The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Warriors Game 6 Title Clinch, Steph + Dynasty Legacy

Episode Date: June 17, 2022

Colin and Hoops Tonight  and Lakers Tonight Podcast host Jason Timpf react to the Warriors closing out the Celtics in Boston with a convincing Game 6 win. They also look at how their 4th title impacts Steph and the dynasty’s legacy, the significance of winning without KD, and what teams can challenge the Dubs in 2023. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So, you know, as I watched tonight, I didn't want to be one of those media people that just dumps on Jason Tatum. And so I went back throughout the course of the second half, and I started kind of looking at Jason Tatum's numbers, and here's what's clear. He is gassed. The dude played almost 900,000 minutes.

And he, every series was a little less efficient. And then in the end, he faced his best defense in the Warriors. And as young as he is and as talented as he is, the Miami series go seven, the Milwaukee physical Milwaukee series go seven. and Jason, I thought Tatum was gassed. I just didn't think he had any lift. A lot of his shots were short. And I just don't want to be one of these guys that bangs on him.

I don't see a superstar here. And I said this over the series. I see a star. I see a 10-time All-Star. Love him as a player. But, you know, this team is pretty inartistic offensively. I could take out three brief, great Celtic offensive runs in this series. Three.

And this series was over a game ago. and it was way uglier. They really struggled to get points. And I think you'd notice this station as the series went on, and Jason Tatum was fatigued. The offense just got uglier and uglier. They got worse and worse. And I think you can just tie it to Jason Tatum.

This team needs his offense so badly. They lean on him so greatly. I mean, God, the Warriors went in a huge run early in this game, late first quarter. Steph wasn't even part of it. And so I just want to defend Jason Tatum to start is I thought he, I thought he gave a great playoff series, really his longest first big long series run where he is a, recognized as a top 12 player in the league. I thought he ran out of gas. And I think as he ran out of gas, their offense ran out of gas.

Yeah, I 100% agree. And, you know, I'd be lying with you or lying to you if I. I didn't say I'm a little disappointed. I certainly expected more out of him in this series. And I do think he got exposed for a handful of specific weaknesses, his ability to take care of the basketball, his inconsistent playmaking, his reliance on pull-up jump shooting.

And when that started to fail him, how he seemed to have a lesser impact. And then really struggling to finish around the rim, he was below 50% in the restricted area in this series, which is, that's bad for Russell Westbrook, let alone a big, scoring wing that has physical advantages around the basket, I think fatigue absolutely played a role in the sense that those Milwaukee Miami series has had no business going to seven games. And

you're right in the sense that early in the series when Tatum was better, right, game one, 13 assists, didn't shoot the ball well, but he was creating shots for his teammates and getting consistent dribble penetration. And then in game three, he had a dominant fourth quarter. That was a huge part of why Boston won game three. And you're right, as he started to fade the rest of the team started to fade because of how much they depend on him as their initial initiator. As far as Boston goes looking forward, I still think Tatum can be the best player on a championship team. I agree with you that he's not a superstar, but I also think that you can win a title if your best player is as good as Jason Tatum. You just need to be really sharp elsewhere

on the floor. And their glaring lack of a playmaker became a bigger issue with each passing series. And specifically with Miami, they were so well coached. And Eric Spolster did such a good job throwing them off kilter that I had a feeling that Golden State would have a lot of success against them defensively because it's Steve Kerr, a similar type of intellect on the coaching staff as Eric Spolster, but with the personnel to do the job. And so, yeah, I'm with you. I think we need to at least look at this from Tatum as what it was, a young player who's not ready for this stage yet. Yeah, we have to acknowledge that he played a ton of minutes. He was also needed to be a defensive stopper. I mean, the idea that the warriors can throw Jason Tatum, Draymond Green, for the record, Draymond was so good tonight. He was so engaged.

He was so fantastic. It was such championship pedigree, championship basketball. And that's the thing about Draymond, is that a great basketball player, and this is why I think Curry is so great. Curry's motion is fluidity on the offense is that the fact about that Draymond Green doesn't have to score to be so versatile, to be so valuable. He's such a catalyst, his rebounds, his defense, tipping the ball. He just, he can really manipulate officials at this point in his career. He can get a lot of physicality in, not called for a foul. There were two or three times that he'd

he blocked Tatum. He'd block a Jalen Brown shot. And you're like, oh, that's, that's close. but he has so many minutes, so many finals game experiences, that he's become a manipulator. Jordan was great at this, just a manipulator of the officials. And, you know, when this series started, Jason, I think we both agreed that Boston had more athletes in their prime

and more two-way players. But the Warriors had a much greater reservoir of offensive skill. I mean, in this series, When Gary Payton, it may have been the last game, when Gary Payton had 15 points, I'm like, okay, come on now. When Gary Payton's dropping 15 and you got Jordan Poole, who was awful early in the series, and then Steph, and then Clay, and then Wiggins. And it's like, okay, now as the series went on, you could see the breadth of the warrior's offensive skill started to really separate because they didn't rely. on Steph. Steph could give him to 28 and they weren't relying on him.

And he may be in the game, but he's not having to break people down. And I just thought that prediction I felt like I got right. Like it's an offensive league. Celtics had more top defenders, Warriors had much deeper offensive skill. And the longer it went on really in the last three games, it was so obvious. They just have more good shooters, more guys that can beat you off the dribble. you know, as you beat guys off the dribble, you get other guys' feet. I mean, how many open threes in the last two games did the Warriors get?

I mean, wide open threes tonight. Golden State appeared to become the far more comfortable team in the last two games, which was very much not the case through the first four games. I'd argue Boston was significantly more comfortable with their physicality. With Draymond, like, man, down to one, everything looking precarious. He's not playing up to his standard at that point. Then he gets into it with C.J. McCollum

and straight up calls his shot. It is like, yeah, you're going to not have a ring, just like Boston's not going to have a ring. And not only did Golden State win three straight to win the series at that point, but Draymond was fantastic. And his hands around the basket, especially below the rim, are the best that I've seen in the league from a rim protector. Because there's different ways to be a rim protector.

It doesn't have to be up top. Yeah. It doesn't have to be up top. You don't have to be jumping with people. Like, Dremont does have long arms, and he disrupts people down below. How many times did you see Al Horford expose the ball around the basket tonight? And Dremont just knocked the ball free. Like that, just a legendary type of performance from Dremont.

And I'm glad you pointed out the role players because I thought it was a super big swing factor in this game. I tweeted out when Golden State at 18 points, 10 of their first 18 were from Clay, Andrew Wiggins, and Jordan Poole. And I thought that was a huge indicator of the way the rest of the game would go because those guys in order to win in Boston and this type of game, those guys had to be comfortable. And them getting going early was a huge part of that. And Gary Payton, Gary Payton the second, for whatever reason, he's become kind of like this poster boy for being like the scrappy guy that fought from a terrible situation to get to the league. And people forget how dominant he was as a college basketball player. I played in junior college in the same

conference as him. We were on the same all-conference team. The year after I left, he won player the year and then he was an All-American at Oregon State. Like this dude is a damn good basketball player. He just, he had some offensive limitations that caused him to get undervalued in the NBA for a while, but this team has a ton of talent. And you're right, it started to show as the series progressed. You know, the other thing is Boston, I do think, has to elevate offensively at point. I think, no, he's too expensive, maybe like a Mike Conley, a veteran presence. You know, Kyrie was actually perfect for this team had it worked. A brilliant offensive performer, Tatum's your two,

Jalens your three, smart can play defense to cover up for Kyrie Irving's weakness. He was perfect. It just didn't work chemistry-wise. Can they go find somebody? Because I do think when Chris Middleton comes back, even if you're good, like the LA Rams, they were good, they upgrade a receiver, Alan Robinson and Robert Woods out. You can't stay static in sports these days because people are chasing you.

And so even if the Celtics would have won, the offense was so static and so hard and so difficult. And at times outside of these brief spurts, so clunky. There was no rhythm at all tonight for any long extended stretch. So I think they need to address that. Get a little bit of an offensive presence somewhere in the guard spot. Golden State's interesting now because Cumminga, so Wiseman's going to add length, which they desperately, they really do need length. Cuming is going to add athleticism. He's going to be like a young Wigan, 6-7, a little sturdier, 220.

He's a very good defensive player. Moody is going to emerge. Jordan Poole. So I told you, Jason, I thought this was the year. The old guys were too old and the young guys were too young. And the fact that they want it convincingly, I'm like, oh, no, this. Are we going to go in a second, like, four-year run? That's how I feel.

Now, I could be a little hyperbolic, but I kind of feel like, wow, wow. Because now look at Phoenix right now, Jason. They don't feel close. They don't feel close to this team. No, not at all. First of all, Joe Laker, now is your chance to take your victory lap, man. This is the time. You have the trophy.

It turns out you had enough horses. Now you can take your victory lap. You know, as far as Boston goes, they're going to be tempted to not do anything because there's a glass half full way of looking at this. Like, did any of us see Boston going to the finals this year? No, none of us did. So you could argue they're ahead of schedule, right? like Tatum's Young, Brown's Young, you can argue that. My thing is, like, always account for the fact that

the league's going to get better with Milwaukee coming back with a healthy Chris Middleton next year. My guess is that Miami makes some big swing trade this summer. I like them as a potential Bradley Beale destination. You know, you're going to see, I wouldn't be surprised if Brooklyn retools in some way, shape, or form next year in the West. Like, who knows what's going to happen with the Lakers, but the Clippers will be very, very good next year. The Suns, obviously, it's so much depends on them doing something with Chris Paul and getting improvement elsewhere. Bottom line, though, the league always gets better. In the teams that stand, Pat and or lose talent, i.e. Milwaukee, ditching PJ Tucker, they always end up paying the price for that. You know, another great example

that as the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 immediately dumped Tyson Chandler. Like, no, you need to continually load up the deck because you have no idea how difficult it's going to be down the line. So I'm with you. I think Boston, I really need to take some time to look at, what's available this summer because they need to find something to add offensive IQ, a person who's a sturdy force on the offensive end. As far as Golden State goes, and again, they're in great shape. Because I would argue Steph is going to have a better season next year than he did this year because he did not shoot well during the regular season this year with all the personnel stuff.

You know, Clay Thompson's second year coming back from injuries, that second year is always the year that those guys regain their form, when they really feel comfortable with their body again. Jordan Poole was, I mean, Colin, early in the series, we were worried about whether or not he could play. He was awesome down the stretch of this series. He was awesome. Like, Jordan Poole looks great.

If you put Jordan Poole on Boston, one player, you're like, that's what they need. They just need an effortless guy that can get them 15 points that can kind of create his own shot. They just increasingly, I mean, it's amazing. I'm not saying he would have changed the series entirely, but it's like that's kind of what they need. An effortless, skilled, offensive guy. Come off the bench. I mean, he's just,

and he's like their fourth offensive option for the Warriors. This week's gold medal performance. If there was a second NBA Mount Rushmore, would Steph Curry make the cut? His influence and imprint on the game of basketball are unmatched. He's got the records, awards, the best shooter we've ever seen. And he's the only. unanimous MVP ever. Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Kobe, they're near locks for a second Mount Rushmore,

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888-8-8-9-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat. Connecticut, 1-800 gambler or visit Fandul.com slash RG and Colorado, Indiana, Jersey and Virginia. 18777-7-1-1-1-7-1-1-7-1-1-7-1-1-7-1-1-1-7-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-G. 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. 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. You know, it's interesting about Steph. I said this. I've never understood the Steph criticism.

But on my Mount Rushmore of basketball, I would go Michael, Magic, LeBron, and Kareem. And I think there's three indisputably great centers, Kareem, Russell, and Wilt. Russell got the titles. Kareem got titles and scoring. Wilt got scoring, but no titles and was kind of a flake. So I would go Kareem, LeBron, Michael, and Magic. But you start going to that second. a little less,

mount a little less more. And I go, Russell, Kobe, Russell Kobe are on it. So Kobe's the closest thing to Michael. Bill Russell's my second best center. Probably Larry Bird, because when he came into the league, you can go back and read the stories.

It was like he's a forward. He's the best shooter in the league and maybe the best passer. And I think you start getting into Steph territory. I really do because influence matters. and, you know, Russell, massive influence. The rebirth of the Celtics Bird, a huge storied franchise, massive influence. Kobe, Shaq, one of the great teams ever.

There's arguments to be made. It's a Duncan, it's Barkley, it's Dr. Jay. That's fine. I think Steph, I think this MVP, pre-KD, with Katie, post-KD, you and I know he's great. but for all the critics, like there's no more critics. Tonight, it's a dead end sign at the end of the cul-de-sac for the critics. Just turn the car around. There's no reason to go down here.

I think Steph has literally put himself in an indisputable second tier of the greatest players ever. I 100% agree. I don't know. The player he reminds me the most of, Colin, is Tim Duncan. Because, you know, you look at Tim Duncan's career, and there's a lot of similarity. like dynastic franchise that's extraordinarily well run from the top down. You know, incredible head coach that's kind of like a pillar in the NBA. And then you've got this leader on the team who arguably has never been the best guy in the league.

Like I would argue that LeBron's been consistently better than him and Janus is better than him now. But like he's always been right there. Tim Duncan, similar thing. He was always like just a little bit less good than Shaq, just a little bit below where Kobe was. But he had this, you know, they were the perfect guy for that type of dynastic franchise because they are the consummate professional, incredibly coachable. There are a lot of great players in the league who could never play for someone like Greg Popovich or for someone like Steve Kerr. You know, LeBron, for instance, as a guy that I've been

critical of is a guy who's difficult to coach, you know. He's also a very, like a very steady leader. Like Steph and Tim Duncan, never passive aggressive, never sub-tweeting teammates, never showing demonstrative out-of-control behavior on the court. They're just never too high, never too low, perfect leaders, but arguably never better than the best guys in the league. But that said, Tim Duncan won five championships. And it has some similarities to the Steph thing where, you know, there's some near misses like the 2013 season or for Steph,

the near-miss in 2016 or the near-miss in 2019. And then the extended success combined with loyalty, you know, staying in one place for a very long time. And that sort of thing, I think it's overlooked. And it's very rare in NBA in the modern NBA now to have a guy and to have a group of players that stays on course in a mission like this for the better part of a decade and goes through the good times and the bad. And I think that's a huge part, Colin, of why the Golden State fan base is so ravenous

and why their ratings are so good compared to the other teams in the league. They have bred an incredibly loyal fan base by not cracking under the pressure and doing what I was telling them to do to trade all their young guys or or or being you know following the current mold they they followed a very unique mold and as a result they've got the loyal fan base they've got the consistent success and to me that step tim duncan cop makes the most sense for me long time long term yes step did win the MVP tonight so um you know and speaking to kD um i said it when it happened i thought it was an egregious mistaken judgment for kD to leave the warriors to play with a friend the basketball, American basketball culture sort of supports more than reports on stars.

They need access to stars if you're an NBA writer. So everybody supported KD. And I said, how ridiculous would it look? If Patrick Mahomes left the Chiefs to play with the Jets to play with a friend. I mean, you literally say, dude, get therapy. Like, this is ridiculous. What are you doing? Andy Reid, Travis Kelsey, like, what are you doing?

And I said it with KD. I'm not going to play that game of pandering and placating a star. I love KD. This was a huge error in judgment to go to a non-viable franchise with a kooky guy in Kyrie Irving. Now he's got Ben Simmons. And listen, KD has text a few people I know in the media. Well, what if the Warriors don't win? Well, they did.

And easily. Like, easily. The last three games of the series, like, it was kind of ugly. And so, I mean, if you take out one great quarter by the Celtics, that fourth quarter in game one, This series could have been really quick. So, you know, this is, you know, it's a cautionary tale is that KD, a non-confrontational personality, just did not confront. He did not confront Draymond Green and hash out their problems. And in the end, he's two first round exits, they're not winning a championship.

Simmons, Drummond, Curry, you know, Kyrie, you're not winning a championship. You're going to be really talented. But I mean, they don't have the bench. They don't have the coaching of like the Warriors or Milwaukee. I feel bad for KD because he'll be a Hall of Famer, first ballot, one of the 20 most talented guys ever. And I tell this to young broadcasters, there's a sea of money, don't chase it. Chemistry, culture. There are very, very few great culture.

in business, in broadcasting, and basketball. And this culture between Bob Myers, Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, he found it. Like, he really found the perfect basketball culture where they just wanted Katie to come in and hoop. And he just felt like unloved. And it's like, I would have just said, dude, get a therapist, work your way through this. Don't go anywhere. If I'm rich climbing his agent, like, just go to. a therapist will pay. Just figure it out. And I do. I feel a little sorrow for him because I think

he's just too great to be saddled with less serious players. Well, and what concerns me now is you were talking about Phoenix being far away. Doesn't Brooklyn feel so far away now? They feel so far away. They're not a Ben Simmons away from fixing their problems. You know, my theory about what happened in Golden State, we were talking about the fan base earlier, that fan base is incredibly loyal. to Steph Curry. And it's kind of one of those things where even though Steph willingly accepted KD as an equal partner, even though the franchise willingly accepted KD as an equal partner, really Draymond was the only guy who ever really pushed back on him for some of the ego stuff in there. But everyone in the organization was arms wide open, ready to do whatever KD needed.

I think it was the public pressure, Colin. I think it was the fan base giving all the credit to Steph. I think it was them calling him, you know, someone who jumped on their bandwagon. And if there's one thing, and for the record, one of my favorite things about KD is he's ultimately 100% authentic, which is super rare in the NBA star, you know, a sector. Like so many guys are concerned with their brand and will not say what's on their mind because they don't want to send a certain message. KD. is very just lets his hard and soul out on the table. And I think his, him being concerned with the media. much and him being concerned with what the fans thought about him winning two titles

with Golden State allowed him to look in another direction so that he could build his own thing to ultimately get that appreciation as the cornerstone of a championship team that he never got with Golden State. And what's unfortunate about that is to your point, Colin, Golden State didn't care. They were like, no, Kevin, just come and play with us. We don't care if you could do whatever you want. like we need you here. We are the perfect spot for you,

but he couldn't see beyond the criticism. He couldn't see beyond the narratives. And if there's one thing that you know about Steph, he doesn't give a shit about the narrative. He doesn't care about anything. All he cares about is winning, which is why he was the perfect guy for Katie to partner with. But I'm thankful Katie left because I don't know,

I don't know if I could have enjoyed the NBA if there was a half decade of them winning every single NBA finals easily. I'm going to go back to what I said at the beginning. the longer this series went, the uglier it got. The Warriors' defense exposed a real weakness for Boston, which is they've got dogs, they got multiple elite defenders, they have two-way players. Artistically, this is not an offense with a great deal of rhythm.

They were next to last in the NBA's regular season this year in clutch points. They were 14th and three-point shooting. Good coach, work hard, a lot of dogs, play both. ways. Offensively, not a great team. Golden State is. And the longer this series went on, you saw the reservoir of talent that Golden State has. Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins, Steph, Clay, Draymon was good tonight. Cluny can just play on the bowl. Kayvon Looney can just play on the boards. They've got three young kids that didn't play in this series. When Payton at one point scored 15 points. And I said before the series, Golden State's got a better group of

offensive players. It's an offensive over a defensive league. At some point, they're just going to be able to get more points consistently in this series. And I think that's what we saw is that the more fluid offense, the greatest offensive player, Steph, I mean, Gat Wiggins is a 20-point-a-game guy at any point. And I think this league, you can be a great defensive team, but I just thought the longer the series went, you saw how more, how challenging, the Celtics were offensively. And we came into this series talking about Boston's defense. There

are analytics that argue the Warriors are the better defensive team. So yeah, the two best defensive teams in the league, both offenses, not as good as usual. The difference is if you really stack up skill offensively, it's

not really that close. It's really, really not that close. One team probably has seven of the best nine or ten offensive skilled players. And it's only going to get better. Moses Moody, Wiseman, Jonathan Cominga. They may just start a second run here.

Jordan Poole, as we talked about, bad in game one, really emerged late in the series. So for those just joining us, I picked the Warriors in Six, Jason Timph joining us. Did you go Warriors in Six? Or what did you have? I was Warriors in Seven. Or is in seven. I just think, you know, we started our podcast saying this as long as the series went, you saw the limited offense exposed.

I mean, that's about as simply as I can put it. You just, you know, over time, the longer a game goes and the longer a series goes in basketball, the skill wins. I don't care if it's the YMCA. I don't care if it's the final four. I don't care if it's the NBA finals. Longer this puppy went, I mean, you saw the Miami-Boston series. You know, the longer it went, it was very much Jimmy Botland.

and cross your fingers. And in the end, I mean, that's what happens in all these series. At the end of the Milwaukee series, it was Janus and cross your fingers. And Boston would have a second score in Jalen Brown. So I think the right team won, the right team pulled away. And if you go back and examine the last three games, they weren't always that competitive. It was a pretty dominant finish to this series. It doesn't feel like Golden State stole this series by any stretch of the imagination.

You know, I'm higher on offense than defense too. Analytics guys are heavy on the defensive end of the floor because they just view it as a simple question of math. Any basket given up is just as detrimental as a basket gained on the other end. You know what I mean? And the way I look at it is you can coach up defense in a way that you can't coach up offense. Not that coaching doesn't matter in offense. It just matters more on the defensive end. The Warriors are a great example of this.

Steph and Clay post two injuries, Jordan Poole, Draymond Green is an undersized forward. Their defensive personnel is not as good as a lot of the top defenses in the league. But Steve Kerr has them always in the right spot. Their defensive game plan on Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum over the course of this series was incredible. Honestly, I thought the biggest swing in this series was in the first three games. Tatum and Brown were getting consistent dribble penetration. Over the course of the last three games, specifically Clay Thompson,

Gary Payton is second, Draymond Green on Jalen Brown. and Andrew Wiggins were phenomenal guarding Tatum and Brown. It got to the point there towards the end where the best offense for Boston was give the ball to Marcus Smart and hope he can beat Steph Curry off the dribble because Tatum and Brown were struggling so much. But that's the point is even with limitations in defensive personnel, a really smart coach, a really smart scheme in players who are bought in 100%, you can manufacture a facsimile of a high-end elite NBA defense.

but on offense, guys, Boston knew that they needed to take care of the ball tonight. IMA Udoka probably preached it nonstop for three days, and they went out and turned it over 21 times. So it just didn't matter. Like offense is so much more about personnel. It's can your guys create shots against a good set defense? And so in that regard, a Golden State's offensive personnel advantage was always going to matter more in this series than Boston's two-way personnel advantage. And that's why we both picked Golden State. And also, and this is one of the most important things that people gloss over,

basketball IQ is an offensive skill. Your ability to understand the flow of a game, take care of a basketball, take care of the basketball, take quality shots, floor spacing. All of those things are a part of basketball IQ. And look at Jason Tatum. He's got all the talent offensively in the world. But he just lacks that ability to be that game manager. I mean, it's gotten to the point.

You and I have been preaching it for months, but in the broadcast, there towards the end of that series, it became all anybody could talk about because it's glaring coming off the screen, the lack of offensive organization for Boston. But again, I mean, Golden State's personnel, it's just going to continue to get better from here as their young players continue to improve over the years. And, you know, them getting this title, it buys you that additional offseason to give all those guys a ton of work, another season in Summer League, another whole regular season to get a ton of reps and Steve Kerr plays everybody during the regular season.

Like if you're a Golden State fan, you've got to be feeling really comfortable about where this franchise is heading over the next half decade. Well, and I joke about this all the time on TV. The California economy is only going to make this team more formidable because Joe Lekub, this team's going to make $700 million this year in revenue. The average NBA team that's healthy makes $200 million. So they have monetized the arena, the suites, the parking, the real estate around the arena. They're not going anywhere.

They can pay anybody. They're going to pay more in salary tax than almost the league salary cap. This is sort of what the Rams are going through in Los Angeles. They're making so much game day money with the Rams at SOFI, that they have so much money they can throw at players for guaranteed salary. You got to have that money's got to be in the bank before you can write those checks. That's why you can write a Cooper Cup check and Aaron Donald check, a Stafford check in three weeks.

Not every team in the NFL can do that. And so the Warriors, you're talking about a team that is making almost four times what a healthy NBA team does. And they have an owner, maybe the recession will scale back, but we have an owner now that's like, I don't care. And I was saying this today, in my perfect world, if you draft and develop a player, you should be able to pay them whatever the league allows and it should not count against your salary cap. If you go buy KD, then it should count two times on the cap for competitive balance. If you go buy a star, that should count whatever his salary is. It should count twice. But if you pay Steph forever in infinity and Draymond and Clay forever, you drafted and develop those guys.

I don't know why that counts against you. That's what you're trying to do. For audience loyalty, draft players, develop players, keep players. Your city falls in love with them. Nobody ever loved KD as much as Steph Klan Dremon because they're not, he's, he's, he's, you know, he's a, he's a visitor, right? And so I think I wish the. A mercenary. A mercenary.

Yeah, he's a mercenary. So I wish the league would change that where people in Milwaukee love that team because outside of Drew Holiday, like they're, that's their guys. And Brooklyn had the lowest ratings in the NBA this year with all these stars. They're just visitors. So the warriors aren't going anyway. They're going to be able to develop all these young stars and keep paying all their guys. And what's interesting next year is those young guys are going to eat up minutes. So Drayman is not going to have to play as much and Clay won't play as much and Steph won't play as much.

So you're going to get and they're going to be deeper. So you may have, you know, you may have a better team, a more rested team. As Cumminga starts playing the wing, you can give wiser. Wiggins and Draymond Reels, Weissman then comes in and plays next year. Kay Vaughn Looney doesn't have to play the minutes he did. So they've got like three young stars that are going to really emerge, I think, next year and the year after. And Laca will pay whatever it costs.

You know, as much as people bang on the California economy, it's a very unique global economy in that we're like number one in manufacturing and tourism and entertainment and tech. And, you know, we're going through a recession like everybody else. It's going to start for the next, however long it goes. But it's going to hurt other places a lot more than California's enormous economy and rolling economy. It has so many sectors. And so Joe Lakeb, he's not cutting back at all. So you can talk about all you want about, it's unfair what he's paying.

They have drafted and developed virtually outside of Wiggins this entire roster. And to me, that's what sport should be. Draft them, develop them, keep them, let your fans fall in love with these guys. The Warriors, honestly, I mean, Steph, Clay, and Draymond, they're part of the community. They're like mayors. They're like these politicians that have like multiple terms. Yeah, you know, your point about the salary cap is so interesting to me because how ridiculous is it that if your scouting department does the job right? And they continually find high quality players in the draft that the salary cap will crunch you out of being able to pay them.

Especially if you're in a small market, you don't have the money that a guy like Joe Lakea has. It's a completely broken. ridiculous. Yeah, I 100% agree with you. And one of the things that's really interesting about what Joe Leakeb has done, which I think is super important, is him continuing to take care of his stars over the years, him maxing Clay Thompson with a torn ACL. You know, him paying Draymond Green, what he's paid him, the supermax for Steph. You know, he's demonstrated loyalty to them as well over the years. And that's the kind of thing that might convince those guys to take a discount down the line when they have to pay Moody and Cominga and Wiseman and Poole and all of all of those guys.

You know, in terms of the competitive advantage thing, I can't help but bring up the Lakers, Colin, because I saw Alex Crusoe look like a super functional two-way player this year and they cut him for $9 million. Now, with the salary cap, or with the luxury tax, we're talking about 30, but there is a distinct difference there in the way that the Lakers are spending versus Golden State. And then lastly, Colin, like you brought up the, viewership for Brooklyn. This has been one of my long-standing theories. I think the players love the idea of player freedom and player movement and player empowerment, but I don't think they realize the collateral damage that comes from it because there is an alienated local fan base.

And I've always wondered if like you could if you could somehow demonstrate to these guys like, hey, I understand in terms of the, in terms of the logical progression of things that you should have the same amount of freedom that the owners do in a collective bargaining type of situation. I get that. But what if I told you that you guys having less freedom to move helped breed strong local fan bases, which in turn led to long-term health in viewership around the league, especially in a league like the NBA that although the ratings are on their way up, they've of late been disappointing, right? And I've always thought that that's, you know, for instance, like baseball, with Major League Baseball, they rely heavily.

on their regional support. It's honestly the thing that's keeping the league afloat at this point. And so I've always thought that that's been looked over too frequently with the player empowerment movement. 100% believe you in terms of the morality of it all. But in terms of the health of the organization, it's actually better if guys do what Steph Clay and Draymond do. Steph's MVP tonight, only six players in league history, four rings, multiple league

MVP's and a final MVP. Staff LeBron, Michael, Magic, Kareemann, Duncan. Good company. All right, Jason tempts his name. Hoops tonight. You can go to our YouTube page, the Volume Sports YouTube page. Please subscribe. Great stuff. Draymond, I'll be on it tonight. Little surprise as well.

Jason, we'll hear from him. Please follow him. Twitter podcast at the volume. He's fantastic. I'm going to finish this puppy off and go to bed. FS1, Iheart tomorrow. Great stuff, Jason. Thanks so much and congrats to the Warrior fans who are watching. Thanks, Colin. I'll see you next time, man. Volume.

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Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away,

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