Welcome to the Jason tim Podcast. Thank you guys so much for taking time out of your Wednesday to hang out with me. I'm super happy today because I know for a fact that the WiFi, I although I'm jinxing myself here, that the WiFi is gonna hang in with me through this podcast. Because I am no longer at the house that I was trying to record at the last few weeks until I can get that situation remedied.
I am at the place where I grew up. I'm in my old childhood bedroom, so there's some nostalgia here, but I've got I just set up a brand new mesh WiFi network um for my parents here, so I could take advantage of that just to kind of float me until I can get the WiFi situation fixed out where I'm living right now. Um, but I was super excited. Tommy is really busy with work this week, so he was unable to record with me this week. UM, So I'm just gonna be going solo today and then Rog
and I are gonna be going on Friday morning. And then Rog and I talked about maybe doing one of those locker room chats after the Clippers Lakers game on Sunday, which is exciting. I'm excited to try that out because I haven't done the locker room thing before, but I think it'll be interesting. And then we can give some of you guys a chance to hop in and actually ask us questions directly. Um. But so today I just
wanna kind of stay really macarrol. I'm not gonna die too much into analysis and just talk about some macro NBA topics. I wanted to talk about for like two seconds about the this JJ Reddick thing because I think it's super interesting. And then uh um uh the I want to talk about this thing with Katie and the nets and just some of the discourse surrounding, you know, people getting really upset about him being on a really
good team, how I feel about that. And then I want to talk about a couple of these buyout candidates. We're gonna do that at the beginning, the little bit of analysis type stuff, um, and then at the end I wanted to respond to a little conversation that was bouncing around Twitter today because of the Dan Lebotard show, uh, surrounding just some of the differences between Lebron and Steph. Um.
But I want to start with the buyout stuff. So because the story just came down from Shams that uh, the Lakers are expecting to umu, the Lakers are expecting to play Andre Drummond upwards of thirty minutes at night, and that it might end up sending Marc Gasol out of the rotation. And it's interesting for a bunch of different reasons, uh for starters, you know, when the Lakers got to the playoffs last year, because Andre Drummond kind of fits more of that JaVale McGhee, uh Dwight Howard
type of role. He's not your uh when the Lakers wanted to be more versatile, they played a lot of Marquis Morris last year, and they played a lot of Anthony Davis at the five. So even if Marcosol was entirely out of the rotation, the idea of playing uh Drummond thirty minutes and it doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. But I think, you know, first of all, in this stage where where uh Anthony Davis is not playing, I still expect to see a lot
of Marcusol. And I would imagine that because Marcosol has been playing so well. As I pointed, out the other day. He's still shooting over from three in his last I can't remember exactly something like his like a dozen games on like four attempts per game, So he's still shooting really well. He's a really high i Q defender. He always ends up in the right spot. And then he adds all of that, you know, uh, playmaking ability from
the top of the key. It's one of the biggest things that allows the Lakers to run their off ball actions is having somebody like uh Marcosol at the top of the key to make post entry passes to Montrese, to allow batcuts from the guards who are usually not that great at creating their own shots. So getting them off the off the ball and on the move is a is a way to kind of unlock them. Um. So I still think Marcusol has to play um, but it'll just be interesting to see. And it all comes
down to attitude. You know. There was something a little weird about what Frank Vocal said in that press or you know, just about how like everyone in the locker room loves Mark and we he's such a pro and all this other stuff. There wasn't anything where he directly came out and said Marcosol is okay with the fact that his minutes might be cut. Um, So I hope
it's not something that he dislikes. And if it costs the Lakers, Marcusol, if he ends up getting bought out, that would make me really sad, because I do think
that he brings some versatility in the playoffs for them. Um. But I I also that doesn't change the fact that I think Andrew Drummond's gonna be really effective, and I've been watching a lot of tape on him as of late, and I'm really really excited to watch tonight's game because I think, you know, he's he's infusion of talent on a team that, without Lebron and a D, is at a talent disadvantage, and so getting him in a situation like this where you know, in this first couple of weeks,
I do think there will be some sloppiness. You're gonna see a little bit of that calvs Andre Drummond, him throwing up crazy shots. You're gonna see a little bit of that until Lebron and a D get back. But the infusion of talent is unmistakable and and gives them a little bit better chance of stealing games that are in that fringe. You know, it's easy for them to beat Orlando when they're as shorthanded as they are. They're it's easy for them to beat Cleveland with as bad
as Cleveland is. But a team like Toronto's slumping and has traded some guys, but they are still a well coached team that plays extremely hard and has a certain amount of talent. That's a fringe game that with Andre Drummond, the Lakers have a chance to steal. And another example of a game like that is like the New York Knicks in years past, the New York Knicks, that's a win, but with this year, with as well as they've been playing, that's not an easy win. And my guest is without
Andre Drummond, that's a game the Lakers would lose. And Andre Drummond, the infusion of town, it gives them a
better chance of winning that particular game. And when you look at the standings, as crazy as things have been, thankfully, because the Bucks keep losing games and the Clippers keep losing games and ky you know, the Nets lost the game the other day because when Kyrie was out, like the there's still some inconsistency at the top of the Lakers at the top of the NBA standings, and the Lakers are only two and a half games out of
the number two overall seed, which is insane. Two and a half games out of the number one overall seed. And what that means is like, you know, if you can steal like game against the Raptors, if you can steal that game against the New York Knicks, now all of a sudden, you have an opportunity to bring Lebron in a d back, you know, like in a month and still be potentially within you know, four games of
the number two overall seed. That that is at least within you know, that gives you a puncher's chance at making a run to get back up near the top of the standings, to hopefully get yourself in a position where you don't have to play a Utah or Phoenix or the Clippers are Denver in the first round, which to me would be ideal. Obviously, I still would pick the Lakers out of the West as long as they're healthy,
regardless of what their seed is. But you know, uh, they have a chance here to to kind of to to kind of rectify some of that. A question in the comments is what's the biggest strength Andre Drummond brings to the Lakers. To me, it's size and physicality. It's really that simple. The biggest thing that the Lakers brought to the table last year was just ridiculous size and physicality.
They traded some of that out when they let go of Javail and Dwight in favor of some more skill, you know, bringing in Marcus Solo, who is a much more skilled big. Montrese Harrold is not as physically imposing as a big, but that is more skilled in isolation, a guy that could actually attack mismatches and score, a
guy who's a really really good offensive rebounder. Now you bring in uh, Andre Drummond, and you're kind of getting a better version of Dwight to bring back that physicality while still having the marcusol and Montrese Harold on the roster for the more skilled options in the front court. And you know, this is what I think is super interesting about the LaMarcus Aldridge signing. Uh. When you're in a playoff series, it helps to just have other options.
It helps to just have you know, other cards in your deck that you can go to when things aren't working out. It's counters, it's audible. So that's the way these playoffs series works. You move a guy in and out of the starting lineup, you move a guy in and out of the rotation, You shrink your rotation, you simplify things, you overcomplicate things, You do whatever it takes to try to regain control of a series that's slipping
out of your grasp. And even though, yeah, LaMarcus Aldres is not a great defensive player, yeah, and there switching scheme, he's gonna get attacked a lot, but the same could be said about a lot of the guys on that roster, especially in that fifth starter position alongside you know, uh, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, UH, James Harden and and uh and Joe Harris. So that fifth guy is is gonna be flawed no matter what. And having a guy like LaMarcus Aldridge on your roster, that just gives you another
angle that you can go to. Okay, Blake's knee is swelling and he's not gonna be able to play in the first round, we can go to LaMarcus. Jeff Green goes super cold and he's not making shots the way he used to. We can go to LaMarcus. Uh. You know, Game one and two of the series are bench line up to start the second quarter, can't score, We're gonna go.
We're gonna go to LaMarcus Aldridge. Having that just options in the deck is the best way to give yourself a chance to adjust over the course of the playoff series. I thought LaMarcus Aldridge was the best buyout guy available. Don't get me wrong. As a Laker fan, you should be stoked to have Andre Drummond, and I do think he's gonna do a lot for the Lakers. However, I thought on Aldridge was clearly the most talented player in that set. But that sort of versatility is the same
thing that the Lakers gain with Andre Drummond. It's just an option. They can go huge, and they can play you know, uh, Lebron and Alex Crusoe and Can Davids Cobble Pope and Anthony Davis Andre Drummond and just have a ridiculously big, versatile defensive lineup that just swallows teams up. Or they can go small with a d at the five and Lebron at the four. Or they can go big,
but more skill oriented. With like a guy like uh Dennis Shrewder at the point and with Marcusol at the five, they have all this versatility that they can go to now. And I don't think you can have enough of that. And so I hope that Marcusol doesn't get too upset about the role that he's in and that he hangs in there, because I do think that he can be a real advantage for the for the Lakers moving forward.
I saw the Clippers signed to Marcus Cousins and and it's interesting to me because you know, if you if you were to jokingly build a list of the guys and the moves that you would hope the Clippers would make as a Laker fan and uh in hopes that they would not maximize their talent, you would have said Region Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins. Which is funny because DeMarcus Cousins.
I feel terrible for the guy. He said he's been dealt a really shitty hand cards, But the truth of the matter is is he doesn't really bring anything on either end of the floor. He's nowhere near mobile enough to do anything other than spot up shoot on offense and on defense. He's absolute barbecue chicken. So I I don't think he helps anything for them. Uh. Any minute that they don't play Zoobach at the five or or Surgebaka at the five to me, feels like a win
for the opponent. Um. And then you know, the Rondo thing has been super interesting because you're get seeing a mixed opinions from everybody I've seen. You know, about half of the analysts that I trust say, you know, this is hilarious. You know, Rondo's been garbage. There's nothing good that he brings to the table. This is going to
hurt them. And then really people that I really respected, like for instance, Zack Low waxed eloquent and his most recent podcast about how Region Rondo undeniably uh fit a need that the Clippers had, And I think that's interesting.
You know. My take on it is like, uh, there were a lot of really really big plays and big shots and big games that Region Rondo had last year in the Laker Jersey, uh, four or five of which took place in the playoffs where he played really, really well and it helped the Lakers get over the top. But the entire experience with Region Rondo was never about the good. Uh, it was about the bad that got mixed into it. It's all relative. It's like the talent
Horton Tucker experience. It's the same reason why talent Horton Tucker, in my opinion, will fall out of the rotation. It's not about the good. It looks great when it looks great, uh. And he attacks the close out and makes one of his crazy behind the layups or gets a steal with his ridiculously long arms and strong hands, and and and and gets out on the break and makes a play. It looks great when it looks great. But because he's
young and he's in consistent, he makes these mistakes. And the most important thing, alongside Lebron and n a D is consistency and getting guys that are gonna uh do a kind of like toe, a line of more consistent average play than the chaotic up and down that can
throw your team off. There were games in the playoffs last year that I thought the Lakers lost not because of Rondo, but largely because of Rondo, Like where he where his turnovers, inability to make shots, in ability to take shots because he loses his confidence and stops shooting, and then defensively, he's one of He's one of those guys that when he's actually caring and giving a ship
on on defense, he looks great. But in the entire playoff games, he would go crazy and gamble and get out of position and it would hurt the entire defense. And so I don't necessarily view him as a as a guy who really helps uh the Clipper offense. So what the Clippers would tell you is that Region Rondo is a playmaker that will help set up Kauai and
Paul George and get people in the right spots. But I actually disagree with that because I don't think of Rondo as your stereotypical playmaker to get guys in the right spots in terms of stars where Rondo is good because Rondo is an assist hunter. And what I mean by that is he's that guy that dribble dribble dribble dribbles waiting for someone to cut, and he loves to throw that pass at the basket for layups or or
to an open shooter on the wing. He's not a he's not a like a run the offense kind of guy. He's I Am the offense kind of guy. And when it when he is creating shots and he is kicking out the shooters and he's hitting guys under the basket, it looks great. But when he's not getting as much separation and when he's not able to draw the defense towards him, which is what happened to him a lot
in the playoffs last year, he doesn't look great. I always thought that a guy like Ricky Rubio made more sense for the Clippers because he's a run the offense guy. He's the we're looking for a Kauai post up here, but we were on a we want to run the Qui post up when he has a mismatch, so we're
gonna get everybody to the right spot. I'm gonna call this guy to go run a pin down instead of really hard screen on kwais Man to try to force the switch, and then we're gonna clear out, and then we're gonna go down to Kuai in the post and now he's gonna attack. That was always something that I like.
There's a difference between assist hunting, in my opinion, and like true point guard play, and that difference is why I was never super stoked about what Rondo would bring to the table for any team, and uh, and why I don't think he'll be great for the Clippers. I could end up being very wrong. And like I said, I really really respect Zach Low and he seems to disagree with me. So if if I end up being wrong, I'll happily admit that I'm wrong. Um, but I I
don't think Rondo is gonna really help them. Question from the comments says, do you think Rondo gets major minutes on the clips? I think his role is gonna look really similar to what it did on the Lakers. I mean, like, could you believe how much Rondo play? He played a lot. There were stretches where Rondo would play thirteen fourteen straight minutes and cruise. I wouldn't see the floor, and so that that's where it gets tricky. I would imagine that
it will be a very a very similar role. Um. Someone in the comments says he was able to do that in Boston in my opinion, but as he's grown, he's become less of a true point guard in that regard. Well, in in Boston, for starters, he was a lot more athletic, and and then secondly, he was around such a huge set of egos that he wasn't allowed to dribble drible,
drible drib dribble, dribble, dribble. But the truth of the matter is, if you look back, that was part of the reason why Boston got rid of Rondo was because he kind of transitioned into that phase there in like
two thousand ten, two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve. Rondo got out of that, uh, that kind of a style, that that kind of behind the scenes type of style that he had in two thousands and seven, two thousand two or two thousand and eight, thousand nine, thou ten, And that was part of the reason why that broke up and ended up being a problem with him everywhere he went. It's the reason why he didn't get along
with Rick Carlyle. It's just this he's he's kind of like he overcontrols things in the beauty full thing about what a point guard does. A good point guard is there's he toes that line because the point guard has the ball in their hands all the time. And so a point guard that understands that even though I have the ball in my hands, I'm actually not in control. It's me. It's about me seeding control to other people strategically at specific points. This guy hasn't had a shot
in a while. We got to get him in a rhythm, like, Okay, Lebron has missed a few shots in a row, or Kauai has missed a few shots in a row. How do I get Kauai in a position where he can shoot again but have a better chance of succeeding so that he can get his rhythm going. Um So, but I mean, I've talked too much about it already, but I don't necessarily think that he's gonna change much. Al right, So next I wanted to really quickly talk about J
J Reddick. So this is super interesting to me. The report comes out, it wasn't even reported, came out on his podcast. You guys have seen it on the feed if you haven't looked already. Um basically came out and said I was. I had requested to trade before the season, right after the Drew Holiday trade, and I contacted the front office and said I wanted to be traded. They said, why don't you come down to the team for a month and if you if you like it, then you
can stay. If not, then we'll get you somewhere. Where you want to go or either buy you out or we'll trade you to somewhere in the Northeast. And he talked about how because of the pandemic, anytime he goes into anytime his family moves across the state line and they come back, they have to deal with this like quarantine stuff, and so he felt like, um, the front
office was dishonest. Now there there's been a lot of slander throne at JJ Reddick since this podcast came out, talking about how he doesn't dictate that type of special treatment. And don't get me wrong, I agree with you. I mean I would have liked JJ Reddick as a buyout guy with the with the Lakers, and I still think he's a good eighth or nine demand in your rotation. But I agree in the sense that he doesn't dictate what a star dictates. But people always forget about the
human element in business. It's always easy to to act as though everything is a business only relationship. I work in real estate, so like when I sell a house, I make a lot of money, but there is a difference. There's a fine line with whether or not someone is
worth the trouble. And it's only happened to me a couple of times since I've been in the business, but I have worked with people before where even though it is a big fat paycheck, I would never work with that person again because of how miserable they were to work with. There's a human element to all of this stuff. So you might pretend as though J. J. Reddick doesn't
dictate this. However, dishonesty from a front office that builds a reputation and that absolutely can hurt you in the In the back end, JJ Reddick never would have given a damn if he went to them and said, Hey, I want to be up in Brooklyn and then, uh, you know, David Griffin looked back at him and said, I'm sorry, j J. I am obligated per my job description to do what's best for the team, and that
means I might trade you somewhere else. I'm just letting you know up front, it's part of my job description. It would be wrong for me to this franchise to do anything else. At least then in that case J. J. Reddick will be like, well, this sucks, but I signed a contract to be here and this guy is just
doing his job. When you break that barrier, when you cross the line into being dishonest, you start to build that reputation, and that kind of thing gets to the point where people are gonna be like, I would rather
not work with you. And that's where it gets to the point where you're trying to sign a shooter to play with Zion, and and the shooter maybe you offer just as much money as some other team elsewhere in the league, but that little bit of dishonest reputation that you build um ends up being a deal breaker, and then that and you end up missing out on deals
down the line. And so what I think is interesting about that is like you've got You've got Zion, who foolishly all of these media companies are talking about how he should get out and go to a big market, which we've all agreed as stupid. There's every every single truly great basketball player ever has been able to build a brand, whether they live in Oklahoma City or where
they whether they lived in Cleveland or anything. Because they all live in l A during the summer and they all are touring for shoot with shoe companies around the globe,
it doesn't matter. But you're you're already struggling with this concept that Zion may eventually uh want to leave New Orleans and now and we all heard like Zion loves playing with j J. Zion went on JJ's podcast earlier this year and they talked at length about how much they enjoy playing with each other and the extensive stretches this year where they had success running dribble handoff actions where Zion would be a ball handler and all this other stuff, like you mean to tell me Zion is
not gonna have a phone conversation with j J and be like, hey, j J, what happened? And and JJ is gonna tell him what happened? And so I think, like I think, you know David Griffin. David Griffin has a reputation as a great GM strictly because of something that Braun did with with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a lot of the stuff he's been is non done. His nonsensical didn't make any sense to sign stay in van Gundi.
He was a coach that was from a bygone era in the and and was gonna naturally struggle with defensive schemes and stuff that work and this era. And then and then you go and sign you trade for Steven Adams which whatever, but then you extend him and and that made absolutely no sense given the fact that he doesn't shoot the ball well and Zion Zion Zion is literally running the best offense in the league over this
most recent span. I can't remember the exact number of games, but the Pelicans are number one in offense and he's doing that with terrible spacing, in large part because of of the decisions that David Griffin has made. So I I think that that that whole thing is off to a really bad start in the in the Zion experiment, all right, So I wanted to talk about this Kevin Duranting, so I myself sent out a tweet shortly after the LaMarcus Aldrige thing, um, foolishly comparing them to the to
the two thousand seventeen Warriers. And I was stupid. I was just overreacting, um, But I just where that came from.
The place that that came from was the simple fact that the that the UH the Brooklyn Nets for beating the ship out of everybody, They're beating the ship out of everybody easily limited without UH, without Kevin Durant, and even in a lot of games without Kyrie Irving because they because James Harden is extremely good, he's one of the best, He's probably the best regular season player of this era, and they're switching defensive scheme is completely throwing
everybody off because it's it's difficult to handle in one game sample sizes when you can't scheme for it tonight after night, and uhum, a lot of the role players are playing better than we expected. Jeff Green and I, as I've said at length, is like the best veteran minimum guy in the entire league. He's consistently on veteran minimums and then every team that he's on, he's plays
like a fifteen million dollar a year player. Doesn't make any sense to me that a guy like Danilo Gallinari can go out and get twenty something million a year, but Jeff Green is gonna get two point seven, Like, someone please explain that to me. And then Joe Harris is just one of the best spot up shooters in the league who can also make shots on the move and is an average two above average defensive players. So
they're just way better than I thought. And so my tweet was strictly just like man and then I talked about at length earlier about why I thought LaMarcus Aldridge was the best buyout candidate available. So I was just you know, getting off my chest the fact that I
thought it was crazy. I talented this team is. And then Kevin Duran's coming back, you know, the guy who I don't think is the best player in the league, but the guy that a lot of people think is the best player in basketball is coming back and joining all of this. And so, you know, obviously there's a lot of crazy people, particularly and in the in uh, you know, the Lebron James fan base, which is seven
and has a lot of crazies. In the fringes. They were constantly saying about how this is unfair, and you know, Katie's always stack in the deck and blah blah, blah blah. And there are a couple of things that I think are interesting about that. First of all, as I've said at length, Lebron also tries to stack the deck. He's just not as good at it like Kevin Durant. If he has a talent, it's that he's he's good at putting this sort of thing together. And he's done it
in two different ways. Now. He did it by straight up signing with the Golden State Warriors because of a cap spike, uh and a team that had already won seventy three games and came within a couple of minutes of winning the title the previous year, and then he did a different version of it here in Brooklyn. He's absolutely better at building that type of team. However, the flip side of that is, like, you know, there is there is a reality, a harsh reality to the way
that we discussed basketball. It's a team sport, right, It's a It's not like comparing, uh, you know, Jimmy Johnson to Jeff Gordon when you're strictly talking about a bunch of guys in identical vehicles racing in a circle under identical circumstances, and you have and there's only one person involved, and it's very clear cut who the winner is. It's a team sport and the only result that we have
his team results. So all of us, myself included, and every single one of the millions of people on Twitter, they come up with their own opinion about how this one individual plays a role in the larger scheme of what the team is trying to do, and all of that is subjective. We do our best to try to build all of that together into a story of why we think player A is better than player B. But no matter what it's subjective, it is up for debate.
And the problem with Kevin Durant being so good at putting himself in situations where the team is so incredible, he makes it easy for the people who don't like him to undercut what he does on the basketball court. And and that's the thing that's funny, is like Lebron,
you know, because he's less good at it. He joined the Miami Heat team, you know, and didn't properly account for the fact that Dwyane Wade, as a chaotic, driving, slashing guard, was probably going to break down, and that had already experienced health issues in a previous season where his shoulder came out because he was falling on the
ground like crazy. The uh, he didn't properly account for that, and then the Miami Heat broke down, and so he even though he won two titles there, there's a perception that surrounds what he did in Miami that made it look difficult and the stakes in like Game six, after Chris Bosh tore his abdominal muscle, and they're about to
lose to the Boston Celtics. The circumstances of the Wheels coming off of what he tried to build in Miami forced him to play so incredibly well to save that team that now the entire perception surrounding that team is Lebron was amazing and that's the only reason why they one go on to two thousand thirteen, same thing. They go to Game seven against the Pacers. They go to Game seven against the Spurs. They're down ten in Game six. In the fourth quarter, Lebron goes crazy. This is the game.
He loses his head band, and then he scores an assists on every point in overtime, and then he goes off for thirty seven or whatever in Game seven to barely beat the Spurs. Again, the perception around that team is Lebron was amazing and that's why they won. But because Kevin Durant has put himself in these situations where the team is so so good, he hasn't had to
be that good for the team to win. So now you can point to, oh, he made he made a shot over Lebron in Game three of a series that the Warriors probably would have swept if they tried hard in Game four, and they probably would have gone undefeated in the entire playoff run. And then the following year, they literally b s through the entire season and they still uh win the title, not defending nearly as well
as they had in years past. Kevin Durant basically broke away from the offense and started doing crazy isolation stuff all the time. It is a problem that started to build between him and kerr And and literally the even though they were nowhere near as good as they were the previous here, they didn't play nearly as well as they did the previous here, they still won. And so the perception surrounding that team once again is that they
didn't need Kevin Durant. And then what do you know, in two thousand nineteen, Draymond basically says that to Kevin Durant while calling him a bit, and it continues to build that narrative, and now he finds himself in that situation again. Here he is in Brooklyn and the team appears to be a championship contender without Kevin Durant. I I'm not sure that I'd picked them over Philly but there's a chance that I might pick them over Philly even if Kevin Durant never plays again. That's how good
the team is. And so the downside to him being so good at building these types of teams is that he puts himself in this situation where that subjective analysis of what he brings individual individually to the team is different, and it's clouded because now it just looks like he's kind of out there just doing k D stuff and
the team's winning. Anyway, Whereas you look back at two thousand sixteen Lebron, in two thousand and twelve, two thousand and thirteen Lebron, it's like, man, if he wasn't every single bit of the best version of what he could be, they would have lost. Literally, they would have lost in the Conference uh Finals against the Boston Celtics in two thousand twelve. If he wasn't amazing, they would have lost in the in the in the finals against the Spurs
in two thousand thirteen. If he wasn't amazing, they would have lost to the to the to the Warriors, if he wasn't amazing. Even this Lakers season in when when they were favored throughout, but there was still a great deal of pessimism surrounding that team because the rest of the roster after lebron Na d wasn't that talented. There was this perception like, oh, they might lose to Portland, they might lose to Houston, they might lose to Denver.
Denver just beat the Clippers. Oh, like a third of the analysis UH analysts picked the Miami Heat to beat the Lakers. Now, that perception is, they overcame a lot of this stuff, even though that was probably the weakest of his four championships. And that's all it is, is like you know, if you were if you're a simple man in terms of the way you feel about the public,
like Steph Curry is a great example of this. Steph Curry doesn't give a damn when any of you guys think that's why he had Kevin Durant come on board in the first place. Steph Curry doesn't give a damn. He just likes winning basketball games. So he's more than happy not caring about your subjective analysis. Any subjective person who's in analyzing, and we're gona talking about Steph Lebrown here in a second, any subjective person looking at the
Steph Lebron. Thing is like, yeah, you went three and one against him, but you added Kevin Durant for those last two. So it's not exactly an even playing field. So whatever the differences between you and Lebron, it's certainly not three to one finals. It's some other sort of analysis. And he subjective person is going to say that. However, Steph doesn't care because he doesn't care what you think, and he doesn't care what I think. He's happy. He
just likes winning. Kevin duran is different. That's why he left the Warriors to begin with. He does care about that sort of thing. He might tell you he doesn't. He might come on Twitter and and act a certain way, but he obviously cares about that stuff. Otherwise he never would have left Golden State to begin with. So it's just it's just unfortunate because now he's because he's so
good at this, picking a situation and maximizing it. Because he's so good at this, he's put himself in a situation where if he wins the title again this year and James Harden and Kyrie play great, and Lamark Saldiers helps him off the bench and all this other stuff, there's gonna be another trophy sitting in his trophy case and another Finals MVP in another series where he maybe outplayed Lebron, even though people oversimplify that as well, There's
gonna be another one there where the vast majority of basketball twitters gonna be like, all right, fine, you want again with a ridiculously good team. That's the unfortunate part. And you know, again this is shallow, but just as a basketball fan, I want to see Kevin Durant have his two thousand, twelve Lebron games sixth moment. I want to see Kevin Durant back against the wall, going to lose unless he rises to the absolute peak of what Kevin Durant can be as a basketball player and he
brings a team over the top. That's what we want to see. And it because that that that is what brings the best out of you. Like that, that that performing performance from Lebron in that game thirty in the first half. Lebron never does that. He's never that aggressive as of a of a score. He strictly did that
out of necessity. The necessity, the steaks, the fear of loss is what brings the best out of these guys and So that's the thing, like, just as a basketball fan, you'd prefer to see in for the record, I might still pick the Lakers against this next team. I might. I feel like that'd be lying in the face of tons of evidence because of how good this Brooklyn Nets team has been. But we might see how how difficult it is for the Nets, and we might earn that
respect for Kevin Durant this year. But but if it does look really easy, that's where you're gonna have all that doubt creep in from all the people. But but if you're stuff, it's the reason why step doesn't care is he's like, y'all aren't gonna like me anyway. And that's the mentality that I would have. KD is like, you guys aren't gonna like me anyway. So I'm just gonna win easy championships and who cares what you guys think. I'm happy and now I have three rings. That that's
the way that he should look at it. I just don't think he's necessarily wired that way. One last thing before we're out of here, alrighty um, so the uh I saw a tweet from um This is from the Lebertard Show. So I haven't actually listened to it yet. I've just seen you guys talking about it. But there's apparently somebody on the Dan Lambertard Show said that if Lebron was swapped for Steph on this year's Warriors team,
that they could win an NBA championship. That's obviously completely ridiculous. And this is the most frustrating thing about the Lebron and Steph conversation is everything everybody says is completely ridiculous. The other day, the Warriors literally won a game against the Chicago Bowls, who are working in new pieces and our a bottom tier playoff team in the Eastern Conference, and everybody in Warrior's Twitter was on the timeline saying
that Steph Curry's the best player in basketball. Again, it's like they're operating from a complete uh you know, asinine plays themselves. But you've got all these other people on the other side that say equally crazy things about what step can't do, and and it and it ruins what should be a really interesting conversation, which is the difference between Lebron and Steph. For the record, coming into the season, I said Steph was the second best player in basketball.
I said that because I also see the value that he brings offensively to a basket team, the amount of attention he gave Gardners, the the ability for other players around him to play an easier form of basketball because of what he does off the ball. All of those things I believe in, and I do think he's arguably
the best offensive player in basketball. I think him and Lebron and Nicol Yogi is another guy like this who are are so unbelievably good offensively that you can build an entire system around them, and I would put them all on the same tier. The reason why I think Lebron is better and it's a scene shallow again, and it's something that you will never be able to argue with Steph fans about because they love that he's small.
It's like part of his likability to them. But Lebron has this physical gear that he can hit in these playoffs series that Steph can't hit. And it's the reason why there's always been this discernible gap between the two of them. For me, even when Steph is at his absolute peak, I think there's a gap between what he
does and what Lebron does. And it's that physicality. I'll give you just a random example, fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets in Game five, the Nuggets almost come back there to start the fourth quarter, Lebron goes on his crazy run. In that crazy run, there's a play where he gets Jamal Murray on the switch and he does an aggressive driving move to the right, and he does a really really hard physical spin move, and in the
spin move, he covers a ridiculous amount of ground. He starts outside the right side of the block and finishes outside the left side of the block on the spin move, and he knocks down this turnaround jump shot over the top. It was one of several jump shots that he hit at the end of that game. And that is the physical gear that Lebron can hit that Steph is incapable of hitting, and it's the reason why I give him an edge over step in a lot of those cases.
I'm not even talking about defense. There's a whole other conversation we can add about what Lebron brings defensively to the table. The most iconic play of his career is him hitting an extra gear physically to block his shot from Andrea Guadala that literally change the ends at the end of an NBA finals championship series. So that's a whole other conversation. I'm not even gonna get into that
because I don't even think it's worth debate. There's a massive chasm between the two defensively, but even offensively, that physical gear matters because also at the end of the
two thousand sixteen finals, Steph couldn't get separation. Now people will tell you it's because of his knee, but for some reason he was having no trouble getting separation against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and he did have success in late round playoff series getting separation against in two thousand seventeen and two thousand eighteen, but he had this whole other release Valve and Kevin Duranted that made it so that his physical wear and tear what he was asked
to do offensively wasn't the same. But you saw it again against Toronto in the two thousand nineteen finals. He just wasn't quite as good at generating that separation in a really physical playoff series that wore down on him when he had a lot of playmaking responsibility. Meanwhile, Lebron James, you know he's playing with the post player who also
it's a lot of touches. But at the same time, Lebron was their primary offensive initiator on almost every possession, yet he was able to hit a physical gear to create shots off the dribble that Steph isn't able to hit. And to me, that physical gear, I know it's superficial. I know it bothers people because you you're dying for this like small guy hero that you can have as your your go to uh you know, uh guy to root for because you can be like him. Okay, that's great,
but I'm sorry that physicality does matter. I am six ft six, I wait two and seven pounds. I have a six ten wingspan. My ability to get separation against people on the perimeter is unparalleled compared to any small guard that I run into. I I like my chances to generate a high quality shot over any of those guys because I've put the work in to have that polish out there. But at the same time, I have these zical tools and I'm not even in the same
universe physically as what Lebron does. But I have five times the physical tools that Steph Curry has, and that sort of thing does matter in a in a physical playoff series. That wears people down in by game six. In game seven, everyone's banged up, everyone's tired. But that's two seventy pounds six nine guy, for whatever reason, can still get separation, and he can still get into your body and play bullyball and all those sorts of things.
And I think that gap is significant, and that's the reason why, even at steps absolute best, I never thought he passed Lebron. Uh in terms of what he brings on a basketball court. Good luck telling anybody that from Warriors Twitter, there absolutely love with the guy, and I think that's great. That's fantastic part of of the basketball fan experience. However, the vast majority of people that you talk to outside of Warriors Twitter, I feel like agree
with me in that regard. There's a difference. Uh, there's a difference, queen. You know, being a really really gifted offensive engine in the ability to hit that extra gear, that that extra that extra gear is the is the separation factor from the elite of the elite and the guys beneath them. Um, do you guys have any questions before I get you out of here, Let's see, are you worried Lebron might not be fully healthy? With his
ankle spraying for the rest of the season. Yes, I am worried, just because of the fact that I don't love the idea of all these other guys peaking and getting in a rhythm, guys like Jannice, guys like Kauai and Kevin Duran is gonna be coming back here shortly and having a lot of time to get ready. And then apparently there's a report that came out this morning that Sham said that it might have been last night that Sham said that Lebron is gonna be out at
least another three to five weeks. Like, I don't love the idea of Lebron getting ten regular season games and then jumping into a first round series where he's gotta play Steph Curry or he's got to play Loud or something along those lines. I don't love it. Uh. If there's one guy that can defy any sort of of uh, you know, basic common common sense type of approach to this sort of thing, it would be Lebron. Um. But I think we're all lying if we're acting like we're
super optimistic about the way it's gonna go. This is so far from my deal. It's not even funny. It's an impact injury. It's a lower leg injury, which means he's literally not able to work out right now. Like that, all of that is just not good. I will completely change my take about that if he runs off a three or four game stretch where he just looks physically great. Um, when he comes back, I wouldn't look at all at the way his jump shot looks, or the way his
handle looks, or any of that stuff. When he comes back, I would pay strict attention to just the way he's moving around in his mobility. Already, Let's see quick one on the last roster spot for the Lakers. Who's your pick? So I have a couple of names in mind. There. He say I would love to have Auto Porter, But it appears that he doesn't appeared to get it. Doesn't look like he's gonna get bought out. Um, I was
super high on uh. Avery Bradley is a backup option, but I'm not sure he's necessarily gonna get bought out. Avery Bradley was the guy that I had in mind when I wanted the Lakers to make the Kyle the Kyle Lowry trade. But it's I mean, honestly, at this point, you know, you've got you've got a guard core that's five deep, um and really really solid. You've got uh, Kyle Kuzman and Lebron James on the wing, and you've got five forwards in Mark Kief, Marcus Markief, marcusol Montrez, Harrold,
Andre Drummond, and uh and Anthony Davis. So you're the Lakers are twelve deep right now, so they don't really need anything. Uh. It's just if if auto Porter is just an absolute no brainer, UM, but I just don't think he'll get bought out. And for the record, if auto Porter gets bought out and the Lakers signed him, that's that would be the best buyout guy out of any of these guys. Auto Porters like a legitimate at three and D guy, um and like good on both
ends too. So he'd be an example of someone that would kind of be similar in impact to what La Marcus Aldridge brings to the to the nets. All right, last question, I'll get you guys at here. How do you think Tres's robot is affected by Drummond getting thirty plus minutes? I don't know. I would imagine that Shred's is going to continue to play a lot of minutes
at the power forward. The Lakers played a lot of Montrez Harrold at the four this year, Um they haven't played They played more at the five with Anthony Davis out, but I expect him to play a lot at the four the way he did to start the year. I think the guy that's gonna get squeezed as Marcus Al alright, guys again, thank you guys so much for just persevering with me through that ridiculous WiFi saga. I think from what I can tell on my end that there were
no drops today, so that's good news. As crazy as it sounds. I was so discouraged in the middle of that podcast on Friday that I was like after I went back to listen too it just to see how bad it was, and I remember thinking, like, this is gonna be bad because I was so piste off. I was literally just sitting in the chair just like seething mad because I could not believe that this is still happening, because I thought I had it solved by doing the
phone hotspot thing. Um. Anyway, even with that, over two hundred of you downloaded the uh the full length podcast that butchered up terrible podcast that Roger and I did on Friday. So I sincerely appreciate you guys continuing to support us through the through the chaos. But I will be here for every one of these recorded podcasts for so on, so I should have good infrastructure for this.
I appreciate you guys supporting. I'll have the podcast version of this up here in about fifteen minutes and then I will see you guys on Friday. Enjoy the rest of your day.