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Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. Well in our top
Speaker 1: NBA players list, we have made it all the way
Speaker 1: to number three. I've had a great time doing this
Speaker 1: so far. I've done lists in the past, but I've
Speaker 1: never taken this type of painstaking time and detail to
Speaker 1: do it, and I've had so much fun doing so,
Speaker 1: getting into film, getting into numbers, reminiscing all of that
Speaker 1: fun stuff. And you know, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: piste off about people being too high or too low,
Speaker 1: even with the same players, which I suppose I'll take
Speaker 1: as a compliment. If I have you guys equally piss
Speaker 1: stoff both directions, I think that means that the list
Speaker 1: is at least okay to this point. The big one
Speaker 1: that all of you guys have been complaining about is
Speaker 1: Yokich down at number seven. Again. I tried to explain this.
Speaker 1: I value perimeter players more than I do bigs for
Speaker 1: a bunch of different reasons. I don't need to lay
Speaker 1: that out again. It was in the video. The main
Speaker 1: thing I tell you guys, too, is what I told
Speaker 1: you way back at the beginning, before we even started this,
Speaker 1: we had twenty nine players that I considered for the
Speaker 1: top twenty five, and I can't remember exactly who the
Speaker 1: four that didn't make it was. I think it was
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, Trey Young, Brad Beale, and somebody else. I
Speaker 1: can't remember who the fourth was. But the reality is is,
Speaker 1: like I told you, guys, the gap between twenty nine,
Speaker 1: let's call him, let's call him Trey Young. The gap
Speaker 1: between Trey Young and Jimmy Butler at number nine is
Speaker 1: not that big of a gap. In the gap between
Speaker 1: number seven Nicola Yokich and number two Steph Curry is
Speaker 1: not that big of gap. May seem like a huge
Speaker 1: number difference, but that has a lot more to do
Speaker 1: with the how just the sheer amount of talent in
Speaker 1: the league. Then it has to do with me trying
Speaker 1: to diminish what Yoki is capable of. That was never
Speaker 1: the case. I'm a huge fan of Yoki's. To me,
Speaker 1: that's just a basketball philosophy thing, and me having him
Speaker 1: at seven has more to do with the players above
Speaker 1: him and how much respect I have for them than
Speaker 1: it does for me trying to lower him. That said,
Speaker 1: there's no version of this story where I could do
Speaker 1: a list like this and not piss some people off.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of part of the journey. Today we're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing number three. You guys know the drill
Speaker 1: before we get started. Follow me on Twitter. I underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt S. You guys, don't miss any show announcements.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more videos. And if for whatever reason, you miss one
Speaker 1: of these and you can't get back to YouTube to
Speaker 1: finish it, we do release them in audio form wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. So number three
Speaker 1: and this is the dead giveaway because you guys will
Speaker 1: know the rest of the list because you know, I
Speaker 1: have Janice at number one, but number three I have
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. Now, Kevin Durant has been one of my
Speaker 1: favorite players forever. He's the player that I resonate with
Speaker 1: the most, even though Lebron James is my favorite player.
Speaker 1: Who's the one who got me to fall in love
Speaker 1: with the game of basketball. I grew up in a
Speaker 1: football and baseball household. We didn't even have basketball on
Speaker 1: the TV. I happened to find Lebron James right around
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, and that's what got me to
Speaker 1: fall in love with the game of basketball and become
Speaker 1: the level of fan and nerd of the game that
Speaker 1: I am now. And obviously it led to me playing
Speaker 1: the game and getting my school paid for and getting
Speaker 1: a little bit of money professionally and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: That's where it all originated. But since I've gotten you
Speaker 1: know this, into the game of basketball, particularly the NBA,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant has been the player that I resonate with
Speaker 1: the most. You know why, because that dude loves basketball
Speaker 1: more than anything else in the entire world. Now, I
Speaker 1: would have to put it too, because I can't get
Speaker 1: in trouble with my wife that said basketball means everything
Speaker 1: to me. Even in my pursuit of trying to do
Speaker 1: this for a living, I gave up a very good
Speaker 1: job that I had worked very hard to earn, like
Speaker 1: a good solid living that I could have worked for
Speaker 1: the rest of my life, and I got I'd left
Speaker 1: because I wanted to do this because I love this
Speaker 1: game so much and I wanted to be working in
Speaker 1: this game for as long as I can, as long
Speaker 1: as I'm alive on this earth. And I get that
Speaker 1: same level of love. I won't even say that because
Speaker 1: I feel like that's disrespectful to k D. But Katie's
Speaker 1: love for basketball resonates with me, and that's and that's
Speaker 1: always going to be what draws me to him. And
Speaker 1: then the second thing is his authenticity, and like this
Speaker 1: is where all of you guys, I shouldn't say all
Speaker 1: of you guys, so many of you guys hate Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant or harbor hate for Kevin Durant. I think there's
Speaker 1: two reasons that drive that. One, you're really upset because
Speaker 1: he went to the Warriors, which I get that. But
Speaker 1: the big thing that I pushed back on there is
Speaker 1: every single player that's playing in the NBA right now
Speaker 1: wants to play on a really at basketball team. They
Speaker 1: all do. The only ones who haven't left their teams
Speaker 1: are the ones that their current situation is actually really
Speaker 1: good and there probably isn't a better option for them
Speaker 1: out there. But guess what, when Lebron James went to Miami,
Speaker 1: he wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it was.
Speaker 1: He wasn't expecting to have to scratch and claw in
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve and in two thousand thirteen, to win,
Speaker 1: to lose in two thousand eleven, in two thousand fourteen,
Speaker 1: he thought it was gonna be easy. Just watch his
Speaker 1: presser when he got to Miami. When he went to Cleveland,
Speaker 1: he didn't go there to go home. I mean sure
Speaker 1: that was part of it, But he went there because
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving was there and he thought he could flip
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. That's why he went to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: When he left Cleveland and went to l A, it
Speaker 1: was because he believed he could get at least Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and maybe Anthony Davis and Paul George or Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: Everyone's following the basketball situation. Why does Kauai want to
Speaker 1: play with Paul George for a team like the Clippers
Speaker 1: that's extremely well run and has a ton of talent?
Speaker 1: Why is that we all know the case. Why do
Speaker 1: you think it was so important for Janice to try
Speaker 1: to pressure the Milwaukee front office to trade the house
Speaker 1: for Drew Holiday so that he could have talent. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants to play with talent. Let's not pretend like that's
Speaker 1: a k D thing. That's not a k D thing.
Speaker 1: That's in everybody thing. And at his core, Kevin Duran
Speaker 1: just wants to play good basketball and he will try
Speaker 1: to pursue those sorts of things. That's the driving force
Speaker 1: behind this trade request right now. He doesn't like his
Speaker 1: basketball situation and so he's looking for something better. And
Speaker 1: so many people are so mad that he went to
Speaker 1: Golden State. You know what I think he thought. I
Speaker 1: think he was like, Man, I'm here with Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: and all of these role players, and the game is
Speaker 1: just hard for me right now. There's no spacing. Russ
Speaker 1: is a tough player to play with. Man, look at
Speaker 1: those guys in Golden State. They're moving around, They're playing
Speaker 1: beautiful basketball. I want to play beautiful basketball too. That's
Speaker 1: what I think drove it. I don't think it was
Speaker 1: anything more complicated than that. And look, a lot of
Speaker 1: you are just gonna hate him for that forever, and
Speaker 1: I get that. I'm not going to make your decisions
Speaker 1: for you, but I'm just trying to explain that I
Speaker 1: think it's just a very human thing and that it's
Speaker 1: driven by a love for the game. And then, like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, his authenticity. Okay, So Kevin Durant talks
Speaker 1: to people on Twitter, so do a lot of you guys.
Speaker 1: So because he has money or because he's very good
Speaker 1: at basketball, he's not allowed to do the thing that
Speaker 1: so many of you guys do. We all use social
Speaker 1: media in different ways. It doesn't make us more or
Speaker 1: less of a of a human being. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just our own personal experience with the tools that we
Speaker 1: have at our disposal. That's Kevin Durant being Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: I don't know why so many people hate him for that.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's genuinely confusing to me. And so now
Speaker 1: that we've got that out of the way, all of
Speaker 1: the non basketball, all of that stuff, and I can
Speaker 1: explain to you guys why I have always been a
Speaker 1: fan of Kevin Durant. Now we can get into the basketball. So,
Speaker 1: just like we did with all of the other yeos,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be doing strengths, weaknesses, biggest hopes, biggest fears,
Speaker 1: biggest what if. So in the regular season this year,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant average thirty points on with seven rebounds and
Speaker 1: six assists on sixty true shooting. That's outstanding. That's unbelievably good.
Speaker 1: In the postseason again, four games, four game sweep at
Speaker 1: the hands of the Boston Celtics, which I thought was
Speaker 1: the best defense in the field last year, one of
Speaker 1: the best defenses of all time. He averaged twenty six,
Speaker 1: six and six, and his true shooting percentage dropped all
Speaker 1: the way from sixty three to We are going to
Speaker 1: get further into that later in the show, because there
Speaker 1: is some There is some context there, and I do
Speaker 1: believe that those numbers are a little bit overplayed, But
Speaker 1: just in general, before we get into these strengths, I'm
Speaker 1: never going to completely change my opinion on a player
Speaker 1: over one playoff series, especially when they've got over a
Speaker 1: decade of evidence. You know, so many of you guys
Speaker 1: complained yes or day when I had Lebron for so
Speaker 1: many of you complained, like he missed the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: he doesn't won a playoff series in two years. You
Speaker 1: want to know why I don't care about that guy.
Speaker 1: That guy's the same reason why I didn't care when
Speaker 1: Steph missed the playoffs two years in a row. One
Speaker 1: of the consistent themes you're gonna pick up from me
Speaker 1: is that winning is the ultimate goal, but it is
Speaker 1: a team accomplishment. I'm not interested in Kevin Durant versus
Speaker 1: Lebron James. I'm interested in the Brooklyn Nets versus the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers. I might take time to appreciate the
Speaker 1: individual matchup and all of the elements there, but the
Speaker 1: end result is a team achievement. That's why Steph Curry
Speaker 1: can miss the playoffs two years in a row and
Speaker 1: then win a championship unassailably with his best teammate being
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins because of the organ the organism of that
Speaker 1: team and the way it came together. They changed the
Speaker 1: types of role players they had, the ones that were
Speaker 1: better fits Wiggins obviously, elevating Clay Thompson getting back and
Speaker 1: getting healthy, Draymond Green getting back and getting healthy. All
Speaker 1: of those things came together and the team was better,
Speaker 1: and then Steph was able to put them over the
Speaker 1: top into winning a championship. And Lebron James has had
Speaker 1: a bad season last year, and he had a couple
Speaker 1: of at a rough season health wise the year before.
Speaker 1: If the Lakers can pull off a nice trade and
Speaker 1: have a good training camp and implement a good offense,
Speaker 1: they'll be right back in the mix. And the same
Speaker 1: goes for Kevin Durant. You guys who all took a
Speaker 1: big old, all of you guys who put him down,
Speaker 1: all of you guys who put him down when he
Speaker 1: got swept by the Celtics, might find yourselves in a
Speaker 1: predicament if he gets traded to the Celtics and your
Speaker 1: team is facing him in a playoff series this year,
Speaker 1: and suddenly he's way better than all of your guys,
Speaker 1: And now all that ship you talked is irrelevant because
Speaker 1: he's busting your ass on national television. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: always saying with these kinds of things, be careful with
Speaker 1: victory laps over one bad matchup or one bad week
Speaker 1: of basketball. That's one week of basketball. You're gonna rewrite
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's entire career over one week of basketball. Come on, guys,
Speaker 1: like that, that's just that's ridiculous. All right, let's let's
Speaker 1: get into the strengths. So Katie's the best scorer alive
Speaker 1: and he's a top three score ever, I I'd probably
Speaker 1: take MJ and Kobe over him. I'm not looking at
Speaker 1: that as a numbers thing. I'm looking at that as
Speaker 1: a skill set thing. Obviously numbers do matter there, but
Speaker 1: skill set matters as well. And there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: different Like there are a lot of like really dynamic
Speaker 1: scores in terms of production that don't really manifest um
Speaker 1: in the type of versatility of skill set. For instance,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph are two of the most effective and
Speaker 1: efficient scores, ever, but Lebron does almost all of his
Speaker 1: damage at the rim, and Steph does almost all of
Speaker 1: his damage on the perimeter. So, like when I'm talking
Speaker 1: about scores, I value versatility. That's just my take on it.
Speaker 1: Steph fans, Lebron fans. If you guys think they're the
Speaker 1: best scores, go nuts man. Tell everybody about that. Um So,
Speaker 1: Katie average one point set then restricted area makes per
Speaker 1: game this year again over the percentage threshold that I
Speaker 1: look for for a big wing, which is seventy. But
Speaker 1: his relatively low volume one point seven restricted area makes
Speaker 1: is pretty low. We'll get to that more when we
Speaker 1: get to his weaknesses. Two point six restricted excuse me,
Speaker 1: outside of the restricted area makes, but that are inside
Speaker 1: the paint. That's really good. That's pretty close to what
Speaker 1: Luca does. This is where Katie's the best player in
Speaker 1: the world right now. Four point one mid range makes
Speaker 1: at fifty, there's just nobody in the league who's close.
Speaker 1: He's the best midrange shooter. It's him, and then a
Speaker 1: big gap and then everyone else. His numbers don't even
Speaker 1: make sense. Everyone else we look at it just doesn't.
Speaker 1: It's hard to even wrap our brains around, he's the
Speaker 1: best midrange player in the league. Then he averaged two
Speaker 1: point one made threes this year at thirty eight percent.
Speaker 1: So not a brandon ingram DeMar de Rosen esque player
Speaker 1: who can thrive in the mid range but cannot score
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. He has the full three level effect.
Speaker 1: K He took six hundred and twenty nine pull up
Speaker 1: jumpers this year and made three hundred and seven of them.
Speaker 1: That's a Katie pull up jumper resulted in one point
Speaker 1: zero seven points per possession, which would be a better
Speaker 1: offensive rating than the Blazers, the Pistons, the Magic and
Speaker 1: the Thunder this year. So literally, a Katie pull up jumper,
Speaker 1: which is like a rescue possession. Like a pull up
Speaker 1: jumpers are generally considered an offensive player settling. So when
Speaker 1: Katie settles for a pull up jump shot, either in
Speaker 1: the middle of the clock or to save a possession
Speaker 1: at the end, he's more efficient there than entire NBA
Speaker 1: teams four of them. He was more efficient this year
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers than Steph Curry. Albeit Steff had
Speaker 1: a really downshooting year, and I would expect him to
Speaker 1: flip the script on that this coming year because Steph
Speaker 1: is the best pull up jump shooter in the league.
Speaker 1: Typically um very low volume on post ups. He's doing
Speaker 1: it right on twice a game, which is not enough
Speaker 1: to put him up with the more volumes post up
Speaker 1: players in the league. But he scores on fifty of
Speaker 1: him and gets one point one three points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is outstanding. So obviously, as he gets older and
Speaker 1: he can't move his feet as well, you'd like to
Speaker 1: see him kind of lean on that a little bit
Speaker 1: more because he's a very good post player. He had
Speaker 1: two hundred eighty eight isolation possessions this year and scored
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty four times. So he scores on
Speaker 1: If you throw the ball to Kevin and say go
Speaker 1: to work in isolation, he's gonna score half the time.
Speaker 1: And that resulted in three sixteen points. Just Katie isolations
Speaker 1: would have had the twenty three best offensive rating in
Speaker 1: the league this year. Just he is the best scorer
Speaker 1: in basketball. It's it's crazy to me now what I
Speaker 1: wanted to get into. There's two specific concepts as it
Speaker 1: pertains to Katie's scoring that I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: dive a little bit deeper in here. And the first
Speaker 1: one is one that I did a video on. I
Speaker 1: can't remember what it was. I think it was back
Speaker 1: in March. I will retweet this out, So go to
Speaker 1: my Twitter page and scroll down and you'll see a
Speaker 1: retweet of this specific but I did a full video
Speaker 1: breakdown of the way that Katie works hard for easy shots.
Speaker 1: So the biggest difference between Kobe Bryant and Katie, for instance,
Speaker 1: I talked about this yesterday with Lebron. But Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: I think is the best shot maker in the history
Speaker 1: of basketball. That's improvisational basketball, that's incredibly difficult shots where
Speaker 1: you can't even find a video of one that resembles
Speaker 1: that earlier in your career. Everyone's kind of unique. All
Speaker 1: of them are ridiculous. All of them have a degree
Speaker 1: of difficulty that supersedes what you could even imagine a
Speaker 1: player attempting in a pickup game, let alone an NBA game.
Speaker 1: That's what Kobe did for that was that was his
Speaker 1: bread and butter. Kevin Durant, what I've always appreciated about
Speaker 1: him is he's got that stuff. He can make difficult shots.
Speaker 1: He is a very good shot maker, but he also
Speaker 1: puts in a lot of work to get easy shots
Speaker 1: in the flow of the offense to help supplement his efficiency.
Speaker 1: He does this by moving without the basketball, which we've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot with Steph and we'll get way
Speaker 1: deeper into when we get to Steph here later in
Speaker 1: the list, but essentially keeping your defender engaged and taking
Speaker 1: advantage of little openings where your defender stops paying attention,
Speaker 1: you can get an easy shot moving without the basketball,
Speaker 1: fighting for position. Katie is very tall, right, so he
Speaker 1: can shoot over the top of defenders. So he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to do that from ft. If he's fighting for position,
Speaker 1: to catch the ball at ten ft like the semi circle,
Speaker 1: and he can quick turn and shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: That's a much higher percentage shot. You don't do that
Speaker 1: by dribbling down to ten feet. You do that by
Speaker 1: giving the ball up, fighting for position and demanding the
Speaker 1: basketball and making a quick move. The thing in this
Speaker 1: video that I'm gonna tweet out to show you guys,
Speaker 1: the thing that he does best without the basketball is
Speaker 1: setting his man up for screens. This is a concept
Speaker 1: I've never talked about on this show before, but it's
Speaker 1: a very nerdy basketball concept that we can spend a
Speaker 1: minute on here. But basically, you know, if you're defending
Speaker 1: a player who's coming off of screens, you do what's
Speaker 1: called a lock and trail. So if I'm coming, if
Speaker 1: my man is gonna be coming this way off a
Speaker 1: screen in a straight line, and the screener is gonna
Speaker 1: be setting right here, and I'm coming this way off
Speaker 1: the screen, I want to position myself as the defender
Speaker 1: directly behind him so I can follow him over the screen.
Speaker 1: That's the best way if I stay close. That's what
Speaker 1: they call locking and trailing. If you stay locked to
Speaker 1: his backside and you're trailing him around the screen, it's
Speaker 1: impossible to get screened because the screener would have to
Speaker 1: somehow jam his way in between the two of you
Speaker 1: as you're passing by. Really good lock and trail defenders
Speaker 1: will stay attached to shooters and force them to curl
Speaker 1: over the top of the screen typically or deny the
Speaker 1: basketball entirely. What Katie does extremely well is setting up
Speaker 1: his man for a screen. So let's say he's in
Speaker 1: the left corner and the balls at the top of
Speaker 1: the key, and he wants to come off of a
Speaker 1: pin down to catch the ball around eighteen feet and
Speaker 1: to shoot a jump shot off the catch. What he
Speaker 1: will do is he will work his man down from
Speaker 1: the corner all the way to the block. Now, because
Speaker 1: Katie does fight for position often over the course of
Speaker 1: the game post up position, the defender will typically have
Speaker 1: to fight his way to stay behind Katie between Katie
Speaker 1: in the basket. If he doesn't, then he's just cutting
Speaker 1: right to the rim. You're throwing a lob and he's
Speaker 1: catching that thing and he's dunking it. So he fights
Speaker 1: his way down to the block. Now the defender can't
Speaker 1: get into trail position. He has to get into post
Speaker 1: defense position to protect Katie from getting all the way
Speaker 1: to the rip. Now instead of being behind his line
Speaker 1: off the screen, he's on the side of that line.
Speaker 1: Then what he'll do is he'll wait for the defender
Speaker 1: to get set in his screen, and when he's ready
Speaker 1: to go, he'll just give him a little shove, just
Speaker 1: a little shove that won't get an offensive foul. And
Speaker 1: now not only is the defender out of position because
Speaker 1: he's not in lock and trail position, now, he's also
Speaker 1: a step behind because Katie pushed him a little bit.
Speaker 1: He'll come flying off that screen he'll catch at eighteen feet,
Speaker 1: He'll be wide open, and he's gonna make that shot
Speaker 1: damn near two thirds of the time. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the things I've always appreciated about k D. That's
Speaker 1: not a highlight play, that's not gonna show up in
Speaker 1: a hoop mixtape, but that's a damn that's a very
Speaker 1: reliable two points. And he did it by doing something
Speaker 1: that kind of is overlooked a lot in basketball development,
Speaker 1: and it's learning how to use screens properly and make
Speaker 1: it so that the pin down screen that you're trying
Speaker 1: to use is effective, rather than the defender getting into
Speaker 1: lock and trail position and all of a sudden, you're
Speaker 1: not open. You know. I I tweeted about this a
Speaker 1: couple of days ago as it pertained to Katie compared
Speaker 1: to some of his other scores. Like one of the
Speaker 1: scores that everyone throws out as a competitor to Katie
Speaker 1: all time is James Harden, And he has some statistical
Speaker 1: stretches of basketball. You know, we're talking, yeah, ten twenty
Speaker 1: games at a time where the averages forty plus points,
Speaker 1: Like that's insane, right, statistically, Yeah, Hardens in those conversations
Speaker 1: But one of the big reasons why I've appreciated the
Speaker 1: Katie archetype over the Heart and archetype is scoring in
Speaker 1: the flow. James Harden will bring the ball up the
Speaker 1: floor and dribble twenty times to get to whatever offensive
Speaker 1: move he wants to get to. Katie will almost never
Speaker 1: do that. There is a predictability to his offense. Everything
Speaker 1: he does is quick. It's a quick decision, and he's
Speaker 1: efficient with his time and with his ball handling. Why
Speaker 1: does that matter? If you're the teammate of a score
Speaker 1: and he's dribbling the air out of the basketball, it
Speaker 1: disrupts your rhythm and it makes it difficult for you
Speaker 1: to know what to do. But if your scorer that
Speaker 1: you're playing with makes quick decisions, doesn't over dribble the basketball.
Speaker 1: If he has an opening, he takes it. If he doesn't,
Speaker 1: he moves it and tries to get the ball back
Speaker 1: somewhere else on the floor. That sort of thing keeps
Speaker 1: things in motion. Now you're not standing and watching the
Speaker 1: whole time. Katie's gonna make a move and he's gonna shoot.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't, he'll move the ball and you'll be
Speaker 1: moving again. And that might happen to three times in
Speaker 1: one shot clock before somebody ends up scoring. The offense
Speaker 1: stays in a flow. The only the only time I've
Speaker 1: ever seen Katie disrupt flow is a little bit with
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors in two thousand eighteen. But that's
Speaker 1: literally because the Golden State wars are the most motion
Speaker 1: heavy offense that we have in this league right now.
Speaker 1: So even normal flowing offense looks slow compared to what
Speaker 1: Golden State typically does. But that predictability to help his
Speaker 1: teammates the quick decisions, so that people know where. People
Speaker 1: can become more anticipatory and reactive if they can react
Speaker 1: to what Kevin Durant's doing. All of that amounts to
Speaker 1: scoring in the flow of the offense. That's what allows
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant to average thirty points a game for a
Speaker 1: season without it appearing like he's hogging the basketball, without
Speaker 1: it appearing like he's gunning as a score even though
Speaker 1: his field goal attempts are up there, even though his
Speaker 1: efficiency in scoring is up there, It manifests in a
Speaker 1: way that doesn't disrupt the team. That's why, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the most common things that was said after
Speaker 1: Katie went to Golden states. You hear things like, you know,
Speaker 1: Katie's the best plug in play superstar in the league.
Speaker 1: That's probably true. You can plug Katie into any defensive
Speaker 1: system and he's gonna be productive. And you can plug
Speaker 1: him into any offensive system and he's gonna be productive.
Speaker 1: Whereas some of the guys like Staff and Lebron and Luca,
Speaker 1: their play styles are so unique and so different from
Speaker 1: what other players in the league do that you kind
Speaker 1: of have to cater the offense around what they do.
Speaker 1: Doesn't diminish what they do because those Lebron and Steph
Speaker 1: for two of the top six players of all time
Speaker 1: to the top six to ten players of all time
Speaker 1: depending on who you ask, right, So I'm not diminishing
Speaker 1: them at all. It's just a different archetype of player.
Speaker 1: Katie is a very plug in play style. The last
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to say about Katie's offensive you know,
Speaker 1: scoring ability, skill set and stuff is this is where
Speaker 1: his love of the game manifests. We talked earlier in
Speaker 1: the show about Katie's love for the game, how that
Speaker 1: resonates with me. His love for the game is what
Speaker 1: gives him the patients and the you know, the willingness
Speaker 1: to spend endless hours in the gym tightening up these things.
Speaker 1: You know, Kate. One of the things that Katie always
Speaker 1: talks about is doing reps at game speed. This is
Speaker 1: something I talked about all the time with young players.
Speaker 1: If you're were gonna pull up jump shooting and you're
Speaker 1: doing it at a slow pace, and then you get
Speaker 1: into the game and the pace picks up, you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss your pull up jump shots. It's just a fact.
Speaker 1: You need to practice at a pace that mimics what
Speaker 1: the game does, because if you don't, you will have
Speaker 1: an adjustment period in the game that will cause you
Speaker 1: to have problems and you'll have a lot of bad
Speaker 1: shooting nuts. It's hard in an empty gym to come
Speaker 1: flying off a screen like you're in an NBA game
Speaker 1: and rise up and shoot not just once, but maybe
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty times over the course of a
Speaker 1: good half hour hour session. That's not easy to do.
Speaker 1: It takes love for the game. It takes a passion
Speaker 1: and a willingness to put in that kind of work
Speaker 1: to do that. And and I've always thought that that's
Speaker 1: the coolest part of the Katie dynamic. He's what would
Speaker 1: happen if the ultimate love for the game of basketball
Speaker 1: met with the ultimate set of natural abilities, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of what it's manifested as So Katie isn't above
Speaker 1: average playmaker, which is good compared a lot of the
Speaker 1: wings around the league that can struggle with that. Specifically,
Speaker 1: this is something that really came on in the late
Speaker 1: half of his career. We talked about this earlier when
Speaker 1: we were talking about brandon ingram. In the first eight
Speaker 1: seasons of his career, he only broke five assists once.
Speaker 1: In the last six seasons of his career, he broke
Speaker 1: five assists five times. And he's starting to get the
Speaker 1: higher level reads, which we've broken down many times in
Speaker 1: other videos in this series, so I won't go into
Speaker 1: it again. He did have a rough series against the
Speaker 1: Celtics as a playmaker. We will get in. I think
Speaker 1: he had twenty five assists and twenty one turnovers. We'll
Speaker 1: get a little bit further into that when we get
Speaker 1: into the weaknesses specifically as a passer. The thing that's
Speaker 1: impressed me the most with Kevin Durant lately is his
Speaker 1: ability to navigate traps. So, like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is outstanding at navigating screens. That goes double
Speaker 1: for ball screens. So he does the same thing in
Speaker 1: a ball screen situation, using the dribble to get the
Speaker 1: defender on his side so that he can bait him
Speaker 1: into running into the ball screen and get separation as
Speaker 1: he comes off. Okay. Obviously, is a very good pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooter like we talked about earlier. That can
Speaker 1: be problematic for defenses and pick and roll scenarios, so
Speaker 1: the big has to come up and in many cases
Speaker 1: they just straight up trap and it or it'll be
Speaker 1: like a trap. When the the wing is chasing Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant over the screen and the big has to be
Speaker 1: up at the level of the screen, it's effectively a trap.
Speaker 1: And Kevin Durant's size is what allows him to navigate
Speaker 1: traps so well. There's a lot of guards like Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: for instance, has struggled with turnovers in his career navigating traps.
Speaker 1: Even though he is good at navigating traps, turnovers manifest
Speaker 1: because of his lack of size. Kevin Durant is ridiculously
Speaker 1: good at navigating traps because he's so tall he can
Speaker 1: just reach over the top and drop it off to
Speaker 1: the big man slipping to the basket. He's also gotten
Speaker 1: really good at kind of starting high, getting defenders to
Speaker 1: come high, and then throwing a bounced pass into the pocket.
Speaker 1: His ability to navigate traps has made the Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: pick and roll a very deadly action. Um Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: has ridiculous physical tools like He's basically is like Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the defensive end in terms of what his
Speaker 1: frame and mobility can accomplish. What this means is that
Speaker 1: even though he's been in his career a pretty subpar
Speaker 1: defensive effort guy, he still has above average defensive impact
Speaker 1: even though he doesn't really give that much effort on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor consistently in his career.
Speaker 1: Testament to just a ridiculous set of physical uh tools
Speaker 1: that he has, rim protection has been the most impactful
Speaker 1: defensive thing that he can do. This manifested a lot
Speaker 1: in two thousand seventeen when he was in Golden State
Speaker 1: and the year prior in two thousand sixteen in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: when Kevin Durin's on the back line and he's helping
Speaker 1: around the rim and he's actually dialed in and really trying.
Speaker 1: He can be Anthony Davis esk with his ability to
Speaker 1: affect shots around the rim Alright, moving on to his weaknesses.
Speaker 1: So Katie's thin, so he's mildly susceptible to physical defense.
Speaker 1: Usually this manifest is like a bad game rather than
Speaker 1: a bad series. So think like p J. Tucker and
Speaker 1: the Bucks two years ago, where it's like a couple
Speaker 1: of the games in that series, PJ really bothered him
Speaker 1: with his physicality. But then it's not like it was
Speaker 1: something he couldn't figure out, because then he'd like pe
Speaker 1: a on fire the next game, right, and still came
Speaker 1: this close to stealing that series. But it has affected
Speaker 1: him and he has had some bad series over the years.
Speaker 1: He had a really bad one against the Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: almost a decade ago, struggled with his efficiency towards the
Speaker 1: end of that two thousand and sixteen collapse against Golden State,
Speaker 1: and then this year against Boston he struggled a lot
Speaker 1: against their relentless physicality. That's just something that's going to
Speaker 1: happen with his with how fain he is. But his
Speaker 1: physical tools also manifest manifest in other positive ways, like
Speaker 1: His height and wingspan is what allows him to be
Speaker 1: so deadly, pulling up and shooting over the top of
Speaker 1: defenders that simply can't bother him with the contest um.
Speaker 1: This is probably the Kevin One of Kevin Durant's biggest
Speaker 1: weaknesses that we don't talk about enough. He doesn't apply
Speaker 1: much rim pressure, so, like we talked about earlier, he
Speaker 1: only finishes one point seven restricted area makes per game.
Speaker 1: Jan and Lebron are getting about five additional makes in
Speaker 1: the restricted area than Kevin Durant in every single game.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about in the Lebron video, there's a
Speaker 1: ton of positive impa act that comes from rim pressure.
Speaker 1: I won't go into those things again because I just
Speaker 1: broke them down in the last video, But in the
Speaker 1: Lebron video, if you watch, you'll see me talk about
Speaker 1: rim pressure. Rim pressure has a bunch of cascading positive
Speaker 1: effects on an offense a lot of times that don't
Speaker 1: even manifest on the box score. In the box score
Speaker 1: for the player who's applying the rim pressure, So I
Speaker 1: think that's another side effective. How thin he is, He's
Speaker 1: just not the type of player that is physically imposing
Speaker 1: going to the basket. Time and time again, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit easier for teams to handle him in that
Speaker 1: specific way. UM inconsistent defensive effort. I've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: but like you know, Kevin Durant, with his set of
Speaker 1: physical tools, could be a perennial all defense guy. He
Speaker 1: just hasn't never He hasn't really consistently cared enough in
Speaker 1: that specific area to have consistent impact there. We will
Speaker 1: get deeper into that when we get into the biggest
Speaker 1: what if of his career. UM his playmaking deficiencies. And
Speaker 1: I'm not talking deficiencies relative to the rest the league,
Speaker 1: because I do believe that Kevin Duranson above average playmaker,
Speaker 1: but he does have some playmaking deficiencies compared to Luca
Speaker 1: and Lebron and Nicola Yokitch and some of the other
Speaker 1: guys that are at the top of the league. It's
Speaker 1: typically not a problem, but it did become a problem
Speaker 1: in this Celtics series when is jumper stopped falling. So,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, during the regular season, he
Speaker 1: was about fifty on pull up jump shots I think
Speaker 1: on huge volume. That went way down against Boston. His
Speaker 1: pull up jumper left him pretty much in that series,
Speaker 1: and even Kevin Duran himself was perplexed by it. He
Speaker 1: didn't even necessarily have an answer for why things were
Speaker 1: going that way. I would argue what typically happens in
Speaker 1: a series like that that that is that grueling physically,
Speaker 1: it tends to wear on legs and pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooting has a lot to do with lift um. Your
Speaker 1: ability to get lift is what allows you to get
Speaker 1: separation from the defender and to have the the amount
Speaker 1: of legs in the shot to where you're not out
Speaker 1: of control with your wrist when you're flicking the shot forward.
Speaker 1: I think it was a combination of that physicality and
Speaker 1: defensive pressure from Boston that just caused Kevin Durant to
Speaker 1: lose his legs a little bit and it caused his
Speaker 1: jump shot uh to leave him. You know, that series
Speaker 1: was interesting because, like I talked about, there's so much
Speaker 1: focus on Kevin Durant and Kyrie struggles, and they did struggle.
Speaker 1: They they'll be the first to tell you that. But
Speaker 1: the reality is is that team in that series managed
Speaker 1: about nine seven points per one half court possessions against Boston,
Speaker 1: which is better than any other team did against Boston.
Speaker 1: They did lose that series on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, and they did lose that series in the margins. However,
Speaker 1: what I will say though, is seven points per half
Speaker 1: court possession is significantly below what they were getting in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Brooklyn is not a team that's gonna
Speaker 1: beat you in a grindout series. There a team that's
Speaker 1: typically going to have a really high powered offense and
Speaker 1: kind of outscore you in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: So when Kevin Durant's pull up jumper started to fail him,
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to make the high advance like the
Speaker 1: highly advanced reads that you see from the Lucas and
Speaker 1: the Lebrons and the Yes of the world that disswaded
Speaker 1: defenses from being as aggressive sending attention to Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: He could have loosened things up on himself and made
Speaker 1: it a little bit easier for him to get separation.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, if I'm Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: what I'm looking at that situation like is give me
Speaker 1: that same series again. I'm gonna make those shots this
Speaker 1: time and will be in better shape. And he's not wrong.
Speaker 1: But in the Celtics series, when his jumper failed him.
Speaker 1: His playmaking was not there to to fill that gap,
Speaker 1: and he had damn near as many turnovers as assists,
Speaker 1: and that's not good enough when you're considered one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world. Again, bad series. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to rewrite Kevin Durant's basketball career over one
Speaker 1: week of basketball, but we also have to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: bad week of basketball, and then last weakness for Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant his health. He's averaged only thirty games played per
Speaker 1: season over the last three seasons. Now it remains to
Speaker 1: be if those were blips or trends, and we're going
Speaker 1: to find out over the course of the next couple
Speaker 1: of seasons. But just like I helpd Kauai down on
Speaker 1: the list because of his available availability, I would argue
Speaker 1: Lebron's down on this list because of availability. These are
Speaker 1: real things. Joel Embid's availability is an issue. We're factoring
Speaker 1: that in and these discussions. And Kevin Durant on any
Speaker 1: given night might be the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: But one of the big reasons why I'm not going
Speaker 1: to include him in that discussion. I don't think any
Speaker 1: players in that discussion other than you honest this year.
Speaker 1: But the reason why he's not firmly in that discussion
Speaker 1: is I'm not sure you can count on Katie to
Speaker 1: be available, and some of that age, some of that,
Speaker 1: some of his injury history, some of it might be flukey,
Speaker 1: and we're going to find out over the course of
Speaker 1: the next couple of years. Biggest hopes. You know, I
Speaker 1: I defend k D so much in large part because
Speaker 1: of all of the negative energy sent his way. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like me trying to balance that out little bit,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I want Katie to win
Speaker 1: a championship as the undisputed best player on a team,
Speaker 1: just to kill all these stupid as narratives, because regardless
Speaker 1: of how you feel about Katie and look, I think
Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph were better in this decade. For the record,
Speaker 1: even as a big Katie fan as myself, I think
Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph were better. I also think Katie is
Speaker 1: almost underrated at this point because of Lebron and Steph
Speaker 1: fans and their insistence I'm trying to diminish every accomplishment
Speaker 1: he's had in his career, and I hate that. I
Speaker 1: hate that for him, and so I hope he gets
Speaker 1: that title just so he can throw all of you
Speaker 1: guys the big middle finger, the ones that have been
Speaker 1: really disrespectful to him. And over the course of his career.
Speaker 1: You're right, he went to the best team in the
Speaker 1: league in two thousand seventeen and he won two titles
Speaker 1: that were easier than a lot of the titles in
Speaker 1: NBA history. That's a fact. Here's the other fact that
Speaker 1: doesn't diminish how damn good he is at the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. Like, like, all those strengths that I laid out,
Speaker 1: those aren't team results things. Those are just basketball skills.
Speaker 1: What he does with the basketball is undeniable, and we
Speaker 1: use team results and whatever our neuroses are to try
Speaker 1: to diminish that, and I don't necessarily think that's fair.
Speaker 1: And then the last I hope he gets that championship
Speaker 1: just to kind of kill that narrative. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: I hope he finds a good, consistent basketball situation to
Speaker 1: finish his career. I think he left Golden State, like
Speaker 1: we've talked about a lot in the past, because he
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of be up that wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of build his own thing rather than be a part
Speaker 1: of something else, and obviously that backfired in Brooklyn, but
Speaker 1: I I do want that for him, and I hope
Speaker 1: that whether that's Boston or whether that's somewhere else, And
Speaker 1: I don't think he cares anymore who originated the situation.
Speaker 1: I just want Katie to find a good basketball situation
Speaker 1: where he can be happy, and he could stay there
Speaker 1: for the next five years and finishes, uh excuse me,
Speaker 1: finish his career in peace, playing the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: Biggest fears, My biggest fear of Katie kind of piggybacking
Speaker 1: off of what happened in the Biggest Hopes segment is
Speaker 1: that his titles in Golden State end up being his
Speaker 1: only titles, because if that happens, I think there you know,
Speaker 1: there will be honest people who have honest conversations about
Speaker 1: Katie's career, but there's gonna be a loud group of idiots,
Speaker 1: a very loud group that are going to cling to
Speaker 1: that narrative that Katie's a loser who piggybacked off of
Speaker 1: the Warriors for two titles. And I'm scared for his
Speaker 1: sake that if things don't break right for him over
Speaker 1: the course of the next few years that that becomes
Speaker 1: the narrative. And you know, we talked about this earlier
Speaker 1: in the show, so I won't go too much longer
Speaker 1: on it. But the truth of the matter is is
Speaker 1: so many things have to go right for you to
Speaker 1: win a championship. When I look through every championship in
Speaker 1: recent memory, there's good luck along the way. It's just
Speaker 1: part of the deal. Steph one in two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: in large part because of a lot of injury luck
Speaker 1: along the way, including the second and third best players
Speaker 1: in the Cleveland Cavaliers getting hurt. The Calves one in
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, in large part because Steph Curry was
Speaker 1: playing on a bad minisket on a torn partially torn
Speaker 1: m c L or spraying m c L, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and Andrew Boget was hurt and Draymond Green got suspended.
Speaker 1: There was advantages there, and then the stroke of luck
Speaker 1: with the c b A that the Warriors were able
Speaker 1: to sign Kevin Durant will help them win in two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen. In two thousand eighteen, Chris Paul's hamstring. You know,
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen, Kevin Durant gets hurt. Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: gets hurt in two thousand twenty, Kevin Durant and Steph
Speaker 1: Curry are at home on their couches. Like guys, it
Speaker 1: takes so many things going your way to win a championship.
Speaker 1: You need to have a good roster that comes together,
Speaker 1: which typically requires a combination of competence and luck. You
Speaker 1: need health, You need guys to stay healthy over the
Speaker 1: course of the season. You need to catch the right matchups.
Speaker 1: And then there's even shot results stuff. You don't think
Speaker 1: the Rockets are sitting there going like man, if we
Speaker 1: don't make miss three in a row, we win the
Speaker 1: title in two thousand eighteen. You don't think the Warriors
Speaker 1: go man. If Katie and or excuse me, if Stephen
Speaker 1: and Clay didn't go so ice cold in two thousands sixteen,
Speaker 1: we'd have the greatest team of all time, seventy three
Speaker 1: wins in a championship. Shot result is a big thing.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving stepping back over Steph Curry. That's not a
Speaker 1: hundred percent shot it went in, but there's roughly a
Speaker 1: coin flip or better chance that it doesn't go in.
Speaker 1: You need to get lucky, and so my my, my
Speaker 1: fear is is that that luck doesn't manifest for Kadi
Speaker 1: over the course of these Latin this last portion of
Speaker 1: his career, and then people run with the story and
Speaker 1: that's really unfortunate. But the winner does get to tell
Speaker 1: the story, and so I hope for Katie's steak that
Speaker 1: he gets a win so that he can tell that
Speaker 1: story all right. Lastly, biggest one if of Katie's career.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are gonna say the two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen Western Conference Finals. I agree there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if he shoots better and if Russell Westbrook doesn't implode
Speaker 1: the way he did in Game six, they win that series.
Speaker 1: They have a very good chance to beating the Calves
Speaker 1: in the two thousand sixteen finals, although I view that
Speaker 1: is more of a coin flip, and if regardless of
Speaker 1: what happens there, he's not leaving the Thunder in all likelihood.
Speaker 1: If he makes it to the finals that year, that
Speaker 1: could completely change the trajectory of the second half of
Speaker 1: his career. And then the big one for me, embracing defense.
Speaker 1: You know, all of the best players of all time,
Speaker 1: even if they were reluctant to do so earlier in
Speaker 1: their careers, became consistent year in and year out devoted
Speaker 1: defensive players, even just in the league right now, if
Speaker 1: we go from the top of the league, it's like
Speaker 1: Janice is I think the best defensive player in all
Speaker 1: of basketball. Lebron James had a horrible deef ends of
Speaker 1: season last year, but every one of his four championships
Speaker 1: he was an outstanding defensive player. Steph Curry, although he
Speaker 1: lacks the physical tools to be an impact defensive player,
Speaker 1: has maximized his defensive skill set by his defensive impact
Speaker 1: by putting as much time and effort and focus into
Speaker 1: that side of the floor to at least make it
Speaker 1: so he's no longer negative and now he's actually a
Speaker 1: slight positive on the defensive end of the floor. And
Speaker 1: we can go on and on and on, but most
Speaker 1: of the all time great players have made that commitment
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the four. Katie did for
Speaker 1: about two years, did in two thousands sixteen, and did it,
Speaker 1: and he did it in two thousand and seventeen, and
Speaker 1: then in the big playoff games. He will turn it
Speaker 1: on from time to time. And when he does so,
Speaker 1: it's frightening because like I said before, he has something
Speaker 1: that he has the same set of physical tools defensively
Speaker 1: that a guy like Anthony Davis has. But the reality
Speaker 1: is is that for the most part in his career,
Speaker 1: he's left a lot to be desired there. And one
Speaker 1: of my long staining theories is that if k d
Speaker 1: had embraced that earlier in his career and done consistently,
Speaker 1: I think he would have been the goat because the
Speaker 1: team results would have followed, and he's so damn good
Speaker 1: offensively that that would have just been the one last
Speaker 1: trump card with his physical tools to put his leanning
Speaker 1: impact over that threshold to the point where nobody would
Speaker 1: have would have been able to do anything with the guy.
Speaker 1: Kind of like what you're watching with honest right now,
Speaker 1: Janice is this unstoppable offensive force, and he's the best
Speaker 1: defensive player in basketball. Katie would have been a top
Speaker 1: two or three defensive player in all of basketball every
Speaker 1: year if he tried, and if that was the case
Speaker 1: in combination with what he does offensively, I do believe
Speaker 1: you would have had a more impactful basketball career. I
Speaker 1: think he would have been, like I said, the best
Speaker 1: basketball player to ever play the game. It is what
Speaker 1: it is. Players are who they are and Katie has
Speaker 1: had a monstrously successful career in spite of that, but
Speaker 1: it's just been one of my long standing theories with Katie,
Speaker 1: like I do believe that his offensive talent in conjunction
Speaker 1: with his defensive capability is that of the greatest basketball
Speaker 1: player that I've seen. The volume