Hoops Tonight - LeBron James & Russ on Lakers, Kyrie defends himself, James Harden down "100 pounds"

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hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. YEA, all right, Welcome to tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an awesome weekend. Today. It was NBA Media Day and it was good to see all of the players in their jerseys. Getting their picture taken, interviews, all the good stuff to Twitter. Timeline was full of NBA basketball. Felt good. That is the day that kicks off nine months of NBA basketball going through mid June, and I could not

be more excited. Here's the plan for this week. Today, We're going to cover Media Day, but inevitably I'm gonna miss some stuff because there's just hundreds of different quotes, some pieces of information that we're gonna get today. Tomorrow we're gonna focus on the Warriors Media Day as well as anything that I missed today. Today it's gonna be a lot of Lakers, a lot of nets will also hit, some sixers will hit, some suns will hit, some Pelicans.

Tomorrow is gonna be Warriors and anything else that I missed. We're also going to continue our Power rankings this week. Number four will be tomorrow, and then three to one will go on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Then a week from today, we'll have eight games worth the preseason basketball to react to, so we'll be back into our game breakdowns at that point. But today is gonna be NBA Media Day, largely focused on the Lakers and the nets. You guys know, the

drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Last, but not least, if you miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you can always find them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops

tonight quickly before we get started. As you gear up for fall, it's never been more important to have the right people on your team to make sure your small business is humming on all cylinders. LinkedIn Jobs is here to help you find the right people faster and for free. My wife helps run a small business here in Tucson, so naturally I hear about it every single day when she gets home from work. That's the job, But uh, I can't tell you how much it makes a difference

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delivering quality hires versus leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to faster. Did you know every week, nearly forty million job seekers visit LinkedIn post your job for free at LinkedIn dot com slash timph. That's LinkedIn dot com slash timph to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. And on that note, let's talk some basketball. We're gonna start with

the Lakers, and we're gonna start with Russ. But it's gonna be quick because, as you guys know, I have a rule. We'll get to that in a second. So there were two quotes in particular that stood out to me from not just this media David, also from this weird article that came out from ESPN. I think it was last night or the night before that was kind

of like an interview from him going over this offseason. So, first of all, the quote from Media Day, he said, whether they want me here or not doesn't really adder. My job is to be a professional and show up to work as I've always done. Emphasis there on as I've always done. End quote. In the WOAE article, he had a very similar quote, responding to a very similar question. He said, quote, I think the most important thing is that I show up for work and I do the

job like I have always done it. Be professional and go out and play my ass off and compete. End quote. So before we go any further this season, I'm gonna have a one minute rule for Russ. And we don't actually have that little timer things set up yet, but

it's just I can. He's a very frustrating basketball player for me, and I coached the game, and so I my job is to pay extra close attention to the little details of the game of basketball, and those specific things are things that Russ struggles with mightily, and so I find him to be a very frustrating basketball player to cover. So I could spend a lot of time complaining about him this season, but I really don't want to. It takes away from the show. I think it's actually

a bad thing. I'm not interested in that. So we have a rule this year. When Russ stuff comes up, I'm gonna go for a minute and then it's dead and we're not allowed to talk about him for the rest of the show, at least not in a focused way. So here's my quick, like two cents on this Russell Westbrook Media Day and article from last night. What I've always done, which is the keyword or key phrase from those two quotes that I gave you What I've always

done means that he still hasn't acknowledged the problem. All of the other quotes from Media Day, quotes about his role, whether or not he's gonna start or come off the bench, conversations he's had with Lebron James and Anthony Davis, conversations he's had with Darvin Ham, friendship with Patrick Beverley, any of that doesn't mean anything unless Russell Westbrook acknowledges the acknowledges the problem, and he has not done. So he

is in denial in that aspect. He was in the season ending press conference to end last year, and he was this year in the season starting press season starting press conference as we expected him to be. What does that mean. I do not expect him to change. I expect this year to be more of the same. I think he thinks that if he makes more of his layups, or if he makes more of his pull up jumpers and he has fewer turnovers, that means that he's fixed

the problem. That is not the case. The problem went so much deeper than any of that, and I'm not gonna get into it here because, like I said, the time limit. So the bottom line is he has not acknowledged the problem. Therefore, I don't think there will be change. If he does change, it will be because he's acknowledged that problem. And that's all I'm gonna say about us

for right now. Um we're gonna move on to Rob Polinka because he was the one I was most interested in hearing from today, mainly just because he he's the he's the guy in the chair, he's the guy holding the steering wheel, guiding this thing down the road. And he had a job this summer, and that job was to get better role players around Lebron James and Anthony Davis, which he has done a little bit of, and to get Russell Westbrook off the roster, and he did not

accomplish that goal. And so I was really curious to hear what he would say today. And we're gonna get into that right now. So a couple of quotes quick quickly about the Russell Westbrook thing from Rob Polinka. He said, quote, Russell Westbrook is a great part of our team, one of the greats to ever play the game, and I think Coach Ham is going to bring another level out of him. End quote. That is a continuation of that

denial of reality on Rob's part. If you're banking on things like Russ figuring it out or Kyrie Irving coming next summer to fill up your cap space, that's a severe case of wishful thinking. Yes, they both might happen, and if they do, you'll be in great shape. Like if if Russ does figure it out this year, like, yeah, that's gonna solve a lot of the Lakers problems. If Kyrie Irving comes and signs next year for whatever cap space they have, that's gonna solve a lot of their problems.

But what is the more likely scenario. Is it more likely that those things happen, or is it more likely that Russ is more of the same this year and that Kyrie ends up resigning with the Nets or with somebody else who will be able to offer him more money next summer. That's far more likely. So you're banking, You're putting all your chips in the middle for two very unlikely variables, and to me, that's just bad management.

It's a dangerous gamble. After that, he did he went on his long, kind of meandering rant, talking about how Lebron James and him recommitting to the franchise via the extension for three years was the signaling of their partnership and how the two of them were in this together

and that there was a mutual trust. Any In that rant, elaborated about how he understands the pressure of having Lebron James, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, under roster control, and he talked about how that implied that he inevitably is willing to spend the draft picks, but he said he's going to hold back and wait to do so until the right deal comes around, and that's that's been the company line all summer, we won't give up the picks unless we become a contender. You know,

we're waiting for the right deal. We we we don't like the Indiana deal, we don't like the Jazz deal. We think we're gonna get something better if we wait. I've even heard untel from people who were involved in those trade negotiations that the Lakers seeming that seemed to believe they can get Kyrie Irving via trade during this season, and which again, is that's just that's a really pie in the sky type of mentality. But the reality is is the pursuit of the perfect deal is costing the

Lakers elsewhere for starters. The pursuit of the perfect deal is unrealistic because Russell Westbrook is involved, and that actively hurts your negotiation position. The Lakers are desperate, and that actively hurts your negotiation position. The Lakers don't have the leverage to get a great deal, to get great value

for those two draft picks. It's the reality because those two draft picks are attached to a negative asset in Russell Westbrook, a player that none of the other twenty nine teams want, it would likely buy out or send home. If they got him in a trade, that takes away from the value of the draft picks. You know everyone talks about, like, oh boy and Pagdanovich. He ended up going to the Detroit Pistons and they didn't even send

a draft pick. Yeah, that's right, because Boyan mcdonovits Boyan Bogdanovitch's market value is very different from what the Lakers prices because there's two different things that set the price. Market value helps set the price. How good the players are, that's that sets the price. But your leverage also sets the price. Sometimes market value is different from leverage. I've

been dealing with this. I don't work in real estate anymore, but that's what I did before this, and I worked in real estate during the crazy boom over the last couple of years, and the market value of a house might have been to fifty But if there are fifteen people negotiating and the leverage is in the hand of the seller because he's got fifteen offers, then it's going to inevitably bid things up above what market value is.

And the truth of the matter is the Lakers, because they were desperate, because they have Lebron James in your twenty and because they're offloading Russell Westbrook, those three things undercut their leverage and made it so the market price for these deals is different for them than it is for other teams. And that's why they can't get boy On mcdonovitch for the same price that the Detroit Pistons can, and that's why they might have to include their draft

picks in order to get a deal. But that's the only one side of this. Let's say that there is a better deal in the future. Let's say that around the deadline there's a better deal or next summer they think they can get more for some combination of picks or cap space or whatever it is. Whatever you view in the future as the better outcome. Opportunity cost still plays a role here. Losing training camp as an opportunity to build continuity with your players that hurts you. That

is a loss of value. There's not a lot of practice during the regular season. If you make a deal at the deadline, you might get four or five practices the rest of the season to sort things out. So not getting the deal done this summer cost you in value.

You're losing a season of Lebron's prime, especially if you wait into the end of this if you wait into this summer, or if you wait to the deadline, and it hurts your seeding so much that you lose in the first round series against the Warriors because you're seven seed or an eight seed and you didn't take this regular season seriously with an eye towards the future. That's value.

You're twenty of Lebron, your twenty one of Lebron, and your twenty two of Lebron will experience significant declines in all likelihood. That's just father time. That's just how it works. That's part of the value. And you waiting, how much does that counteract the value proposition of an alleged deal. If I factor in Lebron's age and continuity and all of those things, it hurts you. So maybe you can get something better than Boyan Magdanovitch, or let's just say

Myles Turner because he's gone. Now, let's just say Miles Turner and buddy he Maybe you can get something that's better, but you're gonna lose in value in Lebron aging and continuity and all of those things. That's what I don't understand about this approach. And the bottom line is I

think it's because they want to start. I think as they think that a star is going to fix their problems, and for whatever reason, they've never been able to wrap their brains around the concept that Lebron James, Anthony Davis and good role players equals a basketball team that has a chance to win an NBA championship. It's always been that simple. The one year it all worked out was the year they didn't chase after Well. They tried, and

they literally tried to. They tried to go after Quiet and it didn't work out, and as a result, they had Lebron James, Anthony Davis, a bunch of role players, and they won an NBA Championship. Ever since then, they've been looking for the third guy. First it was Schroeder, then it was Russell Westbrook, now it's Kyrie Irving. Their endless pursuit of that in the face of evidence that is to the contrary, is why they're in this predicament.

So the whole thing surrounding Rob Polinka's in his strategy with these trades does not make any sense to me, and I think it's actively hurting their prospects moving forward. One last note on the Rob Polinka front. There was a little a little moment where him and Darvin Hammer talking about shooting, which is, you know, look, in the Lebron James Anthony Davis era, the Lakers have never had

good shooting. You know. This past season they had some good shooters, but they still didn't actually perform to that extent because of the fact that they often had to divert to defensive players. Right this this year is gonna be worse than all of them. This is gonna be the worst shooting roster in the NBA this year. This is gonna be the worst shooting roster that the Lebron

James Anthony Davis era has ever had. This is probably the worst shooting roster that Lebron James has ever played with a player that has consistently played well alongside good three point shooters. And this was Rob Polinka's answer when he was asked that he said that he expects players on the roster to grow and improve. Well, okay, then I hope they do, because if they don't, it's going

to be a problem. Darvin Ham, when he was asked the same question, said quote, We're not trying to find specialists. We want basketball players. End quote. You know what's funny, I percent believe in that. That basketball ideology is one that I believe in very strongly. You know, especially as the game has gone towards five out and driving kick has been the best way to get good shots, It's been more important ever to have guys that are well rounded.

You know. A great example of this is like a andre I Guadala versus a Kyle Korver And I'm not even and I'm not even talking about the defensive end. On the offensive end of the floor, it helps to have a guy that can put the basketball on the floor and finish at the rim or driving kick two players and consistently make the right reads. I agree, it's basketball. You need basketball players. You need guys that are well rounded.

Here's the problem. Not only does this team not have great shooting, they don't have great basketball players outside of Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, and Dennis Schroeder. The role players, the guys playing on the wing. Like I like Austin Reeves. I think he's gonna be a good fifth starter in this league for a long time when he figures out his shot that he's good there. But

Troy Brown Jr. Want to Skano Anderson. If you're relying on those guys to be good basketball players, meaning consistently making the right decisions as driving kick players on offense, I don't. I think you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. Look, Austin Reaves is a great example of this concept. Austin Reeves did not shoot exceptionally well last year, but he was great attacking close outs and he always made the right read. That's being a basketball player. That's value. But

you need that. If you're not looking for shooters, fine, but find more of those guys. That's why I wanted them to make the d whether it was the Utah deal or the Pacers deal, bring in some more basketball players that can come in and help you on the offensive end of the floor. The bottom line is is this team is not good enough. You had an opportunity to make them better. Rob Polinka did and they didn't. Even if your reasoning was sound, which I don't believe

it is, this team is still not good enough. So that means you're punting. You are punting Lebron's age thirty eight season with Anthony Davis flanking him. Any perceived improvement by a more measured approach, by waiting for the future, and something that might be better is undercut by the opportunity cost of losing training camp, of potentially losing a season of Lebron James's career. Even if you get something a little better, it's undercut by the loss of time.

So and this team has been set up to fail. And so I you know, it was a frustrating media day. I had a feeling Rob Blincoln would come out and say the things he did and he did, and you know what, like, maybe it all work out. Maybe maybe Russell Westbrook will you've all of him become a winning basketball player. Maybe Kyrie Irving comes at the deadliner, comes next summer, and then everything works out. I just find

it extremely unlikely there was a more likely outcome. Give me Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, Dennis Schroder, Austin Reeves, Kendrick Nunn, Miles Turner, you know, Damien Jones, Buddy Healed. I can win a championship with that group, But the hypothetical of Kyrie, I can't take that to the bank. And that's why I didn't understand the approach one last note.

On on D Day Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Lebron was asked about his most important thing coming into the season, and he said, quote unquote, availability is the most important thing in this league. End quote, Lebron James and Anthony Davis is availability is going to be the thing that determines the outcome of this season, regard list of anything else.

Even if they did make a deal and bring in better players, if Lebron and A d combined to play ninety games, they're gonna be a playing team or miss the playoffs. But if they both play seventy plus games, that covers a whole lot of stuff. It keeps Russ in an ancillary role, which gives him at least a better chance of becoming a better role player. It also demonstrates to the front office that this group is something that they can believe in and invest in more by

making the trades. And the big guy I want to watch in this department is Anthony Davis. He said in the press conference that he plans to have a chip on his shoulder this season. I had him eighteenth than my player rankings. ESPN came out and had him twentieth

in their player rankings. I think that's fair. He doesn't deserve to be above the players that are in front of him, not with the way he's played, even when he's healthy the last couple of years, and when you factor in health, you could argue he should be lower. This is the season that will define Anthony Davis's career.

It's either go where you're either gonna look back at this as Anthony Davis, the guy who quickly became one of the best power forwards of all time, who had a dominant NBA Championship winning run in who then had a couple of bad years with injury, and then went right back to kicking everybody's ass, or the story is going to be he won the title in twenty and he never was the same player. This is the season where we find out, because once you've done that three

times in a row, that's just who you are. If you don't take care of your body and you come into camp out of shape and you play overweight and you end up suffering a bunch of injuries and you do it, then that's who you are. But if he comes back this season and he kicks everybody's ass, he will categorically explain the previous two years as an outlier, and so the pressure is on a d to get

it done. Moving on to the nets. So Kyrie said, quote, I didn't appreciate how me being unvaccinated came to be a stigma within my career that I don't want to play end quote. Said later on, I gave up four years and a hundred something million dollars to be unvaccinated end quote. And and this is just kind of more similar to the rest thing, just another example of a

lack of self awareness. We were all here watching you, watching the team when you took two leaves of absence for personal reasons, when you were healthy during the season without telling Steve Nash, just off the face of the earth, forcing your coach to answer tough questions, forcing your teammates to answer tough questions, disrupting the continuity of the team, hurting them in seeding. All of those things are true that happened in you were healthy, when the bubble was organized,

in you could have gone to play. You chose not to any one of those things. In a vacuum you get away with for instance, if he didn't play in the bubble, but he played through his contract the next two years. No one's gonna give a damn about They will explain it away. Hey, the bubble was weird, the nets weren't very good, Katie didn't want to play because he wasn't done rehabbing yet, you know what, it wasn't worth it. Cool, bam. You'll get the benefit of the

doubt there. If you just did what happened in one, but you played in the bubble, and you played the entire season vaccinated in two, then everyone's gonna go like, hey man, he just had a rough year, mental health stuff, needed to spend some time with family. They'll get it. But no, it's all of them. It's the bubble, it's the it's the first leave of absence, it's the second leave of absence, it's the vaccination thing, all of those

combined to make your reputation. I have no doubt that he would have got his contract that he wanted had he just done the end, had he just gone unvaccinated last year. There are a lot of players around the lead did that. Jonathan Isaac did that. It's not like the Magic are trying to dump Jonathan Isaac, at least not not yet. And if if they do, it's gonna because of his knee injury. The reality is is his

reputation is well earned and he doesn't see that. And that's that's the biggest thing that stands in the way of Russell Westbrook and Kyrie irving in their own self improvement in this league is acknowledging their own shortcomings. They're just they go down with the ship. They're in denial, you know, in general NETS training, our NETS media day. I was looking at the drama, the drama between Katie and Kyrie, right, and everyone said the right things. You know.

They asked Steve Nash about it. He said the right things. You know, Katie and I are family. This kind of stuff happens with family. We sort it out. You know, Sean Marks, this is a partnership. If Katie wanted to be gone, he'd be gone. Kad I understand the dynamics. I have a ton of trade value. It was gonna be tough to move me. Everyone said the right things. But the reality is that damon was done. The Kyrie

stuff caused damage, That Kevin Durant stuff caused damage. The ultimatum surrounding Shawn Marks and Steve Nash that caused damage. All of it's still there. How much damage, I don't know. They only know, but there's some amount of damage that was done there emotionally and and for the people involved. If they win right away and often these issues will sink under the surface. But if the losses start to pile up, everyone will immediately revert back to that damage

and remember that damage. So the risk is not gone. Even though they say all the right things, even though everyone is allegedly bought back into this thing, the damage is not gone. If the losses pile up, everyone will circle back to this summer. So it's on the basketball players to erase this thing. If Ben Simmons, Kyrie and Katie come out and they beat everybody's ask, no one's gonna care about this summer. But make no mistake, the damage is still done and it is not gone. It

just can be hidden as long as they're successful. So there were a couple of quick hitters I want to hit before we get out of here. Philly James Harden said he's been dieting and that he's lost a hundred pounds, said tweet that obviously he's joking, but I have been the first guy on the James Harden Revenge Tour take and I like what I'm seeing so far. Obviously we need to see real basketball, but I like what we're

seeing so far. He did specifically mentioned dieting. He did specifically mention him being healthy and being able to work out this summer. I did think that was a little uh strange though, because the reality is is a lot of his health issues were associated with his weight, in my opinion, but I like what I'm seeing from James Harden. I think he's poised for a big season. And if it's true that he's lost weight, that's the first step.

Speaking of losing weight, Zion Williamson looks good. It's got some muscle definition less Doughey, And for him in particular, it's important on a couple of different levels, specifically health, he's his body will continue to break down if he plays heavy. You know foot injuries like you had, that's associated with weight. That's your that's impact, that's you landing him. Being slim will help in that department. And the big one is defensively, I never looked at Zion's weight is

an issue on the offensive end of the floor. If anything, when you put on weight, you just become more difficult to keep away from the rim. But on the defensive end of the floor, if he's gonna cover ground in rotation, containing on the perimeter, if he ever is going to be a good back line defender, and if he's gonna be able to hold up over the course of an eighty two game season and a playoff run, he needed to keep his weight down in order for him to

be able to do that. He looks good again, say with James Harden when it comes his eye on and when it comes to James, it's not about the stories. It's not about what you see in media day. It's about what happens on the court. But I like what

I'm seeing so far. Last, but not least Phoenix. Uh, there was this awkward moting moment where one of the reporters asked DeAndre Ayton what he thought when the Sun's matched the Pacers offer to him this summer, and he said the right thing, but he said it in kind of an awkward way. He's like, I'm glad, I'm glad

it was over, glad to be here. And then the reporters like, z that all and he's like, yeah, just kind of like dead Pan, and there's kind of a weird energy hanging over the Phoenix Suns this season, and we talked about them in the in the Sea. In the season previews, I had them at seventh in my power rankings. All the talent is still there, you know, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Michael Bridges, and Jold, Jake Crowder. I guess it's gonna be traded, Cam Johnson, whoever it

is that slides into that spot in Deandreton. They're gonna kick a lot of people's asses. Are gonna win a lot of regular season basketball games, I believe, but there is a lot brewing under the surface. There's the lack of faith and Chris Paul in his weight or his health, excuse me, whether or not he can hold up over the course of the play out run. There's Devin Booker, who had another injury in the playoff run last year and he's been dealt with dealing with injuries over the

course of his career. The DeAndre In situation, Jay Crowd are demanding a trade. There's a lot of just stuff underneath the surface, and it's very similar to Brooklyn. If they come out and they win it'll be fine. But that's another team to watch where if they start three and five, if they start five and ten, if things get ugly for whatever reason, which I don't think is likely, but if they get off to a rough start, everyone's gonna circle back to the summer. Everyone's gonna circle back

to the issues. That's just what happens when things go bad. You look for reasons, you look for scapegoats, and you know what, if it's bad, everyone's gonna look at DeAndre and be like, he's not playing defense, he got paid now, he's not working hard, he didn't even want to be here. That's gonna be the kind of stuff that comes out when this kind of stuff starts to go south. So that's a team to keep your eye on. Alright. So, like I said before, any other Media Day stuff that

I see today, we're gonna touch on tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be covering Warriors Media Day and whatever else I see, and then we'll also in the evening have number four of our power rankings coming out. Keep an eye there, and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week will be number three to one, and the next Monday we'll be starting our game breakdowns As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys to support. I'm super stoked for full NBA season. We

got nine months of basketball on the horizon. I'm looking forward to it. I will see you guys tomorrow. The Volume