The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Vinnie Goodwill on Kevin Durant-Rockets Struggles, Why LeBron shouldn't leave Lakers, NBA Expansion | 03.18

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Bomani Jones is joined by Vinnie Goodwill to talk through the biggest NBA storylines right now. They break down what’s going wrong with Kevin Durant and the Rockets, why Luka Doncic has the Lakers rolling, and whether Los Angeles can really survive with its defensive flaws. They also get into Victor Wembanyama’s absurd impact, the Western Conference playoff race, LeBron’s future in Los Angeles, and what NBA expansion could mean for the league. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. 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 to join us.

You can catch him on get up or first take somewhere around nine times a week these days, covering the NBA. Vinnie Goodwill was going on. What's happening, ma? Hey man, we got to take a vote and we got to come up with some consistency on what it's going to be. You Vince over there, you vets in somewhere half the time, you Vinny over here. Sometimes during their shows they go with Vinny. You got to, you go have to make a decision about like what your name is in front of the world.

Like I ain't coming off Vinny. I'm going to be like the people that know you since the third grade. But, you know, you got to come with some sort of standardization on this now that you're becoming a big old TV star. Well, X-Nay on the TV star stuff. Oh, no, no, no, no. We know you a TV star because who sent a text to a chat this week,

or last week, saying that you was a star? Who was that? The biggest hater that any of us know. Joel Anderson. Joe catching strays. No, he ain't catching no stray.

Joe called you a star. I assure you, he does not say that stuff willy-nilly. Well, Joel caught TV on the day that people just lost their minds because they didn't hear everything properly. So I'm sure that's what that was. Oh, okay. I see what you saying.

Joel could appreciate your spiting your peers. Yes. Joel is known for stirring things up on purpose. I stir things up by accident. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. By the way, I don't feel bad.

What's that? Go ahead. No, you go ahead. No, it's going to say, to the name thing, I've known, you know, the host of first take since, you know, 2006. That's when I was Vinny. There was no Vince. Damn, sure, it wasn't no Vincent.

So when he calls me that, everybody else feels like, well, Steve calls Benny. I can call you Benny. Well, oh, you, okay, you're one of those. You tried to age out of Vinny. I didn't realize that. Like, I can let you grow up. You can be Vince, you know what I'm saying?

I didn't realize that, okay, all right, we all cut up now. For example, Dan Levitard used to be Danny. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he was a young Danny. Like, Wil Bond is good to call him Danny. Every now and then, Gonzalo would call him Danny. Like, he had to become that. And I get it, because I get the idea that Danny feels a little younger.

But Vinny don't feel younger. Vinny just feels familiar. You know what I mean? Yeah, to y'all. You know what I mean? Oh, I guess I forgot. The other part is you a junior. Yes.

It all comes together. But I'm not going to stop anybody that. I don't stop anybody who knows, like my friend, like, you know, my friends, my homies, they can't never call me Vince. Now, if they're like reservations for, who's the reservation's name, my name, and they're going to say, Vinny, you know what I mean? Like that, they know when they use it and when not to. So, you know, vote, you've been my friend for 15 years.

It's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You are in the cluster. You don't have to call me. by my birth name. It's all good. Look, man, if you ever lose your ID at the club again during All-Star,

and they call your name on the microphone. We was at All-Star Houston one time, and they called somebody lost their ideas. Vincent Goodwill Jr. here. And then he tried to be all slick and go to the front. I'm like, he's right here. Then he's right here. Right here.

All right. I'm just standing here and pointed down, you know. But I get you. Basketball. Yes. The Lakers beat the Rockets the other night. There's stories of both teams, right? But I want to start with the Rockets because I feel like we're almost being unfair to them

in that we have all fought throughout this year. They don't have a point guard. They don't have a chance. I don't know what they could have done during the regular season. That would have changed the idea that they don't have a point guard, therefore they don't have a chance. They could finish the regular season 65 and 17. And we would still say, okay, but the issue is they don't have a point guard.

Like, that's going to come up when you got to play a best to say. series, but the way they've looked lately brings us back to, at least for me, a couple of things. One of them, I remember all the love that everybody had for EMA during that year that he was coaching the Celtics. Now, I think a big part of that is white folks get off on the idea of somebody coming in and calling these dudes motherfuckers, right? Like they love the, I'm like, you holds those guys accountable, right? People love that stuff when they hear it. usually when it's from a white man, but they'll settle for a Nigerian in a pitch, right?

But at the same time, they went to the finals and they won that game seven against Miami. But they were in the process of one of the great collapse, collapses in the history of the NBA playoffs. Jimmy Butler walks into that three and makes it. That's an all-time choke. And that year was full of blown leads in third and fourth quarters.

them just coming apart and it's like they don't know how to run an offense suddenly. Now, again, to be fair, another team that did not have a point guard. But we're seeing it again. Like this is, EMA as tactician seems to raise, or at least as offensive tactician, seem to raise some questions. I will stop there and get back to the other one. But I wonder if, I wonder what exactly you got to get, what combination of players you have to have to really make it work.

with him because I'm not saying he's a bad coach, but I am saying that there are holes in his game. This is going to sound hilarious coming from me. You know who would really work with Emey Udoka right now? Chris Paul five years ago. You have the office.

Yeah, because he can run the offense. You run the offense. I'll take care of everything else. Like he needs discipline in the order on offense. I can't blame E. May when you get Reed Shepard and a man Thompson as your point guards. And Amin Thompson, who's used to handling the ball, maybe not being a point guard, but used to handling the ball, and being, you know, the best athlete in basketball. Like, that's a lot to put on a guy in this third year.

But they look so inept. Like, I saw a KD in that fourth quarter. He had a eight second violation and a back court violation, all because the Lakers just put two dudes in that. this face 50 feet from the basket. Like this is so, I won't say elementary, but this is something that you learn at a very early stage of basketball. There's two guys on the ball far away. What do you do? You put somebody in the middle, you get the numbers, and someone makes a decision because you've got two defenders on the backside, somebody in the corners, somebody go to the dunker and you figure it out. The fact that JJ Reddick was like, they can't do anything against this. We're going to unleash this

in the fourth quarter of a game that we're trailing and we're going to be able to come back with Luca Donchich on the bench lets you know everything about how the league feels about Houston's fourth quarter offense. Like, we're talking as if Houston also, and this is the crazy thing, Bo.

Minnesota, Denver, Lakers, Houston. Houston has the biggest single deficiency out of any one of those four teams. And yet, they are what, game behind the Lakers, by virtue of that one loss, like they can still get to three, which lets you know how incredible they are in other places. Because if your fourth quarter office is that inept, then teams know that they can just come and get you, that means nine times out of ten, you are blowing their asses out in every other

aspect of the game so it doesn't get to a fourth quarter collapse. And that's why, in part, I can't blame EMA. EMA is a great defensive coach. So if you're going to ask him to lean on his instincts, he's going to put out the best defensive unit, not the best unit that's going to give him fourth quarter order and everything else. And they didn't have Alperin Shangoon, who's also a defensive liability, shall we say.

He is, look, the Rockets, I feel like, are the only team in the West that we know can't win the West. I think that I don't, I do not think Minnesota will win the West. In fact, I'll go so far as to say they won't. but I'm not saying that they can't. There's a world where you can show me where Minnesota can win the West. I don't really see the world where Houston can win.

So wait, wait, let's back this up. There's a world where you can see the Lakers win in the West. Oh, I'm sorry. No. My bad. Forgot about that. Hey, Ryan, Ryan, leave that in. Ryan, leave that in.

Let's just let's just. It was going to be left in. Let me tell you this, partner, I understand. been on TV for a while, but you ain't got to produce this show. Oh, boy, we got this under control. You know why I didn't think of it? Honestly, you know why I didn't think of the Lakers on that? It will get to them in a minute.

I did not think about the Lakers because I do not think about the Lakers. Like, they're in the group of teams that I'm thinking about for the West, they weren't actually in it. But this thing happened where they got to three. But I want to stay with the Rockets. Let me get back to the Lakers. I want to stay with the Rockies because you saw it, after that Lakers game where Dorett talked about how he just had the ball too much

and how he needed, you know, maybe the problem was him. And I think he was saying that in earnest, right? Like I don't, I did not feel that that was him being passive aggressive in that moment. However, just going to ask the question, is it possible that get off my Dickerson has gotten Kevin Doret into a little bit of trouble? Like, we have just assumed that everything was going to run smooth after Get Off My Dickerson got caught sending all them crazy tweets. And again, I don't know exactly who Get Off My Dickerson is, but correct me if I'm wrong,

but no one has heard from Get Off My Dickerson since that whole thing came up, right? You hear people talk about they sitting around watching Kevin Durant now when he has the ball. Is it possible to some of them cats are doing exactly that? Because they're like, yo, what you got? right? I'm not saying that, that I'm not saying Kevin Durand is get off my Diggerson. I bet you they think he is, though. Like, we have just assumed that that just went away.

And that's not how humans work. No, no, no, no. Um, I had this funny. I hadn't considered that element of it that a partner, you want all of this? You got it. Right. I didn't, I didn't consider.

that Katie turned into Kyle Lee Watson, you know what I mean, out here, just doing whatever. But maybe that's what it is. Like, a lot of those dudes may feel a certain way and feel like we're going to catch the blame one way or the other, whether we win or lose. So, you know what? How about we just chill? No, I never thought about that. No, I mean, I'm just asking, how many people do we know that would have just let that slide? Hardly anybody.

Look, we know Kevin Durant won't let that slide. Kevin Durant wouldn't. I tell you this, imagine if he still played with the triple, if, if, if Kevin Durant were getting off my digger center, if the two believe that, if people believe that thing, I bet you the triple double cocaine bear will never let that slide. And I thought they should have got a little better. I forgot about that line.

Yeah. But I mean, here's, the crazy thing with the triple double cocaine bear in all of his madness working work in this Houston like there's so many different iterations of players who Kevin Durant has worked with that you're like man if only he had this guy right now like this would turn out to be something I'd tell you the funny thing for those people who say Kevin Durant is never happy or never satisfied Katie said something about you know maybe I should just stand in the corner I remember at one of these previous stops

Kevin Durant saying, man, he just sit me in the corner. That is, it always sounds like nothing is ever quite right with Katie. It's almost like the, uh, Sedge of the entertainer line when he talks about Luther Vandross and that curl just not

being quite right. Something's always off. And it's not necessarily Kevin Durant's fault. It could be get off my Dickerson's fault. It could be somebody else, like the fact that they don't have a point guard. In Houston, I mean, not Houston. In Phoenix, it was just a jumbled mess of a roster. Then the Bradley bill trade happened. In Brooklyn, it was Kyrie Irvin going for

Kyrie and then James Hardin doing James Hardin does. All those things in theory have nothing to do with Kevin Durant's singular excellence. He's going to be 27, seven, seven, and five, no matter what situation we put him in and he's 37 years old, right? Or is he going to be 37 years old? one of the two. He's 37. I lose track of these old dudes after a period of time. Like, they just old, right? But, and you can't put any of these singularly on him.

You're just like, man, how can you be so snake-bitten? Yeah, well, I push back a little bit on the narrative of Kevin Durant, something's always wrong. Okay. We only really talked about something being wrong with Kevin Durant in the 2018-20. 2019 season. We were not saying that the first two years he was in Golden State, right? No. We were saying that the last year, as is often the case with somebody is in the last year

of a contract. And if I had to guess, whatever wasn't great with him did not have, that wasn't about basketball, right? Like, I don't think it was entirely, there's the, right. And by the way, what was it right in Golden State? Draymond called him a bitch in front of everybody and acting like it was. cool. Like I don't, I'm not inclined to blame. I don't know. It just seemed like something ain't right. Yeah, I'll tell you exactly what I'm right. That right there. Now, I don't know

how those guys up there like everybody in the organization feels about him. That's a different discussion. But right. That one I'm kind of like, I'm not sure. And then all he did was go out there and play until his Achilles snapped. So like I'm kind of like, I don't know about that. No, but what what I'm saying is the things happen around him, not necessarily that he is. a party to it. Like, I'm not saying that James Harden going, James Harden going Tiger going Tiger is his fault, because that wasn't his fault.

And Kyrie and everything that Kyrie was going through at the time wasn't his fault. It just happens to be around him and it has colored the way that we think about him. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I went you there. Okay, so yeah, we're on the same page. But I think it's important like this. When you really walk through it, like what happened with the Nets is very obvious what happened with the Nets. Carrie wouldn't get that shot

and in a tense time in America everybody had had enough. I'll tell you, my favorite, the only thing I'll ever remember that James Harden ever said, I'll give him the shot myself. That's the only thing. Look, James Hardin won a lot of respect

for me and that when he was the only person saying the thing. Like, what is this? This is ridiculous. Right? Everything everybody has ever had to say about James Hardin. James Hardin was the one I was like,

dog, you don't get this fucking shot. Come out here and play basketball? What are you talking about? He's the voice of reason. James Harden is the voice of reason. When has that ever happened? Yeah,

and then when it fell apart, Durant was like, okay, get me out of here. He got to Phoenix. Now, this is where you can start saying, oh, maybe it's always a thing. He and Devin Booker were not a fit for a number of reasons.

One of those things is there is skill overlap, right? Like, there are two guys whose job is the same job. They're not the same player. but they do the same job. But what didn't go right in Phoenix wasn't Durant's fault, and my recollection was it was them

that wanted to move him, not vice versa. You know? And so now he gets here and, I mean, look, get off my dickerson, seems to have a whole lot to say. But I didn't really detect there being a thing until recently, actually.

Like now that we're in this. So I feel like you're right. There's a thing everywhere, but I think the thing that makes him tricky is, There's so many wares such that we have everywhere for a god this good. It's the wild thing to me is because for every macro there's a micro, right? And you can't put any of the micros on him. Maybe the biggest micro that you can put on him is choosing Phoenix, right?

Because in Brooklyn, before Carre's ankle snaps or it lands on Janus and before hardened you know, hamstring goes, you know, boom in the night. That was one of the best teams we'd ever seen. Right? That was the most explosive offensive team, this side of Kevin Durant's golden state team that we have ever seen in modern basketball and they were going to win the title easily in 2021, even with all that stuff happening. Maybe choosing Phoenix and trying to replicate whatever that was.

Oh, put me next to another guy who can score and can handle. da-da-da-da-da-da, like that's the thing. I don't think Houston was a bad pick for him because at least you hit the thought of, okay, you got Imeudoku who handles the defense, you got these young studs who we still going to keep, you got Freyavan-Vlead, you got Alperin-Shingo. Like it makes all the sense.

It makes too much sense. Maybe he should have picked San Antonio. All right, cool. You know what I mean? But getting back to your original point, neither one of us here is blaming Kevin Durant for the circumstances that Kevin Durant is in. Maybe you blame

Get Off My Dickerson for how some things look. Well, we're not blaming Kevin Durant. Yeah, I was about to say, if it is possible that this time it is the fault between Kevin Durant and get off my Dickerson, it is the fault of one of like,

I don't know, right? But I don't think it's messy to ask the question about whether or not something like that has linger. Because I remember that first game after that happened, Kevin Durant looked like the greatest team made a whole time. He was out there giving hard dab. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, dude,

it was just a layup. Shit. You know, like he was out there. I think about this, too, about 2021. I feel like we treat Kevin Durant as though he came back from the Achilles tier and he's been the same player that he was before that and I don't believe that to be true. Like, I think he's still been incredibly effective, but I also think that we're in an era of stat inflation.

And so his ability to continue to put up those point numbers. And look, his percentages are good, all of this. But I say that to say, for those who do not remember, in the 2021 playoffs, that was the best version of Kevin Durant. I feel like I've ever seen. Like, if he makes that shot, his foot doesn't go over the line because he wears his shoes, one size too big, they're still rolling.

He was so good. that postseason, as is often the case with guys who suffer an Achilles injury, they could really make it crack that first year after. And then after that, it's not quite the same, right? Like, he's not, one, he hasn't played that many games in most of these seasons, but two, he had become such an impactful defensive player before the Achilles injury took place, and he's not nearly the defensive player that he was around them. He's just a score from God.

Yeah, no, well, the crazy thing is go look at Kevin Durant film from 2014. Like before the Liz Frank injury. Like we forget he had the Liz Frank, he had the Achilles, he had the MCL when he was in Brooklyn that cost him time. Any one of those three things, honestly, can change the trajectory of somebody's career. The Liz Frank caused Bill Walton his career, right? One of the MCLs cost Derek Rose. Derek Rose's remaining explosiveness even after the ACL, the MCL was what

screwed Derek Rose in 2012 or 2013, excuse me, when he came back. And Kevin Durant's, like you said, the fact that he can play the game as well as he can play the game masks some of these other things. But I was looking at this, I was looking at film once of Kevin Durant's going 54 in 2014.

It might have been against Golden State. And it looked like a podcast on 1.5, speed, like how quick he was going, how fluid he was. Like, now he gets to the spots, right? He gets there. But he used to blow by dudes without having to go low. Like, his handle used to be a lot tighter than it is now. Like, now he's dribb- like, it's just a certain amount of fluidity that you lose when you have an Achilles injury, and you can't really blame him for that. But yeah, I feel like to some degree, his basketball greatness has obscured the fact that there has been slippage, natural slippage that you're going to have after one, if not two or three of those

damn injuries. Yeah, no, it's going to be interesting to watch what happens with that team. We didn't even get it to. Wait, have people forgot how good he was, how great he was? Have we reached the point? Or have people forgotten that Kevin Durant used to be a physical marvel on top of the crazy skill set? I don't know if people have forgotten how good he was,

but I think that we overstate. I don't think it's a matter of forgetting how good he was as much as it's so impressive that he is what he is at 37, that it's easy to lose track of the difference between this and even five years ago. It's like when somebody, for whatever reason, on the internet, dropped some clips of LeBron at 25. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you're like, oh, shit. Like, whoa. man, that's, that's right. I got, it's like going back and listening one of your favorite records that you ain't listened to in a long time by your favorite artist that's still putting out, you know, still putting out songs,

still putting out, you know, still got some heat. But them jams was on them other tapes, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of there. But speaking of LeBron, he'd get back to the Lakers. The Lakers winning some games, man. Luca apparently had been going through some things,

shedded them things off his back. And nothing about the way that he plays basketball indicates that he's the sort of dude that just pushes through chaos and other facets of his life. You know what I mean? Whatever it was going to all the situation with his wife and kids,

there seemed to have been some measure of resolution that at least is giving him some peace and he out here killing people. Did you see the numbers, I think, and during his winning streak, he's like 38, 9 and 10? Like, I'm not saying he's elbowing his way into this MVP.

conversation. But we have choices to make now as far as who our top five is going to be. I think we always knew who our top five was going to be up until this. And if the Lakers wind up, Bo, winning 50 plus games, right? And I think they still can. They can win 50 plus games, third seed in the West as the most flawed team amongst the remaining post-San Antonio Oklahoma City. it's not the, I'm saying I would vote for him for MVP,

or I would even have him on my ballot. I'm saying it's now the conversation to have him on a battle. I think it's clear we know who's going to win MVP and we know who's going to finish second. It's three, four, and five that makes things a little bit tricky now. Oh, I think, I think three is solid. You think three is solid? I think one, two, and three are locked in.

You think Big Slim? Yes, that's three. Okay. No, I can't argue. And I haven't done like the deep dive. And I know that, you know, first take and get up, they make you answer these very, you know, direct questions. Who's your MVP right now? And then they expect you to hold yourself to that for the remainder of time.

You know what I mean? Right. There was a moment where Kay Cunningham looked like the guy who could win it because he was the best player on the best team and didn't have another guy out there that was helping him create shots. And that tailed off. And then Yokic came back and became Yolkich again. And then Shea came back and became Super Seion SGA. And then Vic, who's not even playing 30 minutes a night. He's doing what he's doing.

Y'all, I just go look at what he's doing. And the crazy thing is, like he's not even, if I remember correctly, but I haven't looked at it recently, he's not even like the advanced stats marvel that you feel like he's going to be later. Nah, no, you just look at it. But you just know it when you see it. You just know it when you see it.

Like, I don't need some things to tell me everything. I can just see it. When you're shooting a 40-footer like Darius Garland did the other night, who's one of the best off-foot finishers that we got in the league because he's quick as all hell and he can jump off the left foot and do stuff that you're not supposed to do. And he's like, you know what? I'm not trying that.

I will settle for this 40-footer and be happy as hell that he got it outside of his outstretched arms that lets you know something. Well, hold on. How about him getting super? switched on to Darius Garland, chasing him everywhere, and then pitching his shit. And that was later. That was later on the game. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I was like, yeah. Yeah. What are we? What, like if you're one of these. So one thing that the podcast space is done that I think is important and noteworthy. And one thing that's effective.

And it's a, it's a game that the athlete, I always go ahead the advantage on over the rest of us who do this is the athlete can tap into, which is the greatest thing that always, works and that everybody wants to hear is excellent players, excellent athletes, excellent rappers, whatever it is, talk about that time they walked in and were wholly humbled, right? Like you're welcome to the NBA moment type stuff or whatever people love here and the best of the best. Just talk about how somebody gave it to them. Like, they didn't know it was possible. That happened every night somebody play against the Spurs.

Yeah. Look, what did you? What was the line that Harrison Barnes told you? Yeah, he didn't tell me. John Hinson tweeted that. He said, how did Harrison look at him? Yeah, John Hinson tweeted. He said, how Dick looked in runs.

He was like, like, Will. If you have, if you've never seen Big Slim in person, like I urge you. Like, he's just one of those guys. He's like the lock. He's like the lock nest monster. He's like Bigfoot. It's like one of those things that if somebody told you, I'm trying to, it's trying to make analogous comparison. It's like having the fat back TV that was like the status symbol,

right? Oh man, you got the big, you got the big 50 inch TV and then you go straight from that to what we got now. And it's wait a minute. How has this TV so flat and so light? So light. And it's, and it's only four hundred dollars. And it's, and it's sitting on the, and it's sitting on the wall with these screws attached. What are we, what are we, what are we doing here? It's like you going from 1996 to 2016 with like being in a coma and waking up and then seeing everything change. That's what it's like watching this dude. And those dudes know like watching him play, you ever seen him play possum? You ever seen that? Mm-mm. So no, no. So there's this thing that he does where if you're coming down the lane and they're trying to highway screen, you. You ever see,

which is pretty much a big man getting in the lane and kind of screening big Vic out of the way so he cannot get in the way of you getting the layup right it's a highly illegal offensive play that nobody calls but Vic will allow himself to be screened he'll just get low and then all of a sudden like some Bruce Leaf flick he will crouch up as you are taking a layup and send it back to the fourth row but you don't see him because he's low he has made himself small. He has shrunk himself from seven foot foe to being smaller than your center so you think you have a highway. And next thing you know, he's blocking your shot with one of his hands. Which hand? No. Because he can block it with both hands. That's the problem. And he's nowhere near.

And he's nowhere near even a hyper actualized version of himself. Get a win now. If you get a playoff win now cherish it because yank ain't going to be much of it in the next decade think about it like this our plan was to talk about the lakers but then vick come up and you can't help but stay on that so coming up next we'll get back to talk about the lakers and also a little NBA business ever wanted to go to the NBA finals where now's your chance courtesy of fan duel all you have to do is use your profit boost on an NBA future and you'll be entered for a shot to win an NBA finals for two. NBA futures let you lock in your pick for who you think will go all the way, whether it's a team to win the championship or a conference title. Visit fanduil.com

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Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Beaumani. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Beaumani. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. All right, we are back with Vinny Goodwill. So with the Lakers and with Lucas stepping it up, I mean, they still just have this great issue, which is their three best players don't guard people. Like, that issue seems to be a bit intractable, that their best three players don't guard people. However, it could be fun until they lose.

Well, the question is, how much do you believe in the fact that they say to themselves, we can defend you good enough? You can't keep up with us scoring. and we have three really good decision makers at the end of games. They're the best clutch team in basketball. They're like 19 and 6 or 20 and 6 the last time I checked. And I think that part is real, Bo. Like even when they were bad, even when, you know, you only had two or three,

you know, big three or whatever you want to call them playing together. Like they were always a really good clutch team because you got, you're at least going to get a shot on goal. And I think that's the thing that separates Denver, Houston, Boston is not a really great clutch team. And those are really good teams that you think about in terms of, oh, yeah, of course. They got, you know, maybe with the exception in Houston.

You think of Golden State, you know, when Steph was playing as a team that was going to get a shot up, that other team that was going to make the right decision, even though Steph can throw the ball around a little bit. But you think of those teams as being well coached and organized. And yet, the Lakers are the team, which we don't necessarily think of as being the most organized because of how they play on defense,

that thing translates. And I don't know what to do with that against this 22nd ranked defense that they're playing with. Their offense has seemingly caught up with, okay, our offenses are superpower. They could just never access the superpower. They could never be great at the thing

that they were good at to offset this being a really poor defensive team and the team that is not great at protecting the realm. Now they are starting to figure out, okay, that the net rating between LeBron, Luca and Austin Reeves is climbing up in a way that it wasn't before. Like they were a minus 10, you know, early on in the season. Now they're climbing up to be, you know, roughly league average.

Like that means something. And if you notice, they're putting LeBron a small ball five now. And I don't know. And he's going for it. Yeah. And I mean, part of me thinks, Bo, and not to hijack it, is there a better place for LeBron to spend his final year if this, if next year is going to be his final year?

Is there a better place for him to spend it franchise and team than where he's at? No, there's never been any better place to end his career than Los Angeles. I thought that was the whole point of going there in the first place. I love the idea that he's going along with being small ball five. It's the full of transition into being Kareem, except if Kareem was just much more explosive at athletic at this point in his career. Like, look, let me tell you something. if 1988

Corrie had LeBrah Jay's money, there would have been no 1988 Corrie. That wouldn't have been it. He needed that bread. I don't mean to laugh at his misfortune because somebody stole from him, but he was not out there for the love of the game.

He was out there because the bank said so. So it's not exactly to say LeBron being there. I think though the part we can't undersell once it comes to the postseason, I feel like we take for granted to a degree how well LeBron has held up over time, but we've seen it happen. I mean, you got to play every other night.

We ask for something different out of his body. Every other night, and you need a little more like 38 a night. Hey. This is why I love 82 games. Because during the playoffs, you find out how much of a skill stamina is. Like, you find out, you know,

both on the young side or on the old side, because you're going to see some of the young players. You're going to see find out from Vic. Okay, Vic, that 29 minutes got to go to 35, 36, may have to go to 40. And you got to play every other night post the first weekend of the playoffs because they just stretch everything out. Once we get past the first four games of the first round,

where you go for maybe game one on Sunday, then game two on Thursday, you get that long break. Then after that first weekend, you're going Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. You're going to go. And then you got to travel in between then, the old guys think they know they can handle it because they've handled it before. The young guys think they can handle it

because they get the young legs. In actuality, none of them can handle it because this is a damn marathon. And it hurts. And you think about LeBron, the last time we saw LeBron make a deep playoff run, which was 2023. They went to the Western Conference Finals.

They beat Golden State in round two. They played Denver, and they got swept, In large part because LeBron ran out of gas. And that was three years ago. How much gas is he going to have left now? Well, he ain't run out of gas. It was like the wheels were flying off on the freeway. Like them lug nuts got loose.

I mean, you remember him just sitting down, like taking off his shoe in the middle of a possession because his foot was in such terrible shape that year. And you're right. Yeah, yeah. That was three years ago that that that happened. happen. You hit on something. I want to stay with you on because I've seen, you and I have talked about it and I've seen you talk about it. Steve Kerr has been the voice for we need to shorten the season to 72 games. I think I saw our buddy Nate Jones make the point online that it's not

that you need to shorten the season is that, and I agree with Nate on this, the rules need to be changed so that the game doesn't move so fast because we have created a game that is unsustainable for the players and no, no administration of coach and staff has to discipline to rein in back. you're going to have to do it by the force of rules. But you are an adamant proponent of 82 games. Yes. Yes. Like, hey, dog.

It's so many different things that come up that people do not give credence to. For one, Bo, you talk about this. We've talked about this just in general and on conversations. 80s kids are playing too much basketball in an early age. Like you think, man, it's too much basketball for 82 games because these dudes are getting hurt. The odometer starts when you start playing basketball. It don't start when you get to. to the NBA and sign a damn contract.

That's why I think Steve Kerr is missing. Yeah, the kids in AAU are playing too much basketball. Secondarily, like you said, the game is too fast, right? Where it's too many possessions, there's too much space that you actually have to cover. The skill set of the players, think about a game that you saw in the 90s. There's only so much movement that you have because so much of the game was free throw line down, right? So yeah, it's more bumping and banging and bruising and everything else, but there's

less wind up. now there's more wind up and more impact, like more of a high speed car crash than a, you know, a crash where you're going 25 miles an hour. It's more 80 miles an hour car crashes. Yeah, it's going to be, you know, pain like that. The other thing for me, Bo is, and I've heard this from Team Doctors,

and even Stan Van Gunny has brought the second point. Team doctors have told me, we don't practice enough. So when you don't practice enough, your only version of high impact is during the games. Your body isn't prepared for it. and Rick Carlisle, Coach of the Pacers, brought this up last night. And he likes the idea, but he says when you get rid of back-to-backs, like the league in three and fours, you also, that means you also get rid of the practice days in between where you can go hard and you can recharge the body.

And you don't have training camps as long as training camps used to be so you can prepare the body for the grueling 82 games schedule. Now it's just you got to get these 82 games in into these days and you got these breaks baked in with All-Star Break and now you got have a week for playing because you got to get the league done by June 21st so you can have the draft the next day or whatever it is. There's just not enough days on the calendar for what Steve Kerr I think is talking about and the equipment is trash, which we don't talk about as much anymore. all these i think the sustainable shoes and everything else why are you seeing so many you know soft tissue injuries is because i don't know if the shoes are made now for the way the basketball needs to be played it's so many things that go beyond 72 damn games and the add to the fact that bow it ain't supposed to be easy how can we accept that everything else every other professional sport is supposed to be a battle of attrition but somehow basketball is supposed to be easy

Yeah. Now, I tell you this, here's the biggest thing about 72 games. It ain't never going to happen. Hard stop. No, no. Like there's no, literally nobody involved is going to campaign for this. As much as I get frustrated in the NFL, but Thursday, I think football and all of this stuff, the league clearly tells you, hey, it's going to be more money. And they all go, all right, you know, and then they go out there and do it. These cats don't want 72 games so bad that they are not going to play 82.

You know, they're going to give back the money. on the 82. It's not going to happen. Speaking of the money. Wait, here's one last thing, Bo. If you saw, what you tell me, someone tell me, if you scale the league back to 72 games and you give them all these breaks in between,

these same dudes are going to stay out the gym? Right. Because that's basically what you're asking them is, play fewer games, stay out of the gym. Aren't we in the age of overtraining and everything else? And every time you look up, you see a guy getting in the gym,

basketball never stops, and everything else. These dudes aren't going to stay out of the gym because it's how they, it's their instrument. They're going to keep working. Yeah. They're going to grind it down because that's what they've been trained to do.

Maybe that's a problem with how we, the basketball industrial system, sure, but they're not going to stay off their feet. No, it's a, it's a very complex issue. I want to ask you about this while we got you. We're hearing that it's going to come to a vote about expanding the NBA, perhaps bringing two teams,

in Las Vegas and Seattle. I don't care but so much about the money end of it. I think we'll see if it happens. If it does, it's because they think they could probably get $8 million, $8 billion, excuse me, per team as a franchise fee, which would mean $16 billion,

$16 billion distributed between the 30 current owners. The tradeoff obviously is, rather than getting a one out of 30 slice everything, they're going to get a one out of 32 slice of everything. I think the example of the Las Vegas Raiders has pointed out the trick bag about putting a team in Las Vegas is, will the home team feel like the home team? You'll always, well, in the past, at least we could have assumed you'd always have people who wanted to come into Las Vegas just to find an excuse and they come to watch their teams.

But as you can see, Las Vegas is not cracking like it once was. I don't, you know, I don't know exactly how that plays out. To me, the most underrated part of this is the scenario that we just out. line means somebody gets to go from the west to the east. And you hear people talk about that a lot. To me, there's only one team that it truly makes sense. There are only three candidates for the move. The two that are candidates, but I don't think it really works, are Memphis and New Orleans,

sitting right there on the Mississippi River. The one that I think ends up making the move is the other team that sits on the Mississippi River, and that's the Timberwolves. And taking the Timberwolves from a team in the East, to a team in the West to a team in the East because for reasons I don't have an answer for, the West has clearly been the best conference in the leagues as Jordan retired.

I don't know how this is held as tight as it has, but that's just what it is. In college basketball, every team for the last couple decades and change has been east of the eastern part of the country, right? But in Minnesota gets to go east, boy, Anthony Edwards' life gets a lot better, doesn't it? Oh, well, are we sure it does?

Because there's multiple points here. One, we're about to go into a recession and then we're going to put a team in Las Vegas. Stick a pin in that. When we go down there for the NBA Cup and you see what the sparse crowds look like, that's a weird, that's a funky thing for me and you're saying you're going to have 41 home dates when the Raiders have eight home dates and everybody can make a trip out of going to Las Vegas. Hey, we can make a weekend out of going to Las Vegas and we can see, you know, our team against the Raiders. sold hockey tickets up there.

The one thing I will say is they have sold hockey tickets. No, and I'm sure that Adam has done the numbers and everything else. Like, I don't think he's a fool and just looking at it from the standpoint of, you know, we're going to get this windfall and then it's going to be something that's not sustainable. Like I'll give Adam all that credit. I'll give Adam the benefit of doubt. So stick a pin in that. You ask why the West has gotten so much better than the East.

It's three reasons. Sam Presti, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant. Yeah. That's it. Sam Presti going in Oklahoma City gave them a sustainable sort of small market thing where now they're just who they are. Tim Duncan going to San Antonio, Bagat, Coi Leonard, Baguette, the international explosion, blah, blah, blah. Kobe Bryant kept the Lakers sustainable for almost two decades from the point that he was drafted, even though he wasn't that guy when he first got there. But the Lakers became a team that was in the wilderness before 1996 to a team that basically became the Los Angeles Lakers again, right? after.

Crazy how only those three small things can lead to three decades of just sheer dominance. But to your question about Ant Man, are we sure that the road is easier? Because I feel like the East quietly has been better than the West all season long. Indiana will be better next year when Halliburton comes back plus a draft pick, right? What if Atlanta gets stuff cracking? Because they look like they got it cracking right now. They won't. They won't. They won't.

They won't. But you know what, though? You're right, though. Like, it's... Detroit's sustainable. Boston is sustainable. New York is sustainable. Like, it ain't no easy sledding

over there in the Eastern Conference. In the West, you just got two behemoths that you're just going to have to see every damn year that you just not going to be able to get through. And that's the problem. So, yeah, and in the East? Yeah. I'm with that.

You raise, yeah, you raise a good point because the East really only has, like, what I would say, three consistently, franchises right now. Yeah. Yeah. The Wizards, the Nets, and the Bulls. Bums all around.

Right? They will find, that's found a way to be bums with three no-brainer Hall to Fame. Now, I don't think Utah's going to be Bums forever. Like, I mean, they have to start trying to win games, right? Right? They have to.

Sacramento, that's Bums. Memphis. They haven't always been Bums. but I think they're about to be in a nice, long stretch of bumminess. I mean, although I guess they get all those Desmond Baying picks, but I still think they're at a stretch of bumminess. The Pelicans, I think that's going to be bumminess for a stretch.

The Trailblazers emerging out of bumminess, and I'm telling you, one day, that big old dude from China, if he ever figures it out, whatever, the Chinese dude that play like Yolkich. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It may not be for another five. years, but I'm still paying attention. The Warriors headed toward bumness? Yes.

Yes. The fact that... Good players are old. I mean, look, the fact that they're saying, you know, we're old. And that's one of the teams that we're hearing of adding LeBron James is going to fix it. Another old. Am I the only person that hears that is like, what are you talking about? I ask this question sincerely.

They're like, oh, well, maybe LeBron comes and wraps up his career in Cleveland. Is that going to help? I don't know who that helps. Right. Like, I just, I don't, if I am, it's not exactly the same. But Barry Bonds was a top 10 player when nobody would take him. And I understood the argument that many teams could have, especially if he didn't want to go to the American League

where all you have to do is be a designated hitter. I see the argument that. a lot of guys just be like, the team's just like, no, man, we don't feel like doing this. I don't feel like add LeBron at this point. Like, when you used to add old shack, you were getting a very clear, defined thing out of old shack.

They're like, okay, yeah, we can do that. And old LeBron is not playing for the price's old shack was willing to play. That's the question. How much cap space would you have to carve out? Because LeBron ain't took less since the Miami contract. Since Miami. Never again.

Which was, which y'all, cover your ears. He made the decision to go to Miami 16 years ago. It's crazy. 16 years ago. There's people in high school that have no idea that LeBron James played for the Miami Heat. When they see the highlights, they're like, oh, no, that's got to be AI. And you're like, children. There's a time when LeBron was not just a myth,

when he was the best offensive player and defensive player in the game and the best athlete. And he still had strides to grow as far as, you know, some of the clutch stuff and some of the long range shooting. Like, like, that's Lockness Monster. That's like, wait a minute. It's been 10 years since he penned a Goddala shot against the glass. Amazing.

Amazing. Like, and then he's going to play another season. something maybe somewhere else and who let's just say let's just say lebrown wants to go somewhere else for his last year there's going to be a documentary so you're adding the lebron circus on top of the film crew and lebron isn't going to a bum franchise just to do it he's got to go so on where there's some stakes in the ground or whatever the case may be and then how do you sell that to the people who you already have who have the pressure of trying to win. Like I don't see,

and it's not necessarily, quote unquote, LeBron's fault, but it makes for an awkward circumstance if it were to happen. You mean to tell me LeBron going to spend his last year playing in San Francisco on Stephen Curry's team? Yeah, and did you read,

what was the name, Hollywood ending, the Lakers book? Yeah, yeah. The one thing LeBron ain't doing is showing up and just, fitting in with what you what you about to do. Like, LeBron is LeBron.

Yes. Like, that's, you know what I mean? That's his, it would be interesting to make that decision. So like the idea of Golden State, which already had the issue of trying to bring another superstar in who had to make peace with the fact that it wasn't his team, right? LeBron has had to make peace with the fact that this isn't his team. Mm-hmm. Can you imagine? And this is just a random question.

imagine what LeBron and the Lakers look like right now if they were not gifted Luca Donchich 14 months ago. Yeah, and Anthony Davis is over there looking fresh. Can you imagine what the Lakers would be? They would be exactly where they were during Kobe Bryant's last year, when we said the Lakers had lost their way.

It was just that they were gifted a generational superstar because you'd be asking LeBron to carry in a way that he's not physically fit to carry anymore. Like, just think about the road that we were headed on before they were gifted Luca Donchich. What we'd be saying. Anthony Davis is broken again. LeBron is breaking.

What are we doing here? Crazy. What a fascinating marriage of convenience this is proven to be. By the way, a marriage of convenience that has now been going on for eight years. longest single stretch he's had in his career the longest single stretch he's had in his career and I don't know if anybody's really been happy with it

they got a championship does it feel satisfying Lakers fan there's never been anything like this I think it's the best way to put it there's never been anything like this but the thing is they got a championship

a a a only a right in the last 50 years that hasn't been how it's worked if you were a laker stupor you got at least three he got a and it's not necessarily not blaming him right but it's not what we thought it was going to be i'm surprised no i would tell you this when he made the decision to go over there i wasn't thinking oh man he going over there and they about to win i didn't think that i thought he was going over there to make a lot of the way to make a lifestyle end of my career move. I didn't know how many years he was or wasn't going to play, but I didn't think they was going to be able to get it cracking for one year, to be perfectly

honest. Well, I thought it would at least be more interesting, right? And I think like when they got Anthony Davis, that team was really good that year that won that championship. But that is the only really good team they've had. And I think that's the part that's the most surprising. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. But yeah. But how competent have the Lakers shown themselves to be as a conglomerate. This is true. This is true. I just I still, I just thought that it would be more fun. That's all. Right? Like, I was really excited about the idea of it when it happened. And I just thought it was going to be a little bit more fun. Oh, it's about to be more fun, not because Irv about to walk back into that building,

baby. That's right. And for people who don't know, they got, like Magic Johnson walked away. And a big part of why Magic Johnson walked away from that team was he and Rob Polinka couldn't get along. He wasn't having a great time. All of this. stuff, right? And we got all these stories about Rob Polaker running Magic down behind his back. Magic came and sat on first take and sat everywhere, tell the world about how he felt like Rob

had mistreated him and everything else. And this is something that I don't think people realize happened. When the buses sold the team to I forget my man's name, Mark Walter. Mark Walter. Yeah, Mark Walter, the guy that owns the Dodgers. Magic is part of the ownership group with the Dodgers

and who have they put in charge of the Lakers, a gentleman named Ron Lohen. Lon Rosen. Godamol. Lon Rosen. And some of you may be like, oh, that name sounds familiar. Who's Lon Rosen? Lon Rosen was Magic's agent, which is to say,

Magic is back running the Lakers. Even if he ain't running the whole thing. His guy is running it. And I don't think Rob Polink is going to have that job very long. Well, Magic Johnson never had an office cleaned out of that building in El Segundo. Even when he, even when he did the, I'm not going to be here.

Magic is, magic never left. Magic is tight with Jeannie still, tight with, you know, in partnership with the new ownership. One of his best friends is now the head of the Los Angeles Lakers business operations. And you think magic ain't going to be back in that building? I. Hey, he'll be back in there. and you know what you'll hear blaring through the office. Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

They said magic just be in that office watching family feud all day. That was in yards. Watching his man Steve Harvey, you know what I'm saying? Because magic was doing all the other stuff, magic. does. Keele Imagine hearing Steve Harvey's voice

Blan through Draft night. Hey, look, man. And now look like magic is playing the feud. That is what that is. That is Vinny Goodwill. Check him out all over ESPN,

covering the NBA. My brother, I appreciate. You appreciate you. I appreciate you, Doc. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on The Right Time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumley handled everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir.

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