Hot take: to make the all-star game more competitive. The conference that wins the game gets home-court advantage in the finals. A number of all-stars are on somewhat contending teams.
I feel like it’s there, but at the same time, only one player or maybe two (it’s rarely been more than that) will be there for the actual Finals, and usually it’s not a big list of more who would be. Some might be outright on a bad team, and are just so LeBron level dominant that they make it even while sucking overall (or at least not being a contender). I think maybe…..something….could work, but I don’t know about that
They should just move it to right before the finals like the nfl does. Players should play harder for their last game of the year and adds more basketball to the end of the season, having all star week mid-season just feels arbitrary at this point especially when theres still so much basketball being played at that time. I always thought deciding somebody is an all star after half a season also felt weird, like it was too small of a sample size
i think the reason the discussion abt the tough defensive eras end up being abt the 90s is simply bc Jordan played then and it all comes back to Lebron v Jordan
@@vin8754 do u even read? do u know what im saying? in the video rusty talks abt the 2000s being the actual hard to score era and im giving my take on why. when did i mention anything abt playing in the modern nba?
@@ElijiahCater-xg9dq did you even read my comment? What was considered good defense back then is now considered fouling, that's why they couldn't exist
@@vin8754 rules were put in place because of how stupid this style of defense was lmao. they basically associated their terrible reputation with their defense
Cool to see my take included whether it's ultimately one that holds up or not. At the end of the day the best part of basketball discussion is breaking down takes and analyzing them for all their worth, through on the court examples and gauging how different people view the game. Keep up the good work Rusty.
Hot take: Wally szczerbiak is one of the most underrated players in the 2000s. He was a lights-out shooter, having a great 3 game and a beautiful jumper. It’s a shame injuries stagnated him, I think he could have made more all-star selections.
HOT TAKE: Luka Dončić will finish his career with 0 MVPs. The trend we have been seeing during Luka's tenure is that the mavs always start out slow and always flip a switch right around the all star break. This always hurts Luka's MVP case and makes it impossible to give it to him when there are other candidates that have consistenly performed well with their teams during the entire regular season.
I'd be pretty shocked if he doesn't. He's got a long career ahead of him and Jokic is the only player who's consistently going to be in front of him who doesn't get hurt all the time. MVP is all narrative and he's a flashy player.
Interesting. I could a world where he doesn’t throughout his prime, but they’d almost have to give him one like how Kobe got one. That’s not to say Kobe didn’t deserve it, but it’s a weaker MVP I feel like in the grand scheme of things, although it should be mentioned his level of impact before Pau made it there. I think if by 2028 he doesn’t have one, he’ll get one in 2030. Or 2029 or 2031
@@TheRealMRGG85 He’s getting better. And in some areas he’s great. I just think getting that lifestyle down to being a bit healthier and more optimized, and you can have a Luka that does damage. He already is the best offensive player in the league (yes, Jokic exists, but Jokic is IMO better because he’s a big man defensively)
@@urbaindelva7869after the 2010 season most championship teams would beat any 90s championship teams. Specially since most big men became 3 point threats so 90s championship teams wouldn’t be able to guard Dirk or Bosh.
@@Jonathan-A.C. I don’t even think it would be close honestly, Jordan benefited because most players he had to guard lacked offensive skills even compared to 2010 players
Hot take: The Rockets are a certified playoff team. The talent pool of Jalen, Fred, Jabari, Segun, Amen, Tari, Brooks is the most underrated 7 men roster in the league right now. Each one of those players have the potential to win you a game, along with a stacked bench a great coach in Ime Udoka the Rockets can cruise through the bottom teams and have the potential to give Top seeds a headache. They’re at best a 5-6 seed
Hot Take: The Pistons might have graduated from dogshit to mid this year. They are routinely losing by only one or two possessions so far and Cade maturing + Ivey getting more minutes + adding decent vets has led to actually pretty fun basketball.
They could add 8-10 wins to their record at the end of the season if they knew how to close games. They won't but they could, and eventually if they build a culture as Cade matures they will be able to close those games out too
Hot take: Role players have evolved into two roles, backup big man and shooting wing with good defensive tools. Yeah you will always have guys like luke kennard who will ger minutes strictly off his shooting, but the vast majority of role players fit into these roles. Even smaller guard rps are usually similar to caruso or 2022 derrick white.
The early 2000s is the most difficult era to score in but the post kd warrior era up to now is the hardest era to win in by far no team has went back to back since then
Hot take: sabonis is the second most versatile offense big of all time, behind only jokic. He may not be as dominant as a wilt or shaq, or as flashy as a hakeem but he does everything on the offensive side of the floor almost flawlessly. Even his 3 ball is significantly better than 90% of bigs in league history. Playmaking wise, I only think jokic and debatably a couple years of russel (although I would still give the edge to sabonis) rank over him.
@@onlyfacts3178lmfao get off it he’s miles ahead of his dad. What he’s saying is lowkey facts, he’s the second most put together centre in NBA history. By all means not even a top 10 all time centre atm, but you cannot deny his ability to do it all.
HOT TAKE: people don’t put current active legends higher than past legends since they don’t have that nostalgia of reminiscing the times when they were so dominant, but once legends like curry,lebron and Durant hangs it up for good, then people will start to put them higher since they can’t watch them anymore and reminisce the memories when they were still playing
@@dryames4319it isn’t a regression in defense. The average player is just better and more offensively viable. Nobody in the 80s could guard ANY guard today. Amen Thompson in the 80s is ALL-NBA for sure
@@dryames4319 90s defense was up against basic af offense that's why it looked great back then. spacing, pace and movement is what modern offense is built upon... compared to 90s offense where everyone that's not holding the ball is mostly just standing around. modern offense would OBLITERATE 90s defense.
@bbgod2525 I think its the other way around. Players of today against 80s rules? Forget about it. We'd get to see how many carry/travels go uncalled in todays game.
HOT TAKE: Refs do not call semi-obvious fouls on players who are known or seen to be good defenders while a player who is not a good defender would get a foul called on them for doing the exact same thing
Furthering the dame conversation. I think his passing ability is relatively poor for a high volume PG. Primarily his versatility as a passer comes up really short and it makes him easier to load up against.
I agree, i wish he had a better coaching staff he could learn how to pass better especially with giannis, that could really take the team to a new level. The same goes with teaching giannis to become a better screener and roller
Hot take: The recent 3 point shooting complaints which have arisen over the last month do not actually stem from the quality of the basketball being observed but rather the overall quality of the NBA product. The real issue the NBA is having has very little to do with the on court product besides perhaps the number of free throws, instead the issue is the amount of advertisements specifically sports betting, both on the court and during ad breaks alongside a generally awful viewing experience. Unavailable games due to blackouts and local restrictions, an awful NBA app, and the overall media environment which focuses too much on irrelevant stories turns people off from caring about the games. The example I think of is the classic "there is no defense being played in the nba," when the literal finals came down to an incredible defensive Celtics performance to completely eliminate Luka as a playmaker. Boston held Dallas to less than 100 points in the 4 games they won but the media never talked about that defensive scheme, instead we have to hear about Lebron unfollowing Kendrick Perkins. Overall, the NBA viewing experience sucks and 3 point shooting is used as the scapegoat when in reality, the problem is a bad product from everything besides the basketball.
I agree 80/20. Teams over reliance on 3s and playing the same way definitely has a negative impact for the on court product. Not as much as the stuff u listed tho.
@ Idk man, maybe by boomers. I think it’s a pretty great game when you get into it, but for nearly any era, you can point to something and say how it’s boring or not entertaining or frustrating to watch. “Why is there assault and not real defense in the 80’s?”. “Why isn’t there more spacing and shooting in most of the 90’s?”. “Why can they not get any offense going, and it’s SO slow in deadball era?”. “Why are superstars stacking up together in the late 2000’s to 2010’s?”. “Why isn’t there much physical defense anymore these days?”.
I couldn’t agree more. The game itself is more entertaining than ever with how high the skill ceiling is. The real issue is how unwatchable the ads and paywalls make the game. They are killing the “casual” fan.
Hot take Dame to the bucks is identical to what happened when melo moved to okc. Both franchise players that couldn't lead their team to playoff success and when given the opportunity to have team success, chose money and stayed way too long. We may have to reconceptualize dame career because idk what he's done to be in the top 75 and why they aren't considering him being off the bench. He's a scorer who doesnt impact the game any other way and is a liability on defence.
Everything that you said is fair except benching him. Nobody on the Bucks' bench is worthy of starting over him. Even if they did, that would not fix anything.
Bench is just hell no. Have them lead different squads, or at least play on and off, I could see, but not bench. I think Dame here is actually trying to win, Carmelo clearly chose his worse way of playing alongside money alongside not dropping off when he went to OKC, even though he was worse than Dame was in 2024 and might be in 2025
@urbaindelva7869 sometimes fit and chemistry matter more than talent and ability. Either they trade him or bring him off the bench where he can dictate play with the ball in his hands more like he used to in portland.
Hot take: Nba players who are not good at defense are either really small like Trae Young who can only do so much or are bigger but don't give effort on that side of the floor. I do think any nba player if they are bigger can be solid on that side especially if they give effort on that side, for instance Christian Wood in his prime, where the opposing team have to strategize so that they don't drive past that player thinking they are a cone on defense and easy points.
The problem with the Dame/Giannis duo is that it isn’t really a guard/big duo because Giannis isn’t really a big. He came into the league listed at SF and slowly transitioned to being a PF, but even though he has the size of a big, his play style is still that of a SF, a not great shooting SF but a SF nonetheless
Hot take: The Warriors' sweep of the Blazers in the 2019 WCF is exaggerated. Idk why so many people think/thought that the Blazers would've/could've/should've beaten the Warriors in that series "because they didn't have KD." Yes, the Blazers blew a lot of big leads in that series, but the Warriors had already proven that no lead was ever truly safe against them no matter the deficit many times. The Blazers were a solid, deep team, but they had none of the coaching, mentality, or experience to truly beat the Warriors even if they were not 100%. The Rockets were considered a much bigger threat to them, and they had pushed the Warriors much farther in the previous round.
NBA is 20 years behind EUROPE..30 years ago EUROPEAN teams were shooting 40 3 pointers a game...and were shooting over 40%...and still losing against DREAM TEAMS
HOT TAKE: SGA is a better Guard than Luka Doncic. While Luka is a better offensive weapon than SGA, I dont think his offensive gap covers up for Shai being a far better and more consistent defender, being more selfless, and a better on court leader.
It’s Completely overlooked that in the last 20 something years in the league, most of the MIP winners actually went on to be all stars or very solid starters. In other sports (like European football) it’s VERY common for a player to have a breakout season and then vanish. Props to the league awards I guess
HOT TAKE : To me 2000 is the most overrated era of basketball because people most often than not believes that 2000s was deadlocked at the lowest scoring because it was the most talented era of basketball which is not true at all. The basketball schemes is what masde that era tough. This is also the reason defensive teams like pistons, spurs won
I think the 2000s gets overrated because thats when a lot of millennials started really getting into the nba (especially after the jordan era took the league’s popularity to the heights its at today) and now those millennials are all adults and are trying to push that narrative about the 2000s. Its that weird thing where millennials believe everything they liked when they were young were the best things to ever exist
I don’t think it is the most overrated. Not arguing it’s the best (though I do find that range fascinating in some ways), but it doesn’t sound like the 2000’s ever received high levels of acclaim to begin with like the 90’s or the current talent pool have.
Hot take : Hakeem is criminally underrated. His peak is only rivaled by shaq/bron/jordan (maybe jokic but people are not ready for this conversation) and with different circumstances ( no injuries for ralph sampson/less success of Bulls dynasty ) he could have been considered the goat . Should be at least top5-6 in GOAT conversations at minimum.
The “open freeway” era to the basket vs Bill Lambier and his later ilk hammering you into the wooden floor just ain’t there anymore. Plus you can travel, pivot and hop, palm the ball on the dribble, all of that helps for more animated ball.
Hot Take: The NBA players today are much better than those before. They are obviously more skilled and is it really hard to believe that over time, people will gradually become better at their jobs. The NBA today is so optimized and data driven that it will be better than any teams in the 2000s, 90s, and 80s. There's also a larger talent pool. More people live in the US and more people come from Europe or Africa. There's more money into developing players so you'll get better players. Back in the day, the best athletes would mostly go to other sports, like baseball, soccer, or football, but now that salaries are so high in the NBA, more of the super talented athletes are playing basketball.
Hot Take: 'True Point Guards" leading a team is not necessarily a problem, building offences around non scorers is the true issue. The Steve Nash Suns and Magic Johnson Lakers were the best offences of their era (lead league in Offensive Rating 3+ times each), despite both being pass first. Teams with less offensive success rely on playmakers who can't score to run the offence, making the teams system more predictable, and the players presence less threatening. Rajon Rondo from about 2012-14 on the Celtics is a prime example, being asked to do too much and leading bottom ten offences each year
Hot take: The NBA today is more physically demanding than ever, and it is also the reason why injuries are more prevalent than previous eras. The increased pace and spacing has led to more drives and more dynamic play in general (as opposed to the static, pass to a guy in post to bang down low in the 90s), this leads to the increased frequency and severity of non-contact injuries we see today.
Hot take: Gm’s overlook the amount of hidden talent that’s in the league. You got players like D white, Gafford, etc who can be very good nba players, that were stuck on bad teams. They are sometime more valuable than rookies since they may have long and cheap contracts
Hot take: Continuous increasing of salary cap is ruining the league. We can all agree that overall talent is at its peak and it shows. Role players are able to do thing and step up to roles they wouldn’t be able to previously. But because we know that salary has a direct connection to playing time, lot of those very talented players, that could be high-end starters, end up riding the benches. All because the gap between your 4-5 key players salaries and the rest is getting ridiculous. NBA is not using its full potential because of this.
Hot Take: Mark Aguirre deserves to make it to the hall of fame because he was a great player in his prime and he is so underrated that his name is hardly mentioned today. Making the hall of fame will make people know who he is even if it is for a year.
Hot Take: Superstars that play little to no defense should not be considered superstars. A whole half of the game of basketball being basically ignored should not be rewarded with praises.
I think it has to be based on impact. If your offense is so good that the defense doesn’t matter than obviously you’re a superstar. If not, then obviously you aren’t.
I think Rusty’s definition of if you can lead a team to a ring, you’re a superstar, is one that should be used. If Trae could do it nearly all offensively, then he’s a superstar. If Luka could do it with mixed defense, he’s certainly one. If Curry did it, you get my point (bro won MVP’s off it)
@@dryames4319Tatum and Shai are both good defenders, but their offensive load does not really allow them to be as good as they could be on that end. Jokić is not a terrible defender, but he's certainly not great or even good (?). Giannis has either taken a step back defensively or is not as good as originally thought to be. Luka is an average defender at his best.
To piggy back off your point Rusty, this years Miami Heat offense, which is currently 14th in the league, is quite literally only as good as it is because of both the volume and % of threes they take and make, they have actually been really bad to start the year inside the arc, so they're actually almost like the inverse of the 2000's offense lol
Hot take: turnovers as a stat is very underutilized and slept on. It shows more about the time the players played, who has possession most, who orchestrates the often most, etc. This whole thing makes cp3 more impressive
Hot take. Last year if the warriors stayed healthy and draymond wasn’t being draymond they could have made a serious push in the playoffs. I feel like they would have gotten around the klay situation. Because when they were 4th in the conference at the start of the season no one mentioned anything about klay. It was after all the injuries and suspension that everyone expected klay to be the hero but the man was coming back from 2 carrier ending injuries so no shit he struggled.
The mj/Kobe helio style observation is spot on- in the post jordan era(west went Shaq type, east went jordan) you had Vince Carter, Iverson, Marbury, McGrady, pierce... walker, jordan the 3rd time, Reed... yeah, only Kobe worked
if the nba somehow convinced its players to lessen their salaries and reduce the # of teams, it'd result in THE golden era of basketball. everyone would forget about the 80s, the 90s, 2000s and 2010s because every game would look like an all star game.
Hot take: NBA should extend a 3 point line in the future due to players shooting too many threes and bring back more offense in paint area for big mens to operate.
3:30 somebody has got to get Jacob, Rudy or Nick reading JoJo's. Missed opportunity for editing gold right there. On to the actual take, my mind still cannot comprehend that everybody and their mommas thought about Dame and Giannis pick and roll as soon as the trade was announced. Yet nobody in the Bucks organization has seemingly read the memo.
Hot take, curry’s 3pt record will be beat within the next 15 years, unless a renosance is coming that makes the three ball useless with the high clip that players are allowed to shoot three at, the record has no chance of staying alive. Mostly due to curry not shooting as many three’s until his 2014/ 2015
Hot take: Shaq had GOAT potential. The thing that held him back was his attempts to become an all-around celebrity, rather than dedicating himself to basketball exclusively. Had he been slightly faster and more agile, had even semi-passable handles, and shot free throws at even a mediocre point (say 70%), his game would have been elevated to immense levels. Being slightly faster/quicker/a couple inches added to his vertical, etc. would have made him a better defender and rebounder. This type of conditioning also likely would have kept him in his prime an extra season or two, and slowed down the injuries he had later in his career. Not to mention the fact that all of these little things would have made him an even more dominant offensive player.
At the same time tho, what would it really change? If Shaq was the goat but it costed him his relationships, legacy after the nba in terms of entertainment, and his larger than life lovable personality, would it be worth it? He’d likely have less kids as well. Shaq did enough in the league. Being a top 10 player ever is so difficult to achieve that it feels wrong to diminish it.
Jokic would have to play all 82 for that to be there. Don’t forget that peak Jordan, peak Hakeem, and peak Bron are all like 79+ (IIRC). Shaq I think had 80 or 81 in 2000, and 79 in 2001.
@@grahamjl766 That’s just the game. Yeah it’s more endurance based, but it doesn’t mean it’s suddenly better. More movement, less physicality. It’s all a trade off. What makes this league great now, and if you’re gonna compare greatness across eras, I’d focus on the larger talent disparity in terms of a lot of role player/starter level talent, the greater degree of spacing and thus defensive impact that has, the higher level of scheming and overall efficiency, and even to the extent (especially for Jokic) of how great he can be with rotating rosters (some of his was consistent, some wasn’t). But I wouldn’t say it’s notably harder than before. Just slightly. Slightly harder than the prior era during more of the 2010’s, which was harder than some of the 2000’s if not deadball era, which was harder than some of the 90’s, etc. etc. But these aren’t drastic differences. And Joker would have to have an insane season to beat out guys like Jordan, Shaq, and LeBron
Hot take: the answer to fix the All Star game is a cash bonus incentive. We've seen how players are willing to play hard for the NBA Cup and a 500K bonus. Instead of a change in format or anything dramatic, i think players would be more willing to make the All Star game competitive if a 1 Million Dollar bonus for each player on the winning team was involved.
Imo it worked better because the non-star players don't make that much money, so it's a big payday for them to win. If the star wants the support of their team for the rest of the season, they need to try. The All Stars all make great money, so it wouldn't work as easily. Also, the in season tourney is new, so the novelty hasn't worn off yet. They could maybe have it so they win for their home team or something.
I disagree, the NBA Cup is also incentivised by the fact that they’re still regular season games and by the time you’ve reached the Semi-Finals, you’ve already made it this far - you may as well finish the job and get a trophy + more money. Also, how much money does the All-Star game even really pull in? I feel like giving 13 million to the players for just an All-Star is just silly. Also, it’ll make players and fans even more angry when somebody is ‘snubbed’. I honestly think that they just need to get rid of the game for a few seasons and try to re-invent it with more hype
@@henry7486 Hell yeah. I’d rather it go for a while and we can focus on the basics of the 3pt contest and overall skills challenge, and then it can reappear. You could still even pick All-Stars, just not for a game
hot take: deandre ayton is not a 5 he’s a 4 he even said it himself & if the blazers realized that & paired him next to clingan he could be prime kevin willis & avg. 20 & 15 easily! 💯
I played AAU from 6th-10th grade and my knees are absolutely demolished bc of it. Practice 3-4 times a week and then on game days we sometimes played 3 games in a 5 hour period.
Not a hot take: the AAU needs to restructure their program. There is no reason why a youth league should be running their players into the ground like that and not teaching them the basic fundamentals of individual and team basketball. That's what they're SUPPOSED to do.
@@urbaindelva7869 I played throughout middle and highschool but I dealt with injuries the whole time bc of the workload and I’m still feeling them to this day
Now is the most difficult era in that it is the most complex the game has ever been. And generally difficulty and complexity are considered very close to synonyms, so yeah.
Hot take: The rookie class overall can’t shoot, that’s why the few shooters, McCain knecht, wells, risacher (when he’s hot), are the only ones really standing out. Shooting has become that important
HOT TAKE: the NBA should have a larger reward for the teams in the 83rd game. I personally think the 15th pick should be reserved as a finals cup reward and a roster spot worth 5 million which doesnt count against the cap. The winning team gets to select which prize it would prefer ***if they select the pick and they have their own pick they get both it doesnt replace the pick.***
They could win in 2015 even against those Warriors, as that was a worse 2016 team. The 2016 team poses a challenge, but was worse than the 2018 team they beat. And then even the 2015 Cavs were good but not great, and then weren’t that good with just LeBron. 2016 idrk. 2017 probably they win, but maybe you could argue. 2018 it would’ve easily been a sweep. 2019 prob would be easy for both since injuries and it was the Raptors, but maybe Kawhi is just that guy
I have 1.5 hot takes. The first is question, is there a stat for key passes: passes leading to open shots or leading to open shots? It would be good simple metric to measure playmaking: similar to what they do in continental football (soccer)? The next hot take is that had the Bucks traded Middleton - instead of Jrue - for Dame, they would've ended up winning another championship.
Hot take: anyone who says that that all teams play the same way nowadays is just saying nonsense. First of all, every team every season try’s their best to copy whatever the best team is doing: 90s was contested middys, 2000s was post up for big men, and now 2020s is drive and kick corner threes. But no two teams actually play the same way and if you say that you aren’t watching the games. I can garantee if you watch a warriors game, and then a Celtics game, and then any other team, you can see a clear difference in play style
HOT TAKE: as Luka admitted in that interview with JJ Reddick, hand checking 10000000% percent still exists in the NBA. You just have to be a little bit more creative with which hand you place and where. And the film shows it.
How many players were still at a high level by age 35?? MJ, Kareem, Karl Malone, Stockton, and Wilt are the only guys I can name off back who were still at a top 10 level at their position by age 35.
HOT TAKE VERY HOT TAKE:The championship bucks are better than any showtime lakers team, you put Jrue on worthy Giannis on magic & brooks on Kareem, only two players on that team could shoot Michael cooper who 38.5% on 2 attempts and Byron Scott who shot 43.6% in the regular season but in the playoffs Scott went down to 20% on two attempts but cooper went up to 48.6% so realistically you could sag off everyone but him and completely shut them down
Hot take: Magic’s assist numbers aren’t the outlier you think they are. The reason he could get away with playing like that was specifically a product of 80s basketball. While I have no doubt he would be as good, maybe even better in today’s game since he’d be able to play with space, he would absolutely have to share ball handling responsibility against modern defenses the way every other great passer does. He would be amazing but I highly doubt he’d get double digit assists in championship years
HOT TAKE: John Wall one of the most underrated point guards ever for what he accomplished compared to the media and casual take on his career. He led the wizards to their 3 most successful seasons( game 6+ of the second round) since 1979 without a single all star during those seasons. 5 .500+ seasons in a row during his young prime, ZERO since for the wizards. AND he’s the only player in NBA history to have his career regular season averages AND playoff averages! Look it up!( points, assists, steals, blocks. No one else )
Wall should get more love for the caliber of player he was during that time, but his team success with the Wizards is not really much to write home about. He did help them to some of their better seasons, but there is only so much credit that a player will get for taking a team to the second round but no further multiple times. What does the media say about him?
Tough claim, but i dont fall for it. The coaching and overall direction seems to be the more defining factors behind how easy it was to score back then
The NBA cup final not having any contribution towards your regular season record while all of the other NBA cup games do is stupid and inherently brings down the worth of the cup. They should make it so winning the cup final adds 3/4 wins to the regular season record so it actually gives incentive to teams to win it and in turn makes the award feel valuable. It would also make it interesting if a worse team won it and snatched a play in spot.
We have all heard Gary Payton say, John Stockton was harder to guard than Jordan. An ESPN reporter asked Payton (in ‘95) who was the hardest player to guard. His answer was not John Stockton. I once saw a young Van Exel torch him in the playoffs. Kobe abused Payton from the time he was a teenager. No one should take his opinion at face value.
Hot take: The rules of the NBA have nothing to do with the difficulty of an era. The difficulty of a given era only revolves around how good the players and teams are but since everyone was on the same playing field the rules had no effect on the actual difficulty. The different eras instead did effect how players had to play and made certain types of players better.
I agree with your point, but I think that it's disingenuous to say that the rules don't factor into the difficulty of an era. For example, look at the foul calling in today's league. If the league was more lenient on foul calls, a lot of players who like to draw fouls or foul bait would lose a significant chunk of their game. If they cracked down on travels/carrying, certain players who look like good ball handlers would probably not look that way. If they allowed more "physicality" on defense, average to bad defenders would look pretty decent on that end.
Not a hot take but I have a question: will the mavs defense improve if you have him play the role Jayson Tatum was doing in the finals where he was guarding the center. We have already seen him get steals on gobert and Wemby.
Hot Take: there are a lot of really talented G league players and players not in the league that are not getting chances simply because of players before them are being kept on the roster to protect the ego and record of executives. Prime example is Pippin Jr. who is performing amazing yet was bouncing in out of rotation for the Lakers. I honestly feel there are players who are blacklisted because they show executives Don’t know how to see talent, and so if too many undrafted guys became stars a lot of those guys would lose their jobs and so they are blacklisted. Shout out Mike James
Kyrie and Paul George are not the same. First, Kyrie since 2021 has been better, Kyrie has simplified his game and he’s not over dribbling like how he used to from 2011-2014. He dribbles to spots and angles whether thats to go to the rim or get to a midrange jumper. Paul George will dribble around to take a bad shot and will get by his defender just to snatch back for no reason😂. Kyrie is averaging 25/5/5 on 55/52/84 splits on 66% true shooting while Paul George is playing like dirt😂🤦♂️. Hate when y’all kyrie go Paul George, kyrie doesn’t over dribble like him.
Hot take: after the past 5 years, I think it’s finally time we put LeBron in THOSE conversations. What he’s been doing is borderline unheard of and he really doesn’t get enough credit for it….
6:20 going back to this take, I feel like NBA GM’s need to stop overvaluing star players when doing a trade. Often times, when there is a disgruntled player on a team that request trades, there’s teams that aren’t great fits for said player. Dame being traded to the Bucks is a perfect example, because that gave the media the impression, that “hey, if we change up Giannis play style to complement Dame, they can win a ring!”
Hot take: People have to stop putting Paul George and kyrie in the same category as far as game and aesthetics. Kyrie dribbles with a purpose and actually gets to spots on the floor and scores a lot in the triple threat without dribbles. Paul George is the one who over dribbles to take bad shots, he would literally get by his defender just to snatch back and take a contested midrange for no reason. This also why kyrie is more consistent as a scorer for these reasons.
Hot take: Basketball is the only sport where the old players do not recognize how much better the sport has gotten. Im sure it will happen with this generations about the next but alll in all the game has gotten better every decade and people in the sport just dont talk about it
hot take: dyson daniels is a better player than dejounte murray, dyson has had 4 straight games of atleast 6 steals at the time of this comment while averaging an efficient 15 a game
What do you mean by his career trajectory? The start of his career looks way more like lebron’s than hardens lol. If you mean Luka will end up like harden that’s not what career trajectory is.
@@Dontchataboutit not exactly the same but for comparison/projection, luka and harden made the finals at the very young age and at their prime will generate historic numbers without any significant playoff success, just my opinion.
@ Luka and lebron led teams to the finals early in their careers. Harden was a 6man. Pretty ridiculous argument if that’s the one you’re choosing to make. Lebron and Luka putting up insane numbers with similar levels of postseason success (Luka a bit more). The way better argument would be despite his all time great career trajectory thus far, Luka is actually more of a harden.
@@DontchataboutitLeBron had a bit more postseason success. He and Luka both have one Finals appearance in their early careers, but LeBron reached 2 CF to Luka's 1 so far.
Hot take: I don't think this was the worst draft class in all of history, but I do think there were unreasonable expectations set on these 19 year olds to come into the NBA ready to contribute at the highest level. Some of the picks from the most recent draft are already proving to be solid rotational players for their teams. Potential, is an overrated and misunderstood concept, Jokic and Jalen Brunson were both second round picks for example. I think these players deserve time to prove themselves, and develop in their systems, because the NBA is sink or swim. It's really up to the individual players will and the work/effort they're willing to put in. For instance, Ben Simmons and Zion Williamson were both the first picks of their respective draft classes, yet both players for different reasons are not going to reach what their perceived potential was (though Zion still has time, but it's not looking good for him in the long run). TLDR: I think we should let time prove this is the worst draft class of all time before preemptively jumping to that conclusion especially since the scouting experts aren't always right.
Hot take: Curry will be a top 5 player of all time if he wins a ring and fmvp this season or before he retires along with Mj bron kareem (1-3 non negotiable) magic and himself(4-5 interchangeable). 2MVP/ 2FMVP/ 5RINGS will put him above the likes of Duncan and Kobe given his overall impact on the game and his fan base
I agree, kyrie doesn’t over dribble like Paul George, he actually gets to spots while Paul George would get by his man just to snatch back and take a contested midrange for no reason😂🤦♂️.
21:40 bam wouldn't have to go out to the perimeter so much if the heat didn't have such a horrible defensive back court to cover for. Like terry rozier pretty much dies any time he gets screened, and tyler aint much better.
active players reaaaaally shouldn’t have podcasts. obviously it’s awkward when your team has an embarrassing loss and then they’re on the pod like “sooooooooo that happened, anyways let’s get into this sponsorship” but an under discussed element is that SO MANY of these players are just. terrible at articulating their thoughts clearly, or in an engaging manner, it’s all flat and monotone. jeff teague is actually entertaining, so was jj redicks pod (rip) everyone should have just gone on those
Hot take: despite their not liking of each other, james harden and giannis would be a vastly better duo due to his generational playmaking and efficient shot creating due to him not having to take as many shots
Longevity is overrated, especially in legacy discussions. As soon as a player stops being an All NBA/All Star caliber player, their career turns into stat padding.
Hot take : The gather step needs to go. Make handles more skillful via restrictions and remove the whole travel ambiguity because of gather step. What do yall think? Too drastic? Not drastic enough? 🙂
Hot Take: it doesn't matter but jump ball is a stupid rule. The idea is that neither player has possession so the refs need an impartial way to give possession to one team. But jump balls aren't impartial. 9/10 times it just means that whoever is taller gets possession. And when it's a close game in the 4th quarter they should just do a coin toss
Hot take: to make the all-star game more competitive. The conference that wins the game gets home-court advantage in the finals. A number of all-stars are on somewhat contending teams.
baseball used to do this and it was very devisive but the All Star games were fucking electric
I feel like it’s there, but at the same time, only one player or maybe two (it’s rarely been more than that) will be there for the actual Finals, and usually it’s not a big list of more who would be. Some might be outright on a bad team, and are just so LeBron level dominant that they make it even while sucking overall (or at least not being a contender). I think maybe…..something….could work, but I don’t know about that
hell nah. The players just need to lock in it’s that simple. If they don’t care, it won’t happen
@@sideactivistare u dumb. He’s literally givng away for them to “lock “ in a use rn they don’t
They should just move it to right before the finals like the nfl does. Players should play harder for their last game of the year and adds more basketball to the end of the season, having all star week mid-season just feels arbitrary at this point especially when theres still so much basketball being played at that time. I always thought deciding somebody is an all star after half a season also felt weird, like it was too small of a sample size
i think the reason the discussion abt the tough defensive eras end up being abt the 90s is simply bc Jordan played then and it all comes back to Lebron v Jordan
No lmao, teams like the bad boy pistons in the 90s simply would not be allowed to exist in the modern NBA because of the change in defense
@@vin8754 do u even read? do u know what im saying? in the video rusty talks abt the 2000s being the actual hard to score era and im giving my take on why. when did i mention anything abt playing in the modern nba?
@@vin8754the bad boy pistons were just “i’m gonna foul you lol” so overrated
@@ElijiahCater-xg9dq did you even read my comment? What was considered good defense back then is now considered fouling, that's why they couldn't exist
@@vin8754 rules were put in place because of how stupid this style of defense was lmao. they basically associated their terrible reputation with their defense
Cool to see my take included whether it's ultimately one that holds up or not. At the end of the day the best part of basketball discussion is breaking down takes and analyzing them for all their worth, through on the court examples and gauging how different people view the game. Keep up the good work Rusty.
Hot take: Wally szczerbiak is one of the most underrated players in the 2000s. He was a lights-out shooter, having a great 3 game and a beautiful jumper. It’s a shame injuries stagnated him, I think he could have made more all-star selections.
100% agree, nobody gives him enough attention
Fr most people I know haven’t even heard of him
Oh u mean the guy who couldn’t a score a point against the Celtics in game 7 of the 2008 ECSF? I remember him
@@PER578 he averaged 10 that series while having a degenerative knee condition at 30 but go off I guess
HOT TAKE: Luka Dončić will finish his career with 0 MVPs.
The trend we have been seeing during Luka's tenure is that the mavs always start out slow and always flip a switch right around the all star break. This always hurts Luka's MVP case and makes it impossible to give it to him when there are other candidates that have consistenly performed well with their teams during the entire regular season.
I'd be pretty shocked if he doesn't. He's got a long career ahead of him and Jokic is the only player who's consistently going to be in front of him who doesn't get hurt all the time. MVP is all narrative and he's a flashy player.
If he were a better defender he would already have one. Joker got one as a 6 seed
Interesting. I could a world where he doesn’t throughout his prime, but they’d almost have to give him one like how Kobe got one. That’s not to say Kobe didn’t deserve it, but it’s a weaker MVP I feel like in the grand scheme of things, although it should be mentioned his level of impact before Pau made it there.
I think if by 2028 he doesn’t have one, he’ll get one in 2030. Or 2029 or 2031
@@TheRealMRGG85
He’s getting better. And in some areas he’s great. I just think getting that lifestyle down to being a bit healthier and more optimized, and you can have a Luka that does damage. He already is the best offensive player in the league (yes, Jokic exists, but Jokic is IMO better because he’s a big man defensively)
Damn I hope see this in his next hot takes I like this one
Hot Take: The 2014 Spurs would defeat the 1998 Bulls in a seven game series in the NBA Finals.
I could see the argument. The basketball that that Spurs team played was outstanding to watch. Their ball movement and their shooting was chef's kiss.
@@urbaindelva7869after the 2010 season most championship teams would beat any 90s championship teams. Specially since most big men became 3 point threats so 90s championship teams wouldn’t be able to guard Dirk or Bosh.
@@ollieblass9370
Idk about would beat, but I agree it improves their chances
@@Jonathan-A.C. I don’t even think it would be close honestly, Jordan benefited because most players he had to guard lacked offensive skills even compared to 2010 players
@@ollieblass9370Okay, that is false. Jordan definitely guarded very skilled players.
Hot take: The Rockets are a certified playoff team. The talent pool of Jalen, Fred, Jabari, Segun, Amen, Tari, Brooks is the most underrated 7 men roster in the league right now. Each one of those players have the potential to win you a game, along with a stacked bench a great coach in Ime Udoka the Rockets can cruise through the bottom teams and have the potential to give Top seeds a headache. They’re at best a 5-6 seed
Yeah they look really good this year.
Fred?!?!?
I came here for this nobody is talking about them
The 2000s western conference? Absolutely. It was a blood bath. The east? Not so much lol
Hot Take: The Pistons might have graduated from dogshit to mid this year. They are routinely losing by only one or two possessions so far and Cade maturing + Ivey getting more minutes + adding decent vets has led to actually pretty fun basketball.
Not hot
That's not really a particularly hot take - it's sensible.
They could add 8-10 wins to their record at the end of the season if they knew how to close games. They won't but they could, and eventually if they build a culture as Cade matures they will be able to close those games out too
Hot take: Role players have evolved into two roles, backup big man and shooting wing with good defensive tools. Yeah you will always have guys like luke kennard who will ger minutes strictly off his shooting, but the vast majority of role players fit into these roles. Even smaller guard rps are usually similar to caruso or 2022 derrick white.
The early 2000s is the most difficult era to score in but the post kd warrior era up to now is the hardest era to win in by far no team has went back to back since then
To win and to stay on top are 2 different things my friend.
@@milanponjavic6710no shit
Hot take: sabonis is the second most versatile offense big of all time, behind only jokic. He may not be as dominant as a wilt or shaq, or as flashy as a hakeem but he does everything on the offensive side of the floor almost flawlessly. Even his 3 ball is significantly better than 90% of bigs in league history. Playmaking wise, I only think jokic and debatably a couple years of russel (although I would still give the edge to sabonis) rank over him.
He works hard and is disciplined. He’s a great dude
LOL ...SABONIS not even better than his father
@@onlyfacts3178lmfao get off it he’s miles ahead of his dad. What he’s saying is lowkey facts, he’s the second most put together centre in NBA history. By all means not even a top 10 all time centre atm, but you cannot deny his ability to do it all.
HOT TAKE: people don’t put current active legends higher than past legends since they don’t have that nostalgia of reminiscing the times when they were so dominant, but once legends like curry,lebron and Durant hangs it up for good, then people will start to put them higher since they can’t watch them anymore and reminisce the memories when they were still playing
While I somewhat agree, I feel this eras regression in defence definitely will/should be taken into account when it comes to all time rankings.
Coldest take ever lmao
@@dryames4319it isn’t a regression in defense. The average player is just better and more offensively viable. Nobody in the 80s could guard ANY guard today. Amen Thompson in the 80s is ALL-NBA for sure
@@dryames4319 90s defense was up against basic af offense that's why it looked great back then. spacing, pace and movement is what modern offense is built upon... compared to 90s offense where everyone that's not holding the ball is mostly just standing around. modern offense would OBLITERATE 90s defense.
@bbgod2525 I think its the other way around. Players of today against 80s rules? Forget about it. We'd get to see how many carry/travels go uncalled in todays game.
HOT TAKE: Refs do not call semi-obvious fouls on players who are known or seen to be good defenders while a player who is not a good defender would get a foul called on them for doing the exact same thing
Furthering the dame conversation. I think his passing ability is relatively poor for a high volume PG. Primarily his versatility as a passer comes up really short and it makes him easier to load up against.
I agree, i wish he had a better coaching staff he could learn how to pass better especially with giannis, that could really take the team to a new level. The same goes with teaching giannis to become a better screener and roller
Yep. He’s score first and extremely versatile in that regard. More than Curry, less impressive than Curry in scoring.
@@trikelikesfish
I wonder if it would be good to try to expand to that more. Maybe they’d do better just on different teams
Hot take: The recent 3 point shooting complaints which have arisen over the last month do not actually stem from the quality of the basketball being observed but rather the overall quality of the NBA product. The real issue the NBA is having has very little to do with the on court product besides perhaps the number of free throws, instead the issue is the amount of advertisements specifically sports betting, both on the court and during ad breaks alongside a generally awful viewing experience. Unavailable games due to blackouts and local restrictions, an awful NBA app, and the overall media environment which focuses too much on irrelevant stories turns people off from caring about the games. The example I think of is the classic "there is no defense being played in the nba," when the literal finals came down to an incredible defensive Celtics performance to completely eliminate Luka as a playmaker. Boston held Dallas to less than 100 points in the 4 games they won but the media never talked about that defensive scheme, instead we have to hear about Lebron unfollowing Kendrick Perkins.
Overall, the NBA viewing experience sucks and 3 point shooting is used as the scapegoat when in reality, the problem is a bad product from everything besides the basketball.
Long comment, but factual all day
Eh, Idk. I think that even if all of those problems did not exist, the current on-court product would still get a lot of flak.
I agree 80/20. Teams over reliance on 3s and playing the same way definitely has a negative impact for the on court product. Not as much as the stuff u listed tho.
@
Idk man, maybe by boomers. I think it’s a pretty great game when you get into it, but for nearly any era, you can point to something and say how it’s boring or not entertaining or frustrating to watch. “Why is there assault and not real defense in the 80’s?”. “Why isn’t there more spacing and shooting in most of the 90’s?”. “Why can they not get any offense going, and it’s SO slow in deadball era?”. “Why are superstars stacking up together in the late 2000’s to 2010’s?”. “Why isn’t there much physical defense anymore these days?”.
I couldn’t agree more. The game itself is more entertaining than ever with how high the skill ceiling is. The real issue is how unwatchable the ads and paywalls make the game. They are killing the “casual” fan.
Hot take
Dame to the bucks is identical to what happened when melo moved to okc.
Both franchise players that couldn't lead their team to playoff success and when given the opportunity to have team success, chose money and stayed way too long. We may have to reconceptualize dame career because idk what he's done to be in the top 75 and why they aren't considering him being off the bench. He's a scorer who doesnt impact the game any other way and is a liability on defence.
Off the bench? Who the hell is starting over him? Delon Wright?. This take makes no sense and is just hating on dame imo
Everything that you said is fair except benching him. Nobody on the Bucks' bench is worthy of starting over him. Even if they did, that would not fix anything.
Bench is just hell no. Have them lead different squads, or at least play on and off, I could see, but not bench. I think Dame here is actually trying to win, Carmelo clearly chose his worse way of playing alongside money alongside not dropping off when he went to OKC, even though he was worse than Dame was in 2024 and might be in 2025
@urbaindelva7869 sometimes fit and chemistry matter more than talent and ability. Either they trade him or bring him off the bench where he can dictate play with the ball in his hands more like he used to in portland.
@@msannioba5760Who would start over him at the PG position?
Hot take: Nba players who are not good at defense are either really small like Trae Young who can only do so much or are bigger but don't give effort on that side of the floor. I do think any nba player if they are bigger can be solid on that side especially if they give effort on that side, for instance Christian Wood in his prime, where the opposing team have to strategize so that they don't drive past that player thinking they are a cone on defense and easy points.
The problem with the Dame/Giannis duo is that it isn’t really a guard/big duo because Giannis isn’t really a big. He came into the league listed at SF and slowly transitioned to being a PF, but even though he has the size of a big, his play style is still that of a SF, a not great shooting SF but a SF nonetheless
Hot take: The Warriors' sweep of the Blazers in the 2019 WCF is exaggerated. Idk why so many people think/thought that the Blazers would've/could've/should've beaten the Warriors in that series "because they didn't have KD." Yes, the Blazers blew a lot of big leads in that series, but the Warriors had already proven that no lead was ever truly safe against them no matter the deficit many times. The Blazers were a solid, deep team, but they had none of the coaching, mentality, or experience to truly beat the Warriors even if they were not 100%. The Rockets were considered a much bigger threat to them, and they had pushed the Warriors much farther in the previous round.
NBA is 20 years behind EUROPE..30 years ago EUROPEAN teams were shooting 40 3 pointers a game...and were shooting over 40%...and still losing against DREAM TEAMS
HOT TAKE:
SGA is a better Guard than Luka Doncic. While Luka is a better offensive weapon than SGA, I dont think his offensive gap covers up for Shai being a far better and more consistent defender, being more selfless, and a better on court leader.
It’s Completely overlooked that in the last 20 something years in the league, most of the MIP winners actually went on to be all stars or very solid starters. In other sports (like European football) it’s VERY common for a player to have a breakout season and then vanish. Props to the league awards I guess
HOT TAKE : To me 2000 is the most overrated era of basketball because people most often than not believes that 2000s was deadlocked at the lowest scoring because it was the most talented era of basketball which is not true at all. The basketball schemes is what masde that era tough. This is also the reason defensive teams like pistons, spurs won
I think the 2000s gets overrated because thats when a lot of millennials started really getting into the nba (especially after the jordan era took the league’s popularity to the heights its at today) and now those millennials are all adults and are trying to push that narrative about the 2000s. Its that weird thing where millennials believe everything they liked when they were young were the best things to ever exist
Plus, the eastern conference was complete ass those years.
Late 2000s was prolly the best of the 00s
I don’t think it is the most overrated.
Not arguing it’s the best (though I do find that range fascinating in some ways), but it doesn’t sound like the 2000’s ever received high levels of acclaim to begin with like the 90’s or the current talent pool have.
Hot take : Hakeem is criminally underrated. His peak is only rivaled by shaq/bron/jordan (maybe jokic but people are not ready for this conversation) and with different circumstances ( no injuries for ralph sampson/less success of Bulls dynasty ) he could have been considered the goat . Should be at least top5-6 in GOAT conversations at minimum.
The “open freeway” era to the basket vs Bill Lambier and his later ilk hammering you into the wooden floor just ain’t there anymore. Plus you can travel, pivot and hop, palm the ball on the dribble, all of that helps for more animated ball.
Hot Take: The NBA players today are much better than those before. They are obviously more skilled and is it really hard to believe that over time, people will gradually become better at their jobs. The NBA today is so optimized and data driven that it will be better than any teams in the 2000s, 90s, and 80s. There's also a larger talent pool. More people live in the US and more people come from Europe or Africa. There's more money into developing players so you'll get better players. Back in the day, the best athletes would mostly go to other sports, like baseball, soccer, or football, but now that salaries are so high in the NBA, more of the super talented athletes are playing basketball.
Hot Take: 'True Point Guards" leading a team is not necessarily a problem, building offences around non scorers is the true issue.
The Steve Nash Suns and Magic Johnson Lakers were the best offences of their era (lead league in Offensive Rating 3+ times each), despite both being pass first. Teams with less offensive success rely on playmakers who can't score to run the offence, making the teams system more predictable, and the players presence less threatening. Rajon Rondo from about 2012-14 on the Celtics is a prime example, being asked to do too much and leading bottom ten offences each year
Hot Take: the preseason should be used to test out changes to the rules, i.e. a four point line or no 3 second rule
Hot take: The NBA today is more physically demanding than ever, and it is also the reason why injuries are more prevalent than previous eras. The increased pace and spacing has led to more drives and more dynamic play in general (as opposed to the static, pass to a guy in post to bang down low in the 90s), this leads to the increased frequency and severity of non-contact injuries we see today.
Possibly.
Hot take: Gm’s overlook the amount of hidden talent that’s in the league. You got players like D white, Gafford, etc who can be very good nba players, that were stuck on bad teams. They are sometime more valuable than rookies since they may have long and cheap contracts
Hot take: Continuous increasing of salary cap is ruining the league. We can all agree that overall talent is at its peak and it shows. Role players are able to do thing and step up to roles they wouldn’t be able to previously. But because we know that salary has a direct connection to playing time, lot of those very talented players, that could be high-end starters, end up riding the benches. All because the gap between your 4-5 key players salaries and the rest is getting ridiculous. NBA is not using its full potential because of this.
That's fair. I think the league needs to dial it back with their salary cap.
Hot Take: Mark Aguirre deserves to make it to the hall of fame because he was a great player in his prime and he is so underrated that his name is hardly mentioned today. Making the hall of fame will make people know who he is even if it is for a year.
Hot Take: Superstars that play little to no defense should not be considered superstars. A whole half of the game of basketball being basically ignored should not be rewarded with praises.
basketball is entertainment at the end of the day, and scoring a lot is more entertaining than stopping someone else from scoring
I think it has to be based on impact. If your offense is so good that the defense doesn’t matter than obviously you’re a superstar. If not, then obviously you aren’t.
I think Rusty’s definition of if you can lead a team to a ring, you’re a superstar, is one that should be used. If Trae could do it nearly all offensively, then he’s a superstar. If Luka could do it with mixed defense, he’s certainly one. If Curry did it, you get my point (bro won MVP’s off it)
I strongly agree. How is it not 1 of last years MVP candidates made an All Defense team? Bring back defense!
@@dryames4319Tatum and Shai are both good defenders, but their offensive load does not really allow them to be as good as they could be on that end. Jokić is not a terrible defender, but he's certainly not great or even good (?). Giannis has either taken a step back defensively or is not as good as originally thought to be. Luka is an average defender at his best.
To piggy back off your point Rusty, this years Miami Heat offense, which is currently 14th in the league, is quite literally only as good as it is because of both the volume and % of threes they take and make, they have actually been really bad to start the year inside the arc, so they're actually almost like the inverse of the 2000's offense lol
Hot take: turnovers as a stat is very underutilized and slept on. It shows more about the time the players played, who has possession most, who orchestrates the often most, etc. This whole thing makes cp3 more impressive
Hot take. Last year if the warriors stayed healthy and draymond wasn’t being draymond they could have made a serious push in the playoffs. I feel like they would have gotten around the klay situation. Because when they were 4th in the conference at the start of the season no one mentioned anything about klay. It was after all the injuries and suspension that everyone expected klay to be the hero but the man was coming back from 2 carrier ending injuries so no shit he struggled.
Hot Take: Steph Curry might be one of the 10 best rebounding point guards of all time.
Steph is surprisingly an amazing rebounder so I wouldn’t say ah hot take.
that’s not ridiculous to say that
The mj/Kobe helio style observation is spot on- in the post jordan era(west went Shaq type, east went jordan) you had Vince Carter, Iverson, Marbury, McGrady, pierce... walker, jordan the 3rd time, Reed... yeah, only Kobe worked
if the nba somehow convinced its players to lessen their salaries and reduce the # of teams, it'd result in THE golden era of basketball. everyone would forget about the 80s, the 90s, 2000s and 2010s because every game would look like an all star game.
Hot take: NBA should extend a 3 point line in the future due to players shooting too many threes and bring back more offense in paint area for big mens to operate.
3:30 somebody has got to get Jacob, Rudy or Nick reading JoJo's. Missed opportunity for editing gold right there.
On to the actual take, my mind still cannot comprehend that everybody and their mommas thought about Dame and Giannis pick and roll as soon as the trade was announced. Yet nobody in the Bucks organization has seemingly read the memo.
Hot take, curry’s 3pt record will be beat within the next 15 years, unless a renosance is coming that makes the three ball useless with the high clip that players are allowed to shoot three at, the record has no chance of staying alive. Mostly due to curry not shooting as many three’s until his 2014/ 2015
Hot take:
Shaq had GOAT potential. The thing that held him back was his attempts to become an all-around celebrity, rather than dedicating himself to basketball exclusively. Had he been slightly faster and more agile, had even semi-passable handles, and shot free throws at even a mediocre point (say 70%), his game would have been elevated to immense levels. Being slightly faster/quicker/a couple inches added to his vertical, etc. would have made him a better defender and rebounder. This type of conditioning also likely would have kept him in his prime an extra season or two, and slowed down the injuries he had later in his career. Not to mention the fact that all of these little things would have made him an even more dominant offensive player.
Not a hot take at all
At the same time tho, what would it really change? If Shaq was the goat but it costed him his relationships, legacy after the nba in terms of entertainment, and his larger than life lovable personality, would it be worth it? He’d likely have less kids as well. Shaq did enough in the league. Being a top 10 player ever is so difficult to achieve that it feels wrong to diminish it.
@@patrick05Morgan
I don’t think he diminished it. He just gave a different timeline
Shaq is already in the goat conversation
You didn't address the hot take. If Joker keeps the same numbers while most likely playing over 70 games, would you call this the goat season?
Jokic would have to play all 82 for that to be there. Don’t forget that peak Jordan, peak Hakeem, and peak Bron are all like 79+ (IIRC). Shaq I think had 80 or 81 in 2000, and 79 in 2001.
@Jonathan-A.C. like the man said these players are covering three times as much distance as the old players. That's nothing to just dismiss.
@@grahamjl766
That’s just the game. Yeah it’s more endurance based, but it doesn’t mean it’s suddenly better. More movement, less physicality. It’s all a trade off.
What makes this league great now, and if you’re gonna compare greatness across eras, I’d focus on the larger talent disparity in terms of a lot of role player/starter level talent, the greater degree of spacing and thus defensive impact that has, the higher level of scheming and overall efficiency, and even to the extent (especially for Jokic) of how great he can be with rotating rosters (some of his was consistent, some wasn’t). But I wouldn’t say it’s notably harder than before. Just slightly. Slightly harder than the prior era during more of the 2010’s, which was harder than some of the 2000’s if not deadball era, which was harder than some of the 90’s, etc. etc. But these aren’t drastic differences. And Joker would have to have an insane season to beat out guys like Jordan, Shaq, and LeBron
Hot take: the answer to fix the All Star game is a cash bonus incentive. We've seen how players are willing to play hard for the NBA Cup and a 500K bonus. Instead of a change in format or anything dramatic, i think players would be more willing to make the All Star game competitive if a 1 Million Dollar bonus for each player on the winning team was involved.
The idea of having to use extra cash incentives to get millionaires to play a game (a game that’s literally their job) will never not be wild to me
Imo it worked better because the non-star players don't make that much money, so it's a big payday for them to win. If the star wants the support of their team for the rest of the season, they need to try. The All Stars all make great money, so it wouldn't work as easily. Also, the in season tourney is new, so the novelty hasn't worn off yet. They could maybe have it so they win for their home team or something.
I disagree, the NBA Cup is also incentivised by the fact that they’re still regular season games and by the time you’ve reached the Semi-Finals, you’ve already made it this far - you may as well finish the job and get a trophy + more money. Also, how much money does the All-Star game even really pull in? I feel like giving 13 million to the players for just an All-Star is just silly. Also, it’ll make players and fans even more angry when somebody is ‘snubbed’. I honestly think that they just need to get rid of the game for a few seasons and try to re-invent it with more hype
@@Ralfydee
Why?
Is the NBA not literally funded off of that, to some degree??
@@henry7486
Hell yeah. I’d rather it go for a while and we can focus on the basics of the 3pt contest and overall skills challenge, and then it can reappear. You could still even pick All-Stars, just not for a game
hot take: deandre ayton is not a 5 he’s a 4 he even said it himself & if the blazers realized that & paired him next to clingan he could be prime kevin willis & avg. 20 & 15 easily! 💯
I played AAU from 6th-10th grade and my knees are absolutely demolished bc of it. Practice 3-4 times a week and then on game days we sometimes played 3 games in a 5 hour period.
Not a hot take: the AAU needs to restructure their program. There is no reason why a youth league should be running their players into the ground like that and not teaching them the basic fundamentals of individual and team basketball. That's what they're SUPPOSED to do.
@ absolutely. I’m only 23 and I have chronic knee pain. AAU is a big reason for that
@@stevenashbeatz5939I thought that AAU was only for 18 or younger?
@@urbaindelva7869 no it is. But just from from 4 years of playing my knees are cooked
@@urbaindelva7869 I played throughout middle and highschool but I dealt with injuries the whole time bc of the workload and I’m still feeling them to this day
Now is the most difficult era in that it is the most complex the game has ever been. And generally difficulty and complexity are considered very close to synonyms, so yeah.
part of me thinks that jokic's impact and production over the past few years rivals that of lebron's during his peak
Hot take: The rookie class overall can’t shoot, that’s why the few shooters, McCain knecht, wells, risacher (when he’s hot), are the only ones really standing out. Shooting has become that important
HOT TAKE: the NBA should have a larger reward for the teams in the 83rd game. I personally think the 15th pick should be reserved as a finals cup reward and a roster spot worth 5 million which doesnt count against the cap. The winning team gets to select which prize it would prefer ***if they select the pick and they have their own pick they get both it doesnt replace the pick.***
Hot Take: I like cereal
After that intro I thought I was gonna get cooked 😂 AND Norm shit the bed twice against the rockets immediately after 🥴🥴
Hot take: drop the 2018 rockets in any year post 2003 and they win the championship, except 2016-2019.
They still have injuries and Playoff Harden to get through, though. They almost won in our timeline, remember.
@@arkcliref 'Playoff harden'? Please be serious
without injuries they win every year post 2002 except for 2017
They could win in 2015 even against those Warriors, as that was a worse 2016 team. The 2016 team poses a challenge, but was worse than the 2018 team they beat. And then even the 2015 Cavs were good but not great, and then weren’t that good with just LeBron. 2016 idrk. 2017 probably they win, but maybe you could argue. 2018 it would’ve easily been a sweep. 2019 prob would be easy for both since injuries and it was the Raptors, but maybe Kawhi is just that guy
@@arkcliref
He was still most of the reason they were even that position to choke
I have 1.5 hot takes. The first is question, is there a stat for key passes: passes leading to open shots or leading to open shots? It would be good simple metric to measure playmaking: similar to what they do in continental football (soccer)?
The next hot take is that had the Bucks traded Middleton - instead of Jrue - for Dame, they would've ended up winning another championship.
Idk if they would ultimately win another one, but their chances would be better with a Dame/Jrue backcourt than Middleton at this point.
Hot take: anyone who says that that all teams play the same way nowadays is just saying nonsense. First of all, every team every season try’s their best to copy whatever the best team is doing: 90s was contested middys, 2000s was post up for big men, and now 2020s is drive and kick corner threes. But no two teams actually play the same way and if you say that you aren’t watching the games. I can garantee if you watch a warriors game, and then a Celtics game, and then any other team, you can see a clear difference in play style
HOT TAKE: as Luka admitted in that interview with JJ Reddick, hand checking 10000000% percent still exists in the NBA. You just have to be a little bit more creative with which hand you place and where. And the film shows it.
Aint never been this early
How many players were still at a high level by age 35?? MJ, Kareem, Karl Malone, Stockton, and Wilt are the only guys I can name off back who were still at a top 10 level at their position by age 35.
HOT TAKE VERY HOT TAKE:The championship bucks are better than any showtime lakers team, you put Jrue on worthy Giannis on magic & brooks on Kareem, only two players on that team could shoot Michael cooper who 38.5% on 2 attempts and Byron Scott who shot 43.6% in the regular season but in the playoffs Scott went down to 20% on two attempts but cooper went up to 48.6% so realistically you could sag off everyone but him and completely shut them down
Uh, no.
Hot take: Magic’s assist numbers aren’t the outlier you think they are. The reason he could get away with playing like that was specifically a product of 80s basketball. While I have no doubt he would be as good, maybe even better in today’s game since he’d be able to play with space, he would absolutely have to share ball handling responsibility against modern defenses the way every other great passer does. He would be amazing but I highly doubt he’d get double digit assists in championship years
3:00 years we’ve never seen all 3 of the top 3 players of a decade still superstar level after 36
Hot Take: Dr J is the fourth greatest SF of all time behind Bron, Bird, and KD
The only NBA teams that was dominating in the 2000s was the Lakers from 2000-2010 and the Spurs from 1999-2014
HOT TAKE: John Wall one of the most underrated point guards ever for what he accomplished compared to the media and casual take on his career. He led the wizards to their 3 most successful seasons( game 6+ of the second round) since 1979 without a single all star during those seasons. 5 .500+ seasons in a row during his young prime, ZERO since for the wizards. AND he’s the only player in NBA history to have his career regular season averages AND playoff averages! Look it up!( points, assists, steals, blocks. No one else )
Wall should get more love for the caliber of player he was during that time, but his team success with the Wizards is not really much to write home about. He did help them to some of their better seasons, but there is only so much credit that a player will get for taking a team to the second round but no further multiple times. What does the media say about him?
Nikola Jokic will end as a top 5 player of all time at a minimum & his peak could possibly be #1
For regular season? Jokic playoff runs have only resulted in one finals appearance.
Tough claim, but i dont fall for it. The coaching and overall direction seems to be the more defining factors behind how easy it was to score back then
The NBA cup final not having any contribution towards your regular season record while all of the other NBA cup games do is stupid and inherently brings down the worth of the cup. They should make it so winning the cup final adds 3/4 wins to the regular season record so it actually gives incentive to teams to win it and in turn makes the award feel valuable. It would also make it interesting if a worse team won it and snatched a play in spot.
Hot take: Given an offseason to adjust the bill Russell Celtics would be similar to the 23-24 spurs in terms of the and success
We have all heard Gary Payton say, John Stockton was harder to guard than Jordan. An ESPN reporter asked Payton (in ‘95) who was the hardest player to guard. His answer was not John Stockton. I once saw a young Van Exel torch him in the playoffs. Kobe abused Payton from the time he was a teenager. No one should take his opinion at face value.
Hot take: The rules of the NBA have nothing to do with the difficulty of an era.
The difficulty of a given era only revolves around how good the players and teams are but since everyone was on the same playing field the rules had no effect on the actual difficulty. The different eras instead did effect how players had to play and made certain types of players better.
I agree with your point, but I think that it's disingenuous to say that the rules don't factor into the difficulty of an era. For example, look at the foul calling in today's league. If the league was more lenient on foul calls, a lot of players who like to draw fouls or foul bait would lose a significant chunk of their game. If they cracked down on travels/carrying, certain players who look like good ball handlers would probably not look that way. If they allowed more "physicality" on defense, average to bad defenders would look pretty decent on that end.
Hot take: Celtics are a Giannis-for-Jaylen-plus-picks trade away from becoming an unstoppable dynasty for the next 5 years.
Not a hot take but I have a question: will the mavs defense improve if you have him play the role Jayson Tatum was doing in the finals where he was guarding the center. We have already seen him get steals on gobert and Wemby.
Luka? Maybe. He wouldn't have to expend as much energy, and he has the size and strength to handle it.
Hot Take: there are a lot of really talented G league players and players not in the league that are not getting chances simply because of players before them are being kept on the roster to protect the ego and record of executives. Prime example is Pippin Jr. who is performing amazing yet was bouncing in out of rotation for the Lakers. I honestly feel there are players who are blacklisted because they show executives Don’t know how to see talent, and so if too many undrafted guys became stars a lot of those guys would lose their jobs and so they are blacklisted. Shout out Mike James
am i tripping or the audio is delayed slightly at the start of the video
People really just be falling in love with pg13 moves just like kyrie. He's tyler herro with defense
Kyrie and Paul George are not the same. First, Kyrie since 2021 has been better, Kyrie has simplified his game and he’s not over dribbling like how he used to from 2011-2014. He dribbles to spots and angles whether thats to go to the rim or get to a midrange jumper. Paul George will dribble around to take a bad shot and will get by his defender just to snatch back for no reason😂. Kyrie is averaging 25/5/5 on 55/52/84 splits on 66% true shooting while Paul George is playing like dirt😂🤦♂️. Hate when y’all kyrie go Paul George, kyrie doesn’t over dribble like him.
Hot take: after the past 5 years, I think it’s finally time we put LeBron in THOSE conversations. What he’s been doing is borderline unheard of and he really doesn’t get enough credit for it….
6:20 going back to this take, I feel like NBA GM’s need to stop overvaluing star players when doing a trade.
Often times, when there is a disgruntled player on a team that request trades, there’s teams that aren’t great fits for said player. Dame being traded to the Bucks is a perfect example, because that gave the media the impression, that “hey, if we change up Giannis play style to complement Dame, they can win a ring!”
Hot take: People have to stop putting Paul George and kyrie in the same category as far as game and aesthetics. Kyrie dribbles with a purpose and actually gets to spots on the floor and scores a lot in the triple threat without dribbles. Paul George is the one who over dribbles to take bad shots, he would literally get by his defender just to snatch back and take a contested midrange for no reason. This also why kyrie is more consistent as a scorer for these reasons.
Hot take: Basketball is the only sport where the old players do not recognize how much better the sport has gotten. Im sure it will happen with this generations about the next but alll in all the game has gotten better every decade and people in the sport just dont talk about it
If the dream team would lose against a good chunk of modern nba teams due to the evolution of the game. It’s just math.
hot take: dyson daniels is a better player than dejounte murray, dyson has had 4 straight games of atleast 6 steals at the time of this comment while averaging an efficient 15 a game
As a pels fan imma have to agree and throw myself off a cliff
Hot Take: luka doncic is more like james harden than lebron james in his career trajectory.
Too early to say. He's so young
What do you mean by his career trajectory? The start of his career looks way more like lebron’s than hardens lol. If you mean Luka will end up like harden that’s not what career trajectory is.
@@Dontchataboutit not exactly the same but for comparison/projection, luka and harden made the finals at the very young age and at their prime will generate historic numbers without any significant playoff success, just my opinion.
@ Luka and lebron led teams to the finals early in their careers. Harden was a 6man. Pretty ridiculous argument if that’s the one you’re choosing to make. Lebron and Luka putting up insane numbers with similar levels of postseason success (Luka a bit more). The way better argument would be despite his all time great career trajectory thus far, Luka is actually more of a harden.
@@DontchataboutitLeBron had a bit more postseason success. He and Luka both have one Finals appearance in their early careers, but LeBron reached 2 CF to Luka's 1 so far.
Giannis is the biggest problem of the bucks
If you put any 90s player in the NBA without letting them adapt Hakeem would be the best
22:16 why’d you spend more time talking about Paul George than the actual take 😹
Hot take: I don't think this was the worst draft class in all of history, but I do think there were unreasonable expectations set on these 19 year olds to come into the NBA ready to contribute at the highest level. Some of the picks from the most recent draft are already proving to be solid rotational players for their teams. Potential, is an overrated and misunderstood concept, Jokic and Jalen Brunson were both second round picks for example. I think these players deserve time to prove themselves, and develop in their systems, because the NBA is sink or swim. It's really up to the individual players will and the work/effort they're willing to put in. For instance, Ben Simmons and Zion Williamson were both the first picks of their respective draft classes, yet both players for different reasons are not going to reach what their perceived potential was (though Zion still has time, but it's not looking good for him in the long run).
TLDR: I think we should let time prove this is the worst draft class of all time before preemptively jumping to that conclusion especially since the scouting experts aren't always right.
Hot take: Curry will be a top 5 player of all time if he wins a ring and fmvp this season or before he retires along with Mj bron kareem (1-3 non negotiable) magic and himself(4-5 interchangeable).
2MVP/ 2FMVP/ 5RINGS will put him above the likes of Duncan and Kobe given his overall impact on the game and his fan base
Also who is better magic or curry debate will be the 2nd coming of MJ vs Bron
Hot take: that Paul George song should actually be kyrie Irving’s
I agree, kyrie doesn’t over dribble like Paul George, he actually gets to spots while Paul George would get by his man just to snatch back and take a contested midrange for no reason😂🤦♂️.
Hot Take: If Kawhi and PG were fully healthy for a playoff run in La that team still wouldn’t have won a title or at the very least made a finals
They definitely could've made a Finals if both were fully healthy for an entire run.
21:40 bam wouldn't have to go out to the perimeter so much if the heat didn't have such a horrible defensive back court to cover for. Like terry rozier pretty much dies any time he gets screened, and tyler aint much better.
active players reaaaaally shouldn’t have podcasts. obviously it’s awkward when your team has an embarrassing loss and then they’re on the pod like “sooooooooo that happened, anyways let’s get into this sponsorship” but an under discussed element is that SO MANY of these players are just. terrible at articulating their thoughts clearly, or in an engaging manner, it’s all flat and monotone. jeff teague is actually entertaining, so was jj redicks pod (rip) everyone should have just gone on those
They focus on playing, and not communicating or entertainment
@ ok then they shouldn’t have podcasts
@@pakpaksugar5194
I wasn’t disagreeing, I was providing a reason as to why they suck at podcasting
Who are you to tell someone they can’t have a podcast?
@@onlywiigame.Probably someone who watches them struggle with said podcasts and games
Hot take: despite their not liking of each other, james harden and giannis would be a vastly better duo due to his generational playmaking and efficient shot creating due to him not having to take as many shots
Idk if playing alongside Harden would make Giannis start setting screens all of a sudden. Harden utilizes them as well.
Love ur vids bro been watching for like 5 years but go back to the shorter videos 🙏
Longevity is overrated, especially in legacy discussions. As soon as a player stops being an All NBA/All Star caliber player, their career turns into stat padding.
14:13 That’s why we have so much injuries..
Hot take : The gather step needs to go. Make handles more skillful via restrictions and remove the whole travel ambiguity because of gather step. What do yall think? Too drastic? Not drastic enough? 🙂
Hot Take: it doesn't matter but jump ball is a stupid rule. The idea is that neither player has possession so the refs need an impartial way to give possession to one team. But jump balls aren't impartial. 9/10 times it just means that whoever is taller gets possession. And when it's a close game in the 4th quarter they should just do a coin toss