Hoops Tonight - Could Lebron and Kyrie reunite + 5 things I learned this year.

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I just wanted to get my two cents on our first little bit of drama in the NBA off season this round the calendar, sport that we love so much,

that is getting off to a spicy start. So Kyrie Irving is apparently having trouble with the Brooklyn Nets and their contract negotiations, which, by the way, we all saw coming when Kyrie was, you know, demonstrating a complete and total lack of self awareness after the season saying things like, oh, this is an equal partnership between me and Kevin and Joe, and we're gonna build this thing, and I'm excited to

come back and make all of this work. And then literally the Nets came back and they were like, actually, we're interested in people that actually want to show up to work and people who are actually in this with us, not just talking about being in this with us. So we were not surprised. I'll read this wheat from Sham's Urania this morning. Sources Kyrie Irving and the Nets are at an impasse in conversations about his future in Brooklyn, clearing way for the seven time All Star to consider

the open market. The Lakers and Knicks and Clippers, if you click on the article, expected to emerge among potential suitors. So I wanted to come at this from a couple of different angles. First of all, I expect there to be a resolution here um the Brooklyn that's simply don't have nearly enough talent. I'll get into this a little bit more here in just a couple of minutes. But you could argue, even if you do retain Kyrie, even if Ben Simmons comes back at a hundred percent, and

even if you make some quality moves this offseason. You might not have enough. You know, the playoffs are all telling. The playoffs are revealing. There's no hiding. It exposes everything. It will expose your weaknesses as an individual, and it will expose your weaknesses as an organization. It will also expose your strengths as you get to that stage. But there's no hiding. There is no b s ing. There

is no fooling anybody in the NBA playoffs. And there was one team that seemed to be on a different level than all of the other teams in this playoff field. Not that they were the worst team, but in terms of their performance relative to the rest of the field. You guys saw the New Orleans Pelicans as an eight seed, fight like hell against the Suns and almost beat them. Obviously, they benefited from some injury luck there as well, but

they showed a great deal of fight. You know. You saw um even the weaker teams like the Atlanta Hawks clawback and get one against Miami. Brooklyn never even really threatened Boston after that first game when Jayson Tatum had the game winning layoup, even on their home floor. They didn't show any fight, and most importantly, they seemed at a massive physical mismatch. My biggest fear for Brooklyn is not their top end talent. I know what Kevin Dury can do. I even know what Kyrie can do, and

I think he's fine as a number two. I don't think it's a Kyrie Irving problem. What it is is down the roster, they don't have what Boston has and what Golden State had, and what Miami has, and what all of the good teams around the league have, which is a bunch of guys. You need about a half dozen to functionally round out a rotation, like at the low end, four guys, but you need guys between six five and six nine. They can guard multiple positions and

can drible passenger shoot to some capacity. They don't have to be great at those things, but they have to be good at those things. And instead Brooklyn was basically running out there with Andre Drummond, a guy who's big, a guy who has moments offensively, but isn't doesn't really have the high level basketball i Q necessary to function in that setting. Isn't polished enough offensively and defensively. He's all over the place. He's sometimes he's on, sometimes he's not.

Sometimes he makes these all world defensive plays and other times you won't even jump for a Locke and you'll be like, what are you doing? Man? Trust me? I know played for the Lakers last year. You know, Bruce Brown, really really solid defensive player. He fits that mold to a t. A little bit limited offensively, but that's one guy that works. That's one The problem is as they let James Johnson go, and they were running a lot of Kessler Edwards there and and he wasn't ready. They

didn't have enough of those guys. There's a lot of Patty Mills too small, a lot of Seth Curry too small, a lot of you know, Gore on drag. It's not athletic enough at the position. They have a weakness there that I'm not sure that Ben Simmons can fill. At the very best case scenario, they will be a functional team that's not deep enough. So because of those things, it is imperative for them to retain Kyrie, regardless of how you feel about the contract. So my guess is

one of two things will happen. Kyrie will either opt in and essentially play out this year in his contract. If he shows up to work every day and has a good season, he can rejuvenate his value around the league and eventually get his max contract next summer. That's the best case scenario for Kyrie, right what I would do if I was the Nets. If he doesn't opt in and threatens to be a free agent, I would

just sign him to the big deal. If Golden State could flip D'Angelo Russell for a player and Andrew Wiggins that ended up being their second best player in this playoff run, then I feel like I could do the same thing with Kyrie Irving, who's a better basketball player than D'Angelo Russell. So, no matter what, they should not let him go. I believe this is all just posturing to help Kyrie and his negotiations. But no matter what,

they can't afford to let him go. What's Kevin Durant gonna do If you lose, lose Kyrie Irving to some other team and he's going at this next year with Ben Simmons and a bunch of role players, now you're now you run the risk of pissing him off and getting him to demand a trade. So I do believe this is just a leverage player. I do, But let's let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that this does go south and Kyrie puts his vote down. He's been

known to do that. What he did in Cleveland when Lebron wanted him trade it, he was like, get me out of here. If you don't, I will get knee surgery. And that threat worked and Cleveland got rid of So let's say there's some bad blood. Kyrie takes it personally. You tweeted out a little jeff of him laughing. Uh, this are not him laughing, but some other person laughing this morning. So obviously he's having some fun at at everyone's expense with this as well. But let's just pretend

he's he's leaving the Clippers. You know, the the Knicks are are a wild card, and who the heck knows what they're gonna do. They would have to create cap space and either to conduct a sign and trade for Kyrie or a third team involved to dump a bunch of salary so that they could open up space for Kyrie. But either way, I find them uninteresting because the Knicks just simply aren't good enough. So Kyrie ends up going to the Knicks. Good for Kyrie, I'll have a big stage.

You can put up number and the Knicks aren't doing anything. The Clippers and Lakers are what interests me. The Clippers, I said in in the show that I recorded on Sunday, I talked about how you know um, I talked about how next year I've I've viewed Golden State as a runaway favorite at this point, but the biggest threat to them out in the West is the Clippers. They're better version of Boston, and I went into detail on that.

I won't go any further, but if you can somehow upgrade the Reggie Jackson position to a player of Kyrie Irving's caliber, and knowing what Kyrie Irving is capable of defensively when he actually is trying, which we haven't really seen much since two thousands sixteen, that's a really interesting fit there. And you know, the biggest thing that you have to worry about with the Lakers and the Clippers

is the hard cap. The hard cap essentially is if you make a trade assigning trade, you no longer have the functionality of using exceptions to go over the cap. Once you get to the hardcap, you're done. It's like that's all there is to it, and your best bet is to sign veteran minimums at the end of the season because you can get the pro rated salary which will fit tightly into the in the small gaps between

you and the hardcap. So it's it's very complicated. For a team like a Lakers, that can be extremely damaging because you don't have enough players right now. The Clippers have a lot of guys and they're all under team control, and whatever they work on this offseason is gonna be just tiny moves on the margins, right So if you can bring Kyrie in and it hardcaps you, who cares because you don't need any more guys. You've got enough pieces. So the Clippers actually it makes a little bit more

sense than the Lakers. If the Lakers were to pull it off. The trick is is you've got so much salary tied up elsewhere on the roster that now you run into the predicament that you might only be able to sign, you know, four or five veterment veteran minimum contracts. You might be going into the season with like ten guys and a bunch of open roster spots. It can get really tricky with the math because of how much

money is tied up in their stars. Also, I think it gets really complicated because the only really way you can get Kyrie's you've gotta trade Russ. So now you've got to convince someone to take Russ. Brooklyn is not going to take them. Why would they, So, like you're you're in this predicament where I mean, unless you can convince k d to hunt another season of his prime to play with Russ to then have a bunch of cap space after, I mean, maybe, but I I view

that as a huge long shot. The far more likely scenarios they'd have to find a third team and they'd have to send Russ there with draft compensation, and then that team would have to send quality players to Brooklyn. It just gets really difficult to pull off. But I mean, obviously I like to fit. Kyrie and Lebron were a perfect fit. Kyrie kind of perfectly encapsulate some of Lebron's specific weaknesses and needs. Lebron is a very good three

level score, but Kyrie's uh is a touch better. As a shot creator in specific matchups, Lebron is ten times the basketball players, So don't take it like that. Lebron absolutely can create his own shot. Lebron absolutely can attack matchups. He's the second best basketball player to ever play the game. But Kyrie, as you saw in Cleveland, his ability to create his own shot off the bounce was very valuable to Lebron, especially in possessions where he wants to rest.

And then, as we've always known Lebron for being the best playmaker and all of basketball, doesn't actually like doing that all the game. He wants to be able to throw the ball to somebody and have them do it for him for long stretches of the game. That's why Dennis Shrewder was acquired, That's why region Rondo was acquired in season, and that's why they went after Russell Westbrook. It's a it's it's something that Lebron is always held as something that is urgently important to him. So Kyrie

checks that box. And we already know he's a natural basketball fit, So I like it. The only thing that concerns means the Lakers have an issue with perimeter size, and they have for the last season and it deemed lethal for them this year. It doesn't matter how big you are in the front court. If you've got too many Avery Bradley's on the floor and too many guys that are just getting bullied by the bigger guards around leaked.

For those of you guys who listened to my um top five things that I learned this season when we got to the XS and ose portion, perimeter size continued to be one of the biggest things that I value, So I like it for both teams. It's just unrealistic for the Lakers, difficult for the Clippers, and more than likely this is all leverage play and he's gonna end up Stain. And then last note I wanted to hit. The Lakers and Nets are in big trouble. Lebron and

kde are in big trouble. The Clippers are gonna be back. They're gonna be better. The Bucks are gonna be back. They're gonna be better. Boston might not make any moves, but you've got Tatum and Brown one year deeper, more scar tissue, the pain of loss, getting them to approach the game with even more intensity than they have in years past. There's a lot of a lot of motivation

there for them. You know, the Sixers with Harden and Embiid are gonna be back, and at a higher level, there's gonna be a lot more talent in the league next year as everybody gets healthy and gets back into it. The Nets and Lakers simply do not have enough right now, and even if they hit home run summers, they will not be the most talented teams in the league, which means they instantly fall into that second tier of contenders where it's like, you can win a championship, but things

gotta break right for you. Dud's gotta get hurt, somebody's gotta get upset, a lot of things gotta go your way. That doesn't mean they can't win. I wouldn't count them out, and you're stupid if you count out Katie or Lebron. But it's a long shot at this point, and they're both in trouble, and I don't I don't think it'll be I don't think it'll be a surprise at all if you see Lebron and Katie start getting a little

bit of a wandering eye. Today, we're gonna be going through the five biggest things that I learned from this playoff run, and then obviously we've got a packed week this week. I'm gonna try to start digging into NBA draft stuff tomorrow morning. The NBA Draft is coming this Thursday before we get started. Follow me on Twitter at

underscore Jason lt. That's where you'll see announcements about anything that we've got coming up this summer, any specific plans that we have for contents, just a good way to stay up to speed with what we're doing. Don't forget to subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, and if you miss any of these shows for whatever reason, you can find them under my podcast feed, which for the time

being is under Lakers Tonight. So obviously, after the NBA Finals were over, we wanted to dig into all of the NBA Finals story lines, and there are additional storylines there that will get into further this summer, things like player rankings and things like you know where Steph falls on the all time list. But I need a lot of time to dig into a lot of stuff for that, so that'll be a little bit further down the line.

But what I like to do around this time of year is kind of recap all of the things that we learned from this season, because I think it's important to take lessons to help our analysis as we look forward, to help with our predictions, to help with all of that stuff. And we did learn a lot in this playoff run, a very very interesting playoff run with a ton of good teams where I think the right team won. And when the right team wins like this, it's there's

some process stuff that we can key in on. So the number one thing that I learned from this postseason is that the Golden State Warriors are easily the best team heading into next year. I know that in Vegas through the preseason favorite, but I think it things look even better for them than they appear on the surface.

I'm very, very briefly touched on this with Colin and of Game six, but if you really think about it, there's a lot of things that didn't go Steph or or Draymond or Clay or the Warriors is way this year. You probably heard Draymond in the postgame conference saying, don't let us get this one. Y'all messed up? You let us get this one. And the reason why they say

that is this was kind of a gap year. They didn't have the same I mean, they obviously wanted to win a title, but they were under the impression that they wouldn't be able to get it this year. At least something there was some internal doubt. Draymond himself has said that you had a lot of young guys in the rotation. You know, Steph was had a weird season. He was hurt towards the end of the season. That's the underrated, well, one of the most underrated parts of

this playoff run. Steph didn't touch a basketball, it touched basketball, didn't play any basketball going into Game one of the of that playoff series against Denver because of that sprained foot. Didn't have time to build up and get his rhythm, didn't have time to get his body ready for it all. He just was thrown into the fire in the in

the playoffs. Draymond had his back issue, and Clay I'm sure if you asked him, if he was like, oh, I'm gonna be playing in an NBA Finals game, he'd probably prefer a good full season to get his legs underneath them and to get his field for the game back. He didn't have that luxury. All of those guys are going to have that luxury next season. Steph had a really bad regular season shooting wise compared to the way he used to be to play over the previous half decade. Right,

that's probably not gonna happen this year. He proved in the postseason that that was flukey. What happened in the regular season was fluky. So you can expect a better version of Steph next year. Looking at Clay Thompson, this is a guy who had two catastrophic lower body injuries. There is a delay in that process when you have that kind of injury. There's like the physical element, but

then there's the mental element, there's a confidence element. I broke my foot between my first and second year playing college basketball, and it was funny because I I my first time playing was showing up to the campus. I had to take two months off immediately before the season, and I remember stepping on and playing three on three like one of my first nights on campus and nearly dying because I was in such terrible, like cardio shape from not playing for so long, and it took me

a long time to get back. I mean that entire first half of the season, non conference play, I was a shell of myself. Even in that second half of the season, I played significantly better. I ended up making the All conference team, but I still wasn't me. I still wasn't the same athlete that I was the previous season. It took me until the following season to really feel like I had my body back, to have the confidence to be able to plant that footh hard, to have

that confidence to really take off. There's a difference between Oh, I'm I'm taking a one durable pull up when I'm messing around at the gym and I am like really pushing my body to the limit to get separation in the NBA Finals. You guys see the difference and what I'm talking about there, there's like another level physically. I think Clay will get there next season. I think Clay will physically be at a point where he feels as close as he's gonna get to what he was before

the injury. It was unrealistic to expect him to get there in this postseason, and he still gave you enough to get the trophy. So that's a lot of stuff to be excited about there. And Draymond Graen was dealing with a back issue. He didn't really start to look great physically until the second half of the NBA Finals. And then most importantly, Jordan Poole, you know, he struggled for at certain stretches of the postseason where it looked

like he was getting targeted too much defensively. Early on in the Boston series, it looked like he might not even be able to play, And by the end of that series he was absolutely imperative to Golden State and their success with the scoring punch he was bringing off the bench. Colin Coward himself said after Game six, and

I thought this was really smart. He said, That's what Boston needed, was just somebody who could effortlessly give you fifteen points on the strength of his offensive skill set, and Jordan Pool gave you that with a little heater. He talked a cot In perimeter shooting there in Game six. Another year of development for Jordan Pool, another year of reps during the regular season for Jordan Pool. Same thing

for Jonathan Cominga and Moses Moody. You know, Moses Moody to me is a very very very classic wing role player, very reliable type of guy that you can plug into any rotation, and he demonstrated that against Dallas. But he's going to be ready for that next season with another year of Summer League, another year of training camp, another year of Steve Kirk giving them reps in the regular season. Jonathan Cominga is a little bit more of a wild card.

Right Like, on any given night he looks unplayable because he's young and inexperienced and doesn't have the offensive polish. But then you see him on other nights and he looks great. Another summer league, another training camp, another eighty

two games of regular season basketball. For all of those guys, with all of that that I just laid out, Steph having a better season, Clay having a better season, Jordan Pool being one year better, Cominga and Mooda Moody being one year better, draym On Green being healthy as opposed

to dealing with the stuff that he dealt with. There's a version of this story or Golden State is a much better team next season than they were this season, and as a result of that, they absolutely should be considered the favorites, not just in terms of uh throwing on or in respect to the champion, but just a simple matter of basketball talent. The biggest questions are gonna be what they do on the periphery. Otto Porter Jr. Can you retain him? That will be a question. He

was a very useful role player this year. He's probably going to be in that mid level exception market this year. Is Golden State gonna be able to retain him or are they gonna lose it? That's a question mark Gary Payton. The second, it's another guy that it's going to be really interesting to see what kind of attention he gets in the free agent market this year. Are they gonna be able to retain him? And then the big one

is COmON Looney. Now the Warriors have his bird rights, So with Kevon Looney, it's really just a matter of what Joe Lacob is willing to pay. Now. I have heard from people who are connected to the Warriors that they will do anything to prevent Kevin Looney from walking. It would it would choir and outrageous offer for them

to let him split um. Too many people in that locker room are so close with Kievan and are so are so dependent on him, and they know how important he is that they're not going to let him go. So I expect him to bring him back. The big mistake that they could make that I hope they don't and that Warriors fans should be scared of, is that we don't need Looney because James Wiseman is that guy camp. Anybody who pushes in that direction. I view that as

a very dangerous gamble. There's a lot of intel with James Wiseman that he doesn't even like basketball that much. That like, he's not itching to get back out onto the court. That's why everyone was so irritated when they saw him working out during the NBA Finals. It's like, dude, you you're not even actually really making an attempt to be out here. You could have been out here if you wanted to be out here. There was some weird

stuff there. Now, who knows. James Wiseman might still very well develop into a fantastic prospect, but I think betting on him to be Looney for you next year would be a catastrophic mistake. Bring back Looney. Wiseman needs years. Wiseman might need to three need to three years to really be a foundational center in the n b A. And so they retaining Looney is going to be their biggest um. Is gonna be the most important thing for

them to do this offseason. And then, as it is always the case, like I always say, keep your eyes and ears out for one additional guy. Don't be don't be uh Milwaukee, Don't let p J. Tucker go and then suddenly find out against Boston that you have one one wing, one like one rotation piece like a grace and Allen that is not giving you enough, and you wish you had a better player there. You don't want

to make that mistake. That's why I would try to retain Otto Porter Jr. With the mid level exception if they could. The two teams that I see is the biggest threat to Golden State next season out west is the Clippers. They are a better version of Boston when they're actually healthy, and they have all their guys, when they have Kauai and Paul George, with Nick Patum, with Marcus Morris Sr. You know, with zobots Was, with Reggie Jackson, with whoever it is that they plug into those spots.

Terrence Man is another good one. All of those guys um when they're healthy, they have the same type of defensive versatility and talent that Boston had with significantly better offensive players. You know, I was thinking about this a lot the other day, Like as good as good as Tatum was for stretches of the postseason, he also had these ugly stretches and then he was really bad in

the finals. I was asking myself the other day, I'm like, is Paul George better than Jayson Tatum, And like, gun to my head, even though I think Tatum is a better defensive player and a better athlete, right now, I trust Paul George more as a decision maker and as

a guy who can run your offense. And then Kawhi Leonard is just in another stratosphere than any of the guys that I just mentioned, So you that that's gonna be the biggest threat to Golden State out west next year is a healthy Clippers team that does a lot of the same things that Boston did in terms of perimeter mismatches, but with significantly higher level offensive organization and then an actual superstar. They can go toe to toe with Steph and has done so before and Kawhi Leonard

in two thousand nineteen. And then out out East, it's Milwaukee. If Milwaukee finds one more piece and Chris Middleton gets healthy, and you, honest, who I think is the best basketball player in the world, takes one more leap, then all of a sudden, Milwaukee becomes a bigger threat, but it easily Going into next season, I think Golden State is the favorite alright, number two the second of the five

lessons that I learned this postseason. For number two, I just want to go over some xs and those things. And there's four specifically that I put down perimeter defense, the value of playmaking, the lack of need for traditional centers, and the value of coaching. Let's started perimeter defense. Golden

State demonstrated this resoundingly in the finals. As the game has become more spread out, as more teams are going four out, one in or five out as opposed to a two big system, or having a rollman and a guy in the dunker spot, those kinds of things. As teams have gone away from that, there's been more offensive talent on the floor ditching. You know, you're seeing look at all the centers you saw play this year. Their

rim running centers. Guys like a guy like Rob Williams, right, or a guy like you know, Maxi Kleiba, right, or a guy like Bama at a bio. It's a lot of like more modern like Kevan Looney is kind of a rare thing in the sense that he plays a traditional center role, but he's actually you know, uh, he's doing perimeter player stuff. He's containing ball handlers, he's uh able to make decisions in the short role, those kinds of things that there's there's a specific archetype of player

you're seeing there. And then the four, whoever was playing the power forward that's gone. That's just another wing now. And for some teams another guard, you know, like Golden State for a while was playing Andrew Wiggins at the four with the with their new death lineup right, So like, as a result, there's now at any given moment at least four, if not five guys on the floor for either for any team that can drim, pass and shoot.

So as a result, it's gotten a lot more driving, kick heavy, and more than ever, it's important to contain ball handlers to keep people in front. So one of the biggest lessons I learned in this playoff run in terms of XS and os, is just how important perimeter

defense is. The NBA Finals swung on Clay Thompson, Gary Payton the second, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green, containing Tatum and Brown sitting on their right hands, making them drive left where they were primarily pull up jump shooters instead of guys who could get to the rim. As a result, Boston couldn't get consistent drivel penetration and as a result,

they couldn't get into their driving kick game. I pointed this out several times, but Boston generated twenty three wide open threes in Game one and never had more than thirteen in any game after that. That's because Boston or Golden State figured out that they had to keep people in front, and they just challenged their players to do the job, and they did, and Kerr gave them a good game plan and they were able to do it.

So when we're watching these teams this offseason, when we're looking at rosters, and as we're watching teams in the regular season, we need to pay attention to what their personnel looks like on the perimeter and their ability to contain and are they doing the job because there are also teams out thereho have the personnel, but the guys just don't do it. But you have to be able to keep ball handlers in front. The second big xs and those lesson I learned is just how important playmaking

is and our game management. You know, uh, the ball handling, whatever you want to call it, but the idea of offensive organization, a player that is capable of being the person who gets you organized on offense. You know, there's value in the scoring archetype, there's value, and adjacent Tatum, there's value, and a Kevin During a great deal of value. That's what I was as a basketball player. It's what I still am to this day. My skill set is that of a three level score. That's what I do

when I play with the team. I have to fill in the gaps. But the thing that I bring to the table is my scoring, right So I'm not trying to undercut that as a value, but I do think that teams absolutely must have somebody who can manage the game.

It We think of Boston as a team that came very close, right two wins away from win in the NBA Championship, but they damn near blood against Miami and they damn near blood against Milwaukee, And a huge part of that was that exact weakness that I'm referencing here. And it doesn't have to be your heliocentric guy at the top of the key making all the decisions Allah Luca don Chitch, James Harden, or even Lebron James, who was a much better version of that than those guys are.

It can be Steph. You can manage a game off the ball. You can manage a game in so many different ways, but you need to have a grown up on the court, an offensive grown up, a high basketball like you, guy who can handle a basketball, who can get people in the right spots, and who has the ability psychologically in terms of their command of the team to get things back on track. For instance, Steph cannot have the ball sometimes, but guys won't take stupid shots

because they know better. How many times do you see somebody kick the ball to Draymond Green or to Gary Payton, the second on the perimeter, and rather than shoot the wide open three, they work it back around to Steph. It's the that's the psychological command of the team that Steph has. That's how he manages the game. So there are a bunch of different ways to do it. Yoki kind of has his own unique twist on it as

a center, right. But we have seen time and time again that against these top tier defenses, the really good, well coached defenses that have good personnel that consistently make you do things that you don't want to do, that consistently make you uncomfortable, those teams require you to have a guy who is your adult in the room offensively. We saw that become a lethal flopper for Boston and we will continue to see that over the years with teams that go into these types of playoff runs without

that important piece uh the third one. Traditional centers. Again, we talked about this a little bit earlier with Kevon Looney. There are a handful of examples or exceptions of traditional centers who can function in the NBA. Guys like Kevon Looney, who brings so much as an offensive rebounder, who can guard on the peri immittur, which is immensely important, and who are smart offensive players, meaning they never force things. Kevin Luney never takes a shot or forces anything around

the rim. That's a bad shot. But Rob Williams again rim runner, big athletic, can cover ground on the perimeter, can get up and down the floor and transition You're There are rare examples of that, but for the most part, it's your hybrid forward centers that bring the most value on the stage. It's the Draymond Greens, It's the Bam out of Bios, It's the Maxi Kleiba you who actually flashed lots of defensive potential in this postseason run. Those

are the guys that matter. So when you see teams out there that are like, oh, I think we need Dwight Howard, you know, like, if Dwight Howard goes back to the Lakers on a minimum contract, is a backup center,

that's fine. But if you are building your team as functionally with a starter or a key rotation piece as a slow, old fashioned plotting center, you are building your team around us isle of basketball that will force you to bench that guy when it matters, and then you'll be forced to in the playoffs to retool on the fly and force and learn how to play a different style of basketball. Any team that has an old fashioned, plotting, traditional center in their main rotation is setting themselves up

for failure in my opinion. And the last, but not least coaching, I thought emil Udoka was out coached in the NBA Finals. Had disagreed with his drop coverage strategy. I didn't think he did nearly enough to try to get the ball out of steps hands the way that almost every other team in the NBA does. And you saw teams like Eric the Miami Heat with Derrik Spoelstrat and the Warriors with Steve Kerr, have significant advantages over

the course of this playoff run. I was so impressed with Steve kerr strategy that he used to throw Boston out of rhythm, the way that he uh was willing to risk his best help defender, Draymond going away from the basket to contain Jalen Brown. That was a big risk, but he understood, if we contain on the perimeter, we don't need help. We can bait these guys into bad

isolation possessions. And I just I thought Steve Kerr had his most impressive playoff run as a coach, and I thought it was a great reminder just how important this kind of stuff is, not just on the defensive vent, but on the offensive end as well, in terms of organization and spacing. Look at how bad the Lakers were this year with their floor spacing. Look at how the Warriors just had that figured out. One credit to Email Yudoka.

He had their spacing principles down pat with a hand, with the exception of a handful of games where I thought he got like when Draymond went on Jaalen Brown in Game two, and then he was just putting Jalen Brown in positions where Draymond could still help. There was a lot of stuff that I disagreed with there, But for the most part, email Udoka had them in really classic four out one in spacing with Rob Williams on the floor and classic five out spacing when he was

off the floor. Coaching matters in the NBA, and this this playoff from was the resounding example of that. So back to the big list, number three superstars still run the show. Eight of the last eleven NBA titles were won by Steph Curry or Lebron James. The other three Kawhi Leonard and Janice. You know, there are rare exceptions, like one of that quiet one of those Kahiet Leonard titles. Kauai wasn't really a star, so there are rare exceptions.

You know, Dirk Knovitski in two thousand eleven not a superstar, but like kind of was offensive superstar outplay Lebron James and Dwyane Wade in the playoff series. But for the most part, if you don't have one of the guys, you're not winning. And so every team out there needs to be building with a clear path. You either have that guy and he's young and you're developing him, or you're developing young players who you can trade for that guy. Anybody who's not looking for that guy is looking in

the wrong place. I was really curious coming into this playoff run to see whether or not this would shift the other way. And the example we were looking at there was Phoenix. Remember those of you guys have been watching the show for a while. Phoenix would have been a great example of a team that lacked top end talent but had talent down the roster and was able

to overcome that. Now, Phoenix looks damn near fraudulent when we really look back to Paul George without Kawhi lent Or taking them to six games in the Conference finals last year, the Lakers having a two one lead on them before Anthony Davis got hurt, right, and then what Dallas did to them this year. So the question is to whether or not superstars still matter was answered pretty resoundingly this year. You still need one of the guys.

You you mainly need either stephor Lebron, but you definitely at least need one of the guys. And I mean, what does that really mean? I don't think it's a coincidence that Jayson Tatum struggled in the NBA Finals. I don't think it's a coincidence that Jalen Brown was inconsistent. I don't think any of that stuff is a coincidence. The reality is only a select few players in the

league play well on the biggest stages. It takes a Steph or a Lebron or a Kauai or a Janice or a Kevin Durant to be on this stage against the very best defenses, with the biggest pressure, and for them to be comfortable and to play well. I mean, even Jimmy Butler, who has had a handful of unbelievably dominant games in the NBA playoffs on big stages in the last few years, it's all surrounding a bunch of like mediocre to clunkers. It's like forty one night and

then he's bad the next night. To be consistently great on this stage, there's only a tiny handful of guys who can do it, and Steph was the latest, and it's just it's just been a it's just been there. Another resounding example of the way this this stage Dambia Playoffs works well. I mean, we gotta Stephan lebron Man and just an incredibly stacked era of NBA talent. Those

two guys have clearly separated themselves from the rest. Number four, The Lakers are clearly at a competitive disadvantage compared to other teams in the league. They're nowhere near well run enough to get to make up for some of the advantage the smart teams have around the league, right, and then they don't have the money to compete with the

really rich teams in the league. The Warriors are probably going to pay Kevon Looney this summer, and when you factor in luxury tax, it could cost them tens of millions of dollars additional each year. But the Warriors make as Colin pointed out to you guys on the show last week, the Warriors make seven hundred million dollars in revenue a season, which is almost four times as much as the average NBA team, So they have this advantage

in money that they can throw at guys. The Lakers are not well run like some of the smarter, poorer teams around the league, and they don't have the money to hang with the rich teams in the league. So you're gonna lose players because of money, and you're gonna miss out on opportunities because you've got a general manager who doesn't know how to build a basketball team in this league, went out and built a team full of short guys this year, as if that's ever worked in

NBA history. They don't have a guy who's grinding in the film room, watching hundreds of NBA games every year to learn what works. So they don't have the money, they don't have the basketball operations, and they're relying heavily on a Lebron James was in his twentieth season, and Anthony Davis, who doesn't appear to be nearly as motivated as he was in Here's what I expect, And I'm gonna do a deeper dive on the Lakers here soon as we get a little bit closer to free agency.

But here's the reality. I think Lebron, even though he'll never admit it, is deeply irritated that Steph got another title. It's just the competitive nature in him. If he wasn't like that, it'd be weird. And he's gonna go into this season as motivated as he was in I expect a remarkably locked in Lebron James, and I expect Anthony Davis to follow suit because the criticism is getting too loud, and when Lebron's next to you work in his butt off, you just have to join it. But they will not

have the personnel. They don't have the right guy in the seat to make the necessary moves. They're too paranoid about holding onto those draft picks. They have this Russell Westbrook predicament, and they have nothing. They don't have a single high level role player under roster control. Austin Reaves is the closest thing to it, and I really like Austin Reaves, but if he's like starting for you at the three, that's not enough. They need guys and they

just so. What I expect from the Lakers this year is for them to be a good team. They're not gonna be the bad they were this year. They're gonna be a good team. They're gonna be much more well coached, much more bought in. I expect Lebron and A d to be on the court more frequently. I expect them to be a good team, but they won't be a great team. They won't have the personnel they certainly won't

be deep. They'll be fortunate to find three or four guys that are quality role players to put alongside Lebron and a d and it will be in comment on them to play big minutes on all the biggest stages. When it comes time to crunch down the rotation in the postseason, They're not gonna have a lot of guys that they can count on. But it makes no mistake if you're a Laker fan, like You've got the Lebron and Anthony Davis thing going for you, but your team

is at a competitive disadvantage. You're not as smart as the poor teams in the league, and you're not as rich as the rich teams in the league, and that will forever hold you down until until they figure out that money part, until Jeanie Buss gets a real basketball person in that President of Basketball Operations chair. And then, last, the last big lesson that I learned from this postseason, Janice is the best basketball player in the world. For

the record staff was unbelievably incredible. And Steph. I haven't finished my list yes yet, but Steph will be number two. I think Steph is at the top of the tier below Jannics, but I think his physical dominance. Janice's physical dominance has reached a point of invincibility. The way that Boston guarded Milwaukee doesn't resemble the way they guarded Steph. Boston ran drop coverage on Steph willingly, conceding pull up jump shots to him to prevent Boston or to prevent

Golden State from getting into their four on threes. They were conceding points to Steph to prevent everybody else from getting going. That was the strategy, and it had moments where it looked good, but then it also had a lot of moments where Steff was going off and you were losing. So I disagreed with the strategy. That was not the strategy that used against Janice. Joannice saw the house. They had Horford a Grant Williams at the point of

attack on him. Marcus Smart a little bit towards the end of the series, and every time he had the ball there were two defenders keyed right in on his driving lanes. They were like, we don't care if anybody else shoots, we are not letting Janice get going, And that dude still ran them over and still put up monster numbers. And still damn near one this series without his co star. It is his physical dominance has reached a point of invincibility, and that series was a revelation

of Janice's playmaking. It was the first time that I felt like he legitimately took a leap to the point where he's a functional playmaker in the NBA, A guy who can literally and consistently make teams pay for sending multiple defenders to him. That's I always said. That was what scared me the most about Janice, not the three point shot, not the turnaround jumper, not the floater in the lane. His ability to make plays for his teammates. And he was magnificent as a playmaker in that series.

And then on defense, he's arguably the best defensive player in the world. He can protect the rim like Anthony Davis. He can cover on the perimeter like he's Kawhi Leonard. He plays hard all the time, so you can use him as a foundational piece in the regular season. He's He's a Swiss army knife that can do anything. I think there's a gap between him and the next guy. I used to think there was like a top tier stars and it was like Lebron, it's death, you know,

Johannis and k D and like maybe Kauai if he's healthy. Right, But now, to me, it feels like Yanni's kind of took that leap, and then the tier below it, it feels like steps on top of that tier, but everyone else has kind of jumbled in down there. I have I I have not seen a player be able to dominate a game physically on both ends of the floor like this since Lebron, and I think I think he goes into this season as the as the definitive best

basketball player alive. And I do think him where the healthy uh Bucks team with one additional pieces the biggest threat to the Warriors. That said, I still think the Warriors are the favorite next year. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said, we're gonna get into some NBA draft stuff this week. Please follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys can see me breakdown at least just what my game plan is for the summer. You get some announcements

there and you'll know what's coming. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys to support and I will see you in a couple of days volume