The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why Kyrie Irving joining LeBron James would make Lakers NBA title favorites

Episode Date: February 4, 2023

Jason Timpf breaks down Kyrie Irving's most recent trade demand from the Brooklyn Nets. He discusses how Kyrie would fit on the Los Angeles Lakers alongside LeBron James & Anthony Davis. He also discusses the potential fit of Kyrie Irving on the Dallas Mavericks alongside Luka Doncic. Later, Jason discusses the Milwaukee Bucks 106-105 win over the Los Angeles Clippers and why Giannis Antetokounmpo is still in the NBA MVP conversation #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a good weekend. We are up in Breckenridge getting ready to hit the slopes. on the road yesterday. We had planned on doing one show on this trip tomorrow morning because there's a jam-packed slate tonight. We got the Lakers and New Orleans against the Pelicans. We got the Warriors against the Mavericks, the heat against the bucks, a bunch of good games to cover. But then Kyrie Irving decided to drop a bomb on the entire NBA and the entire NBA trade deadline right as I was pulling into Albuquerque yesterday. So I had a night to kind of

marinate on it and sleep on it and I had some thoughts. And then I have some quick thoughts. on that Clippers Bucks game from Thursday night, which I thought was super, super informative on a bunch of different levels. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes 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 any show announcements. And the last but not least, for whatever reason,

you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So first, my first instinct here, is that this is super fishy. And the main reason why is I had put the Brooklyn Nets into my top tier of contenders. Coming into before the season, I kind of had these tiers, the bucks, the Celtics, and the Warriors on the top.

And then the next two teams I had were two teams that I thought were super talented, but that had a million different things that could have knocked them off the rails. And ironically, both of them have had seasons where things have gone right. And I had at fifth, the Philadelphia 76ers, and at six, the Brooklyn Nets. And both of them have stayed healthy. You know, James Hardin has had a great year. Kyrie Irving has rehabed his image. Joel Embed, for the most part, has been healthy. And then Kevin Durant's been arguably the best player in the world. And so both of those teams have been kind of whooping everyone's ass this season. And so what's really strange about this is, you know,

looking back at Kyrie Irving's trade request last summer, the nets were in shambles. They had an incredibly disappointing loss in a sweep against the Boston Celtics. Things looked really discouraging. You could see why Kevin Durant might want a different basketball situation, why Kyrie Irving might want a different basketball situation. But that's not the case now. And now we know that Kyrie, for good reason, was trying to plan his next destination. This is just pre-planning. We talked about this a lot the other day when we were talking about Draymond Green

in his contract situation coming up. Acknowledge the realities of the business and start prepping to advocate for yourself, right? and what Kyrie is understanding now is that he needs to start planning his next destination. If it's Brooklyn, great. If not, then it needs to start prepping somewhere else. So he reaches out to the Nets about a contract extension before the trade deadline. Because if he can get the deal he wants, then everything's great. He's with Brooklyn.

We just keep playing basketball. But if they can't give him the deal that he wants, if there's too big of a gap there, then he needs to start thinking about where he's going to be next. And when it comes to the summer, there's a limitation with a number of, of teams that have cap space. But if you can trade for Kyrie Irving, then it's not a matter of cap space anymore. It's a matter of matching outgoing salaries. And once you do that, now his list of options of different places he can go becomes infinitely wider. So for instance, Kyrie really wants to go to the Lakers to play with LeBron and Anthony Davis. We learned about this last summer. But in

free agency, it's unrealistic. Even last summer, if he wanted to do it, he would have had to sign a mid-level exception, which was a little over $6 million a year. That's not going to get the job done, right but if it's a trade now it's a russell westberg for kair irving swap now he can get a get to l.A and they will have the option to pay him exactly what he made in brooklyn plus a certain amount there's there's different machinations they have to work out but the point is is he can get more money long term with the lakers through a trade than he came through free agency so we can look at all of the different elements of this trade demand as it pertains to the offer that he got from brooklyn and why he's upset and whatever differences he might have between the front office. But really, this comes down

to money. He's just trying to set up his next deal. And it's clear that he wants it to be a guaranteed deal. In Brooklyn, they're looking at it more as an incentive-based deal for good reason, because Kyrie is literally time and time again over the last couple of years gone out of his way to disrupt the continuity of the team. And he's done this three years in a row now between, you know, straight up leaving the team for personal reasons multiple times two years ago to the COVID situation last year to the anti-Semitism stuff this year. So they have good reason to feel that way. Now, Kyrie Irving's camp is like, hey, he's a top 20 player in the world. And that's the thing I want to say before we get any further into this. We can say what we want about Kyrie.

And look, if you're one of those fans that's like, I'm not touching this guy with a 10-foot pull, I get that. I'm with you. I have no problem. with that take. But it can't be Kyrie sucks and I don't want him. You have to understand that he's playing basketball at a higher level than most of the players in the league this season. And if you choose that you don't want him, it's because of the off-court stuff, not because of his on-court impact. To give you guys some examples, Kyrie Irving this year in over 400 pick and rolls is averaging 1.1 points per possession, including passes. There are 45 players in the NBA this year that have run at least 400. He's eighth out of those 45 players. So he's been a lot of

one of the best pick and roll ball handlers, pick and roll shot creators in the league this year. Isolations. Kyrie Isolations are averaging 1.19 points per possession, including passes. That's second out of 18 players in the league to run at least 200 this year. So he's been the second best isolation player in the entire NBA this year. Spot up possessions, which would be vitally important alongside guys like Luca Donchich or Jimmy Butler and Bamette Abio or LeBron James and Anthony Davis. 1.19 points per spot up possession. that's 31st out of 119 players that have run at least,

or that have run at least, I believe, 100 of them. So if you don't want him, that's fine. But don't act like he's not good. And there's going to be a lot of teams that are going to talk themselves into being interested. Now, my first instinct, to be clear, is I think cooler heads will prevail. And I think that Kevin Durant will get involved, and the Nets will make him a better offer.

and Kyrie Irving will sign an extension, and I believe he will stay with the Brooklyn Nets. I believe there's reason to try to make that work. I believe Kyrie's been good enough to justify the deal. And in Brooklyn, they have a great basketball situation. They're not my championship favorite. There's some matchup luck that they're going to need to get, but they're certainly capable of winning the title. There's good reason to try to make that work. But if for whatever reason it degenerates and he needs to go elsewhere,

I want to quickly touch on a couple of teams that I think he might end up, because where he might end up. Because the risk here, Kyrie Irving essentially just amounts to a high risk proposition. In terms of the talent, he is going to make your team a lot better. There's a legitimate case to make that he's been a top 20 player in the NBA this year. His specific skill set would help a lot of teams that desperately need what he does. There's a huge upside.

And then there's the downside of all of his antics and his unreliability. Right. So there are going to be teams like the Denver Nuggets, for instance, where it's like, yeah, you could trade for Kyrie Irving, and he might make you a lot better. But the risk doesn't make sense because they're very well established. Same thing goes for teams like the Boston Celtics or the Philadelphia 76ers or the Milwaukee Bucks, right? But then we get to these other teams that have a lot of different pieces that they feel good about for their chances to win the title, but they know they're not good enough on the margins.

Teams like the Lakers, teams like the Mavericks, teams like the Heat, teams like the Phoenix Suns. Now for them, they're considering the risk. because right now they're not good enough. And they have some urgency, whether that's Luca and his potential future with the Mavericks, or it's LeBron James in his 20th season. Jimmy Butler aging and has dealt with some injuries over the years. They're experiencing some urgency. And then the same thing goes with the Phoenix Suns with their current predicament with Chris Paul

and some of the stuff going on with him. So really quickly, I think the Lakers make the most sense. And Kyrie wants to go there. And it's the most likely to happen because of the behind-the-scenes ability that Kyrie has to manipulate his way there. So Kyrie should. If you're Kyrie Irving and you're leaving Brooklyn, do you want to go play with Luca Donchich in a roster that doesn't have much else?

Do you want to go to Miami where they're not going to put up with anything that Kyrie does that's off the beaten path, so to speak? Or do you want to go to Phoenix where it's kind of a similar type of situation? The team has a funky chemistry. They've been dealing with a bunch of issues all year. Or do you want to go with the Lakers? Where it's LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It's a little bit of a shit show anyway.

So Kyrie's going to kind of feel like he's got a little bit more freedom there. It's in Los Angeles. The team automatically becomes like a top-tier championship contender with the three of them on the roster. I can see why he wants that. And so then from there, he can behind the scenes have his agent manipulate the situation. Go to Dallas and be like, don't trade for him. If you do, he won't extend.

go to Miami and say, don't trade for him. If you do, he won't extend. Go to Phoenix and say the same thing. So he can do some things behind the scenes to push him towards the Lakers. Now, for the Lakers, there's two elements to it that make it vitally important. One, if I'm breaking down the Lakers roster, they're incredibly physically imposing. We saw that two nights ago against the Indiana Pacers. They have a massive front line with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui Hachamura.

They've got good guards that play good defense guys like Troy Brown Jr. Guys like Austin Reeves. They have ball pressure guards. They've got downhill guards. They've got all these things. But there's one thing that they are missing, and it's the real reason why the Lakers have struggled so much at the end of games. They don't have anybody who likes to take and is good at making jump shots,

either on the catch or off the dribble. And so because of that, at the end of games, there's a lot of looking around, a lot of teams packing the paint, and nobody feeling comfortable taking the shots you need to win the game. Kyrie Irving automatically fixes all of that. He gives you another great ball handler at the end of games who loves to shoot jump shots, off the dribble and off the catch,

that will be able to succeed in crunch time alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, off the ball or on the ball. It's a no-brainer that automatically fixes their biggest flaw. And then this is the biggest, the second side of it that is not being talked about enough. What have I been talking about with Russell Westbrook all year? He's been a net positive in the middle portions of games

when the game is loose and it's up and down and he's going against lower-level bench players. But at the end of games, for the most part, he's been a disaster. And Darwin Ham wants to go to him, and he will continue to go to him. And as long as he's on the roster, there's a chance he'll go to him in a playoff series, and it'll get the Lakers beat. So there's the other element to this, which is the addition by subtraction element

of getting Russ off the roster, because he is a net positive if he's played properly in the rotation, but if he's played in crunch time, he quickly becomes a net negative. So one of the things that's become an issue with the Lakers this year is they've got so many rotation players now because of a lot of their lower level rotation players that are playing well, that if you flip Russell Westbrook for three players coming back from the Charlotte Hornets, or three players coming back from the Utah Jazz, you start to have even more of a log jam in your rotation. And so that kind of made a Russell Westbrook trade unlikely. But Kyrie Irving coming onto the scene makes a very simple one-for-one swap. You can send Russ out. You can send Lonnie

Walker out. You can get back Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris or whatever the structure of that is. it's fewer players coming back, which makes it a simpler swap, and it gets Russell Westbrook off the roster. So for me, the Lakers make the most sense. I think they should throw everything at this to try to get it done. Yes, Jeannie Bus is going to have to figure out some stuff with the luxury tax, but Kyrie Irving, Ruby Hatchamura, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, that's three really good players that are 30 or younger, and LeBron James, who is aging very well. That's a good core for you to build around in the future, even though it would be expensive.

With Dallas, the case is very simple. they don't have any legit backup ball handling or a legit co-star alongside Luca Donchich. They're a team that I think should be aggressive because I think Kyrie's game compliments Luca very well. When we get to Miami, similar type of deal. We've talked a lot about how Jimmy Butler is the only guy who can create his own shot on that team. Bam is making some improvements this year. He's getting better, looking to score, looking to be more aggressive. But they're guards. When you get to Max Struce and Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry, those guys are not doing a good job this year of creating

offense. Tyler Harrow, ironically, has been very, very good, especially when he's coming off of screening actions, but they could really use one more guy that can do that kind of stuff. So it makes sense. The one team that I really don't understand, and I get it because it's a new owner, and he's coming in, and he wants to make that splashy move, and he wants to get his team on the stage is the Phoenix Suns, but it's a redundancy thing. What's the one thing that Devin Booker is better at than most people in the league? Creating his own shot off the dribble. what's the one thing that Kyrie Irving's better at than most of the players in the league? It's creating his own shot off the dribble.

You get the point there's a redundancy there. I don't think they necessarily need what he does. What they need is someone who does what Chris Paul does in a more reliable way on a playoff stage. So I understand the splashiness of it and the new owner thing and the being aggressive thing, but I just don't necessarily think that that team makes a ton of sense as a fit. So again, to tie a bow on it, my guess is that he stays in Brooklyn, cooler heads prevail. They've got too good of a team.

They try to make this work. But if he ends up going elsewhere, there's too much behind the scenes that the Lakers can do, there's too much, or I should say that Kyrie Irving can do. And there's too much basketball sense with Kyrie Irving with the Lakers for that not to happen. So I would consider that to be the most likely outcome should Kyrie actually get traded. And then really quickly, before we get out of here today, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I watched that Celtic, or the Clippers Bucks game on Thursday night. And the reason why I thought it was super interesting is if you guys remember last weekend, Nicola Yokic and Joel Embed had a battle on ABC, and Joel Embedressed him.

And during that game, for the first three and a half quarters, Nicola Yokic was the better player because his possession by possession impact is higher than Joel and Beads. and Joel, his shot making, hadn't really taken off at that point in the game, and the Nuggets were winning, and Yokic's stat line is pretty pedestrian, but it was classic Yokage ball, and they were winning. But then what happened? Joel and B. got just obnoxiously hot with his pull-up jump shot, and just barbecued Nicola Yokage every time down the floor at the end of the game, looked wildly better, and the Sixers won.

Well, what happened in that Clippers' Bucks game was the exact opposite of that dynamic. for the first three and a half quarters of that game, Kauai and Paul George were clicking, knocking down all these tough pull-up jump shots. The entire Clippers roster, just incredible shot making every time down the floor. But then down the stretch, those shots stopped falling. Janus kept barreling his way to the rim.

Yonis kept generating offense and defense on both ends of the floor. The buck slowly climbed back into the game. And what did you see down the stretch? You saw Paul George pull up jump shot, top of the key. A shot he works really hard on. Airball, short of the rent. You saw Kawhi Leonard working on Wesley Matthews getting to a couple of turnarounds and stepbacks and fadeaways, and they just didn't go in.

And that's the other side of that story. Like I told you guys, after that Yokic and B game, those are just different archetypes. The shot making and the possession to possession impact are two different archetypes. And if you watch them on one night and the shots are going in, the shot maker guy looks better. But if you watch them on another night, and those tough shots that even though they work really hard on are below 50% usually, sometimes they don't go in.

And when they don't go in, suddenly the other guy looks better. And I thought that was a good indication or a good example of the fact that it's not always about that one game sample and who makes what shot. When you get to the postseason, that's why I value those possession to possession guys because in a seven game sample,

it's far more likely that they'll be able to make more impact than the guy who could get hot in game two and get hot in game four, be pretty mediocre outside of that and end up losing this series. I said before the season that Janus was my pick for MVP. I think he's the best player in the league. He's been an absolute wrecking ball over the last couple of the weeks. The Bucks are on a run. I hope some of you guys jumped on those odds when they were significantly higher because

I do think Janice has a chance to kind of work his way back into this conversation. He has the ability to hit the Jets for a month or two, average 40 and 15, win every game and just look better than everybody else. And so that was always something that could happen down the stretch of the season. That's why I never gave up on them. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow morning with some breakdown of those three games that I mentioned. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support.

We'll see you guys next time. The Volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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 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 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.

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