The volume When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beaters, Cinderella is advancing top seeds, going home early. It's all gonna happen. Bet the unexpected, every upset, every day with Draft Kings Sportsbook. With live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays, Draft Kings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups, and pick a team to win. It's that simple. I'm a big arizon A Wildcats fan, born and raised here in Tucson, Arizona. I'm a little skeptical about them on the offensive end of the floor, but they looked really good on defense again last night against Kansas, so I'll probably be betting on them this time around.

The volume When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beaters, Cinderella is advancing top seeds, going home early. It's all gonna happen. Bet the unexpected, every upset, every day with Draft Kings Sportsbook. With live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays, Draft Kings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups, and pick a team to win. It's that simple. I'm a big arizon A Wildcats fan, born and raised here in Tucson, Arizona. I'm a little skeptical about them on the offensive end of the floor, but they looked really good on defense again last night against Kansas, so I'll probably be betting on them this time around.

First time.

First time.

Here's something special just for you new Draft Kings customers. Bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly bet the unexpected with Draft Kings Sportsbook. Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope end why or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. All right, wellcon to WHO'SAIDI here at the volume, A hoo all you guys are having a great week as promise. Today we're hitting our mail bag. A bunch of you guys dropped a bunch of really good questions. Remember, if you want to get questions into the mail bag, go into our full episodes type mail bag in the comments with a call in. That's the thing, and I look at as an indicator of a mail back question, write your comment in there or your question in there, and then we'll get to them, typically on Fridays throughout the season. I've just been doing a lot of traveling in March, so we've been on a funky schedule. But after the next two weeks, I finally am done traveling for the rest of the season and we'll get back into our kind of Friday schedule from there. That's how you guys can drop questions. You guys, ote the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Not YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, Underscore JSNLTC. You guys don't miss you announcement, So forget about a podcast feed wherever you gets your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there in the last not least. Like I mentioned earlier, keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question, Hello, and thank you for the amazing content every week. My question is about the new Warriors with Jimmy Butler. After the All Star Break, the Warriors had the second easiest remaining schedule in the league. So our thirteen to one in the games with Jimmy is it a bit inflated and not an accurate depiction of their team. So I think a couple of different things are true. Like, I think it's okay to acknowledge that the Warriors have had an easy schedule while also not overthinking what this team is actually capable of doing. They've been an elite defense all year. Their offense has been the issue in this stretch. Steph is playing by far the best offense he's played all year, and Jimmy Butler has helped unlock a bunch of different dimensions to the offense that weren't there in the past. So like, on the one hand, like, do I know for sure how good Golden State is compared to the best teams in the league. No, I don't. I Also, I'm not sure we're gonna find out until we get to the playoffs. They've got five games left against the upper tier in the Western Conference. They've got two against Denver, one against Monday night. We're covering that game live. This mail bag is being recorded on Monday, so you guys will already know the result by then. But there's one more against Denver, a game against the Lakers, a game against the Rockets, and a game against the Grizzlies.

Here's something special just for you new Draft Kings customers. Bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly bet the unexpected with Draft Kings Sportsbook. Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope end why or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. All right, wellcon to WHO'SAIDI here at the volume, A hoo all you guys are having a great week as promise. Today we're hitting our mail bag. A bunch of you guys dropped a bunch of really good questions. Remember, if you want to get questions into the mail bag, go into our full episodes type mail bag in the comments with a call in. That's the thing, and I look at as an indicator of a mail back question, write your comment in there or your question in there, and then we'll get to them, typically on Fridays throughout the season. I've just been doing a lot of traveling in March, so we've been on a funky schedule. But after the next two weeks, I finally am done traveling for the rest of the season and we'll get back into our kind of Friday schedule from there. That's how you guys can drop questions. You guys, ote the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Not YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, Underscore JSNLTC. You guys don't miss you announcement, So forget about a podcast feed wherever you gets your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there in the last not least. Like I mentioned earlier, keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question, Hello, and thank you for the amazing content every week. My question is about the new Warriors with Jimmy Butler. After the All Star Break, the Warriors had the second easiest remaining schedule in the league. So our thirteen to one in the games with Jimmy is it a bit inflated and not an accurate depiction of their team. So I think a couple of different things are true. Like, I think it's okay to acknowledge that the Warriors have had an easy schedule while also not overthinking what this team is actually capable of doing. They've been an elite defense all year. Their offense has been the issue in this stretch. Steph is playing by far the best offense he's played all year, and Jimmy Butler has helped unlock a bunch of different dimensions to the offense that weren't there in the past. So like, on the one hand, like, do I know for sure how good Golden State is compared to the best teams in the league. No, I don't. I Also, I'm not sure we're gonna find out until we get to the playoffs. They've got five games left against the upper tier in the Western Conference. They've got two against Denver, one against Monday night. We're covering that game live. This mail bag is being recorded on Monday, so you guys will already know the result by then. But there's one more against Denver, a game against the Lakers, a game against the Rockets, and a game against the Grizzlies.

Those will be.

Those will be.

Opportunities for us to learn more. But like again, like the teams that I view as the as the primary barriers for any team's success in this league are the Thunder out West and the Calves and Celtics out East, and we're just not going to get to see it. But at the same time, again, even though some of that is being left up to you know, hypothesis from us, there's a huge part of it that's like, let's not overthink it. The Warriors have beat the Thunder twice this year. They've beat the Celtics this year. In those games, it was a combination of elite defense and Steph rising to the occasion and everybody playing well off of it, and so like, while there is a good amount of hypothesis here, I think it's my personal hypothesis would be that that team is one of the top tier teams in the Western Conference. Like I think they're at least on the same level as Denver and the Lakers, and probably closer to the Thunder than we're willing to admit. At a certain point, you just don't want to overthink it elite defense, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Like, I don't need to do a ton of second guessing whether or not that team is capable of doing damage in the Western Conference. Next question, I'm a firm believer that the twenty twenty one Lakers would have repeated if Lebron and ad were healthy. What do you think? Also, you have the best basketball content out there keeping up. Thank you so much for the kind words. So I think so, hey, really is this simple? Like, do you think that the twenty twenty one Milwaukee Bucks or the twenty twenty one Phoenix Suns, or the Atlanta Hawks or the Clippers of that Kawhi Leonard those were literally the final four teams that year as all of the elite teams that were great in the previous year broke down from all of the extra wear and tear that they took on from the bubble, And so like they're legitimate champions. The twenty twenty one Milwaukee Bucks, I never want to go back and try to try to take away credit or anything like that. But who do I think was the best team that year? I think it was the Lakers because right before Solomon Hill dived dove into Lebron's leg, he was playing like one of the best players in the league when they were. When Lebron was injured, Ad was injured and the team was out of rhythm, they still took a two to one lead on the Phoenix Suns before Ad pulled his scroin muscle. So yeah, I think they probably would have repeated. But again, everyone that year that played in that playoff run broke down, like everyone broke down, and so at a certain point, like even if they beat the Suns team they could have broken down in a later series. It just would have been really difficult to turn around and win a championship after what happened in that bubble season? Are the Denver Nuggets still contenders? Based on the recent performances against good teams? Yoki seems to be playing well, but his counterparts are having a lot of issues, be it with injuries or finishing plays. Thank you, Jason for your awesome insight. As always, I appreciate it. So I'm having a really, really hard time making a read on this Denver Nuggets team because, on the one hand, it's abundantly clear as you're watching them that they're leaving a lot in reserve, Like it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that they're capable of beating the Washington Wizards or winning comfortably against an Austin Reeves led Lakers team that's missing four of their five starters. The tricky thing is they are practicing playing bad basketball. They are using these games in the regular season to play a brand of basketball that will get them beat. And so on one hand, I look at it like Nikole Jokic tons of continuity. We have seen these guys play better defense in the past. What if they get to April and it's like Jokic starts defending better in ball screens and being more active with his hands. Aaron Gordon's there, unhealthy and doing a really nice job as a lone man cleaning things up. Christian Brown, Peyton Watson are out there as wrecking balls. They're just doing their job, and suddenly it comes together. Yokics plays like the best player in the world. The offense continues to look super smooth as they have all that continuity. I'm not gonna sit here and say that's not a potential outcome, if, of course it is. But NBA history tells us that when you practice playing bad basketball in the regular season, like being a bottom ten defense the way that the Denver Nuggets are, NBA history tells us that team gets beat. So like, I don't know what to make of it, and like I see Denver Nuggets fans getting frustrated, I don't blame them like this, this roster already has its shortcomings. So if there was an opportunity for you, for you to win the title, it would be by practicing playing the sharpest and best possible basketball that you can play. So, like, everything in my brain is screaming, this Denver team can't do it because they're just missing these basic checkpoints on the way. But there's always a part of like my basketball heart that says, don't write off Jokic, Murray, Michael Porter Junior, and Aaron Gordon in a playoff series. So to do with that bit of information, which you will next question who is better? A lot of like little nitty gritty Lakers Warriors questions, like a head to head Lakers Warriors questions today, which I think are fascinating. Who is better Austin Reeves or Brandon Pajemski. They're very different types of players. So for instance, like Austin Reeves just averaged thirty one, seven and seven over his last three games, Brandon Pajemski is not capable of that. So, like, there's no doubt that Austin is a substantially better offensive player. But Brandon Pajemski has turned into a very reliable guard defender in this league who's been doing a really nice job pressuring the ball and playing a very important role in the Warriors defensive scheme. And he's also been a productive cog in the offensive system as kind of like a second side action guy and like a connective playmaker.

Opportunities for us to learn more. But like again, like the teams that I view as the as the primary barriers for any team's success in this league are the Thunder out West and the Calves and Celtics out East, and we're just not going to get to see it. But at the same time, again, even though some of that is being left up to you know, hypothesis from us, there's a huge part of it that's like, let's not overthink it. The Warriors have beat the Thunder twice this year. They've beat the Celtics this year. In those games, it was a combination of elite defense and Steph rising to the occasion and everybody playing well off of it, and so like, while there is a good amount of hypothesis here, I think it's my personal hypothesis would be that that team is one of the top tier teams in the Western Conference. Like I think they're at least on the same level as Denver and the Lakers, and probably closer to the Thunder than we're willing to admit. At a certain point, you just don't want to overthink it elite defense, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Like, I don't need to do a ton of second guessing whether or not that team is capable of doing damage in the Western Conference. Next question, I'm a firm believer that the twenty twenty one Lakers would have repeated if Lebron and ad were healthy. What do you think? Also, you have the best basketball content out there keeping up. Thank you so much for the kind words. So I think so, hey, really is this simple? Like, do you think that the twenty twenty one Milwaukee Bucks or the twenty twenty one Phoenix Suns, or the Atlanta Hawks or the Clippers of that Kawhi Leonard those were literally the final four teams that year as all of the elite teams that were great in the previous year broke down from all of the extra wear and tear that they took on from the bubble, And so like they're legitimate champions. The twenty twenty one Milwaukee Bucks, I never want to go back and try to try to take away credit or anything like that. But who do I think was the best team that year? I think it was the Lakers because right before Solomon Hill dived dove into Lebron's leg, he was playing like one of the best players in the league when they were. When Lebron was injured, Ad was injured and the team was out of rhythm, they still took a two to one lead on the Phoenix Suns before Ad pulled his scroin muscle. So yeah, I think they probably would have repeated. But again, everyone that year that played in that playoff run broke down, like everyone broke down, and so at a certain point, like even if they beat the Suns team they could have broken down in a later series. It just would have been really difficult to turn around and win a championship after what happened in that bubble season? Are the Denver Nuggets still contenders? Based on the recent performances against good teams? Yoki seems to be playing well, but his counterparts are having a lot of issues, be it with injuries or finishing plays. Thank you, Jason for your awesome insight. As always, I appreciate it. So I'm having a really, really hard time making a read on this Denver Nuggets team because, on the one hand, it's abundantly clear as you're watching them that they're leaving a lot in reserve, Like it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that they're capable of beating the Washington Wizards or winning comfortably against an Austin Reeves led Lakers team that's missing four of their five starters. The tricky thing is they are practicing playing bad basketball. They are using these games in the regular season to play a brand of basketball that will get them beat. And so on one hand, I look at it like Nikole Jokic tons of continuity. We have seen these guys play better defense in the past. What if they get to April and it's like Jokic starts defending better in ball screens and being more active with his hands. Aaron Gordon's there, unhealthy and doing a really nice job as a lone man cleaning things up. Christian Brown, Peyton Watson are out there as wrecking balls. They're just doing their job, and suddenly it comes together. Yokics plays like the best player in the world. The offense continues to look super smooth as they have all that continuity. I'm not gonna sit here and say that's not a potential outcome, if, of course it is. But NBA history tells us that when you practice playing bad basketball in the regular season, like being a bottom ten defense the way that the Denver Nuggets are, NBA history tells us that team gets beat. So like, I don't know what to make of it, and like I see Denver Nuggets fans getting frustrated, I don't blame them like this, this roster already has its shortcomings. So if there was an opportunity for you, for you to win the title, it would be by practicing playing the sharpest and best possible basketball that you can play. So, like, everything in my brain is screaming, this Denver team can't do it because they're just missing these basic checkpoints on the way. But there's always a part of like my basketball heart that says, don't write off Jokic, Murray, Michael Porter Junior, and Aaron Gordon in a playoff series. So to do with that bit of information, which you will next question who is better? A lot of like little nitty gritty Lakers Warriors questions, like a head to head Lakers Warriors questions today, which I think are fascinating. Who is better Austin Reeves or Brandon Pajemski. They're very different types of players. So for instance, like Austin Reeves just averaged thirty one, seven and seven over his last three games, Brandon Pajemski is not capable of that. So, like, there's no doubt that Austin is a substantially better offensive player. But Brandon Pajemski has turned into a very reliable guard defender in this league who's been doing a really nice job pressuring the ball and playing a very important role in the Warriors defensive scheme. And he's also been a productive cog in the offensive system as kind of like a second side action guy and like a connective playmaker.

Right.

Right.

So to put that into a more concise statement, I would say that Austin is better than Pods in my opinion, But the gap smaller than the.

So to put that into a more concise statement, I would say that Austin is better than Pods in my opinion, But the gap smaller than the.

Statistical performance would lead you to believe.

Statistical performance would lead you to believe.

Have you noticed any difference in Luca's ability to beat people off the ball? Is it just me or has he struggled a bit more in that department? And are you concerned about it? I'm not concerned about that at all whatsoever. Uh, Luca had a move against KD in the early first quarter yesterday. It was the one that put them up twenty to nine, where he chained together like a aggressive move to the left, a counter moved to the right, and then a pullback dribble and like stopped on a dime on the pullback dribble. Like it literally looked like someone hit like pause and rewind instantaneously, like he was moving forward and suddenly he was moving backwards. It was very similar to the movie hit Rudy Gobert with in the Western Conference Finals game winner in Game two, And on that move, I was like, oh, like, Luca's really starting to get his legs back underneath him.

Have you noticed any difference in Luca's ability to beat people off the ball? Is it just me or has he struggled a bit more in that department? And are you concerned about it? I'm not concerned about that at all whatsoever. Uh, Luca had a move against KD in the early first quarter yesterday. It was the one that put them up twenty to nine, where he chained together like a aggressive move to the left, a counter moved to the right, and then a pullback dribble and like stopped on a dime on the pullback dribble. Like it literally looked like someone hit like pause and rewind instantaneously, like he was moving forward and suddenly he was moving backwards. It was very similar to the movie hit Rudy Gobert with in the Western Conference Finals game winner in Game two, And on that move, I was like, oh, like, Luca's really starting to get his legs back underneath him.

Now.

Now.

He did have a pretty bad ankle sprain yesterday and who knows what that means for his mobility and the big picture. But honestly, to take to go even deeper to the root of your question, do I have concern about Luca's ability to beat people off the ball even when he was in terrible shape in the early Lakers games. He's just so big and strong, and he's just so good at getting defenders to lean the wrong way. With his fakes that even when he was out of shape, he was rumbling his way downhill towards the rim. Like Luca's ability to get the ball into the paint is such an incredible asset in one of the most underrated parts of his game because it's super resilient. It's a trait that works against just about everybody in just about every scheme except for a blitz, which now you're playing four on three out of anyway. Thanks question, how do you perceive Steph Curry's two finals that he won with Kevin Durant on the roster. Seems to me the larger NBA fan base and analysts write them off because Steph didn't win Finals MVP, although he played at an extremely high level. How did they factor into his legacy? In your view? This is a super complex and loaded question. I don't think anybody cares necessarily that he didn't win Finals MVP. I've seen like some lowbrow stuff, like just like trolls kind of focusing on that sort of thing. I do think that there's some reality to the basic fact that every NBA championship has a different level of resonence with people. This goes like, let's just go back through through recent NBA history, Like, there's not a lot of people that are profoundly moved by the twenty twenty four Celtics, who have five players who catch over thirty million dollars a year on the open market, beating the Pacers and the injury ravaged Pacers and the injury ravaged Calves along the way to winning a title against a good Western Conference team, but a team, a Western Conference team that nobody thought was the best Western Conference team last year.

He did have a pretty bad ankle sprain yesterday and who knows what that means for his mobility and the big picture. But honestly, to take to go even deeper to the root of your question, do I have concern about Luca's ability to beat people off the ball even when he was in terrible shape in the early Lakers games. He's just so big and strong, and he's just so good at getting defenders to lean the wrong way. With his fakes that even when he was out of shape, he was rumbling his way downhill towards the rim. Like Luca's ability to get the ball into the paint is such an incredible asset in one of the most underrated parts of his game because it's super resilient. It's a trait that works against just about everybody in just about every scheme except for a blitz, which now you're playing four on three out of anyway. Thanks question, how do you perceive Steph Curry's two finals that he won with Kevin Durant on the roster. Seems to me the larger NBA fan base and analysts write them off because Steph didn't win Finals MVP, although he played at an extremely high level. How did they factor into his legacy? In your view? This is a super complex and loaded question. I don't think anybody cares necessarily that he didn't win Finals MVP. I've seen like some lowbrow stuff, like just like trolls kind of focusing on that sort of thing. I do think that there's some reality to the basic fact that every NBA championship has a different level of resonence with people. This goes like, let's just go back through through recent NBA history, Like, there's not a lot of people that are profoundly moved by the twenty twenty four Celtics, who have five players who catch over thirty million dollars a year on the open market, beating the Pacers and the injury ravaged Pacers and the injury ravaged Calves along the way to winning a title against a good Western Conference team, but a team, a Western Conference team that nobody thought was the best Western Conference team last year.

Like that title still a title.

Like that title still a title.

They're not gonna get a lot of casual fans that are like, oh, my goodness, this is the most impressive thing anyone's ever done. Same sort of thing goes with the Denver Nuggets if you look through like they were considered one of the better teams in the league, but they faced a lot of like semi limited teams along the way, and then they didn't have to face the team out of the Eastern Conference that everybody feared, which was the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. And so it has a certain amount of like do just a little bit of a weird kind of like public perception of that title. Twenty twenty two when Steph Curry beat that Celtics team and that team didn't have a secondary star. Like, of all of the championships Steph won, that is by far the most resident. That is the championship that when you look back, like that's the one that's unassailable. That's the one that even the people that don't like Steph that much are like, holy shit, that was crazy, Like down two to one on the road in Boston, hitting all those crazy, insane shots he did to drop a forty piece to win the title, like that was crazy, right, Like even I could say the same thing in reverse about Lebron, Like Lebron's twenty twenty title when he won with Anthony Davis, that title is the least resonant of the four that Lebron won. If you go back to twenty sixteen, that was Lebron's title. That was similar to the Steph one in twenty twenty three, where it's like, that's unassailable, you can't shit on that. That is the accomplishment, that is the defining moment of Lebron's career. That twenty twenty titles still championship, it still counts in the leisure but it's not the one that's going to resonate for the length of time that we talk about Lebron James the way that that twenty sixteen title does, or the twenty thirteen when they're down three to two in the finals and they have to go to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, those resonate differently with Steph as you look back to the twenty seventeen finals. Here's the simplest way that I could put it to you, guys. In twenty seventeen, before the season and in twenty eighteen, before the season, the Warriors were so favored over the field that before the season started, so in early October, the sports books had them as a negative odds favorite to win the title, meaning if you bet a dollar in October for the Warriors to win the title, you were gonna win less than a dollar. That is how clearly more talented that team was than anyone else in the league. Doesn't mean they're not champions, doesn't mean those titles don't count, but yeah, like think about what think about a bet you've placed recently on DraftKings where you received negative odds, and like, think about how you expected that team to win, or you expected that player to hit those points, rebounds, assists, score a touchdown, whatever it was, you expected it with the negative odds. That's how everyone felt about those Warriors teams before we even started playing basketball. So at a certain point, I do think it's worth at least acknowledging that those titles carry a different level of weight in the court of public opinion. But it doesn't change the fact that at the time I still believed Steph was one of the greatest players in NBA history, who was more than good enough to be the best player in a champmpionship team, thus a champion and should be respected as such. So on and so forth for KD, Like to me, I didn't need to see KD go to the Warriors in twenty seventeen to know that he could be a champion. He was playing with Russell Westbrook, who was like, you know, like a kind of a hectic basketball player that made a lot of big mistakes in big spots, and his team didn't have a lot of offensive talent around him. Was a very big, bruising type of team. I'm not trying to say that, you know, KD doesn't share some blame for the failures of the thunder beforehand. But I knew in twenty fourteen that KD was good enough to be a champion and thus a championship level player. He just hadn't done it yet. And so like, like that's the thing. It shouldn't take us seeing Steph in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty two winning a title against long odds for us to acknowledge that he's a champion. It shouldn't take Lebron winning a title in twenty sixteen against long odds for us to acknowledge that he's a champion type that type of all time great. But it's just kind of of unfortunately the way that it works in the court of public opinion. To put it simply, just like anytime you watch anybody do everything or anything, the degree of difficulty matters and how impressed you are. I watched John Mayer once at the Sphere play an entire two shows missing his index finger on his fretting hand, and that was far more impressive than anything I've ever seen him do because of the degree of difficulty it is. It is just a natural part of the way that we process information. So yeah, like to me, they were champions at championships. To me, they you know, kind of add to the story of Steph Curry's career. But like when someone asks me to explain to them, tell me about Steph Curry twenty years from now. Tell me about Steph Curry, Tell me about why he was as good as he was, tell me about his greatest accomplishments. I'm probably not going to talk a ton about twenty seventeen in twenty eighteen because there was very little in the way of adversity in those seasons. Like I've said this before on the record, everyone says, oh, if Chris Paul didn't get hurt, they might have lost in twenty eighteen.

They're not gonna get a lot of casual fans that are like, oh, my goodness, this is the most impressive thing anyone's ever done. Same sort of thing goes with the Denver Nuggets if you look through like they were considered one of the better teams in the league, but they faced a lot of like semi limited teams along the way, and then they didn't have to face the team out of the Eastern Conference that everybody feared, which was the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. And so it has a certain amount of like do just a little bit of a weird kind of like public perception of that title. Twenty twenty two when Steph Curry beat that Celtics team and that team didn't have a secondary star. Like, of all of the championships Steph won, that is by far the most resident. That is the championship that when you look back, like that's the one that's unassailable. That's the one that even the people that don't like Steph that much are like, holy shit, that was crazy, Like down two to one on the road in Boston, hitting all those crazy, insane shots he did to drop a forty piece to win the title, like that was crazy, right, Like even I could say the same thing in reverse about Lebron, Like Lebron's twenty twenty title when he won with Anthony Davis, that title is the least resonant of the four that Lebron won. If you go back to twenty sixteen, that was Lebron's title. That was similar to the Steph one in twenty twenty three, where it's like, that's unassailable, you can't shit on that. That is the accomplishment, that is the defining moment of Lebron's career. That twenty twenty titles still championship, it still counts in the leisure but it's not the one that's going to resonate for the length of time that we talk about Lebron James the way that that twenty sixteen title does, or the twenty thirteen when they're down three to two in the finals and they have to go to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, those resonate differently with Steph as you look back to the twenty seventeen finals. Here's the simplest way that I could put it to you, guys. In twenty seventeen, before the season and in twenty eighteen, before the season, the Warriors were so favored over the field that before the season started, so in early October, the sports books had them as a negative odds favorite to win the title, meaning if you bet a dollar in October for the Warriors to win the title, you were gonna win less than a dollar. That is how clearly more talented that team was than anyone else in the league. Doesn't mean they're not champions, doesn't mean those titles don't count, but yeah, like think about what think about a bet you've placed recently on DraftKings where you received negative odds, and like, think about how you expected that team to win, or you expected that player to hit those points, rebounds, assists, score a touchdown, whatever it was, you expected it with the negative odds. That's how everyone felt about those Warriors teams before we even started playing basketball. So at a certain point, I do think it's worth at least acknowledging that those titles carry a different level of weight in the court of public opinion. But it doesn't change the fact that at the time I still believed Steph was one of the greatest players in NBA history, who was more than good enough to be the best player in a champmpionship team, thus a champion and should be respected as such. So on and so forth for KD, Like to me, I didn't need to see KD go to the Warriors in twenty seventeen to know that he could be a champion. He was playing with Russell Westbrook, who was like, you know, like a kind of a hectic basketball player that made a lot of big mistakes in big spots, and his team didn't have a lot of offensive talent around him. Was a very big, bruising type of team. I'm not trying to say that, you know, KD doesn't share some blame for the failures of the thunder beforehand. But I knew in twenty fourteen that KD was good enough to be a champion and thus a championship level player. He just hadn't done it yet. And so like, like that's the thing. It shouldn't take us seeing Steph in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty two winning a title against long odds for us to acknowledge that he's a champion. It shouldn't take Lebron winning a title in twenty sixteen against long odds for us to acknowledge that he's a champion type that type of all time great. But it's just kind of of unfortunately the way that it works in the court of public opinion. To put it simply, just like anytime you watch anybody do everything or anything, the degree of difficulty matters and how impressed you are. I watched John Mayer once at the Sphere play an entire two shows missing his index finger on his fretting hand, and that was far more impressive than anything I've ever seen him do because of the degree of difficulty it is. It is just a natural part of the way that we process information. So yeah, like to me, they were champions at championships. To me, they you know, kind of add to the story of Steph Curry's career. But like when someone asks me to explain to them, tell me about Steph Curry twenty years from now. Tell me about Steph Curry, Tell me about why he was as good as he was, tell me about his greatest accomplishments. I'm probably not going to talk a ton about twenty seventeen in twenty eighteen because there was very little in the way of adversity in those seasons. Like I've said this before on the record, everyone says, oh, if Chris Paul didn't get hurt, they might have lost in twenty eighteen.

I don't feel that way. I think that the Warriors.

I don't feel that way. I think that the Warriors.

And must win games in Game six and Game seven would have got it done. I think that lineup that Steph kd Klay Thompson at the peak of his powers, Draymond Green, best defensive player in the league, Andre Gudala is still good and mobile at that point, that was the best five man lineup that has ever been constructed on a normal basketball team, not counting like All Star teams or Team USA. And so that certainly is going to play a role in their.

And must win games in Game six and Game seven would have got it done. I think that lineup that Steph kd Klay Thompson at the peak of his powers, Draymond Green, best defensive player in the league, Andre Gudala is still good and mobile at that point, that was the best five man lineup that has ever been constructed on a normal basketball team, not counting like All Star teams or Team USA. And so that certainly is going to play a role in their.

Ability to win a championship.

Ability to win a championship.

Who do you think would win in a playoff series with the Lakers versus Warriors? Like I said, I had a couple questions this year about specifically about Lakers versus Warriors, or this mailbag specifically about Lakers versus Warriors. Who do you think would win a playoff series Lakers with Warriors with a healthy Lebron and why I think the Lakers would win this series. There are two reasons why, in particular that I think the Lakers would do really well in this particular matchup. As we saw in the Boston game, and as I've talked about extensively, this is a Lakers defense that has been the number one defense in the NBA for a long time, and one of the reasons why has been JJ Redick's game planning. They have been very, very good at finding the guys on the floor that they can help off of, in using those guys as roamers and rotators, and targeting all their defensive attention against the skilled offensive players on the floor. Boston was uniquely equipped to truly space. The Lakers out enforce Austin and Luca at a guard in space and they had some issues. And I still am concerned about the Lakers in a Celtics particular matchup against the Warriors again. And there have been nights when we had a night the other day where against the Kings where Draymond Green and Gary Payton went you know, seven for eleven from three, and like they might have a game like that or two in a series against the Lakers where it ends up going the other way. But like the Lakers have the personnel to help the Warriors, excuse me, have the personnel that the Lakers can help off of. And in that context, the Lakers have literally been the best defense in basketball for a while. So like they have the ability to guard Golden State in a certain way that they can struggle against a team like Boston for instance. And then on the other end of the floor, you're talking about two giant matchup attacking forwards and Lebron James and Luka Doncic that are consistently going to have two or three guys on the floor that they can attack. There's just a lot of perimeter, a lack of perimeter size with Golden State that Lebron and Luca will take advantage of and it's like, Okay, well what if we just put Draymond on Luca and we put Jimmy Butler on Lebron. Okay, you have zero size on the back line. Now, who's gonna guard Ruy? Hatchro Mura, Who's gonna guard Austin Reeves? Like it turn into a situation where the Lakers just have matchup advantages all over the floor in that particular matchup. And while yes, Steph is a problem and the Lakers don't have a good guard defender on the roster, they have the tools to because of Golden State's non shooters on the floor, to consistently keep Steph in a crowd, Whereas the Lakers can put together lineups with Austin Ruy, Dorian Finney Smith, Lebron, and Luca where you literally cannot help off of anybody. And Lebron and Luke are going to get to take their pick on which matchups they.

Who do you think would win in a playoff series with the Lakers versus Warriors? Like I said, I had a couple questions this year about specifically about Lakers versus Warriors, or this mailbag specifically about Lakers versus Warriors. Who do you think would win a playoff series Lakers with Warriors with a healthy Lebron and why I think the Lakers would win this series. There are two reasons why, in particular that I think the Lakers would do really well in this particular matchup. As we saw in the Boston game, and as I've talked about extensively, this is a Lakers defense that has been the number one defense in the NBA for a long time, and one of the reasons why has been JJ Redick's game planning. They have been very, very good at finding the guys on the floor that they can help off of, in using those guys as roamers and rotators, and targeting all their defensive attention against the skilled offensive players on the floor. Boston was uniquely equipped to truly space. The Lakers out enforce Austin and Luca at a guard in space and they had some issues. And I still am concerned about the Lakers in a Celtics particular matchup against the Warriors again. And there have been nights when we had a night the other day where against the Kings where Draymond Green and Gary Payton went you know, seven for eleven from three, and like they might have a game like that or two in a series against the Lakers where it ends up going the other way. But like the Lakers have the personnel to help the Warriors, excuse me, have the personnel that the Lakers can help off of. And in that context, the Lakers have literally been the best defense in basketball for a while. So like they have the ability to guard Golden State in a certain way that they can struggle against a team like Boston for instance. And then on the other end of the floor, you're talking about two giant matchup attacking forwards and Lebron James and Luka Doncic that are consistently going to have two or three guys on the floor that they can attack. There's just a lot of perimeter, a lack of perimeter size with Golden State that Lebron and Luca will take advantage of and it's like, Okay, well what if we just put Draymond on Luca and we put Jimmy Butler on Lebron. Okay, you have zero size on the back line. Now, who's gonna guard Ruy? Hatchro Mura, Who's gonna guard Austin Reeves? Like it turn into a situation where the Lakers just have matchup advantages all over the floor in that particular matchup. And while yes, Steph is a problem and the Lakers don't have a good guard defender on the roster, they have the tools to because of Golden State's non shooters on the floor, to consistently keep Steph in a crowd, Whereas the Lakers can put together lineups with Austin Ruy, Dorian Finney Smith, Lebron, and Luca where you literally cannot help off of anybody. And Lebron and Luke are going to get to take their pick on which matchups they.

Want to attack.

Want to attack.

Like, I am tempted to pick the Lakers to win the West if they're healthy. That's how high I view that team when they're actually put together when they're healthy. I'm not one hundred percent sure about that yet. I'm waiting until we get closer to the playoffs to make my final take on that front. But like, I'm pretty high on this Lakers team. I think they're going to be really, really good. Like Okasee and Boston are really the two teams that I'm particularly worried about there, So I would pick them against the Warriors in a playoff series. Next question, why can't the Mavericks just stop? It's embarrassing talking about the Patrick Dumont interview that was released the other day. So the Patrick Dumont interview, you guys saw that when he gave that long spiel. There's a bunch of really problematic stuff in that interview. There's one where he was like, yeah, I have you running the MAVs as like a family operation. It's something I do with my wife and kids. Immediately I'm like, boom, you're setting yourself up for failure because it's like like that, I've seen this. This happens a lot more in the NBA than you think. This is why it's so ridiculous that everyone's hyper critical of Lebron forgetting his kid a end of the bench spot on the Los Angeles Lakers. Is like, there are many franchises around the league that are rampant with nepotism, like rampant with it. There are front offices that I won't get into it, but there are multiple front offices where it's like a known commodity around the league that they let incompetent people make decisions because they're related to the owners. Like it is, it is a problem around the entire league. But when I saw that from Patrick Demona, I was like, dude, like, you're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud, Like I let my wife and kids and my mother in law make these big picture decisions about our basketball team. That's just foolishness. Let basketball experts who have dedicated their life to understanding the game of basketball make your basketball decisions. If you're not interested in doing that, you're not a serious team. The second piece of it was that long drawn out expression of why they traded Luca, And there wasn't a ton of substance offered in there, But one of the big things that he kept harping on was the idea that they weren't close. You know, we felt like we weren't close in the finals, and then we get into the regular season and all these other teams are better and blah blah, blah blah. And the part that bothered me about that is, you guys, remember how I was talking about the Mavericks in the early part of the season. I viewed them as the most talented roster in the Western Conference overall when Luca was healthy, Like when I looked at that roster as a roster that can cause some serious problems when Luca was healthy, they were competitive all year without Luca. And so it's one of those things where like any take he had, as it pertains to oh, the rest of the league got better. You added Klay Thompson, you added Naji Marshall, you brought in a bunch of ball handling. You addressed some specific problems that you had last year.

Like, I am tempted to pick the Lakers to win the West if they're healthy. That's how high I view that team when they're actually put together when they're healthy. I'm not one hundred percent sure about that yet. I'm waiting until we get closer to the playoffs to make my final take on that front. But like, I'm pretty high on this Lakers team. I think they're going to be really, really good. Like Okasee and Boston are really the two teams that I'm particularly worried about there, So I would pick them against the Warriors in a playoff series. Next question, why can't the Mavericks just stop? It's embarrassing talking about the Patrick Dumont interview that was released the other day. So the Patrick Dumont interview, you guys saw that when he gave that long spiel. There's a bunch of really problematic stuff in that interview. There's one where he was like, yeah, I have you running the MAVs as like a family operation. It's something I do with my wife and kids. Immediately I'm like, boom, you're setting yourself up for failure because it's like like that, I've seen this. This happens a lot more in the NBA than you think. This is why it's so ridiculous that everyone's hyper critical of Lebron forgetting his kid a end of the bench spot on the Los Angeles Lakers. Is like, there are many franchises around the league that are rampant with nepotism, like rampant with it. There are front offices that I won't get into it, but there are multiple front offices where it's like a known commodity around the league that they let incompetent people make decisions because they're related to the owners. Like it is, it is a problem around the entire league. But when I saw that from Patrick Demona, I was like, dude, like, you're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud, Like I let my wife and kids and my mother in law make these big picture decisions about our basketball team. That's just foolishness. Let basketball experts who have dedicated their life to understanding the game of basketball make your basketball decisions. If you're not interested in doing that, you're not a serious team. The second piece of it was that long drawn out expression of why they traded Luca, And there wasn't a ton of substance offered in there, But one of the big things that he kept harping on was the idea that they weren't close. You know, we felt like we weren't close in the finals, and then we get into the regular season and all these other teams are better and blah blah, blah blah. And the part that bothered me about that is, you guys, remember how I was talking about the Mavericks in the early part of the season. I viewed them as the most talented roster in the Western Conference overall when Luca was healthy, Like when I looked at that roster as a roster that can cause some serious problems when Luca was healthy, they were competitive all year without Luca. And so it's one of those things where like any take he had, as it pertains to oh, the rest of the league got better. You added Klay Thompson, you added Naji Marshall, you brought in a bunch of ball handling. You addressed some specific problems that you had last year.

PJ.

PJ.

Washington was shooting better on above the break threes after being terrible on him last year in the postseason, Like a lot of specific things were tilting towards this is gonna work when Luca comes back. And so like, here's the thing, there is no case for trading Luca the way they did. So what these people need to do is get the hell out of the media and just go. If you have some ulterior motive, whether it's moving the team to a different city, or maybe you just hate Lucas as a personal beef. Whatever the issue is, stop talking about it because when you talk about it, you guys just sound like imbeciles, every single one of you.

Washington was shooting better on above the break threes after being terrible on him last year in the postseason, Like a lot of specific things were tilting towards this is gonna work when Luca comes back. And so like, here's the thing, there is no case for trading Luca the way they did. So what these people need to do is get the hell out of the media and just go. If you have some ulterior motive, whether it's moving the team to a different city, or maybe you just hate Lucas as a personal beef. Whatever the issue is, stop talking about it because when you talk about it, you guys just sound like imbeciles, every single one of you.

There's no good take.

There's no good take.

There's no rationale that holds up for shipping off a twenty five year old prospect who's already one of the greatest players in the history of the league in that span of his career and who continued to trend forward. It was completely acidine. There's no way around it. And honestly, I just feel really bad for MAVs fans, and I'm with you, guys. Why can't the Mavericks just stop? I agree, they need to just stop. What's done is done. Stop the media tour. You don't sound savvy explaining to everybody how you run your team and why you got rid of Luca. You look like an imbecile. Last question before we get out of here, when did you start experiencing growth spurts and how painful was it if it was. I grew a ton in high school. I was five foot ten as a freshman, and between my freshman year and my junior year, I skyrocketed up to six point four or excuse me, six foot four, and then I got up to sixty six as a senior, and it immediately manifested in like creaky joints. I like literally used to run around like Bambi when I was in high school.

There's no rationale that holds up for shipping off a twenty five year old prospect who's already one of the greatest players in the history of the league in that span of his career and who continued to trend forward. It was completely acidine. There's no way around it. And honestly, I just feel really bad for MAVs fans, and I'm with you, guys. Why can't the Mavericks just stop? I agree, they need to just stop. What's done is done. Stop the media tour. You don't sound savvy explaining to everybody how you run your team and why you got rid of Luca. You look like an imbecile. Last question before we get out of here, when did you start experiencing growth spurts and how painful was it if it was. I grew a ton in high school. I was five foot ten as a freshman, and between my freshman year and my junior year, I skyrocketed up to six point four or excuse me, six foot four, and then I got up to sixty six as a senior, and it immediately manifested in like creaky joints. I like literally used to run around like Bambi when I was in high school.

It was crazy.

It was crazy.

Famously, when I was a senior, I had a breakaway dunk against the worst team and like I was terrible high school basketball player. I was a super late bloomer. And we played against this team in Tucson that was one of the lesser high schools in town. So I finally got an opportunity to play because it was one of the worst players on the team. And at six foot six, I had a breakaway and I went up to like go dunk it, and like my knee like buckled, and I just threw the ball into the bottom of the rim, and thank god I didn't fall over. But like it was about one of the most embarrassing things that I that I can remember in my time as a basketball player, and it was because I just grew way too fast in such a short period of time. There was a good amount of pain in that phase. And like I also had really bad acne when I was in high school, and I actually went on acutane. And if any of you guys have ever done any research on accutane, it like literally dries out your joints, so like in addition to the growth spurt stuff, I also like my joints weren't properly lubricated because of me using acutane, and so I was just in pain literally all the time. But it was funny because I ended up like growing into my body as soon as I got to like nineteen twenty years old, and at that point I became like freaky athletic, like I had like about a forty inth vertical and I remember it was so funny. I had a buddy of mine who came to one of my Juco games and he, you know, he just happened to stop by. He's like, hey, man, I want to come check out your game. He came to sat up in the bleachers in the corner by himself, and we rode to the game together because we lived in Tucson together at the time. And I had a breakaway dunk, like a steal and a breakaway and and I just like literally just did like a backscratcher, like touch the ball on my shoulder blades and like chucked it through the rim as hard as I could. And we were in the car on the way home, and my buddy's like looking at me, and he's like, were you thinking about the Desert View game when you had that fast break? And I was like, yeah, I was thinking about the Desert View game because it was like every time i'd get a breakaway, I would just think about this like horrible embarrassing moment that I had when I was in high schoo But yeah, I just I was a late bloomer in general, and I grew a ton in those couple of years, and so I just couldn't move. And then what ended up happening is I just kind of grew into my body and then suddenly I can move, and it ended up being like a strength attribute for me when I was playing basketball in college. All right, guys, It's all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, the volume.

Famously, when I was a senior, I had a breakaway dunk against the worst team and like I was terrible high school basketball player. I was a super late bloomer. And we played against this team in Tucson that was one of the lesser high schools in town. So I finally got an opportunity to play because it was one of the worst players on the team. And at six foot six, I had a breakaway and I went up to like go dunk it, and like my knee like buckled, and I just threw the ball into the bottom of the rim, and thank god I didn't fall over. But like it was about one of the most embarrassing things that I that I can remember in my time as a basketball player, and it was because I just grew way too fast in such a short period of time. There was a good amount of pain in that phase. And like I also had really bad acne when I was in high school, and I actually went on acutane. And if any of you guys have ever done any research on accutane, it like literally dries out your joints, so like in addition to the growth spurt stuff, I also like my joints weren't properly lubricated because of me using acutane, and so I was just in pain literally all the time. But it was funny because I ended up like growing into my body as soon as I got to like nineteen twenty years old, and at that point I became like freaky athletic, like I had like about a forty inth vertical and I remember it was so funny. I had a buddy of mine who came to one of my Juco games and he, you know, he just happened to stop by. He's like, hey, man, I want to come check out your game. He came to sat up in the bleachers in the corner by himself, and we rode to the game together because we lived in Tucson together at the time. And I had a breakaway dunk, like a steal and a breakaway and and I just like literally just did like a backscratcher, like touch the ball on my shoulder blades and like chucked it through the rim as hard as I could. And we were in the car on the way home, and my buddy's like looking at me, and he's like, were you thinking about the Desert View game when you had that fast break? And I was like, yeah, I was thinking about the Desert View game because it was like every time i'd get a breakaway, I would just think about this like horrible embarrassing moment that I had when I was in high schoo But yeah, I just I was a late bloomer in general, and I grew a ton in those couple of years, and so I just couldn't move. And then what ended up happening is I just kind of grew into my body and then suddenly I can move, and it ended up being like a strength attribute for me when I was playing basketball in college. All right, guys, It's all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, the volume.

What's up guys?

What's up guys?

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us, if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us, if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.