Hoops Tonight -Booker and the Suns go down to New Orleans

sent you. Twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply see terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential

help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee. Visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the volume. I am Jason Timp Happy Tuesday. Everybody. Hope all of

your weeks are off to a good start. Day four of the NBA Playoffs in the books, lots of interesting stuff once again, we had two series. Is get evened up. We had, in my opinion, the most uninteresting and fraudulent basketball team in this playoff. Y'ell. The Atlanta Hawks catch another l on the road in Miami, and we just there's a little bit of injury potential impact that we're

gonna have to deal with. We're gonna learn more about Devin Booker's hamstring as the days go along with that's a wrinkle that we're gonna talk about a little bit. And then I'm also gonna bring my guy Carson on later in the show. We're going to play some games, including going back and forth about whether or not Jason Tatum is a top five player in the NBA at this point. And then this is another important note for

all of you guys that are listening on YouTube. We are going to be taking questions from the audience, so please feel free to drop them in the chat and they will get asked in the third segment of the show tonight. But let's start with the Pelicans and the Suns and so there there are some themes for this show tonight that I want to get to. The core

theme is gonna involve traditional centers. But I would be remiss if I didn't start with the guy that I thought was the star of the night, at least in the Pelicans Sons game, and that's Brandon ingram I've always been a huge fan of Brandon ingram I. You know, it came into the league super young and rail finn and so in his first couple of seasons with the Lakers. You saw flashes, but it was a tough, you know,

kind of entry into the NBA for him. And then I started following him very closely in that season that he played with Lebron in two thou and that season gets kind of blumped in with all of the horrible like everything surrounding the championship season in the Lakers was a disaster, and that season kids kind of lumped in, but in in the way that this season's Lakers team injuries are an excuse for what was actually really poor management and just a horrible effort from the roster. Lakers

really were just horrible injury luck. That team. When Brandon Ingram was with Lebron and when they had their role players available, when they had you know, Alonzo Ball and Kyle Kusma available, they were pretty good. We just didn't get to see much of them. They defended extraordinarily well, obviously when Lebron was on the floor, they were able to score well enough in order to win games. That

was a really good basketball team. And in that season I noticed several things about Brandon Ingram that I knew right away would make him a star in the NBA. He was as smooth and polished a three level score that he had in the league. He could knock down spot up threes, he could and he didn't really quite have the off the dribble three point game at that point. That's still not fully there for him. That's gonna be

another thing for him to build out. But he had everything from the mid range, he had short range stuff, and he could finish around the rim extremely well. And for a guy who was pretty thin, he played big. You know that he's not afraid of contact. He's good at initiating contact and going through people's chest even though

he's thin, and finishing over people. And then most importantly, he was an excellent defensive player in that Laker season, and then after the Anthony Davis trade, he kind of fell off defensively and the Pelicans were kind of a ship show and he kind of fell out of sight,

out of mind for a while. That'll happen when you go from playing with Lebron to playing with New Orleans, right, But I always remained a brandon Ingram fan, and I was aware of the fact that that team was going through a kind of different phase of develop Admit, you know, they're they were in a rebuilding phase and watching him tonight and I've noticed this all season, but I'm gonna I'm gonna shout it out based on what I saw tonight. He's added another huge element to his game as a playmaker.

And this is valuable reps that he learned that he that he went through during these years with New Orleans while the team was rebuilding, tons of valuable on ball reps that he wasn't getting earlier on in his career when he was primarily being used kind of like Kawhi Leonard, just the typical, you know, scoring wing who guards the

other team's best player type of deal. But he built out that playmaking part of his game and now he's becoming just an unbelievable point forward, which and again this is where I'm gonna segue into the theme of the night, the theme of this particular show, which is I'm always going to value wing players, particularly stars, but that extends

down to role players. I'm always gonna value wing players over traditional bigs because their ability from the perimeter to initiate action and with size to be able to see over the defense and make reads as a passer is invaluable in this setting. Usually in basketball it's the guards, the little guys who struggled to create their own shot, you know, and in in tight space situations, who over the course of their basketball development have become great passers.

And this is an example of the way the game has changed over the years, and I think Lebron is the player that I've credited the most with this change. We talked a lot about guys like Steph Curry changing

the game of basketball. The way Lebron changed the game of basketball was he normalized a forward being your decision maker, the guy who begins possessions from the top of the key with a live dribble and either going in isolation to compromise the defense or working out of pick and roll, and if he gets an opportunity to score, he'll score, and if the defense collapses on him, he'll make reads.

Lebron literally bred that into the game of basketball. And Brandon Ingram is yet another player that fits that archetype. And in that third quarter, there's a lot of context here. Devin Booker got hurt, and I think that kind of shell shock the son's a little bit. The sons in general didn't have their best effort in this game. I thought that came out lacks of days ago. They gave

up six offensive rebounds in just the first quarter. This is not kind of an unserious start to this game, which typical you're one eight matchup, second game at home, after he had a convincing game one win. I get that all, But in that third quarter, when the game was very much in the balance the Sons had leads in the second half. In that third quarter, brandon Ingram top of the key isolation and pick and roll making decisions. He did a mix of a bunch of different things.

He ran some pick and roll with with Larry Nance Jr. He ran some picking pop with Trey Murphy. He worked out of isolation for pticularly in transition, but just time after time after time down the floor, just brandon Ingram, breaking it down off the dribble and making decisions either hitting a player that's wide open on the wing or

scoring the basketball. And and and then as the fourth quarter came along, he kind of the Sun's defense softened up a little bit on him because he had been making so many plays and he started scoring the basketball and guess what he can do that too, And that that that ability of that big perimeter initiating wing to control a basketball game the way that Brandon Ingram did in that third and fourth quarter is exactly why I'm

always going to favor those guys. It's exactly why I put guys like Yo Kitchen and Bead below the Durance and the Honice is in the lebrons of the league, because those guys just struggle at that's very specific skill and I that's a more complicated conversation for another time, but that's why I always favor those guys. And so I wanted to give Brandon Ingram a special shout out.

I thought he was thus star of the night, and he picked up a huge win on the road in Phoenix, so I wanted to look at this Jonas Valentiunis and Larry Nance conundrum. So Jonas Valentcunis was was plus five tonight and had a good run there in the in the fourth quarter closing the game, mainly because c J. McCollum and Brandon Ingram just started making shots and Jose Alvarado made a couple of big shots, so a shot

making kind of covered for it. But in general, in this series, they've played way way way better with Larry Nates Jr. On the floor then they have with Jonas Valentcuinis. I'm really curious after the stats update tonight, the the advanced stats to see, particularly on the defensive end, how much better they are without Jonas Valanciunas because they were just getting picked apart. With Valacunas in there and Larry and Ances, additional mobility just gives them more ability to

cover ground. And it's not it's not a coincidence. Over the course of the series, with Jonas Valentcunas on the floor, the Pelicans are minus six and with Larry and Ants on the floor there plus three. They've been better with Larry Ants on the floor. We'll get more into the details of that as the days go by here later this week, but that's a consistent theme for me throughout

this entire era of modern basketball. We're gonna talk about it more later tonight when we talk about Steven Adams, who has been disastrous for Memphis in their series and they've been amazing without him. It's just a simple matter of the way that the game of basketball is played today with overall foot speed and the fact that these big, slow guys struggle in that environment, and I get I get why coaches use these players in the regular season

to eat innings. And there's a couple of reasons why. One, it's hard to play this style of basketball, this athletic covering a ton of ground basketball. It can be taxing on the body, just like Devin Booker pulling his hand or get having some hamstring tightness tonight. So I get that it'd be easier to have some of the flow regular season with these guys, And most importantly, most of the other coaches around the league will continue to use them.

Like Golden State, They're not going to They're not gonna go down with Kevin Looney at center if they find their back against the wall. But whenever they're not threatened, like in this first round series against Denver, and throughout the regular season, they like to start Kevin Looney because it's just an innings eating option for them. And so on the night and night out basis of the regular season,

you can get away with starting is Steven Adams. You can get away with starting a Jonas Valancinis, you can get away with starting that archetype of player. But it's only because of the circumstances in that setting, when push comes to shove, this is the game of basketball. What you saw there in that second half with the Pelicans and the Suns, and what you saw there for most of the night between Minnesota in Memphis. It's the big guy on the floor has to be a very versatile

offensive player or be extremely fast. It's got to be someone like you know, JaVale McGee is a unique example of a big man who has enough foot speed and can cover so much ground relative to other bigs that he's actually somewhat functional. But even with JaVale McGee, it's like, when push comes to shove, you're not going down with that guy. There exceptions to the rule. DeAndre Ayton is

a guy that you can play. Guys that are superstars, Guys like Joel Embiid and Nicola Yokich, Clint Capella, who's very good, very mobile big. There are guys that can play, but they're not traditional centers. They're not plotting slow centers. They're fast guys. And and and and you know, I don't know what the deal is. I don't know how much evidence you have to put in these coaches faces to show them that this doesn't work for them to finally learn I I just don't get it. It's it's

really really hard. It's hard for me to understand. But I the reason why they play so much better without Valanchunis is because this is a very very sneaky, athletic and fast team. This has been a theme from the Memphis in Minnesota series. Right, You've got all of these wings from Memphis in Minnesota for all this ground. Well, you've got Herb Jones, and you've got uh Trey Murphy and you've got Brandon Ingram. That's like your best lineup

if you're the Pelicans. That's three guys that are taller than six eight with super long arms that cover a ton of ground. And so this is why I've enjoyed this Pelicans team as an eight seed so much more than the Atlanta Hawks. They're kind of like a very very interesting modern basketball team. I was talking with my producers before the show. There's a really really interesting conundrum, how do you fit Zion into this. Zion is kind of like a very very different archetype than this group.

And I get mainly just because of the defensive versatility that the speed that these guys have to cover ground on defense. Like RB Jones and Trey Murphy and Brandon Ingram are awesome defensive players, Zion is not. And you kind of have to play c J McCollum. He's been kind of the perfect guard to plug into that spot because he's so, so so good as a perimeter initiator, so you're willing to live with some of CJ's defensive issue and he had a really hard time guarding Devin

Booker earlier in that game. Is that it was a really really smart adjustment from Willie Green to go with Trey Murphy on Devin Booker to start the second half. I thought that was one of the reasons one of the things that kind of helped the Pelicans grab control of that game. But Zion kind of getting plugged in and you can't play him at the five because he's

not a good rim protector. So it's like, what do you do with that specific that specific conundrum, And that's a conversation for another day, But that that athleticism gives the Sons a lot of problems. They had eleven offensive rebounds tonight. It's a lot of extra possessions that can make the difference in a game Chris Paul after, especially after Devin Booker went out. Chris Paul had a great floor game. He passed the ball extremely well throughout, but

he struggled creating his own shot. Why because he's got Trey Murphy on him and he's got all these long, lanky wings around the floor that are taking away his spots that he likes to get to. And so just just in general, the Sons are gonna win series, make no mistake, even if Devin Booker is hurt, I think the Suns will win this series. The Suns had the Suns were really really sloppy in a lot of their details. Tonight, they're gonna be fine. That said, like this is if

you're a Pelicans fan, you should be extremely excited. You have a lot of different directions you can go here, and if you can find a way to make things work with ion, you might be in fantastic shape moving forward. Again, some other time we might have to get into that, as I on Conunter, maybe after this series is over. One last note on this particular game, with this Devin Booker injury, and again we don't know anything, But what

have I been telling you guys all year long? Especially as it became, especially as we were talking about the Lakers. I said, you gotta go for it because you don't know what's gonna happen. You don't know what's gonna break. You saw the two best teams in the league this year, the Boston Celtics and the Phoenix Suns, get hit with late season injuries. You saw Robert Williams go down. He might he might miss the entire first round. He's probably

gonna miss the entire first round. I think the intel is that he's coming back in a set a round. So what that tells us is that, you know, if if Boston gets knocked out in the first round, it might very well be because of an injury. And they were the best team in the East this year. If the Sun's losing the second round, it could very well be because of a Devin Booker hamstring issue. These kinds of things happen every single year, and I hate them.

Don't get me wrong. The player, the the injuries that are happening to these players in almost every playoff run. It it's really depressing, Don't get me wrong, I get that, But this is exactly why you have to go for it. If you're any team that's within just arms reach of a title because you just don't know what's gonna happen. Phoenix Suns were by far the most dominant team all season long. They look like world beaters. I picked them

to win the title. If Devin Booker's hamstring can't go, they're gonna lose, and they very well might lose to a team like Dallas in the second round. That's a serious, serious issue. That's why you all like that, like teams like the Lakers, who the like Lakers sitting on your couch, you do an opportunity here because the Sons were literally the only team that I didn't think you had any chance to beat, and they look like they might be

compromised potentially. Obviously we don't know for sure, but it's just the these We don't even have to get any further into that. So before we move on to the Grizzlies and the Wolves, I just wanted to remind everybody that's listening for the third segment tonight, we are going to be doing a mail bag of sorts. So in the chat, drop any questions that you have about literally any of the series or anything NBA related. We can get into that, so I want to move into the

Grizzlies and the Wolves. I thought the story of this series so far has been Steven Adams on the floor and Steven Adams off the floor. I talked a lot about this after Game one. When Steven Adams was on the floor, he was utterly useless. Couldn't guard Karl Anthony Towns on the perimeter, couldn't guard Carl Anthony Towns in the post, couldn't box Karl Anthony Towns out. He was just doing swim moves on him like a defensive end

to grab every offensive rebound. And then in pick and roll coverages with Anthony Edwards, he's dropping back to the eighth throw line every time, and Anthony Edwards was just hitting pull up jump shot after pull off, pull up jump shot after pull up jump shot, and he was getting run off the floor and transition, all of those same things that I was talking about with big guys. In twenty seven minutes this series, with Steven Adams on the floor, the Grizzlies are minus fourteen in t excuse me.

In sixty nine minutes with Steven Adams off the floor, there plus twenty eight utterly dominant without him and getting dominated with him. That's how big of a difference that

kind of thing makes. And they literally started Steven Adams tonight and played him three minutes again, Like I was saying with these coaches, I just don't understand I they they they just in the face of every bit of analytical evidence, in the faces of everything we know about the way the game of basketball is changing, they continue

to make these kinds of decisions. What was the point if you had to have known that the Steven Adams thing wasn't working, if you pulled him after three minutes and he was minus one in those minutes, It's not like they were getting completely and utterly run off the floor, so you knew the whole time, I can't play Steven Adams in this series. But instead of just making the adjustment, you started him for some reason, which kind of changed the complexion of the start of that game and gave

Minnesota a little bit of life there. It's just it's just confusing. But that the big reason why that change, That that change opens everything up for the Grizzlies because Jaren Jackson Jr. Is so so so much better as a as a drop coverage big and he's he can be more active and up at the screen to disrupt

those pull up jump shots. Anthony Edwards got I think he took one long two on the left wing, but he didn't get any midrange jump shots in this game, zero because those drop coverage opportunities that he had with Adams just weren't there. To Anthony Edwards his credit, he still made four threes in this game, but like that's just a huge change in the way that goes the overall. Let's be the lineup in that second half when Memphis

blew the game open. It was all transition. It's all foot speed and and the start of the game from Memphis. And this is something that I told you guys after game one. After Game one, I told you it's John Moran. After game one, I told you guys that I thought John Moran played a really rough game. Primary just as a decision maker, there was Draymond Green did a podcast today where he was talking about Jordan Pool and he

referred to something called Jordan's floor game. And there's a bunch of different words that you can use to describe this kind of thing. I call it perimeter initiation. Mainly, it's like controlling the pace and decision making, and those two specific things are so so, so so important in these playoff environments. We talked about that with brandon Ingram earlier. In game one, John Moran's decision making at the end

of the game was really poor. He seemed obsessed with getting into the paint, even though it's not what the dfense was giving him. He was forcing the action and flying around and flailing and just trying to draw outs. He was missing open three point shooters all over the floor.

It was a bad game from him. And what and Anthony Edwards was the better perimeter initiator, He was the better decision maker, He had better control over the pace, And like I told Carson in the last night's show there two nights ago, you know I said, over the course of this series, I expect John Morant to eventually show that he's the best player in the series and to eventually get control of this. His floor game tonight

was amazing. His ability to get into the deep, into the teeth of the defense and make smart decisions opened everything up for them. As a result, they were getting and taking and making the right threes, the threes on the back side of the defense that were there for the taking. The Grizzlies had twenty nine assists in the game. I think on like forty four field goals, that's awesome for two thirds year field goals to be assisted. That means you're moving the ball around and you're making the

right decisions. It's not just on Jots on everybody, but it starts with Jaw And then there during that run, which again I think Minnesota kind of let go of the rope a little bit there. But during that run, when Minnesota like go with the rope, then John Moran got loose and started having fun as a score. But you have to loosen up the defense first, and the only way to do that is to make the right

decisions as the quarterback of your offense. Then from there they have to stop playing jan kee basketball and they have to start guarding people, and that's when you have your opportunities to score. You know, we're gonna talk about Jason Tatum a little bit later and and uh, you know, he's been double teamed a lot this year. Do you guys ever noticed that, like Lebron doesn't get double team

very often? If you guys ever noticed that, like you don't see the crazy traps out at half court with Lebron or the you know, like he'll be isolating on the left wing and you won't just have like a dude just run over and hard double team, because Lebron makes you pay for that every single time. If you trap him to only from the basket and you make it clear that you're doubling him, on the very next possession,

he'll have a counter. He'll probably give the ball up to a point guard, work to some specific position on the floor where if you double him it's a super super easy read. He'll make that easy read and then he'll run back. On defense. Lebron faces a bunch of different types of defenses, but you never see him get the crazy psychotic double teams that you see some of these other stars get because he's just always one step

ahead of him. The easiest way to stop a Jankee defense that is loading up on you, just like Minnesota did packing the pain on John Morant, is to just make the right reads and make them pay for doing that to you. They were better just overall. I told you guys that Minnesota played like an underdog in Game one, and Memphis kind of looked like the team that had all the confidence in the world from their fantastic regular season.

But they thought it would be easy, I think in Game one, and they got slapped in the face and as a result, they've got found themselves down one. Oh. But they tightened up so many of those details in this game. They gave up eleven offensive rebounds in Game one, only four tonight, so they did a much much better job boxing out. And those guys were still crashing the glass. Trust me watch the tape. Minnesota was still crashing every

bit as they did in the first game. It was just little attention to detail for Memphis to take those away. The Wolves were only from three today. I think they were eleven for thirty nine. The rotations on the back end and guys flying around to contest shots. It was a completely different level of effort defensively than they gave in Game one, and that's why they won, and that's

why they tied this series at one. I wanted to move on to the Wolves for just a quick second before we get to our mail bag, and again, if you guys have any questions about anything at all, dropped them in the chat. That will be our next segment. The Wolves, you know, in the same way that Memphis showed that they should win the series, and they demonstrated that tonight. They demonstrated tonight they are the better team on a bunch of different levels. But I still think

Minnesota has an outside chance to win this series. And a huge part of that is that when they kept Memphis in the half court, they still had a lot of success tonight. I told you, guys, I was worried about Anthony Edwards cooling off as a jump shooter. That didn't happen. He was four for eleven on jump shots tonight, four for ten from three. That's a pretty good effective field goal percentage twelve points on eleven shots. They absolutely can win this series. They have the pieces, They have

home court advantage now. I think, ironically, one of the strangest wrinkles of the series is Carl Anthony Towns. I tweeted out earlier today that the only thing that they needed to have a fighting chance in the series was the ability to stop Memphis in the half court, which they've shown in Karl Anthony Towns being just the mismatched nightmare of the series, the guy that nobody can guard. Even Jaren Jackson had some problems with him in some

situations tonight, and he's probably their best option there. But Carl Anthony Town has got himself into foul trouble again, and this is what happened in the playing game, and like some of this is just absolute ridiculous lack of awareness from Carl Town's that there. His second foul was on like a rebound play where he just was just shoving a guy in the back on a defensive rebound. His third foul there like middle second quarter. Again, he's got two fouls. He just went through a foul trouble

situation in the playing game. The team desperately needs him, he's their biggest mismatch threat. And he shoots a wide open three and a pick and pop at the top of the key and literally kicks his leg out and trips Xavier, telling me why he's running by him, like like, what did you think was gonna happen? Like like, so he kicked his leg out, So he consciously made a decision too foul, knowing that he was in foul trouble.

And that's a weird wrinkle in this series because Carltown, and this has been an issue with him throughout his entire career. When he he's on, he's on, and there's nothing anybody can do with him. But like he just gets he just becomes a space kid at sometimes and I don't know what the deal is. It's kind of Anthony Davis can be a little bit like that sometimes as well. But that's a that's a huge issue for Carl Towns and it's a huge issue for the Wolves

in this series. But over the course of the rest of the series, if the Wolves can keep the game in the half court as much as possible at least Memphis, so they can keep Memphis in the half court. I love when Minnesota runs out and gets their threes, especially for guys like Malik Beasley. But if Carl Towns can't figure out this foul trouble thing, that could be something that that that shoots them in the foot and their chances to win this series. Alright, we're gonna bring my

guy Carson on to ask some questions from the audience. Yeah, all right, Jason, We've got lots of good ones today, and the first one is related to something that you have actually touched on a good bit and you did a whole thing on it yesterday and some of Nicola Yokis defensive limitations and sort of how that may be inhibits him from being the best player in the world. We have a question from James Michael Santiago, which is, what can the Nuggets do when Yoki just drawn to

a high pick and roll with Stephen Draymond? Do you just let Draymond attack on the short roll? How would you handle that match up with Yoga? That is a really interesting question. I was talking the gulp seems exactly. I was talking with Matt Matt Moore from the Action Network a little bit tonight about this specific conundrum because I don't think there's anything you can do. There's no good option. If you have him sit back and drop, uh, steps just gonna come off of every screen and shoot.

And Georgian Pool is gonna come off of every screen and shoot. If you have him come up to the level of the screen, he just gets dusted every single time off the dribble and guys, if you want to see very specific examples of this, just go to my Twitter feed and look at the little thread I did from the death lineup tonight. You can see very specific

examples of each of these plays that I'm referencing. My Twitter handle is at underscore Jason lt and you can see all the video of the things that I'm talking about. When he's up at the level of the screen, Steph is just gonna beat him off the dribble every time and get a layup. And then most importantly, if you get him to trap, which is your last option there. If you get I guess there's one other. If you get him to trap, steps just gonna hit Draymond Green

on the short roll. And that's literally Warriors basketball. Draymond Green starting a four on three barreling down the lane. They're gonna do fantastic in that situation. So your last your last option is a switch. So basically you do a trap. There's effectively a trap like Yoki does an aggressive switch on the on the ball screen, and then whoever's guarding the guard, whether it's Jordan Pull or Steph Curry, whoever is guarding the guard immediately just grabs Raymond and

tries to take away the role. Right. But now you're having Nickela Yokes guard out on the perimeter, and all it takes is one dribble drive, one straight line drive around Yokich and now you're in rotation, and now Nicola Yokach needs to cover ground in rotation. And so I asked Matt More from the Action Network, I said what

would you do? And his answer was kind of funny, he says, He basically said, you you have Yokis punished them on the other end of the floor, except for except for he's struggling with Draymond Green right now, you know. And and and we can get a little bit further into Yokis some other time. But like, he can't shoot threes anymore. He's nine percent from three over his last twenty one games of the regular season. He's over eight from three in this series. He's got gaping, gaping holes

in his game right now. And and I agree, like the the ideas you it's kind of like I was talking about last night. Styles make fights, right, But it's not about the style that wins, it's which style plays well enough to win. And so yeah, Yokich has a style of of play where if he's dumb and in enough at the things that he's good at, then it

balances out in your favor. But a lot of times it hasn't, and teams are and as is always the case, when a star comes up, it's kind of like with you honest, two m v p s right dominant regular seasons and in Miami completely neutered him in that playoff series. A lot of times after a team's teams and around the NBA get tons and tons of opportunity to watch tape and to see all the ways that Yoki can

beat you. They come up with counters and they find ways to make things tough for you, and you're seeing that happen with Yokas right now. But to make a long story short, guys, there's no good solution with Yokis defensively against a good fast, dribble, dribble, drive and kick team. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think even exacerbating that further is the Nuggets don't have good enough point of attack defenders.

You know. It's like, it's enough to have to have plotting Yoki in the pick and roll start dudes who are elite pull up jump shooters and also super creative and quick getting downhill. It's another thing when you're trying to have Monte Morris and Bones Highland, you know, apply ball pressure and all that. It's just there's nothing working there. And Steph Draymond pick and roll in any matchup against any NBA team of the last half decade, I think

is some of the toughest offense to guard, period. So I agree with you, I mean I would shrug. I don't think there is an answer, and even if Yokich does, you know, really punish them. On the other end, I think we've seen the talent deficit here is just too much to overcome. Like there's no way I don't think for the Nuggets to really make this a series at this point. That's the tough part because the the under the like the underling to all of this stuff that

I've been saying about Yoki, which is all true. Everything I'm saying about Yoki is even even a separate from the roster issues. These are legit flaws. No matter what you put around Yokich, he's still gonna be slow, he's still gonna struggle to cover ground on the perimeter, and he's still gonna have, you know, the inability to shoot and struggle with length on on the offensive end. Right, But he does have a huge talent disadvantage here. So I was at another little thing I was talking about

with Matt More. I said to him. I said, I would love to see like Yokich on a two thousand eleven Mavericks type of roster, you know, like a roster that covers so much ground defensively and almost puts him in a in a situation where he's where where his shortcomings are harder to exploit because the guys around him kind of fill those gaps. I absolutely think he could win a championship in that type of role, just like

Dirk did. Yeah, I totally agree, And I mean we saw stretches this year where Yoga was really exerting effort defensively, and I think it, you know, regressed to bid as he probably just got fatigued from carrying the ridiculous offensive load every night. But I think you can put a top ten defense around Yogis and then you can have the best offense in league, and the Nuggets with their full personnel, I mean, wouldn't have been far off from that pace this year at all. I don't think, so

I agree with you. I mean, it's gonna be interesting to see if they do prioritize trying to add quality three and D wings where they can cap as an issue, but maybe through the draft and whatnot, M L E and stuff like that. Okay, so we mentioned the nightmare of guarding the Warriors and just how impressive they have

been through two against the Nuggets. We have a question from Kyle's takes, which is, if the Warriors play the way they do on a more consistent basis, are they the favorites out of the West or are they your favorites to win it all? Even Jason, what do you think? Definitely not the favorites to win it all. They would become my favorites to win the West if Devin Booker

could not play in a series against them. Um, but you know, I think you know, I watched the tape on that death lineup run there in the second quarter, and don't get me wrong, like it was there there. They're on offense in particular, they were magnificent. Okay, Um, but Denver got a lot of wide open looks on the other end that they missed. It kind of felt like it almost felt like when that lineup checked in, like the crowd knew it, the Warriors knew it, and

Denver knew it. Like Okay, here we go, like everyone's gonna be talking about here's the new Death lineup, and it was almost like that got in their heads and and particularly on like on their first two possessions, like Aaron Gordon and Will bar And both forced, even though they were easy pocket passes to Yokis, they both forced like crazy wild floaters. There was a play where like Aaron Gordon for whatever reason just decid like Yoka to the ball top of the key, going against someone other

than Draymond. Draymond was sitting right under the basket, like at the charge circle, and Aaron Gordon was like, I'm gonna do a quick duck in on Draymond Okay, on Draymond Green, the best defensive player in the entire world. He was like, I'm gonna do a duck in on Draymond Green, and Draymond Green just took a charge and he fell over and we were going the other way. And then on a couple of the possessions in the run,

they got wide open looks. I'm not trying to undercut what that lineup can do, but what I'm saying is they still have some issues, and they have big flaws on the interior that some teams are going to be able to exploit, and they still don't have that big, rim, pressuring wing, the guy that can kind of put his back to the basket when things really bogged down, kind of like a boy on Bogdanovitch like we talked about last night, that can kind of create shots for himself.

I'm very high on the Warriors. I absolutely think they're capable of beating even the Suns at full strength. I just still wouldn't pick them over the Suns while they're hell THEE, and I certainly wouldn't pick them over a team like Boston coming out of the East, for instance, or even Milwaukee. Yeah. I think you're right, and that it would be premature to say, you know, based off the really impressive a couple of games, that they are

the title favorites. To me, I think that, honestly, their ability to really contend for that claim is what level we continue to get out of Jordan Pool, because that was kind of always my biggest question about the Warriors, is as great as they were defensively with Draymond healthy, and as much as steps just sheer gravity offensively and ability could make things flow, and they're unselfishes and Draymond facilitating.

Great teams need that second, real like star level creator right, and Pool was not that until the All Star break and then since then he's been twenty three and a half a game on sixty centry shooting and in the playoffs has been unbelievable. So I think that I really like their depth. I think their thirty woven when Draymond and Steph both play this year. So to me, it's about Pool. I mean, do you think, like, like, is he the key if this team is going to try

to go out and actually win the title? Absolutely? And I thought Draymond and if you guys haven't seen this, that you gotta check it out. Draymond Green talked Broke Down the Nuggets series. You can find it on YouTube and on the Draymond Green podcast feed um, and he

talked about Jordan Pool's floor game. But one of the specific things that he talked about, that's something that I've been preaching about a lot on this show, and I did a whole video about for Warriors fans about a month month and a half ago, when Jordan Pool was kind of starting to get this run going. I talked about how Jordan's Pool is starting to dictate similar coverages that Steph had and Draymond Green went and said exactly that on his show today, which I which I I

appreciated because it's something that I've noticed. It's like, you know, when Steph compromises a defense to such a dramatic extent and Jordan Pool's ability to do the same thing, it just gets it makes the team literally unguardable, and so many different ways. There was a play in the there was a play in that run that the death lineup run in the second quarter where Andrew Wiggins was on

the left wing. And Andrew Wiggins remember shooting thirty from three over the course of this regular season, and Steph and Clay are steps kind of on the other side of the wing, are a little bit a little bit away from Wiggins and and Clay's in the corner and Draymond Green has the ball at the top of the key and Jordan Poole just does like a V cut out to the perimeter. I think Aaron Gordon was the

one guarding him. Draymond throws the ball to Jordan Pool, and Aaron Gordon has to panic clothes out to Jordan Pool because that's the same thing you have to do with Steph. And as a result, Jordan Pool just does a basic rip through to the baseline, and nobody's home. Literally nobody's home, because who are you helping off of? You leaving Steph? Are you leaving Clay? Are you leaving

Andrew Wiggins. It's like having another guy that compromised the defense to that extent it captures at least offensively, you're never gonna get the and not not and Kevin durant Is is so incredible when the game bogs down as like an isolation score that this is probably blasphemous to say, but at least in the open court, open flow like Steph brand of basketball, Jordan Pool brings some similar scoring punch that allows them to hit some offensive heights that

are very similar to that that I'm a hundred percent with you that Jordan Pool does dictate the ceiling in

a bunch of different ways. But even with to me, the Jordan Pool thing is more exciting for the Warriors in the long term because so much about this team in their fan base has been about the two eras, right, Like, you've got the existing era of Steph, Clay and Draymond, but then you've got Jonathan Cominga and James Wiseman is like the future, and you kind of get caught straddling that line, and in my opinion, you lose both eras when you do it that way. I've hated that approach

from general management groups all the time. But Jordan Pool becoming like a legitimate All Star level player over the course of those last couple of months, that bridges that gap.

That is an influx of outlet that allows you to accomplish what you would have accomplished, like, you know, like it had they traded Jonathan Comingo for C. J. McCollum or something like that, you would have had a similar vibe, right, So you get Now you've accomplished what you would have accomplished by trading away your young guys first star, and

you still have the young guys. So it's it's it's It's obviously a huge ceiling razer for the long run, but within the confines of this specific postseason, I still think they're too thin on the wing and under the basket to be the favorite. That doesn't mean they can't win, It just means I don't have him as the favorite. All Right, We've got another question, this one from Connor Phillips. The Hawks fell down to nothing today, you know, they were able to make a bit of a push, but

pretty consistently seemed to be outclassed by the Heat. So, Jason, are there any adjustments the Hawks could make to have a better shot in that series in your opinion? Yeah, so they would need to find a time machine and they would need to go back to October, and then he would they would need to practice playing defense four six months and then they might have a better chance. They and in the first quarter they did a better job flying around on the wing, and then Trey Young

played better, which we knew he would. That was just an utterly disastrous Game one, and you could argue fatigue played a role in that as well, after having to work their way through the through the playing tournament. But in general, I tend to think that like they are the odds, they are the sore thumb in this entire postseason run. All eight teams out West are legit. You know, even the Jazz who are fraudulent are not to the same extent as as as the Atlanta Hawks are. It's

in the Eastern Conference. With uh, the Lanta Hawks are like the sword there, the sore thumb in this playoff run. They have no business. They are utterly they they are outclassed by all other fifty, every one of the other fifteen teams. I I I can't wait for that series to be over, just because it's like watching it. I just feel like it feels like watching regular season basketball on a bunch of different levels. I do. Jimmy Butler looks fantastic, though, I will say that, and it's amaze

seeing how well he thrives in this playoff environment. I I tend to think that he's a little bit more hot and cold than people realize. Like he tends to average twenty Like he's his averages are always like twenty one twenty two points, right, but it's like it usually comes in the form of like forty and then ten and then and then ten. Like that's kind of the Jimmy Butler experience. Like if you catch Jimmy Butler on the right night, he looks like you could be one

of the best players in the league. Well, Jason, that is just beautifully tied in with another question that we have, this one from PG in the chat, and it is can Jimmy Butler and the Heat get revenge versus the Sixers next round? Oh Man that's a good question that um I will certainly be rooting for them. Per my rant last night about how I want the Sixers to lose for so many different reasons, they present a bunch of different They present a much a bunch of better

defensive options. The things that I've been talking about with the that I want Toronto to guard the Sixers, I think Miami will better be able to pull off. Also, bam At a bio gives you at least a half decent body to throw joe El embiad in single coverage, which Toronto has not had at all. I do think that this is the issue though, as we talked about with Toronto, they needed to get out in transition because

Philly is a bad transition defense. But in the half court they're a great defense because if you can get if you can get their defense set Joel Embiat, it causes so many problems underneath the basket, and they have enough size on the wing to end mobility on the

wing to cause teams problems. The issue is My issue with Miami all season has been their half court offense, specifically when they go with their guys that they have to play in the postseason, like yeah, they can play, you know, like they can play Max s Truce and Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson all at the same time

and have a ton of shooting. And then yeah, like guys like Jimmy Butler are gonna feast and it's gonna look great, but they can't guard well enough with that lineup, Like they're gonna havel to go down with Bam and Jimmy Butler and and p J. Tucker. And with that lineup, they suddenly have two guys that you can flat out ignore in a third that you probably can't ignore as well, and that's Jimmy Butler, so at least as a perimeter

jump shooter. So what ends up happening there is now you've got You've got Joel Embiide camping under the basket the entire time and the half court because it was just like Anthony Davis did to Bam out of Bio. So unfortunately, as much as I would love to see Philly lose the second round series, uh and the first round series isn't over, but it looks like it certainly could be. But as much as I'd like to see it,

they just got they caught two really good draws. They got a Toronto team that combusted and got hurt, and Nick Nurse might have had a game plan that I just disagreed with. And then they're gonna catch a Miami team in the second round that can't score in the half court, so that might be enough to send the Sixers to the conference finals, were hopefully mercifully they will lose. Yeah, I think I'm aligned with you there. I totally agree on what's been the issue at the Heat for so

much of the year. And it's like there's a lot of days, a lot of days where Tyler here is their best offensive player, and that's a lot to ask to then go out and like contend for a title with that, you know, as improved and nasty as he is, you know, the efficiency isn't consistent enough. The ability to really dictate the flow of an offense isn't totally there with him. So I think I'm with you. There's just

more easy offense with the Sixers. One interesting thing, though, I think you mentioned bam as an option with and Bead. I mean, I don't know if there are many teams better equipped to handle Harden, and we have seen the Heat just swarm tray Young out of the pick and roll.

We have seen how incredible Bam is switching there obviously many times over, but that to me feels like with the multiple guys that could throw at him on the perimeter, with obviously Bam switch ability, that could really be a nightmare for Hard and he's gonna have to work for buckets and as we've seen, I mean, you know, he's eighteen a game on thirty five percent shooting over his last ten, so that could definitely, I think, be a

little bit of a drop offs lot for him. Yeah, the interesting thing is gonna be the game plan because one of the big reasons why, Like I was listening to Zach Low earlier today and he was talking about how the Raptors need to jank things up even more and get even crazier with the way that they guard hardened, the heart, heartened and beat stuff, and I could not disagree more. Like, I just think, like, who have been the unsung heroes of the series for Philly. It's been

Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie. Maxie more flashy so, but Tobias Harris is having a really solid series as a as a catch and shoot guy and as a guy who's attacking mismatches in the post, he's doing a lot of like quick ducans, you know, like when he catches in transition, if he catches a small guy on him, like they'll just kind of send and beat out to the perimeter and Tobias will just duck in for a quick layup and stuff. And like, those two guys are

really good players. Is Tobias overpaid, yes, but he's a really good player. Entires Maxie is a really good player. And so if you want to play, if you want to let them play four on three on the back end all day long, they're probably gonna beat you. And so I agree with you that the Heat are equipped way better than Toronto is to cause James Harden problems.

The question is are they gonna are they going to are they gonna send multiple bodies at James Harden and all these actions or are they going to play real basketball in those environments and then throw the kitchen sink and emb like stupid stuff Like I talked I talked in the last night's show about that Tyrese MAXI uh pick and pop with with Harden. They're running a pick and pop with two guards okay, and the screener in this case, Maxi is the better of the two players

in this series. You know, you James Harden, That's a whole other converence if you want to. Obviously, his playmaking probably makes him a better player than Naxie, But in terms of like scoring the basketball, Maxi is a better player right now because Harden doesn't have that burst and like you're seeing the Raptors like like panic about leaving Harden in a switch and get and giving uh Maxie straight line drives to the basket. It's just badged strategy.

So I agree with you, But like I I want to see at least one team in this postseason run dare James Harden to do all the scoring. I just want to see it. I just want to see what it looks like. I mean, I think that you are totally justified in that, like you said, I mean, Maxie, I think you're shooting six in this series, Harris is shooting. Those guys are among the best third and fourth options in the league. And hardeness well actually scoring as like

the fourth option. He's fourth among six doing still efficiently. So I think that'd be very interesting. All right, We're gonna switch gears here with a question from Mason are that I really really hope does not come from personal experience. Jason, what is the moral responsibility of a person to quote, save a stranger from a seemingly harmful cult? What are your thoughts, Oh my gosh, to save a stranger from

Oh my gosh, that's a really really weird question. Um, I don't know, like what kind of cult are we talking about here? Is it like a religion thing or is it like like various behavior thing. Okay, religion is weird for me because I you could argue that every religion is a could to some level, you know, so like, and we don't want to get too much further into that detail. So I think if it was a religious thing, I'd probably just have private conversations with my wife about

how crazy the person was. But if it was like if it was like, you know, like like if my buddy came to me tomorrow and decided that he was going to become a vegan, not as a health choice, but be because he decided that like animals shouldn't be eaten or something like that, I'd probably have a conversation with him. M Is that coldish behavior, veganism. Dude, I'm

trying to come up with a graded way too. I'm trying to come up with a g readed way to talk about something like I mean, like, do you want me to come out and say he's joining a weird sex could the carson? Do you want me to say that? Because if you want me to, I will. First of all, not my question, Mason's question, but here's the key descriptor.

I think seemingly harmful. But also, Mason says, a stranger, And I'm not even really sure how I would have an intimate enough experience with a stranger to say, hey, buddy, I don't really like your life choices. You know. So that's a good point. The stranger throws it off, Yeah, it does. So I'm thinking there's not that much of a moral responsibility. I mean, if I see somebody walking into like a go sacrifice ceremony of some kind, I'm probably just gonna assume that they're vibe and go on

my mary way my day. Yeah. Okay, we've got another weird one here, not basketball related, but we had multiple people talking about the Kardashian curse in the chat. Obviously, with what happened to book with the hamstrings. So do you believe in curses? I don't believe in curses. I do believe in things like karma, so like I do believe in like the basketball gods, or like just the general philosophy of like what goes around comes around. But I do not believe in curses. I'm not a very

superstitious guy. I'm not. Like even when I was playing in college, Like I was never superstitious about specific things that I would do, but I was always a very I was a man of my routine, though, and I have always felt weird about that routine. Like like, for instance, even with these late night shows. I've been doing late night shows now for probably've probably done over a hundred of them over the last year and a half or so.

And like when I take a late afternoon nap, I just find that I'm more awake for those kinds of things, and so like if I don't get my late afternoon new nap, like today I did not get my late afternoon nap, and like I was paranoid all night. I'm like, am I gonna be exhausted when I'm what I'm doing the show, So like I'm a man of my routine, and I do believe in karma, but I am not a superstitious guy by any stretch of the imagination. I'm with you all the way there, but I will a

I respect somebody who tries to curse another person. You know, you see people every once in a while in the stands of a game and they're doing some sort of weird voodoo motion, and I can appreciate that. All right, Well, speaking of the basketball gods, Jason, we have had a bit of a basketball god on the court in the making in Jason Tatum. So let me ask you, do you think he's a top five player on the planet

right now? I do not. Now this is this is kind of falls in line perfectly with the conversation that we had yesterday surrounding Yokich and I talked a lot about how I hate the rush that people are in to crown these people when they're having a good stretch of basketball, and like, like, let's talk about Jason Tatum

for a second. Do you think that last year after the Celtics went out with a whimper in the first round, again it's the Nets, do you guys think that Jayson Tatum was a top five player at that point, because I don't and like the guys were trying to put him over have had a ton of success in the league for a long time, right, Like the reason why I wanted to talk about this tonight was because it's been kind of a hot topic around the league. Tonight.

Zach Lowe said that there were only four players that were definitively above him. You had Tim Bontemps say that he was the third best player in the league. I I saw, Um, you know, it's been it's been a bit. Bill Simmons was talking about how he's a top tier superstar on his show as well, and there's some Homerism going on. There is a couple of Boston guys in that group. But it's like, my thing is like he's been playing really well since January, like unbelievably well since January.

And yeah, strictly, when I'm looking in that window of time, I'm seeing one of the best perimeter defenders in all of basketball, who's also very good off the ball as a defensive player, who also can grab contested re sounds when his team needs him to within their scheme. And then on the other end, of the floor. We have a dynamic three level score. He's improved massively with his handle and his ability to get into the paint, so

we have an incredible three level score. Who in the last couple of months has done a great job accepting the double team and allowing in passing out of it and helping make plays for his teammates. So on the surface, that all looks amazing, But it's been a couple of months. Guys, Like, what, like, how ridiculous is it to literally put Jayson Tatum over Lebron James who won a Finals m v P literally like less than a year and a half ago or a And I think it's right around a year and

a half ago. Now, like a finals MVP a year and a half ago, and we're gonna say that Jayson Tatum is better than him now, Like, I just don't understand that. Like, do I think Jayson Tatum is going to continue to play this well and have a bunch of dominant playoff runs and be in the m VP conversation year and a year out. Yes, But I'm there's no race. There is no race to try to there there's I don't understand why people want to be the first guy to try to say that kind of stuff, like,

let's let's be honest, guys. Even with how disastrous that Laker team was this year, remember what you saw from Lebron James when he was on the court as a scorer and as a playmaker and the things obviously didn't try on defense a lot this season. For we don't even have to get into it. But if tomorrow, if tomorrow, in Game two of that Brooklyn series, if it was Lebron James in place of Kevin Durant with that same NETS team, would you be sitting there more or less scared?

I would argue you'd be the same amount of scared, if not a little bit more, because of Lebron's passing ability and how dangerous he can be in a one game playoff setting, like depending on how you've a stacked him up with k D. So, Like the truth of the matter is is like as great as Tatum is, this league is freaking stacked. Man at the top of the league, got Janice, Katie and Lebron in my opinion, who are still at like the three of the best big wings that we've ever seen in NBA history. You've

got Kawhi Leonard coming back next year. You've got two centers that are unbelievable. Now, the that's where it gets interesting, Like you do you think I would take Tatum over a guy like embad or Yokis. Yeah, that's a good question. I have to think more about that. I don't have to take on it right this second. But those are guys, like unproven guys that don't have a track record of postseason success at the highest level year after year after

year after year. Yeah, we can have that conversation, but come on, guys, for the for the like, with enough of the disrespect of the guys that have proven it time and time again. I love Jayson Tatum. I love watching him play. I'm super proud of all the success that he's had over the course of the last couple of years for a Celtics team that's kind of seemed like they've been stuck in the mud a little bit. But I'm not gonna sit here and be like, up

top five better than Lebron like that. That's that's jumping the gun and like, and you're seeing a little bit of it in this series. Like the Celtics only got nineteen points in the fourth order of Game one, and a huge problem there was Jayson Tatum. The Nets were successful at getting the ball out of Jason's Tatum, Jayson Tatum's hands and not giving up baskets on the back end and a bit it almost reminded me of James Harden.

Do you guys remember in the Bubble when the Lakers would double team James Harden and they would pre rotate out of it and James hardenman kind of drift out the half court. Tatum has been doing some of that. He had a really important cut on the final possession of the game when he got that layup for the win. But if you watched the tape from that fourth quarter against the Nets, Jayson Tatum only took four shots. He was one for four, He had zero assists with a turnover.

He struggled in that quarter. The Nets successfully took him out of the game in a lot of ways. Now, he wasn't completely useless, to be clear, there was that play that I talked about, the play before the game winner, where the Nets, being so terrified of Jayson Tatum, allowed email Udoka to use Tatum as a decoy on the left wing with a little off ball screen between him and Al Horford that took Nick Claxton and Kevin Durant all the way out of the paint so that Jalen

Brown had an open paint to go. Tatum is still a very effective basketball player even when he's getting double teams like that. But like I talked about earlier, you

don't see that with Lebron. You're never gonna see Lebron get completely taken out of a game offensively in a fourth quarter like that, because of his ability to take those double teams in specific spots on the floor where they're very, very difficult to navigate out of, and because of his and because he doesn't drift out of the play. That's the thing that's been killing Tatum in these fourth quarters as of late towards the end of the regular season.

And here is like he'll draw the double and then he'll kind of drift out to forty feet and he's not a threat there. You've got to stay a threat. Don't be James Harden once you get the double team, as soon as you make that past cut, because that's what makes it so that on the back end, they're playing four on five and not four on four. If you let them play four and four on the back end. Then your double team accomplished absolutely nothing. So that's just

one little example. I' there if I'm just breaking down his skill set. It's not like I'm gonna sit there and be like, oh, he's not as good at this as this guy at this or this or this. He's got all the tools. I'm just saying, for the sake of the rankings, let's wait until he has a little bit more success. He's got a very very talented team this year. If he's a top five player and he's got this team, he should win the championship this year.

Because that that's the other thing. It's like, it's like I tell the Lebron fans all the time that are like, oh, Lebron is the best player in the league. Okay, that's great. Can I hold him to the best player in the league standard? Because if he's on the best player in the league standard, now I gotta call him out for not running back on defense, now I gotta Now I gotta call him out for taking a game off here and there where his efforts not there. Now I've got

to I've got to hold him to that standard. That's the thing. That goes with Jason tam If you guys want to say he's a top five player, then we gotta we gotta say that a top five player went one for four in the fourth quarter while his offense completely fell apart, only managed nineteen points and barely scraped away a win against a team that they controlled for most of the night. So it's a complicated. That's why I don't want to put on that list just yet.

You've got to earn the right to be there over consistent success in multiple playoff runs. We're gonna bring Carson back on. He's gonna give his his take on this. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with you on a lot of fronts. I think that the premature crowning point is an excellent one. People just are, generally, I think, very overreactionary in sports. And I think that you're right about

just the immense talent in the league right now. And there are unquestionably dudes who are just more complete offensive engines when you combine scoring and playmaking. And Tatum obviously has improved as a playmaker, but like still certainly not truly elite in that capacity. But if I were to play Devil's advocate, I would probably have to disregard the sort of cumulative resume point and just look at post All Star Break Jayson Tatum and say, is that guy

a top five player alive? And you know, I mean he is right of what is right up there for the most valuable archetype in basketball. I think if you're talking about league leads, scoring, wing, versatile three level guy, solid to good playmaker, really high level defensive player. I mean we've heard the numbers before, but post All Star Break,

he's over thirty a game on sixty through shooting. It's peak Katie Kauai raw production on better efficiency than like a Kauai has ever reached, and like we said, really really good defense. So I think it's a tough argument to make just because the town in the league is so insane right now, and there are you know, ten guys who I'm sure everybody would like to have in their top five. But if he were to sustain this level, you know, I mean, that's a really really special basketball

player with like all time potential. And I do think it's like you said, Tatum has always had the skill set. It's just been about making the game easier, you know, finding ways to create more of those high probability opportunities instead of just relying on the difficult shot making. And he's done it. He gets downhill more, he gets the line more, he is handling doubles better, He's just shooting the ball really, really well. So I think you're right,

But I don't know. I had to play a little bit of Devil's Advocate there, and I do think obviously we can both agree Tatum is special, special basketball player. I'm with you. If he sustains it, then you you're you're right than he than he is that guy. He's already a better playmaker than Kauai ever has been. So like,

I'm with you, if he sustains it. My thing is, like again, first round exit last year, some of that was talent, not I'm not trying to say he should have won that series or anything, but first round exit last year, one playoff game this year. Okay, in that playoff game, he took it to Kadi and he was a better player than Katie in that game. But counterpoint, what do you think Kevin Durand's been thinking about the last couple of days, how he needs to bounce back

in Game two? Kevin Durant's coming back with a big punch in Game two. And here's the thing. If Tatum stands up to that punch too, and he closes out the nets, and then he goes into the next round and he beats you honest in the bucks, and then he goes into the next round and he beats whoever wins out of that the other side of the Brackett Like, now, now we're talking about a guy that absolutely is in that conversation. But like again, it's just, it's just and

this is just my approach to it. Like there are a lot of people that look at it and more of like a you know, in the moment type of perspective. My thing is, like I talked about this a lot the other day when I was talking about like me as a basketball player, like I would never put my shoes and myself in the shoes of an NBA player. I hate it when people even do that under the

videos I post, because I think that's disrespectful. I have too much respect for the guys that have worked so hard to either get their name called in the draft or have a phone call come in from a from a general manager offering them a contract to play professional basketball in the n b A. I would never ever ever try to put myself on that level. And I kind of have that same approach with the stars that

are that are at the top of the league. Like I just I think it's disrespectful with Lebron James and everything that he's accomplished, not just in his whole career, but what he's done recently. Like he was really good this year, he's a bad GM and him and Clutch and with the help of Genie and Rob butchered the Acres and they missed the playoffs. But at basketball, Lebron

is still really really really really really really good. And so I just don't think it's I don't think it's respectful to those guys to suddenly just be like Tatum is better, you know what I mean. But that's just my approach. No, I think you're right, and it generally pays to hold onto your stock. You know, nineteen, everybody declared Lebron could no longer be the best player alive, and then he came back and you know, title run

the playoffs. Yeah it's ridiculous, And yeah, I think that you're on the right side here, Alright, Guys that is all we have for tonight. As always, I appreciate your support. We do have Game two of Net Celtics tomorrow, I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly from the schedule, so we will be back right after the final buzzer of all the games yesterday as or tomorrow. As always, I appreciate your guys support and we will see you then. The volume