Will Cain Country - Cain On Sports: Is Nikola Jokic The Best Player In The NBA?

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

On this edition of Will's Friday sports episode on The Will Cain Show, Will sits down with NBA Writer at Bleacher Report, Andy Bailey, to discuss who the top five players are in the NBA right now, who from the 1990s plays like Nikola Jokic, and what teams are most likely to have a shot at the NBA Finals in June.    Plus, Will and the crew debate the best College Football quarterbacks of the 2000s.    Tell Will what you thought by emailing [e-mail]   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5.5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. He's white, European, and unathletal. And all that has stood in the way of everybody recognizing reality that the best player in the NBA is Nicola Yokic. Plus, who are the real contenders for a title in the NBA? The Mavs?

A conversation with Bleacher reports, Andy Bailey. It's the Will Kane Show at Fox News podcast, Apple and Spotify, and on YouTube at Will Kane Show. streaming live every Monday through Thursday, 12 o'clock Eastern time and always on demand at YouTube or wherever you get your audio entertainment. Fox News podcast. Coming up in this show today, I've been a fan of his work for quite some time. He's Bleacher reports Andy Bailey, and he was probably first to market in recognizing reality that the best player in the NBA is Nicola Yokic of the Denver Nuggets.

I have now turned my attention, at least in part, to the NBA. I'm paying attention to who's winning night in and night out. I'm clicking on the standings and I'm watching when I can, my Dallas Maverick. So, in essence, let's get this started this week, getting us ready for the stretch run here in the NBA. That's coming up in just moments with Bleacher reports, Andy Bailey. We have a fascinating discussion about the role of race. nationalism in understanding what's actually happening and recognizing who is the best player in the NBA. But first, earlier this week, I gave you my top eight quarterbacks in college football

since the year 2000. And it caused some controversy. Not as much online and in social media, where the general consensus was that I had created the perfect list. But within the confines here of the Will Kane show, it was not received with enthusiastic and endorsement, at least in corners of the Will Kane show. Let's bring in now tinfoil Pat, establishment James, and Dan, two a days, into the conversation. As a reminder for the audience, my list went as follows. At number eight, Johnny Football. At number seven, Baker Mayfield. At number six, James Winston. And then jumping up a tier into a clear tier one of top five quarterback since the year 2000, at number five, Joe Burrow, at number four, Deshawn Watson,

at number three, despite my heart, and in a clear stake-claiming movement of objectivity, Vince Young, number two, Cam Newton, and number one, Tim Tebow. I think since that time, two days, establishment James, I think you could testify that. All of our text chains and all of our conversations, while they should have been focused on the retirement of Mitch McConnell, have somehow included analogies of or invocations of James Winston. Patrick, I'll let you take. Is that correct? Patrick, I'll let you take this one here, buddy. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. It's very true. And it's very fascinating because I'm learning a lot about Patrick and this. And I think, like, first week, I learned a lot about Patrick and his love for James Winston. So if you could expound upon that, Patrick, that'd be great. No, don't expound upon that. No, don't, no, don't expound upon your love for James Winston.

Bad production. What I would say is you have, Patrick, first of all, you'd like to describe yourself as objective. No. Extremely. And I would say, like, if you picked your random, this is a stretch, star, you have attached your fandom to the most random. Again, this is a stretch, star in James Winston. Starter. Maybe. Not even a start. I'm just saying, I mean, a lot of people had, you know, similar concerns about James. There was a writer of a book called James one-on-one who went on part of my take. He just

decimated all, you know, there's a narrative, a bias against James, and it goes back to SEC propaganda, pushed by ESPN. Here we are. He's got the whiteboard out. The lines are starting to connect. It's the man behind the man. It's the SEC propaganda. They're woke, but they also love it. Where, Patrick, does James rightfully belong, if not at six?

I thought I was being gratuitous. I think Colt McCoy belongs in the conversation. I think we should have at least mentioned Matt Liner. A lot of people were upset that I didn't include Trevor Lawrence, which I think is actually a legitimate thing to point out. You know, Trevor should have. probably been on that list and you probably should put Trevor Lawrence ahead of Johnny football and maybe Baker Mayfield. I personally would take Colt McCoy over James Winston.

So where would you have appropriately placed Winston? I think to be objectively fair, you had him in a reasonable place. Six, four through six is reasonable. My issue is to say that he's clearly a tier below when he led the number one off. offense in most points of all time that was only broken by Joe Burroughs LSU team with one extra game. So, you know, I'm just saying, I think he's in that first year. Who was on that team, too? There were some stars there. Not Burroughs. He is not in that first tier. Yeah. He's not. Camden at Auburn. Here, listen, this is what I would say. Okay, this is not a conversation. This list is not,

who's the best quarterback. Well, it's not who's your favorite quarterback or who's going to be the best pro quarterback or even who you would pick to win one game or who you'd start a franchise with, a college program with from scratch. This is about who did what in reality. And that's why, by the way, Tim Tebow got number one for me. If it's undeniable, what do you did, right? I see you nod on your head two days.

It's undeniable. That doesn't mean, like, given a blank slate, I picked Tebow above all over others. but dude won two national titles and go back and look at the stats and look at the team that he objectively led and you can't take away what he did but I'll change the game for you okay the three of you will answer this quickly I'm going to allow you to pick one quarterback in college football from this list or if you want to go off the list tell me who it may be college football career nothing to do with the NFL you have one game to win I'm telling you nothing else about the roster. One game to win. Who do you pick as your quarterback in that one game,

two a days? This is a really tough one, but I would have to go, I would say Joe Burrow is going to be my guy. I mean, I would pick him to take you to the promised land. That guy, he was tried and true and he's my pick. I don't hate it. I mean, that season was incredible, 60 touchdowns. But by the way, we should point out, his wide receiver core was Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson. It helped a little bit. And who was the third guy? Another NFL receiver was the third guy.

I can't, I can't remember. He had, and did he have Leonard Fernette, too? Did he have Fernette? No. Who was his running back? No. Fernette was before. Clyde Edward Taylor. Yeah, yeah.

I could go one of two ways. First one, there was a game, Alabama, twice went up by 14 points. This quarterback throws over 400 yards and gets an overtime victory on the first play of overtime. That was the 2000 Orange Bowl, Tom Brady. And then maybe Cole McCoy, too. Cole McCoy played four years, had 160 passer rating in his freshman year at taking over for Vince Young and pretty much put up the same line all four years through college. And one game, though.

If he doesn't get hurt, if he doesn't get hurt, they, probably win that game. I don't hate Colt McCoy's an answer, but one game. I'll go McCoy. One name, by the way. All right. Who'd you say? I think I'll go McCoy for one game. All right, Patrick. You want me to go next or do you want you? You can go last. You can go last. Yeah, I'll go left. Give me one game and there is no doubt in my mind. I want Vince Young. There is zero doubt in my mind. If you say Cam Newton, I don't hate the answer. If you say Joe Burrell, I don't hate the answer, but you, I want one game, you give me Vince Young. Now, there is no way your answer, Patrick, is going to be James Winston.

I think in this regard, there are two, so it depends. Well, I don't know anything about this. So I'm assuming that we could have some funky offenses and stuff like that. I'd probably go, I'd default to Cam Newton. But if I was, if I knew it was a pro-style offense, I would take James over. over Cam Newton. I'll take him over Joe Burrow. No, I don't want to repeat.

So. No, no, you're just trying to be new. Okay. All right. Well, I'll tell you what.

You can make your own list and you can put James Winston at one, two, and three. But for now, it's my list, and it's Tim Tebow at number one. And that's going to do it. Okay.

My issue is Tebow at one. Terrible. Yeah. Yeah. It's trash. It's, oh, I can look at it. All right, and thus concludes the Will Cain Show, top quarterbacks since 2000 in college football.

Thank you, Ten Foil, Pat, Young Establishment, James, and Two at A's. Now, Andy Bailey is a writer for Bleacher Report, and he helps us turn the page to the NBA as we discuss whether or not it's undeniable, the best player in the NBA. Denver Nuggets, Nicola Yokech. Here's Andy Bailey. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Neeson. Buy your tickets now. And get a free chili dog. Chili dog, not included.

The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. Listen to the all-new Brett Bear podcast featuring Common Ground. In-depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Brett Bear favorites, like his All-Star panel and much more. Available now at Fox News Podcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. Hey there, it's me. Kennedy, make sure to check out my podcast.

Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Bleacher reports, Andy Bailey here now on The Will Kane Show. What's up, man? I've been a big fan for a long time of your work, Andy. I'm really glad to have you here on the Will Kane Show. Well, I appreciate you having me. I've been a fan of yours as well, and I'm just grateful you put me on. Please. You, I think, are unique. I think you're very independent when it comes to what what manages to be maybe the most clickish and group thinkish of sports and of sports media. And that is basketball. That is the NBA. You're out here saying things that really honestly no one else is saying. And that makes you in my book interesting. And you have been on the beat of Nikola Yokic for years, long before it became undeniable, that it seems undebatable at this point that the best player in the NBA is Nikola Yokic. Yeah, I think that is indisputable at this point.

And that's one of my few wins, I think, in my career as an NBA analyst, is I was ahead of the curve on that. I'm taking a lot of crap for it over the years. For at least four or five years now, I think I've called him the best player in the world. I think I was maybe even a little before his MVP runs. I thought last year's MVP race was a farce, frankly. There just wasn't a great statistical argument for Joel M. Bede, and I feel like I've been vindicated on all that stuff. There are still people who dispute it.

I was just looking at my Twitter mentions before we started today, and Sixers fans are mad at me again to no one's surprised. I think most people have come to accept after the championship run. Like, he just does things in a way that nobody else does. He makes teammates better in a way no one else does. It's pretty clear now. And it's not just statistically, as you point out, it's also accomplishing really what should be the most important metric in any sport. And that does it add up to wins?

And it's one, it's now added up to a championship for Yokic. Before we get into why he's the best player, why do you think it's so hard for some people to accept Nicola Yokage? Certainly there's the visual aspect of it. I won't dance around that with you. He doesn't fit the mold of what many casual NBA fans have seen. It's like this is the dominant physical force that an NBA player is. Michael Jordan was leaps and bounds athletically in favor.

basically above his peers. LeBron James, same thing. You can even go further back to, you know, Will Chamberlain when he dominated. It was through sheer physicality and this, like, advantage in athleticism. Yokic, for the first three or four years of his career, was often

out of shape. There were pictures that went viral of him early in his career. He's a Doey, Serbian kid. He's white. That puts him in the minority in the NBA. So he just didn't check those visual boxes, and he's never going to dominate the game with like above the rim athleticism. He doesn't dunk on people. I think his game is a little flashier than people

give him credit for, but he's certainly not like Kyrie Irving dribbling around at the three-point line with all the crossovers and the fakes and stuff like that. He just does it so much differently. I think it's a product of his basketball upbringing. I think in a lot of ways Europe has gotten better than America at developing talent. It's all about team, team, team, where's the right play. It's just a completely, I think most American basketball fans' minds are programmed to see the game a certain way, and he doesn't play it that way. There's so many different contributing factors, as you point out. It's style of play. It's his body. It's the lack of Sizzle, which I am of the belief that the NBA is a sport driven by social media, meaning I don't

think many people actually watch basketball games. They watch Instagram highlights of plays made in games, and he's not made for Instagram. There's the fact that he's European, and there's the fact, as you pointed out, that he's white. How much an NBA, as I pointed out, sports media, and for that matter sports fandom is is driven by group think and i don't want to use that just andy as as a cudgel i don't want to use that as an insult because the truth is society is group think i mean i saw something that i said at any given point in time 80% of the population is consensus driven it's just easier to go along and feel superior because you went along and then look at those are on the outside in the 20 and mock that 20% and

The consensus of NBA sports media is, I think, going to gravitate towards the black athlete in the NBA. So I'm curious, you know, how much of it, let's just focus on one of those factors. How much of it is because he is white? I think that's got to be part of it. Like, I would never play the race card on his behalf. I'm sure he wouldn't want me to. But like I said, I think. There is a certain image that has been the NBA superstar for years and years and years and years, and he didn't fit it.

And obviously, there was the huge controversy last season, Kendrickkins turned to the MP and said that he was receiving MVP votes because he was white. And I wouldn't want to disparage any individual MVP voter and say that, you know, that moment changed their mind and they felt like they didn't want. want to come on the wrong side of that issue. But it did change the complexion of the MVP race. I think, are you aware of Timbantam's like ESP and straw poll that he does two or three times a year?

He'll get, yes. He'll get likely voters or people who have voted in the past. And he tries to recreate, you know, the exact formula for how the MVP voting goes. And I think Kendrick Perkins' comments were in reaction to Yokic winning one of those

straw polls. And then the odds, you know, instantly flip in Vegas, the next straw poll is Joelle and Bede. And Joelle and Bede's been phenomenal, too. Like, he had a phenomenal season last year that I think in most years probably would have been MPP work. It just wasn't as good as Yokic last season. And it may sound like I'm kind of dancing around your question. I do think that's part of it with Yokic is he looks different and part of that is his race. Yeah, and I'm not trying to unnecessarily play the race card, and I'm not trying to be Will Kane, first take, ESPN, counterprogrammed the race narrative. I think that it was already injected, to your point. And I know Kendrick, and I always liked Kendrick. I found his argument atrocious. I found his argument terrible. He injected the race card into that MVP conversation. And I think you're right. It undeniably had an impact on who they chose as the MVP. And I don't think there is.

is a great argument for Embed over Yokic, even though he might have had a great year. I mean, I do think there is a thing that MVP voters do where they get tired of giving it to the same person or they're reluctant to giving it back to back, and they have a novelty bias. They want to go to whatever is new. And they want to reward guys like Carl Malone, who have been great for a long time, but just couldn't overcome Jordan. So they want to give one to Carl Malone instead of giving yet another one to Jordan. And that may have played a role as well with with yokich but but i i think that you know we're not injecting a card that wasn't already on the table and i just think that card is on the table when it comes and i think it's a

weird card because it's complex it's in part because he's white i think there's also a european bias an anti-European bias on a game that is inherently american and we want to um we want to see that americans define basketball or at least the nbaa Yeah, I actually think that's maybe the bigger factor. And I've seen a lot of backlash to European dominance this season. And that doesn't necessarily mean white guys. I mean, obviously, Janice, he's, you know, roots-wise, he's from Africa, but he represents Greece. The four or five best players in the world right now are all from outside America.

And you'll still, you'll see, you know, podcasts, clips go viral. every couple of weeks from like Gilbert Arenas or Draymond Green, saying something about European players that's just objectively not true. I think it was maybe Draymond was the last one, was saying they have a little bit more leeway with the media than the American players. And to me, that's just crazy to say that after what we just saw last year, the like almost coordinated media campaign to end Yokic's MVP candidacy. There wasn't just the Kendra Perkins thing.

There was an article about how he's maybe the worst defender in the NBA that ESPN published right towards the end of the season that kind of went viral. I just saw a highlight reel that a Yokic fan put on Twitter, like last week or something, like just crazy stuff that a bunch of national media personalities said over the course of last season. And this isn't new, like this. This dates back to Paugasol and Dirknovitsky's days, too. Like, there was always the stereotype that the big Euro is soft. You can push them around.

Those guys, I think, bucked that idea to a degree. Obviously, both of them won championships. Dirk won a championship as the, you know, Alpha. I think that probably should have dispelled the notion, but there's still some of that. And now that maybe the big Euro is soft thing is dead, they've moved on to other ways to attack the European players. ultimately it's probably just a reaction to this is a distinctly American sport. We have utterly dominated basketball for decades and decades for basically its entire existence. And now all

a sudden the world has caught up to us. And there's another element, and I'm only doing this because I have the inability to avoid a conversation that I find interesting, even if it can be spun as controversial, when I don't even think it is controversial. But there is also an American black cultural attitude that this is the beating heart of basketball. I'm used to have guys on first take. Fans would say to me, Will, you have to understand when you come in and you tell Stephen A. Smith, you're wrong, that he's wrong on basketball. Like, you're a white dude from a small town in Texas. Like, you know, basketball is inner city black culture. And it is almost like religion. And at the top of that religion is the NBA. And so it's hard to come to grips with the

idea. And I'm just trying to describe reality. I'm not actually even condemning it. I'm just saying it's hard to come to grips with a new reality. And that reality is that right now, if you and I, and we should, create a top five players in the NBA, you're going to, I don't know, I mean, you could easily place three Europeans in the top five. And two of them would be white. And that defies the beating heart of the culture of American, African American basketball. By the way, That would be Luca, Nicola Yolkich, and Janice. Good luck trying to keep those three out of the top five. And I think that's kind of the reason I can't avoid the conversation is,

I think when you start digging, that's when you get to the base of a lot of things that are avoiding people from accurately understanding the reality of the modern NBA. Yeah, and I'll say I've had similar experiences. Nobody really says this to my face, but I do get it online a lot. Like, you know, you're a, you're a country bumpkin who lives in Wyoming. Like, what do you know about basketball?

You probably never dribble the ball on your life, stuff like that. Most of them haven't seen me in real life. So I've experienced that too. And a lot of times I see stuff like what you're describing. And I'm often reminded of the movie Moneyball. And that famous, famous scene where they're all sitting around the table and the old school scouts have their way of seeing things. and Billy Bean, and I can't remember the name of Jonah Hill's character,

they have their way of saying things. And at the time that that movie is depicting, there's so much conflict between those two views of baseball. And I think that is what's going on with basketball right now, and it's not just an analytics thing. It's this almost like overseas invasion of talent. basically since the 92 dream team and I think some other guys like Dirk

obviously accelerated it the expansion of the talent pool to include the whole world now like we should have expected that the rest of the 7 billion people in the world or whatever it is was going to have some talented basketball players but I think it's just taking a lot of people some time to understand what that means for the NBA

So who would be, according to Andy Bailey, I can put you on the spot, I think. And by the way, I love when you do Player A versus Player B descriptions on X. You love that you do it. Andy will put up stat lines for two separate players, and you won't know who they are, and you have to vote or understand who's the better. Or no, you ask people to vote who's the better player. And without knowing, I think people would end up voting ways that you, they definitely would not. if the names had been there.

It shows it perception and reality or reputation and performance are pretty divorced. Who's the top five players in the NBA? Yeah, first you described the poll perfectly. I do think there's a perception versus reality problem with sports fans all the time. And those are fun to see how often people confuse those two. Top five players in the world right now.

I think Yokic is number one. The way that he elevates teammates, I think he's just different than anybody else. I think when he's healthy, if I can add that qualifier, I'll probably put Joel Embed two right now. You've probably seen me complain a lot on Twitter about flopping. And so that's an aspect of his game that's really, really difficult for me to watch. but it is rewarded and he's incredibly effective scorer. So it's healthy if I can have that cover.

Yeah, I probably go with him. Then I think probably Luca third. And I feel like I have to have Janus at four because of the history. And I'm tempted to put SGA there with the way that he's been playing this season. So I'm going to be wishy-washy and say it's kind of like a 4A, 4B situation with those two guys. Janice and Shea Gilger's Alexander. So whoever loses that argument. I was going to say whoever loses that argument ends up at number five.

And I was going to say four players from outside of America in the top five. Joel and Bede from Africa, we forget that because he went to Kansas. Where is Shea Gilgis Alexander from? He's Canadian. So that's five out of five. Five out of five from outside of America of the best players in, the NBA. And by the way, I think that your list is pretty unimpeachable. I think most people would probably come up with those same five names. I want to go back to Nicole Dioca for just a minute

because I'm fascinated by him. I'm fascinated by Luca as well. Because in sports, my favorite quality, Andy, to watch as a fan. And then as appreciated as a dad who has sons that play sports is without a doubt vision, vision and brain. I have. have, I enjoy watching highlights or, or seeing someone like Luca or Nicola Yokic or in soccer. I love, love, love. He's maybe my favorite athlete in all sports, Kevin DeBrona for Manchester City. I love seeing someone who in my mind, the best analogy I can draw and have said before is like a time traveler.

And they exist two to three seconds ahead of everyone else on the field or on the court. They know what's going to happen before. anybody else knows what's going to happen and see it happening. I mean, a lot of times I think it's, we think it's vision, that they see things that other people aren't seeing, but it probably is more brain. They just are understanding what's about to happen without even seeing it, and then distribute the ball or move to a spot way ahead of everybody else's understanding on the court or on the field.

And with Yokic, it's incredible. And not unlike Luca, but, I mean, maybe even better than Luca, like, it's like eyes in the back of your head. It's incredible to see where he distributes from the high post. Yeah, I love the way you describe that, first of all, as sort of like a quick time travel, because it does seem like he sees things developing two or three seconds beforehand. I think a lot of that has to do with preparation and the amount of time that guys like Luca and Yokic put in with their teammates. I think that's been easier for Yokic because he's generally played with the same starters for three or four years now.

It's almost more impressive that Luca can continue to find guys without seemingly seeing them with his eyes, even though his roster is constantly turning over. Like, there was a play. I think it was either in yesterday's game or the one before. He's driving down the lane. A defender comes over from the corner. And if you watch the play, it doesn't look like Luca at any point turns his head to left. and sees Tim Hardaway Jr. in the corner, but he just chucks the ball backwards over his head anyway,

hits Tim Hardaway Jr. right in the shooting pocket. And it's like he must have known when this defender entered his peripheral vision, there's an opening in that corner. And I know how to get the ball to that corner, and I assume Tim Hardaway Jr. is there. It's plays like that that Yokic and Donchich, I think, are better than anybody in the NBA right now. It's very similar to the way that Yokic and Jemal Murray run the pick and roll. Like when the defense starts to collapse on those two, Yokich a lot of times

will just throw the ball to an open space near the rim, and Aaron Gordon magically appears out of nowhere and dunks it. Like, they just sort of see the chest pieces moving in a way that no one else does. And the last thing I'll say on that is, I think Yokic I think his

defense has long been underrated. I would never argue that he's like Joel Embed or anything. He certainly has his weakness is there. But that vision and that anticipation and stuff is starting to transfer into his defense this season. Like he's reading passing lane better than I think he did in the past. And I guess it was probably only a matter of time that that brain like you described was going to help him on both ends of the floor. At the risk of this coming on the heels of our race conversation, he was like, oh, Will picked, you know, the white guys to see the games ahead of

time. I mean, another player that is like this is LeBron James. I mean, LeBron, stands the game and sees it and moves in the same way. If we went before LeBron, who would you point out, plays that game in that time traveler mindset? Who from the 90s or the 80s played that way? Pre-Lebron, now we're getting a little bit out of my wheelhouse, but I would say Stockton is one who could see a play develop before it happened. Jordan, I think to the extent that he could get to his spots as a scorer,

I think that would apply to him to some degree as well. And he has some underrated playmaking seasons that I think people forget, like early in his career, he has a season where he averaged eight assists a game. So he was a good playmaker too, and I think he could kind of recognize the chess pieces moving around the board. And I'll also say,

I think it's maybe easier for the modern guys to not only have this ability, but deploy it the way that they do because the game is so much more spread out now. If you watch some of those 90s and 80s games where all 10 guys are inside the three-point line on a lot of possessions, there's not as much space to exploit

with those kind of plays. Now teams will have guys, like the famous example was the bucks with Brooke Lopez years ago, would have, they put a box on their practice course was a defeat in the three-point line. This is when we stand to space floor. So now there's just so much more open space

in the middle of the floor for guys like Yolk, It's Donchus LeBron to exploit. So I think it's a little easier for us as fans to see it now. All right, let's indulge a little bit of homerism. A little self-indulgence for me. So I'm a Mavericks fan. Everyone knows I'm a homer for almost anything, Dallas. So I was excited to get you on this week because now my attention has turned more to the NBA.

And this is when it does for me. When football, I need a week or so after football. And then the trade deadline as well. in the NBA helps re-energize the the whole story, the drama. And post-NBA trade deadline, Andy, I'm like really excited about the Mavs. Like, I'm checking every day what happened last night. I love what they did in adding Gafford and PJ Washington. And I don't want to hammer people with, you know, not everybody knows, you know,

the backup center for a random team in the NBA when I'm talking about Daniel Gafford. But what I'm getting at is I think the Mavericks all of a sudden makes sense. Like the roster makes sense. I don't know what that makes their ceiling, but I want to ask you, like, if you look at the West, you can easily go seven, eight deep on teams who, yeah, there's a little bit of record separation, but I think maybe like five through nine or like three games apart or something like, or seven through ten are three games apart. And so it makes it hard to say, who's,

a real contender. So let's just go with the West. And I'm asking you about the Mavericks, but if they are, who else, if they aren't, who is a real contender? First of all, I think even though their regular season to me has been kind of underwhelming, I still have Denver kind of in its own tier in the West, just because of what we saw from them in the playoffs last year and they have the best player in the world. That goes a long way in a basketball series when there's only 10 guys on the floor. The outside impact of one player. It is a lot greater in basketball than it is in baseball. Well, maybe not baseball, because that's kind of a one-on-one sport in ways. Certainly bigger than football. But that's

the same reason I think I would include Dallas as a legitimate contender, because while I didn't, when we had the discussion earlier, say Lucca was my top player, he could be the best individual player in any individual series. Certainly against anybody in the West, and that includes the Nuggets, but also against any team in the East. And we've seen a little bit of a different level in the plus. You know, those guys that are not afraid of the big, right lights. He's had some ridiculous playoff series. He's already made a conference finals.

And I think their roster makes a lot more sense around him, too. Even before the trade deadline, I had them in the back of my mind as a potential spoiler because him and Kyrie are so good. But they play together pretty well, I think better than a lot of people expected. Derek Lively, their rookie center was better than expected. But then they had these two new big guys who I think are going to, you know, at least so far, have filled in their roles. You mentioned them with PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. They're deeper now. They had to expend a lot of capital to get all these people here, but that's what you've got to do when you have a player as good as Lucas.

So long-winded way of answering the question. I do think Dallas is a legitimate contender, but I could probably sit here and make an argument for seven or eight teams, to your point. Right. By the way, are the wolves who, I think they're in first in the West. Right.

When was it? Who was I talking to recently? I asked them, I debated them on if you could have one player. I can't remember, but the answer was Anthony Edwards. So for the wolves to be real, Anthony Edwards has to make that person right.

Who was it that made the argument with me for Anthony Edwards? Like, is he ready to be the best player on a championship team? I don't think, I think he's going to have to go through a couple more speed bumps in the postseason. He's already lost two series. There's sort of like in the NBA, it's almost been axiomatic for decades now, that a group of players together on a team has to go through some challenges. in the playoffs before they finally break through. That trend is rarely broken,

and I think that's what's going to be difficult for both the wolves and the Thunder. The Thunder, especially, they literally have no playoff experience beyond Gordon Hayward on that roster. For Edward specifically, like Luca, I think he, I don't think, I know, he raises his game

to a different level in the playoffs. He was absurd against the nuggets in the first round last season. There's like an alpha to, him, that this is kind of a blasphemous comparison, but there are aspects of Jordan to Anthony Edwards game. So could I see him eventually becoming a best player in a championship team? Absolutely. I'm not sure I'm ready to go there just yet. And the Mavs don't satisfy your axiom, by the way. They don't satisfy a group of guys who've been

through the trials together because they've turned to that roster. It's not the one that went to the Western Conference finals a few years ago. And I love Kyrie. By the way, I have been so, like, it sounds like so dorky to say pleasantly surprised. And I can't say I'm blown away because I knew how good he was when he was with the Cavs, but he's something else. When you're rooting for Kyrie, it's different than when you're rooting kind of against Kyrie. And it's incredible when he's on your team. But, okay, then there's the team that sort of over and above everybody else in the regular season

has been through those trials, although I've made some tweaks and adjustments to the roster, and that's the Celtics in the East. And, you know, speaking of, I brought up Kevin DeBrona in Manchester City. There's a really cool article on The Athletic about the Celtics and was Joe Mazzola, right, is the coach and his love of Pep Guardiola and learning from soccer and what it's meant for him and what he's implemented with the Celtics. which, by the way, people don't understand those two sports are pretty similar. They're both about space.

They're both about flow. They're both about constantly changing environments and making decisions. And I don't know, kind of made me think, wow, the way this Celtics play basketball, this could be the year for the championship. They are incredible. And I made that, you know, that my daughter and son both play basketball for the first time this year, and they both have a couple years of experience in soccer. and I tried to explain to them the similarities.

You're going from one side to the other. You're trying to get the ball on the goal. So that's a great comparison. Boston is absolutely stacked. As you started to lead into this question, I thought Derek White is maybe a guy that I could have brought up for the vision question that you had earlier, especially on defense.

Like he anticipates things brilliantly for them. Obviously, their stars are Tatum and Brown, and they're the guys who've been through a bunch of battles, together, as you referenced. But the supporting cast around them now just fits perfectly. Derek White and Drew Holiday, I think, is the best defensive back court in the

NBA. Chris Taps Porzingis, the moment they got him this past off season, I thought that's a home run. He just fits perfectly. He's seven foot three or four or whatever, and he commands defensive attention five feet outside of the three-point line.

So that obviously spread the floor out for those slasher's. and their rotation is like eight or nine guys deep at this point and you can mix and match like any combination of those guys and they have dominant lineup numbers like they are playing like an absolute juggernaut right now and if they end up winning the title we might all look back and think why didn't we see that coming for months

do you who so what is your prediction right now you're going to go are you going to go with yokech and the nuggets here's here's my opportunity to be a homer um yeah i'm going to stick with the nuggets i called them last year but that was you know certainly homerism too um and i have been frankly discouraged by a lot of their regular season games but there have been moments including a game in boston back in january where you see they activate playoff mode and there's i don't think there's a defense in the NBA that can stop the two-man game with Yolkich and Murray. So I'm going to I'm going to stick with them for now. But I think it'll be those two teams in the finals. I know you said Homer.

You're what you referenced earlier, you're Wyoming. And you said they haven't seen me. Like, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about 610? Were you a big basketball corn fed? Which would be Nebraska. So you're your steak fed in Wyoming? I'm not that big. I'm 6-7 and I'm probably 50 pounds over. wait now. And I played very, very, very low-level college basketball, but I have had occasion to run into like other people in the media and tell they're like, who is this guy? So yeah, I'm born and raised in Wyoming. We went to law school here. And I think I'm about the only national sports media person who called this home. So I take it as a point of pride. And what city are you in

in Wyoming? I live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, so I'm just over an hour north of Denver. So if I need to get down to a game for media stuff, that's my spot. And yeah, kind of my local team. I want to go to, I want to get up there. I want to go to Cheyenne Days, right? Isn't that the name of it? Cheyenne Days, the big rodeo?

Frontier Day. Yeah. Frontier Day, yes. I've always wanted to do that. Huge part of in Cheyenne. That's definitely this. cities claim to fame. People turn up from all over the country.

Last full week in July every year, lots of country concerts, lots of carnival food. It's a good time. All right, man. Andy Bailey, I was excited to have you on as we continue through the NBA season ahead towards the finals. I'd love to have you back and we can analyze what we're seeing. But I was excited to have you on as I turn the page now for me and my full attention going toward not full.

I've got some NFL free agent and college football spring ball and English Premier League soccer. But more of my attention turns now to the NBA. Thanks, Andy. Thanks for having me, Will. I appreciate it. You bet. Take care. Andy, that was great, man.

The only thing I didn't get to, I was going to ask you about this NFLPA study where they ranked teams. And I always think about back to Mark Cuban, like putting nice towels and robes. in the visitor's locker room and hoping players steal it, you know, like it's going to like draw free agents. And it never did. Like they never pulled a big free agent in my, in the history of Mark Cuban. That is true. And I remember seeing articles like that was kind of his, that was his motivation behind all that stuff. It certainly made his own players happy. Yeah. That and no state income tax and it's still done bring in free agents. The NBA is weird. Like, And I don't know exactly how to fix this problem, but the NFL, they can market all 32 teams.

You've never have a bunch of sports media people complaining about, like, these two small markets are in the Super Bowl, like nobody's going to watch. There's so much interest in every single team. And in the NBA, it's like, pre-agents want to go to three different places. The media cares about three different teams. It's just weird. I don't know exactly how to fix it, but I think it's a problem. Yeah. All right, man.

I appreciate you being on today. Let's stay in touch. Thanks for having me. Always love to watch you on the five, by the way. Oh, thanks, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.

There you go. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Bleacher Reports, Andy Bailey. That's going to do it for today's Canaan Sports. Friday episode, Sports Exclusive episode here of the Will Kane Show. I will see you again next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast. plus subscription on Apple Podcast and Amazon Prime members

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