The Right Time with Bomani Jones - David Aldridge on the NBA Contenders or Pretenders, Luka in LA, and the Potential Top 3 Draft Picks | 2.26

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones is joined by David Aldridge of The Athletic to weigh in on the biggest NBA topics. The show starts off with Bo and David discussing the Washington Wizards embracing the tank (1:08) and deciphering who are the best three college prospects the Wizards may be looking to draft. (3:32) After a discussion centered around Steph Curry exceeding all expectations (12:07), Bo and David debated which NBA teams are either under or over the hill. (17:50) They move onto Nikola Jokic and if an intriguing team like the Los Angeles Lakers can stop him in a seven game series? (35:34) The show rounds out with some concerns over Joel Embiid's health and the surprising season for the Detroit Pistons. (44:56) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media:  http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show:  PrizePicks: Daily Fantasy Made Easy! Visit PrizePicks.com/BOMANI and use code BOMANI for a first deposit match up to $100! They Swoosh, You Save: when any player scores 50 or more points in a game during the 24/25 NBA regular season, DashPass members save 50% on an order, up to $10 off.  Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/BOMANI.Terms and conditions apply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by prize picks. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

It is that time of week where we have a guest join us coming to us live from D.C. And the athletic, David Aldrich. What's going on, sir? Bo, what's up, my man? How are you? Hey, man. I think we are, it's really, really basketball season now. Not that it wasn't basketball season before, but like now we don't have to be distracted

by other things. Like we can really lock in. And see, you're in an interesting place because I always say this. And I've been thinking for the last 15 years that I would have to replace this line, but it hasn't happened where I say my age and now my age is 44. I'm 44 years old and the Wizards haven't won 50 games in my life. But you guys actually had a football season to watch. only to come over for this wizard.

Are these worse than the ones where Javelle McGee was running the wrong way that year? I mean, yes, no. I mean, yes, in terms of the actual on-court product, like, they're terrible and they lose all the time. But at least there's a plan, Beau. I can live with a plan. Like, if you tell me, this is what we're going to try to do, I can agree with it or I can disagree with it, but I can at least say, well, at least they've got a plan. They're not just meandering from season to season like they've been doing for most of the last 50 years.

is not with no real design on how are we, how are we going to be a championship team in the next five years? What are we going to do to build towards that instead of what they've been doing, which is how can we win 39 games and sneak into the playoffs? That's been there in a modus operandi for most of the last 50 years. It's terrible. It's boring and it doesn't get you anywhere close to being a contender. And they just had too many years where management and ownership were just cool,

we're winning 39 games and sneaking into the playoff. If you're going to do that, you have to tell, the people that pay for the tickets and the parking and the concession, you have to tell them that's what your plan is. You have to tell them, our goal is to win 39 games this year and sneak into the playoffs. That's what we're trying to do. And if we do that, we've had a successful season. And then at least the person that pays for the tickets knows what the deal is. And you're not scamming them on. Well, we have a, we're always just trying to win a championship. No, you're not. Stop it. You ain't doing nothing to win a championship. So at least this is a plan, which is we're going

suck until we get enough good young players to try and make a run at this thing in the next five or six years. Okay. It's not a great plan. It's a dangerous plan because it may not work, but at least it's a plan. At least it's something that you are devoting resources in time to in a way that makes sense. You're going to trade every veteran you can at the trade deadline, get as many draft picks as you can so that in the next three or four drafts, you get as many shots at this thing as possible. Am I reading this correctly? And Monday night was the first time that they held an opponent to under 100 points. Yeah. But I mean, that's the NBA, Bo. I ain't mad at them for that.

Nobody ain't nobody trying to guard nobody in this league. I just say it is. It wouldn't have been the first time somebody held them to under 100 points. Right, right. That's right. Just throwing it out there. Yeah. But no, their best players are either in college or in their senior year of high school. That's where their best players are right now. So that's, that's the goal. is to get a top three pick this year because this is this is a I won't say it's a three player draft that's a little cynical the best three players are clear in terms of NBA potential you look at them and it's Cooper flag and Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey I mean it's not that edgecombe's not a good player he is a good player he's got a chance to be a really good player but those three have separated themselves so the

wizards are trying to get one of those three players and then they want to try to do it again next year now again it's difficult it's the lottery you have no control over it you could you could pick fifth, you know, like, but at least you're giving yourself the best chance at the best young players coming in. So with those three players, they're so interesting to me because they are not at all the same, right? Like when I think of a three player draft, I think of one that honestly I didn't remember in real time, but when you think about it's almost the model of three player draft, James Worthy, Terry Cummins and Dominique Wilkins are going one, two, three, and 82. Right. And where it's fair to ask, if each of them had gone to the, like, if Terry

Cummins or Dominique had gone to the Lakers, they probably become some form of fashion of what James Worthy was. They become Hall of Fame's too, right? Yeah. You know, it probably goes that same way. Yeah. But they were very similar players, right? They were all big for, like prototypical, futuristic big forwards with small forward games.

Yeah. That's what they were. Yeah. These are three completely different dudes that you got here, where a Cooper flag is interesting because he's so good, but I'm not saying he's Kyle Anderson. but he is moving at a different pace than the rest of him. Dylan Harper, just big giant point guard, right? Yeah, right.

And then that Ace Bailey, who I don't know what all he does, but I know the one thing he does, and it is look incredible. If you're 18 years old and we call you ace, you earn this somewhere along the way. Exactly. Ball goes into the basket with Ace Bailey. That's what he does. He puts ball in basket.

That's what he does at a very, very efficient three level way. Right? And you're right. There are three completely different players. And any one of those three would be the best player on the Wizards by a factor of 3,000 when they get to the team. So that's what you're building toward. But yeah, I mean, look, Cooper Flagg, everybody sees it.

You watch it. Like, come on, this kid can play, man. Now, don't be, let's not be ridiculous about this. This kid is a big-time basketball player. talent who can score, who can rebound, who can defend, who runs the floor, every possession, who's a very good passer. Dylan Harper is insanely good and efficient. Like he gets, like all great scorers and ball handlers, you can't stop him from getting where he

wants to go. He's going to get to his spot, and he's going to shoot, and he's going to make it. And that's what's going to happen. And he's 215 pounds as a point guard already. You know, so, like, he's got size. and I have a bias bow towards guys whose dad's played in NBA because I just think they've been in the life for so long. They just get it.

They understand it. They know what it's like. They know the good and the bad of it. I just think that they're more attuned to coming into the NBA because they've been around the NBA for so long. You know, so I think that that factors in with Dylan. And like I said, with Ace, he's a bucket, man. He's just a bucket.

He's 6-10 in a bucket. Like, is he going to be like Kevin Durant bucket? Probably not, but he's going to be pretty good. You know, like, he might be a Chris Bosch bucket. Okay, Chris Bosch had a really good career. Like, ain't nothing wrong with being Chris Bosch. You know what I'm saying? So any one of those guys is going to think, I think, have the best chance to kind of be a transformative player,

whether, you know, whether it's a wizard to somebody else. Yeah, like you get Chris Bosch at the number three picking the draft. And in fairness, Chris Bonnish, I think, went fourth in his draft. Yeah, exactly. But you get Chris Bosch at number of the number of. You went four, one of the greatest drafts of all time. And exceeded what is reasonable to expect of the fourth pick in the draft. Like one thing I think that people lose sight of is what is reasonable to expect at every pick in the draft.

And so if Ace Bailey is a five-time all-star at the number three pick in the draft, you've done, you've done great. The question would a dude like him is whether he is going to be the sort of player who frustrates you, right? Like if his type of good is the good that always makes you think there's something, else on the other side. Because what we don't have a great handle on is when you ask him to do something other than just get a bucket, because we are in an era that does not appreciate that in the way that we used to. Correct. You could decide whether that's for better or worse, but just the idea that I'm here to score. What else? I'm here to score. If that's all he does, how do we ultimately feel about it? That becomes the question. That's a fair question. And you don't

know because you don't know where he's going and what they value and those sorts of things. So, you don't know. I would like to think, you'd like to think that over the course of somebody's career, they get a little proficient at something else, whatever it is, rebounding, guarding people, something. Like, find something else that you can do besides score and lean into that. But you don't know. You don't know.

But I will bet that Ace Bailey will become such a good score that it really won't matter. What else he does? Because he's just so good at scoring and he's so good at finding spots on the floor where he can elevate and uses length and size and he scores at all three levels. So, I mean, I just think he's going to be a wildly, wildly good basketball player. He may be hurt by going to a really bad team that plays no defense whatsoever and you get caught in those bad habits and that would not be ideal for him. You'd like to think, you'd like to hope that he'll go to a team where they try to guard people

and they try to, you know, understand concepts and talking and things like that that are important to defending in this era. And so that he's not just completely locked into, I just do one thing and just give me to rock and I'll rest at the other end. You don't want that. So you made an interesting point about Dylan Harper for people who don't know, Ron Harper, who I think of as of the calves or clippers, though there was that whole three-peat situation.

But I think that's an important distinction because I think if you watch Ron Harper play for those bulls, you don't really have a great understanding of what was possible. Ron's career was completely different after his knee injury. He was just completely different player. And this is a different era of technology, right? Different, different biotech era on what they could do after your knee injury. Ron Harper was a monster. Before he got hurt.

Oh, hell you. Yeah. Oh, Ron, could go now. Oh, man. Just a wildly athletic six foot six two guard, which I would say, I almost said at a time where that wasn't common. But the time has never come where the six foot six two guard is common. Right? Like that. Yeah, we have not reached a point where it's just like, oh, yeah, he's six foot six.

No, no, no, no. And that's what he was doing for you in 1986, 1987. But what I think is interesting when you talk about him being the son of an NBA player, Ron Harper's 61 years old, which is to say, I don't know how much Dylan Harper grew up in the life of the NBA, but maybe in a good way. Your pops had all the bread in the world to be there and work with you on your game, right? Like to give a different level. of care, then you just happen to be in arenas. Yeah, no, I mean, look, you look at Steph Curry, you look at Jalen Brunson. Like, I just think there's, I think this is repeatable. You can see this over and over and over again. Like, guys that, I just think when you've been around it, you're, you've had a relative, usually your dad, right? Like, and sometimes it's your uncle, but usually it's your dad.

That, that was in that life, you just understand that there are certain things you have to do to be a good NBA player. There's certain things in terms of preparation, in terms of recovery, all of those things that you have to do. And to have guys like that that played a long time also. You know, Del Curry played a long time in the NBA. Ron Harper played a long time in the NBA. Rick Brunson played a long time in the NBA. They weren't like they were in the game for like a minute.

They got a cup of coffee, you know, with the Spurs and then they were done. No, they played 10 years in the league. So to play 10 years in the NBA, you have to understand what being professional is about. And so I think that they instilled that in their kids. And if the kid has any ability, you marry that ability with understanding work ethic. I think you have a chance to have something special. And it's not a surprise to me. I mean, Steph, I didn't think Steph was going to do this, but I thought he would have a good career as a pro.

It's not a surprise to me that these guys tend to flourish when they get because they've been immersed in it for so long. they just get, I think they learn more good habits than bad ones. I'll put it that way. I think there's literally one person on earth who thought Steph was going to be as good as he was and he wears number 30 for the Golden States Warrior. I don't think his mom thought this. Like nobody, I don't think anybody has ever been able to play the nobody believed in me card quite like Steph Curry can. As someone who has found him, who has always felt he was actually very complimentary and really into Steph, but also didn't think it was this at every turn.

Like, nope, didn't quite think it was this, though. And no, it was that. No. Bo, I said the day he was drafted, I said, boy, I hope he has as good a career as his dad did. You know what I mean? Like, that was my expectation for Steph Curry, that he might have a career as good as his dad, who was a really good sixth man in the NBA for a number of years for a lot of teams.

That's what I thought his ceiling was. And I'm a dope. I got to say, I was in the building in 08, those first two rounds of the tournament. I was there for that. It saved my career in some ways because I was like, oh, I got to stay around this, right? And even I at every point was like, well, you know, I think he'll be all right. Yeah, well, you know, I think it'll be okay. Yeah, well, you know, da-da-da.

And now he's here. And that leads us to a good transition to what's going on in the NBA because outside of Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, to me, is without question the best player he's ever had to play alongside him. And what is happening since Jimmy has gotten there that's unlike prior is they are winning the non-Stef minutes. Yes. Jimmy Kerr, I mean, Jimmy Butler has taken, literally himself, you could say fairly taking teams to two NBA finals. He took Minnesota to their first trip to the playoffs in 13 years, right? The Sixers were that crazy bounce away from going to overtime in that game seven against the Raptors in 2019.

And now Steph's got that dude to lean on. Draymond has somebody to play with who's just as crazy as him. They look like a different team. Completely different team. I would say I'll push back a little bit, but I think pre-injury Clay Thompson was pretty damn good. But he wasn't this. He wasn't this.

He wasn't the same type of dude. But in terms of, damn, he can go get some buckets and kill us. Yeah, he could do that. Like, he had a different gear. But I get your point. Like, Jimmy has injected life into that team. They were dead in the water.

They were talking, you know, the talk of teams that knew that they had shot their shot and they were finished. They weren't talking about competing anymore for championships. And then all of a sudden this dude comes in and everything looks different now because he's got that kind of game and that kind of swag and all of those things. I'm still not convinced that they're going to just roll through the West and get back to the finals. But I'll say this, you don't want Steph Curry to think he actually can win this thing now. You know what I mean? You don't want that. You don't want that if you, OKC or Denver or anybody else or Memphis or any of those teams at the top of the West.

You don't want him actually committing himself to this now because you know what he can do when he actually commits himself. And to your point, has a guy that can say, okay, Steph, I got this. Go sit down for seven minutes and catch a blow. I got this for the next few minutes. And Jimmy can do that. Like Jimmy's got that kind of game. I have always felt, and I think even with the modern game that this still holds, that once you get to the playoffs and what becomes most important is how many dudes do you have that can go get a bucket? And that does not mean how many guys do you have who are capable of scoring, right?

So, like, I think that's a distinction that's important with Clay Thompson. Or yes, Clay Thompson can give you a 30-something point second half or something like that. But Clay Thompson being like, don't worry, boys, I'm going to go get this bucket right fast. It's not his game. The Warriors have two of them now. like two incredibly tested ones who play the game in entirely different ways. Like, I'm going to go get us a bucket. We need a bucket right now, right?

This 8-2 run, it needs to stop and it's going to stop because I'm going to go get us a bucket. They got two of them. Yeah, no, they do. They do. And again, that swag is very important. Like, swag is belief. That's all it is. When I say swag, I don't mean like braggadocio and nonsense.

I mean, a guy that actually makes you believe, oh, hell, we're going to win this game because this guy's here. You know, like, and so Jimmy has brought that kind of athletic arrogance. And you have to, I say this all the time, Bo, it's the NBA. You have to be arrogant to play in the NBA because you're playing against killers, man. These guys will destroy you if you don't have that kind of arrogance, you know, and you've got to believe you're the best guy on the floor. And Jimmy believes and has believed for the last 12 years, I'm the baddest dude on this court. he believes it.

Like he really does believe it. You know, so that goes a long way. When you can back it up the way he's backed it up the last few years in playoffs. No, the West is interesting. And I just thought about it in this way. And I'm curious what you think about this. But it feels like, and I'm saying this about the West, this may actually be a description of the entire league with the exception of the Celtics.

Even with teams like Cleveland, where we're seeing what they're doing, right? They're crazy record they have. Oklahoma City, the crazy record they have, or even Memphis, who isn't as good or that high up, they're still like, you know, third in the west, looking at who the best teams are. It feels like every team in the league is either over the hill or under it, right? Right. That they're either past their primes or they haven't reached that place. And it's odd to be in a league where it doesn't feel like you've got, like, obviously, Denver's won a championship. They're battle tested. You can say this about, say, Milwaukee, but this doesn't at all feel like the same team that they had in 21.

It doesn't at all feel like the same team the Warriors had in 22. It is a world's different team that the Lakers had than in 20, right? So it's not like these teams that have been slugging it out for years. You look at Oklahoma City and I think a lot of people just say to themselves, nah, you got to lose more before you get there. And then you look at a team like the Clippers and you're like, oh, man, I think they missed their chance. But it really doesn't feel like for anybody other than Boston where you're like,

yeah, it's time. Yeah, no, that's what's great about this year to me, Bo, is other than, in the Celtics. And I don't even, I mean, it's the same team in Denver, but it feels different. Maybe that's because KCP's not there and Bruce Brown's not there anymore. It doesn't feel like the same team. Like they're depending on a lot of younger guys that really haven't been there in those kind of moments. So to me, Boston is the only team in the league where you can go, well, Boston's, Boston's a favorite because they've done this before. It's the same group coming back. They've been in this cauldron for several years. They know what they're doing.

Everybody else, and this is not a slight on Cleveland or OKC, they got great young teams, terrific young teams, but they haven't won anything yet. Like, you know, Orlando hasn't won anything yet. Like Memphis hasn't won anything yet, you know, like, so until they get on that stage and win two rounds and get in the conference finals, how can you really say that they're a threat? Like, they haven't proven it yet. Like, they will.

Ultimately, one or two of them will break through and prove it, and then they'll be on a different level. But they haven't done it yet. And so to your point earlier, if I'm Golden State, I'm like, I ain't afraid to play Oklahoma City in the playoffs, we've won championships. They ain't won nothing. You know, let's go. You know, so they're not going to be afraid to go play them or Memphis or, you know, any of the teams that are up at the top. And so that to me is what makes this playoffs, this upcoming playoffs really intriguing because it's young talent that's got to figure out how to win at the next

level. They got the regular season now. They know how to kill in the regular season. Playoffs are different, you know, and you got to figure out, all right, how do we win? a playoff series against a good team, against a well-coached team. You know what I mean? Like, you got to, it's a different level. It's a different level of preparation. It's a different level of detail, all of it, you know, and you got to go through it to figure that out.

I think how you feel about Denver is how you feel about this incarnation of Jamal Murray, right? Yeah. Because what I think we, I think what we learned about their championship team versus this one was, Yoko still is not played with another player who made the All-Star team like with him. That still hasn't happened. He to me is by far the best player in the NBA. And that depth was necessary to allow that greatness to account for the fact that they didn't really have. Like Murray's the number two in their two-man game and pick and roll all that stuff.

Okay, cool. But you know, like your second best player to at least have been good enough to make an all-star game at some point. Without that depth, man, it's tough on them when Yonk is not. They got very small margin for error, very small. You know, like, it's, it's literally, is Michael Porter's back all right today? That's their margin for error. You know what I mean? That's where they're living right now. You know, so they don't have any margin for error, you know, like the depth that you mentioned, again, KCP and Bruce Brown, they had got, they had vets, you know, that had been through some wars. KCP had won a chip with the Lakers, you know what I mean? Like, so they had guys that weren't, that weren't phased by the big moments in the postseason that played well in the postseason.

and just having Bruce Brown as your backup point guard just changes everything. You know what I mean? Like Westbrook's having a great year for them. Don't get me wrong. Russell's having a really good year for them. But, you know, Bruce did, was a two-way player. Like, played at both ends and did some really good things for them. So it's different.

That doesn't mean they couldn't go on a run. It just means if they don't have everything working perfectly, including young guys giving them productive minutes off the bench, boy, it's hard. It's going to be hard for them. to win. Now, Yolk it's so good, it may not matter. It may not matter if Murray gives them anything. And I think he, you know, he's played much better of late. But they don't have the margin of error they had a couple years ago. Now, where are you on Memphis? Because I'm not personally sure.

Yeah. That year they were good. Everything went haywire and they were at the part of destroying themselves in the playoffs. So I feel like we never even got a true handle on how good. good, like what the baseline was for what this unit could be. And now this year, their third in the West, comma, but. I feel like everything with them is just a comma butt. Yeah, I mean, you know, Jaws been in and out of the lineup. You know, part of me goes, well, you know, they're third in the West and Jail hasn't really been there a whole, you know, as much as you would want them to be.

It's not like Jaws having an MVP season, you know what I mean? So they're winning games without their best player really kind of controlling things. Like, you know, OKC, SGA, you know who the best, SGA shows up every night and gets 35, every night. You know what I'm saying? So it's different. So you think, well, maybe Memphis has another gear if Jha gets healthy and is ready to rock in the playoffs, you know. So you think about that, but I keep coming back to, but I haven't seen this group do that together yet.

You know, I haven't seen this group with Jaron Jackson and Bain and Jha and now Santi Aldama and guys like that. you know, like, I'm intrigued by their young guys and what they've been able to do, but young guys don't usually keep doing this in the playoffs. They just don't just look it up. Don't take my word for it. Look it up. So the guys that are giving them great minutes in the regular season, I need to see them do that in the postseason.

And if they do that, the Memphis has a different gear. I have another ceiling. But I'm not quite convinced yet because I just, I haven't seen this group. with these leaders you know, win multiple seven game series to get to conference semifinals and finals. I've seen them put up good fights and lose.

Now, that's not a criticism. That's just, that's what I've seen over the last few years with this group. Now, you get calluses, you get better, you get more mature. All of those things are possible. So Memphis could go on a roll here, but I haven't seen them do it yet.

I need to see them do it first. And once again, everybody feels over the hill or under it. Like, that's the thing with the Rockets. The Rockets feels squarely under the hill. And my thing with the Rockets, I am a largely a believer in EMA and how good a coach, EMA is. But I sure did watch EMA leave a team and they would have got it done and it was okay. And I cannot forget that that year that EMA got them to the finals, boy,

they almost got walked down by the heat as they would blow leads and just be like, what is happening here? What are you guys doing? I'm so curious to see this team when they get to the postseason. As an Ahmed Thompson believer, I am very curious to see how this goes. But again, like you say, it's the calluses. They don't have any of those. They have none.

You know, it's just different. Bo, the playoffs are different, man. They're completely different. It's just everything's different, you know. And so it's just not normal for a team that's never done it. And that's why the Warriors run is so intriguing. I'm one of the many reasons, but they just kind of came out of nowhere and said,

we're the best team in the league now. We're the best team in the world now. Really? You are? Yeah. We'll show you. And they did. And that's not normal for somebody to just kind of come out of the blue like that.

So what intrigues me about Houston is that they really are a defense first team. And I think other teams play good defense, but it's not really their personality, right? You know what I mean? Like, okay, he's a really good defensive team. They're excellent defensive team. I think they're number one defensive rating. But their identity is SGA getting buckets.

That's their identity. You know what I mean? Like Memphis's identity is jaw yamming on somebody. That's their identity or throwing a lob to somebody. But I think Houston's identity is getting stops. You know what I mean? Like using that length to just like disrupt offenses and make them miserable.

And that couldn't take you somewhere in the postseason. You can win games in the playoffs if you play great defense every night. And so I'm intrigued. I want to see it because you do have to score some, even in the playoffs. So I'm intrigued to see where do they go for their buckets when they got to get one? They got to have it in a two-point game in game four of a playoff series. Who are they running to play for? I want to see that.

And can they do it? I know who they're running the play for. They're running the play for. Oh, man. That's who they're running the play for. Like, I think if they, if they handled this season correctly, it will have been a building action to get yourself to that place. Because he's that guy.

I mean, I guess I don't, I don't have a real number two answer. I guess you can say you're running it for Singoon, but no, you're not going to do that. Probably not, right? Because I can double Singoon. As good as he is, I can double him and get the ball of his hands, you know, like, So yeah, I'm curious to see. Maybe it is I'm in. You might be right.

But I need to see that in the postseason. I need to see, all right, what do you do in crunch time? You know, and do you execute it well enough to win offensively? Do you get the shot you want? Whether it goes in or not is up to the basketball gods, but do you get the shot you want in a clutch situation? That's what I have to see this team do. All right.

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All right, we're back on with David Aldrich. We are taping this ahead of the Luca game in LA, which I still say, the Luca game in Dallas is the one that's really interesting. The one, you know, although of course, I'm saying this and people will be like, man, you didn't know Lucas scored 60 last night. That's always in the cards. We're going to do something like this. Regardless of what happened in that game, because I don't even feel right talking about Dallas, because without Anthony Davis and really, again, without anybody taller than me on the team, I don't know what to say about what they're doing. But the Lakers, this is intriguing. They have one big person, but they have the current version of LeBron James and the current version of Luga Donchage. And it's the first time that we have ever seen a team where LeBron James is the number two.

even if you may have thought that Anthony Davis had become a better player, Anthony Davis never became the true number one of that team. The only way this experiment works is if Luga Dodger is just the number one, because truly it's the only thing he knows how to do. Him without the ball on his hands, he is totally useless. Where do you think this goes? I don't know. Look, they got a chance to be really good because the Lakers at their best.

And this is when LeBron was on the ball, is LeBron spraying the ball all over the floor, right? Like LeBron getting the ball to Rui and getting the ball to Reeve and getting the ball to and getting, you know, like finding guys where they want to, in their spots and they shoot and score and everybody goes nuts. And that wasn't happening anymore. And whether that's because LeBron just wasn't capable of doing that at the level he was doing it before or whatever it was. But Luca, as ball dominant as he is, he's not selfish in the sense that he's hunting shots every time down the floor. He makes the pass.

He makes great passes. So he will get you up. Now he's going to shoot it a lot, Beau. He's not getting twisted. He's going to shoot it a lot. But, you know, he's still going to have 9, 10, 11, 12 assists at the end of most games because he will pass. So it's interesting. I still don't know.

I still think how do they guard Yokic? How do they guard him? Not once. Even after what you saw Saturday. That was once. How do you guard him seven times? Seven times. You're at least four.

You got to beat them. You've got to beat them four times. How do you do it? Four times with what they have playing center, the guys they have at center. I just don't think they can do it. I don't think they can do it. Now, can they give them a much different and much more competitive series than they gave Denver the last time? Yes. But I still think it's going to be hard for them just because you can't disguise lack of size. at some point in the playoffs, it comes back and it bites you. Because it's just guys that can dominate a series with their size, whether it, we know Yokic can, but Shangoon can too. You know what I mean?

Like, he's that good. Like, he's an all-star player. He can destroy you if you can't guard him. That's a problem. You know, like, so that's what I'm not quite sure the Lakers are there yet, but they're a lot closer for sure with Luca because he, you become so much more efficient offensively, you know we're going to score

115. If we can just hold him to 113, we win. You know what I mean? Like that's, you don't have to be great defensively with Luca because you just get so much, you become so much more efficient offensively and your points per possession just go through the roof with this guy because he just, he's really

hard to guard. He's really hard to guard. And he makes it easier for everybody else. Let me tell you said something about Yolkij and my Twitter for U-Tab gives me a lot of Yokin stuff, right? It is concluded that I'm that kind of guy. It gives me a lot of Yokin stuff, and it gave me some clips of Yokic back in Serbia. And I have to say, man, every time somebody is like,

you know, we didn't see it coming, nobody saw it coming. There's always one guy or like when he first got to Denver where there were people that were like, oh no, he's the best player. Like they saw it on day one. I was looking at these clips of him in Serbia, looking like he's playing at a high school gym.

And I'm like, man, maybe one. we just have so a whole lot of race stuff that we really got to deal with. Because he was out there looking like Yolkich. Like it looked like the same stuff that we see him do right now. And people like, I don't know. I didn't know if it could happen. I think it's not so. Look, is race part of it?

Yes. But I don't even think it's, I don't think it's all race. I think it's, I think it's body type. Yes. He looks like a big dumpy guy. Like he don't look like no athlete. Right. And there's been some great reporting over the last couple of years that says when he went to

P3 and they tested him, they found out that, no, he doesn't do any one thing great physically, but he does everything good physically, you know what I mean? And that's very rare. You know, even the best jumpers have things that physically they're not very good at, you know. And so when you think about that and you go, well, he's not, he doesn't jump. He doesn't jump high, but he jumps well. You know what I mean? Like he jumps well and he can and he's got an incredible, you know, he passes at an incredible rate.

Like all of those things like, but if you just looked at him in a game, you would just say, well, he's just bigger than everybody else. Of course he scored 25. You don't realize how he's scoring the 25 unless you're really paying attention, right? And you really watch him every night. And nobody's watching it. I'm sorry. Nobody's watching Serbian basketball every night. Not even the scouts.

Like there's three people, four, maybe that are doing it, you know, that are not working in Serbian basketball. But you're not just, you know, in 2012, you're not just saying, I wonder what Serbian game I can get on the satellite. Let me watch Mega Basket and see what they're up to. You know, and I'm going to watch them again tomorrow. Nobody was doing that. So let's, come on. So part of this is body type. Part of it is part of its race.

Yes. But again, I don't think. that's really the big driving thing here. You know, and part of it was they drafted him 41st, Bo. But that's what I think. How did that happen? Like, that's not looking back to the Serbia stuff. I'm like, man, like, wow.

I can see why, like, the scout that found him is like, man, I hope nobody ever looks. Right. Nobody gets like, you need to tell his agent. Don't tell nobody else about him. No, you ain't got no best kept secret. You ain't got none of that, right? Like, none. That's the spin.

By the way, did you watch the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Netflix. I've seen parts of it. I haven't seen it the whole thing. One thing I think worth noting and watching again. And I have notes. It's a lot going on there. Like I'm not as effusive in the praise of it as everybody else. But anybody who's on the Yokage doesn't even care about basketball program. No, no, no, no, that one goes out the window. Maybe it just sounds like he cares more in Serbian. But it is very clear there is caring going on here. Yes. No, I was there. I was in Perispow. No, he cared. He cared at a very high level. You know, just like Wembe cared at a very high level.

Like it's different when it's national team. Like that's just, that's different. And I think you get the best versions of these guys because the care factor is so through the roof. It's just, and it's at a different level, even with their NBA teams. And that doesn't mean they don't care. I'm not saying they don't care about the NBA. I'm just saying it is different when you put your country's flag on your chest. It's different.

It's a different feel. It's a different vibe. And they had it. And the Americans had it. Like everybody had it. That's what the basketball was so good. It was so compelling. The Germans, Franz Wagner was sobbing after they lost.

Like, these guys care about this stuff, you know. And so you need to go to an Olympics and see and listen to the fervor with which these guys talk about playing for their country. Like, it's for real, for real. You know, like, so, yeah, no, that he definitely cared for sure. Now, over to the east, my issue with the calves last, year was they have tall men who are not big men. And look, their tall men are very good. And Evan Mobley has become an excellent tall man. But it will always feel to me with a team like that.

The question is, are you guys sturdy enough? Right? Or it's like, wait, you two boys got deal with Janus in the second round. Are you sturdy enough to handle that? But otherwise, they're walking through the league, man. Yeah. They're just walking through. Well, you know, getting DeAndre Hunter is just a huge, huge deal for them, I think. I think that's a huge deal for them. Because to your point, yes, they're very good. They've been great in the regular season. And now you got to guard Janus.

And now you got to guard Jason Tatum. You know, like you got to guard, you got to guard Bankero. Now you got to guard these guys. Now, how are you going to do that? And they didn't have an answer. Now they have one. Now we'll see if he holds up. Physically, you know, he's been hurt a lot in his career.

But he was having a great year for the Hawks. He's 6.8. He's 2.30. He's got the size to make those guys have to work. And that's all you can ask. Make them work for it. Make them inefficient. They're going to get 27 points.

They're going to get 32 points. Just make them inefficient when they do so. Make them have to take a lot of shots to get those points. And now they have a real answer that they can throw at guys. You know, and so that's what's intriguing. about, to me, about Cleveland. Now, again, just like I said about Memphis, just like I said about OKC, this group of Cavaliers has won exactly one playoff series. And it was against another team, another young team that hadn't gone anywhere and done anything. And it took them seven

games to do that. They haven't done it yet. But we have to see them do it. You know, we have to see, does Mobley's handle hold up in a seven game series against a real defensive team that really can get into you, even a Miami if they get in. Like, you know, Miami going to guard you now. They may not be able to score very much, but they're going and guard you, you know, so we got to see that hold up. Is this playmaking? Is this decision making? Does that all hold up

over seven games against the Milwaukee, against the Boston in the second round? If it winds up that way. Even in a conference final, does it hold up? So they're in the proof of stage too. And this is where you want to get to like you want to be able to say okay we got to prove it now but we think we have with three all stars and some really good role players we think we we got a shot at this thing and I think that's where Cleveland's at I think they are excited about the opportunity to show how much they've grown

over the last year well they ball dominant small guard that is that is that is ball dominant small guard but a very good point guard next to them like this is they are fascinating but what they're doing is winning games which of course is the part that uh matters up to this point. And Mobley's running the offense now. I mean, they're running a lot of stuff through Mobley now. So it's a little different than it's been the last couple of years, which is part of why they're crushing people because Don's not on the ball as much.

You know, Garland's not on the ball as much. They're less ball dominant than they've been. They're running a lot of stuff through Evan now. All right. I'm going to read something to you that I'm not sure if you have seen this from the Philadelphia Inquirer, but Joel Embed could undergo meniscus replacement procedure. and it is a procedure where they break a bone in your hip to realign the joint and alleviate pressure, which sounds like this is a rap.

Not a rap forever, but as dominant player. We are at the stage with Joel where I'm not sure there's a good outcome physically for him. They already shaved the meniscus. They didn't take all of it out. It's not bone on bone. So that part is still salvageable. But they've tried everything, Bo. They've tried everything short of another surgery, right?

Like so, and it hasn't worked. It has he still not, doesn't feel it. He's not feeling comfortable or healthy or good, and it's showing up when he plays. So if you're talking about another surgery or some sort of kind of more, I'll say radical, that's a loaded word, more experimental treatments, right, for a knee injury, you're almost grasping at straws. You're trying to find something, you know, and there may not be. something to find in this situation. He's a 7 foot, 280 pound human being. That's a lot of torque on that knee, and it's going to continue to be a lot of torque

on that knee. And even if he loses 30 pounds, it's going to be a lot of torque on that knee. And the knee just may not be able to hold up. It's not, you know, I think about Grant Hill, who was a great player before he got hurt. And then he was still a really good player after he got hurt, but he wasn't the same. And I think we are at, he's not going to be the same with Joel. Now, can you build a team around them? You can try, but it's harder.

And so, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's not, I don't see a lot of good options here. I don't, like, it's not something where there's a, there's a procedure. And in six months, he'll be fine. I don't know that there's a procedure here that's going to help him, you know, like one that's going to help him go back to being Joel and beat again. You know, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't know if I am. I will say this just so you know from the Inquirer story. One source called this procedure, quote, radical, unquote.

Okay, there you go. Okay, they can say radical. Look, man, anytime it gets to the point when they talk about breaking stuff to fix it. Right. Ooh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt. No doubt.

Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I mean, I've heard that, you know, there's all kinds of different things that are on the table now, you know. And if you shave it, it is bone on bone. Then it's Tim Hardaway, senior. And you're done. you're done you can't play anymore you know you just it's too painful um and so they want to everything short of that but when you talk about PRP injections and things like that and we're

going to give you a new meniscus and i mean the track record's not great for that you know leading to full and complete restoration of one's greatness uh you know doesn't there's not a lot of cases out there that point to that right i'm asking one last thing before we get out of here a team that I get the occasional look at and they seem very fun if nothing else. But where are you on the Detroit Pistons who appear to be good for the first time in a very long time? Look, I think it's great.

I'm happy for them. They've gone through it. Oh, when it starts like this, there's a butt coming. There is a butt coming. I understand. You can't just keep like they were in year five of this thing. Well, just trust us. We're building through the draft.

And people are like, guys, you're winning 12 games every year. Where's the good stuff? When does that happen? So look, I think K's gone to another level and that's great. And you can be excited about that if you're them. And you can see that he's got the potential to be an all league type player, like well worth being the first pick in the draft. So you got something there.

But they did a lot of things in terms of bringing vets in who are still good players. but I'm not sure where this leaves them in two years. You know, like, my question is, what does this team look like two years from now? Like, if you tell me Jay and Ivy's going to develop into a great player over the next two years, you tell me Thompson's going to get there, okay, you know, I'll rock with it.

I'll rock with it. But they're not winning this year because of them. You know, they're winning because of Cade and the vets. And the vets are just going to get older. So now maybe what happens, and this could happen, is somebody says, hey, Kate's pretty good, I want to go play with him. That could happen, sure. There could be an all-star level player that says, Kate looks good to me. I don't want to be in this bad situation I'm in on my team.

That looks like they're going places. Let me get me to Detroit. That could happen, sure, because that's what happens when you have great players. Other great players want to play with them. So that could happen. And maybe that's the play. And there's nothing wrong with that being the play, by the way. If that's your play, and that's how you're going to sustain this over the next five or six years, okay.

Take the shot. That's okay. But this current team, this iteration of this team, I think it's a great story. And I'm happy for them because they've gone through it. They have gone through it. Like, I would, you don't know what it's like to lose 28 games in a row. I can't even fathom that. Like, how do you even, like, that's horrendous.

You know what I mean? Like so, so I'm glad that they're having some success. I'm just not sure if it's sustainable success. That's all. I just heard what you started off with, look. There's no greater till than coming off the rip with look. I'm a terrible poker player, Bo. You're like, look, I hear you guys.

We're going to the playoffs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. Yeah, I know. I know. It's been a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. They will have playoff games in Detroit, and it will be marvelous and good for them.

And I hope they have some proud. And I might even go to one or two of them because it'll be fun. You know, and I'm happy for J.B. J.B.'s done a hell of a job. He's a really good coach. I thought he got a raw deal in Cleveland, and I'm glad he's getting an opportunity to show out that he's a really good coach and is doing a really good job. So I'm not saying it's wrong what they did. I'm not saying that at all.

I understand it because you can't keep rolling out 12 and 60, 12 and 70. Right. Right. You got to do something. You got to do something. You got to do something. I'll say this, though. J.B.

is in an interesting place with Cleveland where I thought Mark Jackson got a raw deal in Golden State and then they went out there and was 67 games or 65 games or whatever it was. And that's kind of what's happened to J.B. It was like, damn, how much better you think they're supposed to be? Oh. Oh. Oh. That's what you thought it was supposed to be.

My parents. You remember that Joe Lakers? Like, yeah, I played golf with Steve Kerr. We're like, y'all ain't won't 50 games in 20 years. Y'all going to do this man like this. Really, but for Steve Kerr, he wasn't even that good in the broadcast move. Man, they went out there and started whooping ass, and it was just like, ooh, Mark Jackson ain't got a job since.

I was like, maybe you were right. I can't object to anything you've said. But the biggest winner in that was, Derek Fisher, because Lakeup gave Steve Kerr, what was at the time, a crazy $5 million. He never done anything. And then the Knob hired Derek Fisher. And it felt like the lead kind of told them, hey, you know, go ahead and make a rain on him. And he got $5 million.

And he was what we was thinking Steve Kerr was going to be. He was terrible. It didn't work out for Derek. It did not work out. It wasn't that the same year that Matt Barnes pulled it up on him? It was around that time. I don't know exactly the sequencing, but it was around that time, yes. Yeah.

Man, that was a, you know, 2015. Okay, so it wasn't the same time because 2014 is when he got that job. Yeah, brother, it was a, it was an interesting time. And that's why I'm glad it's going well for J.B. in Detroit. Because otherwise, the calves would be an indictment of him. Yeah, no, exactly. I know he's a good coach. I know he did a good job in Cleveland. Now, maybe they, maybe he was more reluctant to giving Mobley the ball and they said, that's what we got to do, and he resisted. And that's part of why they fired him.

That could have happened. You know, like, you know, there's a million different things that went into it. But clearly they've unlocked something different with this year's team than in previous Cleveland team. What a time. That is David Aldridge. Check him out at the athletic. the NBA and Washington, where you guys saw your quarterback, man, at the Super Bowl. It's like the scene in the Wizard of Oz after the House fell in a wicket, witch at the West. Now everything's in technicolor. Everybody's running around. You're out of the what. Everybody's excited and happy now. This is unbelievable. It's incredible. That 180, I've never seen in one year, Beau, one year,

the 180 that this franchise is undergone is just incredible. It's something. Well, brother, I appreciate you. Thank you, Bo. All right now, and ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on The Right Time. We do this thing three times a week. That's Sean.

You handling everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Remember, check us out ad free on Supercast. The right time is ad free on Supercast $5 a month. Also, special features like AMAs and more. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars.

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