What is krack Alac and Philo therbal nuclear efforts? I am Dance Valley coming
at you. If you're watching mon Bo, I promise not from parts where
I've been kidnapped. I'm in my old stomping grounds, my old office which
is now empty in Vancant, and I apologize for the sound quality, the
video quality. This will be very short intro. If you're watching us for
the first time, I'm sure you'll probably just skip ahead or go somewhere else.
Again. Apologize to that, but wanted to record a quick update because
we have the Draymond Green suspension and I recorded a little little bit on him
before the news was announced. Most of it is still pertinent, but he
has been suspended for Game three. Domat Simonis is currently questionable for Game three.
I would expect him to play with that Sturnham contusion. He did finish
the game in game two, and I don't want to belabor the Draymond Green
point, but I just want to sort of reiterate it a little bit.
I would not have suspended him. I hate seeing this series be decided in
any way potentially buy a player's absence. I think the ejection overall was probably
enough, and so was the technical for salonas he grabbed his leg that actually
happened. I know some people think he was sort of bracing his face or
whatever. He grabbed Draymond Green's leg, And so I get Draymond being frustrated
and he's saying he's been grabbed all series. Do Moss has been fucked around
with all series as well? And where I land on this is I wouldn't
have suspended Draymond. I don't have an argument for not suspending Draymond though he
stopped on him and then he went or stepped on him, however you want
to phrase it. And then he went and he was taunting the crowd at
a game in which at which Adam Silver was attending, the commissioner of the
league was attending, and Draymonds and the camera saying, you gotta love this
shit taunting the fans, and I kind of appreciate the performance from him.
But at the same time, you know, your reputation. The league came
out and said it that your reputation factored into that you need to be smarter.
You know how important you are to the Warriors, to their defense.
It's even their playmaking, which Sacramento has done a good job of limiting this
series, and to do that, I just I won't buy heat of the
moment. BS. I think it's just that's what it is. It's complete.
BS. You need to understand how important you are to this team,
how much in critical you are to this team, and not put yourself in
a position to where you might even be disciplined, even if you think it's
a little bit unfair, even if you're being punished for your history, which
you are, because the League came out and said it. There's a different
conversation that we had about them being more consistent with how they're viewing player reputations
when they're going out punishments. But Draymond Greene knows his reputation, he knows
his history with the league. Adam Silver was at this game, and he's
just exacerbating the issue by turning it into this WWE like performance, which again
was great for sort of the content. But when you're this important your team
and you're down by four points in that game and now too in the series,
and you knew you could be down to to oh in that series,
you have to be smarter. And that's where I land on it. I
would not have personally suspended him. I don't think Draymond's this bad guy,
but I think that what he did was it's on him. It's ultimately on
him. With that of the way, for anyone who's stuck with us,
with any echoes that you hear, our apologize or through this video where it
looks like I was kidnapped, and maybe I'll explain why I am where I
am on the podcast with Grant in a few days. Let's get to the
actual mailbag of this episode. What is kracklac in. Fellow thermonuclear affers,
I am Dan Vavalley coming at you with a mailbag podcast. Before we get
started, the very quickly reminder subscribe if you haven't done so already, you're
checking us out for the first time, hits ub on YouTube or wherever you
get your podcasts or both, and tell people about a shout out on Twitter,
appreciated, retweet our promos, word of mouth recommendations go a long way,
and if you've not done so, joined our discord. The link to
that isn't the podcast description as well as the YouTube description. Let's get into
this mailbag. We'll do more of a deep dive into the playoffs overall.
But I'm trying to mainline as much basketball into my veins as possible at this
point and kind of like to see we have playoff questions, to be fair,
but I kind of like to see two or three games just to get
more of a feel so that Grant and I can go a little bit deeper.
So expect that to drop probably around Friday. We'll get a little bit
deeper into our biggest I think we're looking at either observations or we'll do surprises
disappointments. But there's just a lot of basketball happening right now, and I'm
trying to watch as much of it as humanly possible. Unless at this point
I'm recording this mail bag before the Atlanta Hawks Boston Celtics game. I'll watch
that a little bit, but as soon as seven thirty comes around, shifting
over to the Cows and Nicks, I can't bring myself to care about the
Atlanta Hawks Celtics series at this point, just because I don't really know what
I'm going to learn other than that the Hawks have some work to do,
so let's start here. I'm not sure if this will be a two part
or we had some Twitter questions I want to get to in our discord.
Members get priority mail bag access as always, so be sure to join our
discord. Like I said before, our first question comes from Karrigan, who
has two and I liked both of them, so I'm going to going to
answer both of them. The first question coming from Karrigan is if you're Danny
Ainge and you could go back in time, would you swap Walker Kessler for
Jaden McDaniels. Shit. I saw this question, I was like, this
is gonna be like really difficult for me. I'm gonna say ye. No,
Nah, I want to say yes, I would do it because Jamie
Dame is about to get paid. But he's shown a lot more on ball
skills and plays a more a defensive position that's more in demand, and does
things on defense that are more in demand or more versatile than Walker Kessler,
who is already one of the best room protectors in the NBA. If you
want to get into the cost aspect of it, I really do understand why
you would want. Okay, we don't want to. We're earlier into our
rebuild. We have Larry marking and on a big deal. We did pay
Colin Sexton, va Sign and Trader are we're gonna resign Jordan Clarkson if we
want this guy that we're gonna have to give. Look, he's probably get
twenty five plus million dollars in his per year in his next contract. And
you would you rather have Walker Kessler as Okay, he's on a rookie scale
for four years, as opposed to Jane McDaniels, who has had two years.
At the time of the trades, we had one more year of cost
control versus three for Walker Kessler. I'd still prefer Jade McDaniels just because he's
going to give you more on ball juice on offense, it seems. And
I do think the Jazz, look at what they did on offense this year,
the spacing they had, you would have let Jane McDaniels flourish. And
so if that was on the table where you could have gotten Jade McDaniels instead
of like, instead of Walker Kessler, absolutely would have done it at this
moment, and I think they would have done it too, to be clear,
at this moment it's a little bit tougher of a of a situation,
but I would still do it. And the only I think really the only
argument against it would just be we don't want to pay him, which I
just think would be bombers. You should absolutely want to pay Jay McDaniels,
who is a fucking absurdly good should not have punched the curtain that was in
front of the wall, though, as we all know. Next question from
Karrigan. This one did not see this coming, but I was going through
it. Should the Jazz go after LaMelo Ball if it costs him salary plus
both their picks this year? As of now, the Jazz are projected to
land at number nine in the lottery and number sixteen is the pick that they're
expected to get from Minnesota. I believe nine in sixteen alone is not getting
you LaMelo Ball. I want to make that clear. And you're not just
trading the Horns. Aren't just trading LaMelo Ball into Casta. He actually doesn't
make that much money right now. He can sign a MAX extension this summer,
but that's not going to kick in until twenty four, twenty five anyway,
And so you're looking at his money for the books next year is not
even eleven million dollars. You would have to give up? Would I give
up both my first round picks this year, in addition to other stuff for
LaMelo Ball. If I'm the Jazz, that's really the question, and my
answer is just it's yes. LaMelo Ball is really good. Has injury concerns,
but you look at the decision making that he's able to have that or
the influence. I should say that his decision making has in transition his ability
to get the team up and running. Guys are going to sprint harder when
they're near him because they know that they'll find him. We're talking about someone
who really does a nice job operating now from the point of attack. I
think as a jump shooter at least you have questions about maybe as floater,
about his ability to get to the rim, but he gives you some nice
rebounding and the fit right now. And this is what's hard. You're not
giving up Larry Market in this deal. The Hornet's aren't gonna want him,
and if you're getting LaMelo Ball, you aren't a little bit more of an
immediate timeline. I don't know if Charlotte would have interest in Colin Sexton.
Those two could play together, especially if you're not bringing Jordan Clarkson back,
or you just continue to make Collin Sexton, you're sixth man. The idea
of having LaMelo Ball, Larry Marketing, and Walker Kesler on the same team,
though, makes so much functional sense that it's not even that it's not
even funny, Like that is a team that has a real baseline that could
do some damage immediately. And you're the yeahs, you've all these extra first
round picks loading around, and so could you get LaMelo Ball without giving up
Walker Kessler? I think you could because Charlotte, I'm not saying the Hornet's
gonna trade him, to make that clear, I don't think they will.
But they have Mark Williams and so like they even have j T. Thor,
who showed a lot towards the end of the season. Like they have
big man options. And again, while the Hornets are taking a bunch of
swings looking at Kai Jones as well and having Mason Plumley for a bit,
they've taken swings on centers in theory that's among a rim protecting center, and
if you want a rim rolling center, a play finishing center, that is
an easier hole to fill than like let's get these mystery box first round picks
and so if you're the Jazz and it's flexibility, and even if they want
Acbaji who really came on later in the year for them, they want extra
picks in addition or two. First, I would absolutely look at you have
picks to spare, you tap space to spare. I don't think you would
need to think twice about it unless you're just This goes back to the Jade
McDaniel's discussion. You're scared of paying LaMelo Ball his next contract and there might
be a little bit more tredence to that, even though Lamel La Ball has
the higher ceiling than Jade McDaniels, just because Lamel Ball has the history of
especially with this ankle stuff, and then his contract is going to be that's
a max extension. That's Jane McDaniels. That could end up being what it
is, but that's just a max extension for Lameloball. And so if you
don't want to get into that business, I understand why you might be more
reticent there, but that that really wouldn't be a decision for me. I
did want to touch upon. And since we're getting this news now, I'm
glad that I waited because I saw some of it trickling out. But should
Raymond Green be suspended for his light to medium to heavy stomping of of Doma
Sa Bonus in Game two between the Kings and the Warriors. It does not
look like he's going to be suspended persh Sham Sharania. Looks like he's going
to be fined. He was ejected from that game. I think the factors
that go into it. It certainly helps that Doma Sa Bonus his X rays
on his Sternham came back negative. I found it kind of hysterical that Draymond
Green had requested an MRI or X Rayever, it was on his ankle that
Doma Sa Bonus grabbed. My thoughts on this are not particularly complex. I
saw a lot of people saying that Sabonus didn't actually grabbed Green's ankle or lock
it in. He was just trying to like cover his face. Abe,
he grabbed the ankle. When you go he grabbed the ankle. We could
admit Simonis grabbed Draymond Green's ankle. If you're Draymond Green, you have to
know that you are too important to the Golden State Warriors to stomp on a
player or step on a player, even if it's out of frustration, even
if you think it's unfair that you got ejected or might have been suspended because
of your reputation. You know your reputation, You know how you're gonna get
refereed or officialed. You need to be smarter than that, and I would
be if he ended up being suspended. That might cost the Warriors the series.
At that point, you have to be smarter than that. This is
this is on him more than it's on anybody else. It's you know,
yes, you, I guess you could retaliate because Simonis is grabbing your leg,
but you did something that warranted very clearly in ejection and potentially raise the
question of will you be suspended. You could have yelled or something like gotten
in his face where you've known that you would have gotten a technical rather than
getting ejected. And I don't buy it to this heat of the moment bullshit,
because you have now been in the league for all these years, you've
won four championships. You've cost your team one championship by getting suspended for that
Game five matchup versus Cleveland in twenty sixteen. You could argue the trickle down
effect of oh, well, would they have gotten Katy if they won that
year? YadA, YadA, YadA. I don't know. They went two
titles with Katy. You understand how you were viewed among officials in the league,
whether it's fair or not. You have to be smarter than that under
these circumstances. And I thought there was I don't want to say restraint.
That feels like too much of a compliment to drain out in this situation.
But I didn't think, and I've watched it a bunch of time. I
didn't think that he liked and I'm like motioning my foot on the floor.
You would be on YouTube, can't tell what I'm doing that he kind of
like stopped it before Sabonus' chest, And I was just wondering if if there
was an overreaction from Sabonus. But you go back and watch and there's very
clearly contact there. Maybe Green definitely didn't go down with his full force,
but like, what are you doing here? Man? This is just it's
out ages to me, and to see Warriors fans Twitter, some of them
not all of them just still defend him, like come on, you can
say, yeah, so Bonus grabbed his ankle, but like this is Draymond
Like he punched one of your own teammates, Like this is not someone who's
ever going to get the benefit of the doubt. And quite fairly, they're
lucky he didn't get suspended. And I don't know how you watch that and
don't think that even if and it's not if so Bonus grabbed his ankle.
I'm not trying to defend Sabonis here. Sabonis and Draymond Green both getting bounced
around in this matchup. It's been very physical. Sabonus has been hit hard
all year, just like Green things. He's been grabbed all series and all
year as well. I'm not defending sabon It like you're you locked Draymond Green's
ankle. Whatever, that's a fair that's fairly dangerous. Green came back with
an over at the top reaction and that's just to try and I don't know,
displace like that blame or say it was warranted and then you're gonna get
an extra in your ankle, Like come on, man, come on,
You're a fantastic basketball player. You're too important to the Warriors to be this
fucking cavalier with how you're letting your yours and your actions get the best of
you. And I understand that Draymond's fire is part of the brilliance that is
the Golden State Warriors dynasty, and that the chaos he can inflict both on
and off the court, has its value. But like dude, that's frustrating
as hell. If I was, if I was the Warriors so and honestly,
look, that might have cost you the game. It still could look
back as sort of this flashbowl moment of did that cost him the series?
The Warriors were kind of in the middle of a rally. All the credit
to the Kings who have who've staved off a bunch of different Golden State rallies
already in this series. There they were clearly underestimated, and I thought I
gave them enough credit by picking the Warriors in seven. In this I didn't.
I clearly didn't give them nearly enough credit. So, uh yeah,
I don't think Draymond should be suspended just because I don't want to see the
matchup defended or like to play out in this way where it's old Raymond missus
a game and then we have to deal with all these excuses. YadA,
YadA, YadA. I don't want it to be impacted by missing players,
and I ultimately probably still think the Kings would have won that game if he
stays in the game, But if he was suspended, I just I wouldn't
have a good argument other than that to say, well that this sucks.
It kind of diminishes the the series, the quality of the series, or
it impacts the series and the way you don't want to see it be impacted.
I just beyond that defense. There there is no Draymond just needs to
be smarter in these situations, whether this is again him being overly officiated because
of his reputation or not. Uh, it's Alan asked, will John Morant
get the injury prone label in the playoffs narrative like Zion or a d after
this gonna be the second year in a row, he's going to be hurt
when Memphis is eliminated. I'm laughing because that the phrasing from Uh, it's
Alan just assuming that the Grizzlies are going to be eliminated at the hands of
the Lakers, which I know you watch that game Game one, and I
could understand why you might think that. So No, because it's been two
times and I think what's interesting here is, well, let's get into this
first. So we had the dealing with the right hand issue now, and
his status for game two is questionable, But what would report ordered that it
feels unlikely he'll be ready. And then I think Tim McMann from ESPAN was
the one who reported that Maranchus sounded completely downtrodden was the word he used,
And that can be opinion based, but that's not something that a Tim mcman
would throw around lightly, and so you almost expect him to miss game too.
Maybe we hear differently by the end of this and then he dealt with
it the was it the ankle last year, it was a right knee,
right knee last year. Yes, there's an inherent risk to the way that
John Moran plays because his game is so prided on athleticism and just attacks towards
the basket. And so maybe you have to take in extra injury risk to
call him injury prone when we know he's missed time during the regular season and
the playoffs. At this point, I guess it's semi fair, not on
the level of his eye on but tell you that much right now, maybe
not even a level on an ad because he doesn't seem to have these like
run ins. Yeah, he might end up on the ground more. You
worry about his landing mechanisms when he's coming down from a dunker just taking off
from god knows where, because he doesn't give a shit for him on the
takeoff points. By the way, that that shows real Like I want to
have that type of fearless athleticism, But I would need to see this happen
more. And I think, and it's like with a d where it's fair
to call him injury prone, but because it's not like the same chronic injury
necessarily, it feels more like bad luck happenstances. But I for Jos specifically,
I would probably need to see this happen again, and I don't want
to see it happen again, but like he would have to miss another chunk
of next season and then get hurt in the playoffs in one of the next
two years to start thinking like, oh, is this going to be the
new normal for him? I do think, just like he was always sort
of fair to question about Zion, is his prime window shortened just because of
how pridate on athleticism he is and just his body archetype being so unique,
it could be fair to have that discussion about, well, is there the
same concern with John Morant because his game is so predicated on athleticism and explosion
and there's look, there's real IQ's there, and he's made defenses pay when
they can go under on screens against him. I don't think this is gonna
be a Russell Westbrook situation where once he's sort of ebbing on the athleticism front,
that we just see his career sort of deterior eight and rush. By
the way, it can still be really explosive, but it would just be
too soon for me to go to the like the injury prone route just now.
Maybe should we say like injury prone adjacent or we have injury concerns with
John Morant that feels more fair to me or fairer That feels fairer to me.
Next question comes from Braden and they ask I want give us your over
game one overreactions or early season playoff overreactions. I again, we're gonna do
a pod more on this, and I'm not going to include the Suns in
this just because I'm about to talk about them in a second. Someone specifically
wants, hot takes or over reactions to the Sun specifically, some of this
is gonna change because these theres are gonna be three game twos being played on
Tuesday night. I don't care. I'm gonna give you the rundown fairly,
hopefully, fairly quickly. Of my overreactions based off one or two games of
seeing these teams. And I have seen every single game, every single game
one in full, and I saw both saw I missed part of Philly Brooklyn
I'm not gone back and watched it in Game two, but I saw most
of that one, and then I saw all of the Warriors King's Game two.
I've obviously not seen any of the game twos again taking place on Tuesday
night, Phoenix, La Boston, Atlanta, Nick's Cavaliers. So my overreactions
are as follows, in no particular order. I would trade our number one.
I would trade RJ. Barrett into someone's cap spaces uver from the Knicks.
That's probably not the right overreaction to have after his Game one where he
was pretty solid defensively, but I just I don't see it on offense anymore.
And if you're moving forward with Joyn Brunson, and Julius Randall. Yeah,
I just don't And that contract didn't look like an albatross. Now,
I would absolutely do it if for teams willing to, and I'm sure you
get something else to re term. But I'm saying you don't need to view
r J. Barrett's at Blockbuster Magnet anymore. That's like the more level headed
take. I think there might be a discussion. I've had this off air
with some people. Maybe this is when you look at moving Julius Randall,
But that's just that's just not how the franchise thinks. That's I'm at with
RJ. Barry Austin Reeves. This is the Lakers is getting a poison pill
from the Jazz Pacers or Magic who can create some cap space. He'd be
a good fit there. His poison pill looks something like four years, one
hundred million dollars. The way it works is he can get non tax payramid
level money in year one and year two, and then his salary can jump
to his maximum in year three and four. Basically, that's how you get
the Lakers to think twice about mac matching. Do I really believe that one
of those teams is gonna come over the top with the full max No,
which can I see one of these teams crafting a poison pill, knowing how
cheap LA has been in the past with their free agents. Yeah, I
absolutely could see it, and he deserves it. He's a primary ball handler.
Down the stretch of Game one for the Lakers, he made some big
shots, someone whose wink can hold up fairly well on defense, and it's
just brought a ton of energy to the Lakers. And look, lebron knew
it from day one, right from the first practice, that he was gonna
be more than a two way player. That's not a liar, an overstatement
at all. For the Warriors, Jordan Pool needs to be traded. I
know that he's dealing with a bum ankle. I just don't see it anymore.
There are games like Game two where you need to have good Jordan Pool
games because teams are throwing I would say the kitchen kitchen sink its step.
But we've seen everything from the Kings, Jews, Okay de Aroon Fox's athleticism
against Steph We saw box in one, we saw them blitz in, we
saw them change the pickup points. They probably did a trillion other things that
I'm not smart enough to spotlight. And then you need a good Jordan Pool
game because you're forcing everyone else to create. We just don't get it from
Jordan Pool. It's almost just like he has the most turbulent peaks and valleys
in the entire MBA, and I don't see I don't see him as part
being an integral part of any of the timelines for the Warriors at this point.
That's just where I'm at. And look, his highs are highs,
but his lows are just too low for me. For Denver, the Nuggets
will win the West while never seeing a Game seven. That's something that's the
benefit of playing this sad sack version of the Minnesota Timberwolves we saw in Game
one. Whether I truly believe that is a different story might be over correcting
from we caught a lot of shit. We pig Nuggets in five Bull Grant
and I against the Wolves. We caught a lot of shit because I said
something seems off in Denver, and so many fans are just like, yeah,
they were just sort of, you know, schlepping their way through the
end of the season. They didn't have anything to play for. This wasn't
a big deal. Maybe that's true. I just with the things that Michael
Malone was saying and just how poorly they played in some instances. I didn't
biden full Maybe I'm wrong. It felt like something was amiss. But let's
see how they hold up against teams who aren't the Timberwolves first. This version
of the Timberwolves. That being said, my faith in my title pick never
wavered completely, but it might be not an adult. It's definitely not at
an all time because I felt pretty good at different points of this season.
But it's it's it's unflappable at the moment. I've probably wavered a little bit
as the season's gone up and down, and especially after the Kevin Durant trade
in Phoenix, but it's unflappable right now. For the Cavaliers. They fucked
up letting Kevin Love go or not adding another playable big to their rotation.
They got absolutely like destroyed on the offensive glass by the Knicks, and their
one big lineups with that have had issues all season, whether it's just Jared
Allen or just Evan Mobley. That's probably the biggest knock against Mowblei right now
is he's not super brawny, and I picked him as my defensive Player of
the Year. I have hashtag no regrets for that. But you're going to
give up strength against even someone like Mitchell Robinson or and Isaiah Hartenstein, like
Mowbley could just be tossed around a little bit more, and also someone like
the same could probably be said for Jilt Aaron Wow, Jared Allen, and
Moby's gonna be spending a little bit more time away from the basket, whether
it's defensive rebounding or offensive rebounding as well. I think Kevin Love could have
probably helped them in this matchup and wouldn't have been Yeah, the Knicks can
kind of mismatch Hunt, but the speed at which they play a lot of
the time unless you're putting him against their all bench units. And again,
we're not even gonna see a ton of those that are looking to like jack
up the pace because Jalen Brunton and Julius Rand we're gonna play a crap ton
of minutes. I think that the Calves are really gonna end up and some
people might immediately point to we'll look at how much they struggled with their three
rotation cars. LeVert will be better. They'll be able to get better minutes
from an Isaaco Korro. Maybe we'll see more of Danny Green, Jenny Osman,
some strong minutes for them. They just have no perfect solutions, but
they have a bunch of solutions, so I'm just sticking with that. For
the Bucks, Brook Lopez might be the most underrated player in the NBA,
which is saying something because he's probably gonna finish second or he did finish second
and Defensive Player of the Year voting. My other hot take would be he
might get twenty five million dollars per year, which is why in free agency,
which is wild to say as someone who's age thirty five, but his
rim protection, the base defense that he gives the Bucks, it is scaled
two minutes without any of the stars on the court, and he is so
important to what they do offensively, not just because of his ability to spread
the floor, but the stuff he can do from the block, even when
dribbling from the outside, and the Bucks need to find a way to get
him more touches, every sort of touches. In Game two, especially if
Jannie is in full bore, because he's dealing with that that back injury that
kept that back contusion that kept him out of a good chunk of Game one.
For the Clippers, let's stick with big men of reaches two box and
needs more scoring touches here. If DeAndre is gonna defend like this, which
is to say very minimally to not at all, Like let's get I'm not
staying you need to throw it to a Versi Zubots on the block against him,
but like, let's get him involved in more pick and roll actions and
throw him the ball more on rolls, like get him moving downhill. Your
team can use the extra rim pressure anyway. And I thought they went away
from him a little bit too much in the second half of game woman.
I'm interesting to see how they go about it in game two. This is
going to spill into my son's overreaction, but I want to make sure that
I give you credit to people who ask questions about them. That's I guess
just not mission critical. But like when you don't know what offensive performance you're
gonna get from russ or even a Norman Powell on a game to game basis,
and you try it out on Thailand, and that's not necessarily working from
an efficiency perspective, it feels like zoobots because it was rebounding and because of
what he could do is just a finisher out of the pick and roll in
the screens he could set. That's one of your best courses towards efficient offense,
aside from just giving it to Kawhi Leonard and telling him to go.
But yeah, that would be my Clippers of a reaction to the other.
Other overreaction might just be that Terrence Man is potentially one of the five most
underpaid players in the league after his extension kicks in, when he's making basically
mid level money after this season. Dude is good and I still don't understand
why it took so long to kind of iron out his spot in the Clippers
hierarchy. And I think you could even argue that, well, is it
even iired out right now? He played. He didn't even play twenty five
minutes in Game one if I remember correctly. So we love Terrence Man on
this podcast is basically all. I don't want to speak for Grant, but
I'm gonna speak for Grant. We love Terrence Man on this podcast. For
the Celtics, Derek White has All Star potential still he made my second team
All Defense. I did read that Zach Ohim on first team All Defense,
which is that's wild, not like in a bad way, but that's the
type of season he had. And he's just become more aggressive offensively, shot
the hell of the ball from three this year. He was ultra aggressive against
the Hawks, and I feel like if we rewind this like a year till
last year, he just wouldn't have been this free flowing and fluid on offense.
And it's is someone who I feel like, you know, he could
he could have a twenty points per game season just playing entirely within the flow
of the offense. And if you're gonna do that while playing all defense level
defense, you have all Star potential in you. And so is do we
get to the conversation of as Derek White Boston's third best player? I thought
that didn't feel spicy enough because there's Tatum and Brown, and then I guess
if you want to go r W three, is that really the argument in
front of White or Brockden. Those are really don't smart Horford. Those are
all players with cases. I don't know if any of them are particularly strong.
So I'm going with Derek White has All Star potential still if I set
the over under on the number of All Star bids, births appearances that Derek
White makes in his career at zero point five, so we're saying it will
make one. Let's just take the over here. Let's just be really spicy
Atlanta. My takeaway for them is they need to start planning for their off
season. My actual overreaction would be, can they get weird? There's like,
let's throw Clink Capella on Marcus Smart, so I would say Derek White,
but just sort of like, there are quite too good to go against
Clickapell offensively right now? Or do you just skew the complete opposite direction?
And some of their five out lineups had worked, and that's going to force
them into more three point volume. I don't like the idea of having both
on Yaka kong Wu and Clink Upela on the bench. And we all know
how we feel about John Collins at the five lineups, but throw them out
there with DeAndre Hunter and Jean Day, Murray Boatabodovitch, and Trey Young.
It's they'll have better shooting nights. And Trey talked about their need for three
point volume. Get fucking weird, like this is just you're not even I
don't want to say it's found money. No one expects you to win this
series. You're not gonna win this series. Just just try it. I
would like to see more of that with again key lineups, like we saw
a little bit of it with like bench stuff and maybe do you count de
Jean day Murray is five shooters and five I would I would still get there.
He shot well enough from three during the regular season for Miami. I
want to see them. And this is I guess it's not an overreaction in
theory, but it is because of what do it means for bam at a
Baio. But Miami needs more Jimmy plus four shooter lineups. Some of those
were just really really effective against Malwauke and it came down to, oh,
Gay Vince's and Max Strews, we're hitting their threes. But just it makes
so much sense with the rim pressure Jimmy can provide and what he's gonna do
with the ball in his hands, and how he can take advantage if you
have spacing. He provides more of it by getting in to the lane and
forcing defenses to collapse. It's a little bit harder to do with bam Adebayo
there, and defenses since the end of the All Star Break have been game
planning for bam Matabayo more on offense. I'm not telling you to pull Bam.
Maybe it's more of, hey, let's go Bam plus four shooters as
well. When Jimmy's on the bench, you need to lean into that.
And so that means playing a bunch of Max Strews and then figuring out,
okay, who are our shooters without Tyler Hero and that does get a little
finnicky. Should Kyle Lowry play more in game two? I mean maybe?
I think it really means like Streuss and Vincent and then Kevin Love needs to
be on the court and then you flesh it out from there. It's all
right, we need to roll the dice on as Kla Martin count as a
shooter. He was two of three in game one? Or again, does
does do we get like good Kyle Lowry games? It's I don't think this
is gonna be an the Robinson series. Their rotation is going to be so
compact that the options are so few and far between. But it's maybe we
need to stagger Jimmy and Bam like even more during the post, which sounds
like just batshit bonkers, and it might be, but that was where they
found some of their biggest success against Milwaukee is they had these line ups where
was Butler and just four shooters out there. And again I'm not advocating to
play Bam at a bio less and he logged. He had four fouls,
so he finished one under thirty three minutes. But those are lineups that I
can see really working for Miami. But let this be a lesson for how
you kind of flesh out the roster leading in the next season, if you're
going to make moves on the trade market, and where you're looking for in
free agency. I thought about they need to sort of uncorked Victor Roladipo in
this, but I really don't see it. I don't think Milwaukee is a
Victor Oladipo. A depot series, an Irish fallestra seems against it. How
many teams we got left, uh in Minnesota, they should see your Dallas
is willing to take Rudy Gobert still in a trade just I don't He's been
super slow in a bunch of matchups. Maybe he's still dealing with back stuff,
but I don't need to see And he made one of them against Denver,
but it was in garbage time at that point, I don't need to
see m put on the ball, put the ball on the floor and spin
into the hooper into the defender. It's just it's awkward, and I don't
I just don't see it. There's been too many adjustments already that you've needed
to make to, you know, create a sequel system around Gobert. I
don't know that he maximize it anymore. And I'm just Carlyton Town is a
better player, even if you think his swings are are worse. And there's
probably a way too if you want to go still the dual big route,
Hey naz Reid is here, still going to be a free agent with cheap
and Gobert, or you can find someone who at least protects the basket for
a lot cheaper than Gobert. My other, my final one before we get
to the Sun's Sacktown is underrated on defense. It's look at what they've done
in this Golden State series, and we've talked about it on this podcast.
They had good fundamentals all year. They rebound the basketball, they hit the
defensive glass, they don't foul a ton because their offense is so good,
they focus on getting back in transition. Now they focus more on offensive rebounding,
which they did punt on during the regular season. They focused more on
it against the Warriors, which makes sense because they're undersized, and if you're
going to disrupt sacramentals haf court offense, almost if you're missing more shots,
you want to create those second chance opportunities. So I get that, but
like they've thrown a ton of different shit. That's Steph Curry. They've made
Draymond Green really uncomfortable as a passer throughout this series. Damian Mitchell has been
able to stay on the floor offensively, especially in Game two. I think
you look at the job that Harrison Barnes is done for the most part,
even Fox, like his athleticism is just held up on a bunch of possessions
in this series. Did and what I mean underrated on defense. So I
think that they're a top ten defense is currently constructed. Now I would still
say they're in the bottom ten, but they're like, can we talk about
what a game changer it would be if if they got a I'm not even
thinking it. Ogann and Obie like a Royce O'Neil on this team. How
much of a difference that would make. So that's where I'm at with them.
Philly's overreaction, but let me go to Brooklyn's overreaction. And I don't
know if there's overreaction so much as just stating facts. I guess they're better
built to defend a well and beat than I thought. They've thrown a bunch
of doubles in him. Kudos to Royce O'Neill speaking of him for the resistance
he put up against Joel Ebiad in game two and being still had this wildline,
he was fantastic on defense or just like twenty points and seven assists whatever,
being a bunch of turnovers. He would have had so many more shots,
so many more points, so many less errors if Royce O'Neil just wasn't
throwing his body on him. And I think you have to give the Nets
a lot of credence for the way that they've defended Embiad despite being like there
they excuse smaller regardless and then like one of their primary bigs and Nicholas Claxton
like he's not super burly, he's just he's very he's rail thin. And
so you look at the job they've been able to do on Embiad who still
had a good series. It could be so much worse if you, like
you didn't even even Cam Johnson, like if you just didn't have Michael Bridges.
We know what you can do as an help defender, and so I've
been impressed, and I would say that Brooklyn's better built to disrupt Philly's offense.
Then I kind of thought, or at least the imbid element of Phillies
offense for the Nets overreaction. I don't really know what to take away from
this. I'm like, I'm trying to like, I don't feel like super
passionate about anything of the Nets right now. Let's just say that Cam Johnson's
gonna get twenty five million dollars a year and restricted free agency from them because
he's been instrumental in the series. I think he's kind of reminding us that
he's more mobile on defense than than his build suggests. Or then you would
think of someone who's mostly a one position player, like you're not gonna play
him at the three. You're probably more likely to play with the five than
the three. Maybe not on a team that excus position list like the Nets
keen with all their rangey wings on the roster, but that might shock some
people. I think it's sticker price in free agency is gonna end up shocking
some people, and maybe it won't. But he's he's really good. And
I say that he's been outscored, the Nets have been outscored when by twenty
four points when he's been on the floor this series. I believe if I
missed any team, I'm sorry. I'm just fatigued from it. But that's
where I'm at. I did miss the Suns, which is who I'm gonna
get to. Because Rome eighty one eighty asked I want to hear your son's
overreactions specifically, And then we also have Swag saying is it an overreaction to
believe they will burn out with the lineups? Monty puts out that core forward
is going a lot a lot of minutes at mileage and they don't have great
help to answer swags questions. First, swags question, First, I'm pluralizing
it. I don't mean to. I don't think that's an overreaction because you
Kevin Randt playing forty five minutes in game one, you had Devin Booker playing
forty three minutes. That's just I don't it's unpenable if you want to get
through the entire playoffs. It's just not like I get some guys average forty
minutes. Durand still kind of working his way back from injury though, and
you kind of just given the bad luck he's tad. You're almost sort of
leaving a lot to chance. I know it's the playoffs. I know that
you have to leave everything on the table, so to speak in cliche language,
but geez, I don't want to see Kevin rend playing forty five minutes
in the first game of around one series, no matter how close it is,
if it doesn't go to overtime. So no, I don't think that's
an overreaction. And they only had looking at it now. Actually I realized
this in real time, they'd six players a lot more than eight minutes,
and like, you need to I know, I'm talking about you shrink your
rotation. But and campaign's injury deal with knee stuff, that's a big part
of it. So I think he would go a long way. But you
gotta find someone else other than Landry Shammitt, who you trust off the bench
my overreactions for Phoenix. This is not an overreaction, by the way,
but why are we being so hesitant to play josh Akogi in this series?
I kind of understand after watching the way that they use Tory Craig against Kawhi
Leonard and then what he was able to do on offense, why they started
him. I know that a lot of the Timeline podcast was they weren't necessarily
against it, but they want to see a Kogie start. I think in
Game two, the dude just needs to play more than seven minutes just because
of what he gives you defensively. He can help with your offensive rebounding.
We've seen that be a slog. We've seen the half court offense be a
slog for you in that Game one against the Clippers, who they're able to
switch and they just have more bodies they could throw at you. But I
think we credited and Kawai was against spectacular. They have terns Man Russ came
up with some huge defensive moments. So just play a Kogi and hopefully that
you'll figure it out on offense. And even if your offense isn't perfect,
Like you still have the bailout option of Kevin Durant. I want to have
an overreaction of they don't use Kevin Durant enough. But Zach Lowe said this
on his podcast Kevin rat ran twenty five picking rolls. I think in game
one, which is basically a high since he joined Phoenix, it might have
been high for a season. You want to see him involved a little bit
more in crunch time. I think he only had like two real possessions over
the final three minutes. That's not a super spicy take. My actual take
here, I don't know if it's spicy enough, Like can we play Bisbeck
beyonbo more over DeAndre eight and if he's gonna give you, you know,
next to zero thrust on the glass or even just sort of like as this
defensive resistance at all. Maybe that was more of a game plan from Monty
Williams where you didn't want to see him be more aggressive playing higher, but
at the very feast like Byambo is going to clean up more of your missus
on the offensive glass. It fields like at this point he's going to roll
harder to the basket. And I also like the idea of I think you
could probably bring him out higher if you wanted to. I don't want to
say if I love the idea of that, but like we've seen him come
out higher. Its curtainces and it's worked. And so why why is this?
Sun Stands. If you're listening, you can answer this for me.
Why is this? I know they've toggled between Landale and Beyonmbo. Neither of
them logged a ton of minutes. They combined a log like twelve minutes in
game one. Why is this more of a Landale series than a Beyonmbo series?
Would be my question? I played. I look, I'd start trimming
the ship out of DeAndre aytans minutes if you get another performance like you did
in game one from him, and I know you might be more inclined to
go Kevin Durant at the five there, Yeah, all right, Like fine,
as long as that doesn't involve like too much of ish Wayne Wright at
this point, who he ended up being a disaster in his minutes there.
You can explore that. But this is a Bismock Beyonbo series. That is
my overreaction to this, that this needs to be a bismac Beyonbo series for
the Phoenix Suns. Even if it comes at the expense of DeAndre Etan's minutes,
this might age. It might sound fucking stupid now, but it might
age incredibly poorly based off what happens in game two. Maybe I'll get lucky
in ages and incredibly well. Though. I don't know if that was necessarily
the shortest way to go through my overreactions of every series, but I think
I covered all sixteen teams. If I forgot your team, it's because I
hate your team. This is a fascinating question from Glad. They ask why
can't the rest that games be played this physical throughout the regular season. Obviously
the intensity isn't like this, but I don't like how they pretty much called
the game completely different. I'd be very curious to see, and I try
to find them. I haven't seen anything concrete about studies being done with regard
to how games are called differently in the playoffs. I do agree with you
though the intensity isn't ratted it up. It's high. I think part of
it is also we're not used to seeing all the best players available all at
once, and some of these lineups and players so many heavy minutes. But
I think they're just gonna let more stuff go. And I don't know that
this is a mandate, but they're gonna allow games to be more physical because
you're not trying to preserve or safeguard players against necessarily disaster at this point because
the season's over after this, and that treats players more like chess pieces,
and so I hate framing it that way, but I just wonder if that
goes into the calculus or you want to make there's that, and then you
want to be even more sure that you don't become a primary driving force behind
the outcome of a game, where you don't want a foul call to determine
why this playoff game was one, or in Draymond Green's case, a suspension
or objection to determine why a game was one. They're undeniable instances like Raymond
Green stomping on someone's chest where you have to maybe make those decisions. But
I'm wondering if that goes into it all. But I also just think that
the game is being played at such a higher level, the execution overall might
be better. You have players, your best players on the floor for longer
stretches and just more in general through more games, and so is that going
to make it so the officials aren't going to have a huge of an impact
on the game, or like I said, it's it's just an edict.
It's the playoffs and it's understood. It's the unwritten rule of we're gonna let
them be more physical, and I think we've seen it kind of like on
how they're calling charges, which is it's also interesting there was the debate cropped
up on Twitter again ban the charge versus not ban the charge. I fall
in the middle of this. I think it's very weird for people to go,
well, what about the offensive ratings being at one fifty by banning the
charge after as a response to people who just want to see star players not
get injured, and we saw two of them get hurt in these instances,
including Yannis during the first week of the playoffs. I'm not gonna follow people
who want to ban the charge because they want to make sure that players are
healthy and preserved player safety. There are functional implications of it. Though I'm
not team banned the charge. I'm team like change the rules of the charge
to where there's more Rob Mahoney had treated this from the Ringer fantastic writer,
but why is there not more of a landing zone for drivers specifically like we
have for shooters, And then there's still a lot that would be open for
interpretation. But I think that we need to change the or remove the incentives
of players coming in at the last minute and undercutting guys who are on drives
or leaving their feet. You can't ban the charge, because I do agree
they would have a major impact. This is already an offense first league,
and it would skew even further in that direction. But I also understand the
reaction where if it was an either or scenario and the NBA refuses to kind
of open things up for interpretation more or change it adjusted a little bit,
and it's just all or nothing. I get why people want to ban the
charge, and so I do get the concerns that come out of that.
But if it's you have to keep the charge as it is rules versus banning
it, I'm probably gonna lean towards banning it because I'm just gonna want to
see I'm gonna want to prioritize player safety, and I don't think this is
one of those instances of well that's addressing an issue that doesn't exist. It's
an issue that does exist, and we saw it in the first round.
We've seen it in the first round of the playoffs already, just through a
handful of games. I wish I had a better answer for you, Glad
on why rests are calling like allowing the game to be played more physical.
I just honestly think that it might. It might be sort of this unwritten
rule is you want to try and keep things under control in the regular season
because you don't want there to be this long term cost of letting the game
be so physical versus also once you get to the postseason, it's just,
well, we don't want who insert ourselves into the outcome of this game more
than we absolutely have to. Ian has this question, which I find fascinating
because I personally wouldn't consider it a question, And to be clear, Ian's
basically asking a question off of something he heard. The Mismatch Pod just talked
about how impressed it was that the seventy six ers held the Nets to eighty
four points. I didn't watch the game, but my first thought was when
I saw the score, was how how the hell did the Nets hold the
sixers the under one hundred points. I'm with you, Ian, as someone
who watched most of that game. I missed the first quarter and a half
the net. From the next perspective, first looking at their offense, why
are you shocked? I know that in theory they have all these wings and
they have a bunch of shooters on the team. They were twenty third in
point score per possession after Mchael Bridges's debut. They were sixteen in half court
efficiency, which I think is actually pleasantly high for having such a dearth of
creators. But they don't really look to run, and they have a dearth
of creators. There's Michael Bridges and Spencer didn't Red and that's it. You're
not trusting anyone else to operate off the dribble. And we've seen mcaal Bridges
be overstretched as a playmaker during the regular season and in this series that's gonna
be the next part of his evolution is can he become someone who can survey
the defense, make the right pass, not making sort of these last second,
eleventh hour kickouts. So it doesn't shock me that Philly, you know,
because you can look at the problems Philly has had with their transition defensive
points this season. The Nets aren't really looking to run either, so I'm
not shocked at all that the Nets would have a bad offensive outing against the
Sixers, especially when Joel Embiad is such a massive human who's just really keyed
in on defense right now, I'm more impressed by what the Nets did defensively.
That they made life hell on Joel Embiid. They've made life somewhat difficult
on James Harden, and it's been at the expense of we'll let Tyris Maxi
try and beat us or Tobias Harris. Tyrris Maxie had a great Game two.
He was a lifeline for the Sixers, kept him afloat when it looked
like they were going to lose. But I'm more impressed by Yes, the
Nets have a lot of good defensive players, and I think even when you're
looking at okay perimeters opping power, in general, they're not a team on
paper that's built to make life difficult on Joel Embiid. They're really not,
and they did in Game two, and so your first thought Ian to me
was just absolutely correct. I am more impressed by what the Nets did defensively
than what the Sixers did. And that's not to discredit what the Sixers did,
but the Nets offense has not been world beating during the mcale Bridges era,
and why would it be relative to what they're coming off of, which
is when they had Kadi and Kyrie Irving and now they have neither of them.
Next question comes from unbiased Pistons fan. They ask what archetype of player
will be overdrafted as a result of this past season, like the small ball
fives after Golden State or the six foot six since Athletics score after MJ and
Kobe. I have not delved enough into draft coverage to see what players would
even be available in this vein. Do you know there's a lot of six
foot six, six foot nine guys that are peppered up and down throughout the
lottery you're going through mock drafts. I would think though, if there's like
an Arcat's type that's going to be targeted. I'm wondering if it's wing type
players or small type players who can set screens, because when you're looking at
and we saw this in the Suns Clippers game, if you're going to try
and stash a big on like a Tory Craig, you're just throwing him in
the screening action. And I don't know if if you consider Tory Tory Craig
a good screener before, now he's not something he did a ton for Phoenix.
But can you get those wings who Yes, it's probably only in the
slot. I would say you're either taking a swing later in the draft or
you're just looking for a role player. You're not going to do that at
the top of the draft. But if you're looking to round out of rotation
and you see someone who, Okay, maybe we're not sold on their shooting.
This is someone who we might see biggs cover so that they can roam
or that they can do more on defense. Well, we're going to counter
by putting them in the action as the screener, because that's going to force
the switch. But we also need them to be able to make plays out
of that. They not only need to screen, but like, can they
roll to the basket finished through contact, make things tougher on that. It'd
be ideally if you're just this like really fantastic screener who could pop and then
you know, punish drop coverage, your guys are gonna go under screens for
sure when you're just popping out, But I'm just wondering if that becomes more
of some as we get into a I don't know if the NBA is more
mismatch driven than ever, but when you're looking at how many teams look to
try and punish mismatches, and we saw it in the Game one in particular,
of the King's Warrior series, the Kings have not run and had tip
to NBA Einstein who had a fantastic threat about this on Twitter, but the
Kings were not a pick and roll team. They run a lot of dribble
handoffs. Like during the regular season, Golden State was able to do some
things to really blow those up, as I think everyone expected. They went
to the pick and roll, which they can do because they have Baron Fox
and the Bonus as a great screener. Bruis with the goal of putting Kevon
Looney into those actions and so like they're forcing mismatches. I think Kevon Looney
probably did a better job and then Kings just had some really tough finishes against
him in Game one, and that a lot of the issues were at the
point of the attack for the Warriors. But that's Also part of it is
that if you think you're gonna blow up the Warriors point of attack defense more
by going to a pick and roll, and if they're not going to have
GP two on the court during those situations, I just wonder if that's something
we could see. And I might be wrong here. I still think that
the league, despite the failure in Toronto, is just going to look for
wings that can create and play and defend multiple positions. But I'm just wondering
if that's a wrinkle we see thrown in when you're either taking flyers, whether
it beyond two way guys, undrafted undrafted guys, or later in the first
round, maybe you're just looking for someone around at the end of your rotation.
I could see that being just the next trendy frontier is we need these
wings or smalls who cannot only screen really well, but then make plays out
of those screens, maybe going towards the basket to keep these defenses on tilt,
who are going to try and change things up to make life easier on
one their bigs, or just defensive not I don't want to say liabilities because
I don't use zu bots necessarily, as this huge liability he can be,
but you're not gonna be. We want to make it harder, even against
our offensive liabilities to stash players, for you to stash players from your team.
Food for thought there. Let me know your answers and discord. Anyone
who is actually listening to this podcast, this will be our last. It's
two questions and they come from Rome eighty one eighty and so we'll get to
this element of it first. This may have to wait because it may require
some prep rest to shore in Rome. I did some, though, but
I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm the greatest win win trades of all
the time, and where there's Sabonis, Halibert and trade will rank if Sacramento
wins a series or two bonus points or trades that weren't blowing up scenarios.
Real seer Up twenty two nineteen also says, relating to this last night during
the King's Game, I was wondering if teams should worry less about winning the
trade and more about making their team better. The Kings aren't downbly better this
year. Even if some people think Caliberton is better than Sabonis or Fox or
will be better than sab bonis or Sabonis or Fox. So this is fascinating.
I think I would caution that I were too As someone who writes a
lot of does a lot of trade reactions, I will say that I think
we're too quick to jump on judgments for trades where these things can play out.
Look at the and I said this in discord, Look at the interpretation
of the Christops Porzingis trade to Dallas when it first happened versus what it is
now. Most people thought the Knicks lost that deal, didn't think they searched
hard enough for a high enough asking price, and then it became oh,
the Mavericks really fucked up there. So we need to let these things marinate.
And the Sabonus Halibert and trade is one of those specifically because even if
the Kings's goal was getting better now, their ultimate goal was not just hey,
let's win a series. You want to view this over the longer term.
If a trade is going to be one in a single year, it's
because you. It would be because the Kings won the title or came out
of the West. If they reach an NBA Finals with Sabonus this year.
In this one year, maybe you could even stretch it to conference finals based
off their history, that trade is absolutely worth it. But I think makes
the trade more debatable now in a good way is that what the Kings are
doing feels sustainable. They're not especially old, They're not you know, their
draft asset well is not stripped, even though they owe the twenty twenty four
selection to Atlanta, so they have and they're not in cap hell. Yeah,
they can have cap space if they don't want Harrison Mars this year.
They're also going to have access to the non tax payermid level exception, so
they still have plenty of mechanisms that can help them improve their team bites at
the Apple when it comes to the draft or trades. That's why it and
I panned the trade when it happened. I think Fox and the Bonus we're
gonna be a good fit. I was wrong, So I do think it's
we have to look at trades, all of them, really through a more
gradual lens than we do. But I also recognized part of the business model,
including what we're doing this podcast, is we want to provide those reflective
reactions. I enjoy trying to figure it out and thinking about how player X
is going to fit on team why or with player Z on his new team.
I really do enjoy that aspect of this business. But I think we're
real seer gets that. It is interesting is that there probably are moves that
are not made because you're afraid of looking like a dumbass or it would be
the unpopular move at the time. You have to kind of credit Monty McNair
for making what you had to know is going to be a wildly unpopular trade
amongst your fans, and it was initially the Kings fans. Fan base is
generally very welcoming of new players, and there are a lot of people that
came out in defensive it and understood the logic, but they weren't happy about
it. So you have to credit Monty McNair. Because public perception does factor
into how NBA front offices think. I know that for a fact. It
does not you know, a front office reading stumbling across my fake trades piece.
No, that's not gonna have any bearing on their on their thinking,
but like they weigh that into their decision making. How big, how much
of a share does that account for? That's going to depend on their front
office. So I do think to real see overs point that front officers should
think be a little bit more risking client, which is why let's look at
I'm not companying them for this, but if the Hawks really did not believe
in Luca don Chich and they thought Trey Young was their guy's a that's a
gutsy trade to make. Now, why didn't the Kings get the same treatment
of well, hey, they drafted Marvin Bagley instead of Luca doncs That takes
guts, and that was when against prevailing consensus. It's not always gonna work
out. Sometimes you're gonna get burned by it, but you can't. By
the way, Luca Dante would have been the safer pick. I think their
whole thing stigma against European players that they can cost you your job and you're
gonna look back and say, oh, you never should have taken him.
No, he was kind of like a no brainer at the time. To
me, that would have been the safer pick. You could justify that easier
than the Marvin Backley pick. And that was not this King's front office.
I know that I understand that that part of the reason that wasn't this King's
front office is because that pick was made in first place anyway. So I
agree that teams need to be more risk inclined. And I also think though,
that we need to understand what that team, what a team's goals might
be. Because when as real syrup saying you need to focus on making your
team better, what does that mean? Because I do I'm not gonna tell
anyone how to fan as an MBA fanatic, and I'm not gonna tell any
why. I mean, I tell franchises all the time how they should build
their team. I'm someone who is a big believer in aiming for the middle,
even the top of the middle long term. Without a clear path upward,
it doesn't it's not sexy to me, it doesn't do it for me.
And so you need the clear path to contention. And so if you're
making a trade just to get better and be more competitive, there needs to
be a path forward. And part of my problem with the Kings was I
didn't see that path forward even if this worked out. I do now,
based on some of the things I've outlined in this podcast. So I'm wrong
all the time. This is just one of those instances. This is also
a trade we'll have to reevaluate more again in the future. I'll be fascinated
to see where it lands three five years down the line. But one playoff
Berth unless it's I'll go Western Conference Finals appearance that doesn't know absolve the Kings
of Oh, we don't even have to think about what happens next, like
this trade was a home run. But yes, as of right now,
it looks like a win win, because we need to factor in the franchise's
goals. The Kings' goal, or at least I'm gonna assign this goal to
them, was that it should have been we want to get now while still
maintaining our clear path or even simplifying streamlining, improving our path to the level
above where we're gonna be. Now. They have done that. I firmly
believe that with the bonus, unless they think he's gonna leave HM free agency,
which I don't think you will. And then the Pacers they wanted to
begin anew They wanted to go through the more gradual rebuilding approach that the Kings
were no longer interested in. So that trade, of course, is a
win for them, even though they don't. You know, Chyris Haliburton misses
a ton of time. They're gonna have another top lottery pick this year,
like that is their endgame. They because they didn't make the play, and
that doesn't make this a failure at all. And I've seen like jokes being
dragged about Tyris Haliburton getting named an All Star. He was absolutely an All
Star. He would have been an All NBA player properly if he played in
more games. So that's an example of a win win is because it fixed
both teams aims and as I was going through this, and I think a
more recent win win Rome said bonus points about blow up scenarios, the Cavs
Jazz trade for Donovan Mitchell. You know, yes that was a blow up
scenario for the Jazz, but look how good they end. Like lyar Marketan
made an All Star team, he might make an All NBA team, and
so I think that certainly falls under the umbrella. So some of the ones
that stood out, and this is tough, I'm sure I didn't go through
all of them. But that trade between the Knicks and Bulls is it?
What year was it was sometime, and it was eighty eight. I think
the Bulls traded Bill the Knicks traded Bill Cartwright, an eighty eight first round
pick and an eighty eight third round pick to Chicago for Charles Oakley an eighty
eight first round pick and an eighty eight third round pick. Like, that's
just a very interesting swap, and saying third round just feels really fucking weird.
I think that ended up working out for both teams, and so that
would be one that stands out to me. This one is super interesting and
hat tip Greg Schwartz of Bleacher Report for it. The Phoenix Suns traded Charles
Barkley and a nineteen ninety nine second round pick to the Houston Rockets for Sam
cassell, Robert Ory, Chuckie Brown, and Mark Bryant. Barkley was past
his prime at the time, but he still went on to have like great
value when he ended up in Houston. He averaged sixteen points, twelve rebounds,
four assists, and one steal over the four years in Houston, made
an All Star team in ninety seven, helped the Rockets get the three playoff
appearances, and then the Phoenix though ended up moving Casselle with Michael Finley to
the Dallas Mavericks for Jason Kidd, and that ended up being huge for Phoenix
having kid there. So I would struck out as a win win. Fantastic
fine to me by Greg Schwartz. I think I'm wondering if Lakers fans might
push back against this one. But the we can get into the nitty gritty
details of it. But Memphis trading pow and in two and ten to the
or what was it two thousand and eight was that year? Yeah, trading
pow in two thousand and eight to the Lakers for the pick that became Mark
Gasol. And I don't know if you would look at it differently because that
wasn't like the draft rights to Mark Gasol were not considered the meat and potatoes
of that deal. You look at the two thousand and eight first round pick
was in there in a two and ten first round pick, but he ended
up with Marc Gasol still, and so I'd call that a win win.
He ended up being a part of the most successful era in Memphis Grizzlies history.
Today, you don't win a title, the Lakers win two with pal
Still, like I would, I would classify that as a win win.
Another one that stands out when the Lakers traded Shack to Miami for lamar odom
kran Butler Brian Grant and then the two thousand and six first round pick in
a two thousand and seven second round pick. I guess you could say Kobe
and O'Neill wanting to stick together, how many titles would they want? Lamar
ended up being one of the most versatile players in the NBA for the Lakers
and was just absolutely monstrous to them. And if if that relationship was going
to continue to tierrating anyway to get out of that situation with Lamar, odom
Kron Butler, Brian Grant a first round pick, I thought that was really
good value. And odem ends up spending he's with the Lakers for seven years.
Was just instrumental when you look at his versatility and charm. Butler had
the good one season in LA. And here's the other thing. Both of
these teams ended up winning titles with members of the trade on their team after
this trade, and so I think that that just automatically counts as a win
win. I'm trying to think there's any more recent and this one, I'm
curious what people think about. I have the Pacers trading Paul George to Okay
See for Victor Ladipoh and a bonus because then look at what Victor Ladipo gave
you. He became an All NBA player for a minute, and we no
injuries just sapped him of all value after that, but he became an All
NBA player for a minute. Then you have sa bonus who helps keep you
afloat becomes your best player, and then you're able to use him to really
jump start this rebuild with Tyres Halliburn, where your future just looks so bright
now between him and Turner and Benedick Mathin, Andrew Nemhard, a ton of
cap space, extra first round picks, whoever you draft this year, so
you're able to skip the rebuild, but then able to jumpstart when that didn't
really bring you to a title level. And then okay, see I mean
I won gave him a ton of credit for trading for Paul George when it
wasn't guaranteed he would stay. You got to keep him, and then you're
able to trade him for Shay Gilts, Alexander and all the picks. Because
I don't remember who initially said this, but it's the best way I've ever
heard of trained Sam Presty found a way to trade Paul George and Kawhi Leonard
while only having one of them modest roster. So I think that goes down
as win win. I don't know if that's controversial and so and another one
I've seen people think about is the anti Davis trade for New Orleans and the
Lakers. The Lakers win a title, so you do that again. The
Pelicans end up with Brandon Ingram and that's I guess you can count that as
a blow up scenario for New Orleans. They just got so much value out
of that. You use heart, he ends up getting you SEJ McComb,
you didn't end up selling very high on lines of ball, but he goes
through those injuries. I don't know if I would throw that under, but
that was one I kind of thought about, just because you've got so much
value and you're still going to reap the benefits of that value, and technically
those will be instrumental tools and okay, like that's the reason you have Dison
Daniels. So I think that I think it's fair to call it a win
win. Probably need to see more from the Pelicans though, in terms of
their course staying healthy before we go that route. I think I'm kind of
out of suggestions there. I mean you can get into was the Kevin Love
trade between the Cows and the Timberwolves that end up being win win in the
long run, but steering clear of blow up snars, which that clearly was
for Minnesota. If anyone hasn't any others, I'm sure there's others. Those
are just the ones that sort of sprang to mind for me after digging around
the NBA transaction vortex. Hope you enjoyed this podcast. Please, if you've
made it this form you haven't already, subscribed to us on YouTube and wherever
you get your audio podcasts, leave some reviews on Apple. We've gotten a
few negative ones, so if you can leave a five star rating and review,
tell us what you like about the pod. Constructive criticism is fine.
Join our discord. The link to that is in the podcast description and YouTube
description. Follow us on the socials at Hardwood Knox on Twitter and TikTok at
Hardwood Underscore Knox on Instagram. Shout out to every single one of you.
I love everyone who listens to us, both both recurring listeners and new listeners
alike. Until next time, and as always, I'll ut the shout out
to the one, the old, the indelible Frank Lakina and also apologies your together