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Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at

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Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. We got a quick show

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Speaker 1: for you today. We're just gonna be going over the

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Speaker 1: five best off seasons, counting trades, free agent signings, draft picks,

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Speaker 1: the teams that I think did the best job this offseason,

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Speaker 1: either making slight improvements if they're near the top of

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Speaker 1: the league trying to improve on the margins, or teams

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Speaker 1: that are further down that made significant improvements to major

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Speaker 1: weaknesses in their roster. You guys, do the Joe before

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Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so

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Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't

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Speaker 1: miss any show announcements. And for whatever reason, you guys

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Speaker 1: miss one of these videos and you can't get back

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Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find

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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Last,

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Speaker 1: but not at least, you guys have heard me talk

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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. We're

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Speaker 1: just gonna go down from five to one. Starting with

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Speaker 1: number five. The Boston Celtics for starters, re signing Jalen Brown,

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Speaker 1: so they locked up their core. Now you have two

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Speaker 1: of the top fifteen players in the league locked up

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Speaker 1: long term on your roster at arguably the most important

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Speaker 1: position in the league. There on the wing. They did

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Speaker 1: lose Marcus Smart and Grant Williams. Grant Williams kind of

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Speaker 1: inevitable under the contract number he was looking for, and

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Speaker 1: Marcus Smart we're gonna get to in a second. I

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Speaker 1: actually think is going to end up benefiting them in

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Speaker 1: the long run. But they added Christops Porzingis, which brings

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Speaker 1: the best of both Robert Williams and Al Horford to

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Speaker 1: the table. One of the conundrums that the Celtics ran

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Speaker 1: into is their offense flowed a lot better without Horford

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Speaker 1: on the floor because they had five out spacing right

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Speaker 1: and for driving kick team that struggles sometimes with decision making,

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Speaker 1: kind of widening those driving lianes makes things easier for them.

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Speaker 1: But then when they put Robert Williams on the floor,

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Speaker 1: they were much much better defensively at the expense of

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Speaker 1: their offensive flow. And as you looked at their numbers consistently,

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Speaker 1: that was the give and take play. Rob defense is better,

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Speaker 1: offense kind of falls apart play al their offense goes

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Speaker 1: up a level. They don't guard as well well. Christops

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Speaker 1: Perzingis brings the best of both of those worlds to

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Speaker 1: the table. He's not quite the rim protector that Robert

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Speaker 1: Williams is, but he is a good rint protector or

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Speaker 1: put good numbers in pick and roll last year, even

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Speaker 1: though on tape I thought he didn't have his best

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Speaker 1: effort season defensively, although I think that'll go up a

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Speaker 1: level in Boston. But it gives you that Robert Williams

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Speaker 1: archetype defensively as a rim protector. But at the same

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Speaker 1: time he's a legitimate pick and pop threat that spaces

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Speaker 1: the floor really really well. Again, picking and popping is

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Speaker 1: a vital thing for getting downhill because if the guy

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Speaker 1: who's guarding the pick and roll has to vacate to

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Speaker 1: close out on a shooter at the top of the

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Speaker 1: key instead of corralling the ball handler, that's what gets

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Speaker 1: opportunities for guys like Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and

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Speaker 1: Derek White to get downhill, especially if the guard has

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Speaker 1: to chase over the top of the screen. So functionally

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Speaker 1: in their offense, Chris hops Ferzingis gives them a really

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Speaker 1: good threat there, and he's actually I say, the best

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Speaker 1: of both worlds. He's just better than Al Horford offensively,

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Speaker 1: he's a much better pick and pop player, and most importantly,

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Speaker 1: he's really good at beating switches in the post. He

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Speaker 1: had the best season of his career attacking in the

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Speaker 1: post last year, especially against mismatches against smaller players. He's

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Speaker 1: really good at sealing them and creating a passing angle

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Speaker 1: and then quick turning and finishing. He doesn't settle for

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Speaker 1: tough shots in those situations. Chris hops Porzingis is a

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Speaker 1: massive upgrade. We talked a lot about that beating switches

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Speaker 1: thing right after the trade, but shortly after that, about

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Speaker 1: a week or so after that, Brad Stevens ended up

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Speaker 1: actually talking about that in a press conference and he said,

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Speaker 1: you know, the thing we're looking forward to the most

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Speaker 1: is having Chris Porzingis as an option to beat switches.

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Speaker 1: Losing Marcus Smart obviously is somewhat sad given the history

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Speaker 1: that he has with that franchise, but I think it's

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Speaker 1: gonna end up helping them a lot. First of all,

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Speaker 1: he was declining defensively after winning Defensive Player of the

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Speaker 1: Year the previous year, and even still that wild card offensively,

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Speaker 1: that could co op possessions and take bad shots from

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Speaker 1: time to time, and you know, This just kind of

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Speaker 1: alleviates that logjam at the guard position. Puts the ball

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Speaker 1: in Derek White's hands more, puts the ball in Jason

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Speaker 1: Tatum and Jaylen Brown's hands more, which they're just better players,

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Speaker 1: dere Derek White even just a better player than Marcus

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Speaker 1: part at this point. Plus you ended up getting draft

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Speaker 1: compensation in the deal, which gives you the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: make improvements at the deadline. All right, Moving on number four,

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Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. I said going into the summer

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Speaker 1: that Patients and Continuity were going to be their allies

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Speaker 1: going into this coming season. And I said, if they

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Speaker 1: brought everybody back, they would be good in the regular season.

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Speaker 1: Their issues are playoff problems. I said, they had three

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Speaker 1: major problems. The ability to knock down shots over the

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Speaker 1: top of the defense, that backup center position, and then

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Speaker 1: having a real athletic strong guard someone in that Bruce

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Speaker 1: Brown mold in the back court. That was what ended

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Speaker 1: up getting them killed in that Nugget series. But all

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Speaker 1: three of those things were not able to be addressed

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Speaker 1: this summer. Kyrie was gonna have to resign with Dallas.

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Speaker 1: There was no really good backup center available on the market,

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Speaker 1: and then Bruce Brown went for what what twenty two

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Speaker 1: and a half million a year or something like that

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Speaker 1: is two years, forty five million dollar deal. You just

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Speaker 1: were out of the market for him. You weren't going

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Speaker 1: to get him, and so under those circumstances, there was

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Speaker 1: no really aggressive move for the Lakers to make this summer.

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Speaker 1: They just needed to bring everybody back, and that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what they did. They got Austin Reeves, Rehatcha, Murray, D'Angel Russell,

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Speaker 1: all on team friendly deals, and then they made smart

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Speaker 1: moves on the margins. They brought in Gabe Vincent actually

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Speaker 1: makes a lot more sense than Dennis Schroeder, although I

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Speaker 1: think they's similar level play because Gabe is better off

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Speaker 1: the ball. This is a team that's gonna be running

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Speaker 1: a ton through D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Lebron James, Anthony Davis.

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Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder actually kind of as good as he is.

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Speaker 1: And I'm a huge Dennis fan, and I think he

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Speaker 1: went to the rafts. You guys are gonna love him.

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Speaker 1: But specifically on this team, there's a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a logjam with ball handling. Decision makers gave Vinson is

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Speaker 1: a much better off ball player, close out attacker. He

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Speaker 1: can run some pick and roll as well if you

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Speaker 1: need him too, so he's a depth piece there. I

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Speaker 1: actually liked that signing Torrian Prince is a wing who

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Speaker 1: can actually shoot the ball pretty well and has a

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Speaker 1: little bit off the dribble pop. And then Jackson Hayes

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Speaker 1: was a really good value signing on minimum contract. Again,

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Speaker 1: all minimum contracts have flaws. Jackson Hayes, even though he's skinny,

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Speaker 1: even though he has some limitations. He struggled against switches

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Speaker 1: last year, but he was actually the best pick and

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Speaker 1: roll screen defender in the league last year to run

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Speaker 1: at least one hundred possessions on a points per possession basis.

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Speaker 1: So he's got a lot of length bothers people over

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Speaker 1: the top when they try to shoot over him. I

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Speaker 1: think he's a perfectly fine backup center at the minimum contract.

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Speaker 1: Most importantly, those are all guys that feel positions that

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Speaker 1: will help them win games when Lebron and Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: need to switch. When Lebron sits, you need forward depth.

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Speaker 1: When Anthony Davis sits, you need a backup center. They

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Speaker 1: address those two things that's going to give them the

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Speaker 1: ability to rest those guys. Also, they are loaded with

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Speaker 1: great spot up players. Almost everybody I just mentioned, including

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Speaker 1: the core guys, They're all guys that were well over

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Speaker 1: a point per possession in spot up situations last year.

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Speaker 1: This is going to be a well spaced floor for

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Speaker 1: the Lakers next year in a way it wasn't the

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Speaker 1: previous season. I expect them to be much better offensively,

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Speaker 1: and most of this is the other part of it too.

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Speaker 1: They maintain flexibility for an aggressive deadline. Those issues they

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Speaker 1: needed to fix, they can address those in February based

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Speaker 1: on how things progress. If February comes and Lebron and

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves are not making enough shots

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Speaker 1: over the top of the defense, you can make a trade.

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Speaker 1: If the backup center position isn't good enough, you can

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Speaker 1: make a trade if you need. Maybe Chicago falls apart

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Speaker 1: and you can make a trade for someone like Alex

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Speaker 1: Cruzo to get that big, strong guard that you need.

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Speaker 1: So they retained the core of their conference finalists roster,

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Speaker 1: leaning in on continuity, which, as you can guys know,

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Speaker 1: I think is super important. They improved on the wing

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Speaker 1: and at backup center, and they maintained flexibility for a

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Speaker 1: mid season trade. I thought it was a really impressive

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Speaker 1: offseason for Rob Polinka and the Lakers. Number three, the

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Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers. This was a super talented roster with one

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Speaker 1: fatal flaw. They didn't have anybody who could knock down

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Speaker 1: a corner three consistently, which was a problem because they

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Speaker 1: had these two great pick and roll shot creators and

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Speaker 1: Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, and then they had these

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Speaker 1: two great versatile two way screen and roll guys in

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Speaker 1: Jared Allen and Evin Mobley. And the problem was is

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Speaker 1: they run a ton of pick and roll. They run

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Speaker 1: more pick and roll than most teams in the league,

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Speaker 1: and you just didn't have to guard the guy in

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Speaker 1: the corner on either corner. So they were guarding pick

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Speaker 1: and rolls three on two, sometimes four on two and

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Speaker 1: just conceding kickout shots to guys like Isaac Korro and

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Speaker 1: Chetty Osman, and it just was not working well. They

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Speaker 1: ended up getting two really solid wing shooters in Max

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Speaker 1: Strews and George's Knee. Max s Drews last year one

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Speaker 1: point one to eight points per possession in three hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty spot at possessions. That was sixth in the

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Speaker 1: entire league out of thirty plays to log at least

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Speaker 1: three under posessions. So one of the best spot up

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Speaker 1: guys in the league last year. And then George's Niang

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Speaker 1: was even better one point two to zero points per

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Speaker 1: possession on two hundred and ninety possessions, or just missed

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Speaker 1: the qualification of that list. I just made. The thing

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Speaker 1: with Niang is he has to guard fours. He can't

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Speaker 1: guard threes. But that's the beauty of having Evan Mobley

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Speaker 1: and all of his defensive versatility. Evan Mobley can chase

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Speaker 1: threes all around the floor, and so I actually think

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Speaker 1: that'll work defensively. So they added two dead eye spot

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Speaker 1: up shooters and they play different positions, so you can

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Speaker 1: see a version of this story where they're going to

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Speaker 1: consistently have the necessary shooting on the floor to run

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Speaker 1: a more productive playoff offense. Now I think they're eventually

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Speaker 1: gonna have to move Darius Garland for a wing. You guys,

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Speaker 1: Cavs fans know I've been saying that forever. Most of

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Speaker 1: you guys disagree with me. I just don't think you

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Speaker 1: can rock with two guards, and I don't think you

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Speaker 1: can rock with the redundancy of just only pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: You gotta have somebody that can consistently put their back

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Speaker 1: to the basket and make plays or do some other

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Speaker 1: form of offense isolation, rim pressure, things that they're not

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Speaker 1: getting enough of out of their pick and roll attack.

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Speaker 1: But as far as this core goes, Mitchell Garland, Mobley Allen,

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Speaker 1: as far as this core goes, this is probably the

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Speaker 1: best version of that what they put together this summer.

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Speaker 1: That's why I think it was a really successful offseason.

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Speaker 1: If you're going to give it one last good shot

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Speaker 1: with that core to see which guys you want to

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Speaker 1: build around, this was the way to do it. Go

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Speaker 1: invest in some real spot up shooting, I thought. I

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Speaker 1: think the Calves are going to be a much bigger

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Speaker 1: threat next year, even if they are not a top

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Speaker 1: tier contender. Moving on to number two, the Phoenix Suns.

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Speaker 1: They turned Chris Paul and Lander Shammitt into Bradley Beal. So,

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Speaker 1: no matter how you feel about whether or not that

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Speaker 1: gives them enough to beat Denver, no matter how you

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Speaker 1: feel about their size and athleticism shortcomings, that's an improvement.

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Speaker 1: If you can turn Chris Paul and Landry Shammett into

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Speaker 1: Bradley Beal. You're better. It's that simple, and so just

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Speaker 1: that instantly gives them a great foundation for the offseason.

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Speaker 1: But like we talked about, this is a team now

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Speaker 1: that was going to be able to get discounted signings

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Speaker 1: over the course of the summer because teams want because

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Speaker 1: players are going to want to play for a real contender,

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Speaker 1: because guys are going to want to play for a team,

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Speaker 1: or they're going to get wide open spot up looks

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Speaker 1: because they want to have a chance to win a championship.

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Speaker 1: And they got a lot of really quality signings on

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Speaker 1: veteran minimum contracts. I like Drew Ubanks and Chimezi Metu

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Speaker 1: as really athletic forwards that will help them with the

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Speaker 1: dirty work you don't want. Nabby and Eric Gordon give

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Speaker 1: them real shooting that also have a little bit of

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Speaker 1: defensive versatility. Ke De Bates Job is also kind of

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Speaker 1: an interesting scoring forward that they got that could shoot

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Speaker 1: a little bit. So they got their third star and

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Speaker 1: they rounded it out with quality veteran minimum role players.

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Speaker 1: It remains to be seen if it's enough to beat Denver,

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Speaker 1: but they certainly got a lot better and number one.

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Speaker 1: I don't think we can go anywhere else. The team

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Speaker 1: that made by far the biggest improvement year over year

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Speaker 1: and is set up for success into the future, the

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Speaker 1: San Antonio Spurs. They get Victor wemin Yama, the best

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Speaker 1: prospects since Lebron James again struggled in his first Summer

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Speaker 1: League game, but I think you saw a lot in

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Speaker 1: that second Summer League game to demonstrate what Victor's capable of.

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Speaker 1: That ability to knock down the important spot up shots

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Speaker 1: when he's wide open, the ability to beat switches with

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Speaker 1: short jump shots in the lane, the ability to impact

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Speaker 1: games at a high level defensively around the basket. That

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Speaker 1: overnight gives them a functional defense and a real five

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Speaker 1: out spacing system for all of their ball handlers. And

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Speaker 1: then they added a lot of really smart pieces on

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Speaker 1: the perimeter that I don't think have been covered enough

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Speaker 1: this summer. Reggie Bullock is a block, is a really

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Speaker 1: good lock and trail defender and a great spot up

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Speaker 1: shooter that gives you a veteran presence. Cheddy Osmond's a

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Speaker 1: guy that just a great locker room guy who works

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Speaker 1: his butt off, does a lot of little things well.

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Speaker 1: Campaign as a backup guard. So they got some veterans

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Speaker 1: in the room now, some grown ups. And then I

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Speaker 1: really liked the Julian Champagne signing. Again I covered him

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Speaker 1: in Summer League. He actually was successful last year, really

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Speaker 1: efficient double figure score for the Spurs and a small

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Speaker 1: sample size, but they locked him up for four years

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Speaker 1: at a very very favorable number for the team. And

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Speaker 1: I like it when franchises take advantage of those opportunities,

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Speaker 1: because when you don't, that's when you end up in

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Speaker 1: a situation like the Lakers had, where a guy finishes

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Speaker 1: his two year rookie contract and then suddenly you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to extend him at a massive number. If you

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Speaker 1: have faith in a guy and you think he's gonna

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Speaker 1: be good, lock him up for as long as you can,

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Speaker 1: as early as you can in the process. So I

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Speaker 1: like the Julian Champagne signing. And then they signed Greg

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Speaker 1: Popovich to a long term extension, again having him in

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Speaker 1: the room as just the perfect guy to cultivate the

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Speaker 1: beginning of a young center's career, like Victor weibin Yama,

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Speaker 1: a guy that can navigate the personalities in that locker room,

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Speaker 1: and I would imagine that Greg himself is experiencing another

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Speaker 1: level of invigoration in his passion at this phase in

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Speaker 1: his career, given the opportunity he has to start a

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Speaker 1: new era of Spurs basketball. And one summer they went

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Speaker 1: from a team that had almost nothing to be excited

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Speaker 1: about to a team that was one of the most

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Speaker 1: that is now one of the most interesting teams in

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Speaker 1: the league. So you can't beat that as an offseason.

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Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be taking the weekend off and starting Monday

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Speaker 1: with that Believer doing twenty five through twenty three, we

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Speaker 1: will be beginning our player rankings. So as always, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate you guys' support and I'll see you on Monday.

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Speaker 1: For player rankings, the volume