Hoops Tonight - Celtics shut down 76ers, Boston on FIRE + Jokic vs. Steph & Durant debate rages on

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All right, welcome to Hoopsidaight you're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. Got a fun show for you guys today. The Sixers and the Celtics squared off last night. Boston got a big win. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams. Then, while I was skiing yesterday up in northern Arizona, we had that mail bag on Monday.

If you guys, Remember and someone asked me to compare Nicole Jokic's ceiling two or his peak to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, and I said.

that particular take. So six are Celtics off the top, Yokich at the end, and then later tonight after the final buzzer of Lakers Clippers, will be going live on YouTube to break that game down.

bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're going to be doing a mail bag in Friday's show this week. Also, if any of you guys ever had a bad experience with a ticket buying app or website, maybe you know, put the ticket in the cart and you go to check out, and then all of a sudden, all these fees show up, and all of a sudden, the price doesn't reflect what you were expecting. Or maybe you bought a ticket, you showed up to the arena and the seat wasn't what you were expecting, or maybe it's just

an overly convoluted, in complicated process. Well, this is where I want to tell you guys about Game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States. You can see the view from your seat before you buy, so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into when you arrive. It's all in pricing upfront, so none of that confusing adding fees while you're trying to check out, and you can buy tickets in seconds with two taps. So we still got a solid month and a half a regular

season basketball and obviously the playoffs coming up. A lot of older stars around the league, guys like KD and Steph and Lebron that aren't going to be in the league that much longer, and these could be some of our last opportunities to see them in person. And as much as we enjoy watching games on TV, get out and go see these guys in person. Take the guesswork

out of buying tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app, create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, Create an account and redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So six

or Celtics, really interesting game. The beginning of the game was an excellent example, just kind of a showcase of how great Boston's perimeter defenders are. Philly was running this dribble weave, which is like literally one of my least

favorite forms of offense. Those of you guys who are Arizona Wildcats fans like me will remember that Sean Miller used to run this a lot in their half court offense, and it basically just imagine all the guards just running dribble hand off after dribble handoff, and they're constantly trying to find an opportunity to turn the corner. But the problem is is the vast majority of guard guard screens

are really any sort of perimeter player. Perimeter player screen is just a switch, and so these they just end up handing like as the offensive players are handing the basketball off, the defensive players are just handing their matchup off and they're able to kind of stop guys from turning the corner. And they were doing a really good job containing the basketball really on everybody except for Tyree Maxey, who, by the way, no one in the league can really

contain Tyrese Maxi. But the two guys in particular that we're having a lot of success on the perimeter to start the game, where Derek White and Jalen Brown, I'm really going to be diving into this concept in today's show, especially as we get more towards Boston's defense later on

in this segment. But like Derek White and Jalen Brown, their combination of mobility, strength and length can really cause problems for perimeter players when they're trying to drive a lot of possessions where Philly players like a Buddy Heel or Tobias Harris would be trying to turn the corner and their chest to chest and they just keep their hands exposed out to the side so they don't draw fout and they're just sliding with them and bumping them along,

and then as soon as they expose the basketball, they'll strip down. They're forcing turnovers getting out in transition. Off of that, Jalen Brown was so aggressive in the paint

in this game, especially early on. He only took three.

the rim. And there was a possession where he was posting up in the middle of the floor, had a seize mismatch, and instead of going to the right shoulder fade, he went to a left hook there in the lane, right at the rim and made it. And I was like, that's a great example of a physically aggressive move. That doesn't mean you don't use the fade away. The fadaway is a valuable shot to have in your bag, and again, Jalen's so good at it that it makes sense for

him to take it. But I like a good mix a physical aggression in there, and looking at Jalen Brown's shot chart in this game, it was just a great example of what I've been preaching for a long time, which is just directing more of your resources towards physically aggressive basketball in the paint, because that is what translates

to the postseason. Again, this paint aggression thing has been a theme for this show in our coverage of the Celtics over the course of the last couple of weeks, and it's been a theme for the Celtics over the course of the last couple of games, back to back games against the Knicks and the Sixers, where the Celtics just completely dominated the paint. Now, there's obvious context there, right, Like the Knicks front line was injured, right, oh, Gannoba,

Julius Randall, and Mitchell Robinson all out. Joel Embiid's out for the Sixers. The Sixers also are a team that prioritizes defending the three point line, especially since Joel Embiid went down, and so some of that is matchup related, but there's a lot of really good process stuff in there.

I pointed out these four things that the Celtics needed to do to increase their paint output about a week ago on the show, and it was running in transition for layups and dunks instead of threes.

fading away. We talked about that earlier with Jaylen Brown. And then cutting instead of spotting up and crashing the offensive glass. Now, these weren't as prevalent in the Sixers game, but very much so in the Knicks game. Those are two additional ways to drive offense, and they were really active cutting and crashing the offensive glass against the Knicks, and as a result, we're seeing them have fewer jump shots attempted per game, more points in the paint scored

per game in the last couple of games. As a matter of fact, in this particular game, the Celtics only took thirty two jump shots against the Sixers. Juxtapose that with the Bulls game. Remember the Bulls game. They took fifty seven jump shots in that game. And again, some of it is related to the matchups, but it's also about playing a more physically imposing brand of basketball. It's

about being more deliberate about hunting those paint opportunities. Philly went on a late run in this game in the early fourth quarter to get the game close. The game stayed close in the first half. Tyres Max. He was just incredible. We'll talk about him in a minute. But Boston ended up going up by fourteen in the late third, but then Philly got it back to two and it

was a lot out of jumpers. They went through a little short stretch where Boston did get jumper happy and they weren't going in and then Campaign came in for the sixers there in the early fourth quarter and had a little scoring burst at a couple of jab step threes. Next thing you know, it's a two point game. But Boston immediately responded. Al Horford cooled off Campaign in an ISO heat checked situation. You know, Campaign's looking to make

a three. He was sitting on his left hand to drive, because Campaign, again is the kind of player that like, if you can get to that strong left hand, he can make that scoop shot off the glass from basically anywhere. He made some impossible scoop shots in this game. But if he can funnel him back towards his right, he's

more likely to take a jump shot. Baited him into a really tough step back going towards his right and got him to miss it, missed it badly way short, so Horford cools off campaign and then Al Horford and

Luke Cornett both had big deflections during that span that led to runouts going back the other way. Now Boston's back going in transition. Drew Holliday also hit a couple of big jump shots in that stretch, and the Celtics ended up winning comfortably. But I wanted to talk about the defensive end for a little bit because a lot of the Boston success in this particular game came off of their defense, and we talked about their perimeter defender core earlier and how that kind of like manifested in

this particular games. They were able to slow down the perimeter options for Philly, even Tyres Max, who if I'm not mistaken, only had two points in the fourth quarter of this game. The defense for Boston is their margin for air. Whenever you say about, you know, Boston's half court execution, which we've obviously talked about ad nauseum on the show, their defensive personnel is capable of building more margin for air on that end, even than they've demonstrated now. Defensively,

they are great in the metrics. Their top of the league again this year, just like they were last year, just like they were the year before in that like top tier of teams. But there's a difference between where they were at in twenty twenty two versus where they were at this year and last year. And you can

just see it in the numbers. In twenty twenty two, their defensive rating was four point four points better than it was in twenty twenty three, and it's actually the same this year than it was in twenty twenty three. So even though by ranking among the other teams in the league, they've been an excellent defense this year, they haven't been the other worldly defense that they were in

twenty twenty two, and I do think that's still in there. Obviously, Robert Williams was a big part of that unit, but Chris Topsporzingis brings similar length and rim protection to this unit. But if you remember that twenty twenty two playoff run, it was their defense that got them there. How did they beat the nets? They beat the nets because they

locked up Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. They, like Gyiannis, actually fatigued over the course of that series, missed a lot more shots than you're accustomed to seeing Yannis missing, and in game seven was completely out of gas and ran and was run down when Boston ran away with that series, Right, they had devastating stretches of defense versus Miami. Had multiple games where they shut Jimmy Butler down, and then that was how they took the early lead against

Golden State. It was the strength of their defense like that, That to me is where they can make an additional improvement to buy margin for error for some of the shortcomings that they have on the offensive end of the four. Take Jalen Brown for instance, Like there's so much focus on his offensive shortcomings, right, Like Kenny dribble with his left hand, what happens when his pull up jump shots missing? You know how else can Jalen Brown impact winning in

those environments? Well, when he's competing on defense the way that he is as of late, like in this last couple of weeks, and he's that devastating transition freight train that he's been as of late. He doesn't have to be a deeply impactful offensive player in the half court because he's that kind of deeply impactful athlete in the

other areas of the game. Just guard guard as well as you possibly can and be that transition freight train, and it won't be It won't matter as much the other issues that he can have from time to time on the offensive end of the floor, that defensive end, for me, for Boston, like especially especially as of late, we're seeing just a little bit more competition on that

end of the floor. That to me is something I'm gonna be keeping an eye on because if they can get that defensive rating down a little bit closer to where it was in twenty twenty two, that to me is a strong indicator that they're poised to reach their ceiling on that end of the floor when they get to the postseason. On the Philly front, Tyres Maxi, I

was just so impressed by him in this game. He had thirty two points, felt like it should have been more, too, like he had several that went in and out. He had a step back three right before the half where he got great separation and it.

passes even competing on defense. There was a stretch here in the middle of the game where Jalen Brown was really trying to attack Tyres Maxey and Iso, and he forced him into three to tw and over as he drew a charge and a post up, he picked him clean twice. Like he's competing on that end of the four. Now,

he's got his limitations there. And I actually struggle with some of Philly's approach in the sense that, like, I don't necessarily agree with playing Buddy Healed in the starting lineup next to Tyrese Maxey because I think you kind of dip below a certain amount of perimeter defense talent, and I kind of like him more as a bench weapon that you use a lot with Joel Embiid and gerbilhandoff situations and things like that. I actually would prefer Dan Anthony Melton to start in that spot. Maybe he

will in the long run. It could just be a product of the situation right now. But I just was so incredibly impressed by Tyrese Maxey. He's a warrior and to me, he's he looks like a legitimate number two, a guy that you can legitimately build around with Joel Embiid and have a championship caliber roster. Twelve games since Joel Embid went down, Tyrese Maxey twenty seven points, four rebounds, and six assists on fifty seven percent true shooting and

a two point five assist to turn over ratio. And then one last guy I wanted to shout out on the Sixers was Ricky Counsel, the fourth. This is a guy that stood out to me when I was I haven't watched a ton of Sixers since Joel Embiid went down for obvious reasons. They're just way less of a

factor in the landscape of the NBA right now. And I mean especially as you look at Philly kind of sliding down the standings, in the reality of it already being February twenty eighth, and you look at Joel Embiid potentially like the only way that Philly wins the title is if Joel Embiid comes back and just kills everybody, right, But that's difficult to imagine happening this season when he's gonna have to come back and like mid to late March, and like come from a really low seed and potentially

have to play a really good team in the first or second round. Like, to me, it just doesn't feel like this is the right season, right And so haven't been covering the Celtics super cool. So I mean, you don't have to look any further than the show, our fucking our feed to see that. But Ricky Counsel the fourth has been a guy that has really stood out to me in the games that I've watched with Philly. Really athletic, high mode competes on the glass, can put

the ball on the floor and make plays happen. He's actually like a good slasher that generates some rim pressure. I was looking at his per thirty six numbers. He's scoring at a rate of twenty four points per thirty six minutes and eight rebounds per thirty six minutes on sixty two percent true shootings. A really interesting bench wing that Darryl Morey has found for the Sixers. Have you

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ten percent of the difference. And as great as it is watching these games on TV, especially with the NBA heating up here on the home stretch, go out and see a game. Go to c one in person. The NBA is in a really great place right now with talent. You got to get into the arena to really get the full experience. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time at Create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your

first purchase terms apply again. Create an account and redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. All right, let's talk about yesterday's fiasco. So it was funny because I was skiing and well, all that happened is we had a mail back question. Right, so Monday show, we're doing the usual thing. We did a game breakdown, Pacers, MAVs, We did a power rankings, and then a mail bad question.

Somebody just asked, would you take like, where does Jokic's peak rank with Kevin Durant and Steph Curry? And I answered the question authentically with what I believe to be the truth, which is that Nicole Jokic's peak is higher than Kevin Durant and steps has ever been. And I broke down why. I explained, like Nicole jokicch is kind of like like the consensus best player in the world right now, and I just don't think that ever was even remotely the case for Kevin Durant or Steph Curry.

And we kind of got into a little bit, but it was a short, little response and a mail bag question. Well we our staff clipped it and put it on social media and it was like a complete shit show on Twitter. Everyone was disagreeing. All the Kevin Durant and

Steph Curry fans were super upset. I obviously am not going to get into that kind of side of things because the internet's a nasty, nasty place, and I've talked about it on the show, But like, player stands are like some of the worst elements of basketball discourse these days because they feel they need to just defend their player at all costs, and it just leads to some

really unfortunately bad basketball discourse. But I do think there's an interesting basketball question or a basketball debate to have here, and a lot of you guys, you listeners of this show who are well meaning and obviously want to have a real discussion about it, made really interesting counterpoints, and I have let's see one, two through four, five, six, seven, eight different counterpoints that you guys made in the YouTube comments.

And so what I thought would be fun is obviously my stance is Jokich's peak was higher than Kevin Durant's and Steph Curry's. Therefore, like you know, based on the fact that he's the best player in world and his dominance in the stretch is just kind of better than what those guys did, that's my stance. You guys disagree, here are some counterpoints, let's argue about it. So I

figured that's what we would do in this segment. So first comment, listening to how Jokic is by far the best player of this generation baffles me. How many championships does he have? So that's the first clarification. It was strictly a question of who had the higher ceiling in this particular era, right, So obviously Steph and Kevin Durant are over Jokic all time. Kevin Durant's a two time champion,

two time Finals MVP. Steph Curry is a two time MVP and a four time NBA champion you know, obviously was Steph did in twenty twenty two moved him way up in my all time list. I think I have step fifth among all perimeter players in modern NBA history. So like, obviously I don't have Yokich above those guys all time, but strictly looking within the ceiling their peak of their career and how much they dominated the league in their peak, I do have Jokic over those two guys.

So that's the first clarification. Second one, that's a weird take saying that Joker is better than Steph because he's considered the best player in the world now when there isn't a prime Lebron to compare him to, unless you would also say that Joker is now better than Lebron six or seven years ago. So here's the thing. Lebron's peak versus Jokic's peak is an interesting discussion to have.

all time. Arguably, like that's his thing. Like in the half court, slow down environment, five on five offensive basketball. Is there a guy better than Nikola Jokic at creating and finishing super high quality shots. That's up for debate, And like I would actually even accept if you said

Jokic was slightly above even Lebron in that regard. But Lebron was also really good at that, Like when you look back to like like really that stretch from about twenty fourteen, like twenty eighteen, because he was really good offensively in the early Miami Heat years, but like Lebron ball where you like spread the floor and he'd beat his man in one on one or kick out the

shooters or hit the lobman underneath the basket. That really kind of took on towards the end of the Miami Heat run when Chris Bosh moved to center, and then in the Cleveland Cavaliers years, right and especially like peaking in twenty eighteen twenty eighteen, Lebron, if you left him on an island, he was scoring and if you helped, he was making the right play out to the right player to finish that play right. So, like, now, was he as good at that as prime Jokic was or is?

percent clip, And even Lebron at his peak wasn't that efficient as a score around the basket. But even though it's close in that regard, Lebron obviously was one of the very best defensive players in the league at his prime, and even in that later stretch from twenty fourteen to twenty eighteen, he could still be this deeply impactful defensive and rebounding athlete. And so I lean very slightly towards Lebron in terms of the ceiling. But Jokic's That's where

I want to be clear here. I think Jokic's ceiling is in the same echelon as the Lebron's and the the the Kobe's and the mjs and the and that group of guys. That's the level that I think Nikole Jokic is at right now now as it regards as it pertains to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and their circumstances having to be underneath Lebron. This is a conversation I've had a lot on this show. It mainly centers

around Lebron James and MJ. Because a lot of Lebron fans will be like, why are we giving MJ credit for being dominant in the nineties when he was just way better than everybody in there? Weren't any legitimate stars,

you know, like legitimate superstars that could challenge him. And that's that's what Lebron fans will say, right They'll be like, you know, like Charles Barkley was his best opponent during that stretch, or you know, these big guys like Patrick Ewing or Shaquille O'Neill or Chema Lanjo on, these kinds of guys, like there just was nobody in the nineties that could step to Michael Jordan. And my thing is like, even if we do, even if we do accept that

as partially to be reality, that's not your circumstance. Your circumstance is your circumstance. And it's really difficult to quantify that. How much is the way we view Charles Barkley and the way we view those centers in that era, like how much Clyde Drexler, how much of that is actually related to the fact that MJ just won all the time?

Like if MJ didn't play at all in the nineties, would we view Charles Barkley the way we view Magic and Larry and Steph and Katie and Lebron or Stephan Lebron, would we view him like that?

on the same level. Right, That's just the reality. We look at Jokic now, it's a different league, right, we have older Lebron, older KD, older Steph, but we also have Yannis, we also have Luca, we also have Joel Embiid, we have we have Jason Tatum, we have we have all Kawhi Leonard, we have all these guys, and Jokic

is still heading shoulders above all of them. So even though we I first of all reject that idea outright, just from the standpoint of like, it's convoluted and difficult to quantify the different eras, right, but regardless, within this era, in a league that has Yannis in Luca and Embiid in Lebron, and KD and Steph and all these guys, Jokic is way better than them, at least substantially and clearly definably better than them. So to me, that is

the difference maker for Yokic. Like I think that when we're looking at ceilings, it's really difficult to quantify the different eras, but we can quantify that current era, And to me, Jokic is better in his era relative to his peers than Katie and Steph ever were relative to their peers in their era. Next question, our next common counterpoint, I should say, Steph is six foot two. Comparing him to a seven footer is not even accurate or fair.

I mean, here's the thing. Basketball is basketball. There's not a trophy for short players and a trophy for tall players. It is a testament to how incredibly great Steph Curry is that at six foot two, he's in the conversations that he's in. But the reality is, no one walks out onto the floor in Game six of the Western Conference Semis last year and goes everybody add fifteen points to the Warriors because Steph's six to two. That's not how it works. Your height is your height, that's your

circumstance within the game of basketball. If jokic is height is something that gives him an advantage, then he has an advantage.

more than the fans. First of all, I do agree that if you pulled one hundred scouts, GMS, or coaches, the vast majority of them, probably ninety ninety five of them, would say that Yokic is the best player in the world. I do push back a little bit in the sense that, like, I think fans are smart basketball fans too. I think it depends, like there's some that are not and there's

some that are. But like I do think a fan opinion does matter, and I think like that's a big part of why I do interact so much with you guys in the comments is like I legitimately think a lot of you guys bring really interesting perspective to the table, and I do think that there's value there.

peaked on that conversation in the sense that, like during the twenty sixteen season, there was probably a higher percentage of fans and people that thought Steph was the best player in the world, but even then it certainly was not definitive and the majority still felt like it was Lebron. They're just there was a point in time there around twenty sixteen, especially in the regular season, where a good

like third, it felt like, felt that way. Now all Warriors fans have felt that way, Like there's no doubt, Like I know, Warriors fans are super high on Steph Curry. They think he's been the best player in the world from like twenty fourteen to now. You know, like I

know a lot of Warriors fans feel that way. But in the overarching court of public opinion for basketball, in twenty sixteen was probably Steph's peak in the way that he was regarded, and in that phase, I still think the majority of fans and NBA personnel thought Lebron was better than him, and so I would mainly just push back on the word definitively.

as the game is vastly different for each category. Jokic at his best is comparable to peak Yanis at the moment, he passes both the eye tests and stats test to be the most dominant big player in the generation. But unless Jokich does a similar run as Steph in twenty twenty two or Dirk in twenty eleven, I would never consider his peak better than Steph, who in twenty twenty two beat one of the best defensive teams in the

era without a top thirty co star. If you want to make the deduction that Jokic is better from the fact that Denver is currently better than the Warriors, fine, Let's not ignore that Denver has the best five man lineup in the league, while the Warriors do not have even a solid secondary scoring option. So a bunch of different stuff here, and some interesting points like for starters, the wing guard verse center thing. I agree, it's really

difficult to compare the two. They basically play different positions. But to me, that more applies to historical conversations because like nowadays, centers do function more as permitter players like and Beat and Jokic basically run their entire offense like that was not the case. Like even take like a dominant post player like a Chema Lodja one in like the mid nineties, he was not getting super high volume assists and running the offense outside of him looking to

score down there. That was not the way bigs were used back then. So like pre the like pre the super modern in like last you know, seven eight years before that stretch, centers really did fundamentally play a different sport. But like nowadays, it's like Yannis to me is kind of a perimeterive player, Nicole Jokic kind of is a perimitive player. Joel Embiid kind of is a perimeterive player. So now it gets more convoluted just because of the

way basketball has changed. Even Embiid now, who is so limited as a passer, is taking massive leaps as a passer because they're using him as a passer like that, that is just fundamentally how the game of basketball is changing, so like I do feel that way when it comes to ranking, like Tim Duncan and Shaq and and kim

Elanjouan and all these guys compared to like Kobe and Lebron and MJ But like Jokic, Jannis Embiid, these these are modern bigs, and modern bigs are much more like normal basketball players as the league has become more and more positionless as time goes by. Jokic at his best

is comparable to peak Yiannis. That I disagree with. Jannis had Giannis is incredible and I think for a brief stretch there in the early twenty twenties, you could say he was the best player in the world, but it was up for debate, and specifically in that twenty twenty one season, it was a weird season. It was post COVID.

In that year, we had a Tray Young led Western Conference team finalist, we had a Paul George led East Western Conference finalist, and we had a Sons team make the finals that was led by Chris Paul and Devin Booker and was just not nearly as good as some of the other championship contenders we've had in recent NBA history.

Does not mean that championship doesn't count. Just mean that just means that Giannis kind of hit his peak, so to speak, where it kind of where he kind of took that number one spot in the league during kind of a confluence of events where he was able to take that spot, but then he immediately lost the spot

as the league got deeper and Jokic surpassed him. And to me, Jokic last year like ripping through the Kdie Booker Sons, ripping through the Lebron ad Lakers, ripping through the Jimmy Bam heat like that was just another level in my opinion. And so to that other question, does he would need to have a similar run to Steph's twenty twenty two runner Dirk's twenty eleven run. I think Jokic just run is every bit on that level, absolutely unquestionably.

Now the point about Steph not doing it or the Steph doing it without another top thirty co star, that's where it gets complicated, because here's the thing. Your value to your value as a basketball player is strictly what your value, your value is in your role for your team.

playoff run is highly underrated in a different way. How did the Warriors win in twenty twenty two? It was Steph's greatness, But what was another big chunk of it? It was Andrew Wiggins kind of shut Luka Doncic down or at least made him way less efficient. Andrew Wiggins kind of shut Jason Tatum down definitely made him way less efficient, Like that was a big part of it. Andrew Wiggins in his on ball defense against the best players in the world in that stretch was a huge

part of Golden State winning the title. In addition to him giving you the legitimate secondary shot creation and big time rebounding in downhill athleticism and matchup attacking like Andrew Wiggins was great in that run. Like this last point here, Let's not forget that Denver as the best five man

lineup in the league. Golden State in twenty twenty two was a similar type of deal.

the best defensive players in NBA history. Like they were similar to Denver in the sense that they didn't have star power beyond their superstar, but all of their guys were stars in their roles, and so to me, like Steph's twenty twenty two run has some similarity to Nikole Jokic in the twenty twenty three run, But to me, Nicole Jokic was definitively better than everybody in the league and has clearly put a bit of separation between him and his peers in a way that Steph has not

been able to do. Two more, Jokic is twenty nine years old, not twenty six. He's unstoppable, but I doubt he'll get another season MVP award. My guess is Shay, Aunt Luca, and Tatum are the next contenders for the award. However, John Morant, when healthy and drama free drama free, can also win the MVP. So this is actually really funny.

I I have no idea how I lost track of time, but when I I legitimately thought Jokicic was like twenty seven, twenty eight years old, I or twenty six twenty seven years old.

And that does affect his long term potential. So like if you wanted to pass KD and Steph all time, he needs to continue to accumulate accomplishments, and if he's twenty nine years old, it's just harder to do than if you're twenty seven years old, for instance. So that might affect him in the all time conversations, but that doesn't to me affect anything having to do with his ceiling. Also, I do think he's gonna win the MVP this year.

He's the favorite. I think Shay is like plus two fifty, and there's a chance if the Nuggets really kind of let their foot off the gas here down the stretch that he could that he could get it. But I do think Jokic is gonna end the guys, Jokic is gonna win his third MVP and four tries and the one he didn't win last year. He's straight up punted. He was the leader most of the season and at the end of the season he basically let mb get the award, so like like he was this close to

getting four consecutive MVPs. That's the level of dominance we're talking about. Guys like I get it. I understand that it's a little bit of like a recency biased thing. I understand that there's like you know, I'm usually mister, give credence and respect to the guys that have been there, and by the way that I do reflect that in my all time list. I'm not here saying Jokic is

the fourth best player of all time. I'm just saying we are witnessing right now a level of dominance that we have never seen from KD or Steph That's what I'm saying. I'm saying the level of dominance is more on par with what we've seen out of the guys at the top of the NBA history, Guys like Lebron, guys like MJ, guys like Kobe, so on and so forth. All right, guys, That is all I have for today for today's show in the afternoon. We will be back

later tonight on live on YouTube. After the final buzzer of Lakers Clippers, I will see you guys. Then the volume