Hoops Tonight - Lakers lose in LeBron's return, Jokic bests Giannis, Mavericks' struggles continue

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these shows. We are going to be covering the Bulls picking up a win in Lebron James's return to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Denver Nuggets getting what I think is the signature win of their season over the Milwaukee Bucks last night in super impressive fashion. And then I have to take involving some of the blame that's being directed towards Kyrie Irving for the Dallas Mavericks, and they're very predictable struggles that they've had since the trade. You

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That's h Oops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. All right, let's talk some basketball. So after the NBAH trade deadline, I kind of started reevaluating the Lakers is essentially a brand new team because that's what they were. They basically turned over half of their rotation between Ruby hatch Amura, Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley and D'Angelo Russell. They're essentially a brand

new team. And then also we have to kind of consider them from the perspective of Lebron James and Anthony Davis coming back because basically for the entire season, you've had one or the other rather than both. Like like, we're not gonna I'm gonna talk a little bit about the Bulls today, not gonna talk a ton about them. Here's the reason why their big three has played in almost every single game this year. I think the players played the least amount of games has only played sixty six.

I think that's Tamarda, Rosen, Lebron and ad have both played in the mid forties for games this year. The Bulls have had their guys all year, and they've lost. They've been below five hundred. Despite that, they are one of the worst three point at three point volume shooting teams in the league. They make few or threes per game than anybody in the league, and they vastly outshot the Lakers today. There's a lot of out of character stuff from the Bulls today that said they wanted that

game more. I want to give them credit for that. But what I was looking at this game as an opportunity to learn about was learned about the Lakers in a real must win game from both teams. Because like it or not, regardless of how you feel about the Bulls, they are trying to win. They're in the ten seed. They want to get into the playoffs. I think that they feel a little bit better about their chances than what you would think given the way that their basketball

product has looked throughout most of the season. And you have the Patrick Beverley element. Patrick Beverley very much wanted to whoop the Lakers asked today, So I thought it was a good opportunity to learn more about the Lakers. And yes, I'm disappointed in their effort. There's no doubt

the Bulls wanted it more. But since the deadline with that roster turnover for the Lakers, I've been evaluating them as a new team, and one of the specific things that has consistently stood out to me is that they don't handle intense perimeter defense. Well, if we look through

their games, they've had a lot of success. I mean, I think we've learned that they're I think, if I remember correctly, if I'm getting the standings right there, twelve and six since the new players started playing before this game today, and their losses are basically like a Houston game that you throw out because Anthony Davis didn't play, and then the Dallas game, which you kind of threw out because they were up big with a minute left

and Anthony Davis just made two big mistakes. But there are other losses are all too excellent perimeter defense teams. It's like, oh, wait, like Memphis had, you know, Tyas Jones and Dylan Brooks getting in everybody's face and they took a loss, and it's like, oh, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels gotten everybody's face all game and they couldn't score.

And then you're like, oh, the New York Knicks, here comes Emmanual Quickly and Josh Hard and Miles McBride and they're just up in your grill from the opening tip, with a lot of ball pressure and containing the basketball. And one of the big reasons for that is the Lakers guards are are finesse guards. They're guards that love to get over the top of the screen and pick and roll and methodically work their way to their spots.

But that's not how Chicago plays. They are physical at the point of attack and they're pushing you off of your line and they're not letting you get comfortable and pick and roll so that you can methodically pick a team apart and To their credit, they caused a boatload of issues for the Lakers with that ball pressure. They turned them over eighteen times, leading to thirty four points for Chicago. That was the difference in the game pretty much. The Bulls only had nine turnovers that led to only

sixteen Laker points. Now, I thought the Lakers left a lot on the table defensively. I talked a lot about shot making. Chicago shot making was out of control. They made fourteen threes on forty five percent, despite being a team that only makes about ten threes per game at a significantly lower percentage. Right, there's a lot of shot making stuff that went Chicago's way. But what do I always say? I'm a firm believer that there is a

direct connection between effort level and shot making. I believe that when one team is bringing real verve and competitiveness to a game while the other team is kind of chilling, I think there's a confidence that bruised from that. When you guys were watching that game, did it feel to you guys that they were exuding a ton of confidence. Between Patrick Beverley and the attitude he carried throughout the

whole game. Look at Demarda Rosen and Zach Levine during their shot making there in the second half, there's a play where Zach Lavine calls for a screen, gets switched on to Malik Beasley just dust him to the basket. Anthony Davis doesn't protect the rim easy layup and he's running down camera row like just screaming that he can't guard me. They carried themselves in a very confident way. They went in that arena today and said, we're gonna

whoop the Lakers ass. Here's the thing. The Lakers are better. They're flat out better, even with all the injuries. They've been a better team this year. But they couldn't get it done because they didn't meet that aggression with aggression.

And that's been a pretty consistent theme for the Lakers. Unfortunately, a similar thing happened when when Anthony Davis came back last time, Like Lebron was carrying the team and they were playing with this hectic energy all season long, and then a d came back and they just all just kind of collectively exhaled and relaxed. And you saw that

again today. It's like they play with this crazy effort as they rip off tw like Lebron missed a full month of games, and they stayed significantly above five hundred over that span because they played with a chaotic, desperate energy every single game. But then Lebron comes back and everyone's like, let's take a deep breath, and then it kind of turns on them quickly. This is a this league,

I'm telling you, like the amount of talent. Yeah, Chicago sucks relative to the rest of the league, that's a fact. But there's a lot of talent on that roster. Dmarda Rosen's really good, Zach Levine's really good. You know, Andre Drummond. Even their backup center gave Anthony Davis a lot of issues in this game. Alex Crusoe is a bulldog of a guard. I had assume it was giving Dennis Schroder fits in the first half with his length and pressure

on the ball. They are a talented team, and in this league, if you do not bring it against good teams, you will get beat. Just ask the Dallas Mavericks, who just dropped two games to the Charlotte Hornets, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But I thought those were the two biggest factors in the game. The inability to handle the ball pressure from the Laker guards and then just the overall gap in aggression and competitiveness and effort and physicality in this game. And that's a pretty

quick way to get yourself beat. You know, I thought, I thought you saw that dynamic and ball pressure show up with Lebron on the floor. So what did I say about the about Lebron's pending return. I kept saying that I thought Lebron directly addressed a lot of very specific weaknesses for the Lakers, Like they've been really good right twelve and six, but they have some weaknesses. Like

we've discussed Lebron. What I loved about bringing him back to this group is if I take the Laker guards in their best, in their biggest weaknesses and inability to handle ball pressure. Why is that important? Because you need your guards to break the defense down to get the team into rotation so that you can get quality shots. Right, So when they're containing the basketball, those quality shots aren't there.

What's another way to get a defense into rotation by posting up and drawing multiple defenders and in a lot in this game, like Chicago wasn't exactly doubling that frequently in this game, but Lebron was able to beat Chicago's ball pressure by just posting up every single time, and that showed in the plus minus. The Lakers were minus fourteen in this game when Lebron James was off the floor,

and they were plus four when he was on the floor. Now, if they that, I think they're capable of overcoming that to a certain extent, especially against teams, especially against teams like Chicago, even with Lebron off the But I did think that was a significant dynamic in this game, and like moving forward, Like here's the thing. I was texting a front about this before the show. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers went into Chicago on Wednesday

and handled them by double digits. They are a much better team with much better players, and Lebron James and Anthony Davis, like Lebron, I thought brought a good amount of aggression. Anthony Davis mailed it in We're gonna talk about that in a second. The Guards didn't play well. There was there was a huge gap in shot. Result, there's a chance for them to go into Chicago on Wednesday and if they bring the requisite effort, they will beat them. But if they bring a similar level of

aggression and lack of physicality, they'll get beat. I wanted to talk about Anthony Davis because he only attempted eight shots in this game. And you know, one of the most common refrains that you'll hear from Laker fans and Anthony Davis apologists is they'll be like, Oh, well, the guards aren't looking for him. The guards aren't looking for them. And I just don't buy that. There was a play

in the middle of the fourth quarter. I want to say it was like an eleven point game, and or Anthony Davis catches on the left wing with Derek Jones Junior guarding him in nobody else nearby, and rather than turning and attacking, he literally just casually dribbled the ball out to the three point line and did a dribble handoff with Malik Beasley. No, man, why do you run offense? You run offense to get an advantage. You already have the advantage. There's no reason to run any offense. Go

to work. You're Anthony freakin Davis, and that is a six foot six, skinny wing coming off the bench for the Chicago Bulls. Take him to work. I'll give you an example, what did Lebron do half of this game? Just dribble the ball before. Oh, Alex Crusoe's on me. Everybody get out of the way. I'm just gonna back him down and go to the basket. Here's three half spin moves and pivot, pivot, pivot, Oh, pump fake. Oh Alex got off his feet. Here's an and one. Because

why would Lebron call for a ball screen? Why would Lebron say, hey, we're gonna run a horn set. There's no reason to run and to run offense in a basketball game except for to get an advantage. If you already have an advantage, there's no need to run anything.

Go to work. And like, yeah, like the Anthony Davis didn't quite have the same amount of an advantage against Andre Drumm and good athletic like strong centers of giving Anthony Davis issues over the years, but like he spent a good portion of that game with Vosovic on him before the ejection and with Derek Jones Junior on him. There's no excuse for attempting eight shots. You are the best player on the team, demand the basketball. Go to work.

That was especially when the guards just didn't have it. Austin Reeves five turnovers, Dennis Ruter was one, four for ten, Lonnie Walker one for three, Malik bes Up until garbage time, could not make a shot. Their best opportunity to run effective offense was Lebron James post ups and Anthony Davis post ups. That was literally their best opportunity, and Lebron, in the limited minutes, went for it and applied that pressure and Anthony Davis did not, and it just was

that again. He was unbelievable the other day against Oklahoma City, other worldly good. And what did I say after the game, Like rooting for Anthony Davis is one of the most frustrating things in the world because he either brings it with aggression and looks like the best player in the

world or does not in turns into Clint Capella. I've said this for years now and again, everything will be fine if they go into Chicago on Wednesday and beat them, and they have the ability to, and I expect them to. But your thirty seven and thirty seven, you just got to five hundred and now you're back below and it is vitally important to get that seven seed. Like where is the competitive fire man? Where is the fire. It's just it. It was really disappointing. And that's been such

an interesting dynamic with the Lakers all season. When they've had long shot odds, they've been that underdog that's brought the energy and the effort. When they've been a whole, they collectively exhale and relax, and it's been an issue

throughout the year. But I want to tip the Captains Chicago though, because that was just that was such a It was one of the things that I love about the game of basketball, just like the game of basketball does not reward a lack of effort, and even a team like the Bulls that has a boatload of flaws, even a team like the Bulls, if you don't bring it against them, they can start to feel themselves and get a bunch of confidence and they can shoot you

out of the game. And like it. You have to respect the game, especially in the modern NBA with the level of talent that there is to have consistent success. But let's move on to what I thought was the biggest game of the weekend, the biggest win for the Nuggets all season, and a super interesting kind of like taste of NBA playoff basketball. Last night the Bucks versus

the Nuggets in Denver. You know, the Bucks were on the tail end of a back to back, but they won by like forty or something in the previous game, so everyone played in the mid twenties for minutes, so it's not like they were overly fatigued. The one thing you'll see you with that is it is tough to go into Denver just because of the elevation. That's there's like significant statistical evidence that Denver has a great home

court advantage. But hey, that's gonna be something that exists in a playoff run as well, right, So that's not something you're gonna give them any slack. Four. But the Bucks came in red hot. They were twenty four and three in their previous twenty seven games, playing just unbelievable basketball. Jannis is clearly hitting the Jets to try to get going for this playoff run, and they came out playing really well. Jannis came into the first half just ridiculously aggressive.

He was dunking everything. He had twenty four points in the first half. They went up double digits. They Brook Lopez in the first half, in particular, did a decent job guarding Nicola Yokich in isolation defense, and the game just had a playoff feel. And if it wasn't for a pretty hot shooting Jamal Murray there in the first half, they might have found themselves in trouble, but they stayed with it. Then they stuck with it, and then in the second half, especially in that third quarter, you start

to see Denver's interior defense take over the game. There was a bunch of really interesting matchup stuff in this game. For starters. The Bucks left Yokis in single coverage for most of the game, and in the first half, Lopez held up pretty well, but they're in that third quarter, like you know, it was funny. It just kept He just kept pivoting and getting back to that right handed jump hook over his life shoulder. If it feels like when you watch the Nuggets that every single Nicola jump

pook goes in the basket, it pretty much does. He's taken one hundred and twenty four hook shots this year and he's made eighty three of them. That's sixty seven percent, and that's best in the league out of the twenty five players that have attempted at least fifty hook shots

this year. By the way point of trivia, who do you guys think is second in the league inefficiency on jump pook's for players to attempt at least fifty The answer is Nikola Vussovitch, who I thought was wrongly ejected from a game today, although it ended up working to Chicago's favor because Drummond was whooping a D's ass, but he started to get that jump pook going against Brooklopez and then he was really killing Bobby Portis, and we'll

get to that in a minute. But there was a couple of specific matchup things that were ugly defensively for the Bucks, and Bobby Portis was one of them. One of the things I wanted to talk about really quick before we move on with Jokich's pos work is like and it's interesting because when with perimeter players, I feel like getting super choppy with your feet is a bad thing.

You want to have really solid footwork and you don't want to waste negative steps because you need to cover tons of ground to get to where you need to go, and negative steps actually delay your ability to make those quick movements. But with the post, and especially with Yokis, because what he's trying to do is he's trying to bully you to your to his spot. He uses really

choppy feet. He picks up his feet and makes a quick series of moves, and I actually think it works really well for him because it allows him to quickly reset his center of gravity every time. He's constantly chopping and resetting his base so you can't knock him off balance, and that allows him to bump you like five or six times on the same post up. You know, most post ups, you'll catch on the block and he'll turn and look and like it'll be like maybe one bump,

maybe two bumps, and then a move. Like Yokich, it's like he's bumping and hitting you like five or six times on the same post that there's a reverse layup and one that he had on Brook Lopez actually posted a video of this on my Twitter feed that you guys can see. But on that play, Yokich hits Lopez with like five different posts moves in five different fakes on the same attack. And it's just a testament to how good his footwork is for what he for what he needs out of the post. And you know, he

has this like ridiculous. Every every great player has a move that kind of seems unfair. Like lebron when he drives, just will swing his off arm at you like a club. Literally looks like Rob Gronkowski with that big elbow braise, just like swinging it at you to like get buy

you to the basket. Janis will do this like chicken wing thing, where like he'll see the defender standing right in front of him and he'll take a big step forward and try to wrap his elbow around and spring himself around you, and it's like there's just no chance

and stop him. Or like Kevin Durant when he does that carry hesitation like the balls like damn near sitting on top of his hands as he's going into his crossover and it just makes it impossible to guard him because you have to get up on that pull up jumper. But then he can whip it into a crossover when he needs to. Well, Yoki, his unguardable move is that like chicken wing that he does. He does this hard pivot, like like one of the harder spin moves that you'll

see from a big man. It doesn't even look right coming from a player as big as he is, but he'll just quickly whip into that like hard spin back move and nobody can do anything with it. And couple that with a jump book that he never misses, and he becomes one of the most unguardable post players. I love he had twelve points and three assists during that third quarter run, and I really appreciated his aggression because,

especially since they left him in single coverage. I've been critical of Yokis over this season for being like the guy who's constantly trying to make the right play and not making enough of the n B and the Joel Embiid like, let me be a force of nature as a scorer, because I'm the best player on this floor and our team's best chance to score is by me being aggressive. I liked to see that from him in that third quarter. A couple other interesting matchup pieces in

this game. Bobby Portis really struggled. He's way too far back in his drop and that was a big part of how Jamal Murray got going with his three point shot. He's just sagging way back into the paint, which you do. It makes more sense to do that when you're Brook Lopez because you don't have super quick feet and your length and athletics or your length and size as your strength. So sitting back at the rim is the best way for you to impact defensively. Like Bobby, Portis is a

much better athlete than Brook Lopez. He's much more mobile. He's more of a forward than he is a center. Like dude, your quickness gives you the ability to be out there and you're not gonna bother anybody in drop coverage anyway because you're too small. And so it was it was confusing strategy from from Portis to sit back and kind of defend as a center when you when Portis is at center, I'd like to see them switch more,

and they did that with Jannis. There was a big stre this game with Jannis at center and he was switching a lot of the screening actions and having some success. What's interesting is when Jannis would play like a traditional center, like in help coverage during drop coverage, he actually struggled

a little bit in this game. You know, it's interesting the dynamic where Jannis is actually kind of better as a help defender than he is as a traditional rim protector, and then Lopez as much better as a rim protector than he is kind of anywhere else on the floor, and so like obviously, if you when brook Lopez has gone in the future, go fast forward five years from now. I think Giannis will be one of the best big man center defenders that we have in the league when

he gets all those reps. But he doesn't play a ton of center in the more traditional sense of the words, so he can struggle in that specific matchup. I think you've seen that in the games that brook Lopez has missed this year. One other thing that I thought was super interesting because like when I talked about Denver earlier this year and I explained like what I thought was

their pathway to the playoffs. I talked about how when I look at matchups the you have to beat Denver by exposing them for their lack of perimeter defense and by pulling Nicola Yokitch away from the basket and forcing him to cover in space. Right, But you need to be an outstanding pull up jump shooting team to do that. And here's the thing. Milwaukee and Boston are not good pull up jump shooting teams. Now, Boston can go five out and driving kick you to death, so they can

at least force Yokis to guard in space. So it's a little different, Like they can go to Al Horford at center, tuck him away in the corner and just driving kick you to death. So like I think Boston matches up way better against Denver than Milwaukee does. But

Milwaukee kind of plays into Denver's defensive strengths. You know, Denver has defended well enough this year considering their personnel, in large part because they run a scheme that allows Yokis to stay around the basket, right, But Milwaukee is going to play directly into that. They're not going to forced Denver to do something that makes them feel uncomfortable.

I don't know if you guys remember this summer, but in the EuroCup, the FIBA EuroCup, there was a matchup where Jannis and Yokich guarded each other for an entire game, and Yokich had a ton of success because he's so damn big that Jannis can't bully him. And if there's one deep like basketball strength that Yokich has that he

can devote to defense is his basketball IQ. He's got good anticipation, and he's and he's got good instincts, and he sees the floor well, so like he can kind of pick up on Jannie's tendencies and figure out which direction he's going, and he can beat him into into spots and he can funnel him out of bounds. There was there was multiple transition pushes in this game where Jannis is freight training down the floor and Yokich like diverted him away from the rim and on a couple

occasions forced turnovers. And Aaron Gordon again, like I've talked about the different archetypes of forwards, there's like that skinny mobile perimeter forward, and then there's like that big, strong power forward. And it's not the saying that it used to be, right, Like, it's not like the Drew Gooden

slow footed power forward. It's like the biggest strongest athletes in the league that are like six nine plus that carry at least two hundred and thirty pounds of muscle, where they're just built like fridges and they have some of that perimeter skill, but they're not the same type of players like a Jaden McDaniels for instance, right, And

Aaron Gordon is that type of player. And so like the combination of Gordon and Yokich to throw at Jannis, that's a super interesting matchup advantage and they do well, they hold up well against Jannis, and then you know, you get to I talk about this all the time. Matchups are everything in basketball. Like, Arizona beat UCLA two out of three times this season, including in the Pact Wall Championship game when all the Chips were down on

a neutral four. They beat Ucla. But Arizona had two plotting bigs and their guards aren't very good, so they ran into Princeton who space them out, and all of a sudden their inability to move their feet on the perimeter became a huge problem and they lost to a fifteen seat or whatever in the first round. But UCLA goes all the way to the sweet sixteen and looks really good and ends up losing on a difficult shot

at the buzzer or near the buzzer from Gonzaga. Right, Like, Arizona's a better basketball team than UCLA, and they proved it throughout the season, But matchups can get you beat in basketball. And like, if you can single cover Yannis and not have to overdo the help thing, you can suddenly turn all of Milwaukee spot up players and the guys that aren't playing with as much of an advantage for instance, look at the shot diet from Drew Holliday

and Chris Middleton in that game. Because they're not operating with the same level of advantage from yannisping things to death. They're taking a lot of really difficult shots. It's a lot of tough, contested pull up jumpers for Drew Holiday, it's a lot of tough contested turnaround fadeaways from Chris Middleton. They and they'll look, there's a place in the NBA for tough shot making, and it's an important ceiling raising piece.

But the Bucks in order to be as fluid offensively as they need to be, they need Giannis to consistently dictate double teams. And that's a big part of why. Like, when I really look at Denver, if they can get out of the West, and look, here's the deal. I have not seen enough from any other team to unseat Denver is my favorite in the West, even with all their issues. But if they can get out of the West in Milwaukee is the team waiting for them, that's

a real matchup they can win. And that's why, Like, look, Denver fans can't stand me, and they think I'm way too hypercritical of the team. And they think I hate Yokich and love just don't think he's better than the top tier guys in the league. But the reality is I've never taken Denver off of my top tier list or my list of contenders that can win. I've I think seven teams that I think can win that I've been pointing out on the show. Denver's one of them.

I think they can win it. Of course they can't. And if matchups break right, like if they catch Milwaukee in the finals, there's a real chance that the Denver Nuggets can win an NBA championship. And I thought that, I thought you saw a lot of that personnel stuff show in that matchup versus Milwaukee last night. Jamal Murray finally is finally kind of coming out of his slump.

He had been struggling for about a month. There was a big part of why Denver had put some losses on the table, and he was being really aggressive trying to shoot his way out of his slump. But in his last four games, twenty three points and eight assists with just two point three turnovers, fifty two percent from the field in sixty three percent from three on seven attempts per game. Like I said back when he was slumping,

we'll say the same thing now. He needs to be the level of high end shot creator and shot maker for Denver to have a chance. But he seems to be getting it back together at the right time. All right, Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk for just a couple of minutes about Dallas's recent struggles because they just lost back to back embarrassing games to

the Charlotte Hornets. But I want to go back to when I originally recorded that instant reaction video, back when I was in Breckinridge, when the trade originally went down that very day, I predicted that they would not have any chance to win a championship this year, which isn't exactly any sort of outlined his prediction. I have a twenty nine out of thirty percent twenty nine out of thirty chance of being correct when I make that type

of prediction. But the reality is is I just didn't think they had the athleticism to contend with any good team sending out who they sent out. You know. The best example of this type of trade off is like the Russell Westbrook trade with the Lakers. Right, Like I always would say that the Lakers fell apart because of the Russell Westbrook trade, not because of Russell Westbrook. Now it also was bad like Rust didn't help things because was not the same player that he used to be.

Is a jankie fit with Lebron, and ad didn't embrace all the little things that he needed to do to help them win. It was a bunch of other stuff. But they sent out a bunch of really important players that filled vital responsibilities on the team, and so when they struggled, I thought that was a huge part of it. There was always two problems that needed to be addressed.

What do you do with Rust? But also how do you recoup the type of dirty work, athleticism, you know, and just motor that you had from those other guys and Dorian Finney Smith. Like, again, this team already has weaknesses defensively in other areas of their roster, right, Like this is a bad perimeter defense team that also is a bad rim protection team. But they had one of the best three and D wings in the league and Dorian Finney Smith, and that in combination with Luca's greatness

and Jaylen Brunson's greatness and Maxi Kleiba. Just doing enough defensively in the front court, knocking down enough shots gave them an juice to get to the Western Conference finals. But in that Kyrie Irving trade, you sent out Dorian Phinney Smith and you lost Jalen Brunson for nothing, which

was inexcusable. Even more inexcusable in retrospect, we look back and it's like, if Jamal Murray can make thirty million a year in this league, how can you let a legitimate, like primary shot creator And like, look, he took a leap this year, no doubt he want he took a leap basically to All Star. But he was every bit worth the thirty million you could have paid to keep him in Dallas had you not been cheap about it, which was a real problem. But when you sent out

that level of talent, you had to recoup it. Like Kyrie Irving is an upgrade on Jalen Brunson, no doubt, But to get back Kyrie Irving you had to send out Dorian Phinney Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie, who was one of your best shot creators. And so like the ensuing, the result is a team that can't guard in the perimeter, can't guard in the wing, and can't guard at the rim. That that that's gonna fundamentally make it impossible for you to consistently win NBA games. That's just a fact. And look,

Charlotte's bad. Charlotte's a bad team. They don't have like they're one of the least skilled offensive teams in the league. But you know what, you know what Charlotte is they're freaky athletic at every position. Like their one elite skill on that roster is they are athletic as hell, And that sort of specific thing attacks Dallas's weakness. But the reason why I wanted to talk about it today is I I think it's completely unfair to blame this on

Kyrie Irving. And I also think it's completely unfair to blame this on the trade because here's the reality. You weren't going to win an NBA championship with Luca by himself. You needed to find him a legitimate costar, and regardless of whatever happened with Jalen, I'm not sure if he would have been enough anyway. Kyrie Irving has proven in his career the ability to win a championship as a number two essentially cover all the other bases. Kyrie can

take you home with clutch shotmaking. That's been proven, and I think he's had success in a lot of situations around the league as that second star. So I appreciated that specific move from them, but I always thought of it as a move for the future. Because of the other worldly offensive skill of Kyrie and Luca, they don't need to get highly advanced offensive role players around them. They don't need to be guys that can do advanced

shot creation and high level close out attacking. Like if they can knock down a third of their threes and defend at a high level, they can play for the Mavericks and make them good. And you can find in the offseason, through the mid level exception and through the veteran minimum exception, you can find quality players that do one thing well. You can find guys that are great on offense or suck on defense, or that are great

on defense and suck on offense. That's a pretty typical archetype that you'll find in the discount salary slots in the NBA, and having Kyrie and Luca gives you the flexibility to go after those guys. And there are a lot of guys like that out there, as I was shocked they didn't try to go after someone like Stanley Johnson because he's the kind of archetype of wing athlete

that can help in a lot of different ways. But the Kyrie Irving trade was always about the future they I bet you within that front office, they didn't think they had much of a chance this year giving up

what they had given up. But going into this offseason, they're going to be able to address those weaknesses on the periphery of the roster, and then going into next year, you're gonna have Kyrie Irving and Luca don chich and a roster of players that is specifically catered to what they don't do well, which is all of the dirty work. And so like it. It feels opportunity this stick to blame it on Kyrie. Kyrie has won three games without Luca this year for the MAVs. He outplayed Anthony Davis

like a week ago. Kyrie's not the problem. The problem is to get him, you had to give up your best wing defender in another shot creator. They will have a chance to rectify that this summer. And so I don't I don't I don't. I'm not judging Dallas based on the results from this season. We'll see the kind of players that they target this offseason. But like it's really simple. It's like if you if you look at it, you know, Josh Green's gonna be there. He's gonna have

one of those significant rotation spots. Maxi Kleiba is gonna be there. He's gonna have one of those significant rotation spots. But if you're a veteran minimum or midlevel exception center who's like a legit rim protector and a lob threat, like go to Dallas. There's a starting spot there for you.

Right if you're a six seven wing that defends but doesn't do a lot of other things well, and you want minutes like you want twenty five guaranteed minutes, Dallas is the spot for you, and you're gonna get a bunch of standstill, wide open threes Alongside Kyrie Irving and Luca Downte. They will be able to address these personnel weaknesses in the offseason, and I think next year we can take a significant look at whether or not the Kyrie Irving trade was worth it. But I don't think

it's fair to judge them at this point. And like the other thing too that I think constantly gets glossed over in these discussions is just the general the impact that belief has on your effort level. I talk a lot about this with I talked about it with the Warriors earlier, like body language. Oh they look they don't look like they're having fun. Nobody enjoys losing. That's universal around basketball in the world. No one likes losing, and so obviously the energy is bad. But belief is what

drives you out of that hole. And there isn't a lot of belief there. Why would you believe, if you are Kyrie or Kyrie and Luca, that you have a chance to win when you cannot contend physically with your opponent. That belief is not there. It's a very human thing. They know they have to play other worldly good to have a chance to win, and that's just a lot of pressure to play under. And so I just want to I just want to cut Kyrie some slack in the meantime, and Luca as well. All Right, guys, that

is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We're gonna be going live tomorrow night. I believe tomorrow is the big rematch between Embiad and Yokis if I remember correctly. But we're going live tomorrow night on AMP, and then we'll be going during the day, during the morning. On Thursday and Thursday night on AMP we have another major nationally televised game. I want to say, that's Buck Celtics, and then we're gonna be going on

Saturday and Sunday as well as always. I appreciate you guys, and I will see you on Monday night. The volume