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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another

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00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:27,200
episode of Hardwood Knocks. This is
Adam Fromwill here with my co host Dan

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Favali on another episode brought to you
by our sponsors bet Online, Dot Ag

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and indeed, today we're gonna be
talking about the Western Conference Finals, which

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are now set after a somewhat stunning
Game seven in which the Denver Nuggets stormed

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away from the Los Angeles Clippers in
Game seven and led to all sorts of

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jokes on Twitter and all sorts of
social media platforms about the Clippers collapse from

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a three one lead. So we'll
talk about that, we'll talk about where

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the Clippers can go from here,
we'll talk about the Nuggets Lakers series,

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and then we're gonna get into a
mailbag for everyone who is kind enough to

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submit some questions for the tweet solicitation
we sent out on the NBA math account.

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But before we dive into any of
that, Dan, how's it going.

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I'm currently extremely distracted because Thor and
Wade, my two puppies for first

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time listeners, are literally just going
at it like fighting behind me. So

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if you hear that, I'm not
running a fight club with animals, they're

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just they're they're still in like that
a whole stage. So we're gonna roll

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with it. I'll play the mute
button game as per usual, and I'll

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edit out some of the background noise. But if you hear any fighting,

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I promise that there are not.
You know, there's not a fight club

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going on here. I just was
stupid and got it was pandemic brain,

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I'm telling you, and decided to
get two puppies instead of one. How

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are you doing. I'm good,
but I want to know who's winning.

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Currently. They're both upright, which
is like a big deal, and they

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normally we read that this was healthy
fighting because one of them always like exchange

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submissions where they get on the ground. But when they're both like upright as

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they are right now, they just
like swipe out each other with their mouths

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and they can get you know,
they'll be pretty quiet right now, though

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then they'll growling or whining or anything. So that's the best. That's one

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the best kind of fighting. But
if something happens, like if they cut

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one another's throats up like I'm fine, not going to realize it because they're

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being so silent right now. My
two dogs, Aspen and Alder, are

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hilarious playfighters because they like neither of
them really knows how to dog, so

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Aspen kind of just like towers over
Alder and then Alder will give up and

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just go go belly up on the
ground and just kind of like accept that

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she's going to get dragged around by
her collar for a little bit. So

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it's just like it's submission based fighting, I guess, but it seems like

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they enjoy it. So yeah,
dogs are weird. They are, and

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they like your dogs are older than
mine, so apparently they just don't grow

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out of it and we have to
place it. We hired a trainer and

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they told us to let let them
like go like at each other and that

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that's how they learn boundaries and stuff. But it's especially for my wife,

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like it's really hard for her to
watch, and even me, like,

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I'm just looking at it. I
want to stop it unless I'm mad at

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them, and then I'm rooting for
one of them to really hurt the other,

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except I'm not. I'm not really
you know, I'd never do that

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it's gonna say, yeah, you
better not thorn. Wait are adorable?

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Yeah, moving on, let's talk
about actual adorable stuff. Basketball or Davy.

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We can talk about Davy or basketball. Two mic go hand in hand.

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I'm fine with either one. Let's
go with the basketball. So you

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mentioned the Clippers really quickly, and
I'm I've normally tried to be more especially

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within the past year, so more
cognizant of what I'm tweeting when I'm like

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dragging players are making fun of them, to make sure that it's not personal.

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And you do have to weigh,
particularly in this instance, the mental

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gymnastics that go into operating inside the
bubble. And when Paul George was kind

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of, you know, vilified or
crucified because he said he was dealing with

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the anxiety or depression behind the scenes, and some people thought that was just

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an excuse. You have to empathize
with that to me, and I absolutely

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do all of that aside, the
Clippers deserve every single piece of poo being

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thrown their way because they acted like
a team that had accomplished way more than

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they had. And I don't know
if Paul George needs to be coached in

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like answering questions, but it seems
like everything he says makes it worse,

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and I don't want to downplay the
depression he's going through Montrose. Harold lost

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a grandmother throughout all this was probably
not in the best shape or at least

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didn't have the stamina that he would
normally would have had he been with the

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team the entire time. I really
feel for all of that, but this

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is also a season long thing,
and the Clippers, like this was a

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terrible collapse. They were up three
to one, they held double digit leads

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I think in the final three games
and blew them and in the fourth quarter

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quiet Paul George score just as much
as we did. Yeah, that's what

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I was basically stumbling to say.
So that's absolutely terrible, and I'm not

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saying you need to overreact to it, but like, let's apt they can

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absolutely just be criticized for this because
this season is a failure. Where if

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you would have said they lost in
the second round in a seven game series

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that they weren't up in or it
was sort of this rock fight from start

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to finish, Sure you were up
three the one and you couldn't close,

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that's a different thing. There.
I think the two biggest issues are just

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they're both related to perception, right, because it's it's the leaks that came

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out after Game seven finished that the
Clippers were exhausted, that they were so

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tired there that some of their players
couldn't play for longer stretches than just a

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couple of minutes at a time against
a team that's coming back from a three

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one deficit for the second straight series, Like that's not really going to fly.

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And then Paul George's postgame comments about
how internally like they never believed that

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this was a championship or bust season, Like, yeah, it's not like

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he am fly or free agents in
twenty twenty one or anything. Championship or

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bust. Yeah, you said that
the Clippers deserve and I believe the quote

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was all the poo being thrown at
them. And I think I think the

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only way I would amend that is
by saying all of the Clippers except Kauai,

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because I think I'm willing to give
him a pass in this series despite

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the bad fourth quarter where he very
much disappeared on the offensive end, because

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he definitely seemed like he was playing
as hard as he could throughout the postseason

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run, and he said the right
things about accountability and about how he and

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the team need to be better going
forward. After the game ended, it

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seemed like he was the one who
conducted himself the right way, which might

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be because he's the two time champion
and clear leader of the team. But

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I'm willing to give him a pass
here that I'm not necessarily willing to extend

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to Paul George, who, while
he was better in the second round,

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still did not play up to his
standard and made it worse for himself after

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Game seven. I'm not willing to
extend it to Montrese Harold, who,

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despite the extenuating circumstances, was just
not successful in his matchup with Nikola Yokich

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or whoever else he was faced off
against. And to Lou Williams, whose

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bubble experience did not get off to
the greatest start with the Lemon Pepper Wings

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and didn't get better from there as
he just completely missed so many of his

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shots as he was invisible on the
defensive end and was a large reason for

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the collapse in Game seven. So
there's a lot of criticism to go around.

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I'm just I don't know that I'm
willing to extend it too far in

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Kawai's direction specifically, I'm with you. I think the probably the most salient

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form of criticism for him would be
and people have said this, and I

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agree, I don't ever want to
hear the Kawhi Leonard versus Lebron James debate

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ever again. And it's Look,
if you I still maybe he's in that

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conversation for if you need one game, like that's how we've always spun it.

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If you need to win one game, is he the player you want?

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Or is that a Yannis? Is
it a Lebron? But yeah,

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when you blow a three one lead, the myth of the playoff legend goes

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away pretty quickly, right, and
look at Lebron has has his own playoff

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fobles. But we've also seen kind
of the limitations of Look, Kawai became

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a fantastic playmaker. But like when
he's having a night like Kawai would as

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a score where his shots aren't I
think it was he five of eighteen in

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that game or whatever he was,
and then he doesn't score in the fourth

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quarter like his team would be elevated
by his playmaking. If that's Lebron and

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with Kawhi it's not and this you
know, I just mentioned that conversation.

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You need one game. This was
the game and the fankily the Clippers had

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three of those games. So I
agree with going to that slamp, but

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I also agree with you, like, no, this isn't on him,

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and maybe the locker room needs to
adopt more of a Kawhi Leonard approach.

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I saw that. I can't remember
who wrote this. I think it was

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someone over at the Athletic or ESPN. I don't really remember, so I

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apologize, but how they kind of
had Blue Williams Beverly like Harold identity,

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like this bravado because they were underdogs
last year. And I don't necessarily think

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that's problematic because I think what came
with that bravado was not a sense of

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entitlement, but like more of a
work ethic. It's did they maybe adopt

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the Marcus Morris and the Paul George
stuff a little too much where that can

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come off more as entitlement And I'm
not trying to say any of them are

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entitled, but like what Paul George
said throughout this season basically and especially at

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the end of the postseason like consistently
just made things seem worse on their part.

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But maybe you need to you know, is this a fault of Kauai,

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like because the reports of this I
know from John Hollinger of The Athletic

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about how there were just reports that
the locker room just totally wasn't in sync

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and so you could say, like
maybe they should have adopted more of the

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Kawai model, But is it even
on Kauahi and then Paul Georgia a little

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bit, because those are the two
guys you would normally look to to unify

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a locker room and find that identity. I think it's a fair conversation to

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have. My question to you is
what is the reaction here? Is it

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a one run it back entirely?
And I'm not even talking about go out

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and make a trade. You have
Marcus Morris and Mantras Harold are free agents

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to Michael Green is a player option
that's going to be fascinating. Five million

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dollars that's right around the mini MLI
money this year. Are you running it

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back in that form to where you're
going to reinvest in this organization? Are

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you looking at scenarios where you could
upgrade the point guard position. And I

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know people have mentioned Gore on Dragic
as a free potential free agent, but

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like, if you're only going to
be working even with the non taxpayers mid

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level, I don't know if that
does it. And I say that because

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the way he's played, I could
see the heat being like, hey,

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here's a one year, thirty million
dollar offer and that's going to be the

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equivalent of more or basically three years
of the non tax players MLA. And

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that's assuming you're working with that,
because you would have to get rid of

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both Morris and Harold just have a
chance to be working with that full amount.

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And so my question would them be
do you then would you also consider

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making a move that would be more
drastic And the one that I'm just going

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to dance around is and I'm just
curious of what you would say to this.

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If you're the Clippers, are you
doing Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams,

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Zoobots and Ronny McGruder for Chris Paul
That is a trade that works financially,

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And I'm just curious if you would
consider doing something like that to maybe one,

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it's definitely an upgrade at the point
guard position. As much as you

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know you love Patrick Beverley. Is
can be fcy on defense when he's not

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fouling In is in more shape.
Lou Williams is going to be getting buckets

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into his mid nineties. I would
say around there or something. But he

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even shot poorly in this series.
And I think Zoobots is probably the biggest

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loss of the four in this trade
when you look at he is three years

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left at basically around seven point three
million a pop on average. I'm just

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curious, if you're the Clippers,
would you sid or something like that.

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Yeah, if if something like that
really is on the table, I think

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you take it and try to capitalize
on this window before George and Kawhi have

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a chance to turn down their player
options for twenty twenty two and potentially leave

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in free agency. I don't think
that you necessarily like go out looking for

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something like that so much as hope
that it falls into your lap, because

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as constructed, this team should largely
run it back. I can see them

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letting Harold walk if he gets a
big offer from the Toronto Raptors or from

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someone else. I would bring back
Marcus Morris Senior, who was fantastic for

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this team on both ends for much
of the postseason run and for the brief

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amount of the regular season that he
spent with them. But the rest of

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the core I think is worth leaving
intact. They should not be looking at

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like blow it up scenarios where you're
you're thinking about shopping Kawhi or Paul George.

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If you can get that guaranteed superstar, and we're talking about like guaranteed

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superstar, you do it because go
all in while you can. But I

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don't think that it's it's a situation
where they need to be like, this

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isn't working. We need to make
changes. And even in that scenario,

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one guide you're not trading because he's
a top three player. And then even

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Paul George still top fifteen. He's
had struggles in the playoffs. The playoff

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peeving is now it's just disastrous.
So I'm totally with you there, and

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like I think where you I think
with Marcus Morris and Harold Morris, while

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he did like kind of struggle in
the beginning here like it did see him

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and he didn't have the best closes
of the postseason. Honestly, it's it

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felt like at points in the bubble
that he really kind of mastered the role

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on offense and then what he could
do for them defensively. The Harrold's contract,

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his next deal is going to be
fascinating to me. I would say

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that you can if there are teams
out there that really want him, and

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maybe you could work out sign and
trade scenarios. But then you get into

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a situation where you're hard capped and
can can that happen if you're taking on

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00:13:54,879 --> 00:13:58,000
money in a Harrold deal, plus
you're resigning Marcus Morris. I don't know

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if e'asible that is, I would
just be wary of the cost of at

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retaining Harel and a lot of people
think that he lost himself money in the

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bubble, so perhaps that's you know, perhaps that's accurate, and so his

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00:14:09,039 --> 00:14:11,799
next deal is going to be fascinating
because I do largely the fault to you

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that if you want that, you
should run it back, and that you

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shouldn't be actively looking for a scenario
like the Chris Paul if it's on the

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table, that maybe consider it.
The Harold contract is the one that that's

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just to hang up for me,
is I think you have to be very

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wary of what you're going to pay
him moving forward. Yeah, I think

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it ultimately boils down to if you
are one hundred percent sure that you're getting

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00:14:31,679 --> 00:14:35,639
an upgrade at a position, then
go for it. But this is not

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00:14:35,759 --> 00:14:39,799
a situation where they need to be
taking risks around Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

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00:14:39,919 --> 00:14:43,320
No, I'm one hundred percent with
you. Even though sports had to

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00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:48,039
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know it's good. But they're not
in the conference finals, even though they

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00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:50,480
probably expect it to be. That
the Denver Nuggets are, and they're facing

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00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:54,720
the Lakers, who this is going
to come off as criticism to the Nuggets,

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00:15:54,759 --> 00:15:58,399
but the Lakers were no doubt excited
that this is the poll that they

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00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:02,039
got. And so before we get
into the nuts and bolts of this series,

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00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:07,240
just at the top, who do
you have? Yo? We both

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00:16:07,279 --> 00:16:12,080
picked the Clippers going into the last
round and then reversed course for Game seven.

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I'm going to risk that playing out
again because I just I think that

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00:16:18,639 --> 00:16:22,240
that Yokich is going to give Anthony
Davis and whoever else is guarding him a

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00:16:22,279 --> 00:16:26,320
lot of trouble. I have confidence
in Jamal Murray's offense at this point,

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00:16:26,399 --> 00:16:30,519
I think that the depth of this
Los Angeles team puts the depth of this

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00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:37,440
Denver team puts Los Angeles depth to
shame. But the Lakers have been sitting

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00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:41,360
there waiting for the Nuggets to arrive
on this stage. The Nuggets have fought

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00:16:41,399 --> 00:16:48,960
back from two different three one deficits
in emotional, physical, gutted out series,

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00:16:48,679 --> 00:16:53,799
and I just I don't think that
the energy, either physically or emotionally

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00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:57,480
is going to be there no matter
how much they want it to be.

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00:16:57,559 --> 00:17:03,639
So I'm gonna go with the Lakers, and I'm going with the Nuggets in

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00:17:03,679 --> 00:17:08,160
seven purely because I need to stand
by my Nuggets championship pay For the preseason,

263
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,079
to some degree, I've waffled too
much and I got a compliment from

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00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:14,880
I was doing a radio show and
one of the producers mentioned, like,

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00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,880
kudos to you for being one of
the only people that picked the Nuggets to

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00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,200
win the title, and I was
just like, this isn't a victory that

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00:17:21,319 --> 00:17:22,559
I was like, I do not
deserve that with the amount of times that

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00:17:22,599 --> 00:17:26,119
I just not even just waffled,
but outright went against them. But now

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00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:30,440
I'm going to try. Now I'm
going to try and capitalize on that pick

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00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,799
and pick Denver and seven. And
I think part of it is because of

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00:17:33,839 --> 00:17:37,359
their depth. And I get what
you're saying, playing in the two seven

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00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:40,400
game series, having to erase three
to one leads in these back to back

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00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:42,759
series, that's got to take a
toll. The Lakers have Lebron and Anthony

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00:17:42,799 --> 00:17:47,240
Davis, who are arguably I would
put Yoga above Anthony Davis, but there's

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00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,720
a chance I'm gonna ask you that
later. I think what happens here though,

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00:17:49,799 --> 00:17:52,240
is there's a chance at Los Angeles
has the two best players in this

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00:17:52,279 --> 00:17:56,759
series, which that's obviously problematic.
I would still say Yoga is better than

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00:17:56,759 --> 00:17:59,759
the Macro, but looking at this
series, you know there's gonna be Lebron,

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00:17:59,799 --> 00:18:06,079
and then there's a possibility that Davis
is is another one. So as

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00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:07,640
I lose my train of thought with
the fight club going on behind me here,

281
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:12,480
but the depth matters to me,
and I have been impressed more with

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00:18:12,519 --> 00:18:17,000
the Lakers supporting cast pretty much all
year than I thought I would when you

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00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:22,200
look at them on paper. But
and it's in the playoffs specifically, there

284
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:26,880
has been like in a different player
every game. It feels like where no

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00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,960
you can't necessarily count on Kuzma and
KCP and I guess maybe you could count

286
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,279
on playoff Rondo, But like there's
always been one or two players that really

287
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:37,160
rise to the occasion, and maybe
that's the power of their depth. I

288
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:41,680
look at Denver's as just far more
reliable when you're looking at the players they're

289
00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:44,960
getting, you know, from Gary
Harris, Michael Porter Junior coming off the

290
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,839
bench, knowing that you have a
backup point guard like Monte Morris in this

291
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,680
race, and so the fact that
they're deeper overall, and that I think

292
00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:53,839
you would argue, even right down
to Tory Craig's defense, that you know

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00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,279
you're going to get from from your
supporting cast more so than you're the Lakers.

294
00:18:57,319 --> 00:19:00,839
That's why I would pick them over
Los Angeles. The matchup that is

295
00:19:00,839 --> 00:19:03,200
going to be the determining factor though, to me, would be Look,

296
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,119
the Lebron thing is a wash,
like he's going to put Paul millsapper Jeremy

297
00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,599
Grant on him. It doesn't matter
like Lebron is going to I feel like

298
00:19:10,599 --> 00:19:15,599
pick apart this Denver defense. The
Yokis Davis matchup is interesting to me because

299
00:19:15,599 --> 00:19:19,680
you have to win that and you're
not gonna win it. Defensively, this

300
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,519
is actually lower than I expected.
But on the possessions in which Yokich guarded

301
00:19:23,559 --> 00:19:29,039
Anthony Davis during the season, the
Lakers had a one seventeen offensive rating,

302
00:19:29,039 --> 00:19:32,680
which is still ridiculously high. You're
probably going to see other looks where it's,

303
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,400
you know, Grant on him and
or Millsap on him. Can you

304
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:40,440
actually do that? Though? If
Lebron's also on the floor with the Nuggets,

305
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:42,000
it probably means you have to play
Grant and millsapp at the same time,

306
00:19:42,039 --> 00:19:45,480
which is definitely possible. But how
many minutes can you get out of

307
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,680
that? What does that do to
your offense? And then just offensively,

308
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,880
I don't think you know, I
don't want to say that Davis can neutralize

309
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:59,480
Yokich, but you certainly don't hate
the idea of putting Davis on Nicola Yokich.

310
00:19:59,599 --> 00:20:03,240
And on the possessions in which Anthony
Davis guarded Nicole Yokes during the regular

311
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,680
season, the Nuggets had an offensive
rating as a team of ninety one point

312
00:20:07,759 --> 00:20:11,680
two. That is mind meltingly low
in general, but especially for just the

313
00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:17,359
Nuggets. And that's going to be
to me everything if you could win that

314
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,319
matchup in the aggregate, and it's
going to have to be done on offense,

315
00:20:19,319 --> 00:20:22,039
would be how I would argue it. You can be in good shape

316
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:26,880
otherwise, though, this could be
a series in which Los Angeles actually runs

317
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,440
away with it, not just because
you have Anthony Davis and Lebron James and

318
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,119
the two best players in the series, but also because you know, we're

319
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:34,920
throwing all of this on top of
the fact, as you've already mentioned,

320
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:38,839
Denver just had not only went through
two games, seven game series they will

321
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:44,319
raise two three to one. Deficis
that has to be just mentally, emotionally,

322
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:48,160
physically draining in ways that I can't
even fathom. We saw Jamal Murray's

323
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,079
face when after the first one he
was told that he had to play again

324
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,559
two nights later, And yeah,
I just I can't even imagine like going

325
00:20:55,599 --> 00:21:00,440
through another tough seven game series and
then having to face Lebron James and the

326
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,119
Los Angeles Lakers, And yeah,
I mean, as important as that Anthony

327
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,599
Davis Nicole Yoki matchup is, and
I tend to think it's going to be

328
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,880
more even than those regular season numbers
indicated. Yokich is playing at such an

329
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:17,279
unbelievably high level right now, and
I genuinely have no idea how you stop

330
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:19,960
him with only one defender or even
with two given his passing vision. But

331
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:26,400
I think that if you're the Nuggets
like that Lebron matchup is so fascinating because

332
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:30,279
we've always seen teams have to pick
between letting Lebron pick you apart as a

333
00:21:30,319 --> 00:21:33,640
scorer or a passer. But with
this Lakers team in particular, I think

334
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,680
you have to make him into a
passer and make that supporting Caspiat beat beat

335
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:42,160
you. You have to make Anthony
Davis take a bigger offensive load than he

336
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:47,279
typically wants to and try to beat
you single handedly. But do the Nuggets

337
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:51,839
have the personnel to do that,
Because Jeremy Grant and Paul Millsap they're gonna

338
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:53,680
have, They're gonna have a lot
of trouble keeping up with Lebron and the

339
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,720
possessions where Michael Porter Jr. Ends
up on him. That's going to result

340
00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:02,839
in roughly a four hundred offensive rating
for the Los Angeles Lakers get I think

341
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,279
we're gonna see some Tory Craig on
him, probably a lot of switching to

342
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,599
keep quicker players between him and the
basket as best you can, but it's

343
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:15,440
that that's going to be the biggest
challenge, and I think we will see

344
00:22:15,759 --> 00:22:21,039
quite a few different looks from Mike
Malone throughout this series. Yeah, the

345
00:22:21,079 --> 00:22:25,880
Tory Craig wants a good mention because
he was their most frequent defenders statistically on

346
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,960
Lebron James during the regular season,
and Lebron shot four fifteen against him,

347
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,519
and so like, I don't think
that's necessarily a harbinger of anything, but

348
00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:37,480
I guess that's another body you can
try and look at that point. If

349
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,119
it doesn't matter if he's not hitting
his threes, if he's like making life

350
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:41,880
difficult on Lebron, he's just on
the floor, and then you flesh out

351
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:45,720
your lineups around that. The other
thing I'll say, too, is so

352
00:22:45,839 --> 00:22:48,960
for Michael Porter Junior very quiet in
Game seven, if he's going to come

353
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,559
off the bench, like he can
really cook against some of those Lakers units.

354
00:22:52,559 --> 00:22:56,039
But like, if he's on the
floor when Davis and Lebron are at

355
00:22:56,079 --> 00:22:59,920
the same time, like I feel
like it becomes easier for Los Angeles to

356
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,319
target because you almost have just looking
at those two guys specifically. I'm not

357
00:23:03,319 --> 00:23:06,160
saying Michael Porter Junior will be on
any of them, but you could.

358
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,279
Are you gonna be able to generate
just switches more easily because if you can

359
00:23:08,279 --> 00:23:11,440
attack Yokich in the pick and roll
with Anthony Davis, or if then if

360
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:15,079
you can just run Lebron pick and
roll with who's ever guarding Michael Porter Junior

361
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,079
or whoever Michael Porter Junior is guarding, that kind of gives the Denver Nuggets

362
00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:25,160
two more vulnerable points. And so
do you look at staggering like minutes stringently

363
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,440
where Michael Porter Junior is only playing
when one or none of Lebron and a

364
00:23:29,559 --> 00:23:32,000
d are on the floor, so
basically just one of them being on the

365
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,359
floor. I don't know my overthinking
that because maybe it just Denver has to

366
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:40,200
just go all offense everything. I
also don't know. I'm just as you've

367
00:23:40,279 --> 00:23:41,440
also mentioned too, which was something
I was going to point out, it

368
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,079
feels like we're gonna get a lot
of variety from Michael Malone, maybe more

369
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,640
so than usual in this series,
and I'm really interested to see one what

370
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,880
he ends up doing, particularly is
the series goes on and you're making adjustments,

371
00:23:52,559 --> 00:23:55,640
and two how it ends up panning
out. My other question to you

372
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,359
on this would be, though,
how do you see the Lakers playing because

373
00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:02,400
they went to the ad at the
five model with against Houston because they had

374
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:03,160
to. First of all, took
him too long to get there in my

375
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:07,000
opinion, but they had to.
Do you stick with that or they because

376
00:24:07,039 --> 00:24:11,079
you're going to see you know a
lot of millsap Yokis minutes at the four

377
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,240
five or are you are we going
to see a lot of dual big lineups

378
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:18,480
and then does that actually then benefit
Denver? So before I answer that question,

379
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:22,200
I did just want to give a
shout out to Michael Porter Jr.

380
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:30,079
Because after his ill advised postgame quote
about wanting more touches and you know,

381
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,440
maybe we're giving the ball to Jamal
Murray and Yokich too much. Who'd have

382
00:24:33,519 --> 00:24:38,200
thought he wanted more shots of all
people, The Nuggets could have cratered in

383
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,559
the locker room around that, but
instead they reacted the right way, and

384
00:24:41,599 --> 00:24:47,279
more importantly, Porter handled himself the
right way after that. You know,

385
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:52,000
he got fewer touches following those remarks, and that did not stop him from

386
00:24:52,079 --> 00:24:56,359
hitting a massive three pointer in Game
five to keep the team alive. It

387
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,480
did not stop him from continuing to
ex a bit all sorts of effort on

388
00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:06,920
the glass, from playing at least
more high energy defense. I hesitated to

389
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,680
say more effective defense, but he
at least looked more engaged, and I

390
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:15,720
think it's it is a credit to
him that he reacted to that, not

391
00:25:15,799 --> 00:25:19,079
by disappearing, but by realizing that
he needed to contribute in other ways and

392
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:22,279
then doing that. That was a
big move for a rookie, and it

393
00:25:22,319 --> 00:25:29,799
really helped spark that comeback. Yeah, I mean here, there were some

394
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,359
moments where he had like really good
help defense in that second round series,

395
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,400
and so it's still I don't know
that you could rely on that, but

396
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,119
maybe it does make him more playable
in this series around. I mean,

397
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,000
look, they played him over fifteen
minutes in Game seven, I believe,

398
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,839
when he wasn't even really scoring,
and so the threat of him certainly matters.

399
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,079
Just someone who can I always forget
how tall he is until I see

400
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:52,920
a defender closing out on him and
he really hasn't released it yet, but

401
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:53,799
then he just shoots over them.
Anyway, It's like, oh yeah,

402
00:25:53,839 --> 00:25:59,480
Michael Porter Junior is like eight feet
tall. The weight is finally over football

403
00:25:59,799 --> 00:26:03,640
is back. You might not be
at a game this year, but you

404
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412
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all one word bet online. You're
online sports book experts. What were your

413
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,920
thoughts on the lineup question now that
I have were you? Yeah? So,

414
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:48,200
I think we've seen enough demonstrable evidence
at this point that the Lakers are

415
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,920
at their best with Anthony Davis at
the five, and that wasn't just a

416
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:57,440
product of a weird matchup with a
funky Houston Rockets rotation. But that's how

417
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,119
they play best, you know.
It allows them to get the most talent

418
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,680
on the court. It allows everyone
to play to their most fundamental core strengths.

419
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,039
It works. I don't think we're
going to see it, though,

420
00:27:07,079 --> 00:27:11,880
because Davis is is hesitant to take
on that role. I don't think he's

421
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,440
gonna want to be banging around with
Yokich for the entirety of a what could

422
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:19,519
be a long series. And we're
going to see minutes for JaVale McGee and

423
00:27:19,559 --> 00:27:23,160
Dwight Howard that we just didn't see
against Houston because Houston refused to play Tyson

424
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,720
Chandler for whatever reason. So yeah, I think that we will see more

425
00:27:27,759 --> 00:27:32,480
of those dual big lineups, probably
more than we should see them. And

426
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000
if Frank Vogel does initially go with
a Davis at the five lineup for a

427
00:27:37,039 --> 00:27:41,279
significant chunk of Game one, then
I'm going to have second thoughts about picking

428
00:27:41,319 --> 00:27:47,960
this to go six games. I
mean that's a fair point. So two

429
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:52,400
things before we kind of wrap up
this Western Conference Finals preview, who the

430
00:27:52,559 --> 00:27:56,359
who's the non star from each team
that you're watching. I'll throw it to

431
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,119
you first with Denver. Who's a
non star you're watching for that team?

432
00:28:00,839 --> 00:28:03,400
You're gonna laugh, but it's Monte
Morris for me. You know he's been

433
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,720
on He's been one of my favorite
players for a while just because of the

434
00:28:06,799 --> 00:28:10,759
way he plays. But I think
that against this Lakers team, you have

435
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:15,720
to be able to win the reserve
battle, and he is key to that

436
00:28:15,799 --> 00:28:18,200
Denver bench. He can also play
with the starters, and if he can

437
00:28:18,279 --> 00:28:23,759
capitalize on a fairly weak guard rotation
for the Lakers, just by avoiding making

438
00:28:23,799 --> 00:28:27,880
mistakes, by setting up everyone by
getting his own shots and hitting him efficiently,

439
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:33,000
that gives a huge spark because you
have to win reserve verse, reserve

440
00:28:33,079 --> 00:28:37,960
minutes, especially on those few stretches
where Lebron is not on the court.

441
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,880
Yeah, that's a great point.
I think mine would be Tory Craig,

442
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,160
if only because it feels like he
might still get a majority of Lebron assignments.

443
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,079
And then if it's not Tory Craig, I guess it would be Jeremy

444
00:28:49,119 --> 00:28:53,119
Grant. Like I wouldn't imagine we'd
see too much Gary Harris there, so

445
00:28:53,519 --> 00:28:56,119
just because of the sheer defensive workload
that he'd be carrying. I go with

446
00:28:56,119 --> 00:28:59,319
Craig. And look, if he's
hitting like even if you can count him

447
00:28:59,319 --> 00:29:03,599
to hit like one every one of
his one one out of three from beyond

448
00:29:03,599 --> 00:29:06,279
the arc, like one of every
three of his three point attempts. That

449
00:29:06,359 --> 00:29:08,759
might just be enough to just roll
with him for lengthy minutes during this series.

450
00:29:08,799 --> 00:29:11,920
And I guess maybe that's my I'm
just very intrigued to see how in

451
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:15,599
this setting, how Denver you can
probably get away with more stuff in the

452
00:29:15,599 --> 00:29:18,319
postseason, maybe play it more conservatively, but you're gonna have to take more

453
00:29:18,359 --> 00:29:22,480
gambles here. I'd think two cater
to the offensive fit. And so I'm

454
00:29:22,519 --> 00:29:26,640
more just intrigued by how Denver is
gonna eventually go about defending Lebron. YEA,

455
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:33,480
who's your non star off the Lakers
that you're watching. My initial answer

456
00:29:33,519 --> 00:29:37,079
here is Vogel because of the rotation
questions and where he's going to play Davis.

457
00:29:37,079 --> 00:29:40,359
But if I have to pick a
player, I think it's KCP,

458
00:29:40,559 --> 00:29:45,640
who has has struggled a lot during
the playoffs, which you know when we've

459
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,759
we've seen him struggle, we've seen
him be invisible, and then you look

460
00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:52,079
at the numbers and he's somehow shooting
forty one point two percent on three pointers

461
00:29:52,079 --> 00:29:56,799
while taking five per game, five
point one per game. That has to

462
00:29:56,799 --> 00:30:00,680
continue, and he can't be invisible, because I do think that this Nuggets

463
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,279
team is really going to prioritize getting
the ball out of Lebron and Davis's hands

464
00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:07,319
as much as possible. You know
that Kyle Kuzma is going to be a

465
00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:11,680
willing shooter. You can rely on
Danny Green in postseason scenarios. If KCP

466
00:30:11,799 --> 00:30:15,160
gives them another shooter on the perimeter
who's going to demand defensive attention, they

467
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,559
get that much tougher to guard.
And I think we're going to see him

468
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:25,640
having to deal with the Jamal Murray
highlight reel on a regular basis. Yeah,

469
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:26,680
that's actually a really good way to
look at it. I would have

470
00:30:26,759 --> 00:30:33,160
Rondo just because the Lebron by the
way, averaging under thirty five minutes per

471
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:37,799
game to the first two rounds of
playoffs, which is actually pretty incredible hashtag

472
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,720
the Rockets failed. But the non
Lebron minutes, whether it's going to be

473
00:30:41,759 --> 00:30:45,599
five, eight, ten per game, like those are just so critical for

474
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,160
the Lakers, and he is going
to be their best creator for everybody else

475
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,480
in those situations when Lebron isn't on
the floor, and so if you can't

476
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,440
necessarily win those minutes. But kind
of play them like dead. Even their

477
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,480
half court offense has struggled. Look, it's been lackluster for most of the

478
00:31:00,519 --> 00:31:03,440
regular season even with Lebron on the
court, fifty seven percent tile of half

479
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:08,440
court efficiency. It was like outside
the teams like in this close to the

480
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,400
single digits, I believe when he
was off the floor. And so that

481
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:15,480
just becomes a really big deal.
And look, he played well through the

482
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:21,920
five appearances that he's made in the
playoffs thus far, He's slashing fifty one

483
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,119
forty four from the floor. Can
the shooting continue because the Denver's gonna leave

484
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,440
him open. Every team is still
gonna leave Rondo open, and he's not

485
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,680
gonna hit those shots off the dribble. So that's that's still you know,

486
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,039
schemable. But if he's going to
give you, you know, if he's

487
00:31:34,039 --> 00:31:37,880
gonna hit those wide open threes to
maybe where Denver has to even think about

488
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,960
defending him. And then again he
helps you tread water without Lebron, that

489
00:31:41,039 --> 00:31:47,440
makes this thing like super interesting.
So I'm I can't believe that I'm talking

490
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:48,839
about in the year twenty and twenty, and I'm gonna be keeping my eye

491
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,880
on on Rondo. But here we
are is a thing. But really I

492
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:56,519
think you can pick like any non
Lebron and Davis players on the Lakers on

493
00:31:56,559 --> 00:32:00,319
the Lakers team, and it's you
can make a valid art. Well,

494
00:32:00,319 --> 00:32:01,559
it's because of what I was saying
before, where it's like I don't think

495
00:32:01,559 --> 00:32:06,599
they have a consistent supporting cast,
but they've consistently gotten a different member of

496
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,279
the supporting cast to step up,
which helps. I did want to add

497
00:32:09,279 --> 00:32:14,839
one note to what you were saying
before. So the Nuggets have played fifty

498
00:32:14,839 --> 00:32:17,480
two minutes this season when Anthony Davis
is with Javan McGee on the court and

499
00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:22,559
Yokich is also there, they're plus
eighteen. So that's something to consider,

500
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,119
I think when there's not a large
enough sample. I looked at it with

501
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:30,680
Dwight two, the Nuggets are minus
four When Davis and Dwight are on the

502
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:34,119
court against Yokich, it's thirty five
minutes. So there's that. But so

503
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:37,799
you're looking at let's just look at
those net dual big situations with Yokich in

504
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:44,599
let's just say roughly ninety minutes of
action, the Nuggets are a plus fourteen,

505
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:46,160
and so like that that's just might
be something to that the Lakers are

506
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,480
going to have to consider us the
series, whereas on is that perhaps they

507
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,039
can't win the dual big minutes when
Yokich is on the floor for Denver,

508
00:32:53,079 --> 00:32:57,880
because he's going to give you if
you're in situations where he's able to defend

509
00:32:58,319 --> 00:33:00,480
McGee or Dwight Howard and of Davis, or if you have one of them

510
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,519
defending him instead of Davis, that
makes the Lakers just a little bit more

511
00:33:04,559 --> 00:33:07,559
vulnerable. We are, by no
means the first people to say that Davis

512
00:33:07,599 --> 00:33:13,160
is best at the five. For
sure, we'll be the latest. Are

513
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,200
you ready to so we're on the
record once more. I have Nuggets and

514
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:21,079
Severn mostly out of sheepish stubbornness or
just sheepishness, whatever you want to call

515
00:33:21,119 --> 00:33:22,920
it. And I actually think that
this is going to be a better series

516
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:28,559
than people are crediting. But maybe
look if the if the Yoki Davis matchup

517
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:30,839
gets a little out of control until
it's too far for the Lakers, that's

518
00:33:30,839 --> 00:33:35,759
how I could see this really becoming
a runaway series. Yeah, I'm gonna

519
00:33:35,799 --> 00:33:37,400
stick with Lakers in six, but
I think that those are going to be

520
00:33:37,519 --> 00:33:44,039
competitive games, and that if you're
picking the Nuggets, then you should because

521
00:33:44,079 --> 00:33:47,440
they are every bit a legitimate contender. Let's dive into this mailbag, though,

522
00:33:47,799 --> 00:33:51,759
so I'll go with the first question
I'll take us through. This comes

523
00:33:51,799 --> 00:33:55,000
from Steven Ahearn. He asks,
is there another player who used to be

524
00:33:55,079 --> 00:34:00,240
cringe worthy at three pointers but is
now a sharpshooter just as much as smart?

525
00:34:00,839 --> 00:34:05,160
Yeah? I mean, we have
seen a history of those kind of

526
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,000
players developing over their careers. You
know. You look at at like Rajon

527
00:34:08,079 --> 00:34:14,280
Rondo who we were just talking about, where the first nearly decade of his

528
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:19,159
career he was in no way a
quality three point shooter, but he's at

529
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,159
least been around or above the league
average in the last handful of seasons because

530
00:34:22,159 --> 00:34:28,039
he's worked on it. I think
the most notable historic example is Jason Kidd,

531
00:34:28,079 --> 00:34:31,800
who had absolutely no jumper to work
with when he entered the league.

532
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:37,000
He shot twenty seven point two percent
on threes as a rookie and consistently became

533
00:34:37,039 --> 00:34:39,880
a forty plus percent shooter by the
end of his career. There is evidence

534
00:34:40,119 --> 00:34:45,440
of players being able to elevate that
particular area of their game. I think

535
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:50,280
that virtually every NBA player is talented
enough to do that it's just a question

536
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,000
of whether it makes sense for them
to work on that particular facet of their

537
00:34:53,039 --> 00:34:58,400
games versus others. So which is
why we probably see more guards develop into

538
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,639
better shooters as their careers progress.
But yeah, I mean, this is

539
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:06,400
in no way like some unprecedented leap
from Marcus Smart. I think Jason Kader

540
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,360
is going to going to be the
natural pick here. When you're looking at

541
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:15,480
historically someone else I'll throw out there, it would be Lebron James, even

542
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:19,039
just because he for the first part
of his career it took him more than

543
00:35:19,079 --> 00:35:22,159
a half it was closer to a
decade to shoot above thirty four and a

544
00:35:22,199 --> 00:35:28,679
half percent from three and now he's
consistently since you know, so let's look

545
00:35:28,679 --> 00:35:30,119
at it this way. So from
two thousand and three to twenty eleven,

546
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:36,280
thirty two point nine percent from three
and then since then this was his second

547
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,199
season with the Heat, so twenty
twelve through now, even though he's been

548
00:35:39,639 --> 00:35:44,559
under thirty five percent the past couple
of years, during this time, he

549
00:35:44,679 --> 00:35:47,559
still shot thirty five point eight percent
from three and so that's not knockdown sharpshooter.

550
00:35:47,599 --> 00:35:51,039
And I don't know that I would
call Marcus Smart a sharpshooter just yet.

551
00:35:51,079 --> 00:35:53,119
He did hit forty percent of us
pull up threes during the regular season,

552
00:35:53,159 --> 00:35:58,079
and he's shooting forty percent on catching
shoot threes in the playoffs. We've

553
00:35:58,119 --> 00:36:00,960
seen him decline in the playoffs two
last year, after he had a good

554
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,599
three point shooting season, he shot
subten percent in the postseason. So there's

555
00:36:05,639 --> 00:36:07,320
a lot going on there. But
I think that either of those might be

556
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:13,280
apt comparisons. And certainly the Lebron
one totally a different type of player because

557
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,280
he was at least taking threes for
most of his career, but the percentages

558
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:19,639
were just so shaky, you know, through the first seven seasons or so.

559
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,559
Yeah. We can also look at
free throw percentage as an indicator of

560
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:30,360
shooting ability, you know. It's
it's pretty commonly used when evaluating college prospects

561
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:32,199
to see if they have room to
grow as a three point shooter, to

562
00:36:32,199 --> 00:36:36,480
see if their three point percentage might
be a little bit flukey. And with

563
00:36:36,559 --> 00:36:39,920
Smart specifically, dating back to twenty
fifteen sixteen, his sophomore season in the

564
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:44,480
NBA, he's been a seventy nine
point five percent free throw shooter. Even

565
00:36:44,519 --> 00:36:46,679
in college, he was at least
competent from the line. As a freshman,

566
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:50,880
he shot seventy seven point seven percent
as a sophomore seventy two point eight

567
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,000
percent. So even if the three
pointers weren't there, when you bring into

568
00:36:53,039 --> 00:36:59,079
the equation context and the demonstrated ability
from the foul stripe, you know he

569
00:36:59,199 --> 00:37:01,760
was a specially at Oklahoma State,
and early on in his career he was

570
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,360
taking those more hero shots rather than
playing within the flow of an offense.

571
00:37:06,679 --> 00:37:10,119
As he's learned which shots to take, as he's gotten more comfortable operating within

572
00:37:10,159 --> 00:37:14,639
the flow of the Boston offense,
I think we're just starting to see those

573
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:19,039
those dormant skills starting to be realized. Let's move on to a question from

574
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,880
Chris Krause, friend of the Pod. Should the Sixers have signed Jimmy Butler

575
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,559
to the fifth year, passed on
Al Horford, and brought back Julia Okrafre

576
00:37:25,559 --> 00:37:29,280
to be their backup center? Oh
wait, wrong room, But I'm going

577
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:36,800
to pose the question anyway. Yes, that's my answer, just a definitive

578
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,360
yes, Like obviously they should have
brought back Jimmy Butler at this point,

579
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:43,400
like hindsight is twenty twenty, we
all know that's how the saying goes.

580
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,440
But I mean, we've seen that
this Al Horford experiment has not worked out,

581
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:51,360
and it's hard to imagine just how
much more competitive this Sixers team would

582
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,840
have been with more years of Jimmy
Butler, Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid

583
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:58,039
growing together. I guess the better
question would be, had they given him

584
00:37:58,079 --> 00:38:01,239
the fifth year, would he still
be in Philly? Because I still don't

585
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,559
feel like we fully understand whether it
was a situation that they just didn't want

586
00:38:05,559 --> 00:38:07,519
to pay him, or if he
was just actually unhappy there wanted to be

587
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:12,679
in Miami. But if it actually
was an issue of they didn't want to

588
00:38:12,679 --> 00:38:15,599
give him the fifth year, well
that's like objectively dumb. And I don't

589
00:38:15,639 --> 00:38:21,079
even think that this isn't hindsight,
like this is like that was just objectively

590
00:38:21,119 --> 00:38:24,920
a bad decision at the time.
If that was the case, Yeah,

591
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,679
yeah, I mean I've never gotten
a sense that Jimmy Butler is a player

592
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,920
who needs to be in a certain
city or with a certain organization so much

593
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,559
as he needs to win and he
needs to be surrounded by people who share

594
00:38:37,599 --> 00:38:40,440
that mentality, and maybe that was
tough for him to deal with with Embiide,

595
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:45,320
who doesn't always keep himself in tip
top shape, and with Ben Simmons,

596
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:51,199
who hasn't grown as some people have
wanted him to, but winning is

597
00:38:51,199 --> 00:38:54,039
the great panacea. And with another
year together, who knows how far they

598
00:38:54,039 --> 00:38:58,880
could have gone in the Eastern Conference
playoffs. And I don't think it's in

599
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,320
any way unrealistic to think that he
would have been there long term. We're

600
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:07,639
gonna actually stick with Jimmy Butler here, Sam Rapp says, Jimmy Butler TPA

601
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:13,719
by year, So let's start with
his just gonna run through this. Start

602
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:17,760
with his rookie season in two thousand
and twelve minus eight point six six TPA,

603
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,840
sophomore seventy five point four three,
third year a one sixteen point eight

604
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:29,000
six. Next, the following season
two twenty eight point three. The year

605
00:39:29,079 --> 00:39:31,920
for that one ninety seven point three. That's two thousand and sixteen, two

606
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:37,000
thousand and seventeen three eighty four point
eight, two, twenty eighteen two sixteen

607
00:39:37,039 --> 00:39:43,480
point four, twenty nineteen one forty
six point six. And then this year

608
00:39:43,559 --> 00:39:47,320
he ranked ninth in TPA with two
sixteen point six four. I believe that

609
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:52,280
was his second highest total in general, So Jimmy Butler has been it's kind

610
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,920
of been all over the place when
you look at how often he's kind of

611
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,840
changed teams over the past two years, and he was dealing with injuries in

612
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:00,960
certain seasons. He's always just sort
of been an impact player. And it's

613
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:06,119
funny that only his rookie year was
he ever I tpa in net negative.

614
00:40:07,159 --> 00:40:09,000
Yeah, and it is. It's
fun to look at that progression too,

615
00:40:09,039 --> 00:40:15,719
just because of what we know about
his backstory and you know, just coming

616
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:22,079
coming to Marquette and thriving after experiencing
homelessness, and you know, being the

617
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:27,480
thirtieth pick of the twenty eleven NBA
Draft and only playing eight point five minutes

618
00:40:27,519 --> 00:40:31,599
per game as a rookie and developing
into this absolute full fledged superstar. So

619
00:40:31,679 --> 00:40:37,800
you know, even if he's vacillated, he's vacillated within those upper echelons for

620
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,519
a while. Now. The next
question comes from Syriac. Is RJ.

621
00:40:40,679 --> 00:40:49,280
Barrett a real bust? Can we
call anyone who is going through the New

622
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:53,239
York Knicks's developmental program a real bust? Or are they just like a bust

623
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,840
through sheer circumstance? But regardless,
I mean, like We're talking about a

624
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,800
guy who averaged forty point three points
in five revounds as a rookie playing for

625
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:07,719
just an atrocious team with ill fitting
pieces that was giving him too many shots

626
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:13,960
and not supporting him. I'm hesitant
to bury anyone after a rookie season,

627
00:41:14,039 --> 00:41:17,679
but particularly given that context, I
feel like it was hard to watch RJ.

628
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:21,599
Barrett with the Knicks this season in
general. But it was also hard

629
00:41:21,639 --> 00:41:24,880
to watch Barrett with the Knicks this
season and not at least see flashes of

630
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,960
the potential that made him the third
overall pick in the twenty nineteen draft.

631
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:34,000
Like you could. You could very
clearly see the offensive talent just waiting to

632
00:41:34,079 --> 00:41:40,039
be maximized with a more competent roster
and staff around him. Look, the

633
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,199
I don't think you can came a
bust. It's not even just the year

634
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:45,400
one stuff. They were just like, Hey, let's take this ball dominant

635
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:51,480
player whose jump shot is questionable and
surrounded with a bunch of non shooters Like

636
00:41:51,519 --> 00:41:52,880
that, I think it makes any
sense from the start. It's that It's

637
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:57,920
as simple as that to me.
And so if you put like, if

638
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,920
you put him in a different situation
or just even let's keep him on the

639
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:05,960
Knicks, just surround with more shooting
Mitchell Robinson, RJ. Barrett and three

640
00:42:06,079 --> 00:42:08,639
actual shooters. I think he's in
a much different situation. I don't think

641
00:42:08,639 --> 00:42:12,920
he belonged on any of the all
rookie teams. I people thought he was

642
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,599
snubbed, but he didn't belong there
to me. And look, there were

643
00:42:15,679 --> 00:42:20,119
some like he has just some nice
like sort of methodical change of pace to

644
00:42:20,159 --> 00:42:22,320
his game when he's when he's inside
the yark that I actually thought that he

645
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,360
was a little bit better defensively,
like really knew how to use his size

646
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:30,440
than I would have ever expected from
him as a rookie, and particularly on

647
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:32,280
the Knicks. So he's not a
bust by any means. But I do

648
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:37,880
think they run the risk of,
I would say, at least curtailing his

649
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,559
value or sort of you know,
just limiting his growth at least early on,

650
00:42:42,599 --> 00:42:46,400
if they don't put more complimentary talent
around him. He turned twenty in

651
00:42:46,519 --> 00:42:52,280
June. I refuse to attach the
bust label to anyone before they can legally

652
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,800
drink alcohol, just by rule.
Next question comes from Paul Higham. He

653
00:42:55,880 --> 00:43:00,440
asked, is there any precedence for
the leap Murray has taken in the playoffs,

654
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:02,400
and how likely is it to be
sustainable? Thanks for all the hard

655
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:07,519
work you guys, do we appreciate
the last part. I have not done

656
00:43:07,599 --> 00:43:14,440
enough research to have immediate names for
these playoff leaps, even though we've definitely

657
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:17,599
seen players excel on expectedly in the
past. But I don't even know if

658
00:43:17,639 --> 00:43:22,079
it was that unexpected for Murray,
Like there are elements of what he's doing

659
00:43:22,119 --> 00:43:27,239
that are unsustainable. No one is
going to shoot roughly seventy five percent on

660
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,119
poll up triples for a more sustained
period, and that's hyperbolic, but only

661
00:43:30,119 --> 00:43:35,599
barely. He's not gonna shoot close
to fifty percent on threes in general long

662
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:42,280
term. But for a long time, we've seen this full package delivered in

663
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:46,480
these tantalizing flashes. He's always been
a player who shoots the ball with extreme

664
00:43:46,599 --> 00:43:53,639
confidence that is just utterly captivating.
He has shown these these moments of brilliance

665
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:59,639
operating in pick and rolls and reverse
pick and rolls with Nikolai Yokich. There

666
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:05,760
have been so many indications that this
level of play was possible, and he's

667
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:10,880
now sustaining it better than we've seen
throughout his career. So I don't think

668
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:15,960
that all of a sudden he's going
to be this top ten, single handedly

669
00:44:16,079 --> 00:44:22,679
series winning superstar. But I feel
like these playoffs are are giving the Nuggets

670
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:28,840
more confidence that, yes, he
can be that second piece to Yokich on

671
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:32,079
an actual championship winning team. Yeah. I actually looked for a while and

672
00:44:32,079 --> 00:44:37,719
couldn't find apt comparisons. Two things
that I think stand out is this doesn't

673
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:40,199
compare in the sense that Damal Murray's
role with the Nuggets was already prominent,

674
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:44,760
But when you look at what happened
with CJ McCollum, where he barely plays

675
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,880
during his sophomore regular season and then
by necessity ends up getting a ton of

676
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:52,800
minutes through their five postseason performances and
he really has a breakout, and then

677
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,039
that just ends up being a sustainable
type of player that he is. And

678
00:44:55,079 --> 00:44:59,800
the other thing that I'm drawn to
is this is not postseason specific, but

679
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:05,159
look what happened to Victor Oladipo when
he goes from Okac to Indiana and makes

680
00:45:05,199 --> 00:45:07,760
that all NBA jump. I don't
know if that proved sustainable, but the

681
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:12,679
extra responsibility that he was shouldering,
coupled with I think just the progression of

682
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:17,159
time where that was his fifth season
in the league and Jamal Murray's in a

683
00:45:17,159 --> 00:45:21,639
similar circumstances, this is his fourth. This might all be it coming together.

684
00:45:22,159 --> 00:45:27,199
And we saw even last year's playoffs
like he he won them games.

685
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,320
They're also just Knights where he disappeared. And the fact that I think we've

686
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:35,119
seen more consistency from him in these
postseason and then even when he wasn't necessarily

687
00:45:35,599 --> 00:45:38,800
Let's look at Game seven in against
Utah, like didn't have the most efficient

688
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,159
game, but he's They've also gotten
more from him on defense, and so

689
00:45:42,199 --> 00:45:47,000
I think what this is winding up
being for Murray is a manifestation of what

690
00:45:47,079 --> 00:45:50,760
he kind of already was, and
he's just reaching a point where you can

691
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:53,159
do it more consistently. Do I
expect this to be the level that he

692
00:45:53,199 --> 00:45:58,039
plays at where you can say you
know he's there are Knights where he's just

693
00:45:58,079 --> 00:46:00,840
dead even in value with Yokis,
like, I don't know you can expect

694
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:05,119
that during the during the regular season. I think even Game seven would be

695
00:46:05,159 --> 00:46:07,800
a good example, just because of
how Yokis was able to impact the game

696
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:12,159
even when he wasn't necessarily scoring at
this highest clip, his defensive rebounding,

697
00:46:12,159 --> 00:46:15,639
his passing is absurd. I also
don't know that Denver's, especially during the

698
00:46:15,639 --> 00:46:19,599
regular season, ever going to give
Murray that type of influence over the offense.

699
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,280
He might be the CJ. McCollum
type player in the sense where I

700
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:28,360
feel like McCollum is way more Importland, way more important to Portland once they

701
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,239
get to the playoffs, and I
see Jamal Murray just looking at his value

702
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,119
as a similar player. Their styles
are just so so different. He's a

703
00:46:35,159 --> 00:46:38,480
better playmaker than CJ. McCollum is, but where he's just going to be

704
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:43,119
this hyper valuable player for them in
the postseason, I think he's always going

705
00:46:43,159 --> 00:46:46,920
to exceed his regular season value in
these situations. I like that comparison a

706
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:52,559
lot. I do think that the
rolling player ratings that we use at NBA

707
00:46:52,639 --> 00:46:55,400
math are really telling for Murray because
he's been you know, even though he

708
00:46:55,480 --> 00:47:02,320
has or has had this reputation as
an inconsistent but flammable scoring guard, he

709
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:08,039
has been very consistently inconsistent and that's
reflected in his trajectory on those rolling player

710
00:47:08,119 --> 00:47:15,639
ratings, because he tends to vacillate
or between these these values that are pretty

711
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,840
the floor and the ceiling are pretty
close to each other. But during the

712
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:25,760
bubble experience and during the actual playoff
games just skyrocketing. And I think that's

713
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:31,760
what happens when, you know,
you go from alternating between having one good

714
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:37,039
game and one bad game every set
to having two good games and one mediocre

715
00:47:37,159 --> 00:47:44,960
game. You know, we're seeing
the inconsistency leave his game. That's the

716
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,679
biggest thing, you know, whether
it's sustainable or not, just the fact

717
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:52,559
that that is going away is good
news for the future. Our next question,

718
00:47:52,599 --> 00:47:55,360
I agree with everything you say said
just there. We'll wrap this up

719
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:59,039
with two one of which is a
two part question, but is quick.

720
00:47:59,199 --> 00:48:02,000
Lance Rodeo ask, can Yoki get
a statue after the Nuggets win the next

721
00:48:02,079 --> 00:48:08,400
eight games and has everyone submitted their
application for the Nuggets bandwagon. I still

722
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:14,199
don't think. Look Yoki, if
he's gonna have a statue in Denver,

723
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,639
it needs to be of I think, like him in the process of catching

724
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:22,079
the rebound with one hand and then
throwing like one of those Waterfolo paths.

725
00:48:22,159 --> 00:48:23,039
I was going to say the same
thing, but it has to be like

726
00:48:23,079 --> 00:48:25,440
the full court one. I don't
know how you're going to mimic that,

727
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:28,360
Like, maybe you have to put
the entire they have to make it a

728
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,960
statue of the entire court in front
of him, so you could see another

729
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,039
player in a statue. That's who
he's gonna hit. But that's the motion

730
00:48:34,079 --> 00:48:36,480
I want to see, is the
water polo pass if he gets a statue.

731
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:38,039
The other thing I'll add is I
still don't think people buy into the

732
00:48:38,079 --> 00:48:43,000
Nuggets as contenders. I think the
Lakers are right to have been excited that

733
00:48:43,079 --> 00:48:46,440
they pulled the Nuggets rather than the
Clippers, at least on paper, But

734
00:48:46,559 --> 00:48:50,719
given how Los Angeles has kind of
just seemed dead in the eyes for so

735
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,280
long, maybe that's not actually true, but I do still feel like there's

736
00:48:53,320 --> 00:48:59,199
a stigma against the Nuggets where they're
considered these paper tigers more so than a

737
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:02,400
legitimate threat, which is an absolute
wild thing to say, given that they're

738
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:07,239
in the conference finals. It's almost
like the way people viewed Portland getting to

739
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:08,880
the conference finals a year ago,
where it was like, well, you

740
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:12,079
know, good job, good effort, but this and this and this happened,

741
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,880
and now it's like, well,
if the Clippers didn't collapse, and

742
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:16,559
you know, the Jazz had boy
on Bogdanovich, and this wasn't you know,

743
00:49:16,599 --> 00:49:21,320
a bubble with unprecedented circumstances. Are
they in the conference finals? That's

744
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:23,960
what I feel like the actual prevailing
sentiment is, whereas I actually feel like

745
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:28,119
it should be people trying to board
the Nuggets bandwagon. I don't know who

746
00:49:28,199 --> 00:49:30,480
could say they've always been here,
because Nuggets stands have certainly not been here.

747
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,920
The expectation was not for them to
go this far. I don't think

748
00:49:34,199 --> 00:49:37,039
even people who picked them to win
the title if they did, backed off

749
00:49:37,039 --> 00:49:39,679
those stances. I'll raise my hand
right now. So I don't know that

750
00:49:40,159 --> 00:49:45,800
you know this is I think especially
Nuggets fans, knew how good this team

751
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:49,519
was, but no one was picking
them to get this far in the playoffs.

752
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:54,000
So I know that the statue question
was at least somewhat tongue in cheek,

753
00:49:54,400 --> 00:50:00,400
But I do think it's interesting to
think about if Yokich is able to

754
00:50:00,519 --> 00:50:06,519
deliver a title to this Denver organization
that has never won a title. The

755
00:50:06,559 --> 00:50:10,039
closest that they've come was in nineteen
seventy six back in the ABA years,

756
00:50:10,039 --> 00:50:15,599
when they lost in the finals.
That they have not come within one series

757
00:50:15,639 --> 00:50:19,719
of an NBA title. So if
he is able to deliver that, then

758
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,920
all of a sudden, I think
there is a very legitimate case to elevate

759
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:28,960
him above Danissel, above Alex English, above David Thompson, above Bobby Jones

760
00:50:29,119 --> 00:50:36,360
as the absolute, unquestioned best player
in Nuggets history. As for the bandwagon,

761
00:50:36,519 --> 00:50:39,199
I think it's going to remain at
least partially filled, but not full

762
00:50:39,679 --> 00:50:45,480
for a while, just because you
know they are very much going to enter

763
00:50:45,559 --> 00:50:52,079
this series as in terms of popular
perception at least as definitive underdogs, just

764
00:50:52,159 --> 00:50:58,079
going against the NBA's most historic franchise
or one of two most historic franchises against

765
00:50:58,119 --> 00:51:01,639
a team led by Lebron James Like
there, I don't think that, regardless

766
00:51:01,679 --> 00:51:06,679
of how entertaining and impressive these last
two series have been, I don't think

767
00:51:06,679 --> 00:51:09,039
that there are people like lining up
to jump on the Denver bandwagon, even

768
00:51:09,079 --> 00:51:14,000
if they should be. So my
follow up question to that to you,

769
00:51:14,159 --> 00:51:17,880
Dan is how many wins does it
take in this series to change that?

770
00:51:19,199 --> 00:51:22,519
Like, if they win Game one, does the bandwagon fill up? Or

771
00:51:22,599 --> 00:51:25,159
is there still this expectation that Lebron
and the Lakers are going to win it.

772
00:51:25,079 --> 00:51:28,599
It does it happen if they go
up two oh two O would be

773
00:51:29,119 --> 00:51:31,320
two oho, or if they win
to the first three. I think that

774
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:35,639
would be that would just that would
be where we have the bandwagon conversation.

775
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:38,559
That's fair. The last question is
one you asked, but it spurred a

776
00:51:38,639 --> 00:51:42,760
debate. You asked, is Jason
Tatum a top ten player? It got

777
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,519
a slew of its own responses where
they said, some of which were more

778
00:51:45,519 --> 00:51:50,800
egregious than others, but the prevailing
sentiment seemed to be he's either top fifteen

779
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:53,639
or top twenty, not top ten
yet. I believe I had him at

780
00:51:53,719 --> 00:51:59,800
number eleven for this past season when
I ranked him for Bleacher Report. What

781
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:04,000
I think the factors that go into
that is in a regular season, when

782
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,320
we get more Paul George, more
joellenbad Maybe that's actually not a regular season

783
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:10,760
then, But Kyrie Irving's healthier,
Kevin Durants there, Stephen Curry's healthier?

784
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:16,159
Is Jason Tatum in that top ten
discussion, I'd probably be reticent to put

785
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:20,760
him there right now, but he
is. He is close to me,

786
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:24,159
like he is just ridiculously close.
Yeah, So I think, like if

787
00:52:24,159 --> 00:52:28,199
we actually go through the names here, you know Lebron, James Kawhi,

788
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:34,159
Leonard Jannisana Da Cumbo, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Nikolai Yokich, Luca

789
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:38,639
don Chich, and then I think
the more interesting ones and James Harden as

790
00:52:38,639 --> 00:52:43,599
well. In that unquestioned group that
is one, two, three, four,

791
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:46,119
five, six, seven, eight
names, I think. And then

792
00:52:46,159 --> 00:52:50,599
the next two for me would be
Damian Lillard and Kevin Durant, who I

793
00:52:50,679 --> 00:52:53,199
just don't know where to place.
Like, based on his history and his

794
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:57,639
reputation, he definitely deserves to be
in that lock section, but I need

795
00:52:57,679 --> 00:53:01,239
to see something post Achilles injury to
actually have him in that lock group.

796
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:06,320
But that's that's ten names already,
and then I think in that next tier

797
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:08,599
it's really crowded. We've got we've
got Tatum, We've got Jimmy Butler,

798
00:53:08,639 --> 00:53:12,559
We've got Chris Paul, We've got
Paul George, Ben Simmons, Joe Lmbid,

799
00:53:12,639 --> 00:53:16,000
Carl, Anthony Towns. There are
a number of names who you can

800
00:53:16,039 --> 00:53:22,239
at least make arguments for being placed
ahead of those players who I mentioned at

801
00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:25,039
the top. Tatum might be first
in that group. At this point.

802
00:53:25,159 --> 00:53:29,440
I think he's still just shy of
the top ten. But I also think

803
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,960
you're fooling yourself if you don't think
it's at least a discussion. Yeah.

804
00:53:34,199 --> 00:53:36,519
Look, so where I think I
would wind up. I think he needs

805
00:53:36,599 --> 00:53:42,519
next season to actually get there unqualified
amid this a full pool, and let's

806
00:53:42,559 --> 00:53:45,840
just let's hope that we just have
healthier star seasons. What I what I

807
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:49,119
will kind of say though, is
well on he has the off the dribble

808
00:53:49,119 --> 00:53:52,599
three pointer down, which is one
of the most challenging but also probably the

809
00:53:52,599 --> 00:53:57,280
most important shot I would argue in
today's NBA, and he's hitting that.

810
00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:00,920
He was above He's above forty percent
in the PS comfortably, and he was

811
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:02,400
right around there for the regular season
as well, was one of the most

812
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:07,320
efficient off the dribble three point shooters
in the league. What, and we

813
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:10,079
know what he can do defensively too, Like he's probably gonna spend more time

814
00:54:10,199 --> 00:54:14,079
on let's say the third best player
than the first best player, but he

815
00:54:14,079 --> 00:54:16,039
can really muck up things off the
ball, and like you're like you can

816
00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:20,960
like you if he switches like it's
You're fine. So I think he's a

817
00:54:21,079 --> 00:54:23,920
decidedly above average defender with I wouldn't
be surprised if he made an All defense

818
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:29,400
team down the line. What's been
most important to me is in the playoffs,

819
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:30,880
he's averaging four point three assist per
game, and if that's like kind

820
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:36,320
of his new normal where yes,
he's playing forty minutes to which actually his

821
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:39,079
forty minutes per game lead the playoffs, but he's at three point nine assists

822
00:54:39,079 --> 00:54:44,239
per thirty six minutes, which is
a pretty dramatic increase over the three point

823
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:46,880
two he averaged this past regular season. If you can see the uptick continue

824
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:50,719
to where he's going to be at
four and a half close to five per

825
00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:53,199
thirty six, like that might cement
his status for me, And there's room

826
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:57,639
for him to have that type of
role in Boston because you have Kemba,

827
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:01,679
but there's not really like that clear
secondary facilitator after that, there's you know,

828
00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:06,199
Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward when he's
healthy, Brad Wanamaker, but it's

829
00:55:06,199 --> 00:55:09,400
more of this kind of committee thing
and even just looking long term because Hayward

830
00:55:10,199 --> 00:55:13,920
isn't on the books through next season
right now, Wanamaker is a free agent

831
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:17,079
this year, like they're gonna need
that, Like there's room for him to

832
00:55:17,119 --> 00:55:21,440
be like that secondary go to guy
as a passer, and I think that

833
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:23,559
he's shown that he can make the
less obvious passes to be that guy.

834
00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:28,039
We'll see if this is sustainable.
We'll see if he has another you know

835
00:55:28,199 --> 00:55:30,239
level to kick it up too.
But if he does that, like that

836
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:34,519
is where I think he gets to
solidify the top ten status, not just

837
00:55:34,599 --> 00:55:37,000
in a season like the one we
just had, but sort of unconditionally.

838
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:43,400
Well that in not getting blocked on
game deciding dunk attempts in the playoffs.

839
00:55:44,159 --> 00:55:46,639
Look, that's that's more of a
freak bam out of bio things. My

840
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:50,440
wrist broke when I looked at that
picture. If you look at the still

841
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:52,440
shot, it just broke, Like
I don't know how he did that.

842
00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:55,840
It's ridiculous. But that'll do it
for us. We'll wrap it up here

843
00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:59,599
sub an hour this time, unlike
the past hour and a half to two

844
00:55:59,599 --> 00:56:01,480
hour past we've been giving you,
so I guess an apologies in order or

845
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:05,360
you're welcome. If you want to
hear less of us please. As always,

846
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:09,119
though, remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Hardwood Knox on

847
00:56:09,159 --> 00:56:13,960
iTunes and wherever you're getting your podcast
downloading and subscribing is the most important thing.

848
00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:16,079
But whether or not you're using iTunes, please head over there, write

849
00:56:16,159 --> 00:56:20,000
us a review, give us a
rating. We appreciate every single one that

850
00:56:20,039 --> 00:56:22,199
we get and we are checking them. So we ask you that follow us

851
00:56:22,199 --> 00:56:25,480
on Twitter at hardwoo Knox, subscribe
to you or YouTube channel YouTube dot com

852
00:56:25,519 --> 00:56:30,400
slash hardware Knox. And until next
time, I leave you with the shout

853
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:35,320
out to the one the only should
probably apparently be in the three point contest

854
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,760
next year, Marcus Smart. Let's
call him the three and all the date

855
00:56:39,119 --> 00:56:43,079
specialists like, maybe that's maybe that's
how work you should go by, So

856
00:56:43,119 --> 00:56:49,599
shout out to him. Nobody builds
five G like Verizon builds five G because

857
00:56:49,639 --> 00:56:52,360
we're the engineers who built the most
reliable network in America. And the more

858
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:55,639
you do with five G, the
more building it right matters, the more

859
00:56:55,639 --> 00:57:00,760
your network matters, The more Verizon
engineers going the extra matters. It's us

860
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:07,199
pushing us. It's Verizon versus Verizon. Five G built right from America's most

861
00:57:07,199 --> 00:57:10,760
reliable network, most reliable based on
rankings promote Metric second half twenty twenty US

862
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:14,920
report of three Mobile Networks results May
vary Award is not an endorsement.