NBA Mailbag: Warriors path forward, best move for Lakers, Nuggets falling back? | Hoops Tonight

NBA Mailbag: Warriors path forward, best move for Lakers, Nuggets falling back? | Hoops Tonight

all right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Wednesday everybody hope all you guys are having a great week as promised we’re getting to our mailbag today I sent out a tweet this morning and you guys left a bunch of questions in there a bunch of good ones obviously we can’t get to all of them but we’re going to get to a bunch of them we’re going to talk about some Warriors where they go from here some Lakers offseason stuff we’re going to talk about what’s going on with the Denver Nuggets and them not having done anything we’re going to talk about what Jason Tatum needs to do to be revered as the best player in the world are the Orlando Magic poised for a leap there’s literally tons and tons of stuff that we’re going to get to today as always I appreciate you guys for uh participating in the mail bag we’re going to get to as many as we can you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter atore jlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we keep getting them throughout the rest of the summer and then quickly before we get started just to give you guys an update on the schedule we were trying to take the rest of this weekend off to give our team a little break over the holiday obviously if any sort of significant trade or massive signing comes through I will stop and get an instant reaction video out there but unless something crazy happens we’ll we will be done after this video until next Monday just to give you guys a scheduling note all right let’s talk some basketball so first question do you think the Warriors should have bent to what clay requested from them assuming it’s difficult but I doubt it’s super difficult they pay the player what they think the player can contribute to the future but but they shouldn’t pay more to what they have done so this is an interesting kind of dynamic with the Klay Thompson deals like did the Warriors owe something to Clay now most of this has to do with timing like even just the difference between when Draymond re renegotiate his deal versus Clay is massive and first of all a couple different things I think draymond’s a better player right now than Klay is because Draymond is still one of the best defensive players in the world clay has taken steps back on both ends of the floor right but even then within even if we remove that context draymond’s deal was negotiated at a time when the Warriors felt closer they missed the playoffs this year out of 15 teams in the Western Conference they were in the bottom five they were they allowed 10 teams in and they didn’t even make that list in addition to that Steph had a rough end of the season for roughly the last third of the Season he didn’t look like himself he looked like a shell of himself uh and now I think there’s some context there there was fatigue wear and tear I think he was a little banged up I personally think Steph’s going to come into next season kind of on a little bit of a revenge tour and I think Steph is going to look a lot like the old Steph next season but at the same time the ownership group in the front office I think they view that as as kind of like a risk element there then in addition to that when you look at Klay Thompson in terms of loyalty if I’m the Warriors I’m saying well you know remember when you got hurt and we paid you Max dollars two years to uh to basically rehab a back-to-back injuries right like the Warriors extended him a massive Olive Branch and a massive demonstration of loyalty when he tore his ACL after the 2019 finals and so again like I I don’t necessarily think loyalty plays much of a role here I think it was just an honest evaluation of the situation I think the Golden State front office and ownership group does not think they’re close enough and I think their moves have demonstrated that letting Klay go for nothing letting Chris Paul go for nothing not using his salary you know turning down some sort of Fringe of aggressive deals I think that I think that that’s an indicator of what the the Warriors front office is telling us they’re telling us that they don’t think this team is particularly close and if they did I think that we should we would see more aggression from them we have some more warriors uh actually we’ll get to this next Warriors question first and then we’ll go back what is the realistic Warriors Path forward they effectively lost pool and clay for nothing plus more considering they gave Pool Plus assets to get Chris Paul marinin is the only realistic obtainable Improvement there isn’t enough trust there but is there enough trust in Steph and Dre to make one more run so here’s the thing even if they don’t do anything you still have some highquality starters you have four highquality starters in my opinion Steph and Draymond I I think DeAnthony Melton’s a high quality starter if he’s healthy I think Warriors fans are going to love that guy I think he helps in a ton of different ways I I’m a Believer right Andrew Wiggins I view is a high quality starter obviously he’s had his lumps over the last couple of years but it’s you know he’s one of those guys where like you start talking about Andrew Wiggins trades and then the players you come that come back in a deal like that are going to have some flaws of their own right so you still have four high quality starters right so like let’s say that they do just slide kaminga in there and they just rock with that five and they start the season 32 and 22 like they just get off to a good start right in that case then I think you could potentially convince the Warriors front office to make a more aggressive deal at the deadline and to be clear there’s not a lot of great options right now you want to trade for Jeremy Grant well there’s a little bit of a you know Jeremy Grant’s a guy that like over the last few years has wanted to play in smaller markets under low pressure and put up scoring numbers the Warriors are going to need him to score the basketball but they’re also going to need him to do a lot of Dirty Work and buy into a five out system is more of a cog right like is that a great basketball fit I have the same concerns about Jeremy Grant for the Lakers like I think it could work great but I also think it could work poorly like there’s real risk there Jeremy Grant a risky pick Brandon Ingram kind of a kind of a funky basketball player that’s tough to Plug and Play CU he needs to have the ball in his hands and he’s a mid-range pull-up shooter uh what about you know uh what about Zack LaVine well all of the injury issues and his massive contract that he has moving forward like right now the options don’t look great but we don’t know what the options are going to look like in February and so honestly like the most realistic Warriors Path forward is they nailed the mle signing in my opinion for what okay so let’s take a look look at the bigger picture you release Chris Paul you let go of Klay Thompson those pull you out of that second apron back into the non-t taxpayer mid-level acception that opened the door for you to go sign De Anthony Melton now is that the best option no obviously the best option would have been resign Klay Thompson try to trade Chris Paul’s contract for a star of some kind out there a higher powerered player out there of some kind and you include kaminga as the asset or draft compensation whatever it is obviously that’s the most aggressive move but that’s really overextending yourself with a lot of associated risk right so the Warriors took a lowrisk low expense move they got out of the second apron they get down into that uh non-t taxpayer mid-level exception range where they could get DeAnthony Melton a highlevel starter in my opinion when he’s healthy the market on DeAnthony Melton is low because he got hurt last year but I look at DeAnthony Melton as kind of like a rough approximation of kentavius cwwa Pope he’s a similar type of do everything Rock Solid NBA starter at the two- guard position so you’ve got Stephan and DeAnthony it’s really good onew Andrew Wiggins Draymond Green 34 35 whatever you want to call it you’ve got your kind of starting Foundation there you go into next season if Steph plays like a superstar if De Anthony Melton is healthy if those guys just have a good camp and Jonathan kaminga gets a little better year-over-year you go into the season then maybe you can reinvigorate the front office into believing in Steph Curry and Draymond Green as a championship potential core again but like I don’t think we’re going to get a super aggressive Golden State move this summer it just doesn’t seem like it’s on the table maybe I’m wrong I’m hoping they do I want Golden State to be aggressive I just don’t love any of the options out there right now I don’t think they can afford Lori marinin uh maybe they can we’ll see but like judging on the male Bridges deal which is a similar type of deal I don’t know and then also like you set trade for marketing you have to immediately extend him to a longterm Max probably in the department of 4 years and $160 million so like there’s just a lot that goes into an aggressive move right now so I kind of understand it but at the same time like I’d hate to see Steph go down with a mediocre team and so from that standpoint I’d like to see them eventually do something aggressive but this just feels more like a deadline type of move and and here’s the thing if you go into next season and Steph looks like the same player he did at the end of last year which is like a guy that’s below the Superstar tier if he looks like that then that’s kind of the writing on the wall anyway for where this whole Dynasty was going to begin with right so like I think that that’s the the route that’s most realistic for that front office it’s what I expect it’s not necessarily what I prefer but I I think it’s the direction we’re going to see them go and most of that the Allin type of deal is more just me thinking like a basketball fan because I want to see Steph Curry compete for championships because he’s one of my favorite players ever right like that’s just a basketball fan opinion like in terms of the actual logistical realities of doing that as a front office it’s just complicated what what is the Lakers best move from here after missing out on their plan a options and can they still do enough to have a chance at a title this year possible trades SES so I want to start with the Demar d rozan uh kind of rumors that are going around there and I’m kind of skeptical about him to begin with because this is not the first time Demar Rosen has hinted at potentially taking a pay cut to go to the Los Angeles Lakers uh I also have heard from Adrian wowski um he went on TV yesterday and said that LeBron’s probably going to take the full Max now which if he does takes the Lakers out of the non-tax taxpayer mid level and puts them in the regular taxpayer mid level which is a smaller deal which would make it even less likely for them to get D rozen so I don’t necessarily think that’s realistic I also don’t love the D rozan fit to me D rozan presents a lot of the similar issues for that back court that Austin and D’Angelo Russell presented it’s like a pull-up shooter scorer type who now D rozan and and DLo are very different players but like the gap between demard de rozan and and D’Angelo Russell is not that big in terms of their playoff impact like they’re two guys that struggle in the playoffs they’re uh they’re two guys that are like skill guards that are good playmakers that like d rozan is more of a pull-up mid-range shooter you know DLo is more of like a aggressive three-point shooter but they’re both good Playmakers they’ve got like some similarities there but they’re similar in redundancy in the sense that like if Austin’s going to be your point the two has to be a freaky athletic defensive-minded guard like that’s just like that the only star guard that I liked next to uh Austin Reeves I I know there was talk about Donovan Mitchell I just didn’t view him as a realistic option the only guy that I liked there was dejonte Murray because he brought real athletic traits real defensive capability even if he hasn’t been that since leaving the Spurs while also bringing some offensive upside Deonte was the guy that I thought made sense as a star guard at the two next to Austin I would have viewed Demar d rozan as just another redundancy there so from there if you’re going to get a high-powered option I still think I lean towards Jeremy Grant as a as a Target at the three I think that an influx of offensive Firepower would be helpful for the Lakers I think that Jeremy Grant uh it kind of brings a layer of athleticism to that front line with him LeBron and Anthony Davis that could be really imposing I like that fit a lot I just I’m not sure if they’re going to be able to get him in the event that they can’t get Jeremy Grant that’s where I would lean back on your role player types A guy like Bruce Brown at the two is someone I’d really like a guy like Dorian finny Smith at the three is a guy that I’d really like but no matter what I think I think if you get Jeremy Grant you can get away with playing a Max Christie at the two or get away with playing a skill guard like a maybe even a Gabe Vincent at the two but if you I think if you don’t have that star power and I Jeremy Grant’s not really a star but he’s like he’s a fringe star like he’s a guy who can get you 20 20 points in any given night right like that’s kind of what I’m getting at there like a Jeremy Grant’s basically is basically is like a way better version of ruy haimura in my opinion but like you get Jeremy Grant there’s a Firepower element that would kind of counteract a lesser two but if you don’t get a guy with that kind of Firepower I think you need to upgrade the two and the three and so that’s why I’d look at it at like two separate deals for a Bruce brown or for Dorian finny Smith in terms of the center position I view that as important as well especially within the context of what are you going to do with Anthony Davis when he has to miss 10 games here or there that sort of thing I think a center is important but I view that is less important than the guards in the sense that you’re not winning the title unless Anthony Davis stays healthy anyway cuz you can’t CW down from the seven seed to win the crawl up from the seven seed to win the title it’s just too difficult I think that it’s the the version of this story where the Lakers win the title is they start the season really well and healthy and they have all hands on deck and then you’re going down with ad at the five next to LeBron you’re not going down with ad at the four so like again I think the backup center position is important I just think it’s less important than upgrades at the two and at the three you know the beautiful thing about being a sports fan there’s only like two days the whole year without a game two with so much happening and so much action that makes just about every day game day at draftking Sportsbook it’s super easy for first- timers to get started try betting on something simple like picking a team to win go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app select your team and place your first bet it really couldn’t be any easier or any simpler baseball golf UFC there’s something for every fan of every sport to bet on DraftKings and I know it’s early but football season will be here before you know it and the Kansas City Chiefs are currently the favorite to win the Super Bowl on DraftKings at plus 550 and if you’re new to DraftKings you got to check this out new customers bet $5 and get $ 150 in bonus bets instantly download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops that’s h o o PS that’s code Hoops for new customers to get 150 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings the crown is yours what do you make of the large contract extensions that the Celtics have been handing out do you think that exceeding the salary cap by so much will come back to bite them do you see other owners following in the footsteps of Wick rusc uh I’m going to tail in a sec like kind of put a second question on top of this do you think the Boston Celtics will keep their starting five going into 2025 2026 when all the extensions kick in they are projected to pay 500 million in luxury tax that year because of the second apron rules I think porzingis might be in another team that year personally so let’s start with the the kind of looking forward piece as we heard the Celtics are looking to trade to sell trade they’re looking to sell the Boston Celtics with the finalization around the year 2028 what that means is a new the new owner group ownership groups that are going to be considering purchasing the Boston Celtics are going to be groups that have an enormous amount of money they have to be because you’re buying that team under the impression you’re going to pay a massive luxury tax bill off the top right that goes without saying that’s like that’s kind of a prerequisite so like you’re not going to like there’s not going to be anybody that’s going to be hesitant to pay pay that kind of money that’s going to take over ownership of the Celtics in addition to that they know that that comes hand inand with championship contention the Celtics are a substantial favorite to win the title next year I think they will be again the following year so like at least two years here you’re you’re looking at a team that’s the championship favorite like there’s like a I would say there’s roughly a 50% chance that the Celtics get one of the next two that is a really really high percentage chance of getting an NBA title so it’s like basically an owner ship group can purchase the ability to most likely win an NBA title that’s that is that’s an exciting proposition for any sort of ownership group as far as the stuff goes with the uh with the second apron all it really affects is your flexibility not your ability to retain players as long as you’re willing to pay you can keep those guys together you just can’t all of those restrictions have to do with tweaking the roster and so I actually tweeted this last night and I mean it sincerely if you’re gonna be a second apron team it’s for these Five Guys it’s for Derek white Drew holiday Tatum Brown and porzingis now if porzingis continues to get hurt and it just becomes an obvious you know kind of like liability in the sense that you’re paying tons and tons of money for a guy who’s just consistently unavailable then yeah they might look to move porzingis to try to get a less expensive you know more reliable in terms of health center option but like the again it’s about flexibility like do you want to be in the second apron as as the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Clay and Draymond and like with all that money on the books and the the potential to have to pay you know Jonathan kaminga in the future obviously not which is why they made the moves they made to get out of that second apron why because they’re looking at it like we’re going to need to make substantial roster tweaks in the coming years doing that out of the second apron is damn near impossible this is our way to to get out of that situation Boston they have like literally the perfect starting five so for them it doesn’t they’re not in a position where they’re going to have to make substantial tweaks and as long as you have those guys together at the top like porzingis is like Dereck white Drew holiday Tatum and brown they all clearly have several years left and they all compliment each other so well like that’s just such a clean fit it’s just that Center position that’s going to be tricky and they have a couple years to figure it out what they want to do what direction they want to go there but yeah like as far as going into the second apron you just can’t go into the apron unless you know you’re five so let’s take the Thunder for example let’s say the Thunder become a second apron team if they’re second apron team but they’ve got Shay Jaylen Williams Lou Dort or kasan Wallace whoever it is that ends up filling that position in the long run chat and let’s say that they end up getting some forward in the long run where it’s like a cleanly fitting obviously uh like easily mixed five players that fills all the needs of a basketball team then it’s like who cares we we can work on the margins with the bench we’ve got our five you know they’re all on the same timeline that you know that’s what I think we’re going to see I think teams that enter into the second apron are going to be teams that uh legitimately have sustainability with their core Five Guys into the future the Celtics have five 30 $30 million players that all play positions that that kind of coales nicely into a fiveman unit so it makes perfect sense hey Jason nice snowb hoodie hi do you like Flagstaff it’s beautiful I love it here so Flagstaff is about 4 hours up the road from Tucson and my wife and I go there usually two or three times a year uh it’s our favorite place for day trips to go skiing because we’ll wake up at like 4:00 a.m. hit a McDonald’s outside of Phoenix on the way up to town get some you know McGriddles it’s kind of a little tradition for my wife and I and then we book it up to the mountain and it’s always beautiful cuz the sun is always Rising like just as you’re kind of coming through that that Valley up into Sedona and Flagstaff and for those of you guys who don’t know what Flagstaff is Flagstaff is a old volcanic area in northern Arizona kind of near where the uh Grand Canyon is but it’s really cool because most of the mountain ranges in in Tucson are like typical tectonic activity I say Tucson in Arizona they’re like typical tectonic activity these are volcanic uh Mounds in in Flagstaff so they’re like the they look like you know they look like the volcano see in the uh Cascade arc Arc right like they’re like Mount Rainer or you know Mount Baker or Mount Shasta that kind of thing they just look like giant like cones right and so as you like kind of come down uh uh into that Valley right before Flagstaff you look out in the distance and it’s like kind of flat everywhere except for you just see these giant like 12 13,000 foot Peaks well they have this really ni excuse me this really nice like state-of-the-art uh a state-ofthe-art for for a small facility I should a uh ski facility there they got taken over by a large ownership group a few years back and so it’s like for a single day where we can leave at 4:00 a.m. and be back by 8:30 we can get like a legit day of skiing in and my wife and I will typically go up on like a weekday on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday when there’s just nobody on the mountain and we just Cruise because it’s a little bit on the small side it’s not the biggest ski resort in the world but they’ve got really high quality skiing conveniently located next to us so that we usually do multiple like destination trips where we’ll go to like Park City like Tahoe or to Breen Ridge or something like that and then we’ll have like several day trips where we go up to Flagstaff but Flagstaff has always been a uh a kind of a a a special place for me and my friends and my family my favorite restaurant there is pizeta they have a really good pizza and beer uh we stop in town usually at the end of the day and get drinks there sometimes we’ll stay there for multiple days but uh it’s it’s kind of a geta away from the heat too being from Tucson hey Jason big Mavs fan here are there any minimum signings out there that could move the needle for them defensively the way that derck Jones Jr did I was thinking Dennis Smith Jr if not schematically how do you think the Mavs can Orient their offense to compete with the likes of Oklahoma City and Boston I did a massive deep dive into the Dallas offense and what I expect it to look like in the future in yesterday’s show so make sure you guys get to a little bit further back in my feed yesterday when we were breaking down the Klay Thompson signing I went into excruciating detail on the offens of fit so you guys can find that stuff there other like kind of like two-way wings that they can look at I looked at in the uh free agent market for like veteran minimum type of guys Alec Burks Caleb Martin Gary Trent Jr Dennis Smith Jr some of those guys might end up getting ml at other places but they’re at least potential veteran minimum guys and they’re guys that they can keep an eye on what’s your favorite PRS model uh I think the silver sky the the Paul Reed Smith makes guitars I think that the silver sky is my favorite model in terms of it’s just the easiest to pick up and play it’s basically their version of a Fender Stratocaster it’s their uh signature model for John Mayer but I think my favorite one that I own is probably my hollow body 2 Pio it’s that purple one that you’ve seen behind me sometimes that one just has like a lot of Versatility because it can do acoustic guitar stuff and it can do electric guitar stuff and the 5815 humbuckers that they have on that guitar just sound absolutely beautiful so that one I’m going to say is my uh favorite overall but easiest to play easiest to pick up and play in terms of like the tactial nature of it I’d go with the silver sky what’s the ceiling on this magic team for the upcoming season could we see an OKC 20123 2024 type leap leap so looking at their offseason they upgraded Gary har Gary Harris to cavius cwell Pope while also resigning Gary Harris they brought back Goa bad they brought back Mo Vagner this morning so they’re basically running it back with an upgrade of a starting spot I have to look at their draft picks I I didn’t even take a look at that before I pulled this up but the east in general is going to be better next year so even though I expect Orlando to be better I still kind of think they’re going to be right in that four five slot again and I think they’re probably going to lose in the first round to one of Philly Milwaukee or New York I think those are the clear top four right Boston Philly Milwaukee New York in some order with Boston at number one I don’t think Orlando’s ready to LEAP into that group yet this year that said I think they’re going to be a huge pain in the ass I think they’re going to win a lot of regular season games I think they’re going to be right up there in the mix but I just I think they’re still quite a ways away they need so much improve movent in offensive skill and kavus Cowell Pope is going to really help as just a better version of Gary Harris but I still think that that doesn’t alleviate the main concern which is there’s just not enough perimeter shooting ability in their starting lineup now if fron Vagner and palab banero both take substantial leaps as as shooters then we can have another conversation it’s just hard to believe at this point you always said you’d be skeptical of the Nuggets if they lost any of their starting five so with kcp gone do you see a path of their starting lineup being just as good next year with Christian Brown although it’ll be different stylistically also does Russ to Denver move you so here’s the thing to put it very simply the nuggets are worse than they were last year and last year they weren’t good enough now I think they were better than they looked last year I think kcp and Jamal Marie were both a little banged up by the time they even got into the Minnesota series and that ended up being where one of their main areas of of underperforming in that series but despite all that they were up 20 in the in the second half of game so like I’m of the opinion that like yeah losing kcp makes them worse yeah them being banged up played a role last year yeah they’re a little bit vulnerable to specific matchups but like I still think gun to my head if I had to pick one team to be that my favorite in the Western Conference next year even with Christian Brown sliding into that starting two spot I think I still lean Denver I just I think joic is the best player in the world I think they’re going to come into next season angry and motivated their margin for error is smaller if they win the title next year it’ll be much harder than when they won in 2023 but I think writing them off is foolish and they have some time they have some time to figure some things out like my guess is that in the long run this ends with them trying to flip Michael Porter Jr into two quality starters at some point in the future but that Aaron Gordon Jamal Murray nicoa yic core is still one of the best three-man cores in the league and I think it’d be foolish to write them off does Russ to Denver move you I I here’s the thing I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble with Russell Westbrook fans as a basketball fan I loved watching Russell Westbrook when he was in his prime but as he declined out of his prime he became in my opinion one of the most unlikable players in the NBA the amount of stupid stuff that he does and the mistakes that he makes like all I’m going to say is that somebody who covered him closely with the Lakers and now the Clippers don’t want him either like Denver do not make this mistake like this is it’d be really interesting too because LeBron made the same mistake joic is about to make apparently all the Intel is joic is kind of pushing for that behind the scenes like there’s some elements that you like right like he gives you an athletic guard to put on the floor he’s a guy that brings dribble penetration which is something that as we all know Denver lacked last year but just there’s got to be a better option than than Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook it’s just trust me guys for every good play he makes he’ll make at least one bad play and in the aggregate is going to be something that has a negative impact on the win on the team how big are you on the Grizzlies going into next season what moves do you think they need to look at in the offseason cheers from India thanks for supporting the show um I’m really high on the Grizzlies it’s hard to say where they match up with the top teams in the league because it’s just been so long since we’ve seen them all put together and playing that like I want to see a larger sample size before I start like ranking them but here’s the thing Gigi Jackson and Zach Edy add a bunch of athleticism on the wing and size on the front line they’re gonna have big looks they’re gonna have small looks John marant played like just a few games last year and looked like one of the best players in the world so like I I I I think they’re going to be right there in the top of the conference next year in the top four seeds we’ll see what they amount to as a playoff team but I’m a huge believer in Memphis and I would be stunned if they didn’t have a dominant regular season this year and if they didn’t it would probably be related to health I think Oklahoma City could have two to three championships in the next six years they’re a well organized franchise and they are for me the top three best team in the league right now behind Denver and the Celtics do you agree I do I I don’t quite have them up on Denver’s level yet but I think they’re clearly the second best team in the west and right now I’d take them over any Eastern Conference Team not named Boston I originally I thought it was Denver Boston and then a gap I think a couple teams are going to enter into that tier this year but Oklahoma City’s definitely one of them and right now before we see all this shake out because I want to see who Philly ends up rounding out their roster with like I want to see if the Lakers end up making some sort of trade like there’s a bunch of stuff that I want to see but for right now without having seen the rest of the move the player movement Oklahoma City to me is third best team in the league hey Jason love the Pod how big of a deal is Denver losing kcp with OK OKC adding hartenstein are they now the clear favorites in the west as I talked about earlier I still think I lean slightly towards Denver um but that said Oklahoma City adding harste gives them more resiliency against Denver I would have given Oklahoma City a 0% chance to beat Denver in a playoff series last year this year I give them a substantial chance even though i’ picked Denver so that to me is a substant like a significant move in that direction if Tatum to become a good to great halfcourt shot Creator would he be in the conversation for best player in the world that’s really the difference he does everything else so well he just has to get a like I don’t think playmaking is the weakness for him it’s his shot making ability he just has to become a guy who can be a 60% true shooting 30 point per game guy consistently in the playoffs in order to uh to justify being in that conversation there’s just been too much inconsistency on that end of the floor again like to put it simply like is Tatum as good a half Court surgeon as Shay gilis Alexander no not pro not really close uh is Shay gilis Alexander as good a half court shot Creator as like the Luca joic tier no not really close so like I almost look at Tatum as like a third tier halfcourt shot Creator and so like from that standpoint like I still think he’s got a ways to go to enter into those best player in the world conversations what do you see the power rankings in the East being and do you see the redistribution of talent has made it a strong enough conference that Boston would now be equally or less likely than Philly or the Knicks to make it to the finals still think Boston’s a clear favorite I think they’re clearly number one I think they’re clearly better than the next group Nicks Sixers bucks it all depends on what Milwaukee and Philly accomplish over the next couple of months but for right now it’s all up in the air for me I’d probably go nicks 2 Philly 3 Milwaukee 4 um just because of some of the health questions surrounding Philly but Boston’s a clear number one and we’ll settle that out when we get into the end of the summer and we do our Contender rankings what do you think will be the next unexpected star to get traded because his team decides to throw in the towel to go into full rebuilding mode the four guys that rote down were James Harden Brandon Ingram Jimmy Butler and Trey young those are the guys that I think in the next 12 months could become available for trade Harden’s on a discounted deal now like an affordable deal 35 million it’s a lot of money but it’s not an absurd amount of money and it’s only a two-year contract and if kawhai gets hurt again I just think if you’re the Clippers you turn you trade hard in as part of a rebuild uh Brandon Ingram is the odd man out the weird fit in New Orleans so I could see him getting moved Jimmy Butler kind of feels like the end of the window we’re going to talk about him in just a minute and then Trey young you know like if Atlanta just decides that they want to move into a full rebuild that’s the guy that’s obviously going to go thoughts on the Miami Heat consistently deciding to run it back year after year instead of improving at what point do we need to call out Pat riy I’ve called out Pat riy every summer for the same problem and the main issue here is now it doesn’t even make sense to go all in last summer was the last summer where it made any sense or last deadline was the last time it made any sense they didn’t get it done now at this point it feels like Jimmy’s starting to kind of tail off a little bit bam doesn’t seem like there’s much more of a ceiling there than what we’ve seen so like at this point it doesn’t even make sense and I think the window might be closed and so it is what it is there was an opportunity to be aggressive there Pat riy never jumped on it and I feel bad for Miami Heat fans Jason what do you make of the CBA are there any things you wish to see improved and what do you make of the cap aprons my only issue with it is like I think that those restrictions need to be reconfigured to to player movement rather than the draft so for instance like I don’t think you should have to pay the price for drafting a bunch of good players and having to pay them all but yeah if you want to go out into the open market and trade for players or sign players in free agency there should be punishments for just overspending right just to try to level the playing field but like it’s stupid to me that a team could just trade could just draft extremely well and end up uh and end up uh getting squeezed out of retaining Talent now there’s caveats there what about traded draft picks right like Oklahoma City has a million first-r round draft picks so of course they have a bunch of really good players right well there’s an easy fix there you just make it for your own draft picks like if you draft a pick with your original team’s actual pick that belongs to you originally then that player should not count towards those sorts of sorts of cap exceptions essentially like imagine it as like a spending budget outside of your own draft picks that that would be the way that I would look at it but right now it just it seems like it was really heavily geared towards the teams that were Big Spenders but those teams weren’t even the best teams in the league really they just had giant payrolls and like I mean the teams that had to get out of it the Clippers and the Warriors how much of a threat were they this season they won two playoff games combined between the two of them right so like it’s it’s one of those things were like I think it was kind of like a reactionary thing to some large payrolls but it doesn’t really serve the purpose of creating fairness around the league let’s see um what is do you see as the next step in Derrick Lively’s develop is adding the three-point shot realistic I think it’s less about the three-point shot even though I do think that derck Lively has that capability it’s more about just becoming the quintessential five out fulcrum I think Dallas is going to shift to more five out movement next year I talked about it a lot in yesterday’s show and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Derrik Lively to be a decision maker and a playmaker in that role and uh there was a report I saw this morning from Tim McMahon that they’re leaning towards putting Derrik Lively full-time into the starting lineup which is another thing I talked about yesterday as an indicator of them shifting more towards five out so like that that I think is going to be his main area of development as being more of like a fulcrum great guy for him to watch film of would be Isaiah hartenstein that’s a player that I think he could learn a lot from favorite Star Wars character of all time I would go with either Darth Bane or Darth pleus I’m a big Sith guy I find them to be the most fascinating uh entity in that Universe Darth Bane and has three books that you can find in the Legends Continuum and then uh pagus has one those are like four of my favorite books ever highly recommend you guys check them out thrawn is going to be my third place guy uh Grand Admiral Thon those of you guys who have watched Rebels or read the thraw books will know why Thon is such a cool character I also have a podcast where I talk Star Wars and not just Star Wars but other TV shows and media and movies and stuff it’s called two sons you can see it right down there twwo Sons I have a YouTube channel as well as a podcast feed there me and my best friend Luke break all that stuff down we just talked House of the Dragon yesterday tonight we’re talking uh the acolyte so you can find that on the feeds later tonight as well let’s see how do you gauge which opinions are common in the NBA world when a lot of times the loudest people are a minority a minority that doesn’t always believe logic is a necessary ingredient in forming an opinion this is one of the biggest things I’ve just learned in general since I got into this industry loudness on social media is almost always not the public opinion um they it is the fringes that are the loudest in addition to that like there’s just not a lot of people on Twitter for instance there’s just not a lot of people on Twitter in the real world like a very small percentage of uh at least of Americans I’m not sure if it’s like this in other countries but a very small percentage of Americans are active Twitter users so the idea that like if you see some opinions on Twitter that that’s reflective of a specific uh large Nationwide opinion that that’s just not the case and so in general like I’ve had to work on not reacting and there still a weakness of mine that I’m getting better at but I have to work on at at not reacting to the loud cringes on social media how the last question how do slid you approach becoming a better ball handler for both yourself and your high school kids you work with you’ve touched on this one covering Jabari Smith identified it as a pretty big weakness of his but last summer you were really impressed with him thanks I know it sounds silly but it’s just about drills and the main thing specifically with the drills are like body language like the actual move of a crossover behind the back move or behind the back dribble the success of that move has way more to do with whether or not you actually sold that you’re going the other way than how dramatic you whip the ball across like a basic push cross where you don’t do anything fancy but just kind of push the ball to the left as long as you had your body geared up to the right and your eyes to the right and everything to the right that’s going to be more effective than a big sweeping Allen Iverson crossover and so like again like the body language is a big piece of it and then tight and under control like a lot of people think like oh it’s about dribbling through cones and you got to dribble cones as part of your skill development piece like that’s that’s how you become better at ball handling but the major piece of it is can you protect the ball in traffic like real ball handling in real basketball games is about like when you make a move and the dude’s riding your hip and swiping at your other arm can you fend him off while dribbling with your left hand as you go into traffic can you split two Defenders and gather the ball strong before you make that next pass or dribble low like the low gathers that you see guys like Tatum or or Jaylen Brunson use like or Trey young like there’s so many different like little intricacy intricacies of it but most of it is about learning how to dribble in traffic and so it’s a good mix of practicing with cones but also doing ball handling against live defense so like one-on-one drills where you tighten off an area and you make multiple counter moves that’s like your turn your man five times drill that you see sometimes in high school where you go from like the lane line over to the sideline and you just have to try to turn your man five times the ball handler is working against ball pressure that way but it’s a good mix of against live defense and cone dribbling and again it just guys it’s incremental just like jump shooting you have to put thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps in over the course of multiple Summers to improve it’s a it’s a it’s a very painstaking process all right guys that is all I have for today as I said we’ll be back Monday unless we have some sort of major news release regardless of when that happens I will see you guys when I see you guys [Music] he

Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. How should Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors move forward after losing Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks? Who should LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers target to return to championship form? Later, Jason shares his thoughts on the massive contracts handed out by the Boston Celtics, whether Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are still favorites in the Western Conference, and much more!

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:18 – Should Warriors have given Klay more?
03:47 – What’s next for Warriors?
08:58 – Who else should Lakers target?
13:54 – What to make of Celtics massive contracts
18:24 – Thoughts on Flagstaff, Arizona
20:53 – Who Mavericks should go after
21:48 – Jason’s favorite guitars
22:31 – What is Magic’s ceiling
23:50 – Are Nuggets still the favorite?
25:25 – Russell Westbrook to Denver?
26:27 – How good will Grizzlies be?
27:14 – Where OKC ranks in West
27:59 – OKC vs. Denver
28:26 – How close is Tatum to best player in world?
29:20 – Power Rankings in East
29:58 – Which star will be traded next?
30:42 – What are Heat doing?
31:16 – Does Jason like CBA?
32:51 – Next steps for Dereck Lively
33:38 – Favorite Star Wars character of all-time
34:28 – Twitter opinions vs. real opinions
35:30 – How to become better ball handler

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