# 10 Reactions From LeBron to 76ers: Fit with Jaylen Brown, Embiid, Maxey + Steph Curry's future

An episode of [Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1536277916), 25 Jul 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/prfx.byspotify.com/e/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/90447913-4e20-4e90-aa1e-ae510011dd1d/0afcf7d1-ef30-42cc-ba80-b492010e61ba/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=9e36bb2c-2512-48e1-92f8-ae510011dd2b

Jason reacts and breaks down every angle from LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers including the fit with Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey, what's next for the Miami Heat with Giannis Antetokounmpo, what's next for the Golden State Warriors with Steph Curry, and more. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, good to Hoops to night
[0:16] Speaker 1: here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. Hope all you
[0:18] Speaker 1: guys are having a great start to your weekend. I
[0:21] Speaker 1: spent all night thinking about that Lebron James moved to Philly.
[0:25] Speaker 1: Had a lot of time to kind of think through
[0:27] Speaker 1: all the different angles and storylines and hit on a
[0:30] Speaker 1: bunch of stuff that we didn't get to hit in
[0:31] Speaker 1: the instant reaction yesterday. So I thought the best format
[0:33] Speaker 1: for us to be able to do that is to
[0:35] Speaker 1: go through the top ten takeaways from Lebron's move to Philly.
[0:41] Speaker 1: You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe
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[0:56] Speaker 1: a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. Number one
[0:59] Speaker 1: simple and E Lebron really wants to win again. You
[1:03] Speaker 1: know I did a video right when Lebron announced that
[1:07] Speaker 1: he was leaving LA and we did a breakdown of
[1:12] Speaker 1: like I think it was like top five or top
[1:13] Speaker 1: six Lebron destinations. And in that list, if you guys remember,
[1:18] Speaker 1: I had like all these different factors that I was
[1:21] Speaker 1: talking about. I talked about like off court fit, how
[1:25] Speaker 1: it goes with this family, public perception, all these like
[1:29] Speaker 1: different things. And one of the segments was like basketball fit,
[1:33] Speaker 1: like on court talent. One of the segments was like
[1:38] Speaker 1: ability to compete for a championship. But I had like
[1:41] Speaker 1: five or six different factors that I thought Lebron would
[1:44] Speaker 1: consider when making his decision. And I thought that the
[1:48] Speaker 1: simplest way that we can interpret Lebron's decision to go
[1:51] Speaker 1: to Philly is that all those other things didn't matter.
[1:54] Speaker 1: He clearly didn't care about how convenient it was to
[1:58] Speaker 1: spend time with his family. There was even some reporting
[2:00] Speaker 1: yesterday that you might consider like living in living in
[2:03] Speaker 1: New York and taking a helicopter to Philly. I have
[2:07] Speaker 1: no idea what the logistics will look like. I'm sure
[2:09] Speaker 1: Lebron doesn't even know yet. I'm sure he's contemplating lots
[2:12] Speaker 1: of options, but Philly was certainly one of the most
[2:16] Speaker 1: inconvenient places for him to go play with the way
[2:19] Speaker 1: his life has changed in terms of off court fit.
[2:22] Speaker 1: What a bizarre group of personalities. You've got a second
[2:26] Speaker 1: year player in vj Edgecomb, a young up and coming
[2:29] Speaker 1: guard in Tyrese Maaxi, a heart of his prime All
[2:33] Speaker 1: NBA player in Jalen Brown, and then kind of like
[2:36] Speaker 1: a post prime injury prone Joel Embiid. It's a very
[2:39] Speaker 1: interesting mix of personalities. I don't think Lebron picked Philly
[2:42] Speaker 1: because he wanted to hang out with the guys, right Like,
[2:45] Speaker 1: it's there's and there's just very clearly a This was
[2:50] Speaker 1: just a belief that this would give him his best
[2:53] Speaker 1: chance to win a championship, but also in the context
[2:57] Speaker 1: of him being able to contribute and help them get
[3:00] Speaker 1: over the top, not necessarily a situation like we'll talk
[3:03] Speaker 1: about in our next segment, involving him going to a
[3:05] Speaker 1: team that could kind of win with or without him, right.
[3:08] Speaker 1: I think that that is super revealing in this case,
[3:11] Speaker 1: because I've talked about this before. Lebron for some reason,
[3:15] Speaker 1: because he's jovial and happy and he can be a goofball.
[3:19] Speaker 1: Sometimes he's famed like Austin Reeves talked about that after
[3:22] Speaker 1: he left. He's just a big kid in the locker
[3:24] Speaker 1: room because he's not like your stereotypical Kobe Bryant, Michael
[3:28] Speaker 1: Jordan like kind of like asshole personality. Combine that with
[3:33] Speaker 1: like him going to Los Angeles, him being somewhat of
[3:35] Speaker 1: a showman. There's a lot of people that have tried
[3:38] Speaker 1: to paint this picture that Lebron James doesn't care as
[3:41] Speaker 1: much about the competitiveness and the winning side of basketball,
[3:44] Speaker 1: that he's more in it for these like other reasons.
[3:47] Speaker 1: And I've always thought that was a ridiculous characterization because
[3:50] Speaker 1: if you dig into anything, if you listen to anybody
[3:52] Speaker 1: who's actually been on his team, they talk about his
[3:56] Speaker 1: psychotic work ethic and how he's always showing up to
[3:58] Speaker 1: the arena way before, and the way he cares about
[4:02] Speaker 1: his diet, the way he manages his body, and all
[4:04] Speaker 1: these different things. You only do those things if you
[4:08] Speaker 1: care about winning, and Lebron himself has said, keep the
[4:11] Speaker 1: main thing, the main thing. Lebron very clearly is one
[4:14] Speaker 1: of the best competitors in the history of the league,
[4:17] Speaker 1: certainly one of the best competitors, if not the best
[4:20] Speaker 1: competitor of this era, meaning if you just quantified not
[4:24] Speaker 1: his natural ability, not his his skill set, not his anything,
[4:29] Speaker 1: but you just quantified his desire to win, he would
[4:34] Speaker 1: be near the top, if not at the top of
[4:36] Speaker 1: the list in recent NBA history and in all of
[4:39] Speaker 1: NBA history. In many ways. I left yesterday going like,
[4:43] Speaker 1: maybe we should have considered that more when we were
[4:46] Speaker 1: talking about his decision, because the Philly decision was shocking, right,
[4:50] Speaker 1: I know, I personally wasn't super high on it. In
[4:53] Speaker 1: the process, I was looking at Miami and Golden State.
[4:56] Speaker 1: Is my two favorites, Golden State being number one, Miami
[4:58] Speaker 1: number two. I thought Cleveland around three in terms of likelihood,
[5:02] Speaker 1: and then I had Philly at four. Philly ends up
[5:04] Speaker 1: winning the race and had if we had paid more
[5:08] Speaker 1: attention to the simple fact that Lebron cares about winning
[5:11] Speaker 1: more than anything else, then we probably would have cared
[5:15] Speaker 1: more about Philly. Now, it's more complicated than it looks
[5:18] Speaker 1: on the surface, because there are obvious fit stuff of
[5:22] Speaker 1: fit ramifications when it comes to trying to put together
[5:25] Speaker 1: this type of this group of talent, Right, And what
[5:30] Speaker 1: I kind of thought after thinking about that throughout the
[5:32] Speaker 1: night last night, because I actually agree that, like if
[5:36] Speaker 1: Lebron were to go to Miami, for example, I think
[5:40] Speaker 1: they'd be better than if he would have went to
[5:41] Speaker 1: Philly right away. If Lebron, even if he would have
[5:45] Speaker 1: gone to Golden State, even if they never would have
[5:48] Speaker 1: made another trade, because of the natural basketball fit, I
[5:52] Speaker 1: could see Lebron and Draymond and Steph and you know,
[5:55] Speaker 1: their four depth and their center depth. I could see
[5:58] Speaker 1: them clicking more than Philly right away. Same goes with
[6:02] Speaker 1: even Cleveland because they have such an existing infrastructure. I
[6:06] Speaker 1: think Philly is a long term bet from Lebron that
[6:11] Speaker 1: if they do happen to figure it out and maximize
[6:15] Speaker 1: the sum of their parts, that the sheer amount of
[6:18] Speaker 1: talent is of a level that supersedes all of these
[6:23] Speaker 1: other options that he had on the table. In other words,
[6:26] Speaker 1: I think Lebron looked at the situation and went, if
[6:28] Speaker 1: I'm gonna win a title, we're gonna have to get
[6:31] Speaker 1: lucky in terms of health. We're gonna have to get
[6:33] Speaker 1: lucky in terms of guys meshing together and reaching a
[6:37] Speaker 1: level greater than the sum of their parts. And if
[6:40] Speaker 1: you look at the spectrum of all the available outcomes.
[6:43] Speaker 1: Does Philly have a lower floor than Golden State, than Miami,
[6:48] Speaker 1: than Cleveland, Yes, I do believe so. But the ceiling
[6:52] Speaker 1: with all those guys, if they do figure it out,
[6:55] Speaker 1: is higher. And I think Lebron was looking at it
[6:58] Speaker 1: from the perspective of his opportunity to if they do
[7:02] Speaker 1: capture that ceiling, achieve what he ultimately wants, which is
[7:05] Speaker 1: an opportunity to win a championship. I thought that was
[7:08] Speaker 1: really fascinating. He kind of showed in his tweets yesterday too.
[7:11] Speaker 1: If you guys remember he was like saying about family
[7:13] Speaker 1: and saying about money, and like, clearly not because he
[7:17] Speaker 1: took a veteran minimum contract and he moved twenty five
[7:19] Speaker 1: hundred miles away from his family. So like, it's very
[7:22] Speaker 1: clear that Lebron is like, if I'm gonna do this,
[7:25] Speaker 1: if I'm gonna put my body through this, if I'm
[7:28] Speaker 1: going to dedicate myself to this craft for an additional
[7:32] Speaker 1: year or two, I'm gonna do it with the intention
[7:34] Speaker 1: of hoisting the trophy. And he clearly thought Philly had
[7:39] Speaker 1: the best opportunity for him to do that. Now, again,
[7:42] Speaker 1: I think there's an argument in debate surrounding like, I
[7:46] Speaker 1: do think there are versions of this story where other
[7:48] Speaker 1: options would have been better for him than Philly, But
[7:53] Speaker 1: I don't think the best case scenario for any of
[7:56] Speaker 1: the teams is as high as Philly's best case scenario
[8:00] Speaker 1: was number two. No, Lebron is not ring chasing. Now.
[8:06] Speaker 1: This is a subjective kind of like phrase that we're
[8:11] Speaker 1: looking at here, and there's a lot of different interpretations
[8:14] Speaker 1: of it. Like if your basic interpretation of ring chasing
[8:19] Speaker 1: is just is Lebron trying to win the title? Like, yeah,
[8:24] Speaker 1: he's ring chasing. He's been ring chasing for twenty three
[8:27] Speaker 1: years now, so like even Steph Curry on the Warriors
[8:32] Speaker 1: right now is ring chasing. He wants to win a ring,
[8:34] Speaker 1: right Everyone wants to win. No one wants to play
[8:36] Speaker 1: on a bad team. I don't. I've yet to see
[8:38] Speaker 1: an NBA player that goes into a situation or raises
[8:41] Speaker 1: their hand and goes I would like to play on
[8:42] Speaker 1: a bottom ten roster so that I can try to
[8:45] Speaker 1: win the title and have it somehow mean more. Even
[8:48] Speaker 1: though no team has ever won the title without a
[8:51] Speaker 1: great accumulation of talent, Even in situations where teams do
[8:56] Speaker 1: supersede their talent level. It involves low level players achieving
[9:01] Speaker 1: a level of greatness that even extends beyond what their
[9:05] Speaker 1: reputation is. Right, you go back to you go back
[9:10] Speaker 1: to like twenty the twenty twenty three Nuggets and it's
[9:15] Speaker 1: like Jamal Murray just goes absolutely ape shit. Right, you
[9:19] Speaker 1: go back to the twenty twenty two Warriors and it's
[9:21] Speaker 1: like best season of Andrew Wiggins's career. And Jordan Poole,
[9:25] Speaker 1: who's like basically a non factor in the NBA right now,
[9:27] Speaker 1: was this incredibly important six man microwave score. Right, you
[9:32] Speaker 1: go back to we can go on and on and on.
[9:34] Speaker 1: You go whether it's the twenty eleven MAVs with Jason Terry,
[9:37] Speaker 1: if like you look at like the twenty twenty Lakers
[9:42] Speaker 1: and Rajon Rondo randomly shooting really well from three in
[9:45] Speaker 1: that entire playoff run, like you're either super talented or
[9:49] Speaker 1: you're very talented, and some of your lesser talented players
[9:54] Speaker 1: like play better than they've ever played in order to win.
[9:57] Speaker 1: You don't win a title without having talent. So, in
[10:00] Speaker 1: the very basic sense of the term, is Lebron ring
[10:02] Speaker 1: chasing because he wants to win a championship in the
[10:05] Speaker 1: same way that every competitor would want to win a
[10:07] Speaker 1: championship and would want to play on a team that
[10:09] Speaker 1: is capable of winning a championship. Yes, so what is
[10:13] Speaker 1: my subjective interpretation of like the negative connotation of ring chasing.
[10:18] Speaker 1: To me, that would be going to a team that
[10:20] Speaker 1: can win without you, going to a team that is
[10:24] Speaker 1: a legitimate championship contender with or without you, And that
[10:29] Speaker 1: is a completely different ballgame. And like, if Lebron had
[10:33] Speaker 1: gone to San Antonio, I think calling it the derogatory
[10:37] Speaker 1: form of ring chasing would have been a fair characterization.
[10:41] Speaker 1: If Lebron would have gone to Oklahoma City, I think
[10:44] Speaker 1: it would have been a fair characterization of the negative
[10:46] Speaker 1: connotation of ring chasing. But outside of those two scenarios,
[10:51] Speaker 1: none of these teams are legitimate top tier championship contenders
[10:55] Speaker 1: without Lebron Lebron. The whole thing is, if look at
[10:59] Speaker 1: how we viewed Philly before this situation, We're like, oh,
[11:03] Speaker 1: Jylen Brown kind of clunky fit. You know, Tyre's maxy
[11:06] Speaker 1: good player, Jolan Bie can't stay healthy. You would have
[11:08] Speaker 1: just viewed them as a second or third tier contender.
[11:11] Speaker 1: But nothing is in terms of a legitimate threat to
[11:14] Speaker 1: go win the championship. You plug Lebron James in there,
[11:16] Speaker 1: and it's like, well, the ceiling is there. They have
[11:18] Speaker 1: a legitimate championship ceiling. And so that's what I mean
[11:21] Speaker 1: when I say, like the if, like if the Sixers
[11:26] Speaker 1: win a championship this year, Lebron's gonna be such a
[11:29] Speaker 1: substantial piece of that equation. And if Lebron is not there,
[11:34] Speaker 1: or if Lebron goes and plays extremely poorly or gets injured,
[11:38] Speaker 1: you're not giving Philly a chance at all whatsoever. Like
[11:43] Speaker 1: I hate to bring Kevin duran into this equation, but
[11:45] Speaker 1: like that's that's why that situation is so specifically referred
[11:49] Speaker 1: to as like the kind of poster boys. Situation for
[11:53] Speaker 1: ring chasing is like the Warriors won seventy three games.
[11:57] Speaker 1: They were too heroic performance is from Lebron James and
[12:01] Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and a banged up Steph Curry for the
[12:05] Speaker 1: and a suspension to Draymond Green for the Cavs to
[12:09] Speaker 1: barely beat them. Otherwise they would have been repeat championship champions.
[12:13] Speaker 1: They had won already, They were this close to winning again,
[12:16] Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant signed with them, outright as a free agent.
[12:20] Speaker 1: That is why that situation comes with the backlash that
[12:25] Speaker 1: Kevin Durant faced. To me, this is pretty par for
[12:29] Speaker 1: the course for any other free agent player, a player
[12:34] Speaker 1: that demands a trade, that wants to leave their team
[12:37] Speaker 1: and change situations, but go to a situation where they
[12:39] Speaker 1: have an opportunity to win. And of course Lebron has
[12:41] Speaker 1: an opportunity to win in Philly now, but there's a
[12:44] Speaker 1: lot of pressure. There's a lot of ways it could
[12:47] Speaker 1: go wrong. It is the furthest thing from a sure thing.
[12:51] Speaker 1: The twenty seventeen Warriors won fifteen straight playoff games. They
[12:54] Speaker 1: weren't even remotely threatened. There was no adversity. There was
[12:59] Speaker 1: very little in what you would consider it to be
[13:00] Speaker 1: difficulty in their pathway to a championship. If the Sixers
[13:04] Speaker 1: win the title this year, it's gonna be tough. It's
[13:06] Speaker 1: gonna be hard, there's gonna be adversity. There will almost
[13:08] Speaker 1: certainly be a series where they're down to one, down
[13:10] Speaker 1: one zero, down three to two because they don't have
[13:13] Speaker 1: this like natural fitting, perfectly talented basketball roster. So like
[13:19] Speaker 1: to me, Lebron is certainly trying to win a championship,
[13:22] Speaker 1: but I would not call this move the kind of
[13:26] Speaker 1: negative connotation of ring chasing number three getting into some
[13:30] Speaker 1: of the basketball stuff that we didn't get a chance
[13:31] Speaker 1: to hit yesterday. And again, my brain was just moving
[13:35] Speaker 1: one hundred miles an hour as I was processing everything
[13:38] Speaker 1: with that move, and we kind of hinted at it
[13:39] Speaker 1: early in the show, but I never got around to
[13:40] Speaker 1: talking about it. Defense to transition is gonna be a
[13:43] Speaker 1: very important part of how this team succeeds, and I
[13:47] Speaker 1: want to dig into that on two specific levels. One
[13:51] Speaker 1: the Nick Nurse piece of this, and then two the
[13:56] Speaker 1: half court issues that they could very well have and
[13:59] Speaker 1: how much much their transition talent could help counter that problem. Okay,
[14:03] Speaker 1: so first of all, just looking at the talent level.
[14:07] Speaker 1: I've talked about this before with Nick Nurse, where every
[14:10] Speaker 1: single team I've ever watched him coach has this like
[14:13] Speaker 1: emphasis on trying to force turnovers, being aggressive, a lot
[14:16] Speaker 1: of like Ford aggression at the level coverages and pick
[14:19] Speaker 1: and roll blitzes, ball pressure, you know, when you're hedging,
[14:24] Speaker 1: your hedging and attacking the basketball, all that kind of stuff.
[14:27] Speaker 1: Just a lot of like really aggressive coverages Because Nick
[14:29] Speaker 1: Nurse likes to force turnovers, and he wants to get
[14:30] Speaker 1: out and transition as much as possible off of those turnovers. Now,
[14:33] Speaker 1: one of the things I've always talked about is like,
[14:35] Speaker 1: when it comes to coaches, I don't want them to
[14:37] Speaker 1: have a coaching philosophy, at least not be completely married
[14:41] Speaker 1: to a coaching philosophy irrespective of surrounding talent, because there
[14:44] Speaker 1: are certain teams where it's like, Eh, maybe that's not
[14:46] Speaker 1: the way you should play given the type of players
[14:49] Speaker 1: that you have. Right this though, is a roster that
[14:52] Speaker 1: in many ways is perfectly built for that Nick Nurse
[14:55] Speaker 1: style of basketball right now. You know, Jalen Brown, for example,
[15:00] Speaker 1: has received criticism over the years for not being as
[15:03] Speaker 1: good at forcing turnovers, but I actually think he's very
[15:05] Speaker 1: capable of that. Lebron James is a big turnover forcing
[15:08] Speaker 1: defensive playmaker. You have speed at the guard spots, you
[15:12] Speaker 1: have the ability to force turnovers with this group of talent,
[15:17] Speaker 1: and so I actually think it accentuates Nick Nurse's coaching
[15:19] Speaker 1: style well. And then when they force turnovers, they're going
[15:23] Speaker 1: to be frightening in transition. The speed of Tyrese Maxi,
[15:26] Speaker 1: the speed of VJ edgecomb. Lebron is still at age
[15:29] Speaker 1: forty two this year going to be one of the
[15:31] Speaker 1: best transition players in the NBA. Jalen Brown is one
[15:35] Speaker 1: of the apex athletes in the NBA. This is a
[15:38] Speaker 1: team that has the opportunity to be very, very good
[15:42] Speaker 1: in transition. So there's a couple of specific ways to
[15:44] Speaker 1: look at that. One just pushing as a habit. So
[15:49] Speaker 1: regardless of outcome made shot, missshot, turnover, block shot, long
[15:54] Speaker 1: missed jump shot, whatever it might be, get out and
[15:57] Speaker 1: run like a bit of Nick. Nurse needs to build
[16:00] Speaker 1: running habits in this group at the start of training
[16:03] Speaker 1: camp so that it just becomes second nature for them
[16:05] Speaker 1: to run, run, run, run run. Lebron is such a
[16:08] Speaker 1: good defensive rebounder and outlet passer that I think this
[16:10] Speaker 1: has the ability to work extremely well, and then when
[16:13] Speaker 1: he doesn't get the rebound, he himself can be very
[16:16] Speaker 1: impactful in transition running the other way. But again, this
[16:20] Speaker 1: is where these things are connected. The habits only carry
[16:22] Speaker 1: you so far in terms of running. You also have
[16:26] Speaker 1: to have habits in terms of the things that actually
[16:29] Speaker 1: get you going in transition, which takes me to number four.
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[18:24] Speaker 1: Who's going to fill the dirty work roles on this
[18:27] Speaker 1: particular team. So there are guys in this starting lineup
[18:32] Speaker 1: that are certainly capable of doing things in terms of
[18:35] Speaker 1: dirty work that will help this team. Like we know
[18:39] Speaker 1: Joel Embiid is a great drop coverage defender who can
[18:42] Speaker 1: block shots, rebound, start the break right. We know Lebron
[18:47] Speaker 1: James can be one of the best back line defenders
[18:49] Speaker 1: in the league while also being switchy so he can
[18:52] Speaker 1: guard multiple positions on the perimeter. He can play passing
[18:57] Speaker 1: lanes on skip passes in pick and roll when it
[19:00] Speaker 1: does have to go to the level, he can fill
[19:01] Speaker 1: in behind and make plays at the rim and do
[19:04] Speaker 1: all sorts of things there. We know Lebron is very capable.
[19:07] Speaker 1: He's been called a Swiss Army knife his entire career.
[19:10] Speaker 1: Jalen Brown has the ability to be an apex perimeter
[19:13] Speaker 1: defender in this league, if not the best, close to
[19:16] Speaker 1: one of the very best. Like if I need a
[19:18] Speaker 1: guy to guard the other team's best guy, Jalen Brown's
[19:21] Speaker 1: near the very top of that list, and then we
[19:23] Speaker 1: know VJ. Edgecomb has a ton of talent as an
[19:26] Speaker 1: athletic kind of defensive playmaker. All those guys have the
[19:29] Speaker 1: talent for it, but for various reasons over the course
[19:33] Speaker 1: of their recent years in their career, it's not something
[19:35] Speaker 1: they've done. Lebron, I think a combination of his age
[19:39] Speaker 1: and his lack of belief. Like Lebron, this is going
[19:42] Speaker 1: to be by far Lebron's like the season of this
[19:46] Speaker 1: phase of his career where Lebron actually believes in his
[19:49] Speaker 1: ability to win a championship the most. And I generally
[19:52] Speaker 1: believe that when Lebron actually smells blood in the water,
[19:55] Speaker 1: when he actually thinks he has a chance to win,
[19:57] Speaker 1: he takes things to another level. The dead giveaway for me,
[20:00] Speaker 1: look at the difference between twenty nineteen Lebron in twenty
[20:03] Speaker 1: twenty Lebron. The difference in what he looked in all
[20:06] Speaker 1: phases of the game. When he was with Lonzo Ball
[20:08] Speaker 1: and Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram versus when Anthony Davis
[20:11] Speaker 1: was in the building and it was like, oh shit,
[20:14] Speaker 1: like I can win the title this year. Lebron was
[20:16] Speaker 1: laser focused from start to finish, I think he should
[20:19] Speaker 1: have won MVP. That year is the one year I
[20:20] Speaker 1: actually thought he got robbed of MVP, and then he
[20:23] Speaker 1: wins the title. Right, So Lebron a lack of belief
[20:27] Speaker 1: and just reaching that point in his career, he didn't
[20:30] Speaker 1: have as much energy reserves that led to him having
[20:34] Speaker 1: inconsistent effort in the dirty work in previous seasons. Jaylen
[20:37] Speaker 1: Brown last year especially not his best defensive season, in
[20:41] Speaker 1: large part because he had such enormous offensive responsibility. Right, So,
[20:46] Speaker 1: like that's the tricky piece of this is how much
[20:50] Speaker 1: are those guys, under these circumstances where they have more
[20:53] Speaker 1: depth of talent and they have more ability to conserve
[20:57] Speaker 1: resources on offense to be able to devote resources towards
[21:01] Speaker 1: the dirty work. How much are they willing to do
[21:03] Speaker 1: that because again, getting stops, getting defensive rebounds, forcing turnovers,
[21:09] Speaker 1: by giving effort. In Nick Nurse's scheme, that's going to
[21:13] Speaker 1: be a huge part of how they trigger the transition possessions,
[21:16] Speaker 1: which are going to be by far their best offense.
[21:19] Speaker 1: The accumulation of talent for them can be clunky in
[21:23] Speaker 1: the half court, but it will not be clunky in transition.
[21:27] Speaker 1: When this team gets advantage running up the open floor,
[21:31] Speaker 1: they're going to be more athletic than all the other teams.
[21:33] Speaker 1: With so much scoring and finishing and playmaking talent on
[21:36] Speaker 1: the floor. In those open force situations, they're going to
[21:39] Speaker 1: be devastating. But again, it's going to hinge on the
[21:42] Speaker 1: idea that they're able to force turnovers, get defensive rebounds,
[21:46] Speaker 1: get stops, which is going to put a lot of
[21:48] Speaker 1: pressure on the stars to do their jobs. There are
[21:51] Speaker 1: dirty work guys on the roster. Dominic Barlow is actually
[21:54] Speaker 1: one of my favorite kind of like Swiss army knife
[21:56] Speaker 1: role player forwards in the league. I think he's going
[21:58] Speaker 1: to play quite a bit for this team. Dean Wade
[22:01] Speaker 1: obviously is going to be plugged into many of these lineups.
[22:03] Speaker 1: Is to do everything kind of versatile, dirty work forward.
[22:06] Speaker 1: There will be dirty work players that end up on
[22:08] Speaker 1: the floor. It's been reported that Contavious Calwell Pope is
[22:11] Speaker 1: going to be joining this team eventually. He's a guy
[22:13] Speaker 1: that can help in that particular area. He's been a
[22:16] Speaker 1: very important starting caliber player on two different championship teams
[22:19] Speaker 1: in the last seven years. There are gonna be guys there.
[22:25] Speaker 1: But knowing that Max he's gonna play thirty five plus minutes,
[22:28] Speaker 1: knowing that Lebron's gonna play thirty five plus minutes, knowing
[22:30] Speaker 1: that Jay leb Brown is gonna play thirty five plus minutes,
[22:32] Speaker 1: knowing VJ. Edgecomb is gonna play thirty plus minutes, and
[22:35] Speaker 1: Embied when he's healthy, he's gonna play thirty plus minutes.
[22:38] Speaker 1: It's going to be incumbing on those guys to be
[22:40] Speaker 1: willing to do the dirty work, or they won't force
[22:43] Speaker 1: as many turnovers and get as many stops and defensive
[22:45] Speaker 1: rebounds as they're capable of getting, which will cause their
[22:48] Speaker 1: defensive ratings to suffer, which will limit their ability to
[22:51] Speaker 1: get out in transition, which will get them stuck in
[22:53] Speaker 1: the half court, which will then lead to some of
[22:55] Speaker 1: the clunkiness, especially early in the season. Number five, I'm
[23:00] Speaker 1: really curious to see how Embiid's lack of foot speed
[23:03] Speaker 1: fits with the rest of the guys on this team.
[23:07] Speaker 1: So Lebron still one of the fastest players in the
[23:10] Speaker 1: open floor in the league. Not as laterally quick as
[23:13] Speaker 1: he used to be, but still an I'd say he's
[23:15] Speaker 1: still easily a top five percent athlete in the NBA.
[23:19] Speaker 1: Jalen Brown's like a top one percent athlete in the NBA. VJ.
[23:22] Speaker 1: Edge comes a top one percent athlete in the NBA.
[23:24] Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi maybe top five percent because he's not, you know,
[23:27] Speaker 1: the most vertical or the most strong or anything, but
[23:29] Speaker 1: he's just so lightning fast. Right. So you've got like
[23:33] Speaker 1: four legitimate upper tier athletes in the NBA, and then
[23:37] Speaker 1: you have Joel Embiid, who, even back when he was
[23:39] Speaker 1: young and healthy, was kind of a lumbering, kind of
[23:43] Speaker 1: clunky type of athlete. Right. The reason why I think
[23:46] Speaker 1: this is an interesting fit is if you kind of
[23:48] Speaker 1: dig into again the way that Nick Nurse is going
[23:51] Speaker 1: to want to play defense, the way he's going to
[23:53] Speaker 1: want to trigger transition attacks, that foot speed kind of
[23:58] Speaker 1: like fit with Embiid is. And if you dig back
[24:01] Speaker 1: into like Embiid's career and his time with the Sixers,
[24:06] Speaker 1: they consistently had transition defense issues that used to be
[24:09] Speaker 1: the way that Nikola Jokich would always give the Sixers problems.
[24:12] Speaker 1: I know Embiid won some major battles with him there
[24:14] Speaker 1: towards the end, but one of the ways that Jokic
[24:17] Speaker 1: would have his success with the Sixers was just pushing
[24:20] Speaker 1: the ball the floor and beating Embiid down the floor
[24:23] Speaker 1: just with transition, kicked passes and guys running their lanes.
[24:27] Speaker 1: They were vulnerable in transition because Embiid struggled kind of
[24:30] Speaker 1: transitioning end to end. And so whether it's you know,
[24:34] Speaker 1: on defense with Embiid needing to be aggressive in coverages
[24:37] Speaker 1: and get up to the level and cover ground, or
[24:39] Speaker 1: whether it's in transition as the game just turns into
[24:41] Speaker 1: an up and down game which favors the other four guys.
[24:44] Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see how well Embiid just keeps up.
[24:48] Speaker 1: For lack of a better way to describe it, he
[24:50] Speaker 1: to me, even though when he's healthy, I think brings
[24:53] Speaker 1: a lot of other value, which we're going to talk
[24:54] Speaker 1: about in the next segment. His lack of footspeed, to me,
[24:57] Speaker 1: is going to be something I have my eye on
[24:59] Speaker 1: early in the season, just to see how well it fits.
[25:01] Speaker 1: Because going from Paul George and Kelly Ubray to Jaylen
[25:06] Speaker 1: Brown and Lebron James, you're just going to another level
[25:09] Speaker 1: of athleticism at your three and four spot, and this
[25:12] Speaker 1: is going to be a team that emphasizes defense to transition.
[25:15] Speaker 1: Just curious to see how Embid keeps up number six.
[25:19] Speaker 1: I'm very excited to see what this looks like with
[25:22] Speaker 1: Joel Embiid spacing from the five spot. I talked about
[25:26] Speaker 1: this a lot with Lebron in his free agency, specifically
[25:29] Speaker 1: surrounding Nikola Jokic. If you guys remember I a little
[25:35] Speaker 1: bit with the Warriors as well, with guys like Corford
[25:37] Speaker 1: and Porzingis, but you know, I always just factor Draymond
[25:39] Speaker 1: in for most of their best lineups. I looked at
[25:42] Speaker 1: Denver and I was like, well, you know, with Cam
[25:45] Speaker 1: Johnson and Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic,
[25:49] Speaker 1: imagine Lebron just operating with no big at the rim.
[25:54] Speaker 1: And specifically, Lebron in this phase of his career has
[25:58] Speaker 1: been consistently, even in his late thirties early forties, one
[26:02] Speaker 1: of the highest volume, highest efficiency basket attackers in the NBA.
[26:07] Speaker 1: And for him to do that playing alongside and Anthony Davis,
[26:12] Speaker 1: A DeAndre Ayton, Jackson Hayes, for him to do that
[26:16] Speaker 1: alongside you know, like just all the different variations of
[26:22] Speaker 1: centers that came through LA is really impressive to me.
[26:27] Speaker 1: And if you go back to like some of the
[26:29] Speaker 1: craziest sequences in Lebron's mid prime, like with the Calves,
[26:33] Speaker 1: whether it was with Shanning Fry at the five or
[26:36] Speaker 1: with Kevin Love at the five, Lebron reached these levels
[26:38] Speaker 1: of like straight up unguardability because of the ability to
[26:42] Speaker 1: space from the five spot, and you combine that with
[26:44] Speaker 1: his ability to get to the rim and his ability
[26:46] Speaker 1: to pass. It creates this like extremely difficult to guard dynamic.
[26:50] Speaker 1: Now it's not as straightforward with Philly because bj edge
[26:53] Speaker 1: Come can go hot and cold as a shooter. We
[26:55] Speaker 1: saw that in the postseason running of games where he
[26:56] Speaker 1: hit a bunch of threes, and he'd have games where
[26:58] Speaker 1: he misses all of his threes. Right. Brown last year
[27:02] Speaker 1: a low thirties as a spot up three point shooter
[27:04] Speaker 1: in terms of percentage, like forty fifth percentile in terms
[27:07] Speaker 1: of overall spot up efficiency. So there's some trickiness there
[27:10] Speaker 1: in terms of like those guys actually knocking down enough
[27:12] Speaker 1: shots to really make this work. Em Beat himself is
[27:15] Speaker 1: very much a rhythm shooter. Like when he's healthy and
[27:18] Speaker 1: he's playing every game, he can get really hot from three,
[27:21] Speaker 1: and then when he's not playing very often, the three
[27:23] Speaker 1: point shot can kind of come and go. That was
[27:25] Speaker 1: something that happened to him in the postseason this year,
[27:27] Speaker 1: as he obviously was in and out of the lineup
[27:30] Speaker 1: coming into the playoff run. But like there's a version
[27:33] Speaker 1: of this story, whether it's through Jalen Brown having a
[27:36] Speaker 1: good catch and shoot season VJ edgecomb improving and b
[27:40] Speaker 1: just being healthy and in rhythm, or whether it's lineup construction.
[27:43] Speaker 1: So it could be Okay, we have a lineup with
[27:47] Speaker 1: you know, Justin Edwards and and Anthony Simons who could
[27:50] Speaker 1: both really shoot, and like let's say Dean Wade has
[27:53] Speaker 1: a good shooting season and it's Embiid at the five
[27:55] Speaker 1: with Lebron, you know, or like different variations like that,
[27:58] Speaker 1: maybe cacps in that group. Whoever, it might be different
[28:02] Speaker 1: combinations of five man groups where you have a good
[28:05] Speaker 1: amount of shooting on the floor and you have Joel
[28:07] Speaker 1: Embiid at the five. I'm excited to see some of those,
[28:11] Speaker 1: like kind of fun floor spacing dynamics where Lebron actually
[28:14] Speaker 1: has a legitimate stretch five on the floor. And there
[28:16] Speaker 1: were some examples. I was looking through some of the
[28:18] Speaker 1: Team USA footage today. There was a clip going around
[28:20] Speaker 1: from the Serbia game where Lebron was burning Jokics for
[28:24] Speaker 1: helping off of Embiid. He hit him for corner three
[28:27] Speaker 1: on the left side in the first half of the game.
[28:29] Speaker 1: He had another one in the right corner where he
[28:30] Speaker 1: hit embiad and Be pump baked and Yokics jumped out
[28:33] Speaker 1: of his shoes and Be just drove and threw down
[28:35] Speaker 1: a dunk. And like, I'm just really excited to see
[28:38] Speaker 1: Lebron play in potentially five out spacing again, something we
[28:42] Speaker 1: haven't seen in years, and even at age forty two,
[28:44] Speaker 1: I think there's a version of that story where Lebron
[28:48] Speaker 1: could be devastating as a basket attacker. Again. I want
[28:54] Speaker 1: to be clear, we saw bits and pieces of it.
[28:55] Speaker 1: We saw the Lakers go to five out groups with
[28:59] Speaker 1: Lebron at center in the Timberwolve series, which, by the way,
[29:04] Speaker 1: when those guys were on the floor, they scored the
[29:06] Speaker 1: ball really effectively against the vaunted Timberwolves defense. We saw
[29:12] Speaker 1: groups in the Russell Westbrook years where Lebron would play
[29:14] Speaker 1: center simply because they didn't have any centers that could play.
[29:17] Speaker 1: So we saw it on occasion. But I'm excited to
[29:20] Speaker 1: see like a real full season where some of their
[29:22] Speaker 1: best looks could involve real five out spacing number seven.
[29:27] Speaker 1: This is the latest example of how fortune favors the bold.
[29:31] Speaker 1: One of the things that I've talked about consistently over
[29:33] Speaker 1: the years is, like most of the examples in NBA history,
[29:37] Speaker 1: where you look through and a team actually pushes their
[29:41] Speaker 1: chips into the middle, so to speak, it tends to
[29:44] Speaker 1: result in a championship for one reason or another. I
[29:47] Speaker 1: shouldn't say it tends to result in a championship, but
[29:49] Speaker 1: a lot of our champions involve situations where they made
[29:54] Speaker 1: some sort of bold or aggressive move at some point
[29:56] Speaker 1: down the line, right, whether it's the Knicks and pushing
[30:01] Speaker 1: their chips in on Michale Bridges, Karl Anthony Towns and
[30:03] Speaker 1: Ojan Andobi over the previous few years. You know, Oklahoma
[30:07] Speaker 1: City's not as much of an example, but if you
[30:11] Speaker 1: dig into, like you know, Boston going after Christaps Porzingis
[30:14] Speaker 1: and Drew Holliday, You go into Denver in their move
[30:17] Speaker 1: for Aaron Gordon and how that that was a risky move.
[30:20] Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon was kind of an undervalued player coming out
[30:22] Speaker 1: of Orlando, right, And we can go on and on
[30:24] Speaker 1: I'm not going to dig too much further down NBA history,
[30:27] Speaker 1: but there's just a lot of different examples where it's
[30:29] Speaker 1: like you push your chips in. You know, we're going
[30:30] Speaker 1: to make a move for Kawhi Leonard even though he's
[30:32] Speaker 1: not promising us that he's going to stay beyond this year,
[30:36] Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden, we're hoisting the trophy
[30:37] Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen in Toronto. Right. So, like there's just, you,
[30:42] Speaker 1: generally speaking, a lot of the things in life that
[30:45] Speaker 1: are worth having involved some sort of risk in one
[30:48] Speaker 1: shape or another, Right, And I just thought Philly was
[30:52] Speaker 1: the example of the team that said we're going to
[30:55] Speaker 1: be aggressive and this has a chance to be clunky,
[30:58] Speaker 1: this has a chance to not work, this is a
[31:01] Speaker 1: chance to not be good enough. But hey, maybe just
[31:04] Speaker 1: maybe we can get Lebron James out of this situation.
[31:08] Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden, we have our best
[31:10] Speaker 1: chance to win the championship in a quarter of a century. Right,
[31:14] Speaker 1: you dig into, you know, some of the stuff surrounding
[31:17] Speaker 1: the other decisions. I was, I was thinking about this
[31:19] Speaker 1: with respect to the Warriors, and we're gonna talk about
[31:21] Speaker 1: Warriors in a minute, But like, like if you look
[31:25] Speaker 1: at what happened with this Lebron situation. He made some
[31:28] Speaker 1: he did some probing behind the scenes of like, okay,
[31:31] Speaker 1: is Anthony Davis gonna come with me? Is Kyrie gonna
[31:33] Speaker 1: come with me? Is that even plausible from the trademarket standpoint?
[31:37] Speaker 1: But ultimately he ended up picking just based on the
[31:39] Speaker 1: current roster of the team that he thought gave himself
[31:42] Speaker 1: the best chance to win. And what ends up happening
[31:45] Speaker 1: is you have a lot of these teams, like the
[31:46] Speaker 1: Warriors we'll talk about in a minute, who are like, well,
[31:49] Speaker 1: are we gonna get Lebron? Because if we're not gonna
[31:51] Speaker 1: get Lebron, I don't necessarily want to put all this
[31:55] Speaker 1: steak in the skin in the game and potentially handcuff
[31:58] Speaker 1: our ability to rebuild in the future. And so then
[32:00] Speaker 1: they hesitate and they don't do anything, and then the
[32:03] Speaker 1: opportunity passes them. One of the things I talked about
[32:06] Speaker 1: during the process, if you guys remember, is I was
[32:09] Speaker 1: worried that Lebron, even though I wanted him to go
[32:11] Speaker 1: to Golden State, I was worried that Lebron would look
[32:13] Speaker 1: at Joe Lacup and go, you have all your picks,
[32:15] Speaker 1: and all you've done is pass on really good players
[32:17] Speaker 1: every time they've come available. I don't trust you to
[32:20] Speaker 1: actually put your chips in the middle when the opportunity comes.
[32:25] Speaker 1: Bob Myers and my Ganzy, they were incredibly aggressive this
[32:29] Speaker 1: summer between the move for Jalen Brown, again identifying him
[32:34] Speaker 1: as an asset that was undervalued because of the way
[32:36] Speaker 1: these analytic departments looked at him. Whether it was you know,
[32:40] Speaker 1: going after a guy like Dean Wade, going after a
[32:43] Speaker 1: guy like Anferny Simons, like meaningful upgrades like Dean Wade
[32:46] Speaker 1: can start for your team in a playoff game, in
[32:48] Speaker 1: a pan Jaferny Simons is a valuable sixth man microwave score,
[32:53] Speaker 1: like just putting, like making real attempts to just be like,
[32:56] Speaker 1: we're gonna put together the best possible roster we can
[33:00] Speaker 1: and maybe through that we can persuade Lebron to come right.
[33:06] Speaker 1: Bob Myers, going on Rich Paul's podcasts, you know, openly
[33:11] Speaker 1: advocating there were, you know, a lot of ways that
[33:13] Speaker 1: could have gone wrong. There's a version of it where
[33:15] Speaker 1: you don't get Lebron and your team's just not good enough. Right,
[33:18] Speaker 1: There's a version of it where even just Bob Myers
[33:21] Speaker 1: going on the podcast, maybe it ends up rubbing Lebron
[33:24] Speaker 1: the wrong way and feeling like a dynamic he doesn't
[33:26] Speaker 1: want to involve himself with. It was risky, All of
[33:28] Speaker 1: it was risky, but it was all an example of
[33:32] Speaker 1: them pushing their chips in the middle. And now, if
[33:34] Speaker 1: you really dig into it, it's like they didn't just
[33:36] Speaker 1: trade Paul George for Jalen Brown with a couple of picks,
[33:41] Speaker 1: one of which was a really good pick and another
[33:43] Speaker 1: one was a kind of a mediocre pick. Now you
[33:45] Speaker 1: dig into it, and it's like, in one summer they
[33:49] Speaker 1: added Dean Wade, Anferny Simon's, Jaylen Brown and Lebron James
[33:53] Speaker 1: for basically a bunch of contracts that were six million
[33:56] Speaker 1: or less in terms of the free agent signings the
[34:01] Speaker 1: toe and basically one really good first round pick, another
[34:04] Speaker 1: pick first round pick that's you know whatever, and a
[34:08] Speaker 1: bad distressed contract in Paul George. So like, when you
[34:11] Speaker 1: actually piece it all together, it's like an insane acquisition
[34:14] Speaker 1: of talent for one summer, And again, I just will
[34:19] Speaker 1: it work? Who knows? Is there a version of the
[34:21] Speaker 1: story where the sixers don't win the championship. Yeah, absolutely,
[34:24] Speaker 1: I'd argue they have the fourth best chance right now
[34:26] Speaker 1: behind New York, Oklahoma City in San Antonio. Like they
[34:30] Speaker 1: it's certainly risky, but the point is is, like I
[34:33] Speaker 1: like their chance as a hell of a lot more
[34:35] Speaker 1: at fourth than if they didn't get Lebron or if
[34:39] Speaker 1: they didn't get Jylen Brown. And they were running back
[34:41] Speaker 1: basically the team from last year, and they were like
[34:43] Speaker 1: ten or eleventh on my list right Like, it's just
[34:47] Speaker 1: they push their chips in and now they have a chance,
[34:51] Speaker 1: and it's a hell of a lot better than a
[34:52] Speaker 1: lot of these other teams out there that don't have
[34:54] Speaker 1: a chance. Which takes me to the other to number eight.
[35:03] Speaker 1: What the fuck are the Warriors doing? They have passed
[35:08] Speaker 1: on every opportunity to make a move to support Steph
[35:13] Speaker 1: Curry that involved any sort of substantial risk. You know,
[35:19] Speaker 1: it's funny when you're talking about going all in so
[35:23] Speaker 1: to speak, around an older player, there's this belief that
[35:28] Speaker 1: it's like, oh, you're mortgaging your future for a small
[35:35] Speaker 1: increase in your chances to win. I know this talking
[35:38] Speaker 1: point because I heard it constantly surrounding Lebron James and
[35:43] Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four,
[35:47] Speaker 1: and people being like, oh, well they're just not quite
[35:49] Speaker 1: good enough. If you move this pick to go get
[35:54] Speaker 1: whoever it is, it's not really going to demonstratively improve
[35:59] Speaker 1: their chances to win, So why would you do it?
[36:02] Speaker 1: And that ends up becoming the rationale And I would argue,
[36:06] Speaker 1: the only way you're really going to mortgage your future
[36:10] Speaker 1: is if you make a move for a like an
[36:14] Speaker 1: expensive move for a player whose timeline doesn't match up
[36:18] Speaker 1: because they're too old. Right, Like, I like, I understand
[36:24] Speaker 1: why a team wouldn't want to trade a bunch of
[36:28] Speaker 1: picks for Andrew Wiggins in his age thirty two season
[36:34] Speaker 1: and get one or two good years out of him,
[36:37] Speaker 1: and then suddenly you're like, shit, we gotta go, we
[36:39] Speaker 1: gotta trade him, and he's not worth as much as
[36:41] Speaker 1: he used to be worth. I understand hesitance in that
[36:45] Speaker 1: specific regard, but like when it comes to young, great
[36:50] Speaker 1: role players, they are an asset in and of themselves.
[36:55] Speaker 1: If the Knicks wanted to trade ogn and Obi right now,
[37:00] Speaker 1: even on his big contract, they would get a haul
[37:04] Speaker 1: for him. Any one of these teams that has a
[37:08] Speaker 1: really good role player that they want to trade, they
[37:11] Speaker 1: could trade them like this, If the Oklahoma City Thunder,
[37:14] Speaker 1: We're like, you know what, we want to trade Alex
[37:17] Speaker 1: Crusoe right now. Alex Cruso's probably getting you multiple verse
[37:21] Speaker 1: round picks at least one, and so it's really frustrating.
[37:26] Speaker 1: He is an older bet, by the way. I that's
[37:30] Speaker 1: what bothers me about this, like hesitance the Sixers, or
[37:33] Speaker 1: excuse me, the Warriors passing on Pascal Siakam, passing on
[37:37] Speaker 1: ogn Andobi not calling up New Orleans this summer and
[37:41] Speaker 1: being like, hey, we want Trey Murphy and Dejonte Murray.
[37:46] Speaker 1: Because even if you don't get Lebron, even if you
[37:50] Speaker 1: have to run it back with Steph Curry and Draymond
[37:53] Speaker 1: Green and Trey Murphy and you lose, you can turn
[37:56] Speaker 1: around and trade Trey Murphy again because he's young and
[38:00] Speaker 1: great at basketball. The best thing you can do as
[38:04] Speaker 1: a basketball team is continue to improve your basketball team.
[38:09] Speaker 1: The Sixers, for example, the Jalen Brown trade, Will they
[38:14] Speaker 1: get the same haul that Hall quote unquote that Boston
[38:19] Speaker 1: got for Jalen Brown. Maybe not, But if they turn
[38:22] Speaker 1: around and wanted to trade Jalen Brown next summer, you
[38:23] Speaker 1: don't think they'd get something for him. Of course they would,
[38:25] Speaker 1: He's Jalen Brown. And that's what I don't understand about
[38:29] Speaker 1: any of this process from Golden State. There's this idea that, like,
[38:33] Speaker 1: their draft picks are the only assets they have that
[38:37] Speaker 1: give them the ability to build post Steph Curry. I
[38:40] Speaker 1: don't see it that way. A draft pick or a
[38:44] Speaker 1: good basketball player in his prime are both valuable assets.
[38:49] Speaker 1: So if you can move draft compensation and get really
[38:53] Speaker 1: good basketball players that both in the short term supports
[38:58] Speaker 1: your ability to compete with Steph Curry, but also gives
[39:01] Speaker 1: you a better chance to convince a guy like Lebron
[39:04] Speaker 1: James to come to town, and you can turn around
[39:07] Speaker 1: and move that young player if you need more draft
[39:10] Speaker 1: picks in the future. It's a no brainer to me.
[39:14] Speaker 1: And instead, Golden State has hesitated every single time at
[39:17] Speaker 1: the one yard line when they've been in these situations
[39:21] Speaker 1: based on this like perceived belief that those draft picks
[39:25] Speaker 1: are their key to the future. One of the things
[39:27] Speaker 1: I've always said is, like, there's no guarantee that your
[39:29] Speaker 1: draft picks gonna land in a good draft. The number
[39:32] Speaker 1: one pick in like a Zachary Risasche draft, or hell,
[39:36] Speaker 1: maybe in a stacked draft, like one of these top
[39:38] Speaker 1: four guys, one of these top four guys this year.
[39:40] Speaker 1: There's a good chance that one of these top four guys,
[39:44] Speaker 1: you know, Caleb Wilson, Cam Boozer, Darren Peterson, A J. Deabontsa,
[39:49] Speaker 1: a pretty good chance that one of them is just
[39:50] Speaker 1: not very good. That's that's the game. And it's like that.
[39:56] Speaker 1: It's like that family guy joke about the what's in
[39:58] Speaker 1: the box, the mystery box of thing, where it's like,
[40:01] Speaker 1: you have this mystery box of these draft picks. But
[40:05] Speaker 1: for years now you've had Steph Curry, who, even in
[40:08] Speaker 1: his post prime, has continued to be a top ten
[40:10] Speaker 1: player in the NBA. And there is no guarantee, In fact,
[40:13] Speaker 1: it is very unlikely that that pick will become a
[40:20] Speaker 1: top ten player. There is a good chance that of
[40:24] Speaker 1: Caleb Wilson, Cam Booser, AJ DEBONSA, Darren Peterson, that none
[40:28] Speaker 1: of those four ever become top ten players in the NBA.
[40:32] Speaker 1: That's a legitimate possibility. They might all kind of hover
[40:35] Speaker 1: in the ten to twenty range. It is exceedingly rare
[40:39] Speaker 1: to actually get a player that good, and I feel
[40:42] Speaker 1: like it has been an example of mismanagement the way
[40:46] Speaker 1: that the Warriors have failed to be aggressive on any
[40:48] Speaker 1: of these young, great role players that both could have
[40:51] Speaker 1: helped Steph compete, helped them convince a guy like Lebron
[40:55] Speaker 1: to come and help them in the future by virtue
[40:59] Speaker 1: of them being an asset that they can turn around
[41:01] Speaker 1: and flip when they need to. And I feel bad
[41:04] Speaker 1: for Warriors fans. I feel bad for Steph Curry. They
[41:06] Speaker 1: are going to run back next year a team that,
[41:10] Speaker 1: even when healthy, was a playing team in the Western Conference,
[41:13] Speaker 1: and their second best player is rehabbing his acl right now.
[41:17] Speaker 1: It's very dark. They're in Golden State. I two more
[41:20] Speaker 1: quick ones. Number nine, The Miami Heater are a multi
[41:24] Speaker 1: year project. I think They're one chance to compete in
[41:28] Speaker 1: the short term was to get Lebron. Rich Paul basically
[41:32] Speaker 1: said himself in a one of those pods with Max
[41:37] Speaker 1: Kellerman that he viewed the Miami Heat as like a
[41:40] Speaker 1: multi year cycle, like he did not think they would
[41:43] Speaker 1: compete for a championship in year one and that their
[41:45] Speaker 1: best chance would actually be in year two. That, by
[41:47] Speaker 1: the way, should have been a clear indicator to all
[41:50] Speaker 1: of us that Lebron probably wouldn't going to Miami, the
[41:53] Speaker 1: fact that his agent was openly saying that he didn't
[41:55] Speaker 1: think they could win this year. But now, especially that
[41:59] Speaker 1: Lebron's not in the pickture, this is a multi year project.
[42:03] Speaker 1: They are going to be so devoid of backcourt talent,
[42:06] Speaker 1: overall ball handling and shooting around Giannis and Bam, center depth,
[42:11] Speaker 1: a variety of other areas where there's weaknesses in this
[42:13] Speaker 1: roster that they are going to need a multi cycle
[42:16] Speaker 1: approach to try to build a contender around these guys.
[42:19] Speaker 1: Between other moves they make this offseason in terms of
[42:22] Speaker 1: free agent signings, whether it's Russell Westbrook, Demarta, rozen Bradley Beal,
[42:25] Speaker 1: whatever ball handlers become available to them, the moves that
[42:30] Speaker 1: they can make at this upcoming trade deadline, the following summer,
[42:36] Speaker 1: the following trade deadline, we're talking about basically four cycles
[42:41] Speaker 1: here for them to be able to have an opportunity
[42:44] Speaker 1: to compete for the twenty twenty eight NBA Championship, and
[42:48] Speaker 1: it's going to require it's going to be a thin
[42:49] Speaker 1: road for them to walk, because they need quite a
[42:52] Speaker 1: bit of talent at some key position groups. I do
[42:54] Speaker 1: think they need a backup center, like pat Riley talked about.
[42:57] Speaker 1: I do think they're gonna need a good amount of
[43:00] Speaker 1: ball handling and shooting talent that's going to be hard
[43:02] Speaker 1: to acquire over such a short period of time with
[43:04] Speaker 1: the asset constraints that they have. But between Rich Paul
[43:08] Speaker 1: admitting it and now Lebron actually kind of turning them
[43:11] Speaker 1: down this Heat team, it's going to be a very
[43:14] Speaker 1: delicate balance over these next four cycles again summer deadline,
[43:18] Speaker 1: summer deadline for the Heat to turn that roster into
[43:21] Speaker 1: a championship roster. The number ten Lebron is still very
[43:25] Speaker 1: much one of the best needle movers in the NBA.
[43:29] Speaker 1: This whole saga has been very fascinating to me, and
[43:32] Speaker 1: there's some uniqueness to it in the sense that, you know,
[43:37] Speaker 1: how often do you have a legitimate All NBA level
[43:40] Speaker 1: player when he's healthy. I would argue he's probably we'll
[43:45] Speaker 1: see how we do in the player rankings when we
[43:47] Speaker 1: get into the summer, but like he's in my book,
[43:52] Speaker 1: somewhere around the top fifteen, top twelve regular season player
[43:56] Speaker 1: and somewhere around like a top seven or eight playoff
[43:58] Speaker 1: player in the entire NBA. For a guy like that
[44:02] Speaker 1: to be available to just sign outright at a veteran
[44:06] Speaker 1: minimum contract is kind of an unprecedented dynamic in the NBA,
[44:12] Speaker 1: and it was a combination of a bunch of factors.
[44:14] Speaker 1: You know, the way the CBA has changed it so
[44:17] Speaker 1: that good teams don't have cap space. Like the one
[44:20] Speaker 1: good team that had like a substantial amount of cap
[44:24] Speaker 1: space this summer was a Lakers team that didn't want
[44:29] Speaker 1: Lebron and that was clearly trying to move in a
[44:32] Speaker 1: different direction and wanted to use that cap space on
[44:35] Speaker 1: young talent to surround Luca, which put Lebron in this
[44:38] Speaker 1: situation where he was going to be choosing between either
[44:42] Speaker 1: bad teams with cap space or good teams that didn't
[44:45] Speaker 1: have cap space as a free agent or a sign
[44:48] Speaker 1: and trade dynamic, or he could go to a team,
[44:50] Speaker 1: but he'd have to send out a bunch of salary,
[44:53] Speaker 1: which would sap the team he's going to of talent.
[44:56] Speaker 1: Very different from previous iterations of the NBA when you
[44:59] Speaker 1: go back decade where it was more common to go
[45:01] Speaker 1: to a summer and a good team would have some
[45:03] Speaker 1: cap space available just by virtue of the way the
[45:06] Speaker 1: league has changed, and now players tend to extend with
[45:09] Speaker 1: their teams rather than go to free agency, which means
[45:11] Speaker 1: most player movement happens through the trade market rather than
[45:13] Speaker 1: through free agency. So it's just this confluence of events
[45:17] Speaker 1: that led to this super unique situation. But the basketball
[45:21] Speaker 1: world stopped. The basketball world stopped for a month here
[45:25] Speaker 1: literally because Lebron James was a free agent. And this
[45:28] Speaker 1: is a guy who entered the league in two thousand
[45:32] Speaker 1: and three. This is a guy who legitimately will turn
[45:35] Speaker 1: forty two years old this season and substantially altered the
[45:40] Speaker 1: championship picture in the NBA. You look around the league
[45:45] Speaker 1: and it's like, the only teams you're putting over Philly
[45:49] Speaker 1: for sure right now are okay, see in San Antonio,
[45:52] Speaker 1: the two freaky talented young teams in the league led
[45:55] Speaker 1: by Apex Superstars, and a New York Knicks team that's
[45:58] Speaker 1: a defending champion. Even with all of the question marks
[46:02] Speaker 1: and all of the stuff. With that Philly team, you're
[46:04] Speaker 1: putting him forth because you know, Lebron James plus that
[46:09] Speaker 1: type of talent, his leadership and his ability to kind
[46:11] Speaker 1: of help things coalesce gives them a dead serious chance,
[46:15] Speaker 1: and I just think it's crazy. I can't believe it
[46:16] Speaker 1: that here in the summer of twenty twenty six we
[46:21] Speaker 1: were talking about a Lebron James free agency that stopped
[46:23] Speaker 1: the basketball world and substantially altered the title landscape. And
[46:27] Speaker 1: it just as another feather in his cap as one
[46:30] Speaker 1: of the great basketball players of our time. And I
[46:32] Speaker 1: think if he wins the championship in Philly, and again
[46:34] Speaker 1: that's we're a long way from there right now. But
[46:37] Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talking like what does it
[46:39] Speaker 1: mean for Lebron's legacy, And Lebron's legacy is stamped. It's
[46:43] Speaker 1: not really something that I think is up for changing
[46:46] Speaker 1: at this point. But what it does to me is
[46:48] Speaker 1: reinforce what is the strongest part of his basketball case,
[46:51] Speaker 1: which is, as you dig through NBA history or his history,
[46:55] Speaker 1: I should say he's so versatile that he's been able
[46:58] Speaker 1: to take many different different types of rosters and turned
[47:01] Speaker 1: them into legitimate championship contenders. Whether it's like Larry Hughes
[47:06] Speaker 1: and Sasha Pavlovich and Drew Gooden and zydronisolgowskis competing for
[47:13] Speaker 1: a championship in seven, or it's the the Moe Williams
[47:19] Speaker 1: version of the team in the late two thousands. Or
[47:22] Speaker 1: it's Wade Bosh, or it's Kyrie Kevin Love, or it's
[47:27] Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, or it's you know, Luka Doncic, Jen Austin Reeves,
[47:32] Speaker 1: or it's this team. There have just been so many
[47:35] Speaker 1: different iterations where Lebron's taken on different roles. I'm partnering
[47:38] Speaker 1: with a scoring guard here, I'm partnering with a elite
[47:42] Speaker 1: big here, I'm partnering partnering with a non shooting slasher
[47:46] Speaker 1: like Dwayne Wade. I'm partnering with all these different types
[47:49] Speaker 1: of players, and he's just always been able to kind
[47:51] Speaker 1: of figure it out and compete for a championship. And
[47:53] Speaker 1: famously he's won a title on every team he's been on.
[47:56] Speaker 1: And if you were to win a title in Philly
[47:58] Speaker 1: and win his fourth title with this excuse me, his
[48:00] Speaker 1: fifth title with his fourth different team, it would just
[48:03] Speaker 1: be another resounding statement that of that case that I've
[48:08] Speaker 1: always talked about for Lebron's goat case, which is his
[48:11] Speaker 1: goat case, is very simply if you were to draft
[48:14] Speaker 1: a team from scratch in a all of NBA history,
[48:18] Speaker 1: in a fantasy draft and you had the number one
[48:21] Speaker 1: overall pick, and you got to have that player for
[48:23] Speaker 1: his entire career, and everything else is up in the air.
[48:26] Speaker 1: Who your number two is, Who the rest of your
[48:28] Speaker 1: roster is, all of the injuries and different things that
[48:32] Speaker 1: can happen throughout an NBA career. Which player gives you
[48:35] Speaker 1: the best chance to win the most championships? It's Lebron
[48:40] Speaker 1: because you can do the most things, and he's going
[48:42] Speaker 1: to play the longest, and he's going to be at
[48:43] Speaker 1: the highest level for the longest, which gives you the
[48:46] Speaker 1: best chance to win. And if he was able to
[48:49] Speaker 1: win a championship with Paul George Tyres, Maxi, bj Edgecomb
[48:52] Speaker 1: and Joel Embid in the year twenty twenty six, that
[48:54] Speaker 1: would be perhaps the most resounding defense of that particular statement.
[48:59] Speaker 1: And again, long way from there, but that's the opportunity
[49:02] Speaker 1: that he has in this particular season. All right, guys,
[49:04] Speaker 1: It's all I have for today is always a sincerely
[49:06] Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
[49:09] Speaker 1: We are taking tomorrow off. We will have an episode
[49:11] Speaker 1: on Monday morning that I already recorded before the Lebron trade,
[49:14] Speaker 1: talking about different number twos. Who's like the best fitting
[49:16] Speaker 1: number two for our top five superstars in the NBA.
[49:19] Speaker 1: That's just a short, little quick episode coming out on Monday.
[49:22] Speaker 1: From there, next week I want to do a contender
[49:25] Speaker 1: rankings where we go over the where we kind of
[49:29] Speaker 1: go over the current contention landscape now that Lebron is
[49:34] Speaker 1: actually signed. That will be going out on Wednesday. He'll
[49:36] Speaker 1: probably have a mail bag on Friday, and then we'll
[49:38] Speaker 1: end up starting our player rankings as we head in
[49:40] Speaker 1: the following week. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys
[49:42] Speaker 1: for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll see you
[49:44] Speaker 1: guys on Monday.

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