The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 25 Players in the NBA: Why Giannis Antetokounmpo is unguardable

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

Jason Timpf continues to rank the 25 best players in the NBA by revealing No. 3, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis has an NBA championship, two MVPs, and an NBA Finals MVP on his resume at only 28 years old. He is bigger, faster, and stronger than everyone else in the league, and by far the best regular season player in the NBA. #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. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. We are live on Amp. So if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that Amp is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We are continuing our player rankings today. We are down to the top three. Today we'll be covering number three. Janice Antenacumpo. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volume's

YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lte's. You guys don't miss any show announcements. And last but not least, if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget, you can find them wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. Also, before we get started, I'm very excited next week. On Monday, I get to go see the Grand Tiresmo movie. And I'm going to share with you guys my thoughts on the movie during the show. next week. But the new movie, Grant Theresa's based on the unbelievable true story of a team of unlikely underdogs, a struggling working class gamer, a failed former race car driver, and an

idealistic motorsport executive. Together they risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world. Directed by Neil Blumcamp, the movie features an incredible cast led by David Harbour alongside Orlando Bloom, Jiamen Hanso, Jerry Hallowahill Horner, and Archie Medecki as Jan Martinborough. Some of the most famous racing competitions in the world are recreated through the use of actual Nissan GTs, drones, and practical effects. The racing sequences are so realistic that the real-life Jan Martinborough himself actually served as the stunt driver for the film. This is a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen. Grand Tresmo is an inspiring, thrilling, and action-packed story that proves that nothing is impossible when you're fueled for.

From Within. Grand Tresmo, based on a true story, is exclusively in movie theaters this August 25th with special sneak previews this weekend. Get your tickets today rated PG-13. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this top three here is the beginning of my top tier of superstars. Like I said before, I view one through 12 as superstars, and I kind of view a slight separation after the top three. You guys might remember after the beginning of this kind of superstar tier, I talked a lot about the concept of theoretical basketball, right? And it's kind of a big difference just between the way I do my lists versus other people in the way that they do their lists, right?

Again, if I asked every single one of you guys as a listener to come up with your own list of one through 25, it'd be extremely unlikely that any of you guys would have the same list. And chances are every one of us, if we saw another, person in that group's list, we'd have things that we'd vehemently disagree about. Because that's just the nature of the league right now, how incredibly stacked with talent it is, and also just the different things that we value in basketball players, right? And I talked a lot about how much winning matters to me, because to me it's the purpose is the purpose to why we play the game of basketball.

Like, when it comes to the NBA, there's a lot of pomp and circumstance, and we can love that pop and circumstance. I certainly do. I just like everybody else when I'm scrolling through the NBA.com's YouTube page and they show their top 100 dunks of the year. Like I can't wait to watch that. You know, like I love a good ankle breaker. I love a good offseason trade. I love all of that.

But at the end of the day, the Larry O'Brien trophy is the reason why we do all of this. It is the ultimate goal. It is the one thing that drives everything we do. Everything else is just a stepping stone on the pathway towards that ultimate goal, right? And so for me personally, even though I have a huge amount of belief in what someone like Luca Donchish is capable of, I would like to see him do it before I give him the same level of recognition that I give to guys that are higher on the list, based simply on the fact that I value that top-tier accomplishment more than anything else. There are six active former NBA finals MVPs in the NBA right now. Kauai Leonard, LeBron James, Yonis Nantan Tentacompo, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Nicolae Yolich.

Those are the only six. I'm pretty sure Andreigwood is retiring. So you're not getting another finals MVP anywhere else in the NBA outside of those six guys. And you'll notice, aside from Kauai, who can't play in a playoff game because he keeps getting hurt, and LeBron James, who's a million years old and underwent his first, like, significant playoff decline in this last year. Other than those two guys, who are my top four? They're all guys who have done the deed. They've done the actual thing, the actual reason why we do all of this.

As much as everyone likes to be down on Kevin Durant, the dude is a two-time NBA Finals MVP. I feel like a lot of people conveniently forget what happened in 2021. Janice, who was a deserving NBA Finals MVP, actually said after the second round series with Brooklyn, when Kevin Durant, to the eyes of most people who watch the series, outplayed Janice. Janice went into the post-game presser and said, that guy's the best player in the world.

He said Kevin Durant's the best player in the world. And so even though we have a lot of people who try to pretend as though he's not the same player that he used to be, that was just 25 months ago, guys. Janice hoisting the finals MVP trophy was less than 25 months ago. and that long ago, he himself considered Kevin Durant to be the best player in the world. Now, I think Janice is better than KD. Now, I don't think that's a hot take. But my point is, I'm just kind of helping to explain my rationale as to why I had Kevin Durant as high as I did at.

Number four. To me, one, two, three, four, those guys, there's no theoretical basketball there. They've all done the deed. And, like, even as we look at just our top three, Janus, Steph Curry, and Nick. Cole Yokic, all three of them have done it in the last 25 months. And that is why I have those three guys all a level above everybody else in the league right now. With KD, the last two playoff runs being somewhat underwhelming, it being more than five years since he won an NBA championship.

That's why I have a gap represented between three and four. In my opinion, it's just important from the standpoint of recognition to acknowledge that those three guys, Steph, Yokic and Janice, have both recently accomplished the ultimate goal without experiencing some sort of significant decline. LeBron's significant decline, Kevin Durant, a couple bad playoff runs in a row, right? That's what I'm trying to signify with that gap there. But even then, I don't view it as much of a gap. But I hope that helps you guys understand my rationale a little bit. Now, looking at one through three, I ordered them one through three, you guys can guess because Janus is today, and because I've told you guys

that I think Yokic is the best player in the world, you can guess that I have it as Yokic one, Steph, two, Yonis, three. The reasoning was pretty simple. Yokic has to be one, because he literally just finished dominating everybody, and literally ran through two of his peers, ran through Ban, ran through Anthony Davis, a defensive peer and Rudy Gobert ran through him too. And the son's team. that took two wins off of him was Kevin Devin Booker. So like, Nicole Yokin ran through everybody. He deserves to be number one.

Now, the reason why I had Steph over Janus had a lot more to do with the way that the Bucks lost this year. Now, for the record, Janus was hurt. But the larger concern with me personally surrounding this year's playoff run for Janus was the way that he lost, specifically struggling to make shots away from the rim in the half court. It kind of felt like Janus took a step backwards this year. He was below 50% from the free throw line in the playoffs,

really, really struggled to make shots away from the rim. He was four for 20 on field goal attempts against Miami outside of the restricted area. And really, as we look into the future now, acknowledging the reality that Janus is a champion, this upcoming sequence of years here, with him having to compete against the likes of Nicola Yokic, I do think that it's a little bit concerning that Janus is experiencing. a slight decline in terms of some of his skill development stuff.

But we're going to dive into that a little bit later. And even then, it's important for me to emphasize that those little bits of criticism that I offer towards Janus today are meant to be viewed within the context of the very best players in the world. Obviously, I think Janice is clearly the best regular season player in the NBA. And he's obviously capable of getting the trophy. We've seen him do it. So I'm not trying to undercut his status as a proven stamped championship level play.

I'm just looking at him within the context of guys like Steph, guys like Nicola Yokic, guys at the top of the league. In my opinion, if Yonis is going to one day unseat Nicola Yokic, he's going to have to improve in those specific areas. A bunch of missed free throws and a non-existent touch anywhere away from the rim is not going to get it done. It's going to be a huge obstacle in that quest. But we will talk a little bit more about that later. So let's take a little look at his season this year. He played in 63 games. Career high, 31 points per game to go with 12 rebounds and 6 assists per game.

61% true shooting, which is awesome, but it was his worst efficiency mark since 2018. So he's, again, like I said, starting to decline a little bit in some of those areas. The play type data. Transition is still where Yanis does the vast majority of his damage. He notched 591 points in transition in this regular season, which led the entire NBA. Matter of fact, this is a crazy stat, 28%, almost a third of Janice's made field goals this year were in transition. 198 out of his 707 makes, to be exact, were in transition. So no real basketball analysis to offer there other than to say that he's just bigger, faster, and stronger than everybody,

and he weaponizes that a lot in transition to generate easy opportunities. Now, isolation was Janice's second most common play type. He did at about 14, 15% of his possessions. He logged 381 ISO possessions this year and scored just 357 points, 0.94 points per possession. If you guys remember our high-volume ISO lists, the 25 players who attempted at least 250 ISOs, he ranked 20th out of 25 players. He was especially bad shooting out of those situations. His passing actually carried him in those situations.

He was just 41% from the field when he attempted shots in isolation, and just 0.84 points per possession when you include fouls and such like that when he shot out of isolation. He was also just 0.97 points per possession in post-up situations when he shot, which is only slightly above average. He did pass well out of the post. I want to do a whole thing on his passing. We're going to do that in a few minutes. Kind of zooming in on the shooting here because I think it's informative specifically of his struggles against Miami. And this is where I want to take a look at shot making.

because if he's well under a point per possession, when he shoots out of ISO and post situations with his physical tools, that tells me it's a shot-making problem. Now, Janus is the very best rim attacker in the NBA, and it's not close. 8.5 restricted area makes per game, that leads the NBA, 75% shooting there, that's amazing. But anywhere away from the rim,

Janice really struggles to put the ball in the basket. He shot just 29% on catch-and-shoot jumpers this year. He shot just 32% on pull-up jumpers this year. Hooks and runners, these are all those little pop shots in the lane. You know the ones that Yokic makes like two-thirds of the time? He was just 21 for 75 this year on hook shots and floaters. That's just 28%. If I really simplified it down,

Yanis shot 536 for 718 in the restricted area this year. That's 75%. He was just 171 for 575. 560 everywhere else on the floor. That's just 30.5%. So he makes everything around the rim that makes a ton of shots there. Anything away from the rim is a bad shot for Janus right now. Even if you just zoomed in on the paint, just paint shots that are outside of the restricted area,

he was just 55 for 197 this year, which is just 27.9%. Now, one of my long-standing takes with Janus, for those of you guys have been listening to the show for a while, I've always believed his passing ability to be more important than this jump shot. But not only that, when it comes to shots over the top, I could care less about a jump shot. I'm talking about that the stuff in the lane is the stuff that matters the most to me. And we're going to talk a lot more about this later, but it's the short hook shot, the pop shots, the little one-handed shots in the lane that I think Janice has to figure out, because those are way more dependable and easy to get to in those situations, especially for him.

And it's a shot that he's actually capable of becoming good at. And I do think his inability to make that shot really hurt him, especially in that Miami Heat series this year. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a little bit. Before we get to the Miami series, I want to focus on Janus's passing for a minute, because I think it's actually one of the most underrated parts of Janus's game. Despite not shooting particularly well, Janus was sixth on a high-volume post-up list. Again, 20 players who ran at least 200 post-ups. He was sixth at 1.1 points per possession.

Why? Because he applies so much rim pressure that there's almost a comical packing of the paint taking place. And Janus has a gift finding cutters and shooters out of those situations. And he holds the ball, palms it in one hand. He can see over the top. He can rifle it to the right guy on time, on target. As a matter of fact, when Janus passed out of the post this year,

it happened 122 times, they scored 106. 61 points on them. That's 1.32 points per possession when Yanis passes out of the post. That's insane. That's amazing. And again, like, that's why I talk so much about Janus's passing. Like, more important than anything is, can you get to the rim, and can you make teams pay when they pack the paint? And you can make them pay either by kicking the shooters

or by making shots over the top. The reason why I harp on the hook shot so much is because eventually, you have to read the situation to be like, my shooters aren't hitting shots. I, you know, Wesley Matthews is not hitting today. I need to be able to hit this little hook shot, right? So that's why I harp on that, but the passing is the most important part, and he's great at it. Remember how bad he was in ISO?

I said he was 20th out of 25 isolation players. That was all because he was missing shots. He was great when he passed out of ISO. 140 points for the bucks on 121 Yonis passes out of ISO. That's 1.16 points per possession, which is really damn good. So I think that that kind of like offsets a lot of the damage that he does from the standpoint of him missing just about everything that he takes away from the rim. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross

double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jette. 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's big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. 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. Janice's best and most effective half-court play type last year was actually pick and roll in terms of both passing and shooting. Yannis ran 341 pick and rolls last year leading to 373 points. It's 1.09 points per possession, which is in the 87th percentile. He personally shot 55% out of pick and roll this year.

I was really curious about this, so I sat down this morning and watched a ton of film on Janus pick and rolls. And honestly, it was interesting the way that it worked. And I put it down to three reasons. First of all, teams have to guard Janus with a big strong forward. and big strong forwards just really struggle with screen navigation. Not just because they're big, and so they're a big, easy target for a screener, but also because they just don't practice it. Guards and other perimeter players practice screen navigation from an early age,

and especially in high school college, they do it nonstop. Fords don't. They don't practice screen navigation. They're bad at it. It's about making yourself small, taking really quick nimble steps, things that big forwards don't usually do. And so you just watch these guys. guard, these big forwards guarding Janus as he's getting going and pick and roll, and they just

die on the screen every single time. And then he's either getting a ton of separation, because they run a ton of pick and pop, right? Like, it's a lot of Bobby Portis pop into the top of the key. It's a lot of Brooke Lopez popping to the top of the key. And so if they don't switch it, Janice is going downhill into the help with like a head of steam and no one can stop him. And if they do switch it, now he's got a big slow-footed guy on him. So number one is having the big strong forwards guard him that can't navigate. Two, they start Yonis with a head of steam from half court. If you watch Yonis pick and rolls, he's not like, you know, coming off a wide pin down,

catching the ball, setting his man up with some sort of counter move and then kind of methodically going over the top. Now, screw that. They got him starting from the logo and he's like coming at you with the head of steam while there's a ball screen. And it's just really, really difficult to guard. And then lastly, the third thing I put down once again is passing. ability is just ridiculous.

In the pick-and-roll situations, it's mainly kick-out passes to shooters. You'll notice, teams are so paranoid about Janus getting downhill and pick-and-roll. They'll vacate the weak side corner and bring that third man over literally before he even gets inside the three-point line. There are a lot of Janus pick-and-rolls where he hasn't even crossed the three-point line, and he's just throwing that rifle pass over the top to the shooters wide open on the wing. Again, that's why I put such an emphasis on passing ability. even if you want to say, Janus can only go to the rim, that's fair,

but the only way you're stopping him from getting there is by putting all your guys in there. And if you put all your guys in there, you've got to leave people open. And if Yonis can keep hitting those guys, and if they make enough shots, you're going to lose. And if they're missing shots, and he does happen to eventually develop some sort of shot that he can make over the top of the defense, that's when he has the ability to challenge Yokic as the best player in the world again. all of this, in my opinion, makes Janice the very best regular season player in the NBA.

He's the best rim attacker in the league. He's a really good playmaker. And he's one of the five best defensive players in the league. I'd put it with him, Rudy Gobert, Draymond Green, Bamette a buy on Anthony Davis. And you can rank those in some order. I think Anthony Davis deserves the number one spot this year. I don't think he's as good in pick and roll

as some of his peers, particularly guys like Anthony Davis. any Davis or Draymond Green, but he's still really good in those situations, and he's probably the best help defender in the league. They like to have Brooke defend a lot of pick and rolls and have him kind of guard the guy in the weak side corner, and then he's kind of coming over as that low man because he's kind of uniquely one of the rare athletes in the league that can step over and basically guard the pick and roll three on two and defend everything at the rim, which allows Brooke Lopez to come out higher on his screens, right? But if there's a kickout pass, he's one of like two or three guys in the entire world that can turn and close out to the corner from under the

basket and block a three-point shooter. I've famously, I've told the story a bunch of times on the show, but famously once I watched Luca Donchich pull Janice into ball screens for the sole purpose of getting him out of help. Not so he shoots over him, but just so that when he makes that kickout pass to the corner, it's somebody else closing out and they can actually get a shot off. because I watched Janice time and time again swallow that up with his ridiculous athleticism. So when you combine his rim pressure, playmaking, and being a top five defender in the league, that's the best regular season player in the league, especially with his consistent effort.

He's one of the biggest, you know, motor guys in the league, one of the best motor, consistent motor guys that we have in the league. But we do have to talk about the Miami series. And again, we have to start by pointing out the injuries. Not only was he dealing with a knee injury all season and probably was less than 100% with the knee going into that series, but he also had that back injury that he suffered in game one. But while he was out on the court,

the same lack of touch issues that we saw on the regular season manifested in the playoffs. In the Heat series, Janice was 24 for 33 in the restricted area. That's 73%. That's only a very slight decline in efficiency from his regular season numbers. and he really only played two games in the series. So that's like 12 makes a game,

which is a time and a half what he got in the regular season. That's not the issue. He was 4 for 20 on any other field goal attempt. He was 14 for 31 from the free throw line, well below 50%. And it was a problem because Bam, especially in important pivotal moments in late game situations, Bam did a nice job sliding his feet and forcing Janus to take shots over the top.

Bam also did a really good job of giving ground. He was letting Janice get down to like 5, 10 feet, but not letting him get past him. So Janice had to go to one of those turnaround hook shots and he just couldn't make him. This is where I want to focus on on the hook shot for a second. As I said earlier, it's the hook shot that I thought was Janus' biggest problem in the Miami series. He was two for seven on hook shots in the Miami series. and by the way, I did tweet out a video that has all seven of those hook shots. So you can see specific examples of the types of looks that he was getting.

The reason why I want you guys to watch that video is I'm going to talk a little bit about the specific footwork that it takes. Because before you think this was injury related, Janus was 13 for 37 on hook shots this year, which is like 35%. Here's why the hook is important. he's not close to having a dependable jump shot like miles and miles away he's not one off season of work

away from being a good jump shooter he's not two off seasons of work away from being a good jump shooter he'll be lucky to have a dependable jump shot when he's 35 years old he just has two there's too much ground to make up he's not streaky he's not anything he's just not good at making those shots

but he can in one summer become a player who has a dependable hook shot. He's capable of that. Why? Because it's an easy shot for him to get. It's a ton of separation with how big and strong he is and how tall and athletic he is. The footwork is easy.

It's just try to bulldoze your way to the rim. If you get cut off, quick pivot and spin to your back to the basket and take a right-handed hook shot over your left shoulder. And you'll see the specific footwork I'm talking about. if you guys watch the video I put up, there was the one in game, there was two that he took at the end of games, one at the end of game four and one at the end of game five, and they're both in the video.

And in both of them, he's starting up top, he's bringing the head of steam down, bam cuts him off, he pivots over that left shoulder and gets a great look and he just can't make it. But the interesting part of those clips is, if I saw Janus dribble down and take a pull-up 18-footer and he missed it, you go, okay, Miami wants him to take that shot. Like, he's never going to make that shot, right? But the hook shot's a good shot. Like, that is a locked-in Miami defense, defending like their lives are on the line to win a series,

and Janice is so damn big and strong and has such good control over the basketball that he gets an easy little seven, eight-foot pop shot in the lane. He's got everything there except for the finish. that to me is way more dependable than anything involving the jumper for him. Not to mention he can get to it from anywhere. Post-up situations, there's a couple of them in there that you'll see that he made where he just had the ball on the left block, dribble, dribble, get into the lane, easy hook shot, and he makes it.

He can get to it in pick and roll. He can get to it in ISO. Those are more like he gets downhill, gets cut off, pivots into a spin move, and just takes the hook shot out of the spin move, right? especially when he's driving towards his left. But even when he drives towards his right, he can pivot back and then back over his left shoulder. That's the shot he has to add, in my opinion. If he adds that,

that will make him a much more dependable half-court score in the playoffs. Here's why I'm harping so hard on this stuff with Janus. A championship is a championship. Janus is stamped forever in my book. But let's be honest. Janice's next championship will probably be harder. Why? Because you'll probably have to go through more talent to get there.

Why? Because the league is just more stacked now. Again, you guys know how I feel about undercutting championships. A championship is a championship is a championship. That said, we can look at 2021 and acknowledge that a Paul George led Clippers team probably won't be a conference finalist next year. A Trey Young led Hawks team probably won't be a conference finalist next year. A Devin Booker led with Chris Paul behind Sun's team probably won't be a conference finalist next year.

In the Eastern Conference, you're most likely going to see Damian Liller, Jimmy Butler, and Bamatabio. Or something like Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, and Christops Porzingis. Those are much more talented teams than that Atlanta Hawks team, right? When you get to the finals, you're most likely going to see like Devin Booker flanked by Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal or LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves or Nicola Yokic who has all of the same power in his game that Janice does manifested in a different way, more methodical, but the same type of relentless, unstoppable power, except for he makes all of his shots away from the rim. and he's a better playmaker than you. So the point is, it's not what he has accomplished. Janice is stamped forever. But let's be real about what the future is going to look like.

As of right now, Janice has to get better in order to have a better chance of competing over the course of the next five to ten years. I believe he will, for the record. I think you saw, I think it was somewhat evidenced in his social media behavior, but I think Janice is aware of the fact that he knows that he's got to go up a level.

And this is a guy who plays too hard, who works too hard, who cares too much. So I expect Janice to make that improvement. But he's got to start making his free throws again, can't regress in that sense, and he's got to figure out some sort of shot he can make over the top of the defense. If he can figure that out and he's healthy, I think he's got a chance to go blow for blow with Nicole Yokic over the course of the next half decade. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support, and I will see you next time.

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 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam Jay.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.