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Speaker 1: dot co. Slash b Ball. All right, welcome to hoo

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Speaker 1: tonight here at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I'll ball

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Speaker 1: if you guys are having a great week. So bar

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Speaker 1: got a jpackshow for you today. We're gonna hit the

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Speaker 1: showdown between Chet Holmgren and Victor Weiman Ya I'm a yesterday,

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the thunder to this point

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Speaker 1: in the season at large, and then after that we're

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Speaker 1: gonna do a deep dive into the Cleveland Cavaliers, who

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Speaker 1: are five and zero have the number one offense in

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Speaker 1: the NBA in three significant changes to the way they

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Speaker 1: play compared to last year that we're gonna break down. Then, also,

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Speaker 1: we have a mail bag at the tail end of

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Speaker 1: the show, got about a half dozen questions. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: be hitting some of the other teams around the league.

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Speaker 1: You guys have the drop before we get started. Subscribed

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Speaker 1: to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any

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Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, Underscore Jason Altis,

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Speaker 1: You guys, don't miss show announcement sont forget about a

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Speaker 1: podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight,

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Speaker 1: don't forget. It's also helpful for you leave a rating

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Speaker 1: and a review on that front. And the last, but

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Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in those YouTube comments.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get to at least one mail

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Speaker 1: bag a week over the course of the season. We're

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Speaker 1: going kind of short on today's mail bag just because

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Speaker 1: I'm in a little bit of a time crunch, but

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get to a good sized mail

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Speaker 1: bag at least once a week. All right, Spurs Thunder.

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Speaker 1: So from the opening, tip Chat and Wenby were going

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Speaker 1: at it. There was a kind of a set play

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Speaker 1: where they were trying to get a lob to get

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Speaker 1: Wemby towards the rim, and Chet just swatted it off

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Speaker 1: the glass and then turned around and walled up on

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Speaker 1: Jeremy Sohan at the rim and had a defensive play.

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Speaker 1: Victor Webby Yama took like a pretty aggressive step back

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Speaker 1: three over Chet. In a little bit later in the

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Speaker 1: first half, Chet tried to like throw a lob off

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Speaker 1: the glass to himself to look for the highlight of

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Speaker 1: the century on Victor Webbin Yama, which I admire the ambition,

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Speaker 1: but you know, really Chet just kicked his ass. Wenby

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Speaker 1: was being aggressive too, but he's just not playing very

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Speaker 1: well yet to start this year. We're gonna talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about that later. But Oklahoma City was

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Speaker 1: consistently guarding him with power wings instead of putting Chet

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Speaker 1: on him, so like Jalen Williams started the game on

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Speaker 1: him a lot of Alex Caruso when he came off

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Speaker 1: the bench to like the idea there is, we can't

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Speaker 1: contest you up high, so why don't we bother you

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Speaker 1: down low? Right? And there's actually a male bad question

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Speaker 1: I have today that gets a little deeper into this

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Speaker 1: concept of attacking the base or attacking the basketball to

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Speaker 1: try to disrupt rhythm rather than trying to contest shots

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Speaker 1: up top. And when it comes to Victor in particular,

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Speaker 1: he's struggling right now because he's a little thin, struggles

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Speaker 1: to maintain his base, and he hasn't been very strong

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Speaker 1: with the ball this year. This is something I've talked

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Speaker 1: about a few times on the show, the idea of

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Speaker 1: Victor just kind of like losing control of the basketball

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Speaker 1: by exposing it and people being able to easily knock

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Speaker 1: it away. This was something that happened a lot to

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Speaker 1: Dirk Mimitski. If you guys remember in the early part

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Speaker 1: of his prime, where teams basically were like, instead of

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Speaker 1: putting centers on this guy or big old power forwards,

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Speaker 1: why don't we try guarding him with wings and try

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Speaker 1: to get up underneath him, disrupt his base and attack

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Speaker 1: the pocket at the pocket right. And if you guys remember,

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Speaker 1: the way that Dirk became really good at beating that

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Speaker 1: specific type of defensive strategy was he got really good

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Speaker 1: at fighting for positions. We could get his catches where

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Speaker 1: he wanted. He became very strong with the ball. And

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Speaker 1: again that's where it's like, like I talked about earlier,

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Speaker 1: instead of exposing the basketball, everything's tight and close to

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Speaker 1: the chest, two hands on the ball, being very strong

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Speaker 1: with the basketball to prevent being a and then deadly

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Speaker 1: over the top shooting. So if you ever got a

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Speaker 1: little bit of space with a jab, or if the

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Speaker 1: dude did give him a little bit of space, he

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Speaker 1: could very quickly get up into a shooting pocket and

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Speaker 1: get a shot off. And then lastly, leveraging body position

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Speaker 1: for drives, he would just feel what shoulder you're on,

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Speaker 1: and he would spin off or he'd do a quick

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Speaker 1: rip in a certain direction. And so he actually got

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Speaker 1: very very good at scoring against smaller defenders, and that

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Speaker 1: was what kind of unlocked that later phase of his

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Speaker 1: prime where he became one of the most dominant scorers

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Speaker 1: in the league. And so that's going to be a

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Speaker 1: coverage that I think Victor is going to deal with

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Speaker 1: a lot here early on, as teams are testing his

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Speaker 1: ability to maintain his base and to take care of

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Speaker 1: the basketball, and he's just going to have to get

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Speaker 1: so much better at those specific details to counter that.

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Speaker 1: Chet is just in general so much further along in

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Speaker 1: his development. The Victor women Yama, the gap between a

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Speaker 1: twenty year old and a twenty two year old on

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Speaker 1: the basketball court is probably the largest two year development

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Speaker 1: gap in the sport. That's when you really start to

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Speaker 1: grow into your body and become and also it's like

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Speaker 1: your first experience playing against real pros, that's when you learn,

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Speaker 1: right Like, Chet has an extra year of NBA strength

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Speaker 1: and conditioning under his belt, he has an extra year

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Speaker 1: of working out with pros, like he spent an entire

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Speaker 1: summer working out with KD. He's just a better basketball

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Speaker 1: player right now, and that's to be expected. But obviously

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Speaker 1: Victor has a chance to close that gap. But Chet

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Speaker 1: kicked his ass yesterday. Because Chet's a better player. Obviously

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma City is a better team. But at this phase,

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Speaker 1: like Chet is playing better basketball right now, Victor, there's

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Speaker 1: all this potential, there's all this upside that he can

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Speaker 1: get to. And I wouldn't be surprised if by the

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Speaker 1: end of the season Victor starts to more accurate, accurately

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Speaker 1: represent you know what we expect from him. This is everyone.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's capable of having a bad four game stretch, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: everyone's capable of that, but Chet right now just looks

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Speaker 1: a little bit older, a little bit more developed, and

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Speaker 1: I thought that was on display in the game last night.

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Speaker 1: He's Chet's defending at a preposterously high level right now.

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Speaker 1: He's averaging five stocks per game. He's being way more

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Speaker 1: physically aggressive this year, leveraging his athletic gifts, especially in transition.

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Speaker 1: He runs the floor super super well. Remember that was

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Speaker 1: how he beat Jokic in the first game of the season,

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Speaker 1: just by running him up and down the floor. Twenty

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Speaker 1: seven percent of Chet's points to this point in the

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Speaker 1: year have come in transition. The Thunder also clearly allowing

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Speaker 1: him to be more aggressive in their offense. His usage

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Speaker 1: rate is up five percent from last year, a lot

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Speaker 1: more opportunity to run action in the half court. He's

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Speaker 1: running about three pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups

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Speaker 1: per game including passes this year. That's up about twenty

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Speaker 1: percent from what he was doing last year. He did

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Speaker 1: struggle to shoot the ball in the first two games

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Speaker 1: of the year, but he's six for eight from three

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Speaker 1: over the course of his last two games. And the

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Speaker 1: big one is he's doing so much better attacking closeouts.

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Speaker 1: When he catches on the perimeter and he's got a

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Speaker 1: bigger guy closing out at him. He's doing such a

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Speaker 1: nice job of beating that guy off the dribble and

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Speaker 1: making quick scoring moves. Last year, Check converted spot up

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Speaker 1: opportunities at one point zero three points per possession. This

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Speaker 1: year he's doing it at one point five to four

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Speaker 1: points per possession. Now, obviously won't stay that high, but

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Speaker 1: he's been so much better at scoring with an advantage

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Speaker 1: so far this year. Simple moves with simple counters. There

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Speaker 1: was a couple plays in the Spurs game that I

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Speaker 1: thought demonstrated this drove right got cut off, kind of

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Speaker 1: just quickly pivoted over his right shoulder, made a little

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Speaker 1: short seven footer in the light. Simple concept, right hard

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Speaker 1: drive to the right, cut me off, I'm gonna make

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Speaker 1: a counter move. There was another play where he was

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Speaker 1: going downhill at Zach Collins and Zak Collins was really

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Speaker 1: on his heels and overplaying Chet's right hand drive, and

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Speaker 1: so Check just went into a hard spin move and

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Speaker 1: then right up to the basket with his left hand

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Speaker 1: and finish. That was something he struggled with last year,

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Speaker 1: Just quick scoring moves off the dribble that he's doing

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Speaker 1: really really well to start this year. Remember, spacing is

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Speaker 1: not just about making threes. It's about off ball scoring.

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Speaker 1: It's about taking an advantage and turning it into points.

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Speaker 1: Everyone thinks that that just means knocking down a shot

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Speaker 1: off to catch. It can mean so many different things

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Speaker 1: in terms of maintaining your threat off the ball. If

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Speaker 1: you never take a catch and shoot three, but you

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Speaker 1: managed to successfully turn every catch at the three point

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Speaker 1: line into points, somehow, you're still providing spacing because teams

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Speaker 1: are not going to want to leave you open for

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Speaker 1: that specific reason. Right. Obviously, it's a combination of all

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Speaker 1: those different things. But Chet's just doing a really nice

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Speaker 1: job driving closeouts this year. Now again, this is all

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Speaker 1: very small sample size. Chet has been playing though so

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Speaker 1: far this year right around that like kind of top

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Speaker 1: fifteen level. He's averaging twenty three points in eleven rebounds

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Speaker 1: on sixty six percent true shooting, with truly elite rim

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Speaker 1: protection and some real defensive versatility five stocks per game.

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Speaker 1: With his super low foul rate, he's committing just two

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Speaker 1: point six fouls per thirty six minutes. He's been one

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Speaker 1: of the best two way players in the league this year.

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Speaker 1: Now again, We'll see how it goes over the large sample.

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Speaker 1: I do think Victor is going to be a better

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Speaker 1: player and in the long run. But Chet is playing

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Speaker 1: better basketball to start this year, and he's playing better

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Speaker 1: basketball not just than Wemby, but then a lot of

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Speaker 1: players in the NBA that I had ranked above him

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Speaker 1: coming into the season. I'm really really curious to see

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Speaker 1: how well he can maintain that, because if he can

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Speaker 1: maintain that level of play, we're talking about a really

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Speaker 1: dangerous team and a team that presents some specific issues

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Speaker 1: to a team like the Boston Celtics if they were

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Speaker 1: to meet in the NBA Finals. Looking around the rest

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Speaker 1: of the roster, Chayes off to a rough start this year,

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Speaker 1: but it's mostly because of his jump shot. He looks

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Speaker 1: just as quick and dynamic off the bounce as ever,

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Speaker 1: if not even a bit more so. But he's really

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Speaker 1: trying to build up this pull up three part of

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Speaker 1: his game. To give you a basic idea of how

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Speaker 1: much he's like really trying to add this to his game.

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Speaker 1: Last year, he took about two and a half pull

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Speaker 1: up threes per game. This year, he's taken about six

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Speaker 1: and a half, So he's basically doubling his pull up

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Speaker 1: three point shot volume, and he's experiencing experiencing some growing

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Speaker 1: pains as he tries to build that out. I've talked

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Speaker 1: read this on the show before, but there's a process

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Speaker 1: to adding something to your game as a basketball player,

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Speaker 1: and each step of the process comes with a part

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Speaker 1: where it looks ugly. So, for instance, starts with a

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Speaker 1: loan in the gym. You're in the gym with a rebounder,

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Speaker 1: taking step back threes, taking off the dribble threes. Right

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Speaker 1: at first, it's gonna look ugly, but eventually you're gonna

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Speaker 1: get really good at it, and you're gonna be like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I think I'm ready to try this against the defender.

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Speaker 1: Then you start working one on ones and you're working

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Speaker 1: that same step back three or that high hesitation three

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Speaker 1: going left and right, whatever the combinations you're working on,

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Speaker 1: and there will be a phase where it looks ugly

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Speaker 1: against defense because that defender is gonna be disrupting your

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Speaker 1: rhythm and doing all these little things to make it

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Speaker 1: harder on you. Right, But eventually you're gonna get really

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Speaker 1: good at that. Then the next phase is like in practice,

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Speaker 1: when you're playing five on five and testing it there,

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Speaker 1: and there's gonna be a phase where it looks ugly because

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Speaker 1: it's different than what you're used to doing in the

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Speaker 1: flow of five out five on five games, right, But

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Speaker 1: eventually you get to the point where you're really good

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Speaker 1: at it, and then you start trying to leverage it

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Speaker 1: in actual games. But even then there's usually a phase

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Speaker 1: at the beginning where it's like, try this new move.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying this new thing. I'm doing it in games

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Speaker 1: and it's not working right now, but you have to

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Speaker 1: stick with it. And I think that's just kind of

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Speaker 1: part of the process here, Like a lot of guys

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Speaker 1: for the Spur or for the Thunder are trying to

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Speaker 1: increase their pull up three point volume. Jalen Williams basically

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Speaker 1: doubling his pull up three point volume. There's been some

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Speaker 1: growing pains there, right, Like, that's kind of part of

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Speaker 1: that journey. I don't really get concerned about it until

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Speaker 1: you start to enter into that Jason Tatum territory where

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Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, now we have three consecutive full seasons

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Speaker 1: of him being pretty bad at pull up jump shooting,

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Speaker 1: and yet he's still trying. But even then, here we

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Speaker 1: are this year, albeit very small sample size, but Tatum's

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Speaker 1: getting one point two to two points per pull up

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Speaker 1: jump shots so far this year. So if it comes

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Speaker 1: together and it turns into a reliable thing for him

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Speaker 1: in the long run, like I would argue even the

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Speaker 1: three years of him being a bad pull up shooter

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Speaker 1: were worth it, right, So, like it's all part of

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Speaker 1: investing in long term skill development. It's clear that that's

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Speaker 1: what Shay is working on. Jalen Williams, same sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: He's just eleven for thirty eight on jump shot this year.

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Speaker 1: By the way, the Thunder as a team are really

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Speaker 1: struggling to shoot the ball, which we'll get two in

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Speaker 1: a second, but the Jalen Williams struggling to make jump shots.

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Speaker 1: He's also doubled his pull up three point shot volume,

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Speaker 1: and he's not making them right now. But he's been

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Speaker 1: so good in so many other ways, Like he's rebounding

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Speaker 1: super well this year. He's averaging six assists per game

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Speaker 1: here in the early part of the season. I'm not

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Speaker 1: worried about Jalen in the long run. And again you're four. No,

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Speaker 1: that's a scary thing about all of this, Like they're

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Speaker 1: not shooting well and they're four to O, and to me,

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Speaker 1: it's mostly about shots selection. They're actually shooting over forty

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Speaker 1: percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots and they're

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Speaker 1: getting one point two to one points per attempt in

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Speaker 1: those situations, which is great, right, but they have several

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Speaker 1: guys working on their pull up jump shots, and their

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shots are not going in right now,

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Speaker 1: and they're taking a lot of contested catch and shoot

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Speaker 1: threes that are not going in. They've taken fifty contested

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes this season and they're shooting just

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Speaker 1: twenty two percent on them. I do think they'll be

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Speaker 1: fine in the long run. But the real story of

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Speaker 1: this game, the thing that really stood out to me

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Speaker 1: just watching this in the Thunder play is just the

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Speaker 1: gap in young talent. Like the Thunder just have so

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Speaker 1: many good young players in their system. We talked about

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Speaker 1: Jaylen Williams, we talked about Chet Holmer, when we talked

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Speaker 1: about Shay Gills as Alexander right, but like Aaron Wiggins

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Speaker 1: is like a rock solid three and D wing with

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Speaker 1: some real off the dribble pop. And again he's another

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Speaker 1: guy that's not shooting the three well to start the year.

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Speaker 1: But he's a career thirty nine percent three point shoot.

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Speaker 1: I'm not worried about it. Kase On Wallace just a

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Speaker 1: really good ball pressure guard. Like Kayseon Wallace sparked the

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Speaker 1: run at the end of that Atlanta game. If you

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Speaker 1: guys remember, Atlanta took a lead on offensive rebound put

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Speaker 1: back in the early fourth quarter, and then kayse On

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Speaker 1: Wallace really started to get up in Trey Young's jersey

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Speaker 1: and forced a couple of back to back turnovers. They

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Speaker 1: started to get out and transition, and they blew that

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Speaker 1: game open immediately, in large part because of kayse On

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Speaker 1: Wallace's ball pressure. He also can shoot the ball extremely well.

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Speaker 1: He's also a guy that can really score well on

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Speaker 1: rolls to the rim or cuts to the rim. He

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Speaker 1: can shoot the ball really well. He's a good screen center.

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Speaker 1: Like there's so many different things that Kayson Wallace does

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Speaker 1: really well. Isaiah Joe shoots the seams off the basketball.

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Speaker 1: Aj Mitchell, the latest rookie for Oklahoma City to look

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Speaker 1: good in their system, had twelve points and two steals

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Speaker 1: last night. It's just this like one after the other

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Speaker 1: of like really good, interesting young players that are coming

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Speaker 1: up through Oklahoma City system. Meanwhile, you just suppose it

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Speaker 1: with the Spurs young talent, and there just doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: to be nearly as many exciting options. Like I like

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Speaker 1: Devin Vassel. I'm really excited to see what he can

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Speaker 1: do when he gets back on the floor this year,

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Speaker 1: but like you know, we'll see, it remains to be seen.

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Speaker 1: If he has that all star upside. That's probably the

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Speaker 1: biggest swing factor in the Spurs development over the next

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Speaker 1: few years. I like Jeremy Sohan as a versatile forward,

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Speaker 1: and he's putting on some putting up some solid box

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Speaker 1: score numbers. But I have a hard time figuring out

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Speaker 1: where Jeremy Sohan fits in a good NBA offense. And

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Speaker 1: I know that sounds absurd. He's averaging what nineteen points

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Speaker 1: a game on fifty percent shooting or something like that

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Speaker 1: this year, but it's in the context of a bad offense.

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Speaker 1: And that's where it gets tricky, because he really can't shoot,

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Speaker 1: and he really can't make contested shots around the rim.

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Speaker 1: So it's hard for me to envision him having like

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Speaker 1: an easy role in a really good offense. Even if

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Speaker 1: you're a great, dirty work player that can do all

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Speaker 1: these different things. Like we've just seen how many times

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Speaker 1: over the course of NBA history these types of forwards

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Speaker 1: get completely ignored by good defenses and high leverage situations.

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Speaker 1: It's still early, we'll see what happens in the long run,

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Speaker 1: but the context of Jeremy Sohan's scoring right now is

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Speaker 1: not something that I think fits into a good offense.

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Speaker 1: And that's something that concerns me. Other young guys like

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Speaker 1: Trey Jones, he's fine, good player, right, like Keldon Johnson,

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Speaker 1: good athlete. With him, it's the kind of like feel

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Speaker 1: for the game stuff that's always bothered me. But like

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Speaker 1: Malachi Brandam, Julian Champagne, Stefan Castle, who's just struggling to

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Speaker 1: shoot the ball to start this year. But like, none

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Speaker 1: of those guys are really popping the way that Oklahoma

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Speaker 1: City's guys are popping. And that's like directly manifesting and

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Speaker 1: how easy it is for Oklahoma City to win basketball games.

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Speaker 1: The offensive end is just so bad for the Spurs.

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Speaker 1: They have a one zero four offensive rating. Only the

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Speaker 1: Jazz have been worse. They can't shoot the ball, they're

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Speaker 1: not a good ball handling team, They're not a good

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Speaker 1: feel for the game team. Chris Paul hasn't helped the

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Speaker 1: offense much at all. He just doesn't threaten the defense

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Speaker 1: enough as a scorer to really get defenses to react

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Speaker 1: to him. He's not setting up Victor wemen Yama with

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Speaker 1: the quality opportunities I was hoping he would. The Spurs

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Speaker 1: have just a one oh one offensive rating with CP

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Speaker 1: three on the floor. They've actually been better with him

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Speaker 1: off the floor. So like, I'm just really curious to

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Speaker 1: see what this all looks like in two to three years,

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Speaker 1: Like who who among this group does the front office

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Speaker 1: view as foundational pieces next to Victor wemen Yama. I'm

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Speaker 1: really curious to see Devin Vessel again is going to

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Speaker 1: be the big swing factor to see where this team

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Speaker 1: can get to. And again on the Wemby front, all

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Speaker 1: about strength and shooting, strength in his base, strength with

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Speaker 1: the basketball and really working on that. It looks like

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Speaker 1: he's clearly trying to become a perimeter score. It seems

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Speaker 1: to be his approach to the game. But right now

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Speaker 1: he just doesn't shoot the ball well enough. And again,

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Speaker 1: anybody can play poorly for four games, let's give it

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Speaker 1: some time. I ranked Victor Wemenyam the eighteenth in my

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Speaker 1: player rankings before the season, because I obviously view him

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Speaker 1: substantially better than what he has shown to this point.

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Speaker 1: But he's just not playing well. And right now, the

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Speaker 1: Spurs look like a bad basketball team, and I'm curious

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Speaker 1: to see how that shapes out over the course of

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Speaker 1: the rest of the season. All right, let's move on

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Speaker 1: to the Cleveland Cavaliers five and up. To start the year,

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Speaker 1: the first three games were against some bad teams, so

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Speaker 1: I was waiting to see what they looked like against

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Speaker 1: a tougher stretch of their schedule. But then they went

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Speaker 1: into New York and they beat the Knicks with a

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Speaker 1: really impressive late third quarter early fourth quarter run. And

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Speaker 1: then they beat the living shit out of the Lakers

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Speaker 1: last night. Lakers fans, if you want to hear what

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Speaker 1: I thought about their side of that game. I have

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Speaker 1: a couple of thoughts about it that I'm going to

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Speaker 1: share in the mailbag, So just kind of hang out

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Speaker 1: towards the end. But there are three main differences that

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Speaker 1: I'm noticing between this year's Cleveland Cavaliers team and last

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Speaker 1: year's Cavaliers team. The first one is the obvious one.

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Speaker 1: They are playing so so so much faster. They're trying

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Speaker 1: to leverage misses in turnovers into fast break basketball, and again,

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Speaker 1: it's just a very basic basket on a very basic level,

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Speaker 1: it's the concept that every you know, how like I

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Speaker 1: talked about the king of the court concept with my

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Speaker 1: high school kids and the idea of like how much

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Speaker 1: more efficient they are scoring the basketball when a defenders

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Speaker 1: sprinting at them versus one a defenders standing in its

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Speaker 1: stance in front of them. Like that is a simple

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Speaker 1: mathematical concept where it's like, we want to try to

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Speaker 1: avoid as many of these one on one situations with

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Speaker 1: a set defender as possible, and we want to create

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Speaker 1: as many opportunities with the defender sprinting at our offensive

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Speaker 1: players as possible. We want to create as many of

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Speaker 1: those advantage situations as possible because on a very mathematical level,

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Speaker 1: we just score more points per opportunity in those situations

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Speaker 1: than when we're going against the set defense. That same

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Speaker 1: concept translates to transition basketball. Every NBA team is substantially

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Speaker 1: more efficient in transition than they are in the half court,

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Speaker 1: and so every opportunity you have to get out in

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Speaker 1: transition you need to take advantage of it. Now there's

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Speaker 1: a personnel ele to it. If you don't have fast players,

430
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 1: you're not going to do a ton of scoring in transition, right,

431
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,000
Speaker 1: Like the defense will just beat you back and then

432
00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:08,680
Speaker 1: you'll end up inefficient in transition and that will defeat

433
00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:11,320
Speaker 1: the purpose. Right. But like, if you have the personnel

434
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 1: to run, you should look to run as much as possible.

435
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 1: And if you are not, you are missing on an

436
00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:22,119
Speaker 1: opportunity to build margin within your basketball team. And again,

437
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 1: like this is something that jab bigger staff was just

438
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,400
Speaker 1: not capitalizing on. This is a team that should be running.

439
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,240
Speaker 1: Jared Allen mobile for a big Evan Mobley, one of

440
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,760
Speaker 1: the most mobile bigs in the league, Garland Mitchell. These

441
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,560
Speaker 1: guys are fast, they have speed. They should be playing

442
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: fast and they just weren't. Here are a couple of

443
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,720
Speaker 1: stats to demonstrate just how much of a difference Kenny

444
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,919
Speaker 1: Atkinson has made in the transition play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

445
00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:49,000
Speaker 1: Last year, they were eighth in pace or excuse me,

446
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:51,280
Speaker 1: last year they were twenty fourth in pace. This year

447
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,000
Speaker 1: they're eighth in pace. Last year they were twelve in

448
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: fast break points scored. This year they are third in

449
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,560
Speaker 1: fast break points scored. Last year, they were seventeenth in

450
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,920
Speaker 1: total transition points scored per game. This year they're fifth

451
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,600
Speaker 1: in total transition point scored per game. Last year there

452
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,919
Speaker 1: were seventh in transition efficiency. This year they are second

453
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:12,639
Speaker 1: in transition efficiency, so top ten across the board and

454
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:16,720
Speaker 1: top five for the most part in every transition offense category,

455
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,399
Speaker 1: when they were a middle to below average team in

456
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,240
Speaker 1: the pack of NBA teams last year in those categories,

457
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,440
Speaker 1: just by simply changing their approach. And again, this is

458
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: a concept I've been talking about a ton on this show.

459
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:33,080
Speaker 1: The base level of basketball is half court offense. And

460
00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:34,920
Speaker 1: the reason why I focus on that so much is

461
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 1: that when you get to the later phases of the playoffs,

462
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 1: everybody's good, so it's harder to gain margin or to

463
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:44,640
Speaker 1: gain ground on the margins because everybody's well coached, everybody

464
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,480
Speaker 1: plays super hard, everybody is sharp and disciplined, and so

465
00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 1: then like those half court battles become so much more important.

466
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: But in the large sample, when you're playing eighty two games,

467
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: and especially when you're looking for opportunities to make quick

468
00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:00,240
Speaker 1: work of lesser playoff teams in the early rounds, where

469
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 1: building margin can help, how do you build margin, win

470
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: on the specific details that are outside of that half

471
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 1: court basketball. Are you winning in transition on offense? Are

472
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:11,399
Speaker 1: you winning in transition on defense? Like are you getting

473
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 1: back right? Like? Are you generating extra possessions on the

474
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 1: offensive glass? Are you generating transition opportunities and extra possessions

475
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,159
Speaker 1: off of turnovers? Like all of these different things that

476
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 1: you can do in the game that build margin, right,

477
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,520
Speaker 1: And like this is a classic example of like, this

478
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,440
Speaker 1: was a mediocre offense last year. Now they're the number

479
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 1: one offense in the league. And there's another concept we're

480
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:34,760
Speaker 1: going to talk about with Evan Mobley in a minute,

481
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 1: But a big part of that is they're just getting

482
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: easier opportunities in transition as much as they possibly can,

483
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 1: which is something that JB. Bickerstaff was just not taking

484
00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,399
Speaker 1: advantage of two on defense. They are doing a lot

485
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 1: more switching. Kenny Atkinson was an assistant with the Warriors

486
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: for a while before this, and Steve Kerr has been

487
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:56,880
Speaker 1: a huge proponent of switching, was one of the original

488
00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 1: guys in the league that really leaned into it a lot, right,

489
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,920
Speaker 1: So it's not hard to believe why Kenny Atkinson has

490
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,560
Speaker 1: kind of taking that ideology into Cleveland. But specifically, what

491
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr is a proponent of is switching containing the

492
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 1: ball with limited help in playing passing lanes instead of overhelping.

493
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 1: Why because, yeah, you're gonna have possessions where you give

494
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,159
Speaker 1: up a bucket in a one on one situation. But

495
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,800
Speaker 1: if that guy contains the basketball and forces him to

496
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: pick up his dribble, then he's got to turn and

497
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 1: start pivoting around and looking for places to throw the

498
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,640
Speaker 1: ball when everyone's in a passing lane instead of overhelping.

499
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,440
Speaker 1: Those passing reads aren't there. And a lot of times,

500
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 1: especially if the on ball defender starts poking at the

501
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: ball and starts pressuring, that guy will rush a pass.

502
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 1: And that is when you're in the passing lane and

503
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 1: you force a turnover and you start to get out

504
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: in transition. He has brought that same philosophy. Kenny Atkinson

505
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:48,800
Speaker 1: has brought that same philosophy to the Caves and it's

506
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:51,160
Speaker 1: been a huge boost for them. Last year, they were

507
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,600
Speaker 1: forcing the eighteenth most turnovers in the league. This year,

508
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: they're forcing the fourth most turnovers in the league, and

509
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,760
Speaker 1: they are number one in the entire NBA so far

510
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 1: in points off of turnovers per game, where last year

511
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,679
Speaker 1: they were twelve. Again, if you switch and you contain

512
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: and you play passing lanes, you start to get deflections

513
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 1: and turnovers. That's when you get out in transition. The

514
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 1: Lakers game was a classic example of this. They forced

515
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,199
Speaker 1: six turnovers in the first quarter and scored on every

516
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 1: single one of them, and five of them were threes.

517
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,640
Speaker 1: They had seventeen points in a single quarter just off

518
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: the strength of their defense, forcing turnovers in running the floor.

519
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 1: Seventeen points. That's a huge boost to any offense. So

520
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:35,640
Speaker 1: one playing in transition as much as possible. Two more

521
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,159
Speaker 1: switching which is allowing them to force more turnovers, and

522
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 1: then three much more involvement of Evan Mobley in the offense.

523
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:44,199
Speaker 1: This is a concept we actually talked about when we

524
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,120
Speaker 1: talked some calvs. Was it on Monday this week? Yeah,

525
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: I think it was on Monday this week. That was

526
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: in the Monday show when we did the Stock Rising

527
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 1: Stock Falling, I talked about Evan Mobley's on ball creation.

528
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: We did some film in that one as well, but

529
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: the general like kind of quick synopsis of it. I

530
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: did a real deep dive on it earlier this week,

531
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: but The basic concept there is Evan Mobley's being guarded

532
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,040
Speaker 1: by Ford, who typically doesn't have to navigate screens, and

533
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,679
Speaker 1: guard setting screens. The guard defender is now navigating as

534
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,160
Speaker 1: a screen defender, which is something that guards don't typically

535
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: need to do. And for the most part, teams are

536
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,679
Speaker 1: going to hedge in situations like that. So if they

537
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: don't hedge, Evan Mobley can turn the corner because his

538
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 1: man is set. The guard is setting a screen on

539
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: the big forward who's not gonna navigate the screen well,

540
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get down. Hell, one of two things

541
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: is gonna happen. Either the Ford's gonna die on the

542
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 1: screen now Evan Mobley's going to the rim, or two,

543
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: the forward's gonna have to go way under the screen.

544
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 1: Now Evan Mobley can get a runway either to take

545
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot, which he's making more frequently

546
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: this year, or to get ahead of Steam so that

547
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 1: he can get deeper post position for his little short

548
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 1: hook shots and floaters over the top. Right. That's the

549
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: first part of it, But the second big part of

550
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: it is like getting the defense in rotation, like if

551
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: the defender hedges, like in the Knicks game, For instance,

552
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: in the early fourth quarter stretch, they were spaming like

553
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,239
Speaker 1: a horn set where they were having Merrill set that

554
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,159
Speaker 1: inverted screen for Mobili and then popping out to the

555
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,199
Speaker 1: three point line. They got a wide open three for

556
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: George kniing out of that because Mobley drove on the hedge,

557
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: flipped it back to Meryl, rotate, rotate wide open three

558
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,440
Speaker 1: to George's kneeing in the corner, and he knocks it down.

559
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 1: And the most important thing here is it gives them

560
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,400
Speaker 1: variety that they did not have in the past. It's

561
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 1: leveraging Evan Mobley's strengths, and Evan Mobley has some weaknesses, right,

562
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,080
Speaker 1: Like we've talked about this a lot. Scoring on the

563
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 1: role has been a little bit of an issue for

564
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: him over the years, and finishing at the rim with

565
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:35,919
Speaker 1: anything that's not a dunk has been an issue. But like,

566
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: he's kind of a decent jump shooter. And then two,

567
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 1: he like is pretty good at playmaking off the bouts.

568
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: And so you're leveraging those specific gifts with those inverted actions,

569
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: and most importantly, it's adding variety to your offense. This

570
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: allows Donovan Mitchell to conserve energy that knicks game Evan Mobley.

571
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: They ran that action for three four times in a

572
00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 1: row to start the quarter. That allowed Devin Donald Mitchell

573
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: to basically just spot up on the right side of

574
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 1: the floor. Then when that action started to get controlled

575
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: a little bit by the Knicks, then Donovan Mitchell started

576
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: hitting the Jets and he had like a lot more burst.

577
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:11,680
Speaker 1: He had this like crazy, just one on one drive

578
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: on Michale Bridges where he got all the way to

579
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: the rim and laid it up like that makes Donovan

580
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: Mitchell's job easier because he doesn't have to do as

581
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,480
Speaker 1: much and he could pick his spots more and be

582
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 1: more athletic when he's actually picking his spots. Then all

583
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Darius Garland checks in. Darius Garland on

584
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: one of his best games as a pro against the Knicks,

585
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: and he just eviscerates the Knicks with a bunch of

586
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,199
Speaker 1: downhill burst and over the top shot making and so

587
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: like again, that's the beautiful thing. Though offensive variety is

588
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: the key to matchup versatility. A lot of teams have

589
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: a lot of guards that guard guards well, and then

590
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:46,399
Speaker 1: there are a lot of other teams that have a

591
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: lot of excellent front court defenders. It's exceedingly rare for

592
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: a team to have elite defenders at every position. And

593
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: so when you've got Darius Garland who brings a certain

594
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,640
Speaker 1: type of style to the guard position, and Donovan Mitchell

595
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 1: who bring a different type of style to the guard position,

596
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: and then Evan Mobley who brings the ability to generate

597
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: some offense by getting the defense in rotation and scoring

598
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 1: a little bit for himself. In these inverted actions, you

599
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: just add more variety so that you can cater whatever

600
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 1: you're doing to the opponent that you're playing. That is

601
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,439
Speaker 1: what gives you that matchup versatility. But so those are

602
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: the three main things that are really turning things around

603
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: for the Calves this season. They're just playing so much faster.

604
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 1: They're doing more switching, which is allowing them to force

605
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: more turnovers, which, by the way, they are leveraging into

606
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: more transition scoring. And then three a lot more involvement

607
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: of Evan Mobley in the offense. Still early in some

608
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: really tough games coming up for the Calves. They play

609
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: Orlando next. That's a tough matchup for them because they

610
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: do have really good front court defenders and really good

611
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: guard defenders, and they have a lot of size to

612
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: look to attack the smaller Cleveland perimeter players. That's gonna

613
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: be a tough one. Then they go to Milwaukee, and

614
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: then they play Milwaukee again at home. I actually like

615
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 1: Cleveland's matchup with Milwaukee because Milwaukee's another team that is

616
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: lazy and slow, and so they should just be able

617
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:03,959
Speaker 1: to cook them in transition. I wouldn't be surprised if

618
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 1: they go too to zero in those two games, but

619
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: we'll see. Then they go to New Orleans to play

620
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, who've been really struggling to start the year.

621
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 1: Then they played the Golden State Warriors, which will be

622
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: another really interesting type of matchup because they do have

623
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: Draymond Green to leverage against someone like in Evan Mobley,

624
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: but also have the guard defenders to hang with Cleveland's guards.

625
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: So we're gonna learn a lot about the Cavs Rosher

626
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: over the course of the next five games. All right,

627
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: let's move on to our mailbag. I had a bunch

628
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: of questions around this kind of theme, but I just

629
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 1: picked one for you guys. What is it with the

630
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 1: all knowing talking head keep insisting that teams have to

631
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: trade away a bunch of highly promising players in order

632
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 1: to become competitive. We heard the same thing from endless

633
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,719
Speaker 1: sports commentators about the twenty twenty two Warriors. Let's not

634
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: forget that the Warriors came within a hair's breadth of

635
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,239
Speaker 1: trading Clay for Kevin Love, and that they tried and

636
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: failed to trade Steph for Andrew Boget. And now here

637
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: you are almost raving about how much better the Warriors

638
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 1: are this season than you expected, but still insisting that

639
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: they get rid of several players in exchange for some

640
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: magic bullet, even though the season is only four games

641
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: old and no one knows just how good this incredibly

642
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: deep team will be, or with the ceiling for some

643
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: of their younger players who just keep getting better every year,

644
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 1: drives me crazy. But I had dozens of Warriors fans

645
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: complaining about the idea that I say that they need

646
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: to trade a couple of things. First of all, you're right,

647
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: it's only been four games, so I'm not saying they

648
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: should trade make a trade right now. I think it's

649
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 1: a deadline deal like that you wait till the deadline,

650
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 1: like I for the exactly because like, here's the thing,

651
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: if you get fifty games under your belt and Buddy

652
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: healed is like still averaging twenty something points per game

653
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: and shooting in the high forties from three, Then maybe

654
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: it is that Steve Kerr unlocked Buddy Heeld and there's

655
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: your secondary shot creator. Like, let's see, it's only been

656
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: four games and he's shooting over fifty percent from three.

657
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing that's going to stay

658
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 1: that hot throughout the remainder of this season. No one

659
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,240
Speaker 1: shoots high volume mid fifties from three, not in the

660
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: history of the league, right, So, like there's that element

661
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: to it too. You don't know what stars are available yet,

662
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: like you gotta wait to see what it is. But

663
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 1: there's a very specific reason why I've been advocating for this.

664
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: First of all, this is not the twenty twenty two Warriors.

665
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty two Warriors had Jordan Poole, a better

666
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: version of Andrew Wiggins, and Klay Thompson. All three of

667
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: those guys are better offensive players than anybody on the

668
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: Warriors roster right now not named Steph Kurk. Now, again,

669
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 1: we'll see if Buddy Heel just suddenly transforms into an

670
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: all star level guard, then we need to have a

671
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 1: different conversation but now you're leveraging four games of evidence

672
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: versus I mean, Buddy's been in the league a decade

673
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: or close something like that. So like, let's wait to

674
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: see more before we jump on that boat. But there's

675
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: a very specific reason why I've been talking about this.

676
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: I broke it down for you guys the other day.

677
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: But the Warriors, their second and tertiary secondary and tertiary

678
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: shock creators are not nearly at the same level as

679
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: the West of the rest of the Western Conference. There's

680
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: been a very specific thing that has taken place over

681
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: the course of this year. They've beaten the shit out

682
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: of bad teams. And by the way, the Pelicans they

683
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: made a trade where they sent out two high level

684
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: role players and Larry Nnts and Dyson Daniels to Atlanta

685
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: and they got back to Jonte Murray, an All star

686
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: level guard who hasn't played yet this year because he's hurt.

687
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: So like the like, they're a team that is in

688
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: a crisis of talent at this point. They're nowhere near

689
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 1: as good defensively as they were last year. They were

690
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: supposed to get this offensive boost, they haven't gotten it yet.

691
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 1: Like it's a good win. Their quality wins. If you

692
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 1: win down players the way you have against the Pelicans,

693
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 1: Warriors fans should be through the roof of static. I'm

694
00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 1: not trying to undercut that, but what I'm saying is

695
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: you're not playing that limited version of the Pelicans. When

696
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: you get to the postseason, there are better teams out there.

697
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: You guys have played one really good defense so far

698
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: this year the Clippers, and your offense stalled out and

699
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: you lost, Like even when Steph got hurt, you were

700
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: down double figures. So like that's kind of the main

701
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: thing that I'm getting at here. The Warriors have demonstrated

702
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 1: through the four or five games or whatever they've played,

703
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: they they have let they've demonstrated that they have an

704
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: extremely high floor and that will beat the injured Pelicans

705
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: and the Blazers and the Jazz, and that's gonna beat

706
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: the shit out of all the bad teams in the league.

707
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 1: I've said that from the beginning. I am very very

708
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 1: confident in this Warriors team ability to maintain a good

709
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:50,719
Speaker 1: record through just a very strong institutional basketball character and

710
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: lots and lots of speed, like we've talked about so much.

711
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: Like I think they're gonna win plenty of games. That's

712
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: not the issue. But you will play better teams. The

713
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: Western Conference is stacked with really good teams, really good defenses.

714
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 1: The Eastern Conference is really good defense. You guys are

715
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: gonna play the Celtics here, and I want to say,

716
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:08,800
Speaker 1: like less than a week. So like there's a lot,

717
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to this journey than we've seen

718
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 1: to this point. And all I'm saying is you're uniquely equipped.

719
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: You had no Wiggins, no d Anthony Melton, no Steph

720
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,359
Speaker 1: and you beat the Pelicans. I didn't watch last night's game,

721
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: but I watched the first one of the two, and

722
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:27,439
Speaker 1: I think all three guys were out again for that one.

723
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:31,320
Speaker 1: But like the point is is, like you're you're deep.

724
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: You can afford to lose a couple of guys. Jason,

725
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 1: I don't want to trade cominga Moody, Fine, don't trade

726
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:42,280
Speaker 1: comminga Moody. Trade different guys and include draft compensation whatever

727
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 1: it is you want to do. That's fine. But you

728
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: have like thirteen rotation players and you have this incredibly

729
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 1: high floor. You have some assets, draft assets that you

730
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: can send out in a deal, and right now you

731
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:57,479
Speaker 1: need a more reliable secondary shot creator, if you're gonna

732
00:34:57,520 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 1: hang with the better teams in the West. Like, I

733
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: am super optimistic about this Warriors team in the big

734
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: picture because of how high their floor is, but I

735
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,839
Speaker 1: don't think they have enough offensive talent to truly hang

736
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:10,799
Speaker 1: with the top teams in the league. So then again,

737
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: you got to ask yourself what you want. If what

738
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: you want as a team is to be the feisty

739
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: young team that plays super hard and wins against all

740
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: the bad teams, cool, but then there's not a very

741
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 1: high ceiling there, and like I know, like, guys, this

742
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 1: is not the twenty twenty two Warriors. That's not what

743
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: this team is. That the twenty twenty two Warriors had

744
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 1: more firepower than this team. Steph was a better version

745
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:34,919
Speaker 1: of himself, Clay was still playing at a pretty high

746
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,840
Speaker 1: level at that point in time. Andrew Wiggins was the best.

747
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 1: It was the best season Andrew Wiggins ever had in

748
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,879
Speaker 1: his entire career. Like, there's Jordan Poole got a thirty

749
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 1: million dollar annual deal out of what he did in

750
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 1: that season. So like, let's just be real for a second,

751
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:55,720
Speaker 1: Like this team is very deep, tons of hard working

752
00:35:55,800 --> 00:36:00,080
Speaker 1: role players, they're young, they're fast, they're feisty. There's a

753
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: lot of good but they've been beating up on some

754
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,760
Speaker 1: bad teams. I think if they want to contend, that's

755
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,800
Speaker 1: what you got to ask yourself, do you want to contend?

756
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:12,879
Speaker 1: Because if you want to contend, Steph needs a number

757
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 1: two that he can count on night in and night

758
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:19,240
Speaker 1: out to give him twenty plus points without fail efficiently

759
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 1: and in a way that actually fits well with their

760
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 1: core lineup. So the Jonathan kaminga stuff like it a

761
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: stretch last year where he scored twenty plus like a

762
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 1: bunch of times in a row. But it's like, do

763
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:31,439
Speaker 1: they trust him on defense? Do they trust him when

764
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: Steph is on the floor when they're really running their offense?

765
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 1: Do they trust him not to make stupid decisions? Right? Like,

766
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,800
Speaker 1: that's kind of the thing that I'm talking about. I

767
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: don't know what that player is. I'm not saying you

768
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: make that deal now, it's a deal for February. But

769
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 1: if this team, the exciting thing is you have thirteen

770
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: rotation players, you can afford to package three rotation players

771
00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:56,400
Speaker 1: and draft compensation to somebody else for a high level

772
00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 1: player that will then bring you back a deep team

773
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 1: that has Steph and a legit number two and a

774
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 1: much better chance to contend this year. That's the type

775
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: of question you got to ask yourself again, Let's see

776
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: what happens. Like, we'll see if guys, I'll be right

777
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,640
Speaker 1: there with you if you start beating the shit out

778
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 1: of the good teams too, if you start like if

779
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 1: you beat Boston and you beat Denver and you beat

780
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, and it's just like, oh my goodness, this

781
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: is something special here. Yeah, I'm not going to be

782
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 1: advocating for a trade anymore, but I'm saying I don't

783
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 1: think that's going to happen. This is a really exciting story.

784
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of teams that have a

785
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,320
Speaker 1: lot more firepower in the NBA than the Golden State Warriors,

786
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: and when they run into them, their offensive limitations I

787
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 1: expect will show just like they did in the Clippers

788
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:45,319
Speaker 1: game earlier this year, which is the one really good

789
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: defense that they've played to this point in the season. Hello, Jason,

790
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 1: what do you think might who do you think might

791
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,279
Speaker 1: be the next Derek White or PJ Washington that can

792
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 1: help it contender, reach reach the finals, or win a

793
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: title in twenty twenty five. This is an interesting question,

794
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 1: and so again we're lon that guys here that are

795
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 1: like good defensive players that can guard multiple positions, but

796
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:08,320
Speaker 1: that are also useful within the context of a team offense.

797
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: And the four names that I wrote down, and there's

798
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 1: probably a bunch more of these, I just wanted to

799
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 1: come up with some off the top of my head.

800
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 1: But Bill Bill Alkolabali with Washington had an amazing game

801
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,919
Speaker 1: last night, did an incredible job defensively on Trey Young.

802
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: That's a that's the type of guy that like legitimately

803
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 1: just does so much dirty work that he just raises

804
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: the floor of your team substantially. Ryan Dunn and we

805
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: talked a lot about with the Phoenix Suns the other day.

806
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,760
Speaker 1: Cassan Wallace is another guy with Oklahoma City, his unique

807
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 1: ability to really guard the ball but also be this

808
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,879
Speaker 1: like kind of cog in an offense that can shoot, screen, cut,

809
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: finished around the room, all that stuff. And then Dyson

810
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: Daniels is another guy who's been doing a really good

811
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: job for the Atlanta Hawks. I think all all four

812
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 1: of those guys are guys that I'd keep an eye

813
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,200
Speaker 1: on as guys that will play big roles on really

814
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:59,320
Speaker 1: good teams in the future. Lots of Laker related questions.

815
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:05,480
Speaker 1: The this was a question about the I want to

816
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:07,800
Speaker 1: say this was the Cavs game. This game was a

817
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:09,959
Speaker 1: hard watch. Not gonna lie. D Lo kept getting burned

818
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 1: all game. Transition d was embarrassing. No one was boxing

819
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 1: out or grabbing rebounds. I'm trying to give them the

820
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt because it's a new system, but

821
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,480
Speaker 1: we'll see if they can get it together. So really

822
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: ugly game for the Lakers last night. I too, am

823
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: trying to cut them some slack in the sense that

824
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 1: it was your fourth game, your fourth game in six nights,

825
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:30,720
Speaker 1: you're traveling across the country. It was less than forty

826
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:32,680
Speaker 1: eight hours of rest because they went from a seven

827
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:35,120
Speaker 1: pm game time to a four pm game time in

828
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: Pacific time, right, so you're turning around really quickly with travel.

829
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,719
Speaker 1: Lebron is old. That's a lot of basketball for an

830
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 1: old guy to play in a short period of time.

831
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 1: And they've been really sharp for the other four games.

832
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,160
Speaker 1: So like, I'm trying to cut them some slack too,

833
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna lie. That was a pretty depressing

834
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,439
Speaker 1: performance in Cleveland. It looked like the team from last

835
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 1: year in December where there was like almost like a

836
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:04,799
Speaker 1: lifeless a quality and an unwillingness to fight. But I'm

837
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,479
Speaker 1: trying to just crumple that game and throw it away.

838
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,919
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is because there literally wasn't

839
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: a single Laker who played well. Anthony Davis played like

840
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:14,439
Speaker 1: he's been playing like the best player in the world

841
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: for the first four games, played so bad. Yesterday, Jared

842
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 1: Allen whooped his ass. There was this weird play in

843
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: the first half where Jared Allen accidentally caught him in

844
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: the face with his forearm, and ad just like from

845
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:28,440
Speaker 1: that point forward, just like mentally checked out of the

846
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 1: game like it was crazy. And then Lebron James like

847
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:32,840
Speaker 1: he put up box score numbers, but I thought he

848
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 1: was really bad in this game. Austin Reeves is really

849
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 1: bad in this game. Is throwing the ball away all

850
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 1: over the place. Dangelo Russell once again just not hitting

851
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 1: enough shots to justify the fact that he's getting relentlessly

852
00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:45,759
Speaker 1: attacked on defense every single time down the floor. Is

853
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 1: a third straight game where he just got absolutely barbecued.

854
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: Ruly had a rough game as well, once again still

855
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:54,320
Speaker 1: trying to dunk on everybody underneath the basket, which isn't working.

856
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: There was a lot of stuff with their spacing that

857
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: was off the Like everyone was like, oh, Dalton connect,

858
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: he had eighteen points. I thot d was awful in

859
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: the times when the game was actually within reach. He's

860
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: played two really bad games in a row. Everyone played poorly.

861
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:07,960
Speaker 1: There wasn't a single Laker I could point to and

862
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:10,400
Speaker 1: be like, you know, he played well today, and usually

863
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: that is Usually you drop a game on the road

864
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:13,279
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, hey, so and so had a

865
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:15,880
Speaker 1: good game. This other dude off the bench played really well. Like, no,

866
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 1: every Laker played poorly, So I'm trying to just crumple

867
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 1: it up and throw it away. Here's the thing, Like,

868
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 1: this is part of the this is part of basketball. Right,

869
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,360
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers are not as good as the Boston Celtics,

870
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: to be clear, but the Boston Celtics similarly went in Indiana

871
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 1: it yesterday and found themselves down twenty plus, right, Like

872
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: that's the NBA is so good and there's so much talent,

873
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 1: and teams are so fast now and they play with

874
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:39,839
Speaker 1: so much pace because all the coaches have figured out

875
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: that you want to play with the pace that like

876
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,359
Speaker 1: you show up on the road in front of a

877
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 1: Bracus crowd and they're playing hard. It's like a Buzzsot's

878
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:49,400
Speaker 1: really really hard to win those games. And so like

879
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,640
Speaker 1: the thing is, though, is Boston can afford, because of

880
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: their talent level, to have a certain amount of you know,

881
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 1: lackadaisical performances that pop up from time to time. And

882
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: even in that game, they said overtime, they had a

883
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:03,440
Speaker 1: good chance to come back and win that one, right,

884
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 1: But like for the Lakers, you're not as talented. You

885
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,879
Speaker 1: have to be super sharp, you have to establish really

886
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 1: good habits throughout the season. So I'm okay with what

887
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 1: happened last night as long as that's few and far between.

888
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 1: Like the personnel limitations on display, like the d LO

889
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:19,879
Speaker 1: just constantly getting attacked. That's a real problem. They're gonna

890
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 1: have to figure that out. We'll talk about that a

891
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: little bit more here in a second. But like, as

892
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I got another question here, what

893
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 1: do you think about Ruey Hachamura's contributions this season? All

894
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 1: last season on the The Lakers Nation preseason podcast, you've

895
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:34,880
Speaker 1: seem really low on RUI. Now, we needed to upgrade

896
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 1: those two wing spots between Austin at the one and

897
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad at the four or five. As Rui's

898
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 1: performance throughout the start the start of the season changed

899
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:45,080
Speaker 1: your mind, I think that they're fine at that position

900
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 1: with the development of Ruiy over the course of this year,

901
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,520
Speaker 1: but that two spot desperately needs to be upgraded with

902
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,280
Speaker 1: a real athlete that can guard Austin. Reeves can't guard

903
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. It's too much to ask. He needs to

904
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: guard a Darius Garland level offensive player. Right you need

905
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 1: a real athlete to put in that specific situation. You

906
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: can't have a defender on the floor that every single

907
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,399
Speaker 1: time the offense puts them in an action they get

908
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: a bucket or a foul out of it. That's what

909
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 1: they're getting with d LO right now. It's a huge problem.

910
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:17,319
Speaker 1: So there are some personnel weaknesses that the Lakers need

911
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 1: to address. But sometimes you just have a shitty night

912
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and I thought that's what happened to

913
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: the Lakers last night. The key is they need to

914
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 1: be few and far between. I want to see them

915
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,480
Speaker 1: go into Toronto, take care of business. Go into Detroit,

916
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: take care of business, Go get a win in Memphis.

917
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:33,799
Speaker 1: No one's going to give a shit that you had

918
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: a bad night in Cleveland. It's about that being the

919
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: exception and not the normal thing that you're running into.

920
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 1: All Right, two last questions, both from the same guy,

921
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: just actually more on a personal level with me. When

922
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 1: you play basketball, what's usually your role on defense or

923
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 1: your point of attack perimeter defender or wing defender, or

924
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 1: you considered a big at six ' six, since there

925
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 1: probably isn't that many big guys. So on my men's

926
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: league team, we have a lot of of guys who

927
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:05,759
Speaker 1: played Division one overseas professionally, things along those lines. And

928
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: we have a big guy on our team named Aaron

929
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,920
Speaker 1: Anderson who played professionally overseas, and he's about my size

930
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,880
Speaker 1: and he played big his entire career. So like, fortunately

931
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:16,840
Speaker 1: with that group, I get to leverage more as a

932
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 1: perimeter defender. I am at my best guarding on the

933
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: perimeter because I have really long arms and I can

934
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 1: move my feet pretty well. But like typically when I

935
00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,439
Speaker 1: go play pick up, I almost always have to guard

936
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 1: the big just because like you said, there's just not

937
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: that many big guys in the city. And I weigh

938
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:35,120
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty pounds and so I'm just the

939
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 1: best option to throw at people like that. But like

940
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: on defense, like when I was at Arizona Christian my

941
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 1: last year, this is how I stayed in the rotation.

942
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:46,479
Speaker 1: I was a scorer in junior college and average double

943
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 1: figures and had a bunch of twenty plus point games,

944
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 1: and I had a career hide over thirty. But like

945
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 1: that was at a lower level of basketball. And then

946
00:44:55,719 --> 00:44:57,960
Speaker 1: I went to play Anaia and I was playing with

947
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:01,719
Speaker 1: two All American guards. I was not good enough to

948
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: get action run for me, and all the action was

949
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 1: being run for the guards for good reason. They were

950
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 1: much better basketball players than me, right, or at least

951
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 1: like they were certainly better offensive basketball players than me.

952
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: And so the way I stayed in the rotation on

953
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: that team was I just became the team's best wing defender.

954
00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 1: And so like I just watched a bunch of film

955
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:22,440
Speaker 1: on every single guard that we would be playing in

956
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: any particular game and try to figure out their tendencies.

957
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,360
Speaker 1: And I just really channeled my abilities in the direction

958
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 1: of perimeter defense, and I was actually able to maintain

959
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:34,280
Speaker 1: a role on that team within that context. That's always

960
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,160
Speaker 1: been like I would actually argue when I was in college,

961
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:39,879
Speaker 1: that was the one thing I was really really good at.

962
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 1: Even when I scored a lot of it was like

963
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 1: bad team scoring. Like I could shoot, but I was very,

964
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: very streaky. So I'd have games where I shot super

965
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:48,040
Speaker 1: well and scored a bunch of points, and then I

966
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:49,880
Speaker 1: have games where I couldn't make shit right, So like

967
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,960
Speaker 1: that was kind of fool's gold in a lot of ways.

968
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:55,560
Speaker 1: I was a limited ball handler and I didn't see

969
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: the floor well when I was younger. So like, even

970
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 1: though I had a bunch of big scoring games, a

971
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 1: limited offensive player at that point in time, but I

972
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:04,759
Speaker 1: was big, I was athletic, I could guard. That was

973
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 1: like the one thing I could really do at a

974
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:08,719
Speaker 1: high level when I was in college. Now that I've

975
00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:10,840
Speaker 1: gotten older, I'm so much better on the offensive end

976
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 1: of the floor, and I've developed a lot in that way.

977
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,439
Speaker 1: But when I was in college, that was the way

978
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 1: that I was deployed. Last one, what's your vertical jump?

979
00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 1: So I was two hundred and five pounds when I

980
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 1: was playing in junior college, and I was freaky athletic,

981
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:27,800
Speaker 1: like elbows above the rim, freaky athletic. But then I

982
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:30,640
Speaker 1: had a foot injury. And when the foot injury happened,

983
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:33,120
Speaker 1: I spent the entire rehab doing upper body lifting and

984
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 1: I put on like twenty pounds of muscle. And when

985
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:37,560
Speaker 1: I came back, I was still a very good athlete

986
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:39,120
Speaker 1: and it was worth it because I'm a much better

987
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: basketball player because of my strength. But I kind of

988
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:44,680
Speaker 1: lost that like crazy over the rim ability. I'm still

989
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 1: a good athlete still to this day. I can I

990
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:50,680
Speaker 1: can jump and dunk pretty well. But like every once

991
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 1: in a while, I'll see a video of me when

992
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: I was younger, before the foot injury, playing and I'm

993
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:58,520
Speaker 1: like holy shit, because I was like I was just

994
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 1: skinny and I had, you know, super long arms, and

995
00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 1: I could like just fly in a way that I

996
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: couldn't I can't at this point in my life. But

997
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,240
Speaker 1: the big thing is I'm thirty three now and like

998
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 1: like I'm about to go play basketball later today, and

999
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: like I we'll see how I feel. Like I went

1000
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,560
Speaker 1: out there on Tuesday, I wasn't feeling great. Like That's

1001
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,919
Speaker 1: It's always like on any given day, I might feel great,

1002
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,000
Speaker 1: i might feel absolutely terrible. But that's just kind of

1003
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 1: the journey as you as you start to put the

1004
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: miles on. All right, guys, that is all I have

1005
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:28,960
Speaker 1: for today. All of the concepts I talked about today,

1006
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 1: I clipped six different clips, but it's just not enough

1007
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 1: for TIMPs tape episodes. I'm gonna save that for tomorrow.

1008
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: So tomorrow we'll do some game breakdowns. We'll do another

1009
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:38,840
Speaker 1: TIMPs tape. There's always. I sincerely appreciate you guys for

1010
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:45,080
Speaker 1: supporting the show, and I will see you then the volume.

1011
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,240
Speaker 1: What's up, guys, theres always. I appreciate you for listening

1012
00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really

1013
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second

1014
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:55,759
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I

1015
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take

1016
00:47:57,520 --> 00:47:59,879
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.