The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #154: We Take That Personally with Jason Timpf

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

The boys were back in town and were very pleased to be joined by The Volume's Jason Timpf for today's show. The host of 'Hoops Tonight' provided phenomenal analysis about the playoff races from both conferences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We're less than 50 days until the playing begins. Look at that grin on your face. And we have a ton of teams jockeying for position in both conferences. I mean obviously the Thunder and Cav still hold 8.5-6 game leads in their respective conferences but hey, there are several seeding swings happening at the moment. I'm just saying maybe don't look now or maybe look straight into it and take it for how beautiful it is. Stare at the sun.

Stare directly at the sun. It is gold and purple. It is gold and so are my pupils because of the damage, but it doesn't matter because we'll discuss the latest news and notes from around the league with the Volumes Jason Timp on today's episode. I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is... BAM BAM BOOSTIES! Oh, the double team. Oh, right.

Nice. Yanis with the take. Look out. No show time. What you got, Yanis? Jason, Tim, this is the building, NBA analyst, former Hooper in his own right. I mean, he hasn't seen we've seen him dunk, but he hasn't seen us dunk yet. Yeah, we will have that back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We got to hold some things back to keep the relationship spicy. Yeah, we will have that back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We gotta hold some things back to keep the relationship spicy. But Jason, thank you so much for coming through. It's great to see you, man. It's good to see you guys. Last time I came on was a ton of fun. One of the most fun guest appearances I've done, so I've been looking forward to coming back.

And a lot of spicy Laker talk to get into today, huh? Mm. No idea what happened. I actually haven't really checked in for a little while. Did they did they make some moves during the trade? I know they like to like tinker a little bit. I know they got rid of D. Lowe. That was big for them.

So that must be cool. Going to come in, you know what I mean? Huge, huge. Actually, I mean, that is that is that is paying dividends. But yeah, I mean, let's get into it. Our game of the week, obviously, was to keep an eye on this Lakers at Nuggets matchup. That was something that we felt. Oh, the momentum is building on both sides. And this is going to be an epic test.

Over the next coming in nine in a row. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Nine, four since mid January. Exactly. But yeah, look, the Lakers just they've they've did something very interesting with their defensive setup. And look, we won 123 100. It was very beautiful. I mean, who's we?

This is a this is an objective NBA podcast that favors no. We are partners in the National Basketball Association and nobody else. That is true, but that's why we had to change the name of the show up to Mad Biases. That's a way to get around that. So we weren't really trying to sell anybody any fake news here, but yeah. You know, per hoops tonight, Jason Show, the Lakers went into that weekend as the number one defense over the last 18 games I Would have never guessed that

That's that's wild. I still don't believe you. Where'd you get this information? Yeah, where'd you find that? Where'd you find that? It's just just on the NBA website. It's it's crazy though cuz like it was The the Lakers had started playing good basketball for a solid month before the deadline. There were a couple of ugly losses in there, but like even there was a phase with AD where it was kind of coming together. The main difference was the team getting rid of D'Angelo Russell and bringing in Dorian Finney-Smith, getting Jared Vanderbilt back healthy and getting an engaged LeBron on the defensive end gave them suddenly, essentially an influx of three, six, eight, six, nine

wings that do a lot of things on the defensive end of the floor. And so there's been a certain like influx of defensive talent that I think a lot of people have, have just kind of like lost over because we've looked at this Lakers roster as somewhat mediocre over the last few years and when AD went out with his injury they just leaned into the same scheme that they had been doing really well for about a month which is just switching everything but doing a much better job of helping each other in those switches so instead of just leaving a dude on an island to be barbecue chicken they're gappingapping down alongside these guys, they're offering help and the rebounding is

a big piece of it. Like the Lakers were getting torched early in the year because AD would get switched out in their one through five switching scheme and he'd be standing on the perimeter and LeBron be standing on the perimeter and they just wouldn't gain rebound. And so to JJ Reddick's credit, he stuck with it with a group that really didn't seem to have a ton of just day-to-day fight in them to start the year. And with the influx of different personalities in the locker room and just some success, it seems to have gained momentum and the group's just guarding.

But like to make a long story short, the reason why they're guarding well is just they've got a bunch of dudes who are 6'8", 6'9, that can guard multiple positions and that are all big and strong. And so like for, for being a small ball team, they're actually big. They're like you, that was the big thing that stood out to me in the Denver matchup compared to years past when it's Dennis Schroeder out there, D'Angelo Russell out there. They're just, they were skinny and smaller and Denver really pushed them around. And I was just really impressed by the way that they gang rebound more than anything else. Like, like regardless of the scheme, you would have thought Denver would have eaten them

up on the glass and they only had a negative three margin on the offensive glass. So like with Luca coming in, it obviously isn't going to be as effective defensively. There will be some sort of slippage there, but then you're also getting one of the greatest offensive engines in the history of the game. And like one of the beautiful things that's put LeBron into this position where he's playing on the skip pass now. And he's just ridiculous catching the ball on that side of the floor, driving a closeout. Yeah. People closing out on him.

Yeah. Yeah. He had a dunk in that Denver game where he just went along the baseline and got that dunk off of the skip pass. Luca in a weird way unlocks the main thing the Lakers didn't have, which was like a consistent force that could get the defense in rotation. They actually have a lot of really talented offensive players that can play with an advantage, but LeBron's 40 and Austin is not a supreme athlete. And so either of them can run into walls on offense where they don't have the same impact.

And Luca just solves that problem. And when you, when you have that mixed with what should be a pretty strong defensive foundation from the last 18 games, like I think people would be foolish to write them off in terms of their big picture potential. Would it be foolish to write Luca off because you think he's in bad shape? Uh, let's, let's not talk about that actually. Yeah. Personally, he's really, it is like 20 pounds in two weeks, man. It is amazing how good NBA players who people think of as like kind of

disposable or like replacement level will become by just like, by just adding the best offensive player in the league to their team. It just causes so many more advantages and across the board on the offensive end. I coach my high school kids and it's so funny because I'll do more in the summertime, more traditional one-on-one stuff. But during the season, we do a lot of closeout, king of the court. So like where the kids have to like throw the ball from underneath the basket, sprint out. And like, it is shocking to me how the difference in their effectiveness based on whether or not that closeout is there. Like if you ask them to score on a set defender,

like high school kids, like they can't do it. And then you, then you have someone sprinting at them and suddenly they can. And like, obviously at the NBA level, that gap between advantage and non-advantage creation shrinks to a smaller type of difference. But still like these guys, like if you let Rui Hachimura just stand still, shoot, catch and shoot threes, like that dude's over 50% on unguarded catch and shoot threes this year. So like good luck. You know what I mean? So like, that's the thing. You just got to get somebody that can get those advantages. And Lucas the arguably the best in the world at it.

Not the second best. Action movies and Kung Fu movies like you, you always have the bad guys just running at the person repeatedly. You know, the thing that they never do in a real fight is it creates a disadvantage. Steven Seagal is like, well, well, well, looks like it's my lucky day. I couldn't have scripted this better. I think obviously the offense it's for me seeing that defensive performance Was the thing word now, you know low-key to Jabbar. I'm like, okay, bro. I think I think this is it

I think it's time. I think it's time to get back on that hopium again Because you know our record Abysmal against the Nuggets, you know what I mean? like what lost 13 of 14 games, last 14 games against them. And to see, because before it was just amazing to be like, okay without AD now we're just, we're doing something so different and it's happening so efficiently. JJ Reddick would just said, okay, you're Pharrell because you are just frontin' Joker the whole time. And seeing that like all of

the fight and all of just how well everything was coming together. And again, even with Rui Hachimura's three point shooting, I feel like I say this a lot, or we say this a lot as Lakers fans are like, if Rui just keeps doing that, if he keeps doing that, then we have something there. But yeah, I mean, just the way this was unlocked, I'm like, again, it's also think that this was referenced in LeBron and JJ's podcast, like just mere months ago, talking about like, what do we do about Joker? Like, what is like, what's the plan? How would you attack him defensively? And this is how they described it on the podcast.

I think that this really highlights like two things that we've already talked about. There's rebounding, gang rebounding is a thing that I've heard coaches talk about as a thing that you could if you could just get buy-in from your players to just dip into the paint every time a shot goes up rather than just like going back, you would increase, everybody would get like at least one more rebound a game. Like it's, it's extra running, it's extra work, but it would have a fundamentally like improved, uh, you know, statistical performance for the team, but it's hard to get buy-in on that. And on doing a mentally taxing defensive scheme, I think

it's probably, and physically taxing defensive scheme, I think that's hard to get buy-in on unless the best player on your team hosted a podcast with you within the past few months, talking about how that is the way to do it, because then you have to be like, Hey man, let me play a clip for you. Here's you saying it yourself. Um, yeah, yeah. Uh, but yeah, I mean, I do think that's, that's a great thing about having a leader like LeBron who is so motivated to win. And if you can get him to buy in, even if he's not physically at a place where he can be a shutdown one-on-one defender, defense and rebounding feel like two of the things that even if you are not improving on the personnel side, you see teams improve on like from year to year,

if they like get a new coach or, you know, they just change a couple things, you can see teams improve there. And then to add on top of that, the biggest personnel upgrade that we've seen in modern NBA history, it's gonna be, it's definitely made the this season so much more interesting

to me, a Sixers fan who, you know, is in, in hibernation. You know, it's, it's actually super interesting because I think belief plays a role too. Like, it's not just the star, the start, you're making a great point. The star buying in, I think is a prerequisite, but if you want the star to buy in, he better believe he can win the title. Yeah. Because to your point, it sucks believe he can win the title. Yes. Because to your point, it sucks. And like if LeBron just views himself as a second round exit in the making, then he may not be as willing to fight for all of these little things.

And like one of the interesting details about how basketball has changed that's made gang rebounding particularly so important is the amount of switching and having to bring your big man up to the level of the screen to deal with pull-up shooting. When that happens, the role man gets behind every time. So there's rebounding mismatches all the time in basketball. Like when you're tagging the roller, you're tagging him with somebody who's smaller than him. And so more often than not,

like that guy's going to try to box out, but those dudes have to come in from behind and tap away at the ball. Like it's not even even it's like a process It's like someone's got a box out the big Someone else has to come in and tap it out and then a third dude's got a sprint in and actually get to the loose ball it's like it's such a team concept and like to your point like there is

Mandatory five-man buy-in for this type of scheme to work and it seems to have come together five man buy-in for this type of scheme to work. And it seems to have come together. And as far as the personnel upgrade, what's so funny about that is like, I had AD before the season ranked sixth in my player rankings and I'm higher on AD than most. But like, even in that context, it's about the tiers.

Like AD is one of the best players in that second tier of stars. Sure. But Luka is one of the best players in that second tier of stars. Sure. But Luca is one of the few guys in the league that presents like a legitimately unsolvable problem, which is like, you cannot guard him in any way. That's going to stop him from either making the correct read to the open man or getting a matchup. He likes one-on-one where he can get to a shot that he can make about half the time. And that's, that's, that's what's going to be really interesting about the Dallas

game tonight is like Denver, you know, for all this trash, we talk about Luca and what he did in the Boston series, which by the way, I think is fair criticism. Yokech can't do anything but a high drop coverage. If, if there's a criticism to throw at him, he can't run deep drop because he can't protect the rim. He can't switch because he can't keep people in front. He basically has to run that high drop coverage where he comes up to the level, which effectively puts two on the ball. So as a base scheme for Denver, they exist in rotation. And that's what makes the Lakers such a bad matchup for them because the Luca thing, he can just skip the ball every time.

And now LeBron, Austin, Rui and Jackson Hayes, or whoever it is that Dorian Phinney Smith, whoever the fifth guy is, they're just playing four on three all night long. And like, I do think it's interesting to at least consider when we're discussing Jokic, who I still think is the best player in the world. And because of his jump shooting this year, he's even gone up a level. But like Jokic does kind of trap you into some defensive realities that that can give you that can give them some issues And I thought that was on display as well. Yeah. Yeah guys a bum Yeah, is it like they found his one weakness and found the

Impossible trade that would exploit it the most. Yeah. And how is Denver going to guard him? Like, yeah, how? I don't know that they have an answer for that matchup right now. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people do. I mean, who, who is the bad matchup for the Lakers in this for, I mean, is it, I guess, okay, see, it's going to be tough for them to guard and are so strong defensively around the perimeter. But yeah, I guess they're small though. They give up four or five inches on every perimeter player in that matchup. Now the team that I'm actually really concerned about for them is Boston for the exact same

reason that they had trouble with Dallas, which is Boston feels good switching because they have five good defenders and Boston on the other end can truly space out like you guys saw those the highlights of that yokich scheme like there's three four bodies in the paint at all times yeah in the Boston matchup they're gonna space them out and attack Luca and make them play driving kick and so that that that's the real team that I think would be terrifying for the Lakers is if they ran into Boston. I don't like that. I don't even like to hear that as a sentence, you know, because it's so true.

And yeah, I mean, because this time we were just daring, you know, Aaron Gordon like, yeah, go ahead, man. Go ahead. Shoot it. Go on. Go on. Russell Westbrook. Try your hand at it because we're trying to neutralize this threat. And yeah, I don't.

Yeah, I don't make it up to. Yeah. Yeah. Gordon Westbrook and Christian Brown made eight threes in that game and they got blown out and they couldn't score. Yeah, I was wild. Yeah, truly. Is Boston coming out of the East in your opinion? Since you know a lot about basketball.

I'm just I think so. Yeah. If you really look at the Cleveland matchups like Cleveland definitely plays them a lot tougher than New York does. And I don't want to write them off completely because you can always just imagine a series where Cleveland has home court. There's six games up. So like you can imagine Cleveland gets home court, maybe poor Zingas has an injury. Cleveland takes like a two-oh lead at home. And then suddenly it's like Boston has to win four out of five. Like, I don't want to write Cleveland off completely. The Knicks have no chance. The Knicks, they're

a nightmare matchup for Boston because they, they have two guys that Boston can pick on. And usually they'll pick on both of them at the same time. But with Cleveland, even to the game that Cleveland won earlier this year, Tatum kind of had them dead to rights late. And then Donovan Mitchell got insanely hot and hit like three or four threes in a row at the end. And it ended up stealing that game. But Boston's pretty much controlled the Cleveland matchup this year for the most part.

Okay. See it. It's so tough for me to make a read on them because I have this longstanding theory, which is get a bunch of 26 year old and younger type of players in the NBA regular season. And they are going to kick ass because they're just going to play harder. Yeah. Like a simple way to put it is all eight of the top eight rotation players for Oklahoma city this year are 26 or younger. And if you look at the Celtics rotation, Tatum is the only guy in their top eight who's 26 or younger. So like, how can you possibly expect like a veteran team to just bring the same amount of energy?

So like Oklahoma city, I think they're not quite as good as their record would lead you to believe, but they still are pretty damn close to that. And so that's the hard part to try to like figure out. And like they can bog down offensively, as we've seen several times this year, where it turns into, can Shea make enough shots? And so I think Oklahoma city has a layer of vulnerability to them that even Boston doesn't have. Yeah, our only rooting bias on this show ultimately is we root for the field against the Boston Celtics. We just don't want the Celtics to win the championship and we are losing

The past year and I feel like this year as well, but you Are you doing okay really good, man? Really good. Thank you so much for asking beats hip Yeah, I'm gonna we're gonna take a quick break For and I'm not gonna cry that has nothing to do with you asking that question water. My eyes are sweaty. My eyes are courageous. Let's, uh, let's take a quick break and we'll come back. We'll talk about the rest of the league.

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Something about Mary Poppins. Something about Mary Poppins. Exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing.

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And we're back and let's not talk. You know what? Let's not talk about this. So I got an interesting text the other night from Jeff. No explanation. Just the one hundred and two to sixty nine Chicago Bulls versus the Sixers. No commentary. No commentary. We haven't said anything all day except maybe talking about like logistics for the recording today and then not a nowhere 102, 69, three minutes 44 left in the third quarter. Yeah. Chicago over the 76 years. Sixers ended the game on a 24, six run and still lost to the Chicago Bulls by 32 respect

balls that just sold off all their shot creators in the last year. Yeah. Yes. That they ended on a 24 to six. They were down 50 and they're down 50. Ended on a 24 to six run lost by 32. So that's not good. And that's all I'm going to say about the six.

I mean, it's, it's very sad to, you know, see and be his knee kind of at the stage. He's just too big to have the longevity that I think a lot of us hoped he was going to have. A lot of people are saying that this never goes the other way. It's like a, you know, a large thing rolling down a hill. It's it doesn't usually just turn around and start going back uphill. But we'll see. Uh, I remain eternally pessimistic, but you know, who, at least they're shutting him down finally.

Like it was driving me crazy watching them in the last month where I'm like, he looks bad. Yeah. He, especially on defense, he looked really bad and it's very clearly not helping the team like they were getting their butts kicked in his minutes. Yeah. And it's like, what is the ultimate goal here? It's like Paul George is apparently banged up and not playing well.

It's like, I was confused as to what they were trying to accomplish. And to me, it makes a lot more sense to just shut everybody down. And if you're going to try this again, try it in October. Yeah. I've been saying they should be raising the white flag for white flag since the beginning of the season. It's, yeah, I mean, once you like, I forget what their record was at the beginning of the year, it was incredibly bad.

And at that point it was like, we knew, I mean, Embiid looked this way on defense in the playoffs last year. Like he was a complete liability defensively like he can't really move So I don't yeah, I started two and twelve man two and twelve And that was about when I was like, maybe we try and get Cooper flag. I don't know, you know What's your what are your takes of what's your take on Paul George after having rooted for him for a half a season? Obviously, it's not his best work, but

Love, love Jason. I do. I have loved Paul George. My dad actually drafted him in Indiana at the Pacers. And so I've always been an admirer and thought the people were too hard on him. It's just been a bad season for 9,000 different reasons for the 76ers. So I'm not fully blaming Paul George. I just don't, I think he would have been like a nice accent on top of a winning team, but I don't think he's like a load bearing part of a big three at this point in his career and probably should

have known that. One of the best. My favorite. Oh, you mean my favorite. Is that what you were asking about? Because usually when people ask me about Paul George, I'm like, you mean the podcaster? Yeah. Oh yeah.

He also plays this. You're not going to believe this. He also plays for my favorite basketball team. It's crazy. Funny story. The Nuggets. I do just want to read this quote from Jokic, because as we mentioned, there was a lot said heading into the Lakers matchup that they had won nine in a row. And after the Lakers loss, he said, we had a nine game winning streak against teams that were injured and teams that were not really good or high in the standings. Maybe we tricked ourselves in that we are playing good. And yeah, the teams they had beat were the Hornets, Sixers,

Pelicans, Pelicans, Magic Sons, Blazers, Blazers, Hornets. And they're just 12 and 14 first teams 500 or better. So I don't know. They'll figure it out. They'll figure it out. I, I, I don't want them to, but it's just hard for me to think that like that feels like a such a slap in the face for them that it would serve as some kind of wake up call, especially for the dominance they've enjoyed over the Lakers or these last 14 games.

I'm sure that's going to inspire something. But Jason, what is this? Are they as a confidence shot? What's your take on that quote? Is that him being introspective? Is that him trying to send a message to his teammates? I think he's trying to send a message and I'm glad he did because he's right in the sense that they're not good enough right now. It actually was kind of funny to see the juxtaposition of his postgame comments and Jamal Murray's Jamal Murray is like we beat them a bunch of times in the road. This is just, you know, this is once, you know, that kind of thing. It's like, bro, this is a fundamentally different team. You know, the, the thing that I, I worry about with them is more on the defensive end.

Like even within the scope of what happened in that Lakers game, like, you know, do you remember how when LeBron was in his prime, how in like game one of a playoff series, he'd almost always look a little shaky and his team would lose. And then it became kind of like a narrative where it was like, oh, it's the feel out game. Yeah. Yeah. And I almost felt that way watching Jok, that game on offense, where you could tell your kids was like, Oh, this is a new thing that I haven't really seen, which is like

a small ball group. That's legitimately swarming me and just leaving our worst shooters open over and over again. Yeah. And it almost felt like he was not going to try to overly assert himself to solve that problem on that night. You know what I mean? See what he's got. See how his team responds. Oh yeah. And there's a version of like, did you ever feel like Yokelitz was really trying to bowling ball his way through everybody in that game? No, like he, he barely took a shot attempt. He barely was barreling inside for offensive rebound. So like, I think my takeaway from that game had very little to do with the Lakers defensive scheme. So like, I think my takeaway from that game had very little

to do with the Lakers defensive scheme. I knew, I knew the Lakers would get some stops because they had been too good of a defense for too long to not be able to get some stops. Yoke, itch can do a lot more to try to punish that scheme. Uh, he talked about after the game, about them learning, leaning into ball screens instead of post-ups more, which is a good idea because most of their attack there was built around just going to the post. Ben Fischenbaum But the other end of the floor is where I'm concerned. If you really zoom out through the three, four year era of this team being a legitimate championship contender,

team being a legitimate championship contender, when have they not been bad on defense? Like very briefly during the, uh, like a couple of months in like January, February of the title year, they were like eighth in defense for like two months. And then they were good in the postseason. I want to give them credit. Albeit they caught some favorable matchups. They were, they were good on defense in that stretch. They've been bad on defense entirely outside of that. They've been bad on defense all year. We talked earlier about the reality of the scheme limitations of Yoke Hitch and like at a certain point they're going to have to reach a level on

defense to be able to contend for a title. And they haven't put any sort of sustained stretch like that together. They've leaned into their athleticism, Peyton Watson being out as hurt, but you bring in Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon's getting minutes, Russell Westbrook's getting minutes. But the trade off there is, if you remember the title team, KCP was a knockdown shooter. They didn't have the guys you could really sag off of that this team has. And so even though the actual offensive metrics that this team has put together have looked really good.

And by the way, that's a credit to Yokech who's having one of the best offensive seasons in the history of basketball. There are playoff realities about the way this team can be guarded now in terms of conceding things that didn't used to be the case. It used to be MPJ, you leave him, it's going in. KCP, you leave him, it's going in. Jamal Murray, you leave him, it's going in. Yeah, Aaron Gordon, you can help off of,

but he's working the baseline and it all comes together. But once you tilt that towards, there's one more guy we can help off of, it cuts a little bit off of the ceiling of the offense And as we talked about earlier, there's some realities in their defensive limitations And so now to me they feel very much like every other second tier contender We have in this league which is like they could run into certain teams and kick their butts But then they could run into other teams and get their butts kicked

It's very matchup oriented the teams at the top of the league have more flexibility and they can survive different types of matchups. To me, Denver, it feels like if they catch a Lakers, if they catch a Minnesota, there are certain teams that they can catch where I just feel like Denver would lose now. And so that doesn't mean they're out of the picture. They certainly could catch like the Lakers could end up losing to somebody else in the first round, the, you know, all these different things could go. Yeah. Like it happens. Like there's obviously a pathway there.

Dallas is a great example too. Like Dallas just kind of meandered their way through the Western Conference and suddenly they're in the finals. But I definitely think that the versatility and the types of teams they can beat is really limited with this build. Yeah. Just another context to take that quote in, because I, I like the comparison of LeBron and Jokic. They, they have always seemed similar to me in that they're just these like basketball computers that like always make the play that only they see that it's going to like give them the best chance at scoring on that play.

And I feel like LeBron, in addition to having those feel out games, also would like know his team was not going to win before the rest of us kind of. And like, maybe this is Jokic having that same thing where he's just like, yeah, not a lot of lasers out there. You know what I mean? Like the Jokic equivalent of not a lot of lasers out there. So I do just the don't look now rundown of the week.

I just don't look now brought to you by Ray Bans. I don't know. Sir, here is the sponsor here. The could all be yours, Ray Ban. The Warriors are five and one with Jimmy Butler. Draymond says they're going to win the title. So that's all I need to hear. They're going to win. No. But I liked this trade more when it happened than most of the people that I talked to. I felt like Jimmy Butler was holding some things back at the heat

and just has enough left in the tank to be a problem for people who are gonna see them in the playoff. I'm curious to hear where you think, like are they in that second tier of contender that could win, could get beat in any round? Because it just, it feels like defensively, they could be pretty tough, but also, I don't know. What are we seeing here with this five-on-one run from the Warriors? This is a trade that I was optimistic about all season, and I was surprised at some of the ways

it was discussed in terms of gutting our depth to go get a star. And I wanted to be like, you got 15 dudes that are legitimate rotation players. Like you just, all of a sudden here's Guy Santos and Quentin Post just out of nowhere that are playing meaningful minutes. Or like, they just have so many dudes that can do role player stuff. Yeah.

And then they had one guy who was like a legitimate like shot creator star talent on the entire roster. To me, it was like a textbook roster imbalance. Yeah. And one of the biggest side effects of the bringing in of Jimmy and sending out of Andrew Wiggins and sending out of some of their depth is it clarified roles for some of these guys like Moses Moody and Brandon Pajamski are now just like they're starting to and they're starting three and they're starting three. And they're just like straight up in the same role, same minutes, same rotation kind of slots

every single night now. Whereas for the first two thirds of the season, they might play eight minutes, they might get a DNP, they might play 37 minutes. You know, like it was just such a random sort of event because just Kerr had so many options that he could go to in any given game. Right. And so what has ended up happening is one, you took the secondary star role, which was being filled by like a combination

of like Andrew Wiggins and buddy healed and little Brandon Pudzemsky and like that in Jonathan Kaminka. And that group was like Super inconsistent and like some nights they'd look great and they'd beat anybody They could beat anybody like the Warriors had a bunch of really impressive wins in the early part of the year But then on the nights when those guys didn't have it because they're role players They would get beat by anybody right and I think it's reinvigorated Steph and his belief It's clarified roles for guys like Moses Moody and Brandon Pajamski. They still have 10, 11 guys that they can play. And it's just given them a layer of versatility on both ends of the floor

that they didn't have before. Now, as far as the big picture, it's really difficult to rank them because we haven't really seen them play enough. Good teams with this new build, but I have a feeling they're going to fall into that second tier where they're pretty matchup oriented because they are a little small. Even with Jimmy and Steph, it kind of reminds me of LeBron and AD where it's like, we have LeBron and AD, but it's like, can LeBron and AD go toe to toe with Shay?

Can LeBron and AD go toe to toe with Jokic? And it's like, actually not anymore. You know what I mean? And that thing is like, can Steph and Jimmy in the year 2025 go toe to toe with some of the top end town? Like there are three of the bonafide world beating superstars in the NBA play in the Western conference. Right. You're, you're probably going to face at least one of them. So at a certain point, like I do wonder if their offense will have a little limitation when they get to that level, but there's no doubt they're better. They were already a top 10 defense before they got Jimmy. They're like third in defense in the six game span. Jimmy's a great defensive playmaker. Again, the clarified roles of Moses

Moody and Brandon Pajamski have helped there. So like, again, we need to see more, but they're definitely just like a lot more balanced in terms of what they bring to the table on both ends than what they were before the deadline. It feels purely like like if let's say the Luca trade never happened because I think in out of the, you know, one million multiverses that have branched off in the days since like the morning of that trade, it hasn't happened in like 99.9% of them. We live in the one out of a million that where that trade actually took place. It's so weird that that trade happened. We live in the one where Nico Collins

like didn't talk to anybody, like didn't get a call. Like nobody was just like, hey man, oh, I was just thinking of you and gave you a call and found out what he was thinking about doing and, you know, talked to him about what he could get elsewhere. But I feel like if the Luca trade doesn't happen, this is like so many people are talking about this. Like, you know, like this is such a huge trade. And like now they're foreign one since the trade. I feel like people would

be pretty excited about it. All right. Let's let's take a quick break. And when we come back, it is going to be the rapid fire round of questioning. Miles is pissed. We'll be right back. Everyone's forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them. Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy news this ranch. And I'll protect it with my life.

Hosted by Bobby Bones, the official Yellowstone podcast takes you deeper into the franchise that's captivated millions worldwide. Action! Explore untold behind the scenes stories, exclusive cast interviews, into the franchise that's captivated millions worldwide. Action! Whistle Explore untold behind-the-scenes stories, exclusive cast interviews,

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I look forward to it. Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go to work. I'm Mark Seale. And I'm Nathan King. This is Leave the Gun, Take the Canole. The five families did not want us to shoot that picture.

Leave the Gun, Take the Canole is based on my co-host Mark's best-selling book of the same title. And on this show, we call upon his years of research to help unpack the story behind the godfather's birth from start to finish. This is really the first interview I've done in bed. Ha ha ha ha! We sift through innumerable accounts.

I see 35 pages in there. Many of them conflicting. That's nonsense. There were 60 pages. And try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, we're finished, this is over. They know this is not gonna work. You gotta get rid of those guys.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins, Something about Mary Poppins. Exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler.

Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Oh, that's good. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is.

This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III.

And together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Each week, we'll sit down with inspiring figures like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. And their plus one, their ride or die, as they share stories never heard before about

their remarkable journey. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. This is my legacy. And we're back, Jason. It's been a fantastic time speaking with you, but it now is the time for the fourth quarter, fourth quarter rapid fire round of questioning. I said fourth quarter. I still got Michael Porter Jr. on the brand.

Porter. Yeah, the fourth Porter. But still got my Porter Jr. on the branch. Porter. Yeah, the fourth Porter. But look, this is the fastest question answer segment in all podcasting, in all NBA podcasting, and all specifically in all podcasting on an NBA show that's on iHeartRadio. It is the fastest question answer segment in if you get that specific.

With that in mind, we're gonna ask you a question. Please don't take time to think about it. Just chest, pass that thing right back. Okay, no Just no thinking if you take too much time We will be Very very rude. So steam. We're so steamed. She Okay Jason do you accept the challenge? Let's do it. Brian start the clock Wow

Told you he's mad Start off this or that okay You either go with a option a or option B and miles did do his left fist for this and his right fist for that You know this or you can get with that. I think you get this miles. He doesn't look scared I know I know I tried and I did though. It usually works I usually blew him off like Nintendo cartridges and that didn't even do nothing. That's fine, that's fine.

Maybe this is dragon and maybe it isn't. A true Jack, do you wanna go first? Should I go first? How do we? Why don't you go? All right, Jason, this or that? This in the this column, you can either have Shaq in today's game

or for that, Embiid in the 90s. What you pickin'? Shaq in today's game or for that, Embiid in the 90s. What'd you pick it? Shaq in today's game. Shaq in today's game. He would demolish everybody. Yeah, I kinda do wanna say that. Half of the yolkage stuff is that he's just way bigger than everybody and our centers are all skinny

and run the floor now. Right, right. Interesting, wow. I love that, I love that. And you think Embiid would just get bodied in the nineties. Just everybody's bigger and stronger back then. I think that's half of Embiid's dominance is what like I. Jokic is amazing.

I'm just saying, like, and it's like, it's kind of like MJ in the nineties. Like he was kind of ahead of his time, so to speak. Like in his era where everyone was big and slow, he was like a lightning bolt. You know, and that's kind of the thing is now everyone's skinny and fast and Yoke is just ground, ground bound slow dude is just too big for everybody. But and beads like that, but a lesser version. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that he'd do as well in the previous error thing. I've always said about Jordan, if I took that many shots, I'd score 30 points a game too, you know, such a good point do you remember people who said

that all right the next this or that Joker with Hakeem's defense or Shaq with Kareem sky hook Joker with a Kames defense yeah okay for the reasons I mean he's arguably the best offensive player ever, arguably. Yeah. Oof. That's freaky. Okay, next one. Freaky, man. This, Mokhmood in today's game or Trey in the aughts? Mokhmood would be amazing today.

He was another guy who was ahead of his time as just a pull-up shooter. But I'm going to go Trey in the past simply because Mahmood would just be another guy today in terms of another quick guard who can come off of screens and shoot. Whereas like Trey back then in terms of just his ability to play make and the high level ball handling, he'd kind of be like dropping an alien on the court.

Like those guys wouldn't even know what to do. Would they even let him? Like, I feel like you need a coach. You need the right coach. Like, if he's playing for Larry Brown, he's not sniffing the court. Like, you know, like, but like, if you get the right coach, like Don Nelson or something like that, I feel like maybe, maybe it works. All right. I've got good news. You get to go back and live one year as an NBA player and experience everything they experienced in that single year

What player and year would you choose you going? Jordan 92 88 Shaq 2000 LeBron 2016. What do you what do you think in here? I'm gonna go LeBron 2018 I thought he was far and away the best player in the world that year even better than Stephen KD Yeah, I thought that I thought that that I would argue the best individual basketball basketball player I've ever seen is 2018 LeBron because he was still the supreme athlete at age I think he was 33 at that point in time so that was when he had like that was when he had peaked in terms of his offensive polish too. And like, do you remember the footwork and the post and the

fades over both shoulders and he was dunking on everybody 50 in a finals game? Like he also just had this supreme confidence. Like the dude had eight 40 point games in that playoff run. I just can't even imagine just being him that year and just being like, I'm so much better than all these dudes. Like, like that was crazy. Yeah, I mean, his game one performance that year and just being like, I'm so much better than all these dudes. Like, like that was crazy. Yeah. I mean, his game one performance against the Warriors and that game that he lost that they lost was still, I think the best game I've ever seen somebody play.

Like it was so wild. And he got robbed in so many ways. Remember they had a charge call overturned down the stretch. He had a blatant hack across his arms that didn't get called. Yeah. Was it George Hill who missed the free throw? You had the Jr Smith situation. Like he, and like so many things went wrong for the record. I'm actually glad cause they just would have been swept in five after that anyway. And like, it is what it is, but like, uh, but like, yeah, he deserved, he played well enough to win that game. It sucks that he didn't get to.

Yeah. Okay. This is also good news. Actually, Jason, I can't believe we're giving him back to back. Giving you so much power right now. Why don't we do this? Fine. Let's keep this going. You can make any finals matchup, utilizing all finals teams from throughout history. Okay. If they made the finals, they're in play here. What is the matchup you're putting together

that you want to see unfold right before your eyes? Ooh, that's a good one. I'm going to go. Man, I can't do the 2017 2018 Warriors because I think they're legitimately just too good. Like I think they're just better than everybody. So I'm going to go with best team ever 2017 2018. Yeah, I don't think I don't think any team two of the top three players in the world at the peak of their powers. Clay Thompson, the best three and D guys, second best shooter of all time, elite defender at that point in time. Draymond green was a defensive player that your candidate at that point in time, Andre

Godala could still move like that team. Everyone talks about it as Steph and Katie. They were insanely talented. Yeah. I'm going to go with, I think it'd be really fun to watch the 2024 Boston Celtics against the 2013 Miami Heat. Wow. Just seeing like, I think it'd be really fun to see like, Peek, Spolstra, LeBron, D Wade, like, like Alpha Dog talents versus like the depth of talent that that Celtics team has.

The amount of switching in the sophisticated offense and defensive schemes you would see in that series, that one would be a lot of fun. And LeBron vs. Tatum, like peak LeBron vs. peak Tatum, like that'd be fun too. Well, I think I would like how that series turned out. So I like that answer. And finally, we got to pick a game of the week. This is the game that we and all our listeners check out, talk about next week. We've got on Thursday, Nuggets at Bucks, Wolves at Lakers. On Friday, Cavs at Celtics. On Sunday, Nuggets at Celtics, Clippers at Lakers.

Bucks Nuggets is going to be a fun one. I don't know if you guys have had a chance to watch the Bucks yet with Kyle Kuzma, but like he's like just went right back in time to 2021 when he cared about winning and did all the little things. Wow. And so that's... I'm not. I love you.

I love that, Kyle. I love that guy. I know, right? But that'll be a fun one too, just because it's an insanely big frontline versus Jokic. And also the same dynamic that Denver always struggles with, which is pull up shooters coming off of ball screens with Jokic having to come up to the level dealing with Dane. So I'm going to go with that one.

Swish. There it is. You got them all right. I think the Bucks will get them. I think the Bucks will get them too. Well, that's Thursday listeners, Nuggets at Bucks on TNT. Make sure you check it out that way. You can keep up with the conversation in our next episode.

Jason, where do the people find you, follow you, and enjoy all of your fine work? YouTube hoops tonight. Wherever you get your podcasts, hoops tonight. On social media, I'm most active on Twitter. You can find me there at underscore Jason LT. I'll do film threads and stuff like that sometimes. Hey, love that. Make sure you give us a follow on Twitter.

I'm at milesofgrey there and also milesofgrey on blue sky. I'm at jack underscore o'brien on Twitter. Jack Obey the number one on blue sky and hashtag my bluesies. Yep. B-double-o-s-t-i-e-s. And updates. And the discord. That's how you get to the discord and get part of the combo with the rest of the listeners.

That's going to do it, for this installment next week. Ooh, maybe, man, I can't wait to watch this Mavericks Lakers game. Yeah, you guys have already seen it. You guys have already seen it. So maybe I could, maybe y'all have been like, he's gonna hate what he's about to see. Listen to these Lakers guys. It'll be a fun one, a good defensive team that can switch.

A totally different challenge than Denver. I'm excited to watch it. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. But anyway, we'll see you next time when we are back with the next episode, episode of Miles and Jack, I'm Matt Boosties. Bye. Bye. Are you hungry? Colleen Witt here and Eating While Broke is back for Season 4 every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season, we've got a legendary lineup serving up prof dishes and even better stories.

On the menu, we have Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa Ford, October London, and Carrie Harper Howie turning Big Macs into big moves. Catch Eating While Broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your favorite shows. Come hungry for season four. Dressing. Dressing. Dressing, dressing.

Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Oh, that's good. I'm AJ Jacobs, and my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Something about Mary Poppins. Exactly. This is fun. You can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is my legacy. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers and more. This podcast tells more than just the brutal gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the difficult and all the nuance I can find. Because these are the stories that we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice and the fascinating workings of the human psyche.

Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.