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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Saturday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great weekend
Speaker 1: so far. Got a jam pack show for you today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be hitting on five games. I didn't get
Speaker 1: to watch any basketball last night because I was watching
Speaker 1: the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series lose in absolutely
Speaker 1: heartbreaking fashion thanks to a Corey Seeger two run bomb
Speaker 1: off of our closer, who has never given up a
Speaker 1: run so far in postseason in the postseason this year
Speaker 1: until that specific hit. So that was depressing, But I
Speaker 1: woke up this morning and I watched about six consecutive
Speaker 1: hours of basketball from a jam Pack Night of Hoops,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna hit on five games. Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: have an impressive double digit win against the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 1: The Spurs and the Rockets, a game that we would
Speaker 1: never have covered last year on the show produced an
Speaker 1: incredibly entertaining game. Victor Wiben Yama sends the game to
Speaker 1: ot with a late bucket. The Spurs end up closing
Speaker 1: the deal in ot. The Miami heat in Boston, Celtics
Speaker 1: always played tough games. The heat throughout most of the
Speaker 1: game kind of made Boston feel uncomfortable and kept a
Speaker 1: little bit of a lead, but Boston's talent takes over
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter as they come out with a win.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder came back from down ten with
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes left against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They
Speaker 1: hit four consecutive threes. We're gonna hit that game from
Speaker 1: both teams. And then Luka Doncic hits four consecutive threes
Speaker 1: to steal a game from the Brooklyn Nets, as they
Speaker 1: have gone on to blowing two late leads, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit all five of those games from the perspectives
Speaker 1: of all ten teams. Then I have three mail bag
Speaker 1: questions for the end of the show as well. You
Speaker 1: guys in the drip for we get started. This is
Speaker 1: our new YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to
Speaker 1: me if you guys would take a second to scroll
Speaker 1: down and hit that subscribe button. Help us get this
Speaker 1: channel off the ground. Don't forget about our podcast feed
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. Follow me
Speaker 1: on social media Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. That's where I'm doing
Speaker 1: video content and show announcements. This morning I posted a
Speaker 1: bunch of videos from my film session on Twitter, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna reference a bunch of plays that you'll be
Speaker 1: able to see on my Twitter feed and the last
Speaker 1: minute at least any more mail bag questions, keep dropping
Speaker 1: those in the YouTube comments so we can hit them
Speaker 1: later on during the season. So Golden State Sacramento a
Speaker 1: classic kind of game where at the beginning it's the
Speaker 1: star that's kind of carrying things while the team figures
Speaker 1: things out. The Kings kind of have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a lead. They're holding the Warriors at Bay, but
Speaker 1: Steph's going crazy. He goes crazy in the first half,
Speaker 1: goes crazy again to start the third quarter, goes on
Speaker 1: a crazy run to put the Warriors up eleven. In
Speaker 1: the middle of the third quarter, hits a step back three,
Speaker 1: hits a mid range pull up in a pick and roll,
Speaker 1: hits a driving layup against a double team against Harrison
Speaker 1: Barnes where he beats him to the baseline and lays
Speaker 1: it up and just starts talking shit. Then caps it
Speaker 1: off with a movement three at the top of the
Speaker 1: key where he gets fouled, gets a four point play
Speaker 1: puts the Warriors up eleven. But what I thought was
Speaker 1: interesting because Steph was amazing, finished with forty one points.
Speaker 1: He's amazing. I can sit here and talk about how
Speaker 1: amazing Steph is all night long. But what I found
Speaker 1: to be super interesting in this game was the run
Speaker 1: that the bench went on in the late third quarter.
Speaker 1: They went with an interesting kind of front coord combination
Speaker 1: of Tray Jackson Davis with Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: alongside Klay Thompson and Chris Paul, and they were really
Speaker 1: good defensively during that third quarter run. Those three Tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis, Moses Moody, and Jonathan Minga were on the
Speaker 1: floor for four minutes and they were plus seven and
Speaker 1: locked the defensive rating of sixty three point six, which
Speaker 1: is outstanding, And what stood out to me mostly was
Speaker 1: the overall amount of athleticism on the floor with that group.
Speaker 1: Tracey Jackson Davis is basically like a really big wing
Speaker 1: if you factor in his mobility. Obviously he functions offensively
Speaker 1: as a big man, but like he's got the mobility
Speaker 1: and lateral quickness that you see in a lot of wings,
Speaker 1: and he's got the versatility to kind of function as
Speaker 1: a wing when it comes to covering ground in rotation,
Speaker 1: which is something that the Warriors have never really had
Speaker 1: from the center position outside of Draymond in this era,
Speaker 1: it's almost always been bigger, slower players that are occupying
Speaker 1: those minutes, right And there was a specific play that
Speaker 1: I thought demonstrated this really well that you guys can
Speaker 1: see on my Twitter feed if you go back where
Speaker 1: I talk about this particular trio. But Tracey Jackson Davis
Speaker 1: gets a block in drop coverage at the rim on
Speaker 1: the left side of the rim as a result, which
Speaker 1: by the way, already impressive defensive play, but in the scrum,
Speaker 1: the ball ends up flying to the top of the
Speaker 1: key and to a wide open shooter and I think
Speaker 1: it was dearon fox ifrom member correctly, and both Moses
Speaker 1: Moody and and Jonathan Kaminga close out to the top
Speaker 1: of the key. When they both close out to the
Speaker 1: top of the key, the ball gets swung to the corner.
Speaker 1: When the swing goes to the corner, Tray Jackson Davis
Speaker 1: rotates from under the basket where he was in drop
Speaker 1: coverage to chase it. Think it was Keegan Murray out
Speaker 1: of the right corner chase him off the line. Moses
Speaker 1: Moody realizes that him and Comminga are the same guy.
Speaker 1: He sprints back and guards JaVale McGee. Keegan Murray drives
Speaker 1: towards the left towards the middle and throws a kick
Speaker 1: out passed back to the top of the key. Jonathan Kmingo,
Speaker 1: who's a freak athlete, digs down to contain that drive
Speaker 1: from the from the left side right and then recovers
Speaker 1: out to the top of the key to contest the
Speaker 1: three point shot and force a miss. So again, like
Speaker 1: the you get the high level rim protection from Tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis on that play. But in the chaos, you
Speaker 1: leave two open shooters. But because you've got athletes on
Speaker 1: the floor, they're flying out to those shooters and they're
Speaker 1: chasing them off the line and forcing them into tougher shots.
Speaker 1: And that kind of like athleticism out of the front court. Again,
Speaker 1: like athleticism on the perimeter has its own value, but
Speaker 1: especially when you have bigger athletes, they can help you
Speaker 1: a lot when it comes to contesting shots and flying
Speaker 1: around in rotation. And that's kind of an aspect that
Speaker 1: we haven't been used to seeing from Golden State in
Speaker 1: their bench groups. And I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: exciting kind of stretch of basketball to demonstrate what they
Speaker 1: could be getting out of the bench over the course
Speaker 1: of the season. Again, plus seven and four minutes for
Speaker 1: that trio, sixty three points, sixty defensive writing. Hard not
Speaker 1: to get excited about that. Another solid Jonathan kminga game
Speaker 1: he was plus nine and twenty six minutes, had a
Speaker 1: nasty tip dunk, made some defensive plays. He had a
Speaker 1: play where he beat Davey on Mitchell in a post up.
Speaker 1: That's that match matchup attacking stuff that I like to
Speaker 1: see hit a very important corner three before the half
Speaker 1: that kind of changed the tone of the game. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga is a lot better than I thought he was
Speaker 1: going to be this season so far, and again, especially
Speaker 1: through eighty two games or reps, it's very possible that
Speaker 1: he could be that playoff Forwarden State's been looking for.
Speaker 1: I really liked Chris Paul with that group too, And
Speaker 1: this is that concept where like having an adult to
Speaker 1: run the show in a lineup that has young players
Speaker 1: works like because again, when you threw Jordan Pool in
Speaker 1: with those groups, it's almost one of those things where
Speaker 1: like the total aggregate call it basketball IQ, call it
Speaker 1: like ability to slow down and execute that whatever you
Speaker 1: want to refer to, that trait is with those groups
Speaker 1: kind of dipped below a level where it became freakishly inconsistent,
Speaker 1: and you would have stretches where Pools making shots, Kminga's
Speaker 1: making plays and they would look great, but then you'd
Speaker 1: have stretches where it would just absolutely crater when all
Speaker 1: of them are making bad decisions. And what's nice about
Speaker 1: having Chris Paul out there is he's kind of the
Speaker 1: adult to run the show with the kids. And again,
Speaker 1: like I know they're not kids, they're grown as man,
Speaker 1: but I mean within the concept of basketball, to have
Speaker 1: that super experienced, methodical player out there to kind of
Speaker 1: get all those guys in the right spots goes a
Speaker 1: long way to helping those lineups be consistent. And again,
Speaker 1: when you juxtapose that with the Jordan Poole experience, that's
Speaker 1: what you're hoping for. You're not trying to win games
Speaker 1: with the bench. You're trying to keep your starters and
Speaker 1: where they are at in the game, try to maintain
Speaker 1: that progress so that when they come back in the
Speaker 1: game they can build upon it. Though, and like there
Speaker 1: were times when the when the Warriors won games with
Speaker 1: their bench, and that's great, but the consistent experience is
Speaker 1: actually better here. Chris Paul is really good at just
Speaker 1: finding the easy shots that exist on the basketball court. So,
Speaker 1: like there was a there was a sequence, there was
Speaker 1: a sequence in the early fourth quarter where he ran
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Dario sarag And on the first one,
Speaker 1: he just like gets downhill into Sabonus's chest, like caves'
Speaker 1: his chest in with a hard power dribble and makes
Speaker 1: a layup while the defenders coming from behind in back pressure,
Speaker 1: and it was kind of interesting because you could tell,
Speaker 1: like Chris Paul really hit the jets on that play,
Speaker 1: and it felt like he was almost trying to send
Speaker 1: a message like I am willing to score here if
Speaker 1: you guys just let me go downhill unimpeded. Right, And
Speaker 1: then on the very next possession they run another pick
Speaker 1: and roll, but in this case, Chris more methodically is
Speaker 1: trying to set up Dario sarch for a shot. So
Speaker 1: when he comes down over the top of the screen,
Speaker 1: they both converge on Chris because he had just scored
Speaker 1: by dropping his shoulder and getting downhill. Nice easy bounce
Speaker 1: past to Dario sarg in the short corner for a
Speaker 1: little seventeen foot jump shot that he's gonna make probably
Speaker 1: two out of three times when he's that wide open.
Speaker 1: That's just easy, easy basketball. And again like there are
Speaker 1: we talk about this all the time, but like offensive ratings,
Speaker 1: if you look at him for the league, you know,
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league are around one twenty and
Speaker 1: the worst teams in the league around one ten. It's
Speaker 1: really not that much of a difference. There's less than
Speaker 1: a ten percent difference between the best teams in the
Speaker 1: league and the worst teams in the league. Right, And
Speaker 1: so what's actually happening there is like it's the little
Speaker 1: things on the margins that are the difference. There are
Speaker 1: easy shots that exist in games. The teams that find
Speaker 1: those easy opportunities more frequently have higher offensive ratings. There
Speaker 1: are difficult shots that take place in the game. These
Speaker 1: are rescue possessions, late game situations. The teams that are
Speaker 1: good at converting those usually have higher offensive ratings. Right,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is not the guy that's going to make
Speaker 1: a ton of really really tough shots and lift you
Speaker 1: up in terms of the super high level shot making.
Speaker 1: That's not what you need. That's what you have Steph
Speaker 1: Curry for. What you need is the guy that can
Speaker 1: execute and find the easy shots that are available to
Speaker 1: be had in basketball games. Like, you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to run to Dario saraz pick and roll with
Speaker 1: Chris Paul at the end of a game and get
Speaker 1: a wide open seventeen footer. They're they're gonna either They're
Speaker 1: probably gonna switch the action and force Chris to make
Speaker 1: some tough shot but in the air at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, when the game is more fast
Speaker 1: and loose, like those are there to be had, and
Speaker 1: Chris is the guy that's gonna make sure you get those.
Speaker 1: And you're seeing that manifest in the scoreboard. So so
Speaker 1: far through two games, when Steph is on the floor,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are plus two point three net, so outscoring
Speaker 1: their opponents by two point three points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions in one hundred and forty two possessions according to
Speaker 1: Cleaning the Glass. Now that number is lower because they
Speaker 1: lost the Suns game, right, But like you expect to
Speaker 1: be positive over the course of the season, probably around
Speaker 1: seven or eight points per one hundred posessions. When Steph's
Speaker 1: on the floor, that's great, right, that's what you can
Speaker 1: depend on thanks to Steph being one of the top
Speaker 1: five players in the world. Right. But when Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is on the floor so far this year and Steph
Speaker 1: is off, the Warriors are plus three point one net
Speaker 1: in sixty two possessions, so outscoring opponents by three point
Speaker 1: one points per one hundred possessions. And again that's a
Speaker 1: small sample size, but so far you are winning the
Speaker 1: minutes when Steph is on the floor, off the floor,
Speaker 1: that's important. Again, I get like, when you want to
Speaker 1: have your best chance to beat the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league, you can't hamorrhage points with the bench group.
Speaker 1: Chris is giving you a better job of surviving those
Speaker 1: particular minutes. And again, like in the it's not just
Speaker 1: without Steph on the floor there either, because like I
Speaker 1: would argue, Draymond Green is either the second or third
Speaker 1: best player on the Warriors, probably the second best player
Speaker 1: without poorly Andrew Wiggins has been playing to start the year,
Speaker 1: right and so, and really for the most of last
Speaker 1: year as well. So like like you're really without your
Speaker 1: second an or your your best player and your second
Speaker 1: best player in this case, right and so what's interesting
Speaker 1: about that is like the Warriors love to tie Draymond
Speaker 1: Green to Steph Curry. And the main reason why that's
Speaker 1: a good idea is because Stephan pick and roll actions
Speaker 1: brings the offensive firepower to the action. It actually makes
Speaker 1: more sense to run Chris with more offensively skilled big
Speaker 1: men because he's not going to be as active as
Speaker 1: a scorer and pick and roll. This is a concept
Speaker 1: we've talked about over the course of preseason, and but
Speaker 1: one of the problems is over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Often Steve Kurris had to play Draymond Green with some
Speaker 1: of the groups without Steph because they've struggled so much.
Speaker 1: That was a big part of the story last year,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, and it's because they're just grasping
Speaker 1: it straws, like, how do we win these minutes we're getting,
Speaker 1: We're losing these minutes. We got to get Draymond in
Speaker 1: with those guys, so maybe we can get stops and
Speaker 1: maybe that'll carry us over the top. But if you
Speaker 1: can actually go the way they want to go, which
Speaker 1: is keep Draymond tied to Steph so that you have
Speaker 1: that that offensive potential of those two and Draymond's defensive
Speaker 1: ceiling right, but then also be able to float your
Speaker 1: minutes when Chris is out there with Dario Sarz and
Speaker 1: Johnathan Kaminga or whoever it is, Tray Jackson Davis as well.
Speaker 1: If they can float those minutes without Draymond and without Steph,
Speaker 1: that's where you get that classic Golden State mixture that
Speaker 1: they're shooting. So far through two games, the Warriors have
Speaker 1: a one h eight defensive rating. That's pretty solid, especially
Speaker 1: when you consider they're against the Kings and the Suns
Speaker 1: in those two games. That's not an easy task. Ninety
Speaker 1: five defensive rating in the half court that solid Israel
Speaker 1: big solid as well, biggest areas of opportunity. They got
Speaker 1: out rebounded in both games, although I did think the
Speaker 1: guards competed better against Sacramento. The guards who got killed
Speaker 1: in the Sun's game, but I thought they competed better
Speaker 1: against Sacramento. And they need to find a way to
Speaker 1: get Andrew Wiggins going. There's something going on with him.
Speaker 1: He's just in a little bit of a funk. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's just not in shape. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's just struggling to fit in with the
Speaker 1: with all of the other young guys being more aggressive.
Speaker 1: But when they were at their best, Andrew Wiggins was
Speaker 1: their second best player when they won the title in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. So that's something that I'd like to
Speaker 1: see them figure out on the Kings front. Darren Fox
Speaker 1: at thirty nine, he's locked in so far the Syeer.
Speaker 1: He's seven for fifteen on pull up jump shots and
Speaker 1: four of them are pull up three, so he's got
Speaker 1: a sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull ups.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. That was basically what Steph led the league
Speaker 1: with last year. So good start there on that on
Speaker 1: that front. Three for four in floaters as well. The
Speaker 1: one weird thing with Darreon Fox is he's still missing
Speaker 1: at the rim. And if you remember this was the
Speaker 1: story last year. Last year, Darren Fox was like incredible
Speaker 1: at the Rim, if I remember correctly, he shot over
Speaker 1: seventy percent at the Rim, but then in the Warriors
Speaker 1: series he really struggled to finish at the Rim, and
Speaker 1: so far this year he's only eight for sixteen, So
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on there. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's a decision making thing, a spacing thing, but
Speaker 1: Darren Fox is missing too many layups and they're getting
Speaker 1: nothing out of Kevin Herder right now. He was zero
Speaker 1: for five on threes last night. He's one for twelve
Speaker 1: on jump shots. So far this season, He's only attempted
Speaker 1: two shots at the rim. The main thing that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing on tape there is he's just taking extremely difficult shots,
Speaker 1: Like he basically comes off these dribble handoffs and either
Speaker 1: gets rid of the ball or shoots, and when he's
Speaker 1: looking for shot attempts, he's given that one two foot
Speaker 1: work right, Like, if he's coming to his right, he's
Speaker 1: planting that left foot, planting that right foot, and he's
Speaker 1: twisting in mid air to square up and get that
Speaker 1: shot off. And it's just a really, really difficult shot.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things I'd like to see
Speaker 1: from Kevin Herder and he can actually take this as
Speaker 1: a play a page from Klay Thompson's playbook, but use relocation, dribbles,
Speaker 1: be more willing to use that crazy uh lock and
Speaker 1: trail defenders momentum against him to find higher quality shots,
Speaker 1: because that's that's that's again when you're out of rhythm.
Speaker 1: If you try to shoot yourself out of rhythm by
Speaker 1: taking more tough shots, you're just going to get more
Speaker 1: and more discouraged. But if you actually try to get
Speaker 1: out of your you know, shooting slump by hunting down
Speaker 1: easier shots to build your confidence, that can go a
Speaker 1: long way to getting them out of it. So again,
Speaker 1: I just would like to see him put the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor a little bit more to try to
Speaker 1: generate higher quality shots. Malise Monk Malik Monk is also
Speaker 1: struggling to start the year, and that's hurting them with
Speaker 1: Fox off the floor. So far, they are minus five
Speaker 1: net in fifty one possessions without Deer and Fox, so
Speaker 1: they're not getting They're getting outscored by five points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions as a team. Still not playing any
Speaker 1: defense one to thirteen defensive rating, and teams are shooting
Speaker 1: seventy eight percent against the Kings in the restricted area
Speaker 1: so far through two games. That is the second worst
Speaker 1: mark in the entire NBA. Moving on to Houston San Antonio,
Speaker 1: this game was an absurd amount of fun. The Rockets
Speaker 1: were up by ten in the late third quarter. Doug
Speaker 1: McDermot go Doug, Doug Man, I'm having a hard time
Speaker 1: speaking today. Doug McDermott goes on a run to end
Speaker 1: the third quarter and start the fourth quarter. Uh has
Speaker 1: a hits three threes I think in total between the
Speaker 1: end of the third and in the middle of the fourth.
Speaker 1: Gets it back close and then downstretch was a down.
Speaker 1: The stretch was a fun chess match. Van Vliet had
Speaker 1: a nice stretch, attacking the rim and finishing in traffic.
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel hit a couple of big shots. He had
Speaker 1: this like spinning turnaround jump shot against Dylan Brooks and
Speaker 1: then like wagged the finger at him and started talking
Speaker 1: shit again. Devin vassell I talked about him after the
Speaker 1: first game, but he kind of reminds me a little
Speaker 1: bit of young Devin Booker in his approach as a scorer.
Speaker 1: But he's actually a little bit taller and has longer arms,
Speaker 1: and so he's actually got the potential to be even
Speaker 1: more difficult to guard with his release point. But he's
Speaker 1: a He made a lot of big plays down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game, had a big alley up in
Speaker 1: ot as well, but then it basically settled into the
Speaker 1: into the rockets running clear side post ups for Prince Shangun.
Speaker 1: So the Zach Collins had five fouls, and so imy
Speaker 1: Udoka really wanted them to run through Alprince Shangun on
Speaker 1: the on the left block, so they basically just kind
Speaker 1: of set up in like a four out spacing, so
Speaker 1: they had like a guy in the right corner, guy
Speaker 1: on the right wing, and then two guys basically at
Speaker 1: the lane lines extended to the top of the key,
Speaker 1: and then they just cleared the entire left side and
Speaker 1: let Shanghun basically just kind of back his way in
Speaker 1: and look for hook shots over Zach Collins and knowing
Speaker 1: that he's not going to be able to play super
Speaker 1: physical defense, to push Shangun off of his spots because
Speaker 1: if he does, he's going to foul out. And it
Speaker 1: worked really well. They were getting hooks, they were drawn
Speaker 1: doubles and kicking out and get it playing driving kick basketball.
Speaker 1: From there, it was working for the Rockets. That was
Speaker 1: their late game offense down the stretch. For the Spurs,
Speaker 1: it was pretty ugly. Again. Their perimeter players right now
Speaker 1: are still a little inconsistent, but they started to have
Speaker 1: success when they started feeding Victor Wembinyama on the right
Speaker 1: block and post ups against Jabari Smith. He had won
Speaker 1: in a like kind of middle third quarter where he
Speaker 1: spun baseline and dunked it on the right side of
Speaker 1: the basket. I put that one on Twitter. You guys
Speaker 1: can see that there. And then in the final minute
Speaker 1: when the Spurs were down by two, it was right
Speaker 1: around thirty seconds left, same thing, posts up Javari Smith
Speaker 1: on the right block and kind of makes that same
Speaker 1: sort of hard baseline move. This time Jabari cuts him off,
Speaker 1: but he just bumps him off with that shoulder and
Speaker 1: hits a little right handed hook shot of a shot
Speaker 1: that's like literally impossible to guard, and that ended up
Speaker 1: sending the game to overtime. Now, in overtime, the Spurs
Speaker 1: kind of solved the Shangun post up. Zack Collins said
Speaker 1: screw it and just started being more physical and forced
Speaker 1: him into some misses. And then the one of the
Speaker 1: things that the Rockets were doing that I disagreed with
Speaker 1: is they basically had those four guys that were spacing
Speaker 1: just stand in those four spots and there was no
Speaker 1: kind of motion or interchanging taking place. And so the
Speaker 1: Spurs defenders that were kind of gapping those guys, they
Speaker 1: were able to split the difference, and they had seen
Speaker 1: that same action so many times they figured out how
Speaker 1: to guard it. They forced a couple turnovers on Shangoon.
Speaker 1: He forced an offensive foul, then they got a steal
Speaker 1: on a kickout pass, and they were running it down
Speaker 1: the other end for layups and dunks. Keldon Johnson had
Speaker 1: a big, two handed dunk down the stretch. So the
Speaker 1: Spurs go up big. The Rockets then default back to
Speaker 1: that Van Vliet Shangoun pick and roll and they score
Speaker 1: seven quick points on it. Two pocket passes to Shangun
Speaker 1: one where he just threw down this ridiculous dunk over
Speaker 1: Zach Collins. Like I said, super super fun game because
Speaker 1: Shangun dunks on on Zach Collins and talks all sorts
Speaker 1: of shit. Then they go down to the other end
Speaker 1: and they run Zack Collins in the post against Shangoon
Speaker 1: and he hits this like hard dribble to the right
Speaker 1: spin back baseline and gets pass him for an and
Speaker 1: one at that point though, really by the time the
Speaker 1: Keldon Johnson had that dunk, they were up big and
Speaker 1: the O team it was basically over at that point,
Speaker 1: but the Rockets did make some shots late to make
Speaker 1: a kind of interesting. Victor wenbin Yama finished with twenty
Speaker 1: one points and twelve rebounds, two steals, and three blocks
Speaker 1: and a ton of huge defensive plays. And there was this.
Speaker 1: So I told you guys about the play where Devin
Speaker 1: Vessel hits the turnaround jump shot over Dylan Brooks and
Speaker 1: starts talking shit. Well, on the very next possession they
Speaker 1: end up, he ends up attacking him again, and Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks of course takes it personally because this young kid's
Speaker 1: talking shit to him, so he's locking him up sliding
Speaker 1: with him. Vassell ends up taking like a tough like
Speaker 1: seventeen foot fade away on the baseline and airballs it.
Speaker 1: Because Dylan Brooks is especially good at disrupting your base.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before, but like when you're giving
Speaker 1: up size to a guy, you can shoot over the top,
Speaker 1: push him on their base to disrupt their lift, and
Speaker 1: then attack the shooting pocket to disrupt their gather. And
Speaker 1: that's going to operate. That's going to be much more
Speaker 1: effective to disrupt them than try to actually contest the
Speaker 1: shot when the guy's taller than you, right, so he
Speaker 1: forces the turnover or not the turnover, the air ball
Speaker 1: and the rockets run out the other way. Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: rises up and tries to dunk on Victor Webbanyama. Victor
Speaker 1: Weben Yama meets him on the top and blocks it.
Speaker 1: In the process he gets hit. Victor kind of falls
Speaker 1: back towards the baseline. Jabari Smith gets his own offensive rebound,
Speaker 1: thinks there's nobody around, and tries to lay it back up.
Speaker 1: Victor somehow recovers from the baseline to get back into
Speaker 1: the play and blocks Jabari Smith again. Some of the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous defensive plays that we've ever seen are happening
Speaker 1: on a nightly basis with this Victor women Yama kid.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. He was also their most reliable offensive option
Speaker 1: down the stretch. Talked about those two right block post ups.
Speaker 1: They had another player where they drew up an ISO
Speaker 1: for him against Dylan Brooks on a baseline out of
Speaker 1: bounds and he ended up faking a backcut and then
Speaker 1: popping back out to the perimeter knocking down a jump shot.
Speaker 1: Thought it was interesting too because after the game tying
Speaker 1: shot against Jabari Smith Junior, you could see Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: get a little frustrated, and in my head, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I bet you Dylan Brooks asks for the matchup in
Speaker 1: OT and he got it. You got the matchup against Victor,
Speaker 1: and then Victor scored on him just by making a
Speaker 1: backcut move and then shooting over the top of him.
Speaker 1: But again, like for him at this point in his
Speaker 1: career to be that confident in a late game situation
Speaker 1: down by two to go get a bucket, to be
Speaker 1: as confident as he was in OT, this kid is
Speaker 1: just in. This kid is going to be insanely good.
Speaker 1: Eighteen points and nine rebounds a game. So far, He's
Speaker 1: got eleven post ups and eleven ISOs so far the
Speaker 1: season for eleven points, So he's a point per possession
Speaker 1: and half court static, half court shot creation four point
Speaker 1: five stocks per game, which is absolutely insane, and the
Speaker 1: Spurs have a plus seven net rating, meaning they're outscoring
Speaker 1: teams by seven points per one hundred possessions with him
Speaker 1: on the floor. Man talk about a franchise altering talent.
Speaker 1: Also was confident at the free throw line, down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Just's he's way more advanced than I expected to see
Speaker 1: at this point. I was thinking earlier. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say anything after two games, but like there's a
Speaker 1: chance that within a couple of months we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this kid's already one of the twenty best players alive.
Speaker 1: Like that, that's how quickly this kid is. That's how
Speaker 1: quickly this kid is progressing and where he's at in
Speaker 1: terms of his ability to impact winning relative to potential. Remember,
Speaker 1: with most young guys, it's like you see the numbers,
Speaker 1: you see the you see the highlights, but the winning
Speaker 1: impact isn't there. And that's the exact opposite of what
Speaker 1: we're seeing with Victor like he's straight up impact in
Speaker 1: winning at an extremely high level as a rookie in
Speaker 1: the NBA, which is super uncommon. Devin Vassel twenty four
Speaker 1: points per game so far in sixty five percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: seven for fifteen on pull up jump shots, and six
Speaker 1: for six at the rim. Pretty damn impressive start of
Speaker 1: the season for him. He had some big shots down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game. Also had a big alley
Speaker 1: up to Zack Collins in ot. The Spurs are in
Speaker 1: good shape. They're gonna be fun team to watch this year.
Speaker 1: For the Rockets, I thought it was really interesting that
Speaker 1: they won to Shangoon for the most part down the stretch.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty eleven and seven on fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: true shooting so far. He kind of fell apart in
Speaker 1: ot with some turnovers and bad decisions out of the post.
Speaker 1: But again, like I blame that more on the schematics setup.
Speaker 1: Like if you run the same exact action without any wrinkles,
Speaker 1: you know, a dozen times, a defense gonna is gonna
Speaker 1: figure it out. Like you can mimic the action, but
Speaker 1: add wrinkles to make it so that it's like even
Speaker 1: if you look at down the stretch when Lebron was
Speaker 1: attacking Nurki pick and roll in the Suns Lakers game,
Speaker 1: Like it was three pick and rolls in three layups,
Speaker 1: but all three of them were in different spots on
Speaker 1: the floor, and all three of them had different kind
Speaker 1: of slashing angles, like one from the left wing run,
Speaker 1: one from the middle, and one from the right wing.
Speaker 1: Like that just that just gives a little bit of
Speaker 1: a difference in the way that the alignment is set up,
Speaker 1: so that maybe it's a different help defender involved. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's a you know, a different angle for the screen
Speaker 1: or whatever. It might be one of the one of
Speaker 1: the ones that Lebron hit with ad a d re
Speaker 1: screen on the opposite side to get better separation, like
Speaker 1: do something different when you're spamming in action to prevent
Speaker 1: a defense from getting too locked in on it. Right,
Speaker 1: But the rockets are a lot of fun, and they're
Speaker 1: better than they were last year. I'm just confused by
Speaker 1: the process of it all, Like like Jalen Green was
Speaker 1: completely uninvolved in the offense in the fourth quarter in overtime,
Speaker 1: and like he was your lottery pick two years ago,
Speaker 1: So what's the purpose here? Like I get running it
Speaker 1: through Shanngoon, but like running so much through Van Vliet.
Speaker 1: You know, Like my question is, especially if you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose games your own two and the Rockets are fun,
Speaker 1: but they're not gonna make the playoffs or anything. This
Speaker 1: is not a team that's gonna win a ton of
Speaker 1: basketball games. But so like, all you're doing is just
Speaker 1: finding out that Fred van Vliet can make you a
Speaker 1: mediocre basketball team, rather than letting Jalen Green get his
Speaker 1: repetitions that he needs so that you can find out
Speaker 1: whether or not he can lead you to be a
Speaker 1: great basketball team or no he can't, we might have
Speaker 1: to move him and look to go another direction. The
Speaker 1: only way you're gonna find that out is by giving
Speaker 1: him those opportunities. And it is kind of a bummer
Speaker 1: to me that two games in he's basically turned into
Speaker 1: a spot up player. And by the way, he had
Speaker 1: two driving layups and down the stretch of this game
Speaker 1: on random possessions where he looked to be aggressive, and
Speaker 1: it's like, this is the type of top tier athleticism
Speaker 1: that he has that makes him such an intriguing prospect
Speaker 1: to begin with. All right, moving on to heat Celtics,
Speaker 1: So the heat jumped him early. Bam was killing him
Speaker 1: in the half court. He had a lot of success
Speaker 1: attacking Krisops Porzingis. That was the first time that I
Speaker 1: saw Christops look a little you know, tissue paper e
Speaker 1: in the on the defensive end. But it's a tough matchup.
Speaker 1: Bam is a much better athlete than him and is
Speaker 1: stronger and has a lower center of gravity, so it's
Speaker 1: basically just hitting him with that right shoulder and creating separation,
Speaker 1: hitting that little short jumper over the top, or using
Speaker 1: his strength to get leverage around him to work along
Speaker 1: the baseline. He was killing him early. Tyler Harrow made
Speaker 1: a lot of shots in just kind of like the
Speaker 1: breakdown areas of the game. In that first half, he
Speaker 1: had two jumpers in transition. He had another one off
Speaker 1: of an offensive rebound from Kevin Love. Again, like Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow is one of those guys like if he's in
Speaker 1: a really good drop coverage, a really deep drop coverage
Speaker 1: where he gets good looks in the mid range, and
Speaker 1: when he's attacking closeouts, he can be really devastating because
Speaker 1: of his ability to shoot. He's also really good with
Speaker 1: those escape dribbles that I was talking about earlier that
Speaker 1: I want to see Kevin Herder use more, but it's
Speaker 1: a little bit tougher for him when he gets into
Speaker 1: a really tough half court situation static, you know, running
Speaker 1: pick and roll against an elite defense when they're really
Speaker 1: loaded up on him. That's where it can get a
Speaker 1: little tougher for him. ISO's well, but he can get
Speaker 1: buckets in the flow of the offense, and that's there's
Speaker 1: value there. It just really comes down to again with
Speaker 1: the Heat. They get into this fourth quarter situation and
Speaker 1: you know, the Celtics are basically throwing the kitchen sink
Speaker 1: at Jimmy Butler, and there just wasn't another guy who could, really,
Speaker 1: like at a high level, create shots in the half
Speaker 1: court against the Celtics when they were really locked in.
Speaker 1: But Heat go up twenty six thirteen. Tyler and Bam
Speaker 1: are hot early. They did a good job of getting
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown at a rhythm. They're so
Speaker 1: good at that. For whatever reason, the Heat just are
Speaker 1: capable of making Jimmy or excuse me, making Jason and
Speaker 1: Jalen just not play well. And I think there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a mental thing going on there. We
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot on this show, but like
Speaker 1: there are teams where matchups where a specific team is
Speaker 1: just kind of in the other team's head. I feel
Speaker 1: like Golden State's a little bit in Sacramento's head, for instance,
Speaker 1: right Denver's a little bit in the Lakers head, and
Speaker 1: I think the heater a little bit in the Celtics head.
Speaker 1: But the difference is they just have an absurd amount
Speaker 1: of talent and they rid that talent in a big way.
Speaker 1: In that fourth quarter. Derek White was awesome. He had
Speaker 1: twenty eight points. He had fourteen points in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Derek White's red hot with his jump shooting so far
Speaker 1: the season. Seven for eleven on jump shots, three for
Speaker 1: five on off the dribble jump shots, block Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: in transition on dunks twice, one in the first half,
Speaker 1: and then a big one late in the game. It's funny.
Speaker 1: I went on with the Jenkins and Jones guys last
Speaker 1: week and that episode just posted this morning, so you
Speaker 1: can find that on the Jenkins and Jones feed. It's
Speaker 1: also on our Hoops Tonight feed if you look at
Speaker 1: the just this same channel's feed. If you scroll down
Speaker 1: the one that looks like a little bit different thumbnail.
Speaker 1: That was when I went on with the Jenkins and
Speaker 1: Jones guys. But we were talking about we were ranking the
Speaker 1: first options, second options, third options, and fourth options in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and we got into a little bit of
Speaker 1: a debate because we were trying to decide who is
Speaker 1: the best fourth option in the league. And it's definitely
Speaker 1: on the Celtics. The question is is whether or not
Speaker 1: it's Derek White. Chrisops porzingis and so I on the
Speaker 1: show was like, I think it's Derek White. And the
Speaker 1: main reason why is just I just have a ton
Speaker 1: of respect for Derek White and what he could do
Speaker 1: as a perimeter defender, and he's one of the best
Speaker 1: guard shot blockers in the league. And so many times
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years when the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: offense is broken down in the playoffs, it's been Derek
Speaker 1: White who's been able to get them flowing again because
Speaker 1: of his ability to get dribble penetration and hit little
Speaker 1: pop shots in the lane and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: so I think Derek White is a deeply impactful winner.
Speaker 1: I think he's one of the top fifty players in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and in this conversation with Jenkins and Jones guys,
Speaker 1: I was like, I think it might be Derek White,
Speaker 1: but then all of them were like, no, it's Porzingis.
Speaker 1: And then I watched the season opener for the Celtics
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's definitely Porzingis. Like it's
Speaker 1: just his ability to protect the rim and space the
Speaker 1: floor in their offense. It just impacts winning at an
Speaker 1: incredibly high level. But then I see a game like
Speaker 1: last night and I'm like, fuck, Derek White is really
Speaker 1: good too, you know. And the moral of the story
Speaker 1: here is like, if I don't know which one of
Speaker 1: those two guys is better, and it's because both of
Speaker 1: them are freaking good, that's a really good spot to
Speaker 1: be in. If we're in like a legitimate argument over
Speaker 1: who your fourth best player is and the two options
Speaker 1: are Derek White and Chrisops Porzingis, you're in damn good shape.
Speaker 1: And the Celtics are in really good shape. Derek White
Speaker 1: already has four blocks this season. Jalen Brown got going
Speaker 1: offensively in the fourth quarter. He had twelve points in
Speaker 1: the fourth. They had a pull up transition three that
Speaker 1: was nice. Had a really nice contact left hand layup
Speaker 1: on the left side of the rim, and then he
Speaker 1: hits the dagger on the right side. Again. You're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot of that this year. Like Tatum was
Speaker 1: kind of down a little bit this game. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: played better right, Derek White was scoring a lot more,
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday not as much, although Drew hit a big
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot attacking a close out in down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game. But that's what it's gonna
Speaker 1: be like when you have five guys that are like
Speaker 1: this any given night, two or three of them are
Speaker 1: going to be in the high twenties low thirties for points,
Speaker 1: and then the other guys are going to be in
Speaker 1: the teams and it's gonna be different every night. And
Speaker 1: the main thing is, like that kind of oscillating rhythm
Speaker 1: is fine during the regular season, but I usually prefer
Speaker 1: teams that have a more clear hierarchy because they end
Speaker 1: up being a little bit more consistent in the postseason.
Speaker 1: So like, I'm less worried about it for the other
Speaker 1: four guys. I just want to see Jason Tatum like
Speaker 1: consistently in that you know, like twenty eight to thirty
Speaker 1: two points a night thing to just kind of show
Speaker 1: that they're clearly leaning on one guy that's kind of
Speaker 1: the tip of the spear, and Jayson Tatum got a
Speaker 1: little uninvolved in the offense. Lady did have some big plays.
Speaker 1: The Celtics were attacking Kyle Lowry a ton on the
Speaker 1: defensive end late in this game, and Jayson Tatum had
Speaker 1: two nice attacks on Kyle Lowry, a crossover right to left,
Speaker 1: two handed dunk down the lane, and then he posted
Speaker 1: him up on the right block and drew a foul
Speaker 1: going strong towards the middle. But he was kind of
Speaker 1: uninvolved in the offense outside of that, and I just
Speaker 1: I want to see them lean heavily on Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: especially down the stretch of games, because that's what you're
Speaker 1: gonna need from him in the postseason. Anyway. Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: has already posted up eleven times this season, including that
Speaker 1: big late post up against Kyle Lowry that got him
Speaker 1: to the foul line. He only did so one point
Speaker 1: seven times per game last year, so like essentially three
Speaker 1: times as many post ups so far per game from
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum. I think that's really encouraging because I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a big half court shot creation weapon
Speaker 1: for Tatum when we get to the postseason. On the
Speaker 1: heat front, there's still the heat. They can still defend.
Speaker 1: They can still get you out of rhythm. Again, Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow twenty eight, but like his half court shot creation
Speaker 1: numbers are still below point per possession. So like again,
Speaker 1: it's like Tyler Harrow is going to be an innings
Speaker 1: eater in the regular season. I just I don't think
Speaker 1: he has enough firepower to be your number two. And again,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this to death, and I know heat
Speaker 1: fans are probably getting sick of it, but eventually they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to get more firepower in here. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that more in a second. Bam looks like he's
Speaker 1: continuing to prove offensively. He's run fourteen post ups so
Speaker 1: far this year and scored fifteen points out of him
Speaker 1: including passes, five points on five ISOs, So that's twenty
Speaker 1: points on nineteen half court shot creation possessions. That's impressive.
Speaker 1: They're just still operating at too much of a talent disadvantage.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow couldn't generate clean looks in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He was one for six Bam was one for five
Speaker 1: in the fourth court. What'd you expect from limited offensive players.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have stretches in the ebb and flow of
Speaker 1: the game, or they can score. But when things really
Speaker 1: get tight late and defenses lock in, it's only the
Speaker 1: truly elite guys that can score. And the Celtics just
Speaker 1: threw the kitchen sink at Jimmy to get the ball
Speaker 1: out of his hands on his drives, rotated really well
Speaker 1: out of that kept getting these guys stuck in static
Speaker 1: shot creation situations and they couldn't make plays. And again,
Speaker 1: like the coaching and the conditioning and the culture and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler can only take you so far against the
Speaker 1: best teams in the league. This team needs another offensive weapon.
Speaker 1: The Celtics held the Heat to a ninety six offensive
Speaker 1: rating in the fourth quarter, and that was with Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow and Kevin Love both hitting basically garbage time threes
Speaker 1: late in the game. And so at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's still that specific problem that's going to
Speaker 1: hold them back so far through two games, one ten
Speaker 1: offensive rating pretty mediocre, one thirteen defensive rating just bad,
Speaker 1: to be honest, and they've been the worst rebounding team
Speaker 1: in the league. Through two games, they're getting just forty
Speaker 1: four point five percent of available rebounds. So again, I'll
Speaker 1: never count this team out. I just I trust their
Speaker 1: top tier guys too much. But this is part of
Speaker 1: the reason why I wanted Dame to be in Miami.
Speaker 1: I just thought it'd be really interesting to see them
Speaker 1: kind of be on the same talent level as Boston
Speaker 1: and Milwaukee. But instead, both of those teams got better,
Speaker 1: and the heat seemingly got worse, and we'll see if
Speaker 1: they can overcome it at some point during the season.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to Oklahoma City and Cleveland two
Speaker 1: more games, So okay. So he controlled this game for
Speaker 1: the most part. They had a double digit lead for
Speaker 1: most of the second quarter. In the beginning of the third,
Speaker 1: say Gills as Alexander was torching them. But then Cleveland
Speaker 1: fought their way back into the game late third, early
Speaker 1: fourth with some really impressive perimeter defense, something we don't
Speaker 1: expect from this team. This has been a weak perimeter
Speaker 1: defense team that is excellent in rotation and excellent at
Speaker 1: the basket protecting the paint, right, and it's a lot
Speaker 1: of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Scarland just kind of floating
Speaker 1: around defensively, not giving up a lot of dribble penetration,
Speaker 1: but them just having the back end talent to kind
Speaker 1: of clean it up right. And what I really appreciated
Speaker 1: down the stretch of this game as it was their
Speaker 1: perimeter defense that got them back into it. And why
Speaker 1: that's exciting is like when you pair elite perimeter defense
Speaker 1: with elite rim protection, that's when you reach like a
Speaker 1: true level of defensive potential that can carry you to
Speaker 1: a championship in the big picture, right, And it comes
Speaker 1: down to a couple different things, because like Karris Slivert
Speaker 1: has always been a very good perimeter defender, and he
Speaker 1: gave Shay Gildas Alexander all sorts of problems in the
Speaker 1: second half of this game as he kind of like
Speaker 1: was I would say Karris Slivert deserves the majority of
Speaker 1: the credit for slowing down the Thunder offense in the
Speaker 1: second half of this game. But Donovan Mitchell legitimately through
Speaker 1: two games is playing his ass off on defense, like
Speaker 1: he's trying harder on the defensive end than I've ever
Speaker 1: seen him try. And then Max Struce is just a
Speaker 1: solid perimeter defender who is also a smart team defender
Speaker 1: in rotation. Dean Wade was very good defensively down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game, containing the ball against Jalen Williams,
Speaker 1: helping and recovering off the ball. They just as a
Speaker 1: unit contained the basketball really well, and especially with cutting
Speaker 1: off the head of the snake the way that Karis
Speaker 1: Lavert did on Shake Gills Alexander. For the most part,
Speaker 1: they prevented the Thunder from getting those easy driving kick opportunities.
Speaker 1: Remember the Thunder, our team that is a ton of
Speaker 1: aggregate ball handling and shooting. Everybody in that lineup can shoot,
Speaker 1: Everybody can dribble, and so like, if you let them
Speaker 1: play drive and kick basketball and beat you off the
Speaker 1: dribble and get the defense into rotation, they're gonna pick
Speaker 1: you apart. But if you can contain them. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of those guys like Josh Giddy and Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams at this phase in his career as a young player,
Speaker 1: chet Holm, we're gonna at this phase in his career
Speaker 1: as a young player. Lou Dort is a guy who's
Speaker 1: better attacking closeouts in a set defense. They're not gonna
Speaker 1: beat dudes off the dribble a ton. They need to
Speaker 1: get that initial advantage right, and the Cavs just basically
Speaker 1: took that away and shut them down for an extended
Speaker 1: stretch there. In the fourth quarters, they built a ten
Speaker 1: point lead. On the other end of the floor, Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell had a really impressive stretch. He had a driving
Speaker 1: and one over lou Dort. In transition, he had Dean
Speaker 1: Wade on a backcut. One of the better passes I've
Speaker 1: seen Donovan Mitchell make. Coming along the right wing, he
Speaker 1: sees Dean Waye and kind of loops the ball out
Speaker 1: to the side and just hits him in stride to
Speaker 1: throw down a dunk on shake yials just Alexander. He
Speaker 1: hit a couple of pull up jumpers too. Calves are
Speaker 1: up one hundred and ninety, but then the thunder finally
Speaker 1: start getting Cleveland into rotation. First play, Krislovert gambles first
Speaker 1: steal on Shakekials as Alexander in the left corner, Shake kind
Speaker 1: of like taps it to himself over the top, catches it,
Speaker 1: gets downhill to the rim, draws a crowd, throws a
Speaker 1: kickout pass of Lou dor at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: wide open three knocks it down. It's one hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety three. Calves go get a bucket. On the other end,
Speaker 1: it's one twelve to ninety three. Dort runs down and
Speaker 1: transition along the right side and runs a ghost skin
Speaker 1: screen with shake yale just Alexander. Now again, they were
Speaker 1: containing the ball if you think of the key like this,
Speaker 1: or the three point line like this. They were containing
Speaker 1: the driving lanes towards the basket. But lou Dort did
Speaker 1: something that I thought was really smart. He just went
Speaker 1: really fast towards the short corner and on the play
Speaker 1: shake kises Alexander, sets a screen for him. Both defenders
Speaker 1: run with Dort just pitches it back to shake Yij's
Speaker 1: Alexander for a wide open three. Those ghost screens are
Speaker 1: really hard to guard because most often they're gonna switch,
Speaker 1: and it's just really hard for a guy who's running
Speaker 1: full speed to hand off to someone else who's standing still.
Speaker 1: But he's standing still, it has to guard the player
Speaker 1: who's running full speed, and so inevitably it just kind
Speaker 1: of it's almost like gravity. It just kind of pulls
Speaker 1: both guys in that direction. That's why ghost screens work
Speaker 1: so well. And so he pitches it back to shake
Speaker 1: yes as Alexander wide open three, and he knocks it down
Speaker 1: one O two ninety six. Very next possession they come down,
Speaker 1: they run a kind of a version of Spain pick
Speaker 1: and Roll where Jalen Williams runs a ball screen with
Speaker 1: Chet right but as Chet is rolling again. In Spain
Speaker 1: pick and Roll, sometimes the shooter will backscreen for the
Speaker 1: roleman so he can go to the basket for a dunk.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the rollman will downscreen for the for the shooter
Speaker 1: coming up. In this play, Chet sets the ball screen
Speaker 1: on Jalen Williams turns and on his roll to the
Speaker 1: basket sets a pin down for Isaiah Joe. Isaiah Joe
Speaker 1: curls the pin down because he's a shooter defend in
Speaker 1: trail position. He gets downhill. It's a pitch back to
Speaker 1: a wide open Jalen Williams at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: He knocks down at three. Now it's one O two
Speaker 1: at one O two to ninety nine. Uh then lou
Speaker 1: Dort takes over. Is one of the best. Uh I
Speaker 1: missed one. So then on the very next possession, uh
Speaker 1: Max Strews cuts down the lane and throws a wild
Speaker 1: layup up and falls into camera row. And like I
Speaker 1: always say, when you when you miss layups and you
Speaker 1: try to draw fouls, it's it's kind of a poor
Speaker 1: strategy for your transition defense because if you're probably not
Speaker 1: gonna get the call because refs are trying to limit
Speaker 1: the flopping and all that stuff anyway, and the risk
Speaker 1: reward factor is kind of shitty because if you don't
Speaker 1: get the call, it's going to be a fast break
Speaker 1: the other way because you're gonna lose floor balance because
Speaker 1: you have a defender laying on the ground in camera row.
Speaker 1: So Streus is laying on the ground. Thunder run the
Speaker 1: other way five on four in the transition defense, remember
Speaker 1: you always go to the basket first and then you
Speaker 1: flare out to shooters chat. Holmgrean ends up trailing to
Speaker 1: play wide open and he knocks down the three. Now
Speaker 1: it's one o two to one oh two and we're tied.
Speaker 1: And again, like, what's crazy about that sequence is that's
Speaker 1: back to back to back to back threes for the Thunder.
Speaker 1: But all four of them were from different players off
Speaker 1: of different action. And what's interesting about that is it
Speaker 1: wasn't just one guy got hot. This is just the
Speaker 1: level of skill that this team has, and they're capable
Speaker 1: when they run action well and they can get the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation, they're capable of generating high quality shots
Speaker 1: for guys that are going to make it. Like in
Speaker 1: that lineup it's Isaiah Joe, He's gonna make shots. Seyo
Speaker 1: to Alexander, he's gonna make shots. Jalen Williams if you
Speaker 1: leave them open, he's gonna make shots. Cheded Holmgren is
Speaker 1: shooting seventy one percent from three so far at this season. Like,
Speaker 1: these guys are gonna make shots, and they have the
Speaker 1: ability to generate them as long as they can get
Speaker 1: the defense into rotation. So it's one O two, one
Speaker 1: oh two, and then lou Dort takes over the game
Speaker 1: as one of the best perimeter defenders in the world.
Speaker 1: It is something I've said that made me so excited
Speaker 1: about this Thunder team, the idea of pairing lou Dort,
Speaker 1: who I believe is a top tier perimeter defender, and
Speaker 1: chet Holmgren, who had seven blocks in the game yesterday.
Speaker 1: When you combine those two pieces, specifically lou Dort in
Speaker 1: his ability to navigate screens, lou Dort is damn near
Speaker 1: impossible to screen. When you combine that with real rim protection,
Speaker 1: you can cause real problems for the best offenses in
Speaker 1: the league. And so lou Dort takes the game over
Speaker 1: with back to back defensive possessions on Donovan Mitchell. First
Speaker 1: one's in pick and roll on the ball screen, lou
Speaker 1: Dort just refuses to be screened. And this is Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: one of the best athletes in the league. He's trying
Speaker 1: to get downhill. Lou Dort cuts him off, gets over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen and beats him downhill. So
Speaker 1: as a result, Jalen Williams and Everyone's able to stay
Speaker 1: home on their shooters. Donovan Mitchell finds himself in trouble
Speaker 1: because he's going down hill in pick and roll. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have a shot and he doesn't have a pass,
Speaker 1: so he ends up just jumping and just throwing the
Speaker 1: ball away, turns it over. They go down the other
Speaker 1: end and shag giffs. Alexander and Isaiah Joe run a
Speaker 1: ghost screen a pick and pop action and on the
Speaker 1: action shakiffs Alexander draws two pitches it back to Isaiah
Speaker 1: Joe Isaijah skips it over to the left wing to
Speaker 1: lou Dort. Dean Wade's kind of caught no man's land
Speaker 1: between the shooter and the corner and lou Dort, I
Speaker 1: think there's Jay Williams, Jaylen Williams in the corner. He's
Speaker 1: kind of split in the difference. Max Struce it kind
Speaker 1: of doesn't understand whether or not Dean Wade's going to
Speaker 1: the corner to the wing. Lou Dort sees the opportunity,
Speaker 1: he drives the close out, gets inside, makes a layup
Speaker 1: to put him up one fourteen to one to twelve,
Speaker 1: and then the next possession, Donovan Mitchell says, screw it,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take a ball screen. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to try to shoot over to lou Dort, and
Speaker 1: loud Dort's one of the best individual defenders in the world.
Speaker 1: He slides his feet and forces Donovan Mitchell into an
Speaker 1: air ball in Oklahoma City wins the game. So again,
Speaker 1: super high level offensive talent on display, an incredible perimeter
Speaker 1: defense on display from OKC as they come back to
Speaker 1: win the game. And again you're adding real rim protection
Speaker 1: with chet Holmer, and he had a huge block late
Speaker 1: in the game on Evan Mobley when it was one
Speaker 1: oh two ninety six that directly led to the Jaylen
Speaker 1: Williams Threy to get it back to three. And you've
Speaker 1: got this outstanding perimeter defender that can't be screened, and
Speaker 1: you're seeing the elite defensive potential. The thunder have a
Speaker 1: one oh two point five defensive rating so far through
Speaker 1: two games, which is outstanding. Chet holmern averaging three point
Speaker 1: five blocks per game and shooting seventy one percent from three.
Speaker 1: That I said before he uh, I said when he
Speaker 1: came into the league that I viewed him as essentially
Speaker 1: like the ideal modern center, the guy who could legitimately
Speaker 1: be your defensive anchor while simultaneously giving you true five
Speaker 1: out spacing and opening up driving lanes. And he's doing that,
Speaker 1: and in the big picture, he's going to be an
Speaker 1: excellent wing scorer as well. It's not showing too much
Speaker 1: of it. He's done some of it, but I think
Speaker 1: his first NBA basket was like a half spin back
Speaker 1: fade away over his left shoulder, Like he's got really
Speaker 1: high level wings scoring potential and well and as well
Speaker 1: in the big picture, and that might be something they
Speaker 1: lean more on in the big picture when he gets older,
Speaker 1: I can't possibly conceptualize a better fit with his OKAC
Speaker 1: core than Chet On the Cavs front. It's tough to
Speaker 1: take too much away from these two games because both
Speaker 1: of them been so freaking wild. Like the Nets game,
Speaker 1: they were down big and had no business winning and
Speaker 1: then they stole it. And then in this game, they
Speaker 1: were up big and then they blew it. So hard
Speaker 1: to make heads or tails out of that. The perimeter defense, though,
Speaker 1: is exciting again, Like Lavert's always been pretty good there,
Speaker 1: but if Donovan Mitchell has his best perimeter defense season
Speaker 1: as a pro, and you'd add Max Shrus into that equation.
Speaker 1: He didn't shoot well today, but he still was a
Speaker 1: positive and a bunch and made a lot of winning plays.
Speaker 1: And then if Dean Wade is gonna be able to
Speaker 1: play like that, especially with his length, like you can
Speaker 1: have some you can have some exciting defensive potential with
Speaker 1: this team as well. And when you combine that with
Speaker 1: the return of Jared Allen with real rim protection right
Speaker 1: next to Evan Mobley, that they could be even more
Speaker 1: imposed defensively than they were last year. My biggest scripe
Speaker 1: right now with the Cavs is offensively they're a little
Speaker 1: too reliant on Donovan Mitchell, and when he's not hitting shots,
Speaker 1: they're struggling to score right now. And like that's kind
Speaker 1: of what these games have looked like. It's like Donovan
Speaker 1: hits a couple shots in a row, makes a couple
Speaker 1: of plays in a row, and the Calves going a
Speaker 1: big run, and then he goes ice cold and misses
Speaker 1: a couple in a row and throws a couple bad
Speaker 1: passes in a row, and then they immediately start to
Speaker 1: hemorrhage the lead. All right, let's hit our last game
Speaker 1: and then get out of here for the day, and
Speaker 1: we'll get hit our male bad questions and then we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here. So the Nets in the mav
Speaker 1: So the Nets lose another heartbreaker. If you guys, remember
Speaker 1: they were up six late against the Calves and they
Speaker 1: blew that one. This one, they were up five late
Speaker 1: and they blew this one. Cam Thomas and Roy Soneil
Speaker 1: go crazy in the fourth quarter. But then Luca hits
Speaker 1: back to back to back to back threes to steal
Speaker 1: the game. Last one's literally a prayer. They get him
Speaker 1: to give up the ball twice, but he just throws
Speaker 1: up this like right handed push shot from twenty seven
Speaker 1: feet on the right wing that banks in, and then
Speaker 1: Cam Thomas once again gets a decent look at the
Speaker 1: end of the game but can't make it, and the
Speaker 1: Mavericks are now too oh down big late, though offense
Speaker 1: wasn't the issue, the MAVs scored thirty seven points in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. As good as Luca was down the stretch,
Speaker 1: Kyrie was every bit is good to start the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: The Maps scored twenty points in the first six minutes
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, with Kyrie basically creating every basket.
Speaker 1: He's got great pick and roll chemistry, with Dwight Powell
Speaker 1: already hit him for a couple of layups. Powell also
Speaker 1: hit a three in the corner off of a driving
Speaker 1: kick from from Kyrie to cap that runoff. But again, like,
Speaker 1: that's the crazy thing with his team is like you
Speaker 1: your reward for surviving the Luca minutes is here comes
Speaker 1: Kyrie and he's gonna be almost every bit is impactful.
Speaker 1: And then if you survive those minutes, here comes Luca again. Right,
Speaker 1: And like, so far through two games, they've been impossible
Speaker 1: to guard in every configuration. One twenty one offensive rating
Speaker 1: so far for the season one twenty one offensive rating
Speaker 1: with Kyrie on the floor and Luca off, one twenty
Speaker 1: five offensive rating with Luca on and Kyrie off, and
Speaker 1: with both on the floor of one to eighteen offensive rating.
Speaker 1: So there's no point in the game where they're gonna
Speaker 1: experien and offensive rules. Now, the question is that they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get enough stops right and on
Speaker 1: the defense veend, it was mostly just sloppiness, Like they
Speaker 1: straight up lost Royce O'Neil way too many times in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter or the first one was strong side
Speaker 1: help from from Grant Williams, like literally I think it
Speaker 1: was I can't remember who it was it was driving
Speaker 1: down hill. I think it was Spencer Dinwitty, But like
Speaker 1: they just left Royce O'Neil in the strong side corner,
Speaker 1: which you don't want to do, right. You want to
Speaker 1: force the defense to make a skip pass across the court.
Speaker 1: If they're gonna give up an open three right that
Speaker 1: gets him going the second one in transition, they just
Speaker 1: don't guard him like Tim Hardaway Junior I believe was
Speaker 1: supposed to be guarding him, but he's like facing completely
Speaker 1: away from him elsewhere on the floor and Royce O'Neil's
Speaker 1: just standing by himself on the right wing. They throw,
Speaker 1: they pitch it ahead to him, Me knocks down the three,
Speaker 1: and then on the last one Josh Green again. Now again,
Speaker 1: like you gotta think of it like this, nail help
Speaker 1: is an important part of NBA defense, but it's all
Speaker 1: relative to what your situation is. Right, Royce O'Neil had
Speaker 1: just made two threes and Josh Green was like sinking
Speaker 1: way down to the nail and help. And so when
Speaker 1: they threw that swing pass to Royce O'Neil, Josh screen
Speaker 1: had to close out hard, and so Royce just threw
Speaker 1: a pump fake at him and it ended up side
Speaker 1: stepping into another three. Right, Like Cam Thomas made some
Speaker 1: tough shots, and your defense is going to have to
Speaker 1: withstand tough shots. Right. Like I talked about earlier in
Speaker 1: the show, all these teams have offensive ratings over one hundred. Like, no,
Speaker 1: one's just not scoring the basketball. It's not how you
Speaker 1: can literally shut a team down. Guys are going to score,
Speaker 1: but you have to find ways to close down other opportunities.
Speaker 1: You can't give them the easy ones that come over
Speaker 1: the course of the game. If cam Thomas makes the
Speaker 1: tough shots, but you don't leave Royce O'Neil open, then
Speaker 1: you don't need Luke got to make a prayer at
Speaker 1: the end of the game to win the game, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: those are the areas that they've got to improve. Now
Speaker 1: a positive sign, they've rebounded pretty well. Remember that was
Speaker 1: a huge problem for the team down the stretch last year.
Speaker 1: They've grabbed forty nine percent of available rebounds through two games.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. And again they're two and oh, I
Speaker 1: know the Nets and Spurs aren't playoff teams in the
Speaker 1: purest concept of that, right, but wins are not easy
Speaker 1: to come by in the NBA. And so like, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, you can't hope to be in a better
Speaker 1: position than where they're at right now. And again, like
Speaker 1: I do think that defensively they have the personnel to
Speaker 1: be better than they actually are, and a lot of
Speaker 1: it is just little, tiny execution things that they can
Speaker 1: improve over time. And the offensive shot creation piece is
Speaker 1: legitimately a weapon. Like I mean, we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the Suns potentially being the best offense in the league,
Speaker 1: and they very well may end up being so. But
Speaker 1: like Dallas is every much every bit as much potential
Speaker 1: to be the best offense in the league. That's just
Speaker 1: when you've got that type of top tier shot creation
Speaker 1: relentlessly coming at you all game, with good spacing concepts,
Speaker 1: and with players at the end at the end of
Speaker 1: those plays that can finish those plays, you're going to
Speaker 1: score a lot of points on the next front. Cam
Speaker 1: Thomas follows up his thirty six point night against the
Speaker 1: Cavs with another thirty in this game, get twelve in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and hit a game time jumps out
Speaker 1: like a really nice step back jump shot through his
Speaker 1: legs against Josh Green on the right wing to tie
Speaker 1: the game with about a minute left. Cam Thomas is
Speaker 1: now now nine for nineteen on pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: this season, four for six on floaters. His shot making
Speaker 1: is real. We've just seen too many examples of it
Speaker 1: so far through the last two years. And again, the
Speaker 1: biggest indicator is that his teammates trust him at the
Speaker 1: end of these games. This is back to back games
Speaker 1: now that down the stretch of whether it's Spencer Dinwoodie
Speaker 1: or McHale Bridges, they're looking at Cam Thomas and being like,
Speaker 1: you do it and I think that's a huge indicator
Speaker 1: of where where he's at right now. Is an offensive
Speaker 1: shot creator. The Nets just have to figure out how
Speaker 1: to get stops in crunch time. They've had big leads
Speaker 1: down the stretch in both of these games, but they
Speaker 1: have a one to twenty three defensive rating in the
Speaker 1: clutch so far this year. So you've played well enough
Speaker 1: to be two to zero and instead you're zero to two,
Speaker 1: and that's the primary reason, and that's what they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to clean up. All right, let's get on the
Speaker 1: mail bag. So first mail back question, is there one
Speaker 1: singular skill possessed by a player that you think is
Speaker 1: better than the rest, maybe like Steph's three point shooting,
Speaker 1: Giannis's rim pressure, or Yokich's court vision. I think it's
Speaker 1: easily steph shooting. He was the only player in the
Speaker 1: league last year to hit over sixty percent in effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, and he
Speaker 1: was the only other guy in the league to attempt
Speaker 1: at least eleven threes per game last year. So there's
Speaker 1: two in the entire league Steph and Damian Lillard, and
Speaker 1: Dame shot five percent worse than him. So like it's
Speaker 1: Steph and then it's a huge gap, and then it's
Speaker 1: everyone else. I think his shooting is the best individual
Speaker 1: skill relative to the field in the league. Next mail
Speaker 1: back question. I am a twenty eight year old and
Speaker 1: casual hooper. Unfortunately, my squad continues to separate across the
Speaker 1: country as work spouses in life happens. Pulling up to
Speaker 1: La Fitness Slash elsewhere for runs with randoms as a
Speaker 1: nightmare old heads who can't run, cherry picking isostep back threes,
Speaker 1: et cetera. How do you suggest building a new squad
Speaker 1: to keep love for the game going. So I put
Speaker 1: this mail back question in here because I felt this one.
Speaker 1: I felt this one. I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 1: Pick Up hoop sucks. It just does. It's always going
Speaker 1: to be an inconsistent experience, even when you play in
Speaker 1: areas that are talented, because talent doesn't necessarily equate to
Speaker 1: guys who know how to play the game. And so
Speaker 1: here's what I would do if I were you, because,
Speaker 1: like I know, when I go play pick up basketball
Speaker 1: because I live in Tucson, two Son's big town, Like
Speaker 1: we have over a million people here. It's like one
Speaker 1: point two in the metro area or something like that.
Speaker 1: But Tucson's not a big basketball town. Like there's players
Speaker 1: like me that take the game very seriously, they're few
Speaker 1: and far between in this city, whereas, like when I
Speaker 1: lived in Charlotte, for every guy like me, there's twenty
Speaker 1: five others that took the game super seriously and then
Speaker 1: another fifty that were at a level just below that
Speaker 1: or like that, Like there's just a ton of players
Speaker 1: that give a shit about basketball, that that that live
Speaker 1: and breathe that shit when you live in Charlotte, That's
Speaker 1: just not what it was here in Tucson right now.
Speaker 1: As far as confronting that the quality of play, just
Speaker 1: embrace the fact that when you go play pick up
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a crap shoot. Some days you'll go
Speaker 1: and it'll be great, and some days you'll go and
Speaker 1: it'll it'll be a shit show. Right, But that's just
Speaker 1: it is what it is at this point. Right Find
Speaker 1: a good men's league and find seven or eight guys
Speaker 1: that you know how to play with, and play with
Speaker 1: those every single time you play in your men's league.
Speaker 1: You'll build chemistry with those guys and that'll become the
Speaker 1: part that you look forward to like, I have a
Speaker 1: men's league here in town, a men's league team that
Speaker 1: I play and play with, and it's all guys I
Speaker 1: used to play in college, and they all take it
Speaker 1: very seriously. We have a ton of continuity. We've won
Speaker 1: the league three of the last four times. And so
Speaker 1: regardless of how shitty my pick up basketball experience can
Speaker 1: be on a day to day basis, I know I
Speaker 1: can go up there on Sunday and have fun playing
Speaker 1: with guys you know how to play. And then the
Speaker 1: other thing I'd say is coach. Find get into coaching.
Speaker 1: Coaching is a great way to recapture some of the
Speaker 1: joy from competent basketball when you were younger, within the
Speaker 1: concept of something that you can actually do at an
Speaker 1: older age, because in general, older age basketball is gonna
Speaker 1: be messy, right because we all have stuff going on,
Speaker 1: we're all busy, we all have other responsibilities. It's tough
Speaker 1: to get the same groups to the gym every single day.
Speaker 1: It's just difficult to coordinate, right. But when you're coaching
Speaker 1: a high school basketball team, the same kids are gonna
Speaker 1: be there every day and you can kind of scratch
Speaker 1: that competitivevich through the coaching side of things that you
Speaker 1: do through the playing side of things. All right, last
Speaker 1: mail back question for whom would you trade d lo
Speaker 1: and Ruey? I love Luca, but that's unlikely. It sounds
Speaker 1: like you're describing zach Lavine. But I'd rather have Trey
Speaker 1: Young because he'd set up a d better and they'd
Speaker 1: still have the length to make up for his size
Speaker 1: and defensive shortcomings. So I hate all of those options.
Speaker 1: Not a huge fan of zac Lavine. Luca obviously is impossible.
Speaker 1: Trey Young is a long shot, but I don't think
Speaker 1: he really fixes many of the Lakers' problems. The deal.
Speaker 1: My favorite deal that involves Ruey and d Lo is
Speaker 1: you wait till January fifteenth. You call it the Chicago Bulls,
Speaker 1: and you offer Ruey and d Lo and I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe you can get it done for a second round pick.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you have to throw in it first. But
Speaker 1: you get DeMar de Rosen and Alex Crusoe salaries almost
Speaker 1: match up. You might have to throw in one other
Speaker 1: smaller contract to make it work, but you bring back
Speaker 1: DeMar Derozen, who helps with your half court shot creation.
Speaker 1: He's great passer and a good over the top shot maker.
Speaker 1: Something that the Lakers struggle with, right, and then Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso gives you that like dominant a perimeter defender and
Speaker 1: like you like because of Alex Cruso playing bigger than
Speaker 1: he actually is and his way his ability to defend
Speaker 1: on the defend on the perimeter, navigate screens. We literally
Speaker 1: just saw last night Alex Cruso flat out steal a
Speaker 1: game with defensive playmaking and a huge corner three as
Speaker 1: the Bulls came back from down bag to win a game.
Speaker 1: So like, like I kind of envisioned a scenario there
Speaker 1: where now you have Crusoe, Reeves, Derozen with Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad and just a ton of offensive skill, good perimeter defense.
Speaker 1: The only thing that would concern me there a little
Speaker 1: bit is like the wing rebounding thing, but Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: is really good at that and Lebron and Ad can
Speaker 1: make up for a lot of that, and then you
Speaker 1: still have your forwards coming off the bench and you
Speaker 1: kind of kind of can configure it in different ways.
Speaker 1: So that would be my dreamd Lo Rui trade would
Speaker 1: be for Alex Crusoe and Zach Levine. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today as always as since
Speaker 1: really appreciate you for supporting the show and I will
Speaker 1: see you guys on Monday. The Volume