The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why LeBron James is #8 on my NBA player rankings | Los Angeles Lakers

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Jason explains why he has Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James at No. 8 on his NBA player rankings including the strengths and weaknesses of Bron's game, how his age factors into the ranking, how he fits alongside Luka Doncic, and more. Then he gives his take on the start of EuroBasket for Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The Volume. Good to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had a great weekend. Got a jam-pack show for you today. We are moving on in our player rankings to number eight, LeBron James, a guy that I'm sure is going to lead to a lot of frustration.

He's the most polarizing player in the NBA. But I really want to dive into the reason why he's polarizing, as well as why I have him ranked up at number eight this year. You'd think it'd be easier to make that case, given the fact that he finished sixth and MVP voting and made second team all NBA. But there's a hefty group of NBA fans who think LeBron is pretty overrated at this point. I'm excited to get into that topic and debate it a little bit with you guys today. And then hopefully you guys will have your counterpoints,

which we can get into in our mailbags later on. But the second segment today, we got six games worth of exhibition basketball from Nicole Yokic, Luca Donchich, and Janice and Tenacumpo in their friendlies, as of the time of this recording, in their friendlies prepping for Eurobasket. I am going to give brief thoughts on all three of them. More extensive thoughts on Yokic and Luca, because both of them have kind of interesting stuff going on with their body that I have takes about. So we'll have some Eurobasket thoughts at the tail end of the show.

and then we'll get out of here for the day. You guys know 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. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there. And the last but not least, if you disagree with any of these rankings, make a case in the comments. Put mailbag, colon, make your case for why you disagree, up or down, whatever it may be, and we will get to it in our mailbags moving forward.

Mailbags are fair game. You can talk or ask about anything you guys want, but I'm also going to be emphasizing some of your player ranking centric questions when we get to that point. All right, let's talk some basketball. So LeBron is easily one of the most polarizing players in the league, and he's become even more polarizing in this phase of his career, because it used to be that there was this like obvious chunk of fans who had a beef with him for whatever reason. It was like MJ fans, you know, a lot of the older generation of basketball fans. And then because of the Steph Curry-Lebron rivalry, when the Cavs and Warriors faced off in the finals every single year for four straight years, it kind of feels like a different era now when you look

at how much parity there is and how we have a different finals matchup every year. But because of that era, there's a big chunk of one of the largest fan bases in the NBA that dislikes. LeBron to a great extent. I've struggled to understand that because, you know, I've hated Steph during that time, but I have such a great appreciation and respect for him as a basketball fan. And I wish more people felt that way about LeBron, but it is what it is. I'm excited to dive into it, though, because I think one of the big reasons why there's this kind of polarizing debate surrounding LeBron in this place in the league centers around the fact that he used to be a lot better. he has certainly declined to a certain extent.

And for whatever reason, LeBron gets graded on like a curve in the negative sense by most basketball fans. Like we're going to talk about his durability. His durability, the way that it's discussed doesn't make any sense, especially relative to other stars in the league, who for some reason that gets glossed over because they happen to be 28 or 32, even though they're missing more games. It's crazy the way that LeBron gets looked at as this old broken down dude

when he's sneaky been one of the most reliable players in the league over the last couple of years, especially really in, you know, when you compare to the other stars at the top of the league. Same thing goes with like his overall level of play. Yeah, he's not as good as he used to be, but he's still really damn good. And there's this idea that like, oh, he can't reach the same level. He can't reach the top tier guys. There's a certain level of inconsistency. Well, guess what?

Once you get to number five on this list, there's inconsistency for all the guys. It's so one of the big things that I want to emphasize today is in with respect to this discussion, yeah, LeBron's old. There's certainly risk that comes associated with that. But when you actually look at him in a vacuum compared to this, the other players in this league. He still ranks very highly in my book. So let's dive into this a little bit deeper. So first of all, I think that there's this idea that LeBron is unreliable with his health. And I just don't think that's the case. Just in the superstar

tier. So just among the guys that I have in the top 14, LeBron has played in more regular season games over the last two seasons than obviously Kauai and Mbid, Victor Wimbenyama, Luca Donschich, Janice and Tenacompo, Jalen Brunson, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, and Donovan Mitchell. He literally has played in more games over the last two years than nine of the top 14 players on this list. The only guys in this tier who are clearly in another tier, like clearly more reliable night to night in terms of being available and producing at a superstar level are Nicole Yokic, Shegildjus Alexander, and Anthony Edwards. those are the only three guys who are like you can book them for 75 plus games every single year. It's obviously another tier above. And LeBron has literally never missed a playoff game for his team.

Think about how many stars have missed playoff games over the last couple years. So like, I think that label for him is actually unfair. Maybe he'll get hurt this year. Maybe he'll miss a bunch of time. But if you think that's going to happen, that's wishful thinking on your part. And compared to most of the guys, on this list, he's actually one of the more reliable guys. He had a groin injury last year. He missed 12 games. He played 70. Now, what makes things complicated for LeBron, and the reason why,

even though he finished sixth an MVP voting, I have him down at eight this year, is LeBron's age does cause him to kind of oscillate between several different levels of play throughout the season. we're going to dive more into this concept later on in the show. But the way I look at it is like there are guys in this list of 14 who could never reach the level that LeBron reached in the time in that time spanning the end of the Anthony Davis era in the beginning of the Lucidantage era. He reached a level there that there are like legitimately guys on this list have never reached. But then there are also got like there's a level that LeBron reached last year in the beginning of the year where he was looking at. especially old, or that's a lower level than any of the guys on this tier are going to reach aside from obviously Kauai and Mb who we're dealing with injuries. Like there is a weird,

wide range of outcomes with LeBron that stems from his age. We're going to dive a lot into that concept in a little bit. I want to quickly just run through his statistics and his metrics from this season. Then we'll dig into some of the specifics about who he is as a basketball player at this point. 70 games played averaged 24 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. Guess how many NBA players averaged at least 24 points, seven rebounds and eight assists last year. Two, Nicole Yokic and LeBron James. He also had 1.6 stocks per game. His percentages, 51% from the field, 38% from three, 78% from the line, 57% in effective field goal percentage, and 60% in true shooting. Let's dig into the playtime.

data. LeBron's play type data was funny to dig into because even with his inconsistencies in the level of play that he reached at various points in the season, he's still just a very reliable shot creator in the half court. We're going to talk more about this concept later, but like, LeBron's not as good at generating advantages as you used to because he's older and he can't move as well, but his ability to turn those advantages into quality shots for his team as a high level playmaker is still right up there with the very best players in the league. He finished this year sixth in assists per game, even with his limitations in mobility, especially in one-on-one situations, which we're going to dive into.

He ran 1,399 pick and rolls, isos, and post-ups, including passes this year. And on those possessions, he got 1.02 points per possession, which is solid. It's not great by any means, but it's solid. as we've consistently talked about over the years, if you can run massive volume and get over a point per possession in half court offense, that is a huge asset to a team. And so, yeah, he's not getting up in that like 1.07, 1.08, that you're seeing the better shot creators in the league get on massive volume,

but he's still giving you reliable half court shot creation. Some specifics, he was very good in pick and roll. 1.05 points per possession. That makes sense, right? In pick and roll, you're getting a screen. So it's less, one. on one oriented on LeBron's ability to gain an advantage on a guy just man to man versus in a ball screen where he has obviously that screen advantage that can get him downhill.

When he gets downhill, it unlocks some of his scoring ability as well as his ability to pass out of it. That 1.05 points per possession, including passes, was in the 78th percentile. And out of the 52 players to run at least 500 pick and rolls this year, he ranked 17th on this list. So he's very good in pick and roll. He was good shooting out of pick and rolls. He had 36% of his pull-up threes out of pick and roll.

That's 1.07 points per shot. That's very good. So if he got into a ball screen and the guy died on the screen or went under, LeBron was hitting it 36% of the time. That's solid. 54% on twos, mainly fueled by his ability to get to the rim. LeBron is a decent short-range score, but it's not a strength of his at this point.

He was 43% on floaters, 41% on jumpers inside of 17 feet. So obviously not like Jalen Brunson surgical from the short range. Definitely not going to dominate games with middies and push shots. But with his ability to get to the rim mixed with mediocre kind of middle of the pack short range shot making, he was 54% on twos. And he's still just completely ridiculous getting to and finishing at the rim. I'm going to save the stats here for later because it kind of comes into play in several

different types of play types like transition cutting isopostups all that kind of stuff but that's carrying his ability to get to and finish at the rim is carrying a good chunk of his pick and roll scoring and then lebron like we mentioned earlier still just a remarkably gifted passer out of pick and roll if he can get his man on that screen and get downhill he's still incredibly good at setting up his guys for lobs and for wide open threes and that's the thing even that older lebron james still was sixth in the entire league an assist per game. Trey Young, Nicole Yokic, Tyrese Halliburton, Cade Cunningham, James and LeBron James. He's right up there with those guys. His one-on-one stuff, again, a little more mixed. He ran 747 ISOs and post-ups, including passes, generated 734 points. That's 0.98 points

per possession, which is only very slightly above average. He was 56th percentile in ISO, 52nd percentile in the post. This is the real play. place where his age has shown on offense. He's just not as capable of getting a step on defenders one-on-one as he used to be, right? Again, it's worth mentioning he's still above average on massive volume there, but it's just not the same dominant force that he was in his prime. And again, that's really the important thing that I want to keep driving home today. Like, yeah, when you're comparing it to old LeBron, who literally is in the conversation for the greatest basketball player ever, you're going to be underwhelmed by some of this stuff. But once you actually

start to like put it down next to the other stars in the league, it still holds up pretty favorably. The main area I'm hoping he can have a resurgence in is the post. Last year, the year before last, I should say, he was really good in the post. He was 1.1-2 points per possession. In theory, the post relies more on size, strength, IQ, less on foot speed, right? So as a less, a Lakers fan, I'm hoping that he can have a bounce back year in the post to improve some of his one-on-one numbers. But for the sake of this list, I think we should look at him as a guy who's lost a significant step in one-on-ones, but is still a very good pick and roll player in the league. So how was LeBron as, you know, more of a middle-of-the-pack shot creator, still as a

scorer able to get to 24.4 points per game on 60% true shooting? Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

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I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it. one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, Hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

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attempted the 11th most total shots at the rim in the entire NBA last year. Per game, he ranked 8th. Old man, LeBron James, attempted the same amount of shots at the rim as Shea Gilders and Alexander this year. And that's kind of what I'm talking about in terms of like this negative grading

on a curve that LeBron faces. Has LeBron lost a step? Yeah. But how do you guys discuss Shegildes Alexander in his ability to get to the rim? Like, if you ever have a conversation with a basketball fan today about Sheailder's Alexander, it's, oh my God, one of the most gifted drivers of the basketball we've ever seen. That's old man LeBron. That's what he did last year. And his efficiency there, 1.4 points per attempt ranked fourth out of the 11 players in the league to attempt at least 500 shots there. That's been LeBron's bred in

butter his entire career, and he's still one of the highest volume and efficiency rim finishers in the entire league at his age. That's a big part of what allows him to be such an efficient score, despite being middle of the pack as a perimeter score. Nothing to write home about. Like, he's going to hit a decent amount of his pull-up threes. He's going to hit, you know, 40-something percent of his midrangers and his floaters. Not going to, you know, take that to the bank as one of the elite perimeter scores in the league. But when you combine that with him still just being such a remarkable to the rim force, it makes him still such an efficient high volume score.

And then secondly, I think LeBron has always been underrated as an all-around offensive player. There's this idea that LeBron has to have the offense built around him. And I don't view that as the case. It really hasn't been built around him in years. it's become, you know, there are variations, Darvinham's more five-out approach, JJ Reddick's more like kind of spread pick and roll, four-out approach, although he also includes five-out concepts.

But in the last few years, it's become a lot of Delo in Austin, now Luca in Austin. It's a lot of LeBron having to function as a screener and having to function off the ball. He's become a very good catch-and-shoot player now. Two years in a row, he's been great at it. 1.22 points per attempt this last season. He made 45% of his unguarded catch and shoot jumpers

last year. He got 1.35 points per attempt in the playoffs against Minnesota. He has functioned as an off ball scorer off of Luca. He's good at finishing on cuts. He got 1.58 points per cut last year. Out of the 118 guys who logged at least 50 cuts, that was the fifth most efficient finisher on cuts in the league. He's excellent in transition. LeBron scored the ninth most transition points per game in the entire NBA last year. A lot of that benefiting off of those hit-aheads from other ball handlers on his team. All of that has allowed him to function offensively off of Luca. As you guys may remember,

I was critical of Austin Reeves last year for really struggling to play offense off of Luca and off of LeBron. That's something he has to improve on. LeBron has always been very good at finding ways to be impactful offensively, even as his role changes around him. Now, let's dig into the reality that LeBron reaches different levels throughout the season. LeBron basically hovers between three different levels at this phase of his career. There's the top tier superstar, the guy that we saw for a little while right before his groin injury last year. And there's the second tier superstar.

This is the guy we saw for the majority of last year. We'll get into those two versions of LeBron here in a minute. But then there's the third tier star. This is that floor that LeBron will reach that most of the guys in this tier don't reach. This guy just shows up every once in a while, usually early in the season. And it's during these stretches

that the noise surrounding LeBron and his age starts to get really loud. Now, it's worth mentioning. that version of LeBron still has a pretty high floor. So, for instance, in this last season, LeBron had his longest version of this type of stretch. For the first 21 games of the season, LeBron was mediocre by his standards. He averaged just 22 points per game on 57% true shooting,

but he also averaged eight rebounds and nine assists per game. Do you know how many players in the NBA averaged at least 22 points and at least five rebounds and five assists per game last year, let alone eight and nine, but five and five, there are only 11 dudes who reached that mark last year. So LeBron's basement as a player is 22, eight, and nine on 57% true shooting, a level of production only about a dozen players in the NBA can achieve. But, and this is where it gets complicated,

because what I just described is still very much a second-tier star. The reason why I drop him to that third tier when he's playing at this level is he really can get pretty lazy on defense during these stretches. Again, it's usually early in the season and it's getting a little bit longer with each passing season. But he can really start to cut corners in terms of just his effort and energy on that end of the floor. I still think when LeBron is engaged, he's not an all like he's not like a, you know, when he's super healthy, he can still reach that all defense level like he did in February, which we'll talk about. But like LeBron in the playoffs last year, he's a very good defender, but he's not like a world beating defender anymore. He can't reach that ceiling. But LeBron is still a very, very good

defensive player when he gives a shit. But LeBron is an issue, which is that for stretches of seasons, especially at the beginning when the goal just feels so far away, he can be an inconsistent effort and energy eye on the defensive end of the floor. And that can certainly, hurt your team there. And so that, to me, drops his overall impact in those phases to that of a third tier star. But that's the basement. LeBron spent the vast majority of last season playing well above that level. But it's important for us to acknowledge that he has that basement. And that's a big part of why I put him down at eight, despite him reaching heights higher than that during the season. most of the guys in the superstar tier never dip that low.

And that's why I kind of gave that as a hit to him on this list. But then LeBron also reached a level in the middle of the season when both Anthony Davis and Luca were out. And he was literally playing like the MVP of the league and carrying the team to win after win after win against really good teams. And we're going to go into those specifics here in just a second. but that's what makes LeBron such a complicated player to rate. So let's take a look at LeBron's ceiling.

This stretch that I keep referring to, where LeBron reached that top-tier superstar level, it was 16 games long, so little under a fourth of the season, called like a fifth of the season. From January 28th to March 6th, which was his final great game before he heard his groin again in the Celtics game.

During that stretch, he averaged 29 points, eight rebounds, nine assists on 65% true shooting. So the same Swiss Army knife that we've always known LeBron to be, but also 29 points per game on 65% true shooting. He was 54% from the field,

41% from three on seven attempts per game. He was literally the best defender on the number one defense in the NBA in that span. That's right. Anthony Davis, in that entire span from January 28th to March 6th, when the Lakers were the number one defense in the league, Anthony Davis literally played just nine minutes and 50 seconds of total game time in that entire span.

Played a little bit in the first game, got hurt, we didn't see him again in the Laker jersey. And then Luca returned at the end of that stretch, towards the end of that stretch, but he was a fat, out-of-shaped version of himself, wasn't nearly as good on offense as LeBron at that specific point in time. and LeBron was literally carrying the defense still. And during that stretch, the Lakers went 13 and 3,

with LeBron basically leading the way as the superstar. They beat the Knicks twice. They beat the Clippers three times. They beat the Warriors. When Luca returned, they beat the Nuggets in Denver. They beat the Timberwolves. I literally cannot overstate how well LeBron played in that stretch. As a fan, it was like going back in time and watching 2018 LeBron again.

29, 8, 9 on 65% true shooting while anchoring the best defense in the league and just beating great team after great team. It was amazing to watch. And again, that was a level that many of the guys in this top 14 have quite literally never reached in their entire basketball lives. And that is what makes this so complicated. So let's zoom out. And let's talk about why I put LeBron at eight.

LeBron has actually sneakily been one of the most consistently reliable and productive players in the NBA over the last two seasons. I posted this stat on Twitter a few weeks back, but it's crazy. Guess how many players in the NBA have played in at least 70 games each of the last two seasons, so consistently available, and to over the course of those two seasons, average at least 25, 5, and 5 on at least 60% true shooting. So again, just think of that as just consistent superstar production, at least 70 games per season, and at least superstar production of 25, 5, and 5 on at least 60% true shooting. Three players hit that mark. Nicole Yokic and Shay Gilgis Alexander, the last two MVP's of the league in LeBron James.

Again, as I said, it's important and it's fair for us to discuss LeBron's health and his age. as it pertains to which ceiling he can reach. And like what you get in the postseason matters. Like 2023, you get a broken foot version of LeBron that, you know, was a lesser version of the playoff LeBron we've seen over the years. 2024, they didn't lose to Denver because of LeBron. LeBron was incredible in that series. I would argue he played at a top tier superstar level in that series.

Just clutch shot after clutch shot after clutch shot and just the nuggets were better. And the nuggets are one of the great teams of this era. And then last year against Minnesota, kind of in between those two levels. And that's the fair discussion we can have as it pertains to which ceiling LeBron can reach. And that's why he's eight and not fifth, right? But in terms of actually being available to his team and reaching superstar production, LeBron has actually been one of the most reliable guys in the league over the last couple of years. He's never even missed a playoff game in his 22-season career.

So yeah, he's old. And maybe this is the year he finally suffers a severe injury. Maybe this year he gets hurt and misses a bunch of time. But if you're banking on that, it's wishful thinking compared to reality and especially compared to the other superstars in this league, who for whatever reason get held to a different standard just because they're young. They miss games. Nobody cares because they're between 28 and 32.

They are inconsistent when it comes to meeting the top-tier superstar standard. Who cares? but because it's LeBron and he's old, it's something everybody hyper-focuses on. So that's why I have LeBron at number eight this year. Now we have one last bonus LeBron topic before we get to the Eurobasket stuff. Because I know LeBron haters very well,

we are almost certainly going to get a bunch of comments under this video of people glomming on to LeBron's on and off numbers this year. And the stat is real, so let's start there. The Lakers were 6.9 points per 100 possessions worse this year with LeBron on the floor versus off. Now, for starters, it's a statistical outlier. In every single season of LeBron James's career,

I literally went back on cleaning the glass and looked at every single season, including the early Cavs years, the Miami Heat years, the second Cavs years, the Lakers years, every single season of LeBron's career, the team has been substantially better

with him on the floor versus off. Every single one, 21 consecutive years. Even recently, old man, LeBron, 24 LeBron was not as good as 2025 LeBron. 2025 LeBron received more MVP consideration with second team all the NBA, was better defensively reached a higher ceiling. He was a better player. 2024 LeBron, the Lakers were eight points better per 100 possessions with LeBron

on versus opt. In 2023, 10 points better. 2022, three points better. 2021, 13 points better. 20, 11 points better. 2019, nine points better. Again, you go back further in his. career gets even, it gets even crazier. There's like a half dozen years where he's 13 plus

points better. 2009, LeBron, the first year he won his MVP. The calves were 18 points better per 100 possessions when LeBron was on the floor versus off. So it is quite literally the most obvious statistical outlier that I can remember seeing in LeBron's career. So I, I'm almost am inclined to discount it entirely, but let's dive into it any. What caused this outlier piece of data? It comes down to a couple things. First of all, LeBron was second on the Lakers roster in minutes. So the sample size of them having a higher net rating was actually substantially smaller. He was on the floor for most of the time,

including all the minutes that the starters were out there and closing every single game for a team that won 50 games and was the third seat in the Western Conference. So if you're under the impression that he was hurting the team, frankly, you're an idiot. Secondly, there were a couple of lineup irregularities. that led to LeBron having to anchor many of Los Angeles's worst lineups. And those lineups didn't perform very well.

And if there's a lesson to be learned, because, like, basically what it was, JJ kind of made a strategic effort to anchor Anthony Davis with more ball handling, right? And so LeBron often had to anchor these bench units where he was like the only ball handler and they'd have like a G league center because of the weak center rotation. And those lineups got rolled. And there's no doubt that LeBron isn't as capable of floor raising bad NBA players anymore. And that may be something that JJ Redick has to address moving forward.

But even within that context, when I see 21 consecutive seasons of excellent on-off numbers, including recent seasons of old man LeBron, who wasn't even as good as the player we saw this last year, I'm inclined, excuse me, I'm inclined to basically just consider it a statistical outlier. And again, like LeBron more or less was the same player of, better this year than he was last year in the data looks so different it looks like an outlier to me but again this kind of floor raising piece this inability to carry inferior lineups the way he used to that inconsistency of the level of player that he can reach is all part of the reason why a guy that

can reach the ceiling lebron reached in february ranks down at number eight for me this year now let's do Eurobasket update. The rivalries, the marching bands, the upsets, Saturdays just got way more fun. College football is back. Think you know the game? Put your college football knowledge to the test with Draft King's Sportsbook and turn

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Void in Ontario. bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c.com slash audio. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news.

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

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

Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential. title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an

a 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine. Ryan Clark, sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing,

growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search, learn the hard way and listen now. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying,

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I watched a bunch of tape of Janice, Luca, and Nicole Yokic, and their early friendlies as they prepare for Eurobasket. So I wanted to quick touch on all three of these guys here for about 10 minutes. First of all, Luca Donchich.

I just think he looks amazing physically. He's very clearly much leaner. he also looks to have maintained much of his strength, which means that they're clearly staying dedicated to the weight room through this process. Again, like, the idea is you don't want to get skinny. You know, like, I remember when LeBron went on his, like, weird fish diet in 2014. He came into the 2015 season, like, considerably carrying less muscle mass. And it was something that was a bad idea.

And you could tell, like, LeBron knew it. Like, he was like, oh, shit, like this diet that I went on was not a good idea. And I remember he even talked before the season. and he's like, oh, I'm going to be quicker this year. And he may have been a tiny bit quicker, but that lack of strength ended up really hurting him. And then almost immediately LeBron went back to a different diet and loaded up in the weight room and got his muscle mass back, right?

I can see several examples of Luca looking like he has that extra burst while still having the strength to power through people. His Eurosteps have more of like a side-to-side pop to them. There were several, like, examples of him changing direction at full speed that looked really good, like chaining together, lots of moves and being able to really pop side to side and shed defenders,

especially driving close-outs. You can see like a real quickness to his first step that really didn't seem to be the case last year. So I think overall the physical transformation is going to be huge for him. I'm very, very excited to see the level that Luca can reach this year. Now, some specifics.

His play type efficiency and the two friendlies have been off the charts for Slovenia. 1.16 points per possession including passes on 58 pick and rolls, isos, and post-ups. He's been excellent in all three categories. His jumper's been a bit off. Four for eight off the catch, which is fine, obviously. He's just six for 21 off of off the dribble jump shot so far. That's always a rhythm thing. I actually expect Luca to have a good perimeter jump shooting season driven by his improved conditioning. Step back threes are all about getting separation and lift. And that can often become a problem when you tire route and I think Luca is going to be in good shape this year. He's five for seven on floaters.

That's a really good sign. If you guys remember, his short range touch was a major issue last year. So that was something I thought was a really good sign. I think in general, that's super important. And this is the one weird thing. He's not taking midrange jumpers at all. Out of the 29 jump shots he took in the two games, just one of them was a midrange too. And I really think that's an important part of his game when he's clicking on all cylinders. Again, it's like the, it's like the Anthony the Edwards debate we were having surrounding Shake Hills, Alexander, there's a delicate balance between large sample efficiency that can come from

heavily indexing towards threes, and the possession to possession consistency and the kind of like durability against rough shooting nights that you can have if you mix in more short range scoring. So on the one hand, five or seven on floaters in two games, like I think that's a good sign that Luke is getting some of his floater touchback, but the jump shot piece,

him relying almost entirely on threes is not something that I love. But again, and this is something I want to be clear about, even with the 5 for 7, even with the poor shooting, the 6 for 21 on the off-the-dribble jump shots. I don't really concerned with shot making at this point in the summer.

It's just such a small sample size, especially when we're just looking at a couple of friendlies. I'm mainly concerned by just how these guys look physically. And I'm just thrilled with how Luca looks physically, and I'm super excited to watch him this year. Nicole Okich. So I was having dinner with Adamaras about a week ago

and he was like telling me he's like he's like dude Yokic looks like he's put on some weight and I was like wow really okay so I like go home and I like dig into the film and he's still moving really well like moving just fine and what's really fascinating to me about that is like I think like

Yokic generally is kind of doughy right and so there's no way to tell how much of that is like maybe he's worked out a little bit this summer and put on some muscle or maybe he's put on a little bit of fat or maybe some combination of the two. But this is what Adam and I got into that night. Like Adam was arguing to me that it actually might be good for him to be bigger under the circumstances that they're playing in this particular year.

And I think I agree with him. Yokich being bigger is the right approach when you factor. in one, this Nuggets team is much deeper than last year. So they should be able to keep his minutes down. Again, what I'm always scared of when a guy's carrying extra weight is the wear and tear on the lower body. And so even if like, even for a player puts on muscle, like if you're just weighing 15 pounds more, your every cut, every change of direction, every jump, every landing, all of that just wears your lower body down more, right? So like the ability to keep his minutes in check by having a legitimate backup center, by having just a much deeper rotation with which you can carry

yourself through the regular season, that should allow them to carry a bigger Yokic throughout the season. The second piece of it is acknowledge reality. And that is that Oklahoma City defended Yokic into the worst three-game stretch of playoff basketball that we've ever seen from him. and they did it by having Isaiah Hartenstein overplay his right shoulder with Chet Holmgren behind and then just swarming him with their perimeter guys. I think Yokic carrying some more strength and weight to handle that swarming attack would actually be really helpful.

His jumper's been off. He's just one for eight so far and the one he made was kind of like a grifty, like pumpback lean-in and one that he got. But as I was saying with Luca, I'm not really concerned with small sample shooting numbers like that. Excuse me, I'm more concerned with just how guys look physically in these tournaments. And I think Yokic, he's mauling everybody in these friendlies. Like, he's on 17 post-ups so far in these games, he's generated 1.47 points per possession,

including passes. It's just completely ridiculous. And he's literally just tossing people around like ragdolls. Janus, just very briefly on him, he's only played one game. At the time of this recording, he's just played in one friendly against Latvia. But he looks fantastic. He had 25 points on 12 shots, bullying everybody. on Latvia through the rim.

Several possessions where like dudes were kind of draped on him and he just powered through him with that shoulder and just goes right to the front of the rim, you know, just classic Janus. And then the jumper looked great at the risk of being hypocritical after I just said that I'm not too concerned about jump shooting here. It's more just that specifically with Janus,

I'm excited about jump shooting. Right, because he's just kind of become a pretty reliable midrange guy. We talked about that last year often. And once again, his first game playing, you know, real five-on-five serious basketball in a long time. It's a turnaround jumper over his right shoulder. It's like a one-leg fade-away off the right block. It's three more pull-up mid-rangers out of hesitation dribbles.

Just like that little touch that he's demonstrating, again, that's a real small sample and I'm not overreacting to it. But just over the last year, Janus has shown a proficiency in the mid-range as a jump shooter that I think bodes really well for him as he develops into an older half-court score. But overall, I'm just super excited for Eurobasket this year. We're going to have some kind of coverage of it when we get to that point. I can't promise that we're certainly not going to cover every game. But we got three of the top four players in the world playing in this tournament.

We should get some really high-level basketball. We will definitely cover it to a certain extent this year. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back on Wednesday with number seven. I will see you guys then. 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. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We're the first people to do podcasts.

We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know. Tired and sick. Tired and sick. 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.

on Humor 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 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the stream criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the Aihar Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast. network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.