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Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at

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Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys

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Speaker 1: are having a great week so far. We are live

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Speaker 1: the very first place that you guys can get these shows.

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Speaker 1: We are continuing our player rankings today with number four

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. You guys know the drip before we get started.

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Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right,

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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So, in my opinion, Katie's become

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Speaker 1: one of the more underrated players in the league. And

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Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different reasons for that, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: it's the classic conundrum we see all the time that

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Speaker 1: I've been dealing with with the lebron situation there in

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Speaker 1: the late teens early twenties where it's like every time

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Speaker 1: there's a new up and coming player, we always get

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Speaker 1: are really quick to shelve the guys who have been

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Speaker 1: doing it, you know, at a bigger stage, at a

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Speaker 1: higher level, for a very long time. I think it's

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Speaker 1: just a human nature thing where people are just quick

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Speaker 1: to try to embrace the new. I think that's part

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Speaker 1: of it. I think the way KD acts on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: which I don't really have a problem with, I think

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Speaker 1: that rubs some people the wrong way. And then I

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Speaker 1: think overreactions to a couple of playoff runs which really

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Speaker 1: weren't that bad but maybe don't line up with Kevin

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Speaker 1: Durant's like personal standard right particularly the Celtics series from

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Speaker 1: two years ago. I don't think people realize just how

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Speaker 1: good KD was in this playoff run, even though his

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Speaker 1: jump shot wasn't following. But as I kind of look

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Speaker 1: at KD and where he is in the league right now,

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Speaker 1: even after what's been a couple of underwhelming playoff runs,

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Speaker 1: I have a top three in the league that involves

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Speaker 1: Steph Giannis and Jokic in some order, right, I think

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Speaker 1: those guys are all a slight level above everyone else,

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Speaker 1: just in terms of their consistency in the regular season

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Speaker 1: the last three years and their playoff success in the

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Speaker 1: last three years. I don't think anybody can complain with that.

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Speaker 1: All three of them have won finals MVPs in the

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Speaker 1: last three years. All three of them have been pretty

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Speaker 1: consistently available and great in the regular season over the

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Speaker 1: last three years. I think those three guys are clearly

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Speaker 1: at least deserving of the recognition of being above the

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Speaker 1: rest of the field. But as I look through the

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Speaker 1: rest of the group, the Superstar group, right, which is

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Speaker 1: you know, Katie Embiid and then Anthony Davis, Jason Tatum,

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, Lebron James Luke, Doncicz, Kawhi Leonard, and Devin Booker.

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Speaker 1: As I look at the rest of that group, those

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Speaker 1: guys are all really close. But I also think Katie

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Speaker 1: is clearly the best player in that group of guys.

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Speaker 1: So for me, of all the different decisions I had

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Speaker 1: to make in my top twelve, all of them were

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Speaker 1: really hard, but there were two of them that were very,

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Speaker 1: very easy for me. It was very easy for me

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Speaker 1: to put Yokich at number one. That was like the

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Speaker 1: very first pick I made. That's just as clearcut a

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Speaker 1: deserving of the Crown type of season as you could

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Speaker 1: possibly put together. And then KD at four because among

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Speaker 1: the guys that aren't in that at like recent Finals

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Speaker 1: MVP tier, I think Kd's clearly better than the rest

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Speaker 1: of those guys. So I didn't really have a lot

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Speaker 1: of trouble with that particular decision. We'll see. I'm interested

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Speaker 1: to see how you guys feel about it. But to me,

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Speaker 1: I think KD is clearly the best of the rest

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Speaker 1: in the Superstar tier. Now why is that? Why do

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Speaker 1: I feel that strongly about KD? Well, since leaving Golden State,

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Speaker 1: he has been the most efficient volume scorer in the

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Speaker 1: NBA twenty nine points per game, and nobody in the

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Speaker 1: NBA has been able to beat his sixty six percent

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Speaker 1: true shooting percentage sixty six percent true shooting percentage over

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Speaker 1: a three season span, just thirty points per game. Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry hasn't been able to beat that, Joel Embiid hasn't

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Speaker 1: been able to beat that. The only guy who's come

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Speaker 1: close in terms of efficiency is Nikola Jokic, and he

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Speaker 1: scores at a significantly lower volume. In the span since

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Speaker 1: KD left Golden State, he's only at about twenty five

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Speaker 1: points per game. So KD like, regardless of how you

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Speaker 1: feel about what happened in the last two playoff runs,

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Speaker 1: especially when you couple it with his playoff resume before that,

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Speaker 1: he is the best scorer in the NBA, still at

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Speaker 1: volume at absurd efficiency. And then he couples that with

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Speaker 1: being an above average playmaker, an above average defensive player,

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Speaker 1: and he can plug and play with any roster in

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Speaker 1: the league because of his versatility offensively and what he

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Speaker 1: can do on and off the basketball. So to put

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Speaker 1: it simply, he has the best top end skill out

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Speaker 1: of anybody in that four to twelve range, and he

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Speaker 1: doesn't have a significant weakness, whereas all the players beneath

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Speaker 1: him do. Katie has a couple of weaknesses, and we'll

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Speaker 1: talk about them, and I think that they're you know,

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Speaker 1: pretty standard for players of his particular archetype, and we'll

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Speaker 1: get to that when we get there. But compared to

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Speaker 1: the guys beneath him in this four to twelve range,

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Speaker 1: his weaknesses are much easier to manage and kind of

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Speaker 1: like a build into the scheme of a basketball team.

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Speaker 1: Than what you see with some of these other players.

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Speaker 1: So that's why I have him at number four. Let's

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Speaker 1: do a quick season recap. He played in forty seven

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Speaker 1: games this season. Now, that's one thing with KD that

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Speaker 1: you kind of have to add as an important footnote here.

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Speaker 1: He has pretty consistently suffered significant injuries in the regular

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Speaker 1: season that have limited the amount of games he's been

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Speaker 1: able to play. But this has not been a situation

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Speaker 1: where he hasn't been able to get it together and

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Speaker 1: be healthy in time for the playoffs. Now, I would

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Speaker 1: argue that, particularly in the last two seasons, he had

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Speaker 1: about a month going into the twenty twenty two playoff run,

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Speaker 1: and he had about what I think like five games

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Speaker 1: going into the twenty twenty three playoff run. So like

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Speaker 1: in each of the last two seasons, he's gone into

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Speaker 1: the postseason still kind of on a ramp up from

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Speaker 1: an injury. And I do think that's an important context

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Speaker 1: when we talk about his playoff struggles, because, again, especially

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Speaker 1: with pull up shooting, so much of it is about

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Speaker 1: being in such a good groove with your rhythm and

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Speaker 1: your conditioning, and that being disrupted can have a significant

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Speaker 1: effect on your ability to knock down shots, But I

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Speaker 1: do think it's important context with KD. He has suffered

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Speaker 1: some regular season availability problems that have not manifested in

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Speaker 1: any sort of missed playoff time, which I think if

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Speaker 1: you're gonna miss games, the regular season is the time

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Speaker 1: to do it right. In forty seven games this year,

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Speaker 1: twenty nine points, seven rebounds, and five assists, sixty eight

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Speaker 1: percent true shooting. Again, there's nobody in the league that

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Speaker 1: scores in terms of volume and efficiency the way that

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant does. Here's the play type data, and I'm

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Speaker 1: going with all from Brooklyn here because the eight regular

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Speaker 1: season games he played in Phoenai uh just too small

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Speaker 1: of a sample and he was pretty banged up and

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Speaker 1: during that stretch. So I'm just gonna zoom in on

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Speaker 1: his shot creation data from when he was in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely off the charts. Half court static shot creation data.

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Speaker 1: Look at this in pick and roll situations, the Nets

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Speaker 1: scored three hundred and sixty points on two hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety one Kevin Durant pick and rolls. Think about how

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Speaker 1: I'm saying that is that's a point in a quarter

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Speaker 1: per possession, one point twenty four points per possession. For

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Speaker 1: a perspective, Luka was the best volume pick and roll

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Speaker 1: guy in the league this year at one point one

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Speaker 1: point five. Now obviously lower volume but in large part

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Speaker 1: because of injuries. But to give you an idea, in

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Speaker 1: the smaller sample size, which you know, not a non

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Speaker 1: existence sam so I, still almost three hundred pick and rolls.

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Speaker 1: Kadie was scoring or generating points a full tenth of

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Speaker 1: a point per possession better than Luka Doncic, who was

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Speaker 1: the best volume pick and roll ball handler in the

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Speaker 1: league this year. That's insane passing was the one that

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Speaker 1: stood out to me all season long. The teams that

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Speaker 1: were guarding Kevin Durant and pick and roll when he

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Speaker 1: was with Brooklyn were being outrageously aggressive. They were consistently

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Speaker 1: defending the action three on two, constantly trapping and blitzing

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Speaker 1: and hard hedging and all these different things, just doing

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Speaker 1: everything they could to get the ball out of his hands.

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Speaker 1: And he's so damn tall that he could make all

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Speaker 1: the raids out of it. It was particularly this like

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Speaker 1: kind of looping pass over the top to the role

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Speaker 1: man or a quick bounce pass he could make the

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Speaker 1: skip pass to the shooters. He was just picking teams

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Speaker 1: apart in pick and roll and doing it really with

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Speaker 1: a selection of players which were good, not great, like

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Speaker 1: he was doing it with a bunch of league average

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Speaker 1: role player type guys, right, And I thought it was

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Speaker 1: honestly some of the most impressive individual shot creation that

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Speaker 1: I saw during the regular season last year. If you remember,

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Speaker 1: before Kevin Durant's injury, I said on this show that

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Speaker 1: I thought he was playing better basketball than anybody in

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Speaker 1: the league, and it was his injury that derailed what

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Speaker 1: could have been an MVP. He campaign for it, which

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Speaker 1: would have been a wild turn of events after what

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Speaker 1: happened during that summer. But I do think again, like

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Speaker 1: this is why I say like, I think Kevin Durant's

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Speaker 1: become a little bit underrated, And I understand why the

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Speaker 1: injuries in the regular season keep you out of the

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Speaker 1: frame of mind for a while. Suddenly people start to

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Speaker 1: heavily focus on the guys that are on the court

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Speaker 1: playing every day. He's had a couple of playoff runs

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Speaker 1: that haven't quite meshed up with his standard. I get it,

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Speaker 1: but this guy is so freaking insanely good at basketball,

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Speaker 1: and I feel like the basketball world has forgotten and

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Speaker 1: I think people are making a mistake there because the

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Speaker 1: dudes got mileage left in those legs. And I don't

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Speaker 1: want it to be one of those situations where things

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Speaker 1: come together and he wins a title and everyone's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: look at this Kevin Durantz back and it's like he's

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Speaker 1: been here the whole damn time, and I think we've

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Speaker 1: just been overlooking him a little bit. One point zero

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Speaker 1: four points per isolation thirteenth out of twenty five players

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Speaker 1: to run at least two fifty not his best isolation season.

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Speaker 1: One point one four points per post up seventh out

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Speaker 1: of forty three players to attempt at least one hundred,

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Speaker 1: so very very good post up season for him, really

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Speaker 1: all fueled by the simple fact that he is the

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Speaker 1: most efficient shot maker in the NBA. It's not particularly

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Speaker 1: close either. Fifty five percent effective field goal percentage on

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot jumpers that's really good. Sixty percent effective

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Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pull up jumpers that's like freaking outrageous.

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Speaker 1: That's second best in the league behind Steph Curry and uh.

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Speaker 1: In terms of individual field goal percentage, it's much higher.

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Speaker 1: Steph just takes a bunch of pull up threes That

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Speaker 1: kind of gives him a one percent edge there. Katy

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Speaker 1: was fifty five percent on floaters and seventy nine percent

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Speaker 1: in the restricted area, which is amazingly efficient. But Katy

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Speaker 1: only made eighty three shots in the restricted area all season.

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Speaker 1: That's only one point eight per game. To give you

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Speaker 1: some perspective, there were two hundred and two players in

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Speaker 1: the NBA this season who made more shots in the

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Speaker 1: restricted area than Kevin Durant. So I would say that

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Speaker 1: if you had to find one particular weakness for Kevin

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Speaker 1: Durant in his game, in his game, he does not

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Speaker 1: generate nearly as much rim pressure as his peers, which

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Speaker 1: can somewhat limit his effectiveness when his jump shot is

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Speaker 1: not falling. It's it's I wouldn't call it a crippling weakness,

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Speaker 1: but it's definitely the weakest point in his particular game.

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Speaker 1: And what ends up happening is when his pull up

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Speaker 1: jump shot is not falling, he can experience some limited impact.

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Speaker 1: I think you saw that a lot more in the

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Speaker 1: Celtics series than you did this year in the Denver series.

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Speaker 1: I was really impressed by Kevin Duranton this particular season

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Speaker 1: in that Denver series with his jumper not falling and

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Speaker 1: him responding by starting to attack the rim more. And

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Speaker 1: I think I think you primarily saw that in free

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Speaker 1: throw attempts, and he generated a shit ton of free

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Speaker 1: throw attempts in that series that helped bolster his offensive

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Speaker 1: production when a shot wasn't falling. So now this is

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Speaker 1: the real, the real like drop off point for KD

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Speaker 1: in these last two postseasons. So this is a guy

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Speaker 1: who pretty consistently in the last couple of years has

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Speaker 1: been about sixty percent an effective field goal percentage on

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shots in the regular season. In the

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Speaker 1: Boston Celtics series, he shot in the low thirties in

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Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pull up jump shots. In this

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Speaker 1: particular postseason run, he went down from sixty percent effective

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Speaker 1: field goal percentage of forty five percent effective fielgal percentage.

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Speaker 1: Pretty significant drop off. And I think this is the

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Speaker 1: reason why people got off the KD bandwagon. They're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: if you started missing jump shots, and again, you got

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Speaker 1: to accept it for what it is, which is a

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Speaker 1: small sample size, little bit of variance. Like, again, guys,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be some drop off. It's more physical, it's

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Speaker 1: more intense, there's better defenses. So yeah, I would expect

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Speaker 1: his effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers to

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Speaker 1: drop from sixty to maybe fifty two to fifty three, right,

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Speaker 1: But I think we can all agree that KD was

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Speaker 1: missing a lot of shots that he normally makes and

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Speaker 1: it wasn't really that bad forty five percent in effective

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Speaker 1: field goal percentage, which we can consider again a massive

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Speaker 1: drop off for KD. Paul George shot forty eight percent

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Speaker 1: for the entire regular season on pull up jump shots,

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Speaker 1: so what we consider to be a massive drop off

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Speaker 1: for KD is only slightly below where one of his

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Speaker 1: significant peers in the league is during a good scoring

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Speaker 1: regular season for him, And again, it wasn't even as

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Speaker 1: bad as it looked this postseason. I think you guys

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Speaker 1: would probably be surprised to know that KD averaged twenty

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Speaker 1: nine to nine and six on sixty percentury shooting. How

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Speaker 1: many players in the league can even do that, And

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Speaker 1: that's Kd's shots not following postseason sixty percent of shooting

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Speaker 1: twenty nine points per game with nine rebounds and six assists.

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Speaker 1: Like I think, I think again, this is the same

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Speaker 1: problem we've had with Lebron for a while too, where

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Speaker 1: we become so accustomed to this like kind of like

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Speaker 1: vaunted expectation of what their ceiling is, which we've kind

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Speaker 1: of like we've turned into something mythological that all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden when there's some sort of drop off, which

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Speaker 1: a lot of times it is just a change. Like

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Speaker 1: Katie is better at manufacturing points by pressuring like downhill

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Speaker 1: pressure and drawing fouls. He's better at that now than

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Speaker 1: he's ever been. So even if there was a version

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Speaker 1: of this story in the past where he made more

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Speaker 1: jump shots, like this is a damn effective postseason. Same

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Speaker 1: thing with Lebron. It's like, oh, jumper wasn't following this year.

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Speaker 1: You're right, Lebron had a bad jump shooting season, but

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Speaker 1: he's like as good scoring out of the post. He's

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Speaker 1: better scoring out of the post than he's ever been.

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Speaker 1: And so even in this like limited version of Lebron,

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Speaker 1: he was still successfully dissecting defenses in the playoffs. So

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Speaker 1: it's all relative, and yeah, relative to Kd's absolute best postseasons,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't his best. But as I actually look at

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Speaker 1: the list of guys like Anthony Davis led his team

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Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals. That was not a perfect postseason,

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Speaker 1: very up and down offensively. Jason Tatum led his team

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Speaker 1: to the conference finals. Wasn't perfect. That was pretty up

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Speaker 1: and down. Jimmy Butler unbelievable in the Buck Series, pretty

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Speaker 1: normal Jimmy Butler after that for three rounds. So like,

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Speaker 1: if you have this built up expectation like what Jokic

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Speaker 1: did where you kick everyone's ass for four rounds, there's

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Speaker 1: maybe one dude who does that every year, maybe one.

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Speaker 1: In some years, there's not even a guy who does that.

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Speaker 1: So like, again, we gotta adjust our expectations here. This

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Speaker 1: is an NBA two K. You don't have dudes go

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Speaker 1: out there and play perfect every single night. And when

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Speaker 1: you really get down to it, how many guys in

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Speaker 1: a down shooting postseason are gonna give you a twenty

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Speaker 1: nine nine and six on six two percent true shooting

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Speaker 1: with above average defense. How many guys? Now? Again, Like,

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Speaker 1: I actually thought this was one of similar similar to

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Speaker 1: what I was talking about with the Lebron video where

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Speaker 1: I was talking about how like it was one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite postseasons rooting for him as I watched him

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Speaker 1: as a competitor work through his struggles same thing with

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. Game three, in particular against Denver was one

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Speaker 1: of my favorite Kevin Durant games that I've ever watched,

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Speaker 1: and I you know, I can think of a lot

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Speaker 1: of great Kevin Durant games, and like, for instance, one

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Speaker 1: of my all time faves is Game four against I

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Speaker 1: want to say it was Game four against the Calves

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Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. It was one of the best games

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Speaker 1: I've ever seen a basketball player play where KD just

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Speaker 1: absolutely picked the Calves apart as like this point forward passing,

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Speaker 1: making every decision with the live dribble from the top

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Speaker 1: of the key. I think he had a triple double.

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Speaker 1: I think it was a forty point triple double if

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Speaker 1: I remember correctly, and I remember walking away from that

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Speaker 1: game like holy shit. Two of the greatest games I've

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Speaker 1: ever seen players play in this series. Lebron in Game one,

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant in Game four. I can think of a

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Speaker 1: bunch of games like that over Kevin Durant's career, and

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Speaker 1: those are impressive in a different way as they reflect

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Speaker 1: dominance and I enjoy those performances. But to me, like

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Speaker 1: as a competitor, I've always appreciated the games where things

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Speaker 1: aren't going well, where the command of the game isn't there.

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Speaker 1: But like, you have a choice as a player in

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Speaker 1: those situations, what are you going to do? Are you

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Speaker 1: going to just be like, man, I don't have it tonight,

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Speaker 1: or are you gonna be like, shit, man, I've got

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Speaker 1: to do something to find a way to win this game.

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Speaker 1: There was a game game three against Denver and Katie's

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Speaker 1: jumper was broke. It's one for five from three, missed

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Speaker 1: a bowlo to mid range pull ups, had nothing going.

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Speaker 1: But like, if you watch the game, you could visibly

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Speaker 1: see KD just pressuring and pressuring and pressuring off the dribble,

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Speaker 1: just forcing the issue to manufacture points by manufacturing rim

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Speaker 1: pressure and making nice kickout passes by drawing fouls by

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Speaker 1: getting to the rim. And in a game where he

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Speaker 1: could not make a damn jump shot, he finished with

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Speaker 1: thirty nine to nine and eight in a win against

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Speaker 1: a championship level team. How many guys in the league

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Speaker 1: right now can give you thirty nine, nine and eight

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Speaker 1: at all, let alone thirty nine nine and eight in

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Speaker 1: a playoff game against a championship level opponent, in a

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Speaker 1: game where his jump shots not falling, and like I

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Speaker 1: remember after that game thinking that was awesome. He had

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Speaker 1: nothing going. He had to literally just through sheer force

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Speaker 1: of competitive will, find a way to help his team

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Speaker 1: win a game and put up thirty nine, nine and eighth.

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Speaker 1: That's what I appreciated in general about that postseason. Like again,

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Speaker 1: it shot creation situations in the postseason. Zero point eighty

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Speaker 1: six points per ISO. Oh that's not good. Zero point

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Speaker 1: seventy three points per post up. That's even worse. His

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Speaker 1: shots wort falling in post up in ISO situations, he

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Speaker 1: was twenty seven for seventy five from the field. And

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Speaker 1: if you ask Kevin Durant, and he's talked about this,

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Speaker 1: he talked about it during his injury. He was obsessed

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Speaker 1: with the concept of one on one basketball, just perfecting

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Speaker 1: beating a matchup in individual situations. So Katie's bread and

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Speaker 1: butter failed him, and he still put up twenty nine

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Speaker 1: to nine and six on sixty percent TRU shooting. How

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Speaker 1: he had one of his best transition postseasons. He scored

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Speaker 1: seventy points in transition in two rounds. For example, Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Butler had eighty in four rounds. So he manufactured points

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Speaker 1: in transition, he manufactured points by moving without the basketball

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Speaker 1: coming In off screen situations he shot four forty percent,

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Speaker 1: was deadly attacking closeouts like he just found a way

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Speaker 1: to help his team win. And so again, like I

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Speaker 1: said earlier in summary, I think KD is one of

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Speaker 1: those guys like Lebron where really the older generation just

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Speaker 1: in general, where we're just so quick to try to

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Speaker 1: embrace the new and we're so numb to what they're

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Speaker 1: capable of that we just assume, because they're down a

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Speaker 1: level from their individual peaks, that they're not at the

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Speaker 1: same level as the guys above them. But I think

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Speaker 1: it's just flawed perspective. And if we actually really looked

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Speaker 1: at these dudes and viewed them as anonymous, like just

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Speaker 1: this playoff run, which we I've all agreed is below

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's normal level, if that was brandon Ingram. If

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Speaker 1: brandon Ingram averaged twenty nine nine and six on sixty

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Speaker 1: percent through shooting, shot forty five percent effective field goal

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Speaker 1: percentage on pull up jump shots, and had a thirty

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Speaker 1: nine to nine to eight game against Denver in the

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Speaker 1: second round, we'd be leaving the postseason talking about whether

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Speaker 1: or not he was like capable of being the best

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Speaker 1: player in the world, Like we'd be celebrating the dude,

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Speaker 1: But because it's Kevin Durant, and because we've seen him

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Speaker 1: hoist the trophy twice, and because we've seen him have

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Speaker 1: all these big playoff moments, we're just like, ah, not

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Speaker 1: the same KD. And And I think that has been

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Speaker 1: hopefully one of the themes that I've gotten across over

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Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of years. Don't be

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Speaker 1: in a rush to displace guys that are proven and

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Speaker 1: that are still doing it at that level, because chances

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Speaker 1: are if they end up in a playoff series this year,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be more confident, more comfortable in that

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Speaker 1: situation than their peers because they've done it so many

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Speaker 1: damn times. One thing I would say, again, like I

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, that he could still improve at this phase

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Speaker 1: of his career, is just finding a way to attempt

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Speaker 1: more shots at the rim. I think KD is very

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00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: aggressive as a scorer, but I also think he's extremely

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Speaker 1: picky about when he shoots, and I think that's a

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Speaker 1: good quality. I think that's what helps him be very

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Speaker 1: easy to plug and play into other teams like you

408
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about Kdie taking shots outside of

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Speaker 1: the flow of the offense. He's one of the unique

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Speaker 1: players in the league in his ability to be super

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Speaker 1: aggressive but in the flow and so it doesn't really

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Speaker 1: disrupt the flow, Whereas, like if Luca decided to be

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Speaker 1: super aggressive in a quarter, it would be kind of

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Speaker 1: like ugly as he just dribbled the ball off the

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00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,920
Speaker 1: court and shot every single time, right, Whereas like KD

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Speaker 1: he could take six shots and ten possessions, but like

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Speaker 1: two of them would be coming off a wide pin down,

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Speaker 1: one would be on a post up, another would be

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Speaker 1: in pick and roll, two of them would be ISOs,

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Speaker 1: one would be on the live dribble on the wing,

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Speaker 1: another one would be kind of like a face up ISO,

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Speaker 1: and you'd be like, man, like, all six of those

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Speaker 1: were different. Four of them came off of action, one

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Speaker 1: was in transition, whatever it is. There's just so much

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Speaker 1: variety in what he does. It's easy to plug in, right,

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Speaker 1: But I mean, this is the part where I see

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Speaker 1: an area of opportunity. His rim efficiency is outrageously good,

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Speaker 1: like seventy nine percent in the regular season at the rim.

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Speaker 1: In the restricted area. He was ten for eleven on

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Speaker 1: shots in the restricted area against Denver ten for eleven,

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Speaker 1: that's ninety one percent. So at a certain point, I'd

432
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,159
Speaker 1: like to see him be a little less picky and

433
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: just get more shots up at the rim. You know,

434
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,879
Speaker 1: most most of his peers are around like seventy seventy

435
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 1: five percent, and it's because they're taking a lot of

436
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:29,680
Speaker 1: shots down there. And again, like we talked about a lot,

437
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,879
Speaker 1: like missed shots at the rim carry residual value provided

438
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,439
Speaker 1: that you run back on defense, and that is it

439
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: occupies the rim protector. And when you occupy the rim protector,

440
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,680
Speaker 1: you do a lot of different things for your team.

441
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,200
Speaker 1: You're either going to open up an offensive rebound opportunity

442
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: or if you're reading the defense at a higher level,

443
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: as soon as the rim protector comes over, the guy

444
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: from the low man out of the weakside corners coming

445
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: to tag the big man to box him out, and

446
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: now you have kickout opportunities for threes. Rim pressure comes

447
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 1: with all sorts of residual positive effects, and I think

448
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 1: in general, on that Sun's team that's going to be

449
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 1: one of their specific weaknesses. And so I think that's

450
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: one thing i'd like to see Katie do a little

451
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 1: bit more here in the lat of the later phase

452
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 1: of his career is just force it in there a

453
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: little bit more, and just for a couple of different reasons,

454
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 1: not just the residual values we talked about, but also

455
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:27,680
Speaker 1: because of that simple concept of heels versus toes on defense,

456
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 1: which is more theoretical than in the actual footwork, because

457
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: most defenders are up on their toes as much as

458
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 1: they can be. But the point is is like, as

459
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: a defender either prioritizing being up on the pull up

460
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 1: jump shot or being prepared for retreat steps to try

461
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 1: to cut people off on the drive, demonstrate more of

462
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 1: a willingness to drive, the defender is going to be

463
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,720
Speaker 1: more on their heels, so to speak, at least favoring

464
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 1: backward steps, which is going to open up your opportunities

465
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: for off the drible jump shots. And we've seen his

466
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: separation on pull up jump shots hasn't been as good

467
00:24:58,040 --> 00:24:59,680
Speaker 1: in the postseason because guys are sitting on it a

468
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:04,520
Speaker 1: little bit. And so again like this is this is

469
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 1: like it's one of those things where I do think

470
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,200
Speaker 1: that when you're as good at making all the other

471
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 1: shots the way that he is, that even without the

472
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 1: rim pressure, there's still a certain amount offensive success. It's

473
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: just one small area of opportunity. So here's the last

474
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 1: thing I'll say. Katie has been the best volume scorer

475
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: in the NBA since he left Golden State, as we

476
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: established earlier. So you think one of two things. You

477
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,680
Speaker 1: either think that his last two postseasons are just outlier

478
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: shot performances, or you think that's the new normal. I

479
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 1: tend to think their outlier shot performances. Why because he

480
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: shoots sixty percent on him in the regular season effective

481
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 1: field goal percentage, And that's not fluky, that's real freaking basketball.

482
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: So again, you have an option here. You can choose

483
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: to write him off, or you can believe in the

484
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: larger sample size of what this dude's capable of. And

485
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: except the realities of that weird NETS team after James

486
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,160
Speaker 1: Harden had left coming off of an injury in twenty

487
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 1: twenty two or twenty twenty three, a Son's team that

488
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: traded away all of their depth for KD then lost

489
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and it basically was Katie and Devin Booker

490
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: and like random dudes like Terrence Ross and Landrew Shaman,

491
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,400
Speaker 1: who were fine but end of the bench guys who

492
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,439
Speaker 1: are having to play significant minutes in the postseason for

493
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: the Suns. And I'm not trying to make excuses, because

494
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 1: here's the thing. This year is a no excuse here

495
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: for the Sons. You brought it. You converted Chris Paul

496
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 1: into Bradley Beal, You made a bunch of really smart

497
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,199
Speaker 1: role player signings. Eric Gordon's a really good player to

498
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,880
Speaker 1: help in that situation. You to want Nabi a really

499
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: good player to help in those situations. Chimezi met to

500
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: a good try hard forward, the U Banks from Portland

501
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,199
Speaker 1: a good try hard forward. They have loaded up on

502
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: guys that are going to be able to give them

503
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: more competent play around them and a much more available

504
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: in higher ceiling low a higher floor two player in

505
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,880
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal to replace Chris Paul. So here's the thing.

506
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: If we get to the postseason this year and the

507
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: Suns underachieve again and Kevin Durant can't make pull up

508
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 1: jump shots again, then I think we can have a

509
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: serious conversation because that would be three postseasons in a

510
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: row where he underachieved in the postseason. It would be

511
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: a roster that actually should have a certain higher ceiling.

512
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,120
Speaker 1: I'm with you at that point, but I'm a big

513
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: believer in the benefit of the doubt, and we have

514
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: like a decade of Kevin Durant basketball that should give

515
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: us the benefit of the doubt to overlook a couple

516
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: of rough postseason series relative to what his ceiling is

517
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: when he was that great during the regular season. So again,

518
00:27:57,640 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: you guys are welcome to write Kevin Durant off if

519
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: you want to. I'm not gonna be one of those guys.

520
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:03,880
Speaker 1: I haven't met number four this year. All right, guys,

521
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:05,520
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We will be

522
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with number three. The volume