NBA Mailbag: How Paul George fits with Steph Curry & Warriors, LeBron still owns NBA | Hoops Tonight

NBA Mailbag: How Paul George fits with Steph Curry & Warriors, LeBron still owns NBA | Hoops Tonight

What’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter

So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball it’s no secret that Steph and LeBron draw the best ratings however is it a factor of Steph and LeBron just being simply better or is it an issue of the

NBA failing to market the newest uh the newer teams better Minnesota Oklahoma City ET so I actually think the league does a better job uh of marketing maybe not relative to what we want but relative to what it used to be because of the tools we have it at our at our

Disposal because of social media because of even like little things like just league pass and how easy it is to find NBA content whether it’s team specific podcasts YouTube channels so many people out there do such an amazing job covering the Le like when people complain about like oh ESPN they never

Talk about these other teams all they do is talk about LeBron and stuff on first take and it’s like I’m like okay sure but like you don’t have to turn on ESPN I never ever ever turn on ESPN unless I’m watching an NBA game on ESPN

Like if I want to listen to NBA content I go to the people I want to listen to so that to me never and it’s easy to find that stuff so like to me I’ve never understood the like like the league is responsible for no we all are all of us

As fans by virtue of the way this new ecosystem works we are responsible for how the league is marketed there’s Oklahoma City fans and and media members who do an amazing job marketing their talent Minnesota fans and they all do a great job you want to know why Stephen

LeBron are more famous and popular than all these other players because they’ve won eight of the last 12 championships guys they’ve won eight of the last 12 think about that the rest of the league combined has won the same number of titles as LeBron and Steph individually

Have won won over the last 12 years that is why Stephen LeBron are revered the way that they are that is why they are the face of the league that is why they are such a big draw on National Television by the way you know what one

Of our at Hoops tonight one of our more successful teams to cover as of late in terms of performance on the channel the Denver Nuggets you know why because they’re a truly special basketball team with an all-time great player who in my opinion as long as he stays healthy and

His team stays healthy is going to win a bunch of championships over the course of the next 5 years the like and guess what by the time we get further down the line there Nicole yic will have a level of Fame and notoriety here in the US

Similar to what Steph Curry and LeBron James do throughout NBA history throughout all of history that’s the way it works who are the most famous players in NBA history Michael Jordan six championships Kobe Bryant five championships Magic Johnson five championships Larry Bird three championships like that’s that’s how you

Become a legend that’s how you become famous in this league you Hoist the damn Trophy and by the way that is why I’m a loyalist to the banner that’s why I care about it so much it is eternal it is Everlasting it is the thing that it’s the one thing you can do

In this league that transcends everything else stepan LeBron have done it more than everybody else that’s why they’re the faces the league that’s why they’re as popular as they are next question what do you think of the Paul George fit with the Warriors if they somehow manage to sign him as a free

Agent next season so the idea behind this kind of idea um is and by the way like Paul George has not signed an extension yet the idea here is the second apron and the the more and more I talk to people around the league um uh

Or other people who cover the league the biggest thing that that’s becoming like a talking point as of late is the new CBA and the fact that like starting next year there’s all of these crazy rules in place that make it a lot harder to work around the margins once you enter into

That second apron and so I think in general you’re going to see a lot of teams that are going to make tough decisions on who they retain and who they don’t so like for the record my guess is knowing Steve Balmer he’s probably going to find a way to bring

Paul George back I expect him to be a Clipper but if there’s a version of this where it goes south what it would look like is the Clippers would sit down and they’d go hey we want to have a a sustainably great team we just built this brand new

Arena it’s going I think they’re moving into it next year like we we need to build a sustainable model we cannot just go all in on this kawhai Paul George fit and then have a situation where they both age out and then suddenly we’re a complete full rebuild team so let’s

Figure out a way to do this um how about James Harden we could bring him back for 20 million a year and have him long term or we can bring Paul George back and we have to pay him 50 to 60 million a year well what if we just bring back James Harden

And what if we you know kind of let Paul George go is our means with which to have a more sustainable model in terms of having more flexibility to make moves on the margins and to come up with cap space quickly if needed and things along

Those lines okay all of a sudden uh uh Paul George becomes a free agent or the the Clippers look to trade him to get asset return so that they don’t lose him for nothing okay now A Team like uh Golden State jumps in and goes here’s Jonathan kaminga here’s you know two

First- round draft picks whatever it is like that that that would be the framework of how that would work I don’t think that’s going to happen I think Paul George is going to stay with the clippers but I do think you will see teams around the league that will make

Tough decisions about really great players because of their goal to avoid that second apron and all the limitations that come with it does Paul George F the Clippers absolutely he’d be amazing in that situation not just as one of the best closeout attackers in the league but I think he’s a good

Enough passer and offscreen player to thrive in their five out uh system he’s an excellent two-way player he can defend the other team’s best player he’s just a way way way way way way way better version of either Andrew Wiggins or Jonathan kaminga and like now I think

Jonathan kaminga has the potential to be better than Paul George in the long run but the idea there is you put Steph Curry with Paul George and Draymond Green you instantaneously become a top tier Championship Contender that’s the idea so again we’re going to talk about

This in a bunch of of ways over the course of this summer when we get into free agency and stuff like don’t Galaxy Brin this stuff when when you put two G when you put two all-time great basketball players next to each other they tend to figure it out so the fit

With the Warriors for Paul George would be excellent but again it’s unlikely although I do think we’ll see some more player movement in the future surrounding the CBA next question what are your most intriguing teams coming back from the break what will you be looking for with those teams so I’m

Going to I for this question I picked one from each conference in the Eastern Conference I’m really going to be watching the Milwaukee Bucks they have the third toughest remaining schedule by opponent win percentage and they’re already in freef Fall have lost seven of their last 10 games I think over the

Next 26 games the final 26 games of the season in order for the bucks to be on track for their ultimate goal to win the title I think they need an offensive rating over 120 and a defensive rating below 115 I don’t care about anything else to this

Point in the season if from right now over the final 26 an off an offensive rating over 120 tells me that they have gotten to their own offensive ceiling they figured out with that group how to score at a high enough rate to buy them margin for error on the defensive end of

The floor a defensive rating below 115 to me would tell me that they are committed enough to the details to positionally be in the right spots enough on defense to at least defend well enough so that their offense can put them over the top that to me is the

Is the Benchmark an offensive rating over 120 a defensive rating below 115 here down the stretch of the season that’s going to be what we’re watching with Milwaukee on a night in Night Out basis out west the team I’m going to be watching most closely is the Dallas

Mavericks I’ve had a lot of people say uh W talked about Dallas more Dallas has been a really hard team for me to learn about and one of the main reasons why is they’re just they’ve they’ve every time I turn them on it’s a different team they’ve had 16 different players start a

Game they’ve had 11 different players start start at least five games as a point of reference Sacramento Kings have had only eight different players start a game as opposed to 16 for the Mavs that’s half as many they’ve had six different players start at least five

Games that’s half as many so that go it gives you an idea of just the level of like turnover they’ve had Luca and Kyrie themselves have combined to miss 30 Games even it’s like I really want to watch some more Daniel Gafford I really want to watch some more jayen McDaniels

As we’re trying to not Jaylen McDaniels excuse me PJ Washington as we’re trying to figure out whether or not these additions can kind of move the needle for Dallas Post deadline and it’s like I’m watching them against the San Antonio Spurs like for instance Daniel Gafford Daniel Gafford fits into a mold

That we’ve seen a lot around the league which is like the undersized big that’s a really good athlete and a really solid role man with his ability to finish around the rim but has some defensive limitations and because he’s not necessarily the biggest guy to have

Around the rim we’ve seen a lot of these guys over the years whether it’s like Montes har or like a like a Thomas Bryant where they’re like good athletes they play hard they’re they have length and they can finish Above the Rim but they’re just they’re just a little bit

Undersized for the position and they’re not great defensive players and so like for instance like there are some possessions where I’m watching Daniel Gafford against San Antonio and I’m like yeah this is not going to be good enough pick and roll defense to to get the job

Done but at the same time it’s against the damn San Antonio Spurs you don’t need to play hard necessarily to beat those guys and so I’m excited just to see them post deadline get healthy have a bunch of games in a row where they have you know consistency in the lineup

So we can learn about them finally it’s been tough to learn about them even in this six-game winning streak it’s like they blew out the Thunder that was a huge win dominant impressive performance but their other five wins were against the injury ravaged Sixers the injury ravaged Knicks the Washington Wizards

The San Antonio Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets we are going to learn a ton about the Dallas Mavericks over the course of the next few weeks in uh they play Phoenix on Thursday in that major Showdown I told you guys about then they immediately go on the road to Indie on

The road to Cleveland on the road to Boston and so we’re going to find out a lot more about Dallas over that span I just want to I I just want to see some consistency in the rotation so we can actually learn about what this group is capable of specifically defensively and

On the glass they’ve defended extremely well they have the number one defensive rating in the league over this six game span but again they’re playing against against some inferior competition and so I really want to see what holds up what is translatable to the postseason among their upcoming opponents in the tougher

Stretch of their schedule here in the next couple of weeks so those are the two teams that I’m most intrigued by after the break and that will probably be covering pretty closely Milwaukee and Dallas

Jason Timpf discusses the possibility of Paul George teaming up with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors next season if he does not wish to return to the Los Angeles Clippers. Then he breaks down how LeBron James, even in year 21, still OWNS the NBA.

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