The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Geltzeiler On NBA Bubble And Return To Play

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

Brian Geltzeiler On NBA Bubble And Return To Play

This is Eric Gordon. Got a pullback. Three hit it. Eric Gordon on fire here. Sports Talk 790 is your home? Yes. For Houston Rockets basketball. He is the founder of Hoops Critic.

I catch him quite a bit when I'm listening to Sirius XM NBA Radio and a friend of the show. We have not had Brian Geltz out with us for quite a while. But you know what? We are closing in on the return of real basketball. So now is absolutely the perfect time to bring Geltz to the show. Brian, it's Matt. How are things? Long time, no talk. I bet the folks at NBA radio are finally ready to chew into some games here in the not too distant future. Yeah, we ramping up the programming, Matt. It's exciting. It's all good with me here.

Hope you and your family are doing well there. I know it's a little bit of a hot spot in Texas right now. So I'm wishing you and your family and your friends and your listeners. Nothing but the best. Thank you very much. Now, you used to be in a hot spot. So tell what it's like in the Jersey, New York area. just from a pure comfort level of people moving around a little bit and trying to conduct day-to-day business. You know, it's funny because you're right. I mean, we were bad for six weeks, I mean, really bad. And the lockdown seemed very restrictive at the time,

but there was a method to the madness. And we ended up, we actually, today, for the second time in the last couple weeks, our transition rate got back below one. In terms of not, what that means is essentially for every person that has the virus, how many people are getting infected by it. So they feel like it's under control when you have it less than one. But we also, in our state, our governor had to pull back on restrictions here with indoor dining.

He wouldn't allow that because people, listen, people are going to do whatever you allow them to do. And, you know, we have a vacation destination. Over the course of the last week, week and a half, the crowds at the Jersey Shore on the beaches, got to be much more than they should have been. So our reopening is not, we're not going backwards, but we're kind of paused and stalled here on reopening and waiting for the numbers to go down a little bit further. And again, we're getting people in from out of state. They're supposed to be quarantining. It's a hard thing to enforce.

So we're moving along, but there's definitely some legitimate fears in our state right now in our area that we could start to see cases spike again for people coming from state states with much higher coronavirus rates than we have. Well, hopefully I can report some good news about our state in the not too distant future. Geltz, let's get to the bubble. It feels like everybody's just about there. The players have been taking a lot of IG videos and tweets and whatnot about their accommodations. It doesn't look overly miserable, so I think it's got to be a nice early sign that the guys that are there are embracing it. And frankly, are you surprised at the end of the day how few players have decided to bow out of this thing? Not really because, listen, I think that there's an understanding among the players, Matt,

that participating in this bubble and making it a success is vital to the league's financial model. And that's of just as much benefit to the players as it is to the owner. So for the players, they want to make sure that this is a success. And listen, you look at the guys that have bowed out. It's been from teams that it's kind of a way to talk for them being there in the first place. The guys on the neck. They tested positive. That's a team that doesn't have a lot of chance to really advance,

even with all their guys, obviously not Durant Irving, but everybody else. But even look at the Washington Wizard, too, the league stretched to have them there from 20 to 22 teams with the hope that they could potentially create a play in series in the Eastern Conference, knowing that one was somewhat likely in the Western Conference. What happened with the Wizards? They're two best healthy offensive players, Bradley Biel, and Davis-Brickon's both opted out. That still said it was because of injury. I'm not sure it was an injury.

I think Bradley Bill probably could have played if he had wanted to play. So you get those guys fouling out where it doesn't mean much. But, you know, in terms of the top teams, I'm not surprised. The guys that Gabriel Bradley, Trevor Ruiz. They had significant family concerns that just like all of us would have, they prioritize over doing what they had to do for the league. And that's understandable also. But I like the player's attitude on being all in.

I just, you know, Rajon Rondo put an Instagram post up yesterday complaining about the accommodation. He's got to be a little less tone deaf in that stuff, Matt. People are struggling across this country, 11% unemployment, having trouble putting food at a table in some spot. You got to, you know, the NBA players kind of have to take a little bit of stock in that and a little bit of perspective about what's happening in this country at a whole before they start to complain about things like hotel accommodations, which, by the way, are pretty darn good in the hotel Rondo's staying in. Yeah, no question.

Rajan's been basically tone deaf for his entire part of his NBA career, so that's really nothing out of the ordinary. Brian Geltzider, at Hoops Critic is the website, and you should also check him out on Twitter. It gives you great analytical information on the NBA. All right, so I'm not trying to be my epic here because I call Rockets games, and we are obviously in Houston,

but Grant Hill said this on the NBA restart for the Rockets. He thinks they've got a serious chance of doing some damage. Is that just, he's just being polite, Could the Rockets be a sneaky team in the Western Conference when this playoff thing eventually gets underway? Well, let me say this. I'm going to start by saying, no, Grant Hill, not just being polite. And this morning on NBA radio, I had a conversation with BJ Carlissimo who felt the same way. That when I asked him the question, who else in the way, who's the most likely team to creep into the Western Conference picture besides the Lakers and the Clippers?

The first one he answered was the Rockets. So that's not anybody being polite. The fact is for the Rockets. And let's look at it this way, Mac. You've seen them all year. The Harden-Lexbrook experiment has worked largely. It really has. The two of them have played, I think, very well together.

One or step back when the other one has been hot at both different times. It really did make it about the team and about each other instead of themselves. And I've been impressed. Here's what I will say. I just, I am not a believer in the small ball. thing that the Rockets are trying to do here. I do think that it was Lusory Pax motivated more than basketball motivated.

And we can discuss that on a later date at another time. But that's firmly my belief. But more than that, I think that it's very hard to win in the NBA hunting something like defensive rebounding. And I know what the Rocket strategy is. The Rockets went from being one of the slowest-paced teams in the league to getting Russell Westbrook and being one of the fastest-paced teams in the league. And that transition was very impressive season.

in overseas. And I love Mike Dantone. I think he's got a fantastic job here with the hand that he's been dealt. With all that said, you try to burn teams out in transition when you get rebound and make them suffer for crashing the offensive glass on you because you've determined

that that's, you know, things are going to do that. The Rock's a play at a six-foot-five-and-a-half center of PJ Tucker, coming things, their next biggest guy, and they're playing really small. So teams are going to try to take advantage of them rebounding-wise as much as they possibly can. And I think that's going to be successful when they get against the better teams.

I think it's going to, listen, I think they can certainly get out of the first round. I think it's going to be hard to get out of the second round. To do that, they're going to have to beat the Lakers football. So let me ask you this, Brian, because, you know, I'm very mixed about it because I was a huge Klingapella guy. I loved the pick and roll when it was working, and he was a good rim protector, became a much better NBA player every season, but there was almost a crescendo with him. So let's assume this doesn't work.

what does Darrell Mori try to do to alter the team next year knowing that seven footers aren't growing on trees and oh by the way is that what you really want for this team that needs the ball spread around and oh by the way you've got about three weeks to figure that out when it comes a free agency how would you fix that if indeed you do not believe that this smaller rocket lineup could make that kind of big difference

come playoff time well it's not hard to fix if you feel like you have to repair and follow where I'm going here now. First of all, shenders are not hard to combat. There's a whole lot of them in the league, and they're being devalued,

which means if you decided you had to go get a big, it's not the most enormous challenge out there to find yourself a quality big. One is good and as young with as much potential as Capella, probably not, but you definitely get one that's going to be cheaper salary-wise. So I think that that's one part of this where you can pick it as a guy

that if you even going into the last year of a deal next year, if you fished in out there for teams to look at, you get a lot of bites. Robert Covington, his profile around the league is high. He's like him a lot. He's one of these long wings. He can shoot it. He defends well.

He's very high, always with steals, plays off the ball defense really well. And if you're looking to kind of, you know, go get a big guy again and say, hey, this didn't work. Covington is a marketable guy to be able to do that with. You know, it's a good idea about the Rockets. And remember two years, I think, it was way, the last year, two years ago in the playoffs,

Steve Kerr said this about the Rockets. The Warriors were a long team on the perimeter. He said the Rockets bring a bunch of middle linebackers at you. And they do. And that's hard sometimes for longer games. And that's one of the reasons the Rockets really, with strength and speed, really gave the Warriors a very hard time.

Two years ago on the playoffs, you can argue that if Chris Paul doesn't get hurt, They win that series. Either way, they were right there at the end. He was one of the all-time great teams in history to sport. So, I mean, I'm not that far away. Listen, I understand that this is an owner that doesn't want to pay the luxury back. I get that.

I also understand that James Harden, in terms of the way his games evolved, needs screens a lot less because of how lethal he is in isolation, which really, that one thing made Clint Capella, a guy that went from being something to help him space before, being someone that crowded the floor for you with having him there. So one of those things made some sense in terms of what they did. But I do think like West Bricard and Gordon, got like Austin Rivers,

the same physical profile coming off the bench, I think if you have a big and you get yourself, you know, one more longish wing here, you can kind of remake this thing if this doesn't work and make another run out of next year. I, you know, I don't think the one thing I'll tell you, and Darry has done this time and time again.

again, where it looks like he traded himself into a corner. There's always the way out for Daryl. He's always had those options. He's very creative. In this case, I think the way out, if this doesn't work, is a relatively clear path. I got 30 seconds, Gals, you always bring great material. Give me your Western and Eastern Conference champions. You know, it's funny.

At the end of the season, I had had the Clippers and the Sixers. I'm so down on the Sixers. 10 and 24 on the road, and I'm going to tell you something, Matt, these games in the bubble are going to feel much more like road games and they are own games. And that in the Sixers lineup troubles, I'm not all that high on them. I hate, I'm still on the Clippers. I think that they're the team built best to win in the playoffs right now in the entire league. And as much as I like the Raptors and what they're going to do,

I don't have a lot of confidence without Kauai and their ability to guard Donis. I just don't think Siakum can do it over the course of a long series. So I hate to be trophy with Milwaukee, but they've kind of been the team that's put themselves in that spot. So right now I'm going Milwaukee Clippers. I have the Clippers winning the at the beginning of the season. No reason to jump off that now. We'll leave it at that.

Geltz, thank you so much for your insights. Congratulations on all your success with the Hoops Critic and NBA Radio. And I can't wait to start dialing in on those games because it'll be fun to actually talk about real games. Thank you very much for the time from. We really appreciate it. Matt, always by pleasure.

Congrats to you as well. Keep up the great work on the Rockets broadcast. You reach out any time. I'll reach out any time. I'll always happy to join you. Thanks, Geltz. I really much appreciate that. Brian Geltziter. Whoops critic, joining us here on the

Thomas show