Hoops Tonight - Luka Doncic & Mavericks survive furious Warriors comeback, force Game 5

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gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume Happy Tuesday, everybody, we actually got I. I guess you could technically call that not a blowout in the sense that the starters were all in the game there at the end, although technically that was as boring a basketball game as you could have had on a night like tonight. I had I had seen this game coming. Based on a couple of specific details. We're gonna get into all of that.

We're going to break this game down a little bit, not gonna get too far into the details because it was a textbook. Mail in effort from the Warriors on a bunch of different levels. Uh, we're gonna bring my guy Carson on in a little bit and we're going to dive a little bit deeper into some of the implications of tonight and looking forward into this postseason run, talk a little bit about the all NBA teams that got announced today, and just have some fun talking about

some macro topics around the NBA. Before we get started, all of you guys who are tuning in, if you could please take the time to like this video, I would very much appreciate that. If you guys could subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our shows, that would be awesome. And then, last but not least, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so that you guys can see the video

breakdowns that I do um routinely on there. Just you can see some video examples of some of the things and the concepts that I talked on the show. So I did a whole thing last night might have been last night two nights ago, where I talked about how the aura that surrounds the Golden State Warriors caused Dallas players who were very good shooters and had demonstrated the ability to shoot the ball consistently well, especially when open

on kickouts from the Dallas offensive system. How they would suddenly strung goal and lose their confidence under the weight of what the Warriors bring to the table as a personality, as a dynasty, and I talked about how I've seen

this many times over the years. I remember watching every single player in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform not named Lebron James, and even a little bit Lebron himself freak out on a big stage against the Boston Celtics in the two thousand ten NBA Playoffs, despite the fact that they were the better team that had won over sixty games back to back seasons, had all the tools in the toolbox needed.

But here came the grizzly old Boston Celtics, who had done had a couple of deep playoff runs laid in with veterans, had just won a championship in two thousand and eight, and probably would have won one in two thousand nine had Kevin Garnett not gotten hurt. They're actually a lot better that year to start that season than they were in the previous season, and they walked into that gym, and they had a psychological effect on the

Cavaliers and they crumbled. I watched Lebron in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen have a similar effect on the Warriors. They were the up and comers, they were the more talented team. But Lebron had been in the finals so many times that he brought that aura and that confidence, and all of a sudden, a lot of really good players Clay Thompson didn't shoot well in either of those NBA Finals series two thousand fifteen or two

thousand sixteen. Harrison Barnes completely combusted. Ironically, there was a chance that had things gone a certain way in Game seven, that Draymond Green might have won Finals MVP, which I would have disagreed with. You guys know how I feel about Stephen Finals MVPs. He already has one in my book, and had they won in two thousand sixteen, I would

have given it to him there too. But you saw that psychological effect impact them, and it may or may not have cost them in two thousand sixteen, and almost did in two thousand fifteen. But now the Warriors are in that position where they are the team that is supremely confident in a huge road Game three against a very good basketball team. And now the Dallas Mavericks are the team that hadn't been there, that was new on the block, role players that hadn't been on that stage before,

and they all crumbled in Game three. And it's a huge part of why I'm such a huge believer in the Warriors moving forward, which we'll talk about in a minute. But I had a feeling about tonight. I went on with Live Moods, who's one of our huge gambling people here at the volume. You guys should follow her if you don't already, And she asked me when I came on her Instagram live today to kind of help her

piece together the same game part way for tonight. And my thought process immediately as soon as as soon as we went down that path was the pressure is off in this series. You're down three, Oh you're you're not gonna win. Guys like I don't care what you saw tonight. Golden States win in this series. All you Warriors fans know it all. You never fact, Mavericks fans know it all. The other twenty eight teams and their fans, they know it. The Warriors are gonna win. So what does that do

psychologically to all of those same shooters. All of a sudden, the fear that was running through them when they were taking those same shots in game three was gone. And by the way, they were wide open in game three, I tweeted this out earlier. Game one, the Dallas Mavericks generated eight wide open threes, only managed to make eight of them. Game two they generated twenty four more, Game three, twenty eight wide open threes again in game three, so

they've consistently gotten wide open shots. This series swung on Dallas not being able to shoot the way they did in the previous two rounds, step out playing Luca, and the Mavericks being completely incapable of getting a stop. Those were the three major factors that turned this from two really good teams playing each other to it looking like

one team was significantly better than the other. So I told Live, I said, I think our best bet here is Dallas starts making shots tonight because the pressure is off. And you could tell that immediately in that first quarter. You could just see it in the body language. You could see it in the way that the guys were rising into the shots. MAXI Kleiba, who was a complete in total headcase in Game three, was stepping into shots like he was the best player on the floor in

the first quarter. That was super predictable, and so my guess was, Hey, Dallas is gonna make a bunch of shots that inherently is going to lead to Luca getting assists and the MAVs are gonna win the game because the Warriors just don't take these, uh these road close

out games seriously. So we built parlay and it was Warriors, it was MAVs money line, Luca over seven and a half assists and Dorian Phinney Smith and Reggie Bulog both over ten and a half points, and it hit tonight at a plus eight forty four uh odds there, which was insane. But again, like and you guys have the deal with gambling. Sometimes it works, sometime time it doesn't.

I also bet a alternate spread tonight minus fourteen and a half for Dallas because I figured Dallas would blow them out, and I was staring at the cash out for like a solid couple of minutes during the commercial break at the end of the third quarter. Didn't take it, so I lost that. But the beauty of that was Luca checked back in, and he played so well early that he wasn't gonna play in the fourth quarter, and so him getting back in helped us to get over

that assist marker. So my point is the reason why I bring that all up is there was a basketball thought process for how I put that parlay together with Live. It was pressures off. Dallas is a team that relies heavily on three point shooting from role players. They're gonna shoot better tonight, and they did. I thought it was appallingly interesting slash annoying that Dallas fell apart the way they did in that fourth quarter against Golden States three

to zone. They were completely and utterly flum mixed by it, which is frustrating because that's a zone constructor that's been around in the game of basketball for a half a cent tree um. They were completely content to just go five out against the three two zone and pass the ball around the perimeter when the middle of the floor was wide open, which is insane to me because they

kept swinging ball. There was no close out necessary for the Warriors guys, because they're already in the right spots to guard a five out unit there, and they just weren't doing anything to try to get the ball into the middle of the zone, which is how it dragged out the way it did. And obviously the Warriors we talked about this a little bit last night. The Warriors

are incredibly deep. They have a lot of guys in their rotation that would be playing for other NBA teams that don't get minutes for the Warriors when they're healthy, right, Like Moses Moody, really solid wing doesn't even play for the Warriors for the most part, Johnathan Comingo, really solid, up and coming young wing doesn't even play to Wantaskano Anderson doesn't even play. They have a ton of talent.

And so when those guys got into that fourth quarter and they were engaged and they were focused, and Dallas wasn't taken it seriously, they fell apart the way that they did. I'm not worried at all about the Warriors moving forward in the series. As a matter of fact, I wanted to take this opportunity. You know, I've kind of been you guys know me, I'm not I'm not

married to a take. I'm gonna have a take based on whatever the available information is to me at the time, and if the information changes, I'm gonna change my take because I don't have an ego big enough to be obsessed with going down with the ship for whatever reason. Um, I think the Warriors are the best team left and I think they're going to win the championship. I have been really high on Boston through this entire stretch, but

they're inconsistent effort and they're inconsistent focus. Even though it hasn't burned them yet, it almost did against Milwaukee, and there two two in a series against Miami that they've utterly dominated. And the reason why they're too too is because of that that like complete and total lack of consistent focus and effort. You know, there is a town. There may or may not be a talent gap there between Boston and Golden State, depending on how you feel

at the defensive end. If you favor offense more, you're gonna think Golden States better. I leaned slightly towards Boston in terms of overall two way talent, just because I

think they have better defensive players. But I think Golden State would win that series because the of the the consistent commitment to the details that Golden State has, and there they do have a significantly better offensive engine in Steph, and they do have a lot of offensive talent surrounding step which is gonna test that Boston defense in a way that none of these teams that they've played so far have except for maybe Brooklyn, who just didn't have

the defensive chops to keep up. So as of right now, at this moment in time, like I think, I think Golden States the best team and all. It sounds crazy to say on a night like tonight, but as the information has been coming in, I expected Golden State to lose tonight. You guys, remember I expected them to lose Game five in Memphis. I told you guys, they get blown out that night. It's just they're They're bad and

road closeout games. They're much more comfortable closing out at home, And it was predictable that both of those teams would just be more confident on their home floor in a situation where the pressure is off of them, which is what happens when you fall far that far behind in a series. So we're gonna get a bunch further into the weeds here. I'm gonna bring my guy Carson on and he's gonna start asking a bunch of questions about not just tonight, but the rest of the stuff going

on around the league. That's correct, Jason, That is often what I tend to do here. So obviously Doubs fall short tonight. But we asked him the chat se of people said they thought that this series would be over after Game five. What do you think, Jason, do you think the Golden State closes out on Thursday? And what's your reaction to that? Really strong consensus we got. I would be stunned if Golden State didn't win on Thursday. Um, Now let's look at it from Dallas's perspective. First, you

just gotta win one game. You go down to Golden State and you win a road game, which you knew you were going to have to do to win the series anyway, If you do, you send it back home for Game six, where you'll be favored, just like they were favored tonight. And then if you win that game, you it's Game seven and anything can happen. And we literally saw what happened with that with Luca against Phoenix.

Now do I think that's gonna happen. No, But that's the approach that Dallas has to have go to Golden State and win one basketball game. What do I think is gonna happen. I think that Dallas is going to

go into Golden State. The pressure is going to be back on the guys to make shots, especially if Golden State makes some shots early and gets a little bit of a lead and all of a sudden, Maxi Kleiba and Reggie Bullock and Dorian Phinney Smith and all the guys that have been tentative throughout the series when they're when they've been open, we'll go back to being tentative. That's what I expect to happen. The other thing, too, here is I didn't think Luca was very good tonight. Again.

I thought he was horrible on defense again. I thought he was forcing the action into the teeth of the defense and missing easy reads again. And I just don't think he's sharp enough right now to go down into Golden State and lead them to a win. So I will be I will be on Golden State big in Game five. If the MAVs do extend the series, how do you think they pull that off? So a couple of things, Uh, Luca has to play better than Staff

in Game five. Um, so you know, doesn't it. I don't know if you notice this, Carson, but Andrew Wiggins. It's not just Wiggins, it's everybody on Golden State. Luca is not getting great looks for himself in this series. His step backs feel a little bit more contested than they've been in the earlier rounds, all of those like herky jerky shots around the lane. Colin Coward did a really nice job of calling this out on Sunday Night

on his show. The discipline that Golden State has shown to not go for shot fakes, and what it usually ends up happening is when you, as an offensive player, the advantage of the shot face because if you get a guy off his feet, you're at a great advantage. Obviously. The problem is is once you've made the shot fake, you lose all of your physical momentum and so it gets way way harder to get lift from the dead stop that you put yourself in in the pump fake.

I remember watching Kobe when he was younger, and he'd do those like triple pump bakes before he rise up into a jump shot, and I was always like blown away that he was able to get the lift that you would need after doing that to rise up and knock the shot down. But what's happening is Lucas pump getting into the lane and pump aking. Golden State's not going for it, and he's not getting great looks around the rim, and he's not seeing the defense super well. Steve,

we talked a lot about this. Steve cur has just done an amazing job of disguising coverages and mixing up coverages and making it so that Luca doesn't seem to really understand where his opportunities are or where his open teammates are. It's it's clearly throwing him for a loop. But that all needs to be cleaned up for Dallas if they won't have any chance in game five, you need Luca to come out and play and excellent two

way game. Secondly, you need the role players to knock down threes, just like they did tonight in Game four, and just like they did in the first half of Game two and then last but not least defensive contained. Everybody not named Luca was really good tonight and I was impressed by that. But outside of Luca or but Luca, like when you go on the road to Golden State, they'll be sharper and Luca will also have to be

sharper on the defensive end there. But if they defend well and they knocked down shots, and if Luca plays well, they have a chance. I just, I just I think that all three of those things will probably go south for Dallas. All right, let's pivot to the other Game five that is coming up, obviously in a series that feels more up in the air right now, perhaps has certainly been unlike really any other that I can kind

of remember in recent Conference Finals history. So as we look to heat Celtics, Jason, what is the biggest factor in their Game five upcoming tomorrow? That's interesting? So I I this game I think will end up being our first close game of the of the Conference Finals. As as as awful as that is, so, I expect both teams to come out focused. Um. As much as I've credited Miami for being really well coached and dialed in on the details, I thought they were a little flat

in Game four. Now, don't get me wrong, Boston came out and played a hell of a game in Boston's better than them on both ends of the floor, But Miami lacks some of that intensity all of that aggression that Bamata Bio had in Game three was just gone like like it was like, I don't it was like he was possessed in Game three by someone else's consciousness. I've never seen anything like it, like because if you take the three games surrounding that and juxtaposed them with

Game three, it just doesn't even make any sense. So I expect both teams to come out dialed in in a way that they haven't consistently been throughout this series. The key the key from Miami is going to be shooting, particularly three point shooting. They just can't afford to not shoot extraordinarily well from the perimeter with their talent disadvantage. For Boston, it once again is going to come down to offensive execution. We've talked a lot about playing with force.

When Miami comes out at the opening tip um in Game five, you can bet on them to apply a ton of ball pressure and to be sharpened their defensive rotations, and it's gonna be imperative early on for Tatum. I don't know if Marcus Smart is gonna play yet, that's up in the air as of right now, But for Tatum and Brown to make a deliberate effort to get into the teeth of the defense and then kick two shooters rather than settling for their pull up jump shots

like they do most often. One of the tricks for Boston is when Jalen Brown gets it going as a pull up jump shooter, he doesn't miss much, like he's a uber confident step back jump shooter. And the problem with that, and I run into this problem myself my in the in my basketball exhibitions here around the city of Tucson. Like I'm six ft seven with basketball shoes on, i have six ten wingspan, and I can jump so like I can get to a step back three anytime

I want. And that's a blessing and a curse because it's a blessing because I get to that shot anytime I need it. And I in my head, I'm like, I'm knocking down half of these like they're gonna go in half the time. That's the way I feel mentally. The problem is is like with my size and athleticism, if I go to the basket, I have more efficient especially playing against amateurs, right, But like I just it's

it's a laziness factor. It's so easy to stare at your defender and to know, like if I hit him with this hard through the legs, dribble into step back, I'm gonna get enough separation and it's it's a shot that I know it can make. And both Tatum and Brown fall into that trap often where they just they're almost too good for their own good. And if they if they didn't have a pull up three point shot in their bag, you'd almost expect them to be more uh more, you know, persistent in or attempts to get

into the paint. But that's gonna early on him to be watching Miami's three point shooting, how Jimmy Butler looks physically, if he's healthy enough to be enough to be up to the task. And then with Boston, are they making a deliberate attempt early to try to get into the paint. Well, let me just say, first of all, Jason, that's huge that you got the positive wings fan. I didn't realize that. I think that really is gonna lead you to project

well at the next level. Is gonna move you up. Sometimes, what percentage do you think you are shooting on step back threees? You feel like you're gonna make half of them if you had to guess, though, what do you think you actually shoot there? So the reason why I make half of them is I'm playing against amateurs and I have a huge size of atlace as an advantage. Well yeah, but I mean again, if I was taking those shots against NBA defenders, I might not even be

able to get him off. So it's it's it's all relative. But yeah, against against other dudes who just work around the city of Tucson who aren't professional basketball players, yeah, I can shoot fifty on stetback threes. That's yeah, that's pretty good. I don't know that you need to play that down, all right. I work extremely hard on it. You see that. You see the footage cars I make. I make thousands of shots every week and practic I'm weird.

It doesn't make any sense, But I prep like a professional even though I'm not, simply because I love the game of basketball. It's the damn shame of it all. As I wish I would have prepped like this when I was playing in college, because I'd probably be somewhere far away from here by now. But it is what it is, hey, I mean, being a tough bucket is worth million dollars in joy and Cloud in my Okay,

you're absolutely right, Carson, I think. So okay, we uh, We're gonna quickly come back to a Math's Warriors topic here just because we have this post game quote from Jason Kidd, want to get your thoughts on it. He says, the biggest compliment we've gotten is that they have to play zone because they can't guard us one on one. What do you think about that, Jason, I think that's foolish arrogance. Here's what actually happened. The game was over

and Steve Kerr played all of his young players. He even played Nomania be Eliza has been out of the rotation entirely because he's a traffic cone on defense. They what it was, Moses Moody, Jonathan Comingau, it was, uh, Nomania be Eliza, Jordan's pool and I can't remember who the fifth guy in that lineup was, oh, Damian Lee. So all guys that are out of the rotation basically

except for Jordan Poole. And I thought Steve Kerr was just like, hey, guys, run three two zone on the entire fourth, Like, just work on it, you know, just work on being in the right spots. You guys already. I thought that was literally what that was. I thought Steve Kerr was using the fourth quarter as a practice. Now, what's actually happening over the course of the series is Steve Kerr is repeatedly bouncing back and forth between zone

and man. He mixes it up routinely, and if he actually stayed in a three two zone consistently against Dallas's starters, they'd burn it. They'd light it on fire like because eventually every zone. There's a reason why NBA teams don't run zone is a base defensive I don't. I don't think we've ever seen one. And can you remember a single team in recent NBA history run zone as a

base look, I can't think of a single one. So the reason why is because professional basketball players are too good to play his own against Zones are designed to do one of two things. At three two zone or pretty much any odd front zone is designed to take away three point shooting, and he even front zone is designed to take away the paint. That's that's generally the concept of his zone, and against each of them, they're the there's the coaching is too high level, the offensive

execution is high too high level. And the skill level of the players is too high level for any of those zones to work if they get repeated looks at it. The genius of Steve Kurd using the zone as he mixes it up now I was critical of them earlier in the show. Jason Kidd has done a terrible job of navigating the UH against the three two zones. So uh, Carson as you as you probably know, offensively against his zone, you're supposed to go the opposite of whatever the front is.

So against a two three zone, so an even front, you want to have an odd dispersion, So you want to have one guy up top, two guys on the wing. That makes those two guys on the top of the zone have to constantly make decisions about who they're guarding, right. And then if it's the opposite, if it's a three two zone, you want to go two guys out front, and you want to go one in the middle, almost like a dice, like I think of like a dice,

the number five on a dice. You want a guy in the middle of flour, a guy in both deep corners, and two guys at the top. And that's just not what they were doing. Dallas was literally running like a five out concept against their three two zone. They were screening the top man of the three two zone, which is like ridiculous because what happens if you come off that screen the other dude in the zone is just

right there. It literally accomplishes nothing. And so I don't know if it's just because they haven't seen the look enough that Jason Kidd hasn't really employed a good zone

offense again against it. What I actually think is happening in the flow of the game is by the time they identify there in his zone, there's already like twelve seconds left on the shot clock, and they just don't have enough time to really get set up um And and part of the issue here too is like the pace of the game that Luca plays at, you just don't have enough time to adjust once you get across

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quote from j Kid. I think given the top context, given the way the series has gone overall, and given how they handled the zone, but also their man man has looked fantastic. Yeah, I know, it's it's great points all around, ja kids living on his own planet, you gotta have some of that foolish arrogance maybe to succeed at the level he has. I don't know a lot of guys see him too. Okay, so we talked about some of the biggest factors overall coming up in Celtics heat.

Let's look specifically at the star matchup that we have between Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum. Jason, Who do you think is under more pressure to perform in Game five between those two? Uh? Jason Tatum, no question. A couple of things. Jimmy Butler, his legacy is kind of in stone at this point. He's just he's considered one of the best non superstars of all time. Like he's just he's your textbook non super perstar that in any environment can rise to the level of a superstar and potentially

carry a team, you know, to the next level. A couple of things. Tatum is newly inflicted with superstar expectations. And then too, like Boston's way better. Boston is so much better. Like if both if you played, if this was if there was a single elimination game on a neutral court and both teams were guaranteed to bring one effort. I picked Boston by at least fifteen. Like they're just they're just better, They're just way better. They're just so

much better. So like the pressure here is like and by the way, Boston is not out of the woods yet. I think Boston's gonna win tomorrow, and I think they're gonna win game five or six. That's where I expect to happen. But like, would you be the least bit shocked if they went into Miami tomorrow, came out a little bit slow, Miami shot well, all of a sudden, the're up fifteen. All of a sudden, the Poems get sweaty. All of a sudden, they get a little sloppy, the

crowd gets into it. It's close game, you know, a couple of guys make some shots at the end and they win. No, I wouldn't be shocked. And then you're looking at a guaranteed game seven, even if you win game six. Right, So, like they're not out of the woods yet, and and so Tatum has to close this deal, and quite frankly, if he doesn't, this is a massive black mark on his resume as a guy who is now at the superstar level. You're not Luca. You've been

in the Eastern Conference finals twice before this. Okay, you've gone against Lebron James. I've gone against the same Miami Heat team. You don't get that I'm new on the block. Excuse you don't get any of that now. I expect Jayson Tatum to rise to the to the occasion and to close this deal. But there's no question that Jayson

tatums under more pressure. How much swing do you think there is and the potential for how we view Jayson Tatum depending on just how the remainder of his post season goes, like best to worst case scenario, what is the variation there and how could that potentially change, like the conversations that we're having about out him. So the worst case scenario we just went over that it's a

big black mark on his resume. And then and then essentially you know how that goes, Like from that point forward, everyone like you're just constantly clawing yourself out of that hole. You're no longer the you know, there's kind of like a pathway in uh in the in the career trajectory of an NBA superstar, it's like you're the darling and then you know, you have some losses and your get

cut slack for them. But then there's like the loss that's like one loss too many, and then like everyone turns on you, and then suddenly the flash like gets shined on all of your weaknesses. Right, we're kind of starting we might this. I don't think this is it yet for Luca, but we're like one playoff exit from Luca away. Like if he if he if he lost in the second round next year, I think that I think the public would turn on Luca pretty quick as

a guy who's to helleocentric and doesn't defend well enough. Um. But like that's kind of the situation that Tatum's in. I think Tatum's kind of at that point now, Like if he loses this series to Miami, there's gonna be a lot of people calling him a fraud. Now, what what him winning a title this year would remind me of is kind of like what Kawhi Leonard did with the Raptors in two thousand nineteen. Now, Kauai has demonstrated

that he's been a better regular season player. He was an m VP candidate in previous seasons, may or may not have been the rightful winner in the two thousand seventeen year when when Russell Westbrook won. So like I it's they're not a it's not a perfect apples apples comparison, But what it would remind me of is like, because like, what is the two thousand, twenty two thousand nine UH

title for Kawhi Leonard? Like if you look at it in isolated by itself, it's a supreme accomplishment, like unquestionably the best player on the team that won the championship against a good team and unquestionably deserved finals MVP in superstar fashion. Right, but every everyone around that not like there was some Kauai is the best player in the world. Buzz I never bought into that. I I didn't think

he was nearly good enough of a playmaker. What I thought he was in twenty nineteen was the tip of a spear, and the spear was arguably one of the most talented spears in the league, right, And as the tip of the spear, he was clearly the best player and he was able to push them over the top. But I don't think I didn't think he was close to as good as Kevin Durant or Lebron and that was proven to be true in the in the subsequent seasons. In my opinion, like he's to me, he's clearly just

just not quite as good as those guys. Right, that's kind of where I would see Tatum at here, Like, if you want a title, it'd be an it would be an unassailable, definitively best player on the best team, in the league finals, MVP, all of that stuff. But is anybody gonna think Tatum is the best player in the league now? You know? So you might have your Boston fans will, but like, so that's kind of the way I see it is, like, I Jason Tatum to me is having a two thousand nineteen Kauai asked a

playoff run if he closes the deal. I think it's a great comparison, and we've thrown that out there before a couple of times. But stylistically, in terms of the role the prototype they are as players, the two way impact and the incredibly talented supporting cast, but not having that second, you know, remotely superstar caliber guy. There's definitely

a lot of commonalities there. So another story with Tatum today is that he is first team All n b A and he is part of an incredibly young group there all five guys that being Tatum, Luca, Book, Janice, and Yoki t seven or younger. So Jason, with that youth movement that we have seen and we've talked about the transition of eras that we're kind of witnessing in these playoffs as well. Out of those five guys, you get one of them for the rest of their career,

Who are you taking? It's such a good question, So I think the answer is Jannie. But I have one caveat. I think I think Janice is almost guaranteed to be the best player out of that group for the rest of his career, but that it was I would say that irrespective of general management, meaning irrespective of roster around him.

But if I was told that I had a team full of amazing role players that could defend and shoot, and I needed one guy, I would probably take Luca strictly, because I think his half court surgery is such a

ceiling razor for already talented teams. We talked about this last night, Like this Dallas construct is kind of genius for me in the sense that the way they space the floor, the way that they attack matchups, it's kind of like built to succeed in the playoffs, right, So I do think that I would want Janice if I was building from scratch, if I was told that I already had like the two thousand nineteen Raptors, and I

needed one guy. I think I would take Luca because I think the way that he could elevate the team in the half court while carrying water for them on the defensive end, but covered for Actually, Carson, you brought this up last night, and we were already in the weeds on something else, so I didn't want to get into it. But you said, you said I favor offense over defense a little bit, so I do too. For the record, I I where I draw the line is

defensive liability. But if I could have a supremely talented offensive player who could hold his own on the defensive end, or a less talented offensive player who was a great defensive player, I would take the offensive player. And and the reason why is you can it's so much easier to coach up the defensive end of the floor. Look at what Dallas has done. Look at how they've convinced

this mediocre defensive team to defend pretty well. Although they've got they've been exposed by Golden State as lacking personnel in this series. But the point is is, like there's I can't coach guys into making shots, you know, like we I would even say that you can't even coach guys in terms of running sets to get good like to get good looks in the playoffs because of scouting in the way that physicality is allowed off the ball and how much team switch. It's just sets are far

less effective than they are in the regular season. That what what works in the playoffs offensively is how how much your top end talent can absorb at tension, you know. And so from that standpoint, like UH, in the in the specific environment of that top end UH defensive talents already on the roster, I think a guy like Luca would raise a ceiling higher than a guy like Janice would. But that's that dude, Like, how often do we see

teams that are perfectly put together? Not very often, so like I guess, I guess another way to frame that answer would be to say, I think Luca could beat your honest in a playoff series if he had a really good defense behind him because of the fact that his he could raise the ceiling on offense. But I do think you honest is the better overall basketball player.

That's a super interesting perspective, I think, and to me, those are the two choices as well, as much as I love Niko Yokis, you have the best player in the world in Janice, and I think the guy who has the highest offensive ceiling in Luca, and is also four years younger than Janice, so there is an advantage there.

So that's again interesting because I thought for a time with The Honest that there was an argument that maybe, well, definitely he needed more around him offensively, right, and that we've seen what Luca can do with shooting and just you know, like competent secondary creation and how he can propel that to an elite offense. I mean, his second year in the league, he led the MAVs to have the highest offensive rating ever at the time, like it

was an unbelievable accomplishment. Whereas Janice we saw some of the areas in which he could be exploited as a half court creator and whatnot, and he does need some of that permanent creation and big time shot making alongside him. So you think Luca needs more right around him, needs more talent around him to be like best guy on

a title team than The Honest does. Yeah. Absolutely, But at the same time, like we talked about earlier, which I think we talked about how Luca was vying to pass Lebron and Steph as the best offensive engine in the league, right, and Steph I think has proven in this series that he's a better offensive engine still, so

Luca hasn't quite gotten to that point. But again we're step is not an option in this list, and we're looking forward with this group of five players, which, by the way, it's super cool that all these young guys made first team All NBA. I think that's such a cool indicator of where the league is going and that it's healthy and in good hands. Um. But the point is, like Luca as an offensive engine here this perfect example, Janice averaged with the Bucks eight two points per one

d half court possessions against Boston. Do you think there's any chance in the world that Luca doesn't manage at least a ninety or hundred offensive rating against Boston, Like I think they'd lose. Still, you know, I think janice Is overall impact in that series was better. But like in terms of strictly uh a strictly half court offensive creation, what Luca brings to the table I think is superior

to what Janice brings. Yeah, with you there completely and you mentioned how cool it is to have such young representation on this first team Listen, I think that's kind of undeniable. But as you look at these five, do you have any issues with it? Anything you would change about the first Team All NBA this year? Oh? I hated it. So I think it's cool that the that the young guys got on in terms of this, like, it's kind of a cool moment in NBA history. But

I thoroughly disagree with the list. Like you know, I I tend to follow the Bill Simmons ideology that the All NBA teams should just strictly be essentially player rankings. Like I think they should be a snapshot of like first Team All NBA is, who are the five best players in basketball that season? Second Team All NBA's who's the you know, ten best players in basketball that season. That's that's the way that I would do that. So I don't think anybody thought Devin Booker was a top

five player in the NBA this year. I think that's ridiculous. I think even like, like even if we look past that too to Steph. So for instance, like Steph, in my opinion, even though he didn't shoot as well as he did in previous years. There's even his diminished self this season was significantly better overall as a basketball player in my opinion, And Devin Booker, so I think that's ridiculous. I could go further, like Lebron James was. Yes, he

played on a terrible team. Yes he wasn't as good defensively as he was in previous seasons, but he was a top ten player this year. Like I thought, he played better basketball overall than DeMar de Rosen did. Now, DeMar de Rosen had a great season, had some good playmaking was it was great, and clutch time had an amazing scoring season. His team was better. I hundred percent agree with you there. I didn't think Tomarta Rosen was better at basketball than Lebron James this season. That's just

that's ridiculous to me. Jayson Tatum as great as he was, and again there's there's a game's played thing here happening that gets complicated where I could see why Tatum was above Kevin Durant. But when I put my list together, I had Kevin Durant first team. Why because that Kevin Durant was one of the top five players in the NBA this year. When he was available. Now, the one thing that gets tricky is the center issue that the

Yoki Chen beat thing. And and I do believe that you should at least try to functionally have basketball lineups represented in this list, But yeah, like those are those are just like I just tend to think that these should more reflect essentially player rankings rather than like, you know, team achievement awards, Like there has to be something separate from team accomplishment in the NBA, and I thought that this would be. I could think that this is where

that should reside unequivocally agree with you there. And the book Steph one, I think is pretty glaring to me because it's such a product of arrative. Like if you sit down and think critically, their raw production is like effectively identical Steph even with his downshooting years more efficient by true shooting percentage. The on off dat is so overwhelming. It's so obvious how fundamentally important he is as an offensive engine to just a different level than Book. But

you know, the Sons are the best team. Book didn't even have a significant games played advantage, and that did make this year weird because it's like everybody missed at least ten games pretty much, but it feels like you can adjust for that and maybe just say, okay, well, if everybody's missing games, maybe it doesn't matter quite as much.

I think that last point that you made is interesting though about trying to have a functional basketball lineup, because I think I'm even more all in on the philosophy of this should be who are the best players in basketball? I think that there have been a ton of times throughout history, you know, where you have two fours together, right, because how could you avoid that? Throughout the two thousand you gotta have some combination of KG, Tim, Duncan, and

Dirk on the first team every single year. That's a really weird, clunky kind of lineup. So I just think and Bead should have been here, Like Jayson Tatum first twenty something games sucked and then he was phenomenal post All Star Break, but Embid was consistently clear top five guy. To not have him here because of a dated, you know, positional system, I feel it's dated is really another complaint

I would have. That's fair, and that's definitely not something I'm as passionate about, So I would be I would be with you in that regard, and I guess at that point you could even argue that embiad should be

in over Steph. Um. But like I thought, another big thing that on the step another big thing on the Steph Booker thing, like like the Phoenix Suns stayed healthy all season, they were a machine, with the exception of the end of the season when Chris Paul was out, and even then they were great because, as we said frequently on the show, I thought the Sun's top to bottom, I had the most talent in the league, obviously not counting the superstars, right, And so from that standpoint, like

when you talk about what Steph had to weather through this season, like what he had to deal with in terms of guys being in and out of the lineup, trying to work Clay back into the system, trying to work Jordan's Pool back into the system in a bigger role that he had rightfully earned. Like I thought, Steph did an amazing job navigating a really, really difficult season

and did do. The degree of difficulty to what Steph had to do this year was significantly higher than what Devin Booker did, and that's never factored in enough we the winning culture. I totally get and I think it's so important to not lose sight of that, Like you can't. You can't just walk through life making excuses about uh results in winning and losing, because that's you're you're just not doing yourself any favors there. I get that. But at the same time, like I do think it's important

context and it is worth having that conversation. Like, like, to me, the conversation surrounding Lebron and the Lakers is like, yeah, Lebron's a terrible GM. Him pushing for the Russell Westbrook move was a terrible decision. He also dropped fifty a few times this year and was one of the best offensive players in the league. Like it just that has to be. That has to be, Like, it's Lebron didn't stop playing good basketball Like that not to me, Like we we too often allow ourselves to and it I

understand it. Winning is is why we do this. We play the game to win. You play to win the game, as as the cliche goes, right, But at the same time, like, especially with these kinds of lists, I do think it's important to apply the appropriate context. Like had had the Warrior stayed healthy, guess what they would have beat the Suns in the standings in my opinion, so like to me, it's that simple. Yeah, And I think their record when

Stephan Draymond was healthy reflects that. So you mentioned Lebron. He was honored just third team, as you said. But do you think this will be the last All NBA team that Lebron makes Jason, If so, it'll be because of injury. I think Lebron has one fine, anal truly great m v P caliber season in him. A couple

of reasons why. One, he still looked great athletically this year. Two, I think I think we are going to see a motivated Lebron that we saw in two thousand twenty, Like consistently in Lebron's career, when you put a couple of factors together, recent humiliation combined with appropriate talent surrounding him, that that allows Lebron to believe in the mission. Those

things mixed together to make I motivated Lebron. Lebron was humiliated in two thousand nineteen to the point where I keep blanking on his name every time I try to bring it up. So Carson, if you can remember, tell me. But that swing forward to the Europeans swing forward from the Knicks that blocked him on the game winner in Madison Square. Garden Um, he remember the do you remember how to talk about I can't think of his name, but I don't remember who it was. Oh my gosh,

this is gonna kill me. So anyway, he blocked Lebron. He got in trouble for bringing Wine to the bench. He you know, said I'm activating playoff mode. Remember the whole Instagram post that he did. And then immediately they went like two and thirteen to end the season or something like that. Like like so the way I see it,

like he came out of that got Anthony Davis. So he saw a championship opportunity and was motivated by his recent failures and it amounted in such a dominant like that Lebron season was such an incredible start to finish dominant season. I'm on the record that I thought he absolutely deserved the m v P over Janice. That was a incredibly weak Eastern Conference that massively inflated all of Janice's advanced metrics and massively inflated the record for the Bucks.

The Lakers were basically right there with them in the standings in the significantly tougher conference. You know that. Like, remember, guys, you play thirty games against the other conference, you play fifty two against your own conference. Okay, so the conferences are a huge impact on things like metrics on things and the standings. Like you can't just take it at face value. Right, So, like that was as dominated season as it gets. This coming year, you have humiliated missed

the playoffs, literally missed the playoffs. When twenty of the thirty teams get in, Okay, you have Lebron and Anthony Davis on the roster. I think they're gonna flip Russell Westbrook for quality role players like and we literally saw Andrew Wiggins, who was a massively overplayed role player in Minnesota a contract that nobody wanted, suddenly playing well in a as a super functional two way wing in the

Warrior system. That's the kind of guy that that the Lakers need to be targeting, like inflated contracts for role players that were missed cast as stars. Try to get those types of guys back. I think the Lakers are gonna come back and have a good amount of talent, and I think they're gonna have one last final super motivated Lebron season. Here's the problem. If his knee inflates on him for no particular reason and he only plays fifty two games, then he might not make an All

NBA team. So if the question is is he going to make an All NBA team if he stays healthy for one more year, I believe he'll be first team All NBA next year. I think that that's perfectly logical. And by the way, it was the great Maria Hasnia who made Mario All time draft bust. Of course, gotta

love that guy. I'm with you completely, and I just think you look at all the complaints about Lebron this year in the areas in which he fell short, and it's you know, consistent defensive engagement, rights, leadership stuff, stuff that you harped on a bunch in terms of offensive versatility, in terms of his scoring peak and efficiency, and what he can still do as a playmaker, Like there's no question that Lebron win motivated plays at a top five level, and so like you said, if he just does that

for a full year, then he should be recognized accordingly. And I think you never know with like just how prolonged peaks have become in modern sports, but I'm tentative to even say to put a hard limit at one more year, Like we just don't know. I don't know when Lebron is gonna fall off because we have never seen guys playing for as long at this high level period and have never seen anybody playing individually close to the level that Lebron is at in year nineteen and

at his age. So I think we will certainly see all NBA Lebron again. Yeah, I feel confident that there will be one more. But yeah, I'm with you, Like, would I'd be shocked if in year twenty one Lebron was, you know, averaging seven and seven. No, I wouldn't be shocked at all. And you know, the motivation thing is going to be, Yeah, it's insane, but like the the the big indicator will be training camp and you'll know right away. And like people act like that stuff doesn't matter.

It does, like the preseason doesn't matter. Well, guess what the twenty and everybody's asked in the preseason and the

Lakers were losing literally to everybody in the preseason. It's just to me, like, even if the stars aren't playing, it's an indicator of the level of focus you have in training camp in practice, because even if Lebron and Russ and Anthony Davis didn't play in all the preseason games, if you were approaching practice with the right level of intensity every single day, you would have won two or three of those preseason games just by playing hard and

just by defending really well. And they just did it, and and it was predictable that they'd come out the gates in the regular season and do the same thing. So I expect a locked in Lebron to start next season, and I think the Lakers will have one last great run. All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support all of you guys who are listening. If you guys could take the time to like this video, I would really really appreciate that.

It helps us a lot. If you could also subscribe to the volume's YouTube channel so that um, you guys don't miss any more of our content, I would appreciate that. If you can follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys can see the video content that I release. And then, last but not least, if you miss part of this show and you don't have time to get onto YouTube to watch the rest of it. Check out our podcast feed right now. It's under Lakers tonight.

All the links are right underneath. It's in my pinned tweet on my Twitter page, so you can see that stuff there. We will be back tomorrow night after Game five of Boston Miami, and I will see you guys right after final Buzzard the Volume