00:00Okay, John, what is the disconnect here?
00:03So the disconnect is, if we're going to have this conversation like you started, Tim, by saying that this is
00:08a clutch operation, right?
00:09Okay.
00:11If you're telling me Nick Nurse can't get Joel Embiid to go on the low block because he doesn't, quote
00:18unquote, want to, then that, again, is a massive problem.
00:23Their advantage, every night they take the court other than two times out of the year, is on the low
00:29block.
00:29You have to double team him, and if you don't, he will eat you alive.
00:35This is why Shaq made hundreds of millions of dollars being physically unguardable.
00:40That's old school NBA.
00:42That makes it easier for LeBron.
00:44That makes it easier for Tyrese Maxey.
00:46At this point, you're just shooting fish in a barrel because you're waiting for them to double, and now you're
00:51kicking it around, and guys are shooting threes, and cutting lanes are coming open because guys are rotating on defense.
00:56He's a great passer.
00:58Take advantage, and that's why I believe he's the easiest route to a championship.
01:03What Tyrese Maxey can do, there are 10 other guys in the league that can do that.
01:07What Jalen Brown can do, there are 15 other guys in the league who can do that.
01:11What Joel Embiid can do, there's one other guy.
01:14And if you don't allow that to maximize, then, again, you're still going to be successful because there's a lot
01:21of talent in the starting lineup.
01:23But I believe that is the easiest route to success by him playing through the low block.
01:28John, I agree with you, but people have been saying this on national platform, Shaq and Chuck have been saying
01:35this for 11 years, and he hasn't done it.
01:38So what makes you think it's like, so if I'm Nick Nurse, I'm going to try to do what I
01:43need to do to get the best out of my player.
01:44And that means, all right, if I got to have him at the top of the key, 50% of
01:48the game, even though that pisses me off, I'm going to do it and put him in the block when
01:52I need to.
01:52See, Nick Nurse, you now have the reins.
01:56And this is why I know Joel Embiid has been in charge of that franchise since the day he walked
02:00in the door.
02:01Nick Nurse, you got control because now you got LeBron's ear.
02:05Yeah.
02:06All you got to do is say, hey, LeBron, I'm going to yell at him to get on the low
02:09block.
02:10I need you to support me.
02:11LeBron's going to go to Tyrese Maxx and say, hey, man, support coach.
02:14We need him down on the low block.
02:16But if you don't use that and you just let him be, as you called it, and I agree, be
02:21lazy, standing 25 feet from the basket, chucking threes like he's Steph Curry or Christoph Porzingis, you're cooked.
02:31And Grant, and I think about, remember when the last time he played with LeBron was in the Olympics?
02:38Yes.
02:38He didn't get minutes because he wasn't comfortable in the low block.
02:42And the thing is, Tim, I think the way this whole thing works, and as I said before, I truly
02:51believe in Maxxie and Brown and LeBron being the three and then just having Embiid.
02:55As crazy as it sounds to have Embiid just play off of that, I think John is perfectly right to
03:00where he says he has to play out of the low, out of the post or out of the block.
03:05Because I think Joel Embiid, playing as a traditional center and not this stretch MVP level guy that takes mid
03:13-rangers and pull up threes, I think if he plays as a traditional center, it's best for that team because
03:20it creates more space, I believe.
03:22And now you can say him being on the perimeter and going five out creates more space, too, for driving
03:26lanes, as you guys have said.
03:28But I just think him playing as a dominant traditional center and saying, hey, listen, we saw what you can
03:34do as an MVP in this league.
03:36We saw what you can do as an all-NBA player.
03:38But on this current team, if you turn into a dominant version of a post-brute, we are going to
03:44win a championship this year.
03:46And I think they really need to make that clear or else he's going to keep doing what he was
03:50doing on opening night, although they got the win and what he's been doing over the past couple years.
03:55I think you'll see it April 21st when the playoffs start.
04:00There's no reason to –
04:02No, I'm just telling you what I think is going to happen.
04:07There's no reason to make him change his game.
04:10I mean, you'll see evolutions of it, but there's no reason to mandate this right now in November.
04:15Sure, I agree.
04:17You psychologically need him all year long and you need him for the playoffs.
04:21And then you send his big ass down there in the block April 22nd.
04:27This isn't a trick play.
04:29You can't go, okay, it's playoff time.
04:32Now we're going to play a completely different way than we played all –
04:35They did it last year.
04:36Hold on.
04:37I will say this.
04:38Carl Anthony Towns did too.
04:39Carl Anthony Towns turned into this playmaker at the top of the key, like being a distributor.
04:45But on that roster, that's what they needed the entire time.
04:49So what if they just say, hey, we need this the entire time now, Joel Embiid.
04:53Get down there.
04:55You know, play styles change sometimes in the playoffs.
04:58You have to manipulate your play style a lot sometimes.
05:02You're right.
05:02But they've got a guy in LeBron James who only knows how to play one way.
05:07I agree.
05:08Throughout LeBron James' entire career, he's a Swiss Army knife.
05:11He can do everything.
05:12But you've got to do it his way.
05:15And that's where sometimes there's a disconnect between player and coach or LeBron and teammate and stuff like that.
05:22So I think these guys are cerebral enough to know.
05:25Exactly.
05:26These guys are smart enough.
05:27Like I have confidence in all these guys to get it together and figure this thing out as evidenced by
05:32this game on opening night.
05:33They figured it out as the game went on and they won.
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