The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Should Nuggets Be Worried? Lakers Earn 2 Seed, Suns Embarrassment

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Jason Timpf breaks down the Boston Celtics getting a shorthanded win against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's ability to attack Jamal Murray and Denver's defense. Then he discusses the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Los Angeles Clippers again despite poor play from LeBron James, and how Luka Doncic has led them to the two seed in the Western Conference. Finally, he discusses the Minnesota Timberwolves embarrassing the Phoenix Suns and what Kevin Durant's team should do next. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code JASON at shopmando.com! #mandopod #ad Timeline 4:15 - Start 6:00 - Celtics/Nuggets reaction 26:00 - Lakers earn 2 seed 33:45 - Suns collapse #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

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you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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I thought it was a very interesting game that explores the floor of both of these teams and some realistic issues that Denver might potentially have to deal with in a postseason series against some of the best teams in the league. After that, we're going to talk briefly on Lakers Clippers as the Lakers have jumped all the way up to the two seed in the Western Conference without two starters putting together an impressive win against the Clippers. And then at the tail end of the show, I want to talk a little bit about the Phoenix Suns and after another embarrassing collapse against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night,

some quotes from Kevin Durant about the frustrations going on inside the locker room, I want to at least just pitch an idea of maybe trying again with a version of this team that I don't think will happen because I think the suns will end up this summer, but I want to talk about it because even just within the concept of basketball culture around the league as we talk about other teams, I think it's a valuable kind of example that we can take a look at as we look at other teams. You guys have the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements.

Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout the year. And last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can get to them in our mailbags throughout the week. We usually go on Fridays. We're going to be recording a mailbag later today that'll come out on Tuesday because I'm headed to Breckenridge to do some skiing with my wife. this week. We'll still have some content. I plan on doing a show on Wednesday and

on Thursday, but defer the travel and for tomorrow we're going to have a mailbag coming out. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, you know, with this Nugget Celtics game, I thought it was an interesting example of what it's like surviving in the regular season when you've got guys out of the lineup, especially for these serious teams, right?

You're trying to navigate the process of getting to mid-April with your roster intact so that you have your best chance to be the best version of yourself when all the chips are down, right? And in those situations, when you're down key players, to me, it's all about your foundation on both ends of the floor. On defense, you need to be able to come up with a capable defensive game plan for the personnel you have available.

In my opinion, game planning is such an important part of regular season basketball. In the playoffs, it's mostly about adjustments and, like, really, really intricately digging down to the strengths and weaknesses of both rosters. But when you see a team in like a one-sie-to-sey kind of thing where it's like, oh, we might play them once. We might play them twice in three days. But like then we're all moving on with our schedules and like guys are going to be in and out of lineups. And everything is going to be just about winning that particular game.

Throwing out a good game playing can help you steal a game, which is very important in the 82 game concept. And then on offense, you have to have two things. You got to have shot creation and you have to have play finishing. If you have those things, then you have a strong foundation on the offensive end of the floor. I thought the gap between Denver and Boston in that regard was stark yesterday. Denver was missing Aaron Gordon, but Boston was missing two starters, Drew Holiday and Chris Alps Porzingis. And I thought Boston just completely controlled that game from start to finish. Yeah, there were times where they go on a run, Jamal Murray had hit a couple shots,

they'd get a couple stops, and they'd keep the game relatively close. Like they even cut it to three points late in the game. But every time they made that type of run, Denver couldn't get a step. stop. And then on the other end of the floor, Boston could play Denver's offense either into some sort of tough bit of shot making from Jamal Murray or kickout passes to Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook who were struggling to make shots last night. They were four for 16 on three-point shots, right? And Jamal Murray made a lot of tough shots. He's on a tear right now for over a month. He's been like 26 points a game on well over 50% from the field and well over 40% from three.

but at the end of the day in those late game situations, anytime Boston really wanted to tighten the screws on both ends of the floor, Denver's offense had more variance because they were playing in Denver into tough shots for Jamal Murray and shots that they could live with with these inferior role players, whereas Boston it kind of felt like they could either, let's get into it. So like when Boston had the ball, they had a surefire way to get a good shot every single time. They could either attack Jamal Murray in space on switches with Jalen Brown. Or they could get into Yokic at the level stuff that we've been talking about,

where you bring whoever Yokich is guarding up into the ball screen, and Yokic is going to have to come up and attack the basketball. That puts two on the ball. Now we have four on threes on the backside of that action, right? And by the way, Denver got some stops. Jalen had some bad ISOs against Jamal Murray, where he settled for some unnecessary tough shots. He also missed some pretty easy shots.

he talked about that after the game and his post-game presser, but generally speaking, though, it was a quality entry point for Boston. They could go to Jalen Brown against Jamal Murray and get a high-quality shot, right? Then when they attacked Yokic and ball screens, they got great stuff every single time down the stretch of that game when they were on offense. Like if Yokch went up to the level, they just moved the ball around. There's a big one late where they brought Yokic up to the level on the left wing. They dropped it off to Cornette. It was a two-on-one where Al Horford was wide open in the right corner and Michael Porter Jr. was the tagger

and he just did a poor job and Cornett ended up just taking it right at him and drawing a foul. But like even if MPJ had done a better job, that pass is just getting swung to the right corner and Al Horford's getting a wide open three. Al Horford was fantastic yesterday by the way. But like when they brought Yokch

up to the level, they could get great look. So then Mike Malone goes, we can't do that. So we got to try switching. So then he starts switching with Yokic onto the ball, specifically on to Derek White. And Derek White just quick gives two buckets to the nuggets attacking Nicola Yokic. Beats him off the dribble to the right, forces Jamal Murray up and help. Easy little lob pass to Luke Cornett right underneath the rim. Other end of the floor, he dribbles Yokic out of a switch onto the left wing and just hits a pull-up

three in his face because Yokic really can only do one of two things in switches against good perimeter players. He can either take away the shot or he can take away the drive. And either way, again, there's a certain like bend, but don't break quality with those things that'll work against lesser teams. Like, Jamal Murray can get enough stops against lesser players. Nicole Yokic can pressure the ball well enough at the level and they can rotate well enough against lesser teams. But they're now six and 13 this year against teams in the top 10 in point differential and it's been this consistent theme. Teams are able to get their defense into rotation and the nuggets are not a very good defense in rotation. When Denver had the ball in this game, Boston was able to just completely ignore Russell Westbrook

and help heavily off of Christian Brown. This basically nullified Yokic post-ups down the stretch. They basically could not go to that as an option. So it forced the Nuggets to play a lot of two-man game when Nicole Yokic and Jamal Murray, while keeping an extra defender in the paint defending it three on two. Now, what that does is it forces them entirely into over-the-top shot making. And by the way, Jamal made a lot of shots. We talked about it.

He even got a layup on this really cool sequence where Jamal pulled Al Horford out and then beat him off the dribble. And then Yokic basically just set a screen in the lane on Jamal Murray's original defender. And it just gave him a little easy layup. But that was pretty much the only easy one. The rest of it was tough contest.

He made a one-legged runner along the left lane line. They were turn around fadeaways. Like he was hitting a lot of really tough shots in that stretch. But it's just difficult to keep up with Boston. under that dynamic. Not to mention it wasn't just Jamal Murray's shot making. A lot of times they were able to stay close to Jamal

and who were the release valves? Kickout passes to Russell Westbrook, kickout passes to Christian Brown. Yokic had a turnover where Brown and Westbrook both cut to the basket at the same time in the same spot and made themselves easy to guard. It's a tough dynamic to manage. When you have the defense specifically tilting

towards shots that people are comfortable with them taking, I want to shout out Boston first, and then I want to get back to Denver to talk about some of these realities and what they mean for the postseason. I don't think Boston played particularly well. They only generated 22 catch-and-shoots again. That's been an issue for them as they've struggled to kind of get into their driving kick as of late. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown both struggled to knock down their pull-up jump shots in this game. They took 13 of them and only made three in this game, but they have such a high floor on both ends of the court. for all the stuff we talked about, the strong defensive game planning,

the commitment to detail basketball culture. We're going to be talking about a lot of that when we get to the Sons in the later part of the show. But they had a strong game plan, and they had a high floor in both ends of the floor, and they were able to get a win, despite being down bodies, despite not playing particularly well. That is that strong foundation on both ends of the four.

Boston's offense is sputtering a little bit in their last eight games. They only have a 117 offensive rating, which is not bad. It's still top 10. It was like eighth or ninth in that span. But again, it's not as good as we know Boston is, capable of being where they want to be. They aren't generating as many quality threes as they usually do, but they're down to starters and they're just getting through the games in March. And they're six and two in that eight game stretch, which is perfectly fine.

I'm not worried about Boston. By the way, we have some mailbag questions that we're going to be talking about tomorrow about big picture Boston stuff, where we'll get into some more of those details surrounding how I feel about Boston in the big picture. But there are some realities in play for Denver that will make things tougher them in the post. season. On defense, they don't really have a way to stay out of rotation. And they've been a poor rotation team

all year. They bring Yokich to the level. It's four on threes on the back end, and they haven't defended those well. And if they switch, Yokic can't really take more than just one thing away, either the driver, the pull-up jump shot, so they end up in issues there. And Jamal can again, hold up

reasonably well in some matchups, but not against the top teams. That go at him with superstar talent. This is where the loss of KCP has been an issue. Because of the loss of KCP, teams have had a way of defending the two-man game, three on two, and Jamal, ISOs and Yokic post-ups two-on-one,

in a way that they didn't have in the past. Christian Brown is a serviceable shooter. He hits 42% of his wide-open catch-and-shoot threes. But he's only 31% when he's guarded. So he's well over a point per possession when he's wide open. But if you run him off the line or if you offer a contest, he dips down below a point per possession. Even worse, he doesn't really take him when he's guarded.

He's only taken 49 catch and shoot threes all season. On film, one of the biggest things I notice is like he's got a hesitant trigger. You can close out short at him and he probably won't shoot it. There were a lot of sequences like that last night. if you guys, or yesterday that you guys might remember where it was like, kick out to Brown, short close out, pump fake, drive to the left, kick out to Russell Westbrook wide open. He doesn't want to take it. He still took a bunch yesterday, but he don't want to take it. There were sequences where it was like, Brown, pump fake, drive, kick. Russell Westbrook,

pump fake, drive. Oh, now the advantage is gone. We're kicking it out. There's four seconds on the shot clock. Someone's got to jack up a shot. And again, like Russ has shot the ball better this year. but what you're seeing is what the game plan will be, which is dare him to shoot type of shots. And he's going to have to hit those at a high rate. Because again, when you're talking about shooting percentages, it's not in a vacuum. It's relative to the surrounding circumstances.

A 37% three-point shooter that takes seven or eight of them a game and is consistently guarded out at the three-point line has a value, an offensive utility that extends far beyond their shot-making, and it manifests in an influx of them. offensive spacing and it'll manifest in their offensive rating, right? If you shoot 37, 38% on two attempts per game, that's where it becomes tricky because you're barely getting over a point per possession, but you're not being guarded. And outside of the two attempts that you take, there's a negative offensive utility

in terms of the way you affect spacing. In order for Russell Westbrook to do the amount of damage he needs to do shooting the ball in the postseason, he's going to have to hit close to 40% of those threes for teams to actually be like, we got to close out to Russ, where you can get that offensive utility. KCP's not having the best season of the world in Orlando, and he was going to be expensive, and I understand the realities surrounding that situation. I do, but there was a formula for the Nuggets that worked in 2023, and it was three guys in Jamarrow. Maul, Contavius, and Michael that you could not leave open and a vertical spacer along the baseline in Aaron Gordon. It was a delicate balance. You take one of those guys out and swap

them out with an iffy shooter like Russell Westbrook or a guy that's got a hesitant trigger like Christian Brown, the dynamic starts to fall apart. And again, it was exacerbated yesterday. Aaron Gordon's hurt. So you got both Russ and Christian Brown in there for parts of the of crunch time. I understand that there are some realities there, but against the elite teams in a seven-game context, one of those two guys is going to be on the floor. It's going to be Russ or it's going to be Christian, and teams will, from a game plan standpoint,

offer help off of him. That is a different dynamic than what the Nuggets had when they won the title. And I just think it's important to acknowledge that. What does that mean? It means that Denver's margin for error is much smaller than it used to be. It means all of the variables, need to swing in their favor if they're going to win the title. They need Jamal Murray to stay this hot all the way through to the end. He's been at, again, 26 points per game for over a month,

over 50% from the field, over 40% from three. He's playing great. They're going to need that all the way through. If he dips below that, it's going to be an issue. They need Yokic to shoot 45% on threes. They'll need all those spotty spot-up shooters, the guys like Gordon, Brown, Westbrook. They're going to need those guys to shoot in the high 30s from three all postseason. They're going to need to massively sharpen up their defensive rotations. They'll need opponents to shoot poorly. If one or two of those things swings in the opposite direction, this team is going to lose in the second round.

Their margin for error is much smaller than it used to be. And I think that that's been screaming off the screen in the high-leverage matchups for Denver so far this season. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action at Draft King's Sportsbook. official sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to Dishing the Rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your favorite players and the prop bets you can make on Draft Kings,

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

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, Help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the René. A Stub's tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris.

Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen she went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. 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. All right, let's talk a little bit of Lakers Clippers. Same sort of concept in terms of what we were talking about earlier, about keeping a high floor in both ends. Like, you're down two starters in Rui Hachamura and Austin Reeves. And they made up for it with their bench through a strong defensive effort. You filled in for those two starters with these bench guys that all do their jobs and play super hard on defense. Gabe Vincent, Jared Vanderbilt, Dorian Finney Smith, Trey Jemison.

They had a great JJ read a game plan. Same game plan that they had from the last game, except for a little tweak with Zubotch. They were strong side zoning Kauai, similar to what they, similar to what they were doing to Anthony Edwards, like funneling him towards the sideline, bringing over an extra defender on the other side of the paint. they were playing Hardin's left shoulder so that he, when he would shoot that step back, they wouldn't step up underneath his feet, and they'd force a right-handed drive, which is going to lead to him taking a floater instead of a driving left-handed layup,

which is obviously a smart game plan. They shrunk from the weak side onto Zubot's role. That was the major adjustment I noticed. They were a little bit more willing to concede some of those spray-out threes to the weak side and just shrinking the floor. They didn't shoot, clippers didn't shoot as well. Chris Dunn, after hitting all those threes and the first game didn't hit him in this game. it worked. They were able to maintain their high defensive floor.

They held the clippers to 102 points. It's actually the seventh consecutive opponent that the Lakers have held to 102 points or fewer as the Lakers continue their like half season long stretch of defensive dominance. By the way, I just continue to be particularly impressed by their rotations. Every single player on this roster is so committed to the game plan and the details. They're holding up really well on the glass. They're chasing teams off the line. They're top 10 in contested shots since January 15.

they just look like a team that desperately wants to be great, and they're committed to the work. And then on offense, two of your best players are out, but you still have your two stud shot creators, right? And the clippers swarmed them, and they forced a lot of turnovers, but they were still able to generate some huge advantages, be able to generate some makeable shots for their role players,

and they scored enough points, despite the fact that LeBron had a really rough game. By the way, I want to shout out LeBron. I've been hammering this concept a bunch over the course of the last few weeks. But like, bad games are part of being a basketball player, especially when you have an offensive workload where so much of your decision making and shot making

is like on display every single night. And LeBron had a rough game. Jumper wasn't falling, turning the ball over too much. Like, they had that weird sequence down the stretch where like they were trying to get LeBron to 50,000 career, regular season playoff points and going away from Luca who had been cooking all night. And I think they just got a little lackadaisical because they thought the game was over.

It was crazy. It was like 11-point lead standing ovation from the Lakers fans. And I'm like, man, when's the last time the Lakers got a standing ovation with this much time on the clock? And as it was happening, it just like completely crumbled from there. They almost choked the game away, which was kind of funny. Dorian Finney Smith missed a wide open layup. There was some bad offensive possessions. But like it got a little ugly.

but LeBron made one play that helped save the game. Down five, Chris Dunn's got a breakaway layup off of a turnover, and he pins that shit on the glass. Got a little favor from the official because it got called a goaltend when it wasn't. I thought on replay, I thought it was pretty clear. LeBron's thumb hit the ball before it hit the backboard. But like, it was a goal 10, or it was a block, but it got called a goal 10, which stopped Kauai Leonard from getting an offensive rebound put back.

So a little favor from the referees there. but he made a play. He made one play that closed the deal. The big thing there was it allowed the Lakers to set their defense instead of giving Kauai an easy offensive rebound put back, and they were able to get another stop and prevent anything from really, really becoming dangerous there down the stretch. Again, one play.

If you get a win, we'll be a pallet cleanser in a lot of ways. And Luca did a lot of work. We're going to talk about him in a second. He needed his teammate LeBron to make one play to help him, and he made one play. at the tail end of the game. Luca and his shot making got back on track yesterday. LeBron had a rough offensive game for the first time in a while.

They were minus 13 in his units when Luca was off the floor. But the Lakers straight up dominated that game when Luca Donchitz was on the floor. They were plus 19 in his minutes. Why? Because Luca was at his typical level of offensive dominance. An efficient 29 points, nine assists, nothing incredible, nothing like we didn't. No, Luca can go for 42 and 15. But he goes for 29 and 9, just like a pretty standard career average type of game for Luca Donchich, and they ran the clippers off the floor when Luca was out there.

And that got me excited for the big picture potential of this team. Luca is such a world-lifting offensive player. If you can anchor him with elite defense, you're going to be really hard to beat. And I just thought it was really interesting as I was watching that. It's like their defense is just forcing the clippers into these tough shots. And Luca just keeps getting downhill and getting and ones, making tough shots. Gosh, some of his meterage shot making that little bank shot he hit on Chris Dunn down the stretch off the window. That was such a ridiculous shot.

The step back three was going. He just was able to squeeze out offense with limited groups around him. And they literally dominated the clippers when he was out there. And that's what gets scary for this team in the big, in the big picture. There's a version of this where LeBron's out there, Austin's out there, Luke is out there,

they're a really good offensive groove, and they're one of the very best offenses in the league while being this team that literally for 42 games now has been a top five defense in the league, so more than half the season, and for 22 games now has been the very best defense in the NBA. That's what you're anchoring that with.

A couple other quick shoutouts. Don't connect. He's a guy that I've been critical of Dalton specifically because all young players have these issues, but I've been hesitant to view him as a reliable rotation player, and I still don't view him as a reliable rotation player. But when guys are injured, you got to step up. JJ talked about this after the first Clippers game. Like, you know, we didn't think you were going to play tonight, but we ended up needing

you and you hit a couple of big shots. He is a very streaky offensive player, but he is hitting an extremely timely hot streak right now. and the team really needed it. They don't win that game last night without Dalton Connect. I thought he was really good on the defensive glass too. Got a couple of key contested defensive rebounds. Shout out to Dalton because he's being, he's red hot in a phase where the Lakers desperately needed him to.

Last note, we talked a little bit about Jared Vanderbilt in a pod, one of the pods from last week. And I talked about like kind of the difference between using him out of the corner versus using him as a cutter and how I talked about how in the early returns, he had been knocking down some threes but missing on his cuts, and I just wanted to keep an eye on that. Well, since we had that conversation in the two or three games, since then, he's missing his corner threes,

and he's starting to get some openings on cuts with Luca. He had two dunks last night, a lob, and then a cut along the baseline where he caught a drop-off pass in a dunk. Luca is just able to so surgically create these types of openings for him that I do think it's manifesting better for him to be operating out of the dunker spot more. I just, again, I was just really curious to see how that would develop over a larger sample. And after seeing more, I think I'm leaning more towards keeping him in the dunker spot. All right, let's talk some Phoenix Suns before we're done for today.

They had another collapse last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half. They just completely fell apart. KD had some interesting quotes in the post game press conference. It's tough, man. That's a shitty game. We didn't play up to our standards at all. We embarrassed the fans. We embarrassed ourselves.

with the way we played, and I want us to be better. He went on to say, we ain't playing well. Mistakes are compounding themselves, and it just looks bad. When adversity hit, we just start floating a little bit as a team. That's tough to deal with, so it's frustrating for sure losing a game that way. This falls a line with what I've been talking about

with the Sons over the last couple of weeks. If you guys remember what I've been talking about, I've given a bunch of lists of these ideas of like, when I watched the Sons play, I don't think Kevin Durant, Devin Buker, are the problem. They're doing their job. Their job as stars in this context are,

or is, I should say, on defense, do your job, compete. Devin Booker's not the greatest point of attack defender in the world, but he does his job. I thought he was really good with Team USA this summer. He's shown that he can't, he's shown that he can do that job. He is doing that job as well as you could expect an athlete of his caliber to do. Kevin Moran, I think, has been excellent on defense at phases this year. They're doing their jobs. And on offense, what's the job of the stars?

Score the basketball, consistently generate advantages. They're doing that. I don't look at KD. and Devin Booker as the problem there. The issue is they are surrounded by very undisciplined basketball players, and the team appears to have a very undisciplined basketball culture. The attention to detail is not there. Guys are constantly getting back cut. Guys are constantly giving up offensive rebounds.

by not watching corner crashers. Guys are not picking up the ball in transition. Guys are generally not matched up in transition. Their help defense is bad. Everyone's just failing to do their job as the satellite players around Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. There are two things that I think are missing from getting higher level contributions

around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker. One is basketball culture. You need an obsessive culture from the top down that demands a certain standard from players on both ends of the floor. J.J. Reddick, I think, has done an amazing job of this with the Lakers this year. Complete reversal from the Darwin Ham experience. Something I begged for, those of you guys who watched the show, I begged for this after last season, attention to detail,

be a serious basketball team. From day one of training camp, lay out, here's what is expected of you if you're going to play on the floor. And then hold players accountable to them. that. J.J. Reddick sat down with LeBron James the day after that rough night in Miami, the one where I had my freak out, if you guys remember, and sat down with him and was like, I need more out of you. And it worked. And LeBron's been setting that example. Everyone's doing their job and they are now maximizing their talent. There is a lack of that culture and

accountability in Phoenix. The second piece of it is, when you're in the market for discounted players and guess what, you're going to be in the market for discounted players with your current build. I mean, you might be able to reverse that trend a little bit with Bradley Beal this summer if you can find a deal. We'll talk about the summer in a minute. But like, when you're looking for the types of players to anchor your stars with, target players who fit into that culture of excellence on a daily basis, attention to detail, effort and execution. I actually think Kevin Durant and Devin Booker is a strong foundation. They, give you a high floor on the offensive end of the floor in terms of shot quality.

It won't be easy to pivot this summer. Bradley Beale's a difficult contract to move, but I think they need to flip over a good chunk of that role player core. Stop going after, you know, Bull Bull is a tantalizing talent, but he's very inconsistent in his possession-to-possession execution. I've watched him grab crazy contest rebounds. only he can get, and I've watched him float around and not do his job, not pick up his man in

transition, not track a shooter off the ball. They don't need talent. Devin Booker and KD is the talent. They need dependability in the details. They need scrappers. They need fighters. Guys who can muck things up and allow Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's gifts to lift them over the top. Not to bring it back to the Lakers, but that's literally how they won a game last night. It was like a bunch two-way guys and bench role players alongside LeBron and Luca, but those dudes are all ass kickers who play defense and pay attention to the details, and they have a culture from the top down from their head coach, so they look like a damn good basketball team. And they just pretty much manhandled a very good clippers team, down to starters, and most of their offensive

talent. Do you think Trey Jemison is an incredibly talented basketball player compared to some of these sons role players? Do you think Shake Milton is or Dalton Connect is or Jared Vanderbilt is? These are very flawed players. But they're ass kickers. They're fighters. They're scrappers that are in a culture

that demands that from the top down. If I was running the Sons this summer, I would do everything I could to trade Bradley Beale and I would target every discounted, mean, ass kicking role player that I can find, even if they have offensive limitations. All minimum players have

limitations on one end of the floor, sometimes both. But from day one of training camp, I do everything in my power to establish a strong basketball culture or effort and execution is mandatory to see the floor, find players that fit into that culture, and see what you can do with Devin Booker and Kevin Duran. I don't think this is going to happen. I think it's more likely that they trade KD and instead try to rebuild around Devin Booker, but I think that's a mistake. Not unless you plan on trading Devin Booker too, because I don't think Devin Booker is good enough

to be the best player on your team in the Western Conference with Luca, with Shea, with Yokic, with Wembe on the way, with a team that's led by Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, I don't think you're going to do well in that conference with him as your best player. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker is enough to hang in the West.

You just need to do a better job of surrounding them with guys that accentuate their strengths instead of demand more out of them as defenders and rebounders and detail guys. Get them ass kickers. Get them dudes that'll go out there every night and just fight alongside them and do their jobs. I think that would go a long way towards giving them a better chance to compete with that group. Again, I don't think it's going to happen.

I think they're going to end up punting. But look, look, it's already bad. You're already in a precarious situation. There is no pivot even with the KD trade that's going to bring you to relevance. KD has been one of the strong and dependable players on both ends of the floor for you this year at a superstar level. There's nothing you could get back in a deal that would actually allow you to be successful next season, except for maybe draft compensation that can help you reset. and if that's the case, you might as well trade Devin Booker too.

But I would at least try to trade Bradley Beal and see if you can't try to pivot around those guys. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with the mailbag that I'm about to record. I will see you guys then. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight.

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