Hats off to you for having a decent sponsor as opposed to gambling crap or scam software. While I am at it, just came from one of your "competitors" who has a real issue with click bait titles (like "Suns make HUGE trade", when there is no huge trade) - so, thank you for NEVER doing the click bait thing.
Hot take: the GOAT debate holds back conversations surrounding the NBA due to how negative and toxic the debates tend to be. This bleeds over to other discussions and overall creates bad vibes in comparison to other leagues like the NFL and MLB
Except derrick white is so good cus there arent 4 more of him on the celtics brown and kristaps are plain better, ofc tatum as well, but jrue and horford bring entirely different things same with their other role players
i wouldnt agree because at that point shaq was far better than kobe, therefore it is normal for him to act as the top dog on the team and have an ego. Kobe just couldnt handle being the second guy
@@vilkezz8404 Him being the top dog wasn't the issue. Kobe's whole issue with Shaq was him being unprepared entering the season and not working on his craft in the off season. He had low work ethic.
I think one of the most untalked about facts of the 2010s is the spurs and warriors having 73 and 67 for 140 wins between two teams in the same conference!
Hot take: I think owners should push for partially guaranteed contracts like the NFL. if players continue holding out for trades, sitting out longer than front offices think they should for injuries, and generally not performing as well after signing their contracts, and the NBA continues dipping in ratings, I think it’d be a good tactic to make players more engaged with the regular season. Not sure how they could make this happen since players definitely won’t sign off on it but I imagine it’d at least make players try harder & play all the games they’re actually available for
31:28 Hot Take: modern NBA fans cry about it everything and will not acknowledge that the NBA product is objectively the best it’s ever been. Widest diversity of talent, varying playstyles, average player is better than it’s ever been, freak athletes like Bron, Gianni’s, wemby, ja, Zion, etc, some of the most skilled players ever like curry, Kyrie and harden. But at the end of the day it’s never enough.
Hot Take: One of the smaller but still significant reason for the NBAs rating struggles is xenophobia. I get that Lebron and Curry are still iconic and great. But too many NBA pundits and even the organization act there are no other super stars who can act as the face of the league when the likes of Jokic and Giannis are 2 of the greatest players to ever play the game and Luke is a youngish super star whose 1 championship run from being an all time great. But all of them still play second or even third fiddle because none of them are American players which I guess gives them an inherent debuff when it comes to hype and promoting as faces of the league People can complain 3 points all they want, but the reason why the NBA was so popular in the 90s and 00's is because they were not afraid to put the likes of MJ, Lebron, Shaq, Kobe, ETC front and center in the league. the League now has a golden opportunity with Wemby as the new face of the NBA to replace Lebron as the guy. Im not saying he wont be eventually. But I am saying is that if he were born in LA instead of Le Chesnay he'd already be the most promoted player in the league (granted, it might also partially be because Spurs are a smaller market but still)
I’m not reading all that but I agree it’s dumb idk about everyone else but I give zero f’s on where a dude came from if they can hoop they should be celebrated
@alminsabanovic3322 Yeah... ANT is great an could be top 3-5ish someday. But I do find the Mini MJ comparisons when Luka was on such an insane run that playoff season to be a bit funny. Especially after ANT kinda struggled vs the Mavs
Kobe literally went on TV and explained that the game plan was for him to pass more because they weren’t winning when he went out and tried to drop 50 every game. His team just couldn’t capitalize on the fact that he was giving them open looks. If he shoots a lot, he’s a ball hog, if he passes to open teammates, he’s quitting on the team. That narrative needs to die. Also, Shaq and Kobe had a strained relationship at the end, but people too often ignore that Shaq’s ego is why he left LA. He wanted more money and they weren’t willing to pay him the increase he wanted. Shaq himself has said this numerous times, even before Kobe died.
Shaq is disgusting many ways but even he didn't have as big of an ego as Kobe. Shaq was the one who was giving to sacrifice more for the team. He quit Lakers because unlike him, Kobe was only caring about himself and wanted to be the main guy instead of sharing it.
@@LuunacyyShaq and a lot of Lakera fans had been downplaying Kobe's contributions to the dynasty. Imagine being Kobe and having your CO-STAR downplay your efforts towards a dynasty that you both created.
@@Luunacyy the man that goes on TV and raps, “Kobe tell me how my a** taste” doesn’t have as big an ego. Either way, I didn’t say whose ego was bigger, just that Kobe didn’t run Shaq off like people claim.
@@SmittyWerbenJagermannJensen no the organization just chose the younger dude who had more future potential. Sure Shaq went out and won a chip in the first couple years, but Kobe won two for them later on, which Shaq probably couldn't have done without a Kobe or Wade
We as basketball fans need to hold players and organisations much more accountable for their actions. The fact that KPJ is still on an nba floor collecting millions is repulsive, the fact Derrick Rose is treated as this tragic hero (even as a bulls fan) is disgusting to me after I looked into his SA case including HIS OWN disturbing recounting of what happened, Kobe Bryant is one of the more obvious ones where no matter how you look at that case something went on in that hotel room and people treat him like an untouchable god. Jason Kid beat his wife, Josh giddey as a very suspicious amount of evidence showing he knew that young girl beforehand and there’s so many other examples of this. The nba fan bases ability to sweep all this stuff to the side is disturbing and I cannot believe it’s been allowed to happen, we’re seeing news of young athletes doing more and more horrible things every day and I can’t help but think it’s due to the lack off accountability that these athletes and franchises face that sends the message to these guys that so long as you’re good enough at dribbling a basketball you can get away with anything.
Honestly I agree with you except for the Josh Giddey one. Personally I feel it's just not comparable to the others listed even if he was in the wrong. He was 19 years old and hooked up with a 17 year old. All evidence points to it being consensual. He also was not a known superstar within the league creating a messed up power dynamic and also the insane litigation the other instances wld have. Comparing Kobe SA a woman, KPJ SA a woman, and Jason Kidd DV agaisnt his partner is just not comparable. These were established stars using their clout and power to force Sx on woman or to physically abuse them. Giddey was a stupid college aged kid who consensually slept with a girl he met. Then after the fact it became known she was 17 and underage. Yeah he was in the wrong but he wasnt a full grown man with years in the league using his status and power to force woman into sex.
people make mistakes, people do bad things, this is entertainment. i think the fact that we have fewer allegations against NBA players than politicians says something about the integrity of the league. I also just dont think its a sustainable and productive attitude. you may know that something maybe kinda happened with kobe, but you don't know of the countless other players who hit/abuse their kids, do tax fraud, bullied kids in school, etc. For better or worse I am ok with appreciating the totality of someone like kobe even given the blemishes.
Hot take: Victor wembanyama is too tall to be the post player that fans of traditional centers want him to be. Looking at modern bigs of his height like boban and porzingus, neither were big paint presences and looking in the past, no one I know remembers manute bol or others at that time being big paint guys except for Yao Ming but he got injured all the time which we’re trying to dodge with wemby
Wemby will never be a traditional post player, because that is an extinct playstyle. I don't see many arguing for that. He needs to take advantage of mismatches which he has done much better as of late. I remember a game early in the season where Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso were pushing Wemby to the perimeter, and he was tossing up bricks. that shouldn't happen. The injury thing at that height is such a dice roll tbh. Rik Smits is really the only guy I can think of who was relatively healthy. I guess him floating around the perimeter lessens his chance of getting hurt, but I feel that lessens his offensive impact in the long run.
@ yeah I agree with what you’re saying. There are just so many people who want him to play with a style that isn’t his so I feel like it’ll be more convincing if there was a way to prove that that style of play is bad for him at his height. Sort of how in track, there are “ideal” heights and weights because so many runners have come through over millennia
yeah, I think at that point the high center of gravity begins to outweigh the advantages of just being big. Like a smaller player would have a hard time dislodging a bigger heavier 7-footer, but past 7-feet there's too little difference in weight to cancel out the higher center of gravity. Like nobody except Zion is big and heavy enough to beat out a 6'10 Valanciunas type at the rim sheer tonnage wise, but nobody above that height is gonna be any heavier than Valanciunas
Another hot take: sorry but again as a Brit I need to get this off my chest. This is aimed at both the NBA and sports in America in general. The fact that rivalries have zero significance in your sport culture to me, is baffling. I’m going to use football as an example again. To Europe and the world in general, there is a near on “tribal” feeling surrounding certain rivalries and teams playing against each other. To me, the NBA and American sports are run in a business like fashion, more than a sports team fashion, wayyyyy too much. To the point where the essence of sports, passion and winning, has essentially been sucked out of the league. What was the memory that stuck in ur mind the most from last playoffs? For me it was AE talking smack to KD in game one of the playoffs. That was the embodiment of passion and rivalry. It is all well and good having a squeaky clean product image. But I imagine if the NBA did more to prompt and encourage actual rivalry league-wide, the viewing product would improve ten-fold
This is just a nba problem. American football, baseball, and hockey doesn’t have this problem. It’s not a culture thing and more of a lack of reason for the nba. Division games mean nothing in the nba and they barely play one another compared to other sports. NBA u are only play your division a total of 16 times out of 82 games making 19%. While in American football u play 6 out of 17 games making 35%. The people u hate the most are the ones u compete against the most. Add on the playoff implications thats why division games don’t matter.
Another reason u might feel this way is bcuz of the affect of college sports. More ppl are connected to there favorite college team then pro team due to proximity to their home. A large amount of sports fans in America dont even live in the same state as their favorite sport teams so a lot of the tribal nature u speak of are in college sports where most ppl have a college not to far from them. If u want to see rivalries i say watch American College Football.
@@aintnoway8594 Yk I have actually really gotten into colleg football as of recent, esp with the recent heisman race. I have to say it’s much more up to par with European sports when it comes to passion and support. So it’s something I can see myself getting behind a lot more in the future
Hot Take: Rusty talked about this in the NBA Finals video but the presentation of the league needs a mayor overhaul. I’ve recently watched a few 90s Playoff games while NBC was still covering the league and I think the coverage made the games way more exciting even if it was a slower more grinding brand of basketball. I noticed that the limitations of the time and the general quality of most televisions people had made it so that the camera was usually way more close up to the court and in turn it made the way feel way faster and more dynamic with the camera zooming in and out of the shot/rebound, compared to the modern NBA coverage where the camera is I feel way too far away from the action making it look slower, a little sluggish, and not as exciting. The second mayor difference I noticed was the crowd noise was turned up way more which honestly made the games feel way more important and alive compared to newer games where the crowd and the court is so drowned out that it makes big moments feel smaller and way less significant when all I can hear is the commentators on top. Couple that with the added intros for special matchups (like some of those Bulls Finals intros, Game 7 2000 WCF Lakers Vs Blazers, that amazing Game 5 ECF Bulls Vs Knicks intro, and even for stuff like the 1994 EFC Finals between the Knicks and Pacers had great intros that set the stage for how important this game was for each team and their players), the Playoff courts, and the fly over the city they were playing at after the NBA on NBC song finished is still exciting to this day even if you know the outcome of the games. If that energy was brought into the modern NBA instead of the really bland and uninteresting direction they’ve gone with I feel like less people would say that there’s a lack of interest in the league. If the network seems disinterested in doing more than the bare minimum then people won’t feel the need to care
Agreed The game itself is fine but the TV presentation is ass CBS also did. a great job in the 80s ABC too in the 2000´s was pretty good NBC made it feel immersive and cinematic
Oh yeah for sure. The TV presentation has fallen off so much compared to even just 15 years ago. It's insane since the TV deals are so huge these days and all. You'd think the presentation would get better, not worse. And I swear, if I have to watch ONE MORE gambling commercial I SWEAR
Great point about the crowd noise tbh, the atmosphere adds so much to a viewing experience. The difference between a comedy and a horror is simply music.
Imagine having to watch ADS... ON A APP THAT YOU FREAKING PAID FOR!. I can't freaking understand how people allow companies to PUT ADS ON A PAID PRODUCT. WE ARE PAYING YOU TO SKIP THE ADS!. I can't understand how consumers allowed Netflix,Hulu,Disneyt and other companies to inject ads on already products we paid for
unironically, the only reason we talk about Kobe so much is cause of his mentality that fueled him to be such a dominant player. if he did everything “right” and was a more team oriented player he’d be less successful. he wouldn’t be a fmvp if he simply deferred to shaq, he wouldn’t be #4 all time scoring if he didn’t shoot so much, he wouldn’t have like 18 all-star appearances if he took a backseat, he wouldn’t be the BLACK MAMBA. everyone has their own story, just cause his has flaws in some areas it doesn’t mean he had to change lol. no one’s story is perfect but his will always be remembered.
In what universe wouldn't he be a FMVP if he deferred to Shaq... do you think he won FMVP, or even had an argument to win, when he was playing with Shaq? He won his own championships after he chose to "play the right way." You just yapping like all Kobe fanboys.
Hot take: the biggest issue with 2020s superteams is the age of the superstars. While Bron and Wade weren't a perfect fit in 2011, they were both young enough to adapt their play styles and game to complement each other. Whereas the Westbrook Lakers and the big 3 Suns are/were comprised of older superstars unable or unwilling to change their game to suit the needs of the roster.
Hot Take: To fix the issue of flopping and/or foul baiting, the nba should impose something similar to the embelishment rules they have in the nhl, where overselling contact or a hit can lead to both teams getting a penalty, or free throws in basketball's case
@Downtown7637 that seems like a bit of a premature take lol. He's literally in his 2nd season. He's got like 10 to 15 seasons to prove this take wrong. Not saying he will, but He's still got a lot of time to work with. And he's already in mvp conversations as well as dpoy conversations. If he doesn't end up getting He's career cut short by injuries, I'd say there's a good possibility he'll be in the top 10 greatest of all time conversations. But, time will tell.
7:51 that’s a great points, I don’t have cable and haven’t for years , I have no way to legally watch nba games without buying league pass and as a casual viewer I’m never gonna do that
@18:49 Box Score Hot Take: If "setting screens" were recorded as a stat, NBA fans will realize just how insanely valuable players like Zydrunas Ilgaskus actually were!
Hot take: if the NBA really believes the abscess of 3 pointers are ruining the league, make alley-oops worth 3. Give 2 points to the dunker, and 1 point & assist to the passer. This forces defenders to both pack the paint AND defend the perimeter, creating versatile offenses who focus on both threes AND dunks. Admittedly, this does make it very hard for defenders, so while you’re at it, bring hand checking back and enforce the no flopping rule. This brings back the 2000’s defense so many claim to love, while also keeping insane 2020’s scoring and helping players like Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and Wemby further push their commercial viability. Would be very controversial, but could end up more entertaining in the end.
No one thinks 3s are bad offense. People do not like watching players Chuck 3s instead of anything else. I could see that at the local park, but i don't go. The nba has changed the rules to make people watch, but it backfired. Analytics should be used to make a fun entertainment product, not to make a boring slog.
Hot take: nba rating are bad because it is hard to watch local games. In order to be a Spurs fan i have to pay for the fandual streaming app for $20 bucks a month. I love basketball, but paying $20 a month to watch a kid game is insane to me.
Hot take: Denver is going to win the 2025 seasons championship. Murray is gonna have a redemption season, Russ is gonna have the most beautiful storys in NBA history and Jokic will solidify himself as a Top 10 player in NBA history.
Hot take: Lebron did not necessarily cause the player empowerment era and it's inaccurately attributed to him. Progressive culture and evolution of social norms also in sports saw player-coach relations become less rigid and more collaborative and players started to become the focal points of the sport and gain more autonomy from front offices as we saw with Magic/Bird, MJ, AI, Kobe and others grow the sport massively as well as the NBA's expansion into world markets and pop culture. A player of Lebron's scale had he never existed or wave of players would have opened up the "player empowerment" era as an inevitability. Same way Curry opened up the 3 point revolution but the trends, seeds and changes were simmering years before with the 7 seconds suns offense, the small ball heat, more liberal forward/big play seen with lebron, kd, dirk and a shift to a more skilled, positionless and athletic NBA. Calling lebron the face/cause of player empowerment is pretty true, but a bit of an oversimplification imo.
Hot take. By making divisions less meaningful, potential rivalries will never grow within the division. NFL fans want to take away the reward for winning the division (home playoff game) and taking a page from the NBA is not what you want to do.
The NFL does not care, they have taken over the whole sports market by cutting out more traditional elements. I love things like the saints falcons rivalry and the whole AFC north but overall the NFL doesn't care about rivalries anymore.
Hot Take: The Timberwolves trading Kat isn’t as bad as people think. As the trade rn looks bad as he’s thriving on the Knicks and Randle hasn’t look like a good fit. The trade was never made to be win now as with the new CBA the team having 3 max guys restricted their ceiling. Trading him right now allows them to compete better later with adding more depth around ant or possibly get another star around him in 2028-2029.
Disagree with your ABA take - talent was absolutely equivalent to NBA if not greater across that time period. In the first year post-merger, 13/24 NBA All Stars were ABA players... Frequent examples of NBA title teams being stopped in "friendly" exhibition games where starters played big minutes... would recommend reading "Loose Balls" (not the Jayson Williams one!
Hot take: when kawhi leonard retires he’s going to be a forgotten about star because he doesn’t have the stats (totals) that most greats have and has missed so many games from the mid to later parts of his career.
Hot Take: This rookie of the year race might be one of the weakest in recent memory. Alex Sarr is on track to win the award, yet he is averaging only 11 ppg shooting 40% from the field, and he is somehow only averaging 6 rebounds per game as a 7 foot tall center.
Hot take: the idea of a stretch 5 is so in demand that teams are actively hurting themselves by trying to have one out there. Yes it is amazing for a team’s spacing to have a 5 out there that can shoot the 3. However, I’d even argue that there are cuttently traditional centers who are capabel of creating more space with DHOs and high ball screens than others do by shooting 34% from three on 2-3 uncontested attemps. A good example for this is WCJ vs Goga in Orlando. (Please check WCJ’s 3pt%)
The game should be more physical on both the defence on offensive, so less fouls when someone barely touches someone that doesn’t really change the player movements. Stare downs and trash talk should be completely allowed, I understand it can lead to things getting a little heated but it’s entertaining and the players are competing against each other anyways it’s supposed to get heated. Fouls should be changed from two free throws to 1 free throw and retaining possession, ( and 1s should still have the free throw and than retains possession) ( threes two free throws and retains of possession). No lineups of people on side obviously. Fouls should not be used to gain an advantage by making the opposition have to earn points based off shooting it should be more negative to the team that fouls on shooters. This would get rid of the fouling at the end of game and force teams to go for plays such as steals and interceptions which is more entertaining and won’t waste so much time.
Hot Take: There are NBA fans that are so obsessed with advanced stats that it’s created another sect of NBA fans that just hate basketball. They value advanced stats so much that they overemphasize a players weaknesses because they aren’t analytically perfect. It’s why Cade Cunningham got so much hate last season, his On/Off and EPM didn’t look as good as it should have because his team was so bad. Paolo gets similar hate because his On/Off numbers were awful last season despite him being a fantastic player.
Bad take. Those stats improved for both of those players this year and their teams are doing even better as a result. On/Off splits are the most objective stat in basketball. Just say you don’t understand the stats
@ On/Off stats are just the scoreboard. They don’t always represent individual impact and can easily be messy because of lineups and how volatile the scoreboard is. Paolo Banchero according to the On/Off stats was one of the worst players in basketball, he obviously wasn’t and if you think so then you’ve proven my point
The problem with threes is that 3:2 is an insane value ratio so it becomes idiotic not to emphasize it almost exclusively in your offense. There’s no way to fix it because even if you were willing to change the values to 4:3 free throws would become a nightmare.
Hot take: The only reason people say rings don't matter is because of what happened to bron. If bron had 7 rings and 7 fmvps then they would use that as an argument against MJ
That and it also disqualifies guys like Tim Duncan and Steph Curry from the GOAT discussion because Duncan has the same amount of rings as Kobe does but more MVPs and more FMVPs
Thank you I've been saying this for years. It's always modern fans who's favorite players have no rings or less rings than they should that try to go "oh its a team sport" when u bring up a lack of rings. Bron fans love that argument
Rings obviously matter to a certain extend. After you get like 3+ rings, while winning 2+ FMVPs you gotta use some other arguments. MJ and Bron are so clearly 1 and 2, i mean you don't have Bill Russel as your goat do you. Also i just wanna know where you rank Bron on the all time list to know if its even worth arguing with you...
I feel like any reasonable GOAT debate has to include everything they did on a basketball court, college, minors, pros, even pre-NBA history, not that anyone is even like top 100 pre-Mikan
Hot Take: It’s easier to rebuild in the Western Conference. The reason the west consistently has more contending teams is because of the depth of the conference. It is much harder to become a contender in the west which means you need to get multiple high level assets on your team before you can even break into playoff conversations (or one Wemby). Meanwhile in the east half the playoff teams aren’t ready to be playoff teams. It becomes significantly harder to rebuild when as soon as you get one all star caliber player you become a playoff contending team.
It’s more to do with the teams in the east simply having terrrible GM’s. The pistons, the wizards and Charlotte have been some of the worst teams in the nba for years and there roster is still terrible
@@michaelkeitof4666The Pistons have been better than last year, and their new GM has done a pretty fine job so far. The Hornets have probably been the second-most injured team next to the Pelicans, but their young core is promising. The Wizards are pretty much just starting a rebuild, but I don't trust their front office.
Kobe’s mindset being an issue isn’t that simple. Yeah, if he was cool with taking a back seat and had lebron’s mindset, the shaq-Kobe lakers lasts longer and probably wins more, but vice versa, if LeBron had Kobe’s mindset, they probably don’t loose to the mavs in 2011.
Yeah but it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Lebron doesn’t “take a backseat” he’s still a leader, he just knows that even the best players need a team, in a team sport. Again it doesn’t have to black and white, there’s a grey area. And just because his team lost, doesn’t mean it happened because he trusted his teammates.
Every player, especially LeBron gets held to the standard of "you play the game to win" and "It doesn't matter without the chip". Every player except Kobe, who just gets a pass for playing his way, that is, playing losing basketball, for most of his career.
Hot Take: Damian Lillard will be remembered the same way Carmelo Anthony is remembered when looking back at his game and career A great player in their prime, good offensive players that were fun to watch but terrible on the defensive end. Fairly one note players. In the end their game didn’t impact winning championships All aura, little impact
Hot take: Carmello anthony and Tmac are bad superstars, they never won mvps, yes they had few good playoff games but in entirety they were ass in actually bringing a chip to their team and performing in the final moments (tmacs 13 points in a min and melos 2009 & 10 run were epic) and also they were less efficient in the playoffs as compared to regular season, yes they were fun to watch but they didnt win anything, melo also never knew how to pass much and idk why we dont stone him worse than how we stone kobe for being a ball hog
Hot take: The draft lottery should be replaced by a tournament of the teams that missed the playoffs, the results of the tournament determine the draft selection. Make rebuilding teams care about winning
I wish that would be good. But I'm a fan of a terrible lottery contending team and by the end of the season our fanbase seems too fatigued to really mount up and have a good time watching them contend.
@@voiceofreason2674good point. The only thing worse than watching your team get their asses kicked like 65 times in a season is that plus watching them piss away a chance at redemption right after. For every team in that tournament except the sole winner it's an even shittier ending to a shitty season
Hot take: The entire league is payed entirely too much all around, a minimum contract in the NBA is enough money for one year that most people won’t touch in most of their lifetime. The precident that athletes deserve such high paying deals is absurd to such a high degree that it’s astonishing that nobody talks about it more.
Its literally just simple economics. The players are the reason anyone makes money from the sport, they are compensated as such. Why not ask that question of the owners who use public funds and do nothing but leech profits from these organizations?
The reason that Shai has the reputation of “foul merchant” is because he’s a good player on a good team. there’s a phenomenon with nba fans where they praise a good player on a bad team, but vilify a good player on a good team. We’ve seen this happen hundreds of times and it all stems from fans of other teams despising these good players for being better than their favorite team
Shaq was NOT significantly better than Kobe. The first run he was better... After that, they were more or less equal. Kobe scored more in the 4th all playoffs the other two runs, and scored like, a point or two less, while scoring around 28% of overall team points--he performed better than other "first options" such as Duncan, LeBron, Steph as a "sidekick." He also had a better overall plus minus than Shaq (maybe it was box score... Can't remember...I just remember he was like a +14, whereas Shaq was a -0.3, cuz it accounts for defense too) Why is Kobe the only one that gets punished for having an all time great teammate? Nobody trashes magic for having Kareem as a teammate, and vice versa for Kareem. And then as the solo options, Kobe did better than Shaq, with repeat titles.
@jgg6932 in 2001 in the playoffs Shaq averaged 30.4ppg, 15.4rebs and 3 assists, and 2.3 blocks... Kobe averaged 29.4ppg, 7.3rebs, 6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks as a guard And again, Kobe scored more in the 4th, in the last 5 mins, and in the last 2 mins of the playoffs --in summary, Kobe was the go to guy in the 4th, cuz the other team could utilize hack a Shaq.
@@luridsilence Shaq is still superior and you used the best run by Kobe how about the other years? Not saying Kobe wasn't great but Shaq was one of the most dominant players ever for a 3-5 year stretch every team in the league would've traded their best player in a heartbeat for that Shaq
@@jgg6932 the years before that Kobe was struggling to get into the starting lineup, cuz the coaches still believed in a hierarchy for veteran players... And to be fair, Kobe was trying too hard and too immature those first couple of seasons. What about the years when Shaq fell off and got fat? What about him getting swept multiple times? What great centers did Shaq face in the finals (other than Hakeem, who swept him), versus the defense that Kobe faced? And to be clear, I'm not saying Shaq was trash or anything. The point is NOT to diminish Shaq's greatness, but to add context to show that Kobe, by the 2nd and 3rd title runs, was nearly his equal.
"more or less equal" complete nonsense. shaq was a significantly better scorer, better defender, better rebounder, focus of the defense, and the leader of the team every year until 03. scoring in the 4th doesn't matter more when you score more every other quarter. kyrie closed for lebron, scored with lebron but we know who was the sidekick. scoring 28% of your team's points means nothing in an era that had sub 100 games 90% of the time. any elite guard like kidd, mcgrady, iverson, allen could have 3peated with peak shaq. shaq BPM in 2002 was 7+ and kobe's was 4+ which contradicts anything you've said
Who doesn't understand it? 3 is greater than 2 not hard to understand. I don't think many people care if it is smarter basketball, they care that it is less interesting to watch.
Hot take: The WNBA app is infinitely better than the NBA app to watching games. So they don’t even need to borrow from Netflix. Just borrow from their own sister app ffs
Hot Take: Stephon Marbury is the worst player of all time when it comes to influence on winning. 1. After traded straight up for Jason Kidd, the lowly 26 win lottery nets won 52 wins the following season and made it to the finals. 2. The suns with Marbury as the starting point guard in 2003-2004 won 29 games. The following season the suns replaced him with Nash and won a league's best 62 games. 3. As the starting point guard of the 2004 olympic team, they "won" the bronze medal, being the first team not to take home the gold.
As a spurs fan it’s hard to deny the Chris Paul effect so I won’t say he’s better than him but and as much as I love vassell he’s too inconsistent and not as reliable as a scorer at the end of games as it seems, I think when it comes to sochan he took a big step production wise and everything he provides has been noticeable this season, no rising star but his impact has been noticed
My take is that Shaq is more to blame for the demise of he and Kobe’s relationship and that people use Kobe as the scapegoat because of the stories of him being a hard ass. Shaq was the one showing up to training camps fat as 💩 and relying on Kobe to work 3x as hard to make up the difference. Kobe was sacrificing sleep, fun, and even time with family while Shaq was too busy becoming the life of the party and the fun guy. Then Shaq got jealous that Kobe’s stardom was beginning to rival/surpass him and his ego couldn’t stand Kobe being the guy so he left, only to be the 2nd option to D wade soon after. It’s not Kobe’s fault that Shaq wasn’t willing to make the necessary sacrifices for the team and their relationship as well as a transition of power as he got older.
"Relying on Kobe." Immediately dismissed opinion. Let me guess "Kobe wasn't the sidekick."? He was, he was the 2nd best player. If Kobe hadn't won later, with his own sidekick who doesn't get near enough credit thanks to you fanboys, not a single person would question that. Imagine saying LeBron wasn't the guy just because Kyrie or Bosh were good players... oh wait, moronic Kobe fanboys do say that nonsense.
@HisRoyalFreshness163 I think the guy was saying that shaq relied on kobe to come into the season in shape because he did not atleast that's how I see it. We're not saying shaq wasn't the best player or that kobe wasn't the sidekick that's just objectively wrong.
@ you got the first part of my message right, but the prevailing idea that Kobe was “just a sidekick” is one of the dumbest narratives in NBA history. Kobe was a top 5 player in the nba and very much so the closer of those 3 peat lakers. They three peated in the era of the toughest western conference ever because they had two alphas and it was a 1.A and 1.B pairing towards their last few years together. Several series throughout the playoffs Kobe outperformed Shaq. Also, considering Shaq was the most dominant paint threat in an era where centers were maximized and favored, there’s a strong argument that no perimeter player ever could have been the number one option over him in his absolute prime. What coach is going to justify giving it to a guard when an unstoppable force inside is shooting 60% from the field? So the “sidekick” term is disrespectful. This isn’t Batman and robin. It’s Batman and Superman.
Phil Jacksons book does not support the idea that Shaq didn't take his fitness seriously. I think that's a narrative that Shaq has tried to push to make ppl think he coulda been even better and he got his 4 rings taking it easy. Phil Jackson said the off-season was essential recovery time for Shaq. And I believe it
Hot Take: Trading Paul George for Shai and 5 first rounders wasn’t a bad trade on the clippers part. It does seem like that in hindsight, but at the time Kawhi was in best player of the world talks coming off of a historical post season run and the current reigning FMVP. If what was required was to get Paul George to pair up with him who was also coming off of an MVP caliber season to get him to sign, you do that trade 99% of the time no questions asked. No disrespect to SGA, but at the time he was a rookie, and one who had potential, but the way he is playing today almost no one thought he would be THIS good.
the "3>2 movie" is a cool take but outside of no good team to showcase it (imo closest is 7s or less suns or the Dwight Orlando, those were first teams that really had a bunch of good shooters but it likely just would be Warriors) the issue is finacially its prolly also not viable. Winning time and Swagger both got canceled cos low ratings. Air bombed in box office (tho its not really a basketball movie), Clipped got forgotten very quickly (after Twitter got their fun from how bad casting was). space jam 2 was a shit show. i just dont know if there is enough of ROI for someone to green light a movie like that, NBA or NBA adjacent shows and movies just haven't performed well financially even when they were good quality entertainment.
Hot take: We need to get rid Multi-year contract. Multi year contract is making player lazy in their contract term and just giving them all in contract year to make more money.
From an MLB fan, sabermetric stats didn’t exactly kill the league’s popularity, but I do see why people find those who quote those stats constantly annoying from time to time. The issue of regional blackouts is a huge issue, and the marketing around their league hasn’t exactly been that great either. Their sport also has become a bit more regional (ex: as a Seattle Mariners fan, I’m paying attention to the teams in my division, occasionally others if we are close in a playoff race, but not the whole league).
Man the problems with baseball’s decline are plenty but i agree i don’t think it was the sabermetrics. Cheap ownership who would rather field the cheapest team possible to maximize their profit on revenue sharing checks, the conservative culture of “no celebrations or personality, unwritten rules, prioritizing 3.5+ hour games that end 1-0 (adding the pitch clock, runner on base in extra innings, banning the shift all breathed new life into the sport)”, a long and bloated team building process (A and AA ball need to be thrown out and just have college be where players develop like the other leagues and stop drafting teenagers to sit for YEARS before they even reach AAA level), and not marketing any stars between jeter and ohtani, those are what was dragging baseball down because they couldn’t reach younger audiences. Older fans don’t give a damn about appealing to new fans but every league is a business and you can’t succeed if you don’t have new fans coming in
Hot take: if we want players to stop throwing their heads back on every drive or jumping into the defense to create contact the refs/league will have to be better about enforcing those calls. make it’s a tech + possession and maybe even a fine. They can whine about flopping all they want but we can’t really blame the players because it works most of the time. they’re trying to win. 🤷🏾♂️
Not really a hot take. Also, it's disingenuous to not blame the players for it because they are undermining the rules and the integrity of the game by doing it.
The thing about your moneyball take is that the Oakland Athletics weren't even the best team at doing moneyball that would go to the Tampa Bay Rays who are inarguably the best team at doing it. The problem with moneyball being centered around the Oakland Athletics was the fact that the person who wrote the book was a friend of Billy Bean and at a point in time it kind of screwed the Oakland Athletics because it made the ownership thing that if their whole team is paid 23 million total or less that is a success rather than try and field a good team. The Rays were always able to do both. Plus this caused a bunch of teams to think that if they could do moneyball then it would be successful for them. Which made it so that I believe off the top of my head 14 of 30 teams wouldn't even be able to achieve a salary floor like they have in the NBA. Now how does that relate to the broader point? You could use Houston cuz they weren't the best at it but they still revolutionized it. You could use Golden State, or you could even tell a story about the changing of the guard type story
Hot take: If you take out Kobe from top 10 players just from simply having shaq for his first three championship, then also take out kareem, magic, bird, lebron and all those guys . Kareem had magic, magic had kareem, bird had a team full of HOFs , lebron played with enough stars and HOFs to make two teams. In comparison, aside from shaq for that first three-peat, kobe only played with old steve nash, karl malone, gary payton, and then dwight with a bad back. His only "star" support is pau who have never won a playoff series before teaming up with him.
Hot take #1: The argument that SGA has a better supporting cast than both Jokić and Giannis is flawed. It's easy to say that considering the performance of the Thunder this season, but not when you actually look the rosters. While Shai's supporting cast (outside of J-Dub and Chet at least) is great, both Jokić and Giannis have bigger and more experienced names around them compared to SGA. Murray, MPJ, and Gordon are still the same guys who helped Jokić with the title just under 2 years ago, and Russ-a fututre HOFer-is currently having a career Renaissance. Giannis's supporting cast speaks for itself. Hot take #2: The Nuggets' front office has not been "wasting" Jokić's prime. Jokić entered his prime back in 2021, so it has not been going on for that long. This is the first season where the Nuggets have struggled in the Jokić era due to roster problems (2021 and 2022 were injury-related), and right now, they've managed to get back up to 4th in the West, so their struggles have passed mostly. Outside of letting Bruce Brown and KCP both walk away, Idk why people are suddenly claiming that they've done a poor job building around him when he still has the same 3 guys who helped him win the title just under 2 years ago, including MPJ who is currently having a career season. Yes, Calvin Booth has made some questionable moves, but he has not left Jokić hanging as much as people think.
Hot Take: Paul George in a Sixers uniform weirdly reminds me of when Paul Pierce and KG went to Brooklyn and hit sharp declines. George is a loved player by many, but the sudden regression and recency bias of NBA fans will have a lot of people turn on him as if he wasn't a top 15 caliber player in the league for most of his career. Pierce was a killer who was loved and had great battles with legends but you see clips of him in Brooklyn like when he threw his headband into the stands and the fan threw it back at him, its hard to think someone who was once respected highly by fans and players just turns into a joke overnight. Paul George is heading down this road unfortunately and the fact he can't stay on the court and is putting up comparable numbers to Tobias Harris in the same role with Embiid hardly touching the court is telling.
Hot take: Jokic is now becoming significantly overrated. Fans and even analysts seem to think that he has had the best or even a top 3 peak ever when players like prime LeBron, Jordan, Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, and Tim Duncan have played. Jokic has a case to be better than a lot of these players on offense, but basketball has both offense and defense, and Jokic doesn't even come close to any of these guys on defense. (To clarify, I'm talking about 3-year peaks in case there is any confusion.). The other reason why I say he’s overrated is the constant reluctance to even acknowledge other players in the MVP conversation. The 2023 MVP is seen as one of the biggest robberies ever when Embiid was the better scorer and defender with similar efficiency with a better record. You can even see it now with many people not even addressing players like Giannis and Shai having cases to be better than Jokic this season.
So you really said all that just to ruin it all by actually trying to pretend Jokic isn't having his best season this year. If Jokic isn't your MVP this year, whether or not he actually wins it because of voter fatigue, then you're arguing that he has never had an MVP calibre season. In other words, you're wrong.
Yeah, especially when Embiid (or possibly Lebron) were the clear 2021 MVP favorite before both got injured, and Embiid was the runaway favorite for 2024 until he got injured (and Luka should probably have won last year but the slow start killed the narrative even if he ended better) so Jokic having 4 MVPs in 5 years makes it seem like he had as dominant of a peak as Lebron or MJ when it's not the case. (That said I think Jokic should be clear MVP favorite this year, but they should have 2 MVPs each in this span instead of 4 to 1)
I'm starting to feel this way as well, minus the part about peaks. The fact that so many people act like neither Ahai nor Giannis have equally or stronger cases than Jokić to be the NVP is straight up ridiculous. I like Jokić very much, but he is starting to be overly romanticized, imo at least.
Hot take: As a follow up on the mamba Mentality of Kobe, just like MJ they both needed an extremely specific coach to win the rings they have. I think this is an underrated downside of these players, adding to the fact that they can't get the best out of everyone because they just bully them.
Hot Take: The NBA should allow twitch streamers legally stream the game to their audiences with the streamer serving as the “commentator”, then the money made on those streams can be divided between the streamer and the nba. not every game, just the big important ones
Hot take: Jayson Tatum is by far the best american basketball player since steph curry, and the only reason he isn't the de facto face of the league is that he contributes so much to winning that people are turned off by it. I genuinely believe you could put Tatum on the wizards right now and they would be a contender in the East. We've reached this weird post modern internet landscape where winning over a long period of time hurts your appeal. I'd go so far as to say if it were 2006 right now, Tatum would be viewed as a 1a, and guys like embiid and luka would be viewed as a 1b.
Uh, no. I like Tatum, but no. He is one of the best players in the league, but he's nowhere near the best. Tatum does not have enough individual shine, and his personality is neither marketable nor endearing enough for him to be the face of the league. If you put Tatum on the Wizards, he would make them better, but not by much.
Kobe's mamba mentality was MJ's turned up to 11 and Phil discussed that, MJ had the perfect mix of competitiveness but also focused more on winning whereas Kobe had a chip on his shoulder, I think it also helped that MJ came first and Kobe had someone he was chasing which pushed him to be more selfish and focus on himself because he wanted to be the next MJ. Plus MJ was just objectively better which is largely due to being more gifted physically.
Role players are so much better today and are arguably the reason for championships instead of top end talent. Even if you just look at each 2k game and compare how many low 70 overalls were STARTING just 7 years ago versus today , it’s insane
11:30 - I also get the need to scream, when I see a guy alone under the basket/going downhill for a layup/dunk, who passes the ball for a three point attempt
Hot take: People only care about the Knicks when they are bad. No one talks nicely about them when they are winning while everyone talks about Reggie Miller and Trae Young owning the Knicks with losing records vs them.
I think Kobe’s mentality was a double edged sword On the positive side: He pushed himself into all time great status and is one of the most skilled players of all time. On the negative side: Kobe pushing himself to be better as an individual player meant the Lakers not only built around this style post Shaq, but other players also likely noted Kobe was a “me first” player. So they didn’t want to play alongside that, and it was too late when Kobe changed
I may have missed one so someone can correct me if im wrong but from what I saw there have only been 3 seasons where a player scored more PPG than Shai with less FTA. 2021 Curry, 1993 Jordan, and 1980 Gervin.
My take on comparing greats is copied from how Ali saw it. He was once asked which boxer of old could've beaten him. His response was that u can't compare a crop duster to a fighter jet but you CAN acknowledge that for its time, the crop duster was unbeaten, revolutionary and deserves its respects. If u pluck players of old to today exactly as they were, they'd probably be slow and awkward asf and easy to defend against. But if u try upgrade them to today's standards, then that loses meaning coz they should also come with today's players' mindsets and weaknesses. Also, Mamba Mentality is a net negative in a team sport which requires teamwork, role modelling and coachability. BUT it's extremely valuable in real life where u SHOULD be loyal but also stand up for what u believe in. U SHOULD say fvck it and do it urself. U SHOULD know what u want and work obsessively to achieve it. U SHOULD be stubborn and strong and dependable
I would eliminate the corner threes from the NBA. Just let the circle line continue until it meets the sideline or so. Also, I would take out the defensive three second rule. I think that it was Johnny Arnett that was suggesting to use the NBA Cup to experiment with different rules and see if they work. The reasoning behind my proposal is that even though corner threes are only around 10% of the total threes shot, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have a guy just standing in the corner and dragging a defender out. Also, the paint would be protected at all times. I think that would make things more difficult for offenses and specifically heliocentric systems.
For anybody that doesn't understand why a three pointer is more valuable than a dunk: if a team shoots 35% on threes and 50% on twos, on say ten possessions only shooting three pointers they will score 10.5 points, and shooting only two point shots will score you 10 points. So by the league averages nba teams score more by shooting 3s. (And on a side note it's easier to get an offensive board on a long 3 pt rebound and the defense can get back faster)
2017 not just the Cavs improving but its also not to take for granted how that Spurs team was possibly an all-time great team too (2016 Spurs still won 67 games and had an even better point differential than the 73-win Warriors) and if KD stayed in that OKC team that went 3-1 up on the Warriors in 2016 or if KD joined CP3/Blake on the Clippers or Harden on the Rockets for example. Warriors without KD would still have been the favorites but would've had at least 3 strong rivals (Cavs, Spurs, whichever other contender KD was with)
Hot take: AVERAGING 30 ppg in contrast to scoring that many in a gme in the nineties was substantially easier because the definitive roles in an iso heavy offense; whereas nowadays, the balanced nature of offensive load makes it seem like every random bogan scores fifty at any given moment. So the public recognises it less how difficult it is to always be that guy in todays nba
the “moneyball for the nba” thing could work if it was about don nelson having to convince teams like the warriors and mavericks to run small ball and shoot threes. it could be a we believe movie
Ice Cold take: Kobe's mentality helped him mostly, but wouldn't help a player like Jokic or Shaq. And Shaq's mentality wouldn't have helped Jokic or Kobe, etc.
The whole mamba mentality thing has always been stupid. It’s a casual term used to push movie script narratives about the game because alot of people are too stupid to understand actual intelligent basketball discourse. You ask a Kobe fan why he’s better than someone else and they’ll start cutting a wrestling promo about “the mamba mentality” and “killer instinct” and the “will to win” because they don’t understand what they’re watching in totality. They see the game like children.
Hot Take: The reason threes suck, is not because of the Three point sucking, it because there is less variety. The games get samey. The X team plays like all other teams.
Hot take: the east will be the better conference in 3 to 5 years. Out west, Lakers, Clippers, Warriors and Suns all have aging rosters and little pick flexibility, the Jazz and Blazers still haven't really started their rebuild, TWolves, Kings and Pelicans top out at mid, and the Mavs and Nuggets have a hard road to replace key players like Kyrie and Klay, or work around some players on expensive contracts like Murray. This means the only teams properly setup to be future contenders are the Thunder and Spurs, with the Mavs, Nuggets and Rockets and Grizz running on the outside (Rockets don't have a top star and Ja is an unreliable star). Meanwhile, out east, Boston will still have Tatum, Brown and a smart front office, the Cavs and Knicks have their rosters locked in for some years, the Magic and Pacers are likely to establish as perennial playoff teams, if not contenders, with the Pistons and Hawks also taking playoff jumps. When you add in the possibility of a Raptors or Wizards with Cooper Flagg, the East may become the better conference.
30:53 a lot of the fans that call SGA a free throw merchant are guys like Oprah side/Clark who are Lebron Stans. Lebron averages 7.6 free throws a game for his career and SGA averages 6.8. 😂
Hot take: NBA officials are actually quite good. It's popular and easy to hate on the refs, but half of you don't even know the rules. Every day I see people yell and complain about a "travel" when someone does a step-through move that is legal at every level of basketball. People complain about missed calls, acting like refs should be right 100% of the time-in what job have you ever been right 100%, or even 75% of the time? It's lame and boring to hyperfocus on the refs.
Hot take: Scottie Pippen in today's NBA would be a very close comparison to Kawhi Leonard. A long forward who can pass dribble and shoot and an all world defender. With the right pieces like Kawhi had, he could've been the man on a championship team.
Hot take: Sabonis will never win a chip. His skill set makes him good enough to demand first or second option money, but it limits him to playing center, bc he can’t shoot. As a center, his lack of defense for the most important defensive position lowers a teams ceiling.
Hot Take: The Boston Celtics are currently the 4th best team league wide in net rating with the stacked championship roster. They are worse than they should be, because they don't have a playstyle with an identity that all the players enjoy. Only 1 person can have the ball, and yes they are f'in amazing because anyone of them can score way above league average, but they are severely lacking in terms of a superstar. Think Giannis, Luka and Jokic. I think their best bet would be to trade away some of their depth to the Mavericks for Luka. He has expressed he wants to win and could be the type of superstar to jump a sinking ship depending on this season's outcome
![What Does “Most Valuable” Really Mean? [Deep Dive]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cIO4Qx6veh8/mqdefault.jpg)
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I love Raycons, thank you Rusty Buckets.
Hot take: the GOAT debate holds back conversations surrounding the NBA due to how negative and toxic the debates tend to be. This bleeds over to other discussions and overall creates bad vibes in comparison to other leagues like the NFL and MLB
Men are toxic, you right
Least hot take ever I’ve seen this so many times
@@brandonjones5369I swear bro pick me ahh take
@brandonjones5369 my b I don't normally read these comments 🤷♂️
@@brandonjones5369 given how constantly the GOAT debate is shoved down our throat, apparently it's not hot enough.
Hot Take; the end game of modern basketball team building is a team full of Derrick whites and a Wemby
If you give me 4 derrick whites and a wemby I can make you a dynasty
Tbh, that team would win 5 rings straight
dawg if that was an option it would already exist
Except derrick white is so good cus there arent 4 more of him on the celtics brown and kristaps are plain better, ofc tatum as well, but jrue and horford bring entirely different things same with their other role players
its like how in evolution everything sort of just leads back to evolving into a crab they're just nice at mostly everything
shaq's mentality was just as much the reason that relationship ended the way it did as kobe's
i wouldnt agree because at that point shaq was far better than kobe, therefore it is normal for him to act as the top dog on the team and have an ego. Kobe just couldnt handle being the second guy
@@vilkezz8404 Him being the top dog wasn't the issue. Kobe's whole issue with Shaq was him being unprepared entering the season and not working on his craft in the off season. He had low work ethic.
I think one of the most untalked about facts of the 2010s is the spurs and warriors having 73 and 67 for 140 wins between two teams in the same conference!
Everyone forgot how insane the 2016 Spurs were, but also forgot this insane team choked in the playoffs (possibly due to the old age of the roster)
@ ye fr
@@Yinon776 how did they choke ? You don’t know basketball
enjoy those hot girl walks everyone
Is that anything like hotdog walks...?
it's where you eat too many hotdogs and - long story short, you lose your job.
Is that like a hot egg walk? It's where to eat to many hot hard boiled eggs and long story short, you make egg salad in your jorts (jean shorts).
My fault for having internet😂
Hot take: I think owners should push for partially guaranteed contracts like the NFL. if players continue holding out for trades, sitting out longer than front offices think they should for injuries, and generally not performing as well after signing their contracts, and the NBA continues dipping in ratings, I think it’d be a good tactic to make players more engaged with the regular season. Not sure how they could make this happen since players definitely won’t sign off on it but I imagine it’d at least make players try harder & play all the games they’re actually available for
you know that the cba is also signed by the players right? In what world do you think they agree to this?
@@Favour500 I literally said no way they could approve it but I think it would do the league good if they somehow could
Agree but it’s never going to happen lol
31:28 Hot Take: modern NBA fans cry about it everything and will not acknowledge that the NBA product is objectively the best it’s ever been. Widest diversity of talent, varying playstyles, average player is better than it’s ever been, freak athletes like Bron, Gianni’s, wemby, ja, Zion, etc, some of the most skilled players ever like curry, Kyrie and harden. But at the end of the day it’s never enough.
Hot Take: One of the smaller but still significant reason for the NBAs rating struggles is xenophobia. I get that Lebron and Curry are still iconic and great. But too many NBA pundits and even the organization act there are no other super stars who can act as the face of the league when the likes of Jokic and Giannis are 2 of the greatest players to ever play the game and Luke is a youngish super star whose 1 championship run from being an all time great. But all of them still play second or even third fiddle because none of them are American players which I guess gives them an inherent debuff when it comes to hype and promoting as faces of the league
People can complain 3 points all they want, but the reason why the NBA was so popular in the 90s and 00's is because they were not afraid to put the likes of MJ, Lebron, Shaq, Kobe, ETC front and center in the league. the League now has a golden opportunity with Wemby as the new face of the NBA to replace Lebron as the guy. Im not saying he wont be eventually. But I am saying is that if he were born in LA instead of Le Chesnay he'd already be the most promoted player in the league (granted, it might also partially be because Spurs are a smaller market but still)
The league was struggling in ratings in the 2000s
I’m not reading all that but I agree it’s dumb idk about everyone else but I give zero f’s on where a dude came from if they can hoop they should be celebrated
Agree 100%, Anthony Edwards was getting MJ comparisions when he Giannis, Jokić, Luka are miles ahead and have been ahead for a longer time
@@onlywiigame. was it better or worse than is now? I kinda figured it was at least better
@alminsabanovic3322 Yeah... ANT is great an could be top 3-5ish someday. But I do find the Mini MJ comparisons when Luka was on such an insane run that playoff season to be a bit funny. Especially after ANT kinda struggled vs the Mavs
Kobe literally went on TV and explained that the game plan was for him to pass more because they weren’t winning when he went out and tried to drop 50 every game.
His team just couldn’t capitalize on the fact that he was giving them open looks. If he shoots a lot, he’s a ball hog, if he passes to open teammates, he’s quitting on the team. That narrative needs to die.
Also, Shaq and Kobe had a strained relationship at the end, but people too often ignore that Shaq’s ego is why he left LA. He wanted more money and they weren’t willing to pay him the increase he wanted. Shaq himself has said this numerous times, even before Kobe died.
If some one told me that they got hurt on company time and will heal on company time and I’m trying to win I would be mad too
Shaq is disgusting many ways but even he didn't have as big of an ego as Kobe. Shaq was the one who was giving to sacrifice more for the team. He quit Lakers because unlike him, Kobe was only caring about himself and wanted to be the main guy instead of sharing it.
@@LuunacyyShaq and a lot of Lakera fans had been downplaying Kobe's contributions to the dynasty. Imagine being Kobe and having your CO-STAR downplay your efforts towards a dynasty that you both created.
@@Luunacyy the man that goes on TV and raps, “Kobe tell me how my a** taste” doesn’t have as big an ego.
Either way, I didn’t say whose ego was bigger, just that Kobe didn’t run Shaq off like people claim.
@@SmittyWerbenJagermannJensen no the organization just chose the younger dude who had more future potential. Sure Shaq went out and won a chip in the first couple years, but Kobe won two for them later on, which Shaq probably couldn't have done without a Kobe or Wade
We as basketball fans need to hold players and organisations much more accountable for their actions. The fact that KPJ is still on an nba floor collecting millions is repulsive, the fact Derrick Rose is treated as this tragic hero (even as a bulls fan) is disgusting to me after I looked into his SA case including HIS OWN disturbing recounting of what happened, Kobe Bryant is one of the more obvious ones where no matter how you look at that case something went on in that hotel room and people treat him like an untouchable god. Jason Kid beat his wife, Josh giddey as a very suspicious amount of evidence showing he knew that young girl beforehand and there’s so many other examples of this. The nba fan bases ability to sweep all this stuff to the side is disturbing and I cannot believe it’s been allowed to happen, we’re seeing news of young athletes doing more and more horrible things every day and I can’t help but think it’s due to the lack off accountability that these athletes and franchises face that sends the message to these guys that so long as you’re good enough at dribbling a basketball you can get away with anything.
Honestly you could’ve started and ended with Karl Malone.
You're talking about 1% of the players tho
Rose was innocent as per the courts
Honestly I agree with you except for the Josh Giddey one. Personally I feel it's just not comparable to the others listed even if he was in the wrong. He was 19 years old and hooked up with a 17 year old. All evidence points to it being consensual. He also was not a known superstar within the league creating a messed up power dynamic and also the insane litigation the other instances wld have.
Comparing Kobe SA a woman, KPJ SA a woman, and Jason Kidd DV agaisnt his partner is just not comparable. These were established stars using their clout and power to force Sx on woman or to physically abuse them. Giddey was a stupid college aged kid who consensually slept with a girl he met. Then after the fact it became known she was 17 and underage. Yeah he was in the wrong but he wasnt a full grown man with years in the league using his status and power to force woman into sex.
people make mistakes, people do bad things, this is entertainment. i think the fact that we have fewer allegations against NBA players than politicians says something about the integrity of the league. I also just dont think its a sustainable and productive attitude. you may know that something maybe kinda happened with kobe, but you don't know of the countless other players who hit/abuse their kids, do tax fraud, bullied kids in school, etc. For better or worse I am ok with appreciating the totality of someone like kobe even given the blemishes.
Hot take: Victor wembanyama is too tall to be the post player that fans of traditional centers want him to be. Looking at modern bigs of his height like boban and porzingus, neither were big paint presences and looking in the past, no one I know remembers manute bol or others at that time being big paint guys except for Yao Ming but he got injured all the time which we’re trying to dodge with wemby
isnt yao ming taller than wemby
Yes I meant to mention that Yao Ming also got injured a ton in the process which we are trying to dodge with wemby
Wemby will never be a traditional post player, because that is an extinct playstyle. I don't see many arguing for that. He needs to take advantage of mismatches which he has done much better as of late. I remember a game early in the season where Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso were pushing Wemby to the perimeter, and he was tossing up bricks. that shouldn't happen. The injury thing at that height is such a dice roll tbh. Rik Smits is really the only guy I can think of who was relatively healthy. I guess him floating around the perimeter lessens his chance of getting hurt, but I feel that lessens his offensive impact in the long run.
@ yeah I agree with what you’re saying. There are just so many people who want him to play with a style that isn’t his so I feel like it’ll be more convincing if there was a way to prove that that style of play is bad for him at his height. Sort of how in track, there are “ideal” heights and weights because so many runners have come through over millennia
yeah, I think at that point the high center of gravity begins to outweigh the advantages of just being big. Like a smaller player would have a hard time dislodging a bigger heavier 7-footer, but past 7-feet there's too little difference in weight to cancel out the higher center of gravity. Like nobody except Zion is big and heavy enough to beat out a 6'10 Valanciunas type at the rim sheer tonnage wise, but nobody above that height is gonna be any heavier than Valanciunas
Another hot take: sorry but again as a Brit I need to get this off my chest. This is aimed at both the NBA and sports in America in general. The fact that rivalries have zero significance in your sport culture to me, is baffling. I’m going to use football as an example again. To Europe and the world in general, there is a near on “tribal” feeling surrounding certain rivalries and teams playing against each other. To me, the NBA and American sports are run in a business like fashion, more than a sports team fashion, wayyyyy too much. To the point where the essence of sports, passion and winning, has essentially been sucked out of the league. What was the memory that stuck in ur mind the most from last playoffs? For me it was AE talking smack to KD in game one of the playoffs. That was the embodiment of passion and rivalry. It is all well and good having a squeaky clean product image. But I imagine if the NBA did more to prompt and encourage actual rivalry league-wide, the viewing product would improve ten-fold
This is just a nba problem. American football, baseball, and hockey doesn’t have this problem. It’s not a culture thing and more of a lack of reason for the nba. Division games mean nothing in the nba and they barely play one another compared to other sports. NBA u are only play your division a total of 16 times out of 82 games making 19%. While in American football u play 6 out of 17 games making 35%. The people u hate the most are the ones u compete against the most. Add on the playoff implications thats why division games don’t matter.
Another reason u might feel this way is bcuz of the affect of college sports. More ppl are connected to there favorite college team then pro team due to proximity to their home. A large amount of sports fans in America dont even live in the same state as their favorite sport teams so a lot of the tribal nature u speak of are in college sports where most ppl have a college not to far from them. If u want to see rivalries i say watch American College Football.
you should try watching college football lol
@@aintnoway8594 Yk I have actually really gotten into colleg football as of recent, esp with the recent heisman race. I have to say it’s much more up to par with European sports when it comes to passion and support. So it’s something I can see myself getting behind a lot more in the future
you would love college football
Hot Take: Rusty talked about this in the NBA Finals video but the presentation of the league needs a mayor overhaul. I’ve recently watched a few 90s Playoff games while NBC was still covering the league and I think the coverage made the games way more exciting even if it was a slower more grinding brand of basketball. I noticed that the limitations of the time and the general quality of most televisions people had made it so that the camera was usually way more close up to the court and in turn it made the way feel way faster and more dynamic with the camera zooming in and out of the shot/rebound, compared to the modern NBA coverage where the camera is I feel way too far away from the action making it look slower, a little sluggish, and not as exciting. The second mayor difference I noticed was the crowd noise was turned up way more which honestly made the games feel way more important and alive compared to newer games where the crowd and the court is so drowned out that it makes big moments feel smaller and way less significant when all I can hear is the commentators on top.
Couple that with the added intros for special matchups (like some of those Bulls Finals intros, Game 7 2000 WCF Lakers Vs Blazers, that amazing Game 5 ECF Bulls Vs Knicks intro, and even for stuff like the 1994 EFC Finals between the Knicks and Pacers had great intros that set the stage for how important this game was for each team and their players), the Playoff courts, and the fly over the city they were playing at after the NBA on NBC song finished is still exciting to this day even if you know the outcome of the games. If that energy was brought into the modern NBA instead of the really bland and uninteresting direction they’ve gone with I feel like less people would say that there’s a lack of interest in the league. If the network seems disinterested in doing more than the bare minimum then people won’t feel the need to care
Agreed
The game itself is fine but the TV presentation is ass
CBS also did. a great job in the 80s
ABC too in the 2000´s was pretty good
NBC made it feel immersive and cinematic
Oh yeah for sure. The TV presentation has fallen off so much compared to even just 15 years ago. It's insane since the TV deals are so huge these days and all. You'd think the presentation would get better, not worse. And I swear, if I have to watch ONE MORE gambling commercial I SWEAR
Great point about the crowd noise tbh, the atmosphere adds so much to a viewing experience. The difference between a comedy and a horror is simply music.
@@mr.crispyfriedchicken3946 Jordan : “did you say gambling?”
@@rafikz77 oh you know he's taking the under on Lebron every night
Imagine having to watch ADS... ON A APP THAT YOU FREAKING PAID FOR!.
I can't freaking understand how people allow companies to PUT ADS ON A PAID PRODUCT. WE ARE PAYING YOU TO SKIP THE ADS!. I can't understand how consumers allowed Netflix,Hulu,Disneyt and other companies to inject ads on already products we paid for
You paid for UA-cam?
Bit of a liberal take there mate. How are you gonna blame the consumers for this? Do you expect them to do like a 2-year NBA fast or sth?
unironically, the only reason we talk about Kobe so much is cause of his mentality that fueled him to be such a dominant player. if he did everything “right” and was a more team oriented player he’d be less successful. he wouldn’t be a fmvp if he simply deferred to shaq, he wouldn’t be #4 all time scoring if he didn’t shoot so much, he wouldn’t have like 18 all-star appearances if he took a backseat, he wouldn’t be the BLACK MAMBA. everyone has their own story, just cause his has flaws in some areas it doesn’t mean he had to change lol. no one’s story is perfect but his will always be remembered.
But he instead would be a top 5 player and potentially have a case for being goat
That's a really interesting take, love discussing nuances of stuff like this, would it be good if I made a video and credited yoy for the idea?
In what universe wouldn't he be a FMVP if he deferred to Shaq... do you think he won FMVP, or even had an argument to win, when he was playing with Shaq? He won his own championships after he chose to "play the right way." You just yapping like all Kobe fanboys.
In other words you’re saying that the thing that some people say holds him back made him stand out simultaneously?
Hot take: the biggest issue with 2020s superteams is the age of the superstars. While Bron and Wade weren't a perfect fit in 2011, they were both young enough to adapt their play styles and game to complement each other. Whereas the Westbrook Lakers and the big 3 Suns are/were comprised of older superstars unable or unwilling to change their game to suit the needs of the roster.
This is more just a squad building issue with specific teams tbh
Hot Take: To fix the issue of flopping and/or foul baiting, the nba should impose something similar to the embelishment rules they have in the nhl, where overselling contact or a hit can lead to both teams getting a penalty, or free throws in basketball's case
They already have flop techs
@@alphabrother6823They don't enforce them, though.
Wemby was sent by aliens to end the goat debate
He wont even be top 10 ever
@Downtown7637 that seems like a bit of a premature take lol. He's literally in his 2nd season. He's got like 10 to 15 seasons to prove this take wrong. Not saying he will, but He's still got a lot of time to work with. And he's already in mvp conversations as well as dpoy conversations. If he doesn't end up getting He's career cut short by injuries, I'd say there's a good possibility he'll be in the top 10 greatest of all time conversations. But, time will tell.
7:51 that’s a great points, I don’t have cable and haven’t for years , I have no way to legally watch nba games without buying league pass and as a casual viewer I’m never gonna do that
@18:49 Box Score Hot Take: If "setting screens" were recorded as a stat, NBA fans will realize just how insanely valuable players like Zydrunas Ilgaskus actually were!
This is just an insane take
A "drive to survive" kind of NBA recap can do wonders for the overall ratings and better understanding for the non NBA fans
Drive to survive got me and a lot of others in the USA interested in F1
Hot take: if the NBA really believes the abscess of 3 pointers are ruining the league, make alley-oops worth 3. Give 2 points to the dunker, and 1 point & assist to the passer. This forces defenders to both pack the paint AND defend the perimeter, creating versatile offenses who focus on both threes AND dunks. Admittedly, this does make it very hard for defenders, so while you’re at it, bring hand checking back and enforce the no flopping rule. This brings back the 2000’s defense so many claim to love, while also keeping insane 2020’s scoring and helping players like Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and Wemby further push their commercial viability. Would be very controversial, but could end up more entertaining in the end.
That is actually a superb take. Well done to you, never thought of that.
i don’t like the example you gave but i love the idea
No one thinks 3s are bad offense. People do not like watching players Chuck 3s instead of anything else. I could see that at the local park, but i don't go.
The nba has changed the rules to make people watch, but it backfired. Analytics should be used to make a fun entertainment product, not to make a boring slog.
that's all well and good, but there is fact plenty of people who think 3s are bad offense
I genuinely miss 2010 - 2014 nba era
Hot take: nba rating are bad because it is hard to watch local games. In order to be a Spurs fan i have to pay for the fandual streaming app for $20 bucks a month. I love basketball, but paying $20 a month to watch a kid game is insane to me.
Hot take: Denver is going to win the 2025 seasons championship. Murray is gonna have a redemption season, Russ is gonna have the most beautiful storys in NBA history and Jokic will solidify himself as a Top 10 player in NBA history.
I hope this happens. Although Boston and Cleveland have a legitimate shot at the ring.
Boston is going to destroy them
Hot take: Lebron did not necessarily cause the player empowerment era and it's inaccurately attributed to him. Progressive culture and evolution of social norms also in sports saw player-coach relations become less rigid and more collaborative and players started to become the focal points of the sport and gain more autonomy from front offices as we saw with Magic/Bird, MJ, AI, Kobe and others grow the sport massively as well as the NBA's expansion into world markets and pop culture. A player of Lebron's scale had he never existed or wave of players would have opened up the "player empowerment" era as an inevitability. Same way Curry opened up the 3 point revolution but the trends, seeds and changes were simmering years before with the 7 seconds suns offense, the small ball heat, more liberal forward/big play seen with lebron, kd, dirk and a shift to a more skilled, positionless and athletic NBA. Calling lebron the face/cause of player empowerment is pretty true, but a bit of an oversimplification imo.
Hot take. By making divisions less meaningful, potential rivalries will never grow within the division. NFL fans want to take away the reward for winning the division (home playoff game) and taking a page from the NBA is not what you want to do.
The NFL does not care, they have taken over the whole sports market by cutting out more traditional elements. I love things like the saints falcons rivalry and the whole AFC north but overall the NFL doesn't care about rivalries anymore.
Hot Take: The Timberwolves trading Kat isn’t as bad as people think. As the trade rn looks bad as he’s thriving on the Knicks and Randle hasn’t look like a good fit. The trade was never made to be win now as with the new CBA the team having 3 max guys restricted their ceiling. Trading him right now allows them to compete better later with adding more depth around ant or possibly get another star around him in 2028-2029.
Disagree with your ABA take - talent was absolutely equivalent to NBA if not greater across that time period. In the first year post-merger, 13/24 NBA All Stars were ABA players... Frequent examples of NBA title teams being stopped in "friendly" exhibition games where starters played big minutes... would recommend reading "Loose Balls" (not the Jayson Williams one!
Hot take: when kawhi leonard retires he’s going to be a forgotten about star because he doesn’t have the stats (totals) that most greats have and has missed so many games from the mid to later parts of his career.
he was practically forgotten already due to him being out for so long even tho he is still an active player
Hot Take: This rookie of the year race might be one of the weakest in recent memory. Alex Sarr is on track to win the award, yet he is averaging only 11 ppg shooting 40% from the field, and he is somehow only averaging 6 rebounds per game as a 7 foot tall center.
Dont think that’s much of a hot take lol
Jared McCain injury ruined the race sadly, he was playing amazing
Everybody knows McCains the true rookie of the year . Whoever wins it this year won’t get the acknowledgment
Hot take: the idea of a stretch 5 is so in demand that teams are actively hurting themselves by trying to have one out there.
Yes it is amazing for a team’s spacing to have a 5 out there that can shoot the 3. However, I’d even argue that there are cuttently traditional centers who are capabel of creating more space with DHOs and high ball screens than others do by shooting 34% from three on 2-3 uncontested attemps.
A good example for this is WCJ vs Goga in Orlando. (Please check WCJ’s 3pt%)
The game should be more physical on both the defence on offensive, so less fouls when someone barely touches someone that doesn’t really change the player movements. Stare downs and trash talk should be completely allowed, I understand it can lead to things getting a little heated but it’s entertaining and the players are competing against each other anyways it’s supposed to get heated. Fouls should be changed from two free throws to 1 free throw and retaining possession, ( and 1s should still have the free throw and than retains possession) ( threes two free throws and retains of possession). No lineups of people on side obviously. Fouls should not be used to gain an advantage by making the opposition have to earn points based off shooting it should be more negative to the team that fouls on shooters. This would get rid of the fouling at the end of game and force teams to go for plays such as steals and interceptions which is more entertaining and won’t waste so much time.
Hot Take: There are NBA fans that are so obsessed with advanced stats that it’s created another sect of NBA fans that just hate basketball. They value advanced stats so much that they overemphasize a players weaknesses because they aren’t analytically perfect. It’s why Cade Cunningham got so much hate last season, his On/Off and EPM didn’t look as good as it should have because his team was so bad. Paolo gets similar hate because his On/Off numbers were awful last season despite him being a fantastic player.
Bad take. Those stats improved for both of those players this year and their teams are doing even better as a result. On/Off splits are the most objective stat in basketball. Just say you don’t understand the stats
@ On/Off stats are just the scoreboard. They don’t always represent individual impact and can easily be messy because of lineups and how volatile the scoreboard is.
Paolo Banchero according to the On/Off stats was one of the worst players in basketball, he obviously wasn’t and if you think so then you’ve proven my point
The problem with threes is that 3:2 is an insane value ratio so it becomes idiotic not to emphasize it almost exclusively in your offense. There’s no way to fix it because even if you were willing to change the values to 4:3 free throws would become a nightmare.
Hot take: The only reason people say rings don't matter is because of what happened to bron. If bron had 7 rings and 7 fmvps then they would use that as an argument against MJ
That and it also disqualifies guys like Tim Duncan and Steph Curry from the GOAT discussion because Duncan has the same amount of rings as Kobe does but more MVPs and more FMVPs
Thank you I've been saying this for years. It's always modern fans who's favorite players have no rings or less rings than they should that try to go "oh its a team sport" when u bring up a lack of rings. Bron fans love that argument
Rings obviously matter to a certain extend. After you get like 3+ rings, while winning 2+ FMVPs you gotta use some other arguments. MJ and Bron are so clearly 1 and 2, i mean you don't have Bill Russel as your goat do you. Also i just wanna know where you rank Bron on the all time list to know if its even worth arguing with you...
Most people don’t say rings dont matter, just that its not the end all be all to the discussion of who’s better
Awful take
I feel like any reasonable GOAT debate has to include everything they did on a basketball court, college, minors, pros, even pre-NBA history, not that anyone is even like top 100 pre-Mikan
Hot Take: It’s easier to rebuild in the Western Conference. The reason the west consistently has more contending teams is because of the depth of the conference. It is much harder to become a contender in the west which means you need to get multiple high level assets on your team before you can even break into playoff conversations (or one Wemby). Meanwhile in the east half the playoff teams aren’t ready to be playoff teams. It becomes significantly harder to rebuild when as soon as you get one all star caliber player you become a playoff contending team.
It’s more to do with the teams in the east simply having terrrible GM’s. The pistons, the wizards and Charlotte have been some of the worst teams in the nba for years and there roster is still terrible
@@michaelkeitof4666The Pistons have been better than last year, and their new GM has done a pretty fine job so far. The Hornets have probably been the second-most injured team next to the Pelicans, but their young core is promising. The Wizards are pretty much just starting a rebuild, but I don't trust their front office.
Kobe’s mindset being an issue isn’t that simple. Yeah, if he was cool with taking a back seat and had lebron’s mindset, the shaq-Kobe lakers lasts longer and probably wins more, but vice versa, if LeBron had Kobe’s mindset, they probably don’t loose to the mavs in 2011.
The only reason the heat lose in 2011 is because LeBron knew he wouldn't get fmvp and sabotaged the series
Yeah but it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Lebron doesn’t “take a backseat” he’s still a leader, he just knows that even the best players need a team, in a team sport. Again it doesn’t have to black and white, there’s a grey area. And just because his team lost, doesn’t mean it happened because he trusted his teammates.
@@krysis54now thats a crackpot theory i havent heard before lol
Every player, especially LeBron gets held to the standard of "you play the game to win" and "It doesn't matter without the chip".
Every player except Kobe, who just gets a pass for playing his way, that is, playing losing basketball, for most of his career.
@HisRoyalFreshness163 from my count Kobe played more winning basketball than LeBron has...5 is greater than 4 lmao. Stop glazing 🤡🤡🤡
Hot Take: Damian Lillard will be remembered the same way Carmelo Anthony is remembered when looking back at his game and career
A great player in their prime, good offensive players that were fun to watch but terrible on the defensive end. Fairly one note players. In the end their game didn’t impact winning championships
All aura, little impact
Hot take: Carmello anthony and Tmac are bad superstars, they never won mvps, yes they had few good playoff games but in entirety they were ass in actually bringing a chip to their team and performing in the final moments (tmacs 13 points in a min and melos 2009 & 10 run were epic) and also they were less efficient in the playoffs as compared to regular season, yes they were fun to watch but they didnt win anything, melo also never knew how to pass much and idk why we dont stone him worse than how we stone kobe for being a ball hog
Cuz people hold Kobe up as some sort of god. Nobody does that for Melo, we just say man he was great and remember how fun he was to watch
Hot take: The draft lottery should be replaced by a tournament of the teams that missed the playoffs, the results of the tournament determine the draft selection. Make rebuilding teams care about winning
I wish that would be good. But I'm a fan of a terrible lottery contending team and by the end of the season our fanbase seems too fatigued to really mount up and have a good time watching them contend.
@@voiceofreason2674good point. The only thing worse than watching your team get their asses kicked like 65 times in a season is that plus watching them piss away a chance at redemption right after. For every team in that tournament except the sole winner it's an even shittier ending to a shitty season
Hot take: The entire league is payed entirely too much all around, a minimum contract in the NBA is enough money for one year that most people won’t touch in most of their lifetime. The precident that athletes deserve such high paying deals is absurd to such a high degree that it’s astonishing that nobody talks about it more.
Its literally just simple economics. The players are the reason anyone makes money from the sport, they are compensated as such.
Why not ask that question of the owners who use public funds and do nothing but leech profits from these organizations?
They made the league 13 billion last year. Why is this an argument
The Kobe excuse for why he gave up vs the suns is silly cuz LeBron was NEVER EVER gonna win anything with that cavs team but he still tried
Different situations, although I see the point.
Hot take: The bears are finna bridge a Super Bowl with Ben Johnson
Hot take: if Rodman had worked out on the spurs David Robinson would have a completely different legacy, he could have at least made the finals
Hot take: Victor Wembanyama is not only a top 5 player in the world but also having the greatest sophomore jump ever.
The reason that Shai has the reputation of “foul merchant” is because he’s a good player on a good team. there’s a phenomenon with nba fans where they praise a good player on a bad team, but vilify a good player on a good team. We’ve seen this happen hundreds of times and it all stems from fans of other teams despising these good players for being better than their favorite team
Shaq was NOT significantly better than Kobe. The first run he was better... After that, they were more or less equal. Kobe scored more in the 4th all playoffs the other two runs, and scored like, a point or two less, while scoring around 28% of overall team points--he performed better than other "first options" such as Duncan, LeBron, Steph as a "sidekick." He also had a better overall plus minus than Shaq (maybe it was box score... Can't remember...I just remember he was like a +14, whereas Shaq was a -0.3, cuz it accounts for defense too)
Why is Kobe the only one that gets punished for having an all time great teammate? Nobody trashes magic for having Kareem as a teammate, and vice versa for Kareem.
And then as the solo options, Kobe did better than Shaq, with repeat titles.
In his prime run Shaq was a way more dominant playoff performer than Kobe ever was
@jgg6932 in 2001 in the playoffs Shaq averaged 30.4ppg, 15.4rebs and 3 assists, and 2.3 blocks...
Kobe averaged 29.4ppg, 7.3rebs, 6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks as a guard
And again, Kobe scored more in the 4th, in the last 5 mins, and in the last 2 mins of the playoffs --in summary, Kobe was the go to guy in the 4th, cuz the other team could utilize hack a Shaq.
@@luridsilence Shaq is still superior and you used the best run by Kobe how about the other years? Not saying Kobe wasn't great but Shaq was one of the most dominant players ever for a 3-5 year stretch every team in the league would've traded their best player in a heartbeat for that Shaq
@@jgg6932 the years before that Kobe was struggling to get into the starting lineup, cuz the coaches still believed in a hierarchy for veteran players...
And to be fair, Kobe was trying too hard and too immature those first couple of seasons.
What about the years when Shaq fell off and got fat? What about him getting swept multiple times? What great centers did Shaq face in the finals (other than Hakeem, who swept him), versus the defense that Kobe faced?
And to be clear, I'm not saying Shaq was trash or anything. The point is NOT to diminish Shaq's greatness, but to add context to show that Kobe, by the 2nd and 3rd title runs, was nearly his equal.
"more or less equal" complete nonsense. shaq was a significantly better scorer, better defender, better rebounder, focus of the defense, and the leader of the team every year until 03. scoring in the 4th doesn't matter more when you score more every other quarter. kyrie closed for lebron, scored with lebron but we know who was the sidekick. scoring 28% of your team's points means nothing in an era that had sub 100 games 90% of the time. any elite guard like kidd, mcgrady, iverson, allen could have 3peated with peak shaq. shaq BPM in 2002 was 7+ and kobe's was 4+ which contradicts anything you've said
Who doesn't understand it? 3 is greater than 2 not hard to understand. I don't think many people care if it is smarter basketball, they care that it is less interesting to watch.
Hot take: The WNBA app is infinitely better than the NBA app to watching games. So they don’t even need to borrow from Netflix. Just borrow from their own sister app ffs
hot take: jokic is the best teammate russ has ever have in his career
Not really much of a hot take
Hot Take: Stephon Marbury is the worst player of all time when it comes to influence on winning.
1. After traded straight up for Jason Kidd, the lowly 26 win lottery nets won 52 wins the following season and made it to the finals.
2. The suns with Marbury as the starting point guard in 2003-2004 won 29 games. The following season the suns replaced him with Nash and won a league's best 62 games.
3. As the starting point guard of the 2004 olympic team, they "won" the bronze medal, being the first team not to take home the gold.
34:27 sochan not even the third best on the team, cp3 and vassel definitely got it
As a spurs fan it’s hard to deny the Chris Paul effect so I won’t say he’s better than him but and as much as I love vassell he’s too inconsistent and not as reliable as a scorer at the end of games as it seems, I think when it comes to sochan he took a big step production wise and everything he provides has been noticeable this season, no rising star but his impact has been noticed
My take is that Shaq is more to blame for the demise of he and Kobe’s relationship and that people use Kobe as the scapegoat because of the stories of him being a hard ass. Shaq was the one showing up to training camps fat as 💩 and relying on Kobe to work 3x as hard to make up the difference. Kobe was sacrificing sleep, fun, and even time with family while Shaq was too busy becoming the life of the party and the fun guy. Then Shaq got jealous that Kobe’s stardom was beginning to rival/surpass him and his ego couldn’t stand Kobe being the guy so he left, only to be the 2nd option to D wade soon after. It’s not Kobe’s fault that Shaq wasn’t willing to make the necessary sacrifices for the team and their relationship as well as a transition of power as he got older.
"Relying on Kobe." Immediately dismissed opinion. Let me guess "Kobe wasn't the sidekick."?
He was, he was the 2nd best player. If Kobe hadn't won later, with his own sidekick who doesn't get near enough credit thanks to you fanboys, not a single person would question that. Imagine saying LeBron wasn't the guy just because Kyrie or Bosh were good players... oh wait, moronic Kobe fanboys do say that nonsense.
@HisRoyalFreshness163 I think the guy was saying that shaq relied on kobe to come into the season in shape because he did not atleast that's how I see it. We're not saying shaq wasn't the best player or that kobe wasn't the sidekick that's just objectively wrong.
@ you got the first part of my message right, but the prevailing idea that Kobe was “just a sidekick” is one of the dumbest narratives in NBA history. Kobe was a top 5 player in the nba and very much so the closer of those 3 peat lakers. They three peated in the era of the toughest western conference ever because they had two alphas and it was a 1.A and 1.B pairing towards their last few years together. Several series throughout the playoffs Kobe outperformed Shaq. Also, considering Shaq was the most dominant paint threat in an era where centers were maximized and favored, there’s a strong argument that no perimeter player ever could have been the number one option over him in his absolute prime. What coach is going to justify giving it to a guard when an unstoppable force inside is shooting 60% from the field? So the “sidekick” term is disrespectful. This isn’t Batman and robin. It’s Batman and Superman.
Phil Jacksons book does not support the idea that Shaq didn't take his fitness seriously. I think that's a narrative that Shaq has tried to push to make ppl think he coulda been even better and he got his 4 rings taking it easy. Phil Jackson said the off-season was essential recovery time for Shaq. And I believe it
@@voiceofreason2674Phil was biased towards Shaq during the early stint with the Lakers.
Hot Take: Trading Paul George for Shai and 5 first rounders wasn’t a bad trade on the clippers part. It does seem like that in hindsight, but at the time Kawhi was in best player of the world talks coming off of a historical post season run and the current reigning FMVP. If what was required was to get Paul George to pair up with him who was also coming off of an MVP caliber season to get him to sign, you do that trade 99% of the time no questions asked. No disrespect to SGA, but at the time he was a rookie, and one who had potential, but the way he is playing today almost no one thought he would be THIS good.
the "3>2 movie" is a cool take but outside of no good team to showcase it (imo closest is 7s or less suns or the Dwight Orlando, those were first teams that really had a bunch of good shooters but it likely just would be Warriors) the issue is finacially its prolly also not viable. Winning time and Swagger both got canceled cos low ratings. Air bombed in box office (tho its not really a basketball movie), Clipped got forgotten very quickly (after Twitter got their fun from how bad casting was). space jam 2 was a shit show. i just dont know if there is enough of ROI for someone to green light a movie like that, NBA or NBA adjacent shows and movies just haven't performed well financially even when they were good quality entertainment.
Hot take: We need to get rid Multi-year contract. Multi year contract is making player lazy in their contract term and just giving them all in contract year to make more money.
The players association would never agree to this
From an MLB fan, sabermetric stats didn’t exactly kill the league’s popularity, but I do see why people find those who quote those stats constantly annoying from time to time.
The issue of regional blackouts is a huge issue, and the marketing around their league hasn’t exactly been that great either.
Their sport also has become a bit more regional (ex: as a Seattle Mariners fan, I’m paying attention to the teams in my division, occasionally others if we are close in a playoff race, but not the whole league).
Man the problems with baseball’s decline are plenty but i agree i don’t think it was the sabermetrics.
Cheap ownership who would rather field the cheapest team possible to maximize their profit on revenue sharing checks, the conservative culture of “no celebrations or personality, unwritten rules, prioritizing 3.5+ hour games that end 1-0 (adding the pitch clock, runner on base in extra innings, banning the shift all breathed new life into the sport)”, a long and bloated team building process (A and AA ball need to be thrown out and just have college be where players develop like the other leagues and stop drafting teenagers to sit for YEARS before they even reach AAA level), and not marketing any stars between jeter and ohtani, those are what was dragging baseball down because they couldn’t reach younger audiences. Older fans don’t give a damn about appealing to new fans but every league is a business and you can’t succeed if you don’t have new fans coming in
Hot take: if we want players to stop throwing their heads back on every drive or jumping into the defense to create contact the refs/league will have to be better about enforcing those calls. make it’s a tech + possession and maybe even a fine. They can whine about flopping all they want but we can’t really blame the players because it works most of the time. they’re trying to win. 🤷🏾♂️
Not really a hot take. Also, it's disingenuous to not blame the players for it because they are undermining the rules and the integrity of the game by doing it.
The biggest difference between Jordan and Kobe is, one could rely on others while the other ALWAYS wants to do it all himself.
The thing about your moneyball take is that the Oakland Athletics weren't even the best team at doing moneyball that would go to the Tampa Bay Rays who are inarguably the best team at doing it. The problem with moneyball being centered around the Oakland Athletics was the fact that the person who wrote the book was a friend of Billy Bean and at a point in time it kind of screwed the Oakland Athletics because it made the ownership thing that if their whole team is paid 23 million total or less that is a success rather than try and field a good team. The Rays were always able to do both. Plus this caused a bunch of teams to think that if they could do moneyball then it would be successful for them. Which made it so that I believe off the top of my head 14 of 30 teams wouldn't even be able to achieve a salary floor like they have in the NBA. Now how does that relate to the broader point? You could use Houston cuz they weren't the best at it but they still revolutionized it. You could use Golden State, or you could even tell a story about the changing of the guard type story
Hot take: deni avdija is the most underrated role player in the nba and one of the most fun to watch
Kobe averaged 22 points vs piston in 2004, Malone averaged 7 points, payton averaged 4 points, and all the blame was on kobe
But Kobe is not in the GOAT conversion. It basically just Lebron and MJ with Kareem sometimes thrown in.
Hot take: If you take out Kobe from top 10 players just from simply having shaq for his first three championship, then also take out kareem, magic, bird, lebron and all those guys . Kareem had magic, magic had kareem, bird had a team full of HOFs , lebron played with enough stars and HOFs to make two teams. In comparison, aside from shaq for that first three-peat, kobe only played with old steve nash, karl malone, gary payton, and then dwight with a bad back. His only "star" support is pau who have never won a playoff series before teaming up with him.
Hot take #1: The argument that SGA has a better supporting cast than both Jokić and Giannis is flawed. It's easy to say that considering the performance of the Thunder this season, but not when you actually look the rosters. While Shai's supporting cast (outside of J-Dub and Chet at least) is great, both Jokić and Giannis have bigger and more experienced names around them compared to SGA. Murray, MPJ, and Gordon are still the same guys who helped Jokić with the title just under 2 years ago, and Russ-a fututre HOFer-is currently having a career Renaissance. Giannis's supporting cast speaks for itself.
Hot take #2: The Nuggets' front office has not been "wasting" Jokić's prime. Jokić entered his prime back in 2021, so it has not been going on for that long. This is the first season where the Nuggets have struggled in the Jokić era due to roster problems (2021 and 2022 were injury-related), and right now, they've managed to get back up to 4th in the West, so their struggles have passed mostly. Outside of letting Bruce Brown and KCP both walk away, Idk why people are suddenly claiming that they've done a poor job building around him when he still has the same 3 guys who helped him win the title just under 2 years ago, including MPJ who is currently having a career season. Yes, Calvin Booth has made some questionable moves, but he has not left Jokić hanging as much as people think.
Hot take: Karl Malone has better longevity than Kareem
Hot take: Hakeem is the best center to build a team around
Hot Take: Paul George in a Sixers uniform weirdly reminds me of when Paul Pierce and KG went to Brooklyn and hit sharp declines. George is a loved player by many, but the sudden regression and recency bias of NBA fans will have a lot of people turn on him as if he wasn't a top 15 caliber player in the league for most of his career. Pierce was a killer who was loved and had great battles with legends but you see clips of him in Brooklyn like when he threw his headband into the stands and the fan threw it back at him, its hard to think someone who was once respected highly by fans and players just turns into a joke overnight. Paul George is heading down this road unfortunately and the fact he can't stay on the court and is putting up comparable numbers to Tobias Harris in the same role with Embiid hardly touching the court is telling.
Hot take: Jokic is now becoming significantly overrated. Fans and even analysts seem to think that he has had the best or even a top 3 peak ever when players like prime LeBron, Jordan, Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, and Tim Duncan have played. Jokic has a case to be better than a lot of these players on offense, but basketball has both offense and defense, and Jokic doesn't even come close to any of these guys on defense. (To clarify, I'm talking about 3-year peaks in case there is any confusion.). The other reason why I say he’s overrated is the constant reluctance to even acknowledge other players in the MVP conversation. The 2023 MVP is seen as one of the biggest robberies ever when Embiid was the better scorer and defender with similar efficiency with a better record. You can even see it now with many people not even addressing players like Giannis and Shai having cases to be better than Jokic this season.
So you really said all that just to ruin it all by actually trying to pretend Jokic isn't having his best season this year. If Jokic isn't your MVP this year, whether or not he actually wins it because of voter fatigue, then you're arguing that he has never had an MVP calibre season. In other words, you're wrong.
Yeah, especially when Embiid (or possibly Lebron) were the clear 2021 MVP favorite before both got injured, and Embiid was the runaway favorite for 2024 until he got injured (and Luka should probably have won last year but the slow start killed the narrative even if he ended better) so Jokic having 4 MVPs in 5 years makes it seem like he had as dominant of a peak as Lebron or MJ when it's not the case. (That said I think Jokic should be clear MVP favorite this year, but they should have 2 MVPs each in this span instead of 4 to 1)
I'm starting to feel this way as well, minus the part about peaks. The fact that so many people act like neither Ahai nor Giannis have equally or stronger cases than Jokić to be the NVP is straight up ridiculous. I like Jokić very much, but he is starting to be overly romanticized, imo at least.
@@HisRoyalFreshness163 can you please point out where I said those things?
Hot take: As a follow up on the mamba Mentality of Kobe, just like MJ they both needed an extremely specific coach to win the rings they have. I think this is an underrated downside of these players, adding to the fact that they can't get the best out of everyone because they just bully them.
Hot Take: The NBA should allow twitch streamers legally stream the game to their audiences with the streamer serving as the “commentator”, then the money made on those streams can be divided between the streamer and the nba. not every game, just the big important ones
Hot take: Jayson Tatum is by far the best american basketball player since steph curry, and the only reason he isn't the de facto face of the league is that he contributes so much to winning that people are turned off by it. I genuinely believe you could put Tatum on the wizards right now and they would be a contender in the East. We've reached this weird post modern internet landscape where winning over a long period of time hurts your appeal. I'd go so far as to say if it were 2006 right now, Tatum would be viewed as a 1a, and guys like embiid and luka would be viewed as a 1b.
Uh, no. I like Tatum, but no. He is one of the best players in the league, but he's nowhere near the best. Tatum does not have enough individual shine, and his personality is neither marketable nor endearing enough for him to be the face of the league. If you put Tatum on the Wizards, he would make them better, but not by much.
Tatum has never played on a terrible team
Kobe's mamba mentality was MJ's turned up to 11 and Phil discussed that, MJ had the perfect mix of competitiveness but also focused more on winning whereas Kobe had a chip on his shoulder, I think it also helped that MJ came first and Kobe had someone he was chasing which pushed him to be more selfish and focus on himself because he wanted to be the next MJ. Plus MJ was just objectively better which is largely due to being more gifted physically.
Role players are so much better today and are arguably the reason for championships instead of top end talent. Even if you just look at each 2k game and compare how many low 70 overalls were STARTING just 7 years ago versus today , it’s insane
11:30 - I also get the need to scream, when I see a guy alone under the basket/going downhill for a layup/dunk, who passes the ball for a three point attempt
Hot take: People only care about the Knicks when they are bad. No one talks nicely about them when they are winning while everyone talks about Reggie Miller and Trae Young owning the Knicks with losing records vs them.
I think Kobe’s mentality was a double edged sword
On the positive side: He pushed himself into all time great status and is one of the most skilled players of all time.
On the negative side: Kobe pushing himself to be better as an individual player meant the Lakers not only built around this style post Shaq, but other players also likely noted Kobe was a “me first” player. So they didn’t want to play alongside that, and it was too late when Kobe changed
I may have missed one so someone can correct me if im wrong but from what I saw there have only been 3 seasons where a player scored more PPG than Shai with less FTA. 2021 Curry, 1993 Jordan, and 1980 Gervin.
My take on comparing greats is copied from how Ali saw it. He was once asked which boxer of old could've beaten him. His response was that u can't compare a crop duster to a fighter jet but you CAN acknowledge that for its time, the crop duster was unbeaten, revolutionary and deserves its respects.
If u pluck players of old to today exactly as they were, they'd probably be slow and awkward asf and easy to defend against. But if u try upgrade them to today's standards, then that loses meaning coz they should also come with today's players' mindsets and weaknesses.
Also, Mamba Mentality is a net negative in a team sport which requires teamwork, role modelling and coachability. BUT it's extremely valuable in real life where u SHOULD be loyal but also stand up for what u believe in. U SHOULD say fvck it and do it urself. U SHOULD know what u want and work obsessively to achieve it. U SHOULD be stubborn and strong and dependable
If Kobe didn’t have that mentality he wouldn’t have been as good of a player because a huge part of the mamba mentality is the insane work ethic.
I would eliminate the corner threes from the NBA. Just let the circle line continue until it meets the sideline or so. Also, I would take out the defensive three second rule.
I think that it was Johnny Arnett that was suggesting to use the NBA Cup to experiment with different rules and see if they work. The reasoning behind my proposal is that even though corner threes are only around 10% of the total threes shot, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have a guy just standing in the corner and dragging a defender out. Also, the paint would be protected at all times. I think that would make things more difficult for offenses and specifically heliocentric systems.
The MoneyBall biopic subject is obviously Mike D’Antoni, sure he didn’t win a title but the A’s didn’t with Billy Beane either.
For anybody that doesn't understand why a three pointer is more valuable than a dunk: if a team shoots 35% on threes and 50% on twos, on say ten possessions only shooting three pointers they will score 10.5 points, and shooting only two point shots will score you 10 points. So by the league averages nba teams score more by shooting 3s. (And on a side note it's easier to get an offensive board on a long 3 pt rebound and the defense can get back faster)
2017 not just the Cavs improving but its also not to take for granted how that Spurs team was possibly an all-time great team too (2016 Spurs still won 67 games and had an even better point differential than the 73-win Warriors) and if KD stayed in that OKC team that went 3-1 up on the Warriors in 2016 or if KD joined CP3/Blake on the Clippers or Harden on the Rockets for example. Warriors without KD would still have been the favorites but would've had at least 3 strong rivals (Cavs, Spurs, whichever other contender KD was with)
Early in Kobe's career it no question hurt him. Later on it caused him to take more bad shots but he made them at a decent clip and still won 2 rings
Hot take: AVERAGING 30 ppg in contrast to scoring that many in a gme in the nineties was substantially easier because the definitive roles in an iso heavy offense; whereas nowadays, the balanced nature of offensive load makes it seem like every random bogan scores fifty at any given moment. So the public recognises it less how difficult it is to always be that guy in todays nba
the “moneyball for the nba” thing could work if it was about don nelson having to convince teams like the warriors and mavericks to run small ball and shoot threes. it could be a we believe movie
Ice Cold take: Kobe's mentality helped him mostly, but wouldn't help a player like Jokic or Shaq. And Shaq's mentality wouldn't have helped Jokic or Kobe, etc.
The whole mamba mentality thing has always been stupid. It’s a casual term used to push movie script narratives about the game because alot of people are too stupid to understand actual intelligent basketball discourse. You ask a Kobe fan why he’s better than someone else and they’ll start cutting a wrestling promo about “the mamba mentality” and “killer instinct” and the “will to win” because they don’t understand what they’re watching in totality. They see the game like children.
Hot Take: The reason threes suck, is not because of the Three point sucking, it because there is less variety. The games get samey. The X team plays like all other teams.
Hot take: the east will be the better conference in 3 to 5 years.
Out west, Lakers, Clippers, Warriors and Suns all have aging rosters and little pick flexibility, the Jazz and Blazers still haven't really started their rebuild, TWolves, Kings and Pelicans top out at mid, and the Mavs and Nuggets have a hard road to replace key players like Kyrie and Klay, or work around some players on expensive contracts like Murray. This means the only teams properly setup to be future contenders are the Thunder and Spurs, with the Mavs, Nuggets and Rockets and Grizz running on the outside (Rockets don't have a top star and Ja is an unreliable star).
Meanwhile, out east, Boston will still have Tatum, Brown and a smart front office, the Cavs and Knicks have their rosters locked in for some years, the Magic and Pacers are likely to establish as perennial playoff teams, if not contenders, with the Pistons and Hawks also taking playoff jumps.
When you add in the possibility of a Raptors or Wizards with Cooper Flagg, the East may become the better conference.
30:53 a lot of the fans that call SGA a free throw merchant are guys like Oprah side/Clark who are Lebron Stans. Lebron averages 7.6 free throws a game for his career and SGA averages 6.8. 😂
Hot take: NBA officials are actually quite good. It's popular and easy to hate on the refs, but half of you don't even know the rules. Every day I see people yell and complain about a "travel" when someone does a step-through move that is legal at every level of basketball. People complain about missed calls, acting like refs should be right 100% of the time-in what job have you ever been right 100%, or even 75% of the time? It's lame and boring to hyperfocus on the refs.
Hot take: Scottie Pippen in today's NBA would be a very close comparison to Kawhi Leonard. A long forward who can pass dribble and shoot and an all world defender. With the right pieces like Kawhi had, he could've been the man on a championship team.
Hot take: Sabonis will never win a chip. His skill set makes him good enough to demand first or second option money, but it limits him to playing center, bc he can’t shoot. As a center, his lack of defense for the most important defensive position lowers a teams ceiling.
Hot Take: The Boston Celtics are currently the 4th best team league wide in net rating with the stacked championship roster. They are worse than they should be, because they don't have a playstyle with an identity that all the players enjoy. Only 1 person can have the ball, and yes they are f'in amazing because anyone of them can score way above league average, but they are severely lacking in terms of a superstar. Think Giannis, Luka and Jokic. I think their best bet would be to trade away some of their depth to the Mavericks for Luka. He has expressed he wants to win and could be the type of superstar to jump a sinking ship depending on this season's outcome