Hoops Tonight - Most important traits to win NBA title: What did Warriors & Nuggets have in common?

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price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So as I sat down over the last couple of days to work on this particular video last year, if you guys remember, I think it was like something like the five biggest lessons I learned from that NBA season. And it's funny because as I was kind of making my list, it ended up being all these things that I expect or that I'm gonna be looking for as I'm trying to evaluate basketball teams in the future and their potential to

win an NBA championship. And next thing, you know, my list got pretty long, and it kind of all had to do with that, so I kind of changed it on the fly, and so we're doing the ten most

important traits to look for in championship teams. I think what'll be interesting about this particular list is we'll just come back to it every time we're taking a deep look at a particular team and their chances to win the title, We'll come back and look at this list because I think I think a lot of you guys are gonna agree with most of the items on this list as things that are kind of important for teams that have serious ambitions to win a title, and so

it'll kind of like a checklist for us to evaluate teams in the future. So, without any further ado, let's start with number one. Size. An NBA championship team most likely will need size. Since twenty seventeen, every single champion aside from the twenty twenty two Warriors, was huge. Right. The twenty seventeen Warriors had Kevin Durant on the front

line with Andre Gudala and Dremont Green. Andrea Gudala and Dremon Green are the tallest dudes in the world, but they're super big and strong, and then obviously Kevin Durant brings a ton of length to the table. Same group in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, that front line had Pascal Siakam and Kawhi Leonard and Serge Baka and Marc Gasolt.

They were huge. The twenty twenty Lakers Anthony Davis and Lebron James sometimes at the three four alongside Dwight Howard, with guys like Kyle Kuzman, Danny Green and even and again, one of the themes here is it sized down the roster. Its not just size in the front court, it size down the roster. The twenty twenty one Bucks, another huge team, Brooke Lopez, Jianison, ten Koopo, Chris Middleton six ' eight, six ' eleven seven foot down the front line. Right

we go to the twenty twenty twenty two Warriors. They're the outlier, but Steph is like the big outlier in NBA history as it pertains the size. If you're ranking the top fifteen players in NBA history, he's gonna be the only guy on that list that's less than six five. So Steph is going to consistently break the mold with these kinds of things. And that's why when we evaluate the Warriors, they probably have to be evaluated based on a different list than this, but they're the one outlier.

And then we go right back to normalcy with the twenty twenty three Nuggets, who are massive down the line, with Nikolea Jokis, with Aaron Gordon, with Michael Porter Junior, with Contavious Colboll, Pope. Jamal Murray's even big compared to most point guards. Bruce Brown a bigger, stronger, better athlete than most of the backup bench guards that we have in the league. So the question is why does size matter so much? In the NBA as it pertains to

winning championships. Like I said twenty seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one, twenty two to twenty three, that's six of the last seven champions that were massive down the roster in terms of their overall size. Well, first of balls rebounding. Famously, pat Riley once said, no rebounds, no rings. You have to finish out defensive possessions, which gives you an opportunity to spring fast break opportunities. Right, you also need to

have size down the roster. Why is that the more jump shots that are taken in NBA games, the more long rebounds there are. When big guys are engaged in box outs underneath the basket, often the ball just comes carrying off to some random place and it's almost like

a game of three flags up. If you ever played that when you were a kid, where someone would just throw the ball up in the air and then if you caught it three times, you got to go be the person who throws the ball, right, Like, that's kind of what contested rebound situations and long rebounds are. It's

the ball's coming out. No one's really in position. It's just a bunch of guards and wings trying to fly in from the perimeter to grab contested rebounds, and so having that type of athleticism on the perimeter is a huge deal there. Size also helps with your paint finish on both ends of the floor, your ability to finish over defenders around the basket, and your ability to dissuade opponents from finishing around the basket, and the last, but

not least, shooting over the top from the perimeter. When you've got a guy like Michael Porter Junior who's taking jump shots over Austin Reeves contesting in the corner, he just doesn't see him because of the size advantage that he has. So chances are, if we're looking at your team next year to win a championship, if they aren't huge, they probably aren't going to win the title unless they're

fantastic in every other area of the game. Again, as we're looking at these lists, if you fill nine of these ten categories but you don't have the size, chances are you still have a good chance. So this is kind of gonna just be a checklist that we refer back to throughout the season next year. Number two Strength. Why is it that guys like Nicola Jokic, Lebron James Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler always go up a level

in the playoffs. While we often see skinnier, thinner players struggle a bit, that's not the end all be all. There are thin players who succeed. Devin Booker is not the biggest strongest player in the world, and that dude shot the lights out this entire postseason. So it's not like a perfect rule. But for the most part, guys who are bigger and stronger seem to go up a level in the playoffs. Why is that you have to play through contact as the officials swallow their whistle and

they allow more contact. You have to be able to thrive in those situations getting to spots. There are these spots on the floor where you're comfortable, where you can go to shots that you trust your ability to make. In order to get to those spots, you have to fight for position, either through setting your man up for a screen and then jolting to that spot, or fighting for position in the traditional kind of post up sense, regardless of whether that's on the wing or the elbow

or at the block. You need to seal your defender and create a passing angle for your guard to get you the ball. And so the strength, the big physical strength to get to those spots matters. Fighting for easy shots closer to the rim. You've seen a lot in over the course of this season teams that rely heavily on pull up jump shooting as the bread and butter of their offense, they tend to struggle to generate quality

shots over the course of the series. As high powered as that Suns offense was all season, they barely averaged one hundred and ten points per one hundred possessions against Denver because they struggled in the physicality of that matchup. One of my favorite examples of this is Bruce Brown

versus D'Angelo Russell in the Western Conference Finals. Just every single time he caught Anthony Davis kind of out of position, usually because Jokics pinned him back in transition, he would just hit the Jets and D'Angelo Russell, even though he's a Actually, I think D'Angelo might even be an inch taller than Bruce Brown if I remember correctly. I think I could be wrong about this, but I think d low sixty five and I think Bruce is sixty four,

but they're about the same size. Let's just call it that. But Bruce is so damn strong that he's just pushing through and just bullying a D'Angelo Russell to get to those spots. That kind of thing just matters at this level, fighting for position, getting two shots closer to the rim. Same thing goes on the defensive end, as guys are trying to beat you to spots. If you're the bigger, stronger athlete and they're allowing a lot of contact, that's

gonna help you fight in those situations. So size and strength the two biggest ones that I looked at three top end ball handling. This was the Celtics conundrum coming out of last season. Oh, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, not ready, Let's bring in Malcolm Brogden, you know. And again this I'm a big believer in just kind of learning as things go on. I was one of the many people who recommended that the Celtics make a trade for a

guard after last season. Right, So I'm not over here sitting like I was precient with this kind of thing. I was wrong about this, But again, all I'm gonna try to do year in and year out, is try to learn based on what I noticed and hopefully not make that mistake in the future. We picked most of the series correct this year. I want to say they were like fifteen series or something like that, and we picked like eleven of them correctly. I'm not one hundred percent sure,

but we got most of them right. But that's just probably luck first ball chances. Our next year, I'll have a significantly less successful playoff run picking series. But I still got a bunch of them wrong too. And so even though I hate predictions and I don't really care all that much about them, for the purposes of the show, I want to do the best that I possibly can, and the only way we're going to do that is by learning lessons as the years go by and hopefully

not making the mistakes those mistakes in the future. Top End ball handling apparently matters a hell of a lot more than aggregate ball handling, because the Boston Celtics this year, even with Malcolm Brogden, although he was hurt, but even as you go back into previous rounds before he got hurt, the Celtics still had the same problem, which was no matter who they gave the ball to, that guy wasn't quite good enough at being that half court surgeon that

they needed, you know, as we look like look Denver. As I said in our NBA Finals wrap up, they did not have to play any of the top eight records in the league. Why is that? Why didn't they have to play any of the top eight records in the leage? Well, Milwaukee lacked top end ball handling. Giannis still really struggles in the half court to create quality shots.

So does Drew and Chris Right. Boston top end ball handling, Like they got into that series with Jimmy Butler, and Jimmy Butler was so much better than Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown at consistently generating quality offense in the half court. They couldn't overcome that, even with the massive talent advantage Philly. They had that issue with Jason Tatum. So what does

that tell you about their top end ball handlers. Obviously, James Harden and his decline, Joel Embiid's inability to handle double teams in the half court, their limitations in top end ball handling were the problem. Memphis, same thing. Their best guy to create his own shot down the tail end of the Lakers series was Desmond Baine, that's just not gonna cut it. Cleveland, same thing, Donovan Mitchell two tunnel vision, Darius Garland, not a good enough score Sacramento.

They only had a one to nine point three offensive rating against Golden State. I thought Deer and Fox and Malik Monk had some real moments in that series, and they're good foundational guys, but they aren't good enough to overcome the limitations that they had in their front court scoring. So the top end ball handling down the line wasn't

good enough. The eighth best record in the league the New York Knicks, they ended up losing because it was like Jalen Brunson and nobody else could create their own shot, and Jalen Brunson wasn't as good at it as Jimmy Butler was. So you guys get the point. This is still a Superstars league. In the NBA. There was that moment there in twenty twenty one where we're like, oh, look at the Phoenix Suns, like maybe, just maybe, you know, overall talent can eventually win. Nope, and it didn't work

for Boston the last couple of years. Either your best guy has to be one of the very best guys to win a title. And that's just as we look back, Jokic Finals MVP, Steph Curry Finals MVP Giannis in twenty twenty one, he did it. But as we look back, like it was against that Suns team that didn't really have a superstar, it was against that Atlanta Hawks team where it's like, yeah, he's better than Trey Young by

a lot. The Brooklyn Nets fell apart because Kyrie and James Harden got hurt, so Kevin Rant a bunch of veteran minimum contract type of dudes. Like, it's a different, it's a different That was kind of a strange season. But even then, Giannis is the very best defensive player in basketball and average thirty five points per game in the final. So he's probably the worst guy out of all of these recent NBA Finals MVPs. And it's Giannis Tennekombo. So if he's the worst guy on that list, what

does that tell you. We go back the previous year, it's the second greatest player of all time. It's Lebron James. Go back to the previous year, it's Kawhi Leonard, this big, strong forward that can bully his way to spots and get whatever he wants. Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, Lebron James should have been Steph Curry in twenty fifteen. You guys get the point. Superstars still rule the NBA. Your top end ball handling matter is way more than aggregate ball handling.

Even really talented teams that don't have a great top ball handler can easily lose out to a well coached, good defensive team that competes and has a star that's gonna out execute your stars on the other end of the floor. So top end ball handling still matters. Number four, you have to have at least one elite unit on

one end of the floor. Remember we used to have this top ten defense rule forever, right, so for decades, if you didn't have a top ten defensive rating in the regular season or a defending champion, which means you had a top ten defense the previous season, you don't get to win a title. Why is that the case. Why did that top ten defense rule hold true for so long. It's because defense is the most consistent thing

in basketball. Jump shooting does have some variants. I think that it's overstated, especially by a lot of people that pay too much attention to shot quality and things like that. But there is some variety in basketball. Some days you don't feel quite as good. Sometimes the shots don't fall as well as they usually do. You can have up and down, You can have a naturally up and down nature to what you bring offensively, in fact most teams do.

But defensively, if you bring the effort, focus, energy, and the attention to detail, that will be reliable for you every single night. Even like that twenty twenty one Bucks team that some limitations in the half court offensively, it just didn't matter because of how damn good they were defensively. The iconic moment of that entire playoff run was Giannis Lutenankuopo dissuading Devin Booker on a pull up shot and pick and roll, and then turning and sprinting and elevating

and blocking DeAndre and at the rim. It was otherworldly defense that carried them through that particular playoff run. So it's the consistency of defense, the fact that it can be counted on on a daily basis that makes it so important. But then Denver broke that rule as the first team that was not a defending champion or a top ten defense to win the NBA Championship. But they

were by far the best offense in the playoffs. They had a one to eighteen point two offensive rating that was even higher than their regular season offensive ratings, so their offense actually went up a level in the postseason. They had a one to twenty offensive rating. In clutch situations they had, they stole games in clutch situations. Like everyone remembers the Lakers series as a sweep, as they should, it was, but a lot of those games were close.

I think three of the four were close, and the one that wasn't close, the Lakers had a big second half lead, right, So like coming back and winning games at the end with reliable offense was a huge thing for Denver. They were eight and four in games in this postseason that involved clutch situations. You guys might remember in Game four of that Lakers series ty game, Nikole Jokic in the left corner just bullies Anthony Davis to the basket for the would be game winner Miami in

Game five as they closed out the trophy. I broke it down in our video after the game, but that Jokic post up against Caleb Martin against the switch for that easy layup to get the lead back after Jimmy made a fadeaway. After Bam scored, there was that Bruce Brown offensive rebound put back because Miami had to bracket Aaron Gordon on a box out. Like their offense had an inevitability to it and a consistency to it that mirrored the impact that we see from dominant defenses over

the years. So I don't think you necessarily have to have the best defense anymore to win a title, but you either need to be unbelievably great on the defensive end of the floor or unbelievably great on the offensive end of the floor. You have to be dominant in one of those units to have a chance to win a champion a championship, and you won't find a team in recent NBA history that hoisted the trophy without one

of those units being elite. Number five competitiveness. I always talk about this, are defining it as hating losing more than you love basketball. Basketball's fun. When you go play pick up, it's fun. When you go shoot around, it's fun. It's like one of my favorite sports in the well

is my favorite sport in the world. But one of the things that I think makes it such a popular sport around the world is we can all throw headphones on and go out to a park or go to La Fitness and you can shoot around by yourself and

have a great time. Because basketball is fun. But basketball games they're they're nasty, and a lot of times, in order to avoid losing, you have to do some things that are not fun, like engaging in physical battles all over the floor, attention to detail, effort, focus, energy, those kinds of things. Right, So, how much fight does your basketball team have? How much are they willing to give an extra effort when they're exhausted? How could like that

Laker team drove me insane with their inconsistent effort. One night they come in and mail it in, and then the next night they come in and dominate. I literally picked every single game of the Memphis series and the Golden State Series correctly because to the tune of what the games would look like, just because I was so familiar with the cadence of the way the Lakers brought effort.

And I hated that about that team because they they were competitive, but they weren't competitive enough to bring that nastiness on a daily basis. That nastiness is what carries you in the rock fights. And I don't think it was a coincidence that the Nuggets and Heat, two of the most consistent effort teams in the playoffs, made it to the finals this year. The Nuggets ended up winning what like eight of their last nine games in the postseason.

They didn't mail anything in, they didn't conserve energy. They came out every single night and wanted to murder you, and that's why they got the trophy. Same thing with the Miami Heat. Competitiveness is a prerequisite to winning in the late rounds of the NBA Playoffs. It's something we should look for in basketball teams moving forward. Number six Experience.

Young players still don't win in the NBA playoffs. Michael Porter Junior was the only player under the age of twenty five to play over one hundred minutes in the NBA Finals this year, and guess what, he was the only guy who really struggled. He averaged under ten points a game on just thirty three percent shooting relative to his regular season performance. He was the guy who struggled the most. Why is that? What is it? I look at it kind of based around a cliche like, oh,

young players don't know how to win. Older players know how to win. That's a cliche. But what does that mean? Well, like, what does it mean for a player to know how to win? And how does a player re that point? To me? I always refer to it on the show as scar tissue. As a young basketball player, you win and lose a lot of basketball games, right, but you haven't lost enough yet to really know why you lose, right, Like you're a twenty three year old. I'll give you,

guys an example. I'm on a men's league team now that has a bunch of grown ass men, and we win the championship almost every single time, and we very very rarely lose games. But it's because we're a bunch of guys in our thirties who played in college and we just have a really good basketball experience that we

lean back on. When I was a kid, when I was like in my early twenties, I would play in this same men's league with a bunch of other guys that were my age, young kids in their early twenties, and we get our ass kicked all the time, particularly by older teams and then we go over the sideline and we bitch moan about how many touches were getting and it's like, oh, you shot the ball too much, or you didn't pass the ball enough and all all this kind of shit, and it's like, well, actually, we

probably lost because we weren't really connected enough defensively, didn't run back and transition, didn't make yeah, yeah, didn't make the extra pass when the guy was open, you know, didn't compete on the glass like uh, didn't know how to attack his zone defense when an old man team brings out his own defense. Like those were the actual reasons why we lost. But we're too stupid and young and immature to look in the mirror and accept those things as reasons why you lose. So what happens is,

over the years, you build up scar tissue. You lose, and you lose, and you lose and you lose, and every time it fucking hurts and you just and you just take that to heart and you remember why, and eventually it clicks for you. Eventually it clicks, and then suddenly you start to realize like, oh, we won today. Why did we win? Oh? We won because we were

doing these little things right every player. By the time they each their mid to late twenties, especially when they're playing basketball as much as professionals do, they do learn and they start to understand what it takes to consistently win basketball games, and so they have they approach games

with an attention to detail. When I go up and I play in a basketball game now and again, it's it's just a stupid men's league, right, But you guys know how crazy I am about basketball, So of course I take it seriously every time I approach the game with this like incredible attention to detail, as it pertains of the little things that win. When I was twenty two and I'd go up to the gym or nineteen and I'd go up to the gym for one of those men's league games, it's like, I hope I score

thirty seven tonight. God, I hope I get some cool dunks. You know, Like you're just You're just an idiot. It's no different than anything else in life outside of sports. When you're a young kid, you're an idiot and you don't realize it, and then suddenly you reach the point where you learn and you look back and you're like, ugh, like why was I thinking that way? Why was I

doing things that way? Kids just struggle with that particular concept, And so I don't think it's a coincidence that we see teams that like the Memphis Grizzlies, for instance, that win a bunch of regular season games just on the strength of their talent and their athleticism, and then they consistently get into these slow down playoff series against veteran

teams and just get beat in the margins. And they'll still have these crazy games, like these blowout wins like they had in Game five against Golden State last year, like they had in Game five against the Lakers this year, but then they can't replicate that. They don't they don't realize why they won. They don't they don't know how to attach the correct reasoning to their result and learn that moving forward. That's why I call it scar tissue.

The pain of loss leads to scar tissue that helps you do the things you need to do to win. And so when we see teams that have a bunch of young players in the rotation win a lot of regular season games, we should probably realize that that means they can't not win an NBA championship. In all likelihood. Again, I don't think there's an arbitrary cutoff. I don't think it's just because Michael Porter Junior hasn't turned twenty five yet.

But I don't think it's a coincidence that he was the youngest real rotation player in the series and the guy who struggled the most. There is no specific cutoff date. I just think as a team, you need to have experience and you need to not be relying on too many young players in your rotation. Okay, to have a couple of them, we've seen that. We saw the Lakers have a lot of success with Austin Reeves and Ruy

Hatchamura although they're both twenty four. You know, we saw the Warriors last year with Jordan Poole getting big minutes like it can happen. But the overall nature of the team, the character of the team needs to be a grown up and experienced basketball team. Number seven, you need to

have above average role players. I'm just gonna list some teams, some recent NBA champions and pay attention really quickly to which of these guys was on a veteran minimum contract in which of them was not Nuggets, KCP not on a veteran minimum, Michael Porter Junior not on a veteran minimum, Aaron Gordon not on a veteran minimum, Bruce Brown on a mid level exception. Okay, so their core role players, none of them were just cheap dudes you pick up for free on that that don't have any impact on

your cap space. The Warriors eight really good players, Steph Clay, Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins, Raymond Green, Cavon Looney, Gary Payton the second and out of Porter Junior. I'm pretty sure Gary Payton the second out of Porter Junior, were the only two veteran minimums in that group. Kevon Looney makes a decent amount of money. Obviously, you're a core four guys for the Warriors make a lot of money. It's important to have very good role players behind your stars.

The Bucks Drew Holliday, Chris Middleton, Jonnason Tannan Koopo obviously as their big three, but then they had Brook Lopez and PJ. Tucker, Pat Connitton and Bobby Portis. The Lakers Lebron James and Anthony Davis, but they had Kentavious Kobell Pope as Nuggets fans know, Danny Green, a guy who's making fifteen million a year, Alex Crusoe as a dude they picked up undrafted, But Kyle Kuzma is the guy

that costs money, Rayjion Rondo, Dwight Howard like. There are only a handful of veteran minimum contracts in that group. I think out of all the players I listed, I think there were like five. So when you see your team talking about, like, hey, let's get a third star and let's round out the roster with veteran minimums, okay, feel free to try that if you want. But none

of the recent NBA champions won that way. They won that way with a couple of really expensive players on the top and then a bunch of mid level salaries and maybe one or two veteran minimum contracts. The vast majority of these teams have really good players down the roster. You need really good basketball players behind your stars to win an NBA championship. Number eight coaching. Coaching played a

huge role in these playoffs. Obviously, we talked a lot about Eric Spolstra making opposing stars uncomfortable his really smart spacing concepts, clearing the side for Jimmy Butler so that he had really good confidence as he was kind of going to work off the dribble. He was the first guy I saw sixes fully used zone in large doses

in the NBA playoffs. I thought Mike Malone did some really work good work throughout the playoffs, although he didn't need to make many adjustments just on account of the fact that their team was so damn good. But remember when Lebron was cooking them with ghost screens with Austin Reeves to attack Jamal Murray and then he switched over Toamal Murray on too Dennis Schroeder so that it wouldn't be on a movement shooter so they he wouldn't be

able to run that same action. Or when Eric Spolscher was denying the high post in their zone sets and so they just moved Jokic down to the short corner and either had him flash high or stay down and try to drive the zone. Darvin Ham for Steve Kerr was a really interesting playoff series earlier in the playoffs where they were making all those adjustments around Steph Curry and Anthony Davis, trying to pull Anthony Davis away from the rim or contain Steph Curry in pick and roll.

I thought both of those guys did really good work throughout the playoffs, and then we saw the opposite of that. We saw Mike Budenholzer just letting Jimmy attack through Holiday on an Island without double teams. We saw Joe Miszula refusing to ignore PJ. Tucker in the sixer series until Game six, So you got to see the best of

both worlds in this particular playoff run. I think you need to have a head coach that can make the opposing team uncomfortable and find ways to avoid the same thing happening to your team, which leads perfectly into number nine versatility. You've got to give your coach ammunition for adjustments. You have to be able to play multiple ways. We saw Cleveland lose. The Cleveland Cavaliers dominate all season and then lose because they were incapable of creating a shot

out of anything other than high pick and roll. And so as soon as Tom Thibodeau found out that he could kind of leave those weak side corner shooters and just kind of defend the pick and roll three down two, Cleveland's offense just died in the first round. We saw Boston have similar issues against Miami as they struggled to find different ways to attack. When Jason Tatum and Jaylen

Brown were struggling on the defensive end. We saw Joel Embiid, the great rim protector that he was all season, really struggle as soon as Boston pulled him away from the rim because he wasn't capable of defending in that content. Teams are going to force you away from your bread and butter, and you need to be comfortable switching gears to a different tactic and having success with that tactic. That is a talent thing. You need to have the requisite talent to be able to play multiple ways. Like

Denver's offense is a great example of this. They can run through Yokicchen the post if you run drop coverage and you stay glued to the role man. Jamal Murray can kill you with pull up shooting. If you play up onto that pull up jump shot, you're opening up the pocket pass and Nicole Jokich is going to kill you if you switch it. They can just go down to Yokicchen the post or Jamal Murray can work out of ISO if they put a great defender on Jamal Murray,

that's causing problems. You could switch and start running action for Michael Porter Junior and for Contavious Callwell, Pope, they can go to Aaron Gordon when they move a smaller defender over to Aaron Gordon. He dominated in the post in this playoff run. They just had so many different ways they could play offensively. It literally made them unguardable. Last,

but not least, continuity. Each of the four NBA finalists from the last two years, the Celtics, the Warriors and the Heat and the Nuggets involved groups of core players who have been playing together for years. Why does continuity matter?

I believe that talent is flattening out across the league just by virtue of there being so much talent, and then also with the new CBA that's just gonna get more and more dramatic as the years go by, You're gonna see more and more talent parody across the league. And what is going to be the separating factor, in my opinion, basketball teams that know how to play together well.

There is a rhythm and flow to basketball, like we always talk about, and that rhythm and flow with basketball becomes instinctual to players that have been playing together for years and years and years. It's the reds become consistent. You find out where guys like to cut, where guys like to relocate on the three point line when you run two man game. Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have literally run thousands of ball screens and dribble handoffs and

inverted ball screens. Those dudes just they've done it so many times they don't need the It's just second nature to them at this point. And the same thing goes on the defensive end of the floor. As you learn how to have a similar kind of expectation for your teammates on the defensive end of the floor. Continuity is beginning to take over in the NBA, and it'll be really interesting to see in this particular offseason how many teams like really shake things up versus try to bring

all the same guys back. As someone who roots for the Lakers, I'm hoping they kind of just bring everybody back and then, yeah, like if you have an opportunity to flip, like if D'Angelo Russell comes back for twenty million and Ruey Hatchamura comes back for fifteen, and yeah, you can flip two guys for a really good guard or a really good star like yeah, maybe, but like dude, bring your players back and just hope they learn how

to play better basketball together again. Most of these series are defined are decided by smaller margins than we think. If you really look back at it, the margins are usually pretty tight. Playoff series are decided by tiny, tiny gaps. I mean, Philly, Philly was up big and had a really good chance to win in Game six against Boston. They lost that series. You don't think those guys are haunted by some of those moments. You don't think Golden

State looks back to Game four against the Lakers. You don't think the Memphis Grizzlies look back at Game four against the Lakers as a missed opportunity. Playoff series are defined by the tightest of margins, and continuity is another great way to gain an advantage. So recapping really quick size and strength, top end ball handling an elite unit either on the defensive end or the offensive end, competitiveness, experience,

above average role players, coaching, versatility, and continuity. Those are the ten things that we are going to use every time next year when we're starting to examine a team and their ability to win an NBA championship, just as a kind of like a baseline for us. Based Again, like I always say, the best indicator of future performance is past performance. That's how we learn from the past and help to better predict the future. All right, guys,

that is all I have for today. I am hopping on a plane and going up to Bozeman and hanging out up in Montana for the next five days. I will be back late on Wednesday, so we're not doing anything that night. I will have my stuff with me in case of catastrophe. Knowing my luck, I'll probably land in Bozeman and Lebron James will ask for a trade or something stupid like that. Chances are, but if nothing happens,

I plan on taking the whole stretch off. We will be coming back on Thursday to cover the NBA Draft with the Nerd sessh guys and with Colin Coward. As always, I sincerely appreciate you, guys, and I'm going to enjoy this break and I'll see you guys next week. The volume