Episode 7: NBA Offseason and my experience with COVID-19

happy to announce that it was mostly okay. Um. My wife did end up coming down positive a few days after me, and she was completely asymptomatic, which is wild because she would have had no idea had it not been for the fact that I got symptoms. Um. You know, uh, I know most of you have had someone that you know has had it, so I'm not bringing you any new information here, but I I just came down with some basic cold like symptoms last week on Tuesday. Um,

it really wasn't that bad. Usually when I get very sick, I'm down and out for two or three days, and then I'm back on my feet and everything's fine. This was kind of like half as intense as that, not quite as bad, but at the same time, it just dragged on. I was I had a fever for two or three days, and then I had this like lingering fatigue that was crazy. If I got off the couch for more than like, you know, five minutes or so, I just had to go sit down. I slept more

than I ever have in my life. I'm usually the kind of guy that sleeps maybe seven hours in a day maybe, and instead I was sleeping you know, eight or nine hours at night and then taking a two or three hour nap every single um, every single afternoon. And I just like I was just completely exhausted. It was crazy how long it lasted. Um, But just about um late in the day on Tuesday this week, and then all day yesterday and then all day today. So far I felt pretty much back to myself, which is

which is good news. And like I said, it's crazy. It's easy to see how this stuff spreads around because of the fact that, you know, my wife had it and she's just completely fine. Um. And like I said, never would have been a million years guests that she had it if it wasn't for the fact that I came down with it. Um. But anyway, I'm not gonna dwell on that for too long. I'm really really excited to talk some basketball. There's so much to talk about.

We're gonna talk about the Laker off season so far, what we know, especially the Dennis Shrewder acquisition. We're gonna talk a little bit about my thoughts on what it would be like if Harden went to Brooklyn. Then I'm gonna talk a little bit about CP three to Phoenix, and then what I think about the Milwaukee Bucks moving forward.

I'm not going to talk about Warriors too much today. Um, there will be a conversation to have about what this team looks like this year with Steph's uh you know, Steph obviously taking on a much bigger workload with the Clay Thompson injury. I just don't think today is the day to have that conversation. I'm super bummed from my friends who are Warriors fans. I'm super bummed for all

basketball fans. I personally was really really excited to see them back and to see uh, you know what I thought was gonna be an amazing showdown between Steph and Lebron in the Western Conference finals, and I don't think that's gonna happen anymore. Um, But like today, like I said, today is not the day to talk about that. I feel really really bad for for Warriors fans, just because they deserved after what they went through last year, to have,

you know, something to root for again. And most importantly, and this is the biggest bummer to me, I was always really bummed for Lebron in two thousand eighteen when

Kyrie went Kyrie on everybody and left. And I was super bummed in twenty nineteen because I thought that Laker team could have been good and they were so bogged down with injuries, and I was very I thought it was sad that a player who was an all time great like Lebron had to miss out on two seasons of his prime, you know, on teams that couldn't win. And don't get me wrong, it was fun watching him, and he had his moments last year, and he certainly

had his moments in two thousand eighteen. But you know, for a guy who's wired the way he's wired, who all he cares about his winning championships, it sucks that his age thirty three and his age thirty four seasons were basically wasted and and it's it's just unfortunate, and that's basically what's happening to Steph here because of the hand injury and the Clay Thompson injury last year, and then because of the Clay Thompson injury again this year, a small guard who's likely to age out of the

league faster than a normal superstar level player is going to miss two full years of his prime. And I just think that that's really really unfortunate. And and as basketball fans, I think we should all be, you know, pretty bummed out about that. But you don't have to hear that for me. I know you guys already feel that way. But let's start with the Lakers. So I'm gonna start with Dennis Shrewder because you know it, personally, it wasn't the exact player that I wanted with that

type of trade I was. I was higher on Spencer din Witty than most people. Um. I know that the three names that got tossed around the most were Shrewder, Spencer din Witty, and Victor Oladipo. And Victor Oladipo was concerned about his health, and then with Shrewder, I was more just concerned about the way his style of play would fit with the Lakers. And I'll explain what I mean by that in just a second as a good thing.

It was. It didn't cost the Lakers anything. They lost that draft pick, which was a late first round draft pick, which if if you follow anything that I believe about basketball, I don't believe that young players can really contribute to winning at this age. And I think that, you know, whatever they get out of Shure is going to be ten times greater than what they would get out of any player that was available at that point in the draft. So the draft pick wasn't really worth that much. And

then Danny Green was way under performing his contracts. So from that standpoint, giving up Danny Green and the what was it the overall pick that was never ever going to be a uh you know, it's it's easy to win that trade, so to speak, because the Lakers weren't giving up much of value. Um that said, you know, I preferred Din Witty just because of the way that the Lakers are structured. The Lakers are structured as a

team that plays a lot of average to below average shooters. Now, they had games in the postseason where they shot really well, but if you had to actually describe the Lakers as a shooting team, you would describe them as like average to below average, like somewhere in that fifteen to twenty group in the NBA, And then they always played two bigs, especially in the regular season, and even when they would go smaller in the in the postseason, they were playing

Mark Keith Morris, who was basically a big anyway. So from that standpoint, they weren't a great spacing team. They made up for that spacing with their physicality, but they were never a great team for driving lanes. And Dennis Shrewder's game is predicated on driving to the basket with his speed. And that's not to say that he won't still have success with the Lakers, and I believe he will.

But the reason why I personally was higher on din Witty was because din Witty is more of like a C. J. McCollum esque super skilled player who his expertise is operating in situations that there's not much space. And so that's why I personally preferred that move. That said shrewders who they got. So let's talk about what that looks like. He's he's got great length at the guard position and athleticism.

He's not super tall, but he's tall enough. And uh, he just flat out as a good defensive player and he was in Oklahoma City. So that's great news in the sense that it fits into the Lakers scheme, even more so than either of the other two guards Oladipo

and and Din Witty. He's a great defensive player. He will fit into the Lakers defensive scheme and their defensive brand, which is everybody on this team who goes onto the court works their ass off on the defensive end of the floor, as we saw with uh With Dion Waiters, he just flat out fell out of the rotation in the postseason because Frank Vogel didn't trust him on the defensive end of the floor. So that is where you know,

Schroeder is a natural fit. And then as far as shot creation goes, I talked a lot last year and it was my biggest concern with Rondo. The biggest thing that they needed was somebody who can bring the ball up the floor when Lebron was off the floor or when Lebron was taking his on court rest. You know, Lebron loves those stretches of the game where he's not necessarily doing as much even though he's on the court because he's trying to get his rest while he's playing.

You need a backup creator, and we all know that Anthony Davis is not quite that guy yet. He's not a good enough passer out of double teams in the post to really kill teams um consistently as a primary initiator, so that we always knew that the Lakers needed that backup guard. Now they kind of did it by committee when Rondo was out with injury, and Avery Bradley did

really good in that role. You know, Crusoe was up and down, but he had his moments and uh, what really came together for the Lakers in the postseason was Rondo had some big games in that role. So Truder slides right into that role as a guy who is a natural, uh who's used to that specific role to as a sixth man, a guy who comes in, you know, off the bench, you know, and is used to not starting the game in a rhythm and trying to get his rhythm in short order as he checks into the game.

So that's a natural fit. Like I said, my only concerns are just that the Lakers are not a great spacing team, so it's not going to be as easy for him to find driving lanes as it was when he was in Oklahoma City, But then again, Oklahoma City wasn't the greatest spacing team either, and he had a great season. And then the other thing is just his jump shooting. So he shot great last year in Oklahoma City, but for the rest of his career he's been a below average jump shooter and a pretty bad one at

some points. So the question becomes at this point, as a twenty seven year old NBA player, was last year an outlier or is that what the new Dennis shooter is as a jump shooter, and that that totally remains to be seen. So because I think it's what's going to be important is in the minutes where Lebron is on the court and he is engaged in the offense,

Dennis is gonna have to knock down corner threes. Dennis is gonna have to uh command enough respect as a spot up jump shooter that he can attack close outs and do things along those lines. So it's it's very important for him to replicate his jump shooting from last season. And and and then my last concern is that Denis Trier is what I would call a you know, uh, he's

a tunnel vision score as a sixth man. And from that standpoint, what I mean is he will pass, but only when he needs to, and he will pass only when the defense essentially forces him to. He does not get a lot of assists for the amount of usage that he has in the minutes that he's playing. He is a put my head down, go to the rim. I'm trying to score, and if I absolutely have to

give it up, I will. The only thing that's kind of unfortunate about that is his bench minutes are likely going to be played with Anthony Davis, who's, in my opinion, the fourth best player in the world. So you'd like to ideally have a player who's a little bit more of a natural facilitator in that role, someone who can keep Anthony Davis engaged and get him quality looks. So again,

those are my pros and cons there. It was a super low risk move because the Lakers did not give up Kyle Kuzma, they did not give up Alex Caruso, they did not empty their trade asset trove. They gave up like two They gave up a basically salary filler in Danny Green, and one UH one draft pick that probably wouldn't help them much anyway, so it's it's a low risk move. It could still work out. I'm just sharing with you guys why I'm a little skeptical and why I'll be with the kinds of things that I'll

be paying attention to when he actually starts playing. So a couple other Lakers things. JaVale McGee opted into his contract at just over four million, which is a pretty big number for what he brings to the table. I

think he has to be traded. I thought that one of my biggest concerns with the Lakers last year was that they didn't seem to have the stomach to tell JaVale McGhee to sit, and more often than not they ended up and key playoff moments trying to go to him and then finally relenting as he was getting eaten alive by Nicola Yoki or whoever it was that he

was going against. He's just not a very good NBA player, and the Lakers were always better off going small or playing a small center than they were playing JaVale McGee. So having him on the roster, given his ego, given how much he cares about playing time, I don't think it's good for them to keep him around the locker room too much. You're heading into a season where you're

trying to defend the title. You're dealing with egos, you're dealing with the disease of more, You're you're dealing with all the classic things that teams that just won the championship deal with if ideally you'd like to not have a guy like that around, and so I hope that they can find some way to move him, and I think it would probably be attached to Kuzma and some type of deal for a wing because I kind of had similar feelings about Kuzma in the sense that you're

gonna probably lose him for nothing because he doesn't bring enough to the table to justify the kind of contract he's going to get. So why not just get off of those guys for guys who will be natural fits, who will you know, be good contributions to the locker room, who will be, you know, veteran pieces that can at least provide some positive role when they do play, but at the same time be professionals when they don't play.

The Lakers were literally just giving JaVale McGee minutes on the idea that he was going to get grouchy if they didn't play him, and that's that, to me, is just not something that a team that has championship aspirations should be dealing with. Um. There's been some talk about whether or not Avery Bradley really fits into the rotation moving forward, because the Laker fans are excited about potentially getting Wesley Matthews, which I'm extremely excited about. I think

he's a much better version of Danny Green. He's a much better on ball defender. He's very laterally quick, he's very good in the ball pressure role that the Lakers use so much as the the baseline scheme in their defense. And so if Wesley Matthews comes in and Dennis Shrewder's coming in, and Alex Crusoe is going to play and uh and contagious call while Pope is going to play,

you've got four guards there. So the natural, you know, Inclintion, is to think that Avery Bradley is not as important anymore. But I entirely disagree. I think that he's one of the few guards on that Laker roster who's every bit as good offensively as he is defensively. And the Lakers are always the type of team that at any given moment can shift down and play small. They can put Lebron James at the four and Anthony Davis at the five,

and now it's not two guards, it's three guards. And so from that standpoint, having Avery Bradley as a fifth guard is super important in their death. And then above and beyond that, just injuries. Just over the course of the season, guys are gonna go down with injuries. You're gonna have load manage from the Lakers as they're trying to watch minutes because of just how quick the turnaround is. And so I think it's so important for them to have that fifth card. Depth is going to be especially

important for the Lakers. Yes, well their rotations. Will their rotation shrink in the playoffs, Sure, but they're about to play seventy two games in short order after just taking two months off from a championship runs. So you're gonna have guys like Contavio's called baal Pope when he has n tendonitis need to sit out for three or four games in a row. Same thing. Alex Crusoe has had

some back issues in the past. So, like it's so important to have that guard depth that I think you have to at least try within reason to bring Avery Bradley back. The only case where you wouldn't do so is if he ends up getting some crazy offer in free agency that just takes you out of the mid level exception type range. UH for a guy like Serge PoCA, that would be the one time that I would not

be okay with with overpaying for Avery Bradley. But if you can get them, if you can bring it back, even if you got to give them a little bit of a raise, I think you gotta do that. So the last Laker thing I want to talk about is this uh mid level exception and Sergebaca as a potential signing.

So for those of you who don't understand the hard cap, and I only barely understand it, But when you have these these exceptions, which are essentially loopholes in the c b A that allow you to sign a player going over the salary cap as long as you stay within certain parameters, and then there are a bunch of additional rules that come into play, and one of them is

the hard cap. So if they use enough of their mid level exception, if they cross a certain threshold, it triggers a hard cap, I think at like a hundred and thirty two million or a hundred and thirty six million, where you literally cannot sign anybody, even if it's a veteran minimum contract, which severely limits your flexibility later in the season when a situation like what happened last year with the r Keith Morris, where a player comes down the pipeline who gets waived by another team and is

available to join the Lakers on a veteran minimum contract and he ends up playing a big role, plays huge postseason minutes like closing lineups in the NBA Finals, and that's a player that they signed with the veteran minimum. So if you dip into the hard cap, if you dip into the exception so far that it triggers the hard cap, you limit your flexibility later in the season

when these buyout guys come down the pipeline. So from that standpoint, the only player that I think is worth triggering the hardcap for is Serge Baca, because Serge Ibaka is such a ceiling razor for this team because he is every bit as good defensively as a as a Dwight Howard or as a JaVale McGee was for the Lakers last year, but he can also shoot the ball and he's far more competent as an offensive player. Plus

he's had huge moments in huge playoff series. He was amazing for the Raptors when they won the title in two thousand nineteen. Surge Baca is an excellent back of NBA player. He instantly gives the Lakers by far the best starting lineup in the n b A. He is a he is a can't miss opportunities. So if Sergebaka comes to the Lakers, and I believe, if I believe, the way that it would work is is the Lakers would be able to offer him like three years, twenty

seven million or something along those lines. Again, don't quote me on that. I am not a cap expert. I'm very average in my knowledge of the cat. But if they signed him for three years and twenty seven million and he comes to the table, it triggers your hard cap. However, at that point your depth cerns. Later on in the season, you're basically saying to yourself that you would rather have

Serge Baca and what he brings to the table. Then whoever could potentially come down the pipeline in the future. And so he's the one guy that I think that's worth it. If if if search Abaca is off the table, then you dip into that exception to bring back to White and to bring back Avery Bradley or whatever it is.

And you stop right at that five million number or whatever it is that doesn't trigger the hardcap, and you just play it safe and you hope that something comes down the pipeline in the future when the when the buyout candidates start coming to the surface. But the surge Ibaka is the only guy that I would trigger that four you can get. You guys can only imagine all of the basketball things they could do with the Baka and with Anthony Davis together. Anthony Davis is on the bench.

Now they can go five out and Lebron can have all of his driving lanes, Dennis Schroeder can have all of his driving lanes. Anthony Davis is on the floor. There two bigs there shot blocking all over the floor, and you can do high low actions with Ibaka and Anthony Davis. You can have Anthony Davis spot up. You can have Sergebaka spot up and have Anthony Davis work

on the low block. As you guys remember last year, there were all of these plays or Anthony Davis is trying to work from the post and Dwight Howard is just camping in the dunker spot and his man's just not even guarding him. And Anthony Davis wasn't a gifted enough passer to really, you know, draw that guy a little closer, to throw lobs to Dwight or any of that stuff. So it kind of hampered the ability of Anthony Davis to be a post up player. Sergebaca completely

solves that problem. In addition to just depth, at that point, you're talking about between Lebron, Kyle Kuzma, Sergebaka, Dwight Howard, Anthony Davis, you're talking about just a bunch of front court depth of really good NBA players. So, like I said, uh Ibaka is the only player that I would trigger

the hardcap for. Alright, let's move on to this potential James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets trade that has been discussed, And first and foremost, if I was Houston, I would just bring Harden and Westbrook back to camp because they

don't really have anything that they can gain here. The amount of talent that would be on that Brooklyn team, Especially for as good of a regular season player as James Harden is, It's hard to imagine them conveying really high quality picks anyway over the over the next few years.

I don't like it at all. UH And if for Houston, and quite frankly, Harden has to guaranteed years on his contract, and the third the third year guarante UH player option is like almost fifty millions, So why in the world would he turn that down anyway? So realistically, you've got three years of control of James Harden anyway. The same thing goes for Russell Westbrook. You hold the cards. I do believe in player empowerment. I understand the arguments for why.

I understand the arguments for why. You know, like the NBA owners can ship players off in the middle of their contracts all the time. I agree with all of that. I just also believe that the team has the right to flex their muscles within the scope of what the cb A allows. So you know, James Harden absolutely is within his rights to demand a trade to UH to Brooklyn, but he has to understand that his leverage is less

than that of a player. In his final year, Anthony Davis tried to force his way out of out of New Orleans, but they didn't trade him until he had one year left because at that point the leverage shifted in the sense that the Pelicans could have lost him for nothing. That's not the situation Houston is in that there there's there's always an understanding that leverage is a moving scale, and in this case, the leverage is in

the hands of Houston. So if they want to look these guys in the face and say, hey, come to training camp like we're not just gonna uh, we're not gonna do this right now, then they have every right to do that. And and then Harden and Westbrook are in the situation where if they choose not to play, they could be in you know, they could be in a situation where they don't get paid, and they could be in a situation where the contract is automatically voided.

I know, you guys remember some of this from the Kawhi Leonard fiasco when he threatened not to play if he got traded to certain teams when he was with the Spurs. So like from a player empowerment standpoint, I would just I I understand and give them the right. I just if I was Houston, I'd bring them back. Now, let's pretend that Brooklyn and Houston have come to some sort of agreement and they're going to make this trade.

I am one of the few people out there who doesn't really understand why everybody would be that intimidated by that particular Brooklyn Nets team, and that UH that for me, UH comes down to just the way that I believe teams win NBA championships. You guys have heard me talk about this literally million times, but the UH, I believe that there is a there are certain pillars that a

team needs to win an NBA championship. You need elite, high end offensive creation that can create offense against elite defenses that you will inevitably face as you get to later playoff rounds. That's one, and then two, you need elite defensive versatility, so you need the ability to guard those high end offensive teams to the best of your ability.

And then third and finally, you need I talked about this all the time, you need an alpha, somebody that can go head to head with the other stars in the league, look them in the face, understand in their head that they can beat them, go toe to toe with them and win that matchup in any given head to head matchup. A great example of that is Jimmy

Butler versus Janis Antenna Coumbo. Jimmy Butler is not as good of a basketball player as Janice Antenna Cumbo, but Jimmy is an Alpha and Jimmy was able to go head to head against the Honest in close playoff games at the end when everything was up in the air, and he was able to take the Honest down in that head to head matchup. So as long as you have those three basses covered, I believe you can win

a championship. And when it comes to that Brooklyn Nets team as currently constructed, they have two of those boxes checked really well. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are are two of the very best playoff elite offensive creators that we have in the game today, and they are two of the very best alpha's. I have seen Kyrie Irving look Steph Curry in the face and be better than

him in an NBA Finals playoff series. I have seen Kevin Durant look Lebron James in the face and be every bit as good as Lebron James in a playoff series, in an NBA Finals series. So from that standpoint, they already of the alpha's and they already have the elite offensive creation. Harden is a redundancy in that regard. They don't. He's not even as much of an Alpha as the other two. And then more offensive creation isn't what they need where they are where they are coming up short

in these matchups. Right in my head, as I'm envisioning a Brooklyn Nets run to the title, They're going to eventually run into Miami. They're gonna run into Philadelphia, They're gonna run into Milwaukee. All of these teams that can defend the hell out of the basketball, and if they don't have the ability to do that, they won't be able to outscore them over the course of a series

because those teams also have elite offensive talent. Those teams have the things that they need to create enough offense that if they get into a rock fight with Brooklyn, they can win. But Brooklyn has absolutely nothing in the way of elite defensive versatility. Kevin Durant is an average deep pensive player who has never shown the ability to

really take command to that end of the floor. He did it in two thousand seventeen with Golden State, but he was on a team that was already a top tier first or second best defensive team in the league, and he was sliding into a role. Now he's the best defensive player on his team, and now he has to set the tone on that end, and now the entire team is going to go as he goes. That's an entirely different role than what he was doing in

two thousand seventeen in Golden State. And now you're bringing in James Harden, who is probably like one of the worst defensive superstars that we've seen in the history of the league. He's there there. There was a little bit of a of a a reputation repair that they did trying to say he was a good post up defender, but his overall focus and effort on that end has

never been there. And then Kyrie Irving same thing. He had some he had some moments in two thousand sixteen with the Calves, but for the most part has been a bad defensive player. So, in my opinion, the Nets are much better off letting James Harden go. Let him be miserable in Houston, let Philly trade for them or trade for them or something along those lines, and find a way to leverage your assets into versatile defensive players.

Try to trade for p J. Tucker, try to like sign every conceivable wing that you can so that you can have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving focus on what they're best at, which is scoring the basketball and staring these other alpha's in the face and potentially being better than them. That is the pathway to a Brooklyn Nets title.

Not foregoing all of your depth and flexibility for another star that is redundant, That doesn't that doesn't bring anything different to the table that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving already bring to the table. So I think they're on the verge of potentially making a catastrophic mistake. Now, who knows it's I've been wrong before. I'd be the first person to admit it if it ends up in a

different direction. But the the and when I'm laying these scenarios out in my head, it seems far more likely that they'll have success if they follow a proven method of winning titles, which is find a way to defend, find a way to create shots against teams that defend and have a guy that can look the other team's guy in the face and be better than him. That's the way you win, alright. Moving on to UM, this U two quick ones, this CP three to Phoenix and

then the Milwaukee Bucks. So with CP three in Phoenix, UM I, I love this trade, and I was really disappointed in Milwaukee for not going after CP three, especially given what they did decided to give up for Drew Holiday because, like I said when I did my podcast a couple of weeks ago, of the top ten players in the NBA, our top fIF team players, I think Chris Paul is in that you know, third or fourth tier of stars and is one of the best players

in the league. Still the second team All NBA this year. He's an automatic, massive talent infusion into any roster, and he only has two years left on his contract, so there was no reason in the world to be scared of that contract and not be scared of a Drew Holiday contract or any of these other contracts that are out there. He at this point, he's one year away from being an expiring deal that can be flipped for

cap space, and so so Phoenix gets him. They give up Ricky Rubio, who would have been a redundancy next to CP three. Anyway, they give up Kelly Ubre, which I like Kelly Ubre. He's a player that I hope ends up in l A. He's a great player. But with the rise of Cam Johnson as a three D player and with Michael Bridges, they didn't need Kelly Hubre as much and uh uh, and then then they can build around DeAndre and Devin Booker too. So I think

this automatically puts them right beneath the two l A teams. Now, given that Golden State has been essentially you know, if we're gonna talk about them in another day, but they've been essentially taken out of the mix here. I think CP three, even Booker and DeAndre Ayton, is that that's the third most talent in the Western Conference behind the two l A teams. So it's a no brainer. You're automatically putting yourself right there in the mix. CP three is an alpha that can go toe to toe with

any of these stars. You've got lots of defensive versatility with Cam Johnson, Michail Bridges, DeAndre eight and Chris Paul, Devin Booker, is gonna have to learn how to defend. That's the best That's the best part about this particular move is we're now finally going to get to see what Devin Booker looks like in a winning role on a winning team. We're gonna get to see how much he can impact winning, you know, on a night tonight basis in the regular season and then and then again

in the postseason. This is where we find out if Devin Bookers the seventeenth best player in the league or the seventh best player in the league. So that's the exciting part as a basketball fan, is getting to see what he can bring to the table, last of not

least the Milwaukee Bucks. So there's a lot up in the air here because, as you guys have heard, there have been some reports coming out from uh some a lot of NBA writers that the a bunch of executives around the league are upset that this was a potential tampering incident involving bog Down Bogdanovich. And you know, let's just I I have heard that this is a cover up from somebody who works at the athletic and so I'm under the impression that this is gonna eventually get done.

And there's been a lot of talk Sham Sherannia called it a super team. There's been a lot of talk from you know, Bucks fans of of this being you know, uh, this being a monumental success. And don't get me wrong, it is a monumental success in the sense that reports are showing that Janice is planning on resigning. So that's awesome, And on behalf of all of NBA fans, I'm happy for Milwaukee fans that they're going to get to hopefully keep your honest now as a result of all of this.

And if that if it costs all those X, who cares. You're not trading those picks for Drew Holiday. You're trading those picks for uh, for Jhannice, Antenna Coompo, Andrew Holiday. It's kind of like what happened with the Clippers. Everybody's like, oh, they paid all this stuff for Paul George. No they didn't. They paid all that stuff for Paul George and for Kawhi Leonard because he wasn't coming unless they got all

of George. So you gotta look at the total package of what they were able to put together by making these deals. But let's go back to what I talked about earlier in the proven ways to win a championship, the three pillars that you have to build a team around. Milwaukee was already an elite offensive team or defensive team.

Excuse me. They were the best defensive team in the league last year by defensive rating, although I would argue that l A was The Lakers were a better team on the defensive end, but they had that that that base is covered. Then from the from the standpoint of an alpha dog, you know, Janice has been outplayed in his last two playoff by other Alpha Dogs, but theoretically Janice can fill that role. But their biggest problem was

elite high end offensive creation. A guy that can when things really bogged down in the half court of a late round playoff series against the Lakers against a Clippers, against the Philadelphia, against the Boston, against the Miami, against the Brooklyn. Who if they've managed to figure out the defensive end. A guy that can in those half court settings consistently generate quality offense. And that's what got them killed against Miami, and that's what got them killed against Toronto.

So the question I have for you guys is how does Drew Holiday instead of George Hill and Bogdan Bogdanovich instead of Eric Bledsoe solve that problem? It doesn't. They have the exact same flaw today that they had last season. They just have marginally better versions of the players that were already feeling those roles. If anything, Eric Bledsoe wasn't as good as an offensive player as bog Don, but he's a much better defensive player. So there's a give

and take to all of this stuff. So my worry for Bucks fans is they're going to find themselves in the exact same situation in this next playoff run that they were in the previous two, even if this Bogdan

Bogdanovitch deal goes through. And that's why it was so much smarter for them just to give a little fewer assets for Chris Paul, You're you have the same issue with a long contract, You have the same issue with having to give up some form of assets to get the deal done, but you get a much better player who actually fills that role of a lead offensive creation and a better alpha and another option at an alpha who could go ahead to head to head with these

guys in these playoffs series, So I thought it was a catastrophic mistake from Milwaukee going that route. Now there's one scenario where this could all be pointless and the Bucks could be absolutely fine, and that is the scenario where Chris Paul excuse me, where Jannis Antenna Kumpo finally

takes that leap and becomes that guy. If Johannas Antenna Cumpo becomes an elite, high end offensive creator, and if he becomes the alpha that can go head to head with a Lebron or with a Kauai, or with the Jimmy Butler or with the Ben Simmons or whoever it is and and beat them, then he then that solves both of those problems and all of a sudden, Milwaukee

becomes a bona fide contender. But my question is when in NBA history have we seen that big of a leap in one summer, a shortened summer at that, Because not only was you, honest, not that guy last year, he's not even close to that guy in his last two playoff series, is that he's been eliminated. He averaged twenty three points against Toronto, twenty two points against Miami. That's not a, Uh, that's not even like you know, look at Jayson Tatum, who was considered a middle of

the pack superstar in this playoff run. Even he was getting twenty six points a game, you know, he was performing at a much higher level as an offensive creator than Janice was. So my worry would be, how in the world is that going to change over the span of three months or whatever it's been since Johanna's last played basketball, And how is that not just going to be the exact same problem in this next postseason run. So that's why I thought they should have gone after

CP three. I thought it was a big mistake already. That's all I have for today, So I have uh, two other podcasts on the schedule as of right now. I have uh probably next week Roger is gonna come on and we're gonna do basically just a reaction to all of the Laker postseason moves, assuming at that point by the end of next week or so, that um, that all of the the dust will have settled on this off season. Uh. And then I was supposed to

last week on Thursday, but covid gotten the way. I was planning on doing a special, little just for fun Star Wars Pod with my buddy Jackson. I'm gonna be working on rescheduling him that with him probably early next week. But as usual, thank you guys so much for tuning in. The numbers that have come from these things have been amazing and I'm so uh you know, shocked and honestly just thankful that you guys care enough to take time to listen. Um, but enjoy the next couple of days.

I'm sure we're gonna have lots of news pop up and like I said, until next time. Thanks guys,