Episode 23: NBA Power Rankings With Tommy Gunn @TGunn21

I feel like I'm getting old. Um. In the last couple of days, I have randomly started suffering shoulder pain that appears to be something in my joint I have. This morning, I woke up to play basketball at five AM. I put my shoes on and I'm walking across the court over to the basket that I usually warm up on while I'm waiting for everybody else to get in there, and my ankle just starts hurting, and I'm like, that's weird.

I don't remember hurting my ankle, and the pain just kind of lingered and lingered, and it kind of eventually went away after I got warmed up, but then as soon as I stopped playing, it started hurting again. And and then also I have to apologize in advance. I've had like really bad allergies the last couple of days. Uh. I never had allergies in my early twenties, and now all of a sudden, the last couple of years, it's like literally just NonStop congestion, running knows all that crap um,

which is just infuriating to deal with. I feel like I'm literally breaking down and I'm only twenty nine years old. I don't know what's going on. Well, it's come for all of this. Man, It's funny you say that about your shoulder, because I went I wasn't able to bench press like twenty five pound dumbells a couple of days ago. Like my right shoulder was just catching, like I couldn't get it past a certain point. And I went saw my buddy and he's like, oh, yeah, you just got

some tendonitis in your right shoulder. And I said tendonitis, was like, there's nothing you get when you're like forty five. And he's like, yeah, man, you fight sports when you were a kid. You're screwed. Like it's just gonna start all happening really quickly. Oh, it's ridiculous. I I I hurt mine swinging a golf club, like there are old ask men playing golf and not getting hurt, And somehow

I managed to hurt myself playing golf. And literally where I realized it was bad was the same thing yesterday. I tried bench pressing and I did like two reps in my warm up set and it was hurting, and I was like, dude, I gotta stop, Like I don't know what's going on here. Anyway, I normally, yeah, I don't normally want with with like forties or fifties, and I couldn't even pick those up. So I tried and it was just done. I was like, there, how is

this happen? I'm only twenty nine, and you know, I'm a big believer that like feeling pain is your body telling you something. I've actually had a stress fracture before. It was the only injury I suffered when I was playing basketball in college. Thankfully happened during an offseason, so I never missed a game because of it. But like it was a pain that was localized to an area that was like my body trying to tell me something. So I'm a big believer in listening to that stuff.

But man, I feel like it's just has been incessant lately. Um. But yeah, so we're gonna talk. We're gonna do our version, our first inaugural version of an NBA Power Rankings today. I like the idea. Tommy and I were talking about this the other day. I like the I like the idea of of talking about teams within the structure of something else, whether it's a you know, an MVP debate or all NBA teams kind of thing, or Power rankings kind of thing, because it just makes it a little

more fun, add a little bit more structure. So we're gonna be doing Power rankings today, hopefully getting one through ten, but we'll see how much time we have. Um Uh. The other thing I wanted to talk about this is actually Tommy's idea. It's super interesting. There's a strange phenomenon right now in the league having to do with scores just being ridiculously efficient. Um. And it's a league wide thing. And I have my own personal theories about it. Tommy

has his personal theories about it. We're gonna talk about it for just a minute here, before we do the power rankings, but I wanted to give some basic numbers to give you an idea of just how unusual this is. So, but to give you an idea. The last time somebody went for a whole season over twenty points per game was you guessed? It's Steph Curry in two thousand sixteen.

Literally no one's done it since. And this season Kyrie Irving, Chris Middleton, and Paul George are all over twenty points per game overt from the field, over from three, over from the line, so three in one season, after not having any for the previous three seasons, including Steph Curry

himself in that span. Now, uh, if you remove the free throw qualification, so just from the field and from three, we have ten guys averaging over twenty points per game, shooting over fifty percent from the field and over from three. If you drop it down to like guys who are nearly at that point so percent field goals, thirty eight percent free throws, or thirty eight percent threes, we have sixteen players in the league averaging at least twenty points

and hitting those numbers. So a solutely crazy stuff. I have my own theories, but I want to let you kind of lead into this. What's your theory as to why there appears to be a preponder a preponderance of of players who are who are scoring in an extremely efficient clip this season as opposed to years in the past. Well, I think with anything like this, it's typically more than

one thing. To try to just narrow it down and say, hey, it's only this one thing happening and that's why we're seeing any type of phenomena is kind of shortsighted and just misinformed. So I think it's a couple of things. Number One, I think with no fans in arenas, it is more of a static environment than NBA players who used to It's not as static as the bubble where it was literally the same backgrounds and no travel at all times, but it is still a pretty static environment, right.

Probably less cameras in arenas, less fans in general, and just there's not the Probably the variance in shooting performances where a guy gets maybe rattled by a road crowd and instead of going, you know, two for sixteen on the road, he only goes six for sixteen, and at the end of the day, that's gonna helpless percentage say a little bit higher. UM. I also think that guys are just working on their skill sets more, working on becoming more varied scores, especially from the three point line.

Since Steph Curry kind of revolutionized the league with off the dribble three point shooting. It is a skill that basically every player under six eight works on and if you're not, then you're gonna get left behind. UM. And it's I think it's really those two things. And then I think also a little bit the emphasis on offense in the league in general from UM, a league wide standpoint from the league office, and not allowing as physical of play and kind of emphasizing freedom of moving rules.

I think it's all three of those things. To say it's any one of them or one is contributing more than the rest, I'm not sure, but I think it's probably a combination of all three of those things working in concert together. Yeah, I agree. I Uh, there's one thing that if I'm particularly interesting, But I do agree with you about all the other topics. I think the lack of crowds and the ability to focus has helped.

I think a lot of NBA players. C J. McCollum has talked a lot about this in his recent podcast with Bill Simmons. Basically the idea that these guys are just as a result of these traveling bubbles that they're in, with the tightened the Titan rules that they're they're playing under, they are just diving into the game of basketball and it's just leading to some really high quality play. We

saw that again in the In the Bubble. It just goes to show you how much distractions during a normal season have an impact on on the way these guys play. The big one that's really interesting to me is one of my long standing philosophy is just about life in general, having to do with people just getting better as time goes on at stuff, and and it being kind of a movement as everybody pushes each other in the same direction,

almost from a competitive standpoint. So for instance, you know MJ gets out of the league, MJ makes UH just destroys the league. As this as this mid range score who kind of insists on almost only taking UH shots out of isolation in various forms around the floor from the mid range, which is historically considered usually an inefficient

spot on the floor. And it kind of led to this, like next era of players guys like Kobe, guys like team At, guys like Carmelo Anthony is another great example of a guy like this where they almost just tried to do the same thing that MJ did but weren't as effective at it, and and it ended up leading to this, UH. It ended up leading to this era where efficiency kind of taint And I think I credit

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving for leading this movement. Steph Curry as well, I should add him in there, UH as players who kind of made being efficient scores cool again, you know, like adding you know, all three of those guys, uh, Kyrie or Katie and Steph in particular have made becoming you know, finding easy shots on the floor and making them cool again. And I think that it's kind of

a league wide phenomenon. Now there's there are less mid range jump shots being taken that's going to directly impact efficiency, although the best scores in the league can still do that to some extent. And then the UH, like you mentioned, just a league wide basketball war, worldwide UH movement towards becoming good three point shooters and how that just has

changed it. But I think it's really cool to see how the entire basketball world has just evolved to the point where you know, scoring is only acceptable when done efficiently, right, And I think basically you're getting left behind if you don't become that way. It's an interesting point comparing it to the two thousands, when you had kind of all of the the air appearance of Jordan, who were just set on taking as many jumpers as possible and making them as difficult as possible. If you try to do

that now, you literally just get left behind. Like the Marta Rosen is an incredible mid range player, but he's gotten left behind by a lot of his peers because he basically insists on only taking mid range jumpers and he's super efficient at those, but he can't keep up because the guys who's competing against are shooting seven eight threes a game and they're doing it near Um. Even a guy like Donovan Mitchell, who has been historically kind of mid thirties, and I think we can kind of

dive into Utah after doing this. Maybe um, he's like historically mid thirties. This years, he's shooting eight threes a game and he's shooting that like forty one and a half percent. That is insane. Five six years ago, you've been like, oh my god, this guy is the greatest shooter of all time, and now it's just like, yeah, he's a really good shooter. But there's seven, eight, nine other guys in the league are doing the same exact thing. Lebron famously once said in an interview when he was

in Miami, I am not a shooter. No. I think it was actually in Cleveland, but he said, I am not a shooter. It's not what I do. And and it always really bothered me when he said that, because I was like, come on, man, that that shouldn't be your mentality. Your mentality is I'm great at everything. That's what it should be. But regardless of what he said, what he said didn't match up, which with his actions, which was he made himself into a great shooter. And

that's a great example. Like Lebron is still the best player in the league in my opinion, and in his eighteen season in A big part of that is the fact that he adopted a playing style that matches the current era, which is he needs to be efficient on

all on all areas of the floor. But I do think it's interesting, it'll be interesting to see if these guys are able to keep this up, because I do think that over the course of the season, as defenses get into a rhythm, as conditioning gets better, especially as we get out of this pandemic phase, as we get into April and May, when things are a little bit more free flowing in what they're allowed to do, if defenses get better, and and it just and it just

kind of trends back more towards normal. But I think it's a good thing. I do have. I do agree with you that they are a little too forgiving on on the to the offensive player in terms of the way they officiate the game, and I think that that can be a problem. You and I have talked at length about how officiating is is dogshit in the NBA right now. Uh, those are problems. But in terms of the skill set of these NBA players, I think it's awesome. I think it's I think it's great for the game

just to have, uh just it. It raises the overall level of skill. No one wants to see Eric Snow, great player, great defender. No one wants to see Eric Snow playing meaningful basketball games where the dude you know can hardly dribble with his head up, you know what I mean. Like, that's where that that's where it can become a problem. Yeah, I think they're gonna have to legislate some defense back into the game at some point,

because right now it's ridiculous. I mean you have Luca and Trey both who are like six times a night they pump fake and then they jump four feet forward into their defender and somehow they still get the foul call. They're the ones shooting free those at the line. Like, that's the type of stuff that has to go. And I think that's also the stuff that's helping some guys that improve efficiency because a lot of their bad shot

attempts get washed away by bad foul calls. But overall, no, I think it's absolutely a great thing for the game. Anytime you have a bunch of guys who are super skilled at any type of events, sport, whatever, it overall makes the viewing experience better. So it's no, it's obviously overall a positive thing. Yeah, it'll be something worth keeping an eye on. And we're gonna talk on some of these guys more in depth as we get down this

power ranking. So you know, everybody does Power rankings differently. Uh, there's a bunch of different ways to look at. It's no different than the m v P or any any other you know, NBA award or NBA topic that we

look at. I tried to kind of balance between how well teams have been playing lately and how well they've been playing for the whole season, and how well they project to play when they get into the playoffs, although I factored that last one a little less because at the end of the day, you know, it is it is the regular season. Um I I, you know, broke it kind of into tears. I had, you know, the obvious clear four teams at the top, you know, the Jazz, Lakers, Philly,

and the Clippers. And then there's kind of two funky teams. There's Milwaukee's sixteen and eight, but they've literally played nobody. Um, they only have four wins against teams that are five better. Phoenix Is has a good record, but they've had a weird situation with COVID. And then there are just a huge chunk of teams that are all right around five hundred, either a game or two below five hundred, or a game or two above five hundred, and so splitting hairs

between teams. It's difficult to do. So that's why I want to kind of dive into today. But I so I I put the I gave the Lakers a slight edge over Utah strictly because I think they have a few of the most impressive wins of the season, them going into Milwaukee and really man handling Milwaukee, handling Boston the way they did uh. And then there's a third one in there and forgetting just recently, oh, Denver. They completely obliterated Denver the other night. The Jazz also are

are playing really well. They're they're nine and one in their last ten and their last ten, their second in offense and fourth and defense. It's really neck and neck for me right there. The tiebreaker for me was the fact that the uh, the Lakers, I think project to be a much better playoff team. So, first of all, which team would you take? Number one? The Jazz are the Lakers. I have the Jazz at one right now because it's not only none of the last ten, it's

sixteen of the last seventeen that they've won. They've won sixteen of seventeen games, and they are they're playing a brand of basketball that, honestly, we've never seen before in terms of combining not only the volume three pointers they're shooting, but the efficiency they're shooting in that it's essentially Daryl Morey's wet drain. What they're doing right now. They're taking around forty three is a game, and the making like

seventeen of them. Right now, they have six guys shooting at least four threes a game, and most of those guys are and five of them are shooting at least six a game, and five of those six guys are shooting at least from three. Now. I've had a lot of complaints over the years about teams that just chuck threes at nauseum and they're shooting like mid thirties percent. They're literally just playing mathketball, and they're not even trying

to play an honest form of basketball. What you taught doing is the way you should try to do it. If you're going to shoot a lot threes, you not only get shooters, you get good shooters. You're not Milwaukee or Houston where you're getting a bunch of guys who shoot thirty percent and you just hope the math works out at the end of the day Utah has obviously

put thought into this. They have a bunch of guys who are really really good shooters and can shoot it in a variety of ways, and they're just a super fun team, man, And they're anchored by a guy who's gonna be top three and Defensive Player of the Year

voting again. And then I think a guy in Donovan Mitchell, who some people have argued as the third best player on the Jazz and I do see that argument just from the standpoint and of he's probably the third best in his specific role, like go BET's one of the best in the league at his role. And Calmly has been obviously amazing this year. We touched on that in

the last spot. But Mitchell has improved year over year. Um, like I said, he's shooting like I said earlier, he's shooting on eight attempts a game from three, and his finishing like within basically the restricted area, is actually down this year compared to the rest of his career. He's only about fifty four percent when for his career's around.

So if he gets back to his normal levels at the RIM, he's gonna be another guy who's shooting mid forties from the field, over from three, scoring over twenty five points a game, and I would look, I would still pick the Lakers over them in a theoretical series, but this is the regular season and they deserve credit

for what they're doing right now. They're an incredible basketball team and they just I mean, they were just flat out better than Boston last night, and Boston's one of those mid tier teams, and to me, beating Boston pretty soundly proves that they are one of the four best teams in the league. And right now I think they're playing the best basketball of anybody. So I like the point you made about Mitchell because I agree. I don't

think he's necessarily been their best player this season. I think that probably is between Conley or Gobert, but he's very clearly their most important player for whatever their ceiling is, because when you know, I talked about this a lot on Twitter last night after the game, but like I there he is their alpha dog who can reach the you know, the atmospheric heights that you need to reach from somebody, and you're in the stars that that are at the you know, that are controlling your team in

order to beat the team that might be better than you um, you know, and and it remains to be seen whether or not he's capable of that. But he's the guy who who He's the guy that will inevitably determine the fate of this team. Now, you you had mentioned at the beginning, you said that I've never really

seen anything like this team. It's ironic because it kind of reminds me of like an evolutionary version of last year's Bucks in the sense that when you watch Lie Stears Bucks, what they did was they defended like crazy, particularly at the rim with with brook Lopez. They would funnel everybody to brook Lopez at the rim and then they would sprint down your throat in transition and and

always have these guys trailing for threes. It was frequently it was Chris Middleton, but it was They were a team that was aggressive at putting pressure on the rim and then taking advantage of sucking your defense into to get three point shots. And Utah is kind of doing that at a better level because instead of having guys like Wesley Matthews shooting threes, they have guys like Joe

Ingles shooting threes, and you know, just better. They just have better shooters doing the same things that Milwaukee was doing. Now they're not exactly the same because they don't have a honest type of wing out there, but their defense

is trying to funnel everybody towards Rudy Gobert. And on offense, they're putting as much pressure on the rim by driving and attacking closeouts with Connolly and Mitchell getting you into rotations and just they have they have to really really good players on the wing, and Royce O'Neil and uh

and Joe ingles at attacking closeouts. Every possession they're attacking a defender that's at a disadvantage and just doing basic plays shooting the three or put the ball on the floor and make the next pass to the next guy who's going to be open. And it's it's kind of like pretty basketball, but it's very regular season basketball. If that makes sense. Sure, it absolutely is. And I would also include Bogdanovich in that in that it's a trio

of wings. And I think another important distinction to make besides the shooting from Milwaukee last year, like they're just better shooters, is that Snyder has really taken the kind of Popovitch adage of like make a decision in point five seconds. That's a that's a great pop thing. Essentially, when you catch the ball, you should need to be shooting, passing, or dribbling within point five seconds. Quick decisions, and I think Snyder has one really emphasized that because he is

a Popovich coaching tree guy. And number two, I think they just have better overall passers than a team like Milwaukee. Right.

They have guys who can not only put the ball on the ground, but when they put the ball in the ground, they typically make the correct read and just that is so key when playing against high level NBA defenses because it gives you that extra split second window to maybe get a shot off or create a bad clothes out and now we're re driving again and we're creating either a layup for somebody else or a wide

open three. They're just they're really fun, man, And I typically don't enjoy the teams that launch forty three a game and they're doing it just drive and kick. But the thing is they're actually doing it the right way. They got really good shooters and not only and those shooters can make good decisions to It's it's so much different to me than it seemed like Milwaukee specifically last year, where it's like these guys are just kind of hoping

the math works in their favor. They're not actually playing to their strengths. Unta us playing to their strengths right that they have guys who can make quick decisions and guys who can knock down threes at a super super high rate. So I can't look, I'm still gonna doubt their overall playoffs ceiling unless Mitchell really really turns it on and becomes like, you know, the the archetype would

be like third year d Wade when he took Miami championship. Right, they hopefully get lucky with a couple of injuries to key competitors and Mitchell takes it up another level in the playoffs and he kind of is able to be their guy Layton games, and he's able to score efficiently

enough to where they can beat most people. And if he keep shooting from three on that volume, they're gonna have a punchers They're gonna have a puncher's chance, just because if the guy's making and he can get it anytime he wants, good luck, like some nights, you're just gonna win those battles. Because three is more than two. He made a huge one at the end of the game.

They're in the corner coming off of a dribble handoff on the baseline from Rudy Gobert, which was just a really, really tough shot and it was a dagger because I think I think they were up for and it put him up seven. And uh, even though Boston was attempting to make a comeback, and you know, I agree, that's

what it's gonna come down to. But you know, so in terms of the playoff matchup, you know, I so I have, uh, the Lakers to who will talk about in a second, and I have Clippers three we'll talk about. You have Lakers, Lakers one Jazz to right. I have the yeah yeah one Jazz too. But I had to

Clickers in third place. And and I find them to be the like kind of like a trifecta of bad matchups for each other in the sense that, like, you know, the Clippers have these these big wings that can potentially cause problems for the Lakers, smaller guards that they like to play, guys like shooter, guys like KCP that that may be getting big minutes in a playoff series. Um, that would be their pathway towards winning. I still think

the Lakers are better, but that's their path Also. They can throw those bodies at Lebron right like they have more they have more wings, and that nobody's gonna stop Lebron obviously, but they can at least give him more problems than probably any other team in the league just by the sheer number of players they can throw at him.

I am so, uh, with all due respect of so sick and tired of hearing that line of thinking because I've heard it so many times in so many different Playoffs series where it's like, oh, dude, he's gonna have to have Robert Covington and Jeff Green guard him in this series. Okay, he's going to dude, just wait. They have Tory Craig and they have Jeremy Grant. Do they have Andrea Guadala and they have Jay Crowder and they have Jimmy Butler. They're gonna be able to guard Lebron

and then he goes. So, for whatever it's worth, the whole like I've got wings to throw at Lebron thing has literally been the most ineffective uh you know, cliche and the history of basketball. I do hear you, but I I think if anyone is equipped to do it, it's Kauai and Paul George and Marcus Morris is at least a big body that can throw them too. It look, it is one of the most impossible things in the

last eight years. Of the last eight years are an example of just how impossible it is to stop Lebron James. In the playoff series, he eventually figures it out right, but in theory, he is getting older, and you would hope that younger bodies can maybe slum down. I'm not saying it's gonna work perfectly, but you would hope you can make it at least a little bit tougher than anybody else has and that and that might be all it takes to win. You just get him down at

fifty percent from the field instead of fifty. So for the record, I agree with you. I I think that they're the team that has best equipped to try to guard Lebron. They're the team that's best equipped to try to attack some of the defensive mismatches that they might have against the Lakers. But my point is is that they are the team that on paper has the best chance to upset the Lakers. I think the Lakers would

absolutely destroy this Utah Jazz team. They've got such good defensive guards like Dennis Shrewder, th h T and UH and Alex Crusoe are all all defense level the guards. And then KCP is an above average defensive guard, so they've got and then Wesley Matthews is an above average defensive cards. So they've got five really really good guards that over a course of a playoff series are gonna wear down Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley at the point

of attack. And then in addition to that, guys like like uh Royce O'Neil he's only like six four Uh Bogdanovich, he's actually he has a track record of of giving Lebron some issues. But I think a big part of that is like like Lebron would uh would kind of take his time in that particular matchup, and then he would attack it at the end of the game and

have his way with him. I don't think Bogdanovitch can stop Lebron, Yeah, because everybody points to as a Bogdanovitch series, But if you watch that series, like like Bogdanovich spent a ton of time on Lebron, so as a result, in the phases of the game when Lebron is kind of coasting around, you know, but in big pivotal moments, Bogdanovich couldn't stop Lebron. He would just gog walk him

to the room every time. And then, uh, and Joe Ingles is a little too Skinny's six eight but he's a little too skinny, So I don't like their wing matchups. And then Anthony Davis is like historically just destroyed Rudy Gobert. Like and not only not only is he historically destroyed Rudy Gobert, he gets like a sick pleasure out of

doing it. Like when he matches up with Rudy Gobert, he's like, I it kind of reminds me of like what Joe LMB used to do to Andrei Drummond, where it's like, I want him to go back to the locker room tonight and question whether or not he belongs in the NBA. That's the way Anthony Davis looks at at Rudy Gobert. So I like, I like their guards ability to to to wear down at the point of attack against Mitchell and Connolly, I really really like Lebron's matchups against those wings and and and a d is

gonna have his way with Colbert. I think that's a matchup that could cause serious problems with the Jazz. But I also think that the Jazz can beat the Clippers. So it's like this weird kind of trifect because the Jazz uh have the the the Clippers have terrible guards at the point of attack. Like that's the weakness of their defense. The reason why, uh, the Clippers defense has been bad this year, kind of a middling defense, even though they have Kawhi entered, Paul George and Sergebaka front

court that theoretically should lock people up. It's because their guards are bad at the point of attack. That's why that that's why they're a bad defensive team. That's a weakness that the Jazz can exploit and it's something it's something to keep an eye on. And then you know, there's all this stuff with uh Joe Ingles and Paul George and all their history and stuff like that. Yep, no, I mean, I don't I don't disagree with any of it.

Um just to move on to the Clippers. I think everybody seems to think they're better again this year, and I think they are, like they're they're better than they were last year because I think but Him was a really nice edition and so was Siva. Like those are good editions that I think do matter in certain playoff matchups, But overall, I don't think there are any more of a contender than they were last year. That We've talked about this so many times that we honestly don't even

need to go over it again. They still don't have a true playmaker or a true lead guard who who can initiate them in the sets and control the flow of a game when when things slow down and when things get kind of ugly. Like as good as Kauai is and he's improved in that way, he's just he's still not that guy. He's improved a ton as a passer, and I've really liked some of the things I've seen from him in that area, but I don't think he can run your offense at the end of the day,

and that matters in a playoff series. Like they they still, in my opinion, need to make a move for not only point of attack defense at the guard spot like you're talking about, but also just like guy who can initiate offense on a consistent basis against good playoff defenses. So the Clippers are better, but I still don't see them as a true contender in really any sense of the word, unless they unless they make a move, unless they get a good guard who can initiate offense and

defend at the point of attack. That's why Rubio is such a perfect option there. And I'm not sure what he's saying is, but he's a good defensive guard at the point of attack and he and he can settle them down on offense. Who did you put first, Clippers or Philly? So to be clear, we have I have Lakers one Jazz too. You have Jazz one Lakers. To do you have the Clippers or Philly? At three? I have Philly. So I put the Clippers at three because they have they lead the entire league and wins against

teams that are five or better. That was the big differentiating factor for me. Um they just have more quality wins Philly. The problem with Philly, and this is something to keep an eye on, they basically have one really good win and it was against the Lakers, and it was in a game that they want at the Buzzer. They played Miami twice when they were absolutely decimated by the Covids, like literally barely NBA roster on the floor.

They played UH Boston twice without Tatum both times and then the U. I can't remember what the third UH big win that they have, but it was also against the team that was severely hampered by injuries. So that the big thing with Philly is we don't really know who they are yet outside of that one Laker matchup. So that's why I give the Clippers the edge. Why

did you give Philly the edge? Um? Because when their entire roster plays, they're probably the second best team in the league, or well, they're in that top three with with Utah and l A and the Lakers, UM and US. They're like seventeen and one when they have their starting line up or something. Yeah, they're fifteen and three when Seth Curry plays, and they need him just for spacing reasons, like if he's not on the floor, he provides just

so much for them. And that's why I really like the fit when he went there, because they needed another guy who was like a true shooter, and he is a true, true movement shooter. He's fifty fifty. I think I still don't think he's missed a free from this year. I think he's at the moment. I saw that. I saw that last night. That's an insane staff man that that family has the greatest hand eye coordination in the

history of the world. Like, like, you have two sons in the NBA after having a guy who was a sixteen years spot up sharp shooter in the league, your two sons are two of the best shooters ever. So but that's a tangent. We don't need to go there. Point point being when their guys play, they win, period, end of story. I know they only have one quality win. It's because Simmons has missed three games. So Biases miss three games and Vitas miss five games, Free miss seven

or eight games. Yeah, this is something we're about to get into with Milwaukee. But like, the problem is the Eastern Conference is once again garbage once you get past the top five or whatever it is. And I found out that the other team that they have it like they beat Brooklyn that's great, Uh, Kyrie and Kevin Durand

didn't play. It's like and so it's they've run into an unfortunate you know, confluence of events with you know, a notoriously week schedule as a result of injuries to injuries and COVID protocols that have destroyed the good teams they've played. And then they're in the Eastern Conference, so they keeping they keep getting a bunch of the schedule breaks just by playing these bad teams at the bottom. But I I agree, like you know, I I, uh,

Philly when they're healthy has won every game. They deserve to be up there at the top. I just gave a slight edge to the Clippers on account of the fact that they have more quality wins. That was that was kind of the difference straight. But I think we do agree about the Clippers flaws and and it's time to you know, Uh, this was actually something I saw on Windhorse podcasts. But did you know that, like the Clippers are frank thirty and clutch offense this year of

the off the double check it. But it was something I saw on the pod. I didn't hear that, But that doesn't surprise me one bit. Yes, and so and so they talked about this in the in the Brooklyn game. Uh, and it was it was it was actually kind of genius, and in my opinion, I want to say it was it was bond Temps who was saying this. I know Bontemps can say a bunch of questionable things from time to time, but he made a good point in this case.

He basically said, like, look like Brooklyn can't guard anybody, but the Clippers are easy to guard in crunch time because they go away from all of their normal actions that work over the course of the game, which is normal. By the way, when you get into crunch time, you can't really run core basic basketball stuff because if you do, you know, teams are way more dialed in defensively, they're way more physical. The rests are letting stuff go. It's a lot harder to run basic actions to get shots

in crunch time. That's true, However, you gotta do something other than just repetitively, you know, go to the same isolation moves and and the Clippers make themselves easy to guard in crunch time situations. So even teams like Brooklyn, as as flawed as they are defensively, you know, you're you're asking them to do the easiest parts of defense,

which is like watch a predictable guy. You know, one four low or whatever it is, or four out, just trying to run an isolation play where there's two guys digging in on either side and there's a help rotation and it's one of those things where they kind of play right into the into their opponent's hands. And I'll have to double check that the numbers. But yeah, like, I'm pretty sure they're the worst clutch offense in the entire NBA right now. Yeah, I mean to once again

compare them to Brooklyn. The thing that I'd say is Kauai and PG like want to be those guys in their head, like they think they can be Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving or James Harden in terms of isolation scoring, and they're probably just not. Like they're They're handles aren't as good as probably any of those guys, and then they're passing probably isn't as good as any of those guys.

If you're just saying Kawai and PG versus those other three guys, that's why Polin can just subsist on saying, Okay, it doesn't matter, we're not really gonna defend, but if you get us late in a close game, we're probably gonna end up winning because we have three guys who can literally create like an unbelievably good shot any time

down the floor. Whereas the Clippers, it's like a lot when you watch them laying games, like man, they're really struggling to get like a quality look here, Like it ends up having to be Kauai like muscling is guy and trying to get a super tough nineteam flitter instead of like creating like a good amount of separation and being able to just like get off a clean look or creating a good look for somebody else even mixed up like yeah, yeah, it's it's the mix of the

isolation and the creating shots for your teammates. That's who keeps the defense on the heels. That's what that keeps that keeps help defense at Bay, Like Lebron has the luxury of playing one on one most of the time because teams can't double him. When they do, he just gets He just gets beat and and it and with Staff it's the exact same thing. Sometimes he's on the ball, sometimes he's off the ball, you know. Sometimes he's will confer his own shot. Sometimes he will run a basic

action to get to start a four on three. He's he keeps the defense on their heels by mixing things up. So real quick, I wanna give you these numbers. So they're seventeenth and offense and crunch time this season and a hundred and six point one points per one hundred possessions, which by the way, is not good. You know, the teams you look at the top are the good teams. That Jazz are number one. You're not beating any good

team in the playoffs with that number, no chance. Lakers are number three hundred twenty six point five points per one hundred psessions, which, by the way, Lakers terrible offensively as of late because they can't shoot. This is something we kind of glossed over the last ten games there twenty seven and three point percentage, so they're just going through a really bad shooting stretch. Basically, Lebron's the only guy who can make a three right now. But their

twentieth and offense over their last ten. But they're still winning because their number one in defense over their last ten. But regardless, in crunch time, they're still getting lots and lots of good shots one point five. The Sixers are over one points per one hundred possessions in crunch time. The Warriors UH eighth in the league and clutch offense

at one sixteen point one. So the Clippers being that far low with as much offensive talent they have is an indictment on on on what they run in those

key moments, especially in roster construct and roster construct. They still don't have a guy that can set like Kawhi Leonard was able to be super successful in Toronto because not only do they have Kyle Lowry who gets at the table, they had Marcasol, they had Fred VanVleet, guys who could get him the ball in the appropriate spots at the appropriate times, Thank you guys, and they could space and they not only that, they were also really good floor spacers too, So it's like they had the best.

He had the best of both worlds around him, whereas the Clippers he has some okay floor spacers, but nobody really that you're worried about. And so the uh, the Clippers of the second best offense in the league for the full forty eight and their seventeenth in crunch time, that tells you all you need to know. In addition to that, they're pretty bad defensively for the whole season, which to me is is mostly a result of those

guards that we talked about. They give up a hundred and thirty four point three points per one hundred possessions in crunch time, so as there was a hundred and thirty four point three, and that to me is because they play Lou Williams in crunch time and they basically become a matchup nightmare on the on the defensive end, there are five and seven in games that involve clutch

situations this year, five and seven. Yeah, I just like I said it earlier, they are not a true contender and they won't be unless they make some serious roster moves. I I don't have any faith in them honestly beating the Lakers or Utah really, even though they do present matchup problems for the Lakers. I still see the Lakers winning that series. And I think you talk could get him. Yeah you're still there. Yeah, I'm still y right, it just dropped off for a second. No worries, Um, Yeah, No,

I agree. I think that I think the Clippers, uh I do. I do think that the Clippers are ripe for uh a an upset because of their inability to manage crunch time. It's also like, you know, this is the last thing I'll say about this before we move on. I I think this is a classic example of something you and I have talked about so many times over the past year. You know, everybody oversimplifies crunch time basketball too.

You know, the Kobe three to one pulling up a turnaround jumper over somebody, and and that naturally draws them to people like Kevin Durray. It draws them to people like Kawhi Leonards and every single like basic you know, uh common sense approach to basketball would tell you, No, it's more complicated than that. It's it's about creating offense per possession, you know, repeatedly creating quality shots and then on the defensive end, getting stops. Like that's how you

win basketball games. You basketball games by creating better quality shots for several possessions over the end of the game. And if you just insist on taking crazy turnaround jump shots at the end, you're probably not going to create more high quality shots than your opponent. That's how you end up with a team with Kawhi Leonard, who's universally recognized as one of the best closers in the league.

That's five and seven in crunch time, and and is the seventeenth ranked offense in crunch time just by being the second best offense for the rest of the game. That is a direct result of of them kind of overly embracing a flawed approach to what crunch time basketball is. Lebron is a classic example of a player that everybody like a lot of his detractors think that he struggles at the end of games, but he's actually one of the best closers in NBA history, and it's because he

sees the vision. He sees the vision of how you close basketball games, which is so much more complicated than can I do a shimmy turnaround jump shot over somebody? And I think you said the Warriors are eight and crunch time offense this year seventh, I think they were up there. That's a god awful basketball team. I watched

them every night. That isn't bad basketball team. And the reason that they're still that good in crunch time is because one, they obviously have step who can still create a shot basically anytime he wants, and too, if he's not creating a shot, for getting like a wide open corner three or a dunk or a layup, just because by the pure fact that he's on the floor and he's willing to be unselfish and either get off all to create, you know, a slip screen for somebody else

to get a dunk, or they go pain pain short roll to Draymond and a wide open corner three for Kelly you bray which I have to watch too many more of those, I'm gonna blow my brains out. But the point being, point being, they still get quality looks at the end of games, and that's what it's really about. The Clippers don't create quality looks looks at the end of games, and they're going to struggle in those situations until they can consistently do that. So I agree with you.

So let's move on to a team that that does create quality looks at the end of games, although they also create quality looks for their opponent at the end of games. So I went for number five. I put Brooklyn over Milwaukee, even though Milwaukee has a better record, and the reason why I did because they are seven and one against teams that are five and above. Now, I think you and I both agree that that it's not sustainable, especially since a lot of those wins came

before James Harden joined UM. And we have our we have all of our reasons. Why however, Brooklyn has shown that that they can that they can be good basketball teams, and I think percent comes down to the fact that when they play against a team that isn't, you know, on that elite top tier of these uh NBA contenders, they can just outscore and I think at the end of the day, that's got to be something to factory and it's seven and one against five and above is

nothing to slap chat. So that's why I have them at number five. Who did you have at number five?

I actually agree with you there. I would still I think Milwaukee's creeping on them, and I'll get into the reasons a little bit later, but yeah, no, I I agree, and I think, look, every time I see them late in a close game, I'm likely how do you stop these guys like And the question is going to be long term, can they keep games close enough when it gets to the playoffs to actually be able to to actualize how good they are late and close games, because

it's literally just they're creating wide open looks almost every single time down the floor in the last six minutes of basketball game, which is probably the toughest thing to do in the game of basketball is to consistently create those looks we just talked about it. They do it damn near every time because their their top three guys are so talented and so skilled at doing it. And I think what has actually been nice for Hardened since

going there. He doesn't have to be the guy that makes the shot late in the game, right because he is a good passer when he wants to be, and so he's able to just kind of one, he has the spacing to operate and just go to the rim. Number two, if the help does come, he's able to find who's ever open um. So no, I think Brooklyn at five is totally fair. But I do think Milwaukee has been playing better as a late, like the last

week or two. They've made some adjustments that I really like, that have um that I think are gonna be good for them long term. I don't know if it will actually make them a better regular season basketball team, but I think it's it's gonna be good for them come playoff time. But no, Brooklyn is I mean, they're also giving up like a hundred and twenty points every game. They just lost the Pistons like a couple of days ago. I was even the last night of the night before

because they literally just couldn't get stops. Katie was out,

so that obviously makes a big difference. They're asking so much of him right now, and maybe the route is Katie only takes fifteen to seventeen shots a game, and they give him more defensive responsibility and he just kind of is a more of a catch it like catching shoe guy attack closeouts and then Iso Laton games um, and they let Kyrie and Harden kind of handle the creations of the first forty or so minutes um that they obviously still have issues, but I have no issue

with them at five because the talent is so absurd at the top end of the roster. Yeah, you and I have talked a lot about this, but I agree that the pathway for them is Kevin Duran embracing the defensive end of the ball. But I do think that they're they're kind of stuck with between a rock and hard place for this season because DeAndre Jordan is no

longer capable of defending at an NBA level. He was getting attacked in isolation by Mason Plumbly the other day, Like somebody said on Twitter that Mason Plumbly looked like urbtas Sabonis in the Remember it was I don't remember who it was, but I was like, yeah, it wasn't even inaccurate. It's pretty It's pretty bad when James Harden is pulling you to the side during a time out and being like, bro, I need you to defend a little bit better. I but like the it's just gonna

be tough from this year they they're up for. Let's say they just outscore everybody in the Eastern Conference and make the finals. I cannot imagine a worst matchup for Brooklyn than the Lakers. The the all kinds of bodies to throw out James Harden, including Alex Cruzo, who did an amazing job guarding him in the playoffs last year, all sorts like Dennis Shrewder and no one can guard Kyrie Irving. But there are guys on that roster who

are going to give him problems. Um Lebron and and Lebron is literally the best possible defender you could drop for Kevin Durant and he the problem is is when Kevin Durant was coming full steam at him in two thousand seventeen and two thousand eighteen, Lebron it kind of let the defensive rope slip. And I've told you that

has a lot to do. In my opinion, I think it's because he didn't think he could win in But when you actually watched Lebron try to guard k D and the most recent example, if you want to look at film his game one of the two thousand eighteen finals, the one time Lebron was like, I'm gonna try to beat these guys, even if it's just once. And uh, in that game, he gets really physical with him. Lebron has a like a gift for the ability to be physical within the rules in a way that refs can't

really see or call. Uh. You saw him do it to shay Gil just Alexander the other day, where he would make a series of moves and there's definitely contacts, but it's not contact that you can call a foul. But he's so strong that that contact just has like a crazy effect on the ball handler, like he just

kind of stumbles back and and loses his footing. But I think he's so strong and so like he's so strong through his core and like his legs, and he's so wide at this point because yeah, I mean he's put on mass just by nature of being like thirty five three six years old. That, yeah, he's able to control the control offensive players as much as you can

within the con ends of the rule book. In one. Yeah, he he can still be a really good on ball defender when he wants to be, and he has wanted to be for most of the year, and and and Kevin in the theory where Kevin Durant has made the finals, in this case, he will have done what we talked about, adopting a defensive role and becoming more passive on the offensive end, Like Lebron can be guarding Kevin Durant and primarily being help defense most of the game because of

the fact that Kyrie Irving and James Harden are gonna be taking forty seven dribbles per possession trying to get a shot, so it's not even like a fatigue thing for Lebron. And then on the interior on the offensive end, Lebron and Anthony Davis in Montrese Harald too are going to absolutely murder that team. They're gonna score ninety points in the pain. It's gonna be a blood bath. So so I respect Brooklyn. They've had some success this year,

a lot more success than people are letting on. Like I said, seven and one against teams that are five and above. UH. But even if they happen to make it out of the East, I think they're running into a buzz saw. The thing I I think Milwaukee is a fraud, and I've always thought that they were a fraud since last year, and I can't believe they're getting

away with the fraud again this year. And I'm glad that it's flying under the radar from the standpoint of media attention because of how bad they flamed out last year. But can you believe their number one in net rating again this year by a big chuck, a big chunk. They're the only team in the league gets over ten and net rating over plus ten. They're sixteen and eight now, so the records getting out there, but somehow they've They've only played a third of their games against teams that

are five better. And this was my big thing that I hammered home last year with with them playing UH, one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NBA was this idea that like they would just they have a machine. It's like literally like a chipper shredder, and when you throw a piece of wood in this case, a bad basketball team into it, they demolish them every

single time. But then when they run into anything that's not an easy basketball team, anything that resembles a quality basketball team, they're five hundred basketball team like that that are maybe a little bit better than over the course of a full season. But that's what this team is. This team just beats the living ship out of every Detroit Pistons, every Chicago Bulls, every Atlanta Hawks, or whoever

it is that comes in through the door. And then they will against these better they didn't have a quality when the other night against Denver. I don't want to completely understand a good yeah, but I'm sick of it because like, like literally this is the same team from last year. Their record is not quite as good, but they're demolishing teams and that was the big thing last

year for Janice's MVP cases. Oh they're demolishing everybody, and it's like, can every can we just all collectively admit and understand that this is the stick they beat the ship out of bad teams and that, and it inflates every statistical thing that they accomplished over the course of the season. I don't disagree on the whole, but I am going to divert a little bit here. So the reason why they put they play so many bad teams

because their divisions. It's not just the Eastern Conference. Their division sucks kind of year over year, so it's they're the second team in the conference right now. The rest of the division, the Central Division is Indiana who's fifth, Cleveland who's eleventh, Chicago who's twelfth, and the Droid whose fifteen, And those bottom three teams are bad basically every year, or at least they have been since Lebron left Cleveland, right those those three teams at the bottom of that

division have been bad every year. So basically they get to play twelve games against three of the worst teams in the league every year since they've actually become you know, this kind of juggernaut Milwaukee. To go along with that, they're also in the East, so they just get naturally more easy games and team in the West would. But what I'll say is I think they might be starting to figure some things out. I don't want to jump the gun too much and say that they are, but

I think the Denver Win is instructive. Um. They are starting to use the Honest more as a role many. They're using him off the ball, they're starting to use him more in the post. They're starting to run more stuff through Chris Middleton and Drew Holidays So and Drew we talked about kind of at length in our free season pod. He's not really the guy you want to

run a bunch of offense through. But if Chris Middleton is going to be this efficient, then yeah, I think you can actually run a lot of offense through him, especially if you're featuring the Honest more in areas that play to his strengths the post and as a role man. If you can get your Honest catching the ball at seventeen feet against a slightly scrambled defense as opposed to him swearing up all five defenders from thirty feet, that's a huge difference, because now he's catching the ball and

he is he is good. If you know that defense is slightly off kilter, he's gonna be able to either get to the rim or create a wide open shot for somebody else. So I do think they are showing

signs of figuring things out. I don't want to jump the gun and say they certainly have, because they could easily revert back to the way they've been playing for the last couple of years, um, which is they shred really bad teams by your honest, being overpowering at the rim, and then they create wide, wide open three pointers as a result of that, And that's why they always decimate bad teams because are getting Johanna's dunks and layups and wide open threes for their role guys. And that I mean,

if you're doing that consistently, you're gonna be anybody. But they just haven't been able to do it against the good teams. That same formula doesn't work because honest really isn't that guy as an initiator. But I think moving him off the ball more is a really good thing if they continue to stick with it, because they're gonna be good defensively at the end of the day. Like

they do have the pieces. Um that they don't have a ton of death, but they do have the pieces to be a really good team defensively, and especially a good playoff team defensively because they figure to be switchable if they use the honest at the five more is a defensive weapon in a playoff series. Absolutely no, We've

We've seen it time and again. Um. But I hope they keep doing what they're doing, man, because I think it's it's a good thing that we have more good teams in the NBA that are playing to their strengths instead of just trying to play the same style of basketball. So I hope you Hona stays in the postport and I hope he keeps getting used as a role man because those are both things that are gonna help them

win playoff series. I just think it's funny that they're properly rated this year by the masses despite more or less being the same team. I just think that's funny there they had, uh they had a better record last year as a result of just over the totality of the season them having such a good record against those

bad teams. They got off to a rough start this year, probably having something to do with bubble turnaround and some of the chemistry stuff from Drew Holiday, But they are more or less the same team in what they've been able to accomplish this year. And I just think it's funny that they're properly rated, because I was screaming this from the mountaintops all last year. Last year, it's all yeah, I mean, the thing that might hurt them, it might not even matter all this These are kind of slight

improvements that I'm talking about come playoff time. Is the fact that they're not deep at all, Like they're they're top five guys I'll play like plus a game at least, and then they don't. I think they only have one other guy in the roster over twenty minutes. Like that is not a deep team. So if any of their top five guys get gets hurt, it's they're basically curtains. They're they're gonna be asking guys who were seventh, eighth,

ninth man to play starter minutes. So the the last team that I had that was in that uh top two tiers, the top tier being the great teams we talked about and then the funky teams there in the middle. I put Phoenix UM. They're currently fourth in the West. They're six and four in their last ten, their fourteen and nine overall. They are the third best defense in the league over their last ten UM's overall defense fifth overall on defense. So that's not it's not a fluke.

They are a really good defensive team. Yes, and and they they have a clear identity that's forming. And this is something that you and I talked about all the time as like a necessity to contend for a championships, you gotta have a clear cut identity because when the ship hits the fan in a playoff series, you have to be able to fall back on like core core principles. It's it's kind of it's just a basic ideology. It's it's no different than like it's something that always worked

for me when I go through a shooting slump. Like when I go through a shooting slump, I focus on my fundamentals when I'm when I need to make a shot and I miss a few in a row. As him going up, all I think. I don't think about maker, miss I think about my fundamentals as I'm going up. It's do I am I balanced? Am I getting my legs into my shot? Am I shooting with big hands? Like? Do I have my hands spread? And am I shooting

up instead of out? If I focus on those things instead of them making and the missing I usually will come out of my slump. And that's the way these teams have to be. They have to have some sort of like core identity, basic effort based things that they can fall back on when they struggle. And this team defends like crazy. They play super slow, so they control the pace and keep it down and uh, they have lots of shooting and defense around and Chris Paul and

Devin book are doing their things. And then when they're staggering those minutes when they're off the floor, they run everything through uh Booker when CPS off the floor, and everything through CP three and Bookers off the floor and helps keep them in a rhythm. And uh, and and they're damn good. They're damn good. And and I think and I think they're on the verge of something that could potentially be a problem in a playoff series. Yeah, I wouldn't. Why have them in that Milwaukee Brooklyn tier

I don't think. I mean, I see the argument for it. I don't think they're quite there, but they have been better lately. And yeah, they're just they're a super balanced team. And they have seven guys averaging ten points a game, or more like, they have a lot of guys who they can rely on. They're almost in a way, they're like just in terms of the balance, they're like, I'm gonna Utah. They don't play anything like them just in terms of like style or pace or anything, because Utah

plays really fast. But they have a bunch of guys that they can kind of rely on and they basically know they're gonna get contributions from every night. Then they have a really good guy at the top. Well, they got two really good guys in kind of ISO and creating their own shot situations with CP and Devin Booker, and that, I mean, that is a formula for being a tough playoff team, especially if you defend, because you're

gonna be in those games. And then you know, Bookers kind of able to go toe to toe with almost anybody in the league at the end of the game. So if they can stay close and keep these games tight going into exactly exactly, so can CPS. So they got really two guys who can do it. Um, you know that they're just a really wid team. And they

had some kind of injury COVID issues early on. They're coming through that a little bit, and that's that's been I think the tough part of maybe doing something like a power ranking so far is there's been so many teams where it's like, well, these guys have had four

their top five guys missed seven, eight, nine. Can we say one thing about that though, like in terms of like, because someone was saying the same thing when we were talking the MVP debate earlier, which is the MVP debate is different and absolute ship show because because like, no one's being honest, there's a fourth of writers have put Yokich at number one, which is the most as I in thing, and like the history of basketball tape, if Yoki has one, then Wise and Steph Curry to like,

if we're just gonna because our records are the basically the same and steps numbers are just as good, like and I don't see the argument for either guy, And then and Beat fans are acting like Lebron has no case. Lebron fans are acting like in Beat has No Case. It's literally turned into a total ship show. But I

was talking about it with somebody this morning. It was like, you can't blame embeat for the COVID stuff, And I agree, but you know, loss Ange, the list has been ramrotted by this COVID thing as bad as any city, and for some reason, the Lakers have been Okay. Now, I don't know what that reason is, but I think it's so.

I think it's I think it's possible that the leadership in the Laker organization, starting from Lebron and a d Down, has basically told these guys, don't mess around, stay in your hotel room and uh that this is going to impact our ability to win this season. Uh, we are we are here, we're professionals, we are doing a job. Nobody misses a COVID test, you know. Uh, nobody uh breaks the rules. And then I think some of these other teams have been a little bit more relaxed on

that stuff. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lakers, despite living in literally a crazy city like Los Angeles, where probably half of the Instagram models of the world live, and and I'm serious, I don't think it's a coincidence that they've done better. I think that there's something to be said about leadership in that and and I think that's part of it, Like em beat needs to look these dudes in the face and be like, stay in your damn hotel. We're trying to win a

title here, you know what I mean. Like, I think that's something to keep in mind. Sure, Like I don't doubt that Lebron has done that, because he probably I mean, I would put money that he has done something like that, at least in some form or fashion. He probably did at the beginning of the year, having even said that Phillies eighteen and seven and the Lakers are nineteen and six, So it hasn't made a huge difference. I think those just saying the Phoenix Suns like people being like, oh, sure,

I think that's part of it. I think I think you're a lessue. I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked at if he didn't stay that though. I'd be shocked at if Chris Paul didn't say something like that. Though. I just think Phoenix roster bookers bookers twenty five and famous for famous for dating models like DeAndre Ayden's in his early twenties, um Cameron Payne's kind of early twenties Camp Johnson, like that is a fairly young roster. So I think it's just in restaurant and open to they do. That

is a very real thing. Absolutely. I got friends that live in the Phoenix area, so I know how open it is out there. Point being like, I don't wanna. It's just been tough overall to do this stuff. But point being, I think Phoenix is kind of coming through some of that, and they're getting healthier, a lot of their guys are playing more games, and I think end of the year they could end up in that in that broken Milwaukee too. I don't have them quite there yet,

even though the record says it. Um, I just don't think they've been as overall is good despite the record. So, uh, let's let's uh, there's a couple of teams that I really want to dive into. So let's let's get moving forward here. I have. This is where we get into the mix of all the teams that are right around five hundred at eight. I put Golden State. A couple of things about Golden State because I know they've been

really up and down this year. Uh their fourth and net rating in their last ten, and one of the reasons for that is they're losing close games. They're five and five in games that have involved crunch time this season, and part of that has to do with youth and uh. And it's a miracle they've managed to win five crunch time games. And that is to Steph Curry, I should

have won the last two. They should have won the Dallas and the San Antonio ones that they dropped exact they had and they just made like you're kind of pointing to dumb, youthful mistakes or just bad player mistakes. Honestly bad players on that roster. But they're good. They're they're a good team because they're losing the close games. Uh. And they're blowing teams out when they play well. Uh. That and that to me is a is a sign of a good team because they're roughly in the close

games and then they're winning a lot of blowouts. They're never getting blown out, or at least not as often as they were early in the season. So I think and and then uh, and then one of the biggest reasons I put them above everyone else is in terms of a tiebreaker, you know, in terms of how they project as a postseason team, like Steph Curry has been, in my opinion, the like the second or third best player in basketball this year, which is right about right

around where you and I projected him. And I want you to to go into this at length, but I just wanted to pay him the compliment because again, and I've said this two or three times this season, there was a fork in the road this year about the way this season could have gone, and and Steph has resoundingly gone the route of I'm playing every night and I'm not going down without a fight. And and quite frankly, I think this is the best version of Steph Curry

I've ever seen. I think he's significantly better than he was in two thousand sixteen. I know people are can't comprehend that because they're so obsessed with the results, and they can't over they can't see over the fact that they won seventy three games in two thousand sixteen. Two thousand twenty one, Steph Curry would wash two thousand sixteen. Steph Curry is such a better command of the game.

He sees the floor so much better, he takes better care of the ball, he's he's just a better basketball player. And I just want to, again for the fourth or fifth time this year, just pay him a compliment. And I know you have a bunch of want to say about him, but I've just been blown away. Yeah, so I would agree that he has been that guy the last thirteen games and where I so if we're doing power rankings at the moment, I almost don't disagree, just

because they have been really good. Basically since Draymond Green has returned. They took a while to kind of get figured things figured out, like four or five games to really kind of figure out how they wanted to play, how they need to defend, all that stuff when he came back. But since them, like you're pointing to a lot of you said, the last ten games their fourth and net rating, fourth and net rating, yep, So I

mean that doesn't surprise. They're only I think they're only five and five in those ten games, but they're fourth and net rating, which goes to what I said earlier. Yeah, they're but they're also very close to being like seven and three or eight and two. So it's just a matter of really figuring out how the late games need to flow, um and what they need to get done, and basically just not make as many stupid mistakes because

if they can. Their bench was really good early in the year, and it's actually been really bad lately, Like they're they were actually helping the team staying games early on when that starting lineup was so bad, when the starting lineup was down fifteen every quarter, um every first quarter, and then the bench would have to bring them back. And now the inverses happened. Now that they started the

creating leads in the bench has dwindled them away. And I think that's more of just who's playing with what unit more so than anything else. It's more kelly agreement with the second units, and that's when the leads tend to slip away. Um. But point being, they have been a lot better lately, Um and steps specifically so his last thirteen games, he is thirty one points a game, five and a half rebounds, five and a half, assist,

fifty three seven nineties two from the line. Bananas doesn't even I mean, doesn't even make Remember what I said. I thought he would end the season around the high thirties because of shot quality in terms of his three point percentage. I didn't even disagree with you. But he looks so much. He was already starting to play better too, Like that was because he's he is unfreaking believable. He he looks night end day, from what he did earlier

this season. Earlier in the season, it was like he was pump picking white open threes and he was like unsure of when to shoot the ball and when not to, when to get his teammates involved, when not to, And

maybe it was all on adjustment period. And something that I was talking about with Sammus Fandiari last night was he's just played twenty games in a row for the first time in two years, Like he hadn't played the most impressive part for me, Yeah, yeah, right, So he's been really healthy, um, and he he has added some book which I actually questioned, but it doesn't seem to be affecting his shot at all. His rhythm coming into

his shots is really nice right now. He's he's getting his feet set correctly, which he wasn't doing early in the year. He was taking all these extra little steps and hops, um, and just like weird rhythm things that I had never really seen him do. But all that stuff has gone away now and the added strength just watching him in these past four or five six games, he's really understanding how to use it. He used to be a guy that created separation, kind of going east

west right. He give these big kind of sweeping crossovers behind the back moves and he'd have to get distance from the defender moving east or west, and then he'd

be able to go north and south. In the in the past four or five games against both Dallas and San Antonio, he's been like just making these tight kind of crossover in between the legs moves, and he's getting into like bigger guys bodies, Rudy Gay, Maxi kleiba Um, a lot of kind of the bigger wings and big men on these teams, and he's like going through their bodies. So he's like driving north and south now and that's

making such a difference. And obviously number one, and he's getting to the rim quicker um and defenders are having less time to come over and affect his shots. And then also he's looked incredible lately offensively because Draymond's at the five and spacing is just the ultimate amplifier for superstar stats, right, and this is the James Harden thing.

This is why his numbers. I think partially we're so good in Houston for so many years because he had just the most amount of space to work with at all times, and they've given that to step just out of necessity because all they're big men are hurt right now and he's been. He can get a lay up when every once he can get a three when every once he's just he's spectacular right now. Man. I don't know if he's like way better than twenty sixteen, but

his command is certainly better. Um, He's not quite as quick, obviously, because you never are at thirty two as you were at twenty seven. But yeah, he he is playing at his highs a level as I've seen him played probably since the two thousand seventeen playoffs, at least everything considered right, he doesn't have the talent around him this year, and then numbers have just been but naz the past month.

The last thing I want to say about Steff before we move on is, like I talked about this a little bit on Twitter earlier today, but the most impressive thing to me about what he's doing this year is that, uh, he's adapting faster than the league is, which is which is wild because you know, you and I talked a lot in a in a previous podcast about how in two thousand and sixteen, if you look at the way these teams regarding him the way they're regarding him more

like a traditional guard using traditional pick and roll coverage is not picking him up until he got to ft and he was just killing teams by taking advantage of their uh, you know, lack of awareness and their their

inability to anticipate what he was about to do. Well, now you fast forward a half decade, and everybody knows what he's gonna do, and every pick and roll coverage in the entire league has been completely transformed into how to stop Steph Curry, which has become a league wide thing because so many other guards have started copying him in his ability to you know, be aggressive as a jump shoot, as a ball handler, coming off of screens

and from great distances. But all of this stuff has been has been transformed into how do we stop Steph Curry? And he stayed one step ahead of him And to me, that and to me, that's why he's better and and and you know, like you you mentioned like, oh, maybe his mental uh grip of the game is a little bit better. Well, to me, that is the one of

the biggest parts of the game. It's it's why I've been you know, it's one of the things I've been I've been beaten the drum with the m v p U debate as it pertains to Lebron as everyone's like, oh, he's only averaging eight, and I'm like, looking at how many guys in the league are averaging over twenty five points now, Like we have to stop watching box scores here, people, because it's just not a tell for how much a person is impacting winning, because you know, Steph Curry stats

are are more or less the same as they were in two thousand and sixteen, but his impact on winning now, in my opinion, is so much greater. His ability to control these games, and I think it starts from here. And what I'd say is it wasn't that way early in this season. And it's been interesting how quickly he's adapt adapted, because earlier in the season, these games like get out of hand early, and it would just be like, dude, you gotta get aggressive, man, Like you gotta start doing

something else. This game is gonna be gone over over kind of the weekend against Dallas and then last night against San Antonio, he sensed the game getting away early and he's like, Okay, I just gotta be aggressive, Like I just gotta go. And I know it's early in the game, and I don't want to burn myself out, but I just gotta start scoring, and he did. He wasn't even making threes last night against San Antonio to

start that game. He's like, all right, I'm just gonna go get four or five layups and keep us in this thing. Whereas early in the season he was just kind of like getting off the ball and kind of putting his hands up and being like, oh, I don't want to deal with this. I just kind of want

to want to play basketball how I want to. But he's figured out, all right, I just gotta be more aggressive in certain spots and keep this team in games, because if I do, and I can get the game close in the end, then I like my chances against basically anybody in the league. Well one thing, one thing I'll cut him from Slack four is and I said

this from the very beginning. He was bound to struggle to start this season because basketball's rhythm sport and he was away from the game for a really long time, and so like, you know, uh, I attribute it to learning a new roster, learning how to win with this roster, but also just like Okay, playing NBA basketball is really hard, and I didn't do it for three years and I think almost three years, so I think I think that's

a big part of it. So really quickly here that we talked about how there's this big mess of teams and and we had Golden State at the top because of of Steph Curry. The two teams that I picked out, these are the teams I had ninth and tent, the

two teams that I picked out from that crowd of teams. Again, this is ahead ahead of teams like Denver, ahead of teams like Portland's where Sacramento in Toronto, Toronto, I had ten because they've gone nine and five in their last four teen games during that span, their sixth and offense and seventh and net rating. They're starting to look more like the old Toronto Raptors. Pascal Siak, I'm starting to play better, you know. Uh, they're more or less the

same identity that they had. Nick Nurse as an amazing coach man. Oh yeah, just figures it out. And it took him ten or fifteen games, but he's like, all right, I know what I gotta do to win with this roster. And now they look great, and he kept him dialed in. That could have slipped off the rails really quickly and they could have gone into tanking. Um uh and the ninth and I want to talk about them more after you give me your last two teams. But I put

Sacramento ninth. Their seven and three in their last ten, they're one of They're the only team in the bottom half of the league or the bottom two thirds of the league that is better than six and four in their last ten, because everybody just continues to hover around

five hundred in this ridiculously talented league. But in this seven wins, they beat the Clippers, they beat the Nuggets, they beat the Celtics, they beat the Pelicans, who have been almost as good as them in the past ten games, and they beat the Raptors, who, again who have been dialed in over the last fourteen games. They have a mountain of quality wins that's coming in. There are eleventh in the league in defense over that span, so they're playing a lot better defense from where they were to

start the season, which was historically bad. So I put Sacramento at ninth before we dive into Sacramento, because I do want to talk about them a little bit more. Did you have any different teams in nine oh ten? Yeah, I mean I had two different teams. I just went, I went, I went, Boston and Denver just on. I think, like you said, there's a glood of teams right there, right and for the same reasons that we gave for Golden State being above the rest of these teams, which

I wouldn't necessarily have. But look, I'm a Warriors fan, so I'll just outside with that. Um No, I think at the end of the day, Yo Kich is one of the top six or seven players in the league, get worse, and if it came down to it in a series against Sacramento or any other kind of West playoff team behind Golden State, I would probably take Denver um. And if we're just doing tie breakers, I'm going to kind of base it on that. So I have Denver and then Boston for and and Boston for kind of

the same reasons. I think Tatum has been really good once again this year, and Jaylen Brown has taken just in a Banana's level leap. I don't even understand how he did it because they didn't even have a long off season like he is so much better this year

and he's just really gotten mores in the bubble. I think the bubble was an off season for some of those guys, and they were playing games, but it was almost like there their normal off season, like pick up, right, but they were doing it in a more kind of organized environment, so they were actually getting instruction while it was happening. We've seen kind of the same thing with BAM because Band's gotten a lot of better too, Um but often destroyed by injuries too. And Covid. Yeah, JN

was out with the sordiny for a while. They lost Hadum for a while there in the in the smarts out right now, the propplled his calf. Yeah, they're in trouble. Yeah, if they get healthy, I think they'll still be I don't think they're like a contender contender, but they're still gonna be a really good playoff team at the end of the day. So that it was like that so far down by the way is just a testament to how ridiculously good the league is right now. Yep, yep,

exactly know. Those are two super talented teams. Denver has the same issues that we've touched on. They can't really guard anybody, even though it has been better lately. Um, yeah, I think they're just gonna get Denvers, just gonna get ran by good teams because they their defense isn't good enough. That kind of their saving grace last year was that they did have Tory Craig and Jeremy Grant to throw at other teams. You know, if they needed to go

a little bit more defensive minded, they could. They don't even really have that option this year. They've like gone all in on offense. And then Jamal Murray is who all of us who were Jamal Murray doubters kind of thought. He It's like he still has a chance to be a really good player. He's still really young. I don't want to come in too hard on the guy, but he wasn't the guy that we saw in the bubble.

So and unless he like gets in another playoff scenario this year and it's like similar again and it's like, Okay, he's just one of these weird guys who's gonna be averaging during the regular season that amazing in the playoffs, their ultimate ceiling is going to be somewhat limited if they don't get a lot better defensively. They you know,

I watched that Laker Denver game twice. In the Lakers turning it up and absolutely obliterating them kind of took the shine off the apple of what was actually a pretty solid Denver performance. You know, through through two and a half quarters, Denver took it to them, and they present real problems like Jamal Murray is still really really good when he's playing well. I mean he's he's inconsistent,

but insist what he's playing well. They they have, you know, when Will Barton's healthy, who he was not healthy in the playoffs last year, he's really a defensively um. You know, Monte Morris is as good a bench guard as you'll find in the league. You know, Michael Porter Jr. Uh is starting to figure out his his offensive role alongside Yokichen Murray. They have a lot to build on. But twelve Yeah, to me, uh, they just have a long way to go in terms of figuring out how to

how to overcompensate for their their their defensive shortcomings. In my opinion, I think they need a scheme in a way more similar to what the Lakers do and and kind of over pressure the three point line with their guards and try to funnel everything into Yokis, who's actually okay as long as he's under the basket waiting for people and not guarding out in space. Yeah, he's in space,

it's a nightmare. But he's he's so smart and he uses his length really well when he's around the rim, like he gets a lot of deflections and he can kind of just bothers shots and like almost a weirdly Draymond Green manner, Like he's not as good as Draymond obviously on that end, but like it's the same type of thing where it's like wow that you don't really see it just like normally because he's not super athletic.

He's not like gonna just absolutely destroy people physically, but he's just uses his length really well and he's super duper smart. He visits himself well, he rotates at the correct times, he takes away two guys at the same time. Like he is really smart. But it's just you gotta keep him under the rim because if he gets in space, it's a nightmare for sure, so quickly before we get out of here. So we did agree on our last We did disagree on our last two. I had Sacramento

and in Toronto, you at Boston and Denver. UM. But we did say we wanted to talk about Sacramento for a second. So UM, like we said, five really quality wins in their last seven wins, seven wins in their last ten games. UM. Zach Low did a deep dive with uh Deer and Fox in an interview the other day. If you haven't listened to that yet, listen to it, dear and Fox is just about as likable of guys you'll find in the league. You could tell he's just

an absolute hoops junkie. He's uh loves the game. He's enjoying every minute of what they're doing out there. Uh and and uh he's not like, you know, bogged down in the complaining about the league right now and stuff like that. He's just you could just tell he's a kid who was jubilant and and just loves and just

loves playing basketball. And then one of the things that zach Low touched on that I thought was really interesting is one, they're playing better defense, um, which when you watch them it makes sense to uh to the naked eye. And then too, they found a closing lineup that works. They're playing Rashawn Holmes at center, very athletic, very switchable, really really good player. Um. He's great finishing around the rim, which is crazy because he was not like that when

he was in Philly. He was a dunker. He's kind of more like a Kelly you Bery kind of guy, like if he was throwing it down at the rim. He was making everything, but he couldn't he couldn't finish around the room other than that. Um. And then they're playing Harrison Barnes at the four, and then they're playing Buddy Hill, Yrise Halliburton and dear and Fox. But the primary reason why they've been so good is Dearren Foxes

all of a sudden a superstar. And it's not like, you know, it's not quite Derrick Rose in two thousand eleven.

But I can't remember a guard in the last few years pretty much since like Russell Westbrook when he was at his athletic peak, who you just can't stay in front of him, and and and the only way to stay in front of him is to essentially run a drop coverage, in which case he's added this arsenal of floaters and step backs and stuff from like five to ten feet where he can finish over the top and and he's flat out become a star, and that in

combination with finding some lineups that work and then playing defense, has led to a lot of really quality wins. And the Lakers have Sacramento coming up on the schedule. I think here and I think in a couple of days, and that is an infinitely more interesting game now than it was a few days ago. They're just a really fun team man specifically like that closing lineup. But he's an incredible shooter, like just one of like in again

after buying out. Yeah, one of these just like the most unconscious like gunners in the league, but just in the most fun way possible because he really shoots it well, Like he doesn't care if he's missed his last seven shots. He's letting the next one fly. He like he never thinks twice about it, and he's good enough of a shooter to like make that work. Um, Haliburton is just super fun for a rookie, way beyond his year's I

qise a really good passer, smart team defender time. Right, do you remember, No, just two years he was just two years guy, ad I always stay to your guy at Iowa State. Um, he was a he was a big guy on draft Twitter. I was obviously following a lot of the NBA draft stuff last year because the Warriors were going to have one of the best picks in the league. Um, he was a darling of all the NBA Draft Twitter guys. Um, just just a super smart player, like a guy who will absolutely played for

a championship team at some point in his career. Like, I don't know if the people of a young player comes into league knowing how to play off the ball, which is extremely right. He's like he was like early in their games this year, he was like directing traffic and like telling guys where to go offensively latent in games. I was like, dude, who is this kid? He's only years old. He's super impressive obviously at that He's got good size though too. Yeah, the touch is like, the

touch is good. He's always historically in college like now, he's above eighty percent from the line. So I mean, I think he's gonna be fine as a shooter. He'll never be a super dynamic off the dribble guy just because of their limiting factors of the form unless he really changes something. But he's just gonna be a really good player for a long time, like a guy it ends up on a championship team at some point just because he does so many things. Well, Um, Harrison Barnes

is just having like almost a mid career renaissance. Like he's a good passer now and like he's savvy veteran and he makes all he's like winning play. It's like it's hilarious. He hit this offensive rebound put back against the Clippers the other night where I was like, first of all, how the hell did he do that? And

then second of all, like that's the play. Eight nine percent of the league quits on Like he just go back on defense and he's like, no, no, no, I'm gonna go over the top of Kawai freaking Leonard and I'm going to put this ball in the basket. And Kauai is like one of the best contested rebounders ever

for his size. You know, yeah, Like I love it, man, Like obviously, Harrison Barnes was a point of patriot for many Warriors fans after the twenty sixteen finals after not being able to make anything, but that dude, he's reinvented himself. He's having an incredible year and I would I'd love to have him back on the Warriors now. He'd be an incredible He's an incredible piece for any good team. But ultimately it does come down to Deer and Fox,

who has just been insane. I want to say he's like game on fifty five eighties something from the field, eight assists for rebounds. What he has really learned how to do. When I was watching that Philly game last night, He's obviously one of the fastest guys in the league, like everybody knows that, But what he's learned how to do is change speeds and control his pace to where it's like, you have no idea when he's going like when he's gonna go slower, when he's gonna go fast.

And that's when you see the real mastery by these super quick guards when they learn, Okay, I am one of the fastest guys on the floor no matter who I'm playing against, but I also know how to use that to my advantage, right, Like I know how to change speeds enough to where you're always gonna be off balance, and if I can just keep you a little bit off balance, I'm gonna blow by you basically every time. Because my top end speed is so much faster than yours.

He's just he's a delight to watch man, and like you said, he's one of the best personalities in the NBA. It's it kind of sucks that he's stuck in Sacramento because it's not it's not a big market, and he'll just never get that much media coverage. But no, he's just he's a super fun player person like in every way, like you just want to route for that dude, even if he's not on your team. He's he's amazing. He's amazing.

I thought he he said something I I'm I'm a hoops nerd, so I I always get excited about stuff like this, but he he said something that was super fascinating in that interview was Zaklow that I thought was a really interesting thing as in terms of a league wide trend. He basically said, when I got into the league, guys went under screens on me, and he's and he's like, he's like, I'm I'm a better shooter now than I

was then. But he's like, I think he basically said that every team in the league goes over the top of screen and roll now like and this is a steph Curry thing. This is the thing that this is the thing that Steph Curry changed about the NBA. He

changed the way these teams defend. And he's like, he's like, I am getting into the paint better than I ever have in my life because no matter who I play, these teams are practicing going over the top of screen and roll and so you know, now this is where I'm kind of adding to that, like he's a good not great shooter, so that he's not a player that I personally would go over the top of screen and roll on. But because teams are just no, it'll be

an interesting thing in a playoff series. I think I was just about to say that, right, Like, a smart team is probably gonna like during the year, you're just working on the stuff that you're gonna do a lot,

because that's how you have to guard everybody. It's easier to just keep kind of uniform principles on a night tonight basis and not really all just for him those much a smart coach is gonna be like, we're just gonna go under screens on them, and then that's gonna be when either he turns the next corner and becomes a true superstar, and he can punish you when you go under, or he's so smart and so crafty that even when you are going under, he learns how to

work re screens well enough, and he learns how he to use kind of this guy on his craft on top of his speed to really create advantages no matter how teams are guarding him. Yeah, and and and and I I thought the same thing when he said that, and Zachlo actually brought it up in the thing. He's like, you know, these teams are gonna make you make jumpshots, right,

And he's like, yeah. But but the part of that that was interesting is it's an important context to try to frame regular season basketball because you know, like we talk all the time about, you know, the Milwaukee Bucks and their lack of adjustments, but I think, I think, I think there are rare teams that really try to adjust on a game to game basis in the regular season. I think the Lakers are an example of this, and I think that's why they're the number one defense in

the league. Frank Vogel approaches every single regular season game like it's a playoff game. He builds a custom scouting report and a custom defensive game plan. But I think a lot of these teams in the grind of the regular season, trust a basic set of principles, and so

that's an example of that. And I think Darren Fox kind of like tattletaled on the rest of the league in a way because he basically said, like, like, all of these teams are guarding the same way, and they're seeing it on they're seeing it on film, and it's like, Okay, we're we're on the road in Sacramento tonight. What like, what what's the game plan. Okay, we're gonna do our stock you know, pick and roll coverage. You know, we're gonna do you know, We're gonna just on these you know,

based concepts all game long. And there's an advantage to that as it pertains to hiding your cards, so to speak. Although that's a big Steve Kerr thing that I like, Kurr never really outright says that, but I know he doesn't make a ton of adjustments during the regular season because he doesn't want to show his cards too early, and but it makes sense in the NBA, though he honestly,

he honestly waits. He waits too long in playoff series to adjust so that always pisces me off to like he'll wait till the last possible moment to make the biggest adjustment. It's like to just do it earlier so you can get the series over with. Um Yeah, I mean, I don't know. My thing is, I think for a lot of rosters it is tough to adjust on a night to night basis, Like a roster like the Lakers or the Bucks or the Sixers where they like a

lot of good, really smart players. Sure you can adjust on a night to night basis, but for your run of the mill NBA roster, like I'm watching it with the Warriors this year, a lot of these guys I wouldn't trust to make game the game adjustments, Like I just wouldn't. It would run the wrong game plan. They just think, oh, we've been playing drop coverage of the last three games, and tonight we're you know, we're either

going under or we're um, we're hard hedging. And they would just totally forget and now we're all out of rotation because Kelly Ubery once again forgot what coverage were playing. Like Yeah, Like, I think I think there's an important distinction to make between like good smart teams and then just kind of your average or below average NBA teams. Yeah, I think I just think it's funny. I I think it makes more sense to Uh, I think it makes more sense to you know, you're right to cater it

to your specific roster. And maybe with a group of young guys, you're more focused on discipline, so it makes more sense to get them just to try to do the same thing over and over again. But with the veteran teams are smarter, it's kind of like practice for the playoffs to teach them to play different types of defense. I would probably go with that second option. And uh. And and I'm a big believer in what the Lakers

do defensively. Uh. And then as far as hiding things go, like it makes a ton of sense in the NFL because you're you're you're getting somebody in a one game setting, and you know, if you bring something out and it can help you control half, it could literally swing. Uh. You know, like they talked about how Todd Bowles did that for the Buccaneers. Basically like he was always a

guy who blitz. He blitzed over downs for the most part leading into that game, and then suddenly in the Super Bowl, He's like, nope, four man, rush to safety's back. We're gonna say we're just taking away tyree kill. He's not gonna catch out anything over the top. And it obviously messed the Chiefs up enough to where Tampa Bay controlled that game. Yeah, Whereas if they played it again, maybe the Tampa Bay, maybe Kansas City can make an adjustment.

But in the NBA, it's like it's like, you know you can you can get caught with your pants down in game one and then control the series by game three. So like it's it's it's totally it's totally different. But uh, really really good stuff. Today. We actually did manage to get through all pen although we did go an hour in twenty six minutes, and uh, you and I probably both have some work to do, so we're gonna call it a day. But thank you guys, all of you

for listening. Podcast version coming later Tommy. As always, I appreciate your help, man, and I appreciate your support, and we will see you early next week. Thanks man. Sounds good. Can't wait.