The Volume.
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. We have a very special guest, mister Mark Titus from over at Barstool Sports. We actually talked for a little while just before the NBA Finals, and I had a blast talking hoops with Mark. We hit a bunch of stuff that was kind of ancillary topics about the NBA that I liked getting into, and so I've got a couple of fun ideas for that. But we're also going to be hitting some of the draft
picks at the top. Mark as someone who covers college basketball very closely, which is something we just simply do not do on this show. So he's got a better feel for these guys than I could ever hope to, and we're gonna pick his brain a little bit as well. You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
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game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, mister Mark Titus. So for starters, we ended up being pretty right about the NBA Finals. There, didn't we.
We were right. We were right, Jason. Let's let's clap it up for us for getting there were the only two people in the world that said the Nuggets were much better than the Heat. I'll be Dawn, we were right.
So, uh, with the NBA Draft, and let's just start here actually because I find this super interesting. So if my if my knowledge of the situation is correct, four of the top five players went a route that avoided the NCAA to get there. Obviously Victor a traditional European prospect. But as you go down the list between Scoot Henderson going through G League ig Night and then uh, the Thompson Twins going which I'm not even which route did they go?
Text overtime it's overtime elite. Yeah, and this is confusing for college people as well. It's we're not entirely sure what overtime elite is. I don't know if the Thompson Twins are entirely sure of what overtime a lead is. I don't know if over the overtime people are entirely sure what it is. But as far as I know, my consumption of overtime elite content exists just on Instagram that like they'll I'll see like a clip from like
something that's called over time. It feels like, dude perfect, kind of like they just have like a factory where they play basketball and then put out clips or something. And I'm I don't know, but the Thompson Twins seem very good and I'm excited to see them playing in the NBA. But uh, the scouting on these guys is hilarious because I don't know how you watch them, I don't know where.
Yeah, well, and the and the competition, like who else is going that specific route? It almost like takes on a weird vibe, you know how, like when you're watching European prospects and you're like, oh, he's playing in like a church gym, Like what's going on here? Like there's like this weird court and like everything about it feels
very produced. But for the Thompson twins though, because like they they are both of them are just disgusting athletes, right, just ridiculous row prospects and probably was the best route for them to go, honestly from the standpoint of marketing.
Right. And but but to your point, like it is, you introduced me as the college basketball guy and That's why we had him on to talk about the NBA Draft. But I feel like his time is going to go on. My value is a college basketball guy with the NBA Draft is going to wane immensely because I feel like you're better student to have an Overtime Elite or a Metropolitan's ninety two or a Gelliague Ignite expert to talk about this draft, because yeah, it is for the people
in my life that follow college basketball closely. This No, it wasn't a surprise because I think going to the draft like this is the way the draft shook out is what people expected, not just like leading up to the draft, but like I mean months and months and months ago. Obviously Victor Winbinon was gonna go number one
for a very long time. But the college basketball fans of my life were definitely like scratching their head, thinking, damn, times have changed, you know, like were to we're used to, especially a guy like me growing up in the nineties, you would watch college basketball. The draft would come around, and generally the five All Americans, the five first team All Americans. You would see them pick like in the first at least fifteen picks, probably twenty picks like it
was just kind of how it worked. And to have a guy like I wasbey who I'm I don't even know if you know who Oscar Way is, I don't know Oscar Sway. Like, that's that's where we're at now with college basketball NBA relationship is that Oscar swey uh not this past season, but two seasons ago was the National Player of the Year at Kentucky. This was not a man who was playing at a tiny school on the West coast. This was not a man who you
know was was was not in the public eye. He was very He was at one of the biggest brands, if not the biggest brand in college basketball, won the National Player of the Year award, goes undrafted, and nobody even really seems to care or notice or anything else. That's crazy. It's crazy because up until two thousand and four, Jamier Nelson was the first guy who was National Player of the Year in college basketball to not go in
the top ten Jason. So not only do guys like not only was winning National Player of the Year, I guarantee to get drafted. Up until two thousand and four, every single guy that won National Player there in college basketball went in the top ten and now in less than a twenty year span from Jamiir Nelson going I think he went like twenty that year and O.
Four and he ended up being awesome by the way.
Yeah, and he was good. And then Frank Mason was the first guy a few years ago, five years ago, I want to say that, Yeah, Frank goes in the second round, and that was kind of like a paradigm shift where you're like, whoa, this is crazy national player here in the second round. And it's just the way it's moved so quickly to where now you're you have National Players of the Year. Zach Edie won it Purdue this year. He was a national player. It put his
name in the draft. The feedback he got was basically like, you're not guaranteed first round. So he's back at Purdue, and I guess that's just where we're at with like the relationship, because it's so uh, it's it's it's frankly just foreign to me because that's how I grew up
consuming basketball. I was like, yeah, if you're one of the best players in college, you might not be the number one overall pick, but like your game is going to translate and now I don't know if it's if it's representative of the the split that's kind of happened where it's two different sports, or if it's more that, like NBA, people are a little smarter about what they want from players versus just trusting it. If you put up big numbers in college, you're probably going to be
good in the NBA. I don't know what's more to blame, if blame is the right word, but yeah, it's wild. It's wild to watch the draft as a college basketball fan'll put it that way.
Well, and maybe it has something to do with the fact that a lot of the top end prospects just not even playing at that level and so the overall level of competition freaking them out a little bit. So really quickly, before we move on to Brandon Miller, do you think this is a trend? Like, do you think this is what it's going to look like in the top of lottery moving forward? Do you think this was kind of an anomaly? I?
Well, I think name image likeness stuff with college basketball is gonna I think some of the talent that goes pro might be more interested now in going college because he can make some substantial money going to college route. But no, I do think that that it's never going to go back to the way it was, And I do think that kind of what I was speaking about earlier, like the guys who are dominant in college, I don't
think you're going to be. The scouting of the stuff isn't as simple as like, let's take the first team All Americans. So I don't think. I don't think we're going to go back to that, because I do think that, uh, the sports are drastically different with how they're played, and I think that that's going to continue. I mean, there there is some sort of push at the college level from a small faction of people to to make it
more like the NBA. But I think if you talk to the people that live and breathe college basketball, we want college basketball to be different the NBA, because if you if you turn college basketball into the NBA and you widen the lane and you LinkedIn the three point line and you shorten the shot, then what's the point of watching college basketball? At that point? You're like, why would I watch this when the diversion of you know, so the oddities of that sport are what draws people
to it. But with that, I think the people that succeed at college basketball are necessarily going to be the guys at the NBA wants, and I think that is here to say. I think the idea of like the guys winning National Player of the Year going undrafted, I think that's going to be more normal. But asking like our our g leagnite and overtime elite, are we going
to see more of that? I think that this was probably anomaly because I think I think like the Scoot Hinder since the world are now going to start getting offers for like five hundred thousand dollars to play it, you know in Kansas per year, and I think I think he's going to look at that and be like, yeah, I could go I could go to I could go play college basketball for one year.
So that's the why that makes sense to me. That makes sense to me. It seems like, yeah, like there's just too much money going around. I mean we're seeing guys, who's the kid that from Michigan that like transferred right before his final season, Like I like that. I think we're going to see a lot of that kind of stuff. And to your point about changing the rules, like I'm
one hundred percent with you. Like, the level of play is not great at that level, So if you want to make it look exactly like the NBA, it's just going to be a bad television product because the players aren't as good. It's got to have a unique kind of like it's got to have a unique kind of traditional feel to it in order for it to drive up its entertainment value because the quality of the play
is not great. So the closer three point line, the collegiate rules, the systems that they run, you know, it's it's you don't want it to look like NBA basketball. I think that kind of defeats the purpose exactly.
And those guys don't have the skills. So if you do make it look like NBA bad basketball in terms of the rules, the style of it's just gonna look disgusting. And the twenty four second shot clock, I mean, these guys have trouble creating offense with the thirty second shot clock. You shaved six seconds off, it's gonna get even worse.
So but no, the final thought on this, on this sort of stuff I just want to say is like, uh, I I do think though it's interesting hearing people talk about like, I don't know if college basketball is dying
or just kind of the shift that's going on. Uh, But for what it's worth, the people that do love college basketball, I don't think we care about what what the draft means for our sport, you know, I think, Uh, the mistake that NBA people make is believing that college basketball exists solely to be a minor league system for the NBA. And that is just not true. And I don't I don't blame NBA people foreseeing that that way, because if I was, if I only cared about the NBA,
that's how I would see it. This is the this is the feeder system to our league. But I swear to God, if if Ohio State this this next season, you told me they were the number one team in the country going into the season. But the caveat is that every single guy on the team is as talented as I was. And there you know, like this is there's been such a talent drain in college basketball that like, this is what the number one team in the country looks like, is that they're as good as I was.
I would I would just strug my shoulders and be like, hell yeah, let's go Number one, baby, We're gonna win the nationally like that's I don't watch the sport, uh, you know, So it's not disheartening to me that Victor Win, Binyam and Scoot Henderson aren't and the Thompson Wins aren't playing in college. That's not why I watched the sport.
And I think there there are a ton of people across the country that are that way, and the mistake, that's the only way I would describe it, is like that I think NBA people think that the reason people watch college is that we think that this is the best basket. We're not stupid, Jason, Like, we know, we
understand that the NBA players are more talented. There's so many other reasons that we watch, and as long as those reasons exist, then the talent, Yes, we would prefer to have the best players in the world, the best non NBA players in the world be playing at college. But if they're not, we're still gonna watch, and we're still going to care immensely about whether our teams go to a Final four.
That was such an important layer to the whole paying the players thing that just never got brought up. And I'm pro playing paying the players for the record, but it just like anything else, it's a complicated topic.
And yeah, one of.
The complications is everyone's like, oh, they're driving all this revenue. They're driving all this revenue, and I'm like, yeah, they do, and they deserve to be paid. But like, you're lying to yourself if you don't think that the duke across the chest also brings people to the arena and gets people to tune into the game, regardless of the players that are on the floor. Obviously, if if there was
a massive talent drain, it would hurt ratings. But there's no doubt that the brands of the universities also drives a great deal of traffic. And that just never got brought up in that debate. It's like it was. It was so much more complicated than people were willing to admit.
Yeah it is. It is. And it's weird because the conversations that are had privately are very different than the conversations you have publicly, which is fascinating to me because you talk to coaches and the people making the decisions in college basketball, and the way they talk about the name, image, likeness and the transfer portal and all that sort of stuff is very, very different than when there's a microphone and camera in front of their face and they know
that recruits are watching. So I find that hilarious. It's just like nobody really likes the changes that are going on, but it's just kind of a necessary thing that has to happen because I think the powers that be got a little too greedy. And yeah, it does kind of stink right now. But anyway, I don't think it's that big of a deal though. I don't. I don't think like this is an indictment on colle I don't think this draft that's the way. I don't think it's an
indictment on college basketball. I think it's just more representative of how different these two sports are becoming, which I mean, honestly, it does sort of make me sad because I love that. I mean, that's what we talked about. You came on my show. I just love basketball, man, I watch you. You can throw any basketball game on television. I want to watch it at any level. I'll watch high school if it's on. I don't love it as much, but
like that's I and so to see. I don't want to say it's like a war but it does sort of feel like there are walls being built where like, you know, the crossover that used to exist when I would when I was growing up doesn't seem to be as as prevalent today, and that's that's kind of a bummer, but it is what it is. I don't that's like, that's part of getting older changes a bit.
We're becoming the grumpy guys on the porch. That's that's a topic.
So we're gonna do it.
We're gonna do the draft picks rapid fire style. I've got four picks for you. Okay, just give me a quick thirty second. This is what Mark Titus thought about the dude watching him this season. Okay, number one Brandon Miller.
Uh, super long a great jump shot, struggled finishing at the rim like weird. Uh. I I can't get the NCAA tournament out of my mind. Had one of the worst NCAA tournaments I've anyone's ever had, like literally anyone in the history of the tournament. I think the San Diego State game where he couldn't Uh, they've ran him off the three point line and then made him try to finish on their shop blockers and it did not go well. He was three for nineteen. I think that's
like the worst case scenario of Brandon Miller. And then the other concern I have is that the one game that everyone points to as to why he was awesome happened against eleven and twenty one South Carolina team. He had four and they went to overtime and he had forty one points, and everyone's like, that's why he's going to be a superstar in the NBA, And I was, like, they won eleven games this year's.
But I do like him.
I think he's very good. I just think that, like, uh, yeah, there are some concerns there, and I think I think he's going to be a good NBA player, not a great NBA player, Yeah, And.
Which is kind of like the everyone kind of points to Paul George as one of his comps, and I think that's definitely the top end because of the silkiness in the pull up. But like, here's the thing, Paul George, has he ever been a top ten player in the league, Like, it's hard to say. And so that that, let's one quick follow up. Do you would you have taken Scoot Henderson instead?
I would have Yeah, I love Scoot. I think I think Scoots got the I think scoots highest potential is better ceiling higher than Brandon Miller's in my mind, because I think Scoot is Uh. The reason people seem to talk themselves out of Scoot is because he's smaller and he's like it feels like guys like him are more a dime a dozen and six nine guys that can shoot threes so smoothly aren't. But my I'm I'm more.
That's the reason I like Scooters because I'm more familiar with, like seeing a guy like him who's just like explosive, a tank that can go to the basket and finish through contact and all that sort of that feels more familiar to me. So that's the reason I like like. Whereas Brandon Miller, it's just like he his game is a little he could shoot, but like, I think he succeeded this year because you're so much taller and people
could just rise up and shoot over him. And is that gonna be something he's gonna be able to do in the NBA consistently?
I I don't know what McDaniels, let's see what that looks like.
Yeah, exactly exactly so, but he he was. But for what I mean, Brandon Miller was was dominant this year. It was awesome. But the NCAA Tournament. I just can't get that out of my head. Like I'm an old school guy. I think the biggest, brightest stage, I want to see how good you are. And he was a little banged up, but like that, that San Diego State game was disgusting. That was just a disgusting game of basketball from Brandon. Six turnovers, three for nineteen.
And just bagically with Paul George stat line to be.
He got put in like the psychological torture chamber too, because it was so obvious with San Diego State was doing. There was daring him to take mid range jump shots. He wouldn't do it. It was it was just it was. It was just a gross display of basketball. And yeah, that for that reason, I was like, you can't take this guy number two. And then the Hornets were like watch this.
The number one high school prospect in the class of twenty twenty two was Derek Lively. He ended up playing only about twenty minutes a game for Duke. He did have a legendary shot blocking gamer, hit eight blocks can he anchor a decent defense in Dallas?
I think he can eventually. I think he's the Thing I love about Derek Lively is that he has a very high defensive basketball like you, which is to say that like he, he has a good fear for like challenging shots and like knowing when guys are gonna go up with their shot. He's a really good shot like You're great timing, great instincts, super long h and also has a has a very high motor, which is underrated
for young centers. I mean, I think this is I've done this exercise with people for but that I'm like, think about, like some of the most frustrating basketball players you've ever watched in your life, and just make a list. Now, look at that list. They're all seventy percent of them are probably centers. And the reason they're so frustrating is because normal people like you and I Jason watch big guys and we lose our minds because we're like, if we were that big, we would just be dunking on
everybody and blocking every shot. And why can't John Drayton, why can't you care more? You know, Derek Lively cares. He's got a high mode. He's gonna run the floor. He's gonna I do think he can. He's got like some mechanic issues where like sometimes his rotation is not as clean and fluid as I would like it to be. But I think he's he's gonna be very very good defensively.
Now the problem with him is offensively. I know, I'm not really sure what he brings to the table at all, which is why he didn't put up like eye popping stats for why he didn't play a ton for Duke. The other issue I have is he does foul a ton. I mean he he got in foul trouble like constantly. That's a reason he didn't That's that's why his minutes were down. I I think he can be that guy now. Now. Part of the appeal of a rookie like him is that he's not going to come in and try that.
The MAVs aren't gonna ask him obviously, with the roster that they have, They're not going to be like, you're our first round pick, you are now the face of our franchise. Like some rookies. You know, some rookies get that's that's what's expected to them. That's obviously not gonna happen with him, and he's gonna be put in a position where it's like, just play really hard and play the dunker role on offense, and that's all we really need out of you. And I think he can excel
at that. But he's got to he's got to figure out how to protect the rim without fouling a little more. But I I really really like him, and I think Duke's uh like the second half of this Duke season. Duke was a little rocky to start the season, but the second half, they really really came on and they were they were looking really dangerous. They ended up losing the in a scene the NCAA tournament, which that game barely resembled basketball. That was just a rock fight that
that uh yeah, yeah, that was just that. I don't know that. I rarely cheer for Duke to win a game, and by the end of that game, I was like, man, I hope Duke wins this because they were getting the shit kicked out of him and it felt like it wasn't even basketball. Yeah uh, but but Duke. Duke had
some serious momentum. They were sort of a trendy pick for people to win to the NCAA Tournament, honestly, and part and a big reason why is because Derek Lively had like exploded into the the best certainly the best interior defender, if not the best defender in all of college basketball. So I think the potential is there. He's just gotta he's got to clean up his uh, his fouling a little bit and I but but otherwise he's he's got great, great instincts for a young big men.
I think his motor was the first thing that stood out to me watching like that dude plays hard. And then when you combine that with his mobility, like his ability to like come up and show on the level of the screen and then spread back into the paint to be able to guard the roleman or protect the paint, Like, yeah, I see this.
Let's just put it this way.
The last time we had a kid with his physical tools, motor and like natural defensive instincts, it turned into Nick Claxton, who was basically the foundational piece of a really good defense there in Brooklyn last year. So, like, I actually really liked this pick, But just like with anything else, there's also a million guys who kind of came up with this type of physical profileists didn't. It just didn't materialize into anything. So, but that's the draft. That's the draft.
Brandon Potzimski. What with the Warriors obviously a little bit of a log jam at the guard position already with Chris Paul and with Steph Curry Klay Thompson, do you think he's someone that can help them right away or do you view him as like a future trade vehicle.
I yeah, like the peel of Pozemski is on the Warriors is that. But but I feel like we've done this with the Warriors since Stephen Clay exploded into who they are, where every single draft pick they get, you're just like, oh, that's perfect, that's a perfect that's a perfect yeah, or it's like it's great for the rookie they just took because now they can now they can kind of what I was just saying about lively, where
like you're not expected to come in and be the guy. Uh. I feel like that's what we say about every single Warriors pick, and you're just like, oh, that's perfect for him because you can just go in and not have you can learn behind stuff and play and then when it's his time he can be the guy. Uh I I I actually don't love it for him because I, like you said, there's a logjam at guards. I. He was the most polarizing prospect I felt for this draft like people I talked to, because he he his feel
for the game is incredible. So his his story is he went to Illinois for a year. He averaged like he barely not only was he an afterthought on this Illinois team. I don't even know if people even knew he was on the Illinois team. I don't even know if Brad Underwood knew he was on the Illinois team. He's coach at Illinois. Uh. He averaged like one point a game. He was putting up Titus stat lines, uh for for Illinois transfers to Santa Claire. Doesn't sit out
a year. There's not like a there's not like some like cocoon period where he's like blossom, you know, taking his time to.
Like blocks like six pack potes.
Yes. Yeah, No, he just like basically just transferred and immediately turned into the West Coast Conference Player of the Year. Was was was putting up numbers this year for Santa Claara that were absurd and you know, it depends on how you want to look at it. And that's why he's so polarizing because some people were like he was being obviously held back at Illinois and he wasn't this, he wasn't given a chance to flourish. And like, when you put the ball in his hands, let him cook,
he's gonna be And he's so good. He's got an incredible feel for the game. Great catch and shoot guy. Uh. I I have more of a pessimistic view, which is, like, I I trust that Brad Underwood saw something with his
ad like his He's not a great athlete. I don't think he can keep his shadow in front of him defensively, and I'm worried about that because I think like he he felt to me like a guy at Santa Claara that like, yes, he is really good when he has the ball in his hands, but like that's not gonna happen, Like what Golden State's not gonna throw him out here and be like all right for the next five minutes. It's all you, yeah, yeah, You're running all the offense.
So I think he's gonna be really good as a catch and shoot guy for Golden State. I think like in certain scenarios where the ball is up in his hand light in a shot clock, maybe he can dip into some of the magic he had a Santa Flower. But he's not a great athlete. He's not I don't know how much he's gonna create offense for himself, but his feel for the game, Jason, I will say, like as much as as much as I, I don't think
the physical traits are there. I do think that like he's got a great IQ and he has a great touch from like every spot on the floor, so like you can kind of see the vision. But he feels a little bit like like I don't think he's anywhere close as good as Dante DiVincenzo. And when you think about it like that, like Dante DiVincenzo to me was a guy that I was really excited about when he
was coming out of college. And not that he's had a bad NBA career, but he's just kinda he's just kind of like a throw in for the Warriors, isn't he? I mean, does Dante Devens. He's not an integral part of what the Warriors are doing. So I don't think it's an interesting pick though, because there are people that are very very high on him. The Warriors seemed to be high him because that's why they took him. I felt like they took him a lot earlier than other
teams might have taken him, So we'll see. I would love to be wrong on him, but I saw that as like a damn, this is a long term project for them.
I think, well, I think Warriors fans are actually a lot more excited about Jackson Davis than they are about Brandon. And the entire pitch for the pick is Dante DiVincenzo replacement, and what they're looking at there is like great rebounder. Dante was an awesome rebounder, someone crash the offensive glass constantly, and Brandon averaged something crazy like eight and a half rebounds a game or something like that at Santa Clara.
The thing is is like Dante was a really good athlete, like deceptively good athlete, like very very quick, and was a good ball pressure guard for Golden State. Like Brandon's got short arms, Like he's only got like a six four and a half wingspan. That's not doing him many favors. He's a great vertical athlete, but he's not super laterally quick. I do think I think he'll be actually a little bit better offensively than Dante was. He's just a more
consistent shooter. And then he's got all that weird. The cop that I've seen a lot of draft experts throughout is D'Angelo Russell, and I definitely saw a little bit of that on Taper. Like every bucket he gets in the mid rates just looks a little weird, you know what I mean? But I do, I do think he'll he'll be able to help them a little bit offensively.
But yeah, like the Dante Devintenzil replacement thing is just dead on arrival for me, because not only is he not the same type of athlete, but like Dante's had years of NBA experience taking on perimmeter defensive assignments, learning how to do all of the things that he needed to do to be a functional part of an NBA defense.
He's miles better at, Like Devincenzo is a miles better athlete than Pazjemski. But and then the other day, like you're making the Russell comparison, Like Russell, I like the comparison for a lot of junk to the game and the mid rate. Like you said, like every shot feels
a little weird. But with a guy like that, you have to have patience as a fan almost where you're willing to let him have the job weird again, doing weird shit again, and you're like, I I got it, Like, and I think when you go to a team like the Warriors, I don't exactly think the Warriors and the Lakers and the Celtics and you know, like franchises like that,
I don't. I'm gonna go ahead and guess if they don't exactly have patient fans that are like, oh yeah, let's as we're as we have our title window open, let's also let this guy like figure out who he is at the NBA level. This is awesome. Let's use huge minutes of every game to like let this rookie figure out who you know, That's not what I'm like, Yeah, yeah, that's not gonna happen. So I don't. I don't love it, but uh, you know, I I hope it works out for him because he was fun to watch this year.
He was definitely fun.
We'll find out one way or another, Okay, really quickly on this one, because I want to spend a couple of minutes on Stephan and Chris Paul, So, uh, are Lakers fan's gonna like Jalen Fino? Do you think he could run a backup unit in the NBA?
Yeah?
Yes, Yes, he's got size, he's his his basketball qu's through the roof. If you want to believe in Jalen ch Fino, go watch the game at Purdue. His mid range game elite, his feel for the game is elite. He's obviously got some weaknesses. He's not gonna be uh you know, the face of the franchise and and all that sort of thing. But yeah, I his pick and roll game is for for a for a freshman is absurd.
And and I I I really really like him. He's got a He's not as great as a shooter as I'd like him to be, and he's definitely got stuff to work on. But uh, I I in the role that you're you're saying, Jayson, I think he's gonna be awesome. I I do. I I don't know if it's gonna be right away, but I think he's he's super super mature for a for a nineteen year old. Uh And and I watch a lot of lot of terrible nineteen year olds play point guard in college basketball. This is
what I do for a living. And that guy stood out to me with how poised and mature and understanding of speeds and uh, you know, fast to slow back to fast back to you know, just all that kind of stuff he was so so good at. And I think he's he's gonna play in the NBA as long as he wants to.
Yeah, I I uh.
He definitely has some issues in pick and roll, Like he's not great at making the cross court past. That was something that stood out to me. But he's actually really good at feeding the role man and he did a ton of that with Tray Jackson Davis. So putting him alongside Anthony Davis and Lebron and the Lakers use those two as screeners constantly, and the real question is like can he do what? Can he run picking rolls as efficiently as Lonnie Walker did?
Absolutely?
Oh yeah, you know, like like Canny canny step in and and by the way, like there's a lot of focus on his shooting, but he shot over forty percent on pull up jumpers last year, so like, yeah, he's got some issues with his mechanics and catch and shoot situations. But he really does shoot the ball well when he's off the bounce, and so can he run bench unit?
I think he can't.
I think you can't do. My fear is that they put him off the ball more and he's just like if he's like if you're putting him in the corner, it's like his roles like catch and shoot when Lebron draws defenders that he's kicking it out to him Like I don't know if I love him in that, but like, yeah, playing the second unit, Uh yeah, just go that's my that's my homework. For Lakers fans that want to talk themselves into Hocha Fino's, go watch the Perdue game. I'm
sure highlights are on YouTube. They're playing job coverage against him with their big centers Zach Edie, and he just diced. He was hitting mid range pull up after midrange pull up, and it was just it was clinical. That's the only word to describe it. And for a freshman point guard and a rivalry game on the road, all that sort of thing that just doesn't happen at the college level, and he was was it was honestly allegend. I will remember that game for the rest of my life. And
I don't say that lightly. So I'm very high on Hochaina.
I'm gonna have to check that game out later. All Right, to the biggest and most important question of the day. Uh is it unfair for ESPN to running to be running highlight reels of Steph Curry crossing over Chris Paul while they're interviewing him about his book and asking him questions about the fit with the Warriors.
I think Chris Paul kind of I don't know, as as a guy who doesn't live in the Chris Baul universe that much but just dabbles here every so often. I will say, I do feel like Chris Paul brings a lot of the negative stuff upon himself. I think he's there's some about him that's just such an easy
target for jokes. And like when he was complaining about his son getting comments in school about how his dad will never win a championship Jason, I was like, get in, Lineman, that's that's part of going to junior high.
Like, I can't.
I don't know a single person that went to junior high they didn't have to deal with their dad getting joke like that was that's that's common, Like at least you're at least his dad is playing in the NBA, and its crazy, you're like many out how many dads are like in prison or like working like shitty jobs that like you know that they're getting clowned at the lunch table every day by the by the rest of the group. So uh, stuff like that. I think he
just brings it upon him. There's some about him that's just like so easy to pick on. But uh, what, what are your thoughts on the trade? Like is this I felt like this was a perfect This is a perfect NBA trade to me because I think the Warriors
are demonstrably better. I think, uh, obviously, the Warriors are one of the brands that that pop in the NBA, and and so for for a team like that to get they are, I think they're a better basketball team than they were before the trade, and it's gonna be awesome to watch them now try to go after another championship. But I bet, but this obviously isn't a deal like Durant going to the Warriors, where it's like, yes, one of the team's got one of the contenders, just got better.
But now the league's kind of ruined because we all know what's going to happen. It's not there's still question marks on how they're gonna fit. And and for that reason, it's like a perfect trade because it's it's sexy enough to talk yourself into, like are the Warriors now should
they be favored against the Nuggets? But then you also see the path where it's like I, as is always the case, every time Chris Paul joins a new team, you say, there's only one ball and could Chris Paul be the point god while at the same time letting Steph Curry do everything he does? Well? Can they both do that? It's fascinating, Oh, it absolutely is.
I think I think in general, when we see trades like this, there's there's the obvious side of it, and then there's the more complex side of it. So it's like the Bradley Beal trade. It's like, does trading Chris Paul and Landry Shamit for Bradley Beal make you better?
Obviously? You know what I mean?
Does this flipping Jordan Poole, one of the worst defensive guards in the league and a guy that was super inconsistent offensively for a more steady backup guard. Does that make the Warriors better? Obviously, and the case for it. The two elements that I look at is one they had a like they were plus forty seven in the playoffs with Steph on the floor and minus forty nine when he was off. So it's about managing the Steph off minutes, which totally makes sense to me too. These
are some crazy numbers that I found on Synergy. Steph Curry ran pick and roll in about the pick and roll or ISO on about sixty three percent of his play types in the regular season, but that number shot way up to seventy two percent in the postseason, which is natural. Like in the playoffs, they scout your sets, your sets don't work as effectively a lot of late clock situations where you're bailing out possessions or just you saying screw it, let's just run high, pick and roll
time and time again. And so I think Chris Paul gives them that added dimension to their offense in those
particular situations. But again I just look back at the team wide thing and the use of the asset, like did Phoenix really need another right high pick and roll shot creator or would they have been better off moving assets for like real athletes, kind of like what the Lakers did, Like, let's bring back a bunch of dudes who do the dirty work, and let's see if that helps my Lebron James and Anthony Davis core bring us over the top. Like there's a question over the use
of the asset for Phoenix. The same thing goes for Golden State, Like would you have been better off taking Jordan Poole's big salary slot and moving him for multiple useful front court players for a team that's been super small and that that's kind of the way that I look at it. It's no doubt Golden State's gonna be better. There will be multiple times next year, where as a Warriors fan, you're gonna be glad you had Chris Paul instead of having Jordan Poole. But like, in a bigger picture,
was it the right use of the asset? That's kind of where I'm at.
Yeah, I agree, that's that. But for me, as like a neutral NBA observer, I think that's what makes it a fun trade is because we don't really know and the trades that happen where you're immediately like, damn, this team just became a juggernaut and the rest the rest of the league is crewed, or like, Okay, so this team's obviously going to be a disaster next year. Those aren't quite as fun because we kind of already know
where we're headed. And the Warriors, I don't think it's obvious either way, and it's gonna be They're not gonna be bad obviously, Like it's not like they're gonna bottom out. I don't mean to say that, but uh yeah, you could talk yourself into like the Warriors should be the favorite to win the title now, or you could be like, well, well, we'll have to see, like for all the reasons you mentioned, like is it a roster that makes one hundred percent sense? Time will tell, we will see.
I admire I admire the fortitude of them being like this group can do it, this group can do it, and that that bet has paid off for them in the past, it paid off for them in twenty twenty two. They they have a reason to feel confident in them the way that they do.
For what it's worth too, Like I do go back to like every time, like I said earlier, every time Chris Paul joins a new team, I'm like all right, there's one ball. How is this gonna work with you know, if him and Steph are on the floor at the same time. Obviously Steph can play off the ball. But like, like I said, like you want Chris Paul to be if you want to maximize Chris Paul and maximize Steph Curry, can they both happen with both of them on the
floorida the same time. I don't know, But we said all that about Chris Paul and James Harden and I think people because of who those two guys are, and they're so easy to make fun of and they're so easy to to rip on that you look back on their time as Houston and consider it a failure because they didn't ever make the finals. That was a success, Like that team figured it out. They were very very good. They should have They had to direct, they were close,
they were disclose. So I think if you look back on that quote unquote experiment and say, obviously, having two guys that are that want the ball in their hands at all times to do what they do, and that can't work with Chris Paul and someone else who needs the ball like it can We saw it work with the Rockets it just didn't work to the extent that like a lot of brain dead morons that consume basketball think it has to work to be success, which is
that you have to win a championship. Otherwise you're a failure. That team was good, That team was good enough to win a title. It just sometimes in basketball, you missed twenty seven straight threes, Jason.
Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it happens. And there's there's no doubt that the play styles are weird. I shared the stat with call it, but like, the Warriors ran a pick and roll in twenty four percent of their play types during the regular season last year, which was dead last in the league, and Chris Paul ran it on seventy seven percent of his play types, which was number one in the entire league.
Out of all the players.
So there's definitely like some fit stuff. But just like with the Houston thing, we always underestimate the power of like just smart basketball players figuring it out.
They just do.
They just find a way more often than not. All right, we are officially out of time, but Mark, this was a blast, man. I hope we can work together a couple more times this summer to help kill the time
between the seasons. I really appreciate you coming on one last note for everybody listening, We're gonna be doing a Mailbag episode either Wednesday or Thursday this week, depending on whether or not Damian Lillard finally comes forward and demands a trade, but drops some questions for the mail Bag in the comment section, and we will hit them later this week. As always, I appreciate you guys, and we will see you tomorrow. The volume