The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 25 Players in the NBA: Why Nikola Jokic is EASILY the BEST player in the NBA

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Jason Timpf finishes off his ranking of the 25 best players in the NBA with No. 1, NBA Champion Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. Jokic has emerged as the clear cut best player in the NBA after back-to-back MVPs, and then an NBA championship this year after dismantling LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the western conference finals, and then Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind 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 Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible week. We are also live on Amp. So if you're listening on the YouTube feed or on the podcast feed, don't forget that Amp is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We are finally at long last three weeks later at the end of our player rankings. We're going to be paying homage to the great Nicola Yonel. Okitch today, who has the most solid case for number one that we've seen in a long time.

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I'm actually going to see the Grand Turismo movie up in Phoenix. And then we're going to actually be doing a full review of it here on the show. I'm excited to do that for you guys. The new movie Grant Tarismo is 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 Blumkamp, the movie features an incredible cast led by David Harbour,

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All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as I said in the intro, this year was as definitive a case for number one, as you'll see in the modern NBA. He was actually the frontrunner to win his third consecutive MVP, about two-thirds of the way through the season, before he basically punted that award. not anything we can be critical of him for. I thought it was more just Yokit's just identifying that it was already kind of like a politic-oriented reward, that a lot of people didn't want him to win, and I think he just took the opportunity to rest up for the playoff run. And in that playoff run, he had an incredibly dominant run,

especially dominant over his peers. He ran through six players that were on my top 15 list. Anthony Edwards, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, LeBron, James, Anthony Davis and Jimmy Buller. Just ran through those guys. Never was even remotely threatened. The only team to even take two games off of them was the Suns, and the Nuggets whipped their ass so thoroughly in the other four games

that they outscored them by 57 points in the series, which was by far their largest margin of victory in the playoff run. So the keyword there is dominant. But most importantly, Nicole Yokic was by far the primary driver of their success throughout the season and in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong. The Nuggets were an extremely talented championship roster. You do not win in the NBA if you do not have a good team. Jamal Murray produced like a superstar in this playoff run. And I actually think I had him at 16 in the list this year. Aaron Gordon had just this unbelievable defensive playoff run where he took all these primary assignments between Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, did a great job at all those assignments, all while shooting 39% from three and bringing a bunch of other little dirty work. things to the table. Bruce Brown played so well. He got a $45 million contract over two years. He's now a $20 plus million a year player. And I could keep going down the line, but you guys get the point. The

Nuggets were a very good team. That said, it was incredibly apparent to anybody watching the games that Nicole Yokic was the singular cog that made the entire system work on offense. He demonstrated what I consider to be supreme unguardability that flummoxed every defense that he ran into. he flummoxed the best defense in the league, in my opinion, and the Lakers took the best defender in the league in Anthony Davis and made him look utterly worthless. It was just as dominant as it gets. We will get more to the unguardability element here in a few minutes

because I want to spend a good chunk of time breaking down what exactly makes Nicola Yokic unguardable because I think there are two specific traits that a player has to have, and I think there's only two players in the league that have those traits. But to make a long story short, Nicole Yokic kicked everyone's ass and got the trophy. And no matter what, he's got the top spot on my list through to next June. Yes, that means that even if he plays poorly for some stretch of the regular season

or misses some stretch of the regular season with injury. And let's just say Jason Tatum is averaging 40 and just kicking everyone's ass in the regular season. I don't care. You know, I said this about Yokic before when I had it because I had a much lower last year. Because, again, you guys know how I feel about this stuff. I have my kind of existing worldview of basketball, but I'm not married to it. I'm going to adjust that worldview based on new information, right? So, like, I had Embed and Yokic both very low last year.

I had them, I think, seven and eight, respectively. Why? Because I believed that you could not win in the NBA with a really slow-footed center. I thought that the teams would run you off the floor in transition, spread you out and drive and kick you to death. I didn't think it'd be possible to do it. It turns out I was wrong. Nicole Yokic proved that that's no longer the case.

Now, it remains to be seen in the long run whether or not he's kind of an outlier among centers, but you'll notice I even moved MBEED up this year because now I actually see that you can structurally win a championship with a slow-footed center. We react to new information, right? But again, like, I was slower to give Yokic, you know, big picture credit because you guys know how much I value championship. Well, now Yokic has the championship, which makes him enter an entirely different class of conversation for me personally. And I know everyone views the game differently. That's just for me.

I'm cool with being slow to give credit to guys who are not champions because you know when you get the trophy, that's when we layer all the praise and the respect and the credit onto you. And that's what we're doing to Nicole Yokic today. So quick season recap, you played in 69 games this year. I averaged 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. 70% true shooting percentage. Guess what? That was the highest true shooting percentage in the entire league

among any player who played at least 25 minutes per game, including big guys who just stand under the basket and dunk everything. Nicole Yokic, most efficient player in the NBA this year to play significant minutes. Some play type data for you guys. The post-up was by far to Koliokic's most common play type. In fact, Nicole Yokic ran 634 post-ups this year, which was by far the most in the league. to give you guys, actually I'll just let you guys guess.

Who do you think was second in the league and total post-ups ran? The correct answer is Nikola Vucevich. He ran 449. So to give you an idea, Nicole Yokic ran almost 200 more post-ups than anybody else in the entire league. He scored a staggering 1.22 points per possession on post-ups, including passes on our high-volume post-up list, which is a minimum of 200 reps.

There were 20 players on that list. Yokic ranked second. Here we have another trivia question for you. you guys, who do you think finished first, and it's not who you'd think, and it's not a big guy, is only about 6 foot 6. The correct answer is Demarda Rosen, who just had an absurd post-up season. He had an absurd ISO season, too, but he averaged 1.3 points per possession on post-ups on high volume, which is just outrageous. So kudos to DeMard Rosen. Second most common play type for Nicole Yokic was role man possessions, obviously as a product of the two-man game that he

frequently runs with not just Jamal Murray, but with KCP and Michael Porter-June. Jr. as well. Yokit shot 68% on rolls to the rim. That efficiency number is key. We're going to get to that more when we talk unguardability. But he averaged 1.37 points per possession in those situations, which is in the 91st percentile. Just a deadly floater there in the midrange, deadly pick and pop, you know, jump shot, catching, rip, that kind of situation. He's also one of the top tier passers in the league, which is vital in the short role as the defense coalesces around you. 1.2 points per spot-up possession. He shot 64% in effective field goal percentage and spot-up situations.

Once again, that's just your classic stretch big as well, which opens up a bunch of things for your offense. Inverted pick and roll was another big one I wanted to hit on. He did it mostly with Aaron Gordon, but he'd sometimes use guards as well. This was a significant play type for Yokic. He ran it almost 200 times this year. It was, you know, we talked about this yesterday with Janus,

because Yonis, you know, we think of him as perimeter ball handler, We don't call it inverted pick and roll, but technically it's kind of like an inverted pick and roll because Janus functions as a big man in their system most of the time. But I talked about how for Janus it works really well because what you're doing is you're taking, you know, so for instance, like Trey Young ran almost 2,000 pick and rolls this year. Right. Like we had 15 players in the league who ran over a thousand pick and rolls, right? For guards, it's such a common play type that guess what guard defenders are constantly doing. They're constantly chasing over the top of screens, right? That's what they do.

From the collegiate level primarily up through the pros, they are just every single day practicing and in games chasing over the top of screens. And so it's something that they're good at. The gigantic forwards that you have to put on guys like Janus and on guys like Nicola Yokic, they don't do that. They practice defending in the post. They practice being the screen defender, operating in some form of drop coverage.

They guard on the wing against wing scores. They do not chase over the top of screens very often. And so they're not very good at it. And so inverted pick and roll basically takes defenders and puts them in positions that they're not comfortable with. It's funny because when we talk about matchup hunting, we always think about isolation. But every single one of those matchup hunting situations

brings a goal is to bring a defender into a situation where he's uncomfortable, right? So if we're attacking a big on a switch, which, it's because big guys are not used to guarding quicker players on the perimeter, right? If we're attacking a small guy in the post, it's because the small player is not particularly good at post-up defense because he doesn't practice it a lot, right? You know, a lot of times screen navigation gets targeted in a bunch of different situations. If a guy really struggles to just guard a wide pin down, you'll see a team spam a wide pin down because the guy keeps dying on the screen or whatever. Pick and roll, same type of situation.

In inverted pick and roll, you're taking advantage of the fact that the actual on-ball defender is not good at navigating screens. And so Nicole Yokic brings up Aaron Gordon into the screen. Now I've got two big slow guys trying to guard an inverted pick and roll. And it's just an extremely difficult task for guys that don't have a lot of practice with that. So you'll see in those situations, Yokic'll either just get downhill because his man will die on the screen and he's just getting really close to the rim or there's a botched interchange, which leaves Aaron Gordon wide open on a lob, or they have to bring the third defender in and Yokic is hitting the corner past. the past of the weakside corner, he just picks people apart in those situations.

He ran 192 inverted pick and rolls this year, amounting to 1.09 points per possession, which is in the 87th percentile. Now, once again, whenever we see super top tier half court shot creation, it's almost always foundationally led by unbelievable shot making. These are the shot making numbers for Yokic this year. 57% effective field goal percentage on catch-and-shoot jumpers. 59% effective field goal percentage on pull-up jumpers, although he only took 44 of them this season.

67% on runners, 67% on hooks. That's the shot that makes Yokic completely unstoppable. Table that, we're going to get back to that in a few minutes. 75% in the restricted area on 4.6 makes per game, all top-tier numbers for those shots. Some of them off the charts, specifically the runners in the hooks, which we'll get to in a little bit. Now, let's talk about the unguardability thing. So yesterday, those of you guys who listened in the Steph Curry show,

I talked about how Steph and Nicola are the only two truly unstoppable offensive players in the league, in my opinion. And so I want to dive into that concept a bit further. In my opinion, it takes two things to be truly unguardable on the offensive end of the floor. First of all, you have to have a shot that you can consistently get to, either in one-on-one coverage or two-on-two coverage, meaning like in an action, or in an isolation or post-up situation. But you have to be able to get to and make that shot, not just at an efficient rate,

but at a rate so efficient that it becomes painful and unsustainable for the defense to accept. Okay? So, for instance, I'll give you guys an example. There are a lot of players in this league that can get to and make tough, mid-range, pull-up jump shots at about 45 to 50 percent, right? and in those situations, a lot of times, like, you'll, a guy will make a tough shot and you'll run back on defense and it can be slightly discouraging, but you'll see the coaching staff of the defense be like, we'll live with that. Why? Because, let's say for instance, like that Paul George on tough contested pull-up twos is having a crazy hot night where he's making them a lot more than usual. And like generally speaking, he's in the low 40s there. Let's say he's making.

taking 50% of them. That means that he's scoring one point per possession. And in a league where offensive ratings are well over a point per possession, that's a trade-off that the defense can live with. And so if you're forcing guys into tough shots and they're not hitting them at a high enough clip to be truly damaging, that's a trade-off the defense can live with. That extends to different spots on the floor.

So for instance, if you've got a heavy basket attacker who's only shooting 50% at the rim, a lot of our hyperathletic guards do stuff like that. That's kind of like the predicament that Russell Westbrook is in right now, right? Pull-up 30-point shooters that shoot in the mid-30s, like low 30s. Like Trey Young, for instance. Trey-Young just shoots a ton of pull-up threes and just makes them at a percentage in the mid-to-low-30s. So that means that in effective field goal percentage, once you extrapolate that out to a point per possession basis,

it's only about a point per possession. The defense can live with that. But if you have a shot that you can convert well over a point per possession, 1.2, 1.3 points per possession, it gets so damaging that the defense has no choice but to take drastic measures to stop you. So for Steph Curry, that's his pull-up three-point shooting,

is movement three-point shooting, right? He's hitting those in the mid-40s. So if you let Steph get decent looks in those situations, he's going to get you close to 1.3 points per possession because around 45, 40 to 45% in field goal percentage from 3 is in the low to mid-60s in effective field goal percentage. So it's not just efficient, it's damaging efficient, and there's nothing they can do about it,

other than throw the kitchen sink at it, right? Nicole Yokic, it's the floaters in the hook shots. Because he hits them at damn near 67%, you find yourself in a situation where if you let Yokic catch in the short roll, he's going to take a pop shot, he's going to make two out of three of them, and it's unsustainable.

It is too damaging. You have to send multiple defenders towards him. if you leave him in single coverage in the post. He's too damn big, too damn strong. His footwork is too polished. His control of the ball is too good. He's going to work his way close to the rim, get to a little hook shot over his left shoulder,

and he's going to make two-thirds of them. 67% on hooks comes out to 1.34 points per possession. That is downright damaging to a defense, and they're going to have to take drastic measures to stop it. That is step one. You have to have a truly damaging shot that you can consistently get to. Step two to be unguardable, you have to be able to consistently capitalize on those drastic measures from the defense by generating quality shots for your teammates. So, Nicole Yokic is killing you with his mid-range little floaters and he's killing you in the post.

You send multiple defenders at him. what happens next? Nicole Yokic, just on ball as a passer, is constantly aware of where all the defenders are. He sees plays develop before they happen. He's big enough, and his ball control is good enough that he can get the ball on time and on target to the kill pass, the specific pass that beats the drastic measure from the defense.

And for Steph Curry, it's obviously different. Like, for Steph, it's less on ball and more off ball, right? It's him flying off of a screen and two defenders chase after him. We refer to this as the gravity concept. And the reality is, is the Warriors get better rim looks than anybody in the league. They were third in restricted efficiency, restricted area efficiency this year. They were first last year, first in 2019, second in 2018, first in 2017. You guys get the point.

The Warriors get better looks at the rim than anybody in the league. That's because of Steph. Even though it doesn't, even though the assists get registered to whoever the big guy is at the top of the court, That's making those reads as Steph and Claire running off the screens. The actual fear of Steph is what generates those open looks. And then Steph also is a great on-ball passer as well. We talked yesterday about his 14-assist game in game four against the Lakers, where they threw the kitchen sink at him.

He couldn't make a three-point shot to save his life, and he still generated 38 points and 28-picking rolls with his on-ball passing. But you get the point. For both guys, you just have to pick the lesser of two evils. If you let them work in traditional coverages, they're not just going to beat you. They're going to beat you to the tune of a point in a third per possession, which is going to cost you the game.

And then if you send the kitchen sink at them, you're going to stay in there and watch them pick you to pieces. With their peers, the trade-off is much more simple. Okay, Joe L. Embed is crushing us in post-up situations. Let's throw the kitchen sink at him. doesn't handle double teams well. There's an option there that's clearly better than the main option, right? Okay, Trey Young's hitting, you know, one out of every three pull-up threes.

Like, you know, like, what are we going to do? Stay in your traditional drop coverage. He's just not going to make enough of them for it to be truly damaging, especially over the course of a playoff series. Every player down the line has some sort of weakness in that department where you can theoretically go with a path to guarding them that should limit their efficiency enough to give your team a chance to win. Now, in any given one night, those guys might beat you,

either with the pass or with the shot, but in terms of consistently night in and night out, because that's the thing, even if Yokic is missing a couple of those shots, even if Steph is missing some of his threes, they're still guarded like they're going to make them consistently, because the fear is still there. And those two guys are the only two that I can think of in the league that truly resoundingly check both of those boxes. 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 where you're 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.

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Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two.

Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You saw everything that Nicole Yokic did translate to the playoffs. His efficiency in floaters and hook shots went down just a touch, but he made up for that by making every damn three-point shot they took. and just a ridiculous arsenal of one-legged fadeaways and funky leaners and all these different shots. The shot making maintained as he went into the playoffs. His aggression went up a level when he went into the playoffs,

which led to the increase in points per game production. He was up at 30 points per game in the playoffs. It was as impressive an offensive playoff run that I've ever seen. The only one I can think of that I thought was more impressive was LeBron in 2018, and he didn't win the title, which makes Nicole Yokic is more impressive. every series I watched from the Minnesota at Timberwolves to the Sons to the Lakers to the heat. None of nothing those four teams could do even came remotely close to making Yokic feel uncomfortable, let alone to make him actually fail to succeed.

It was just utter dominance. There's two final things I want to hit on when Nicole Yokic, before we get out of here today. One, Yokic as a screener. Every time I watch Nicole Yokic footage, his ability to set quality screens always pops off the screen to me. Now, this is something I work on with my young players all the time in our morning sessions, our training sessions for the school that I coach at. We work a ton of pick and roll right now because it's something that we're prepping on for this particular season. And in these situations, I'm always telling the big guys, I'm like, I'd rather us get two or

three illegal screens called on us per game, but generate better openings than to never get call it for any illegal screen, but can't ever set a good pick and the guards consistently getting over the top and staying attached. When you set a quality screen, it generates a gap between the ball handler and the on-ball defender. When you generate that, that's what forces the defense to warp. If the guard can stay attached, then he can't take the pull-up three. If he can't take the pull-up three, then the big guy doesn't have to come out to contest the pull-up three. If the big guy doesn't have to contest the pull-up three, he can linger back at the rim, which allows the guard as he's defending to funnel him over the top into the rim protection.

Then you don't have to bring the third defender over because the big is back in a position where you can guard both the roll man and the on-ball guard, right? Now, if I set a solid pick and I actually generate separation between the guard and the on-ball defender, all of a sudden, everything in terms of the pull-up jump shot and the floater and everything from the three-point line into the mid-range as we work downhill is open. And if there's a good guard there, say Jamal Murray, who's going to consistently make those shots, now the big man has to show up at the level of the screen.

if the big man has to show up at the level of the screen, that opens up the roll. If the roll is open, you're either going to get dunks or you're going to bring the third defender over to tag the roller, which is going to open up the weak side corner. All of the openings, whether it's the pull-up jump shot, the pocket pass to the big man, or the skip pass to the weak side corner entirely depend on the separation generated from the guard. and the only way you're going to generate that separation against NBA level point of attack defenders is if you set solid screens. And this is something that I constantly get, you know, kind of nitpicky with with Anthony Davis

because he has a tendency to run up and kind of act like he's setting a screen but like not actually hit anybody. And then slip early into his role. It's a weakness for Anthony Davis. And it's crazy because I watch him and I'm like, man, you're already so damn good with your vertical spacing and you've got a decent little pop shot yourself, not as good as Yokich, but you've got a decent little pop shot yourself, dude, like if you start setting solid screens, the whole world could open up for you in pick and roll. But when you watch Nicole Yokich, he makes it a pain in the ass every single time for the on ball defender to get over the top of the screen, which is such

a small thing that so many people don't pay attention to, but it is the fundamental part of generating openings in pick and roll. You absolutely must set solid screens. Nicole Yoke is just one of the best in the world at it. Lastly, I want to talk about Yokich on the defensive end of the floor. So, first of all, Yokic defended really well for his little individual standard in this particular postseason run. He worked high out of pick and roll, kept his hands active, did a lot of little things that helped make the Denver defense work. A big part of it, too, that a lot of people don't pay close attention to is defensive rebounding. Nicole Yokic is one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. That is the absolute necessity to close a defensive possession.

You don't get a stop until you get a defensive rebound. It is a huge part of the process that gets glossed over, and it's an important part of defense, especially for a guy like the Yokic that can actually grab and go and bring the ball off the floor himself and make the necessary kick-ahead passes, which is a huge part of Yokic's defensive value that I don't think gets enough credit. However, one of my long-standing basketball opinions has been defense matters, but offense matters more.

and the reason why is as a coach, schematically, I can get you in the right spot and get you playing hard and make up for a lot of your defensive shortcomings. I can't get you to play hard your way into being a better offensive player. And yeah, I might be able to organize some sets

that'll get you some better looks, but you're somewhat limited by your shot making, right? And especially when you get to certain parts of the play, playoffs where defenses can get in front of sets, now even that doesn't work. So offensively, your individual greatness matters so much more than the defensive end of the floor, especially within the team concept. That's always been one of my longstanding opinions. And Nicole Yokic kind of established this. Now, I want to emphasize a couple of different things, because I've always believed you have

to be a top 10 defense to win the title. And the nuggets kind of broke that mold, right? and they're the exception that proves the rule in my opinion. That's within the team concept, but I'm zooming in on Yokic for a second. Because Yokic specifically didn't hurt the nuggets on defense this year. Why? Yokic still has slow feet. He's still a below average rim protector. So how did they manage to coherently play defense with Nicole Yokic on the floor?

It's because they were schematically able to make it work. They brought Yokic up high. to the level of the screen, and they had Aaron Gordon essentially as the low man function as the rim protector. And then they were just really sharp around that. And so as a result, they were able to coach up a functional defense around a limited rim protector well enough to win the title. So I kind of looked at that as like a vindication of that opinion, which is, and we can translate that to guys like Luca Donchitz, for instance. I mean, Steph Curry is a great example of this as well over the years. And he was kind of where I got this original opinion from. Like, how do you win titles with

Steph? You just surround him with good defensive players, put him in a position where he has a job to do within the scheme, and get him to play hard. If you can do those things, you can defend well enough to win at a championship level. Now, the Warriors had so much defensive talent around him that they were still a top 10 defense. And that's what makes this Nuggets team so unique. It's like, they kind of did that with a bunch of guys. Like, they did that with Jamal Murray as well, right? They did that with Michael Porter Jr. as well. They just gave him a job and they got him to do it well. And then guys like Contavius Caldwell Pope and Bruce Brown and Aaron Gordon were so dominant defensively, it allowed them to get enough stops within the playoff context. But I think it's,

I think it was a good proof of concept of the simple idea that like as a, when we are evaluating star players like Luca Donchich, his defensive shortcomings do not mean he can't be a champion. It just means as we look back, the two guys who brought. this mold because Janice in 2021 was arguably the best defender in the world. LeBron James in 2020, that was that unbelievable Laker defense. He was an outstanding defender in that season. LeBron James in 2016, still a top-tier defensive player when he blocked three shots a game over that three-game span to come back and beat the Warriors, right?

Kauai Leonard in 2014 defensive player of the year, right? LeBron James, 2012, 2013, first team all defense. You guys get the point. All of them are defensive, you know, weapons. except for Steph and Nicole Yokic, the two players that I consider to be the most unguardedable offensive players in the league at this point, right? So the point is, as we look at Luca Dantzich, can he win a title without being a top-tier defender? Absolutely, as long as he becomes truly unguardable on the offensive end of the floor.

So I thought that was kind of an interesting concept that Nicola Yokic proved in this playoff run. But congratulations to Nicola Yokic. Just, you guys know how much I value the winning piece, and I in particular was, was one of the final people to kind of get on the Yokic bandwagon because I was waiting for this in particular. But I think he's proven a lot. I don't see a solution for him in this particular season. That's why he's going to be my championship favorite again this season. I'm excited to watch him play again. I've become a fan of his game. Shout out to Nicole Yokich, number one, on our player rankings this year. We will be back on Monday going into another top 25 player list,

this time covering legacies and careers surrounding the top 25 players of the last 25 years. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you on Monday. The 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far far away, such as the biology of ton-tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.