← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - BIGGEST ISSUES for Lakers trio of Luka Doncic, LeBron James & Austin Reaves | NBA Mailbag
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Jason
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Lavar Arrington
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Jason
the volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week. Today is Mailbag day. Thank you guys all for adding questions. Remember, if you want to get questions in, all you got to do is drop them in the YouTube comments. Under our full episodes, put Mailbag with a colon, write your question that helps me sort through them and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. And then make sure you like this video as well as sign up for our post notifications. That helps us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question hey Jason, Love the show. One of the main reasons I enjoy the show is because you aren't afraid to talk deeper, talk about deeper than just hooping topics. With that being said, my question is, do you believe Luca is covered differently than his peers in the media? He has all the symptoms of being an AAU baby, such as the lack of coming into the season in shape and his perceived cocky attitude. Do you think because he's European, he's just inherently covered differently than American born players? Would love to hear your thoughts. And thanks again. This is an interesting question. There's a lot of different angles to get into here. I, I remember having a conversation with Adam Mares. It was one of the nights that we were, my wife and I were having dinner at his house and we were just talking about Jokic and his overall personality. And one of the things he talked about with some of these European dudes is that they have like a, a passionate like, joy for like life, for like enjoying life. Like, they're, they're freaky competitive and they love basketball and they certainly have a, a level of focus and intensity. There's. But they don't forego the pleasures of life. You know what I mean? Essentially is the way that he explained it to me and I had never really thought of it that way because that, that culture, I think is something that we've seen with both Jokic and with Luka Doncic, where there's the competitiveness, there's the care, but there's also like the, there's not like the absolutely OCD insane basketball is all that matters type of attitude that you'd see from like a Kobe Bryant, for example. And I do think that that plays some, some role in some of the doughiness that we see from, from both of those guys. As far as the media question goes, I, you know, I don't think Luka's covered with kid gloves. In fact, I think it's the opposite. I mean, I mean, yesterday I, like, I was like, every time I opened up my phone, it felt like everybody in the media was ripping him a new one. And like, overall, I think Luka has been a guy that's been. The criticism has been fair, but I think he's been criticized plenty. The point being, like, I don't think there's some sort of loophole that Luca's slipping through here and, and getting off the hook for the stuff that's happening. I, I talk about this all the time. With, with great power comes great responsibility. When you are a legitimate top tier superstar in the NBA, just like when you're one of those top tier starting quarterbacks in the NFL, all the questions, all the criticism, all that kind of stuff tends to be directed towards you. It comes with huge shoe deals and supermax contracts and all the dudes who have been that in the past have become legends, right? Like, that's the thing. Like, if Luka ends up winning two NBA Finals in his career and gets two Finals MVP MVPs, he will be revered as a basketball player in a way that only maybe a couple dozen players have in the history of the league, maybe 15 in the history of the league that get revered that way. So, like, it's a give and a take, right? Like, it comes with a lot of criticism. And when you're bad, everyone's going to tell you that you're bad, right? But then it also comes with the reverence and the, in the, the, the way that they can become almost legendary in the way that we discuss them, right? And so I don't think Luke has gotten off. I think, I think he's been, I mean, yesterday he was just getting dragged through the meat grinder, right? So like, he, he, he definitely gets criticized for the, for what I think are valid reasons regarding his conditioning, regarding his complaining to the refs regard. Like, I didn't, I didn't see a lot of unfair stuff going out like last night, like, or yesterday. Like, I, the stuff with him complaining to the refs is a real problem. There is literally not a single player in the NBA that behaves with the refs the way that he does. He is actually hurting his game and hurting his team by primarily focusing on grifting rather than trying to create his own shots. And when he doesn't get calls, him not getting back on defense and there are some very legitimate criticisms with him that I think are are that I think we're getting hit on, but I definitely don't think he's getting away with anything. The media has been on his case for sure. Next question. The perfect solution for the Lakers is this. One of the three playmakers, Luca LeBron Reeves has to average double digit assists while the two of them go off on offense. This ensures that at least one of them is looking to get the team going. This means Rui is getting good shots, Jake is getting good shots, Ayton is getting good looks and opportunities at the on mismatches at the rim. When one playmaker does not have it going like Luka on some nights he should constantly threaten running towards the basket to get easy looks while also getting open threes and driving lanes for his teammates. The Lakers struggle most when their stars aren't shooting the ball well, but still keep trying to push and find rhythm while simultaneously forgetting their teammates need to touch and shoot the ball too. Your thoughts? So this is where I actually disagree in the sense that I think like when you're I think that every single possession for the Lakers that is like a legitimate full normal half court possession should involve all three stars in the action. So what does that mean when you're in the flow of the game? So if you're playing in semi transition, so like okay, we get a stop and we have a four on three and we're playing off that initial advantage or like sometimes in late game situations you might be hunting a specific one on one matchup that you like. So you might just dribble the ball at the floor and get a screen from a guard to get a specific one on one matchup that you like. There are times when stagnation just kind of naturally happens in games there I, I know they're. There are a lot of people who cover the league or fans of the league that talk about it in the sense like oh, we should go down and run a set on every single possession. That's just, that's just not how basketball works. Anybody who's ever played the game knows that's why at every level they coach early offense and like motion offense. Meaning like when we are not running a set, this is what we do we push the ball at the floor? This is what we do. When we run an action and it breaks down, this is what we do. Like that's, those are, those are in place because coaches know that you can't just run a set every single time you go down the floor. But when the Lakers do end up in a half court set or they have a good long shot clock to work with and LeBron, Austin and Luka are all on the floor, the best thing you can do is involve them all in the action in some way, shape or form. So you'll see that a lot in the Lakers do do this from time to time with horn sets right. Like you'll see, you'll see Luca like start in the left corner and you'll see Austin bring the ball up the floor and LeBron and Naten will be on the elbows and they'll run some sort of interchange that flows into like a double drag dribble handoff with Luca coming out of the left corner. And it's like the, the reason why you want to do as much of that stuff as possible is because most likely with that type of action would involving eight in the legit screen and roll threat. And say what you want about Ayton and I've been really frustrated with him this year, but he is a very gifted screen and roll threat and you add in three really high level ball handlers that can all punish the defense in different ways. Inevitably when you do that you're going to get some kind of advantage for one of the players. The bigger issue that I think the Lakers have had this season as it pertains to their offense with all three stars on the floor, comes down to catch and shoot play. So let's say you run that action and Luka ends up getting downhill as he's coming off of the screen and as he's coming off of the screen he's got his advantage. Luke is working the defense reacts to him and it ends up getting swung out to, let's call it Rui Hachimura or Marcus Smart in the opposite corner. And the defense rotates to Rui and it gets swung up the, the, the lane line to or up the above the brake line to Austin Reeves on the right wing. And then Austin Reeves is a good catch and shoot player so they rotate and then it gets swung again and there's LeBron or there's Luca and LeBron and Luca have not been good catch and shoot players this year. And you know it's, it's, it's Kind of a shame, because one of the big reasons why I was so excited about LeBron rejoining the team after missing training camp, and one of the reasons why I was so optimistic about the fit with all three of these guys is because LeBron for two straight years before this was an excellent catch and shoot player. Like, if you left him open off the catch, he was hitting like 45% of his open catch and shoot threes over the last couple of seasons. And LeBron is just having a brutally bad jump shooting season. So I actually think that when the three guys are on the floor, JJ Redick has done a pretty good job of involving everybody and getting them into a set that allows them to take advantage of their aggregate offensive talent. But the defense has a game plan for how to guard those actions and they're usually going to react which is going to end up in some sort of kickout situation. And too often it's been either Marcus Martin, Jake Laravia, who can't hit open threes, or when Ruiz out there, the ball get worked around and a guy like LeBron can't hit an open three or a guy like Luka can't hit an open three. And you know, I think if it was just Luca, because Austin has been a good catch and shoot player this year, if it was just Luca, I think it would be fine. I think you can get away with one of those dudes not being a great catch and shoot player. But when you have two of those three having a bad catch and shoot season, it makes it so that once they get through that initial action and they get into their drive and kick, there's just too many spots where the advantage is dying or it's ending in a play finisher's hands that can't actually make the shot. And so as we talk about star fit moving forward, I think that's a really important detail. Like, I think if you're putting three high level offensive players together, even just two, it's ideal if they're all really good catch and shoot players. So for instance, take James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. One of the big reasons why I like that fit is James Harden in this phase in his career is an excellent catch and shoot player. As a big part of his performance in the game against the Knicks, in the runs that they went on, just him capitalizing on open catch and shoot opportunities. Right. I am incredibly excited to tell you guys about our new partnership with Vuori. Those of you guys who are familiar with Vuori have noticed that I wear it on the show and I have done so for years now, almost every single day, because it's become a workhorse for me and that's why I'm so excited about this partnership. I've actually been advocating for this behind the scenes for a while. It's a product I really believe in and I'm really excited that we get to partnership with them now. My journey with Vuor I started because of a very simple problem. I'd wear shirts on the show and then after I'd washed them four or five times, they would just kind of degrade and turn into something that wasn't anything close to what I had originally purchased. And so I wanted to invest in quality clothing that could become my workhorse for my daily life. And that is exactly what Vuori is. From the Sunday performance sweatpants that I wear around my house all the time that's super comfortable, that even now that it's cold in Colorado and I go play basketball, I can literally play basketball in the same sweatpants to the Sunday performance shorts that I play basketball in. My favorite thing about Vuori is all this stuff. All this clothing is so perfect for the active lifestyle that I live, but it's all so high quality and so attractive looking that I can wear it in formal settings. 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- [14:56]
Lavar Arrington
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- [15:28]
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- [17:48]
Jason
Donovan Mitchell Also a great catch and shoot player. One of the things that's been so important with the cast is like is Evan Mobley hitting the open catch and shoot threes like he was at the beginning of the Knicks game, right? So like once you get into the flow now everybody's a play finisher, right? Once you're in the flow. Like, we've run an action, we've created an advantage, the defense is in rotation, everybody's a play finisher. So you better either be a really good cutter finisher around the basket or you better be a dude who can knock down that open catch and shoot three. It's like a prerequisite. I think one of the biggest issues for the Lakers this year is just how bad LeBron and Luca have been as catch and shoot players. I want to actually elaborate on this a little bit. After the Celtics game in particular, I saw a ton of negativity surrounding LeBron James talking about lineup data. And I think this is a very nuanced discussion to get into because there is some really clear lineup data that shows like when Luka and Austin are on the floor without LeBron, they've been awesome, or when Luke has been by himself, or when Austin's been by himself. But when LeBron's been on the floor with those guys, things haven't been as successful. There's a lot of different things that I want to get into there. First of all, the Luca Austin with LeBron off numbers, those lineups absolutely crushed at the beginning of the season against their weakest stretch of schedule when LeBron was completely out of the, out of the rotation with an injury. They, the, the Lakers were really good. If you remember, they started with an awesome record. They won a bunch of games. Austin had big nights with Luca out of the lineup, Luca had big nights with Austin out of the lineup. And they just won a bunch of games against an easy stretch of their schedule that juiced up that lineup data. All the, the, the data since LeBron, since Austin came back from this calf injury, it's been dicey in most of the Lakers lineup groups. It's not like Luka and Austin have been absolutely crushing and LeBron's been coming in and ruining it in this recent stretch. Two LeBron in the units where he's been on the floor by himself with Austin and Luka off have been some of the Lakers best groups this season. They're outscoring teams by almost six and a half points per 100 possessions. And that's been a huge part of why the Lakers have such a good record. Because during that stretch when Austin Reeves was out of the lineup, there were a lot of games where late third quarter, early fourth quarter runs in LeBron James led groups were helping the Lakers put games away and for them to win. So I do think that it's a lot more complicated than the data Looks on its face. That said, some of it is legitimate. Why has it been that the. That LeBron hasn't been as successful or productive alongside the other stars? And I think it comes down to two things. The first piece is that catch and shoot piece with those LeBron solo groups. LeBron's not having to take a lot of catch and shoot looks. It's a very defensive focus group that's playing a lot in transition and in the open floor and in the flow. And LeBron's playmaking has been the advantage there, and he's been able to drive success in those units. When he's playing off of Austin, when he's playing off of Luka, his inability to hit, hit, catch, and shoot jump shots has been part of the problem. And the second piece of it is defensive mistakes all season long. I think LeBron's having a pretty bad defensive season in those groups. It's weird when he's playing by himself in the groups without Austin and Luka. It's like the entire lineup's identity centers around defense. And LeBron will be super engaged and he's flying around, he's making all these plays, but for some reason, when he gets on the floor with Austin and Luka, he's been so much more like, like, checked out mentally on the defensive end of the floor. And he has missed a lot of rotations, he has missed a lot of box outs. He has left a lot of meat on the bone defensively in those groups. So as we zoom out, I would just round it out by saying, like, has LeBron been part of the problem for these Laker groups that have struggled with multiple stars on the floor? Yes. But he's also been a huge part of their success this season, leading the solo groups without Austin and Luke on the floor at all. And I would argue most of the issues for the Lakers are like, roster wide jump shooting and athleticism issues. And so again, like, when I saw that stuff going around with LeBron yesterday, I'm like, some of this is true. Some of this is worth digging into. LeBron definitely deserves some criticism for why some of these lineups are struggling. But, like, painting the picture, like, I saw Brian Windhorse say, like, the Lakers have been an excellent team. When LeBron's off the floor this season, it's like, that's just not fucking true. That's like, literally not true. Like, the Lakers this season have been a mediocre team all year outside of an awesome start to the season against a weak schedule. So, like, I think. I think there's a certain nuance to the discussion around LeBron this year that's worth getting into. Hasn't been great with the stars, large part because of the catch and shoot play and too many defensive mistakes, but a huge part of the reason why The Lakers are 33 and 24 or whatever it is they are right now is or 34 and 23. A huge part of that is literally because for a huge chunk of the season, LeBron was carrying these units with Luka and Austin off the floor and helping them win a lot of games. So, like, it's just a lot more nuanced than it looks on the surface. Next question. Hey Jason, I just wanted to know what makes Cade and the Pistons different from other ball? Dominant ball handlers, slash scores. People are high on the Pistons and giving them a good chance to come out of the East. Kate is responsible for scoring or assisting on around 50 points per game for the Pistons. What makes his style of play more favorable for a playoff run instead of guys like Luca Brunson and others? Bear down. Big Arizona fan. Like to hear that. I typically don't watch a ton of college hoops, as you guys know, because of just how busy the NBA season is, but I'm really starting to dig in on this Arizona team. I've watched a lot of Arizona teams in my life that have been good in different ways or have had high level NBA talent on them, like Stanley Johnson or Aaron Gordon for example, deandre Ayton, for example. But like this team has like the best balance of really good guards between Jaden Bradley and Braden. Buries and like size on the interior but like really good wings that can like shoot and defend. And I just like this Arizona team a lot. Like in my entire lifetime. This is the best I've felt about an Arizona team and their chance to win the title. So I'm very, very excited to watch them in this year's postseason. I thought their win on the road in Houston was a big character win after a couple of tough losses. That comeback against Baylor was a fun one. It's engaging. Like this part of my personality when I was a kid, like Arizona basketball is a religion where I grew up in Tucson. So like it's been cool kind of getting back invested in that group. And Tommy Lloyd, I think is a fantast. I've enjoyed him way more than I enjoyed the Sean Miller experience. So much more measured and composed all the time rather than like freaking the fuck out and sweating through his shirt every single time he coaches a big game. Anyway, to your question. So I think Cade is more or less right now like one of those ball dominant players. I don't criticize him for it though under the circumstances. Like I've seen Luca play like that on teams that have a lot of ball handling. Like I mean I talked last year before the Luca trade about how they made a, a handful of deals for guys that had some more ball handling ability, guys like Najee Marshall for example, and how like I wanted to see them lean more into their aggregate ball handling and you know, Jalen Brunson for example. A big part of why the Knicks have been better this season is because Jalen Brunson's been getting rid of the ball earlier, more heavily indexing towards dribble penetration to break the defense down. And as a team they're generating a lot more spot up opportunities than they used to in previous seasons. Right. So like to me is a lot of it has to do with who you're playing with. And on this particular Pistons team there's just not a lot of ball handling. And so I think like really for the way that they're put together, they kind of have to just maul teams physically on the glass and defensively play in transition as much as possible. And you kind of have to lean on Cade heliocentric ball when he gets into the half court. But inevitably at some point in the next few years, the Pistons will jump on a trade opportunity for some sort of on ball player that can play alongside Cade and, and that will put a higher premium on Cade's ability to play without the basketball and to make quicker decisions when he has the basketball. I'm not going to pontificate about what that looks like for Cade right now because we just haven't really seen it yet. So as time goes by, that'll be the key. I just talked about it in the last segment with respect to the Lakers and Luka. Like Luka needs to be a guy who can knock down a catch and shoot jumper if he's going to play alongside other stars. It's just an important part of, of playing team basketball. So we'll see as the Pistons kind of evolve into the future version of the team how Cade performs in more of a team context. Offensively, I know everyone talks about how good the spurs culture is, but I think an underappreciated aspect of their culture is their continuity in the front office. R.C. buford, the GM for over 20 years during the 2000s spurs dynasty is still in the organization as the CEO of basketball operations and his Protege Brian Wright was brought up under his mentorship and vision for the team. My question is, do you think teams should pump the brakes more often in hiring/firing GMs as misses and bad picks are bound to happen. I. E. The Spurs 2021, 2022 drafts. But visions for a basketball team usually take a very long time to put together. So I agree with you in the context of like, this stuff is hard. I was talking about that with Colin when we were talking about the Lakers. Like there's been so many misses over the course of the Rob Pelinka era. No one's expecting him to be perfect. Like the draft does involve a lot of, of like you know, mystery involving players character and like their development trajectory and how hard do they work. And there's so many different things. Health is a big one too. There's so many different things that can go in so many different directions with draft picks. Like there is a lot of up and down there. I think you're, you are going to miss on a mid level exception signing every once in a while. Like you're, there's no perfection there. Like I, I'm sure the Denver Nuggets like it looked great for them to trade Michael Porter Jr. For Cam Johnson. I think if they knew that Peyton Watson was going to blossom into the player that he blossom into, they probably don't make that trade. Right. But that's hindsight. There's not a whole lot you can do there. The point being, no, no one's perfect with this stuff. You're not expecting perfection. The one thing I would look at when it comes to, to your point, to sticking with a GM for a very long time, to me it would be about a consistent vision and a basketball belief system that permeates from cycle to cycle to cycle to cycle, which will lead to more wins than losses. I think that is the piece that I think is missing from a guy like a Rob Pelinka and why you need to move on from certain GMs when they don't have that vision, when they don't seem to have a belief system that drives them, when it seems like they're just flying by the seat of their pants from cycle to cycle, that would be a concern to me. But if I was an owner and I sat down with a GM and he pitched to me what he like likes in a basketball player and he expressed his vision for what a basketball team should look like and then I saw his decisions constantly fall in line with that vision, that would be something to me that would give a GM a lot more leeway with making mistakes because again, as you mentioned, mistakes are part of the deal. Next question. You talked about basketball culture from teams like the Celtics with Joe Missoula and Brad Stevens and the Cavs with J.B. bickerstaff. I was wondering if you could make a tier list or quick rankings of the best basketball cultures in the league. I know it might take longer than the average question or it might be more of an off season topic, but it would be a fun topic to dive into. This would be a fun one to dive into with more detail in the off season. But I just wanted to really quickly give you my list of what I think are the five best basketball cultures in the NBA. 1. Oklahoma City Again, the big driver here is you're seeing a specific type of player repeatedly get found this like scrappy, super competitive. Like I remember I was talking with Sam Bassini about this as it pertains to J Dub. Like he just was a guy that they were so into because of his personality and his competitiveness and what drove drove him. That's the kind of thing that will actually lead to players fitting into what Mark Dagnaut is trying to build in a defensive culture. There is a consistent type of personality in basketball player that Oklahoma City continues to try to find. Boston won't spend too much time here. We talked about them in detail over the last couple of days, but I think Joe Missoula has built a culture and accountability surrounding the way that he wants to play that has made him be able to get quality rotation players from all sorts of types of like discount opportunities on the margins. Miami, this is a team that like again, if you really dig into it, that hasn't had star level talent close to what you've seen around the rest of the league. And yet they routinely find undrafted discounted players on the margins that can play like dead serious minutes for them because they have such a strong basketball culture driven by Pat Riley and Eric Spoelstra for Golden State. Exact same thing seemingly every season. This year Will Richard last season, GI Santos. Every year they seem to just find guys on the margins that fit their basketball culture because they have a clear way that they want to play a clear player that they like and they continue to find that kind of guy. And then lastly the Memphis Grizzlies similarly like. I mean this entire era blew up literally because John Morant was a bust. A player that in 2022 looked destined for superstardom and then instead just got worse every single year and had behavioral issues and health issues and that ended up causing Memphis to to go full rebuild. But almost everybody I talk to in the league, that covers the league or that knows talks about how Memphis has one of the strongest basketball cultures in the NBA. They similarly find all sorts of dudes that you know, like Vince Williams Jr. For example, just scrappy, smart, high IQ, versatile wings and perimeter players that can do all sorts of good in so many different facets of the game. They're a team that I think has a specific type of guy that they like as well. And if they had just hit on a star, like if John Moran had just followed his trajectory through to fruition, I think we're still looking at a John Morant, Desmond Bain, Jaren Jackson led group that's super talented and is doing a lot of damage in the upper part of the Western Conference. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, the official sportsbook partner of the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. What's better than the sound of the ball on the hardwood, sneakers squeaking and the swish of the net? Winning on Hard Rock Bet, your home for hoops action all season long. And if you want to score a major bucket, shoot your shot at a same game parlay. Stack your picks on Hard Rock Bet and see how your odds grow. But if you miss tip off, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all game long from the first bucket to the final buzzer, so you're never too late to find a winner or grab that player prop that you had circled. 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Daniel Cormier
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- [36:27]
Jason
Next question. What are some of your all time favorite duos you'd like to see play together? A few of mine are Stefan, Kevin Garnett, D. Wade and Dirk Kawhi and Scotty Pippen. So I'm gonna give you guys three, mainly based on the modern generation. I always wanted to see LeBron and Steph play together. I was lucky enough to get to see it in person in Vegas when I was there for summer league the year of the, of the Olympics back in. What was that, 2024? I just think the two of them. If you look at how good Steph has been with Draymond, imagine how good Steph would have been with like LeBron if they were both in their primes. Like if they were playing like in the same way that Steph and Katie played together. Imagine if Steph and LeBron played together in that era. I just think there's a, a such a natural, like complementary element to both of their games because LeBron is such a good like screening, passing fulcrum and a guy that brings a lot of the things that Steph doesn't bring in terms of power in around the basket and defensive versatility. I just think those two would have been wonderful together. Trey Young and Giannis, these are two that I've talked a lot about over the last couple of years because I, I think there was something interesting to dig into there with Damon Giannis in terms of like a small, super skilled guard with Giannis, but I just don't think Dame was the playmaker that you needed to really maximize that partnership. Trey Young, I think, is one of the very best passers in the NBA and I think he would have been really fun with Giannis. I'm personally very excited to watch him play with Anthony Davis. I'm hoping that they can be healthy for at least a little bit. Lastly, I'm going to come out of left field with this one. I think it would have been really fun to watch Jokic and Ant play together. Two reasons that I want to get into there. One, Jokic is a spacing inverter that pulls rim protectors away from the basket and has always played with a clogged paint. I think Ant as a basket attacker would have been really fun with A guy that can vacate the paint and then two. If there's one thing with Ant that like leaves you wanting more, it's just that playmaking feel. And I think it would have been really fun to watch Ant's career development if he would have played alongside Jokic, because Jokic would have helped him see and understand that part of the game. At a higher level. I think the two of them would have been really fun. All right, three more quick ones. Do you think officiating has gotten worse or better over the two over the 2000 and twenties? I do think most of the issues are from players finding advantages and optimizing their game through foul bidding and such. And the overall watching experience is still excellent. But the recent pushes by the league I think has just made the game less fun and less basketbally in my opinion. Basketball can be both a finesse and a brute force sport. But the recent officiating is a weird mix between the two. If you're off ball, it's basically a lawless jungle of moving screens and wrestling. But if you get into a shooting motion, you're suddenly playing netball. It's the worst of both extremes in my opinion. Very well put. Very, very fun. Mailbag question. I don't think officiating has gotten worse. I think it's gotten way harder as of late. Because specifically this foul baiting piece. The foul baiting has always been a part of the game. Like we've all seen Kobe Bryant throw three pump fakes and then get a guy off the ground and draw foul. Kevin Durant obviously with the rip through move 15 years ago. Right. Like we, we've seen foul grifting be part of the NBA, but it has become an art form. And it's become an art form just like anything. In the same way that Steph Curry came along and brought pull up three point shooting to a level that suddenly every single good guard in the league is an excellent pull up three point shooter. Similarly, the, the, the level of, of foul grifting in the NBA has become such an art form that there are so many players that are so good at it and that has just made the job really difficult. I don't think it's an excuse. Like I think, I think really the league just needs to step in and give these guys, these guys leeway. There's this concern about following the letter of the law. Officials need to be given some more ground to make subjective decisions as it, as it pertains to foul grifting. I've talked about this. I think it's the simplest solution in the world. I just call it the non basketball play rule. If a player ever does anything that is a non basketball play, I'd include low gathers. I'd include like weird jump shot releases where you either jump super far forward or you jump sideways into somebody. I do any sort of like arm grabbing or arm fighting. Like any sort of. Not. Like, what is the goal of an offensive player? Offensively it is to get away from a defender to create their own shot, or to power through a defender to get all the way to the rim. The one thing you should never be doing is, is going into a defender to strictly try to like literally get into some kind of jump shot. Like that literally makes no sense. And if you are powering through a defender, like if your job, if your, if your goal is to go through a guy, then he should be allowed to hit you a little bit because you're hitting him. It's your point about the brute force versus finesse. The finesse game is about separation, not contact. The finesse game is about separation in the brute force part is about brute force. So if you make a brute force play, a defender should be able to meet you with brute force. And if you make a finesse play, you should be trying to get away from a defender, not getting into a defender. So if a player made some sort of finesse play into a defender, that is a non basketball play. And anytime any sort of non basketball play happens, it should be whistle turnover going the other way. And I shit you not, if they did it for two weeks to start a season, it would be out of the league. Because these guys ultimately are doing it because they're trying to drive up their numbers. And if they were driving up their numbers in turnovers rather than in points, it would be something that would lead to a. A change in the way the game is played from these guys. They would adjust immediately. Do it for two weeks, you'd still occasionally have to make a call here or there, but ultimately everybody would make the adjustment. When you go play pickup, do you ever pump fake and then deliberately jump into the guy and shoot? No. Because the best thing you're getting is checking up at the top of the key, right? But what you will do is you'll try to step back to get separation so you can shoot over the top, right? That's kind of the way I'm looking at it. Like you, your goal as an offensive player should be to create your own shot, not to create contact unless you are trying to power through a player. To get to the basket. Oh Jason, but what about guys that are applying tons of ball pressure? When they're applying tons of ball pressure you have to grift to get the refs to get them to loosen up on that sort of thing. No, meet it with power. That's what like that is where it's a brute force game. They're meeting you with that. I want off arms and push offs. I'd rather have a league where dudes are ball pressuring like crazy and the on ball players are using their offarm and pushing off to get away from them than a league where they're twerking for fouls. That ultimately is what we need to fix in order to make the television product better. Maxing Austin would be a horrific mistake. You could argue he's maybe as impactful personally heavily disagree but besides the point as Aaron Gordon Derek White that's a from the comment as Aaron Gordon Derrick White tier players but he's up for 25% of the cat versus white and Gordon's 18 to 20. Got to pinch some pennies when you need to pay for two way players to make up for Austin and Lucas shortcomings on defense. Lakers still need a competent center and everyone thinks their role players are lacking as it is. So here's the trick. Austin's going to get his max because he's just too good of a player. The when you're talking about a guy who as a shot creator this season has been among the best in the league, who's averaging 25 points per game on a super insane level of efficiency, who every time he runs a pick and roller and ISO is generating well over a point per possession including passes. There's a level of aggregate like like when you combine his scoring and playmaking talent, he's just doing something that very few players in the league are doing. He's just worth a max. Secondly, as it pertains to the point you're making about pinching pennies and building a roster for the Lakers, you have to think of Austin more as an asset than anything else. Like if you let him walk you get nothing. But if you max him and then like a year from now it looks like he's not a great fit with Luka. Austin's the kind of player you're you're going to be able to trade and get something for him. Like if Desmond Bain is going to go to the Orlando Magic for three first round picks, you don't think Austin Reeves is going to be able to fetch a certain amount of draft return even if he's making a higher salary. Literally. First of all, the cap is going up every single year with the new TV deal. So like Austin signed this summer within three years when all the tiered kind of cap increase is finished. Like this is year one of the new TV deal. Like by the time all of this stuff gets finished, Austin's salary is not going to be some sort of cap breaking type of salary. And you sign him, you see if he fits with Luca, you see if you can build around him, you move him for Giannis if it comes around right? But if it works out and you're like, oh man, I'm not sure this makes a lot of sense alongside Luca, you trade Austin and you're going to be able to. You keep him because he's the asset and he's going to get 25% of the cap because that's just what he's worth because he's played that well, he's played himself into that tier of salary. Last question. Considering the recent yet sustained surge by the Hornets, which I attest primarily to Khan being implemented in opening up the floor, B Mills and Musa taking a big leap, totally agree. Those are the three guys that are driving the sleep. All mixed with Charles Lee's modern coaching, do you think it's still worth treating those three as the building blocks and selling LaMelo plus bridges relatively high after the season and fully enhancing this new regime by rekindling assets further and making a strong move at the 2026 draft? Two strong drafts in a row could change the franchise long term. Let me know your thoughts and love the show. This is an interesting question because on the one hand when I watch the Hornets, you guys know I'm not a big Lamelo fan. There's a general attitude seriousness thing with him that drives me crazy. Even as an on ball player. He's just so quick to settle for that step back three which he's like okay, he's a good at, but he's not like Steph Curry at and you don't want to be taking that volume of step back three unless you're really, really good at it. And so like he's not my favorite player. But as much as I've watched the Hornets in this run be really, really good, more often than not when things slow down for him in the half court, they need Lamelo to break the defense down. To me, Brandon Miller is very much your classic scoring forward. That ideally is a number two concept is very much your traditional skill guard, off ball guard Kind of vibe, right? You need a guy that can run 20 pick and rolls a game and right now that's Lamello and more often than not they lean on him for that role and you need that. Like when we talk about like feeling responsibilities on both ends of the floor, like there's boxes you have to check, right? On defense, there's point of attack defense for various different kinds of position groups like rim protector, slash, you know, pick and roll defenders, low man help side defenders. Like there's all these different things that you're looking at as checking boxes defensively. Similarly on offense, like I want a scoring forward, I want a guy that can attack matchups and that can do a lot of work as a three level scorer, right? Like I'd love to have a skill guard, a guy who can take movement threes and can run second side action and you know, basically just function as a. Like a guy who's always playing with an advantage, right? Like I want to screen and roll threat, a guy who's like the guy I'm running most of my pick and rolls with. I want spot up shooters that can drive closeouts or guys who can cut along the baseline and create space that way. Like I want all those things but there's also another one. There's a big box and it's like who's the guy that's like creating my initial advantage for the majority of my possessions, my offensive engine, so to speak. And when you have a Brandon Miller and a con can apple, you don't need Luka, you don't need some earth shattering offensive engine, but you do need a primary on ball guard. And so like my thing is like Lamello is not the perfect guy but he does feel a very important role. And so if you get rid of Lamelo, you just have to have some kind of plan to fill that role. Whether it's through the draft or it's moving draft picks to acquire a player through trade. But they need to find some sort of like non ball dominant, quick decision making guy that can like run that initial action and help them get into their sets every single time down the floor. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. I hope everybody has an incredible weekend. We'll be back on Monday for power rankings. I will see you guys then. Everyone deserves to be connected.
- [48:50]
Rob Gronkowski
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Jason
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Rob Gronkowski
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Jason
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Lavar Arrington
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Jason
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- [49:48]
Chelsea Handler
This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea, after the Big Game. Like most people, I kept thinking about the commercials, and there was one that stayed with me. It was from the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, and it wasn't loud or flashy. It showed a Jewish kid being targeted at school, another student who chose not to ignore it. As someone who is Jewish, that moment felt very real to me. Not dramatic, just familiar. And what struck me was how clearly it showed that hate doesn't always announce itself, but the impact is still huge. If you saw the Blue Square spot during the Big game, it's worth thinking about. And if you want to show support, sharing the Blue Square is one small way to do that.
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Jason
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Jason
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