Hello, everyone, Welcome to the latest episode of Hardwood Knocks, as well
as the first episode coming to you between the NBA's regular season and the play
and Tournament slash postseason. It's an exciting time of year as we gear up
for the most meaningful games on the basketball calendar, and we couldn't be more
excited, and we're both looking behind and forward in this episode as we dive
into our all defensive teams and all rookie teams. We already covered all NBA
squads in a previous episode, so if you haven't heard that one, go
ahead and check it out, as well as subscribe to the podcast to make
sure you're not missing any other episodes. We're available basically everywhere at that point.
Dan, I'll have more details on that later, but we're also going
into some mail back questions as well, which are inevitably looking back at the
regular season and forward into the postseason. So a lot of stuff to be
excited about in this episode, even though there were some difficult choices as always
on these all whatever teams. Before we dive into any of that, I
have to ask our resident Tank, Dan, how's it going. I am
tired. I am also helped someone move a very modest amount of furniture into
their new house yesterday, so I could barely get through my leg workout today.
Years old, and I'm not happy about it. That kind of invalidates
the tank thing. Yeah, Dad, Look, I've been posting this will
be a great plug. Go follow us everywhere YouTube, Hardwood Knox, They're
all on the description Instagram at Hardwood, Underscore Knox, TikTok at Hardwood Knox.
I've been posting exclusive content to IG and TikTok this past week, so
I'll try and do that a couple of times a week. And someone reached
out ben I will name their full name and said that they agreed with my
thoughts on the Lakers and that I was looking like a tank. I immediately
told Adam about it. I also told my older sister, who's a workout
freak as well. She says, I think that means fat, and then
I had a few choice words for her after she said that. But so
that was fun, but I did not feel like a tank today. I
felt very old. How are you doing, I'm good, got to go
on a nice hike this morning. Ready to talk some basketball. It's been
a weird week for me. You know, we there're some some work stuff
that came up towards the end of the week and we had to have some
layoffs of people who I really like in respect at the end of the week
at sports casting. So shout out to all of them. You know,
if if you're looking for for good writers both about basketball and other sports,
go give them follows. I would echo all that we're gonna get into the
all Rookie All defense stuff first, Which one did you and we'll go through
quickly since the regular season is over and we went in depth on all NBA
all the awards already. Specifically, I think like everyone who listened to that
podcast kind of knows where this is going. But you want to start there
All Rookie, Yeah, so all Rookie first Team. I think it's pretty
obvious. At least for the first four spots, I would say Scotty Barnes,
Evan Mobile Kid Cunningham, and then Friends Wagner. Wagner isn't quite in
that same top tier as the other three for the Rookie of the Year race.
His scoring talent has just been on full display all season long. He's
played a pretty big role for an admittedly struggling Orlando Magic team. He if
he isn't on your first team, you've filled out the ballot wrong. You
should go back and fix that. The fifth spot is the one that I
thought was at least a little bit up in the air. If you want
to make an argument for Josh Giddy given the passing he's put on display for
the Thunder throughout the season, I get it. If you want to have
Jalen Green, who has just been a phenomenal lights out scorer for the Houston
Rockets during the second half of the season, likewise, I get it.
I still view these awards as recognition of the totality of the season, which
is why I still have Herb Jones earning that final first team spot. One
of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA this season, he just seems to
appear out of nowhere to disrupt passing, lands gets his hands in all sorts
of places you just wouldn't expect during the flow of a normal possession. Just
incredibly disruptive and also pretty good on the ball for a first year guy with
some offensive skill, even if that's by no means his calling card. So
it wasn't an easy decision to put him here, but it also wasn't like
a difficult one for me. Yeah, I mean you have to I view
it like you do when I'm looking at the totality of the seasons, and
it really I struggled with the Jalen Green versus Herb Jones thing on the first
team, specifically because Jalen Green has been lights out over the past two months
or so. But you also have to look at the difficulty that was ascribed
to his offensive role that Herb Jones doesn't have. Now. With that in
mind, it was a difficult role for Jalen Green, but it was also
a freedom that a lot of other players don't get to enjoy as well.
And I think you have to look at it as like, you know,
Herb Jones was among like players who actually logged at least a thousand minutes this
year. He was in the top five of matchup difficulty on defense. That
matters that. I think we can all agree that great offense is going to
be more valuable in great defense. But you had one of the hardest,
highest volume defensive roles in the league as a rookie. I ended up putting
him there too, especially because I thought as the season one otis he showed
just enough on offense to make it easier I think for me than it was
for you. I'm gonna go into my second I had the same exact first
team as you, so I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you who's
on my second team. And I'm curious just to know what your honorable mentions
would be, because I know you went to a third team. I have
Jalen Green, Ioda soon move Bones Highland, Josh Giddy, and Alpern Shangoon.
I thought about Jonathan cominga here, but I don't think he My last
inclusion was Shangoon, who's been really good, just sort of a lower vau
role. And he also though the totality of his work probably outstrips that of
Bonen's Highland two. So those are probably like the two that could have been
bounced if he really wanted to. But I just don't know that Kminga really
had like a steady enough role. And I will say the one that I
think you, I think Josh Giddy's a have to have to have to include.
I don't want to say I think he's become overrated, but like you
know, he was get sub fifty crew shooting is not great. The one
that has to be on here is Io hum Lou just absolutely because we consider
him for the first team. iOS like guarding every position. And it wasn't
just like he was able to like he was handling the ball for Chicago,
he was making passes, like serving as like the primary playmaker at times.
I can get version of the bulls too, Yeah, not just like the
lesser one that we've seen in recent weeks. Right, And it was also
I mean it was born from necessity because they had so many injuries, but
like that's even more important that he came in was able to have that type
of impact. Leaving him off the first team was also like, really,
my only discrepancy was I did have Sangun on my honorable mentions my de facto
third team, in favor of Kminga, And that's the debate I had internally.
Ultimately, I think Cominga did enough in high leverage situations because he started
to fill a bigger role when the Warriors were suffering through some injuries and trying
to stay afloat in the top half of the Western Conference, that he did
play some impactful, meaningful minutes and looked good doing it an easier role most
likely, but the minutes mattered. Schangun peaked pretty early and just has either
flown beneath the radar or just not quite been as effective at various points throughout
the second half of the season, just kind of lost a little bit of
steam. Still obviously looks like a long term rotation player, high end rotation
player in Houston. The other honorable mentions I had because I did do that
third team, so Changun headlined it, but then I had Austin Reeves,
Chris Dreezer Williams, and have to give a shout out to Jose Alvarado,
who if he had gotten this role that he's had midway through the season as
opposed to in the final third of the season, he might be displacing someone
on the second team, because what a what a find undrafted out of Georgia
Tech. Some of the plays that he's put together where he kind of hides
in the corner and then snakes behind a guy and steals steals it as they're
dribbling up the court. So smart, so unique, and it's it's been
really fun to watch him carve out a big role d Warnte was a really
tough person to leave out of this. He was entirely he was. That
was the I mentioned Cominga, but the ones that I have in notes,
he's right there and I thought about putting him over Shango for some reason.
Bones Highland was more of a no brainer inclusion for me than Shane oun So.
I don't I don't really know what that says that it was. It
was really super tough. I think most might probably have Bones Highlands out and
would put Christa warn't they in would be my guess, we're our biggest discrepancies.
It's gonna be an interesting one there. I think that it'll be two
of the three between Highland, shen Gun and Comega. Nothing for Davion Mitchell,
for you. I actually wanted to find a way to include him,
but bumped him out for Austin Reeves for the final spot on my third team.
Yeah, I mean Austome Reaves are even Trey Man Desert. I don't
know if you mentioned him. If he did, then I did not apologize.
But this this rookie class is so fun and so deep they are,
I mean even beyond the names we are throwing out now there there are more
who looked like they will like Kesler Edwards is just it's like you look at
this and and Jose Alvarado, by the way, was a good mention.
He's a very entertaining watch if anyone is really into just like small dude who
work their asses off. Jose Alvarado is is the guy. But like you
just look at and I know he wasn't in this draft class or anyone who's
gonna be like, well, actually, when you just go up and down
like the names, I don't know if this is super recency biased, but
you go through just like the rookies that have played minutes this year, and
it's like, are there like forty rotation players from right grass cat right.
The other thing is like he didn't have a big role. I really love
Jaalen Johnson in Atlanta. I think that's someone who's gonna wind up panning out.
And perhaps this and Usman Gruba in Houston, like perhaps this is all
just like Hunky, I still believe in him even if he's gonna be fine.
Yeah too, and so uh yeah, this is rookie. This is
gonna be interesting. And I know John Hollinger at Athletic actually already wrote about
this. But if we like I want, well, I don't want to
because I'll be old again. I feel washed now. But skip ahead like
three or five years and then go look back at this rookie class. That's
gonna be an interesting exercise. So I'll start us off with first team All
defense since you did first team All Rookie. Uh. I had Michael Bridges
and my defensive player of the Year, so of course he was going to
be a first team guard for me. Related positions are stupid and we should
get rid of them. Marcus Smart was my other guard. I think that
should make you happy. I had Rudy Gobears my center, Jannis as a
forward, and that Jet and Jackson Junior as my other forward. I do
think we've had this mention in the discord a few times, and I've seen
Grizzlies Twitter get like. I don't want to say up in arms because that's
a criticism, but Grizzly Twitter has come out and said Jaren Jackson Junior needs
more support for defensive player of the Year. I don't necessarily disagree. He's
been spectacular. He was not my defensive player the year. I don't even
think I had him in my top three. I went back and watched more.
Maybe he would, but I feel like there's certain simplicity to not simplicity.
This is gonna get me in so much trouble. I just when I'm
looking at Gobert Jannis and Michael Bridges, I view their roles as exponentially harder
than what Jaron Jackson Junior did in Memphis, and he was. He kept
line up to float without Morant. He kept line up to float without Morant
like even playing in certain games. That's part of why the Grizzlies were so
good. So I don't want to take away anything for him. He's on
my first team all defense. If you disagree with anything I said, he's
still paid my first team all defense. You put the shovel down eventually there.
It took some time, but you got it. You got it.
Yeah. I just I was surprised at how people I think even I've seen
some people that hadn't at one other defensive Player of the Year rank. I
that was just surprising for me. I think that's fine this year where there
are like six candidates where I think you can reasonably argue them at number one.
I had the same guards Marcus s Martin mchaeal Bridges. My forwards,
I had Jannis and bam Adebayo, though Jaren Jackson Junior was a tough exclusion
there, and I had Robert Williams the third at my center spot. So
they're all such minor discrepancies here because everyone you mentioned who I didn't have is
on my second team. My second team, I had Fred van Fleet,
Matisse Tyble, Jaren Jackson Junior, Joel Embiid if he's eligible at forward for
all NBA then we can do the same here, and then Rudy Gobert.
So all the same names, just slightly different orders. So my second team
sort of deviated. I never Robert Williams any my all defensive teams. Well,
you're just wrong. I still think he's your most egregious Awards pick would
be would be my default here. But so my second team guards were Drew
Holiday and Fred van Fleet. I know Drew Holiday. There are points where
I don't know that he struggled, but it was just he couldn't be as
aggressive as I think he was as he used to be because of what was
happening behind him. But he adjusted to that and he's still one of the
just most unstopped. You included only like the last month, that he's a
first steamer for sure. I mean, if you put Drew Holiday, I'm
trying to think of who I would bounce. He wouldn't mean agreed, just
pick. If you said, hey, Drew Holiday needs to be on there
over, I mean Marcus Martin, Mikhel Bridges not I, I'd probably push
back against that. So I tracked that I think you can Micael Bridge just
to forward and you'd be fine. There you go just quietly. A defensive
monster too, has that Kyle Lowry energy to him where it's just like defend
at all costs, even to the detriment of his body. It does feel
like sometimes. So that was this was the guard spot that gave me trouble.
I haven't teased Tibos a forward. I don't know if he's gonna be
eligible forward, but he should be. If he's not, positions are dumb.
If he's not, I would have had him over Van Fleet to make
that clear. And I would have probably went with Joel Embiid, who did
not make it. Because I have Bam Matabayo and Evan Mobley's around on my
front court. I think either of them will be eligible at center. I
think Bam has played more center than Evan Mobley, who spent a ton of
time alongside Jared Allen. The stuff Mobley has done, and he would be
the first rookie to make an All Defense even since Tim Nuncan, which happened
quite a while ago. I can't just get off of how like all encompassing
his role is where it's like he's a wing and he's a guard, but
he can also be a big. And I know there's been some drop off
from the Cavaliers when they don't have Jared Allen, but he's still been able
to keep certain lineups afloat just the positional It's not even malluability, it's just
obfuscation in what he does. Like I can watch him play defense and just
come away exhausted from that experience and impressed obviously at howat By no means an
ingregious inclusion for my third team my honorable mentions I had Drew Holiday, her
Jones, Evan Mobley, Al Horford, and Jared Allen. So again,
like minor discrepancies, Mobley's incredible. I think that I feel like there's a
chance that either him or Herb Jones makes this Probably Mobley is the better candidate
for the actual voters, just because he has been in the spotlight for a
much larger portion of this season, even though herb Jones, I would argue,
has been every bit as good, maybe in a slightly less impactful role,
just because he doesn't spend time around the rim like Mobiley does. But
Holiday and Mobley were the two toughest for me to not include on my actual
second team. I did consider putting Herb Jones over Van Fleet, where I
would have moved Tip with the guard, and I was just like, I
don't know if I was too much of a coward to have two rookies on
the all defensive team, but that is something that I actually consider, yeah,
deservedly. So let's get into the mailbag, and we'll start with and
I'm going back here because we haven't done a mailbag in a while, we've
been so busy with other podcasts. And we'll begin with the Discord questions.
At X, Patty asked for our biggest disappointment of the season and biggest surprise
of the season. At X Patty gave theirs, which was how dominant the
Suns have been in the clutch was their biggest surprise, and the biggest disappointment
was the Lakers, but also not really getting to see the Bulls all healthy.
Yeah, I think my biggest disappointment, I say while wearing an Atlanta
Hawks hat, has been the Hawks because I fully expected this team, which
featured so much continuity, most significantly from every notable player who did a lot
of good things during the Eastern Conference Finals run that ended at the hands of
the Milwaukee Bucks last season, to be back in that top half of the
Eastern Conference, maybe even competing for a top two seed. And instead the
Hawks are. You know, I have not paid attention to the scorers yet
today, but they're they're in the Plan Tournament. I don't know exactly what
number it's going to be, we will at the time of this being released,
so apologies for the lack of detail there, but they do have to
play in the Play Attorney just to make the postseason proper, and that is
a massive disappointment. Trey Young has had an incredible season, but it feels
like everyone else around him has not. Clint Capella has really been unable to
perform like he did last year. I think he came into the year a
little bit hobbled, struggled to get going, just hasn't looked as explosive as
he did during that twenty twenty one campaign, and Yekakongu has not really taken
that step forward that was necessary to replace the diminished production from Capella. Jandre
Hunter has not taken that stride for Cambradish no longer plays in Atlanta, even
though he was expected to be another breakout candidate. It feels like that that
guard rotation behind Trey Young has not really solidified, where it's still just a
mishmash of pieces, all of whom struggled to find consistency. So this Hawks
team has just been nowhere close to the expected level. Could still be a
pretty tough out in the playoffs should they make it, because Young is that
explosive and is that good at diagnosing a defense and adjusting how he dominates on
offense that you do not want to face him in a second in a seven
game series. But this season has just been an unmitigated disaster. I would
argue even beyond the level of disaster we've seen from the Lakers, who we
were both low on picking them more as like a team that should finish around
like six to eight than number one in the Western Conference even before the season
it started. And the Brooklyn Nets, because while they have also fallen so
far short of expectations that at least can be more easily explained away, we
identified them as a as a potential risky team to have in the very top
of your Eastern Conference standings because of the injury concerns. That was before Kyrie
Irving decided that he wasn't going to play basketball from to the season. So
I don't view those as disappointments on the same monumental level, I would mostly
agree with you. I think I actually picked the over for the Lakers.
I don't know if I was tripping an ascid when we did that podcast.
So I'm just this is to call myself on you. They are a disappointment
though, because they were this bad, like we're talking, but the biggest
one, so my biggest one was actually the Hawks. I'm just gonna throw
in some other nominations because I don't have anything to add other than the Hawks
defense for most of the season, like against live balls. If you watch
them, if they're committing a turnover, if they missed a shot it has
to. I have not looked at the data on this, and quite sometimes
I haven't needed to write about it. I would almost bet obscene amounts of
money that they're like in the bottom two of the league and just live ball
defense they're so bad and which is disappointing. And addition everything you said,
I do think the Lakers are disappointment. I think the Nets are actually a
candidate as an answer here though, because just the way that James Harden stuff
is out, the Kyrie Irving situation, the tone deafness of that all,
and then just also sort of looking at I know they were banged up and
now they're getting some really good play out of Nicholas Claxton, but it was
just like their front court rotation has been a mismatch. Their defense really deteriorated
as the season went on. Some of it can be explained away by injuries.
That Joe Harris one is not something that you expect. He only appears
in fourteen games. However, it's like you said at the top, you
have to at least account for some level of absences here because this is now
the third year and that this includes the year that he missed the entire one
where Duran has missed extensive time, you have to like that's part of it.
Kyrie Irving has always had stuff, and then James Harden was dealing with
hamstring injuries before even coming into this season. But then there's just a disappointment
overall because it's like you the three Stars couldn't get on the same pit.
They were championship inevitables coming into the season and now and during the final day
of the season they were aspiring seven seeds. Basically is well, that's like,
I understand a lot of shit happened, but that still based on all
that, it was a disappointment to me. I think you could also throw
in the You could maybe throw in the Blazers. Good, no, look,
we both respect. I think you can throw in the Knicks in the
sense that I'm not surprised they missed the playoffs. Remember, at the beginning
of the season, my prediction was the Raptors would win more games than the
Knicks and then win a playoff series. That might be the only prediction I
get right, although who knows if they win their first round playoff series.
The Knicks are disappointing and they were on my list because they just can't get
out of their own way. There's always extracurricular like ass hattery going on there
where it's why are you giving up a first round pick for cam Reddish?
Why was it a thing he was dealing with injuries beforehand? Wasn't good beforehand?
And that's look, I hope cam Reddish ends up panning out and I
hope he makes a lot of money in his next contract whatever. That was
just like terrible management to not really move off any veterans at the deadline.
Yes, you're still giving opportunities to the kids now, but a person like
Alec Burks, Yeah, his value a little bit up in recent weeks,
but he might have been most valuable leading into that. What is going on
with Julius Randall. There is there a real disconnect between TIMS and the front
office and just the fact that they weren't able to sort of properly evaluate their
season in time. It took them too long to get to the point that
they did. I don't think they're the biggest disappointment because, as you said,
I think we expected them to regress as a team, but progress isn't
linear, and they really you know RJ. Barrett came on after the new
year. Aside from that, like the team itself, when you take away
the record, it took too long for them to show that more complicated progress
or at least as a team. I'm talking about the front office or the
coaching staff, whatever, just the comprehension of where they actually were at.
And my last one, I think you could throw Portland in here, by
the way, I think that's legitimate, Utah, just the way that things
have unraveled there and their defense without Rudego Bart has been bad. The fact
that they still just have a lot of issues in transition, even when he's
on the court, because like that, you're big, isn't going to be
able to on live balls, especially after turnovers when he's tasked with rebounding on
the inside their perimeter. Players got to be smarter about getting back And don't
tell me it's like, oh, Rudy Game missed so much time. Like
it was even when Rudy Game was healthy and they were trying to run more
stuff through him, they never really seemed married to small ball. Those lineups
didn't work out as sound. Whitey has been their backup center predominantly. I
know Daniel House has had some really good moments there, but they did nothing
of significance at the trade deadline. Trading Joe Angels, Ro nik Kill Alexander
Walker always to me felt like more of a tax dump than it was,
Oh, we believe in nota we'll see if I'm wrong there, And when
you have a title window that's actually open, you need to be more aggressive
that you're already paying the tax. We commended or at least I did,
Utah for paying the tax. Is that type of market in a Western conference
like this, you're also in a Western conference that doesn't have a full strength
Nuggets or Clippers. The time is now like it was like, you're already
operating on borrow time in a sense. So to do really nothing of significance
around the ted trade deadline to elevate your championship chances to the point where now
we're hearing about bleacher reports. Jake Fisher came on the podcast and said that
Quinn Snyder is a real flight risk, that he doesn't know the exact terms
of his contract, but he can be a free agent after this season.
If Quinn Snyder can be a free agent after this season, my guess is
that he fucking leaves, and so I just feel like just the jazz,
there's been some weird stuff behind the scenes, and I don't even think it's
the Donovan, Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, whatever. They're clearly not the best
of friends. But sometimes they eat together. That's all that matters. Sometimes
they eat at the same table at them, that's all that matters. I
just feel I just saying they're a biggest disappointment. They're definitely a disappointment,
like still pushing towards still an offensive jug or not. I know they're disappointment.
They're not the biggest disappointment. That's their nomination, I know. All
I would say, uh, And then I like, because I already mentioned
Portland is probably on that spect and there might be some Wizards fans who are
disappointed based of how the start of the season went, what's actually surprised.
I was gonna say this was not my pick. I want to throw it
out there really quickly. The Pelicans should be in the aforementioned discussion, and
they're not. They have a better taste to be in this discussion when you
look at how Willie Green is like gotten them to try in transition defense,
the way that they kind of dug themselves out of the early season hole finding
herb Jones, Jose Alvarado. I don't love the look of Jackson Hayes and
you own us out and Tune is playing together, but there have been moments
where it's worked where Hayes and the four doesn't look abysmal. Brand and Ingram
making a leap as a playmaker, trying harder on defense. They are a
borderline pleasant surprise for me. With the caveat of would you have guessed Zion
wouldn't play this year exactly, the answer would be no, because he was
there at media. They say he think he's gonna be ready for the season,
or David Griffin said that or whoever. So they're they were not my
pick, but I just wanted to throw them out there. It's just it's
impressive they could be in the discussion. Yeah, I think they absolutely should
be in the conversation. I would say it, the Bulls and the Calves
both belong in the conversation. Memphis belongs in the conversation, even though they
were my biggest overlock possible going into the year for me in the West,
how are they not the second West? I think they're my backup choice.
I would actually still have I still had the Timberwolves here, because I did
not anticipate this team coming together this quickly, in this well where all of
a sudden we talked about how they had to make so much progress on defense,
In particular, Patrick Beverley, Jared Vanderbilt and the rest of this team
have coalesced into an above average defensive team. They're number fourteen and defensive rating,
Karl Anthony Town's playing with an edge, still finding a way to make
De'angelo Russell look good, Anthony Edwards to you know, admittedly have an up
and down season, but the ups have looked really good. And this is
a dangerous legitimate playoff team at this point of the season, which I would
I would have had them on the outside of that playoff picture rather easily going
into the season. This is also just a byproduct of how high I was
on Memphis, because we had offseason argument after offseason argument in which I was
like, please keep this team together. I don't want to see any big
moves. Didn't anticipate this level of leap to number two in the Western Conference
and legitimate title contender. But I think the gap between my expectations and where
the team actually sits was bigger for Minnesota. I will abstain from ever picking
the Grizzlies over because they're just I'm just gonna be wrong. I'm surprised you
went with the Timberwolves because I view this like we knew the awards where you
want to look at it in totality, and the Timberwolves finishing seventh is not
like this huge shock to me. I thought you were gonna go with the
Heat being first because of all those I mean, Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry,
Bamae Bio, all this time with injuries slash personal reasons. I actually
just went with a Grizzlies, but their second in the West. John Misses.
I don't even remember how many games he missed at this point. It
was. That's the most surprising part. Well, that plus the you know,
I was talking about how high I wasn't Desmond Bane after the Summer League,
and then he just goes and blows those expectations out of the water,
even if he slowed down a little bit in the middle of the year and
then picked back up towards the end. I just even Zayer Williams has looked
a lot better than I expected this year. Everyone thought that pick was egregious
Steven Adams. We well, maybe we didn't annihilate them, but we were
not high on that trade at all. He comes in, and I don't
know that you could say he's he's a better defender. You can say he's
a better defender than Joanna found Tunis. It's not so clear like oh,
they've fleece the Pelicans. No, Like you know, Steven Adams was a
better fit in Memphis than he ended up being in in New Orleans. So
I just knowing all that like their second in the West, Like they're just
their second in the West. I don't know how they're not the biggest surprise
of the year. And I understand you were high on Memphis to begin with,
but I'm just looking at like even John Moran, I never would have
picked him as the betting favorite for most improved player this year because of how
good he already was. Totally fair. I think. I think if you
went back and listened to our off season previews and like the over under episodes
and stuff, it would feel hypocritical for me to pick Memphis here because I
was just so far in their camp at every step of the way. I
was also gonna say Cleveland certainly belongs here. I can't. I've seen like
stuff from their fans on Twitter that they're mad and how the rest of the
season's gone. It's like, you dealt with all these injuries and you're ahead
of schedule relative like where you were supposed that you can't. It's not all
of a sudden, Oh, this team one game, So the fact that
they're not a title contender is bullshit. The bulls I was going to push
back on, but I remember how both of us were so low on them.
Yeah, and I think even their best case outcome would probably be around
forty five forty six victories. The thing is is they dealt with like two
would have been all defense players probably and Lonzo Ball and Aus Crews a missing
a ton of time. Even beyond that, Like we both interpreted this question
as team centric that wasn't actually sified. I think you can make a case
that Demarda Rosen is the single biggest surprise this season. How many outlets had
him as maybe the worst free agent move of the entire offseason, and he
was in the MVP discussion and is probably going to get some back of the
ballot votes after another surge towards the end of the year, like he's been
unbelievably good. I think that that was not what was supposed to happen.
That was a good point because he's got and he's going to make an All
NBA team. I would be he was one of my agonizing final picks,
but he's I think we both know that, Like, he's going to make
the NBA team. This next question is fascinating from strops. Where would you
rank a d after this feat this season? Top fifteen, top twenty,
etc. I would still have him in the top fifteen. Ultimately, Ultimately
he is a ridiculously good Ra's not He's not the Batman. He is not
going to Chris Middleton. He's a honest he's the Robin got it? Yeah,
yeah, exactly. He's he's not going to carry a team by himself,
but if you put him next to any sort of talent, he's gonna
look really good. And he was still an incredibly positively impactful player when available,
And it's the availability that's the question more than the skill set, and
those are legitimate concerns. He's definitely slow to recover. He's definitely, you
know, subject to a lot of minor ailments that keep him off the floor.
But when he plays, he's a top ten guy. No, he's
not. Let's it's it's time to stop that, it's over, it's done.
He's not top ten anymore. You need to like have some zemblins of
self sustaining offense to be top ten. And let's let's just think about the
names, Yo, Kitch, jan Embiid, Don Chich, Lebron, Kevin
Durant, Steph that's nine. You're gonna tell me that you're picking. I
can't. I can't fucking count to top fifteen is more fair than top ten?
Well, that's what I wanted to ask. Would you rather have Anthony
Davis or Lebron next year? Lebron? It's not even I'm kidding. I
actually have questions for you that I think kind of determined this. Yeah,
would you rather have? And I feel like these, Would you rather have
next season Anthony Davis or Carl Anthony Towns Towns? Would you rather have Anthony
Davis or Pascal Siakam? I'd still rather have Davis Starr. That's interesting.
Would you rather have Anthony Davis or James Harden Davis. Would you rather have
Anthony Davis or Paul George still Davis. I don't agree with that one.
I don't know that there's a pretty it's a pretty close one Anthony Davis or
Kawhi Kawai and that bounces Davis out of the top ten immediately there. So
I'll resend top ten. I'll stand by, I stand by right around fifteen,
I'm just I have I have two final ones, Anthony Davis or Trey
Young next year Davis, Wow, Anthony Davis or Devin Booker next year Booker,
He's I would go top twenty for me. With Davis, we gotta
stop calling him a top ten player. It's and look, maybe he comes
back and as a revenge season, but like it's, it's time. Is
tough because there's so much schematic difficulty that you have to have building a team
around Trey and you don't have with Davis where you just need another big,
big time talent. But it doesn't really matter what role that big time talent
fills. Wait can So here's my thing is that if Anthony Davis is your
best player versus if Trey Young is your best player, if they're your only
stars. If they're your only stars, then you want Trey. You don't
think Treys is easy to fit alongside other stars. I don't because I think
that if you don't put the right pieces around him, you you cap the
ceiling pretty low. I'm just if you put anything around Davis, like,
he's not going to lift you to a title, but it's going to be
a good team as long as he stays healthy. We gotta get off this
session before I say something stupid, because I'm thinking about like, would you
rather have Like there's Jason Tatum, there's Jimmy Butler. Would you rather have
Anthy? I'd rather have Tatum. I would rather have Davis than Butler.
I think I'm with you that, But like, the names are getting so
steve that I'm about to say some pretty egregious things about Anthony Davis ranking,
so I feel like we should move on. You'd rather have Anthony Davis or
Frank Niel Keena. Oh, that's a Frank Neil Kina. But that's that's
not fair. I have to make sure Davis or Julius Randall. Oh I
anty Davis ats. Patty also asked is Doc Rivers the next coach of the
Lakers who wants that gig. I mean, there'll be coaches that want that
gig, because you still presume we get the coach Lebron for at least another
two years. I don't think it's gonna be Doc Rivers, because that would
be like a really bad decision. I was just starting myself and say something
ridiculous. We gotta even beyond that, Like the Lakers has an organization more
so than any other, like having their own in that role, and Doc
Rivers doesn't have Lakers ties. And also it would be the right it would
be the wrong decision, especially if Quinn Snyder is going to be a free
agent, if you don't throw the bag at him. Although I kind of
feel like what Lebron does on offense might go against literally everything which later might
want to do on offense. But I don't think. Do you think Doc
Rivers will be the coach of the sixers might be the better question next season?
Yeah, I do. I do. I think he. I think
he has enough time with this team. That's all right, That's fair.
Other questions here that we have. This one comes from Luke j thirty seven.
TIBs might go from winning Coach of the Year to getting fired the next
season. Has that ever happened before? I feel like, what does this
say? Sorry? Feels like when a coach gets that kind of athlete,
they were often given the benefit of the doubt at least a season or two.
I think Dwayne Casey would disagree. And there was who was it in
Memphis that wanted that wasn't Yeager? Who's the one before London? Lionel Hollins
win Coach the Year? And I got can think? So there was a
point where and then Dan Tony too, there was It's not as uncommon as
you would think. Yeah, there was a point where Coach of the Year
felt like it was cursed. Let's see Lionel Hollands up. The Dwayne Casey
one was so awkward. I remember that the Raptors tweeting out the congratulations.
It was just so it wasn't Hollins because he never won Coach of the Year.
Then why am I missing? Why couldn'flate? I must be complating him
with someone else. So, but it happened to D'Antoni, did it not?
Yeah? Yeah, I think so. I mean things change quickly on
the coaching ranks and beyond that, like, it's easier to escape goat to
coach than any player because you can you know, even if you have a
twenty year deal with a coach, you can cut ties and survive that.
You can't really do that with a player. It's also the thing you can
can you can change. The Lakers would be a perfect example. I don't
talk about the Lakers too much, but just moving on from Frank Vogel is
exponentially easier and more controllable than moving on from Russell Westbrook. So the first
time, that's the first time that controllable and Russell Westbrook have been in the
same sentence. Next question comes from Ben Bender fan and this was an interesting
question, Dada. Whereas it oh for Jah's jumped to start him in year
three from possible All Star to top ten? You put that in a question
mark in the MVP race. Do you see this happening to any one?
Helps cough from Mellow cough. But in all honesty, I think the way
this is best analyzed how often do people make that kind of jump in year
three? Yeah? I feel like anecdotally it's it's pretty frequently, Like that's
the year one, the one to two jump is the one that people expect
where you're going to become like a good NBA player rather than a rookie going
through significant obstacles. But year two to three, like we've talked about in
most completely improved player discussions, how it might be worth ruling out those third
year players because that is when that leap to like true stardom happens in a
lot of situations. I was just gonna say, what makes it so unique
is how often does it really maybe it happened with Luca, but how often
does Jaws type of leap happen, know where he's already a top ten MVP
candidate by year infrequently? Definitely infrequently, And when it does, they end
up getting that m IP love like Ji is this year, Who do you
think among candidates for next year has the best chance of if anybody, who
are you considering candidates the sophomores we were heading into year three, it would
have to I guess would be Lamelboll or Anthony Edwards would be the only two.
Or even if you're I mean, you could kind of think about like
this year's rookies, if you actually think that one of them by year three
is going to be an MVP candidate. Yeah, I mean, I'm just
just looking through like the top players from that twenty nineteen draft. Well here,
let's I guess it would be it would be a twenty twenty draft,
right, yeah, so let's do it this way. I'm gonna give you,
I mean to Zion count because he would technically be well, okay,
so that's a third year. Oh well, because he missed all of this
one. Yeah, speak Count, Let's throw him in there. So let's
say this Zion, Kaig Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, LaMelo Ball,
Anthony Edwards who is more likely to make an MVP type jump by their
third season? And again, I know that this is Zion's third season.
He hasn't played. Are we including Tyrese Halib and there too if you want
to? But he clearly should not be the pick. He's not the answer.
I'm just like he's at least in the discussion. I think Cunningham is.
I think Cunningham is the guy I'm most confident makes a leap of that
magnitude, just because the field that he has for the game, without like
super noticeable weaknesses at this point is just unreal. I still have I still
have concerns about the sustainability of balls scoring. I was gonna say, I
think it's really cool that you think people are gonna watch the Pistons enough to
view Kake cunning him as an MP candidate, and that they will when they're
a good team and some good pieces there. To be clear, that's a
shot not at the Pistons or their fans, but some of just like Pistons
related takes that I've seen on the internet this year. Anyway, please carry
on. Mobley is my probably. I love this rookie class so much so
you think he would say feel like they could make a case for like Kate
Bowblian Barnes. I'm bead of anyone else. My pick is Barnes. I
think this is really tough. I could see Zion doing it, and maybe
I'm not picking him because in my head, I'm like he's headed into year
four, it's over. After Scottie Barnes, I think would probably be Kde
or Lamello. But this is I'm just gonna make more likely candidate than Ball.
That's what I was thinking too. My pick is Scottie Barnes, just
because if you also factor in they're playing for a really good team having to
be part of the MVP discussion. The Raptors are a great bet there,
more so than probably any of the other teams on this list. Edwards,
I feel like we haven't talked about enough relative to this, Kate cutting him
based on talent and game and just the scope of his impact. I think
it should be him, but I'm kind of trying to wait, like the
team aspect of it all, and is Detroit gonna be really good by year
three? If if they are, I mean him might need to be the
MVP. I'm also just not willing to rule Haliburton out here. I mean,
since he's arrived in Indiana, like averaging like just about eighteen and ten,
keeping the turnovers in checks, showing a lot more on ball creation,
flirting with fifty forty nine, there's a lot to like there. And I
think he's way better at excelling within a number of different roles than we expected,
because the appeal to him was that he could fit into any number of
roles. Why do you have Lamello so low on this list? I just
I wonder how much further he can take his offensive game because he's already such
a ball dominant presence in Charlotte and is benefiting a lot from like some of
the players around him, where the talent fits so well. I just don't
know how much more he's going to grow. Like obviously he's going to keep
getting better and keep growing. I don't know that he has that like seismic
leap as a scorer that some of these other guys have, So he needs
a size with leap. Even though he's averaging already twenty two point three points
for thirty sixpens like you don't see him, yes, because he needs to
get to it. He did get to thirty to have that MVP case.
I think I could see him a scenario where he's finishing better at the rim,
getting to the foul line more, and we see that it would I
will agree with you that it probably requires sort of a shift in mindset from
him. But this is also someone who I think can probably be like really
good defensively one day, just because of how disruptive that his length and size
can make him. With the position that he's he's I have a ball ahead
of Haliburton in this conversation. To be clear, I just I think Haliburton
deserves inclusion. The thing that I was going to push back against. Actually,
I don't think that he's like the most ball dominant player, even with
Gordon Hayward being injured. It feels like they've done stuff to move him off
the ball and put him in these situations where that he like and I'm even
looking at it now, like twenty seven percent of his shots or catch and
shoot. This is not Luca Donche. I think with heavy, heavy used
to is probably a better descriptor than Baltamer. I kind of think he's higher
up on this. If I was forced to choose right now just the three
from this, I'm probably just disqualifying Zion to make the exercise easier. I
think I would have Barnes Kade than LaMelo. Maybe LaMelo than Kade would be
on my three goes. I might just go with this year's Rookie of the
Year candidates. I think, look, that's perfectly fair enough. Let's try
to get through some of the Twitter questions that we had. We had a
few really good ones here, so I want to make sure that I get
to the to the absolute best ones. So some live podcasting here, I'm
going through the wrong tweet that I sent out, how's that? That's really
awesome? Here we are. So we have this question from November in Denmark,
and this is a bit philosophical, but with all the pushback on advanced
stats in the MVP conversation, I was curious to hear your take on how
the advanced stats do evolved slash change with new non conventional player skill sets year
to year. Love your pod, Thank you November in Denmark. I think
we continue to see the tweets that we have already seen, just employed more
frequently. I mean, so VORP has been a heavy discussion point on Twitter
and recent days because there's a bit of a straw man argument that that's the
case for Yoki to win MVP, even though it's entirely feasible to make a
convincing case without ever citing a single advanced metric for yokich and you know,
by the same token TPA and BPM and all that. But BPM has already
evolved to be BPM two point zero. It's just not called that. It's
still just called BPM, and it's not called VORB two point oh, it's
just called VORP. But when Russell Westbrook broke the metric because there was these
there were these unanticipated interaction effects between his rebounding percentage and his assist percentage.
The formula was revamped because it was shown pretty demonstrably that the metric wasn't working
as intended, and we're essentially seeing the same thing now where Yoki's numbers are
supremely and fully because passing from the big man's spot. While in the past
it has been more valuable because there was more of a correlation between that and
winning games. Because it's a non traditional idea to have an offensive half court
set centered around a true five. It's giving him too much value for his
remarkable best in the NBA passing. There's going to be a tweak to account
for that. Because the NBA evolves and the metrics evolve with it, so
so many of these catch all metrics are essentially developed by looking at correlations between
certain types of play, certain types of basic statistics, their call, their
their effect on the winning efforts, and working from there. So as those
correlations change, because the NBA itself changes, will continue to see new ones
developed and existing on and pre existing one's tweaked. So I don't know the
timeline I don't know what those tweaks look like, but I would not assume
that the catch all metrics that are most commonly cited and most frequently discussed during
the twenty twenty one twenty two season are the same as the ones that will
be cited and discussed in the twenty twenty three twenty four season. I think
you can also just look at like how EPM has become a thing. Yeah,
you pointing to the new metrics coming out. Yeah, there's the tweaks
of the stable metrics, but new ones coming out. Just the sheer number
of them that are now. They're either new or they're publicly available for the
first time, because we know that some of them have been available in some
form but behind the scenes. This was another Well, my last point on
this is, like you know, at NBA Math we use TPA, which
is an offshoot of PPM closely tied to VORP. We will never say that
that is the most accurate metric out there now. We've were quick to discuss
the shortcomings that it has, specifically with defensive points saved. If I love
this podcast, if I could interrupt you there, we did have a question
on that from those Pinado Nicole Kachisen in the race or dpo I. Yet
mbmass defensive point saved HASMM is the best defender in the league for a few
seasons. Now, why is basically the question? Yeah, So essentially,
like the reason for that is because the defensive calculation and DBP and DBPM,
the defensive portion of box plus minus from which defensive point saved is derived isn't
actually calculated by looking at defensive play. It's instead derived by looking at the
correlation, or it's looking at the total value added and subtracting out the offensive
value because theoretically offense plus defense equals total value. We're way more confident about
how valid the total part of the calculation is. The offensive one is typically
by far the most accurate, and that leaves the defensive one as an estimate,
and it's positioned as an estimate. We do talk about fairly frequently on
this podcast how it's just an estimate and when it doesn't really correspond with what
your eyes are telling you, that is the motivation to go out and figure
out why. And oftentimes you should trust your eyes in those situations, you
know, evaluate as you will. Like Yokich is not the best defensive player
in the league. He benefits from his inflated overall score the defensive rebounds that
he racks up, which, while important, are not as important as the
metric might make it seem. Tying that back to the overall point, we
use TPA not because it's the single best evaluation of a player, but because
of the historical element to it, because we can then use that to contextualize
it against scores from previous seasons because it is relative to a league average baseline
of play. So a lot of these newer metrics they don't have the same
historical ability because the input factors are so nuanced and drawn from play by play
data that doesn't exist prior to two thousand or whatever the exact year is that
we just don't have the ability. But because we do going all the way
back to nineteen seventy three and then conform strong correlations between windshare data and box
plus minus data, we can estimate it as even more of an estimate all
the way back to the beginning of the NBA days. So that's why we've
continued to use TPA, even knowing that it isn't the single most accurate catch
all metric. It isn't even close. You know you're not going to find
an NBA front office using vpnvar per TPI out there. It's the visualization aspect,
it's the historical comparison aspect that has made it the choice on the Twitter
account. Great answer, great explanations. I'm going to segue right into the
next one, which is from somewhat unbiased Rockets Fan. Very extensive question.
They ask, given the recent closeness of some MVPs, some clear winners that
in retrospect were wrong changing standards of accounts for legacy purposes, analysts still use
won awards as ce mentors of legacy, while second or third is forgotten,
and while the gap between them can be minimal, is there a better way
to measure this for legacy? There is MVP shares top ten and different measurements
per year, how often in top ten, etc. What are some thoughts
to really begin measuring legacy in a consistent way. They did add accounting for
individual stats peak versus longevity, strength or lack of a team, regular season
versus playoffs, showing up for every game versus coasting in a season, etc.
And they finished up by saying, one possibility now Kawai could come back
just as the playoffs and then possibly could win it all. Let's say then
he has another ring in finals MVP while missing the full season. This then
feeds into the rings culture season doesn't matter and it should. I don't know
where to start with this, because it's like such an overarching question. It
could be boiled down to how would you like the discourse surrounding legacies to change
or improve? Focusing specifically on the MVP point. I think that highlighting MVP
wins is way worse than highlighting MVP award shares, which just tends to be
a far more accurate portrayal of what actually happened during the season because it accounts
for the discrepancies between placements in the voting hierarchy. So I would like to
see that cited way more frequently. But ultimately, like there's no simple answer
to this question or to overall legacy discussions because it is so all encompassing.
Every ring is not the same, every season is not the same. Players
who excel in the regular season and then you know, consistently have unfortunate things
happen to them in the playoffs that shouldn't be held against them. As much
as players who are excellent in the regular season and then shirk the spotlight in
the playoffs. Chris Paul is a great example where for so many years he
was criticized because he never made it to the conference Fine. He played better
basketball in the postseason than he did in the regular season year after year after
year after year after year, and it was hard to pin the blame on
him for those playoff shortcomings. Maybe it's harder to build a team around a
shorter point guard in playoff games, particularly five years ago and even further back,
because the three point explosion hadn't quite happened to the same extent that it
has now. But even that is a great example of how every single one
of these discussions has to be nuanced. And I think that's the biggest thing,
is that there's so much oversimplification of a player's career by citing one number,
by citing one ring total, by citing whether they want a championship or
anything. And that's the most corrosive part of the overall discussion. If it
were up to me, and how I would change it is we would forget
about the exact rankings, because it's more important that Lebron James and Michael Jordan
and to an extent, Kareem Abdul Jabbar are in the goat conversation than how
specifically you order them. Seth part now has been all about this for a
long time, where he hates rankings but he enjoys tears, and I think
that's the evolution of the discourse where we're more focused on a non specific,
generalized placement than anything else. That all makes sense to me. I think
it's really hard when you talk about legacy. It's also very hard to make
cross era comparisons in general, but unbiased Rockets fan meant unbiased Rockets fan mentions
ring culture, and that's like, even the conversation around Michael Jordan is reductive
because the cites his record in the finals, when it's his actual legacy is
so much more than that. I would just argue that their needs to be
more nuanced in general, and you need to understand who you're comparing. The
tears are a great way to do that, or at least streamline that.
But like, what are you making the case for exactly? Because you can't
just make you can honestly, you can't even make up the presumption that like
Lebron is going to be number two on everyone's rankings even though there should be
a clear top two players of all time. To me, we also have
to get away from the the more egregious examples of and I'm not even gonna
name names here, but like where because players were so popular, they're so
high up on rankings. I think that's where the nuance comes in. Let's
also have honest conversations about it and go into the details of black Okay,
if someone's gonna put Kobe ahead of you know, when all said and done,
Durant, why aside from rings, well, I just get into it.
Why that's fine, Like I just want I'm not even being a troll
here, so like that would be you know, if Kevin Durant is not
going to have five championships, like that's gonna be a conversation that inverted or
not indavertently but eventually just gets oversimplified. So that's what I would just like
to see is more nuanced in general. But I do think tears are a
good way of inoculating us against having some pretty poor discussions on the subject in
general, and their ring culture in general is just bad because you end up
a situation, speaking of Durant, where if legacies are so inextricably intertwined with
ring count, of course you're going to join a super team and try to
actually win a ring because you struggle to do so, and then you get
criticized for doing that, and there's so much inconsistency within, like arguments from
the exact same people about how you know player X isn't any good because he
didn't win a ring, but player wise ring didn't count because there were too
many injuries during the postseason runs. They lucked their way to a title.
They were in the bubble. It's a Mickey Mouse ring. You know,
he joined a super team, so that ring doesn't really count. Those are
not Kevin Grant and like only having half a championship ring or something because the
two of them game with the Warriors. Yeah. Yeah, These are some
lighter hitting questions Simon. As are the Hawks the team most likely to cause
a shock and make it through the plane and then pass the first round?
I feel like they're pretty easy. No, because the nets do exist.
I just I don't believe the nets, but they have to be the who's
the team most I wonder? But I wonder if they count because they're technically
in the play in But are we only thinking of like the nine and ten
seeds as the play in teams because they're not in those top eight spots?
Then I would say, yes, it's the Hawks pretty clearly to me.
Yeah, because it's not the it's not the Spurs, it's not the Pelicans,
and it's not the Horns. Hear me out, Zion just all of
a sudden comes back. He's just been that would be that. I'm so
I cannot wait to see the Pelicans next season. I know people have said,
oh, the Clippers and Nuggets will be healthier. You still have the
Mavericks and the Suns and the Warriors, but like the Pelicans with Zion could
be reduced. Yeah. Yeah, two years from now when he plays again,
it's gonna look so good. Wow, that was really mean? All
right, this will be our last one comes from the NBA Chicken. What
are your thoughts on the Raptors versus Sixers matchup, which has been basically confirmed
as of this recording. I don't we don't feel bad about getting into it,
and they'll be a playoff actual predictions. But how do you feel about
this matchup. They also mentioned I feel like the Raptors have the defensive versatility
and coaching advantage I think in bead should will them to a seven game win.
I'm assuming he means they mean the Sixers, but I wanted to know
your thoughts, especially with the Tyble Frink cale who we do want to make
it clear or should make it clear. I saw this in our discord that
Tyble has can't play in Toronto because he's ineligible. I think it's because he
was vaccinated but hasn't received his booster as in so far as that matters,
get your fucking booster. If that's the real reason. I'll be honest that
I have not spent much time thinking about the specific matchups yet. Oh good,
just because we're recording this on the final day of the regular season,
we still have the play in tournament, so I've kind of avoided thinking about
those specifics. But just off the cuff thoughts, I would not be surprised
at all if Toronto was able to win this because they do have that defensive
versatility where they can throw a bunch of different bodies and a bunch of different
looks at a Sixers team that is ultimately pretty dependent on a select few players
if you can, if you can kind of employ the old blueprint against Dwight
Howard's Orlando Magic, where you just you let Embiide score fifty points and make
sure that Tobias Harris and James Harden don't get going. Because Harden has,
for as good as his numbers have been since arriving in Philadelphia, he hasn't
looked quite like the same player creating for himself. So if you want to
let Himbide get his frustrate the hell out of Harden, who has had playoff
difficulties, and then make sure that Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxie don't get going,
I think that you have enough to squeeze out a long series win here.
Would I picked Toronto straight up to win? I don't think so.
But this one, this should be one of those four or five matchups that
really could go either way. I think that I would pick, as of
right now, the Raptors to win it. And it's not just because Tible
won't be there, but their Phillies transition defense has been a problem for pretty
much all of this year, not having Tible for up to four games of
the seven is going to be a clear issue. Harden like has some of
the counting stats, but he's just not looked right and they're going to get
absolutely trucked in the no Ebid minutes if what's happened. As far as any
indication, the Sixers net rating when Harden plays without Embi minus eleven point six
right now, and I get that he's doing I don't want to say more
heavy lifting, but they've made the clear decision of tyres, Maxie and eb
are going to play the no Harden minutes, so Harden doesn't have Maxie or
Embid for a lot of these stretches. You also get to the point where
those stretches are going to become fewer and further between that being said, it
feels like Joel will be might knowing how Harden to struggle before in the playoffs
and just knowing the different looks that Toronto can throw at them that it means
gonna have to score like forty forty five points a game for them to have
a chance in this series. I also just think like, even if Harden
doesn't suck, the Sixers offense is gonna have to work incredibly hard against this
Rappers defense, and we saw it in their most recent outing, just like
having to try and hunt for mismatches, not even mismatches, but ways to
get and beat the ball, and you can't because Toronto is just such a
well oiled machine when it comes to switching and there's oh Pressiuous switched on to
James Harden, that's not actually a mismatch because Pressichua moves so well. I
would be concerned about Toronto's half court offense. I think, you know,
it's great that Siakam's not the same guy we saw on the bubble where it
didn't even look like he could dribble through traffic in a straight line. There's
so much more versatility to his handle now and his decision making with it.
They do have, for event, Fleaed who I think has more command over
the half court offense. And then whatever Gary Trent Junior can be election with
the Bollamba's hands. They've tried to run stuff through Scottie Barnes as well.
They're shooting can be spotty though, And again, even with those creators that
they have, I don't they don't have a traditional primary creator or maybe someone
as you would call an apex primary creator, So I get that concern,
but this just feels like Toronto people have been concerned about their depth. I
don't feel like that's going to be an issue against Philly, who's sort of
comparably shallow. And this team too, their best players are used to playing
a ton. They have three guys from the top ten of minutes per game
on the season. If everyone's healthy, I think I'm leaning towards Toronto here.
In six or seven games, this is definitely not the matchup Philadelphia wanted
to see. And for what it's worth, Philadelphia has gone one in three
against Toronto this season. Now, granted, Embie did miss the game that
was played back on November eleventh, which resulted in a loss for the seventy
six ers, and kind of a weird quirk here, as much as you
can take anything away from single game plus minus, in the two losses in
which embiad played, he was plus eight and plus seven and they still lost,
and the one game they won he was minus four and they won by
five points. That's kind of this. Well, Barne that last point,
even though there was before from ESPN that Ben Simmons like gave and bad to
pass when he was bad in that Toronto series where Philly literally lost that series
because of the no Embiad minutes, and that's where it could break you.
Let's say, in bad averages forty minutes a game that's going to be If
that's a seven game series, that's fifty six minutes that you have to account
for without Joel Embiad, which as a run a lot of workload and what's
sure to be a long season if you want to make a title run.
But I'm just saying, though, like that's more than a full game's worth
of time without Abiade, you have every opportunity to lose that series. Now,
maybe Tyres MAXI surprised us. I think Tobias Harris has done a good
job turning things around as well too. What it really comes down to is
do you trust James Harden to be I can't even say the player that he's
been in the playoffs previously, but the player who closed the regular season before
his injury last year with the Nets. Do you trust him to be that
player in the playoffs with Philly right now? I don't know that I do.
I think he still has that level of play in him, but he
just hasn't looked right for much of this year, and as you already mentioned,
he has those previous playoff struggles that we have to work off here.
I think the good news for Philadelphia too is that Toronto has had no success
in this season's matchups and really in previous year's either getting imbied in foul trouble.
Because if you can do that, then the entire tenor of the series
changes because that number you said it at fifty six Skyrockets, but he has
I think a combined six fouls in the three games that he's played against Toronto
this season, despite them attacking him a lot. It's the name that I
haven't mentioned here too, though. It's just like the Raptors have ogn and
Obi if he's going to be healthy for that, So just like the defensive
looks they can really throw at Philly, I even think with Embiid and Harden
sort of starts to like make the math difficult for the Sixers. I guess
I could be wrong. What you're saying, essentially is that all of those
stupid talking points about how you might not want to give MVP to a player
who's gonna lose again in the first round, that's actually about embid. Yeah
pretty much that. Why do you think I's not gonna win the award because
the media hates him? I guess we don't know the Nuggets matchup for sure
yet, but if just in a vacuum, Nuggets are sixers, who's more
likely to come out of the first round? I have to know the matchup
to answer that question. No, I asked you just the inter general vacuum.
That's not that this isn't the game or it's gonna be going following the
news that Murray and Porter probably aren't playing in the postseason. It's it's most
likely still then. And it's also, like Denver has, it's a difference
between, oh, you might play as we're recording this, the scenario might
be locked by the time we're done. Actually it should be locked in general,
if I'm not mistaken, whatever, you're gonna play like, there's a
between having to play the Warriors versus having to play the Raptors. So yeah,
I'm with you. This was fun. Glad that we got as all
these messages go off for me in the background. Glad we finally got through
our all defense and all rookie picks and through this mailbag. Hopefully we'll get
back to having a weekly mail bag for everybody. Until next time, let
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As I mentioned, we leave you off. The shout out to the
one the only playoff bound Frankielkina