Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: LeBron & Lakers MAJOR rise, Celtics vs. Timberwolves for No. 1

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restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash Basketball terms. All right, okun hoops and I here at the volume Havy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. In case you missed it earlier, Yovan Bujaf from The Athletic came on the show for about an hour of Lakers talk. You can find that a little bit further back on the feeds

this video. We're just doing our latest edition of Power Rankings like we do every Monday, and then I have two tweaks that I want to make to my contenders list after what I saw last week and then last not least, we have four mail bag questions for the end of the show as well. You guys are the Joe forourt we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit

that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds wherever get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss any show announcements as well as the film threads that I do most mornings. And then also keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. That's the best way for you guys to tell me or try to direct the

show and directions that you guys want. If you guys want to hit specific topics, drop them in the mail bag question so that we can hit them throughout these throughout these shows towards the end. All right, let's talk some basketball. So one team dropped out from last week and then one new team made an entry. So our new team is the Los Angeleslikers. Obviously they dropped off last week, but if you guys remember in that in that video I said that they're getting healthy, they're getting

their forwards back. I expected them to quickly enter back into the list, and not only did they enter back into the list, but they shot quite a ways up it after dominating the n season tournament the way they did last week. And then the team that I dropped out was the Denver Nuggets. They've lost three games in a row. They're just six and eight over their last

fourteen games. Now. Nicole Jokic's counting stats are good in that span twenty eight points, thirteen rebounds, and eleven assists, but his efficiency is tanked relative to his normal standards. In his first nine games this season, Jokic was sixty two percent from the field and thirty three percent from three. In his last fourteen games, he's just forty eight percent from the field and twenty eight percent from three. The big thing there that stands out to me is the

jump shot. This is like kind of a thing with Jokic's career. It's like one year he's making the jump shot, and then the next year he's not. Like you go back, last year, shot really well throughout the regular season, like I think, like thirty eight percent ish from three, and then in the postseason he shoots like forty six percent

from three. It was a huge part of the offense for Denver as he was picking and popping, But then you go back one year before that and he couldn't make a three at all in regular season, and then he couldn't make a three in that one playoff series against the Warriors, as he was in the low thirties during the regular season, and then in the twenties versus the Warriors, and so like again, here we are into this season and the jump SHOT's not there right like

the for the season, he's at thirty point four percent from three, which is the lowest mark of his career. Now, am I worried about Jokic in the grand Scheme? No? Am I saying he's not the best player in the league. No, that said he's If his jump shot isn't there this year in the postseason, that is something to factor in because that was a legitimate ceiling razor for Denver, and it's just something to keep an eye on. If he can get it going before the end of the season,

complete non issue. But if he finishes the year shooting like thirty one thirty two percent from three, that would be something that I'd be concerned about going into a playoff series, just because it makes it a little bit easier to guard Denver if you don't have to close out hard to Yokich on those picking pops. It's literally that simple. It's an element of Denver's offense that you don't want to see weekend because I don't think this. I think this team is my championship favorite, but I

don't think they're a runaway favorite. I think they're a favorite by a small gap, and so things like that are things to keep in mind that could potentially shrink that gap. Over this fourteen game span, their defense has slipped as well. They're down to eighteenth in defense, also sixteenth in offense over that span, although Jamal Murray missed most of those games. And then I did want to hit this because I'm sure somebody's gonna ask Jason, why

isn't Dallas in your power rankings? They are third in the Western Conference, that's true, but they've played the third easiest schedule in the league, and they've lost five of their last seven games against teams that are five hundred or better. They do have the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves this week, both at home, so obviously Kyrie's out

after taking that unfortunate fall from Dwight Powell. But if they can get if they can look impressive in both of those games and win one of them or win both of them, then they're definitely on the list. But they just don't have as impressive a set of wins as some of the teams that I opted to put in over the top of them. So starting with Number ten, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They beat the Orlando Magic and the

Miami Heat this week. They're nine and three in their last twelve games, and they are third in defense over that span. Some impressive wins as well. They beat Miami, they beat Orlando, they beat Atlanta Toronto's not an easy win. They beat Philly, and they beat Denver. Now they're winning with defense, but they're also getting balanced scoring. They have six players averaging double figures over this span, and they should be getting Caris Lavert back on this road trip.

They got a couple of tough games coming up to They're at Orlando tonight and then they have two games in Boston after that. So we're gonna find out a little bit more about this Cavs hot streak at the end of this week. Number nine the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now they lost in Houston, but everybody does, right. Houston is nine to one at home this year. But even their win against Golden State, I wasn't super impressed by them. It took a Draymond Green bailout foul on chet Holmgren

at the buzzer to send that game to overtime. The Warriors led the vast majority of that game and out executed them in crunch time sands the Draymond Green foul. Right, they are nine to one against teams that are below five hundred, but they are just five and six against teams that are five hundred or better. I am. I will say this though, I was really impressed by their

perimeter defense again in that Golden State Warriors game. The shot like just in general, the job that Lou Dork can do not just on bigger players like Lebron and Jason Tatum and other big wings around the league, but also your smaller athletic guards, guys that are difficult to kind of keep in front from a shiftiness standpoint. He

does really good in those jobs as well. They Oklahoma City was flying around at the end of that game and really did a nice job containing Golden State off the dribble, wore them down, and when they got that break, when they got the Draymond Green foul, they basically ran away with the game in overtime. It never really felt like Golden State had a chance there in that ot. So again I remained super impressed by their shot creation,

ball handling, shooting passing. I remain incredibly impressed by their perimeter defense, but their interior defense and their rebounding continue to concern me. Moving on to number eight, the Philadelphia seventy six er is really light week for them. They beat the Wizards and the Hawks. Those two teams are combined twelve and thirty, and Bid did score eighty eight points in the two games on just fifty three shots.

He also had this is a crazy stat for six Ers fans, Joel Embiid had another seven assist game against Washington. That's the tenth time this season that Joel Embiid has put up at least seven assists in a game and we're only about a fourth of the way through the year. Last year, all season, he totaled nine games with at least seven assists, So already more seven assists of games than he had seven assists games than he had all of last year. That's an encouraging stat as we've seen

Embat's playmaking go up a level this year. Nick Nurse has just kind of simplified as reads and make the game easier for him, and then they're also heading into a super easy stretch of their schedule after making it through a tougher stretch. Their next five games are against Washington, Detroit, Detroit, Charlotte, Chicago. So there's a really good chance that we're gonna be here two weeks from today talking power rankings, and the Sixers will probably be nineteen and seven when we get

to that point. Number seven the Sacramento Kings, they'd be the best team in the league if they could beat the Pelicans. The win on Friday in Phoenix was the seventh time in their last eight tries against five hundred or better teams that they beat not named the Pelicans. That's what's crazy about this. They beat Phoenix, they beat Denver, they beat Dallas, they beat Minnesota, they beat the Lakers, they beat the Calves, they beat the Thunder, but they're

oh and three against the Pelicans. Now, what I find really interesting about this is it's been a similar theme that we saw because they're actually also zero to two against the Houston Rockets, another team that has excellent point of attack defenders to throw out their quick guards. And this is something that I noticed in the Pelicans' matchups, and I think is something that's a little concerning with

this particular team. When teams have I have multiple great perimeter defenders to throw at Deeron Fox and Malik Monk and contain their dribble penetration, their offense can get stuck. As a matter of fact, in those They're zero to five against Houston and New Orleans, but in those five games they were held below one hundred points three times.

Think about how crazy it is for a team that plays as fast as Sacramento does, for a team that is as skilled offensively as Sacramento is, to not reach one hundred points that frequently in that type of matchup. I think it's just something to keep an eye on from a matchup perspective when we get to the postseason.

You know, if the Kings run into a series against a team that has excellent point of attack defenders, that could be something that could be a big problem for them from a matchup standpoint Number six the Indiana Pacers. I found their back to back wins against Boston and Milwaukee incredibly impressive, not just because of their ability to

score against those teams. They hung a one to twenty two offensive rating against Boston, they're the third best defense in the league, and then they hung a one to twenty eight offensive rating against the Milwaukee Bucks, just completely exposed Malik Beasley and Damian Lillard as not good enough defensively at the point of attack for a team that's

serious about winning a championship. But in addition to that, the Pacers also had a pretty solid defensive week, not just the job that Aaron Nee Smith did on Jason Tatum and Giannis and Lebron, but also just as a team, a better job in rotation kind of wrecking havoc with their foot speed. Something I've been talking about all season, like, this is a team that is capable of being a way better defensive team than they've shown to this point, and we saw a little bit of it last week

until they ran into the Lakers. The first team, one of the best teams in the league is specifically at punishing interior mismatches, which they did all game long on their way to just basically bullying the Pacers out of that tournament. But I was really impressed with him on both ends of the floor against Boston and Milwaukee. Tyrese Haliburton, in my opinion, is having one of the six or seven most impressive individual regular seasons this year, bona fide

MVP candidate. I don't only think he's a superstar on the rise. I think he's an all time great on the rise. I'm super super high on Tyrese Haliburton. And here's the thing. You know, the tournament, and this is what I think is a great example of what's great about the Ncason Tournament. It's like a miniature Playoffs, right, It's clearly not the playoffs, but it's a miniature version of it in the sense that, like everybody wants to

win it, and everyone's playing super hard. The stakes are crazy high, the games are super physical, super intense, so you learn some things about basketball teams that kind of translate to the playoffs. And I thought that that tournament was actually a clear indicator for the Pacers that they can win the East. They're capable of it, and I think that that's gonna color the way that they approach

the trade deadline. I think they're gonna be aggressive and if they nail that trade, they could be a real contender in the East. And as currently constructed, there's still a puncher's chance threat just because of how good Tyres Haliburton is and how difficult it is to guard him. Number five the Orlando Magic lost to Cleveland and then bounced back against Detroit. They're gonna have a revenge opportunity tonight against the Calves, this time at home, and reinforcement

should be on the way soon. Wendell Carter Junior should be coming back from his hand injury any day now, markel Folt said, sounds like he's still not practicing, so I'm guessing another week or two at least, But getting those guys back will help because they've been kind of thin in some specific position groups during this last run. I think they're like nine to one in their last ten games if I remember correctly. Palla Bancaro's heating up.

He had forty two against the Calves on Wednesday. Last ten games for Palo twenty four points, six rebounds, and four assists on fifty four percent from the field and forty two percent from three Watch out for the Atlanto Magic. Number four the Milwaukee Bucks. They still have the third

best record in the league. They're up to third in offense, but the Pacers loss shine a bright light on their biggest weakness, which is that point of attack defense, right they could never make Tyre's Halliburton feel remotely uncomfortable at the point of attack, struggling with him in every single coverage, Tyres's went for twenty seven points, seven rebounds, and fifteen assists with zero turnovers. They hung a one to twenty eight offensive rating on them in a must win environment

like that. To put it simply, this defense right now is not good enough to win the championship. They're in that boat where like it's clear that something has to be done at the point of attack. I don't think that they're as seamless offensively as they need to be. Now,

they could get there. I think that's the bright side, right Like, If you're looking for an upside to this buck situation, it's you're the third best offense in the league, and Dame is still playing well below his usual level, right like and Giannis, by the way, he's playing some of the best basketball of his career, probably the best he's been at least since the trophy two and a half years ago, if not the best he's ever played. But Dame's effective field goal percentage this season is a

full five percent down from last year. So like I think you're seeing like a very capable offense, but an offense it's not where it needs to be yet. They're still a little clunky at the end of games. It didn't really look like they knew what they wanted to run down the stretch against Indiana. That's concerning that to

some turnovers. So like, the point is, they're capable of being devastating offensively, but they're not yet and right now defensively, excuse me, they're capable of being devastating offensively, but not yet, and defensively they're not even close to where they need to be. And so again, as long as they have Damon Giannis on the team and with what Brook Lopez is capable of and Chris Middleton is starting to look a little more explosive every game, a lot of exciting

stuff there. But I think this team is officially in the has to do something with that backcourt athleticism piece if they're really serious about making a run, because you're gonna have to go through a Tyres Halliburton, right, You're gonna have to go through a Jalen Brunson. You're gonna have to go through those guys in Boston and it's just and right now, you're just not good enough on the perimeter defensively. It's something to keep an eye on.

Number three, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are playing some of the best basketball in the NBA right now. They've won twelve of their last sixteen games. They have the second best record in the league over that span. They are third in defense over that span, and you saw in that Saturday game the Lakers do what the Celtics and Bucks could not do, which is slow down

that high powered pacers offense. Another encouraging stat. I've talked a lot about how the Lakers are are not a good shooting team, but they're not a bad shooting team either, and that it was only a matter of time before shots started falling. Over the last fifteen games, they're eleventh and three point percentage. Another encouraging trend for them on the offensive end of the floor. They've won four straight

games against winning teams. They have nine wins against teams that are five hundred or better, which is the second most in the league behind Boston and Lebron. James and Anthony Davis just had two of the greatest individual performances you will ever see, Lebron just became the first player in NBA history to notch a thirty five and five

in less than in less than twenty three minutes. And then Anthony Davis in the championship game puts up a forty one point twenty rebound, five assist, four block game to win the trophy. And this is, like to put it simply, People have asked like, oh, what is the n season tournament means? And the reality is we don't know because there's no reference point. But just put it on face and put it on its face from the

same point of trying to see its value. There were eight teams in a single elimination tournament that all thirty teams were capable of getting into. Right, there are eight teams in a single elimination tournament. In those eight were four of my top tier contenders, right Boston, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and the Lakers. Right at the end of that single elimination tournament, it's tournament tournament, Lakers had the trophy. Lebron was the best player in the tournament. That's something to me.

It's not a championship, not even close, but it's something to me, and it's a it's a strong validation of the fact that the Lakers are a clear Inner Circle contender, and why some of our issues that we had with them early in the year, which I pointed to effort and specific issues with forwards being out of the lineup with injury, seem two have been the reality of what was going on there. This team is very much capable

of beating the top teams in the league. Now you might say, why, like the Lakers only had to play you know, the Suns, the Pelicans, and the Pacers, And to that I would say, like, you know what, the Celtics and the Bucks had a chance to beat the

Pacers and they couldn't. So like, at a certain point, it's a win over the Suns, which is a championship contender with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant playing right, It's a win against the Pelicans, a really good Western Conference team, where they utterly dominated them, and then they beat the team that won the Eastern Conference bracket. It's not nothing. Now, not only do I have the Lakers at three in my power rankings, but I'm also moving them past the

Bucks to third in my contender rankings. I actually have two tweaks that I want to make to my contender rankings, so still of Denver at one, Boston at two. The Lakers are just better right now in my opinion than the Milwaukee Bucks, so I have them at three, Milwaukee

at four. I'm also moving Minnesota over Phoenix. I thought the game against Phoenix on Tuesday was another strong indicator that their physical limitations are going to be a problem when they run into teams like Denver and the Lakers in Minnesota in particular, And so as of right now, until we see something from Bradley Beal that demonstrates an offensive ceiling that makes that other stuff not matter, I'm

putting Minnesota over Phoenix. Phoenix will be at number six, and then I still have the Golden State Warriors at the bottom of that tier at number seven. So Denver, Boston, Lakers, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Phoenix. Golden State. Lakers are also heading into an easier stretch of their schedule right now. They have Dallas on a back to back on Tuesday. Dallas is on the back to back, the Lakers are on. The Lakers obviously haven't played since Saturday. Then the Mavericks are also going to

be without Kyrie Irving. Then they have two games in San Antonio against the Spurs, where they'll be heavy favorites in both. Then they come home to play the New York Knicks, and then they go on the road to Chicago. So I expect them to go four and one in that stretch, put five and o's on the table, and if they go four and one, that's eighteen and ten at that point, and they'll very likely be the second or third seed in the Western Conference at that point,

depending on what happens. Excuse me with the Minnesota Timberwolves, which we'll get to in a minute because wait to hear about their upcoming schedule. Number two the Boston Celtics. I was really disappointed in their performance in the Pacers game, specifically because one, that's a defense that you expect to be able to slow down the Pacers, and they just couldn't.

They put up a one to twenty two offensive rating and really had no luck at the point of attack, which is crazy to me, because like, like, that's the strength of that defense is they just have a plethora of guys they can throw on the ball, and they just didn't do a very good job. And because their late game offensive execution once again was bad. Now Celtics fans were complaining at me in the comments about this, like, oh, Jason Tatum had thirty two points? How could you blame

Jason Tatum? And again, I'm not blaming Jason Tatum. We're just having a conversation about the Lakers late game execution. This is what I would ask you. Has anybody here has anybody been concerned about Jason Tatum's ability to fill the box score? Ever? I mean, the dude averaged over thirty points a game for an entire season last year, back to back seasons with twenty six something before that, right, So, like, no one's been worried about whether or not Jason can

put up the points. The question has been can he generate consistent quality shots over a fifteen to twenty possession span at the end of a tight, high stakes game.

And in that game, Tyre's Halliburton was getting great shots, high percentage pull up jump shots for a high percentage pull up jump shooter in Tyres Haliburton and driving and kicking and creating high quality opportunities for aaron Ne Smith guys like that, Like he was playing excellent offensive basketball and on the other end of the floor, Jason Tatum

got a bunch of contested pull up jump shots. For a player who gets less than a point for contested pull up jump shots, It's really that simple to me, Like at the end of that game, a Tyre's Halliburton looked clearly like a better shot creator, And that to me is what concerned because no matter what happens, no matter how much talent is on this team, no matter what they're capable of in the big picture, if Jason Tatum can't look I to eye with another superstar when

there's real stakes on the line and consistently outplay that guy, the Celtics are not gonna win. It's literally that simple to me. And what's crazy is the Celtics have way more margin for error than most teams because of their talent, and they had more margin for error than everybody last year and Tatum couldn't bring him over the top. They had way more margin for air than everybody the year before. He got out played by Steph and almost outplayed by

Jimmy and the conference finals. And again I'm not hating on Jason Tatum. He's still in his mid twenties. I would imagine he will be this guy by the time he's twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty. Right. My thing is like, this is what's tough about the Boston Celtics predicament, is like, there's a window here where you can actually afford to keep all these guys. Five years from now or like called three four years from now, it might be a

very different roster at that point. And so there's an opportunity here for the Celtics, and that opportunity hinges on Jason Tatum's late game shot creation, and that Thursday game against the Pacers was another opportunity for him to show all of us that we're wrong to be concerned about that. And I didn't like the shots that he generated at

the end of the game. Two switches against Tyree Saliburton, long pull up jump shots, you know, switches against AARONI Smith, straight up ISOs and post ups, can't back him down even and is just settling for really tough jumper. He made some of them, made some tough shots, drew a Follen one of them, but like at the end of the day, there just was no real cohesive offensive flow for Boston down the end of that game, and that concerns me, especially against a Pacers team that they had

so many physical advantages against. That's it. They've played the toughest schedule in the league. Their opponents have won fifty four point four percent of their games, which is been the highest percentage in the league. Despite that, they have the second best record in the league and they have a league best ten wins against teams that are five hundred better. So I can't put him any lower and two on this list, and I still have them as

the second best contender behind Denver. But like, I'm not going to pick the Celtics to win the championship until I see clear evidence that Jason Tatum is ready to execute at the end of close games down the stretch when the trophy is on the line, when I see that, and we may not even know it until it's June, right, and it'll probably be one of those things where we find out when he's hosting the trophy. But right now, they're just safer bets, and that's why I have the

Celtics at two in my contendered here. Number one Minnesota Timberwolves. Light week for them. They won versus Memphis and then one against San Antonio, but they are sixteen to two in their last eighteen games, best defense in the league by a mile. Over that span, they're two point seven points per one hundred possessions better than Orlando is in second place. But they are heading into a really tough

month of basketball. This is Minnesota's schedule over the next sixteen games, which is roughly a month, So basically the next month of Hoops at Pelicans at MAVs versus the Pacers at the Heat at the seventy six Ers, versus the Lakers at the Kings, at the Thunder versus the Mavericks, then versus the Lakers at the Knicks versus the Pelicans at the Rockets, at the Mavericks, at the Magic at the Celtics. That is sixteen straight games against winning teams,

eleven of which are on the road. So like, I have Minnesota at what did I put him at the gout him at five on my contender list, right, yeah, because it was Denver, Boston, Lakers, Bucks, Wolves, Suns, Warriors, Right, So I have them down at five, and yet they've been the best team in the league so far this year in the regular season, and the main reason why I have them down that far is they're not a

known commodity. I don't know a ton about them in high leverage playoff situations, right, Like, I've seen Dame play in big playoff series. I've seen Giannis playing big playoff series. I've seen Lebron, seen Ad seeing Tatum and Brown, seeing

Yokichen Murray. I've seen all these guys play, right, And Minnesota is just a little bit more of an unknown commodity in the sense that like, yeah, I know it played really well in a couple of playoff series over the last two years, but they lost in the first round both times, and so like I just want to it's just they're a little bit more of like an unknown, right. Well, that's sixteen insane games, and I think we're gonna find

out a lot about this team over that span. And if they rip through this stretch and go like eleven and five, then yeah, we need to start having serious conversations about moving them further up the contender list. But to me, the next month for the Minnesota Timberwolves is very much a show us what you got type of month, and like to me, again, like for the record, I'm not expecting them to rip through and win all these games. Like to me, it would be a gigantic win if

they went nine and seven. Why because eleven of those games are on the road. It's very difficult to win road games against good basketball teams, very difficult, and you got eleven of them in the next sixteen. So again I would say, like, if you go nine and seven

over that stretch, you're rejoicing. But the thing is is that they go nine and seven, it's very possible, but that they lose some ground in the standings, which again is another indicator of the thing that I'm always talking to you guys about, which is the standings and different runs of games where you go seven and three versus three and seven usually comes down to health, strength of schedule like that. That's literally what dictates this stuff more

often than not. But number one Minnesota Timberwolves for this week. All right, moving on to our mailbag. Four questions for you guys, Hi Jason. Watching the Lakers Pelican semi final, I was really stunned over Zion's fitness levels. Guys like Chuck and Stephen A blasting him off during the broadcast.

Clearly the messaging over the off season that he was in the best shape of his life was just pr spin and it's evident that it's affecting his ability to consistently be the downhill force that we anticipated from him. I even watched a ton of Pelicans basketball this season, so I don't have a good feel over what this team needs to take the next step. But would you look to trade him now just to get rid of the distraction, even if it's for thirty cents on the dollar.

The Pells are doing fine with his version of Zion, so a case could be made to keep him and hope he gets in shape. I would counter that now is the best time to move him because the team's playing well with Ingram and powered is the number one option and guys like Trey Murphy back from injury. We love your thoughts because I've been going back and forth over this, but I've just lost faith in his ability to take his fitness seriously. So here's the thing. None

of us really know how bad it is. Right. What I mean by that is like, we don't really know what Zion Williamson's attitude is. Like we hear stories, we hear secondhand accounts, right, but what we don't see, we don't We're not actually in the room like I saw Stephen A. Smith do this thing this morning, as like, oh, every chef in New Orleans like wants to be friends with Zion because they know he'll eat everything. I'm like, that's some weird anecdotal shit that, like what do you

even make of that? Right, Like, we don't actually know what his eating habits are, Like, we don't actually know what his work out habits are, Like, we don't know how committed he is in the film room. We don't know how committed he is in practice. So a lot of this is guestimation, right, Like, for instance, I heard a lot of people slandering Zion for his defense over the past week, and like, I've actually thought he's had

some moments as a help defender this year. Not a good week, but this year, I think he's had some moments as a help defender. And so like again, like I think a little bit gets sensationalized for the sake of the take, you know what I mean? That said, Like it is deeply concerning from the standpoint like Lebron James looked more athletic than him in that game. That can't happen because that's what you came into the league as is the one of the best athletes we've ever seen.

And so from that standpoint, like if I'm inside that franchise and i know because of first hand information that this is a shit show and that he's a lost cause from a personality standpoint, meaning like he's never gonna be willing to do the work, then yeah, you need to look to move him. But definitely not right now.

This would be the worst time to move him, because Iron is good at basketball, and there will be some ten game stretch over the course of the next forty where he averages you know, twenty nine, ten and seven and and shoots sixty two percent from the field, Like he's gonna have a better stretch of games. And if internally you know you want to move him, you don't do it now. You wait and you find an opportunity

when his value is at a higher level. At this point, there's just no rush because as you said, they are good right now. Now in the big picture, looking at this team, let's talk about what the identity of the Pelicans should be, because what I really look at here is essentially a version of the Boston Celtics, right, because you have all of this rangey length on the wing, right like it's Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones and Trey Murphy and Dyson Daniels like it. Like just even CJ.

McCollum is like a sixty six kind of lanky guard, right, although he's nowhere near the athlete and defensive player that

those guys are. But I kind of look at this more as a driving kick team, and so like what I would view the long term version of this team is like finding more of a athlete rim protector, thinks someone in like the Nick Claxton mold, right, and then essentially I would lean on just incredible linked and athleticism at every position where all the guys can dribble and shoot except for Claxton, right, and then you run essentially a screen and roll system, or you could probably get

away with five. I haven't seen a lot of Nick Claxton lately to know if you'd be up for that, But it just just depends on what type of player you get, right, because we're not actually talking about Nick Claxton. I just mean that archetype, like an athletic center that can protect the win the rim and switch out onto guards, right, Like in the big picture, That's what I envisioned this team as is like a long, switchy athletic team that has a lot of ball handling and shooting to drive

and kick you to death. And so right now, it's kind of like this weird group where it's like you have CJ. McCollum, who's kind of like a slow down, like methodical, herky jerky shot creator. Right then you have Jonas Mallanciunas is like this throwback center who's like a post up guy, can take threes although teams don't really guard him out there, but is below average defensive player. And then you have like all these rangy wings in the middle. And so it's kind of like a weird

mix of players. And even Zion as the four is a very strange fit from a basketball standpoint with everyone else. And so again, in the short term, what I would do if I was running the Pelicans is you just ride it out to the deadline and you see how everything looks then and you make a call. At that point, my guess is they're gonna keep it. My guess is that they have no intentions of getting rid of Zion. But like, yeah, if you ask me what the best

version of this team is lean into your strengths. What is this team good at. We have lots of wings. Herb Jones is one of the best defenders of defenders in the league and is showing a lot of off the dribble pop this year. Right, Trey Murphy is kind of like the opposite version of Herb Jones. He's like he's the three and D guy, whereas Herb Jones is like the D and three guy. Right, Like, Trey Murphy's more of a got a lot more off the dribble pop, a lot more like a much more reliable jump shot.

He could shoot it out to like almost thirty feet, comfortably more athletic than Herb Jones in my opinion. So like you've got that, and then you have Brandon Ingram is like one of the best three level scorers and shot creators that we have in this league, and so like that, to me, it would be the direction i'd

go is just leaning into your lanky athleticism, right. I think this team has looked its best when Dyson Daniels has been at the point guard position too, Right, But like, as far as it pertains to Zion, we don't know how bad it is. Only they do and you sure as hell don't trade him now. You wait until you

have better value at that spot. If the Warriors are in the same corner as the Celtics were back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, which is about five hundred and mid January, which single trade would you suggest by them come trade deadline? The Celtics auded Derek White and they went fifty one and thirty one in total

that season. Massive improvement since the addition, what trade is there for the Warriors to have a similar regular season in playoffs to those Celtics back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two. I said this with the Nerdsash guys the other day, but to me, it's so clearly Siakam for a couple of different reasons. One, I think he's gonna be a little bit more affordable than some of the bigger names out there, guys that go gannob Guys like Lori Mark and I just think they're gonna be

very expensive. Jeremy Grant, I just Jeremy Grant's a guy that I would consider as well, but I'd have him as a backup plan to Pascal Siakam. Siacam to me makes for a super dynamic defensive front line with Wigans, Siakam Draymond right, those three can switch and guard just about every position. And then Sakra has a ton of playoff experience too, not just with the Raptors when they won the title, but also with the Raptors before they won the title. The dude's guarded Lebron in the conference

finals or the conference semi finals. I think obviously he's played awesome in the twenty nineteen NBA Finals. And then also you can kind of structure his next deal in a way that makes sense to you in your in your team's future. Right, So Siakam is the guy that I would target. I think I saw this stat today just for your Warriors fans. The Warriors have played three games against teams that are below five hundred three all season. As a point of perspective, the Sons have played thirteen

such games. So, like, I'm very much bullish on the Warriors still, I think they're a smart trade away from being a top tier contender. That's why I can't write him off to this point, Siakam is the guy that I'd be targeting next one. Can someone please tell me if I'm crazy for preferring Lauri Markin In over Siakam

as a Warriors fan. Not crazy, it's just less achievable, right, Like, it's just Danny Age is gonna want everything you have and it's just not worth it if you have to give up a Zemski and Tray Jagson Davis and Moses Moody and Jonathan Like ideally, if you're the Warriors, Jonathan Kaminga is your big trade piece, right. Like I saw a lot of Warriors fans in the comments like Kminga is one of our best players, and like, again, yeah, Jonathan Kaminga is is an incredible athlete and I'm very

high on his long term ceiling. But within the scope of this Warriors team, within the scope of this seasons, he's young, he's inconsistent, and it's weird basketball fit in the five out system and so and to put it simply, he's your best asset. He's the guy that, like, if you call mass Aujerry and you say we're offering Kaminga in this deal, He's gonna listen to you. And again, if you want Pascal Siakam, you're not getting him for free.

So Warriors fans, I wouldn't look at it as like, why would we trade Jonathan Kaminga, He's one of our best players. You'd be bringing back a player who would be definitively your second best player, Pascal Siakam, second best warrior overnight. Pascal Siakam gives you one of the best starting fives in the league overnight. That's the way you

have to look at that deal. It's it's less about Kaminga and more about bringing in a veteran forward with tons of playoff experience who's a natural basketball fit that will anchor your defense with Draymond on the front line, and a guy that's just gonna make you from a team that is capable of beating the best teams in the league on any given night to a team that will be favored against all the best teams in the league on any given night. That, to me is the

way that I would look at that dynamic. But as far as Lori goes, totally different vibe, not as good as a defensive player, definitely bigger and stronger, But at the end of the day, it's just more about the price. I think Siakam is a more achievable goal in that situation. Lastly, looking back at the Sabonus Haliburton trade, who do you think won that trade? Thanks love the show, So obviously the Kings won that trade. I do think there's a

little bit of revisionist history. There's kind of there's two different ways to look at this, right, Like one, the Kings have had just a horrible stretch of luck that has still led in their most interesting stretch of basketball over the last you know, basically since the early two thousands. Right, this team is a ton of fun. They're really good. I've consistently had them in my power rankings this season.

I'm a believer in the Kings. That said, like, obviously having Halliburton go off as a bone if I'd superstar with the Pacers is discouraging because Sabonis is not that right, and then drafting Marvin Bagley over Luka Doncic is obviously a catastrophe. That said, let's zoom in on each thing individually. Did they fuck up on the Luka Doncic thing? You bet,

you bet your ass they did. And like, I'm not sure there's a single Kings fan that would disagree, Like hot take, Marvin Bagley not as good as Luka Doncic. That was just it was stupid in the moment. It was it's stupid now, it'll always be stupid. It was. It was self sabotage on their part. It was overthinking the job and and and they reaped some consequences from that. Right, However, Haliburton was really good with the Kings, but none of us thought he was going to be this good. None

of us thought that. I personally don't remember a single person saying when Haliburton was with the Kings like this dude has all time great potential. I don't remember saying anybody saying that. That's the way I feel now. I think Caliburton has all time great potential. And so like it's revisionist history to be like, oh man, they missed

out on Halliburton. Yeah they did, but from the front offices perspective, you look at it and it's like, Okay, they wanted to have an offensive fulkrum in the front court and just basically an anchor in the front court. They had these two excellent guards and Dearon Fox and Tyres Haliburton that they viewed to be a little bit redundant,

and they made a deal that in the moment. Everyone knew there was some potential that Halliburton would exceed Sabonis in the long run, but in the short run, they looked at it as an opportunity to do something that

made more sense for that basketball team. And for the record, the Kings are a better team after the trade than they were before the trade because of that natural basketball fit and because Halliburton wasn't that good back then, right, So it's obviously unfortunate now to look back and be like, holy shit, Halliburton's probably better than Fox. Now, by the way, I do think Tyres Haliburton is better than Daron Fox.

But that's new in from me the information we had at the time, even though maybe I wasn't covering the league when that trade happened, and I was a little bit disconnected from the standpoint of the Pacers and the Kings individually. So like obviously all the factors involved there, I don't know what I would have done if I was in that seat. That said, like, it is a little it's a lot more defensible in the moment than

it is at this point in time. Right, Like when we look back at that point in time, it's like, oh, sa bonus for Halliburton, Like Haliburn's good, that's that's a tough player to give away. But Sabonis is good too. Sabonis and Fox are going to be incredible together. This is going to be interesting, Like this might work, Like that's the way you look at it, right, And then only now that we know Haliburton is is a superstar, can we look back and be like, oh shit, that sucks,

you know what I mean? But to me, the the Luka Doncics piece surrounding Marvin Bagley, that was way more obvious of as screw up right, And so I think that that. I think when we talk about the Kings, they've had a really unfortunate run of things. Some of

it's self inflicted, some of it's bad luck too. And you know, again, like that we were talking about with the Warriors with Kaminga, there's a version of this where you trade Kaminga for Siakam and in two years Cominga makes an All Star team, and then two years after that he makes an All NBA team, and then two years after that he's a top tier superstar. Like that's on the table. I think it's far less likely, but

it's on the table. And so again, when you are operating as a front office like those are the kinds of risks that just kind of come with the job, if that makes sense. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. The plan as of right now, we have Chris Mannix coming on for a Celtics deep

dive tomorrow. We're recording around noon, so actually I think I'm recording around one o'clock here in Arizona, so that should be up in the early evening time tomorrow, and then we're actually staying up to cover the night slate tomorrow,

so we'll have an instant reaction Tuesday night. Then we're taking Wednesday off, and then we're gonna have film sessions on Thursday and Friday, old school sessions where I'll break down a bunch of games after watching film, and then we'll hit some mailback questions at the end of those shows, So keep dropping mail back questions as always. I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you guys with Mannix tomorrow. The volume