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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody, If all of you guys are having
Speaker 1: an incredible week, got a fun show for you guys.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be hitting Suns MAVs from last night. Super
Speaker 1: interesting game and to talk a lot about the new
Speaker 1: additions for the Mavericks and how they're helping them. So
Speaker 1: I've had that game circle down the calendar for a
Speaker 1: while because it's our first opportunity to see the MAVs
Speaker 1: against a quality opponent post trade deadline. After that, we're
Speaker 1: going to go into the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls.
Speaker 1: Big win for the Celtics pulled away in the early
Speaker 1: second half in that one. I also wanted to clarify
Speaker 1: some of my thoughts because I've had some pushback from
Speaker 1: Celtics fans surrounding the kind of dynamic between their paint
Speaker 1: attack and how much they post up, and I want
Speaker 1: to kind of dive into that a little bit after that.
Speaker 1: At the end of the show, there was a debate
Speaker 1: that went around I think on Wednesday last week or
Speaker 1: this week Tuesday or Wednesday, involving kind of j J
Speaker 1: Redick in the state of modern sports media, and I
Speaker 1: had some thoughts on that front because it's been a
Speaker 1: super fascinating thing to me as i've been trying to
Speaker 1: build this show out, as obviously I'm very new into
Speaker 1: this industry and I've been learning a lot about it,
Speaker 1: and I've just had some thoughts on that front.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna save that for the end of the show.
Speaker 2: You guys are the Joe Forore.
Speaker 1: We get started subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot to me if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second to hit that subscribe button. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed wherever you put your podcasts under
Speaker 1: oops tonight. Also, it's helpful if you leave your rating
Speaker 1: and review on the podcast front. I would appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you
Speaker 1: guys don't miss the film threads that I do from
Speaker 1: time to time in the mornings, as well as show announcements.
Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna have a couple
Speaker 1: mail bags over the course of the next week or so.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: had this game circled on the calendar for a while.
Speaker 1: The MAVs had won six games in a row, but
Speaker 1: they had played a couple of injury riddle teams. I
Speaker 1: think it was the Sixers and the Knicks, and then
Speaker 1: they had played a bunch of bad teams and also
Speaker 1: what they had a big, massive win against the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder, but PJ. Washington and Daniel Gaffer did not
Speaker 1: play in that game. So I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: like get a feel for the MAVs against a really
Speaker 1: good opponent. Now here's the Sons didn't have Bradley Beal,
Speaker 1: But even without Bradley Beal, there's still a really good
Speaker 1: basketball team. I think Royce O'Neil has kind of added
Speaker 1: to their physical profile on the perimeter and giving them
Speaker 1: a better option there. Royce actually had a bunch of
Speaker 1: contested rebounds last night where even though he didn't shoot
Speaker 1: particularly well in that game, I was watching him and
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is something that's going to be important
Speaker 1: for them when they get to the postseason, Like a
Speaker 1: wing player that is a plus offensive player, but that
Speaker 1: also is going to win some physical battles for them.
Speaker 1: And so again like I love that pickup, and in general,
Speaker 1: even without Bradley Beal, I still think the Sons are
Speaker 1: a really good team. And they controlled the game early.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker came out and he was red hot. You
Speaker 1: could tell he was just hunting his shot. Stepped into
Speaker 1: like a pretty contested transition three on the right wing
Speaker 1: in the early possessions, and you could just tell like
Speaker 1: he was gunning for it. As a team, they shot
Speaker 1: eight for seventeen from three in the first half. Dallas
Speaker 1: wasn't super sharp defensively in that half, particularly in they're
Speaker 1: picking roll coverages. They were given away some easy swing
Speaker 1: swings for catch and shoot threes on the perimeter. Hyrie
Speaker 1: was incredible in the first half for Dallas to keep
Speaker 1: them in it. He had his three ball going. He
Speaker 1: had that kind of like tough transition three going. It's
Speaker 1: a footwork thing that I work on with the high
Speaker 1: school kids that I trained too, Like, whenever you're shooting
Speaker 1: a movement shot, you want to try to get the
Speaker 1: end result to be up and down, which is all
Speaker 1: about leg strength. And if you watch Kyrie on those shots,
Speaker 1: like he's sprinting up the floor in full speed, but
Speaker 1: he gets that left right footwork down and he goes
Speaker 1: pretty much straight up down. There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a forward movement, but it's pretty balanced on that shot.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't realize that, but that movement shooting,
Speaker 1: that pull up shooting, almost all that comes down to
Speaker 1: leg strength. It's like your base is one of the
Speaker 1: most important parts of that type of shooting. But it
Speaker 1: was close game sixty three sixty I think at halftime,
Speaker 1: and then Luca just utterly assassinated them to start the
Speaker 1: third quarter, got crazy hot from three, hit a catch
Speaker 1: and shoot three on the right wing. Then he hit
Speaker 1: a couple of pull up threes. He actually hit one
Speaker 1: off a side step to his right, which I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever seen Luca do before. Like Luca, when
Speaker 1: you shoot as a right handed player moving towards your right,
Speaker 1: you kind of have to square up in mid air,
Speaker 1: like JJ Redick has done a bit about this on
Speaker 1: his show, I think with Cam Johnson from the Nets
Speaker 1: about like the idea of squaring up as a right
Speaker 1: handed shooter moving towards your right, and that's more of
Speaker 1: an athletic play right and Luca is a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a groundbound shooter. That's why, like so many
Speaker 1: of his host up fadeaways are spinning over his right shoulder,
Speaker 1: so his feet are kind of more naturally square, or
Speaker 1: his step back is usually stepping back to his left
Speaker 1: with his right shoulder already in position to take that shot.
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of interesting just to see Luca
Speaker 1: kind of demonstrate that he's got that in his bag too.
Speaker 1: It just goes to show you how good he was
Speaker 1: feeling in this particular game.
Speaker 2: They built a quick.
Speaker 1: Lead, they did lose it for a second, Luca got
Speaker 1: a little carried away started attacking Kevin Durant in Iso,
Speaker 1: which kind of cooled him off, and like, again, that's
Speaker 1: the last guy on Phoenix that you want to attack
Speaker 1: in io, especially for a guy like Luca, because Kadie
Speaker 1: just has the length to kind of bother him on
Speaker 1: those shots. As a result, the Suns made some shots
Speaker 1: on the other end. Royce O'Neil hit a three on
Speaker 1: the left wing got it to eighty one eighty, but
Speaker 1: Dallas regained control pretty quick from their good team effort.
Speaker 1: When Luca was off the floor at that point, Daniel
Speaker 1: Gafford was super active. He generated two extra possessions just
Speaker 1: being active on the offensive glass. There was one where
Speaker 1: he kind of caused a loose ball crashing on the
Speaker 1: baseline side and forced Royce O'Neil to go out of
Speaker 1: bounds to save the basketball. And then Josh Green made
Speaker 1: a nice athletic play swiping in from the weak side
Speaker 1: wing to get that steal led to a Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three that put them back up by four.
Speaker 1: Then Kyrie actually drew a foul after that to get
Speaker 1: to the foul line, kad started attacking Maxi Kleba in
Speaker 1: Iso and Maxie was holding up super well, which became
Speaker 1: a theme even as we get into the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about Maxi and a lot of
Speaker 1: the Dallas defensive personnel here in a little bit. Daniel
Speaker 1: Gafford had a big block and help side defense. I
Speaker 1: also thought Tim Hardaway Junior had some good stretches on
Speaker 1: defense against Devin Booker, just getting late contests as he
Speaker 1: was coming over the top of ball screens, and then
Speaker 1: some good driving kick possessions. He had a driving kick
Speaker 1: to a corner three on the right side, and then
Speaker 1: he also had a kind of transition driving layup where
Speaker 1: he hit a bank shot. A good team effort, beautiful
Speaker 1: basketball on both ends. Dallas kind of regains control. But
Speaker 1: we go to the fourth quarter and it's a five
Speaker 1: point game, and then the MAVs close it out with
Speaker 1: efforts on both ends of the floor. They start with
Speaker 1: a Luca post up on the right block on that possession,
Speaker 1: had zones up and comes over on the opposite side
Speaker 1: of the block to help and Maxi just slipped right
Speaker 1: in front of the rim.
Speaker 2: Luca hit him. He had a layup.
Speaker 1: After that, Kadi tries to ISO Maxic Clay but again
Speaker 1: and he gets another stop in ISO. After that, they
Speaker 1: push in transition.
Speaker 2: PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington catches on the right wing, rips through the left,
Speaker 1: gets a left handed layup, and it's a nine point game.
Speaker 1: So pretty quickly Dallas regains control. There was a cool
Speaker 1: sequence at the end that I wanted to hit on
Speaker 1: as it pertains to Phoenix's offense, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: here in a second. So after Katie hits a tough
Speaker 1: turnaround jumper in the lane, then Luca drives on Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen draws a foul. Still a nine point game, it's
Speaker 1: one O two to ninety three. So at that point
Speaker 1: there's an open double of Kevin Durant on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Dallas sends two defenders, no ball screen or anything. They
Speaker 1: just sent mexiclib over to just double team Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. And there was this really interesting possession
Speaker 1: where you know, Nasir Little and Joshakogi you are running
Speaker 1: around trying to find an opening. Grayson Allen's just like
Speaker 1: standing in the left corner, might as well have had
Speaker 1: his hands in his pockets. He's not doing anything. Royce
Speaker 1: O'Neill's kind of floating around the perimeter and they can't
Speaker 1: find a way to beat a blatant on ball double team,
Speaker 1: and it ends up leading to a Joshuacogi turnover. And
Speaker 1: that's when Kyrie Irving got the ball and had that
Speaker 1: ridiculous sequence where he did like the behind the back
Speaker 1: dribble that then sp went into that nasty spin move
Speaker 1: and went right up at the rim and laid it
Speaker 1: up and they were up by eleven, and from there
Speaker 1: the MAVs basically stiff armed them and won by double figures.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was super interesting on a couple
Speaker 1: of different levels. One Dallas's defensive rotation, which we're going
Speaker 1: to get to in just a second, and then two
Speaker 1: Phoenix's offense when Bradley Beal is not on the floor,
Speaker 1: and how they can struggle, especially in fourth quarters to
Speaker 1: deal with double teams and traps and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: That has become a consistent theme throughout the end of
Speaker 1: the season, and I thought that was just kind of
Speaker 1: like an interesting play sequence in that game that kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrated both teams and some consistent themes that we've
Speaker 1: seen in the past for Phoenix and what I expect
Speaker 1: in the future for Dallas, excellent defensive rotations in back
Speaker 1: line athleticism for Dallas or spacing principles, and a kind
Speaker 1: of like a Mendoza line of offensive talent that Phoenix
Speaker 1: can dip below when Bradley Beal's not out there. That
Speaker 1: makes it easy to double team the ball out of
Speaker 1: their stars hands. So I want to start with Dallas's defense.
Speaker 1: Let's get there first. They have the number one defense
Speaker 1: in the league over this seven game winning streak. Now,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of bad teams in there. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I don't think Dallas is actually a number one quality defense,
Speaker 1: but they absolutely look like a team that can reach
Speaker 1: a level defensively that is good enough to give them
Speaker 1: a chance to make a run in the playoffs. And
Speaker 1: so let's get into why I want to start at
Speaker 1: the point of attack.
Speaker 2: I thought PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington did a really good job on Kevin Durant, kept
Speaker 1: beating him to spots, chesting him up and taking that contact,
Speaker 1: and then he uses outside hand to swipe down and
Speaker 1: disrupt the shooting pocket. And you know, he also just
Speaker 1: has the length to be a nuisance on KD which
Speaker 1: not very many players in the league can do. Like
Speaker 1: there was an early fourth quarter possession on the right
Speaker 1: wing where Kevin Durant had PJ. Washington in an ISO
Speaker 1: and he tried a jabstep jumper and KD had a
Speaker 1: bad miss. It was far to the right and he
Speaker 1: hit it off the heel of the rim and it
Speaker 1: went over the back of the rim. And if you
Speaker 1: watch the play, like PJ. Washington's just sitting in defense
Speaker 1: and he's kind of like not conceding the Jeff step jumper.
Speaker 1: But there's a reason why KDI took it, like he
Speaker 1: had the space to do it, but PJ was able
Speaker 1: to close and get a really good contest because he
Speaker 1: had the length there. And if you look at Dallas's
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders before that trade, they got guys with length.
Speaker 1: They got guys that can guard on the perimeter, but
Speaker 1: they didn't have their length. Was like a skinny or
Speaker 1: shorter guy in Derek Jones Junior right, or a fire
Speaker 1: hydrant guy in Josh Green.
Speaker 2: PJ. Washington brings like actual size.
Speaker 1: To that position defensively that they didn't have before, which
Speaker 1: I thought was really interesting. But it extends down the
Speaker 1: roster because Derek Jones Junior is a very good defensive
Speaker 1: player I thought he had some really good defensive possessions
Speaker 1: on Katie as well. He actually blocked him on a
Speaker 1: pull up jumper in this game, how often do you
Speaker 1: see a perimeter defender block Kevin Durant on a jump shot?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And then Josh Green just kind of brings a different
Speaker 1: kind of athlete to the table. Like I said, Josh
Speaker 1: Green's more of like that shorter, stockier, fire hydrant type
Speaker 1: of defender that can beat people to spots and bring
Speaker 1: kind of like a physical strength to the position. Right,
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior is like freaky athleticism in length, right,
Speaker 1: and then PJ. Washington's more of like your stereotypical traditional
Speaker 1: big forward that can guard on the perimeter. So they
Speaker 1: have different types of players that they can bring in
Speaker 1: that situation, which allows them to give different looks on
Speaker 1: the ball, so they can actually make sure that they
Speaker 1: have multiple perimeter defenders to throw at multiple different perimeter
Speaker 1: options for the other team. And again, like that matters
Speaker 1: because you're going to get cooked sometimes, but more often
Speaker 1: than not, if you make.
Speaker 2: A superstar work harder, you.
Speaker 1: Can kind of limit his effectiveness enough to give yourself
Speaker 1: a better chance to succeed there. Are going to be guys,
Speaker 1: the top tier guys that can cook you even when
Speaker 1: you play perfect defense. But more often than not, you're
Speaker 1: going to get a better result when you have better
Speaker 1: perimeter defense personnel that can make the other star work harder.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the forty eight minutes we talked
Speaker 1: about this last night with Austin Reeves, I was talking
Speaker 1: about like all of you guys who play basketball who
Speaker 1: are ball handlers. When you walk onto the court when
Speaker 1: your local pickup run or your local men's league, or
Speaker 1: even when if you're playing in college, when you go
Speaker 1: to practice, when one of your teammates is on you,
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, yeah, this dude has no chance
Speaker 1: to guard me. He doesn't have physical tools. I'm bigger,
Speaker 1: I'm stronger, and faster, whatever it is, you have that tool.
Speaker 1: From the beginning of the game, you just know I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be comfortable against this guy. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: to my spots.
Speaker 2: Whereas we all know that guy.
Speaker 1: We all have a guy where like when he steps
Speaker 1: on the floor and he reguards you, you're like, well,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a pain in the ass, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's like you can still have some success, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to work harder to do so. And
Speaker 1: like Dallas just has more guys now an additional guy
Speaker 1: in the form of PJ. Washington that gives him another
Speaker 1: option to make opposing stars feel uncomfortable, which I think
Speaker 1: is valuable. And again all three of them can help
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor. Josh Green has
Speaker 1: shot the ball really well the last two years, Like
Speaker 1: this is a guy that you could leave open in
Speaker 1: the playoff run in twenty twenty two, and like last
Speaker 1: two years, he's been a dead eye spot up shooter,
Speaker 1: which is a testament to how hard he's worked and
Speaker 1: has made him a much more useful player for them,
Speaker 1: especially as a three and D guy. Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: is really he's not as as accurate of a shooter
Speaker 1: as a guy like Josh Green, but he's actually a
Speaker 1: more efficient spot up player. One of the main reasons
Speaker 1: why is he's really good at that slashing cut off
Speaker 1: of or slashing drive off of the wing. There was
Speaker 1: actually a play like this in the first half of
Speaker 1: this game. Luca's working. It was either an ISO or
Speaker 1: a post up on the left l bow extended and
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Jr's guy digs down to the elbow, and
Speaker 1: when the off ball defender digs down to the elbow,
Speaker 1: there's a baked in driving lane. It's baked into the
Speaker 1: coverage because if you throw a quick swing pass and
Speaker 1: you quickly rip to the right, that defensive player is
Speaker 1: not in position to beat you to the spot. And
Speaker 1: if he does, he's not gonna be able to slide.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have to turn and run, in which case
Speaker 1: you can make a counter move towards the middle and
Speaker 1: easily cross him over and get back into the lane.
Speaker 1: And Derek is really good at reading those driving lanes
Speaker 1: and attacking quickly off the catch and getting to the
Speaker 1: basket in a spot up situation. Again, this is something
Speaker 1: I talked about all the time on the show. Three
Speaker 1: point shooting is only one part of being an effective
Speaker 1: off ball weapon. Having the ability to cut without the basketball,
Speaker 1: be an offensive rebounder, and then also driving closeouts. Those
Speaker 1: are ways to be effective spoted players. Derek Jones Junr.
Speaker 1: Has been what I think he's like one point zero
Speaker 1: nine points for SPOTU possession this year.
Speaker 2: That's above average.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a plus offensive player that you have
Speaker 1: there and then PJ.
Speaker 2: Washington.
Speaker 1: He's a solid shooter when he's wide open. He was
Speaker 1: thirty nine percent on un guarded jumpers when he was
Speaker 1: in Charlotte. That's a field goal percentage, so waited for
Speaker 1: threes obviously considerably higher. I could live without the random
Speaker 1: transition pull up threes that he took in this game.
Speaker 1: I think he was one for two, but I just
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think that needs to be in his game
Speaker 1: right now. But he can do the slot drive thing
Speaker 1: as well. He had a big one in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter coming off of the right wing where he got
Speaker 1: to his left hand, had a couple others in the game.
Speaker 1: He's also good at identifying when he has a mismatch.
Speaker 2: PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington will like find, like whether it's through a switch
Speaker 1: or a scramble situation, he'll find a guard on him
Speaker 1: and rather than just going to stand in the corner,
Speaker 1: he will duck down into the lane and create a
Speaker 1: good passing angle and you can throw a pass over
Speaker 1: the top. The MAVs have good, you know, post entry passers,
Speaker 1: catches the ball and he'll just rise up and dunk.
Speaker 1: And he's already had a few of those with Dallas
Speaker 1: where he can get a deep seal and score in there.
Speaker 1: But the point is Dallas now has a pretty deep
Speaker 1: and solid two way perimeter defender corps at different position
Speaker 1: in groups too, right Like PJ. Washington brings it more
Speaker 1: as a forward and Derk Jones Junior is kind of
Speaker 1: more of a wing, and Josh Green can bring it
Speaker 1: more as a go But like, they just have like
Speaker 1: a lot more options there than they did before the trade.
Speaker 1: The next layer of Dallas's defense is their back line.
Speaker 1: The addition of Daniel Gafford gives them two really good
Speaker 1: athletes at the center position. I liked that they started
Speaker 1: Derek Lively. I mean, at least to this point. I
Speaker 1: think Derek Lively's playing a little bit better. I think
Speaker 1: you see that in the plus minus numbers two. Ironically,
Speaker 1: he could be their best option, which is crazy for
Speaker 1: a rookie, right, And it just goes to show you
Speaker 1: how one you know, really smart draft pick can change
Speaker 1: the fortunes of a franchise.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But between Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively, and also Maxi
Speaker 1: Kleeba and his ability to defend and switches like he
Speaker 1: did against Kevin Durant, they have a pretty athletic and
Speaker 1: versatile front line. But the big thing I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on moving forward is the rebounding piece.
Speaker 1: So in the four games since Daniel Gaffer joined the team,
Speaker 1: they have a seventy two point seven defensive rebound percentage.
Speaker 1: That's considerably higher than where they were before that stretch
Speaker 1: as a team before that stretch sixty nine point four percent.
Speaker 1: So again, small samize, but I want to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on it because having just some more athletes and
Speaker 1: also healthy being healthy, I think has helped. But I'm
Speaker 1: just curious to see if they can rebound better over
Speaker 1: the course of the end of the season because that
Speaker 1: was a big problem for them early in the season.
Speaker 1: And then a two other pieces on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: they rotate really well. How many times did you see
Speaker 1: in that game We talked about that one possession with
Speaker 1: the double team of Kevin Durant where they didn't leave
Speaker 1: any openings, And if you watch the other three guys,
Speaker 1: they're constantly positioning themselves, kind of splitting the difference between options,
Speaker 1: making it so that whichever guy they passed to they
Speaker 1: can rotate too, right, But how many times in this
Speaker 1: game did you see a trapper double team of Devin
Speaker 1: Booker or Kevin Durant coming off of a ball screen
Speaker 1: and then a scramble situation where they phoenix moves the
Speaker 1: ball around and they get the ball to like use
Speaker 1: of Nurkitchen the post or something like that. But by
Speaker 1: the time they get it there, there's already a defender
Speaker 1: who has rotated back and his positioned behind you of Nirkkitchen,
Speaker 1: the advantage is gone, or it gets worked around to
Speaker 1: an open Eric Gordon on the weak side, but they're
Speaker 1: able to chase Eric Gordon off the line, and now
Speaker 1: that buys you the time to make another rotation. Really
Speaker 1: sharp rotations are especially important for teams like Dallas that
Speaker 1: have good defensive personnel but not like outstanding defensive personnel
Speaker 1: team like Dallas that's going to have in all likelihood
Speaker 1: to two or three depending on the lineup, kind of
Speaker 1: ify defensive players on the floor. Defensive rotations are going
Speaker 1: to be a key part of their success, and they
Speaker 1: were really really sharp against Dallas. And then lastly, you
Speaker 1: need Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic to at least put
Speaker 1: in the effort and to do their jobs, which is
Speaker 1: what they are doing, and that's the formula for them.
Speaker 1: Incredible offense with playoff resiliency that you get from Luca
Speaker 1: and Kyrie, and then two way athletes around them that
Speaker 1: can finish plays and do the dirty work. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a really impressive first showing in a quality
Speaker 1: matchup for Dallas with their new additions. They are heading
Speaker 1: out on a four game road trip now, They're at Indiana,
Speaker 1: at Cleveland, at Toronto, and at Boston over the course
Speaker 1: of the next week or so, so we're gonna learn a
Speaker 1: lot about Dallas over that stretch, all right, Phoenix. Look,
Speaker 1: it's like so many games from earlier in the season
Speaker 1: when Beal was hurt. They start out hot and then
Speaker 1: teams start bringing super aggressive coverages in that late third quarter,
Speaker 1: fourth quarter stretch on Kevin Durant and Devin Booker just
Speaker 1: double teaming them, and then their offense falls apart and
Speaker 1: it trickles down into every area of the game. Then
Speaker 1: they start to out rebound as well. Then they start
Speaker 1: to not defend as well, and that's why they've been
Speaker 1: so mediocre without Bradley Beal on the floor this year.
Speaker 1: Handling double teams is the big thing that stands out
Speaker 1: when Beal is off the floor. When Beal is out there,
Speaker 1: they usually only have one or maybe even zero negative
Speaker 1: offensive players on the floor, and so they can really
Speaker 1: quickly operate out of those aggressive coverages. But when Beal
Speaker 1: is not out there, all of a sudden, it's like
Speaker 1: at least one limited offensive player on the floor, if
Speaker 1: not two. And that's how you end up with that
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter stretch when Dallas blew the game open.
Speaker 1: Josha Kog and I Sire Little were both on the
Speaker 1: floor together. They were getting in each other's way in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor because both of them kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to short roll into that area as a
Speaker 1: result of a roller cut into that area. Because they
Speaker 1: know they have limitations as shooters. They kept ending up
Speaker 1: above the break too, like multiple times for both of them,
Speaker 1: and they're just bad.
Speaker 2: Above the break shooters.
Speaker 1: I think at Coach's like twenty nine percent, and I think,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaking us here, Little is like thirty
Speaker 1: one percent above the break. So like they're guys that
Speaker 1: you just don't have to go guard out there that's
Speaker 1: below a point per shot, And so that lineup just again,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, just dips below a certain like
Speaker 1: mandatory minimum amount offensive talent to be able to deal
Speaker 1: with the aggressive coverages that Kevin Ran and Devin Booker get.
Speaker 1: And then the other part of it is I think
Speaker 1: they can get a little stagnant in terms of their
Speaker 1: off ball player movement, like that play that I talked about.
Speaker 2: I cliped this play.
Speaker 1: It's on my Twitter feed out underscore jsonlt that you
Speaker 1: guys can find. But the double team that led to
Speaker 1: the use or the Josh Coogi turnover which led to
Speaker 1: the Kyrie Irving nasty spinning lay up the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor, watch Grace Allen in the left corner.
Speaker 2: He doesn't move. And like again, when.
Speaker 1: Everyone on the floor is a laser from three. With
Speaker 1: some of their better lineups, you can get away with
Speaker 1: standing still because ball movement and red hot shooting will
Speaker 1: get you.
Speaker 2: Through that moment.
Speaker 1: But when the lineup offensive talent just kind of dips
Speaker 1: below that level, I think they do need to be
Speaker 1: more creative to make themselves harder to guard. There needs
Speaker 1: to be more player movement. You need to have Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen and at a position where he's closer to the
Speaker 1: basketball so that he can help be a release valve.
Speaker 1: In those situations. I think they just have to do
Speaker 1: a better job of making themselves harder to guard in
Speaker 1: those situations. But big shock, they need Bradley Beal to win.
Speaker 1: That's not a criticism of Phoenix. That's the same for
Speaker 1: every single team in the league that has a real
Speaker 1: shot to win the title. You know, not even just stars,
Speaker 1: even extending down to role players like you need, an
Speaker 1: injury to a significant rotation piece is going to make
Speaker 1: it significantly harder for any of these teams to win,
Speaker 1: and certainly is the case with Bradley Beal. All right,
Speaker 1: Celtics Bulls. So I talked about, you know, last week,
Speaker 1: the idea of the Celtics having so much margin for
Speaker 1: air and being able to try stuff right, because they're
Speaker 1: going into last night they were what six games up
Speaker 1: on the two seed in the East and then four
Speaker 1: games up on the one seed in the West. So
Speaker 1: they just have a comfortable margin work with, right, and
Speaker 1: they also have a super easy schedule down the stretch
Speaker 1: of the season. Well you saw that a little bit
Speaker 1: in the first half, like they straight up ran five
Speaker 1: possessions of that three to two zone that they've been
Speaker 1: working on as of late, and they got cooked in
Speaker 1: and I think they gave up nine points in the
Speaker 1: five possessions of the three to two zone. Chicago got
Speaker 1: in a rhythm. They had thirty nine points in the
Speaker 1: second quarter. Kobe White made like a drifting three on
Speaker 1: a kind of a breakdown defensive rotation situation where he
Speaker 1: had a drifting three on the left wing, put him
Speaker 1: up by three sixty two to fifty nine going into
Speaker 1: the half. But in the second half, Boston tightened the
Speaker 1: screws in their main demand defense for one quarter and
Speaker 1: the game was over. And again that's the flexibility that
Speaker 1: they have with their talent and with the margin that
Speaker 1: they have in the standings, and they were really sharp
Speaker 1: in their extra efforts on defense. They had several blocks
Speaker 1: at the rim. The Celtics had eleven blocks in this game.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, they're second in the league
Speaker 1: in blocks, just so many athletes. There was this play
Speaker 1: Alex Cruzo got a steal and threw like a two
Speaker 1: handed overhead bounce pass that hit. I think it was
Speaker 1: Ayoda soon MoU in transition and he was ahead of
Speaker 1: the field, but Jalen Brown and Derek White were trailing
Speaker 1: to play and I remember as him watching it and
Speaker 1: I don't even know what's gonna happen yet, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is a bad idea, Like you might as well
Speaker 1: pull this one out, and like Derek White and Jaylen
Speaker 1: Brown both just sky way above the rim and block
Speaker 1: desum MoU at the rim. Also, the Celtics broadcasters were
Speaker 1: talking about Vusovich and how he was kind of killing
Speaker 1: them in the first half, and I think it was
Speaker 1: Skala Briney mentioned like they have to do a better
Speaker 1: job on Vusovic's rolls to the rim of digging down
Speaker 1: and making it harder for him to catch there, harder
Speaker 1: for him to elevate when he gets there. And they
Speaker 1: were just doing a better job when Vosovich caught there
Speaker 1: in the second half of digging down from the weak
Speaker 1: side and disrupting the basketball. Drew Holliday had to dig
Speaker 1: down from the left wing where he actually knocked the ball,
Speaker 1: loosing cause a turnover. They just did a much better
Speaker 1: job defensively and then again helping off of if he shooters.
Speaker 1: The Bulls are twenty fourth and three pointers made per game,
Speaker 1: so that's the team that you want to pack the
Speaker 1: paint on. They got it going on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: which led to success on the offensive end as well,
Speaker 1: and then they pulled away in that third quarter. Obnoxiously
Speaker 1: good jump shooting in this game, the Celtics made nineteen
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots. They scored fifty points on thirty
Speaker 1: four attempts, comes out to one point four to seven
Speaker 1: points per shot. Think about how insane that is. In
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting, anything over one point is good.
Speaker 1: The Celtics average slightly over one point in pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot situations, but like again, pull up jumpers are
Speaker 1: the reason why just barely over one point is good
Speaker 1: there when like a one to twenty offensive rating is
Speaker 1: more like what you want in a grand scheme of
Speaker 1: a game. Most of the time, pull up jump shooters
Speaker 1: are like coverage beaters or rescue possession type situations. The
Speaker 1: Celtics actually can lean on them in high doses in
Speaker 1: Knights like this when they're making them at such an
Speaker 1: insane clip. Jalen Brown was just insanely hot. In the
Speaker 1: first half, the Celtics were running horn sets. You're where
Speaker 1: they have two players at the elbow, two players in
Speaker 1: the deep corner, player up top. They're running horn sets
Speaker 1: to get Jalen Brown with Nikola Vusovich switched on to him,
Speaker 1: and then he would just beat Nikola Vusovich with like
Speaker 1: a hard downhill move into like a step back three.
Speaker 1: He also hit like a left shoulder fade over Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso out of the post. We're gonna talk more about
Speaker 1: that here in a minute. But he had a really,
Speaker 1: really nice stretch in that first half. He had twenty
Speaker 1: points to kind of keep them in the game while
Speaker 1: their defense wasn't as locked in. And then in that
Speaker 1: third quarter run Jason Tatum and Derek White got their
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots going Howser ended up hitting a
Speaker 1: big three in transition on the left wing. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, they're up fourteen and they never looked back.
Speaker 1: Really sharp performance to start the Celtics season. Out of
Speaker 1: the break, I wanted to I'm gonna stay on Boston
Speaker 1: for a minute because I wanted to clarify some comments
Speaker 1: that I made earlier about Boston's lack of an interior attack.
Speaker 1: This is something I've been talking a lot about. I've
Speaker 1: been harping a lot on Boston's offense because I think
Speaker 1: it's the main thing that is going to be the
Speaker 1: determining factor of their success in the postseason, and Boston
Speaker 1: is an elite offense, elite of the elite, but they've
Speaker 1: been elite in the large sample. They have also had
Speaker 1: a tendency to go really cold in individual games, especially
Speaker 1: in high profile games, and their offense has fallen apart
Speaker 1: in those situations. And so I've been talking about them
Speaker 1: needing to have a counter, something that they can do
Speaker 1: that is more physically aggressive towards the rim when the
Speaker 1: jump shots aren't falling. I've had a lot of Celtics
Speaker 1: fans since I've been kind of getting on that wagon
Speaker 1: talking about how the Celtics are. Actually they actually post
Speaker 1: up more than any team in the league. For the record,
Speaker 1: it's true, Boston posts up more than every team in
Speaker 1: the league except for Denver. Denver's the one team that
Speaker 1: posts up more than them, and they're the most efficient
Speaker 1: post up team in the NBA. Boston scores one point
Speaker 1: one five points per post up including passes, but all
Speaker 1: of their post up offense including passes, only amounts to
Speaker 1: twelve point eight points per game. Denver is also Denver's
Speaker 1: also a really good post up team. Right they're number
Speaker 1: one in post up frequency, but they're also number two
Speaker 1: in points in the paint per one hundred possessions. Boston
Speaker 1: is twenty seventh in points in the paint per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. Why because posting up is one of is
Speaker 1: only one way to get into the paint. There are
Speaker 1: many many different ways to get the basketball into the paint,
Speaker 1: just like driving is only one way to get in
Speaker 1: the paint. Remember when all the talk was going on
Speaker 1: about the Lakers and their foul discrepancy in how they
Speaker 1: drive less than any team in the league. People think
Speaker 1: that driving is the only way to get in the paint.
Speaker 1: That's not how it works. The Lakers make the second
Speaker 1: most shots in the restricted area per game in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Fifty six percent of the Lakers shot attempts come within
Speaker 1: eight feet of the rim. Despite the fact that they
Speaker 1: don't drive the basketball very much, why is that they
Speaker 1: are top ten in points scored on cuts. Boston is
Speaker 1: twenty first. They are first in two point field goals
Speaker 1: made on rolls to the rim. Boston is twenty sixth.
Speaker 1: Boston is mainly a pick and pop team. They take
Speaker 1: a lot of threes in pick and roll right. Boston
Speaker 1: is twenty fourth in field goals made on offensive rebound situations.
Speaker 1: Even in transition, Boston is second in transition threes made
Speaker 1: per game, but they are seventeenth in transition two's made
Speaker 1: per game. They run the floor for threes, whereas the
Speaker 1: Lakers are third in transition twos scored per game. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to compare the Lakers of the Celtics. Celtics
Speaker 1: are way better than the Lakers. They'd kick the shit
Speaker 1: out of them if they played in the series tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I'd pick them in four or five games. What I'm
Speaker 1: trying to make a point about is about the offensive versatility. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Celtics posts up a lot, but they do not
Speaker 1: generate nearly enough points in the paint, which is a
Speaker 1: more resilient form of scoring in what happens when we
Speaker 1: get to the to the postseason. Again, like, even if
Speaker 1: you look at their post ups, they're a post up
Speaker 1: team that takes a lot of fadeaway jump shots out
Speaker 1: of the post. They had eighteen post ups versus Chicago
Speaker 1: last night. Eleven of them either ended up in fadeaway
Speaker 1: jumpers or kickout jump shots. Like they're they post up
Speaker 1: for jump shots two, which is why their points in
Speaker 1: the paint are so limited. I'm not worried about it
Speaker 1: in a large sample. Boston like to steal a word
Speaker 1: phrase from my friend Sam Vesini, who came on the
Speaker 1: show last week, like they're ass kickers. They're total ass
Speaker 1: kickers on the offensive end of the floor. They are
Speaker 1: by far the best regular season team in the league,
Speaker 1: and I think they'd easily dispatch in the playoffs all
Speaker 1: but a small handful of teams. But we know one
Speaker 1: thing for sure, Boston can go cold. They went cold
Speaker 1: against Denver, they lost. They went cold against Milwaukee, they lost.
Speaker 1: They went cold against the Lakers, they lost. They went
Speaker 1: cold against the Clippers, they lost. It's not the large
Speaker 1: sample I'm worried about. It's the small sample size that
Speaker 1: I worry about for Boston in the event that they
Speaker 1: find themselves in the Eastern Conference semis or Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: Finals against Milwaukee or New York and the series is
Speaker 1: tied at two and Game five is in Boston and
Speaker 1: it's a super physical, rock fight type of game.
Speaker 2: What happens if they go cold? What do they do next?
Speaker 1: Because we've seen in all those games I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: the Denver game, the Milwaukee game, and the two Lakers,
Speaker 1: the two LA teams in those games. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: they were cold for a half and then they got hot.
Speaker 1: It was a consistent theme throughout the game. Even when
Speaker 1: they made a couple, they weren't able to sustain it.
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is that's just how
Speaker 1: these types of games go. This has been an overarching
Speaker 1: theme of my kind of basketball philosophy for a long time.
Speaker 1: The more important the basketball game is, the more physical
Speaker 1: it becomes, the more intense it becomes, and the more
Speaker 1: the skill oriented parts of the game become difficult, which
Speaker 1: is why I am so you know, high on teams
Speaker 1: that have interior physicality.
Speaker 2: Just go back through NBA history, like last.
Speaker 1: Year's Denver Nuggets team biggest strongest player on the floor,
Speaker 1: Nicola jokicch now the Warriors. In twenty twenty two, it's
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's the greatest small perimeter player in the history
Speaker 1: of basketball. So he's the exception that proves the rule.
Speaker 1: You can't use him as as evidence of what you
Speaker 1: can do. Nobody on Boston is even remotely in the
Speaker 1: same stratosphere as a shooter as Steph Curry, so that
Speaker 1: can't be your approach. Right twenty twenty one Johannis Sintena
Speaker 1: Kombo biggest, strongest player on the floor most of the
Speaker 1: time twenty twenty James and Anthony Davis big massive, physically
Speaker 1: imposing frontline. Twenty nineteen Kawhi Leonard, big massive, physically imposing
Speaker 1: forward like that is the way you win most of
Speaker 1: the time. And again, like I was literally, you guys know,
Speaker 1: I coach high school basketball here in town. I was
Speaker 1: watching our kids playing a playoff game on Wednesday, and
Speaker 1: they ended up they were up by one with less
Speaker 1: than a minute left, and then the other team made
Speaker 1: a couple of plays, ended up winning by four and
Speaker 1: their season's over now. But in the game, it was
Speaker 1: interesting because I once again watching the game, super super intense,
Speaker 1: both teams season on the line, both teams bringing crazy,
Speaker 1: crazy level of effort on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: You know what wasn't happening a ton of three point shots.
Speaker 1: And that's not to say that that's not an important
Speaker 1: part of the game. Of course, it's an important part
Speaker 1: of the game. And before you say this is how
Speaker 1: we've been playing and it's been working, that's not the case.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, when the Celtics made it to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals and got within two wins of hoisting
Speaker 1: the trophy. They were eight in three point attempts per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions, not first. They were fifteenth in points
Speaker 1: in the paint per one hundred possessions, not twenty seventh.
Speaker 1: They were a much more balanced scoring team in that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season than they were now. They have
Speaker 1: gone so so so far in that direction, to the
Speaker 1: point where now they've attached their fate to variants. Last
Speaker 1: night in Chicago, they scored one hundred and twenty nine points,
Speaker 1: only thirty of them were in the paint. They attempted
Speaker 1: fifty seven jump shots in that game. Again, it's not
Speaker 1: about Chicago, like it's not about the eighty two game
Speaker 1: regular season. This is one hundred percent about a seven
Speaker 1: gamer against a healthy Knicks team, against a healthy Bucks team,
Speaker 1: against a healthy Nuggets team, or a healthy Clippers team.
Speaker 1: That's the lens that we have to look through. The
Speaker 1: look through. By the way, I have Celtics seconds my
Speaker 1: list of championship contenders. I think they're the most talented
Speaker 1: team in the league. Well, why I am harping on
Speaker 1: this is this is going to make or break their season.
Speaker 2: In my opinion. There is a.
Speaker 1: Chance that they just go into the playoffs and they
Speaker 1: make their threes five to six times per series and
Speaker 1: they just beat the shit out of everybody.
Speaker 2: That's a chance.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to say that that's not possible. Of
Speaker 1: course that's possible. But winning an NBA championship is hard.
Speaker 1: Winning four series in two months is hard, and they
Speaker 1: have made themselves beatable in the sense that if you
Speaker 1: can play them into their worst tendencies and they go
Speaker 1: and you play a super physical brand of basketball, you
Speaker 1: can get them to go cold, and you might be
Speaker 1: able to steal the series from them. If Boston loses,
Speaker 1: that's what it will look like. A way to prevent
Speaker 1: that from happening is to be more active in those
Speaker 1: specific areas. Run in transition for layups and dunks. Whenever
Speaker 1: you can take the threes when they're an option. Stop
Speaker 1: running for the purpose of taking threes. Roll to the
Speaker 1: basket harder more Jalen Brown, Drew Holliday, and Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: When you're posting up, stop settling for fataways every day.
Speaker 1: Like Jalen Brown is the best fadeaway jump shooter in
Speaker 1: the league. This year Outstanding Athlete you can go over
Speaker 1: both shoulders. Excellent fadeaway jump shooter, even the best fadeaway
Speaker 1: jump shooter in the world is not close to as
Speaker 1: efficient on that shot as Nikola Jokic is on a
Speaker 1: hook in the lane. Forget about that. It's not even
Speaker 1: close to as efficient as Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: can be. In physical bullyball post up possessions, so like
Speaker 1: crashing the offensive glass, more running for in transition for
Speaker 1: layups and dunks, posting up with physicality towards the rim
Speaker 1: instead of finesse away from the rim, rolling to the
Speaker 1: basket more in pick and roll situations that like those
Speaker 1: are all like cuts to the basket off the ball
Speaker 1: instead of constantly spotting up, maybe taking advantage of a
Speaker 1: defender being out of position by cutting to the basket.
Speaker 1: These are always that Boston can add points in the
Speaker 1: paint to make their scoring more resilient. That twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two Boston team. That's a great mark to be eighth
Speaker 1: and three point attempts per one hundred possessions fifteenth in
Speaker 1: points in the paint. That is an analytically sound approach.
Speaker 1: You're taking advantage of I value shots on the floor
Speaker 1: while making sure that you have some more resiliency when
Speaker 1: the shots aren't following. Boston was able to win ugly
Speaker 1: better in that season than they were this season. And again,
Speaker 1: I don't want this to come off as Celtic's criticism.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm trying to do. We're nitpicking here
Speaker 1: because we're talking about the very best of the best.
Speaker 1: Like if I wanted to talk about the Lakers, I'd
Speaker 1: have to get into seventeen other massive issues before they'd
Speaker 1: even have a chance to could be in these conversations. Right,
Speaker 1: Boston has everything else checked.
Speaker 2: If they can.
Speaker 1: Figure this out, they will hoist the trophy. That is
Speaker 1: why I'm viewing this as such an important swing factor
Speaker 1: for them this season. All right, before we get out
Speaker 1: of here, I want to talk about JJ Reddick in
Speaker 1: the State of Sports media, so the backstore here for
Speaker 1: those are guys who missed it. JJ Reddick criticized Doc
Speaker 1: Rivers on I think Monday or Tuesday because Doc won't
Speaker 1: stop criticizing his players even though he's got his own
Speaker 1: set of issues. I didn't have any problem with that criticism. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it's like nice to see players be authentic, honestly, because
Speaker 1: like so many former players get out and they, you know,
Speaker 1: are just always on the defensive of NBA players or
Speaker 1: NBA coaches and they kind of just take the company
Speaker 1: line on everything. And so I appreciated the authenticity in
Speaker 1: that situation, right. But then JJ came on the next
Speaker 1: day on First Take and he talks about how fans
Speaker 1: don't want to be educated about basketball, and he brought
Speaker 1: in an example and he basically said, I did a
Speaker 1: deep dive on Zion Williamson.
Speaker 2: And him being on the ball more.
Speaker 1: Those of you guys who listened to this show, we
Speaker 1: did a similar conversation, not as deep, but we had
Speaker 1: a conversation about Pelicans, the Pelicans and Zion playing better,
Speaker 1: being on the ball more and generating close out opportunities
Speaker 1: for the Pelicans off ball players or perimeter players, and
Speaker 1: how they've been really killing teams with that. JJ did
Speaker 1: a far more in depth version of that where he
Speaker 1: talked about specific actions that the Pelicans are using, namely
Speaker 1: empty corner pick and rolls with you know as Vala Tunis,
Speaker 1: and just in general like transition pushes and sweeping drives
Speaker 1: from Zion ghost screens too with guys like Trey Murphy
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Really really well done by J. J.
Speaker 2: Redick.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, this is my disclaimer. I
Speaker 1: think Jerretic is the very best in the world at
Speaker 1: what he does. He's someone that I look up to
Speaker 1: a lot, someone I strive to be like. He's a
Speaker 1: hard worker, he's super knowledgeable, he's an excellent communicator. He
Speaker 1: brings that former NBA player perspective. He's awesome with interviews,
Speaker 1: color commentary, studio shows everything. I think he's the best,
Speaker 1: but I disagree with his take about the current state
Speaker 1: of sports media, so I wanted to talk about it
Speaker 1: for a second. First of all, I am super optimistic
Speaker 1: about the current state of sports media. The ecosystem and
Speaker 1: the tools that we have at our disposal are incredible.
Speaker 1: You can these days if you have a MacBook and
Speaker 1: an iPhone due to I think it's called like I
Speaker 1: can't remember what the technology is called from Apple, but
Speaker 1: you can actually use your iPhone as a webcam. Now,
Speaker 1: that's what I do when I travel, when I go
Speaker 1: on ski trips with my wife or whatever the hell
Speaker 1: I'm doing, I set up my phone and I can
Speaker 1: make a.
Speaker 2: High quality video on the road with a.
Speaker 1: Little handheld microphone that I got on Amazon that I
Speaker 1: think was like twenty thirty bus a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Like then I got that one before it, but even
Speaker 1: started working with the volume, Like it is easy to
Speaker 1: come up with the equipment to make quality content Now.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, you can distribute it extremely easily
Speaker 1: between free tools like YouTube, social media, and the algorithms
Speaker 1: that are behind that, the algorithms that promote content based
Speaker 1: on watch time. As a result, we have a ton
Speaker 1: of options. We have incredible team specific pods, national pods,
Speaker 1: draft guys, film guys, CBA guys like you name it.
Speaker 1: We have everything under the sun now. Like if you
Speaker 1: go back like ten years, think about the kind of
Speaker 1: niche basketball analysis that was available five ten years ago
Speaker 1: versus now it is skyrocket. I am so optimistic about
Speaker 1: the state of sports media. But the take JJ had
Speaker 1: he said when I made that Zion Williamson video, it
Speaker 1: only got fifty four thousand views when I criticized my
Speaker 1: former head coach and went viral and had tens of
Speaker 1: millions of impressions. This is where I think we have
Speaker 1: to be realistic. I think it's unrealistic to expect a
Speaker 1: ton of engagement from niche content like that, like the
Speaker 1: Zion video. Like a guy like me, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: super interested in a video like that. All of you
Speaker 1: guys who listen to the show, you're gonna be super
Speaker 1: interested in something like that. But there's no doubt that
Speaker 1: like like shorter attention span type of content, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing is going to perform better in the masses.
Speaker 1: Like lower brow or low brow is probably not the
Speaker 1: way to phrase it, but like small, surface level content
Speaker 1: is easier to digest buy the masses. It's no different
Speaker 1: than like if I was talking to my wife about
Speaker 1: the Grateful Debt and she's like, I like Scarlet Pegunias,
Speaker 1: That's a cool song. And then I was like, well,
Speaker 1: let me talk to you about the chord progression of
Speaker 1: this song, and then the differences between you know, this
Speaker 1: tour versus last tour, and the tone that John Mayer
Speaker 1: was using and the kind of like vibe that he's
Speaker 1: going with with the way he's playing over it, and
Speaker 1: like the way that the he's Jeff Timenti is the
Speaker 1: piano player in Franklin's Tower now versus like I can
Speaker 1: get into the weeds about that shit. Carly's not going
Speaker 1: to care. Why would she? She just doesn't care about that, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's different levels of interest in this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: There are basketball fans that get invested in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and we'll turn on a broadcast and they'll watch superstars play.
Speaker 1: And then there are basketball fans that want to get
Speaker 1: in the weeds and so to me, like I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily understand the comparison there, like JJ Reddick criticizing his
Speaker 1: coach on first Take or I don't even remember which
Speaker 1: platform he originally did it on, but that being talked
Speaker 1: about is going to be a significantly larger, you know,
Speaker 1: audience that's going to be interested in it, Like I
Speaker 1: could get, let's invent a fictitious person that's the very
Speaker 1: best basketball analysis analyst and history of mankind, and give him.
Speaker 2: All of the top of the line.
Speaker 1: You know, production tools that are available to him, and
Speaker 1: give him, you know, the world's biggest YouTube channel to
Speaker 1: post it on, post it a freaking I don't know
Speaker 1: what mister Beast's channel or something like that, and pretend
Speaker 1: all of them are basketball are people that are interested
Speaker 1: in sports in some way, shape or form. If he
Speaker 1: did the Zion Williamson video and posted it there, it's
Speaker 1: not going to perform as well as some surface level
Speaker 1: of content. That's just the reality. So that is where
Speaker 1: I think we have to be more realistic. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we can't be better, and I do think that
Speaker 1: what JJ's getting at in the big picture is important.
Speaker 1: I think specifically game broadcasts we can get so much better.
Speaker 1: It's so much more important for the color commentators that
Speaker 1: are on those broadcasts to be able to actually explain
Speaker 1: to fans what are happening on the court. JJ Redick
Speaker 1: does a great job of this. Standan Gundhi does a
Speaker 1: great job of this. Even local guys like one of
Speaker 1: my favorites on League Passes, Antonio Daniels, who covers the Pelicans.
Speaker 1: I think he does such a good job of breaking
Speaker 1: down some of the x's and o stuff that is
Speaker 1: happening on the floor. But why do I care about broadcasts?
Speaker 1: Because broadcasts are where we go to get the games.
Speaker 1: Everything else it's you can go where you are, Like,
Speaker 1: I never have understood people who complain about first take
Speaker 1: and it being like surface level, Why are you watching it?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 1: Like who's making you turn on ESPN? I haven't watched
Speaker 1: live first take and don't I think it's been ten years,
Speaker 1: I'm not interested in it. So when I want to
Speaker 1: watch a piece of sports media content, I personally like
Speaker 1: in depth basketball analysis. I like to learn from in depth.
Speaker 1: I like to learn from other basketball mindes, and so
Speaker 1: I will try to find a team specific pod or
Speaker 1: a national pod that I like, and I'll find a
Speaker 1: guy who's opinion in basketball intellect I respect, and I
Speaker 1: will listen to that person. If you're choosing to listen
Speaker 1: to ESPN and you don't like ESPN, that's a you problem.
Speaker 1: But game broadcasts, they're where we go to watch the NBA.
Speaker 1: That's where I think we need to do better. More
Speaker 1: guys doing color commentary, like the guys I mentioned that
Speaker 1: primarily focus on explaining to fans what is happening on
Speaker 1: the on the court. A big one to me too.
Speaker 1: Studio shows, pre game, halftime, post game shows. I'd love
Speaker 1: to see better panelists that do a better job of
Speaker 1: explaining the x's and o's to the fans that that
Speaker 1: are watching the games. Way too often, between color commentary
Speaker 1: and studio shows, we get surface level analysis, you know,
Speaker 1: like and here's the thing, shows like inside the NBA,
Speaker 1: they're legendary in the in the industry. That's a huge
Speaker 1: part of me growing up as a basketball fan. But like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not exactly the most tactically proficient show out there, right,
Speaker 1: And I think it would be beneficial for basketball fandom
Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it to have better,
Speaker 1: you know, better game breakdowns and explanations of the tactics
Speaker 1: in those settings because I can't. I think we can
Speaker 1: make smarter casual fans that way. But like again, like
Speaker 1: to me, I don't understand how like like first take
Speaker 1: to me has nothing to do with the realm of
Speaker 1: basketball analysis. It's just it's there for their audience. My
Speaker 1: show's here for my audience. J JJ's show is there
Speaker 1: for his audience. You can go where you want to
Speaker 1: go that there's no there's no reason to watch a
Speaker 1: show that you don't want to watch anymore. And then
Speaker 1: again at the end here viewership tells us that there
Speaker 1: are topics that have large audiences and there are topics
Speaker 1: that have smaller audiences. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: this is a business. I talk about this on my show.
Speaker 1: It's a big part of how this show is structured.
Speaker 1: I'll get in the weeds, but you bet your ass.
Speaker 1: If there's a Lebron topic, I'm going to hit it,
Speaker 1: you bet your ass. If there's a STEPF topic, I'm
Speaker 1: going to hit it, you bet your ass. I'm going
Speaker 1: to cover the major the major markets. Why Because I'm
Speaker 1: competitive and I want to win. I want this show
Speaker 1: to be the best, And the only way I'm going
Speaker 1: to do that is if I do both. If I
Speaker 1: bring the in depth, niche stuff and I make sure
Speaker 1: that I hit bigger picture topics. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it's fair or realistic to pretend like we're above the
Speaker 1: bigger picture topics. When I even I still remember even
Speaker 1: when I was younger, when I was playing basketball in college,
Speaker 1: like after practice, before practice, on the bus, you don't
Speaker 1: think we're having first take style debates about Lebron versus
Speaker 1: MJ or stuff like that. That's also an important part
Speaker 1: of the sports media space that's never going away. Will
Speaker 1: it shift a little bit, will debate shows get a
Speaker 1: little smaller or maybe a little bigger. Who knows, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there'll be shifts, but there's always going to be a
Speaker 1: spot in sports media for that kind of thing. That's
Speaker 1: an important part of the business, and I'm thankful that
Speaker 1: we have a format here where we can do both.
Speaker 1: No one's stopping me from spending fifteen minutes talking about
Speaker 1: this because I have the freedom to do so thanks
Speaker 1: to this new ecosystem. Fifteen years ago, if I happen
Speaker 1: to be working at a television company, i'd have timelines
Speaker 1: and I have to be out by this commercial break,
Speaker 1: and like you bet, like I might only have thirty
Speaker 1: minutes in a show or one hour in a show
Speaker 1: minus commercial time to figure out how to fit everything,
Speaker 1: and I might have to be way more picky and
Speaker 1: I might have to focus on some of the No,
Speaker 1: I don't have that problem anymore. If I want to
Speaker 1: tell Paul's early producer now, if I wanted to tell
Speaker 1: him on Sunday, like I want to do twenty minutes
Speaker 1: on you know, some random college basketball game, They're not
Speaker 1: going to stop me from doing that. I can do
Speaker 1: that now. That's a beautiful part of the way the
Speaker 1: sports media space has changed. I think it's better than ever.
Speaker 1: I'm super super optimistic about it, and I don't have
Speaker 1: any problem at all with folks who make a living
Speaker 1: on more of the surface level stuff. It's an important
Speaker 1: part of the space. If they can retain an audience
Speaker 1: and make money on it.
Speaker 2: Good for them.
Speaker 1: I don't have any problem with that. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of those people are are super super super
Speaker 1: super talented guys like Steven and a Smith, guys like
Speaker 1: Shannon Sharp. They are incredible talents and like and I
Speaker 1: don't believe in minimizing that necessarily.
Speaker 2: Here's the bottom line. I think JJ's very good for.
Speaker 1: Sports media, in basketball media in general, and I think
Speaker 1: he is one of the guys that's going to help
Speaker 1: address some of those problems that I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: but debate shows and surface level content, they have a
Speaker 1: place too.
Speaker 2: You can choose what you want to watch.
Speaker 1: And this is where, like Nick right, Nick Wright kind
Speaker 1: of went after JJ on Twitter and was taking in
Speaker 1: kind of pointing out some of the some similar things
Speaker 1: to what I was talking about. And one of the
Speaker 1: things he said that I thought was was a good
Speaker 1: point is he goes, why would you go on First Take,
Speaker 1: take the check, like take the payment, agree to be
Speaker 1: on the show, and then be critical of the show.
Speaker 1: That I don't understand, because like that's literally what that
Speaker 1: space is. Nobody turns on First Take expecting Zion Williamson
Speaker 1: film breakdowns that's an unrealistic expectation, right, And so I guess,
Speaker 1: like what I'm trying to say is like I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in like the core belief system that's driving
Speaker 1: JJ in this endeavor. I just don't necessarily think it
Speaker 1: has anything to do with first take at all whatsoever.
Speaker 1: To me, Like JJ has an opportunity to improve some
Speaker 1: specific areas of basketball media for the better, and I
Speaker 1: think those conversations are worth having. But I'm not a
Speaker 1: big believer in being critical of people who just do
Speaker 1: a different kind of sports media, because that's what they do.
Speaker 1: They're just a different kind of sports media. I remember
Speaker 1: a while back, is the last thing I'll say and
Speaker 1: then we'll get out of here. I was talking about
Speaker 1: a fan base, and this was years ago. This was,
Speaker 1: like I want to say, like twenty eighteen was well
Speaker 1: before I was even doing podcasts, and I was being
Speaker 1: critical of some fan I think. And then Sam as
Speaker 1: fondo Ari has become a friend of mine, pointed out
Speaker 1: about how pointless it is to be fan police, because
Speaker 1: why would I think that like my version of being
Speaker 1: a sports fan is the right way to be a
Speaker 1: sports fan. It's just not that that's ridiculous. There's so
Speaker 1: many different ways to be a sports fan. You can
Speaker 1: be passionate, you can be vocal, you can be quiet,
Speaker 1: you can be a content creator, you can be a
Speaker 1: content consumer. There's like a million different ways to be
Speaker 1: a fan. Why would I act like my way is
Speaker 1: the only way to do it, or that there's a
Speaker 1: wrong way to be a fan. The only wrong way
Speaker 1: to be a fan is to be violent or abusive, right,
Speaker 1: Like that stupid couple who called Katie a bitch and
Speaker 1: then tried to be nice to his face right after, Like,
Speaker 1: I have no respect for that shit, But like, there
Speaker 1: is no wrong way to be a fan. But I
Speaker 1: feel the same way about sports media and media in general.
Speaker 1: I don't want to play media police. There's not a
Speaker 1: right or wrong way to do it. This ecosystem allows
Speaker 1: everybody to do it their own way. It's been so
Speaker 1: good for the space. We have so much better content
Speaker 1: as a result. I'm a huge fan of the direction
Speaker 1: we're going, and as I said, I am an optimist
Speaker 1: about where we're headed. All Right, I'm off my soapbox.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for listening to the show. The
Speaker 1: game plan for this weekend we are taking Tomorrow off,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna be uploading a video after the Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoon game, which I think is Laker's son Ones if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, and then the Sunday evening game I
Speaker 1: believe is Nuggets Warriors.
Speaker 2: That one.
Speaker 1: We're going live on YouTube after so two shows on Sunday,
Speaker 1: no show on Saturday. I will see you guys on Sunday.
Speaker 1: The volume