The Ringer NBA Show - It’s Time to Fear the Deer | The Mismatch

Episode Date: April 23, 2019

The Phoenix Suns fire head coach Igor Kokoskov, continuing a season of constant upheaval for the franchise (1:14), the Milwaukee Bucks look unstoppable as they complete their sweep of the Detroit Pistons (22:38), and the Utah Jazz pull off an impressive win against the Houston Rockets to avoid a sweep (33:36). Plus: as the first round comes to a close, the most interesting narratives for the remaining series (49:56). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Turo. Turro is a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want, wherever you want, from a community of local host. From exotic sports cars to practical daily drivers, you can choose the best car for you, whatever your budget. Download the T-U-R-O app, that's T-U-R-O, on the App Store or Google Play, or visit Turo.com. Get $25 off your first trip when you sign up for Turo and use the promo, code ringer at checkout. Terms apply. Today's episode of the mismatch is also brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. If you ever stopped at a railway crossing and the signals are flashing and you don't see the train or it looks like it's moving slow and you're

thinking maybe you could get across the tracks before the train comes, think about this. In 2018 alone, 270 people were killed at railroad crossings. Two hundred and seventy, stop, trains can't. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Tuesday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k.a. Kevin O. Palmer, A.K.A. Kevin O. Kavana. A.k.a. Kevin O. Candyland. A.k.a. Kevin O'clock. A.k.a. Kevin O'clock.

Okay. Kevin O'clock. Okay. A.K.A. Mr. Brightson. Kev-oh. Felt like that was a long intro. That was an all-time run time for the intro, Chris. I'm pretty sure. Well, I'm excited, Kevin. I'm excited too. The sun was out this morning in Phoenix.

Woke up this morning. And the first thing I see, because I had missed it last evening, is that Igor Kikoskov has been fired from your beloved bright future sons. There's another coach down the drain, another loss for tanking teams, as they now are going to blame the coach again. but their bright future remains extremely bright going forward. Kevin, this news must have hit you rather hard last night. Well, their future is still shining bright because they have Devin Booker on their roster.

But the problem is, is building everything else around him and their young core of, you know, some nice appealing young players. There were some stuff on Twitter last night, Chris, about how this is shocking. It's shocking that they fired a coach less than a year after hiring him. Nothing that sons do is shocking. Nothing. There's nothing they can do that's shocking, Chris. And firing their coach within a one year is just a continuation of what they've done in the past.

They fired their coach Earl Watson in October. They fired their GM Ryan McDonough of the October after that. And even though the DeAndre Aiton pick was good in the sense that he had a good rookie season, improved defensively every month, and he was spectacular with his efficiency scoring around the room, they still hired Luker Dantanj's head coach for the summer. Slovenian national team and still pick eight. You would think that would be a sign at least that you're heading in that direction, picking Luca Donjit, who is tremendous as a rookie.

But then you fire that guy less than a year. It's really not a surprise. And from front office to front office, from coach to coach, the one underlying continuing factor here is Robert Sarver, the owner. So while there might be some teams, if they fire their coach after hiring a new GM and elevating James Jones, you might say, maybe this is a sign. that this team is finally establishing organizational alignment. You might say that they're going to try to go after Monty Williams,

like Adrian Orrjnowski reported that they will, and Jeff Bauer worked with him in New Orleans. He actually hired him as head coach, and then James Jones played for him in Portland years before that. You might say this is a sign of getting a front office and a coach all on the same page, but there's nothing that the sons have done in the past under Robert Sarver's owner to indicate that to be the case.

It feels like this is just another short-sighted decision by the Phoenix Suns and things aren't going to change moving forward until they actually do but there's no reason to feel that they will because of the owner in place in Phoenix. We will see what happens with all of these teams that have tanked over the course of the last couple of years and their coaches being able to remain but the truth is outside of Brett Brown who was actually a holdover, you know, the guy that committed to Brett Brown originally he has withstood the management change over. That being said, virtually all of these teams.

That's what bad teams do. They continue to lose and they continue to blame their coaches year after year after year. And the idea is always we are going to hire a young coach that can grow with this team and the coach doesn't get to see it through. And rarely the GM gets to see it through. It's why, you know, I always talk to you about these teams that lose 55 or more games, the track record is miserable. I mean, going forward, it is not something. You do have the case of Philadelphia, who's now going to, more than likely, advance to the second round and lose to Toronto.

And they've got, you know, two outstanding players to show for their excessive losing. The rest of these teams, these teams that have lost over 55 games. they have all had management changeover. They have all had coaching changeover. And so while the idea is always to, you know, sell hope and, oh, we're going to get a high pick, the truth is the people that endure the 55 plus losses, they're not around to reap the benefits of, even if it's not necessarily their fault. And in some cases, right, that's how you buy time.

You say, I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose, I'm going to lose. And then, you know, you're going to set yourself up for the future. But somebody else gets to see that through. And that happens in all sports. The guy that put it all together with the Cleveland Browns. I mean, that guy didn't get to see it through. They got a new general manager that came in and got to make the picks.

They got to make the moves and whatever else. And so I don't know. I mean, I guess we will see if you could finally find stability. But the truth is they lose a mega amount of games year after. year after year, and you have all these different coaches coaching these guys. And I just think that usually the decision to tank, the decision to bottom out, you do not get to reap the rewards of that if you are within that front office or on that coaching staff.

And this guy's just the latest casualty. It's happened to a ton of guys. Yeah. And, you know, that kind of touches on what I mentioned about organizational alignment. It's like, there's a chance this is the right choice. right? I mean, it's not like the players were necessarily effusive in their praise of Igor after his first season as head coach. The issue is, is like, Igor is somebody who in the past has been praised for many years for his ability to develop young players. If you look back at what Robert Sarver said when he was hired, that's one of the reasons why they liked him so much as a candidate, both McDonough who hired him and Robert Sarver really, really appreciated that about Igor. So moving forward, I, understand if he wasn't the right guy. The problem is, is again, there's been nothing to indicate, and their past decisions would indicate future success. They aren't the Spurs,

they aren't the Patriots, they don't have, they're not an organization with a long, positive track record of making forward-thinking moves that at the time may have seemed iffy, but turned out to be for the best, because all the Phoenix Suns have is a track record of big mistakes. And Robert Saver, again, is the underlying person here who connects error to error with the Phoenix Suns. And maybe that changes with Jeff Bauer, James Jones, and whoever they hire his head coach, maybe Monty Williams comes in and players love him and maybe this time around he does great as a head coach.

Maybe they get it right. But the issue is, as you're saying, Chris, hopefully for their sake, Robert Sarva gives them the time they need to get it right. Yeah, one of the things that I have found, because obviously I've been looking a lot of this stuff up because the team I cover on a local level is in need of a coach. And one of the things that I've found that I think has been persuasive to me is that many of the teams that are looking for a coach, it's always they're going to hire somebody that can grow with the team, right? You hear that all the time. And then those guys very rarely get to see it

through. And I think if you have looked at these playoffs and some of the decisions that those franchises have made, one of the things is they make it very easy for themselves. They all want coaches they can control and they all want coaches that are going to be malleable that don't necessarily have a way that they do things and so you know you're getting coaches for the first time in many cases but the ones that have established themselves as they can win within the NBA and have a track record and command respect and know what they are going to do those are the ones that in many cases have overachieved and are in a much better position. And I think about Detroit getting Dwayne Casey and I think about Orlando getting Steve Clifford.

And I think about Indiana, not moving on from Vogel to a young assistant, but rather moving on to Nate McMillan. And Toronto had a different situation because they just were able to move over Nick Nurse. The Bucks obviously hired Mike Boodenholzer, the Nuggets way back when hired Mike Malone, the Rockets. After he had lost in both New York and. LA hired Mike Dan Tony, whose stock was lower than it certainly once was when he was with the Sons. The Clippers hired Doc Rivers. And you don't see as many problems in those particular cases because your fan base can't say the coach is the problem because, listen, this coach was able to win other places. And management can't necessarily say, oh, the coach is the problem,

right? They can't go to the owner and be saying, oh, it's actually this guy can't coach. Be like, what this guy can coach like he's proven he can coach he can't coach this team and so why and maybe that's your fault but a lot of times you know you buy yourself time by hiring the young assistant the guy that you are unsure of and i feel like some of these teams have found success just by hiring somebody that knows what they're doing and has proven they can win within the league and so i would certainly the same way that i would advise a lot of teams that have been losing for a couple of years i would hire somebody established. And I don't think it's about a retread. I think it's about

somebody that you know can do that job, that it's not a guessing game, and you can't just turn to and blame. Because how do we know on Igorca Coast Call? I mean, nobody's one there, right? Like, I don't know if the guy, you know what I mean? There's a lot of coaches like that that I've looked at

in the past, and I've gone, I don't, I don't know if they're a good coach. You can say that about any coach who's hired as the first time, though. It's about firing the right candidate. whether it's somebody who's been a head coach before and may have, you know, either exhausted what they did there or maybe perhaps was to an experience their first time around. It could be that too, but there's also first time hires that work out.

No, of course there are. But what I'm saying is in the case of this guy, right? And it happened with David Blatt way back when it's happened with all manner of guys. That when you fire them, all of a sudden, the organization, there are tons of people that are going to say, hey, anybody that watch the son's knows that Igor Coast, Well, he ain't any good. And so, you know, there's no track record for us to say, no, he is a good NBA coach. And so these franchises get off the hook because they keep on hiring guys that are unproven.

And then the guy loses. And then everybody says, well, that guy can't coach. Well, like, okay, well, hire somebody that you know can. Fine. Fine. Hire somebody you know can coach and then tell me, well, that guy can't coach. Because when you keep on hiring people that have no track record, then all of a sudden, you're allowed to say that and everybody just says, yeah, the guy does stink.

You know? Like, we know some of the, we know Mike D. Antony is not a crappy coach, even though he lost in L.A. and he lost in New York. He had a track record. And it's not the end-all-be-all. No. It's not the end-all be-all, right? I mean, listen, Detroit tried with Stan Van Gundy.

They just gave him too much power. Stamandhi is a good basketball coach. He also is bad at managing the roster. And unfortunately, he was given, you know, that charge. You know, Doc Rivers was too. And Doc Rivers isn't good at roster management. But what he is good at is coaching a basketball team. Well, you're telling me you didn't like Doc Rivers adding all former Celtics?

I didn't. I didn't. I thought that was a, I thought that was poor strategy. I thought that was poor strategy. I thought that was poor strategy. Yeah. And obviously it's impossible for all these young players. And I thought about this last week.

You remember who's the kid from San Antonio that went off? Derek White, right? Okay, Derek White. Okay, so what we do every time around is we say, oh, man, the Spurs did it again. Okay, did they do it again? Or is it always that they are top of the heap at talent evaluation, or are they top at the heap of player development? And part of the reason why is because they have the same way of doing things and they have

the same coaches coaching these guys and they have the same shooting coach. to coach these guys, and they have the same system that they run. And so, yes, they do draft guys with the requisite talent, but these guys are put in the position to fulfill their promise rather than being in another situation. I promise you, Josh Jackson is not what Josh Jackson is if he gets drafted by the Spurs, but instead gets drafted by the Sons. And it makes it so hard because every coach has a different idea

about what this player should do, about what position they should play, about who they should play with, about what they should get good at. And when you're doing that for the first four or five years of a guy's career, that makes it very, very, very difficult for them to excel.

I feel bad for all those kids. Yeah, and that's why, like, when it comes to Devin Booker, some of the criticisms of his game are fair, but the fact he's turned into the player that he has, despite the fact he's about to have his fifth head coach in five, seasons makes his player development all the more remarkable. He has transformed himself as an

offensive player on the floor with his playmaking ability, with his ball handling, with his scoring off the dribble. He's a different player than he was as a freshman in college. And it's made more remarkable because of the coaching changes. The issue is, as you're saying, it's not going to work for everybody. It's like, how are you supposed to develop if you're Josh Jackson? How are you supposed to get the proper development if your bridges or a bender who looks like a complete and utter bust. Part of the success and failure of every player is their situation in their environment. And I agree with you completely.

Regarding Booker, what will be interesting to see is as time goes on, is he able to then meld into being an outstanding player? Where does he fit in when a team is really, really good? He already is. He's already there. He's already there. When a team is really, really good. I can't tell you how many times?

I've seen this. He's already there. I've covered bad teams. I've covered good teams. I'm telling you the worst thing that ever happened to a kid like OJ Mayo is that every go back and read about. He was the average of 20 something points a game. His percentages are through the roof. And he's second in NBA voting to Derek Rose. And he's on that all rookie team. And he is destined to become a star. And then what you realize is a couple years later, as time goes on, when he's part of a winning team, he ain't number one guy. He ain't the number two guy on a team that's unbelievable. He's a 20-point scorer and an outstanding player who shoots great percentages when his team's winning 20 games. But what is he when the team's winning 50 games? And can you develop into that, whatever role

you have to play when a team is really good? That's where I'm saying he has been a little shortchanged. And we'll see. I'm not telling you that he can't be part of winning. I'm saying he won't be doing what he's doing when he is winning. Well, I mean, he could be just in a different way. That's the thing with Devin Booker is, you know, people talking about, oh, sometimes, you know, he forces shots. Well, he needs to force shots because he has to. He's the only guy who can generate offense on that team.

But what he can do that he isn't able to do right now in Phoenix is shoot off screens and space the floor, not to get too deep on the Phoenix Suns when they're not playing and their games actually happening in the playoffs. But Devin Booker can play off the ball at a high level. That's one of the reasons why. He was a lottery draft pick. That's how he excelled in college. It's how he excelled in high school.

And it's still how he excels when he gets opportunities in the NBA, shooting off screen and playing off ball and cutting. Devin Booker can do all those things at a high level. So if Phoenix is able to add other star players who use the ball, use possessions, Booker can adapt them. And I think Booker himself has already expressed his frustrations with what's happening in Phoenix. Last year during his exit interview, he mentioned just how annoying it is.

He never wants to miss the playoffs again. And those are cookie-cutter statements. But everything I've heard about Booker, everything I know about Booker, is he's a high character, winning player who in the past has sacrificed for the greater good of his team. And I don't think that would be an issue

with him moving forward with the Phoenix Suns. The problem is building the stability around him to foster that development for everybody. Probably a year away from him signing with clutch and demanding a trade. You know what? Just just one note on that. Chris, I look forward to,

the day, I do wonder when the day will come that a player who is like in year two of a five-year contract demands a trade if that day will ever come. I mean, I don't know about year two, but we literally just saw it with Porzingis. Yeah. Yeah, before, yeah, even before signing the deal. I mean, he didn't even make it through his first contract in New York. I do wonder if more players will do that because if player empowerment continues to increase and players just take their own destiny into their own hands, if that's something we'll

see more players do. because if you're Phoenix and Devin Booker has already expressed his frustrations after year three and in the league about not making the playoffs despite having crappy rosters around him, you wonder what happens in year one, year two of that new contract. If those annoyances continue to grow and manifest for him and he's like, you know what, I want to go somewhere else because I'm a winning player. This next topic we are going to have to file away in the wait and see category. There was other coaching news last night.

and that is that the newly assigned coach of the Sacramento Kings, Luke Walton, was in a very disturbing headline. He has been accused of sexual assault by a sports reporter, and the Kings came out, and they said, we are aware of the situation, and we have no further comment on the situation at this time. Obviously, we will wait to see what the Kings say about all of this, but they just hired. Luke Walton after he had a parting of ways with the Los Angeles Lakers. And now this story comes out. And it is one of those where this is not like a basketball opinion thing. This is a, this is obviously got to play out in the court of law. If he did what he is accused of, he will obviously pay the price and he will inevitably lose his job. If the kings believe that he

did not do what he is accused of, then I'd imagine he will be the coach of the Kings. But I mean, obviously you and I have absolutely no way of knowing. But for a franchise that just hired a head coach, this is clearly not the type of headline you want less than a week later about the guy that you just hired. And here's hoping that the truth, one way or another, comes out. And if the truth is that he did what he is accused of, then he will pay the penalty and should. And if it is not, then he'll be able to go on with his career and life.

But, I mean, we have no way of knowing on this. And now just for a team that has been in a franchise that has been in some turmoil over the last several years, not exactly the kind of headline you want last night, to say the least. Yeah, those are awful, serious accusations against Luke Walton and for the Sacramento Kings, it's something that needs to be taken seriously

and something they need to, I'm not sure they can wait for the court of law to make the decision right now with the fact they just hired him about just over a week from now. I do wonder so early in the process, this is the type of thing where they just decided to move on because it has not been quite long of a time

with Luke Walton. It's a tough situation for the Kings with these very serious accusations. Yeah, Luke Walton's lawyer did come out and was very, very, very dogged in his speech. He said, the story goes, Luke Walton has a lawyer and his attorney is blasting the accuser, calling her an opportunist. Luke Walton retained me to defend him against these baseless accusations. The accuser is an opportunist, not a victim, and her claim is not credible. We intend to prove this in a courtroom.

Those comments will either prove to be true or those will prove to go down as the most misguided quotes that you could possibly give regarding a situation. But this is one of those where it is incredibly important to withhold judgment until both sides come out on this. And obviously, this is something for the courts, not for you and I. Regarding basketball last night, I honestly think the bucks and the pistons might go down as the worst series ever. I mean, that was, obviously, Blake Griffin had no business out on the court. I give him the credit for the heart that he showed by trying to get out there. He couldn't even, even, he was less than a shell of himself.

It was like he was doing a potato sack race up and down the court. And it was just blowout after blowout with the bucks over the pistons. So now their series is set up against the Celtics. The Celtics also, I think, more surprise. It's not that surprising that the Bucks buried the Pistons. What was a little bit, I think, surprising, was that the Pacers didn't even win a game in the series because they played very well throughout the regular season,

holding on to home court advantage for a lot longer than any of us expected, despite losing their best player throughout the year. But they did not win a game against the Celtics. Do you look at that as the Celtics have finally hit their stride and are now very dangerous against the Milwaukee Bucks? Or do you look at that and say, yeah, the Pacers, congratulations on their great regular season. But truth be told, when it came playoff time, they were not an opponent that was going to be able to give the Celtics the requisite problems. What do you think? Well, I think both are true.

I think with Indiana, it was unreasonable to expect them to make much normal. in the postseason. You know, Boyan Bogdanovich was a very good regular season player and he had some moments in the playoffs, but he's not a guy that you can lean on to, you know, to surge your offense to a second round playoff berth. Miles Turner is a is like a defensive first team, all defensive candidate, second team all defense candidate, but he's not a guy again who's going to lead your team yet. Same with Sabonis and their other nice players.

It's just unfair to expect that from Indiana. And I think for Boston, there's certainly positive indicators that this is a team that is really starting to find themselves. And Indiana, to their credit, they played really, really hard in that series. They continued to defend at a high level. They held Boston to only 84 points in game one. They had until late in game two, they also had a stellar defensive performance. Indiana is a tough team. And maybe within Boston that activated that mindset that they need moving forward.

against Milwaukee and depending depending on how far they go. I think Boston and Milwaukee absolutely could become a seven-game series. It's just going to be fascinating to see how these teams match up. When last year, you look at those teams when they did go seven, that Bucks team, Thonmaker started, played 25 minutes per game in game seven. Jabari Parker played 29 minutes at game seven. Jason Terry played 20 plus minutes almost every game. Joe Prunty was their coach.

And that's all changed now with their. personnel and a new coach. But on the other hand, Boston has changed too. Last year, they were starting Shemiojolay and Terry Rozier. And now they're starting Gordon, Hayward, and Kyrie Irving. They're a better team, too. Even if it didn't show in the wins column during the regular

season, they are a better team now. But so is Milwaukee. These are two Titans that we're going to see in the second round. Which is the bigger loss for a team? Do you think it is Malcolm Brogden, who had an unbelievable season shooting the ball and was one of the leading

scorers on that Milwaukee team, or is it Marcus Smart who provides so much of the heart and soul of that Celtics team, especially in high-level games? Well, it's probably Marcus Smart in the sense that Brogden's supposed to be back sometime this series, if you're looking strictly in terms of a guy who's available. But if Brogden and if Brogden does miss the entire series like Smart as expected to, then I would say Brogden and that's because of what he brings on the offensive end of the floor. His ability to not just shoot off the catch, but his mere presence on the floor, making it harder for teams to help off of another guy on the floor to stop Yana Senta-Dacompo drives.

His ability to be a secondary playmaker, he can do a little bit off the dribble as well as a shooter from outside. And he's a very, very good defender as well for the Bucks, who can defend multiple positions at guard and wing. so I think he's a greater loss overall. Yeah. But the fact he might be back, the series speaks to his importance for the Milwaukee Bucks. How about this, Kevin?

I was looking at his stuff. You don't talk about a sneaky thing that happened, that obviously it's all about Janus. And Milwaukee doesn't get the attention. I know what you're going to say. I know what this is. The 50, 40, 90? Yeah, yeah, I know.

Exactly. Is that something else? I mean, there's not a lot of 180s. They call it the 180 club where you go 50% for the field, 40% from 3 and 90% from the line. He went 51% from the field, 43% from 3, 93% from the line. I mean, that is incredible. And I don't think that the general consensus around the NBA would be that Malcolm

Brogden would be one of those guys that has reached that milestone. But that is a very, very, very difficult thing to do over the course of a season. It's not like he played 40 games. He played 64 games, right? He missed 18 games this year. But to hit that 180 club, when I was looking at his stuff last night, I was like, my God. How about that? Malcolm Brogden.

What a season this guy had. Since the three-point field goal was introduced in 7980, you have Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirt Novitsky, Mark Price, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Malcolm Brogden. Unreal. Can you believe that? Bird Price Miller, Nash-Navitsky, Durant Curry, Brogden. He is literally the only guy that is on that list.

He's the only guy that's ever done that, that is not a first ballot Hall of Famer. Maybe Mark Price. Mark Price. yet? I guess he's not. He will be. I think he will be by the time it's all sudden done. He'll end up getting in the Hall of Fame eventually.

So Mark Price, I guess. Mark Price would be the only other one. But the rest of those guys are all definite Hall of Famers. Crazy. The interesting thing with Brogden is his shot distribution, as did the entire Buck's team, drastically changed this season. Right? On cleaning the glass.com,

if you're looking at his shot distribution, numbers, only 14% of his shots came from mid-range this season down from about a quarter, 25% his past two seasons with the Bucks, which means he's getting to the rim more and shooting a slight uptick in three-pointers as well, but he's especially been getting to the rim more often. So in terms of how that affects your shooting percentages, his field goal percentage is going to be higher if he's not taking those mid-range jumpers, those low percentage mid-range shots, and getting to the rim more often. I mean, he shoots over 60% near the rim

that's partially off drives, drives and cuts and transition opportunities. But just by tweaking his shot distribution, it's his two point percentage that really jumped up. Like, he was already a good three-point shooter, already a great free throw shooter, going back to his time in college at Virginia. It's, I think the shot distribution really elevated his play

to a whole new level. And that kind of speaks to this entire team, They changed their system on defense, and on offense, they're just taking completely different shots, whereas before they were in the dark ages, now they're playing a forward-thinking, and a politically driven style, emphasizing three-pointers, layups, dunks, and drawn fouls. And Malcolm Brogden, with his 50-40-90 season, kind of captures that in a way like Yanosan to Kumpur does, getting to the rim at will. One thing that I must mention, one more thing at this, 50, 40-90.

Okay, so the most amount of... threes that someone has taken while achieving that, okay, was Steve Nash with 381 he took in a season, okay? The one that is the highest number on that list for a guy that hit the 50, 40, 90 club is Steph Curry, who took 886 threes, Kevin. he has 500 more three-point attempts in the season in the season that he went 50, 40, 90, then the next guy.

The second most attempts in a season where somebody achieved that was Nash with 381. Curry shot 886. Malcolm Brogden shot 244 this year. 243s, 886 3s, and he shot 45% from 3. That 15-16 Steph Curry season is just, I mean, this is the most ridiculous thing ever. 45% from 3 while shooting 886, and he averaged 30 points a game. You got to be kidding me.

You have got to be kidding me. I think in our lifetime, Chris, that's still going to go down, no matter how long we live, going to go down as one of the greatest offensive seasons. We'll see it our whole entire life. You think when I'm telling you that the second highest, it's, I mean, come on, 500, the guy took 500 more threes. Think about when it happened too, like how much the game has changed in just a couple of years.

And, you know, it's been driven by the Warriors, been driven by driven by the Rockets and Mori Ball. It's been driven by LeBron James with positionalist basketball. But that season, when it happened in the 15, 16. season, even though it didn't end the way Golden State would have liked it to, of course. One of the most innovative seasons for a player to ever have, just stretching the limits of what can be done with a three-point shot. And we see that, again, this season with James Harden doing it a different way with so many

of his shots coming off the dribble. The power of the pull up and step back three can obviously change an entire team's fortune in the playoffs, having Steph Curry or James. Harden, but just having a three-pointer in general, we've seen it through the entire postseason. The team that shoots better from three typically is winning games right now. All right. Let's get to the other game that took place last night. And at least Utah, I see, I thought Houston versus Utah, especially given the fact that

Utah was up there as having one of the best records post-all-star break of anyone, I thought that it would be more competitive. Now, in fairness, it's unbelievable how much narratives can change. based on a shot, right? Let's just say Mitchell's shot goes in, which wouldn't be crazy, right? The shot at the end of game three. Let's say he buries it, and they end up, and they go on and they win that game. Well, now they're going back to Houston 2-2 at the very least.

It's a six-game series, and I do think the attitude changes greatly towards Utah and their future and what they need to do rather than if they get beat in five games or obviously they avoided that last night if they would have gotten swept. In fact, they would have become only the third team in NBA history to win 50 games and then get swept in the playoffs,

not win a playoff game. The 0-304 Grizzlies did it, and then there was a Nuggets team that got wiped out by the Lakers in 08. But other than that, generally, if you have won 50 games in the history of the NBA, you've at least had some playoff success, at least won a game. And so at least they avoided that last night, falling into that bad category. But now they go back to Houston, and I don't think the expectation is very high for people thinking that they're going to make this, right? I think both of us, would you agree, you'd be surprised if they go back to Utah for a game six?

I mean, yeah, I would be surprised. You figure Houston would close them out in the next game, but I'll give them credit. They fought their ass off last night, and especially even after Houston had gotten right back to them, that fourth quarter was mega impressive. Donovan Mitchell continues to try to keep the team on his back. And at least they got a win last night. And I do think it, it's just, it's different if you at least win a game or two than if you get wiped out completely. Because if you get wiped out completely, it don't even win a game. It's like, I don't know, it's devastating towards thinking about, you feel like you're not even close.

You know what I mean? Like you couldn't even win a game. So you're not even close. So you've got to do some very serious deep thinking and maybe roster reconstruction. whereas at least, I mean, they got that win last night. What do you think? A couple of thoughts. I think when it comes to losing in four versus losing in five,

you still need to think about those questions with your roster. It's like with Rudy Gober, I think he's had a good overall series. I mean, it's been very hard on him to defend two-on-one with the style of defense they've played like it is for any defensive player. You could put DeKembe Matumbo, you could put Bill Russell out there, the greatest defensive players ever. And they're going to have a hard time defending a James Harden, Clint Capella, pick and roll. It's not easy on Rudy Gobert.

But that speaks to how teams are building in today's league. The ability to take a pull up three and take that big man out of the paint, the decision he needs to make. It's hard to defend with a big seven-foot lumbering center in today's league, as great as Rudy Gobert is. I think he's done a good job. And so is Derek favors at forcing James Harden to take that floater, forcing James Hardin, to pass out on his drives rather than get layups, dunks, and drawn files or lobs to Clint Capella.

I think they've done a good job overall with their unusual, unorthodox scheme, whatever you want to call it, shading harden to his left. I think it's been fine. The difficulty is still actually executing that rather than having a switching scheme like we'll see next round with the Golden State Warriors against Houston. So I think you still need to ask those questions, Chris.

I think one of my big questions or thoughts that I had, especially watching last night's game, is just the way it looks visually. We've talked a little bit about this before, but I guess I'm curious, like, both of these teams combined to attempts over 80% of their shots from in the restricted area and from three. And there were many, many instances during the game when you would, the Utah Jazz would perform the way you would expect Houston to by just completely. ignoring the mid-range. There was a couple of times where Mitchell was driving to the rim, and he could have easily pulled up for a very, very, very wide-open mid-range jumper, but he would keep going into the lane and toss up what was a not a high-efficiency floater or a runner in the lane. And I personally, I really like the style of play, but I still wonder, I can't get out of my head what happens if every single team across the league

starts playing this way with 80% plus of their shots coming just from the restrictive area and just from three. And if the mid-range continues to get ignored, because last night, man, like Houston only took three mid-range shots outside the room, which is no surprise at all. But Utah as well in last night's game, I believe, took only seven from mid-range outside to the paint. So both these teams are playing similar styles, just doing it differently with Rudy go bare getting to the rim and then James Harder to be able to step back from three.

It's different, but restricted area and threes. I guess I'm just curious about your general thoughts if more teams start performing to this extreme level. I think if it carries on and that is what takes place, I think what you will see is they will back up the three point line. That's typically what they do. You know what I mean? Like when they get, this has happened throughout the years.

If it gets to a point where people are widely complaining about, it, they feel like it is stymying the popularity of the league. But it doesn't feel that way right now. People like watching threes and people like watching people drive to the basket. They do. They also like ball movement and, you know what I mean? Like they can appreciate different things. I'm not huge, as I told you, I don't like watching isolation basketball, but if you are

whipping it around and you are, you know, using each other to get good shots, I'm a fan. But if it got to the point, I mean, once upon the time, it got to the point where the defenses were so good that they, they created the circle underneath. And they created defensive three seconds. And they eliminated, for the most part, being able to play a zone and clutching and grabbing players and the physicality. They even tried that again this year to make it a more free-flowing game. But if it got to the point where they fought like it was hurting the game, they just change things. So what they've done before,

they have changed the rules to make it more entertaining before, but if it meets, it would have to get to the point where people do actually find it less entertaining. And the problem right now is not the style of play

as much as it is the lack of competition in the first round of these playoffs. Now, I think we are very hopeful that the next round of the playoffs, assuming it will be Philly and Toronto, and it will be Boston and Millwall, will be incredibly competitive and incredibly entertaining.

But it feels like it's been few and far between. Forget being a game in the last minute. Most of these games have not been competitive with five minutes left to go in the game. I mean, they're just, you know what I mean? So this first round has just been a dud. It really has. There's like one, I guess Denver, San Antonio, right? Is that the only series we have?

I think it's the only series we have that's 2-2. in all of them, out of all of them. In all of, I mean, eight series one that is two to two. It's incredible. I figured there would at least be another competitive series. And so I think that's, if anything, that's what kind of would hurt interest, not the fact that teams are taking a bunch of three. Absolutely.

I think that's fair. I mean, you mentioned in passing there about changing the rules. That was one of Kirk Goldsbury's focuses. during his panel at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, pretty much, I believe it was called Beauty Ball, was the name of his panel. And he talked about using analytics to drive rule changes that increase the beauty of the game,

therefore increasing fan interest around the world and growing the game more. Like right now, the league is at a level where it is beloved by fans across the world. But is there a point where fan interest, declines because of the style of play and using analytics to drive those decisions. And one of the things that Kirk said that I thought was interesting is making the key smaller, slimmer.

So post players would be able to establish positioning closer to the rim and not get called for three second violations, as well as potentially changing the three point line. There's a number of things that you can do to change the rules, to change the way teams are playing. But right now, it certainly does seem like that they minimize. range jumper, unfortunately, is becoming a lost start because it doesn't make sense to shoot that shot because of the nature of the game. So maybe there's something to league at some point, someday in the future can do to create a more balanced style of play if it does get too extreme.

You know, I've thought about this often. And at some point, somebody a lot smarter than me could go back and trace it all. But years ago, the greatest of debates that has been had regarding the NBA draft that I can remember was the Odin Durant draft, because you did have people on either side of that. People forget that. A lot of the time, people act like Odin was consensus by everybody. That wasn't true. There were people that preferred Durant at the time.

I mean, I think generally, I would say that the majority of NBA teams, a very high percentage, 75% or more, would have taken Odin. but it's not like the opinion wasn't out there for people that like Dorea. And I've often wondered about that. I wonder if if Greg Oden does become what they thought he was going to become, which is the modern day Bill Russell, that this is a guy that is going to, he's going to change everything because he is the next dominant big man,

that there is a, that he's going to change things back. You know, and that if there was a guy that was that, that if he was the 10-time All-Star and his team was there in the title game year after year after year, if that was, you know, because teams would look at it and they would say, hey, this is the kind of guy we need. And instead it was Durant, who is this, you know, 6-11 guy that can play the perimeter and he could dribble and he could shoot from everywhere. And so the league certainly has gone more that way than it would have.

But I've often wondered, you know, it's been so long, you know, like we've, most of these guys are face-ups and maybe there won't be another guy like this again. But what if a, you know, like I refuse to believe that whoever would be Shaq is now a kid that is facing up and shooting things. You know what to me? Like maybe, I don't know. Maybe Shaq is, that's what he is. And it looks like rookie shack. and now he does face up all the time instead of a guy that you just throw the ball down to and nobody can stop or even Duncan for that matter.

You know what I mean? What if a Duncan came along right now? Like a real Tim Duncan. I mean, is Tim Duncan now shooting threes? You know what I mean? He just kind of, he kind of, I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe, but I mean, like he was unstoppable. Same with, same with Shaq.

I mean, we don't have anybody really like that. have wondered if somebody does come along like that, will it change the game? Because we know it's a copycat league and you've got to be able to compete with whatever the best team has going for it. And the best teams don't have those guys anymore. Yeah, players define the league and they define how teams perform and how they play. So until that shot comes, which he may never come, I'm not so sure that we're going to have to see the demand for that interior presence against. a shack. But with that said, you still have to defend a Joelle-A-Bede. You still have to defend

Anthony Davis and a Carl Towns and guys like in that same breath. So it's still important to have a big man in those matchups. But you mean a shack. We're talking like top player all-time level big man. Yeah. Old

school, you throw it down to the block and it's a 70% proposition. You know what I mean? He's just like, you're not stopping him. Here's the thing though. It's like we We don't have the numbers of Shaq's points per possession on post-ups. We don't have that. But I would highly doubt that his points per possession on post-ups was 70% though.

Even his primary, maybe certain matchups, maybe mismatches, maybe on a switch in today's league, it might be 70%. It would be very difficult to defend Shaq. As we see, that kind of manifests in a modernized way with Jantzac and Akumpo with his ability to get to the rim. and maybe that's how modern Shaq would look is more like Antaacompo, a little bit more perimeter based facing up and attacking off the dribble rather than having us back to the basket. That's what the modern Shaq would probably look like in today's league, because we see that with Janus, but like shooting 70% of post steps,

like not only do you have to have just brute force and skill to get to the rim like Shaq did, but you also need to have touch on hook shots and fadeaways and also have passing vision as well. in today's league to be that effective. But I do hope we get a player like that at some point. I think that would be tremendous for the league to have a throwback player who also is very good. Like, such a shame Jalea Okafore didn't work out. But hopefully someday we get a young shack in the league that can take on that role. We'll take a quick break.

And then certainly we have to touch on the series that are going on as we have a bunch of games that are going on tonight. We'll do some quick hits on those on the other side. Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Turo. Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want, wherever you want, from a community of local host. Turo is available in over 5,500 cities across the U.S., Canada,

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as we are recording this on Tuesday morning, the games are going to be going on tonight. So many of you will be listening to this after some of these results have taken place. The Magic are playing the Raptors. It is at Toronto. The Magic get immense credit for winning a game. In game number one, it has not been all that competitive since.

And I would fully expect Toronto to take care of business against the Magic tonight and probably stay on par in terms of the same. amount of rest that the Sixers would get. And then you obviously hope that the six, if you're Toronto, you hope that the Sixers drop one so that their series has to continue. You would want the maximum amount of games that Joe L.M.B. has to play prior to getting to you, right, given that he's already had to sit out a game in the series. But good job, good effort by the magic.

Speaking of big guys, Vosevic has been rendered virtually useless. I do think it has hurt. By who? By who, Chris? By who? By who? Marcusol and Ibaka. Yeah.

No, those two guys. Well, listen, Vosovich, you're talking less than 40% from the field, 12 points a game. And this is a guy that was an All-Star, average 21 and 12 throughout the year. I do think that it's one of those, you know, now you get to the off-season

and what is the going, for the really good big guy. And I do think that while he had a great season, this is where the money's made. It's nice to have a really good regular season and make an all-star team. But what happens to the big guys or your big guy when it comes to the playoffs?

And Vosovic, obviously, who is the leading score, best player for them, has been miserable throughout this and rendered miserable because of, outstanding defense by the Raptors. But I think that's certainly a takeaway. And then while it was nice for them to win game one, it does appear. I'd be very surprised at the Raptors didn't take care of business tonight.

Yeah, I have three main takeaways from the series. One, I'm just happy for Orlando. I'm happy for Magic fans to finally get a taste of the playoffs and have that memorable game one win with DJ Augustine looking like Stefan Curry. It was a lot of fun. It's something that Magic fans will remember and hold on to. It's just a good experience for this organization that desperately needed a playoff birth. But aside from that, with Toronto, it's been so exciting to watch Kawhi Leonard play at this level and Pascal Seacum to just translate what he did so well during the regular season to the postseason.

He needs to do that moving forward against the Sixers and then if they move on again to future opponents. but it's been great to see Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Seacum looks sort of like an MJ Scotty Pippin combination for the next couple of months before Kawhi leaves for the Clippers. I'm having a blast watching those two, but the best thing we got from this series, Chris, was that Nick Nurse meme. That Nick Nurse meme is legendary.

Unbelievable. Absolutely incredible. And it will stand the test of time. All-timer. Hey, you're dead out about Seacom. And Kawhi Leonard looked like the best of time. best player of the NBA last game. He just did.

I mean, it both ends. Just dominant. Dominant. Blocking shots, getting steals, getting out of transition. He looks like Michael Jordan, man. He looks like MJ. He looked amazing. Seriously.

Pulling up from anywhere he wants. Defending at an elite level, it's a blast watching Coisle Leonard to play like this. During the regular season, at some point, you could probably find this somewhere. I tweeted out that the two best teams that I had seen in person this year,

were the raptors and the bucks. And I actually feel pretty good about that as this is going on, you know, because those two teams, those were the two teams that I walked out of the arena. And I was like, my God, these teams,

because they, they just brought off so many good players off the bench. And their best players, when their best players are playing at their best, when Kauai Leonard is at his best and Janus is at his best, it is just a different world. They just, it feels like they are so much better than the other nine guys on the court,

regardless of who the other nine guys on the court are. They feel like they are just dominating the game. And obviously you saw that with Yonest last night, and you saw that with Kauai in the last game. He has that capability to do that. Sixers' Nets, I thought this was going to be a better series than it has been. The Nets not getting the game that Embedied set out is, I mean, that will haunt them forever, obviously.

And part of that's because of the great Bobon, who has been very good in this series and very useful in this series. Hell, he sure is better than Gregman Row. Gregman Row is awful. And definitely better than Amir Johnson, too. Yes. And he has, yeah,

and he has one less phone on the bench. Sixers, sixers, nets. I think you'd assume, you know, given that the games in Philadelphia, and they are a heavy favorite, that they will also take care of business, and then that will set up what could be a utterly amazing series between Toronto and the Sixers.

Do you think the Nets have any chance of being able to get it back to a game six in Brooklyn? Well, maybe if Joe Harris wakes up, then there's a possibility. Joe Harris, after his tremendous regular season for the Nets, is shooting only three of 16 from three. in the series against the Philadelphia 76ers despite the net's offense creating some open three-point shots for him.

They're just not falling for Joe Harris. And they need to for Brooklyn to have any shot in the series. And you mentioned how it hasn't been that close. I mean, it feels like it's been at least been competitive. I mean, games two and three weren't great, but they were competitive moments.

And then game four was close as well. Brooklyn, despite their lack of talent, the talent disparity, Philadelphia is clearly more talented. has at least been in games. Well, maybe the Joe's, meaning Harris and Ingalls,

can get together and shoot all summer and think about what they didn't do in the playoffs. Spurs Nuggets is the best series, and in fact, it's the only one that we have that is 2 to 2. I'll tell you that after the first game at San Antonio, for the Nuggets to bounce back like they did in game four,

win that game at San Antonio. Yokic was awesome. Murray, very good. We're able to help along San Antonio missing every damn shot that they took, which they did. I think at one point they missed every single shot outside of the paint for an entire quarter. Maybe it was a quarter and a half. But I was impressed.

That's a young team. Doesn't have playoff miles. And to win in San Antonio, a very difficult place to play when blood's in the water. If you are the Spurs, I was very impressed. And it leaves me thinking, I honestly have no idea what will happen in this series, which makes it by far the best one. In fact, let's make it our NBA watch of the night. Spurs Nuggets, it is tonight, and it is going to be on NBA TV at 830.

central time. So 9.30 Eastern time tonight. NBA TV, the series is tied 2 to 2. Looks like Denver is the favorite tonight, but both of these teams have been proven to be able to get wins on the road

in hostile environments. I really don't know what to make of tonight. What about you? It's going to be interesting to see what type of adjustments each team makes. We've seen a little bit of a chess match with Popovich and Malone. so far this series. I know with San Antonio, there's been like some light criticism of them not

shooting more threes, but I think Denver has done a good job of running them off the line of those three pointers. And plus, you know, it's like we talked about during the regular season. This team with DeMarcus, with Lamarice Aldridge and DeMard de Rosen, I just combined both their first names. With DeMarcus Aldrich and DeMard de Rosen, you have two guys that just don't shoot threes. With Aldridge, he did step out a little bit, a little bit more. during the series than he did during the season. I wonder if we'll see him pick and pop the three more often instead of settling for those deep mid-range jumpers.

So he's only one for six from three in the series. But those six attempts, quite a lot for him in just a couple of games here. He only attempted half a three per game during the regular season. I don't think that's something San Antonio is going to do. They're not going to suddenly change those two guys. But I wonder if they'll try to seek more threes from the rest of their roster because they have some knockdown guys on that team. And then with Denver, man, I think Yokic, the true test would come against a stellar

on ball guard where he's tested on pick and roll. But so far, he is checking every box with his game translating to the postseason. And that has to be encouraging for Denver when they're building this thing up over the coming years, feeling confident in Yokic is that central cornerstone star player. He was totally awesome. And I at least look forward to that because, I really don't know what's going to happen. And then, of course, the nightcap tonight.

Oh, well, let me remind everybody very quickly, if you want to watch every NBA game every year, you can subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com or from your preferred video provider. The nightcap tonight is going to be the Portland Trailblazers hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the last game, game four at Oklahoma City, as the Trailblazers were up 19 at the tail end of the third quarter,

and then Oklahoma City went on this ferocious run. They felt like they had their crowd back. They had cut it to nine by the time they're going into the fourth quarter. I thought to myself, okay, now they've got the wave going. They've got a wave going, and they are going to be able to come back and make it. This thing's going to go down to the very end. And instead, at every turn, C.J. McCollum was making. can play after play and super impressed with the trailblazers being able to balloon that lead

back up to 18 and then get away with that win in Oklahoma City. Now they've got to close out Westbrook and George and the rest in Portland tonight. So this could go two ways. Either we'll just see Oklahoma City lose again. maybe in spectacular fashion. Maybe we'll get the Russell Westbrook 40 attempt game like we did the last time that he was facing elimination. Or, you know, I never put it past this guy.

Like, if you told me Westbrook has 38, 17, and 12 tonight, and they forced a game six. Like, it wouldn't be all that shocking, even though he has played terribly throughout these playoffs. And there certainly needs to be a thought about, hey, when you can really plan against him is the way he plays best suited for the playoffs and certainly the evidence suggests.

The evidence suggests, likely not. I mean, part of it is we have, the spotlight is really shown on him because George has not been Paul George, right? Like, I mean, he is, there was that three weeks span where Paul George had made a conversation of the Janus Hardin MVP talk, and that has gone way by the way,

his shoulder is messed up and he is not, he's just not the same player. And when he is not the same player, it puts more of the spotlight on Russ and how ridiculously inefficient he has been shooting the ball this year. And so here we go. Do Westbrook and George stand up to it

and are able to force another game, or do you think Portland just takes care of him? Can I just ask it? Is it just me, Chris? but is there a bit more criticism of Russell Westbrook this season in the playoffs than there has been in the past? And I'm talking about during the KD days and the early 2010s, and I'm also talking about the past couple of seasons as well.

Does it feel like there's more harsh criticism of famous sports media? And I'll give you two reasons. Number one, he's acted like a prick, which I talked about three weeks ago. And now, you know, now everybody's jumping on it. he's been acting like a prick and the other thing is beyond him acting like a prick, he is juxtaposed against one of the most

likable groups in the league which is this Portland team and more exclusively Lillard. Lillard is Lillard has fallen into that category of the Dirtniewiczky Durant had this going for him

when he was in Oklahoma City once upon a time obviously Wade had this going for in both of his career. Whereas, Janice has got it going in Milwaukee. Whereas you walk around and you say, there's nobody that you ever talk to that likes basketball

that says, man, I just hate Damian Lillard. Like, nobody hates him. Everybody, you know what I mean? Everybody likes it. Only Russell, Westberg hates Damian Lillard. Which then, as I'm saying, now you almost have this good versus evil, right?

People want to, people want to see Damian Lillard scoring 25 and a quarter against them. They want to see him barking at Russell Westbrook because Russ has done the absolute most to make himself unlikable. Now, there will be people that cling to that unlikability, but he, you know, his, it goes into focus now.

I mean, I told you this a couple years ago, you know, where I've always felt like if he was more likable, if somebody else did the triple double thing, a more likable guy, then it would be celebrated infinitely more. But he goes out of his way. He really does. And so,

and the truth is he's also losing, Kevin. And when you are winning, everybody likes you. And when you are, and so nobody really cared about Lillard and Lillard's going to lose again in the first round. And what has he ever done in the playoff?

but now everybody's kind of root for him and he's super likable and you kind of like to see him do it and everything that Russ does. No, listen, they have a win. Nobody cares if he's a dick in the press conference. Honestly, they don't. They don't care after wins. You know what I mean? It's why Popovich can act anyway. It's why Belichick can act anyway.

Nobody cares if you win. Well, it's more than just postgame. It's the play on the court too. Of course it is. It's his style of play, man. Yeah, but that is firing. It's jacking up from mid-range early in the clock. Right.

But that if you're making it, it's fire. Everybody loves it. And if you're missing it, you're selfish, you're ridiculous. You take terrible shots. That's part of it. That's definitely part of it. You know what's funny to me with this is like Billy Donovan mentioned after game four, he was asked about Damien Lillard going off.

And he said, you know, there were some coverages where they directed the ball to where it needed to go, right? And he still made those shots. But then there were sometimes, he said, quote, we got him where we wanted to get him into the midrange. That's Billy Donovan on Damian Lillard. But then when he's asked about Russell Westbrook, taking pull-up jumpers from mid-range early in the clock, it's like he was tiptoeing around landmines to not, to not insult that style of play. When he had just gotten done saying they want to force Damien Lillard into taking mid-range shots. He's talking about how the pull-up has been a good shot for Russell Westbrook over his career. When defenders sag off him, that's a shot that he needs to take that's been good for him.

It's like, come on, dude. You know, you can't play winning basketball with Russell Westbrook playing the style that he has in this series. And that's my biggest frustration with Russ, Chris. I've been writing about this for a couple years now. His issue is not about how the team is necessarily built around him. More shooters would help. The fact is that he has a hasn't evolved. He needs to play more off ball. And he needs to be used more as a cutter because he is so dynamic running off screens and handoffs to get to the rim for lob dunk opportunities and just cuts for layups.

And that part of his game does not manifest with the Oklahoma City Thunder. And maybe that I don't think that's because of coaching because Donovan coaches teams that way at Florida. It's how the team has performed without Russell Westbrook. It's how the lineups perform without him. it's Russell Westbrook's unwillingness to evolve. Okay. Well, here's the issue with OKC.

Here's what I'll tell you, Kev. This is where I come down on. And you know, listen, despite all of his failings, I am a Russ fan. Here's the thing. Russell Westbrook cannot be the man. That's why he was so good with Durant. If he's your second guy, then he's fine. Was he really much better with Durant's or is he still the same guy, a shot chucker?

All right, let me tell you something. All right, Kev. Paul George is taking the exact same amount of shot. as Russell Westbrook in these playoffs. Exact same. Paul George is shooting 0.7% higher. Paul George is shooting the exact same percentage from three. So is there a problem with the way Paul George plays?

Is there a problem with the shots that Paul George takes? No. Oh, okay. Well, that's what I'm telling you. The difference is that you think that you're saying, Russ can't play this way. this is not this is the problem and this is why they can't win and i would tell you his stats and paul george's stats are exactly the same and that cannot be paul george has to be the more efficient

of the players he has to be the better scorer of the players much like durant was once upon a time this would be working if paul george was worth a shit but he's not no has anybody noticed that Paul George is shooting the exact same percentages as Russ, despite taking nine threes a game? Does anybody care? Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, he's shooting the same percentages as Russ because he's hurt. I get it. That says more of Westbrook.

That's what I'm saying. This isn't some kind of grand you can't win with Russell Westbrook playing like this. You can't win when Paul George is terrible and Russell Westbrook is playing like this. You can't have two Russes and that's what they've got. They've got two russes. Yeah, you can only have one russ. You're right. You can only have one russ.

They got two russes and one Dennis Schrooter who's shooting 24% from three. I mean, you can't have three guys that can't make shots. Chris, it's a number of different factors. I'm with you in that sense. It's the fact Paul George has not performed nearly as well as he did prior to the shoulder injury. It's the fact that the personnel does not have nearly. enough shooters around the floor to maximize Russell Westberg's ability to get to the rim and draw files and finish in the lane. It's partially that. But I think ultimately what it comes back to

is the same conversation that we've been having since we started doing this podcast together. Since I got hired by the ringer, it's about Russell Westbrook. It is about his evolution as a player. What we've seen this year is he, I think he's lost a little bit of explosiveness. His shot has also failed him as well. And part of, again, the evolution with him is not just improving his three-point jumper and spot-up situations. It's about the style of play and cutting and screening and playing instead of standing still when you don't have the ball on your hands.

That's where Russell Westbrook, to me, can be at his absolute best as a player. Russell Westberg is a great player. He's been an elite player in the NBA for a long time and he's going to continue to be for the foreseeable future. But he still has another level, and that to me is the source of my frustration. The fact, just the subtle tweet can take him to another level. Russ is an amazing second best player to have. But when he has got to be your best player because your best player ain't doing it,

all of a sudden the microscope is going to go on him. Make no mistake, Paul George averaged 40 points a game against Portland this year. Paul George was going to be possibly first team, all NBA, if not first team, second team, all NBA. And then it all went to hell after the shoulder injury. And it has remained so. They were horrible down the stretch and they were horrible in the playoffs. If Russell Westbrook had the great Paul George alongside him, the one that he had prior to the injury,

then I do not think that this would be some kind of overarching huge topic about Russ and how he can play and what he can do. He was, there's a podcast earlier where I was talking about people always crap on Russ, but the truth is we're talking about another guy that is having his best season and possibly an MVP season that's playing alongside him, which he did it with Durant and he's doing it with Paul George. And ever since Paul George turned less than mortal, all of a sudden now the attention has gone to Russ and everything that's wrong with him. And I just think he should be your second best guy.

And when your best guy is going great, which he was for a long time, People don't notice, you know, and Russ can go out there to get his triple double and, you know, be the, be the sidekick. But he can't be the sidekick when they're both. He's never, he's never the sidekick, though. Sure he is. He never has been. Sure he is. What are you talking about?

When Katie, you're talking about Russell Westwork could be your second best player. He was the second best player for the Oklahoma City Thunder when Kevin Durant was there, undisputably, the second best player. And he was the guy jacking, jacking up, 21 shots on game seven more than. Kevin Durant, he was the guy shooting 27 shots in game six, nearly as much as Katie, talking about the Warriors Thunder series in 2016 when OKC blew the 3-1 lead. Russell Westbrook in those final three games was horrific, scoring the ball as the second best player on the team. He's had failures in the playoffs in the past.

Okay. If the argument is, if the argument is going to be that they got beat by the best team possibly that was ever assembled, then I agree. That's the most recent example of KD and Westbrook. It's the last example. But you and I both know, there's been times in the past prior to that as well when he's had these instances chucking shots for mid-range that have ultimately taken the ball out of the hands of the best player in the team in Kevin Durant. We've seen it in the past. And we're seeing it now.

Russell Westbrook, to me, is just somebody who needs to evolve his mindset on the court, change his shot distribution and change how he plays off the ball and have more of a willingness to play off the ball. That's where I'm at with Russell Westberg and have been for quite some time, especially as he continues aging, aging into his 30s, and if his athleticism diminishes,

he's going to need to. It has to happen. I would agree with you that he certainly needs to evolve as the years go on. It would be nice if he could make a jump shot. But I also think that Paul George is kind of skating here because he has the literally the exact same stats as Westbrook in this series. Okay. That's fine.

But we have to acknowledge that then that this series isn't going the way it is because Russell Westbrook's crappy or because there's a big problem with Russ. It is because Paul George is hurt. And if you want to say that, that's fine. But then that's why. That's why his percentages are the same as Russ's because he's hurt. And so is Oklahoma City losing because Russ can't play winning basketball and Russ can't do this and Russ can't do that? Or are they losing because Paul George is hurt? He's shooting the exact same percentages as Russell Westbrook who cannot make a shot to save his life.

We'll see. A player who is hurt who has a serious shoulder issue is shooting the same percentage as a healthy player. Yes. I'm aware. I think I know where I'd be pointing the finger here. I know where I am. I'm aware. And hopefully he will get better, but I don't think it's some kind of grand statement about the Oklahoma City and their inability to win because the guy who would be their best player in this series is not right. And they don't have anybody else. Those two guys have to both be really good and they don't have anybody else because you're counting on Dennis Schrooter or Stephen Adams, Jeremy Grant, whoever.

Chris, you know what, you're right. this series isn't a big grand statement on Russell Westbrook. This entire decade is. Oh, for fuck sake. Stop. Which all NBA team, which averaging a triple double for three years in a row. Come on. It's one of the most successful players we've had for the last decade.

Yeah. He's a tremendous player. But a tremendous player still has not reached a level he needs to individually within the team concept in order to elevate the teams play around him in the postseason. That's all. Well, here's hoping. that, you know what, I'd like to see a game six. I would because we're only going to get one as of right now, it appears.

So if Ogilba City was able to get a road win, at least, at least we would get a game six because it looks like Denver and San Antonio might be the only one that we get out of the entire first round, which is rather incredible, to say the least. But you know what, round two is setting up to be pretty outstanding, though. Oh, it's going to be unbelievable. Start Sunday, I believe. We might get Milwaukee Boston that night on Sunday. And maybe depending on what happens, another series,

maybe we'll get Golden State in Houston as well. It's going to be great, man. I'm absolutely stoked for the second round. Looking forward to getting the first round over. Cannot wait. Kev, I will talk to you next week. Thanks, brother. Have a good one, Chris.

That's going to do it for another episode of The Mismatch. If you dig with your hand, go give us a rating and review on iTunes. We will talk to you next week.