What is krack Alak in Hardwood Knox listeners. I am Dan's Valley, coming
at you without my co host and completely solo today for a mail bag podcast.
I wanted to squeeze this in even though it's solo, because we are
in addition to rolling out the Western Conference report cars for the offseason this week,
Eastern Conference is already up. Please check those out if you have not
already. Our first team previews will start going live next week and those will
probably become fast and furious, so wanted to make sure we should be recording
some mail bags and league wide podcasts still during that time. But as long
as I can get another mail bag in free, y'all, I wanted to
make sure that I could before we dive in, and we have a lot
of questions to get to. I'll try to get to as many as possible.
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those different places without further delay, Let's dive right in here to these bunch
of questions. We'll begin with James Tibuto asked, are there any NBA players
who form misplaced like Draymond Green would be if he were loot on a losing
team, but because of how good the players around him are, he raises
their ceiling tremendously. I would argue, I don't know how good the players
around Raymond Green are right now, aside from Stefan Curry and a healthy Clay
Thompson if he ever gets there. But I do sort of see this point
where Draymond Green is sort of what might be a wasted talent on a team
that is not good, or maybe you just won't feels impact as much on
a team that's not at least contending for a playoff spot. I had a
hard time identifying this player. If anyone else has their own ideas, please
feel free to throw them at me on Twitter at namph Valley or the at
Hardward Knops account as well. I have two that I came up with.
One I think is fairly obvious. Daddy is young and san Antonio, and
you could kind of say the same about him in Chicago last year depending on
how you felt about Chicago as a playoff team. He sort of turned into
this small ball five. Now he is one of the most fundamentally sound defenders
in the league and has been for quite some time. Does all the little
things as an excellent helper. He really upped his passing in Chicago last year
as well, and so while there's still this finite range to his jump shot
or lack thereof, he is someone that can really elevate you by making smart
decisions and doing the smaller lifts, but doing and completing a ton of them.
And so I'm not trying to trap all over San Antonio's roster here.
But as of right now, even if they don't make another move, even
if they're not in Seller's mode, they do not profile as a real playoff
threat, at least to me. And now you're putting them on a team
where depending on how much you want to play Yakum Purtle, maybe Drew U
Banks, or you're gonna view him as as a four alfa Rukamino is in
there. Do you have enough shooting, just general raw shooting to get him
in the space necessary to make some passes on the short role or even going
to put him in those situations to give him an opportunity to make passes out
of the short role, I honestly do not know. It would be cool
and I think more impactful to see him on a better team. Phoenix has
been floated as one of the ones that would be great for him. Salary
matching could get pretty tough for them, unless san Antonio is willing to take
on Dario Sartz. Even then, if you're Phoenix, you have to wait
the cost of it probably cost you jail and Smith, or you actually going
to do this because of what he does on offense, where he's not going
to give you just a ton of range. You could argue then that he
is going to be a tough fit even if you are a really good team,
And so I get that aspect as well. But if you were looking
for sort of a way to downsize without sacrificing anything on the defensive end,
like I for one, would have been more interested in seeing him in New
Orleans than a Jonnis Valancunis, just because I think he Valentcunis and proves New
Orleans significantly on the offensive end, but just isn't going to do enough for
them defensively. And while dad he is young, might be sort of a
spacing liability. Just what he could bring you as a secondary helper on defense
while also sort of allowing you to downsize, you could continue to play superfessor'sion
on the floor, not that that would have been a problem to begin with.
Minnesota for him again would have been interesting. Now I know he's been
there, sort of done that, But they've been in the market for a
four basically since the dawn of time at this point that's more so a joke.
But they were hot for fours this year and it didn seem like they
were prioritizing guys who could chuck threes. They looked at Larry Marketing in there
in the John Collins, they looked at John Collins. But they're also interested
in Ben Simmons, and Daddy is Young certainly gives you more range than Ben
Simmons. I've been curious to see what he looked like in Miami and the
path at him there would have been obviously difficult with Kyle Lowry coming in,
but you did sign ended up with PJ Tucker there, who makes less than
Daddy is Young for this season. But Daddius Young does. I wouldn't say
this, He's not the same level of individual defender, and I don't think
you want him guarding down as often as you would PJ. Tucker. But
man a Bam, Daddy is Young front court with Jimmy Butler there Kyle Lowry
that is ridiculously tough to go up against and is really going to read havoc
all all over the place. And I think Daddy's Young does more on offense
for you. The heat needs shooting. PJ. Tucker without question is going
to space the four more by virtue of where he stands most of the time,
but his volume is solo I just wonder if there would have been that
much of an offensive trade off. So those are just some teams, and
there are many of them. I mean, imagine Daddy is Young in Los
Angeles with the Clippers as a small ball five. That would have been,
you know, playing the Marcus Morris role, which is better defensively, and
you could play him and Marcus Morse together during the minutes that you don't have
of each Zoobots or Sergey back on the court. Harry Giles, I think
is with the Clippers now. I believe he signed there, or maybe he
worked out with them, but they have big man minutes to sort of spare,
and that would have been of unfit for him, and it still could
be if san Antonio looks at looks at moving him. I don't know if
they want to take on Luke Nard in such a deal, and the Clippers
are pretty limited in what they can give up, certainly looking at at salary
matching tools. I think you could even argue if Golden State really didn't care
about spacing and they don't want to play Draymond at the five, you can
run sort of the Thaddies Young and Draymond Green hybrid front Court would have been
the same idea with a Paul mill Stap there, except mill STAPs a better
shooter. Young would have been great in Brooklyn. They went the route of
signing all the biggs, but not many of them versatile biggs. Except for
Paul Millsap. You could probably envision him a little bit when you look at
Denver, just to backup five minutes or shout in a you know what they're
really not They have Jeff Green and Jamichael Green. I take that back.
In addition as he, I don't think bow Ball, who's listed on a
lot of death charts as a backup five, I don't think he'll get a
lot of minutes to five probaby to play him, more so at the three
around just now. But he I think you could certainly find good fits for
him, is my point, much better fits than san Antonio. There will
be an offensive trade off in some situations with teams where maybe they just don't
have the juice to do that. Charlotte would have been great. Run him
is the small ball five because it seems like you do still want to downsize.
You only really added Mason Plumley and then Kai Jones unless you really plan
on letting Vern carry Junior Loose and Kai Jones, which I don't imagine that
they do. It does feel like PJ. Washington is going to see a
bunch of minutes at the five once more. I think you could certainly get
away with that with the way Charlotte plays. But if you look at team
at like Boston, where I think that Thaddy is young would have been a
really good fit, do they have enough spacing around him? Just there isn't
a lot of raw shooting on that roster, So there's certainly a complexity to
his offensive fit. Even though he gives you some of that playmaking. Is
someone can put the ball the foor. Just you look at the way that
defenses will guard him in the playoffs, that will create problem for a lot
of different teams. Let's go to this question from Karagan, how are opposing
teams going to score at the rim with forty eight minutes off ey the Rudy
Gobert Hassan Whiteside on the court in Utah. I guess the question would be
as usual when Rudy Gobert is on the court for you know, thirty plus
minutes a game. I don't know the Jazz were fourth in opponent frequency let
up at the rim last year, only Boston, Milwaukee, and Washington were
in front of them and their minutes with Rudy Gobert, which is predictably ridiculous.
Opponents got to the court eight percent less, got the rim eight percent
less frequently with Rudy Gobert on the floor. That's just a monstrous differential.
Hassid Whiteside has typically been pretty good when you look at his on off splits
with opponents getting to the rim when he is in the game. That being
said, my two the two layers to this question are one. I don't
think that Hassan white Side is going this isn't. I don't think I know
that it's on. Whiteside isn't going to cover as much bround as Rudy Gobert
does. When you look at all he's responsible for within the Jazz defensive model,
I think he's a better backup five option for them than Derek Favors simply
because of their contracts. And there's just no use when you have Rudy Gobert
investing serious money in a backup five and just because it gives you some of
the same offensive elements to someone who you could lob it to or also he
could just roll the basket. Does not have the same level of passing.
Rudy Gobert is a much better screen or two, but just similar archetype of
player. There's a lot there's a huge difference to them on defense though.
He's easier to get around. And I think that quickcare twitcher ball handlers,
especially if Utah funnels them into the paint, they're going to have a higher
success rate going after us on Whiteside, And so he might need some more
athletic wings in front of him, which Utah still does not have. They
have Royce O'Neill, and that's you know, Joe Engle is a solid that's
great. It's just there's not a lot of speed on the perimeter there.
So I do think that the defense could struggle in certain second unit heavy lineups.
I'm not saying it definitely will. And again I think he he's a
relative to the contract and what if some Whiteside's gonna do And just it feels
like Derik Favors is you know, since the second half of twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty in New Orleans, it felt like he's kind of been on a
gradual deterioration, he could be an upgrade. But I just I'll still be
wondering how often opposing second units, or if there are starters, they're able
to go up against us on whiteside, on the jazz, they might have
more success at getting in the rim. I'm also hoping this is the second
part of this, that Utah does experiment more with small ball lineups when Gobet
is not on the court. I don't Again, I don't think Gobert is
a liability in the playoffs. I've been very emphatic about that on this podcast.
This is more of a what he's responsible for gets tougher in certain matchups
like that against the Los Angeles Clippers when he just doesn't have as much help
as he needs on the perimeter and they are going to run out those really
smaller forms, whether it's a Yo, Marcus Morris or Nicholas Patum at the
five type of arrangement, and those matchups are so few and far between,
really where there's an actual problem for Rudy Gobert that you don't need to make
small ball a staple, but you are going to have on the average night
between you know, thirteen to twenty minutes where you can't experiment with that.
And I would like to see Rudy Gay at the five, maybe even Eric
Pashcal at the five, just to see what it looks like. Or if
you want to even give as a bookie a shot this season, that's fine
too. I just think there needs to be I want to see more of
a pocket size from court from Utah, just in smaller stretches, to see
if they can go to it if they need it. And that's just it's
not a knock against Rudy Gobert. It's just matchup proofing yourself or doing a
better job of matchup proving yourself, I would argue. So yes, I
think the Jazz will still be in one of the five or seven best teams
in the league at disswaiting shots at the rim. They have Rudy Gobert.
He exists, and it's not just him, you know, it's not just
him blocking shots, contesting shots. It's he's the concept of Rudy Gobert.
Is it deterns is what I'm getting at him. Just being on the floor
is going to convince opponents not to necessarily be as aggressive in the lane.
They'll pull up for shorter floaters, or maybe teams will relive more on jump
shots this question. This next question comes from virtual fan in Jurassic Park.
What position has Ogna? No, We've been most effective at locking down last
season. He's known for being the most versatile defender that can guard one to
five, But I want to know what position he locks down the best.
Feel free to add any notable players at that position that OG shut down.
I won't add any significant like notable players here. I also will push back
that about OG and it will be the most versatile defender in the league.
I think that probably still goes to Ben Simmons, even though OG is asked
to guard five's more than him. So, yeah, there's an argument there.
Maybe I'll push back lightly on that or say that it's at least a
debate. So if you look at b ball Index's matchup data their defensive versatility
metric, OG and I No, we guarded every position at least seventeen percent
of the time, which is just absolutely mind blowing. There wasn't nice balance
to his reps against the one, two, and three and five spots.
They were between seventeen and nineteen percent of the time. The largest share possession
share for his defensive matchup was power forward at twenty eight point two percent,
and I actually do think that's the position he's best study to lock down because
that's what's going to I think forced him to bust out literally everything that he
does, because when you're guarding the four, there can be some size there.
But nowadays there's also guys that can put the ball on the floor.
But there are certain matchups two where maybe that four isn't as dynamic, and
you can this isn't necessarily what you want to use Giana nob four, but
you can use him to do a lot of other things where if he wants
to party, crash lanes away from the ball, and I think the four
provides that mix that's going to bring out the best of O Giana Noby.
And then when you just look at his size and strength, like, yeah,
he's fine going up against wings and guards. We've just we've seen it.
He can do it, but you you want to sort of give him
a spell to where maybe he has to rely on to strength more than just
his quickness, because you don't want to necessarily exhaust him. And it's very
rarely that the four spot is going to be the best player on the team
or the primary bull and or they make the mistake. O Giana Nobi is
great in that role. He's great in almost any defensive role, but he's
going to shut you down, like if that if it's just not the number
one option, or if it's just not the guy who's tasks with putting the
ball on the floor as often, or maybe someone who's going to benefit from
just a lot of screen action, where I think you could run into that
at the five spot, where not only are some players gonna be bigger and
stronger than him, but if he has to cover some some role guys off
movement like that explosion is just hard to stop in general, even if you're
Rudy Gobert going toe to toe with someone at the rim. So I just
think the four spot, and that gets kind of blurry because you know who
constitutes a four, Like is it a Lebron James? Is it Ben Simmons?
Is it? Is it Adjason Tatum? They're they're all over the place,
and I think fours are a lot of the times glory Fide wings,
So I would consider, you know, O Gianna Nobi a wing defender and
he's going to be to me, even though he's just such a great on
ball guy, there are things that he can do sort of chasing around people
rather than having to be the point of attack guy. I will say,
maybe he's better to distinguish between this if you're asking me so, I want
to see him as sort of a point of attack defender, which you know,
a lot of guys do receive receive credit for, or a chaser or
maybe an anchor big, and he is sometimes an anchor big with the way
that he defends, just that's clearly not the best way for him to defend.
I think it's going to be the chaser. It's just going to encompass
more responsibilities and less of going up against those those point of attacks. But
he can do anything, and it remains ludicrous that he did not make all
defense this past year. I will I'll certainly stand by that. Next question
from Jeffrey rs as, are there any free agents still available that can make
a significant difference for a playoff team? Look, Frankie Lakina, that's the
answer here. There's a three D wing still on the market that is just
sitting there right to be signed and can make a huge difference on a team.
I don't think a ton of people agree with me, but I actually
do believe that that Frankielkina belongs on a roster, and I think that he
could really help a team out some other guys. I mean, look,
a lot of this is going to depend on whether they're they're healthy or not.
James Ennis will be the top one for me. This is just someone
last year who yeah, he's been like a three D contributor kind of in
theory. He shot under thirty four percent from deep between twenty seventeen and twenty
and twenty, but last season he veryed forty three point three percent of his
triples on the Orlando Magic. You know that is on the Magic where you're
just not yeah, you probably got quality looks, but it's not like he
was getting a boon from all this great creation around him or this pristine spacing,
and he would guarded capably four positions, four positions. Just get that
guy on your roster. I think he can really help out teams that need
wing depth, especially plug and play ones on offense. He did he was
saddled with a little bit more. Hey, attack this open space in Orlando.
I don't necessarily know that you want him doing that. Maybe you want
him doing that a little bit more often than a Reggie Bullock. Let's say
he has a learner's permit for putting the ball on the floor wide opens basis.
But I remained somewhat shocked that he's unsigned because I think he's a rotation
guy that can help a team. Avery Bradley, that's another name that springs
to mind. Still kind of a three indeed guy. I think people have
sort of, you know, walked back too much of his defensive value.
He's just he's a better individual defender, and that can be lost in the
shuffle when you look at some of the assignments he has to cover. But
he his efficiency plummeted when he was in Houston. I get it, but
that was only ten appearances with the Rockets last year. So I do think
that if you put him on the court on a good team that's not going
to ask him to really do anything with the ball, give him some some
good spacing or give him plenty of space to fire office shots, that he's
still going to help you on defense problems. He's he's six two, and
so he's dealing with mostly guards. You can get the one and two out
of him, but you're not gonna want to throw him up against threes.
I still think he's clearly someone who went healthy can help a team. I'm
a big Garrison Matthews guy. That's someone who gives you some motion shooting.
And I do think he has some confidence off the dribble, and he showed
not so much last year but in his first season, like he will go
through contact and maybe get some of these like give me opportunities at the line.
I'm not saying that needs to be a part of his game, but
if you can just get someone who's taking these ultra deep threes and the level
of difficulty on them is higher than easy or easy to medium, he helps
your offense immediately. And I think that he competes on defense. He's not,
like does great defender, but he has some size to him at six
five, and you can get him going up against twos and some threes.
So I think he certainly belongs on a roster, maybe a West Matthews sort
of in the same vein as a Garrison Matthews to be, to be honest
with you, definitely a more established under a more established player overall, I'm
a little bit surprised that he hasn't found a home yet. He's last year
in Los Angeles. It was not a good season for him. He is
age thirty four and that certainly has to factor into it. Has an achilles
injury in his rearview. Another guy that can help a team though, JJ
Reddick, if he's healthy. Look, this is someone who you know.
He gives you Yes, there's the motion shooting there, and the shooting tends
to age well, but like he can also handle the ball for you.
You know, pick and roll initiation has never been a huge part of his
arsenal, but he's ranked in the ninety fifth percentile or better of scoring efficiency
out of the pick and roll three each of the past four seasons. So
just even in spot up duty, he can certainly give you something. Some
other names to consider is you do have DeMarcus Cousins out there. He gave
the Clippers just some some yeah, I'll say, really nice short spurts during
the postseason. So if you want to see whether there's anything there left left
to plum, I think you could also go with who. I'm actually surprised
that he didn't find a home or hasn't found a home sooner, and he's
just signed a training camp deal with the Clippers. But like this is someone
who needs to stick. I would say Isaiah Hartenstein is someone that it can
also really help. A squad of Aaron Banes is still floating around out there,
as is Lengths in Galloway. So those are all names I think they
could significantly help contention. If I how to narrow it down to just a
couple, I'm probably gonna go with I think James Ennis is my top guy
right now. After that, I might go with a Wesley Matthews or or
a JJ Reddick or a Garrison Matthews. Excuse me over Wesley Matthews. I
think you can make a case or Avery Bradleyber. But certainly James Ennis is
is right there at the top. And if the right team comes along and
signs Frankie Lakina, he can he can be there too. I just I
want to get that off my chest. This next question comes from cs as
which player under twenty five other than Luca Zion and Lamello has the highest superstar
up side. There are a lot of choices here, and so if you
sort it by players who were in their age twenty three season or earlier last
year, so they're gonna be under age twenty five this upcoming season. You
get into some just like, you know, it feels like these players should
have been thrown in under the umbrella that CS gave us of the exclusions where
it's you know, Bamanta Bio's on that list, Jason Tatum's on that list,
Trey Young is on that list, Shake jojis, Alexander's on that list
or me and so I don't really know where the Jim Wall Murray is here
too. I don't really know where the delineation is. But if you were
to exclude, like I think you have to look Trey Young, Jason Tatum,
Don Chich, Zion Williamson, and you want to throw a Melo Ball
in there as well, if you want to loop those in the same tier
where it's these MVP type prospects and so even a John Morant just they've established
that they are MVP level already or not not already, but a LaMelo Ball
after his rookie season, you would argue that he's this transcend prospect. So
I'm disqualifying all those guys. I think you can still include a brandon Ingram
there, Michael Porter there. I don't think those guys are quite there.
Daron Fox, he goes down's enderfall just outside Jamal Murray as well, and
he would ultimately be my pick. You could. Some people mentioned Anthy Edwards
here. I'm sure some people mentioned Kate Cunningham and Jalen Green here as well.
I'll listen to those. I think it's Shay gilgis Alexander though for me,
I'm not going to regurgitate the same stat we do for him, but
just the way that he excelled and improved oculist Andy's offense when he was on
the court as their end all be all last year, their offense was bad.
Let me make that clear. With him on the floor, it was
unwatchable when he was off the court. So he was making this huge difference,
and it was his first year without a safety net. He was responsible
for creating so many of his own shots. Nearly ninety percent of his baskets
went unassisted. He's entering his age twenty three season. You have to watch
the plant or fascia and dur Thos can be be fickle to come back from
and I think that he should probably be more commonly mentioned in the same vain,
same breath as Luca Danchi, Zion Williamson, Jason Tatum, Trey Young
Womelo. I would even argue that Darren Fox gets mentioned ahead of him a
lot, and I'm not sure that he should. I think Shakes Axander right
now is better than arn Fox, even though the SGA's defense it's there,
and the versatility is palpable, but it could be a lot better when you're
just looking at what he does on the ball. He's certainly above brandon Ingramd
For me, I think Michael Porter Junior gets mentioned above him. Bam had
a bio which is Shijojes Axander. Long term is sort of an interesting debate
to watch just completely two different players, But I think Bam has just been
billed as this. He's a defensive anchor, this passing big man who could
really run fast breaks. He doesn't shoot threes, but because of his level
of self creation on the offensive end and just all he can do with the
ball and the different mechanisms by which he can score, that he's viewed as
a better player than Shakes Head or just a you know, a more likely
superstar Mega star long term, I might put Sga ahead of him, maybe
not right now. That's you know, going through player rankings that I believe
I'll eventually have to do for Bleacher Report before the season starts. That will
be just one of the interesting flashpoint moments. Two players to go between.
And look, there are a lot of names to choose from here, but
I think it's Shay Gilga Alexander for me. I've been so high on him
for a while and I'm anxious to see what he can do on a team
that won lets him play in the entire season, but when there's a little
bit more better talent around him, to see how much he can actually elevate
his teammates. And that just made me think. This is going back to
the first question bonus answer here, I had Darius Baseley marked down as a
player that might not quite fit right now. And so if you're still listening
to this, James Shiputo to this point, I would also throw Darius Basley
man where I wonder what he would look like on a team with more spacing
and just you know, Shay Gilds Alexander actually being healthy. But maybe two
guys who can help who can help pilot your offense rather than just having one,
so he's able to just focus on bringing this mixed bag of tricks that
he does on offense altogether. But the pressure is off of is sort of
off him to self create. Feels like someone that could really help out make
a dent on a good team where he's asked to do less. I guess
would be the best way to go about that. There's next session quant this
next question comes. I'm trying to talk too fast here, and I talk
fast enough already, But this next question comes from GP three. Would Colin
Sexton, Kevin Love and Unprotected First be enough to land Ben Simmons. I'm
going to say no. I'm Colin Sexton's about to get paid, and it
doesn't even seem like Cleveland necessarily wants to pay him. I do think he's
probably underrated, just when you look at like I think sometimes we can underrate
twenty four plus points per game, four plus assist per game on roughly league
average efficiency, where he's shooting a ridiculous percentage from three point range. Like,
I just think that we can underrate that when the guy's so young.
We don't need to overcomplicate this. I know I'm a big fan of going
in deep. I understand how all the analytics love him. I know his
often drible shooting isn't necessarily there, but we still need to see what he's
going to be on defense. Colin Sexton is good still, He's about to
get a new contract. I think he's probably a great fit in Philly,
but he doesn't really give you that point of attack score necessarily, at least
not the finished product one. And now you're also including another deal in Kevin
Love two years, sixties million left. It's a net negative at this point,
and he could fit next to Joel and Bed in theory. However,
if you're going from Ben Simmons to Kevin Love and Colin Sexton, your defense
is going to suffer a bunch. He's already going to suffer a bunch when
you're losing Ben Simmons. Basically, no matter who you trade him for,
that's probably going far. I mean, you can see what their actual return
is now. The unprotected pick might be interesting because if you said Ben Simmons
to Cleveland, are they going to be good right away? With Darius Garland,
Jared Allen, Evan Mobley who That might be another answer to a player
that could look like he's out of place might be Evan Mobley with the way
that the Tabs have built their roster, having paid Jared Allen and then acquired
that remarkt but I digress there. So maybe it's attractive because you don't think
clevelandill be good right away in twenty twenty two. They're probably not going to
be one of the three or four worst teams in the league at that point.
And if you're Philly, maybe you have reached the juncture of we will
accept a package where picks, unprotected picks are the highlight, because we'll either
draft and develop someone on Joel and Meat's timeline unlikely, or more likely,
put those picks together and then go out and trade for that next star,
where instead of you swapping Ben Simmons for Bradley Beale or Damian Millard when those
two actually become available, you have the picks to lean on because maybe watching
im Portland don't want to, you know, start their reboot around Ben Simmons,
which is a fair reasonable stance to take. This is not a package
that gets you there, though, It's just and I know everyone's so low
on Ben Simmons. I've seen Portland fans that don't think that they want to
include anything in addition to set mccollumn to get Ben Simmons. I scholunchly disagree
with that stance, by the way, just because of what Ben Simmons does
for you on offense, we need to view are a little bit further back
towards reality. With Ben Simmons. There a real harmful limitations to him on
offense, and his passing could be overrated in certain situations, and he's not.
You know, you can't just put him on the type of team you
could with the honest who, by the way, was on a team that
really sucked at shooting for much of the playoffs. But I think you could
envision situation where Ben Simmons is surrounded by all shooters and then just one legitimate
point of attack scorer that he looks like an all NBA player again, not
just all defense, but all NBA player. And so the fact that you
have that path in the Ben Simmons you have to give up real stuff to
get this guy. I don't think that's enough. This Cleveland package of Kevin
Love Collins, sexon or nun pretended first, I don't think it's nearly enough,
just because if you're a Philadelphia you're giving up not only the best player
in this deal, but you're also taking back like one of what looks like
right now and close to deadweight contract for Kevin Love and who's a less than
ideal fit next stage well and mean because you don't want to play two bigs
at the same time. Kevin Love is not going to give you any defense
at the four. And yeah, you'll have Joe Will being on the back
line, but there's already gonna be a ton of pressure on him when Ben
Simmons isn't there. What else could you include if you're Cleveland? And this
is gonna step on the toes of another question, so let's actually skip ahead
of it marked down somewhere else. But this comes from Cody Cronin asked how
likely is it for the Cows to land Simmons in your opinion? And Cody
as a second question, I'll move ahead to that after this. I don't
think it's very likely. I just it's so hard when you're looking at having
to match the salary, because once you get beyond Kevin Love, like the
expensive players that you're going to trade just almost don't really exist, and maybe
I shouldn't even go that far, but you enter the dilemma of, Okay,
what does Philly need with Rookie Rubio, who's one of the more expensive
players on your team, Jared Even if you're wanting to when Jared Allen can
be traded, why would Philly want him. It's the same with Larry marketing
like that doesn't really help your trade package for mid season for Ben Simmons at
all. And as of right now, you're the most expensive salary that you're
eligible to trade would be a Ricky Rubio at seventeen point eight, and then
after him, it's aside from Kevin Loves You with Kevin Love Ricky Rubio,
and then after them, Jenny Osman is the most expensive player that you're eligible
to trade right now. So that just and he makes eight point one million
dollars and is not very good, so that makes it tough. I think
it would have to be a scenario where you're giving up probably two of Sexton,
Okoro and Garland plus a ton of picks, and then Philly is probably
taking back a salary it does not want. I would still argue that instead
of taking back Kevin Love, if I'm Philly. I'm waiting to mid season
to see the deal maybe fleshed out. Like Ken, I would probably prefer
Larry marketing on his contract to eating what's left on Kevin Loves or just take
Ricky Rubio and now you have that expiring contract to use that seventeen point eight
million dollars to use as a chip in future trades, plus two of Garland,
A Korro and Sexton and then picks plural and I think it would have
to be at least two unprotected first rounders, because again, Ben Simmons is
really good, and you're not sending anyone tangibly unless it's Garland and Sexton,
like maybe the swing piece swing stardom there still exists, but you're not sending
Philly the next great young player tangibly like that. It's not that type of
guy isn't in the deal. So I don't think Philly is going to be
able to get what we saw James Harden get for Houston, obviously, even
though that's what the Sixers are looking for. And I would argue if they
can't find a deal, they shouldn't settle, they should wait. I don't
care about the awkwardness. I'm settling is going to harm your window with Joel
Embiid then trying to navigate it for a little bit without Ben Simmons will in
my humble opinion, So yeah, if you're Cleveland, I think that's the
pathway to it. And what really does hurt your trade package? Or and
maybe like that, but like two of your most valuable in theory, let's
just orda mid season, everyone's else will be traded. The Philly like doesn't
have a need for Jared Allen or even an Evan Mobile who you could trade
right now. So those are just players that you write off right away.
And even if Kevin Love like that really hurts you that your best salary filler
in that deal just has really no value to Philly unless he comes on for
a half season and this is a trade being made midstream and he's played fantastic
basketball, maybe then Philly can reconsider its stance. And you're looking at Kevin
Love Sexton and I still think you would need Garland in that And I don't
even know if Philly would accept that just because you have Tyres Maxie already,
you have Shake Milton. I'm not saying that either one of those guys is
better than Sexton or Garland long term, Maxie might have a shot, to
be honest, but do you I think it. You definitely can take one
of Garland or Sexton in that deal, for sure, but it kind of
is like, well then why would you take too now sudden you just have
those four guys on the roster makes it a little difficult. Then your backcourt
rotation is sort of still small, and so now it becomes you almost have
to include a Cooro and that it's one of Sexton or Garland, and Sexton
makes more sense for Filly right now, but Garland might make more sense long
term because he's more of a point of attack creator. It's really complicated,
but that's the baseline for me is I think you have to find a sal
You have to find salary filler that's not Kevin Loves so it's either Ricky Rubio
or maybe you're moving liar market in midseason. That's part of it. And
then two of Garland, oh, Coro, Sexton, and I would say
at least two unprotected first rounders. And if you're Cleveland at that point,
I just don't know if it's worth it because of the timeline that they're on.
Cony Cronin's next question was, other than CB three, what NBA players
are statistically keeping the mid range alive? I don't This question is weird to
me because I don't think the mid range is dead. But when you look
at guys who sort of lean on it as an actual crutch to their game
and our self creating it a bunch and should be taking these shots, the
names that come to mind are Derosian is still there, forty seven point one
percent from mid range last year on top ten volume per game. He already
mentions, Chris Paul, Bradley Beale is there. He shot forty seven point
four percent for mid range on five point six attempts per game, that was
the fourth most in the league. Joel Embiid was sneakily there this season.
A lot of his mid range jumpers were unassisted. I don't know that he's
someone's really keeping it alive, though. So Bradley Biel, Damart Rosen,
Devin Booker is right there, five point two attempts per game, top ten
volume, forty eight point six percent on those mid range jays, and you
know the vooch is high in volume there, So is Anthony Davis who should
not be taking mid range jumpers. That's my stance. Get behind the three
point line. You're just you're not hitting your mid range jays at a high
enough clip outside of the bubble to justify taking them. La Marcus Alters will
do it too, but those for some of those guys, they'll be picking
pop situations. They're saying with Joel Embiid, but looking at guys who are
taking them off the dribble. Julius Randall did that a lot last season.
I still wouldn't throw him there. Maybe a brandon ingram. His five point
eight attempts for mid range per game last year were the second most in the
league, behind only Russell Westbrook, who knows be taking mid range jumpers.
So I think the guys were actually keeping it alive. Let's let's narrow it
down to five I'm gonna go with in addition to Chris Paul Demarta, Rosen,
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, that's just he keeps any shot alive.
Chris Middleton and Devin Booker, those are the guys I'm gonna go with.
Devin Booker, k D, Chris Middleton, demarda Rosen, and I'll say
Bradley Beal there. Those are the players that are keeping the mid range alive,
so they're you know, they all shot at least forty five percent from
mid range last year. Chris Middleton, you could bounce from that list because
he took the shot, really didn't take it out of his diet. Almost
five attempts per game that was top twelve volume, and he shot at a
forty five and one percent clip. It's not as heavy a part of his
diet. He was taking a ton of long TuS, but that in between
game is still really lethal for him. And I would still put him in
that same class as I mean, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul are and you
know, a class all their own. But I would still put him alongside
Devin Booker, Demartarro is in Bradley beld the guy that you're actually okay with
maybe would even encourage getting to that spot. This next question here comes from
we did GP three's the exception asked what's Jason what's Jason Tatum's chances of getting
MVP this year? And so these questions are tough because I think I view
MVP a lot differently than I do think it gets to a point where there's
a no brighter pick like Nicola Yokich was this year. I don't wait team
record as much as others do, so I'm viewing this through the prism of
what would Jason Tatum have to do to actually win it. So I'm kind
of trying to throw at least my own biases out the window, and so
there are a few things that need to happen here. Statistically, I don't
know that anything needs to change for him. He averaged twenty six point four
points per game last year, four point three assists, seven point four rebounds,
one point four steel shot thirty eight point six percent from three fifty point
two percent on two's eighty six point eight percent at the foul line. Fairly
good volume there, career high three throw attempts per game at five point three
to go along with his career high minutes. His three throw rate for thirty
six minutes was also a career high, though, so to that for what
you will like, the numbers are there. If maybe he needs to get
into that five assists range, and I would argue that might even be a
necessity this year, just based off you know, you have Dennis Shrewdery,
if Marcus Smart, and there is Alhof. But you did lose two of
your most important creators over the off season in Evan Fournier and kept a healthy
Kema Walker, which is very much a theory at this point. So the
numbers are fine, and there are different tweaks to his game as fantastic off
ball defender. I think he's a really good defender overall. Some people think
he's overrated there, I personally do not. You want him to get to
the rib more, to kind of put more pressure on the basket. It
does feel like his game sort of stalls out on jumpers a little too much.
We saw his frequency inside three feet last season drop from twenty four point
eight percent in his third year of a shots came inside three feet to nineteen
point seven last season, and so I've always thought the kobification of a shot
profile has always been so overrated, and specifically towards the end of two n
twenty, you did see that he put a ton of pressure on the basket,
and we've seen that he can put a ton of pressure on the basket,
and even just having things like he took a career high twenty point six
percent of his shots from three to ten feet last year. That twenty point
six percent of his shots came between three and ten feet last year, and
that was a career high. You probably want more of those looks to come
from actual point plate blank range. Can he change just take off points or
just be more aggressive finishing through traffic. He can make the tweaks through his
game, but I think he's already at that MVP level. I guess if
you are going flat out against let's get to this, the Celtics need to
be top three in the Eastern Conference, probably a top five to seven team
overall in the league for him to just go into that consideration. It just
needs to happen at this point. I don't necessarily agree with that stance.
I do think for the most part, it's a matter of fact, a
matter of a matter of life. Within the MVP race. You might eventually
see again where you have the Russell Westbrook type season where he's just completely on
a zone. The team just lost one of the best players of all time,
and he's doing anything and everything to keep them afloat, and they're winning
at a forty five win plus win pace, so they sneak into that MVP
award, and a conference could be so deep that a really good team is
technically is a six seed, that it could happen again. I just don't
think it's going to next season, and voters are going to gravitward the best
players on the best team. So the Celtics need to be really good.
What would help Jason Tatum there is that if they're top three in the East,
I think they've probably exceeded expectations relative to the national discourse right now where
people are expecting from them overall. And so if you're outperforming teams like the
Heat, the Knicks, the Hawks, even I doubt they outperformed the Bucks,
eam Nets, I would be flabbergasted if that happened. Catastrophe has struck
in one of those two situations. If that's what's happening. So top three
in the East. Now, let's say that they are, and that Jason
Tatum's numbers are relatively the same. Maybe he's at like twenty seven points,
eight rebounds, five assists, YadA, YadA, YadA, similar efficiency hitting
all off the triple jumpers. If they're going flat out against a team in
Dallas, maybe they're top three in the West, and Luca Nanchich is averaging
a triple double or thirty points in temple assists per game, or Lebron is
doing the same thing for the Lakers. It does get difficult to beat those
guys out because of how responsible they are for their team's offense. And I
think that's a big part of this where even if subconsciously, a lot of
people are will be drawn towards the players who are the offensive lifelines, not
just the top scorers, but also responsible for a lion share of the offensive
creation for others like Nicole Yokich with Denver, or Lebron in Los Angeles,
Luca in Dallas. So and I don't know that Jason tam Then stands out
enough on defense like a Janis would for him to overcome that gap in roles.
And it's not even a gap, it's there's just it's it's it's it's
like a form. His role takes a different form than that of Lebron.
The Celtics never asked him to be there Lebron. I doubt they'll do that
this season because they do have other guys who can handle the ball, and
that's also never been his style. But if he makes the playmaking another playmaking
leap, and let's there was a playmaking uptick last year. If he makes
the leap, I think that's his most efficient path in addition to the Celtics
being really good to his winning the MVP Award next season. Would I bill
him as a top five MVP candidate, I would not top ten, And
I put him in there and at my own personal ladder, like, yeah,
I think he could easily be in the top ten. When you're looking
at who's most likely to win? Is he a top ten candidate by the
most basic criteria, the one that we've seen when looking at players to win.
I mean you get the five ahead of him fairly quickly at this point,
probably like you're definitely putting Lebron Yo Kitch, Janie Luca ahead of him.
That's for right. There are probably someone from the Nets, whether it's
Kevin Durant or James Harden probably a steph too. So the Celtics success would
have to really be up there and shock people, because I think that would
go a long way towards his case. But there also needs to be that
playmaking leap, and I don't even know if he's going to be. Yeah,
he might get to five plus assist. If he really wants to enter
that top five discussion, it will become more of a no brainer candidate.
Can he get to like six or seven? That might really disarm people there.
I don't know that the Celtics are going to ask him to do that.
I think it's he's probably capable, but just as Kevin Rants never been
saddled with that much playmaking responsibility, I do not necessarily know that he will
be in Boston either. Next question, Nick Wilson asked, are the Spurs
actually going to be as boring as everyone is making them out to be.
That's like a right of summer or right of off season is to talk about
how boring the Spurs are going to be. I suppose I don't find them
boring. They do feel like they're rebuilding without having fully committed to it.
And unless you're if you're not interested in the developments of you know, Josh
Primo is going to be I think the youngest player in the NBA next season,
and they gave him during the time that he was healthy in summer league
a lot of on ball license. If he's going to get that during the
regular season, They're gonna be a shit ton of fun. What's gonna happen
with Lonnie Walker? Are they going to agree to an extension that they don't?
Are they going to give him more responsibility because he kind of had a
down year. De Jontay Murray Derek White two older guys but still sort of
to the point where they could get better. Is do either of them break
out as this number one option now that Demarda Rosen and LaMarcus Aldridge are both
gone? What does Kelvin Johnson look like? Does he has more of a
more layers to have offensive game where he's like kind of reckless and a bull
in a china shop right now? But is there more finesse to his game?
Can he hit more off off the dribble jumpers? If Zach Collins is
healthy, if he plays at any point this season, what does that look
like? When we see more of Lucasimanis this season, it feels like the
Spurs have sort of just been hiding him for this first two seasons of his
career and now might be the time where they break him out a little bit.
There are a lot of interesting players on this team to me, unless
you think that they're going to obliterate expectations and enter the playoff race. Maybe
they hold on a Daddy's Young all year. Doug McDermott has a great follow
up to what he was doing in Indie last season. Devin Missell might make
a jump. He is one of my favorite prospects. I think he's going
to be a really good player for a really good team eventually. I don't
find the Spurs boring. Maybe people, and I don't say this insulting,
because there are you know, I'll call them assholes who use casual fans like
this derogatory term, and a lot of them are well respected, like media
members. This is not just This is not just people who say, oh,
you're a casual on Twitter, like we need to get away from that.
If people watch basketball casually, I welcome you. I want people to
watch and enjoy the NBA. However they want to watch and enjoy the NBA.
Digressing again there, though, is the casual fan going to be,
you know, have this magnetic pull to the Spurs? My guests would be
no what I think they could do and they're not necessarily built to do it.
But they're not not built to do it either. They could just decide
to play super fast, like just unleash these lineups, just get out and
transition even more. That could be difficult. I mean you don't have the
Marty Rozeno is a very methodical player, but you still do have a you
know, Jacca Peardle if he's on the court, I mean even he's like
someone who could run the floor. And yeah, de Jante Murray and Derek
White appoints might want to play a little bit more methodically or deliberately. But
just between Kelton Johnson and even just even these other guys that Devin Missel,
like I said, with a Yacca Peurdle, looking at your bigs. Batty
is young like your fistots there who could run the floor, Kelvin Johnson and
they already mentioned him for sure. Maybe you could just play it like this
wildly fast pace that no one was expecting, and you won't be going but
just the sheer number or the sheer breadth of player development that will be going
on. Whether the Spurs are rebuilding, we're still trying to exist in that
gray area between competing and rebuilding. I think they could certainly be interesting,
and I hope they're willing to experiment and also give youth a chance, and
there are none he forced to in some instances, But I'm talking about expanding
the role of Devin Missel actually playing Josh Primo, and even giving Lucas some
monage more of a chance doing things along those lines that could make them more
interesting than perhaps people are expecting. And who knows, maybe they are planning
to do that. Last two questions here are actually yeah, let's go.
Let's go. Two more questions. Krong four asked, is there an untouchable
Lebron stat? What's his most outrageous stat? And so I'm guessing this refers
to career achievements rather than just last season, so all focus on that.
I think what's going to end up being maybe his most untouchable stat. I
feel like he's going to finish his career the all time leader in minutes played
in the postseason and the regular season. Right now, he is third at
sixty one thou ninety one minutes. He will finish second that next year,
borrowing any injury, ahead of Carmelone, who's in second place at sixty two
thousand, almost eight hundred minutes. A little under that, Kareem is roughly
four thousand minutes away from Lebron, and so that's like two more years worth.
So if he plays for another three to four years, he's going to
shatter that. And it's sort of looking at how basketball is played now where
there's I guess it's load management. I just feel like teams are more cautious
with their young stars early where they're not even necessarily missing games. You know,
not every player is subject to this Kawhi Leonard curve that gets blown a
way out of proportion to me. But we're not seeing, you know,
the younger guys averaging thirty eight forty minutes a game because rotations are deeper,
and that's how maybe you're managing workloads rather than having players sit out a bunch
of games. I'm just curious whether which player is going to end up really
touching that. I mean, Lebron is third all time in minutes played in
the playoffs in regular season combined. I'm scrolling down the list right now to
find the next active player on this list, and it's Carmelo Anthony at thirty
two. Who is, you know, a full almost seventeen thousand minutes behind
Lebron combined. I'm just i don't, just as Kareem has had this record
for decades at this point, once Lebron gets it, I'm just gonna assume
that he gets it. I feel like it's something that will hold for a
while, something that's a little bit more interesting. I don't know if it's
as untouchable, but this is his most ridiculous stat to me. This dude
just turns out twenty five, five and five seasons like it's nothing. Lebron
has fifteen seasons in which he's one qualified for the minutes per game leaderboard Leaderboard
and two average at least twenty five points, five rebounds of five assist per
game. Fifteen seasons of that. The next the second. The player to
have the second most of these seasons is Oscar Robinson eight. Kobe Bryant and
Michael Jordan are tied for third at seven. James Harden is currently fifth at
six. Larry Bird, Kevin Durant, Tracy McGrady, Jerry west and Russell
Westbrook all had Slash have four. What's interesting here is I think you look
at a Luca Doctors has two of these seasons already, so I think you
can look at him as a threat to this so I'm not saying the stat
is untouchable, but with a lot of these other guys like James Harden didn't
start racking up these types of numbers until later in his career. Kevin Durant's
kind of always on the fringes of it. I think you can ask yourself,
well he have the assist numbers even again when you look at the types
of teams that he's playing for. So this is a really hard benchmark to
reach because here's what's going to happen is one it's either going to take you
a little while to reach the twenty five and five mark consistently, even in
this era of basketball, because maybe you don't start out as in high of
a usage role for the first one to four seasons of your career. Not
everyone has just immediately given that type of offensive agency, or you're going to
age out of it very quickly. And so Lebron is not like who's playing
until their age thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven seasons at this type
of level. We've just really never seen it before. This is just on
precedent when you're looking at the durability, the responsibility. So yeah, maybe
Luca Johnsons gets there. But even you know James Harden, you could say,
well, if he had played like he is now for longer, he
just didn't have that luxury in Oklahoma City. That's part of this longevity is
that Lebron has had this role, been this end all be all since basically
entering the league to where he just turns out twenty five five and five seasons
like Michael Jordan and Oscar Robinson combined have the same number of twenty five and
five seasons as Lebron James for their career. I think you can even say
Lebron having this might be an even crazier way to frame it is that Lebron
has the same number of twenty five, five and five seasons for his career
as James Harden, Kevin Durant, and so as and Russell Westbrook do combine.
They have fourteen, so he has one more than them. Let me
start tripping over my words. Lebron has more combined seasons of averaging twenty five,
five and five for his career than James Harden, Kemn Durrant, and
Russell Westbrook do combine right now, fifteen to fourteen. That's a wild fucking
stat to me, even it's just raw numbers, and I understand when you're
comparing generations, all those players played in this year of basketball. So I'm
making it that's a what the fucksta for Lebron that just flies under the radar
now because again he spits out twenty five and five seasons like they're they're absolutely
nothing. This is a let's go with this. Final question from Jay Cobb
asked who's the most efficient guard who played less than thirty minutes but more than
ten minutes last year. I did have to research this question because that's a
very specific question. So what I did here is I ended up sorting inficiency
by true shooting percentage, and we'll get into, you know, whether the
players will on there or not. I also said they had a at least
half of their team's games last year, So how to make a minimum of
thirty six appearances the leading guard? And I should actually go with raw guard
here as I'm looking at this, because the first the first player spits out
plays some played some forward last year, so this is defining guard by how
Basketball Reference defines it. The most efficient guard to meet this criteria was Damian
Lee of the Golden State Warriors sixty three six true shooting percentage. Garethan Matthews
Garrison Matthews was two sixty three five. Rin Forbes was third sixty three point
one. Edmund Sumner was fourth sixty two point six, and shout out to
Edmund Sumner who was just recently suffered major injuries and really suffer for Wayne Allington
was fifth sixty two five true shooting percentage. Daron Brunson sixty one point eight
true shooting percentage at six block Procton Madanovich at number seven, sixty one point
six true shooting percentage, Thomas and Ranski at eight sixty one four tru shooting
percentage, John Concer at nine sixty point eight, Luconnard at ten sixty point
eight tri shooting sex set Sex Curry, Yes, Sex Curry. Seth Curry
was at eleven for anyone who cares at sixty point seven true shooting. Now,
when you're looking at these players, not all these guys are creating a
ton of their own shots. A lot of these guys also aren't going up
against starters. If you're just asking me from this group, who fits the
bill, who was the most efficient guard who played between ten plus and sub
thirty minutes per game. It would have to be Seth Curry. To me,
they're just looking at his role and what it was. I think there's
a case to be made maybe for Awayne Ellington, Jalen Brunson or Bogdan Bedanovitch
when he just kind of looked at the ball handling that he was even saddled
with yet a bigger He did struggle to stay healthy, but he was a
bigger part of the ball handling pecking letter in Atlanta than Seth Curry was in
Philly. In my estimation, Jail Brunson certainly belongs there at least, you
know, prior to the playoffs. So those guys are all in there.
But a lot of these players that are popping up on a list, there
are guys that aren't asked with creating their their own shot, and there could
be some smaller sample bias in there. But look, if if I was
Garrison Matthews his agent, I would just point out that he is second on
this list, and why hasn't a team free and signed me yet? That'll
do it for me and this mailbag. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
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and as always, I'll leave you with the shout out to the one,
the only, the still, somehow, some way, inexplicably, I'm forgivably.
Hi, Frank Milichi