The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Jokic Is “Inevitable”, Mavs Are “Lopsided”, The Knicks Have Juice, Embiid NEEDS To Win

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Colin is  joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down the NBA playoff action! Colin presents his theory of Jokic being an “automatic bucket” to Jason and they agree the Lakers are just completely outmatched in round 1 (5:00). They break down the Wolves physically dominating the Suns in game 1 (26:00) and Colin explains why he wants “more” from Kevin Durant. They dive into the Clippers dominant loss over the Mavericks and why Dallas didn’t look ready to play (31:45) and wonder if the Mavs are too lopsided… great on offense but lacking too much on defense (39:00) They debate whether the Knicks’ high-effort style can overcome a better Sixers roster (43:30) and Colin explains why Joel Embiid NEEDS to win more in the playoffs to cement his legacy as one of the league’s great all-time bigs (52:00) Finally, they talk about the NBA needing to create scarcity and urgency for the benefit of the TV product at a time when nobody takes the regular season seriously (01:02:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume #Herd #HoopsTonightSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Issued as one bonus bet based on amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after. or issuance. See dkng.com slash promos for deposit wagering in eligibility restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome in. It's our Sunday night, Monday morning podcast with Jason Timp Hoops Tonight. We'll be doing this for the next six to seven weeks during the NBA playoffs. And sometimes simplicity wins. I'll give you an example. So I went, I usually go workout in the mornings. I get up at about six, six-fifteen, coffee, you know, play wordle, do some reading. and then about 7.30, 7.45, I go workout. I did it this morning. And then from the workout,

there's a Bristol Farms, a grocery store right next to my gym. And I usually go there and get a piece of fish that I'll have for lunch. I grew up on the coast of Washington State. I like my seafood. My kids like their seafood. So I did that this morning, go work out, a little incline cardio, blah, blah, blah, and I go to the store. And I'm not blaming the store at all. This is happening everywhere. And I get a little smoothie in the smoothie bar, and then I go get to fish, a piece of salmon. I grew up in Westport, Washington, which was, along with Waikigan, Illinois, we used to battle of small towns for salmon capital of the world. That was the marquee that was in the town. So I grew up with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, a lot of oysters, a lot of clams.

So when I'm not somebody, I'm very lucky. I've done well, and I'm very grateful for that. I don't spend a lot of time checking my food bills. I kind of go get what I want to get. So I go to the grocery store probably twice a week. It's about generally it's always been about $45, $48. That's now become $60. So when I notice it, I think I don't really check this stuff that much. So if I'm noticing it, it feels like, oh, I think a lot of people are.

So this morning, when I checked out with my piece of salmon, and it wasn't a gigantic piece of salmon. It was pretty, pretty slim. a small like lunch portion. It was $19.5.5. And usually that's closer to 13 or 14 for a small piece of fish. Now, I know fish is a luxury. Some people can't afford it. Whatever. Some people can't. I'm lucky. So sometimes we outthink the room. I watch a lot of these political shows that I don't normally watch, but I will now be engaged from about late April, May, all the way to November. I'll watch them more than I usually would. in election years and watching all these political pundits.

The only thing that's going to matter in this election, because, you know, the trial with Trump is going to, you know, beat him up. There's going to be people win or lose that are going to move off Trump, independence, women. But I told this to my daughter. I said, you know, we never talk about grocery prices. This morning, I went and got a piece of salmon. It was $19. It's usually like 13, 14, a year ago, a year and a half ago. She goes, dad, that's all my friends talk about. How expensive food is. She was like, That's a big topic of conversation. She's like, you know, because we're all living check to check.

You know, we really know when we go out, eat some at home, we can only do appetizers. All we talk about is the grocery store and how expensive it is. And I was thinking about this is that the election is going to come down to this. If the cost for the average family continues, if you're driving through McDonald's and it's $22 and it used to be 13, so now you need a second bill, not getting $7 back on a $20 bill, than Biden's in trouble. That's the election. You can talk about Ukraine, you can talk about Spain. That's the election. Incumbents win when the economy's good. It doesn't matter exactly where the stock market is or where the housing market is. If people are getting the most out of their check,

they're generally happy and don't want change. People freak out with any change, especially political change. So as I say that, the reason I tell you that story is as I was watching the Lakers and the Nuggets. And, you know, whenever it happens, it's you bang on the officials. and you bang on Darvin Ham and you bang on DeAngelo Russell. And once again, you know, against the Nuggets, all Laker Nugget games look the exact same. But it really comes down to this. They get an automatic bucket, second half, third quarter, fourth quarter, every time they need it with Yokic. That's the series.

The Lakers don't have an automatic bucket. AD offensively is usually good three out of four games. Reeves, DeAngelo Russell, can be good, but can dry up. LeBron, you know, he's not going to give you the full end. energy he gave you six years ago. Yokuch either gets the bucket or gets the ball to somebody that gets a bucket. And that's really the difference in the last nine games where Denver beats the Lakers, is that their number one offensive threat in the second half of games, he's an automatic.

He's a P.A.T from a top field goal kicker. And you're just not, that's the series. Because the game, the Lakers have the size. They match out with Denver. But it's just third quarter, fourth quarter, six, seven, eight possession. that matter. You have a much higher statistical chance to get a bucket with a yokech than you do with LeBron or AD. All right, we bring in Jason Timpf hoops tonight. And over the next six to seven weeks, this is what we do. We chop it up. We give middle cough. You know, we're a nice company. We give

middle cough a little vacation time. Jason could take this in August and September, November or whatever. Well, he doesn't take November off. He's an NBA head. All right, let's bring him in Jason Temp. Okay, my theory, my thoughts about Yokage, fire away. What do you see? So, you know, it's funny. I did my film session this morning. I just recorded one for my channel that has, I think, 27 clips from last night's game. And really, everything came down to these two stretches. There was a 10-0 run for Denver in the middle of the second quarter. And there was a 13-0 run for Denver in the middle of the third quarter. And the execution for the Lakers was atrocious. As I sifted through those two runs, they had one good offensive possession in the totality of those two runs. And, you know, I did this whole race. on the show about execution and all the different things that the Lakers have to tighten up. And the reality is, is they have to play perfect to beat Denver. Yeah. And no one plays perfect.

And that really is the issue. Because like, even in those runs, a lot of it is just Denver flexing their muscles. And what happens is Denver kind of just does that all game long. And then you hang on to the rope and you hang on for dear life. And the Lakers were on it for about a quarter. and a half, you know? And then when they let go, like, that 10-0 run in the second quarter was less than two minutes. The 13-0 run in the third quarter was less than three and a half minutes. Ironically, I thought the big swing factor in the game was Delo and Austin both were just clearly

dead on arrival. Like both of them were just not ready for that game. And that put the onus of the shot creation all on LeBron. And one of the consistent themes for the Lakers all year is when LeBron gets tired, he gets sloppy. And when I hate going after LeBron like this, because I thought he was mostly awesome last night. But he was the primary culprit of those two bad runs. And it just was like he got tired, he got sloppy. There was no one else there that could execute the offense without him kind of initiating things. And the wheels came off. And so yes, there's a pathway. Yes, there are adjustments. There's a bunch of different things the Lakers can do. But the reality is, is like expecting them to do that four times in the next six games is just highly unlikely.

Yeah, if you go to the end of the game the last eight or nine minutes, LeBron doesn't take a lot of shots. And I think he's frustrated with DeAngelo Russell. I said when I suggested, you know, guys, facing OKC for a lot of reasons is better than Denver. One of them was the repercussions of getting clobbered again by Denver. LeBron's got some player options at the end of the season. They get swept again by Denver, beaten five, back-to-back gears. He's sitting there thinking, okay, I don't try. trust Arvin. Delo doesn't work for me. We need another player. And by the way, Draymond and

LeBron are close. Those guys are looking for another big body. Steph needs somebody next to him that can give him 32 minutes and 26 points. That's what he's looking for. And not a shooter, not somebody's going to take the ball out of his hands too much. And by the way, Steph can play off ball on ball. And so I think what you're seeing, I almost felt a little bit last night like LeBron was out of gas, but he gets frustrated. It's like DeAngelo, you've got to have one good game against these guys. You got to give me one, brother.

You got to give me a 29-point game. And I think this series is really hard on LeBron mentally because he is really at this point. You know, I thought he played really well last night mostly. And A.D., who didn't, by the way, get on the ballot for defensive player of the year, which is another issue entirely. I thought he was the best defensive player in the league.

But I do wonder, the repercussions of this series? Because Denver's better. You see it, I see it. Denver's better. Their first six are just better. Home court advantage, high altitude. I mean, it just makes it harder and harder. Even the altitude matters. What are the repercussions? How do you look at this roster if they lose in five? You know, it's interesting because I, you, your friend Nick Wright came on your show a couple weeks ago and he pitched the whole like the Lakers should try to get Denver in round one thing. And initially, I disagreed with him because I was sitting there thinking like, no, like you want Jared Vanderbilt to get back. You want their defense really only started to kind of pick up in the last couple weeks of the year. So I thought another month of just playoff basketball to polish up their defense could really help. And so I was kind of against that take.

But once we got into this series as the matchup, I kind of came around to it based on the fact that last year, I thought the Lakers kind of let go of the rope because it was like, hey, guys, we made it to the Western Conference Finals. like, you know, a round of applause, we still had a successful year. Right. There's no version of this that's not a disaster if they lose. Right. Which I think makes it so that you are more likely to get a more desperate, more engaged effort in this first round series.

And honestly, that first quarter and a half was the best the Lakers have looked against the Nuggets in two years plus. And one of the only road teams that came in with more energy than the home team all weekend. I thought the Lakers played a brilliant first guy. I was as good as they can play. I thought they were great. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I do think that, for instance, like one of the big swing factors last night was Rui Austin and Delo got badly outplayed by Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and KCP. As a matter of fact, they out rebounded. Just those three out rebounded the other three, 21 to 10. So like a disaster on the glass, which you could just tell from watching the game, right? But like, there will be games in this series where that swings more towards the Lakers' favor. and if LeBron and AD also play well, I think they'll get a win or two. I think this is going five or six games, but I obviously would be absolutely stunned

if Denver didn't win. But going into the offseason, like, honestly, like, it will look appealing for LeBron to kind of examine the landscape of the league. I just don't think he'll leave unless it is a slam dunk, home run, big market, clear chance to win the title, like obvious type of move, like something like to the next. or to the 76ers or something along those lines. If something like that were to materialize, I could see him doing that.

The problem is, is like, Steph hasn't played very well over the tail end of the season. His final 22 games or so, he's been kind of a shell of himself. And I think, honestly, the idea of him jumping up to Golden State,

I don't necessarily think that improves his championship odds all that much. And so I don't think he'll leave for that. But if they lose, let's say they do get swept. I think it's a high probability that he starts to kind of examine his landscape. Because here's the thing, Colin, LeBron's playing super well. It's one of the most

under-discussed things in the league right now in the final, his final 22 games of the season. So basically everything after the All-Star break. He was the only guy in the league to average at least 27 on at least 50% from the field and at least 40% from three. He averaged 28 points, eight rebounds in tennis, on 58% from the field, and 45% from three. And, and he averaged 28 points, they were great when he was on the floor and got blitzed when he was off. I said this on my show the other day, and I believe it, post All-Star break,

Luca and Yokic are the only two guys playing better than LeBron right now. He's playing at an insanely high level. So if I'm him as a competitor, I'm like, if I have no shot in this situation, I've got good basketball left in me. I've got to give this a try somewhere else.

No, I think that's a really good point. You know, I was thinking about this. I wrote some names down to day. So I started watching the NBA in 1972. It was, it was wilt. It was old wilt with a headband. Jerry West, Gail Goodrich. I think Don Ford was on the Lakers. Bill Walton and the Blazers were good. The Sonics had those good teams, 72, 73. It was the 70s where there was no great team, pre-magic, pre-bird, obviously pre-Jordan. And Lou Alcindor, Kareem, 71 won the title with Milwaukee and he was emerging as as as as the great player right there's very few players

that they sort of break through a threshold so kareem was like created the first time in league history the unstoppable shop we'd have a lot of good players nobody had an unstoppable unblockable shot i think we'll block koreem a couple times but mostly nobody can touch it and then there was magic who broke through we never had a six eight and a half point guard like it was just a matchup in hell for everybody. It's like that that's not the way it works. Dave Cowens was a center in the 70s. He was 6'8.

Magic in a finals guarded Caldwell Jones. He guarded a center. And he breaks through. And then there's shack. Nobody with that power ran the floor like that. It was a freight train. We'd never seen anything quite like that. Then obviously Michael Jordan was great,

but we'd seen great athletic dynamic wing players. We'd seen that. He was just the best ever. Steph shooting range. breaks through, like transcends time. I think LeBron's Swiss Army knife ability to do everything at an absolutely A-level. I mean, Larry Bird couldn't defend like LeBron. He wasn't the athlete of LeBron.

LeBron was literally everything. And then I watch Yokic and I'm like, I covered Sabonis in Portland. This guy is like Subonis in his athletic prime because Subonis could hit a three, not like this, could pass, not like this. I look at Yokic and I'm like, you know what it is? is that players used to come into this league with potential, the great ones, Jason, with one really great skill. They could shoot. They were ball handlers.

They were, they were rebounders and defenders. They weren't, even Kareem. There's limitations on passing. There's on ball handling. LeBron's one of those. Oh, hell, he does everything well. And Yokic, I think, is taking it. He's the first big in my life, like a true center, a refrigerator-wide center.

What, even defensively, he's not as bad as everybody says. Lucas becomes a bit, Colin. He's actually become a good defender. I watch Yokic and I'm like, is he Europe's LeBron? Where you're like, oh, God, he's an A and everything. A minus defensively, I just never seen a player like this. Yeah, he's not going to, it's going to be tough for him to match the overall two-way athlete wrecking ball that LeBron was when he was in his prime, obviously, because LeBron brought that

transition element and that defensive element. He could peel off and guard Derek Rose in a playoff series. He's not going to do that. No. Yeah, even back in 2020, like, he was the one who shut down the nuggets in that run by going on to Jamal Murray in that bubble run. Like, LeBron has a certain defensive versatility that kind of, that brings it to another level. But Yokic, I actually believe right now is a better offensive player than LeBron ever was. And, and, That's a really, really high bar that I think he's eclipsing. And it sounds crazy to say. But honestly, the separating piece, because I actually think they're on similar levels as a playmaker.

I think LeBron over his career has been underrated as a playmaker. And LeBron was like Yokic in the sense that he just always made the right read and made you pay every single time. The difference is, is not LeBron, not Kobe, not MJ, not even Steph. There's never been a guy in the modern NBA era that. has a shot that he can consistently get to that's going to go in two-thirds of the time. Like even MJ, it's like he's going to get to that pull-up jumper, but it's about a 50-50 shot.

Steph's going to get to that pull-up three, but it's about a 40-60 shot. LeBron is going to try to bully his way close to the basket and play, but he doesn't have anything in there that he's making two-thirds of the time. And you mentioned that he's refrigerator wide, and that is the key. Because I know this vividly well

because when I was in junior college, I had to play the power forward and center a lot. So I was consistently battling with bigger players than me. I was 6'6. Pretty strong. I was 225 pounds. So I had a strength advantage. But most of the guys were towering three, four inches over me. And the way I bothered them was by bothering their base.

That's how you bother a taller player. You get up underneath them. You disrupt their energy transfer from the floor to the shot. And if you do that, usually they'll miss more frequently than they normally do against a player where they have a good base. Yokic is impossible to disrupt his base. Like, you just can't do it. When he catches around the rim, there's guys shoving on him.

They're trying to knock him off balance. But he, like, there was a late fadeaway hit over LeBron in the fourth quarter of, or the late third quarter of that game last night, where LeBron James, a 270 pounds, was like trying to bump Yokic and he gets to a little turnaround over his right shoulder, and he goes straight up and down completely unimpeded. And that's the problem is, like, you can't actually get Yokic to bother before his release. And when he gets to his release, it's going to. in two-thirds of the time. So there's just no easy answer for him. I know it's crazy and I know

it's heretical and all these, it seems like recency bias, but like, I don't know about you, Colin, I can't remember a time in my time watching basketball. I can't remember a player that was this inevitable offensively. There's literally nothing you can do with it. And if he doesn't get the shot, which is basically his choosing, somebody else gets the shot. I mean, the fact that you can put Porter in the corner, who's a great three point. The other thing, it's a perfect comment. The other thing, it's a perfect construct of a team. Gordon doesn't need plays design for him and can give you 12. KCP, who I didn't like at all seven years ago, I've fallen in love with it.

I just love him now. He's just the constant, you know, he's just one of those players that he'll never be given his just due because he tends to be the fourth or fifth best player on a good team, the bubble Laker team or this team. Ice in his veins, fourth quarter big shots. He just doesn't care. There's a reason he keeps playing on winning teams. He hits a lot of big shots. So the construct of the team, Yokic, I think the word you used inevitable is perfect. So it's 2024.

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I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators,

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So I want to talk about the Suns, Minnesota. So, you know, it's interesting. If we tend to give basketball players a little bit of a pass. So, you know, in baseball, there's the five-tool player term. You know, Barry Bonds could hit, Ron Steele, you know, everything, defend. And in football, we like our quarterbacks. You really get penalized, Jared Goff. He's not mobile, right?

Not Super Bowls. So we like our quarterbacks and our baseball players to have multiple tools. And I'm watching Kevin Durant, and I'm sitting there, and I'm like, and I understand scoring 75% of the game. defense is 25%. But he's not a big assist guy. He's a willing defender. Not usually a great defender. It's not a big rebound guy. He is a great get a bucket guy. But he doesn't want to be a leader. You know, and I'm watching that series, and Minnesota is pushing Phoenix all over the floor. And at no time, LeBron in his prime or out of it would have said timeout, he'd go to the huddle.

He would call out guys. D. Wade would do that. A lot of the great players in the league really Steve Curry lean into, Draymond Green's not even, I mean, he is a great player, but Draymond will call you out. And I'm watching him and I'm like, this is just a bad two and a half hours of effort. This is an awful effort.

They're being pushed all over the floor. Aunt Edwards has taken over the game, dynamic player. But I wonder sometimes with KD, you know, he's a wanderer. When he left Golden State, I made the argument, I said, if Mahomes left the chiefs and Andy Reid for the Jets, we'd crush him.

We're like, are you out of your mind? he went with Kyrie and we're like, well, you know, he's got a different personality. He left the Warriors. Suck it up. Get along with Draymond. And I watched and I thought, do we give KD a pass? Because in a sport that is very much artistry, he is one of the great shot makers of my life. But I want more from him.

I'll watch that game and I'm like, you have to get physical. I want more from you here than 27 points, which I get every night from you. Am I being too harsh or is any of this ring somewhat true? I think it's the reality of KD's personality in the sense that like, I think KD loves basketball and I don't think he gives a shit about what we think he should be. And what I mean by that is like, like for instance, when he went to the Warriors, that move is a very clear demonstration. He saw all of this obvious backlash that was going to be there.

But in the middle of it, he saw, but hey, playing basketball with Steph Curry might be a lot of fun, you know, and like he might enjoy playing in a really good, smart basketball system. That's what he saw. That's what he targeted and he went there. Now, it went south because of a lot of different things while he was there. But I think honestly, basketball just kind of determines most of his decision making. Even when it comes down to leadership, and Kevin Durand has said this on Twitter before, but like he doesn't necessarily view leadership as like something that you say to people or that you're very boisterous and visible doing. He's very much a lead by example guy. And honestly, like, he's got an opportunity here in this series because he's got the best

capability of reversing the trend of this series. What happened in that game was what's happened to Phoenix a bunch this year is sometimes they get punched in the mouth in a physical game and they wilt. We talked about this literally the last time we did a show. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And there's a separate conversation we could have about how like this, the game is getting super physical and like teams like Minnesota are benefiting from it, right? Like teams like the clippers are benefiting from. Teams like Knicks. It's actually playing into the strength of the more physically minded teams. But one of the issues is the different than what they did in their last regular season matchup, they put Ant on KD in the regular season matchup and they put Jaden McDaniels on

Devin Booker. This time they move Ant over to Bradley Beal. And so KD. had Carl Towns on him. And to your point, 31 points, super efficient, 11 for 17, but the Sun's offense was terrible in that entire game. And the main thing that he can do to turn that around. And again, it's less about him barking at people and yelling. It's about him in terms of his approach. He needs to focus on Kat as an entry point to get the defense and rotation so that they can play more team basketball. That game, they had assists on fewer than half of their made field goals. That team has been good post-deadline because they've been getting assists on 66% of their made field goals post-de-line. They look good when they're driving

and kicking and playing for each other. And when you have to be able to, have the three-star build. If you play your turn, my turn, it's diminishing returns and you don't benefit from all the talent. When you play for each other, and now Devin Booker and Bradley Beale and Kevin Durant are attacking closeouts, that's when you have the force multiplier element of having all of those stars together. And so what I want to see KD do is, yes, help set the tone physically. That's going to be something they all have to do. But I think he needs to embrace that Carl Towns matchup as an opportunity to beat him off the dribble and be a playmaker. Because if he does, I think that'll loosen things up for the Sons.

But again, like, I think we've seen enough from KD over the last few years that he doesn't really care what we think about him as a leader. He doesn't. I just, yeah, it was just such a weak effort. And it was just, it never got course corrected. It was just, this is just not going to be our game. And is the, you know, even the Mavericks made a run against the Clippers. And I want to pivot to that one.

I mean, it was, they had an awful first half. And it was basically, I mean, who's their third best player? PJ Washington. It was Kyrie and Donchage, and that's kind of their offense. And so, again, you, you, you, I think the NBA, you used to, we always used to talk about tandums, but I do think you have to have really high-end third players. I mean, Jesus, is, is KCP the fifth best nugget? That's a really good fifth player. Derek White is your fifth best player. P.J. Washington is your third best player. He's about a 12, 13-point game game. Not a bad player at all. Probably should be your fourth or fifth. If he's a third, and I'm just, I'm throwing it out there as a guy, I think, kind of as a, you know, 13 points a game. But it was interesting. So home teams did well. Older teams tended to do well. The Lakers, notwithstanding, who had a very, very good road first quarter.

But as I watched the clippers just take it to them. Again, I noticed the same thing, Suns T-Wolfs, Clippers more physical, clippers in the pain. And I was wondering this. In a regular season with diminishing returns, that a. largely the Milwaukee Buck social team today is like, hey, the part of the year that nobody cares about is over. That's the team. So these road teams who, you know, they haven't played a lot of intense basketball, go on the road, home playoff game number one, crowds into it, national TV games. And outside of the Lakers, I felt like I watched a lot of road teams. They were engulfed.

They just weren't ready to play. So a home team, they come off. this, you know, laissez-faire regular season. But they are, the crowd is jet fuel. Milwaukee walks out. And the crowd's on fire. It's national TV. They don't get on national TV. And they just bring a ton of energy.

Indiana's young. You know, you're kind of the regular season has a less of a pulse. But that was kind of my takeaway on Dallas and the Clippers. It was just like home team, a lot of energy, super physical, old guys, a lot of pride. And Dallas just wasn't quite ready to play. Is that fair? I 100% agree. I did a little instant reaction to that on my channel earlier, and that was what I led with is that Dallas just didn't really seem ready. I thought you could tell the very first possession from both teams was the dead giveaway.

First Mavericks offensive possession, Luca dribbles around on the perimeter, works through two switches and takes a step back three. Clippers get a rebound run out the other way. On the other end, James Harden ball screen comes screaming downhill, kick out to Paul George. He misses the three, but Kyrie Irving just is standing in the corner, and Terrence Mann just sprits right by, grabs the offensive rebound, kicks out to Amir coffee at the top of the key, and he hits a three, and you're like, whoa, like, it's just, it's like going from chill mode to a blender on the opposite side of the floor. It's crazy, the difference that it makes. And I mean, honestly, like, I think that also kind of plays into what we were talking about earlier with physicality as the league has allowed more physicality. The defenses have been given more power. The home teams that are feeding off of that are benefiting from it. I think the athleticism helps

as well. And I think, honestly, experience helps a certain amount. I thought the Pacers game in particular. Yeah. Like, the Pacers are the third most efficient jump shooting team in the league, according to Synergy. And the Bucks allow the fifth most jump shot attempts in the league per synergy. That should be a matchup that favors Indiana. And the Pacers were 0 for 10 at one point.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, they could make anything because they're all nerve up and they're, you know, and like, one of the other things, too, is in a super physical environment. Guess what? Jump shots are really hard to make. Like, that's kind of like just the reality of that situation. But, you know, as far as the Mavericks Clippers game goes,

this is the real story there, and I think this is going to be an issue that the Mavs are going to have to deal with. They, every single time down the floor, brought Luca Donchich up, got him switched onto James Hardener, or Paul George, and attacked him every single time.

It was crazy. Now, Ty Lou is famous for this, and I've seen this personally as a Lakers fan, every single time we play the Clippers, it's like, attack Austin Reeves, attack Austin Reeves, attack Austin Reed, attack Austin Reed, like, that's what they do. Ty Lou is like, one of my, like,

favorite coaches in the league because he kind of has a different approach than some of the more, uh, you know, uh, super fancy schematic coaches. He's very much like, uh, we're a matchup attacking team. That's what our roster is. We have a bunch of guys who can attack matchups. We're going to pick on your weakest link every single time down the floor. And literally it was like he found out early. It's like, oh, Gafford can't guard Zubotch. Let's just post them up every single time until, until they take him out of the game. They took Gafford out with like eight and a half minutes left in the first quarter because Zubach scored on him three consecutive times in the post. It's like, okay, now we're going after Luca. And they started just attack.

attacking Luca, and that's how James Harden got going. He hit three buckets in a row on Luca. Then he got in a rhythm, and then he started hitting the tougher shots. Paul George started attacking him. The real issue there is, like, Luca during the regular season, can kind of float through, but he's going to have to find a way to counter that. There's an easy schematic counter. They need to have Luca hedge and recover. We won't get into it, but it's a schematic counter that can do to protect Luca in that situation. But Luca is going to have to embrace that defensive responsibility because the Clippers will not stop going at him. in this series. Well, I mean, you know, the clippers are interesting. Sometimes, you know, we have

questions about Kauai. I never questioned Tailu. I love Paul George. But there's a lot of dudes here. I mean, at his best, Westbrook off the bench, Harden, Terrence, Mann, Zubach, Kauai, Paul George. Like, let's not kid ourselves here. It's one of the best rosters in the league. There's really good players. They have size. They have experience. Now, it's a lot of odd players, animatic players, like Hardin and Rush in the postseason. Kawhi Leonard's like nonverbal. It's an odd, But if you start stacking up zero to seven, you don't get to Westbrook at six and seven very much in the NBA. Like, again, Dallas's third best players, arguably, PJ Washington. Good player.

I mean, not knocking it. Nice player. Kentucky kid. Really nice player. I think Kentucky. But it's like, okay, you start going, Paul George is your third best. Like, Paul's really, really a seven, eight time all star, whatever he is. So as I watched that series, I'm like, you know, last year I bought into the Clippers hard.

and I just went, it was a facial. I really bought into them, but they hadn't played a lot together. It was weird. I don't know. I have a quick follow-up, calling on the, on the Mavs. When are we going to have a conversation about the, I have a couple of stars and then a bunch of specialists?

Because that was literally what Houston was with Chris Paul and James Hardin. And it had a certain ceiling. Oh, yeah. And now we're seeing it with, with Kyrie and Luca, where it's like, it's like the ball, like you can literally see Kleba, like catch on the wing. be like, am I supposed to shoot it? Like, you know, and it's one of those things where I think, I think if Dallas does lose this series, it's time to start having a conversation about the, like, the specialist in this super athletic,

spread out, speed-based game, you've got to have five guys who can play offense. And that's what Denver has. Yeah. Denver has five guys that could play offense. Golden State had five guys that could play offense. Like, that's, that to me is a really interesting kind of like sub-examble. plot here is they, the clippers just got the ball out of Kyrie and Lucas' hands and those other guys couldn't score.

Well, and, you know, Jason, this is why it's so important. This is why I always drag mellow. If you don't defend, then I am forced to put people on the floor that are excellent defenders and are limited. So Kyrie doesn't defend. Lucas better at defending, but you're forcing me now to acquire people to protect you. The greatness of the warriors was, Draymond was a great defender, but a catalyst offensively, and Clay was a great defender, but the best catch-and-shoot guy, catch-and-shoot guy, maybe a decade. So they're guys that were great defensively, or you had to protect Steph.

You didn't have a lot of size. They ended up being really valuable offensive pieces. And by the way, that's rare. You know, if Ben Wallace could have shot a three, he would have been, you know, an all-time player. Instead of 12 a game, he's 22. So it's hard to find those guys. But I find that when you have elite offensive players,

That's why the pairing of Luca and Kyrie is a bit problematic. Oh, I've got to get a rim protector. Well, he can't score. Well, I still have to have it. And, you know, that's, that it's one of the reasons I do think the Lakers have a lot of promise because Reeves, Dilo, LeBron, AD, they can all score. Right. So you can, you can, it does matter. I think, I feel like the, the mads are lobsided.

It's, it's almost like when Tennessee had Ryan Tannahill, like, we're going to have to, like, be a little lobsided. the run. We've got a ceiling at quarterback. They ended up as a number one seed one year. But when they got to the playoffs and you play better teams and better coaches, they expose it. And so I think what the Clippers did, they expose the Mavericks. You got two guys on the floor that are just not offensive players. But if you don't have them, Kyrie is not even accountable sometimes defensively. So I think that's the downside to having highly offensive players. Most great offensive players do commit in their prime years. They get tired of defense or worn down, but they commit to it for like Kobe, for an eight to nine year period. And then at the beginning, you're not very good at the end.

You're not very good. But I felt like watching Dallas, they're a little lob sighted. Mike Malone has said before, Specialist can't play in the playoffs. It's been something that, like, they're the easiest guys to target in various ways. And it's interesting because PJ Washington and Maxi Caliba together in the front court at the four or five has been my. favorite Dallas look since the trade deadline. I actually like it when they go no center. They're more athletic. They have more ability to fly around in rotation.

But to your point, that ended up being a major offensive issue in this particular matchup today. And like, PJ Washington, I agree with you. I think he's probably their third best player and he has more offensive pop in general, but he's like a low 30s catch

and shoot guy. So generally speaking, as long as you can kind of shade the floor in a certain way to where he's catching on the perimeter, you can close out short and you have a better chance to contain that. And essentially, like, they're actually the opposite of the sons in the sense that like the sons were like, no, we're going to have really good off ball offensive talent. And they have that. So Minnesota's like, okay, we're just going to stay home off the ball and make Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal play one-on-one and two-on-two in ball screens and make them make tough shots over our elite perimeter defenders.

Rudy Gobert. The Clippers are like, the Mavs are the exact opposite. They don't have great offball offensive talent, but they've got good defenders in their offball players. So the Clippers are like, we're just going to throw the kitchen sink at Luca and Kyrie and make these guys score. And so what you're seeing is the problem with both because the Sons can't contend physically in a lot of certain matchups. And the Mavs can't score against these certain types of matchups. And so it's kind of just an interesting conversation about team building. Like you need, like Aaron Gordon's an interesting example. Aaron Gordon is a Swiss Army knife in his own way. He can attack mismatches in the post. He can guard LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, those guys credibly. But at the

same time, he's like a really functional piece in their five-out offense. So like, he's a super versatile basketball player. But if you dive into it, you're like, he's a iffy jump shooter. He's not the most efficient guy in this spot, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's like because his specific skill set kind of fits into what Denver needs him to do, super-valanche. And so I think it's just an interesting conversation about team building. Well, and what's interesting with him is much like Draymond. You don't have to create offense for Draymond. He sort of creates his own rebounding, screening with Gordon.

You wouldn't want another shooter. KCP shoots, Murray shoots, Porter from the corner shoots, Yokic. I don't need to design more plays. I don't need that. He's a perfect player. When you had Steph Klan Durant, I don't need another guy to have to dial up shots to. Draymond will give me 7, 13 rebounds, 11 assists. the great teams all have that guy.

Like he'll give you 11, but he's totally Rodman with the Bulls, totally prideful in being the tough guy, the bouncer at the bar, the ugly player, the on the floor guy, and takes incredible pride in it. And I think that's Gordon. So I want to go, let's finish with this. Knicks Sixers. So I picked, this is just a big mistake. I think the Knicks essentially are a one-man offense and not even a high. highly functional offensive. Jalen Brunson's not in.

They're like watching Villanova. The margins are tight. They're not explosive offensively, but they play good defense. They give you great effort. So my take on the Knicks coming into the playoffs was because of Thibito, their effort in the regular season is so strong, 75 of the 82 games. They win games on effort. Because in the regular season, I mean, you're resting players.

Guys don't give you the older teams, the Milwaukee's. Their Knights, Milwaukee just didn't show up to play. New York always shows up to play. You get to the playoffs. everybody's efforts high. But I'm watching that game, and there's about seven minutes left. And I'm like, yeah, I think Philadelphia's got more good players. I mean, if you have M.B and Maxie, you have two stars.

I can get a jumper from Buddy Healed. I've got Batum. I've got, you know, Tobias Harris. And I look at the Knicks, and I'm like, they really are Villanova. I'm like, they have a self-belief. They defend on every possession. They have guys that could finish with nine points. They all come at the right time.

And I think in the east, that's good enough. In the West, it would get flushed out. But I watched the Knicks and I'm like, I just keep doubting them. I love Brunson, but I'm like, I mean, they got to have Julius Randall. They got to have 19 points. What am I supposed to make of the Knicks? I mean, that's supposed to be. Now, some of it could just be, you know, Knicks, energy, the garden.

But I watched that I'm like, I can keep banging on Philadelphia. Philadelphia's got good players. There's a lot of good players here. what is it what's the nix magic analytically what does the data say their magic is so first of all like i was in the same camp as you coming into this series i actually sat down for my film session going like i'm going to pick the nicks today and then i started watching the film i'm like oh philly's really good i'm like okay like they have a lot of really good players and i'm like i started to think like they're going to really be able to throw the kitchen sink at brunson i think this is going to be a

half-court mismatch so i ended up picking the sixers and for the record like about one in four times a team loses game one and comes back to win the series. So there will be probably two teams in this first round who lost game one, but come back to win. Last year happened twice in the first round as well. The Warriors lost in Sacramento game one came back and won the series. The sons, lots of the Clippers came back and won the series. So like it does happen and this scripts might get flipped. But the dynamic was actually crazy how much the Dix dominated this game in the margins. So here's some, this is this stat is amazing, Colin. The half court offensive rating, which means just half-court possessions, points per 100 possessions.

The Sixers had a 99 offensive rating in the half-court against the Knicks in that game. The Knicks had a 77 offensive rating. So they dominated the half-court battle by 22 points per 100 possessions. That is like a complete in total outclassing. But the Knicks won, and here's why. In second-chance points and in fast-break points, they won 53 to 19. Effort. 53 to 19.

Yeah. They absolutely bludgeoned them on the offensive glass and bludgeoned them in transition. So, like, the Sixers have a simple pathway here. Yeah. If you can keep up with the dirty work, you'll probably win. You have more skill in the half-quarter. You saw Tyrese maxi dicing them up in that third quarter. Oh, yeah.

They got good shots. They got really good shots. Now, the one thing I will say is a counter to that. There was one little thing that kind of stood out to me in that fourth quarter run. Mitchell Robinson might be able to guard him beat. Like, he did a pretty good job on him. And there's this thing that happens sometimes. It's so funny because I use this example in my show.

Do you remember LeBron? Like, LeBron would just run rough shot through the entire league and no one could guard him. But then, like, he'd run into like Andre Guadala or like. Roy Hibbert. Or Quay Leonard. He'd run into like a random guy that could kind of match up with him physically. Yeah. And then it would make LeBron work harder.

And honestly, that was when you'd see the best of LeBron is when, like, it's not easy and he'd still find a way, right? And like, we even see that sometimes with Yokic. It's like, you watch him go up against Embed, and it's like, whoa, Embed's big enough to like kind of hang with him, right? And it makes things difficult. Mitchell Robinson has the unique ability to give Embed a little bit of space, but also close the gap and contest. And so the one thing, like, if I'm a Knicks fan, the one thing where I'm like, okay, we got dominated in the half court, maybe the Sixers can turn this around. The one thing I'm clinging to is, what if Mitchell Robinson, gives and be just a bad series.

Because then this could get ugly. Because Tyrese Maxie had some trouble with Deuce McBride too there. He could kind of match it with him with his quickness. And so I think the Knicks have some ability to close that gap in the half court offense, but the Sixers have to close that gap in the margins or they're just going to get run out of this series. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits. the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that, George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Now you're finishing that sentence.

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Almost universally in my life, the word you used earlier on Yokic was perfect, inevitable. A dominant big in this league usually wins. And we're talking about one of the five most talented bigs I've probably ever seen. I mean, he does, he had a shot, and Bede had a shot against the necks. I'm not even sure if there may have been an early whistle where he turned his body sideways, he threw it off the glass. And I was like, the hell was that? It doesn't even look like a huge, it was just a, it's a move that dame. would make it was like you're like seven two you can't do that but in the weaker eastern conference

it's just inexcusable you've got to win a second series i mean the first series is against the dog usually now the nicks are no dog but there is it i wonder what the ball movement is when imbid is in because i do feel there are times when it slows down a little you you by the way you saw this with julius randall sometimes in the nicks like he's out the ball moves sometimes with Bigs that, by the way, no Janus today with Milwaukee. The ball's moving. They're, you know, dames controlling it. The tempo is better. I just, if he loses to the Knicks now, what do we say? I know he's great. But come on, it's like, if you're a great quarterback in the weaker conference, I got to have some playoffs wins. You know, you got to give me some of those. It'd be one thing if you're

facing Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar in their prime. If you're facing the NFC, guys, I need some doubles. Matt Stafford gets a Super Bowl. He's better than that division. I get that conference. I don't know where I land on Embed. Yeah, I know he's talented, but he needs to win more in April and May. I'm just, he does. How do you land historically with Embed? Of course he does. Like, he has to win. There's no question. I've seen things on, on Twitter. Like, when he went down, there's this funny moment when he went down in that second quarter where, like, everyone was like, this guy is falling. It's like, the NBA is responsible for these guys getting hurt. I'm like, no, this is just a fluky play. Like, that's just everyone. It was a fluky play.

Yeah, everyone relax for a second. But like one of the things that happens is Embed consistently gets to the postseason. Usually his jump shot falls apart. He starts turning the basketball over a ton in his offensive effectiveness craters. And every single year, Embedd fans will be like he was hurt. And they're not wrong. Like you go back, you go back last year. He was dealing with a bulky knee.

What was it two years ago when he had the broken face on the Toronto, the fluky play at the end of the Toronto series. I think O.G. and Nobie hit him with an elbow. elbow in the face and he really struggled. And this year, he has the same excuse, right? Like, he came back from a meniscus injury and clearly it's bothering him. I mean, he left the game in the second quarter last night. So, like, obviously he's having issues, right? But the bottom line is at a certain point, if a guy gets to the postseason every year and has hurt every year, you have to kind of bring that into the calculus. It's like with Kauai. I vividly remember you

and I sitting down going like, man, that was crazy. Kawhi, the last two playoff runs broke down in the middle of the playoff run. What if that happens again? And, you know, Clippers fans will be like, Well, you can't really plan on that, but here we are again. That's right. And Kauai's not playing. So, like, at a certain point, that's, like, part of the calculus with Kauai. Of course. You know, you can't put him in the top five of playoff players if his body can't hold up for a

playoff run. And that's the thing. I 100% agree that Embed has this otherworldly potential. And there's a version of his story where at some point in the next couple of years, he gets to the postseason healthy, runs rough shot over everybody and gets crowned the best player of the world and gets a trophy. But what have we seen in the last few years to show that, he can actually survive for playoff rounds, let alone, you know, kind of thrive in that

environment. And so at the end of the day, like, I feel bad for him because I think a lot of it is just kind of he's a giant human. And there's a certain kind of risk factor that comes along with that. And I don't want to blame him necessarily, but regardless of what the external circumstances are, the on-court product hasn't been enough. Now, one thing I'll say, I was really impressed in how he played last night while he was on the floor against a really tough, physical New York Knicks team. But again, like we talked about with Iguodala and Kauai, if Mitchell Robinson presents a challenge for him, he has to find a way to solve that puzzle. Why? Because the other great players found a way to solve that puzzle when they ran into it

in the postseason. So, you know, it's interesting. Through the years, there's been a sense. I got into this email discussion with Mark Cuban once that very few players really, I think we have this sense that in the NBA, lots of players move the ratings. Hell, the NBA put yon when he was the best player in the league four years ago on noon NBA TV playoff games. Like the league was telling you it's not moving the needle. A lot of centers don't move the needle. Shack did because some of that was just personality in the Lakers brand and Kobe. But most centers don't move the needle.

They don't play a dynamic, quick, twitchy game that's fun. Derek Rose to me, in Chicago. Oh, okay, the Bulls. You know, there's certain players. Ant's great, but it's Minnesota. But I was watching the Knicks game. And I thought to myself, we always talk about market size, doesn't matter in the NBA because players can get rich everywhere. I don't deny that. But games in the garden are different. They are just different. They just look different. And I'm watching that game and I'm seeing the celebrities and I'm like, I stayed on that game. And I was like, it had juice. I'm sitting there thinking, this is great television. It's like watching a football game, Michigan, Big House. Jason, it feels bigger than an Arizona Wildcat game. It just feels big.

bigger. And I'm watching the Knicks and I'm like, boy, the league could really use Celtics Knicks. And I don't think Jalen Brunson's, I think they need another star. But, you know, there's been this sort of malaise and the regular season and people talking about ratings and the NBA's fine. It's content. It's going to do fine. It's more international. It's still great. The players have never been better. But I'm watching the Knicks and I'm like, they're incredibly likable because they play their ass off. They get everything out of every player. Brunson's a great. great story. It's New York. It's the guard. And the fans are so starved. They might as well had a ticker tape parade after they won. The fans were going crazy out in the street.

And I really did. I was watching it, Jason, and I thought, I've been in TV for 20-some years. And I'm like, this is great television. This is completely magnetic television. And I'm sorry if that game's in Charlotte, it doesn't feel like that. I mean, when I watched it, I felt, oh, my God, this feels like a conference finals. This is what New York and the garden are doing to this sport. That's what I felt. It was the best game yesterday. Yes. And like the way that the roof blew off that place after those

late Josh Hart, which felt like 10-pointers when they went in. But that's extended my entire life. I remember even just as a kid being an NBA fan. Like it was when Kobe went to Madison Square Garden, it was you dropped everything and you watched. When LeBron went to Madison Square Garden,

you dropped everything and you watched. And so to watch them play meaningful basketball, and I don't even think the Knicks fans are aware yet that this is just the beginning. Like, I think this is the beginning of a long era of really good Knicks basketball. We've talked about it before. I think they're really well positioned for a move this offseason. I 100% agree.

There was that that game, it was easily the most magnetic and entertaining game of the night yesterday. I actually have a follow-up question con. I saw a report yesterday that the talks have stalled out, the TV talks for the NBA with Turner and with with, uh, with, Disney. What did you make of that? Well, you know, again, first of all, my, you know, some of this is anecdotal.

So my kids love going to NBA games. I love going to NBA games. I've been to four this year. And so I go to more NBA games than any games. I think the product when you're in the arena is fantastic and fun. I hate load management. And I do think that's hurt the league. I think Adam Silver, I don't think David Stern would tolerate it. I think the fines would be levied and much.

And I think they were years ago, the late David Stern. So I do think there are some social issues. I think the load management has turned a lot of people off. The game is getting like baseball and hockey. It's very international now. So it's just harder to follow a guy. If you don't, you know, he's in Lithuania instead of Duke. The reason I know Zion, he played at Duke.

He blew up a shoe at Duke. So, you know, there's part of it is where the society is, we're all distracted now. I mean, our phone, my usage rate, I was on the phone. during the NBA, I'm on my phone constantly, right? Like my usage rate goes up 400% during the NBA playoffs. So we're distracted. So we don't follow the path and the journey of players. You do.

You're an expert at it. But most people don't. So we like this. I watch a guy at Ohio State for three years in Michigan. He's microwavable. He goes to my Texans. I know who he is. I have a visceral connection with him.

In the NBA, increasingly, the guys don't play college. And so it's like, oh. And they go to bad teams at the top of the draft. don't see him for three years until they get into the playoffs. Wemby, because he's uniquely, historically transcended, we talked about him. So I think executives look at this and they say to themselves, the players are telling us the regular season doesn't matter. The league, by not handing out punitive action, is telling us the regular season doesn't

matter. Am I paying $9 billion for playoff games? Like, I'm not interested. And I think Fox, I won't speak for Fox or the Murdox, but I do think people at our company have looked at baseball and they're like, we love them. playoffs, but the 162, Braves, Braves Brewers or whatever. Like, it's hard to get people interested. So in a distracted society where we're on our phones, long regular season sports are dying. And so NFL's not urgency. World Cup's not every four years. Olympics aren't.

March madness men and women aren't. College football isn't. UFC isn't. Baseball, hockey, NBA, regular seasons on television are just not dynamic. And these leagues, the NBA, the pro, I mean, I mean, we'll have some great series here. These first round series are going to be really good. Nick Sixers is going to feel like a big series because Philly and New York are just, they jump off the television. My takeaway is league send messages to networks. And the message is the regular season doesn't matter much.

And I run Fox or ESPN or TNT. Okay. then let's have two packages. You know, I'll pay for the playoffs. I don't want the regular season. And so I think it's that's where, that's where, you know, the NFL, and I think March madness, it's like, well, I have to watch these games. These are all sudden death.

You know, I, so what do I make of it? I make if it the product's good, but the league is sending a message to the networks, and it's come back to bite them in the ass, which is no load management. I've always felt the league should have about 60 games. The first round should be three games. The rest of the way should be five. until the finals is seven. There's no urgency. I mean, there's just literally no urgency in these games. It's like I watch it because I love the NBA. The NBA will get its money. But you have to be

honest about this. The stuff that's working is all creating urgency. I mean, the quality of men's basketball in the NCAA now is awful. Jason, it's the actual quality of play. Yeah. But the numbers were fantastic. So now, women's basketball is much better today than 20 years ago. So the quality there is excellent in Caitlin Clark story. But I think baseball, I mean, hey, have you heard about, I mean, like Apple doesn't want part of the base. NBC and Apple are both unhappy with their baseball packages. Wow.

Sunday night baseball, they want 140 million. Nobody wants to pay that. Fox would take it for 40 million. We're not paying 140 million. So I think baseball, hockey, and basketball, I think you have to look in the as owners. You've never been richer. It's the best place in the world to own any investment in the world is English Premier League teams or American sports teams. That's where the richest people have their money. EPL teams only go up and American sports teams mostly go up. I think you have

to scale back the number of games. You have to demand starters play. I think you have to have more urgent. I think what you have in the NBA is you have a two and a half month playoff. It should be a month and shorten the season. Now, you say, a player, players will say, well, we won't make as much money. If everybody got 10% less, you'd be fine. If LeBron could play 15 less games a year, he'd be fine with less. Most players would be. But I think it's a reality of what's happening. The distraction, the fragmentation, you cannot ask people to sit through these long hockey baseball NBA regular seasons, especially when the players don't seem that driven by it. That's my take, and I love the league.

Yeah, you know, you and I had a debate. It was a couple months ago, but we were talking about the difference between the NFL and how the NFL's been encroaching on their territory and what they're doing like three Wednesday Christmas games this year, right? So like, like, like, and one of the counterpoints I made to you is like, I don't really see the league as the NBA as even on the same footing as the NFL because I view the NFL as an urgency sport and I view the NBA as an inventory sport. Yeah. Well, the NBA has actually leaned more and more into inventory.

It's like here is an in-season tournament. Here is a play-in tournament. They just expanded the first round. of the playoffs from five to seven games, what, like 20 years ago or whatever it was that they did. So like they've done nothing but ad inventory. And while, while total revenue has gone up, I think the defocused kind of desire surrounding the NBA regular season is less. And to your point, like, I've, I've always been a big believer in shortening the regular season because I think if you could get it down to three games a week and just a guaranteed two days off every single week in a row

somewhere in there for the older guys. I think you just have better player participation in general, not to mention the increased urgency surrounding the games. And what bothers me about it is, why can't you view the in-season tournament and the play in tournament as the revenue drivers to make up for lost revenue in a shortened season? And if you did shorten the season,

I think you'd see an initial drop in revenue, but I think in the big picture, as there's more star participation in roughly 20% additional urgency by dropping 20% of the games, I think you will see in the big picture an increased value in the regular season package. But I 100% agree with you in the sense that like, how could you expect, of all the things that the NBA provides between gambling, between highlights, between the playoffs, between the in-season tournament, playing tournament, summer league is a huge deal.

Every year I go out there, I'm amazed by the event that summer league is. Wait until you see what this Team USA thing is going to be like in Vegas. All of that is doing great, but the regular season itself is dipping further and further down the food chain. And they do need to put more attention in that direction. I 100% agree with you. Yeah, it's also the international participation now is up. They're more skilled. They're dominating the MVP. I got no problem with it. I've never seen players as good as Wembe and Yokic. But it is harder to follow. And in a distracted world, it's really hard to follow. And I'm a sportscaster. But I mean, it's like they do jokes on TNT that Shaq and Barclay don't know certain players. Like that's, that gives you a distracted world. It's,

sense of, you know, they're sending messages constantly that half these games don't matter. Well, it's, that's not great messaging. Colin, I'm a complete basketball nut job. I coach it on a volunteer level here in town. I play literally six days a week. I get bored in the NBA regular season. I do what every other person in the media does and, and like, have to find reasons to be enthusiastic about what we're covered.

When you're in January, it's a slog, man. It's literally a slog. And again, I'm a nut job when it comes to this stuff. I've argued for years that I would start the NBA on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. So I would start it a month later because I think you can't compete with football. But after Thanksgiving, people get this heaping, helping of football. And you talk about it on Monday on the sports shows and Tuesday. And then Wednesday, because it's college football after Thanksgiving slims down.

The schedule slims down. You go to conference championships. There's that Wednesday. I've noticed it for years of my business. That Wednesday you're like, God, wouldn't it be great if tonight was NBA opening night? So you would push it back a month, late August to the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. You'd cut it down to about 66, 68 games. It would end July 1st.

So you'd push it back a little longer. There's nothing going on in June and July early. And it would just be a real estate move. Like the NFL move free agency. to March. It was because they wanted to take away some March Madness. They saw opportunities. It would be a, you're just buying different beach property. You'd move it back to after, you have no shot to compete until after Thanksgiving. It's just, it's just too much football. But then college football dims a little bit and the NBA and then cut the games down,

but you have the summer's wide open. I mean, June and early July are wide open. And then July 1st, You crown your champion. You have the draft four days later. Thanks for flying United. NFL camp. NFL camps open. November. Yeah. NFL camps open three days later. And it's perfect. The NFL's been great at this. They just keep buying different real estate moving out of this. The NFL gives you June in the first week of July. Take it. They give it to you. You're not going to beat them head to head. There we go. All right. Good stuff. Jason Tim. Hoops tonight. Sorry Milwaukee, Indiana fans. Sorry, Pelican fans. We'll talk about you a later date. I'll cover him tomorrow. We'll get to him tomorrow. All right, buddy. Good seeing you. Thanks. The volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment, rate and review.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Street or Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all. embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

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