Speaker 1: You in a Tom Petty mood today on a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: What's going on? What's going on with you and there?
Speaker 2: What's the deal?
Speaker 1: I guess kind of not officially, but yeah, the first
Speaker 1: two songs going with a little Tom Petty, So maybe we'll.
Speaker 2: Keep it going. Maybe not. No, you can roll with it,
Speaker 2: but you do.
Speaker 1: You are aware this is a family friendly program, right, Yeah?
Speaker 1: And your first Tom Petty bump songs about weed. Dude,
Speaker 1: just be better. Mary Jane's a sweet girlfriend of his.
Speaker 2: It's weed.
Speaker 1: Just say no, kids, I'm just I'm the one that
Speaker 1: has to clean up for your poor musical choices by
Speaker 1: reminding the masses that we're here to take care of
Speaker 1: families and children.
Speaker 2: Is that our demographic? Yeah, just say no. It's all
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I think that sheet said like thirty five
Speaker 2: seventy Maile, Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1: Our next guest passes on grass like Greg Fokker form
Speaker 1: Meet the Parents, Tom haberstro Monday Afternoon.
Speaker 2: Hello Tom, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm good man. I like that you make that presumption
Speaker 3: about me.
Speaker 1: Well, if you'd like to discuss your wheat smoking habits
Speaker 1: on air, Tom, I'm happy to make the space no.
Speaker 3: This is a family program. You're absolutely right, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It is what an interest?
Speaker 1: Now this is still this is still live radio. This
Speaker 1: is not a podcast. We have to behave ourselves in
Speaker 1: a way that people like you and Zach Harper do not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to remind ourselves that we're professionals, because
Speaker 3: everything in our lives just screams on professionals. So thank
Speaker 3: you for the reminder.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, you guys are very professional.
Speaker 1: But you know, you can drop a bomb here there,
Speaker 1: or you can discuss things on podcasts that you can't
Speaker 1: discuss on radio, right, I mean that's kind of the deal.
Speaker 3: You tell me, Spence, you're the one with the radio show.
Speaker 1: Well, when I go on podcasts, it seems like there's
Speaker 1: a little bit more freedom to use certain terms.
Speaker 2: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, you know what, I'm just surprised you went
Speaker 3: with weed. That kind of feels like another maybe like
Speaker 3: a graduate level program compared to just marijuana, you know,
Speaker 3: like feels like it feels like it's a little inside baseball.
Speaker 2: Nice job, my bad bubonic product.
Speaker 1: I've got a bunch of terms so we could use
Speaker 1: if you want to. But we can move on speaking
Speaker 1: of Zach Harper. He does not like you're Kevin Garnett.
Speaker 1: Is Cooper flag comp Just so you.
Speaker 3: Know, well, Zach is way smarter than me on all
Speaker 3: things basketball, so I would trust him on all those things.
Speaker 3: But you know what, he's also a Minnesota Timberwolf lifer,
Speaker 3: so he probably understands that comparing anyone to KG is
Speaker 3: like any Bulls fan hearing people compare anybody to Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, fair enough, And it's funny because of
Speaker 1: all the comps that I've heard, they're Garnet. One actually
Speaker 1: tracks when you watch the way that Cooper can guard
Speaker 1: and how well he moves. I mean, look, I think
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's Kawhi or whether it's gone at
Speaker 1: Whenever you compare an eighteen year old to Hall of famers,
Speaker 1: you're going to get pushed back.
Speaker 2: Is there anything.
Speaker 1: About the way Duke went out that could potentially affect
Speaker 1: the way people view Cooper at all?
Speaker 3: I don't think so, Considering he's the youngest guy on
Speaker 3: the court by why margin, he was going against a
Speaker 3: lot older guys, And as much as I want to
Speaker 3: pin it all on him, I thought that the over
Speaker 3: the back call that they whistled on him was very borderline.
Speaker 3: Didn't feel like the right call at that stage. The
Speaker 3: physicality in the game feels like that was something you
Speaker 3: might call him the beginning of the game to set
Speaker 3: the tone for the rest of the game. But the
Speaker 3: way that Houston was being physical with Duke, I was
Speaker 3: flabbergasted at that call. And look, he missed the shot
Speaker 3: there at the end, but he's made those shots time
Speaker 3: and time again, so I don't think that that was
Speaker 3: a bad shot. What really stands out to me is
Speaker 3: Malowatch having zero rebounds in over twenty minutes of action
Speaker 3: and that Duke had no rebounds after the four minute mark.
Speaker 3: That's that's insane. And some of that falls on Cooper
Speaker 3: Flag for sure, but it's one game. It's a huge game,
Speaker 3: and if the Duke Blue Devils went out in like
Speaker 3: the second round or then the Sweet sixteen, I would
Speaker 3: have a lot harsher words to say for Cooper Flag
Speaker 3: and John Shire and Duke. That was an epic collapse.
Speaker 3: But I wouldn't put this put this all on Cooper
Speaker 3: Flag and it wouldn't change my evaluation of him.
Speaker 1: That's the type of lost tom. I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's you know, Pete Van Sicklin and Ernie Verena and
Speaker 1: Staples in nineteen ninety five. It doesn't matter what level
Speaker 1: you played, it doesn't matter how long it's been. A
Speaker 1: loss like that, I don't think ever fully leaves you.
Speaker 1: Like if you're John, if you're Conking Nipple, the Malawatch
Speaker 1: kid or Cooper, like, all of them are probably gonna
Speaker 1: go on those All three of those kids are lottery picks.
Speaker 1: They're gonna make millions of dollars and play basketball for years.
Speaker 1: But the way they went out, I'm not sure a
Speaker 1: loss like that ever fully leaves you.
Speaker 3: It's traumatic, it's the best way to describe it. As
Speaker 3: a basketball players, you're always gonna think about it, Like
Speaker 3: if you're up six with thirty six seconds left. For
Speaker 3: the rest of your career, you're gonna be thinking about
Speaker 3: San Antonio. You're gonna be thinking about what happened against
Speaker 3: the Houston Cougars. And that's the fact of the matter.
Speaker 3: For any athlete who has ever suffered a loss like that,
Speaker 3: you are always going to have it in the back
Speaker 3: of your mind. Now, time heals all wound, so eventually
Speaker 3: it'll fade for memory, and it won't be so harsh
Speaker 3: and searing of a loss over time. But I can't
Speaker 3: imagine that anyone who suffers that kind of loss. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what I don't know. If you watch
Speaker 3: the White Lotus, oh yeah, it seems I mean the
Speaker 3: text that I got from all my buddies in North Carolina,
Speaker 3: it was the duke shirt with the Dad rack Cliffs
Speaker 3: with the gun to his head. And I was sitting
Speaker 3: there being like, that feels like we're in a simulation now,
Speaker 3: because how is White Lotus picking the one team that
Speaker 3: has the most depressing most I can't believe that just happened,
Speaker 3: lost the most brutal loss of the tournament, and it
Speaker 3: happened right before the finale of White Lotus, which feels
Speaker 3: like we are part of this simulation where it's all
Speaker 3: connected in some way, just like in the White Lotus
Speaker 3: season finale. No spoilers, but that was one of the
Speaker 3: big themes, was how we're all connected in some way,
Speaker 3: And that finish by the Blue Devils did feel like
Speaker 3: this was preordained somehow that it would promote the White
Speaker 3: Lotus season finale that last night. And I'm still gathering
Speaker 3: my thoughts on both the Duke loss on Saturday night
Speaker 3: and White Lotus on Sunday night. But both of them
Speaker 3: felt like big events in the year twenty twenty five, and.
Speaker 1: I was wrong about both. Just to be clear, I
Speaker 1: did not see either coming. But yeah, we'll leave the
Speaker 1: spoiler alerts for White Lotus offware today. I do have
Speaker 1: one more question, Tom, and I don't think there's anything here.
Speaker 2: Let me be clear.
Speaker 1: My personal opinion and my personal belief is that Cooper
Speaker 1: is leaving.
Speaker 2: He's going.
Speaker 1: He's a generational player that's going to be the number
Speaker 1: one pick, and he is healthy, so you.
Speaker 2: Gotta go do that, Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, the other side of it is he is a
Speaker 1: young eighteen year old he turned eighteen I think three
Speaker 1: and a half months ago, and a taste in your
Speaker 1: mouth like that to leave college maybe something that motivates
Speaker 1: him to come back because of his age and five
Speaker 1: years ago, this is a conversation we would not even
Speaker 1: be having. However, I could actually foresee whether it's you know, Cooper, Khan,
Speaker 1: k Nipple, the Malawatch Kid, all three of them saying, look,
Speaker 1: we know we're lottery picks, but we're all young, we're teenagers.
Speaker 1: And if Duke wants to step up with an NIO
Speaker 1: package that will pay them more for one year than
Speaker 1: what all of them could make as rookies in the NBA,
Speaker 1: to run it back and try to get John Shire's
Speaker 1: first National championship. I guess I would say stranger things
Speaker 1: have happened based off the current landscape. And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here shaking my head because I'm now imagining this scenario
Speaker 1: on May twelfth, when the NBA lottery is held and
Speaker 1: the Jazz get number one, and then the next day
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag announces that he's going back to Duke.
Speaker 2: I do not know what it would be like around here.
Speaker 2: What do you?
Speaker 3: What do you?
Speaker 2: Oh man? Oh man? I don't even want to think
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: But any shot in hell that that actually goes down.
Speaker 3: I think it's even less likely now than it was
Speaker 3: before that collapse, because I think there's no upside in
Speaker 3: coming back. There's this. The only way that you have
Speaker 3: redemption or that you win that equation is if you
Speaker 3: win the National Championship, right Like, anything short of that
Speaker 3: is just making more salts in the wound. And I
Speaker 3: think when you lose in the final four in epic
Speaker 3: fashion like that there's only one way to forget that
Speaker 3: whole thing and to make those wrongs right is to
Speaker 3: win it all the next year, and just with a
Speaker 3: one and done style format of the NCAA tournament, I
Speaker 3: just I don't see the upside there being worth it,
Speaker 3: because in the NBA you can make the argument that
Speaker 3: like a team that much better than everybody else, in
Speaker 3: a seven game series, you have a better shot of
Speaker 3: asserting your dominance in a seven game series, not in
Speaker 3: a one and done where something flukey can happen and
Speaker 3: everything collapses like a house of cards. So I think
Speaker 3: before that Cooper Flag championship or the final four loss,
Speaker 3: I would say there's better odds if they win at
Speaker 3: all that he would come back and do it again
Speaker 3: like Djokim Noah and Al Horford did. Then if they
Speaker 3: had this cataclysmic loss in the final four, and I
Speaker 3: would just say, there's also this dynamic of dabansa next
Speaker 3: year where if he Cooper Flag comes back, and Canipple
Speaker 3: comes back and Malawatch comes back, there's an excellent draft
Speaker 3: class coming through next year that they're going to have
Speaker 3: to be competing for draft picks next year, and not
Speaker 3: only competing for draft picks or draft slot. You're competing
Speaker 3: for millions of dollars in first year salary or at
Speaker 3: least rookie scale salaries. So I think the risk for
Speaker 3: Cooper Flag actually got even higher in deciding to come back.
Speaker 3: So I agree with you. I don't think it's going
Speaker 3: to happen, and I think it's even more of a
Speaker 3: long shot, A long shot that turns into even more
Speaker 3: of a long shot if they lose that game in
Speaker 3: horrific fashion. I think it's a I don't even I
Speaker 3: don't think it's gonna happen. But you know what, stranger
Speaker 3: things have happened, like blowing a what was it a
Speaker 3: nine point lead with a minute twenty left? What was
Speaker 3: the what was the largest gap there probability? I think
Speaker 3: it's the six point lead with thirty two seconds left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were up nine with a minute. They were
Speaker 1: outscored nine to zero over the final thirty five seconds.
Speaker 1: And you know, strictly from a basketball standpoint, I felt
Speaker 1: really bad that john Shire didn't I felt bad for
Speaker 1: the players that john Shire didn't dial up a different
Speaker 1: inbounds play. They tried the same inbounds play over and
Speaker 1: over and over. They were trapped in the corner. They
Speaker 1: overcame a Houston player reaching over the end line to
Speaker 1: try to swap the ball out of I think it
Speaker 1: was Nipple's hands where Duke got a teck and possession,
Speaker 1: like the pion James kid is a really good player,
Speaker 1: just looked panicked to try and inbound the basketball. I honestly, Tom,
Speaker 1: I have respect for Duke basketball and John Shire.
Speaker 2: I thought their coach let them down down the stretch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you forget about the Canipple kickout of
Speaker 3: bounds that went the wrong way, yep, And it was
Speaker 3: it was a it was a crazy finish to that game.
Speaker 3: And you're still watching like wow, wow, like how did
Speaker 3: that happen? And there have been times where what was
Speaker 3: it the I seem to remember Maryland coming back against
Speaker 3: Duke down ten? What was it the other way around
Speaker 3: where it was like wojo, and like I'll never forget
Speaker 3: if you're up by ten with a minute left. Ever
Speaker 3: since that loss happened, I've never forgotten it. Like I've
Speaker 3: always in my head no matter who it is who's playing,
Speaker 3: no ten point lead with a minute left is safe,
Speaker 3: Like I want it to be fifteen. And this is
Speaker 3: the same sort of game. Well, I will for a
Speaker 3: long time look at a six point lead differently with
Speaker 3: thirty three seconds left NBA or college basketball, because that
Speaker 3: just happened in one of the biggest stages. So look,
Speaker 3: I think it's been a rough collapse for the Duke program.
Speaker 3: You know, when you talk about losing to NC State
Speaker 3: a year ago, and then losing to UNC and then
Speaker 3: losing here, It's been a really tough road for Duke.
Speaker 3: But I am not crying for them, as as a
Speaker 3: wake forest, a lump based here in Charlotte who grew
Speaker 3: up a tar Heel fan. I'm not shedding any tears,
Speaker 3: But like you, I had Duke winning it all and
Speaker 3: maybe that was an emotional hedge for me.
Speaker 1: The game you're talking about, I remember it now. It's
Speaker 1: the miracle minute. That was Jay Williams. That was that
Speaker 1: Maryland team with Jan Dixon and Steve Blake Boozer. Yes,
Speaker 1: I was on Duke, as was Mike dun Levy and
Speaker 1: Chris Duhont. Duke came down, came back from ten minutes,
Speaker 1: from ten points down with a minute twenty left to play.
Speaker 2: That was two thousand and one. I do remember that game.
Speaker 4: Now that you mention it, yes, that was that's the
Speaker 4: game where it's kind of scarring where once once that
Speaker 4: happens and you've seen it with your eyes, you're just like, yeah, no, no,
Speaker 4: ten point lead with a minute left is safe.
Speaker 3: And you know, there's I think if this was a
Speaker 3: bunch of eighteen year olds going at it, you know,
Speaker 3: like seniors in high school, and Cooper Flag had that
Speaker 3: kind of collapse, I'd probably put a little bit more
Speaker 3: weight like why couldn't it be dominated more down the stretch.
Speaker 3: But because some of these guys are you know, fifth
Speaker 3: year seniors and twenty two year olds, twenty three year
Speaker 3: olds in some cases, like I'm not sweating it for
Speaker 3: Cooper Flag, but it does give me a lot of excitement,
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of debate going into the draft
Speaker 3: that otherwise wouldn't have been there if he had run
Speaker 3: the table. I feel like we would just be running
Speaker 3: out of things to say about Cooper Flag because he's
Speaker 3: that good. And now we can actually, you know, to
Speaker 3: a little bit of me down that bone of is
Speaker 3: there something that we're missing, because I think it is
Speaker 3: healthy a little bit of a little bit of doubt
Speaker 3: or a little bit of criticism is healthy for a
Speaker 3: prospect where the bar isn't so high that he cannot physically,
Speaker 3: you know, reach those expectations, because the only one that's
Speaker 3: ever done it, in my opinion is Lebron James. And
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just hyping someone to that degree. We
Speaker 3: did it with Zion Williamson, we did it with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 3: Cooper Flag, to me, feels like as big of an
Speaker 3: American prospect as we've had in decades. And Wenby doesn't
Speaker 3: count because I don't think America really knew what we
Speaker 3: were talking about with Wemby because he was French and
Speaker 3: because he hadn't played college hoops over here. But this,
Speaker 3: this feels like Cooper Flagg losing in the final four.
Speaker 3: It feels like it might be some healthy adversity for him.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm just I'm rose color glasses here, but I
Speaker 3: think for Utah the I do not see Cooper Flag
Speaker 3: returning to Duke for another year, even if let's say
Speaker 3: another another team that he's not super en series about.
Speaker 3: I think the odds of him returning actually decreased after
Speaker 3: that catachlysmic loss.
Speaker 1: Tell me what before we do some NBA, Before we
Speaker 1: say you lose a lot of conversation about this tournament. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I think there was one, maybe two overtime games. I
Speaker 1: think there was one game winner. There were no Cinderellas.
Speaker 1: Now all four number one seeds leads high quality basketball.
Speaker 1: I thought Saturday was awesome, and I'm excited for the
Speaker 1: game tonight. But what's the Tom Haberstrow take on the
Speaker 1: NCAA March Mattis Tournament of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: I think it's better to have big name programs in
Speaker 3: the final four than having a Cinderella run and then
Speaker 3: end in like the Elite eight. Like I think, all
Speaker 3: things considered, this is going to be great for ratings.
Speaker 3: It was great for the national conversation. And while as
Speaker 3: much as I'd like a good Cinderella, a good Saint Peter's,
Speaker 3: a good George Mason, when it comes to the final four,
Speaker 3: I feel like we all collectively understand that they don't
Speaker 3: really have a real chance of this whole thing. Whereas
Speaker 3: all four of these teams that were in the final four,
Speaker 3: you wouldn't be surprised if anyone made the distance, and
Speaker 3: that kind of intrigue and that kind of those stakes
Speaker 3: felt bigger with the final four being all the top
Speaker 3: seeds basically, And I would say it's the same thing
Speaker 3: for the NBA as much as we don't as much
Speaker 3: as we say and claim that we want parody, I
Speaker 3: think what fans really want secretly is Steph Curry going
Speaker 3: against Lebron James for the eighteenth time. I think people
Speaker 3: want that, they want rivalries, they want brand names, household names.
Speaker 3: In the end, and there's a little hipster in everybody
Speaker 3: that wants Hey, wouldn't it be cool if it was
Speaker 3: Memphis versus Indiana in the NBA Finals this year? At
Speaker 3: the end of the day, I think Boston LA or
Speaker 3: Cleveland LA in the finals more people would care about
Speaker 3: that than if it was even Okay See. I feel
Speaker 3: like people would want to say, it'd be great to
Speaker 3: see Okay see up there Cleveland. What a great NBA
Speaker 3: Finals that would be. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: that would draw pass the audience of a Lakers Cleveland
Speaker 3: or a Lakers Boston series. And the same thing goes
Speaker 3: for college basketball. We want the blue bloods, we want
Speaker 3: the big name programs, we want the number one seeds
Speaker 3: there at the end. But I can understand the argument
Speaker 3: that the Cinderella is the fact that we didn't get
Speaker 3: really any Cinderellas into the Sweet sixteen or close to it,
Speaker 3: I can understand. I think the optimal thing is a
Speaker 3: couple Cinderella's early on, and then we see the big
Speaker 3: dogs down the stretch.
Speaker 1: So Oklahoma City in the midst of a historic run.
Speaker 1: They just went nineteen and one over a twenty game stretch,
Speaker 1: but they had lost back to back games at full strength.
Speaker 1: You know, all their players played at Houston, and then
Speaker 1: they got trounced by the Lakers. And I will say,
Speaker 1: as a fan of this game, watching two players like
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca and dialing in on them and watching
Speaker 1: them kind of figure it out is pretty fascinating with
Speaker 1: the way they think about the game. But any concern
Speaker 1: at all, as we only have a handful of games
Speaker 1: left four or five for most teams with where Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City finds themselves or is just a couple l's is all?
Speaker 3: I think it's two l's with incredibly hot shooting on
Speaker 3: the other side, like those are tough shots. The fact
Speaker 3: is that it took two sun like the surface of
Speaker 3: the Sun shooting nights to beat OKAC and not to
Speaker 3: say that they aren't beatable, But if they weren't such
Speaker 3: outliers from downtown where they're combined against Houston and the Lakers,
Speaker 3: they shot over fifty percent from three point land, and
Speaker 3: that's that's the recipe, and that's the recipe for against
Speaker 3: the ninety six Bulls or the twenty seventeen Warriors, Like
Speaker 3: you need to have an outrageously hot shooting night in
Speaker 3: order to topple the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you can sit
Speaker 3: here and say like they exploited a weakness, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera, But it's a make or miss league, and
Speaker 3: that means the same for Okace and the rest of
Speaker 3: the team. Is that if the opponents, like the Lakers
Speaker 3: in the Houston Rockets are gonna shoot lights out against you,
Speaker 3: they're gonna win. They're gonna win every once in a
Speaker 3: while against the Thunder. But in a seven game series,
Speaker 3: I don't see the Lakers hitting twenty two threes on
Speaker 3: fifty five percent shooting from downtown. And if they do that,
Speaker 3: then yeah, they're gonna win the series against Oka See,
Speaker 3: but I just don't see that being sustainable.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about a couple of teams out
Speaker 1: this way that I don't really think we've discussed very much.
Speaker 1: And the Clippers went through this stretch where they lost
Speaker 1: six of seven, and then since then they're fourteen and
Speaker 1: three in their last seventeen with wins over the Pistons,
Speaker 1: the Knicks, the Calves, the Grizzlies, a couple wins over
Speaker 1: the Knicks, and I could keep going. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: some wins over bad teams in there. But you know,
Speaker 1: every time Kawhi is healthy and every time he decides
Speaker 1: to be engaged, we're all reminded of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's who he is when he decides if basketball is
Speaker 1: important and he actually is healthy.
Speaker 2: Are you buying any of this?
Speaker 1: Are they a legitimate threat to do some sort of
Speaker 1: special thing?
Speaker 2: Come playoff time?
Speaker 3: Man, I'm going to let you in on a little
Speaker 3: teaser here that if you subscribe to my newsletter, Tom
Speaker 3: Thefinder dot com, you'll see it in there, but I'll
Speaker 3: give it to your listeners here. And just with the
Speaker 3: knowledge that I'm going to give you something, please go
Speaker 3: subscribe Tom Thefinder dot com for your pay doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: This stat blew me away when I was working on
Speaker 3: it over the weekend. I wanted to know when Luca
Speaker 3: and Lebron are on the floor, or when Fred VanVleet
Speaker 3: and Alburn Shangoun are on the floor, or John Morant
Speaker 3: and Jaren Jackson Junior on the floor Haliburton and Siakam. Basically,
Speaker 3: when each team has their star players on the floor,
Speaker 3: what is the point differential? How much do they outscore
Speaker 3: opponents with their stars on the floor. And the fact
Speaker 3: of the matter is the Clippers have the best on
Speaker 3: court net rating for their stars on the floor, meaning
Speaker 3: when James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are on the floor
Speaker 3: for the Clippers, they're outscoring opponents by whopping thirteen point
Speaker 3: two points every one hundred possessions. You look at any
Speaker 3: star collection in the NBA for all the title contenders Cleveland, Okay,
Speaker 3: see Boston Lakers, Minnesota. You look at when the Cleveland
Speaker 3: Cavaliers have their four all stars on the floor, and
Speaker 3: I'm counting Jared Allen there too, Garland, Mitchell, Evan Mobley
Speaker 3: and Jared Allen. They're at plus ten. Kawhi and James
Speaker 3: Harden and Zubots on the floor, Norm Powell on the floor,
Speaker 3: Derreck Jones Junior, when Harden and Kohi are on the floor.
Speaker 3: They're at plus thirteen. No one else is higher than that,
Speaker 3: and that really shows that when those two are healthy,
Speaker 3: James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, they're going to compete at
Speaker 3: the highest levels. And I mean against okay, see, I
Speaker 3: mean against the Lakers, I mean against anybody. And one
Speaker 3: thing that's interesting that kind of got obscured by the
Speaker 3: huge Lakers win yesterday is that Lebron James and Luka
Speaker 3: Doncic have the lowest star net rating among all the
Speaker 3: title contenders. They're barely above zero, barely above zero, and
Speaker 3: that is interesting. I know that it's an you know,
Speaker 3: Luka Doncic just got acquired, he's working back from his injury.
Speaker 3: But most of the title contenders have their stars. When
Speaker 3: they're on the floor, they blow out opponents by double digits.
Speaker 3: And the Lakers are a huge outlier in this. That
Speaker 3: Lebron James and Luka Doncic are basically breaking even when
Speaker 3: they're on the floor together, and that, you know, one
Speaker 3: game sample size of yesterday barely nudged them above the
Speaker 3: mendos or the break even line, and that's really interesting.
Speaker 3: No one else is in the same territory as Ron
Speaker 3: and Doncic on the floor. They've got to figure out
Speaker 3: a way to maximize those two guys. And last night
Speaker 3: was incredible and Austin Reeves has been great. But it
Speaker 3: is interesting that the Lakers there have been some blowouts
Speaker 3: that they've been enduring since that trade. Is this is
Speaker 3: a source of concern for the Lakers and definitely a
Speaker 3: source of appreciation for what Kawhi Leonard and he's healthy,
Speaker 3: and James Harden and he's healthy, what they can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whenever Kawhi's healthy for an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: I'm always just reminded of, like, Yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: moment in time in his career that we actually considered
Speaker 1: him maybe the best player in this league outside of Lebron.
Speaker 1: And I'm realizing this in real time. And I'll ask
Speaker 1: you about one more team before he sets you loose.
Speaker 1: Like the Clippers, the Timberwolves went through a stretch they
Speaker 1: went two and six over an eight game period. They
Speaker 1: even lost to the Utah Jazz, which does not happen
Speaker 1: very much. Yeah, and then after that they're all so
Speaker 1: fourteen and three in their last seventeen with some good wins,
Speaker 1: including win over the Nuggets, and I could keep going,
Speaker 1: you know, two wins over Denver. So are you buying
Speaker 1: the recent serge from Minnesota? What are their chances to
Speaker 1: make some noise come playoff time as that's right around
Speaker 1: the corner.
Speaker 3: So for my title tiers that just came out this morning,
Speaker 3: I actually upgraded the Clippers to a four star tier
Speaker 3: and the other team on that tier the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: They're elite on both ends of the floor. They're tenth
Speaker 3: on offense adjusted for their opponent schedule and fifth defensively
Speaker 3: adjusted for their opponents strength. So this team is top
Speaker 3: five on defense, top ten on offense, and with their
Speaker 3: health on their side, now that they're healthy, they're really
Speaker 3: deep and they're good. And nas Reed I think is
Speaker 3: the better option if to Rudy Gobert in crunch time
Speaker 3: and in the postseason, rather than Julius Randall. But that's
Speaker 3: a good problem to have, like when you got two
Speaker 3: studs there. And I'm lower on Julius Randall than most people.
Speaker 3: But when you have the option to have a stretch
Speaker 3: five or a stretch four like nas Reed instead of
Speaker 3: a bully like Julius Randall, if you need to go
Speaker 3: one on one and a guy to get you a bucket.
Speaker 3: Probably lean towards Julius Randall. If Anthony Edwards is, you know,
Speaker 3: fatigue down the stretch or dealing with foul trouble, don't
Speaker 3: want to get a charge against him or anything like that.
Speaker 3: You got options. And this team with doctor Devincenzo also
Speaker 3: stepping up his game being one of the most efficient
Speaker 3: scorers in the NBA over the last couple of months,
Speaker 3: this team is a four star contender. I still think
Speaker 3: that the Golden State Warriors are in a tier above
Speaker 3: along with OKC, Boston and Cleveland. I got four teams
Speaker 3: in the five star tier and that lost yesterday by
Speaker 3: the Golden State Warriors. Iman Thompson, what a performance by
Speaker 3: the Houston Rocket is to absolutely shut down Steph Curry.
Speaker 3: It's it's gonna be an absolute dog fight in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference. I'm not ready for it, Like I'm I'm
Speaker 3: already stressing out by all the good teams that are
Speaker 3: gonna get eliminated in this play in tournament. We're looking,
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, this is crazy. We're looking at the
Speaker 3: possibility of the Lakers getting the number two seed in
Speaker 3: the Western Conference or being eliminated in the play in tournament.
Speaker 3: That's what the next week is gonna tell us, because
Speaker 3: they have the opportunity to get the number two seed
Speaker 3: or the number eight seed. And if you're in the
Speaker 3: number eight seed, your two losses away from being eliminated
Speaker 3: from the playoffs before they even start. And that's where
Speaker 3: we're at with the Lakers. They can be anywhere from
Speaker 3: number two and number eight. And that's just that goes
Speaker 3: for Minnesota, that goes for Golden State, the Ghost for Houston, Memphis.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be crazy and I can't wait for it.
Speaker 2: Tom, Where can people go find all the work?
Speaker 3: Buddy my x feed Tom Haverstrow also Tom underscore Haberstrow
Speaker 3: on Instagram. If you love Top Chef, got a Top
Speaker 3: Chef podcast going right now now that's kicking in the
Speaker 3: high gear, So go check that out in tomdefinder dot com.
Speaker 2: Do you really think Zach is smarter than you are
Speaker 2: when it comes to basketball?
Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, he's a big bully, that guy. I don't wanna.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get on his bad side.
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, yeah, Well, I appreciate the time, man,
Speaker 1: have a good week.
Speaker 2: We'll chat all right with Tom Haberstrom,