Episode 18: Warriors Upset Lakers, Early Harden/Nets Takeaways, and What's Wrong With The Bucks With Tommy Gunn @TGunn21

Tommy's on a cleanse. He was just telling me about his weekend on the beach where he was completely soberly looking off into the distance and contemplating life. Basically, Yeah, I mean I'm doing I usually do a sober month every year. Um, happen to do it January this year. Um, Yes, a good way to reset the body after the holidays, especially a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, a lot of being lazy. Um, I probably need to cut off a few pounds. So yeah, man, just trying to

live a healthy lifestyle. That's definitely the way to do it. I mean, like I I have. So this year one is the year that I will turn thirty years old, and I've always been blessed to have a really good metabolism, and I think that that has played a significant role in the fact that even though I eat like absolute dogshit,

I've been able to stay at a reasonable wait. But when I waited in last night at two thirty six pounds, I realized that because I've been I've been on this crazy workout routine for like six weeks now where I've been working out like seven to eight times a week. I've been in the weight room four times, and then I'm playing basketball Monday, Wednesday, Friday at five am. So I've been burning like, on average, like several thousands of

calories a day. But my eating habits haven't changed at all, and I think my metabolism is starting to slow down because I'm not seeing any progress there. So I need to get that all ordered out. But that said, I'm back in town now. Um didn't miss too much aside. We did manage to get to the Harden trade before I got out of town, which is good. But we are going to talk about that crazy Laker Warrior game last night. We're gonna talk about the first couple of

games of the James Harden and Brooklyn experience. We are going to talk about the Milwaukee Bucks, and then if we have time, we're going to touch on the Indiana Pacers as well as like I said, we're gonna we're gonna touch on a lot of like big league wide stuff, and then each each week we're gonna try to touch on a couple of teams with really nerdy stuff, more in depth analysis that that is going to be more cater to specific teams. And this week we're gonna be

doing Milwaukee and Indie. Um. But so last night was the latest example in one of my long standing theories about basketball, which is that it is way way better to get off to a bad start and try to kick it back into gear and wake up than it is to h than it is to start great and

to let your foot off the gas. And the analogy I'd use, ironically is alcohol related because like when I was younger and a lot more energy, but as I'm older now, like it's funny like if I if I'm with some people were playing some golf and I have a couple of drinks on the golf course, It's impossible for me later in the day to try to have fun again, because like once I kick it into that gear once and I shut it down, like it's over for me, Like I'm tired, I'm napping, I'm going to bed,

whatever it is. And it's just just kind of funny because it's the same thing with these with these older kind of veteran basketball teams, which the Lakers aren't overly old, but they do have a lot of veteran players. They when when they really kick it into gear, it's really hard for them to kind of let their foot off the gas and then kick it into gear again. And I see that so often, particularly with this team, where

they get off to a really good start. The first time now gets called, it's like twenty seven to twelve, you know, with three or four minutes left in the first quarter, and then they just immediately relax because they just expect these teams to quit, and then they don't, and then they find themselves in a dog fight and they have to kind of kick it back into gear and there's just nothing there because they've already kind of they've already just let that slip that that mode that

they can get into. So that was my original take. There's a lot more we're gonna talk about with this game, but that was my original takeaway. What were your thoughts on last night's game? Uh, number one, I know exactly what you're talking about, drinking related Like at this point, if I'll start drinking and I don't know, one or two in the afternoon, I'm done by six o'clock. That's all I got. Man, I'm gonna pass out by six or seven o'clock and I'm gonna go to sleep. I'm

too old for all that going out. And it's it's it's tough, like it's like, it's just it's it's a it's a ride that you have to be on. And that's the thing like when you're when you're playing basketball and you're dialed in and you stay on like and

you stay on a string. Let's you see this a lot of the Lakers in the in the last year's postseason, when they would be really dialed in defensively, it's like when they ride the wave and they stay with it all game long, they're great, but as soon as they kind of flip off, it's really hard for them to get going again. And you're right, it's just like it's just it's just human nature. It's just a natural human

nature thing. Absolutely, And I I mean I tweeted during the first half like that was like, honestly an embarrassing performance by the Warriors. There was a layup drill for much of that first half, and it was like, all right, this is gonna be a fifteen or twenty point game. Um, But this Warrior's team is scrappy. Um. They they have a lot of younger guys who are kind of trying to make their way in the league. Wiggins Uber who have bounced around a little bit now that Wanta Maker

and bays Moore, a really good veterans. Damian Lee is a guy who's bounces around the league little bit and is now making a little bit of a name for himself with the Warriors. And then obviously have Stephan Draymond to cap it off and kind of lead the way. But this game also showed one of my long standing

points on basketball, and I tweeted about this last week. Typically, if you have a superstar on your team, or two superstars like the Lakers do, if you get blown out, which the Lakers really don't but the Warriors have a couple of times. A blowout is typically on the role players. That typically means the role players did and show up and do their job, and the game gets out of hand early and it just kind of ends up being

a double digit loss. Close games typically come down to how your superstars performed, and last night, down the stretch, Step and Draymond were better than le Bron and a d And that's basically what it came down to. The role players on both teams did a good enough job to keep that game close. The Warriors second unit I thought was outstanding all night. Those past Coal lead lineups

are are really something for teams to deal with. For whatever reason, they're able to space the floor a little bit and they basically just give him a runway to the rim, and he's really tough to stop going to the rim. He kind of gets tunnelvision sometimes, but he is a monster finishing at the rim. And then as bad as I thought Step was and Draymond for parts of the game too, they did a great job down

the stretch. D rey wonted a couple of drives and finishes Step at that end one and then obviously the Step back over a d um and they came out with the win. Somehow, I don't know how it happened. They they were losing forty six of the forty eight minutes. Basically, they didn't take the lead until that Draymond right handed lay up going down the lane off the step pick and roll with about two and a half minutes left.

So weird, weird game. But the fact from a Warrior standpoint, the fact that there's seven and six at this point, I'm almost ecstatic with with that outcome. They've stolen a couple of wins. In Chicago, they stole one and they still went against the Clippers, and they've now stolen one to get on one against the Lakers. Um and I tweeted that I was shocked that this team is two and three against the l A teams at this point. They really could be three and three if they would

have beat the Clippers in that first game. So from a purely warrior standpoint, I'm pretty excited about where this team is, considering how much room I still think they have to grow. Um and Kelly Huber has just started playing well recently. If you can can kind of continue how he's been playing, this team is going to be a lot better. But there's there's still a long, long

way to go with this team. So yeah, yeah, so let's let's start with the Lakers because we we are are excuse me, the Warriors, because we are we are going to get to the Lakers at some point. But I do think it's important, especially with regular season basketball. I mean, you can you can look at specific matchups about what that playoff series might look like, but it's easier to kind of look at each team and what

they're going through in their specific circumstances. So the Warriors obviously had a lot more to play for last night, and the Warriors, obviously, uh are in a different phase of their developmental timeline, you know, Like the Lakers know who they are. They they even with these guys they've been bringing in, they're more or less filling in roles

that already existed in previous iterations of the team. Like Schroeder's just a way better version of Rondo, but his role in the offense, he's doing what Rondo did on that team, just a more aggressive, better version of that, you know. But the team is constructed more or less the same, so their their their night tonight process is different. This Warrior team is building something right now. They don't really know what they're gonna be yet, but they're building

something right now. And there are a couple of things, like I always talk about a championship identity. It's it's like the it's the the two or three things that really define who you are and how that will inevitably be what you lean on when the ship hits the fan later on in the playoffs. And you can kind of see the identity building with that Warrior Team. And I thought it was interesting last night, Like with Kelly u Bray and with Andrew Wiggins, and with Camp bays

More and with brad Wanamaker. They have a really really quick team that is a lot more athletic than previous iterations of of of this Warrior Team dynasty from years past.

And that's the funny part, because like it's almost weird watching them because they don't even look similar in the sense that they're just faster, and they're just they're younger and their leaner and and and you can see them becoming this like high effort team that is extremely persistent that plays into the ebbs and flows of the game.

That's why they've had so many comebacks, like they had to come back against the Pistons, they had to come back against the Clippers, they had to come back against the Lakers. They're finding themselves down in these games, and they're just they're sticking to their identity and understanding that inevitably we're going to break through on the strength of the Steph and UH and Draymond pick and roll and

just our effort. Guys from their bench. Their their bench did their job of of carrying them for stretches of that game when the Lakers starters were engaged and when they were bullying the Warrior starters, and it allowed them to linger around long enough so that Stephan and Draymond could outplay Lebron and a d at the end of

the game. But you can see the identity building. It's high effort, it's running a lot in transition, it's flying around wings with Ubraen Wiggins, and it's Steph making basketball decisions at the end of these games, which is getting them high quality shots. And that's you could see that that's forming their identity and that's the stuff you can build on. Because I don't think that their championship contender

at this point. The reality is as they lost to the Pacers and then they lost to the Nuggets, and then they were getting their ass kicked by the Lakers and they managed to come back and win. But the truth is they've got a long way to go. But you can see the identity forming and you can start to talk yourself into like, Okay, Wiseman doesn't really necessarily makes sense, but he's this asset that we've built because

he has shown flashes. Maybe we can move him for another backup all handler, or maybe for another wing or a more veteran, savvy big who's a little bit more usable.

In the short term. You can see it building, and I think that's exciting for Warrior fans because even though you're out of your freaking mind if you think you're gonna beat the Lakers in the playoff series right now, you can see from stuff from last night that that just gives you a positive outlook on what how this could inevitably end up working in the future, especially when Clay gets back. Yeah, so I think a couple of things are interesting. This team is pretty far from their

ceiling even this year. You know, Clay is not coming back this year, we all know that, but I think this team is still pretty far from their ceiling. From the standpoint of they've basically played thirteen games together, this roster is almost entirely new, especially when you consider that Stephan Draymond didn't really play with any of these guys last year. Draymond played with a couple of them, but he was so mentally checked out for most of the

year that you can't even really count those games. So it's an entirely new roster around these guys. And I think you're correct, and you're in kind of your analysis of who they are at this point. They are a plucky team. I mean, they are really annoying to play against, I think, and that's only going to get more annoying as they get to know each other better and the effort becomes more consistent from the role guys that they

understand their roles better. I think they really do have a chance to be one of the final four teams

in the Western Conference. I'm not sure that Western Conference finals would be I think an incredible outcome for this team, but I really do think they have a chance to be one of those final four teams in the West simply on their effort and then having two of kind of the better closers in the game in terms of how they working at tandem right that Steph Draymond pick and roll is something they're gonna be able to go

to against everybody. And even against Anthony Davis last night and Schroeder, who has been really good defensively this year, they were giving them issues. Steph got a couple of open shots, Draymond got some open layups, and if they get the right lineups around those guys, they're still gonna be tough to stop offensively as long as they can get to the point where the games are close at

the end. Um. So I think, like I said, they have a long way to go before they reach their ceiling, but they're going to continue building, and I think there's probably a couple of roster moves they'll they'll make, especially if Markue's Chris doesn't seem like he's gonna come back this year, which is up in the air. Um. He would help this team a lot right now, because, like you've alluded to, Wiseman is talented, but he is really young and really green and really lost a lot of

the time. And last night was one of those games where it's like, look the talent as a parent on some plays, but this kid's also still night team, and he's still a long way from where he needs to be to help this team contend within I would think the next two to three years. I could be wrong. Maybe he develops quicker than I'm thinking, but um, I don't see it at this point. But Marquis Chris would be a huge upgrade if they get him back. If not, they're probably gonna pick up a big man off the

waiver wire. I would hope they try to get some more shooting um at this point because a lot of these starts that where they're down twenty points, or because you have two guys in Uber and Wiseman who don't really understand what Steve Kerr wants. They don't really have the basketball like you to play in his system. So the solution would really be just go to more spread, prick and roll with that early group, just so it's simple, will fight, it's easier, and the roles are very very defined.

But I don't think he's going to do that. So the other solution would be start somebody in place of Ubre and let him just crush second units, because that's

what he did last night. It was probably his most competent game because he got to play twelve or fifteen minutes against the Lakers second unit, and he had a couple of really nice moves to the rim, and then he puts feeling confidence, so his three balls started going, and then he felt confident enough to make a drive and finish over a d with like three minutes left

in the game. So this team is still working out a lot of the kinks, and I think they're still We're still going to get inconsistent performances for probably the next fifteen to twenty games, but I think around the middle of the season they will really start to figure

things out as the rotation becomes more solidified. And I think, like I said, I still maintain that this will probably one of the final four teams in the West, unless they get a weird first round matchup, Like if they match up against the Lakers in the first round, probably not gonna happen, Clippers, probably not gonna happen. But anybody else in a seven game playoff series, I still think they'll be good enough to be in most of those

games within that seven game series. And then it comes down to do you trust anybody besides Lebron or Hawaii over step in the final seven minutes of you know, the final six minutes of a game, and I wouldn't. Right, So anybody else in the Western Conferences, great as Yokich is, I would still want Step in the last six minutes the game over him. So this team has a long

way to go. But I'm I was expecting them to be, like to have maybe five wins at this point of this easy you know, fifteen games, and I was expecting them to be four or five games under five hundred. So I'm really pumped about where they're at. Yeah, I think. Uh. One of the biggest things that's been a pleasant surprise to me has been their defense. Um. I was a pessimist as it related to their defense because of the fact that I thought Clay Thompson was a huge part

of what they were able to do defensively. Uh, And what has been what has been a a pleasant surprise is Wiggins has been flat out good for a defense. First event, let's started right now. First very well, maybe it may end up happening here. The truth of the matter is is like that that's what's making this work. Like the Warrior defense was always built on and full of things. You know, Draymond Green just being an absolute unicorn on the defensive end of the floor as a

as a small ball five. You know, a guy that you couldn't post up, but at the same time was like flying around and moving around enough that it made up for some of his shot his size shortcomings. And then it was always built on a couple of really really good perimeter wing defensive players, which used to be Clay Thompson and Andrea Gudala and and now in this case it's Ubra who was flying around last night too, and and Andrew Wiggins, and you know, Steph. I'm gonna

pay him another compliment here. Like Steph is not a great defender, He's an average to slightly above average defender. But what he does is he commits himself on that end of the floor, which is more than just It takes him from being a blow average defensive player to an average defensive player because that commitment and focus matters.

But most importantly, it trickles down his his His commitment to being an impacts defensive player, even though he doesn't have the physical tools, just trickles down in effort to everyone else on the roster, like making no mistake, if you know. One of the biggest reasons why, uh, the Laker defense is inconsistent, even though I think when they're

dialed in, they're the best defense in the league. The reason why they've been inconsistent is sometimes their best two players, Lebron and na d come out and they're like, you know, tonight, we're gonna see if we can win without defending. And then it's like KCP is losing guys on screens or are taking uh sloppy close outs and and all these guys are kind of bs and around. The next thing you know, they're they're giving up seventy seven points in

the second half like they did last night. Like the Steph Curry deserves credit, you know, as a leader for for being one of the lynch pins of this defense, even though he technically isn't that great of a defensive player, you know, with with what he brings to the table physically, So that that that I've been really impressed with. That's something you can build on. And you know, I'm with you.

I wouldn't pick them over you know, four or five teams in the West, but if they're if they're in a series against anybody, that's not one of the l A teams. They've got a real chance because they can guard and because they have a really, really good alpha that's gonna go toe to toe, if not be better than any player in the league. And so that that's what what what you can build on. But the key there is, like you know with Wiseman, your your brother

in the comments is asking about Wiseman. The thing I would say about Wiseman is like, I I try to be consistent with this stuff, Like you're tempted to hold on because of potential, but you don't want to pull a Danny Ainge, you know, Like, and what I mean by that is like, like, for instance, Kyrie, Kawhi, Leonard and Al and Al Horford probably wins an NBA championship. They probably do okay, But Danny Ainge was tantalized by

Jayson Tatum. Now, Jayson Tatum is one of the best ten to twelve players in the league, so that's fantastic, but he's a top ten player in the league or fringe top ten player in the league that was on a different timeline than Kyrie and Al Horford at the time.

And so the problem that you have here is Wiseman very well may end up being some freaky crisp bosh mixed with LaMarcus Aldridge hybrid beast of a big man he or who knows what he's gonna be, but he could be something like that, but he's not going to be that for several years. And so you have this this predicament here, or you have to decide whether or not you want to commit to this timeline or kind

of have one foot in, one foot out. And maybe you have fun with Staff his last few years, but you don't win any titles, and then you go into the Wiseman years and now he's the best player in the team, but maybe things don't work out with some injuries or some poor draft picks, or you know, some things don't work out in free agency. And you're pretty good with Wiseman too, but he you can't win a

title there, Like you gotta commit to something. And to me, the Wiseman move here actually has kind of worked out well for the Warriors because he's shown these crazy flashes that will inevitably lead him to have some value around the league. But you've also learned that he can't help you right now, and so I think it's time for them to to at least consider the idea, uh that you've got this elite defense he didn't think you were going to have. You've got Steph Curry, who clearly is

one of the two best players in the league. Still like you need to push your chips in, especially if you can get a player that's under contract next year and Clay Thompson's coming back, because then you can make a real run at things next year. Especially yep, and I think the thing is hunting the rest of the prime of one of the twenty greatest players of all time, and if we're not including Will Chamberlain, the greatest player in Warriors history, is one of the dumbest things in

NBA history. If you're gonna say, well, we're gonna have one foot in, one foot out, and we're gonna try to develop the center, who's clearly talented, as you've alluded to, but as a bit of a project, like there was a long way to go before he reaches this, youing, and if he ever does so, it would be irresponsible I think for the Warriors to billy dally around and say, oh, well, you know, we can try to develop Wiseman and also try to, you know, try to win championship at the

same time. I don't think that's possible. If you're trying to play the thirty minutes a game, It's not gonna be possible in the next couple of years. Because of the hardest things in the NBA to learn is big man defense. It is so complex and complicated because you are accountable for basically everything and almost every possession. At some point, he looks lost, and this isn't his fault. He's only played like fifteen games after he graduated from my school, Like a lot of this isn't his fault.

He's just not ready. Like it's just the fact of the matter is he he isn't ready. And we know what the way the NBA works now, somebody's going to be available in the next twelve months. You know. It might be Bradley Beal, it might be somebody else, but somebody will be available. And with Wiseman, with the Minnesota pick, you have the assets to go get basically whoever you want. You're gonna have to deal probably one of those big contracts that they have on the books that might be Wiggins,

which I wouldn't be super keen on. But if it means they're getting another top fifteen player, you probably do it right, Like you probably don't even think twice about it, because, like I said, I'd love that Wiggins has done for this team so far, He's been basically everything I could have expected it more um, And it's funny. Wiggins isn't a role player, but he's also not a star. He's kind of in that weird middle ground where he's better than most role players, but he's not quite you know,

a top thirty level player. Situation matters so much for those type of guys. Right in Minnesota, he was basically just wasting away. He never gave consistent ever, and everybody kind of just labeled him as a bus. And first I means for number one pick, he's still kind of as a bus no matter what he does with the Warriors, but his effort level and his consistent approach mentally has been super impressive this year. This is a guy who if they do keep him around, I think he can

help them win a championship. Right if Clay comes back relatively healthy who he was and step is still in his prime, and same with Draymond, I think Wiggins is absolutely a guy who can be one of the five best players on a championship team. But the overall point is circumstance matters so much for for guys around the league who are not top thirty. I mean, we see it every single year where guys go to a new situation it's like, oh my god, where was this player at?

And that that's Andrew Wiggins this year, and he has I don't know if he has a legitimate case for Most Improved Player, but I think he's gonna get some votes this year. Um, and I've been all in on him since the trade happens, so yeah, I've just been super super I just want to get a Q Wiggins point because he's been super impresent. He gave you know, Lebron wasn't fully engaged last night. I think anybody who

watched that games knows that. But Wiggins gave him some problems on the stretch defensively, like he he was legitimately bothering Lebron and not letting him get to his spots, and he caused a couple of turnovers. And that's really all you can ask of him. Because this year they're not a title contender, but coming back next year, you're gonna need that guy who can be consistent at point of attack defensively forty five minutes a night. And Andrew

Wiggins absolutely is that guy. And that's really all you can ask. Wiggins is definitely deserving of roses at this point. He simplified his game. There was a couple of things that I didn't like. He took a really bizarre step back three in the fourth quarter that was kind of three times a game. He still done that. Again, you just gotta live with it if he's gonna give you

the defensive effort exactly. And that's the thing like that, you have to you have to live with that, you know, Like like Lebron is one of the two best players of all time, and I literally he still occasionally settles for stupid three over the top of the center or whatever it is. But you know, you have to live with it. But for the most part, it's he's simple, had his game. He his shot chart is basically now simplified, down to wide open threes, the occasional pull up three,

and shots in and around the basket. He's actually really good at contorting his body around the shop, blockers and finishing um. He had a big play in the fourth quarter where he attacked to close out on KCP and drew a foul on Anthony Davis by going into his body. He uh, but yeah, yeah, he missed both. But but point being like overall, like I've I was really really impressed with him, and again like we're gonna move on

to the Lakers here in just a second. But like the bottom line is, you know, Steph, you and I talked before the season that there were basically two scenarios that this season could go. It could go the two thousand eighteen Calves, where you know, Lebron just went on a freaking like like destruction tour individually and the team was really flawed that they were able to beat all

the mediocre playoff teams and make it to the finals. Uh. And then there was the two thousand nineteen Lakers, you know, where you know, injury plays a role. Lebron's good, but he's not as good as he usually is because you can tell he's pouting and and and the team has you know, some real structural flaws and they fall apart and they missed the playoffs. Those were the two scenarios

for this Warrior's team. Now from an injury standpoint, we still don't know because he's got to get through the whole season, but it's very clear here early on that stuff is going to two thousand eighteen Lebron route. He has been unbelievable, you know, for the most part, including the even some of these games where he hasn't shot the ball particularly well, he's still doing all the little things. He's defending, he's leading the team from by example, and

he's creating quality shots for his teammates. And I have been super impressed by him. And the bottom line is is like, for what this team was supposed to be and for the ship hand that they've been dealt by virtue of injuries and just you know them, uh Kevin Durrant leaving and all of these things, they have managed to retool this team into a competitive basketball team. And it's I think gets a lot of credit to Steve Kerr, and a lot of credit to to Stephen Curry, and

a lot of credit to Draymond Green. And I think that I think that this is the problem that happens when we undercut winning on a team level. You can say, oh you want about how talented Steph's rosters were and he's absolutely been on very talented rosters. But you don't just win basketball games like and we're gonna talk about this more with the nets here shortly, but like, you don't just walk out onto the floor and win basketball games.

Ask the Lakers last night that you you have to do all of the things that actually lead to winning. And and Steph, Stephen Curry, Steve Kerr, and Draymond Green have been winning for a long time. They know how to do it. And they're gonna catch his slipping when you when you bring an effort like what the Lakers do. Uh, And I think that that that was my I'm just I'm just paying a compliment to those guys, and I'm paying a compliment to the Warriors as a unit. Yep.

And quick point to kind of wrap up here on the Warriors, I inc one thing that Stephan Draymond have learned how to do. And they didn't know how to do this maybe four or five years ago. And we saw this last in the playoffs as well against Portlands and even Toronto. They know how to win ugly now, right, They even when things aren't going great. They didn't used

to win a lot of games like this. They just kind of used to overpower you by sheer offensive course, and then obviously you know, creating turnovers and getting out in transition when it doesn't look right. Now, they figured out how to win games right like that was not pretty last night at all, but down the stretch they figured out how to get it done. And that's just that's championship medal, right, It's all that cliche stuff about figuring out how to win as you game more experience.

And last point I'll make on Steph is I think it's clear that his ceiling is still a top two or three guy. The key is going to be how consistently can he get there. Is he at the point of his career where it's more like kind of Lake career Lebron or the regular season is a bit more up and down and he's not really giving full effort every night, but come playoffs he can really turn it on and be that consistent guy for six to seven

games of a series. Or is it just the ceiling is still the same but he can't quite get they're on the same consistent basis that he could four or five years ago. That's what That's my only question left with step at this point, we've seen the ceiling. I mean, the ceiling is still incredible. At sixty two points against Portland, it's a twenty point out person the third quarter against the Lakers. Like that ceiling is still clearly there. It's can you do it consistently enough to make this roster

eventually when Lake comes back to the championship roster. M agree. Um, So with the Lakers. This is you know, for all of us who do not work full time in the business, we have our teams that we watch all the games, and then we have other teams where we watch when we can, and we do the best we can to stay on top of them with our busier schedules. And you know, for me, obviously I've run a local business here in town my wife. I have to devote a

certain amount of attention to that. Otherwise you can lose the life. And uh and I I the team that I primarily watch, in addition to supplementing with other teams around the league, is the Lakers. And I've watched every single game that this team is played for the last two years. And I have consistently talked about how they're kind of a jackal and high defensive team, And uh, I get crap for it sometimes because people assume that I'm undercutting the other teams when I talk about it,

and I'm not. I'm just I'm just being realistic about the team that I know really, really well. So for instance, like I'm I'm gonna say a lot about how the Lakers weren't taking the Warriors seriously, and that's why I'm glad we talked about the Warriors first. It doesn't mean I'm I'm undercutting what the Warriors did last night, which

was an impressive win. I'm just saying that I know what this team is, this Laker team, and I know what they can be, and I know the difference between the real version of them, you know, and the and the ugly version of them. And you know, the same thing happened in the finals last year. Everyone's like, oh, you're you're you're talking bad about Jimmy Butler. No, I'm not. I'm just saying, I know the Lakers usually don't let

a wing player play one on one all night. Like there's a difference between this team when they're trying and when they're not. The you know, I I a lot of times I have to go back and rewatch the film to really get a few for it. But as I was watching, I rewatched most of the of the second half shortly before this pod, and I was truly blown away by how lackadaisical their defensive effort was, and there was there was no communicating with cross matches and transition.

Their entire pick and roll coverage was was butcher. The Lakers completely shift that shifted their pick and roll coverage to what's called a catch heads this year. Basically they're they're soft trapping pick and rolls as opposed to using a drop coverage. Last year with Javal and Dwight, they used to drop coverage. In this year, they're basically trapping

pick and rolls. They would trap pick and rolls and nobody would rotate on the backside like it was it was, you know, like guys would miss shots and jog back in transition. You know, Anthony Davis is good at shutting off the paint. Anthony Davis was consistently out of position as a paint defender last night. It was one of the worst defensive performances I've seen from them, and they gave up seventy seven points in that second half, Like it's not just it's not just what I'm scene with

my eyes. It's a result that's happening on the scoreboard. And so you know, for me, like it doesn't matter necessarily, like I've said all all year long, I'm more concerned with just the overall habits of that team, and going into last night, they were the number one defense in the league literally even though they've been b s NG.

So as long as they stay up there, I'll be fine with it, because not up a one, but somewhere between one and seven or eight, because at least it'll tell me that they're occasionally able to turn that on and still get to that level. But all I'm saying is it's hard for me to take too much away from that individual matchup last night between the Warriors and Lakers because the Lakers completely mailed in the defensive side

of the ball. Yeah I wouldn't. I mean, if I'm a Lakers fan, I'm not worried about last night at all, like I've seen it before, Like this team, to me is still clearly the best team in the n b A. Even after the the hard trade which we're gonna get to, I still think the Lakers are the best team in the NBA. Their defensive seeling is probably one of the better defensive ceilings of the last twenty or so years.

Just the groups that they can put on the floor together to not only be physical like guarded point of attack, obviously protect the rim. They are a spectacular defensive team when they want to be. But I thought basically they were focused on stopping Step last night, but they weren't. Like they would trap Steff or they could throw a couple of bodies at him, and like you're alluding to,

they wouldn't rotate out of it. It resulted in a ton of open catch and shoot open looks for for Wiggins, he got a couple but naked open looks O Gray. Same thing, bays Moore, same thing. Lazy rebounding where like they tip a ball and they think they'd have it and the Warriors would strip and kick it out for a three year gonna lay up. That hapen a couple of times the fourth quarter actually where the Lakers and the ball got popped out. Baysmore got a three off

of one of them. Pascal got a lay up to cut it to seven. This game, it was a fourteen point game with like nine minutes. Um. I was sitting there just kind of watching out of the quarter of my eye almost because I was like, this thing is basically over. And then it was twelve, then it was nine, then it was seven, and responds like, oh my got we got a game, And it was basically a porter has made some plays. Like I said before that their second you know, looked amazing last night, and it has

for much of the season. But it was really to me more of the Lakers just being lazy and not and it being game thirteen or fourteen in the regular season, and them not caring too much about a team that they didn't think is on the level, which I mean the Warriors aren't on the level, so you can't blame them in a way. But what I'd ask you is, are you worried about their ability to flip the switch

come playoff time? Like if they're gonna be this lacks of daisical most of the season, it doesn't become a concern at some point. No. I mean that that's where I like to track the defensive ratings because like it's you know, to me, the defensive rating isn't about you know,

what you're ceiling is as a defense. To me, it's about what your what your effort and focus looks like night in and night out in the regular season to me, like there, for instance, the uh the two thousand and eighteen Warriors ended up as a as the eleventh ranked defense in the league. That tells me pretty flat out that they were a really, really good defensive team when they were trying, but that they mailed in a lot

of nights in the regular season. That's what that That means to me that I watched almost every game they mailed in basically every game they had. They actually had a lot of games like the Lakers did last night, where they'd be up like fifteen going into a fourth quarter and then all of a sudden, it's a two point game with two minutes left and they're looking to Stephan Katie to save them, or they end up blowing the game happened against like Phoenix when when they were terrible,

it happened against the Pistons. I remember from that year. There was like four or five games or it's like, how did they end up losing this game? But and then it almost came back to bite. What I'll say is it almost came back to bite them because they went down three two to the Rockets because partly because they were being lazy and they weren't coming out ready to play. And you can see in the finals that

their defense wasn't really all that great. That like the lebron fifty one point finals game, which was a great game, it was also a terrible defensive performance from the Warriors. That's a that's a dirty little secret about that night.

But anyway, I agree. But and so that's where the line is, like, to me, I'd like to see them stay closer to top five because that tells me that they did a better job of maintaining their habits throughout the regular season than the two thousand eighteen Warriors did,

for example. But I'm not particularly concerned about that. And then still, so the one of the most interesting things that stood out to me at the end of that game, as I went back and rewatched the film, and you can actually find this on my Twitter feed if you scroll through and look through the videos. I took a bunch of clips and and uh and labeled them. But they scored seven points in the last six minutes. The Lakers didn't, and they were running pretty high quality offense.

That was the bizarre part to me. Going back and rewatching, there were three crazy plays. There was the two Lebron travels where he just shuffled his his plant foot as he was going by, which was weird because he complained after that he does that all the time. He actually doesn't. He's actually better at keeping that foot planted on on rip through drives. He just slid his foot on each of those. And then there was the play where him

and Shrewder got lazy on the inbound. But aside from that, it was like it was like Lebron post up wide open three for Alex Cruso, Lebron post up wide open three for KCP in the corner that he misses, you know, like Lebron pick and roll with Anthony Davis, wide open jump shot from from sixteen ft from the basket, Lebron post up, Andrew Wiggins spins baseline, draws a foul, gets to the free throw line. Like they actually ran pretty

high quality offense. Just every single one of the wide open shots they had there was like a Crusoe one, a Kuzma one, a KCP one, and Anthony Davis one. They went over four on, you know, and then Shrewderman was a bad shot though. He thought that with like eighteen seconds on the shot clock in transition when I'm not talking about that when he missed one in the Yeah, I know which one you're talking about, the pump b sidestep. Another one that was a catch and shoot off of

a Lebron post up. It was a Lebron dry like he drove kicked it to Kuzma in the corner and he just missed it. But like again, all those clips are on my fety you can watch them. But like, anyway, my point is is like it's funny to me, and it's one of my favorite things about the Lebron James experience is like, you know, he wasn't putting his head down and getting to the room and getting layups. He wasn't being more of a bully around the basket as a post up player because he was being lazy and

he wasn't playing great on the defensive end. The whole team wasn't playing great on the defensive end. But it's just funny how like the bad Lebron game is like somehow him still generating just super high quality shots every trip down the floor, and it's my favorite thing about the Lebron Stepp experience because Steph similarly had a bad game last night, although he did make a couple of huge plays down the stretch of the game, Like but Stephan Lebron, even though they both were giving you like

C minus level performances, we're still just generating offense. And it's funny because, like you'll see a clip of Kevin Durant doing a series of wicked crossovers over Chris Middleton into like a crazy leaning floater that he makes, and it's like all over house of highlights and they're like, oh my gosh, look at this move from Kevin Durant, And don't get me wrong, it's awesome, and as a basketball fan, I love it. But it's just funny to

me because like love Ron and Steph. Aside from step step back, they did not have a bunch of highlights last night. That was not a highlight written performance from either of them, but they just made so many fundamental, basic basketball plays that helped their teams. And it's just crazy to me that like people don't see that. It's it's mind blowing to me because I don't know about you, but I've seen all sorts of chatter abou how Kevin Durant the best player in the world again on Twitter

over the last couple of days. And it's like, because people are just so mesmerized by the aesthetically appealing things in basketball, and the and the little things that actually helped teams win, the little things that are equally as impactful as a seventeen crossover pull up floater, those things just kind of slide under the radar and no one seems to see them. Yeah, not to go too much on a tangent about this, but I think it's still pretty clearly the two best offensive engines in the NBA

are right. Well, we talked about this before. Katie might be more talented at specific skills, he's not better at running an offense or creating offense for an entire team. Both both those teams last night got consistent open looks when it matt the Lakers and the Warriors. Right, it didn't. It wasn't dependent on one guy issuing and making a ridiculously difficult jump shot or you know, finding a lob

somehow after dribbling through three people. It was like, No, he attracted a bunch of attention and now we've got a wide open corner three, or we gotta lay up that. That's literally what it was, and those are those are the best shots in basketball and they always will be. If you can generate wide open threes and you can generate layups, you're gonna have one of the best offenses in the league. Um and the Worrior. It's weird. The

Warriors offensive rating is like twenty right now. A lot of that is related to the first couple of games where they looked awful, but I think also a lot of it is playing too much Wiseman and having line ups with really bad spacing. Point being, they're still, when it comes down to it, the best that generating looks for a team late in the game. Maybe not necessarily for themselves, but for a team of players, they're still

the two best that in the league. I want to touch on a couple more Lakers things, Um, just to get your perspective on it and see how you feel about this team fifteen or so games in. How do you feel about most of the free agent signings Tread's Gasol Wes Matthews better than expect about what expected? Do you think those guys are gonna matter in the playoffs, because that's what it really comes down to at the

end of the day. That Lakers roster was a little bit flawed last year, but they had guys who helped them win playoff games consistently. Do you think the new guys are gonna help them be able to do that? Yeah? So I have complicated feelings because first of all, I think Tres has been pretty bad, um I, especially in that fourth quarter defensively. Again, he just I I'm low on Tres. However, I don't view him as a necessity

of you him as a luxury. So like it's very easy for them to move off of him if they need to. Uh. In terms of the rotation, Uh, Dennis is kind of going exactly as I expected. He is pretty good. He's been really really helping them on the defensive end of the floor, but he's been super aggressive on the offensive end, which has come as good. Come with good, but it has also come with limitations on the rhythm of Anthony Davis and Lebron, which is something

I've talked to you about a lot. Just the simple fact that you know, the simplification of having Lebron and a d dictate everything led to them having more good nights, and they're good nights were just better than everybody else's good nights, and it was a lot it helped them to win, whereas with Dennis shrewder, Like last night, each Lebron and they d each only took sixteen shots in a pretty high paced game, and part of that had to do with, like, there's this other guy on the

floor that's being really aggressive and and actually shooting as much as Lebron and they d are And while it comes with good nights, like Dennis was actually making shots last night and actually had a pretty good game. He was telling the Warriors in the first half, just absolutely prying them. He was doing whatever he wants, destroying the big men on switches. He was playing really really well. But the problem is is like I can't ever prove this,

Like I'm I'm this is just my opinion. But I've always felt like having that third guy on the floor is super aggressive kind the messes with the give and take of the other two and it'll actually be something

interesting to watch with the nets moving forward. But like I I like, my thing is like Anthony Davis missed a wide open eighteen footer or at the end of that game that I kind of feel like if he had taken twenty shots instead of sixteen shots, he's got a better chance of making that shot, just because he's a little bit more in a rhythm and a flow

within the offense. And so that's the give and take I I feel like, I feel like that's just an ideology that some people will probably disagree with me on, but I kind of would prefer to see Dennis tone it back a little bit and flow a little bit more through uh, through Lebron in a d That's just that those are my early takeaways. But I am. I still remain more optimistic about this Laker team now than I did last year, and I was extremely optimistic about

them last year. It's just I think this is textbook defending champion inconsistent effort. Like you're gonna see these flashes where they just, like even early in last night's game, you're gonna see these flashes where they just look physically impossible to hang with, and like, like, for instance, a playoff series between the Lakers and yours is going to end in a relentless amount of post ups of Lebron, Like it's just because they can't post up Lebron against

against Draymond Green, as he proved last night again. Uh, Draymond Green is just unbelievable. But he's the best defender I've ever seen. Yeah, he made Anthony Davis look physically uncomfortable taking like step backs like it was crazy. But Lebron James is going to destroy Kelly Bray and Andrew Wiggins in a playoff series. He's just going to destroy them. There are only like three or four post offenders in the league that are on the wing that can force

Lebron into consistently taking fadeaways down there. It's just and for the record, the handful of post ups that Lebron went to last night, he mostly was getting double teamed. Uh. There was a couple where he was left on an island, and namely that one where Andrew Wiggins had to foul him. And the one time they left him on an island, he went baseline and would have had a layup if

he didn't get found. So it's like the what what makes the Lakers so impossible to beat is the physicality Because Kevin Durant has everal eyes on make or miss mentality, you know, make or miss result you know, Kyrie Irving depends on makes some misrs. Steph Curry and individually offensively depends on makes some mrs. Sometimes Lebron James can literally generate easy shots that go in every single night, and and and then inevitably leads to a double team, which

inevitably leads to wide open shots first teammates. And it's just that whole that whole dynamic of that team is what is what makes them so scary. In my opinion, they just can physically bully you in a playoff series. That's that's too much to handle for the vast majority of the teams in the league. Totally agree. I mean,

that's how they won the championship last year. They just they showed that still with all of the the emphasis around three pointers, the best right in basketball being able to generate shots in the paint right at the front of the ring, and they have the best guys in the league at that. I would assume that as we get closer to the playoffs, and as we get into the playoffs, Lebron's starts to take some of those Shroder

possessions away. I would just assume that's what happens. I would hope so, I mean, yeah, yeah, as a Lakers fan, you would, you would probably hope. So it happens every year. I think they're probably trying to keep Shrewder engaged in happy during the regular season game possessions. They know they're going to be one of the top two or three season in the West no matter what happens, unless they get a bunch of guys out with COVID for three or four weeks. Um. So I wouldn't be concerned about

that at all. I think it will naturally happen as the season goes on, and they're gonna be the best team in the league come playoff time. I don't I still don't have any doubts about that. They're still the best team in the league. You what was the team where Anthony that Anthony Davis sat out against the other night. I'm trying to remember. Um, yeah, I'm blanking on that too.

I can't remember. But anyways, Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis sat out of game the other day and uh and Lebron at the end of the game was more demonstrative with Schroder to get the ball, and Schroder just immediately just gave it to him down the stretch of the game, and they repeatedly went to him down the stretch. So I agree with you. I think I think as things kind of get to winning time him, you're gonna see

a lot better. Uh, You're gonna see just a lot more like forceful nature from Lebron to kind of control the offense, which is a good thing. People. You'll see a lot of people get upset that Lebron is a little two ball dominant in the regular season from time to time as he's I don't know, patting, his stats

are doing whatever he usually does. But the truth is is like Lebron dominating the basketball, especially in a playoff setting, because of his physicality and because of his unending energy reservoir, it actually it actually is a good offense for them when it comes to that point. All right, So let's move on to the nets. So, Uh, it's going about as exactly. It's going about exactly as I would have predicted,

at least through two games. The it's important understand that, like you can't, I don't want to undersell winning here. There's a quality win against the Bucks, although it did depend on a misshot at the end of the game. But as we expected, last two games there, they have a defensive rating up over a hundred and thirteen points per one hundred possessions allowed, which ranks twenty three in

the league over that span. They're not guarding in buddy, They're basically just running up and down the floor, generating insanely high quality shots on one end and giving little to no resistance on the other. I A lot of people are getting very excited about it, and I and I understand, Like I understand, like you're watching Milwaukee was a very good defensive team. Try to get stops against this uh, this high powered Milwaukee New Jersey Brooklyn Nets

offense and they literally can't. Like they're just getting whatever they want on the other end of the floor. I see that part, but I mean that's a when things really slow down. That's a rudimentary UH Milwaukee offense, and they're just getting shots right at the front of the rim.

Like there were a couple of plays where uh where Middleton is just going off a pick and roll and getting into that fifteen foot line, like completely uncontested for pull up jump shots, or there's literally no one within

ten feet of him. There's just there. It's It's very clear to me that there are gonna be games in this regular season where they just look unbelievable, but that inevitably they're gonna find themselves in a fight at some point, and I don't know that they can match the physicality that they would need to to win that type of rock fight. Oh, you're early takeaways from last night's game.

I should say from the two games that they played together, basically in agreement with what you said, But I think it's important to note right now that Kyrie hasn't been playing, and like you touched on earlier, having that third guy always complicates things no matter how talented that third guy is, Right like, Eyrie essentially in this situation, is just gonna end up being like the way more talented version of Dennis Shrewder, where it's like he's pulling Katie in and

Harden out of rhythm because he's taking touches away from those guys, and it all looks more discombabulated towards the end of the game. So I think it looks good right now because they only had two of the guys,

So they're gonna be amazing offensively no matter what. I'm not saying they won't when Kyrie comes back, but I thought they would probably look pretty good these first couple of games because they only have the two superstars, and if those two are basically just training possessions, you're gonna have one of the greatest offenses of all time. It doesn't I mean, it doesn't matter. They're basically is a players.

There's still too the greatest size of players of all time, so that's gonna end in a quality look no matter what happens every time down the floor. I just what I'd worry about from a Milwaukee standpoint is their ability to score in the half court in an eventual playoff matchup. Their ability to score in the half court, and if if it's still kind of average, that means the Nets are gonna get high quality looks a lot of the time.

On the other end, because their cross match or they're getting back in transition and things are a little bit discombobulated in the eventual playoff matchup. Last night might have made me lean Nets a little bit more than I would have a week ago, but we still haven't seen what things look like with Kyrie, so I think the Nets are obviously gonna be a problem in the playoffs. But if their defensive rating is gonna be twenty three, they still can't win an NBA championship. Maybe they can

get through the East. Maybe, but I still would I would still bank on the Sixers probably taking them down a series and maybe Milwaukee as well. But the last night you do a little bit just way my opinion, I can't lie about it. Hard looks amazing. Um, which shouldn't be a surprise anybody knew. Change of scenery. He's

feeling better about where he's at now. Um. I saw a tweet last night ardon like has his background now on Twitter is like him and like seven different Brooklyn next Jersey's somebody tweeted, this is the most first week

of work energy I've ever seen in my life. Like he's just so happy to be a different called this for the record, literally, like we literally said, like I would not be the least bit concerned that he looks like a fat, unhappy man right now, Like because because it was it was so obvious that he was going to get into Brooklyn and just be Mr Giddy again, Like it was it was just it was gonna happen, Like it was the most praticable thing in sports. It's a it's a long season. We're going to see how

this team. Obviously with all the Kyrie stuff going on that there's already issues, you know, a month into the season that those probably aren't going to get much better. Maybe they will, maybe the iron things out And reports are that Katie and Kyrie are not happy with each other right now. And that's not just me saying that. That's some pretty well sourced people alluding to that. So

who anybody I would know? Who? People on Twitter? And then Andrew Sharpe mentioned it on his latest podcast with Ben Golver, which is great listen by the way, it's a subscription one, but it's a really good listen. Those two are two of the best in the business. So it's I mean, it's basically sourced at this point by some pretty high level people. Who knows if it's true. Um,

but point being that they're super talented. But I'm still my concerns would still be about kind of fit when all three of those guys are on the floor at the same time, and whether all three of them are going to be happy. Um, the last thing I'll say is hard. It's definitely gonna make me regret uh calling him not a top ten player because he looks amazing. But it's always been situational with him, right, if you can get him in a situation where he feels comfortable.

The talents obviously there, it's just about you don't want him to be the face of the corner stone of your franchise because things are always going to implode within eighteen months if if he's that guy. But he looks incredible, so so he's in a setting where a lot of

his flaws are getting covered. I think that really helped me. Um, But yeah, I mean I still think like, I mean, you made a great point at the beginning, Like it's very clear you know when people this was this has been a popular opinion throughout basketball history, like oh, Lebron and and Dwyane Wade are pairing up in Miami, like

what are they gonna do? There's only one ball? Or Chris Paul goes to I mean, the Chris Paul to to Houston was the best example in NBA history because it's like, this is James Harden, like the craziest high usage guy ever. And then the point god, like how are they going to make it work? And it's like, oh, actually, it turns out in an NBA offense over forty eight minutes, it's actually very easy to run a give and take with two guys you need to, But it gets way

different when you add that third and um. From a rhythm standpoint, you're basically turning one of the guys into an overcomp overqualified spot up shooter. It works out great during the regular season when you can stagger everybody and play everybody thirty three minutes, but once you get into the playoffs and you're playing all the guys forty minutes, it gets a little bit different. And uh, I just think at the end of the day, you know, like

jump shooting is contagious, It really is. I mean last night was a great example with the Lakers. It's like, oh my gosh, we can't hit an open shot, like kcp's missing, Anthony Davis is missing, Kyle Kuzma is missing, Lebron this is an open shot. It's like you can the team starts to feel it and and it becomes

this contagious thing and all of a sudden everyone's missing. Well, the same thing happens with those isolation scores, Like you know, Katie in a It'll be game three of a playoff series and they're gonna the series is gonna be tied at one, and it's gonna be in the fourth quarter, and Katie's gonna miss back to back pull up jump shots and then all of a sudden, Kyrie is gonna get the ball and he's gonna feel like an added pressure because Katie basically just gave him the ball and

said like, Okay, now it's your turn, like I need

you to create something. And he's gonna get to his spot and take a pull up jump shot, but like he's gonna be thinking in the back of his head about how they've been missing, and you know, all of a sudden, you've missed three in a row, and the other teams like running it down your throat on the other end with some big freak, you know, transition presence like janis antonea Kumbo or or or Lebron, and they're scoring on the other end, and they're getting an easy

shot like right at the rim, and you're leaning on these like heavy skill guys taking these crazy shots. It's just contagious. It turns into this and and so inevitably you have to be able to weather those storms. You know, we talked about this all the time with Steph Curry, like uh Samus Fandi was talking about this this morning, this idea that that Steph will have a high variance

playoff series. But it goes both ways, and so you know, uh, they they learn to live with the cold streaks because they know the hot streaks are coming, or they can win in these other ways in the meantime. That's the way that a real contender like the Lakers is going to go at you. It's like if Anthony Davis is missing all of his jump shots and Kyle Kuzma is missing all of his jump shots, They're still just gonna

generate shots at the room with their physicality. They're gonna lock you up on the other end of the floor. They're gonna lean heavily on transition a lot of like you know, Lebron getting rebounds and outletting to Anthony Davis right under the basket, or Marcus all getting rebounds and outletting to Lebron. They're gonna find other ways to score this. This Brooklyn Nets team is so dependent on winning on the strength of those three guys and their ability to

create things for themselves. It's gonna be like, even even with like Joe Harris spotting up on the back end, it's like that's one small wrinkle that they have, Like, Okay, you can't double off of Joe Harris. But the truth is that like they're gonna they're gonna completely abandon Jeff Green and help wherever they can off the floor. They're

gonna they're gonna stagnate you somehow. All of these NBA defenses, the ones that are actually in it to win it, the ones that are actually competing for a title, they're gonna stagnate you somehow. And all of a sudden, it's gonna be those three guys looking at each other like, dude, you gotta go create something we can't like run a screen, you know. And then they're just gonna lean heavily on that. They're gonna miss some shots and they're not gonna be

getting stops on the other end. And I think they're gonna lose. And I remain confident that they're more susceptible to losing in the Eastern Conference now than they were before the James Harden acquisition. On the overall, I agree. Overall, I agree with the premise that they're definitely more susceptible with the point, which would go against you know, common sense. Since they're more talented, like you're saying, you know that diasois and scoring thing is contagious, those shoulders get a

little bit tighter. When Katie's missed two or three shots in a row and Kyrie gets open or James Harden, they're like, oh, ship, now it's on me. We've got the other team that scored three straight possessions were down five all of a sudden if I missed this when it could be seven or eight. That stuff really is contagious, especially in a pressurized vacuum like a playoff series. So they're totally dependent on isolation scoring at this point and end of the day. It can only take you so far,

it really can. Right there, there's no other way that they're really going to create offense besides Joe Harris running off some screens. So unless Kyrie, Hardened, and Katie all have like nuclear games within one series against one of these great teams, they probably are going to lose at some point just on the strength of or well the

weakness of not having a great defense. The defense is probably gonna be bottom ten, bottom fifteen in the league at absolute best, so they're they're just in a weird position. The move made no sense at the time. It still makes no sense. I am slightly more confident because the last night's game, but we're still only fifteen games into the season in Milwaukee, still figuring out some stuff too. I think they have a fairly new roster. Their bench isn't great, but their their top five or six guys

are pretty good. Um so over the course of the playoff series, I would I would hope they can figure out how to get enough stop defensively to stagnate the nets and then get enough easy looks on the other end, because they are generating easy looks, it's just about knocking them down. And also, I think they have absolutely no one that can guard Joel Embiid, which is gonna end up being a huge problem in a in a playoff seriod. I think this is a I think we're I think

we're on the same page with Brooklyn. I It's still early, we'll see, but I think it's very clear to me that they that they do not have what it takes to defend at the same level as their peers are going to defend. This isn't a NBA season where it's up for grabs and and there's no real great team out there, kind of like two thousand nineteen after Kevin

Durank got hurt. It's not like there's like there's there's It's not like there's a void at the top of the league and some funky team can rise to the top. It's like, no, the Lakers are really really good. You know, Philly is really really good, Milwaukee is really good. You know, the Clippers maybe better than all of them. Like, all of these teams are really really really good, and so you're not going to win by outscoring. That's just the reality of the way that this the league is set

up right now. But let's transition to Milwaukee. So, um, the uh we all saw last night as they kind of degenerated into their typical oh my gosh, we can't use the honest at the end of these games, Chris Middleton has to run everything offense. Um, it's very clear that Drew Holiday right now is being very passive. In my opinion, he's uh, he's kind of like deferring a little bit, a little bit more than than I would have expected him to given the given him what they

brought him in to do. Um that said, like we had another honest, crazy airball at the top of the key, you know we have They're guarding him with DeAndre Jordan and literally staying at the at the semi circle just waiting for Jannice to make a move. And uh, they're still doing this funky stuff where they're not having the honest guard Kevin Durant or using him as a help defender.

And I saw somebody I think his name is Jackson. Uh, this was saying on Twitter like oh if you if you think that Johanna should be guarding on the ball, it's you don't know who he is as a defender, that he's better as a help defender. It's like, yeah, but now you're doing the same thing that Mike Budenholder Budenholzer does. You're you're refusing to adapt like Kevin Durant two minutes Like for the first forty two minutes or so, Yeah, I use him as a help defender, but down the

stretch he's a really good one on one defender. Put him on KD Like it doesn't the entire game makes some type of adjustment to where honest isn't standing off ball will coming to rant just generates easy look after, easy look after, easy look exactly, And that that was the part that bothered me about it. I'm like, yeah, Dode, we get it. Like thet is, they're basically they're they're five man and their defensive scheme and he's helping off

the ball. That's great, But also there is a seven foot guy who's dribbling and shooting pull up jump shots all over the court, and your six eight small forward is barbecue chicken right now. So you need to find some way to get your best physical matchup for Kevin Durant on Kevin Durant and and and again it's it's about adjustments. There's no doubt that you want to try to mix it up and maintain some reliance on your

original scheme because you practice it so much. But throwing different looks at guys is one of the best ways to throw them at a rhythm. Literally it's it's like its alternating between trapping and hedging, or alternating between trapping and doing a drop coverage or whatever. It is like finding some way to mix things up is one of the easiest ways to throw a guy at a rhythm because he's not coming down and attacking the same coverage every time that Urry. That's what team you're starting to

have Curry. They throw different looks at him all game long, and but it's not willing to do that to other great players. It does not make sense to me. I mean, if this is the team that they're going to be the No, they're probably not going to bring Brooklyn in the series. If they refused to adapt. I would think only Billy has a chance to be Brookelyn, at least

in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, no, I agree, and so like I mean, my I've watched like three Bucks games in the last ten days, and more or less I feel the same way about them that I did last year. Janice is no better than he was. Um uh. Chris Middleton is very very good, but we've already seen on so many different occasions that he can cool off significantly

for long stretches and apply. It's very similar to Paul George in that regard, Like when he's got to go in and when he's in the flow, he's one of the best players on the floor, but he's very capable of just kind of going slipping into a funk and kind of disappearing from the game for long stretches. Drew Holiday is what Drew Holiday is a good defensive guard who is a very very average offensive guard. That like,

that's that's just the reality of the situation. And uh, And on the defensive end of the floor, it's very clear that Mike Budenholzer is still all in on sticking to his his base schemes and and making no attempt

to adjust to whatever the other team is bringing. And like, you know, there are a handful of possessions at the end of that game where Kevin Durant, you know, got Chris Middleton on his hip using a ball screen or using a pin down screen, and he would get into the middle of the floor and make a shot in that ten to fifteen foot range off the dribble. If Janice is on the ball there, he can bother Kevin Durant from behind. He can reach over the top and grab the ball away from him as he's going up.

And he's stronger than Katie, He's much stronger than Katie. Can be physical with him and fight his way through those screens or bump him off his spot a little bit better than Middleton can. That's exactly Middleton can't. Like

Middleton is a below average athlete at that position. So that that's just the that that is the reality of that circumstance, and like, you know, I it bothers me because like I feel like it's this Twitter conundrum that constantly happens, and you're not talking about this all the time.

Like you know, really really good basketball player does something, whether it's on the court or off the court, and like we levy some fair criticism and my opinion, and then all these people come out of the woodwork and it's like, no, Janice is great, He's a Defensive Player of the Year as a help defender. You you you don't understand. And it's like, look, man, like we get that, Like we understand that. We've all seen what Janice can do

as a shop blocker helping off the ball. But again, like watch the whole floor, because while Janice is excelling at shutting off the paint, Chris Middleton is struggling at stopping his man. And you have a better option there. So like like acknowledge the the the whole totality of what the five guys are trying to do. You know what I mean. Basketball isn't paint by numbers, right, And I think this is what annoys me with the analytics movement.

And obviously analytics has helped the game advance to a point that it never would have got to without it. But basketball is a very fluid, creative, adaptable game. And if you're so dogmatic like like but is, you're never gonna win playoff series. Playoff series inevitably end up being about adjustments. Almost every time that the talent is so mudy equal, it ends up being about the adjustments that the coaches can make to levy their talent and their

scheme to win a series. And if this is who the Bucks are gonna be, they have no chance of winning a championship. Again, I wouldn't even point to Drew Holiday being passive. I think it's like we've talked about a couple of times, he's the third guy. He's the third wheel, right, so just by nature, he's not going to get as many possessions as he should. And then on the honest point, he's almost regressing in some ways in terms of his willingness to like shoot jump shots

or be able to make jump shots. It is incredible to me to watch what he was coming into the league in terms of like a fluid basketball player who can make decisions in the flow and shoot like a regular rhythm jump shot to what he is now. And I've talked about this a couple of times on Twitter. I think a lot of it is just kind of the teaching that goes on in America with basketball. It the emphasis a lot of times isn't on field or

playing rhythm. It's like this, very like dogmatic structure. No, you need to shoot a basketball exactly like this, when we know everybody has different kind of biomechanical um differences for lack of a better word, that make a jump shot unique to each person. There's been great jumps throughout history. The three best jump shooters of all time, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, and Steph Curry, their jump shots could not

look more different. Right. The steps is incredibly smooth and rhythmic, like no spin on his jump shot over his head and Reggie's arms crossed as he releases the ball. Right, There's no yeah, there's no one way to shoot a basketball. And if you look at the honest Jumpshoute early on, it was rhythmic, it had a dip, it was a little bit slingshot. He but he could make it, and he could shoot it off the dribble. He'd get to

it off the dribble every time. And now he's doing this thing where it's super rigid and he's like, oh my god, he's holding on the ball so tight at the end that he can barely even get the ball to the rim at the time. He I mean, he

can't make free throws at this point many nights. So yeah, they they've got to do a better job with honestly, just developing your honest because he's obviously improved in parts of his game that helped may make him an m v P, but he's regrets in other parts that matter come playoff time and until he improves on those parts, unless he gets like, you know, a top three on bull creator, a guy like James Harden or Steph Curry.

You know, a guard who can kind of attract defenses and pull bodies away from him so you can just have a runway to the rim. I don't see how they ever become NBA champions. But even if they make coaching changes, because the end of the day, when the game is close at the end, it's gonna come down to whether how quality of looks are superstars can create. And right now, you honest can't do that. He still can't. I haven't seen any difference in his ability to do

that late in games. Like you said, they had to depend on Middleton last night to create shots, and that's it's gonna go like it does with Paul George. Some night's gonna work. So i'm n's not going to do And so now you're asking Chris Middleton to out execute Kevin Durant, Joe Ollen, you know, Jimmy Hardon, you know better better like better players than him. And so you're and that's the problem because it will be like when it degenerates into that, you know, clutch, physical, slowdown half

court basketball. At the end of these games, they're not going to be honest. Like literally, end of that game, they could not go to honest and and and so they went to Middleton and he made some shots, and he missed some shots, and guess what, James Harden and Kevin Durrant were better on the other end. And so I don't really see how that's going to improve this season, like it would just it would require be Honese making some leap in the middle of the season, which is

kind of unprecedented. So we don't have time. I don't think to get to the Pacers today because I do wanna spend a little more time on them. Lastly, for today, um, one of my friends Ben hopped in and asked a question. He said, do y'all think you can be the best player in the world without being an engine like a guy that just gets buckets or a guy that's an engine like? And so my question for you just to end today ideologically about basketball, I thought it'd be fun

for us to touch on really quick. Do you think you can be the best player in the world without being an engine? I mean, because of what the game has become and how um, offensive focused basketball has become. Probably not right. I think we've seen over the last five or six years that when Steph career, Lebron James is healthy and they have at least enough parts around them, their teams end up being the best every single year. Every single year it's been the case. And what the

years it hasn't happened. The Raptors want because the Warriors second third best players got injured right, and and that's basically what it's come down to. And then last year, when the problem was healthy, they won the championship going away, and a lot of that was on the strength of their defense, but a lot of it, too, was on Lebron James creating more quality looks than anybody else in

the league, possession after possession after possession after possession. So I think if you put Katie in the perfect situation, you are Kauai. We've seen that they can be the best player in the world if everything around them is absolutely perfect, right. But if it's not, then I think it is much more difficult, right, Whereas it seems like with Stephan Lebron you can kind of construct a winning roster in multiple ways. Um, probably Lebron more so, but

Steph same thing. Like like I like I'm saying, I think this team eventually has a chance to be one of the last four teams in the NBA. This Warrior's team, as deficient as they are in many areas, I still think they can be that on the strength of Steph Curry, and you know, Katie's incredible. This is not to take anything away from the fact that he's doing what he's doing coming off an Achilles injury. It can't be mentioned enough.

He looks basically like the same player. Maybe his rim and tents are down a little bit, but he's easily one of the most talented offensive players of all time, like very, very easily, and he continues to be that guy. But if he's not fully willing to buy into get looks for his teammates in other ways besides his own isolation scoring or his own distributing, then he probably will never be the best player in the NBA, at least not in my opinion. Yeah, so I kind have similar

feelings like that. The graphic that they kept throwing up on the on the screen yesterday of basically how Stephan Lebron are the are the people that take home the jewelry every year are a great example of results to back up this ideology, because I would agree, like do I think that the a traditional bucket getter type of dude can be the best player on a championship team. Absolutely, and we've seen lots of examples of that, whether it's

Kauai or Michael Jordan's or things along those lines. But the reality to me is that the key point with like Jordan though he was willing to use his off ball gravity more than like Kauai or or Duran or if you watch old m J stuff, He's constantly moving and cutting and screening and getting his teammates open looks just through his gravity, kind of similar to like step in a way, but obviously not not the same level, but like he was constantly creating looks for his teammates

by like running triangle actions even when it didn't result in him getting a shot, and guys like Kawai and Katie they just aren't as willing to do that. They're going to their spots to get their shots and buried end point, like that's what they do. But we also MJ is just so so so so good at those two things. Like, for instance, like Kevin Durant is this unbelievable basket getter, but he's not a great defensive player.

So people think HY is similarly a similarly talented player, because Kauai is a really good offensive player and an amazing defensive player, at least he used to be at some point in the past. So you know, MJ was the both like he would like MJ was Kevin Durant offensively with Kauai on the defensive end in the floor all combined into one player. So that that's the difference

between MJ and these other guys. But the point to what that I'm trying to make though, is that from a value perspective, it's the reason why Lebron even though he's a less polished skill player than a lot of these other guys, and the reason why Steph even though he's less physically imposing than a lot of these other players. That it's the reason why those two are so impactful.

It's just to me, you know, running a style of offense that involves you seeking out looks for your teammates primarily and then attacking offensively when you can fit that around that, to me, that will always be a more impactful kind of basketball because it keeps your teammates engaged

and and and it feeds their confidence. And like, you know, I don't think it's a coincidence when you look back the NBA history that there are huge role player performances from these guys, whether it's Andrea Gudala making a bunch of shots in the two thousand fifteen finals, or if it's Draymond Green scoring thirty five in Game seven or

two thousand sixteen, or if it's literally like JR. Smith, like lighting up other teams, or if it's another great example last year it's like, oh, Mark Keith Morris went five for five from three in the first half of

this game against Denver, or whatever it is. It's like there, that's all a product of consistently depending on those guys throughout the season, consistently making them feel comfortable, consistently uh keeping them involved in the offense so that the inevitably are going to have these breakout games, and and it just it just it just to me. I don't want to I think you gotta be careful this stuff because you don't and give them all of the credit. Like I don't want to say Lebron is the reason why

MARKI Morris made a bunch of threes. But the truth is is I do think that he helped him get to that point where he was able to maximize what he does in his role, and I I just think that that brings more value to the table. You know, within a vacuum, you know, you might take an MJ over a Lebron because MJ was so great as a defensive player and as a score, and you're right, like he did, he was more willing to buy into the system.

But inevitably, I think, like like an average superstar score versus an average superstar engines, so to speak, I'm always going to pick the engine in the sense that I just believe that style of basketball is more conducive to winning. For instance, I would take a I would take a

step over a Kyrie. There's a great example because, like, Kyrie is a more skilled basketball player than Steph and everything but shooting, you know, like he's got more gifted finishing room, moves around the basket, he's got a more diverse a pull up I'm shooting game, and he's got a much better handle in my not much better, but he's got better handle in my opinion. But Steph is a much better player because organically what he does for

his team is so much is so much better. And Kyrie, ironically is is the best example to use because Kyrie, and my opinion, is one of his biggest weaknesses. It is his inability to to feel the flow of a basketball game. And that's the reason why those Calves teams never won, and why those Celtics teams underachieved is. It was like, you know, one game in Milwaukee, Kyrie's going off and and the Bucks can't do anything about it, and he puts up a massive scoring number and they win.

But then the next four games, it's like, oh, he's shooting more towards a traditional shooting percentage, but he's not keeping his teammates involved. Jason Tatum's literally like off the reservation mentally doesn't even know what to do. Jalen Brown's hiding in the corner like they just don't know what to do because it's it's not a style of basketball that is conducive to consistent winning, if that makes sense. Yeah, and it's it's funny. We as bad is Lebron and

Step played last night. Both their teams got quality looks the entire time down the stretch. There was a couple of possessions late where Brad Wannamaker got a driving lay up kind of like finished around a d on a driving way up, and then got a transition lay up off a Draymond Green bounce pass. Both times, if you watch the first one, that driving way up, it's Step

was like kind of near the play. Then he vacated to the corner Dennis Shorder was in his position to help, and then he ran out to step because he you know, he had to cover him. The same thing in transition, Wanta Maker's cutting, Shorter's caught between two. Shorter runs that step at the three point line, and I want to

Maker gets a wide open lay up. And I don't think there's any two other guys in the NBA who generate looks like that for their teammates consistently, and that's why their teams always end up winning games because they get the best looks night in the night out. And I get it. It's it's about aesthetics. Like like, you know, there are a lot of people that watch Kevin Durant play basketball and they're like, my god, this guy is

the best basketball player I've ever seen. You know, there are people there are people that feel that way when they watch him, And I can't argue with you about the way you feel about that kind of thing. You know. It's it's no different than the fact that the Steph fan base in the Lebron fan base are literally at each other's throats when the reality is that they should be on the same side because they champion the same ideals.

Which is like, you know, leadership, uh, caring more about winning than anything else, doing all of these little things that impact winning, that go beyond the stat sheet and and and beyond their own individual highlights. Like those two those two players are are so similar even though they look so different. It's so ironic that their fan bases

are are at each other's throats. But the reality is is like, like some people watch Kevin Durant and they're blown away by what he does, and you can't argue with them esthetically. And I can't tell I can't argue with you about that either. Like when I when I go to the to the park or to the gym and I work on my game, I'm not mimicking Lebron. He's not a skill player to emulate, Like I get

that I do. But what I love about Lebron is, you know, I can simplify what he does down to results that are that are strictly based on the on winning and all of these things. And that's what's so cool about having him as potentially the greatest basketball player ever, is like that's a guy that you should emulate as a playing style, not as a skill style. Like ideally, if you could combine the two, you'd have this like

superhuman basketball player that would never lose a game. But it's like, you, guys like Stephan and Lebron, they're the guys that people should be watching, not these Trey Young and James Harden types that lead me to go play pickup games that you know, at the local park before the virus, and I'm seeing some kid takes seventeen dribbles

into step back jump shot. I'm like, what are you doing, man, Like, you're not that guy, Like I don't know what I don't know what you're doing, and then inevitably that team ends up losing, Like it's just the I I feel very passionately about this because, like I I think it's important for the health of the league to, you know, like you want to to champion guys that do the

things that lead to winning. But yeah, I'm not I'm never gonna be able to convince you that Lebron is a better player than Kevin Durant by using anything other than the fact that he's won, Like that's literally all I can do, because he doesn't he doesn't tangibly do anything better than Kevin Durant other than pass the basketball and defend. You know, like, but he but he just he understands how to win basketball games at such a

high level. And there's no real way to quantify that other than, hey, he's literally won four championships and ben to the finals ten of the last four team years. That's all I can tell you, you know, and I think you can you can boil a lot of the honest's issues down to like being told to lean into like a more hardened type of style, right where like

you gotta be the guy that creates everything. It's like, no, dude, you could be like the best screener in the league if you want to be, if it could be one of the best cutters in the league. You could, Like Janice has so many things that he's not tapping into currently because he's been told, oh, you've got to be this on ball creator. Oh just bully everybody in dunked the ball. It's like, no, you have so much more

in your skill set. They're gonna cut, They're not to screen, They're how to like pass quickly and make quick decisions. So you know, instead of your teammate getting a half contested book, now he's getting a wide open look like it's all these little things that both like you're alluding to Stephan Lebron do that it's stuff that you really can't quantify. Right, It's as good as like tracking stuff and analytics have got. You still can't quantify the things

that they do on a night to night basis. Besides, you know, every time the p I p M numbers come out or like this new Lebron metric, those two are always near the top, right there, always at the top because they consistently affect winning more than anybody else every single year. Agree. Well, I've taken your time for an hour and twenty minutes, um, and we still didn't get to everything we were supposed to talk about. But we got a long season and plenty of time to

cover everything. Um, everyone who hung out and watched. I really appreciate you guys and appreciate your support. Tommy, I hope to I'm out of town from Saturday. I'm going to Park City for one last ski trip this year. Although I may do a couple of day trips. I'm like completely hooked on skiing here, but I plan on. I think I get back Tuesday night, so we'll probably shoot Wednesday or Thursday. At that point perfect. Let's do it all right man, I will talk to you next week.

Everybody else, enjoy the rest of your night and we will see soon