Lakers win NBA Cup, LeBron for MVP, Ja Morant’s return & Anthony Davis’ ceiling with David Aldridge | Good Word with Goodwill

Legendary NBA reporter and columnist David Aldridge joins Vincent Goodwill to talk about the Lakers winning the In-Season Tournament, LeBron potentially winning a 5th MVP, Ja Morant’s return from suspension and more.

00:00 - Welcome to the Good Word!

01:10 - NBA In-Season Tournament final thoughts

06:30 - Indiana Pacers

14:50 - Detroit Pistons

17:30 - Ja Morant

24:55 - LeBron James

29:25 - Anthony Davis

35:30 - LeBron for MVP?

42:40 - Bradley Beal

46:00 - Oklahoma City Thunder

On this episode of the Good Word with Goodwill, legendary NBA reporter and columnist David Aldridge joins Vincent Goodwill to talk about the Lakers winning the In-Season Tournament, LeBron potentially winning a 5th MVP, Ja Morant’s return from suspension and more.

The guys start with some final thoughts on the NBA In-Season Tournament, which David argues was a huge success because the fans got excited and because the league will make a ton of money off of it. However, the tournament itself did not make players play harder.

One team that got a little extra spotlight from the In-Season Tournament is the Indiana Pacers. The guys discuss how the Pacers built this team, as opposed to other teams that tanked to rebuild, and how Tyrese Haliburton is a warning shot to front offices around the league to get their draft analysis right.

The Detroit Pistons have lost 19 games in a row and could be up to 20 consecutive losses after tonight’s game. Since Vince is a Detroit native and former Pistons beat reporter, he and David briefly talk about the sad state of that franchise (along with the sad state of the Washington Wizards, who represent the city where David Aldridge lives).

Ja Morant will soon be returning from his 25-game suspension and both Vinnie and David are hoping that he’s got a little bit more sense about what he’s putting on Instagram this time. David argues that Ja is still one of the most important players in the league and worries that comparisons to Allen Iverson may have confused some who didn’t realize that Morant and Iverson grew up in very different situations.

LeBron James is doing amazing things at his age and we are appreciating it. Is he the NBA MVP front-runner? Probably not, but he will get some votes and it would be a heck of a story if he won another MVP 10 years after winning his last one.

Anthony Davis dominated the Pacers in the Final to win the NBA Cup, putting up an eye-popping stat line and never letting the Pacers get into the game. Why can’t that be the player we see on a nightly basis? And are fans too hard on Davis?

Finally, since David sees a lot of the Wizards, he and Vinnie talk about how talented Bradley Beal (who should be returning from injury tomorrow) actually is and how he’ll look on a very talented Phoenix Suns team before a brief discussion about how good the Oklahoma City Thunder front office is at drafting.

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