Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors STUN Thunder, SGA drops 52, OKC's biggest WEAKNESS costs them

a player to score six. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook gap and make your pick right now. The Chiefs open as a very slight favorite at minus one and a half. I'm personally rooting for the Chiefs, mainly because I appreciate them as one of the greatest teams of all time, and as a Cowboys fan, I just literally cannot stand any success for the Philadelphia Eagles. New DraftKings customers can bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus

bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook ap use code hoops. That's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly. When you bet just five bucks only on Draft King Sports book. The Crown is yours. Gamble problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight Hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three

six nine Connecticut. Help us available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction Voyd and Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see d KNG dot co. Slash audio. All right, welcome

to hob tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody hope all you guys are having a great week. We were doing an instant reaction to last night as the Golden State Warriors not their seventh win against teams that have top six records in the NBA beating the Oklahoma City Thunder. We're gonna break that game down. The We're going to continue our trade deadline content with my three favorite destinations for Jimmy Butler. You guys know the drill

before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss you how announcements. Don't forget about our podcast view wherever you get you podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Also, don't forget about our new

social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year and then last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments for our mail bags that we record on Fridays throughout this season. I do want to hit pacers and I also want to talk about that Nuggets Knicks game from last night, but I need more time to go back and watch films, so we're gonna be covering that in the mail bag tomorrow.

We also have a really nice game tonight to react to between the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies. So more to get into tomorrow today, just or yours Thunder and the Jimmy Butler trade destinations all right, let's talk some basketball. So shake Gil Just Alexander was absolutely frying everyone to start this game. He outscored the Warriors by himself in the first quarter, a good chunk of picking on specific matchups on the floor. But he was also

giving it directly to Andrew Wiggins. He hit him with this ridiculous, like high hesitation move like he was gonna go to his left, and then just scissor dribbled over to his right and went right around him to the basket. He was hitting jumpers, He's getting to the rim, he was getting to the foul line. The Warriors offense was also in a funk in the first quarter. Both Buddy Hill and Steph Curry got off to really rough starts. Andrew Riggins Wiggins was the only guy really hitting shots,

and so they ended up going down by fourteen. Just an absolute disaster start to the game for the Warriors, a continuation of a lot of the things that they've struggled with over the course of the last few months. But in the first shift, without Steph on the floor, the Warriors finally got a good bit of offensive production from Andrew Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Wiggins like post up on the left block, gets into the middle, hits a

little hook shot over his left shoulder. Dennis Schroeder comes downhill in a ball screen and just hits a little foul line jump shot. Andrew Wiggins gets Isaiah Hartenstein on a switch on the left wing, hits a little step back three in his face. Guys were creating offense, and when guys create offense for the Warriors, it unlocks the strength of this roster, which is that the Warriors have a depth of really good role players that can defend, that can play in transition, and that can play with

an advantage. They were scoring so they could set their defense so that they could get more stops so that they can force more turnovers. They held OKC to twenty four points in that second quarter. They turned OKAC over five times, and they scored eleven points in transition. Just in the second quarter. They got the lead back to four. Okay See goes on a little run capped by a Shae Gills as Alexander three off of an offensive rebounder that puts the lead back up to gets a lead

up to thirteen. And then Andrew Wiggins it's a big three on the right wing that cuts it down to ten. In the third quarter, Steph finally gets going hits a couple of threes. Steph was amazing down the stretch of

the game too. I want to get into in a minute, but I really want to zero in on the non State four Riors tonight because it's kind of indicative of the flawed in this roster, which is that top end shot creation beyond Steph Curry, it really was from a bunch of different guys like Andrew Wiggins and Dennischroder were amazing all night, even into clutch time. Both of them were creating shots all night. Schroeder more is like a playmaker and Wiggins more is like a score but they

were doing it throughout. But even when it got into crunch time, which by the way, the Thunder didn't go down easily in this game. Shay and Jay Dub were both fantastic down the stretch as they continued to generate offense for the Thunder to keep them close and every

time someone came up and hit a big shot. Andrew Wiggins hit one of the biggest shots of the game out of the right corner, a really nice pinin flare from Dennis Schroeder where Dennis Schroeder saw that his man was helping, and so he screened Andrew Wiggins man to create a little passing angle into the right corner. Steph hit him. Wiggins hits a big three. Wiggins hit a floater off of a euro step and a ball screen

that was a big shot. In the fourth quarter of this game, again, Schroder only had nine points, but they were all self created mid range jump shots, driving to the basketball Isaiah Joe for a layup. He had a movement three that he hit on the right wing off of a post split for the Warriors where they they

had the ball. I think it was Looney, kind of around the right elbow area, and Looney just handed it off to Schroeder coming off of a wide screen and he set his feet moving to the right, which is a shot you almost never see Dennis Schroeder take, and he knocked it down from three point land. But it was his shot creation, getting downhill and generating openings that really kept things flowing for the Warriors on offense. He

had a play late in the game. The Warriors were trying to get the ball to Steph at the top of the key, but the Thunder were doing a good job of denying him, and so Dennis kind of had to turn and self create. He had Shay on him. Just beat Shay off the dribble to the right, Drew Hartenstein up in a low man help situation, dropped it off to GP two, and he dunked on Hartenstein bad. It was a really really impressive athletic play from Gary Payton.

But like those two guys, through Andrew Wiggins scoring and through Dennis Schroder's playmaking kind of roughly approximated a second star shot creator would look like. And the Warriors looked awesome. The announcers were talking early in the game, They're like, you know, Buddy healed in the last two months. He's shooting thirty percent from three after his hot start. And then one of the guys that I can't remember who it was, but said like, oh, well, well, when Buddy

was shooting well, the Warriors were winning. It's like, yeah, no shit. This Warriors roster has actually a plethora of really good role players that can play on both ends of the floor when they have roles that are manageable, but they just don't have that reliable secondary shot creation. I'm gonna share the stats with you guys later here in a minute. But the Warriors pretty consistently are good

when they score the basketball. That's why I always talk about the idea of value in a vacuum versus value for your specific team. Like Jamal Murray is immensely valuable to the Nuggets in a way he wouldn't be for someone else because his specific skill set helps the two man game with Jokic in such a way that makes

them unguardable in the half court right. Similarly, on a Warriors roster, a secondary shot creator is going to be immensely valuable there in a way that they wouldn't be elsewhere in the league because it's such a need on that specific roster. Again, we're gonna circle back to that in a minute. But it naturally just created easier opportunities for everyone. Randon pajamskate eleven points. He had a couple of nice self creation shots too. He had a second

half three off the dribble on the right wing. Moses Moody had a couple of nice buckets, one driving a close out, one off of an offensive rebound. I thot Kevon Looney was amazing in terms of his physical leverage, creating passing angles on seals and just catching everything in

traffic and either finishing it or drawing a foul. And what that does is it puts Steph Curry in a position where instead of needing to create everything, he can just focus on making the big shots that put the team over the top, which is something that at his even at this phase in his career, he can be excellent at. Like they he had there was the league got cut to three after shayet I think it either Shay or JDub got a couple of buckets in a row after they had been up seven or eight, they

cut it down to three. One possession game. Steph comes off and it's a thirty foot bomb off of a ball screen, and it's like like, yeah, Steph didn't have the biggest scoring game of the night, but he was able to get the big shots when they needed him,

and that really is all that matters. Right, Like, if you have Steph in a position where his offensive trades can be used as a little bit more of a ceiling razor instead of like the primary offensive engine of everything that you do, that's a more useful way to make to make use of Steph at this phase in his career, and I thought that kind of screamed off of the screen last night. And then on defense, the Warriors got better with their game plan discipline as the

game went along. One of the things I noticed about on film and once again I did a whole film thread on this game, So you guys can go over to my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT and just look for the video of it starts with Andrew Wiggins hitting a spin move on Shay and it just kind of goes through. I just got a bunch of clips from the game. But one of the things I was calling out in the film thread this morning was the concept of gifting driving angles or defending with an open stance.

So a lot of times, what will happen when you're guarding a guy like Shae. You're not keeping Shae in front throughout the entire game. He's just too good with the dribble drive. His first step is too quick, his dribble combinations, and his ability to just completely pause and hesitation moves in freeze defenders. He's just too good as

a drible drive guy. So if you set your defense up in a way that says like, hey, you contain Shae like that, That's just that's not going to work right Like, more more likely it's going to be Shae getting downhill into the teeth of your defense. And that way is fine as long as you have a plan

for it. And so one of the things I noticed early in the game when Shae was playing really, really well, they were a lot of guys were defending Shae with an open stance towards his left hand, so they were like playing up on his right hand and kind of funneling him towards the left and hopes that he'll be more willing to take a This is kind of a just a general thing with most basketball players. When they drive right handed player when they drive left, are most

likely going to take a pull up jump shot. When they drive right, they're most likely going to go all the way to the rim. Now, a guy like Shaye is really good shooting or going to the rim both ways, but still that tendency tends to exist regardless. It's it's as a game plan thing, your best bet. Even though obviously Shay is so damn good that he can hit pull up jumpers going right and he can hit layups

going left. But the Warriors were doing a lot of like kind of shading Shaye towards his left hand side. But in the first quarter, he was getting that dribble penetration and there was nobody there like there'd be. There was a play where he got a dunk where there's just literally no one even in the picture and help side defense. There was a play in the post where I think Pods was like overplaying him towards the middle and giving up the baseline and Shaye just ripped baseline

but there was no help there. Looney was all the way on the opposite block, and Shae just made a little left handed shot in the lane, and so it was like, Okay, we're not doing our job here within the game plan, which is like if we're going to give up dribble penetration, we're sending him left and we

need to have the help ready. And you could just visibly see a difference in their help side and how on time they were in the second, third, and fourth quarters where guys were still kind of opening up to the left and letting Shay go, but he was running into the running into bodies, like no further than ten feet, sooner than ten feet from the basket, so like he was running into traffic, which is gonna test one of Shay's weaknesses as a playmaker, which is that he is

a good playmaker, but he does he will sometimes shoot through multiple bodies instead of making kickout passes, and you can force him into some misses in situations like that. Now, I want to be clear, like Shay cooked him all night long, but they just did a much better job of making him less efficient and less impactful over the last three quarters than they did in the first quarter, just simply by doing a better job in their game plan discipline of rotating earlier as you were sending Shay

into help. The Warriors now have two wins against all Lahoma City, a win against Boston, two wins against Houston, and two wins against Memphis. That's seven wins against teams with top six records in the NBA. According to Cleaning the Glass, Golden State now has eleven total wins against teams in the top ten in point differential. Only Houston

and Oklahoma City have more. No other team in the league has double digit wins against teams in the top ten in point differential, and one of the things that consistently stands out in these situations. When they score, they can beat anyone because they play really good defense and they get out in transition. In those eleven wins against teams in the top ten in point differential, the Warriors

have a one to nineteen offensive rating. When they score, they can beat anyone, and that extends throughout their entire schedule when they score at least one hundred and eighteen points just total points in a game. This year they're fourteen and two. They lose almost every time they fail to get a hunt. It's a consistent trend. And so like when I'm talking about the Warriors and I'm pitching things like, hey, this is why it's worth making a move for a secondary shot creator, it's based on two

simple concepts. One, I don't think you should be in the Steph Curry Draymond Green business unless you're trying to win now. I just don't see the point. I don't think it's fair to Steph to try to rebuild while he's on the roster. There's time for that in the future. You may never have a player like Steph again, let alone for a very long time. So One, if you're in the Steph and Draymond business. It's got to be

a win now business. And then two, I really do think there's a kind of a mischaracterization of this Warrior's roster is bad when what it really is is deficient in a key area. Right now, all of their subsidiary offensive talent, guys like Wiggins and schroeder Pods, Buddy Healed, these guys are all playing up a role like Wiggins should really be your third or fourth best offensive player

on the team, not your second best offensive player. Dannis Schroderz should still be your third or fourth best player offensive player on the team, not your second or third best offensive player on the team. You need to slot these guys down. When you slot these guys down, they were lying, like think of it like this. Where you land in the hierarchy is how often you have to

rely on difficult shot making. Right the superstar, he's gonna have to rescue a lot of possessions, he's gonna face the toughest coverages, he's gonna have to take and make a lot of really difficult shots. The secondary shot creator, he's going to be leaned on in that type of role when the superstars off the floor. So he's gonna have to do that for like fifteen minutes a game. He's gonna have to take a lot of the rescue shots and the tough shots at the end of possessions

that coverage the coverage beating shots. Right, But then he's also gonna have to occasionally take tough shots when he's on the floor the superstar and that guy's tired. Right, go down to the third guy. It's like he's never gonna lead a unit, but he will occasionally have to take a tough shot when the main shot crater on the floor is tired or in a bad matchup and you have to try to rescue that possession. Right, go

down to the fourth guy. He's probably never gonna take a super tough shot or very rarely going to take a super tough shot. Everything is with an advantage, second side action, all that kind of stuff, right, and so on and so forth. As you get down the hierarchy, the difficulty in your shot diet goes down. It's not exactly hard to figure out. So just for example, if you were to take a let's say a guy like Cam Johnson, who's just a better offensive player than Andrew

Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Okay, if you were to put him into that second role and everyone goes down a role, everyone's shot diet gets easier. Not to mention, Cam Johnson's shot diet in Brooklyn is harder than the types of shots that he'll be getting in the Golden State system. That's why I emphasize that right now, the Warriors have

excellent coaching. I still think Steph is capable as a top tier superstar of lifting a team over the top with the right type of team, and you've got this incredible depth of role player talent that can play on both ends of the floor as long as they're in roles that are manageable. But you just simply do not have a guy that can consistently create shots off of Steph and every time the guys that are in their roles that they're a little underqualified for but they thrive

every time, they thrive, which is inconsistent. Why because they're not qualified for those roles. Andrew Wiggins is an inconsistent number two, you know why, because he shouldn't be a number two. So, like with that being the case, if you can slot everybody down properly and put someone in that role, it is literally the one gaping weakness on

this team. There are other moderate weaknesses, Oh yeah, you could probably use a little bit bigger of a center, right, Like, there are little things that you can get into in terms of moderate improvements here or there. But there's one gaping hole in this Warriors roster and it is in secondary shot creation or secondary star behind Steph Curry. And that's why I've been harping on that as much as I have this year on the thunderfront, Shay is truly unbelievable.

He had fifty two and even with the better game plan discipline that the Warriors showed in the later portions of the game, they still couldn't really do anything with them. Shay has a trait that I think is something that makes him really gifted at getting to the foul line, in the sense that, like, when he sees a small gap that he can't necessarily get through, but that he has enough of an angle to have the defender out of position, He'll just keep attacking that gap with physicality.

So like the defender will slide over and kind of hold him on the like kind of give him some contact on that first drive, but Shaye will just keep pounding and trying to get through that gap, and inevitably the leverage angle he has where the guy's kind of on his side, that guy ends up holding or hanging on to him a step too long, and then the reff will blow the whistle. He just kind of puts the refs in predicaments where they have no choice but

to blow the whistle. The pump fakes where he gets someone out of position and jumps into him, that sort of thing. He just is a complete master of his craft and single facet. But the Warriors counted on something that many teams count on when playing the Thunder, that other guys will just misshots. And with the exception of Isaiah Joe who's been shooting really well as of late, and Jay Dubb who put up twenty six although he took him twenty six shots, every other Thunder player struggled

in this game. Isaiah Harden signed Lou Dort, Keeson Wallace, Jay du or Jay will I should say, Ken ridg Williams and Aaron Wiggins combined to make five shots they attempted it looks like twenty thirty two, so they were five for thirty two from the field. Between those guys, that's just not going to get the job done. And you know, and like, as a result of that, over the final three quarters, the Thunder offense generated just zero

point eighty four points per half court possession. And look, I've been preaching all season with the Thunder that this team is prone to offensive lulls. I want to I want to emphasize this because I get into this sort of discussion. A discussion is the wrong word, but I get this kind of feedback from fans and the comments. Often when I'm talking about teams, I'm talking about them

with respect to the tier that they're in. So when I'm talking about flaws and strengths for a third tier contender, call it like the Lakers, for instance, It's going to be different than the way I discuss the second tier contender teams like Dallas or Denver, New York, versus the way I discuss a top tier contender like Cleveland, Oklahoma City in Boston. I know Oklahoma City is a lot better than Golden State. I think even Warriors fans would admit that if they face Golden Okay See in a

first round playoff series, that they would get beat. It's not about that we're talking about Oklahoma City has real championship pressure, and so when I discuss them, I'm discussing them as in terms of like what could get them beat in the conference finals or in the NBA Finals. What could get the Thunder beat if they ran into a game six against Dallas or a game six against Denver, or a game six against Boston or a game six against Cleveland if they make it to the NBA Finals.

That's what I talk about there. There has been a trend from last year's playoffs into the n season tournament into some of these high leverage games this season that Shay is resilient in those situations. He might have a game where he struggles to shoot a little bit, but like Shae seems resilient and Jada sometimes but everyone else it's like you don't know what you're getting when it

gets into those situations, which is to be expected. These are young players, all of these guys at Hartenstein, dort case I, Wallace, Jawill, Kenrick Williams, Aaron Wiggins. Like, there are some guys in there that have there are veterans with some playoff experience, but like it's a lot of youth that you're depending on in those sorts of situations. And here's the thing. Lou Dort has offensive upside, but he is a little bit streaky. Case On Wallace has

offensive upside, He's a little bit streaky. Aaron Wiggins is a little bit streaky. These guys are capable of being really hot and they are capable of being really cold. And so again, like I want to be clear, like the thunder to me, are have played better than anybody in this regular season. I'm not trying to deny that in any way, shape or form. I view them as a top tier contender. Earlier in the season, I viewed Boston on a tier by themselves. I have moved Oklahoma

City into that tier. I'm a believer in what Oklahoma City can do. But will they win the championship this year? That's in doubt to some extent. And if they lose, this is what I think it will look like. If they lose, it will look like their half court offense falling apart because everyone not named Shay struggles to find a level of comfort on the offensive end of the floor. It's just something to keep it up, all right. Jimmy

Butler my top three trade destinations. Jimmy had one goal when he decided he was going to make a giant mess of things in Miami. He wanted to force pat Riley's hand into trading him before this year's deadline, and according to all of the reports that I've seen, it has worked and he are at least intent on getting him moved before next Wednesday's deadline. So with that being

the case, here are my top three destinations. Number three, the Milwaukee Bucks not necessarily the greatest fit in the world, putting him next to Gianni's teams would likely guard any action that involves Jimmy and Giannis directly by switching, which means that they would have to be able to be off ball threats for each other, because if they're both in the action, that's great, but if they switch, one's going to have to go create space for the other,

which means they're gonna have to play off of each other. Now, Jimmy has become a knockdown, catch and shoot guy, but he has a slow release and he doesn't take many of them. Jannis obviously would be more of a dunker spot guy off of Jimmy, which is a form of spacing, but it's not great, so like it's not necessarily the perfect fit, but it is a massive talent play. The deal with likely center around Chris Middleton and Bobby Portis. Now both of those guys have been valuable to Milwaukee

in different ways throughout this year. Chris Middleton, for instance, hasn't shown much in terms of top end offensive talent, but his ability to handle a ball in the half court and kind of set up his teammates with some advantages has been really helpful. He had like another seven assistant game the other day, and Bobby Portis is scoring. His spot up shooting and particularly his rebounding have been missed on this road trip where the Bucks have been

struggling a little bit. But neither of those guys have been particularly good, and both of them have large salaries that can be used to facilitated deal as long as pat Conington can be moved in order to get out from underneath that second apron. So if you make that sort of move, there's a drawback, which is Yannis basically becomes your backup center. But you have a player in Jimmy Butler that is much much better at basketball on both ends of the floor than either of Bobby Portis

or Chris Middleton. He gives you another athlete to deploy on the perimeter defensively for a team that desperately needs these types of athletes. He gives you a better chance of surviving Yannis off minutes. This is one of the more exciting parts of it. Both the offense and defense have been bad this year. When Dame is on the floor without Yannis, Jimmy just gives you a better chance to survive or maybe even thrive in those minutes when

Yannis is sitting. And then in the playoffs, Jimmy is still just one of the most versatile weapons in the league. There's a very specific reason why Jimmy is always great in the playoffs, and no, it's not just because he has that dog in him or any other meaningless platitude. It's because he's big, he's strong, and he's really good at a lot of different things on a basketball court.

The size and strength makes him less vulnerable to the playoff physicality when you get into that setting, and then his versatility allows him to adjust his approach on either end of the floor from opponent to opponent. This is a team I'm gonna run a lot of high ball screens. It this is a team like. If you need Jimmy to run high ball screens and pick teams apart, he can do that. If you need Jimmy to attack mismatches

in the post, he can do that. If you need Jimmy to stand in the corner and knock down wide open stains still jump shots, he can do that. If you need Jimmy to be a transition player, he can do that. If you need Jimmy to defend on the ball, he can do that on a variety of different guys. If you need Jimmy to defend off the ball, he can do that. He can rebound. He is such a versatile player that he can plug and play into anything his team needs him to do. And he's big and strong,

which allows him to thrive in the physicality. That's what makes him such a unique playoff player. So I think bringing him in would be just a talent play for Milwaukee that would give him a better chance to hang with the top team in the conference, number two, the

Golden State Warriors. Now, this would be much more complicated to pull off because the Warriors have six players that make between five and ten million dollars so it's just really tough for them to match salary, and any deal would likely have to include would basically have to include Andrew Wiggins or Draymond grad My guess is Miami would want Andrew Wiggins because he would be able to immediately help Miami at the same position Jimmy place right now,

Hey what high Smith is in that role? So Miami would be getting an upgrade in the form of Andrew Wiggins, who just had another great game last night against the Thunder. So the deal would in all likelihood center around some combination of Wiggins and Cominga plus another two salaries, probably Buddy Healed and Kyle Anderson. Maybe you can convince them to let you keep Kaminga if they like to draft compensation enough. I would sert again every time I talk

about this with Warriors fans. I don't think you give up Kaminga just for poops and giggles. You try to keep Kaminga out of the deal. I'm just saying, if that's what it takes, that's what you gotta pay. You'd get back something like Jimmy Butler and Josh Richardson something along those lines, and the Heat obviously get plenty of

talent that can help right away with their goals. And apparently I was reading a Mark Stein piece yesterday that said that Miami really needs to make the playoffs this year in terms of future draft compensation that they owe to other teams. So if you were to make that deal, this is what you'd be left with. In this case, we'll call it Buddy Heald and Kyle Anderson plus Kaminga just for the sake of the worst case scenario. Obviously, if you get to keep Kaminga and you get to

include a different player, that's ideal. But in that case, you'd be left with Steph Jimmy and Draymond Dennis and tray Jackson Davis probably your starting five right off the bench. You still have Kavon Looney, you still have Moses Moodie, you still have Gary Payton. Second, you still have the gem Ski, you still have Lindy Waters, Gee Santo's, Quinton Post and Pat Spencer. Again, this is the advantage of having the depth of role player talent that they have,

and Josh Richardson would be in that mix too. You just have so many damn good players that you can afford to lose a few in order to bring back a primary shot creator. You get a star to anchor units with Steph off the floor, you get an offensive star to run two man game with Steph that teams will not want to swim, so you can get teams

into rotation consistently. And most importantly, on this team that has an enormous amount of role player depth but a complete lack of top end talent, you turn some of that role player depth into star talent to better balance out your roster. I also don't think Golden State would have to include much in the way of draft compensation to make it work, especially if Kamingo was in the deal.

I would actually be trying to include draft compensation at the expense of keeping Kaminga out of the deal, just for the talent. Now, again, the biggest challenges for the Warriors to make this work will be matching salary. The Heat apparently do not want to take back any contract that lasts past next season. Andrew Wiggins has a player option, but I have a feeling he might be willing to opt out and resign somewhere else or maybe even with the Heat. At that point. Kyle Anderson's last year is

non guaranteed, so You're good there, Buddy. Heeld is the tough one Buddy held has. But I think it's possible that I read something that his deal might not be guaranteed after last year either, so that might work. But I would just do everything I can to not include Gary Payton second, because I think he's an excellent rotation piece in the playoffs. And then I would try like

hell to leave Kaminga out of it. But again it's a long shot, but I actually think it pieces together kind of nicely for the Warriors if they could pull it off. Number one, though by far from me, is my favorite destination for Jimmy Butler, is still the Phoenix Suns. Now, there's a huge roadblock in this deal. You got to get a team that is willing to take on Bradley Beal and that Bradley Beal is willing to waive his

no trade clause for now. That makes things tough, which is why other teams like Milwaukee, like Golden State are in the mix right now. But I think this is the team that Jimmy can help the most. By far. Jimmy is everything that the Sons don't have. He can legit pressure the rim on offense, as both a bullyball

player and as just an overall matchup attacker. But in a way that's more impactful because he's also excellent at passing out of those situations, and the Sons can provide him with real spacing thanks to what Kevin Durant and Devin Booker do. He's a star that can play on both the floor in a way that Bradley Beale can't, but that Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can. He can meet them at that level, and then he fundamentally alters

their physical profile. As currently constructed, the Suns are too thin. They can be pushed around. But if you get a frontline that has Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, Nick Richards, it's just more physically imposing in terms of length, athleticism, and size and strength. I also think it can help them with their ball pressure issues. Part of the reason why Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can struggle with ball pressure from time to time is they're a little thin. They

can struggle under physicality. Jimmy Butler thrives under physicality. Now they're going to have to find another team to help facilitate that. But that's a type of deal that I think could really really help the Sons get to another level that they can't reach at this point under their current roster restrictions. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. Like I said, be back tomorrow with the mailbag and a bunch of the game reactions that I

wasn't able to get to today. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll 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.