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Speaker 1: to hoops today. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great week.
Speaker 1: Got a jampackshow for you today. We were going to
Speaker 1: hit both of the tn T games. The Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: thunder go into Denver and kind of embarrassed the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: The awkward feeling over the entire arena for most of
Speaker 1: that game, A bunch of interesting stuff to get into there,
Speaker 1: and then Spurs MAVs was a little ugly in the
Speaker 1: first half the Dallas offense was kind of just looked
Speaker 1: a little clunky, looked.
Speaker 2: Like they were a little rusty.
Speaker 1: Obviously, Luca did not play in preseason, but they had
Speaker 1: an unbelievable performance in the second half that had all
Speaker 1: sorts of this stuff that asked me super super excited
Speaker 1: about what the Dallas Mavericks can be this year. We're
Speaker 1: going to get into that in a bunch of detail.
Speaker 1: You guys know the dripe before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful. Fe Levey rating and
Speaker 1: a review on that front. And then keep dropping mailbag
Speaker 1: questions and the YouTube comments will keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So with Oklahoma City, I had multiple mailbag questions during
Speaker 1: the mailbag that we did last week. I went on
Speaker 1: a guest appearance on a friend of mine's show that
Speaker 1: asked me a similar question, and then the radio hit
Speaker 1: where I got asked a similar question a lot of
Speaker 1: people asking is all the hype around Oklahoma City legitimate?
Speaker 1: Like it just seems like everybody who covers the league
Speaker 1: that I know is picking them to at the very
Speaker 1: least be the one seed out West. I had them
Speaker 1: as my second favorite to get out of the conference
Speaker 1: because of my optimism surrounding Denver. We'll get into that
Speaker 1: later on, but everyone's super high on Oklahoma City, and
Speaker 1: there's been some pessimism some people that are a little
Speaker 1: bit skeptical, right, And every single time I got asked
Speaker 1: that question and the mail bag and in those two
Speaker 1: guest appearances, I said the exact same thing. Absolutely, they're
Speaker 1: completely deserving of the hype surrounding this team going into
Speaker 1: the season. I think this is the only roster in
Speaker 1: the league that can come remotely close to Boston's overall
Speaker 1: talent level, specifically the ability to field multiple different five
Speaker 1: man lineup configurations where all five guys can dribble, pass, shoot,
Speaker 1: and defend, which is kind of the key that unlocks
Speaker 1: everything that Boston does, which is like, we can field
Speaker 1: these lineups where we can hold up on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: but at the same time on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor. No matter what we run into, we have
Speaker 1: infinite counters that we can go to, different ways, that
Speaker 1: we can attack, different ways, that we can capitalize on
Speaker 1: different types of coverages, and the ability, most importantly to
Speaker 1: create space for our stars and for Oklahoma City. Chet
Speaker 1: is the guy that unlocks everything. Had a little bit
Speaker 1: of a rough shift in the beginning of this game,
Speaker 1: was getting shoved around by Jokic. Uh they were bringing
Speaker 1: double teams. You know, obviously Denver goes up nineteen to ten.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that in a little bit. But
Speaker 1: after that first shift, he was unbelievable tonight twenty five points,
Speaker 1: fourteen rebounds, five assists, and four blocks. That is a
Speaker 1: ridiculous stat line. That is a superstar stat line from
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren. He held up pretty well against Jokic after
Speaker 1: that first shift, kind of upped his physicality and started
Speaker 1: just like you know, sometimes like you just keep getting
Speaker 1: knocked down, you keep getting shoved around. Eventually you like
Speaker 1: there's this visceral kind of reaction where you're like, shit,
Speaker 1: I guess I just got to fight like hell and
Speaker 1: see if I can't do better, right, And he did better.
Speaker 1: He held up, but got a couple of blocks, Yokuic
Speaker 1: spun off of him. He blocked him on a donkey
Speaker 1: on another block where Yokic hit his like hat and
Speaker 1: did like chicken wing into that lefty hook, and he
Speaker 1: just reached over the top and got him. He was
Speaker 1: torching him in transition, just running up and down the floor.
Speaker 1: He was attacking closeouts, creating space from the perimeter. He
Speaker 1: was just getting buckets. Just an unbelievable game from Chet Holmgren.
Speaker 1: And he's the guy that ties it all together because
Speaker 1: that specific position is where teams have the most trouble,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes Boston so damn good. Right, is
Speaker 1: the specific ability of Al Horford to function as a
Speaker 1: spot up guy, to function as a pick and pop guy,
Speaker 1: to be a guy that holds up defensively. He can
Speaker 1: like switch on to other guys. Right, porzingis a guy
Speaker 1: that can run drop coverage, can protect the rim, but
Speaker 1: he also can like post up mismatches around the elbows.
Speaker 1: He can space the floor as a spot up shooter.
Speaker 1: That specific type of position getting a player that's truly versatile.
Speaker 1: There is pretty rare a lot of the offensive minded
Speaker 1: guy guys that are pretty good out there, aren't as
Speaker 1: good defensively. A lot of the defensive guys aren't as
Speaker 1: good offensively. There's a small tier of players, you know,
Speaker 1: the Anthony Davis tier, Jokich, Joel Embiid. There's a small
Speaker 1: tier of guys that are really really good at that position.
Speaker 1: But it's rare, and Chet just kind of unlocks that
Speaker 1: ceiling for this particular team. Even surrounding the team as
Speaker 1: a whole. There was some pessimism after the Hartenstein injury, right,
Speaker 1: which shouldn't have mattered too much. He's not gonna be
Speaker 1: gone that long, but that was just another thing that
Speaker 1: people were concerned about in Hartenstein. This team was already
Speaker 1: really damn good before Hartenstein, Before Caruso, I would have
Speaker 1: picked him as the one seed out West even if
Speaker 1: they had not made any changes to their roster last summer.
Speaker 1: The Hartenstein addition is more about matchup versatility and having
Speaker 1: different looks that they can go to. Like, yeah, like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Denver looked really bad tonight, Like okay, see,
Speaker 1: may be better than Denver when this is all said
Speaker 1: and done, they're not that much better than Denver. Like
Speaker 1: Denver threw a complete stinker. Out there tonight. Mu Murray
Speaker 1: was trash. Michael Porter Junior was trash, the bench was trash.
Speaker 1: It was a stinker from Denver. They'll play Denver again,
Speaker 1: and Denver will throw a better punch, and there may
Speaker 1: be a universe where the thundernead a Hertenstein looked a
Speaker 1: too big look to try to get that to try
Speaker 1: to take better advantage of that matchup. But the existing squad,
Speaker 1: even without Isaiah Hartenstein, is already dominant. I was specifically
Speaker 1: impressed by okc's physicality tonight, just again that's the weakness
Speaker 1: for them compared to some of the other teams in
Speaker 1: the league, is like they're just a little young, a
Speaker 1: little thin, right. They got some big, strong guys like
Speaker 1: Caruso's big and strong, Lou doord is big and strong,
Speaker 1: Jayalen Williams is a stronger athlete than I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people realize. But relative to some of the
Speaker 1: veteran teams around the league, they're a little bit thin, right.
Speaker 1: But they didn't play thin tonight. They held the Nuggets
Speaker 1: below one point per post up, were way sharper with
Speaker 1: their double teams after that first shift. They only lost
Speaker 1: the offensive rebound battle by four. They gave up seventeen,
Speaker 1: but they got thirteen of their own. They forred sixteen turnovers.
Speaker 1: They won the fast break point battle by seven. It
Speaker 1: was just a physical ass kicking, which is something that
Speaker 1: you don't see often from the smaller, younger team. Shay
Speaker 1: looked so good. He had twenty eight points, seven rebounds,
Speaker 1: and eight assists. Really started to get One of the
Speaker 1: things that was impressing me tonight is just some of
Speaker 1: the downhill burst. Like so much of Shay's dribble penetration
Speaker 1: comes from change of pace, moves and chaining together dribble combinations.
Speaker 1: So like he'll dribble at you, kind of get contact
Speaker 1: with that left shoulder, and then he'll like scissor dribble
Speaker 1: back over to the left and like kind of go
Speaker 1: the other side. Or he might look up at the
Speaker 1: rim and kind of give you that classic shoulder fake
Speaker 1: before he goes. But he was like toasting Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: off the dribble just with speed, like just using his quickness,
Speaker 1: and he showed a lot of bursts. He had a
Speaker 1: bounce in his step in that third quarter shift as
Speaker 1: he was attacking mismatches, had Aaron Gordon complaining to the refs.
Speaker 1: I said this on the show all the time, but
Speaker 1: that's one of the big giveaways that a defender is
Speaker 1: truly frustrated and feels a little helpless is when he
Speaker 1: starts looking to the refs for help when he's getting cooked.
Speaker 1: One other guys I wanted to shout out for Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Aaron Wiggins. I thought his first half shift was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: He was part of the turnaround to that game. Attacking
Speaker 1: Julian Strauther off the bounce, he had to pull up
Speaker 1: three in transition, he had to steal in two blocks.
Speaker 1: It was just a completely dominant first showing for the Thunder.
Speaker 1: And it's scary because I think they were like eight
Speaker 1: for thirty six from three, which is something like twenty
Speaker 1: like low twenties, like twenty two percent. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: something that works in their favor on many nights. Scary
Speaker 1: for showing for the Thunder. The flow of the game
Speaker 1: was really interesting to me. So like Denver gets off
Speaker 1: to a good start, right they start doubling Jokic, Yoki
Speaker 1: just kind of shoving chat around. He's making the right
Speaker 1: read every time. Lots of active cutting, like if there's
Speaker 1: one silver lining, Like, if you're a Nuggets fan and
Speaker 1: you're looking for something to kind of like cling to
Speaker 1: as like a positive trend, that could be an upside
Speaker 1: for this team in the long run. Christian Brown looks fine.
Speaker 1: He's gonna fit with the starters just fine. He's he
Speaker 1: uses his athletic tools really well as a screener and
Speaker 1: as a cutter and as a driver, even like driving
Speaker 1: closeouts from the perimeter, even driving when he's open on
Speaker 1: the perimeter instead of taking a three, just drive an
Speaker 1: open three point shot and try to get into the
Speaker 1: lane and make something happen. Like, Christian Brown looks to
Speaker 1: be a really nice fit, but Jokic just picking him
Speaker 1: apart in the early part of the game. Okay, so
Speaker 1: he's missing some shots, Denver goes up nineteen to ten,
Speaker 1: right then Denver's bench comes in and then immediately everything
Speaker 1: falls apart, and you know there's gonna.
Speaker 2: Be like it was.
Speaker 1: Oh, Denver's bench has always been bad. It's been bad
Speaker 1: pretty much the entire Jokic era. But this was abominably bad.
Speaker 1: This was They were truly awful on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. On the defensive end of the floor, Julian
Speaker 1: Strather was getting attacked on switches by SGA every time
Speaker 1: he could get a chance. Aaron Wiggins was going right
Speaker 1: at him. They were beating him in help side situations
Speaker 1: where he was functioning like in like guard guard screening
Speaker 1: actions where he got caught in no man's land and
Speaker 1: guys were getting open. Like Strather was really bad. They
Speaker 1: started going to Dario Sarich and getting a bunch of
Speaker 1: really good stuff. Like there was a play in transition
Speaker 1: where like Jalen Williams saw Darius Arch in front of
Speaker 1: him and he was like, I don't need to pull
Speaker 1: this out run offense. I'm just gonna go right around this.
Speaker 1: Dude went right around him, got an end one the
Speaker 1: bench the like Rust did okay, Like Russ had a
Speaker 1: nightmare offensive game, but like on defense, you got to
Speaker 1: see at least a little hint of like some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that Russ can do as applying back pressure,
Speaker 1: Like he got a couple of chase down blocks. He
Speaker 1: got one of them in a ball screen. You got
Speaker 1: to steal in a ball screen on Shaye where he
Speaker 1: just like pursued behind and got it ripped through a
Speaker 1: rip away. Like you could see some of that upside
Speaker 1: there but like the rest of that unit was really
Speaker 1: bad defensively, even Peyton Watson gave up a blow by
Speaker 1: to Shae another example of Shay showing that really good
Speaker 1: like burst dribble burst when he's trying to like beat
Speaker 1: someone off the dribble. But the offensive end was somehow
Speaker 1: even worse than that. Russ had a really rough offensive night.
Speaker 1: Was like badly missing wide open threes, had a turnover
Speaker 1: in two man game with Yokich that led to a
Speaker 1: runout for OKC, missing layups.
Speaker 2: It just straw.
Speaker 1: The wasn't hit and shots, sarage wasn't making anything around
Speaker 1: the ram. To make a long story short, they got
Speaker 1: nothing out of the bench in terms of offensive production, right,
Speaker 1: So then Oklahoma City flips the script and they take
Speaker 1: a little lead. But what I thought was fascinating was
Speaker 1: when Denver starters came back in, they could not reassert
Speaker 1: control on the game like Oka See really tightened the
Speaker 1: screws defensively. At that point, Chet got more physical with Jokic,
Speaker 1: started to hold his own a little bit. We talked
Speaker 1: about how he blocked him two times in the second half.
Speaker 1: Okay See's closeouts were super sharp. This was something that
Speaker 1: stood out to me all night. Even the perceived openings
Speaker 1: out of double teams of Jokic, You're just having a
Speaker 1: top tier athlete who's really good at covering ground closing out. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: did any of you guys play like football in high
Speaker 1: school or something like that where he did like an
Speaker 1: open field tackling drill where it's like there's a you know,
Speaker 1: cone set up like ten yards apartner's a dude like
Speaker 1: maybe fifteen yards away from you, and you have to
Speaker 1: try to tackle him in the open field. That in
Speaker 1: basketball is the closeout. It's one of the hardest jobs
Speaker 1: in the sport. Defensively, it's like there's just so much space,
Speaker 1: you have no idea where he's going. There's this threat
Speaker 1: of the shot. It is a very very difficult job.
Speaker 1: And when you have sharp closeouts and you can chase
Speaker 1: people off the line and contain them, that gives you
Speaker 1: the ability to load up the strong side. And that
Speaker 1: is what makes elite defenses so difficult to deal with,
Speaker 1: is they load up on your best players and they
Speaker 1: make it feel like there are some openings on the
Speaker 1: weak side. But then when you work the ball to
Speaker 1: the weak side, they fly around and they chase you
Speaker 1: off the line. This is where the limitations of Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior and Jamal Murray really started to show.
Speaker 2: Tonight.
Speaker 1: I switched my attention in the fourth quarter, when the
Speaker 1: game went completely out of hand, I switched my attention
Speaker 1: over to Minnesota Sacramento. We're not going to talk too
Speaker 1: much about that game tonight. It was a really interesting
Speaker 1: one though, Julius Randall just having mismatches all over the floor,
Speaker 1: just bullying Sacramento's perimeter players, and then Anthony Edwards just
Speaker 1: just completely took over the game down the stretch and
Speaker 1: hit a big time pull of jump shot and Drew
Speaker 1: Foul closed the deal. They ended up getting the win.
Speaker 1: But at the time that I switched over MPJ, Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: and Jamal Murray were combined ten for thirty four from
Speaker 1: the field. And that's really the issue because, like again,
Speaker 1: there's like a baseline operation of your offense that over
Speaker 1: the course of eighty two games you're gonna run into
Speaker 1: fifty sixty games against teams that are not really really
Speaker 1: great defenses. And in those games, you're gonna get a
Speaker 1: lot of wide open catch and shoot threes for guys.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get a little bit easier function of your offense,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna come down more to an easier job
Speaker 1: capitalizing on the attention that's given to your stars. Right,
Speaker 1: But then you run into these elite defenses, right and
Speaker 1: against the elite defense truly elite defenses in Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: is a truly elite defense. When you run into these
Speaker 1: types of defenses, the openings aren't wide open catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes. They're contested catching shooter threes and opportunities to
Speaker 1: drive closeouts and probably run into more help and you
Speaker 1: need to make something. You need to make something in
Speaker 1: that short to mid range that like high level close
Speaker 1: out attacking that I talked about all the time on
Speaker 1: the show. Are these are like, that's what the Michael
Speaker 1: Porter junior position is, right, That's like what McHale Bridges
Speaker 1: did for the Suns back in the day. It's the
Speaker 1: idea of it's like what Ruy Hachimura does for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: It's like you're functioning on the weak side, but against
Speaker 1: elite defenses, your job is to take an advantage and
Speaker 1: turn it into a bucket. And that's not usually a
Speaker 1: wide open catch and shoot three. That's usually a contested three,
Speaker 1: or maybe a wonderable pull up might even be like
Speaker 1: a wonderable rip through the right where you like pound
Speaker 1: into a spin, move over your right shoulder and hit
Speaker 1: like a little fade away, or you manage to make
Speaker 1: a counter move and get all the way into the
Speaker 1: rim and drop off a pass to a big for
Speaker 1: a dunk. Or maybe it's even attacking that close out
Speaker 1: and making another kickout read for an even easier opportunity
Speaker 1: for the next guy. It's like you have to break
Speaker 1: down these elite defenses in waves. And one of the
Speaker 1: problems is like over the years, that's what Denver's done, right,
Speaker 1: It's been against the truly elite defenses. Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: can hit a heavily contested catch and shoot three. He
Speaker 1: can hit a nice little wonderable pull up. He can
Speaker 1: attack close outs and make plays. Jamal Murray has been
Speaker 1: one of the best contested shot makers in the league
Speaker 1: over the last you know, three four years, And so
Speaker 1: when those guys aren't capitalizing on those advantages, and again
Speaker 1: I want to I want to give Oklahoma City credit.
Speaker 1: They defended extremely well, but this isn't the first time
Speaker 1: Denver seen an elite defense and had they've had success
Speaker 1: against elite defenses in the past, and so that's really
Speaker 1: the thing is, like when I talk about Denver and
Speaker 1: what they're capable of in the long run, the bench
Speaker 1: is gonna have to be better than this. Like they
Speaker 1: had a decent shift in the like late third quarter
Speaker 1: stretch where they were competing and they made some plays,
Speaker 1: got out in transition a little bit, but then they
Speaker 1: were just immediately Jalen Williams started picking them apart. I
Speaker 1: think there's actually early fourth quarter, but Jalen Williams, like
Speaker 1: you know, immediately started picking the part hit three. He
Speaker 1: had a driving dunk. But like those phases, of those
Speaker 1: phases of the game, they're gonna have to find a
Speaker 1: way to at least not completely hemorrhage leads again, like
Speaker 1: Denver's bench has hemorrhaged leads to a certain extent the
Speaker 1: entirety of the ookch era. But it can't be this bad.
Speaker 1: As far as the starters go, I'm not really all
Speaker 1: that concerned because Jamal Murray has a tendency to start
Speaker 1: season slow and come in out of shape and be
Speaker 1: a little banged up, and then usually right around January
Speaker 1: he kind of turns it up as a last ditch
Speaker 1: effort to try to get into the All Star Game,
Speaker 1: and then ramps it up in the playoffs and then
Speaker 1: he kind of turns into Jamal Murray when the time comes.
Speaker 1: Obviously he had a really rough playoff run last year,
Speaker 1: but even last year, it's like, hits two game winners
Speaker 1: in a Lakers series, goes on the road into Minnesota
Speaker 1: in games three and four, just turns into a dominant
Speaker 1: shot maker. Again, had thirty something in Game seven before
Speaker 1: he fell apart down the stretch, So like we know
Speaker 1: that that's still in there for Jamal. Same thing goes
Speaker 1: for Michael Porter Junior. Like I just don't think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be that bad in the long run. This is
Speaker 1: something that you know early in the season. I think
Speaker 1: good is good to react to in the sense that,
Speaker 1: like when teams are ahead of schedule and they're playing
Speaker 1: a really good ball, it's worth calling out, it's worth
Speaker 1: paying attention to. But there's also gonna be some teams
Speaker 1: that just aren't necessarily clicking on all cylinders yet, whether
Speaker 1: it's a guy who's injured who just came back in
Speaker 1: the lineup and he's out of rhythm, or maybe it's
Speaker 1: a you know, a couple of guys didn't come into
Speaker 1: camp in shape and they're playing their way into shape.
Speaker 1: Some of it is age too, like just on a
Speaker 1: real basic psychological level, Denver's gonna view the regular season
Speaker 1: through a different lens than a team like Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: is in terms of night to night effort, And so
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna overreact.
Speaker 2: Is that ugly? Hell?
Speaker 1: Yeah, did I ever think I had picked before the
Speaker 1: season that Denver was my team to get out of
Speaker 1: the West. They sure as hell don't look like it tonight.
Speaker 1: And there's no doubt if we're twenty thirty games into
Speaker 1: this and they're a five hundred team that, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to reapproach that and maybe make a kind
Speaker 1: of a tweak in my expectations for that team moving forward.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure is hell not going to overreact to
Speaker 1: one saying game when it comes to the bad again
Speaker 1: the good, we want to acknowledge it. That just means
Speaker 1: the teams ahead of schedule. It's a great sign of
Speaker 1: urgency to start the year. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: teams that attack the season from day one, and most
Speaker 1: championship teams do. But in terms of teams that have
Speaker 1: rough outings early in the season, it's not worth overreacting
Speaker 1: to Minnesota. Their offense looked really janky against the Lakers,
Speaker 1: totally different matchup. Obviously, Julius Randall didn't have the size
Speaker 1: advantages that he did against Sacramento, but all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: that second half against Sacramento tonight, Minnesota's offense looks great,
Speaker 1: and the give and take between Julius and Ant kind
Speaker 1: of seems to come together as they're taking turns picking
Speaker 1: apart Sacramento's perimeter defenders. Right, So, like, it's not worth
Speaker 1: overreacting to any one single game. That said, on a
Speaker 1: fundamental level, if Jamal Murray, I'm not worried about Mike
Speaker 1: quarter Junior.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: If Jamal Murray can't play like an All Star, like
Speaker 1: play like the Jamal Murray at least eighty five percent
Speaker 1: of the Jamal Murray we saw in the player run
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty twenty three, then yeah, this team, this
Speaker 1: team can't win it. This team can't win the West,
Speaker 1: This team can't win multiple playoffs series out West, because
Speaker 1: the problem is is like teams will continue that used
Speaker 1: to be The dynamic with Denver is like you leave
Speaker 1: Yokic on an island, he kills you, you double team him,
Speaker 1: he kills you with the pass. And they've got all
Speaker 1: these great advantage attackers on the weak side, right, And
Speaker 1: so that's the thing, Like, if if Jamal Murray's not
Speaker 1: going to give that to you, if he's not going
Speaker 1: to give you the two man game element with Jokic
Speaker 1: the shot making piece, yeah, then yeah they're not going
Speaker 1: to be very good. But we can't make that sort
Speaker 1: of call after one singular game. But super super dominant
Speaker 1: performance from Oklahoma City certainly a discouraging first outing for Denver,
Speaker 1: But they've got to give him some time. Like if
Speaker 1: we're if we're twenty games into this and it looks
Speaker 1: like this, then we can have a different conversation. But
Speaker 1: it's not a conversation for tonight.
Speaker 2: All right, Moving on two Spurs MAVs.
Speaker 1: The second half of this game was the most fun
Speaker 1: that I've had watching the MAVs in the entire Luca era.
Speaker 1: They hung a one thirty five point two offensive rating
Speaker 1: in the second half.
Speaker 2: There's just so much.
Speaker 1: More ball handling and overall offensive talent on this team.
Speaker 1: And it just changes the way they look when they're
Speaker 1: playing offense. The starters in the early third quarter, they're
Speaker 1: getting Luca the ball coming out of action instead of
Speaker 1: just walking the ball up, like having him coming out
Speaker 1: out of the corner off of a wide pin downer
Speaker 1: a Chicago action or Drible handoff. Right they ran Chicago
Speaker 1: action with Clay coming off of the Drible handoff with
Speaker 1: Kyrie setting the first screen, and they got a wide
Speaker 1: open three for Kyrie on the right wing that he
Speaker 1: knocked out. That is a five out concept with ball
Speaker 1: in player movement that involves all of your offensive skill.
Speaker 1: They ran a lot of double drag. They ran double
Speaker 1: drag with Kyrie and Gafford screening for Luca while PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington was running an off ball action for Clay in
Speaker 1: the right corner. Luca missed a step back three on
Speaker 1: this possession. But that's a really advanced concept. And the
Speaker 1: entire paint was like vacated, and the entire left side
Speaker 1: of the floor is vacated. Like there's there's gonna be
Speaker 1: universes where where they can get like quick ISOs for
Speaker 1: Kyrie on the weak side out of that or I
Speaker 1: thought Clay was open in the corner to the I
Speaker 1: think it was Champagne.
Speaker 2: He was guarding him.
Speaker 1: He tried to tried to go like up over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen and Clay was actually opened for
Speaker 1: a second. That that was kind of an interesting concept.
Speaker 1: They ran a traditional like just like wide pinned down
Speaker 1: for Clay to come off to the elbow. He came
Speaker 1: off to the right elbow and he was wide open.
Speaker 1: Got a really good look out of it. There was
Speaker 1: a line up in the late third quarter that went
Speaker 1: on the run, went on the run. It was a
Speaker 1: bench group, so no Luca, no Clay either. It was Kyrie,
Speaker 1: Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall, Maxi Klee, but Derek Lively. That's
Speaker 1: a lot of ball handling, Like Kyrie kin dribble, Jadon
Speaker 1: Hardy can dribble, Naji Marshall can dribble, and Maxi as
Speaker 1: a big has a good amount of offensive skill. They
Speaker 1: would like to have Lively at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: This is a five out concept. Lively at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, catching the ball and looking as Nase
Speaker 1: and Jaden were like screening for each other and cutting
Speaker 1: off of him and all of that vacant space behind him.
Speaker 1: So Lively can function as a passer and like look
Speaker 1: to catch any defender that like botches a switch or
Speaker 1: trails too much on a screen. Nase got an easy
Speaker 1: layup out of that action. At one point just kind
Speaker 1: of brushed off a Lively shoulder. He kind of threw
Speaker 1: it over the top. He ended up getting an easy layup.
Speaker 1: Nase had a transition probe where he was like dribbling
Speaker 1: up the floor in transition made a really nice kickout
Speaker 1: pass to Maxi Kliba in the left quarter. He knocked
Speaker 1: it out, knocked it down, started the fourth quarter. Completely
Speaker 1: different group comes in, completely different layered amounts of offensive skill. Luka,
Speaker 1: don Chis Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, a movement shooter right,
Speaker 1: Maxi Kleiba with that group and Daniel Gafford at the
Speaker 1: five the first bucket they got. With that, they had
Speaker 1: the same sort of idea where they had Daniel Gafford
Speaker 1: catch the ball up top again. This is a five
Speaker 1: out concept where he's functioning as like the passing folkrum.
Speaker 1: Gafford has the ball a top. Luca comes out of
Speaker 1: the corner on the left side of the floor and
Speaker 1: just backscreens for Quinton Grimes. When he backscreens for Quinton Grimes,
Speaker 1: Luca's man doesn't want to help. Quinn Grimes gets a
Speaker 1: wide open layup out of it, just an easy layup
Speaker 1: where Luca is a screener. Luca's not even touching the ball,
Speaker 1: He's just setting an off ball screen and using the
Speaker 1: thread of his offensive ability to get Quinton Grimes a
Speaker 1: wide open layup. The next possession, they run the exact
Speaker 1: same thing. This time Jeremy Sochan Sohan hangs back to
Speaker 1: help on Quinton Grimes coming off. Then Luca comes off
Speaker 1: the dribble handoff, and when he comes off the dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: he gets a wide open look from three. This is
Speaker 1: that like Finland action that you've seen the clips going
Speaker 1: around on social media with JJ Reddick and Lebron in
Speaker 1: the Mind the Game podcast, Lakers running a bunch of
Speaker 1: the this last night. I saw him his sins running
Speaker 1: it last night. It's a really common plan. It's basically
Speaker 1: the function the functionality of like using a shooter as
Speaker 1: a screener before he comes off the actual action because
Speaker 1: it helps generate separation between him and his defender as
Speaker 1: that defender has to help on that first screen that
Speaker 1: he sets, so they run it twice. Right, we get Gaffer,
Speaker 1: we get Grimes back cut, layup, we get Luca coming
Speaker 1: off when Sohn helps and he hits the three at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. The next possession they switched
Speaker 1: to stack again. Stack, pick and roll is just the
Speaker 1: ball screen, so it's Gafford and Luca running a ball screen,
Speaker 1: but Klay Thompson setting a backscreen for Gafford as he's
Speaker 1: rolling to the basket.
Speaker 2: They run Stack.
Speaker 1: Clay gets wide open at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: he hits a three, Luca hits a transition three. After that,
Speaker 1: Luke hids another three out of a ball screen after
Speaker 1: that the possession after that, they run stack again, and
Speaker 1: I think it was Keldon Johnson and CP three wanted
Speaker 1: to switch. It's common thing you'll see with stack where
Speaker 1: it's like the big man will stay on the big man,
Speaker 1: but the guy guard the guard and the guy guarding
Speaker 1: the shooter will switch, will just interchange as they're coming off.
Speaker 1: But Keldon Johnson like screamed up to close out at
Speaker 1: Luca and CP three was like slow, So Luca Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson just didn't even bother setting a backscreen on gafferd
Speaker 1: He just ran into the three point line because no
Speaker 1: one was guarding him, and Luca just throws him an
Speaker 1: easy little pass on the left wing and he knocks
Speaker 1: down yet another three. I have not seen this level
Speaker 1: of offensive variety in the Luca era, not anything close
Speaker 1: to it in the Luca era. And I don't think
Speaker 1: people have any idea how scary this can get, because
Speaker 1: this was so much of a brute force offense that
Speaker 1: relied so much on Luca's individual greatness, and they are
Speaker 1: putting in a schematic approach that still will amplify Luca's
Speaker 1: individual greatness, but will also generate all of these easy shots.
Speaker 1: And again that's the variety element that's so important. Again,
Speaker 1: they ran into issues in the playoffs last year. There
Speaker 1: was a limitation to this offense when they ran into
Speaker 1: really good defenses, really good defenders wearing Luca down. This
Speaker 1: is why they made this change this offseason, and again
Speaker 1: when the moves were made this summer. If you guys remember,
Speaker 1: and again, it's pretty simple change in philosophy. Right, You're
Speaker 1: turning defensive minded play finishers guys like Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: and Josh Green into guys with real offensive polish like
Speaker 1: movement shooters like Klay Thompson and Quinton Grimes who could
Speaker 1: fly off the screens and be a threat to shoot,
Speaker 1: but also can play make out of it. Guys who
Speaker 1: can put the ball on the floor and make plays.
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall, Spencer Dinwood, you didn't really play much tonight,
Speaker 1: Jaden Hardy didn't. Wasn't a change to the roster, but
Speaker 1: who continues to improve every year. If you guys remember
Speaker 1: at the time of the Klay Thompson deal, this is
Speaker 1: what I said. I said, I love this move. Within
Speaker 1: the context of a change in offensive approach, there are
Speaker 1: diminishing returns when you use skilled offensive players strictly as
Speaker 1: play finishers. Right Like, if you ask any of you
Speaker 1: guys who's a really good shooter to shoot Stan Steel
Speaker 1: corner threes versus Hyrie Irving, the gap isn't gonna be
Speaker 1: as big.
Speaker 2: If you're a good shooter, if you can shoot.
Speaker 1: Knock down just stand still corner threes, that shrinks the gap.
Speaker 1: But as soon as I start running action, you're gonna
Speaker 1: look like you're not an NBA player, and Kyrie's gonna
Speaker 1: look like Kyrie Irving. Right In order to there's a
Speaker 1: there's that's the diminishing return. The diminishing return is when
Speaker 1: you don't allow these skilled offensive players to actually weaponize
Speaker 1: their skill, then you you get it actually enhances the
Speaker 1: returns you get on your talent set when you have
Speaker 1: those guys actually functioning as part of the offense. And
Speaker 1: that's what I said this summer. If they trade for
Speaker 1: Clay and they just stick his ass in the corner
Speaker 1: and they run spread, pick and roll, I don't like
Speaker 1: the move because Clay's not nearly as good as defender
Speaker 1: as Derek Jones Jr. And yeah, he's gonna hit you know,
Speaker 1: an additional five percent maybe seven eight percent of his
Speaker 1: corner threes. But like, it's just not it's you're not
Speaker 1: getting the value that comes from that, right. This was
Speaker 1: incredibly couraging. This was the most fun I've had watching
Speaker 1: this team in the entirety of the Luca era.
Speaker 2: That second half.
Speaker 1: If you guys haven't watched it yet, if you haven't
Speaker 1: had a chance to rewatch it, just go rewatch this
Speaker 1: second half of this Dallas team and just look at
Speaker 1: the variety, look at the offensive organization, look at how
Speaker 1: everybody is involved.
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what this team is gonna look
Speaker 1: like defensively, Yet I mean that Spurs performance was abominable offensively.
Speaker 1: I was honestly really disappointed. Wemby looked bad. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about it here in a minute. But like, like, well,
Speaker 1: we'll see. Because Klay Thompson obviously isn't gonna be as
Speaker 1: good as a perimeter defender as Derek Jones junior, it
Speaker 1: would be absurd to expect him to. Derek Jones is
Speaker 1: a professional perimeter defender. Klay Thompson in his prime was
Speaker 1: a very good perimeter defender, but now he's kind of
Speaker 1: on the tail end of his prime, if not even
Speaker 1: outside of his prime, So like it'd be ridiculous to
Speaker 1: expect that. But at the same time, if you become
Speaker 1: an unguardable offense, it doesn't matter if you experience a
Speaker 1: little bit of a dip on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. It's a great debut for Clay really thrived
Speaker 1: in the chaos. Eight of his twenty two points came
Speaker 1: in transition, Like you only had three spot up opportunities
Speaker 1: in the game. The majority of his opportunities came in
Speaker 1: the chaos. Like again, like really good defenses are not
Speaker 1: going to just let Clay be open. They're gonna stay
Speaker 1: glued to him, right, But in chaos, when it's like
Speaker 1: live ball, turnovers, transition pushes, offensive rebounds is another big one.
Speaker 1: Those kinds of situations are where Clay can find himself
Speaker 1: open and the mass haven't had a guy who's like
Speaker 1: straight up deadly in those situations yet, And that's what
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson is. He makes action harder reguard when he's
Speaker 1: involved again, like any screening action instead of it just
Speaker 1: being Luca ballscreen go interchanges, whether it's Clay backscreening for
Speaker 1: the role man, maybe it's a ram screen where Clay
Speaker 1: screens for the roleman before he goes up and sets
Speaker 1: the screen. Maybe it's Clay in a double drag screening
Speaker 1: for Luca before he comes off. It's those kinds of
Speaker 1: interchanges where Clay is involved in the action is going
Speaker 1: to make so much easier for Dallas. Derek Lively was awesome.
Speaker 1: Fifteen points, eleven rebounds and six assists. This style of
Speaker 1: offense will really show you, guys, how much more he
Speaker 1: is capable of offensively. Six assists, guys, And if you
Speaker 1: don't believe me, about how this is so different. He
Speaker 1: had one game all season last year where he had
Speaker 1: more than four assists, and he had six assists tonight.
Speaker 1: I bet you we have a bunch of games this
Speaker 1: year where Derek Lively has six plus assists because he's
Speaker 1: going to function more as a passer while there's all
Speaker 1: of this whirlwind action happening around him, which makes better
Speaker 1: use of Derek Lively's skill set. If you just have
Speaker 1: him screening and rolling to the basket, he'll only get
Speaker 1: to use it when they blitz Luca, which they may
Speaker 1: not even do that much if Klay Thompson is on
Speaker 1: the floor right. So like these this is the kind
Speaker 1: of offense that will really weaponized this skill set. I
Speaker 1: thought Jaden already had a really nice shift in the
Speaker 1: first half. It was just a really, really impressive first
Speaker 1: outing for the MAVs. And again, I like the this
Speaker 1: is where the exciting potential for the MAVs is is
Speaker 1: if they reach another level offensively than where they were
Speaker 1: last year. Go look at the offensive numbers for Dallas
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Their defense kept them in some good
Speaker 1: late game shot making from Luca and Kyrie, but the
Speaker 1: offense ran into a wall against Oklahoma City, it ran
Speaker 1: into a wall against Boston. This is that variety that
Speaker 1: could give them more resilience in those specific situations. On
Speaker 1: the Spurs front, I was really disappointed. Victor looked weirdly
Speaker 1: disengaged in the first half, like he wasn't being strong
Speaker 1: with the ball. Guys were just kind of taking the
Speaker 1: ball away from him. He was settling for a lot
Speaker 1: of really tough jump shots. He ended up going five
Speaker 1: for eighteen from the field. I talked a lot in
Speaker 1: preseason how I want to see them give him more
Speaker 1: opportunities to score as a roleman as opposed to just
Speaker 1: straight post ups and perimeter catches. And he got one
Speaker 1: rollmand possession all game, and it was one where there
Speaker 1: was like it was kind of poorly set up and
Speaker 1: he rolled into a bunch of traffic. He happened to
Speaker 1: break open at the end of the play, but like
Speaker 1: it just was ugly. It's kind of the yokatroll, right,
Speaker 1: Like I talk about that, where it's like, get him
Speaker 1: these opportunities to quit catch around ten to fifteen feet
Speaker 1: and to take easy short range shots, whether that's a short
Speaker 1: mid range jump shot, a floater, a quick catch into
Speaker 1: a quick post move with an advantage against a smaller defender.
Speaker 1: I just want to see more opportunities like that. And
Speaker 1: then I was hoping the ball handling would be at
Speaker 1: a higher level for the Spurs this year, and it
Speaker 1: just continues to be so much bad ball handling. Seven
Speaker 1: turnovers from Julian Champagnee and Jeremy Sohan to Jeremy Sohan dribbling.
Speaker 1: The basketball experiment needs to end. It's driving me crazy
Speaker 1: to watch. I think the Spurs might actually be further
Speaker 1: away then I thought coming into this season.
Speaker 2: But again, one game. Don't want to overreact.
Speaker 1: We'll give them more time before we make any sweeping declarations,
Speaker 1: but it does they didn't seem like a team that
Speaker 1: was close to being good in tonight's game. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of games we missed on Wednesday night.
Speaker 1: It's literally impossible for me to actually hit every single game,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna try the best I can, and I'm
Speaker 1: cycling through teams. Are teams that I'm gonna get to
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter Tomorrow morning, I'm gonna wake up
Speaker 1: and do some film studies, So like I plan on
Speaker 1: watching like Charlotte Houston is a game that I want
Speaker 1: to watch, Memphis Utah is a game I want to watch.
Speaker 1: I want to take a closer look at Sacramento, Minnesota
Speaker 1: from tonight, and I'll just be uploading some clips on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I may even just do an extra episode, but that
Speaker 1: probably won't be worked up until Sunday or Monday. But
Speaker 1: I will be continuing to try to get around to
Speaker 1: as many of those teams as possible, and we'll just
Speaker 1: keep cycling through as we get through the season. I
Speaker 1: promise we're going to get to everybody. It's just important
Speaker 1: to me to get in detail, and I can't get
Speaker 1: in detail in every game without actually killing myself. So
Speaker 1: we need to take it a little bit, one night
Speaker 1: at a time. We're three nights into this thing, but
Speaker 1: I promise we're going to get to everybody. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting
Speaker 1: the show. I'll see you guys on Twitter tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2: The volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: oops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.