The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Could Lebron and Kyrie reunite + 5 things I learned this year.

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Jason discusses the rumors of Kyrie and the Nets being at an impasse, plus breaks down the 5 biggest lessons he learned in the 2022 NBA season. #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So Kyrie Irving is apparently having trouble with the Brooklyn Nets in their contract negotiations, which, by the way, we all saw coming when Kyrie was, you know, demonstrating a complete and total lack of self-awareness after the season saying things like, oh, this is an equal partnership between me and Kevin and Joe, and we're going to build this thing. And I'm excited to come back and make all of this work. And then literally, uh, the Nets came back and they were like, uh, actually, we're interested in people that actually want to show up to work and people who are actually in this with us, not just talking about being in this with us. So we were not surprised. I'll read the tweet from Shamsterania this morning. Sources. Kyrie Irving.

and the Nets are at an impasse in conversations about his future in Brooklyn, clearing way for the seven-time All-Star to consider the open market. The Lakers and Knicks and Clippers, if you click on the article, expected to emerge among potential suitors. So I wanted to come at this from a couple of different angles. First of all, I expect there to be a resolution here. The Brooklyn Nets simply don't have nearly enough talent. I'll get into this a little bit more here in just a couple of minutes.

But you could argue even if you do retain Kyrie, even if Ben Simmons comes back at 100%, and even if you make some quality moves this offseason, you might not have enough. You know, the playoffs are all telling. The playoffs are revealing. There's no hiding. It exposes everything. It will expose your weaknesses as an individual, and it will expose your weaknesses as an organization. It will also expose your strengths.

as you get to that stage, but there's no hiding. There is no BSing, there is no fooling anybody in the NBA playoffs. And there was one team that seemed to be on a different level than all of the other teams in this playoff field. Not that they were the worst team. But in terms of their performance relative to the rest of the field, you guys saw the New Orleans Pelicans as an eight-seed fight like hell against the suns. And almost beat them.

Obviously, they benefited from some injury luck there as well, but they showed a great deal of fight. You know, you saw even the weaker teams like the Atlanta Hawks claw back and get one against Miami. Brooklyn never even really threatened Boston after that first game when Jason Tatum had the game-winning layup. Even on their home floor, they didn't show any fight. And most importantly, they seemed at a massive physical mismatch.

My biggest fear for Brooklyn is not their top-end talent. I know what Kevin Durant can do. I even know what Kyrie can do, and I think he's fine as a number two. I don't think it's a Kyrie Irving problem. What it is, is down the roster, they don't have what Boston has, and what Golden State had, and what Miami has, and what all of the good teams around the league have, which is a bunch of guys. You need about a half dozen to functionally round out a rotation, like at the low end, four guys. But you need guys between 6-5 and 6-9 that can guard multiple positions,

and can dribble pass and shoot to some capacity. They don't have to be great at those things, but they have to be good at those things. And instead, Brooklyn was basically running out there with Andre Drummond, a guy who's big, a guy who has moments offensively, but doesn't really have the high-level basketball IQ necessary to function in that setting,

isn't polished enough offensively. And defensively, he's all over the place. Sometimes he's on, sometimes he's not. Sometimes he makes these all-world defensive plays, and other times you won't even jump for a block, and you'll be like, what are you doing, man? Trust me, I know. He played for the Lakers last year. You know, Bruce Brown, really, really solid, defensive player.

He fits that mold to a T. A little bit limited offensively, but that's one guy. That works. That's one. The problem is they let James Johnson go, and they were running a lot of Kessler Edwards there, and he wasn't ready. They didn't have enough of those guys. There's a lot of Patty Mills, too small.

A lot of Seth Curry, too small. A lot of, you know, Goran Drogich, not athletic enough at the position. they have a weakness there that I'm not sure that Ben Simmons can fill. At the very best case scenario, they will be a functional team that's not deep enough. So because of those things, it is imperative for them to retain Kyrie, regardless of how you feel about the contract. So my guess is one of two things will happen. Kyrie will either opt in and essentially play out this year in his contract. If he shows up to work every day and has a good season, he can rejuvenate his value

around the league and potentially get his max contract next summer. That's the best case scenario for Kyrie, right? What I would do if I was the Nets, if he doesn't opt in and threatens to be a free agent, I would just sign him to the big deal. If Golden State could flip DeAngelo Russell for a player in Andrew Wiggins that ended up being their second best player in this playoff run, then I feel like I could do the same thing with Kyrie Irving, who's a better basketball player than DeAngelo Russell. So no matter what, they should not let him go.

I believe this is all just posturing to help Kyrie in his negotiations. But no matter what, they can't afford to let him go. What's Kevin Durant going to do if you lose Kyrie Irving to some other team? And he's going at this next year with Ben Simmons and a bunch of role players. Now you run the risk of pissing him off and getting him to demand a trade. So I do believe this is just a leverage play. But let's pretend for the sake of argument that this does go south. And Kyrie puts us a vote down.

been known to do that. That's what he did in Cleveland. When LeBron wanted him traded, he was like, get me out of here. If you don't, I will get knee surgery. And that threat worked. Then Cleveland got rid of him. So let's say there's some bad blood. Kyrie takes it personally. He tweeted out a little jiff of him laughing. Uh, this, or not him laughing, but some other person laughing this morning. So obviously he's having some fun at, uh, at everyone's expense with this as well. Uh, but let's just pretend he's, he's leaving. The Clippers, you know, know, the Knicks are a wild card and who the heck knows what they're going to do, they would have to create cap space and either conduct a sign-in trade for Kyrie

or a third team involved to dump a bunch of salary so that they could open up space for Kyrie. But either way, I find them uninteresting because the Knicks just simply aren't good enough. So Kyrie ends up going to the Knicks. Good for Kyrie. They'll have a big stage. You can put up numbers. The Knicks aren't doing anything.

The Clippers and Lakers are what interests me. the Clippers, I said in the show that I recorded on Sunday, I talked about how, you know, I talked about how next year I view Golden State as a runaway favorite at this point, but the biggest threat to them out in the West is the Clippers. They're a better version of Boston. And I went into detail on that. I won't go any further. But if you can somehow upgrade the Reggie Jackson position to a player of Kyrie Irving's

caliber and knowing what Kyrie Irving is capable of defensively when he actually is trying, we haven't really seen much since 2016. That's a really interesting fit there. And, you know, the biggest thing that you have to worry about with the Lakers and the Clippers is the hard cap. The hard cap essentially is if you make a trade, a sign-in trade, you no longer have the functionality of using exceptions to go over the cap. Once you get to the hard cap, you're done. That's like, that's all there is to it. And your best bet is to sign veteran minimums at the end of the season because you can get the pro-rated salary, which will fit tightly into the small gaps between you and the hard cap.

So it's very complicated. For a team like a Lakers, that can be extremely damaging because you don't have enough players right now. The Clippers have a lot of guys, and they're all under team control, and whatever they work on this off-season is going to be just tiny moves on the margins, right? So if you can bring Kyrie in and it hardcaps you, who cares? Because you don't need any more guys. You've got enough pieces.

So the clippers actually, it makes a little bit more sense. than the Lakers. If the Lakers were to pull it off, the trick is, is you got so much salary tied up elsewhere on the roster that now you run into the predicament that you might only be able to sign four or five veteran minimum contracts, you might be going into the season with like 10 guys and a bunch of open roster spots. It can get really tricky with the math because of how much money is tied up in their stars. Also, I think it gets really complicated because the only really way you can get Kyrie is you've got to trade Russ. So now you've got to convince someone to take Russ, Brooklyn's not going to take them. Why would they?

So, like, you're in this predicament where, I mean, unless you can convince KD to punt another season of his prime to play with Russ to then have a bunch of cap space after, I mean, maybe. But I view that as a huge long shot. The far more likely scenarios, they'd have to find a third team, and they'd have to send Russ there with draft compensation. And then that team would have to send quality players to Brooklyn. It just gets really difficult to pull off. But I mean, obviously I like the fit. Kyrie and LeBron were a perfect fit. Kyrie kind of perfectly encapsulates some of LeBron's specific weaknesses and needs. LeBron is a very good three-level score, but Kyrie is a touch better as a shot creator

in specific matchups. LeBron is 10 times the basketball player, so don't take it like that. LeBron absolutely can create his own shot. LeBron absolutely can attack matchups. He's the second best basketball player to ever play the game. But Kyrie, as you saw in Cleveland, his ability to create his own shot off the bounce was very valuable to LeBron, especially in possessions where he wants to rest. And then as we've always known, LeBron, for being the best playmaker in all basketball, doesn't actually like doing that all the game. He wants to be able to throw the ball to somebody and have them do it for him for long stretches of the game. That's why Dennis Schroeder was acquired. That's why Rajan Rondo was acquired in the 2020 season.

And that's why they went after Russell Westbrook. It's something that LeBron is always held as something that is urgently important to him. So Kyrie checks that box, and we already know he's a natural basketball fit. So I like it. The only thing that concerns me is the Lakers have an issue with perimeter size. And they have for the last season. And it deemed lethal for them this year. It doesn't matter how big you are in the front court if you got too many Avery

Bradley's on the floor and too many guys that are just getting bullied by the bigger guards around the league. For those of you guys who listen to my top five things that I learned this season, when we got to the X's and O's portion, perimeter size continued to be one of the biggest things that I value. So I like it for both teams. It's just unrealistic for the Lakers, difficult for the Clippers, and more than likely this is all leverage play and he's going to end up staying. And then last note, I wanted to hit, the Lakers and Nets are in big trouble. LeBron and KD are in big trouble. The clippers are going to be back. They're going to be better.

The Bucks are going to be back. They're going to be better. Boston might not make any moves, but you've got Tatum and Brown one. year deeper, more scar tissue, the pain of loss, getting them to approach the game with even more intensity than they have in years past. There's a lot of motivation there for them. You know, the Sixers with Hardin and Embed are going to be back and at a higher level. There's going to be a lot more talent in the league next year as everybody gets healthy and gets back into it. The Nets and Lakers simply do not have enough right now. And even if they hit home run summers, they will not be the most talented teams in the league.

which means they instantly fall into that second tier of contenders where it's like, you can win a championship, but things got to break right for you. Dude's got to get hurt. Somebody's got to get upset. A lot of things got to go your way. That doesn't mean they can't win. I wouldn't count them out, and you're stupid if you count out Katie or LeBron. But it's a long shot at this point.

They're both in trouble, and I don't think it'll be a surprise at all if you see LeBron and Katie start getting a little bit of a wandering eye. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying.

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because. of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your We're going to be going through the five biggest things that I learned from this playoff run. And then obviously we've got a packed week this week. I'm going to try to start digging into NBA draft stuff tomorrow morning. The NBA draft is coming this Thursday. Before we get started, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. That's where you'll see announcements about anything that we've got coming up this summer, any specific plans that we have for content. Just a good way

to stay up to speed with what we're doing. Don't forget to subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel. any of these shows for whatever reason you can find them under my podcast feed, which for the time being is under Lakers tonight. So, obviously, after the NBA finals were over, we wanted to dig into all of the NBA finals storylines. And there are additional storylines there that will get into further this summer, things like player rankings and things like, you know, where Steph falls on the all-time list. But I need a lot of time to dig into a lot of stuff for that, so that'll be a little bit further down the line. But what I like to do around this time of year is kind of recap, all of the things that we learned from this season,

because I think it's important to take lessons to help our analysis as we look forward, help with our predictions, to help with all of that stuff. And we did learn a lot in this playoff run, a very, very interesting playoff run with a ton of good teams where I think the right team won. And when the right team wins like this, there's some process stuff that we can key in on. So the number one thing that I learned from this postseason is that the Golden State Warriors are easily the best team,

heading into next year. I know that in Vegas, they're the preseason favorite, but I think things look even better for them than they appear on the surface. I've very, very briefly touched on this with Colin the night of game six. But if you really think about it, there's a lot of things that didn't go Steph or Dremond or Clay or the Warriors' way this year. You probably heard Dremont in the post-game conference saying, don't let us get this one.

Y'all messed up. You let us get this one. And the reason why they say that is this was kind of a gap year. They didn't have the same. I mean, they obviously wanted to win a title, but they were under the impression that they wouldn't be able to get it this year. At least there was some internal doubt.

Draymond himself has said that. You had a lot of young guys in the rotation. You know, Steph was, had a weird season. He was hurt towards. the end of the season. That's one of the most underrated parts of this playoff run. Steph didn't touch a basketball. He touched basketball. Didn't play any basketball going into game one of that playoff series against Denver because of that sprained foot. Didn't have time to build up and get his rhythm. Didn't have time to get his

body ready for it all. He just was thrown into the fire in the playoffs. Dremont had his back issue. And Clay, I'm sure if you asked him if he was like, oh, I'm going to be playing in an NBA finals game, he'd probably prefer a good full season to get his legs underneath them and to get his feel for the game back. He didn't have that luxury. All of those guys are going to have that luxury next season. Steph had a really bad regular season shooting-wise compared to the way he used to be play over the previous half decade, right? That's probably not going to happen this year. He proved in the postseason that that was fluky. What happened in the regular season was fluky, so you can expect a better version of Steph next year. Looking at Clay Tom,

This is a guy who had two catastrophic lower body injuries. There is a delay in that process when you have that kind of injury. There's like the physical element, but then there's the mental element. There's a confidence element. I broke my foot between my first and second year playing college basketball. And it was funny because my first time playing was showing up to the campus. I had to take two months off immediately before the season. And I remember stepping on and playing three on three, like one of my first nights on

campus and nearly dying because I was in such terrible, like, cardio shape from not playing for so long. And it took me a long time to get back. I mean, that entire first half of the season, non-conference play, I was a shell of myself. Even in that second half of the season, I played significantly better. I ended up making the all-conference team, but I still wasn't me. I still wasn't the same athlete that I was the previous season. It took me until the following season to really feel like I had my body back, to have the confidence to be able to plant that foot hard, to have that confidence to really take off. There's a difference between, oh, I'm taking a wonderable pull-up when I'm messing around at the gym, and I am like really pushing my body to the limit to get separation

in the NBA finals. So you guys see the difference in what I'm talking about there. There's like another level physically. I think Clay will get there next season. I think Clay will physically be at a point where he feels as close as he's going to get to what he was before the injury. It was unrealistic to expect him to get there in this postseason, and he still gave you enough to get the trophy. So that's a lot of stuff to be excited about there. Draymond Green was dealing with a back issue. He didn't really start to look great physically until the second half of the NBA finals. And then most importantly, Jordan Poole, you know, he struggled at certain stretches of the postseason where it looked like he was getting targeted

too much defensively. Early on in the Boston series, it looked like he might not even be able to play. And by the end of that series, he was absolutely imperative to Golden State and their success with the scoring punch he was bringing off the bench. Colin Coward himself said, after game six, and I thought this was really smart, he said, that's what Boston needed, was just somebody who could effortlessly give you 15 points on the strength of his offensive skill set. And Jordan Poole gave you that with a little heater he caught in.

perimeter shooting there in game six. Another year of development for Jordan Poole. Another year of reps during the regular season for Jordan Poole. Same thing for Jonathan Caminga and Moses Moody. You know, Moses Moody to me is a very, very, very classic wing role player, very reliable type of guy that you can plug into any rotation. And he demonstrated that against Dallas. But he's going to be ready for that next season with another year of Summer League,

another year of training camp, another year of Steve Kirk giving them reps in the regular season. Jonathan Kaminga is a little bit more of a wild card, right? Like on any given night, he looks unplayable because he's young and inexperienced and doesn't have the offensive polish. But then you see him on other nights and he looks great. Another summer league, another training camp, another 82 games of regular season basketball for all of those guys. With all of that that I just laid out, Steph having a better season, Clay having a better season, Jordan Poole being one year better, Kamingan Muti being one year better, Dremon Green being healthy as opposed to dealing with the stuff that he dealt with.

There's a version of this story where Golden State is a much better team next season than they were this season. And as a result of that, they absolutely should be considered the favorite. It's not just in terms of throwing honor and respect to the champion, but just a simple matter of basketball talent. The biggest questions are going to be what they do on the periphery. Otto Porter Jr., can you retain him? That'll be a question.

He was a very useful role player this year. He's probably going to be in that mid-level exception market this year. is Golden State going to be able to retain him or are they going to lose him? That's a question mark. Gary Payton the second. It's another guy that it's going to be really interesting to see what kind of attention he gets in the free agent market this year. Are they going to be able to retain him? And then the big one is Kavanaughn. Now the Warriors have his bird rights. So with Kvonn Looney, it's really just a matter of what Joe Lekub is willing to pay. Now, I have heard from people who are connected to the Warriors that they will do anything to prevent Kevin Loney from walking.

It would require an outrageous offer for them to let him split. Too many people in that locker room are so close with Kivon and are so dependent on him and they know how important he is that they're not going to let him go. So I expect him to bring him back. The big mistake that they could make that I hope they don't and that Warriors fans should be scared of is that we don't need Looney because James Wiseman is that guy, camp.

Anybody who pushes in that direction, I view that as a very dangerous gamble. There's a lot of intel with James Wiseman that he doesn't even like basketball all that much. That, like, he's not itching to get back out onto the court. That's why everyone was so irritated when they saw him working out during the NBA finals. It's like, dude, you're not even actually really making an attempt to be out here.

You could have been out here if you wanted to be out here. There are some weird stuff there. Now, who knows? James Wiseman might still very well develop into a fantastic prospect. but I think betting on him to be Looney for you next year would be a catastrophic mistake. Bring back Looney. Wiseman needs years. Weiseman might need two, three years to really be a foundational center in the NBA. And so retaining Looney is going to be their biggest,

is going to be the most important thing for them to do this offseason. And then as is always the case, like I always say, keep your eyes and ears out for one additional guy. Don't be Milwaukee. Don't let PJ Tucker go and then suddenly find out against Boston that you have one one wing, one like one rotation piece like a Grayson Allen that is not giving you enough and you wish you had a better player there. You don't want to make that mistake. That's why I would try to retain Otto Porter Jr. with the mid-level exception if they could. The two teams that I see is the biggest threat to Golden State next season out west is the Clippers. They are a better version of Boston. when they're actually healthy and they have all their guys, when they have Kauai and Paul George with Nick Baton, with Marcus Morris Sr., you know, with Zubots, with Reggie Jackson, with whoever it is that they plug into those spots.

Terrence Mann's another good one. All of those guys, when they're healthy, they have the same type of defensive versatility and talent that Boston had with significantly better offensive players. You know, I was thinking about this a lot the other day. Like as good as Tatum was for stretches, of the postseason. He also had these ugly stretches and then he was really bad in the finals. I was asking myself the other day, I'm like, is Paul George better than Jason Tatum?

And like, gun to my head, even though I think Tatum's a better defensive player and a better athlete right now, I trust Paul George more as a decision maker and as a guy who can run your offense. And then Kauai Leonard is just in another stratosphere than any of the guys that I just mentioned. So that's going to be the biggest threat to Golden State Out West next year. is a healthy clippers team that does a lot of the same things that Boston did in terms of perimeter mismatches, but with significantly higher level offensive organization, and then an actual superstar that can go toe to toe with Steph and has done so before in Kauai Leonard in 2019. And then out east, it's Milwaukee.

If Milwaukee finds one more piece and Chris Middleton gets healthy and Yannis, who I think is the best basketball player in the world, takes one more leap, then all of a sudden Milwaukee becomes a bigger threat. but easily going into next season, I think Golden State is the favorite. All right, number two, the second of the five lessons that I learned this postseason. For number two, I just want to go over some X's and O's things. And there's four specifically that I put down. Perimeter defense, the value of playmaking, the lack of need for traditional centers, and the value of coaching.

Let's start with perimeter defense. Golden State demonstrated this resoundingly in the finals. As the game has become more spread out, as more teams are going to, going four out one in or five out as opposed to a two big system or having a role man and a guy in the dunker spot those kinds of things as teams have gone away from that there's been more offensive talent on the floor ditching you know you're seeing look at all the centers you saw play this year they're rim running centers guys like a guy like rob Williams right or a guy like you know maxi cleba right or a guy like bam et abio it's a lot of like more modern like kivon looney is kind of a rare thing in the

sense that he plays a traditional center role, but he's actually, you know, he's doing perimeter player stuff. He's containing ball handlers. He's able to make decisions in the short role, those kinds of things. There's a specific archetype of player you're seeing there. And then the four, whoever was playing the power forward, that's gone. That's just another wing now. And for some team's another guard. You know, like Golden State for a while was playing Andrew Wiggins at the four with their new death lineup, right? So like as a result, there's now at any given moment, at least four, if not five guys on the floor for any team that can dribble pass and shoot. So as a result, it's gotten a lot more driving kick-heavy, and more than ever, it's important

to contain ball handlers to keep people in front. So one of the biggest lessons I learned in this playoff run in terms of X's and O's is just how important perimeter defense is. The NBA finals swung on Clay Thompson, Gary Payton the second, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green, containing Tatum and Brown, sitting on their right hands, making them drive left where they were primarily pull-up jump shooters instead of guys who could get to the rim. As a result, Boston couldn't get consistent dribble penetration, and as a result, they couldn't get into their driving kick game. I pointed this out several times, but Boston generated 23 wide open threes in game one

and never had more than 13 in any game after that. That's because Golden State figured out that they had to keep people in front and they just challenged their players to do the job and they did. And Kerr gave them a good game plan and they were able to do it. So when we're watching these teams this off-season, when we're looking at rosters,

and as we're watching teams in the regular season, we need to pay attention to what their personnel looks like on the perimeter and their ability to contain. And are they doing the job? because there are also teams out there who have the personnel, but the guys just don't do it. But you have to be able to keep ball handlers in front. The second big X as a O's lesson I learned is just how important playmaking is. Or game management, ball handling, whatever you want to call it.

But the idea of offensive organization, a player that is capable of being the person who gets you organized on offense. You know, there's value in the scoring archetype. There's value in a Jason Tatum. There's value in a Kevin Durant, a great deal of value. That's what I was. as a basketball player. It's what I still am to this day. My skill set is that of a three-level score. That's what I do when I play with the team. I have to fill in the gaps, but the thing that I bring to the table is my scoring, right? So I'm not trying to undercut that as a value, but I do think that

teams absolutely must have somebody who can manage the game. We think of Boston as a team that came very close, right, two wins away from winning an NBA championship. But they damn near blueed against Miami and they damn near blue it against Milwaukee. And a huge part of that was that exact weakness that I'm referencing here. And it doesn't have to be your heliocentric guy at the top of the key making all the decisions a la Luca Donchich, James Hardin, or even LeBron James, who is a much better version of that than those guys are. It can be Steph. You can manage a game off to the ball. You can manage a game in so many different ways, but you need to have a grown-up on the court, an offensive grown-up, a high basketball IQ guy who can handle the basketball, who

can get people in the right spots and who has the ability psychologically in terms of their command of the team to get things back on track. For instance, Steph can not have the ball sometimes, but guys won't take stupid shots because they know better. How many times do you see somebody kick the ball to Draymond Green or to Gary Payton the second on the perimeter? And rather than shoot the wide open three, they work it back around to Steph. That's the psychological command of the team that Steph has. That's how he manages the game. So there are a bunch of different ways to do Yokic kind of has his own unique twist on it as a center, right? But we have seen time and time again that against these top-tier defenses,

the really good, well-coached defenses that have good personnel, that consistently make you do things that you don't want to do, that consistently make you uncomfortable, those teams require you to have a guy who is your adult in the room offensively. We saw that become a lethal flaw for Boston, and we will continue to see that over the years with teams that go into these types of playoff runs without that important piece.

The third one, traditional centers. Again, we talked about this a little bit earlier with Kavana Looney. There are a handful of examples or exceptions of traditional centers who can function in the NBA. Guys like Kavana Luni, who brings so much as an offensive rebounder, who can guard on the perimeter,

which is immensely important, and who are smart offensive players, meaning they never force them. Kevin Loney never takes a shot or forces anything around the rim. That's a bad shot. But Rob Williams, again, rim runner, big, athletic can cover ground on the perimeter, can get up and down the floor and transition. There are rare examples of that, but for the most part, it's your hybrid forward centers that bring the most value on the stage. It's the Draymond Greens, it's the Bamatabios, it's the Maxi Klebba, who actually flashed lots of defensive potential in this postseason.

and run, those are the guys that matter. So when you see teams out there that are like, oh, I think we need Dwight Howard, you know, if Dwight Howard goes back to the Lakers on a minimum contract as a backup center, that's fine. But if you are building your team as functionally with a starter or a key rotation piece as a slow, old-fashioned plotting center, you are building your team around a style of basketball that will force you to bench that guy when it matters. And then you'll be forced to, in the playoffs to retool on the fly and learn how to play a different style of basketball. Any team that has a old-fashioned plotting traditional center in their main rotation is setting themselves up for failure, in my opinion.

And the last but not least, coaching. I thought Ima Yudoka was out-coached in the NBA finals. I disagreed with his drop coverage strategy. I didn't think he did nearly enough to try to get the ball out of Steph's hands the way that almost every other team in the NBA does. and you saw teams like the Miami Heat with Eric Spolster and the Warriors with Steve Kerr have significant advantages over the course of this playoff run. I was so impressed with Steve Kerr's strategy that he used to throw Boston out of rhythm.

The way that he was willing to risk his best help defender, Draymond, going away from the basket to contain Jalen Brown. That was a big risk. But he understood if we contain on the perimeter, we don't need help. We can bait these guys into bad isolation possessions. And I just, I thought Steve Kerr had his most impressive playoff run as a coach, and I thought it was a great reminder of just how important this kind of stuff is.

Not just on the defensive end, but on the offensive end as well. In terms of organization and spacing, look at how bad the Lakers were this year with their floor spacing. Look at how the Warriors just had that figured out. One credit to IME Udoka, he has. had their spacing principles down pat with the exception of a handful of games where I thought he got to, like when Draymond went on Jaylon Brown in game two and then he was just putting Jaylon Brown in positions where Draymond could still help.

There was a lot of stuff that I disagreed with there. But for the most part, IMA Udoka had them in really classic four out one in spacing with Rob Williams on the floor and classic five out spacing when he was off the floor. Coaching matters in the NBA. And this playoff room was a resounding example of that. So back to the big list. Number three, superstars still run the show. Eight of the last 11 NBA titles were won by Steph Curry or LeBron James.

The other three? Kauai Leonard and Janus. You know, there are rare exceptions. Like one of those Kauai Leonard titles, Kauai wasn't really a star. So there are rare exceptions. You know, Dirk Novitsky in 2011, not a superstar, but like kind of was. Offensive superstar. Outplayed LeBron James and Dwayne Wade in the playoff series.

But for the most part, if you don't have one of the guys, you're not winning. And so every team out there needs to be building with a clear path. You either have that guy and he's young and you're developing him or you're developing young players so you can trade for that guy. Anybody who's not looking for that guy is looking in the wrong place. I was really curious coming into this playoff run to see whether or not this would shift the other way. And the example we were looking at there was Phoenix, remember?

Those of you guys have been watching the show for a while. Phoenix would have been a great example of a team that lacked top-end talent but had talent down the roster and was able to overcome that. Now Phoenix looks damn near fraudulent. When we really look back to Paul George without Kauai Leonard taking them to six, games in the conference finals last year. The Lakers having a two-one lead on them before Anthony Davis got hurt, right? And then what Dallas did to them this year. So the question as to whether or not superstars still matter was answered pretty resoundingly this year. You still need one of the

guys. You mainly need either step or LeBron, but you definitely at least need one of the guys. And I mean, what does that really mean? I don't think it's a coincidence that Jason Tatum struggled in finals. I don't think it's a coincidence that Jalen Brown was inconsistent. I don't think any of that stuff is a coincidence. The reality is only a select few players in the league play well on the biggest stages. It takes a Steph or a LeBron or a Kauai or a Janus or a Kevin Durant to be on this stage against the very best defenses with the biggest pressure and for them to be comfortable and to play well. I mean, even Jimmy Butler, who's had a handful of unbelievably dominant games in the NBA playoffs on big stages in the last few years, it's all surrounding a bunch of, like, mediocre to clunkers.

It's like 41 night and then he's bad the next night. To be consistently great on this stage, there's only a tiny handful of guys who can do it. And Steph was the latest. And it's just been another resounding example of the way this stage, the NBA playoffs. jobs works. But I mean, we got a, Stefan LeBron, man, in just an incredibly stacked era of NBA talent, those two guys have clearly separated themselves from the rest. Number four, the Lakers are clearly at a competitive disadvantage compared to other teams in the league. They're nowhere near well-run enough to make up for some of the advantage the smart teams have

around the league, right? And then they don't have the money to compete with the really rich teams in the league. The Warriors are probably going to pay Kevin Luny this summer. And when you factor in luxury tax, it could cost them tens of millions of dollars additional each year. But the Warriors make, as Colin pointed out to you guys on the show last week, the Warriors make $700 million in revenue a season, which is almost four times as much as the average NBA team. So they have this advantage in money that they can throw at guys. The Lakers are not well-run, like some of the smarter, poorer teams around the league, and they don't have the money to hang with the rich teams in the league.

So you're going to lose players because of money, and you're going to miss out on opportunities because you've got a general manager who doesn't know how to build a basketball team in this league, went out and built a team full of short guys this year, as if that's ever worked in NBA history. They don't have a guy who's grinding in the film room watching hundreds of NBA games every year to learn what works. So they don't have the money, they don't have the basketball operations, and they're relying heavily on a LeBron James who's in his 20th season and an Anthony Davis who doesn't appear to be nearly as motivated as he was in 2020. Here's what I expect. And I'm going to do a deeper dive on the Lakers here soon as we get a little bit closer to free agency. But here's the reality. I think LeBron, even though he'll never admit it,

is deeply irritated that Steph got another title. It's just the competitive nature in him. If he wasn't like that, it'd be weird. And he's going to go into this season as motivated as he was in 2020. I expect a remarkably locked in LeBron James. And I expect Anthony Davis to follow suit, because the criticism is getting too loud. And when LeBron's next to you working his butt off,

you just have to join it. but they will not have the personnel. They don't have the right guy in the seat to make the necessary moves. They're too paranoid about holding on to those draft picks. They have this Russell Westbrook predicament, and they have nothing, they don't have a single high-level role player under roster control. Austin Reeves is the closest thing to it,

and I really like Austin Reeves, but if he's like starting for you at the three, that's not enough. They need guys, and they just, so what I expect from the Lakers, year is for them to be a good team. They're not going to be the bad team they were this year. They're going to be a good team.

They're going to be much more well-coached, much more bought in. I expect LeBron and AD to be on the court more frequently. I expect them to be a good team. But they won't be a great team. They won't have the personnel. They certainly won't be deep. They'll be fortunate to find three or four guys that are quality role players to put alongside LeBron and AD, and it will be incumbent on them to play big minutes on all the

biggest stages when it comes time. to crunch down the rotation in the postseason, they're not going to have a lot of guys that they can count on. But make no mistake, if you're a Laker fan, you've got the LeBron and Anthony Davis thing going for you, but your team is at a competitive disadvantage. You're not as smart as the poor teams in the league, and you're not as rich as the rich teams in the league,

and that will forever hold you down. Until they figure out that money part, until Jeannie Bus gets a real basketball person in that president of basketball operations chair. And then last, the last big lesson that I learned from this postseason, Janus is the best basketball player in the world. For the record, Steph was unbelievably incredible, and Steph, I haven't finished my list yet, but Steph will be number two.

I think Steph is at the top of the tier below Janus. But I think his physical dominance, Janus's physical dominance, has reached a point of invincibility. the way that Boston guarded Milwaukee doesn't resemble the way they guarded Steph. Boston ran drop coverage on Steph, willingly conceding pull-up jump shots to him to prevent Boston, or to prevent Golden State from getting into their four-on-threes. They were conceding points to Steph to prevent everybody else from getting going. That was the strategy.

And it had moments where it looked good, but then it also had a lot of moments where Steph was going off and you were losing. so I disagreed with the strategy. That was not the strategy they used against Janus. Janus saw the house. They had Horford or Grant Williams at the point of attack on him. Marcus Smart a little bit towards the end of the series. And every time he had the ball,

there were two defenders keyed right in on his driving lanes. They were like, we don't care if anybody else shoots. We are not letting Janus get going. And that dude still ran them over. And still put up monster numbers. And still damn near won the series. without his co-star. It is, his physical dominance has reached a point of invincibility.

And that series was a revelation of Janus' playmaking. It was the first time that I felt like he legitimately took a leap to the point where he's a functional playmaker in the NBA, a guy who can literally and consistently make teams pay for sending multiple defenders to him. That's, I always said that was what scared me the most about Janus. Not the three-point shot, not the turnaround jumper, not the floater in the his ability to make plays for his teammates.

And he was magnificent as a playmaker in that series. And then on defense, he's arguably the best defensive player in the world. He can protect the rim like Anthony Davis. He can cover on the perimeter like he's Kawhi Leonard. He plays hard all the time so you can use him as a foundational piece in the regular season. He's a Swiss Army knife that can do anything. I think there's a gap between him and the next guy. I used to think there was like a top tier of stars

and it was like LeBron and Steph, you know, Janice and KD and like maybe Kauai if he's healthy, right? But now to me it feels like Janice kind of took that leap and then the tier below it, it feels like Steph's on top of that tier, but everyone else is kind of jumbled in down there. I have not seen a player be able to dominate a game physically

on both ends of the floor like this since LeBron. And I think he goes into this. the season as the definitive best basketball player alive. And I do think him with a healthy bucks team with one additional piece is the biggest threat to the Warriors. That said, I still think the Warriors are the favor next year. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said, we're going to get into some NBA draft stuff this week. Please follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys can see me break down at least just what my game plan is for the summer. You get some announcements there and you'll know what's coming. As always, I sincerely appreciate

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