Robert Horry Says Anthony Davis Is A Better Player Than Nikola Jokic

Alright, the NBA season is back. You got the Knicks at the Celtics. You got the Timberwolves at the Lakers. Tonight we got basketball back in the fold. Let's welcome in a seven-time champion and that of course is Robert Horry. He's here courtesy of BetOnline.

Check out BetOnline for updated NBA title conference division and awards odds plus updated win totals and player stats. Robert, appreciate the time. How you been my man? I'm good brother. How are you, man?

Well, I'm fantastic. So my producer, Stu, is a huge Lakers fan and he's wearing a Lakers shirt right now and I kind of use him as my reference point for how Lakers fans will feel. I haven't even really thought much of the Lakers outside of like J.J. Redick and LeBron and Bronny.

We may have heard about that. But I asked Stu a simple question today and I said, what do you feel confidence-wise with the Lakers going into the season? And he was like, they'll be lucky if they make the playing tournament. So he's very negative. What's your expectation for the Lakers this year?

I feel the same way. But the thing is that all boils down to Lakers health. You know, Lakers have to be healthy.

And if they're not healthy because you already got VanDoe out, who's a big cog, you know, last year they had Vincent out. And, you know, think about what AD was able to do. But the reason I'm thinking he'd be a little bit higher than the players because J.J. Redick has said they're going to go through AD. And to me, AD is the best player in basketball. And I'm just saying that because I covered the Lakers. I wholeheartedly believe that. And I think if they do that, it'll take them very far in this league. The best player in basketball, Anthony Davis?

Yes. I know that you are a Laker and you work for the Lakers, but how can we say that right now? I like AD, but the best player in basketball. What are we doing? Because, see, people who watch basketball don't really know basketball.

And this is where I get you. Because when you talk about a flaw in a guy's game, can you tell me one flaw in AD's game? Not really, right? Staying on the court. I know last year he was rather healthy, but that's going to be going by last year, going by last year.

But I'm going to do it consistently. That is the question. I like Anthony Davis. Don't get me wrong, but he's not Nicole Jokic, right? Who's a better defender? Anthony Davis, but who's a better all-around player?

Anthony Davis. Okay. We'll agree to disagree on that one.

I don't know. The scoring that Nicole Jokic does and then the assisting as well. It's about the system that you're in. Now, if you made AD run the same system that Jokic does, he could do it. And for me, I don't look at what guys star in. I look at what they are bad in. Jokic is a bad defender. He's a great rebounder, but he's a bad defender.

And most guys in this league don't want to defend. And so that's how I judge players. Real basketball players judge basketball players as basketball players. Not this quote unquote two-way players because that's football. That's not basketball.

So let me ask you this. If let's say you can't pick Anthony Davis. If I said to Robert Horry, Anthony Davis, you put him on the sideline, you can't pick him, then who's the best player in basketball? I'm taking Giannis next.

Okay. KD. Those two go back and forth. KD and Giannis. Jokic doesn't make my list because if you take, I look at guys who can play defense too. Don't get me wrong.

Jokic is just a bad boy, but I look at if you take away his ability to push people out the way, because if you watch him play, he should get a foul every time he go because he throws people out the way. They don't call it. It's almost like what the Kansas City Chiefs are doing now.

They throw people out of the way, they hold and they can't make sacks and they able to get these wins. And so for me, I just look at that and I just, I just like guys who can play on both ends of the court. I don't, I'm not just one of these guys who said, well, he can give me 30, but he's giving up 35. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I don't know. You watch a lot of Nuggets and Lakers. If I may say so myself, Robert, or with all due respect, you know, a thing or two about winning championships. I like what I see from the color Jokic night in and night out. But anyway, I do too. Yeah, I do too.

I don't know. It seems like there's a little haterade with you and Nicola Jokic. No, I love, I love Jokic. I think he's the fourth best player in the league. You know, I think his AD, KD and LeBron and then Jokic, you know, I put LeBron there because of his, his longevity. And then, you know, if people don't have on a top 10 list, a guy is Devin Booker. You know, I love guys who can play offense and Devin Booker who showed me he could play defensive and Olympics.

He rolls his stock rollers for me. And I'm the type of players like, you know, when you think about this, when you watch basketball, it's no line shift, like in football with a defense come, you have to be able to do it on both ends of the floor. And that's what I love about the, the pretty of the basketball and guys can do it on both ends of the court. Now I would be careful attacking Nicola Jokic, his brothers, man, those two brothers. I'd be afraid to say anything critical with those two guys in the stands.

Hey, I seen that guy take a punch, so I ain't scared of him no more. Robert Horry with us. So the big question is, it's not even LeBron right now. It's what could we expect out of Bronny this year?

Your answer is what? One game, one game. And then he's going out to the G league. I think they waiting to have that moment.

That's never been done before an NBA father, son duo on the floor. And I just don't, I don't, I don't think he's ready yet. And, and, and you look at where you connect to shine, you look at the Sam Vincent, I'm saying for Gabe Vincent, so many guys are on that bench that need to play before him. So that's just how it is. It's not the fact that he can't play.

It's just that people in front of him are better. When you say one game, you mean just tonight and then he has to work his way back up or you think one game for the entire season? I just think for the sense of they need to get it out the way, you know, get it out the way early. It's the national televised games, first game of the year, make it happen tonight.

And so we can get it out of the way. And then you can go on about the business of basketball because you think about it, Lakers going, they got it tough this year. So many teams around them got better and they kind of stayed put. And so they need to get wins and get wins early. So they don't be in a position of how they were each and every year of being in the playing game.

They're too old for that. Well, let me ask you this. I think from a father standpoint, if you're looking out for the best interests of your son, yeah, it makes sense what you're saying. But will the ego of LeBron allow him to have his son get sent down to the G League in your opinion? Well, he has no choice.

At the end of the day, you might have an ego. You know, this is one thing I tell coaches and players. You never set up a player to fail. You never put him in a position to fail, right? And if you put him in the game, depending on him, you put him in the position to fail because he's not ready. You know, he's athletic as heck, but he's not ready. And plus that's a disservice to everybody in this league who fought so hard to get to the point. Then all of a sudden you get pushed back just because the father of this kid is one of the best players to ever do it.

And so he says, play my son. And I think, and I think at the end of the day, LeBron, he's not going to pull that car. You know, he wants to win. He wants his legacy to be added on with more championships. Talking to Robert Horry right now, who do you think the team is to beat out West?

Just in the West right now, who would it be? Oklahoma City Thunder. And I think Shay Gilderich, you know, I think, you know, when you look at MVPs, man, you know, he was almost there in this year. What is his odds?

I think his odds are something like, like 15 to one or whatever it is to win it when the MVP trophy. So I think he is the guy that's going to carry OKC to the Western Conference Finals, not Dallas and Klay, you know, not Denver because Denver lost KCP, not the Lakers. I just think it's going to be them because they got better in the offseason by adding, you know, Hardenstein and AC Fresh. Who do you think won the trade between the Knicks and the Timberwolves, by the way, that saw Julius Randle and Dante DiVincenzo go to Minnesota and then Kat come on over to the Knicks? See, I'm a big Kat fan. And, you know, and I love Julius Randle too, but I just think overall, I think the Knicks needed some size and they got some size in Kat.

I know a lot of people be hating on Kat because of, you know, whatever it may be. And I think Julius Randle is a hell of a player, but I just think there's certain fits that certain organizations need to get better. I think the fit of a guy with 6'11 can be one of the best three-pointers shooting bigs you've ever seen. I just think the fit there is so much better than the fit of Minnesota because to me, Julius Randle and Ant-Man are kind of the same players, you know, even though I'm not saying that Ant-Man is way more talented, but they do the same thing is what I mean by that. Wrap it up with Robert Horry.

We'll talk more about that online in just a second. When you get into the East, we know the Celtics are the defending champs. They're the team to beat. Milwaukee, the Knicks, the Sixers already started their season without Paul George and Joel Embiid, which I think is going to be just an entire storyline throughout the year. But out of those teams, Milwaukee, the Knicks and the Sixers, who do you trust the most in your opinion? Well, I'm not I'm not I'm not trusting the Knicks right now, just because they're a new team with McBridges and Kat, you know, they that chemistry got to be formed.

So I have to go with, you know, the Greek freak. I have to go to Milwaukee because you think about you got Dame Leonard, one of the best clutch performers of all time. And you got, of course, the freak, you know, what he can do for that team.

And I'm really interested to see how Doc Rivers can get get his system implemented in the first full season and see what he can do with that squad. Because, you know, they you know, the funny part, you heard Giannis, he heard what he said. If he don't win, now he might get traded.

And that's and that's a definitely shout out to his organization where I want to win now, not later. But you know what? It's like the kid who cries wolf. I feel like this guy says he's gonna get traded every year. You know, I'm gonna leave.

You know, they could get rid of me and he keeps on signing contracts. I don't want a championship a few years ago, but I kind of roll my eyes when I hear Giannis say that now, Robert, hey, that champion was so long ago. We don't even know what it was. Yeah, maybe for you, maybe for you, someone that wins all these championships for the average sports fan. It's not that long ago.

I'm just kidding. But you know, for me, I think, you know, I think Giannis is I think the biggest mistake they ever made was getting rid of the holiday. You know, people, so many people don't understand the importance of a locker room guy, the importance of a guy who's not, you know, who approaches the game unselfishly and doesn't care about himself.

And I think that was such a big, you know, letdown for them. Even though you got Dame Dame is not the same defender. That's one of the things that you got to look at his lead because you got to be able to lock someone down at the end of the game, but they're gonna have to make some moves over there if they don't win it this year because you got it.

You fired a coach at the five seconds. You got you got Damon and it's like this. Be honest, if he doesn't win this year, they got to blow that team up. How about that? One last thing for you, Robert, Ori, when I get to Victor, what is the expectations this year for Wendy?

Bigger and better things. And what I mean by that is he has Chris Paul on his team now. And Chris Paul is a type of player that said, hey, this is the pecking order. You A, B, C and D. He's played a lot of guys last year that was fighting for Bizzino, fighting for pecking order when they didn't know.

No, everything goes to Wendy. And I think now with Chris Paul that he's going to get settled him down, he's going to put him in a position to succeed. He's going to say, OK, you're killing him on the outside. They shoot jumpers.

You kill him on the inside. Let's go inside because you need leadership like that. And I don't think that he's had that leadership last season. And I think he's he's going to be damn good for them. But will they make the playoffs? I don't think so. Robert Ori right now is here courtesy of Bet Online.

Check out Bet Online for updated NBA title conference division and awards odds, plus updated win totals and player stats. And we know Robert Ori is not going to be placed in any bets on a Koliokic is what I took away from this. Well, you can because they lost Casey Pisa.

They won't win this year. And we and we see how Murray Murray had a great Olympics. Appreciate it, Robert. Good to connect. Good to see you, Zach.

Take care of yourself, man. You too. There he is. Robert Ori joining us at the Zach Gelb show, the Infinity Sports Network. That was fun. That was a good chat with Robert Ori. Very good chat.