Hoops Tonight - Kevin Durant to the Celtics, Laker's next moves and can the Warriors repeat.

sent you. Twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply see terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential

help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight, presented by Fan will here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend. We are just about to pull up

into Juno. We had a really cool moment this morning. Ut our little schedule it said something about like a scenic passage from six am to ten am. I woke up at six am, open my window and there were icebergs floating like right next to the ship. Then UM walked up to the upper deck and when I got up there we were pulling up. The ship was pulling directly up to a glacier, a huge glacier that was

flowing into the Fiord I guess they call it. It's basically like a water passageway that is formed by a glacier. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. It was a really, really nice treet this morning. Um, I did a recording yesterday that I didn't have a chance to upload, so it'll be a piggybacked onto the end of this for the podcast folks, I think on YouTube it'll end up being something different. But we talked about some war years.

We talked about some Lakers with Buddy Healed and Miles Turner. Also talked about some sons with Monty Williams getting extended and what I expect from them over the course the next couple of years. And then we did a little deep dive into five out basketball as part of the series I'm trying to do this summer when we talk about, you know, um some larger basketball concepts. So for your for your podcast listeners, that will be tagged onto the end of this. For the YouTube folks, today we're just

hitting Kevin Durant, so uh. Adrian Morzanowski reports that the Boston Celtics are a serious threat to potentially acquire Kevin Durant, um that they're willing to include Jalen Brown. Now, the report comes with a couple of big caveats. First of all, Brian Windhors reported on ESPN that this is kind of old news that's been out for about a month almost that this particular offer was already on the table, essentially Jalen Brown. I believe it's Grant Williams as well possibly

some other filler. And then um, I believe it's the first pick swap in another swap, So it's a pretty significant offer. Nets want more, you know how that all goes um, But apparently this offer has been around according to Brian Winhorse and then Adrian Warznowski in the piece also specifically stated that the Celtics were quote unquote no closer to obtaining Kevin Durant than any of the other teams.

So I'm not really sure what to make of this particular report, the timing of it, what exactly uh the goal is. It could just be ESPN trying to spice things up in the middle of the summer. But I do want to talk about this particular deal because it's an interesting one that I recommended a while back, Um, and one that I think is a smart move for Boston. As we looked at Boston last year, I actually thought

they were the most talented team in the finals. They were just incredibly undisciplined and they struggled, particularly with ball handling and offensive decision making. So the idea of flipping Jalen Brown and Grant Williams and maybe a Daniel Tis or something along those lines for Kevin freaking Durant instantaneously makes you, by far the best team in the league in my opinion, the title favorite, the team that I would pick to win the championship this year. So if

I was running the Celtics, I would do it. I understand the hesitation, I understand the idea with the draft picks. I understand Kevin Durant's injury history, although I think some of the injury history stuff with Kevin Durant is over blown. He takes his sweet time coming back from injuries, which he should. He's Kevin Durant. He understands the long run with the playoffs, but he's been available for each of

the last two playoff runs. Played extraordinarily well two years ago, then struggled against the Boston Celtics last year and in a series where his entire team was completely overmatched. Right, But I think the injury stuff is just overplayed. With Kevin Durant, I think it's a no brainer. I think the Celtics should do it, but I understand the hesitation. This is where it comes down into the classic debate over pushing your chips in the middle versus playing the

long game. We had this as a question in the mail bag, and like I told you guys, I don't think anybody's right or wrong. It's just a matter of preference. I think because of the current structure of the c b A, it's better to push your chips in. Players are fickle, they get a wandering eye, they get sick of their situation, they get authority fatigue, they want something new, and so more often than not, they don't want to stay in a place for seven to ten to fifteen years. Right.

You know when we look at the the the the Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green type of pairing. Yes, it's organizational excellence. Yes, the Warriors make it easy to stay. But it's also a matter of loyalty. Because I've seen teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder in the early two thousands, where it's like you've got Kevin Durant, you've got James Harden, you've got Russell Westbrook, you've got good veteran players, you've got a good coach. Everything's right, but the guys just

get they just want to leave. Kevin Duranty, I want to leave, James Harden, I want a bigger role. I'm ready to leave right like So, at the end of the day, I think it's a little bit harder than people think to get people to stay so under the current c b A because of how easy it is for player movement to occur, and because of the fact that players don't really feel a ton of loyalty. I'm

a believer in pushing your chips in. If you stick with Jalen Brown, there's no guarantee that sometime over the next two years that he won't look at the situation with Jayson Tatum and be like, Yeah, I'd rather be somewhere else where I have a bigger role, or man, I'd rather play with somebody who's a little bit more of a playmaker, is a little bit more of someone who sets me up right, there's no guarantee that there's

gonna be loyalty there. That's why I'm a believer under the current system, push your chips in the middle, go after the Kevin Durant of the world, make a run to the title. Read your situation. Like with the Brooklyn Netts. If you don't think you have enough, sell the farm

and restart right now. If they go renegotiate the c b A and they make it more difficult for players to leave, and they heavily incentivize players to stay, that's where the strategy might shift, where player movement limits and now it becomes more about scouting and player development and and building continuity and doing the things that the Warriors do. But the Warriors are the exception to the rule. Don't let them fool you into thinking that that's easy to do.

It is not easy to do, all right. The last thing I wanted to hit on this guy on this KD story is the Kyrie report that came out from sham Serani is saying that he has made it clear to the Nets front office that he intends to play out the season with Brooklyn with or without Kevin Durrett. Now, first of all, just like after the season when Kyrie said, Hey, I'm doing this as a partnership with Sean Marks and Josiah and Kevin. No, no no, no, that's not really the case.

He doesn't understand that that's not his decision. Whether or not Kyrie plays basketball for the Nets is entirely up to Brooklyn, and they don't want him unless Kevin Durant reinvests in the franchise, in which case they understand he's better than the alternative. Right, but if they reset, if KD is leaving, which I believe he is, which we're gonna talk about here in just a minute, there's no

universe in which they keep Kyrie. They will flip him for a first round pick, probably to the l A Lakers. This that's just smoking mirrors. That's just Kyrie. I think. What what Kyrie is really trying to accomplish there is demonstrate a willingness to play basketball, because he understands that's

his biggest red flag surrounding him right now. He knows it hurt him in his extension conversations this summer, and he probably wants a lengthy deal after this year, so he's probably gonna do a lot to try to rehab his image over the course of this next season to you know, kind of make people believe that he's committed again so that he can get a long term deal. That's what I think this is about. Now, is kde coming back? I don't think so. You're gonna see threats.

You're gonna see Brooklyn say things like we're going to take them to camp. We've talked about this before. Training camp is your best opportunity to set a tone for the season. You never want to bring a mail content into training camp. You never want to bring someone who's not committed into training camp. In this particular circumstance, Kevin

Durant wants out. If you bring him back, all that's gonna do is cause your your three season to get off to a really ugly start with lots of in fighting and passive aggressiveness and things that are gonna hurt a basketball team. Now, remember, one of the big reasons why Sean Markson and jos I want to get out of this relationship is they don't like having Katie and

Kyrie and control. They don't like the you know, the kind of like uh this like you know, entrepreneur, businessman type of approach to the way that these players are running the Nets. They want to be in control. They want to run it like a basketball team. They want commitment, they want buy in. They don't want drama. They don't want to deal with that that like diva type of personality from those two guys, right, So they don't want to They want to reset. They want to build a

new culture moving forward. So chances are this is all a leverage play and they're looking to raise Katie's value to some extent. I don't think you're gonna get much more than the offers that they've seen. A Jalen Brown with three first and two swaps is probably the best that you can do in this situation. And my guess is at some point over the next couple of months, the Nets will relent and they will make that deal again.

Like I've said several times, the one thing that can turn this into Katie returning to the Nets is Kevin Durant himself. If he gets a change of heart and really is that he doesn't actually want to leave, and that he wants to stay in Brooklyn and play with Kyrie and all those things, then yes, I believe they would bring them back to camp, but I don't think

that's going to happen. And Katie has leaked once again, and I think he leaked it to Jake Fisher about a week and a half ago that he's still very intent on getting traded. So not sure what to make of this Woes report. I do think Boston is a legitimate threat. I love the deal for them. I think they should do it, but it again, like Brian Wintre said, it's an old report, and like Adrian Warsnowski said, they're no closer to obtaining Katie than every everybody else, So

this is probably just more summer drama. But I do think Boston is a great example of the type of team that should make this type of deal because it's pushing all the chips in the middle and gives you a very very good chance to win the title. Let's start with the Heel Turner news. So the report is that what's on the table from the Lakers already is Russell Westbrook plus a first round draft pick in return

for Buddy Heald and Miles Turner. So obviously there's a lot of there's a lot of debate as to whether or not Buddy held and Miles Turner are worth the first round picks, and so on and so forth. We don't need to get too for too far into the leverage elements of it, because I've gone over it with

you guys so many times. But I think the reality is when you're taking Russell Westbrook, who, as we've talked about so often on this show, is a guy that I'm not sure that the lake that any team in the NBA would sign if he was available for a veteran minimum, right That's the type of situation that his

value is in right now. But at the same time, he's also making forty seven million, and chances are if you as a process of the team taking on his salary, they're also gonna have to send him home or direct him somewhere else. It's a very very complicated situation. So you can't look at it straight up as is Buddy Healed worth a first round pick, or is Miles Turner worth their first round pick? Or are the two of them worth two first round picks. That's not the exchange

that's taking place here. It's Buddy Healed and Miles Turner and are dealing with the Russ problem for you, and so you're paying on two fronts. You're paying for the value of the players in return, and you're paying to send Russ out obviously now to be clear, kind of like what happened with the Kwhi Leonard situation the year that the Lakers won the title. I still think Kyrie should be their top priority. We've talked about this on

previous episodes. The reality of the situation is is guys like Kyrie, what they do is very difficult to replicate on any level. It is a superpower essentially, and everyone else is kind of a regular human, right, And there are these there's like a dozen or you know, maybe two dozen players in the league to have these like legit superpowers that there's no scheming or effort or anything that can be done to counter what they bring to

a basketball team. And so it's a lot easier to take Kyrie Irving and and unleash his superpower and then manufacture, if fact, simile of what Miles Turner does than it is to bring in Buddy Heild and Miles Turner and go to Buddy Held and be like, I need you to create shots in a playoff series the way that Kaye Irving does that's just not realistic, right, So Kyrie

needs to be the number one option. But if they have some sort of intel or some sort of understanding that Kyrie is off the table, this is a great backup plan. If you would have told me coming into this summer that the Lakers could flip Russell Westbrook into two quality, starter level NBA players, I wouldn't have believed you.

I thought it was more realistic that the Lakers would get kind of like other bad contracts, and maybe if they were fortunate one solid player, like like right, like I was looking at, maybe okay, they could get Gordon Hayward is salary filler, and then and then maybe they could get Terry Rosier that's like a really solid guard. So you get one solid piece and the rest might be like Mason Plumle or Gordon Hayward kind of like

just salary filler type of pieces. The idea of getting two functional NBA starters in return, that does so much to erase the damage of the Russell Westbrook trade. I've said this before on the show, but Russell Westbrook is not responsible for what happened to the Lakers last year. That's not fair to him. But the Russell Westbrook trade is absolutely what caused the Lakers season to go that

the way that it did last year. Beyond the injuries, which obviously we're out of everybody's control, but if you look at it, even in the previous season, Lebron and Anthony Davis missed a ton of time, the roster was still functional enough to carry them to the playoffs in

the way that this year's wasn't. It wasn't just Russ coming in, and we don't need to get into the things that Russ does on a basketball team that can be damaging, but it was Russ coming in, and it was contagious Callbo Pope going out a starting level NBA to guard, right, it was Kyle Kuzma going out a starting NBA level four, you know, three or four wing forward, whatever you want to call him. That type of player Montrose Harold, you know, is what it is as a

bench big. But also in that deal, the Lakers took in more salary, considerably more salary and Russ's contract, and as it as a result, when the Lakers came to look at the final numbers of the finances, they decided they couldn't afford out x Crusoe, So in my opinion, you have to partially factor in the loss of Alex Cruso as a side effect or collateral damage from the Russell Westbrook trade. So that trade is what decimated the roster.

And last year when Lebron James and Anthony Davis went down, they struggled so bad because they didn't even have NBA level players on the roster. NBA level starters. We've talked about this before. Under roster control. I really like Austin Reaves. I like Stanley Johnson, I like Quantas Ganna Anderson and Troy Brown Jr. And all of these guys, but they're not starting level NBA players. Their bench players that will have to play bigger roles on this team because of

the lack of talent. So obviously it's expensive, but fixing your mistakes is expensive. I had a weird thing happened with the gate at the complex that my wife and I live in right now, and it like knocked off the side mirror of my truck and I was kind of impatient as I was going through the the gate and bam, it was a mistake, And you know, the mistake costs a few hunter bucks. It sucks, but it is what it is. That's what I had to pay to undo the damage that I did to my truck.

I was able to install. It was easy. It wasn't a big deal, but cost me money. Right, you're screwed up. You made a really bad deal. It hurts your team. The price to fix the problem is two first round picks in the after. It's not the same players as KCP and Kyle Kuzma and and Alex Cruzoe, but it's starter level NBA players. Say what you want about Buddy Heald, He's a starting level NBA guard. Say what you want about Miles Turner, He's a starting level NBA center. Here's

why that's important. The core philosophy of the Lakers has always been Lebron James, Anthony Davis and role players, guys that do the dirty work. Where things went off the rails last year was losing the quality role players. It was Lebron James, Anthony Davis, the shell of Russell Westbrook

and poor role players. So if you can get quality role players back into the mix, you can recapture the formula from one The Lakers won almost eight of their games when Lebron James and Anthony Davis were on the floor healthy playing basketball. That is what happens when you surround them with quality role players. When Miles Turners on the Pacers, he has to do so much more. When Buddy Healed is on the Kings or on the Pacers, he has to do so much more to contribute to

the team. When they are playing behind Anthony Davis and Lebron James, their roles shrink way down. And when their roles shrink down, it allows them to focus their talents into it. They can focus their exceptional talents Buddy Yield as a shooter and as a guy who can create shots off the dribble, and Miles Turner as a shot blocker who can also space the floor, roll hard to

the rim, and the things that he can do. When you take their elite skills and take away all the extra stuff they have to do and allow them to focus their elite skills, they can be very effective basketball players. So I like that as a backup plan in the UH. In terms of the XS and os, there's a couple of things that stand out out to me. We're gonna talk more about five out basketball later in the show. Like I said, Miles Turner is a textbook five out center.

He gives you the ability to pick and pop to the three point line. He can also spot up and attack closeouts. Right. Him and Anthony Davis can even play together and play five out basketball, which is a super interesting concept that we can get into further later into the show With Buddy Heald. What excites me the most with him in the same principle takes place with Kyrie Irving, but it's also exciting with Buddy held as a backup option.

The ability to shoot the ball off the dribble while also being a small, quick player that does not lend teams to be willing to switch their big man out onto them. So when Lebron James and Anthony Davis run high screen and roll, chances are Lebron is gonna be being guarded by a big, versatile defensive forward and Anthony Davis is gonna be guarded by a big, versatile defensive forward. Right,

That's just the way that it's gonna work. So chances are any team, if Lebron and Anthony Davis run pick and roll, they're gonna switch it, and now you're pulling the ball out and running isolation. And it doesn't really accomplish much. That's the issue of that specific action with those two players now with you. When you added Kyrie Irving or a Buddy Yield in this case, they can't switch because Buddy's too quick, Anthony Davis is too big, Miles Turners too big. Right now, they have to run

some variation of drop coverage. If they run drop coverage, Buddy Healed uniquely forces you to chase over the top of screens. When they had Russell Westbrook, Dennis Shrewder, Jon Rondo, because they couldn't shoot off the dribble, the guard had the flexibility to go underneath the screen. When the guard can go underneath the screen, he doesn't have to worry about the drive as much, which allows the big man, the screen defender, to stay back and take away the

role man. So by making the rollman's job easier and by making the guards job easier, you can run a drop coverage that is damned effective against good basketball players. For instance, you guys remember the Thunder beating the Lakers

twice this year. One of the big reasons why they were able to do that was towards the end of the game, the Lakers tried to go to Russ Anthony Davis pick and roll, but they had Lou Dort on Russ and they had I'm blanking on his name, but the backup big that used to play for the Jazz a few years ago, I'm forgetting his name, but the guy who was playing big for the Thunder last year on Anthony Davis. And when Russ came over the ball screen,

Dort just dropped underneath the screen. And Uh, it's killing me that I can't remember his name. But the big man would drop back and it turned Russ and Anthony Davis into jump shooters. They're both bad jump shooters. The results were they ended up losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder twice. That's what happens when you can run that super aggressive conservative back to the rim drop against Russ and Anthony Davis. When you make the guard chase over

the top because of your shooting threat. Because if Buddy healed, if you go under that screen, he's knocking down that three probably forty percent of the time. If he's open off the dribble, that forces you to chase over the top. If you chase over the top, now the guard is in a disadvantage as Buddy Heald is going downhill. Now the screen defender has to step over to contain Buddy Healed.

Now Anthony Davis is rolling hard to the rim. That's what opens up the pocket pass or forces the help defender to come over, so you can swing for open threes on the weeks out of the floor. It's a simple concept. There's not a whole it's not very complicated, but it makes a huge difference in how difficult it is to guard your pick and roll action. So I love the idea of the Lakers getting a real ball handling, aggressive pull up shooter in that guard position, and I

think Buddy yields a great fit there. So again, the Leakers are smart to hold the first pick and and hold out on the second pick until they absolutely have to. They should still be prioritizing Kyrie, but as a decent backup option, I like the Healed Turner fit. And if it costs two picks, it costs two picks. That's what it costs to fix the mistake that you made. All right,

let's move on to the Warriors for a second. So Michael Thompson, Klay Thompson's father said, quote, they won't be complacent. You've got three competitors leading the way, and Draymond, Steph and Clay they've got four, but you know they want to get five, they want to get six. So the question here is how many more titles do I believe that the Warriors will win? So first of all, I do want to talk about the motivation part, because I do find it interesting. You know, I used to work

in real estate. Calling Coward has used to have this one liner that had used in a show. I'm sure he's been using it still to this day, but he says, like, you know, with the real estate agent, any real estate agent can have one great year. You have a bunch of deals fall in your lap. You're motivated, you're working hard, your pipeline gets full, you have a bunch of stuff, clothes, you make a ton of money, right, But the truly

great realtors are good year in and year out. You know. Um. One of the things that I learned early on in that business was like the difference between your pipeline and the deals that you're actually working, because there's transactional work as a realtor and then there's the actual lead generation, you know, doing open houses, cold calling, door knocking, whatever it was that you did. Some some realtors even pay

for leads from the larger companies of own. But what will happen a lot with realtors is they'll fill their pipeline and then they'll start closing a bunch of deals. And when they're closing the deals, they start making a lot of money, but they're doing this transactional stuff and

they're not filling the pipeline. So then like you get to the end and the and the deals all closed, and you've made all this money, but then your pipeline is empty, and then you can go six months without closing another deal because you didn't continue to fill the pipeline along the way. And you see that a lot in professional sports. You see it a lot with specific types of athletes. Right you have guys that are you know, competitive, guys that are very competitive, and then you have guys

that are psychotically competitive. You see UH teams and players where it's like one year they're completely locked in and and everything is working, and you could tell the motivation is on level ten out of ten, but then the next season it's just not quite the same. James Harden is my favorite example of this if you look at the two thousand eighteen season, the year that he won the m v P. He was so locked in trying on the defensive and the Rockets are following his lead.

They're locked in. They win sixty five games, they come up short, but then something's missing. The next season, the whole vibe is off. Now he's beefing with Chris Paul, Like it's just not the same the year internet it was like, for one year, everything came together and he locked in and he damned near won a title, and then he's never been able to replicate that start to finish,

effort and focus that he had in that specific year. That's, you know, one side of the spectrum, and then you've got like guys like Tom Brady on the other side of spectrum, where it's like, dude, you've won seven Super Bowls, you're unassailably the best quarterback to ever play the game of football, probably the best football player of all time. Why are you still trying to win? Like? Why why are you still trying to play it? But it's it's

really that simple. He he wants eight, you know, like once he gets eight, you'll probably want to come back to get nine, and it'll take some combination of his body failing him and his wife yelling at him for him to finally and inevitably hang things up. Like that's the spectrum there, and you know you're your all time Grades,

your Lebron's, your Steph Curries, your Warriors, your Spurs. There on the far side, there, on the Tom Brady side of that spectrum, they are psychotically competitive, and you always see stories and anecdotes that kind of lend credence to that idea. But that's why, that's why they're not satisfied with number four, and that's why they're gonna keep coming back. Now as far as the basketball goes, you know, when someone asks me, do I think the Warriors can win five?

Or do I think the Warriors can win six? Like so much of it just comes down to luck. Same thing goes for Lebron if in his pursuit of five and six. I'm not worried about Lebron trying hard next season. I'm not worried about Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green being locked in. Those guys are all gonna

be locked in. But things gotta break your way. Things gotta break your way with the roster, you know, Like the Warriors lost two key rotational players in Auto Porder Junior and in Gary Payton the second right, So like it's important for Moses Moody and Dante de Vincenzo to kind of slide into those roles in order to fill those rolls. Right. Health is a big part of it.

Like the Warriors had horrible health luck there for basically two and a half seasons, right, but things kind of all broke right, Like Steph got healthy just in time for the playoffs, Draymond got healthy really just before the playoffs. Clay Thompson was kind of getting his legs underneath him right around that time, and it all just kind of

broke right for them. And you can also see it go the other way, right, like the Bucks their cruising along, everything looks great, uh, you know, they look like a team that absolutely could repeat and win another championship. And Chris Middleton goes down and next thing you know, they're completely overmatched in a series against the Celtics that somehow, on the strength of Janice's unbelievable, untamable greatness, they dragged

it out to seven games. But the point is you gotta be lucky along the way to so many things have to go your way. So the question of whether or not the Warriors are gonna win five or six titles or just stay at four is like, well, everybody stay healthy, you know, or you know, also the things like what happened with Kevin Dury in two thousand and seventeen that can derail a championship opportunity, right, Like the Calves were probably thinking, hey, we're repeating in two thousand seventeen.

We like our chances. We're bringing everybody back. We're that we have Kyle Korver. Now, like Kevin Love is gonna play better because he's not gonna be concussed. You know, Lebron's actually getting better in two thousand seven, eighteen ten, two thousand seventeen, and two thousand eighteen. But it's like here comes to Kevin Durant move and now it's like

window over. No one's beating that team, right, So, like there's all these factors that are fluid in these situations, and so many things have to go your way to win a championship that the reality is that it's not really a percent under their control. They've got to be lucky along the way as well. But here's the reality. I have them as the favorite going into next season because I don't see any reason to believe that they won't be right there back in the mix next year.

And if I'm picking between Steph Curry since Lebron James is basically out of the I mean he's out of contention right now, and the unless the Lakers work a miracle here over the course in the next couple of months, if I'm picking against Steph, with Steph Curry against the honest, or picking with Steph Curry against a you know, uh, Kevin Durant or Nicola Yokitch or a Kawhi Leandard, Like, I just trust him more. I trust him more. I trust Steve kermore, I trust Raymond Green more, I trust

them more. So Yeah, Like, if all things break right, I absolutely think the Warriors can win five or six titles. But it's just not as simple as going out and doing it. You need things to break your way. Uh, let's be one of the Suns. So uh, Monty Williams assigns assigns a contract extension. He's staying with the staying with them as a head coach. You know, we were wondering whether or not they were gonna end up going

after k D. They did not. Um Well, they obviously made some offers, but they didn't make an offer that was legitimately interesting to the to the nets um DeAndre Ayton goes out signs a offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers, he ends up getting signed or the Sun's end up matching the offer. Like I told you, guys, I found

that whole situation to be really strange. I didn't understand if your goal all along was to keep eating at something close to the max, then why we're on the risk of all the of all the you know, emotional baggage of making your player feel unwanted essentially as part of the process. I didn't get all that. But either way, it looks like because as a result of that, he can't be traded until uh a significant chunk into the season, and he has a trade veto power for one calendar year.

So Etan's not getting traded. Mcail Bridges is not enough to get k D. So the Sons are probably not getting KD unless some miracle breaks for them here in the next couple of weeks, Right so it looks like it's going to be largely the same team now. In these types of situations, it all comes down to whether or not you look at your team and their outcome in the last season is something that was bad luck or if you read the reality of what happened on the court, you could as a Sons fan look at

it as bad luck. Like man Devin Booker, he went cold there towards the end of that series. Um, he had a hamstring issue in the first round, so like maybe he wasn't a physically. They probably had some conversations behind the scene. Devin Booker probably went up, um, you know, to their front office and was like, hey, just you guys know, like I wasn't healthy. You know, he probably said something like that, Chris Paul had a quad injury.

Did it looked like literally was incredibly dominant through eight playoff games if I remember correctly, and then was a horrific shell of himself. So Chris Paul can say, hey, I was hurt. You know, you can look at it like, hey, deandreton is gonna get better. Um, Michael Bridges is gonna

get better. Cam Johnson's gonna get better. You can look at it and from a very optimistic light, or you can look at the reality of the basketball, and the reality of the basketball for the Suns is they damned ear loss to the Lakers two years ago and fortunately Anthony Davis went down with injury and they were able to close that series out in six games. Okay. Uh. Then they beat the Denver Nuggets without Jamal Murray. Okay. Then they got dragged to six by the l a

Clippers without Kawhi Leonard. And then they lost four consecutive games in the NBA Finals to lose to the Milwaukee Bucks in Janice and in the first two games they won, but you could argue that Janice was freshly back from having his knee inverted and probably wasn't close to Then we come into this season and they get dragged to six games by the New Orleans Pelicans. Mind you, they had some injuries in that series. And then they lose

to the Dallas Mavericks. Now this was not them losing to the Warriors, This was not them losing to a juggernaut. They lost to a dark horse title team that was significantly like the Dallas Mavericks, had significantly less talent than the Phoenix Suns, but they lost largely on the strength

of Luca's greatness. All last season, I told you, guys, I thought the Phoenix Suns were the most talented team in basketball from the top down, but they were missing that alpha dog talent, and I thought that this season would be a great indicator of whether or not they were real or fake, you know, frauds or real legitimate title contenders, because you know, in this particular case, Chris Paul can play is one of the best playmakers in the league, right, and Devin Booker is a fantastic three

level score So in theory, the two of them can kind of combine and masquerade as a superstar, right. But then they ran into a real superstar in Luka don Chez, who did not have the level of surrounding talent that they did, and they looked completely and utterly overmatched, helpless, lying on the ground as Lucas stomped them in the

ground like that. That that's what happened. And so to me, that's if I was looking at that situation as the general manager, and I was trying to decide whether or not, you know, bad luck was the reason for our outcomes or a fundamental flaw and team construction, meaning the lack of alpha dog superstar was the problem. I'm looking at option number two there, and so if they run it back, which it looks like they're going to, that's what I would expect. I would expect more of the same dominant

regular season engine. You know, Monty Williams, to his credit and the reason why he's getting an extension. You know, if you watch that team, they are extremely well coached. Their offense is a machine five pick and roll, they

are floor spacing is excellent. They put their backside players like Michael Bridges Cam Johnson in great position to capitalize on the defensive attention thrown to the Paul Eyton pick and roll, to the book or eight and dribble handoffs and everything that they do they have that they're They're just extremely well coached and obviously they're a great defensive team as well. So they they're gonna be a great

regular season team. They're gonna want a ship ton of games, and then they're gonna end up running into one of the many superstars in the Western Conference. Hey guess what You've got to go through? Lebron staph Kauai, Nicola Yo Kids uh, Luca done. It's like you're just you're gonna

run into potentially five opponents. Obviously you're not gonna play all five of them, but one of five opponents, two or five opponents, three or five opponents that could have the will have by far the best player on the floor in that series. And so I I would hope that at a certain point, whoever's you know, at this point, James Jones needs just kind of read the writing on the wall and understand that that he doesn't have enough talent, he doesn't have that big piece that he needs to

get this done, and it's time to start looking elsewhere. Alright, couple of cool hitters before we get out of here. So The Volume posted a social media post the other day where they put Lebron and Kobe m J and k D. Shack and Tim Duncan on a photo and said which one would you betch? And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because I think it's super cut and dry. You're bench and Tim Duncan.

You guys know, I prefer perimeter players and spaced out basketball, So obviously I'm gonna go with Katie, Kobe, Lebron, and MJ and then for the center position. Tim Duncan has a better career resume. He was dominant for longer, but Shack was better at his absolute peak. That just goes without saying it kind of reminds me of the Steph thing. Like,

I have the utmost respect for Tim Duncan. He was never really the best player in the league, but he was always up there in that conversation, and he was such a good leader, and he was so coachable that he was kind of the ultimate foundational piece for a dynastic franchise. So it's not as slight against him Duncan. I have the utmost respect for him, But Shack was a better player at his peak. You just gotta slot

him into that role. But I'm curious here what your guys thoughts are, So put that in the YouTube comments, um before we get out of here. You know, like I, like I said, when we get into these off seasons, there's a certain amount of filler. There's a certain amount of drama, you know. Like I don't like getting on here and talking about Russell Westbrook every day. I actually hate it. It's just what we have to do, uh, as part of the job. And because he's in the news.

It's just it's just the reality, right Like, But the basketball is always what I love the most, and um, I always want to I want to take time in each show to dive into some sort of basketball concept, and so here at the end, I want to talk about five out basketball, which is something I preach all the time in the show, is something that I personally advocate for Now, at the end of the day, it's about personnel. You have to you have to run what

fits best for your team. If you consistently have to have a player on the floor that can't shoot or dribble, you can't run five out basketball. So you're limited in what you can do there. But at the end of the day, if I have the correct personnel, I've always preferred five out basketball as a core offensive motion, and I wanted to take a couple of minutes to kind of break down why that is. So. First of all,

what what what is five out basketball? It is It is the motion offense you run when all of your actions are finished. So offense is like a progression. The first progression is try to score the basketball and transition you're gonna stop. You get a rebound, your unlike hell to the front of the rim and try to dunk it or get a layup until someone stops you. If someone stops you there, you might run what's called a secondary break or like a semi transition play. Essentially, it's

an action that you run as part of transition. It might be the guard's interchanging. It might be your point guard doing a dribble pitch back to the big nn trailing the floor for three. It might be a quick pin down or a quick double screen, something along those lines. But it's like a brief action that you run as part of the transition sequence. If that fails, you might run your actual play that you call right and but if there's a play that you call, there's a couple

of steps to it, but you reach the end of it. Like, for instance, the high school kids that I coach, we run a play called Shuffle and Shuffle. You have two bigs at the two elbows, and you have two guards on the wing. It's like a four high offense right, and there's a guy making the entry, the guard making the entry up top, and you entry enter the ball to the high post and there's like a flex cut off of the elbow where you try to hit the

guy cutting to the basket. Um. But and then after that flows into a couple of like double pin downs for shooters coming off. But if those don't work, the plays over and so what do you do? You know, Like some some coaches might have you run another play, but every coach I played for and every coach that I know of, typically you flow out of the play into your core motion offense. It's a it doesn't have a step by step instruction. It's more of like a

a concept, right, It's like spacing principles. That's where you're supposed to stand on the floor, and just some basic rules. But there's usually a lot of freedom to do what you want within that. So you design that based on your talent and what fits your team. I played on a bunch of different I played on three different teams in college, and our core motion offense was different for

each team based on personnel. Right, my second year in JUCO, we ran a three in two out motion offense because we were primarily a post up team that had really good post players, and the post players would cross screen for each other and then the third post player would say set a pin down from one of them. To come up to the top of the key. It was kind of like a triangle essentially, uh not not the triangle offense, but a triangle of post players and you're

essentially running high low. You're trying to enter the ball to the high post that you can make a post entry down underneath the basket. That's just what we did for the personnel that we had there. My last year in college, we ran three out, two in once again because had really good post players, and so it was kind of like an incessant set of screening rolls where you know, the the one big would run up to set the screen while the other screen would go to

the opposite block to sit in the dunker spot. And if that didn't work, then the bigs would rotate and the other big would come up to set the screen and the other guy would go to the other dunker spot. Right like, It's just kind of a flowing run of pick and rolls. That's what we did. My high school team. We run five out, and again it's not a play. Anything can happen in five out, it's just spacing principles.

In our high school with our high school team, there's gut Top, the key guy, in both wings, guy in both corners, which is the way five out exists in every level basketball because there's just not enough room on the floor to stay in anywhere else. But from there it's pretty much you can do whatever you want. The guy who has the basketball can attack the basket, try to get to the rim. The guy can do a dribble hand off, like dribble to the next guy and pitch it to him and try to hit his man right.

You can pass and screen away. You can call for a ball screen. You can look for the ball and cut hard and try to get open. As a cutter, you can do literally anything. But as players are moving around the floor, you're always rotating and filling in spaces. So if you pass, if you're at the top of the key and you pass to the right wing and you cut through, the guy at the right wing needs to fill to the top, and the guy out of the corner needs to fill to the wings, so the

guy who's cutting can fill to the corner. So you're always like it's kind of like pieces sliding around on the court, and everyone kind of knows their core spaces where they're supposed to be. But outside of that, you just play basketball. We always tell our kids, just play basketball. These are just some rules that you have in place to help you know where you're supposed to stay in on the floor. That's all. That's all that five out basketball is. But there are a couple of key reasons

why I believe in it so much. Now for starters, the we'll start with the detract of what the detractors will say. In order to run five out basketball, you need to have five players that are comfortable playing on the perimeter. That means they have to be able to pass, dribble, and shoot. Okay, So you just can't play five out basketball if you have a traditional center on the floor that can't move his feet, that can't pass the basketball, that can't put the basketball on the floor, and they

can't shoot, it just won't work. I mean, if if you had DeAndre Jordan's stand in the week side corner, I mean, no one just no one's gonna guard him, right. So, as a result, and when you have five perimeter players, sometimes you're limited in defensive ability. Sometimes you're limited in rebounding. For example, when the dalax Mavericks went away from Dwight Powell and went to Maxi Kleiba. He was much better in their five out offense because of his ability to

shoot and put the basketball on the floor. But he's not the level of defensive player that Dwight Powell is right. He's not the level of rebounder that Dwight Powell. He's not the physical presence in the athlete that Dwight Powell is right. So there there's a trade off in any type of concept of offense. But there's a there's a reason why I believe in five out. So let's say let's say as a starting point that I'm sacrificing a great defensive big man. Okay, I'm ditching a defensive big man.

I'm bringing in a smaller, more finesse big to play my five out offense. So I'm losing something on the defensive end and I'm losing something on the glass. But here's what I'm gaining now. The simple answer is spacing. So if I have a guy standing in the dunker spot, the defensive player can play two places at once. He can protect the rim while also guarding his man in the dunker spot. But if he's in the week side

corner and there's nobody in the dunker spot. If I beat my man off the dribble, now that helper isn't coming from the block, He's coming from his man on the week side corner. He has to cover so much more ground. If I'm protecting the rim and my and I'm guarding a post player, I can be in two places at once. If I'm guarding the man in the week side corner, I have to abandon my man to come help at the rim. Now the defense is in rotation. That's how the basic spacing concept works. But there's one

last reason why I wanted to make this point. I believe that the best way to win basketball games is to have a superstar or an all world talent who's better than everybody else on the floor, as good as the other team's best player, but he's comfortable and he's confident in playing his best basketball. Basketball is a rhythm sport. Confidence and belief in your ability is a huge factor in the result. Think of like when you see Reggie Jackson really in a groove and he's high stepping down

the floor kicking his legs. You know he's gonna play well because up here he's fiercely confident. What allows the player to be fiercely confident playing his best basketball. To play his best basketball, you want him to feel comfortable on offense. You want him to have spacing so that he feels unguardable, so that he can ride that confidence

way throughout the game. If you play congested basketball, you're gonna have nights where it's like, man, all I'm getting is to All I'm getting to is my pull up jump shot, and it's just not falling, and I don't have the space to get into the ring. So I don't feel good about myself. I don't feel good about

the way I'm playing. I don't feel confident. And so even if you are getting better defense, even if you are getting better rebounding out of the role players that are clunking things up around the rim, your star is not feeling good. I want Luca to be stomping the Phoenix Suns into the ground in Game seven, even though they're losing things in the physicality areas of the game

with Maxi Kleiba. Luca don Chich was peaking in that series with his confidence, his feel, and his strangling of the game, and as a result, he was able to utterly demolish the Phoenix suns. So for me, there's always a trade off with every style, and you can't run a style unless you have the personnel to run it.

But if I have the personnel to run five out basketball, I will always favor that because whatever I lose in rebounding or whatever I lose in defensive personnel, I make up for an offensive comfort which is gonna lead to my star feeling the best about himself, which is gonna be what allows him to control the game, especially at the late part of the game when it's closing time when you have to create and make tough shots. I want my star feeling comfortable. I want my best player

feeling comfortable. So again, there's all these different ways to do it. It always should be catered towards your personnel. But for me, personally, if you have the personnel, I think five out basketball is the best core offensive philosophy to win basketball games with the modern iteration of basketball that we see around the world. Right now, all right, guys, that is all I have for today. I will keep you posted on my Twitter feed again. Follow me on Twitter.

I underscore Jason Lts. You guys can see show announcements and things along those lines. I will keep you posting my Twitter feed about when the next show is. As always, I appreciate your sport. I'm getting excited about eventually getting home and getting back into my studio, but I will probably give you guys another show or two on the cruise as well. I appreciate you guys rocking for with me, and I'll see you next time. The volume