What is krack Alakin fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Dan Favali, joined
by my certified fancabulous co host, mister Grant Hughes. Before we get started,
just a reminder to be extra kind to both Grant and I today because
the Knicks and the Warriors as we record this're facing elimination in their respective
game fives of the second round, and so what we're about to embark on
for the first half of this show is unequivocally self harm. You're welcome.
We're making sacrifices and concessions here. We're putting our own mental and physical well
being on the line, more so than Julius Randall ever has. On a
close out. Before we actually get started, I'd just like to remind you
the best way to support the show that subscribe button YouTube. Subscribe to us
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on Instagram. So before we get before we get started a third time,
the big question, how are you doing, Grant? Yeah, we come
to you from from the brink today for both like we're we are on the
edge. We're on the precipice of both of our teams not getting to play
basketball anymore. We will see if that comes to pass this evening. But
yeah, it's I'm doing. Okay, I do this thing where tell me
if you do this where I'll talk myself into and out of the Warriors like
basically on a game to game basis, almost with some exceptions. But you
know, so after the Lakers took the three one lead, and we can
get into it, but the way that they did it felt like pretty pretty
decisive and featured so many of the reasons that the Warriors tend to lose and
have lost all season that I kind of just got to a place where you
know, I just and I've been there several times this year, and I've
flip flopped away from it, but this feels feels pretty pretty close to the
edge, and and and so I get to a place where it's to sort
of prevent maximum self harm where I just say, they just don't have it,
you know, Okay, I accept that. It's acceptance, That's what
it is. It's whatever whatever stage of grief that is acceptance, maybe the
last one. So maybe I just jumped to the last stage of of like
the coping hierarchy or whatever. So yeah, right now, mentally I feel
okay, But it's because I have accepted that the Warriors don't have it.
Do you do that? And do you feel the same way with the Knicks
or do you even have to do that because it's a little it's kind of
an apples and Oranges like set of team comparisons here. So you know how
I say, like I actually have a thick skin when it comes to social
media, when I actually don't. I'm teflon when it comes to the Knicks,
Like they can still hurt me a little bit, but they've just been
incompetent for way too long, and you're dealing with when it comes to the
Warriors, a bigger sense of finality to something that was like actually sustainable Versus
with the Knicks, what's happening now almost feels validating in a wildly unsettling way.
And I picked them to win this series because I was always on the
you know, you keep it to yourself because he's playing so well, but
like, I'm not a Julius Randall guy, Like I don't think this is
someone that Nick should move forward with, and I have so many overarching concerns
with the team. To see them struggle is just like you were. For
me, I was almost waiting for it. And because there's more of a
transience to this core and one that I'm just not really attached to, I
think I have an easier time dealing with it, Whereas the Warriors, I
would absolutely rationalize any way I could be like, I can't let this impact
my mood beyond watching the game and podcasting about it. But with the Warriors,
like you're dealing with a dynasty that might be crumbling before your very eyes,
and even though you kind of knew that it was going to have to
end at some point, and even as people have framed it as that last
title was just like a bonus or brownie points because of the way it came,
and you kind of felt like not that the dynasty was already over,
but they didn't. They lost that sense of inevitability. You've lived through two
gap ears or whatever it was. I would imagine it's tougher for you to
reconcile what's happening right now. Yeah, in a weird way, that last
year's title, that title almost like makes this worse in a way because because
I distinctly remember multiple times over the last how we meant whatever it's been since
really like twenty fourteen fifteen at having the thought of like, oh, this
is how it ends, like for exa, like the Draymond blow up at
halftime. I think it was in Oklahoma City where like Ramona Shelburn was like
hearing him and Kurgo added and they had to be restrained. That was way
early on. I think they've won one title, maybe two, and that
was like the Oh, this is how it's gonna end. It's gonna be
because Draymond like can't you know, stay under control or whatever, and then
it wasn't. And then the Clay injury in the finals, was like,
oh, this is how it ends, because you know, Durant's gonna be
gone, He's already heard anyway, Clay's acl is done. That's like,
this is how it ends. And then you have those two years in the
interim where your expectations are low. I thought it was kind of over,
and then last year it was like, oh no, it's not over.
They did it again. And then you finished last year and say, well,
like, well, shouldn't Clay be better next year? Aren't they gonna
be able to have like Kminga and Moody and Pool improve, you know,
Wiseman might be not terrible, Like there are all these reasons to say,
totally plausible that they could be a like high end contender again, and the
oddsmakers all saw that too, And then you have this up and down season
that was you know, intermittently you know, enjoyable, but then mostly disappointing
and frustrating. And then now it's you know, all of that has kind
of come to a head with them in a three one hole coming back home
at least I guess to for Game five. But yeah, it's it's kind
of a bummer just because it feels like the end of a thing, even
though I've thought it was going to end like half a dozen times and been
wrong about it, you know, over the last several seasons. It's so
it's a little different. But yeah, you know, maybe we should start
with the Knicks. Though, if you're ready to kind of go there,
I have a question for you. Zero answers, but go ahead, right
So, as I'm watching, certainly in the first round against leveland and then
so far against Miami, is it is it as simple as because the Knicks
with the number two offense in the league during the year, and in neither
of these series have they looked anything close to that. One what made the
Knicks offense good in the regular season that's not happening now. And is it
like schematic? Is it personnel? Is it some combination of all that?
And two? Is it just and maybe this will just answer the question.
Is it just as simple as they actually just need a bunch of offensive rebounds
to be a good offense and they aren't getting them consistently against the heat now,
so they're just not like what the offense is baffling to me because they
were an offensive team during the regular season and they've been mostly a defensive team
in the playoffs, and I just have lost the pulse of this team and
having trouble explaining like how the same group of players looked so different during the
year and put up such different numbers. So like, unpack that for me.
If you have like half of an answer for that. Yeah, and
look there's I think they're just being their flaws or being exacerbated more than their
strengths, or being stopped prevented because they're still grabbing thirty percent of their offensive
boards against Miami. The issue is is that Miami's actually winning the second chance
points battle because they're not able to keep Miami off the offensive glass. We
saw that. I think they were outrebounded in Game four, like seven to
one in the fourth quarter, like on the offensive glass. And that's just
like, that's the fourth quarter, your season on the line. That's not
something you would expect from them. But when you start to dig into just
like I think concerns that everybody would have had even when things are humming,
it's okay, Like you know the Knicks, Yeah, their offense was two,
but they were eleventh in half court efficiency and like you remove putbacks from
the equation, there and they're not going to be as strong of a team.
Like a lot of their damage was just done on their efficiency on putbacks
where they were but you know, I think they were second in frequency of
that, and so you remove that and there are weaker points to their half
court offense. A lot of it has to deal with the supporting cast.
Yes, they got up. I think this was lost in the plot somehow.
I don't know if people looked at the first two months of the season
or a month and a half, the nick shot threes, they were like
eleventh and three point a tenth three. They just don't take a bunch of
above the break threes because they don't have guys who can hit them. They
set up a bunch of corner threes which are going to be dependent on your
dribble penetration. From Jalen Brunson, Julius Randall to a lesser extent RJ.
Barrett, the Heat have done an excellent job just packing the paint and taking
so much of that away. Watching Julius Randall go up against bam Adebayo,
and I don't know if the ankles hurting Julius at all, Like that's not
someone who seems like he's gonna get downhill a ton and so he has a
super efficient offensive night in Game four and just like he still don't even feel
him, probably because he was so bad defensively. And I think, really,
what has happened and we've seen in this series, but also with Cleveland,
if you force them to go through half court motions, like it's not
about them operating in transition or semi transition or getting up a quicker shot,
and then you're able to win or rival what they're doing on the offensive glass.
They're They're a team that lacks a lot of counters and I think some
of the stuff they could improve upon. I don't think they've done a great
job mismatch hunting. They did a better job of that in the Cleveland series.
And you can talk about, well, Joe Brunts is playing through injury,
Random's playing through injury. You've gotten probably the best version of r.
J. Barrett that you could have hoped for most of the series. And
so there are things that are just falling a different way. I think what
we're seeing about the Knicks, and I hope this is not an oversimplification.
After everything I just said, they still need a best offensive player that was
gonna be. My next question, are you still on that because you have
been very consistent in that, like basically since they got brunts in Like nice
move makes sense. What's the bigger plan? How do you get the guy
that's better than everyone that we have? Right? Is that? I don't
think that's an oversimplification, but like you've been on that all year and that
I would say you've been proven more right in the playoffs because it's clear that
as good as Brunson is and as theoretically favorable as Randall's matchups should have been
against the heat in particular, who plays super small, this just they just
need another guy, right, and a better guy. And it's you can
do if you want to go this route, and maybe maybe you do,
just because if the market, the trade market isn't there, you can payper
over some of these issues on a slightly smaller scale, where it's Mitchell Robinson,
who maybe we don't apologize to anymore, but it's just one of the
least dynamic offensive centers in existence at the moment, and it's just if there's
anything resembling him needing to make a decision after catching the ball other than placing
it in like even asking him to go up with it, it's like he
already needs to be in the air basically when he's catching it, like he
can't. You're you're seeing that really them with him against Miami. I think
the other thing is too you need caps lock shooters where it's okay, your
volume was fine, your percentage was passable. It has been neither. In
the playoffs, a smaller share of their shots are coming agains three point attempts.
They're shooting twenty nine percent for the playoffs. That's not even just against
the heat. I think that's for the entire playoffs, or they're at twenty
eight point seven percent against the heat specifically, they're just you can do those
things. And like if they were to sign or get a Gary Trent Junior,
that very much that was someone I wanted them to target the deadline.
They don't have the cap space, they'd have to be signed in trade,
YadA YadA yah. But if you were to get at Gary Trent Junior,
yes, I think that could help. If you were able to change out,
not even change out, but like bring in a different type of five
to where okay, it's not just Simms Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, and
then of course the idea of Julius Randall at the five, which is just
never reality because Tims won't go to it outside garbage time. If you were
to bring in someone who is just a little bit more versatile on the offensive
end, is a five either he spreads the floor. That's assuming Tims would
would let them play that way, Like you could be a better version of
this team. But what we're seeing right now with Miami, who I do
think has played above their head. I just want to make that clear for
most of the postseason, not against the Knicks specifically, but like when you
go back to that Buck series, it matters having the best player in what
could be any given series, and the Knicks as currently constructed, are never
going to have that. In most of the playoff series they go into,
they are not going to have the best player. There's an argument to be
made that in a lot of series they're not even gonna have the second best
player because you're dealing with number two. Is when it's you know, if
it's Yann, it's it's Drew or Chris Middleton. It's when it's the calve,
there's Mitchell and Garland and Mobley is coming if he's not here already.
Yeah, you just beat them. I get it. Like depth isn't going
to mean everything, especially when the Knicks have been getting destroyed on the bench
in this series too, and so you can't you need that top end reliability.
They don't have it. Jalen Brunton large I think he's played largely good
to great with the injury he's dealing with. Jalen bruns is not Jimmy Butler,
and so that's the player you're trying to find where you're in a situation
where I would say either Julius Randold's off the team or your number three option,
but Jalen Brunson is your number two. I think that's what Jalen Brunson
has shown this season, which is valuable information. He's capable of being a
number two. It still means that that he's a number two and so and
the other thing I'll just note here and I actually maybe I won't know it
because I guess I deleted the pays that I had it, so I'll come
back to it later. But yeah, that's just That's where I'm at with
the Knicks at this point. Is I think that I don't know that they've
shown us anything that their roster shouldn't already have suggested. And that's this team.
It's gonna have to happen via trade. Like they need a caps lock,
they need a caps lock superstar. They don't have one. Who do
you think because one of the I think I agree with what you said.
I think they need more shooters. They need a player that's better than anyone
they have. I think that's clear. Who do you think is the is
the I'll put it this way, who are the good path on this team?
Because that's another thing that I feel like has been exploited a little bit,
because you know, Randall is a very Randall can get assists, but
he's like kind of a mechanical I passed as a last resort. You know,
he's not making you know, the read ahead of the read very often,
and I really was struggling. You know. The Heat and the Calves
too, can do this to teams because they're good defenses. Like I think
we have to factor that into that. They've faced two really good defenses.
So whatever flaws you have, the Heat and the Calves are gonna you know,
expose and and that that's largely true. Certainly, certainly the heat have
done that. But like, who who would you view as a good passer
on the team like that? Because that's another way to work around the lack
of shooting, is you're just you get the ball moving, you create more
open shots, you create more high value shots. And when you know,
say Brunson gets doubled and has to get off the ball or whatever. Like
so, who would you say as a good passer And do they have enough?
And is that a viable workaround if you can't get a superstar? Does
that do anything for you? I think Jon Brunson's a very good passer.
I think he's hurt by his size for certain matchups that are going to limit
the types of pass where if he can't, I think he's a different sort
of passer if he's not able to get inside the arc and create havoc with
his just footwork and hesitations. And you need someone who's do you need a
better passor than Joyon Brunson? Ideally yes, but you need someone who's an
equal that's not Julius Randall. Maybe it's RJ. Barrett. At some point
talk about a player I flip flop like it's and you have guys who can
keep the ball moving. When you look at Josh Harper, it's just not
the same. They don't use Isaiah. You could say Isaiah Hartenstein's a really
good playmaker, it just doesn't work in that same way. I'm actually laughing
right now. Stephens stole so much Randall's option number nine. Maybe he should
be, but he's most certainly not so. But yeah, I think Brunson
is clearly. Would you even have a different answer to that response, No,
that's why it's Brunson. But I mentioned this all the time with someone
like Darius Garland. Is that I think Darius Island, if he was like
two inches taller, would just be unbelievable. But because he's so small,
I mean, you know, he's not tiny that we're not talking like Earl
Boykins out there, but it's like he is limited when he gets into the
lane, you know, or even just trying to throw over the top and
make skip passes like that is a low key just height is you know,
you look at Yokichen Lebron and some of these and Luca and all these guys
that can make every pass on the floor. Someone like Brunston just can't do
that, not because he doesn't see it, but because he just can't.
He just doesn't have the physical advantage to throw certain passes. I want.
I wanted to get this out there before I forget it, because I was,
you know, as the Knicks were just struggling and struggling to score.
Their affective field goal percentage during the year was fifty four percent. Not good.
That's twentieth in the league. It's forty nine percent in the playoffs.
And it's just like, when you take it just to circle all the way
back around, that's never gonna be good enough. And especially if you're playing
like break even in the possession game and especially on the offensive boards. That
it's just like, if there's a fatal stat for the Knicks in this in
these playoffs, that's that's just it. They just don't make they don't create
enough like high value shots, and they don't make the harder ones that they
do generate. That's it feels like that's the issue. And I also think
to like to change this to the other side of the floor. There's limitations
for them defensively as good as they can be on that, and I think
they've done a great job contesting Miami shooters a lot this series. But there
are two things that stand out of Look, I know some of like the
games, we are going to support that, but Miami the share of their
three pointers that are going contested during this series with a defender within two feet
so like our four feet excuse me, what's the it's the tightly contested is
insight? So within four feet? Yes, so, and that's including zero
to two feet two to four feet. They're taking the largest share of their
shots in those situations, and they're only shooting twenty two point two percent on
contested threes. But they know how to put the Knicks defense in rotation and
swing the ball around. And Jimmy Butler's excellent at that when he's seeing double
teams. And they just have smart players who are going to be able to
keep the ball moving or even when it's not Jimmy Butler, put the Knicks,
keep the Knicks in rotation. The Knicks are not quick enough in those
situations. And the other thing that they don't do a good job of,
and this is part I think of Tibbs's bass scheme, Like they're not a
team that's going to force turnovers. They're going to play a more conservative style
of defense that might get you through the regular season. But the Heat have
outscored the Knicks two to one in points off turnovers in this series, I
believe, unless I'm missing something like wild there, No, they have eighty
two points off turnovers through four games. The Knicks have forty one. That's
just like that's a personnel. I don't think the Knicks are I can't force
more turnovers. Yeah, great advice, Dan, they don't have the personnel
to do it. I want to make that clear. That's something else they
need to look at as well leading into the offseason. No, that's fair.
That's fair. Yeah, I mean I feel like you tried to get
there, and we should do this more. We should just be praising the
Heat as much as we're sort of trying to like figure out what's what the
Knicks are doing wrong, because a lot of it is just the Heat are
good. They're on an absolute run right now where they're just not the same
team as they were during the year, and that's all part of it.
But like it's just, you know, we probably ought to be talking about
the Knicks and to the similar extent, the Warriors. Like while we can
because there's a good chance that the heat and Lakers will have will give us
more opportunities to discuss them. Yeah, they're like, look, there's gonna
be an Eastern Conference Finals preview that consists a lot of the heat, and
the next pot will probably have like the Knicks off season like funeral, Like
what do we call that off season of top seat? I will say,
has anything about the heat really stood out to you? Like through this year?
I'm just I continue to marvel at like the one Duncan Robinson not shooting
them all from three in this series. The Knicks are still terrified of him.
They're just still And first of all, he's dribble more than I've ever
seen him ever. And I'll get to it. We have a couple comments.
I'll try and get to those afterwards. The supporting kept Kyle Lowry has
been big, like just making huge defensive plays and oh, he's hitting his
threes in this series. Even Gabe vinsit like he's not shooting well in this
series. I thought he's fought on defense, he's been ultraed. His aggression
on offense, I think matters, especially when you don't have Tyler hero or
for that matter of Victor Ladipo available to you. I think Bam has been
able to ratchet it up at points offensively as well, and this has nothing
to do with how well he's done defensively. And I think a lot of
the times he has thrown Julius Randall either like getting the ball out of his
hands or just kind of taking away a lot of his bread and butter.
Kayla Martin just again he I want to make the heat. Are not shooting
well from three this series. They're just winning the three point battle by twenty
seven points over four games. Like that's big, in addition to winning the
turnover battle, in addition to winning the second chance points battle. Yeah,
which is it's by a hair forty nine to forty eight. That still fucking
matters because that's supposed to be the nixt thing. They're winning the transition battle
again thirty seven thirty flour This isn't a transition like series really, but like
they're winning almost every single margin and so thoroughly, and I'm just I remain
astounded by Jimmy Butler, who, by the way, is not hitting his
threes either, which is weird because it's the playoffs right now and to be
fair, he's only taking to a game in the series, but that's like,
what is that quadruple what he took in the regular season. I'm just
there's are we going to trick ourselves into thinking that there's more depth to this
heat roster leading into the off season and they're actually because like you're looking,
And the other thing is, I'm not trying to scale too far ahead.
Like Max Strus and Gabe Vincent are free agents this summer. It's just like,
what do you sort of do here? But they've I think the thing
that it stood out more than anything to me is that I don't want to
say experience matters, but like we've seen most of these role players come up
big in the playoffs before, specifically for in Miami, with the exception to
maybe Kyle Lowry, but he's done it everywhere else. He's been Toronto excuse
me, Like they've they're playing at a level where, yeah, I know
that he's shooting kind of picked up after the All Star break, that's not
that's not what's winning them this series. They're just a really they're supporting cast
right now is deeper than it was in the regular season, and the only
difference is you've thrown Kevin Love in there, who's not been great this series
necessarily either. But oh also like you don't have Tyler Hero Victor La Deepo
anymore to play that card. And so it's I'm just I cannot measure how
impressed I am with not just what Jimmy Butler has done during these playoffs,
the second best player, maybe a third best behind your kitchen Devin Booker.
Devin Booker has been the clear one to me, but like, my god,
and so it's I don't think it's a an insult to the it's an
indictment of the Knicks that they lose to the Heat, but like, this
is not a team that you need to be embarrassed to actually lose by No,
I think you just shouldn't be able to play Cody Zeller and Haywood Highsmith
and like, honestly even guys like Vincent and Struce who didn't have good seasons,
but to your point, they have contributed in big ways to teams that
have made conference finals and finals, and like that's you know that that clearly
matters, But it seems I don't have any you know, number for it
or whatever, and Julius Randall kind of talked about it about like they want
it more and we try to stay away from that kind of analysis. But
like when you watch the heat play, especially in contrast to the Knicks,
it sort of feels like everybody that that you know, takes the floor is
just empowered and understands what they're supposed to do and they just do it at
one hundred percent. And if you do that for an entire game, it
doesn't really matter who's out there. So you know, Robinson can be missing
threes, he's still going to shoot him and the Knicks are going to treat
him like he's making fifty percent of him. Struce and Vincent have just never
seen, you know, a tough shot that needs to be taken that they
wouldn't take, and Butler just sort of is the organizing principle and at all,
I just I don't know what it is. It feels like a hash
aghat culture thing where it's just like that's real. They just they're willing to
compete harder. I think spolstru Gets deserves immense amounts of credit for somehow losing
I mean, heroes no worse than the third best offensive player on that team,
depending on what you think about Bam probably the second best just pure offensive
player and still finding ways to score. Just like they'll put the ball in
BAM's hands as like as like a last resort something not a last resort,
but like when things aren't working, they just give him the ball and it
pulls either Brook Lopez or Mitchell Robinson out. They shouldn't have all these adjustments
they can make. They shouldn't be able to get away with playing some of
the guys they play, and they just they just are because they're always defending.
They make just enough shots and they're winning the possession battle, which against
the Knicks is like, like you said, a break even possession battle thing
for the Knicks is a massive loss because they have to win it handily,
especially with second chance opportunities, and they the heat are just I mean,
I don't know, like I haven't thought at all far ahead about the conference
finals, but it's like, how do you even how do you even evaluate
the heat as like, well, these are the areas that say the Sixers
or Celtics will need to pick at, These are the frailties, this is
where they It's just like it doesn't matter sometimes it feels like for the Heat
because they just they just I don't know that there's some unquantifiable something that they
flipped on. But also by the way they lost the first playing game,
like and we thought one of the worst offensive basketball we've ever seen this team
as a joke, how are they gonna like go forward with this core?
It's so expensive, and like they weren't great in the second playing game,
and then they just beat the Bucks and they're gonna beat the Knicks, and
it's like this was so close to just not happening. And I think,
above all else, it's a really good reminder that like the fate of a
franchise can swing on like one game, because the Heat by all rights,
probably should not be here, and they're probably gonna play a third postseason series,
you know, in a couple of days. It's kind of wild before
we get onto Dubs Lakers. Stephan says in the chat, this series makes
me feel worse about the Calves d Mitch joining his bro Rudy and getting sweeped.
I don't feel worse about the Cat. We already talked about this.
I just can't. There are concerns, but Cores just so young and talented.
I think they underachieved relative to their regular season, but I can't bring
myself to be overly concerned about No, not really. I think, yeah,
I don't feel any worse than I did. You know immediately after they
lost that series. They have a bright future. Still, what is your
biggest overarching batch of thoughts feeding into Warriors Lakers about what we've seen, what
we're going to see. Let it, let it all out, we've done
the next narsist. I don't feel any better, just for the record,
but let it all out. No, I think I want to start kind
of micro and credit the Lakers a little bit, honestly, because so Game
four, there was all there are all these rumblings ahead of time that Gary
Payton was going to start again and that you know, there's there was the
Warriors felt good about like some of the adjustments they were going to make,
and the suggestion I think by Marcus Thompson was that they might just not set
screens and bring Anthony Davison into the play and Curry was gonna have to beat
guys in isolation. That's like they're the last tier down of like they want
to play the beautiful game. And then when that doesn't work, they run
a bunch of pick and rolls with Steph and then when that doesn't work,
they either switched who's guarding the screener or they just get rid of the screen
altogether. And they were down to kind of the last step. The issue
was, it was the pick and roll was working great with Peyton as the
role guy and bringing Davis out to have to you know, be away from
the basket. But credit the Lakers because in the second half they put Davis
on Andrew Wiggins. And Andrew Wiggins can do almost everything exceptionally well on a
basketball court except make a decision on the move, and so when you wanted
to bring Davis up into the screening action because he was guarding Wiggins, Wiggins
as a screen and roll guy is like a non starter. That's just not
something he ever does. It's not something he's good at. And that completely
short circuited one of the best sources of offense the Warriors had against the Lakers
in this entire series. They couldn't run that pick and roll anymore because Wiggins
doesn't know how to do that and he's not good at it. So credit
the Lakers for just making the right adjustment, and then like we can get
into the Warriors self sabotage and particularly Jordan Poole looking very often like he's out
there trying to do the wrong thing, just repeatedly on both ends. Like
I was joking with some friends on a text chain, like and if if
Jordan Poole were trying to lose games for the Warriors, how different would it
look from what he's actually been doing in this series Because all of these drives
into traffic, all this over dribbling, all the non competitive defensive possessions,
like it's it borders on sabotage. I'm not saying that's what's happening obviously,
but like it's almost indistinguishable from it. And that's why the Warriors went totally
away from him in the second half. You can't play him, They can't
play him. And so if you've already decided, well we really can't.
We're not going to play Jonathan Cominga. We don't like to play with two
bigs. Dante di Vincenzo has like one decent offensive game every three or four,
and then that just leaves us with like three or four guys that we
can trust, and that doesn't give you enough adjustments. It doesn't give you
enough variety. It puts way too much of an onus on Steph Curry.
So that's why at the end of this last game, even though the Warriors
kind of kicked it away with bad shot selection turnovers down the stretch of the
game, that leaves me thinking, like, I don't know what the fix
is now, just because there's not like a guy you can pull off the
bench that's going to give you a new dimension. You can't play Steph forty
eight minutes because I think again I'm rambling, But part of the is all
connected. Part of the reason that he took such those two terrible threes in
isolation against Anthony Davis the end of the game is because he couldn't get by
him. I think he was tired because he just has to do everything if
you don't play Jordan Pool more than like ten minutes. So I'm struggling other
than like make more shots, try harder, you know, to find the
adjustment that swings this series. You know, maybe the Warriors get I think
the Warriors are pretty significant favorites coming back home for Game five, but it's
just, you know, they could easily lose this game just because their best
players are worn down and there aren't a lot of fixes for this, so
I haven't given I guess i'd throw to you, like if choose between the
way the Lakers have defended the Warriors, self inflicted wounds, pools, sabotage,
like what jumps out to you, like what is the most interesting angle
from this series so far? And you can even zoom it out, like
we can even go into like not a full post mortem, but kind of
like what do you do from here? Assuming the Warriors don't come back from
this three one hole? I don't know yet, so I've rambled for several
minutes, but that's kind of my take on it. I don't know what
the fix is. You shouldn't count this team out because they've been so good
for so long, but it's just difficult to sort of envision, like what
turning this series around even looks like? Yeah, and we don't need to
get into the actual post mortem, although I we are going to close this
segment with a humdinger of a question. I get to ask you because I
just something stumbled across my I found it on Twitter that you're gonna I think
you're gonna love it okay, But so what stands out to me most is
a lot of it's done with the Lakers have been like superficty on defense.
Even I thought so A d had a good even number of game, which
is great, that was huge, but like he wasn't his best defensive self
like you would was Dennis Shrewder their best defensive player in Game four lay like
he was up there. And I'm just looking at the Lakers and their ability
to sort of just like win ugly where they're not going to have like the
prettiest shot profile or shooting slashes. And then yeah, Deangel Russell has been
good this series, but he's not even playing during crunch time. Which aside,
Rob Plinka is getting all this credit for what he did at the trade
deadline. I do think he deserves some credit, but Rui Hachimura, which
happened before the trade deadline, D'Angel Russell, Jared Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley
who's just disappeared from rotation, All four of those guys unless I was like,
we're not playing during crunch time for the Lakers in Game four, which
does when we if we ever have to talk about the Lakers off season which
I guess we were at some point. I do. It makes you want
to like, are they more likely to go in the cap space route than
we thought? Totally unrelated, but Lebron definitely been picking and choosing his spots
in the series on offense when he's able to get downhill. The Warriors just
still have no answers when the Lakers have, like, yeah, if Deangel
Russell is making making shots, if if he Davis has like the mid range
going, or the Lakers were able to get him in motion before he gets
the ball, the Warriors have had like a tough time stopping It seems like
stopping those plays for the Warriors specifically what stands out to me, And I
think people are using what happened in Game four as proof that the Steph Curry
on ball concept has its limitations, and in theory it does. But this
isn't about when you call for Steff getting the Baltimore's not we need forty eight
minutes of Steph has to create everything out of nothing, which is not when
we saw but they had to lean on it. It felt like more unless
I'm wrong, I need to look at like his possession allocation data, which
I did not because I just these are two series that I think are just
done quite frankly up there. It's a fundamental failure on the Warriors part because
they did not identify this properly and Jordan Pool's part, because he's supposed to
be this player. When you have no outlet, there's no one who can
help you navigate the non Steff minutes, let alone as wage the on ball
burden. When he's on the court right now in the playoffs, Draymond Green
like, yeah, we know what he can do when he's kind of like
has space to work with or he's coming out of the short role, like
slowing things down, generating shots out of nothing. That's never been him,
That's never been Clay. It was supposed to be Pool, and like now
they're kind of hoping, Oh, is it Devincenzo or is it Wiggins?
And it's like you could talk about being disappointed in some of those players offensively,
but like that's not supposed to be their job. And I know Jordan
Pool is injured, he's not been injured all year and he has not been
that player all year, And you know what the it's not funny, Well
it's a little funny he's never actually been that player. It's never just been
someone who can spearhead the ship independent of Steph Curry. It's not that you've
always had to win in spite of him. He's a great offensive talent.
He's a better finisher even when he's out of control. Sometimes I think people
realize. I don't like when people are belittingly him saying he's not an NBA
player. He sucks, he sucks, he's up. But you miss identified.
And we've been on this on the podcast or at least like if we're
gonna do I have, you've missed identified what he is supposed to be,
and now you've committed one hundred and twenty three guaranteed million dollars to him.
And I don't know what the path forward is. Well, we don't even
need to get into that, but I don't know how you win. Do
I expect him to win Game five? I do, but like to win
three straight kind of would run counter to everything we've seen this season, where
we're just waiting constantly for the Warriors to rattle off that stretch of dominance to
prove that they're a Italics text title contender and Pools struggles Pools let down has
been the thing that stands out the most to me. But also like,
yeah, Clay has to be culpable here too, Like his shot has not
been falling at a clip that you need it to fall. And I come
away from this thinking to put a bow on this. All those times we
made jokes about Steph not having enough help, we have now reached the point
and I think we've been there for some time where they've just not surrounded Steph
with enough help. And it look they were working within certain financial strictures relative
to their roster building. You could say they should have kept Otto Porter Junior.
Look wid his season turned into they pay in the second back and he's
been semi important to them when he's not vomiting on the court. So I
just I don't have any material answers, but it does not feel I'd be
with you in saying I would be pretty floored if this is a team that
just rattles off three straight victories, I would too. And Stefan Stoit says,
let Pool cook at home. It needs crowd support. I mean,
like that'll help. Got role players tend to play better at home. The
Warriors, certainly we've seen all season, play better at home. But I
want to talk I want to talk more about Pool because I think so the
real one of the real issues with him. Forget the defense, Like I
don't know, I don't know if I've ever seen a player do more things
defensively on a basketball court that just like he's like inventing ways to be bad
defensively, like these weird gambles, these like seeking contact and strange places,
Like if you watch enough basketball, you start to just recognize patterns and guys
move kind of the same way. And if these players engage on this spot
on the floor and this is the action, there's like expected sequences of movement,
and his are just all different and weird and like just non competitive half
the time. So let's leave that. The role he's supposed to play offensively,
and you were talking about it is super important because he's the only guy
in theory that can heat up on his own, generate shots for others,
kind of build a transition attack out of nothing. And I think if you
want to be charitable to him, you would say he's looking around at the
guys he's out on the floor with a lot of the time and thinking like
these guys are gonna have shit, Like, if we're gonna score, it's
gonna have to be me doing something spectacular. And I think it got a
lot of positive reinforcement with that last season, albeit in a little scale back
way where he just like the contributions he made offensively were really difficult shot making,
you know, penetrating acrobatic finishes, just you know, highlight level offense.
And it looks like he's been hunting that type of thing all season and
when he's not, and so he's just trying to do too much, he's
sped up. Whatever cliches you want to use, like that is very clearly
what's happening, where he's just trying to get it all himself, which I
think is sort of understandable because no one else can do it. Here's the
problem with that is Pool has always been better sort of as when he does
trust other guys that don't have a bunch of offensive skills and gets off the
ball and maybe relocates for an open shot or just plays within some semblance of
an offensive system that has a little bit of organization and passing in whatever,
when he's part of like the controlled chaos instead of this like I've used this
sort of I don't know way to explain it before. If he's part of
the chaos, he's really awesome. But if he's the guy like operating alone
as chaos by himself, it's terrible. Like it's turnover, it's falling down
all the time, it's driving into traffic, it's like hopeless finish finish attempts
against big guys that just it's just not gonna work. So like, I
understand why he's trying to do too much, but it's also we've just seen
evidence last season of if you just trust the rest of the guys you're playing
with a little bit, things get easier for everybody, and maybe those minutes
aren't just catastrophically bad, which they have been. So I think most of
it's on him, except that, like his teammate did punch him to start
the year. I know, it's like we've talked about it to death,
but it's hard for me to divorce some of the disinterests, some of the
frustration. You see him like, you know, grousing when he gets pulled
off the floor and goes to the bench, Like, it's hard for me
to divorce that entirely from what happened in preseason, and like, honestly,
some of it's understandable, Like there may have been like a real breach of
trust and a real just you know, a line crossed whatever. That that's
just what this is. Like, He's like, fuck it, I'm not
a part of this team the way I used to be. I just can't
summon the commitment to play the way that the coach is asking me to and
that my teammates need me to. I'm out like that. That really does
feel like a plausible explanation for a lot of what's happening. Yeah, there
could be a human element to all of this, That's what I mean.
There is a human element, Like and I think, you know, if
you want to really go down the rabbit hole, there's maybe a trickle down
effect that is impacting guys like Jonathan Cominga, who I gotta believe is not
playing because of his attitude or his frustration or the way he's going about his
business in reaction to not getting the same role he had last year. Because
if you're telling me, Steve Kerr is going to Jamichael Green as like a
fix, and it's because he can base the floor a little bit he's got
enough size. Like, I'm sorry, Ja, Michael Green is not gonna
swing a series because he's gonna make five threes a game or whatever it is.
He's had minimal impacts a couple different times. I just refused to believe
kaminga if left wide open, wouldn't also make like a decent number of threes.
And then also add athleticism, defense, rebounding, hustle, like that's
a card that a team would have played by now unless there were something else
going on, And so I would be willing to bet when this is over
there will be reports coming out about you know, and the Steph Curry speech
I think alluded to them. You know, he was talking to a lot
of the guys that imagine, by the way, getting scolded by Steph Curry
of all people, because that's just not his brand. We have guys who
were signed in Jamichael Green to bolster the back end of the rotation, and
youngsters who have not proven enough to be a part frankly of either timeline,
who are lower maintenance than one of the ten greatest basketball players of all time
still in his fucking prime. Right, that's wild shit? Yeah, No,
so that that's just I just think there's gonna be stuff that comes out
and it's not going to reflect well on Cominga or Pool or even know whoever
else. I think Devincenzo even got lumped into their speculatively as someone that was
not happy with his role. But it's like, you know, Moses Moody's
playing, and he wasn't playing much during the season, and he's actually been
okay, Like he I think, I think they need better than okay,
but but he, I think is probably the guy that has accepted his role
better than some of the other lesser used players, especially the young guys.
And so yeah, I don't know. It's just this all goes all the
way back to the same thing we both said, which is like, I'm
not sure what success looks like for the Warriors in this series. But last
thing I'll say is we're having a very different conversation if Lonnie Walker doesn't lose
his fucking mind for the whole fourth quarter and win a playoff game basically by
himself. So that was so fun. Maybe maybe not okay good I was
missing, maybe not for you, but that was just incredible just doing all
his damage. And then did you see the statuo that he has twenty seven
points over his last two games, and Clay and pool of combined for twenty
nine over their last two. I mean, and he was in tough shots
like there was. Most of those were bad shots, just like you was
there. So yeah, credits to him for sure, goods Like he's kind
of I don't know why, I just like I root for him. I
like I've always kind of liked him. I miss his hair. I will
say I do miss his hair. But we're having a very different conversation if
he has like six points instead of whatever it was fourteen in the fourth quarter.
So because you got you do look at this series and like to make
this more about we look, this is another instance we're talking about the team
that seems like they're about to get eliminated. But like some of the storylines
or subplots of this series should be okay. Jared Vanderbilt, just the Warriors
aren't guarding him from me on the arc. He's been taking them, he's
just not making them. Deangel Russell, I think he's shooting about thirty percent
from three in this series. Austin Reeves has been relatively quiet by Austin Reeves's
standards. Again, Lebron James even like it's taken him. He hasn't been
going, hasn't had his jumper going for most of the There's so Anthony Davis
sort of on and off, and really it was just he was only off
in in game two. But it's just like everything is so geared towards Is
there anything that you that stood out to you though about the Lakers aside from
Lonnie Walker going kaboom? That's that's just impressed you. I mean, the
adjustments have been one thing. I think Darvinham deserves credit. The Warriors are
not typically easy to scheme against. I also think it's just Anthony Davis that
this was gonna be an Anthony Davis series. Stephan Story says Warriors and Cors
scarys Wittel James Wiseman develops, Uh yeah, you know, wait all those
like what Gary Payton and those second round picks that they gave up with him
to I don't whatever. It's you know what, it's a bad sign that
when someone brings up Wiseman, I'm kind of like, maybe I do wish
he was still on the team. No, no, I know, I
know it's a bad sign of being irrational. But it's like, not for
the series, but just for like, well at least once this is over,
we'd have some like young players to follow when they tear the team down.
Well, I told you though, that Moses Moody would be the only
young star of the four, the core four youngsters contributing during a semi finals
playoff series. What would you have said if I told you that in October?
I would say, like what happened to the higher ceiling guys? But
I will say that Moody, like early on was he was never going to
be a star. But it's like he's long, he can theoretically defend and
make open threes, Like he's probably the guy that is the safest bet to
actually have some role. But the ceiling high floor, low ceiling for Moody.
But to get back to the Lakers, it's an I thought it was
gonna be an Anthony Davis series. I thought he was going to pose problems
the Warriors would really struggle to solve on both ends, and like that has
mostly been the case. If you don't want to look at it as the
Warriors are screwing this up there, you know all the self inflicted stuff.
You got to look at it as like, yeah, Davis has just just
been really good, and he's been really good in a way that the Warriors
have struggled to handle. So yeah, I don't know. I mean,
Lebron has picked his spots. I feel like Russell has shot it poorly overall,
like you said, but he's had some timely stretches where you know,
two or three three's in a row, or like hitting a couple of pull
ups and just when the Lakers have needed it. I don't know if timely
shooting is really a thing, because you know, points scored at different points
of the game like count the same. But you know, he's been I
wouldn't say Russell has been bad. They're certainly not like exploiting him defensively like
I thought maybe the Warriors might. So yeah, I just think I've been
impressed. I've been impressed with the Lakers. The other thing that's happened is
both their best players have kind of held up. That was a big thing
going into this was can Davison Lebron play at a high enough level for long
enough to compete? Like answer yes for sure. How big was it that
they didn't need to log a ship ton of minutes in Game three. Yeah,
the blowout was huge, was huge. So now it's like, now
they only need to have one more good game basically because they can. You
know, you don't want to let this get to seven if you're the Lakers,
but you know, you could lose a game and play these guys twenty
minutes or whatever and you still got a great chance to win. I don't
know what the odds are. I imagine the Warriors are, like, you
know, I put it at like fifteen to twenty percent to win the series,
which feels high. So the Lakers just, you know, the biggest
issue, the more I talk about it, was can those two guys stay
healthy and not have a bunch of duds sprinkled in with you know, transcending
games and other than one game for Davis, he's been awesome, So I
mean maybe it's that simple, right, Yeah. The biggest hat out for
me, I think has actually been shrewder where I think we went to the
series talking about, oh is Reeves going to defend a bunch of Steph Curry
is Vanderbilt and they have I mean Reeves only recently. The Dubs are averaging
one point zero four points per possession as a team. When Dennis Shrewder guards
Steph Curry, that's that's low. Yeah, that's just he's even when he
doesn't have a shot going like, yeah, he can put, he can
scramble defenses when he gets going downhill. But even when he's not scoring,
he's been someone who is just hey, he needs he needs to play.
Yeah, do you I find myself watching Shrewder defend and hustle and like do
all the role player stuff now that he never really did, like with Atlanta
for example, And I find myself wondering, like, how could this guy
have been like an All Star a couple of times if he had this approach
when he had, you know, just more rope as an offensive player and
probably was a better athlete than you know, earlier in his career, like
he the way he's playing now, if he had approached like his career as
a kind of like a kind of first option ish, you know, anyway,
high end starter offensively like he could have, it feels like a little
bit of a missed opportunity for him. Good for him now, but it
makes me wonder what could have been. I can't say I thought even a
little bit about that but it is a is a great point to wrap up
this series. Is there any are there any buttons Golden State has left to
push here? Like what are you looking at? Like see from them in
game five or potentially beyond. Yeah, I mean it's nothing, nothing new.
It's they've they've tried all. You know, they're you know, their
triage system of offensive approaches. They're down to the kind of the last one.
I think unless the Lakers put Davis on someone that can make a decision
as a role guy, the Warriors will struggle to score. I don't think
Curry isolating without a screen is viable, especially late in a series where he's
shouldered a huge load. So you know, it may just be as simple
as they don't turn the ball over a ton and you know they're they get
decent shooting nights from Clay and Wiggins, but it's not like I don't think
there's a tweak left, whether it's rotation or tactically that sort of you know,
unlocks things like saying like in Game four against the Celtics in the finals
last year, I don't I don't you know, maybe this is the greatest
reverse jinks of all time and they're going to come up with something, but
I don't know what that is other than, you know, shoot better and
maybe get a half decent effort from from Pool and Clay you know, runs
hot. That's that's kind of it for me, I don't you know,
and asking that for three games in a row. Their margin fair has never
been big this season, so it's tough for me. Do you have anything
like are we we grasping at? I have, look, so I have
a question to propose to because it's who says no. Colm Cowherd proposed this
trade. Warriors receive Jawen Brown and Malcolm Brogden. The Celtics receive Jordan Poole
and Andrew Wiggins. Hmmm, I mean I do that if I'm the Warriors,
I think right right, it's like, are the Celtics involved in these
negotiations at all? Like what would be that? Why? Why? I
mean, I guess the concern is Wiggins contract is probably really favorable going forward,
and Brown You're gonna have to pay a ton but like, okay,
there's pool of money. There's a chance. I don't say this lightly.
This might be if this is a serious trade off, it might be one
of the worst proposals of all time, and you know what this is how
you know I can't be trusted as I had to think about it because when
you were trudging your face, I was like, is he being performative for
the camera? I hope no. I was just kind of like, Okay,
well know I really do like Wiggins, but no, yeah, that's
a no brainer. You know who I've been thinking about because you got to
start thinking about Pool trades right for the off season, and like, I
have no concept of what his value is going to be because it's well,
it's probably never been lower, just because he's now, he's paid, and
he's just turning in one of the worst playoffs we've seen in a while.
But like Orlando needs a guard. Can we get Can we just take back
Jonathan Isaac, like human, human injury risk Jonathan Isaac for Jordan Pool and
just call it good? Can we can we do that? And then you
have, you know, incredibly high risk, high reward potential, all defensive
guy to eventually supplant Draymond. Like I don't know, this is where I'm
at now. I'm trying to get Jonathan Isaac for Jordan Pool, and I'm
not sure it can happen. It's good. I think the Warriors do need
more conservative authors in their their locker room. That's definitely yeah. Are you
ready to take us out on that. I'm sure you're a little bit rattled.
I'm just I am very rattled by what we just decided Devin Booker where
he belongs in the NBA hierarchy. Everybody, Thanks for listening, Thanks for
your comments. What's up? What's up Brent? We didn't say hi,
he's been commenting. Please. As Dan mentioned at the top, remember to
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and let's see. Uh, tell your friends, tell your enemies. We
always forget to do that. I will take us out with a shout out
to Frank Nilikina. But as you mentioned, I don't know who else to
apologize to because Mitchell Robinson has not been as great. So I'm gonna go
back at least for today to issuing an apology to Jaredell