The Ringer NBA Show - What Will the Lakers Do Post-LeBron? Plus, the Red-Hot Mavs and Rockets. | Real Ones

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Logan and Raja discuss LeBron James’s dominant 40-point performance against the Nets, his greatness, and how the Lakers should plan for life after he retires (2:00). Next, they talk about the Dallas Mavericks’ recent hot streak and why they are shaping up to be one of the most dangerous playoff teams (18:45). Along the way, they highlight the Houston Rockets’ recent play and what hitting their stride late in the season can mean for a young team (32:00). Finally, the guys close with Mailbag Monday (42:40). Email us questions for Mailbag Monday! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out ringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Producer: Jonathan Kermah Production Assistant: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have you ever wondered about the meaning behind your favorite song lyric or why certain melodies make your skin tingle? I'm Cole Kushner and these are the kinds of questions I try to answer on Dissect, a podcast that dives deep into one album per season examining the music, lyrics, and meaning of one song per episode. I've dissected full albums by Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, Tyro the Creator, Beyonce, Kanye, and more. Our latest season just launched all about MF Doom's Mad Villany. Listen to Dissect wherever you get your podcast because great art deserves more than a swipe. Real ones. Logan Murdoch here,

Roger Bell there. We just had a great warm-up, Roger. Let me tell people real quick before what we're going to talk about before we get into the warm-up. We'll talk a little LeBron, talk a little Mavericks, talk a little Rockets,

do a little mailback. But first, Raja out here playing video games with his kids and just gave just a very great, that's probably most of us the paywall version, but I just want to say,

I'm a great dad, Raja. Thanks, man. I mean, yeah. Yeah, it keeps me, entertained too. So like it's a win-win, right? Like I get to spend some time with them,

but like I enjoy watching them pop off on somebody's video games. So I'll sit there and, I don't know, catch a little libation and watch and watch somebody, you know, catch some bodies on Fortnite every now and again. I just talk about how he got the, how he got the bad signal that his kids are playing video games and how he basically just like shook two or three pieces of furniture to get to the other side of the house to watch them catch six bodies. Listen, right? And it was just the entertainment value was amazing.

These jokers know from my Fortnite heads out there, there used to be, I don't know what it's called now. It's called creative where you go in there. And this is where they would warm up essentially, Logan. Like they get in there and it's just like a build battle. And it's them and their little party. And they're just getting the fingers warmed up and it's creative. But there's no winner or losing in that. So these jokers would know if I came into a room, you'd hear him be like, you know, my dad, let's get in the game.

My dad's in here. Let's get in the game. Because if it was creative, I'm out. Yeah. I only want to see the live joke. Yeah, it's more. Yeah. It's all right.

Come on. Speaking of old heads, you know, scrapping it up with the youngans. Let's talk about LeBron James. LeBron scored 40 points against the Nets and a vintage performance. Scored 17 points in the fourth quarter. They dropped a lead, all the stuff. That's not the point here.

The point is after he had a vintage performance, he talked about how this is probably. going to be the end. Not very long. I'm on the other side. Obviously at a hill, so I'm not going to play another 21 years. That's the damn show. But not very long.

I don't know when that door was closed as far as when I'll retire, but I don't have much time. He's basically just talked about how this might be it. We might be done. And we're getting to that point right now. And I just want to know, Raja, thinking about it. this from the Lakers point of view, right? Where you have this guy that is scoring 40 who is doing these great things.

Doesn't seem at the peak level, LeBron, but damn it, he looked great in Brooklyn last night. How do you, as a front office, how do you plan for something like this when the guy, your best player, because don't get it messed up, he is the best player on the team right now. He is the number one option. How does a front office plan for this when a. rebuild is on the way, right? Like, what are we doing right now? Because as soon as he said that I'm like, oh, the Lakers aren't going to be the same in two years,

there's no way. Can't do it. How are you planning for this, Roger Bell? I mean, I don't really know, Logan. I didn't get to part two of my front office course. I stopped after part one. But I would imagine what you're trying to do. First of all, let's just...

Let's just put this out here. I hope everyone's enjoying it. I know our job is to kind of break down and analyze and talk about what's wrong with this team. I think we should all just really soak in and appreciate what you're watching in terms of LeBron at the advanced. I hate to say advanced age because I'm way older, but the advanced mileage that he has on his body in the NBA. And what he's still capable of conjuring up from night to night, it's pretty incredible. So instead of, you know, what we do on the pot all the time,

talking about the Lakers and whether they can win a championship and all of that, just every now and against sit back and count your blessings that you get to watch that. Real talk. I know it sounds corny, but this is real. That's unworldly stuff you're watching. As a front office, I would have to imagine that you know the inevitability of it. And so you're trying to figure out whether you're going to be able to kind of hit a reset button in a way that doesn't turn you into like a frame off restoration or whether or not when LeBron goes,

you're going to have to liquidate. You're going to have to liquidate. So is Anthony Davis the guy? When LeBron leaves, do we have the answer in terms of the next star that can carry us into another playoff window as we rebuild this over the, let's say, hypothetically, next three years? Does he exist already on our roster? No. And even with AD, even to answer that question, when I even think it through as you're asking it, I don't think that he is, he's not the number one guy. We've seen what he is, even at peak Anthony Davis level, what Anthony Davis can be as your number one guy.

And that's like the ceiling, I think, is 50 wins, right? We saw that with the Pelicans, maybe 50 to maybe 53, right? But are they winning in the championship? Probably not. Like, he's not that type of guy. So what I would do if I am the the Lakers at this point, and they don't own their pick this year or next year because of the Anthony Davis trade, I think there's a world where you can do both things at once.

I mean, the Lakers have shown you with Kobe Bryant that, you know, they can bring out all the stops and do all these things on a, because I don't care what LeBron is saying. I think it'll be better for him to retire a Laker in the way that, you know, the way that he would want his career to go out. I think that no matter what he says, I think retiring a Laker and having that, there's no, there's no farewell tour like a Lakers' farewell tour. I think no matter what smoke that he gives out, I think that's what he ultimately wants. So I think if you could just strike that balance of winning enough to satisfy LeBron and maybe just be in the hunt for maybe either this year or the next. next year after that, I think what you do is you play that out as long as you can.

And when that's over, you get on the phone or you say, Anthony Davis is on the trade block. I think that's exactly what you do. And then you build it up from the studs. You get assets from him. You take the picks that he's never going to get because he is a great player. You've seen that during, and he's still young. I think he's like 30, 31 or something like that. What you do is you trade him and you get what everything that you can and you rebuild out from the studs.

The same thing that is that the clabs have had to do, that the heat have had to do, but the Lakers are a different beast. But they have to build back up from the studs with those picks. If I were the GM, that's what I would do. I like that. And then so that I would bring another question to you because I think uniquely, L.A. has this going for them in a way that Cleveland didn't necessarily have. Your brand and where you are logistically, quite frankly, in L.A. and all of its allure, the purple and gold isn't it it's a destination like it's an attractive destination so is there a world in which lebron comes off the books and there's something else out there that you plug and play

with ad at that point and just try to keep the window open see that's tough because i don't know what star is out there that will be able to do that right like is lucca coming off the board i don't i don't i don't foresee that in this in this moment right is say gilgus alexander coming up off the board right Like, are you, or are you trying to get like a Trey Young or a Dejante Murray type player? Yeah. Like, is that, I don't think they do it. I don't think they do. Right?

Like, that's not, that's not the start that they want. This whole conversation, I guess, has been the answer to your question for me. That's the decision you have to make, right? Like, you're going to have to make, is this frame off? Is it when LeBron's expired? We get rid of AD, move off of that and just start from scratch? Or is there something that's going to be coming down the pipe that you see you could plug into that.

And I mean, I think it's probably more A than B, but that's the decision you're trying to make. How you manage the end of career. I mean, the Lakers have done it. The Lakers kind of did it with Kobe, right? They did it with Kobe. Although, you know, I would, I'd like to say that towards the end of Kobe's,

he probably wasn't as viable. Is that fair as a championship type of player? I still think LeBron could still, and it's same with AD, but I think we're talking about LeBron here. LeBron can still obviously help a championship team. He can definitely, I mean, LeBron being the third option on a team, which is wild to even consider. But if you put him on, I don't know, say Oklahoma City, who else?

Like, if Philly can get their shit together, I don't know. If LeBron was the second option on a team, it's a different conversation. But LeBron right now is so good to where like the only. only place he could be a second option. What is it Dallas or someplace, right? Where like what place could you see him being a second option? And the other player is good enough and has enough of an alpha personality to where they can, where he can be an actual number two or three option where there's an actual

picking order. There's only a couple of teams out there. And I don't even, I don't know. I don't see that. This isn't, this isn't a vacuum, right? This isn't taken into account like skill sets, duplicates. duplicating each other or or whether or not they'd be good fits together.

But you're talking about a rare, like you are talking about Joel Embedes. You're talking about Yonis's. You're talking about Luca Donchiches. You're talking about maybe Kevin Durant. Step Curry, even though I don't think he's got the, you know, you talk about that alpha,

but the culture. With Kevin Durant, raw, like, I don't think he's entrenched enough with the Phoenix organization to be, I don't even think he's the number one alpha on his team right now. Yeah, but I don't even know if that would work. Listen, again, not talking personality all the way. I'm talking about ability in a game.

He ain't no question about whether he's an alpha in a game, Kevin Durant, right? Sure, sure. That's what we're talking about. LeBron can represent whatever he wants behind closed doors in terms of leadership and stuff like that. But what he needs is the availability of a star next to him that can carry so that he doesn't have to hop into that mode as often as he does for. the Lakers to win. So he can really just be, you know, a piece.

And someone else can do the carrying from night to night on the court. And even that, like, I think there's only a handful of, I think there's, but I had to guess of the players that would do that, or that, that are, have the both the game and the alpha to do that. I think, whether Janice, Luca, Yokic. Yokic, yeah, Yokic, obviously. Joel. There are a few.

There's a few, but like six or seven guys, right? No, no, no, yeah, for sure. That's it. And getting LeBron into that way, it just, I don't, that's why I just don't think it's possible because it would take too much to. And LeBron ain't taking no ills when it come to the bank account. So then what? You know, like he's kind of, and I think he's kind of seeing that writing on the wall.

There's only so much, like, it's funny to just see LeBron in this last stage of his career because I think there's obviously mortality in a lot of ways. But there's also the mortality in, like, like what he can and can't do as an influence within the front office, which is so fascinating to me right now, right? Where, I mean, he wielded so much power in Cleveland, but he was also like 31, 32, right? And dragging you to the finals every year.

And dragging you to the finals every year. And it was good enough to be able to do that. Like, even LeBron isn't, it's not even father time that he's not susceptible to. It's just that, I guess what I'm trying to, I'm going to say, as that comes with Father's time, all the other things is that you can't, you don't have as much influence on a front office because the Lakers are like, hey, man, in two years, you're not going to be here. We are still the Lakers in that way.

And we still need to, you know, we still need to make sure that we are good and relevant enough after your career. Because it's interesting when LeBron is like the, and I've said this a lot, the Lakers are the only team that can beat his match in terms of ego in terms of, in terms of stature, like the only place that LeBron isn't bigger than the organization. And that's just been an adjustment that we've seen over the last few years. That's a very interesting conversation for me. LeBron with himself and his very, very small circle of people,

is the conversation that is, is it more worth it to retire a Laker and everything that comes along with that? or would it be more worth it to try to work our way to a place with someone, anyone, who we think we've identified as a potential running mate where I can vie for more championships? Because, I mean, he's telling you himself, it's very, very limited amount. There's a very limited amount of time left. So that would be interesting, fascinating for me to get a little insight into that. Like, is it done?

Have we already resigned? Is it a conversation already done? Is it a fluid conversation? Or we reevaluating after this year's playoffs? Like, what's that look like? Yeah. And also just like, you know, LeBron, I mean, the NBA stars. When you're at LeBron's level, it's such an individualistic thing, right?

And like, he's on an air with the greats of all time, the Kareemes, the Jordans, the Wilts, just in this different class of individualism when it comes to, you know, the pantheon of what the NBA represents. And right, it's so much so to where when he's chasing these people, these Michael Jordan's, even within his successes, there's scrutiny. There's just going to be a level of scrutinization. I don't even know if that's a word, but there's going to be a level of scrutinizing that. Scrutiny. Thank you. Probably. You went to college.

I didn't. I mean, thank you for that, pal. But there's a level of scrutiny there where even if he does go, right, like say if he goes somewhere else. there's going to be a level of people that are like, well, hey, that championship made he is valid as the other ones because you was on a running mate running somebody else's coattails, right? And that's just what it is, right? Like, I'm not saying, and I'm saying that as a way of like, because LeBron is sensitive

to those things. So I know he's thinking about that. We all know he is because he is on that select few of group of people of all-time grades. It's very, very select. There's only like 10 people there. When you're in that type of group, naturally, there's a lot. lot that comes with that. My argument to anybody that would listen to me from LeBron's Kim, not that there's any, but his man, Randy, my, Randy's my, Randy was my guy. Randy when I was

in Cleveland was my dude, man, he's, he's a good brother. But I don't think, LeBron's already won championships in three places. That's already part, that's already part of the legacy. That's, for me, that's the best part of the legacy is no matter where I went, I did it. you know that i mean i people try to use that as a negative i i see it as a positive like this isn't this isn't like i could only win when i went to play with someone this is everywhere i've gone a championship has followed if you're able to do that for a fourth time i mean yeah i'm there gonna be some people that if if that the player that you team with is younger and more able than you they they may have something to say about that i don't quite frankly i don't give a shit

that puts you in another conversation for me you've won at four stop you've had four stop. You've had four stops, one at every one of them, except Cleveland the first time. I think I could make an argument for why that would be a pretty cool thing in terms of a legacy. We'll see what happens, man. But it's just fascinating to just see him at this level still. Like, we've never seen a star do it at this level. I mean, I think the closest might be Kareem, maybe, right? Do it for this long at this level. I'm giving Kareem his flowers, because I don't feel like he gets enough flowers at this point just by how great his, his, career was, but it's just so fascinating to see this in real time and just see the mortality

in real time, but also being as great as he is in spurts. Because the reality is LeBron is in this category right now that me and you talk about, where we talk about just the, not all, not all scoring lines are created equal. And LeBron is now in that category of player, right? Because you see the 40 point nights, but you don't see the, as much of an impact on a given stretch, because he just doesn't have that gear. Every once in a while, he could just find it. And I think that's why he's great like Jordan was with the Wizards, because every couple of weeks, he could just find it, you know, and he'll give you the reminder of like, oh, this LeBron James.

So it's fascinating to see where he's at right now. It's always something to look forward to. He's always a great topic. But I just wanted to see just where is this guy at right now. So we'll see what happens. It's going to be a fascinating discussion. Let's take a quick break. I want to talk a little bit about the Dallas Mavericks.

And we are back. I wanted to talk a little Mavericks. I was in Sacramento last week. Got to see quite a bit of the Mavericks. They played the Kings. It was one of those. I think you would have loved this, Roger. They have the, now they have the,

where you can stay in a city. The NVA has done the schedule where, like, uncertain road trips, you just stay in the city for a whole week because you play maybe, I think the Mavs played on a Tuesday and Sack. They played on a Friday in Sack and they just chill. Maybe you would do it in a much more desirable city like, I don't know, Miami or some shit.

I don't know what you would like. But we're starting to have that. It's been really cool. So I got to see a lot of the Maver's. We're going to see them actually tomorrow night, Steph First Luca. So they've been playing really, really well. They had two big wins in Sacramento for them. I think they're fifth in the Western Conference.

I want to throw some numbers at you. They're 11 and 1. This is since March 6, 11 and 1. That unimaginative offense that I said from Jason Kidd is averaging 118 points per game, 119.5 offensive rating that's second in the league over that stretch. 12.4 net rating, second best in the league. Luca has been bonkers over the last month since March 6, 31, 9, and 9. Kyrie also been bonkers, 24, six assists, four rebounds on 50% shooting over the stretch.

And I got to say, man, watching the Mavericks over the last week, I know this has been, they've had an up and down season. There's been trades for Daniel Gafford. There has been even over the last three weeks ago before they went on this run, there was a damn near mutiny in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, trying to put Jason Kidd's proverbial coaching head on a platter, and since they have just railed off wins, and I think they're the most dangerous team going into the postseason, when you look at the stretch of the Dallas Mavericks, and I have my thoughts, I will share them after you share yours,

do you think that this can translate into the postseason and how far can this team go? All right, first thing I got to. got to do is call you out. Okay? Because you brought your ass on this podcast coming out of an All-Star break and asked yours truly about the teams that could make some noise in a playoffs. And I said that Dallas Mavericks, it's what I said.

It's on audio somewhere. You can go back and listen. And I got some pushback about X, Y, and Z. And they had lost some games and things weren't going well. And that's fair, but I'm just here to tell you that I might have said that. So what I will say to them on top of all the stats that you just talked about. Say it with your chest, Ross. If you don't come at me, you can't say you might have said some shit.

Say it with your chest. I'm just saying. It's Monday. It's Monday. I may have said that. You might be able to go back into the archives and hear me say that the Dallas Mavericks. For a lot of the reasons that I had articulated, a lot of the reasons that you just doubled down on in terms of offense. but I think the most important part of this

has been over that same stretch of time over the last 10 games. They're second in the league in terms of total defense, defensive rating. And so if you're going to have, and most of what I said made them dangerous, revolved around the combination.

And 7.1 defensive rating. Just want everybody to know that. They are playing really well in defensive end. Derek Lively's been really well. Gafford's been really well. Plug it up to date. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I didn't have the foresight to know that was coming.

Most of what I was saying made them dangerous as a playoff team revolved around their two-headed monster of just offensive individuality, and I can get you a bucket whenever you need it. And that becomes a scary thing in the playoffs at times, in a game that more times than not, those games come down to whether I can get that bucket or not consistently. But if you pair that, and their ability offensively with a slightly above average defense,

not even like top five, but slightly above average defense. You have something cooking. If you're telling me they're going to be a top 15 defense, they're scary. Now, I think it's a lot to ask a team that historically, you know, for the season, hadn't been that great defensively. I think a 10-game sample size, it's probably not fair to take a snapshot of that

and say that's who they're going to be moving forward. But they don't have to be that. They can be top 15, top top 12 defensively. And with what Luca and Kyrie can do offensively and some of their other pieces, they can be very formidable in the playoffs. So while I did say that they were going to be dangerous, I didn't anticipate these defensive chops

to like showing up in this way to pair with what they could do offensively. And what they do offensively, like obviously it's crazy. we need a moment of silence for what they did offensively last week. And yesterday in Houston, man, I saw some of the wildest shit offensively that I have seen in a while. Luca, the amount of people he turns, he's like dark in this way where he does the move that you see coming and you can't fuck with it. He does this fucking spin move into a step back that is leaped. It is lethal. He got Deeran Fox on one of them dog in the wing where he basically just did a, he fake like he was going to the cup and then did the spin move into a step back that you, you know the ones where you might think it's a travel and it's against the rules, but the move is so cold that you just let it ride. I don't know if you see that. It's an NBA move, right? He did that on Deerrin Fox. I'm going to send it to you after this. shit and it was so disrespectful.

And then the next game, because it was one of those games, Friday night I watched them, the Kings were, I'm sure we'll talk about the Kings. It's tough for them right now. Malik Monk is out with an MCL for four to six a weeks. It's a really tough injury. He's a heart and soul of the team.

So that's tough after Luca just fell on its knee. A lot of bad blood from Sacramento to the Mavericks after that. It's pretty tough. But anyways, I was against the Kings. In that game where Malik Monk got hurt, it was one of those games where Mavericks playing like shit and then they just steal one. I mean, you've been a part of those games where you're clearly the better team. You're getting all the calls, but you're still down 10, right?

Throughout the game. And then you just like, just say, yo, Steve, need one. We need a run real quick. Amari, we need you guys. We will step up alongside that, but we need you guys to get going. And then that's when the Mavericks really had that. I think it was in the third quarter. and there was a shot.

I think it was the, the mouths were down six. And this motherfucker, Kai Rhee, does one of those things where he gets the ball, has 21 seconds left at the shot clock, gets the ball from the other end, goes to the top of the key,

sees two defenders in front of him, says, I don't care, shoots a three with 21 seconds to go in the shot clock, bang, one of the greatest shots I've seen in person. And they're down, three, then that's when the whole completely momentum goes and shifts. And then I got to thinking, like, yo, this could be a formidable playoff team.

And I know that if you, if you play them against the wrong matchup and yada, yada, yada, they could be cooked. They're not the best. They're not the, if you put them in the upper echelon of the Western Conference against Denver, I don't know if they necessarily match. But Raja, I think they're one of those teams that if you get them on the right side of the bracket, they could do some things. at this very moment, they are fifth in the Western Conference.

If the playoffs ended today, they're playing the Clippers, who I saw last month, and I've been seeing in the Stretches, dude, I do not believe in the Clippers. I'm sorry. You can't say that you can't, I can't do it. Just based on the way that they've played. If you see the Mavericks right now, it could be lights out. It could be 2022 postseason all over again going into the Western Conference finals. for us. Yeah, well, I mean, you've seen them up in close and personal. I have not. I'd say this again,

the Western Conference as a playoff race for the most part, it's the landscape is wide open. I just think that there's a lot, there are a lot of teams out there that have a lot of reasons why they could, an equal amount of reasons why they may not, right? So I would put the Mavericks in the mix of teams that could hang with anybody in the Western Conference. And it's especially when they're playing efficiently offensively. Look, look, there's a there's a relationship between your defense and your offense. And when you're taking better shots and you're operating more efficiently, offensively and you're shooting a better field goal percentage,

you know, because you're operating more efficiently offensively, the ball is going through the net more. There's less opportunity for another team to be out in transition. There's more opportunity for you to get back and actually. set at defense. And if they're sound defensive principles, maybe you can execute them in a way that's going to hurt the other team's opportunity to execute offense efficiently. And if we're in that space and the Mavericks are doing that, that's a really good spot to be in for them because they become fractionally and incrementally better defensively. And I'm sitting here telling you of

of the teams out there that have a duo of dudes who can like go above those X's and O's, go above both our offensive axes and O's and what you say you're going to do to us defensively. Like, I don't give a shit. You just made a bucket. Your defense is set. You guys have been game planning us and game planning for us for the last five days because this is the third of, you know, third game in the series. And none of it matters because one of those two.

Jokers can just go bananas. So, Roger. That's scary. I have, so I'm looking at the standings right now. And even if they, that the Maverick swap and get to the six, stay out of the play in, but get into the sixth seed. When you look at them, what are the teams that you're, like, if you go put the Maverick against the Thunder right now or put the Maverick against the Timberwolves right now, who are you, Which team should be more scared in your eyes, right? Because Denver, Denver's Denver.

I don't think anyone's fucking with Denver. And I think they're Teflon at this point. I've seen enough of the sample size of them in bigger, in big games. Now, we've got to see when Jamal Murray gets back because that's a big, big, big, big if. But if you're looking at, which team do you want to get if you're the Mavericks? Do you want to go get the Thunder? Do you want to, you're seeing the Timberwell's like, oh, okay, all right. You know, I don't know if cats coming back.

I don't know. I trust our, and also, I trust. And also, I trust our, I'm punching my chest right now. I trust our oomph more than their oomph. Like, which one are you looking at? If you're at the Mavericks right now, which two teams are you looking at? You're like, oh, we can go, we can go get them.

Don't trip. Then it's wide open after that. In fairness, because you just posed a question, like, I wasn't prepared for it. So I haven't dug into like what they've done against each team over the course of a season, because a lot of my answer would be predicated, or at least a lot of my answer would be dependent

upon the information that I've accumulated over the course of this season playing them, right? So I'm just going to do this. And one is healthier than the other. So if you said I could play the T-Wolf without Kat, knowing how much he means to that team, I'm going to take that team, right? That's what I'm going to do. I would tell you this, even with Kat, I think there's a real opportunity for reasons that I've already kind of, spoken to on this pod to beat either team.

Not saying that they would, but there's things that both teams would need to prove in the space of winning playoff games that if I were the Mavericks, with Luca and Kyrie and their experience, I'd be like, okay, let's go ahead. Let's throw it up. Let's see what happens.

But to the question you just asked me, because they're missing as big a piece of their puzzle as cat and potentially will be missing him, I'd probably go with at that just, you know what I mean? At that point, as scary as Anthony Edwards is. You know we love Anthony Edwards on this program.

We love him. Let's stay in Texas really quickly. The other team that I wanted to talk about that we haven't talked about a ton on the program is the Houston Rockets who, I mean, I know Dallas beat him last, last night. We've talked about Dallas being the hottest team.

and the Western Conference in the League at large. The second hottest team has been the Houston Rockets, who come from the doldrums of the conference to now being two games outside of the last playing spot. They're on the Warriors' heels right now. And it's difficult to even fathom that. But I think the biggest thing that I want to talk about, I'm with those some numbers that she was well.

In the same stretch that I just told you about the Mavericks since March 6, the Rockets have put up a 120 offensive rating second best over that stretch. A defensive rating of 11.8, which is 11th over that stretch. Now, they're not quite in the Raza zone of top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, but they are almost there. They are knocking on the door during that stretch. Jalen Green has been fucking incredible, bro. 27 points, 49% from the field,

42 from 3, 6 boards, 4 assist over the stretch. What does this do when your team, and M.A. Dugger's done a great job with this team. Even when they weren't necessarily, like, good on paper,

they've always been a tough out. I'd even think about the game that they played against the Clippers a couple of weeks ago, where they lost the game, but you were like, who the fuck is this team? What are they doing?

You know, the young team that you can't really get a gauge on. I know, is out, and I know that has affected them, but they have still been rolling. How important is it for a young team at this stretch of a season to be able to do this, especially how young they are? What does that do, and how is that a benchmark of what can come in the future? I mean, it's huge for the psyche of a young team like that to be continuing to improve and

ascend throughout the course of the season. Obviously, you'd like to get in, but even if you were to fall short and your trajectory was still ascending at the end of the season and you couldn't get in because someone else did their job and fended you off, that's huge for a team going into the offseason for the vibes, for the belief, for the buy-in to the message. And so I think I want to take a step back and just say, you know, I'ma-udoka. This is to take nothing away from the pieces, and I will get to some of the pieces. But you've got to really, really look at him and say, okay, if there was any question in your mind

whether dude could really do it, or if you fell into the category of person that doubted him and wrote him off because of what happened in Boston, like, this dude could coach. Because to the point I just made, the messaging. the way it's delivered and what it is has to be bought into. And that can be a hard thing at times, especially for a young team. Right? Because they're not in a lot of instances ready to buy into anything yet.

So to get them to buy in, to have them playing and competing and defending the way they are, their top 10 defense over the last 10 games too, I think you have to give him a ton of credit. I think for a young team to, again, be playing well and chasing and hunting and hitting their stride late in the season, whether they get in or not, it's huge going into an offseason. And then I would just say what changes the dynamic for them a little bit is when you have someone that now looks like a star. Right? When Jalen Green starts to look like a star, when people are throwing Kobe around with him over this stretch of,

time. It can just change the dynamic of your team that much. And it puts your team in another category, right? Because that ultimately has to be in place for a team that wants to win a championship. You've got to have a dude. You know, you've got to have a dude. And you've got to have great role players and you've got to have great coaching. There's a lot that goes into that. But his personal growth over this little course of time, time and what he's been doing, you know, through this window for them, I think becomes a little bit of a separator and allows them to eke into another category of team because now you're looking at someone and saying, oh, yep, there it is, along with all the other great stuff they have going on.

And this puts them into a conundrum, right? Because now, like in his report, I know in front of the show to me, man said that he thinks that one of the guys might get traded in Sangoon or Jalen Green, right, to get a bigger piece. And we always talk about this all the time with young teams, whether they're ready to press a button or not, right? Or because it could be too early, right? It could be because on another level, OKC is going through this as well, like getting pressured,

hey, man, push the button. Like, get to go get a star. And OKC's like, no, relax. Like, we've got to see what this team is made of in the biggest moments. But you're starting to see the Houston Rockets are, starting to, it's, we're starting to try to see, hey, is this the time where we need to do something? We got, we got, who do we build around? And Jalen Green is an interesting case study because even as, as, uh, as recently as the all star break, or recently it was around the trade

deadline, um, you would hear, you know, people around the league saying, hey, watch out for Jalen Green because he might be a surprised guy that might get traded away during the trade deadline from the rockets. Don't, don't. Keep your eye on Jalen Green because of all. all the other things that we haven't talked about on this podcast, but there have been things that have followed, a reputation that has followed Jalen Green throughout his time, early time in the, in his career. Is he, you know, is he, he's not focused enough? He's not, is he the guy that you can trust to hand the keys to as a franchise, right?

Does he care about the right things? Those were the questions that were circulating around him, right? to the point where, you know, at least the Rockets, or Rockets made the impression that, hey, we might move this guy right now during the trade deadline. And his response to that has been very impressive over the last few weeks. And, you know, they could get into the postseason. What do you do with this with this information? It's a small sample size.

Well, what do you do with this as a GM when you may have had thoughts of, should we kick the tires or maybe getting rid of this guy now? and then now all of a sudden he's good. Like where do you, as a guy that's been in the front office, how do you balance that? It's only been, what, a month and a half since that trade deadline. Sure. That's a very tough thing.

And while I said to you, his ascension into that level of player helps them become a different team, it is a relatively small sample size of him doing that, right? So it becomes very difficult when you've been with him for however many years you've been with him and the consistency. of habits, performance, and what have you, haven't necessarily lived up to what we're seeing over the course of the last 11 games where he's in this window of time

where, again, he's drawing comparisons to some pretty cool all-time grades, right? In terms of what he's able to do in this bit of time, I would as a general manager, and I'm not with him. So I haven't, you know, this isn't really fair. I would just say that if I was there evaluating and I had been with him for a period of time, I would trust the body of work.

Like I would trust my eyes over the course of time rather than trust a 13-game sample size. But that's really hard to do when you've drafted and invested and thought that someone could be this one day. And now they look like it. It's hard to say, man, this could just be a mirage. And he might go, it's hard because you want to believe in a lot of instances that, yeah, like, some stars don't get it right away.

It might take a couple years, and then they find it, and they never let go of it. It just took a minute to click. Like, we don't know when it's going to click. Forgive me for going back to football, but I sit in these meetings with my son and these offensive coordinators as it relates to quarterbacks coming in, and they almost all say the same thing. Like, we don't know when it's going to click for a kid moving from high school to college. It might take them a couple months.

It might take them a couple years. It's different for everybody. So it's the same thing with the talent in the NBA that you're hoping can hit his stride as a star. Who knows? You don't want to give up on it. It's your baby. But everything you've got to this point would suggest that it hasn't figured it out yet. And it's a very difficult thing when you start to see over the course of a couple weeks,

it hit its stride and play the way you thought it could play. And you like, hopefully it's got it figured out. I would stick with my gut, though. I would go with with I would go with the long. longer sample size. And if I was in that building every day, you know, that's why you're around somebody. That's why you want to be around the team. That's why you want to have eyes on them so that it doesn't become just, hey, let's evaluate off of 13 or 15 games versus however many he's played before that. It's a bigger conversation. These are habits, you know,

lifestyle, you know, relationships. All of that's going to go into the pie as to what, in terms of whether or not, you know, you want to continue that relationship or you think there's something else out there that gives you guys a better chance. I would just say, like, if they do want to move on from him, he's making a hell of a trade case for those other teams. The return might be, not only would say stupid, but it could be impressive if he's. He's helping it. He's helping that trade value at this point. And we'll see what happens.

All right. Time for the motherfucking mailbag. It is Monday. Kiggity Kerm out of the motherfucking cut wants more. Are you awake? New rag is off. Are you good? How you doing?

I'm great. How are you all? We're hanging. You know, it's Monday. What the fuck? All right. First question is from T.J. He says, first off, I owe Logan an apology. I live in the bank and was recently shopping at Emoryville Target. As a longtime Real One's listener, I'm pretty familiar with your voices by now. I was in line for the checkout, and I heard Logan's voice behind me and was wondering if somebody was listening to Real One's listener. once on a speaker or something. I turned around and Logan was actually standing right there talking on the phone. I was honestly just confused.

So I scared him for too long. And then when he noticed, I think I said some dumb shit like big fan or something like that. Anyways, sorry, bro. Growing up. Wait, hold on real quick, real quick. Before we get to the question, TJ, yes. I do remember this. TJ, yes.

I remember this. Before we get to the question, I do remember this moment. I was at Target and I got my mask on because you know, like, I ain't trying to get the, I'm still not trying to get the Rona, bro. Like, I'm not trying to do it, right? So I got my mask on and I'm talking to somebody on the phone and I just see somebody looking at me, bro. And like, Roger, you know where we come from, bro.

If somebody is looking at you crazy or looking at you wild, like you get a little defensive, right? Like you, and I'm like, huh? And then he was like, oh what's up real ones how you doing like and i'm like i got my mask on like how do you know how do you know that the distinctive voice and i was like i was like whew it's just t j shout out to t j right here let's get to his question shout out to tj i was a little scared though i was a little i was a little spooked i was like you love you rogers's used to that

rhodes has been famous for a long time he's used to that but i was like well i'm a target what what's going on here so he says growing up who in the Bay Area, seeing the effect that Steph has had on youth basketball around here is insane. All the young Hoopers at the Rec Center are warming up with half court shots and pulling up from 30 feet in transition. My question is for Raja. Do you think the whole Steph changed the game narrative is actually reflected in youth leagues or is it kind of overblown? T.J, great question. It is definitely reflected in youth leagues, in youth practices, in youth development. and it has not been great for the youth if it's not monitored and explained. And what I mean by that is Steph's been incredible for the game.

Being able to establish some of the skill set that Steph has, I was working with my middle boy yesterday on Steph's step back, and he realizes he's not going to be able to get a shot off on a step back. So he distributes the ball real quick and then just face cuts his man. because his man's momentum is now by him. I think that's a beautiful. And so we're working on that yesterday. So I think that if it's explained and it's built foundationally from the ground up,

it's a great thing. But far too many times, like kids just see Steph shooting from where he shoots from and think that that's where they begin. And that's how they should start their game. And I disagree with that. I think that they need to learn how to play fundamentally, learn how to operate in shorter spaces on the court and then broaden out and start. shooting those type of shots. And I think that coaches have to understand that, like,

analytically speaking, that might work for Steph because he's a 40-some percent three-point shooter. But if you got a bunch of seven-year-olds running around and they shoot 15 percent from three, we don't want to teach them to play the game like that. So anyway, I digress. Very short answer is, yeah, I do think it has creeped in. And I think there's got to be a little bit more responsibility. Steph's been great for the game. But we got to explain that he didn't start looking like that. this is a finished product. Funny you say that. I'm in my question curation bag today.

So we're going to follow the perfect follow-up question from Brian. He has a youth B-ball idea. He says, love the show. Raja on AAU and Youth B-Bball is my favorite reoccurring bit. I teach in elementary school and constantly see kids eight and under trying to chuck threes. Funny, we was just talking about that. That's wild. How about you eight ball with no hoops?

point for dribbling into other teams three point arc, two points for dribbling into their paint key, points is doubled if you complete a pass to that space. What do you guys think of that idea of eight years old and younger basketball teaching them how the fundamentals of dribbling and not shooting threes by this variation on the game? It was Brian, right? Yes. Hey, Brian, thanks for listening. I love it. It would never work. It would never work because, you ultimately the parents become the problem, right? And like you could teach a kid to not value like scoring as much as we celebrated.

And I think that's healthy. And I think all the other things that come along with taking the scoring part out of it could be very healthy. But ultimately, the parents are the problem. They want the buckets. They're the ones on Instagram, seeing all the other. Like so it's going to be hard to convince them that that's worthwhile for their kid. I'm just telling you, brother. I've had a million-on conversations, not with this specific idea, but with similar thoughts,

not going to happen. What I would say is, man, if you're coaching a team or if you got buddies that coach teams and you can implement something like that into your practice plans and have that be a game that the kids learn how to, you know, play for 20 minutes in a practice setting, I think it would be super valuable for the kids you got, dude. Awesome. We got another AAU questioning, man. I'm just, my curation stays insane.

You know, we got a whole playlist going. I'm trying. I got the energy. I woke up early today, guys. This is my bag. Logan. Get a coffee, my boy. Come back and check us out.

Give a clear out for Rod. Go to the wing. Clear out. I'm just excited at Raj's back, man. I can't help it. What up, guys. This is Dennis. I had a question for y'all, mostly Raja, about the AAU program.

I have an eight-year-old nephew who loves basketball, says he wants to play an NBA someday. And that has my brother researching possible. to the AAU in the future. As someone who loves the game but loves my nephew that much more, I'm a little hesitant to support the idea my brother has. On one hand, I'd love for him to reap the benefit of performing on that stage and the networking element, but on the other hand, I don't want him to get swallowed up in the paper chase, have his development not reach its full potential.

And worse yet, have him suffer some horrible injury from the intense workload. Obviously, this is my nephew's decision when the time comes, but as the most basketball savvy person in my family, he consistently turns to me for advice on these matters and my mixed feelings have me stumped. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter. All the love and good vibes, Dennis. Man, Dennis, this is a deep one, bro.

There's a lot to unpack there. There's, look, AAU culture, not the AAU brand, but the culture, the basketball culture, gets branded as AAU culture right now. AAU is a great brand. They do a fantastic job at their tournaments. They put on great things for parents, kids. It's an awesome time.

We've done it since my kids were little. I would say that if a kid really loves basketball, I've got two case studies personally with this, along with my journey. One kid, my older son, played basketball, seemed to like it. I made it a job for him very early. that I don't think is healthy for kids. He never learned how to love it the way he should love it to want to play it for a life.

Now, I let him go around the seventh grade because he didn't want to do it anymore. And now guess what's happened to his love for basketball? It's come back because I don't beat it into him, right? Like I had to give him the space to find his own passion for it, whether that be like a competitive I want to play in college or just a hey man, And I like to do this in my spare time and have fun with it. But that's healthy, right? My younger boy didn't have that same type of pressure.

He was the younger brother on those teams. He just got to suit up in the jersey. He didn't get the wrath of the training all the time. And because of that, he developed a love. He's in the eighth grade now and it's his passion. So he goes after it. So I say all that to say that like if it's your nephew's passion and not his dad's passion, that's cool.

If it's dad's passion, that's where things get a little, get a little wonky. I would also say, play multiple sports. Don't let anybody tell you in a third, fourth, or fifth grade that they need to concentrate and spend all their time dribbling a basketball or playing basketball. It's patently false. Any good coach at a higher level worth their salt will tell you that. There are way too many games. Thirdly, I would say when you pick a travel team, pick it with the right balance of winning as a priority and developing as a priority. I don't think it can be all about winning where your kid doesn't get a chance

to develop his skills, but I don't think it can be purely about development where you never learn to win because I think you can learn to lose. So you're looking for a good balance between the two of those things. And the last thing I'll say about it is when you pick your program

because he's going to want to play and he wants to play. Don't be one of these kids that chases a tournament every single weekend. Now I'm playing with seven different teams because my one organization isn't playing this weekend and now I got to go guest play on this. And I understand kids want to play basketball, but it desensitizes you to the losing of it.

It starts to prioritize just getting out there and getting buckets and being this mercenary of sorts in a way that I don't think is healthy. I think when you get out there to compete and you've been building for practice after practice to compete with whatever team you're on, you should feel some kind of way when you lose. There should be a letdown.

There should be some feelings involved. That's part of the sport. When you stop caring about that because you've played 12 games every weekend for the last six months, I think that's detrimental to a kid's development. So I'm sorry about that. You had a big question, and that was the biggest answer I could give you and try to cover everything comprehensively, bro. I hope it helps.

What an education just now. What an education. I'm preaching, man. You've given me a preachy platform, so here I am. I asked Rajah by AAU who have seven pod episodes of, one. It's been my life, though, for the last 12 years, though. Like, I mean, I've run the programs.

I've had my kids on other teams. Like, so, you know, I've seen it from all. Our next question is not about AAU. We're switching it up. It's from Connor. He says, what's popping real ones? What is the point of the NBA draft lottery? No other league does this.

And if a team wants to tank, it hasn't hurt those other leagues. So why is tanking only talked about the NBA? Why should we care that the team wants to suck. Hope to hear this on the show. Well, your wish is granted, my boy. You're welcome. Connor. Raja wants no parts of this question. I'm just going to take a stab at it. You know, I think that the NBA has a credibility issue in all ways right now, just in terms of how we've talked about the refs, we've talked about the gambling, specifically.

but if you had a lot of teams tankings, which we've seen over the last couple of years, it feeds into that credibility issue of teams, at least in the league's eyes, of teams circumventing the rules and not making it appear that they care no matter what. And I think that the lottery is a pushback against that. Now, I know that the lottery came out before a lot of this stuff was

happening. But there are a lot of NBA conspiracies that we have seen over the years, even pre all the stuff that has happened over the last 20 years. So I think that it is a way for at least the appearance of fairness, even if you try to as you're trying to circumvent the rules. Now, I don't know if you have to, I don't know, I don't have the answer to why the NFL doesn't have these things considering, you know, at least some of their teams, I mean, i.e. the Patriots, have brought credibility issues to its league. And there's also been some scandals that have rocked the MLB that have brought credibility issues to that league.

But I think it's a credibility thing. I think there's a reason they want a level of fairness and they don't want you to outright just say, no, we're going to try to go get that number one pick because we want one bin Yama, even though that teams do. that, even though teams will do that directly or indirectly no matter what. But there has to be the appearance that we're not circumventing the rules. How do you feel? What do you feel by that answer, Roger? I like that. There we go. We got one more question or is that it? I got one more for you. Honestly, I kind of wish Howard was here for this one, but I think we got it without him.

Shout out Howard. We miss you. Howard. This one's from Aaron. He says, for some time now, I've had in my head kicking around a stat that I've never actually seen tracked in basketball, but I feel really ought to be. What I've come to call timeout points, that is scoring events that immediately preceded timeout called by the opposing team. You know, you know these scores. Some of them are free throws made late in the clock, but mostly timeout points are scores in the midst of runs that get The team on offense so fired up that the other coach is forced into burning a timeout just to try and kill the momentum. Logo threes, fast break highlight dunks, big, big points. And I feel it would be instructive to see what players are most proficient at spending the other team's timeouts for them.

Does this also seem like a stat worth tracking? We have the data to do it, Aaron. That's interesting to me. I don't know, I don't know, trying to think. I don't know what value it would have other than it would just be fascinating to me because I'm trying to think players like if Luca is going to be responsible for way more what do you call a timeout points? Yeah, let's call him down.

What did he call us that? Yeah, I don't know. It would be interesting to see. I mean, it's an interesting idea. I don't know ultimately how they would use the information. but it's fascinating because I'm always fascinated watching games with a coach's feel for when he needs the timeout if you can dig what I'm saying.

So I'm always sitting there like yo, you know, yeah, time out, time out. I do it at high school games. I do it at AAU games because I'm always fascinated by the guy who can't get that right or the guy conversely who gets it right where like you either went one possession too far, my boy, or you killed that run. I thought Pop used to be great at that.

No, dead that. As soon as he felt it coming on, like not dead time out pop would get to it before you know analytically speaking this guy Aaron would say that most other people would get to it so it's a fascinating thing to me I don't know how they use it though Logan how do you feel about that answer you're the master at this but I do feel like with the timeouts like I've never is the question like after the person makes a time out that they they take a time like after Luca hits the crazy what's the last bucket or

point scored prior to a coach using his timeout to end that run. It's the way I understood that. Not the after timeout, which is great, right? Because that's going to tell you who could coach or not. Are they going to a timeout? How much they score coming out of the timeout? I think this was leading into the timeout. Am I correct, Kerm? Like, who scores the most of the place? Oh, who causes the coach to call time out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. More, yeah. I would be a cool stat to get. Like, we kind of see it all the time, right? Like, it would be like, it would be like, the LeBron makes a three when he's when he like that's like oh man and or when like Duran or like it would be like the stars that do it have to be a specific kind of player that can be doing that's what

would be that's what would be fascinating to me right because I'm I was trying to think through it as I was talking it's probably why I was like Ham Thomas like well I wonder what his stats would be on this right or like a team like ours like our son's team it probably wasn't going to be Steve or Amari it might have messed around and been somebody like me or yeah or Barbosa because we'd hit that three. We can't get them going, huh? We can't get them going. Like, do you know what I'm saying?

Like, they were obviously the better players and would score more, but because we get wide open on you. Who are the guys you think would be right now in this league? There are guys that you might not expect that might be the ones that if they hit a get cooking, you're like, oh, fuck. Man, I don't know. I mean, I'm going through teams right now. Let's use the Lakers. I don't know, like the Lakers popped in my head in that way.

Like Austin Reeves, right, a candidate for that. like um not your primary guy or your second the angel russle russell correct yeah those type of players you never know yeah uh brandon presimski he can't get his ass going relax yeah so someone who gets enough shots like you know they got to average enough points and get enough shots but they might not be your primary guy but they eat off of that primary guy so like they might be the one getting that shot over and over again in the midst of those big runs for sure fascinating thank you kerm That has been another edition of motherfucking mailbag.

Great questions. Mailman's mailbag at gmail.com. Real onesmailbag at gmail.com. Real ones mailbag at gmail.com. Every Monday we do this. Tap in. You guys are doing a great job. Kerm says he has a lot.

He's still seeing emails from 88. There have been, you guys have been really good with this. So thanks so much. We'll talk to you guys on Thursday. Tap in. All the shit. Bye.