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Friday again, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. If you missed it, we did do an instant reaction to the first preseason game of the twenty twenty four twenty twenty five NBA season between the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets. Get a lot of film in that one too, So go a little bit further back in the feed and you'll see that today's show, we are continuing our season previews power ranking style with Number six, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers.
And then I have a mail bag with a bunch of good questions from you guys at the tail end of the show. You guys have the job before we get started. Subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTC. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful for leve
rating and a review on that front as well. In the last but not least, keep dropping mail bad questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of this season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Number six the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, a lot of roster turnover lost from last year. Mobamba, Nicholas Patom, Robert Covington, Tobias Harris, Buddy Heel, the Anthony
Melton Campaign and Paul Reid. Added for this year Andre Drummond, Paul George, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, Caleb Martin, Isaiah Mobley, Leicester, Kenones, Whershaan Ybussle, or Yabuselli, and Jared McCain a first round pick in this year's draft. So of the players who played minutes in the playoffs for the seventy six ers last year, Joel Embiid, Tyree Maxey, Kelly Ubra and Kyle Lowry are the only four players returning to this year's roster.
So let's do a little depth chart. We're gonna talk a lot about the roster with this particular team because it's really difficult to tell what they're gonna look like until they get on the floor because it's all new players. Right at the guard spot, they have Tyree Maxey, Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon, Jared McCain, and Lester Keynons on the wing that these are like thinner like kind of
like perimeter based forwards. Guard forwards Paul George, Caleb Martin, and Ricky Counsel, who's a young player that I really like. At the forward spot. Kelly Ubray kJ Martin, Coryshan Yabuselli, and Isaiah Mobley, and then for centers Joel Embid Andre Drummond, but obviously some crossover a guy like where Sean could play the five. If Embiid is out on any given night, he could play backup five a little bit. So who's going to start. We know Tyris Maxey, Paul George, and
Joel Embiid are going to start. Those are one, three, five. In my opinion, I think Paul George is best fitted as a three, so you need a two and a four. And if Tyrese is your skill guard, you want like a bigger, stronger guard that can defend guards playing next to him. I think that's Caleb Martin, so I think he'll probably end up starting at the two. Kelly Ubray is by far the best four man on the team,
so I'd go with him. So I think it'll end up looking Tyrese Maxey, Caleb Barton, Paul George, Kelly Ubray, and Joel Embiid. Nice mix of perimeter defense, shooting, scoring talent. That sort of thing. Not bad. It's an interesting lineup
to look at. The only thing that could get a little tricky is Caleb and Kelly can both be a little inconsistent shooting the ball, but Tyree's, Paul and Joel are all great shooting the ball, and I do think you could swap guys in and out depending on the matchup in what you need tons of flexibility for bench units. You know, you want to try to keep two of the three stars on the floor whenever is possible. Need
to have shooting next to Draymond. So like this is where greyshon Yabuseli I think becomes really important because if you play any of the other forwards like a kJ Martin or Kelly Ubray next to Drummond, you can go run into some serious spacing issues. Greshan shot the ball really well with France. Shot I got one point two to zero points per jump shot in all the FEBA
games this summer. One point two eight points per jump shot in one hundred and eighty six reps with Real Madrid last year, so really good catch and shoot guy. I think that's an interesting front court, that pairing of Gershan and Andre Drummond. Think that could be really interesting, especially with Tyrese Maxi and Paul George on the floor. For like non embid lineups. As far as like other bench groups, I think you could probably look to pair Reggie Jackson
and Paul George. That duo played over six exteen hundred possessions together in twenty twenty one with the Clippers, and they had a good net rating together. They've got some experience with a little one to two punch between the two of them. Let's zoom in on some specific characteristics of this team. They're ball handling. How many guys do they have that can run action like guys that you trust to dribble the ball and create shots for others.
Tyrees MAXI I have in this list, Paul George obviously on this list, Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry, and then some end of the bench guys too, but guys that I don't think I'll be in the rotation. So there's four main ball handlers that you have around Joel Embiid, right, I think that's more than enough for this team, especially playing with Embiid. This is not a team that moves the ball a ton. Last year they were twenty fifth
in assists percentage. They do run some five out concepts, but now the talent is higher this year, so I wonder if they'll run more five out concepts, just because you don't want to just heavily rely on maxium bid two man game. You want to have some side to side flow, especially with Paul George out there. But in the past, the majority of their possessions basically came down to maxium bid two man game or embiid post ups. It's very much like a brute force type of attack.
But they do have five out concepts in their offense, and I would like to see them explore that a little more. That said, I think they have plenty of ball handling for the style of offense that they want to play. Shooting, all three of their stars are great shooters. Reggie Jackson is a good catch and shoot guy. Kyle Lowry is a good catch and shoot guy. Eric Gordon is a good catch and shoot guy. Caleb Martin shot well when he was wide open, but struggled against contests.
Kelly Ubra is not a good jump shooter. He was below thirty two percent on catching shoo jump shots last year. kJ Martin is not a good jump shooter. Kwershan Yebusllly is a good jump shooter. I think that's plenty of shooting, especially at the guard spot. They're definitely a little weak at ford. Kwer Shan has got to keep an eye on there though. If that's if that specific signing pans out and he can defend well enough as a low man,
that kind of solves some of the shooting issues. One of the typical things, too, are one of the specific things that I think will help is last year they used Kelly Ubra a lot as their primary point of attack defender. They put him on guards, even in the playoff series, spend a lot of time with him on
Jalen Brunson. That ends up taking him out of like that like low man responsibility, right because he's on the perimeter specifically, having like for instance, in the past, because they didn't have a really good guard defender that would be playing in that starting lineup the other than Ubre, that you if you couldn't imagine putting a guy like gwer Shan in that spot because then as a total lineup,
they just didn't have enough perimeter defense, right. But now you can imagine lineups with Caleb Martin on the floor. And this is the advantage of Caleb Martin. He can guard guards. He's like that type of perimeter athlete that kind of unlocks an opportunity for Guershan to function more as a lowman, and if that works out, his ability to shoot the basketball might be an interesting lineup option
for them to look at this year. Again, I think we'll see a lot less of Gwershan than I'm probably hoping, but that's a potential swing factor this year with how well he shoots the ball. Perimeter defense, what does this team look like as a perimeter defense unit? Guards aren't good, but Caleb Martin is really good, and I look at
him as kind of like a guard forward hybrid. He's not really a ball handler, but he kind of functions as like a two to three three and D guy, right, a D and three guy more than three and D guy. But you get the point. But Caleb Martin's a really good option there. Paul George isn't what he used to be, but he's still pretty good, and Kelly Ubra is solid.
So I wouldn't say perimeter defense is a strength of this roster, but they should be able to set up a decent base scheme, especially with their starters, because you have Ubra and Martin that you can put on the two best perimeter players, right, Martin's gonna guard the best guard, Kelly's gonna guard the get the best forward. You can imagine that base defensive scheme working right like em beat in a drop coverage, Kelly and Caleb chasing over the top.
I think you keep Paul George on the weakest forward that the opponent has and use him more as a low man just to save his legs, and then Tyrese Maxey on the overall weakest offensive player so that he can hedge and recover. I think that'll work fine for the regular season when you run into the teams that have three ball handlers. I still like the idea of keeping Paul George as the low man, so I would just put Tyrese Maxi on the weakest perimeter player of
those three. Again, I think that's solid for the regular season. Well, they have some issues in the postseason with teams like spacing them out and kind of driving and kicking them. Absolutely, that's always been the case with Embiid though. That's kind of just the reality of this roster. When you get him in space, he can struggle a little bit. So I don't think there's a something you could do with the roster to counter that specifically, that's just going to
be something they have to deal with. How about size, Is this team big enough? I think it's a strength. Embiid is huge and does well against all the bullieball centers in the league. He's one of the best at guarding Nikola Jokic as well. Should they make the finals. If Denver were to get there, Andre Drummond is a massive backup center. Gerschon Yabuseli is a massive forward. They're big on the wing. Kellyubre has got good size, Paul
George has good size. They're a little small and slow in the guard core off the bench, but they do have some trunky, like strong guys a Kyle Lowry and Airic Gordon that can guard up a little bit defensive versatility. This is definitely a weakness of this roster, and it's the main reason why I have Philly outside of the top tier contender list again my top four, like my top tier contenders, and then five through eleven, or like
the if things go right contender. There's two main reasons why I have them as like an if they things go right contender. One is Joel Embid, which we'll talk about a minute. The second piece is their lack of defensive versatility. Like their base scheme should do fine in the regular season in the large sample, I expect them to be at least a top fifteen defense, and I think they'll be fine over the eighty two for all
the reasons we talked about earlier. But there are a lot of teams that could break their base defense by spacing them out and driving and kicking them to death. Boston obviously, it is an example of that the Knicks now that Karl Anthony town Towns is there. Like if the Knicks play Cat at center, who is embiid guarding He's guarding Cat. The Brunson cat pick and pop could give them massive issues, right the Pacers Miles Turner is a pick and pop, big lots of footspeed on the perimeter.
Several teams out West as well. So there are some teams in the league that I think are gonna be able to break Philly's base defensive scheme and makes them a little bit more vulnerable to specific matchups. But they have Joe LMB that is one of the biggest parts of their If things go right, some of these teams need a trade. Some of these teams need a young rotation player to pop. Some of these teams need matchup luck.
As we're discussing the other teams, and if things go right tier for Philly, they need Joel Embiid to be healthy and ready to rock by April, and they need him to confront and defeat his playoff demons once again. He was fatiguing at the end of games last year, shot just six for twenty six and fourth quarters during the next series, shot just four for fourteen in the clutch. Philly's clutch offense was bad. They had just a one to twelve point eight offensive rating when the score was
within five with less than five minutes left. In all four of their losses in that series came down to clutch situations, and Embiid just wasn't able to leverage himself offensively in those moments, which has been a big part of his playoff history. Right Game six, super bizarre. You win a crazy game, you extend the series, you're coming back home, opportunity to send it to seven. And they came out like flat as shit, like just dead and dropped down. I think they went down by like twenty
two to twenty three points in the first quarter. Now they battled back and they actually took the lead in that game, but they inevitably ended up losing. But like, how is it that in a must win game at home you come out that flat again? And that has been something that we've seen with Embiid led teams over the years. So like, again, it's not just about being healthy, it's about confronting his playoff demons. Joel Embiid has the ability to be such an overwhelming force that Philly's weaknesses
wouldn't even matter. That's the swing factor. So what if Embiid just finally has the stars aligned for him with health and he figures out how to contribute more consistently the playoffs and he just goes on a wrecking ball tour against the rest of the league. That is the upside. Everything else kind of is what it is like. Tyras Maxey is a legit number two. You guys know how
much of a fan I am of his. I think I had him at number twenty one in my player rankings, like ahead of guys like Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard. I'm a huge believer in Tyres Maxey. I trust him to be great again all year. Whatever your issues are of Paul George as in number three, I think he's gonna be fine. There's not going to be real pressure on him to be great every single night. You can handle some of his inconsistencies as the third best player
on the team. I view him within this offense too as like almost like a star version of Michael Porter Junior, really really capitalizing on those skip passes that Embiid makes out of post ups and out of some of his short role situations. He obviously can run action too. He had an awesome regular season last year before struggling in
the postseason. But finally, like again, like that when Philly last year they were like I want to say, they were like eighteenth or nineteenth and three point attempts per game, eighteenth, nineteenth and three point percentage. I think they were like fifteenth in spot up efficiency on Synergy. So, like just Paul George is just a massive influx of talent in off ball scoring ability that should help that a lot.
I think Daryl did about as well as he possibly could to surround them with free agent talent around those core three guys. But Embiid is the key. He's the guy that has the ability to push them over the top. My prediction for the Sixers this year, I think they might run into some regular season issues in the standings just because of the Embiid load management piece like Maxi, George Drummond kind of like framework. If they can hover around five hundred, then then they'll be fine. They'll stay
out of the plan. But like I wouldn't be surprised if some of these younger, more athletic teams, like teams like Indiana, Orlando or Cleveland, if one of those teams passes them in the regular season standing. So I think somewhere in that like four to six range is realistic. But recent history tells us that when they get to the postseason and Biid will probably be banged up, probably be less than hundred percent, that he'll struggle, and that
they'll probably lose in the second round. But Embiid has the power to overcome that history. He has the power to flip the script and carry this team to the trophy. It is on him to prove everybody wrong. All right, let's get into our mail background. We're gonna be covering the Sixers really closely this year. It's just hard to really learn too much about them until we watch them play.
First question, Hey, Jason, wanted to know what you think about Steph and Steve Kerr emphasizing that they need to evolve to accommodate their current personnel and young guys, specifically mentioning simplifying things and implementing more structure. What could this change look like in your opinion? How much does it make? How much sense does it make when considering their off season additions seem to be perfect for the current system.
How do the comments about more structure and play calls aligned with some of your previous mentions of the Warriors being at the top of the league when it comes to running organized offense. So like, the Golden State system is so much about making really quick decisions right that when you see think about guys that haven't played as much over the court, like Moses Moody for instance, like
kaminga before last year. A lot of the reason why those guys didn't get into the rotation is Steve Kerr didn't trust them in the machine that is the Golden State five out offense to consistently make the right decision. So like, if you can simplify decisions and make it so that each read is very easy for specific types of players, then you can put yourself in a position
where they have a better chance to succeed. I kind of go the other way though, in the sense that I think a lot of the Warriors five out concepts are kind of taking hold elsewhere around the league, and a lot of these guys, like guys that kaminga, guys like Moody, they need to learn how to play and read and react basketball anyway, you know. And so obviously by creating simpler reads, by creating simpler roles, you help
in the short term. But at the end of the day, like you mentioned in your question, they brought in some guys that fit the system. The system is a big part of Golden State's success over the years, and create like those guys just kind of have to learn how to exist within that system. That's the reality of it.
What do you think about this starting lineup for the Dubs, Steph Wiggins, KAMINGA Draymond and tray Jackson Davis surrounding the dynastic duo with athleticism and speed, and if Wiggs can return close to forty percent from three with three point efficiency and Kaminga continues to score in the twenties, their offense should flow well and the defensive ceiling they could reach would be extremely high. Love the show. The main
issue with that specific lineup is not enough shooting. I think, especially with what we know about Steve Current his penchant for wanting to have guards on the floor, Like this guy routinely puts three guards on the floor. You think he's going to go to one guard, Like, That's probably not going to happen, right, That's just the way that he likes to structure lineups. I understand why you'd want
to go big. We talked a lot in a previous mail bag about lineup a structure for the Warriors, and last year the air two best lineups by far were like Steph clay Wiggins Kminga Draymond and Steph pods Wiggins Kminga Draymon. But I also understand why you maybe don't want to do that the entire regular season because all of that mileage on Draymond at the five could lead to some wear and terry issues, especially at his age. So I understand the idea of wanting to build out
a big look. That said, if it's gonna be a big look. I don't think it's gonna be slotting up with the Fords. I think it's gonna be replacing a forward with a big So like, for instance, I think you'd have to move one of Wiggins or Kaminga to the bench, keep Pods in with the starters, and then put someone like Trace Jackson Davis in for whichever forward.
So basically going like Steph POD's Kaminga Draymond Jackson Davis or Wiggins Draymond Jackson Davis, something like that, right, And I mean, who knows if Wiggins can handle mentally the idea of going to the bench. That's where it gets a little tricky. But if you're going to go big, I think you still I would be let's just put it this way. I would be stunned if Steve Kurr didn't start Brandt Pitzamski this year. I just think that's the direction he's gonna go. He was one of their
best plus minus guys all year last year. There's a lot more that he can get into offensively that he didn't really show last year. I think Pods is going to start. Russ is absolutely not going to be playing meaningful minutes with Murray and starters. As a two guard, he is a backup point guard and a point of attack defender. When he sees starting minutes, it's going to be because Murray is hurt and he will have Christian
Brown or Shrawther at the two edit. I generally agree with what Jason is saying, but I didn't like how he characterizes Russ's role on the Nuggets. He isn't a KCP replacement. He is a Reggie Jackson replacement. Yeah, you're right, he is a Reggie Jackson replacement. I never viewed him as anything different. The only reason I discussed his mix with the starters is he will play some minutes with the starters. He did play some minutes with the starters
in this preseason game. Malone even in his media day press conference, specifically discussed the possibility of Russ potentially closing game for them, which would imply that they're at least considering it right. So, like again, I was just discussing the possibility of what that could look like with the starters, because we will see bits and pieces of it. Obviously, the majority of Russ's role this year will be in
those bench led units. The thing people aren't acknowledging about Russ and the Nuggets is the situation and culture he's in now. Denver isn't like the Lakers or Clippers. The Nuggets actually are a team and a brotherhood and aren't going to scapegoat Russ like the LA teams did. And Jokic is different than their stars. He empowers his teammates and they want to play hard for him. I believe
this will happen for us and he'll have a great season. Also, Russ has a skill that Denver actually needs, unlike his last couple stops. Also, nobody on the Nuggets are expecting Russ to come in and be this amazing player like in his prime. He's a Reggie Jackson replacement. And the non Yokic minutes have been abysmal for so long that even if Uss has his head scratching plays, it's not like those plays didn't already exist when Yokich isn't on
the floor. There's truth to that, and that's why the risk reward factor with Russ is, you know, made some sense, right, Like Denver's bench has always been bad, so if for us comes in and the bench is still bad, you know, that's the situation you've always had. But there's at least some upside there, right, That's that's the case for it, right. A couple things. First of all, the idea that Russ has a skill set that Denver actually needs unlike his
last couple of stops, that's not true. The Clippers have been begging for a point guard forever. The Lakers didn't necessarily have a need for what Russ does, but the Clippers definitely did, and they allowed him to play exactly his style and it still was the same issues that he had in previous stops. As I mentioned in our film session, and I did a whole those are of
you guys I haven't seen this. I did a whole film session on the preseason game and we had a segment where we talked about Russ and some of those mistakes that he makes. And guess what his first game with Denver looked exactly like just about every other game
that he's played in his career. A lot of good, a lot of bad, awesome driving, kick possessions where he creates easy layups and threes, some awesome on the ball defensive possessions, getting back cut, getting ram by for offensive rebounds smoking a bunch of that's just that's the experience. It's like that. It doesn't there's not a You can blame organizations all you want. By the way, the Lakers are actually a shit show. They had a bad coach, They had a front office that is, you know, not
necessarily the most respected in the league. Right like, they have their issues that you could necessary that you could potentially point to you with Russ Clippers, that don't. They have a very good front office, an excellent coaching staff, and they needed what he did. And I watched him with the Clippers, and he made all the same mistakes he made with the Lakers. It doesn't matter how good of a leader Yokich is. It doesn't matter the quality
opportunities that he sets them up with. It doesn't matter how good Denver's coaching staff is, it doesn't matter the role that they need him to play. The issues are still there. He's bad at making layups, he's a poor decision maker, and then on the defensive end, he loses sight of his responsibilities off the ball regularly. And until those things change, we all know the good that Russ brings to the table. It's about the bad that cancel
it out. Hey, Jason, you didn't get to MAVs media Day, but I was interested in what you think of the potential upside of Derek Lively. Interesting The front office is comp for him is said to be Joe Kim Noah as an elite defensive anchor and for his passing skills. Both him and Kid during media day really emphasize his improvement in trying to dominate the paint and offensive ability and post moves. Derek Lively, to me, is like the quintessential,
quintessential modern NBA center. I would be shocked if within the next five years he's not like one of the top ten centers in the league. Elite rim protection, the ability to guard in space and switches, the ability to read and react as a five out big meaning like and he doesn't even need to do this in Denver or Dallas excuse me, just because they don't really run this system. But like, I think if you were to pick him up and drop him in a five out system,
he'd look great. But like the ability to dribble at guys and make reads and hit guys, cutting the rolling hard to the rim and providing vertical spacing. He's got good touch, Like, I actually think this is a guy that in the long run will make some jump shots and will become a guy that can duck in against a smaller defender and hit a little left shoulder hook or something like that. I think he's a quintessential modern NBA center. I think he's awesome. I think his potential
is through the roof. Like I like, there's no reason in the world why he couldn't be like Jared Allen and do a lot of the stuff that he does for Cleveland in the long run. Again, there's stuff he's got to get to. Jared Allen has that like floater that he hits all the time and the hook that he's really efficient with. He's got good hands around the basket. But I think Lively can build that stuff out over time. The Bucks weren't bad against above five hundred teams, though
it was the bad teams that beat them. It was there. It was when their lineup inconsistency and bad stagger lineups with poor bench players that led to losses, not their starters. Their starters dominated teams more than any other team in the NBA, including the Celtics, who also played in the Weak East. By the way guys like this was in regards to some of my comments about the Bucks in their relationship with the Lakers. I had the Lakers a tiny bit above them, one spot in the same tier
of teams. I think the Bucks are the Lakers in the Eastern Conference. Why the upside is based on their top end talent, Like, if you're a Bucks fan, it's like we got Damon Giannis. If you're a Lebron fan, it's a Lakers fan. We got Lebron James and Anthony Davis. The role players are really flawed in one dimensional right, same issue for both teams. The team severely lacks defensive personnel. Same issue for the Lakers as for the Milwaukee Bucks.
They were better against the good teams and lost too many games to mediocre and bad teams. Same thing for the Lakers is for the Bucks, they're they're to me, the same type of team in either conference. Lots of upside, but lots of laws, right, And that's why I have them right next to each other in the standings. The reason why the Lakers a little bit above is I
thought they were a little bit better. Obviously, the Bucks won two more games, but in a substantially weaker conference, the Lakers were a little better against the best teams in the league, and the Lakers beat the Bucks head to head twice without Lebron James, so that was the main reason why I gave them that slight edge. Hello, Jason, do you think Karl Anthony Towns can play the same role for the Knicks similar to how KP played for Boston for a championship or Am I crazy to think
like that? Appreciate the content as always, so chrisops Porzingis is a much better rim protector. So that's the thing for Boston that Minnesota excuse me, for New York that
Kat could never do that KP does for Boston. Right on the offensive end, though, it's like the identical role pick and pop being aggressive above the break, three point shooter, drive close out when you see opportunities, and when they switch ball screens and put Jalen Brunson's defender on you can you quickly duck down to the elbow and score against the switch The way that chrisps Porzingis can Porzingis is better in my opinion, and not from a health standpoint,
but when he's actually healthy and available on the floor, he's better at attacking switches, he's a better above the break three point shooter, he's a better rim protector. So like KP's just a better player, but Kat's obviously more available. That said, I do think Kat can fill a similar role and if that optimizes, if that all comes to fruition, it just elevates the ceiling for this NIXT team in
a major way. All Right, three more quick ones. I'm a little confused as to why to no One, nobody seems to be to have considered moving Rudy Gobert to the bench and starting nos Read for the Timberwolves. Nas has been a consistently above average shooter and creator for the center spot the last couple of years, and having him in the starting lineup instantly makes the spacing much more competitive and I feel creates a much more logical rotation.
Aunt and Randall will have more room to attack the rim, while Randall would also have another option to kick out too on the perimeter. Also on paper, I feel like the guards on the bench would be better served by the defensive presence of Rudy Gobert in the second unit, while also spacing the floor out more so you can have better cleaner lanes for dunks. I'm not a Timberwolves fan or anything, so I'm not approaching that scenario from
the mindset of trying to cope with the trade. But I'm curious what you think Jason is having Gobert come off the bench just completely out of the question and outside of the media optics benching a player with such a large contract, What basketball issues do you see that would make this adjustment non viable. So here's the thing.
It's situational, like you start go bear, but yeah, like if you're having trouble spacing the floor and Aunt and Julius both like really hesitant and uncomfortable, and is a late game situation, I could see a version of it where they go, Okay, let's go we'll supplement a little extra defense. We'll take con Lee out and we'll put Dante DiVincenzo in. We'll go Aunt, Dante, Jaden Julius nas
for like a key a key stretch of possessions. Maybe it's an end of the second quarter when you're trying to go into the half on a run, or end of the game in a clutch situation. You absolutely can consider that based on what's going on with the team. But I think you start the game with Gobert. There's also continuity thing there. One of the things with Rudy Gobert too, is like he legitimately is one of the you know, five or six best defensive players in the world.
Like all the criticism about him on the defensive end is literal bullshit. Like I was critical of him on the game winner from Luca because I thought he made a mental mistake. He took away the drive and gave up the step back three when you could trust your help defense there and make a lesser player make a shot instead of leaving the second best player in the world, you know, for a wide open three to end the game. Basically not a wide open but an easy three to
win the game. But aside from that specific possession, all those clips of Rudy Gobert getting scored on that we're going around, it's kind of byes because on a point per possession basis, he was great in isolation and he always is. Rudy Gobert is an awesome defensive player. And so there's a certain tone you want to set at the start of games defensively, and it's part of the identity of the Timberwolves, so I'd keep him in the starting lineup, but yeah, you absolutely consider benching him for
Nazried in specific situations if it dictates that. Hey, Jason, love the show, quick mail, bad question. The Timberwolves have too many guards and the Lakers have too many forwards. What are your thoughts on the t Wolves and Lakers engaging in something around Ruey and Nikil Alexander Walker. Think that'd be perfect for both parties involved in the salaries
work too. I actually had a similar thought the other day, but the reason why it turned away from it is I think the Lakers need a legit, high level starter, and while on Nikkeil Alexander Walker, if it's a positional need, which is a guard that can defend, I don't think he's quite high level starter. And so at that point, Ruey is actually more important to the Lakers right now what they do offensively than Nikhil Alexander Walker is to the Wolves, or to what Nikil Alexander Walker would be
for the Lakers if he came over. So it just wouldn't make sense if you're gonna trade Ruie or d Lo, it's got to be for somebody closer to Bruce Brownsilk, which is a bigger, stronger, more like starting caliber two way player. Right now, that would require the Lakers to include draft compensation, but that's kind of the point, right, Like, I think the Lakers should trade draft compensation to get
better players back in the deal. So that like, that's why I wouldn't make Ruey available for a guy like Nikil Alexander Walker. But maybe if you're the the uh Timberwolves, you could look to make a similar sort of a deal with a different team that's deep at forward. So like, maybe you call a team like Houston that has a ton of guys in their rotation and you offer them like somebody offer them Nikaile Alexander Walker for somebody like Tarry Easton for instance, and you bring back an athletic
forward that can help you a little bit. Last question hypothetical here, If d Loo and Reeves are redundant, why were the Lakers so hell bent on keeping Reeves? He is not a substantially better player than d Lo. It's a tiny difference at most. The Lakers could have traded Reeves for Caruso, and that would have made the Lakers a much better team with a much better chance at the title. Also, Caruso would guard Murray a million times better, and they have a much better chance of beating the Nuggets.
I can see them in the finals with the Celtics, and who knows from there a couple of things. Trading a high level starter to get a high level starter kind of defeats the purpose. I do think that d Lo is close to Austin as a regular season player, but I think Austin is like a kasm better than d Lo within the postseason. And then it also just
makes more sense for the Lakers timeline. He's younger, he has two more guaranteed years on his deal and a player option, although I think he'll drop that and look to extend. But he has two more guaranteed years the years on the deal both years are less than fourteen millions. From a money standpoint, He's not taking up barely any of your cap while also being a useful starter. I would trade Austin if it brought back like a legit,
bona fide third star. But he's your only high level start next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis right now, so you can't trade him for just another high level starter. You need to turn a flawed starter, which is d lower Ruey into a high level starter if you're going to actually dramatically improve the team. All right, guys, that as all I have for today is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We will be back on Monday with some preseason basketball reaction as well as another episode of our Power Rankings. I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.