Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Is it possible that a man Thompson will actually win Defensive Player of the Year?
00:04That's what we'll talk about here in a second.
00:05713-572-4610.
00:07We just got a text on the Jim Adler, the Texas Hammer text line.
00:10The Texas Hammer!
00:11Jim, from the 346 question.
00:14Did you guys come up with a different name for your group chat?
00:16Which, I'm surprised that you even still think about that, dear listener.
00:20Dem boys on Wessie.
00:21No, it's still that.
00:23It's still that.
00:24We didn't come up with a different group name.
00:26How can you beat that?
00:26You can't top that.
00:27Buddy, I'm hoping that we can.
00:29And I'm going to crowdsource this once again.
00:31713-572-4610.
00:33Wesleyan is where the building is?
00:35It is.
00:36Dem boys on Wessie.
00:37If you can come up with a better name.
00:39Actually, when you come up with a better name, text him for us.
00:42And hopefully, myself and Figgie can get that shifted.
00:44You know what?
00:46It is what it is.
00:47That might be the name of the chat.
00:48It is what it is.
00:50That's not going to happen.
00:51We might drive him up a wall.
00:52Not going to happen.
00:53It might.
00:54But that's kind of how I felt.
00:57That not going to happen.
00:58It's kind of how I felt about the possibility of a men's Thompson being defensive player of the year.
01:02Clearly, I think that he is capable of earning such an accolade for a season that he's had this year,
01:08in which he has been absolutely incredible.
01:11This team has been top five defensive rating all the way through, or at least top ten.
01:16But it definitely feels like top five.
01:18Because, I mean, there was points where we were talking about the second best defense in the league and all sorts of stuff.
01:22Sometimes best defense in the league.
01:24And he is hugely...
01:27He holds a huge part of that.
01:29However, you know, what are the things that we talked about?
01:31We talked about this yesterday.
01:32Or last week, rather.
01:33The possibilities of him winning defensive player of the year.
01:34And we were trying to make the case.
01:36But ultimately, it still felt like there's guys that will probably get a lot of love.
01:40Like, Dyson Daniels is one of those that's really interesting.
01:42Because he has...
01:43He holds...
01:45And he actually finished out on the season with a 3.01 steals per game metric.
01:51Which is something that just hasn't been done since, like, the 50s or something like that.
01:55Like, this is just something that doesn't happen.
01:57With a stat that...
01:58There's not a lot of great defensive stats.
02:00And that one is easy to look at.
02:02It's, you know, it's steals.
02:03So it's a thing that pops off the screen.
02:05And I was like, man, is he going to...
02:07Is he going to be able to get this?
02:09Well, come to find out, once we get towards the end of the year, a couple games away from the end of the season,
02:16a couple of very highly respected media members made it known that...
02:21Man Thompson is, in fact, their defensive player of the year pick.
02:27Kevin...
02:27Work Yahoo Sports now.
02:28He's bounced around a little bit.
02:29But he does some good work.
02:30He made the announcement that he is going to vote for a man Thompson for defensive player of the year.
02:35And I was like, oh, wow, this is kind of amazing, right?
02:37And he laid out his case.
02:39And then, maybe even better still, Tom Haberstroh, who is, like, your favorite media person's favorite media person.
02:45Because he is, like, deep in the nerd analytics or what have you.
02:49He made the case for a man Thompson.
02:51I'd like to...
02:51Can you give me one here?
02:52This is him on the Kevin O'Connor podcast on why he is voting for a man Thompson for defensive player here.
02:58Is a guy who's the only player in the NBA top 20 in both blocks and steals.
03:03The versatility you talked about where he's a point of attack shut down Steph Curry the other night.
03:09And he's been doing that all season.
03:10Is that when you got a John Moran or a Shea Gildress Alexander, Jalen Brunson, whomever it is, he's the guy that they're going to throw at him to completely throw off all their first actions.
03:22And that is a thing that you can't say for Evan Mobley or Draymond Green.
03:26Draymond Green's greatest attribute in this conversation is that he has a podcast.
03:33I'm telling you, dude.
03:34He went from 0% chance.
03:36Like, it was 0.8% on Polymarket.
03:400.8% chance of winning Defensive Player of the Year until he had that comment where he's like,
03:45I deserve it, 1,000% have a case for Defensive Player of the Year.
03:49And then he became the favorite.
03:51I don't think he lied.
03:53No, no, he's not.
03:55But the thing is, it's a sexy pick.
03:58It's a who's the most popular, you know, trendy pick.
04:04Maybe it's a better way to put it.
04:07It's not a trendy award, though, Defensive Player of the Year.
04:11But among media members, you know, it's almost like he's not wrong.
04:16And you've been a media member who's voted on this.
04:18So can I ask you from a little bit of your experience, not your personal experience,
04:21but the experience that you've seen of your colleagues, how does it seem like,
04:25at least in the past, that people went about determining who they went for,
04:30who they voted for, Defensive Player of the Year?
04:32Largely because of that.
04:33I remember, you know, I covered the NBA on a daily basis in the 90s and into the 2000s.
04:39And it was players like Michael Jordan.
04:42You know, it was players with the sexy stats, with the blocked shots, with the steals.
04:48You mentioned the steals.
04:49That's going to get a lot of votes.
04:51And then guys like Draymond Green, who seemed to, it's almost like a pack mentality,
04:55that until someone else comes along, that, you know, consistently becomes one of the popular,
05:01the popular kid in class.
05:03That's what it is.
05:04And it's not right.
05:05He's not wrong.
05:06Figure, you're right.
05:07But it's just going to be a long shot by any stretch for Amin to get it.
05:13Yeah, it seemed like a lot of people don't really talk about this award as much.
05:17It seemed like this is more down the line a little bit.
05:20Yes.
05:20And these are for the people that's not maybe the popular guy in class.
05:24And so with Draymond just openly talking about, hey, I think I should win it type of thing,
05:32I think people are like, oh, yeah, maybe sure.
05:34Because everybody else looking at the other stuff.
05:37Everybody else looking at the MVP race and stuff like that.
05:40So I think that's, I think him just bringing that up.
05:43So it's kind of like, oh, yeah, maybe.
05:47That's how it starts is what I was going to say.
05:49Guys like that, that start to say, hey, are you really looking at this?
05:52Yeah.
05:53You know, are you really looking at the numbers and what coaches would want as a shutdown guy?
05:57Yeah.
05:58So that helps him next year, but it doesn't help him this year.
06:01To answer your question, can he win it this year?
06:02No.
06:03I think it does because this happened before the ballots opened up.
06:07The ballots, I imagine, opened up yesterday or maybe today.
06:10And so you have people that are well-respected throwing out a whole big case about this dude.
06:16And then also he had some very notable games that I think you could help cross-reference
06:20all of these stats and all of these things that they're talking about with.
06:23In fact, can you give me, this is the second cut here of Tom Haberstro, again,
06:28probably one of your favorite media members, favorite media member,
06:31talking about a man Thompson for defense player of the year?
06:34I'm sorry.
06:35When you look at the defensive rating of a man Thompson, it's 107 when he's on the floor.
06:40Look at the other defenders on Houston.
06:42You can say Dylan Brooks and Tari Eason, but I'm telling you,
06:44the Houston Rockets have a top four defensive rating this season
06:48with Alper and Shane Goon and Fred Van Vliet on the floor for most of them.
06:54Who picked Houston as being a top four defensive rating team this season?
06:57Who picked it?
06:59No one did.
06:59You know why?
07:00Because they didn't see how good Alman Thompson would be as a 22-year-old
07:04in his second year in the league, dominating defensively
07:06and turning Stephen Curry into just another guy out there.
07:10Yeah, so I don't think that you needed the shade at Fred Van Vliet
07:13and Alper and Shane Goon first and foremost.
07:15I think you could have kept that.
07:17However, I do think that he points out a couple things,
07:19which is one, you had the game against the Warriors,
07:22which was very prominently featured,
07:25especially because three-game stretch where he scored 125 points
07:29and they locked him down to, what, two, three?
07:32Like, three points?
07:33And, like, that was the primary defender on that was Amin Thompson.
07:36People take note of that.
07:38On top of, like, any time you see a highlight reel,
07:40like the fact that he's coming down and, you know,
07:42chased down blocks and coming over with help side blocks
07:45and all sorts of things of that nature.
07:47On top of the idea that he also put this into context of expectation.
07:52Yeah.
07:53Because, like, when you talk about these awards,
07:55like, especially the coach of the year or whatever,
07:57it starts with, what did we expect you to do
07:58and how far did you play over expectation?
08:00And I do think that actually is a good note for dudes
08:04as they're starting to decide, and I guess media members, I should say,
08:06as they're starting to decide who they vote for,
08:08to think back to how highly did you regard this team?
08:11And, yes, obviously, I think that should factor in
08:13with Eme in a big deal, but also, hey, the best defender on that team,
08:17maybe give him a little love for the defensive players.
08:19And I think that's where it's going to land.
08:20I think this is all good for Amin Thompson.
08:23I mean, you know, his name is now being mentioned
08:25among the top defenders in the entire NBA.
08:28This is going to help him win a Defensive Player of the Year award.
08:32It's just not going to help him win this Defensive Player of the Year award
08:36is where I would land.
08:37It's not fair.
08:38You know, what's that old line from the Clint Eastwood movie?
08:41Deserves got nothing to do with it.
08:43Deserve has nothing to do with it in a large part.
08:46But, again, he should be, and we should be, you know,
08:49thankful that he's getting this kind of accolades from a guy like that.
08:52Yeah, well, I think what this means to me is that
08:55you can go ahead and lock in that first-team all-defense.
08:57Like, it seems like the level will also make sure that
09:00if anybody had him on that perimeter,
09:02first-team versus second-team all-defense,
09:04that I think that they'll push him up a little bit.
09:07Also, I think that this gives him an opportunity
09:09to be on that national stage,
09:11and I think it pushes further the Rockets in general
09:13into more of that national stage.