Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / Vinnie Goodwill on Kevin Durant-Rockets Concerns, Wemby-Thunder rivalry, Knicks NBA Finals or Bust? | 02.20
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original.
- 0:09Speaker 1: My name is Beaumont Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
- 0:12Speaker 1: get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
- 0:16Speaker 1: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
- 0:18Speaker 1: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
- 0:21Speaker 1: a hater. It is Vinny Goodwill Friday. Vinny Goodwill, check
- 0:25Speaker 1: him out on ESPN. Boy, our first take this week,
- 0:28Speaker 1: holding it down. Saw you on there last week.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Doing a little bit, man. Getting a little extra reps.
- 0:35Speaker 2: You know what I mean? It's all-star break, so people
- 0:37Speaker 2: going to Cancun. You know, they do the baseball thing. They,
- 0:40Speaker 2: you know, call your boy in.
- 0:45Speaker 1: I mean, you and Stephen A was out there trying
- 0:47Speaker 1: to bully the homie David Dennis.
- 0:49Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
- 0:51Speaker 2: It looked bad. I mean, I'm saying it looked bad.
- 0:53Speaker 2: He was just saying some crazy stuff.
- 0:56Speaker 3: Well, what happened was, I don't know what exactly he
- 1:00Speaker 3: said that pissed Stephen A off. Like, that doesn't happen
- 1:03Speaker 3: very much. But Stephen A was like, yo, you ain't
- 1:07Speaker 3: going to get very far in this segment not answering
- 1:10Speaker 3: the question. He wasn't talking about the segment.
- 1:12Speaker 1: He was like, hey, you'll be here when I'm not.
- 1:14Speaker 3: If you're going to be here when I'm here, you're
- 1:15Speaker 3: going to answer my question.
- 1:17Speaker 2: You know what it was? It was max PTSD. That's
- 1:21Speaker 2: all it was. Yeah.
- 1:22Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 1:22Speaker 3: Yeah, but I will say this. We got a good
- 1:25Speaker 3: all-star game.
- 1:26Speaker 2: Yes.
- 1:27Speaker 3: This go around.
- 1:28Speaker 1: We got a good all-star game largely because you got
- 1:32Speaker 1: to do it out there. We'll be pitching people shit,
- 1:35Speaker 1: and that will make you be on your P's and Q's.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Like the best weak side shot blocker that basketball has
- 1:40Speaker 1: ever seen. UK, you don't have a big brother. I
- 1:43Speaker 1: just have a big brother. My big brother is 13
- 1:45Speaker 1: years older than me. No shot was ever safe. It
- 1:49Speaker 1: didn't matter how far away he was, right? You have
- 1:52Speaker 1: to be so dedicated. Like, that's the underrated part of
- 1:55Speaker 1: the NBA, how quick you got to get them shots
- 1:58Speaker 1: up because they're just– even the guys you think can't
- 2:00Speaker 1: play defense, no, they can't. They can't. Like, if they
- 2:03Speaker 1: was playing against you, you would think that they was
- 2:05Speaker 1: Jason Voorhees too, right?
- 2:07Speaker 3: You would think they all were.
- 2:08Speaker 1: But now the guy that's Jason Voorhees to Jason Voorhees.
- 2:12Speaker 3: Is out here. Oh, the all-star guy going to have
- 2:14Speaker 3: to pick up because he going to pitch his shit
- 2:15Speaker 3: to the front row.
- 2:16Speaker 2: I mean– I remember I told you a long time ago,
- 2:19Speaker 2: all it takes is one maniac. And sometimes that maniac
- 2:22Speaker 2: was Mike. Sometimes that maniac was Kobe. Now the maniac
- 2:26Speaker 2: is Big Slim. And Big Slim, I firmly believe Ant
- 2:30Speaker 2: Edwards had no designs on playing hard in that All-Star game.
- 2:34Speaker 2: He came out there with the hoop earring. When you
- 2:37Speaker 2: coming out with a hoop earring, you ain't got no
- 2:39Speaker 2: designs on playing hard. That hoop earring could get ripped
- 2:42Speaker 2: out like Lawrence Fishburne in that one movie. You know
- 2:44Speaker 2: what I mean? Like you never know, right? Right. Because
- 2:47Speaker 2: Big Vic is out here pitching shit. You got to be.
- 2:53Speaker 2: One thing NBA players don't want to be is embarrassed
- 2:56Speaker 2: by their peers. So if one guy is doing it,
- 3:00Speaker 2: then you know what? We all got to fight on
- 3:03Speaker 2: this lie. And this lie is that we got to
- 3:05Speaker 2: be competitive. And that's all it took. And I didn't
- 3:08Speaker 2: care if the last game, Bo, was a blowout. The
- 3:12Speaker 2: old dudes that played three straight games, they was going
- 3:13Speaker 2: to be tired. We all got our money's worth. Sunday afternoon.
- 3:18Speaker 2: And I think... I don't think we were asking too much.
- 3:21Speaker 2: And I think the players delivered. Like, they exceeded the expectations.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Well, just act like this thing... Like, act like you
- 3:29Speaker 1: want to be there. Like, I don't think it needs
- 3:31Speaker 1: to be Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I think
- 3:33Speaker 1: that people would settle for it looking like a charity
- 3:36Speaker 1: game from the 1980s, right? Like, watching Isaiah Thomas lay
- 3:40Speaker 1: on his back and do dribbling tricks.
- 3:42Speaker 3: I think people would be okay with that. You know
- 3:45Speaker 3: what I mean?
- 3:45Speaker 1: Like, just look like it's something, right? It doesn't matter
- 3:50Speaker 1: really what the something is, but just look like it's something. Because, look,
- 3:53Speaker 1: this is what we got to come to understand about
- 3:56Speaker 1: the All-Star Game. As the calendar for the NFL has changed,
- 4:01Speaker 1: like you go back and you look at it, they
- 4:02Speaker 1: used to play the Super Bowl on like January 15.
- 4:04Speaker 1: It is gradually over the years, move back a full
- 4:09Speaker 1: month as to where next year is going to be
- 4:11Speaker 1: the day before President's Day. where the NBA got moved
- 4:15Speaker 1: off its corner and is going to have to play
- 4:17Speaker 1: the All-Star game on a different weekend. The Super Bowl
- 4:21Speaker 1: is housing Valentine's Day, baby. This is what it's going
- 4:25Speaker 1: to do. But what happens for the NBA and why
- 4:28Speaker 1: that week turns so negative is this country addicted to football, man.
- 4:33Speaker 1: And so they go from being all juiced up and
- 4:35Speaker 1: all wired up about football. And then they're like, all right,
- 4:38Speaker 1: football's over. Well, what's going on in basketball? Well, the
- 4:41Speaker 1: All-Star game is this week.
- 4:43Speaker 3: Are you serious?
- 4:44Speaker 1: And then you get to the All-Star game, the dunk contest, right?
- 4:48Speaker 1: They put it out as misery many times. They're going
- 4:50Speaker 1: to put it out as misery before they bring it back.
- 4:52Speaker 1: But that ain't what we remember it being. Then you
- 4:54Speaker 1: get to the game, and the cats ain't really out
- 4:57Speaker 1: here playing. And you'll be like, yeah, well, the Pro
- 4:59Speaker 1: Bowl is terrible, too.
- 5:00Speaker 3: And you're right.
- 5:00Speaker 1: And when the Pro Bowl was terrible, by the way,
- 5:02Speaker 1: we said the Pro Bowl was terrible, and that's why
- 5:04Speaker 1: they moved to flag football. The difference is the Pro
- 5:06Speaker 1: Bowl had an excuse for being terrible because nobody should
- 5:09Speaker 1: be playing football just for the hella.
- 5:11Speaker 3: You know what I mean? But for the NBA, the
- 5:14Speaker 3: country is right here. They scratching. They itching. They missing
- 5:18Speaker 3: that football, right? I gots to have it, but it's
- 5:21Speaker 3: gone now.
- 5:22Speaker 1: And then when you come back, it's a lesser version
- 5:26Speaker 1: of an all-star game than it should be.
- 5:29Speaker 3: That's why they can't afford to let it slack.
- 5:31Speaker 1: Like, if people had a couple weeks to ease into it, like,
- 5:34Speaker 1: let's say it came out of football season and went
- 5:39Speaker 1: into the NBA Cup. I think that would work. I
- 5:43Speaker 1: think that would go. Now, of course you can't, right?
- 5:46Speaker 1: Like the cup serves a different purpose, but.
- 5:48Speaker 3: You coming off the football and then y'all out here
- 5:52Speaker 3: trotting out some bullshit. Nah, man. And people look for
- 5:54Speaker 3: a reason to kill the NBA anyway. Nah, it ain't
- 5:57Speaker 3: gonna work.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. And that was one of the
- 6:00Speaker 2: points that David was trying to make, but he was
- 6:03Speaker 2: trying to make it a much grander point than it was, was,
- 6:06Speaker 2: you know, well, people don't want to, people want any
- 6:08Speaker 2: excuse to talk about the NBA being these overpaid millionaires, dah, dah, dah, dah. True.
- 6:14Speaker 2: But sometimes we just talking about ball and we don't.
- 6:17Speaker 3: Yeah, we had a broken clock situation.
- 6:19Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It just happened to meet. It
- 6:22Speaker 2: just happened to meet right at the right time. Pun intended.
- 6:25Speaker 2: I think that's a good point. I also think, Bo,
- 6:30Speaker 2: there are markers that come into the NBA season now.
- 6:33Speaker 2: It's like opening night, opening week. Like you get a
- 6:35Speaker 2: couple of good matchups that get you a little, you know,
- 6:39Speaker 2: get you a little juice. Then you go back. And
- 6:41Speaker 2: then the NBA Cup happens in Vegas like a month
- 6:43Speaker 2: and a half later. And then it's Christmas Day. And
- 6:46Speaker 2: then we all into the football. Because right from Christmas
- 6:49Speaker 2: Day to Valentine's Day or whatever it is, you all
- 6:52Speaker 2: in high stakes football. You into the end of the
- 6:54Speaker 2: regular season. You into the wild card. You into the,
- 6:56Speaker 2: you know, you into the Super Bowl. You into everything else.
- 6:58Speaker 2: People dip in and out. And once it's time for all-stars, like, okay,
- 7:03Speaker 2: the trade deadline done passed. Let me dip back in there.
- 7:05Speaker 2: All right, now the NBA, you got my attention. What
- 7:08Speaker 2: you going to do with it? And what they've done
- 7:10Speaker 2: with it has been nothing for the past X amount
- 7:14Speaker 2: of years. And the one thing I do, because I
- 7:18Speaker 2: think KD, despite all this other stuff, KD is really
- 7:22Speaker 2: good at creating the straw man. And when he sat
- 7:25Speaker 2: in front of us the other week and said, you know,
- 7:28Speaker 2: I've been watching these all-star games to see this type
- 7:30Speaker 2: of game seven intensity y'all been talking about. We ain't
- 7:34Speaker 2: never asked for no game seven intensity. We don't want
- 7:37Speaker 2: to see no game seven intensity because we know y'all
- 7:39Speaker 2: got teams to go back to. We know as soon
- 7:42Speaker 2: as the game starts to get out of hand, it's
- 7:43Speaker 2: going to be one, two, three Cancun. And we ain't
- 7:45Speaker 2: even mad about that. Go to Cancun. Get your break.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Because in four or five days, the grind is coming
- 7:51Speaker 2: right back. And then you start seeing the ramp up
- 7:56Speaker 2: for the NBA. And to be honest, Bo, the ramp up.
- 7:59Speaker 2: all this conversation about the all-star game has obscured the
- 8:01Speaker 2: fact that there's been some good basketball this season and
- 8:04Speaker 2: there's going to be more good basketball in the final
- 8:07Speaker 2: two months of the regular season before we get to
- 8:10Speaker 2: the playoffs. I understand them saying, Hey man, enjoy what
- 8:13Speaker 2: you got in front of you. My thing is don't
- 8:15Speaker 2: take away from what's in front of you. Yeah.
- 8:18Speaker 1: And look, it's about to be a thing guys. Like,
- 8:22Speaker 1: like the hoop is about to be for real. Like
- 8:24Speaker 1: I saw something, um, online. It was a clip of, uh,
- 8:29Speaker 1: Dan Levitar was talking to Chuck Klosterman about football. And
- 8:34Speaker 1: I don't know what's happened to Dan since I left,
- 8:37Speaker 1: but he's gone. He's gone analytic minded in a way
- 8:41Speaker 1: that doesn't add up to me, but he was saying
- 8:43Speaker 1: basically the thing about the point he was making about
- 8:45Speaker 1: football was that he'd rather watch football in a dome
- 8:48Speaker 1: because he wants to watch the game to find out
- 8:51Speaker 1: who the better team is and that you get a
- 8:53Speaker 1: better metric of who the better team is. If you
- 8:56Speaker 1: are playing it under most optimal circumstances, And Klosterman, I think,
- 9:01Speaker 1: correctly made the point that we don't watch games to
- 9:04Speaker 1: find out who the better team is.
- 9:06Speaker 3: We watch them to see who's going to win.
- 9:09Speaker 4: Right.
- 9:10Speaker 1: Like part of the charm of it is that sometimes
- 9:13Speaker 1: the team that isn't the best wins. Sometimes it is
- 9:16Speaker 1: about or being the best is about your ability to
- 9:19Speaker 1: overcome a certain set of circumstances or sometimes those circumstances
- 9:23Speaker 1: are weather.
- 9:24Speaker 3: Sometimes those circumstances are bad matchups. Right. But a tournament
- 9:29Speaker 3: is a gauntlet.
- 9:30Speaker 1: It is not about it's not about evaluating the teams.
- 9:34Speaker 3: It's about testing.
- 9:36Speaker 1: The teams and who's going to come out on top
- 9:39Speaker 1: in the end sometimes that's not going to be who's
- 9:42Speaker 1: best this nba season feels like one of those where
- 9:47Speaker 1: it's narrowed in the west just a little bit right
- 9:49Speaker 1: like we see that the thunder are no longer just
- 9:52Speaker 1: just i mean early in the year we thought they
- 9:55Speaker 1: were going to win 75 games i mean it was
- 9:57Speaker 1: a reasonable question that they were going to do that
- 9:59Speaker 1: now they're only three games ahead of the Spurs, right? Like,
- 10:03Speaker 1: I don't think the Spurs are going to catch them,
- 10:05Speaker 1: but it would not be crazy. I think we generally
- 10:08Speaker 1: believe that the Thunder is the best team in the NBA.
- 10:12Speaker 1: There are metrics that indicate that they are by far
- 10:15Speaker 1: the best team in the NBA. Some of this regression
- 10:17Speaker 1: to the rest of the league has also been as
- 10:19Speaker 1: a result of injuries.
- 10:21Speaker 3: But you and I both know they don't want to
- 10:22Speaker 3: see the Spurs.
- 10:24Speaker 4: No.
- 10:24Speaker 3: If it comes down to it.
- 10:26Speaker 2: No.
- 10:26Speaker 1: But we also know the Spurs might not want to
- 10:29Speaker 1: see the Nuggets, right? This is a year where the
- 10:34Speaker 1: matchups in the playoffs feel like they're going to matter
- 10:37Speaker 1: a lot more than they have in previous years and
- 10:41Speaker 1: there are legitimately i think five teams that somehow could
- 10:46Speaker 1: win the championship it's.
- 10:48Speaker 2: Fun you hit on so much there so i'll start
- 10:50Speaker 2: off where you landed in any given year like let's
- 10:55Speaker 2: just play a game real quick i'll name a year
- 10:59Speaker 2: and you tell me that had a realistic chance of
- 11:03Speaker 2: winning the championship that year, regardless of whether they won
- 11:06Speaker 2: or not. But you know what I'm saying? Just rock
- 11:07Speaker 2: with me before I take this exercise. 1993. Three.
- 11:14Speaker 3: Right?
- 11:16Speaker 2: You're going to say Suns.
- 11:18Speaker 3: The Suns, the Knicks, and the Bulls.
- 11:20Speaker 2: Right. 1998. 1998. I leaned three, maybe four.
- 11:32Speaker 4: Right.
- 11:33Speaker 2: And I'll give you, and one more, because this is
- 11:35Speaker 2: a fun one for me. 2005.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Ooh, 2005. I go to, who did the Pistons play
- 11:46Speaker 1: in the conference final day?
- 11:47Speaker 2: Miami. That was the first year of Shaq.
- 11:49Speaker 3: That's right. I go four.
- 11:52Speaker 2: So in any given year, and we went three, four, five,
- 11:55Speaker 2: and that wasn't, that was actually by accident, but it
- 11:58Speaker 2: serves the point.
- 11:59Speaker 4: Right.
- 11:59Speaker 2: In any given year, you may have just four. And
- 12:03Speaker 2: it's not always the four teams that make the conference finals,
- 12:05Speaker 2: because sometimes somebody can get knocked out earlier for whatever reason.
- 12:09Speaker 2: Like 1994, Seattle looked like the best team in the league,
- 12:12Speaker 2: except they ran into the worst matchup of all time
- 12:15Speaker 2: with the Denver Nuggets. Take that away.
- 12:17Speaker 3: Or you get caught in a tricky 2-3. Right.
- 12:19Speaker 2: You get caught in one of those weird situations in
- 12:22Speaker 2: the second round, and that could be Denver and San Antonio.
- 12:25Speaker 2: in the second round this year. That could be Boston
- 12:27Speaker 2: and New York in the second round this year. In
- 12:30Speaker 2: any given year, there's only going to be four teams.
- 12:32Speaker 2: This year, that feels like five. And that's if you
- 12:35Speaker 2: include Detroit amongst the five. I have a hard time
- 12:39Speaker 2: doing that. Only because, Bo, you can't name a team,
- 12:45Speaker 2: only the 95 Orlando Magic, that goes from not winning
- 12:48Speaker 2: the playoff series to to getting all the way to
- 12:50Speaker 2: the NBA Finals without a significant personnel acquisition in the offseason, i.e.
- 12:55Speaker 2: LeBron James going from Miami to Cleveland, Cleveland to Miami,
- 12:59Speaker 2: or Kevin Garnett going from Minnesota to Boston. Like, their storylines,
- 13:03Speaker 2: I say that to say, the storylines are so rich.
- 13:07Speaker 2: The basketball is going to be really, really, really good
- 13:11Speaker 2: in the last two months of the season. And even
- 13:13Speaker 2: if you look at the Eastern Conference, quietly bowed, The
- 13:18Speaker 2: Eastern Conference has the ability to be superior in a
- 13:23Speaker 2: lot of ways that we don't think about. And to
- 13:26Speaker 2: your point about attrition, or you didn't say the word attrition,
- 13:30Speaker 2: but I'm just going to add everything up and say
- 13:31Speaker 2: that you said attrition. What people take away from 82
- 13:36Speaker 2: games is, and why I don't think that the league
- 13:39Speaker 2: should go away from 82 games is, this is a
- 13:41Speaker 2: test of attrition. How well can you withstand attrition? the potholes,
- 13:47Speaker 2: the bumps, the bruises that go through this season and
- 13:50Speaker 2: then get to April and then have enough stamina and
- 13:53Speaker 2: experience and maybe a little bit of youth to get
- 13:56Speaker 2: to June. It's not just about June. It's about everything
- 13:59Speaker 2: that it takes to get there. And we make the
- 14:01Speaker 2: mistake sometimes through conversation of only focusing on who's going
- 14:06Speaker 2: to get to June as opposed to, man, this is
- 14:09Speaker 2: really compelling on the way to June. You never forget
- 14:12Speaker 2: about June. But it's the compelling basketball that happens on
- 14:16Speaker 2: the way there, whether it's Minnesota and what Ant is
- 14:19Speaker 2: doing quietly. Player development story, right? If Jokic is going
- 14:23Speaker 2: to be MVP again, if we come to respect Oklahoma
- 14:28Speaker 2: City a lot more because of the struggle that they're
- 14:30Speaker 2: going to go through this season. Like it's so much
- 14:34Speaker 2: richness there. And I'm not being like an NBA shill here.
- 14:36Speaker 2: I'm just saying that we've only focused on a narrow
- 14:39Speaker 2: way of talking about the NBA, whether it's the All-Star,
- 14:43Speaker 2: whether it's load management, whether it's the nonsense, that sometimes
- 14:46Speaker 2: we miss the basketball. And even though I hate the
- 14:48Speaker 2: rules and everything else, the basketball has been good and
- 14:51Speaker 2: it's going to get better.
- 14:53Speaker 1: So let's start with the West and go back to
- 14:55Speaker 1: the East, right? Forget about championship just for a second.
- 15:00Speaker 1: Let's just think about teams that can make the Western
- 15:03Speaker 1: Conference Finals. I think there are five of them. that
- 15:07Speaker 1: can make the Western Conference Finals. Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Rockets,
- 15:13Speaker 1: and the Timberwolves. Now, all of this kind of depends
- 15:17Speaker 1: on the way that the seeding shakes out.
- 15:19Speaker 3: And yes, you will notice the one team I said
- 15:21Speaker 3: no on is the Lakers. I just don't. I think J.J.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Redick has a low-key argument for coach of the year
- 15:27Speaker 1: for this team having 33 wins, given everything that they are.
- 15:31Speaker 2: And everything that they are. And a zero-point differential.
- 15:33Speaker 3: Right, right, right. They are a 50-50 team. in terms
- 15:37Speaker 3: of the points, right?
- 15:40Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards has shown us, and Minnesota has shown us,
- 15:43Speaker 1: you don't want to see them in the playoffs.
- 15:45Speaker 4: No.
- 15:45Speaker 1: Not necessarily they're going to go to the championship, but
- 15:47Speaker 1: they're going to give you a run. I mean, it's
- 15:51Speaker 1: easy to forget they've been to the conference finals twice
- 15:52Speaker 1: in a row. And in such a way where in
- 15:55Speaker 1: a different time, we would be saying, all right, well,
- 15:56Speaker 1: it's now down for you guys to go. But this
- 15:58Speaker 1: is an era of more NBA parity. So I guess
- 16:00Speaker 1: we view it just a little bit more fairly. But
- 16:03Speaker 1: we've seen enough to know that, Denver don't really want
- 16:06Speaker 1: to see them in the first round if it comes
- 16:08Speaker 1: to that. I think Denver would much rather see the
- 16:10Speaker 1: Lakers in the first round. I think just about everybody
- 16:13Speaker 1: over there would like to see the Lakers in the
- 16:15Speaker 1: first round if they got to see somebody.
- 16:16Speaker 2: No, I will quibble with you on one. I think
- 16:19Speaker 2: Houston would probably rather see Minnesota than the Lakers. Only
- 16:25Speaker 2: because the Lakers are really good at winning close games.
- 16:29Speaker 2: The Rockets are not. And despite there being what I
- 16:33Speaker 2: believe to be a significant gap between how good the
- 16:37Speaker 2: Rockets are and how good the Lakers are, if the
- 16:40Speaker 2: equalizer is how you perform in closed games and the playoffs,
- 16:43Speaker 2: that's where it gets sticky. And I was curious if
- 16:46Speaker 2: you were going to name the Rockets for that very reason.
- 16:49Speaker 2: They don't have a point guard. They are 12 and
- 16:52Speaker 2: 15 in clutch games and clutches defined as within five
- 16:55Speaker 2: points in the last five minutes. But they can overwhelm
- 16:58Speaker 2: you defensively. Right. And that's the weird part about all this.
- 17:01Speaker 2: And that's the weird part about this whole parody discussion
- 17:04Speaker 2: is that every team, even the Thunder, to some degree,
- 17:07Speaker 2: every team is flawed. Every team has a flaw that
- 17:11Speaker 2: can get you knocked out of a playoff series if
- 17:14Speaker 2: the wrong matchup comes and hits you. And Minnesota, to
- 17:17Speaker 2: your point, they don't really necessarily have a point guard either,
- 17:20Speaker 2: even though they got Mike Conley back. He's older. You're
- 17:22Speaker 2: not going to depend on him to be that 40 minute,
- 17:24Speaker 2: you know, a night guy. Can Anthony Edwards do it again?
- 17:28Speaker 2: What giant is he going to knock out? Think of
- 17:31Speaker 2: the giants he's knocked out already. He sent Kevin Durant home.
- 17:35Speaker 2: He sent Nikola Jokic home. He sent a hobbled Stephen
- 17:38Speaker 2: Curry home. I can't even really say that because Steph
- 17:40Speaker 2: only played one game and then one game that they lost.
- 17:42Speaker 2: He sent LeBron home. He sent virtually everybody home that
- 17:47Speaker 2: they have put in front of him, including Luka Doncic
- 17:49Speaker 2: last year with the Lakers. Who's going to be the
- 17:52Speaker 2: next guy that he sends home? Because he ain't going
- 17:55Speaker 2: out in the first round. I think that kid... has
- 17:58Speaker 2: a different sort of approach to himself that we think
- 18:02Speaker 2: of him as being so playful and unserious that the
- 18:05Speaker 2: basketball is like, wait a minute, when it get time,
- 18:08Speaker 2: nut cutting time, he's defending LeBron. or he's taking the
- 18:12Speaker 2: Jamal Murray matchup, or he's doing stuff on both ends
- 18:15Speaker 2: of the floor while carrying Carl Towns, Rudy Gobert, and
- 18:19Speaker 2: Julius Randle across the finish line. Hell yeah, I'd be
- 18:23Speaker 2: tired getting to the conference finals too. Give that man
- 18:27Speaker 2: a ring for getting up the second round.
- 18:29Speaker 1: Let me ask you this about the Rockets since you
- 18:32Speaker 1: brought them up. Get off my diggers and says that
- 18:35Speaker 1: they a sorry ass team.
- 18:38Speaker 3: I just felt like they didn't have a point guard.
- 18:40Speaker 1: Yeah, I just felt like they didn't have a point guard. Like,
- 18:42Speaker 1: what do you think about them top to bottom?
- 18:45Speaker 2: I think to me, and this is old school basketball sensibilities, right?
- 18:50Speaker 2: If you don't have a point guard and you can't
- 18:52Speaker 2: protect the rim, how good are you? Right? Alperen Shingun,
- 18:56Speaker 2: for being many yokage and everything else, he's not that.
- 18:59Speaker 2: He's not that guy. He is a level of talent
- 19:02Speaker 2: that you can build around But when your coach is
- 19:05Speaker 2: calling you out, when Ime Udoka is calling you out
- 19:08Speaker 2: and saying, man, we've been having problems with Shingun on
- 19:11Speaker 2: defense for the whole year. I don't think they're a
- 19:15Speaker 2: sorry-ass team. I think that was a bit heavy-handed by
- 19:19Speaker 2: whoever said that, right?
- 19:20Speaker 1: I mean, get off my diggers and said that the
- 19:23Speaker 1: Hornets basically would be better if they had Kevin Durant than,
- 19:29Speaker 1: excuse me, Get Off My Dickerson said the Hornets would
- 19:32Speaker 1: be better if Get Off My Dickerson played for the
- 19:34Speaker 1: Hornets than the Rockets are if Get Off My Dickerson
- 19:38Speaker 1: played for the Rockets.
- 19:41Speaker 2: I don't know if I completely agree with that because
- 19:44Speaker 2: I don't know if LaMelo Ball is a serious point
- 19:46Speaker 2: guard at this stage. And considering some of the stuff
- 19:49Speaker 2: that I've seen, like... Miles Bridges and some of these
- 19:52Speaker 2: other guys engaging, I don't know how they were going
- 19:54Speaker 2: to really fare when it comes down to playoff situations.
- 19:57Speaker 2: I do believe in Emei as a playoff coach. I
- 20:02Speaker 2: believe in a man, Thompson, because I think when all
- 20:05Speaker 2: this is over, he's going to be the last man
- 20:07Speaker 2: standing unless they go get Giannis or something this offseason. Like,
- 20:11Speaker 2: I think they have stuff. They are just not complete.
- 20:15Speaker 2: And I think Get Off My Dickerson knows what complete
- 20:18Speaker 2: teams look like because maybe Get Off My Dickerson has
- 20:21Speaker 2: played on a couple of complete teams.
- 20:23Speaker 3: Perhaps.
- 20:24Speaker 2: And the crazy part is Get Off My Dickerson has
- 20:27Speaker 2: played on complete teams that did not even make the
- 20:29Speaker 2: NBA Finals.
- 20:31Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
- 20:33Speaker 1: That is a fair theory to have about Get Off
- 20:35Speaker 1: My Dickerson, that that is what informs his uproarious commentary.
- 20:41Speaker 3: Is that right there? The rest of the thing in
- 20:43Speaker 3: the West to me is Denver, I think we feel
- 20:46Speaker 3: is a complete team.
- 20:47Speaker 2: Yes.
- 20:47Speaker 3: That we just haven't seen play together that much.
- 20:50Speaker 1: But with all the time Jokic missed and they still
- 20:52Speaker 1: are where they are, I don't, you know, somebody finally
- 20:55Speaker 1: played to all-star level by the time the all-star game
- 20:58Speaker 1: had come around. The prospect, like the Spurs have to
- 21:03Speaker 1: really want the Rockets to catch Denver. Because I don't
- 21:08Speaker 1: think the Rockets really want no parts of the Spurs.
- 21:11Speaker 1: but I also don't think the Spurs want to play
- 21:12Speaker 1: the Nuggets.
- 21:14Speaker 2: I don't think the Spurs want to play the Nuggets.
- 21:15Speaker 2: I think the weird thing is whoever plays probably wants
- 21:20Speaker 2: the Lakers to sit in that 4-5, probably wants the
- 21:24Speaker 2: Lakers to get out of the first round so you
- 21:26Speaker 2: don't have to see whatever it is. You're like, oh yeah,
- 21:29Speaker 2: we can handle the Lakers. They don't got defense, they
- 21:30Speaker 2: don't got size, LeBron is old, whatever it is. You're
- 21:33Speaker 2: rooting for an upset so you don't come away from
- 21:37Speaker 2: the second round with scars. And I think If you're
- 21:40Speaker 2: the Denver Nuggets, you are praying that Aaron Gordon is
- 21:44Speaker 2: healthy and that Jokic is healthy and that Jamal Murray,
- 21:47Speaker 2: who's been remarkably durable this year, does not wear down.
- 21:50Speaker 2: Like the one complaint that you might have had about
- 21:52Speaker 2: Jamal Murray two years ago when they got knocked out
- 21:54Speaker 2: by Denver was that, man, he looked tired by the
- 21:56Speaker 2: end of that series. And because he stepped up and
- 21:59Speaker 2: played at an all-star level in the games that Jokic
- 22:02Speaker 2: has missed, in addition to, you know, Peyton Watson and
- 22:05Speaker 2: some of these guys that you won't know their names,
- 22:08Speaker 2: until you see them in the playoffs. Like, that's the
- 22:10Speaker 2: beautiful thing about the NBA sometimes is, oh, yeah, we
- 22:12Speaker 2: know about Jokic and Jamal Murray and, you know, da-da-da.
- 22:15Speaker 2: You're like, wait a minute. Michael Porter Jr. don't play
- 22:17Speaker 2: for them no more? Cam Johnson? I've not seen him before. Like,
- 22:21Speaker 2: it's one of those things where you're going to get
- 22:22Speaker 2: introduced to new guys. And I think, like you said, Bo,
- 22:27Speaker 2: to me, they are the most complete team in basketball,
- 22:31Speaker 2: top to bottom, because you have the shooting, you have
- 22:33Speaker 2: the secondary playmaking. You have some rim protection that's not
- 22:37Speaker 2: Nikola Jokic. And they have the heartbreak of losing last
- 22:42Speaker 2: year to a team in Oklahoma City that they very
- 22:46Speaker 2: well could have and should have beaten had they had health.
- 22:49Speaker 2: And now you're asking them to have health if Aaron
- 22:52Speaker 2: Gordon comes back from this recent injury and is able
- 22:55Speaker 2: to be fresh and then can make it through the playoffs.
- 22:59Speaker 2: The West is going to be super fascinating at the top.
- 23:02Speaker 2: The East is going to be fascinating top to bottom.
- 23:07Speaker 1: So I don't think Jokic is going to be able
- 23:10Speaker 1: to play enough games to get into the award running.
- 23:14Speaker 1: And I'd just like to note for everybody that has
- 23:16Speaker 1: this huge problem now with the 65-game limit that people
- 23:18Speaker 1: absolutely rooted for when they brought it around because they
- 23:21Speaker 1: thought it would get guys to play more games. The
- 23:23Speaker 1: truth is the MVP always plays more than 65 games.
- 23:27Speaker 1: On that level, that rule typically enforces itself.
- 23:31Speaker 2: Watton was the only one.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Jokic was the only one, right? But let me tell
- 23:36Speaker 1: you something, man. for whatever the advanced numbers are worth,
- 23:40Speaker 1: Jokic is low-key having quite possibly like the greatest NBA
- 23:44Speaker 1: season that anybody.
- 23:45Speaker 3: Has ever seen. It is unreal how good he is.
- 23:49Speaker 3: Like in all the things that you pointed to about
- 23:50Speaker 3: what makes the Nuggets good, it's just gone to the
- 23:53Speaker 3: point that, you know, you have to say out loud,
- 23:55Speaker 3: they have the best player in the world.
- 23:58Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, we did one of these, you know, Tim
- 24:01Speaker 2: Bontemps does one of these straw poll MVP things at every,
- 24:04Speaker 2: you know, quarter mark of the season. And I was
- 24:07Speaker 2: looking and I was like, who else? It's like Stevie
- 24:11Speaker 2: Wonder in the 70s. Who's going to win the Grammy
- 24:13Speaker 2: this year? Does Stevie Wonder put an album out? Yes.
- 24:14Speaker 2: Then he gets, you know, album of the year. That's
- 24:17Speaker 2: where we are with Jokic. And add to the fact, Bo,
- 24:20Speaker 2: since he's come back, he hasn't even looked like himself,
- 24:24Speaker 2: like completely, like the touch hasn't come all the way back,
- 24:27Speaker 2: which you can expect when you miss that much, you know,
- 24:29Speaker 2: basketball over a concentrated period of time. And yet the
- 24:32Speaker 2: numbers are still insane today. The fact that he's like, yeah,
- 24:36Speaker 2: I can lead the league in assists and rebounding. Like,
- 24:40Speaker 2: wait a minute. This is like white wilt. Except he's
- 24:43Speaker 2: not doing this as a challenge. He's doing this as
- 24:46Speaker 2: a function of how he plays. And the question once
- 24:50Speaker 2: again becomes, will he be able to hold up to
- 24:55Speaker 2: the rigors? He looked worn down in that game seven
- 24:59Speaker 2: against OKC last year where they put Alex Caruso on him.
- 25:03Speaker 2: I'm not saying like he should feel as insulted by
- 25:06Speaker 2: them putting Alex Cruz on him as he should feel
- 25:09Speaker 2: insulted by them putting Chet Holmgren on him.
- 25:12Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody seems to be insulted by the idea of
- 25:15Speaker 1: putting Chet Holmgren on him.
- 25:17Speaker 3: Like that's the thing with the Spurs. The idea of
- 25:19Speaker 3: a Victor Jokic matchup.
- 25:21Speaker 2: No, no, no. No, the idea of a Victor Chet
- 25:25Speaker 2: playoff series.
- 25:27Speaker 3: Well, hold on, hold on.
- 25:29Speaker 2: We got time.
- 25:29Speaker 3: We got time. Okay, okay, okay.
- 25:32Speaker 1: The Victor Jokic situation is how that goes in the
- 25:35Speaker 1: postseason just because Jokic is so much bigger.
- 25:38Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 25:39Speaker 1: Heavy wise than he is. That's why I think the
- 25:42Speaker 1: Spurs are not really the matchup that they want. I mean,
- 25:46Speaker 1: the Nuggets aren't the matchup that the Spurs want. The
- 25:48Speaker 1: Spurs and the Thunder, the question we all had last
- 25:52Speaker 1: year about the Thunder, if they was just a little
- 25:54Speaker 1: bit too thin, right? A little light in the ass
- 25:56Speaker 1: to get it done. If that is the description you have,
- 25:59Speaker 1: Victor is like, yeah, let's play them. I think that
- 26:01Speaker 1: could be a lot of fun, guys.
- 26:02Speaker 3: What do you think? Yeah, I think we should do that.
- 26:05Speaker 2: I think I saw some numbers that say Jokic is
- 26:07Speaker 2: averaging like 36 and 12 against Vic. Everybody get a kryptonite, dawg.
- 26:13Speaker 2: Vic can be Jason Voorhees and it don't matter. That's
- 26:17Speaker 2: Freddy Krueger over there. You know what I mean? Like,
- 26:22Speaker 2: it does not matter. Like, I tend to believe that
- 26:28Speaker 2: from a matchup standpoint, Vic is like the only... like
- 26:31Speaker 2: super talk, I'm going to say super talk, I got
- 26:33Speaker 2: Luke Cornett over there. But what Denver, what San Antonio
- 26:36Speaker 2: does is we got guard penetration and we're going to
- 26:39Speaker 2: break you down. And then whether it's pitch out to
- 26:42Speaker 2: the Harrison Barnes of the world or we get it
- 26:44Speaker 2: up top to Vic, like that may not bother Denver
- 26:48Speaker 2: as much, right? It bothers Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is
- 26:53Speaker 2: not used to getting broken down at the point of
- 26:56Speaker 2: attack all the time. Denver is, I mean, Oklahoma City
- 26:59Speaker 2: is not used to you being able to throw multiple
- 27:02Speaker 2: defenders at Shea Gildas Alexander and have enough to go
- 27:06Speaker 2: at Jalen Williams at the same time and having this
- 27:10Speaker 2: big pterodactyl at the rim, which means, hey, y'all, everybody
- 27:13Speaker 2: stay down. Don't jump. Don't fall for the pump fake.
- 27:17Speaker 2: Send them to me. And that's the one place you
- 27:19Speaker 2: don't want to go. So, yeah, when we talk about
- 27:21Speaker 2: these matchups, man, it all depends on who gets to
- 27:25Speaker 2: that 2-3. Because you may want to get the top
- 27:28Speaker 2: seat this year, but I don't think Oklahoma City is
- 27:30Speaker 2: relinquishing that.
- 27:32Speaker 1: Yeah, and then, I mean, the idea that the Thunder
- 27:39Speaker 1: could look like the future and then nothing really changed
- 27:44Speaker 1: except Victor got a year older. That was the only
- 27:47Speaker 1: thing that really changed. Victor got a year older. Then
- 27:49Speaker 1: it's like, oh, wait, there's somebody else here. Like I
- 27:50Speaker 1: saw the numbers. ESPN says there's a 70% chance the
- 27:53Speaker 1: Thunder win the West, a 9% chance for Oklahoma City.
- 27:56Speaker 1: For the Spurs, I think it was a 9% chance
- 27:59Speaker 1: for the Nuggets. I'm like, that 9 for the Spurs
- 28:01Speaker 1: feels low.
- 28:03Speaker 2: Low, low, low. Once again, I go to the Detroit thing.
- 28:08Speaker 2: San Antonio didn't even make the playoffs yet. That feels
- 28:12Speaker 2: like such a massive jump. I don't think we give
- 28:16Speaker 2: enough to how much stamina is required to get through
- 28:21Speaker 2: a playoff series, let alone three, when you've never done
- 28:25Speaker 2: it before. When you've never done it before and all
- 28:28Speaker 2: of a sudden you're expected to go through the gauntlet
- 28:32Speaker 2: of they can beat Oklahoma City, right? Let's say they do.
- 28:37Speaker 2: Tell me how much they're going to have left after
- 28:39Speaker 2: that series.
- 28:40Speaker 3: That's true.
- 28:41Speaker 2: Tell me what if that's going to be their NBA finals.
- 28:46Speaker 2: Like we beat them. We beat those dudes. We are
- 28:49Speaker 2: built to beat those dudes. We don't like those dudes.
- 28:51Speaker 2: We can't stand them dudes. Fuck them as a staff,
- 28:54Speaker 2: record label, and as a crew, right? That's how they feel.
- 28:57Speaker 2: Then you got to gear up for Houston or Denver
- 29:02Speaker 2: or Minnesota, who's going to be sitting there waiting with
- 29:05Speaker 2: their own scars, but with their own experience. Like, experience
- 29:08Speaker 2: can never be overrated in these playoffs, especially this year's
- 29:12Speaker 2: NBA playoffs. You got to have some pain, and I
- 29:15Speaker 2: don't think San Antonio has had any level of pain yet, man.
- 29:20Speaker 3: Yeah, but I do think....
- 29:23Speaker 1: The Thunder, those nice guys need to find it somewhere
- 29:26Speaker 1: because they're trick bag. They like Drake against the Spurs
- 29:30Speaker 1: in that Drake don't hate them dudes as much. He
- 29:35Speaker 1: just like Drake did not hate Kendrick the way them
- 29:38Speaker 1: dudes hate back.
- 29:39Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
- 29:40Speaker 2: So he's J Cole then?
- 29:42Speaker 1: Well, no, well, J Cole just opted out. This is
- 29:45Speaker 1: not an option here. Like, I don't think that Drake
- 29:48Speaker 1: didn't have a problem with Kendrick. It just wasn't the same, right?
- 29:53Speaker 1: Victor and the rest of those guys hate the Thunder
- 29:57Speaker 1: so much. And I just don't know, if you're not
- 30:01Speaker 1: that type, how you dial it up?
- 30:03Speaker 2: I hate the way that you walk, the way that
- 30:05Speaker 2: you talk. They hate everything Oklahoma City stands for. I
- 30:11Speaker 2: don't know where it comes from. Every single thing.
- 30:13Speaker 3: Yes, you do. It's very clear where it comes from.
- 30:18Speaker 3: Victor hates Chet.
- 30:20Speaker 1: And what seems clear is that Victor is contagious in
- 30:24Speaker 1: that way.
- 30:25Speaker 3: Right. Victor said, I hate Chet. And that means they
- 30:28Speaker 3: all hate Chet.
- 30:29Speaker 1: And that means they got to hate everybody else because
- 30:31Speaker 1: the mother cats is riding with Chet.
- 30:32Speaker 3: That's how it happened. He's that guy. I don't feel
- 30:35Speaker 3: like we've had that guy in a while who's just like,
- 30:37Speaker 3: all right, we hate them now.
- 30:38Speaker 4: All right, dog.
- 30:40Speaker 2: We hate him.
- 30:41Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Who going to challenge him and say we not? Who
- 30:44Speaker 2: going to challenge Bix in the locker room and say.
- 30:46Speaker 3: No, it's not even about challenging.
- 30:47Speaker 1: It's about, I now feel exactly the same way that
- 30:51Speaker 1: you do.
- 30:51Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 30:52Speaker 2: No, I'm just saying who's going to say that we don't.
- 30:55Speaker 2: Who's going to.
- 30:56Speaker 3: Say, forget about who says it. It's not about don't.
- 30:59Speaker 3: Now we all do. They're not pretending to hate them now.
- 31:06Speaker 3: Now they all do. He said, that's what it's about
- 31:10Speaker 3: to be.
- 31:11Speaker 2: Yeah, somehow it just became ingrained in them. Yeah, yeah.
- 31:16Speaker 2: It's pre-decor, baby. Yeah, this is it. This is it.
- 31:20Speaker 2: And this is the crazy thing that we've been kind
- 31:22Speaker 2: of waiting on with Oklahoma City. Like to some degree,
- 31:26Speaker 2: Golden State was hated in like a different kind of
- 31:29Speaker 2: way because how dare y'all be so good and then
- 31:31Speaker 2: go get Kevin Durant, right? All right, you shifted competitive
- 31:34Speaker 2: balance in the league and then that became a thing.
- 31:37Speaker 2: Oklahoma City ain't really hateable. Like they're hateable from the
- 31:40Speaker 2: standpoint of Man, you don't like the ethics. You don't
- 31:43Speaker 2: like how Shady be moving around and everything else and
- 31:47Speaker 2: how they do things. But you can't hate them from
- 31:49Speaker 2: like a basketball standpoint. Not really. These dudes hate them. Well,
- 31:55Speaker 2: you can hate Lou Dort. You can hate Lou Dort.
- 31:57Speaker 2: You can hate the foul merchant deal exchange that they
- 32:00Speaker 2: run over there.
- 32:01Speaker 3: I mean, they got a heavy Dort proportion. over there.
- 32:13Speaker 3: There's room for it. And hey, man, Spurs.
- 32:17Speaker 1: Spurs got a lot of dreadlocks that, I know they
- 32:21Speaker 1: real dreadlocks.
- 32:21Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
- 32:23Speaker 1: There ain't no extensions going on over there. It's a
- 32:26Speaker 1: lot of cats over there you don't want no problems with.
- 32:28Speaker 1: But hey, coming up next, we're going to talk about
- 32:29Speaker 1: what's going on in the East. And my one question
- 32:31Speaker 1: I will ask Vinny that I will have a crazy look.
- 32:34Speaker 3: On my face when I ask. Ever wanted to go
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- 33:52Speaker 1: All right, we're back with Vinny Goodwill of ESPN. And
- 33:57Speaker 1: my question is very simple because I can't believe we're
- 34:01Speaker 1: bringing this up. The Celtics really about to bring Jason
- 34:05Speaker 1: Tatum back.
- 34:08Speaker 2: I feel like I'm crazy. I feel like I'm the
- 34:10Speaker 2: only person that is crazy here. And I'm thinking, why
- 34:14Speaker 2: is he coming back? Unless he thinks this is part
- 34:18Speaker 2: of the Jason Tatum story that's going to make him
- 34:20Speaker 2: face of the league or something like that. Like he
- 34:21Speaker 2: thinks this is the next. quotable thing that he's going
- 34:24Speaker 2: to do in his Truman Show career? I don't get it.
- 34:29Speaker 2: You are in year one of an extension that is,
- 34:33Speaker 2: I think, $ 300 plus million, which means in this luxury
- 34:38Speaker 2: tax apron world, you got two $ 300 million players locked
- 34:42Speaker 2: up for the next X amount of years if you
- 34:44Speaker 2: choose to keep them. The template for Achilles injuries returns
- 34:49Speaker 2: is It's Kevin Durant at 588 days. That was almost
- 34:53Speaker 2: the equivalent of what? A season and a half because
- 34:55Speaker 2: he missed the 1920 season and early part of 2021
- 34:57Speaker 2: when we had COVID. And he came back to looking
- 35:00Speaker 2: like Kevin Durant. I know the difference is Jason Tatum
- 35:04Speaker 2: is younger than KD was by a few years and
- 35:06Speaker 2: had fewer playoff miles on his body, believe it or not.
- 35:10Speaker 1: And they apparently got him on the operating table faster
- 35:13Speaker 1: than is ordinarily the case.
- 35:14Speaker 2: Yeah, they got him the next day. I think the
- 35:16Speaker 2: same thing happened with Dominique Wilkins. Dominique Wilkins When he
- 35:19Speaker 2: tore his Achilles, he got on the table the very
- 35:21Speaker 2: next day.
- 35:21Speaker 3: By the way, was the gold standard.
- 35:23Speaker 4: Right.
- 35:23Speaker 2: And he came back the next year and was averaging
- 35:25Speaker 2: 30 until, you know, they traded him.
- 35:29Speaker 1: Right.
- 35:30Speaker 2: But I don't see the benefit of Jason Tatum.
- 35:34Speaker 3: For Danny fucking Manning, who didn't even come back the
- 35:38Speaker 3: next season.
- 35:39Speaker 2: Sorry. Sorry.
- 35:40Speaker 3: You were talking about.
- 35:41Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Look, yo, Dominique Wilkins day is my Barry
- 35:47Speaker 2: Sanders day. I'm sure you're, look, look.
- 35:49Speaker 3: Yeah, but they didn't tell Barry to leave.
- 35:53Speaker 2: Yes, they did. Yes, they did. When you bring in
- 35:58Speaker 2: Boss Ross and you bring in Scott Mitchell, replace him
- 36:02Speaker 2: for Charlie Batch in the second round of next year. Yeah,
- 36:05Speaker 2: you tell him Barry to go. You quiet quit on
- 36:09Speaker 2: your running back. You quiet quit on him. You told
- 36:12Speaker 2: him to go.
- 36:13Speaker 1: I'm just saying, they didn't trade Barry Sanders for Lorenzo White.
- 36:16Speaker 3: But anyway, let's just keep going.
- 36:19Speaker 2: You done got me pissed off today.
- 36:21Speaker 3: Well, you did it to me first.
- 36:22Speaker 2: Let us go. My point is, I don't see the
- 36:30Speaker 2: advantage of bringing in Jason Tatum and then telling him, hey, Tatum,
- 36:35Speaker 2: you're only going to play 18 to 22 minutes this season.
- 36:39Speaker 2: You think Jason Tatum, who likes being the number one option,
- 36:44Speaker 2: wants to go on Jalen Brown's team and play 18
- 36:47Speaker 2: to 22 minutes and be a really good rebounder, a
- 36:50Speaker 2: really good spot-up shooter, a really good floor spacer? I
- 36:53Speaker 2: think he could be good at that if he's 80%,
- 36:56Speaker 2: but I think he's working really hard to come back
- 36:58Speaker 2: and be Jason Tatum again. And I just don't know
- 37:01Speaker 2: if the reward is worth the cost.
- 37:05Speaker 1: Number one, shout out to Jalen Brown. Remember when we
- 37:08Speaker 1: said he couldn't dribble? He does not look like that
- 37:10Speaker 1: guy anymore. Like, Missoula is probably coach of the year
- 37:14Speaker 1: just because if Jason Tatum is what we say Jason Tatum.
- 37:17Speaker 3: Is, then it is absurd that they are as good
- 37:19Speaker 3: as they are.
- 37:20Speaker 1: And Jalen Brown has been playing MVP caliber basketball where
- 37:24Speaker 1: I guess he'll play enough games or he'll wind up
- 37:26Speaker 1: getting it. But he has been excellent this year. It
- 37:31Speaker 1: doesn't seem worth the risk to me to play Tatum.
- 37:33Speaker 1: I don't know what their doctors see. I don't know
- 37:35Speaker 1: what's going on. You know, I don't know any of
- 37:38Speaker 1: those things, but it doesn't at all seem worth it
- 37:41Speaker 1: to even try to do this. But it feels like
- 37:46Speaker 1: they're going to. And if they do, you're right. It
- 37:50Speaker 1: can get weird and it can get awkward because the
- 37:52Speaker 1: idea of we're just going to turn Jason Tatum into
- 37:54Speaker 1: a seventh man who does seventh.
- 37:56Speaker 3: Man things, that doesn't seem to make any sense.
- 37:59Speaker 1: The other thing is these guys are human beings and
- 38:02Speaker 1: we have, and you brought it up, we've treated this
- 38:06Speaker 1: like Jason Tatum at the very least was 1A and
- 38:09Speaker 1: Brown was 1B, right?
- 38:12Speaker 2: Right.
- 38:12Speaker 1: Or you could put it almost like Jason Tatum, 1.75, Brown, 1.25. Right, right, right.
- 38:18Speaker 1: You know, where one and two add up to three.
- 38:20Speaker 1: Maybe that was the case. Jalen Brown is like, I
- 38:24Speaker 1: am a number one. And we see teams that have
- 38:27Speaker 1: multiple number one options, rarely with as much skill overlap
- 38:32Speaker 1: as these two guys have.
- 38:33Speaker 3: You know, it had been one way for a long time.
- 38:37Speaker 3: Now it looks like another way.
- 38:40Speaker 1: How they figure that out will be really interesting if
- 38:43Speaker 1: they make this decision that they're going to bring him
- 38:46Speaker 1: back this year, which I would not.
- 38:48Speaker 2: You think it's one way. It's the other way. That's
- 38:54Speaker 2: that's the. And here's the thing. Is Joe Missoula going
- 38:57Speaker 2: to have that conversation with Jason Tatum and tell him, hey, Jay,
- 39:02Speaker 2: I know you've been working your ass off since you've
- 39:05Speaker 2: had this injury. And you have the revenge in your
- 39:08Speaker 2: mind of wanting to play the Knicks again and everything. Remember,
- 39:11Speaker 2: the Celtics looked like a juggernaut ready to repeat until
- 39:16Speaker 2: they ran into the Knicks and blew those first two
- 39:18Speaker 2: games and then blew game four or whatever it was,
- 39:22Speaker 2: that series. So he's got that in his mind. And
- 39:25Speaker 2: you can't tell a player to not continue to rehab
- 39:28Speaker 2: with the goal of getting... back you can't keep putting
- 39:31Speaker 2: that battery in his back and saying you know what
- 39:33Speaker 2: jay when you get back we're gonna be at full
- 39:35Speaker 2: strength just to get him to continue to do that
- 39:38Speaker 2: and then pull the rug out from under him and
- 39:40Speaker 2: say you know what jason you can come back if
- 39:43Speaker 2: you want to but this ain't gonna be what it
- 39:45Speaker 2: was Like the mental part of that stuff. In addition
- 39:49Speaker 2: to the mental part of how that team has become
- 39:54Speaker 2: accustomed to playing without him, right? It's similar template. They're
- 39:59Speaker 2: going to shoot a lot of threes. They lean into
- 40:01Speaker 2: all of that. And then they're giving the ball to
- 40:03Speaker 2: Jalen Brown and saying, Jalen Brown, take us home. Now
- 40:06Speaker 2: that shifts a little bit and you have to recalibrate yourself.
- 40:09Speaker 2: And I don't think in this Eastern Conference, Bo, you
- 40:12Speaker 2: have the time. to be able to mess around in
- 40:16Speaker 2: the first round of a playoff series, even if they
- 40:18Speaker 2: get the second seed, right? If they get the second seed,
- 40:22Speaker 2: what happens if they're playing Philadelphia in the first round
- 40:25Speaker 2: or the third seed and they're playing Philly in the
- 40:27Speaker 2: first round and Embiid is reasonably healthy and Paul George
- 40:30Speaker 2: is back and you got Maxie and Edgecombe? You don't
- 40:34Speaker 2: have the space to give somebody else the grace to
- 40:38Speaker 2: work themselves into it because you're going to be in
- 40:40Speaker 2: a dogfight.
- 40:43Speaker 4: Right.
- 40:44Speaker 1: Look, it's some wild stakes in the East when you
- 40:47Speaker 1: think about this, right? If I were the Sixers, I
- 40:51Speaker 1: would assume that this is the last healthy and bead
- 40:53Speaker 1: year that you're going to have.
- 40:55Speaker 3: If this even is a healthy and bead year, right?
- 40:57Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 40:58Speaker 1: Let's start there. The Pistons, you raise an interesting point.
- 41:02Speaker 1: They're on top, but they've never won a playoff series.
- 41:04Speaker 1: Like they actually have like the widest berth. I think
- 41:07Speaker 1: that we would say the longest runaway, almost easier to
- 41:10Speaker 1: give themselves a certain measure of grace.
- 41:12Speaker 4: Right.
- 41:13Speaker 2: Right.
- 41:14Speaker 3: If they don't get it done.
- 41:15Speaker 1: But OK, then you got the Celtics who apparently think
- 41:18Speaker 1: this is important enough to bring Jason Tatum back. OK,
- 41:24Speaker 1: the Cavs who made this James Harden trade that all
- 41:28Speaker 1: I know is that the last game of the year,
- 41:30Speaker 1: James Harden is going to be terrible.
- 41:32Speaker 3: But in the meantime, they're going to be pretty good.
- 41:35Speaker 4: Right.
- 41:35Speaker 1: And so like but you know what their stakes are
- 41:38Speaker 1: by the fact that they made the decision to do that.
- 41:41Speaker 3: And then there's the Knicks who got to.
- 41:43Speaker 1: The conference finals last year, fired their coach, hired a
- 41:46Speaker 1: good one. But I think I feel like the things
- 41:48Speaker 1: that are shaky about the Knicks this year would have
- 41:50Speaker 1: been shaky no matter who the coach was.
- 41:52Speaker 2: Right.
- 41:52Speaker 3: It's the honeymoon year for towns had passed.
- 41:55Speaker 1: And now people are looking around and realizing what we
- 41:58Speaker 1: tried to tell them. that the things about him that
- 42:02Speaker 1: are not to like are things that they particularly were
- 42:06Speaker 1: really not going to like. And now you're starting to
- 42:09Speaker 1: hear the people talk about this. They talk about the
- 42:11Speaker 1: offensive fouls more. They talk about his absent-mindedness on defense.
- 42:16Speaker 1: All those things that, by the way, were also happening
- 42:18Speaker 1: last year.
- 42:19Speaker 3: They just hadn't gotten sick of that shit yet. And
- 42:21Speaker 3: now it's here.
- 42:22Speaker 1: Like Mike Brown, who I think is a much better
- 42:25Speaker 1: coach than he ever gets credit for, he's coaching for
- 42:27Speaker 1: his job, right?
- 42:30Speaker 2: Hmm. That's a great question.
- 42:33Speaker 3: I mean, they fired. I mean, you and I talk
- 42:35Speaker 3: about this all the time.
- 42:36Speaker 1: They fired Thibodeau largely because they wanted to, but also
- 42:38Speaker 1: because they thought they should have gone to the finals.
- 42:40Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 42:40Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 42:41Speaker 2: I still think they would have fired Thibodeau even if
- 42:42Speaker 2: they went to the finals. It would have been a
- 42:44Speaker 2: harder sell.
- 42:45Speaker 3: But that's still a part. I agree. Like I said,
- 42:47Speaker 3: because they wanted to. But I hear more.
- 42:50Speaker 1: There's more chatter and more complaining about Mike Brown this
- 42:54Speaker 1: year than we had ever heard about Thibodeau in all
- 42:57Speaker 1: those years.
- 42:58Speaker 2: And the crazy thing is, you know what it is?
- 43:00Speaker 2: Because now we've mythologized Thibodeau to the point where even
- 43:03Speaker 2: Stephen A said it the other day when I was
- 43:05Speaker 2: on first take and I just didn't have the opportunity
- 43:07Speaker 2: to correct him when he said, well, you know, defensively,
- 43:09Speaker 2: the Knicks were better than Thibodeau. No, they weren't. Like,
- 43:13Speaker 2: this has been profile-wise a very similar team. They're better offensively.
- 43:18Speaker 2: They're a better three-point shooting team, which could wind up
- 43:21Speaker 2: being a great equalizer when all this is said and done.
- 43:24Speaker 2: But They haven't been, like Tibbs hasn't coached like a
- 43:28Speaker 2: top 10 defense in a long time. And so much
- 43:30Speaker 2: of that you could attribute to personnel. But to your
- 43:33Speaker 2: point about Carl Townsend.
- 43:35Speaker 3: Yeah, but hold on, right fast on that.
- 43:36Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 43:37Speaker 1: He is not as consistent a basketball personality as people
- 43:40Speaker 1: want to say. Even when you go back to the Bulls,
- 43:43Speaker 1: there were some years the offense was great and the
- 43:45Speaker 1: defense was bad. Some years the defense was great and
- 43:47Speaker 1: the offense was bad. He's not, it's not as simple
- 43:50Speaker 1: as just you get Tibbs, you're going to get defense
- 43:52Speaker 1: and no offense.
- 43:53Speaker 2: No, the only thing you're going to get is Tibbs
- 43:55Speaker 2: going to play his dudes. That's it. Tibbs going to
- 43:57Speaker 2: play his six. And the best offensive player is going
- 44:01Speaker 2: to get a lot of shots and a lot of usage.
- 44:03Speaker 2: And you're going to build your offense around the skills
- 44:05Speaker 2: of that number one guy, as opposed to here is
- 44:07Speaker 2: my very rigid offensive philosophy. That's the one thing I
- 44:11Speaker 2: will always give Tibbs. Offensively, he is not going to
- 44:13Speaker 2: be out here like, hey man, we got to run,
- 44:16Speaker 2: jump and shoot threes. He's like, okay, best offensive player.
- 44:18Speaker 2: What do you do best? All right, cool. We're going
- 44:20Speaker 2: to do that. Like that's what I'll give him. With Towns,
- 44:24Speaker 2: it's important to remember, y'all, he found out about the
- 44:29Speaker 2: Giannis stuff just like we did. And they can do math.
- 44:33Speaker 2: They know for Giannis to come here, I gots to go.
- 44:37Speaker 2: Or somebody gots to go who make a lot of money.
- 44:41Speaker 2: Add to the fact that Carl did not get his
- 44:43Speaker 2: extension before the start of the season. Why do you
- 44:45Speaker 2: think that is? Or why do you think Carl thinks
- 44:48Speaker 2: that is? Oh, so they don't want to have my
- 44:52Speaker 2: long-term money on the books just in case they go
- 44:55Speaker 2: and try to get Giannis this offseason. That's a human
- 44:59Speaker 2: emotion that I don't think that we necessarily calculate. And
- 45:03Speaker 2: add to the fact you're playing in New York City
- 45:04Speaker 2: where you are never going to get the grace that
- 45:08Speaker 2: Jalen Brown gets. Jalen Brown can be a traffic cone
- 45:11Speaker 2: on defense. Jalen Brown can be, Jalen Brunson, excuse me,
- 45:14Speaker 2: can be terrible on defense. And we will never say
- 45:18Speaker 2: the same things about him that we say about Carl Towns.
- 45:21Speaker 2: The New York Knicks are the one team this season.
- 45:24Speaker 2: I want people to hear this when I say this.
- 45:26Speaker 2: The New York Knicks are the one team in the
- 45:29Speaker 2: NBA that has to get to the NBA Finals this year.
- 45:33Speaker 2: Not even Oklahoma City has to get to the NBA Finals.
- 45:36Speaker 2: Oklahoma City can get knocked out in the second round,
- 45:38Speaker 2: and we can come up with reasons why that happened.
- 45:40Speaker 2: The New York Knicks get knocked out in the second round.
- 45:43Speaker 2: There will be pitchforks on 33rd and 8th. right? Pitchforks,
- 45:48Speaker 2: I tell you, you lose to James Harden and Cleveland,
- 45:52Speaker 2: you lose to those dudes, you got a problem. If
- 45:54Speaker 2: you get pumped about Detroit, you got a bigger problem.
- 45:57Speaker 2: You lose to Joel Embiid and the mismatched 76ers, problem.
- 46:02Speaker 2: You lose to the Celtics with the Island of Misfit Toys,
- 46:06Speaker 2: Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, you've got problems. They have
- 46:11Speaker 2: to get, they are built to get to the NBA Finals,
- 46:13Speaker 2: but Bo, when's the last time You saw a team
- 46:18Speaker 2: depending on one rim protector who is injury prone, not
- 46:23Speaker 2: really good point of attack defense, and secondary scoring that
- 46:27Speaker 2: can be shaky because you got a bunch of guys
- 46:29Speaker 2: doing things that they shouldn't be doing because Jalen Brunson
- 46:32Speaker 2: controls so much of the offense. They are built to
- 46:35Speaker 2: do it, but they have so many more questions, more
- 46:38Speaker 2: questions than any other team. I think Detroit, the questions
- 46:41Speaker 2: are simple. Do you have experience and you don't have
- 46:43Speaker 2: a secondary scorer next to Cade Cunningham who can get
- 46:45Speaker 2: his own shot? If Detroit doesn't get there, you can
- 46:49Speaker 2: reasonably deduct. Okay, they'll be fine because they're going to
- 46:52Speaker 2: be here year after year. They've got the youth. They've
- 46:55Speaker 2: got the cap space. They can make some flexibility moves.
- 46:58Speaker 2: They can get a second guy to see where they
- 47:00Speaker 2: go from there. The Knicks don't have those questions that
- 47:04Speaker 2: they can improve other than, man, we better hope Giannis
- 47:07Speaker 2: decides to come here and not somewhere else.
- 47:09Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, You mentioned it. Their two best players
- 47:13Speaker 1: can't guard. And they can't guard at the two most
- 47:17Speaker 1: important places to be able to guard.
- 47:19Speaker 3: Up top, at the rim.
- 47:22Speaker 2: And then you put Mikael Bridges up there. You put
- 47:24Speaker 2: Mikael Bridges at the point of attack, and that ain't
- 47:28Speaker 2: that much better.
- 47:31Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 47:32Speaker 3: Yeah, they are.
- 47:33Speaker 1: And that's wild to say, though, because that's an all-defense
- 47:35Speaker 1: guy not that long ago.
- 47:38Speaker 2: I think sometimes reputations do a lot. Or I will
- 47:43Speaker 2: say this. When you go from being an all-defense guy
- 47:46Speaker 2: to being a scorer, it's really tough going back to
- 47:49Speaker 2: being an all-defense guy. It's really, really tough to start
- 47:52Speaker 2: knuckling down and doing those little things when you see
- 47:55Speaker 2: what gets you paid. No, you're right.
- 47:58Speaker 3: I also will say this about the Knicks.
- 48:01Speaker 1: I'm sure they can tell, but much like the Oklahoma
- 48:03Speaker 1: City Thunder, Hope you really understand how much those other
- 48:06Speaker 1: guys hate you. And in this case, those other guys
- 48:08Speaker 1: are the Detroit Pistons.
- 48:09Speaker 3: They hate them.
- 48:12Speaker 2: The best thing that happened to the Detroit Pistons was
- 48:15Speaker 2: losing three games on their home floor last year. One
- 48:18Speaker 2: that they gave away, one that they felt was snatched
- 48:20Speaker 2: from them, and another one that they kind of just blew, right?
- 48:24Speaker 2: So now they're looking at the Knicks like, why everybody
- 48:27Speaker 2: so high on y'all? Y'all ain't live? And what's the
- 48:34Speaker 2: argument against that? When the last time we saw the
- 48:37Speaker 2: Knicks in the Pistons play, they didn't have Jalen Duren,
- 48:41Speaker 2: and they still whooped on him by 37. And Asar Thompson,
- 48:44Speaker 2: who is apparently the worst twin, but might be the
- 48:47Speaker 2: best defensive player in the league, locked up Jalen Brunson
- 48:50Speaker 2: to the tune of 4 for 20. He made Jalen
- 48:53Speaker 2: Brunson go a full Starks on a Monday afternoon. Like,
- 48:57Speaker 2: this is... I'm salivating for the potential... of a Detroit
- 49:04Speaker 2: Knicks playoff series while also recognizing my personal life will
- 49:08Speaker 2: be made hell because everybody will think, man, you just
- 49:10Speaker 2: rooting for Detroit because you from there. Never mind that
- 49:15Speaker 2: when I was living in Detroit, people would say, man,
- 49:16Speaker 2: you hate the Pistons. Man, why you bagging on them
- 49:18Speaker 2: so much? I hate them. everybody.
- 49:22Speaker 3: You do, except Isaiah. You don't hate Isaiah.
- 49:24Speaker 2: No, I don't. That's my guy.
- 49:26Speaker 3: Tell you, man.
- 49:27Speaker 1: Y'all different about that. My man, Lester Spence. I think
- 49:30Speaker 1: Spence still working at Johns Hopkins. The first time I
- 49:32Speaker 1: met Spence, I was talking something about the greatest point
- 49:34Speaker 1: guards of all time.
- 49:36Speaker 3: I don't even think he looked at me. He wrote Detroit.
- 49:39Speaker 3: What about Isaiah? Y'all demand to know about Isaiah.
- 49:45Speaker 2: Because it's this school of people who think that he
- 49:48Speaker 2: belongs in this hodgepodge of John Stockton and Gary Payton
- 49:52Speaker 2: and Jason Kidd and, you know, not saying they ain't
- 49:55Speaker 2: great players, but all those dudes or Chris Paul as
- 49:59Speaker 2: opposed to, hey, man, his only peer is that 6'9 dude.
- 50:05Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 50:06Speaker 2: That's it.
- 50:09Speaker 3: Y'all still funny.
- 50:11Speaker 1: Y'all still like, you know what he is? He's y'all's
- 50:15Speaker 1: Barry Bonds. I hear that everybody else hates him. Oh, well,
- 50:19Speaker 1: not us.
- 50:20Speaker 2: But see, there's an acknowledgement, though, that Barry Bonds might
- 50:24Speaker 2: be the greatest hitter we've ever seen, right? Like, you
- 50:27Speaker 2: can make all the arguments against Bonds for whatever the
- 50:30Speaker 2: reasons are, but people will still say, you know, before
- 50:32Speaker 2: he ever did anything, he was 40-40 and he won
- 50:35Speaker 2: MVP three times. Like, there's still that acknowledgement. For people
- 50:39Speaker 2: who don't give Zeke his propers, it's not even the acknowledgement. Well,
- 50:44Speaker 2: you know, he did beat Mike Bird and Magic. They
- 50:47Speaker 2: don't even say that. They say it like it's a postscript.
- 50:50Speaker 2: They say it like it don't mean shit. So when
- 50:52Speaker 2: you say that winning matters and all you go to is, man, well,
- 50:55Speaker 2: Zeke Petty. Well, wait. Magic Petty? Michael King Petty? Yes,
- 50:59Speaker 2: he is. Y'all love the Petty. But when Zeke is ruthless,
- 51:02Speaker 2: all of a sudden, it's a problem. Nah, man, we
- 51:04Speaker 2: ain't taking that hypocrisy. I will not take that hypocrisy.
- 51:08Speaker 2: I think people should be quiet.
- 51:11Speaker 3: Detroit versus... Everybody. How did you get me there?
- 51:17Speaker 2: How did you get me going full that one dude
- 51:20Speaker 2: in that interview with Mike Wallace when he told him
- 51:22Speaker 2: to be quiet?
- 51:25Speaker 3: Yeah, man. You sound like the new Bruce Bowen. Like
- 51:27Speaker 3: I always knew you was going to get back to that.
- 51:29Speaker 3: It never fails. It never fails. Check my man out
- 51:32Speaker 3: at ESPN covering the NBA, brother. I appreciate you.
- 51:35Speaker 2: All love, bro. Appreciate you, man.
- 51:36Speaker 3: All right, man.
- 51:37Speaker 1: And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us
- 51:39Speaker 1: here on the right time. We do this four times
- 51:41Speaker 1: a week. Ryan Brumley handing everything behind the scenes.
- 51:44Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.
- 51:45Speaker 1: Hit the voicemail line 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like,
- 51:52Speaker 1: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
- 51:54Speaker 1: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
- 51:56Speaker 1: a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple
- 51:58Speaker 1: of days.
- 51:59Speaker 2: Take it easy.