NBA Mailbag: Warriors trading Chris Paul? Celtics vs. Nuggets, Mavericks next move | Hoops Tonight

NBA Mailbag: Warriors trading Chris Paul? Celtics vs. Nuggets, Mavericks next move | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Friday everybody hope all of you guys had an incredible week we’re going to be doing a mailbag today thank you all of you guys who left questions in the video on Wednesday I obviously can’t get to all of them but

We’re going to get to a bunch of them today and then starting next Tuesday we’re going to get back into our routine so these mailbag questions should be getting released throughout the weekend you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new

YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would scroll down hit that subscribe button uh don’t forget about our podcast feeds wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight follow me on Twitter _ Jason LT so you guys don’t miss any show announcements or the film

Threads that I do from time to time in the mornings and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit them throughout the rest of the season all right let’s talk some basketball so first question hey Jason do you think

The Warriors bench will still be as great if they trade Chris Paul I think CP has to stay because he is organizing the bench off offense perfectly and if he gets traded I think he I think the plus minus in the non-step minutes will decrease drastically my question is who

Would you rather trade next to kaminga instead of CP is Moody enough or would you put someone else in that trade for seaka Love The Show by the way best basketball show pod right now just keep going thank you for the kind words and for the support uh here’s the thing with

Chris Paul it’s about his salary slot it’s just really difficult to reach that number without including him I do think that there will be some loss of organization and potential consistency in bench groups as a result that said it’s far more important for your starting lineup to have more Firepower

The main reason why is when push comes to shove in the playoffs anyway you’re playing all those guys 30 38 39 maybe even in the low 40s for minutes at least your best guys you need to have five guys that you’re willing to go to war with Denver with for seven games over

The course of two weeks right that said like I don’t think it’ll be that big of an issue for the bench because of the emergence of pods Brandon pmy him him being a hit as a draft pick undo a lot of the damage from the James wisman

Trade he’s just flat out really really good and as a result there’s a lot of guys who need touches between Steph Curry Klay Thompson Andrew Wiggins Brandon pmy whoever comes back in that theoretical Chris Paul Jonathan kaminga deal I don’t think it’s going to be an issue of ball handling I think there

Will be less consistency just because they’ll be young and Chris Paul is one of the most consistent you know decision makers that we have in the game but I think it’d be worth it to have that upgrade in terms of what the starting lineup is capable of and again I I see

Moody as an example here you try to make a deal without Jonathan kaminga but the reality is I just think this is going to be a real I think this is going to be a sellers Market this year I think there are a lot of teams that are going to be

Looking to make a deal to upgrade their and improve their chances at winning a championship I think golden state is likely to make a trade I think the Lakers are likely to make a trade I think Minnesota could make a trade I think teams like Indiana and Oklahoma

City might make a trade Sacramento in terms of trying to upgrade their for spot they look like a team who could be making a trade Milwaukee looks like a team that’s going to make a trade Miami and Philly look like teams that are going to make trades and most of them

Are going to be hunting the big fish Sacramento Indie Oklahoma City I think they’re all going to be going after the forwards right Miami and and Philadelphia I think they’re going to be looking for some sort of addition Star level shot Creator I think the Warriors

Are looking for that type of forward I think the Lakers could be involved in conversations like that although I think they’ll primarily be uh targeting role players but the point is is it’s going to be a bidding war in a lot of these cases and the bottom line is is like

There is no asset that the the Warriors have that is valued as much as Jonathan kaminga is around the league and and so that’s where it puts you into these tough decisions like you could keep Jonathan kaminga and you could get out bid and then you could be a good team

This year that’s not really capable of winning the championship and with each passing year Steph will age and Jon Jonathan kaminga will be better but he at this point he doesn’t project to be a super duper Star he might it’s not off the table but it’s at this point

Somewhat of a long shot right and so it’s one of those things where to me I everybody has different philosophies right certain franchises are okay with being really good for a long time right but the Warriors aren’t one of those franchises the Warriors they’re trying to hang banners they’re they’re a

Four-time NBA champion everybody who runs this franchise has a big ego for good reason because they’re good at what they do I don’t think mediocrity is the goal here for the Warriors and so in my opinion you either lean all in with Steph to try to win the damn Larry

O’Brien trophy or you punt on this era you do a complete pivot rebuild and in that case you’re not looking to trade Jonathan kaminga maybe you convince Steph to stay on board but for the record as good as that would be for the community as good as As as important as

He is to the franchise I’m not sure Steph would be interested in some sort of soft rebuild and most importantly he’s uh he’s a guy that you could trade and bring back just a ton of assets to to help spark that rebuild and so to me given the type of

Franchise that the Warriors are it’s kind of a Crossroads here and I I think we’ll see what happens until uh when we get to the deadline but when they get to the deadline they’re going to have a decision to make on that front next question hey Jason what’s next for the

Dallas Mavericks they clearly have nailed their offseason moves and Lively has been a grand slam with Luca playing at this level I’d love to hear your thoughts about the next steps for this team all right so in my opinion once you have the guy which is like a top tier

Superstar that is capable of being the best player on a championship a championship team the next step to me is coming up with a like a a very obvious five like five guys that like we’re going down with right I think that’s a really underrated element of the Denver

Nugget success last year is like they had their clear five they knew who they were going down with right that to me is that sort of congruency so to speak I is just an important trait to a basketball team reaching their absolute potential ceiling right so first question is is

Kyrie the right number to now I love the offensive fit but there are some concerns about the idea of having two stars that aren’t top tier athletes that deeply impact the game defensively right like if we go if we go back like you can do it we saw Denver last year right with

Uh with Jamal Murray and and Nicole yic but they had excellent defensive players at two of the positions and a guy with really good length in Michael Porter Jr at that other spot and so if it’s Kyrie you have to be really really good defensively at the other position so

Let’s look at lineup construction now remember what I always talk about is ideally and again this is just my ideal version of a basketball team there are so many different ways to construct a basketball team we actually did a conver had a conversation with the nerd sesh guys yesterday about this idea uh

Essentially like you know what Kevin Durant views as the way to build a basketball team versus the way LeBron James views the way to build a basketball team so on and so forth it’s really easy to to to pick one side or the other but you can succeed in

Different ways that said my my preferred construction is I want a skill guard and then I want an athlete guard then I want a slender tall like a slender like kind of perimeter oriented for and then I want a bigger stronger like Frontline forward not like an old school Power

Forward like Drew Gooden but just like a big strong athlete someone along the lines of like an Aaron Gordon ideally is what I want in that four spot and then I want my Center to be athletic and capable of working in different coverages because playoff series just uh

They they kind of force you to have to be able to play multiple different ways depending on the matchup and so having a center that can uh competently switch and competently run a deep drop and competently run a high drop where he has to get up to the level and back up to

The level and back a guy who can Blitz with active hands you want lots of Versatility from that position right so going down the line to me Kyrie is the skill guard right I think Josh Green is actually the guy that could be your athlete guard and he’s been unavailable

As of late but I actually think Josh Green is is a is a is a like a a good NBA starter a guy that can be in that spot right next is that slender kind of point of attack forward the perimeter oriented forward that’s the question

Mark right now right I think Luca is your big power forward now I know he doesn’t really fill that role on offense he’s more of like a point guard right that said I’m more talking about defense your position is who you can guard in the NBA because offense you can play the

Geometry is kind of your own whatever your skill set is right like like the the Warriors play a really weird style the the the Nuggets play a really different style like every team kind of has a different offensive style depending on their their personnel right but defensively it’s about who you can

Guard right so I actually look at Luca defensively at his best as a low man a guy who uses his size and basketball IQ to make plays on the weak side either like tagging rollers uh offering secondary help cleaning up the defensive glass so on and so forth I also like him

There just as a guy who can get the uh get the rebound and then start the break right so I look at Luca as your your your power forward there and then that Center position Derek Lively could be that guy I agree I think he’s been a

Grand slam uh it’s amazing how a good draft pick or a good free agent signing can kind of change the fortunes of a franchise derck is a great athlete obviously a clean fit offensively uh defensively we’ll see as the years go by that usually takes some time but I don’t

See any reason why he couldn’t be similar to like a Nick Claxton and his ability as kind of a lanky Center to defend in different coverages right and so that points us to the three spot as being their next most realistic Target the thing is is with Kyrie being kind of

A skill guard and with Josh Green being a good point of attack Defender but not like an outstanding point of attack Defender and with Luca being a lesser athlete at that four spot I think it’s really important that whoever it is they get at the three is a top tier perimeter

Defender if they want to contend for a championship it needs to be a guy that at least defensively is capable of reaching that Lou Dort you know Dylan Brooks uh Jaden McDaniels there a bunch of different versions of those guys right but like a legitimate guy that can

Like you can stick on the other team’s best player for seven games and make his life hell if they can find that type of guy it starts to make a ton of sense from a lineup construction standpoint to be like if that guy is a big 68 athlete

Then him and Lively provide so much athleticism him and at Josh green and Lively provide so much athleticism in that lineup That Kyrie and Luca being somewhat lesser athletes is not a problem and as long as those guys are bought in like the way they are this

Season I think they can get enough stops while simultaneously being extremely difficult to guard so that’s the direction I’d be looking right now round out a clear number five a re a a clear fiveman Group by finding a top tier perimeter Defender to put at the three

Next question what do you think Jason Tatum’s Peak is in your opinion could he play into the top 25 20 15 all time I honestly kind of feel bad for Tatum because he is an amazing player but he rarely gets the recognition he deserves because like you said in this video or

Uh in the video the league is just so stacked with Talent it’s hard to separate yourself so I was actually surprised to find out this morning that Jason Tatum is still 25 years old uh even though we’ve always known when he was young it just feels like he’s been

Around forever and he has a ton of playoff experience did you know that Jason Tatum has played in 94 playoff games that’s more than Carmelo Anthony played in in his entire career and he’s 25 years old he plays for an excellent franchise they consistently surround him with Talent only 25 years old he’s

Played in the Conference Finals four times right like as bad as he was in the NBA finals against the Warriors a couple years ago he had just turned 24 like he’s Young And as I’ve talked about 25 kind of feels like that threshold to where guys kind of start to figure it

Out and so my thing is like when I really look at how good Jason Tatum already is and some of the things he’s starting to learn this season using his size and strength more diversity of shot creation working more on cleared sides spamming actions that get him advantages

It hasn’t been perfect there have been downsides still has a long way to go in my opinion but there’s a version of this that from 7 to 32 he’s like a definitive top three four player in the league and if he is and he’s surrounded with the

Amount of talent that the Celtics I expect will surround him with there’s no reason why he can’t win multiple Champions uh championships and enter into those conversations like again I’m never going to pick the Celtics to win because my fears with them center around what happens with them in the playoffs

But what ends up happening in these situations is like eventually they break through it’s like Denver I said the same thing with Denver last year all season long I was like they can win the championship but I’m not going to pick them because of Trends in in recent NBA

History that tell me that teams that aren’t in the top 10 defensively and aren’t defending Champions don’t win the title right then Denver broke the trend that’s the thing the narrative and the trend surrounding the Celtics is going to be they can’t execute at the end of games rightfully so because that’s what

They’ve demonstrated but then one day they’re just going to do it and they’ll have the talent and Tatum will make enough plays and they’ll do enough on both ends of the floor and they’ll win a title I’m not sure if it’ll be this year but like given the amount of Talent on

That roster the trajectory tatums on his age I he feels Like A multi-time Champion to me it’s only a matter of when all I want for the holidays this year is some NBA action this week new customers can score 150 instantly in bonus bets just for betting five bucks

An instant dub just for you guys download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops new customers can get 150 instantly in bonus bets for betting just $5 on basketball only on draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops the crown is yours what do you think Memphis

Needs to be able to contend what do you think they should Target I should scroll down here because there was another Memphis Grizzlies uh question that I want to include here um here we go with jaw smart and Canard coming back is the sixth seed too far of a goal and how

Legit is memphis’s Big Three of jaw Bane and jiren Jackson so I actually think like here’s the thing Desmond Bane has continued to make leaps from year to year which above and beyond anything having to do with his potential is an indicator of what he’s got up here you

Know it’s funny I’ve talked a lot about the difference between him and Dylan Brooks as trash talkers right because like Desmond Bane is the guy that like on the court he’s being an because he just wants to win that game so damn bad in that mental chess match

Piece as part of it for him right but Desmond Bane is not the guy that goes into the postgame press conference and is super super performative with his Trash Talk the way that Dylan Brooks was right and that’s what I think I think that’s an upside thing with Bane I think

He’s just a freak competitor and I think that drives him in the gym to work harder and harder and harder every year at rounding out certain elements of his skill set continues to add playmaking continues to add the ability to score off of the dribble Desmond Bane’s

Awesome we’ve seen as John morance come back and they’ve immediately ripped off a bunch of wins that dude’s just a Bonafide superstar in the making it’s a question of when not if right so like I love the backourt piece there jiren Jackson the one thing that’s tricky with

Him as good as he is is he gets out of position a lot he uh has a hard time staying down on his feet and making good decisions about when to go for a block versus when to stay home and clean up the defensive glass so he gets himself

Out of position a lot and he can commit a lot of fouls right one of the things I think that can make it a lot easier year for him is putting a legitimate four next to him and again like Santi Al dama is a a good player zy Williams is a good

Player but neither of them look like the kind of guys that could be in that three and four spot and anchor all of this thing out Mark Marcus Smart as good as he is I don’t think he’s one of those guys I think in the short term he’s good

In the short term he’s a guy that will help them but the ultimate version of this team again going back to our original Team Construction Concepts it’s John it’s Bane it’s jiren Jackson slotted next to an Aaron Gordon esque Defender that can help clean up the defensive glass when he gets out of

Position right and then an excellent point of attack Defender Allah Dylan Brooks right a guy along those lines and I get why he wasn’t a personality fit with this group right I think I think we’ve learned uh I was you know my issues with Dylan were more about his

Behavior I’ve always thought he was very good but like whatever that player is that fills into that spot that’s what they need they need a guy that can throw out the other team’s best player for a seven game series and have success there hey Jason love the show and think

You’re doing an amazing job quick mailbag question for you the Pistons are obviously in a rut and seriously struggling what would you do if you were GM of the Pistons to fix this what do you think they’ll do come TR a deadline offseason things first of all thank you

So much for supporting the show and for the kind words so we uh have done little uh uh flybys on the Pistons but let’s talk about them for a little bit longer today so in my opinion if you’re going to be bad you got to make a count which

Means drafting in the next couple of years is going to be huge and unfortunately this is kind of a bad year to be bad because the top of this next year’s draft is weaker significantly weaker than last year’s was now there’s significant upside here that I don’t

Even think Pistons fans are aware of Kade Cunningham is awesome he’s a star in the making jayen Ivy in spite of having a really tough role has actually been pretty good here’s a crazy stat for you during the first 20 games of the Season he played 25 plus minutes just

Seven times so very very fluctuating role in the last six games he’s played 25 plus minutes in every single game and now he’s starting in those six games he’s averaging 16 points five rebounds and five assists and now for the season he’s put up some pretty interesting shot

Creation data he’s run 142 pick and rolls in isos including passes leading to 1061 points that’s 1.13 points per possession I’ve always been a big believer in Jaden Ivy ever since the first time I saw him in summer league I think he has the unique combination of like Star Moxy but like

No one can keep him in front like like I like no one can keep the guy in front off the dribble and so I think especially when he gets into a more competent situation and gets more reps I think that’s a superpower I think that’s the kind of thing like we’ve talked

About with Darren Fox and Malik monk like when you have a guy who can consistently generate D dribble penetration it just makes the game easier for everybody else because the defense is constantly in rotation so they got to lean in to Jaden Ivy the rest of the way and get a better feel

For whether or not he can be the guy next to to Kate Cunningham right then Jaylen Durant he’s the ideal type of athletic and versatile Center that I’ve been talking about in these mailbag videos right the guy that can potentially defend in multiple coverages in the future here’s a crazy stat for

You guys according to cleaning the glass which filters out garbage time when Kade Cunningham Jaden Ivy and Jaylen Duran are on the floor together they are outscoring teams by 3.3 points per 100 possessions in 3133 possessions roughly three games worth of data of those three guys on the floor together and they’ve

Been positive and again that’s not like something to write home about but that’s like there’s a lot of other stuff there’s a lot of other fluff in here that’s kind of disrupting some of the other things going on with the Pistons right obviously rotation uh uh you know

Stuff that I don’t necessarily agree with in terms of the way the rotation is laid out obviously injuries have played a role and then the bench is like atrocious it’s so so so bad and it’s something that’s consistently hurting the team and so they there there are

There are some bright spots that are hidden deep underneath all that so now let’s look at that ideal lineup construction that I always talk about right to me Jaden is the Jaden Ivy is the athlete guard and he will have to become an excellent point of attack

Defender for this to pan out the skill guard in my opinion is Kate Cunningham I know he’s kind of 68 but like I I look at him as the skill guard uh assar Thompson is your primary point of attacker and point of attack to Defender an athlete wing and he’s going to be

Able to take the primary the the higher leverage point of attack assignments I actually think he’s one of the better point of attack Defenders I’ve ever scouted as I’ve said on the show many times right power Wing we’ll get back there and then athletic center is your

Is is Jaylen Duren right so it’s that big forward spot and you need someone there that has real size because assar Thompson is a little bit thin right you need someone there who can really shoot the ball because assar Thompson is not an outstanding shooter I think it’s the

You could look for a kind of player there that’s a little bit more flawed because he won’t have to be as used on the ball because theoretically you want a guy like Jaden to guard other teams quick guards and uh because assar Thompson is you know a guy that’s going

To take a high leverage point of attack assignment you’re more looking for a guy with size who can be a helps side Defender so a guy who can play Passing Lanes take the low man responsibilities rotate on the weak side clean up the defensive glass I’ll give you a random

Example of a type of player that’s not a good point of attack Defender that would be really useful in this system Kyle kozma I think a guy like Kyle kozma could be a really interesting player to put next to a Jaden Ivy and a cade Cunningham if you could Target him in a

Trade with the Washington Wizards but that to me is where you start to put together a really complimentary lineup from there a couple of things Empower them and allow them to fail give them long leashes stop tinkering with the rotation if you’re going to be bad at least be bad while learning something

It’s when you are bad without a sense of direction that it becomes a waste and then from there you got to Pivot quickly from the bad players on the bench F bring in g-league guys if you have to that are that are young and have potential but like James weisman’s not

Good and and I don’t think he’s going to be Marvin baggley is not good and I don’t think he’s going to be so like that that the that that bench piece at least rounded out with guys that are going to fit the overall uh you know identity you’re trying to build try some

Thing but like whatever you do don’t put yourself in a situation where you’re giving significant rotation minutes to guys that are just flat out bad basketball players hey Jason I want your opinion on the players that played for Team USA this year it seems as if all the

Starters have made really good strides Brandon Ingram Austin Reeves tyres halberton Jaylen Brunson Etc do you think playing some of the world’s best with some of the world’s best helped them raise their ceilings in the NBA and if so do you think it’s sustainable or flukish I absolutely think it helps

Raise their ceiling and I absolutely think it’s sustain aable it’s a simple uh uh topic that or line I should say that Ryan uh Brumley who’s one of the lead producers at uh at the volume has always said to me it’s a rising tide that lifts all boats surrounding

Yourself with other super successful people is a great way to find out things to emulate you know it’s funny because like my the most fun that I have with the game of basketball now is in the summer and over the summer all of these young college players come back to

And I’ve been fortunate enough to build connections with them over the years and they’re young and they have a ton of energy and they’re all super competitive and they’re all desperate to get better and so when I’m around them it invigorates me to love the game more and

To want to be even even though I’m 32 years old and I’m just playing for fun it just it just brings the best out of me as a basketball player to surround myself around other really really good basketball players and so that’s kind of the way I look at it it’s like imagine

That same concept but translated to the highest level of the sport like even within the 450 players in the NBA there are players there that don’t love the game there are players there that have an enormous amount of natural ability or I should at least say relative to the

Guys at the top of the league right and what ends up happening is you get in an environment like that Team USA and again you don’t have the superstars there you don’t have the top top top tier guys that we are accustomed to seeing with Team USA but all of these guys

Especially for their age group are highly motivated guys that guys that you can pick up real uh quality traits from right and so I think I think in general every single one of those guys gets around those guys gets around the rest of that group and they feel invigorated

They feel motivated they there’s obviously we’ve heard a lot about the famous one-on-one games right that to that take place at these things I think in general it just serves as a springboard for any basketball player to reach a higher version of themselves I’ve seen many fans occasionally call

The current Celtics roster a super team because of their top end Talent this team is great when they are working hard together but it doesn’t feel like the KD Warriors era type of unfair what’s your definition of a super team and do you think the Celtics count as one are there

Any teams in the league currently that truly fit the description I don’t think we’ve had a team like that since the Golden State Warriors uh with KD and most importantly you could tell that just from Championship odds every single year we’ve had Championship odds that have positive odds meaning like even if

You bet for the favorite you’re going to make more money than you bet if they win right whereas like those Warriors teams legitimately had negative odds like you had to give extra money like like you had to bet I can’t remember exactly what the odds were but I I remember like 2019

2018 it was likeus 130 or minus 140 that the Warriors would win the title which is like insane like that that that think about how crazy that is the odds to pick one team to win the championship of the NBA at the beginning of the season was

Better odds than betting a point spread where you get minus 110 right like it it’s crazy to think about but like the reason why that was different was you know this the Celtics team does have super Team level talent in my opinion in terms of top to bottom total aggregate

Roster talent but in terms of topend talent between Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown they’re just there neither of them are on the same level as the Nicole yices the Luca donic the Giannis and tenmos like those kind of guys right and so when you get to the furthest levels

Of the NBA Playoffs the round three round four that is where the best players really shine through and so as talented as a Celtics team is I don’t view them as a super team strictly from the standpoint of like their star Talent like if they go the Celtics even if they

Win the title this year will’ll have to beat teams that have better Star talent in order to get it done they very well might but I view them as just another one of the contender I view them as top tier to me it’s them in Denver at the top of the

List but to me in order to be like a true super team you have to be a head and shoulders Above the Rest of the League what made that Warriors team different was they were already an excellent team with a ton of talent and a team that had Superstar talent in

Steph Curry and then they added a top tier Superstar like Kevin Durant at that point was a much better player than Jason Tatum is now and he was joining Steph Curry who was a much better player than Jason Tatum is now now see the difference that’s why I kind of view

Them as a different tier is jayd duub on OKC underrated this may sound stupid but I can’t think of many players who have looked this good in their second year as the second option on their team his strength his prowess in transition in Vision reminds me of a young LeBron obviously he’s a

Less obviously he’s less of a physical anomaly but he’s certainly a better shooter in year two I feel like he goes a bit under the radar because of how good Shay gilders Alexander is I think the other reason he goes under the radar is he’s still really young right like

We’re talking about in his second year like he just last night had his third consecutive 20 plus point game that’s only the third time in his career he’s done that and a big part of that is he’s young he’s figuring some stuff out also playing alongside a ton of other ball handling so

Is excuse me so his opportunities are a little bit more inconsistent right but I 100% agree that he’s underrated in the sense that I don’t think people realize that this guy is’s a star in the making too there’s several key elements there like I I it starts with just the the the the

Geometry of the floor flow of the game decision-making stuff so for instance like last night against the Knicks it’s Jay dub just picking on in in he’s bringing Chad into ball screens and he’s just picking on Taj Gibson and he’s picking on Julius Randall and he’s making the right reads and he’s taking

And making pullup jump shots he’s taking and making a tough contested shots at The Rim it is like a surgical approach that you don’t expect to see from a young player and that’s only going to get better and better as the years go by from there it’s top tier athleticism

Which by the way like I picked that up immediately at Summer League you still go down in my Twitter feed and I have a bunch of videos of Jaylen uh uh Jaylen Williams dunking and me going like holy this guy this guy’s a ridiculous athlete right like he was one of the

Standout guys in summer league that year and like combine that with the highle passing ability the ability to consistently beat people off the dribble the shot making from all three levels and then some of that like higher level flow of the game stuff he’s a star in

The making it’s just a matter of when still super young though so there’s going to be some Growing Pains along the way next question if hand checking were allowed again who do you think would be the best defender in the league and who would be more affect who would be

Affected more by this change the most uh I view I dismiss this question entirely uh I have a theory about hand checking it was actually if you look in the NBA rule book hand checking was outlawed in the 70s and what has happened is over

The years there’s been an EB and flow in the amount of contact that officials have allowed and there have been slight redefinitions of what it is but still to this day hand-checking is a thing in basketball watch any NBA playoff game in particular but it happens in regular

Season games as well but watch any NBA playoff game guys have their hands on guys they just do one of the most common forms of hand checking that goes uncalled all the time is it’s uh it’s actually what coaches teach it’s inside hand hand checking so like let’s say I’m

Guarding you your camera is the offensive player you’re guard I’m guarding you you’re driving this way right past my right shoulder what I’m going to do is I’m going to lift this arm up and I’m going to take my inside arm and I’m going to literally be

Hitting you like this in your stomach trying to impede your progress while holding my right arm up and they’re probably going to let me get away with it that’s that’s one of the most common kinds of hand checking that you see is that inside hand is being physical while

The outside hand is out and for the most part you can get away with that and like just between fighting for jockeying for position fighting uh over the top of screens the uh off AR stuff that offensive players are using there’s way more contact that takes place in

Basketball games than people realize the hand checking thing is purely narrative based almost entirely from the older generation to try to convince you that basketball’s fake now and in in all honesty it’s just it’s literally a load of and like just go back and watch any 1980s playoff game and then

Watch any playoff game from this era and you tell me which game was more physical and I’m not talking about the hard fouls I’m not talking about the dude getting thrown into the the camera row and the brawl that happens I’m talking about The Possession by possession physicality the

Game’s actually more physical now than it was in the 80s the one time it got a lot worse than it was now is in the late 90s early 2000s which by the way LED to some of the redefinition that took place in 2003 but like in that stretch that

Was when it got to the point where it was too physical and the league literally had to step in cuz we had playoff games ending in the 70s and that’s just not good television again like like there it can go too far and now now the whistle is making the a bad

Television product on the other side of things and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see some of that legislated back into the game right but the actual concept of hand checking has been around for five decades at this point next question my friends and I have started our own purely Warriors

Centered podcast and we’re wondering if you have any advice generally about starting a podcast and making it big love the stuff you do keep it up first of all I think it’s awesome for anybody to it’s funny cuz it’s podcasting has become a thing that kind of gets roasted

In uh on social media these days uh but here’s the thing like if you are you having fun doing it cuz if you’re having fun doing it who gives a what anybody else thinks you know what I mean I have Star Wars podcast no one pays me

For that I just have so much fun doing it that like I’m not going to stop I don’t care if I don’t get paid for 5 years I’m still going to keep doing it who cares what anybody else thinks so like if you want to start a podcast do

It secondly there’s a lot of free tools at your disposal you will have to buy some things right you’re going to need a computer to facilitate it like uh if your computer has a webcam that’s fine to start but if you want to you can spend 100 bucks on an HD webcam

Right or if you get to the point where you want to get a little bit more extravagant you can buy a digital camera and use cam link which is what we use here to get a better picture right you can use lighting or you can record

During the day if you have to but you can go cheap on equipment if you need to you can even find microphones that are not overly expensive but on a daily basis it’s actually free there are services that are straight up free to host a podcast a lot of them that have

Builtin algorithms that can help you grow your show and so it’s funny how over the years the the methods uh with which you would get into this industry have changed you know like it used to be you’d go knock on a radio station and be

Like hey can I work the the board until until finally one day you get to fill in for somebody on a Saturday night and maybe you’re good at it right or maybe you go write for fansided I wrote for fansided briefly when that when I

Thought that was a method to get into it allthough right now I don’t think it’s a very good method but like there there used to be all these different ways to get in and like now it’s different like the these tools are available for you to promote your content at your house and

From there if you make quality content people will find it that’s what the algorithms do the algorithms are the ultimate meritocracy when it comes to this kind of stuff people watch if there’s watch time it just gets advertised to more people and so starting record all your podcasts on

Video so like if you’re doing a podcast with your buddies make sure everything’s getting videotaped if you need to like like uh Zoom calls have video recording built in streamyard has video recording built in it’s easy enough to do that right once you record your podcast release it on the podcast feeds there’s

A completely free podcast service called Spotify for podcasters completely free that’s where I host Tucson’s podcast my Star Wars podcast right then you can put it on YouTube as well take the video put it on YouTube Don’t overly if you have time to overly upset obsess with editing

Sure but don’t overly obsessed with graphics and editing and stuff it’s your content that’s going to end up winning at the end of the day right but put it up on YouTube YouTube is completely free and then from there YouTube has a built-in algorithm YouTube as your your subscriber based builds as your

Subscribers uh watch your videos as they have high watch times on your videos it continues to push your content out to other people you can build thumbnails for free with apps like canva it’s really easy to do and then there use social media to your advantage Tik Tok

Excellent algorithm I’ve gained my Star Wars podcast has like 4,000 something tiktop Tik Tok uh subscribers because I’ve consistently or followers I should say because I’ve consistently put clips of the show on there and then I just use that to direct people to YouTube or to the podcast Instagram reals another

Great way to do it Twitter is actually ironically like the least powerful platform there is but it is a useful platform in its own way but like that’s all free what I just said other than the equipment everything I just said is free record get a video put the put the

Recording on Spotify for podcasters put the video on YouTube advertise it on social media and as long as you’re having fun doing it and you’re putting your heart and soul into it you have a really good chance especially with the the tools that are at your disposal from

There just have a base understanding that you are uh uh dealing with a flooded field and what I mean by that is as I’ve just described how easy it is to to to actually put podcast content out there understand that lots of people are doing it and because lots of people are

Doing it the people that will rise from uh from the group into having success are the people that put their heart and soul into it and so like you like if you’re going to do it and do it halfast just understand that it’s probably more

Just for fun right but if you pour your heart and soul to it you have a better chance and then lastly I would just say lean into who you are don’t try to pretend to be anybody else lean into who you are because at the end of the day

The only way anyone’s going to you know embrace your content is if it’s authentic and so again that’s just like a little brief overview but uh and uh you guys I keep my um direct messages open on social media I can’t get to all

Of them uh but I do try so like if you have a question anything specific along those lines feel free to drop in into my direct messages and we can have a chat about it next question two questions actually uh how do the Thunder win the NBA Finals

With the Lorie Markin in trade and what’s your favorite Christmas New Year’s traditions uh so first of all with the uh Thunder though I look at it pretty simply but right now there are two gaping flaws uh for the the Oklahoma City Thunder in my opinion a lack of age

And experience and a lack of size and so those two flaws end up being something that causes me to to be reticent to take Oklahoma City uh seriously as a team that can Hoist the trophy they can be dangerous I I I’ve said this with the

Nerd guys yesterday I expect them to be a championship Contender for a long time I just think this year it’s a it’s a it’s a really long shot for them to actually Hoist the trophy for those two reasons so Lori marinan doesn’t necessarily give you any more experience

But what he does is he gives you more size and so it addresses one of your primary concerns there which would make them significantly uh better in my opinion secondly what’s your favorite Christmas New Year’s tradition uh so uh it’s my family my wife and I actually

Every Christmas Eve we I I’ll give you guys two examples so every Christmas Eve my wife and I host a party for her family and that’s always been a fun one because when I first started dating my wife um I got in you know I started

Coming to this party and it was always such an important tradition for her family and now we’re in a position where we’re we’re the ones who actually host it and so it’s kind of cool because it’s like an honor in the family given how important this party is that we get to

Be the one to host it and so this year was actually our first year hosting it and it went really smoothly and I I was just thankful and and it it was kind of cool to be on the other side of that after what it was like when I first met

My wife secondly my uh younger brother you know it’s funny I have I have two brothers and a sister and my older brother and sister both live here in town but my younger brother was actually closest to my age and him and I were the the two that spent the most time

Together when we were kids and then when he got went to college my brother was very good football player and so he ended up going to West Point and was like a two-time team captain one of the one of their all-time leaders in in tacklers like just a really good

Football player and as a result though he went to New York and I barely get to see him and I saw him very literally while he was in college and then immediately had to go into his 5-year military commitment and now he lives in Austin Texas uh working for shell and uh

And like just a really busy guy right and so uh he comes home every year for Christmas and one of the things I do is me and my two brothers get together and we uh we just we’re actually doing this tonight and we did it again last

Thursday but like usually one or two nights while they’re in town while Jeremy’s in town we’ll get together and we’ll uh just we’ll just hang out like old school like old times and we’ll play guitar and we’ll have because my older brother also plays guitar and we’ll

We’ll play guitar we’ll drink a couple beers we’ll watch the Thursday night football game we’ll play some sports bets we’ll just kind of kick back and and and be brothers and it’s fun for me just because I don’t get to see Jeremy very often and it kind of uh uh is just

Something that I look forward to every year over Christmas next question can you explain to me what power rankings refers to is it the team that has the highest chance to win the championship or is it the team with the best form is it the team

That is best on paper is it the team that you like the most power in the NBA is tricky business since an eighth seed can reach the NBA Finals to put it simply for me power rankings are representation of who the best team is within this regular season with some

Emphasis on who’s playing better as of late so like obviously to for me to kick Minnesota or Boston off the top two they would need to have a significant slide because I want to pay respect to how good they’ve been all season but a lot of the jockeying around is like who’s

Been playing better over the course of the last two weeks but my power rankings are different from my Contender rankings because I am a big playoff Focus guy you guys know that about me and so I want to find a way to try to ex like draw more

Attention to regular season team and so that’s how I do so why doesn’t Steve Kerr play kaminga and Wiggins to end the fourth quarter everyone keeps talking about their negative net ratings together but that’s because they don’t play much together so how can they get a feel for each other

I’m kind of ranting here but I think their defense would reach an elite level if they can figure out a way to play them together so I actually 100% agree I here’s the thing whether or not Jonathan kaminga could be the three4 for a championship team totally different

Discussion no matter what though it’s something that I think they should should lean into more over the course of the stretch until the deadline whenever they decide what they want to do to put it simply like I think the reason why Steve K doesn’t play the two of them

Together is Andrew Wiggins is having a really bad offensive season and Jonathan kaminga is a young guy who’s inconsistent in his decision-making and as we’ve seen with the wanting to play you know Corey Joseph from time to time wanting to play Brandon pamy big minutes like Steve Curry is huge on like the

Flow of their offense and like in general just the um uh like the decision-making piece of it right and that’s not a big part of that is the five out offense and the big like Steph and Clay are giving up the basketball a lot and so they want it to

Get back to them at the end of the play right uh preferably with an opening and so I think that’s the reason why but I agree I think I think leaning into your athleticism and to put it simply like are Jonathan kaminga Andrew Wiggins two of your top five players probably yeah

So they should probably play more right two at least two of your top six players right so like I would play I would try to play them more together um at this point like I understand too why why why they’re leaning so much into pmy but

Like at a certain point against the top tier teams especially in the Western Conference size would become an issue with that group next question weird mailbag question okay Jason you said get weird with it since you’re also a huge Star Wars fan if you were to form your own basketball team

Using only Star Wars characters who would you be your who would be your fiveman lineup so just for fun I figured why not we just we got to find tall guys right so Chewy’s got to be the center he’s a seven-footer uh I put kylo Ren at Power four because Adam driver’s big

Strong dude at the four he’s tall I put Darth pagus at the small Ford because he’s This Tall slender uh mune Darth Maul at the two is my athlete guard and then Yoda at the point as my skill guard there’s a there’s a fun one for you Jason nuggets and Celtics what’s

Your take on how they stack up against each other you know what’s funny we haven’t really talked about this one it’s a really interesting matchup because one of the spe specific things I’ve talked about with uh with Denver is you need a team that has a depth of shot

Creation so that you can attack their entry points one of the things that Denver does is they try to hedge and recover with Jamal Murray they keep Michael Porter Jr off the ball they bring Nicole yic depending on the matchup High into his drop coverage and

They use Aaron Gordon to clean up messes on the backside and so there’s not a not a lot of opportunity to attack Jamal Murray and Nicole yic in space what you need is a team that has enough offensive talent that you can just straight up attack those guys without having to get

A switch we saw this with golden state on Christmas day they were just using Jonathan kaminga and Andrew Wiggins to straight post up Jamaal Murray and to generate quality shots there Boston’s an interesting team because they will have that ability like chances are you’re putting cavius Cobo Pope on you know

Probably Dereck white right you’re putting him most likely on Dereck white you’re probably going to put uh Aaron Gordon on Jason Tatum right so naturally there’s a really good chance that going to end up with someone like a Drew holiday or a Jaylen Brown on Jamal

Murray and if that’s the case you can use those two guys to just literally bring the ball up the floor and attack Jamal and not have to worry about trying to bring him into the action and so that then from there they have the ability to

Space uh teams out I also think chrisop porzingis could cause some problems for them but the flip side is on the other side of the floor it like we talk about the Celtics and their biggest flaw being late game decision-making you could not pick a better team at that than the

Denver Nuggets and that’s their superpower and so like it’s it’s like weirdly both teams have the ability to take advantage of the other team’s weakness and I think it makes it really interesting obviously though you guys know I’m going to take Denver if I have

To pick one of the two teams but I do think it’s very close and I think those two teams are clearly the top tier contenders your thoughts on the state of the Star Wars Cinematic Universe the sequel trilogies in my opinion were terrible but I like what they’ve done

With their live and animated shows since uh besides OB one Series in Boba Fett and then also any upcoming Star Wars projects that you’re excited for so one of the things that bothers me about the Star Wars Cinematic Universe is their obsession with staying within this timeline and this timeline is already

Completely butchered anyway like the first six movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and his fall and his rise right as he essentially uh defeats Palpatine at the end and like ask if you ask uh George Lucas he’ll tell you it’s not a Luke Skywalker story it’s an

Anakin Skywalker story that’s the whole like point of this uh that whole six movie stretch but because Palpatine survives and transfers his Consciousness into a clone a flawed clone on exigal and uh you know Luke literally just stops being a Jedi and all this other

and then you get to the end and like now Luke dies Ben solo dies Han Solo dies Leia dies like the Skywalker line is just gone and and so is the solo line and now you just have Palpatine as this final remaining character it’s all butchered anyway because of how much

They they screwed up the sequel Trilogy that said like even within that context they keep trying to fill gaps within that series and one of the problems there is even with what I just described your six episode Arc is your Anakin storyline but which turns into basically a Palpatine storyline right so that’s

Your overarching story everything else you fit in there has to be subsidiary and that’s what’s frustrating like the best movies out there have truly like powerful villains that are interesting and that kind of have a little bit of a good side to them right like it’s funny

As we talked about Marvel part of the reason Marvel’s gone down the in my opinion is like you had this profound storyline centering around Thanos and they just haven’t been able to figure out like a real crisis that people care about in these other movies right and

Like and and that’s kind of the issue Star Wars is happening is like even as you’re going through like as a Star Wars fan I’m enjoying the Ahsoka series or did enjoy the Ahsoka series and I’m really interested to see what happens with grand Admiral thraw but like even

Then like whatever they do there is trapped within like whatever happens here comes the first order in in in 15 years and they’re just going to undo all because they’re trapped under that umbrella and Star Wars just has so much cool stuff outside of that umbrella between like the stuff leading into The

Phantom Menace with like Darth pagus and Darth Bane to like 3,000 years before that with like Darth Revan and and a lot of stuff with the Old Republic to way in the future that they could do interesting things like if they go outside of that umbrella then they could

Start to build an entirely a new and and enticing crisis or villain that they can construct a storyline around and so I think that’s where they’ve they’ve messed up um upcoming series that I’m ex excited for I’m really excited for the acolyte uh those of you guys who are

Star Wars nerds will know that the Sith 1,000 years before the phant of Menace went extinct but they didn’t really Darth Bane uh basically faked their extinct and then went into hiding and his plan was to overthrow the Republic through uh basically subterfuge right and so the acolytes really interesting to me

Because it takes place in the high Republic which is like 3 to 500 years before The Phantom Menace and all the high Republic books have been mostly bad so far because they’re trying this thing with the Nile which is like basically a band of Raiders just imagine like the

Raiders that you’d run in run into and you’d play Fallout right uh just just wearing weird clothes and doing drugs and stealing from people and it’s just like not as interesting as like a a real motivated villain right so like some of the high Republic stuff has been shitty

But the acolyte is allegedly supposed to center around a dark side Force user and so I think it’d be really interesting if they use the acolyte to try to kind of build out some of the ancient Sith storyline which I think would be really interesting uh obviously I’m really

Excited to see what happens with grand Admiral Thon as well and just in general I’m hoping that they get outside of that umbrella eventually all right two more questions Patrick Bet David posted the Christmas Day ratings for both the NFL in the NBA on Twitter and the NFL has

Had five 5x what the NBA has he’s a huge fan has interviewed people like Kobe sha and Stephen A but said he doesn’t watch regular season anymore because it sucks what do you think the NBA could do to compete even though the event the NBA is is worldwide and the NFL is just

Us-based and I understand that so here’s the thing I I think the problem with this discussion is the NBA and the NFL are two fundamentally different sports and what I mean by that is like the I’ve actually seen this phrase thrown around online lately but they refer to the NBA

An inventory sport in the NFL as an event sport meaning like because there are 82 regular season games in inseason tournament a play in tournament for uh seven game series playoff rounds like two months of playoff basketball there’s just so much of it that you’re never

Going to get any singular game even a playoff game necessarily to be viewed as a like an event right which an event is what you get from NFL from the standpoint of like every game carries huge Stakes every playoff game is like appointment television cuz it’s single elimination it’s it’s just fundamentally

Different and so you’re going to get higher viewership from there it’s important to understand though from a revenue standpoint like even though the NBA or the NFL crushes the NBA in Revenue by 5x or whatever the Gap in term uh in ratings I should say the Gap

In revenue is closer by proportion and part of the reason for that is because the NBA has so much inventory which is why they will never shorten the season even though I want them to and a big part of it is they can continue to drive Revenue through things like overseas uh

Uh bringing the game more and more overseas which I think will be the case I would imagine that if we go skip to the distant future the NBA will probably have franchises overseas I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a thing and so in general like the way I look at it like

Yeah if you want to compare the NBA purely based on television ratings to the NFL they’re going to get their ass kicked constantly but the NBA is very much a healthy sport they has some flaws I’ve talked about officiating I think player movement as much as it is the

Fair thing to to do it’s also not necessarily the best thing for cultivating really committed local fan bases and I think it can form a little bit of a detached feeling from fans as a result but at the end of the day that is the morally correct way to approach it

From the standpoint of free agency right so like it’s complicated but I do think the NBA is in a healthy place and is going to be healthy for a very long time I just I think it’s stupid to compare the two from a rating standpoint when they’re so fundamentally

Different last question as a bald man I’m always living vicariously through others so with that said what’s the goal for your hair we going Pat Riley maybe even a mullet so uh I uh this is the my I’ve got some hat head right now but I’ve never grown out my hair before so

The truth of the matter is is I don’t know what we’re going to do cuz I don’t even know what it’s going to look like I did want to try it it was something my wife and I talked about for a while I’ve been doing the short hair thing forever

Uh those of you guys who’ve been following the show for a while know it I’ll probably grow it out for another year or two and just get crazy and then never do it again so that that’s kind of the plan but honestly it’s been a pain

In the ass like I like it just like having a little bit of longer hair is just pain because like it’s just it Con my my hair’s super curly and Frizzy so it just constant I like have crazy Bed Head like 80% of the time that I’m

Walking around my house but like it uh for whatever it’s worth I don’t know what I’m going to do with it we’ll see uh I’m kind of leaning on uh what whatever my wife wants me to do just for some fun U but I will be keeping the

Long hair for at least another year or so um I really appreciate you guys 2023 has been a really really great year for this show uh it was the year I extended with the volume we’ve hit crazy numbers uh once again last month over a million views we’re uh comfortably averaging

Over a million views a month for the for the the year it just has been to put it simply um it’s been one of the great joys of my life to get to build this with you guys and I sincerely appreciate you rocking with with me and supporting

Me and and uh I I like I feel so fortunate not just to be covering the NBA because of how healthy the league is and where it’s going but I also feel very fortunate to work for the volume I jumped on with this company uh at an earlier phase and between you know

Adding uh Richard Sherman between adding Daniel Cormier between adding uh Darius slle between adding uh Shannon sharp between adding Chad onoo between adding like I think uh I should be careful because I I don’t want to get in trouble but I’m pretty sure Shannon sharp is

Getting ready to launch a new NBA show with a big name so I won’t reveal it for that sake but like like literally now I feel like I’m I’m I’m so lucky to be in this spot because the volume has turned into this like significant Sports Media

Company and the company trusts me to be their primary NBA day-to-day coverage I just feel I just feel super blessed and quite frankly I wouldn’t be able to to be in this position if you guys didn’t support the show just to put it simply and like I talked about earlier when we

Were talking podcast I uh I I I’m a big believer in being authentic and just leaning into exactly the way you want to do things and then letting the chips fall where they may and you guys have embraced that uh from me and and I I

Just am so thankful and I hope you guys realize that I don’t take it for granted ever uh I I’m so thankful to see the the mailbag uh questions come in every single day we don’t talk about it much on the show but almost every episode a

Few of you guys write extremely kind words about what the show means to you guys and I read every single one of them and and and I really sincerely appreciate them I just hope you guys understand how much I appreciate you guys Happy New Year 2024 is going to be

Awesome I’m excited to see who wins the championship this season hopefully my Lakers could get it together to make a run we’ll see what happens I will see you guys on Tuesday for some Power Rankings and some game breakdowns A

Jason Timpf answers mailbag questions regarding several topics across the NBA. What would be the impact on Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors if they traded Chris Paul? What is the next move for Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks to become top tier NBA Finals contenders? Who has the upper hand between Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics and Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets?

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
00:47 – Impact of Warriors trading Chris Paul
05:26 – What’s next for Mavericks
11:03 – What is Jayson Tatum’s peak?
14:11 – Are Grizzlies close to contending?
17:00 – What would you do as Pistons GM?
22:36 – Does Team USA help guys get better?
24:57 – Are the Celtics a superteam?
27:30 – Is Jalen Williams underrated?
29:39 – Why NBA is more physical now
32:11 – How to start a podcast
37:23 – How much Lauri Markkanen would help Thunder
38:19 – Favorite Christmas tradition
40:35 – Clarifying Jason’s Power Rankings
41:28 – Why don’t Kuminga & Wiggins play together?
43:10 – Forming NBA team with Star Wars characters
43:45 – How Nuggets & Celtics stack up
45:45 – Thoughts on state of Star Wars cinematic universe
49:49 – How NBA competes with NFL
52:22 – Jason growing out his hair?
53:26 – Thank you for watching!

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