NBA Mailbag: LeBron James to blame for Lakers issues? Don’t panic on Giannis & Bucks | Hoops Tonight

NBA Mailbag: LeBron James to blame for Lakers issues? Don’t panic on Giannis & Bucks | Hoops Tonight

What’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter

So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball so first question I was wondering what you think about how much playing around players like Steph Curry influences your career after the fact thinking about Dante dant chenzo here he’s been having

An awesome season from three which I a tribute to his own hard work but I wonder if being on the Warriors had any influence over what he had decided to work on over the summer much love from New Zealand Jason keep up the great work

Thank you so much for the kind words and for supporting the show um so this is something that I’ve always had it’s it’s a little bit complicated cuz I I I dislike the idea of like giving too much credit to a star for a young player’s development because I want to give the

Young player credit for you know accomplishing what he’s accomplished in the league I think I think we can get a little over the top with that when like fans are like oh you know LeBron made this guy or Steph made this guy or Kobe made Pal Gasol or whatever it is you

Know all the takes that you see and I’m not I I want to be clear like we’re going to get into it I do think that that sort of thing does matter to certain extent but I do think it gets a little tricky when we take all of the

Credit away uh from what a young basketball player is able to accomplish here’s the thing like everything in basketball in my opinion is contagious it’s a big part of like that goes both ways right positivity can be contagious negativity can be contagious like when you’re in a locker room where

You know some areas of the locker room are are starting to kind of you know uh uh revolt against the coach or revolt against you know a specific thing that’s taking place like that that misery loves company guys will kind of congeal together and they’ll start to kind of

Cause problems right and that goes both ways but I do think that leading by example having a guy that leads by example in your locker room can go a long way to sh shaping a young basketball player Dante Devan chenzo obviously like just watching him tonight against the Warriors the movement

Shooting the the the the just the whole style that he plays with now you can tell that he picked up a lot from Stephen Clay very likely worked out with him but I’d extend it even to some of the other guys guys like Jonathan kaminga and Moses Moody like I mean

Brandon pmy too I I had a a comment in the earlier show today the live show about the Warriors Knicks about I couldn’t remember the ages someone confirmed it for me in the comments all three of those guys are 21 years old think about that like I we have a

Question later on in the mailbag talking about uh asking about me when I played in college I remember the player I was when I was 21 and I just can’t even fathom doing some of the things and I’m not even talking about talent I just mean intellectually as a basketball

Player I can’t even fathom doing some of the things that these kids are doing at age 21 and I and I do think that that plays a like a big part of that is like growing up in the NBA alongside the likes of Steph and clay and Draymond and

And even Andre guadala and how he helped early on with Moses Moody and Jonathan kaminga like like we are talking about we are talking about the ideal environment for you to learn how to play NBA basketball and I do think it’s manifested on a in a big positive way

For guys like Jonathan kaminga for guys like Moses Moody and for obviously Dante dvan chenzo as well I again I think it goes too far when we give the star all the credit but there’s no doubt that like if you were if you were trying to plot a course for your basketball career

You can’t do better as a role model as a as a as a leader than Steph Curry to learn how to play the game from to learn how to be an NBA player from to learn how to be a professional from hey Jason there’s been a lot of earned discussion

About pal banero and Jay duub J jayen Williams this season but two pretty impressive sophomores who have gotten sort of Lost in the shuffle this year are Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray what have you thought about of those two season so far and how good do you think

They can be in about five years or so love the show keep up the great work uh thanks again for supporting the show and for the kind words uh Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are are kind of different players in my opinion I’ve been impressed with Keegan Murray mainly just

Because the uh he kind of manifests in a lot of specific ways that help in the modern basketball world like for instance like let’s take the Kings uh the kings are are are a team that that rebounds the ball really well and a big part of that is not just Keegan

Murray but also Kevin herder in the way that they crash from the perimeter like there’s a lot more long rebounds in the modern NBA Keegan Murray is a guy that you know he was a guy played in college for a long time right and he just does a

Lot of these like little things that help a basketball team win obviously he can come off of screens and he can shoot obviously he’s a highle spot at player I think he’s at like 1.11 points per spot at possession this year which is is obviously really really

Really good um both guys right now Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray struggle a little bit with self-creation uh Jabari Smith is a level above Keegan Murray specifically in the post but both of them can struggle a little bit I do think that Jabari Smith has a significantly higher ceiling than Keegan

Murray for two reasons one he’s a much much better defensive project Keegan Murray is a good straight line athlete but he struggles with lateral quickness and he’s not a guy that that has the level of defensive potential that a guy like Jabari Smith does Jabari Smith has

The potential to be like a legitimate you know top tier perimeter defender in this league that’s the the potential that he has it’s just a question of whether or not he can get there um one of the thing with Jabari Smith I think he just has a little bit more of like

What I would call like natural scoring chops like it’s almost like a combination of audacity and creativity mixed with your skill set and obviously Jabar Jabari has the work ethic I mean just go look back at last year with the rockets and how poor he was putting the

Ball on the floor and how much he struggled you know with just kind of like basic shot creation stuff and like this year you’re just seeing more of his ability to make quick plays out of the post against mismatches and get to Quick spots for short mid-range jump shots

That he can knock down like he’s just taking significant leaps on that end of the floor right so like I uh they’re two really really good young wings uh to me they’re very different like I give you guys just an example and these are not perfect comps but like in the same way

That like you have male Bridges and cam Johnson as like two versions of you know 67 68 wings that to me is what Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are kind kind of represent Jabari Smith is more in a male Bridges AR like trajectory where I really do think he could add some

Legitimate off the dribble game a guy that could potentially average 20 points a game in the league one day uh efficiently and and also be an excellent perimeter Defender whereas like you know cam Johnson is more of like an offensive-minded Wing that you know there’s a like like it just kind of fits

More into that mold for me for like a Keegan Murray type again not perfect comps but those are just some some examples but I love both of those guys I was super super impressed by Jabari Smith at Summer League this year when I went to go see him in Vegas just I can’t

Believe how much he’s improved in such such a short period of time and honestly specifically with Jabari like he’s made improvements in ball handling and like that stuff just is super super incremental like it takes thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps to become a good

Ball handler when you didn’t used to be and so all that says to me is that he’s a gym rat and that he’s competitive enough to want to develop that part of his game and to get better and so that just tells me within five years or so

That he does have the potential to reach the level of like a guy like Mel Bridges which by the way Jabari has better measurables and so he could even be a better version of that next question how good of a Hooper are you and what’s your

Player comp you said you played in colge and that’s very impressive honestly plus how many threes have you made in a row so uh I won’t go into too much detail here because it’s more of a conversation for the offseason if I wanted to spend some time kind of breaking it down for

You guys but the gist of it is I was a late bloomer didn’t grow up playing basketball I was the worst player on my high school team uh literally on senior night there were six seniors on the roster and all five of the other seniors started the game and I didn’t play a

Single minute and by the way the coach was correct to do so I was not uh I would have severely hampered their ability to compete in that game um I really really really dove into basketball in my late teens and my third year in college I finally walked into an

Open gym at a jco and played well enough to get a scholarship that was kind of how my career started I uh ended up playing three seasons because of the way that the NCAA clocks uh Clock Works I had a an allconference selection my second season in junior college and then

I played like a a three and D role basically for a Nia team as my third year I was a pretty mediocre uh college basketball player I had my moments but I also had my flaws specifically at the Nia level they really exposed some of my offensive limitations I stayed on the

Floor at niia CU I could guard I’m a good athlete and I’m like 66 with like a 610 wingspan so I could guard I just would guard the other team’s best player that was basically my role on that particular team I didn’t really develop

Into a a like what I consider to be a better version of or the best version of myself as a basketball player to my late 20s uh just because like I fell in love with the game but I didn’t grow up playing it so like you know the feeling

That I would imagine most Young basketball players feel when they’re 12 13 years old when they’re starting to kind of figure it out and love the game like I was hitting that in my mid 20s because like I didn’t play when I was young and so I had some success in

College and that was like my first experience with the game and so I just Dove headlong into it after that and and made significant improvements like I in Nia I was really exposed as a guy who couldn’t dribble who was an inconsistent streaky shooter and a guy that couldn’t

Read the floor and so that those were the three things that I massively improved on as I got later on in life and now when I play I’m I’m I’m like a a playmaking wing like I’m a guy that you know that initiates offense and can

Score and pass and do all those things that definitely did not used to be the case uh my how many threes have I made in a row in a college game my record for threes made in a row was six and I did it in a game uh when I was in junior

College and it was during the game that I had my career high in points which was 31 um uh but yeah that was I also I said I was streaky and inconsistent I had a stretch when I was playing niia where I missed 22 threes in a row over the

Course of a week like actually it my coach once again made the right decision had to sit down with me and be like hey like we need you to kind of tone back your shot selection a little bit which by the way it was right to do because I

Came in as a junior college scorer who got exposed in niia as a guy who like couldn’t score at that specific level niia like older guys much better coaching you know ju Jo the athleticism was insane I played in an insane conference when I was in Joo the talent

Level was unbelievable but everything was so much more loose and spread out it was just easier to play and then when I went to niia and like help defense is always loaded up and every team just like shell drills you know 16 times a week and just there every you’re just if

You happen to beat your guy off the dribble there’s just another guy right away rotations are super sharp like it was just niia was a really really tough level of basketball and honestly it was good for me because it exposed all of the things that I sucked at and helped

Me understand what I needed to get better at in order to be a better basketball player next question what what do you think goes into a down shooting season curious about the process it takes to maintain your shooting percentage during a season and career for example LeBron being 36 37%

From three the last few years then having a 30% season and follow it up with a 41% season uh thanks love the show congrats on the success again thank you for the kind words and for the support um I I think it’s a combination of a couple different factors because I

Personally experienced this the year that I made the All Conference Team the I shot uh like 48 49% from three in conference play like I was just I was just like super confident and like I always felt like I I had it going every single game I just was so laser focused

And locked in and then it was literally in non-conference play the next season that I miss 22 in a row so that kind of gives you some perspective on like how Wild those swings can be now for me the big thing was a role change on the Joo

Team I was the second leading scorer on the team the offense was built around me and this other guard named Miles Gatewood a really good player a really good guard him and I basically everything in the offense was set up for us when I went to ACU by the niia that I

Played at I played alongside two All-American guards and both of them were just unbelievable tobuk the the point guard on that team is the best basketball player that I’ve ever personally played with and like all of a sudden my role was different early in the season I I

Had a a like a big scoring burst in my very first game we played a a a game against NAA na so a division one school an NCAA division one school we actually beat them and I had a big scoring burst in that game and so in the early P

Portion of the season I was really aggressive as a scorer but my efficiency like just immediately tanked and pretty quickly like I mentioned in the last question my coach was sitting down with me about like not looking basically told me like don’t don’t shoot unless you’re

Taking a wide open three or running your Lane in transition you know what a good coach would do for a flawed player like me to to that coach’s credit he funneled me into what I was good at which was like defense and rebounding and and you

Know playing a small role on offense at that specific level well as I shifted into that small role like shooting became a real challenge for me because instead of hunting my shot and getting six seven three-point attempts per game I was getting maybe one or two three-point attempts per game and so and

They would come like I wouldn’t touch the ball for a while and then all of a sudden I’d have a catch and shoot three opportunity and that was a real struggle for me and so I think it’s a combination of a bunch of different factors a guy

Like LeBron the role has been the same all the time and so his swings a lot of it is really just like happen stance like shooting is a is a is a like for lack of a better term it’s mind like you you it’s kind of like it’s kind

Of like baseball in the sense that like even if you’re really really good at it you’re going to miss more more than you make and so you can do everything right and the result can still be a miss and so it can spiral on you right like I I

Honestly felt that way watching LeBron where like you could just tell last year like it was like they just weren’t going in and you could just tell it gets mentally discouraging and it’s like it doesn’t matter if you took and made 400 threes in practice the previous day if

You go into the game and you get you know two or three looks and you happen to miss two of them and then on the third one you’re not confident right like it can really pile up on you now how to handle it like I remember in that

That the na season that I’m talking about I mean I was obsessive about it I was in the gym every single day shooting on the shooting machine uh my buddy Harel who was my roommate That season him and I were going up to the gym at night and doing the shoot like these

Shooting drills like we we’d be in there at 11:30 p.m. with a with a speaker blasting just shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting and like I was obsessive about it and what’s crazy is even with that I barely got up to I think I shot in the low 30s from three

In conference Play That season because again the role was so funky I was just I was barely getting uh touches which was the right decision with the level of player I was at that point but again like a couple different things it’s a combination of roll shifts like I really

Do think like for instance a Malik Beasley uh like he’s just getting different and better shots for Milwaukee this year than he did for the Lakers last year the Lakers were constantly running him off of off ball actions and asking him to shoot those are tougher shots Milwaukee was just like you’re a

Spot up guy but just if you’re open or if you even have an inch of space you let that thing fly and so you can see a roll shift from maliik Beasley got him back on track right so it’s a combination of the role and then honest

To God it really is just a really mentally challenging thing you know like Steph Curry just went through a shooting slump there for like a week or so right like you don’t think that dude wasn’t doing all his drills and doing everything behind the scenes right and

Yet still the results were off like there is a certain amount of just you know I don’t even think it’s variance I think it’s it’s mostly just the the the mental aspect of it and the way that it can misses can pile up on you but the

Same thing happens in reverse the makes pile up on you you make a couple in a row you feel really good about yourself you feel really confident all of a sudden like you can kind of ride that wave for a little bit right and so but I

But I don’t I don’t want to underestimate or undersell the work element of it so like lastly on that LeBron front shoots 30% or whatever last year and then shoots 41% this year you bet your ass LeBron was in the gym all damn summer like I got to get my jumper

Fixed right and so he was able to ride that out for a long stretch of time in the summer and then he went into training camp and saw the results now he’s confident and now just just just watch LeBron shoot this year doesn’t it just look different than last year he’s

Rising into shots confidently in a way that he didn’t used to even tonight I was watching him uh it was so funny they the Lakers ended up in a dog fight with the Washington Wizards cuz they’re just because they’re just the Lakers and and uh uh Lebron ended up basically

Saving the game with a chase down block of Jordan pool and then he hit a step back three over I want to say over Kyle kozma on the right wing and like it was a it was a tough shot it might have been over Marvin Bagley but like like he

Stepped into it confidently and he just wasn’t doing that last year and so again to to kind of tie it all together it’s a combination of just like the the really challenging mental aspects of shooting and then your role and then the way you

Fight it is all you can do is work I’m a big believer in like I want to be thinking when I’m shooting about how I worked hard like I want to derive confidence when I’m shooting from the fact that I’ve made this shot a hundred times already today you know it’s a big

Part of why like to this day and I tell to the young basketball players in town that I work with including the high school kids I coach like if I go play pickup like I will show up to the gym 30 to 45 minutes before the pickup starts

And I will do my full shooting workout why so that when I step onto the floor to actually play I just feel confident in those shots and like again I haven’t uh like I’m I’m an older guy now I’m 32 years old I’m just playing for fun but

It’s just I I’m incapable of approaching basketball any other way it’s just it’s just the way that I’m wired next question hey Jason love the show I was wondering do you think we will see all kinds of Shenanigans in the fifth and sixth spot and even teams intentionally

Losing and going into the playin from the seventh or eighth spot just to avoid the Nuggets I believe that a seventh or eighth spot if not crossed with the Nuggets can go all the way to the conference final but does it is it worth the risk of a single elimination game so

First from the playin spots no doubt at all you got to try to get out of the playin spots there’s just too much variance there like like for instance Lakers Warriors like you’ve got to try to get out of that spot because go like let’s say for instance

You’re the Lakers and you end up at the 10 seed you got to go two Golden State to win and then go to like a phoenix or a New Orleans or a Dallas or a Sacramento like that’s just a lot to ask to even get into a first round series

Even if you like the matchup when you get there also you got to go through the good teams no matter what and in the Western Conference they’re all good teams I even think those playing teams are good teams I think the Lakers and Warriors are good teams they’re not

Great teams they’re not as good as the teams that are above them but they’re good basketball team so like it’s not like the Eastern Conference where you know I I think we could see some teams in the seven and E spot that are are a little bit more flawed as for the stuff

Around the fifth and sixth spot and and stuff like that it’s really hard to say because like I thought the Nuggets were about to Skyrock and take the one seed but then Jamaal Murray turns his ankle and who knows what’s going to happen but

At the end of the day I am a big believer and like don’t mess with the basketball Gods like you’re better off playing basketball the best you possibly can to build out the identity and the habits and everything you need to win playoff series regardless of who your

Opponent is then you are like trying to mess with that a little bit to try to Jerry rig the matchups next question the revisionist history concerning the state of the Lakers team and pointing and painting LeBron as some victim is ridiculous LeBron is just as much responsible for the state of the Lakers

As the front office if not more so throughout his career LeBron plays a huge role in players acquired or traded every star player does but it’s clearly on another level with LeBron when it works he’s a genius legm but when it doesn’t the front off is sabotaging him

He wanted Westbrook that’s a fact okay so a couple things first of all um LeBron’s two major impacts on the uh the Lakers from a l GM standpoint were the Russell Westbrook trade yes that’s that’s a fact and the Anthony Davis trade so the idea that he’s just

As much responsible for the state of the Lakers as the front office is something I vehemently disagree with because LeBron also facilitated the anth Anthony DAV trade which led to an NBA championship so whatever you say about the Russell Westbrook trade that’s kind of canceled out uh the rest of the stuff

That the front office did between letting Brook Lopez walk for nothing how good would Brook Lopez be alongside Anthony Davis just watch him next to to Giannis right to letting Julius Randall walk for absolutely nothing to the way they constructed that first roster with all this playmaking around LeBron with

No shooting to like the immediate after they win the NBA championship immediate lack of understanding or appreciation of what the role players did and and and immediately starting to get off of all of them the as far as the Russell Westbrook trade St uh goes here’s where

Here’s where I would give push back I agree LeBron James I shouldn’t even say agree it’s a fact that LeBron James pushed strongly for the Russell Westbrook trade I personally was completely stunned that he did so here’s the thing the the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers is responsible for making

Personnel decisions and if you are the general manager just put yourself in the GM shoes and LeBron comes up to you and goes I want Russell Westbrook you look him back in the face and you go that’s a terrible idea because of XYZ because you are the basketball expert your job is

Personnel and the problem is LeBron wanted Russ but he had support from the front office and they put the deal through when there was a there were like it was never the direction that they should have gone the Russell Westbrook trade was clearly a bad idea in the moment when it happened

And we all knew it I said it right after the trade I was like casy P and Kyle kosma are both more valuable to the Lakers team than what Russell Westbrook could bring to this team and you had to give up both of them and a first round

Draft pick to get him it was a complete disaster and I I absolutely think no that LeBron pushed for it and that obviously it was a bad idea but at the end of the day that is yet another element to what makes that front office so frustrating is that they couldn’t

They couldn’t even like your job as the front office is to filter suggestions from everybody that works in your front office and from your star players and from your coach you filter through all of that and from your owner right you filter through all of that the fact that

Russell Westbrook didn’t get caught in the Lakers filter that that’s the discouraging part and so here’s the thing criticize LeBron for pushing the Russell Wester trade all you want that that does not alleviate the complete and total other you know dozen other show things that that front office did that helped them lead

To where they’re at even like after the Denver Nuggets series a clear need for a two-way Athlete on the perimeter and you let Lonnie Walker and Dennis schroer go and do nothing to replace those guys which by the way I was okay with over the summer because I was like fine do it

At the deadline and then they didn’t do it at the deadline so like it it’s been it’s been a consistent issue with this front office a fundamental misunderstanding of what LeBron James and Anthony Davis need around them to win basketball games and it has been frustrating because that’s the thing

Like like that’s the general manager’s job literally by definition is to understand player Personnel understand their Stars understand what they need to succeed filter suggestions and build the roster accordingly and and they just haven’t done a good job of that I mean even and then I I include the ownership group

Because it’s like the ownership group is the one that disrespected tyou when they had a a deal in place because they didn’t want to pay him like a championship coach because they were being cheap let Alex cruso walk for absolutely nothing because they didn’t want to be him pay him because they were

Being cheap like from the top down with the Lakers it has has been incompetence and it’s only through LeBron’s play on the court that he’s been able and with Anthony Davis as well that they’ve been able to overcome it the way that they have over the years to literally a

Championship in a Western Conference Finals birth which by the way I would argue is an under achievement given the like if you told me you were going to get five years of LeBron James and Anthony Davis together like you’re thinking two titles right like that’s what you’re thinking and and they should

Have and like there’s a case to be made that if you had you know a a top tier NBA GM in control of that position that they probably do have multiple championships next question seeing the guitars in your background for a while now and for a while now and just

Wondered how much experience you have playing also wondered what are a couple of your favorite bands and albums old and recent love your content as always thanks again for supporting the show um I play guitar very recreationally like maybe 3 4 hours a week I’m not particularly good at it I’ve been doing

It for like like 10 15 years so like I can play a little bit but like not in any sort of meaningful way one day my body will fail me and I won’t be able to play basketball as much as I do and on that day that’s when I will devote all

Of that energy towards guitar and I will try to get significantly better at it just as just because that again like I talked about earlier it’s just kind of how I’m wired so that will be when I try to get better at it but right now it’s

Strictly just a hobby I grew up on the Almond Brothers band that was what my dad kind of exposed me to and then in my later life I’ve I’ve gotten more into uh The Grateful Dead and dead in company and a lot of that kind of stuff Blues in

Particular has always been my favorite kind of like brand of or genre of music I should say Steve Von was a big one for me Jimmy Hendricks was a big one for me Eric Clapton was a big one for me uh Derek truck is one of my all-time

Favorites too those are a lot of the guys that have uh kind of shaped my kind of a taste in music don’t you think it’s odd how everyone was saying before the season that Milwaukee would have a bumpy regular season and now everyone is panicking because of some ups and downs

Don’t you think that as a veteran team they should be judged in the playoffs so agreed I I was one of the people before the season that said I thought the the the Bucks would have a a bumpy regular season that Boston would kind of beat

Them by a lot in the standings I will say that we have learned from the X’s and O’s that I mean up until recently up until this recent stretch that the point of attack defense stuff was a concern but uh I think between Doc Rivers just getting them to engage better the

Improvement that Malik Beasley has made over the course of the Season as a point of attack Defender Jay Crowder kind of weirdly having some life in his legs it’s it’s kind of erased some of those concerns and now I’m more or less back to where I was before the season with

Milwaukee but I do agree that they’re a veteran team that should be judged in the playoffs I’m more concerned about whether or not Dame can get back to his peak level offensively next question or this is more of a comment Jason tripping saying that joic over Curry and LeBron all time

Already I never said that I don’t even know where you’re getting that from I never said said joic is over Curry and LeBron all time he has a long way and more than one more Championship he needs to win and and probably another MVP or two along the way like joic has ground

To cover there the conversation surrounding joic and Curry and LeBron is just simply about their peaks which is completely different it’s like LeBron MJ like LeBron might be the goat one day but his case is going to be the resume in longevity like LeBron’s not touching

The dominance that MJ had in the ’90s he literally won six titles in 8 years he was unquestionably considered the best player in the league for a long time LeBron was unquestionably considered the best player in the league for like 3 four years right there in the early

2010s and then he was still the best player in my in my opinion in the late 2010s but it was much closer between him and KD and Steph right MJ was just lapping the entire field for basically the entire ’90s and so again that that’s the difference between those two

Conversations right and like even when it comes to ranking goats or whoever your goat is everyone’s criteria is different so like that gets complicated but for me personally my like alltime rankings joic is still he’s still got a lot of ways to to go to get to where

LeBron and Steph are I’m just saying that his ceiling his absolute Peak that he’s achieved right now is more on the echelon with the MJS and the Kobes and the LeBron and stuff than uh where Stephen KD are to put it simply CU I had

A bunch of Warriors fans go like oh well it’s unfair why are you comparing Steph and KD when they were underneath LeBron here’s the simple counter there Steph couldn’t even separate himself from KD KD couldn’t even separate separate himself from Steph that’s kind of the point like I personally think Steph was

Better than KD for the majority of his prime but that is very much Up For Debate and if you ask 100 people it’s probably going to come out near 5050 that like that’s the difference th those two guys were competing against each other they’re kind of in a different

Tier than where LeBron was and where joic is now where MJ was in the90s where Kobe’s Kobe was in the late 2000s um last question how can you say jokic’s Peak is higher when he’s really just getting into it during Stephen Kat’s Peak they were either winning championships or having deep playoff

Runs yic literally just won his first championship last season and before that it’s very limited playoff success at least give him some time before you make claims like this uh let’s just kind of recap here in the regular season he’s about to win his third MVP in four tries

And he was the Runner most of last year before he basically punted it at the end of the season also 2020 he upset the championship favorite in the Los Angeles Clippers and went to the Western Conference Finals 2021 down his two uh two very very important uh uh uh uh other starters in

The starting lineup they literally beat the Portland Trailblazers in the first round like they won a playoff series down Jamal Murray and down Michael Porter Jr and then in 2020 2 they lost to the eventual NBA champions and then in 2023 they won the NBA title as soon as Jamaal Murray and

Michael Porter Jr reentered the equation so Western Conference Finals birth where he beat the Clippers and lost to the eventual champion and then injured team loses to the suns in the second round injured team loses to the eventual NBA champion and then wins the NBA Championship so over a fouryear span

We’re going to have we’re going to have he’s about to win his third MVP and four tries and in his last four playoff runs either lost to the the eventual Champion twice once a long time ago the other one when he was significantly hampered and

Then he won a title so like again the the results in the regular season and the postseason with with yage are significantly above I think where the public perception is all right guys that is all I have for today I am going to most likely cover nuggets Lakers on

Saturday night but I don’t know if that’ll be on the feed until Saturday night or Sunday morning and then we’re going live on Sunday after the final bus of Celtics Warriors I will see you guys Then

Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Is LeBron James’ input the reason the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to return to the NBA Finals over the past few seasons? Should Bucks fans be concerned with Milwaukee’s regular season play, or have Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and their experienced roster earned the right to be judged in the playoffs? And how good of a hooper was prime Jason Timpf? Jason answers all these questions and much more!

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/BeWj0pLYyEc

Timeline:
00:00 – How stars impact teammate development
03:52 – Jabari Smith & Keegan Murray ceilings
07:55 – How good was Jason Timpf?
11:57 – What goes into a down shooting season?
19:24 – Playoff seeding drama
21:05 – Is LeBron responsible for state of Lakers?
26:37 – Jason’s guitar skills / favorite bands
27:54 – Don’t panic on Bucks
28:49 – Jason does not have Jokic over LeBron all-time
31:04 – Yes, Jokic peak is higher than Steph & KD

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