Postgame Show: Amin Knows Basketball
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz- 1,216 views
- 1 Sep 2020
The Le Batard crew is joined by Amin Elhassan, who knows basketball.
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So earlier in the show, Mike Grion passed off as his own some basketball analysis that he did admit was taken from some of the most brilliant basketball minds anywhere. He didn't want to say a mean alhassan, so he just said brilliant basketball mind.
Yeah. Which is a really smart way of phrasing it. He reached out to him late at night. Like, Mike is tapped into some of these minds and has access to these minds that are considered to be brilliant when it comes to basketball, even though I don't think they are.
Even though I texted three people and I mean joins us now, three of my friends, because, I mean, says that means, to God's word, talking out of our ass earlier in the show. So what were we talking out of our ass about?
I mean, I expect us to Stewart's because I take a risk. By the way, Goran Dragic, Western Conference Finals, Game three. Twenty six points in the last ten minutes of that game. Check it out.
Greg Cody, who is predisposed. To believe that everything he's seeing right now has been done way better a long time ago. Thank you to both.
This must be the godfather of nuance, supposed to be the guy who against the sports talk radio, kind of Neanderthal bumping rocks. And you still the superstardom, Jimmy Butler, even have to tell you this years ago, this guy's every bit the superstar.
Well, first of all, I can't think of a thing more pathetic to be the godfather of than nuance. So thank you for that. The godfather of nuance does not exactly give off some of what it is that I'm going for. Not an impressive business card. And I like nuance. But if I'm going to be the godfather of something, the godfather of nuance is not actually something that's going to command a great deal of respect walking into the running of a mafia.
That's the line you chose my. It is the lane I chose what I would say to you. I mean, is this to be a superstar in that league? To me, it's not just to be an all star. Right? Because Bradley Beal is an all star. It's do you have playoff moments that people remember as the lead guy on a team where everyone knows you're the one who's expected to win the game and you win the game anyway?
That is my definition for superstar Luca Donchak was asked. He was asked at the end of that series, how do you define a superstar? And he's like just winning big games. He didn't have a good answer. He's just like, I win big games. That's what a superstar does. It wasn't he he hadn't thought of the question before. He was like saying to himself, I don't even know how to define a superstar, but can he be your best player?
And you're going to be a legitimate championship threat that everyone believes is a championship threat. I think right now Jimmy Butler can earn some of that. I don't believe he's earned it yet.
I think at moments in the past on that. And I think, you know, obviously there's two things. Superstars come in a wide variety of gradients. There's no difference and no one's putting Jimmy Butler up there. But I think there are lesser forms that still qualify under the term superstar. The other thing that I talked about a lot about Butler was that he's a winner. And I remember you guys cackled. What is the other one? And I said, it doesn't mean like, oh, I get a ring.
That means I'm a winner. Winner is I added the certain philosophies and approach that are conducive to being part of a winning environment, which is what Miami Heat culture is all. Regardless whether you're playing Chris Quinn and General Fitz out there or you're playing LeBron and Dwayne Wade, the culture doesn't change. The personnel does.
What did you make of last night's game? Give us your analysis off of a game one. What can be duplicated there by the Miami Heat and what can't be? I think the points in the paint cannot be duplicated, I think Milwaukee kind of awkwardly, clumsily tried to switch their defense up and say, hey, we're not get these, let them breeze off. And as a result, you saw Miami have an inordinate amount of points in the paint where Jimmy Butler is driving against single coverage a lot of times and finishing over one guy.
I think Milwaukee's I knew we to change the way we were going to go back to protecting the paint. Now comes a time where Miami has to really tee off from three point range. Amazing to think, though, I mean, why would you be the better team, the better team throughout the regular season? Why would you not do the athletic cliche of dancing with what brung you just because the heat made some threes on you and a couple of regular season games you played?
Well, I think I think the conversation about the Bucs going back to Lester as they give up too many, and that is a conscious choice that they make. But as we always say, you know, the defensive rating you built right there, the number one defense in the league, but that rating is built on the average of a lot of support teams where a lot of it may be good, but just not good at this one. So that's why I keep calling the Bucs the Death Star.
It's this big thing that destroys every planet and and it's unstoppable.
And by the way, there's that exhaust vent right there that if you can hit a two meter exhaust, meant you blow the whole thing up for that, for them. That to me, the exhaust vent is three point shooting and the heat have an offense that moves the ball and then shoots better than anybody. And so for them to be able to do that is the one flaw in the Death Star. So what the Bucs are doing is saying, no, no, no, no, we're not going to fall for the banana tailpipe.
But as they did that, I think they gave up something that obviously was kind of the core tenets.
I mean, I just want to go to Dragic real quick because it's five games down, right? Five games of the postseason. Forty percent from three. He's averaging I think twenty three points per game. Fifty five percent from the field. I mean you're telling me that Goran Dragic has played better than this offensively throughout his career, especially in these kind of games, in these moments because he's been great now five consecutive playoff.
But did you not listen to what he just said statistically? Did you not hear say to hear what I said? OK, but I mean, say again what it is that you said because he scored twenty seven yesterday. Yesterday he scored twenty seven. I mean, what did you just say. He had twenty six points in the last 14 minutes of a playoff game, a game we were down at the beginning and end up winning a blowout that Steve Nash set the last 14 minutes of that game because Goran Dragic was simply unstoppable, didn't do it against some kind of Titli defense you did against Gregg Popovich in the box at Spurs.
So forgive me. You're right. That's a nice, strong stretch of five games. He probably hasn't had five playoff games in a row where he's played that well. But yes, he's played better than this.
I was doing, Dan, your thing with sample size. That was a great forty minutes. This has been a great five game. The five game sample, OK, instead of the 14 minute sample you got shaking your piddly microscopic sample and countering with his own piddly microscopic sample. Chris, what did you have for Hansen here as it relates to Heat and Buche basketball? What do you guys in general want to know here about what it is that you witnessed last night for the Heat fans who aren't getting enough coverage from our show about the Miami Heat?
Well, I mean, has a Heat island. He's been a big Heat supporter for years now. And I'm wondering if he if, like last night made him think, you know, because I know he said on the great Cody show podcast and this show a couple of weeks ago that that the Heat had a real chance in this series. So I'm wondering if he thinks the heat in five here, did last night make you think that this is going to be a short series?
No, no, no, they're going they're just the bucks, even though they make adjustments, that they went into game one with an adjustment, I think they're going to adjust back. And you have a guy like this is not going to have five games like that for games like that. So you have to they're going to go back to what brought to the dance Pathum here, as Levithan called it. And they're going to win a couple. I still have it.
Heat and six. I haven't changed off of that. A big win on the home floor on Game six is going to send them to the conference finals.
But help me with what happened with Yoni's last night, because in talking to Stan, he does believe that that can be duplicated, maybe not that exact stat line, but the idea of forced Middleton, forced Brook Lopez, forced Wesley Matthews will probably throw a game in there for somebody else to do it. Do not allow him to do it. You think we're going to see a twelve shot game again from from Giannis.
Well like Chris said on the great Cody show, I mentioned this idea that the heat have a preponderance of athletes are six, seven, six, eight, two and strong.
And what that does is it gives you at least at least four different guys Crowder, Iguodala, Butler and then the throw at Yoni's for single coverage. But the other thing is it allows the guys on the weak side to play the perfect kind of safety free safety defense. We're also number one, the youngest looks up. I see nothing but black shirts, but also close enough that if he does make that pass, they're out there a contesting. And I think he did a good job of contesting.
They didn't give up a lot. He's more kind of messy rotations. But the idea is, yeah, you know, most teams don't guys who are both quick and big and strong and the four of them that makes them. So kind of predator for for Antiochus behavior. I was surprised by the success that Crowder and Iguodala had in terms of keeping him away from the rim. I am assuming that this series or had assumed going in and I was a little surprised by last night that Giannis would be getting what he always does, which is a lot of frustrating things right at the basket that are super easy that he makes look ridiculously easy for a man his size.
Didn't see much of that at all last night.
Yeah it's hard because as I said, the heat had defenders who are, you know when you talk about Giannis most of the time you're talking about oh who am I going to put on my best defense wing defender. Well he's too small so Giannis will boom to the front of the rim you say OK I'm not going to believe Mike I'm going to put a big on him We slow so he goes around them right in that devastating spin move that he got the heat out guys were both big and and quick so it's like a lot of that stuff that is naturally there for him isn't quite there as readily available.
And I think that causes problems. One, I think it's funny, Milwaukee, I thought did some stuff in the first half that was really good, using him as a roll man right use and Kuzma with the pick and roll and then either in him as he rolls to the front of the basket or going ahead and doing his own individual offense. I went away from it. It seemed to work for them. But stuff that I think we'll see more in Giannis as a role man So he's catching right at the front of the rim that gave him the ball to top it a key and expect.
I know everybody talks about and the stats look like they speak for themselves, the last few seasons, this Bucks team has been better than the heat. But if we let's say the Bucs in the Heat, we're taking their franchises out of the NBA and we have to redraft from all of these two teams, the rest of the NBA. Giannis obviously gets picked first but aren't I know Middletons in there but outside of Middleton aren't the next five or six guys heat players.
I mean I think that's no secret. The Bucs are very top heavy team and they have good role play but not quite the caliber of what you see in the Miami Heat, which is again goes well if you say, oh, the team with the best player in the series is going to win, not necessarily if everyone else past No one is really good on one team and and there's a drop off on the other side. Yeah, you're right. Cody, what do you have for me?
I mean, you mentioned all the depth of defense Miami has. Do you think it's possible that they made the deal to get Crowder and Iguodala for Spitefully and specifically with defending Giannis and getting to the East in mind, was it that strategic do you think.
Yeah, I think it's a couple of things that I talked with Mike about this all the time. Part of it is that right? You're going to need these type of athletes. And it's not just Yoni's. Remember, they might play Boston in the next round. So you got Brown and Gordon Hayward. You're going to need those kind of guys again to be able to defend against those guys. So part of it is that part of it is this is an extremely young heat team.
When you think about many of their contributors, Nunn, Duncan, Robinson, Takahiro, even been very, very low on experience playoff. So they needed people who were able to coach them up on the floor. And Iguodala and Crowder do that. And then finally, everything is a plan. Look at everyone's looks, look at it. And in twenty, twenty one, there's a reason Danilo Gallinari is not a Miami Heat player today. It's because he won't go with the program of having a twenty twenty one.
I mean will be on with Mike Ryan tomorrow. Thank you. I mean they will also try to get Zach Harper. We are proud of our basketball coverage around here. So the local our tomorrow will be Mike Ryan with Amien and Zach Harper. Just talking basketball if you don't want that. We understand, but we're trying to just give you menu items.
And we also know you got a big game seven tonight. I mean, one, did Jamal Murray turn into Allen Iverson? I mean, when did this happen?
When the Utah Jazz, the defense was in their identity? Look, Jamal Murray is having a threes, but also a lot of it is like, are we going to change anything on the way we guard this guy? Are we just going to keep saying, wait, let him do the same things over and over again? Because it looks like Utah is pretty much resigned to letting him.
He wants to do that series. The skill level in that series has been so much fun. I mean, just watching. I know people are tired of hearing me talk about it, but it's been crazy. It is. It is a crazy skill level I seem to be watching in that series.
The bizarre thing is as great of a series is Jamal Murray is having one of the greatest first runs anybody in NBA history, and Donovan Mitchell as well. When you sit back and you count the number of guards in the West that you'd rather have, it's staggering.
I like twelve or thirteen, I think better than him at the guard position alone, you know, like Steph and Klay and Dame and and Kawhi and Paul. George and. Well, he just on and on and on.
You're like, where does he fall in there somewhere like eleven or twelve range of guards only in the Western Alliance. Six.
Well, CJ McCollum, I mean. The funny thing about what Amin is doing there is, yes, that's how you become a force, eat all of those guards that he's talking about are on the teams that are, you know, thought to be better than Denver is.
I'm just curious how much of that is Gary Harris being absent, though? Is he just getting additional touches, additional cracks at the rim? Yes and no, I mean, Gary Harris didn't have a great offensive season this year, and obviously you've been hurt since March, but, you know, part of it, obviously, whenever someone's out, Will Barton is another one. By the way, Will Barton is a big source of offense for them. So picking up there.
But also, even if those guys were there and we saw Gary has played the last game, at some point you lose him. I mean, check him out tomorrow with Mike Ryan and Jack Harper, did you confirm Jack Harper? I mean, I think you confirmed it because no one's gone back to my group texts.
I have a group text that's just titled Basketball's Most Brilliant Minds. I'm waiting for them to get back to me, but I feel pretty confident that we can get this done.
All right. So tomorrow in the local our basketball's brilliant mind and also amino acid.
And to have so many questions that I'm try to have a better phone line tomorrow.
I feel like a man is pissed at me. What about my joke yesterday? Yeah, I'm just doing this because I texted him like your kid's sorry that I made a joke yesterday. I mean, and I never got a response. Like, I'm sitting in here. I'm like, I don't know if he's mad at me. I don't want to say anything and upset him because he could be pissed at me. So I'm not going to react. I just kind of an orderly here, like God.
I hope he's not mad at me. But it sounds like he was texting with Mike yesterday, so he definitely had his phone on him. So you just kind of ignored my text. So I don't know what's going.
So I mean, doesn't know what was said yesterday. You don't know. I mean, you don't know anything. He he apologized and jokingly but I don't know what the joke was. And I remember at the time because he texted me early, I was like, OK, well, I'll wait for it to post and then I'll listen to it and then I'll decide whether I should be offended or not. And then I never got around to. All right.
So, Billy, you want to tell him you want to tell him what it is that he said, I'm good here. I think OK.
I believe that what he said was that you hold on. Hold on. Dad's like, Dad's going to do this in the worst way possible so that I look like a jerk. So you better say it. No, no, hold on. Hold on. He said he said your kids are dumb. Yeah. He said it just like that. Wow.
Stupid, stupid governance. The guy you actually said it worse than Dan just said.
OK, ok, that's your wife. This is what happened. We somehow started talking about how your kids didn't know that Carlton was in the commercial with Chris Paul. Right. And then, you know, Carlton is OK. So that then that led to like this ten minute like deep dive and discussion of, like, everybody's getting old life is. So I don't know what's going on.
Everyone around us is getting older. We're aging this and that and this whole thing. Right. And then after, like, eight minutes of like, you know, I mean, kids don't even know who Carlton is, what does it say about us? And we're aging out. So it's getting older and everyone's getting older. I'm like, give me time out for a second maybe. I mean, kids are just dumb and that's what Carlton is. And then as soon as they came out of my mouth, I was like, that was not that was not good.
And I was thinking back and I'm like, you know, Amena laugh at this because he's called Menas Dog.
And that's what I like Dog Ugly. And then I'm like, but kids and dogs are not the same. They shouldn't have made that comparison. And then I'm like, I need to get ahead of this and I need to text me and I need to tell him that I'm sorry about this because I really felt bad about it. And then you didn't answer. And I was like, oh my God, he's pissed at me. And I mean, means, like, seems like such an easygoing guy.
And this is not something that I want to do. That was something that I really didn't mean anything by just a dumb joke I shouldn't have made. And I'm just questioning myself. And sure enough, here you come in today, no communication.
I'm like, yeah, that is a sneak peek into what it's like in Billy's head all the time. Right there. Everyone just got a deep dive on how much fear an awful is in Billy's head.
I don't know. And I mean, maybe you could tell me the last time someone was waiting by their phone, just staring at it, hoping that Amien Mean texted them back quickly.
I am so sorry. You know, I thought about I thought about hitting you with the three dots. Oh, that is such a tease.
Yeah, that is the worst when somebody starts like like, oh, hey, stop right there.
The dots go away and then nothing, nothing, no payoff midway through it. They're like that. But I forget it.
He pulled out a second stick. That's what school did your daughter choose? We teased this yesterday.
She hasn't chosen yet. She's got no she's getting a lot of listen, she's gotten a ton of offers from all the places that she's wanted to get offers from. And now it's up to Dad to go home and figure out how to meet those offers a bit better. And, well, choose together as a family.
Are scholarships still a thing?
Well, yeah, of course they are. Yes. She got offered scholarships, so she got offers. He doesn't he doesn't want a sixty percent scholarships to go the whole enchilada. He wants to negotiate it up. You should hear the people. He's well, I don't want to say anymore.
Well, no. For each school I have a list of alumni that I will be calling to help increase the scholarship money that I get for my daughter.
So are you are you are you taping these calls? Because it would be like the restaurant call. I should take her. You're like giving them all you say, COLB, this is what I'm going to need from you.
That's what I'm begging you. That would be a funny joke. And look what happened to her. Yeah, that's true. Not record any of that is a very good. On our recording tomorrow, OK? Did you know Geico is now offering an extra 15 percent credit on car and motorcycle policies, that's 15 percent on top of what Geico could already save you. So what are you waiting for your dentist to actually believe you and your flossing every day?
Absolutely. Great. And you're cutting down on your sweets, of course. Wonderful. Then I don't even need to look in there. Great.
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