All right, welcome to the latest episode of Hardwood Notts as we fight through
some technical difficulties here with the Nets Bucks game in progress as we record.
It is forty four forty two in the Bucks favor as we start. But
we are not going to be talking about that game so much as all the
questions that have been submitted via Twitter, direct message and hopefully in this chat
as well. And we also have Dan is queued up and ready to go
with a Nikola Yoki's rant. Do you want to just jump straight into that,
Dan? Yeah? And again, well, we'll prioritize everyone who's stuck
with us because we have a ton of questions, but anyone who has questions
in the room or speaker requests, we will prioritize all of you because you
are troopers and we heart you infinitely. Okay, So before we get to
these questions, we're gonna lose their second round playoff series to the Phoenix Suns.
I'm not dating this podcast by saying, Matt before we see game four.
It's just they're they're not going to win this series. And there was
discourse. I listened to a few podcasts, some from people I respect,
and they weren't trolling. I saw the discourse on Twitter, so I don't
think I'm fighting against phantoms here. Maybe I saw the wrong people on Twitter.
There is this logic of thought that it is harder to build the championship
team around NICOLEA. Yokich than it would be certain other players because he's not
an elite defender. Now I'm calling bullshit. We go through this every year.
When a start gets eliminated earlier in the playoffs, day makes it harder
on his team to defend. Rudy Gobert makes it harder on his team because
he's not a number one option on offense. NBA superstar does not exist.
There are challenges with everybody. There are challenges with Luka Doncic. He's I
think he's gotten better on defense. He could probably switch with him more,
but it's gonna be hard to build a defense around him, and he still
needs into their shock creator. It was the same thing with James Harden.
It's the same thing with Lebron James Anthony Davis basically turned into the best three
and D wing we've ever seen during the NBA playoffs last year and the Lakers
won the championship. I get Nicole Yokich is not a good You know the
discourse can be. How good is nicolea Yokich? On defense? Do you
want him as your backline rim protector. I think you're gonna get screwed over
and over again. You want to be more aggressive. He has great hands,
he's like kind of quick. But even if he's not quick, the
hands will help you maybe be more aggressive. Can you get some help rim
protection coming from the weak side if he gets beat there are things you can
do there. It's the personnel around him. You're gonna have to tailor it
better. I think we would run into this issue had they had Jamal Murray,
had they had PJ. Dojer And that's okay, Like I don't think
the Nuggets have screwed up. They went after Aaron Gordon and he helps a
ton on defense for them in the longer view. But you look at let's
look at the Phoenix Suns. Like they have Jay Crowder, they have mckel
Bridges, they have Tory Craig, and they have like a big and DeAndre
Ayton who's perfectly built to defend an Anthony Davis type player or as we've seen
against like a Yoki type guy, because these aren't these guys that are going
to carve him up necessarily in the you know, the pick and roll dives,
like he's better suited to go against I don't want to say stationary bigs,
but like, if you're not going to get them in a ton of
screening action, DeAndre Atan is better suited to defend that. And so my
whole thing is, yeah, Nicola Yoka gives you challenges. There's maybe what
one like prime Lebron James didn't give you challenges, And I just I don't
understand this need to think that there's not like stipulations for every superstar that we
have in today's game, like name the superstar Adam, that there wouldn't be
stipulations that you need to build a specific team around. And I'm not exactly
and I don't want to say the Nuggets have failed because I think, you
know, it's important that teams like them are so good because they're in small,
non glamour markets, let's call them whatever, and I want them to
be good. It's good for the NBA that they're good. But we sort
of go through this with Rudy Gobert. Do I think Nicola Yoka is better
than Rudy Gobert. Yes, by a substantial margin. And I'm always going
to favor the person who creates more on offense. That doesn't mean that Rudy
Gobert was not a top fifteen player in the NBA this year, because you
better believe that he was when you look at the defensive value that he provided.
He's a defense unto himself. And you know what. To build a
championship team around Rudy Gobert, you need a Donovan Mitchell. You need other
guys who are gonna make three pointers that can handle the ball because he can't
do it. Because there's not a single damn player in the NBA that can
do all these things at once. And it's just mind melting to me that
we have to look at a top five, top seven, top ten guy
whatever, Nakol Yoka just at this point and think, oh, it's too
hard to build a championship team around him. No, there's just a very
specific way you have to go about it. Some teams have gotten luckier or
maybe gone about it better than dever, if you wanted to say, but
can we also just look at the fact that, okay, we don't none
of us think that Portland was a contender, right, It's just beat Portland
without Will Barton, without Jamal Murray and p J. Dooser would have been
important in that series. I think for the defense he could have provided against
Portland's backcourt weapons. You were missing two of your top six players, though,
and you still beat them because Nikola Yokai is a monster. And like,
let's look at what about if Michael Porter Junior's not dealing with back issues
right now? Are they down three zero about to get kicked out of the
second round by the Suns. I don't know. I would have picked the
Suns anyway if the Nuggets were at full strength, full disclosure. That doesn't
mean that you can't build a title team around Nicole Yokich. And I know
Robert in the chat says Nate Duncan is the worst about this. He stubbornly
refuses to change his opinion about Yokis from four years ago and finds every opportunity
to cloud on him disrespect him, which is a shame because I enjoy his
work for the most part. Otherwise, I enjoyed Nate Duncan's work too.
I actually did not hear any of the latest Nicole Yokish stuff, if there's
been that. But sometimes teams are just not as good as other teams,
and it happens like that is I think I can't remember who said this thing.
Was Kaitlyn Cooper on Twitter might have just said that sometimes there are teams
that you can't adjust because they're just worse than the other teams. It was
either her or set part Now or both. And there were a bunch of
other people that had level headed takes that didn't go as viral as the stupid
ass takes because we have to live off this like inflammatory commentary. Now,
I just like we have reached and this isn't a Nicola Yokis thing. I've
heard it with Luca don Chich. I get there's flaws there, but like
you have to go about like look at James harn Kevin Durant, a Kyrie
Irving. It might be easier in theory to build the title team around any
one of them, all three of them teamed up, because that's the league
today, Like you need a ton of shot creators, and if Brooklyn loses,
we're gonna have questions about, oh, they have enough defenders around them,
Like this is just I just I can't. And it's even with Jannis
and the Bucks. There's I think there's a real discourse about Yiannis when they're
talking about, hey, you have to trade Chris Middleton or something if the
Bucks lose now, and like I kind of get it, But if you
can't win, come out of the East with Chris Middleton and Drew Holliday,
who again, they've they've been iffy, both of them at differ points during
the playoffs, but so is Jannis. And if you can't win, get
out of the East with those three guys, and Drew and Chris Middleton as
you're, you know, two a tow b however you want to staff them.
Maybe the problem is Jannis at that point. And I love Jannis,
but like the shooting is an issue. Stop taking those shots. Be better.
You have to figure out the free throw line stuff, take few or
threes or figure out the three point shooting stuff. I think it's important there's
volume there. As I've said, because the volume itself is kind of a
counter I've compared it to Marcus Smart, where I do think defense has changed
the way they go at you. If you're taking those shots with Yannis,
they don't because they're just not going in. And I think Yannis is a
top five player in the NBA. I actually had him a top my MVP
ladder at one point this season. I'm not I'm just pointing out that like
so warped where it's like, well, how come it's Nicole Yoka just fall
nugget. It's harder to build a championship team around him. But the response
in Milwaukee to Yannis struggling is, oh, hey, we got a trade
now, Chris Middleton's gotta go on the trade block. I do not get.
I am just it takes a lot for me to get triggered nowadays,
but this triggered me. I think so much of this as the result of
the pervasive rings culture, where so much of an MBA legacy is determined by
how many championships a player has won, for better or for worse, and
in this case, I think it's very much for worse because it means that
every team that didn't win a title failed and I just I don't think that
is an accurate way to look at what transpires during any given basketball season.
No, we set it with the Knicks, where even though they got blown
out of the first round of the playoffs by the Hawks. This was a
massively successful season, albeit one that has a bunch of unanswered questions for the
future going. But it was a massively successful season the Nuggets. You know,
anyone who mentions their struggles in the second round without saying the words Jamal
Murray, which seems to be happening pretty frequently, that's not a fair analysis
of the season that this team had. The Golden State Warriors had a good
season given everything that was thrown their way, because Steph carried them into the
play and tournament, even if they didn't advance into one of the actual playoff
rounds. You know, you can look at team after team that way,
but we don't because as soon as they're eliminated from the postseason field, there's
this immediate urge to run and analyze how it could have been fixed and how
it could have been better. Sometimes it couldn't have been better, and that
doesn't get said enough. So I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said. I
don't think that there's a single player in the NBA where you can just put
him there and no matter what is around him. Yeah, they're going to
be a contender. Every single top player is going to have a weakness that
needs to be accounted for, whether it's Steph's lack of defensive game changing ability
and you need to put wing defenders around him while also still making sure that
defenses can't totally collapse towards him, or Lebron James needing Anthony Davis as a
running mate to win a title at this more advanced stage of his career,
or Yokich not being a great primary rim defender for as a defensive centerpiece.
You know, every single player, Jannis is probably the best example where I
think that he of those superstars, regardless of where he might fall in the
pecking order, does have the biggest flaw that really needs to be accounted for
and makes it more difficult to build a championship caliber team around him, and
the Bucks are still doing their darnedist to account for that. I do think
that this is a good segue into the first mail bag question, which is
actually one I submitted because it really does tied directly into this. For those
who aren't familiar with the Crystal Basketball project that we've been doing for four years
now at NBA Math, we're ranking before the season starts, we rank every
single player on a one to twelve scale based on our expectations going into the
season. After this season is over, we do a retroactive analysis on that
same one through twelve scale, ce who rose Cy, who fell, And
it's basically just grouping players into tiers. So once you get up into those
top ones, nine is supposed to be an all NBA caliber player, ten
is a lesser MVP candidate, eleven is an MVP frontrunner, and each person
voting on these ballots can only submit one twelve, which is their designated best
player in the league. In each of the past three years that we've done
this, it felt like there were one or two options you could go with
the MVP from that season. You could go with Lebron James because he was
able to hit that higher gear during the playoffs and reassert himself as probably the
best player in the league. This year feels different to me, where it's
like you can throw a name of like seven or eight players at me and
I'm totally fine with handing that twelve to them. So my question, Dan,
was, who is your twelve this year? Granted there's still there's still
time for that to change based on what happens in the postseason, but it's
Steph already. That's not going to change. I'm trying to think, you
know, the other aspect of this that goes into what we're talking about too,
is availability, and so you could talk me into Kevin Durant the way
that he's played, or even a Kawhi Leonard, like there's a switch defensive
switch, though with Kawhi Leonard there's even an offensive switch with him, I
feel sometimes. But anyway, I think it's it's death for me right now.
I'm not sure who left in the playoffs could change that. If you
told me Joel Embiid would play in sixty eight games of eighty two next year,
I might pick Joel Embiid. They would all be in the conversation.
Lebron's not out of it for me. We had a very long debate about
that a few podcasts ago. So but right now, it's just looking at
Steph. I think he's kind of the right mix of you don't like this
huge defensive liability, and I think his size sort of helps there at the
guard position. But when you look at how nuclears and go on offense,
and he is, you know, Zach Lewis said this about Kevin Durant,
but I do think Stephan Curry is to a certain extent. He amplifies every
single star that he's ever played with, and so he's It's not always easy
to take superstars plugged them together. I can't. I get Kevin Durant is
one of those guys for sure, but I think Steph is just you take
him and just the way he can move off the ball, what he does
on the ball. I guess Kevin Rant because of what he can do defensively
on certain nights, maybe you you elevate him over that. But right now,
Stephan Curry would be my twelve. I don't know who you have.
It's hard to look past Yoki's just given his obvious status as the MVP,
which is now official. But here's it's really hard to build a title team
around him, much harder than all these other stars. Yeah. I've heard
that a few times. Sorry, go ahead, I just had to get
that in there. No, I no, I think it's it's valid.
The way we always frame this is that it's a snapshot of this moment in
time, while also looking back, it's the level of player reached by the
end of the season. So even if Yoka has the most impressive body of
work, I still have trouble giving him my twelve. I think right now
Kauai is the front runner for mine. Just the two way ability, and
even if we the defensive ability seems to not quite be there like it's been
in previous seasons, and it might not have even been there at the same
level while he was with the Toronto Raptors for that one year. We've seen
Donovan Mitchell go off. We've seen Luca don Chich go off against the Clippers,
and these are missmatchups that Kawhi might have done more to shut down in
the past. But just the two way ability, the increasing availability, the
knack for taking over a game offensively in the playoffs. I just year after
a year now, I feel like I'm watching him and seeing the closest thing
we've seen to Jordan in a long time on the offensive end, where it
just the way that he plays. I'm not saying he's as effective as Pete
Michael Jordan was, but the way that he plays, that smooth mid range
pull up, the ability to get to his spots, the ability to attack
the basket through traffic, the efficiency that he plays with. It's remarkable how
easily he's been able to take over game after game for the Clippers. But
if you wanted to make an argument for Yokich, for Jannis, for Harden,
for don Chich, for Steph for KD, like the options are limitless
this year. Yeah, Noah said to yours, I low key agree with
Adam the efficiency too on Kauai. And my argument against Kauai, aside from
the the flip that he switches, which is I feel like that the lowbrow
argument anyway, it would just be I don't know what he can do as
a primary playmaker aside from put him in high pick and roll and like that's
like you need him to do that. I don't know that. I feel
like there are a lot more players that I'd rather have in that primary playmakers
one. We've kind of seen it at certain times for Los Angeles this season,
but he is certainly one of the what five to ten candidates that I
think he could put in that discus they smell bad? Question kind of coincide
that we were just talking about from Brandon Ebert. If you were trying to
build a perfect team for longevity purposes and championship aspirations. Would Imbat or Yokis
be the better player to build around, he noted. He said health is
obviously he also had a health Is obviously favor. But I wonder if Imbid's
ability to dominate and defend would make it close. And that's I think it
does make it close, right, But I feel like I would probably still
lean towards Yokich because of the ability to elevate others around him and kind of
serve as that system unto himself on offense. And I just can't help but
look at the availability with Imbid, because you just don't know what you're going
to get. I mean, the first two seasons of his career zero games,
then thirty one, sixty three, sixty four, fifty one fifty one.
Part of that is for maintenance purposes, but the other part is that
he just hasn't been able to go, and sometimes when he's been able to
go, it's not at full strength, and I think that has to matter.
Do you know what an interesting question here would be? And I agree
with you. I think it's so close. And I do think peek Ebid
I had him as my MVP peak and Bid might be better than peak Yokich,
and he's certainly more of an all around player, but the availability matters.
I also, you know, when you look at what Yokich does as
a passer and even like kind of the they're both kind of like hitting these
ridiculous jumpers. Now, so forget me saying that. But if you took
Ben Simmons and Matisse Tybel put them on the Nuggets instead of let's say Jamal
Murray and then who's there like specialty winning defender, like instead of p J
Doser or something, do the Nuggets get further a title threat than the Sixers
right now? And I think the argument or the way to build around Yoka
would be just get all these defense first guys and see how far you can
go, because he can create so much your offense. Where Ben Simmons might
be able to score off Cots to be better suited in the dunker spot,
did over Mercy's Tiebel. He's gonna get super wide open through He's getting them
anyway, just doesn't hit them. He's not taking a ton to begin with,
so that you know, you can't even do the same thing with like
if you put Jay Crowden, mcal Bridges let's use the team that Denver is
going up against on Denver. I could be trolling here, but hey,
if you put Tory Cer on Denver, but like I feel like you go
further. And so while the peak of Eimbiad might be better than Yokich,
the availability matters. And I do think that if you did surround Yokich with
Embiad supporting cast. But within the the other question, if you put Jamal
Murray the Sixers instead of Ben Simmons, really better than Denver. There's it's
we need a challenge trade, we need a challenge trade. I just want
to respond to two of the comments that we got in the chat. John
Bond says Joel's defense puts him over Yokich for me, and I get that,
like his defensive advantage is massive, but I think that's a little bit
too simplistic, just because Yokich isn't a huge defensive liability. Even if he's
not a game changing rim defender, he's still good in the margins. He
still isn't a huge, blaring liability. Maybe some of that defensive weakness is
exposed a little bit more in the playoffs, but we still have to take
it. So much more into account and Robert Norman says response to that,
where he has a point though, it was just like the things that you
can do. I know in Game one against Atlanta, Embid was moving kind
of weird on defense, but the things you can do with him beat on
defense, like the gap there is for sure. And then Robert Norman says,
Yokis would benefit from perimeter defenders, but he also benefits from shooters around
him as well. I guess I would argue that the Sixers have placed shooters
around and beat two like Tobias Harris, Danny Green, Seth Curry. That's
a pretty good trio of shooters to have. I would also say Denver probably
could have could stand to put more shooters around Nicole Yokes like they weren't.
They were very middle of the road in three point efficiency this year. And
so like there are people in theory, there are you know, good shooters
on that team, but they are Michael Porter Junior is a great shooter that
that guy looks like he has all time touched on the outside. But a
lot of these guys will so well or there are three point opportunities will exist
because of what Yokich can do with the ball, and so Denver was this
season in let me just let me search Denver, all right, they were
eight and three point efficiency, so I was off. I thought they were
lower. But I don't know that they have like these. I mean,
who is the elite shooter of five from Michael Porter junior on that team,
Jamal Murray because of his self creation, I guess. But like Will Barton
is fine. PJ. Dooger's fine, Aaron Gordon is certainly not fine,
like what he's on, like he's the gverage Gary Harris. No, Robert
has clarified that he meant Denver needs more shooting and then agreed with what you
were saying. So apologies for misinterpreting that. Robert I always liked Robert Roberts
is really on point with his basketball themes. Also, Denver was only seventeenth
and three point volume p one hundred possessions, so that's something to consider too.
Noah says, what the shooters in Philly are two Ben Simmons offensive limitations.
That's also a good point is that Yo Kich isn't playing beside someone with
those type of limitations. So I also think away with Yo Kitchen Simmons more
so than you can get away with Embid and Simmons would be my take.
I think so too. But Embied and Simmons have still thrived together. Yeah,
Like that's important to know too. It's almost like it's really hard to
build a perfect basketball team, and all of the teams capable of winning a
title have significant flaws. I don't know if you've ever thought about that,
like it could be hard to build around a superstar sometimes. No, I've
never I've never even given side of that. Yokich just trash. Well,
here's an exercise. Would you take throw health out of the equation? And
I really think that's the deciding factor in this discussion. By the way,
is Embid is just you can't count on him. It has to be Yo
kids for me. But if you had Embiad and Jamal Murray versus Yoki and
Ben Simmons, that's the starting point for your team. No, don't worry
about the health stuff. Jamal Murry, I mean Murray had embide. Now
looking at it, Beat's history plus Murray's acl like, that's that's pretty Like
that's a shifty out look. But who would you take, Like what would
be the better base? I think I might still rather have the Embid Murray
side, even though in a vacuum, I would have both players ranked below
the Yo Simmons side, because I think that there's a little bit of diminishing
marginal returns in play. If you have Yokich and Ben Simmons sharing the basketball
in the half court set, that's just not an ideal use of Simmons because
you're either taking the ball away from Yokich and not allowing him to serve as
that all encompassing offensive hub, which is what makes the Denver offense hum or.
You're forcing Simmons into an entirely off ball situation in the half court.
There would be deadly in transition with Yokis hitting those those kickout passes and letting
Simmons attack. But he struggles enough in the half court sometimes, and I
think if you take him away from his one big strength in that area,
yeah, he could be a really dominant cutter. But I think that you
are not maximizing the talents of the dynamic duo. They're quite like you would
be with the Embead Murray pairing, where it just makes more sense together.
I just feel like the way Philly has used Ben Simmons in the playoffs is
kind of mirroring what you just said, and so that's gonna happen anyway.
You'd rather have Yokich as the on bol Gun I next him. And look,
the context of this is Michael Porter Junior still in Denver. So that
makes it saucier because then you don't necessarily need Simmons a shot volument or like
like you would from Murray. So I would I would probably need him beat
in Murray though, But that was a fun exercise. Did you want to
get to the mail bag question that you were really excited about? Yeah?
Do you want me to read it? Or you kicking it off here?
I don't even see it. So that's why I all it comes from at
thunder Van who said if you had to design a starting five that average seventy
points per game or less, who would yours be? And we actually interpreted
this very differently. My initial interpretation was I'm looking at what players average this
season and trying to build the best starting lineup that I can with players who
combined averaged seventy or fewer points per game. I think you were looking at
it as let's build the best lineup we can that wouldn't score more than seventy
points per game. So I just kind of cobbled this together in a few
minutes before we started recording, because the question came in kind of late.
And I'm just gonna basically not have any great shooting on this team aside from
one three and D guy and Steph Curry, who helps make up for a
lot of shooting woes. But I'm going with Steph Curry, Rudy Gobert,
Ben Simmons, Matisse Tyble, and Devin Vassell, who together average exactly seventy
points per game. The idea of having Simmons and Tyble defending the perimeter with
Gobert behind them means that Steph can basically sit down on the defensive end and
not need to do anything because Tyble is basically capable of apperating all over the
court, so you wouldn't really be playing four on five on defense. And
then Steph can just shoot every time down the floor and average fifty points a
game and we're gonna win a bunch of games. I also thought about swapping
out Simmons for Robert Covington, just to get another three and D body into
that lineup and get a little bit more shooting. But I just kind of
liked the idea of totally committing to defense with the one good spacer and Vascell
the great role threat in Gobert a cutting threat and secondary creator, and Simmons
and Steph just shooting flames. Yeah. My issue there is that Steph probably
averages seventy a game by himself on that team. By my interpretation of the
question, though, that is fair game. So my team would be Jannis,
Ben Simmons, Rudy Gobert. They're amount of Bio and o Gianna Nobi,
super light on floor spacing and that I'm going super big. I know
that they could probably do stuff in tr position. Who is the on ball?
Like, if you're looking at Jannis and Ben Simmons having to create together
in the half court, I'm gonna get super imfy. So that team is
probably allowing forty points a game? Are they scoring eighty? I mean it's
the modern day MBA. I think they're I think they're scoring over eighty a
game. There's one guy who will shoot threes or make threes because Johanness will
shoot them. That's o Gianna Nobi. Right. The Church is gonna overpower
everyone. Also, Jannis will shoot threes, should he? I didn't said
he wouldn't make them? Okay, fair fair The important clarification, There'll be
one guy on that team making three. So that's how I interpreted it.
I didn't go as exact. I thought about even like I didn't want to,
because there is good passers on that team when you look at them and
Ben and Jannis. I tried to like lower those, but then I was
like, you know, if I put Mchael Bridges on that team, like
he's got some kind of creation so that you're looking at like those specialty wings,
maybe if you went with like a put table instead of Ben Simmons on
that team or instead of Jannie, like, that would be the safer way
to ensure that you average semi points a game. But that's my team,
John says. Head Hunting a weak defender, and I am pretty sure this
is in response to my team. Head hunting a week defender in the NBA
is on a completely different level now, and we saw that in the twenty
eighteen Rocket series when they hunted Curry. Yeah, absolutely true. It's way
easier now, just given the proliferation of three point shooting and the ability to
get switches basically whenever you want them to target that one poor defender. But
this team is specifically designed for that not to be a concern because Simmons and
Tyble are just so ridiculously rangey. I mean, we've heard Doc Rivers say
multiple times the table in particular, he just breaks all of the defensive rules
because he can. He doesn't have to worry about following them, because he
can just show up as if he's just teleported to a different area of the
court. So I do think that despite that one hundred percent being true,
that that specific team construction, given these parameters, would still be able to
account for that. Enough, fair enough, let's move on to this is
interesting talk about deep cut. Shout out Kade Hornack for asking what contracts do
you expect Campaign and Tory Craig to sign this offseason? Backup Campaign has like
not had a great playoff game yet, but he's been so good and solid.
I think you're both at the end. Look, Tori Craig just wings
that crashes the offensive glass, shooting well from three in Phoenix. Overall really
good defensively for them. I would think that both of these guys end up
getting a mini MLIE money at least, which would be five point seven million
dollars about to start. If I had to guess which one doesn't might be
campaign just because the point guard markets not super deep, but the the backup
point guard market is always sort of weird and there's a shortage of wings.
And if you're going to look at the way that Tory Craig has played in
Phoenix this year and been like, okay, well, this is what happens
when he's kind of surrounded by you know, he's getting I don't want to
say extra playing time because he did play in Denver, but if he's going
to shoot forty percent from three in the playoffs and I think he shot over
forty percent in the regular season with them, no, it's thirty six point
nine percent, still good enough. And give you just a ton of defensive
minutes across a bunch of positions. That's just more of a you know,
not playing on the ball as much. That is more of a in demand
than I would argue than necessarily a backup point guard. I don't know how
you feel, but I would assume that both of those guys end up getting
at least in the mini MLI market, which for you know, Tory Craig
was given away for free essentially at the trade around the trade deadline by the
Bucks, and then campaign was about the NBA for a while, so's a
that's great for those guys. I think the only spot I disagree is that
I feel like Payne will get a little bit more than that. The backup
point guard market is always weird, but there's always such a priority on that
position. Every team wants to have two capable point guards or more on its
roster. And given how he's played throughout this postseason, just as a reliable
shooter or a reliable secondary creator, just a very effective backup point guard.
And his age, he'll be twenty seven in August, he is not going
to be declining on this next contract. I wouldn't be surprised if he signs
an extension or a new contract in the same ballpark is what Monte Morris signed,
which was three twenty seven. Yeah, so like basically full non taxpayers
mL E money goes to it anyway. I'm just trying to think of the
team that might give it to him if you think he can play in tandem
guard lineups with like another creator as I'm like joking over here, that might
be an interesting way to look at it. Also, you could try and
go a short term if you're one of the teams with cap space and looking
for a scoring Hey, look, if you're the Knicks, would you pay
campaign like, you know, a one plus one for twelve million dollars or
something so that you don't have alphabeton on your team? Why not? Sure?
Sure? Miami would be a fun spot too. They have Druggage,
though, I guess if you don't think he's gonna be healthy and there probably
I have seen nothing recently to convince me that that dragge is not on the
decline. Kim asked, can Phoenix be stopped by anyone in the West,
and how I would argue that by scoring more points than Phoenix, I'd probably
be able to stop him. I think the answer is Utah. And granted,
Utah still has to make it past the Clippers, just as the Sun
still have to close out the Nuggets. But that's the team that has the
two way ability to keep pace on offense and to make a defensive dent against
against the Suns. As soon as you laugh about something, Noah in the
chat was because I think it was to my campaign and he just got outed
yes in the chat every other bad thing. I'm sorry, please continue.
That was rude. I mean, that's about what I got. Like,
I don't. I think the matchups themselves are still difficult because Utah's defensive strength
isn't necessarily on the perimeter, which is what makes Phoenix so good because of
that dual guard ability with Chris Paul and Devin Booker, but the rim protection
that Gobert affords you, which in turn allows you to focus more resources on
stopping the perimeter players. That coupled with the offensive explosiveness of this Utah Jazz
team that is willing to just chuck up three after three and has so many
good shooters and so much depth on the offensive ends, that's the matchup.
I think even both the teams that they could face might end up being their
toughest matchup because how does you know how does eighton respond when the Clippers are
going small? Because I think you'll probably be fine against UBOs and we know
Abacca is not going to play, and if they decided to bust out to
Marcus Cousins, they'll be ultra fine. That's just freaking Clippers rotation. This
series against the Jazz just bizarre anyway, I think, because then you could
play charge more like get away. With that, the Clippers might actually be
the better matchup for them, if that makes any sense. I think the
Suns would rather play the Clippers, especially because you're not playing Gobert off the
floor, and there's this misconception that he's a bad defender in space, and
we've seen just how easily Chris Paul and Devin Booker can cook bigs in space.
Gobet's actually good when he's targeted in isolation. There's not a way to
neutralize him defensively. I think there is because of their shot selection. Those
two will just put up the mid Rangers before he gets out there to contest
them, and we've seen Chris Paul cook him well. When Chris Paul has
that look in his eyes, it can right. And if they're going to
take those mid Rangers and make them they're going to beat anyone, that's still
what you want to be forcing them to do. I think actually what makes
the Jazz scarier. And I agree with your overarching point, but I'm assuming
that Mike Conley plays I'm basically thinking that his injury is not too serious right
now, and Utah is trying to see how the games they can deal without
him. But if Mike Conley plays, you're gonna have Rudy Gobert in a
ton more screen and role action. And I think that's where DeAndre eight,
and I don't want to say it can be exposed. He's gonna struggle more
against that type of approach than the bigs that he's faced so far. And
if you're gonna you could send help, that's great, gotten its spritzing out
those passes too. Shooters and Sharge isn't gonna help you in that matchup either,
if you decide to go smaller there. So I think the Sons are
still my pick to come out of the West. I haven't see anything that
changed that Utah, which seemed to be the less favorable matchup for them.
Noah had a fantastic question about this though, since we're on this series,
is anyone else not Noah Otage? By the way, is anyone else actually?
Noah? Tell me if I'm pronouncing your last name right, by the
way, I've just been pronouncing it for months now. Is it like odige?
Because whatever? But anyway, carry on, I'll carry on. Is
anyone else not at all phased by the Clippers winning Game three against the Jazz.
It feels as if Utah will have a very good hold on this series,
and if Mitchell and Conley are healthy, Jazz don't let it get to
seven sons, Jazz will be one of the best Western Conference finals of all
time. I would be we didn't mention when were talking about that. I
want to see Sun's Jazz, I think in the worst way. I think
I like the way the Clippers match up better than any team if we're going
to get a series against the fully healthy Nets. But as we're recording this,
Kyrie Irving injured his ankle and is out for the rest of came four
with Brooklyn, and we know James Harden with against Milwaukee. We know James
Harness still dealing with the hand shrink stuff. I want to see Sun's Jazz
is like the basketball matchup that I want to see. But how do you
feel about that? Overall question? Are you do you look at games three
as this turning point for the Clippers? Are they What's that? Adam Sandler
mean? This is how I win from uncut gens every time the Clippers go
down to to oh this postseason, apparently they're gonna come raging back. Maybe
I don't see it. You know, again, the Jazz, as you
said, the Jazz have taken a two one lead without my comp Mike Conley
was an All Star this season. He's he makes this offense. Hum,
he Mike Conley was an All Star. I just want to throw that he
didn't. Yeah, I mean he was more of an honorary All Star,
but like, let's not pretend he wasn't playing at that kind of level.
Oh no, And I had a tweet, but the Western Conference was really
deep, which is why you kind of need that aster us there a little
bit where it might have been somewhat of a legacy award. He was absolutely
good enough to merit an All Star inclusion this year. You know, just
if we did what we should have a long time ago and expanded the All
Star rosters, because that's a soapbox I just seemed to live on. But
yeah, I mean the Jazz of a two one lead without without Conley,
with Mitchell fighting through these injuries to his lower extremities and probably taking it a
little bit easy, but still showing ridiculous shot baking craft. Some of the
buckets that he made in the first half of Game three were just flat out
ridiculous. I just I don't see this series changing in the Clippers favor.
I'm with you and my boy on Bardanovich. Not shooting two of ten again
and one of five and three just not going to happen. I do think
Mike Conley's huge. If you want to, you know, put make sure
that Rudy Gobet is gonna stay more in uh like the pick and roll situations.
And as Noah odies, it's pronounced like prestige, So Noah ODIs plus
Dowtin. Mitchell was out for most of the fourth quarter in Game three.
Even though La was up, the Jazz kept fighting back. There's a team
that's not going to go away. I like them exponentially better than the Clippers.
Who I look, Geggie Jackson having a fantastic season, Nick Patom fantastic
season. If you're depending on them to be like two of your top five
guys on a game to the game basis in the year twenty and twenty one,
I'm wildly uncomfortable with your situation. I don't know, Rudy, I
wasn't Reggie Jackson had out in game one or game two of this series,
and in my head, I'm like, oh, the Clippers are screwed.
That's not that's not okay. It's not an okay way to think. It
wouldn't surprise me if the Clippers want, I want to make that clear,
because on paper, they're a really good team. If Paul George is gonna
have you know, the night he did. But I yeah, I'm not
too concerned after a game three of seeing any Van's gonna choose. Now if
you tell me my comedy's not playing again this series and I haven't, that's
when changes. Yeah, that's that's when it changes. But they got out
to a two row lead, and I point this out, that's a gigantic
ass deal to do that without my comedy, because I do think he's important
to keeping I've mentioned this a ton, Brudy Gobert involved on offense. But
I'm just looking at game three and like, you know, Jordan Clarkson is
gonna have those high variants moments, but you're gonna get better nights from Bogdanovitch,
You're gonna get better nights from Donovan Mitchell, and you're even like,
I just I don't know how the Clippers defend a lot of this stuff that
the Jazz are doing. Because even if you're just like throwing Klaie on Donovan
Mitchell, which is the answer, That's what the answer was in the Dallas
series too, throw them on Luke dont to make life harder. The Jazz
are just so good shooting overall. I mean even look, they shot forty
three point two percent in a loss in Game three or no, yeah,
And like, how do you defend, okay, if let's Klai's on Donovan
Mitchell, I don't know how the Clippers are built to defend, like the
Joe Angles side pick and roll. At this point, even if my comedy's
not on the floor, there's just the Jazz are there. Their talent level
falls off after their top eight guys. They're top big guys are really fucking
good. The Jazzes swing passes and just ability to work the ball around the
key, turning down good shots for great ones and making sure that every single
minuscule rotational mishap is capitalized upon is just eerily reminiscent of like twenty thirteen San
Antonio Spurs the twenty seventeen Golden State Warriors, those teams that truly excelled and
made offense look really easy. I just that's what I keep coming back to,
is that this is not a team that's dependent on Donovan Mitchell hero ball
or the pick and roll game or knocking down a ton of threes. It
is an offensive machine that is fine tuned at this point when all the pieces
are available, and is remarkably good at getting the best shot out of every
single possession. Let's get to this question from I don't know why I scrolled
away from it. That's been kind of route on my part. Leo Anstein
asked who was the most efficient rookie this year? There's not a perfect way
to measure this, so I just looked at the rookies that qualified for the
minutes per game leaderboard and then sort of them by true shooting and affective field
goal percentage. Xavier Tillman led both categories, followed by in second place in
both categories was Desmond Bane and Isaiah Strew. It was three and then I
think, if you're looking at a rookie that actually had the ball on his
hands and was tasked with some creation, Tyrese Haliburton was the most efficient rookie
fifty eight five true shooting was fourth, and his effective field goal percentage was
also a fourth fifty six nine. That would be my answer, and I
think his role was a big part of this Peyton Pritchard top five there with.
None of these guys shouldered the same offensive responsibilities as little Mellow Ball,
who ranked outside of the top ten, So there's a different way to sort
of measure the efficiency. I don't know if there's anyone you're super impressed by
when you're looking at their efficiency numbers as a rookie, or maybe even concerned
by, but that's just my take on it. Yeah, I mean the
rookie's the top were hyper efficient, but their roles were a lot different.
But that's also why Torry's Talibert was still impressive to me because he had real
ball handling responsibility, not as much as the Meloball at the same time,
for a rookie, it was, you know, it was impressive, and
that's why I think he would be my pick. He might not be number
one in any of the catch all numbers, in true shooting percentage, anything
like that, but ultimately we're looking at a guard who was heavily involved in
the offensive sets and still shot fifty two point nine percent on two's, forty
point nine percent on threes, eighty five point seven percent on free throws.
He averaged five point three assists and only one point six turnovers per game.
Those are the two typical pitfalls for rookie guards as they're breaking their way into
the NBA. They shoot poorly, especially around the basket, especially from three
point range, and they often have turnover issues because they're trying to force the
issue a bit too much. They're not quite up to speed with the ridiculous
pace of NBA games. And he came in and looked like a veteran in
both areas. So if you combine together context with the pure numbers, I
feel like that has to be the answer. Yeah, I'm totally with you
on that. I don't even know what the alternative answer would be. One
of the one of the shooters, like you could say the cell or Isaiah
Stewart, because he never took shots that he wasn't capable of taking. But
again, context has to matter there. This one comes from geez Hoop Diary
love the Twitter name. Would you be able to find a stat on the
top three ISO scores per game so far in the playoffs. Turns out I
would be I sort of this a minimum of ten possessions in the playoffs because
we're dealing with like very small sample sizes. Damian Millard finished first, shocker.
Guess what he's averaging per isolation possession? How many points per isolation possession
he's averaging? He was unstoppable. I'm gonna go with something like one point
four two, one point six five. Whoa one point six five? And
you know what, So for context, that's a big number, right,
And so for context, second place is Devin Booker at one point three three.
And here's the crazy thing, but small sample sizes, I want to
reiterate that Damian Lillard still seventh shots attempted out of isolation sessions. So he's
played in six games and the only players that have attempted more shots in isolation
are Kauai, Jannis, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Jason Tatum is on
there, which is also incredible, and then Luka don Chich. So this
isn't like a matter of volume thing. One point six five, the dude
is just absurd. Third place is James Harden at one point three one.
Kevin Durant is fourth at one point two nine, and fifth was Tatum at
one point two three. I would what's Chris Paul out? Because he would
have been my guest for number two. He's six at one point two zero.
I will say my guests would have been Damian Lillard. I never would
have one point six five is an unfathomable number. I know it's six games.
I don't care. I thought my guests might have been laughably high and
it was too low. So yeah, one point six five. The dude
is just I on another level, and he will be in Portland next season.
For anyone who who cares. I know, there's luck. If you
had made me guess who the top three were going to be, I probably
would have said Lillard at one, Paul at two, and Katie at three.
I'm actually surprised Katie's under one point three points perso. Yeah, like,
I don't was that Just like in Game three against the Box, he
wasn't as hot as he normally was. Potentially, it also feels like Dylan
Brooks could be really high up that list. Oh man, that's a player
we fundamentally disagree about it. He would like me to see where Dylan Brooks
and it was a total fluke that was that was not a sustainable performance.
But he was really good in isolation throughout the brief postseason adventure. He is
nice behind Carmendo Anthony, who's one point one point one three for Dylan Brooks.
So I'll take that second coming of it. If you put basically,
you know, Kelton Johnson and Carmelo Anthony together, Dylan Brooks is the player
that you get. Apparently, So there it is this next question, I'm
gonna change it up a little bit or like we'll have an answer to the
actual question. Fern asks, and I know you don't necessarily like this trade
stuff. Can you give us your best Malcolm Brogden and Buddy Healed hypothetical trades
I assume not for each other. But the question I want to throw to
you, do you think either of these players should actually be traded for their
teams to get better? Healed? Yeah, I would definitely not move Brogden.
Was that I think he's too valuable. I don't think so. I
mean, the Pacers have had a lot of tumult with the coaching change and
just the continued Demonta Sabonis and Miles Turner situation, whatever you're going to make
of that. With t J. Warren's injury and some of the weird reports
that came out about that and his relationship with the now former coach, I
feel like anything could happen in Indiana, But why would you get rid of
that jack of all trades guard like Brogden, who is capable of playing like
a top twenty five player for short stretches of the season. I don't even
need to fuck with the audio there because you gave me that sound bite look.
And also, can you guess how many minutes did Brogden, Warren,
Turner, Sabonis and Carra Slavert played together this season? Zero? It's less
than that zero. Wow, that's impressive. So I would want to see
more. That being said, if you were to trade Brogden, I'd be
curious if so, Indiana being in a smaller market. McConnell's a free agent,
mcdermot's a free agent. They gotta start thinking about TJ. Warren's next
contract. Would you do Andrew Wiggins the Minnesota pick and maybe another first round
pick for Brogden and Miles Turner? Say that one more time, but two
first, one of which is the Minnesota pick plus Andrew Wiggins for Miles Turner
and Malcolm Rock. Did you could put James Probably not? Probably not.
Would you do it if it was the Mini pick and James Wiseman plus Wiggins
also probably not. I think having Wiggin the Wiggins money on the books is
too detrimental for a team that is still trying to figure out its core identity.
Indiana doesn't know what it is yet. It has a bunch of pieces
that are great pieces but are kind of haphazardly assembled. And I don't think
that you want to limit yourself quite like you need to when that Wiggins contract
is on the books and ultimately as good as that Mini pick looks, aren't
you kind of hoping that you get someone as effective as brog done with it?
I mean, those picks carry with them far higher upside, especially in
this class if it does convey this year, because the top six or seven
players all have superstar potential. Projects and doesn't have superstar potential, but the
bus chance is real too, and he is a legitimate top end talent,
and you need a player like that on a contending team. So no,
I don't think I would. I think that there are too many limitations given
the inherent risk of building around picks. The I agree with you because you're
only saving if you're if you're looking at as exchanging Turner and Broad in salary
for Andrew Wiggins. I think you're saving like eight to twelve million annually when
you look at those deals flesh out. If you were able to build the
deal without Andrew Wiggins going to Indiana, that might be where it gets interesting,
just because the reality of Indiana situation where I don't think that they're going
to pay the tax. I think they keep this team together at least until
next year. Maybe one of McConnell McDermott leaves just because they're so close to
the attacks. And by the way, Doug McDermott I think is going to
get the bag in free agency. That is my surprised Yeah, so maybe
that's not his icy prediction. Heeled though, I think you just have to
move him. I'm shocked he's still in Sacramento because he's very much a luxury
item for a team that shouldn't be focused on luxury items right now. Great
shooter to like it. There limit role he hasn't been happy. You need
to establish culture, just as you need to establish a winning basketball team whose
kind of go together hand in hand and held. Would be far more effective
on a team that can use him in the proper role, not try to
over extend him, and just allow him to accept what he is and accept
him for what he is. At the same time, Noah says, I'm
shocked a lot of people are still in Sacramento, personnel included. Yes,
yeah, calor me amaze that Luke Walton has managed to keep his job there.
Where would you so with held? His contract is a little from a
team perspective is inflated. He's guaranteed sixty two point five million over the next
three years. That can make it tough to trade. I'm curious if there
are any destinations that you would be interested in seeing him going anywhere that's not
Sacramento. No, I don't. I don't have a good top of mind
answer to that one. I just I have not been focused on off season
stuff with the playoffs in full swing. I'd be curious if like Memphis would
be a good fit, if they can probably get a requisite salary, because
in lieu of getting another star, what if he just got a dude that
could shoot a ton of threes and give you, like a little like off
the dribble juice when he's taking his jumpers. Sure, I think that he
works. He's one of those players who really does work on almost any contending
team, because what contending team doesn't need more shooting on the wings? Oh?
Noah said, would you do this? Let's say Buddy Healed into the
Knicks cap space or do you think that Held is more of that? He's
more valuable than that, right than what in the cap space? Yeah?
No, I would do that for New York. No, I'm talking about
Zacramento. Would you do that that would allow you to resign Rashaun Holmes?
Probably not. I think that you still need something coming back because you are
taking a step back without Buddy Held. Kevin Knox try and rehabilitate a wing.
I don't. Maybe Alfred Peyton not on the books well as we that
we know of as of now. I'm just curious, like what would if
you're a team though, So forget about destinations, like what would you give
up for Buddy Heeled though? Because that's not he's not a perfect player.
He's making a crap ton of money for the next three years. The right
team could justify giving a late first round pick. I think, oh yeah,
I'm not giving up a first round pick for that deal. Shooting is
just so vital in the NBA today, and you look at any combination of
volume in efficiency numbers over the last two years, the last three years,
the last five years, whatever the case may be, and Heeld is going
to be near the top of those leaderboards. He is one of the NBA's
elite shooters. He just has not been on a team that is maximizing that
ability, and has not been able to try to maximize that ability and is
still putting up those numbers. I think if you're building a shortlist of the
best shooters in the league, he's on it. So I think I do
think that you can justify giving up that value bull a pick again for the
right team. Yeah, I guess, I'm just that's all he does.
Like Portland should not do that because that that's not the kind of piece that's
pushing you over the top. The Jazz similar you don't need to do that
because you have the wing shooting Denver. That makes sense, you know,
someone one of those kind of teams where you want to push higher up the
three point leaderboards and you are ready to swing for the fences. I feel
like that's this kind of situation where you can float that type that type of
draft capital you'll walk over. You know where it makes sense the Lakers,
it does. It absolutely does. If they traded their first round pick and
then you were willing to do like a double signing trade. I don't know
why Sacramento would want true or why I want to go there. Like what
if like Caruso's involved, Maybe you'reven getting the first Roust pick and I'm not
giving up the first round pick. Then if it's Kuzma for Buddy, he'll
maybe because it's number twenty, it's number twenty two. Are we still on
the Kyle Kuzma can be a good player train though I think he's a solid
defender now, I don't think yes he is. He is developed into a
solid defender. I don't think he's ever gonna be put. The issue run
into there is you would have to give a Kuzma and another contract plus that
first round pick. That seems like kind of a steep price to pay if
you're Los Angeles for it, Buddy, healed, but that would be Los
Angeles would be a fun team. That was the last of the mailbag ones
that I had mark the other The other issue with la there though, is
that I think there's a secret contractual provision in the CBA that prevents teams from
putting enough shooting around Lebron. So you might have to get Silver involved for
that one, unless you're in the Disney bubble, because they're a bit His
entire supporting cast will shoot the lights out. Let's try and squeeze in a
couple more questions here. We did that one. What's James Hardon's value after
this season if he remains the same size, well his field goal for scentage
made decrease or will he remain consistent? Comes from Iceberg, Maine. I'm
very confused by that question, like if he gets shorter, if his beard
stops growing. I don't know. I've been on the bandwagon that Harden is
still underrated over these last few years, just that he is a historically efficient
volume scorer who you could reasonably call one of the greatest scorers in NBA history,
and the way that they've built teams around him hasn't always been ideal.
And there have been injury issues both for him and for teammates. But I
just I don't see any reason to believe he's going to stop being that at
any point. And it was telling to me that when he moved to Brooklyn,
he was the one who changed his role, that instead of being that
primary secondary and tertiary scorer who could also function as a great passer, he
accepted more of a past a past first role from the get go, allowing
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to continue playing the styles but they were most comfortable
playing. And to me, that's just a sign of the overwhelming amount of
offensive talent that he has and an indication that even if he starts to lose
that quick first step, if he's not quite as physical, if his body
starts to betray him, that there's more to his game than we've seen.
And I just don't expect him to be anything but a continuing MVP candidate for
the foreseeable future. Yeah, the owners I think he would fall out of
that discussion discourse is because he plays with two other top ten players, right.
Chris asked Tray, what are Trey Young stats and guarded by Ben Simmons
this series. I'll preface this by that data is always imperfect, but Trey
Young has a shot five of eleven against Ben Simmons. That's forty five point
five percent from the flour oh three on three pointers, and he has committed
one turnover versus Ben Simmons. Now what's interesting, though, what I also
like to look at is a number of team points that have been scored on
the possessions with Ben Simmons defending Trey Young. This is again imperfect, but
on the partial possessions that Ben Simmons has spent guarding Trey Young, Atlanta is
averaging one point three points per possession as a team, which is incredibly high.
I don't know how much of that is inflated by Game one even if
even if it isn't, I think that's still the beneficial move for Philadelphia because
you're still forcing Atlanta's secondary players to be the ones to beat you. You
just do it regardless. It's the fact that Trey Young only has eleven shots
while Ben Simmons is guarding him this series. That's a victory in and of
itself, because Simmons is forcing the ball out of his hands and preventing him
from getting touches better than any other defender has to this point, even if
the numbers don't bear out that it's a successful strategy, it's the right strategy,
right. I mean, you look at dude, ten shots against Danny
Green in about half as many partial possessions that day been spent on him.
It's like the discrepancy there is huge. He's attempted four shots against Mattias tibel
In again, roughly half of the possessions that Ben Simmons has faced him.
So yeah, I'm in lockstep with you. This other question, he greateful,
will the phenomenal fruit? Will the Timberwolves ever make the playoffs again?
With Karl Anthony Towns Now? I think a way to frame this question would
be, and I'm not trying to say Karl Anthony Towns is going to request
to trade, but just based off how things are going with player contracts now,
where a year out from free agency at least it becomes an issue you're
saying, I think you're this is akin to asking will the Timberwolves make the
playoffs in one of the next three seasons? And I think that's a fairway
to put it. I'm not trying to be about it. I'm gonna say
yes, I think there isn't a player in the core who's going to age
out of productiveness. Maybe Ricky Rubio is the one you're looking at there,
given his relatively advanced age compared to everyone else, but this is a young,
improving core, and Karl Anthony Towns was not available and was dealing with
a lot because of the pandemic throughout this past season and the one before.
Anthony Edwards improved astronomically during the second half of the season. Malik Beasley played
well when he was available, but was not always available. D'Angelo Russell was
not always available. We haven't seen what this roster can do when all the
pieces are together for a prolonged period of time, and there are still going
to be more positive players coming in. Jaden McDaniels looked like a keeper.
We still haven't seen most of what Jared Culver can do, and it's too
soon to call him an absolute abject bust. Josh Kogi can do more.
I think Culver is trending in that direction, but I definitely don't think that
you can condemn a player this soon into his career when he's on an organization
that has historically struggled with player development and has not had all the key pieces
available. So I look at this roster, this depth chart, and I
see enough to be intrigued by. And there's quite a bit of top end
talent there. So I don't at the very least, I won't go as
far as as saying that with one certainty, the Timberwolves will make the playoffs
in the next three years. But I think it's foolish to rule that out.
That wasn't a question, nice hedge there, yes or no, that's
the question. I said yes right off the bat, I would put it.
I'll give it like a seventy percent chance. I'm the Ante Edwards closing
kick to the season and that will be We have a final question that I'm
gonna get to about Auntie Edwards, which is officially your slant. I think
is Auntie Edwards at this point his close to the season makes it super interesting
because that might give them that legitimate second best player on a really good team
that they just haven't had. Also, we need to see what happens in
the draft lottery this year, because if they keep their pick, there are
a lot of different avenues that are open to them. I mean, even
if they lose it, they could technically done trade twenty twenty two pick after
the draft is over, and maybe that gets you something. But anyway,
I the West is just so brutal, and you have to look at which
teams are falling out of there. I think the Lakers will stay there,
the Clippers probably stay there, the Sun's probably stay there, the Nuggets probably
stay there. There are a lot of other teams that the Jazz that's five.
I just it's so top would I'm going to call it a fifty fifty
proposition and that that's hedging. If I had to pick, I'd say no,
I don't know that I trust the rebuilding model there, and I think
there's something just off. And how much time do they have to give towards
development if they keep their pick this year, and if he is so important
to what they're doing whoever they select? This question though, and I'm laughing
at of Tyson men ass is Christiano Felicio just a giant baby and shout out
had a Morning responded laughing my ass off to that. Shout out to had
a Morning, who dmp me very politely about a mistake. That was in
one of my most recent articles where I lost track of when Zach Collins played
last I forgot he played in the Disney Bubble. But shout out to Hannah
for being very respectful and alerting me to it. But this question, final
question is from Devasta asked how would you interpret Edwards' TPA this season and as
a recap for it negative one twenty seven point three five that ranked five hundred
and thirty second in the league. He was a negative eighty three point two
seven on defense, negative forty point four four zero eight on offense. But
the end of this question is do you consider it rigged based on the team
he played in or or there's some other reasons behind linked to his game.
Now, I just want to say I don't think it's rigged in any way.
Shape or form wouldn't be the word for it. We've talked about this
a few times, and if you look at the way that Anthony Edwards collected
all of the negative TPA, it was primarily in the first half of the
season. From the All Star break on, he actually increased his TPA score,
which means that for roughly half of the season he was a net positive
despite playing on a team that was not a net positive. TPA penalizes players
who shoot a lot if they're not shooting at the league average in terms of
efficiency, which he did not because he was over extended because Minnesota was missing
so many key pieces and forcing him into a role that he was not ready
for. We've also seen so many rookies struggle with their shots, so that's
all working against him. He's not a defense He was not a defensive positive
for most of the year. I don't think he ever got to true positive
territory, but he still showed progress on that end, and he was playing
for a non competitive team that struggled, which meant that the team modifiers within
the calculations for box plus minus are also going to bring him down. So
it was a perfect storm for him where everything that could go negatively in that
specific calculation did go negative. And then he still managed to be a positive
for the final thirty six or so games of the season, and less we
forget after the All Star break, he averaged twenty three point eight points,
five point three rebounds, three point four assists, one point four steals,
only two point six turnovers per game. Despite that heavy, heavy workload while
slashing forty five, four, thirty four, nine, seventy six two.
Are those phenomenal superstar caliber numbers, No, but they were a distinct,
obvious improvement from the first half of his season while still shouldering that ridiculously heavy
burden that he had no business shouldering. If you watched Anthony Edwards for ten
minutes at the beginning of the season and then ten minutes at the end of
the season, the only reason you would know that they're the same player is
the number, the name, and the look of the player. The way
they operated with the basketball, the way they operated without the basketball, the
way they played defense were polar opposites. Because he showed so much in season
improvement. And we have plenty of the examples of guys who have thrived at
the tail end of a season that obviously isn't leading the playoffs because they're given
more opportunities, they're given more bandwidth. But this doesn't feel like that because
his opportunity level didn't change. If anything, it went down a little bit
because the Timberwolves were getting healthier, and he proved that he deserved to carve
out such a large role. So I don't look at that negative TPA score
as anything other than an indicator that he was in an outsized role and was
a rookie with a high volume shooting job. You didn't answer whether Christianofoliho's just
a giant baby, though sure it does look like him. I thought that
was a great good point. I agree with everything he said, and I
know this is not scientific, but for like rookie and sophomore seasons, I
am more inclined to just throw efficiency out the window, and just like any
sort of numbers and less they're you know, it's clear like a Tyree's Halbert
in situation where every single metric loves him. I'm more inclined to read a
lot into that than I am every single metric hating a certain rookie or sophomore.
I wonder how many Anthony Edwards monologues I've done at this point. If
you're wondering how many questions we had about Christiana Felicio in the mentions of the
mail bag, it was three, which is wild. I want to ask
you got to ask a question on this, so I want to ask you
a question. I'm probably the Bucks are going to beat the next in game
three, Game four, and what is what do you give the Bucks a
chance to win this series? And what is the discourse around Brooklyn if they
lose the series? Is it just that, oh, wait until they're healthy.
It has to be right. They lost Kyrie Irving during this game.
We don't know how long he's going to be out for. At the time
of this recording, as we're talking, it's eighty one sixty nine Milwaukee at
the end of the third quarter. James Harden hasn't played yet. Jeff Green
hasn't played yet. You're giving major minutes to Mike James, who was signed
off the street midway through the season. You're giving major minutes to Landry shammittt
Jeff Green has played, I should say, because we haven't been watching this
game while we're recording, but he has played nineteen minutes to this point.
Speak for yourself. Kevin Ranchers hit a ridiculous baseline jumper. That's gonna make
this question look super foolish. Actually, but it might. But no,
I would not be surprised if Milwaukee does win this series. We both I
think we both pitched them right. Yeah, Bucks and seven that that takes
look extremely rough even after they won Game three. I wasn't feeling it,
but I will stand by it because I need to. I'll go down with
my sinking ship. I just I don't think it says anything about the nets.
Someone will try and make it say something about and that's who's the force
who gets thrust. Should they trade him? It'll be was the James Harden
trade a mistake? And the answers no, because given the amount of superstar
injuries they've had, he became a necessity for the regular season. He became
a necessity. I think it'll be Kyrie Irving. It'll be like, oh,
sh the net Kyrie Irving. It's you have to give. You have
to see what happens or if they can stay healthy, and they're also they're
out of moves unless they trade one of those guys like Kyrie. Kyrie's the
right answer. It's not to say that he deserves blame if they lose the
series, but if you're looking to take the next step as a team,
it's probably the answer. Because James Harden can do everything that Kyrie Irving does
plus more. You're not going to ever replace the shot making excellence of Kevin
Durant, who can get looks off in any situation whatsoever, and also play
high quality defense in a number of different scenarios. It's got to be Kyrie
Irving because he's the most limited player among that trio. That's like super Soaker
pointed to the head with spoiled mayonnaise in it, and you have to make
a decision of right. I don't think again, and I'm not saying that
we should blame Kyrie whatsoever, just that if if they are looking to quote
unquote blow up this team, yeah, that's got to be the answer there.
And they're out of moves, like they've changed, like the head coach
has been changed, they've given up everything for the trade assets. Nicholas Clackson
is still interesting and I would keep him, but you could dangle him and
if you want to try and sign and trade Spencer dim Witty, but then
you're hardcapped, which yo. I think they're a tax bill slated to be
through the roofnext season, so that's not even really an option for them,
I don't think. But I don't know what you would do in the scenario
of how you improve this team. I think you count on what we saw
with Lebron as soon as he joined the Lakers, where you're in a massive
market both in terms of size and media attention, with three established stars,
and you might be able to get veterans who are chasing a ring on the
cheap. There. It's it's very possible, given the construction of this team,
that you could realistically sign a key player in his thirties to a minimum
contract because he wants to play for this team. I was kind of thinking,
like, is this could be this be the next to Marcus Cousins,
to the Warrior situation, which obviously didn't pan out, but it was remember
when that news broken, Yeah, and he was just and it was just
like what we were all like, up, the NBA is broken now,
Yeah, So I wonder if that's I don't know who that guy would be,
but like Otto Porters, not on that level, even though he needs
to reboot his value. So I don't think it's they need to be healthy.
But I do that the Bucks are gonna win with pennants up, no
voice for the Bucks are gonna win. I that makes a series so much
more interesting. And if the Nets lose, I really don't think it's an
indictment on anything other than the health of their three key players this season.
Yeah, that does it for us, though. Thank you all for listening
to this mail bag, and thanks to everyone in the locker room room who's
stuck with us through two created rooms with our technical issues. But I apologize
if I sound like ass or if Adam sounds like ass. We had to
record it this way. I hope we will be up and running again next
week. Otherwise I'll make the executive decision to not record a locker room.
If this is the same situation of this sound quality is terrible and we can't
get the desktop thing working, that's not going to be on us in my
opinion, So then we will put it back to our normal equipment until next
time. Leave it to shout out to the one the only build a championship
team around him. He might be a bottom fifteen player in the league and
we need to give him a shout out for a self esteem Nicole Kich and
also Luca Nanci, also maybe Jannis lebron Kawa, I dwell Embiid all these
guys, they're just you can't build title teams around It's too damn hard.
Nom. They need their shout outs, So just hugs hugs out to them.
Thoughts and prayers, condolences everything,