The volume. All right, Jason timp and I are just about ready to talk about the Lakers. Before we start with Jason, I want to grab your smartphone. Download the game Time app. Grab it right now, that smartphone ninety seconds Game Time app. Want to go to a basketball game? Download game Time use the code colin ceoli and that's an easy code. Remember twenty bucks off your first purchase.
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You create an account. The code is colin, then coli in and you get twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again an account the redeemed code colin. Download the game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. Well, we haven't talked to Jason timpf for a long time. Jason is one of those gems we found hunting through podcast after podcast Hoops Tonight host. He's
done just a remarkable job for us. His growth has been exponential, and we don't ignore him during the football season. But we got middle of Coop here is my lead back. So now we're pivoting here in about four or five days to the NBA. And I found myself about three weeks ago really starting to watch the NBA, and Jason and I are going to cut it up for about forty five minutes. Let me start with a trade deadline. A lot of times there can be sort of overhyped
trade suggestions. I have not seen any irresponsible reporting by NBA guys. I don't think there's a ton out there. I think Dejontay Murray would make the Lakers better. I don't think he's a game changer. So your thought on what is a pretty quiet trade deadline.
Well, it's interesting because I think the play in tournament has made it so that more teams than ever are more willing to think within the scope of the current season, which has diminished the number of sellers. And yet there are so many teams that feel close, which has increased the number of buyers, but the problem is the majority
of those buyers don't have much to offer. Like the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns would love to have a perimeter defense upgrade, but they don't have any first round picks to offer, which severely limits their ability to go out and get somebody. The Lakers would love to go out and get an athletic guard, but they have some limitations in that they basically have this one draft pick to offer, and chances are you can't get a
really great transformative player for that type of talent. And so, in a weird way, even though there are a lot of teams that would like to make trade, there aren't Just there just aren't that many trades to be made, and so I think that will kind of limit what we see over the course of the next couple of days. Of course, you never know, we'll see what happens before the deadline of desperation kicks in and some stuff starts
flying around. But I have a feeling that we're poised for a relatively quiet deadline.
So you follow the entire league, let's start with the Lakers, because that's always been a primary asset of your NBA knowledge. I've kind of rolled my eyes at any suggestion to trade Lebron, mostly because the five previous years before him, they had the lowest winning percentage in the league, and he saved the franchise ticket sales merch intelligence. He's still an elite scorer and distributor. I'm not giving up Lebron for nineteen year olds that may or may not hit
and be players. Here's what I view the Lakers as, and you can tear this apart. I view this team as an elite score and distributor, Lebron, the best defender in the league in Anthony Davis, an excellent third wheel, sometimes inconsistent, but a good score or in Austin Reeves, excellent length. That's why they can match up with a Denver. They have excellent length, could use another shooter. I would love to see him give up a little length to
get a shooter to Jontay Murray. Then I think they would be in the discussion as the third best team in the league. They're not Boston though the Celtics have no bench and they just beat them, and they're not Denver. If Yokiic Anthony Davis does about as good a job as you can on him, and he's going to give you twenty eight to eight and eight or whatever. But I think the move is a tweak, and I don't
think I'm selling the future when I don't know. Because of the way the NFL draft works, I get twenty three year olds in the NBA, I get nineteen year olds who knows what they become. I have a much greater sense of a first round NFL pick than a first round NBA pick. So my take is, if you could get a shooter, give up a tad length, I think you're arguably capable of beating a Milwaukee a Phoenix. Is that a fair kind of view of the Lakers?
You know, the Lakers have had such a weird season, but it makes a little bit more sense when you kind of split it into thirds. So they come out the gates and they're actually pretty solid in spite of the fact that D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves are both struggling. They started fifteen and nine, capped off with winning the n season tournament right then immediately after that, which was somewhat I was kind of our mutual friend Logan Swam.
I was texting him at the time, I was like, I hope they don't just completely fall apart after winning this thing. They go three and ten over their next thirteen games, with some bad losses. They lost to a Spurs team that hadn't won in like a month, They lost to the Bulls, they lost to the Grizzlies. They basically let go of the rope and it does a
ton of damage to them in the standings. Well, they kind of circle the wagons and they get their feet back underneath them, and they're ten and six in their last sixteen games, with some impressive wins. They beat the Clippers, they beat the thunder, they beat the Celtics, they beat the Knicks, they beat the MAVs, they beat the Warriors. So I think more or less, I'm kind of exactly where I was with this team before the season, which is they're really damn good, but they're not as good
as Denver. They're not as good as Boston. So I think the silver lining and the reason why I would invest in this group is you and I talked about how Lebron and ad in a lot of ways needed to get better, especially on the offensive end, for them to be able to hang with Denver. A Lebron James jump shot last year was worth zero point nine points. A Lebron James jump shot this year is worth one point zero six points. That's an eighteen percent improvement. You've
seen that when you watch the games. He's he's executing the Golden State Warriors with pull up jump shots at the end of games. He just was completely incapable of doing that last year. He had a bizarre shooting slump in last year's season. And then Anthony Davis is having the best post of season of his career. He's reading double teams better than ever, and so he's been so good and so to me. Like you mentioned that core three Austin, Lebron, and Ad the biggest question mark for
the Lakers is the two guys in between. Russell brings a lot of offensive firepower to the table, but you can't play him next to Austin Reeves against good teams or not athletic enough. In the backcourt, Torrian Prince has been Darvin Ham's favorite player all season long. He is a bench player. Here's a crazy stat for you. He has started twice as many games this year as he did in the previous three seasons combined. So he's miscast as a starter on this particular team, although they just
recently moved into the bench. Your opinion there that bench length. They have All these guys like Rui Hachimura and Jared Vanderbilt are really good, but they can't really play on the perimeter on both ends the floor the way they need and so bringing in someone like a Dejonte Murray, another guy that they wanted last summer that they didn't get who I know they're looking for again this year, is like a Bruce Brown or even like a smaller move on the margins with a team like Brooklyn for
something like Royce O'Neil and Dorian Finney Smith. Getting quality NBA starters at the two and three will give them their best punchers chance. But at the end of the day, Colin like is Denver just better than everybody, because that, I think is what's causing a lot of the reticence here is whether or not they can even beat them.
I talked about this on the Herd today. If you look at the history of the NBA, teams have been very even those Utah Chicago series very even. What was the difference Michael hitting key shots Spurs Dynasty was largely Duncan hitting key shots. Shaq and Kobe beat the Blazers in Game seven on a series of great shots. Late Lakers, I would argue, we're out played for much of that series, trailed in several games. So if you look at the history of the NBA, the best player wins. It's not
always the best bench. Denver's bench is average, it's not always the best support system. Michael Porter in the finals, he's been such a hit and miss up and down player. Yolkis just makes big baskets late. And so I don't think the Lakers are worse than Denver and Boston for any other reason then the best player on the floor, So Boston, I still I'm going to transition to them to a second. I still have my misgivings about Boston because I don't love their best player as much as
I love Denver's or the Lakers or Milwaukee's. But I tend to think the Lakers are the third best team because Jokic is the world's best player, and I do think that a Celtics starting five is really really good and usually good at home. So let's pivot to the East coast. We'll come back west because I'm starting to fall in love with the Clippers, and that sentence I've never uttered in my life. I want to go first, Let's go to Boston. So listen. I know their starting
five is great. I don't love Missoula. I think he's a little over his skis at times in big games against a Spolstra, in big games against Malone, I wouldn't trust him in a big series. I think he gives away a game in a series. They don't have a bench. I do really like their starting five. I think poor zingis is of just a unique body that it's he's just hard to match up with. He forces you to pay attention to their fourth best player, and he's a weird body type. But I see this is that we're
trying to convince ourself to what Tatum is. I know exactly what poorzingis is. Not a great leader, not always healthy, but a very effective score and a unique body type. Drew Holliday Elite Score B level score, Elite Defender B level score. Jalen Brown great athlete, better every year, a little bit of a star ceiling, but an excellent player. With Tatum, it's different. I think people think you know listen, next year he's Kobe and this year and I'm like, no,
he's never going to be that. It's not his personality. He is an a player, a top eight guy in the league, but he doesn't have a little bit of that kind of get me the ball, I'm going to be selfish for six minutes. It's not in him. It's why he's a terrific team player. But I think we keep waiting for the next level of Tatum and I'm like, he's a two way player, excellent, love him, team guy,
but this is what he is. There will be games six and sevens when he's on the floor with a Lebron or Steph and you're like, he's the second best player on the floor. He's just not that player. Is that an unfair appraisal of Jason Tatum and the Celtics.
It's it's so funny because you can't talk about this with Celtics fans because they're so that this their record is incredible. They have all these boxes that they're checking and it's like, this looks like the best team in the league except for guess who. Their last four losses were against the Lakers, the Clippers, the Bucks, and the Nuggets, and specifically those four games. Their offense faltered in every
single one of those games. And the bizarre thing with this Celtics team is they have attached their fate to variants. They attempt the most three point shots in the league. When they're going in, they look awesome. When they're missing, their offense completely stutters, and they can be beat by anybody basically, and even Jason Tatum himself, And like, you know, this is the most disappointing thing to me. He came
into this this season, he put on more muscle. He's one of the most physically impressive forwards that we have in the league. And he comes into the season he's posting up more than ever. And then somewhere after, like twenty games or so, he stopped posting up as much and he went all in on this stupid pull up jump shot, which has now become a half of his shot diet. This is a crazy stat for you, Cohn. They're nine players in the NBA that have attempted at
least four hundred pull up jump shots this year. Okay, Trey Young a small guard, shake yieldess, Alexander a finesse guard, Jalen Brunson a smaller power guard, Steph Curry a smaller guard, Devin Booker a decent sized two guard but who's not a great athlete. Donovan Mitchell a good athlete, but he's small, Luka Doncic a ford who is more ground bound and doesn't have a lead athleticism. And then Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum. So all these other guys, they do it
because they have to. That's how they're in the NBA. And not to mention all of those guys, Trey Sga, Jalen, Steph, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Luka Doncic, they're all great at that shot. They get more than a point per pull up jump shot that they take. The problem is is Jason Tatum. And by the way, Anthony Edwards has to be lumped in here because he's the same type of guy, disgustingly good athlete, just a ridiculous athlete who bails the defense out by taking these long pull up jump shots.
And Jason Tatum about a half of his shot diet is a shot that is worth less than a point, which is his pull up jumper. For years now, he's never been able to make it at a high enough clip, yet he is attaching his destiny to it. And it's discouraging because again, he is six ' nine, ripped freak athlete, can bully people to the basket, do all of this stuff, and he's bailing the defense out more often than not. And like, you know, it's so funny. It used to
be like a Tatum's young, He's figuring it out. Tatum's young, He's figuring out. He's he's gonna be twenty six in this playoff run. This is usually the time when players figure it out. Now, I don't want to bail on him because I've seen enough like there in game you know, five and six against the Heat, he kind of looked like he started to figure some stuff out before he
got hurt in game seven. It's not over for him by any stretch of the imagination, but it's it's just discouraging for a player this deep into his career, with the athletic tools that he has to basically cut everyone a break by taking such high difficulty shots that he can't make it a high enough clip to really punish defenses. And between that and then as a team them leaning
so heavily on three point variants. They've made themselves beatable in a way that a team that talented really should not be beatable.
Okay, So I want to go back west to the Clippers, who I saw dismantle the Celtics in Boston from the opening tip. So a couple of nights ago, I'm out and Lawrence Frank is sitting next to me, and we just chop it up for an hour, and I said, man, was I wrong on that deal? I said, I hated it. I'm like, h ya, YoY, what are you going to do with Westbrook? He went to the bench where he's planning about twenty three minutes a night and doing really good things in that twenty three minutes. Last night he
had a couple of beautiful passes against the Hawks. E Kawhi and Paulovo's tremendous two way wings. They've got plumbly you know, they've got some size. But I said, I said, you're a beautiful team to watch. The ball movement. They don't have a single player in the top thirty five in ball usage, and you can see it. I think they're the most beautiful basketball right now in the league. To watch. Jason the Clippers ball movement they get a great shot. Three out of four times down the floor,
they get beautiful shots. They have surging offense with like a coffee in a Westbrook off the bench size, experienced wings, veteran point guard, experience, head coach. And I'm sitting there watching them. I know it's the Hawks, and I know the Celtics probably now I'll just give I'll give them the win over the Celtics. That's a credible win. And I'm watching those two games and I'm like, this offense,
you can score your way to a title. There's no Tim Duncan in this league now, like you can score your way to a title. Yo. Kich is not a great defender. Milwaukee's not a great defensive team. I think we have to take the Clippers seriously. I think they're a mash offensively. Westbrook deserves credit and Harden, Lawrence Frank said right now in his career all about winning most coachable guy. So your takeaway on what you're watching.
With him, I think with James Harden, we overestimated. I think going into that deal, how much like his playoff shortcomings really play a role in the regular season, which is they don't like James Harden is still even last year in Philly, one of the best regular season offensive engines that you can have in the league. That specifically is of great value next to Paul George and Kawhi Leonard because they are both very much tip of the spear type of scores. If you can get them into
advantage situations, they can kill people. Paul George has been playing with like a defender closing out at him most of the season this year, and he's so damn good when you give him that type of advantage, right, and just in general, their overall floor organization with James Harden has just made offense so much east for them, which was interesting because early on they struggled offensively with James Harden. That took a little bit of time for them to
figure out. Now the offense is clicking in addition to the defense, and now they're beating everybody. The other part of it, too, is when we really look at the Clippers as a regular season team, they've been more on like the Lakers side in years past, where they're kind
of just getting through the regular season. And one of the things that NBA history has told us is Denver Nuggets one seed Warriors before Steph Curry sprained his foot right there with the Suns at the top of the West, the Bucks one seed, the Lakers one seed, the Raptors a two seed. Like the team that is a veteran team that has talent that attacks the regular season with
like a real ferocity usually wins the title. And so the Clippers, I think, just from the top down, have approached the season with a lot more urgency this year, and I think that that's a big step in the right direction for them. Now, I want to be clear, there's some question marks surrounding this team. They're twenty third in defensive rebounding. That's usually a big red flag for
the playoffs. They also attempt twenty six pull up jump shots per game, which is the second most in the league, and right now they're making them at a really high rate. But we've seen what happens when I mean when they lost to Denver in the bubble, that's what happened. Their pull up jump shots went cold and they didn't really have another punch at that point. But to be clear, all these teams have holes. Boston has offensive issues, Milwaukee
as defensive issues. So it's not like the Clippers issues are you know, the only team in the league that has that type of red flag. But the way I look at it, it's it's one last thing on the James Harden front that I think we didn't properly account for. In Philly, he was getting the best perimeter defender every night. Tyre Smaxy was viewed as the secondary action point. They're
throwing the forwards at Joel Embiid. He's getting the best guy on the other team at guarding a perimeter initiator who you're throwing your best guy at for a perimeter weapon. With the Clippers, you're probably throwing it at Kawhi, You're throwing your second best guy at. You're probably throwing it at Paul George. James Harden is getting quality matchups every single night. I think just in general, there's lower pressure
on him in this postseason. There's if you actually look back last season, they were below five hundred in the regular season and in the playoffs when James Harden shot below forty percent. They did not have that margin for error in Philly for James to have a bad night. With the Clippers this year, they're well above five hundred. When James Harden shoots below forty percent, there's margin for air. James can go off the reservation and they just keep
trucking right along. And so I think they just kind of increase their margin for error. They improved their regular season offensive organization. But once again, it will come down to Kawhi and Paul George knocking down pull up jump shots when they get into the postseason.
Yeah, and then Westbrook comes off the bench, where he's often the best guard on the floor. You know, when he comes in at the eight minute mark, he's only playing like twenty three minutes a night, but he's first of all, he's always been an energy guy. I'm never worried about that. But I think he really he deserves credit. He just said, listen, Carmelo really struggled to adapt to his role off the bench for like three years. Westbrook's like,
I'll do it. And it's I mean, when Terrence manager fourth best starter in the starting five, You're like, that's a that's a good team. And I think it's a really brilliant point. They're a little bit of a matchup issue. So because Kawhi and Paul George are very similar, I think Paul's the most underrated player in the league. He gets this whole playoff p and then you go look at his playoff numbers. They're not bad at all. They're not bad at all. So I think he's a really
underrated player. And he and Quire very similar players, So you have to pick your poison. And if you start looking like the other night, and Kawhi is still such an effective player because of his hand size down low, he's really he's really a problem. He's so strong. Paul's more of a pure perimeter player, Kawhi can go inside. I think they're just a matchup problem. I think they're a matchup problem with Westbrook off the bench, and I love watching him play. So let's go back east to
the Knicks. So I watched the entire game Lakers Knicks. Now Og didn't play in Randall, But I mean the Lakers beat the Celtics without Lebron and Ad so Julius Randall shouldn't be the difference. I think Grimes was out. But my takeaway and the Knicks is this, First of all, I always thought Jalen Brunson was a one A Maybe he's a one twenty seven a game. I love his leadership, his IQ, his toughness, I think he's the best. Nick
sent Ewing. It was never a huge Carmelo fan, didn't give you anything on the second on the defensive end, and a little bit selfish, wouldn't step back and hit threes for years. He just got stubborn on the twos. So if Bronson's an A, I do believe you need a very strong two. I think Og and Randall are threes. Good threes. And at the end of that game, if Brunson's not hitting, forget Randal because Randall would be slowed down by a D. He's not getting any cheap points.
Eighty's the best low post defender in the game. And I look at the Knicks and what I've seen Jason in the last three years with them is patience, and part of me is like, just go get a two, and then part of me is like, no, that's the next You've been desperate. I'mari Stodameier. You always reach on people. Is there a player in the league if not this trade deadline, next trade deadline, because I think they needed too,
so address if you think the Knicks do. If Brunton's not hitting late like he wasn't against the Lakers, boy they go dry fast. I mean they go drive fast. Now, Randal didn't play, but I don't think o g or Randall are elite scores per se. Is there a guy in the league that you say, you know what? I thought it was Karl Anthony Towns. I was kind of in that for a while. Is there a guy that you would like for that role?
For them, the patience is the perfect way to put it, because they could have jumped on Donovan Mitchell and now it's one of those things where it's at the time of the trade, we didn't realize Brunson was this good. So like maybe internally they were like Brunson's our guy, and maybe that was some of the reasoning behind it. But the point is is waiting ended up being smart because then Jalen Brunston popped and now they can kind of be more patient and in terms of waiting for
who that next guy is. I thought the Ognnobi trade was was genius because it didn't waste any sort of super legitimate asset in terms of their pursuit of an
eventual star. I think one of the reasons why that Laker game looked the way it did is the Knicks are very much like a physically imposing team, like they are very much like a power beat you up for forty eight minutes, classic Tom Thibodeo type of team, right, And when you take Og and Julius out, they just become small really fast, especially with Mitchell Robinson out of the lineup because he's been injured, although he might come
back before the end. But I mean this won't come as any secret to anybody who's listened to you and me talk about this before. But we're both really high on Jaln Brunson, and I think like I think Jalen Brunson has entered into that conversation with the best guards in the league. Like I think he's just on that pure Really we're on an extended stretch now where he not only that he's improving and like to take it
even a step further. Look at the playoffs last year, he straight up out played Donovan Mitchell head to head and one a series.
Frankly, Jason, I think he's a better player than Donovan Mitchell.
He's I think he's tight.
I don't think he's quite. I shouldn't even say this anymore. I gotta, I gotta get over with this. I think he's a better leader. I think he plays with a very steady temperament. I know exactly what I get from Jalen Brunson every game I watch him, Donovan I get, I get stretches where I get he just like forgets his teammates. I think Brunson is a top you can
name it, but I think he New York loud. He's classic Villanova, tunes out the noise, coachable leader, grown up defends like I'm sorry, but I have I think he's terrific. I love him.
To Donovan Mitchell's credit, He's having the best season of his career as well. The Calves are literally the two seed. He's having the best defensive season he's had of his career. So I want to give Donovan Mitchell some credit. But I agree with you, Jalen Brunson is a better basketball player than him. But then he also went toe to toe with Jimmy Butler. The reason why they couldn't beat the Heat last year was Julius Randall was a complete non factor in that postseason run. Now, in his defense,
he was hurt. He had hurt his ankle right before the playoffs and was pretty beat up throughout that playoff run. But to your point, the Knicks have already shown us they can make some noise with just Jalen Brunson, so you can imagine what a number two would do for them. Now, the question is who the guy that I know that they've been waiting on is Joel Embiid. But I do get somewhat concerned about with his injury history now like here we are again with him with his knee, struggling
to make it through a regular season. But I think Joel Embiid is a guy that had their eyes on. I think if the war, if the Lakers just absolutely like floundered this year, like just an absolute disaster end of the season, I put like a like a five percent chance that someone like Lebron could potentially either opt out of his deal this summer and sign there on like a mid level exception, or opt in and do the James Harden where basically you opt in and ask
for a trade and then try to do that. Because I look at Lebron, James is basically, even at this phase of his career, just a way better version of Julius Randall, which kind of is a shoeing fit to that position. You know, what I mean so like, But I think when it comes to the Knick's patience has been the name of the game. Jalen Brunson has bought them the ability to be good.
While they wait for the right guy.
But at the end of the day, there's no reason to jump at anything unless it is the I wouldn't trade for a single guy unless he was better than Jalen Brunson.
It literally is that simple to me.
Yeah, I think Brunson is the future of the Knicks. And you know, there's a lot of people that are you know, you hear this. I think it was said about Jayleen Brunson. He's a little guy. You don't win championships with little guys. And the NBA is getting bigger. I mean, there's a certain recent formula size in the league. But I gotta tell you, as the league gets younger, I think there's an increasing value in maturity and leadership as the league gets younger. It's why Lebron is so valuable.
And I think Tatum in New York, you can get lost to that city. I mean that that shit, that city eats guys up like that. You're not. I mean, I remember guys like Jeremy Shack. I mean that's why the great Jeremy Shockey was a great New York giant, just not ready for the city quite right. If you go to the history of New York, go look at their stars. Jeter, Aaron Judge, Eli Manning, what's the theme go home? All about the sport, grown ups with the media,
good background, adult, you know, relationships with family. It's funny. Jeter close to his family, Eli Manning, Brunson's dad in the NBA, Aaron Judge. A lot of times they're small town guys. If you come to New York as a star a Rod, you're a big free agent and you get all this expectation, it eats you up. Jalen's the opposite cast off for Dallas. All he has to do is prove stuff Like Villanova. He is your classic. I mean, Eli Manning went to Ole, Miss Jeter struggled to the
minor leagues. Who's Aaron Judge, He's from Fresno, New York has a prototype. You're a little overlooked, undervalued, good background, family, college. I think that's so the league's getting so young, that these older players that can bring maturity to me. Jason, I mean it's just it's like I say about Lebron, It's like Lebron, it could be a you know, he's
like a coach, general manager, star on the floor. He's thinking about who am I, who should I have relationships with, Who can I elevate, who should be on the floor with me. I mean he's thinking through every possession and every game. I don't know. I just can't say enough about Brunson. I think he is New York's next star. I love him. I think he's the best quarterback in that city.
To his credit too, like he signed up for this like the MAVs.
It was.
It was a little different in the annual value, but the total contract value that the MAVs offered him was pretty close to what the Knicks offered him. He straight up said, I want it. I want the pressure. I want Like he signed up for what New York brought to the table, and he's not just thrived in that environment,
he's completely exceeded expectations. We have a couple of big Knicks fans that helped produce soups tonight, and I talked with them about this behind the scenes, and like it's crazy how that one singular signing transformed the entire landscape of the knickt future because they got, like, think about Jalen Brown just signed a deal where in the final year he's gonna make like seventy million, Okay, like in Jalen Brunson's making in the twenties, and he's giving you
superstar production. Like it's crazy. It's crazy what that one move has done for that franchise.
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Nugget Lake Charles twenty one plus. Age varies by jurisdiction Voyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. C Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball Terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions, Terms and responsible gaming Resources. Let's go back to the West Coast and the Warriors. Clay Thompson end of games being benched cominga now is starting to really play well. Not exactly sure why it took
so long? Did Chris Paul start the unlocking? Has Steph Curry? I don't know a lot of times we forget these guys come into the league at nineteen. It just takes a long time to get your footing. I don't care if you're a podcast or a broadcaster, a basketball player. It's just a lot of reps. She got me on a treadmill in games, so I've said before I would move everybody but Steph and Draymond, and I think I'm going to add Cominga to that. So look at their
current state. Can they make a move? Is do you disagree? Would you? I mean nobody's moving Staph, would you move Draymond? Would you move Cominga? What's the future look like for them?
So it's funny because like a month ago it was it was leaning heavily towards the Kaminga trade. Yeah, to give you an idea of just how crazy this Cominga stretches. He had never in his entire career at back to back twenty point games ever, not once, and then he notched up eight of them in a row. Like he he in his last ten games is averaging twenty five points on sixty one percent shooting from the field, like he's on an incredible run, flashing like true superstar upside.
And so like a month ago, I was actually pitching on my show, I was like call the nets and be like, here's Jonathan Kaminga, Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody. Give me Michale Bridges like a legit number two for Steph and Dorian Finney Smith.
That way we have some two really versatile two way forwards to.
Put between Draymond and Stephen Clay and go make another run at this thing. Cominga's made that not an option anymore. Like he's just so he's so damn good that you can't afford to let go of that upside.
Here's the problem. He's twenty one.
So like like we talked about last year in the finals, Michael Porter Junior is twenty five, and he struggled on that stage. It is a it is very much a man's game when you get to the later rounds of the NBA playoffs. And so here's the thing, Like, I feel more sure than ever that Kaminga has star upside, but I also everything of NBA history tells me that he's not gonna push Steph into title contention this year either.
And so they're kind of in this weird thing where it feels like a gap year in a lot of ways, because they can look.
To make a move.
They I know they've looked to move Andrew Wiggins. I'm sure they've looked at all these sorts of ancillary moves, and they may still make a move for like a Dorian Finney Smith from the Nets and just like a throw like Moses Moody and another one of their smaller contracts.
That way, for a veteran forward, they might call Orlando and get a backup center or something along those lines, like a Wendell Carter Jr. Who knows, But none of those guys are really transforming their outlook within the scope of this season, I think, like in a lot of ways, especially with Steph only being thirty five. And Steve Kurt basically said this in his press or the other night.
He goes, We're not gonna get anything better in the trade deadline than Chris Paul coming back to shore up the bench, then Gary Payton coming back to shore up their perimeter defense, and then Jonathan Kaminga's rise is an influx of talent its own way, and they're actually starting to trust him a little bit more at the end of games.
Steph in a big.
Possession against Brooklyn last night, just threw the ball to Kamina in the post and got out of the way and he drew a fout got to the foul line. He's actually been really gifted at getting defenders out of position and getting to the foul line this year. So like it's weird because in a weird way, it kind of turns this year into a gap year because I don't think they have enough. But Kminga's upside is more than enough to make up for that in the big picture.
Yeah, and I mean again, he's twenty one. I think we forget college football players come with three to four years they're on a college campus. These kids, you put them in the NBA, they can't go to the hotel, lobby, bar, they're kids just and then then you bring them in Jason and they're not getting any real game time minutes, so they're not getting they're not you know, in the NFL, even a rookie who's kind of a miss, he's on
the field, he's on special teams. So you can only do so much with practice in your eight preseason game. So I have a soft spot for like the Comingas when especially they run a system that catch and react system that is not for nineteen year olds, Like it's just it eats people up. So to me, Cominga's always looked the part length, twitchiness, vertical hungry. It's just a matter of time. Wiseman I always thought was a weird fit. I don't think Kaminga's weird fit at all. I think
he fits. I just think he's a kid. And this is I mean, you're talking about a sophisticated offense that's almost European the way it plays, it's functioning. I mean, D'Angelo Russell came there and had years in the league. They spit him out. They were just like not interested the guys that have worked Iggy bog It, you know, like older Wiggins, older veteran players that can come in and find a spot. So I'm I'm glad to see sort of cominga flourishing because I do think he looks
the part. I think he's a really special athlete. Let's go back east to the Sixers. I'm zigzagging here, but if for our podcast audience, I want both coasts. I don't want to bore you with too much leftter coast. So I defend the NBA on the Joel Mbiat injury. First, it was random. A guy fell on his knee. It happens. Secondly, the NBA didn't want to create this structure where you have to play seventy nine percent of your games. They didn't want to do it. They created it because when
the TV contract is up. Advertisers came to them and said, yeah, it'd be nice if Yannis was available for the Saturday night game. We're paying, you know, eight hundred thousand dollars a commercial. And it became sort of a three year load management pattern, which there's no data to suggest that it makes you better. We've learned that this year that the load management's a lot of nonsense. So the league says, Okay, we're a players league, but we needed to play more games.
So you know, you can argue, well, Embiid shouldn't have been playing, but Embiid missed his first two years because of injuries. He's had chronic injuries as many bigs do. It was going to happen. He's been hurt every year, so I'm not going to blame the league on this. But we got into this discussion the other day and the name I threw out because I'm old. Somebody said, who is Embiid if he never wins a title? Because
all the bigs have dominated. I watched my first game in seventy two with Wilt titles, Kareem titles, Shack titles, a Keem titles, Duncan big titles, and all of a sudden, You're like, okay, is he ewing? Bob Lanier, who again at my age was a dominant big showed up in bud Light or Miller Lite commercials, whatever it was. But I think that's what Embid is. I think you have to look at him like Ewing and Ewing got to two finals. You have to look at Embiad and say, listen, injuries,
weird teammates. But I can't make him a top thirty player ever. He statistically great, He's the closest thing to Shack. But for bigs, you know, in a sport where you have a genetic advantage, you're seven too, Like, I'm gonna hold you kind of accountable for trophies. They've never been to the conference finals. We always bang on quarterbacks that don't win Super Bowls, but there's limitations on what you can do with twenty two guys on the field. I
want Biggs dowin trophies. Is that a fair criticism of Himbati. He's not a top thirty player, He's just a top thirty talent.
Yeah.
Well, he was having one of the best regular seasons that we've ever seen before. He got hurt this year, But like he was also having one of the best regular seasons we've ever seen last year, and then the knee started to break down, got to the postseason, and his jump shots started missing, and then all of a sudden, everything kind of fell off for him. He kind of reminds me of that conversation we were having earlier involving Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards, where he has attached a
good amount of his success to jump shooting. Like to Nikola Jokic's credit, most of his shot making is like little push shots and hook shots that are around the basket, which have more like playoff, you know, resiliency, so to speak, Like it just translates better to that phase. Like last year, Joel Embiie knocked down all those little face up jab step jumpers in the regular season, and then he couldn't make him over Al Horford and all of a sudden,
the bottom fell out for him. So, but I think it's important to acknowledge the injuries, and some of that's outside of his control. Some of that also is kind of historically, you know, not exactly the most shocking thing in the world for a player his size to kind of encounter some recurring injuries on that front, I think the tougher question is as it pertains to the NBA regular season, is like you might have to super load
manage Joel Embiid from now on. You might have to literally hold him down to fifty games in a season and never let him play more than three times in a week, or do whatever it is you've got to do to maintain his knee, because if the issue is he's hurt every year in the playoffs, then you have to find a way to get him there. You have to find a way to get him there. And you know what that might involve, not chasing seventy points against the Spurs. That might involve taking more nights off along
the way. And like you know, as far as the six sixty five game limit thing goes, because our colleague Draymond Green came out critical of it the other day too. To me, it's kind of it is directed criticism in the sense that, like, I think a limit like that makes some sense. It's an award, it's a regular season award. You should participate in the regular season if you're gonna get that award. The bigger issue is if you don't let the press affect your salary. Take that part out.
That's the part I don't understand. Make it so that the people voting on the award aren't directly affecting your ability to negotiate your salary.
That's where the issue is because I.
Want players to play more frequently, but I don't want them to play on a bum knee for money. That's where it becomes an issue.
So here's my thing, Jason. If I said to you, listen, I'm not gonna screw with your base salary, Jason at the volume, I'm not gonna screw with your fame, your personal life. I'm not gonna screw with your social media money, your shoe money, but your bonuses. You have to hit eighty eight podcasts a year. I don't think that's outrageous. I mean, if Fox came to me, Colin, We're not gonna scoo with your salary, your social the volume, but that six hundred thousand dollars bonus a year. You gotta
work two hundred and eleven days on the year. That's all the NBA is saying, we don't want to touch any of your money. And these guys now make social shoes overseas advertisements you're not getting the bonus, you're not getting the plaque money. We're out on that. I think that's incredibly, incredibly reasonable reasonable. Okay, Now that this isn't a because I love the NBA and I now I pivot every year early I would say mid to late January, I kind of pivot to the NBA, and I just
I'm so deep into college and pro football stuff. I just can't do it, of course, And so over the last I would say two weeks. Now I'm watching a game a night, sometimes to a night. So two things can be true. As a sport in America gets more international, the quality of the sport is better, but it doesn't help attendance or ratings because the sport becomes less domestic and less recognized. So hockey and baseball and now the
NBA are much more international. Arguably best players now international players. Certainly in the NBA, we're on a heater now about four or five years. All the MVPSGA, Luca Embiid, Yannis Wemby by next year late okay, so Jokich, So that I don't worry about the NBA in terms of stability aesthetic. Some have criticized the way it looks. I don't worry about that. Playoffs come mid range, basketball comes right back, guys,
meat buckets. But I do think in terms of ratings, I think the NBA, to get the seventy five billion they want, is going to have to spread it out. It'll be less dependable on significant one, big, significant network. It's getting more international, and unless you follow European leagues, which people don't unless they're diehards, you're not going to really see them in March madness. They're going to go to bad teams finally make an imprint in the playoffs.
Wemby By year three now Wemby again is already iconic. It feels like but that the NBA will be less viewed going forward. The basketball will be better, the playoffs will be intense, but it will be thin. It will be international, like hockey and baseball. I mean, hockey looks so much better today than ten years ago. It's so much faster. I mean, baseball is insane. Oh Tani is significantly better than Babe Ruth. The quality of the NBA's
it's off the hook. It's just I mean, the idea, the reason you can't stop anybody is because seven footers can pull up for threes. You have to defend them. So there's no bigs in the paint, and you don't have a hand checks, you can't stop anybody. There's a real at last night Hawks Clippers, it's three hundred points. Guys were trying. There's nobody in the basket because the bigs.
Are so much skill.
The Plumbly is a rare guy that doesn't shoot a three. It's like when you see Plumbly, it's like, ah, a nineteen eighties player. I can guard the basket. So the way I look at the I do worry about it. If we're gonna talk about ratings, I just think in a more distracted society, it's not gonna be a great ratings league. It's gonna be a great talent league. Is that a reasonable appraisal going forward?
Yeah, I one hundred percent agree with you.
I actually think I think they could lose ground even on the on those like specific TV ratings numbers, because I think attention span is getting less and less and the league is becoming more and more of an inventory sport. Like they're adding the N season tournament, they're adding people play in tournament. They're just it is very much like you're not getting the Like I saw the number from the AFC Championship game. It was like half a Super.
Bowl, you know what I mean.
Like it's like you're not getting those kinds of numbers from an NBA slate where it's like you the Lakers play the Nuggets TNT major game on Thursday, kind of a big game too, Like the Lakers are on a three game winning streak, like they could they beat Denver on Thursday, kind of changes the tone and tenor of their season in so many different ways. They also could lose by forty and it could be nothing, because that's just the reality of the way the NBA season is
set up. And so to me I look at it is I look at it more optimistically, just in the sense that I don't ever really see the NBA as being the huge, gigantic rating draw in a singular contest the way that the NFL is. It is an inventory sport, and I think that expands to the global potential too, just the ability to earn you know, little bits and pieces of income from a ton of different sources rather than these big singular events, if that makes sense.
Yeah, And I also I feel you know, a lot of the people are intellectually dishonest. If you don't like the NBA, keep it to yourself. I love the NBA, and my criticisms are based on I love it. Here's what I see. So I've watched the same number of NBA for as long as I can remember. I watch football until about mid January, February starts, I start getting into it, and by I'll take a vacation for a week after the football season, all kind of unplug from sports.
I come back and I'm into the NFL free agency in the NBA, and I'm watching a game or two every night. So and I think the quality is off the hook. But I do think international players have a couple of advantages. They get into those academies and play against older men early. They don't have the distractions of our domestic players. You know, they don't. They're just over there in Lithuania working on hoops, playing against older men. They don't have the social media platforms like we do
over here. They have them, but they're not. I mean, America is different, you know, it's just we're staring. Yeah, so they have and so our guys come in distracted. I mean, a Jamarant Zion. They're stars when they're like nineteen years old. Meanwhile, Wemby can come in here and frankly kind of hide. Except for diehards. Yannas sort of hid for four years. Jokich absolutely hid for five. Yes, so our guys can't hide. Ja Morant comes in, he's a star. Zion's a star. So I think there's some advantage.
It's just to be in the international player. I don't think the AU system big picture, makes our players better. I think it makes them something. I'm not sure what it is. Steve Kerry guys like that, but I don't think the NBA they're going to get their money. We all need content, we all need content. I just saw Fox ESPN. Warner Brothers just started a new streaming service, so it's like, listen, the games are going to be played. And the reason they're doing that so they can afford
other sports to go up against Apple and Amazon. But I think the league's fine. But I think what's happened Jason is everything outside of the NFL is niche. By the way, everything in Canada outside of hockey is niche. Everything in England outside of the English Premier League is niche. You just have to own It's okay. Every country has the sport. Cricket is the national pastime. In England, nobody
watches it, right, It's a soccer country. So I think the NBA is in great shape because I do believe, just like a podcast or a radio show, if your content's good, you're fine. Whatever's happening to the platforms, the content of the NBA's really good, so it's fine.
It's built for social media. The highlights are completely insane. It can be digested in smaller portions. As a matter of fact, Like to your point, it's like the NBA's awesome at everything except for the big singular TV event. That's kind of like their biggest weakness in so many ways,
even extending into the NBA playoffs. I mean, we watched you and I watched the Lakers last year literally deliberately punt games in the playoffs, like they went through Memphis and Golden State in the exact same pathway they were like win game one, who cares?
Game two?
Win Game three and four? Who cares Game five? Like there's just so much less urgency on a night to night basis, And I don't even think that can be recreated. It's not possible. I mean, the NFL's urgency extends into the regular season. It's the craziest thing. It's appointment television. I have all my family and friends, very few of them watch NBA basketball. All of them watched the NFL.
It is so much more culturally resonant. And my thing is, like, I'm not of the opinion that the NBA should even be compared to the NFL. The NFL is like an entirely different entity. But the NBA in and of its own kind of self is succeeding in a lot of different ways, and I think it's getting better. I think I think you mentioned the officiator or the playoffs. When you get to the playoffs and things kind of get better.
That's the interesting thing to me, is like officiating, to me, is one of the bigger issues in the NBA, and then we get to the playoffs and they kind of get it right, you know, So like so like, even on that front, I feel like I'm kind of nitpicking. So like I'm generally an NBA optimist, I'm just a realist in the sense that they'll never ever compete with the NFL.
Well, listen, I worked. I'm at FS one. It's number two to ESPN, to Very Good Life. There's so many advantages to not being the NFL. The scrutiny in the NFL game to game is insane. They flush out seven coaches a year. I mean, a quarterback basically gets to the Thanksgiving of a second year and if you're not good upstairs, they're moving on. Zion has had a weight issue for four years and they're still in on him. So there's advantages of being two. A lot of people
at PEPSI made a lot of money. I think to your point, I don't think you worry about anything other than I will say I've always believed that college basketball has a place in the NBA. I think you can kind of get you they. I wouldn't know Zion without him. It's for the casual fan. You meet these stars in March and it's like, oh my god, I want to watch Zion. He doesn't play at Duke. He's just another Jalen Green. I mean, the has no idea who Jayleen Green is. So my only knock on Adam silver As.
I wish he would just say to college basketball, hey, it's kind of a microwavable version of us. You get three weeks where everybody watches the sport. Then you wrap your arms around Zion in college basketball and you can get some of those college basketball people that feed into the NBA. I've never thought the Listen, you can make an argument, the more popular your college sport is, the
more popular the league is. So college football is number one, NFL, number two is college basketball, NBA three is the College World Series Baseball four, and then then college hockey right like so, So I mean, if you look at it, you're the more popular your minor league system is. It absolutely is a push in your major league platform. So I I don't know. I think the NBA's fine.
I did you like the nd season tournament?
Thought it was great.
I don't understand the good it was amazing. First, Adam Silver's bat in one thousand.
So, first of all, if you're upset about Taylor Swift or purple basketball courts, get a life, like who gives a shit? Secondly, is there's no question when I watched those games. I mean Lebron was first of all, he shot fifty seven percent. He was all in. So when your stars buy in, I'm like, Okay, Lebron's I mean the Lakers played like it was playoff basketball Lebron in his twentieth year, nineteenth year. So again people are nitpicking. I thought the n season tournament, I don't say it's
a home run, stand up double quality of it. I mean Indiana was playing or aresof Lakers were playing their butt.
The players, they felt like games.
I thought they bought into it way more than I would have. I first I thought this is hoky, and then I watched like my second game on the court, and I'm like, these guys are playing, this is like, what was it December? I'm like November. I'm like, these guys are all out.
Yeah.
It was exactly the tent pole that the regular season needed, because like the NBA season, it's kind of like you go through two thirds of it and then there's the trade deadline, then there's like the stretch run, but it's almost like a big sink in the middle there and sometimes, like like Colin, I don't blame you for not watching
the NBA in December and January. It can be not only can it be a little boring, it can also be it can also give you a lot of really fake results, like the Utah Jazz went won a bunch of games in a row in the middle of January. You know, like like this, this is the time of year where like youth and athleticism kind of rises to
the surface in so many different ways. And the NBA needed something a tent pole between the start of the season and the trade deadline, and that what the that's what The n Season Tournament served as a breakup of monotony and so many.
Also, the NFL has taken away their number one marketing day, Christmas to some degree. So the NBA is like, Okay, if you're going to take that away or minimize it there, we're going to create an n season tournament before you get to your tournament. So it's all listen in. The NFL has always been playing around with the calendar. I think I think Adam said, okay, you're going to f us on Christmas and we're going to create urgent. By the way, some of those plan games got numbers. These
commissioners used to be buddies. Now it's now you're all fighting for Amazon Modey. Nobody's buddies anymore. So the NFL moved free agency moved into Christmas, and the NBA says, so we're going to create urgency before I thought it worked. And also, the NBA has always been about the trade deadline on it's in my everybody's at fifty games now, so you get to about game fifty five sixty, everybody tightens everything up, the rotations get tightened up. You coach
with an eye on the playoffs. I think we're gonna have a great stretch run. I think Boston and Denver the best teams. Neither has a good bench, and I think there's some Milwaukee's Lakers, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Minnesota. Can't wait to watch it. Jason Timp hoops tonight fifty minutes. We'll do more of this stuff. It's great seeing you. You're crushing. You're going to see a lot of adjacent stuff on my feed now as I kind of go heavy football and now the NBA is getting good. And
I'll tell y'all, say what you want. Give the Clippers a chance. If you're listening to this podcast, it is beautiful basketball. It is no high usage rate, tremendous movement. Next time we'll we'll talk Oklahoma City Thunder. We're not ignoring Demver, Minnesota, but watch the Clippers. Play if you're a casual that is good basketball. That is beautiful basketball, ball movement, shot makers, shot creators, mid range, post ins, transition, It's great.
Final thoughts, Paulin, I just wanted to say congrats to you on three years with the volume. It's crazy because like a year ago, you and I had a similar conversation about how crazy the growth has been, and even in the years since, it's been even crazier.
Like I've been.
I just have to say, obviously being a part of it has been an honor, but like getting to see what you've built and from what it was at the beginning to what it is now, it's just incredibly impressive. And I just wanted to say congratulations.
Well, you're really valuable to us, and I mean, I think the thing we lean in, we lean into some gambling, NBA, NFL and strong opinions, and you're such a unique voice in basketball. You know, we got Jenkins and Jones who culturally are so important to us, Draymond Green the player, and I don't think there's anybody in the country that breaks it down like you. I think you give people a really data driven, smart former player context that matters.
It's not you know, listen. I get called a hot take guy, but I've said before I can't watch every game. I've got to cover all these sports, and I'm going to give you broad views of stuff you really dig deep. I think it's necessary and I think you're the best in the country at it, and I love it so good See Anyboddy.
Good to see you too, Colin. Looking forward to next.
Time Oops tonight. Jason Timpf Money at the volume, the volume, Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment rate and review