Jon Krawczynski

But when then you're asked to guard Nikola Jokic, like, it's not ideal.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, just a reminder, whenever he pops out there and hits a couple shots, or I think in this one, the play that made my eyes go wide was...

being chased off the three-point line into a baseline drive, met at the rim, I mean, near enough by Jokic, I think, and just reminding you of how much of a big-bodied wing he is on top of the length and the potential shooting.

He factors into their future in a pretty significant way.

And I think the idea that the Spurs, they're here now contending for the title in the present tense with Victor Webinyama,

They also just have all of this slow burner stuff going in the background, like Carter Bryant, who if you told me in two years, he's just like a critical part of their team in every possible way.

I want to say they have 35 percent down from 40, but now they might be back up to 38 percent.

You know, the five the pie is a fluid exercise.

We can always bake more.

Yeah, I mean, I think the LeBron part of it, it's just pretty clear that having him and Luka on the floor together makes it almost impossible to have a consistently solvent defense.

Like, I just think it puts you in a positional quagmire that they don't have the personnel really to get out of.

So Luke Kennard steps in and it's all tightened up?

I mean, honestly, Luke Kennard's been a much bigger factor here than I was anticipating him being.

He's just like a real deal part of the rotation.

Yeah.

I mean, I think it is the defense.

And so you see just some of the compatibility issues with him being out.

Like, I don't know what to make of this stretch where they have gone from, um,

I don't know, just like playing fish in the barrel defense for 50 games until all of a sudden now they look weirdly competent.