I was not taking on that contract. Yeah, would have to give up. They'd have to give up four first round picks. They don't have those anymore. They would have traded him away so and people would just keep you know, And I didn't like letting Jerry West go

as a warrior's stand. But what has heat what of him and Lawrence Frank done in the past eighteen months that's inspired any confidence, you know, ever since they signed Kawai and Paul George, it's kind of been all downhill from there. That whole thing was like up to that

point though, it was genius, like feeling zoobots from the Lakers. Uh, Like they they the whole trade um um with Houston when they pulled in all of those role players that became key rollers, like Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams and in Montrese Harold who all became key components of that of that playoff team last year. Danilo Gallinari was a great fit. They did such an amazing job over the

previous years. It's honestly so deeply confusing for me to see that happen and and like for your key move to be bringing back Marcus Morris, who I don't know how anybody was watching that team, and that he was bringing a positive impact aside from hitting shots. He hit shots like make no mistake, but like I'm a big believer and like it's it's all about like that'd be like winning the battle to lose the war in my opinion,

and have him being overly aggressive. All right, So we have hit all of the key important big teams that I wanted to hit so far with the West. So what I'm gonna do is we're gonna, like I said, we're gonna ignore Okay, see Memphis, San Antonio, Minnesota all together. I'm going to quickly rapid fire through the remaining Western Conference teams. I'm gonna quick go over their offseason moves, and I want you just to quick tell me your outlook on those teams. We're not gonna touch on them

too long, but we'll just briefly touch on them. So Denver, so they lost Tory Craig and Jeremy Grant, so they lost both of their wing defenders that they put on Lebron in last year's playoff series. And they signed a guy who I actually or they drafted a guy I

actually really liked that Arizona named Zeke Naji. If that there's a really really classic like hustle for who could shoot the ball a little bit, and he's got a super I know a lot of the draft knicks were we're pretty high on his projection is like you know, a three and D guy hopefully. So yeah, he shoot, he stretched forward, can defend really well, and he's got a really tough mentality. He's really fun to watch here in Tucson. Uh. And then you know the prospect of

of Michael Porter Jr. Potentially improving. But that's basically your Denver off season. They did not get discernibly better in my opinion, So that would be my concern there. The question would be, is Jamal Murray from the bubble going to be the real Jamal Jamal Murray moving for I mean, if he's like, if he's just like eight or of that guy that's an amazing player, that's probably a top twenty player. I mean, he doesn't have to be. If

he's the guy that was in the bubble. I keep saying this, He's gonna be the greatest player of all time. He was scoring thirty points a game and shooting like that's literally the greatest player ever if he continues to do that. Um, But if I mean, if he could be eight percent of that guy where he's four game, mid to high forties from the field, high thirties from three, and he's always shot three throws historically well like um,

if he's that guy, then yeah, they're a problem. But you kind of pointed out the guys they lost on the wing. Who's gonna guard Lebron or Kawhi or Paul those guys in a playoff series. I thought Jeremy grat was it was actually a difference maker for them against the Clippers. You know, just his length and athleticism was able to bother the Clippers wing players and they don't

have that anymore. So yeah, I don't know, Like M PJ is obviously more talented than Jeremy Grant or Tory Craig, but at that point, you're just betting on being incredible offensively, which they might be. They might be unbelievable on offense, but can they stop anybody? If you're not, If you're not a top ten defense, you can't win a title. It does not happen. And it doesn't have Steph Curry, Lebron, James Clay thomp centers very hungry and that's the only

team that can do it. Or Shack Lenel at the height of his power. So I think when the Warriors won in twenty eighteen, they had fallen below the top ten devens, but they're like, yeah, it was eleventh, and it's like okay, but they still they were fatigued. They were in their fourth rate finals. That had much more to do with that than actually not being good defensively anymore. Um. So yeah, I just don't. I mean, maybe they're neutral from last season. They probably still win a ton of

regular season games. Um, they might be a second round team. But like, if, like we talked about earlier, everything goes right for the Warriors, I'm picking the Warriors over then gets a serious and that's if everything goes right. Like, so they are probably third or fourth in the West right now in terms of teams that I would expect to go to the finals. I'd have the Lakers clearly above them, um, and i'd probably have the Clippers and um, Warriors about them at this point. Um, and then we'll

see how things go with Dallas or Phoenix. But I'd say it's probably comfortably fourth or fifth in the West right now. Yeah, so we're gonna get to Dallas in the second, but I would have them fourth, and then i'd have Dallas behind. I would say that Denver is one of my favorite candidates for an outlier. James Harden trade based on the idea that you can't beat the Lakers, you can't beat the Warriors, or maybe they think they can, but they're they're they're not a good enough team to

win the title right now. They have no, like, no readily apparent prospects to potentially get good enough to do so. And and Michael Porter Jr. Would have to get so incredibly better than he is right now for that to end up raising their ceiling. And this is a guy who literally has drop foot because he has massive back problems.

So the question would be like, are you are you so comfortable with your culture and your in your trajectory that you stick with this group or do you throw you know, MPJ and and Jamal Murray in some picks at Houston bringing James Harden and be like, now I got two of the best ten players in the league. And now now I can sit there and be like, Okay, I have two of the top ten players in the league and the Clippers don't, so I can go to the Clippers. Are the surrounding guys even good enough at

that point? Because around Yoga Chen Harden, what would you need? You need guys who can defend for sure, you're not hardcaps, so you could try to bring in better medium guys. They become they have lots of minutes available, they become a destination because most as I've learned as someone who's rooted for guys to join my favorite teams over the years, in my experience, veteran minimum guys almost always go to where they're gonna get more minutes because they like to

play basket. So I I think I'm a big believer and get your get your stars, and you'll figure it out. Like I mean last year, last year, everybody roasted everybody the Lakers signed, literally like there wasn't a guy they signed that everyone was like, oh, that was a good sign.

Like they didn't like Rondo, they didn't like KCP, they didn't like Javery Bradley, they didn't like Dwight Howard, didn't like JaVale McGee, and all of them ended up working out because of the strength of the two best players in the way that it made everything else work. So they're one of my outlier threats. So moving on to Houston, uh, John Wallen, DeMarcus Cousins. But what are we saying about Harden at this point? First of all, I'm gonna take

just a quick, little victory lap. Go ahead, just a quick one. I think people can see how I am now validated and not having in my top ten. It has nothing to do with his talent. It has nothing to do with this talent, because he's one of the most talented guys in the league still, But you are retooling your roster every twelve to eighteen months if he is your best player, and it's because he's unhappy. So I don't have anything else to add. But is he one of the most talented guys in the league. Yes,

what I want to build my franchise around him. No, I'm sorry, I wouldn't. I don't want to deal with the headaches. I would rather I'd rather have Dame because I know where Dames. I know where Dame's heart is always gonna be. If I'm doing the right things, I'm putting the right guys around Dame. He's gonna rally the truth and he's gonna be one of the best leaders in the week. And the performance is small enough to

where it's not super super significant. So yeah, and I agree, And I think it's time for us to look back at the two thousand and eighteen rockets, and acknowledge the impact of Chris Paul and acknowledge the impact of Jeff Pedgelic or whatever his name is, the guy who who you know, came up with that defense that gave the Warriors so many problems, and and understand that there there's there's a deeper story to what happened there, especially when

you start to look at how horrible James Harden played in that series. Uh. But the reality is is, uh, let's operate for the purposes of this as we get to these other teams and were especially when we do Friday, when we do the Eastern Conference pod, because I think they're the more likely destination for James Harden. Yeah, definitely, But as we get through these teams, we'll talk about

where he might go. But for the purposes of right now, let's operate under the premise that James Harden is staying in Houston with John Wall. John Wall I like him as a natural fit better than Russell Westbrook, just because of the fact that he's a little bit, a little bit more high i Q and a little bit more willing. He looked pretty good in that first part. I was shocked and so and I feel like he'll do a

better job of the balance back and forth. But with him and James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins can shoot threes, which is an interesting element to them being able to play a center but continue their their space and attack offense. And Christian would I'm a big believer in not bullshitting you guys. I haven't seen enough of him to make an opinion, so that's just where I would say on that. But I haven't heard enough good about him to think

he could be that much of a ceiling Razors. So I view them as more or less the same type of threat that they were last year. Yep. Yeah, I mean I could they could get hot maybe for a playoff series and upset somebody. But I'm with you, and I think while its definitely a better fit, he's a little bit more fluid of a playmaker than Rush's just comes more natural to him, and I think that's a good fit next to next to Harden, he's proba at

this point. He's probably a better shooter too that Russ is, which is not saying much, but anybody's a better shooter than Rest, and I think we'll will commit maybe a little bit more to playing off ball, even though he didn't really show that in Washington. But we'll see, we'll see. Um, I'm right there with you there, bottom Tyre probably Western Conference playoff team. If Hardon stays, they're probably in the

six eight range. And I could even see them falling out of some of these young teams pop Um at Memphis randomly, Pops. We're not gonna talk about them, but if they you know, if they look really good this year, then you know teams are gonna start to fall out. So yeah, I'm with you. I don't I don't see much of a ceiling for them at second round at best. We've seen hard And slip in a random regular season and go forty one and forty one and get in

as an eight seed. And it's something that because because he's a bad attitude guy and because he's always on the verge of decommitting mentally from a team. All right, so you tak for more more or less, they're the same team with Derrick Favors. Uh. I view them as just as flawed as they were last year, in the sense that they rely too much on Donovan Mitchell to

create all their offense. They were hoping for Mike Conley to be a relief in that regard, but he's way too inconsistent because he is actually on that down slope that we talked about with these smaller guards. So I view them as more or less a six or seven seed in a non threat Yeah, I mean they're non threat.

I could see them maybe being a little bit better as a regular season team, um than some people expect, maybe sneaking into a top four seed, just from a continuity standpoint, like there has been a little bit it turned over in the roster. Conley is obviously relatively new, um Bogdanovitch to a certain extent, but their core guys have been there, Gobert, Mitchell, uh Favors is coming back, so they I mean, they know what the deal is.

Their angles are still there. Um. I think they could be a good regular season team like they are a lot of the times, but I don't see it for the playoffs at all. You know, Um, it took it's Donovan Mitchell having then Jamal Mary had an amazing series too, but Mitchell had to have like his best series ever and they still lost in seven to Denver. You know,

So yeah, non threat. Like I said that, they might have a little bit of a higher regular season ceiling um than some people expect just from a continuity standpoint, but I don't see it from a playoffs standpoint. They're not. They don't they should not scare any of the top

tier teams. Yeah, and I mean honestly, like a big part of their projection moving forward, in my opinion, depends on Donovan Mitchell kind of getting a little bit more of a point guard mentality, feeling the flow of the game, understanding one aggressive and when to be passive, when to keep teammates involved, when to put his foot to the pedal to the metal. Are drawing fouls he he doesn't.

He does not a lot of foul if he because he ends up shooting a lot of these weird floaters in the middle of the lane where it's like, maybe just take another drible. He's he's strong, he's athletic. Trying to like your field goal percentage might drop a presenter too, because you're trying more crazy shots to the rim. But if you're drawing more fouls, that invariably guys who are high free throw rate guys helped create great offense um.

So those would be the two areas of growth. I'd look for him at playmaking, which he has definitely improved on, and then drawing more fouls. So Dallas, they lost Seth Curry, but they added James Johnson three and D wing that they didn't really have on the roster last year. Uh Um, what's his name? Kare and Phinney Smith I think is his name? Was? He was there three and D guy last year just wasn't really just wasn't really consistent enough

in hy Q enough on the wing. James Johnson is just a much better version of him, in my opinion. Josh Richardson is Seth Curry less, less of a shooter, but a much better defensive player. And he's really different. I think he's a really different and he makes more sense on this roster than he does in Philly because in Philly he was being asked to generate a lot

of their offense, which just never has been his strength. Um. And then they picked up that super athletic forward from Orlando West wound do but and then they they're returning Dwight Powell who has gone with an achilles injury, and Kristaps Porzingis who was gone with a knee Uh. I think toss and I think I think Christapps is at least out until like the new year from what I've seen report Really yeah, that that's what I said the last time I saw. He's out until at least the

new year. Let me double check that real quick. Um, But what do you feel about them? Where do you think they're gonna Endfinitely? It was a perfect I think it was a perfect off season for them in the sense that, you know, they didn't want to tie up their cap because they wanted to potentially wait for Janice, which apparently is off the table. But I mean they were smart to try to wait for that because Janice

has been on the record that he really liked Luca. Uh. They they had a weakness on the wing defensively last year, and I think it hurt them against the Clippers. I think they remedied that with James Johnson, Josh Richardson and Dwight Powell when he went down with his achilles tear last year. Took away a lot of their front court that front court athleticism, and it hurt them. Uh yeah,

they it hurt them. At the end of that season, West the woundo West and wound do is not as good as Dwight Powell, but he's in a similar mold in the sense that he gives them more athletic height, athletic more athleticism in their front court to help run that you know, pick and roll action with with Luca. But at the end of the day, this team is all about Luca don chech. He's your prime m VP candidate because of the fact that he he's a bona

fide number one on his team. As good as Christaps is, he's never going to be a guy that people look at as a guy who's taking away his MVP votes. Chris Christaps, by the way, January one on court activity return dates, so they're not even bringing him back to do any on court activity, is barely doing anything. So I mean, maybe he's ready by late January. Really, have you already started playing games? And that makes uh, they have Willie Calli Stein is probably gonna be playing his

minutes in the meantime. Uh really yeah, as you can speak. Oh my god, thirty games is enough. Get him off, Get him off my team. Nice enough guy, it seems like, but not a good player. Yeah, and but like and but the reality is is like the prime Luca type, MVP type of deal. Um, you know when we're talking when we're parsing out seeds with these teams we're talking about. But you know, between the three seed and the twelve seed, a lot of this honestly is going to be separated

by a handful of games. I wouldn't be surprised if the twelve seed was, you know, four and a half games back of the three seed. Like that's just the way that Especially if let's say, you know, the COVID stuff is fairly spread out, injuries are fairly spread out, and everybody kind of misses the same amount of time, it could definitely end up like that. I can see it happening very very easily. And the last two seeds are playings this year, the seven and eight play ins,

so it makes it even more interesting for sure. And and so, but the bottom line is if Luke is going to be more or less the same guy that we saw in the first round of playoffs, which I think we all thought he'd be a good playoff player, but he proved us that he's not. H you know, the type of player who who will you know, whose impact will lessen on that that level. But with them adding wing defense, with them adding a little bit more playmaking with Josh Richardson, and with them adding some front

court front court athleticism. There absolutely in that like upset threat tier of the Western Conference, where a team that has some flaws, who comes into that series with them, who might have had a better record, could just as easily lose to them totally. And why the last thing I'd say about the Mavericks is I'm interested to see what direction they kind of go offensively, especially when Ports gets back. Do they really just lean into Luca picknroll?

Because they, I mean, they were super super heavy Luka pick and roll last year, and I thought it was almost detrimental sometimes. And he's incredible, but I was fairly vocal and critical about um them just like going to that too much too early in his career instead of trying to develop other parts of his game, parts of hen need frankly if his team's ever gonna win championships.

Like I mentioned this briefly before, basing how you build your team and how you play offense off of Lebron James is one of the dumbest things you can do, you know, And and Lebron doesn't lean into that stuff as much as he was in those late Calves Ears because he had to lower than people think it is.

It is, it absolutely is, But some of those late Calves Ears, it was it was a lot of lebron rounded by shooters, and that's more of It's just you know, surround your best player of the shooters and let him do everything. It's not a sustainable model because you don't have a top five player ever on your roster, even if Luca is on an incredible trajectory, but top five ever, like,

I don't know, man like that. That's so ambitious. Um So I'd be interested to see if how many possessions prisoning is getting, how many jobs prichinsons are getting and Luca, Look, Lucas gotta be the end all be all at the end of the day. But I also don't want him running eighty pick and rolls because their offensive rating was so good with that him last year when he wasn't on the floor, there was obviously a drop off, but it wasn't anything significant. It was only four five points.

They were still one of the top offenses in the league. With him off the floor. They were beating teams, but they were they were handling teams to that which he was always my example of the foolishness that that a high usage player is going to hurt your bench lineups, and it never made any sense to me. Yep, yep exactly. So, Um, that'd be the only thing I'd be looking for with

them this year, to see what their offense looks like. Um, but I think I'm basically with you on them being the potential upset there, Like if they if they're just better than the last year, maybe they beat the Clippers in a series, you know. Um, if Luca takes another step and if their role guys performed where they can, I could easily see them beating the Clippers and really

anybody besides the Lakers. And if it all goes right well, I mean, and he took the Clippers to six without Powell, without Christops personas and without the wing defenders, He's gonna have this year. Ye all right, su Portland, they added enis cancer more or less to me, uh, just a bench player considering the fact that nar Kis is gonna play the five for the most part for them. Derrick Jones Jr. Who even though even though Shams are I can't remember if it was shams Or, Woach said he

was an important role player on the NBA finalist. He's not a very good basketball player, Roco. Roco Derrick Jones, Jor barely played in the playoff. Yeah, it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. But uh, Roco, I actually really really like. I think he's a unique wing in the sense that you can actually play him at the center because he's such a gifted shot blocker, and you know, his shooting is somewhat inconsistent, but he makes more than enough of them to make you pay if

you leave him wide open all game long. And then they added Harry Giles, who, again, it's kind of similar to the mp J thing, where I haven't are not MPG. It's kind of similar to the Christian would thing, where I haven't necessarily seen enough enough of him to have a really strong take. But from what I understand, he's just your stereotypical like bullyball athletic four who it doesn't really bring a lot of skill to the table, but is extremely gift it around the basket as an athlete

and just pretty good pass. It's a pretty good pastor if you're watch enough of him. He's like a canny little like high post passer. He's back cuts, can find shooters. Um. But yeah, I mean I honestly, and they added Rodney hood to right then they probably already on the roster. He's just back from his achilles there. Yeah, so I honestly thought they had one of them are overrated off seasons in recent memory, especially for the way, you know,

relatively way people are talking about them. Bobby Marx is saying, oh, they're going to be the third seed in the West. Yeah, I want to heard. I was like, wait, what did the was there signing? I missed in there somewhere that like, I just don't see that man like Broco is a nice player, Um, but I've been very critical of him, and that's more from a loser fit on like a Warriors standpoint. Um, he is a good player, like inarguably,

but he's not a very good on ball defender. And what are their Portland always has issues with all on boll defense against high level players in the playoffs. Damon aren't going to be improving in that area anytime soon. They're both small guards, um, and I still don't understand why they haven't moved see Jack for something. Um it still does not make sense to me, especially for guys that can fit around game. Um cancer makes zero sense. Why bring him back? He never does anything productive in

the playoffs. Derrick Jones Jr. We just talked about. I mean, he played like I don't even know if he played a hundred minutes in the playoffs, Like he barely played. He was a non packer. He all remembers him checking in at the end of Game one of the finals and Lebron padding his stats against him in the in

the post. But like Andrea couldn't make shots by the end of the finals, that like Miami had some injuries and he still wasn't getting minutes radically kind of played him in a band roll just because they needed some type of rim gravity as a roller, and they didn't even really try to do that when Bam was out. UM So, I just they're gonna be fine. They're probably a fringe playoff team again in my opinion, even see

them missing it. I wouldn't bet on that because I think the roster is better than last year, but the West is also better than last year. Um So, I think that they got better, But did they get better relative to what the rest of the West did, I don't know, but to me, the Dame off the ball, adding that steph element of off ball activity is the biggest potential ceiling razor for them. He said he's not gonna He already said he wasn't gonna do it. Yeah,

which there's your answer. But I mean the reality is is that like like I saw the Lakers take the ball out of Dame's hand, Like I I saw that they chased him over the top of every screen. Then they started blitzing in because he killed them in Game one and and it basically neutralized their entire offense Like that, That's that's the reality of the Dame Lillard experience. It's the same thing that happened to happen to Jamal Murray. It's the same thing that's going to happen to Luca

as teams get better. Like if you don't find a way to become either well with Luca, he beat it with the past. But it's like, if you don't have either unbelievable supreme passing ability or the ability to remain a threat off the ball, who could also go on the post to Luke Damon and you know, guys like Jamal Murray can't do exactly, but like I always talk about how like, you know, someone shared link the other day it was one of your Warriors guys. I think

it was bolteg if I'm announcing that correctly. You shared something about Zach Low from two thousand and thirteen, basically talking about how the Spurs were completely flu mixed by Steph Curry being such a deadly three point shooter off the dribble because it was ruining their pick and roll coverages.

There's I don't I don't think people were like really take into account how outrageous what he was doing during these playoffs was because nobody was shooting threes off the dribble at that point, Like it just wasn't a um. So I think where you're going with this as teams have caught up to that now. Yeah, if you look throughout NBA history, offensive ratings go up and they go down,

and they go up and they go down. And the reason why, in my opinion, is offenses discover something that works and they start to exploit that, and then defenses catch up and then you're gonna see you're gonna see high volume three point shooting team high. You're gonna see teams that are heavily, heavily reliant on a pull up jump shooting guard. You're gonna see teams like that start to struggle as defenses get really really good. Because look

at what the Lakers did last year. Every single team is going to start watching tape of that to these teams because they neutralized a lot of these really really good on the ball scores, and they're they're gonna find a way to to to mimic that, and all of a sudden, these teams are gonna struggle. But then what's gonna what's gonna happen is the offense is just gonna

evolve again. But anyway, my point is is that like that would be one of the ways that the Portlands could raise their ceiling, and I, just as you said, Dame doesn't really seem interested in doing it. So Phoenix, Chris Paul, and Jay Crowder are the big ones, the big the big reason why I'm excited about this team, uh and the reason why I see them as someone who could get as high as the three seed centers

around Jay Crowder, Cam Johnson and Michael Bridges. And the reason why is because we already know that Chris Paul can play alongside the ball dominant shooting guard. We we already know that Devin Booker can go toe to toe with some of the best players in the league and any given night and look better than then. We'll see

how it works looks in the playoffs. He's a like an dark horse, so like maybe slide into the top ten this year, you know, con tem players like it could happen if he just keeps kind of going on the same upper trajectory. I could easily see it happening because he is a supremely talented score like seven points a game efficiently, and they get into the three or four seed and they end up making the second or

third round of the playoffs. He's topped hi player Like it's really but the key there is, as is the case with any of these teams, when you've got guys who aren't quite as good as the top tier players in the league, like Chris Paul, like Devin Booker, you need really really good supporting pieces around them, and having guys like Michael Bridges. Michael Bridges is a freaking is a freak of nature defensively, like I've never believable. Yeah, he was like giving Kawai fits in some of those

Bubble games. But I wasn't really in great shape yet, but he was absolutely giving him fits. It was insane to watch. He's only a second year player. Yeah, it's ridiculous, and I watched I remember seeing similar him having similar effects against other big wings. He gave a lot of problems to bring, Like brandon Ingram. I'm so used to just bumping a guy off and shooting over the top and like, and he literally would get like brandon Ingram

couldn't shoot over this guy. Bridges has like that that's stripped down thing that Andregod always does he like you can get two or three stripped down seals, like basically a game at this point. So I love Michael Bridges. Jay Crowder is just another big, strong guy to throw at those type of guys. And then what I like about Cam Johnson is he's a fearless gunning three point shooter who's got some size, so kind of like a

Duncan Robinson type mold. And the reality with him is is that that's an ideal type of player as a spacing role in his size makes him less of a defensive liability potentially over the course of the season. I like the supporting pieces that they have around Chris Paul and Devin Booker. It makes sense. I think Chris Paul is somewhere around the twelve or thirteenth best player in

the league still to this day. If Devin Booker actually is the ninth or tenth best player in the league, they have a duo that's up there with the top two or three duos in the league, even though it doesn't seem like it because Devin Booker has been stuck in in in sons hell for the last few years.

So they're a team that I'm actually pretty optimistic about. Yeah, me too, um And I think a lot of this though it depends on DeAndre Ayton Um in my opinion, Like is he yeah defensively, Like is he the guy that we started to see kind of towards the end of last year where like, oh, man, he can be like an impact defensive player, you know, and and he's like to turn around the rim. He knows what he's doing. But his rookie year, it was really really bad for

that man. He was possibly lost. He didn't understand picking roll coverages. He was jumping at shots that weren't even shots. It just shot bakes, just all like all the typical rookie stuff. So if he continues on the same trajectory, Chris Paul doesn't have too much of a decline, and

then Devin Booker just kind of is the same guy. Almost. Yeah, I think I'm with you, Um, But I mean I think there are another team with a wide range of outcomes, right, Um, you know, Booker kind of stagnates, Chris Paul shows like actual decline, Ayton doesn't take the next step, Cam Johnson isn't as valuable as you know you would hope you would be. Um. And then Jake Crowder just kind of as a Jake Prouder year because he's had a very up and down career. If people look closer at it

comes down and you make shots exactly. I mean, he's a good defender, like he's always going to be a good defender as long as a competitor. He's super competitive, like he's he's a guy that you wanted your roster, undoubtedly, But if he just kind of has like a so so year, it could also go really bad for him. That's just I think that's just the nature of the west Man. We said that about so many of these teams. It's just there's a huge range of potential outcome. Division

is insane, absolute nightmare. So good luck to anybody in that freaking division. Yeah, I know, um, unless but not least, and then we'll get you out of here. So Pelicans they added Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, and they lost Drew Holiday, and they also lost favors. But so I actually,

and Jason Maples has talked about this a lot. I like Drew Holiday as a player, don't get me wrong, but the I do think that his star and his career trajectory, he didn't really match up with the other players on the roster in the sense that, like, like I, I think you need to lean heavily on a Lonzo Lean, heavily on Zion, lean heavily on brandon Ingram to generate your offense, because they're gonna be the guys who are inevitably gonna carry you down the down at the end.

And Drew Holiday was just a little too aggressive for my liking offensively with that roster, which they'll need him to be in Milwaukee. But I didn't really like it as a natural fit in uh in New Orleans, and Eric Bledsoe can bring of what Drew Holiday brought defensively in that role. Steven Adams doesn't make a ton of sense to me in terms of floor spacing with Zion, But you know, I'd like to see it a little

bit more before I make a call. But they're a team that I think it entirely comes down to them defending, because the reality is is brandon Ingram in my opinion, has offensive talent that is up there with the top you know, twenty players in the league. Yeah, and offensively he's just as talented as Jason Tatum. Yeah, absolutely, what's the difference really, there isn't much of one effort is looking purely at the offensive then m and he now he's he had defensive flashes when he was with Lebron,

but at has just about dissipated in New Orleans. And then Zion Williamson had defensive flashes at Duke that defensive flash that that is just about dissipated in New Orleans. So the reality is is if those guys can defend, I don't think they're gonna have much of a problem at all scoring, especially with J. J. Reddick helping them spacing the ball and uh and with the fact that they're gonna lean heavily on their young guy A. Lonzo looks pretty good last night too in my bed. But so.

But at the end of the day, like this is a team like the I trust their the offensive talent of their key UH two players Brandon Ingerman Zian Williamson are going to score a a lot of points this year, but it's gonna come down to whether or not they can guard, which historically young teams don't because they don't understand the benefits of it, and they don't they haven't generated the NBA level instincts to be in the right places at the right time that allow you to be

a good defense. Yeah, I think just to kind of at on top of their editions. I think stan Bond Gundy was a good higher I like him to. Yeah. I think he'll get them to play hard at the very least he's been shown to get team to do that. I think that the trade situation was just it's the Pistons right that didn't work out. And I think also because he had gm ro he was I think he was e v O P so I mean trying to do both. It never works. It never ever works there,

especially in the NBA. There's been like no president for that ever working unless we're going back to like the sixties or seventies, which is entirely different conversations. But um, I understood the Adams moved from the standpoint of just like not absolutely killing Ziona, playing him too much of the five, But I didn't understand extending him, Like what why are you giving the at that number too? Yeah? It was it to fifty is it two years fifty million?

I can't remember, but it was a lot, a lot, especially when you're gonna have young guys that you need to resign like Zions, and maybe his contract might be coming off the books right when Zion's extension eligible. Um so that I mean, I guess it could work from that standpoint, but yeah, I didn't love the move, especially because you have already some primary guys who aren't great shooters anyway, in terms of Zion and a Lonzo like Lonzo is really streaky. Um I think we've seen that.

B I there's enough of example size that he can shoot. We can kind of confirm that. But if he's always driving into the paint with two or three guys there, that's it's just not gonna look pretty. Um So, I probably don't think they're a playoff team yet. I think there are a couple of years away, at least, um, at least in this West. I mean, yeah, if they're in the East, and I think it's an entirely different conversation. Um,

but I don't. I don't see their path to the playoffs this year out West, especially if if Harden ends up staying in Houston, which it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen, but if it does, they're a playoff team, like they absolutely will be. We know, as much crap as I give Harden, if he's on your team, you're probably making the playoffs. I mean, everything about his career tells us that. Um. So, yeah, I mean I think

New Orleans are. They're a fun team. They're an exciting team, especially if Zion and and b I and Lonzo stay healthy all year. Um, but they're not a playoff team yet in my opinion. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about them that I thought was exciting is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to is J J Reddicks podcast. Because like, for a couple of reasons. One,

he's a total junkie. Like this is a guy that he's a pro, but he's the opposite of the Darren Williams guy who just wants to go home and be with his family. Like this guy just live and breathes basketball, and he will play until they kick him out of the league. And but one of the other things is

he actually likes talking about basketball. A lot of the a lot of the NBA, due to get into podcasting, like to talk about, you know, music, or they like to talk about, you know, business and that kind of thing because they just want to get breaks from it. But he's a junkie. And one of the things he said the other days, he's like, I am amazed by how good Zion's handle looks, and uh, you know, he

he always had a good handle. Um, but it's when I was watching him last night, like he gets so incredibly low to the ground, and that, in conjunction with his size and the fact that he has really, really good control over the ball, makes him like one of the most deadly driving attack players that we've seen basically since Lebron when he was in his early twenties. And so like to me, would be leaning in on spacing

didn't make any sense to me. Yeah, yeah, And I think just to do like a quick lebron co person. I think I remember watching early lebron and he actually kind of struggled with touch around the room early in his career, especially on like you know, kind of like finger rolls and flips and stuff. Zion is actually already really good at that stuff. He has incredible dexterity for a guy his size, and his ass isn't like it doesn't make sense. Um, so he's like, is ridiculous, It's insane.

I don't think yesterday because they weren't letting him and he just kept like going around people's bodies and scooping and it's ridiculous, man, it's crazy. He's already one of the probably if he stays healthy, one of the three or four best guys finishing at the rim in the league. And he's one years old. So um, they definitely they have a bright future. But they've got to they've got to kind of figure out which direction they want to go, because they seem kind of aimless right now, right like

moving off through holiday. Probably good bringing in Steve Adams and then adding a couple years to his contract. That doesn't really make sense to me, so especially at that number. So we'll see um. But generally I am optimistic about their future. I just don't see it this year. Yeah. I believe in the future, it just this isn't the year.

And and that that's where I always say, like, like with these timelines, people have to be realistic and and understand like the teams that win are the teams that push all their chips into the middle. And when you push all your chips into the middle, it messes with your timeline. So chances are like the Golden State Warriors are the world teams that organically build to that. It requires a lot of good luck that usually doesn't break your way. Usually one of your draft picks won't pan out,

or usually the time the timing won't work. And so my thing is like if you if you don't fit the draft picks just don't fit together. Yeah, the play styles don't match. They could all be really good in players individually, but they just don't mash. And that's why I love the Drew Holiday trade. That was that was David Griffin understanding like, hey, we're not gonna go win this thing this year, Drew doesn't match up with our timeline.

I'm better off putting the ball Alonzo's hands a lot, brandon Ingram's hands a lot, and Zion's hands a lot, and just seeing how it goes and if they make laps, great to learn. But if not, you know who cares there that that's not the timeline. Yep. Alright, dude, this was awesome. Uh. We will do the entire Eastern conference on Friday. I think we're shooting for the same time. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'll double check my schedule, but I think the same time should work perfect. Thank

you guys all so much for listening. Tommy, I will see you in a couple of days. Man, all right, man, sounds good. Thanks for having me.