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You're listening to local programming produced in KU NV studios. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jas and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Welcome to MBA school on the basketball IQ podcast. I'm your host, Charlie Lawrence. I'm here to give an educated breakdown on all things NBA.

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This is episode 16 of the basketball IQ podcast. Last week, in my episode with Mark Keith, I was like, This is episode 16 or 17. But it was 15. So just personal, you know, gotta give a ding to myself there. Back to one man podcast, we've had about a month or stretch of guests, we had Mark Keith on twice. The first one was about all star and how to fix it. Then we had my good friend Ryan from intermurals he competes in the sports. And we just had a little game. And same thing with Mr. Keith. He played a game with him too. So it was it was a fun month, but I'm back on my nerves. You know, I'm back on my stuff. Second day of sweet 16 games and March Madness is today. But both my allegiances are very happy. Being a University of Washington and a UNLV fan. Both Arizona and SDS for those who don't know San Diego State, losing last night, you know, it was it was a great is a great day even though I'm not gonna lie. I was playing MLB The Show last night so I didn't watch all the games. But I did see the Alabama also beat UNC which I am not happy about. But that's whatever. This is a basketball to basketball podcast. But it's mainly an NBA podcast. So let's dive into that. So we got the playoff push. It is here there's most teams have around nine to 10 games left in their schedule. And even one team as a Indiana has eight games left. And this to me there's like a LoL with NBA season, right? Because at the beginning like the first month and a half, it's really exciting. Once we get maybe not even month and a half, it's really once we get to like Christmas. And then January there's January in February, which is where we normally see our scoring crazes like Lucas 73. Last year, we had the Donovan Mitchell stuff. And then we had like four other 70 Point games. So January, February, historically is normally when those performances happen. And then there's this lol in March, where it's like we're like we're in between like the 60 and 70 game mark that like two and a half to three weeks stretch. It's kind of it doesn't get boring. There's still plenty of stuff to talk about. But clearly there wasn't enough because I ended up doing game shows for a month. So clearly there wasn't as much as earlier in the season. But now there is because thanks to tank Athan a great website, they have this thing called remaining scheduled strength. It's not I mean, it's not like they made it up but they have it listed on a chart, which is what I like I don't like just a random list. And it's interesting to see the team's the easiest drink schedule hardest so the Celtics are coming off a tough loss last night to deshante Murray. Not the Hawks destroyed him or 44 points on 44 shots is hilarious. I was in the party last night with my Celtic friend. And like, is crazy. Boston has a fifth easiest ranked schedule left in the NBA. You know, they played the Wizards of the Hornets twice in the Blazers. Out of the nine games left that's four of the nine games against top 10 Lottery teams. Now the other five are against OKC Milwaukee, New Orleans, the Knicks and Sacramento but the Boston Celtics. They've been dominant all season. You know it doesn't really mattered to them. The strength the schedule because they've been beating everybody anyway, other than the Hawks the addition of drew Holliday and Chris Epps Porzingis has clearly been Basketball a basketball match made in heaven. And I don't think anybody necessarily doubted that going into the season. I think we all recognize the the lack of size and lack of big penetration that the Celtics would get in the past because their bigs were Robert Williams and out Orford and no one's afraid of them offensively other than the occasional al Horford corner three or something, he likes shooting those he likes shooting like at the top of the key to where they for some reason he like loves those. But one thing I love about Chris offseason, and this is by the way, we're like 16 episodes into this podcast the first time that I've done anything about the Celtics. So consider this an accomplishment. This is the first time that I've seen Kristaps Porzingis really take advantage of mismatches in his entire career. I feel like that's been one of the biggest issues with him was even I think he got highlighted in Dallas. When I remember in a playoff series against the clippers, they would put like Marcus Morris on him and he wouldn't take advantage of them. And it's like Dude, you're seven three a Marcus Morris is six, eight at most. Like why are we pounding that mismatch. And he's, according to many analytics, many advanced stats, he's actually the best. He's the most efficient post up player against mismatches in the NBA. And if you've heard JJ Reddick spa guests, he's talked about it a lot. It's been a wide, very well known conversation across the NBA. But like I said, strength, the schedule stuff really doesn't matter. What the top teams, what I'm looking at is the sixth through 10 in both conferences, because those teams are going to be the ones that benefit the most. So for example, I'm looking at teams like the Mavs Golden State in Miami. Or the three teams that are hovering around I think Dallas is six right now. six or five, they there might be five. But those teams that are hovering around six 510 range, that within easy strength, the schedule can maybe go up, I favor the Mavs for example, it is possible that they could go up to a four seed and then get home core in the playoffs. It's very possible. So right now Dallas is six. So I was right the first time so there's six in the west right now. And there are only two games behind the Clippers who have been struggling their forehand six in the last 10 games. So with the strength of schedule, like seeing the pistons, hornets and hawks later, and they get to play the Warriors twice and the Warriors have been not great the season or not, maybe not the season, they've had stretches where they're really good, but right now they're struggling. This is perfect for them if Dallas can get to five or four. Because I'm looking at where they are right now if they stay at six, they're either going to have to play OKC Minnesota or Denver in the first round. And you're asking to get bounce up first round. Do they have a chance? Do they have a chance to have Luca and Kyrie Irving enough said their bench has been not even so the bench their their ancillary pieces have been the best they've ever been. In Lucas career my opinion outside of that 2020 to run. It's the best he's ever had. Not to drink blood. Right? So so this is Dallas, his best chance to get a five four seed is right now and they're clicking at the right time there. They've won five in a row. They're nine and one in the last 10 Now's the time. And Kenny King and fourth quarter slash Kenny I know it was Kenny made a video about the Mavs have a couple of days ago about how Lucas synergy with Derek lively and Daniel gaffer is the best of his career. And it's true because it's better than Dwight Powell. You know, Troy Powell is what 6869 and 2k He might be 610 do so. Point is I really liked Dallas chances Kyrie has been playing great basketball despite him not being in the limelight and actually liked that for him. Because this is the version of Kyrie I think we all wanted. And we were getting in Brooklyn before the trade requests came. But another team that I feel is going through some shit that could benefit from having a week's strength. The schedule is the Golden State Warriors. So, and their 10 remaining games, they played the Spurs Hornets Blazers in Utah twice. If you do not win all those games, and the Warriors are in a really precarious situation right now, because they're one game ahead of the rockets.

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And I'm sure you all have seen Tara Ethan's video about, you know, y'all be a beer ready to be ready for us. And he's not wrong. Because the way the West is looking right now, my Lakers are ninth of 41 to 32, the kings are eight, the 42 and 30. And Phoenix is 43 and 30 in their seventh. So the only real way unless one of those teams starts playing terrible in the last stretch of the season. The only way for Golden State to get into the playoffs or the plan, I should say, is get intensive. Because I don't see. Again, if we go back to strength schedule. The Lakers are right down here with the Warriors. The Lakers remaining nine games of the season aren't incredibly difficult, and they just they just aren't. So and they've won five in a row, they're on a roll right now. So for me in order for Golden State, to cement themselves. In that tendency, they need to beat those teams, they need to beat the teams like the Spurs, Charlotte, Portland. And those, especially the Western Conference teams are going to come for the Warriors because the Warriors have been daddy of the West for better part of a decade now. So those West games even though the Spurs are bad, and the Blazers are bad, those games are might be competitive. Don't be surprised if they are competitive. Because not only do those Western Conference teams will want to see the Warriors fail, but they would love to see them fail by beating them in a game that for them doesn't necessarily matter. But it worsens Golden State chances. So watch out for those games to be competitive. But we saw I think on Wednesday we saw Steph Curry's tipping point. Right we saw him overcome with emotion after Draymond rejection after Draymond was having a conversation with the ref. And it seemed like the ref was kind of like Alright, that's enough. He started walking away and Draymond kept it up to the ref gave him a second tech rejected him. And it felt like we all saw stuffs just raw emotion come out for one of the first times I've ever seen. And it's something that a therapist, you know, would always call and like I said, a tipping point. And I'll end off the segment with this. I've never felt bad for Steph Curry. I've been sympathetic. But my main mindset has been he's been very lucky to have the support piece of that he's had his entire career. And honestly, the ankle injuries were the best thing that ever happened to him. Because if he doesn't get the ankle stuff, he signs a bigger contract, which likely means they can't get Kevin Durant, which likely means that maybe his legacy doesn't look different, but he has less rinks. And when we look back at someone's career, the first thing we go to, especially with all time greats is why championships. So maybe he has to enough for but that matters. Maybe the rings will be valued more because he won the two as the best player as the Coulier best player I should say. So you know the thing is he's that guy's went through the last four years with losing Jordan pool to something that he couldn't control. And when I look at the ages of the main guys, Clay, Dre and himself I can't see this run blasting much longer than maybe a year or two years after this. I know we said that back in 2020 when they won 15 games and Marquis, Chris was starting for them. I know that's what we were saying. But I just I can't see it happening, especially with the ages, the biggest thing because all of them are entering their mid 30s are going to ask for a lot of money. And with the new sacred apron rules, I just, I think I really think that the second apron wasn't a thing. Or if the apron Capriles didn't exist, I could see it continuing because they could keep bringing in guys that want to win. But I mean with how not flexible they unless they let go Klay Thompson, which I don't think they're gonna do their cap flexibility in the future, we're in an era where Cap flexibility is at its utmost importance. I just don't see it happening in the future. Now on to the next segment. I'm a little late on this, but since I've been not necessarily covering the NBA as a whole for the better part of a month I want to address the we done with the 90s trend on Tik Tok, and on other social media platforms. Now the trend surfaced a couple I think it was a couple weeks ago might have been three or four weeks ago. And I forgot the guy's name, I wish I would say because I want to put them on blast. But he came out with these clips of Michael Jordan not being able to go left and slug in other guys, I think Larry Bird was another clip. Even the labor mainly played in the 80s. Of mostly it was clips of guys in the 90s not having a lot of skill, or as much skill as today. And then there was a guy in the back. I mean, like we don't want the 90s we don't want the 90s. So if you are a listener of the pod, a loyal listener, you will know that I've built a a quote unquote brand off respecting basketball history I've made and I've done entire segments about history. On my blog, I have a category called the history lesson. I've in this is in my everyday life, it matters to me. So it's on brand for me to not like it. So I'm not going to like it. My main issue with this whole we'd done with a 90s thing is to act like and a lot of it is a troll. But to act like modern NBA players don't do stupid shit

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is just ignorant. Like, have you ever heard of Shaq than a fool?

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Have you ever, ever heard of it? It's pretty popular. They're shocked and Foom.

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And like I said, I know it's probably a troll. But if it isn't if the guy that makes these trends, or make the trend, if the guy that makes these videos and the people that actually believe that. Here's what I will say about different eras in basketball, right? I will never I'm not the type of person that will ever come out with an actual top 10 players list because I just don't believe that. And and quite frankly, I think it's ignorant to compare players from the 60s in the 2000s and compare them against each other. I just don't I don't think it's it's smart. I don't think it's truly appreciating the sport of basketball well enough. And I might sound like a boring a well actually take but it's it's just accurate. And it's something in what I was thinking about this last night. When preparing for the pod. I thought to myself I was like what other industry other than sports? Do we constantly compare eras? And say, who's the greatest of all time of this without any context? Because that's what we do with basketball and baseball, and football. Now, basketball probably has the most intensive debate because it's the closest, like in baseball. There's a goat debate, but it isn't as big because of the difference between but even that baseball football fans, they understand that there's a difference in debating between Lawrence Taylor and Tom Brady. There's a difference. You know what the differences they play different sides of the ball. Same thing when we talk about the good debate in baseball, it's like some people have pictures on there. Some people have hitters it's mostly batters. But you can't really compare them because they play two completely different positions. It's the same thing in basketball, Michael Jordan skill set. And what he had to do on a daily basis on a basketball court is not the complete opposite. But it's very different than what LeBron had to do. Now, obviously, someone who was born in my era is going to say LeBron is the greatest basketball player of all time. But the only reason I say that is because he's the greatest that I've seen. In my era. It's LeBron. It's Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry. That's the big three. It's like k dot arbery. And Jay Cole, that that's my era of rap. And that's my era of basketball. So why'd Why isn't discourse just Okay, who's the greatest in their era? Because that would create the most dynamic and interesting and in depth conversation about the game. Like, why don't we go back and talk about like, if we want to do the Bill Russell wilt thing, be like, okay, compare those guys. But even comparing them is kind of dumb, because we'll even though his teammates I think are downplayed in the context of history. I think he had really good teammates. I just don't think that they're viewed like Bill Russell's because Bill Russell team's always won. Like, you can't tell me that Bill Russell had nine actual like all star level guys, you can't tell me that. Because I think back then a lot of it had to do with winning and winning, if who ever seen one that those guys made the all star game because they really didn't have much else to go off of. Because a lot of the other guys to be honest with you, we're on a level playing field outside of the top guys. So what I just did there why can't we all do that? That that what I just did there is just simple. If you just know what you're talking about. I just Bill Wilson boom. Back to my original point. As I go on that ramble. We don't do this in any other industry. And I'm a movie nerd. We don't do this. We don't compare Gone With the Wind. With Oppenheimer. We just don't you know why? Because God was gone with the wind was made in the 1940s. And Oppenheimer came out last year. So anyone with a brain understands, oh, the production was a little different. They probably have more money to make Oppenheimer. Okay. The special effects are better. But you know why Gone With the Wind is always in top five movies of all time, because it's ranked within the context of when it came out. When Gone with the wind came out in the 1930s or 1919 39, when God with the wind came out in 1939. It was a state of the art one of the greatest movies of all time. Now, do we compare that to the Godfather, which came out 40 years later, or 30 years later, we've been dumped. In the Godfather, which was made in the 70s, and my favorite movie of all time, is considered by most people to be one of the greatest movies of all time. But when I hear cinema geek discourse, which I do listen to. One of the first things that's constantly brought up is Wow, the production for the time was incredible. While the way that the costume looks, or the mustache, or for the jacket that Fredo wore in that scene at the mansion In Godfather Part Two, and the lighting that went into that those people constantly talk about for the time, they always add that little caveat. For the time this is amazing. Why can't we do that with basketball? Why can't the discourse be Wow, for the time Oscar Robertson was going incredible?

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Why can we do that? And this goes for the same thing with technology. We don't compare a fucking pager to the iPhone 15

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Because we under beat out like, oh, man, I don't know, man, that pagers the greatest phone of all time, we don't do that. We don't say we don't go to I don't know. A lot of people don't go to BestBuy anymore, but I used to go as a kid. We don't go to Best Buy and be like, Oh, look at that Mac from the 80s that my mom used. And then look at the super computers that can handle 70,000 Video games at home. We don't compare those two. And like I don't know, man.

Unknown Speaker  26:20  
So I just don't I don't understand. I mean, I get why I understand why there is a discourse.

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But I hate the reason why there is a discourse and like the all the examples that I gave there's always a caveat. And I feel like with basketball next time you watch any Horwood classic game, or you know any like I just watched earlier this morning, I was watching a 1970s finals game it was I think it was Sonics bullets from 1979. I was just watching that this morning. And I was able to appreciate what Dennis Johnson, Gus Johnson, Jack Sikma and all the guys in the old Sonics teams, I was able to appreciate what they were doing for their era. So the next time if you do ever next time you watch a hardwood classic game, try to appreciate what they can do. Instead of trying to see if they can guard rockets James Harden because similar to the movie industry a movie like The Godfather would get relentlessly ridiculed for having cheesy effects. And, and the lighting and camera work would be weird if that was made today. It just would. And I've loved that movie with all my art. So just appreciate what's in front of you and appreciate what's behind you. Because to be honest with you, those grades are what paved the way for us to be able to talk about it today. So just love everybody. Honestly. I think that'll be it for this episode of the basketball IQ podcast. Hope you guys enjoyed my little rant there. It's it's just it's something that I've it's been on my nerves a lot with any historical discourse. And my overall like I said, my overall issue is just that we don't do this in any other industry. So you know, hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day. The summer

Unknown Speaker  29:12  
thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the basketball IQ podcast. And Remember kids, it's all about

Unknown Speaker  29:19  
you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai