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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Happy Opening Night in the NBA. We've had many long
Speaker 1: months of hypothetical basketball, theoretical basketball, historical basketball, everything other
Speaker 1: than meaningful basketball to talk about on the show. And
Speaker 1: I'm very, very excited to break down a real life
Speaker 1: NBA game today. The Denver Nuggets on Ring Night put
Speaker 1: forward the championship effort to beat the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: Are gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective
Speaker 1: of both teams. And then later tonight we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a separate video breaking down Sun's Warriors, So come back
Speaker 1: to the feed later on tonight to get a breakdown
Speaker 1: of that game as well. You guys are the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. We launched a brand new YouTube
Speaker 1: channel this year. Hoops Tonight is now on its own
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second to just scroll down and
Speaker 1: hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our social media
Speaker 1: feeds as well, wherever you get like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter,
Speaker 1: That's where I'm doing like video content over the course
Speaker 1: of the year, show announcements things like that, and then
Speaker 1: our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 1: And we're doing mailbags throughout the year at the end
Speaker 1: of shows this year, so drop mailbag questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. Right, let's talks some basketball. So you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people going into this game tonight, we're
Speaker 1: hoping for essentially the birth of a rivalry between the
Speaker 1: Nuggets and the Lakers, and there is you know, the
Speaker 1: ingredients are there, right, Like You've got big names, superstars
Speaker 1: on both ends, all time great players and guys like
Speaker 1: Lebron James and NICOLEA Jokic, You have like a win
Speaker 1: where the Lakers beat the Nuggets in the Conference finals
Speaker 1: convincingly four games to one, or it's the same course
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad versus Jokic, Murray Michael Porter Junior, but
Speaker 1: they're not quite in their primes yet and it's different
Speaker 1: groups of role players. Fast forward to twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets sweep the Lakers, but like Lebron's a little
Speaker 1: out of his prime and they've swapped out the role players.
Speaker 1: So like in theory, you look at it, it's like
Speaker 1: kind of the same cores one to one. There might
Speaker 1: be something here that could be a rivalry, but in
Speaker 1: order for it to be a rivalry, the Lakers have
Speaker 1: to get up to the Nuggets level, and right now
Speaker 1: they are just not. I look at the Nuggets more
Speaker 1: as like a measuring stick right now than a rival.
Speaker 1: It's a a status as a basketball team for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to aspire to. And I mean you could kind
Speaker 1: of feel it coming off the screen in this particular
Speaker 1: game that the Lakers, even though they had a core
Speaker 1: identity in last year's postseason, they're still kind of figuring
Speaker 1: stuff out with this new group, especially with some specific
Speaker 1: role players that they've brought in. In addition to that,
Speaker 1: just the kind of convoluted nature of their ball handling,
Speaker 1: and they've got so many different guys on the court
Speaker 1: that could kind of run the show, and like it's like,
Speaker 1: who's gonna actually grab the reins here and run this thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, Austin's running two or three actions in
Speaker 1: a row. Now de Lo's running the few actions that
Speaker 1: are okay. Now we're attacking with Lebron out of switches
Speaker 1: at the high post in a face up game. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is taking over for long stretches, and like kind
Speaker 1: of everybody's kind of figuring out where they fit in
Speaker 1: in the offense. That's not the case with the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets know exactly what they are. They are the
Speaker 1: quintessential basketball team. Jokic is the offensive full crumb. He's
Speaker 1: running everything. Jamal Murray is the primary ball handler. He's
Speaker 1: initiating the action as the perimeter player every single time
Speaker 1: down the floor. Knavious call of Pope is the second
Speaker 1: side shot creator. If Jamal Murray runs an action and
Speaker 1: he doesn't get a good look, he's gonna swing it
Speaker 1: over to the other side, and then they're gonna run the
Speaker 1: same damn thing or some other form of dribble handoff
Speaker 1: with Kntavious Calbo Pope to get something going. Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior not running anything like he had occasionally a transition
Speaker 1: push where I get an offensive rebound put back. He
Speaker 1: had a handful of plays where he looked to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: but for the most part he's just spotting up at
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon's just doing dirty work on the back line,
Speaker 1: like cutting along the baseline, attacking on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: Uh with the occasional switch posting up. They know exactly
Speaker 1: where they who they are, They know exactly where they
Speaker 1: fit in in terms of the overall roles of the team.
Speaker 1: They are the quintessential perfect fitting basketball team. It's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite things about the game of basketball. The
Speaker 1: Nuggets are a very talented team, but they are not
Speaker 1: as talented as some of the more talented teams at
Speaker 1: the top of the league. But you are more than
Speaker 1: the sum of your parts when you fit naturally as
Speaker 1: a basketball team, and it goes beyond even just the players.
Speaker 1: I think Mike Bloone doesn't amazing job getting them to
Speaker 1: commit to his defensive scheme. Their defensive rotations were sharp tonight.
Speaker 1: They were super physical at the point of attack. They
Speaker 1: were frustrating guys like Daniel Russell and Austin Reeves. It
Speaker 1: was a very very impressive performance on that end. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, their sets are sophisticated.
Speaker 1: It's multiple screening actions flowing into their two man game,
Speaker 1: which makes it so that Jamal Murray always has the
Speaker 1: player trailing several feet behind him, which gets him into
Speaker 1: a position where he can either take and make easy
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots or draw multiple defenders to open
Speaker 1: up things for Nikola Jokics. The Denver Nuggets are already
Speaker 1: a finished product in so many different ways. They are
Speaker 1: the bar that the Lakers need to get to, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers, on the other hand, they have some very
Speaker 1: very clear weaknesses that they have to work out. Their
Speaker 1: transition defense is an issue. They still have issues with
Speaker 1: perimeter size and getting long contested rebounds. They have these
Speaker 1: clear flaws that they have to work out. The hierarchy
Speaker 1: of their offense is still kind of convoluted over the
Speaker 1: top shot making. We're gonna talk about it in a minute,
Speaker 1: but like again, I'm impressed by the Lakers fight. They
Speaker 1: fought and weathered some runs, and I mean they I
Speaker 1: think they had it within three in the fourth quarter, right,
Speaker 1: But like, here's the deal was, were all the games
Speaker 1: close in the Western Conference Finals? Yes? They were, But
Speaker 1: the Nuggets won all four of them because when things
Speaker 1: slow down, they can out execute the Lakers at a
Speaker 1: much higher level in those specific situations, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a long way to go to catch up. We'll
Speaker 1: talk more about the Lakers in a little bit. I
Speaker 1: wanted to again, I was really impressed with the the
Speaker 1: Nuggets defense. They were bringing Jokic up high and pick
Speaker 1: and roll on the specifically on the D'Angelo Russell pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, but often on the Austin Reeves pick and
Speaker 1: rolls as well. They were rotating really sound on the
Speaker 1: back end. They were being physical with D'Angelo Russell and
Speaker 1: talking shit to him. That's kind of the strategy they
Speaker 1: use in the Western Conference Finals, and what do you know,
Speaker 1: he ended up struggling. We'll end up talking a little
Speaker 1: bit more about D'Angelo Russell in a minute. Nikole Jokicic
Speaker 1: just dominated Anthony Davis. He just physically cannot guard him
Speaker 1: one on one, which is the wildest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that there is a player in the
Speaker 1: NBA that can even make Jokic really work all that
Speaker 1: hard one on one I was I had somebody throw
Speaker 1: the name Joel Embiid out there, and like, it's hard
Speaker 1: because you don't you only see him play twice a
Speaker 1: year and yok and b does kind of have the
Speaker 1: size to kind of absorb some of those drop steps
Speaker 1: from Jokic. But even then, it's like if Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: was the magic elicksur for Jokic, He's just not even
Speaker 1: in the same stratosphere as a defensive players some of
Speaker 1: the guys at the top of the league, and so
Speaker 1: like Jokis just puts you in a real predicament in
Speaker 1: the sense that you physically cannot match up to him
Speaker 1: with any individual defender. And then when you combine that
Speaker 1: in a true two man game with a guy like
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray who is as a legitimate weapon and pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting situations, you can make you pay if
Speaker 1: you duck under picks by knocking down pull up threes,
Speaker 1: can make you pay if you trail picks by knocking
Speaker 1: down pull up jump shots, and floaters can make you
Speaker 1: pay with the pass if you bring multiple defenders over,
Speaker 1: can make you pay on the switch if you put
Speaker 1: a small defender on him. Like he just had the
Speaker 1: perfect complimentary game to what Nikola Jokic brings to the table.
Speaker 1: I thought Jamal Murray looked like an All Star this year.
Speaker 1: That's the whole kind of storyline surrounding Jamal Murray this
Speaker 1: year is can he be the regular season impactful player
Speaker 1: that he was in the playoffs. I've been saying all summer, Hell,
Speaker 1: yeah he can. The dude got hurt and last year
Speaker 1: he was coming back from an injury. The year before
Speaker 1: that he was out with an injury. Year before that,
Speaker 1: he literally was coming off of an incredibly short layoff
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs in the bubble, which directly led
Speaker 1: to some of the physical issues that he had that season.
Speaker 1: This is his first healthy, normal season as the player
Speaker 1: that he was in the playoffs last year. I expect
Speaker 1: him to produce like this all year long. Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: looked fantastic. He was beaten guys in post up mismatches,
Speaker 1: just like he did in the NBA Finals. You just
Speaker 1: can't switch a smaller guard onto him. He can work
Speaker 1: his way inside in the post and score on him,
Speaker 1: beating him on the offensive glass cutting along the back line.
Speaker 1: In transition, he had a bunch of big plays. Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon was just awesome. The Denver Nuggets are a well
Speaker 1: oiled machine. Their bench had some issues in the second half,
Speaker 1: but their bench had issues all year last year, and it
Speaker 1: ended up just not mattering and so like again, like
Speaker 1: we can talk about the hypothetical ceiling that dam and
Speaker 1: Yamis can reach, and we can talk about the hypothetical
Speaker 1: ceiling that Drew Holliday and Christops Porzingis can lift the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics too, And we can talk about the hypothetical
Speaker 1: ceiling that Bradley Beal can lift the Phoenix Suns to,
Speaker 1: or what the Lakers might be able to accomplish over
Speaker 1: the course of the season. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the Denver Nuggets are right now one of
Speaker 1: the best teams of the last decade and they are
Speaker 1: currently clicking at that level. They are going to click
Speaker 1: at that level all season long, and as long as
Speaker 1: they are healthy when they get to April, they're gonna
Speaker 1: just be a royal pain in the ass for anybody
Speaker 1: to beat. And That's why I picked them as my
Speaker 1: championship favorite, even among the super talented teams that we
Speaker 1: have at the top of the league. Let's talk some
Speaker 1: Lakers for a few minutes. This matchup is tough for them.
Speaker 1: They struggle with perimeter size, right, Like you got Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves and D'Angelo Russell as guys that are, you know, decent,
Speaker 1: like they're six four sixty five, but they're both not
Speaker 1: fantastic athletes, right, Like Contavio's called what Pope's a better athlete,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's better athlete. Michael Porter Junior has size on
Speaker 1: either of them in any specific help defense situation. Right,
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince has some of the length, but he's kind
Speaker 1: of thin, right and ECTU Torrian Prince had some impressive
Speaker 1: perimeter defense possessions on Jamal Murray today. I thought that
Speaker 1: was encouraging. Torrian Prince was one of the bright spots
Speaker 1: for the Lakers in this particular game. But you could
Speaker 1: tell the Nuggets have a mental advantage as well. They're
Speaker 1: talking shit, they're getting guys out of rhythm, they're being physical,
Speaker 1: they are feeling themselves because they know they have the
Speaker 1: Lakers number. It kind of reminds me again this is
Speaker 1: not a direct cump because the Nuggets are the defending
Speaker 1: champions and the Clippers have never won anything. But the
Speaker 1: Clippers in twenty twenty kind of had a similar mental
Speaker 1: advantage over the Lakers, where he can tell they just
Speaker 1: feel like they're better, and that manifests on the floor
Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways. Confident. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know all the analytics guys like to pretend like there's
Speaker 1: no such thing as the hot hand or confidence or
Speaker 1: anything along those lines. That stuff is real, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and like the psych cology of basketball really does matter,
Speaker 1: and I think the Nuggets have a psychological advantage here.
Speaker 1: They can attack mismatches in size all over the floor,
Speaker 1: whether it's Jamal Murray didn't do too much post up
Speaker 1: attacking in this game, but Aaron Gordon can beat them,
Speaker 1: even the Michael Porter junior transition basket. It's just because
Speaker 1: he's bigger than everybody, right. And then Nikola Jokic has
Speaker 1: the number of the very best defender in the world
Speaker 1: and the best defender on the Lakers and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: so they're put into a tough spot. You saw their
Speaker 1: point of attack defense be a problem in this game. Again,
Speaker 1: point of attack defense is the ability to contain ball
Speaker 1: handlers on the perimeter and the ability to navigate ball
Speaker 1: screens to funnel players into your rim protection. Right, And
Speaker 1: like you saw, you know again, when Torrian Prince was
Speaker 1: on the floor. It looked okay, but you saw it
Speaker 1: like when Gay Vincent was guarding him, when Dangela Russell
Speaker 1: was guarding him. Jamal Murray's consistently drawing fouls and consistently
Speaker 1: getting separation. And that's an issue that's gonna manifest over
Speaker 1: the course of not only the season, but in the
Speaker 1: postseason if the Lakers don't either get Jared Vanderbilt both
Speaker 1: healthy and capable of being a threat offensively or make
Speaker 1: some sort of deal around the deadline to improve their
Speaker 1: perimeter defense, because when they it's not just teams like
Speaker 1: the Nuggets. Any team that has high level guard play
Speaker 1: and good screeners is going to put the Lakers in
Speaker 1: rotation a lot. And when they're in rotation, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can't protect the rim. And when Anthony Davis can't protect
Speaker 1: the rim, they have a pretty big steep drop off
Speaker 1: with their defense. And so again that's gonna be something
Speaker 1: to watch with the Lakers all year long, but specifically
Speaker 1: in this matchup their ability to defend at the point
Speaker 1: of attack and then over the top shot making. Again,
Speaker 1: like Lebron hit a three, Anthony Davis, you know, I
Speaker 1: think he hit one three in this game. I'd have
Speaker 1: to look at the box score. But like, there wasn't
Speaker 1: a ton of like high level over the top shot
Speaker 1: making from the Lakers in this game, just like you
Speaker 1: would expect after what we saw from them last year.
Speaker 1: But time and time again, when the Lakers would make
Speaker 1: a run and get the game back to five, seven,
Speaker 1: four points, whatever it was, it'd be another Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot, another Contavious call Well Pope curling
Speaker 1: jump shot coming off of a screen, another Nicola jok
Speaker 1: It's popping jump shot at top of the key. They
Speaker 1: are just an incredibly skilled basketball team, and when things
Speaker 1: really slow down and they execute their skill manifests in
Speaker 1: those half court possessions. So like again, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: clearly a level below the Nuggets, and that is something
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to resolve over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be monitoring that closely. We're gonna look at
Speaker 1: all the different things that kind of take shape over
Speaker 1: the year, what deals they might have to make, rotational changes,
Speaker 1: different lineup structures and things like that. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the Nuggets are just better and
Speaker 1: it's gonna take a little while for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: get to that point. That doesn't mean doom for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: They play eighty two games, they're gonna be more talented
Speaker 1: than at least twenty five of the thirty teams that
Speaker 1: they play over the course of the season. Right, they're
Speaker 1: going to have opportunities to get through this season and
Speaker 1: be in a position to attack this Denver team over
Speaker 1: two weeks as opposed to one game. And there were positives. Right,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis looks great. That's the crazy part, and that's
Speaker 1: how good Nikol Jokicic's ad was really damn good in
Speaker 1: this game, and Jokic was just better than him because
Speaker 1: he is just better than him. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, that's a positive. Anthony Davis looks great.
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron looked great. They limited his minutes. I
Speaker 1: think that's a good thing. There's no reason for him
Speaker 1: to play too much with the amount of talent that's
Speaker 1: on this team. It allows Lebron to be I noticed
Speaker 1: it in particular, like Lebron has a tendency to float
Speaker 1: through games. He'll play thirty six, thirty seven minutes, but
Speaker 1: he'll take these long stretches where he's kind of disengaged.
Speaker 1: Lebron was more engaged in his minutes because he was
Speaker 1: playing shorter shifts, and like the Lakers were a big
Speaker 1: positive when Lebron was on the floor in this game.
Speaker 1: I think that's encouraging, right. And you saw him be
Speaker 1: able to attack from the high post, attack and transition
Speaker 1: as a just a downhill threat, right, like making solid
Speaker 1: reads when the Nuggets would offer nail help kicking the shooters.
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron looked great in this game. I think
Speaker 1: that's a positive, right. I did think it was interesting
Speaker 1: that the Lakers kind of took off in the second
Speaker 1: half when Lebron started being more aggressive offensively. It's something
Speaker 1: to keep in mind. We were talking about the hierarchy
Speaker 1: of the ball handling for the Nuggets and how clear
Speaker 1: it is. I'd like the Lakers to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: to simplify their ball handling structure and lean more on
Speaker 1: one guy. Try to get one of Austin or DL
Speaker 1: to operate primarily as an off ball player and just
Speaker 1: kind of simplify that decision making process. Right, So, Dangela
Speaker 1: Russell looked fantastic all preseason and then looked pretty bad
Speaker 1: in this particular game. Right, had some spot up. Three
Speaker 1: is that he knocked down he made some plays, but
Speaker 1: definitely wasn't as impactful as he was in the preseason.
Speaker 1: Why is that time and time again, when the intensity
Speaker 1: ratchets up and the physicality ratches up, that's when D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell struggles to finish around the ram, struggles to get
Speaker 1: separation and pick and roll, struggles to make passes out
Speaker 1: of pick and roll. And again, there's value in D'angela
Speaker 1: Russell kind of reminds you of me of James Harden.
Speaker 1: He can eat regular season innings and he can provide
Speaker 1: basically a mediocre offensive fulcrum when you need it, right,
Speaker 1: but in intense games, and again, this is season opener,
Speaker 1: This is not the same as a game in February.
Speaker 1: This game had a playoff feel in terms of the
Speaker 1: overall physicality in those environments. He's going to go down
Speaker 1: a level and that's something keep an eye on over
Speaker 1: the course of the season because the Lakers do have
Speaker 1: the ability to slot Gabe Vincent and Austin Reeves in
Speaker 1: the backcourt. They have three forwards they can afford to
Speaker 1: get rid of one. Right, You saw ruy Hot Chamura
Speaker 1: look kind of like the odd man out tonight, right, So,
Speaker 1: like you could see a scenario. And again I'm not
Speaker 1: saying you do this now, but if fifty games from now,
Speaker 1: if you're in February and Dilo is still kind of
Speaker 1: struggling in the big games and ruy Ha Chamura is
Speaker 1: still struggling to find his role off the bench, that's
Speaker 1: two pieces you can package together with two first round
Speaker 1: draft picks, and you can bring back a thirty million
Speaker 1: dollar player, a good thirty million dollar player, and that
Speaker 1: could give that could potentially be a ceiling razer for
Speaker 1: this team. But again, like as good as the Angela
Speaker 1: Russell is, and he's gonna have a lot of great knights,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna have a lot of great sequences time
Speaker 1: and time again, when the physicality ratchets up in these
Speaker 1: bigger matchups against the better teams at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, he tends to struggle a little bit. I
Speaker 1: thought the second half bench unit end of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: early fourth looked good. There's a lot of Lebron, James
Speaker 1: and Christian would match up attacking against smaller defenders, either
Speaker 1: at the high post and out of the post. I
Speaker 1: thought that was an interesting thing that you can see
Speaker 1: the Lakers do more over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: You saw d'An Angela Russell kind of operate making those
Speaker 1: post entries and then basically just spotting up on the wing,
Speaker 1: and Lebron's really good at punishing the nail help there,
Speaker 1: which just quick passes into the shooting pocket. So I
Speaker 1: thought that was encouraging because the bench units kind of
Speaker 1: struggled during the regular season, and again, in the big picture,
Speaker 1: not every team is Denver like this is a really
Speaker 1: good team on the road Championship ring night. It's a
Speaker 1: hard game to win. It doesn't spell doom for the season,
Speaker 1: but it's the measuring stick. It's the level they have
Speaker 1: to get to over the course of the eighty two Obviously,
Speaker 1: my Arizona Diamondbacks just made it to the World Series,
Speaker 1: which I'm super excited about. So we still have a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks of baseball. We have the NFL that's
Speaker 1: deep in the swing of things. Obviously, college football is
Speaker 1: in the heart of the season, and now we have
Speaker 1: the return of the NBA and college basketball right around
Speaker 1: the corner, so there's no shortage of events to attend
Speaker 1: right now, and all summer long we've had concerts and
Speaker 1: comedy shows, and so with all of this, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of tickets out there for these events, and the
Speaker 1: best way to get tickets to any of these events
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Speaker 1: app today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So I
Speaker 1: had a radio hit this morning in Phoenix, and it
Speaker 1: was funny because we ended up talking d backs for
Speaker 1: about a third of it, But it's just you have
Speaker 1: to understand, like a man, baseball was like such a
Speaker 1: huge thing for me growing up. It was like literally
Speaker 1: all I did until I picked up a basketball because
Speaker 1: I kind of got into basketball late. So like I'd
Speaker 1: go to school, go to liter League practice, and then
Speaker 1: I'd go watch the d Backs every single night. So
Speaker 1: this playoff run has like thrown me for a loop
Speaker 1: because it's like it makes me feel like I'm a
Speaker 1: kid again. Tonight, honestly to God, was really difficult to
Speaker 1: navigate doing my job while also watching one of the
Speaker 1: most stressful baseball games that I've ever watched, you know,
Speaker 1: the d Backs on the road in Philly against the
Speaker 1: terrifying bats of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, and I
Speaker 1: would love to never see a Zach Wheeler sweeper or
Speaker 1: four seamer or two seamer ever again in my life.
Speaker 1: That was absolutely terrifying. But after we talked to some
Speaker 1: d Backs on the radio this morning, we talked some
Speaker 1: sons and before the interview, I was doing some research
Speaker 1: on the Sun's preseason just a Deeper Dive, and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker was thirteen for twenty three on pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots in preseason, I'm like, that's freaking insane. So like,
Speaker 1: last year in the regular season, he was a hair
Speaker 1: under fifty percent on effective field goal percent to jump
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, and then he went up way
Speaker 1: up to like almost sixty percent in the postseason, and
Speaker 1: then in the preseason he's at like almost seventy five
Speaker 1: percent in EFFECTI feel percentage. I'm like, man, it feels
Speaker 1: like Devin Booker's kind of taking a leap. And then
Speaker 1: last year in the regular season was the first time
Speaker 1: that it really dawned on me just how advanced of
Speaker 1: a playmaker Devin Booker has become in this phase of
Speaker 1: his career. And so as I was sitting down on
Speaker 1: the computer, I'm looking at Devin Booker's age, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: he hit all these crazy pull up jump shots last year.
Speaker 1: Remember that Game three, Game four sequence against Denver when
Speaker 1: he got like so outrageously hot. It was one of
Speaker 1: the hottest shooting streaks that we've ever seen from a
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooter in the postseason. And I remember, though,
Speaker 1: the whole thing was like, and I'm guilty of this
Speaker 1: as well. We're all like, he's just not going to
Speaker 1: keep making these right, Like he's got to eventually start missing, right.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to
Speaker 1: shoot seventy five percent on him forever. But you know,
Speaker 1: people used to say that thing about Steph. He's never
Speaker 1: gonna be able to just consistently shoot threes at this level, right,
Speaker 1: And I started looking at the Basketball Reference page and
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy shit, Like Devin Booker is only twenty
Speaker 1: six years old, and Steph Curry in two twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: MVP season. His first MVP season was when he was
Speaker 1: twenty six years old, And all I could think of is, like,
Speaker 1: you could make a legitimate case that Devin Booker was
Speaker 1: the best player on the Suns last year. And I
Speaker 1: still think Devin Booker is a better player than Devin
Speaker 1: or scuse me, I still think Vin Durant is a
Speaker 1: better player than Devin Booker. Overall. I think he deserves
Speaker 1: that kind of like benefit of the doubt right now.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Like, if Devin Booker takes a
Speaker 1: leap and he becomes a better player than Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: not through some sort of decline from Kevin Durant, but
Speaker 1: just through his own ascension to bona fide superstardom that
Speaker 1: completely changes the calculus for everything surrounding this Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: team because he is now playing like a top five
Speaker 1: player in the world and has been for a really
Speaker 1: long time. He played like a top five player all preseason,
Speaker 1: he played like a top five player all postseason. This
Speaker 1: is not a blip. This is a trend of Devin
Speaker 1: Booker ascending to the level of the players at the
Speaker 1: top of the league. And again, like we talked about
Speaker 1: all that pull up jump shooting, but down the street
Speaker 1: actually was three playmaking possessions from Devin Booker that turned
Speaker 1: this game around. So we have a classic high pick
Speaker 1: and roll on the right side of the floor to
Speaker 1: go to the ball. Again, we talked about this concept
Speaker 1: a lot, especially with the Suns, you know, the idea
Speaker 1: of defending pick and roll three on two and the
Speaker 1: need to have a guy in the weakside corner that
Speaker 1: can like knock down shots right And we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Josh cog in a minute, because he hits this one.
Speaker 1: But like what ends up happening in a lot of
Speaker 1: these cases is when you put two to the ball.
Speaker 1: So like Devin Booker's got the basketball, he's dribbling to
Speaker 1: his right, coming off of a ball screen. The guy
Speaker 1: who's guarding him is trailing him from behind. In this case,
Speaker 1: I think it was Gary Payton, so Peyton's coming from behind.
Speaker 1: Kevon Looney, the screen defender is up at the level
Speaker 1: of the screen to try to stop the Devin Booker
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot that's going in every single damn time. Well,
Speaker 1: the low man is the player that is guarding Joshakoge
Speaker 1: in the weak side corner, and he's coming over and
Speaker 1: he's basically defending the action three on two. And in
Speaker 1: that case, if you don't have one a playmaker that
Speaker 1: has the ability to make that cross court skip pass
Speaker 1: to the shooting pocket for the shoot during the week's
Speaker 1: I corn I've talked about that all summer long and
Speaker 1: all preseason long, the playmakers that are capable of making
Speaker 1: the cross court feed over the top of the defense
Speaker 1: when teams guard pick and roll three on two, because
Speaker 1: it's difficult to get high enough to make that pass.
Speaker 1: Usually the low man's a little bit of an athlete.
Speaker 1: Now that's not necessarily the case with the Golden State
Speaker 1: Warriors in this in this particular game, but like there's
Speaker 1: typically a lot of length on the ball. There's length
Speaker 1: in the pick and roll defender, right, it's usually an
Speaker 1: athlete that's coming up to the level of the screen,
Speaker 1: an athlete trailing the play, and an athlete that's the lowman.
Speaker 1: And it's difficult to get enough separation from the perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders to elevate over the top and make that pass.
Speaker 1: And Devin Booker was able to make that pass. Then
Speaker 1: on the very next possession they run this interesting kind
Speaker 1: of like variation of Spain pick and roll with Eric Gordon,
Speaker 1: where Air Gordon has a ball, it gives the ball
Speaker 1: to Devin book where they clear out. Nurkics comes up
Speaker 1: and sets the ball screen. After Nurkis sets the screen literally,
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon goes over and screens Kevon Looney. And on
Speaker 1: that play, because Air Gordon screens Cavan kaval Luney can't
Speaker 1: help Devin Booker on that pull up jump shot. Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: who's the guy guarding Eric Gordon, has to basically hedge
Speaker 1: or show on that Devin Booker pull up and because
Speaker 1: of that, when he shows, Eric Gordon pops to the
Speaker 1: three point line. Kavan Looney, because he's a big man,
Speaker 1: is accustomed to kind of staying in the ball screen action.
Speaker 1: He kind of leaks back towards the middle. Steph has
Speaker 1: to close out all the way to the wing. Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: on time on target hits Eric Gordon in the shooting pocket.
Speaker 1: Steph is too slow to close out and he knocks
Speaker 1: down the shot. And then finally the biggest possession of
Speaker 1: the game, after Steph hits the three on the offensive
Speaker 1: rebound to get it back to one or back to two,
Speaker 1: they go down another Devin Booker use of nurkis pick
Speaker 1: and roll two to the ball. Right, we have Gary
Speaker 1: Payton chasing over the top. Looney's showing high. Booker just elevates.
Speaker 1: This time, they don't help as much. They don't aggressively
Speaker 1: help from the week side corner, so Nurkic is able
Speaker 1: to catch on the run. Nurkic catches on the run
Speaker 1: and makes the driving layup. One of the biggest narratives
Speaker 1: surrounding this Phoenix Suns team is like they need a
Speaker 1: point guard. They need a point guard. And don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, like I think you saw the absence of
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal tonight when Kevin Durant was kind of not
Speaker 1: having a very great game by his standards, and so
Speaker 1: every single time Devin Booker went off the floor, there
Speaker 1: was kind of a crater in the sun's kind of
Speaker 1: offensive flow, so to speak, right, and Bradley Beal is
Speaker 1: gonna help with that just because it allows you to
Speaker 1: constantly have two of those guys on the floor. But
Speaker 1: they don't need a point guard. It's like talking about
Speaker 1: the Celtics needing point guard. At the end of the day.
Speaker 1: It's your top tier ball handler, your number one guy
Speaker 1: that you're giving the basketball to at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, and his ability to make plays off the
Speaker 1: bounce for your team and to constantly get the defense
Speaker 1: in rotation, which allows you to make the right reads
Speaker 1: out of that and get quality shots. As long as
Speaker 1: you have that, you don't need a point guard. And
Speaker 1: so I again like, if Devin Booker is going to
Speaker 1: play like this the way he's played now for the
Speaker 1: better part of a year, it's not about what you
Speaker 1: can get from the point guard position. Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: your primary shot creator on the stretch of these games.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker finished the game with thirty two points, six rebounds,
Speaker 1: and eight assists on thirteen for twenty one shooting did
Speaker 1: have six turnovers as something to keep an eye on,
Speaker 1: but I just have been blown away by him. And again,
Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant struggled a little bit with the physicality
Speaker 1: of Golden State, leaned on a lot of really tough,
Speaker 1: like fade away jump shots out of the post, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't making them. And look, here's the thing, Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's gonna figure it out. Kevin Durant, like just last
Speaker 1: season shot sixty percent on pull up twos. So Kd's
Speaker 1: gonna figure it out. But like, if Devin Booker's going
Speaker 1: to be better than KD, that's fantastic news for the
Speaker 1: Suns because now you're not talking about, you know, a
Speaker 1: single top five player and then another top fifteen player
Speaker 1: and then another top thirty player. You're talking about two
Speaker 1: top six or seven players before you get to Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1: That completely changes the math, especially since the only other
Speaker 1: team that has two top ten players in the league
Speaker 1: are Lebron j Anthony Davis, and they're both on the
Speaker 1: tail end of that top ten, right, And if you
Speaker 1: have two players that are that are in legitimate conversation
Speaker 1: for being top tier superstars, that kind of flips that
Speaker 1: talent equation into a crazy direction. I wanted to shout
Speaker 1: out Josha Coog, So we talked about the corner three
Speaker 1: and again that that's the big thing, Like like, when
Speaker 1: this team is healthy, you have that question. It's like,
Speaker 1: are you gonna put if we have BeO Booker Durant
Speaker 1: at the foe, you need another perimeter player out there.
Speaker 1: And ideally that's a guy who can guard at the
Speaker 1: point of attack and a guy that can consistently make
Speaker 1: the defense pay for not guarding him in situations like that.
Speaker 1: Tagging the roller situation that Josha Kogi got the wide
Speaker 1: open corner three, well, you know, the conversation kind of
Speaker 1: coming into this was like, do you want Joshak Cogi
Speaker 1: used this like wrecking ball of an athlete who could
Speaker 1: do all these things but is going to struggle to
Speaker 1: make the offensive plays. Or would you rather have, you know,
Speaker 1: Grayson Allen, a guy who's like gonna be more reliable
Speaker 1: allegedly although he couldn't shoot tonight, but a more reliable
Speaker 1: or an Eric Gordon as another option. The guy's gonna
Speaker 1: be more reliable to knock down those shots, but not
Speaker 1: bring the same level of defensive upside that you get
Speaker 1: from joshak Coog And that was a big moment tonight
Speaker 1: for Joshakogi to show that in a huge possession at
Speaker 1: the end of a game when he was completely ignored
Speaker 1: in a three on two situation and pick and roll
Speaker 1: that when Devin Booker trusted him to knock down the shot,
Speaker 1: he rose up and he knocked the shotdown. And when
Speaker 1: you combine that with everything else he does, because he
Speaker 1: wrecks havoc at the point of attack with his physicality
Speaker 1: and his athleticism slashing off the wing, like just catching
Speaker 1: and ripping and going to the rim. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that in a minute, but it has to do
Speaker 1: with this specific type of athlete, the transition drives that
Speaker 1: he had in this game, getting all the way to
Speaker 1: the room, crashing the offensive glass. He had four offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: finished the game with seventeen points, and like, if he's
Speaker 1: gonna knock down the big corner threes when they matter,
Speaker 1: then forget about the some of the other issues that
Speaker 1: this roster has. If Josha Kogi is going to be
Speaker 1: available to help in those situations and reliable on the
Speaker 1: offensive end, that just solves a bunch of your problems.
Speaker 1: And this kind of goes back to the conversation we
Speaker 1: had surrounding Bruce Brown in the postseason last year. That
Speaker 1: bit shorter, a little bit stockier, stout, athletic wing with
Speaker 1: long arms, right, Not the tall, lanky kind of like
Speaker 1: high center of gravity Herb Jones, Jade McDaniels type. I'm
Speaker 1: talking more like the fire hydrants, the guys that are
Speaker 1: like six ' six sixty seven, usually about two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty pounds or more, usually super long arms and freaky athletic.
Speaker 1: The Bruce Browns, the Terrence Man's, the Josha Kogi's. We're
Speaker 1: seeing that type of player become immensely valuable in the
Speaker 1: modern MBA. And a huge part, huge reason for that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is as the game is spread out
Speaker 1: more and become more perimeterive oriented and more skill oriented,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of thin players on the floor,
Speaker 1: guys that aren't especially strong and stout at their position,
Speaker 1: and when you have a low center of gravity, it's
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to cut that player off on a drive.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Like if you have a high
Speaker 1: center of gravity, if I slide my feet and I
Speaker 1: initiate some sort of contact like a hip check or
Speaker 1: a little bit of a hand check. I can probably
Speaker 1: contain you in that situation. But if you have a
Speaker 1: low center of gravity, even if I do put my
Speaker 1: hand on you, or I do kind of hip check
Speaker 1: you, you can blow through that because you're your center of
Speaker 1: gravity is low and you're bringing a lot of power
Speaker 1: to that drive. And that's what caught. That's what allowed
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown to like just rip through D'Angelo Russell all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim. That's what allows you know,
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown or Josh Kogi or Terrence Man to crash
Speaker 1: the offensive glass and be very difficult to box out
Speaker 1: because there's thinner, skinnier players that are trying to wrap
Speaker 1: their arms around and box a player like that out.
Speaker 1: That brings that athleticism to the table. Again, we gotta
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that because the teams are teams
Speaker 1: aren't going to respond to this one game with Josh
Speaker 1: Kogi hitting that corner three and then just start guarding
Speaker 1: him all the time, like they're going to ignore him
Speaker 1: a lot in those situations. And we'll see in the
Speaker 1: bigger picture if he can make enough of those shots.
Speaker 1: But I thought It was a super encouraging first game
Speaker 1: from Joshakog and in general, a super impressive win for
Speaker 1: the Suns. You got nothing from Grayson Allen. Eric Gordon
Speaker 1: was ice cold until he hit those two late threes.
Speaker 1: I think one was on an offensive rebound, and then
Speaker 1: we talked about that kind of like weird funk Keys
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll possession that they ran. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: was seven for twenty two from the field, and as
Speaker 1: a team, you had nineteen turnovers and you went on
Speaker 1: the road into one of the hardest places in the
Speaker 1: NBA to win on the road, and you gotta win.
Speaker 1: Huge win for the Phoenix Suns. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really impressive showdown with the Lakers on Thursday in LA.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fun when the Lakers are gonna want
Speaker 1: to get a bounce back win. It's a bad matchup
Speaker 1: for the Lakers because they have weak point of attack defense.
Speaker 1: I think that Thursday night game is gonna be really fun.
Speaker 1: We will be breaking that game down immediately after it's over.
Speaker 1: One other positive note for the Suns, I thought Nurkic
Speaker 1: again defensively, he was a mess and that's something they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure out. Did have a big late
Speaker 1: block though on Jonathan kaminga Jonathan Kamenica kind of randomly
Speaker 1: just decided to co opt to possession in semi transition
Speaker 1: to kind of forced things. But Nurkis made a nice
Speaker 1: play helping from the left elbow and came down and
Speaker 1: made a nice block. But he did rebound the hell
Speaker 1: out of the basketball. He saw his size be really imposing.
Speaker 1: Nurkic is legitimately very big, had that big play on
Speaker 1: the role late where he kind of caught the pass
Speaker 1: from Devin Booker on the slip and went to the basket,
Speaker 1: and you saw his screw be a factor in this game,
Speaker 1: his ability to get his perimeter players separation, and then
Speaker 1: just in general, shout out to Frank Vogel. He's done
Speaker 1: a really nice job breeding a culture of physicality and
Speaker 1: commitment to the defensive end of the floor from the
Speaker 1: Suns in training camp to this point under the Warriors. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Draymond's out, and again, like I know, Warriors fans are
Speaker 1: always so up and down on Draymond. I think it's
Speaker 1: just because he's friends with Lebron and a lot of
Speaker 1: the stand culture surrounding Steph Curry really struggles to identify
Speaker 1: that players could be friends with rivals and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is Draymond is every bit is
Speaker 1: important to the Warriors defense as Steph Curry is to
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense. That has been statistically proven over the
Speaker 1: course of this last decade. I don't think it's debatable
Speaker 1: at this point. When you take him off the floor,
Speaker 1: it just gets infinitely harder for this Warriors team to
Speaker 1: get stops. And like you even saw that just from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of offensive execution, like they went with kaminga late,
Speaker 1: I think in large part because they needed another athlete
Speaker 1: on the floor alongside Looney. But like I could see
Speaker 1: a universe where if Draymond's out there, you might be
Speaker 1: able to get away with Dario sarch at the four,
Speaker 1: And if Dario Sarrich is at the four, that opens
Speaker 1: up a bunch of other things for you offensively, right,
Speaker 1: And so again, like I don't think you could have
Speaker 1: gone with Sarge down the stretch because of that, Sarge
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a rough night. But I
Speaker 1: think that Draymond being out really does have a lot
Speaker 1: of collateral damage that Warriors fans in a lot of
Speaker 1: cases don't acknowledge that's not an excuse for the loss.
Speaker 1: It's a quality win for Phoenix, But Draymond being out
Speaker 1: certainly plays a big role in the way that the
Speaker 1: Warriors play on both ends of the floor. Some positives though.
Speaker 1: I thought Jonathan Kamingo showed some really impressive individual defense
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant. Again, the decision making thing is there,
Speaker 1: like he had that weird semi transition drive at the
Speaker 1: end of Those are the kinds of things where it's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: there's four minutes left, Like get the ball to Steph
Speaker 1: Curry instead of trying to force the action right. He
Speaker 1: was actually really impactful on the offensive glass, even though
Speaker 1: he missed that a couple of free throws late that
Speaker 1: would have helped. But overall, you're seeing more of the
Speaker 1: upside of Jonathan Anminga, and I thought his defensive possessions
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant were super encouraging. Again, Chris Paul shot poorly,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get on Chris Paul about that,
Speaker 1: because everybody on the Warriors shot poorly. The Warrior shot
Speaker 1: thirty six percent from the field, twenty three percent from
Speaker 1: three Stephan Klay couldn't make their three as Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: was awful. Like I don't want to get on Chris
Speaker 1: Paul's shooting, I thought the fit from a basketball perspective
Speaker 1: made a lot of sense. Having him as a late
Speaker 1: game ball handler really seemed to allow Steph Curry more
Speaker 1: freedom offensively to play the way he likes to play normally,
Speaker 1: not have to have the ball in his hands all
Speaker 1: the time. They actually got a really good look Chris
Speaker 1: Paul pull up mid range jump shot that put the
Speaker 1: lead to one late because they had Steph set up
Speaker 1: ball screen, and when you have Chris Paul coming off
Speaker 1: of a Steph led double ball screen, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: an open look every time because they're gonna prioritize covering
Speaker 1: Steph in that action. He got an easy, little fifteen footer,
Speaker 1: So I'm really interested to see how that kind of
Speaker 1: shapes out in the long run. I think that Chris
Speaker 1: Paul fit has gone better than I expect did so
Speaker 1: far through camp and the first regular season game. Moses
Speaker 1: Moody played really well in the first half. I thought
Speaker 1: that was encouraging, But like the reason, you can't contend
Speaker 1: without Draymond if your best players don't play well, and
Speaker 1: they just didn't play well. I thought Steph didn't play
Speaker 1: particularly well. He hit some big shots, obviously, but like
Speaker 1: I thought, he really struggled defensively and on the glass.
Speaker 1: They were throwing him in a ton of action at
Speaker 1: the top of the key, where he was having to
Speaker 1: hedge and recover. The Sons were consistently attacking him in
Speaker 1: almost every action. He missed a lot of box outs
Speaker 1: in this game. Again, every star has bad games. I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was Steph's best game. Klay Thompson didn't
Speaker 1: play particularly well, Andrew Wiggins was mostly awful. So like,
Speaker 1: I just don't understand how you didn't even hope to
Speaker 1: win a game like this without Dreymond Green if none
Speaker 1: of your stars play well. And I mean that was
Speaker 1: the thing, Like even down the stretch, Klay Thompson left
Speaker 1: handed layup, left it short on the rim, like Steph
Speaker 1: Curry missed a couple of threes late, Like it just
Speaker 1: wasn't They just didn't have the firepower they needed from
Speaker 1: their best guys to contend in a game like this.
Speaker 1: One other note on the Warriors. They're small and you
Speaker 1: know you saw that. I mean when Nurkic is towering
Speaker 1: over you. That's kind of an issue, right and you
Speaker 1: saw it happen a lot on long rebounds, contested rebounds.
Speaker 1: We talked about the inability to box out guys like
Speaker 1: Jordan Goodwin and Josha Kogi just because of their strength
Speaker 1: and athleticism crashing from the perimeter. They need their guards
Speaker 1: to compete more, especially in games like this one. Draymond's
Speaker 1: out and we don't know how much longer he's going
Speaker 1: to be out, and so like, especially going into the
Speaker 1: rest of this week, I just want to see Stephan
Speaker 1: Clay in particular compete more on the glass and defensively
Speaker 1: because right now they don't have enough defensively to get
Speaker 1: enough stops to allow them to coast on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor. That was a that was a big
Speaker 1: area of opportunity in this game. A lot lots of
Speaker 1: stuff for Steve curt to look out on film for
Speaker 1: them to get better at. They committed a ton of fouls. Again,
Speaker 1: that's been an issue NonStop over the last couple of
Speaker 1: years for the Warriors. They just failed too much. And
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of saw that in that third
Speaker 1: quarter run for the Warriors. I think they outscored the
Speaker 1: Suns forty to nineteen. They stopped, which allowed them to
Speaker 1: force Phoenix to make some shots which they missed a lot.
Speaker 1: And then the Warriors we're able to run the floor,
Speaker 1: and when they get out in transition, that's when they're
Speaker 1: at their best. That's when they get energized, and that's
Speaker 1: when they start to get easy shots in transition, which
Speaker 1: allows them to set their defense, which allows them to
Speaker 1: get more stops, which allows them to get out and
Speaker 1: transition more. It's like a cascading effect. But when they're
Speaker 1: constantly fouling, they're constantly setting up for free throws, and
Speaker 1: now the other team is setting their defense, and now
Speaker 1: you have to go down the floor and Steph has
Speaker 1: to have three dudes hanging on him while he's trying
Speaker 1: to run off screens again, and that just gets fatiguing, right, So,
Speaker 1: I just didn't think it was an overly well played
Speaker 1: game for the Warriors, and I'm sure they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about in the film session. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show. We would be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with the show at the end of the
Speaker 1: ESPN slate, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see that
Speaker 1: the volume