Speaker 1: This is the baseline discussing the hot button topics of
Speaker 1: the NBA. Welcome everybody, your tune to the baseline. Cali
Speaker 1: Warrenshaw discussing the hot button topics of the NB. A
Speaker 1: time for us to get ready to talk Western Conference preview.
Speaker 2: We have gotten such an exciting show on tap.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: This is a great time, you know, of the season.
Speaker 1: You know, we get to start talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: all thirty teams in the NBA and and really dig into,
Speaker 1: you know, the finer points about what our expectations are,
Speaker 1: you know, and what they outcome, you know, we might
Speaker 1: think is gonna be. So I'm rolling out the red
Speaker 1: carpet to my right hand man Www. Dot Show, Sports
Speaker 1: doat net, Big Kahuna PNC, my Man warren Shaw reving
Speaker 1: out of Fort LAYDA to Florida. You know, he's the
Speaker 1: guy that makes things happen. And we've been fortunate enough. Man,
Speaker 1: whenever we do these previews, it's been good. We get
Speaker 1: good positive feedback, whether it's we're doing it on our own,
Speaker 1: but we're always thankful whenever we have great guests on
Speaker 1: board to help hash shout these conferences respectively.
Speaker 3: All Right, I appreciate that and you know, kudos to
Speaker 3: our guests who are willing to join us, you know,
Speaker 3: for these contents, for these conference previews. Another great one
Speaker 3: in store here. Western Conference is going to be tightly contested.
Speaker 3: God knows, you know, there's going to be some some
Speaker 3: interesting conversations based on our rankings to be had here ahead.
Speaker 3: So excited to get this one going. As always, family
Speaker 3: and hope our friends and families, friends and listeners will
Speaker 3: be tapping in and giving us their thoughts here on
Speaker 3: the Western Conference. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love how you like to tee up the tee
Speaker 1: up me being the bad guy of this whole thing.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I mean, nobody's a bad guy. You have an opinion or.
Speaker 2: The or the crazy one. I am, I am.
Speaker 1: I'm suddenly the Arthur Fleck of of conference preview conversations.
Speaker 3: You it is you. You bring spice to our lives
Speaker 3: and having some varying opinions from what the norm is.
Speaker 3: I think it's great podcast content.
Speaker 1: So let's keep it all I want at one point,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Hopefully we'll blow up. We'll
Speaker 1: get someone to video edit me in the joker face
Speaker 1: coming down those steps like Arthur fleck Man like, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying my conference previews.
Speaker 3: I'm yeah, kick out.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, because that's apparently how I
Speaker 1: come in with these these these rankings.
Speaker 2: And predictions that I drop right.
Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, we have a great guest to help us
Speaker 1: do our Western Conference preview grant as set as set
Speaker 1: excuse me. He is one of the premium reporters that
Speaker 1: is covering the Dallas Mavericks right now. You can find
Speaker 1: him on Dallas Hoops Journal dot com. He will be
Speaker 1: on board in a few moments to help us break
Speaker 1: down the Western Conference. Great conversation, great content, great provider
Speaker 1: all things, not just maps, but just covering the NBA.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that he would have a vested.
Speaker 1: Interest in him seeing what's going on with the Western
Speaker 1: Conference just a little bit, just a smitch, right, So yeah,
Speaker 1: we cannot wait for him to get on board for that,
Speaker 1: we can get started to talk Western Conference preview as always,
Speaker 1: be sure I get on my Man show as our
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Speaker 1: In a few moments, we're gonna bring our man Grand
Speaker 1: Assef to come on and do some Western Conference preview.
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Speaker 1: nineteen MG. Break down coming up with our man, Grant
Speaker 1: ass Up. You do not want to miss out. Don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere.
Speaker 2: Time now for the breakdown.
Speaker 1: Calie Warrenshaw the Baseline NBA podcast and with us to
Speaker 1: help break down the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: Our man he keeps a very keen.
Speaker 1: Eye on not just what goes on with the Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: but the whole landscape of the Western Conference. Specifically why
Speaker 1: because the Dallas Mavericks did some damage last year getting
Speaker 1: to the NBA Finals and now you got to watch
Speaker 1: the whole conference in its entirety. A very tall task,
Speaker 1: but nothing that our man, Grant Asset of Dallas Hoops
Speaker 1: Journal is.
Speaker 2: Used to isn't already used to. Grant. Thanks for hopping
Speaker 2: on board with this man. We know you know.
Speaker 1: It's been a wild ride already and we haven't even
Speaker 1: gotten to the beginning of the season. You are all
Speaker 1: over the place all things Dallas Mavericks, and we appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking some time out to help give us insight
Speaker 1: on what you think would be the outcome of this
Speaker 1: year's upcoming Western Conference.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: Definitely one of the more interesting teams, you know, obviously
Speaker 5: coming off the finals, adding Clay and Yeah, this whole
Speaker 5: West is kind of crazy. There's a lot of teams
Speaker 5: that want to win, not a whole lot of teams
Speaker 5: that are raising the flag for Cooper flag or chase
Speaker 5: the flag, whatever you want to say. Yeah, there's definitely
Speaker 5: gonna be a lot of interesting elements to get into
Speaker 5: about you know, one through fifteen for sure.
Speaker 1: Well we're going to get right into you know who
Speaker 1: we have depicted as the lottery teams, like those that
Speaker 1: are chasing the flag sort of speak, or trying to
Speaker 1: capture the flag sort of speak. But I really want
Speaker 1: to ask you this question real quick, and I know
Speaker 1: you'll speak in more detail about where the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: are and how you see them for this upcoming season,
Speaker 1: But I'm really curious what is the buzz really like
Speaker 1: out there in Dallas, especially coming off of that finals.
Speaker 1: Is there a a believability factor in this or has
Speaker 1: it been bolstered by the ability for them to get
Speaker 1: a Klay Thompson. I'm not saying Klay Thompson is supposed
Speaker 1: to be you know, that's it that is, but maybe
Speaker 1: the fan base has a feel about that, saying, oh,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we needed. He's he's gonna really help,
Speaker 1: you know, nudge just really closer into us being that
Speaker 1: perennial favorite maybe to win the finals. What's the buzz
Speaker 1: like out there in Dallas from what you've been covering
Speaker 1: so far.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think for the most part, like you know, members,
Speaker 5: like just people around the building, I think there's a
Speaker 5: lot of like optimism and excitement about adding someone like
Speaker 5: Klay Thompson because they shot very poorly in the finals,
Speaker 5: like they were, you know, with PJ. Washington and Derek Jones.
Speaker 5: Is the main starting wings the Celtics really you know,
Speaker 5: cross match switched and loaded the paint to the point
Speaker 5: where it's really tough to operate one on one against
Speaker 5: like Drew Holliday and Derek White, and then you know,
Speaker 5: get the ball to and above the bri open shooter
Speaker 5: and it's miss after miss after miss, Like not all
Speaker 5: that's not the only reason why they lost by any means.
Speaker 5: They ran into a really phenomenal team that stretched them
Speaker 5: out defensively, put a lot of pressure on them, and
Speaker 5: stuck to their principles, you know, on the other side defensively,
Speaker 5: and you know, were able to give up the shots
Speaker 5: they wanted to give up and live with the results
Speaker 5: and one in five games. But you know, in terms
Speaker 5: of you know, I think just beyond just the Klay
Speaker 5: Thompson element as well, I think there's a lot of
Speaker 5: excitement from what they did at the trade deadline and
Speaker 5: how that could translate to a season wide, you know,
Speaker 5: level of success. You know, adding PJ. Washington, Daniel Gofford.
Speaker 5: You know, they last year there were times where an
Speaker 5: injury started to pile up where their centers were Dwight
Speaker 5: Palell and Grant.
Speaker 4: Williams in December, like late December.
Speaker 5: So I think, you know, having that reprotection for forty
Speaker 5: eight minutes as an option, still having Maxi Kleiba when
Speaker 5: he's healthy, to bring that small ball five Some people
Speaker 5: like the thought of PJ. Washington maybe even filling some
Speaker 5: small ball five minutes, but just overall, like a superstar backcourt,
Speaker 5: a sharp shooter that you can really diversify the offense
Speaker 5: more with and you know, having guard depth too. Jaden Hardy,
Speaker 5: there's optimism and excitement about his potential this season filling in,
Speaker 5: you know, when they need him to fill in, which
Speaker 5: is actually gonna be right now, considering you know, Dante
Speaker 5: Exum you know, has to have to undergo risk surgery,
Speaker 5: and you know Spencer Dinwiddie returned as well too, So
Speaker 5: they have a little more depth than what they've had
Speaker 5: in recent years. When you know, Luca or Kyrie went down,
Speaker 5: it's very challenging for them to overcome that. But this
Speaker 5: year that's doesn't appear to be nearly that same level
Speaker 5: you know of concern in such a scenario. So just
Speaker 5: a lot more depth, a lot more you know, top
Speaker 5: end talent than what they've had to start seasons in
Speaker 5: recent years. So definitely come out to the finals a lot
Speaker 5: of high expectations and belief.
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like everyone's on that Mark Cuban
Speaker 1: sauce man, like, you know, they they they're ready to roll.
Speaker 1: You know, they see this as you know, all sys go.
Speaker 1: All right, so let's let's get right into this grant
Speaker 1: and what we you know, had depicted as our predictions
Speaker 1: for the Western Conference. And I will be as discreet
Speaker 1: and stoic as possible, because I know my man Shaw
Speaker 1: is going to be chiming in on the ludicrousness of
Speaker 1: of you know, my personal selections of what was going
Speaker 1: on in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: But ultimately, what we have is our lottery teams.
Speaker 1: We have the Portland Trailblazers of Utah Jazz and the
Speaker 1: San Antonio Spurs. And I wanted to get your We
Speaker 1: wanted to get your perspective from this on. You know,
Speaker 1: how do you see this one thing that is interesting
Speaker 1: in one of in our in our other conference preview
Speaker 1: we had spoken about over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: it hasn't been much of an appetite about lottery teams
Speaker 1: that the intent to say, this is about us trying
Speaker 1: to get like the victor woman Yamas or to whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be. The more as the intent is,
Speaker 1: let's trade around and pull players you know, either maligned
Speaker 1: or you know this in franchise or sort of speak
Speaker 1: or on the outs and see if maybe they can
Speaker 1: help put something together, piece something together, find a diamond
Speaker 1: in a rough sort of speak, rather than the reliance
Speaker 1: of what was coming out of the draft. This year
Speaker 1: seems like, oh x that it's all about what's going
Speaker 1: to be coming out of the draft. How confident are
Speaker 1: you about, you know, where these teams are if their
Speaker 1: intent is the pursuit of a you know, Cooper, flag
Speaker 1: and and Bailey and others that are being so highly touted,
Speaker 1: you know, for for next year's upcoming draft.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think for the most part, the one I'm
Speaker 5: most you know, I think is probably a pretty obvious
Speaker 5: one for you guys as well too. I think Portland
Speaker 5: there's just not too much you know, like I guess
Speaker 5: you could say upward trajectory right now. I think unless
Speaker 5: Schoo Henderson you know, really exceeds expectations beyond what he's
Speaker 5: shown in preseason, you know, maybe Shade and Sharp or
Speaker 5: you know, anyone like that, I still think they're pretty
Speaker 5: much fifteenth for me, and I think they're mostly whether
Speaker 5: it's organic or intentional, whatever it may be, I think
Speaker 5: they're probably gonna be positioned where they're you know, late
Speaker 5: in the season where they end up thinking, okay, we
Speaker 5: probably are best trying to angle ourselves for the lottery.
Speaker 5: I think that's usually what uh, you know, Utah has
Speaker 5: done recently as well. Like usually after the All Star Break,
Speaker 5: they get to that point where they, you know, Lari
Speaker 5: Markinen starts having these injuries that pile up, he misses
Speaker 5: quite a bit of time, and other players as well too.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if that's really what they're thinking this year.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, they have solid pieces where they
Speaker 5: can be competitive, feel it out a little bit, and
Speaker 5: I think that's you know, probably the similar scenario for
Speaker 5: San Antonio, where they can fill it out a little bit,
Speaker 5: and you know, if they're exceeding expectations, you know, more
Speaker 5: power to them. But if they're not, after the All
Speaker 5: Star break, then you know, maybe we start to see
Speaker 5: a little bit of you know, lengthy injury reports and
Speaker 5: long absences for the history of what those injuries may be.
Speaker 5: But I think, you know, San Antonio, Houston, those types
Speaker 5: of teams, I think they're going to really want to compete.
Speaker 5: I just think you know, sometimes with them, they've just
Speaker 5: not had the ability to necessarily do it at a
Speaker 5: high level, unless you're the Rockets. In the month of
Speaker 5: March comes up, then you start to seem to really
Speaker 5: figure it out really fast. But aside from that, you know,
Speaker 5: I think those are probably my bottom four teams, and
Speaker 5: we're probably thinking, you know, for me personally, just mostly
Speaker 5: the Blazers seem to be the standout for the bottom
Speaker 5: of the bottom in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so for those playing at home, you know, were
Speaker 3: more or less too the aggregate of of of of
Speaker 3: our rankings, and this is how we got to where
Speaker 3: we got to. So Grant not as high in Houston
Speaker 3: as Call and I were in general. But this three
Speaker 3: here now when we talk about San Antonio, Utah, and
Speaker 3: Portland kind of being in that bottom three. So similar
Speaker 3: to our Eastern Conference preview, we feel like these teams,
Speaker 3: and I'd say primarily San Antonio and Portland could be
Speaker 3: the teams that try to help other teams be better
Speaker 3: as they try to tank, right, so they have some
Speaker 3: pieces that other player other teams may be interested in
Speaker 3: one way or the other. I think san Antonio specifically,
Speaker 3: you know, with the Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, those
Speaker 3: are guys who could high level veteran guys can go
Speaker 3: and assist, you know what, A team that's a piece
Speaker 3: or two away makes some sense. But as as grand
Speaker 3: alluded to, if they're doing well, then hey, we hang
Speaker 3: on because Victor wants to win now. But if the
Speaker 3: Spurs have any chance of pairing up when Bayama and
Speaker 3: Flag together, you know, for years to come. I mean,
Speaker 3: I know Wemby would be a little bit tight about
Speaker 3: that this year because he does seem to be, you know,
Speaker 3: a real competitor. But it may not be the worst thing,
Speaker 3: you know, in the in the world, and San Antonio
Speaker 3: seems to have had pretty good luck when it comes
Speaker 3: to lotteries and number one picks. Just putting that out
Speaker 3: there from the Portland standpoint, though Anthony Simons don't know
Speaker 3: if he's long for this, for this, for this ride
Speaker 3: in Portland. DeAndre in similar not denominate in whatever want
Speaker 3: to call him, but they got clinging. I think Robert
Speaker 3: Williams is on this roster as well to former Celtic guy,
Speaker 3: who could definitely go somewhere and help somebody. So they
Speaker 3: have some pieces too that I think could be interested.
Speaker 3: And then you assume they build around kind of the
Speaker 3: shade and sharps of the world and Scoot Henderson potentially
Speaker 3: I think that in that mold Utah to me is
Speaker 3: a little bit just too far above that right now,
Speaker 3: especially with the way market has been able to play.
Speaker 3: He's really like if you would have said the marketing
Speaker 3: that we saw in Chicago when you know, especially after
Speaker 3: that second year, when it was like what happened to
Speaker 3: the guy he is now? I just wouldn't believe that
Speaker 3: there was the same guy. And I think you know
Speaker 3: what they got with Keante George even Collin Sexton too
Speaker 3: a lesser degree. You know, they have high level guys
Speaker 3: who can compete. And if Walker Cussler decides that he
Speaker 3: actually wants to be the Walker Cusser, a better improved
Speaker 3: version from the first year and not whatever the hell
Speaker 3: was happening last year, this Utah Jazz team is going
Speaker 3: to be a little bit too good. But as grand
Speaker 3: alluded to, if they just said, you know what, we're
Speaker 3: gonna sit people down as opposed to like really playing
Speaker 3: it out, then you know, maybe that changes thing. Because
Speaker 3: the other thing too, I think Will Hardy is one
Speaker 3: of the better coaches in the NBA right now as
Speaker 3: well too. He's an ascending guy. And it's like sometimes
Speaker 3: the mix for what you want doesn't match the outcome
Speaker 3: because you're just you might just be too good. But
Speaker 3: to me, Portland is the one that is just like, yeah,
Speaker 3: they have no chance. You know, it won't be hard
Speaker 3: for them to thank.
Speaker 1: You wait to Vince mcmahondon team man, damn no chance. Okay,
Speaker 1: all all excellent points. What I found interesting, Sean, And
Speaker 1: this is just you know, off the top of my head,
Speaker 1: grant you know, because you may not know this.
Speaker 2: We're you know, we're Celtics fans, but.
Speaker 1: I honestly feel that the bus is Celtics purposely lent
Speaker 1: Robert Williams, the time lord, to the Portland Trailblazers for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, and we'll probably be like, you know,
Speaker 1: let me go ahead and take them, take him off
Speaker 1: your hands now, like yeah, he basically lent them out
Speaker 1: on a retainer.
Speaker 3: Well, let's let's let's put that in perspective real quickly,
Speaker 3: right because I think, you know, and not to bring
Speaker 3: it back to the east, but to the largest subtractions,
Speaker 3: if you will. Everyone was very concerned about Boston last year.
Speaker 3: Was was Robert Williams and Marcus mart Both of those
Speaker 3: guys ended up being hurt the majority part of the seasons,
Speaker 3: so we don't even know what the returns all will
Speaker 3: ultimately be. Then Portland goes ahead and make a move
Speaker 3: to get clinging in there behind eight and and Robert
Speaker 3: Williams Like what, but Williams is all is already hurt
Speaker 3: going into the preseason yet again. So it's just I
Speaker 3: don't know. We hey, we love the time lord time
Speaker 3: in in Boston, but his time in Portland seems to
Speaker 3: be you know, waiting really really quickly as well too,
Speaker 3: because he just can't stay healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I get it. It was just playfully
Speaker 2: being suggested.
Speaker 5: Diane spent some time rehabbing in Portland, uh in the
Speaker 5: last while or one of his injuries that maybe, uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of his many injuries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you and listen, it appears that, you know,
Speaker 1: he's much higher on the list, right like the Pelicans are,
Speaker 1: you know, are very much a further ahead, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying than where.
Speaker 2: We might even think of Portland.
Speaker 1: Trailblazer your tunes of the base like Cali Wardshaw discussing
Speaker 1: outbund topics of the NBA, and our special guests Grant
Speaker 1: asse f Uh covers the the Dallas Mavericks Dallas Hoops
Speaker 1: Journal dot com. So be sure to check him out
Speaker 1: as we give you our Western Conference preview. So let's
Speaker 1: transition now to the teams that we have set up
Speaker 1: to be our playing teams.
Speaker 2: Okay, l A.
Speaker 1: Clippers, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kinks. Now this is interesting because
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings a few seasons ago were arguably the
Speaker 1: baby Warriors that were supposed to Now this was their time,
Speaker 1: the opportunity and you know, the Warriors best days ahead.
Speaker 1: They essentially should have basically killed off the Warrior dynasty.
Speaker 2: They failed to do.
Speaker 1: So the Warriors live, you know saying, for another season
Speaker 1: and probably will live again another season after that because
Speaker 1: the Warriors figured out out the way to move on
Speaker 1: from from the Kings yet again. Right, So here we
Speaker 1: are now are we talking about? Of those teams? The
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets is the team to look out for. Are
Speaker 1: the LA Clippers taking a step back or given the
Speaker 1: off season transitions that have taken place, we have to.
Speaker 2: Say this is where there kind of are.
Speaker 1: But we still should not take for granted what they
Speaker 1: could potentially be because as equally as we're saying the
Speaker 1: Rockets can be a threat dangerously on an upside, any
Speaker 1: Tyron luc team, especially in the playoffs, will not go
Speaker 1: out with go quietly in the night sort of speak.
Speaker 1: I'll now hand it back to you, Grant, and give
Speaker 1: us your perspective on why we may think that these
Speaker 1: are the best outcomes teams as far as being playing goes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the Clippers are definitely just the hardest
Speaker 5: team for me personally to really figure out. Like, we
Speaker 5: don't have a crystal ball, so we don't know how
Speaker 5: healthy Kawhi is going to be for the whole eighty
Speaker 5: two games. He played a lot of games last year,
Speaker 5: I think, like round seventy or so, and then you know,
Speaker 5: the wheels kind of fell off in the playoffs and
Speaker 5: he you know, was sidelent for the rest of you know,
Speaker 5: the series after actually missing Game one and then coming
Speaker 5: jumping into the series a little bit after. So it's
Speaker 5: always a wild card with him. Losing Paul George is
Speaker 5: a big loss in my opinion as well. And then
Speaker 5: you know, James Harden, I think, will be more aggressive
Speaker 5: ramp up what he has done in recent years. But
Speaker 5: then again, he's also around at thirty four to thirty
Speaker 5: five age, so when you're ramping back up to previous levels,
Speaker 5: durability to me kind of seems like a little bit
Speaker 5: of a concern, but I think they have a lot
Speaker 5: of talent on their roster. Are like Zubots as a center,
Speaker 5: you know, good Rin protector. I think they can put
Speaker 5: a little bit more on his plate offensively too, Like
Speaker 5: he's a little more capable on the post, and I think,
Speaker 5: you know, some people may give him credit for so
Speaker 5: I think they have the talent, you know, these other teams,
Speaker 5: I'm I'm actively regretting a little bit, like putting the
Speaker 5: Kings below them because you know, I think with them
Speaker 5: adding tomar Derozen, I think they're gonna be a you know,
Speaker 5: very talented offensive team yet again obviously, but defensively is
Speaker 5: usually where I have the.
Speaker 4: Concerns with them.
Speaker 5: I think there's a ceiling you have with the bonus
Speaker 5: as your five, you know, with their you know what
Speaker 5: they can put out there, you know, the coverages they
Speaker 5: can use, all that stuff. So that's kind of where
Speaker 5: I had a little bit of pause with them, and
Speaker 5: I just think it would be such a far fall
Speaker 5: for the Clippers while still having you know, some talent,
Speaker 5: you know, obviously just losing Paul George and still replacing
Speaker 5: him with like a Derek Jones. I think he's a
Speaker 5: good player someone I covered last year, you know, in
Speaker 5: Dallas as well. I think, uh, there's just a lot
Speaker 5: of volatility with based off like the feel you have
Speaker 5: for some of these teams where I think, you know,
Speaker 5: the best case scenario, like a team like Houston, you know,
Speaker 5: I think you guys have them higher on your list.
Speaker 5: You know, I could see the best case scenario being
Speaker 5: like a playing team exceeding expectations. They almost did it
Speaker 5: last year where they fell just a little bit short
Speaker 5: at that really hot like month of March. I think
Speaker 5: if they get consistency out of Jalen Green for like
Speaker 5: the whole season, that really changes, like the I guess
Speaker 5: you could say the way you look at him, their
Speaker 5: outlook and everything. Shim Goon is a great player already.
Speaker 5: H You know, all those young guys you would think
Speaker 5: would get better over time as well too. So I
Speaker 5: definitely can see them, you know, making me look stupid
Speaker 5: for having them so low a vlist at some point.
Speaker 4: So definitely just a lot to really consider with that.
Speaker 1: I was I was wondering if whether or not this
Speaker 1: is just you know, Dallas bias saying you know, we'll
Speaker 1: give you, we'll give you a little bit of respect.
Speaker 1: We ain't you know what I'm saying when I We're
Speaker 1: not you know, handing you the whole dinner now, you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta earn the big.
Speaker 3: Piece of.
Speaker 5: Really like think like, wow, I have the Rockets like
Speaker 5: at this spot or the.
Speaker 2: Was it only a couple of years ago?
Speaker 1: Like everybody is just completely overlooking the Rockets, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like the moment now that we're beyond
Speaker 1: the hardened era, was this, you know, moment we just said, okay,
Speaker 1: moving on. You know the Rackets that are they even
Speaker 1: still a legitimate team in the NBA? Like do they
Speaker 1: you know, does the city actually have a team in
Speaker 1: the NBA the Houston Rockets? And you know, again obviously
Speaker 1: the the hiring of Udoka I think was immense, but
Speaker 1: I think getting some guys that really buy into the
Speaker 1: Udoka culture I think speaks more to how quickly they
Speaker 1: could probably elevate themselves and you know, challenging an already
Speaker 1: competitive division that they're that that they're currently in.
Speaker 2: Shaw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Rant's word volatility speaks highly for the
Speaker 3: entirety of the conference. Again, similar to the East, these
Speaker 3: might be three four game differences you know, in terms
Speaker 3: of the standings in general, while Grant ranked in thirteenth,
Speaker 3: I had them eleventh, Cal had Am eighth. You know,
Speaker 3: this this Rockets team, which is possible. But the Rockets
Speaker 3: they have so many guys. I think they have too
Speaker 3: many guys. I just don't know how all those minutes
Speaker 3: are going to sust themselves out. Obviously, Reach Shepherd is,
Speaker 3: I think he's second right now in terms of potential
Speaker 3: Rookie of the Year bettings. If you are a better
Speaker 3: out there men, Thompson has to play so but at
Speaker 3: the expense of who so does that? Dylan Brooks, the
Speaker 3: Dylan Brooks go to the bench? What about Cam Whitmore,
Speaker 3: Who's just electric off the bench? You know, especially I
Speaker 3: mean primarily offensively. To me, the Rockets are the hardest
Speaker 3: ones to figure out because of so many players and
Speaker 3: all the layers that each one of those players bring,
Speaker 3: you know, to the proverbial table. Sacramento, with the addition
Speaker 3: of DeRozan, at least from what especially what I've seen
Speaker 3: in the preseason, seems like it's going to be a
Speaker 3: pretty seamless fit. I didn't realize, or maybe I just
Speaker 3: wasn't giving him the credit that that he's due in
Speaker 3: terms of he can be a plug, plug and play guy,
Speaker 3: at least offensively. He's just gonna he's gonna continue to
Speaker 3: do what he does, not gonna really hurt you, give
Speaker 3: you a little bit of secondary play creation. He's gonna
Speaker 3: knock down that mid range on a regular basis with
Speaker 3: without fail, and for the most part he's going to
Speaker 3: play you know, a good amount of games. Uh. I
Speaker 3: like the King's capabilities, but they have not done enough,
Speaker 3: I think, to improve defensively, So sloting them here makes
Speaker 3: some sense to me, and a lot in a lot
Speaker 3: of respects as well. But then lastly, I think we're
Speaker 3: all just tired. There's there's a thing of attrition I
Speaker 3: think with the Clippers and being fooled once and twice
Speaker 3: and so forth and so forth. So at this point,
Speaker 3: like listen, I'm not gonna put him as the top
Speaker 3: four team. Here feels good, it's safe, you know, playing range,
Speaker 3: and if it works out differently, awesome. But at this stage,
Speaker 3: who's who's betting the farm on the Clipper's ability to
Speaker 3: stay healthy? Are you betting now? Yes, James Harden looks
Speaker 3: great in the preseason. He's going to have a much
Speaker 3: larger load to kind of to manage on a regular basis.
Speaker 3: But do you want Terrence Man having to do more
Speaker 3: on a regular basis? I like Terrence Man, but in
Speaker 3: the role that he was in, but not he's he
Speaker 3: going to be miscast and trying to have to do
Speaker 3: more in that space. I don't I don't know. I
Speaker 3: haven't seen Norman Powell this this preseason, so I don't
Speaker 3: know what he's looking like. But again, good offensive guy.
Speaker 3: Derek Jones Junior still can contribute. Zubac I think is
Speaker 3: prime to be better at that center spot too, But
Speaker 3: it all, just it all, It just frustrates me. The
Speaker 3: Clippers thing just frustrates me. So leaving them here fine,
Speaker 3: if they do better, hey, then you know, we'll all
Speaker 3: eat a little bit of Crow. But I'm not ready
Speaker 3: to go that route right now. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: betting on the beard at all.
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like, you know your appetite for Crow
Speaker 1: is you know, Hey, I'm okay with.
Speaker 2: It, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Kind of like if you go to France and you
Speaker 1: have scargo, like sure, why not.
Speaker 2: I'm willing to. I'm willing to.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to you know what I'm saying, try different
Speaker 1: things right, because I can't keep trying the same thing here.
Speaker 1: I respect that, y'all, I truly do. I wanted to
Speaker 1: come back to something that you were talking about a
Speaker 1: moment ago, as it pertains to the Houston Rockets. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, having too much of the same thing might
Speaker 1: actually be a good thing for a guy like Udoka
Speaker 1: because if you really think about where And I don't
Speaker 1: want to try and stay on everything about Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: but we can tie with what Udokah did for the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics prior to his exodus and what laid the
Speaker 1: foundation for what we now see as to why we
Speaker 1: talk about the Boston Celtics being the best team in
Speaker 1: the NBA. He established those role players in such a
Speaker 1: way that I think it made it easier for Missoula
Speaker 1: to figure out how he can plug and play with
Speaker 1: the top the style of system that he wants. And
Speaker 1: I think that, to me, the only way you're able
Speaker 1: to do that is if you have the type of
Speaker 1: players who can you have that kind of versatility to
Speaker 1: Sometimes there's some players that are just so one dimensional
Speaker 1: that you can't do anything with them, and you got
Speaker 1: to pray that your general manager figures out some way
Speaker 1: to finagel some kind of move to bring the kind
Speaker 1: of player that you want, because you just can't spend
Speaker 1: enough time developing guys to be the weare now. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that all of these role players that you
Speaker 1: were talking about are like that, but what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is if there's probably one of the head coaches that
Speaker 1: we're talking about in this Western Conference that might be
Speaker 1: capable of getting the most out of these guys in
Speaker 1: the minutes.
Speaker 2: And commanding them and staying and keeping them.
Speaker 1: On it through the course of a regular season, it's
Speaker 1: probably Udoka, whereas other guys are going to lean into
Speaker 1: what's gotten them success and are not going to move
Speaker 1: or budge from it moving forward. So that was the
Speaker 1: only thing that I wanted to say as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the Rockets, which is why I'm probably a lot
Speaker 1: higher on him because he's shown me that he's been
Speaker 1: able to make freaking beef booyond with.
Speaker 2: Liver. Okay, Like, we don't know.
Speaker 1: What these guys are going to potentially look like if
Speaker 1: you send them on somewhere else, but maybe with this
Speaker 1: team you might actually see where it actually makes sense,
Speaker 1: so that that was my perspective as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the other two teams, with the Clippers and with the Kings,
Speaker 1: I am completely on board with both what you and
Speaker 1: Grant are talking about, because to me, the Kings should
Speaker 1: already be there. However, their defensive achilles. The achilles and
Speaker 1: their defensive abilities I think will continue to hamper them
Speaker 1: unless Brown channels something in him back in his yester
Speaker 1: years when he was supposed to be a defensive guru
Speaker 1: specialist type person, that he gets these guys to actually
Speaker 1: execute and play better defense against the better teams. Not
Speaker 1: so much the fact that they can't play decent defense,
Speaker 1: but they're so offensively minded that even if they are
Speaker 1: top five teams scoring wise against the better teams that
Speaker 1: know how to counter them and play them up defensively,
Speaker 1: they don't know how to win low scoring games. So
Speaker 1: they got to score like one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: or more for them to be a legitimate basketball team.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, I'm going to just close the point
Speaker 3: here on Houston. I think I don't think, I know.
Speaker 3: Getting reach Epherd is helpful in a lot of ways,
Speaker 3: but especially for Fred Benvley, he was playing too many minutes,
Speaker 3: so when you talk about you have too many guys
Speaker 3: not at that position, especially again secondary play creation, so
Speaker 3: he'll be able to kind of come in there. But
Speaker 3: Jabari Smith Junior, you know, he's a young he's a
Speaker 3: young bull. As I say, I'm sure he wants to
Speaker 3: be able to prove himself some you know, not in
Speaker 3: a Steve Adams is going to. We know he's going
Speaker 3: to kind of come in there and play play a role,
Speaker 3: so that's not going to be an issue. But Jillen Green,
Speaker 3: he has a contract situation kind of looming out here.
Speaker 3: Shangoon has a contract situation kind of looming out here
Speaker 3: as well too, So that's where I agree in terms
Speaker 3: of Yudoka being a disciplinarian, but having to have them
Speaker 3: truly buy into that, into the team concept and not
Speaker 3: worrying about what are their personal acclades. And remember, Jabari
Speaker 3: Smith came in here kissed off ready because he wasn't
Speaker 3: the number one pick, So there's a lot of things
Speaker 3: I think that he has to manage. And the talent
Speaker 3: level is there and they could be in line for
Speaker 3: a consolidation trade, but I don't even know what that
Speaker 3: would look like. And how would you not upset whatever
Speaker 3: the chemistry is there, you know, if you move some
Speaker 3: of those guys.
Speaker 2: Out, better manager in Houston and manage it in.
Speaker 3: Boston, less expectations.
Speaker 2: I get that.
Speaker 1: We hope you're enjoying this week's edition of the Baseline
Speaker 1: with Cali and warren Shaw. If you're enjoying today's show,
Speaker 1: be sure to give us a like or subscribe on
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel. Your support helps us keep bringing you
Speaker 1: the best and discussing the hot button topics in the NBA.
Speaker 1: More Baseline with Cali and Warrenshaw. Don't go away your
Speaker 1: tune to the Baseline Cali warren Shaw discussing hot button
Speaker 1: topics of the NBA with our special guest, Grant Asset
Speaker 1: of Dallas Hoops Journal. All right, man, let's get right
Speaker 1: into it. Let's get into the good stuff. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I got my suit warming up, and as we speak,
Speaker 1: all right middle of the pack teams. We've got the
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves. Sean,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna basically allow you to how do we say,
Speaker 1: illumin like, bring bring to light the picture of how
Speaker 1: we were we came to or we we derived as
Speaker 1: being the middle of the pack.
Speaker 3: Well, volatility is how we got here to be.
Speaker 2: I woke up and chose volatility.
Speaker 3: Yes, so again for playing Philips playing at home cal
Speaker 3: messed up our rankings here. You know that is my brother.
Speaker 3: But uh, he has some irrational faith, I'd say, you
Speaker 3: know in this Los Angeles Lakers team, and his ranking
Speaker 3: catapulted them, you know, into this space to be in
Speaker 3: the middle of the pack, where as Grant and I
Speaker 3: took a more realistic approach to what the Lakers have
Speaker 3: been doing the last couple of season.
Speaker 2: Yes, I woke up and chose chaos. That's it.
Speaker 1: I got up that morning and I said I will
Speaker 1: bring chaos to this ranking.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, thank you for that.
Speaker 3: It is it great for great It makes for great
Speaker 3: podcast contest. So as such, I think it's only fair
Speaker 3: that Grant, yes, you are a guest, but I need
Speaker 3: my fellow cohesre to explain himself here why he has
Speaker 3: the Lakers as a fifth seed in the Western Conference.
Speaker 3: JJ Reddick and Dalton Konnect must really have you in
Speaker 3: some sort of atism.
Speaker 1: All right, Lakers fans, this is your mulligan because you
Speaker 1: will never, you will never give. You will never hear
Speaker 1: me try to give this much praise for your organization.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, our boy Jabari, right now, I'm expecting
Speaker 1: my Christmas gift a little bit earlier than December twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: my friend. Okay, So let me speak to this because
Speaker 1: the reason why I have the Los Angeles Lakers as
Speaker 1: elevated as it is, it's not because I'm expecting the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers to do resounding things. I think where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from is I think the gap between teams
Speaker 1: that are five all the way down to the play
Speaker 1: in will be so tightly knit that it may come
Speaker 1: down to a couple of games in which, unfortunately, I
Speaker 1: will still rest my faith in Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis among these teams as far as the type of
Speaker 1: duo that is capable of winning the necessary games to
Speaker 1: position themselves best so that they can continue to compete. Again,
Speaker 1: I repeat, it is not me saying that JJ Reddick
Speaker 1: is going to be this, you know, once in a lifetime,
Speaker 1: you know, magical head coach, and he's going to innovate
Speaker 1: something awesome and great about you know. It's got nothing
Speaker 1: to do with that it's really about how tightly packed
Speaker 1: the Western Conference is going to play out come towards
Speaker 1: the end of the season. And if it's that way
Speaker 1: and the way I'm predicting it, I just see where
Speaker 1: the Lakers, to me, of the teams that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: have proven more so to be as competitive when it
Speaker 1: matters the most and have the best capable players that
Speaker 1: are going to be suited to win the necessary games
Speaker 1: to position themselves to be so highly ranked in the
Speaker 1: middle of the pack.
Speaker 2: In the middle of the pack.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, all right, feel free now to say slander
Speaker 1: me crazy.
Speaker 3: Yes, let's let's keep with the wrestling monikers here. Do
Speaker 3: you smell what Kallas Cook can hear?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think I understand. They stand. Like if you think
Speaker 4: it's gonna be a really.
Speaker 5: Like tight race and you just think, uh, you know,
Speaker 5: like lebron A d whatever else about that Lakers team
Speaker 5: that you like, will help them rise rory.
Speaker 1: They they and look they'll get back Vanderbilt, right. So
Speaker 1: I just think that as a team competitively, they may
Speaker 1: be the more well together put team that will win
Speaker 1: out necessary games. Only under the premise that this is
Speaker 1: going to be a very contested run of middle of
Speaker 1: pack teams trying to position themselves and whether it be
Speaker 1: the play in or get as far as to the five.
Speaker 2: Seed, That to me is how close I'm thinking this
Speaker 2: is gonna be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: I think my only thing with the Lakers is just help.
Speaker 5: I think if you think that's gonna work out in
Speaker 5: their favor to where they're in that mix and they
Speaker 5: can you know, outpace other teams just enough to you know,
Speaker 5: be in that next Brown I get below the top four.
Speaker 5: That definitely makes a lot of sense. I just feel
Speaker 5: like I've seen, you know, a lot of injury reports
Speaker 5: with like Jared Vanderbilt missing time and you know, just
Speaker 5: some of their role players and stuff. But you know,
Speaker 5: sometimes that's just random occurrences. So we can't predict the
Speaker 5: future for sure. So we'll definitely kind of like the Clippers,
Speaker 5: We'll have to see how the health department, how many
Speaker 5: hospital visits there are with that team.
Speaker 2: Grant, you're being way too diplomatic. For Grant, you're being
Speaker 2: way too diplomatic. Man, Feel free to call cap on Cow,
Speaker 2: call cap on.
Speaker 1: Cow if you absolutely have to, because my man, shuw
Speaker 1: I ain't afraid to. I'm just saying, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not about my affinity and love of the Lakers, it's
Speaker 1: how sick and tired I am of underestimating this damn
Speaker 1: team when they really should have been like this already
Speaker 1: two seasons ago.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, I guess part of this whole thing
Speaker 5: is just that, like you know, we're gonna get into
Speaker 5: it later, but some of the teams that were higher
Speaker 5: on than the Lakers, like I just think, like honestly, like,
Speaker 5: I guess it's a big part of it is how
Speaker 5: do you think Minnesota will be impacted by I guess
Speaker 5: you could say, like moving on from kat, how do
Speaker 5: you think Phoenix will be after a full training camp,
Speaker 5: you know, with point guards that are actual point guards,
Speaker 5: that let them get into their offense with the let
Speaker 5: them do what they do best. You know, Memphis is
Speaker 5: probably a team as well in this whole mix where
Speaker 5: you know, I my calculus with them, I have them
Speaker 5: six for transparency on my rankings, just because I know
Speaker 5: they've won a lot of games in the past, like
Speaker 5: two fifty win seasons. Assuming also there's no offs of
Speaker 5: court or injury like long stretches that impact them negatively.
Speaker 5: I just think they've had a lot of success in
Speaker 5: this current little era that they have with their core
Speaker 5: when you know, Jaron Jackson's been paired up with like
Speaker 5: a big center that can really like do the dirty
Speaker 5: work inside and I I personally think zach Eady can
Speaker 5: do that. You know, maybe not as established and consistently
Speaker 5: as some of their other guys in the past like
Speaker 5: Steven Adams or Balachunis or any of those guys like that,
Speaker 5: but I do think that is a formula that I've
Speaker 5: seen in the past that could work well. And then
Speaker 5: you know, not to go to the whole you know,
Speaker 5: Western Conference here, but you know, like the Pelicans.
Speaker 2: They're all in the middle of the pack. Yeah, yeah, like.
Speaker 5: That's where I could definitely see where you you know,
Speaker 5: Lakers have an identity. Uh, they've seen some of that
Speaker 5: work out, like with the you know, the run of
Speaker 5: the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 4: They still have some of those role players.
Speaker 5: Uh if health goes their way and uh, you know,
Speaker 5: I could definitely see where you know that volatility word again,
Speaker 5: where that goes in their favor. Uh. But yeah, just
Speaker 5: just a lot of just question marks I think with
Speaker 5: injuries as well, because even with New Orleans and even
Speaker 5: Golden state like you're gonna their best players tend to
Speaker 5: miss a good amount of games as well, too, Like
Speaker 5: Steph tends to have like a lengthy stretch each season
Speaker 5: where you're like, wow, like this team's kind of rough,
Speaker 5: kind of rough, trying to stay afloat here. Same with
Speaker 5: New Orleans and Zion. If I think there's only been
Speaker 5: really one year in his career, he's really like stayed
Speaker 5: healthy for like most of the entire season. So definitely
Speaker 5: a definitely a lot of question marks. But you know,
Speaker 5: I can definitely see why you are, you know, high
Speaker 5: on the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Well, and look, I'm down, I'm down on the I'm
Speaker 1: down on the New Orleans Pelicans. I think you guys
Speaker 1: are are a little bit higher on them or significantly
Speaker 1: higher on them, and stuff like that. And Seant, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm opening up the floor to you because I know you.
Speaker 2: You know, you're you're, you're you.
Speaker 1: You laid it on me to lay out the argument
Speaker 1: about the Los Angeles Lakers, my concern and and and
Speaker 1: I'm uh shaw I want you to weigh in it,
Speaker 1: and grant you can certainly follow up on this is
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm a little bit the reason why
Speaker 1: I am down on the Memphis Grizzlies and my rankings.
Speaker 2: It's not that I don't think that they are capable.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that the makeup of the team
Speaker 1: in those fifty year iterations are the same team. And
Speaker 1: this is so difficult for me to see a team
Speaker 1: that basically won what like thirty something games thirty, you know,
Speaker 1: to suddenly catapult themselves somewhere in like a twenty win
Speaker 1: turnaround with a guy who's arguably in the MVP conversation
Speaker 1: a year remove from not playing basketball.
Speaker 2: To me, that just gives me reason for concern.
Speaker 1: When you're looking at the other teams that have established
Speaker 1: what the hierarchy is and what the criteria should be
Speaker 1: met to be MVP ready, You're asking for an MVP
Speaker 1: season for John Morant coming initially coming back with the
Speaker 1: type of team that he doesn't have access that he
Speaker 1: had access to. I'm concerned about that, which is probably
Speaker 1: why I put him down as low as I did.
Speaker 1: But not to say that they're like ten games away
Speaker 1: from anyone else that they could have leap frog. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that I just don't buy into this team
Speaker 1: just yet. I'd have to see what it looks like
Speaker 1: with John Morant and Zach Edie and Jaron Jackson. You
Speaker 1: know what, if Jaron Jackson showed me he is the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that can carry this team without John Morant,
Speaker 1: I probably would buy into this idea and have them
Speaker 1: further up the list. But you know, and I know
Speaker 1: Sean because we've had him on our show show, had
Speaker 1: adds conversations numerous times. He used to be your I
Speaker 1: don't want to say he used to be your young son.
Speaker 1: You wanted him to be youngster, but now he was
Speaker 1: kind of like an orphanage to the side. He kind
Speaker 1: of kept looking at him side.
Speaker 2: I'd be like, you know what I'm saying, this is
Speaker 2: how I've been.
Speaker 3: With my dog rebound. Okay, so period, Yeah, but he
Speaker 3: doesn't do that. But to counter your point with Memphis
Speaker 3: and again for for full disclosure, so we ended up granted,
Speaker 3: and I you know not we didn't work in consortium,
Speaker 3: just how it did well. We both had Memphis six
Speaker 3: and I think New Orleans seven, so six and seven respectively,
Speaker 3: where cal again had Memphis thirteen, which again kind of
Speaker 3: changed the calculus on this as well. My thing though
Speaker 3: with Memphis is despite being injured, riddled, playing like thirty
Speaker 3: five guys last year or something something absurd. Uh, they
Speaker 3: still managed to have a decent defense, and I think
Speaker 3: that is something that they're gonna be able to hang
Speaker 3: their hat on, especially once they get their guys back.
Speaker 3: You can't account for Jackson missing time, Bane missing time,
Speaker 3: Smart missing time, Jaw missing time, Like that's just not something.
Speaker 3: And I know they're going into the season a little
Speaker 3: bit banged up with some role player JJ Jackson, Vince
Speaker 3: Williams Junior, But those are the ancilliary guys. If the
Speaker 3: main guys are there, especially with the vision of Edi,
Speaker 3: I think this team can get right back into the
Speaker 3: forty five forty eight win range. Maybe not the fifty
Speaker 3: one that they had, you know, a couple of seasons ago,
Speaker 3: but because they played defense, and because they're talented, and
Speaker 3: you know, if Desmond bain is, you know, they.
Speaker 1: Still haven't addressed shooting though they got some, but they're
Speaker 1: shooting still is something left to be desired.
Speaker 3: I mean, but you can say that for a similar team,
Speaker 3: like we talked about the Eastern Conference in terms of
Speaker 3: like Orlando, like did they get enough shooting? It's KCP
Speaker 3: like the Magical elixir. I don't know that that's really
Speaker 3: the case, but everybody's high in Orlando, so I think,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know if Taylor Jenkins is getting
Speaker 3: enough credit as a as a head coach, I think
Speaker 3: in this situation, and that's why I feel like Memphis
Speaker 3: is going to have a bounced back season of sorts.
Speaker 3: But you know, as we were joking before we got
Speaker 3: on air, John Rants already irritated because I think in
Speaker 3: the GM survey he was rated as one of the
Speaker 3: guys who can have a breakout season. He's like, He's like,
Speaker 3: how f didn't I already break out? You know? So
Speaker 3: you know, people are counting counting Grizzlies out in a
Speaker 3: way that I think in some in some summarnas, that
Speaker 3: doesn't really quite make sense to me. As I move
Speaker 3: over to the No. Orleans Pelicans, I'm very confused about
Speaker 3: what's going on in this front court. So is ion
Speaker 3: going to really be like the small ball five on
Speaker 3: a regular basis? Again, not to bring up Celtics slore,
Speaker 3: but Daniel Tye Celtic's legend, you know, is he really
Speaker 3: somebody who you want to be kind of man in
Speaker 3: the middle on a regular basis there and what's going
Speaker 3: on with Brandon Ingram. He seems like he's going to
Speaker 3: be chill and play the role, but he's he's not
Speaker 3: happy about his contract situation. So what goes on there?
Speaker 3: And CJ. McCollum, is he a bench guy now? Is
Speaker 3: he going to start now? I think the preseason he
Speaker 3: has been starting. I don't know if that's the long
Speaker 3: term path here, but they need to get make sure.
Speaker 3: I think its Tray Murphy is hurt. He needs to
Speaker 3: be able to be back. They got herb Jones on
Speaker 3: the wings as well too, who can give them a
Speaker 3: lot of versatility defensively. The Pelicans are an intriguing team
Speaker 3: to me, and because how do I say this, it's
Speaker 3: almost the exact opposite of the Clippers, Like because we've
Speaker 3: seen the Pelicans be the best team in the league
Speaker 3: for like seven game stretches for the last two years,
Speaker 3: and you feel like they look like world beaters and
Speaker 3: then they kind of regress or somebody gets hurt or
Speaker 3: whatever the case it be. So it's kind of like
Speaker 3: splitting the baby here is like, all right, we'll put
Speaker 3: them in the middle. That seems safe, you know, because
Speaker 3: if they're the best versions of themself, of the worst
Speaker 3: versions themselves, that should be somewhere in the middle of this,
Speaker 3: and that's where I land on the Memphis Cristies. We
Speaker 3: haven't even talked about Minnesota yet, you know, and I'm
Speaker 3: not even going to a dress the Lakers, So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna flip it back over to you, Grant. We'll talk
Speaker 3: a little bit about about the Timberwolves. Uh, Cat Gone,
Speaker 3: Julius Randold coming into the space. So we've talked a
Speaker 3: lot about this in the show, about secondary play creation too.
Speaker 3: Randal does bring that, but doesn't give the same spacing
Speaker 3: that Kat does. But they get de Vincenzo to come
Speaker 3: off the bench. One of the concerns I had was
Speaker 3: does de Vincenzo now stunt what could have been a
Speaker 3: very productive rookie year for Rob Dillingham. Maybe they don't
Speaker 3: need to be worried about that. But your thoughts on
Speaker 3: Minnesota's outlook now post.
Speaker 5: Trade, Yeah, I think the definitely a clunkier offense. I
Speaker 5: think a lot of what they were able to run
Speaker 5: last year relied on the shooting ability that Cat brings.
Speaker 5: I think they still have, you know that relatively with
Speaker 5: naz reid Off the bench. But if you're starting, you know,
Speaker 5: Julius Randall, I don't think you can really do as
Speaker 5: much like with like their horns, flair stuff and all
Speaker 5: that type of like double drag screening actions. I think
Speaker 5: it's just a lot less effective when you're replacing Kat
Speaker 5: with Julish Randall. I think he could still like kind
Speaker 5: of get into more stagnant stuff out of that where
Speaker 5: he's making a play after you know, potential to switch
Speaker 5: or something. But I just think with the way they
Speaker 5: were able to really like poll centers out of the paint,
Speaker 5: make them really think and open things up to make
Speaker 5: it simplified for Rudy in the paint that you know,
Speaker 5: kind of made the most out of what they could.
Speaker 5: And I think it's just going to get a little
Speaker 5: clunkier offensively because they also don't have that much for
Speaker 5: I think shot creation and just general you know, support
Speaker 5: around Anthony Edwards in terms of like established production. Like,
Speaker 5: I think there's also some limitations, uh, you know, I
Speaker 5: think like the size for Dante Divincinzo, Like sometimes it
Speaker 5: really stands out when he's trying to make a play
Speaker 5: and he's drawing two defenders and I think he's gonna
Speaker 5: draw like relatively often with the the you know, offensive
Speaker 5: players that they have, and I think Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 5: gonna have to really like transcend uh you know what
Speaker 5: they have around him in that regard, where he's just
Speaker 5: gonna have to be like taking even step higher with
Speaker 5: his like ability to you know, knock down off the
Speaker 5: dribble shots on the pull ups. He's gonna have to
Speaker 5: you know, really uh, you know, attack the rim with
Speaker 5: the plan and you know, be efficient.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: And I think, you know, which is what was gonna
Speaker 5: be the case regardless. I just I just don't think
Speaker 5: it fits as well anymore. And I think defensively, uh,
Speaker 5: they were great last year. I don't think I think
Speaker 5: that the blueprints there to where they can really kind
Speaker 5: of cover up whatever you think you need to cover
Speaker 5: up with Joyce Randall. But offensively they were already kind
Speaker 5: of underwhelming. I think they were like seventeenth in offensive rating,
Speaker 5: and I think they're gonna have a tougher time operating.
Speaker 5: And that's just for a team that already need to
Speaker 5: get better in that regard. It just felt like a
Speaker 5: financial trade more than a basketball trade in my opinion.
Speaker 4: So I think we're gonna.
Speaker 3: Real quick on that. So just you know, before we transition,
Speaker 3: we got to talk a little bit Warriors too, before
Speaker 3: we get out of this tier, this very very chunky tier.
Speaker 3: Do you think Randall stays in Minnesota because that's that
Speaker 3: exact same situation. It was a lot of the finances
Speaker 3: they feel like, ah, maybe we can be somewhat in
Speaker 3: the same ballpark talent wise, but he does have you know,
Speaker 3: this is his contract year. So do you think he
Speaker 3: ends up staying in Minnesota or are able to move him?
Speaker 3: You know, things aren't going well.
Speaker 5: I think it'll definitely make a lot of sense to
Speaker 5: try to trade him. It's just a matter of like
Speaker 5: what interest they'll get around the league, because sometimes you know,
Speaker 5: like as you guys all know, when you want to
Speaker 5: trade someone, but no one really wants to make that
Speaker 5: other side of the in a way that fits for you.
Speaker 5: Not saying no one will want Joyce Randall, but I'm saying, like,
Speaker 5: what are you getting back mid season? That is so
Speaker 5: like I guess you could say, like, you know what,
Speaker 5: I think that would fill out the holes that we
Speaker 5: have on our roster. The money works, the assets work,
Speaker 5: Let's let's agree.
Speaker 4: To this trade.
Speaker 5: I think there there's a lot of restrictions I feel
Speaker 5: like that they might run into with that, But I
Speaker 5: definitely think ideally, if you know, you were to kind
Speaker 5: of simulate their season, I do think probably moving on
Speaker 5: at some point would make the most sense, just because
Speaker 5: I think their ideal plays out with Rudy, Like just
Speaker 5: for all the things I was mentioning, I think it's
Speaker 5: just it's it's a little clunky, and I think when
Speaker 5: it gets clunky for you know, a guy like Rudy,
Speaker 5: it's a little a little challenging to get enough output
Speaker 5: offensively because I think even in Utah when he was
Speaker 5: at his best, it was that like super spread out,
Speaker 5: like high pick and roll, and you know.
Speaker 4: They really simplified it for him.
Speaker 5: I think he's someone that kind of struggles when he
Speaker 5: has to you know, post up himself or you know,
Speaker 5: shot fake and you know, get a defender to fly
Speaker 5: by him and finishing the paint. Like, I think that's
Speaker 5: just stuff that he's gonna have to do more that
Speaker 5: he's not necessarily effective at.
Speaker 4: And I think that, you know.
Speaker 5: More so playoffs is a concern, but I think regular
Speaker 5: season there'll be some limitations more that they'll have offensively
Speaker 5: than they had before, and they already needed to be
Speaker 5: steps above what they were last year.
Speaker 1: Damn it, man, I feel like we can speak for
Speaker 1: another fifteen twenty minutes to talk about the Minnesota Timbleves
Speaker 1: and what this move impact would have, not just specifically
Speaker 1: for the team itself, but also the landscape about what
Speaker 1: might happen come the off season depending upon what happens
Speaker 1: with this Minnesota Timberwles team. But we'll have Grant put
Speaker 1: that in your back pocket because we will be bringing
Speaker 1: you on for that soon enough. All right, so I
Speaker 1: mentioned it, we need to talk about the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: I find it interesting Sean, it you felt like Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. I'm sorry, La Lakers, the Memphis Grizzlies, the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves safe place.
Speaker 2: Let's put them somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Speaker 2: Why would why would.
Speaker 1: We want the Warriors be quote unquote in that safe
Speaker 1: space as well too?
Speaker 2: Why why is it that we cannot kill the Warriors?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Why why is it that that that vibe cannot you know,
Speaker 1: be killed. Is it because it's Steph Curry? Is it
Speaker 1: because they really do still have some talented players that
Speaker 1: you know? It keeps them in that in the realm
Speaker 1: of that conversation, given the landscape of what we've been
Speaker 1: talking about with the rest of these other the middle
Speaker 1: of the pack teams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you answered it. It's Steph Curry as again. You know,
Speaker 3: I think warriors loyalist will say, as long as we
Speaker 3: have Steph, we have a chance, and I think that
Speaker 3: that holds true, at least a chance to be in
Speaker 3: the play in, you know, even in the middle of
Speaker 3: the pack. And you know, I think full full, full transparency.
Speaker 3: The Worries rank roughly about eighth, you know, when we
Speaker 3: take our aggregate thing here, and it makes a lot
Speaker 3: of sense, you know, from where they're at. While I
Speaker 3: will sing Stef's praises until the cows come home, I
Speaker 3: don't and then excuse me, you know, people will call
Speaker 3: me casual. I'm sure I don't see what people see
Speaker 3: in Jonathan Kaming guy guy Like he's cool in all,
Speaker 3: but I just don't get it, Like there everyone wants
Speaker 3: this leap from him, but it's just for me, Like
Speaker 3: he just seems like a rotation guy who can score
Speaker 3: it a little bit. But I don't see all the
Speaker 3: all of the tools I.
Speaker 1: Have an opinion about that part of it Shaw, but
Speaker 1: again we would open up Pandora's boxing the conversation and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Let me just say this, Steve Kerr,
Speaker 1: This to me is an interesting dynamic because we've been
Speaker 1: speaking about this for quite some time on his inability
Speaker 1: to really help coach up the talent, and when he
Speaker 1: does coach up the talent, he doesn't use the talent
Speaker 1: nearly as much as he relies on his core what
Speaker 1: used to be his core four. So that's the reason
Speaker 1: why I'm going to speak to this thing about the
Speaker 1: Jonathan kaminga thing I think we all wanted to see
Speaker 1: it all happen. I just don't think that the type
Speaker 1: of offense and the way that this team has been
Speaker 1: built around Steph Curry, which is not Steph Curry's fault,
Speaker 1: but the way that this team has been built around
Speaker 1: it marginalizes what we're hoping that we're gonna see from
Speaker 1: the Pasminskis, from the kamingas from the Moodies. I mean,
Speaker 1: list off the number of guys who have been cool,
Speaker 1: nice key role players of moments, but now suddenly, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, We can't speak about them because
Speaker 1: they've only get a half a season of where they're
Speaker 1: actually flourishing, and then they just fall off into the
Speaker 1: abyss of unknowing this as a warrior player like that
Speaker 1: irks me, but I've always spoken about that.
Speaker 2: As far as my biggest pet peeve with Steve Kerr, well.
Speaker 3: They seem to be hell bens on not training Pajemski
Speaker 3: on anything unless they're getting like a super superstar back.
Speaker 3: So the fact that he was the lynchpin holding up
Speaker 3: a marketing deal was somewhat surprising to me. I mean,
Speaker 3: depending on what you believe out there in terms of
Speaker 3: the rumors, but they seem to be high on him,
Speaker 3: which means, hey, you'll probably play you know, plus minutes
Speaker 3: going into this addition to Buddy Heal was cool. You know,
Speaker 3: you get you know, a Walmart version I guess of Clay,
Speaker 3: But I mean he is one of the league leaders
Speaker 3: in threes, so I'm not trying to diminish that in
Speaker 3: any capacity. But he doesn't bring anything on the defensive
Speaker 3: side whatsoever. I think it's Delon Wright now that right,
Speaker 3: who they got you know, to help out kind of
Speaker 3: in the in the backcourt as well too, and those
Speaker 3: are all solid moves. Right, solid moves, but it all
Speaker 3: kind of lynchpins on what kind of player is Draymond
Speaker 3: Greenslaw at this stage? And is Andrew Wiggins focused enough
Speaker 3: and doesn't have, you know, all the things happening in
Speaker 3: his personal life where he can contribute on a regular basis.
Speaker 3: I sound really down on them, I'm not. It's just
Speaker 3: I'm concerned, but I just feel like because Steph's gravity
Speaker 3: on a regular night to night basis is just so
Speaker 3: so massive, it kind of they win despite themselves and
Speaker 3: despite what everybody want to say about Steve Currt times.
Speaker 3: But I'll kick it to you, Grant, just your thoughts
Speaker 3: on some of those key guys, and you know, am
Speaker 3: I just off base of what am I missing here
Speaker 3: on the Johnathan cominga train that everybody else is on.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think for the most part they definitely are
Speaker 5: like I guess you coulday they leave that feel of
Speaker 5: an incomplete team where they have the great player at
Speaker 5: the top. You know, Draymond Green when he's at the
Speaker 5: top of his game is like a game changing defender
Speaker 5: with his versatility. There's a lot to like with that,
Speaker 5: but there are just a lot of questions they have,
Speaker 5: Like when you hear in training camp who is our
Speaker 5: starting center? Like should we play Draymond at the five?
Speaker 5: Like that's kind of awkward, And then you already you
Speaker 5: also have perimeter concerns too, like who's gonna start on
Speaker 5: the wing, Like it's kind of kind of awkward there,
Speaker 5: And they always seem to have this thing where it's
Speaker 5: like they can't quite I think, I think I know
Speaker 5: what you're talking about with Kamina, because I think every
Speaker 5: single time it gets to talking about lineups, there's always
Speaker 5: this thing of like, well, Kaminga is a four, but
Speaker 5: Draymond's a four, but he can play the five, but
Speaker 5: we want a five out there for our defense.
Speaker 4: So it's like they just have.
Speaker 5: This weird identity of like they don't have like this
Speaker 5: base thing that just fits really cleanly and works. It's
Speaker 5: always like a work in products. Tonight, Well you can
Speaker 5: get away with Kaminga and Draymond in the center. Well
Speaker 5: the next night, we can't really do that, So we're
Speaker 5: gonna go small with dre at the five. And then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, that really opens up Kaminga offensively,
Speaker 5: because you know, last year they even did some like
Speaker 5: creative stuff we where Clay was screening for him or
Speaker 5: go screening, and that opened up a straight line drive
Speaker 5: to go hard right and just play through contact. And
Speaker 5: he's got the physical talent to do that. But you know,
Speaker 5: I think they also haven't really leaned into diversifying and
Speaker 5: trusting the offense enough to where it's like, all right,
Speaker 5: well screw it, let's just see what Cominga could do
Speaker 5: in a high pick and roll. Can he make the
Speaker 5: reads we need him to make? And what does he
Speaker 5: look like if we do it for stretches where we
Speaker 5: can then kind of attack from different points, have Steph
Speaker 5: you know, be stationed in different situations take some pressure
Speaker 5: off him. But instead it's more like within the flow
Speaker 5: and they're having like a perimeter player, go screen and
Speaker 5: stuff like that, and sometimes they'll have like the you
Speaker 5: know tray S, Jackson Davis's and Loony's you know screen
Speaker 5: as well. But I just think there hasn't been this
Speaker 5: like clean identity where his skill set is fully like
Speaker 5: proven and trusted and it fits within the like just
Speaker 5: core what they want to do. It just seems like
Speaker 5: they're always going to have these questions until they really
Speaker 5: like figure it out one way and then live with
Speaker 5: the consequences one way or another, because if they do
Speaker 5: think it's not the clean fit, and uh, you know,
Speaker 5: like okay, can you really go forward with dre and Kaminga?
Speaker 5: If not, what are you doing? Like what move can
Speaker 5: you make? And that's where it gets in the whole
Speaker 5: point of well, in the summer, you were linked to
Speaker 5: Paul George, but reportedly weren't willing to move some of
Speaker 5: those pieces like a Kaminga to make that deal happen.
Speaker 5: So then you know, like how invested are you in
Speaker 5: this current timeline? It gets into this like the weeds
Speaker 5: was Paul George is too expensive at that proportion with
Speaker 5: him wanting the max and everything. I know he was
Speaker 5: willing to take a little less for the Warriors based
Speaker 5: off the reporting that I read. But you know, just overall,
Speaker 5: it's like a lot of just constant questions where it
Speaker 5: just seems like they're always putting out fires instead, you know,
Speaker 5: like having this great identity grant.
Speaker 1: You know what is interesting to what you just said.
Speaker 1: I just thought about this, maybe it is something that
Speaker 1: is being factored into as well. This has always also
Speaker 1: been a problem with me about the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: is the identity of Steph Curry. Do you want Steph
Speaker 1: Curry to be the primary ball scorer or do you
Speaker 1: want Steph Curry to be the primary floor general? And
Speaker 1: at times when you ask him to be the primary
Speaker 1: floor general, it's with the intent that he is involving
Speaker 1: everyone and getting everyone set up and putting everyone in
Speaker 1: the best position possible to make things offensively easier for
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. And I feel like part of the struggle
Speaker 1: is what version of Steph do you want to encompass
Speaker 1: or encapsulate the identity of the offensive system that Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr is still trying to run, because you're not running
Speaker 1: that same kind of system with the guys that you've
Speaker 1: had previously on your championship runs.
Speaker 2: Wiggins is not the same.
Speaker 1: You don't have Klay Thompson, Drey doesn't shoot the ball
Speaker 1: as much, if not at all any more. So you
Speaker 1: have all of these other ancillary players that you're trying
Speaker 1: to bring up. And if the intent is is that
Speaker 1: they can't go out and get buckets on their own,
Speaker 1: are you asking Steph to get them in a position
Speaker 1: to get buckets for you? Are you asking Steph to
Speaker 1: be Steph Curry who has been doing what he does,
Speaker 1: which is being you know, on a nightly night night out.
Speaker 1: Basis absolutely the most remarkable scoring player that the game
Speaker 1: has ever seen. And I just feel like that is
Speaker 1: also one of the struggles that they have, which is
Speaker 1: why they're hesitant to pull the trigger on some of
Speaker 1: the deals, because you would probably think that Steph can
Speaker 1: make something happen and work far better with Laurie markin
Speaker 1: in than he's been trying to do with the Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga to Shaw's point, if we don't think that Kaminga
Speaker 1: is that guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't think he's that guy. I mean
Speaker 3: they got to work in Kyle Anderson now as well too,
Speaker 3: for whatever that's worth. And it was Melton not.
Speaker 2: Right, I guess the Anthony Melton.
Speaker 3: But Melton is on this roster as well too. And
Speaker 3: one thing happened within last year and I'll we'll move
Speaker 3: on here from this. But the Warriors, to Grant's point,
Speaker 3: they had various iterations because of injuries, right, but especially
Speaker 3: last year. I think they played a lineup for like
Speaker 3: seven games. All right, that worked, Oh that's not working anymore?
Speaker 3: A right, well, let's let's do this now. And it
Speaker 3: was like little chunks where they kept trying to tweak
Speaker 3: and tweak and tweak and tweak, and again, yes, some
Speaker 3: of that is injury ridden, but it's because they don't
Speaker 3: have the ultimate confidence in the roster or the runway
Speaker 3: to let some of the younger guys just go out
Speaker 3: here and continue to make mistakes, you know, because they
Speaker 3: do have to appease Curry, you know in the timeline
Speaker 3: that he's in KURR right now, because there's just not
Speaker 3: at a whole lot of time for him left in
Speaker 3: that So if Moses Moody and Kaminga and Jemski and
Speaker 3: those guys aren't ready to rock tray Jackson Davis, you know,
Speaker 3: those minutes are going to get toyed with on a
Speaker 3: regular basis. But I still feel like Golden State can
Speaker 3: put enough points on the board on a regular basis.
Speaker 3: We saw they just put up like thirty threes or
Speaker 3: something like that or maybe some ridiculous in the preseason.
Speaker 3: You know, So if that's the way that they're going
Speaker 3: to go, you know, air quote, you know, copycat style,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean in the NBA, and they
Speaker 3: can have that level of efficiency on necessarily on a
Speaker 3: regular basis. But pseudo pseudo regular. Then yeah, they're gonna
Speaker 3: be right there and they're gonna be a problem for
Speaker 3: a lot of teams out there. All right, cal let's
Speaker 3: move on, you know, to the contenders in the West.
Speaker 1: We hope you're enjoying this week's edition of the Baseline
Speaker 1: with Cali and warren Shaw. If you're enjoying today's show,
Speaker 1: be sure to give us a like or subscribe in
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel. Your support helps us keep bringing you
Speaker 1: the best and discussing the hot button topics in the NBA.
Speaker 1: We're Baseline with Cali and Warrenshaw.
Speaker 3: Don't go away, all right, cal Let's move on, you know,
Speaker 3: to the contenders.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the contenders, Cali Warrenshaw, Basline NBA
Speaker 1: Podcast with our special guests Grant Asset of Dallas Hoops Journal.
Speaker 2: All right, we don't have drum roll.
Speaker 3: After yeah, after effect, all right.
Speaker 1: So for our contenders, right, these are obviously the teams
Speaker 1: that we amply believe will be you know, in the
Speaker 1: thick of it and ultimately are you know, going to
Speaker 1: be you know, the teams to beat you know, in
Speaker 1: the in the Western Conference. And so as what we
Speaker 1: have listed for our contenders, the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets. Grant, I know you'd feel
Speaker 1: some kind of way somehow we had the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of such things. So you're you're good, No,
Speaker 1: but all seriousness, obviously, our selections is, you know, clearly
Speaker 1: what the Dallas Mavericks have shown us with the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder have shown us, the Denver Nuggets have shown us,
Speaker 1: and what I guess we're potentially believing or buying into
Speaker 1: is to what the Phoenix Suns should give us. Right,
Speaker 1: how much of that do we think that it's the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns should be that team more so than it
Speaker 1: was the Minnesota Temperwolves from last year, or how much
Speaker 1: of it is about the Minnesota Temperwolves and the trade
Speaker 1: that they made that pushing them a step back that
Speaker 1: we have to say, well, of all the other teams
Speaker 1: that we have to go with, let's just go with
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns. How much of it is Phoenix Sun's
Speaker 1: talent or how much of it is Minnesota Timberwolves taking
Speaker 1: a step back.
Speaker 5: I think it's probably both, honestly, because I think there's
Speaker 5: just gonna be tough offensively unless Ant plays as just
Speaker 5: like just brilliant half court offensive, like highly efficient, consistently
Speaker 5: great basketball in the playoff setting, I think it's going
Speaker 5: to be tough for them to generate enough and Phoenix,
Speaker 5: I think they already, to their credit, won forty nine
Speaker 5: games with all of the stuff that they had, like
Speaker 5: the roster holes, trying to navigate that first year of
Speaker 5: the you know, the second Apron. So I think, you know,
Speaker 5: we're getting two efficient point guards, you know, that are
Speaker 5: steady hand and you can trust them. I think that
Speaker 5: enhances what they have. I'm still I'm not necessarily like
Speaker 5: a big fan of anything that they have at the
Speaker 5: center position right now. I think a rim protector that
Speaker 5: could you know, finish on the role better would be
Speaker 5: a cleaner.
Speaker 4: Fit for them.
Speaker 5: So I'm not really sure what they can do with Nurkic,
Speaker 5: Like I don't know, if you know, there's maybe a
Speaker 5: mid season opportunity there for them on the trade block
Speaker 5: or anything of that nature. They're just so restricted by
Speaker 5: what they can do where I feel like I see
Speaker 5: the vision of what they want to do. I think
Speaker 5: they have the talent to be you know, effective team,
Speaker 5: But I just don't ness. I think they're still missing that,
Speaker 5: you know, that that impact at the five to really
Speaker 5: tie it all together in Minnesota. You know, I just
Speaker 5: think offensively, I just need to see I just need
Speaker 5: to see how they're gonna.
Speaker 4: Utilize Julius Randall.
Speaker 5: I know they they're kind of got that belief of,
Speaker 5: you know, this relationship with Chris Finch from their time
Speaker 5: on the New Orleans Pelicans. I just need to see
Speaker 5: a little more of how that's gonna look and you
Speaker 5: know how everyone else around him responds to it too,
Speaker 5: Because I see the best case scenario I understand it,
Speaker 5: where he's a more like aggressive score. You know, he
Speaker 5: can maybe get you those like ugly buckets in the playoffs.
Speaker 5: You know that maybe Carltown struggled to do, especially against
Speaker 5: the Mavericks, Like I always like was looking at that
Speaker 5: matchup entrying that series as like, okay, so PJ. Washington,
Speaker 5: how is he going to hold his own against the
Speaker 5: guy like kat like six foot seven.
Speaker 4: PJ.
Speaker 5: Washington should probably be getting scored on, you know, relatively often,
Speaker 5: you know, for a star big man with the skill
Speaker 5: that Carl Towns has, well, he held his own for
Speaker 5: much of that series and there were some just underwhelming
Speaker 5: performances in bad times from Kat that really I think
Speaker 5: plagued them in the Western Confers finals.
Speaker 4: So I think, like, you.
Speaker 5: Know, if you had Joyce ran on there, maybe those
Speaker 5: like uh, you know, put your head down, make a play,
Speaker 5: like not necessarily as you drew it up, sort of scoring.
Speaker 3: Opportunities what they need.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you.
Speaker 5: So I think, like that's not really like an identity
Speaker 5: that you want to like rely on on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1: So so, grant you, you have a lot more confidence
Speaker 1: going into this season. And obviously you you know, you know,
Speaker 1: because you've been watching this Dallas Mavericks team so far,
Speaker 1: you have a lot more common about this Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: team being even better defensively. I know that the knock
Speaker 1: was about how the Dallas Mavericks were not a good
Speaker 1: team defensively until they made those moves, and then they
Speaker 1: were arguably like a top three, top five team defensively
Speaker 1: the second half of the year on their way to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. So you have even more confidence with
Speaker 1: the way things are that the Dallas Mavericks defensively can
Speaker 1: even be better than what they showed us the second
Speaker 1: half of this year and with basically a full season
Speaker 1: of PJ Washington under you know, the kid flagship sort
Speaker 1: of speak as to how he can help command everything
Speaker 1: defensively for them to be formidable now not just offensively,
Speaker 1: but also defensively.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I definitely think, you know, when you also part
Speaker 5: of like, I definitely have like that, you know, that
Speaker 5: natural bias because I watched them and I know a
Speaker 5: lot more about them than all these other teams. I
Speaker 5: just think, you know, at the start of last year,
Speaker 5: rem protection is such a big part of what any
Speaker 5: defense does. I think, especially in the regular season, Derek
Speaker 5: Live was getting his first exposure to the NBA. He
Speaker 5: looked like he was overpowered by Minnesota's you know, Rudy
Speaker 5: and Kat Duo and Abu Dhabi. Uh during the global
Speaker 5: games before the regular season started, and uh, you know,
Speaker 5: he responded very well. In the second game. I thought
Speaker 5: he looked much better. And then you know, he throughout
Speaker 5: the whole season. I felt like he, you know, saw
Speaker 5: a matchup second time, for the most part, he would
Speaker 5: handle it much better.
Speaker 4: And uh, you know he's a fast learner. All that stuff.
Speaker 5: Enough about Derek Lively, but just like you know, now
Speaker 5: he's going to be second season, they're able to diversify
Speaker 5: their schemes a lot more. They didn't necessarily want to
Speaker 5: put too much on his play early last year, so
Speaker 5: they waited till later in the year to mix in
Speaker 5: more switching, more veer switching, all that stuff. That worked
Speaker 5: quite well, especially in the playoffs, until they ran into
Speaker 5: just such a good team like Boston. Uh they that
Speaker 5: had just such the shooting ability and just the four
Speaker 5: threats on the floor, uh that can attack off the
Speaker 5: dribble at all times. I really like stress them. But
Speaker 5: you know, they're just I think just adding in another
Speaker 5: guy with a similar skill set for the whole year,
Speaker 5: like Daniel Gafford behind him. That provides, you know, a
Speaker 5: higher floor in my opinion, because if there is an
Speaker 5: injury for Derek Lively, they're not relying on Dwight Pale
Speaker 5: or whatever like Maxi Kliba to play so heavily at
Speaker 5: the five. But they still have those options with Kleiba
Speaker 5: to switch everything. But I think really where like defensively,
Speaker 5: I'm intrigued. I just get a sense that, uh like
Speaker 5: sometimes with these big moves that happen, you don't really
Speaker 5: know like the mentality of the player involved, like the
Speaker 5: Klay Thompson, but I you know, just from you know,
Speaker 5: being around him and just hearing his comments and you know,
Speaker 5: just you know, I'm still learning more about him, but
Speaker 5: I still, I really do think he has a lot
Speaker 5: of motivation to you know, win with this team, but
Speaker 5: most particularly prove himself defensively. Again, like he even talked
Speaker 5: about that, he said, I know a lot of people
Speaker 5: talked about my defense, but I you know, really feel
Speaker 5: like I am still that high level defense and I'm
Speaker 5: you know, motivated to prove it. I know words, you
Speaker 5: know that, like anyone can say anything, but I do
Speaker 5: think he's gonna compete defensively. Whether the impact is necessarily
Speaker 5: as great as you would like remains to be seen.
Speaker 5: But I think the motivation from that, you know, the
Speaker 5: buy in from that type of player, uh, definitely is
Speaker 5: part of the question that I would have when I'm
Speaker 5: evaluating them for their outlook. But I think that, you know,
Speaker 5: gives me more confidence since they have you know, a
Speaker 5: formula already like with you know Washington and you know
Speaker 5: Lively at the four and the five. So I think
Speaker 5: they're gonna be able to do more switching this year,
Speaker 5: which should help Clay, you know, within the flow of
Speaker 5: possessions should help Luke and Kyrie. But I think we
Speaker 5: also saw, like during the playoffs, it was definitely up
Speaker 5: and down with Luca. You know, he was dealing with
Speaker 5: some injuries as well in the finals, where I think
Speaker 5: just the wheels fell off defensively for him.
Speaker 4: Like I think that was just a lot of a lot.
Speaker 5: Of playoff basketball where he's taken epidurals or whatever you
Speaker 5: want to say for his chest and all this stuff.
Speaker 5: But I thought Kyrie geared up to guard some top
Speaker 5: matchups quite well. It's different in the regular season, of course,
Speaker 5: but I thought, you know, he handled like James Harden
Speaker 5: well in the Clippers series, and when he needed to
Speaker 5: step up and guard guys, he was willing to do so.
Speaker 5: I think adding Clay, my whole point, kind of tying
Speaker 5: it all together, allows them to diversify offensively enough to
Speaker 5: where maybe those top guys can you know, be a
Speaker 5: little more durable, have the stamina to guard their position,
Speaker 5: whether it's like a tough matchup like a star player
Speaker 5: that's going to try to break him down or not.
Speaker 5: But regardless, I think Luca will always be the guy
Speaker 5: teams bring up in the actions to Hunt. They just
Speaker 5: need to wear him down, like get him a little
Speaker 5: bit like less efficient throughout the course of a game.
Speaker 5: So I think that's still going to remain the core
Speaker 5: of how teams attack them. And I think also on
Speaker 5: the flip side, the Mavericks are still always going to
Speaker 5: try to find the weak link shooting wise in the
Speaker 5: other team kind of you know, try to respect that
Speaker 5: shooter pack the paint, maybe do cross matching a little
Speaker 5: more since they can trust Lively to switch more and
Speaker 5: you know, live with the results with that one. That
Speaker 5: worked really well throughout the playoffs up until facing a
Speaker 5: team where you know there was no where you can
Speaker 5: hide anymore.
Speaker 4: If you will.
Speaker 3: Against Boston, I'll jump in only from the aspect where
Speaker 3: with Dallas too, I like the addition of Naji Marsha.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he's going to play exactly the
Speaker 3: Derek Jones roll verbatim per se, but I think, you know,
Speaker 3: in a kind of bizarrero type of situation, I'll get
Speaker 3: some of those minutes and do some of those same
Speaker 3: some same things. Clay just add somebody else who can
Speaker 3: get hot in an instant, you know, so he knocks
Speaker 3: down two in a row then like you're you're like,
Speaker 3: oh shit, like there's good, there's gonna be problems. So
Speaker 3: Dallas is obviously going to get right here at the
Speaker 3: top of the Western Conference competing. I think Phoenix is
Speaker 3: a team similarly that we've kind of grandfathered into this
Speaker 3: to this tier because of the talent. They still, despite
Speaker 3: all their roes last year, as I think grand alluded to,
Speaker 3: still won forty nine games. Get coach, but over there
Speaker 3: now to try to bring some different some organization in
Speaker 3: addition to the point guard play, they should be right there.
Speaker 3: They're the team I have the least amount of respect
Speaker 3: for actually winning it, but and I respect is maybe
Speaker 3: too strong of a terminology, but I'm least confident in
Speaker 3: their ability to do that. But the talent is obviously
Speaker 3: clearly there for them to be to be right here
Speaker 3: in this mix. Well, what comes down to this now?
Speaker 3: And I think the preseason is starting to show some
Speaker 3: some concerns for you know, the good old Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 3: They might have lost too much. And while jo Kisch
Speaker 3: is still right there and it's going to be a
Speaker 3: parental MVP guy, this a lot of the hinges on
Speaker 3: Jamal Murray's ability to be I don't think it can
Speaker 3: be a Western Conference All Star. And they don't even
Speaker 3: need him to be. They need him to be Jamal
Speaker 3: Bubble Jamal Murray all the time, especially when it comes
Speaker 3: to the playoffs. If he can get back to a
Speaker 3: certain level of health, Denver is always going to have
Speaker 3: a chance. But losing KCP and and and losing Brown
Speaker 3: and guys like that over the last couple of years
Speaker 3: seems to have taken a little bit of a chunk
Speaker 3: out of them. I don't know if Christian Brown and
Speaker 3: stops the name Julius, I just don't know if they're
Speaker 3: if they're ready to step up into this into this
Speaker 3: space right now. And so they're giving me a little
Speaker 3: bit of a pause. Despite where I think I ranked them.
Speaker 3: I did rank them third, you know, in in in
Speaker 3: my in my in my top tier here. But if
Speaker 3: they were if they were to fall or to stumble
Speaker 3: a little bit, I would not be that surprised, because
Speaker 3: I just I'm not getting warm and fuzzies about the
Speaker 3: entirety of their roster, especially when it comes to depth
Speaker 3: and their ability to to compete in this And we'll
Speaker 3: see what Russ, you know, brings into this equation as well. Finally,
Speaker 3: for me, okay See, I don't know how either of
Speaker 3: you don't have the number one and it's fine, you know,
Speaker 3: this is what this is what debates are for. They
Speaker 3: were the number one seed last year. Well, I think
Speaker 3: Dallas did a lot. I don't know that they've done
Speaker 3: enough to your suit your s okay See, especially with
Speaker 3: the ditions of Crusoe and Hartenstein a year three. Jaileen Williams,
Speaker 3: who is my young son. I love that dude, as
Speaker 3: as do a lot of guys. I really feel like,
Speaker 3: okay See has it together and coach daghanah as well too,
Speaker 3: as one of the better ones out there. To me,
Speaker 3: this is their conference in essence, not necessarily to lose,
Speaker 3: but it's it's Dallas and them to me. Everybody else
Speaker 3: too many questions for me to even give much consideration to.
Speaker 3: But I was a little surprised that y'all didn't have
Speaker 3: as much faith that you didn't. It's not like you
Speaker 3: had them twelfth or fifteenth, but you didn't have as
Speaker 3: much faith as them winning the Western Conference as I
Speaker 3: seem to do.
Speaker 1: Because I just wonder whether or not if we're talking
Speaker 1: about total wins of the season. I just feel like
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets and maybe what we'd have to do
Speaker 1: is crack out the schedules and see, you know who
Speaker 1: who has the ability to have more sustainability in the
Speaker 1: kind of and the wins and where and where those
Speaker 1: wins come from at what particular timeframe. I think that
Speaker 1: teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, as young as they are,
Speaker 1: they do hit a wall, you know, where they go
Speaker 1: to a stretch of games playing against the best teams
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference, and you know, they suddenly are
Speaker 1: the top team in Western Conference. Then to become third,
Speaker 1: you know, and a team like the Denver Nutuggets have
Speaker 1: proven that they just know how to win games. Remember
Speaker 1: last year, the second half of the season, they were
Speaker 1: hanging around fourth or fifth and then catapulted themselves to
Speaker 1: number one, and then injuries unfortunately compromise them where they
Speaker 1: knock them out of being the number one seed. So
Speaker 1: in a way, the Oklahoma City Thunder lucked themselves into
Speaker 1: it because they had a favorable schedule that allowed them
Speaker 1: to win the kind of games they needed to for
Speaker 1: them to sustain being number one. But it basically came
Speaker 1: down to the wire so I seen that no difference
Speaker 1: between the Nuggets, the Mavericks, and the Thunder. I feel
Speaker 1: it's interchangeable. I think it could swing any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form. The only difference is the reason why it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to put the Mavericks there is because
Speaker 1: I think if their schedule puts them in a position
Speaker 1: where they got to play more of their teams in
Speaker 1: the Southeast, rather than you know, teams that you're playing
Speaker 1: in the Northwest, where you've got the Jazz, You've got.
Speaker 2: The Timberwolves, and who knows where those two teams will be.
Speaker 1: It may favor either the Thunder or the Nuggets to
Speaker 1: get more wins to put them to be the number
Speaker 1: one seed than when the Mavericks, who may have stretch
Speaker 1: of games where they're playing against the Pelicans, the Rockets
Speaker 1: and all of them may have something to play for,
Speaker 1: may make it tougher. And if you're excuse me, Jason Kidd,
Speaker 1: who's as savvy a veteran coach as any, if he
Speaker 1: feel it necessary to rest his players to get them
Speaker 1: ready for the playoff run, he's not afraid to do
Speaker 1: it because he knows that that team is capable of
Speaker 1: going out there and winning on the road. The Mavericks
Speaker 1: proved that last season. So that's the reason why, like
Speaker 1: I have the Nuggets still because as the team with
Speaker 1: the most approve I think it's important for them to
Speaker 1: do that. And part of that is predicated on the
Speaker 1: kind of play you get from Jokic and the kind
Speaker 1: of play in the shape that Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2: Should be in coming into this season.
Speaker 1: But I don't disagree with you, Shaw, I know that
Speaker 1: I would love to put the Oklahoma City Thunder as
Speaker 1: number one. I'm just saying that given the circumstance, It's
Speaker 1: it's almost tough sledding for me because I feel like
Speaker 1: if the Thunder and the Nuggets run into each other,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I believe yet the Thunder can
Speaker 1: beat a team like the Nuggets because they don't have
Speaker 1: an equal answer for a Jokics the same way that
Speaker 1: they had an answer that they could have had an
Speaker 1: answer when they played against the Dallas Mavericks and failed
Speaker 1: to get and failed to advance in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: I mean, who has an answer for your kicks? Though?
Speaker 3: Like really and truly so, I mean, yes, you got
Speaker 3: Hartenstein there, and Chatty's obviously he's mean.
Speaker 2: Damn man, you asked for the answer, I gave it
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: He just just just smudged me off to the side.
Speaker 3: I mean, even Dallas with with with Gafford and Lively,
Speaker 3: I mean, nobody really has an answer for Grant.
Speaker 1: I hope you could appreciate the answer that I provided
Speaker 1: as such, you know what I'm saying. I would think
Speaker 1: that it's a it's it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: great answer. Matter of fact, I think Dallas fans might
Speaker 1: adopt me as being one of as part of their
Speaker 1: fan base for such a reason if they don't become
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: I gave him it out.
Speaker 3: Damn it. I'm mad at it. Well, Grant, I mean,
Speaker 3: your your final thoughts on this tier are just you know,
Speaker 3: kind of like where do you see it all? Kind
Speaker 3: of like shaking out based on some of our rebottos
Speaker 3: here as well too. Obviously Dallas has your heart and
Speaker 3: you feel like that's that's there too, But do you
Speaker 3: do you share any of my concerns about and are
Speaker 3: you more on cal sidning for like, hey, you know what,
Speaker 3: they're still one of the one we know, they're one
Speaker 3: of the better teams but you know they're not going
Speaker 3: to be as taking the step back that I'm predicting.
Speaker 5: I think, for the most part, Denver, I do have
Speaker 5: similar concerns. I also, like I I did cover the
Speaker 5: Olympics and I talked to some people like with Team
Speaker 5: Canada and just definitely felt like Jamal Murray shouldn't have
Speaker 5: played like in the Olympics, Like he just meant a
Speaker 5: lot to him, like to be able to be on
Speaker 5: the floor. He's someone that struggled to be available, Like
Speaker 5: even like the year prior with the Feeble World Cup,
Speaker 5: he wasn't available to play and he really wanted to
Speaker 5: be part of it. So that's a little iffy to me.
Speaker 5: Like his durability for the whole NBA season, that's like
Speaker 5: I'm not sure the latest on his like physical condition
Speaker 5: and everything and like how he's looking, but like for
Speaker 5: a whole year, like a season long, uh, you know,
Speaker 5: with him, I just and and also Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 5: with his injury history from the past, not necessarily last
Speaker 5: season or you know, last two seasons, but just in general,
Speaker 5: those two guys are always people that I'm like, kind
Speaker 5: of like Kyrie Irving, like where I'm always like Okay,
Speaker 5: I gotta see if you're going to have that twelve
Speaker 5: to you know, whatever game absence, like I think, but
Speaker 5: to add a little bit more, you know, I think
Speaker 5: that point about the Southwest Division, I think that's very
Speaker 5: very accurate. I think you're a lot of talented teams
Speaker 5: that want to win, like on the schedule for the
Speaker 5: Mavericks on a nightly basis. I do think to add
Speaker 5: a little bit of insight for you know, my understanding
Speaker 5: of the team. At least last year for the Mavericks,
Speaker 5: Kyrie had this like really uncharacteristic stretch just because of
Speaker 5: like you know what I'd mentioned with injuries and stuff,
Speaker 5: where he played like I think, twenty seven straight games
Speaker 5: through the like coming out of the All Star Break,
Speaker 5: all the way through until they clinched the five seed,
Speaker 5: and then they sat him like allowed him to rest
Speaker 5: for the last two So I think they are going
Speaker 5: to always favor the home court advantage. That's a huge
Speaker 5: motivation for them because Luca Era, when they went to
Speaker 5: the conference finals those two times they were the five seed,
Speaker 5: they had to really overcome like the you know, we're
Speaker 5: the underdog, we're not favored, We're on the road to
Speaker 5: start the series and making the finals.
Speaker 4: That's that's one hell of.
Speaker 5: A thing to have to be the road team for
Speaker 5: Game one and two for four series in a row.
Speaker 5: So they understand just how valuable that's gonna be. And
Speaker 5: they've talked about that as well, like like kind of subtly,
Speaker 5: not like outright saying from the mountaintop, we need to
Speaker 5: be a home court advantage team. But they've kind of
Speaker 5: thrown in there, like Jason Kidd and you know, Luca
Speaker 5: at times has been like, you know, like get home court,
Speaker 5: like get home court. So I think, like, you know,
Speaker 5: that's gonna be a motivational factor for them if they
Speaker 5: have to value should we rest for durability or should
Speaker 5: we go for home court. I think they'll they'll they'll
Speaker 5: value the ladder. So that's kind of my baked into
Speaker 5: my estimation for the Mavericks. I had those same questions
Speaker 5: about the Nuggets, but I think for the Thunder, as
Speaker 5: you had mentioned about their regular season, I think I
Speaker 5: expect them probably to be the number one seed because
Speaker 5: they had so much, you know, advantages with health, being
Speaker 5: a younger team, and I think just from an organizational standpoint,
Speaker 5: they are really good at solving the I guess you
Speaker 5: could say the math game.
Speaker 4: Or the.
Speaker 5: Sustainability approach of like, what strategy is going to be
Speaker 5: the most efficient our play style get the three volume
Speaker 5: up what like, what style you know is going to
Speaker 5: have the most or the best points expected allowed for defense?
Speaker 5: But I think where I have a little bit of
Speaker 5: pause with them is I need to see them prove
Speaker 5: it more in a playoff series. I felt like Shake
Speaker 5: Gildos Alexander was just too much like left to have
Speaker 5: to do everything offensively against the Mavericks. Part of that,
Speaker 5: of course, was back to my strategy explanation of their
Speaker 5: defense was disrespecting guys like Josh Giddy as a shooter.
Speaker 4: But now I.
Speaker 5: Do in a way feel like them. Like committing to
Speaker 5: having Isaiah Hartenstein plays into the Mavericks benefit and to
Speaker 5: an extent, because they've always been an effective defense when
Speaker 5: there is at least one lesser shooting threat on the court,
Speaker 5: whether that's a center, whether that's an underwhelming perimeter shooter,
Speaker 5: where I think, you know, they're probably gonna live with
Speaker 5: you know, we're gonna still beat you on the boards,
Speaker 5: and you're just gonna have a harder time getting into
Speaker 5: the paint regardless. So I think I do like the
Speaker 5: additions that they made Crew so I think is great. Hartstein,
Speaker 5: I think is great. But just from an individual matchup standpoint,
Speaker 5: I still think Mavericks and Nuggets are better equipped against
Speaker 5: the thunder than you know, the opposite of that, where
Speaker 5: Oklahoma City has like founder answers for those teams. Definitely
Speaker 5: curious to see, like if Jayalen Williams takes that step
Speaker 5: forward as you guys you know, touched on, I think
Speaker 5: that changes it a little bit in the playoffs. Of course,
Speaker 5: same with Chet Holmgren. If one of those guys, I'm
Speaker 5: still waiting. I'm really waiting for them to make that
Speaker 5: big step forward where they have that rely, really reliable
Speaker 5: second option. I think Jaalen Wins was great last year,
Speaker 5: but there was just not enough of an answer when
Speaker 5: they needed it most against Dallas, and I still think
Speaker 5: that is the case until I see it like in reality,
Speaker 5: like in that high stakes moment, I think they'll end
Speaker 5: up being a great team, just needs more of those
Speaker 5: those playoff runs together to really like, uh you know
Speaker 5: see how it looks, especially with changing the complexion of
Speaker 5: their front court, you know, with Chet and Hartenshein together.
Speaker 1: All right, Grant, let's let's let's get right into it. Man,
Speaker 1: who do you have coming out of the West. Is
Speaker 1: it going to be Is it going to be defending
Speaker 1: Western Conference, you know, champions Dallas Mavericks or do you
Speaker 1: think that the outcome they play a little bit differently.
Speaker 5: I think if I'm picking it now, I do think
Speaker 5: the Mavericks is probably my most likely pick. I can
Speaker 5: definitely see the downsides of all those top team So
Speaker 5: I'm not like take it to that bank type of
Speaker 5: you know statement on that one, but definitely do think
Speaker 5: I'm I'm probably picking the Mavericks as my most likely
Speaker 5: wonder right now.
Speaker 3: Sure, yep, Okay, See, I just believe in what SGA
Speaker 3: has been able to do. I trust daganol as a coach,
Speaker 3: and I think just the additions and j Williams ched
Speaker 3: Holgren again taking proverbial leaps this year. Yes, they will struggle,
Speaker 3: I guess with some of the size that's in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference, but I believe in their ability to solve
Speaker 3: those things and get some better offense execution outside of SHA,
Speaker 3: especially when it comes to bay off time.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts l Yeah, So not that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be down on the Oklahoma City Thunder at all. I
Speaker 1: think they exercise demons and get as far as the
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals, but then they will run into the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks and I think Kyrie Irving, Yuka Doncic. I
Speaker 1: just think that that is such a formidable group that
Speaker 1: I just think it's too much to overcome in the
Speaker 1: second year. It duration of what the Okay Okay See
Speaker 1: Thunder does. Now if during the course of the year,
Speaker 1: Sga and Williams and those guys you know by leaps
Speaker 1: and bounds show that they are capable of running with
Speaker 1: those type of big dogs, meaning watching what they do
Speaker 1: in their head to head matchups, that could give me
Speaker 1: reasons to change. They think differently about that. I think
Speaker 1: it's baby steps. I think what they need to do
Speaker 1: is they need to get to the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 1: You cannot be a top seed, can't be a number
Speaker 1: one seeded team again this year. And people are still
Speaker 1: saying that you guys are true not number one seeds
Speaker 1: and stuff. I know they don't have to listen to
Speaker 1: that noise. I'm just saying I would understand why that's
Speaker 1: the settiment, because when you look at how that team
Speaker 1: is built. It looks like they're built to win a
Speaker 1: ton of games, but against the teams that are gonna
Speaker 1: cause mismatches, they need that much more of a better
Speaker 1: performance from their star players, and they may be too
Speaker 1: young to understand how to get to that point just yet.
Speaker 1: And I think if the roadblock is gonna be playing
Speaker 1: either the Denver Nuggets or playing the Dallas Mavericks, I
Speaker 1: still think that it's gonna be a roadbot. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they will not make themselves closer to
Speaker 1: having that kind of thought process or settlement that they
Speaker 1: deserve to be in the Western Conference finals or that
Speaker 1: they should be playing in the NBA Finals if they're
Speaker 1: able to do such things. I just think that the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks, with this version of Irving, with hopefully and
Speaker 1: improved Luca, I think that they're going to wind up
Speaker 1: being the team to beat yet again.
Speaker 3: Well, Grant, we thank you so much for tapping in
Speaker 3: here with us on the baseline for this Western's Conference preview.
Speaker 3: Tell the people where they can find your work. What
Speaker 3: do you have going on next here? As you're covering
Speaker 3: the Mavericks in the NBA throughout the course of this
Speaker 3: regular season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, I'm doing a combination of stuff. A
Speaker 5: lot of daily Mavericks content on Dallas Hoops Journal dot com.
Speaker 5: It's a sub stack, you know, that had started in
Speaker 5: the offseason, and then also just a lot of just
Speaker 5: general NBA content, like one on one interviews with guys like.
Speaker 4: Recently like Lauri Markinin.
Speaker 5: You know, Marcus Smart and Zach Edy, basically the teams
Speaker 5: that are coming to play the Mavericks and sometimes Mavericks players.
Speaker 5: I'll be doing those on Sportskeida dot com and then
Speaker 5: you know, some later down the road this season, some
Speaker 5: like occasional things on Bleach Report as well. But yeah,
Speaker 5: definitely a lot of Mavericks on Dallas Hoops Journal dot
Speaker 5: com for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, Grant, we hope we're able to get you on
Speaker 1: at some point during the course of the regular season.
Speaker 1: But thank you so much for you know, hopping on
Speaker 1: board for helping shake things up in our preseason rankings.
Speaker 1: I think we would have been too much kumbaia and
Speaker 1: all this together now had it not been for you.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you mixing things up and making things so
Speaker 1: much more interesting because.
Speaker 2: You know me, I'm just so mundane with my my
Speaker 2: preseason selections, as Shaw may have alluded.
Speaker 4: To, Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: I really enjoyed the conversation, and I definitely look forward
Speaker 5: to having you know more throughout the course of the season, for.
Speaker 1: Sure, Brother Shaw, Brother Shaw, Brother Shaw. What more can
Speaker 1: be said? Man, A great, great, great conversation with a
Speaker 1: man Grant af Seth who covers the Dallas Mavericks. But
Speaker 1: you know, listen, there's no What I appreciate is that
Speaker 1: there is no high level of biasness sort of speak,
Speaker 1: you know, like the intent is just to prop up
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. You should prop up the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: because they proved that they were one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the Western Conference last year, second half of
Speaker 1: that season, going all the way to the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: And there's no reason for you do not think otherwise.
Speaker 1: But I think I equally respect the fact that he
Speaker 1: looks at the landscape of those other top tier teams
Speaker 1: and he says, listen, it's still not gonna be an
Speaker 1: easy climb come next year, despite what we saw from
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. You know, their teams there that are
Speaker 1: going to have a say as to whether or not
Speaker 1: this will be an easy path to get back there again,
Speaker 1: or they're gonna run into some roadblocks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the West is loaded slower at the top, it's
Speaker 3: sloaded at the bottom, you know, in the middle as
Speaker 3: we as we lose too. So I think, you know,
Speaker 3: for those you know, if you're just kind of tapping in,
Speaker 3: you know where we landed. A lot of rebound teams
Speaker 3: San Antonio, Utah and Portland playing in Sacramento, Houston and
Speaker 3: the Clippers, middle of the pack, the chunkiest of the tiers, Minnesota,
Speaker 3: the Lakers, the Warriors, the Pelicans, and the Grizzlies, and
Speaker 3: our contenders. Okay, see Dallas, Denver and the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 3: And I think as Grant was talking about Dallas specifically, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's he's he's tied in, he's locked into that. He
Speaker 3: knows a little bit about more about them. But they
Speaker 3: did have a miraculous run, if you will, not miraculous,
Speaker 3: but an improved run that got into the NBA Finals,
Speaker 3: especially after the All Star break. So this is a
Speaker 3: team that should be able to have a certain level
Speaker 3: of success, success early on because everybody's there from the
Speaker 3: very beginning. Now, So Dallas is right there in the
Speaker 3: mix as is okay, see as is Denver and maybe
Speaker 3: even to leuster degree, the Phoenix Suns. It's always love
Speaker 3: to hear what our friends and family have to say
Speaker 3: about this. Please please please tap in. Let us know
Speaker 3: in the comments. Where do we get wrong? Where would
Speaker 3: you have slot? You know Cal's Lakers, Now that's going
Speaker 3: to be a thing for the entirety of the season.
Speaker 3: And I guess you know my Grizzlies. You know, as
Speaker 3: Cayl thinks the Grizzies the thirteenth best team in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference. So let us know in the comments. Hit
Speaker 3: us up on our social media platforms. As always, man,
Speaker 3: the baseline is always rocking.
Speaker 1: With real quick So I meant to ask you, do
Speaker 1: you think that the San Antonio Spurs are much closer
Speaker 1: to playing ready than Lottery Brown ready. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: I know that we discussed you know what'll happen if
Speaker 1: things don't go the way it does.
Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is is that that gap that
Speaker 2: we're talking about.
Speaker 1: As equally as I was dropping the Memphis Grizzlies, I
Speaker 1: was also elevating the San Antonio Spurs. I'm just curious
Speaker 1: if you think that they are playing worthy of such
Speaker 1: with the currently constructed team and with the high level,
Speaker 1: elevated levels of expectation about how we see Victim and
Speaker 1: Minyama being that force multiply.
Speaker 3: Welenby might be the rising tide right that lifts all
Speaker 3: ships here, and san Antonio is going to figure that
Speaker 3: out in the short order how quick that that is
Speaker 3: going to happen with veteran guys and Chris Paul and
Speaker 3: Harrison Barnes on the inte. But if they realize it's
Speaker 3: not quite ready, then they need to abandon ship pun
Speaker 3: intended relatively quickly and then you know, try to see
Speaker 3: if they can get into that top one or top two,
Speaker 3: you know, pick situation. And I think you would be devastating.
Speaker 3: I mean, the league would hate them for years to
Speaker 3: come if they were able to land Cooper flag and
Speaker 3: pair them alongside Wemby. Uh So, if I'm san Antonio,
Speaker 3: I think you've done what you needed to do to
Speaker 3: show Wenby some sumone's of good faith by getting some
Speaker 3: veteran guys there. Chris Paul is obviously going to help,
Speaker 3: you know, Stephan Vassal you know from from Yukon in
Speaker 3: whatever time that he has there to kind of groom
Speaker 3: him as well too, and that will both bode well
Speaker 3: for the San Antonio Spurs in the future. But if
Speaker 3: it's me, listen, I not that I'm trying to piss
Speaker 3: one by off, but I'd be trying to get into that,
Speaker 3: you know, into that top one, number two pick again
Speaker 3: if possible. But you know, we'll we'll see how things
Speaker 3: go here in the early part of the season. Those
Speaker 3: first fifteen games will determine a lot of things from
Speaker 3: the Spurs.
Speaker 1: Well. I appreciate the confidence that you have in your
Speaker 1: San Antonio Spurs as well too.
Speaker 2: Not like, oh, that's that's our boy, shout out to
Speaker 2: our man nuts.
Speaker 1: Anyway, for those for those who've been watching, you know,
Speaker 1: thank you for hopping on board with us this week.
Speaker 1: For those who've been listening, thank you for hopping on
Speaker 1: board with us this week. For the baseline, Kylie warren Shaw,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you guys, you know, we do that.
Speaker 2: We'll catch up with you next time.