So number one, do you believe that point guard LeBron is the true LeBron? And number two, my major concern, because I've seen the Sixers disastrous at this over the last 10 years, which of these guys is getting the ball at the end of the game?

Yeah, you're getting at something that is very important.

So how are these guys going to handle the ball? I tend to agree that LeBron is the best decision maker of the whole group.

He doesn't have tunnel vision.

He does know how to create for other people.

But part of what his mechanism was for creating shots for other players was that he himself was a shooting rat.

And he's not as quick as he used to be.

Thank you.

So number one, do you believe that point guard LeBron is the true LeBron? And number two, my major concern, because I've seen the Sixers disastrous at this over the last 10 years, which of these guys is getting the ball at the end of the game?

Yeah, you're getting at something that is very important.

So how are these guys going to handle the ball? I tend to agree that LeBron is the best decision maker of the whole group.

He doesn't have tunnel vision.

He does know how to create for other people.

But part of what his mechanism was for creating shots for other players was that he himself was a shooting rat.

And he's not as quick as he used to be.

Thank you.

But, by the way, just note Bob Myers is involved with both of those.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, that one was a little bit different.

Um, in Golden State's case, it was pretty clear that Steph was the man.

I mean, they...

Draymond Green is not a big possession user.

They're better than my model at sussing that out.

Are we able to just outright say like, all right, Derek has a better analytical profile, X player has a better analytical profile, he's better than Jalen Brown, or is there more to it in your eyes?

All the catch-all stats, all the stats that we generally cite there, you have to remember that they are in the context of the role that the players are playing.

And if those roles change, and they do change within a season, like if Jalen Brown is not in the game, Derek White has to do a little bit more on offense.

Other player, Peyton Pritchard comes in, has to do a little bit more on offense.

Your roles implicitly change a little bit over the course of the season.

And so Jalen Brown's role, though, when he was in the game this year, his role didn't change much.

Now, it's going to change when he goes to Philadelphia because now he's got at least two other high-volume shooters out there, and we don't know what Edgecombe is going to be.

Um, how much of a need do you think there is i- in Boston to altering their play style a little bit?

But when you look down at the analytics of all these prospects right here between AJ, Cam, and Darren Peterson, are you able to plant your flag? Do you think you have an idea of who the first overall pick should be if you were making the choice?

Uh, I, I would, based on what I would tell, I would probably go with DiBanza.

I, I think in a strange way, he's a little bit safer, but there i-- there's also...

I compared him to Melo, and obviously Melo was a very good player in the league for a long time.

Analytically, he wasn't as good as the perception, and I think that's a danger with DiBanza.

But I, I think that's not a bad floor, right? He's pretty-- he's gonna be good.

And, uh, I've been asked this question, "So how do you make sure that he ends up being the best version of himself?" And I think the Timberwolves kind of did this with A- with Ant.

When it comes down to it, where do you see the Wizards' biggest need going forward for them to kind of transform their team into being a playoff team?

They were stars, but aging ones.

There was some sense that they may decline, but the Celtics were able to identify that they had a long way to go before they would decline to a, a poor level or even an average level.

Kevin Garnett, who was not a very big point scorer, but was a great defender by all the metrics, he was a genius on the defensive side of the ball, and if you watch highlights around basketball, you will see that 90-plus percent of the highlights are about offense.

They don't show what Kevin Garnett does when he's off the ball, and even the old-school scouts, old-school scouts are supposed to look for that, and they're supposed to see it.

But it is not as prominent as offense.

[basketball bouncing]

It was the first time the Celtics had been this close to the championship since 1986.

Their best players, their big three definitely played well in those games, and they ended up winning by around 10.