Hoops Tonight - Reaction to Draymond's Lakers comments & Steph Curry interview + Warriors-Nuggets preview

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of you are having a great week. This is gonna be a Golden State Warriors themed pod. There are three Golden State Warriors topics that I'd like to get into, two of which have to do with my teammate here at the volume, Draymond Green's podcast. He had Steph Curry on today. You have to check that out if you haven't done so yet. They go for about an hour and a half. They get into a ton of basketball stuff, they get into some stuff off the floor as well.

If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's on the volumes YouTube page, as well as on drey On Green's podcast feed. They had a debate in their interview about whether or not the two thousand sixteen Warriors were actually the best team ever even though they didn't win the championship, which I want to get into that

a little bit. Then Draymond in an earlier podcast had an interesting point about media criticism and holding the media accountable, and he actually brought that up again with Steph Curry in that interview. I wanted to get into that a little bit. And then at the end, for those of you stick around, I'm gonna do a preview of the first round series between the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors. Not a lot to go on from this season because of injuries, but we have a general idea

of what the series is gonna look like. I want to get into the weeds on that a little bit, but let's start with this bit between Steph and Draymond about the two thousand sixteen Warriors. First of all, let me show you what Draymond said that essentially puts you in a place, uh, undoubtedly the best team ever. Um, if if we were to complete it, no good to be in a conversation. To be quite frank with you,

I still think we have the best team ever. Although we didn't finish it and win a championship, I still think that was the best team ever. So, first of all, I understand the sentiment for both of them surrounding that team. In a lot of ways, that was the most organic version of the Warriors, and it was an extremely popular team around the league for a lot of ways. They played a brand of basketball that just was so likable that everyone seemed to kind of get behind that bandwagon.

For good reason. I'm a big believer in supporting good basketball. I think it's good for the health of the league, and I understand why they would think they were the best team ever, that's how dominant they were in that regular season. However, there is a little bit of a context there that I've brought up on many occasions over the years on my podcast, having to do with why I think that team was so particularly dominant. So, to be clear, before we even get into this conversation, that

team was amazing. They were better than the team the year before that won the championship. So they are a bona fide championship level team. I'm not trying to undercut that by any stretch of the imagination. I just don't consider them to be in the running for the best team ever. And there are some very specific reasons why I don't want to get into that, so so much of it had to do with catching the league off guard.

So what Steph Curry brought to the table as a shooter that was not just a threat further away from the rim, but straight up deadly basically inside of half court, not just and when he's wide open, but with a quick release and a willingness to shoot. This was the key difference. Steph Curry would attempt shot that defenses wouldn't even dream that step or any guard around the league

would attempt. And so during that regular season, and remember Steph was really good the year before he was the m v P, but he only averaged twenty three points per game the year before. There was a difference in in his level of aggression offensively between that season and his unanimous MVP season. But defenses around the league were incredibly ill equipped to handle what Steph Curry did on a night in a night out basis that was always because of how unique his approach to the game was.

It was always going to be a team that would struggle more in a postseason series when teams had enough time and enough reps to really try to find some way to counter what Steph was doing because of how unique it was, there was there weren't baked in pick and roll coverages are baked in, you know, defensive schemes to stop a guy like Steph because no one likes

Steph existed. Like look at the peak of the two thousand sixteen unanimous m v P run was Steph drip across half court in a pivotal possession, literally the game winning possession against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and nobody picked him up. He walked into it was a long shot. It was like a thirty eight foot or whatever it was. It was a very long shot, but no one picked him up. That's not how Steph gets guarded anymore. Ever since then, in two thousand forward, the way step has

been guarded is completely different. Now the credit to step and this is why I think steps better now or maybe before this recent slump, but like last year's Steph two one step. The reason why I said that guy was better than two thousand sixteen Steph is because defenses now know how to make things harder on Steph Curry. They pick him up the second a crosses half court all game long, the error on the side of sending two guys to him all the time. They rough him

up off the ball. That was something you didn't really see until Oklahoma City in Cleveland did it in the two thousand sixteen playoff runt. So many things about the way defenses guard Steph Curry now is so different and so much more catered to him, and he still was amazing last year. That's why I think he was better. He's elevated as a player so much that as the league has adapted to how to guard him, he stayed

one step ahead of them the whole way. That's a credit to step That's why I've always been such a big fan of his. But getting back to two thousand sixteen, he was catching everybody off guard. They had no idea how to guard him. It's like in the two thousand thirteen playoffs when he was playing against the Spurs and they were going underneath ball screens against him with no big at the top, and he was just literally walking

into three point shots against them. There's just a huge difference in the way teams guard staff now compared to the way they do they compared to the way they did back then. So that seventy three win team, I think, in terms of talent wasn't quite as good as what their record demonstrated. Still probably a sixties something win team, still very much a championship caliber team, held they literally won the championship the year before, not undercutting that at all.

I'm just saying that their talent wasn't quite as good as what their record showed, and I think you saw that in the postseason. That's why they struggled so much with Oklahoma City and that's why they lost to Cleveland. In the regular season, you would have thought both of those teams were significantly below where the Warriors were. Then they get into a playoff setting and they're kind of like all the same. I all three of those teams are right around the same level when they got into

the postseason. So I leaned towards the two thousand seventeen Warriors as obviously far and away the best team that I've ever seen, because it was like the two thousand sixteen Warriors with everything that they brought to the table and that gigantic wing score obviously one of the best scores, in my opinion, the best score of all time. That was what pushed them talent wise into that conversation with the best teams in the league. Then you get sixty

seven wins. Then you get, uh, just an unbelievably dominant playoff run. They didn't even lose a playoff game until they were up three oh in the finals. That to me, is a much more traditional best team of all time type of candidate. It's it's not just regular season dominance,

it's playoff dominance. And the reason why the two thousand sixteen Warriors weren't dominant was because they were catching the league off guard in a lot of ways, and the league just wasn't prepared to handle them until they could see them in a seven game series. So again, I understand their sentiment. I just disagree. I didn't see the two thousand sixteen Warriors is really one of those types

of truly dominant teams in NBA history. One of the things with Draymond Green that I wanted to talk about. So again, so before we even get into this, let me just show you what Draymond said. So this is a clip from Draymond Green on his podcast talking about holding the media accountable for the predictions that they make. Take a listen. I mean there are were people that said the Los Angeles Lakers was going to win the championship.

If this is what you do and you say you're great and your expert analysts and you paid the Los Angeles Lakers too winning championship, you kind of gotta be fired and as somebody got to start holding people account of Like you're so far off from being right. You gotta think about it. There's ten teams that's currently still alive in each conference teams total, there's thirty teams in the NBA. You picked that they'd be the number one team, they're not even one or twenty. You're like, you're so

far off in any other job. If you're that far off, could you imagine being an analyst for a venture firm or an analyst like on and on Wall Street or something and you're that far off, like you lose your job. Like somebody gotta at start holding people accountable for these hot takes. Okay, So I think this topic is super interesting. You know, like I have never interviewed an NBA player,

but I hope to very soon. I already have something lined up for this offseason, and I hope to interview several NBA players this offseason, and this specific topic is something I plan on bringing up with every one of them, because I think it's such an interesting dynamic. The media is in such a weird position where your job is to criticize people, right Like, it's a weird dynamic, and

I'm curious to hear an NBA player's perspective. I actually agree with Draymond that the media should be held accountable. I just disagree specifically with the method with which he would do so. So for starters, understand where he's coming from. You know, everybody knows who's been following my show for the last couple of years, knows that I have a basketball background. I it's nowhere near as impressive as any

NBA player out there. But I played in college like a half dozen games where he scored twenty plus points. My career high was in the thirties. Like I made an All conference team. I was a good college basketball player. Tried to play pro and I just wasn't good enough. And for the record, when I share those videos and I have you guys comment underneath them like, oh, like you should get a training camp invit or oh, the Lakers have an open roster spot, like, no, let's cut

that ship out. I have way too much respect for these guys that have made it. I would never, in a million years ever compare myself to an NBA player unless I had an NBA jersey on, and I don't, So let's just dead that right away here. I'm a decent basketball player. It's just it's for my own benefit. Has nothing to do with me trying to put myself in the shoes of the NBA player. But had I made it to the n b A, I would have thought exactly like Draymond. I'd be sitting there like, who

the hell is this guy in his room? Was stuff hanging on his wall talking into a camera telling me how to play the game of basketball? Like I get that. I totally get that sentiment, and I would probably be the exact same way. But it's just the reality of the circumstance here. The NBA needs the fans in the NBA needs the media, and the media and the media needs the fans, and the fans need a media. It's like a it's a very it's a very symbiotic relationship.

You can even throw the organizations like the owners in there. Like, if one group disappeared, the whole system would fall apart. If we didn't have players, there being no league. We didn't have fans, there be no league. If we didn't have owners, there'd be no league. And if we didn't have the media, there would be no league. It's a very symbiotic relationship. But we have a very specific job. So like, if I never criticized anybody, if all I did ever was come on here and say positive things,

you would hate the show. No one would listen. Why Because one it's not authentic, I'd be lying to you, and two that's just boring. It's boring to sit there and listen to propaganda all day long. It's something that frustrates me when I've been dealing with some of the segments of the Lebron fan base. I want to be like, what's the point of this man, Like, you can't actually just wake up every day and spend every single minute just shedding positivity on on on one specific person that

you don't even know personally. It's just a weird it's a weird dynamic. But the reality of this job is we have to criticize people when they play poorly, and we have to heat praise on people when they play well. And so from that standpoint, like it is a very weird dynamic. And I totally understand why people like drey

On want the media to be held accountable. And I totally understand why they would be piste off to hear a guy, even a guy like me who's a good basketball player, even a guy like me, leaping and heaping that criticism on them. I can totally see why that's infuriating. It's just the reality of the dynamic. It's the reality of the system, it's the reality of the way this whole thing works. Hey, hoops, fans, don't just watch all the NBA playoffs action be a part of it. With FanDuel,

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seven seven seven seven zero stop. In Louisiana dial one eight seven seven eight hope and hy or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine in New York, Tennessee redline is one hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in why Onoming one hundred five to two four seven zer zero or is it w WPP you dot one hundred biler dot in West Virginia. So where I disagree with Dramma because I a hundred

percent agree with him. I want to be held accountable for my job in the same way that I'm holding those guys accountable in their job. But I just disagree with picks, like with the Lakers, like all of us. No, no, he thought they were gonna miss the playoffs. Nobody did, not, even you, Draymond, Like that's just the reality of the situation. It was a shocking outcome. Like if basketball games were easy to predict, if NBA playoff series were easy to predict,

we'd all be rich from gambling on them. It's the parody and the up in the air nature of all of this that makes it so exciting. It's why we like it so much. I just things like making picks I disagree with. Where I think you have to hold the media accountable is in the nuts and the nuts and bolts of their analysis. So for instance, like I'll give you an example, like I've been critical of of Joel embid handling double teams. I did a whole thing

about that today with the Raptors. I have watched a ton of Sixers games this year because I cover the whole league and that's my job. But there are Sixers fans that have watched every single game this year, and some of them twice. And so from that standpoint, like, if you guys are watching then and and I'm wrong about Joel embiad handling double teams, if I'm flat out wrong, you need to tell me. That's why I keep my

d M s open on Twitter. If I'm doing something wrong, if I'm wrong in my analysis, I hope I get called out for it. It's something I've been used to it, especially surrounding the game of basketball. Like any of you guys who have played basketball in college, you're used to getting called dirty words, you know, when you're not playing well. You're used to getting yelled at. You're used to getting criticized for making mistakes. Like I'm used to that sort

of thing. I hope that over time we develop a healthy balance to where players can be critical of NBA media members. I just don't I just disagree with Draymond in the sense that I wouldn't say, like, oh, I picked the Sixers too up to lose to the Raptors, and if I'm wrong about that, that that means I'm bad at my job. Not necessarily picking series and games is really really difficult. Remember that thing for a while where Stephen A. Smith picked the NBA Finals wrong, like

nine years in a row or whatever. It was, like, it's just a really really difficult thing to do. But please, by all means, like especially NBA players, Like, if you're listening to my show and you happen to hear me say something about a coverage or a scheme or something where I'm just flat out wrong, then I need to be told and I need to be held accountable for that, And I hope that that happens more frequently. It's it's

super interesting dynamic. I hope to to ask that to certain players because I'm really curious to see what what is it like to go to work and then when you're done, to come home and to have like the media telling you that you suck on one night, or that you're really good on one night, Like it's a

it's a really really difficult balance to strike. But at the same time, it's just the reality of the way this whole system works, and it has to work that way because that's because people like authentic and people are going to naturally gravitate towards things that they find likable. It's why I like Draymond so much. That's why so

many people like Draymond so much. He's authentic. He's gonna get up in front of the camera and he's gonna shoot it straight to you, and that's a super likable quality. And I kind of feel like I have to do the same thing in my job. And I'm really glad Draymond has been shining a light on that because I think it's such an interesting and important topic. I just don't I just don't think we should start holding people accountable for picks, because then we're all in trouble, if

that makes sense. So let's move on to this nug Gets Warriors series. I think it's going to be a super interesting one, even though we don't know much because the Warriors have been utterly decimated by injuries this year, let's get into it a little bit with the basketball, Okay, So first of all, most of the data from this

season is useless for this particular matchup. Yes, the Nuggets went three and one in this matchup this season, but Steph Curry and Draymond Green logged zero minutes together in those four games, so one of them was missing from every single game. Those are two like in terms of basketball teams, those two players are arguably the most irreplaceable players in the league for their specific roles on that

specific team. So that kind of skews all of that data, right, So we have to kind of try to piece together what we know about the Warriors and when their full strength with what we saw from those individual matchups. In those individual matchups, we saw Yo Gets struggle a little bit with the Warriors length and athleticism. We saw Kievan Looney do a pretty nice job defending him in isolation.

Those are two good signs for the Warriors, But other than that, not a whole lot we can take from it, right, So we've got to kind of try to piece this together based on what we know. First of all, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Clay Thompson, they've barely played together at all since two thousand nineteen, So from that standpoint, you're counting on them falling back into rhythm that they've built over

the decade. Right, You're hopeful that even though they haven't played together much, that they'll be able to quickly recapture that because of how many reps they've had in the past. Obviously a lot is gonna be on Jordan's Pool in creation. One of the most interesting dynamics of this series is the fact that Nicola Yoki has turned himself into a decent defensive player as a drop coverage bick strictly outside

of that specific scenario, not great. Okay, So in that scenario that the Warriors, in particular with Jordan's Pool and Steph Curry are going to pull Yokas out of drops, he's either going to have to be way up at the level of the screen all all series long and those with those two particular guys in ball screen actions, or they're gonna have to do a lot of switching. And either way, Yokis is gonna have to over a ton of ground on the perimeter, which is just not

a strength of his. So in that specific situation, I think you're gonna have a lot of free rolls to the rim with not a lot of size and athleticism on the back line because Yokich is going to be out on the perimeter. So let's move on to Denver on offense, because I think this is gonna be a

really interesting part of this series. First of all, we know that they're going to send a ton of help to Nicola Yokich and their individual matchups this year, it primarily was loony on the ball, and what they did. Yoki does a lot of spin moves in the post. That's how he protects the basketball from people reaching. What they did is they tried to as he was spinning was when they would send the double and it actually

caused Yoki a lot of problems. So we know how they're gonna handle Yokich in his post up situations, doubling while he's in the middle of moves and rotating on the back end, which they do a great job of because they have so many athletic wings. So the other there's two other aspects I wanted to look at with the Nuggets offense. First of all, a huge part of the Nuggets offense is transition Yokich is such a good

passer off the rebound. He can get the rebound immediately go into a dribble or two, and make any pass up the floor, whether it's a full court bounced pass, a lob over the top, anything hitting a guy running the floor and transition. That's a huge part of Denver's offense. So a lots a lot of pressure is gonna be on Golden State to get back, but they have the requisite athleticism and speed to do so I think they'll be fine. So the last thing we got to look

at is the dribble handoff stuff. A huge part of yokich Is game within this offense when he's not posting up is catching the ball at the elbow and guards coming off of him. In dribble handoff situations, it's really really difficult because all of those guards can shoot, so you have to chase them over the top, so almost always they have an advantage getting into the lane, or if they do go under the dribble handoff, they're getting

wide open jump shots all game long. So once again it's gonna be a lot of pressure on the Golden State guards and wings to cover a lot of ground. But this is a very very deep team. You guys heard if you haven't gotten to it yet again, got to check out that Steph Curry Draymond Green interview as they talked about they are a deep team. A lot of playoff teams around the league right now kind of have their seven or eight guys that they know for

the rotation. As Steph and Draymond we're talking about today, they are deep. They've got four or five guys that will be in and out of the rotation on any given night. The idea there is they have so much speed and athleticism in depth to go to that they should be able to cover all the ground they need to to make up for that. The way that those actions work, again, these are actions that are not being run by superstar players. You're not dealing with, you know,

Kevin Durant coming off of a dribble handoff. You're not dealing with, you know, Damian Lillard coming off dribble handoff. These are pretty average guards and wings that are coming off these dribble handoffs. So it's the action that compromises you. You can make up for that with a commitment on the defensive end to help and rotate and recover around with each other. That's something I think the Warriors are absolutely going to be capable of doing. I think the

Warriors are gonna win this series in five games. I do think Yogis will get one at home. He causes enough pro bloms with his size and the and the Warriors in particular are not a big front court team. That's that's been their biggest weakness. That's why they're so paranoid about James Wiseman and the fact that he hasn't been able to play it all this year. They need interior size, that's there. That's Denver's big advantage. I think they'll be able to weaponize that to get one win.

But I think this is gonna be a relatively easy series for Golden State, which is the perfect situation for them to get reps and to get their continuity back. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I appreciate you guys as always. We are off tomorrow, but we will be back on Saturday for Day one of the NBA Playoffs, and I can't wait. I'll see you guys in a couple of days.