Hoops Tonight - USA-Serbia Reaction: LeBron James & Team USA in FULL FORM, rout Jokic & Team Serbia

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Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume Heavy Wednesday. Everybody, Oh love you guys, are having a great week. Got a jam pack show for you. Today we saw the best basketball player in the world play against the best basketball team in the world as Nicola Jokic and Serbia faced off with Team USA. We're gonna break that game down from a bunch of different angles.

After that In the last couple of days, the Milwaukee Bucks rounded out an impressive offseason by signing Gary Trent Junior for the veteran minimum deal, which brings them to three really interesting free agent signings between Gary Trent, Torrian Prince,

and Delon Wright. So I want to kind of talk about each of those three guys within the context of how they fit with what Milwaukee does, and just talk a little bit about the Bucks offseason from thirty thousand feet just kind of look at it as we head into next season and after that, I'm gonna hit a bunch of mail bag questions that we didn't hit in the mail bag on Monday, gonna bounce around into a bunch of different topics around the league. You guys know

the joke. Before we get started. Scribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore JSNLTC. You guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Whe If you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight and then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments, we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer, all right, let's talk some basketball. So the showdown between

Jokic and Serbia and Team USA kind of went. You saw the best of both worlds, right. It was tied at forty at one point in the late second quarter, because guess what, Nicole Jokicic still most likely the best basketball player in the world, and when you surround him with good ball movement and shooting, that just works. It works because Jokic always keeps the ball moving from side to side. He's that's really good screens. If you bring double teams, he's always going to find a way to

make the right decision to beat you for that. There was a specific play in this game where Yokic was posting up ad along the left block and he kind of worked along towards the middle and bam Adebio came with like a late double team along the baseline side, and right as he came with that double team along the baseline side, the guy Bam was guarding relocated to the right wing for a three point shot, and Yokic like went and spun saw Bam immediately identified it, rifled

across the court pass that hit the shooter right in the shooting pocket on the right wing. He shot it and missed it, and then somehow in that thick of bodies including Bam and ad Jokic just rose up over everybody and got the offensive rebound and flipped in a little hook shot that just swished through the net. You're like, oh my gosh, this dude is just a complete force of nature. It was obviously a lot of fun to watch him, but Serbia eventually ran out of gas and

started missing shots. A big part of that, I thought, in my opinion, had to do with the defensive strategy that Serbia went with from the opening tip. They were putting a ton of ball pressure, especially in the backcourt. They got an early steal on Steph for a runout dunk.

It was just a super super aggressive defense, and I thought they ran out of gas, Like it's just really hard to do that, and then to make shots on the other end of the floor, and Team USA was throwing those extra defenders at Anthony or at Jokic that constantly had either Bam or Ad kind of along that back line getting ready to send that late help. And so it was important for those guys to knock down shots, and they just went cold. And then one of the

things too and pick and roll. They were ducking underneath ball screens on vasil jamchich and again, like you got to think of it this way as a coverage. When the guy's chasing over the top, he's funneling him into the lane. The dribble penetration is kind of baked in, and then it becomes more on the bit to like corral the role man and the ball handlers he comes downhill. Once you start ducking underpicks, it completely changes the dynamic

of the possession. Now the on ball defender is just kind of gonna meet you on either side as you come off, and so you have to beat that as the offensive player by stepping behind that pick and knocking down that pull up three, and I think he was like one for six.

that forty two eleven run. Both units, again Kurr has been doing a lot of line changes, although we mixed it up a little bit in the later portion of the game, but both of those units had extended dominant runs. Really impressive stretch for Team USA. I have five notes that I want to hit from TMUSA.

Let's put him with the bench group and tell him to just go nuts, and let's bring in a ball mover into that starting lineup, a guy like Drew Holliday. And another thing that Drew Holiday does really well that fits well with that starting group is he's really good at cutting along the baseline. Again, when you think of like five out spacing, if everyone actually stood in five spots around the three point line, you're not very far

apart from each other. And so a lot of times like it can be easier to guard two guys with one on the weak side because those guys just aren't very far apart. And so one of the ways you can manufacture spacing. Again, we talked about this all time. Five out spacing does not necessarily mean you're always on the perimeter. It just means you're not permanently occupying the dunker spot in any capacity that area around the paint.

You're rolling into the paint, you're cutting into the paint, you're driving into the paint, but you're not standing in the paint. What that means, though, is like there are opportunities when you drive and kick and the ball's kind of moving around and everything's in the blender for you to kind of pause on a cut right around that

area underneath the basket. And the Celtics did a ton of this with both Derek White Andrew Holliday, but especially Drew Holliday, but having their guards as they're cutting through kind of linger around the basket. And so like Drew Holliday is just kind of a better cog within a five out system. That makes him a better fit with that starting group. And so again you put An on the bench, he comes right in immediately starts hitting pull

up threes against Serbia's drop coverage. Like that's what you want. You want it to come in and look to be aggressive. He was playing passing lanes, he's getting steals, he's getting out in transition. It was awesome, and you could argue Ant's one of the top five players on the team, but it's not about that within the context of trying to make a basketball lineup work. And so I agreed with that move from Steve Kerr. We saw another steph heater,

especially in that first half. He had eighteen points. A lot off ball screening stuff like screen the screen or stuff to try to take advantage of the fact that they were top locking him and understanding youk just run him off a screen, It's got to be a little bit more complicated than that. They're running some flex cuts.

That's where you have Steph set a cross screen for Tatum as he comes off, and then after that Steph will come off of a pin down as he comes up to the top of the around that right wing area. Hit a three out of that flex set. It was just kind of a classic Steph heater there in that first half. It was really fun to watch it. Capted it off with a step back three on the left wing for an and one eighty and bam. Once again

the two most impressive bigs. I'm just gip ahead to Embid for a second because I did think Embiid was better in this game. Rough first shift again, you know, still had some sloppy turnovers, but he did start to see some of these reads. He had a little bit of a giving with Drew Holliday where Drew Holliday cut back door.

this unit to reach its ultimate potential. And Embid did a better job of that. I thought today. I thought Embiid's best game with Team USA so far was today, even though he still had a lot of turnovers, a lot of sloppiness. There was that play where Lebron hits him with the perfect back door cut pass and he's like wide open underneath the basket, and instead of just shooting a layup, he like just jumped back into Jokics to try to draw foul. It was completely absurd, and honestly, like be.

Ad was everywhere defensively and on the glass. You can make the case Anthony Davis has been the best player for Team USA so far through three games, which coming off of that playoff run where he basically went toe to toe with Jokic and like straight up barbecued him in the post one on one.

I hope the Lakers do so. BAM's jump shot once again, that was a big thing in the second game. If you guys remember against Australia, just the little soft spot in Australia's coverage was that area around the elbow where Bam was kind of short rolling into maybe hitting jumpers. Once again today, just knocking down that three point shot, and that's something that could be really exciting in the long run for Miami because that unlocks all sorts of possibilities.

It unlocks what if we put Bam at the four and we put another big center next to him, which is literally what he's doing with Ad right now. You're watching Ad and Bam demonstrate for you what a two big lineup can look like when you have the flexibility to have a guy who can guard the best post player and guard all pick and roll actions while also keeping a freaky defensive talent on that back line to either backside help rotate to the weak side shooter, or

clean up the defensive glass. And that duo is is just demonstrating for you what that effect is. But it depends on the fact that there's a certain level of offensive skill in spacing and like if BAM's gonna be able to shoot like that in the long run. We saw just a little hint of it last year with Miami, seeing a bigger hint of it now with Team USA.

If that's something that develops for him, that could be huge, especially since like finishing around the rim is actually a little bit of a weakness for Bam in terms of his touch shots within like five feet of the rim, and so if you kind of move him into more of a four that could be something that's really exciting. But it depends on that three point shot staying staying effective. But shout out to Ady and Bam, And then the

last guy I wanted to shout out was Lebron. Lebron did a lot of work in this particular game, operating from the top of the key, either with a triple threat or a live dribble as off ball action was taking place behind him along the baseline. I thought, there's this fascinating because I was listening to a friend of mine, Pete's as you guys know him. You Laker fans will

know him as Laker Film Room. And I was listening to his pod that he did yesterday, and he was talking about how the Lakers ran a lot of pick and roll in their five out last year, but that he wants to see the Lakers put Lebron in ad more at the middle of the floor, not operating with ball screens, but rather just operating with a triple threat while off ball action is taking place, because multiple things

can happen there. Lebron as a fulcrum, is such a good passer that if guys make mistakes in that off ball action and they break free underneath the basket or break free excuse me, along the three point line, He's gonna hit those reads on time and on target. But the second piece of it is if off all defenders get dragged into it, then he can look to be aggressive. And there was a lot of that in this particular game.

But like you saw that specific dynamic take place where Lebron probably hit a half dozen different guys cutting along the baseline, some of them got botched too, like mb tried to grift his way on that one. There was the one where he hit Drew Holliday right under the basket for a layup, and then Drew just forced an extra pass that was unnecessary to embid cutting to the basket, but a bunch of guys got layups and dunks out of that. He was hitting three point shooters coming off

of those actions. And then late in the game there was a sequence where a lot of off ball action was taking place, and then Lebron ended up getting a quick ball screen and got all the way to the rim and laid it up. Because none of the off ball defenders are keyed in on Lebron as a scorer because he's been doing so much playmaking from the top of the key. I actually thought that that game against Serbia was a really First of all, it's a really

smart way to use Lebron with this group. Lebron is very very comfortable taking away the offensive aggression elements of his game and just functioning as like a passing folk crum. That's a role that he's willing to do. And on a team where there are some guys that are kind of yanking at the rain, so to speak, Guys like Joel Embiid, guys like Anthony Edwards, like on a team like that where guys are being aggressive, having a guy who's willing to kind of function as a folkrum is

super important. It puts Steph into all those off ball actions that he's accustomed to running with Golden State, all those stuff did some on ball work as well, but like that is just a really smart way to use him.

And then the second piece of it is it's like a sneak peek of what I expect JJ Reddick to do a lot more with the Lakers this upcoming season, which is a little bit less pick and roll, a little bit more Lebron catching with the triple threat or Anthony Davis catching with the triple threat in the middle of the floor, as you have guys like Austin Reeves, Daldon connect, D'Angelo Russell, those dudes working as a working in off ball action and it could be a Ruby

Hotcha Mura slipping to the rim on a screen or

Jared Vanderbilt slipping to the rim on a screen. That's a again, five out is all about variety, and if you just lean into ball screens, you're limiting the different types of opportunities that you can generate with that kind of spacing and Again, the idea is, if ever nobody's running the softball action and your folkroom is at the top of the key, there's nobody under the basket, and so when those opportunities to slip into that space are available,

you need someone who can make those reads and a thought Lebron did a really nice job of that. Again, best they've looked so far through three games was during that forty to eleven run.

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players make much immediate impact in the NBA. It's rare to see a guy like Jaime Howkz Junior like steps in and is just a good rotation player right away for a good NBA team. And like, we will cover

draft picks if they become that sort of thing. But if I look at this Bucks rotation, and I look at Damian Lillard, and I look at you know, uh uh, Delawn Right and Gary Trent Junior, and I look at Torrian Prince and Chris Middleton and Jannison Tana Koopo and Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez and I look at that group, like, I just don't really think we're gonna see a lot

of the younger guys play that much. They'll play in the regular season, but this the veteran group, is gonna be the group that ends determining their outcome over the course of this season. And so I really want to

zero in on these three guys. I personally covered Tori Imprints very closely with the Lakers last year, So I'll give you guys some insight on that, and then we'll talk about Gary Trent, what he accomplish last year, what his strengths and weaknesses are, and then we'll talk about Delawon Wright, and then we'll move on to our mailbag.

So I had been talking about Gary Trent Junior trying to rehab his value by taking a veteran minimum deal on a contender, right, And the team that I had been primarily talking about was Denver, although I also wanted him for the Lakers potentially as well if they could have freed up a roster spot for him. But like the Bucks are another really nice example of that. They're similar to Denver. They're a team that has a clear need at the two, like specifically at his position.

try to get out of that veteran minimum tier. Right, So this makes a lot of sense, and that's in that regard. I think he's a substantial upgrade over Malik Beasley. For as good as Malik Beasley was as a catch and shoot guy last year, and he was amazing. He was one point twenty nine points per catch and shoe jumper, Gary Trent was right there. He's at one point twenty seven. So he's as good a catch and shoot guy as Malik was, at least within the context of last year

last year. But Gary Trent is about an inch taller with shoes on, He's a much better ball handler, can actually run some action in a way that Malik can struggle with, and he's a better point of attack defender,

still leaves a lot to be desired. He was not a good point of attack defender last year, but he has Malik Beasley's bad at it too, And Malik Beasley over the course of the year put in the work, tried to get better at least became like respectable in some sense towards the tail end of the year, but he still really struggled Garry Trent a little bit.

So like Gary Trent, it's been always been one of the guys that's like getting those steals at the point of attack, just attacking the basketball, applying that back pressure and reaching in from behind to try to disrupt that basketball. He's really good at attacking the pocket and that's a valuable skill at the point of attack. Now again, he's going to have to be better than he was in Toronto. But this is the important theme that we're talking about here.

All three of these guys are veteran minimum contracts. What that means is, I haven't actually seen the report on Gary Tren. He might have ended up taking the taxpayer, but I think he was on a vet minimum. But the point is is, like, if you are going to take a like, if you're going to be like in the payroll predicament that the bucks are in, you don't

get to go sign fifteen million dollar guy. And if you don't get to go sign the fifteen million dollar guy, then you can't think about it within the context of a fifteen million dollar player. If Gary Trent Junior was an elite point of attack defender, he would have signed a far more lucrative deal this summer. So you have to embrace the fact that when you're shopping in this particular price range, you're gonna get flawed.

that type of discount. That said, I do think he's a much better player than Elie Beasley, and when you strictly look at the deal through that context, you upgraded a starting spot with a vet minimum contract or something. I haven't again we talked about earlier. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but that's a massive win for the Bucks under any circumstances.

will be fine. Now I anticipate over the course of next season that he will start some games at the three because of Chris Middleton's health. Right as we saw, Chris Middleton ended up having double ankle surgery today or recently, so like he could end up missing some time, although at this point he's expected to be ready for the start of the season. But like, if Chris Middleton misses time,

you're just slotting Torrian Prince into that spot. But as we know, the idealized version of the Bucks next season involves Chris Middleton at the three concerns you have with Torrian Prince as a starting caliber forward don't really matter because if he's starting for you in the playoffs, that means Chris Middleton's hurt. And if Chris Middleton's hurt, you

probably don't have a championship ceiling anyway. And so within the context of what you're hoping for this year, which is a healthy season for your stars, I like him as a backup forward, really good catch and shoot guy. Last year he is at one point two points per catch and shoot jumper. He lee like he's one of those guys that will always follow the game plan on defense, but just doesn't have quite the physical tools to be

like profoundly impactful. So if his job is to chase over the top of screens or ice side balls screens, meaning like don't let him use the screen and final one back towards the baseline if he has specific responsibilities off the ball, where it's like he's not supposed to dig down off this guy, or he's supposed to dig down off that guy, Like you can count on Torreon to do his job, but like, if you watch him chase Jamal Murray around screens.

dribble handoffs pretty well. Torrian Prince is a good basketball player. He just needs to be like your seventh or eighth best player, which is what he's gonna be with Milwaukee. So I really like the fit, especially at that price point. Really really nice move for Milwaukee. His weaknesses he's not a good rebounder, and then as a three, he's thin, he's over, he's not a great athlete, and he's not particularly big or strong, and so like that physical area of the game is where he can be a problem.

One thing I'll say about Torrian Prince though, as bad as he was rebounding during the regular season, as inconsistent as he could be at times, he ironically after all of that drama, Lash ended up being the lakers most dependable forward in that Nuggets series.

good length. Actually ran into him in Vegas and we stood right next to each other, and he's taller than you would think, pretty thin, but he's got good length at that guard at that guard position, shot the ball.

guard option to have next to Damian Lillard. And just like last year when you had Patrick Beverley and Malik Beasley as your two options, now you have Delon Right and Gary Trent Junior, two kind of similar archetypes, but two much better players. In my opinion, I just think those are better basketball players. Like Patrick Beverley's not even

NBA player anymore. And Malik Beasley, again, as we talked about earlier, is a very very streaky jump shooter, can go very cold, as some of you Bucks fans saw for stretches, and he shot really well last year, but that's not how he shot every other year of his career. So like to me, I just think Gary Trents are

more dependable and a better basketball player overall. So, to put it simply, you turned Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverly into Gary Trent and delonn Wright, and you bolstered at the forward position by giving yourself a legitimate backup forward to play behind Chris Middleton, which is something that you didn't have last year. So I think that given them, they're grading on a curve right, and the curve for the Bucks is their payroll situation. Grading on a curve.

I thought the Bucks had an amazing offseason that that's going to be an interesting team to watch next year, especially if they can stay healthy. So all right, before we get out here, let's get to our mail bag. First question from a Warriors fan. The way I viewed small ball lineups has always been that it's an attempt to force as much shooting, spacing, passing, and quickness on the offensive end, mainly to target opponents slower biggs. But the only reasons these lineups end up small is due

to these being guard skills. If you could have those same three attributes in five wing players on your team, you would rather run that as a small ball lineup than have small guards that could be exploited on the defensive end. The reason small ball lineups do become small is because those skills are much more easily found in smaller guards, and most, if not all NBA teams simply don't have five wings that are the five most skilled

on their team. All that is to say, why the hell is Kerr running these four guard lineups when he could just as easily, due to the abundance of wing players with guard skills, get all the benefits of small ball lineups with only one guard out there, or even zero, and not be as vulnerable to counters that heavy guard lineups would face.

driving opportunity is available. Like decision making is key in the five out offense, especially alongside Steph Curry right, Like and like there was a play in the uh there was a play in the Tosa game today where Jason Tatum caught the ball in the in like the right corner area, and he caught and like stopped for a second and Steph cut right to the wing next to him and was wide open. But Tatum just like isn't used to playing with Steph and so he didn't make

that quick decision and he missed the opportunity. And as much as embiid at a better game today with tim Usa, I thought Tatum had like his worst game with Timusa. His decision making was a super sloppy. He missed Lebron on the lob in transition, he missed Steph on that cut. He had some passes that he fumbled around the basket. It was just kind of a still struggling to shoot. So Tatum had a little bit of a rough night.

But again the point is is like within Golden State's offense, you need guys that continue to funnel the action in the direction of Steph because that's your primary offensive engine. He's one of the best players in the world right And we have Steve Kerr on the record, by the

way that he doesn't think Kamina and Wiggins can play together. Now, the data ended up being okay with them because they were athletic enough and in the regular season context, especially in the urgency of their playoff seating situation.

Jonathan Kaminga is obviously still a young player that thinks more offense should be run through him, and Moses Moody I think is probably the easiest of those three to just kind of like plug into the system, even he has a tendency to kind of like stick sometimes and

force up some threes. Right, So, like those three guys, even though they're wings, they are not the types of guard skills that Steve Kerr is looking for within their five out offense in terms of quick ball in player movement, and so that's really the main kind of crux of it. Is like Steve Kerr would play a lot of lineups with like Steph Curry and Brandon Pizemski on the floor at the same time with like even sometimes with like Gary Payton or even like with Klay Thompson on the

floor as well. He would do some of that because he trusted those guys to keep the ball moving around. That's the main reason for it. But like I believe if Steve curR actually thought Moody, Kaminga, and Wiggins can all do that, then he would lean into them and then you'd see this lanky athletic lineup out there. But I just think the offense would be really clunky without the real ball movement piece of it. How does one get into coaching without any college experience playing as an athlete.

Coaching is a really it's it's very clicky, and it's it's very much like it's kind of like an old boys club in some ways in the sense that, like, especially at the college level, the dudes that have been doing it forever, they reward lower level coaches primarily based on like them grinding underneath them for a long time and like paying their dues.

from the ground up. And so in the college level, that means try to get a job as like a graduate assistant somewhere, or maybe if you can look at the lower levels, at like the JUCO or an AI levels, you might be able to find something where you're a volunteer assistant or you're doing all the work but not making any or very little money. Right, But even within that context, like for years, you're gonna be doing stuff

that sucks. You're gonna be making sure guys are attending class, going to recruiting trips in you know, Vegas to watch you know, twenty five high school basketball games in two days. You're gonna you're gonna be constantly dealing with drama behind the scenes as players are dealing with stuff because you're dealing with kids. Right at the NBA level, if you want to get your foot in the door and you don't have playing experience, you're gonna have to start in

the film room. And it's like gar ready to just cut a bunch of film forever, right, or like maybe maybe you can parlay that into a job as a scout, which you can parlay into a lower level and assistant. But like, no matter what, the coaching sphere is never gonna reward talent early. You're going to have to grind and then maybe, just maybe you'll get an opportunity down the line. It's a very very difficult field to crack into. And I have friends that are that are doing it,

that have had success. And like, I have a friend that I played played within college who's now coaching for the Phoenix Suns. That's awesome, Like he parlayed it into something big.

there are some of them that are rising up. There's a buddy of mine who's consistently taken leaps and now he's in the Pac twelve and he's doing really really well, right, so like, it's just tough. It's just tough.

back when I was working at Verizon. They had like a thing where they all of Verizon like took a bunch of managers to a game, and it was like when Anthony Davis was on the Pelicans, and then I want to say, it was like Eric Gordon was on the I think Eric Gordon was the best player on that Suns team, if I remember correctly, But Ad ended up hitting a game winner in that game, So that was kind of cool. The second game that I went

to was Lebron and the Cavs in twenty sixteen. It was in Phoenix as well, and this was the game more Kyrie Irving hit the huge dagger. This was, like I want to say, shortly after Christmas if I remember correctly that particular year, which that was cool because they ended up going on to win the title that year. And then I saw the twenty seventeen Calves when I lived in Charlotte. I saw the Hornets versus the Caves, and that was the best game I saw Lebron play.

He had like thirty seven or something like that in that game. He hit a bunch of threes. But those are the only three actual NBA games I've been to. I live in Tucson, so like it's I have to like actually go somewhere to see a game. But I've been to like a bunch of really cool basketball events, Like I went to the TMUSA game on Wednesday last week against Canada.

Maybe next time he comes to Phoenix or something like that. Victor Webinyama, I feel like, is a mussy guy, love to see him in person.

in two thousand and one, Shack at the five. I think those are like nineteen ninety three, MJ is the most dominant two guard that ever played, twenty eighteen, Lebron is the most dominant forward that ever played. Two thousand and one Show is probably the most dominant center that ever played. Larry Bird in nineteen eighty five was just at an insane efficiency level. I think that'd be a

really interesting fit alongside all those guys. And I am of the opinion that twenty twenty two Steph, even though he had a little slump during the regular season between like how well he played in the regular season in twenty twenty one and how well he played in the postseason in twenty twenty two, I still think that version of Steph was the best. Big part of it, too,

is just the coverages he was facing. Like I'm sorry, I'm just more impressed by Steph dealing with blitzes and top locking and all this crazy shit that he sees now than fifteen in twenty sixteen, when he was still seeing a lot of drop coverage in barbecuing guys and so, like, I do think Steph was at his best when he hoisted the trophy in twenty twenty two. Do you think the Bucks is currently constructed have any chance of winning the title next year? Their biggest move this offseason was

losing Malik Beasley. Also, Dame Brooke and Middleton aren't getting any younger. This mail back question might have come in. It might have come in before the Gary Trent signing. I actually think they upgraded a couple of their lower level players. Like, as long as everyone's healthy and the continuity is there, you get a full camp with Doc Rivers. I haven't ranked my teams out West or out East yet.

I still think they're below Boston. But like as we saw, if you get an upset, right like Denver got knocked off by Minnesota, what if Boston gets knocked off by New York next year, and then what if New York ends up being a tough matchup for Milwaukee and Milwaukee ends up beating New York, they could get in right, So, like, I still think anything could happen.

so I think it'd be silly to say they couldn't win. Obviously, I think they're further away than people think, but I do think the Bucks are at a similar level there. With the lack of a true bulky power forward, I think Philly will use a double big lineup with two centers and play a zone defense or something like that at times. Or do you think they have to go get a power forward in the trade market. I think they Obviously they're poised to potentially make a trade that

they need to. They have some draft compensation, But I own a double. A second part of this mailback question is the questioners said that he thinks Embiid has the skill to play the four on offense. The main piece there is foot speed. I think if you put a center next to Eimbiid, I think the overall foot speed of your lineup would be bad, and I think you'd really struggle in transition. I do not view Embiid as a four. I think he has to play the five.

The second piece of it is like the reality of their predicament in the sense that, like, it doesn't make sense to just put a big power forward next to him unless it's a good player. And more often than not, I think they're gonna end up just going down with Paul George, Kelly Ubray and Joel Embiid at the three

four five is what I anticipate they will do. And again, like Paul George and and Kelly u Bray are two pretty good athletes, so I think they can make I think they can make up for the lack of that like truly imposing power forward and innb just by him elf brings a certain imposition on that front line. Thoughts on Jaden Springer's potential to crack the Celtics rotation, Ah, you know, it's hard to say because the rotation, like especially with Sam Houser and Peyton Pritchard and their development

is pretty iron tight. I do think he'll still play quite a bit in the regular season to crack the regular rotation, he'd have to be a better decision maker. Like within the Celtics driving kick offense, you need guys that can dribble, shoot and pass and like and make decisions,

and those are specific weaknesses of Jaden Springer's. He's one of the most exciting, like young point of attack athletes to watch, Like when you watch him hound a ball handler, full court chase over the top of the screens, he could be downright disruptive. He's a super exciting athlete. But like within the Celtic's decision making and their five oh how deliberate they are with their spacing all that kind of stuff, It's hard for me to imagine him cracking

the rotation. But he'll have his moments in the regular season, just by virtue of trying to get through those eighty two games, which two guys from this year's team USA not counting Celtics so the most likely are most likely to say that they enjoy playing with each other and team up within the next two seasons. I'm not gonna

treat this as most likely. I'm gonna treat this as what I want as a fan, because I don't really get into the reporting side and I'm not really sure who's closest to being ready to leave versus who's not, so on and so forth. As a fan, though, I would love to see Bam and AD play together. Every time those two are on the floor, it's just fun to watch how frightening they are defensively on the front line. They're both flashing a lot of higher level offensive stuff

with Team USA as well. Those two guys are easily the ones i'd want to see. Can you make a video about basketball?

is we're using more video. We're using more like actual footage of NBA games, and we're also using our little play clipboard that we use now where I can use some x's and o's to demonstrate some concepts to you guys. We're going to continue to incorporate that over the course of the next few years, and it is my goal for that to be better, that to be a better experience for you casual NBA fans. So I do appreciate the comment, and it is something we're working on.

in his final game of the regular season. You had the Warriors get to seventy three wins on the final game of the season, and then we had that epic Calves Warriors. Well, first of all, we had the Warriors Thunder series in the conference finals that was insane, and then we had the epic Calves Warriors NBA Finals which went seven games and ended on a Lebron James block

and a Kyrie Irving step back three. So it's hard to beat that because that was just an incredible NBA season For me personally, that will always be the most memorable, at least until we see something better, right, And last, before we get out of here, last night was the finale of The Acolyte and super super interesting on a bunch of different levels. We had a concrete drop of Darth Plagas, who is my favorite Star Wars character ever and the main character of my favorite Star Wars book ever,

which is the book called Plagas or Darth Plugas. And I did an episode of Two Suns podcast with my buddy Luke.

have for today. Tomorrow, I believe you're releasing the Heimihawks interview, so keep an eye on the feeds for that. We're gonna be running breakouts of the mail bag and stuff throughout the rest of this weekend, and we'll be back producing new content next week on Monday. And I think we're gonna be starting our player rankings then, and that's gonna get kind of confusing because.

want to do two lists permanently in the future. I want to do an in the in a vacuum list, which is like if we had a full on NBA draft of all four hundred and fifty NBA players, who would go number one, who would go number two, who would go number three if you were starting a franchise from scratch for that season, right, for full eighty two games and a playoff rount Right, that's my in avacuum list.

And then I want like a bragging rights list, which is like who had the best season overall in terms of how dominant they were, how far they went into postseason, Like who's the guy that gets to point at all the other players and was like I was the best guy last year? Like who wins wins the bragging rights? Those are the two types of lists I want to make, and we don't have any real marketing strategy for how

to do that. So if any of you guys have any ideas for what we could call those two lists, drop them in the comments because we're probably gonna get started with that next week.