Hour 1: Driver Comfort & Some Soap In The Hand
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Can James Harden actually take a team over the top in the postseason?
This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Almost for the entirety of my life, basketball has been the most predictable of the sports because it has a measurement system that doesn't allow for as many random results in a seven game series. But I think now, more than ever, because of the combination of the three-pointer and everyone during the regular season doing everything they can just to be maximum healthy by the time the playoffs get here. I think you have the possibility of more randomness in professional basketball than you have had at any point in my lifetime. When I'm looking at the Eastern Conference, we should fix that, maybe swallow. When I'm looking at the Eastern Conference, I see four teams that have a legitimate chance.
I don't know what to do with Philadelphia because I don't know if Joel Embiid is going to play in a seven-game series all seven games.
How does the three-point shot affect playoff randomness in basketball?
But you have Boston, Detroit, the Knicks, and the Cavs, and only one of those teams is trusted, and Jason Tatum is now returning to that team. I don't think anybody trusts Detroit. I don't think anybody trusts the Knicks. And I don't think anybody trusts the Cavs. And James Harden, while I like that as an addition, I think I can make the argument that right now in sports, more than anyone else, James Harden represents the guy you trust the least. anywhere in the playoffs, any sport. Who's second place right now when I say to you who's got the reputation of a playoff choker? So you've got Cleveland coming after Boston, which has already won the championship and has Jason Tatum returning, and the big move is we've got Harden now, the least trusted postseason player there is anywhere in sports.
It's not to the level of Harden, but I think Lamar Jackson's kind of in that territory. That is a good one. That is a good one. We got into this conversation a little bit last week, which is, you know, you can maybe make a case when he was in Philadelphia. I know he had the bad elimination game, but it was really hard and reveling in that it didn't have to be just him. And here at this age in his career, less so. The expectations are different. You're one of the worst playoff performers of all time when you consider your reputation entering it. And when you consider the market, this is kind of a low-stakes deal for James Harden. He may actually flourish in this type of scenario. I'm not a Harden guy.
Obviously, I don't want to count on him in the playoffs. But to me, this was a grand slam trade for the Cavaliers. And mainly because they got him for nothing. Like the guy that they traded for, I understand he's younger. Garland never plays. He's hardly played this year. He was in street clothes all of last year's postseason watching the Pacers roll through his team. He finally made his debut with the Clippers last night. So to me, they added Harden for nothing. That's a massive positive. Right. And their roster is constructed in such a way that, hey, if you do have that slump in the playoffs, Jalen Tyson, get him. Hey, Donovan Mitchell, you move over there. Hey, Dennis Schroeder, MVP of Germany right now.
Hey, why don't you give it a shot? Like they have that. very minimal weaknesses on that roster as constructed. So I believe in them more than I should. And the acquisition, Trista, was made to kind of combat the issues that the Knicks had been given them. I know we don't have a huge sample of Harden matching up against the Knicks, but so far, so good. Yeah, I like... Harden as a playmaker, and I like the way that he's elevated Jared Allen.
What are the playoff chances for teams in the Eastern Conference?
I know that we're all in on Black History Month Jared Allen and how elite he's been, and I think he raises the ceiling for Evan Mobley as well, but this team, outside of maybe Keyon Ellis, is pretty damn soft. I just wanna know what happens when we punch the Cavs in the mouth, and we'll see what happens. Did Jared Allen, one of the times that the Knicks took out the Cavs and the Cavs had all sorts of frontline problems with the Knicks, Jared Allen did not play. Since Harden got there, every time I look up in the first quarter, Jared Allen has six for seven and I assume that it's just dunks, that he's just getting alley-oops off of dunks that Harden and Mitchell are creating.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Can James Harden actually take a team over the top in the postseason?
0:00–1:02
2
How does the three-point shot affect playoff randomness in basketball?
1:02–3:47
3
What are the playoff chances for teams in the Eastern Conference?
3:47–7:41
4
Why is James Harden considered the least trusted postseason player?
7:41–9:08
5
How do injuries impact team performance in the playoffs?
9:08–20:22
6
What role does coaching play in a team's playoff success?
20:22–39:35
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