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All right.
Well, between the Luca trade and the Chiefs getting humiliated, I did not have that as a two team parlay. You know, I was thinking about this. Listen. The Chiefs are gonna be fine. They got to They knew they were going to probably draft an offensive tackle in the first round, and there's plenty of them. But it's interesting Brady's three super Bowl losses, the point differential was minus fifteen. He could have literally run the table. Mahomes, it's minus
fifty three. With two super Bowl losses, he'll be three and two in Super Bowls. But I do think I would say this again Philadelphia. We both said they have the better roster. It's just hard to go against Andy Reid on two weeks and Mahomes, who never loses close games. I did not think it would be this, but I do think. You know, one of the things I was thinking in the first half is that, you know, Brady
would always generate something. He was just so good pre snap, and it was a little you know, listen, I know Philadelphia's defense is dynamic, and you know, we didn't think Kansas City would run much on them, but were you a little disappointed that they couldn't generate six and seven yard throws, They couldn't max protect it. It was like they weren't moving off their game plan.
Yeah, I thought they were overwhelmed at levels in which you just don't see good teams overwhelmed the line of scrimmage because it wasn't just edge pressures, it was interior pressures. I mean, Mahomes was under siege that they had I think seven yards after the first quarter Colin or excuse me, nineteen yards on seven plays. That's because they got a first down on the first play from scrimmage and then they essentially went three and out, three and out so
I just thought the defensive line. Remember two years ago when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, they led the league in sacks and they had an excellent defensive line. I don't think this defensive line was looked as good as that one because it wasn't productive top to bottom. But the way they played to night, I mean, that's as well as you can play. And I don't know what you can do when your defensive tackles are doing that.
When when your defensive ends are doing that. I mean, the Chiefs do have a guard playing left.
Tackle right well, ten quarterback hits six sacks, zero blitzes. I mean, think about that. And you know, as I was watching this game with Philadelphia, I kept thinking about this. You know, for years and years when Peyton Manning was in your division or Brady was, it affected how people in the division drafted. You watched Philadelphia's D and O Lions, And if you're the Rams or the Lions or San Francisco or Dallas, don't you watch this game and think, Jesus,
I'm the Rams. I'm like, you know, a corner or defensive tackle in the third round. Like it was so dominating that it makes me think all the rivals of the Eagles have to look at this and think, you know, we've we've got to get better in the lines or we're not going to compete with this team for years.
Yeah. I mean that's to me how he and Andy has done this too, and the two Super Bowls they've lost, their offensive line has just let him down in those games. I mean the Tampa situation, Remember they were missing two tackles and tonight they just got overwhelmed. But it's not just Jalen Carter tonight, right, I mean Brandon Graham does everything to come back off a torn shoulder or elbow sweat was incredible. Milton Williams has that play destroying. You know,
he was a third round pick years ago. Like he's about to be a free agent. He's gonna get a ton of money. And to me, the offensive line for the Eagles, how about the difference when they would go back and forth, the Chiefs would punt and then the Eagles would come back and you'd be like, well, they're just not generating any pressure. Jalen's sitting back there having a hot dog, He's having some gumbo in the backfield. Just who's open, who's not I'll just scramble where mahomes.
Within a second, he's moving around, scrambling left and right, and yeah, I just think the offensive line and defensive line for the Eagles tonight and really all season down the stretch once they remember they started slow like two and two, and then since then they were the best team in football. And tonight they dominated. They absolutely dominated this game. Yeah.
I mean before tonight, Kansas City had won the last nine playoff games where they did not score first where they trailed, but in those games, I mean, it was really interesting even early in the game. My first take after the first three drives for each team is it's one thing if you make mistakes, if you're nervous. I'm like Jesus that Philadelphia is not even adding edge pressure. They're just putting their four guys out there and they
can't lock them. You know, as I look at over my notes, only three minutes time of possession in the first quarter, I think we forget. We've been spoiled John, We've had First of all, it was a great season. The quarterback play has never been better. A lot of people that were watching our podcast right now are in their twenties and thirties. This is what super Bowls look like in the late seventies and eighties and nineteen ninety
I can remember. I can remember the Giants beating Denver thirty nine to twenty, and then San Francisco beating Denver fifty five to ten, and Denver got beat by Washington forty two to ten, and then the Raiders hammered a couple of teams. You go back to the eighties right now, Google it if you're listening to us and you're watching it home. This is what super bowls look like. I mean, there was a decade people that was talking about the seventies NBA where there were no great teams. The eighties
NFL were very few great super Bowls. So we were on a run. We've had so many good Kansas City Buffalo games or Buffalo Baltimore games. We've just been so lucky in the AFC with Mahomes and Allen and Lamar. But there was a run in college football with Alabama. This is what the title games were looking like, the Bama Notre Dame. This is what super bowls looked like. So we hadn't had I mean, I thought the Celtics, Mavericks, was a lobsided mess, but this is one of those
where I think it resonates beyond the game. I think you look at Philadelphia and they're going to have an impact on the draft and free agency. People will feel like, in the NFC, you cannot compete with this roster for the next two to three years if you just don't get better up front.
Well, I also think it's pretty rare in you know, in football, right the coaches are such stars, where in basketball and baseball the executives can be pretty big names. You know, in basketball, GM's are a really big deal. Listen, I've known Bret Veech for I don't know, fifteen plus years Redvechs stud and he's well known. I mean he should be. He's been to five Super Bowls, he won three of them. But how he is kind of the
guy that serves the drink with the Eagles. He is much closer to someone in baseball or basketball where he's the boss, you know, when they needed coordinators. He's going after Vic Fangio. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Sirianni. Clearly the guys, you know, they beat to his drum like he gets them going from an inspirational standpoint, and he's good with the players, but he doesn't call plays or anything. And he's a younger guy. It's pretty rare to see US CEO head coach in
his early forties. But the talent on that team and the offseason moves. I mean, Colin they signed a one year, four million dollars back then, who was fantastic guard. They got Zach Bond, immediate All Pro, and they got Saquon Barkley, who had one of the better seasons of the history of the league. So I mean, it's a large remarkable Howie Roseman became a Hall of Famer tonight. He's won two Super Bowls with two different coaches and two different quarterbacks.
Listen, I don't want to overreact to the game, but in this instance, John, it's hard not to overreact. I mean, it's I'm watching the Celtics drub the Knicks last night, and I'm like, this Celtics team has so much depth. I'm not trying to overreact, but when they won the finals last year, You're like, they're like significant, significantly better than every team in the league. And I watched them last night and I'm like, I'm not overreact. Boston's gonna
win it again. They're just better than everybody. Yeah, And I'm watching Philadelphia here and I'm like, yeah, this team's not going anywhere because it would be one thing if the quarterback was cocky, or if they had a bunch of free agents or they didn't draft well John, seven of their best players are like in year one or two.
Well, think about it. They just won the Super Bowl and two of the better players in franchise history, Jason Kelsey and Fletcher Cox, had retired this year. So do you know what hit me tonight is remember when Fangio and the Miami Dolphins like got a divorce and then how he hires him twenty four hours later in the Dolphins, he was just too mean, he was too demanding. It's like, guys, this is football, and this is defensive football. I got
news for you. The guy knows what he's doing. And the one thing we've seen with VIC with Jim Harbaugh, the one year when they was he was with the Naggy and the Bears and they traded for Khalil Mack and then this year with you give him talent, it is on because one thing you and I talked about is like his record against Andy Reid, but it's like, well, really, if you siphon those teams out, he did not have good teams in Denver, so nothing of the caliber of
talent that he was rolling into this Super Bowl with. I mean, Colin the when you have one good unit, you could have a good defense, right when all four of you or three of your levels of defense are good. Their defensive line is outstanding, the linebackers, they have an all Pro linebacker and Bond who had a pick tonight, And then all their dvs are good, you know, I mean CJ. Will Hit, Cooper Dejeen and Mitchell. The rookie corners are excellent and Slay is still a solid player.
So they're good at every single level of the defense. And they have one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. Like he's he can't win it because he's
a coach. But if you told me they gave the Super Bowl MVP to Vic Fangio because the game was it felt like over pretty early on because defensively the Eagles were I don't remember the eighty five Bears, but I would have had they smothered him, And it was like, have they even made it past midfield and then finally Burkhard's like they have not crossed midfield yet, Like didn't feel like it.
You know, John. One of the of the many reasons the NFL is king and I'm you and I are both football guys. I do love the NBA playoffs, and I love March Madden, and I love a good I love a good golf Major, and I love the World Cup. And by the way, last year I loved baseball playoffs. Last year I thought they was just Oh. I thought
the National League Playoffs were insanely good. But one of the reasons that the NFL continues to have such a visceral connection with us is college football and the Eagles are an advertisement forget the draft, right, And this is why you and I are draft guys, and I've told my friends this for years, is you can't buy your way to a championship. All the bad gms in football overspend in free agency. We're in the NBA. If the
Lakers get Luca, you're like in a big trade. At the trade deadline, You're like, Wow, the Eagles are just an advertisement for you start nailing multiple drafts. That's when That's why you can go get AJ Brown. That's why you can pay Saquon and AJ Brown because you just keep nailing draft pick after draft picks. Like the Rams are in a spot now they'll they'll keep Stafford, but
they've hit on like six straight defensive draft picks. If they have another good draft, it's like, okay, then you then you get to the point where you can just go buy elite players.
Yeah. I mean, I've mentioned this to you and it's I think it's been well documented. Is once they missed on Jalen Rager for Justin Jefferson, they had an internal meeting that what are we doing overthinking this? We're gonna take the best players from the best program. So when you listed all those players, that was a lot of Alabama and Georgia in that list of players, and it
paid dividends. I mean, it paid big time dividends because you know, from Jalen Carter to DeVante Smith to Landon Dickerson to This year was somewhat unique with Mitchell and Cooper Dejen but Mitchell is a good example of a guy like Ashton Genty this year with Boise, he could have got a million dollars and gone to Alabama Georgia Ohio State, but he chose to stay at his program.
That's why he was I think Tulane or Toledo. I think it might have been Toledo, and Koober's gene was Iowa, which is one of the better defenses in the league. But they're not drafting little school guys anymore. They've been burned, you know, Carson, I think you know that situation.
Then.
Obviously, the Jalen Reaguer over Justin Jefferson at the time was the COVID draft. And remember the Minnesota Vikings were on the clock next and they go to the video of Spielman and he's laughing him and Zimmer because they couldn't believe that they didn't just take Justin Jefferson, and that scarred how he and how he's come back swinging. I mean to go to two Super Bowls in three years. And let's face it, this was a lot different team
than than two years ago. Right, Kelsey's gone, Fletcher Cox gone, So they had to kind of, you know, reshape the squad with some impact players, and they did it with you know, Jurgens and Landon Dickerson inside and Aden Beckton. But to me, Jalen Carter, who you know, tonight's not going to be his greatest performance, but what he's meant to him this year he was He's a dominant, dominant impact player.
Jordan Schultz and then Jay Glazer reported the Jets moved off Aaron Rodgers. So for the second time in a couple of years, a team as Aaron flew out to New York thinking positively optimistically it would happen, they moved off him. I think the Colts and the Raiders work. I think Chip Kelly, they have two tackles, they have a center, they have two good tight ends, then they're running back in a receiver. I think I think the Raiders works for Aaron Rodgers. He'd take that over the
Colts and Shane Steichen. But you know, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady late in their careers leave and have some success. Brett Farve did as well, got to an NFC championship a throw from the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that it was just two years of nothing and the second team bailed on him?
I'm not. But are you you know this new culture coming in? You know Aaron Glenn's at former high level player. Yes, It's like, do I want to deal with some old aging? You know, what's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes in pro sports an aging former superstar, especially one that's a little different. You know Peyton Manning that last year. Remember Kubiak and Elway had to sit him down and like it was difficult, he took a pay cut. These
are these are tough conversations. But I think it was pretty clear that the Johnson family was over this guy about two months left to go in the season. I wonder if part of the interviews was like Aaron's done here, which most of these new code who cares like it's not like okay, fine, I don't need them anyway. I think the question now is is he even tradable because he's on the books for this year, his cash, you know, his cap pits twenty three million dollars. I honestly think
they'd probably have to cut him. Yeah. I wonder if anyone had even trade for him, so it's not I think they just cut him, cut them, and then someone signs him for ten million bucks. I mean, is he is that what he's getting? Kind of because if you think about it, Roethlisberger's arm gave out on him. It was clear, but he just ends as a steeler. Manning's arm doesn't work, wins the Super Bowl, but then no one would resign him. Breeze's arms started going and it
just ended. Is he really just going to go play? Like? What if the Titans outbid that and they give him twelve million? The Raiders were only willing to give him, So he's gonna finish his career on the Titans. Because I do think it wouldn't just be those two. I think a lot of teams would be interested just to try to get their franchise. You know, these owners give them a little oomph. If you got some cap face, I'll give Aaron Rodgers fifty if you're the Titans, why wouldn't you pay him?
Yeah, he has a house in Nashville. I mean, let's say, hey, listen, we'll give you two years. Got a house in Nashville. It's an easy division, and then you have that number one pick you could trade down, get a bunch of
players around him. It's just interesting. I was told that Aaron Glenn for the people that didn't hear my pre Super Bowl fifteen minute rant, I was told by somebody I trust that Aaron Glenn, coming from a really strong culture in Detroit, wants to mimic that right, duplicate that in New York, and he didn't want Aaron Rodgers the player or the person in the room. And they'll say all the right stuff. But in the end, I mean Green Bay caught him off guard. The Jets kind of
caught him off guard. Aaron has that disease of has to be the smartest guy in the room. I'm gonna do my own homework on the internet, and you know, I think in the end, Aaron, I mean, I could write chapters in a book on things I've heard from people that have been around him. He's really moody guy. You can get good Aeron or bad Aeron, but in the end, he's just not good enough. Now he's probably the fifteenth best quarterback in the league, he's just not
good enough for the bs you deal with. Like he's not early to the locker room. He's not optimistic like Brady to the end. I mean, it was just like high energy, high optimism, high standards. I'm not sure Aaron loves the game. I think, you know how when he ever worked with somebody or you have somebody in your family and they're like, I work hard, and you're like, dude, hard work is sixty five hours a week, not forty two. I think Aaron says he loves the game. I don't
see it, don't. I don't see that just just unbridled, like just relentless passion for it. I think I think Aaron thinks he loves the game, but he doesn't love it. He doesn't love it the way the guys that I see it in pro sports love it.
I think it'll be very telling that when they cut him, if he's only getting seven, eight, ten million dollar off, he doesn't need the money, right, He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. At this point in time, it was clear he did not want to get hit last year. Don't blame him. He's forty years old, right, So is he gonna go play for some of these teams?
You know?
Pete Carroll calls the Titans, call like, yeah, this might not go well again. Right. The one thing Aaron Rodgers has a good feel for, you know, the most of his career is what a good team looks like. So this could be really like, you go sign up for one of these teams. Best case scenario might be like seven wins and you know, struggled to stay hurt last year on a roster that's going to be better more than likely than one of these teams interested in you.
So I wonder if he gets to the point where it's like, am I really going to do one year for eight, nine, ten million dollars? Yeah? I don't want to say you jest this year paying him thirty five million dollars. If someone was willing to pay him that, I think he would.
For sure play sure, sure, But I have a hard.
Time if you're ten million dollars, it's like the best options the Titans, him just going, I'm just gonna go hang out Malibu and just kick it.
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It's called Hoops to Night. It's Jason Tim. Let's start with this. One of the things watching the Lakers last night with Luca is that I felt like they were kind of on a train to nowhere, and it was like Ad was a great defensive player, bit hit and miss. Offensively good, not consistent like the great offensive scores. I think he's been the last two years the best defensive player in the league. I like Austin Reeves if he's the three or the four. Lebron having an insane year,
but he's gonna take some nights off. And if he does take nights off or Ad does, then Austin Reeves because your second option, that's not good enough. And then I'm watching them last night and I'm like, well, Luca's missed a lot of time, so he's not taking time off. It's almost like Lebron is going to try to impress Luca. He's not gonna take his May nights off. And now I've got Austin Reeves is a third on virtually every night. Ruey can always hit the corner shot, Dalton connect. You
keep him. He creates space. And I'm watching last night and I'm like, God, there's so much younger and more fun to watch, Like I got to I got to a place where I really respected them, but I just thought, this is there's not enough. I don't know, I know, I don't They don't have a rim protector Jackson Hayes again, Ali up guy, fun energy. It's just it's weird how just inserting Luca into it, the whole team feels younger and different. Does it feel like that to you?
No? Absolutely. I mean I hated this Laker team at the start of the year. They had this personality that like, I don't care about the work that was driving me crazy. But over the course of the last month, they've been playing a really likable and fun brand of basketball. Lebron was playing super well, Austin was playing super well. Before Ad got hurt, he had a couple of monster game.
He played really well twenty Yeah, but I felt like they weren't good enough on either end of the floor to really do what you need to do to win four playoff rounds. And I've been really keyed in on this concept lately, like if you're gonna win the title, you have to be able to do something well enough that it really gives people problems, like where teams can't even match up with it for one reason or another. And the Lakers just didn't have that punch on either
end of the floor, even with Lebron and Ad. It's not the defensive team it was back in twenty twenty, right, So they didn't have that punch with Luca. One of
the unique things he does. This Laker team has a lot of guys who are good offensive players as long as they're set up well, even with Lebron and Austin, Like one of the reasons why they struggled against defenses that did a lot of switching all year long is Lebron's forty and it's hard to get him to just get downhill time and time again in a random regular season game in January or December. Or Austin not an elite athlete in terms of getting past top tier NBA talent,
and Anthony Davis obviously has offensive limitations. But once you bring Luca in, he just has this magical ability to
get the ball to the basket. He's so big, and he's so strong, and he's so going to change of pace and he's so going to getting guys sealed on his shoulder, sealed on his backside, he can get downhill and now he's spraying out to all these guys And they're actually all really good offensive players when they have an advantage, Like Ruly shoots fifty three percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes, but you need to get him
unguarded catch and shoot threes. Luca can do that. And one of the biggest things that it's allowed is it's allowed Lebron James. Like, have you ever watched a guy say like, oh, Lebron should drive to the basket every time. Yeah, it sounds great, but it's really exhausting to do that, especially at his age. Now, Lebron when he gets his touches can be super physically aggressive because he knows he has Luca to carry the lion's share of the offensive load.
And so now when I look at this situation, yeah, they have defensive question marks and we can get into that here in a minute, but I try I don't have to overthink it. This team is going to be basically impossible to guard. And so they have a unit now their offense that presents legitimate problems for every single team in the league. That is it. That is a foundation you can build on.
Yeah, and remember Dallas won the West last year and their two best players are below average suboptimal defensive players, Kyrie and Luca. Is that. Let's be honest about the West. Denver has Jokic, but they're atrocious defensively. Houston's young, can't shoot, and I don't think they translate to a playoff team. I think they're just one of those teams that they are so young and twitchy and athletic in the regular season, if you're not well rested, if you don't have a
lot of tape time, they are a tough matchup. If I get to play them seven times. They can't shoot.
There's a team like that every year. Every year there's that team.
Yeah, So all of a sudden, Denver can't defend, Houston can't shoot. Oklahoma City I don't trust chet Honggren's health. I think they're the best team. Golden State doesn't have enough offensive firepower, very steph reliant, even with Jimmy Butler. You know, Memphis is Memphis plays with a lot of pace and they're a lot of fun to watch. I don't trust him. You know said this part. They're just teams like Philadelphia in the plaus I don't trust them. Memphis in the Plus, I don't trust them. I know
Jaron Jackson, I know John mort I get it. So if you look at the West, O case is clearly the best team. They have the most kind of diversity of options. They have so many different players, and they're really good and really young. They're what I think Utah wants to be in about three years with all those draft picks. But the Lakers are an exceptional offensive team, and if you're giving me, it's also a team Lebron clearly likes Austin Reeves. He likes to play with him.
It's obvious. Lebron's like a city. He's like a fifteen year old with a crush on Luca, the way he plays, the energy, and I just think they're so good offensively that there's nobody that's complete enough in the West to roll them. Boston would, but Boston's got you know, Boston's been playing these guys. You know, I watched them the other night against New York. Jesus, They're good. God, They're good. So my take is, if you put them in the East, I don't think they can I don't think they can
beat Boston. I think They're a Western Conference finals team. And I'm not trying to be a La Homer.
Yeah, I'm with you every team below. To me, oka See, Denver and the Lakers are the clear top three in the West. And Denver and like you were talking earlier about the young, feisty athletic team, Memphis used to be that team. That Houston's that team. Now there's always a team like that, and that team always wins a lot of regular season games and then loses in the first two rounds. It's just that's what happens. And let's just
put it this way. Who are you picking in a playoff series, Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green or one of these duos from the top of the of the conference. Right, So, like, I'm with you on that. To me, Denver and the Lakers are both closer to oka See than people realize, just because Oka See is also super young and athletic and has a ton of energy for the regular season.
The question marks that you talked about in terms of the Lakers with the defense, that's where it gets interesting because the Lakers were playing some pretty damn good basketball before Luca joined the squad. There in their last thirteen games, they have the best record in the league, and they have the number one defense in the league. The Lakers do the number one defense for about a month now. Now there's a reason for that. Jared Vanderbilt is healthy.
He is an excellent defensive player. And you turn Dangelo Russell, a bad defensive player, into Dorian Finney Smith, who's a good defensive player. And then a huge part of that is part of that excitement from Lebron has manifested and he's playing a lot of defense this year, and he's been very good on that end of the floor. But if you take a player out of that lineup and you insert Luca, you're not going to be as good defensively.
That's just acknowledging reality. So when Luca's in this picture full time, you're not going to be as good defensively as you've been in the last month. But we've seen an NBA history like with Denver. Denver in twenty two twenty three, they were not an elite defense, no, but they had bad defenders on the court who did a job and did it well, that's right, And they were and they were anchored by good defenders. Contavious Calbo Pope, Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown. They had guys who did compete
on defense. They did the hard jobs and then they created easier jobs. That's the thing. You can imagine a scenario where you've got Luca, Lebron Austin, but you have Dorian Finney, Smith and Van Doo out there. This is going to be a small ball team. Colin Alex Lenn hasn't played a thousand minutes since twenty nineteen. Lebron's played sixteen hundred just this year. Like Alex Lenn, He's not going to come in there and save the season. So this is a small ball team. But you can imagine
a universe where Lebron's playing defense. You've got two professional defenders in the lineup, and what if they just score every time or get a great shot every single time?
A team that I think, and I don't know historically, if this happens, I'll tell you the team in the West that I would not want to play. And right now they're not even a plan team. Keep your eye in San Antonio, Okay, Stefan Castle out of Yukon is no fun to defend. That guy is this time next year? We're gonna have different conversations. Daron Fox. I think because he plays in Sacramento, you don't realize it. He's a twenty five point a night scorer with a high IQ.
He's so good, we just don't watch him. Stefan Castle Wemby Daron Fox, you know guys that get lost, but I don't know his EPA. Yeah, I don't know what all the numbers are, But like Harrison Barnes, you know it's this guy that. Harrison's one of those players that, like Shane Battier, You're like, I think he's really good and he ends up making your team better, but nobody
wants to talk about it. I think san Antonio, if you told me they went on like right now, they're not a playing team, I think they're gonna go in. Popovich is gonna steal a game in a series. Houston's the team we all think is gonna be dangerous. I don't san Antonio the team nobody's paying attention due. I mean, can you imagine Lakers end up you know, Denver ends up playing them, and Wemby neutralizes Jokic to some degree
and castles a pain and gets the whistle. I mean, listen, Denver, you can score on Denver like they're just not good. They're not effective at all. So I think I think the West is really fun I thought the NBA had a tremendous fourteen day period. I thought, Jimmy Butler, you know it's funny about this, Jason, is that I know the analytic people think Wiggins maybe a better fit with Steph than Jimmy Butler. I read an article on that,
but my take is Jimmy Butler's the anti Wiggins. He's tough, he's a badass, he's physical, he's ornery, and he's a really good number two. It's like in baseball, it's when you try to make a two to one you're pitching staff's not good. Jimmy's an excellent two behind Steph, and he's the opposite of Steph. He's tough physically, he's a
mid range guy. He'll defend you. I don't think Golden State's a championship team, but I just thought between Luca, between Deer and Fox to San Antonio, between Jimmy Butler the Warriors thought, I just thought the West got really and we've talked about this. The West has been better than the East for twenty five years, a lot of it's just better gms, And I thought the West had a great fourteen days.
Yeah, they completely flipped the conference over in a bunch of different ways. I liked what you said about san Antonio. Like we were talking earlier about like having a problem that other teams can't solve. Victor is a problem around the rim that other teams can't solve. Try and then the Deer and Fox as a two man game partner with Wemby is a problem that teams can't solve. The Jimmy Butler thing, it was amazing to me how many
people overthought this. And when I was watching the Bucks game last night and I saw Jimmy Butler constantly operating in the middle of the floor as kind of like a hub out of the attention that Steph would gather, it reminded me of when we'd watch the Warriors back in their heyday, where it's like everyone talks about shooting, but when it comes to the Warriors with Steph, you don't actually want shooting as much as you want playmaking, because what happens is is Steph gets two to the ball.
As soon as Steph gets two to the ball, it's a four on three, and it becomes more about quick processing and decision making and guys being in the right spots to get dunks and maybe a wide open corner three for a certain player out of that sequence to pay it off than it is about, like with Lebron or a rim pressuring guy, where you want spacing, you want shooting that pulls guys further away from the rim. Steph inverts your spacing in that way, and it actually
reminded me a lot of Andre Guidala. Remember when Andre Guidala was there. He was never a great shooter, but he constantly greased the wheels for them because he was a rangy Ford who could screen and operate in the middle of the floor, make quick decisions new and to cut new and to relocate, do all those sorts of things. There was a play in the Bucks game last night
where Steph took a ball screen from Jimmy. Steph got two, He dropped it to Jimmy and Jimmy made a little ball faked buddy, healed, and then dropped it off to Draymond Green for an easy layup underneath the basket. And I literally just watched this and I'm like, this works this just works. You weren't comfortable with Wiggins as a processor in the middle of the floor, you are comfortable with Jimmy. Simple stat how many times has Jimmy or how many times has Andrew Wiggins had seven plus assists
in a basketball game in his NBA career fourteen? How many times did Jimmy have seven plus assists last year with the heat fifteen? So like, it's an entirely different stratosphere of playmaking talent that you plugged in. There. You have a guy that can quickly process those situations. And they've been killing teams Colin so far. Obviously small sample. They've been really good with Jimmy on the floor with Steph off, which is all that really matters.
That's the key. I mean when I watched them two weeks ago when Steph left the floor, not only were the inefficient, they were unwatchable. They were a bad tell. I said, this, make the move to be a better TV product. You're terrible.
Well, and like Pat Spencer, like at the lacrosse story, it's really cool. He probably shouldn't be your like secondary ball handler. In a Thursday night National TV game against the Lakers, when steps off the floor, like that that's an issue. But I'm with you, like I don't see the Warriors necessarily as a substantial threat.
To me.
What's cool about it is we get to watch Steph play meaningful basketball again. Because I do think they're gonna get out of the playing tournament. I do think they're gonna end up getting at least a first round series, and that team's just gonna be fun to watch.
I think the NBA has always been better when the Knicks irrelevant and between Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Kat Josh hart Og, it's a really good basketball team. But they do not match up with the Celtics, and this is where you're really good. I mean, I've watched them play the Celtics twice and that shift's not competitive, Like it's it does not work now. It's it's almost like the
Celtics have circumvented the NBA CBA. The NBA CBA they don't want you to have like five really good players, and it's almost like the Celtics figure out a way to be the last team that can have a roster that you're not supposed to have anymore, where Derek White's your fifth best guy some night.
And now they're trying to sell the team so someone else has to pay for it. Yeah.
Yeah, Like it's like they're almost circumventing the new CBA. Like this is not really fair, and you can tell.
So.
I think New York's a really good basketball team, and I think I trust them in the playoffs. I think they're smart. I think they've got you know, it's well chronicled. They're kind of got a Villanova field. They play hard, they're smart. I think they're one of those teams that will be a better playoff team than a regular season team. And they're a good regular season team. They're teams like Houston, I think are a better regular season team than a
playoff team. The next you're gonna be fine. But I watch them now twice play Boston, and I want you to break it down because they don't match up and this is a good team. Let's just be honest about this. They got five to six guys in that rotation. The Knicks can match up with almost every team in the league. Why is Boston? You can tell Boston like when they played this past week, think that's a national TV game.
They're like, okay, all right, guys, I mean that thing was, I mean it four minutes in You're like, yeah, yeah, Boston came to play. Boston's not fing around. Why doesn't New Because I think New York has enough different players, and they play hard enough, and they're really smart and they're well coached. They kind of match up with everybody. They do not match up with Boston, Like what is it?
So there there are two kind of prevailing theories in NBA offense right now, which is like matchup hunting versus like running motion. And the motion is like what you see with the Warriors. There's tons of screens. Guys are running in circles all over the floor. Boston's like, where's your weakest defender, Let's get him up here, Let's play
some basketball. And like that's literally all they do. And when I watched that game, the way they surgically attacked Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns every single time down the floor. They'd get them both in, they'd bring the ball off the floor, they'd have Jalen Brunson's man comes screen for Tatum. Okay, now Jalen Brunson's on Tatum. Okay,
now we're gonna get cat into the action. So now it's like Tatum and one of his teammates attacking kat An Brunson in the same action, and there's just nothing they can do about it. The Knicks are really, really good. They can score whenever they want, They get out and transition like crazy. They've got all these good players that are super bought into their r They're super fun to watch, and they have beat the shit out of some good teams this year. But every time I've watched him against Boston,
it's the exact same issue. We are going to get Karl Anthony Towns in space and make him guard and just get right past him and then spray out and get great shots and beat you. It's actually kind of funny, Colin, because you can tell that they really want to beat the Knicks. Because the Celtics have played some pretty bad basketball in the middle of the season where they're not deliberate and where they do take bad shots and they settle and they don't do the things they need to do.
They see the Knicks and they like snap back to the playoffs last year and they just get surgical in the way that they pick on those guys. But it really just comes down to they go at York's worst defenders every single time, and then they play driving kick out of it to get great shots, and that really is the issue. And then Jalen Brunson, he just has this wall of athletic, bigger defender every single possession. As it goes down to the other end, it's like, here's
Jalen Brown, Here's Drew Holliday, here's Derek White. He's just it's such a difficult job for him to consistently break down that Boston defense because they just have so many different defenders they can put on him.
Yeah, it's interesting to say that because I really like the dexterity of the next I think they're a matchup problem. Karl Anthony Towns is offensively gifted. He's shooting threes like right now, like the best he's ever. I mean, he's really shooting the ball. Well, he's quirky. I've seen him play live four times, and there'll be halfs you're like,
is he a top ten player in the league? Like he can destroy people, he can embarrass people, and then in the second half you'll be like, did he take a made did he have a thorough flu at half like what happened, but it is interesting you break it, and I'm so glad for our audience listening. Jason is so good at this and that's why I just foisted it up to him. Is when I watched them play twice the Celtics and it shit is not competitive. They just do not match up at all. The volume