The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LeBron & Lakers beat Grizzlies, Warriors win without Steph Curry, Kyrie drops 48

Episode Date: January 21, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' 122-121 win over Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks' 139-124 win vs. the New York Knicks, and Kyrie Irving's 48-point explosion in the Brooklyn Nets' 117-106 win against the Utah Jazz. Later, Jason breaks down why LeBron James, and not Steph Curry, is the NBA's MVP of the past decade. #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.

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. 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 IHard 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, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. The volume.

It's Hoops Tonight, presented by Fanduel. The NBA season is kicking into gear, and there's no better place to get in on the action than with Fanduel. The app is safe and secure. Getting your money out is super easy. You can jump into the action at any time during the game with live betting,

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Visit www.md.mamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Dial 1-8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y to 467-369 in New York. Call 1-800-5-22-4-7-0 in Wyoming or visit www.1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight presented by Fandle here at the Volume. Happy Saturday, everybody, although I'm recording this at Friday night, like usual. We're going to be breaking down four games, rapid fire style tonight, and then I have four quick hitter topics after that. We're going to be hitting the Lakers and their massive comeback win against the Grizzlies.

The Golden State Warriors getting a win in Cleveland against them mostly at full strength without any of their top guys, the Atlanta Hawks who are red-hot getting a win against the New York Knicks and then Kyrie Irving with a 21-point fourth-quarter masterpiece to beat the Utah Jazz. So we're going to be hitting on all that. And then I've got a bunch of like little NBA topics that have been going on around the league over the last couple of days that we'll be hitting whether or not Steph is the MVP of the last decade. John Wall and everyone else loading up on the Houston Rockets. The debate about whether or not rest is an issue in the NBA right now.

We're going to be hitting on a lot of stuff. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you guys 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. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos, shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And then last, before we get started, you guys have heard me talk about Game Time,

the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States. If you're looking to get out to any NBA, NHL, NFL playoff games, or a concert or a comedy show this week, Game Time has amazing last-minute deals on tickets to all of these. I just got tickets from my wife and I on Game Time to go see the Oregon Ducks. coming into McHale Center against the Arizona Wildcats. I'm from Tucson, big Arizona fan, chance to get revenge after Kirk Cresa got absolutely obliterated dunked on up at Oregon and a big Oregon win.

Should be a fun one. I'm looking forward to that. The app was super easy to use. They have this thing where you obviously get a picture of where your tickets at, but as you move your phone from left to right, you can actually pan around the arena. It's a super user-friendly app. I really want you guys to check it out. No matter where you live, get out and have it.

some fun this week. Download the game time app, enter your email, and redeem code hoops for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, enter your email and then code hoops. That's H-O-O-O-P-S for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Los Angeles Lakers give up 24 offensive rebounds. get out rebounded 63 to 47 overall, get mulled in the paint to the tune of 64 to 44 and points in the paint, and come back from down six with two minutes left to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 122 to 121. They just never stopped attacking in transition every time they had a chance, no matter how discouraging it got, no matter how many big plays John made,

no matter how many offensive rebounds they gave up, no matter how many times someone hit a big three and built the deficit larger, they just kept going at them. I thought Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroeder in particular did a really nice job of manufacturing transition opportunities just by going fast. There's kind of an involuntary thing that happens defensively when a guy has a real head of steam going towards the rim. Everybody just involuntarily collapses.

And you can generate a lot of high quality shots by doing that. obviously we think of transition the rudimentary definition of transition is like oh we get a miss we have a numbers advantage like it's a three on two or a four on three or two on one or maybe even a one on oh and you're just running down the four to try to get a quick easy shot but transition extends to that outside of that i look at transition as everything outside of the static half-court environment there's runouts there's your two on ones three on two four on three call those advantage situations but then there's like a semi-transition phase. That's where the defense isn't actually all the way back yet. Or maybe they're back, but they're not really in their defensive stances and ready to go. That semi-transition phase is a great time to get ahead of steam because if you do, the defense just won't quite be ready to handle that. And like, you know, I've been very critical of Rob Polinka for this roster, and I believe that's fair. Over the last two years, they took the biggest, strongest, and most physically imposing team in the NBA and made them

pitifully undersized. And I thought that went right in the face of what everyone else in the league that was doing that was smart. I thought it was a really bad decision. But one of the ancillary fallback trip and fall into success types of things that Rob Polinka did is that by being small, the Lakers are super, super fast between Dennis Schroeder, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, you know, two of those guys, Russ and LeBron are two of the greatest freight trains in NBA history. Dennis is a downhill speed guard. Thomas Bryant, for all of his shortcomings defensively, is a big that runs the floor extremely well. Wenian Gabriel runs the floor extremely well. So one of their few advantages from a personnel standpoint that they have is speed.

And them just leaning into that speed in the fourth quarter of this game, really throughout this game, really throughout this entire stretch since Anthony Davis went down, has allowed them to manufacture a facsimile of coherent basketball. And then, from the end of these games, it's coin flips that can go either way, and they've lost those coin flips a lot. But, you know, credit the Lakers, they are now 10 and 9 since Anthony Davis went down in that Denver Nuggets game with a win over the Nuggets, a win over the Miami Heat without LeBron, a win over the Sacramento Kings, and now a win over the Memphis Grizzlies who are on a double-digit win streak. So I don't think you can possibly look at this situation with Anthony

Davis going down and think anything less than this has been an absolute home run. From the standpoint of the way the guys in that locker room have fought. I talk a lot on this show about basketball character. To me, basketball character is what you're made up, made up of as it pertains to your commitment to the details and your willingness to fight, your resiliency. It's all of those intangible things that make a basketball player and a basketball team.

And, you know, getting rid of a lot of the older veteran players on last year's roster and leaning into youth has given this team a relentless energy that has never really seen. stopped. And, you know, there's been so many heartbreaking losses this season. Just absolute gut-wrenching victory snatched away at the last-minute type of losses this year,

whether it's Portland earlier in the season, or whether, you know, it's that Boston Celtics collapse. I could literally go on that the Dallas Mavericks double overtime game. You have multiple three-point leads late. There's just been dozens, dozens of collapses, or probably roughly around a dozen collapses this year. And all of them were a great, reason for that team to give up hope, especially given the personnel shortcomings they have,

especially considering the Anthony Davis injury. They had a million reasons to let go with a rope, and they just haven't done so. And so when I really look at the Lakers kind of zooming out really quick before we move on, they have outstanding basketball character. They are a team that fights and competes, which is an important part of what makes a championship contender. And they have two top 10 players. LeBron James and Anthony Davis, when they are healthy, are top 10 players in this NBA. No other team in the league can say that. Not even Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. I think Jaylen Brown's closer to 11 or 12 right now. So the reality is they have a lot of the things that you need to compete for a title. They just need some pieces on the fringes to round out their role

players so that they're slotted properly for size. That's why I think they need to be doing everything they can to get Kyle Kuzma or Boyan McDonovic at the deadline. A real shooting forward like that just fixes so many issues for this team. Slot so many guys properly. Get guys competing with guys of a similar size instead of trying to battle way above their size. Anthony Davis coming back will align things in the front court better. Everything is kind of coming together. Rob and Jeannie just have to do their part at the deadline. Now it's going to be tough because they didn't do it in the off season.

They're going to be competing against everybody now. It's a seller's market. The values are through the roof for these players. It's going to be difficult. And they might not even be able to get anything done now at this point just because of how competitive the bidding war is going to be, but Rob and Jeannie have to do everything they can in February to try to bring some support to this team. They're just, they compete too hard, the top end talent is too good, the roster is too fast. I think there's a case to keep Russell Westbrook provided that

when they're fully healthy, they don't use him in the closing group. As long as they don't do that, I actually like him in the middle portions of the game because he's played, this is, I mean, we're going on, you know, a 10-game stretch here now where he's been pretty good. And that's the best a little stretch of long-term successful basketball we've seen from Russ since he got on a Lakers jersey. So if he's going to play like that, and if you can keep him out of the crunch time groups, he helps this team a ton and he supplements that speed and all those things that we were talking about. So you make ancillary moves on the perimeter, target a guy like McDonovitch, target a guy like Kuzma, get that guy on the wing, all the guards and wings are playing their

proper position, you've got the top end talent, you've got all the speed, you've got a good basketball character, you've got everything you need there. definitely an encouraging win for the Lakers tonight. Memphis, obviously, I still think they're the third best team in the West. I go Golden State, Denver, then Memphis. I have Golden State and Denver really close to each other, and I have Memphis a solid level below that, and it still just comes down to half-court defense.

In this particular game, when the Lakers were able to keep them in the half-court and get stops and run out the other way, that was when they had their moments of success. And if you go, one of the best ways to see this sort of thing is go to the ESPN app or the ESPN website. And like, you know, see where they do the line graph of the team scoring. And you just see too many flat stretches for the Grizzlies. And those are typically stretches where they're stuck in the half court.

And it's a lot of John Morant, high ISO and high pick and roll. And if he's not making his jump shot and the teams are packing the paint properly, they're not going to score. This is a bad half court offense. That is a big part of why I have them below Denver and Golden State. Denver and Golden State, when they get into the postseason, they have the requisite ball handling and shooting down the roster to generate quality shots in a way that Memphis cannot. So that's why I have a gap between those top two teams and Memphis right now.

All right, moving on to the Knicks and the Hawks. DeJante Murray just took over this game in the early fourth quarter. I hit a couple of really nice little short pop shots and fadeaways in the lane. Dejante Murray this year is shooting 48% on jump shots that are inside of 15, or excuse me, inside of 17 feet. I went on with Swipe a Cam, big time Denver Nuggets fan today to face the music about Yokic and just to talk a lot about the nuggets. And we ended up talking about a lot of NBA stuff. I tweeted a link to it on my Twitter feed so you guys can find that there. But I ended up talking to him a lot and we about stuff around the league. And we talked

about SGA with the Thunder. And we talked a lot about his short range jump shot. And there's there's a ton of value in short-range jump shooting for guys that can take more complicated shots in that range. The reason why is they're actually very high percentage if you have the touch. A fade-away or a pull-up jump shot at 10 feet is a much, much easier shot than a fade-away or a tough shot at 17, 18 feet. When you're off-balance and having to get extra lift from that far away, it's really hard to get enough power behind the shot to get it to the rim. but I've been talking about this on this show for the last six months or so. I think that short range, that like inside a 15 feet range is one of the most underutilized

areas in the game of basketball right now. It's a lot of threes. It's a lot of stuff at the basket. It's a lot of mid-range pull-up jump shots, but that short range is an area of opportunity for players to get higher percentage shots there. Luca Donchich is incredible at it. Shea Gildes-Alexander is incredible at it. and Dejante Murray is incredible at it.

And that's where I think there's a lot to learn there for young basketball players, especially if you have physical tools. Dejante Murray is a big athletic guard, at least relative to the other players that play his position. You know, Luca Donchitz, a big athletic forward. Shage Gilgis Alexander 6-6, good athlete. If you have physical tools and you're looking for go-to moves that can help you in slow down environments,

that inside 10, 15 feet, those kinds of little short, jump shots and pop shots are a great way to find scoring. The Hawks have now won seven of their last nine games. They apparently had some sort of meeting or they hashed things out and suddenly they bought in again. This has been a very hot and cold team. And when they're bought in, they're very good, but they just have these stretches where they're not bought in and then they're atrocious.

But during this nine game stretch, Trey Young, 26 points, nine assists, 64% true shooting. I saw a stat today that the three most frequent al-Yube combos in the league are all Trey It's like Trey Young and Clincapella, Trey Young and John Collins, Trey Young and Anya Ocongwu, like the best lob thrower in the league by far. Dejante Murray, 22, 5 and 6 on 57% true shooting, but they are just outscoring teams. They're just 17th in defense during this span. But glass hat full wins trigger buy-in. Buy-in triggers better effort and focus on the details that could in turn trigger them on the defensive end of the floor, which could be what triggers them forward the rest of the season. So this is either going to be the thing that springs

a positive end to the season or it's just going to be a blip in the larger trend of the season. We're going to find out here in the next few weeks. As for the Knicks, after tonight, they are now just six and fourteen against teams that are 500 or better. Classic example of a team that competes in battles and plays defense, but just does not have the top end talent to create eight enough shots against the better teams that are in this league, which makes it impossible to take them seriously. I continue to be very depressed for Knicks fans that they didn't properly go after Donovan Mitchell. All right, Warriors Cavs. So the Warriors win 120 to 114. Wasn't actually that close. Golden State really controlled this game throughout.

Jordan Poole went for 32 points on 23 shots. I actually thought Jordan Poole played really good defense in this game. Did really nice work on Darius Garland when he got switched on to him. even the few times he was on Carus Lavert. In this back-to-back against Boston and against Cleveland, he played excellent defense in both games. And that's got to be super encouraging for Warriors fans. In particular, playing with physicality, you know, so many guards, particularly smaller guards,

not even just guards, smaller, thinner basketball players, are way too willing to give up ground because they know they're not as strong and they don't want to commit foul. So like when they have their shoulder there and a guy hits them in the shoulder, they just kind of give ground and let them go around. And really that's not what you should do. You need to play with a certain amount of physicality. One, because the game of basketball is a lot more physical than people realize.

Hand-checking is technically illegal, but refs let it go all the time. You can defend with physicality. Will you pick up three or four fouls during the game? Sure. But there might be 10 or 11 other possessions where you don't get the foul call and you stop a guy from driving to the rim or you force a turnover or disrupt the other team's offense. And I thought Jordan Poole did a really nice job of defending with physicality without overfowling during this back-to-back.

They also got 39 points from Ty Jerome and Dante DiMenzo. Ty Jerome hit the dagger three kind of leaning to his right on the right wing. Kind of like I was talking about the Lakers with their speed. You know, all these roster flaws, but hey, they've got a ton of speed. That's kind of the way I feel with the Warriors in their back court. They clearly need size and athleticism off of the bench, although it was nice to see Jonathan Kamiga back out there tonight. but they need size and athleticism off the bench. But for all of those shortcomings,

they have the best guard depth chart in the league. Between Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Ty Jerome, Dante Devenzo, and Jordan Poole, you're not going to find five better guards on a roster in the NBA than that group. So that gives you all the more reason for why Joe Leakeup and Bob Myers should invest in this group. And a good win for this Warriors group who needed it

because that completely erased the feel and the damage of that blown late lead in Boston last night. The Cavs, they started 8 and 1. Since then, 20 and 18. They are just 15th in offense during that span, and they are below 500 against teams that are 500 or better. If you look at cleaning the glass in their lineup data, once again, just like I've been talking about all season,

they're better with just Darius Garland or better with just Donovan Mitchell than they are with both of them together. Kind of lends credence to my can't play with two small guards problem. still not getting enough out of the forward position, which is really hurting them offensively, just in general, a pretty mediocre season from them. I still think that this ends with them trading one of the guards for a better wing. Probably not this season because they're going to want to go down with the ship, but I think that's something that they're going to have to start looking at next year and beyond.

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-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 a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, 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 on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. starting to see there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

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, last game before we get to our quick hitters. The Nets beat the Jazz 117 to 106. Kyrie Irving 21 points in the fourth quarter, finished with 48, hit two massive pull-up threes, one at the top of the key, and then a ridiculous, like, drifting three on the right wing.

He also made a really nice driving kick to Seth Curry in the right corner. Really, the Jazz came back and tied this game, and Kyrie just made every single big play down the stretch for a huge win. You know, I, then it started, what, 0 and 3, 0, 4, or whatever, after Kevin Durant got hurt. and everyone was like talking about like how shocked they were that they were bad and I use that as an angle to go positive on KD, meaning just like, hey, let's remember how good KD is. But one of the things that I've seen way too often this year, whether it's with Kyrie after Kevin Durant went down,

whether it's with LeBron James after Anthony Davis went down, whether it's with any of these teams that have dealt with injuries in the past, it is extremely difficult to win in the NBA when your best player goes down. That's just a fact. Like it's the league is too talented. Every team has, you know, two or three guys that think of themselves as stars. You drop one of those guys, especially when they're one of the top-end guys, it's just impossible to replace their production.

So like, okay, what's my opinion of Kyrie? I don't think, I don't think Kyrie is a superstar. I don't think that Kyrie Irving is a guy that's going to carry a team as a number one. But, you know, what he is is he's a perfectly fine number two. if everything else around him is good, if you give him a good defense and you give him a good number one that can create shots more consistently on a possession by possession basis, his top end ability as an isolation player or as a shot creator

is a massive ceiling razor for any team. So yeah, if you see him as a number one, you're going to be disappointed sometimes because he's not very good defensively. And as a overall shot creator, if you need him to create 60 shots in a game as opposed to, start 60 possessions in a game as opposed to 20. $25.30, yeah, his efficiency is going to go down, his reliability is going to go down. But I could say that about everybody in the league other than the top like seven or eight guys.

That's just the reality. So, I mean, let's shout out to Kyrie Irving, pulled out a win. Again, Kevin Durant's going to be out here for eight to ten games. You get three or four of them. Then you're in great shape, especially with where they were in at in the standing. So shout out to Kyrie Irving. All right, let's get to our quick hitters. So Jeff Van Gundy and Stephen A. Smith both said that they think Steph Curry was the MVP of the NBA over the last 10 years. For the record up front, I don't think either of them actually believe that. As far as the NBA goes, January is the most boring month. Yeah, for us hoop nerds, we enjoy it, but for the vast majority of casual fans, they're just entirely tuned out and paying attention to football right now. You're seeing all

sorts of weird results around the league. The effort is really inconsistent. This is a time of year where a lot of teams are dealing with injuries or guys being out of the lineup. So really, this was just textbook engagement bait, in my opinion. I don't think Jeff Van Gundy and Stephen A. Smith actually believe this. But hey, it makes for good television. But I do think that this topic is a great example or a great opportunity, I should say, for me to make a point about LeBron James' career. Now, before I say this, disclaimer to Steph fans, you guys know, I think Steph is the

fifth best perimeter player of all time. He's my second favorite player ever. This has nothing to do with negativity in Steph. this is just what happens when you stack anybody up with a top two basketball player of all time. And I wanted to demonstrate LeBron's insane resume. So even if we arbitrarily just cut off 10 years, like, hey, nothing counts before the 2013-2014 NBA season. That means we're erasing all four of LeBron's MVPs and two of his championships. Even if we do that, I still think LeBron is the MVP of the last 10 seasons.

And here's some stats to demonstrate that for you. So first of all, since the 2013-2014 campaign, that would be this season as year 10. Okay? LeBron, five top-three MVP finishes. Steph Curry, three top-three MVP finishes. First team all-MBAs, LeBron, six, Steph Curry, four. Finals MVP's, LeBron, two, step one. Now, I would give him two because I think he deserves in 2015.

So, yeah, if you zoom in on that, you could say, yeah, the Warriors have four titles. LeBron has two. Now, I would argue that has a lot to do with the fact that they had one of the most talented rosters in NBA history in 2017 and 2018. It's close. If you told me you thought it was Steph just because of the titles, I'd be with you there. Or at least I would respect the opinion. However, as we look at that, in terms of year-in and year-out dominance, year-in and year-out

contributions to winning. Six first-team all-MBAs for LeBORN, four for Steph. step five top three MVP finishes for lebron three for step in terms of year in and year out value to to an NBA team lebron has been better than step in the last decade and that's even if we arbitrarily just cut off almost all of lebron's resume by randomly choosing 10 years spanning from 2014 to 2023 like it doesn't actually make sense to do it that way but if we're going to play that game i still think it goes to lebron the point is that's why lebron is the second best player of all time, in my opinion, and why so many LeBron fans think he's the best player of all

time. His resume defies any conventional wisdom. Like, how shocked are you guys that Steph has only made four first-team all-MBAs in the last 10 years? That's pretty wild stat, right? That's because in terms of year-in and year-hout dominance, it just hasn't quite been the same as what LeBron James has done. And I think over the years, we've taken him for granted in a lot of ways, and we've taking step for granted too. I mean, I think, I think, I think Steph is kind of one of the most underrated players in NBA history because of how much the other 29 fan bases hate him for whatever reason because your favorite team lost to him so many times. And, and I understand that. But like, you know, let's, like, generally speaking, if there's a consensus opinion, there's a reason behind it.

And I would venture to guess that about 90% of NBA fans believe that LeBron is a top two player of all time. And that's not a coincidence. It's because his resume is absurd. And I understand the engagement bait. I understand all those angles. But I hope we pay the proper respect to LeBron. He's near in the end of the road here. And I hope people appreciate what he provided to the league while he was in it. All right, Bob Myers in his first episode of his podcast for Omaha Productions said that he was in doing an interview with Steph Curry. And he said, quote, I said to Steve Kerr, we're going to the finals, and he said, I'm nervous. I said, why? He goes, because we got to do this for Steph. And I said why, and he goes, because he deserves it.

Now, the reason why I added this as a quick hitter is because I felt this way about all three of my three favorite players since I've been following the league. Steph LeBron and KD are my three favorite players, and I have felt this way about all three of them at various points in their careers. In 2020, when LeBron was competing for an NBA title, I wanted it so bad for him. And the main reason why was during 2019, 2018, 2017, when he literally lost twice because the Warriors were just too damn good and had the most talented roster in NBA history, a lot of people kicked LeBron while he was down during that time. And a lot of people tried to rewrite the history of LeBron's career because he was losing to Steph and K.D. Steph, KD, and LeBron were the three best players in the league. Two of them played on the same team. The deck was stacked against LeBron.

He was very much, not incapable, but nearly incapable of even having a chance to win those series. And people were rewriting his legacy. So I was rooting for him in 2020 because I thought it was a great opportunity for him to remind everybody of what he's capable of. Fast forward to 2022. Same thing with Steph. I was rooting for Steph too. because I thought when he'd miss the playoffs two years in a row, which had everything to do with injuries and nothing to do with Steph,

the 2021 season was one of the best individual regular seasons I've ever seen from a player in Steph Curry, and they still miss the playoffs. And if he didn't land on his tailbone, they would have made the playoffs. That's like, I thought Steph and his greatness was unassailable. But here's what happened. He won two titles with Kevin Durant, and he won them at LeBron's expense.

So LeBron fans just tried to slander the hell out of Steph Curry and rewrite the story of his career because he missed the playoffs the first two years without Kevin Durant when it had nothing to do with Kevin Durant and everything to do with injuries. So I saw 2020 as an opportunity for Steph to remind everybody of just how damn good he was or is. And he did. and I was very, very happy for him. That's where I'm at with KD this year. What happened when KD went to Brooklyn is when he was healthy,

he played absolutely, absurdly incredible basketball every single time, except for a week against the Boston Celtics, who were the most talented team in the league, a terrible matchup for the Nets, and KD just didn't shoot well in a very small sample size. Four games in one week. And everyone rewrote the story of Kevin to,

LeBron. LeBron fans did. Steph Curry fans did. Everyone wanted to pretend he was terrible. And I didn't like that. I didn't think that was fair to him. And I thought he was becoming massively underrated. So I'm rooting for Kevin Durant this year to get one.

Because if he gets one in Brooklyn, nobody can say anything anymore. And that's what I want for LeBron. That's what I want for Steph. That's what I want for Kevin Durant. I want all of the stupid, nonsensical narratives to get thrown in the trash. so that those guys can be appreciated for what they've provided to this league. Here at the end, here in their last few years, I hope we get to that point.

So I'm rooting for KD. Kevin Durant and Stan Van Gundy and their little engagement on Twitter over, basically Stan Van Gundy said that he thought it was strange that if we went back to the 90s when they didn't have nearly the medical staffs or the benefits of the treatment capabilities and any of those things available to them, they were playing every night and not skipping back to backs and not load managing.

And now they're doing all the load managing and they're skipping all the games despite having better medical staffs and better equipment available to them and injuries are happening more frequently. And Stan Van Gundy's like, hey, maybe we should be playing more. And Kevin Durant responded underneath it like,

hey, you're spitting, and then, you know, Stan Van Gundy didn't understand what he was saying. That was the joke. But I wanted to hop on this because I am like, I think there's two very interesting angles to take here. Once again, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, four warrior starters, all missed a game in Cleveland tonight, a game that many Cavs fans paid Good Bunny to go watch potentially their favorite player in Steph Curry play, you know, to watch the Warriors play,

and they showed up and they didn't get to watch their guy. And that really sucks. And for the record, I want to throw some criticism. I met Steve Kerr here. They had two days off before the Boston game. Send him out there to play against the Caps. Come on, man. You know, like it makes, I didn't like that personally. But there's a couple of different angles to go out here. I agree with Stan Van Gundy that I think we overdue rest. Now, there is some data. I don't have it in front of me so I can't read it to you, but there has been some data in the last few years that load management has not led to any sort

of improvement in injuries. And I do think that that's not, I do think that there's some legitimacy to that because I think that conditioning is an important part of the athletic experience. I think that conditioning your body to grind it out on a daily basis, even through minor discomfort and pain, prepares you for that exact process. And if you can break through that initial wall for that first month or whatever, your body will be capable of handling it. And then you won't deal with the nagging stuff that these guys are dealing with. I think if you rest every time you have every little bit of discomfort,

you never actually push through that wall and get to the point where you're conditioned enough to handle it. So I do think load management is overdone around the league. However, the one other side I want to say, it's just, it's not, it doesn't change my opinion, but it's a little footnote on this topic. basketball is not the same now as it was in the 90s. Sorry. The amount of ground that gets covered by perimeter players in this league,

in transition, in rotation as the game has become spaced out beyond the three-point line as opposed to congest it around the basket, people, I bet you have you put on trackers on players and tracked how many linear feet they move in a game, that it's double what it was in the 90s. That's my guess, and I don't have that data in front of me. But I believe that the game is so different now that that also contributes to the increase in injuries. So 37 minutes a night in the 90s, I don't think is nearly as hard on your hamstrings and on your groin and on your ankles and on your knees and on your feet as it is now when you have to run so much more and cover so much more ground. So I do think teams need to chill out on the load management and have guys actually condition themselves for the grind.

But I do think we should acknowledge at least as it pertains to the increase in injuries, that it probably has more to do with how much the players are running and less to do with load management one way or the other, if that makes sense. All right, last one, John Wall and everyone else piling on the rocket. So everyone in the world has been making points about the rockets and how they don't play the right way and how their young guards need someone to come in

and teach them how to play basketball and all these different things. I do think it's overdone a little bit because I think too much blame is put directly on Jalen Green or on Kevin Porter Jr., when really I think it's an important. organizational thing all the way down through the coaching staff as it pertains to accountability. I do think it matters, though. What does it mean to play the right way? To me, like, that's just building good habits, something I've talked about nonstop on this show. You know, that means committing to defense, committing to rebounding, committing to execution on

the offensive end of the floor, committing to running and transition, all those different things. But it also goes beyond that to a play style from your offensive initiators. And, you know, there's a time in a place for a pull-up jump shot. There's a time and a place for an isolation possession. And they are primarily counters to coverages. You should ISO when you have a good matchup because of a switch and the spacing, it lends credence to it. You should take a pull-up jump shot because you ran a pick and roll

and they stayed with the roll man and they stayed elsewhere, and it's the only shot that's available on the floor. There's definitely a balance and a flow to primary ball handling that those guards need to learn. But that's not on them if the coaching staff or the front office isn't providing them with the leadership they need to do so. So I think it's a delicate thing. Like we need to talk about the rockets and the way they're playing,

but not place so much blame on Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green. They're just young basketball players that aren't being held accountable. And at the end of the day, like to me, it more has to do with those commitment to those other details. Those are more important to me right now because there's no real stakes here. and really the guards are just working on their games. They're just getting NBA reps. But at the end of the day,

you don't have to be a good defense. You don't have to be a good rebounding team, but you have to at least try those things. And the reason why is it's important to portray competence, even when you're bad. The Thunder are rebuilding. The Rockets are rebuilding. The Thunder have a young star guard.

The Rockets have a young star guard. Now, they're earlier in their development. The Thunder are a few more years ahead. but organizationally from the top down, they are teaching those guys how to play basketball the right way. They're not winning every night. They're not the best defense in the league. They're not the best rebounding team in the league.

But what they are is they are trying to do those things. Ironically, the Rockets are actually a very good rebounding team because they're so athletic. And rebounding is just one small area in the grand scheme of what I'm talking about. But the point is you build that competence so that over the years, guys are more willing to sign with that group. You know, the Thunder are going to need a veteran wing soon. And, you know,

that guy, when Sam Pressy sits down with them and he goes like, hey, listen, here's the deal. This is what we built. This is what I got with SGA. This is what I got with Chet. This is kind of where I imagine you fitting in with this group. You know, I think Jalen Williams can kind of spell you off the bench. Might even play you guys together sometimes. Blah, blah, blah. Like, if I'm sitting there and you're going to pay me $7 million or $10 million or whatever to come play with that group, I'm not in my head. I'm like, hell yeah, man, let's do this. I like these young guys. Let's try to win this thing. I'm in. But now let's imagine the rocket sit down and have that same meeting. And I'm looking at this group and I'm like, well, okay, no one's teaching these guards how to play.

So they're just running down jacking up shots and not playing real basketball. No one's boxing out. No one's defending. No one's doing all these things, whatever it is. And, you know, this just doesn't seem like a good idea for me. I don't want to be, you know, what Aaron Gordon, Eric Gordon is right now. you know, the veteran that's just buried on this team and in basketball purgatory. You know what I mean? So that's why I think it's important for the Rockets to portray competency. It's about the future. It's about that baby steps in the right direction.

And, you know, it all starts with accountability. And I think it starts with the front office, works all the way down to the coaching staff. They just have to do a better job keeping those guys accountable. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. Wow, that was a whirlwind. We're taking the rest of the weekend off, but I will see you guys on Monday. sincerely appreciate your support, and I'll see you guys then. 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. 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 the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Heart Radio. 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, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. 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. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.