Colin Cowherd Podcast - Ant Could Become “Face Of The League”, “No Show” Clippers, Caitlin Clark’s Pro Outlook

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believe you could find another host. You never replace Ernie in terms of just how the players feel about Ernie. You'd have to get a host that the players voted on. You couldn't just insert somebody from another network and say make it work. Ernie has so much respect and admiration from the crew. Now, Barkley obviously drives the number, and Ernie Johnson will be the first to admit that Shaq and Charles really have You know, some Knights. They're feuding

other Knights. They're hysterical laughing at each other. Kenny Smith more of the straight man. But it reminds me a little bit of the Fox broadcasting crew on Sundays, where you know Bradshaw was the funny guy, Howie's this straight man, Jimmy Johnson's the coach, and he really is a coach in real life and on the set he kind of runs it all. And then Kurt Man if he knows when to jump in, push the buttons, poke in the ribs,

move out. Then you have Strahan Jay Glazer, but there are there's usually a star of a show, a straight man, and Ernie provides hosting capabilities that the respect and the admiration he has from the guys is kind of you won't find another Ernie, but it is led by Charles, and I think when you lose in Ernie, and that's that's losing something, then you have to take all of them as great as Charles Barkley is. The chemist is

a big part of this. And in my years of doing radio and TV, and I've been doing this now thirty years, it's the one thing that the really good executives of Owa's understood and the average executives overlook is chemistry. I've had multiple partners radio TV, but yet I've had one or two shows that chemistry was outstanding. It's hard to explain, it's hard to foster. There's just like you know it, it just works. Maybe there's a mutual respect

you have something in common. Somebody finishes your sentences. But if you're gonna lose Ernie, who has reportedly said, hey, I'm staying with TNT and your NBC, and you're going to bring that crew over if they did in fact win the rights, you got to lean on that crew and they've got to make that higher. They've they've got to have run through after run through, because the idea you can just insert an NBC guy into that and it's going to work. That would be an executive that

doesn't understand fit. And I think a lot of times, you know the Fox crew or the inside the NBA crew, it's hard. Chemistry is hard on these shows. I mean Steven A. Smith at ESPN, you know he and Max Kellerman. At some point stephen A went public and said, yet this just doesn't work. Skipping Shannon worked for a while, then it didn't work. Mike and the Band Dog in New York. I listened to them for years. I thought it was really good. I could tell on the air

when they got tired of each other. They got real snippy at each other, very impatient with each other. You could just feel it. It was like you're driving in the car on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I'm driving, you know, going to the city or coming out, and I'm listening for an hour and a half. I got a long listen, and I'm like, I'm I'm not sure this sounds right, and I just I think my overall point on this is inside. The NBA works. Yes, Charles

is the star, but it works because of chemistry. It's terrific. They all like each other, they all respect each other. And it's like an NBA locker room. It takes one turd to ruin it because it's a you're flying together, you're eating together, you're hanging out. It's not like an NFL locker room. Offense goes here, defense goes there. Baseball, you know, during the game, a third of the roster is down in the bullpen, manet. You get these crews,

you got four or five guys. One bad fit blows it up, blows it up, and I think they've done such a good job. It is to me. During the regular season, I generally like the show more than the games. Now, once the playoffs start, I'm into the games. But I think you can't. People are gonna watch the NFL regardless of how good or bad the shows are. But the NBA is different. It's a long regular season, even the players, there's a lot of apathy inside. The NBA in my lifetime,

is very unique. We're all stick around for that. I mean, I can think Fox does a great job at NBC in the NFL is not quite as good. But I'm watching the games. That's not the case inside the NBA gets me to a TV during the regular season when sometimes I'm not sure the players even care. All right, NBA Playoffs and full swing. Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight, is joining us.

ath what you would call dynamic. He's just a great basketball player. Jamal Murray again, he never made an All Star team. I wouldn't call him dynamic. He's a shot maker, Michael porter Is Gordon is just a relentless energy guy. But when I watched that series, and I don't want to overreact, but I was like, oh, they can throw a lot of bodies at Denver, a lot of bodies. They go about eight deep. You know, there's not much of a Denver bench. In my take is it's hard

to win when they're deeper, they're more athletic. And part of this is and I said this about two weeks ago, I said, it's an inflection point for Aunt Edwards. Is he going to become dominique spectacular but can't get through these profoundly deep teams, no titles and we just have great highlights or Jordan that you got to win two to three or four, and it's like, now this is the face of the league. And when Bey an Ant feel like those are the two guys that should be

the face of the league. So this series, to me, it's a lot bigger than people think. It's not just well Ant goes down. It's like Denver may have a bench at some point, you know, like this Denver team. You beat them now, they'll probably have to react to you. Also, if Minnesota loses, they may not keep Karl Anthony Towns. So this twin Towers thing, although it's worked, it may be more experimental if they got doused in five games in this series. So I feel like I'm watching this

in fascinating inflection point with ant as he is. Now if they get to the finals, they match up very well with Boston. You're like, is this Jordan's first title? Am I overreacting to it?

Like you focus on these specific things. But I went back and looked through the tape and as I watched, one of the biggest things that stood out to me is Jokic just didn't play very well, he had seven turnovers. He was completely caught off guard by a lot of like the pressure that Minnesota brought. They were kicking him

up full court randomly. He had a travel in the back court where nas Reed randomly picked him up in the full court there, Rudy Gobert was kind of in his head, kind of stunting, faking like he was gonna step up, and then he'd get back and deflect that lob pass to Aaron Gordon. Yokic had a bad night.

Anthony Edwards came in and just completely cleaned house, and so a lot of times, like I look at it and it's like, if you're expecting Jamal Murray to just break out against the best perimeter defender in the league in Jada McDaniels, that's probably not gonna happen. But Jokic does have the ability to flip the script. In this series,

he can be much better. And then one of the big things Michael Malone was talking about after the game, he really didn't like their defensive effort in the second half, and generally, I agree, they let they get They let it get way too comfortable in the mid range when he was isolating those smaller Denver guards and he's so dead he's hitting that fade away at like fifty percent, So like you can't you can't leave him there. You have to get out and like kind of crowd him more.

And so I think a better defensive effort to do a better job containing Aunt and then Jokic actually in inflicting himself on the series as the best player in the world, can flip the script. But to your point, it is absolutely an inflection point because if Minnesota wins this series and Ant out plays Jokic, then he just beat the defending champs and the best player in the world without home court advantage and without a legitimate co star.

for Ant. Wemby's not there yet. Jokic isn't interested. You know, Giannis has never really moved the needle in terms of like ratings and beads. Not healthy. So as I'm watching him first half, he was insane and then and then he was very quiet in the third. But as I'm watching him, I'm like, you know, Jordan had these dead quarters. I mean, Michael was classic for when his head would steam, You're like, okay, Michael's on one. And then Michael really

got it. Was like a great baseball pitcher that he knew the twelve pitches he had to get people out, Like Michael knew gearshift. Lebron's gotten very good at that. Like Lebron's always hoping his teammates get the game going, and if they don't, then he steps in and then at the seven minute mark they get him out. But I watched Aunt and I'm like, don't be too critical of him. Twenty five points in an NBA game and a half is a lot of work. That's a lot

of energy. And then in the second half, you're like, uh, first of all, dumb tech talk about that all day. But my take was my take was kind of like it's there for the taking. It feels like Denver's not equipped on the bench. You know, they could die to have a six man who could play twenty minutes to defense. This may be the moment. All these great stars have moments. It took Jordan years and years. The difference is Jordan had like iconic teams pissed and Celtics in front of them.

Denver hasn't risen that. So as good as the West is, Jason, it feels like this is the moment to seize it.

of ways. Also generally just a little brief story, like I play a lot of pickup basketball, but then during the summer, a lot of the college kids around town and the old guys who play overseas, they come home and I work out with them, and there's always like an adjustment for me going from lower level competition to higher level competition. And there's no doubt that Minnesota is

a much higher level defense than the Lakers were. And so there's gonna be a little bit of like a, oh, that pass, I need to put a little more on it. I need to be more accurate. I can't be as sloppy with my handle. This shot that I got off against Austin Reeves, I won't be able to get off against Jane McDaniels. Like all these there's gonna be an adjustment period for Denver in this series to kind of

get used to that offense. That said, as far as Aunt goes like it, it's there's still so much room for him to improve because that quiet third quarter Ant got tired. You could tell Ant got tired in that game. Yes, so there's gonna be an energy management piece that he figures out. There's gonna be like a reading the floor better piece that he figures out. There's like there's a little bully ball possession on Reggie Jackson where he just

walked It was a play he got the tech. He walked him right underneath the rim and put it in. It was the easiest bucket he got all night. Like, there's gonna be a point where he realizes all these guards can't guard him, and he starts destroying people even closer to the rim, and so this guy's the limit for him. I got in trouble with Celtics fans for comparing the two of them. It was a mail bag question. But then I started thinking about it, I'm like, no, this is this is a real thing here, this is

who's the next great American player? Because there is something to be said about being the best American player in the NBA from a marketability standpoint, right sure, Like there's a reason why a huge portion of my listeners are overseas. It's because the best players in the league are all from overseas, and so they've got these huge fan bases from Serbia and in the Philippines and things like that.

There's all these guys that are that are supporting these players, and we need an American star that can come up and kind of take the mantle. And to your point, like Jason Tatum has, he just doesn't quite have the personality for it. But the biggest piece and the main reason why I think Ant is better than him has to do with the athleticism piece. Ant can have Bradley Beal on the wing and just utterly blow by him off the dribble and then dunk on Kevin Durant like

he's not even there. And then it's not to say that Jason Tatum hasn't had big dunks in his career because he's got great size, but his first step is not nearly as dynamic as Anthony Edwards is, and so when he faces a really good defender in a late game situation, he can struggle to get to his spots. Sometimes. Aunt never struggles getting to his spot like he's gonna get a good look up. It's just a question of

whether or not he can make it. And to his credit, the two big things that he's figured out that have been his inflection between the Dominique and MJ kind of like fork in the road, the split for him has been he's been better at reading the floor. He was the guy who got Nasriy going last night. It was the banked in three that was a kickout from Ant when his man helped the driving, and one on the baseline that was the skip pass from Ant. When he was reading a pick and roll coverage. And then the

second piece of it is that jump shooting piece. He's deadly in that fourteen to eighteen foot range, and so he has a shot he can go to where it's like this is gonna go in a majority of the time. It gives him like a certain level of resilience in the playoffs. And so I just think I think he's just better. I think he's the best American player in the league of that generation, and I think he has a chance to take that mantle well.

a half point guard. And then it was Larry Bird alongside Magic. We'd never had a forward easily be the best shooter, and passer in the league, like he didn't play, he played like a two guard. And then you go into Shack. Okay, that's there's nothing been that powerful. Big guys don't run the floor. And then you know, and before him, it's Michael the greatest player of all time with great flair. Kobe was never already the face of

the league, but was like Michael light. Then you go into Lebron, arguably the greatest player, the great Swiss army knife that does everything differently. So all those players were like, to some degree, a little bit of unicorns athletically or they had a dimension to their game. They still show Doctor Jay's dunk against Michael Cooper, it's still the great. It's dunk in the history in a game. It's the seventies. It's fifty years ago with all these athletes. So with

ants skit, I've watched Jason Tatum live three times. I've watched them a hundred times. He's very good. It's not historically unique looking. He's just really clever and really smooth, good two way player. Ant does stuff and you're like, okay, sorry to put the drink down, use I got to watch the replay on that, Like whole. Even NBA guys are like, whoa, whoa. You see him come off the bench. So Wemby has some of that. Wemby could block eight blocks a game, you know, I mean, he could have

a stretch like nobody looks like that. So I do think Ant's advantage is there's a lot of wow stuff. I mean, I remember when Shaq came in the league.

Jerry Tarkani and I covered him at YOUNLV. He told me, when Shaq was a sophomore, I was at a place called the Late Jerry Tarkani and I covered him in Vegas at a place called Sharks or Tarks or Sharks, and we were sitting at a bar and me and a guy named John Henderson, a retired sports writer now in Italy, and he said, there's a kid named Shaquille O'Neil at el Shoe and he goes, I know you've seen high lights. He's going to be the greatest basketball

player you've ever seen when he plays. And you know, Jerry was a very good recruiter, and you know, and he just said, there's never been anything like him, And that's kind of the sentence for the faces of the league. There's never been anything like him. And my take is he's a little Dominique, a little Michael. I mean, what's his comp that feels like the right comps.

So like, in a weird way, this is the beautiful thing about basketball history is every every player, it's very rare to have a guy like Kobe who's like almost almost the spitting image of the guy he was trying to be like. Right, Like Tobe and MJ were so similar, Ant's kind of got his own unique flare on it. It's like it's like Dwayne Wade meets better jump shooting meets the body of a middle linebacker in the NFL.

Like it's it's it's hard, it's hard to describe, but like and then again, the big piece of it is like this guy's going to Kevin Durant and he's like, yeah, you're my favorite player, but you know I'm busting your ass right. It's like this weird like shit talking mixed with respectful mixed with like incredible aggression. But he's also just got this huge personality and that to me is a big part of the marketability element, where like I could see him being a superstar in the league for decades.

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But the Clippers remind me of the friend who's fun to hang out with, but if you ever call them to go to the airport of the hospital, they just don't show up. Like it's the same. I mean, I never know if Qawi is playing. Harden and Westbrook scare me to death in the postseason. I think Paul George is underrated. But as I watch them again, is I feel like the Clipper sort of deserved this. Like they re signed Kawhi, most teams were like, no, like we're out.

It's one thing if you're injured, Jason, it's another if you're nonverbal, And I mean, you're not sure at three forty five as a head coach if he's gonna be in the mood to play. That's why Popovich just said, I'm out. I'm done. I want to feel bad for teams that get eliminated due to injuries, but I'm kind of over the Clippers. I mean, is that unfair?

to have an optimistic perspective moving forward. I understand why you'd run it back next season, in particular because brand new arena. You can't go into the brand new arena with the rebuilding situation, right, And I thought one of the specific things that this shine to light on is Paul George, Paul George and James Harden is not enough either. It's been one of the biggest things that stood out

to me from this postseason run. The stars that have real physical gifts, and I mean like a superpower of some kind in terms of their physical advantages, they are thriving. But the ones that are relying almost solely on skill are really struggling. And I thought that that Maverick series was a perfect example of that. Luca's big. He's just bigger and stronger than the vast majority of the guys

he's going against. So he can get a little bit of an angle, shoot that gap, bump you with his left shoulder, and get to a little short shot in the lane that he can make it a high percentage. And that's how Luca got going in that series was closer to the basket. His pull up jumper was broke that entire series. Kyrie Irving he has an elite first step, He's super quick, and that in conjunction with his skill allows him to get open. James Harden is just a

better version of D'Angelo Russell. He's a skill guard that can't really shake free from people, right. And Paul George at this phase in his career is a all you know, kind of like not overly quick, not overly fast, skill wing. And so when you put elite defenders on them that bring physicality. They struggle to beat people off the dribble, they struggle to get separation. Whereas the top tier guys, we're watching Anthony Edwards just cut everybody to pieces. We're

watching Yokics get wherever he wants. We're watching Luca get wherever he wants. We're watching the elite athletes thrive. And so the problem is for the Clippers, why is their elite athlete. He's the one guy that has the resilience to get to his spots in the postseason. And here we are, what four seasons in a row where he's not able to finish this grind. And so I don't know where you go from here, but at a certain point, I think they have to give it one more shot

just because of the new arena. But I think if it goes south next year, you have no choice but to do something.

you know, early behavior maturation. Nobody denies that, and with Kyrie, my takeaway, it is working now and Luca is obviously great. But I do think, and I think we talked about this last time, I think they're too lobsided to win a title. Like when they win, it's always spectacular. Sometimes you have to win boring. Sometimes you just have to, Like Denver has mastered winning boring, trailing most of the game.

The other night, I had this feeling when it was they were down two or three with about five minutes ago, I'm like, oh god, this is just such a Denver game. But you know, Minnesota is a different task now. But I tend to think teams that need spectacular and Kyrie's spectacular. There's not a lot of easy mid range stuff. It's all beautiful. Do you consider them Do you consider them a title contender in Dallas?

and Luca could do what they could do. The reason why Dallas is succeeding is they had a veteran minimum signing and Derek Jones Junior, who is a absolute home run Like he's just giving them excellent point of attack defense. He was the guy who guarded Paul George so well in the last series. Andy sitting spot up shots and can drive close outs and can run his lane and transition. And then PJ. Washington and Maxi Kleiba give them these really versatile defensive forwards that can defend at the rim

and out on them. Specifically for the OKC matchup, it's tricky because chet Holmgren is a is a big man who can shoot and specifically he'll set screens and then pop to the three point line. That is a nightmare for drop coverage bigs like Derek Lively, like Daniel Gafford. So Maxi Kliba was the was the remedy for that. Maxi Klebo is the guy who could switch those screens. Maxi Kleba can actually slide his feet and guard shake gials with Alexander a little bit, so you can switch

those screens and things like that. He was a vital part of their defense of versatility. His injury is a massive loss for that team. I don't want to cut them cut them out entirely from this picture, because anybody who's made it to the second round certainly has a shot, but that that Kliba hit is a big loss for them.

a run. They get really close and you think to yourself, Oh, it's gonna be like an eight year run, and then like they have a really bad loss in the playoffs, and they're never the same. I mean, Sacramento light the beam, I mean, we all felt like this is the beginning of something big. Lose to the Warriors, it just didn't feel the same this year. These young teams Oklahoma City,

Minnesota just jumped over them. Indiana jumped over them. And so, you know, it's interesting when I look at the Knicks, you can make the argument, hey, they're gonna move Randal, They're gonna get somebody in here. It's gonna be great. But to get somebody in they're gonna have to get rid of a few Josh Hearts. You gotta be very delicate. This is a Tibbs team. These betteran guys. They don't want to practice like that, they don't want to play

forty five minutes. So the Knicks are fascinating. I thought Philadelphia would win this series. And by the middle of Game two, I'm like, oh, yeah, New York's a better team. They're winning the boards, they're better late, they're better. It just felt like, you know, you watch series and you're like, oh, by the way, we may feel this. By halftime of Minnesota Denver, you know, you're like oh, here's a real

problem here. But what's interesting with the Knicks. I can also argue this Jimmy Butler was hurt both day, Mignonnis were hurt. Sixers have a shit ton of cap space and three potential picks. Indiana's getting better. What a Orlando takes a big swing and gets a member of the Phoenix Suns right like, do you buy because you're gonna have to give up some of those nice maybe a villanova guy. They're such a hustle effort team. Is this like you can't take it for granted? The East this

year stinks like its depth is all time bad. Do we both believe, Hey, they're just gonna add a Kadie or a Paula George and they're gonna take a leap or is it a delicate ecosystem there in New York and a beat up East in conference and reality may smack him in the face next year.

Like that's basically what it is. And it's like Isaiah Hartenstein excellent offensive rebounder, Mitchell Robinson excellent offensive rebounder, Josh hart excellent offensive rebounder, Dante DiVincenzo excellent offensive rebounder. That's

just kind of what they do. So the thing though, is like you have to be careful if you include somebody like og and Andoby in a trade like that, because the physical profile the Knicks is vitally important in my opinion, and I think you can get away with giving up you know, for instance, like I think if I had to choose between giving up Heart and Devincenzo in a deal or an og Anobi, I would be doing whatever I could to hold onto Og because if you get if you get Kevin Durant at this phase

of his career, older, right, and he's not as like physically strong as a guy like og Ananobi, you alter, you alter the physical profile of the team to the point where you're not as imposing because Og is a big part of what you're capable of doing on both ends of the floor in terms of that physical identity,

and so I think they have to be careful. You're going to fundamentally change your identity as a basketball team by making a deal like that, because you go from being the bully, offensive, rebound out, hustle team to now we're a classic two star build built on offensive firepower and in a little bit more of that kind of like, uh,

you know, overall offensive skill. So you got to find a way to kind of toe that line between the two because you don't want to lose that toughness identity, because that toughness identity is a huge part of how you're winning. But I think if they could somehow pull in a legitimate scoring forward, someone like a Paul Georgia or Kevin Durant without giving up that that ogi in an obie slot, I think you could be in good shape.

This is where it's an advantage that you have the picks that you have, and then you have as many good players as you have, because if you had to give up of Mitchell Robinson, you have Isaiah Hartenstein. If you have to give up an Isaiah Hartenstein, you have Mitchell Robinson. If you have to give up a Dante DiVincenzo, you know who's a hell of a player. Deuce McBride like that, and he's a guy that can guard on

the perimeter and do a lot of that stuff. So like they have enough depth to where they can give up from different spots. But if I'm Phoenix and you're like you want Kevin Durant, I'm like I want og Anobi, and so it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be a hard negotiation. Yeah, But if they can somehow keep Jalen og one of the centers and then get one of those big forwards, that's a really good team. That's a team that you'd be probably picking out East.

like he's a crazy streak shooter. But I think you make the mistake if you like in Orlando, if Orlando made a move Bonkaro's you're one to me, it feels like and Booker comes in is a really good too. But I want another score at the forward, you know, another some size, some length. So like if you're Phoenix now Bill and Kevin Durant, well, if you get rid of Booker, I got to get some young players over here because those guys are gonna miss some spots. Although

Durant played a ton this year. So my take is your Phoenix, you can bring it all back, but there are issues. You don't have a classic point guard, you don't have much of a bench, so those are real issues. You can keep bringing stuff back, but it's like at some point you have holes, right, we see, like Milwaukee, you can bring it all back, and they may have to because they don't have they don't have a lot of assets, and this is an old they're all locked up.

I don't think that many people want I think Dame, you could move in gi honest, but they don't want to move those two. So my takeaway is, you watch a lot of Suns basketball, who would you move? Where would you move them? Because it feels like to me, people are gonna make They're going to get more phone calls than any team in the league because there's a lot of New York Knicks and Orlando's out there looking at Phoenix thinking it ended poorly. Yeah, they they want

to get out of stuff. They don't want to say it publicly. Phoenix is saying, hey, we're bringing the band back together, but it's a flawed team. Vocal likes Biggs, it's not built for him.

on a second, let's let's filter through that. The conference finalists out West was a team led by Paul George Okay, without Kawhi Leonard and Trey Young made the conference finals out East, like it was they won. The Bucks won that series with Gianna said in a hyper extended knee over the last couple of games. So like, really that was the weird COVID season where all the good teams got hurt. All the good teams got hurt. The Lakers got hurt, the Nuggets got hurt. He got hurt. Like

everyone was hurt ye in that season. So like it was kind of this gap year. Totally legitimate championship for the Bucks, but like the Sun's getting to the finals, I think got them to believe in Devin Booker as this like franchise cornerstone. I look at Devin Booker more

as like the Kyrie Irving type of archetype. If I could put him next to a real a franchise player and he can just focus on being a late game shot maker, slash guy that can spell your star for stretches and run the offense, that's the kind of fit that I like. And so when I look at the Sun situation, Bradley Beal, I think is a really good player, but his trade value is low because he's older, injury prone, and on the long term deal that pays him a

shit ton of money. Right, Kevin Gurant really good player, but old and just in a situation where like he doesn't have as much value around the league. Devin Booker is a guy that you can trade and get a Hall and so Hall. Yeah, And so what I was pitching is like, embrace, like have the self awareness to embrace the fact that Devin Booker's not gonna be your franchise cornerstone and then be like, Okay, well, how do

we turn this situation into something more fun. I would call Orlando and I'd be like, Hey, you got Dev, you got Palo Boncaro, but you just lost a series to the Calves because nobody can create a shot other than Palo, and no one can make jumpers. So like you need somebody that can come in and just be like a skill guard next to Paloon Caaro. And so if I would call them and I'd be like, I want Jalen Suggs, I want Jonathan Isaac, and I want

Wendell Carter Junior. That's a lot that is a hal Those are three really good.

something Phoenix did not have last year. I've got Bradley Beal Steele is still a high powered number two. I've got Kevin Durant Jonathan Isaac, two really rangy long wings that can do a lot defensively. And I'm going from Yusuf Nurkic an old a slow footed, big center, to Wendell Carter Junior, who is a big, strong, athletic young center who can shoot the three ball. And so it kind of creates like a more fun Phoenix Suns team.

And it's just an acknowledgment of the reality that you weren't going to be able to rebuild around Booker and then go into these series with him as the best player, because like, if you go into a series Devin Booker is your best player, or into a playoff run, you're going to run into a lot of teams that are better players than Devin Booker. You just are. And so's that problem's not going away. And if I'm Orlando, I'm

looking at it like Hollow's a franchise cornerstone. But clearly this, clearly this build where it's like we're big and strong and athletic, but nobody can shoot, no one can dribble, no one, they can't shoot. That's not working either, And so I look at that as like we'll figure out the rest later. Give me Devin Booker at age twenty seven, next next to my young star who just adds twenty seven points per game in a seven game series against an elite defense when no one else on his team

could make anything and he had to do everything. It was a really impressive series from Palad. He's got a lot of that like physical imposition on the game that is super valuable.

Jones and the Giants as a top ten quarterback. That's the mistake, not saying, hey, we missed a draft pick. Everybody misses on draft picks. I want to talk about Darvin Ham first. I because I said this the other day. Listen is for years and years you hear Warrior fans

banging on Steve Kerr, where's Kamingo, where's Wiseman. Well, they want a sophisticated offense that's lightning speed and to bring guys out of the G league high school insertom when you're trying to, by the way, refine them as players. They're just raw, I mean, just sand papering these players. Oh yeah, I learned this offense playing with Steph Curry and Draymond Green. Is that's that's calculus. You're not talking about Orlando's offense, right, the all guys they're all growing together.

So people banged on curR for years about you're not getting the young guys in, And it's like Steve knows what he's doing. He sees the film, he's at practice every day. Give him credit. And I don't think Darvin Ham as a rookie head coach is at that level. But where I'll defend him is that like when you faced Denver, Denver's won twelve or thirteen times. If you win twelve out of thirteen games in a baseball series, you know Yankees have on the twins forever. There's probably

a reason your back ends bad. You don't have the power, and there's something you're missing, a component. You know, the Yankees have better starting pitching, whatever it is. And I look at Denver and the Lakers and the four best players for the Nuggets never really have a terrible game, Like Murray can play like crap in the first half, but it'll have a great fourth. Porter will eventually hit big shots. Even KCP rarely is bad for four quarters.

But Ruey can disappear, Delo has disappeared. Anthony Davis because he works so darn hard on the defensive end sometimes you know, sort of regresses offensively late. And so I look at it and I think, oh God, I watched the Lakers lead for seventy percent of it, but they just have guys in their rotation that disappear, and then Anthony and Lebron have literally like play harder minute more minutes. So I look at it and I think to myself, you got to get out of substitution patterns. We're not

at practice. Who does he trust? Who doesn't he I'd bring Darvin Ham back, but I mean, Laker fans are one hundred percent that he's a bum that he can't coach, And I'm like, am I missing something? Is he that bad of a coach?

It's actually one of my biggest pet peeves in the NBA. Every fan base hates their coach. It's the craziest everyone, the Warriors, the Warriors. I've even seen Heat fans complain about Spolsal's rotation like it is. It is a super common thing around the league. So I want to be clear, the Lakers lost to Denver because their players weren't as good as Denver's players. Goes, that is it is. That

is absolutely what happened in that series. I actually thought it was super fascinating that coming into that season, you and I talked about how, like, hey, Ruy plays the same position as Lebron, Delo plays the same position as Austin, those are redundancies. They need to trade those guys. And who were the two guys that let them down in that series? Ruey and Dilo, Like those are the two guys. So you like that, like the front office is why

they lost to Denver. That said, it became abundantly clear this season that Darvin was not ready. And there are two main things that I want to hit on, and I'll be quick one. He grossly mismanaged the talent on the roster. Here's the basic stat that will send this

point home. In the thirteen game stretch after the n season tournament when they went three to ten, which is literally the reason they had to play Denver in the first round and fight through the playing tournament, D'Angel Russell, who as as flawed as he is, is certainly their third or fourth best player. D'Angelo Russell was playing as many as Cam Reddish and taking as many shots as Torrean prints. That was what was happening in that thirteen

game stretch post in season tournamenthouse. Well, yeah, when you are playing, and here's the thing I understand, when there's like a sixth or seventh man in your rotation that's struggling and you need to jockey the rotation rack. Cau Darvin said. He leaked to the press like when a guy, what's the word you phrase you use, shits the bad ten games in a row. You gotta do something. Here's the problem, though, what you don't do is go, h,

Derek White, that was a rough ten game stretch. You know what, Let's take him out of the line up. Let's put Peyton Pritchard in there, like, that's not what you do. Like you play your best players, your best players get more leeway. You don't pull D'Angelo Russell and heavily limit his usage in minute opportunities on the floor for Cam Reddish, who literally is what on his fourth team in five years, Like it just it was an asonine misallocation of resources and it directly led to the

situation they were in the standings. Everybody knew their five best players were Lebron, ad Austin, Dilo Rui. As soon as he started playing all five of them big minutes and starting, they took off and won most of their games. That was That was a gross That was a negligent management of talent. Right. The second piece of it, and the important part to understand here is the context of why he got hired right around the time Darvin got hired. Who was the big coach that everybody wanted after the

situation what happened in Boston. He was emy Udoka. Everyone's like man emay Udoka took the Celtics and turned them from like kind of a soft group into like a really tough group. In that twenty twenty one season, remember, and so there was all of this like or twenty twenty two season. I should say basically what people were thinking was, let's get a former player who can like look eye to eye with these guys and hold them accountable.

And the main issue that Darvin am had, and I would say this was a bigger issue than anything having to do with the rotation. He was too much of a benevolent motivator. He never held those guys accountable on a day to day basis. They'd have games which would have unacceptable efforts and then he'd go and be like, you know, marathon, not a sprint, you know, or just we're just in this for the long haul. This is

all gonna be fine. And when you watched I was it was jarring in that Denver series to watch the juxtaposition of Michael Malone actively coaching on the sideline. Guy makes a mistake, it's a timeout, he's getting screamed at in the huddle, he's going. After Game four, he went and ripped them all a new one in the postgame presser for not protecting the paint two games in a row. And then Darvin Ham is just sitting chilling on the sideline he's a very passive coach and he never held

players accountable. And so when you look at those two teams, I've got a Denver team that has really sharpened their execution. They never let go of the rope for more than a possession or two before they regained composure. And there was a Lakers team that would frequently lose control of the situation for like three four minutes at a time. There were a lot of big defensive mistakes down the stretch in those losses, the buzzer beater ones in Game two and in Game five, and so the reality is

is like, Darvin's not responsible for what happened. However, everyone involved in that situation new like, hey, Darvin's not a very good NBA coach right now. So we have a lot of urgency, We have a lot of pressure. Lebron's going into year twenty two. He's going to be forty years old. Let's not head into this season at a

coaching disadvantage. Let's get someone in here that's more established, someone that can actually have a higher floor, a baseline level of competence, so that we actually make sure that the players are the one determining the outcome.

coaches lose confidence generally point guards. I mean, I mean, listen, if you're quick, if you distribute, you can shoot a little bit. It's hard to bust. You can find a space for a guy maybe in rotation. So and I always feel that way with shooters. If you're quick and you can get a good shot and you can shoot, the leagues just need It's not a lot of guys that can really shoot that have been busts. They'll find

a way. Even if you're an awful defensive player, they'll bring you off the bench, they'll put you in patterns so you're not having to guard the best defensive players. So, like Caitlin Clark, there's this sense is Oh, she's going to be a can't miss well even in the NFL, there is no camp miss there are no camp misses. My take on her though, is she is really quick. She has tremendous quart awareness, so players are going to

like playing with her. Like in Iowa, you know, she makes great passes people can't finish like people now can finish in the WNBA. So and also she gets a shot and she's a devastating shooter. So I do see her transforming the lead. I don't think we've seen a shooter like that in the league. And I also think again her court awareness. Playing with better finishers, people are going to want to play with her. Even if she struggles, she'll get other people involved and she'll draw so much attention.

What is your guess on what kind of player she is? Is she is she a first team All WNBA because I just don't I don't have. You know, the length is much different in the WNBA, like six six sixty seven is everybody's got those level players, so you don't get the freebies downlow. You know, in college you can get some real cheap baskets men's and women's. I think she's going to be a star, but I have no nothing to judge it on. I mean, you're I mean

Cheryl Miller was bigger, taller. I mean there's certain times you don't get athletes and you just go Candas Parker. That's gonna work. But a shooting guard from Iowa, I don't know what do we make of it.

One of the things that's interesting to me about college shops is the athleticism is always much further along than the offensive skill development, so like it's actually like a lot of and then the coaching is really good, and the level of intensity on a game to game basis is really really high. So it's actually really difficult to

score at the college level. And to your actually one hundred percent agree with you on your take on like the safety of a player, like the like an offensively skilled player being kind of bust proof in the sense that like the vast majority of players that demonstrated they could score at the college level, get into the NBA and they're able to score. And it's because there's a gimmer for Debt was a very small player by NBA standard, She's not.

texted my wife. My wife was at the airport flying home from Chicago, and I texted her and I was like, hey, like, Caitlyn Clark's playing on the WNBA app right now. She stopped everything she was doing and she downloaded the app and she watched the game, which just goes to show you that like the type of phenomenon that she is. But like, as I was watching, like she can get separation from these girls. Yeah, in addition to that, like everyone always focuses on like, oh, the athleticism goes up

a level. All this gets more difficult. But basketball doesn't work like that. You're not just playing one on one all game long, like you're running sets. You're doing things that are designed to generate openings, and she has the skill to make shots in those openings. And so there was it was such a I don't know what it is about Caitlin, and maybe it is her fame, but there seems to be this like segment that's almost like rooting for her to fail. It's it's kind of bizarre

to me. I don't understand it. But the truth of the matter is is like she might have certain matchups, like she might run into specific defenders at the WNBA that give her some issues. She's gonna have offshooting nights. She's gonna have because she's new at this. She's gonna have stretches where it doesn't look as pretty. But to me, it's a pretty safe bet that she's gonna score a lot of baskets in the WNBA for a long time.

I'd be like, oh, I'd go to watch that, and I think she has that. Oh I'd watch that. You bring the casual in I Kadi always. You know you're a casual. Well, most people are casuals. I mean. The truth is the reason the NFL. I've said for years the NFL is lasagna or Italian food. It's everybody's second favorite, if not first. NBA is more sushi. You love it, you don't like it at all. I went to college

with guys from Poloosee Country in Washington State. Raw fish to them, it's like not a chance in the world. So like every sport needs casuals and the NFL just has a ton of casuals. My wife is sit down and watching an NFL game. I'm not gonna watch baseball. So I think Caitlin Clark has the ability to pull me in. I feel it, and I think it's great. All right, Jason timp hoops tonight as Ohays great stuff.