The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Best Of: Draymond Shuts Down Giannis, Mavs Need To STOP, Steph Curry’s Legacy

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Jason’s top takes of the week! He breaks down Draymond Green’s dominant defensive performance against Giannis, why the Lakers are a TERRIBLE matchup for the Suns, how the two titles Steph ...Curry won with KD affect his legacy, and why the Mavs can’t seem to shut up about the Luka trade. Timeline 4:15 - Start 5:00 - Draymond shuts down Giannis 13:00 - Lakers dominate Suns 25:00 - Steph Curry’s legacy 32:00 - Mavs need to stop talking (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.
Starting point is 00:00:12 We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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
Starting point is 00:00:43 help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter 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
Starting point is 00:00:59 on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the
Starting point is 00:01:17 biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She can win. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.
Starting point is 00:01:40 I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Volume. When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure.
Starting point is 00:02:18 Nothing's for sure. Upsets. Buzzar Beaters, Cinderella's advancing. Top Seeds going home early. It's all going to happen. Bet the unexpected, every upset every day with Draft King's Sportsbook, with live betting, exclusive content, promos and parlayes. Draft Kings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March.
Starting point is 00:02:36 Ready to make your first bet? Check out the matchups and pick a team to win. It's that simple. I'm a big Arizona Wildcats fan born and raised here in Tucson, Arizona. I'm a little skeptical about them on the offensive end of the floor, but they looked really good on defense again last night against Kansas, so I'll probably be betting on them this time around. First time, here's something special just for you.
Starting point is 00:02:56 New Draft Kings customers bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Bet the unexpected with Draft King Sportsbook. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S. That's code hoops for new customers. You get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. Only on Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler.
Starting point is 00:03:15 In New York, call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y to 467-3-6-9. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voided Ontario, new customers only, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
Starting point is 00:03:40 see dkng.c.c-o-slash audio. Welcome to the best of hoops tonight, featuring my top takes from recent shows. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Warriors dropped a game a couple nights ago against the Nuggets at home, without Jamal Murray and without Nicole Yokic playing for the Nuggets. And to be clear, my thoughts coming out of that game,
Starting point is 00:04:10 were this is March in the NBA. You're going to see this quite a bit in this time of year because it's like a funky phase where half the league already knows exactly what they are and are in some variation of cruise control where you don't know what you're getting any given night because they're either saving legs for the playoffs or they're just not feeling that level of intensity.
Starting point is 00:04:33 And even for the teams that made big deals at the trade deadline, the newness is starting to fade. It's been over a month. and this is just kind of like this a lull that you're going to see and you're going to see some weird results. Denver in particular has been a total shit show. Like they get smashed by the thunder, but then
Starting point is 00:04:49 they beat the thunder. Then they get smashed by the wolves. Then they nearly lose to the Lakers missing four starters. Then they do actually lose to the Washington Wizards at home just to go into Golden State without Murray and Yokic and beat the Warriors who were red red hot. It doesn't make any sense. That team is
Starting point is 00:05:05 just bizarre. You're going to see a lot of general or a lot of weird results in general this time of year. Like the Pacers without four starters just went into Minnesota and beat the wolves at full strength. The Wizards also went into Detroit and beat a Pistons team at full strength a few days before their win in Denver. Although it's worth mentioning the Wizards have some real stuff to start getting excited about
Starting point is 00:05:27 with their young talent flashing some real two-way potential. Guys like Alex Saar really shooting the ball well from three defending really well, Balakula Bali, Kishon George, Bub Carrington. They've got a bunch of guys that are popping for them. But the point is that it's March. And so there's a certain amount of weird result that you're going to see in there. And Steve Kerr informed us that Steph really just needs a night off and that he's been dealing with some back soreness.
Starting point is 00:05:50 And so the Warriors needed to beat the bucks last night without Steph Curry. And so conventional wisdom would tell you, you go into that game thinking you're going to win with defense, right? Take Steph out of the equation. You're going to put probably a better defender than Steph into that rotation spot. obviously you lose the world on the offensive end of the floor, but if you just defend extremely well, you give yourself a chance. And that's exactly what the Warriors did. They held the Bucks to just 92 points. They had two separate 17 point quarters that they held them to. They responded to two separate Bucks runs with defensive runs. There was a late third quarter run where it was
Starting point is 00:06:27 really the only phase of the game where the Milwaukee offense was in like really, really cooking. Dame had the pick and pop with Brooke Lopez going and Brooke was hitting threes. They had some two-man game with Damon Janice, where they were passing well out of it. Janice was drawing double teams in the post and passing well out of it. He made a nice pass to Brooke Lopez, who sealed the low man and got an easy layup. They were skipping the ball to Kyle Kuzma, who hit three after three after three. It was just the one phase in the game where Milwaukee's offense just looked like it was getting easy stuff. And so they go on this run, and they go up 76 to 70, and then promptly the Warriors put the clamps on them
Starting point is 00:07:03 and hold them scoreless for three straight minutes, and they regain control. And then something similar happened in the fourth quarter. The bucks go on another run. This time, Janus is on the bench. Dame is doing a lot of cooking in ball screens. They cut the lead down to three, but the Warriors hold them completely scoreless
Starting point is 00:07:19 over the final four minutes of the game as they pull away and win by 11. And so it was their defense that was able to completely strangle the bucks at these stretches that allowed them in the limited offensive production they were getting under the circumstances to have enough to win that game. I want to start by digging into the concept of being in two places at once on defense. This is really the superpower that Draymond Green has used to become one of the best defenders that the league has seen over the last decade, right?
Starting point is 00:07:48 We think of defense too reductively sometimes. A lot of times we'll think of it like, can I guard my man and can he guard his man? Do we have five guys that are all like elite defenders that can defend on an island and keep defenses out of rotation and keep their defense out of rotation? on and so forth. And there's a certain amount of that where you do need guys that can hold up one-on-one. Draymond got a huge one-on-one stop against Janus late in the game where he forced him into kind of a drifting, floating hook shot that he missed off the rim. But most of the best defenses that you'll see in history of the league are centered around a concept that involves actually being aggressive on the
Starting point is 00:08:24 ball, meaning like putting two defenders on the ball or overhelping, putting guys into situation to make stars play in a crowd, but then those openings disappearing really quickly through excellent rotations and setting up the floor in a way where you have a plan for whatever it is that you're dealing with from the opposing star. And like, again, like, this is,
Starting point is 00:08:47 think about Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is the best defense in the league. They're not just out there letting all their guys play one-on-one on defense. That defense is predicated on aggressive coverages, leaving openings that quickly disappear as you rotate out of it with your speed. I thought the Warriors executed this concept to perfection in this game. I thought it all started with Dremont, who did an incredible job on Janus,
Starting point is 00:09:10 all game, but especially in ball screens where he was consistently able to get up to the level to defend the ball, but to get back in time to handle Janus on the role. We saw a play early in the game where he got a block on Janus, where he was like kind of trailing the play a little bit, and he jumped and squared up in mid-air to get a piece of the ball on the way down to force a miss. He had a huge one late in the game when the ball screens were getting pushed a little bit further out towards half-court. Really good ball pressure from Gary Payton. They were pushing the ball screens out further to half-court and those rotations were more in like the short-roll area. And Draymond Green, once
Starting point is 00:09:48 again, showing up to the level, he lets Janus get past him, but he sprints back. And by the time Janus actually caught it, Draymond had him squared up again. And then he was able to play one-on-one defense and forced Raymond into a tough fadeaway. Quentin Post, who had some issues defensively in this game, had a big one late where he showed on a ball screen, Brooke Lopez slipped out of it. He was slipping towards like the top of the key area and Post just sprinted back. It got back in front of Brooke, kept him out of rotation, forced him into a tough fadeaway jump shot that he missed. So again, that concept, the ability to be on the ball to force a star ball handler to get rid of it, but then also the ability to recover in rotation to where the opening is gone.
Starting point is 00:10:32 That is the concept that makes an elite defense reach that level. Is their ability to make you constantly feel like you're playing in a crowd while never actually conceding the openings that lead to the wide open shots that will cook you in this sort of situation? And then in those one-on-ones with Yannis, Draymond is one of the few defenders in the entire NBA that has the strength and the quickness to force Janus into actually taking over the top shots. We talked about this concept in the Thunder game, if you remember with Isaiah
Starting point is 00:11:03 Hartenstein. With Janus, there's a specific amount of like, you need to have the strength so that when Yonis sees those small openings, he can't just blow through your shoulder. But you also have to have the mobility to get to a spot so that Yonis actually has to make a move, right? Once you have the ability to slide your feet and hold that strength on that shoulder, you can flatten drives out with Janus. Once you start flattening drives out with Janus,
Starting point is 00:11:30 it turns into drifting tougher contested layups. It turns into the hooks and the floaters that he can make and he's gotten better at them. But over the years, even with that improvement, he's still getting less than a point per shot. He's still missing almost 60% of his hooks and his floaters and things like that. That big ISO stop he had late.
Starting point is 00:11:50 Big possession. Janus against Dremont. on the left, you know, elbow extended area. Janus makes an aggressive move towards the right. Draymond slides his feet, absorbs the contact, flattens out the drive, forces him into that tough little hook in the lane that he leaves short off the front of the rim.
Starting point is 00:12:08 And again, like, we've talked about how Isaiah Hartnstein held Janus to his worst shooting game of the season. He held Janus to 47% from the field. Well, I should say Hartnstein and the Thunder, held Janus to 47% from the field, which was his worst shooting night of the season. Well, Draymond Green and the Warriors just held him to 31% from the field. 16% lower from the field than he has against anybody else in the NBA this season. Just a casual reminder that Draymond Green is still very much one of the very best
Starting point is 00:12:39 defensive players in the NBA. The Suns are not a good matchup for the Lakers in a bunch of different ways. The big fundamental thing that makes it really difficult for the Suns to guard this version of this Lakers team is they don't feel comfortable switching with their fives, with their centers. That puts you in a really tough spot dealing with Luca Donchich and pick and roll. We've talked about this a while. JJ Reddick has mentioned it in the post-game presser, like running drop coverage against Luca Donchich is death. And I look at that as like, you know, drop coverage can mean a lot of different things. But basically all that means is anytime you're chasing Luca over the last.
Starting point is 00:13:17 the top of the screen and the big man is waiting on the other side either up at the level and what they call a high drop or further back and what they call a deep drop. That sort of coverage makes for these really easy reads for Luca that he's been immediately great at in a Luke in a Lakers jersey. What's been interesting is like they've struggled a little bit against switching for a lot of different reasons. Luca wasn't in shape for a lot of those tough switching teams that they faced earlier in that stretch. And as a team, they haven't shot the three ball well, in large part because they're playing super, super hard on the defensive end of the floor and adjusting to the new types of three-point looks that they're getting as part of the Luca Donchich offense. And so their offense, even in the wins, has sputtered at times against teams that can switch with their five men.
Starting point is 00:14:02 But again, with this Phoenix Sun's team, with Nick Richards, with Mason Plumley, they're just not doing a lot of switching with their five men. And so that just allows Luca to play read and react basketball with baked and dribble penetration. And we've got over this a million times, but it's a simple set of reads. If the low man and the screen defender stay back, Luca gets to just work his way into the lane until he can take a little floater off the glass. If the big steps up, it creates a simple read behind it with the low man. If the low man steps over and tags the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side. If he doesn't tag the roller, then he can hit the, uh, hit Jackson Hayes run underneath the basket.
Starting point is 00:14:39 That was the big thing that Phoenix kept messing up in this game is they were running a good mix of high and low drop, but a lot. a high drop early in the game, and they weren't tagging Jackson Hayes. And part of this is like, I've been talking a lot about how the sons lately looked to me like a team that is basically quit trying to be the best basketball team they can be in large part because they know that their best isn't good enough to beat the best teams in the league. And so there were a lot of weak side possessions with Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and KD, all three of them, where they just didn't bother to tag Jackson
Starting point is 00:15:12 Hayes or some really sloppy tags. I saw both Devin. Booker and Bradley B. You'll have tags where they just kind of like ran up to Jackson. So what you're supposed to do on a tag, if they come up to the level of the screen and Jackson Hayes is rolling hard to the rim, your job is the low man is to literally get between the roll man and the rim and hit him so that he can't throw the lob up to the basket. He has to post. And usually some teams will counter that by posting there or by skipping the ball to the weak side, right? You've got to literally put your body on the line. As a small, against a rolling big.
Starting point is 00:15:47 It's a hard job. And the sons just weren't really interested in doing it last night. And so you'd see them kind of like run over to Jackson and like put their hands on him, but they're not really doing anything to make him feel uncomfortable. And he's just catching and finishing. Here's an easy little stat to demonstrate that for you. He had 19 points. Jackson A's 19 points in this game, 17 of which were on cuts and rolls.
Starting point is 00:16:10 He has had 19 points twice so far with Luca. he had 19 points one time total in the entirety of the rest of his Lakers tenure. That goes to show you the benefit of Jackson Hayes in this system. I have been talking a lot about this concept lately, but the idea of like your value as a basketball player is kind of unique to the system that you're in, right? Like there are guys that are deeply valuable in a certain system that would be less valuable in another system, whether it's like Aaron Gordon in Orlando as like a swing forward star type of play. looks really underqualified for that job, but you put him in Denver where he can
Starting point is 00:16:49 operate on the back line because their center kind of inverts their spacing, all of a sudden he becomes immensely valuable in that type of role, right? Like everybody's value is unique to their individual system. And Jackson Hayes, specifically when Luca Donchich is on the Lakers, is immensely valuable because Luca is one of the best passers in the league at making teams pay by hitting a vertical spacer. I mean, there were a lot of issues that have gone wrong for the Lakers in the four-game losing streak, most of which have come down to injuries.
Starting point is 00:17:18 I mean, you're down, you're starting front court literally. If you're down LeBron, Rui, and Jackson, it's such a difficult thing to overcome. But it's funny to say Jackson Hayes is so valuable because it felt so different in previous iterations of the Lakers. But on this version of the Lakers, Jackson Hayes is incredibly valuable to this offense because he is the guy that allows them to function in four. out one in spacing. I've talked a lot about this concept. When you're, when you're running a lot of motion, ball flowing side to side, everyone's involved in the action. It's like a five out spacing concept, right? You got ball handlers on the wings, guys in the corner, and then a big man at the top of the key who's functioning as like this passing fulcrum, screening fulcrum out at the top of the key.
Starting point is 00:18:03 This Lakers team is very much going back to the old version of their offense way back when they were the Western Conference final team in 2023, where it's like, we're spreading the floor, we're running pick and roll. Like, it's a lot of that sort of thing. And in those situations, you don't want five out spacing because in five out spacing, when the gaps on the perimeter shrink to get pretty small and it gets harder to drive as defenders are able to gap into driving lanes and stuff like that. And so the way you prefer to set up your spacing when you're more of a matchup attacking,
Starting point is 00:18:35 spread, pick, and roll type of team is four out one in spacing. You want your shooter's in the corner, you got a shooter on the wing, and you're basically occupying either the dunker spot with a dunker or a screen and roll threat where the roller is occupying that spot when he rolls to the basket. And so guys like Jemison, guys like Jared Vanderbilt, even Christian Coloco, he botched two lobs last night in the first half where it's just the easy dunks that he's struggling to make because he's got a little bit of an issue catching and finishing sometimes. You can see just how incredibly valuable Jackson Hayes is to the Lakers as a vertical
Starting point is 00:19:08 spacer in this version of the team. They did a lot of damage on that Sun's backline in this game. And after in the early third quarter, they generated yet another easy lob dunk for Jackson Hayes, kind of like a behind the back lob, a ridiculous pass from Luca. And from that point forward, the Suns basically just decided to blitz him and double team him all over the floor. And so the Lakers were able to play with an advantage. And they were able to stiff arm the Suns the rest of the way. The Suns fought back. They've been, they've been resilient. This has been a consistent theme for the Suns in the last month is like they'll get off to an ugly start and then rather than get humiliated, they'll like suddenly start competing really hard towards
Starting point is 00:19:47 the end of the game. And it's the you Lakers fans are familiar with this concept from last year. It's the fake comeback concept, right? Because that Laker team used to have a very similar personality last year. But KD had 17 points in the second half and they kind of battled a little bit, but they never got any closer than eight the rest of the way. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some. big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented
Starting point is 00:20:16 a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call
Starting point is 00:20:32 about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our ban before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.
Starting point is 00:20:45 I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas,
Starting point is 00:20:54 and offered it up as a potential title. Oh, that podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen.
Starting point is 00:21:05 We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.
Starting point is 00:21:26 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's
Starting point is 00:21:44 telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Starting point is 00:22:23 you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs, tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenschen win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me.
Starting point is 00:22:54 And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Steve, Steph Curry's two finals that he won with Kevin Durant on the roster.
Starting point is 00:23:35 Seems to me the larger NBA fan base and analysts write them off because Steph didn't win finals MVP, although he played in an extremely high level. How do they factor into his legacy in your view? This is a super complex and loaded question. I don't think anybody cares necessarily that he didn't win finals MVP. I've seen like some lowbrow stuff, like just like trolls kind of focusing on that sort of thing. I do think that there's some reality to the basic fact that every NBA championship has a different level of resonance with people. Let's just go back through recent NBA history.
Starting point is 00:24:09 Like there's not a lot of people that are profoundly moved by the 2024 Celtics who have five players who fetch over $30 million a year on the old. open market beating the pacer's and the injury ravaged pacer's and the injury ravaged calves along the way to winning a title against a good Western Conference team, but a Western Conference team that nobody thought was the best Western Conference team last year. Like that title, still a title, they're not going to get a lot of casual fans that are like, oh my goodness, this is the most impressive thing anyone's ever done. Same sort of thing goes with the Denver Nuggets. If you look through, like they were considered one of the better teams in the league,
Starting point is 00:24:46 but they faced a lot of like semi-limited teams along the way, and then they didn't have to face the team out of the Eastern Conference that everybody feared, which was the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. And so it has a certain amount of like just a little bit of a weird kind of like public perception of that title. 2022, when Steph Curry beat that Celtics team and that team didn't have a secondary star, like of all of the championship, Steph won, that is by far the most resonant. that is the championship that when you look back, like, that's the one that's unassailable. That's the one that even the people that don't like Steph that much are like, holy shit, that was crazy.
Starting point is 00:25:26 Like down 2-1 on the road in Boston, hitting all those crazy insane shots he did to drop a 40 piece to win the title. Like, that was crazy, right? Like, even I could say the same thing in reverse about LeBron. Like, LeBron's 2020 title when he won with Anthony Davis, that, title is the least resonant of the four that LeBron won. If you go back to 2016, that was LeBron's title. That was similar to the Steph won in 2023, where it's like, that's unassailable. You can't shit on that. That is the accomplishment that is the defining moment of LeBron's career. That 2020 title is still a championship. It still counts in the
Starting point is 00:26:08 leisure, but it's not the one that's going to resonate for the length of time that we talk about LeBron James the way that that 2016 title does. Or the 2013 when they're down three, two in the finals, and they have to go to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. Those resonate differently. With Steph, as you look back to the 2017 finals, here's the simplest way that I get put it to you guys. In 2017 before the season and in 2018 before the season,
Starting point is 00:26:38 the Warriors were so favored over the field that before the season started. So in early October, the sports books had them as a negative odds favorite to win the title. Meaning if you bet a dollar in October for the Warriors to win the title, you were going to win less than a dollar. That is how clearly more talented that team was than anyone else in the league. Doesn't mean they're not champions. Doesn't mean those titles don't count. But yeah, like, think about what, think about a bet you've placed Reefat. recently on Draft Kings, where you received negative odds and like think about how you expected
Starting point is 00:27:20 that team to win or you expected that player to hit those points, rebounds, assists, score, touchdown, whatever it was. You expected it with the negative odds. That's how everyone felt about those Warriors teams before we even started playing basketball. So at a certain point, I do think it's worth at least acknowledging that those titles carry a different level of weight in the court of public opinion. But it doesn't change the fact that at the time, I still believed Steph was one of the greatest players in NBA history who was more than good enough to be the best player in a championship team,
Starting point is 00:27:56 thus a champion and should be respected as such, so on and so forth for KD. Like, to me, I didn't need to see KD go to the Warriors in 2017 to know that he could be a champion. He was playing with Russell Westbrook, who was like, you know, like a kind of a hectic basketball player that made a lot of big mistakes and big spots. And his team didn't have a lot of offensive talent around.
Starting point is 00:28:19 It was a very big bruising type of team. I'm not trying to say that, you know, KD doesn't share some blame for the failures of the Thunder beforehand. But I knew in 2014 that KD was good enough to be a champion and thus a championship level player. He just hadn't done it yet. And so like, like, that's the thing. It shouldn't take us seeing Steph in 2024 or 2022. winning a title against long odds for us to acknowledge that he's a champion. It shouldn't take LeBron winning a title in 2016 against long odds for us to acknowledge that
Starting point is 00:28:51 he's a champion type of that type of all-time great, but it's just kind of, unfortunately, the way that it works in the court of public opinion. To put it simply, just like anytime you watch anybody do everything or anything, the degree of difficulty matters and how impressed you are. I watched John Mayer once at the sphere play an entire two shows, missing his index finger on his fretting hand. And that was far more impressive than anything I've ever seen him do because of the degree of difficulty. It is just a natural part of the way that we process information.
Starting point is 00:29:25 So yeah, like, to me, they were championships. To me, they, you know, kind of add to the story of Steph Curry's career. But like, when someone asks me to explain to them, tell me about Steph Curry, 20 years from now, tell me about Steph Curry. tell me about why he was as good as he was. Tell me about his greatest accomplishments. I'm probably not going to talk a ton about 2017 and 2018 because there was very little in the way of adversity in those seasons.
Starting point is 00:29:55 I've said this before on the record. Everyone says, oh, if Chris Paul didn't get hurt, they might have lost in 2018. I don't feel that way. I think that the Warriors and must win games and game six and game seven would have got it done. I think that lineup, that Steph, KD, Clay Thompson at the peak of his powers. Draymond Green, best defensive player in the league.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Andre Gwadal is still good and mobile at that point. That was the best five-man lineup that has ever been constructed on a normal basketball team, not counting like all-star teams or team USA. And so that certainly is going to play a role in their ability to win a championship. Next question. Why can't the Mavericks just stop? It's embarrassing talking about the Patrick Dumont interview that was released the other day. So the Patrick Dumont interview, you guys saw that when he gave that long.
Starting point is 00:30:42 spiel. There's a bunch of really problematic stuff in that interview. There's one where he was like, yeah, I view running the Mavs as like a family operation. It's something I do with my wife and kids. Immediately, I'm like, boom, you're setting yourself up for failure because it's like, like, that, I've seen this, this happens a lot more in the NBA than you think. This is why it's so ridiculous that everyone's hypercritical of LeBron for getting his kid, a end of the bench spot on the Los Angeles Lakers is like, there are many franchises around the league that are rampant with nepotism, like rampant with it. There are front offices, I won't get into it,
Starting point is 00:31:16 but there are multiple front offices where it's like a known commodity around the league that they let incompetent people make decisions because they're related to the owners. Like, it is a problem around the entire league. But when I saw that from Patrick DeMont, I was like, dude, like, you're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud. Like, I let my wife and kids and my mother-in-law make these big picture decisions about our basketball team.
Starting point is 00:31:39 That's just foolishness. let basketball experts who have dedicated their life to understanding the game of basketball, make your basketball decisions. If you're not interested in doing that, you're not a serious team. The second piece of it was that long, drawn-out expression of why they traded Luca. There wasn't a ton of substance offered in there. But one of the big things that he kept harping on was the idea that they weren't close. We felt like we weren't close in the finals,
Starting point is 00:32:05 and then we get into the regular season and all these other teams are better and blah, blah, blah, blah. And the part that bothered me about that is you guys remember how I was talking about the Mavericks in the early part of the season. I viewed them as the most talented roster in the Western Conference overall when Luca was healthy. Like when I looked at that roster as a roster that can cause some serious problems when Luca was healthy. They were competitive all year without Luca. And so it's one of those things where like any take he had as it pertains to, oh, the rest of the league got better, you added Clay Thompson. You added Naji Marshall.
Starting point is 00:32:44 You brought in a bunch of ball handling. You addressed some specific problems that you had last year. P.T. Washington was shooting better on above the break threes after being terrible on them last year in the postseason. Like a lot of specific things were tilting towards this is going to work when Luca comes back. And so like, here's the thing. There is no case for trading Luca the way they did. So what these people need to do is get the hell out of the media and just go dis- If you have some ulterior motive, whether it's moving the team to a different city
Starting point is 00:33:20 or maybe you just hate Luca as a personal beef, whatever the issue is, stop talking about it. Because when you talk about it, you guys just sound like imbeciles, every single one of you. There's no good take. There's no rationale that holds up for shipping off a 25-year-old prospect who's already one of the greatest players in the history of the league in that span of his career and who continued to trend forward. It was completely assinine. There's no way around it. And honestly, I just feel really bad for Mavs fans. And I'm with you guys. Why can't the Mavericks just stop? I agree. They need to just stop. What's done is done. Stop the media tour. You don't sound savvy explaining to everybody how you run your team and why you got rid of Luca.
Starting point is 00:34:03 You look like an imbecile. What's up, guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys. I'm a minute to do that. I'd really appreciate it. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong.
Starting point is 00:34:41 way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite unhumored me with Robert Smigel and friends.
Starting point is 00:34:58 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 Streeter Seidel. Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform. We do some retirement homes.
Starting point is 00:35:13 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. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed
Starting point is 00:35:29 there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. Jen, she's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Leonard Rabakina is arguably
Starting point is 00:35:45 the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game.
Starting point is 00:36:01 This morning, the internet lost its mind and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear.
Starting point is 00:36:23 Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.