Hoops Tonight - Warriors finish off the Mavs

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everybody happy. I'll be one Canobi released day, something that I am very excited to indulge myself with immediately after this show is over. In completely inconsequentially, I wore my Star Wars shirt tonight. Um awesome, incredible performance from the Golden State Warriors, enough fight from Dallas to not be completely embarrassing, which is about the best that we can hope for in this conference final, which has been an

utter disaster. But I believe that the disaster that this Conference Finals has been is largely fueled by Golden State being much better than Dallas. Yes, I was wrong. Dallas is not in the same league as Golden State. They are much better and that played out in the series.

And Boston is much better than Miami, and more often than not, the blowout nature of this Conference Finals has been a swing back and forth between the better team dominating and then the better team letting their foot off the gas periodically because there's so much better than the team they're playing, which is what happened with Golden State in Game four and what happened with Boston in game one.

In Game three, the chasm between these two teams is gigantic, and that led to a pretty ugly Conference final, although Boston still has to close the deal. But I do believe our NBA Finals series, which I expect to be Boston versus Golden State, is going to be much more interesting. We have packed show tonight. I want to get into

the weeds of this game tonight. Talk a little bit about how this Golden State Warriors engine continues to impress me, a little bit about Luca and the way he went down tonight, and some kind of concerning markers that I noticed not just on the defensive end, but also with some of his off ball threat stuff. And then if you guys stick around for the end of the show, I want to take some time. I'm not as big on the player rankings as I used to be when I was younger, but I do still think they carry

some importance. And there was an epic debate in the social media world about whether or not Steph or Lebron will be higher all time after this if the Warriors were to win a championship this year, fueled of course, as always by the talking head cycle at ESPN, this time Patrick Beverley, who is clearly not afraid to say anything scary. So we will get to some Lebron VERSU

step stuff at the end of the show. Before we get started, all of you guys who are listening, if you could take the time to like this video, I would sincerely appreciate that that helps us a lot. Also, if you could subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss any more of our content, that would be awesome. Draymond Green, I'm sure we'll be reacting soon in the next couple of days. And then, last but not least, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt So you

guys can see the video breakdowns that we do. We have big plans to do a lot of footage, like actual on court footag stuff during the NBA Finals, So you're gonna want to be following me for that. So I wanted to get started by talking a little bit about the importance of having multiple offensive threats, which has been the difference between Golden State in Dallas and the difference between Boston in Miami. The we we looked at

this Boston game last night. You go into an important game on the road in Game five, and Jayson Tatum plays poorly, right, Marcus Smart plays poorly. You know, you don't shoot the ball particularly well. But that team is loaded with guys that can score. And so even though those two guys didn't play particularly well, you've got a big Derek White game, You've got a monster Jalen Brown game. Right.

The anatomy of having multiple threats is chances are you know, like this is just the anatomy of being a basketball player. Any of you guys who are listening who played hiccup, don't you have days where you go up and everything's going in and then you have days where you're going up where you're taking the same shots and they just miss for whatever reason. Right, Like, there's a lot of you know, what's the what's the word I'm looking for here?

Like like shot just like a difference in expected shot result versus actual shot result. Right, And if you only have a couple of threats, it's far more likely that you might catch them on a night where no one's scoring. We go forward to Golden State tonight. You know, I have once again met up with with Live Moods. Are are are one of our big gambling people here at the volume, and we were talking about the same game

partlay to put together today. And you know, Clay Thompson uniquely seems to have a nose for these types of settings. He's one of those guys that seems to get even more confident and have even more audacity when the stakes are highest, which is why he's so reliable towards the ends of playoff series. And it's such an interesting dynamic. It's such an interesting dynamic in the sense that that threat is always that's always a possibility when you have

that much talent on the floor. If it wasn't Clay tonight, it would have been someone else. Jordan Pool had an okay game, right. I think he had fourteen points or fifteen points, right, Like, that's an okay game from Jordan Pool. You know you've got uh. Steph Curry was largely playing decoy tonight. And the value of having all those threats is what allows you to have the enough shots at the roulette table to have a couple of them hit.

If I got six guys that can go for twenty points, it's a lot more possible that a couple of guys actually do. Andrew Wiggins couldn't buy a three point shot tonight, but he was massive scoring in the mid range and at the rim, right, Like, that's that's a nice threat

coming through for you there. Kevon Looney eighteen rebounds, seven offense siv rebounds, seven additional possessions, including what I thought was the dagger to Clay Thompson on the right wing after and Andrew Wiggins missed three on the left wing, and with Andrew with with Kevon Looney, it's not the same kind of threat, right, It's not you know, him

going for twenty five points. What it is is it's him remaining a threat off the basketball by simply playing hard and having a nose for the ball, chasing after offensive rebounds right, and securing the defensive rebounds. This is something I've been super critical of a lot of players over the years. I'm gonna be critical about Luke with Luca about it later tonight. You know, there are, roughly depending on the team, you play around a hundred possessions

in a basketball game. You're not going to shoot or pass on all of them. You might be like, if you're a starter, you're gonna be in there for seventy ish possessions, So what are you gonna do on the other thirty or forty possessions when you're not involved? Right? That's what have all Looney does to remain threat. But most importantly, and this is I think the thing that most frequently gets glossed over with this whole Golden State Warrior system because don't get me wrong, they have a

lot of talent. Gold State and and Boston have proven that they have the two most talented rosters in this playoff field. Unfortunately because of the decline of Phoenix's Superstars, which we we've been over on the show before. But there's something very different about the way Step plays and the way that opens things up for other scores. You know, one of the you know, the heliocentric style I think

gets maligned too much. I think people point to heliocentric styles failing when more often than not, it is talent. Like everyone says, oh, two thousand eighteen hard and it failed. And don't get me wrong, Harden wasn't great. Deserves a ton of criticism there. But they're up three too before Chris Paul went down, right, they look at you know, things like the we look at like the Clippers last year, it's very heliocentric, is very Reggie Jackson and Paul George

just isolating while they space the floor. But it's like, I mean, if they have Kawhi Leonard, they probably be Phoenix, right, you know. And then this year with Luca, it's like this style, the spreading the floor. It has a lot more effectiveness than you would think. This team has out king coverage with respect to the amount of talent that it has. It has a lot more to do with the fact that Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinuity are running

your alternate possession. So to be clear upfront, I do think helio centric basketball can work if you have the right roster construction. But this style that Steph plays with also works and it's damn effective. It requires a different kind of thing, right, Like there's a huge difference between a spot up threat and a scoring threat for helio centric systems. You need spot up threats for movement systems, and with the star that can succeed so much off ball,

like Steph, it helps more to have scoring threats. That's why you saw guys like Andrea Guadala and Sean Livingston and Leandro Barbosa and everything you know, Jordan Pool, these kinds of guys succeeding alongside step to have a scoring archetype because with the way that Steph inverts a defense, with the way that he can succeed off ball, with the way that he dictates attention even when he doesn't have the ball a lot more often than not, it has to do with guys being able to put the

ball on the floor and score rather than with the heliocentric system. You need guys like Maxi Kleiba. You need guys like Reggie Bullock who can just spot up and be deadly when you help, as guys like Lucar Driving into the lane. But what's this Steph play style? We've talked about it before, and I said the same thing to Colin Coward when I went on his show on Sunday.

It's impossible to replicate because there just isn't a player around the league that has the requisite commitment to winning to be willing to do something like be a decoy all night long. Like there's a little flurry there in the third quarter where Steph tried to or but outside of that, he basically was content to absorb defensive attention and let his teammates go off. That's very unique around the NBA. The Warriors had thirty six assists on forty

five field goals tonight. That's an insane number. Over of their field goals were assisted tonight. Think about how wild that is. That kind of thing just doesn't happen anywhere else in the league. That is a unique, impossible to replicate play style that is opened up by Steph, and everyone down the line is bought into it, including Clay Thompson,

who was incredible tonight. I wanted to talk about this clay Hot streak because you know, the the the anatomy of a Clay Hot streak is so different than other scores. You know, a lot of Warriors fans over the course of the years will tell you that Steph is obviously a much better player than Clay, and obviously step is a much better shooter than Clay. Steps the best shooter of all time. But Warriors fans usually will admit that

Clay's hot streaks are actually better than steps. The famously once scored what was it, thirty seven points in a quarter. He once had sixty points in three quarters. Clay Thompson will be and it's a couple of different things. One, he's got a really quick release and it's very there's not a lot of wasted movement. It's one of the number one things that I coach kids on when I'm

coaching my high school kids about shooting. You know, the more moving parts you have, the more margin for error there is, or the less margin for error there is. If I'm doing all sorts of weird stuff as I'm going up into my shot, all it takes is one of those parts getting out of whack for the shot to miss. Clay Thompson is one of my favorite players

to show people at an example of beautiful shooting. For him because there is no wasted motion, which is one of the main things that allows him to get that muscle memory so dialed in that he can hit these hot streaks. And then the key is he's tall. He's six ft seven and with that quick release at six ft seven, for Clay, if he wants to and don't, you don't have to work too hard to get a shot off. And so his hot streaks have always been so interesting to me because there's it's a different kind

of helplessness than it is with Steph. A lot of times with Steph you feel like you're guarding him well and he's just making impossible shots because he's the best shooter of all time. With Clay, it just feels like he's getting great looks. He seems to have a nose for the ball. This is another huge detail. This is an instinct thing. It's not something you can coach. It's something that some players just have. It's like it's like the rebounders like Kevan Looney who just have an instinctual

nose for the basketball. They just they seem to know where the ball is coming off the rim. They seem to know where they're supposed to be to get the rebound. Clays the same way with his spotting up, his ability to relocate and kind of just have a feeling of where he can get the basketball and kind of just have a feeling of where the open spot in the defense is. Every time there's an offensive rebound, doesn't it just kind of seem like Clay's open. He'll he'll sense

that sort of thing. He'll sense when the offensive rebound is there, and he won't get back on defense. He'll relocate. He's got all these little unique traits that are so different from other shooters around the league. And I think that's why, even though he's not as good as shooter as Steph, he can have hot streaks that are even crazier. But overall, I thought tonight was an absolute clinic in

what makes this Golden State offense great. And I'm gonna be really critical of Dallas and their defense here in a little bit, but there, over the course of the last third of that game, I thought Dallas actually was defending pretty well in Golden State. It still was able to get the shots that they needed to get, so salute to them. Um. I was bummed out by the conference finals. I thought they were boring on a bunch

of different levels. First of all, Golden State proved to be way better than Dallas, and Steph proved to be way better than Luca. I made a prediction when I wasn't confident in I told you guys, I wasn't confident in this particular series, but I thought Dallas. I leaned slightly towards Dallas in six games. I was flat out wrong. I was wrong about Luca over Steph. I was wrong about the Dallas roster and being able to keep up. I have to own that Golden State proved themselves to

be the better team. I've been right about a lot of stuff in this playoff run, and I've been wrong about a lot of stuff in this playoff run. It's just kind of the nature of the way things go. But that talent gap between Golden State and Dallas, as well as the talent gap between Boston and Miami, I think it's a huge part of why these games been blowouts.

I think it's been a combination of Boston and Golden State dominating games because they are better, and Dallas in Miami hanging tight and and and taking advantage of lacks of daisical effort from Boston and Golden State when they get too arrogant and they let their foot off the gaess like what happened to Golden State and game in game four and what happened to Boston in games one in game three. Right, this series is going to be a whole lot closer. If Boston closed the deal tomorrow,

which I expect them to. We're looking at again. This is the biggest example that I can use to kind of demonstrate to you guys the difference in this matchup compared to what Golden State has been dealing with through this playoff run. Golden State averaged like over points per Hunter possessions against Denver. Denver was outmatched with talent. Yoki had so much on his offensive load that he basically had to mail in the defensive end just to have the energy to hang in the games. Golden State lit

him on fire. Golden State destroyed this Dallas team. They embarrassed him on the defensive end. Dallas has a whole, a whole other defensive set of issues they're gonna have to confront this summer. With John Morant on the floor, the Warriors scored about a hundred and twelve points per one hundre possessions, which is pretty good. Not as good as they did in the other two series, but pretty good.

Here's the issue. When Memphis was without Job through that entire series, the Warriors had a hundred and four offensive rating. That's pretty low. Boston is a much much better defense now. To be clear, I'm picking Golden State to win this series, but I expected to be much closer and to be by far Golden State's biggest challenge of this playoff run, and it will have a lot to do with the fact that they're facing a defensive matchup that they haven't faced yet. In this series, Boston ran a ton of

drop coverage against Miami. Miami their offensive system is is reliant on a lot of dribble handoffs and high ball screens with Bam and guys like Max Struce and Gay Vincent, Kyle Lowry, you know, even a little bit of Jimmy Butler Tyler Harrow coming off of those screens and pulling up jump shots right. And I vehemently disagreed with the strategy. I thought it was a huge part of why Miami got the wins they did early in the series. But the way the reason why it broke for Boston is

everyone went cold. Max Strew's completely fell apart, Kyle Lowry completely fell apart, Tyler Harrold got hurt, and then Jimmy Butler completely fell apart. Gay Vinson has been the only guard really for Miami that's played well. Right, We're upgrading all of that for this series. Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Jordan Pool even a little bit, and Andrew Wiggins. This is an entirely different level of pull up jump shooting team and curl jump shooting team and movement jump shooting team.

So I don't think Boston is gonna be able to run the same drop coverage that they did. So this is where rim pressure becomes critical. I expect Boston to do a ton of switching. Now that that what happens with switching, Golden State's gonna do things like they're gonna run wild off ball actions to try to confuse Boston switches, to try to bait them into mistakes. They will get some a ups and dunks in this series off of that type of off ball movement and mistakes from Boston.

But a large part of what Golden State will have to do offensively in this series is to attack switches. So this is where this is This is where shot selection becomes key and rim pressure becomes key, specifically for Jordan's Pool and Steph. When you're attacking a switching defense, it becomes about your ability to create an advantage against your defender, specifically the weakest defender on the floor that you're trying to target, which with Boston there's just not

a lot of options there. So the tendency for a lot of players in these types of situations is to fall for the trap and to go to a series of isolation moves and take pull up jump shots. It's one of the biggest things that Boston's had issues with throughout the series, which by the way, will impact Boston when they're on offense. And I'm gonna get to that

here in just a minute. But the best way, the smart way to attack a switch defense is to apply rim pressure to engage help defenders, because you don't want to run into an isolation contest. If you run into an isolation contest, you put yourself at the mercy of physicality, and Boston's gonna have physical advantage over advantages over you

in this series. But if you turn it into an isolation contest where they're isolating and you are getting kick out wide open shots and nice you know, uh, offensive opportunities attacking closeouts, then you have the advantage. The only way to get to the point where you can attack closeouts against the switching defense is if you apply rim

pressure and engage rim defenders. So there will be a ton of pressure on Steph and Jordan Pool in particular to get dribble penetration, and they both do it very differently. Steph does it by weaponizing the threat of his shooting to keep you on your toes, leaning forward, constantly concerned about the threat of the pull up, and weaponizing that to get around you. For Jordan's Pool, it's just straight line speed in the ability to change direction in combination

with the ability to handle the basketball. There was a massive pivotal play in the third quarter of this game tonight. Luca makes a tough float in the lane, gets it

down to eight. Actually someone else at score, but they got it down to eight, and it's the end of the quarter and Jordan Pool brings the ball off the floor and he's got Reggie Bullock on him and he just hits him with a vicious right to left crossover and completely dusts him a good defensive player and gets into the lane on a in a blur and finishes with a left handed lay up off the glass. It was a massive play in that game to get it to double digits going into the break, and it's a

clear demonstration of what I'm talking about here. The one of the keys to the series in this Boston Golden State matchup. If Boston can close the deal against Miami tomorrow again, which who knows, but if they can, is

that deal and they end up in this matchup. The ability of Steph and Gold and Stephan Jordan Pool to apply rim pressure against Boston switches and to get their defense and rotation is going to be pivotally important because if they get a one or four offensive rating against Boston, it might not be enough. It might have to be closer to one ten. And the only way that's happening

is if they get consistent rim pressure. I want to move over to the other side of the ball for a second, So the the I want to I want to take you guys back to the Brooklyn Boston series for a second. So in that series or Brooklyn actually fared pretty well against that Boston defense, which again I've

spoken very highly of that Boston defense. I think when they're actually dialed in and trying, and they have Robert Williams, I I think they're one of the best defenses of this era, if not the best defense of this era. They held a Kade Kyrie line ups during the regular season averaged about a hundred and twenty two points per one hundre possessions. They held that same pairing to about

one thirteen in the first round series. The consistent theme is that Boston has been holding your scoring to about ten points less per one hun possessions than what you did in the regular season. But one thirteen is a pretty decent number for Brooklyn, and Boston swept them. And the reason is is because Boston had no trouble scoring in that series, a lot less trouble than they had

against Milwaukee and then they had against um Miami. And one of the keys there was the way that Boston was able to attack small perimeter players, which Miami doesn't have much of, in which Milwaukee didn't have much of. So what will be interesting is Golden State's ability to avoid mismatches, particularly guys like Steph in Jordan's pool, keeping your smaller, slighter guards off of the bigger Boston Wings

to attack. Again. This isn't like Luca where he's to methodically work you into the lane herkey jerky and you have plenty of time to help and recover. These are guys in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown that are gonna put their head down and try to slash to the rint. And so one of the things that Golden State's done consistently in this playoff run that I think is very smart is they've used Stephen Jordan pool and what's called a hedge and recover scheme. So there's a bunch of

different types of pick and roll coverages. Right. We've talked about drop coverage a lot on this on this show, we talked about switching on the show. There's different things you can do within drop coverage is like a catch hedge and things along those lines. But you don't see the hedge and recover very often anymore. It was primarily used about ten years ago and power forwards that we're in the game and you'd see old slow bigs hedge

and recover out on the perimeter. You can kind of You can if you guys, those of you who have been watching the game for a while, just visualize it. You can imagine the big lumbering post player coming out to hedge almost out to half courton and recovering right. Well, the genius of the hedge and recovery is it forces the ball handler to take a retreat dribble out to have court. And when you make a ball handler make a retreat dribble out to half court, it just buys

your time to recover around that. Okay, so what will happen is Luca or somebody will call for step on a switch and when he comes up, when steps Man comes to set the screen, instead of doing a switch, Step will hedge hard, forcing Luca to take a retreat dribble, which gives Andrew Wiggins time to fight through the screen so that Steff can recover. It was the genius thing that Golden State did to try to keep guys like Jordan Pool and Steff off of Luca, which is why

they weren't able to get that switch. Often they were much more willing to give the Looney switch or the Elita switch than they were to give the guard switches. That is going to be vitally important against Boston because Boston was relentless and attacking Patty Mills and attacking Kyrie Irving and it and it just an attacking Gore and Dragic and all the slower, slight, skinny guards that we're playing for Brooklyn. That's going to be a really really

interesting part of this matchup. Andrew Guadala is going to be a key factor here because Andrew Wiggins demonstrated that he can stand up to Stout Wings the way he still stood up to Luca. As a matter of fact, another thing I have to own I said in the Dallas series, I said no one, nobody on Golden State has a chance of guarding Luca. Now, I don't think anybody in the league can guard Luca in the sense

like shut him down. But Andrew Wiggins demonstrated in that series he can guard Luca, and by guard, I just mean naked, so that he has to rely on the more difficult elements of his offensive game. So credit to Andrew Wiggins. I was wrong. There was one player on Golden State who could guard Luca. It was Andrew Wiggins ended up being a huge swing factor in this series. But if Andrew Wiggins is on Jayson Tatum. Who's gonna

guard Jalen Brown. That's an interesting It's probably gonna be Clay Thompson, right, but Clay Thompson is not the same defensive player that he was earlier in his career. This is where Andrew Guadala being available would be massive. Jalen Brown. First of all, Jalen round. Have you guys noticed how many times Jalen Brown has gotten stripped in this series and turn the ball over. It's like every time he puts the ball on the floor tries to go through traffic,

the ball just goes to the other team. Andre Goodal has some of the best hands of any defensive player that's ever played this game. So Andre Goodala's availability so that they can physically match up with the two wings for Boston is going to be vitally important. Last thing I wanted to touch on for the NBA Finals again caveat Boston has to close the deal. I think it's gonna be really important for Golden State to do a ton of switching outside of those headge and recover situations

and test Boston's decision making. So as you've seen with Miami and with Milwaukee. Both of those teams have been able to get Boston to go through extended stretches where they can't score, largely fueled by baiting them into isolation basketball and getting Tatum and Brown to take stupid contested jump shots and avoid that same rim pressure that I say is so vitally important to attack these switching schemes.

I expect Steve Curve to do exactly what Erik Spoelstre did and to consistently mix things up, to consistently change coverages, and to consistently forced Boston to test their decision making. I haven't checked it updated for Game five, but through the first four games of the Conference Finals on the East, Boston average about a hundred and two points in the half court per one possessions. That's a decent number. It's

a lot better than they fared against Milwaukee. And so that dynamic, that that half court dynamic, it's going to come down to which team can execute better there. Will it be Steph and Jordan Pool applying the rim pressure, getting Boston in rotation and getting quality three point shots for their wings, or will it be Boston running over the small bar guards of Golden State and getting into

the lane. This is an incredibly close series. I think it'll be a long series and I'm incredibly excited for it. I am leaning towards Golden State in six. Actually, we'll see. I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm to do a final pick as we get closer to the finals, but I'm picking Golden State as of right now to win in a longer series because I trust their overall commitment to the job, their attention to detail, their leadership, and there's a guy named Steph Curry who's been there before. He's been there

five times. He will be immensely comfortable. Just like Lebron was on the early Golden State teams in the finals where he was clearly the most comfortable guy on the floor. I expect that to be Steph in this final series, and I think it's gonna be a huge swing factor to Golden State. All Right, we have two other things

real quick. I want to hit tonight. I want to talk a little bit about Dallas We're looking forward, and then at the end, I want to talk about this Lebron Steph debate that was going all over the place on social media because of Patrick Beverley all right, So I talked about Luca's defense. I'm not gonna get into that again. Luca has to get in better shape and

become a better defensive player. That goes without saying. But one of the most interesting dynamics that I noticed in this series and throughout this entire playoff runt is that Luca was not making his catch and shoot threes. And so I went into the numbers and looked to see

Usually that's how I always am. I'm trying to attach things with the eye test too, things that are represented statistically, because I think either without the other is worthless, right A. Numbers that don't actually represent what's happening on the floor are worthless, And whatever you perceive is happening on the floor that's not also leading to statistical success is also worthless. It needs both. Lucas shot on catching shoot threes in

this playoff run before tonight. That's awful. That's extraordinarily bad. Now, catching shoot threes and are are an entirely different dynamic than pull up threes. Pull up threes are so much more about touch and getting lift and getting separation. Lucas shot pull up threes in this series before tonight, overall, so he shot better there. Catching shoot threes are way more about muscle memory and repeating the same motion every single time. You have to take time to work on

catching shoot threes. When I go through my shooting routine means I always make sure there's a good balance between what I'm doing with step back threes and pull up threes and step back jump shots, pull up jump shots, turn around jump shots out of the post. I always have a balance between that kind of thing and just a ship ton of reps and standard catching shoot threes. Because again, this is the most important dynamic here. Because let's we talked a lot about helio centric offenses earlier

in the show. In order for helio centric offense to win a championship, they're gonna have to bring in another star. Right, we're gonna talk about that here in just a second. So let's say they bring in another star. All of a sudden, Luca's usage rate is going to go way down, and he's gonna have to be a threat on on

possessions when he does not have the ball. He's not quick enough to do what Steph does and just fly around off the screens and stuff, right, he'll be able to do the occasional deep seal and when he gets switched on to a smaller defender. Kind of the some of the stuff that Lebron does right, but a huge part is going to be him to turning himself into a successful catching shoot three points. This is actually something that I think Lebron has done a really nice job

towards the end of his career. He he even spots up a little bit further outside the line. He'll spot up at about twenty five feet instead of ft, just so he has that little extra bit of space and and it it makes that defender have to go a little bit further out and he'll Lebron is a gunner and catch and shoot situations, and Luca will take them at the end of the clock when he has to. But it seems like that's not a big enough part of his game. And I think that's gonna be a

huge part. In addition to his conditioning and in condition, in addition to his ability to defend, He's going to have to make himself a threat off the basketball. Now. I talked about them retaining a star with Dallas. It's vitally important that they retain assets. The Warriors just clearly demonstrated this. Kevin Durant says he wants to leave, says

he's going to Brooklyn. Golden State has two options, let him go or engage the Brooklyn Nets and try to bring something back for k D. As a result, they overpaid for a player They didn't like the little Russell. As a matter of fact, they didn't like him so much that I actually have been pretty critical of Golden State in the way they handled him, and they kind of burped him to the ground after they traded him away,

which I thought was unprofessional. But the move of retaining D'angela Russell was genius because they were able to flip him to Minnesota, not just for Andrew Wiggins, but for picks. And Andrew Wiggins is now a vitally important part of a team that I think is going to win the NBA Championship this year. So retaining assets is one of the most important dynamics to maintaining your competitiveness as you

move forward over the years. You need to resign Jalen Brunson to whatever he asks, or not what he asked, but whatever he dictates in the open market, because even if you don't think he's the number two for Luca, you need the asset. Jalen Brunson is not a star, but he did demonstrate in this postseason run that he is an effective matchup attacker. He can beat people off the dribble, he's a great mid range game, he's a competitor. He had some massive games in this playoff run. So

he does have value. And if there's a disgruntled star somewhere around the league, somewhere around the next couple of years, and you're engaging them as the Dallas Mavericks, and you can come to them and say, hey, I've got all these draft picks. Also, here's Jalen Brunson, a player that's at least a good player for you. You know, here's so and so, here's so and so. Retaining assets is

important to engage in those trade situations. So I think it's really really important for Dallas this summer to not you know, I, yeah, they're not good enough, they need another star. But don't let guys walk for nothing. Follow the Golden State example. Retain your assets, be prepared to engage teams in the trade market. Okay, So I had no intention of talking about Lebron and Steph tonight. Wasn't planning on really getting into that unless stephf got the trophy,

which obviously there's still one more step there. But I do think step will end up getting the trophy. I typically don't hair anywhere near as much about all time player rankings now as I did when I was younger. I bought into that stuff a lot, a lot more when I was younger. Now as as I've gotten older, I'm a lot more, you know, Just aware of the fact that this situation is way too complicated. Everyone's way too entrenched. Like all of you Warriors fans listening, you

think Steph was better. I can't tell you you're wrong. You know I disagree with you, but I can't tell you you're wrong. Like and that there is no static environment. This is not tennis. This is a team sport. Not only does talent player role, injuries player role makes and mrs player role. I mean, I watched a playing game

last year where Steph vastly outplayed Lebron for the entire game. Now, Lebron was hurt and just come back from injury, but look Steph like resoundingly outplayed Lebron and Lebron made a wild contested three at the end of the shot clock and stole the game. You know, like basketball as a team sport, it's not tennis. None of this stuff ever just comes down to Lebron one. Therefore he's better than the stuff, or step one, therefore he's better than Lebron.

The stuff is complicated, and all of that complication is why I've been so annoyed by these kinds of topics over the years. But we we were forced to discuss it a little earlier than I thought because of Patrick Beverley going on ESPN today and saying that Lebron and Steph were close to each other all time. Now, to be clear upfront, Steph is my second favorite player of

this era. I think he has resoundingly established that spot, meaning yes, he's a significantly ahead of Kevin Durant for this era, and I think that I think that that

is a remarkable accomplishment on his part. That said, I think as the years have gone by, Lebron has almost become a little underrated, And the reason for that is I think he fell short of the MJ standard and as he's gotten older, it's been drama with the Lakers, and it's been two times, missing the playoffs in a first round exit surrounding the championship, and so Lebron's kind

of drifting out of focus a little bit. Meanwhile, Steph is having a remarkable season, which we're gonna talk about here in just a second, and the Warriors on the title run. And that's just kind of the nature of recency bias, right. But I want to remind people why Lebron is in the Goat conversation to begin with, because now I don't have Lebron ahead of MJ. But there's a reason why he's in that conversation. This is a guy, you know, I talked about shots at the table. We

talked about this with Colin Coward on Sunday. In order to win a championship, a lot of things have to break your way, like for Golden State even this year, some things are breaking their way. You catch a matchup right in with Denver in the first round. You don't have to face Jamal Murray. You know, let's face Michael Porter Jr. Right, You go into the second round and

John Ran gets hurt. You go into the third round and you get to play a weaker Dallas team because Dallas beat a Phoenix team that had an injury at the point guard position, and Chris Paul, Right, you have some things go your way, but things go your way. Every time you win a championship. There's no such thing as you just going through and beating everybody at full strength. It almost never happens. Lebron's last title bunch, things went

their way. Stephan Katie were on their couches. Kyrie Irving was on his couch, and he went through some stars. He went through Damian lillardy went through James Harden and Russell Westbrook and Nicola Yokich. But those guys were all on lesser teams. Lebron he had caught. He had Anthony Davis on his team, playing at the peak of his powers. Right, you need some things to go your way. But if I get seven opportunities to play the game and three, you know, sometimes things are gonna go not my way,

but sometimes things will go my way. And when they do, that's how I end up with three or four championships. I have to get to the table enough times for things to break my way. And what's so in interesting is is more often than not, we just make it. We simplify it down to just who had the trophy, and that's all that matters. Lebron is in the goat conversation because he has consistently in a twenty year career

for basically nineteen of those years. I'll take that back, will take away the will take away this last year because the injuries, and we'll take away the two thousand nineteen season, the Mario Hazonia block, the wine under the seat. So for seventeen years of a twenty year career, excluding those two that I just mentioned and his rookie season, he's been so damn good that his team's had a puncher's chance to win the title. That seventeen seasons is

exactly what puts him in the goat conversation. Because when you're talking about who the best basketball player of all time is, I like to think of that personally as a static situation. If I had to pick up player, irrespective of talent, irrespective of coaching, irrespective of things going your way, what player gives you the best chance to win? And Lebron having seventeen of those seasons is what puts him in that conversation. So with Steph, he's had a

remarkable run here, but not only okay. So personally, I think Lebron's peak because of his two way play and the way he was as a defensive threat in addition to what he brought as an offensive player. That's we're seeing this from Janice right now. He had a world beating element to him. There wasn't a player in the world that could touch how good he was in two thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen. Steph I never I

never thought step had a peak like that. But in addition to that, he just hasn't had the same number

of shots at the table. His window has been shorter because we lost two seasons right over the last couple of years because of some bad luck last year with him falling on that step and bruising his tailbone which led to him being in the playing tournament, and then the year before him breaking his hand right and then outside of that, you know, he hasn't been relevant since like two thousand thirteen, or he was relevant starting in

about two thousand thirteen. So I'm getting a shorter window of opportunity with Steph, and I'm getting a lower peak ceiling than stuff. So for me, that just simply makes a chasm there. But That's why for me, when I'm ranking players all time, a couple of things, I always have guards and wings separate from bigs. I think they play an entirely different position. To me, it's like comparing an offensive lineman to a quarterback. And then I also split eras I don't think of anything but pre nine

because it's also just an entirely different sport. So for me, I have m J and Lebron in the top tier, and I think MJ's clearly above Lebron, but I think Lebron is the only guy who's in that conversation. Then when I dropped down from there, that's where I get to the Kobe, the Magic, the Bird, and then I have Steph in that group if he wins a title

this year. So for me to say that with that short window, with Steph having only really been relevant in the championship landscape for about half as long as Lebron was, for him to be in the same conversation as Larry Freaking Bird and Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, that's remarkable. That's an unbelievable accomplishment. But that degree of difficulty has

to be factored in there. I put in my notes, the two guys that steps career reminds me the most of in terms of long like rankings of the all time great players, Magic and Kobe strike me as the most uh most realistic comes because degree of difficulty does matter. Lebron won a championship with Anthony Davis, and that was probably the best team that he had, right and what Anthony Davis did that season was amazing, but he was a play finisher. There was no debate as to who

the best player on that team was. Kyrie Irving. It's been exposed now that outside of scoring the basketball, he

just doesn't bring that much to a team. So you gotta give a lot Lebron on a lot more credit for what he did in two thousand sixteen, and then in two thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen, Dwyane Wade was a shell of himself, which is how they trailed against the Boston Celtics into twelve, which is how they trailed against the Indiana Pacers in twelve, which is how they trailed to the Oklahoma City Thunder in twelve, which

is how they trailed to the Pacers and Spurs. The reason why those series were so close was because yes, there were big names involved, but Bosh and Wade were clearly at a level below Lebron. The titles that Steph one with Kevin Durant remind me a lot more of the titles that Kobe won with Shack or the titles that Magic won with Kareem in the early eighties. They're still titles. They are incredible indicators of what they are

as engines. They're incredible indicators of of their overall basketball ability, but they aren't the same degree of difficulty as what Lebron did in his four championships. And even though in my book, Steph has the Finals MVP for two thousand fifteen, that's why Lebron has four of him. There was no debate, there was no conversation about who the best player in the team was. There was a clear engine that was

making the whole thing work. And so one of the things that that hurts Steph in this regard is that Kevin Durant, those those championships with Kevin Durany just had

a lower degree of difficulty. But again, I'm just pointing those things out to juxtapose him with Lebron freaking James, the second best basketball player to ever play the game, who for seventeen seasons was in the conversation for being the best player in the game and very well might have been, and gave his team chances to win championships and one ten conference titles in the process. So for me to say that Steph is in a tier with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant is not

an insult in my opinion. For me to say that Steph was better than Kevin Durant in this era but not as good as Lebron is not an insult to Steph in my opinion. But once again, and this last thing I'll say about it. You Steph fans, if you think if you think Steph was better than Lebron, I can't argue with you there. This is a subjective take. It's it's so much more comes down to personal preference because this isn't tennis, and we don't have clear cut

results to to to dictate this kind of thing. It's all about weighing context, and everyone weighs context differently, so it's impossible to reach common ground. So if you guys want to tell me in the comments, if you want to tell me, if if you ever seen me out in public and you come up and chat and you say, hey, I think Steps better than Lebron all time. More power to you, man. I can't I can't disagree with you, and I can't prove you wrong. All I can do

is disagree with you. But for Stepp to have, if he's got one last task he has to accomplish. But if he closes this deal, then it's an unbelievable accomplishment for him to get into that tier of players with his shorter prime relative. Al Right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate you guys hanging out. I apologize for the technical difficulties we had earlier. If you missed any part of the show, you'll find it

in its totality on YouTube. If you can't check it out on YouTube because you don't have time to get on your computer on your phone, go to our podcast feed Lakers Tonight. You can find the full show there, typically a couple of hours after we finish. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. No live show over the course of the next couple of days, I am traveling to Charlotte with my wife, So tomorrow night before I hit the road, I'm going to upload a breakdown of

the Celtics Heat Game five or six. I expect the series is to be over at that point, So at that point I would probably take some much needed days off this weekend to enjoy time in Charlotte, but I'll have my equipment with me and I might do some film breakdowns or do a preview of the finals. We'll see and then the NBA Finals starting next week on Thursday, and I think it's gonna be incredible. So as always, I appreciate your guys support and rocking with me, and

I will see you guys tomorrow night. The Volume