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We are leading off with a matchup between the two previous NBA champions as the Denver Nuggets went into Boston. I thought it was a very inch interesting game that explores the floor of both of these teams and some realistic issues that Denver might potentially have to deal with in a postseason series against some of the best teams
in the league. After that, we're going to talk briefly on Lakers Clippers, as the Lakers have jumped all the way up to the two seed in the Western Conference without two starters, putting together an impressive win against the Clippers,
and then it's the tail end of the show. I want to talk a little bit about the Phoenix Suns and after another embarrassing collapse against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, some quotes from Kevin Durant about the frustrations going on inside the locker room, I want to at least just pitch an idea of maybe trying again with a version
of this team. Then I don't think will happen, because I think the Suns will end up blowing it up the summer, but I want to talk about it because even just within the concept of basketball culture around the league, as we talked about other teams, I think it's a valuable kind of example that we can take a look at as we look at other teams. You guys did the Joe before you started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTCU. You guys don't miss show announcementstn't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on our hoops tonight, it's also super helpful if we leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year the last not at least keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We can get to them
in our mail bags throughout the week. We usually go Fridays. We're going to be recording a mail bag later today. That'll come out on Tuesday. Because I'm headed to Breckinridge to do some skiing with my wife this week. We'll still have some content. I plan on doing a show on Wednesday and on Thursday, but defer the travel and for tomorrow, we're gonna have a mail bag coming out.
All right, let's talk some basketball, So, you know, with this Nugget Celtics game, I thought it was an interesting example of what it's like surviving in the regular season when you've got guys out of the lineup, especially for these serious teams. Right you're trying to navigate the process of getting to mid April with your roster intact so that you have your best chance to be the best version of yourself when all the chips are down right
and in those situations when you're down key players. To me, it's all about your foundation on both ends of the floor. On defense, you need to be able to come up with a capable defensive game plan for the personnel you have available. In my opinion, game planning is such an important part of regular season basketball. In the playoffs, it's mostly about adjustments and like really really intricately digging down
to the strengths and weaknesses of both rosters. But when you see a team in like a onesie twosie kind of thing where it's like, oh, we might play him once, we might play them twice in three days, but like then we're all moving on with our schedules and like guys are gonna be in and out of lineups and everything is going to be just about winning that particular game. Throwing out a good game plan can help you steal a game, which is very important in the eighty two
game concept. And then on offense, you have to have two things. You gotta have shot creation and you have to have play finishing. If you have those things, then you have a strong foundation on the offensive end of the floor. I thought the gap between Denver and Boston in that regard was stark. Yesterday, Denver was missing Aaron Gordon, but Boston was missing two starters, Drew Holliday and Chris ops Porzingis, And I thought bos And just completely controlled
that game from start to finish. Yeah, there were times where they go on a run, Jamal Murray hit a couple shots, he'd get a couple stops, and they keep the game relatively close, like they even cut it to
three points late in the game. But every time they made that type of run, Denver couldn't get a stop, And then on the other end of the floor, Boston could play Denver's offense either into some sort of tough bit of shot making from Jamal Murray or kickout passes to Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook who were struggling to make shots. Last night, there were four for sixteen on three point shots right, and Jamal Murray made a lot of tough shots. He's on a tear right now for
over a month. He's been like twenty six points a game on well over fifty percent from the field and
well over forty percent from three. But at the end of the day, in those late game situations, anytime Boston really wanted to tighten the screws on both ends of the floor, Denver's offense had more variants because they were playing in Denver into tough shots for Jamal Murray and shots that they could live with with these inferior role players, whereas Boston it kind of felt like they could either, let's get into it, so like when Boston had the ball they had a surefire way to get a good
shot every single time. They could either attack Jamal Murray in space on switches with Jalen Brown, or they could get into the Yokic at the level stuff that we've been talking about, where you bring whoever Yokic is guarding up into the ball screen and Yokic is going to have to come up and attack the basketball that puts two on the ball. Now we have four on threes at on the backside of that action. Right And by
the way, Denver got some stops. Jalen had some bad ISOs against Jamal Murray where he settled for some unnecessary tough shots. He also missed some pretty easy shots. He talked about that after the game and his postgame presser. But generally speaking though, it was a quality entry point for Boston. They could go to Jalen Brown against Jamal Murray and get a high quality shot. Right then when
they attacked Yo kitchen ball screens. They got great stuff every single time down down the stretch of that game when they were on offense, like if Yokich one up to the level, they just moved the ball around. There's a big one late where they brought Yolkic up to the level on the left wing, they dropped it off
to Cornett. It was a two on one where al Horford was wide open in the right corner and Michael Porter Junior was the tagger, and he just did a poor job and Cornette ended up just taking it right at him and drawing a foul. But like even if MPJ had done a better job, that passes just getting swung to the right corner and al Horford's getting a wide open three. Allurford was fantastic yesterday, by the way, But like when they brought Yokich up to the level,
they could get great looks. So then Mike malonees go goes, we can't do that, so we gotta try switching, so then he starts switching with Yokic onto the ball, specifically onto Derek White, and Derek White just quickly gives two buckets to the Nuggets attacking Nikola jokicch beats him off the dribble to the right, forces Jamal Murray up and help easy little lob pass to Looke Cornett right underneath the rim. The other end of the floor, he dribbles Yokic out of a switch onto the left wing and
just hits a pull up three in his face. Because Jokicic really can only do one of two things in switches against good perimeter players. He can either take away the shot or he can take away the drive, and either way, like again, there's a certain like bend, but don't break quality with those things that'll work against lesser teams like Jamal Murray can get enough stops against lesser players, Nikolijokic can pressure the ball well enough at the level,
and they can rotate well enough against lesser teams. But they're now six and thirteen this year against teams in the top ten in point differential, and it's been this consistent theme. Teams are able to get their defense into rotation, and the Nuggets are not a very good defense in rotation. When Denver had the ball in this game, Boston was able to just completely ignore Russell Westbrook and help heavily off of Christian Brown. This basically nullified Jokic post ups
down the stretch. They basically could not go to that as an option, so it forced the Nuggets to play a lot of two man game when Nikol Jokich and Jamal Murray while keeping an extra defender in the paint defending it three on two. Now, what that does is it forces them entirely into over the top shot making, and by the way, Jamal made a lot of shots
we talked about it. Even got a layup on this really cool sequence where Jamal pulled out Horford out and then beat him off the dribble, and then Jokic basically just set a screen in the lane on Jamal Murray's original defender and it just gave him a little easy layup. But that was pretty much the only easy one. The rest of it was tough contestant. He made a one legged runner along the left lane line that were turned around fadeaways like he was hitting a lot of really
tough shots in that stretch. But it's just difficult to keep up with Boston under that dynamic. Not to mention it wasn't just Jamal Murray shot making. A lot of times they were able to stay close to Jamal and who are the release valves, kickout passes to Russell Westbrook, kickout passes to Christian Brown. Jokic had a turnover where Brown and Westbrook both cut to the basket at the same time in the same spot and made themselves easy
to guard. It's a tough dynamic to manage when you have the defense specifically tilting towards shots that people are comfortable with them taking. I want to I want to shout out Boston first, and then I want to get back to Denver to talk about some of these realities and what they mean for the postseason. I don't think Boston played particularly well. They only generated twenty two catch and shoot jump shots. Again, that's been an issue for them as they've struggled to kind of get into their
driving kick as of late. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown both struggled to knock down their pull up jump shots in this game. They took thirteen of them and only made three in this game. But they have such a high floor on both ends of the court. For all the stuff we talked about, the strong defensive game planning, the commitment to detailed basketball culture, We're gonna be talking about a lot of that when we get to the
Suns in the later part of the show. But they had a strong game plan, and they had a high four and both ends of the four, and they were able to get a win despite being down bodies, despite not playing particularly well. That is that strong foundation on both ends of the four. Boston's offense is sputtering a little bit. In their last eight games. They only have a one to seventeen offensive rating, which is not bad.
It's still top ten. It was like eight or ninth in that span, but again, it's not as good as we know. Boston is capable of being where they want to be. They aren't generating as many quality threes as they usually do, but they're down two starters and they're just getting through the games in March and they're six and two in that eight game stretch, which is perfectly fine.
I'm not worried about Boston. And by the way, we have some male bad questions that we're gonna be talking about tomorrow about big picture Boston stuff, where we'll get into some more of those details surrounding how I feel about Boston in the big picture. But there are some realities in play for Denver that will make things tough for them in the postseason. On defense, they don't really have a way to stay out of rotation, and they've
been a poor rotation team all year. They bring Jokic to the level, it's four on threes on the back end, and they haven't defended those well. And if they switch, Jokic can't really take more than just one thing away, either the driver or the pull up jump shot, so they end up in issues there. And Jamal can again hold up reasonably well and some matchups, but not against the top teams that go at him with superstar talent. This is where the loss of KCP has been an issue.
Because of the loss of KCP, teams about a way of defending the two man game three on two, and Jamal ISOs and Jokic post ups two on one in a way that they didn't have in the past. Christian Brown is a serviceable shooter. He hits forty two percent of his wide open catch and shoot threes, but he's only thirty one percent when he's guarded. So he's well
over a point per possession when he's wide open. But if you run him off the line, or if you offer a contest, he dips down below a point per possession. Even worse, he doesn't really take them when he's guarded. He's only taken forty nine catch and shoot threes all season on film. One of the biggest things I noticed is like he's got a hesitant trigger. You can close out short at him and he probably won't shoot it. There were a lot of sequences like that last night.
If you guys heard yesterday that you guys might remember where it was like kick out to Brown short close out, pump, fake drive to the left, kick out to Russell Westbrook wide open. He doesn't want to take it. He still took a bunch yesterday, but he didn't want to take it. There are sequences where it was like Brown pump, fake drive, kick Russell Westbrook, pump, fake drive. Oh, now the advantage is gone. We're kicking it out. There's four seconds on
the shot clock. Someone's got to jack up a shot and again, like Russ's shot, the ball better this year. But what you're seeing is what the game plan will be, which is dare him to shoot type of shots, and he's gonna have to hit those at a high rate, because, again, when you're talking about shooting percentages, it's not in a vacuum.
It's relative to the surrounding circumstances. A thirty seven percent three point shooter that takes seven or eight of them a game and is consistently guarded out at the three point line has a value, an offensive utility that extends far beyond their shot making, and it manifests in an influx of offensive spacing and just offense, it'll manifest in
their offensive rating. Right, don't if you shoot thirty seven thirty eight percent on two attempts per game, that's where it becomes tricky because you're barely getting over a point per possession, but you're not being guarded, and outside of the two attempts that you take, there's a there's a negative offensive utility in terms of the way you affect spacing.
In order for Russell Westbrook to do the amount of damage he needs to do shooting the ball in the postseason, he's gonna have to hit close to forty percent of those threes for teams to actually be like, we got to close out to Russ where you can get that offensive utility. Casep's not having the best season in the world in Orlando, and it was he was going to be expensive. And I understand the realities surrounding that situation.
I do, but there was a formula for the Nuggets that worked in twenty twenty three, and it was three and Jamal Contavious and Michael that you could not leave open, and a vertical spacer along the baseline and Aaron Gordon. It was a delicate balance. You take one of those guys out and swap him out with an iffy shooter like Russell Westbrook or a guy that's got a hesitant trigger like Christian Brown, the dynamic starts to fall apart.
And again it was exacerbated yesterday Aaron Gordon's hurt. So you got both Russ and Christian Brown in there for parts of the of crunch time. I understand that there are some realities there, but like against the elite teams in a seven game context, one of those two guys is gonna be on the floor. It's gonna be Russ or it's gonna be Christian and teams will, from a game plan standpoint, offer help off of him. That is a different dynamic than what the Nuggets had when they
won the title. And I just think it's important to acknowledge that. What does that mean. It means that Denver's margin for air is much smaller than it used to be. It means all the variables need to swing in their favor if they're gonna win the title. They need Jamal Murray to stay this hot all the way through to the end. He's been at again twenty six points per game for over a month, at over fifty percent from the field, over forty percent from three. He's playing great.
They're gonna need that all the way through. If he dips below that, it's gonna be an issue. They need Jokich to shoot forty five percent on threes. They'll need all those spotty spot up shooters, the guys like Gordon Brown Westbrook. They're gonna need those guys to shoot in the high thirties from three all postseason. They're gonna need to massively sharpen up their defensive rotations. They'll need opponents to shoot poorly. If one or two of those things
swings in the opposite direction. This team is gonna lose in the second round. Their margin for air is much smaller than it used to be, and I think that that's been screaming off the screen in the high leverage matchups for Denver so far this season. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action at DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA.
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see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, let's talk a little bit of Lakers Clippers, same sort of concept in terms of what we were talking about earlier about keeping a high floor in both ends like You're down two starters in Ruey Hatchamura and Austin Reeves, and they made up for it with their bench through a strong defensive effort. You filled in for those two starters with these bench guys that all do their jobs and play super hard on defense. Gabe Vincent, Jared vander Bild,
Dorian Finney, Smith Jamison. They had a great jj REDI a game plan, same game plan that they had from the last game, except for a little tweak with Zubatch. They were strong side zoning Kawhi similar to what they similar to what they were doing to Anthony Edwards, like funneling him towards the sideline, bringing over an extra defender
on the other side of the paint. They were playing Harden's left shoulder so that he when he would shoot that step back, they wouldn't step up underneath his feet, and they'd force a right handed drive, which is going to lead to him taking a floater instead of a driving left handed layup, which is obviously a smart game plan. They shrunk from the weak side onto Zubach's roll, so
that was the major adjustment I knew noticed. They just they were a little bit more willing to concede some of those spray out threes to the weak side and just shrinking the floor. They didn't shoot. Clippers didn't shoot as well. Chris Dunn, after hitting all those threes in the first game, didn't hit him in this game. It worked. They were able to maintain their high defensive floor. They
held the Clippers two hundred and two points. It's actually the seventh consecutive opponent that the Lakers have held two hundred and two points or fewer. As the Lakers continue their like half season long stretch of defensive and it's by the way, I just continue to be particularly impressed by their rotations. Every single player on this roster is so committed to the game plan and the details. They're
holding up really well. On the glass, They're chasing teams off the line their top ten and contested shots since January fifteen. They just look like a team that desperately wants to be great and they're committed to the work.
And then on offense, two of your best players are out, but you still have your two stud shot creators right, And the Clippers swarmed them and they forced a lot of turnovers, but they were still able to generate some huge advantages be able to generate some makeable shots for their role players, and they scored enough points despite the fact that Lebron had a really rough game. By the way, I want to shout out Lebron. I've been hammering this concept a bunch over the course of the last few weeks.
But like, bad games are part of being a basketball player, especially when you have an offensive workload where so much of your decision making and shot making is like on display every single night. And Lebron had a rough game.
Jumper wasn't falling turning the ball over too much. Like they had that weird sequence down the stretch where like they were trying to get Lebron to fifty thousand career regular season playoff points and going away from Luca who had been cooking all night, and I think they just got a little lackadaisical because they thought the game was over.
It was crazy. It was like eleven point lead standing ovation from the Lakers fans, and I'm like, man, when's the last time the Lakers got a standing ovation with this much time on the clock, And as it was happening, it just like completely crumbled from there and they almost choked the game away, which was was kind of funny. Dorian Andfinney Smith missed a wide open layup. There were some bad offensive possessions but like it got a little ugly, but Lebron made one play that helped save the game.
Down five, Chris Dunn's got a breakaway layup off of a turnover and he pins that shit on the glass. Got a little favorite from the official because it got called to goaltend when it wasn't. I thought on replay, I thought it was pretty clear Lebron's thumb hit the ball before it hit the backboard, but like it was a goaltend or it was a block, but it got called a goaltend, which stopped Kawhi Leonard from getting an offensive rebound put back, So a little favor from the
referees there, but he made a play. He made one play that closed the deal. The big thing there was it allowed the Lakers to set their defense instead of giving Kawuhi an easy offensive rebound put back, and they were able to get another stop and prevent anything from really really becoming dangerous there down the stretch again, one play, if you get a win, we'll be a Pallette cleanser in a lot of ways, and Luca did a lot
of work. We'ren talking about him in a second. He needed his teammate Lebron to make one play to help him, and he made one play. At the tail end of the game. Luca and his shot making got back on track. Yesterday, Lebron had a rough offensive game for the first time in a while. They were minus thirteen in his units when Luca was off the floor, but the Lakers straight up dominated that game. When Luka Dancic was on the floor. They were plus nineteen in his minutes. Why because Luca
was at his typical level of offensive dominance. An efficient twenty nine points nine ausis nothing incredible, nothing like we know Luca can go for forty two and fifteen, but he goes for twenty nine to nine, just like a pre standard career average type of game for Luka Doncic. And they ran the Clippers off the floor when Luca was out there, and that got me excited for the big picture potential of this team. Luca is such a world lifting offensive player. If you can anchor him with
elite defense, you're gonna be really hard to beat. And I just thought it was really interesting as I was watching that, It's like their defense is just forcing the Clippers into these tough shots, and Luca just keeps getting downhill and getting and ones, making tough shots. Got some of his miter rrange shot, making that little bank shot he hit on Chris Dunn down the stretch off the window that was such a ridiculous shot. The step back
three was going. He just was able to squeeze out offense with limited groups around him, and they literally dominated the Clippers when he was out there. And that's what gets scary for this team. In the big picture, there's a version of this where Lebron's out there, Austin's out there,
Luca's out there. They're a really good offensive groove, and they're one of the very best offenses in the league while being this team that literally for forty two games now has been a top five defense in the league, so more than half the season, and for twenty two games now has been the very best defense in the NBA.
That's what you're anchoring that With a couple other quick shoutouts, Dalton connect He's the guy that I've been critical of Dalton specifically because all young players do THNK have these issues, but I've been hesitant to view him as a reliable rotation player, and I still don't view him as a reliable rotation player. But when guys are injured, you got
to step up. JJ talked about this after the first Clippers game, like, you know, we didn't think you were going to play it in that but we ended up needing you and you hit a couple of big shots. He is a very streaky offensive player, but he is hitting an extremely timely hot streak right now and the team really needed it. They don't win that game last night without Dalton connect. I thought he was really good on the defensive glass too, got a couple of key
contested defensive rebounds. Shout out to Dalton because he's red hot in a phase where the Lakers desperately needed him to. Last note, we talked a little bit about Jared Vanderbilt in Pod one of the pods from last week, and I talked about like kind of a difference between using him out of the corner versus using him as a cutter, and how I talked about how in the early returns he had been knocking down some threes but missing on his cuts, and I just wanted to keep an eye
on that well since we had that conversation. In the two or three games since then, he's missing his corner threes and he's starting to get some openings on cuts with Luca. He had two dunks last night, a lob and then a cut along the baseline where he caught a drop off pass and a dunk. Luca is just able to so surgically create these times of openings for him that I do think it's manifesting better for him
to be operating out of the dunker spot more. I just again, I was just really curious to see how that would develop over a larger sample, and after seeing more, I think I'm leaning more towards keeping him in the dunker spot. All right, let's talk some Phoenix Suns before we're done for today. They had another collapse last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the second half, they just completely fell apart. KD had some interesting quotes in the
postgame press conference. It's tough, man, that's a shitty game. We didn't play up to our standards at all. We embarrassed the fans, we embarrassed ourselves with the way we played, and I want us to be better. He went on to say, we ain't playing well. Steaks are compounding themselves and it just looks bad. When adversity hit, we just start floating a little bit as a team. That's tough to deal with. So it's frustrating for sure losing a
game that way. This falls align with what I've been talking about with the Suns over the last couple of weeks. If you guys remember what I've been talking about, I've given a bunch of lists of these idea is of like when I watch the Sun's play. I don't think Kevin Durant, Devin Booker are the problem. They're doing their job. Their job as stars in this context, are or is I should say, on defense, do your job compete. Devin Booker is not the greatest point of attack defender in
the world, but he does his job. I thought he was really good at team he say this summer, he's shown that he can. He's shown that he can do that job. He is doing that job as well as you could expect an athlete of his caliber to do. Kevin Durant, I think has been excellent on defense at phases this year. They're doing their jobs and on offense what's the job of the stars score the basketball consistently generate advantages. They're doing that. I don't look at KDE
and Devin Booker as the problem there. The issue is they are surrounded by a very undisciplined basketball players and the team appears to have a very undisciplined basketball culture. The attention to detail is not there. Guys are constantly getting back cut. Guys are constantly giving up offensive rebounds by not watching corner crashers. Guys are not picking up the ball in transition. Guys are generally not matched up
in transition. Their health defense is bad. Everyone's just failing to do their job as the satellite players around Kevin Durant Devin Booker. There are two things that I think are missing from getting higher level contributions around Kevin Durant Devin Booker. One is basketball culture. You need an obsessive culture from the top down that demands a certain standard from players on both ends of the floor. JJ Reddick, I think has done an amazing job of this with
the Lakers this year. Complete reversal from the Darvin ham experience, something I begged for those of you guys who watch the show. I begged for this after last season. Attention to detail. Be a serious basketball team from day one of training camp. Layout, here's what is expected of you if you're going to play on the floor and then
hold players accountable to that. JJ Reddick sat down with Lebron James the day after that rough night in Miami, the one where I had my freak out, if you guys remember, and sat down with him and it was like, I need more out of you. And it worked. And Lebron's been setting that example. Everyone's doing their job and they are now maximizing their talent. There is a lack
of that culture and accountability in Phoenix. The second piece of it is when you're in the market for discounted players, and guess what you're going to be in the market for discounted players with your current build. I mean, you might be able to reverse that trend a little bit with Bradley Beal this summer if you can find a deal.
We'll talk about the summer in a minute. But like when you're looking for the types of players to anchor your stars with target players who fit into that culture of excellence on a daily basis, Attention to detail, effort and execution. I actually think Kevin Durant Devin Booker is a strong foundation. They give you a high floor on the offensive end of the floor in terms of shot quality.
It won't be easy to pivot this summer. Bradley Beal is a different difficult contract to move, but I think they need to flip over a good chunk of that role player corps stop going after You know. Bull Bowl is a tantalizing talent, but he is very inconsistent in his possession to possession execution. I've watched him grab crazy contest rebounds that only he can get, and I've watched him float around and not do his job, not pick up his man in transition, not track a shooter off
the ball. They don't need talent, Devin Booker and KD is the talent. They need dependability in the details. They need scrappers. They need fighters, guys who can muck things up and allow Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's gifts to lift them over the top. Not to bring it back to the Lakers, but that's literally how they won a game last night. It was like a bunch of two way guys and bench role players alongside Lebron and Luca.
But those dudes are all ass kickers who play defense and pay attention to the details, and they have a culture from the top down from their head coach, so they look like a damn good basketball team. And they just pretty much manhandled a very good Clippers team down two starters and most of their offensive talent. Do you think Trey Jemison is an incredibly talented basketball player compared
to some of these Suns role players. Do you think Shake Milton is or Dalton connect is or Jared Vanderbilt is. These are very flawed players, but they're ass kickers, They're fighters, They're scrappers that are in a culture that demands that from the top down. If I was running the Suns this summer, I would do everything I could to trade Bradley Beal, and I would target every discounted, mean, ass kicking role player that I can find, even if they
have offensive limitations. All minimum players have limitations on one end of the floor, sometimes both. But from day one of training camp, I do everything in my power to establish a strong basketball culture or effort and execution is mandatory to see the floor, find players that fit into that culture and see what you can do with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. I don't think this is gonna happen. I think it's more likely that they trade KD and
instead try to rebuild around Devin Booker. But I think that's a mistake, not unless you plan on trading Devin Booker too, because I don't think Devin Booker is good enough to be the best player on your team in the Western Conference with Luca, with Shay, with Jokic, with Wemby on the way, with a team that's led by Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, I don't think you're going to do well in that conference with him as your best player. Kevin Durant and Devin Hooker is enough to
hang in the West. You just need to do a better job of surrounding them with guys that accentuate their strengths instead of demand more out of them as defenders and rebounders and detail guys. Get them ass kickers, get them dudes that'll go out there every night and just fight alongside them and do their jobs. I think that would go a long way towards giving them a better chance to compete with that group, And I don't think it's gonna happen. I think they're gonna end up hunting.
But look, it's already bad. You're already in a precarious situation. There is no pivot even with a KD trade that's gonna bring you to relevance. KD has been one of those strong and dependable players on both ends of the floor for you this year at a superstar level. There's nothing you could get back in a deal that would actually allow you to be successful next season, except for maybe draft compensation that can help you reset. And if that's the case, you might as well trade Devin Booker two.
But I would at least try to trade Bradley Beal and see if you can't try to pivot around those guys. All right, guys, that's all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with the mail bag that I'm about to record. I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.