Hot Take: the reason that former role players make for better coaches than former stars is because role players inherently need to adapt and learn many different systems as they move from team to team, when star players play relatively the same from team to team and coach to coach. That’s why we see people like Phil Jackson and Steve Kerr be better coaches than guys like Magic Johnson and Kevin Mchale EDIT: The same can be said for analysts
It’s the same trend in other sports and even in business. The most talented engineer makes a horrible engineering manager because they never had to struggle, and don’t know how to help someone get through their struggles, “What do you mean you’re struggling? It’s easy.” If everything comes easy to you you don’t have to work as hard to be good. Someone who has to out work others to be good understands how to help others improve because they’ve put in the effort to get the most of their potential and can give others a roadmap to follow.
Hot Take: The KAT trade was needed for the Timberwolves, BUT deciding to get Julius Randle instead of finally giving Naz Reid a chance to start a full season at Power Forward (like we briefly saw Naz do last season when KAT got banged up) was the crucial mistake. Timberwolves couldve gotten a backup center that gives a defensive boost when Rudy is on the bench and a guard and some picks instead of chasing a All Star forward who doesnt match the scheme at all
For further context: Naz only averages 1 less point than Randle when you adjust to per 36 minutes, and Reid is doing it at much better effective FG% while having a similar tier of defense to Randle
Randle has great on-off numbers. Yes he sucks at defense but he is not the main problem. The main problem is Mike Conley being washed and Donte shooting bricks.
I related to the AAU take so much. I played AAU since i was in 5th grade playing against who were stronger,faster and bigger since they were grades above me and did till i finished HS and man. By the time i reached College my shooting shoulder was destroyed from dislocations and heavy load of usage my knees were not there anymore. I was injury prone because my ankles and shoulder. Kids are forced to play WAAAAAAAAAAAY to many games of AAU. Kids are legit getting physically abuse destroying their bodies before even reaching the pro and real competitive level. No wonders prospects are so injury prone back then on the early 00's and below AAU team didn't used to play that many games. Kids where doing the regular route with HS games and nacional games and then college. I legit played like 4 games at day + practice 4 times at week playing like. I remember how 1 week i played over 12 in 3 days. You know how fucked up that is for a kid who is still developing? for a 14 y/o kid?.
@@RomnysGonzalez fr and we not even talking about issues like costs for travel and the tournaments themselves when you playing every weekend over 3/4 of the year
Does AAU even teach the fundamentals of the game? It seems like they just run a damn rec league: go out there and just play. No real plays, actions, or sets, no team play, no defensive schemes, etc.
its more likely that its because kids are lifting weights so young instead of playing as well as abusing PEDs. In Europe they play tons of games and have intense practice 2x a day. Injuries dont seem as prevalent bc they dont start weight training till later
HOT TAKE: The winner of the in season tournament should get the 15th pick of the draft. The pick is good enough to care about, but not good enough to be unfair. The pick should also only be tradable on draft night.
@igotkiwi the stars of the team are the players you want to turn up and they will definitely be looking at adding a young promising asset and the players who are on the fringe of the rotation would also like the money that comes with the tournament. if you're also worried that the player who will be the 15th pick like 5 months later will A, be your position and B, take your minutes then you could also show up in the tournament and show your worth to your team and others 🤷♂️
I don’t think anyone, especially the players, would care about getting the 15th pick. Especially since the team that wins the nba cup is likely already a contender
Hot take: people have no idea what makes a good or decent defender. People will see poor defense in a rookies year and keep saying they’re that same defender for the rest of their career true or not. Luka for example is probably the most hated defender in the league for undeserved reasons. He’s good on ball and often falls asleep off ball. He is constantly being called a negative and one of the worst defenders ever. Who are some players than are called good are great defenders who suffer from the same weaknesses. Kobe and ant. Both are better on ball but both also fall/fell asleep often off ball. There’s so many aspects of defense but people refuse to look at the whole picture and assume if someone is bad at one thing they’re bad at everything
I think people tend to make up their minds early about a players skill set and don’t evolve their opinions as the player evolves. Guys like James Harden and Steph Curry were pretty poor defenders for a long time but in the past few years, they’ve been getting a lot better, but people still use them as an example of terrible defenders. they’re still not lockdown defenders but they’re better than anyone gives them credit for
I mean it goes like this. Are they poor or ok defenders at the start of their career. If they are white they will probably never loose that narrative. If they are athletic they probably will. Then there’s rare cases like jokic how he went from bad defensively to overrated defensively.
Hot take: If a team has been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with a handful of games left in the regular season, and has a superstar-level offensive player, instead of playing normally, they should do everything in their power to have their offensive superstar try and get 100 points per game. This is not for the purposes of winning, but for the purposes of marketing and creating a legacy. All of the merchandise (that could be pre-designed) in the case this succeeds would be financially game breaking, and people would likely at least watch a few games even if they didn't care about either team so they would have the chance to see it. It would suck from a winning/losing perspective but be brilliant from, a business perspective. Either that, or me being in marketing for a career is really messing with me.
I mostly want that Wilt record out of the record books, because I quite frankly don't believe it has happened in the first place. The only ''proof'' we have is a Philly sided radio broadcast that is either only partial and came out some time after it happened. There is no tv footage, no neutral or even opposing media from the Knicks/NYC. Anecdotes about shit like fouls that don't allign with the stats, which we can't verify at all (unlike Kobe and all other modern records), Wilt with a worse career FT% than Shaq (barely over 50%) who all of a sudden had this extreme career night where he shot almost 90% from the line.
NBA is starting to resemble the WWE already and it's dumb asf. Your proposal basically does the same - meaningless, scripted games where we already know what's gonna happen. It will attract interest and excitement in the beginning. And when that wears off, these people are NOT coming back
@@waff6ixYes, it would be ugly, and then might get rough as the other team realizes someone is trying to hang 100 on them, and then plays harder defense to protect their dignity.
Hot take: Giannis is the greatest scorer of his generation. He has the most 30+ point games from 2015-Present in an era with a countless number of historically great scorers. People just don't give him proper credit because of "bag" culture.
@@readmycomment3707that’s the thing. Luka jokic and Giannis are all time scorers. For multiple seasons Giannis and Luka have done it in very high volume (with Luka having the best PPG since MJ) they are all hyper efficient and Luka is by far the most versatile of the 3 and has the hardest job of the 3. I don’t think there’s really an argument for anyone other than Luka being the best scorer of this generation unless you want to count freethrow god Embiid.
@@deadlylightningspirit4295Luka doesn't have the hardest of the three. In fact, I think he's got it the easiest because he has better role players than both, plus, he's got an all-star and elite player second to him. Mavs just beat Nuggets yesterday without Luka because of Naji Marshal and Washington. Bucks aren't as good without Giannis, but, Nuggets are by far the worst without Jokic.
@@FilippinoPasion Mavs won by 2 points because Murray was 4-16 and played like trash. Luka has had garbage rosters his entire career, his ONLY good roster was last year when he made the finals and this year.
not really a hot take but just an opinion I'd like to get out there: it's pretty annoying and blatantly disrespectful when media personnel, analysts, older players, or nba content creators mispronounce surnames of (usually non-American) nba players continuously saying /jo-kich/ instead of /yo-kich; or, /ri-chuh-sar/ or /ri-sa-cher/; and other examples like mispronouncing Antetokounmpo, Nowitzki, or even Wembanyama (whose surname's syllables couldn't be clearer) is just unprofessional and embarrassing considering that it's their job to cover the nba
Idk who it was, but one announcer always said "Wembanyana" and I have no idea how he hadn't been corrected. Maybe he has now, but it was going on for far too long.
HOT TAKE : KG is not close to Tim Duncan as a basketball Player. People make is seem like KG is equal or better than TD and if KG was with the spurs they would have done the same which is not true. KG and TD on scoring may look same but in the playoffs Tim was a deamon of a a scorer (1999-2005). TD was was also way talented of a rim protector which was the centre piece of spurs's defense and KG can't replace that. PS : People argue about TD having better team because of the name of the people on the roster not necessarily who they were at the time and KG was also making playoffs as Tony gugliotta as the team leading scorer in the 90s
“TD was also way talented of a rim protector . . . KG can’t replace that.” Do some research on Garnett lol. He was a generational defender. Literally one of the best ever
KG isn’t TD, but KG can switch better, has better zone defense, both of those are more valuable in modern bball (this has likely skewed perception somewhat). I think defensively they are more or less comparable. Offensively though, KG would be less effective than TD because he is neither in the paint nor close enough to the 3pt line.
Yea people exagerrate how bad KG's teams were and how good Tim Duncan's teams were. If you look at those teams side by side year by year you'll see that more often then not their teams were on par with one another
Both were all-time-great 2-way players. The reason Garnett sweetens in our memory is because his game and bodytype would translate better to the modern game. Garnett could almost guard all positions, but TD slower feet would get picked-on in today’s playoffs. Also, TD career FT% =70%. KG career FT%=80%. I bet if KG played today he would be shooting 3’s, and would be the most dominant 3’n’D stretch-big, small-ball center in the league. Picture Giannis’s body and heart, with better defensive IQ and leadership, and a MUCH better shooter.
There’s a strong argument Hakeem is a more versatile offensive player than Sabonis. What Hakeem lacks as a passer, he makes up for as a versatile shot creator
HOT TAKE VERY HOT TAKE:The championship bucks are better than any showtime lakers team, you put Jrue on worthy Giannis on magic & brooks on Kareem, only two players on that team could shoot Michael cooper who 38.5% on 2 attempts and Byron Scott who shot 43.6% in the regular season but in the playoffs Scott went down to 20% on two attempts but cooper went up to 48.6% so realistically you could sag off everyone but him and completely shut them down
Hot take: Kerr is vastly underrated as a coach by fans. He really accelerated the 3 point revolution in 2015 largely by letting Steph shoot as many 3s as he wanted and is ahead of the curve again with his Warriors’ 12 man rotation. It allows everyone to give max effort on defense knowing there only in the game for short stints and keeps the entire roster engaged for the season. I could very well see this becoming the norm going forward for a variety of reasons but largely because of the CBA.
I don't think that Kerr was just letting Steph just shoot as many 3s as he wanted, but he knew the best way to truly unleash Steph. He was probably the perfect coach for him.
No, it's not. The Heat always seem to wait till the last possible second to perform like a legitimately good team instead of just doing that from the off, but their fans still complain when people count them out even though it's their own fault. Also, they have overachieved for the team they actually are, but their FO has done nothing to fix their weaknesses or improve their roster to truly boost their chances of winning; that's probably because not many other FOs believe that many of their players are truly that good. They have relied on a talented but limited trio in Jimmy, Bam, and Herro with overperforming vets and role players to bring another title to Miami despite other teams being more talented and championship-ready than them. But somehow, they are still considered contenders by many.
@@kjjr3270 you sound like a Boston fan 😂 here's the thing. It's a take partly based on ESPN saying such a successful team has the 20th best "big three" in the league, which is nuts.
Hot take: Jokic has a case for being top 5 all time, arguably should be a 5 time mvp, if his team was healthy the two years prior they could’ve 3 peated, and I 100% see him as the best offensive player ever at least for his peek.
Hot take: Nikola Jokic basically put himself in 1.2 in the playmaking rankings cause how tf do you get 11 assists on this Nuggets team. Magic is the outlier for playmakers with insane assists while contending still but I think this isn't a "carrying too much for a bad team" thing for Jokic cause he has gotten his playmaking to make 9-10 assists as the norm. Jokic might honestly be on the same tier (but Magic is still better)
This social media era for sports is terrible literally EVERY Champion for last 15yrs fans have an *Asterisk* for it lol either its "Players were injured😢" ,, "Team was stacked😢" ,, "There wasnt a crowd😢", ETC. Until its THEIR favorite team wins,, then it was "Legit" Title..no different from MAGA supporters..🤣🤣🤦🏿♂️
Hot take: The league should retire the jersey number twenty three because of the impact that its two best players of all time have had on the game. Without MJ or Bron the game would not be where it is today and they both deserve to be recognized by every team in the league for their contributions.
I think the true reason why the league is viewed as softer now is because of the amount of threes teams shoot. Since teams shoot so many threes now there are less drives to the basket so less physical plays to be made. That also makes the floor more spaced because now teams always have at least three to four shooters in the court so you can’t help off on some people which creates more space.
its the defensive rules and soft whistle that are the issue. Let players hand check and remove the landing space rules and it would be a completely different game
Hot take: Get rid of conferences. Instead of playing 4 games against teams in conference and 2 outside it, you'd play 3 against every team. Playoffs could have 1-12 seeds safe and an 8 team play-in for the past 4 spots. It would get rid of the problem where the East is always way weaker than the west, which affects both regular season records and playoff brackets. Plus, it would make it easier to add new teams to the League, since you wouldn't need to balance conferences. Also, I understand the history that put the Grizzlies in the west, but Memphis should not be in the west
Hot take: The way to make the All Star game more competitive is to change the way the players are awarded for participating. Currently, the winning and losing team's players get money for competing (the winning team getting more). Change it so only the winning team's players get paid and have that money come directly out of the NBA salaries of the losing team's players. The dynamic of winning (taking) money from losing players' salaries will be more impactful and directly motivating. Imagine the trash talking and competitive fire that would ignite.
That would be fun to see, but it's already pretty wack that they're having to pay a bunch of millionaires to show effort in an exhibition game. Also, players would be going at each other over something that they had no control over.
I think this makes the Allstar suffer for being an allstar. Imagine being an Allstar and you lost, you basically lost your salary for nothing whereby if you weren't an allstar, you wouldn't have lost anything. I see where you're going with that though.
Hot take: the most underratee big 3 in NBA history was the mid to late 2000s suns.. Steve Nash, Shaan Marion and Amare stoudamire were probably the closest thing to the big 3 warriors, having steve nash's atg playmaking +scoring combo alongside the rimrunning double double machine in Amare stoudamire who was also insane in the post was unstoppable offensively. Couple that w/ Shawn Marions versatility, defense, and scoring off the ball.. and they were one of the most unstoppable teams in general. Unfortanately, playing in the toughest conference of all time, and that controversial spurs series prevented a championship for the suns
Hot Take: All that's needed to fix the All Star game is crafting a good story to go into it, not new rules or better prize money or a tournament layout. Make it Old Stars vs Young Stars, America vs. the World, or the previous year's NBA champions vs the rest of the league. It's just framing the game right. The WNBA All Star Game from earlier this year was the best All Star Game I've seen from any sport in years because they made it Team USA vs Team All Stars of everyone who wasn't selected for Team USA. Boom that's all the narrative you need right there. Team USA has to try and prove why they were picked to go to the Olympics and Team All Star gets a chance to prove they got snubbed. With all the talk of who will be the next face of the NBA, make that the narrative of the All Star Game. Team Lebron, Steph, and KD vs Team Luka, Shai, and Ja or something. Make the cut off point like 32 years old and have them fight for who keeps getting to be the face of the NBA. Does the old guard still have one last push in them? Or is it time to finally pass the torch. Hell, you could make a literal show of it after the game of one side having to concede that the other rules the league by handing the other the trophy or something.
@@nydibs No, not just that. Another storyline going into that was Arike Ogunbowale was also not chosen for Team USA and she balled out and won All Star MVP.
@@urbaindelva7869yeah I was about to say the Celtics stalled out on offense a lot and Ray wouldn't have changed that enough by himself. I guess if you switched out Pierce for LeBron you'd have more playmaking on the floor and a guy who can draw a lot of attention in the paint which would open up KG and Ray. Plus young athletic LeBron with veteran KG would be a defensive monster.
@@nydibs I think he was based on his role but Ray arguably could've been Finals MVP in 08 and was relegated to a offball shooter imo they could've been better if PP played off Ray and KG and it would've helped with the injury issues
Hot Take: Anthony Edwards will surpass Curry's 3 point career total. He is on pace to make 1200 3s for his career after this season ends. Curry did that at 27 (4 years older than ANT).
Hot take: Pace increase over the last decade and a half is a huge reason why the archetype of a shooting guard in the 2000’s has been devalued. The best players in that position held more value in the 2000’s because they scored the ball when fewer points were being scored. For that reason I’d argue Zach Lavine would have had more of a trade market in the mid 2000’s (assuming he averaged a similar quantity of points then as he did at his peak).
I think the rise of the big lead guards and combo guard archetypes is probably another big factor. Post 2010 is the rise of russ, harden, steph, Luka and more. Plus the dominance of LeBron. This shifted value to the PG and forward positions. But those players all manipulate pace in unique ways to i suppose add to your point lol.
Taking the All-Stars international every 3 to 4 years would be a fantastic way to get everyone watching. The NBA has gone international there are countries who love the sport just as much as we Americans do. You can have East vs Paris and West vs Belgrade. Dunk contest, 3-point shooting contest, and skills competition could be amongst the most talented players in the world.
Recency bias is so crazy, the whole summer they were saying Luka deserved MVP and that he was the best in the world, now he has a slow start to the season and he’s suddenly trash
@@urbaindelva7869 he’s been playing injured, his decision-making has been inexcusable at times but he’s not a terrible player all of a sudden because of a few mental slips. I can agree his defensive effort should be better but it’s never been his strong suit
Hot take: prime kd is the BEST basketball player ever. He is the best not the greatest. You can say donovan mitchell is better than jerry west but not greater than jerry west. I’m saying prime kd is the best basketball player ever because he was unguardble. He can shoot midranges and 3s at an elite level and he so much faster than an average 7 footer. He was also a good defender. Any team that had him was instantly a contender. You can take the 2021 season as proof that prime kd was the best player ever as he carried the nets in the second round and if it wasn’t for his long shoe he would’ve won the title and we would consider him as a top 10 GREATEST player ever. Two players i would consider as the best player ever would be prime jordan and prime lebron as they both share the same abilities but they are more versatile than durant while he is a better offensive player than them.
The Nuggets need to move off Michael Porter Jr (or ideally Jamal Murray) to retool the roster. Holding off on this decision is just going to waste the last 4-6 years of Jokić as a top ten player.
Hot take: It only takes couple years for Okc to be in the similar situation like in 2012 and Spurs to offer hella picks and some wing for Jdub which would create generational rivalry between Shai and Chet vs Jdub and Wemby😮💨
Hot take: Gm’s overlook the amount of hidden talent that’s in the league. You got players like D white, Gafford, etc who can be very good nba players, that were stuck on bad teams. They are sometime more valuable than rookies since they may have long and cheap contracts
Another Hot Take: Intentionally fouling up 3 needs to be nerfed somehow, I understand it is strategically the right move but close games ending in free throws for both teams is wack
I legitimately believe that the Euro league winners (Panathonikas) would give Boston and incredibly tough game. As a futbol watcher my whole life, european (especially eastern) atmospheres are so underrated by American audiences and we've seen how much of an affect the wall has had in favour of the clippers. If the Celtics rock up to Panathanikos with the arena rocking, I genuinely believe that the Euro League side would win. That being said Boston would smoke them at the garden
Hot Take: To shake up the all star game - get rid of the 3 point line. This way players gotta figure things out. Spacing demands so much more complexity from the defence that it's hard to keep up with for just one game.
This isn’t really a hot take, but I don’t know if I agree all that much about you saying the backup big man is the least important bench piece. You’re absolutely correct that it’s rare to hear about a backup center being a massive deal, but it’s super common to hear about teams that have no backup centers having that as the biggest hole in their roster. For years now, the Nuggets and 76ers in particular have been needing that position.
@ I think they have all the right pieces, between Wagner and Paulo they’re versatile offensively, they’re young and hungry, and are hitting their momentum at the right times. They’re already super good, next year I’d say they’re up there with Celtics
Hot Take: The fact that American or USA born players can only be the best players in the game or only they can be the face of the NBA is ridiculous and the most bogus takes I have seen and heard. It should not matter if the player is international or not. You advertise them even if they are quite and don't engage with the media. Yes, some players don't have appealing playstyles to them but if they are winning titles, that should matter a ton.
kinda' agree Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and SGA are all clearly better players but a lot of the media personnel would often point to Ant or Ja, for example, as who they think would be the face of the league
Hot take: if both butler and embiid retired right now, butler is a better all time talent. I’d rather someone who took me to 2 finals rather than someone who won mvp once and never madee it past the second round
Peak for peak embid just clears him respectfully and it isn’t even close and The accolades are slightly in embid’s favor while embid clears him in the stat department as well.
I think I already said this on a Shootaround, but it bears repeating: I think that if the NBA Cup is here to stay and is to mean something, there should be a financial incentive for both teams that make it to the final game, and the winning team not only gets any and all forfeited draft picks, but also has the option to, starting with their highest second round pick, convert any number of their seconds in that draft into one first rounder. One second becomes pick 31, which is treated as a first rounder in this context, two becomes 30, and so on
Hot Take: Lebron ruined the league by making it look easy to win with Super teams. Teams undervalued the strength of having home grown players, and overvalued having a collection of superstars.This allowed for teams who were patient with developing their home grown talent(Celtics Bucks and Nuggets), to win championships. Evidence being that Lebron was the last finals mvp to not be drafted by the team he won it with.
LeBron did not make it look easy at all because it was NOT easy. The Heatles actually underachieved. They didn't just pair up and start dominating. They had to figure things out along the way even after they started to hit their stride. That is not how superteams work, and it has never been how they work.
1. Baseball tried that (all star games giving home advantage) and everybody hated it and agreed it was a mistake. 2. "90s as tougher" was a narrative far before Bron was in contention for GOAT.
Hot take: a large part of a players development in any professional basketball league is how big of an opportunity they get any a lot of players could be verge all stars if given a green light early in their career.
Hot Take: I feel like there is finally a conversation for SGA being a better player than Luka. Luka is a better offense weapon yet, but SGA has better defense and the both of them are averaging similar levels of points per game. Luka could still be a better player but I think now with Luka being a cone and starting slow SGA is currently debatable to be a better player
In this season in particular, I believe SGA is playing a lot better than Luka. SGA has been more impactful as of now despite not having a larger usage rate than Luka.
The reason Luka won't win the MVP is that he really is a slow starter for the season but when February comes, he's looking like the best player in the world
Hot Take: The two most impactful people in the league for their teams' success are Brad Stevens and Sam Presti. Don't get me wrong, Nikola Jokic is still easily the most impactful player in the league, but the nuggets just aren't as good as the Celtics and Thunder, and no matter how well Jokic plays for them, their rosters are just so good that it won't be enough. Stevens' and Presti's roster construction and team management is the biggest reason for why the Celtics and Thunder are the best teams in the league. Their impact outweighs every individual player's.
Hot Take: Modern day defence is actually at the same level if not better than it was in the 90s/2000s, now obviously the scoring numbers dont reflect this but i dont think thats because of weak defence i think its because its just harder to defend modern day players, the average role player can do alot of things average role players back then couldnt as the barrier for entry to even be on a shitty team is way higher than it used to be.
The all star game determining home court advantage for the finals is the only way to maybe make the guys care about it but the league will never do it because it is too drastic
Hot take: James harden is the most influential player for the modern era. He single handily cause players to adopt flopping into their game more and to use a combo of dribble moves into pulling it from 30 feet out. If he even won one champion before he started to decline, there would be debates about him and Steph in who’s better not including accolades.
Most championship teams beat the 98 Bulls... In theory. They simply weren't that good. Jordan was getting old. Pippen was hurt. Rodman was washed and out of it and Im pretty sure at least borderline alcoholic. Kukoc is slept on a bit but hes a good third option basically. No center just big bodies. No scoring big period. In an era of scoring bigs. Their roleplayers? VERY meh. Harper was big and strong but also old and not his old self at all. People act like Kerr is like gdamn Horry or something. He hit a couple clutch shots. He was a short, weak, didn't really handle the ball or run the offense. Total defensive liability. Give me Sasha Vujacic over him because at least that dude was like 6'7. Anyway the team just wasn't that good. But its MJ, Jackson, and the gdamn 90s Bulls. I'm not better against them against ANYONE.
HOT TAKE: The 2011 Dallas Mavericks are overrated, they're more "right place, right time" and less "cinderella run" I get it, its one of the most loved championships and they were an excellent team (57 wins is pretty damn good), but people often fail to mention that external factors played fully in their favor, as such showing that nothing truly changed from their year-in-year-out "almost there" status as a team, though the league around them swayed in their benefit. Lemme explain, in round 2, they faced an aging Lakers team who just went through 3 straight finals trips. We all know how physically taxing 3 finals trips is, and a 4th in a row is also incredibly unlikely for the vast majority of players and teas. Secondly, the Thunder were very young and they haven't tasted playoff basketball past the first round. The truth is both the Lakers and Mavericks likely would've beaten them that year. Lastly, If Lebron doesn't straight up choke and is even a quarter of the guy he was that year in the finals, Miami takes that championship home. Lebron did not struggle because Dallas guarded him well, Lebron struggled because he played very passively and got on his own way. If you run this playoff series over and over again, odds are the Mavs that year win it less than 5% of the time, the stars simply aligned perfectly for them. Which is fine, a ring is a ring, but I'm also tired of people downplaying other championships due to externalities while acting like this is the holy grail of NBA championships.
Hot take: Steph curry has taken a significant leap on the defensive end in comparison to his past. He is no longer picked on in the same manner and the fact this isn’t talked about as part of his game evolving at 36 like they are covering lebrons jump shooting is high key criminal.
Guys. I don't know how to tell you this, but luck has always been a major part of winning sports championship. Adding a little more by adding the All-Star game win = Finals home court is adding some, but not as much as tons of other factors already involved. You really think that would change the finals champion more than 1 in 10 times? I doubt it.
Rusty I was just wondering if you are available for a 15 minute conversational interview just to catch up on things and ask some questions and the direction you and your content that is going in the future Sincerely Yusaf
Response to take 1: I don’t think any league has ever taken an idea that another league tried out and got rid of like a decade prior and tried the same thing again and it would almost always be ludicrous to do so
Hot Take: Damian Lillard and Paul George are like the same exact person in my eyes. Both are like consensus top 5 in their position for the 2010s despite no real accolades other than a couple all NBA teams, catch flack for focusing on side hustles, and with how it looks now will never be a top 2 guy on a winning team but will talk and act like they are NBA royalty.
Why shouldn’t they look at themselves that way?, ring culture and winning bias has somewhat ruined the nba. If you told me Tony Parker was better than Damian Lillard and Paul George, I would actually think you lost your mind.
Their side hustles have not bled into their careers at all. Also, Dame does not nor has ever spoken about himself like he is NBA royalty. PG? Different story.
@@JeffersonSteelflexx I used him as example for the ring stuff but I also think he actually is overrated. I’m seeing posts of people saying he was better than Carmelo, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, and kyrie Irving. Peak for peak he’s not even better than Deron Williams. He used to be underrated but now with ring culture I actually think he’s been overrated especially since he won finals mvp but they forget the bad moments with him and his flaws as a player. There’s no evidence that he’s better than the players I mentioned.
@@abtocool6350 I dont think it’s ring culture or winning bias, they literally havent done anything. I’m not making my NBA royalty off of a couple all nba teams or all star games. I dont see any scoring titles, stat leaderboard positions, defensive player of the year awards, or consistent standout playoff performances, or MVPs. You gotta do something if you’re not gonna get that ring. Tony Parker on the other hand got 4 rings with a single franchise as a key player on all 4 of those runs, I dont care how good the rest of the team was. Who knows what he couldve done with the green light Dame has had basically his whole career.
Shortcut to the goat debate Iverson vs John Stockton if you pick Iverson your goat is jordan cause of his peak performance, if you pick Stockton your goat is lebron due to the longevity and consistency in his career. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Probably a lukewarm take but people are overblowing the Franz Wagner jump. Linsanity runs usually end when stars return, and they’ve beaten mostly bad teams.
What is that Sabonis's take response? the comparison with Siakam is simply wrong... Sabonis has a higher career eFG%, almost 4 rebounds more in his career (twice Siakam's rebounds this season), higher assists, averages less fouls while having more usage and slightly more mpg... Sabonis is just better, and he will always be eternally underrated imo. He might actually be the 2nd most versatile offensive big in history. All of this coming from a guy that wasn't particularly watching a ton of Sabonis games throughout his career.
Kinda Hot Take: Each one of LeBron’s finals losses (except 2011🤦🏾) could be excused or at the very least shouldn’t be mocked as much as they are. 2007 plays veteran spurs team at 23, 2011 played terrible yes but I hate the fact that people seem to forget that Dallas team was tied for 2nd in the tougher west and they beat the blazers, Kobe and his lakers and OKC so but people still act as if the heat lost to a mediocre team, 2014 Wade and bosh obviously were declining but he still lost to a good team, 2015 love and Kyrie were out, 2017 and 18 Kevin Durant obviously.
Hot take: Kawhi Leonard is the most undercriticized superstar in the league. His quiet personality, his rings, and his playoff rep have given him a level of cover that I don't think that he should have anymore. Embiid and AD get more criticism for their injuries than he does, even though AD has never missed full seasons multiple times like him. He is a huge reason why load management is a problem. His 2019 ring with the Raptors is constantly brought up to defend him even though he has not done anything substantial since then. His bad (playoff) games, as rare as they are, almost never get discussed. As much as many Clippers fans like to rag on Paul George, he was more available compared to Kawhi when he was there and took them further than Kawhi did. PG was only on the team because Kawhi manipulated the FO into essentially giving their future to OKC for him, including SGA. He was just as responsible as PG for struggling to beat the undertalented Mavs with Luka twice and the choke job against the Nuggets in 2020. He deserves more blame than he gets.
From 2017 to 2023 kawhi averages 30/8/4 on 51/39/89 splits in the playoffs. There’s also not too many bad games he has in the playoffs too even try to nitpick and criticize ever since he became a primary option on the team and he was good for the majority of that 2020 series against the nuggets.
@@abtocool6350In that same span, Kawhi played no more than 13 playoff games 4 times, 3 of those times due to injury. Great averages, but they don't hold much water when you consider that factor. Also, he may have been great for most of that Nuggets series, but he is still partly responsible for that collapse, especially with his awful performance in that Game 7.
@@urbaindelva7869 those numbers do hold water no matter the circumstances and yes he was awful in game 7 but are we going to talk about how doc rivers continued to play montrez Harrell against jokic and they just switched everything on pick and rolls😂, that was more of the issue than his performance.
The rockets do have a lot of young players, don’t know if jalen green will ever be that guy but it’s not like we haven’t seen high volume inefficient shooters succeed
Hot take:Kobe and MJ are one the most underrated shooters of all time, people only look at there stats and don’t bring no context how great they were for there time. Kobe having the most 3s in a game, MJ making the most 3s in the finals, both improving their efficiency in the offs and typically lead there team in 3 point attempts.
MJ is very much an all time great shooter, his mid range percentage is straight up otherworldly, kobe not that much because he later on started forcing many more shots but he was still a great shooter in his "healthy" career (because his "healthy" means having 1 or 2 injuries (or more) at all times)
This is not a hot take at all, MJ is universally known as the goat mid range shooter and Kobe during his prime was considered one of if not the best in the league at that.
Highly disagree, backup bigs are THE most important backup position. Especially for the longevity of a team. Wearing down your wings by having them play center for 12-15 minutes hurts teams in the long term as well not having any real back line defense. The Celtics had a super fire big man rotation last szn. We saw the Heat struggle mightily in Cody zeller and Kevin love minutes in the ‘23 finals. We saw the ‘20 lakers have an excellent big rotation in the bubble. Teams with no backup centers do not last long and is a very sought after role
Hot take: dejounte murray fits in to the same archetype as a russell Westbrook. Big stats and obvious hustle on the court but the way he plays basketball does not contribute to winning whatsoever. Gambles too much on defence and has a similar offensive game to Russ only worse. At best, he is the fourth best player on a championship team.
Hot take: the in season tournament is dumb. I appreciate the effort of trying to bring back competition and stakes to regular season games, but at the same time it means nothing, gives the winner no real competitive advantage the rest of the year, and reveals the larger issue of todays nba. Regular season games used to matter, and be taken seriously in a way they aren’t today
Hot take: Kobe is not remotely close to Lebron when comparing who's the better player. In fact, I think Lebron is closer to MJ and the distance between MJ and Lebron, personally, is still a lot. Basically, MJ >> Lebron >>>>> Kobe
![EVERY TEAM’S Biggest Breakout! [24-25]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vlJKVGxohnw/mqdefault.jpg)
Hot Take: the reason that former role players make for better coaches than former stars is because role players inherently need to adapt and learn many different systems as they move from team to team, when star players play relatively the same from team to team and coach to coach. That’s why we see people like Phil Jackson and Steve Kerr be better coaches than guys like Magic Johnson and Kevin Mchale
EDIT: The same can be said for analysts
It’s the same trend in other sports and even in business. The most talented engineer makes a horrible engineering manager because they never had to struggle, and don’t know how to help someone get through their struggles, “What do you mean you’re struggling? It’s easy.”
If everything comes easy to you you don’t have to work as hard to be good. Someone who has to out work others to be good understands how to help others improve because they’ve put in the effort to get the most of their potential and can give others a roadmap to follow.
i fee like this the most cold take lol
what abt kidd?
@ there are exceptions to the rule (larry bird), but i’ve never though kidd was a great coach.
@@Silverado-pq6xe you ever seen the Mavs play? They play defense like they don’t even have a coach.
I feel like Jacob brought up the car thing just to try and sneak in the fact that he has a gf
Well, a lot of people keep cracking jokes about his love life, so he may as well. Lol
Bro was humble bragging
Facts
Definitely 😂
Hot Take: The KAT trade was needed for the Timberwolves, BUT deciding to get Julius Randle instead of finally giving Naz Reid a chance to start a full season at Power Forward (like we briefly saw Naz do last season when KAT got banged up) was the crucial mistake. Timberwolves couldve gotten a backup center that gives a defensive boost when Rudy is on the bench and a guard and some picks instead of chasing a All Star forward who doesnt match the scheme at all
For further context: Naz only averages 1 less point than Randle when you adjust to per 36 minutes, and Reid is doing it at much better effective FG% while having a similar tier of defense to Randle
I definitely don’t see Julius on the team by the end of the year.
Nazs defense and rebounding hasnt been as good as last season. Hes not the only one tho, the whole team seems to be struggling on that end
Naz should start. Randal should come off the bench.
Randle has great on-off numbers. Yes he sucks at defense but he is not the main problem. The main problem is Mike Conley being washed and Donte shooting bricks.
I related to the AAU take so much. I played AAU since i was in 5th grade playing against who were stronger,faster and bigger since they were grades above me and did till i finished HS and man. By the time i reached College my shooting shoulder was destroyed from dislocations and heavy load of usage my knees were not there anymore. I was injury prone because my ankles and shoulder.
Kids are forced to play WAAAAAAAAAAAY to many games of AAU. Kids are legit getting physically abuse destroying their bodies before even reaching the pro and real competitive level. No wonders prospects are so injury prone back then on the early 00's and below AAU team didn't used to play that many games. Kids where doing the regular route with HS games and nacional games and then college. I legit played like 4 games at day + practice 4 times at week playing like. I remember how 1 week i played over 12 in 3 days. You know how fucked up that is for a kid who is still developing? for a 14 y/o kid?.
Similar thing is happening for pretty much every sport except football because lots of kids don’t start until high school these days
@@RomnysGonzalez fr and we not even talking about issues like costs for travel and the tournaments themselves when you playing every weekend over 3/4 of the year
Does AAU even teach the fundamentals of the game? It seems like they just run a damn rec league: go out there and just play. No real plays, actions, or sets, no team play, no defensive schemes, etc.
its more likely that its because kids are lifting weights so young instead of playing as well as abusing PEDs. In Europe they play tons of games and have intense practice 2x a day. Injuries dont seem as prevalent bc they dont start weight training till later
HOT TAKE: The winner of the in season tournament should get the 15th pick of the draft.
The pick is good enough to care about, but not good enough to be unfair. The pick should also only be tradable on draft night.
Would that motivate players? You’re playing for your replacement unless you’re an all star
@igotkiwi the stars of the team are the players you want to turn up and they will definitely be looking at adding a young promising asset and the players who are on the fringe of the rotation would also like the money that comes with the tournament.
if you're also worried that the player who will be the 15th pick like 5 months later will A, be your position and B, take your minutes then you could also show up in the tournament and show your worth to your team and others 🤷♂️
That would be cool to see.
@@CM-ht4lcIt would also make the FO of the winning team scout very carefully and thoroughly to make sure that they select a solid player.
I don’t think anyone, especially the players, would care about getting the 15th pick. Especially since the team that wins the nba cup is likely already a contender
Hot take: people have no idea what makes a good or decent defender. People will see poor defense in a rookies year and keep saying they’re that same defender for the rest of their career true or not. Luka for example is probably the most hated defender in the league for undeserved reasons. He’s good on ball and often falls asleep off ball. He is constantly being called a negative and one of the worst defenders ever. Who are some players than are called good are great defenders who suffer from the same weaknesses. Kobe and ant. Both are better on ball but both also fall/fell asleep often off ball. There’s so many aspects of defense but people refuse to look at the whole picture and assume if someone is bad at one thing they’re bad at everything
I think people tend to make up their minds early about a players skill set and don’t evolve their opinions as the player evolves. Guys like James Harden and Steph Curry were pretty poor defenders for a long time but in the past few years, they’ve been getting a lot better, but people still use them as an example of terrible defenders.
they’re still not lockdown defenders but they’re better than anyone gives them credit for
same with Devin Booker, hes actually a decent defender now
I mean it goes like this. Are they poor or ok defenders at the start of their career. If they are white they will probably never loose that narrative. If they are athletic they probably will. Then there’s rare cases like jokic how he went from bad defensively to overrated defensively.
I'd like to add Jokic to this. He has great IQ on defense and hustles really well. His defensive rebound is good too. Great hands as well
@@nydibsI can say the same about kyrie, kyrie hasn’t been a bad defender ever since he got to Boston in my opinion.
Hot take:
If a team has been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with a handful of games left in the regular season, and has a superstar-level offensive player, instead of playing normally, they should do everything in their power to have their offensive superstar try and get 100 points per game. This is not for the purposes of winning, but for the purposes of marketing and creating a legacy. All of the merchandise (that could be pre-designed) in the case this succeeds would be financially game breaking, and people would likely at least watch a few games even if they didn't care about either team so they would have the chance to see it. It would suck from a winning/losing perspective but be brilliant from, a business perspective.
Either that, or me being in marketing for a career is really messing with me.
Also, Wilt wouldn’t be the only one on that pedestal. I’m tired of hearing about his 100 point game as an untouchable superlative.
I mostly want that Wilt record out of the record books, because I quite frankly don't believe it has happened in the first place.
The only ''proof'' we have is a Philly sided radio broadcast that is either only partial and came out some time after it happened. There is no tv footage, no neutral or even opposing media from the Knicks/NYC. Anecdotes about shit like fouls that don't allign with the stats, which we can't verify at all (unlike Kobe and all other modern records), Wilt with a worse career FT% than Shaq (barely over 50%) who all of a sudden had this extreme career night where he shot almost 90% from the line.
NBA is starting to resemble the WWE already and it's dumb asf. Your proposal basically does the same - meaningless, scripted games where we already know what's gonna happen. It will attract interest and excitement in the beginning. And when that wears off, these people are NOT coming back
I JUST GOT A BAD FEELING IT WOULD BE THE NASTIEST 100 BALL EVER🤮🤮IMAGINE JORDAN POOLE OR LUKA DONCIC 101 PTS ON 72 SHOTS💯😭😭
@@waff6ixYes, it would be ugly, and then might get rough as the other team realizes someone is trying to hang 100 on them, and then plays harder defense to protect their dignity.
Hot take: Giannis is the greatest scorer of his generation. He has the most 30+ point games from 2015-Present in an era with a countless number of historically great scorers. People just don't give him proper credit because of "bag" culture.
If you are talking efficiency Jokic has him beat, Luka beats him on volume and bag.
@@readmycomment3707that’s the thing. Luka jokic and Giannis are all time scorers. For multiple seasons Giannis and Luka have done it in very high volume (with Luka having the best PPG since MJ) they are all hyper efficient and Luka is by far the most versatile of the 3 and has the hardest job of the 3. I don’t think there’s really an argument for anyone other than Luka being the best scorer of this generation unless you want to count freethrow god Embiid.
because he rams into players and they don't call charges, harden steph kd are miles better than him
@@deadlylightningspirit4295Luka doesn't have the hardest of the three. In fact, I think he's got it the easiest because he has better role players than both, plus, he's got an all-star and elite player second to him. Mavs just beat Nuggets yesterday without Luka because of Naji Marshal and Washington. Bucks aren't as good without Giannis, but, Nuggets are by far the worst without Jokic.
@@FilippinoPasion Mavs won by 2 points because Murray was 4-16 and played like trash. Luka has had garbage rosters his entire career, his ONLY good roster was last year when he made the finals and this year.
not really a hot take but just an opinion I'd like to get out there:
it's pretty annoying and blatantly disrespectful when media personnel, analysts, older players, or nba content creators mispronounce surnames of (usually non-American) nba players
continuously saying /jo-kich/ instead of /yo-kich; or, /ri-chuh-sar/ or /ri-sa-cher/; and other examples like mispronouncing Antetokounmpo, Nowitzki, or even Wembanyama (whose surname's syllables couldn't be clearer) is just unprofessional and embarrassing considering that it's their job to cover the nba
Idk who it was, but one announcer always said "Wembanyana" and I have no idea how he hadn't been corrected. Maybe he has now, but it was going on for far too long.
@@j-rey-I guess because everyone just calls him Wemby
@@j-rey- it was Reggie Miller 😂
Shut up bxtch
HOT TAKE : KG is not close to Tim Duncan as a basketball Player. People make is seem like KG is equal or better than TD and if KG was with the spurs they would have done the same which is not true. KG and TD on scoring may look same but in the playoffs Tim was a deamon of a a scorer (1999-2005). TD was was also way talented of a rim protector which was the centre piece of spurs's defense and KG can't replace that.
PS : People argue about TD having better team because of the name of the people on the roster not necessarily who they were at the time and KG was also making playoffs as Tony gugliotta as the team leading scorer in the 90s
“TD was also way talented of a rim protector . . . KG can’t replace that.” Do some research on Garnett lol. He was a generational defender. Literally one of the best ever
KG isn’t TD, but KG can switch better, has better zone defense, both of those are more valuable in modern bball (this has likely skewed perception somewhat). I think defensively they are more or less comparable. Offensively though, KG would be less effective than TD because he is neither in the paint nor close enough to the 3pt line.
I mean I can see how TD is more basketball shaped, but neither are basketballs
Yea people exagerrate how bad KG's teams were and how good Tim Duncan's teams were. If you look at those teams side by side year by year you'll see that more often then not their teams were on par with one another
Both were all-time-great 2-way players. The reason Garnett sweetens in our memory is because his game and bodytype would translate better to the modern game. Garnett could almost guard all positions, but TD slower feet would get picked-on in today’s playoffs.
Also, TD career FT% =70%. KG career FT%=80%. I bet if KG played today he would be shooting 3’s, and would be the most dominant 3’n’D stretch-big, small-ball center in the league. Picture Giannis’s body and heart, with better defensive IQ and leadership, and a MUCH better shooter.
There’s a strong argument Hakeem is a more versatile offensive player than Sabonis. What Hakeem lacks as a passer, he makes up for as a versatile shot creator
And a much better defender.
HOT TAKE VERY HOT TAKE:The championship bucks are better than any showtime lakers team, you put Jrue on worthy Giannis on magic & brooks on Kareem, only two players on that team could shoot Michael cooper who 38.5% on 2 attempts and Byron Scott who shot 43.6% in the regular season but in the playoffs Scott went down to 20% on two attempts but cooper went up to 48.6% so realistically you could sag off everyone but him and completely shut them down
Hot take: Kerr is vastly underrated as a coach by fans. He really accelerated the 3 point revolution in 2015 largely by letting Steph shoot as many 3s as he wanted and is ahead of the curve again with his Warriors’ 12 man rotation. It allows everyone to give max effort on defense knowing there only in the game for short stints and keeps the entire roster engaged for the season. I could very well see this becoming the norm going forward for a variety of reasons but largely because of the CBA.
I don't think that Kerr was just letting Steph just shoot as many 3s as he wanted, but he knew the best way to truly unleash Steph. He was probably the perfect coach for him.
Curry fans want Curry to have all the credit. Same with LeBron, Kobe, Jordan & Bird's. Everyone around them gets underrated as a result
Hot take: The Heat have been to 3x conference finals and 2x finals in like the last 5 yrs (so, post Lebron) The hate is kinda goofy.
Boring ahh take ngl
No, it's not. The Heat always seem to wait till the last possible second to perform like a legitimately good team instead of just doing that from the off, but their fans still complain when people count them out even though it's their own fault. Also, they have overachieved for the team they actually are, but their FO has done nothing to fix their weaknesses or improve their roster to truly boost their chances of winning; that's probably because not many other FOs believe that many of their players are truly that good. They have relied on a talented but limited trio in Jimmy, Bam, and Herro with overperforming vets and role players to bring another title to Miami despite other teams being more talented and championship-ready than them. But somehow, they are still considered contenders by many.
@@kjjr3270 you sound like a Boston fan 😂 here's the thing. It's a take partly based on ESPN saying such a successful team has the 20th best "big three" in the league, which is nuts.
Hot take: Jokic has a case for being top 5 all time, arguably should be a 5 time mvp, if his team was healthy the two years prior they could’ve 3 peated, and I 100% see him as the best offensive player ever at least for his peek.
I doubt that he would have 5 MVPs by now and that they could've 3-peated.
2021-this year he had a case he’s been literally top 2 at worse
HOT TAKE: Nikola Jokic is having the highest offensive peak of all time, and arguably the highest peak in general of all time
Hot take: Nikola Jokic basically put himself in 1.2 in the playmaking rankings cause how tf do you get 11 assists on this Nuggets team. Magic is the outlier for playmakers with insane assists while contending still but I think this isn't a "carrying too much for a bad team" thing for Jokic cause he has gotten his playmaking to make 9-10 assists as the norm. Jokic might honestly be on the same tier (but Magic is still better)
This social media era for sports is terrible literally EVERY Champion for last 15yrs fans have an *Asterisk* for it lol either its "Players were injured😢" ,, "Team was stacked😢" ,, "There wasnt a crowd😢", ETC. Until its THEIR favorite team wins,, then it was "Legit" Title..no different from MAGA supporters..🤣🤣🤦🏿♂️
Hot take: The league should retire the jersey number twenty three because of the impact that its two best players of all time have had on the game. Without MJ or Bron the game would not be where it is today and they both deserve to be recognized by every team in the league for their contributions.
you actually have a point, would be a good opportunity to make a great cerimony about both players celebrating 2 of the greatest players of all time
21:08 Naz Reid.
Eventually they’ll just force a luka mvp as soon as dallas is like a top 3 seed
I think the true reason why the league is viewed as softer now is because of the amount of threes teams shoot. Since teams shoot so many threes now there are less drives to the basket so less physical plays to be made. That also makes the floor more spaced because now teams always have at least three to four shooters in the court so you can’t help off on some people which creates more space.
its the defensive rules and soft whistle that are the issue. Let players hand check and remove the landing space rules and it would be a completely different game
Hot take: Get rid of conferences. Instead of playing 4 games against teams in conference and 2 outside it, you'd play 3 against every team. Playoffs could have 1-12 seeds safe and an 8 team play-in for the past 4 spots. It would get rid of the problem where the East is always way weaker than the west, which affects both regular season records and playoff brackets. Plus, it would make it easier to add new teams to the League, since you wouldn't need to balance conferences. Also, I understand the history that put the Grizzlies in the west, but Memphis should not be in the west
Hot take! Rusty does not have a gf. He is LYING!
Proof?
@@urbaindelva7869 voices in my head
Hot take: The way to make the All Star game more competitive is to change the way the players are awarded for participating. Currently, the winning and losing team's players get money for competing (the winning team getting more). Change it so only the winning team's players get paid and have that money come directly out of the NBA salaries of the losing team's players. The dynamic of winning (taking) money from losing players' salaries will be more impactful and directly motivating. Imagine the trash talking and competitive fire that would ignite.
That would be fun to see, but it's already pretty wack that they're having to pay a bunch of millionaires to show effort in an exhibition game. Also, players would be going at each other over something that they had no control over.
then some of them wouldn't even want to participate there in the first place.
I kinda doubt if it’s legal
@ lol what's the difference when the NBA allowed gambling to proliferate the game
I think this makes the Allstar suffer for being an allstar. Imagine being an Allstar and you lost, you basically lost your salary for nothing whereby if you weren't an allstar, you wouldn't have lost anything. I see where you're going with that though.
My biggest surprise was finding out Rusty is 24 years old.
Hot take: the most underratee big 3 in NBA history was the mid to late 2000s suns.. Steve Nash, Shaan Marion and Amare stoudamire were probably the closest thing to the big 3 warriors, having steve nash's atg playmaking +scoring combo alongside the rimrunning double double machine in Amare stoudamire who was also insane in the post was unstoppable offensively. Couple that w/ Shawn Marions versatility, defense, and scoring off the ball.. and they were one of the most unstoppable teams in general. Unfortanately, playing in the toughest conference of all time, and that controversial spurs series prevented a championship for the suns
Hot Take: All that's needed to fix the All Star game is crafting a good story to go into it, not new rules or better prize money or a tournament layout. Make it Old Stars vs Young Stars, America vs. the World, or the previous year's NBA champions vs the rest of the league. It's just framing the game right. The WNBA All Star Game from earlier this year was the best All Star Game I've seen from any sport in years because they made it Team USA vs Team All Stars of everyone who wasn't selected for Team USA. Boom that's all the narrative you need right there. Team USA has to try and prove why they were picked to go to the Olympics and Team All Star gets a chance to prove they got snubbed.
With all the talk of who will be the next face of the NBA, make that the narrative of the All Star Game. Team Lebron, Steph, and KD vs Team Luka, Shai, and Ja or something. Make the cut off point like 32 years old and have them fight for who keeps getting to be the face of the NBA. Does the old guard still have one last push in them? Or is it time to finally pass the torch. Hell, you could make a literal show of it after the game of one side having to concede that the other rules the league by handing the other the trophy or something.
hot take: it was only interesting bc they didnt choose Clarke for Team USA
@@nydibs No, not just that. Another storyline going into that was Arike Ogunbowale was also not chosen for Team USA and she balled out and won All Star MVP.
Hot Take: If the 2008-10 Celtics made Ray Allen the #1 option on offense they wouldve won multiple rings
Maybe considering Ray's off-ball ability. Also, the 2008-10 Celtics were known for their defense more than their offense.
@@urbaindelva7869yeah I was about to say the Celtics stalled out on offense a lot and Ray wouldn't have changed that enough by himself. I guess if you switched out Pierce for LeBron you'd have more playmaking on the floor and a guy who can draw a lot of attention in the paint which would open up KG and Ray. Plus young athletic LeBron with veteran KG would be a defensive monster.
No
No, Ray Allen was already on the decline. Paul Pierce was the best player on the Cs at the time
@@nydibs I think he was based on his role but Ray arguably could've been Finals MVP in 08 and was relegated to a offball shooter imo they could've been better if PP played off Ray and KG and it would've helped with the injury issues
Hot Take: Anthony Edwards will surpass Curry's 3 point career total. He is on pace to make 1200 3s for his career after this season ends. Curry did that at 27 (4 years older than ANT).
Hot take: Pace increase over the last decade and a half is a huge reason why the archetype of a shooting guard in the 2000’s has been devalued.
The best players in that position held more value in the 2000’s because they scored the ball when fewer points were being scored.
For that reason I’d argue Zach Lavine would have had more of a trade market in the mid 2000’s (assuming he averaged a similar quantity of points then as he did at his peak).
I think the rise of the big lead guards and combo guard archetypes is probably another big factor.
Post 2010 is the rise of russ, harden, steph, Luka and more. Plus the dominance of LeBron. This shifted value to the PG and forward positions.
But those players all manipulate pace in unique ways to i suppose add to your point lol.
@@b33ft0n6Pace is obviously not everything at work here, but I don’t see its increase brought up much in comparison to some things.
Taking the All-Stars international every 3 to 4 years would be a fantastic way to get everyone watching. The NBA has gone international there are countries who love the sport just as much as we Americans do. You can have East vs Paris and West vs Belgrade. Dunk contest, 3-point shooting contest, and skills competition could be amongst the most talented players in the world.
or we can just send our best players to the FIBA World Cup for a change
Recency bias is so crazy, the whole summer they were saying Luka deserved MVP and that he was the best in the world, now he has a slow start to the season and he’s suddenly trash
The slow start is not the problem. His decision-making and his defense have been the problem so far.
same with embiid recency bias is a mofo lol
@@urbaindelva7869 he’s been playing injured, his decision-making has been inexcusable at times but he’s not a terrible player all of a sudden because of a few mental slips. I can agree his defensive effort should be better but it’s never been his strong suit
@@DahlinSilesile-rc4lk definitely, I don’t even like embiid but he’s definitely top 5 at the very least, people pretending otherwise have no clue
@@stenstensson304 Embid is more injury prone though. Lukas only been injured briefly and people are already writing him off its insane
Thank you for taking my Hot Take on the Spurs and Bulls.
Hot take: prime kd is the BEST basketball player ever. He is the best not the greatest. You can say donovan mitchell is better than jerry west but not greater than jerry west. I’m saying prime kd is the best basketball player ever because he was unguardble. He can shoot midranges and 3s at an elite level and he so much faster than an average 7 footer. He was also a good defender. Any team that had him was instantly a contender. You can take the 2021 season as proof that prime kd was the best player ever as he carried the nets in the second round and if it wasn’t for his long shoe he would’ve won the title and we would consider him as a top 10 GREATEST player ever. Two players i would consider as the best player ever would be prime jordan and prime lebron as they both share the same abilities but they are more versatile than durant while he is a better offensive player than them.
Hot Take: The NBA should make
It so shots taken from behind half court don’t affect FG%
Cold Take: Jared Mccain is so fucking good
I continue to support Fred Vanvleet being a much more valuable player than Rusty believes
The Nuggets need to move off Michael Porter Jr (or ideally Jamal Murray) to retool the roster. Holding off on this decision is just going to waste the last 4-6 years of Jokić as a top ten player.
MPJ is more likely to be traded than Jamal Murray.
@ I know, Jamal’s contract and being a few years older doesn’t make it likely he’d be traded.
“Not feeling Jalen Green, Sengun is OK….but Jabari Smith?!?! Now thats THE GUY” 💀💀💀
I like the part when he agreed with my take
Hot take: It only takes couple years for Okc to be in the similar situation like in 2012 and Spurs to offer hella picks and some wing for Jdub which would create generational rivalry between Shai and Chet vs Jdub and Wemby😮💨
Hot take: Gm’s overlook the amount of hidden talent that’s in the league. You got players like D white, Gafford, etc who can be very good nba players, that were stuck on bad teams. They are sometime more valuable than rookies since they may have long and cheap contracts
Another Hot Take: Intentionally fouling up 3 needs to be nerfed somehow, I understand it is strategically the right move but close games ending in free throws for both teams is wack
I went back to watch 2020 all star highlights and apparently BEN SIMMONS was leading the league in steals. i think that’s hilarious
I legitimately believe that the Euro league winners (Panathonikas) would give Boston and incredibly tough game. As a futbol watcher my whole life, european (especially eastern) atmospheres are so underrated by American audiences and we've seen how much of an affect the wall has had in favour of the clippers. If the Celtics rock up to Panathanikos with the arena rocking, I genuinely believe that the Euro League side would win. That being said Boston would smoke them at the garden
Hot Take: To shake up the all star game - get rid of the 3 point line. This way players gotta figure things out. Spacing demands so much more complexity from the defence that it's hard to keep up with for just one game.
but they dont play defense so it would just be uncontested dunks and layups still
This isn’t really a hot take, but I don’t know if I agree all that much about you saying the backup big man is the least important bench piece. You’re absolutely correct that it’s rare to hear about a backup center being a massive deal, but it’s super common to hear about teams that have no backup centers having that as the biggest hole in their roster. For years now, the Nuggets and 76ers in particular have been needing that position.
Hot Take: the Orlando magic are going to be contenders for a title next year
They could, but that may be asking too much.
@ I think they have all the right pieces, between Wagner and Paulo they’re versatile offensively, they’re young and hungry, and are hitting their momentum at the right times. They’re already super good, next year I’d say they’re up there with Celtics
5:45 bro i thought you were like 34 🤣
Hot take as a 3rd option khris Middleton is better and more impactful then pg
Hot Take: The fact that American or USA born players can only be the best players in the game or only they can be the face of the NBA is ridiculous and the most bogus takes I have seen and heard. It should not matter if the player is international or not. You advertise them even if they are quite and don't engage with the media. Yes, some players don't have appealing playstyles to them but if they are winning titles, that should matter a ton.
Most European superstars don’t even want to be the face of the league
kinda' agree
Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and SGA are all clearly better players but a lot of the media personnel would often point to Ant or Ja, for example, as who they think would be the face of the league
@Giangelo0 Exactly, the need to recognize those players and respect them.
Hot take: if both butler and embiid retired right now, butler is a better all time talent. I’d rather someone who took me to 2 finals rather than someone who won mvp once and never madee it past the second round
Peak for peak embid just clears him respectfully and it isn’t even close and The accolades are slightly in embid’s favor while embid clears him in the stat department as well.
I think I already said this on a Shootaround, but it bears repeating: I think that if the NBA Cup is here to stay and is to mean something, there should be a financial incentive for both teams that make it to the final game, and the winning team not only gets any and all forfeited draft picks, but also has the option to, starting with their highest second round pick, convert any number of their seconds in that draft into one first rounder. One second becomes pick 31, which is treated as a first rounder in this context, two becomes 30, and so on
from the beginning of this year i've loved watching the hornets, lamelo and mann are so fun to watch
Hot Take: Lebron ruined the league by making it look easy to win with Super teams. Teams undervalued the strength of having home grown players, and overvalued having a collection of superstars.This allowed for teams who were patient with developing their home grown talent(Celtics Bucks and Nuggets), to win championships. Evidence being that Lebron was the last finals mvp to not be drafted by the team he won it with.
this take makes zero sense. he only won 2 rings with a super team. in the last 10 years other than the raptor, everyone has won with homegrown stars
LeBron did not make it look easy at all because it was NOT easy. The Heatles actually underachieved. They didn't just pair up and start dominating. They had to figure things out along the way even after they started to hit their stride. That is not how superteams work, and it has never been how they work.
1. Baseball tried that (all star games giving home advantage) and everybody hated it and agreed it was a mistake.
2. "90s as tougher" was a narrative far before Bron was in contention for GOAT.
Hot take: a large part of a players development in any professional basketball league is how big of an opportunity they get any a lot of players could be verge all stars if given a green light early in their career.
*Hot Take:* Rockets will be top 5 in the west bare minimum with potential to be the number 3 seed. Magic will be the number 3 seed in the East.
If the Magic both can stay mostly healthy, they can do it.
Hot Take: I feel like there is finally a conversation for SGA being a better player than Luka.
Luka is a better offense weapon yet, but SGA has better defense and the both of them are averaging similar levels of points per game.
Luka could still be a better player but I think now with Luka being a cone and starting slow SGA is currently debatable to be a better player
In this season in particular, I believe SGA is playing a lot better than Luka. SGA has been more impactful as of now despite not having a larger usage rate than Luka.
Rusty and Rudy, I do not mean to rush you but I find myself wondering where the latest edition of the shoot around is?
The reason Luka won't win the MVP is that he really is a slow starter for the season but when February comes, he's looking like the best player in the world
Hot Take: The two most impactful people in the league for their teams' success are Brad Stevens and Sam Presti. Don't get me wrong, Nikola Jokic is still easily the most impactful player in the league, but the nuggets just aren't as good as the Celtics and Thunder, and no matter how well Jokic plays for them, their rosters are just so good that it won't be enough. Stevens' and Presti's roster construction and team management is the biggest reason for why the Celtics and Thunder are the best teams in the league. Their impact outweighs every individual player's.
Hot Take: Modern day defence is actually at the same level if not better than it was in the 90s/2000s, now obviously the scoring numbers dont reflect this but i dont think thats because of weak defence i think its because its just harder to defend modern day players, the average role player can do alot of things average role players back then couldnt as the barrier for entry to even be on a shitty team is way higher than it used to be.
The all star game determining home court advantage for the finals is the only way to maybe make the guys care about it but the league will never do it because it is too drastic
Hot take: Derrick white is better all time than Carmelo Anthony
You’ve lost your mind🤣🤣.
Imagine the 2023 8 seed Heat had home court advantage against the Nuggets and won the chip that year. We wouldn’t hear the end of it
Hot take: James harden is the most influential player for the modern era.
He single handily cause players to adopt flopping into their game more and to use a combo of dribble moves into pulling it from 30 feet out. If he even won one champion before he started to decline, there would be debates about him and Steph in who’s better not including accolades.
Most championship teams beat the 98 Bulls... In theory. They simply weren't that good. Jordan was getting old. Pippen was hurt. Rodman was washed and out of it and Im pretty sure at least borderline alcoholic. Kukoc is slept on a bit but hes a good third option basically. No center just big bodies. No scoring big period. In an era of scoring bigs. Their roleplayers? VERY meh. Harper was big and strong but also old and not his old self at all. People act like Kerr is like gdamn Horry or something. He hit a couple clutch shots. He was a short, weak, didn't really handle the ball or run the offense. Total defensive liability. Give me Sasha Vujacic over him because at least that dude was like 6'7. Anyway the team just wasn't that good. But its MJ, Jackson, and the gdamn 90s Bulls. I'm not better against them against ANYONE.
Hot take: have the 3 point arc go into the sideline, eliminating corner threes
HOT TAKE: The 2011 Dallas Mavericks are overrated, they're more "right place, right time" and less "cinderella run"
I get it, its one of the most loved championships and they were an excellent team (57 wins is pretty damn good), but people often fail to mention that external factors played fully in their favor, as such showing that nothing truly changed from their year-in-year-out "almost there" status as a team, though the league around them swayed in their benefit. Lemme explain, in round 2, they faced an aging Lakers team who just went through 3 straight finals trips. We all know how physically taxing 3 finals trips is, and a 4th in a row is also incredibly unlikely for the vast majority of players and teas. Secondly, the Thunder were very young and they haven't tasted playoff basketball past the first round. The truth is both the Lakers and Mavericks likely would've beaten them that year. Lastly, If Lebron doesn't straight up choke and is even a quarter of the guy he was that year in the finals, Miami takes that championship home. Lebron did not struggle because Dallas guarded him well, Lebron struggled because he played very passively and got on his own way. If you run this playoff series over and over again, odds are the Mavs that year win it less than 5% of the time, the stars simply aligned perfectly for them. Which is fine, a ring is a ring, but I'm also tired of people downplaying other championships due to externalities while acting like this is the holy grail of NBA championships.
as a youtuber with adhd, it is both a blessing and a curse.
Hot take: Steph curry has taken a significant leap on the defensive end in comparison to his past. He is no longer picked on in the same manner and the fact this isn’t talked about as part of his game evolving at 36 like they are covering lebrons jump shooting is high key criminal.
Theres literally a better version of him in Jokic.
Hot take: drop the 2018 rockets in any year post 2003 and they win the championship, except 2016-2019.
Guys. I don't know how to tell you this, but luck has always been a major part of winning sports championship. Adding a little more by adding the All-Star game win = Finals home court is adding some, but not as much as tons of other factors already involved. You really think that would change the finals champion more than 1 in 10 times? I doubt it.
Rusty
I was just wondering if you are available for a 15 minute conversational interview just to catch up on things and ask some questions and the direction you and your content that is going in the future
Sincerely Yusaf
Response to take 1: I don’t think any league has ever taken an idea that another league tried out and got rid of like a decade prior and tried the same thing again and it would almost always be ludicrous to do so
curry has been a good defender since 2019 and currently is one of the best defenders starting at Point
Hot Take: Damian Lillard and Paul George are like the same exact person in my eyes. Both are like consensus top 5 in their position for the 2010s despite no real accolades other than a couple all NBA teams, catch flack for focusing on side hustles, and with how it looks now will never be a top 2 guy on a winning team but will talk and act like they are NBA royalty.
Why shouldn’t they look at themselves that way?, ring culture and winning bias has somewhat ruined the nba. If you told me Tony Parker was better than Damian Lillard and Paul George, I would actually think you lost your mind.
@@abtocool6350I’m not saying he is but Tony Parker is very underrated
Their side hustles have not bled into their careers at all. Also, Dame does not nor has ever spoken about himself like he is NBA royalty. PG? Different story.
@@JeffersonSteelflexx I used him as example for the ring stuff but I also think he actually is overrated. I’m seeing posts of people saying he was better than Carmelo, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, and kyrie Irving. Peak for peak he’s not even better than Deron Williams. He used to be underrated but now with ring culture I actually think he’s been overrated especially since he won finals mvp but they forget the bad moments with him and his flaws as a player. There’s no evidence that he’s better than the players I mentioned.
@@abtocool6350 I dont think it’s ring culture or winning bias, they literally havent done anything. I’m not making my NBA royalty off of a couple all nba teams or all star games. I dont see any scoring titles, stat leaderboard positions, defensive player of the year awards, or consistent standout playoff performances, or MVPs. You gotta do something if you’re not gonna get that ring. Tony Parker on the other hand got 4 rings with a single franchise as a key player on all 4 of those runs, I dont care how good the rest of the team was. Who knows what he couldve done with the green light Dame has had basically his whole career.
Shortcut to the goat debate Iverson vs John Stockton if you pick Iverson your goat is jordan cause of his peak performance, if you pick Stockton your goat is lebron due to the longevity and consistency in his career. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Hot Take:
The 2020 Lakers could've easily beaten the 2014 Spurs,
You can't compare separate generations.
Not saying Jokic didn’t deserve it last year but Luka not getting MVP is the biggest snub I’ve witnessed
Hot take: the 2004 pistons is a championship team archetype we will never see again.
Probably.
Probably a lukewarm take but people are overblowing the Franz Wagner jump. Linsanity runs usually end when stars return, and they’ve beaten mostly bad teams.
What is that Sabonis's take response? the comparison with Siakam is simply wrong... Sabonis has a higher career eFG%, almost 4 rebounds more in his career (twice Siakam's rebounds this season), higher assists, averages less fouls while having more usage and slightly more mpg... Sabonis is just better, and he will always be eternally underrated imo. He might actually be the 2nd most versatile offensive big in history. All of this coming from a guy that wasn't particularly watching a ton of Sabonis games throughout his career.
Kinda Hot Take: Each one of LeBron’s finals losses (except 2011🤦🏾) could be excused or at the very least shouldn’t be mocked as much as they are. 2007 plays veteran spurs team at 23, 2011 played terrible yes but I hate the fact that people seem to forget that Dallas team was tied for 2nd in the tougher west and they beat the blazers, Kobe and his lakers and OKC so but people still act as if the heat lost to a mediocre team, 2014 Wade and bosh obviously were declining but he still lost to a good team, 2015 love and Kyrie were out, 2017 and 18 Kevin Durant obviously.
Hot Take: Felton is the greatest pg of all time
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should still be third all-time, but not for his longevity, for his incredibly college career.
Hot take: Kawhi Leonard is the most undercriticized superstar in the league. His quiet personality, his rings, and his playoff rep have given him a level of cover that I don't think that he should have anymore. Embiid and AD get more criticism for their injuries than he does, even though AD has never missed full seasons multiple times like him. He is a huge reason why load management is a problem. His 2019 ring with the Raptors is constantly brought up to defend him even though he has not done anything substantial since then. His bad (playoff) games, as rare as they are, almost never get discussed. As much as many Clippers fans like to rag on Paul George, he was more available compared to Kawhi when he was there and took them further than Kawhi did. PG was only on the team because Kawhi manipulated the FO into essentially giving their future to OKC for him, including SGA. He was just as responsible as PG for struggling to beat the undertalented Mavs with Luka twice and the choke job against the Nuggets in 2020. He deserves more blame than he gets.
From 2017 to 2023 kawhi averages 30/8/4 on 51/39/89 splits in the playoffs. There’s also not too many bad games he has in the playoffs too even try to nitpick and criticize ever since he became a primary option on the team and he was good for the majority of that 2020 series against the nuggets.
@@abtocool6350In that same span, Kawhi played no more than 13 playoff games 4 times, 3 of those times due to injury. Great averages, but they don't hold much water when you consider that factor. Also, he may have been great for most of that Nuggets series, but he is still partly responsible for that collapse, especially with his awful performance in that Game 7.
@@urbaindelva7869 those numbers do hold water no matter the circumstances and yes he was awful in game 7 but are we going to talk about how doc rivers continued to play montrez Harrell against jokic and they just switched everything on pick and rolls😂, that was more of the issue than his performance.
The rockets do have a lot of young players, don’t know if jalen green will ever be that guy but it’s not like we haven’t seen high volume inefficient shooters succeed
23:00 is too fkn true. I ruined my back, knees, ankles, and at best was going to ride the college bench
Hot take: Damian lillard is significantly over hyped he is a 6’ Carmelo Anthony who had decent teams around him and did nothing
Hot take:Kobe and MJ are one the most underrated shooters of all time, people only look at there stats and don’t bring no context how great they were for there time.
Kobe having the most 3s in a game, MJ making the most 3s in the finals, both improving their efficiency in the offs and typically lead there team in 3 point attempts.
MJ is very much an all time great shooter, his mid range percentage is straight up otherworldly, kobe not that much because he later on started forcing many more shots but he was still a great shooter in his "healthy" career (because his "healthy" means having 1 or 2 injuries (or more) at all times)
This is not a hot take at all, MJ is universally known as the goat mid range shooter and Kobe during his prime was considered one of if not the best in the league at that.
I only say this cause most people disagree when I say this and I generally people view them as mediocre shooters
Highly disagree, backup bigs are THE most important backup position. Especially for the longevity of a team. Wearing down your wings by having them play center for 12-15 minutes hurts teams in the long term as well not having any real back line defense. The Celtics had a super fire big man rotation last szn. We saw the Heat struggle mightily in Cody zeller and Kevin love minutes in the ‘23 finals. We saw the ‘20 lakers have an excellent big rotation in the bubble. Teams with no backup centers do not last long and is a very sought after role
Hot take: dejounte murray fits in to the same archetype as a russell Westbrook. Big stats and obvious hustle on the court but the way he plays basketball does not contribute to winning whatsoever. Gambles too much on defence and has a similar offensive game to Russ only worse. At best, he is the fourth best player on a championship team.
Hot take: the in season tournament is dumb. I appreciate the effort of trying to bring back competition and stakes to regular season games, but at the same time it means nothing, gives the winner no real competitive advantage the rest of the year, and reveals the larger issue of todays nba. Regular season games used to matter, and be taken seriously in a way they aren’t today
in season tournament was just another money grab, its just for the tv rights and marketing
Hot take: Josh Giddey will be out of the league within 4 years
Based on what?
Hot take: Kobe is not remotely close to Lebron when comparing who's the better player. In fact, I think Lebron is closer to MJ and the distance between MJ and Lebron, personally, is still a lot.
Basically, MJ >> Lebron >>>>> Kobe