The Ringer NBA Show - Bucks Control Game 1 in Boston | Weekends with Wos

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Wosny Lambre is joined by J. Kyle Mann to discuss the Bucks' impressive Game 1 victory in Boston (2:28). Then, they discuss what direction the Utah Jazz should go in this offseason (25:28). Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: J. Kyle Mann Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, everyone. I'm Ian Wright. Make sure you check out my podcast. Writey's house every Wednesday on Ringer FC. Each week, I'm joined by a rotating panel of guests to talk about football, life, films, everything. Search of Ringersc on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Take it easy. Edition of weekends, I'm Big Was. joined today by a very special guest. The Ringers own, Kyle James, man, what's going on, brother? James Kyle, man, but I hate, I never want to jump in and correct you, Wai. I have such affection for you as a friend. I'm mad. Anyway.

I was never good at math, man. These three names, it's tough to keep track of. Me either, man. Me either. What do you have to, man? I saw you were out here out this way, eating some barbecue.

It looked pretty fantastic. Oh, yeah. I was in Charleston for a couple of days. A buddy of mine is like a pretty prominent DJ. And he had never been to Charleston. He asked me if I wanted to come. And I was like, I've never been, but I've heard they've got spectacular food. So I was like, fuck it.

Let's go to your gig and check it out. And I went to Lewis's barbecue yesterday, Saturday. Yeah, it was fantastic. Believe the hype over at Lewis's. Oh, my goodness. Well, so our room ended up having a microwave in it. So I didn't go crazy at the spot. I ate a decent amount.

Had two ribs, a link, you know, had a couple slices of brisket. Always. Always. Always. Always. Always. Always. And, yeah, best believe when we got home to pack for our flight after some, you know, a decent amount of tequila was imbibed, we went to town on that barbecue.

I promise you that. But anyway, second round started. Oh, my goodness. Second round started today. And we're recording this at around 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Sunday. So, uh, warriors and grizzlies have just tipped off. But we just finished watching the Celtics and the Bucks. Bucks take care of business in game one and kind of dominate the Celtics in a bit of a

surprising fashion. Uh, I think what stuck out to me, first and form. is that Janice has no peers out there. Even when he's not having a great game by Janus's standard, he was utterly dominant today on both ends of the floor. Particularly what I liked is getting a ball out quick, Kyle. 12 assists today. Milwaukee ended up making their shots today.

And so that was able to carry a day for them. Janice was just, he was kind of out of this world. Yeah, I had it written down in my notebook. I was like, you watched that and you, and my thought was just like, that felt like an entry in his like, of course, Janice has done had so many entries like in his playoff resume, resume. But then I, you know, you're looking at the line. You're like, well, he wasn't like crazy efficient. Nine for 25 field goals. He didn't.

He only took a couple threes, missed them both. He was six for 11 from the free throw line. Those aren't like wild stats, unusual stats for Janus. but yeah, dominant. And I think you're right. And it's something that I guess, I guess this all ties into sort of the broader narrative about Janus that stretches back to when his playoff resume began, which is we keep having these conversations about like, yeah, Milwaukee in transition is this just unstoppable force because Janus is probably the most unique elite athlete in the league, I'd say, at this point. I mean, can you think of somebody, Zion's pretty unique, but Janus, the things that he's provides.

And he powers that. So over the years, we would see him just kind of in the, and I think the way that they've built their teams over the years have helped too. But I think you're on the money. Like his decision making, I thought, was really reflected in this game where they didn't have Chris Middleton. They're not going to have him in this series. We come in, we come in thinking where the point's going to come from.

Your first thought is, well, we need a lot from Janus. But I think Janus resisted taking the best. on that and like ramming his head into the wall like he did in the past and he got off the ball like you said and um every situation i was just noticing him like whether it be an action where it was like he'd get downhill and he'd have like a guard in front of him that he could perceivably step around or go over the top of he was like i don't i don't need to i don't need to force these issues now he did pick his spots and score but uh he'd get off the ball and then Milwaukee would just start humming on offense and it was just a really impressive thing to see from him

And yeah, it's cool to see him develop over the years here. Yeah, because back in the days, I think, you know, he had a bit of a tunnel vision syndrome. And basically, if he was attacking off of the wing and you helped off of, like, say, the strong side corner, he could make that pass, right? But that was the beginning and the end of his playmaking. Now he's attacking the defenses at all angles.

He's doing the skip pass now over two and three defenders. He threw one over his head backwards. That was crazy. That was just a heat check pass right there. I loved it. Yeah, incredible. It was just, and that's the most fun about the playoffs, right? Like, I remember 2019 games three through six against Toronto,

where it was just like, damn, Janice, like, you're not at that level that we need you at yet. And even moments in last year's playoffs where we were just like, come on, Janice, get the ball out quicker. stop trying to attack from 40 feet out, et cetera, et cetera. And then today it's just the opposite. One of their best initiators and just offensive players, period. Chris Middleton is out.

And Janice just picks up the slack. He's like, I'm the de facto point guard and playmaker of this team today. I'm our biggest engine in transition. I'm crashing the offensive boards. I'm doing everything that you need of me today. And I thought it was impressive even on a day where he wasn't efficient. scoring the ball. Yeah, it's just, he seems like he has like a really improved, it's been, you know,

it's been incremental. It's not like it was like an overnight thing. We've seen him, but the big thing is just we've seen him learn and, you know, and that's what you want to see from stars. You want to see them run up against a challenge, go back and figure out what it is and things like that. Another thing is that he didn't really, in the past, you could kind of count on him thinking, all right, I'm going to take a couple threes.

Or I'm going to take a few threes. You know, he was like, that was. that was his answer, I think, in the past. And specifically last year's playoffs, I would get really frustrated with him where it was just like, he thought that the only sort of pressure response to his room pressure was I got to be able to shoot threes.

I got to shoot a lot of threes. And no, it's just like really developing that keen sense for like really quickly getting off the ball. Like whether it means that, you know, whoever's going to score, maybe he gets it back. I just, I love to see stars do that, man.

It's just really encouraging because, you know, over the years we just think of stars as like, you can either ram your head and like overcome the, you know, sort of the Durant model or the Jordan, the shot maker model, you know? Like you either, you can either do that or you're not really a superstar.

It's just, it's refreshing to me, sort of rippling, echoing to like the heart of basketball, honestly, that we have stars that are willing to do that. And it makes the bucks better. Harder to guard.

That's for sure. Yeah, uh, to me as a superstar, the surest sign of it is that you're not on your game. at the peak of your powers, but yet you're still the most impactful player on the floor for, you know, a high stakes,

high talent playoff game. And, you know, one of the things that Boston could hang their hat on, a few things that they could hang their hat on from this game is how they defended Janus in the paint. He just was missing, straight up. I thought, obviously, Al Horford did a great job in one-on-one and in help.

I thought time load was tremendous on help side and even when he was just straight up on the ball against Janice, just tremendous in the paint, just his length, his explosiveness, his quickness. I thought he threw Janice's timing off a lot. Like he just wasn't timing his finishes the way that he normally does because he was bothered by how rangy this guy is. However, I just find it hard to believe that Janus is not going to figure out a way.

to be a better finisher as this series goes on because as most of the people listening to this might already know, he's the best fucking paint finisher in the NBA. So as elite as Boston... For the past few years too. Right, exactly. So as elite as Boston's interior defenders are,

I have a hard time believing they're going to keep him at this level of inefficiency for those plum looks. Definitely. And I think that another thing that is interesting is you're right. about, I mean, like, Boston is set up on paper to have the types of defenders. We talk a lot about, like, it's good to have, like, a positionally strong big and then one that can come in and kind of swoop in and clean messes up. And we're talking about that with, like, Horford. Horford moves really well for his age still, surprisingly. I remember there were people talking about, like, eh, that might have been sort of the tipping point that, like, Horford is on his way down. He's still playing, like, playoff level defense. The big thing for me, I think, too, is over the flow of the game. He definitely was picking his spots pretty well, too, because in the beginning of the game, he didn't really.

And I know we're going to talk about the other stars in this game picking their spots and the lack thereof or failing to do so or to convert. Once there's a dynamic between, you know, the spot up guys for Milwaukee playing well and then that. And he definitely understands the pressure that happens for that. Like, you got to respect those shooters. Those guys start to sort of get respect over the course of the game. And then Yonis starts to pick his spots more. But I agree. I think he'll probably start to, I would imagine he'll start to figure some things out

because that's just kind of what he does. He's best finisher in the world, I would say. And so which brings us to the Boston Celtics of it all, sorry, Zay. Just offensively, they just puked all over themselves today. A couple of things stood out as I'm watching this game. And Boston has to be willing to let it fly. that's the only way to beat this, pack the paint,

not let you get anything inside philosophy that Budenhosa loves and you kind of had to know that they would bring into this game, right? You have to shoot it. You just have to. Horford has to shoot it. Tatum has to shoot it off for the bounce

when Brooke is in the drop coverage. Same with Brown off of the dribble. Like, you have to shoot it. That's the only, way you're going to beat this team is by making shots from the outside. And it feels like they didn't really honor that as a game plan, which, look, traditionally, that's just been what you have to do against Milwaukee until you get them out of it, right? Make, make Brooke Lopez sort of guard you at the level. Same with Portis. Same with Janus. Make them play Janus at the

five. Make them try to go into a switching defense that they're not very comfortable with doing, although they show flashes last year in the playoffs. I thought Boston, was too tentative, letting it fly. I'm not talking about Peyton Pritcher doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

I'm talking about their best guys. I'm talking about Tatum and Brown. Brown specifically was just forcing it trying to get inside when you're talking about

Drew Holiday, West Matthews. These guys are experts at digging in on the help side. Like, they just kept picking his pocket

and making them look foolish. Like, they're daring you to just get it out. Like, if you shoot that gap, as hard they're coming in. That guy's open

when you give the ball up for an open shot. And I just thought they were just too tentative in letting it fly. I don't know what you were seeing out there. Yeah, I think it's interesting to talk about Janus as kind of developmental pain points. This is one for Jaylen and it has been for years.

It's like his shakiness in these situations. And you're right. I mean, like, Drew is like a world-class digger on drives. Like he can, he's just so I mean, one of the biggest plays of the place. playoffs. Yeah. He's one of those dudes that like if he gets, if he two hand digs on something, it's his. Like, you might as well forget about it. But Jalen struggled in this game, man. And,

and I mean, the Pritchard stuff was pretty funny. I mean, but I appreciated his courage, taking the shots. I mean, like, he definitely was stepping up and trying to help. But, yeah, they were daring them to take threes, 49 threes attempted as what I had written. I don't know if they hit the 50th one or not, but that's the second highest number. of the entire playoffs. And overall, like, offensively, 89 points. There was a greater point I kind of wanted to ask you about with Milwaukee. 89 points is tied for the fewest that Milwaukee's allowed all year, other than, I think,

maybe third most in the playoffs, but for the regular season, low number. So Milwaukee is kind of rounding into form, I feel like, defensively, where we've talked a lot about, like, the metrics with Boston. Do you think that, like, defensively, Milwaukee maybe a little, did it take playing a good opponent for us to kind of be like, oh, yeah, these guys have like insane continuity. Have we underrated that a little bit, possibly? No, I think if you were watching a regular season, you kind of got the hint that these guys weren't, you know, giving it their all, if you will, right?

And so I'm not surprised that they've been able to ratchet it up. And, you know, honestly, looking at the numbers, I stayed corrected. Like, Horford took nine threes. He's got to do that. Brown took nine threes, Tatum took nine threes. Like, that's kind of where they got to be at. If not,

Brown and Tatum to me got to be even higher than that. Because again, like, they have to be willing to fire this stuff off in order to draw more help to get better shots. Like, the box are just committed to this conventional pick and roll defense. They want, like, when you have Janus and freaking Brooke Lopez, it's like, you're not. scoring down there, period.

Once those guys are down there and they're parked and they're just literally just waiting for you to come inside, like, it's not going to happen for you. I just thought, you know, especially in the Tice minutes, he was so scared to let it go in the second quarter. And I was like, man, this is how this game is turning around. Boston, their kind of newity doesn't look as good when that guy is wide open and not willing to fire it, right? Like, you're not making me.

Milwaukee make tough decisions. And look, I think Tatum and Brown are good enough one-on-one players that they should be able to do it. In spots, though, that can't be their go-to offensively of just being like, all right, it's time to just go one-on-one right now. It's not going to work against Milwaukee. And I think it's part of their worst nature, honestly, with Boston. This is the kind of stuff that they were doing earlier in the year when they weren't

looking like the world beaters that they ended up looking like from January on. And so I just think they got to, they just got to be willing to take these threes, man. I know it's annoying and especially when you're at the home crowd and the shots don't fall and is it like this nervous energy that permeates the whole building. But they got to be willing to let those things fly. And they also got to be willing to take these midrangers when they're there as well, right? sometimes that's what's given to you. Brown and Tatum are pretty damn good mid-range shooters.

I just honestly think you've got to make jump shots. Like, as stupid as that sounds. Hey, man, make Miss League, right? Yeah, I think it's making shots obviously going to be huge. And another thing, too, is just they, I mean, the defensive point I was trying to make is just that, like, Milwaukee really made them look uncomfortable for a lot of the games. There are a few factors, too, that I do think this is going to be a good series.

Like, I know that this was a game where they came in. and Milwaukee looked good, but I think that the shots were there. Like you were talking about them going down. I think there are opportunities and kind of lanes for Boston to figure out ways to manufacture things. And also, I don't know, like, what if Marcus Smart is, like, kind of day-to-day banged up, or if he, like, really tweaked his knee or, like, what the deal is, or if that Stinger, I was telling you that, like, you know, if you're getting, Marcus Smart gets screened as much as anybody in the league, that's a tough situation.

So it's like, if he's going to be laboring like that, then offensive. what are you going to get from him? Because you already kind of have these, like, trust questions that we've had with Marcus over the years period. But they have to take care of the ball is a big thing, too, because Milwaukee outscored them 28 to 8 in transition, 20 point difference in transition. You can't feed the transition monster. Like, you just can't do it because it's just going to put you in a hole throughout the game.

But I definitely think that they made them look uncomfortable throughout. out. It's just, yeah, they're going to have to make shots and just kind of figure out some ways to manufacture offense, take better care of the ball, you know, to have a chance. Yeah. And again, on the other side of the ball, I thought they were pretty fine. They were sound today as far as I'm concerned. They played good enough defense to win this game and be in it. I personally don't have faith that Milwaukee's going to rain threes on people all series long. they just don't have those type of shooters. But what I did know, another thing I did notice today was

Drew Holiday had some nice on the ball off the dribble juice, drives against Horford, drives against Tatum, muscling guys in the paint. He even made a couple of pull-up long twos. I was impressed by what Drew Holiday did today because I don't think there's any scenario that Milwaukee ends up stealing this series where Drew Holiday isn't beating his matchup. Like, there's only but so much Janice can do by himself on the ball, right?

Like, he's one man. At a certain point, Drew Holiday has to be the secondary creator. And today, like in fits and starts, he kind of was that. Yeah, he attacked Horford that one time. And I was just like he, whenever he's aggressive like that, you know, we talk about how strong he is throughout. Like, he can attack bigs like that. He's got kind of an awkward game around the room.

Like sometimes he'll like flip up these kind of old man. Yeah. You're like, it doesn't look smooth. And his, his kind of courage to shoot dribble pull-ups and transition from three sometimes make me kind of like, I don't know about that.

But his courage to kind of do that is going to be huge. Yeah. And like those those buckets in particular really did hurt Boston. And I thought that some of their supporting guys had pretty good. The ball, think about Milwaukee is just, they really understand where, like, their secondary assists come from. You notice that, like, they don't, if you watch, like, Philly play sometimes, they can be kind of frustrating to watch sometimes because the ball will stick.

Like, Milwaukee has, like, really quick. Yeah, yeah, they have really quick, like, they know where their penetrators are trying to get to, and they know if they don't have that corner three, where the open three is going to be, like, a portist made a few good passes today, Conantan. and even Grayson Allen, I thought defensively was fine today. It was, but then again, you know, man, it wasn't, it wasn't an all-out ass kicking. Like, it was, it was a thorough win, but it was like, if you think about the margin of victory, it's like Boston could tweak some things, I think, and be fine and, and get, make this a series.

Here's a tweet, Kyle, that might sound crazy to people. If you're going to isolate the bucks, try not to do it against Drew Holiday. I mean, like, can we, like, can we learn the lessons of what this guy did to people like Chris Paul and Devin Booker and the list goes on and on and on and on? Like, this is not the dude you want to be attacking in isolation on this team. If you're going to insist on doing it, find another slant. Yeah, I mean, one of the best isolation defenders in basketball. I mean, I don't know. There was another play that I thought was pretty funny where.

I don't know why on broadcast we just like have this aversion to saying somebody got hit in the why not just say in the crotch what's the what's the standards and practices on that I don't understand but Rob Williams was like it almost seemed like he was going over the top

with the demonstration just to get the play to stop because it went on and on and on not saying it didn't hurt but my thing was like that was when Yonis that was one of the weirder Yonis didn't make a couple mistakes he made that one play for his fourth foul there was a sequence that Boston

didn't capitalize on where Yannis picked up a foul then he picks up his fourth foul and then there was like a challenge yeah and then there was like a challenge and they lost it or they didn't get the jump ball whatever it was but yeah but Janus pulled up for a three

while Robert Williams is like dancing around like a cartoon character like because he got hitting the nuts I just thought that was an odd point but yeah yeah I don't know why we can't say penis or testicles on TV. Like, I, like, what, what are we as a country that we just can't hear those words and not, like, completely self-combust? I just, I, I, it's just weird. The dancing around it, like,

everybody knows what happened. You can acknowledge it. It'll just be fine. It's just one of those quirks. The dancing makes it weirder. Then you end up with, like, weird nicknames and things like that. My wife and I were like, just say it's a, it's penis. Just say that. I was like, you know, when you're raising a kid, you get in these conversations. They're like, yeah, you don't want them to be a grown man saying these other words. Anyway, I don't know how I got a word. It's just the body part, people. I get it.

Now, you know, I don't want you to get all crass on TV and start using some of the more colorful, descriptive ways of calling this stuff. But like, yeah, just go scientific with it, please. And so, you know, just to end off on this game and this series and spin it forward, I happen to think that Boston's going to take this thing in about six games. I haven't really. Yeah, because no Chris Middleton. I picked the bucks to win the championship.

But without Chris Middleton, they just seem so thin offensively. And nothing has really disavowed me of that watching them today. I don't think they were like that insane. I think Boston is going to do a great job of defending them because they got the personnel to do it. What do you think is going to happen? Has anything changed your mind? mind haven't watched game one.

I mean, today definitely furrowed the brow. Definitely. Like, I mean, I was like, well, I mean, without Chris Middleton on paper, it's hard not to think that Boston, the way they've been playing, are going to do this, especially with Time Lord coming back. I thought he looked fine. I mean, like

he looks, he looks like himself. Yeah, he looked explosive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a few pretty good plays. And I think that, I guess the question is, Are you ever going to be able to put Janice in a position to, is he going to be able to produce like that? It's going to come down to those guys hitting shots, the variance on that, cleaning up the transition stuff like we talked about.

I thought they defended well enough. It's a possessions game, too. You know, Milwaukee wanted the possession number to be a certain number. They wanted to be faster. Yep. Yeah, yeah. So I still think that Boston could do this. It's very possible that this could go. six or seven. That's kind of where I'm feeling. That's where I'm leaning. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that like Milwaukee was really impressive today. And I think, I think Yon, the power of a star player, you know, Boston has has a star in Jason Tatum, but he's not quite at like Yonis. It's not as overwhelming. Yep. Yeah. So I'm still, I'm still leaning Celtics, but I wouldn't be surprised if this thing goes seven. Yeah. I think the buck showed some championship medal today

on the road over there with that crowd to come out and play the way that they did, even getting down early and, you know, being the underdog and just showing the resilience and having that scheme, discipline, and just hustle and grit, pretty cool to see. It wouldn't be right if we didn't end the show

on a jazz note. You see what I did there? Oh, yeah. Improvisational. Very smooth and fluid of you, Was. As listeners know, I've had a Utah Jazz obsession for years now, and they've been eliminated from the playoffs. And of course, as is customary, whenever the season ends,

a reporter close to the team is going to do sort of a notebook dump. And my man Tim Ban McMahon of ESPN put out a piece, basically summarizing the state of the union out in Utah. And I just thought there was some interesting things. at the time I remember there was some rumblings. Sarah Todd even brought it up on weekends when she was up here. Another fantastic jazz beat writer, shout to Sarah. She mentioned that there was a little bit of friction when Rudy talked about

his admiration for the way the sons play and their level of determination. Their night-to-night consistent effort defensively, the fact that one of their star players, Devin Booker, gets in a fucking defensive stance and takes pride in his defense and you know people could have... And siding... I had to jump in.

Siding with Booker specifically is a pretty... It's a pretty insightful... Everybody keeps saying that. Can you elaborate as to why that is? I don't see it. I don't know where it comes from or what the origin of it was, but like Sons fans and jazz fans go at each other.

I witness it all the time. They're like, our star's better than yours. So the fact that he said Devin's specifically is kind of a like, come on, man, because those two families, I guess they're stars kind of in a similar, you know, I don't know if they're, they're not in the exact same class, I don't think. I mean, they're around the same age. They play the same position.

And guess what? It's important that your quote unquote leader is setting a great example. Like, I don't even, like to me, I guess this is just a sort of unspoken rule. I saw my man Steve Jones on Twitter saying, like, it's kind of an unspoken rule. Like, the guys in your tier, you don't, like, it's not cool for your teammate to sort of compare you and big up another guy that's in your tier of player. Because they're saying, like, it's not like Rudy was like, oh, DeAndre Aiton is busting his ass on defense. He specifically talked about the guard, one of the lead guards who ostensibly plays. Like, he plays the same position as the guy.

And, you know, McMahon's piece. And look, Tim McMahon is one of the most plugged in people about Utah Jazz that we have in the league. And so if he's saying that, like, Donovan Mitchell's people and Donovan Mitchell were irate about what Rudy said. That's a fact. He's pissed about it. And then you add to that the lingering stuff about Donovan Mitchell,

maybe not wanting to be there long term. et cetera, et cetera. And I just thought it was an interesting piece. Like, how do you feel about the jazz in the immediate future, meaning this offseason, what they should do, what they could do, what would be the smart thing to do? It just feels like an argument that they keep coming back to, and they just keep, like, threatening to do something more.

Like, we keep circling back to the same argument. Like, this relationship has toxicity in it, and it's, like, clear that it needs to end. And it's, like, Gobert is doing the... Once you start doing the thousand yards stare out the window and start kind of like the Ola Depot thing for the Pacers where he was just like, hey, can I play with y'all next year? I mean, like, Gobert's putting it out there. I would say that he didn't mind for it to be out there because I'm sure that the trade talks

have been warming up with him lately. And I bet he wants out of there. You know, you get to a certain age. Like you get out of high school, you go to college and that first stretch of your career is sort of a time. And then you're like, hey, what else could I be doing? during my prime, you know, and it's like they were talking, Bill and Mahoney and KOC were talking about Donovan Mitchell's prime. It's like, usually when you're heading into your prime, you're like kind of winding up. We're off track. Like, we're off track with Donovan Mitchell. So it's like, I don't, I don't,

and I don't understand why we were talking about like choosing between what, and what's nailed down in Utah for you, because for me, nothing's nailed down. I wouldn't be fine just going back to the, to the, to the, to the studs of the house and like starting over. I don't, I don't feel confident either one of those guys being my being my centerpiece. Here's the thing. I've traditionally been really hard on Rudy Gobert and I've been a big Donovan Mitchell supporter. However, I feel like there was a tipping point in game, what was it, three, whichever game that freaking, uh, Jalen Brunson and Spencer did when he basically took turns treating Donovan Mitchell like a turnstile. They hunted him out and they said, bro, you can't do anything with me.

Get out of my way. I don't need a screen. I'm just going to dribble right past this dude into the heart of the pain. I'm going to do it over and over and over again. And at a certain point, you're supposed to take more pride in what you do than to allow that to happen. And Mitchell does. He says the right things. And, you know, he positions himself as somebody that's like, I'm leader guy.

And I just don't feel like that's been demonstrated. And the idea that during his last game, you know, and it was Sarah Todd, again, front of the pod, Sarah Todd, who asked him about his future with the jazz, he's like, man, this really hurts. Man, this is tough. I really want to be here. But I'm not even in the headspace to talk about. He said, but I'm not in the head space to talk about it.

But I'll take a week to think about it. Like, my boy, you got three years left on your deal. You guys got embarrassed last year against a extremely hobbled clipper team. You guys got pantsed again in the first round of this year's playoffs against a team that doesn't have an MVP candidate, one of the best players in the league on there and they're pantsing you. Okay. And the idea that Donovan Mitchell was somehow being wronged in Utah.

Like the situation around him is not up to his standards. I just think that's a level of arrogance that just doesn't, you know, the facts don't bear that out. Like, you don't deserve to be this cocky and arrogant and entitled. I'm sorry, what have you done for these people? That's what I always ask. Like, when organizations want to move heaven and earth for the Bradley Beals and the Donovan Mitchells and, you know, certain other guys, I'm like, why? I keep saying this, why? And, like, the idea that Donovan Mitchell is like, oh, I'll see if I want to be here.

Utah should be looking at moving his ass Straight up and down Like they should be preemptively like You don't have the power here Like get out of here Yeah it's it's interesting I've wondered if there's some sort of like I don't know

People get offended by like the small market team It's like Utah is a different situation They have to build their teams carefully It's not like a free agency destination We all know that's true So nobody get offended by that But it's like I wondered if him being ahead of

schedule and he kind of brought a different vibe for a while if maybe that made them a little that maybe cultivated this these decisions that have been made over the time where he felt like it was okay for him to to act that way or to say those things but i was going to make a basketball point too just about go bear you know i've i've given gobert grief over the years but like at some point i don't care how good a defensive anchor you are if you're not guarding the ball it's not his fault at some point. You know, it's like if you can't, you can't really get mad at Gobert. And the defense is a, is a trust. It's a trust endeavor, man. And it's like it's years of like communication. We're seeing that with the Celtics. We're seeing that with the bucks. They would just

break down. And you can't defend for a whole, like for the beginning of a possession, much less the second and third parts of a possession. That's not Gobert's fault. If you can't guard the ball, it's a cyclical, systematic thing in the NBA. If you can't guard the ball, you're basically fucked. Basically, that's what it is. Because in a three-point shooting league, you're just not going to be able to guard anybody. We saw all that with the Mavs. And I don't know. I wouldn't, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would almost lean more towards going after Gobert as an asset at this point.

I mean, like, Mitchell's shown things. It's not over for him. He's in a frustrating situation. He probably has more to give. I would imagine he does. So I don't know. But I would- He's 25 years old.

Obviously, he's an all-star-level player. Again, I just think there's orders of magnitude. right? Like, just because you get paid just as much as Luca Donchich on his extension, doesn't mean that y'all the same player. Does it mean that you deserve the same level of cowtowing and ass kissing?

Because you don't. You have improved yourself in that manner, right? And so, and it's not like Luca has been like, oh, he's taking his team to the finals. It's like, just the proof is in the pudding. Like, just check the tape. Luca Donch is just on another level and another plane. But in the NBA, because we have these artificially capped salaries,

like you can be in the same pay bracket as somebody while being nowhere near the same level of player. And I think it leads to these disparities in how a player self-identifies and what he's actually accomplished for an organization. I just thought it was crazy to be like, oh, Utah needs to scramble and get it right. And last year, D. Wade and a new owner went to Greenwich, Connecticut to soothe this guy's feelings.

I'm just like, give me a fucking break here. They paid that dude the max. That's all the feeling soothing you need, brother. You get paid like a- Exactly. You get paid like a star. Now, go out, do something that indicates maybe you're underpaid or something like that. And then we could talk about ass kissing and pampering and all of that stuff.

Right now, bro, you get paid to the level of your play right now. now. And there should be no other more considerations as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, the babying and like the, like you were saying, like taking care of players and being beholden to them, those are about two scenarios. One, maintaining a good scenario that you want to keep. Of course. You want to keep the player there. You want to keep it going. And the other is when there's promise on the horizon and you don't want to punt that away. We're between those two things now. We're between them. So it's just like he hasn't, this jazz thing is just, it's sour. It just feels like they got to make a big change. And knowing Danny Ainsh, he's going to do that.

I would imagine that's going to happen this summer. I'll be surprised if it done. All right, I'll be watching them really closely this all season. I continue to be fascinated by that team out in Utah. That's our show. Shouts to my brother, James Kyle, man, for coming on the show. Tell the people they could find you and all that good stuff. You can find my videos on our YouTube channel and I write some and hop on pod.

So I'm all over the place. So just keep an eye out. All right. We'll see you guys soon. This is weekends with James Kyle, man. I took your show. We'll see you guys next time. Peace.