The Mismatch - The Beautiful Suns, Deadline Deals, and All-Star Reserves With Wosny Lambre | The Void

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

Welcome to ‘The Void,’ where Kevin O’Connor brings you deep inside the NBA with the people who know it best. With his birthday on Sunday, it’s Wos Week! KOC brings on The Ringer's Wosny Lambre to discuss the Suns' elite play this entire season and how Chris Paul’s mentality has influenced the team (03:22). Plus, Eric Gordon has been linked to the Suns, but is he a better fit somewhere else (13:10)? Wos breaks down Jerami Grant’s game before telling us why Kevin Huerter is a five-tool player (18:10). Grant’s name has also been linked to the Jazz, so the guys discuss his potential fit and Rudy Gobert’s impact (24:40). Despite reports saying Bradley Beal is not asking for a trade, KOC and Wos believe it’s time for Beal to move on (30:33). When it comes to the Lakers, there just isn’t anything good outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis (34:54). Host: Kevin O'Connor Guest: Wosny Lambre Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ring Your Wrestling show is getting you closer to all things pro wrestling. The Masked Show with David and Kaz drops every Thursday on the feed, along with the new show hosted by pro wrestling superfan Evan Mack called MacMania. Plus, hear instant reactions to all the biggest WWE pay-per-view events with their post-paperview shows. Check out The Ring Your Wrestling Show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, thank you for listening to The Void. We have a very special guest today, Wozney Lambre, who hosts Weekends with Was and is a co-host on group chat on the Ringer NBA show feed. He also has full court fits on the Ringer's YouTube page. He's also just

an excellent Twitter follow. I'm excited to talk with Waz today about the Sons. We touched on All-Star Reserves a little bit towards the end of our conversation. We got into a lot about some of the contenders across the NBA, like the Sons and the Jazz and what they should do, as well as some of the latest news on the Washington Wizards. Here's my conversation with Waz. It's Waz week. Wazz, what's going on? How you doing? Thanks for joining the void. I'm good. Thank you, man. You know what's so funny is I came up with the term WOS week at one of my other jobs because I did like literally like four or five of our podcast properties in one week. And I started calling that WOS week. And then I just transferred it to my birthday week.

Because as you know, KOC, I'm a bad bitch. So it's my, it doubles as my birthday week now. What day is your birthday was? February 6th. So this Sunday, I'll be 35. years old. 35. 35 years old. Yeah, I'm marching on the way to 40, KOC. I mean, every year grow wiser, grow smarter, right?

Every year we're getting better, right? Memory starts to fade more, back a little bit creakier, knee starting to be a little bit sore after hike, but, you know, we're maintaining somehow. Well, happy early birthday. We're recording this on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday night, the Phoenix Suns beat the Brooklyn Nets, 121 to 111.

It's their 11th win in a row. They, of course, had an 18-game win streak earlier the season. And now they're 41 and 9 on the season. That's a 67-win pace was. And like you think about the Suns team, they start off 1 and 3, then have their 18-game win streak. Then they have an 11-6 stretch. They sputtered 11-6.

An 11-game winning streak sense on pace for 67 wins. With this Sun's team, man, I was watching them beat Brooklyn last night. I'm just watching them thinking, this is a complete team. They're so in sync on defense, that offense, the way it clicks with Chris Paul, keeping it all together at 36 years old, Devin Booker, the score. This is an unselfish team reminds me of the Spurs with their ability just to embrace roles. I don't know, man. Like, I just, there's just a thought of my mind watching them last night is they're the favorite.

They are the favorite in the NBA right now. And they've taken what they did last season, go into the finals and leveled it up this year. Do you believe that they could be that type of team for the first time since the Warriors in 1617 to get the 67 wins? Does this team have that upside for real? Yeah, they absolutely have the upside to win 67 teams. And I think the reason why they're the favorite

and why you have to think of them that way, one of the reason why they can get the 67 wins is because they're one of these high energy every single night teams. They're not like, oh, we're bored of the regular season. We're bored of accomplishments that can happen during the course of a season. No, we want, we want to get number one in the West.

We want to break our franchise record for wins. We want as many all-stars as possible. We want our guys talked about as MVP's. They want all of it. So that's why they can achieve it. They want it, plus they have the requisite talent. And I think the reason why you have to think of them as the favorite is because we always use the cliche, you know, styles, make fights, and then the playoffs, it's all matchup

dependent. The sons are one of those. teams who can shift what they do depending on the matchup, right? You think about a team like Golden State who eventually in the playoffs, they're going to throw Draymond at the five, they're going to spread you out, and they're going to force, try to force you out of your big man. If the sons don't like what Aiton is giving them, they can play Crowder at the five, and then have McHale Bridges out there, Cam Johnson, Chris Paul, and Devin Booker, which of course

spread you out. That's a five-out lineup. They got different ball handlers. They got switchable guys. Campaign can come in and man the ship into Chris Paul minutes when he's resting briefly in those most important series.

I just think their positional versatility up and down the roster, right? Like campaign in the playoffs last year, he was a viable option as backup point guard. He was scoring, he was distributing, he wasn't getting destroyed on defense. And, of course, we've seen what guys like Bridges and Crowder and Cam Johnson did at the wing positions. And different matchups, Aiton was a problem.

Like, he went total to toe with A.D. You couldn't put your little guards on him on switches because I think the sons are going to see a lot of switches in the playoffs. It's a dangerous proposition to put a six-four guy on Aiton in a way that it's not with Rudy Gobert, right, on the offensive side. I just think they present so many problems for teams matchup-wise. and their execution. They're a smart team. Yeah, you got to look at them as the favorite because of all of those things. Yeah, you're right.

They're a smart team. They execute the Monty Williams system game plan to absolute perfection. And so much of that comes from Chris Paul. I don't know, man. Like last night, I was just watching that game thinking to myself like, damn, Chris Paul's 36 years old and still doing it at the level that he's doing it now. I mean, I guess maybe I was thinking about that more because you get the Tom Brady retirement this year of 44 years old and him still being on top of his game. And with Chris Paul at 36 still doing this, it's like there's no end in sight for him.

And I remember last year when I interviewed James Jones for a story I did on The Suns, I'm like, do you have a succession plan in place for Chris Paul? What do you think about for the future about replacing a guy like him? And he says the succession plan for Chris Paul might be more Chris Paul. It's like, who's to say this guy's going to stop playing? And I don't know, dude, like you got, you got him and Devin Booker both taking over half their shots from mid-range. They play this classic style in a modern context. And that, for me, makes watching the suns just really, really enjoyable because they do modernize things, like, you know, spot-up three-point shooters. The way they play is very analytically based.

But they also, within that context, I have two guys that's somebody who's like, oh, I love 90s basketball. I love the early 2000s. You know, like, you and I, man, like, we grew up watching T-MAC and AI and Kobe. Like, I had so many late nights growing up on the East Coast, staying up late to watch, I don't know, Lakers Kings game because I wanted to watch Kobe. And the Suns kind of give you a taste of that. What are your thoughts on that? I just love watching them. Yeah, man, what I think is cool, too, is that Chris Paul's teams traditionally weren't teams that got out and ran.

They're up in pace this year, even with Chris Paul being at that. helm, which again is another new wrinkle which shows you Chris Paul's adaptability. I just think the coolest thing about having Chris Paul on this team is that his best tendencies is rubbed off on guys in that they hunt the absolute best possible outcomes on every possession. It's rare that they waste possessions where God does something that just like, come on. With the lineup out there, we could have found something better than, you know, take a step back, 20 footer, 2.20 footer from you named the person, right? Like, everybody on the team is concentrated on maximizing possession.

You take a guy like Aiton who hasn't been paid yet, right? Famously this summer, they weren't able to come to the extension, which, you know, I know caused a whole hullabaloo, but like, that dude is falling in line. He's not like doing a, you know, Dwight Howard act from 10 years ago. It's like, no, I need my post touches and my one-on-one. and all of that. No, he's just like, yo, what is the best way

for the Phoenix Suns to win? What can I do with my talents, my gifts, my abilities that allows for my team to play the best and to win? And he's going out and doing it. He's going out in rim running.

He's going out in pain protecting. He's going out in attacking mismatches. You know, it's just cool to see the Chris Paul mentality to the game permeate throughout the entire roster, right? And just the ball movement. You know, I remember in Houston when the reports would come out with Chris Paul.

It's like my problem with James Hart is like he doesn't think anything can be done after he passes the ball. Like to him just everything I do when I have it is enough. When I don't, this is my rest time. And to watch guys like Mikhail Bridges be so good cutting off the ball, Booker has become such an incredible guy off the ball as far as going through screens and just being like a baby Ray Allen, baby Reggie Miller type to add to his on ball juice. I just like the IQ that permeates the entire team. And it obviously flows from having Chris Paul be the emotional center of the team.

Yeah, no doubt about it. So much of that comes from Chris Paul. And with him, it's interesting because I think like he definitely rubs off on Booker in a really positive way. at the beginning of last season, their first year together, there's like a little bit of clunkiness as Booker's adjusting back to playing with that off ball stuff that he did back in Kentucky. Like he was, that's what he did in college.

And he brought that back. And I don't know, the way those guys played together now, they are just absolutely incredible. And one of the things you said was, is about how this team has the ability to play small if they want to. And like, I don't think they necessarily have the ideal small five.

Like Sharich might be that for them. But like he's even not the ideal. guy. But you do need depth at Guard and Wing to do that. And Jake Fisher from Bleacher report said this morning that Eric Gordon is a trade target for the Phoenix Suns in addition to the Cavs and the Pelicans. I think the Suns aren't a spot here where, yeah, you might risk screwing with your team chemistry a little bit by making a trade. But I think the chemistry is so strong that this team could swap somebody out and bring in another talented player like Garrett Gordon and it would be a seamless, you know, transition.

This is like, I think for them, they could take him on easily. And, like, do you feel like Phoenix is at a point that even though they're on a 67 win pace right now, even though they're 41 and 9 that they should be aggressive here and saying, yeah, we are on top, but we want to be even better. I kind of, I respect that personally, but what are your thoughts on it? Yeah, so long as you bring in a high motor, high IQ guy, I don't think it's a problem. Like Gordon, 100%. Now, if they went out and they were like, oh, we're going to, you know, make a talent play for, say, I don't know, Cam Reddish, I'd be like, ugh, what are you doing that for?

I know you can never have enough wing depth in the NBA. But I'd be like, that guy is a horrible, cultural fit, horrible, just philosophical fit with what they do, right? With the ball movement, with, you know, basically busting your ass on defense. I don't see a problem with that. And where I would disagree with you about they don't have the ideal small lineup five is that you're worried about that with Golden State. I think if the Lakers were more of a threat right now, I'd be like, yeah, you have to play Aiton at all times against A.D. You can't guard A.D. with Crowder. But Draymond Green, yeah, you can guard Draymond Green with Crowder and not have any issues because he's just not somebody who bludgeoned smaller people.

You don't have to worry about him as a vertical thread. I think the Warriors specifically, the sons can go small against them and do a credible job, switching everything and guarding people because Draymond's just, you know, even if you put campaign on him, you're not going to, because Golden State just doesn't want to do stuff like that. They don't want to isolate Draymond Green against some perceived mismatch. They're never going to do that, right? Even when Draymond does post up, like, doesn't his, like sometimes he has his back turn.

He's not even looking to score. he's only thinking about passing. Exactly. And so I think they're positioned to guard Golden State just fine with the guys that they got on the roster right now. Who do you think is the best fit for an Eric Gordon trade? Because Houston should trade him. They can get a first out of him. Cleveland, New Orleans?

I think he would do great on Cleveland because he provides secondary shot creation, right? Again, love Evan Mobley. I don't think he's a shot creator yet at this point in his career. Save your daggers, Cleveland fans. I think the Lakers... You're being fair, man. He does everything else. Yeah, obviously the Lakers could use him.

We mentioned the Sons. Milwaukee could use him, right? I think he's way better than DiVincenzo, but, you know, they've been really high on a DiVenzo type of guy. So all the teams that are trying to, you know, basically accomplish something in the postseason this year,

I think could use him. But yeah, Cleveland, I think that would be a great fit just because, you know, attacking closeouts, especially when you consider the amount of gravity around the garland and Mowbly picking rolls, that guy attacking closeouts, having range out to like 25 feet, which doesn't get talked about enough. Like, not just that, he's a floor spacer. But, like, he's one of those dudes who can be three feet behind the three point line and let that thing fly, which creates even more spacing for the team. I think those teams he mentioned would be perfect for Gordon.

But admittedly, I feel like I'm a bit higher on Eric Gordon than the general basketball view in public is. Why do you think that is? Has he just become underrated, getting lost in Houston? Because he's been around a long time. People know Eric Gordon's game. He competed in the playoffs for years with Houston. Is it that he's just on a loser now?

Yeah, you got to figure the last time he played meaningful basketball was in the bubble while his team was getting crushed in five games, right? So you tend to forget. I think people like, say, Mikhail Bridges or, say, I don't know, a Brooke Lopez, right? These are like very good, high-quality role guys. But guess what? They got to do it into the finals last year. So people haven't understood like, no, these are quality pieces. We watched them do perform valuable tasks on teams that went really far.

Eric Gordon hasn't been able to do that, so he's not top of mind for people to out. But I just have a distinct memory of just every time he caught it, he had an open spot up. It was cash, you know. And again, he holds up defensively. He's not that tall or that long, but you're not just going to be able to bully him around, you know, with guys. And so I just think he brings a lot of things that you need in a player.

setting, right? Like, understanding what defenses are trying to do to you, punishing rotating defenses with either quick release, open jump shots, or attacking closeouts. I think he gets attacked switches against big men. I do think he has enough on-balled-jews to take guys to the rack off the dribble when they try to switch a big man onto him. I just think he does a lot that you need that we see every end of playoffs.

Teams like Phoenix, the Warriors, they do their beautiful game continuity. stuff in the regular season and it's nice. You know, purists like us were like, oh, look at the ball moving, is whizzing around. Oh my God, look at the passing. Look at the touch. Look at the shooting. We love it in the regular season and in the playoffs what happens. Possessions,

way down. Half court offense bogged down to one-on-one shot creation. We see it every single year and I think, again, or teams loading up on your best players and they're being like, all right, these other guys have to make shots and make us pay for loading up on your super

star type of guys. I just think all the things that we see in the playoffs that need to be done every year, Gordon checks off a lot of those boxes. You mentioned Gordon's isolations. You want to hear a nerdy stat right here. This is from the second spectrum. A minimum 100 isolations log this season. When Eric Gordon isolates, the rockets are scoring 1.2 points per chance. So that leads the NBA. That's a 120 offensive rating, folks. Yeah, of the 79 players to log at least 100 isolations, Eric Gordon on this crappy Rockets team is number one in the NBA. Towns Yokets next.

I mean, like the Derozen's 6, like Butler's 8th, Hardin's 9th, some names that you'd think are high understanding. Like, you're Gary Trent. I think Gary Trent would be a popular. He's a good ISO player, but Eric Gordon, number one so far. And I think you're right about him. He, with the ISO scoring, with just the toughness on defense, like, that guy plays hard. And does his ability to keep the ball moving within the flow of the offense, too?

He's selfless. He brings so much of what you look for for a playoff team or team that has finals hopes. Does Jeremy Grant fall into that same bucket? Because he's the guy everybody talks about. Another guy that I'm really high on because of his positional versatility, specifically on defense, I think he's nimble enough to guard some of your two guards. he has just enough strength to do it against fours and obviously he's the prototypical three defender.

He's shown in the past that he can knock down wide open threes. He's not like some high-value, difficult three-point is like he's catching it on the run or off the dribble. No, no, no, no. But if you stick him in a corner and he's open because your superstars are getting loaded up on and you got teams in defensive rotation, he can make. those shots. And he's shown that he could do a little bit with the ball in his

hand. I know that there's been some grumblings that he's like, don't send me to a team where I don't get to be Kobe, which I think is just a strange request for a guy like that to be making ahead of a trade deadline. But I just think defensively what he does

as a switchable guy, which again, we know matters in the playoffs. He provides some level of vertical spacing if you want to use them as, As a pick and roll, man, like as the guy setting the screen, I'm super high on Jeremy Grant. Again, you know, as you might know,

I'm a big, big, big hawks guy. And I think if they could manage to send a lightly protected pick or I don't know that I would go as far as two, but a lightly protected pick not so distant in the future, Golanari's salary and get Jeremy Grant in that. And then now we're talking about Collins, Capella, Hunter, Grant, even Herder. Now we're talking about the level of defense and versatility in the playoffs. That gets me excited, okay?

A quick aside, you tweeted out earlier this last month, January, you tweeted out, Kevin Herder is really a five-tool player. That was the night. That night, you tweeted it, he had five points on five shots in 20 minutes with four fouls. What did you mean by it? This is what I mean by that. This is what I mean by that.

Y'all remember game seven when he closed out to sixes, right? So he does. Matisse Thiamel foul. He hits the clutch shots. Yes. He does stuff on the ball. He's a shot. He could create for himself, right?

So that's a one. He has credible perimeter defense. Like, credible, because he's so huge and he moves his feet up. He moves his feet just enough. Credible perimeter defense. Obviously, the guy can freaking shoot it. You know what I mean? Obviously, he's a shooter.

And I just think, look, when it comes, because those freaking Nate was just, it's just obsessed with benchmobs. And a lot of times I'm watching Dorian, like, I'm watching, um, right, just do all kinds of ridiculousness on the ball. And I'm just like, Lou Will has no pop anymore on the ball. And I'm like, why is Herder on the bench when he could just be manning these units and soaking up these possessions offensively and being your creator? He has enough, a little bit of playmaking.

Like, he just gives you a little bit of everything. He's not insane at anything. But he gives, he tick. It picks off so many boxes. That's all I was saying. You know he's dropped like 30 the next game, though. He did. He did.

It's true. Okay. And guess what? And there's another thing that the listeners are going to get a laugh about. My homie, who I'm with the high school with, you know, we went to school in New York City, played basketball in what used to be the legendary Catholic school league, the CHSAA in New York City. Obviously, we put out legends in the past, not so much anymore.

And my homie texted me and was like, yo, you know Kevin Hurt is only from like two hours from New York upstate. We get to claim him. So we claim him Kevin Herta as a New York City Hooper. That's how dire it's become. Oh, I see. He's from Albany, New York. There you go. So if you're wondering my Hurtt-U CERD.

You're claiming to Albany now? We have to. We have no other choice. How close is that to Canada? No, no, no, no. That's Buffalo that's close to Canada. Albany again, it's only about two hours, maybe two and a half from the city. We can make an exception.

We make exception. We make exception for Westchester and Long Island guys all the time. We can do that for Albany. I think our last New York City guy, our two last guys are Mo Bamba and, um, both play for the magic, by the way, and Greg Anthony's kid. Yeah, Cole Anthony. Yeah, Cole Anthony. Yep, yep.

He's from New York. Yep. So, I don't know. I think it's fair. It's New York State. You can, you have a New York State category in New York City. The New York property category. That's very fair.

But, yes, to get, but to get back to Grant, I think Atlanta should be trying to do what they have to to get him in their building. So, okay, so I'll follow up that with that with this. About a month and a half ago, I said the jazz should go after Jeremy Grant. I have heard this week, League sources told me that the Jazz are after Jeremy Grant and Harrison Barnes from the Kings. So there's been some stuff recently about the Utah Jazz looking for trades.

Barnes and Grant seem to be two guys that they're after. Versatile wing defenders can play small with them. You and I have always been on different pages with Rudy Gobert. I think Gobert is the least of their problems. I think with Gobert, like he is the center of the universe on their defense. The problem is that they have no permanent stoppers. They have nobody who can get stops on the ball when Gobert is pulled out of the paint or when

he's just off the court because he's resting. White Side is not like going to survive in the playoffs in most serious. And Rudy Gay at the five, I'm sorry. I think the intentions are smart, but it's not going to work. Heading a guy like Barnes and or Grant, to me that that be massive for them and building a proper team around Gobert, Mitchell, and Conley. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think especially Grant, I don't know that Barnes, to me, feels like a guy who is

better now guarding fours than he is at guarding wings. He just, you know, he just doesn't have that anymore. But what I will say about Rudy, here's the thing. People were trying to kill him for that Clippers thing last year. I was at Staples or crypto, whatever the hell we're calling it these days. When, by the way, KOC history was made that night, the Clippers went to the conference finals for the first time in the history,

so I watched history be made. And tongue-in-cheek, I tweeted. I was like, wow, I can't believe I'm watching basketball history right now. The Clippers are in the conference finals. But if you were at that game, what was happening was Reggie Jackson was just against knife, just every single Utah Jazz perimeter defender.

There was no resistance. So if I'm guarding a dude like Terrence Mann, who's been splashing corner threes for the last two and a half games, and I'm supposed to guard him out there, and you guys give me no chance to recover and, you know, contest on help side. You can't blame that on Rudy Gobert. Their perimeter defense was getting smoked. My problem with Rudy in the past is Patrick Beverly's guarding you in the post at certain points.

you know, isolation. Like, that's a problem. You know, like a guy one foot shorter than you should not be able to stop you in the one-on-one in post situations. You know what I mean? That's been my Rudy issue in the past. It's been on the offense. Defensively, yeah, they've done a better job making sure they funnel everything to Rudy

and he's legitimately in a racer on that end. they have no real defensive players on this team. The only reason that they're good is but for one man, okay, it's Rudy Gobert. So he definitely deserves his credit and his props for, you know, propping up what they do on defense. That being said, yeah, Jeremy Grant would be an extreme upgrade from everything they have as far as his length and his size as a wing defender. And he doesn't take that much away as a shooter. and he would help.

It just sucks that Ingalls went down because, you know, they still now need secondary shot distribution, right? And Grant can do a little of that, man. That's why he wanted Detroit because he wanted to be the guy. So you won't be the guy with Utah.

You're behind Mitchell and Conley in the totem pole, but you're still going to get some touches. You're going to get opportunities to get buckets in those N-clock situations we've been talking about through the spot. It's going to happen. It's inevitable. And the truth, and another thing,

that people watch enough jazz like I do, they need somebody who isn't Mike Connolly who will pass Rudy the goddamn ball. That's a great point. In the past, it's kind of been Ingalls, kind of sometimes. It certainly hasn't been Donovan Mitchell, another guy who I love,

but bro, sometimes I'm watching these games. I'm just like, he's wide open, y'all. I get it. In the past, he had horrible. hands and couldn't finish and all of that. He's made so many strides on that end. And he so clearly cares about it. Why don't you guys, please make a concerted effort

when this guy is rolling as hard as he can towards the basket to get him the ball? I think that's another problem they're going to face. That's what's yet to be unlocked is that Rudy, who is their highest paid player, who is, you know, some people say he's the best. Some people say he's the second best, whatever you want to say. He doesn't have an impact on their biggest offensive possessions. And I think they need to figure out a way how to rectify that.

Because, you know, we know it's not Jordan Clarkson. We know it's, and traditionally hasn't been Donovan Mitchell. And Mike Connolly's been the only one to develop some chemistry with him in pick and roll. And when Mike Conley, it started out where they weren't throwing lobs because he never threw lobs to Mark or soul. And now he's a lob guy. And with Goberra, I have the stat in the void video version that's going up on the Ringers YouTube page on Thursday where if you look at shots taken within eight feet of the rim after dribbling once. So after dribbling at least once, maybe twice, maybe three times, shots within eight feet of the rim for centers.

Embed and Bede leads at 64%. Andre Drummond is last at 46%. This is the last three seasons, so a large sample. Gobert is sixth worst at 52% of near guys Al Horford Tristan Thompson, Nas Reid, Ness Canter Freedom, Wendell Carter, Hassan Whiteside. That's the company that he's surrounded by for at-rim finishing after dribbling at least once.

And that's not good. And that speaks to your point about him on the offensive end of the floor where he just has not proven that he can be a guy to defeat those switches. And I think for Utah, I don't think you're going to get that improvement from him. I think it's unrealistic to expect Rudy Gobert to be a guy who's suddenly shooting in the high 50% or even in the 60% range, like Aten, 60%, 60%, Yonkish, 61%, Zubots, Robin Lopez, 62, 63%. I think it's unrealistic there. So the improvements have to come on the defensive end of the floor.

And for that team, I mean, we'll see what they can do. your way kind of a trade related thought here is with the wizards there david aldridge and josh robbins from the athletic um reported this morning they've heard no indications that the wizards are considering trading beale uh but there's less uh certainty about his intentions i'm at a point now was where i think the wizards they they should deal bradley beale uh like like no questions about it you can't like with this crappy team you have going to free agency when 15 20 plus teams are going to be after him, the threat of him forcing a sign and trade to the Knicks or the Celtics to play with his old friend Tatum or whatever team it might be, that threat's going to be really high.

Like, Washington should bail out now and, you know, build with a young roster. I feel like that path is an increasingly simple choice at this point, especially because Beal does not look like a guy worth a five-year supermax when your team is not that good. at all. And I mentioned this on group chat earlier. He's not Embed.

He's not Dame Lillard. Like these guys that have been with the one team and have proven like just having me vastly improves

that you have years that you don't think you have a playoff shot, years that you don't think you have a viable team, a conference championship team

or whatever. My play, my leadership, my franchise playerness has lifted this franchise to heist that didn't make sense, but for my greatness, right?

Brad Bill ain't never shown anything close to that. I'd be getting off of Brad Bill as soon as I can, especially when you consider that the Sixers trade is laying right there for you. And we know the Sixers know they would have to put in a lot more than Ben Simmons in that deal to make it worth Washington's wild

because this guy's way better than Ben Simmons. even if you say, oh, Brad Bill doesn't have as much deal years left on his deal. Who cares? Brad Bill and the players has showed you, I know how to pass, dribbling, shoot, fam. Okay. Like, I know how to score.

I want to score. I've shown myself to be an elite one-on-one creator in this league, you know, against some of the best one-on-one defenses. So, yeah, you could get a nice haul for Ben Simmons, and you should probably look into it, I think. I mean, excuse me, for Brad Bill and Simmons and the Sixers, whether it be Simmons and a bunch of future first or Simmons and possibly a Maxi or possibly whatever. Whatever you name it, give me Simmons a bunch of future assets and we could get this thing done.

Yeah, I think teams that should go for, you're right, Sixers, Knicks, Celtics, and teams that should, like always think about it, you know, maybe you don't do it, but you think about it. If you're really desperate, the Kings, like if you're really desperate, it's a bad. move. I'm just saying, if you're the Pelicans, you're like, oh, we can sell Beal on playing with Zion, which I think would be a bad idea for them, but they should at least consider it. Here's the funny thing about the Kings. I remember talking to an NBA player once, right?

And some GM came up, and he was like, man, fuck that GM. He ruined my career. I was like, yo, what happened? Like, he was like, yo, I was doing, I was doing well, like having a nice little season. They told me I was good. I didn't have to worry about being traded at the deadline. Then they sent me to Sacramento. That shit, ruined my career.

Just going to Sacramento. Ruined his career. This guy was under that impression. That's the feeling that people have about Sacramento. So, Brad Bill, let's pray for you that you don't end up here. I mean, what was it earlier this season? Solomon Hill tweeted at Buddy Healds, you know, like a sorry, you're still in Sacramento or something like that. Players just openly saying this stuff.

And like, it sucks that there's a team fan base that has to deal with stuff like that. being said by players. Not in mind, just media with East Coast, West Coast, Big Market bias. Forget about the media. But the fact, players say stuff like that. That's, I mean, the NBA interferes with, you know,

bringing in Calangelo for Sam Hinky tanking. I don't know. That just seems like more of a fundamental issue to me in that situation. Speaking about fundamental issues, the Los Angeles Lakers, let's say Waz, it's Waz Week, okay? It's Waus Week.

Let's say Frank Vogel gets fired and you got Rob Polinka and Jeannie They gave you a call on, they say, it's your week, you turn of 35. We want to hire you, Waws, as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Coach Wads. I like the sound of that. Coach Ross. So, coach, when everyone's healthy on the Lakers, what's your starting lineup? Man, if everybody's healthy, it's probably 80 at the 5, LeBron, Monk, Wayne Ellington.

Ooh, you're fired. There are no good choices. It's like there are no good choices. It's like a reason. Give me some Austin Reeves. Sure, maybe Austin Reeves. Sure, why not? Sure. Why not?

You know, Austin Reeves. Maybe that's the finishing line up, not the starting line up. It's just like, you have to have a meeting with LeBron and AD and be like, look, like, y'all going to pay upwards of 36 minutes a night. And y'all going to have to carry. this basically. You guys are going to have to bust your ass because it's obvious that this team has no there's nothing reliable on this team outside of those two guys and Malik Monks shooting. In the previous iterations of this team when you had Coos, when you had AC, when you had

KCP, they were guarding the hell out of people on the perimeter, right? Like, they were guarding the hell out of teams. Great on help side. Great in transition. You know, basically creating transition opportunities off of this defense. They had an identity. And then, of course, they had the LeBron and AD pick and roll at the end of games. It was just like, pick your freaking poison.

This is deadly. now outside of LeBron, what does this team do well? What, like, what do they do well outside of just having LeBron and Anthony Davis? They have nothing. So when you asked me to construct a lineup that's ideal, like, what are these pieces, Westbrook? Again, I think there's a version of him that's still a useful player, you know, but in this iteration of the It just, it makes no sense to have the ball in his hands for high usage with the roster composition.

Like, I'm going to give you the ball instead of LeBron James. How? Like, there's no, there's no path for him to succeed. And so you basically have to relegate him to a non-factor. And then, you know, what are you doing? None? It's nasty. It's nasty, KOC.

I still think there's something there. I think there's something there. I mean, maybe they need one move. But, like, you have LeBron and AD. He still got those guys. It's my thing, too. He's never developed, like, an incredible chemistry with AD in the pick and roll.

One, because... Russ. That is. Yeah, Russ. One, because Russ, let's face it, I know he's had high assist totals in his career. Not the greatest, like, set up guy. He's really not.

His past has be so in. accurate. I just like, like, not even that he's not sending it to the right guy, even when he is, it's not in his catch radius

a lot of times. It's not like Chris Paul is like right on target. Right. Bullseye. Yokic, it's like Yokich throw some of those crazy. Like he,

remember that past Yokich had like at the end of the game situation, two guys on him to Aaron Gordon for a corner three. It was like right where it needs to be. Across the freaking court and the dude catches it right in his shooting pocket. Yeah, Russ, a little out of the time, yeah.

So you combine that with the fact that eight, I mean, AD's jump shot has come around in the last like 10 days or whatever a little bit, but like you combine that with the fact that AD is not a pop threat, hasn't been a pop threat all season in the games that he's been in. So it's like, Russ can't shoot,

AD's not making his shots. Russ is not an accurate enough and sort of savvy enough passer to throw it into tight spaces. And so that's been a non-starter. S&D pick and roll. I don't know where this, there's something they're supposed to come from. I'll tell you what, man.

I think with the Lakers, their coaching staff has screwed up a lot in some ways. Like playing Avery Bradley as much as they have. Oh, God. Blows my mind. He's such a scrappy defender. You got to give him credit. Yeah, allegedly. You got to give him credit for feeding Malik Monk, though.

Monk goes from not playing a lot, taking eight shots per game, to becoming a guy getting heavier. minutes, getting 12, 13 shots for game, 7, 8, 3-pointers per game. And with Monk, they should ride him in this starting lineup moving forward because you know the shooting that he can provide, even if the defense isn't great. And I give credit to them for that. And I look at another similar player that had a Great December, Jalen Brunson, with the Mavs.

Jaylon Brunson averaged 21 points and 7 assists during that 10-11 game stretch when Luca was out. his numbers are falling right back down to the way they did when Luca was there. He was taking 11.6 shots per game before Luca was out, 16 shots per game when Luca was out and it's 12.1 times since. And it shows them the touches numbers too. It's like I think with Brunson, the way he performed isolations, so efficient pick and rolls, playmaking, like a team like that, they also should be leaning more into their good players that are performing well and investing them. So I give credit to the Lakers there, but with the Mavs having Brunson become an unrestricted free agent in July this year when he hits the market, you're going to start acting like this guy and investing in this guy like the player that many other teams are going to perceive him to be this off season.

The Mavs haven't done that yet with Brunson. It's frustrating for me. But all the chatter around his name, it feels like they don't view him that way. Yeah, they don't. Like, I don't know why that is. but it feels like they're just not very high on the guy. And look, I think they should look to try to get some wing depth and just go all in on this, you know, heliocentric Luca thing.

Just be like, all right, this is just what we're going to do. Opposite of what if I'm suggesting here. I'm saying more Brunson, more offball Luca. No, just lean into it because clearly Luca doesn't want to do it. You know, he's gotten so accustomed to having a ball in his hand 24-7, 366. You know. Such a shame. And so just lean into it.

Give the guy what he wants. Try to get in some guys that credibly guard on the perimeter and can make an open jump shot and see what that takes you. But dude, like, Luca, pull up his Real Madrid video. That dude was so active off ball. His cutting. Like, he'd be waving his arms, cutting, setting screens. I don't know. I love watching Luke.

He's one of my favorite players in the NBA to watch. but I don't know. The activity is so much lower off the ball. And I just imagine, and maybe it's unrealistic, but he used to be that guy. Maybe he can tap into that again. I imagine a world where Brunson's running a pick and roll with, I don't know, Dwight Powell rolling down the lane for Lobbs and Luca cutting off ball.

I just think that there's potential there. And it's just, it's not there. I mean, regardless. I thought there was potential for Russ to be a guy that could move without the ball, set screens, do pick and roll with LeBron. Like, be the screener in LeBron picking rolls, right? Cut hard to the basket. Be, you know, be a heady player like Dwayne Wade was in the Miami years.

Thank you. Yeah. Never saw that, though. Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice? One other player I wanted to ask you about Fred Van Bleet on group chat, you guys did your All-Star reserves. Fred Van Baleet's a guy that I would have as a reserve, but he's like one of those last

spots where, you know, it's going to be tough for the coaches to determine. Is Fred Van Vleet a all-star on your team? Look, I love Fred Van Vleet. He was my last all-star cut, my personal cut. I'm a big Fred Van Vleet guy, but Miami being at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with injuries to their two best players, significant injuries missed a lot of time,

and Kyle Lowry basically being the glue that kept all of that stuff together and him taking on the role of facilitator, these at close to career lows and P.E.Rs and points per game. and all of that type of stuff. But to me, the ultimate No Stats All-Star is Kyle Lowry, the guy just does winning stuff all the time, you know, finding a guy when he needs to, picking up a file when he needs to,

like just doing all of that stuff. And Miami's success, you know, such as it's been. I just wanted to give Kyle Lowry some credit. But Fred Van Ville's been a better player this year, 100%. Lowry over the course of his career, obviously, has been, I think he's going to go to the Hall of Fame. But Fred Van Vleet, this year has been a revelation. It's like any daylight you give him.

He's firing from all over the freaking court, taking Steph Curry-level bombs from three off the dribble. He's just been incredible. And if he would make it, I would be very happy. Because obviously it's always dope when you see a first-time All-Star. We see what it means to guys. They all get emotional about it. But yeah, sorry, I picked Kyle Lowry.

over him and people can dump on me on Twitter or Instagram or wherever because people reach out to me on multiple platforms to diss my basketball takes. K. O.C., I don't know if the same thing happens to you, but it does to me. Oh, totally. I mean, you get compliments and you get insults. It's all part of the fun. I love the insults because having sports debate with your friends is a good time. Like, I like disagreeing. But, Was, where can people find group chat? Where can people find full court fits? Plug your stuff. Of course, on the Ringer NBA show feed, check out group chats.

That's every single Wednesday with my boss, Justin Varyer, and Rob Mahoney. Of course, now we're doing weekends with WISE with me and just guests from all over the NBA. We've had Amina El Hassan. We've had Ethan Strauss, Zach Harper. This weekend, we're going to have another dope guest. So check that out every single Sunday afternoon. And Full Court fits every Friday on the Ringer's YouTube channel. We do sneaker stuff.

do NBA fashion. We have fun. We have different guests from all over the place. Just having fun with it. So yeah, check those out. You hit your one year anniversary with the ringer yet? When did we officially? No, I won't be. I won't be, my first official date with the ring was May 3rd. So we got some, okay. Yeah, it just felt like I've been here forever. You're one of the top editions of 2021. I appreciate you. This is our first full pod together? We did a green room once and maybe a couple of green rooms. It was Bill, right? We did before, but.

A couple of green rooms. But this is our, first proper podcast together. I'm glad we got to pop that cherry. Look forward to doing another one, Waz. I hope you have a joy, Waz week, and happy early birthday, man. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. Thank you again to Wazney Lambray for joining The Void. Thank you to Jesse Lopez for producing, and thank you to you for listening to today's episode of The Voz. I really enjoyed that conversation. I felt like Waz and I just float. It was a good time talking with him, and I hope you enjoyed it, too. please leave us a rating in review if you're listening on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. It really helps to show out a lot on the mismatch podcast feed.

I'll be back on Friday with Chris Vernon, as always, and then back again next Tuesday. And then we'll have another episode of The Void and spin the wheel again with another week of the mismatch podcast feed. Thank you for listening. I hope you have a fun day.