Hoops Tonight - Kevin Durant "unbelievable," Suns beat Kings + Warriors biggest threat to Nuggets?

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Happy Wednesday, everybody, hope all of you guys are having a great week. Really quick show this morning, because we're gonna be going live again later tonight. Tonight, We're going live after the final buzzer of Warriors Clippers, a big opportunity for the Warriors to continue their positive momentum, and now that we know Kawhi Leonard is out, an opportunity where it seems like a much more winnable game for them.

Obviously less in the sense that they don't get the challenge or really the benchmark test that we would hope to see from a full strength Clippers team, But considering their predicament in the standings, there's no way to slice that other than as a good thing, because it's an

opportunity for them to continue to gain a gain ground. Specifically, the Lakers and Warriors would both like to get out of that ninth and tenth seed this year as they try to get into a situation where they have two opportunities to win a play in game or maybe get out of the playing game in general. As we look down the stretch, the Sacramento Kings are starting to lose some ground in the standings. The Phoenix Suns have a really tough schedule down the stretch of the season, so

a lot of room for jockeying in that position. Big night for the Warriors on that front later tonight, but in this particular show, we're we're talking about the Kings and the Sons, who had another dog fight last night in the fourth quarter. Kind of an interesting chess match down the stretch. As Frank Vogel kind of towed the line between Kevin Durant at center versus going big with use of Nurkic. Took a little bit of a gamble

that paid off at the end of the game. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams, and then I have a half dozen or so mail bag questions from yesterday's show that we'll get to so quick show today back later tonight for Warriors Clippers, and then I'll probably add another one or two games to tonight's instant reaction as well. I'll just take a look at the schedule tonight. We'll kind of play by ear based on how the games go down. All right, before

we get started, you guys know the drill. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me. If you guys to take a second to scroll down hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, don't forget it's really helpful for us if you leave a rating and a review on that front, So I'd appreciate that. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT for show announcements

as well as film threads. That I do from time to time in the mornings, and last night leaves keep dropping. Mail back questions probably hit him a couple more times over the course of the All Star break in the.

a big positive result. Now it's become something that they've used periodically ever since. And so at the start of the fourth quarter was a KD at center look. And specifically what Sacramento was doing which was causing them a a lot of problems for the King's defense was they kept putting two on the ball, specifically with Kevin Durant. So whether it was an ISO at the top the key or a ball screen. They were double teaming KD.

And then from there the Kings or the Sons were running really efficient four on threes out of it and getting really high quality shots. Even a couple of opportunities where the ball worked its way back to Kevin Durant got a wide open catch and shoot three at the top of the key out of one of those double teams. There's another blitz where the ball got back to him on the right wing and he kind of pumped, faked, ripped it through the right rose up for a pull

up fifteen footer. KD was like seven to eleven on pull up two point shots in this game. He was just completely locked in. Had a big one at the end of the shot clock there in the second half as well, where was kind of a bailout possession where he got into the middle.

in the mid range of the those blitzing situations. So again, like a lot of times, what's happening is the the Sons are looking to bring maybe someone a like a like a Josha Kogi into the ball screen. Right They're trying to bring a lesser offensive player into the ball screen because of the fact that he's usually being guarded by the worst defensive player and so usually whoever's got the ball is trying to pick on the worst defensive player on the floor by bringing him up into the

ball screen. So the Kings are countering that by doubling, and what's happening is an inferior offensive player is getting the ball right there in the middle of the floor, and so when they were reacting to that, that guy's able to make a kickout pass, and now the higher

level offensive players are working with an advantage. And one of the things that kind of turned Sacramento's fortunes there in the middle of the fourth quarter was they finally started just not overreacting to that role man and kind

of letting him get downhill. And it's like got to take that little floater in the lane, right, you got to take that little mide range jump shot or a pack the basket and actually get into the rim protector so that you can drop it off to the guy that's in the dunker spot or whatever it may be. Having that sort of like a willingness to score out of the short role is vitally important. And when that guy's not willing to score, that's when things can kind

of fall apart. So it swings back towards Sacramento's way. They start to get some stops and on the other end of the floor, Sa Bonus comes back into the game. So Bonus was not in the game at the early portion of the fourth quarter, and Sabonis started bullying mismatches

down low at the basket, getting easy shots there. Sabonis was unbelievable in this game at thirty five points, eighteen rebounds, and twelve assists, had nine offensive rebounds, and the Kings actually won his minutes in this game by four points. Just an unbelievable Sabonis game. But at this down the stretch, this is where the Frank Vogel gamble came in. So you remember in the game that they played whatever it was. Three weeks ago or so, when Kadie went to center,

Sabonis wasn't as active attacking mismatches. That was one of the biggest reasons why the Kings kind of lost control of that game. Well, in the middle of this fourth quarter, Sabonis was much more active there, and so Frank Vogel

has a decision to make. He can either go back big and you know, deal with some of the offensive limitations of that as well as the defensive limitations of that, because Nurkics can struggle as a pick and roll defender from times from time to time, but be more physically matched up with Sabonis both in the post and on the glass. Or he can stay small and hope that

the scoring kind of makes up for it. And so the call that he goes with that he ends up bringing Nurkic back into the game and ended up paying off in a big way because he made three huge

defensive plays down the stretch of this game. There's a ball screen with Deer and Fox where a coming down the left side of the lane where Fox kind of stunted like he was gonna throw past the Sabonis and then he tried to sneak a little left, He's hook shot and Nurkic knocked the ball away, and when he knocked the ball away, there was so little time on the shot clock that Harrison Barnes basically had to throw up a prayer from like thirty five feet on the

left wing and he missed it, so that basically generated to stop. Then there was another one where Malik Monk was in the ball screen and coming down the right side of the lane line and Nurkic kind of cut him off, and as he was cutting off, he funneled him along the baseline. Darren Fox was wide open at the top of the key, and Monk tried to whip this like one arm pass to Daron Fox at the

top of the key. Nurkic just grabbed it. Just really really good defense containing the basketball and then getting the deflection on the kickout pass. And then finally there was a breakaway situation, a fast break situation where Nurkic was kind of trailing the play and he ended up making an extra effort and getting a block at the rim.

All three of those plays took place with less than four minutes left in a one possession game, and it's kind of an interesting example of defensive reputation versus reality, because like what happens a lot of times is like a narrative forms a round a player, and.

of Nurkic is incapable of making defensive plays. This goes across the board around the league, and this is why I always talk about how you can craft a coherent defense around a player that has some limitations, as long as you have defensive personnel on the floor that can do some of the bigger, more labor intensive jobs, and as long as that player is willing to commit to the job that's being asked of him, and if you can craft for him a small achievable job, and he

engages himself in that job, you can get positive defensive production. This was a game where Nurkic struggled defensively. There's a decision to make about Nurkic as a defensive player, and then he literally won the game. He won the game making defensive plays. It was a shootout going both ways. Devin Booker hit i think three pull up twos down the stretch that were massive shots. Kevin Durant hit a big pull up two, one of the big things the Suns did late as they stopped going to pick and

roll and they started like hunting ISO opportunities. And then Devin Booker also took one in transition, which was a good way to prevent that second defender from coming over. And there was a play where the Kings did double Devin Booker in an ISO and it left Royce O'Neal wide open on the left wing, and he ended up making the biggest, one of the biggest shots of the

game there, a three point shot. And that's kind of an example like when you double one pass away in an ISO situation, it's you can kind of control who that guy is that's open and ended up being a better shooter. Whereas when you bring a lesser offensive player into the ball screen to target a lesser defensive player, sometimes the guy that's open ends up being a lesser offensive player. So you got to see some more solid offensive process from Phoenix down the stretch.

to redeem yourself. That is the beautiful, the most beautiful

thing about the game. D'Angelo Russell last year gets absolutely utterly humiliated by Bruce Brown for the world to see in the Western Conference Finals, to the point where he's removed from the rotation for essentially removed from the rotation at the end of the series like that, that inspired him and he's come back and now he's playing the very best basketball of his career, played so damn well that all of a sudden, a bunch of Laker trade

options didn't necessarily make a ton of sense like that. To D'Angelo Russell's credit, that's that's taking itage of the beautiful opportunities that basketball presents yourself. And that's the thing. Like, one of the biggest swing factors for the Suns this season is going to be use of Nurkice on the defensive end. Will he be able to make enough plays? Will they be able to you know, because like look

at like what Nikola Jokic does for Denver. Just by being active with his hands and using his basketball brain to kind of perceive things as they're unfolding in front of him, he can be an impact defensive player. And I thought that was just a really cool example of that.

game there on the left wing. Hit another three in the early fourth quarter during the run where the Suns went up by ten, where he saw Herder kind of like trailing and not playing really good defense, and Kevin Rank came up and set like a little brush screen and they the Kings botched the switch. He just stepped into like a wide open pull up three at the top of the key and made it. He had a driving drove a close out out of the left corner and got a dunk like Roys Soneal was just incredible

in this particular game. But like one of the things that I like about Royce in particular is he's one of the best guys in the league at defending with a lot of physicality, and he does pick up more foul calls than your typical perimeter defender. But there's an advantage with physicality because like let's say you get three or four fouls called on you in a game, Guys like that are actually committing dozens and dozens of fouls

over the course of the game. But it's a gamesmanship thing in the sense that they're good at doing it without getting called a good percentage of the time. And where that becomes valuable is a lot of times, especially with the Sun's perimeter group, they can do some switching and Royce has the ability to guarded deeron fox guard am Malik Monk. He had some good bald denial possessions last night where he's just preventing them from even getting

their catchp in the spots that they want. That's another area where physicality helps. When you're off the ball, the rest allow you to use your hands more and so you can be handsy and kind of hold a player and place off the ball in a way that you can't when you're on the ball. Right, but he can switch on to bigger, stronger players because he brings so much physicality to the position and then just bringing like real high hands in ball pressure too. That's so important

to disrupt those passing angles. I thought he was a big time addition for the Suns, and like, you know, it's funny. One of the big narratives around the deadline is like who's a needle mover? Is this guy a needle mover? Like, this guy's not a needle mover. This

isn't really gonna change their championship aspirations. And a lot of times when we take a look at that kind of stuff, we zoom in on like just what that specific player is good at, and it's like, yeah, like roy O'Neil from a talent perspective, isn't some massive influx of talent. But when you look at the Suns and what they're good at and what they suck at, he comes in bringing a specific type of player they did

not have. They did not have a guy that can contend in multiple different defensive ways, whether it's guarding guards, ball denial, off the ball, ball pressure, switching onto bigger wings,

and defending in the post, help defense, deflection situations. Like he can help in all these different ways while also being a plus offensive player while also being a player who's not gonna come with the the the lows that you get offensively from a Joshua Kogi, right like that, that's the difference, And what ends up happening is we so focus on this guy doesn't have a ton of talent, But even if you have this much talent, in the big picture of the team, if that much talent fits

perfectly into a need that the team has, it can make the entire package that much more, you know, dependable on both ends of the floor. And so like I think a lot of times we kind of underrate role player because we get so wrapped up in the talent. And like, to me, Royce O'Neil made the Sons a lot better. He's a forced multiplier playing alongside superstars because he's so good at the little things. He makes the total package that much better. He increases their chance to win,

the chances to win the title. End of story, you have Kevin Durant in the late end of his prime, you gotta try to increase your chances. They took a risk, and it that kind of risk in my opinion, like we play the results too much, and so what ends up happening is like if the Sons happened to lose at some point along the way, all of a sudden, it becomes like, oh, well, they wasted an asset, or they did this, or they did that, and it's like you only get one team out of the thirty teams

wins the title. It's already a small chance, and like I'm never going to criticize a team for pushing their chips in and trying to make that happen one of their notes. On a note on the Suns, Bradley Beal pulled up with of what appears to be a minor

hamstring injury in the first quarter. Soft tissue stuff has always been an issue for both Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, and one of the big things that's allowed the Suns to kind of get going here in the last month and a half has been Bradley Beal being consistently available and so good timing in the sense that it's right for the All Star break. But hopefully that's not too serious of an injury for Bradley Beal and hopefully can he can come back before too long so they can

maintain this momentum on the Kings front. Lots of good in this game, Like I talked about earlier, so Bonis was an absolute wrecking ball that Phoenix couldn't do anything with Daron Fox at thirteen points in the fourth quarter.

had twenty two points. Was really deliberate in the fourth quarter about making post feeds to Demonas Sabonis, which like so many guards struggle with that and where they want to run a ball screen and they want to make the kickout pass to the open three or the lob pass for the dunk, and it's like sometimes your job as the guard is to identify where your advantage is.

They play shitty defense, sloppy double teams in this game without the press, sure that you need to disrupt the pass, bad rotations. Bad closeouts is the big one, and this has been an issue forever for this team. They allow teams to score one point zero nine points per spot up possession. That ranks twenty fourth in the NBA. When you look at the amount of perimeter speed they have,

that's just that's embarrassing. For the level of athleticism they have on the perimeter, they should be a better close out team than they are. They're twenty fifth and defending pick and roll they give up one point zero three points per possession, and again they have good perimeter personnel

tons of speed. They're the best defensive rebounding team in the league, not just because of the bonus, but because they have wings that like to crash, which is so important with all the long rebounds that come from miss threes. They can be so much better than they are on the defensive end of the floor. And it really breaks down in the numbers as like their main indicator of success. When they give up one hundred and sixteen or more points,

they are thirteen and seventeen. When they allow one hundred and fifteen or fewer, they're seventeen and six. When they allow one hundred and ten or fewer, they twelve and three. What happened when they beat the Nuggets the other night? They shut them down on the offensive end of the floor, like that is the primary driving force of their success. They're actually not good enough to outscore people, as we've seen,

when they get into these shootouts, they typically lose. And that's the thing, like more often than not, they've been mediocre this year, and now for more than a month, they've been pretty bad. Since January twelfth, the Kings are seven and nine. They are tenth. They're the tenth worst record in the league over that span. Their thirteenth in offense, twenty fourth in defense. Some really lifeless losses in there too. They got ran off the floor by the Pistons.

they still have a really high ceiling. They just beat up the Nuggets. They have like a half dozen super impressive wins this year where they just kick a good team's ass. Like I still think it's in there, but they really need to, like I've talked about, with a lot of these mediocre teams, these last twenty five games of the season, you got to put together a stretch of playoff quality basketball, otherwise you're gonna run into a buzzsaw when you get into the good teams for two

weeks during the playoffs. All right, guys, let's move on to the mailbag first, question. Jason said that the Clippers are fourth in his contenders, but I remember him switching the Clippers with the Bucks from four to three. You're right, I think I just misspoke yesterday. I do have the Clippers above the Bucks as of right now. That said, like all, my contender list is kind of in flux right now, I'm going to be doing about this time

next week. Actually, sometime Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm gonna be doing doing a video with Sam Vassini where we dive into all the contenders and just kind of rank them and go back and forth about that. So whatever the contender list may or may not be at this point, I plan on just like completely reevaluating it when we get to that point and kind of putting teams into tiers from there. So looking forward to that next week.

Next question. I agree with Jason that Rudy Gobert had a very impactful game yesterday, but I have seen it far too often come playoff time, Tyler will make him functionally unplayable in defensive settings. I think last night was just a one off. The Clippers will still beat Minnesota in a seven game series, so it's hard to say, like I do think that last night was or two nights ago, I should say, was a little bit of like a one of those games where the scoreboard doesn't

really represent the gap between the two teams. Particularly it wasn't the Clippers' best defensive effort, and like the Timberwolves have a tendency to fall apart offensively at the end of games. And you know, that's one of those things where I think if the Clippers bring a different defensive level of intensity, they contain the Wolves better, which allows them to get out and transition more and avoid the

set defense more. And like I do think that these teams are pretty close and between the two, if I had to pick one in a series, I do lean slightly towards the Clippers. That said, like the Rudy go Beart thing is not the reason why, like the Rudi go Bear narrative over the last five years is pretty unfair on him, to be honest, and honestly, he's directed

towards the wrong side of the floor. In Utah, he was playing alongside really poor perimeter defense, like Royce O'Neil was the one plus defender that he was playing alongside most of the time, whether it was Donovan Mitchell or Mike Connelly or Boyan mcdonovich like it was a lot of and again, Donovan Mitchell's having the best defensive season of his career now, but he was not a very

good defensive player in that stretch of his career. And so more often than not, when you're the back line guy and the first guy is just getting toasted off the dribble, you step up now the defense in rotation, and it doesn't really matter if Rudy Gobert is the best rim protector or one of the best rim protectors in the league, because because he's just not at the rim anymore now, he's being pulled off onto some other player, especially against a good driving kick team, and that more

often than not was what caused them problems. Honestly, any sort of legitimate criticism towards Rudy Gobert as a playoff player centered on the offensive end of the floor, his ability to ease a little bit of stonehands he could struggle to catch the ball and pick and roll finishing around the rim can be an adventure for him from time to time against the switching team. He's not the kind of guy that can go beat a switch down low on the block. Typically that was where a lot

of his issues would arise in the past. But one of the things that he did against the Clippers in that game was like, oh, you switched, and now Kauhi is on him, and he's kind of, uh, there's a baseline drive and he's kind of relocating to where the charge circle is. Like, well, this time he caught it and he bodied Kawhi and rose up and dunked on it, you know. Or another big one for Rudy is just

being super active on the offensive glass. If you're not catching and finishing around the rim, if you're struggling in these other ways, if you can generate additional possessions or get putbacks, that's worth a ton offensively as well. And like, I do think that Rudy's made enough improvement in those areas over the last few years that he's at the least a very positive player in the playoff setting. I

don't see Rudy getting played off the floor. That's just not an issue that I'm concerned about for the Timberwolves. Next question, what would Jason Tatum have to do to be the number one player on a championship team other than pull up three So the big one that I always talk about here is the physical imposition on the game. And the example that I would use is the difference between let's say Jokic versus Embiid, or like a Lebron versus a KD. And I mean, again, Katie's an amazing

playoff players. I don't want to undercut that, but Lebron's been a better playoff player than him in his career right, and like Embiid's incredible player, but Jokic's clearly been a

better playoff player than him. And like the thing is is if you really dig into it, like Embiid's got more high level isolation, crazy foot work from the mid range and in face up situations like that jab step jumper is nasty, and he's got all of this high level stuff from the perimeter, and same goes for Kevin Durant.

But when you get into these super physical playoff environments, when you're fatigued, and the defensive intensity goes up a level not just for the opponent but for you as well, And now your legs are more tired than you used to be. Now your rhythm and timing and all your shots is different. Like when all that stuff changes a

lot of times. The more perimeter oriented stuff can kind of decrease in effectiveness, and so the guys that have the ability to actually be the person that's better at absorbing those blows and so they fatigue less and they're good at generating higher quality shots around the rim, or maybe they get to the rim and generate really high quality shots from the perimeter. That sort of thing just translates better, especially when he gets the later rounds of the postseason.

It's the jumper that consistently fails him. Nikole jokicch It's like if the jumpers going in great, but he's making all these hook shots and floaters and shit, that's shit that's right by the basket, and that it just has more resiliency as the level of intensity goes up, and the same thing goes for Lebron, Like Lebron can just thrive and rock fight basketball so on the Tatum front, Like, that's what I'm begging for from him. Jason Tatum is one of the most gifted athletes that we have in

the league. Like, just go down the best players in the league, Like, is he a more gifted athlete than Luka Doncic.

impactful in a physical environment. I'm saying that I'd like to see him devote a ton of energy and attention towards physicality around the basket, because that, to me, is going to be what carries him to the title one day being the biggest strongest athlete on the floor and actually using that to his advantage instead of bailing teams out by taking higher difficulty shots. Hey, Jason, could you chat about the Spurs and Wemby's ten block triple double.

So obviously, just by those of you guys who've been following the show for a while, you know kind of the four the format is, we really zero in on the top ten to fifteen teams in the league, and so I don't spend a ton of time talking about the you know, the Pistons, or the Wizards, you know, or or the Charlotte Hornets, you know, And in the San Antonio Spurs, it's just I devote my attention towards

the top teams in the league. And so I haven't been following the Spurs super super closely, but I've been following them somewhat. And honestly, the biggest thing that's changed with Wemby over the course of the last like third of the season has been his efficiency is just a shot selection has been way better, and you're starting to see him basically take a leap right before his eye, before our eyes in the NBA. But to put it simply, like I think Wenby's a few years away from being

the best player in the world. That's the type of potential that he has. And like we're seeing stuff from him that we've just simply never seen before, and like he's doing all of this around the worst collection of ball handling I've ever seen on an NBA team. I like Devin Vessel, he's a good player, but if you really take all of the Spurs ball handlers together. That's why I keep seeing these clips on Instagram of Wenby

being frustrated that he's not getting the basketball. It's because he's playing alongside a team that really struggles to kind of take advantage of what he's great at. And like they're a sneaky team to keep an eye on for Trey Young this summer. If the Hawks decide to rebuild and when they actually put some quality veterans around this guy that know how to play, he's going to be such an incredible force multiplier for them. I am so

excited to cover Wenby more closely in the future. But obviously, like this show is very heavy on like deep dives on the best teams in the league. We cover every single playoff game and all the x's and o's like we're dived in. We dive into the top of the league, right, And so the Spurs I just think, you know, within the next couple of years are just going to be

in that mix, and we'll cover them more closely. So I apologize to Spurs Spurs fans that we haven't been as intent on covering when Ben Yama's rookie year, But I promise the show is going to have a ton of whom Minyama on it in the long run. All Right, three more questions, then we're out of here. With the Warriors having a shot to make the playoffs, now, I think that they are the team with the best chance

to beat the Nuggets. With Jokic having a hard time coming up to the screen and how well Stephan Clay shoot off screens, I think it will give them open looks and open up the middle for Kaminga and.

they'll just defend pick and roll three on twoo. They will be like Jonathan Minga shoot all the threes you want, Andrew Wiggins shoot all the threes you want, and there will be plays where they execute their you know, uh, one, two, three on that four on three really fast and you get a backdoor lob for Kaminga along the baseline or maybe a slot cut from Wiggins along the wing. But Jonathan Aminga, you know, he shot really really well during the hot streak. He's two for ten on his last

ten threes. And he's only thirty two percent on the season. The playoff game plan for Kmingo will be a short close out. The playoff game plan for Kaminga will be you can play off this guy to help elsewhere. And the same goes for Andrew Wiggins. And so while Steph is uniquely equipped to stretch Denver's defense out at the point of attack, they are not super well equipped on

the weak side to take advantage of it. And so that doesn't mean they can't do it, but like they would just have to have their timing down so good on those back door cuts, and Aaron Gordon's gonna be just camping under the basket basically that entire series.

the matchup for the Warriors. They have the unique ability to put a big, strong wing and Andrew Wiggins on Jamal Murray while having one of the best options in the league to guarding Nicole Jokic and Draymond Green, and so they have as good a chance as anybody in the league to you know, with the Nuggets, it's always this delicate balance between guarding the Jokich Murray actions two on two versus sending an additional body where guys like Kcper and Gordon and Michael Porter Junior can kill you,

right and like to me, you know, it's kind of like the one time we saw the Nuggets lose in the last two rounds last year was in the NBA Finals Game two against the Heat. What happened in that series In that game, it was Jimmy Butler and Bam just did an unbelievable job guarding the Jokich Murray two

man game. And it's like, I think Wiggins and Draymond have potential and so to kind of like to uh and then backside of athleticism too, just having a Jonathan Kaminga on the weak side that can rotate around, that's real athleticism there, Like you know, Steph and whether it's Brandon Pazanski or Clay at the two, they have the ability from an IQ standpoint, to rotate around and they can rebound like that teat that lineup's been really gifted defensively, so to kind of like put a bow on it,

like I would still pick the Nuggets. They deserve to be the favorites in that matchup there to the defending champions. I think they're the best team in the league this year by a reasonable margin. But yeah, of course the Warriors have a chance. It would just come down to I think defensively they have as good a chance as anybody to slow down the Nuggets just because some of their higher end personnel. But on the other end of

the floor is gonna be the big one. It's will they be able to load up on Steph and Will Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kaminga in particular, be able to consistently cause problems for them. And honestly, matchups are a big one too, because one of the things you'll see is like, who's Aaron Gordon's gonna go? So, Aaron, one of the things that the Warriors really like to do is to attack post up mismatches to begin possessions with

Wiggins and Cominga in particular. So let's say, you know, uh, Mike Malone goes, We're gonna put Aaron Gordon on Johnathan kaminga because he's been one of the best young post players in the league this year. We're gonna take him away, Well, chances are you're gonna end up with a lot of possessions where Andrew Wiggins is being guarded by someone like a Michael Porter junior, right, and like that's a matchup

that he can take advantage of. He's got a speed and athleticism advantage on him, Like Michael Porter Junior doesn't move super well laterally, and so maybe you can get Andrew Wiggins with some quick slot ISOs where he just rips through the right and just uses his athleticism to

beat Michael Porter Junior. Like every time we get into these playoff matchups, there's always every team brings different advantages to the table, and you kind of lay him out and you start to look at him, and I definitely think the Warriors have some tools in their toolkit that can give Denver issues. But I do think that Denver's defense is set up in a way to cause Golden State some problems. But same goes on the other end

of the floor. I just think the Nuggets are a better basketball team overall and they deserve the like kind of that initial confidence. If that makes sense. All right, two more questions. We're out of here, had Jason Warriors fan here. Klay Thompson did an interview with Logan Murdoch on Monday where he said that he is open to taking a reduced role following a mold of how Reggie Miller and Ray Allen contributed it in their later years.

What do you think that means for his game and how do you think that affects lineup's play style and overall strategy for Golden State. Enjoy the show. A few people break it down like you do. Keep up the great work. Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it. I was never worried about this with Klay Thompson. The thing that I always talk about this when I'm

comparing some of the top players in the league. But to me, there's a big difference between like loving basketball and hating losing, and generally speaking, the teams that are truly great they hate losing more than anything. It's like a difference. It's like there's a love of the game and then there's like overarching competitiveness, and there's a competitiveness that the Warriors group has that I think is directly responsible for a lot of their success over the years.

Like these guys are just psychopath competitors. Klay Thompson is definitely one of those guys. This guy you can just tell by watching him emotionally after every win and loss, Like everything for this guy hinges on winning basketball games. And so there obviously was going to be a little bit of a transition as Clay came to acceptance with his kind of decline over the last few years. And I mean he himself has said it, like, dude, I'm thirty five. I think he's thirty five, that's if I

got his age right. But he's like, dude, I'm thirty five.

chasing money elsewhere. Like, I just think Clay's the kind of guy that'll do that first team because all he cares about is winning. All right, last question, does it feel like this year is more wide open than most to win the championship? Even though Denver is the clear front runner, They don't feel unbeatable to me. Would love to know your thoughts. Love the show, best in the business. Once again, thank you for the kind words and for

the support. I agree, I don't think Denver's unbeatable. I do think they're a clearly discernible margin above everybody else, but I don't think it's a particularly large margin. To me, it feels pretty similar to last year in the sense that there's like six or seven teams that have a real chance, and then there's another like three or four

that have punchers chances. But in situations like that, that is where I tend to lean on some of the more experienced teams, right, and like Denver to me, like if they end up in a series with a team that doesn't really know who they are yet, whether it's like a Western Conference finals matchup with a Minnesota or an Oklahoma city, for instance, right, like those that to me is an example where like in a series like that, just having been there before matters a ton, Like being

in those wars matters a ton, And like a lot of times, like we gloss over the fact that, like Denver won easily last year, but they've had their struggles.

battles like they are tested. This is a group that has been together a long time, and so to me, that is their their kind of differentiator. But I definitely agree that this is more wide open than most years. But it does remind me a lot of last year in the sense that it feels like there's a hefty, like dozen teams that have like a believable chance to do it, even if it's somewhat small, but that there's this clear, kind of like tier at the top that

feels closer than everyone else. All right, guys, that is all I have for this portion of today's show. I will see you guys tonight. After the final buzzer of Clippers Warriors, the volume