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all of you guys are having an incredible week. This is my second time recording this intro because in the middle of our mail bag, the Denver Nuggets fired Calvin Booth and Mike Malone on April eighth, less than a week before we get through the end of the regular season. If you guys want to hear specifically my reaction to that, fast forward about seven minutes into this video. Jackson, our producer, is also going to put a little link in the
description so that you can fast forward to that. So if you want the reactions specifically to the Nuggets news, you'll have to fast forward a little bit. Otherwise, it's our weekly mail bag. We got about a dozen questions from you. Guys. Are gonna be bouncing all around the league lots of interesting stuff. Remember, if you guys want to get questions into our mail bag, just go to our full episodes on YouTube, go into the comments type mail bag with a coll in and write your question.
That's how I can find it in the mix. Relatively easy drop those questions in there. We're going to be doing mail bags about once a week moving forward throughout the rest of the season. You guys are the drip for We get started to subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Some forget about our podcast feed where
we get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our new social media feed. So go to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and look up Hoops Tonight for more content throughout the season. And the last but not least, like I mentioned at the top, keep dropping mail bag questions in YouTube comments that we can hit them through our weekly mail bags
throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So at the little context before this first question, at the tail end of the Steph Lebron segment that we did yesterday, I talked about how I would rank my top players of all time, with Lebron and MJ kind of on a tier at by themselves at the top, and then I'd go Kobe, Magic, Steph, and then Larry Bird. And so that's the context before we get to this question.
Big fan of Jason in the show, did I miss where Jason said these were his top six non centers of all time? Oh good? I was afraid someone whose NBA opinions I greatly respect, I'd left Kareem and Bill out of his top six players. Wilton, Shack and the team deserve consideration in one day, Yokic might, but no Kareem is in the top six. Is the big one? Maybe centers are in a separate category. For Jason, I
believe he's a forwarder guard himself. Yeah, so the last time we did this stuff was two summers ago, I think, And this year, because we don't have a team USA or any sort of Olympic basketball, we might do a little bit more WNBA stuff, and we might do a little bit more of this kind of like all time big picture NBA stuff as well, And so we might dig into some of these concepts a little bit further.
But yeah, like for me personally, it's just really difficult to rank, Like how do you rank a Kareem up Duel Jabbar against a Steph Curry for instance. They just their jobs are so fundamentally different, and you could argue that they're the greatest ever at their specific jobs. And now we're discussing like which job is more valuable in its respective era, right, And so that's where it gets really complicated. And so for me personally, I've been keeping
centers on a separate list. Now, where that gets complicated is a guy like Jokic, right, a guy like Jokic being a guy that is more perimeter oriented as center. But even then, I think that I would rank Jokic among centers. There's a simple concept like for instance, NIKOLEA.
Jokic cannot switch onto the perimeter in guard one on one like he's horrible at it, So he's trapped into these specific coverages, like at the level coverages in deeper drop coverages, and so to me, that's like Joki is still clearly the best player in the league even though he can't fundamentally do one of the most basic tasks that a perimeter player does. So with that being the case, like even with Jokic, I might keep him in a
separate list when the time comes. But again, that was the only reason why I had the list look the way it did yesterday when I was referring to it. To me, Steph's title in twenty twenty two vaulted him over Larry Bird. I still think he's got some ground to cover in terms of Magic and Kobe in terms of like overall big picture accomplishments. And I don't think Steph ever had a ceiling relative to his peers the league,
meaning like Oh my god. STEP's obviously just better than everybody type of moment to be able to enter into that MJ. Lebron tier that they're in there at the top. But again, I think he could still potentially move up, Like if the Warriors won this year, he'd have a good chance to move ahead of guys like Kobe and Magic for me. But yeah, more fun on that front when we get to the summer. Hey, Jason, much love from Brazil. So over the last few games, Tatum's three
point shooting has been rough. He's been at twenty one percent over the last three and when one for nine in the most recent one at the time of recording. Don't get me wrong, He's still playing really well overall. But I feel like I've seen this movie before. Right around playoff time, Tatum has a cold stretch from deep and it seems to just follow him into the postseason, kind of like last year. The competition's only getting tougher, and honestly, I don't think we can win it all
unless Tatum is firing on all cylinders. Am I overthinking this or is this something we should be worried about? Worried is a strong word, because the Celtics have a lot of margin for error, and Tatum frankly shot like shit last year and they won the title. Now there are some obvious things that you need to take into consideration. Like I talked about this with Celtics fans a lot over the summer when we were debating the Celtics in
their place all time. I don't think that that MAVs team was a you know, traditional powerhouse contender, nor the Pacers, nor the Cavs, nor that Heat team that was injured at the start of last year's postseason. So like I think we can all freely admit that if you face Knicks or Pacers in round two, that's about the same quality of opponent that you faced in the conference finals last year, maybe a little better because the Pacers are a little better and the Knicks are I would argue,
even more talented than the Pacers. So your second round opponent could arguably be as tough as your conference finals opponent. Your finals opponent, Cleveland, in my opinion, is better than probably both of the teams you played in the conference finals and finals last year, better than that Dallas team,
better than that Indiana Pacers team. And then your reward if you get out of the West could be he Shay Gilders Alexander in a sixty five plus win Thunder team, which would be dramatically better than any team you faced in the postseason last year. A Lebron Luca Austin Lakers team that is gonna be better than any team you faced last year. A Kauai Zuboch hardened team like those teams that are in the Western Conference that are below that tier are all every bit as good as Dallas
was last year. So you have a very difficult path laying in front of you relative to last year. Now, as far as Tatum's shooting goes, it goes a little deeper than what you talked about over the last week or so. I had looked yesterday or two days ago, something like that twenty game span where he was shooting right around thirty percent from three. Now, U Celtics fans can probably relate to this as having watched the team even closer than I have this year. But that's kind
of been Tatum's shooting all year. Like he'll have these like three four game stretches where he's fifty five percent from three and sixty five percent from the field, and then he'll have two or three games in a row where he's one for nine, two for eleven, like those kinds of games from three and so he's generally been streaky. And so I want to say, like I told you to, like discount the word worried, like set the word worried to the side. It's not worried so much as like
you're trimming into your margin for error. I'd argue there's two potential outcomes for Tatum in this postseason. He could enter into one of those hot streaks that we talked about and shoot the jump shot extremely well all postseason. And if that happens, I mean, I think I would just say Boston's gonna win it all, Like I don't think if Tatum's gonna legitimately play at that because that's
the thing. When Tatum's jump shot is going at a super high level, he is a bona fide top tier superstar in this league, at the same level as the guys like Shay and Jokic and Luca and Giannis. Right, he's not as good in their peak offensively as those guys, but he's extremely versatile and has enough offensive upside to impact the game as much as those guys do. When his jump shots not going, he drops into that second
tier of stars. And so because then he's super versatile, a great defender, great rebounder, all these different things, great playmaker, matchup attack or all that kind of stuff, but he just lacks the offensive upside he has when he has his jump shot going. So again, I think there's a certain amount of margin for error that gets clipped off if Tatum shows up into the postseason and shoots poorly, And I think it's absolutely something that will make things tougher.
But then I'd also argue that this was going to be tougher for them no matter what, Like if I've talked about it last summer, if you want to be remembered as an all time great team, this is the year you have to win. I mean, look at how many we have two more sixty win teams this year with Cleveland and OKC. You're not going to get that credit for being one of the all time greats unless you can combine multiple years of success against different types
of playoff opponents. That it's one of those things where like if you ripped through New York, Cleveland and oakse this year, all of a sudden, it adds a layer of legitimacy to last year's playoff run that wasn't there, because now it's like, well, we just proved we would have beaten all those teams anyway if we would have played them last year. And so again this is it's gonna be tougher no matter what I think. Without Tatum
shooting well, it will be especially tough. But I also think it's just as likely that he goes in there and shoots really well. I'm gonna say the same exact thing that I said about Jokic last year with his three point shot and his three point shots tailing off a little bit this year as well. I'm gonna say the same thing though, which is just keep an eye
on it. It's just something to keep an eye on because if Boston loses to somebody and Tatum shoots like shit, we can look back and go, well, he shot really poorly going into the postseason and that ended up being the trend that shot them in the foot. This Mike Malone' stuff. Jackson, if you could do me a favor, and just as I'm kind of working through this, if we get any sort of additional intel, as to what of what might
have happened. I saw a clip going around this morning of Mike Malone in a press conference talking about how he basically has a group of guys in the locker room that is in denial about some of the situations that they're dealing with. I heard him say that, you know, these realities are on tape, and he accused his players of not watching the tape and about how he was going to have to basically put the tape in their face to try to get them to acknowledge those realities.
I'm going to assume he's referring to the defensive end, and I'm gonna assume he's referring to a combination of things, whether it be Jokic's at the level coverage, some of the backside rotation stuff, some of the just defensive mistakes made in terms of box outs and rotations on the backside. But I'm going to say the same thing that I said after we saw Taylor Jenkins get fired, which is like, this is just a bizarre time to make a dramatic
shift like this. Now it gets a little bit more tricky, is I don't think Denver would make a move like this unless the belief was gone. And what I mean by that is you're tailing off. You've lost what nine of your last fourteen games. Jamal Murray may or may not be ready for the postseason. I thought that game against Indiana was their most pitiful defensive effort of the last of this last chunk of games that they've played, where there were some plays where there were some truly
embarrassing efforts and defensive rotations on the backside. So I think it might have just spiraled to the point where they looked at the situation and thought, this year's basically done. We might as well begin this process of hunting out our next option right away. But I will get more intel on that. I have a we're going again on Wednesday morning, so as we get more information about what's coming out from the Mike Malone firing, we'll get to
it at that point. But my initial gut reaction is like it might be time for a gigantic pivot for the Nuggets in addition to changing their coaching staff. I talked with Kevin O'Connor last night, and I talked on my show yesterday about the idea that this team might need to fundamentally rebuild around Yokich. I would keep Aaron Gordon because of his jump shooting and how I think that gives you a ton more flexibility in terms of
how to build around him. But I think it might be worth considering a complete shuffling of the deck around your athletes, keeping Peyton wattson, keeping Aaron Gordon, you know, maybe like a jam Pickett or something like that. But then like all of these, like skill oriented offensive players that have been inconsistent and not as productive as they've needed him to be, they need to be flipped for
offensive players they are defensive players. I'd like I'd be looking for a move along the lines of a Michael Porter junior, for a Jaden McDaniels or a Herb Jones or something along those lines. I'd be looking for someone that you can put to make this defensive job easier. I think as Jokic ages too, you could make the case that offense will be easier for him and defense will be harder because he's a groundbound player that doesn't
take a lot of impact when he's playing offense. It's a lot of footwork, pivoting, reading the floor using his size that should translate deep into his late thirties if he wants to, and so our mid thirties, I should say so. With that being the case, I would build more around the idea of defense around Jokic than offense around Jokic at this point. But again, we'll get into more nuggets tomorrow once we get more information on the firing.
Woah fired Calvin Booth. They've completely flipped everything over in Denver. That is crazy. I think that's a pretty strong indicator that we're going to end up having a some sort of substantial rebuild for Denver. But I mean, I literally talked about this last night with Kevin O'Connor. There's a clip of it on social right now that you guys
can find on my twitter feed. But like I, to me, this feel like a dramatic pivot after this season, like a complete and total reconstruction of how you win around Yokic. If you acknowledge the reality that you have to bring Yokic up to the level, then you need to be two things. You need the on ball guy to be a guy that is really good with ball pressure and disruption, because if Yokic isn't going to be super active with
his hands up there. The guy trailing the play, the guy chasing over the top has to be super active with his hands to make those passes uncomfortable. On the backside, you've got to be really sharp in your rotations. We've seen Yokic be able to weaponize athleticism on offense in
the form of cutting. I've been so fascinated by the Westbrook Brown groups this year and how you see like at various points, sometimes separate from each other, sometimes together, where you see the two of them being able to layer the waves of their cuts to maintain spacing even though they aren't necessarily shooters. So I think that is the build that I would look for is just overwhelming defense and athleticism around Jokic. Smart athleticism around Jokic so
that you can have a high enough defensive floor. Again, guys, defensive rating with Yokic on the floor since going all the way back to January, I think it's like January tenth, if I remember correctly, the defensive rating with Yokic on the floors of one to twenty. That's that's not just bad, that's your disqualified from any sort of potential playoff success. Like you're not you're not beating anybody. Like I'll go
a step further. I have felt strongly ever since that game that that Luca and the Lakers put on Denver in Denver that I think I think the Lakers would kick Denver's ass in a playoff series because they would have absolutely no chance to stop them from generating wide open threes every single time down the floor. Kind of a wild difference between the way it felt when Anthony Davis was on the team, where I felt like the
Lakers had absolutely no chance. So it's just a it come down to that basic concept of defense, and like there's just too many guys like that that draw that coverage. I saw a clip this morning on Twitter talking about different players that bring two to the ball blitzes, and it's like, Steph, you know, Dame Luca, Anthony Edwards ironically draws the most blitzes in the entire league, which I think has more to do with his lack of passing
ability than anything else. But like, there's a lot of guys that you have to face in the Western Conference that are going to bring to the ball, so you better be set up to handle that defensively. And Denver is just not and things were crumbling and they decided to make a pivot. Hey, Jason Hues, fan of the show. I say this as a diehard Laker fan and Luca fan. I personally don't see the same player from years past
when I'm watching it. He has no bursts to beat people and get into the rim, plays zero defense, and relies on a tough step back three to score. I remember when you talked about the nerd Sash guys, you said he was definitely top two or three, comfortably better than Shay. I was curious to see if your stance has changed, because I can't put him over any of
the people he's being compared to. Right now. He's been back for like two months from an injury that was the most significant injury he suffered as a pro, So I think there's a certain amount of like, he's obviously not quite where he's gonna be yet. The big piece is the mid range and short range shot making. He's pump faking that shot a lot. He's not making it at nearly the same clip he did last year in
the postseason. The step back three. It was cold in the last couple of weeks, but overall in the last month or so, Like he's been shooting it pretty well. He more or less looks like Luca to me, with exception of that short to mid range shot making. It's worth mentioning last year in the postseason, he was banged up, he had that bulky knee, he was limping around a lot. He wasn't exactly moving super well in the postseason last year.
But that's kind of what I refer to as the upside with this Lakers team is like where can Luca get from now April eighth to May first? It was like, let's say that they get into a first round series with a you know, a Minnesota or something like that, and they get out of that series and it's a second round series where they got to go on the road to Houston. Like that's a series where like I think you're gonna need Luca because of just how big
and physical and good their defense is. You're gonna need Luca to be a better version of himself. Well, you got three weeks to kind of iron that out as you try to get him ready for that type of series. So again, like here's the thing, Like, do I think Shay is better than Luca right this point? In time, yes, but like I think it's very possible, but by the time they get to a conference final series that Luca could overtake him because he's still getting back to form
from an injury. And to me, fundamentally their ceilings like take say Luca in the postseason last year and Shaye right now. To me, I'm always partial to the big playmaking forward. I've been talking to you guys about this forever. It's why I've been drawn to Jokic, drawn to Lebron. I've had my frustrations with Luca over the years as some of his stuff complaining to refs and some of the stuff on defense, But I do like that archetype
of player a lot. I think that there is a extra value to solving playoff puzzles, solving playoff defensive schemes, and I think lucas substantially better at that than a guy like Shay. Shay's a better defender, Shay's a better like straight up on an island score in volume. But then I also think you could make the case that Luca's size gives him more resilience as a score as
you get into later rounds in the postseason. So like for instance, like could Luke could Shay do to Jaden McDaniels what Luca did to Jaden McDaniels in the Western Conference Finals. I'm not sure you know what I mean?
Like could, Like we're gonna see the Lakers play the Rockets again, we could most likely see them play a second round series if they both advance, Like who would do better against the men Thompson, Shay Gilders Alexander who really struggled with him the other night, or a Luka Doncic who has such an overwhelming size advantage there that over the course of a series he should be able to wear them down a little bit. So again, I think the theoretical version of Luca at his best is
a better player than Shay. Historically, home court has been a huge advantage in the play Yeah, some court team winning eighty six percent? Has that advantage decreased in the modern NBA with load management and strong teams limping into the playoffs? How much do you value home court of the show? I value it more than ever because of the confidence that role players have at home shooting, because of how much more of the game takes place in the open floor, which is where energy is such a
huge part of the game. I for the record, like I see that the Lakers are considering punting the game tonight in Okay. See, they only need to go two and two over the last four to get the three seed. But if they win tonight and they beat Houston on a little bit later this week, then they just need Houston to lose to the Clippers for the Lakers to jump up to the two seed and have home court for a second round series in Houston. I'll be honest
with you. Like to me, like, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Lakers played a three to two matchup with Houston and didn't have home court, if they went on the road in game one and got their ass kit as they struggled dealing with just the energy and physicality and had to adjust to it. So like fall down one zero in a series, now you got to win four the next six games, it gets a little tougher. So like I think it matters, I think
teams should absolutely be fighting for it. In general, I'm of the opinion that the especially when you're out of the play in, when you've got that Monday through Friday guaranteed off next week, there's time off baked in that it's more important for you to be playing your best basketball than it is for you to be rested or I mean, health is one thing. You don't want guys playing hurt, but I'd be more I'd value rhythm and spot in the standings over anything having to do with rest.
Hi Jason Love listening to your show all the way from Australia. As a suffering Pelicans fans, I would like your thoughts on their predicament. Do you think they should completely gut the roster and rebuild or stay the course back in, bring back in the young core of Zion, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, and He's Missy, who are dynamic, but if not stayed healthy together, they're healthy starting floor of Murray Jones, Murphy's Ion and Missy has a lot
of upside. You know, I was thinking about this this morning when I read your question, and you know, I have this like kind of basic basketball philosophy for how to build a team out of like replacement level players in terms of just like their athletic archetype. And the way I've always put that together is I think you need a skill guard, a guard who's just a pro at creating shots. And then I think you need an athlete guard, a guard who's a rim pressure guy who
also can guard the ball. And then on the wings, I think you need a longer, athletic like ground coverage type of wing that's really fast and has some length. And then I think you need more of a big forward, a bigger, stronger player at the four, who is a guy that can play a lot of help side defense like low man possessions, but has the size to tag rollers and bother stuff at the rim, and that can
help your team on the defensive glass. And then lastly, I think you need a big man a center that can play in multiple coverages, a guy that can switch ball screens, but that can also blitz high drop, low drop, hedge and recover whatever it is. The You need some scheme versatility out of the center spot as you go from team to team. Right now, there are weird things with the Pelicans, like we need to take Zion out because he's kind of just a different type of player.
But if I had to call him a certain type of player, I would call him a four traditionally in the sense that like I like him better as an off ball, help side defender, low man rebounder, even though he's not good at that stuff, but that's theoretically the stuff that when I've seen Zion be at his best defensively, that's where he's being deployed. And I don't want him as that ground coverage wing as at the three, and he obviously can't play center. So as you look around it,
de jontey Murray is that stereotypical athletic guard. Can pressure the rim, can guard the ball theoretically when he's engaged on that end of the floor. Now, his achilles injury might put a damper on that a little bit, but you've got all these guys locked up on contracts for a long time. To answer your question before we get a little bit further, like I would bring everybody back for one year because you don't really have a choice.
You're not trading de Jonte Murray off of achilles injury with that contract you uh CJ McCollums an expiring thirty ish million dollars a deal. You might try to trade him, but you're certainly gonna end up but you're most likely going to end up bringing him back to Camp. Herb Jones is locked up, Trey Murphy is locked up. These guys are locked up, and you had a truly awful
year in terms of injury luck. So like, I think you're gonna kind of have to bring everybody back, But at the same time, it's worth it to at least get a look at everybody before you decide how to
build moving forward. Now again going back to the construct skill guard, a CJ athletic guard in theory is to Johnte Murray, Herb Jones is arguably the one of the best at that rangey type of wing position that I talked about, And so really it's about finding a center and a center that can fit in the context of Zion, and a lot of that's going to take reps. Like you know, he's missed. He's got some vertical spacing capability.
If you can get to a position where he can share the flow with Zion as a vertical spacer and Zion can figure out some of the reads as he's generating dribble penetration, there's a version of that that can work as long as everyone else shoots well enough. So again, I think they're gonna end up bring everybody back because they kind of have to. I wouldn't be surprised if
they at least shop. Like, here's the thing, Like in terms of Zion, if someone calls you this summer and goes, we want Zion, here's a bunch of cool shit, Like, I mean, you got to think about taking it, But like I just don't think you need to be urgent and fire sale everybody at a discount, if that makes sense. Speaking is a fun one speaking of Aaron Gordon building a gym in his house. If you could ever have a person your own personal basketball court, how would you
design it? It's an ultimate goal of mine for several reasons. One I love to play to. One of my biggest pet thieves is basketball court like uh, gatekeeping, and most of it's done by the government, like in schools and like it's all for safety reasons and liability and stuff. But it always drives me crazy that like everyone wants to play basketball, but like there's fifteen locked up high school gyms around your city that are like just unused or various you know, community gyms that are locked up
and unused. Like I go play on every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm going to go play, right when I'm done here at this place called Sporting Chance, and it's this huge, this huge facility that has five full courts, And when I go in there and play, there's a dude who hosts the run, who pays a lot of money to rent out the gym, and we go in there and we play, and all the other four courts are just empty and dark, and I always just feel like it's
a waste. I feel like the world is a better place when people have the ability to go play basketball, the ability to go use these facilities, and so like, I've always just wanted to have access to a basketball court whenever I want. I kind of do right now with being a high school coach, I can get in, but I have obviously some restrictions in terms of when I'm allowed to use the gym. So ultimately what I'd like to do is build a full size indoor court.
It's just so outrageously expensive that it's beyond the scope of what I'm capable of by now by such a large amount that it's like basically a pipe dream. But like, let's just put it this way, like maybe I won't get to enjoy it, but if I was lucky enough in my older age. To have a court where I could let my kids and my friends and some of the other people in the community use it. That'd be the dream of mine if I had to design it.
I'm a big mountain view guy. I think it'd be sick to have like a big gym with a bunch of windows, got some views of a mountain out the side. That would be my dream as a basketball slash mountain fan. The Lakers are in a pretty good position to make impactful moves to the roster in the off season. The popular answer is to go after a big like Claxton
and to sign Nikhil Alexander Walker. Although I am in favor of signing Alexander Walker with the MLE, I'd rather retain Hayes on a team friendly salary and move expirings for players that enhance the Lakers small ball lineups with guys like Jonathan Isaac or other highlight wings. I would also try to sign a decent, bruising big like Drummond or Capella at the biannual exception. I think that defensive versatility is the only path to making a deep run.
With his configuration of the roster and committing a lot of salary to one big would limit that. We'd love to know what you think. Love the show. So there's some realities, right Like, if you want a trade for a Nick Claxton, now we've got to include multiple ten plus million dollar salaries. Okay, let's say Maxi Kleeb is
one of them. And by the way, Maxi Kleba could end up coming back and playing for the Lakers in this postseason run, and maybe he ends up being the small ball center that they've always wanted, you know what I mean. But like, let's say they package Kleba. Who you giving up? You want to give up Gabe. He's one of your best guard defenders that can hit a shot. You want to give up Van Doh. He's literally been your small ball kind of like power forward center guy
for a good chunk of this. You want to give up Rui Hachimura. You want to give up Austin Reeves. Like, hey, you know, like you're gonna have a really hard time coming up with a player that makes sense to packaging a deal like that. I've seen Nick Claxton's name get thrown around. I like Nick Claxton. He fits the mold of what the Lake would want to do for several specific reasons. One, Nick Claxton is a good switching big
so it fits naturally within JJ Reddick's defensive scheme. But at the same time, you could have some flexibility in terms of running drop or having him roam and protect the rim if you need to. He's not the best rebounding center in the world, but he's decent at it, and in general I've been I've been less worried about the Lakers rebounding than other people. I think they hold up a little better than people give him credit for
since the ad trade. Claxton also is your stereotypical vertical spacer, a guy that can roll to the rim and be that, you know, that outlet for Luca in ballscreen actions and out of the dunker spot. Right. So, like, I want to be clear that I think Claxton is a is a good fit in a vacuum. But it's like, do I like Claxton enough to sacrifice a like a ruy Hachamura. No? Do I like Claxon enough to sacrifice a Gabe Vincent?
I'm not sure. So, like it would have to be Van do in order to make any sense, because then in theory, you have Claxton with the starters, your small ball look would be could still exist in a different configuration with Ruey Lebron and Dorian Finney Smith with Luca like, you still have some of those looks. But it's like will the Nets take Van do in a deal like
that or do they want a better player back? And so most of this to go back to your question like should they use the mid Level Exception on Nikhil Alexander Walker or should they use it on a different center, Like all of it comes down to the caliber of player that you can get. So if you feel like you can get a center that can really play playoff minutes at the mL and you don't need to trade
any guys, I think you go after that. If you can't get a center with the mL E. If it's a guy like Drummond, who I see as a guy that would be not worth the MLEE, that would have too many shortcomings to be justifiable in that slot, then I'd rather use it on a guy like Nikkeil Alexander Walker. I think k Kile Alexander Walker would be a dream fit with this Lakers team. A guard that can switch and he just had a really really nice season as a catch and shoot player, which is so vitally important
within the Lakers offensive system. So, like I would prioritize center first because you have your starting four right like you're going down in a big playoff series with Luca, Austin Lebron and Ruey, and so you don't want to waste a big asset on a player that's coming off the bench if you can spend it on an asset that would start, Like for instance, like if it turns into a thing where you have the assets to make a trade for Nick Claxton, that should be your number
one priority if you can pull it off while giving up a guy like Van doh and Kliba, because you maintain the integrity of the starting four one through four and you add somebody significant to that starting role. But like if it's the MLI like, let's take Claxton out of the equation and it's like Nikhil Alexander Walker or a good starting caliber center that is someone that you trust to play in the postseason. I use the mL on that because he would start, whereas Nikhil Alexander Walker
is a shoe in bench player. In this construct of the team, But in the dream scenario, you end up getting a guy like Nikhil Alexander Walker with the mid level exception, and you can pull off a trade for Nick Claxton without giving up a Ruy hatcha Murrow, without giving up a Gabe Vincent, without giving up a Dorian Finney Smith, without giving up an Austin reeves So and Austin. Obviously you're not giving him up for Claxton, but you
get the point. Like, I would do the Claxton trade as long as it's just Vando and Klieba, maybe another minimum, whatever the money takes, but I would not give up one of those other forwards in a deal for a guy like Claxton. Hey, Jason, big fan of the show, Keep up the spectacular work. My friends and I have constantly bickered about Yokach's placement on the all time lists as of today and where he would be in comparison to some of the all time greats. The player we
argue the most about is Kevin Durant. I personally believe kde is a top fifteen to twenty player, but with Jokic being unlikely to truly surpass that entire tier. However, my friends disagree. How much weight does the difficulty of a championship run the team you have in the era in the era have in all time lists. When talking about the talents like Adie and Jokic, all that stuff, I think plays a certain role. It's like, it's also,
you know, think about what you're trying to convince. Convincing me of something is going to be different of convincing you of something. That's when we talk about the court of public opinion. It's kind of like a Shmortgish board of different philosophies, and people are going to interpret things differently.
It's no different than like everyone watches the exact same film that everyone else watches, and like a lot of people think Giannis is the second best player in the world, a lot of people think Shay is the second best player in the world. It's because they value different things, they interpret information differently. Now, one of the things that I would talk about is you could put together a stretch of games this year where Jokics played and be like, oh my god, this guy is one of the worst
defensive players in the history of the world. You could pick up a stretch of games from Kevin Durant or Steph or Lebron this year and be like, oh man, completely washed, no chance. But now Steph looks like the bona fide head of the Snake on a real championship contender. Lebron uh with exception of the brief stretch coming back from his groin injury. Like before he got hurt, Lebron is playing at a top five level on a serious team.
Don't be surprised, guys if Minnesota makes a trade for Kevin Durant this summer and then suddenly you start seeing all these takes at the beginning of next year, like, oh my god, AD's playing the best basketball he's played in five years. And it's like is he or is it just that he's on a better team now, Like Steph, You're getting a different version of Steph now because he believes in what the team can do and the team
around him is better. Lebron is playing better than he did in December because he believes in what the team is doing and the team is better. Kevin Durant hasn't looked as good this year with Phoenix because the team sucks and he doesn't believe in what they're doing. Jokic is playing his worst defense of the season. You know why, because their team doesn't really have a chance. He knows it, they all know it. They just fired their head coach
and their GM. So like at a certain point, a lot of this, like a lot of this stuff right now, has to do with the surrounding circumstances. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there's this whole take about Kevin Durant's renaissance of in his career next year just because he gets traded to a better situation and so moving back to like one of the earlier points in
your question, where does Jokic place all time? It's so difficult for me to rank Jokic because of the fact that he's so just right at the start of really telling his story. I shouldn't say at the start, but he's right in the middle of telling his story. And you know, right now he has one championship, one finals, MVP, three MVPs, so much of where he lands all time, he's demonstrated the ceiling. Yokich has done something that very
few players in NBA history have done. He's had a multi year run of being the undisputed best player in the world. The only players recently that have done that is Lebron in like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. Even even Kobe in the late twenty tens, it was a debate is it Kobe or Lebron? Is it Kobe? You know? In the early twenty tens, it was was it Kobe Shack or Tim Duncan. If you if you go back, there's all these debates surrounding those guys that felt like
lots of guys on the same tier. It's Jo Kitchen these couple of years, it's Lebron in twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, it's Michael Jordan back in the nineties. Like there are very few examples of like a this guy's just obviously better than everybody type of guy. Jo Kicch has demonstrated that that automatically stamps him in a certain way as it pertains to all time discussions. I already think he's reached the highest level offensively that I've ever seen a
player reach. So that is his feather in his cap. Now it's about accumulating the accolades, and that's where it just gets tough, because like guys like it's just it's crazy to think about. Like, imagine you Denver fans, Imagine how happy you were when Yoka choisted the trophy. Imagine that feeling of euphoria that you felt. Now imagine doing it again, and then doing it again, and then doing it again. That's what Steph did, That's what Lebron did.
Now imagine doing it again. That's what Magic Johnson did. That's what Kobe Bryant did. Now imagine doing it again. That's what Michael Jordan did. So the point being like there's in order to really gain ground. It's about the accumulation of accolades now, but Jokic is ceiling that he reached has already given him such a strong foundation for his all time case. Why oh this is so fun?
Why is it that players like Lebron and Katie can basically average the same stats that they averaged ten years ago but can't have the same impact on winning that they did ten years ago. Obviously, defense and athleticism is a big part of it, but why don't their stats take a hit? This is where I intended to unleash that take that I unleashed a second ago, which is basically that like to me, Lebron and KD are still every bit as good as bad at basketball as they've
mostly been over the last five years. Same thing goes with Steph and I think a lot of times we discount the obvious reality that basketball is a team sport and it's really difficult to win when you don't have good basketball players on your team. And what has happened with Lebron and Steph is they've gotten more good basketball players on their team, and now all of a sudden,
everyone's like, look at Lebron and Steph. They're resuscitated, and it's like, actually, they just believe and their team is better. And I firmly believe that we are going to get a complete, like a complete just reopening of KD and where his status is in the league as a player once he gets moved to a better team this summer. Now, if he gets moved to another team and they continue to struggle, that's where it'll probably become a hard thing for him to overcome in the court of public opinion.
Since it was reported that there is a chance that Jamal Murray doesn't start the playoffs because of his hamstring. If the Nuggets have an early exit in the playoffs. Do you think it'd be more valuable for the Nuggets to seek with Jamal Murray trade to improve the team instead of MPJ due to the fact that MPJ has been more available than Jamal over the last five years. We already hit that earlier in the show, so I won't go any deeper, but I wouldn't I think all. I
think both of them should be on the table. I'd consider trading both of them for players that have more of a two way type of impact because of the direction that I think this team needs to go. I don't think you can play Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior next to Yokic anymore. I think that ship has sailed. Last question on the Rockets game with the Warriors. All game long, they were three quarter clutching Steph like both arms out around Steph, not just around his back for
a total wrap round. The only play Steph could go was backwards to get out of the clutch. Isn't that a hold or something? I must be naive because they didn't call it all game long? Am I missing something? The game plan for dealing with death has been the same since the Calves did it way back in twenty fifteen. Grab hold, be physical, try to wear him down so
that he doesn't have the legs to make his shots. Now, this is the smart strategy to deal with Steph because his one big weakness is that he's not a truly imposing athlete, and so that's the place where you can attack him most frequently. I don't think Warriors fans should complain about their officiating for several reasons. The biggest one is they're a team that is an extremely physical defense. I promise you when I watched the Warriors, they're one
of the most physical defenses that I watch. Draymond's hands are on everybody, Moses Moody's hand check in full court all game long. Pods is hitting people, Looney's hitting people, Jimmy's hitting people. That is an incredibly physical defense. Part of their identity is beating the shit out of people. Okay, Draymond literally beats the shit out of peace people every single game. That is their identity. That is why that
dynamic of allowing physicality in the aggregate actually benefits Golden State. However, it's going to manifest in teams in terms of game plan being very physical with Steph. You just should get ready for that, because it's exactly what happened last year or two years ago when they played in twenty twenty three in the postseason, even happened the year they won the title, happened every single time Steph has played in the postseason. It's just kind of like part of the deal.
In terms of defensive game planning, every guy has like a thing that they do to attack that person. How do you attack Jokic. You gotta swarm him and double team him, keep all the coverages weird to try to keep him off balance, and you need to attack him in ball screens as much as possible by bringing him up to the level. How do you attack Luca ball pressure with big, strong wings. Probably better to the blitz than to let him lead on an island. Right. How
do you attack Giannis? Build a wall in transition, try to make him beat you as a passer or as an o for the top shot maker. Right, Like these are all like even Shay, the game plan is starting to come together. It's like, oh, Shay's not the best passer in the world, so if we overload on him and try to make him a surgical playmaker, he can have his limitations Lebron over the year. It was he can't shoot, or he's not a reliable consistent shooter. Let's
back off of him and dare him to shoot. That was the thing he had to overcome with the Spurs back in twenty thirteen. Right like every player has their thing they have to overcome. For Steph, it's physicality. For Steph, it's attacking him when he's on defense, and then when he's on offense, being as physical as possible to try to wear his legs down so that he can't make shots when he needs to make them. That's just how it is with all the stars in the league. All right, guys,
That's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning with game reactions to a bunch of good games that we have in today's slate. We also have more Michael Malone news hopefully that we can dig into at that point. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll see you tomorrow. What's up, guys, There's always I appreciate
you for listening. To and supporting Oops tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume