The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How LeBron & Lakers survive AD injury, Warriors blast Raptors, Durant & Kyrie go off

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Jason Timpf reacts to Anthony Davis' foot injury and breaks down the moves LeBron James and the Lakers front office should make in his absence. He later discusses which Warriors need to step up with Stephen Curry out, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving's big night as the Nets continued their surge against the Detroit Pistons, and the primary reason why Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have endured recent struggles.#volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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.

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visit www. www.1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fanduel here at The Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. Jam-packed show today. So much going on in the NBA. Anthony Davis has hurt again, going to be out of month. So we're going to talk about all this stuff as it pertains to the Lakers and the grand

scheme of things. The Golden State Warriors found a way to win on the road in Toronto without Stephen Curry. So we're going to talk about the Warriors a little bit. The rafters have lost eight out of ten. and the bottom really falling out from that team. We're talking a little bit about them and a big trade that I want them to consider. The Brooklyn Nets came from behind to beat the Detroit Pistons on the road last night. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irvin combined for 81 points,

and they are a half game back of the best record in the league over the course of the last month and a half or so. So we're going to talk some Brooklyn Nets. And then last but not least, the Boston Celtics lose two games in a row at home to the Orlando Magic. They've now lost four out of five, and the Magic have won six games in a row. to talk about both of those teams in their recent successes and failures. You guys know the drill

before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss any show announcements as well as any footage breakdowns that we do. And then last but not least, if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, remember you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And then quickly, before we get started, you guys know I'm a big fan of steak like we talked about last week. I've been trying to perfect my steak recipe for the last couple of years, the right, you know, a way to get it caramelized and salted right. And I like my steak rare. If you don't like it rare, I think that's weird,

but that's just me. Last year for Christmas, we received a box of Omaha steaks from a company that my wife had partnered with as a Christmas gift, and I thoroughly enjoyed them, and we've bought them several times since then. The holidays are here, achieving gifting greatness when you give the gift of a perfectly aged, tender and delicious Omaha Steaks. Omaha Steaks have put together a delicious selection of various gift packages to make shopping for the ones you love nice and easy. Go to Omaha Steaks.com and take advantage of 50% off sitewide. Plus use code hoops at checkout to get an additional $40 off your order. Omaha Steaks has everything you need to give a gift that is simply perfect.

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So we don't have any real details about this Anthony Davis injury. Apparently something showed up in the MRI that they didn't like because we've received reports that the Lakers are bracing for at least a month without AD, and AD is currently trying to get a second opinion. So for starters, I feel really bad for him because it's got to be really discouraging to kind of feel like yourself again. and then to immediately suffer this type of setback. You know, the first couple of years,

conditioning played a big role. His work ethic, I thought played a big role. But he learned his lesson. He came into the season, locked in, in shape, ready to go, and looked like maybe the best player in the world, at least the best two-way player in the world to start this season.

And then you get hurt. And that's really, really unfortunate. But it's kind of the reality of the Anthony Davis experience. Like, there's been some bad luck in there. You know, like there was a play last year where he landed on someone's foot. There was a play last year where someone landed into his knee. Those are contact injuries.

There's nothing you could do. Even the Yokic play, it's not like he did anything weird. He kicked Yokich's leg. So in reality, there's a lot of bad luck there. But there's also some clear signs of fragility. Like Achilles tendonosis that he suffered in 2021, that's a non-contact injury that was associated with conditioning, the groin strain in the playoffs.

Like, that was just, he came back, played a few playoff games, and he broke down. in a non-contact situation. And even the Yokic kick play, the play that hurt his foot, for the vast majority of players in the NBA, that might be a small ankle tweak. And for Anthony Davis, it's a serious foot injury. So it's not an insult to AD because some of this is just the reality

of super tall basketball players. We've seen this time and time again in NBA history. They tend to have foot and knee issues. It's kind of part of the deal. But it's a huge bummer for the Lakers because they were playing some really good basketball. They won again last night against the Washington Wizards without AD. That's two straight wins, basically, without AD because in the Nuggets game, he was a non-factor in the first half, as we know now, because of his foot injury,

and they won that game against a good team without Anthony Davis. And LeBron James was amazing, again, 33, 7, and 9 last night. LeBron is playing like a two-way superstar over the course of this last several weeks. Since returning from the groin injury, he's averaging 29 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on 60% true shooting. The Lakers are plus 73 in 441 minutes with LeBron on the floor. Mine is 39 in 193 minutes without him. So this is like MVP-level production, both in statistical accumulation and in value that he brings to the basketball team on both ends of the floor now for a pretty significant span.

Like we're talking close to a month of basketball at this point. Since November 13th. So now five weeks. The Lakers are 11 and 6, which is the fifth best record in the league, and that's despite choking away two massive leads to Indiana and Boston that they had no business losing. They're up 17 with 9 minutes left against Indiana, up 13 with 4 minutes left against Boston. The Lakers are now just 2.5 games back of 8th in the West, 3 and 1 half games back of 5th, 4 and 1⁄2 games back of Phoenix,

and 6 games back of first place in the West for how disastrous their start is, to only be six games back of first place in the West is pretty remarkable. The Lakers are good, maybe even great, but they need Anthony Davis to be great. Without Anthony Davis, even with as well as LeBron is playing, they are an average basketball team. So the Anthony Davis injury puts them in a very precarious position for the next month. Their schedule, if you look at it, is very similar to Golden State. there's several winnable games, and there's several really tough games. You know, like they play tonight in Phoenix.

That's going to be a nearly impossible game to win without Anthony Davis. After that, they play the Kings. That's going to be a tough game to win without Anthony Davis. But over the course of this next month, they play the Charlotte Hornets, they play the Orlando Magic, they play the Charlotte Hornets again, and they play that Hawks team that is absolutely reeling twice over that span. So this is a span that even though it's unfortunate what happened, Anthony, Davis, it is possible for the Lakers to float over this span. But the bottom line is,

the Lakers have to make a decision now. Because without Anthony Davis, that stretch of games is precarious no matter what. There's just not enough talent on the roster. But if you make a move that gives them a chance, they could absolutely float around 500 during that span. Anthony Davis could come back and then they could go on a run. So again, they have to make a decision. Robin Jeannie have been putting off this decision for a really long time ever since last season's disaster. And that decision was, do you invest in the LeBron James and Anthony Davis Corps, or do you move on from it? And they've put it off, they put it off, they put it off, they could have traded Russ, they did it. They could have made an aggressive trade early in the season, they did it.

They have the two draft picks, they have salaries that they can move. They have Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverly that are less important players on the roster that they can flip for a player that's around, you know, 20 million a year. they've got the pieces necessary to make a deal to invest in this group, and they have not done so. They've been putting it off. And that decision has to be made now. And the way I see it, you've got two choices. You can commit to LeBron and AD, invest heavily into giving them the best possible chance to compete during the stretch without Anthony Davis. You trade Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverly, in both picks, and you bring back as much as possible. And you give the keys to LeBron, say carry us for a month, Anthony Davis comes back, we go on a run. Or you can decide that

fundamentally the LeBron James and Anthony Davis core does not work. A.D. is too fragile. LeBron's too old. Whatever your idea is there. If that's the case, now is the time to blow it up. Because during this stretch, Anthony Davis's value is as high as it's ever going to be. he, yes, he's hurt, but he just played arguably the best stretch of basketball in his career. The injury, like that injury prone label, that's permanently attached to him now. And it's, for the record, it's factually correct. Anthony Davis, like it or not, cannot stay available. And regardless of how you may feel, if you as a Laker fan feel like that's an unfair label for Anthony Davis,

fine, I promise you all 30 NBA GMs view Anthony Davis as a significant injury risk. That is a permanent label attached to him. But you've got him now in an injury phase right after he played some really damn good basketball, like best player in the world type of basketball. So now is the time when his value is as high as it's ever going to be. So if you're going to make a rebuild,

if you're going to decide that this is no longer the core, you're going to move forward with, now is the time that you have to make that type of move. You move Anthony Davis for as many future assets as you can. You let LeBron break the scoring record in a Laker jersey, and then you trade him away this summer, give him a chance to go play somewhere with a team that has a legitimate chance to compete. Then you start looking towards the future with all of those recouped assets. But no matter what, waiting is no longer an option.

Being patient and waiting for something better is an unacceptable approach at this point. if you believe in the core you got to give them a chance to fight if you don't now is the time when the trade values are as high as they're going to be so here's what i would do if i was running the lakers the reality is is that full rebuilds like complete blow it up rebuilds even when you get a bunch of high draft picks back are not guaranteed to lead to contention they're not guaranteed to lead to a very good roster look at the warriors over the course of this last span by virtue of trades and by virtue of a couple of seasons where injuries blew them up, they have three lottery picks, James Wiseman, Jonathan Caminga, and Moses Moody. They even have a late first round pick

and Jordan Poole that hit and is a fringe all star now. So you have a fringe all star from a late first round pick and three lottery picks, and all of it amounts to a bunch of guys that aren't superstars. Jonathan Caminga is the only guy in that group that I think has legit superstar upside, and that is a long shot because he's super young. and he's super raw. Superstars win titles, not stars, superstars win titles. We've been over that time and time again.

If you go back through NBA history, the team that gets the trophy has one of the top five guys in the league on his team, sometimes too. So the reality is, is the rebuild approach, the let's go after draft picks approach, is not guaranteed to leap you back into contention. But you do have a superstar right now

in LeBron James who's playing like a superstar. And you do have Anthony Davis, another superstar who's even better than LeBron, who's currently out but will return to the lineup at some point before the end of the season. So if your ultimate goal as a franchise is to win an NBA championship, investing in now is still your best chance. So that's what I would do. Now, originally, I preferred wing-centric deals

because I wanted the Lakers to load up on wings, keep AD at the 5, Thomas Bryant's playing really well off the bench. That's all great. That would have been the direction I would have gone. But with Anthony Davis out, you really need another center. Thomas Bryant was awesome last night. He had 16 and 10, hit two massive corner threes on kickouts from Dennis Schroeder, was battling on the glass for a bunch of contested rebounds.

Thomas Bryant was great, but he can't be your only functional center. When you, Gabriel, I don't think, can really play center for a long stretch. So you ideally want to keep Thomas Bryant slotted off the bench. So I would call up Indiana, and I would offer two first-round picks and Russell Westbrook for Miles Turner and Buddy Heald. With the influx of both of them as shooters, that's real spacing with the two of them and with Miles Turner as a defensive anchor,

moving Thomas Bryant back to the bench, you give yourself a significant chance to float in this schedule over the course of the next month. And then even then, you can potentially buy Anthony Davis another week or two to make sure he's 100% recovered from the injury, not have to force things back. And then you make an ancillary trade with Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Bell.

Beverly and a couple of second round picks for a wing player. Maybe that's Boyan Bogdanovich, maybe that's Kyle Kuzma. You might not be able to get those two guys because of the draft pick situation. It's complicated because Indiana probably wants two first round picks. If you can get them one first round pick and two second round picks, maybe you can use that other first round pick to get a guy like Boyan or get a guy like Kyle Kuzma. But there's a chance that you have to pay both first round picks for that Indiana deal, in which case you need to probably go for some lower hanging fruit on the wing market. And if that's the case, maybe you call the Knicks and you try to pry away Cam Reddish and Evan Fornier. I'm sure the Knicks would like to get

off of Evan Fornier's salary next season. So that gives you a better chance of getting that deal done without a first round pick. But with that type of structure, bring it in, you know, let's just say it's the Knicks deal and the Pacers deal. You get two legitimate wing shooters in Evan Fornier and Buddy Heald, a young wing that, who knows what's going to happen, I don't think Cam Reddish is that good. I don't think he's a high basketball like you, which I think would drive LeBron completely insane. But at least you have some raw potential there. And then you have Miles Turner as a legitimate center to fill in the Anthony Davis minutes. That gives you a legit chance to try to float the ship. Anthony Davis comes back. And when he comes back, you have like

a legit AD at the four look where Miles Turner is at the five. You also have really strong bench units that are led with Miles Turner at the center position. And you have a considerable, a considerable amount of shooting that you didn't have earlier in the season with Miles Turner, with Buddy Heald, with Evan Fornier, to give LeBron and Anthony Davis more space to work with in that scenario where Anthony Davis comes back. But either way, they have to decide between those two options. Give them a fighting chance, punt the season. What you can't do is do nothing, where you flounder in the standings for the next month, then Anthony Davis comes back and tanks his value because he's, you know, rushing his way back from injury to try to save the Lakers and, you know,

who knows if he gets hurt again or he doesn't play as well as he did before the injury. All those things can only serve to lower his trade value. And the idea of just like, oh, let's just wait until next season, while Anthony Davis is still injury prone, LeBron will be in year 21 at that point. I just don't understand that approach. Now, before we move on, there is door number three. And I think this is, for the record up front, This is a mega long shot, and I see door number one and two is far more likely.

But the other thing you could do is you could make an aggressive win-now type of trade with Anthony Davis to try to win with LeBron. Like we talked about earlier, LeBron's playing like a top 10 player in the league. What if you call up the Toronto Raptors, a team that has lost eight out of ten games, and probably has some desire to shake things up on their own side of things, and they clearly don't have enough high-level offensive talent, which we'll get to later. But what do you offer them, Anthony Davis, for Gary Trent Jr., O.G. Anobie,

Precious Situah, and two first-round picks. Then you make similar, you know, Russell Westbroke, Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverly deals on the side to bring in the shooting, maybe even the same deals we just talked about. But even if that doesn't work out, you make it run with LeBron, with that group. LeBron James, a legit wing in OG Ananoby, You have Miles Turner at center. You have precious Chua as a backup big. You've got shooting that you brought in on the side.

Gary Trent Jr. is a real pull-up shooting threat that gives you a lot of offensive skill in the back court that they haven't had this season. You make a run at things. Maybe it doesn't work. But then you still after that have OG and Anobi in Preciousa Chua, a couple of kind of interesting young players and a couple of first round picks that you recoup. Then you can move LeBron in the summertime if you need to. That would be another opportunity if you wanted to give LeBron a fighting chance. But I see that is extremely unlikely. I think door number one and door number two are the far more likely scenarios. And again, no matter what, a decision has to be made in soon. 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 I'm 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 Podcasts, 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-tap 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 Jek. And I'm Alex English. We pick it 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 all 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 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 podcasts. All right, moving on to the Warriors and the Raptors. So if you guys remember in our video last week, I talked about how we haven't really seen much of the Warriors starters play without Steph. I think we had tracked one possession where it was the existing starting lineup, but with Jordan Poole in for Stefan Curry, if I remember correctly. But we had seen plenty of Jordan Poole and Draymond together, because when the bench was struggling earlier, Steve Kerr started staggering the lineups a little bit better, and he started playing Draymond Green alongside Jordan Poole a lot,

just to raise the defensive floor a bit and to rein in some of Jordan Poole's decision-making. I think before last night's game, they were hovering right around plus six and a half net rating in their minutes together, Jordan Poole and Dremont. So they've been playing some good basketball with those two guys. And the reality is the best chance that the Warriors have to compete over the course of the next month is for those two guys, Jordan Poole and Dramon Green, to play like All-Stars,

which is not too much to ask because they are all-star-level players. You know, I thought there was a really interesting play at the beginning of this game. It was kind of like a shooting contest between Dremon Green and Pascal Seacov. It was like three, three, three, three, three, both ways. And Dremont Green makes three-threes in a row to start the game. And then he gets hit at the top of the key with another wide open catch and shoot opportunity. But he spots Jordan Poole on his right. And, you know, Dremont Green's a super smart basketball player.

He's in a rhythm. He's made three in a row. He's probably got a good chance of making that shot if he puts it up. But he knows that for 48 minutes for them to win, he needs a lot out of Jordan Poole. And so, you know, what I always talk about, one of the best ways to get a score in a rhythm is to get him easy shots early. That's why bad defensive teams usually give up great offensive nights to stars because they come out early. They hit a couple of easy shots.

They get their rhythm. Now they have their confidence. And now even when you're throwing contests and doubles at them, they're still making shots over the top because they're confident and they're in rhythm. Well, he dribbles over to Jordan Poole does a little pitch off to him. Jordan Poole gets a wide open three and knocks it down. And that was what triggered an incredible night for Jordan Poole, finished with 43 points and six assists. So that kind of like, you know, understanding from Dremont to know that he needs Jordan Poole and to lean into that specific responsibility he has, especially as one of the best playmakers on the team,

I thought was really, really impressive. So Jordan Poole has 43 and 6. Dremont has 17, 9, and 5. And then they had a really smart defensive game plan. What do we know about Toronto? They are outstanding in the open court, but they struggle in the half court. I've been talking about this all season. Toronto is now 27th in half court offense.

They score just 0.904 points per half court possession. Only the Charlotte Hornets, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Houston Rockets are worse. Now, are they actually that bad? No injuries play a significant role there. When Gary Trent Jr. and O.G. and O.G. and O.B. are out the way that they are right now. This team already does not have enough offensive skill level, right? Like this, the Toronto Raptors are, you know, a cautionary tale in roster building. You know, I always talk about how on both ends of the floor, you need to fill the responsibilities

with a five-man unit. And yeah, there are things that are really important. Like six, eight wings that can defend multiple positions. That's an incredibly valuable thing. But it's not the only thing on a basketball court. You need a certain amount of ball handling and shooting and off-the-dribble shooting to allow lineups to function unless you've just got world-beating to the basket guys,

like LeBron James and Anthony Davis or a Zion Williamson or Yannis Antenacompo. If you don't have one of those guys, and maybe Scotty Barnes will be one of those guys in the distant future, but he's not one of those guys yet. If you don't have one of those guys, you need a lot of ball handling and shooting to score in the half court, and the Raptors don't.

And then when you take Gary Trent Jr. out of the game, you take OG An Anobie out of the game, they just simply have very, very little offensive skill on the court, which makes it borderline untenable at that point. And, you know, I was digging into some numbers on Synergy this morning.

So according to Synergy, Toronto averages about 24 points per game in what they count as transition possession. So fast break points just count. it's like runouts. But transition can include a lot of other things. Like there's basically anything that's not a set half-court set. So like, you know, there could be three guys back and there could be four guys back and four guys on offense running and three guys trailing the play. And it's a quick bang-bang, you know, driving kick for an easy three.

That's technically a transition play. And the Raptors thrive in those settings. They average about 24 points per game there. Golden State held them to just 12. Just 12 transition points, just five fast break points. They force the Raptors. Raptors to play half-court basketball. And here's the thing, even without Steph Curry, the Warriors are a better half-court basketball team than the Raptors without O'GNan, Obie, and Gary Tren Jr. So really smart game plan from Steve Kerr, commitment from the players to sprint back and talk and get matched up in transition. And then Jordan Poole and Dremont Green, playing like All-Stars was enough to win the game. And then they got some shot-making

contributions. You know, I always talk about how the difference between a good offense and a bad offense is often shot making because, you know, if a bad offense is 107 points per 100 possessions and a good offense is 119 points per 100 possessions, that's just 12 points. That could be a handful of of late shot clock tough shots that guys hit. That could be a handful of possessions where you get a good matchup and you have a guy who can score against that specific matchup. So for instance, there's a wild play in the first quarter of this game where, you know, Jordan Poole is trying to get a shot off, but he can't get a shot off. That Draymond Green keeps hunting him with these dribble handoff nothing's working. He ends up just pitching it over to Anthony Lamb on the left wing,

who's not even open and the shot clock's running out. And Anthony Lamb just rises up and knocks down an incredibly difficult contested janky spot-up three. That's shot making that turned a good defensive possession for Toronto into three points for the Golden State Warriors. Early first half, early second half, same type of deal. They run a couple of Golden State interchanges at the top of the key. Jamichael Green pops to the left wing and takes a movement. contested three and knocks it down. Once again, good defensive possession from the Raptors that Michael Green turned into three points with shot making. Clay Thompson pitched in 17 on some tougher shots as well. Like at the end of the day, if you lose that high-end shot

making from Steph, you're not going to win games unless other guys step up and make shots, and that's what the Warriors did last night. If they do those things, they defend at a high level, have good game plans, get some offensive contributions, that's a lot of. That's a a good way for them to hang around 500 and not lose any ground in the standings before staff returns. Like we talked about earlier, the Raptors have now lost eight out of ten. Yes, you're waiting on Ogen and OBA to come back. You're waiting on Preciousa to come back. You're waiting on Gary Tran Jr. to come back. But the reality of this roster is that it doesn't nearly have enough ball handling or shooting like we talked about earlier.

So I would, I think it's time for the Raptors now at 13 and 17 to start considering a little bit more roster balance. That means turning one of your wings that specializes in defense and rebounding and athleticism, physical confrontation things, and flip him for a highly skilled player. You know, I've talked about this trade a bunch of times, but I really like the idea of something between the calves and the raptors that sends Darius Garland to the Raptors and sends Ogen and Nobi to the Cavs.

I think it's mutually beneficial for both teams. I don't think the Cavs can hope to succeed with two small guards, especially when neither of them are good defensive players. I think the Raptors, you know, Fred Van Vliet is a very good, defensive player and they have enough lineup flexibility to go without him from time to time. Giving yourself a great pull-up jump shooter and super skilled guard and Darius Garland could offset some of your offensive skill problems that you've had. And again, what OJAnonobie does is extremely valuable, but the rafters have that in, they have a great amount of that

already. So it's basically like sacrificing from your surplus to fortify a weakness basically for both teams. And, you know, that small forward position for the Cavs has been kind of up and down all season anyway. You know, like Isaac Acorro is a freaky good defensive players, very athletic and makes a lot of plays for them, but he has all these offensive limitations, you know, and then Dean Wade is a great shooter and is a much better offensive player, but struggles on the defensive end of the floor. You know, they just, they just don't have a really, like, Chetty Osmond is kind of up and down and has some athleticism limitations. So there's like, there's just, that's a weak position for them.

there, but they're loaded up with skill at the guard position, and Karas Levert's playing really well. So why don't you, why don't you go with Donovan Mitchell and Karas Levert and give that Darius Garland resource over to an OG An An Anobie that really rounds out your lineups to give you a really solid player at the small forward position, not to mention the fact that you'd probably be the best defense of this decade with Jared Allen, Evan Mowgli, and O'G Annanobie in the front court. It would be terrifying for other teams to deal with, especially with the way that Karas Lavert is playing defense. this year. So Raptors Cavs, we might need to get the two of you guys in touch because I feel like

there's some opportunity there. All right, the Nets and the Piston. So this was a fun game to watch. Jaden Ivy had three nasty dunks, including a poster dunk on Yuta Watanabe. I always talk about how he moves like young Dwayne Wade and that dunk on Yuta Watanabe was the first play this season. I've seen that really demonstrates that to its full potential. He is my favorite rookie. I don't think he's the best rookie. I think Paulo is, but I think he's the second best rookie. and I was super impressed with him in Summer League, and I've been super impressed with him throughout most of the season as a young guard

kind of finding his way throughout the league. But his athleticism and his ability to beat people off the dribbles is what excites me so much. Killing Hayes, eight assists and no turnovers. He's playing good basketball after a pretty rough start to the season. But this game was about KD and Kyrie. They combined for 81 points on just 45 shots,

which is, of course, completely ludicrous. The Pistons led by as many as 19 before another methodical second half net's comeback. This is becoming a theme the net's coming out of the locker room in the third quarter and just strangling teams on the defensive end of the floor, which some of that is Jacques Vaughn, and that's a defensive game plan thing.

You go into halftime, here's where we're getting beat. Okay, here are our adjustments. Let's come out and let's execute. And then it's also on the players for coming out with good energy. A lot of teams struggle with coming out with energy in the third quarter. KD, who's struggled a little bit, shooting the three for the most part of the season, got his pull-up three going late in the third quarter of this game. He had back-to-back-to-back-threes that flipped the lead.

to end the third. And then Kyrie came in and took over the fourth quarter again. It got a little sloppy late. Boyan McDonovitch made a transition three off of a KD turnover to cut it down to one point. But then KD, or Kyrie went right back to that stepback three that he beat Toronto with and got fouled and iced the game at the free throw line. Make that six wins in a row for the Brooklyn Nets in 10 out of 11. And since November 4th, they are seven. 17 and 6, which is just a half game back of Boston for the best team in the league over that span.

So Brooklyn is really, really looking like an interesting basketball team right now. Still waiting on that signature win, but they're going to have their opportunities here in the coming month. All right, moving on to Orlando, Boston. So that's six wins in a row for Orlando. They sweep the Celtics on the road. Paolo was awesome in this game. He was red hot from three to start. It really carried them offensively in the first.

He's been lights out from three during this entire win streak. He's shooting 47% on five threes per game during the six gamer. The second half was a complete sloppy mess, but it was fun to watch. I was enjoying the game. I actually chose to watch this game over football. Boston was just missing all sorts of wide-open threes on one end, and then on the other end of the floor, when Boston really locked in defensively and started switching everything,

it kind of neutralized that Franz Wagner pick and roll that they ran a lot in the first game. And just in general, it stagnated Orlando, and they made a lot of sloppy decisions. So it was a lot of sloppy basketball both ways. But then at the end of the game, a bunch of key players for the magic stepped up and made hustle plays

that ended up changing the outcome of the game. I thought Admiral Schofield came in and played really good defense. He also hit two huge threes in the fourth quarter and a nice close-out attack for a layup. And then Markell Fultz, five minutes left in the game in the fourth quarter, had a really nice ISO drive and finish on Jalen Brown and two gigantic offensive rebounds in crunched,

including a key one where he grabbed and kicked it out to Franz Wagner at the top of the key who hit the dagger for three to put the magic up four. You know, he's a freak athlete at the guard position. I know he's had a really complicated and unfortunate start to his career for a bunch of different reasons that we don't have to get into that. But at the end of the day, from a talent perspective, he's still one of the most athletic guards in the league who can dribble the basketball really, really well. And what I appreciated the most is you can tell he's playing with a chip on his shoulder, like competing on the glass and trying to win games that way, that you don't see that overly often from young players who are high-level draft picks because they try to impact the

game with their supreme level of skill. And, you know, I think in a lot of ways, the unfortunate start to Markle Fultz's career has forced him to play with a chip on his shoulder. And it's kind of cool to see him impacting winning in ways that go beyond what we saw from him in college. You know, it's funny because the story of this Orlando streak is it really comes down to defense. Their fifth in defense over the span, their perimeter size is just a legitimate issue for teams. When they get crowding you on the ball and in help side, there's just so many long arms everywhere that it makes it really difficult for you to score and feel comfortable as you're going into your shots as you're going into your kickouts and things along those lines.

But what's most interesting to me is everybody on that magic roster is playing like a shockingly physical brand of basketball. Like I really thought they bullied Boston in both of these games. And that's so unusual because usually young players struggle with physicality. It's usually the grown men in their 30s, you know, an old veteran basketball team that's comfortable and loves to play in the physicality. because as you age, you have to make up for your lack of athleticism with more leverage, physical leverage situations, which is how you learn to, you know, kind of make up for that decline. But it's unusually a very physical team for Orlando. They are fifth in defensive rating over their last six games, fifth in rebounding percentage.

And then on the offensive end of the floor, it's just four big guards leading the way. Palo, Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner, and Bull Bull. Those four guys are combining for 71 points per game, 25 rebounds and 10 assists over the the course of the six game stretch, all of them are hitting their three-point shot. They continue to just be a really, really interesting young team. Now, we'll see, as you saw against Boston there in that second half, their decision-making still is a problem. You know, Cole Anthony is all over the place with his decision-making. Markhill Fultz made some questionable decisions down the second half of that game. They compete, they have a lot

of talent, but what they really desperately need is a smart guard that can come in and just kind to organize them, especially when the game really slows down. Looking at Boston, they've lost four out of five, should be five in a row if it wasn't for the Lakers blowing that 13-point lead with four minutes left. And to be honest, you know, I've watched every single one of these games, and I've looked closely at the numbers, and I know it sounds really simple, but it just comes down to missing shots. They are 53 for 190 on threes that were tracked as open or wide open. during this five-game stretch.

For the season, coming in to this stretch, they were making 16 shots a game in the restricted area and averaging 27 assists after that stretch. So in this last five games, they're only averaging 11 makes in the restricted area leading to just 22 assists. So as you can tell, it's kind of like a cascading effect. They're not hitting their open threes,

which is leading teams to pack the paint more, which is taking away their opportunities at the rim, and it's really stilting their driving kick games. Their defense has been okay, not great. They're allowing 109.5 points per 100 possession. But again, when you're missing a lot of threes, those are long rebounds. And long rebounds lead to fast break opportunities. And they're not rebounding well either.

They're only securing 47.6% of available rebounds, which is 23rd in the league over that span. So when you're missing a lot of shots and you're not securing rebounds, you're going to give up transition opportunities, and that's where problems are going to arise. they're giving up 15 fast break points per game over this five-game stretch, which is 19th in the league. So honestly, if they compete a little bit harder on the glass

and they start to hit some shots, things should turn around. And then honestly, Jason Tatum, he's only shooting about 41% over this span. He needs to get his act together as well. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Game plan for this week, we're going to be doing night shows on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Then we're taking Thursday, Friday, Saturday off for the holiday. We are doing three different instant reaction videos on Sunday for Christmas Day.

I'm very, very excited about that. I will see you guys tomorrow night. Volume. 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.

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