The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - BIGGEST ISSUES for Lakers trio of Luka Doncic, LeBron James & Austin Reaves | NBA Mailbag

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

Jason answers mailbag questions from subscribers on topics including how the Los Angeles Lakers trio of Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves can best coexist on the court, Cade Cunningham's NBA playoff impact for the Detroit Pistons, dream NBA duos, what makes the San Antonio Spurs organizational culture so strong, and more. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee 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.

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Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice 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. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week. Today is Mailbag Day. Thank you guys all for adding questions. Remember, if you want to get questions in, all you got to do is drop them in the YouTube comments under our full episodes. Put mailbag with a colon, write your question that helps me sort through them,

and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos, and then make sure you like this video as well as sign up for our post notifications. That helps us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question. Hey, Jason, love the show.

One of the main reasons I enjoy the show is because you aren't afraid to talk deeper, talk about deeper than just hooping topics. With that being said, my question is, do you buy, believe Luca is covered differently than his peers in the media. He has all the symptoms of being an AAU baby, such as the lack of coming into the season in shape and his perceived cocky attitude. Do you think because he's European, he's just inherently covered differently than American-born players. Would love to hear your thoughts and thanks again. This is an interesting question. There's a lot of different angles to get into here. I remember having a conversation with Adam Mariz. It was one of the

nights that we were, my wife and I were having dinner at his house and we were just talking about Yokic and his overall personality. And one of the things he talked about with some of these European dudes is that they have like a, uh, a passionate like joy for like life for like enjoying life. Like they're, they're freaky competitive and they love basketball and they certainly have a, uh, a level of focus and intensity there, but they don't forego the pleasures of life. you know what I mean, essentially is the way that he explained it to me. And I had never really thought of it that way because that culture, I think, is something that we've seen with both Yokic and with Luca Donchich,

where there's the competitiveness, there's the care, but there's also like the, there's not like the absolutely OCD insane basketball as all that matters type of attitude that you'd see from like a Kobe Bryant, for example. And I do think that that plays some role in some of the doiness that we see from from both of those guys. As far as the media question goes, I, you know, I don't think Luca's covered with kid gloves. In fact, I think it's the opposite. I mean, I mean, yesterday, I, like, I was like every time I opened up my phone, it felt like everybody in the media was ripping him a new one. And like, overall, I think Luca has been a guy that's been, the criticism has been

fair, but I think he's been criticized plenty. The point being, like, I don't think there's some sort of a loophole that Lucas slipping through here and getting off the hook for the stuff that's happening. I talk about this all the time with great power comes great responsibility. When you are a legitimate top tier superstar in the NBA, just like when you're one of those top tier starting quarterbacks in the NFL, all the questions, all the criticism, all that kind of stuff tends to be directed towards you. It comes with huge shoe deals and supermax contracts. And all the dudes who have been that in the past have become legends. right? Like, that's the thing. Like, if Luca ends up winning two NBA finals in his career and gets two

finals MVP, he will be revered as a basketball player in a way that only maybe a couple dozen players have in the history of the league, maybe 15 in the history of the league that get revered that way. So, like, it's a given to take, right? Like, it comes with a lot of criticism. And when you're bad, everyone's going to tell you that you're bad, right? But then it also comes with the reverence in the in the the the the way that they can become almost legendary in the way that we discuss them right and so i don't think luke's gotten off i think i think he's been i mean yesterday he was just getting dragged through the meat grinder right so like he he definitely gets criticized for the um for what i think are valid reasons uh regarding his conditioning regarding his

complaining to the reps regarding like i didn't i didn't see a lot of unfair stuff going out last night, like, or yesterday. Like I, the stuff with him complaining to the refs is a real problem. There is literally not a single player in the NBA that behaves with the refs the way that he does. He is actually hurting his game and hurting his team by primarily focusing on grifting rather than trying to create his own shots. And when he doesn't get calls, him not getting back on defense. And there are some very legitimate criticisms with him that I think are, that I think we're getting hit on. But I definitely don't think he's, uh, um, getting away with anything. The media has been on his case for sure.

Next question. The perfect solution for the Lakers is this. One of the three playmakers, Luca LeBron Reeves, has to average double-digit assists while the two of them go off on offense. This ensures that at least one of them is looking to get the team going. This means Rui is getting good shots. Jake is getting good shots. Aiton is getting good looks and opportunities on mismatches at the rim. When one playmaker does not have it going, like Luca on some nights, he should constantly threaten running towards the basket to get easy looks while also getting open threes and driving lanes first teammates. The Lakers struggle most when their stars aren't shooting the ball well, but still keep trying to push and find rhythm while

simultaneously forgetting their teammates need to touch and shoot the ball to. Your thoughts. So this is where I actually disagree in the sense that I think like when you're, I think that every single possession for the Lakers that is like a legitimate full normal half court possession should involve all three stars in the action. So what does that mean? When you're in the flow of the game, so if you're playing in semi-transition, so like, okay, we get a stop and we have a four on three and we're playing off of that initial advantage. Or like, sometimes in late game situations, you might be hunting a specific one-on-one matchup that you like. So you might just dribble the ball at the floor and get a screen from a guard to get a specific one-on-one matchup that you like. There are times when stagnation just kind of naturally happens in games.

I know there are a lot of people who cover the league or fans of the league that talk about it in the sense like, oh, we should go down and run a set on every single possession. That's just not how basketball works. Anybody who's ever played the game knows. That's why at every level, they coach early offense and like motion offense, meaning like when we are not running a set, this is what we do. We push the ball at the floor. This is what we do.

When we run an action and it breaks down, this is what we do. Like, those are in place because coaches know that you can't just run a set every single time you go down the floor. But when the Lakers do end up in a half court set, or they have a good long shot clock to work with, and LeBron, Austin, and Luca are all on the floor, the best thing you can do is involve them all in the action in some way, shape, or form.

So you'll see that a lot. And the Lakers do do this from time to time with horn sets, right? Like you'll see Luca, like, start in the left corner, and you'll see Austin bring the ball up the floor, and LeBron and Nathan will be on the elbows, and they'll run some sort of interchange that flows into like a double-jerk, drag, dribble handoff with Luca coming out of the left corner. And it's like the reason why you

want to do as much of that stuff as possible is because most likely with that type of action involving Aiton, a legit screen and roll threat, say what you want about Aiton, and I've been really frustrated with him this year, but he is a very gifted screen and roll threat. And you add in three really high level ball handlers that can all punish the defense in different ways. Inevitably, when you do that, you're going to get some kind of advantage for one of the players. The bigger issue that I think the Lakers have had this season as it pertains to their offense with all three stars on the floor comes down to catch and shoot play. So let's say you run that action and Luca ends up getting downhill as he's coming off of the screen. And as he's coming off of the

screen, he's got his advantage. Luca's working. The defense reacts to him and it ends up getting swung out to, let's call it, Rui Hachamura or Marcus Smart in the opposite corner. And the defense rotates to Rui. And it gets swung up the lane line to or up the above the break line to Austin Reeves on the right wing. And then Austin Reeves is a good catch and shoot player. So they rotate. And then it gets swung again and there's LeBron or there's Luca. And LeBron and Luca have not been good catch and shoot players this year. And you know, it's kind of a shame because one of the big reasons why I was so excited about LeBron rejoining the team after missing training camp. And one of the reasons why I was so optimistic about the fit with all three

of these guys is because LeBron for two straight years before this was an excellent catch and shoot player. Like if you left him open off the catch, he was hitting like 45% of his open catch and shoot threes over the last couple of seasons. And LeBron is just having a brutally bad jump shooting season. So I actually think that when the three guys are on the floor, JJ Redick has done a pretty good job of involving everybody and getting them into a set that allows them to take advantage of their aggregate offensive talent. But the defense has a game plan for how to guard those actions and they're usually going to react, which is going to end up in some sort of kickout situation. And too often it's been either Marcus Martin, Jake La Ravia who can't hit open threes, or when Rui's out there,

the ball will get worked around, and a guy like LeBron can't hit an open three, or a guy like Luca can't hit an open three. And, you know, I think if it was just Luca, because Austin has been a good catch-and-shoot player this year. If it was just Luca, I think it would be fine. I think you can get away with one of those dudes not being a great catch-and-shoot player. But when you have two of those three having a bad catch-and-shoot season, it makes it so that once they get through that initial action and they get into their driving kick, there's just too many spots where the advantage is dying or it's ending in a play finisher's hands that can't actually make the shot. And so as we talk about star fit moving forward, I think that's a really important

detail. Like I think if you're putting three high level offensive players together, even just two, it's ideal if they're all really good catch and shoot players. So for instance, take James Hardin and Donovan Mitchell. One of the big reasons why I like that fit is James Hardin in this phase in his career is an excellent catch and shoot player. That's a big part of his performance in the game against the Knicks in the runs that they went on, just him capitalizing on open catch and shoot opportunities, right? I am incredibly excited to tell you guys about our new partnership with Viori. Those of you guys who are familiar with Viori have noticed that I wear it on the show and I have done so for years now, almost every single day, because it's become a workhorse for me. And that's why I'm so excited about

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Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? 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.

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 a 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 was...

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. we 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.

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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. Genshin won. 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 at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Donovan Mitchell, also a great catch-and-shoot player.

One of the things that's been so important with the Kaz is like, is Evan Mobley hitting the open catch-and-shoot threes like he was at the beginning of the Knicks game, right? So like once you get into the flow, now everybody's a play finisher, right? Once you're in the flow, like we've run in action, we've created an advantage, the defense is in rotation, everybody's a play finisher. So you better either be a really good cutter finisher around the basket or you better be a dude who can knock down that open catch and shoot three. It's like a prerequisite.

I think one of the biggest issues for the Lakers this year is just how bad LeBron and Luca have been as catch and shoot players. I want to actually elaborate on this a little bit. After the Celtics game in particular, I saw a ton of negativity surrounding LeBron James talking about lineup data. And I think this is a very nuanced discussion. to get into because there is some really clear lineup data that shows like when Luca and Austin are on the floor without LeBron, they've been awesome, or when Luca's been by himself,

or when Austin's been by himself, but when LeBron's been on the floor with those guys, things haven't been as successful. There's a lot of different things that I want to get into there. First of all, the Luca Austin with LeBron off numbers. Those lineups absolutely crushed at the beginning of the season against their week. stretch of schedule when LeBron was completely out of the out of the rotation with an injury. They, the Lakers were really good. If you remember, they started with an awesome record. They won a bunch of games. Austin had big nights with Luca out of the lineup. Luca had big nights with Austin out of the lineup. And they just won a bunch of games

against an easy stretch of their schedule that juiced up that lineup data. All the the data since Austin came back from this cap injury, it's been dicey in most of the Lakers lineup groups. It's not like Luca and Austin have been absolutely crushing and LeBron's been coming in and ruining it in this recent stretch. Two, LeBron in the units where he's been on the floor by himself with Austin and Luca off have been some of the Lakers' best groups this season. They're outscoring teams by almost six and a half points per 100 possessions. And that's been a huge part of why the Lakers have such a good record.

Because during that stretch when Austin Reeves was out of the lineup, there were a lot of games. where late third quarter, early fourth quarter runs in LeBron James-led groups who are helping the Lakers put games away and for them to win. So I do think that it's a lot more complicated than the data looks on its face. That said, some of it is legitimate. Why has it been that LeBron hasn't been as successful or productive alongside the other stars? And I think it comes down to two things.

The first piece is that catch-and-shoot piece. With those LeBron's solo groups, LeBron's not having to take a lot of catch-and-shoot looks. It's a very defensive focus group that's playing a lot in transition and in the open floor and in the flow. And LeBron's playmaking has been the advantage there, and he's been able to drive success in those units. When he's playing off of Austin, when he's playing off of Luca, his inability to hit catch-and-shoot jump shots has been part of the problem. And the second piece of it is defensive mistakes. all season long. I think LeBron's having a pretty bad defensive season in those groups. It's weird when he's playing by himself in the groups without Austin and Luca. It's like the

entire lineup's identity centers around defense and LeBron will be super engaged and he's flying around. He's making all these plays. But for some reason when he gets on the floor with Austin and Luca, he's been so much more like checked out mentally on the defensive end of the floor. And he has missed a lot of rotations. He has missed a lot of boxouts. He has left a lot of meat on the bone defensively in those groups. So as we zoom out, I would just round it out by saying, like, has LeBron been part of the problem for these Laker groups that have struggled with multiple stars on the floor? Yes.

But he's also been a huge part of their success this season leading the solo groups without Austin and Luke on the floor at all. And I would argue most of the issues for the Lakers are like roster-wide jump shooting and athleticism issues. issues. And so, again, like, when I saw that stuff going around with LeBron yesterday, I'm like, some of this is true. Some of this is worth digging into. LeBron definitely deserves some criticism for why some of these lineups are struggling, but, like, painting the picture, like, I saw Brian Winhorst say, like, the Lakers have been an excellent team when LeBron's off the floor of the season. It's like, that's just not fucking true. That's, like, literally not true. Like, the Lakers this season have been a mediocre team all year outside of an awesome start

to the season against a weak schedule. So, like, I think, I think there's a certain nuance to the discussion around LeBron this year that's worth getting into. Hasn't been great with the stars, large part because of the catch and shoot play and too many defensive mistakes. But a huge part of the reason why the Lakers are 33 and 24 or whatever it is they are right now, or 34 and 23, a huge part of that is literally because for a huge chunk of the season, LeBron was carrying these units with Luca and Austin off the floor and helping them win a lot of games. So like it's just a lot more nuanced than it looks on the surface. next question hey jason i just wanted to know what makes kade and the pistons different from other ball dominant

ball handlers slash scores people are high on the pistons and giving them a good chance to come out of the east kate is responsible for scoring or assisting on around 50 points per game for the pistons what makes his style of play more favorable for a playoff run instead of guys like luca brunson and others bear down big arizona fan like to hear that i'm i typically don't watch a ton of college hoops as you guys know because of just how busy the NBA season is. But I'm really starting to dig in on this Arizona team. I've watched a lot of Arizona teams in my life that have been good in different ways

or have had high level NBA talent on them, like Stanley Johnson or Aaron Gordon, for example, DeAndre Aiton, for example. But like this team has like the best balance of really good guards between Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burry's and like size on the interior, but like really good wings that can like shoot. and defend. And I just like this Arizona team a lot. Like in my entire lifetime, this is the best I've

felt about an Arizona team and their chance to win the title. So I'm very, very excited to watch them in this year's postseason. I thought their win on the road in Houston was a big character win after a couple of tough losses. That comeback against Baylor was a fun one. It's engaging like this part of my personnel. When I was a kid, like, Arizona basketball is a religion where I grew up in Tucson. So like it's been cool kind of getting back invested in that group. And Tommy Lloyd, I think is a fantastic coach. I've enjoyed him way more than I enjoyed the Sean Miller experience. So much more measured and composed all the time rather than like freaking the fuck out and sweating through his shirt every single time he coaches a big game. Anyway, to your question. So I think

Cade is more or less right now like one of those ball dominant players. I don't criticize him for it though under the circumstances. Like I've seen Luca play like that on teams that have a lot of ball handling. Like, I mean, I talked last year before the Luca trade about how they made a handful of deals for guys that had some more ball handling ability, guys like Najee Marshall, for example, and how like I wanted to see them lean more into their aggregate ball handling. And, you know, Jaylen Brunson, for example, a big part of why the Knicks have been better this season is because Jaylon Brunson's been getting rid of the ball earlier, more heavily indexing towards dribble penetration to break the defense down. And as a team, they're generating a lot more spot-up opportunities than they

used to in previous seasons, right? So like, to me, is a lot of it has to do with who you're playing with. And on this particular Pistons team, there's just not a lot of ball handling. And so I think, like, really for the way that they're put together, they kind of have to just mall teams physically on the glass and defensively play in transition as much as possible. And you kind of have to lean on Kade heliocentric ball when he gets into the half court. But inevitably, at some point in the next few years, the Pistons will jump on a trade opportunity for some sort of on ball player that can play alongside Cade. And that will put a higher premium on Cade's ability to play without the basketball and to make quicker decisions when he has the basketball. I'm not going to pontificate about

what that looks like for Cade right now because we just haven't really seen it yet. So as time goes by, that'll be the key. I just talked about it in the last segment with respect to the Lakers and Luca. Like, Luca needs to be a guy who can knock down a catch-and-shoot jumper if he's going to play alongside other stars. It's just an important part of playing team basketball. So we'll see as the Pistons kind of evolve into the future version of the team, how Cade performs in more of a team context offensively. I know everyone talks about how good the Spurs culture is, but I think an underappreciated aspect of their culture is their continuity in the front office.

R.C. Buford, the GM for over 20 years during the 2000s, Spurts, Dynasty is still in the organization as the CEO of basketball operations, and his protege, Brian Wright, was brought up under his mentorship and vision for the team. My question is, do you think teams should pump the brakes more often in hiring slash firing GMs as misses and bad picks are bound to happen, i.e. the Spurs 2021-2020 drafts, but visions for a basketball team usually take a very long time to put together. So I agree with you in the context of like this stuff is hard. I was talking about that with Colin when we were talking about the Lakers. Like there's There's been so many misses over the course of the Rob Polinka era.

No one's expecting him to be perfect. Like the draft does involve a lot of like, you know, mystery involving players' character and like their development trajectory and how hard do they work. And there's so many different things. Health is a big one too. There's so many different things that can go in so many different directions with draft picks. Like there is a lot of up and down there. I think you are going to miss on a mid-level exception signing every once in a while.

Like you're, there's no perfection there. Like I'm sure the Denver Nuggets, like it looked great for them to trade Michael Porter Jr. For Cam Johnson, I think if they knew that Peyton Watson was going to blossom into the player that he blossomed into, they probably don't make that trade, right? But that's hindsight. There's not a whole lot you can do there. The point being, no, no one's perfect with this stuff. You're not expecting perfection.

The one thing I would look at when it comes to, to your point, to sticking with a GM for a very long time, to me it would be about a consistent vision and a basketball belief system that permeates from cycle to cycle to cycle to cycle, which will lead to more wins than losses. I think that is the piece that I think is missing from a guy like a Rob Polinka and why you need to move on from certain GMs,

when they don't have that vision, when they don't seem to have a belief system that drives them, when it seems like they're just flying by the seat of their pants from cycle to cycle, that would be a concern to, to me. But if I was an owner and I sat down with a GM and he pitched to me what he likes in a basketball player and he expressed his vision for what a basketball team should look like. And then I saw his decisions constantly fall in line with that vision. That would be something to me that would

give a GM a lot more leeway with making mistakes. Because again, as you mentioned, mistakes are part of the deal. Next question. You talked about basketball culture from teams like the Celtics with Joe Missoula and Brad Stevens and the Cavs with J.B. Bickerstaff. I was wondering if you could make a tier list or quick rankings of the best basketball cultures in the league. I know it might take longer than the average question or it might be more of an off-season topic, but it would be a fun topic to dive into. This would be a fun one to dive into with more detail in the off-season, but I just wanted to really quickly give you my list of what I think are the five best basketball cultures in the NBA. One, Oklahoma City. Again, the big

driver here is you're seeing a specific type of player repeatedly get found. This like, scrappy, super competitive. Like I remember I was talking with Sam Bacini about this as it pertains to J-dub. Like he just was a guy that they were so into because of his personality and his competitiveness and what drove him. That's the kind of thing that will actually lead to players fitting into what Mark Dagnol's trying to build in a defensive culture. There is a consistent type of personality in basketball player that Oklahoma City continues to try

to find. Boston. Won't spend too much time here. We talked about them in detail over the last couple of days. I think Joe Missoula has built a culture and accountability surrounding the way that he wants to play that has made him be able to get quality rotation players from all sorts of types of, like, discount opportunities on the margins. Miami, this is a team that, like, again, if you really dig into it, that hasn't had star-level talent close to what you've seen around the rest of the league, and yet they routinely find undrafted,

discounted players on the margins that can play like dead serious minutes for them because they have such a strong basketball culture driven by Pat Riley and Eric Spolstra. Four, Golden State, exact same thing. Seemingly every season, this year Will Richard, last season, Guy Santos. Every year they seem to just find guys on the margins that fit their basketball culture because they have a clear way that they want to play, a clear player that they like, and they continue to find that kind of guy. And then lastly, the Memphis Grizzlies.

Similarly, like, I mean, this entire era blew up literally because John Morant was a bust, a player that in 2022 looked destined for superstardom and then instead just got worse every single year and had behavioral issues and health issues. And that ended up causing Memphis to go full rebuild. But almost everybody I talked to in the league that covers the league or that knows talks about how Memphis has one of the strongest basketball cultures in the NBA. They similarly find all sorts of dudes that, you know, like a, Vince Williams, Jr., for example, just scrappy, smart, high IQ, versatile wings and perimeter players that can do all sorts of good

in so many different facets of the game. They're a team that I think has a specific type of guy that they like as well. And if they had just hit on the start, like if John Moran had just followed his trajectory through to fruition, I think we're still looking at a John Moran, Desmond Bain, Jaron Jackson-led group that's super talented and is doing a lot of damage in the upper part of the Western Conference. Today's show is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet,

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Tennessee, or Virginia. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big 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. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did we, how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, 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, 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. 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 match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenshin won. I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina 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. Next question. What are some of your all-time favorite duos you'd like to see play together? A few of mine are Stefan, Kevin Garnett, Dee Wade, and D. Wade and D.W.E. and Scottie Pippin. So I'm going to give you guys three, mainly based on the mod. generation. I always wanted to see LeBron and Steph play together. I was lucky enough to get to see it in person in Vegas when I was there for Summer League, the year of the Olympics back in, what was that,

2024. I just think the two of them, if you look at how good Steph has been with Dremont, imagine how good Steph would have been with, like, LeBron if they were both in their primes. Like, in the same way that Steph and Katie played together, imagine if Steph and LeBron played together in that era. I just think there's a, such a natural, like, complementary element to both of their games because LeBron is such a good, like, screening passing fulcrum and a guy that brings a lot of the things that Steph doesn't bring in terms of power in around the basket and defensive versatility. I just think those two would have been wonderful together. Trey Young and Yannis, these are two that I've talked a lot about over the last couple of years because I think there was

something interesting to dig into there with Dame and Janus in terms of like a small super skilled guard with Janus, but I just don't think Dame was the playmaker that you needed to really maximize that partnership. Trey Young, I think, is one of the very best passers in the NBA, and I think he would have been really fun with Janice. I'm personally very excited to watch him play with Anthony Davis. I'm hoping that they can be healthy for at least a little bit.

Lastly, I'm going to come out of left field with this one. I think it would have been really fun to watch Yokic and Ant to play together. Two reasons that I want to get into there. One, Yokich is a spacing inverter that pulls rim protectors away from the basket. Ant has always played with a clogged paint. I think Ant as a basket attacker would have been really fun with a guy that can vacate the paint. And then two, if there's one thing with Ant that leaves you wanting more,

it's just that playmaking feel. And I think it would have been really fun to watch Ant's career development if you would have played alongside Yokic because Yokic would have helped him see and understand that part of the game at a higher level. I think the two of them would have been really fun. All right, three more quick ones. Do you think officiating has gotten worse?

worse or better over the 2020s. I do think most of the issues are from players finding advantages and optimizing their game through foul-bating and such. And the overall watching experience is still excellent, but the recent pushes by the league, I think, has just made the game less fun and less basketball-y, in my opinion. Basketball can be both a finesse and a brute-for sport, but the recent officiating is a weird mix between the two.

If you're off-ball, it's basically a lawless jungle of moving screens and wrestling, but if you get into a shooting motion, you're suddenly playing netball. It's the worst of both extremes, in my opinion. Very well put. Very, very fun, mailback question. I don't think officiating has gotten worse. I think it's gotten way harder as of late because specifically this foul baiting piece. The foul baiting has always been a part of the game.

We've all seen Kobe Bryant throw three pump fakes and then get a guy off the ground and draw foul. Kevin Durant, obviously, with a rip-through move 15 years ago, right? Like, we've seen foul grifting be part of the NBA, but it has, become an art form. And it's become an art form just like anything in the same way that Steph Curry came along and brought pull-up three-point shooting to a level that suddenly every single good guard in the league is an excellent pull-up three-point shooter. Similarly, the level of foul grifting in the NBA has become such an art form that there are so many players that are so good at it. And that has just made the job really difficult. I don't think it's an

excuse. Like I think, I think really the league just needs to step in and give these guys leeway. There's this concern about following the letter of the law. Officials need to be given some more ground to make subjective decisions as it pertains to foul gripping. I've talked about this. I think it's the simplest solution in the world. I just call it the non-basketball play rule. If a player ever does anything that is a non-basketball play, I'd include low gathers, I'd include like weird jump shot releases where you either jump super far forward or you jump sideways into somebody.

I'd do any sort of like arm grabbing or arm fighting. Like any sort of not like what is the goal of an offensive player offensively? It is to get away from a defender to create their own shot or to power through a defender to get all the way to the rim. The one thing you should never be doing is going into a defender to strictly try to like literally get into some kind of jump shot. Like that literally makes no sense. And if you are powering through a defender,

like if your goal is to go through a guy, then he should be allowed to hit you a little bit because you're hitting him. It's your point about the brute force versus finesse. The finesse game is about separation, not contact. The finesse game is about separation. And the brute force part is about brute force. So if you make a brute force play, a defender should be able to meet you with brute force.

And if you make a finesse play, you should be trying to get away from a defender, not getting into a defender. So if a player made some sort of finesse play into a defender, that is a non-basketball play. And any time any sort of non-basketball play happens, it should be whistle, turnover going the other way. And I shit you not. If they did it for two weeks to start a season, it would be out of the league. because these guys ultimately are doing it because they're trying to drive up their numbers. And if they were driving up their numbers in turnovers, rather than in points,

it would be something that would lead to a change in the way the game is played from these guys. They would adjust immediately. Do it for two weeks. You'd still occasionally have to make a call here or there, but ultimately everybody would make the adjustment. When you go play pickup, do you ever pump fake and then deliberately jump into the guy and shoot?

No, because the best thing you're getting is checking up at the top of the key, right? But what you will do is you'll try to step back to get separation so you can shoot over the top, right? That's kind of the way I'm looking at it. Like your goal as an offensive player should be to create your own shot, not to create contact, unless you are trying to power through a player to get to the basket.

Oh, Jason, but what about guys that are applying tons of ball pressure? When they're applying tons of ball pressure, you have to grift to get the refs to get them to loosen up. on that sort of thing. No, meet it with power. That's what, like, that is where it's a brute force game. They're meeting you with, I want off arms and push-offs. I'd rather have a league where dudes are ball pressure and like crazy and on-ball players are using their off-arm and pushing off to get away from them than a league where they're twerking for fouls. That ultimately is what we need to fix in order to make the television product better. Maxing Austin would be a horrific

mistake. You could argue he's maybe as impactful, personally, heavily disagree, but besides the point. As Aaron Gordon, Derek White, that's from the comment. As Aaron Gordon, Derek White tier players, but he's up for 25% of the cap versus White and Gordon's 18 to 20. Got to pinch some pennies when you need to pay for two-way players to make up for Austin and Lucas shortcomings on defense. Lakers still need a competent center and everyone thinks their role players are lacking as it is. So here's the trick. Austin's going to get his max because he's just too good of a player. when you're talking about a guy who as a shot creator this season has been among the best in the league, who's averaging 25 points per game on a super insane level of efficiency,

who every time he runs a pick and roll or an ISO is generating well over a point per possession, including passes. There's a level of aggregate, like when you combine his scoring and playmaking talent, he's just doing something that very few players in the league are doing. He's just worth a max. Secondly, as it pertains to the point you're making about pinching pennies and building a roster, for the Lakers, you have to think of Austin more as an asset than anything else. Like, if you let him walk, you get nothing. But if you max him and then like a year from now,

it looks like he's not a great fit with Luca. Austin's the kind of player. You're going to be able to trade and get something for him. Like if Desmond Bain is going to go to the Orlando magic for three first round picks, you don't think Austin Reeves is going to be able to fetch a certain amount of draft return, even if he's making a higher salary. Literally, First of all, the cap is going up every single year with the new TV deal. So, like, Austin signed this summer within three years when all the tiered kind of cap increases finished. Like, this is year one of the new TV deal. Like, by the time all of this stuff gets finished, Austin's salary is not going to be some sort of cap breaking type of salary.

And you sign him, you see if he fits with Luca. You see if you can build around him. You move him for Janus if it comes around, right? But if it works out and you're like, oh, man, I'm not sure this makes. a lot of sense alongside Luca, you trade Austin. And you're going to be able to. You keep him because he's the asset. And he's going to get 25% of the cap because that's just what he's worth because he's played that well. He's played himself into that tier of salary. Last question. Considering the recent yet sustained surge by the Hornets, which I attest primarily to Khan being implemented

and opening up the floor, B-Mills and Musa taking a big leap, totally agree. Those are the three guys that are driving the sleep. All mixed to Charles Lee's modern coaching, do you think it's still worth treating those three as the building blocks and selling Lamello plus bridges relatively high after the season and fully enhancing this new regime by rekindling assets further and making a strong move at the 2026 draft. Two strong drafts in a row could change the franchise long term. Let me know your thoughts and love the show. This is an interesting question because on the one hand, when I watched the Hornets, you guys know I'm not a big Lamello fan. There's a general attitude, seriousness thing with him that drives me crazy. Even as an on-ball player, he's just so quick to

settle for that step back three, which he's like, okay. He's a good at, but he's not like Steph Curry at. And you don't want to be taking that volume of step back three unless you're really, really good at it. And so, like, he's not my favorite player. But as much as I've watched the Hornets in this run be really, really good, more often than not, when things slow down from the half court, they need Lamello to break the defense down. To me, Brandon Miller is very much your classic scoring forward that ideally is in number two. Concanipal is very much your traditional skill guard.

off ball guard kind of vibe, right? You need a guy that can run 20 pick and rolls a game. And right now that's Lamello. And more often than not, they lean on him for that role. And you need that. Like when we talk about like feeling responsibilities on both ends of the floor, like there's boxes you have to check, right? On defense, there's point of attack defense for various different kinds of position groups like rim protector slash, you know, pick and roll defenders, low man, help side defenders. Like there's all these different things that you're looking at as checking boxes defensively. Similarly on offense, like, I want a scoring forward. I want a guy that can attack matchups and that can do a lot of work as a three-level score, right? Like, I'd love to have

a skill guard, a guy who can take movement threes and can run second side action and, you know, basically just function as a, like a guy who's always playing with an advantage, right? Like, I want a screen and roll threat, a guy who's like the guy I'm running most of my pick and rolls with. I want spot-up shooters that can drive closeouts or guys who can cut along the baseline and create space that way. Like, I want all those things, but there's also another one. There's a big box, and it's like, who's the guy that's, like, creating my initial advantage for the majority of my possessions, my offensive engine, so to speak. And when you have a Brandon Miller and a con con canipple, you don't need Luca. You don't need some earth-shattering offensive engine, but you do

need a primary on ball guard. And so, like, my thing is like, Lamello is not the perfect guy, but he does feel a very important role. And so if you get rid of Lamello, you just have to have some kind of plan to fill that role, whether it's through the draft or it's moving draft picks to acquire a player through trade, but they need to find some sort of like non-ball dominant, quick decision-making guy that can like run that initial action and help them get into their sets every single time down the floor. All right, guys, it's all I have for today, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. I hope everybody has an incredible weekend. We'll be back on Monday for Power Rankings. I will see you guys.

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. 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 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 app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your performance.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice 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. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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 biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerner Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And, and I actually can win on any surface.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.