The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - BEST OF: MVP Race, Cavs Offense Nearly Unstoppable, Steph Curry In MVP Form Since Butler Arrived

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

Jason’s top takes of the week!  Jason Timpf breaks down the MVP race between Nikola Jokic and SGA, explains why the Cavs SPEED makes them nearly impossible to stop, cuts the Lakers some slack due to all their injuries, and he gives Steph Curry his flowers for his patience through the down years of the Golden State Warriors and discusses how they've emerged on the other side since the Jimmy Butler trade.  Timeline 4:00 - Start 4:15 - Jokic vs SGA for MVP? 12:00 - Cavs speed is lethal 29:00 - Injuries leave Lakers no margin for error 35:15 -Steph Curry’s renaissance  (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.

This is an IHeart 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.

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. 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 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. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me, or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turn, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with. laughs, tears, or tears of laughter.

Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. with all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They hit a bogo.

Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action at Draft King's Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. For Monster Slams to Dishing the Rock to cleaning the glass,

get behind your favorite players and the prop bets you can make on Draft Kings, the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your first bet? Try betting on something simple, like picking how many points your favorite player will have. Go to the Draft King Sportsbook app and make your pick. Right now, the Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Boston Celtics

as the favorites to win the title on Draft Kings at plus 225, with the Celtics right behind them at plus 235. First time, here's something special just for you. New Draft King's customers bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Take it to the rack with Draft King's Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app. and use code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S. That's code hoops for new customers to get 150 and bonus

bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler, and New York call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y to 467-367-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-7-7-77 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and resort in Kansas. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c.c-o-slash-B-Ball. Welcome to the best of Hoops Tonight, featuring my top takes from recent shows.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the Nicole Yolkett-Shaggillis-A-Lex-LexamvP debate. So this ends up being a constant debate over the course of the years because there is a lack of consistent criteria. In my time following the NBA, everything shifts back and forth. Different voters value different things. There are huge portions of the voting base for MVP that like dramatically consider, like seriously consider catch all metrics, which I vehemently disagree with. I think it's a bad way to try to make a decision of this caliber that involves such MBA history. There are a lot of different things about the MVP that I don't like,

and that's why I don't spend too much time talking about it. That said, I think there's a specific issue arising here that should not be an issue involving whether or not Yokic has a real case. Is Yokic the best player in the NBA? Yes. Why? Because that sort of thing is determined in the playoffs. When we get to the playoffs, over the course of the last few years,

Yokic is the indomitable force that I've seen. He is the one guy that reaches a level that no team can reach. And even back in that 2023 season, he had a very, very good defensive season, and he was very good defensively on the way to the title that year. Yokic is the best player in the league. There's nothing that She could do in the regular season context to take that away, in my opinion. That said, there is this idea that Oklahoma City is overwhelmingly talented,

and that's why they're winning. And as a result, a lot of people are writing off Shea. And it's like, Shea's the guy that's on the overwhelmingly talented team. Yokic is the guy that's carrying a bunch of bums. He's the guy that deserves to win the MVP. Chet Holmgren's been out most of the season. His secondary shot creator, Jalen Williams, is very young by NBA standards. I saw a lot of people saying, like,

Shea is surrounded by all this all-world defensive talent. You're right. Shea is surrounded by a very good defensive team. There's no offensive player playing off of Shea that's as good as Jamal Murray is. There's no shooter that plays for the Thunder, who's as good as Michael Porter Jr. is. The Denver's construct is built more around offensive talent. Oklahoma City's construct is built more around defensive talent. What Shea's job this year has been, has been to create every single shot for his team. Throughout this entire season,

with Jalen Williams off the floor, just playing with a bunch of defensive-minded young athletes, he's been able to consistently put the ball in the basket and keep his team afloat on the offensive end. And when you really get down to it, they are 11 games better, 11 games better in the standings than Denver. Do you have any idea how much better Yokic would have to be than Shea in the regular season context

for 11 games to be overcome? At the end of the day, to me, MVP should come. down to three factors. It should come down to who's been the best player on the best team in the league. So team success, value to your team, how your team performs with or without you. And then lastly, I personally think it should factor in somewhat what your big picture reputation is in the league. Like if you're a player that we know can't play in the playoffs and is a merchant of regular season basketball. I think that should factor in if there's another player that's pretty close,

but that's a proven, we know this is one of the dudes in the NBA when we get to the playoffs. I do believe that should factor in. I do think Yokic has an advantage in that case. I'd even argue Yokic is more valuable to the nuggets than Shea is to the Thunder, although I think Shea is a lot more valuable to the Thunder than people give him credit for. they're a good team without Shea. They're a fucking awesome team with Shea.

He lifts them to that level. I saw people say like, oh, if you take Yokic off the Nuggets, what does that team win? Take Shea off the Thunder. How many games? They're in the playing. So it really comes down to that last piece, which is who's been the best team. And there's just such a massive advantage there. The Nuggets have very, like, the Nuggets have had substantial issues on

defense. They've consistently struggled against good teams in the league. They have not been nearly as good as a basketball team as the Oklahoma City Thunder. And the gap in value and reputation between the two is too small, in my opinion, to make up that gap. And it gets a little bit deeper when you start to factor in the reasons why Denver has struggled. Denver has been a bad defense this year. And it's not all Yokic's fault. I don't want to sit there and make it seem like that's the case. There are a lot of guys that are struggling defensively on this team. Jamal can be a problem at times. Michael Porter Jr. can be a problem at times.

Aaron Gordon's been banged up all year and hasn't been as good defensively. The young guys, like Julian Strother, has been a disaster on defense at times this year. There are other guys at fault. But there is a simple concept, a simple reality about Denver's construct that limits them on the defensive end of the floor. Yokic cannot defend and drop coverage and he cannot switch. If he defends in drop coverage, he's nowhere near good enough at protecting the rim. A guy like that on his heels, guys go right around him to the basket.

And if you put him in space to switch, you can't slide his feet well enough, he'll just give up dribble penetration. So there's like two coverages that the Nuggets can legitimately deploy. And both of them involve putting two on the ball. They can bring Yokic up to the level and they can blitz with him. Those are really the only two things they can do. and so they exist in rotation. They exist in these four on threes off the ball, and they're just not very good on the backside rotating out of it.

That is a reality of why Denver struggles on the defensive end of the floor. Yokic is a big part of it. That's why Phoenix continues to have success against this team, scoring the basketball, even though obviously they've lost their last few against them, but Phoenix can score. When the Lakers went in there and won, it was just two on the ball,

four on threes, easy wide open threes every single time down the floor. Their defense struggles because their base concept demands excellent rotations on the backside due to Yokic and they haven't been very good on the backside.

I think that that is just too big of a factor in a gap that is 11 games wide in the standings for me to just be like, well, Yokic is the best player in the world, so therefore he deserves MVP. It's never been that way. The best player in the world deserve MVP. LeBron would have 10 of them. MJ would have 10 of them.

It'd be a completely different story. Kobe would have five or six of them. That's just not how it works. It's never been how it works. She's having a nearly as good season as Yokic for a much better team, and he may not be as valuable to them as Yokic is, but he's valuable enough that I think, he deserves to be the favorite to win MVP at this point.

There's what, 20-something games left? Maybe Shea falls apart and Yokic is amazing and Yokic snatches it. But if the season ends today, I think Shea deserves it. And I hope that he, I hope that if the circumstances stay the same, that he ends up getting it, because that's the way we've done it throughout NBA history. Once again, every time I watch these kind of like middle-tier teams in the league, you know, I kind of, I've talked about this last night with Colin Coward, but like, I kind of view the inner circle of the NBA as like five teams that I think have like a real chance to win the title.

And in no particular order, because I'm going to end up doing some stuff involving ordering them over the course of the next month. Jackson and I were talking this morning about doing very, very in-depth breakdowns specifically on the inner circle contenders involving some film and stuff. So we're thinking about doing that over the course of the next month. But those five teams for me right now are in the Eastern Conference, Boston and Cleveland. in the Western Conference, Oklahoma City, Denver, and the Los Angeles Lakers. If you look at those teams and you watch them play every single night, there's a level of seriousness on both ends of the floor and their execution and their attention to detail and just their overall pursuit of maximizing their talent and being the best basketball team that they can be.

And literally, as soon as you go below that, it's a drop-off. Even with a team that has a pretty damn good record like the New York Knicks, they've been so inconsistent with their defensive execution this year. teams like Milwaukee, teams like Minnesota. There are so many teams in that group that have been very, very inconsistent in their attention to detail. The one team that's kind of below there that I'm keeping my eye on because I don't really know where they're going to fit once we see a larger sample of them playing some tougher teams of the Golden State Warriors, I think they have a chance to enter into the inner circle. There are some teams in that group that I think I'm keeping my eye on over the course of the final month to see.

But those are the five teams that I see. And when you go beyond that, there's a pretty substantial drop-off in terms of just the level of serious basketball that they play. I thought it was really interesting as I started to dig through the numbers. Like, if you look at the margins, these are the areas where all of the good teams are always good. The margins are the little details that suck. They're hard to do, but they're such an important part of winning basketball games. For instance, taking care of the basketball and making sure you don't. give up points off of turnovers. The Thunder, the Cavs, and the Celtics are all top five,

and opponent points off of turnovers, and the Lakers are top 10. Giving up points off of offensive rebounds. The Cavs and Celtics are both in the top 10. The Thunder have always been a bad defensive rebounding team. That's their Achilles heel, so they're out of that group. But the Cavs and Celtics, top 10, and the Lakers since January 15th, when they kind of became a serious team, they're seventh in that department. Giving up fast break points. The Cavs, the Celtics, and the Thunder are all in the top 11 in limiting opponents' fast break points. This is the Lakers Achilles heel. That's where they always get beat.

They're unathletic in transition at times. Cleaning the Glass's overall transition defense stat. The Cavs, the Celtics, and the Thunder are all top 10. The Lakers are top 10 since January 15th. Makes in the restricted area allowed. So giving up easy baskets right underneath the rim. The Cavs, Celtics, and Thunder are all top 10. The Lakers are 7th since January 15th.

Total number of contested shots this year. This is a hustle stat on NBA.com. The Cavs, the Thunder, and the Celtics are all in the top four. These are non-negotiables if you want to be a serious basketball team. You have to be committed to running the floor in transition, making contact on boxouts, competing for contested rebounds, making rotations, putting your body on the line, making extra efforts, contesting shots. These are non-negotiables.

And they're hard. there's a reason why there's such a huge swath of the league that's bad at this stuff on a nightly basis because it's 82 games and you're all a bunch of millionaires and it's really, really hard to get yourself to compete at that level in a night in and a night out basis. That said, like I said, it's a non-negotiable if you want to get to the finish line, if you want to get the Larry O'Brien trophy. Every time I watch the bucks, they seem to be heavily lacking in these areas. They are mediocre to bad in every single one of those statistical categories that I listed except for defensive rebounding. It was jarring again to watch as the Cavs just dominated this game

by outrunning the Bucks all over the floor, 24 easy points in transition, countless possessions where they would defend well and get a stop and rebound and run out the other way and get an easy one against a Bucks team that wasn't willing to run. Even in the half court, it's the same sort of concept. Whether it was Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell or somebody else creating that initial advantage, the calves just sliced and diced the Bucks defense with these beautiful drive-and-kick sequences that often ended in wide-open looks for very good shooters. You could literally see them repeatedly knifing through the lane, not just on that initial drive, but on close-outs. And as a result, they're able to grow that advantage so that first close-out's only a little

bit of a close-out. The second close-outs, more of a close-out. The third one, no chance. The dude's wide open. The Cavs generated 22 unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in this game. The Milwaukee Bucks generated just nine. That's the difference. The Cavs have this beautiful ability to slice and dice defenses for these super high quality catch and shoot looks, and at the same time on the other end of the floor, keep their defense out of rotation against Milwaukee. And it's not just the commitment to running. It's the commitment off the ball on defense to tracking shooters, being sharp with your closeouts. Cleveland was so attentive and sharp.

Every catch and shoot look for Milwaukee felt like it was smothered with a quick and reactive closeout. How many times did you see Tori and Prince in the game kind of lingering around five, six feet away from Max Truce and just a quick swing pass and Max Truce knocks down a shot? How many times did you see Brooke Lopez and Janice Santinacumpo? just drifting off of Evan Mobley and not in position to offer a closeout as Evan Mobley made them pay knocking down that catch and shoot on the weak side. Prince in particular had a really rough night in this regard, but as a team, the Bucks were not attentive in their off ball defense. That's how you end up with such a huge chasm and the overall number of wide open catch and shoot shots that they generated. The Bucks have a lot of talent,

but you can't even get to the point where you're able to weaponize that talent. until you're willing to commit to the hard work that is consistent winning basketball that is required to get to that level. There are some realities with the Bucks regarding their age in overall footspeed. This is a size team, not a speed team. We're going to talk about the difference between the two here in a minute. But at the same time, every time I watch them, there's just so much fat that can be trimmed. Simple transition defense principles like stopping the ball, stopping the basket,

and getting matched up. there's a big one late in the game where Tori and Prince left a wide open shooter right at the top of the key. The on defense in the half court, like simple ideas, like making sure that when you're in help side defense, positioning yourself in a way where you can see man in ball and make sure that if that pass goes, you're already in the close out while the ball's in the air and you're there on the catch. These are details that don't necessarily depend on their overall team speed

that can be cleaned up. they just haven't made the requisite effort to do so. Now, getting to the game itself, I want to talk about how the combination of speed and jump shooting is what actually allows the Cleveland Cavaliers to generate so many quality shots. This has been the best offense in the NBA this year. They're actually almost three points per 100 possessions ahead of the second place, Boston Celtics. They're the only team in the lead getting over a 120 offensive rating.

The Cavs offense is unbelievable. Now, like we talked about earlier, there's a difference between size and speed. There are two easy ways to get the defense into rotation through overwhelming speed and overwhelming size. For overwhelming size, think like Yokic or guys like LeBron James, Luca Donch, it's Jason Tatum, some of these bigger, stronger players. They find a defender that's too small to guard them. Then they pressure the rim until they get easy twos,

or they draw in that second defender. Speed works the exact same way. When you have guards that through transition or through ball screens, against switches, whatever it is, when they can consistently get screaming downhill towards the rim, they either are going to get layups or they're going to draw in multiple defenders. This is the part of the Cavs roster construct that has really shown through this year. And for the record, I was originally a couple years ago completely out on the Darius Garland-Donovan Mitchell Perry

as like a foundation for the Cavs. Why? Because it's two small guards. And when you're building around two small guards, it just presents so many issues for you on the defensive glass and just on the defensive end in general. And by the way, they still occasionally have rebounding issues and they still occasionally have defense issues. But as Darius Garland has gotten healthy this year, and as he's blossomed into this super high-level guard,

we've gotten to see the other side of that dynamic, which is that they do have overwhelming speed. Garland, this year healthy with his legs underneath them, has been one of my favorite players to watch in the league this year. Because of his combination of speed, and handle in shot making and playmaking, which gives him the ability to get wherever he wants to get on the floor. His probing and transition off the dribble and in the half court

is responsible for so much of Cleveland's offensive success. The Cavs' offense all year has been about two points better per 100 possessions when Darius Garland is on the floor versus off. Donovan Mitchell brings the same thing. He's not at the same level of quickness that Darius Garland is at, but he's close and he's bigger and he's more vertically athletic and he's a better. shotmaker. And he's got like a bunch of these really fancy gather moves. Like he's been putting on a clinic of that like windmill over the top gather that Dwayne Wade popularized. And then

he's brought back to sham god with a vengeance this year. He had another nasty one the other night. There is, or Donovan Mitchell's ball handling in the middle of the floor has been unbelievable this year. But he also has an amazing ability to get wherever he wants on the floor. That's the initial first step for any drive-and-kick sequence. You've got to generate that initial advantage that compromises the defense and generates those kickout opportunities for your spot-up guys. From there, they just have a bunch of guys who are awesome at playing driving kick basketball. Max Trues, lightning quick release can do it on the move and is a really good driving kick player. It can make basic driving kick reads. Dean Wade is good at it too.

DeAndre Hunter has been brilliant so far as a cab as a spot-up guy, as a guy who can do some advanced scoring in the mid-range attacking closeouts. Ty Jerome is good at it. is good at it. Mitchell and Garland can both do it when they're off the ball. Just to give you an idea. Here are some spot-up efficiency numbers for Cavs players according to Synergy. DeAndre Hunter, 1.37 points per possession. That's outrageous. Tide Jerome, 1.36 points per possession. That's outrageous. Craig Porter, obviously in a smaller role. 1.28 points per possession. Max Trues, 1.24. Donovan Mitchell, 1.18. Same Merrill, 1.15. They have six players. Logging. over 1.15 points per possession in spot-up situations. As a team, they get 1.11 points per any spot-up

possession. Only the Celtics in the NBA are better at converting spot-up possessions than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they generate so many of them on the strength of their speed. It's that combination. Speed, which is necessary to consistently get the defense and rotation, and then having players that can extend advantages and pay them off. 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 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 about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. 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, and offered it up as a potential title for the 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. 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 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. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice 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. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12

in 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 tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian went.

I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. 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. I wanted to just very briefly talk about the Lakers in their loss in Brooklyn last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's not much margin for error with the injuries. Like, you have no LeBron, no Rui Hachamura, no Jackson Hayes, and no Dorian Finney Smith, that's four of your core eight playoff rotation players. LeBron's your second best player. Ruiz's probably your fourth best player. So, like, you don't have much margin for error when you're down that many guys.

So if Austin Reeves and Luca Donchich are also going to shoot 11 for 40 from the field, you're going to have a hard time beating anyone, right? It's just, there's too much going against you in that sort of situation. And so some of this, like, honestly, it's just a really bad confluence of events. So LeBron happens to suffer his first injury of the year when you're already down to forwards and your starting center, right? Luca happens to be having one of the worst shot-making stretches of his career, which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves has always been a guy that takes a little bit of time to get his rhythm

when he's been out of the lineup for a little bit. And so Austin's really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and he's been out of rhythm. Luke is having this like brutal shot-making stretch where he can't make any of the jump shots that he typically makes in his, throughout the rest of his career, and you're just absolutely brutalized by injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot, right?

And I actually kind of view it as a blessing in disguise because the team had been winning a lot, obviously. They'd been the best team in the league for almost two months. So like, it's one of those things where you had a little bit of slippage in your execution against Boston. right and so JJ was able to use the Brooklyn loss last night

to just basically rip his team a new one and essentially like use it as a motivator to refocus the team like it's not a big deal that they lost to the nets it's not going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where they're at in the standings like I don't

necessarily think getting any specific seed other than staying out of the play in matters I think getting to their getting to April healthy is really all that matters and so it's more important for you to be sharp. And so if you drop a game against the nets that is just a confluence of events and you lose against the defending champions on their home floor in a game where a bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other things don't go your way,

it's really nothing to overreact to. But JJ can package that as a message to put in front of the Lakers to be like, we have to be better at this stuff. Because guess what? If they want to win the trophy, they do kind of have to be better at that stuff. And it's just a perfect excuse to use as a motivator for this team. The part that I want to keep an eye on, though, is Lucas shot making. This is the part that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of this team. Austin's been out. He'll eventually get it back.

That will go a long way towards helping this team. But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca. Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys the gap in shot-making ability between this version of Luca Donchich and the version of Luca Donchich that took the Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year. In 12 games with the Lakers,

Luca has managed to make at least 10 field goals twice in 12 games. Last year with the Dallas Mavericks, in 70 games, he made at least 10 shots 50 times. 50 of the 70 games.

That's the level of shot making that Luca can still get to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are actually the best defense in the NBA? No. They've been defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the best defense in the NBA.

My guess is there's somewhere in the 5 to 10 range, given the type of personnel that they have. But they can be so, so, so much better on offense. That is the side of the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot about this. I'm not going to get into it today, but one of our next few Laker videos,

I'll do a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much. It mostly has to do with putting guys in the right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get the kinds of shots you want from the players that you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing, right? There's a lot of improvement that they can still make on that end, but just Luca getting back to where he can be as a shotmaker,

while LeBron and Austin are both healthy and in rhythm, will go a long way towards lifting this team to a more elite level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's why I'm not really concerned. Like, I saw enough in the Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm going to pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everyone. They're just the safer bet.

But I saw enough in that game from Luca and LeBron attacking the Boston Smalls to go like, oh, like, I think they can, win that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series last year, I literally came on the show in my series preview and said, I think Boston's going to blow them out. I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues with the matchups and the inability that Dallas had to create space because of their non-shooters on the floor, they're poor above the break shooters in the way that they could sit rim protection under the basket. The difference with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have Rui Hachamura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith,

They don't have a single player in that five-man grouping that you can help off of. And so they should be able to create more space. LeBron and Lucas should be able to punish the smalls. Again, it was a loss. There was a lot of disappointment there. I didn't think they played well. Luca looked bad for most of that game. There's a lot of negatives, but I saw enough out of that to be like, oh, I think they can beat Boston.

That was an encouraging thing for me. The next game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ to refocus the team. and it's a reminder for you guys that Luca can still come so, so, so far as a shot maker. That brutal from Austin and Luca last night, 11 for 40 from the field.

They're not going to shoot like that very often. Steph played on some really talented teams in the heart of his prime with the Golden State Warriors. But it's been brutal over the last five years. In the 2022 title run, the Warriors had a championship level roster, but there wasn't much margin for error. Those of you guys who listened to the show at the time,

will remember, none of their young players were in the rotation even. I was advocating for Joe Lacob and Bob Myers to cash them in, to trade them to create more margin for error in that particular playoff run. In the short term, Joe Lacob and Bob Myers were proven right because that team was good enough to win the championship. But the story in the long run is more complicated. It's become precarious because none of that young talent ended up being a foundation. cornerstone type of talent.

James Wiseman was a complete bust. Jonathan Caminga proved to be super raw. And guess what? Now Jonathan Camingas do a massive payday. And as soon as you start talking about Jonathan Caminga as a 30 plus million dollar player, it becomes a more complicated discussion for any basketball team.

And I like Moses Moody. I think he's a useful young player, but he's a role player. And then things got compounded as Andrew Wiggins failed to ever get back to the level he was at in 2022. too. So the result was a limited Warriors roster that didn't really accomplish much over the next two and a half years. And honestly got pretty sad as you looked around the rest of the league

at the other sets of stars. I used to, earlier in the year, I'd do this in the show. I would just list out the shot creators on every other team in the West. And it was crazy. Like, you know, okay, see, it's Shay and J-dub and Chet. You go to Denver. It's Yokic and Murray. It's John Morant and Jaron, Jaron, James, and Anthony Davis. It's Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall. It's Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. It's Dearon Fox and Demarta Rosen. It's Cairo Irving and Luca Donch. Even James Hardin had Norm

Powell, who was great while Kawhi was out. Fred Van Fleet with the Houston Rockets had Jalen and Green and Alper and Shangoon and Steph Curry had Andrew Wiggins and Buddy Heel. And like, look, Andrew Wiggins got to a really high level in the 2022 season. I thought he was, you know, he's never been back at that

level, but I thought he was really, really good in that in that playoff front. But like, that's a lot to ask. Steph Curry to overcome. And like, to make matters even worse, the roster limitations made them look bad. As they looked bad, everyone decided they were bad. As everyone decided they were bad,

a lot of people just decided a trade wasn't worth it. So they passed on Ogen and Obi. And they passed on Pascal Seocton. And I mean, they may not have been able to afford Mikhail Bridges with how expensive it was, but they just started passing on guys. Even in the early part of the year when Jimmy Butler and Zach Levine were available, I had been hearing that the Warriors were not interested in those two,

that they were holding out for Kevin Duran or LeBron James in a trade. They didn't want to have a flawed star. Why? Because they thought they were bad. All because of a roster imbalance. And part of the issue at that point is they had waited so long that their young players had lost some value relative to what it was in 2022. Jonathan Kamingin in 2022, three years left on a rookie deal. young raw prospect has a lot of intrigue.

Trade for Jonathan Camingo and you've got to pay him, it's a completely different story. It really looked bleak. And you could see it in Steph's body language at times. He's one of the great competitors in this league and he was losing belief that he'd ever get a chance to truly compete for a championship again. There was even a press conference

where Steph sounded so dejected and made comments surrounding the trade deadline that were so like bizarrely defeated sounding that he had to come out for his next press conference and remind everybody that he's a competitor that wants to win a title. But then opportunity knocked. I don't know if it was the Luca trade that kicked them into gear or something else or just the urgency of the moment, but shortly after the Luca trade, it was announced that there was a lot of intentionality behind Golden State's pursuit of a star to bring next to Steph. They end up pulling the trigger on

Jimmy Butler, who had done his part by acting so crazy and playing so poorly that he had tanked his value down to where he became a very achievable target for Golden State without having to give up much more than some salary filler a pick. One of the main reasons why I was such a big believer in a Jimmy Butler trade was that the Warriors were really good in a lot of areas. I talked a lot in the early part of the year about how they had a ton of team speed, which is how they are so excellent defensively another great rotation team. They were top 10 defense all year. Steph had shown signs of his superstar upside and some high-profile games.

As a matter of fact, the Warriors all year, even before the trade, were one of the best teams in the league against the best teams in the league. Some signature wins, a win in Boston against the Celtics, two wins against Oklahoma City Thunder. They had shown some real upside. They also had way more role player talent than they actually needed. They had 15 guys who can play. They just needed someone to take on the responsibilities of a secondary star.

And Jimmy Butler did that immediately. He fit the offense, both with Steph and without Steph. They got even better defensively. And it shortened the rotation. It cut down on the number of options Steve Kerr had. It gave guys more consistent roles, crystallized roles for guys like Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemsky who've been great with the starters.

But most importantly, it awakened a sleeping giant. Steph had been clearly holding something in reserve as the team was floundering in mediocrity. And the belief that his team could actually reach the mountaintop unlocked his ceiling. Since the Jimmy Butler trade in 14 games, he's averaging 30 points per game, 50, 42, 92 splits,

69% true shooting. Again, 30 points on 69% true shooting since Jimmy joined the team. His MVP season was 30 points on 67% true shooting. Like, it's insane. 12 and 2 in those games. They look like a bona fide championship contender. He was one of the game's greatest players hiding in plain sight, completely, like written off due to one roster weakness, an imbalance between role player talent and shot creation talent, one that frankly was

obvious to everyone in the world watching this team over the last couple of years. But they took care of it. And now we're going to get to see what I wanted to see so badly out of a Jimmy Butler trade. And that's Steph Curry playing in meaningful basketball games, which I'm very excited for. 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 appreciate you guys. It's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? But we created our own podcast called Hey Jonas.

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. 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. Unhumor me with Robert. Smigel 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. 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. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So, I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely.

A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got them.

Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Rivera. and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest

instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with the Anna Maria Riva on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.