Hoops Tonight - Nikola Jokic & Nuggets hitting stride, take down Knicks + NBA Mailbag

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varies by jurisdiction Boyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody, hope all if you guys are having a great week. On a fun show for you today, We're gonna do an instant reaction to Nix

Nuggets from last night. Fun game for both teams Monster, Isaiah Hardenstein, Knight the Nick's battle, but the Nuggets end up pulling away late. Jokich is awesome. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams, and then after that we're gonna hit a mail bag as I promised at the tail end of the show. You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, I underscore jcnlts.

You guys, don't misshow announcements or film threads. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you levey rating in a review on that front. And the last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest

of the season. All right, really quickly, before we get started too, I want to give you guys a quick breakdown of how the next week's gonna go, because I actually go out of town on Sunday morning, and I'm out of town until Thursday afternoon. I'm again one last getaway with my wife. We're going skiing in like Tahoe. And remember when I get back, that's when everything hits the fan. Three weeks from Sunday is actually the final day of the regular season. That Tuesday is the start

of the play in tournament. During that week, we're gonna have series previews for every playoff series and instant reactions to the play in playing matchups. Then we have the actual opening day of the postse and that Saturday, where they have the four games, and that's when we start going live on YouTube every single night, so a little bit of a break from Sunday to Thursday. Then obviously

it's grind time. But I've got content coming out the entire time I'm gone, So obviously today the Nick Nuggets reaction mail bags run in on Saturday. The Nerd Sash guys came on this morning and we went for over an hour. We recorded a bunch of stuff. We did a deep dive into the play in tournament and both conferences. We also hit the top of the league, talk some Celtics and Bucks, some Nuggets, and we also had a fun segment at the end of the show that I

think you guys will like. That's all rolling out on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so there'll be content coming out the entire time I'm gone, but no actual like instant reaction live reacting to games and stuff until I get back on Thursday, which will be a fun one because on Wednesday night we have our rematch between the Suns and the Nuggets, that epic overtime game that Phoenix won last time, so that's gonna be a really fun one to react to.

We'll be hitting that one on Thursday when I get back into town. All right, on that note, let's get into Nick Nugget. So Nick Nuggets is probably my favorite

NBA Finals matchup outside of Nugget Celtics. Obviously, I think Nugget Celtics would just be an all timer. I think it would go six or seven games. I'd picked the Nuggets, but I think it would be an incredibly entertaining series.

But when the healthy Knicks are actually whole, when they have Mitchell Robinson, when they have Isaiah Hartenstein backing up Mitchell Robinson, you can make a case that could be reversed too, when you have Julius Randall and now Precious to two up playing more at the four instead of at the five. When you have Og and Ando be healthy out there, they are just so incredibly physically imposing. I mean, as a as a Denver fan, you got

to experience that last night. Just with the injury riddled Knicks, I just think that'd be a really, really fun final series. And so this is a matchup that I really liked. But in this particular game, obviously still no front court for the Knicks. Tough matchup for them. Under those circumstances. But they played a hell of a game and it was close for the most part. Jalen Brunson was great. He had twenty six points and nine assists with zero turnovers.

Denver defended him pretty well too. They were throwing aggressive coverages o him. He just had all of his shot making stuff working. His start stop quickness was locked in. He found all the little openings that take place over the game to find easy shots. I thought, I thought duce McBride played a really good game. I thought he defended Jamal Murray really well. Started to he continued to flash some of that high level shot making that he's

been showing as of late. Like Duce McBride has been flashing a little bit of that off the dribble pop that I think he's had in the bag for a while. But he's the opportunity presented to him after the trade deadline has given him more opportunities to show that now.

Jamal Murray was still able to bully him to spots because he had that physical size advantage, and we've seen that before where the really good ball pressure quick guards can struggle sometimes against Jamal Murray when he's physically aggressive with them, but Douce did his job, made him work. Jamal was just nine for twenty from the field and then four turnovers. Isay, Hardenstein was a monster. I've been

so impressed by him this year in general. Obviously, he's always been a great rebounder, and he's always been great in that short role with those little pop shots right, Like, he's in total offensive rebounds in the entire NBYEAR this year NBA this year, and he's shooting fifty seven percent on those floaters that he takes in the lane. So like, obviously that's something we've always known about Isaiah Hartenstein, but he's making a lot of really high level offensive plays

around that. Like, big part of this game was him just taking Jokic one on one. He got a couple of buckets on him that way. It kind of reminded me of what he was doing to Sibonis in the Sacramento game. Like Hardenstein will he'll drop his shoulder and go into your chest and he can make little shots over the top. He got to a little right handed

hook shot over Nicole Jokic in this game too. He's also starting to figure out some of the intricacies of the pick and roll game, like how to angle screens properly, when to slip, and when to disengage from the screen and start rolling to the basket. There was a specific play too that was really high level that that I want to call out where he said a go tot screen and I want to break this down for you guys.

So basically, as a Jalen Brunson Isaiah Hartenstein ball screen on a cleared side, they ran in action to get into it, but it resulted in just a clear side ball screen. Two defenders in the play where Jokich on Hartenstein, Aaron Gordon on Jalen Brunson. So obviously it's a clear side pick and roll. So, like most teams in the

NBA do, Denver ends up calling for ice coverage. Now, ice coverage is the most common pick and roll coverage you'll see in cleared side ball screens or in really any sort of side ball screen at any level of basketball. And essentially the idea there is is that the ball handler Jalen Broughns in this case a lefty, is on

the right wing. He wants to get to his strong hand going into the lane working in pick and roll right Aaron Gordon instead of chasing him like a typical lock and trail type of situation, in applying back pressure like you would in a middle ball screen or anything towards the middle of the floor. Instead, what he's doing is he's jumping way on Jalen Brunson's high side up on his left hand side, taking away the screen as an option and basically giving him a right handed driving lane.

Nikole Jokicic drops directly into that right handed driving lane, making himself a v in help. This is a textbook ice coverage in that situation, Hartenstein's job as soon as he realizes that the ice is happening, his job now is a screen doesn't really help because he's not gonna actually be able to get Aaron Gordon out of position

because Aaron Gordon's literally denying the left handed drive. So his job there is to find a gap, an opening between Aaron Gordon and Nikolejokic to make himself available for the catch so that he can shoot his little pop shot in the lane. That's what Hartenstein does. Goes to set the screen, sees Aaron Gordon hop high side to set up that ice, and then he disengages from the screen slips into that opening. Okay, Jalen Brunson does what

he's supposed to do. He makes a hard dribble move to his right, but he wants to get back to his strong hand so after he goes to his right hard he brings it back to his left hand side and Aaron Gordon gets out of position. He gets stuck on Jalen Brunson's right hand side. This is where Hartenstein makes an incredibly smart read. So Nikole Jokicic is waiting there and now Aaron Gordon, instead of being on Jaln

Brunston's left hand side, is on Jlen Brunson's right hand side. Okay, Hartenstein identifies there Jalen Brunson has an opportunity to drive to his strong hand so Hartenstein bails on trying to make himself available and just goes and sets a screen on Jokic. Because Jokic is the help man, Jalen Brunson already has Aaron Gordon out a position so he can get to his strong left hand side. Brunson his only issue now is the helper, which is Nicole Jokic At

the rim. Hartenstein identifies on the fly that his best way to help Brunson is just to set that screen on Nikole Jokich in the lane so that he can't help. He runs over and screens the kol Jokic, Brunson drives left right behind him, gets all the way to the basket,

and lays it in. There's even an additional element there of timing with Jalen Brunson because Michael Porter Junior had come into the lane to defend the action three on two, and Jalen Brunson waited to hit the Jets until Michael Porter Junior had to vacate the lane on his defensive three second call, and that just kind of parted like the red seat, Michael Porter Junior ran out, Jokic got

screened by Hartenstein. Brunson like snuck right in there and got a layup, and I was literally sitting there watching that. I'm like, that is a really high level offensive play from Isaiah Hartenstein. That is getting classified as a layup for Jalen Brunson, obviously, and obviously Brunson in his ability to handle the basketball and get to his spots was a big part of that. But that's really high level offensive roleman play from Isaiah Hartenstein. He's just turning into

a really good basketball player. He's also been a really solid defensive anchor this year. I've been impressed by his pick and roll defense and how active he is with his hands. Isaiah Hartenstein's just really damn good. And again, you can make the case that when Mitchell Robinson comes back, that Mitchell Robinson come off the bench, not because of anything Mitchell Robinson's doing, just because Isaiah Hartenstein in his pick and roll chemistry with Jalen Brunson, in the job

that he's been doing. But yeah, the Knicks battle, they kept it close. They really did damage. In the Jokic off minutes. They were plus thirteen. Excuse me, I want to say they were plus seventeen. Yeah, they were plus seventeen in the minutes that Nicola Jokic was off the floor in this game. But every time Nicola jokicch checked into the game would just quickly assert himself and regain control of the situation. He had thirty points, fourteen rebounds,

and eleven assists, which is one turnover. The Knicks. We're bringing a lot of double teams from the backside, especially like when Jokic would turn his back and kind of

protect the basketball. They kept trying to sneak behind him, and I don't know why teams again like this is something that Yokic is consistently punished, and you know, to break it down on a deeper level, do you guys remember when I've talked with a lower level passers, think guys like Embiid, Anthony Davis, Yannis, how I always talk

about them running cleared side actions. The reason why I talk about them running cleared side actions is because when the side is cleared, it's much harder to double on their backside. And when you double from the backside, those guys struggle to see everything because they can really only

see what's in front of them. And so as a result of that, if you put them in the middle of the floor or with an occupied corner where someone can sneak in from behind and get steals, those guys can become turned over prone and most importantly, be uncomfortable and more more likely to just get the ball out to somebody rather than to try to make the kill pass because they're worried, they don't know where everybody is.

They feel uncomfortable. And then what I said when we were talking about those guys is when it comes to the higher level passers, the Lebron's, the Lucas, the Jokic is, those guys you want in the middle of the floor because in the middle of the floor or with an occupied corner, you want them there because they can see

everything that's taking place. They are comfortable even though there are guys that they can't necessarily see every given second because Yogic can identify I know this guy is here. I know he's here. I can check this out, and I can just kind of periodically kind of monitor where these guys are and they can kind of anticipate things before they happen. Right, It's kind of like that ridiculous pass that he had last night where he threw the

ball overhand behind his back and Aaron Gordon. So basically, Nikole Jokic is posting like what sixteen seventeen feet away from the basket on like kind of left elbow extended right, and I want to say, josh hart Se, either Joshun or Dante DiVincenzo comes with the backside help, right, So Jokic has the ball like this and the help is coming from behind and on the help the help is coming from Gordon's man, So Jalen Brunson comes out of the weak side and tries to dig down onto Aaron

Gordon to take away that post entry pass. But Jokicic just sees the whole thing. He identifies this guy's coming on this week side. That means Aaron Gordon is my

open guy. But he also knows that Jalen Brunson's coming on the top side, So if he wants to throw that pass, he's got to hit it to Aaron Gordon's right hand side, because if he throws it to the left hand side, Jalen Brunson is gonna be able to three quarter front and knock the ball away, And without even damn looking while the defender's coming around his backside, he just throws it like this backwards and hits Aaron Gordon perfectly on the right hand side so that he

could go up and lay it in. And there were literally like a half dozen plays in this game where the Knicks came with backside help to Jokic's blind side and he burned him with it. Because again, those types of players, they can actually see the whole floor, or at least have an understanding of where everybody is on the floor, even when they're not necessarily looking in that

particular area. And again, when you are in the middle of the floor with an occupy or have an occupied corner, meaning when there are defensive players literally surrounding you, you're actually closer to every offensive player. Again, if I have Jokich on a cleared side, which by the way, he had some success in cleared side situations too, I don't

want to pretend like that didn't happen. But when Yokich is on a cleared side and everyone's on the opposite side of the floor, Let's say let's say you got Aaron Gordon under the rim, but all the other three point shooters are spaced out along the three point line, They're all those passes are in the same direction, and therefore they're further away right, Whereas if he's in the middle of the floor or when he has an occupied corner,

he's effectively closer to every offensive player. Every offensive player is within like fifteen feet of him, right, And so when those double teams come from different angles, when he gets the ball to the right spot, there's less time for the defense to rotate. There's actually more openings there.

It's just that the guys like Anthony Davis and Giannis and Embiid, they really struggle to make those reads when they're surrounded by defenders, so you almost need to clear the side for them and make them make skip passes over the top, which are easier to rotate to right. That's the advantage of having a player that's capable of operating in the beginning in the middle of the floor.

And again for Jokic, you saw last night just a perfect example of every single time the Knicks brought that backside help along that along his blind side, he was able to make them pay for it, just because he has such a good understanding of where everybody is on the floor. The Nuggets were plus thirty when Nicole Jokic on the floor in this game. Think about that, they were minus seventeen when he was off the floor, and they still won the game by double digits and were

never truly threatened. Unbelievably dominant performance. Michael Porter Junior had a big night, two thirty one points on sixteen shots. Hit a big jumper in ISO against Boy and mcdonovitch on the right corner area after the Knicks had cut it to four. I want to say it was on a precious to chew a layup if I remember correctly. But the Knicks cut it to four, or excuse me, cut it to two is like ninety to eighty eight

or something like that. And Michael Porter Junior just straight iso got a bucket over Boy and Magdonovitch, who was super efficient in this game. He's actually been the most efficient jump shooter in the entire league this year. He's taken six hundred and forty four jump shots. There are forty five players in the NBA that have attempted at least five hundred. He ranks number one on that list. And Michael Porter Junior jump shot has been worth one

point nine points per possession this year. Now points per shot, I should say, so, just for trivia, who do you guys think is number two on that list? The answer is Dante de Vincenzo of the Knicks. He's just three one thousandths of a point per shot behind Michael Porter Junior. So, like two the two best jump shooters in the NBA

were on the floor together last night. The Nuggets are rolling thirteen and two since the All Star break, and again there are only two losses were in games where they lost either at the buzzer or had a shot that sent the game to ot at the buzz that they lost in OT. That's the best record in the league over that span. Their second offense, eighth in defense, second net rating, and third in points in the paint

for one hundred possessions over that span. You know, last year after the ull Star break, they came out hot. They were five and one in their first six games, and then they immediately fell apart. And this year they've just been so much sharper. They just to me like, this is a major like check box that they've a box that they've checked in their process towards a championship. Repeat. This is not a team that is relaxing. This is

a team that is focusing. This is not a team that looks like they think it's going to be easy. This is a team that is preparing for the hard challenge that is winning for playoff rounds. If you're Nuggets fan, you should feel very very confident in your team right now. All right, let's move on to our mailbag. So first question, by the way, I got fifty one questions to the

mail bag tweet that I sent out. Obviously normally take mailback questions from YouTube, but I wanted to take them from Twitter this time, so we had like fifty one questions. They were all super, super interesting. I'm sorry that I can't actually get to all of them. I think we only have about a dozen here that we're going to get to. But I do sincerely appreciate you guys taking the time. And again, we're gonna keep doing mail bags

really throughout the entire year moving forward. So if there's a mailbag question that I haven't got to that you really want, just keep dropping it in there and we will eventually get to it. All right, Do you believe that Lebron should leave the Lakers next season from a fan standpoint? And if so, where is the ideal place you would want to see him compete? And if not, could the Lakers be competitive next season? So if Lebron leaves, which if they lose in a disastrous fashion, I think

that I think that he should. I just I would hate to see Lebron go down with this particular ship in Los Angeles, where he's surrounded by incompetence in so many different levels, in the coaching staff and in the ownership group, and in the front office, it's just layer after layer, even like even in the medical staff, even like there's a statue with typos on it out front of the arena, Like it's just it's like it's just clear.

It's just so funny to me. How like when there's incompetence at the ownership level, it just trickles down to every single level from there. But I want to see him play for the Knicks. I think it's a like an absolutely perfect fit in that front line. If you just kind of slotted him into that Julius Randall spot, I think it would immediately make them a top tier championship contender. It'd be a big market that actually justifies a presence like Lebron making a move in that direction.

I think Jalen Brunson is the perfect type of co star for him. Is that like offensive folkrum type of guy. He'd be in a defensive role where because of Dante devencenzo Og and Andobi, he'd never have to defend on the ball. Because of mitchter Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, he'd be consistently in that low man position where I think he'd be really impactful. I think the Knicks would be amazing.

Can the Lakers be competitive next season? It just really depends on what they end up doing around the draft. They're gonna have three draft picks as well as some other roster assets that they can move. They really really really got to go one of two, and I talked

about this yesterday with Jovon. But they either need to bring in a legitimate offensive fulcrum to run the offense the entire season, which will just help them be better in the eighty two games, or they need to bring real high motor athletes on the perimeter because at this point, Lebron and ad are just not consistent enough with their athletic engagement. Next question, If the Knicks are healthy, do you think they have a legitimate chance to go to

the finals? Absolutely? I think that the I think that everybody butt the Celtics is flat out beatable, and I'd be tempted to pick a Knicks, a healthy Knicks team over all of them, including the Bucks. Because the Knicks aren't healthy, I would pick the Bucks as the safer

number two in that conference. But if they were, if the Knicks were fully healthy and in rhythm, they've just played better basketball this year than Milwaukee in my opinion, relative to the talent that they've had available to them in the lineup. As far as getting to the finals,

they'd have to beat Boston, right but they're a big, physical team and they can wear you out, and I think they could bait Boston into some of their worst tendencies. Then scoring the basketball would be tricky because of all the perimeter defense that they could throw at the table. But if they could drag it down into the mud, and if they get enough out of Jalen Brunts and

I absolutely think they can. They to me, the Knicks are not in the top tier of contenders obviously, but they're in that next tier and I think when they're healthy, they're very capable of making a finals run. We have two Pelicans related questions. I'll read them both and we'll go through them both. Can the Pelicans win the Western

Conference and make it to the finals? Second question, pels fan here, do you think Zion's play right now is sustainable for the playoffs, for when the game slows down and teams can really zero in on him defensively. He's a great regular season player, but he's untested in the playoffs. So first, of all, can the Pelicans win the Western Conference and make it to the finals. Of course they can. I just have them at the bottom tier among the

Western Conference playoff teams. They have a couple of specific things that are big red flags for me. So, for instance, they've been a very good defensive team, but they have not been a very good defensive front court. And throughout this season that Zion jonas front court at on many different occasions has been picked to pieces and NBA tells us you need an elite defensive front court to win

the title. I mean, Jokic Gordon is probably the worst defensive front court to win the title in well over a decade. And Aaron Gordon was unbelievable defensively both as a low man and as an on ball defender during

that playoff run. So for me, like, I just don't think the Pelicans at the defensive personnel in the front court that they need as far as the in order to be considered as as as dangerous as their record would lead you to believe, right as far as the offensive end of the four goes in Zion like Obviously, this season turned around for the Pelicans when Zion took a larger role offensively, I also think Zion has got in better shape and started to get his legs underneath him.

That Lob Donkey had the other night was the most athletic I've seen him look pretty much since Duke, so like I think, or at least since he was healthy a few years ago. So like, I really do think Zion coming around has been what's turned this season around. That said, like when we get to the postseason. Offensively, there is something to be said about the borderline comic

way that teams will try to attack your flaws. Like think about like what Lebron James did to Zion in the n season tournament game, the one where the Lakers beat the hell out of him. He basically just sagged way the hell off of him and anticipated his driving angles and more or less removed him from the game. And now I think Zion is a better athlete now than he was then. He's in better shape and he's moving better, and I do think that Zion would be

able to have more impact. But I am curious to see how teams kind of play him, because they'll sag way the hell off and they'll try to kind of like be sitting on that left hand side and just try to beat him to spots in the lane. They'll bring physicality. Here's my prediction. Though, My guess is that

Zion will have success offensively in the postseason. My bigger concern is just that Zion being targeted on the defensive end of the floor, just again putting him in a bunch of actions where they can try to bait him into getting out of position and getting a lot of easy baskets at the rim. Again, that has been a consistent theme this year. Their perimeter defense is unbelievable. Herb Jones is like one of the best defensive players that I've watched this year. Brandon Ingram is having the best

defensive season I've seen him have in years. They have a ton that they bring to the table on the perimeter defensively, and they fly around and they play hard, and they play passing lanes, and they apply ball pressure and they force turnovers and then it's like the front court where I have my concerns, and so that's where I think they'll have issues when we get to the postseason.

Do you think there's a chance that Van Do and Gabe can come back and actually have impact towards winning once the postseason comes, I know them not having conditioning is going to make things a lot more difficult, or should we rock with the guys who have been playing. Gabe is the one that I don't really understand where he fits. You think of him as like a perimeter defense kind of guy at the guard position, but that

to me is what Spencer Dinwoodie has been filling. And I think Spencer Dinwoodie is is just a little bigger, a little more athletic, and probably a little bit more resilient when you get to that postseason environment. I do think gab will play and games when Spencer's not playing well, I think that Darvin will go his direction or one of the skill guards is him playing well, but his role is a little bit more up in the air.

Vanderbilt like, you just absolutely need him. You absolutely need him, You need to start him, and you need him to be ready. Now you mentioned conditioning, that's an interesting point. Jared Vanderbilt was not very good to start the season

as he was coming back from his injury. It was really just before he got hurt again that he started to kind of get back into shape and really look like the Vando we saw last year, and so that's my big concern too, is like, it's not about Vandal coming back, It's about Vandam coming back and looking like the Vando we know he can be. And I mean, let's say he comes back at the start of April, like April first, You've got two weeks to get him back into rhythm, and that's just a lot to ask.

And so I think the only hope for the Lakers to make any sort of significant postseason run is Jared Vanderbilt being healthy and in shape, in rhythm, and prepared to play the way that we're accustomed to seeing from him. Next question, would you rather build around Wemby or Luca?

This was a fascinating one, A couple of really interesting questions from you guys that were gonna be hitting here in the next few So you know, my prevailing basketball wisdom would say Luca, because I've always been a big fan of matchup attacking forwards and have always favored offense over defense because I think it's easier to coach up defense in a way that you can't on the offensive end of the floor. So that would lead you to

believe to think Luca. But Wemby to me is a truly transcendently great NBA prospect, and I think he has real potential to be the best offensive player and best defensive player in the league one day. I think that he's the kind of guy that could that could bring a two way impact that rivals the greatest players in NBA history. So if not, he has the potential potential

to be better than all of them. So I think, I think regardless of who you are, even if you're a Dallas fan like Wemby's Wemby man like like he's he's one of one, and Lucas Luca to me, is also in an all time great trajectory. But he's more or less what he is now, what he's always going to be. He will make small improvements, maybe defensively, maybe in his conditioning, and maybe he'll get a little bit more consistent as a shooter. But like Wemby's already top

twenty player in this league. He's a rookie and he literally can get many orders of magnitude better than he is right now. Next question, what do you think about the idea that you can't win if your best player is small, like six ' four under what do you need for it to happen in your opinion? And right now, which players do you think can slash could do it in the future. I think it's possible, but his team

has to be perfectly built. So first of all, Steph Curry is a guy that has won a title as the best player on his team under six y four. He did it in twenty twenty two. Now, Steph is the best small player in NBA history, and it's not close.

When you look at the top ten players in NBA history, most people are gonna have Steph on there, and then everyone else on that list is either a six ' six super athletic shooting guard or someone who's six ' eight and taller and has all these incredible physical gifts in terms of their size. Right. And so that's why I say Steph is the most skilled player in NBA history. Is just he's one with skill at a higher rate than anybody who's ever come before him. That said, I

do think it can happen. Again, you ask to pick a couple of guys. I picked two. Jalen Brunson I think is a guy that if you built the perfect type of team around him, that I think he could do it like that Knicks team I think has just an outside shot and when they're healthy, and so I think I think you have to include Brunson in that list.

The other guy who was John Morant. I think John Morant, especially if they can kind of rebuild around him in Memphis, I think that he's the kind of guy that could be so transcendently great offensively and so difficult to guard that he's the guy that could lead a team to a title. So Brunson and Morant would be the two guys.

But again, it is uncommon, and there's a reason why Steph's the only guy who's really done it, and it's because, like in the modern era, it's just difficult to do at that size, and Steph is more like an exception that proves the rule in a lot of ways. And for instance, I'd feel a lot better about Brunson and Morant if they were the second best players on their team,

if that makes sense. Next question, do you believe that if the Cavs had won Game one of the twenty eighteen Finals after Lebron's dominant performance when he had fifty one, do you think they could have had any shot at winning this series? No? Unfortunately. I wanted Lebron to win that game really badly, just as I felt like he deserved it. I thought he played, he played a game that deserved to win. And there was that bizarre overturned charge call, the missed George Hill free throw, the j R.

Smith forgetting the clock. There's a bunch of stuff that went against him down the stretch of that game that took the game away. But I thought Lebron was far and away the best player on the floor and deserved to win that game. And it's unfortunate is what it is. But had he won, all I would have been is a slightly different footnote on a gentleman's sweep for one

type of win. For Golden State, they were just so much again, like, look at the guys that Lebron is playing with in that series compared to, in my opinion, the most talented roster in NBA history. Next question, I don't know whether you addressed this before, but what are your thoughts on the playing games in general? For me personally, I don't like seven verse eight and nine verse ten. I think it should be seven verse ten and eight verse nine. Love your show upen following since the Lakers

tonight years. Thank you so much for supporting the show. Its sincerely appreciates. I sincerely appreciate that so many of you guys wrote kind things to me in the mailbag, and I hope you guys just know that, like not a day goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am to do what I do for a living and how I wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for you guys in supporting me. So thank you so much. It's really this simple. You can't do that because you can't have an eighty two game

season come down to one game. For teams that actually did crack the top eight in the standings, they do it seven verse eight and nine verse ten because seven to eight get to potentially lose twice. So like, if that seven game you happen to have just an ice cold shooting night and eight comes in and beats you, you can turn around. Like look at Miami last year, right, Miami loses to Atlanta. Miami ends up going to the

finals and they lost their first playing game. It wouldn't have been fair in my opinion, if they had been in the top eight to kick them out over one loss where they just had a bad night on the defensive glassic in ste Atlanta Hawks, Right, So, like that's kind of the way I look at it. Like seven to v. Ten seems fair because it's a better matchup

for the seven. But if you're the seven seed, you would rather play the better team but have two chances overplaying the worst team and have one chance any day of the week because of the variants that exists in basketball. All Right, we have five more questions. It looks like this is a really interesting one. If I had a time machine and went to the future and came back and I told you that neither the Nuggets or the Celtics were going to make the finals, what teams would

you pick to make the finals? And what do you think would be the reason the Celtics and Nuggets wouldn't make the finals? So reasons Boston would lose in the classic way that we've seen them lose. They would go cold from three and then fail to find higher percentage shots around the basket and go down shooting and missing threes and not defending as well as they're capable of because they didn't bring appropriate urgency on that side of

the floor. Denver. I put one of two things, either an injury to a starter, because I think their whole system could become easier to guard if one of those guys gets hurt, and then two kind of like what happened in overtime against Phoenix, Like if there's been one kind of little vulnerability. I've noticed sometimes late in games, Jamal Murray plays hero ball and he makes them a

lot like he made big shots against Phoenix. He made big shots against Dallas, But specifically in the overtime against against Phoenix, Bradley Beal was ignoring KCP, defending all those actions three on two, really sitting down in the lane, and Jamal was just hunting his own shot and missed a couple of really tough ones instead of like just playing basketball in the flow the way that Denver typically does. He even looks off Jokic a lot of times in

those situations. Again, I'm being super nitpicky here, but if they were going to lose, that's what I think it would look like. Now, if they were healthy, I would take the Knicks as the second best team out of the East. But like I talked about earlier, it's just Julius randalls out of rhythm. I don't know if Mitchell Robinson will be back og and Anobi. This elbow thing flared up again, and I think he had a procedure on it earlier, So like that's concerning that he had

a procedure and that it's still giving him issues. So like I would lean with Milwaukee. Damian Lillard last thirteen games nine to three point attempts per game at over forty percent shooting, so Milwaukee's starting to look a little bit better. I think they're probably the safest bet out West. You know, I think this is going to come off as crazy because they're a playing team right now, But I'm to say the Phoenix Suns. I think that they have the best ability to knock off Denver out of

the teams in that conference. I was originally leaning towards the Clippers in that regard, but the Clippers have been playing some dog shit basketball for the last couple of months and I'm actually pretty concerned about them. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Milwaukee versus Phoenix, all right. For more, as Golden State transitions from an offense around Steph Curry, what kind of offense should they adopt if Kaminga develops into a player who could be a focal point.

So I'm still a big believer in the five out offense in general as a foundational build, especially with Tray Jackson Davis and some of the higher level stuff he's shown as a kind of screen and roll guy and

as a cutter in general. It would look a little bit different because I think Kaminga has a lot of like individual on an island game to him, and I think that's part of his best, you know, kind of future potential in this league is a guy that like no one can guard on an island, especially those like face up ISO and post up situations, And so I kind of think of it a lot like the twenty eighteen twenty seventeen Warriors, where they run their five out stuff,

but a lot of times they'll run action just to get Kaminga or excuse me, to get Kevin Durant to a spot where he can go to work. Right. Another team who does this a lot is Denver. Denver runs the five out offense, but like a lot of times they'll just be like, let's run this wedge screen, which is like essentially a cross screen that takes place around the high post to try to get Jokic into deep post position. Then they'll throw the ball down to Yokitch

and then everyone spaces the floor. You know, like even even the five out approach for Denver looks like four out sometimes in the sense that they'll just come down and they'll get out of their five out stuff and they'll just space and then they'll run two man game. You know, they'll also come down and they'll run their five out right, They'll run horn sets, they'll run you know,

pistol stuff, and they'll get into their actions. But a lot of times they'll just be like, you know what, we're gonna run our Yokich Murray two man game and we're just gonna clear the side right, or we're gonna run with an occupied corner, run it in the at the top of the floor. Whatever it is they're gonna do. They will just spam an action to get the their scores into spots, right. That's kind of the way look

at it with KAMINGA. I'd still i think it's important for Kamina to learn how to play and the read and react five out stuff that Golden State does because Steph Curry's not going anywhere, and Steph Curry's got at least a couple more years of him being damn good, and so you need to learn how to play off of that. And that's gonna involve a lot of the

five out stuff. But I think they could break away and just it'd be a call, right So, like maybe on a dead ball situation, Steve Curry is gonna call a play to get Kaminga and Iso in a good position on the floor. I mean, they more or less are doing this right now anyway. But like that to me is where I look at the development for Kaminga.

It's got to be both. He's got to be able to function as a cog in the five out alongside Steph Curry while also being a guy that can work on an island, because that's one of his best individual traits. This is a fun one. What team do you reckon has the best vibes? This is important because he's trying

to settle a debate. So I just off the top of my head, I ranked my top five vibes teams now again, vibes for me are teams that just like each other, love playing basketball just overall, over the course of the season, there's less of the dips down into the malaise, and the word just seems like they're unhappy and don't like each other. Number One, I put the Denver Nuggets again. They've just been I've just had so

much fun watching them this year. They've been a really fun defending champion because they just have been better in so many different ways, and everyone is so bought into their role. They don't even have disease of more stuff like that was the whole thing with pat Riley remembers, like you win a title and then it's the disease of more. Everybody wants more after they have the trophy. That has not been an issue for Denver. For Two.

I put the New York Knicks. They all year long, they just everyone seems to be in line in their roles. Everyone trust Jalen Brunson to lead everything, everyone to trust Tom Thibodeaux, everyone's body in every single night. They play for a group of a lot of veteran guys. They play really hard all the time. Really really like the Knicks. Three. I put the New Orleans Pelicans. They've been one of the best vibes teams in the league for a half decade.

Now they have their their theirroles where they don't play super well. But it doesn't really stem from personality differences or seeming like they like they don't like each other. It's just they have their own talent issues that they have that they have to deal with. But I have New Orleans at three. Four, I put Boston. I think they've had really good vibes this year, and then five I put the Oklahoma City Thunder. All right, two more? Do you think d lo is gonna break in the

playoffs again? I don't see him being able to handle a lot of speed or physicality. He's good, but I feel kind of soft hard defenders throw him off, So I agree for the record, I specifically think dil has improved this year, but in areas he was already good. He's gone from being a good shooter to a better shooter. He's gone from being a good pick and roll decision maker to a better pick and roll decision maker. He's gone from being like a guy who was let's just

set that aside for a second. His weaknesses though, were handling, physical ball pressure, defensive focus and effectiveness, especially in off ball situations, and just in general, like his shot falling apart when the physical intensity picks up, not just falling apart, but falling apart in a bad way, like where he's missing by a lot. Right, those are his issues. What have we seen this year? We've seen him be better at the things that we know he's already good at.

But he continues to struggle with ball pressure. He continues to struggle to make shots in super physical environments. He continues to turn the basketball over and struggle with dealing with length on the ball. Like he just struggles there. So like, I tend to think that Dlo is going to be more or less the same player when we get to the postseason, depending on the matchup. I do think he'll still have really high highs as we get to specific matchups where he's more comfortable. That is, if

the Lakers even make the playoffs last one. Why isn't Luca in the MVP discussion. He leads the NBA in overall stats and the MAVs have been on fire since the trade deadline. It's really as simple. They don't even have a top ten record in the league, at least at the time of recording here on Friday morning, So like, really it's just if you go back through NBA history, if you're not in the top ten in the NBA standings, like you can't be considered for MVP. Your team's just

not good enough. Luca's been amazing this year, massively improved as a three point shooter, obviously, even though there's some ugly moments and Lucas still good for some duds on the defensive end of the floor. For the most part, he's been much better defensively this year than he has been in years past. So like Luca's played like an MVP, but like winning an MVP is as much a team accomplishment as it is a player accomplishment, and the Dallas

Mavericks have just not quite been good enough. All right, guys, That is all I have for today is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Thanks for letting me hop out of town for a little bit. I will see you guys on Thursday for a fun breakdown of Sun's nuggets. Should be a good one. I'll see you guys. Then. The volume