Speaker 1: Reporter, young man.
Speaker 2: It's not often that you directly violate a by law
Speaker 2: of the radio show.
Speaker 1: Do I need to remind you often?
Speaker 2: No, it's not often that you violate one of the
Speaker 2: tenants of the show. Need I remind you our rule
Speaker 2: when you decide to go with the greatest live act
Speaker 2: and history of music, Dave Matthews Ben, Yeah, no hits.
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, we subscribe to the Andy Bernard rule
Speaker 2: about Dave. What's going on with you?
Speaker 1: I know, I know?
Speaker 3: No hits, as you said, only it was very last minute.
Speaker 3: It was very last second. I had like three seconds
Speaker 3: to throw a song up. I had to throw a
Speaker 3: Northeast jam band up for you and Tom fair enough.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, all good?
Speaker 4: Is this a hit?
Speaker 2: It's the only song they've ever won a Grammy for,
Speaker 2: so it's like the hit. But you know what, it's
Speaker 2: all right? Monday Afternoon style NBA playoff style. Tom Haberstrow
Speaker 2: batting lead off on the show, Tommy, happy money man?
Speaker 1: How are we doing?
Speaker 4: So? You prefer him to do like number forty one
Speaker 4: or something?
Speaker 1: There we go, Tom talk.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I love when you talked dirty about Dave.
Speaker 2: Tom, I appreciate that yes, indeed that would and live
Speaker 2: preferably obviously not the studio recording.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I prefer I think number forty one might
Speaker 4: be my favorite lab Jimmy sing or a two step
Speaker 4: I can get with any of those.
Speaker 1: There we go, There we go.
Speaker 2: All right, Tom, I'm gonna ask you the question we
Speaker 2: started the show off with NBA Playoff basketball over the weekend.
Speaker 2: The one major takeaway for you is, what if you
Speaker 2: had to kind of hone.
Speaker 1: In on one thing.
Speaker 4: Physicality is back spence, Physicality is back. I did this
Speaker 4: study over at the Finder the last couple of days.
Speaker 4: I've been kind of looking at this because I think
Speaker 4: it was during the Lakers game Jay Billis pointed out
Speaker 4: that they hadn't been called for a foul and like
Speaker 4: four minutes into the second quarter, and he was noting it,
Speaker 4: and then I tracked it for all the games. It
Speaker 4: was the fewest field goal attempts for an opening weekend
Speaker 4: the NBA Playoffs. Ever, an average of seventeen three throws
Speaker 4: per teen per game is the lowest we've ever seen
Speaker 4: in the playoffs, and it isn't particularly close. Last year
Speaker 4: it was an average about twenty one, and this year
Speaker 4: it's seventeen eighteen right in there. So last year was
Speaker 4: the lowest and now we're about fifteen percent lower than
Speaker 4: the previous low. And so what we're seeing is, you know,
Speaker 4: the physicality that the Warriors are able to play with
Speaker 4: on Jalen Green and with Fred van Vliet and Shane Goon.
Speaker 4: That's the difference. They allowed eighty five points in that game,
Speaker 4: and Imo Udoka said after the game, he's like, we
Speaker 4: held the Warriors to ninety five points. That's a win.
Speaker 5: Like normally that is a win.
Speaker 4: But we couldn't get our offense going. And a lot
Speaker 4: of it is because the Warriors were more physical. And
Speaker 4: what JJ Reddick and Lebron James said after they lost
Speaker 4: to Minnesota to rules is we need to be more physical.
Speaker 4: And the Pistons they got run out of that gym
Speaker 4: at Madison Square Garden because they were not playoff tested.
Speaker 4: They weren't ready to play bully ball. And Kate Cunningham
Speaker 4: shriveled up. And so if you go to tomdfinder dot com,
Speaker 4: you can see historically free throw attempts in the playoffs
Speaker 4: go down, but especially so this postseason, where teams are
Speaker 4: not really getting to the line at a high rate,
Speaker 4: and I think it has huge implications for this postseason.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's tackle some of these one by one,
Speaker 2: and we'll start out this way with the Western Conference
Speaker 2: stuff before we.
Speaker 1: Move back east. As we continue the conversation.
Speaker 2: So Denver, Clips, I mean, the West continues to be
Speaker 2: ridiculously deep.
Speaker 1: There are gonna be some really good teams are going home.
Speaker 2: The Clippers entered the postseason on fire, and as I
Speaker 2: talked to you last week about whenever Kawhi is healthy
Speaker 2: for an extended stretch, we all do the thing where
Speaker 2: we're like, oh, yeah, that's who that dude is. And
Speaker 2: I've always kind of been like, you can have Russell
Speaker 2: Westbrook guy. And I don't think there's anything sustainable about
Speaker 2: what we saw from him Game one, but he does
Speaker 2: have the ability to bring energy that really puts him
Speaker 2: in a category that is very, very small, and that's
Speaker 2: what I've always respected about him. His defense down the
Speaker 2: stretch was great. That was a hell of a basketball game.
Speaker 2: Give me your take, Clips, Nugs Game one and how
Speaker 2: do you see that playing out?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 4: I am not a huge Russell Westbrook fan, like I
Speaker 4: have never been. I just think that his stat sheet
Speaker 4: is really impressive and his energy is really impressive. But
Speaker 4: in terms of winning plays, like I'd rather have a
Speaker 4: lot more players in today's era than Russell Westbrook, I
Speaker 4: think a lot of it is empty calories. And man,
Speaker 4: that performance on Saturday was awesome. Down the stretch, he
Speaker 4: was great. He had a lot of he smoked some layups,
Speaker 4: you know, but he got to every rebound, the rebound
Speaker 4: after offensive rebound, deflections, big plays, passes like. He made
Speaker 4: so many winning plays down the stretch. And if we
Speaker 4: can get that guy every game, I think the Denver
Speaker 4: Nuggets can win this series. But if we can't get
Speaker 4: that guy, then there's just not enough weapons on Jokic's side.
Speaker 4: I think the Clippers win this series. Still. I thought
Speaker 4: that they were gonna win this one handily, and then
Speaker 4: the Nuggets stormed back and they could not generate good offense.
Speaker 4: The Clippers and the winning the energy, the winning plays,
Speaker 4: they were all done by Russell Westbrook and the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 4: and you know that tilts the scales. I mean, I
Speaker 4: just I never thought we would see Russell Westbrook at
Speaker 4: this age be the high energy guy making the right
Speaker 4: play at the right time. But he did, and for
Speaker 4: that Game one, I was really impressed with him down
Speaker 4: the stretch. Now you're there's good stuff and then there's bad.
Speaker 4: Russ Right, there's the five to seven team shooting where
Speaker 4: he's taking jumpers where they're begging him to shoot, and
Speaker 4: he has them clutch shots. But I don't think that
Speaker 4: you're gonna be able to rely on that going forward.
Speaker 4: Like you said, it's unexpected to get that kind of
Speaker 4: high performance from Russell Westbrook, and you're gonna need the
Speaker 4: complimentary players Peyton Watson, Porter Junior Christian Brown. You need
Speaker 4: those guys to show up in Game two or else.
Speaker 4: I think the Clippers are the better team. I think
Speaker 4: Jokich is the best player in this series, but I
Speaker 4: think with James Harden, with Zubots, who I think handles
Speaker 4: Jokic as well as anybody. I'm not saying he's a stopper,
Speaker 4: but I think Zoo is as good of a defender
Speaker 4: on Nikola Jokic, and the analytics back that up. I
Speaker 4: think they have a good shot at winning this series,
Speaker 4: a better shot than the Nuggets. But Russell Westbrook man,
Speaker 4: he had lightning in a bottle for those last couple
Speaker 4: of minutes and he was awesome. I can understand why
Speaker 4: there's so many Russell Westbrook stands out there, because all
Speaker 4: you remember the good ones, and in victory, you remember
Speaker 4: the good ones and you forget all the mistakes and
Speaker 4: all the dumb passes and all the smoked smoke putbacks
Speaker 4: and all that. But when there's more than there are downsides, man,
Speaker 4: Russell Westbrook is awesome to root for. And that's what
Speaker 4: he was in Game one.
Speaker 2: Not excuse me, I'm not an emotional man, Tommy, but
Speaker 2: I will say somebody who was courtsied for Marcus Camby
Speaker 2: giving Jeff van Gundy a black eye and Jeff Van
Speaker 2: Gundy holding on for dear life of Alonzo Morning's leg.
Speaker 2: Watching Jeff Wressell with Nikola Jokic for the basketball it
Speaker 2: made me somewhat emotion.
Speaker 1: What brought it here to my eye?
Speaker 4: I gotta say, well, you know what's weird about that
Speaker 4: is he had a similar thing with Matt Ishbia. Do
Speaker 4: you remember this, Yeah, yep, ball goes out a bounds
Speaker 4: and into the stands and it's Matt Ishbia, the owner
Speaker 4: of the Phoenix Suns. And Ishbia, who played as a
Speaker 4: walk on at Michigan State, was like, nah, I'm not
Speaker 4: giving you the ball back and Jokic there was like
Speaker 4: an altercation. And then if you remember, Mark Dagnall, the
Speaker 4: coach of OKC, tried to like have this hack where
Speaker 4: they had one of his players I think it was
Speaker 4: I think it was Dylan Jones. He had one of
Speaker 4: his players stand at the scorers table to check in
Speaker 4: and then not check in because they could not stand
Speaker 4: how quickly the referees would give Jokic the ball on
Speaker 4: out of bounds, like on made baskets. Yokich would get
Speaker 4: the ball so quickly, and the thunder thought, that is
Speaker 4: not right, like they got to like give the balls.
Speaker 4: He has to pass to the referee and get the
Speaker 4: ball back, and they're not ruling that correctly. So dag
Speaker 4: Nault would send a guy, a bench guy that he
Speaker 4: had no intention of going to the game, but would
Speaker 4: send him to the scorers table because he wanted Jokic
Speaker 4: to not get the ball so quickly out of bounds.
Speaker 4: And there so this is like the third time that
Speaker 4: this has happened. And of course you got Powell, who's
Speaker 4: a Jason Powell, who's the trainer, the head athletic trainer
Speaker 4: for the Clippers, forever and Jeff Van Gunny now getting
Speaker 4: with Yokich. This has become a thing. This has become
Speaker 4: a thing, and it just delights me to know end
Speaker 4: that like the only way to stop or slow down
Speaker 4: Yo Kich is to just hold onto the ball for
Speaker 4: a next beat and then you'll finally get your way.
Speaker 2: You think Jeff gets another head coaching job. Maybe he
Speaker 2: doesn't want one.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: He's done such a great job and I'm biased, I
Speaker 2: would admit it. But do you think that will be
Speaker 2: There are opens openings and there will be more.
Speaker 1: Do you think Jeff gets a look?
Speaker 4: I think he does. I mean, you look at you know,
Speaker 4: just getting back into the game is half the battle.
Speaker 4: And I think you know he did some Team USA
Speaker 4: for the select team for a couple of years. I
Speaker 4: think this getting actually within the end NBA circle, I
Speaker 4: think is gonna dramatically improve.
Speaker 5: His chances of getting a job rather than.
Speaker 4: Trying to hold out for a head coaching gig. You
Speaker 4: know this is this is a weird league. Man like
Speaker 4: JJ Reddick went from hosting a podcast to becoming the
Speaker 4: head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. There is no
Speaker 4: straight line path to becoming a head coach in the NBA,
Speaker 4: and it's just, you know, these owners, I don't think
Speaker 4: they know what they want. And I think there's gonna
Speaker 4: be an owner who wants someone with that name recognition,
Speaker 4: who's a brilliant basketball strategist, who's a guy that has
Speaker 4: been around for decades in the league. And I think
Speaker 4: you're gonna see his name in some circles. Whether they
Speaker 4: hire him or not. I'm not sure what the exact
Speaker 4: right fit is, but you're telling me Sacramento or Memphis
Speaker 4: with the interim coach there, You're telling me that with
Speaker 4: Denver having I think Michael Malone is kind of in
Speaker 4: that Dan Gundy tree. So I'm not totally sure they
Speaker 4: would hire Jeff Van Gundy, but I do think that
Speaker 4: he'll probably get another opportunity at some point in the
Speaker 4: next couple of years.
Speaker 2: You reference JJ Reddick, and look, I don't know how
Speaker 2: much the narrative of, hey, this is his first playoff
Speaker 2: series as a head coach, so Game one was kind
Speaker 2: of a bad look for him. They did try to
Speaker 2: go small, almost exclusively, and of course out here in
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, watching Rudy Gobert have to go to
Speaker 2: the bench when the Lakers were going small. You know,
Speaker 2: we all have memories of that, and nas Reed stepped
Speaker 2: in and had a really, really good game. I was
Speaker 2: a little bit surprised that Lebron didn't seem to engage physically,
Speaker 2: because Minnesota, when they're healthy, they've got a ton of
Speaker 2: just big, physical wing defenders. And I'm not a huge
Speaker 2: Julius Randall guy because of course, plenty of years in
Speaker 2: New York where the ball just stalls with him and
Speaker 2: he had seven turnovers, and offensively, you know there are
Speaker 2: always going.
Speaker 1: To be issues. But when he's engaged, he's a big,
Speaker 1: strong dude.
Speaker 2: So it is Jaden McDaniels, so his aunts, and they
Speaker 2: kind of let Lucas score and they were fine with that,
Speaker 2: but they took away his ability to facilitate he I'd
Speaker 2: one assist. So look, Lebron and Luca are both generational,
Speaker 2: They're both brilliant.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying this is over.
Speaker 2: But takeaways from te Wolves Lakes game one, how do
Speaker 2: you think it plays out?
Speaker 4: They need to be better shooting. I mean, when you
Speaker 4: have the Timberwolves get hot, like Julie Randall's not going
Speaker 4: to shoot for a sec. From downtown, right, that's not
Speaker 4: going to continue. Jada McDaniels isn't going to shoot three
Speaker 4: or three from downtown. You get basically at twenty one
Speaker 4: points on threes from those two players. That's not replicable.
Speaker 4: But what also is it replicable is you can't have
Speaker 4: basically Luca the only one hitting threes in that game.
Speaker 4: And that's something that the Lakers have to figure out.
Speaker 4: If you're going to go small, you better hit shots
Speaker 4: from downtown because you certainly aren't going to play bully
Speaker 4: ball and just get the guy in the post and
Speaker 4: just score at will inside the paint. They need to
Speaker 4: figure out a way to get the others. I'm talking
Speaker 4: ruy Atamura, I'm talking Gabe Vincent, these other scorers. I mean,
Speaker 4: Dorian Finny Smith has to be a three points threat
Speaker 4: if he's gonna be out there, because if you're not defending,
Speaker 4: you've got to be able to do something on the
Speaker 4: other end, and they weren't defending. The Timberwolves scoring one
Speaker 4: hundred and seventeen points on the surface doesn't seem like
Speaker 4: an egregious defensive game. That game was Neanderthal. That was
Speaker 4: an eighty six possession game. One hundred and seventeen points
Speaker 4: allowed on a eighty six possessions. That's one hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty three defensive rating by the Lakers. If you're gonna
Speaker 4: play DFS, if you're gonna play small and you're gonna
Speaker 4: go with Ruy and DFS and Lukia Lebron and Austin Reeves,
Speaker 4: you better be defending at a high level. But they
Speaker 4: couldn't stop the Timberwolves. And yes, a little bit of
Speaker 4: that with some unsustainably good three point shooting, but that
Speaker 4: is one of the worst defensive outputs that the Lebron
Speaker 4: led team has ever had, one hundred and thirty three
Speaker 4: point defensive rating. They got to be better defensively, more
Speaker 4: locked in, more physical, and that's what you heard from
Speaker 4: JJ Reddick. They got to bring more physicality. And he's
Speaker 4: not going to call out Lebron by name and Luca
Speaker 4: by name, but they've got to be better defensively. And
Speaker 4: that is just absolutely putrid defense. One hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: three points every one hundred possessions of a loving game one.
Speaker 2: So I went to the Jazz OKC game mostly because
Speaker 2: it was the final home game of the season for
Speaker 2: the Jazz.
Speaker 1: And just an excuse to go down there.
Speaker 2: And you know, I sat with Richard Smith forty years
Speaker 2: with the Jazz and Scottie Laden, who of course was
Speaker 2: the GM here GM in New York, and they were
Speaker 2: just marveling at how every single player on Oklahoma City's
Speaker 2: roster to be able to play at a really high level.
Speaker 2: I mean guys that you've never really even heard of,
Speaker 2: Guys that maybe even you know, big time NBA fans
Speaker 2: don't really know all that. Well, look, Shay went four
Speaker 2: to thirteen, had fifteen points, and they beat Memphis by
Speaker 2: fifty one. Like it's pretty it's pretty terrifying, Tom. And look,
Speaker 2: I know you know this, and so do I because
Speaker 2: we watched the league and we cover the league. They've
Speaker 2: been historically great all year with their net and we
Speaker 2: know what they.
Speaker 1: Can do on defense.
Speaker 2: And look, Memphis is not a world beater, and obviously
Speaker 2: they're in only because they want to play in So
Speaker 2: I don't want to overreact, but that was pretty overwhelming.
Speaker 2: Watch OKC just toy with Memphis Game one. What were
Speaker 2: your takeaways.
Speaker 4: I've been saying this all season, man, you know it,
Speaker 4: I U OKAC is gonna run away with this thing.
Speaker 4: And Game one Memphis proved at least for one game
Speaker 4: against the eight seed when they had thirty six hours
Speaker 4: before tip off. I'm talking Memphis after they won the
Speaker 4: play in spot. Ye that proclamation by me earlier this
Speaker 4: season and say that this OKC team is something else,
Speaker 4: that they are one of the great ones and they
Speaker 4: were going to win this thing easily. That looked smart
Speaker 4: for a night. Now I will say this to your point,
Speaker 4: it's not sexy or it's not kind of gonna draw
Speaker 4: any sort of eyeballs to just say they have a
Speaker 4: lot of high IQ players. But what's so interesting about
Speaker 4: this team is they had one finalist for the awards.
Speaker 4: One finalist it was Shay Gilgers Alexander for MVP. He
Speaker 4: probably will win it. But you're talking defense, six Man
Speaker 4: of the Year, Most Improved Coach of the Year. None
Speaker 4: of them have Okac's name on it. And this was
Speaker 4: the team that had the largest point differential in NBA history.
Speaker 4: They blew out teams by more than any other team
Speaker 4: in NBA history this year sixty eight wins, fourteen losses.
Speaker 4: But the way they just destroyed teams was on a
Speaker 4: level we haven't seen. And they are not a team
Speaker 4: that had more than one appearance on the major NBA
Speaker 4: Awards this year, and it just goes to show that,
Speaker 4: like this is a team that's the head of the
Speaker 4: snake is Shay Godris Alexander, but they have so many
Speaker 4: high IQ, high performing players like you said, and I'll
Speaker 4: point out that Jalen Williams leads the team in triple
Speaker 4: doubles this year. And it's not that Jalen Williams, right,
Speaker 4: the other Jalen Williams, the one who comes off the bench,
Speaker 4: the backup center who I will remind you wasn't even
Speaker 4: a first round pick. Jalen Williams from Arkansas. This dude
Speaker 4: has three triple doubles this year and he's the team
Speaker 4: leader in triple doubles, not Shay or Jalen. That guy
Speaker 4: against the Blazers earlier this year is covering the game.
Speaker 4: I was working the game, and I was like, I
Speaker 4: think he's gonna get a triple double. And this guy
Speaker 4: is like their tenth best player. So like this this
Speaker 4: team is so deep. Aaron Wiggins. He's kind of this
Speaker 4: guy that if he was on the nets this year,
Speaker 4: he would have averaged twenty five a game. That's how
Speaker 4: good he is. He's already got a forty piece this season,
Speaker 4: and in ways that a lot of good scorers this
Speaker 4: year haven't had a forty burger. The Thunder are great.
Speaker 4: They play as well, disciplined, as smart. They're gonna be
Speaker 4: this team that because of the referees. If this sticks,
Speaker 4: if the referees reward physicality, the Thunder might stand to
Speaker 4: gain more than anybody. And I know people are gonna say, hey,
Speaker 4: shay goch is Alexander a foul martant. He leads all
Speaker 4: guards in free throws per game. I get it, but
Speaker 4: you don't realize if this Thunder defense, that's already by
Speaker 4: far the best defense in the NBA, if the referees
Speaker 4: are gonna officiate and let things play, dude, it's gonna be.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a bloodbath every single night against the Thunder.
Speaker 4: Lou Dort, you could call a foul on the do
Speaker 4: it every single time down the floor, case and walls,
Speaker 4: every time that Isaiah Hartenstein, every shake, Gosris Alexander, the
Speaker 4: way he swipes and and gets into every passing lane.
Speaker 4: They could call a foul on every player on this
Speaker 4: team every time down the floor. They are that physical,
Speaker 4: there's that menacing they're that brutal to go against. And
Speaker 4: if the referees are gonna swallow their wristle their whistle
Speaker 4: in the postseason, like, I don't.
Speaker 5: Know how you're gonna score against this team.
Speaker 4: And I feel bad for John Moran and the Memphis
Speaker 4: Grizzlies because I don't think they had a shot. But
Speaker 4: this is a warning. This is a warning. This is
Speaker 4: a This is a warning shot for the rest of
Speaker 4: the league that they took it easy on Memphis and
Speaker 4: they still couldn't score it more than eighty points if
Speaker 4: they tried for the whole game, if they played all
Speaker 4: their guys the whole game, I don't know if Memphis
Speaker 4: would have scored sixty. And so this is a team
Speaker 4: the thunder that is, if this whistle continues, Uh, this
Speaker 4: is gonna go back to nineties basketball. We're we're gonna
Speaker 4: see a lot of wins thirty plus and the other
Speaker 4: team is not going to score more than.
Speaker 2: Eighty, which should be good news for a team like
Speaker 2: the Houston Rockets. So let's move over to Golden State
Speaker 2: Houston for a moment here, because I heard a lot
Speaker 2: of people, a lot of people, and yes, Charles Barkley,
Speaker 2: but you know, over the years, I've always reminded people
Speaker 2: that that is an entertainment product, and Chuck is the
Speaker 2: one that guarantees everything and oftentimes is wrong, and I
Speaker 2: love him. Charles is great. I will die on that hill,
Speaker 2: but he's not alone. A lot of people thought Houston,
Speaker 2: with their size, their length, their physicality, they would beat
Speaker 2: Golden State round one. Maybe they still will, but you know,
Speaker 2: for all the Aman Thompson is going to have Steph
Speaker 2: Curry and jail conversation you had, Steph had his moments
Speaker 2: where he struggled. I don't know if we can be
Speaker 2: as reductive as saying superstars win games in the playoffs
Speaker 2: on the road, because that's what they do and that's
Speaker 2: who Steph and Jimmy are. When Houston's offense breaks down
Speaker 2: to the half court, Tom, I don't know who they are.
Speaker 1: I really don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, Shangun is awesome, but I don't need another isolation.
Speaker 2: Fred van Vliet blow through you my leg seven times
Speaker 2: and then Chuck up at contested three. Jalen Green didn't
Speaker 2: look ready, Tarry Easton didn't look ready, and again a
Speaker 2: young team with physicality and length, they did find something
Speaker 2: when they went Steven Adams and Shanngun together and maybe
Speaker 2: they just have to muck it up with their bigs.
Speaker 2: But takeaways, Game one, Golden State Houston, how do you
Speaker 2: think it plays out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they don't have shooting. They don't have I mean,
Speaker 4: Fred Van Vliet or Jalen Green don't have it going.
Speaker 4: They are gonna have to be in this kind of slugfest.
Speaker 4: And unfortunately, Draymond Green loves playing in the mud. You know,
Speaker 4: this is a guy that loves when it gets grimy,
Speaker 4: when it gets physical. That's where Draymond Green wants to play.
Speaker 4: And that's exactly playing into.
Speaker 5: The Warriors' hands.
Speaker 4: Jimmy Butler, same thing, like when it comes to just
Speaker 4: muck it up, defensive minded bullyball, I just don't think.
Speaker 5: You're gonna win that game against the Warriors.
Speaker 4: If you're gonna beat the Warriors, it's by getting stopped
Speaker 4: and getting out in transition and scoring in the open court.
Speaker 4: But as soon as it gets into the half court,
Speaker 4: the Houston Rockets are in a very big disadvantage. And
Speaker 4: Jalen Green I think might be one of the most
Speaker 4: overrated players in the league because I don't think his
Speaker 4: stuff will work in the playoffs. I think in our
Speaker 4: eighty two game regular season he can get you twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five points. But in the postseason, I'd just say
Speaker 4: he's too small, too weak in order to really thrive
Speaker 4: in the postseason. And I think his trajectory he isn't
Speaker 4: at a point right now where he can be a
Speaker 4: winning player in the playoffs. It's only one game, but
Speaker 4: he has a lot of bad habits as a score
Speaker 4: inefficient scorer. And I worry that. You know, the Houston
Speaker 4: Rockets are going to be the number two seed and
Speaker 4: might get swept here. I don't think it's going to
Speaker 4: be a sweet I think the Warriors are a really
Speaker 4: good team, and I've put them on my top tier
Speaker 4: of title contenders. This week. I just put out an
Speaker 4: article because if the physicality is gonna be where it is,
Speaker 4: they got to muck up the game. Dylan Brooks has
Speaker 4: to figure out a way to not only muck it up,
Speaker 4: but also be able to hit a bunch of threes,
Speaker 4: because if they're not gonna get good half court offense
Speaker 4: from those guys, they just don't have a shot. They
Speaker 4: really don't. And you said it like Shane Goon's a
Speaker 4: good player, But in order for this team to be
Speaker 4: a top tier winning you know, number two seed in
Speaker 4: the Western Conference and being a team that's gonna win
Speaker 4: at the highest levels, they need better offense.
Speaker 5: Than what they had yesterday.
Speaker 4: And what I will say is this, the Golden State
Speaker 4: Warriors are great. They are a great team. And still
Speaker 4: the defense is amazing in the half court. The look
Speaker 4: the Rockets half court efficiency sixty five, offensive rating in
Speaker 4: the half court sixty five. That's atrocious. That's in the
Speaker 4: fourth percentile according to Cleaning Theglass dot com. You can't
Speaker 4: beat the Warriors in the half court. You have to
Speaker 4: get turnovers, and you have to play up and down
Speaker 4: in the half court, I mean in the open court.
Speaker 4: There's no way that this is sustainable for the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 4: And I suspect, given emy Udoka how he always likes
Speaker 4: to push the envelope, I suspect they're going to come
Speaker 4: out with some extremely hard fouls in Game two and
Speaker 4: try to set the tone because they can't win without
Speaker 4: that edge. And I suspect you're going to see a
Speaker 4: very physical emay A Dooka squad come in Game two.
Speaker 2: Last thing, tom bit of a non sequitur, but we'll
Speaker 2: leend on this because I genuinely am just curious. You
Speaker 2: remember the Great Dumbin Dummer Comedy nineteen ninety four. You
Speaker 2: and I were in high school when when Jim Carrey
Speaker 2: playing Lloyd Christmas just gently put his finger on the
Speaker 2: mouth of Mary to tell her to stop speaking.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that scene?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: Every time, every time Nico Harrison talks, I just want
Speaker 2: to gently walk up and just put my finger over
Speaker 2: his mouth and like, buddy.
Speaker 1: Just please stop? What? What? What?
Speaker 2: After everything that happened, and after you know, a couple
Speaker 2: of post uh, you know, seasoned media availability uh sessions
Speaker 2: with Nico Harrison, where are you at with that entire
Speaker 2: dynamic and a fan base that appears out for blood
Speaker 2: wanting this dude fired?
Speaker 1: Where are you at with Dallas?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 4: I kind of feel like we're like watching Zeep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like how.
Speaker 4: Can you screwed up this badly? Like? How can you
Speaker 4: be surrounding yourself with people there? Tim McMahon just had
Speaker 4: this report today form ESPN. Tim McMahon had this report.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize this, but they fired Casey Smith, their
Speaker 4: longtime head athletic trainer who says close to Dirt Novitsky
Speaker 4: and Luka Dancic as anybody like he is. He is
Speaker 4: kind of one of the untouchables in the organization, the
Speaker 4: head athletic trainer. He's also like leading the trainers association,
Speaker 4: like he's He's beloved in the NBA community. Nico Harrison
Speaker 4: fired him and then hired someone in his place who
Speaker 4: is not certified, Like, how do you do that? How
Speaker 4: do you fire the most beloved guy in your organization
Speaker 4: and replace him with an amateur? And the response that
Speaker 4: that Tim mcmahnon his reporting found was well he he
Speaker 4: Casey Smith was too negative, and someone told Tim McMahon
Speaker 4: a team source said Nico Harrison and I'm paraphrasing here
Speaker 4: wanted a cheerleader, and that's what he got in this replacement,
Speaker 4: a yes man. Basically, it's like this, this sounds like
Speaker 4: the office, it sounds like a place comedy the way
Speaker 4: that this is gone. And I'm with you. I think
Speaker 4: that the only way that this can bring peace to
Speaker 4: the Dallas Mavericks is either the owners sell or the
Speaker 4: owner's clean house top to bottom. I just don't see
Speaker 4: it any other way. It gets worse as the day
Speaker 4: goes on. So yeah, I'm with you when Jim Carrey
Speaker 4: is sh that is what I'm looking. I just saw
Speaker 4: a cliff. I don't know if this is if this
Speaker 4: is really what happened, but Yahoo sports twitter account just
Speaker 4: shared a video of Nico Harrison walking off the podium
Speaker 4: and getting locked out of the facility like he could
Speaker 4: not open the door from the press conference. He got
Speaker 4: locked out, and I'm just like, this is a this
Speaker 4: is a lampoon. This has gotten to be a lampoon
Speaker 4: of a front office. And that's when you know you've
Speaker 4: got into a place where you're You're sitting here wondering
Speaker 4: is this are we are we watching like a comedy
Speaker 4: at this point, because it is a comedy of errors
Speaker 4: at this point, and I just I just don't see
Speaker 4: a way out other than to clean house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's every time he talks, man, it's awkward and
Speaker 2: it's not getting better. Tom appreciate the time, buddy. Where
Speaker 2: can people go find your work?
Speaker 4: Tom Thefinder dot com? Also check out the Big Number
Speaker 4: on Yahoo Sports. Every Thursday, I riff with Dan Devine
Speaker 4: about a stat that you have to know and we
Speaker 4: discuss it at length every Thursday on Yahoo Sports. Hey
Speaker 4: appreciate it Spence and next time maybe we'll get some
Speaker 4: number forty one.
Speaker 2: There we go, love it great. Tom Haberstrow joins us
Speaker 2: on a weekly basis. Always appreciate Tom's time. The link
Speaker 2: to all of his work is up on his Twitter page.
Speaker 2: It's just his name at Tom Haberstrow Are. We're gonna
Speaker 2: switch gears. We're gonna talk some Utah spring football, and
Speaker 2: Auburn commit is on his way to play cornerback for
Speaker 2: the Utes.
Speaker 1: We'll do some basketball, some Red Rocks as well.
Speaker 2: Courtland Roofing, Utah's reroofing and repair experts with over twenty
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