Hoops Tonight - NBA All-Star Reaction: Steph Curry leads Team Shaq, LeBron sits, Draymond criticism

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one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, well, come to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody, Hope all of you guys had a great weekend. We're gonna get into All Star Weekends today with our five major takeaways from this year's All Star Weekend. We're gonna talk a little bit

about the new format. I want to talk about what a one on one tournament would look like in the NBA. I actually put together like a sample tournament and like talked through it bracket style, which will be a one for us. We're talking a little bit about Lebron showing up late. We're gonna talk a little bit about the Dunk contest, and then Draymond Green just went on a

rampage just shitting on the NBA over the weekend. I want to talk a little bit about that at the tail end, you guys know the jrip before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review

on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments. We're gonna be hitting mail bags on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So first major takeaway out of five today. Thoughts on the new format. I actually really liked the

tournament format with shorter elam ending style games. I'm generally a huge fan of the elam ending. I think that it turns it into a contest of basketball instead of some weird gamesmanship at the tail end of games. I also think shortening the games makes it so that there's less opportunity for cheap baskets. You know, you're out there for a shorter period of time. It just kind of like naturally breeds a tiny bit of urgency, and as far as the tournament format goes, it advances the teams

that are playing harder. So like, I think that makes sense. Like if there's a couple of All Stars out there that don't give a shit, get them eliminated in the first game, and then have the guys that want to play hard play in the second game, I think the format makes sense. I saw Sam Amaco tweet a quote from an NBA GM that said, quote, Adam Silver is obsessed with tournaments playing in season now All Star They've not proven to benefit our league, and I just completely

disagree with that line of thinking. I think the play in tournament is great because it just gives us more high leverage basketball. Those have been excellent games. When the play in tournament is on, we all want to watch. And I think that that is just a case enough for it. It gives you just a little bit of of interesting basketball to kind of bridge that gap between the regular season and the playoffs. The N Season Tournament is only two years old, but I already like it,

and I wish they'd expand it. I'd make it a sixteen team tournament, just add another round, same sort of thing. I think we get high leverage basketball in December. It's a great way to like scratch that itch, so to speak, our desire to watch high leverage basketball in the middle of a regular season that can drag on like it

goes October, November, December, January, February, March, April. We're talking six months here solid if you count the cut off, the half of April and the half of October, six straight months of basketball. And if you can bridge it so that two months in we have the N Season Tournament and two months in we have trade deadline, All Star break type of stuff. It just kind of like

provide some tent poles. You don't have as much slack there in the middle where we all get bored, right, So, like, I'm a big believer that the n season tournament is good for the NBA. And as for All Star I mean, here's the thing. Last night was by far the hardest that those guys have played in the last few years.

Two things that cheapened it a little bit for me, Like I agree with Draymond, Like I just don't see the point in letting non All Stars play with the All Stars, Like I was intrigued by it, like I wanted to see what it would what would look Like I just wanted to see the young kids come in there and play super hard and see if that would trigger something. And it did to a certain extent. But

they're not All Stars. And I think there's a way to do the exact same format and instead of doing three eight man All Star teams, just do four to six man All Star teams and let them run that same exact format and you get to see all all

stars playing. And then also I just get rid of the gimmicks, like I was watching Victor wemin Yama and Jared Jackson play super hard and try to change the dynamic of the All Star game and I'm listening to Kevin Hart do stand up in the background or like the inside the NBA crew just like shooting the shit. I was actually embarrassed for the league during some of that stuff, especially the Mister Beast one, where like Mister Beasts is out there like distracting the kid while he's

trying to shoot. He's like making these weird comments about Dame missing a couple of jump shots like that. It was all just really weird. I saw someone on Twitter say the NBA has lost the plot because we just want to see the best players in the world play basketball, and I couldn't. I could not agree more. Get rid of the lower level players, get rid of the gimmicks, or at least move them to the periphery if you want to do the musical performances and the jokes from

the studio crew. And here's Kevin Hart given a stand up routine. Put them before the event or after the event instead of in the middle. Actually have the event start on time. Make it to your fans know if I turn on the TV at this time, within ten to fifteen minutes, I'm going to get to watch my favorite players play basketball. Streamline it and again The beauty

of the tournament style is it helps breed competition. The lazier teams will lose in the first round and we'll get the two more competitive teams of All Stars playing in the in the final. And again, the short the shortened games get rid of some of the cheaper baskets. You want to bring basketball back to the forefront and put the onus on the players to entertain us. Now,

will it ever be a monument told basketball event? Again, probably not, But then again, the All Star Game is trash in pretty much every sports league, and it's not really a fixable problem. I just am saying that I'd rather go down with basketball than go down with gimmicks, and I'd put the onus on the players in that regard. Second biggest takeaway my thoughts on Mac McClung and the Dunk Contest. This is probably one of the biggest things

that I disagree with the masses about. Like the masses are obsessed with this idea, Like we got to convince stars to participate in the Dunk Contest, And I think even if the NBA could convince John Morant and Anthony Edwards and Zion Williamson and someone like Donovan Mitchell or

whoever it is to do the dunk contest. It would have some intrigue because of the stars, but the actual dunk contest itself would be lacking because game dunking and contest dunking are two entirely different sports in my opinion, and like there are certain there are certain players in the NBA that are good at contest dunking, but they tend to not be superstars, and there's just not enough of them. Professional dunking is like an entirely separate as

a massive following. There are dozens of excellent professional dunkers all over the world. I've seen three of them come through Arizona over the years. Two of them I've seen them do practice sessions before, and like they just dunk over and over and over and over again. They're constantly trying new dunks. They'll miss a hundred times before they

actually master a dunk. It's like, and that's the thing too, it's like twenty five percent vertical leap, and like seventy five percent of it is like intricacies of coordination and timing and creativity and all these different things. It's a different sport and it's basically impossible to find four NBA All Star level players that can reach that level of

art in professional dunking. There are a handful of players in the NBA that had that gift, right, Like, I thought Stefan Cassel last night had a little bit of that fla on Saturday Night had a little bit of that flare when he had that East Bay where he put it through his legs off of the ball coming through the net, Like that was a really, really impressive dunk.

We even had a few years back where had the Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon showdown, Right, But that was kind of a flash in the pan kind of thing. It was just kind of a confluence of events where two of the very best contest style dunkers in the NBA happened to kind of meet in that situation. Like, that's not a thing that's going to organically happen very often, right, Like, and even those guys were like, a, we don't want to do this anymore. Right. Mac McClung is an NBA player.

I saw a lot of people talking about how he's not an NBA player, he's a fringe NBA player, but he is an NBA player. He's played in five games for four different teams. I'm of the opinion that once you put the jersey on and you step on the floor, you're an NBA player. That's sacred to me. If you've accomplished that, no one can ever take that away from you.

I think that that matters. But his main talent, the thing that he's best at compared to most people in the world, is he is a professional contest dunker type of athlete, and he's one of the very best in the world at it. And he's kept the event afloat in recent years because people are amazed by his creativity in his athleticism. I would actually just lean into that concept instead of trying to get NBA superstars to participate.

Going back to that comment I saw earlier in the same way that the NBA All Star Game should just be the best basketball players in the world playing basketball. Let's make the NBA Dunk Contest the best contest dunkers

in the world competing in a dunk contest. Get Mac McClung in there, get seven more of the greatest contest dunkers in the world, and hold a contest absolutely loaded with the wildest and craziest dunks with real NBA All stars standing all around the sideline celebrating and celebrate that sport, which is a different sport that probably should be showcased as the as a completely separate sport with these different athletes, I think it has way more potential to be like

a must see event every year if you have all the best contest hunkers in the world instead of four NBA superstars that don't really have the time to practice anything other than a windmill or a three sixty or a eest bay through the like whatever you want to call it. Like, I think like that's the thing. You go back, go back and look at the stars old dunks. Like at the time, we didn't even know what contest

dunkers looked like. And you know, Kobe'd go through his legs or Michael Jordan would jump from the free throw line, and it was this beautiful, iconic thing. But now we've just seen too much, we've seen too much of the top end of real dunking talent, and I think that that would be the direction I'd go if I was the NBA, I'd be like, Hey, we're doing it. We're having all the best contest dunkers in the world on

Saturday night, come play like I think that. I think that makes the most sense, And I mean mac McClung in the success he's had there to me as a perfect example of that. Number three thoughts on Lebron showing up late and then not playing. Here's my take on what Lebron was thinking. The Lakers just got Luka Doncic and they haven't had any opportunity to really practice and implement him into their system. They have a makeup game from the Fires this Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets. They're

the only team that plays on Wednesday. Everyone else is waiting until Thursday. I bet they're practicing today, and if they're not, they're certainly practicing Tuesday. So Lebron his only opportunity to take a break with his family was that stretch right before the All Star Game, from Thursday through

like Saturday night. Right. I don't blame him at all for, at forty years old, trying to maximize that time, especially since we're probably going to see a more engaged version of Lebron than we've seen since twenty twenty once we get to the other side of this break. So It made sense to me that if he was going to try to take a rest, he would do it Thursday, Friday Saturday there, right after the Jazz game, And that was going to imply that he would be traveling back

into the Bay Area on Sunday before the game. Right. As for not playing in the game, I think he was kind of protesting the format. I think he looked at it and he thought, why the hell when I'm so damn old, am I going to go out and play in an exhibition game against Zach Edie and Dalton connect. I don't blame him for that at all either. I personally didn't agree with that idea from the league. Now

here's the thing. If you want to criticize Lebron for getting stars to stop participating in the dunk contest over the years, I think that's fair criticism. He was kind of the first guy. Now, I mean, I think he's maybe started that trend, but you could argue it would have inevitably happened. Right. But as far as far as the game goes, this isn't even the first year he

waited till Sunday to show up. It isn't even the first year he sat out part of the game, Like there was a year recently where he barely played at all. So to me, this is like kind of a Lebron Rorschach test, Like, if you don't like Lebron, you're gonna cling to this. You're gonna make him the villain, and he's gonna be the sole reason no one cares about

the All Star Game. I'm sure we'll see a clip of Rob Parker or somebody like that later today, just blaming Lebron for the death of the All Star Game. But like, if you don't dislike Lebron for whatever reason, I bet you just don't care. And I'm right there with you, guys, I just don't care that Lebron showed up Layt and didn't really want to play in that specific fort. Let's get to the fun stuff, the one

on one tournament. I think this is such an interesting concept and one that I want to get a little deeper into today. First of all, I want to shout out in a Visa Collier, who won the WNBA or the unrivaled tournament, the one on one tournament against a bunch of WNBA players. I was so impressed by her in the WNBA finals. I thought she was clearly the

best player in that series. And then she dropped the bar after she won the one on one tournament where she said NBA players need to be willing to put their name on the line in a tournament like that. So someone needs to just like photoshop a cigarette into the FISA's mouth just so that she's just one of the coolest hoopers on the planet. And she just keeps she just keeps showing that time and time again. But I wanted to try out this theoretical concept, so we're

gonna run a simulated tournament today. I chose eight players, and I used a list randomizer for seating. First of all, some preliminary stuff. I went based on the top ten players in the league because I think that's more interesting. But in all likelihood, a guy like Jokis would not

participate in this tournament. Lebron probably would not participate. You're going to see a lot more of guys like lower level players in the NBA, like a Kyrie Irving, like a James Harden, instead of like a Jokich or a Lebron. But I want to just for the sake of like actually making it look closer to what the WNBA did, I wanted to do all the top players in the league. Okay, I went with make it, take it, meaning if you score,

you get the ball back. That's generally the rule for one on one basketball around the world, and that's how the Unrival Tournament went. And I went with no dribble limit, mimicking what the WNBA or the Unrival Tournament did with a seven second shot clock, which on that front, like on lower levels, like even high major D one and like lower level pro hoops, you'll work on a dribble limit, like a two dribble limit or a three dribble limit,

because you're practicing being efficient with movement. Why, Because there's only a few dozen players in the world who are good enough to just dribble the air out of the basketball without having it hurt their basketball team. Right, Like most players need to be able to score quickly and efficiently as part of a five man context. Right. But these guys, the guys who would be playing in this tournament, are absolutely in the group of guys who would regularly

use lots of dribbles to get to their spots. So no dribble limit, seven second shot clock. Random list top ten players in the world. Make it, take it, you guys, get the drill. Here's how the order came out after I use the randomizer. So our number one seed is Nikola Jokicic two seed is Anthony Edwards, three seed is Jannison Tenacumbo, the four seed is Luka Doncic, the five seed is Jason Tatum, the sixth seed is Kevin Durant, the seventh seed is Lebron James, and the eight seed

is Shay gilgis Alexander. So our one verse eight is Jokic versus SGA. I think Jokic takes this matchup relatively easily. I think he just plays back off of Sga and tries to bait him into jump shots, and as long as he doesn't literally make six mid range jump shots in a row, Jokic will get the ball. And Shay shoots fifty four percent on jumpers inside of seventeen feet, but he's probably not going to go six for six,

So Jokich is going to get the ball. Once Jokic gets the ball, Shay has like quite literally no way of stopping him from getting just a bunch of layups in a row. Like there's no variance, no chance for a miss there. So I think Yokich advances relatively easily against SGA. Our four versus five matchup Luka Doncics first, Jason Tatum. This is a much closer matchup in my opinion, Like Luca would basically have to concede pull up jump shots to Tatum because if he plays up on him,

he'll get blown by just constantly for layups. I mean, we saw that a dozen times in the NBA Finals, right, But we also saw Luca repeatedly cook Jason Tatum one on one in the finals. He's too strong for Tatum, and once he gets an angle, he can just work closer to the rim and give him issues. I'm going to go with Luca here slightly. I think Tatum's value is in his versatility, but I just think Luca is a more gifted one on one score who would be able to work Tatum closer to the rim for higher

percentage shots. And Tatum, as far as his jump shooting goes off the dribble, he's actually a low field goal percentage guy. He's a high effective field goal percentage guy because he takes a lot of pull up threes, but he will miss pull up jump shots, and Luca's going to force him into some misses by playing more, playing the drive more, and forcing him to shoot. I think

it would be a very close game. But I think Luca is just a more gifted craft yer one on one score, a much more reliable shot maker when he gets into that short to mid range area. So I would go with Luca advancing in that four to five matchup are two versus seven. Anthony Edwards versus Lebron James. I think Ant takes this one. With Lebron in his prime, he would have been able to match ants athleticism in a way that would have allowed Lebron's size to carry

the day. But there are two reasons why I'd take Ant at this point. With Lebron at age forty one, Ann has put all defenders in the league into a bind because he's become one of the best three point shooters in the league. You basically have to choose between taking away the drive or conceding the jumper, or taking away the drive. In conceding the jumper or taking away the jumper and conceding the drive, Ant would get great looks every single possession. And then two, Ant is a

bad defender. In a lot of ways, like he's really bad at navigating screens, he loses shooters and rebounders off ball constantly. But he's absolutely awesome at one thing on defense, and that's one on one defense. He's one of the most laterally quick players in the league. So you're not gonna go around him. You're gonna have to go through him. And he's an absolute fire hydrant. It's basically impossible to go through him unless you're absolutely massive. And for the record,

Lebron's a big dude. He would try to bully Ant. He would win some of those battles, but I think Ant would also win some of those battles. And then on the other end, I think Lebron basically has to concede jump shots to him, and Ant's one of the best jump shooters in the league. So to be clear, I would take prime Lebron over Ant, But in this format in the year twenty twenty six, I'm gonna take Ant to advance in a somewhat close game three versus six,

Kevin Durant versus Giannis and Tenna Kombo. This is very interesting. On the one hand, this is a terrible format for Yannis because He's the opposite of Ant in that like he is very little in the way of shot making. If guys actually take away the drive and make him mix shots over the top, that's not a strength of his. And while Ant is great on the ball but terrible and everything else on defense, Jannis is great at everything else on defense, but he can struggle a little bit

guarding in space. He's especially struggled guarding KD over the years because KD knows how to get him up out of his stance with hesitation dribbles or get him leaning one way before crossing over and getting dribble penetration. It's a matchup that KDE's had a lot of success against. But on the flip side, Jannis is probably the best power player in the league not named Jokic, and KD

can struggle with power sometimes. We just talked the other day about how Jared Jackson gave him some issues by ducking in in the post in that game that they lost to Memphis the other night. So I actually do think Giannis would give KAD some issues when Giannis had the ball. But KD does have the length to bother

Janis around the rim a bit. We've even seen skinnier, longer players like Wemby give Jannis shoes now ONEB be obviously a different challenge than KD, but I do think Katie would win some of those battles, and I just think Katie would do more damage to Giannis when Katie as the ball than Giannis would do to Kadi in return. So I have KD advancing in a close game our second round, our one versus four matchup, NIKOLEA jokicch versus

Luka Doncics. I actually I view both of these guys as kind of similar in this format, and that there are two players that would both need to concede jump shots to faster players so that they don't give up driple penetration and just basically hope they miss. And then on the other end, they both have massive strength advantages and short range shot making advantages that they could exploit to score time and time again close to the rim.

But Jokic is just so much bigger than Luca. I think he'd be able to force Luca into tougher shots further from the rim. I think Luca would be more susceptible to variants in this matchup, and I still think Jokic can bully Luca really close to the rim, So I have Jokic advancing cleanly here to the Championship. Our two versus six matchup Anthony Edwards versus Kevin Durant, This

would be an epic matchup. I talked earlier about Ant's ability to be a top tier downhill threat while also a top tier shooting threat and how that makes players make a decision. But Kevin Durant has top tier length that gives him the best ability out of any player on this list to give space to contain the drive while also having the length to contest pull up jump shots. This is a big part of why Kevin Durant is consistently one of the very best ISO defenders in the league.

This year, players are shooting just thirty one percent field goal percentage against KD and ISO last year thirty two percent. For two years in a row, now players are missing more than two thirds of their shots against KD in one on one, and the volume is super low because players know better and don't really try KD. I think Ant would be able to stonewall KD a little bit when he's on defense and force KD into some mid range jump shots, but Kd's arguably the best mid range

jump shooter ever. We're going to talk about in a minute. Even though I think Ant is excellent in this format, I think Kd's kind of is kryptonite in this matchup. So I have KD advancing to the championship, and then our championship would be Nicole Jokich Vus Kevin Durant. I think this is a super interesting one because I don't think either player has much of a chance at all

to guard the other. Katie is shooting a league best fifty eight percent on jump shots inside of seventeen feets, four percent better than anyone in the league, including Shay. Jokic shoots sixty one percent on hooks, so Katie's mid range jump shot is nearly as efficient as a Jokic hook. I also think KADI would actually be able to get past Jokic a few times by using that hesitation dribble and some of those crossovers, or Jokic would bite on trying to contest one of those short range jump shots.

Then on defense, now again, Jokic would bury Kad a lot, but KD would have the length to get some good contests on Jokicic around the rim. The trouble would be for KD Jokicic just completely bullying him right under the rim for layups. But that's where Kevin Durant's length could potentially force a miss. And again, I just think Katie's game is just built for this format. He's always been one of the best defensive players in the league when he's engaged, and I think he's the best one on

one offensive player in the history of the league. I think he barely beats Jokicic, but I think Katie beats Jokic with a combination of short jump shots, nasty counter moves while just forcing Jokic into one or two misses closer to the rim that he would need to survive. And as I kind of zoomed back out from this tournament, it makes sense Katie's the greatest one on one player of all time in my opinion, so it would make

sense that he would win this type of tournament. I'd have KDI winning and man, I really hope we get to see it next year. All right, before we get out of here for today, I want to talk a little bit about Draymond's comments. So Draymond went like really aggressive shitting on the NBA last night. He was very critical of the rising Stars playing with the All Stars, which, by the way, that part I agreed with as we

talked about earlier. But then he just randomly decided to start shitting on the state of the NBA by like just parroting all the same talking points that we constantly hear from the old heads. He said, quote it it's just who can run faster, who can hit more threes, no substance. I think it's very boring. Here's the thing. The NBA regular season does get boring. Sometimes we can all admit that there's some ugly basketball. There's a lack of urgency. Sometimes it is far from perfect. But I

promise you it used to be way worse. It is crazy to me, the rose colored glasses some folks choose to look back at the old MBA with. If you think pace in space and spread, pick and roll and modern transition basketball is ugly, go back and watch games from the early two thousands. Go back and watch games from the nineties in the regular season, Watch guys standing

around in the paint. Watch a million of these horrifically ugly post ups between these big bulky forwards and centers as guys are just throwing bullshit up at the rint. Watch Drew Gooden and David West take a million seventeen footers. In my opinion, the game of basketball is different now, but it's absolutely better. The thing is is it's far more sophisticated both ends of the floor. The sets teams

run are way more sophisticated than ever. The little off ball actions and tricks that teams use to create space, like using the roleman as a lead blocker, or like using non shooters as screeners, adding a third man to ball screens to make them harder to guard on defense, the gapping, the passing lane close outs, the crispness of rotations, even the strategic quirks like how Boston used Tatum and Brown to shut down opponent ballscreen attacks by putting Tatum

on opponent centers and putting their center on week above the break shooters like. The game is far more sophisticated now and far more entertaining as a result. In my opinion, even though it can get ugly sometimes it's just bullshit. The way we look back at the old NBA, I don't get it, And the thing is is like I personally think Draymond knows this. I think he knows it. The whole thing on this weekend like kind of came off as like deliberately confrontational to me, and I don't

really understand why. The one I have with it from Draymond's perspective is I think he's one of the biggest ambassadors of our game. I think he has a responsibility to be an advocate of our game. He should be one of the guys going around and like actively fighting these false narratives and explaining to the younger generation how sophisticated our game has become. And I think he's kind of fumbling that responsibility right now, and I hope he

changes his tone soon. All right, guys, That's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'm working the rest of today on our updated contender rankings. We'll have content surrounding the contender rankings coming out on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we're back to basketball on Thursday morning with a breakdown of Hornets Lakers. I'll see you guys then the volume. What' so, guys, as always, I appreciate you

for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It 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.