Colin Cowherd Podcast  - Steph >Magic, Warriors/Kings Gm 7, Lakers/Warriors Preview, Heat/Knicks w/ Jason Timpf

you an example. At the time, a Joe Namath or a Brett farv is viewed as an all time talent, but the gunslinger label because there are so many players Aaron Roddy, Tom Brady, Mahomes Burrow that play at such a highly efficient level, that gunslinger quarterback looks like dumb football. It's just not efficient enough. And so Joe Namath, who had more interceptions than touchdowns, it's not really discussed as an all time great quarterback, which was unthinkable when he retired.

Brett Farvre doesn't really feel like a top ten quarterback. Top ten iconic, top ten, most popular, Yes, top ten all time quarterback, just not efficient enough, too many mistakes. He's not even the best Green Bay quarterback ever, Aaron Rodgers is. So you never really know how a player in his prime is going to age. And so when I look at the all time starting five in NBA history, I've always felt it's Magic at the point, Michael Jordan at the two, Lebron at the three, Larry Bird the

other forward, and Kareem Abulo Jabbar. Michael did everything well, Lebron does everything well, and Kareem similarly, was a dominant defender, a dominant scorer, and I always thought Magic was really going to be virtually impossible to replace. But unlike Michael, Magic was not a great defender. He was not a great scorer. He had a very short career. And I think if you look at basketball over the next one hundred years and beyond, the three point shot makes Magic

less significant. Two things Magic had that were unique. One his sheer size. But now Jannis brings the ball up the court. Jokic is a point center. Kevin Durant can handle the ball. At the time, a six ' eight point guard felt like one of one all time, such a unicorn, so unique. Everybody handles the ball now, so over the test of time, that's not a unique scar gill by Magic. Secondly, Magic was not a great shooter,

certainly not a great three point shooter. You really need to be and if you aren't Michael Jordan, then you have to be great at other things. Michael was the best on ball defender in the league, the best score the best mid range player, the most relentless player, the greatest effort, the best player in crisis or clutch situations. Michael did so many things well. He over the test of time, age is better. Lebron halfway through his career

became a much better perimeter shooter. He agedes well. We don't expect our centers to be great three point shooters, but Kareem was a dominant offensive and defensive standard in the league in his prime for ten to fifteen years. I think Steph Curry and Magic. Now, if I have to size him up, if you take the Finals MVP from Steph and the fifty point performance in Game seven, I think there's a valid argument Steph's the greatest point guard of all time. He's a much greater scorer than Magic.

He's a much greater offensive player than Magic. Johnson a terrific ball handler. Neither are great defenders. It's not that Magic doesn't age well, but he doesn't age as well as other stars because Magic was never a great defensive player. He was never a great score his ability to do many things. He could def he could play center, he could play forward. It's not that he couldn't score, but the most important thing in basketball has always been putting

the ball in the basket. That's why Lebron and Larry Bird and Kareem and Michael Jordan are in that starting five. And I just I look at Steph Curry and it's not just that he's a great scorer. He's the greatest shooter of all time. That now is just that is game changing. Magic didn't change the game. He was just uniquely gifted. Hasn't really changed the game. He's just uniquely gifted.

Steph has changed the game. So when you add that component that he's literally revolutionized the sport aau high school, college, pro basketball, international basketball with a three point shot. If I had to choose an all time team, I think I choose Steph Curry. I know it feels hyperbolic, but not everybody ages perfectly. Magic had a very short career. Steph's career is longer. Steph won pre KD with KD

post KD at this age. To drop fifty in a game seven, to reduce Daron Fox, Klay, Thompson, Wiggins, Draymond Green, Sabonis to bystanders looked like rotational players in that second half is all time stuff. And this sounds like Colin you're overreacting. But if you take the MVP of the Finals last year and that stuff matters probably more than it should, and you combine it with this, I think over the course of time, we're gonna look at basketball

as two different sports. Pre three, post three, and post three is never relinquishing. It's important to pre three. That's jurassic. That's dinosaur basketball. Nobody cares about it. Gunslinger for quarterback is dinosaur football. It's not going to age well and Farv and Magic are both all time talents. But I don't know how you watch basketball going forward the last twelve years forward and not consider Steph Curry the most lethal and dangerous and gifted point guard of all time.

And because of the way he plays, he's got four five more years, three more peak years, four five or six more years. It's going to be a longer career than Magic Johnson. I think Steph to me feels like the best point guard in the history of the sport. The NBA Playoffs are upon us. Twenty teams get in all trying to get that one crown. For last minute amazing deals to watch your favorite NBA team. It can be the Warriors, it could be the Kings, it could

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Download the game Time app, enter the code colin col i in for twenty dollars off. NBA Playoffs, Baseball season just starting here in April, NHL as well. No matter where you live, get out have some fun this week and this year. Download the game Time app. Last minute ticket deals, lowest prices guaranteed. So let's bring in my man Jason Timph host of Hoops Tonight. We are on two or three times a week together. Now my go

to NBA guy. I got Draymond playing, Timph talking, and I love both as well as, by the way, Jenkins and Jones, who are culturally hysterically funny, and we love them. That was I think that was the first of the second podcasts I ever found Jenkins and Jones. So let's start with this with Yannis being reduced to bully ball, being liability at the end of that series, didn't want to shoot, almost seems scared to get the ball, missed

thirteen free throws. We have kind of believed for the last two years he's the best player in the league. But if Steph with a fifty pointer in Game seven gets to the finals again, where he's really in the world of basketball as we know it now he's a limitless player. Mid range floaters at the glass, three point unlimited range. Do we have to go back and say, listen, we've got to have a real discussion here. Is that

as good as Jannis is, he can be defended. You can barricade, you can do you know, what Miami did build a wall, go ahead. I think the combination of Jannis's rough series and what Steph Curry did against Sacramento, I think that's a legitimate discussion. I think, literally, Steph Curry, Jason, you know somebody's great when among other great players they feel small. Darren Fox smelt felt insignificant. I mean, he looked like a rotational player in the second half of

this game. That's how great Steph was. Andrew Wiggins looked like a rotational player. That was one of the best Game sevens I've ever seen. It may have been the best Game seven I've ever seen. So your thoughts on the Yannis argument, is Steph in the world we know this three point game, Is he now the best player in the world.

the physicality of the NBA playoffs. With the honest what's really disappointing is he's progressed and like, don't get me wrong, he was hurt. The back injury was real. There's a lot of intel about some of his struggles behind the scenes. But even if you are dealing with some issues with your body missing thirteen free throws on twenty three attempts, especially two years after your crowning achievement was being locked in at the free throw line against the Phoenix Suns,

that's discouraging to me. But even deeper than that, like he couldn't shoot over the top of anyone. He doesn't even have a reliable hook shot in the lane, and that's problematic. I'm not as big on the jump shot as everyone else, Like I think it's more important for him to be able to pass himself open than it is for him to be able to soften the defense

with jumpers. But he needs to have something over the top and look, Steph Curry will never be able to impact the game athletically the way someone like Giannis does He's an outlier in that regard. When we're talking about the top ten to fifteen players in the league, they're all centers in big perimeter players. Steph is the outlier. He's the one guy that's different there. But what puts him on that list is, no matter what, at any point in any matchup, he is going to be able

to successfully generate quality shots somehow. On offense, he's the best in the league. Get I think he's still even better than Jokic still in my opinion, at generating quality shots in the playoffs. And the last thing I'll say about it, and I'm sure you may have noticed this too, Colin. Early on in Steph's career, inconsistency was an issue for him in the postseason. Actually, through his first several playoff runs, he was good for a clunker about one out of

every three times. As a matter of fact, I can't remember exactly the window of years. It was either his first three years or four years in the postseason, but like literally a third of his games he shot forty percent or worse from the field in the postseason. That's gone. He hasn't had a single game in this postseason or he shot forty percent or worse from the field. So he's completely figured out how to maintain a level of consistency offensively in the playoffs that no one else in

the league can touch. And that's what makes him the best player in the world in my opinion.

guy young guy gap there's the Draymond punch. It's a long postseason for an old team, and I think they just kind of thought, like, listen, man, we're gonna win our home games. We're going to get into this thing. It was road trips. Man, We've done a lot of this, but I thought the last two road second halfs. I mean, Jason, it was a master's class. They There was one point Mike Breen said, the oxygen is out of the building. There was about six minutes left, and you're like, it's over.

It's it's over. Not only the game was over, the fight was over. And I think a lot of it was on the defensive end, So that we have to is it fair to say we kind to have to judge dynasties differently. They do flip switches. They've got that reservoir of experience and guile and toughness, and also when they have issues, there's sort of this get over it, right, Like guys get over it, Draymond, Steph Pool. You know, like Pool was the first guy in the arena today.

He wasn't great, but he was more focused. So I kind of feel like we all, I'm as guilty as anybody. This is going to be a good road team. We don't have to worry about that. That's fair, right.

In the first half, they would like score at the rim of dear and Fox would just dribble around all of them and score transition layup after a made basket. They just weren't really focused in that Game six. And they've had some issues with effort and focus during the regular season, some of which that have manifested in this postseason run. I thought you saw a little bit of that at the end of Game four where they were sloppy. You saw a little bit of that in Game six.

But at the end of the day, it's the same personnel, And like you know, here's the thing. The regular season still matters, I think, specifically when it comes to building your basketball character. So, for instance, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lakers played really good basketball after the deadline, and that continued into the postseason. Like you build habits and you build things that go along. However, seeding matters less than ever because all the teams are good.

So if you get the seven seed, you're going to play a two seed that's not that much better than you, whereas back in the day it was different. Right, But like once again, we look on Friday night and we saw the defensive player of the Year and then suddenly there was a guy in a Lakers jersey that looked way better than him at defense because in the postseason it's just an different level that he can get to.

Tonight we saw the clutch player of the Year and Darren Fox in a Game seven at home get thoroughly out executed because the dude boring number thirty for the Warriors is just way better at closing basketball games than hit. So the reality is is there is a difference between regular season and playoff basketball. It's about surviving and it's about building continuity and building habits that will carry you

in the postseason. And there was such a clear delineation between what the Warriors were at home and what they were on the road that it was obvious that it was effort and focus related. Like you said, they just had a long run. They were worn down, they were injured a lot this year. Steph was out for extended stretches, Andrew Wiggins were OpEd for extended stretches. I think we tend to overthink these things. But again, Colin, that's why you and I were on the Lakers and Warriors in

this first round. We've learned this lesson too many times.

this too. Where Rodman was a great rebounder, Jordan was a great score Pippen was a great defender, Kerr was a great shooter, Phil Jackson was a great coach. They had a lot of great Peyton's a great defender, Draymond's great defender, Steph's a great score, Clay is a great spot up shooter, Kerr's a great coach, Looney's a great rebounder. There's a lot of great There are limitations to many of their greatest players, Draymond offensively, Looney offensively, But because

they're so selfless, everybody understands their role. This is a classic. You know, Ron Harper was a scorer with the Bulls. He knew he didn't have to be like the great dynasties. There's a hierarchy within it, you know, like everybody knew Michael ran the show, step Roves the show. The Lakers don't have a lot of great now. Ad is a great defender, he's a great player, and lebron In Spurts now is a great Swiss Army knife. But they're players.

Dangelo Russell's game to game, Jared Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley. I think it's really hard to beat the Warriors because you kind of know Jason Draymond's a good defender every game, and Looney's a great rebounder every game. The Lakers will steal some wins here, but what the Warriors do. Those individual players bring that same thing every night. I mean, even Clay horrible first half, great second, they never bring

four quarters. Draymond never bad defensively for four quarters. And I just think the difference is you're gonna get more consistent great play from more players, and it feels like a six gamer to me, and eventually you'll look up and go, Okay, this is what the Warriors do. More guys doing what they do at a premium level, whereas I don't know what I get from Ruey and D'Angelo. They have great moments, but they're not consistently great at stuff. That's my take.

I'm sure you notice that in the fourth quarter tonight he's just beating dudes off the dribble and get into the basket. Yet there's no there's no rim protection in Sacramento, So Anthony Davis is going to be around the basket for most of the series. So I expect that, and the Lakers did a lot of top locking and forcing the Warriors guards away from the screens and trying to get them to back door cut into all the traffic

where Anthony Davis and Lebron was. I expect the Lakers to put Jared Vanderbilt on Steph Curry, Austin Reeves on Klay Thompson, try to hide D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins, and I expect him to cause the Warriors offense some problems. Here's the problem. The Warriors are also going to cause all sorts of problems for the Lakers. Draymond Green is going to be on Jared Vanderbilt and pay zero attention to him and just be a wrecking ball everywhere on

the floor. Kevon Looney is the type of physical rebounding center that has always given Anthony Davis problems and Andrew Wiggins. I think one of the biggest swing factors in this series is going to be Lebron James because offensively the guy he was in the first round. If that translates into this series, the Lakers are going to be gone in five or six games. They have to have Lebron James dominate the Andrew Wiggins matchup. I think he's going to do it in the post. Andrew Wiggins on the

perimeter is devastating. You saw that against Luka Doncic last year at the Conference finals. Lebron has Lebron struggle with Dylan Brooks because he has a very low center of gravity, so he has had a hard time bumping him off of his spots. Wiggins has a higher center of gravity, so I expect Lebron to try to maul him more, take him down to the block. I think this is I think this entire series comes down to Lebron James. If Lebron James plays Steph Curry to a draw, I

think the Lakers win in six. If Lebron James averages twenty two points a game relatively inefficiently, like he did against Memphis, I think Golden State wins the series. So all eyes on Lebron for me.

of comfortably. Now Julius Rannold didn't play. But when I watched that series, I thought, this really is Maybe it's because Miami and we just think of the aqua water and the beach. This is such a great basketball culture and their ability to come off that a young, immature team. I mean, they got four undrafted guys. Three are playing, they're on the road. The next are tough as hell.

And as I watched that series, I thought, yeah, Julius Randall will matter, but god, Miami is the opposite of what every great Miami you know, the Marino Dolphins, the Miami Hurricanes. They're like LA teams. They feel like they're on the beach. They're flashy, and they're fun. This organization is so well run and so smartly coached. I'm watching their roster against the Knicks and I'm like, you know, the Mix had five star high school guyers, great college guys.

Cody Zeller looks like my accountant. I'm like, what is happening? I just as I watch Miami, I'm like, I have such appreciation to get pro athletes to all buy in.

This is this is the fourth time in nine years since Lebron left that the Heat have made it to the second round. That's very impressive given the level of personnel that they've had. Eric Spolstra is, in my opinion, the very best coach in the league. I love their modern approach to the game of basketball. They just bring the most out of these undrafted types of players, and even the veterans like Kyle Lowry got a lot of crap from Heat fans for kind of underwhelming in his

time here. So far, he's been incredible through the first six playoff games, especially especially on the defensive end. And four Kyle Lowry torched the Knicks tonight in pick and roll, just getting over the top oft screens and knocking down little shots. That was probably the story of the game, in my opinion, was so schematically. The Heat do a ton of switching and that's very different from other teams.

And they do that because bam Atabio is gifted at being able to guard on the perimeter, and most of their players are trunky and strong, it can hold up against bigger players. So when you switch everything, it stagnates teams and because all their actions don't work anymore because instead of coming off that screen open, he's coming off and just another defender switched on to him. So it turns into an isolation contest. And at the end of that game, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the

Knicks just went hard on the RJ. Barrett thing, yes, and that was just not working like and Jalen Brunson was very uninvolved late in the game. And this is where the Julius Randall thing I think does matter because he is the master switch attacker going at smaller players in the post and just trying to bully them to the basket. They're gonna need him to win this series, unfortunately,

just because of the personnel gap. That said, I thought the story of this particular game was the Nick's guards are better than the Heat's guards on paper, that's a better core, but the Heat Guards outplayed than Nick's guards tonight, and they're never gonna win like you like, even at home and that Rockus Madison square guarden crowd that got soundly outplayed because the guards for the Heat outplayed them.

If you're gonna, like Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry, be better than your guards, you're gonna be in some problems in this series.

Jamal Murray's a little more hot and cold, but he has stretches. We saw it in the bubble can be a dominant player. But the one thing I took away and I watched about half of it because I was out with a friend from the from the the game with Phoenix is boy. They score easily. They score comfortably like the points you watch. You watch a Sacramento at the in this series more than once, and You're like, where did their wings scoring go? Like they get dry fast?

If Daron Fox is an hitdiot, It's like, where's the offense? It's just easy. It's just it's like watching an NFL offense that gets easy completions and I'm like, it doesn't even feel like it's much of an effort. They're deeper than Phoenix, you know, Phoenix has some holes defensively, and I'm like, I don't know, like Phoenix will win a game or two because they'll out you know, KD and Booker will have great offensive nights, but I don't know

if Phoenix can slow them down. What's your thought on that?

their bread and butter. Phoenix is a huge pull up jump shooting team. I've been talking to you of this for months now. They rely heavily on knocking down contested pull up jump shots off the dribble. Phoenix had an effective field goal percentage in Game one of thirty one percent on pull up jump shots. Denver had an effective field goal percentage of sixty four percent on pull up jump shots in Game one. Jamal Murray scored twenty one

points on pull up jumpers alone in that game. Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant combined to score eighteen points on pull up jump shots in that game. They just completely outplayed the Suns at their own game. I will say on film, I actually thought Phoenix held that better defensively than you would have expected. They contested shots pretty well. Jamal Murray hit a lot of tough shots in that game. Devin Booker was two for nine on pull of jumpers,

so there was some shot variant stuff there. For instance, Denver scored twenty six points on sixteen spot up possessions. The Sun scored seventeen on seventeen possessions, so they just did bet like for instance, Aaron Gordon is the one guy that you want to ignore and help on everything right, and so they put kd there so that he can be super tall around the basket, bothering shots, and Aaron Gordon was making all of his jump shots. So like it was, I do think shot variation played a huge role.

The one schematic thing I noticed, Denver was very aggressive on Phoenix's pick and rolls bringing Jokic out, and so there was a lot of role possessions where eight and is catching the ball on the middle of the floor and he needs to either score or make a decision. And both eight And and Biambo were terrible in this game in the role making decisions. So this is going to be a big DeAndre eighton series. He's going to have to be a monster, all right.

for thirty fouls. He felt about sixty times to eighty times, but they kind of, like the referees sort of acknowledged that's who he is. He sort of leads with his shoulder. He's a physical player. I really thought the Warriors Kings series. I thought they let guys play, and I really appreciate it. I mean, there's obviously the Draymond Green gets ejected, but it was physical at times. It was it was never chippy. I almost wonder that the teams were so highly skilled.

I hope it wasn't the best series. You know, I'm watching the Knicks in Miami and there were some ugly stretches. You're like gods, like nineteen eighty nine. I just I think overall, we complain a lot about officiating in this sport. I mean, maybe I'm wrong here. I thought the Warriors Kings, there's so much skill and the refs kind of got out of the way of it and they kind of let guys play. Now, maybe the box score doesn't show that, but I thought it was a really elegant, artful series.

It really was, And the fact that road teams won three games. That's hard to do in this league. So what happened is the team that played harder won. There was no question Golden State today played harder. I mean they just the rebounding disparity was I mean, Mike Brown's saying it in the huddles. It's like, guys, they're just they just want it more.

That stops the game, and then you're waiting thirty seconds for someone to walk up to the free throw line because once again, you know, Damian Lillard just dropped his shoulder, ran into a guy, threw up some crazy eighteen foot And I'm not trying to pick on Dame because so many guys do it. But like in the postseason, that

stuff doesn't happen anymore. And yeah, can get physical, and yeah can get ugly sometimes, but the game has real flow, there's real like it's easier to stay invested in the game. It's just a better television product. I wish they would officiate games like this during the entire season.