Hoops Tonight - CP3 and the Suns dominate Dallas

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A couple of interesting Game two is today predictable Game two is these You know, these two series are definitively less interesting than the other two series is the Boston Bucks series and that Warriors Grizzly series. But there's still a lot going on. It's just hard because with Joel Embiid being out, there's just not a whole lot that you can learn from the games taking place in Miami right now. I think, hopefully if he comes back in game three, we'll get a little bit more out of

that series. And then you know, Dallas, I love Dallas, I love Luca is one of my favorite players to watch. But they're playing the team that might be the best team in the NBA, or at least in that conversation with the likes of Boston and so as a result, as much as I love rooting for that team and I've I'm so interested to see what they can accomplish over the course the next five to ten years, they're just up against it right now, against a really, really

good team. Today is gonna be a little bit different than some of our recent shows. We're going to break

down these two games a little bit. We'll spend fift twenty minutes on it, but we're gonna spend the latter half of the show kind of zooming out a little bit and talking a little bit more about some of the macro topics around the n b A. I think this is a good time, especially with no games tomorrow, we'll have a good opportunity here to just kind of take stock of how this playoff, uh, this this set of playoffs has gone so far, and what we've learned

about the players involved in the teams involved, and so on and so forth. Before we get started, make sure you like this video and subscribe to the YouTube channel um check out our newsletter. There's a link in the description of this video. It's a great way to stay up to speed on all of our content. And as always, don't forget to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt I do video breakdowns every morning. That's a great place to see some film that backs up the things

that I say on the show. But let's start with the MAVs in the sun. So CP three went ahead and performed open Maverick surgery on Luca and Dallas there in that fourth quarter, which is, you know, not not exactly the most shocking thing in the world. Uh. Ryan, our lead producer, the guy who's the real m v P of the show, said, I thought it was genius.

He goes, He goes, how unfair is that that Phoenix is so good that Chris Paul gets to basically be Mariana Rivera for this team And it's it's the reality. Because say what you want about CP three's longevity, and we'll talk a little bit more about that later on in the show. Like the advantage of being able to basically use him in short bursts, basically taking superstar duties and splitting them evenly between the likes of Devin Booker

and Chris Paul. It's just an incredible luxury to have in a playoff series, because either of them on their own might be overmatched in a in a matchup with a guy like Luca, or overmatched in a matchup even with a guy like Brandon Ingram who's coming into his own as a star player in this league, and certainly as you get deeper into the playoffs. But like what intrigues me the most is why is CP three so good?

How is it that a six foot tall guard that is turning thirty seven, I believe in the next week or so. How is it that he can be this incredibly impactful at this point of his career on the best team in the NBA by record, arguably overall anyway? How does he pull that off? And to me, it comes down to some basic core basketball philosophies that I have and the fact that Chris Paul checks those boxes resoundingly.

You've heard me talk about a bunch of different things over the course the last couple of years on the show, I've talked about let's focus on his scoring for a minute. I've talked about variety, how the difference between guys who are very repetitive in the way they attack, guys like James Harden, and guys who have variety in the way they attack, guys like Chris Paul, the ability to score in different spots on the floor. Chris Paul can come off of ball screens and shoot threes all day long.

If he gets a big on switches, he can take threes all day long. He was hitting pull up jump shots over Luca and switches a bunch in this game. If he gets over the top of screens, he can get into the mid range. He can snake to pick a roll, take those fade away twos. If he gets bigs on switches, he can you you know, work your side to side and take step back twos. He can get deeper into the lane and make floaters and push shots and crafty finishes around the rim. And then if

the floor is spaced properly. That doesn't happen all the time, because they do you know, traditional screen and roll attacks, so you usually have a big man underneath the basket. So he's not getting a ton of layups, but in a five out system he'd be able to beat you that way too. So as a score, he has that peak variety, which is something that I've always talked about being super super important, especially when you get to the postseason. Then we look at the playmaking side of things. You know,

you're seeing this on display with Luca. Part of the reason why Lucas putting up months st scoring numbers in this series is Phoenix knows that they can't handle him if they double team him, because he's just gonna spray it around the shooters all night long. So they actually are in a predicament where their best bet is to let Luca try to attack guys in single coverage, and

he's really getting just about whatever he wants. Their offense has not been the issue for the Mavericks in this series for the most part, but for Chris Paul it's the exact same dynamic. His ability to consistently and surgically make the right read anytime you send additional defensive attention his way is what makes him so versatile in these environments. I've talked about how you know, playmaking in particular has always been one of my skills, the skills that I

value the most when I'm watching the NBA. And part of the reason why is it's such a unique skill. Like when we look at high level three level scores, there's a ship ton of them in the league. I mean, there's a guy in Devin Booker. We're gonna talk about him in a little bit, Like Devin Booker is so unbelievably good, and he's in a tier with a bunch

of guys that do similar stuff as three level scores. Right, But when we're talking like true high level playmaking, it's Chris Paul, it's Luca don Chich, it's Lebron James, it's Nicola Yokich, and then it's a massive drop off before you get to that fifth guy. That's what makes that skill so valuable. It comes out of premium in this league. There just aren't a lot of guys that can do it. And that ability to make those raids consistently and to even see what's not yet developed, that is what keeps

Chris Paul in an island. That, in combination with his ability to score from all three spots on the floor, makes him the devastating offensive player that he is, even at age thirty seven, even at six ft tall, he's breaking everything that we understand about small guards in this league. Now there's a ceiling there. We saw that last year

against Milwaukee in the in the finals. If he runs into the right kind of defensive matchup with another guard, that's you know, especially a guy like Drew Holiday, who can deal with any ball screen that Chris Paul throws his way and handle him. In isolation scenarios, we can see him be limited. But that's why he's not the best player in the league, you know, That's why he's closer to the tenth best player in the league. Right, But all of that is what makes him so devastating

offensively at this point in his career. And then last but not least, he competes defensively. I was watching the film from Game one this morning, and Chris Paul just doesn't die on any screen. He's a bulldog. He's incredibly difficult to deal with because he's so crafty, and even when Lucas trying trying to position him on certain parts of his body so that he can get to his moves in the post, Chris Paul will like detach from his body and then like fake lunge around one side

and to come around the other way. Like he's just so committed to being an impact player on the defensive end of the floor that all of that rounds out into a thirty seven year old, six foot tall guy who's absolutely in the conversation to be a top ten player in basketball. That's unbelievable and it's a credit to him. I we just talked about him after that Pelican series. I thought his Game six closeout game was one of

the best playoff performances in NBA history. It's on the list of you know, twenty or thirty great games that you'll see in NBA history. To go fourteen for fourteen with your star on a bad hamstring against a team that's been giving you a lot of problems. Chris Paul seems poised to have one of those playoff runs that he races a bad memory from last year, and that's a credit to him. I want to talk about Devin Booker for a second, because you see a lot of

guys like this in the league. You know, guys like Bradley Beald, guys like c J. McCollum, where if you catch them on the right night, they look like they can go toe to toe with any star in this league. But there's a consistency that separates the greats from the goods, and Devin Booker is starting to show night in night out consistency on both ends of the floor as a two guard that puts you in that upper echelon. He

is another one of those guys. You know. One of the big reasons why I was pessimistic about Phoenix over the course last couple of years is I'm like, they don't really have a superstar, have two guys that kind

of combined into a superstar. But Chris Paul's late career surge and Devin Booker's flat out improvement, especially on the defensive end of the floor and with his consistency on offense, both of those guys are kind of vying for Like I think I have Jayson Tatum and John Morant kind of closer to that ten spot, but you could argue Devin Booker and Chris Paul are both like right there at eleven and twelve, and especially in the league this deep eleven and twelve is there's not a huge gap

between those guys and the sixth and the seventh guys. That's the type of talent that we have at the top of the league right now, and those two guys together are what make this team so incredibly dangerous. I'm still a little bit blower on them than I am on Boston, but you know, it's it's very, very close between those two teams. This is why I've been picking

Phoenix to get out of the West. You know, they've showed us who they are consistently over the course of the the last two years, and people need to pay attention. A couple other quick notes on this game. You know, Michael Bridges is becoming such a problem for Dallas. I

did a whole video this morning. You find it on my Twitter feed talking about the way that Michael Bridges has been blowing up Dallas is picking rolls by fighting over the top of screens and applying back pressure on Luca don Chitch and the problems that come with that, and so I laid down some ways that they could counter it, the least of which is getting switches before the pick and roll so that it's not Michael Bridges

on Luca before he goes over that screen. And then secondly, just having Maxi Kleiba set the screen so that when he pops to the three point line, Micail Bridges has no choice but to relocate out to the shooter. And that's been and so Dallas came into this game and immediately implemented all of that, and they were getting Michael off of Luca. But then the problem with Michael Bridges, and it's a problem that I'm not sure that they're

gonna have a solution for in this series. And that's the that's what separates the truly great teams from the good teams, as they have problems that you just can't

deal with. But Michael Bridges, you know, when we when we teach traditional shell drill defense to our high school kids at the school that I coach at, you you you tell him to get in the passing lane and to position in themselves somewhere where they feel comfortable that if a swing pass was made to their man, that they'd be able to get there in time to contest a shot. And so it depends on your athleticism. If you're a bigger athlete, you can come further off the shooter.

If you're less athletic, you have to stay closer to the shooter right, well, Michael Bridges, his ability to close out is so ridiculous that like, if this guy's the ball handler and this guy's the shooter, he can position himself. Damn, You're all the way at the ball handler and still close out. And you saw that a lot when Luca

would get the switches and get off of Michael. Mchael's damn near in a double team, like sitting on one of the sides of Luca that he would like to drive through, drive to and there's a shooter open, but Michael's like, go ahead, throw it. I'm just gonna be there. It's not an open shot. And that's the advantage of having basically a defensive player of the Year type of

level of of wing defender alongside your stars. And then most importantly, when Phoenix locked in, you saw a stretch like this in that third quarter and then again in the fourth quarter. With all of the defensive talent that Phoenix has, especially with Devin Booker being as committed as he is, with DeAndre Ayton on the back line, Jay Crowder, as you're bigger, more physical wing defender, they go through these they go through these stretches of defense where it's

just you're hopeless. There's not really anything you can do, you know, like, there's no such thing as a great look like you can you have to settle for an okay look. And yeah, there are gonna be times when guys that are the caliber of Luca are gonna be able to score over that. But having that defensive ceiling which is similar, no, I think Boston's defensive ceiling is

considerably higher. But at the same time, having that type of defensive ceiling gives you the ability to squeeze teams like this, and it's a great thing to lean on, especially when you go through cold shooting stretches. Phoenix didn't shoot particularly well from three in this game until the basically till the second half of the fourth quarter, and having your defense to lean on there, that's a far more dependable thing. A couple of quick notes on on Dallas.

They defended better at certain stretches and stops are so for this Dallas team because attacking Phoenix is defense when it's set is extremely difficult. Every time they got a stop and they quickly pushed the ball up the floor. Most of the time they were able to get cross matches, so a cross matches. In transition defense, we've talked about how you're supposed to split back to the paint and

then you spread out to shooters right. Well, typically that leads to cross matches because if you're in a transition defensive defense situation where you're just grabbing the nearest guy, typically you're not guarding your usual matchup. And so when when Dallas was able to get stops and then push the ball up the floor, they get Luca onto other defensive players and not have to go through all of

the jankie stuff to get Michael Bridges switched off. And one of the issues that they were having is in set defense situations, by the time they got Micaal Bridges off Luca, there'd be like eight seconds on the shot clock. So then even if Luca generated an advantage, if he had to kick it out, the only option is a catch and shoot. There's no opportunity to continue to further the advantage. Whereas when they got stops, Luke could be

able to get an advantage early in the clock. Now he's made can kick out with like seventeen seconds on the shot clock. Now that guy can attack the close out and kick it to another guy who maybe he has time to attack close out. Now that's when you get great shots. And so the issue for Dallas in this series is are they ever going to be able to get to a point where they can get a significant amount of stops. And you know, a huge part

of this right now is the problem with Luca. And you know, Luca is one of my favorite players, but you know, you're he's venturing into that range where he's being considered with the best players in the league, and there's a standard that comes with that. Carson and I have talked a lot about Lucas conditioning and how that's the next step for him. Right now, you can tell there's two things that are hurting Luca on the defensive

end of the floor. One thing is, obviously he's saving energy, has so much that he has to do on the offensive end that there's a certain amount of like, here's my opportunity to rest, I will concede x number of defensive breakdowns for the sake of having the legs to carry us offensively. That's related to conditioning. And then secondly, some of it his physical tools right like it just doesn't quite have the foot speed to cover enough ground

to be a really effective defensive player. That's also related to his physical conditioning. You know, Luca don Chech is an example of a guy that, throughout his career has always been the best player in every setting that he's been in, and then he comes into the n b A and he's already damn near the best player. But in order to win an NBA championship, you have to be able to go against guys that are taking it

another level of serious. Chris Paul literally, the way he takes care of his body, the way that guys like Janice take care of his body, the way that guys like Lebron take care of their body. There's this other level that Lucas still has to get to in terms of his own peak physical conditioning, and if he doesn't embrace that, it will consistently hold him back in this specific area of the game on the defensive end of

the floor. If he embraces the fact that he needs to get into peak physical condition, show up into training camp already at your mid season weight, show up into training camp even maybe a step above that, reaching whatever your individual physical ceiling is. That's what's gonna allow him to not need to conserve energy on the defensive end of the floor, to have the foot speed to be able to cover ground and be more impactful in the

defensive end. And most importantly, he's already this good on the offensive end with all that extra weight that he's carrying around basically wearing a weight vest. So imagine how good he could be offensively if he replaced a certain amount of that with lean muscle and reached his peak

physical conditioning. There was a play in that second half where like he had a sloppy close out on Jay Crowder and Jay Crowder just went right around him and dropped it off to I think JaVale McGee forer dunk into the basket, and I'm watching him like, look, man, I know you're resting, but that's way too easy. Like you gotta at least be able to hold Jay Crowder in this role, like Luca simply has to be better defensively.

If there's one silver lining that I would point to if I was a Dallas fan, they did defend a little better for specific stretches. But most importantly we saw some signs of life out of Spencer Dinwoodie. That's the guy that's been their least consistent perimeter initiator in this playoff run. They need him to be great in order to have any chance to win this series. And he played a lot better tonight. So you have a couple of things to build on going back to Dallas. But

this is the predicament. Now. If you do not get both games in Dallas, you're coming back to Phoenix down three one. So there's a lot of pressure on Dallas. I picked uh Phoenix to win this series, but I picked them in six because I thought Dallas would push the series out. I still believe Luca will find a way to get at least one game. Could be wrong, but I just have too much confidence in that dude, in his ability to create things offensively and to strangle the pace of a game to not get one. But

we are going to find out really quickly. We're gonna move on to this Philadelphia Miami game. Not gonna talk too much about this one because again there's just no point and really dwell dwelling on it, because these are

fake basketball games. These two games involve, you know, thirty eight to forty two minutes of Joel Embid not taking place, right, So Joel Embid are there's some intel I've no idea if it's legitimate or not, but there's some intel that Joel Embiad is potentially gonna be handed the League m v P Trophy in in his home games. I had heard some reports about league executives that are going to potentially be at the game. Confusing to me because I

thought Yokos was gonna win. But either way, Joel embiid it was in that conversation and is in the conversation for potentially being the best player in the world. So him missing from these two games, especially when Philly has basically no options else to go to at the center position, just makes it so there's not a whole lot to learn here, Miami fans. Again, I keep telling you there will be a point when we will do more deep

dives into your team. It's just right now they have that they've had by far the easiest path to this point, and the type of competition they've been playing makes it really difficult to learn about them. So we're gonna wait. One quick note on this. They get fifty five points at the Tyres ACiE and Tobias Harris, which I said was what they needed to try to steal a game, but again, and this is what's been killing them. It's the it's Doc Rivers and his insistence on using centers.

Look around the league. How many traditional centers right now are being played in these playoff series? Like Phoenix is playing three of them, but one of them is like a future All Star in DeAndre Aton and JaVale McGee and Bismack Biyombo are both extremely mobile. They move their feet really well. JaVale McGee doesn't if for his lack of foot speed, he makes up for it with ridiculous

length and athleticism. Right, So, like they can get away with playing guys like that in today's NBA, but you wouldn't, you know. Essentially, there's a baseline of either offensive skill or defensive capability with mobility that you have to hit to be playable as a center in this league. Maxie Cleeb is not great defensively, but he brings this perimeter shooting element in the ability to attack close outs a

little bit, so he can play right. You know, like Golden State they barely played Kevin Looney in Game two. They played him, I think just under nine minutes. You know, like they're airing towards using him less and less you know, Memphis has completely dropped Steven Adams out of the rotation. Boston just DMP coach decision Daniel Tys, so they're not playing him anymore, and he can even shoot threes right Like, You're literally seeing all these coaches around the league ditch

their traditional centers. Why because they're paying attention to what's happening directly in front of their eyes, and DC Rivers just doesn't see it. In that first half, DeAndre Jordan's was like minus nine or whatever he was and and uh and Paul Reid was like minus four, minus seven

or something like that. I can't remember. But then right at the end of the second quarter, here here he goes and plays five guards and they immediately are plus six, and they went into the half down eight after being down big the rest of the half, and then he didn't play that group at all until about halfway through

the fourth quarter when the game was already over. It's just it's incredibly frustrating because, like again, and it doesn't really matter, like this little, this whole DeAndre jordan conversation is a fake problem that was brought up by the Joe and Beads situation. But look, man, if Joel Embiad's gonna miss Games one, in game two, you have an obligation to try to go down to Miami and attempt

to steal a game. And the best way to do it is not to play the same way you play, but to ditch your best player in the world candidate for arguably the worst center in all of basketball. The best way to do it is to jank things up, go wild card, dude, really weird stuff, and just try

to squeeze a fake win out. And I thought their best opportunity to do that was by playing five perimeter players, and Doc just every time he did it in the first two games it went well for him, with exception of that stretch right there in the fourth quarter tonight when the game was already over. But he just never leaned on it enough for it to matter. And that's a damn shame because he got fifty five points out of Tyres Maxie to buy his Harris and it just

wasn't enough. One last note, Jimmy Butler was incredible against tonight and twelve. Just the same things that I was saying about Chris Paul relate to Jimmy Butler. The reason why he's so impactful in the playoffs is he has that three levels boring in variety, right, so he doesn't come at you the same way every time. That makes that keeps you on your toes. He has a back

to the basket game. He has a lot of like purouetting, like using his body position type of like floaters and turnarounds in the post that make him extremely difficult to guard. And yeah, he's got a great three point shooter, but if you leave him out there, he has the capability to burn you. And then he's a great playmaker to

alve assists again tonight. Consistently he's had that point forward capability, That big, strong guy from the perimeter that can initiate offense both as a score and as a passer, just brings so much value in the NBA playoffs. And then he brings that defensive you know, weapon that that is so important at this level. And so I just don't think it's a coincidence that we see guys like Jimmy Butler and Chris Paul succeed in this environment. And guys,

that's why I value those skills so much. That's why value playmaking, that's why value offensive variety. That's why value commitment to defense, That's why I value your physical conditioning. Those are all things that are consistently, year in and year out demonstrated to be incredibly important. In the NBA Playoff, we have to pay attention to that, and we definitely need to put additional value on those things when we're evaluating basketball players really quickly before we bring my guy

Carson on, make sure you like this video. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel. Make sure you check out our newsletter. There's a link in the description of this video underneath. It's a great way to keep up with all our content, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. The Playoffs are here and you can make every game feel like Game seven. On Fandel Sports Book, an official partner of the NBA.

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I do that back up the things that we talked about on the show. All Right, we're gonna bring my at Carson on. We're gonna zoom out, and we're gonna talk about some more macro topics around the league. What's up, Carson. I'm doing great, Jason, how are you? I can't complain, man, I can't complain. We're talking about basketball. That's fantastic. We

certainly are. In fact, we've got the five biggest questions of the night that we're gonna talk about here, and we're gonna start with that game that you just briefly touched on, that being, of course, Sixers Heat Game two. I think one of the major storylines that we have seen throughout this season, in particularly throughout this playoff runs, something you've talked about a lot, is the obvious decline of James Harden, where he's averaging under nineteen a game

in these playoffs on shooting. It was a subpar finish to the regular season. He hasn't scored more than twenty two points and since March twenty nine. That's over a month of basketball, which is crazy for a guy who averaged thirty five a game and consecutive seasons. So another underwhelming performance tonight, Jason. Is James Harden just cooked? You know, it's hard to say because there is the hamstring excuse me, the hamstring element in this um. But the hamstring element

feels like it's been around for years now. Um, you

know this? This is the thing. I saw an article that showed up on you know that like Twitter discover page that I scrolled through sometimes, and and it it was like it was just like a health based article, and it was talking about like the difference between your chronological age and your biological age, essentially the difference between you aging simply on the calendar versus like wear and tear, not just physically in terms of like joint injuries and

things like that, but like like how much time do you spend absorbing UV race? So like how how much alcohol do you consume? How many other drugs do you consume? Like what kind of food do you eat? Like how do you take care of in terms of like your cholesterol, your blood pressure and all those things, like you age in different ways, and you know, there was a just there was a definitive thing that happened at definitive moment and Chris Paul's career. I think juxtaposing Chris and James

is super interesting because they have personal beef. But like, uh, you know, Chris Paul, he pulls his hamstring in one of the most pivotal moments of his basketball career, right and it costs him. Well, there's no guarantee that Golden State doesn't come out and win those last two games. I hate when people talking guarantees. There's no guarantee that the Warriors win Game five if Draymond plays in the

two thousand sixteen finals. There's no guarantee that the Rockets lose in two thousand eighteen or win in two thousand eighteen based on a Chris Paul injury. You still have to play the games. The games are different based on who's on the floor. But Chris Paul, had he won that series, they would have beat the Calves. If he was healthy, he would be a championship. A champion right now.

Well after that year, there was a very well documented change in Chris Paul's approach to his own health, because from two thousand and twelve to two thousand and eighteen, it was frequent that Chris Paul dealt with injuries at a bunch of different points in playoff series. Is that cost him chances? Right, and so he becomes a vegan. There was a bunch of a consistent video footage that he would do additional workouts after games to continue to

strengthen his conditioning. Right, and what do you know, Like the dude hasn't he broke his hand during the regular season this year, but that's an impact injury. The dude has been available in all the big moments since then, you know, because it's not rocket science, Like you you get what you put into whatever. What you get out of your body is what you put into your body. You have to take care of it. You only get

one of them, right. We juxtaposed that with James Harden, who is literally so famous for attending strip clubs that at one point there was a viral chart that went out where someone juxtaposed his stats with the cities that he would play in based on their like like zagged guide strip clubs, and there was like a clear line in that show that he would play better and when he played in cities that had were strip clubs and like, and obviously that's a joke and there's probably just that's

probably just coincidental. But the point is is James Harden hasn't taken good care of his body. And the wild thing is we we tweeted out the volume, tweeted out our little rant the other night about when we the last time we juxtaposed these two guys with each other, and someone that I follow actually commented underneath it and was complaining, like, it's unfair for you to jump on James now that he's on the decline, like you're forgetting

about how good he was at his peak. And I wanted to be like, he's thirty two, He's thirty two years old. Like, dude, he is in the prime of his career. There is absolutely no excuse for him to have declined this far. He has not suffered to torn a c l, he has not suffered to torn achilles.

He's have soft tissue issues, he's there's, there's there's in soft tissue issues typically come down to conditioning and that kind of stuff anyway, Right, So it's like there's just absolutely no excuse for James Harden to have declined as much as he had. Literally in this playoff front. He's averaging eighteen point eight points, five point four rebounds, nine point four assists on shooting thirty five percent from the field.

From the free throw line's obviously still good there. He just can't get there nearly as frequently as he used to. It's just this, we're not talking about a max contract play anymore, if we're not even talking about a star anymore. Let's just let's just let's cut the ship. Guys. He's a lot closer to D'Angelo Russell than he is to Luca don Chich at this point. That's the that's the

reality of the James Harden problem at this point. I don't you know, we talked a lot about a couple of weeks ago about what the Sixers should do with them after this playoff run, like do you maxim or do you not? And don't get me wrong, I still think you gotta try to find a way to keep him for the sake of the asset. But like, we're dangerously near the territory of like is any of the thirty teams in the league gonna offer this guy a max contract for for a D'Angelo Russell type of player.

I mean, again, he's better than D'Angel Russell. I'm just saying he's closer to that than he is to the stars of the top of the league. It's a real problem. And I don't know, I don't know what you do at this point, but like when you're pointing the finger, you point the point, you point the finger at James. He didn't take care of his body. He aged himself way faster than athletes for normally do. He's the Alan Iverson of this era. And this is the kind of

thing that happens when you do that. It is remarkable. I mean, just when you put in a context that it was literally two years ago that the average thirty four game, and a year before that that the average thirty six a game. And I think, obviously you've touched on a lot of it, but it really is obvious the physical deterioration and hamstring or not, he just doesn't separate.

And obviously his game has never been explosiveness. It's always been changing pace in those little bursts of acceleration and deception and craftiness. But I mean outside of the step back three. It's tough for him to create a clean look for himself in the pain. It feels like everything is tough. And as you said, I mean, he's just not getting there as much. So it's obviously a major problem.

And when he can't step up and assert himself like that, when Embat isn't even out there, it kind of leaves this Sixers team just in a brutal spot. I think the Delo common is interesting. I want to play a little game within the game here for you and just throw out some guys and you tell me if right now you would rather have them or James Harden. Let's start with Shay Gil just Alexander. Would you rather have

him or James Harden. Oh gosh, I think I'd still go with James Harden there, just because we don't know what Shay looks like in h I mean what we do know what he looks like in a playoff environment. He was not great in the bubble, but like in terms of and I still value play making a great deal. The one the one thing that James Harden does still bring to the table at this point is like he's in that tier of playmakers right below the top, and

there's a great deal of value in that specifically. It's just you can't have your team built around him as an offensive folk rum anymore. But you can't do that with Shay either, So I man like like in terms of building my franchise around him, Like, yeah, I take Shay, But like, if I had it, if I had to pick a guy for a playoff series tomorrow, I'd still take James. Okay, what about c J McCallum or James Harden. Oh that's a lot closer. You had to go to

a your zen place there for a moment. Yeah, I think I think I think I'd go c J. But it's very close. I think I think CJ is a little bit better defensively at this point because James is still like he's still just all over the place on the defensive end of the floor. Um, that three level scoring, I think is something you can still need because I'm accepting the reality that at this point neither of those guys are number one. But I think if I had a good number one, i'd rather have CJ as my

number two than James is my number two. Okay, last one, I think that you've probably already given away your answer based on the CJ one, But you did have some gripes with this guy in the last series. Donovan Mitchell or James Harden. Oh, James Harden easily Donovan Mitchell. Yeah. The thing I think Donovan Mitchell is his decision making is so poor as an offensive fulcrum. When you combine that with his like his defensive issues, and then the fact that his jump shot is so streaky, I just

I think that James Harden. I think Donovan Mitchell is. I think Donovan Mitchell is having a wake up call this year, and I act him to have some sort of significant improvement in the coming years. But if I was picking a guy for a playoff series tomorrow'd rather have James because at least I can trust James to at least organize guys and put people in the right spots,

if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, like you said, his command of the game, his poises, playmaking is still unequivocally top level the pace that he plays with, but the scoring regression has obviously been stark. Okay, let's move on from this little hardened hate party and let's talk about Grizzlies Warriors, which I think is obviously a really fun series, maybe the most interesting one going right now.

We saw a monster John Moran performance last night piece, So Jason, given that level that he's playing right now, is Jaw the best player in that series? Oh No, but it's close, and I never would have thought that it would be close. Steph is playing pretty well in this playoff run so far. Twenty seven point three points, four point one rebounds, five point six assists, percent from

the field, thirty percent from three s from the line. Obviously, you know with with Steph, his like his playoff three point percentage is always kind of been just just to touch under forties. So like you could make a case that, you know, after that slump that he had earlier in this season and and him coming back from this injury, he actually looks pretty close to what he was before. The thing was the one leg up that Jaw has. Because step has a bunch of clear advantages over John Moran.

I think that even though even though Jaws averaging over tennisis per game in this postseason, I think that Steph is better at generating quality looks first teammates Steph. Steph's playmaking doesn't manifest in terms of assists steps playmaking manifests in terms of defensive attention that he absorbs and consistent

four on three opportunities first teammates. Right. So, like I think that Steph still is a definitively better offensive engine in terms of creating shots for his teammates, I think that Steph is a significantly better defensive player and that's a huge uh factor here. Like Golden State, Golden State has really struggled with finding places to ways to attack Jaw. That's something they're gonna have to figure out as the

series progresses. They've been hiding him. But the problem is is Golden State's not a great rim pressuring team in terms of like isolation situations. They get rim pressure off of attacking closeouts when their guards gather attention. So they don't have a guy that's just gonna consistently stair Job Moran in the face and drive to the basket on him the way that Anthony Edwards did in the last round, right,

So that's their issue right now. But Jaws Jaws defensive issues are real issues, and I expect Steve Kerr to find ways to attack him over the course of the series. So Steph has a bunch of clear advantages there, his experience, his decision making. I'm always going to favor, especially guys that have been there a bunch of time times. So

Steph is the best player in this series. But the one swing factor and the one thing that Jaw has on step right now, and it also happens to be their best chance to win the series, is what you saw last night, that supreme unguardability in single coverage situations. Not that Steph doesn't have some of that. He does, But even when Steph was at his absolute peak, his individual shot creation in isolation situations, especially in the playoffs, was not quite at the level of some of his

peers at the top of the league. Kevin Durance, the Lebrons, guys like that, right So, and again that's not a slander to Steff. He's very good at that specific skill. He's just a touch below his peers at the top of the league. Well, Jaw literally just walked down one of the best defenses in the league last night, every single possession top of the key one four low isolation and won a game doing it and getting whatever shot

he wanted in the process. And during that whole stretch he could have just pulled up at three every time if he wanted to, and there will be a point in his career where he adds that to his game and it becomes even more problematic. So again, STEP's the best player in the series, but it's close. And the reason why it's close his jaw is flashing that supreme unguardability in individual situations, even at the top levels of playoff basketball, and I do think that that's a very

valuable asset. But again, his decision makings and issues from the field from three, um, that's a big part of that is just he takes tough shots. Sometimes he settles. A lot of the time he gets off, he gets a little too like caught up in the moment. We'll try crazy stuff from time to time. That's all inexperience, and those are all advantages that go to Steph. But again that's the one area where jaw has an advantage.

I totally agree with you being on the Step side of this, but I also totally agree with you on the jaw advantage. And I think that's always been one of the most interesting things engaging steps value. It's that he can have such a tremendous impact without even having to touch the ball right by just existing his gravity

the attention he demands at all times. But at the same time, it's like you said, some guys are just much better at direct imposing themselves, and very few people right now are better than at that than Jaw, who can just go at you athletically over and over and over again and challenge your best on the perimeter and win that matchup and force your defense to bring help. And now guys have to rotate, and it's just like every time he drives, it feels like he can kick

out to somebody. But I totally agree. I mean, these have been two really impressive games from Jaw, but there's some things that are unsustainable. I mean, he can really get into the lane at will. But he's made nine threes in these two games. You know when he's doing that, it's like, yeah, he probably is the best player in the series. Because Jaw makes four and a half threes a game, it's like, what could be missing there? But I guess the table was the guy shot sub thirty

nine percent from the field, he was from three. He had some issues with turnovers, So I would say it's still comp in my mind, just over a larger sample size, but like, there's no denying that Gays point blank one of the most unguardable guys one on one in league

right now. Yeah, you know, the Minnesota thing was interesting because we saw the Pat Beverley the tweet where he's like where you can see him score forty seven against us and like, which is like, dude, like like you have to understand, like you have to understand that doesn't come off with the public the way you think it does, you know what I mean. But again, we talked about

it a lot on the show. Minnesota it was one of the best perimeter contained teams in this league, and so they did a much better job of positioning themselves between Jaw and the basket, and he struggled and so you know, and that's that kind of like versatility and being immune to specific situations is what separates a guy

like Steph from a guy like Jaw. It's what separates the the top tier guys from the guys that are in the tier right below, you know, like like, for instance, like Steph will encounter defensive matchups that make him struggle in certain ways, just like Jaw did in the first round.

But that's where his all world gravity in addition to what he does on the defensive end of the floor, and in his addition to like his ability to have these little flurries where teams lose track of him and then he'll get hot and make you know, twelve points

in four minut it's or whatever it is. Those kinds of things are would allow him to heavily impact the game when he's struggling, Whereas, like when you're watching that that series in the first round with Jaw, like he looked straight up flum mix at certain points in the series. Now he did what it was necessary to win the series. So I don't want to undercut that at all. But again, like that versatility goes in a long way. But that's what you're excuse me, what you're talking about with that

supreme offensive unguardability. It's the same thing with Joel Embide, Like, look at how much different that Philadelphia team looks when everybody's operating in traditional coverages, Whereas when Joel Embide is on the floor, he just is such a problem with unguardability that he's consistently warping your defense with the way you have to guard him. So job gives you some of that as well, and that's again it's a great

foundational skill. But the difference between this jaw and Pique Jaw in his prime is Job will be a better decision maker, a much better defensive player, will have a little bit more heft to him him, so he doesn't have issues with strength, and he's going to fill those things out just like step did as he got older. But right now the step is just the smarter you know, he's gonna I expect, especially as this series progresses, for

Steff to have more impact than Job. Yeah, I would agree, But it is remarkable how Jaw just I mean we saw it in last year's playoffs. Really he is just willing to go such absolute takeover mode for an entire game. I mean, obviously scored thirty a game in last year's playoffs, but like his playmaking impact is up in these playoffs. He's over tennisis a game. I think he's taken thirty shots in each of the last two games, or like, yeah, I'm pretty sure thirty one in each. So it's just

a crazy willingness to just keep coming at you. Like we talked about, let's flip this to Steph for a second though, because obviously the Warriors have emerged as a very legitimate title contender, which I don't know if a lot of people were expecting that. A year ago obviously was such a roller coaster from the Katie and Clay injuries and the twenty team Finals loss to actually getting

back to the start of the season. But now that they are firmly in that conversation, we have to ask, I think, Jason, what would a fourth title mean for steps legacy? Well, first of all, that part you brought up is super interesting, d the need to have like the difference between last year's Warrior's team and this year's Warriors team is really just role players, Like Steph was better. Steph was better last year, Like this year I think

was the first year of his physical decline. Steph was I thought, I thought Steph was had a legitimate case to be the best player in all of basketball last year. Obviously that deflated when he missed the playoffs. But like Draymond Green was a monster last year, and it just

wasn't enough because they didn't have any veterans. It was all young players, and like Kent Baysmore, and that lack of like savvy from the the perimeter role players ended up really hurting them, especially in their system, were this acision making off of attention from step is so important. Fast forward to this year, it's like you upgrade to an Auto Porter Jr. You upgrade to an Andre Guadala. You bring you know, just more veteran presences into the room.

Obviously Jordan's pool massively improved, but like you, you bring in like quality role players alongside Stephan Draymond, and then even with the decline from Steph, they look significantly better than they were last year. That's just why that stuff is so important. And that's the silver lining if you're a Lakers fan, by the way, because Lron and A d are still there. If you make the right moves this offseason, you can go a long way towards improving

the situation as far as the the championship goes. Because there's a realistic chance and I can already see this coming because if Steph wins a fourth championship, a lot of conversations are gonna start taking place because a fourth championship for Steph would mean that he has as many championships as Lebron James twice as many championships as Kevin Durant, all in the same jersey, spanning a time period from two thousand fifteen to two thousand twenty two be a

remarkable accomplishment. Now you're gonna have some Warriors fans that are gonna take if that happens, that are gonna take that and run with it, like like it's the end of the world. Right. You're gonna have comments like he's the best player of this era, he's better than Lebron,

He's in the Goat conversation, all this stuff. I wouldn't go that farm because I think there's a difference between like steps titles in two thousand seventeen and two thou eighteen alongside Kevin Durant don't match the degree of difficulty of any of Lebron's four championships, So I wouldn't put him on that level. However, you gotta put him ahead of Larry Bird at that point. You gotta put him firmly. You gotta put him firmly in the conversation with like

Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Now, for me, these lists get weird because I don't keep bigs on the same list as a guard to me, they play a completely different sport. You're right, like, you can't dribble the ball up beflore an initiate offense. I don't think you should be in the same list as guys that do that.

So I keep a separate list for all the greatest bigs of all time, and then my list for the greatest players of all time is like I've MJ at number one, I have Lebron at number two, I have Kobe at number three, then I've Magic and I have Larry Bird. I think you easily pushed Steph over Larry Bird for number five, and I think you could make a solid case to put him even at three up there with with ahead of Magic and had a Kobe. But the problem is is, I think there's a pretty

big gap between two and three on that list. I think Lebron. I think Lebron and MJ are on a tier by themselves the top of the league. And I even you could even make the case that there's a little gap between MJ and Lebron. But like, that's that's an amazing case for a guy that was for a guy that came up through Davidson, for a guy that had his the beginning of his career marred by injuries. To definitively have a case is a top five perimeter

player in the story of basketball would be an unbelievable accomplishment. Obviously, still has to do it, but like dude, it's there, it's the potential is there. They have the pieces they need to do. It's a big part of it's gonna come down to matchups. Phoenix played three really good centers tonight, right, Like three centers that had a deep impact against Dallas, Right, So obviously they're gonna be matchup problems for Golden State along the way, but they absolutely have a chance to

do it there. During that I'd say Boston one, I'd say Phoenix too, and then i'd probably say Milwaukee. Golden State tied for three. So all four of those teams have a real chance. And if Steph does it, like man, he's got one hell of a resume at that point. So I can't help. But notice that you didn't bring up Kevin Durant at all in terms of the hierarchy. That's where my mind goes first is comparing those two

in this context. So do you think that step is just definitively pass Katie if he wins another title, like comfortably, so I think STEP's definitively pass Katie. You right now, interesting, Katie's Katie. The issue with Katie's legacy is he got strapped to a really poor decision maker to start his career in Russell Westbrook. You guys all know how I feel about him. We don't have to get any further

into that. Then he won, He won two championships, but they had an optic appear like their optics, So those two championships were poor. They just you didn't he didn't see Kevin Durant have to dig deep down three two in a series to pull out a tough game on the road. It was like the iconic moment of Kevin Durant winning his UH in those two years, the iconic moment is him hitting a shot over Lebron James that

was their fifteen consecutive playoff win. Okay, Like that just doesn't carry weight with the masses, the way that Lebron having a chase down in a game seven UH tie three three when they were down three games to one, or you know, like Steph Curry coming back from down three one or down to one in the year he won the title against against Memphis or against Cleveland in two thousand and fifteen, Like all of these guys that are ahead of him on the list, they have these

like definitive moments of struggle. And then the problem was is after Katie wins these two relatively easy championships, he moves on to this Brooklyn situation where he hitched his wagon to another vagabond and now he's dealing with Kyrie and he's not available and he can't he's not winning here.

So it's like, I think I've said this on the show several times, and I mean it, like there's a version of Kadi's story where he's the goat and pretty much all it involves is being in better situations and a little bit better commitment to defense. Those two things would have definitively put him in that conversation. The issue because Kadi's ceiling as a three level score and as a defensive rim protector is as high as any player who's ever played the game. Like that's how good that

guy is. But his resume just doesn't even come close to touching stephor Lebron, not even in the city, Like it's not close in my opinion, the year in year out, offensive engine stuff, the the consistent competition for championships. He just doesn't compete with ten trips to the finals or

everything that's Steph's done in a Golden State Jersey. It's just not I love Katie's one of my favorite players, and I don't understand why so many people dislike him so much because I actually find him to be one of the most likable players in the NBA. Like he's so authentic. He doesn't bullshit you the way that Lebron does it. Like Lebron is literally tweeting out like, oh, ask me anything during the game tonight. It's like, dude, they're playing playoff games right now, Like you're this isn't

about you anymore, you know what I mean? Like I find Lebron is my favorite player. I find him to be unlikable a lot of times off the court, Like k D is super likable, super authentic. For whatever reason, he just doesn't resonate with people and that's a huge bummer. But like that, the reality of the situation is this is basketball. Resume just doesn't touch stuff for Lebron's well, first of all, Jason, I would just like to say, I loved your use of the word vagabond, and I

think that's a word that goes dramatically underutilized today. That's

really interesting. Do you think it's so decisive, because what I always find difficult to assess is like, yeah, obviously Steph checks a couple more boxes in terms of I think resume when you're talking about really winning the solo solo title and elevating a team that didn't have another true superstar, although it was an incredibly complete team, but obviously such a massively important offensive engine, one of the best that we've ever seen in terms of amplifying other talent,

a phenomenal score in every way, like just an unbelievable offensive player. What's difficult for me is that I just don't know how many years of their careers I have thought Steph Curry is a better basketball player than Kevin Durant.

Like when they were taking you know, there was always the information about how without Katie they would still cruise and they would be utterly dominant, and without Steph things would kind of fall apart, right, And I think that's obviously true when you see that with the on off numbers throughout Steph's career, like he is utterly vital in a way that Katie is a one on one score

maybe can't replicate. At the same time, there was just always that feeling of like, Okay, well we know who can go to takeover mode and just a completely different way. We know who can average thirty five a game in the finals, and you know, if we're slipping against the Clippers a little bit inexplicably, Katie is gonna be the one average thirty five a game and just completely cut this team's throat. And I just feel like he obviously has more longevity because Steph's peak came a little later.

He is, to me, maybe the most skilled score of all time. I think he's certainly got to be in the top two. I think he's the most complete, given that just in Jordan's are obviously, I mean the three just wasn't as valued and wasn't a significant part of his arsenal. I mean, I do think he's the better defensive player throughout their careers. I think in terms of individual playmaking, step has a slight edge, but it's not massive.

So it's just like the skill set thing for me and just comparing them in my individual year to year, who do I think is the better basketball player? I feel like most years I come up with Katie, So I don't know does that resonate with you at all? Like is that a factor or do you just disagree? Dude that that all makes perfect sense, Like and I and I get it. Like, here's the thing, dude, Like there are knights where I watched Kevin Durant play basketball.

I'm like, oh my god, that's the best basketball player I've ever seen. There are Knights, there are Knights that I feel that way, you know, in terms of like his complete otherworldly unguardability. But the reality of the situation is, and for the record, when I'm that when I'm ranking basketball players, that's different than like an all time ranking. Like I told you guys, I thought Kevin Durant was the best player in the world this year. I had

to relent after he struggled so much against Boston. But like, like, that's how much I value what Katie brings to the table as a basketball player on both ends of the floor. That's how much I value. But resumes the the all time rankings of players are strictly about results. It's just the reality of the situation. Now again he's had bad luck, like he didn't pick us, you know, and like, like, how many playoff games did Russ take more shots than Kevin Durray in a big moment? Happened all the time

like Russ's. You can make a serious case that Russ's decision making hampered Kevin Durant in the in his early playoff career. But like the reality of Katie's playoff resume is he struggled with a player that I thought hold It held him back in a lot of ways. And then he won two championships uh In on a team that had won seventy three games without him, and so there was a level of ease that made that undercut

the quality of that accomplishment. And then he hitched his wagon to Kyrie Irving and it hasn't been enough talent

for him to win a title. And so like the reality is, as as much as I value his individual skill set, he doesn't bring the results to the table that justified putting him in the conversations with guys like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, whereas Lebron's ahead of those guys and Steph is trending in the direction of being in that conversation, you know that that's just it's just the reality, reality, the situation and like and again, like it's tough because I've talked about this before, but like

Lebron any partner with Dwayne Wade, I think he intended for that to be as easy as it was for k D and Golden State. It just happened to not It happens to not be and so Lebron had to reach back. Like thinking the summer after Lebron went to Miami was the summer when he became the better basketball player. Like he he he went to Miami in was humbled into having to make significant improvements. And you know that that's the thing. Like, that's that always resonate, That always

resonates with the fans. The struggle resonates with fans. It's just the reality. It's why we root for underdogs. That's why you don't like it. That's why when there's a favorite every year that like like when two thousand seventeen two eighteen Warriors were around, everybody hated him. People don't like to root for the guy on top. They like

to root for the underdog. They like to root for teams that are at a disadvantage, and so when they see a star with their back against the wall and they have to reach down deep and they have to pull something out of like the deepest, like like the their deepest reserves as a basketball layer in order to come out on top. That just that buys you so

much cash with the general public. And Katie either has fallen short or accomplished it in a manner that appeared to be easy, and and that just hurts you in the court of public opinion. We've talked about on the show before. But again, you make a very good case, Carson, and you're right there. There are a lot of years where I've been like, man, Katie might be that guy,

but for whatever reason, the results aren't there. And the specific conversation about all time rankings, that's where the results matter the most. It is so tough because obviously there's

no room for theoreticals. I think you're totally right on that, but it is for me still just like I think maybe I see maybe, I don't see it quite as absolutely, just because it's like, obviously people talk about the ring culture and whatnot, and it's just when a guy plays basketball for fifteen years eight two games every year and then the playoffs. Sometimes it's like we view whether or not you win a game seven as being totally determinative

and your value as a basketball player, and that's just tough. Obviously, I'm not saying that you're doing that, but it's just like results are unquestionably the most important thing, but there is an element of that skill set and just you know, believing what did I see night tonight that I feel like hast a factor in there somewhere. But either way, I think they're very for me, they're very close all time. But I honestly think as things stand now, I would

still lean Katie because of what I laid out there. Okay, last question here, Jason. We're moving on. Although I thought that was a very fun debate. Let's talk a little Buck Celtics because Boston is favored on failed FanDuel right now, even though the Bucks obviously have regained home court by splitting games in Boston, are you picking them to win

the series? I'm still picking Boston. I mean again, my biggest takeaway from the first two games was that it's not gonna be easy, not that I thought it would be easy. Easy is the wrong word, But it's not gonna be quick. I thought it would. I thought Boston would win games one and two, and I thought they'd lose Game three, then I thought they'd win games four

and five. Well, losing game one just puts you in the predicament where now, if you lose Game three, you have to go back to Milwaukee for Game six and next thing you know, this could very easily be a seven game series. So I think it's gonna be a longer series. However, I think Boston through the first two games has demonstrated that they are still the better team. It's just a closer gap than we originally thought. So

Milwaukee's half court offense was a little bit better. In Game two, they were at zero point seven six points per play in game one. They were at zero point nine one points per playing game two, which is a decent number. The problem is is Boston's offense also got better in the half court from Game one to Game two, as you saw. And yes, there were some shooting results, like specifically in uh contested shots they made five tightly

guarded threes out of seven tries. But the thing is is, like, if you're a Milwaukee fan, you can't take that to the bank, because you were down sixty five to forty at halftime. So like, okay, let's pretend they Jaylen Brown misses a couple of those threes that he made in the first half, and like, you know, couple plays go your way. Okay, So now you're down fifty seven to forty. Like, it just doesn't make that much of a difference, Like

you got your ass kicked. You don't get to point at shooting when you get your ass kicked, Okay, Like, yes, you made a little run in the second half, but I thought Boston was just trying to get out of that arena, you know, Like I think they would have held up better physically if the game was in question in a way that it wasn't. Overall in this series so far, Boston is averaging about seven more points per one half court possessions. That's something you can flat out

take to the bank. Obviously, my biggest concern and the reason why Boston will probably lose another game at some point in the series, at least one more game, is they go through stretches where they lose their offensive identity. They go through stretches where they forget what has worked for them. This is the advantage of again, those top four guys I was talking about Chris Paul's, the Lucas, the Lebrons, and the CP three's or the yokich Is,

they never lose their offensive identity. They're relentless with being smart. You know, that's their advantage. Their chest masters, well pretty much everybody else in the league goes through like waxing and waning with their decision making. Well, you know, Tatum in particular and especially Jalen Brown can both do that where they just go through these phases where they start taking bad shots. There were some spots in the second half where uh, Jayson Tatum was over dribbling a little bit.

Like there's times where they lose their offensive identity. So they will have stretches where they go very cold, and when they do, Milwaukee will beat them because they're the defending champs and they're very good team. But like right now, it's one one, they're gonna the biggest challenges. They're gonna have to win a game in Milwaukee. My guess is

it will probably be Game four. But the advantage for Boston and the reason why I wouldn't count them out for Game three is physical wear and tear is one of the biggest impacts in this series. It will heavily favor Milwaukee as things progress. But Boston is three days off between Game two and Game three. They'll play until Saturday. So what a great opportunity to go into Milwaukee with fresh legs, get getting Marcus Smart back and steal back

home court advantage. That's a great opportunity for them. So Game three will be an interesting game to watch. But yeah, like I mean, it's a lot closer than than it looked. Um, Milwaukee fans should if you're a Milwaukee fan, you should absolutely think that you have a chance to win the series, because you absolutely do. You honest is far and away the best player on in the series, far and away

the best player in this entire playoff run. He absolutely deserves to to have that that level of confidence, you know what I mean. But Boston's better team. They've demonstrated that they're scoring better in the half court. As long as they can keep the game in the half court three more times this series, they should win. And and obviously there are weapons to like Grant Williams and al Hordford.

Regarding Janese in single coverage, well, there. There are a lot of things that are going Boston's way, but there were some things that when Milwaukee's win in that second half, it's just a question of whether or not that stuff was real or whether it was related to Boston letting their foot off the gas. You mentioned the impressive job that the Celtics have done on your Honest with kind of their multiple options there, and he's shooting sub in

the series so far, really struggling to score fitly. How confident are you in Boston's ability to sustain that level and do you feel like they've kind of solved the Honest in this series? No one's gonna solve Janice Um. The truth of the matter is is like, yeah, I

thought that Milwaukee. I thought the Boston did a good job of making Johannae settle early on, like Great Williams and Al Horford both basically tried to stonewall Janice on his on his drop steps, basically when you get him in the post and try to back them down, or when he would try to get ahead of steam and go. But I thought Janice was too quick to give up on that, and especially in the first half, you settling for a lot of jump shots and turnarounds and things

like that. In the post threes, stuff like that, Janice has accumulative, accumulative wear and terriffacts. So the truth of the matter is is no matter what, no matter what Boston does, even if they do everything perfectly, if your Honest keeps dropping his head and trying to run people over, eventually he's gonna break through that wall he just did. So I don't think it's possible to solve your Honest. But again, I think that Boston is the best defensive

team of this era. I think that they're uniquely equipped to have bodies that can throw its single coverage at him. That one of Boston's big defensive mistakes in game or Game two was when when they would get Johannae switched on to someone else, whether that was Rob Williams or Jalen Brown, those were the two matchups that Janice was attacking the most off of the other two guys. In those situations, Boston was too quick to leave him in single coverage. I'd have a really say simple rule, he's

on Grant single coverage, he's on ol single coverage. Anybody else doubling the ship out of him? Right? Away, get it out of his hands. That's gotta be the strategy. But and I think you'll see that as the series progresses. But overall, he's an unsolvable player. But Boston's gonna do as good of a job on it and as anybody else will be able to. Yeah, I mean it feels like we've seen that. But like you said, you can't really solve a guy who's six eleven to forty and

an absolute freak athlete in every way. But I mean they are doing as good of a job as anybody could. Yeah, you know, you know what's ironic is I would argue that the best defensive player in the world to put on your honest would be Lebron because he has like the perfect combination of sturdiness and lateral quickness and just savvy and understanding of how to position himself between your honest and Lebron and or between your honest and the rim.

And I mean, obviously we got to go back to two thousand twenty for this, which is at this point two years ago. But that performance that Lebron put on him in Staples Center right before the right before COVID shut the league down, was like one of the best defensive performances I've seen on Janice just just consistently, like and Lebron is really good with his hands to it, like reaching without fouling and stuff like that. Like that's the irony is he's the best player in the league

to have that type of matchup. But that's that's that's Lebron. He's the second best player of all time. All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. What go ahead? I was just gonna ask, um, here's the thing with IQUI did a good job on your honest in two thousand nineteen was a long time ago, and Jannest wasn't the same level of perimeter initiator that he is now. The other thing, too, is like he just doesn't have that same level of sturdiness as Lebron. Lebron's like a fridge.

You're just not moving him off of his spot. Al Right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. There are no games tomorrow, so I'm taking a day off. We're also going to take Friday off. We will be back Saturday night for Game three of Warriors Grizzlies and of Buck Celtics, couple of really really important, really really exciting games news change of scenery to going to Golden State and going to Milwaukee should be a

fun one. I will see you guys. Then, don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter, to follow the Volumes YouTube channel, and follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason L. T two see all of my video content. I appreciate your guys support from the bottom of my heart. Now see you guys in a couple of days. The Volume