The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: Steph & Warriors SHINE with Butler, Edwards & Timberwolves dominate

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

Jason Timpf is back reacting to an electric Thursday night of NBA basketball. He kicks things off by talking about Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves defeating Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder by a score of 116-101. Timpf salutes the Wolves young superstar in Anthony Edwards and breaks down what made Minnesota so capable in their takedown of one of the NBA’s top teams in the Thunder. Then, Timpf dives into the Golden State Warriors, led by stars Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, and how the Dubs have been so effective since acquiring the formerly embattled Miami Heat superstar. Next, Timpf takes YOUR questions in another exciting edition of the mailbag where he touches on the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat, and much, much more. Timeline: 4:15 - Intro 5:30 -  Wolves/Thunder 14:00 - Warriors/Rockets 25:15 - Mailbag #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c-o-slash-B ball. Coon to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys have had a great week. Got a jam-pack show for you today. The Minnesota Timberwolves got a huge win

over the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. They've won nine out of 13. And Anthony Edwards is showing a very interesting side of his game that wasn't on display. in the early part of the year. Thanks to some offensive production out of the front core. We're going to be talking about that. After that, we're going to get into the Golden State Warriors,

getting a huge win on the road against the Houston Rockets. I'm going to talk a little bit about Moses, Moody, and Brandon Pajemski, in the way that their roles have become more defined and how that has helped them. And then after that, like we do always on Fridays, a mailbag. Going to be bouncing around the league, a bunch of Lakers stuff, a bunch of Nick stuff, a bunch of other stuff from other teams around the league.

You guys know the joke before we started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our video. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee, wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. And it's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where we're releasing content throughout the year.

And last but not least, if you want to get questions in these mailbags in the YouTube comments, the word mailbag with a colon, write your question, that's how I sift them out of all those comments. Drop the mailbag questions in those YouTube comments and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Timberwolves get a huge win against the Thunder last night. They've won 9 out of 13. They are 8th in offense over that span to go with also being fifth and defense,

sixth the net rating. Several quality wins in that span too against Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston, and then last night culminating with the win against Oklahoma City. That's a hell of a run. And most of it is centered around. They're scoring the ball at a much more efficient clip to allow their defense to push them over the top. And that's come down to the recent surge of Jaden McDaniels and Nas Reid. Jada McDaniels in this span, in this 13-game stretch, 16 points per game to go with seven rebounds,

37% from three on four attempts per game. He's finally starting to hit some shots. He's also doing more self-creation in the last four games. Jada McDaniels has scored 16 points as the ball handler in ball screen. So he's doing some stuff on the ball as well. Nas-Reed, since Julius Randall went down in his last seven. games, 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, 60% true shooting,

just frying teams and picking pop action. He's scoring out of the post. He's up to 1.23 points per post up, including passes this year. Only 53 reps, but he's been doing it a lot more, obviously, as of late as they've been leaning on him more. Just a bunch of excellent footwork and finishing moves going both directions. You know, I always talk about with big guys,

they're being like a heavy emphasis on short-range shot-making, like hook shots and floaters. Nasreed is 50 for 94 this season on floaters and hooks. That's 53%. He's been really, really effective in that range, and he's been one of the very best jump shooters in the entire NBA this year. A Nazaree jump shot of any kind has been worth 1.21 points per shot this year. Among the 82 players in the NBA, to take at least 300 jump shots this season, Nasreed ranks third in overall efficiency.

A little trivia for you guys who do you think is above them. Number two is Norman Powell. Number one, the guy who's been super hot as of late, Gary Trent Jr., the best jump shooter in the league at volume this year. But this is the important detail. Obviously, Nasreed's been incredible. It's been a revelation. He was the guy who's getting a lot of the big buckets.

The two guys that really stood out to me at the end of the Thunder game where Nas Reid scoring the ball and then Luca Garza just kicking the Thunder's ass on the. the glass there underneath the basket doing a bunch of damage during their late game run. But the extra production out of the front court offensively has opened things up for Ant to be more of a downhill score. And he's been playing his best ball of the season. Anthony Edwards' last 10 games, 33 points per game, six rebounds and five assists,

60% true shooting. And here's the big difference. Here's the obvious difference between before and how things look now. He's getting to the basket more. In the previous 44 games before this 10-game stretch, to start the season, he was getting to the restricted area for a shot just 4.1 times per game. In the last 10 games, he's at 6.1. So literally a 50% increase there.

Get this. His free throw attempts per game in this 10-game span have doubled. He was at 5 free throws per game in the first 44 games of the season. He's at 10 free throws per game in the last 10. games. So a legit 50% increase in attempts at the rim in doubling his free throw attempts. An interesting case study in something I've been talking about for years now, which is like, what would it look like if we just gave Anthony Edwards better spaces? By the way, that's with Rudy Gobert playing for the most part. But because Jaden McDaniels is scoring the basketball,

knocking down spot-up jump shots at a higher clip, because Nas Reid is shooting better than anybody in the league except for a handful of guys this year, you're getting a lot of space for Ant to operate and he is getting downhill and getting to the free throw line more than he had by a substantial margin compared to the beginning of the season. And that's the exciting part. That's what I kind of envision is the big picture goal for this team as we get into like further iterations of it. I want to see Ant play with space. That's his superpower. His superpower is downhill. And I understand he could settle from tough shot sometimes. It was interesting. I saw a bunch of Wolves fans relenting the stepback three that he took late in the game against the bucks and like,

I get it under the circumstances you'd prefer a better shot. But like he was attacking, he got like a really clean look at a mid-range jump shot, a couple possessions earlier where he pumped-faked and the dude ran by and he was like, stand still 14 feet from the basket. That's just a great look. He had a beautiful driving skip pass to Nasreed in the corner for the shot that, it would either tie the game or gave him the lead. I can't remember exactly.

I think it put him up by two, if I remember correctly. Like, Ant is doing some attacking. He is doing getting closer, better shots in those situations. He just didn't love the shot that he got at the very end of the game. But at the same time, like, I kind of like respect Ant in that situation in the sense that like he's been working relentlessly on that shot. It's been one of the most efficient shots in all of basketball this year is just Anthony Edwards taking a three of any kind. I think you had an opportunity there to go for the win. Again, ideally you get something a little more reliable.

But I have a feeling, Ant's going to hit some big ones like that over the years. And he has, by the way. There was several examples this year where he's been able to go to that shot and knock it down when it matters. He's leaning a little much on variance there. And that's where him working closer to the basket, he can compete or contend against his own variance and rely a little bit less on long distance shot making. But, I mean, he's one of the best three-point shooters in the league this year. So I can't, like, just say it's a terrible shot.

You could just argue that he could have gotten something better. But, again, where you're getting some of the best basketball of Anthony Edwards is career just by virtue of him getting real scoring pop out of the three and four spot. Again, you're getting like, damn near what, 37 points a game out of those guys in the last month. Like, that's, that's going to just make life so much easier compared to the early part of the season when there was just very little in the way of shot making in that front court. But I have one more note I wanted to hit on before we move on from the Wolves. I thought Minnesota really mauled Oklahoma City physically in that fourth quarter.

They held them to just 14 points. They flipped the game into a blowout. when it was tied in the third quarter. They chewed them up on the glass. They had 20 offensive rebounds. I talked earlier about how Luca Garza just absolutely destroyed them on the offensive glass there in that run that they went on in the fourth quarter.

And they guarded Shea better than anyone has all year. It was the first time this entire season that anyone has held Shea to below 25 points on less than 30% shooting. It's only the second time this year at all that any team held him below 30% shooting. They did a number on him. It reminded me of what happened in the Denver game seven last year. If you guys remember, Minnesota really ratcheted up the physical intensity and just basically ran them over the rest of the way on both ends of the floor.

And it got me thinking as I was watching last night. And I was recording with the NerdSash guys earlier today. It was a fun one. You guys will get to see that if you go to the NerdSash channel. Carson and I vehemently disagreed about, I had the Lakers on the same tier with Denver. and he just views there as a gap, then there being a gap there

and we got into this like debate for like 25 minutes about it. You guys all enjoy that. But I got me thinking about the contender tears. And then after I finished that recording, I went and watched Minnesota Oklahoma City. And as I'm watching that, I'm just sitting there thinking like,

are we underrating Minnesota because we're forgetting that when we get to the postseason, their physicality is just a huge problem? Do you guys remember how the suns just killed the wolves last year? in the regular season, including on like two days before the series started, then what happened? They got absolutely annihilated in the playoffs. They beat the shit out of Phoenix. In large part, because they ratchet up that physicality, and that's the environment where that trait becomes the most valuable. And there are tricky things here. Like, you got to figure out where Julius

Randall fits into all of this. But to me, Minnesota has shown some real upside. They have 11 wins now against teams in the top 10 in point differential. That's the fourth most in the entire NBA. top six in both offense and defensive rating in those matchups against top 10 point differential teams. Again, that top six offense is interesting to me, and it just goes to show you like, their athletes can get to spots and can score even when the intensity ratchets up. Wolves playing some great basketball. Moving on to the Warriors versus the Rockets. Really good defensive effort from the Warriors in this one.

They were doubling Alper and Shangoon and rotating out of it well without giving up any advantage. They were doing a lot of short closing out. like baiting on the indecisive shooters from Houston that will shoot when they're wide open, but if you kind of stunt at them, they might pump fake and try to drive. They were just focusing more on containing the ball instead of chasing people off the three-point line, keeping the ball in front, making Houston make jump shots. But I thought the story of the game was the role player contributions. They got 28 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists with only one turnover from Moses Moody and Brandon

Pajemski. And so I wanted to kind of zoom in on this concept of role player depth because this is something I was harping on a lot before the Jimmy Butler trade. I talked a lot leading into the Jimmy Butler trade about the idea that you can afford to lose some role player depth with this group. If all 15 of your guys can realistically play a role, but only one guy can play a lead role, you're going to get diminishing returns. It's obvious in the rotation. Pods is averaging 33 minutes per game since the Jimmy Butler trade. As a result, he's in more of a rhythm. He's averaging 15.6 rebounds and five assists with two steals per game in that span. That's an excellent set of production.

Before the trade, his minutes were all over the place. Average 24 minutes. He had 10 games where he didn't even get to 20 minutes. Why? Because they had a million rotation players. Sikur is always trying new things. Oh, this guy's not playing well. I'll try somebody else. And like there was a shorter leash on everybody. The rotation was bouncing around. It was tricky. And that's what happens when you have so many guys that can play. Now he's averaging 33 minutes per game. He's getting starter minutes. consistently. Big shock he's playing his best basketball this season. Moses Moody was like a redundancy with Andrew Wiggins before the Jimmy trade. His minutes were crazy sporadic.

Before the trade, 18 minutes per game. He had four games where he didn't even reach 10 minutes. He was a garbage time guy some nights. He had 25 games this season where he failed to reach 20 minutes. You could argue that's a waste of Moses Moody. He's capable of doing more. The Jimmy Butler trade balanced the roster more, gave him a more clear-cut role. He's averaging 30 minutes per game since the trade.

And he's struggling to shoot the ball a little bit. And by the way, that's part of what happens when your workload increases. You lose your legs a little bit. I think the shots will fall once he gets more used to his higher minute load. But I think he's been fantastic overall as like a defender, close-out attacker. He's contributing well. I think he's giving you a reasonable facsimile of what Andrew Wiggins did. everyone was so concerned about gutting the team's depth.

Last night, Gary Payton the second didn't play. Trace Jackson Davis is still completely out of the rotation because Quentin Post is playing so much better than him. Kerr ran a 10-man rotation last night, and you had two guys that absolutely could play that were out. I guess, I mean, Gary Payton's hurt, but the point is, it's like, you still have depth. You still have guys that can play,

except for now you have Jimmy Butler on your team. And you've won three out of four, while on a really tough road trip, including beating the bucks in Milwaukee and beating the Rockets in Houston. It was just about balancing things out. There were a lot of guys in Golden State Warriors' jerseys that were capable of doing more role player stuff.

But instead, you were asking those role players to do more star stuff, and then bitching that they were all inconsistent. Of course they are. They're being asked to do stuff that's beyond their pay grade. Now you've balanced things out better. And I think we will continue to see the rewards being reaped by Golden State throughout the rest of the season as a result of that.

They ended up going up by 24 in this game and the inevitable Houston ball pressure and physicality ran came, right? Like they always bring that. That's part of beating Houston and Houston. That's just how it goes. They do it to everybody. Their bench guys come in. They just start playing super hard.

They're big. They're athletic. They can make a mess of things in a good way for Houston. I thought you could see Golden State's younger players get a little sped up and start making some mistakes. The one that was the dead giveaway to me was, when Guy Santos got that pretty open three in the left corner, but there was a pretty hard close out,

and he panicked and shot it off the corner of the backboard. That's kind of an example of what it looks like when players are rushing, right? But I've always found it fascinating how the best players in the world just somehow seemed to slow down when things speed up like that. Steph just kept making plays by weaponizing their aggression against them. He had a huge three on the left wing off of a pump fake, where he just pump faked, waited for the guy to go by, and then just calmly settled into that three above the break on the left wing,

and knocked it down. It was a huge shot in the game that put him backed up seven. And then the action that iced the game of play, I love. They put pods and Moody on the right wing in corners out of the way. And Draymond Green's in the left corner. Steph's right under the basket. Jimmy Butler's got the ball in the left wing. And all he does is just pitch it to Draymond and back cut off of Steph. And J. Sean Tate hesitates because he's not sure if they're switching or not,

which, by the way, that's what happens when you're playing against Steph Curry. He's going to cause confusion with your switching because you don't want to leave Steph, Draymond throws a beautiful bounce pass to Jimmy Butler for a dunk. Every time I watch that group, it just seems like such a more dynamic trio to run three-man action and just to have versatility on both ends of the floor. It just makes a lot of sense for me. It's impressive one on the road. They're three-and-one so far with Jimmy, 15th and offense, fourth in defense.

On the Rockets front, it's just a tough matchup for them without Fred Van Fleet. Draymond gave Shangoon all sorts of issues, helped him to four for 10 shooting, only four assists and three turnovers. The Warriors just swarmed every Jalen Green drive, and of course, Jalen Green just never wants to pass out of those drives. I thought Aaron Holiday did an admirable job of trying to fill the Fred Van Vleet role. But this team just really needs advantages to succeed, and they didn't have anybody who could consistently generate advantages

except through the strength of their defense and trying to run out in transition, which worked until Steph, Jimmy, and Draymond just reasserted control because they're the grown-ups that can slow down and play patient-discipline basketball. Little shout-outs for Jock Landale and Nate Williams. I thought they did the majority of the damage during that run. Just but playing hard, grabbing rebounds, pressuring the rim. Joc Landale's shooting was valuable in that run as well. Again,

they're going to be fine. They're playing a lot of weird lineups right now. We saw Jeff Green last night. Reed Shepherd, who's been bad, is still playing a lot. Like, the rockets are just in a little bit of a funk right now that has to do with injuries to core guys in their rotation. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special.

So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letter help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their

between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happens. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsLice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

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All right, let's get to our mailback. First thing, before we get in any questions, I always have to clarify this. Guys, I don't make the thumbnails. I am in charge of content. The volume is in charge of distribution. they are the people that come up with the marketing strategy for the show. If you see a thumbnail, that's not something that or a title or something like that. I have no say in anything like that.

I'm just here making the content. So like I just say that because I constantly see comments of people freaking out about the thumbnails. And that's just not something I have anything to do with. It seems more likely than not that Mitchell Robinson and O.G. and O.G. and Obey will return to the Nix after the All Star break. Does it make sense for the Nix to experiment? with Mitch in the starting lineup alongside Cat, or should he continue to come off the bench

considering how well the current starting lineup has been performing? I think you absolutely have to experiment with Carl Anthony Towns alongside Mitchell Robinson. There's several reasons for this. One, it's a matchup thing. I've always just been a big believer that you want to have different looks when you get into the postseason if you can afford it. It's one of the big reasons why I've been bummed out about the Lakers not getting a center. I believe in their small ball looks.

I think their small ball looks are going to be tough to contend with. But I think it's advantageous if the situation arises in the postseason and you need to go bigger that you're able to do so, right? Like, not the least of which is for Nicole Yokic, right? As far as New York goes, like, there's not necessarily a team in the, there are certain teams. Milwaukee is an example of a team, especially with Kyle Kuzman now that can provide a very big front line to where you might want to try to match size per size. I think a big part of it is the defensive flexibility.

A big part of what's caused problems for the Knicks defense over the course of the season is teams picking on Brunson and Kat, usually at the same time, getting Kat into the screening action after they bring Brunson into the primary ball handler as a defender by just setting an early screen with a guard or something along those lines, right? But if you have a legitimate rim protector like Mitchell Robinson behind the play, or if you can bring Mitchell Robinson up into action and have Carl Anthony Towns operate as a low man, that's just a more achievable defensive role for Kat. If Kat knows I've got help on the backline or I don't have to be the guy that's coming up

into these ball screens, that goes a long way towards giving you, an easier job for Kat to do. Like for instance, right now, Cat is pretty much guarding the center as often as you can imagine to try to give him an achievable defensive role. You can tuck him away on a week forward if you have a center that can guard the opposing center.

I think it's absolutely worth trying to build out that look, even though, yeah, you're obviously going to stagger them a lot throughout the game. It's only been two games, but have you seen any differences in how the Lakers are using Luca as opposed to Dallas? Here's the thing. Luca's been very unaggressive over the course of the first two games. That's been especially the first, like the game on Wednesday was just like one of the worst Laker efforts of the season. I basically just crumple up that game and throw it away.

The Monday game though, like LeBron and Austin were super aggressive like right out the gates and Leuka was kind of passive and just kind of watching things and not really getting very involved in the offense. I don't think either of those games represent what this is going to look like. my guess is that JJ Reddick over the course of this weekend and running into practice on Monday and Tuesday is going to heavily emphasize at least either specific lineups that will flow through Luca or even with the starting lineup asking LeBron and Austin to just play off of Luca more and let Luca get the ball. Because like again, Luca's best asset to this team is shot creation. You could argue the more you put on Luca offensively, the more you can rely on LeBron as a defender and as a rebounder. The more you can rely on Austin. as like a close-out attacker as like a guess what? Austin is a capable defender this is one of the things Carson and I got into an argument with about earlier today but like you Austin when he doesn't have to do everything on offense

he actually can be a dependable defensive player at the guard position not a great defender but he can be a good defender shouldn't be guarding the other team's best player but he can guard and so like putting him in a situation where he doesn't have to do as much offensively is advantageous in this situation right so like I think we will see a lot more Luca heliocentric type of stuff coming out of the All-Star break. But the flip side of that is what I talk about after the finals with Dallas. I talked about how there's certain limitations on heliocentric basketball.

And there is an upside to Luca being more of a willing like cog in an offensive system rather than just the head of the snake. Because it'll give them more versatility against the best defenses. And here's the bottom line. Like when they play against the best defenses, like when they play against the best defenses, Like when they play against Oklahoma City, it's not going to be Luca picking them apart and just throwing out for catch and shoot threes. It's going to have to be against an elite defense like that. That skip pass, driving a close-out, really good driving kick possessions, deliberate offense to get great shots. And that is going to require all three of them.

It might be Luca running the first ball screen, but it might be LeBron attacking on the skip or Austin cutting along the baseline after LeBron attacks off the skip. It might be three, four, five attacks on a possession before they. actually get what they want out of it. And so, again, like, I think it'll be a lot more heliocentric post-all-star break, but I do think we're going to see a good amount of equal opportunity basketball from them against the best teams in the league. Hey, Jason, long-time listener, congrats on all your success. I noticed a few months ago you tweeted out a Stanley Johnson and how he should be on an NBA roster. Sure enough, the Lakers get him on their G-League team. Are you someone that ever watches the G-League? And if so, would you ever do a segment on G-League guys or out-of-country guys we should watch

or who you think are ready to play in the NBA? So I've just found that the NBA, it's is so damn difficult to cover just because of the sheer amount of games, the sheer amount of teams that, like, I don't focus on scouting much at all. Like, when we get into July or late August or excuse me, late June, I should say, I will spend time learning as much as I can about draft prospects in that short period of time. But like, there are people that devote a lot more time and energy to scouting outside of the NBA. And those people are just going to do a much better job than I can ever hope to do. So I'm a big believer in like I'd rather be great at this

than try to be, have my hands in like, you know, six different pots, but that I'm not particularly good at any of them, right? So like I really like to focus on NBA basketball. That said, Stanley Johnson, I do think is a guy that could play at the NBA level. He's a career six rebounds and two stocks per 36 minutes in the NBA. Like he's a useful athlete. He does have switchability. He's a fire hydrant that's difficult to go through.

And the biggest issue was he couldn't shoot. And over the course of the last two seasons in the G League, he's shooting 41% from three on five attempts per game. I don't think the Lakers are going to pick them up. I think if they converted a wing, it'll be Jordan Goodwin. But like, if you told me Stanley Johnson was on this roster, I would be happy with it because I like Stanley. And I'm a little biased too because I'm from Tucson, Arizona.

He came through Arizona, Stanley and I played against and with each other at times while he was here just playing pickup and stuff. So I'm a big fan of Stanley. But that said, I do think that he can help. and I hope he gets another opportunity in the NBA at some point. With the growth as a shooter and with his impactfulness as an athlete, I think he should get that opportunity. With Matas Bezellis now hitting the double-digit scoring mark

eight gains in a row and Zach Levine gone, what can slash should the Bulls do this season to ensure they are rebuilding the right way? Continue to give them the ball as much as possible. Everything about being bad with a purpose has big picture goals, right? like if you're going to be bad, you want to be bad while accumulating assets and you want to be bad while evaluating young talent. I've joked about how like a lot of times when you're rebuilding, you'll take on bad contracts with draft compensation being the reward for the bad contracts.

Then what ends up happening is you have a bunch of guys on these rookie deals where they're making somewhere between, you know, two and eight million a year that are on these like cost controlled contracts that you're actually playing while you take. those guys, you need to determine which ones of those guys can be extended, should be extended, are part of your big picture goals as a franchise in the team that you're trying to build. You need to find out what Modis Bezellis is. Is he just like a Michael Porter Jr., weak side wing defender, rebounder, guy who attacks with an advantage? Or is he a guy that can run action and run a lot of it, right? Like, that's the kind of stuff that you got to figure out, because which one of those two players he becomes plays it plays a big role. You might find out, oh, he'll never be good enough defensively for this to work.

Okay, well, we need to find out. We need to play him large amounts of minutes, give him lots of repetition, right? And so the best thing you could do is put the ball in his hands and just find out what this kid is capable of in these moments where you can afford to give him that opportunity. As currently constructed, where do you believe that the expectations should be for the Lakers this postseason? I'm borderline wanting to consider them contenders because of the sheer fact that they have Luca and LeBron, who are two of the most consistent guys in the league, but I want to be cautious. I'm going to say exactly what I said to the nerdsesh guys earlier today. I don't know what the Lakers are going to be.

I haven't seen them play nearly enough basketball. I need to see a lot more. That said, there's somewhere between, in my opinion, a second-tier contender and a third-tier contender. To me right now, I kind of view of like Boston OKC at the top. I'm starting to slot Cleveland in that second tier these days. Denver, to me, is in that second tier. the Lakers are either going to be in that second tier with Denver and Cleveland or in the tier right below, but we need to watch them play a lot more basketball.

I think here's the thing. If they're a second tier contender, let's say that we end up putting them in that second tier, I'm still worried about a Yokic matchup. I'm still really worried about a Celtics matchup because the same reasons that Dallas struggled last year trying to guard Boston at times, right? So like I think they have matchup weaknesses, but I also just put this like simple, I presented this to Carson today. If it's LeBron, Luca, Austin,

Dorian Finney Smith, and Rui, how are you getting stops against the Lakers? In a big spot. How? Who are you helping off of? Dorian Finney Smith is a knockdown three-point shooter. Rui can drive close-outs. Austin can drive close-outs. LeBron can drive close-outs.

Luca can drive close-outs. You can't leave any of them open. Like, they're going to have legitimate five-out spacing with that group. Like LeBron and Lucas should be able to get to the rim whenever they want. Okay, you have a big enough box. take Oklahoma City, for example. Lou Dort, they're going to put Lou Dord on Luca,

and it's going to make life really difficult for Luca. Okay, who's guarding LeBron? Jalen Williams? Like, LeBron's going to do a lot of damage to Jalen Williams. You know what I mean? So, like, that's not to say that I would pick the Lakers over the Thunder. I don't know. I honestly, God, I'm not going to give you guys my, like,

contender ranking for the Lakers until I watch them play a lot more basketball. They're a brand new theoretical team right now that's played the Utah Jazz twice. They tried in one game and kicked the shit out of them. They didn't try in the next game and got their shit kicked out of them. So, like, I don't know exactly what they're going to be yet. We will find out. But, like, I mean, LeBron is 40 years old, and he's a championship robust kind of guy. And I'm sure that he thinks that they can win.

And I would imagine they're going to view anything other than them winning as a failure. But, like, I don't know what they're going to be. And we just need to see a lot more basketball before we can make that kind of decision. So with the Mark Williams trade falling through, the Lakers are obviously aiming for free agency to grab that lob threat big. How would you feel about Jalen Duren to the Lakers? he's only 21 years old, 610, 250 pounds, and is a lot threat, and is a free agent this summer.

He's also averaging 70% from the field. And I know it's early, but any realistic free agents you see on the Lakers. I have a hard time believing Detroit is going to give up on Jalen Duren. He's had some issues with, like, guarding on the perimeter against stretch fives, but I think he's been really good outside of that. And he's a really nice fit with Kay, got good hands, finishes everything around the basket.

So, I mean, when I look at this summer for the Lakers, I think they're going to be keying in on guys like Rob Williams, Nick Claxton, guys in that like less than $25 million a year range that they think they can piece together a couple of guys to just match salary and get. I inclined to say Robert Williams because he's a little bit more affordable, but Nick Claxton would be a little bit more of a big picture option because he's younger and it doesn't have the injury history. Actually, I think Nick Claxton might be a little older than Rob Williams.

actually not sure which one of those guys is younger, but his body's younger. He has been, is injured in his career as Robert Williams has been. But my guess is that they'll kind of key in on those two guys this summer. Nuggets in four, just kidding, but not so much. Without AD, I don't see how the Lakers stand a chance against Yokic. How do you feel about the Lakers versus Nuggets? Playoffs with the current rosters, injuries aside. Got into this with Carson today extensively, like I said, so you guys can find that on the nerdsetsh feed. But like, again, the way I look at it, like, I don't think the Lakers are going to be able to guard Denver, but I also don't Denver's going to be able to guard the Lakers.

So if neither team can stop the other team from getting good shots, it's going to be a shot making series. So I think it'll come down to like game planning. Like will Mike Malone be able to punish the Lakers for playing guys like Jackson Hayes, Jared Vanderbilt, right? Will J.J. Reddick be able to punish Mike Malone for playing guys like Christian Brown or Russell Westbrook, right? And both of those guys have been awesome this year, right? and so like it's it's one of those things where like I don't think either team has an answer like he was

the Carson was saying like there's nobody on this team that can stop yokic from getting a great shot you're absolutely right but i'm going to present you the exact same thing i just said earlier if denver has to guard a lineup with lebron lucca austin dorian finney smith and ruy hachamura how are they going to stop the lakers from getting good shots how they're not going to be able to so like i think it would be a very very high scoring series relative to other playoff series i think it would be a very very high scoring series relative to other playoff series is I think it would be a very interesting playoff series. I will admit freely that as a Lakers fan when I saw this trade go down in the aftermath, the two teams that I got legitimately concerned about were Denver and Boston. So like for the record, I would be scared in that

kind of matchup. But I just think given how theoretical the Lakers are, I think it'd be foolish just to completely write them off. Four more. Hey Jason, with the Spurs now falling to 23 and 29 and the refusal to replace Chris Paul in the starting lineup with Stefan Castle, do you think the spurs should semi-tank the rest of the season to secure two lottery picks, other via Atlanta, to help complete their rebuild? I think that the entire purpose behind making a deer and Fox move is to advance the timeline, specifically to appease Victor Wemianama and his competitive nature, but also to get these guys reps so you can start to learn, you have a core now.

Your core is Fox, Vassell, Castle, Wem, Wembe, be so on, right? Like that's your core five guys that you're building around. You need to get those guys into a high leverage situation against an elite team in a playoff series so that you can learn about what they need to be supported with over the course of the next few years. So again, they're in a tough spot, but you go for it. You absolutely go for it. You want to find as much high leverage basketball for these guys as early as possible. That was the entire purpose behind the Dier and Fox trade. Do you think that LeBron and Yokic are the only players in NBA history to have seen every adjustment, every coverage, every double, or blitz thrown,

and have always found new angles to dominate the game at the level they've dominated for so long, and with such offensive consistency. I don't think it's only those two. I generally think that all basketball players have gotten better, even just in this era, I think Steph Curry is another guy where, like, he's competed against switching by just running around like crazy and forcing teams to make mistakes when they're switching. He's beat switching big looks by just attacking them off the bounce,

famously did a lot of picking on Horford and Robert Williams in the NBA finals in 2022. He's a drop coverage killer. He annihilated the Celtics drop coverage for the most part over the course of that series, which is a big part of why they had to switch at times, right? Like, he's done a ton of day. Blitz him? Yeah, yeah, be my guest. That was literally how they won the 2015 finals. That was how Andre Aguadala got finals MVP. So, like, I think he's countered all these different coverages as well. Again, like, when I think about like peaks, I think Yokic has reached an offensive peak that no player ever has. I think LeBron has reached a two-way peak that no player ever has.

And I think at LeBron's peak, Steph was also about as good on the offensive end of the floor when he was at that point. So, like, again, they all have like these different kind of calling cards. But there are definitely a lot of players in NBA history that have overcome anything a coach can do. Like Michael Jordan wasn't a guy that in the 90s was struggling with any specific coverage, if that makes sense. why aren't people including you talking about what the Thunder are doing? At the All-Star break, they have the best net rating of all time, as well as the best relative defense ever. I just don't understand why they're not being talked about at all. Much less like the all-time great team they've been to this point.

It's not a small sample size anymore. A couple things. I did just talk about them yesterday, I think. We just got into them in the defensive run that they went on at the tail end of the game against, was it the Miami Heat? Yeah, Miami Heat. And I talked about their defense now. it was so exceptionally great. The other thing, too, is, like,

the dominant regular season team is always the least interesting NBA regular season story. It's unfair that it works that way, but it's just the reality. Like, there's no debate about it. There is debate surrounding bad teams or teams that have more significant flaws, because then you can argue these are their flaws or these are their strengths, right? Like, it's kind of weird how it works in the NBA, how the teams that dominate kind of disappear into the top, and the teams that suck disappear.

into the bottom and then we spend all this time debating the middle tier. Like that's kind of like how it works for whatever reason. So I understand that I don't talk about the Thunder as much as I do some of the other teams in the league. But we do talk about them. We hit them a few times a month and we just hit them earlier this week. I, again, I have a similar type of response to the all time great stuff that I do with Boston. Like, I don't think all time great is something you accomplish in the regular season.

I don't think it's something you accomplish with advanced metrics. I think it's something you accomplished with multiple deep playoff runs where you win multiple championships. That's how you achieve all-time great. It's just a different kind of like goalpost for me, I guess. I view the Thunder as kind of like a combination of a legitimate championship contender while also being a little bit Houston Rocketsy in the sense that like they're young and freakishly athletic and they're playing harder than everybody every night. That's going to go a long way in the 82. who. So like, on one hand, on the one hand, I view them as a legitimate contender, but I don't think they're as good as their record or their net rating would lead you to

believe. And they still have some big question marks to me. Like Minnesota kind of mulled them in the fourth quarter yesterday, got a bunch of stops, ate them up on the offense. They had 20 offensive rebounds in that game. And like, I do think about certain teams that have physical size mismatches that they can present. I do worry about the multiple times this year in big spots, whether it's against a good team on the road or whether it's in the in season tournament championship where their offense just falls apart. And it becomes can she make shots? And he takes a lot of mid-range shots that he just has to hit at a super high efficiency

for them to be worth it, right? And he does for the record. But like there's a certain amount of like frailty with them that I see with every team in the league except for basically Boston. And even then there's a there's a little bit of frailty just in their defending championship itis where they've been so sloppy with their shot selection at times this year. Actually, we already, that's my bad. I have the Mitchell Robinson one in here again, so I already hit that one.

So we're actually done for the day. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope you guys enjoy the weekend. We'll be back on Monday. I enjoy the All-Star break. We're going to do some stuff that the games get started back up on Wednesday, but we're going to do some stuff on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

like contender rankings, maybe a check-in with the nerdsash. Guys, we'll see. We're going to do some stuff in early next week to kill time before we get into the rest of the season. But again, as always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you next week. The volume. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review.

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