oh i've been wanting to talk some
basketball for a while and i really
wanted to talk about this tom haberstrow
tweeted it out talking about the miami
heat with jimmy butler on the court
there plus 120
with him off the court minus 153 he's in
the mvp
conversation quietly sipping his coffee
off to the side oh i like that about
jimmy butler
but let's take it to the next level too
jimmy butler mvp candidate
and i would say the miami heat like they
were bubble darlings
they were bubble darlings everybody oh
miami don't forget about miami
they go to the finals they're losing six
to the lakers stroll and then
we forget about miami and here they come
what is it 10-11
they've won right back in the mix how
you doing man
i'm good holly good to be back and yes
the miami heat where i covered the team
for six years on south beach
uh it's great to see them back and back
in relevancy i mean when you look at
their season it's really been all about
availability
you know people were saying oh maybe
there are frauds in the bubble and
they weren't that good no it's just
jimmy butler was battling covet was out
with covet protocol same with bam out of
bio
and now they're healthy with jimmy
butler they've won their last
nine games with jimmy butler and he is
the engine to everything they do on both
ends of the floor
um and yes i wasn't kidding i think he
deserves to be in the mvp conversation
that's a long list that's a big
conversation
but when you talk about guys who do it
on both ends of the floor
that that list has to start with jimmy
butler
i love the mvp conversation in the nba
in particular
you know this like that's kind of an
award in and of itself
you know what i mean like that's a just
to be in the conversation
you know i think about um tropic thunder
ben stiller tropic thunder like you know
you you want an oscar no but just to be
nominated too it would have been nice
you know like when you're in the
conversation that sometimes that's
that's as good as it's going to get for
some people like jimmy butler is not
going to realistically win mvp
but you're complimenting your commentary
the point is well taking nonetheless so
having said all of that though
oh i'm sorry go ahead are we going to
have this back on this thing
he hasn't he hasn't played in 14 games
michael of the heat season so he's
played in 25 of the 39 games
that is too much right now but if he
continues to play every single game of
the season and he ends up with the
season just
only 14 games uh without being in
uniform for them that
that gap like i can get on board with
especially when you throw in the fact
that
a lot of the other mvp candidates don't
have like
open and shut cases if you want to look
at nikola jokic
you can point to the fact that they're
15th in defense they're not a top three
team in the western
conference if you want to look at
giannis team has a little bit
underperformed this year i know drew
holliday's been injured
look at lebron james the lakers aren't
blowing the doors off of people if you
look at utah
like do you want to give it to donovan
or rudy gobert i think with
if there is a year for jimmy butler a
player who has missed 14 games in the
season to win
mvp this is it i'm not going to say he's
the favorite
i'm not going to say he's going to win
it but if there is a season
with the covid protocols and no fans
this is the one to do it
and b oh i'm sorry i i beg your pardon
stroke
i am so sorry i thought that that was
like a little nice
you know compliment little throw away
like hey
he's an mvp conversation i didn't
realize we were starting to campaign for
jimmy butler i'm winning
i'm picking up what you bring down i
didn't know that okay so this you're
saying he's a dark horse
and when he is in everybody's mvp
conversation
we will point back to this moment when
tom haberstrow
gassed up that wagon that everybody got
you
okay now i got it and you're right
coming off of last year
i mean you know who who did more who had
a bigger star turn in the bubble in the
finals
than jimmy butler so wow okay so you got
him actually
contending for mvp not just
in the conversation but there
for the rest of the way i mean i'm okay
i stand corrected michael
well i'm wondering uh why you kind of
glossed over the
uh the brooklyn guys whether it's kyrie
irving or james harden
or why didn't mention joel embiid i know
he's gonna be out for two to three weeks
but you're gonna mention embiid
and you're mvp candidates why not
well you said it with embiid like he
would be my mvp if i knew that he was
gonna be healthy going forward we don't
know that he's gonna be out for two to
three weeks
with a knee injury a guy at that size i
can't guarantee that he's gonna be
healthy throughout the rest of the
season
even if he comes back in two weeks and
then if you look at the guys in
in brooklyn like yeah we can talk
ourselves into kyrie irving i'm not
still on board with james harden as an
mvp considering what we saw
in houston and what happened there um
i'm not on board with james harden as
an mvp candidate this year like kyrie
like he's
off offensively amazing um but i
can't get over the fact that the
brooklyn nets are still 25th
in the on on the defensive end like i
know that's not kyrie's bag
but still this is a one-sided basketball
team
and james harden since he arrived
they're 25th on the defensive end
um i just think when you look at a
defensive or
mvp candidate i want a little bit of
both on both ends of the floor that's
why i like joel embiid as the mvp i like
giannis and then there's jimmy butler so
like all those candidates
are are on the table but like i i still
kyrie irving's been out for a bunch of
games as well so not
this isn't like an open and shut mvp or
it's wide open and so i think jimmy
butler very much deserves to be in the
conversation
i i like i love hearing how your mind
works and you are a voter for the record
right you are an mvp voter correct
not this year but uh i am an mvp we've
already actually you have been
got you okay um i just want to stick
with hardin for a second because we've
talked about this for the last few weeks
and so much matter of fact
i think stro it's been so long as you've
been on hardin was a rocket the last
time you won with us
so a lot's happened since we last talked
to you um
if if james harden keeps this up and the
nets end up with the number one seed in
the eastern conference
is it strictly based off of you just
cannot forgive him
for tanking it in houston like how is he
not the most valuable
i mean he's been the argument best
player in the game since he got to
brooklyn
so what is it that is it just on
principle you can't give it to him
i mean it's just there's there's a few
games where he wasn't
the you know the the consummate leader
on that team
i mean in due time if he continues to
put this up he has to be in the
conversation right
um but i still when you look at the
brooklyn nets
they played really really well against
the knicks last night they've
had their issues defensively and they
add blake griffin which to me is a lot
like belichick when he picks up a second
tight end where it's like
you don't even need offense with this
brooklyn this and then you go again you
get blake griffin
like what's how is that filling a need
you already got a tight end
and you're gonna go out and get another
one just because like i feel like this
is
what the nets are doing it makes no
sense to me is is they're gonna give
minutes to blake griffin eventually
and put him on the floor in place of
someone who can give them that defensive
uh you know contributions so i think
that's where
i'd like to see the brooklyn nets
improve on it's like i know they can
score
you know run teams out of the gym i just
don't know if they can contend at the
highest levels and
i don't think there's been a
championship team
that has ranked bottom six in defensive
rating like ever no and if it is one
it's it's not in a regular season maybe
this is the
the legacy of the nets is that in a
pandemic in a coveted season
maybe they can win it all just because
every team is just dealing with issues
you know i want to take you to the
western conference and i'm trying to
figure out
what this number is uh let's say let's
put it at
65 let's say anthony davis is 65
70 when he returns uh
for the lakers then i would suggest that
the lakers
don't win the championship and who does
and what does it take for
what does it take for for somebody else
to pass the lakers is it anthony davis
out all together
is it 50 is it 70 uh what do you think
i think anything less than 75 anthony
davis the lakers are in trouble
and i think that is going to be a
realistic scenario going forward
considering
they keep pushing back the timetable of
anthony dave's coming back from his calf
strain slash achilles issue
and that's a worrisome thing kevin
durant also
the timetable keeps getting pushed back
with his calf stream
or his hamstring strain and i think
that's an issue not just
obviously not a good sign with these
setbacks for both of those players
but this season michael is so different
because there's
almost no practice time with this
condensed schedule
and i think when you're trying to ramp
up the minutes for anthony davis it's
going to be very hard for them
to expect anything higher than 75 when
he's going to be out for
not just a month but not with the
appropriate ramp up time that you might
see in a regular uh
non-condensed season so without the
practice time
it's gonna be hard for me to see anthony
davis come back
at a high level and i think they need
that because look
the utah jazz people are sleeping on
them still they're on paper
about them 60 games they're on pace to
win 60 games in an 82 game season their
point differential
is not 2015 atlanta hawks like people
keep saying ah they're atlanta hawks
2015 frauds right
now this point differential that they're
at they're blowing teams out they've had
a little bit of an issue here recently
but this is there's only 13 teams in the
nba history
that have had as good of a point
differential adjusted for their strength
to schedule
their point differential is crazy high
and those teams that have that high
point differential
more often than not win the title you
have to consider the utah jazz
as the title favorite right now in the
nba
um you stole my question
thank you for the answer i would just go
ask if you will believe her in utah
and tell us how you really feel so thank
you for that so here's my last question
then i don't usually do this
i don't usually ask people what they
think about some crazy crap that i said
but i actually do want to get your
opinion on it because michael and i
uh after the all-star game
i came in i didn't sleep well at night
that night i was a little woozy
um but i was just so
and i knew it was an all-star setting
but i was just so
appreciative of the showman
that steph curry is uh and i was just so
appreciative to have him back this year
and he's always the life of every party
he's that guy you know there might be a
lot of funny people in the room but when
steph
steps on the court everybody feeds off
his joy so i made the statement
that in the history of team sports but
we could stick to basketball purposes of
this conversation
that i don't believe there's ever been a
more entertaining
when you combine skill level bravado
gravitas the whole thing
you know joy i don't there's never been
a more entertaining athlete than steph
curry
am i crazy
man that's a great point i mean when you
look at just on court players
playing with him maximizing what they do
on the floor
historically you look at players
shooting percentage
when they play with stephen curry
compared to when they don't
every it's just a rising tide floats all
boats you look at the
encore production of every one of his
teammates and they all seem to skyrocket
because of all the gravity that he has
on the floor
you have to put two bodies at least two
bodies like glued to him
on 50 feet of that front corner right
and that creates so many opportunities
for other players to play better and so
i think
just naturally playing with steph curry
is so much fun uh because of
all of the attention paid towards him it
makes you a better player but also
the culture of being around him the
other day when he's screaming at
teammates
the reason why that was a story was
because we never see that
he's always positive he always seems to
be lifting everybody up
and you don't seem to have the drama
around steph curry that you might have
with other
superstars in this league but i will say
this this james wiseman experiment of
him playing nexus steph curry is not
working out
they need to figure something out
whether it's a trade or whether to
separate them entirely because james
wiseman
is the kryptonite to stephen curry it's
very hard to get max steph curry
when he has a 19 year old non-passing
big man who has tough hands right now it
doesn't work
when he's on the floor with steph curry
the warriors score 102 points per 100
possessions
when steph curry is playing with anybody
else other than james wiseman the 19
year old
big who doesn't pass that offensive
rating skyrockets to 117
from 102 to 117 like stephen curry
this season has to be so frustrated
because he knows in order to win
to cement a lot of the questions about
his legacy and not playing with kevin
durant
like they need to do something with
james weisman because right now it is
not working
and they have that trade chip with the
minnesota timberwolves pick and i'm very
curious to see what they do with the
trade deadline
and maybe a bradley beal situation
you know what uh i complement you on how
much or how much you did with that
question
[Laughter]
like there's taking questions and
running with them and there's that so
bravo yeah he did a great job and you
know what stro
i don't have a verbal response to mike's
statement
about steph curry well not really all i
want
is mike just to hold up his shirt and
then i rest my case just
like could you just hold up your shirt
you have them on just hold up the shirt
yeah i know i'm not wearing i'm not i'm
not wearing
i'm not wearing a steph curry shirt i'm
not what is that curry shirt i'm wearing
i'm wearing this
where this is this is this is 63 this is
62. we're not talking about danny h
okay yeah now we're not talking about
danny hayes
now listen okay just i'm sorry let's
stroll with analytical i'm strictly
emotional listen man
if michael jordan's the greatest michael
jordan's the greatest
and when i say more entertaining athlete
than steph curry
i'm talking about i'm talking about fun
i'm talking about
joking i'm talking about joy again the
life of the party i'm talking about all
those things he brings the table
and as we know nobody shot the ball like
him with that degree of difficulty
it's a different game who might know the
answer to this question
you might know the answer to this steve
carter who's that
steve kerr dave christian i just can't
do what steve kerr would say
in term entertaining or want to play
with or just star power whether
michael jordan or steph curry wins that
argument so there you go that's right i
mean look
obviously jordan's obviously jordan's
better obviously jordan's more dominant
i'm not crazy
no no but i'm just don't talk yourself
out of it it's just funny don't explain
it no i'm not i'm not i'm saying the guy
is just uniquely fun to watch it's fun
to watch people
kick ass like watching michael jordan
lebron james
and shaq kick people's ass was great but
steph just does it differently so
anyway bastro thank you for uh educating
us as always man thank you for the tip
we'll have uh steve kerr on on thursday
thursday last thing as a red sox fan can
lebron james mookie bets back can we get
that and jackie bradley jr tell me about
that
yeah all right
he's gifted i don't know if you're not
gifted
lebron can't be loving that hey thanks
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