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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Have you Monday? Everybody hopeful if you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend. We are live on AMPS, so if you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube, we're listening on our podcast feeds. Don't
Speaker 1: forget that DAMP is the very first place that you
Speaker 1: guys can get these shows. We're moving on to number
Speaker 1: six in our Power rankings today with the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: the full season preview for them. Then I've got three
Speaker 1: mail back questions for the end of the show as well.
Speaker 1: You guys do the Joe four we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: jsonlt don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get
Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops Tonight and I need more mail bag questions,
Speaker 1: so keep dropping those in the YouTube comments so we
Speaker 1: can keep hitting them at the end of these shows
Speaker 1: throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball so
Speaker 1: quick offseason recap on the Golden State Warriors. They lost
Speaker 1: Patrick Baldwin, Junior ppj, Dante DiVincenzo, Jamichael Green, Andrea Godalafer
Speaker 1: now who knows if he'll return at some point during
Speaker 1: the season, Ty Jerome, Anthony Lamb, Jordan Poole, and Ryan Rollins.
Speaker 1: They added Uzman Garuba is an undersized big. He was
Speaker 1: a good rebounder off the bench for the Rockets last year.
Speaker 1: He had a in his career, he's twelve rebounds per
Speaker 1: thirty six minutes. He can shoot a little bit too.
Speaker 1: He was twenty four for fifty nine on jump shots
Speaker 1: last year. That's sixty one percent effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: when weighted for threes, and he converted spot up possessions
Speaker 1: at one point one point seven points per possession. The
Speaker 1: biggest question offensively is if you're gonna be a big
Speaker 1: in the Golden State system, got to be able to
Speaker 1: make reads out of the short role, so that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a thing he's gonna have to figure out. He
Speaker 1: only shot fifty six percent at the rim last year,
Speaker 1: which is not good for a big man, and he'll
Speaker 1: have to be able to make the reads, so we'll
Speaker 1: see in the long run. Defensively, he's best in a
Speaker 1: switching scheme, so I think he can have some success
Speaker 1: in Golden State teams. Iso Who's mant Garuba ninety one
Speaker 1: times last year and he allowed just seventy eight points,
Speaker 1: which is zero point eighty six points per possession, which
Speaker 1: is really good. He's good at kind of like giving
Speaker 1: ground and baiting guards into taking tough shots over the top,
Speaker 1: and then he's got a really long wingspan. He's got
Speaker 1: a seven to three wingspan, so like he can bait
Speaker 1: guys and then get a really good late contest. So
Speaker 1: a nice little option there in camp for them to evaluate.
Speaker 1: Corey Joseph a backup guard, blow average shot creator, but
Speaker 1: he's a really good spot up player. He averaged one
Speaker 1: point one to five points per spot up possession last year.
Speaker 1: Rodney McGruder an athletic guard, good point of attack defender.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the angle they were going
Speaker 1: there with him somewhat limited off the dribble, but he
Speaker 1: did shoot well last year sixty percent effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on jump shots last year with the Pisson, So
Speaker 1: Rodney McGruder will be an interesting guy for them to
Speaker 1: evaluate in camp as well. Dario Sarich very good stretch big,
Speaker 1: was watching him a lot with the Thunder last year.
Speaker 1: Fifty seven percent effective field goal percentage on catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots. He can pick and pop and short
Speaker 1: roll really well. So he's a really natural fit in
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense. And once again, like with most of
Speaker 1: these guys, it's just gonna be a question of whether
Speaker 1: or not whether or not he can hold up defensively,
Speaker 1: and I think he's perfectly fine as a bench, big
Speaker 1: slash forward option for the Warriors. They then we have
Speaker 1: to look at the the guys that they drafted this year.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk too long about him today
Speaker 1: because I did full scouts on both of these guys
Speaker 1: earlier this offseason. So if you haven't seen those yet,
Speaker 1: scroll down through our feed down to draft day and
Speaker 1: you'll see that we did full scouts on Tray Jackson
Speaker 1: Davis and Brandon Potzimski, but Tray Jackson Davis, I think
Speaker 1: he's got a really good chance to crack the rotation
Speaker 1: this year. Why because he's a good switch defender, good athlete,
Speaker 1: and was a good role man last year. He was
Speaker 1: one of the better role men in the country last year,
Speaker 1: despite him getting absolutely swarmed like he was rolling into traffic,
Speaker 1: because he was the best player on his team. I
Speaker 1: actually think in this Warrior system he could be deadly
Speaker 1: in the short role because he's gonna be catching with
Speaker 1: room to operate. So I think he's got a chance
Speaker 1: to play a little bit. He actually has a little
Speaker 1: bit of a face up game as well. I'm just
Speaker 1: not sure how much they'll use it. And Brandon Patziemski
Speaker 1: is a skill guard with a skill set tailor made
Speaker 1: for the Warriors offense, a guy that I think is
Speaker 1: going to succeed there as well. But I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go any further because, like I said, you can
Speaker 1: get full scouts of those guys further back on our feed.
Speaker 1: The biggest splashy acquisition for the Warriors this summer was
Speaker 1: flipping Jordan Pool into Chris Paul, who was still one
Speaker 1: of the best half court shot creators in the league
Speaker 1: last year, remember a high volume pick and roll list
Speaker 1: at least a thousand pick and rolls. Chris Paul, out
Speaker 1: of fifteen guys who ran at least a thousand pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, came in at seventh, so a little bit
Speaker 1: above average there. One point zero six points per isolation
Speaker 1: as well, that's seventieth percentile, so well above averag there.
Speaker 1: And in the playoffs he ran eighty nine pick and
Speaker 1: rolls in ISOs for eighty nine points, and that's about
Speaker 1: a point for possession. So even as bad as it
Speaker 1: looked at times in the postseason for the Suns last year,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was still good for a point for possession
Speaker 1: when you tossed him in the basketball, which is anything
Speaker 1: over a point for possession in the playoffs has real value.
Speaker 1: And again, he was in a lot of disrupted rhythm
Speaker 1: situations playing alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. In this situation,
Speaker 1: I actually think he's gonna get the ball a little
Speaker 1: bit more with the Warriors. So again I look at
Speaker 1: it as just a more stable version of Jordan Poole.
Speaker 1: We won't have the highs that you got from Jordan Poole,
Speaker 1: because Jordan Poole obviously is a more talented player at
Speaker 1: this point in his career. But you have a much
Speaker 1: better chance over the course of the season of maintaining
Speaker 1: leads with Chris Paul instead of Jordan Poole. And then
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk more about this later. But when you
Speaker 1: get to the postseason, when the team start to get
Speaker 1: in front of the Warriors motion offense, you need to
Speaker 1: have a guy that can run, pick and roll at
Speaker 1: in an extremely efficient and consistent level. And Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: was just very volatile there, and so having Chris Paul
Speaker 1: will just give you a better opportunity to thrive in
Speaker 1: those environments. Looking at the depth chart at gart Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Brandon Pazemski, Corey Joseph at Ford,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton, Jonathan Kaminga, and Moses Moody. So
Speaker 1: obviously very thin at Ford, which we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: here in a minute. And then they're big men Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: Kevan Luoni, Darusarch who can play some forward in Uzmongaruba
Speaker 1: as well. Now I want to talk about the roster
Speaker 1: and balances for a minute, because again, like we saw
Speaker 1: a couple of consistent problems last year, and it's really
Speaker 1: easy as a front office to blame something and to
Speaker 1: overlook some of the other factors at play. It's easy
Speaker 1: to say, Jordan Poole, Draymond Green chemistry, we didn't play
Speaker 1: well on the road, we needed to upgrade. Now we
Speaker 1: got Jordan Poole out of the situation, everyone's gonna love
Speaker 1: each other again and everything's gonna be great. And I
Speaker 1: think that that overlooks the reality of their predicament that
Speaker 1: they they ran into in the Lakers series, which is
Speaker 1: when they're able to play all their bigs, Like when
Speaker 1: they could play Loony and Draymond, Andrew Wiggins, Clay and Steph,
Speaker 1: that's great and that works really well, and that lineup
Speaker 1: will definitely be fine in the regular season and they
Speaker 1: can beat a lot of specific teams in the postseason.
Speaker 1: But when they ran into a team with real legitimate
Speaker 1: rim protection in this case the Los Angeles Lakers, and
Speaker 1: they couldn't play both bigs at the same time, suddenly
Speaker 1: they had a really hard time figuring out that fifth guy. Right, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's try down Ted Devincenzo Okay, we're too small. Let's
Speaker 1: try Jamichael Green. Okay, we're too slow. Let's try Gary
Speaker 1: Payton the second Oh, okay, he's missing his corner threes
Speaker 1: and he's making good plays. But they just they couldn't
Speaker 1: get enough consistent production out of that second forward spot,
Speaker 1: or call it the fifth starter or whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it. But when Steph and Clay, and Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and Draymond Green were out there, or in Kevin
Speaker 1: Looney was out there, they were just always one perimeter
Speaker 1: players of the type of you know, consistent starter caliber
Speaker 1: production they needed out of that specific position. And the
Speaker 1: size issues were legitimate, Like against the Lakers. I was
Speaker 1: rewatching Game six and uh the other day, and fourteen
Speaker 1: of the fifteen fourteen of the first fifteen Laker points
Speaker 1: in that game were straight up ISOs and post ups
Speaker 1: of smaller defenders, and like that, that problem is not
Speaker 1: going away. And you'd see D'Angelo Russell taking Steph to task.
Speaker 1: I mean, Dangel Russell even was attacking Gary Payton and
Speaker 1: drawing fouls. Lebron James just bullying Andrew Wiggins, and like that,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins on Lebron, you kind of have to live with, right,
Speaker 1: Draymond on Anthony Davis, Like Anthony Davis had a driving
Speaker 1: foul on Draymond that you're gonna have to live with
Speaker 1: to a certain extent. But you've got to limit some
Speaker 1: of the other parts in the roster where you're giving
Speaker 1: up size as well. Again, like it's a down the
Speaker 1: roster thing, you know, Like, and it's not just the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You're gonna run into that problem with a team like
Speaker 1: the Nuggets as well. Right. The interesting thing with the
Speaker 1: way the league has changed is you have different types
Speaker 1: of teams that you have to go through now, Like
Speaker 1: I think there are you know I said this before,
Speaker 1: Like there's six teams at the top of the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the Warriors, Lakers, Suns, Celtics, Bucks, and Nuggets, right,
Speaker 1: in no particular order. And in that specific situation, you've
Speaker 1: got let's just take the Warriors out for a second.
Speaker 1: Let's look at these other five. You have five completely
Speaker 1: different types of teams. Like I've got the Lakers and Nuggets,
Speaker 1: which are just pulverize you inside type of massive front lines, right,
Speaker 1: and then I've got teams like the Celtics and the
Speaker 1: Suns that are like stretch you out with multiple perimeter threats, right.
Speaker 1: And then the Bucks are kind of a little bit
Speaker 1: of both now with Damon with Giannis, right, but they're
Speaker 1: all very different, and so you do need to have
Speaker 1: the ability to play multiple ways. And right now, like
Speaker 1: there's just a lot hanging on the young guys particular,
Speaker 1: there's a lot hanging on can Moses Moody or Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga become a rotational level option on the perimeter, because
Speaker 1: I know they can go with the two big lineup
Speaker 1: against a team like Denver or a team like Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: but I don't think they can do it against and
Speaker 1: Milwaukee might even be a stretch with their rim protection.
Speaker 1: So like they might be able to do it against
Speaker 1: like Boston and Denver, but they might not be able
Speaker 1: to do it against teams like Milwaukee and Los Angeles. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like you've got to have both punches. Now, You've got
Speaker 1: to be able to play Draymond or Cavan Luoni at
Speaker 1: the five and have four legitimate starter caliber perimeter players,
Speaker 1: and then you need to be able to play the
Speaker 1: big lineup against different types of matchups. Right, the question
Speaker 1: is can you play Chris Paul in those lineups. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Can you run Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green. Maybe we don't know, but
Speaker 1: chances are our NBA history tells us you're really small there.
Speaker 1: You're undersized in your back court with two small guards,
Speaker 1: and then you're asking Draymond Green to hold down the
Speaker 1: center position, right, which again he's been capable of doing
Speaker 1: that his whole career. But that's easier to do when
Speaker 1: it's you know, that's easier to do when it's you know,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant Andre Gudala next to him. Is my point.
Speaker 1: You put a lot of pressure on the rest of
Speaker 1: your lineup when you're small elsewhere, right, And so again
Speaker 1: that's going to be the big balancing act for this
Speaker 1: particular season from the standpoint of roster and balance. Do
Speaker 1: you trust Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga to become that
Speaker 1: reliable fifth guy in your smaller lineups? I don't know.
Speaker 1: And like, here's what NBA history tells us. Young players
Speaker 1: typically don't play well consistently in the playoffs. You shruck
Speaker 1: Gold by getting what you got out of Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: in the championship run. What happened to him in last
Speaker 1: year's playoffs is way more consistent with what happens with
Speaker 1: young scoring guards in the NBA playoffs. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to discount it. Luck Jordan Poole played great, but it
Speaker 1: was highly unusual, and what happened last year is much
Speaker 1: more consistent with what you'd expect now. Moses Moody just
Speaker 1: turned twenty one years old. Jonathan Kaminga turns twenty one
Speaker 1: in December. I think, so that's really young. Like, just
Speaker 1: look at the NBA Finals this year, there was one
Speaker 1: rotation player, like significant rotation player for both teams who
Speaker 1: was below the age of twenty five like that played
Speaker 1: at least one hundred minutes in the series. Is Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior. Who is the one guy who didn't play
Speaker 1: well for the Nuggets in that series. It was Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior. Like the time and time again throughout NBA history,
Speaker 1: when you're counting on super young players to succeed in
Speaker 1: the late rounds of the NBA Playoffs, they typically don't
Speaker 1: and so again you maybe it works out. Moses Moody
Speaker 1: had some moments. We'll talk about it in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but He shot the shit out the basketball this year
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and he had some moments where he
Speaker 1: was impactful defensively, but he also struggled with foul trouble
Speaker 1: and was a little inconsistent with his decision making. Right,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kamingo was useless in this year's playoff run, So like,
Speaker 1: maybe that works out, but I think they need to
Speaker 1: be prepared for the possibility that they might have to
Speaker 1: upgrade their firepower with a reliable forward, preferably one that
Speaker 1: can slot either between Wiggins and Clay or between Wiggins
Speaker 1: and Draymond, So one with a little bit of size
Speaker 1: and athleticism, kind of like what Otto Porter Junior was
Speaker 1: in the championship team year, right, Like, don't underestimate how
Speaker 1: important guys like Namanya b Elitza and Auto Porter were.
Speaker 1: Maybe Dario Sartz brings that Namanya b Alitza type of punch,
Speaker 1: But who's gonna bring the Auto Porter like legit spacing
Speaker 1: threat that can play his role on the defensive end
Speaker 1: and not hurts you in those lineups. Who's gonna be
Speaker 1: that guy? You know? And you have to accept the
Speaker 1: reality of your urgency as well, because like Steph Curry
Speaker 1: is a transcendently great star. And NBA history tells us
Speaker 1: you don't win unless you have a transcendently great star.
Speaker 1: Last year Jokics, the year before Steph, the year before Johannis,
Speaker 1: the year before Lebron, the year before Kawhi, the year
Speaker 1: before Katie and Steph, Katie and Steph, Lebron, Steph. You
Speaker 1: get the point. You don't win championships unless you have
Speaker 1: a transcendently great star. Steph is a transcendently great star.
Speaker 1: He might only have two or three years left playing
Speaker 1: at that superstar level. There is urgency here. Jonathan Kamingo,
Speaker 1: by the time Steph declines won't even be twenty five
Speaker 1: yet he may not be a like a legit reliable
Speaker 1: two way playoff player for a half decade. And so
Speaker 1: like I do think that, and again, like I know
Speaker 1: it sucks. It's like season preview, let's pitch trades, and
Speaker 1: I think they should try to start the season. I
Speaker 1: think it's a deadline type of deal, like give Moody
Speaker 1: and Kaminga a ton of reps and see if by
Speaker 1: February they can figure it out. But you might have
Speaker 1: to consider pitching in some of these assets to try
Speaker 1: to give yourself a real veteran presence at the forward
Speaker 1: position that gives you a chance to hang. Because let's
Speaker 1: be one hundred percent clear, the Warriors are in that
Speaker 1: same tier in my opinion. But who's gonna be favored
Speaker 1: in a Warriors Lakers series that starts tomorrow? Sorry, guys,
Speaker 1: it's the Lakers. Who's gonna be favored in a Warrior
Speaker 1: Sun series tomorrow? Probably the Suns. Who's gonna be favored
Speaker 1: in a Warrior's Nuggets series tomorrow? Probably the Nuggets. Who's
Speaker 1: gonna be favored in a Warrior Celtics in a Warriors
Speaker 1: Bucks series, It's gonna be the Celtics or the Bucks.
Speaker 1: So like, you're in that tier, but you're clearly at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the tier. And the saving grace that
Speaker 1: even makes you consider them in that tier is Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: and you need to give him the firepower that he
Speaker 1: needs to compete with these groups, especially when all of
Speaker 1: them massively upgrade it, like Chris Paul is a very
Speaker 1: high risk, high reward type of move. Like, there's a
Speaker 1: version of this that works extremely well, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: break it down. We're gonna get into all the basketball
Speaker 1: here in just a minute. I'm talking a big picture
Speaker 1: right now, but like, there's a version of this that
Speaker 1: works really well. But there's also a version of this
Speaker 1: where he's really old and he gets hurt. There's a
Speaker 1: version of this where he declines too much defensively. There's
Speaker 1: a version of this where it's a bad fit. The
Speaker 1: Warriors run by far the most off screen action of
Speaker 1: any team in the NBA. Chris Paul ran two off
Speaker 1: screen plays last year. So like, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: volatility in this particular type of move So again, like
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see what kind of player they
Speaker 1: go after. But these kinds of Fords do become available.
Speaker 1: We saw last year Ruie Hatchamur and Jared Vanderbilt and
Speaker 1: the Kers struck Golden got him both. The year before
Speaker 1: that it was Ben Simmons and Tory Craig and Trey Lyles.
Speaker 1: The year before that it was Aaron Gordon. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be some player that comes available, and they need to
Speaker 1: keep themselves in the mix and ready to pounce on
Speaker 1: that sort of thing if it arises as and again,
Speaker 1: depending on Moody and Kaminga's development, it wouldn't be completely
Speaker 1: unprecedented for a young player to succeed. It just is unlikely,
Speaker 1: but it's not completely unprecedented, and it can happen. And
Speaker 1: like I said, Moody, Moody feels the closest to me.
Speaker 1: Kaminga obviously has a higher ceiling, but Moody feels the
Speaker 1: closest to me. And we'll see what happens in the
Speaker 1: long run. A couple of guys to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on Ojannanobi, although at this point I'm half convinced the
Speaker 1: Raptors will never trade him. Jeremy Grant now he would
Speaker 1: need to buy into a role and right now he's
Speaker 1: only interested in scoring, and that's to his own detriment.
Speaker 1: But if they could do it with Andrew Wiggins and
Speaker 1: converting him into a committed role player, I don't think
Speaker 1: they couldn't do it with Jeremy Grant, and I think
Speaker 1: he'd be relatively inexpensive, So that's an option there. A
Speaker 1: weird name that I thought about was Carl Town's not
Speaker 1: exactly the type of Ford that I'm talking about, but
Speaker 1: from a talent perspective, he could be really inexpensive compared
Speaker 1: to other stars. And like Kat's offensive versatility with Raymond's
Speaker 1: defensive versatility might allow them both to play together often. So, like,
Speaker 1: that's a name I'd keep an eye on if the
Speaker 1: if the Minnesota Timberwolves decide to make a move, and
Speaker 1: then like obviously for the Timberwolves getting one of those
Speaker 1: young forwards as an option to put between Jayden McDaniels
Speaker 1: and Rudy Gobert in the long term, that's an interesting idea, right,
Speaker 1: Dorian Phinney Smith is a guy keep an eye on. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously the Nets are trying to do this whole We're
Speaker 1: gonna do five wings and switch everything and cause all
Speaker 1: sorts of problems, But they're kind of loaded in that
Speaker 1: middle round range, right, like, because you've got Spencer Dinwiddie
Speaker 1: at point guard, and you've got Nick Klaxton who's your center.
Speaker 1: But in the middle there you've got Cam Johnson, McHale, Bridges,
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, and Dorian Finney Smith. Someone's gonna be the
Speaker 1: odd man out there. And I think, because I think
Speaker 1: Dorian Finny Smith is a player that maybe if the
Speaker 1: Nets just suck to start the year and they start
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen and thirty or you know, fifteen and
Speaker 1: twenty five, maybe you can jump in there and grab
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith for one of those forwards, right, and
Speaker 1: then there are less expensive options out there that might
Speaker 1: not even cost you Moody and kaminga like, what if
Speaker 1: CP three gets hurt and you call the Hornets and
Speaker 1: you ask for Gordon Hayward, right, Or what if you
Speaker 1: call the Pistons and ask for boy and macdonovitch. Rightly,
Speaker 1: there are some options that they could go to there
Speaker 1: that are really inexpensive as well, that wouldn't be as risky.
Speaker 1: But I just think I think it's something they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to keep an eye on, because again, we know
Speaker 1: how good the Warriors core lineup is, and if they
Speaker 1: start Looney and Draymond and they keep Chris Paul coming
Speaker 1: off the bench, and that lineup kicks everyone's ass, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be easy to lull yourself into sleep and thinking
Speaker 1: like we're good. But like, we know that lineup literally
Speaker 1: can't play against the Lakers, and probably can't play against
Speaker 1: the Bucks, and might not be able to play against
Speaker 1: some other teams. So like, it's just something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on over the course of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move over to the offensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: for a little bit, so obviously we know everything we
Speaker 1: need to know about Golden State's offense. I've covered this
Speaker 1: team very closely over the last couple of years. You
Speaker 1: Warriors fans know this already from your time being fans
Speaker 1: of the team. I saw it the other day, since
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard and Draymond Green got drafted the same year
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve. Now Draymond, Clay and Steph are the
Speaker 1: three longest tenured players in the league with the same team,
Speaker 1: so like they've been doing this forever for lack of
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, right, they're the most
Speaker 1: organized offense in the league. They run more sets and
Speaker 1: actions than any team in the league. They run less
Speaker 1: pick and roll than they were literally thirtieth and pick
Speaker 1: and roll frequency this year. We know their structure. Most
Speaker 1: of their sets are five out right and usually involved
Speaker 1: an off ball screen flowing into a dribble handoff, flowing
Speaker 1: into occasionally a pick and roll. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: structured two man game, meaning like they don't just dribble
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor and call for a ball screen.
Speaker 1: They run something to flow into some sort of ball screen,
Speaker 1: whether it's a handoff, a ball screen, or off ball screen, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the way the Warriors were on their offense. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go too far into it. The Warriors
Speaker 1: attempted nine hundred and forty seven shots in off ball
Speaker 1: screens last year, which was three hundred and eighteen more
Speaker 1: than any team in the league, in almost eight hundred
Speaker 1: more than the Philadelphia seventy six ers, to give you
Speaker 1: an idea of how it stacks up to a classic heliocentric,
Speaker 1: you know, brute force offensive team. Right. So what I
Speaker 1: want to do offensively today is just primarily focus on
Speaker 1: the CP three fit, because that's going to be the
Speaker 1: one that's most different from what we see in previous
Speaker 1: Warriors seasons, and most of the rest of the roster
Speaker 1: is pretty consistent with what you had last year on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. So let's talk about CB three. First
Speaker 1: of all, let's do it from two perspectives. What he's
Speaker 1: going to be able to do within the existing Golden
Speaker 1: State system, and what the Warriors might be able to
Speaker 1: do to bring out what Chris Paul's best at, which
Speaker 1: is more slow down, methodical, heliocentric basketball. Right. So, I
Speaker 1: have heard through the grape vine that CB three has
Speaker 1: gone to great lengths in this offense season to embrace
Speaker 1: this Warriors system. He's committed to trying to make this work.
Speaker 1: He is a competitor, He is a winner. He may
Speaker 1: not have won a championship, but he is a winner,
Speaker 1: and most of the time has been his body that's
Speaker 1: let him down in recent years. Right like, he's doing
Speaker 1: his part to try to figure out how to play
Speaker 1: with the Warriors. And I think that's great because I
Speaker 1: do think even though he hasn't done those things in
Speaker 1: the past, excuse me, I think he has all the
Speaker 1: necessary skills to be able to do so. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: we talked about it. Chris Paul last year logged three
Speaker 1: total off screen possessions, and one of them I don't
Speaker 1: even think counts. We'll go through him real quick. He
Speaker 1: scored on all three of them, by the way. Against
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City in February, he came off of a double
Speaker 1: wide pin down at a left corner, so two guys
Speaker 1: went to set a screen. Chris Paul came off, lou
Speaker 1: Dort was guarding him, tried to cheat the screen and
Speaker 1: meet him on the other side. Chris Paul came off clean,
Speaker 1: caught right around the wing, extended right around the slot
Speaker 1: and took one dribble into the elbow and knock down
Speaker 1: an easy, like little eighteen foot jump shot. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit earlier in February the same year,
Speaker 1: a baseline out of bounds play against the Hawks, and
Speaker 1: he kind of started up at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and he came off of a screen towards the
Speaker 1: baseline and rose up off the catch and knocked down
Speaker 1: a shot. And then the third one was out of
Speaker 1: a horn set where he had Aaron Gordon on him
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon was over pressuring him. It was in
Speaker 1: the Christmas Day game and Chris Paul just did a
Speaker 1: rip through amove and was able to get to the
Speaker 1: vuel line. But that doesn't really count. That's not really
Speaker 1: an off screen play. So twice all year did Steph
Speaker 1: or excuse me, did Chris Paul run a play coming
Speaker 1: off of a screen? And he's going to have to
Speaker 1: do that a lot more with the Warriors. But let's
Speaker 1: simplify it from a skill standpoint, what does it take
Speaker 1: to do that. You need to be able to rise
Speaker 1: and fire, which Chris Paul has the ability to do,
Speaker 1: and then you need to be able to read a
Speaker 1: lock and trail and know that you're going downhill. And
Speaker 1: when you go downhill, you need to be able to
Speaker 1: make reads because Golden State's gonna invert. They're spacing and there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of space going down towards the rim,
Speaker 1: and there's gonna have to be somebody that steps over
Speaker 1: to help, and you have to be able to make reads.
Speaker 1: Chris Paul's gonna be able to do that. There's no
Speaker 1: reason why he shouldn't be able to do that. So like,
Speaker 1: even though he hasn't done it in the past, I
Speaker 1: do think he's going to be able to step in
Speaker 1: and run a lot of Golden State's organic motion offense.
Speaker 1: The biggest question is is gonna be how quickly will
Speaker 1: he pick it up. I think there will be some
Speaker 1: growing pains. I think there will be some times early
Speaker 1: in the season where it doesn't flows easy. And like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Like Chris Paul's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a ball stopper, Like he's not a person who plays
Speaker 1: with tempo in the half court. He likes to take
Speaker 1: his time to interpret the defense. And Stephan Klay just
Speaker 1: couldn't be any further from that, Like Stephen Klayer are
Speaker 1: guys that like when one of their role players catches
Speaker 1: and holds the ball for more than a second, they
Speaker 1: get pissed off about it. Right, So there's gonna be
Speaker 1: some growing pains early on. But I do think Chris
Speaker 1: is a smart player, and I think he's gonna figure
Speaker 1: it out pretty quickly. The biggest question to me is
Speaker 1: how much will the Warriors allow Chris to play his style? Now?
Speaker 1: I think you're primarily going to see this in two
Speaker 1: environments steph off the floor and later playoff rounds against
Speaker 1: teams that force him to run more pick and roll,
Speaker 1: I e. The Lakers, Right, But like, this is the
Speaker 1: classic Chris Paul offense. This is the shooter in the
Speaker 1: left corner, shooter in the right corner, ball screener, and
Speaker 1: shooter in the right wing. Right. That's and just all
Speaker 1: the space in the world operate basically everything that Chris
Speaker 1: Paul has been doing for years with the Suns. Now,
Speaker 1: similarly to what they did with the Suns, they ran
Speaker 1: a ton of Spain pick and roll right with Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: So as Ayton's rolling, you have Booker ever setting either
Speaker 1: setting a backscreen for aighten or Ayton's down screening for
Speaker 1: Booker as he's flashing a high It's like a three
Speaker 1: man game basically, right, and you know, the Warriors do
Speaker 1: a lot of that with Klay Thompson. Is like a
Speaker 1: flare screen. So like they'll have you know, Steph start
Speaker 1: on the left wing and Looney will come up and
Speaker 1: set a ball screen and as Steph comes off, like
Speaker 1: Clay will run from the left wing over the top
Speaker 1: of that that screen back the opposite way, which kind
Speaker 1: of functions as a Spain pick and roll, but gives
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson the entire left side of the floor to operate.
Speaker 1: It's one of their five outsets that they run a lot.
Speaker 1: That's something Chris Paul can run, right, So like they
Speaker 1: can add some of the Warrior complications and flair to it.
Speaker 1: But I would I do think it's smart to slow
Speaker 1: down a little bit with Chris Paul and let him
Speaker 1: run his style a little bit. He's just that's just
Speaker 1: what he's been doing his whole career, and I think
Speaker 1: it'll help in two ways. Like one, it'll help you
Speaker 1: maintain leads in the regular season better by allowing Chris
Speaker 1: to play his style when Steph's off the floor. But two,
Speaker 1: when we get into the postseason, it's just one of
Speaker 1: those things where we saw what happened. Jordan Poole crumbled,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson struggled, and Steph had to do everything and
Speaker 1: his efficiency tanked. It was his worst least efficient series
Speaker 1: since the twenty nineteen Rocket Series. Right, So, like we
Speaker 1: saw what can happen when Steph has to do everything
Speaker 1: offensively when he doesn't get the punch that he got
Speaker 1: out of Jordan Pool and Klay Thompson last year. Right,
Speaker 1: So Chris Paul could be that fix. Now Chris Paul
Speaker 1: takes a third of those pick and roll touches. Now
Speaker 1: Steph Curry doesn't have to deal with the fatigue as
Speaker 1: much and the repetition as much. Chris brings a different
Speaker 1: punch to the situation. Obviously, now you're weaponizing Steph as
Speaker 1: an off ball player in those pick and roll situations.
Speaker 1: He can be the guy that's taking that Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: kind of like the Spain flair whatever, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know what the Warriors call it, but that that
Speaker 1: specific action I just broke down. So like in that's
Speaker 1: in that situation, Chris like legitimately raises your playoff ceiling
Speaker 1: and and and that that to me is like the
Speaker 1: upside of this move. I don't view it at because
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole's volatility is not as damaging in the regular
Speaker 1: season as it is in the playoffs. I do think
Speaker 1: Chris will do a good job maintaining leads, But Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole won you some games last year, like straight up
Speaker 1: one ye some games, and Chris Paul may not have
Speaker 1: that type of upside, But I do think in the
Speaker 1: playoffs or where you're gonna see the real upside there. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other thing I'd like to see is I'd like
Speaker 1: to see a lot of Jonathan Kaminga setting ball screens
Speaker 1: for Chris Paul. He's a more natural vertic spacer, and
Speaker 1: that's something that Chris Paul's always thrived with, is a
Speaker 1: good vertical spacer. He didn't get a ton of short
Speaker 1: role reps last year. I think he only had like
Speaker 1: fifteen made baskets all year out of the short role.
Speaker 1: But I think that's something that he can do more frequently,
Speaker 1: and I think Chris Paul is a good partner for
Speaker 1: him there. My biggest concern for CP three is his
Speaker 1: defensive capabilities at this point in his career. I kind
Speaker 1: of got this feeling while watching him throughout the season
Speaker 1: last year, but I kind of got it again when
Speaker 1: I started watching the film this morning. I watched a
Speaker 1: bunch of Chris Paul guarding and pick and roll, and
Speaker 1: it was kind of like what I remembered from the season.
Speaker 1: It was a mixed bag. Occasionally you'd see the old
Speaker 1: Chris where he'd be super physical at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: and he navigated screen super well, and he's really good
Speaker 1: at like bothering the shooting pocket. It's what all good
Speaker 1: little guy defenders are good at this, which is like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to contest you up high as you're
Speaker 1: trying to gather the ball. I'm going to try to
Speaker 1: disrupt that flow somehow, just with a swipe, even if
Speaker 1: it just makes you move the ball a little bit
Speaker 1: or just slightly lose control. We talk about any energy
Speaker 1: for all the time, like going from your feet up
Speaker 1: through the shot. When you disrupt that energy transfer at all,
Speaker 1: it throws off the muscle memory. And so it's a
Speaker 1: great way to be impactful defensively below the ground, like
Speaker 1: below the rim right and Chris Paul has moments still
Speaker 1: where he can do that and do that well, but
Speaker 1: then also there are other plays where he's like, he
Speaker 1: took more defensive possessions off last year than I'm accustomed
Speaker 1: to seeing. He doesn't have the same quickness that he
Speaker 1: used to have, So like, I'm curious to see how
Speaker 1: Chris Paul fits in defensively. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: Golden State has a better defensive culture than really any
Speaker 1: team Chris has ever played for, so it is possible
Speaker 1: that he has a throwback season on that end, and
Speaker 1: quite frankly, the Warriors are gonna need it. To the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the four. The Warriors basically had two
Speaker 1: defenses last year, their home defense and their road defense.
Speaker 1: They were great at home third and defensive rating ninth
Speaker 1: and rebounding tenth and protecting the paint ninth and guarding
Speaker 1: the three point line, but they were awful on the
Speaker 1: road twenty eighth and defensive rating. So they went from
Speaker 1: third best at home to third worst on the road
Speaker 1: for the record twenty third in rebounding six then protecting
Speaker 1: the paint, but twenty eighth them protecting the three point line. Now,
Speaker 1: how do we interpret that if you're great defensively at home,
Speaker 1: great rebounding, great protecting the paint, great protecting the three
Speaker 1: point line. But then you go on the road and
Speaker 1: your paint defense stays the same, but you're giving up
Speaker 1: a lot more threes, you're giving up a lot more
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds, and in general giving up a lot more points.
Speaker 1: What does that tell me? That tells me it's a
Speaker 1: perimeter defense and rotation issue. So if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: protecting the paint still as well as you usually do,
Speaker 1: but you're giving up a lot of threes and a
Speaker 1: lot of offensive rebounds, that tells me you're in rotation
Speaker 1: a lot. And to be in rotation you have to
Speaker 1: give up dribble penetration. So as a team, their perimeter
Speaker 1: defense was not as good when they went on the road.
Speaker 1: They gave up a lot more dribble penetration, which forced
Speaker 1: a lot more hard help, which forced a lot more
Speaker 1: defensive rotation situations where you're giving up threes and guys
Speaker 1: aren't matched up so you can't box out, which gives
Speaker 1: up a lot of offensive rebounds. Drible pen talk about
Speaker 1: this all the time on the show, but perimeter defense
Speaker 1: is becoming one of the most important elements of defense
Speaker 1: in the NBA. If you don't contain on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: there is a domino effect that destroys your defense. And
Speaker 1: so in this particular situation, like they just didn't defend
Speaker 1: on the road on the perimeter well enough. I don't
Speaker 1: think it was Looney and Draymond. I think it was
Speaker 1: the perimeter players. That's you know, obviously, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different elements at play there, right, Like, because you
Speaker 1: have to ask yourself how much of it is personnel
Speaker 1: related and how much of it was the chemistry issues
Speaker 1: that played the team last year, Because clearly at home,
Speaker 1: you did those things, and you did them well and
Speaker 1: you want a shit ton of games, but it didn't
Speaker 1: work on the road. And like, as is always the case,
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of both. Like the
Speaker 1: team clearly didn't play as hard as they did at
Speaker 1: on the road as they did at home, right, And
Speaker 1: that might have something to do with chemistry, And maybe
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole getting out of the situation helps you there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins going a wall during a significant chunk of
Speaker 1: the season hurts you. But I think it's on everybody.
Speaker 1: I think it's on Stephan Clay a little bit. Like
Speaker 1: remember they they lost a game in Charlotte last year
Speaker 1: because Steph was like just not sliding his feet in
Speaker 1: front of Dennis Smith Junior. Right, Like, they all have
Speaker 1: to do better. It's not all Jordan Poole's fault, Like
Speaker 1: from the top down. They need to have a better
Speaker 1: commitment to the work when they're on the road. But
Speaker 1: I do think bringing in a starting caliber perimeter player
Speaker 1: a lah what Auto Porter Junior was on the championship team,
Speaker 1: a guy that allows you to play small but well.
Speaker 1: And that's more of a that's more of a playoff thing,
Speaker 1: the playing small things more in the playoffs thing. In
Speaker 1: the regular season, it's just depth. But having a starting
Speaker 1: caliber forward somewhere in there that fits your timeline more
Speaker 1: could go a long way to helping with those specific issues.
Speaker 1: Now here's my prediction. Where I have the Warriors in
Speaker 1: this ranking at sixth is pretty much where I see
Speaker 1: them finishing this year. Like if they stand Pat and
Speaker 1: Moses Moody and Jonathan Minga do it most one year
Speaker 1: old basketball players do, which is get like a little
Speaker 1: bit better and not quite ready to play in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I think they have a puncher's chance to beat any
Speaker 1: of those five, like I gave I went over the
Speaker 1: odds earlier, but like, yeah, the Lakers would be favored
Speaker 1: over the Warriors, but obviously the Warriors can beat the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like Game four could have gone either
Speaker 1: way with the the Lannie Walker stuff, right, and then
Speaker 1: even D'angela Russell hit a big shot at the end
Speaker 1: of Game one, right, But like at the end of
Speaker 1: the day when push games to shove in Game six,
Speaker 1: you got your ass kicked, And so like, the Lakers
Speaker 1: deserve to be favored, but you know, the Warriors are
Speaker 1: certainly capable of winning that series. And I'd say the
Speaker 1: same thing about all of them, Like this, if they
Speaker 1: played the Suns, Like there's a version of that where
Speaker 1: they you know, Andrew Wiggins defends Kevin Durant super well,
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson is a throwback series against Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Steph just outplays everybody and you win, Like you
Speaker 1: can beat everybody, but the odds are stacked against you.
Speaker 1: You are a legitimate, like considerable underdog against all five
Speaker 1: of those teams. So if they say in pat and
Speaker 1: they don't get a significant leap out of one of
Speaker 1: the young guys. I think they'll lose, probably in the
Speaker 1: second round, but I think they're just one piece away
Speaker 1: from vaulting into that next tier. And I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example, if they just got og And Andobi. If
Speaker 1: they got og And Andobi, I think that would overnight
Speaker 1: put them on equal footing with the teams above them
Speaker 1: on this list. Overnight, they'd have as good a chance
Speaker 1: to win as the Bucks, as the Celtics, as the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: as the Lakers, as the Suns. They'd be like og
Speaker 1: And Andobi just gives you infinitely more defensive flexibility. It
Speaker 1: gives you the ability to thrive on the road more.
Speaker 1: It gives you, like the ability to hang with small
Speaker 1: ball teams and big teams. It changes everything for you.
Speaker 1: And so that's an example of the type of move
Speaker 1: that vaults you from being a definitive sixth to one
Speaker 1: of six And I think I think that's the kind
Speaker 1: of move that we gotta be on the lookout for
Speaker 1: if you're the Warriors now again. Jonathan Kamina thirteen minutes
Speaker 1: a game last year in the playoffs, made fourteen of
Speaker 1: his twenty seven jump shots, shot nine to fifteen at
Speaker 1: the rim converted spot at possessions at one point six
Speaker 1: to three points per possession, but he foult too much.
Speaker 1: He committed four fouls for thirty six minutes in his
Speaker 1: playoff run. Obviously there's some issues there that he's got
Speaker 1: to work out. Maybe it all works, but I don't
Speaker 1: think you can. I think it's too big of a
Speaker 1: risk with the timeline that Stepf's on in his career
Speaker 1: to not make a bigger investment in this particular group.
Speaker 1: And I do think Mike Dunlevy is more aggressive in
Speaker 1: his approach, and I think it's possible that he does.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hit these mailback questions real quick, and
Speaker 1: before we go to our three mailback questions, I wanted
Speaker 1: to respond. There was a comment in yesterday's video being
Speaker 1: like said something along the lines of like, hey, like
Speaker 1: you said Damian Lillard is so much better in pick
Speaker 1: and roll than Drew, and then you told us about
Speaker 1: how great Drew is and pick and roll, Like what, like,
Speaker 1: just what's the deal? I'll clarify this. I thought I
Speaker 1: thought it was pretty obvious, but I'll clarify it. Like
Speaker 1: Drewaliday had a productive season in pick and roll last year,
Speaker 1: Like I think we I think we pointed it out
Speaker 1: like fourth best among players ran at least seven hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty. I'm not trying to undercut that Drew's a
Speaker 1: good pick and roll player and he can be very productive,
Speaker 1: and he had great chemistry with Brook Lopez. But look
Speaker 1: at the way he's guarded, Like you're running basically a
Speaker 1: soft drop against Drew Holliday and you're not panic chasing
Speaker 1: him and putting two on the ball. Like we can
Speaker 1: acknowledge that Drew is a good pick and roll player
Speaker 1: who against vanilla coverages last year put up a good
Speaker 1: points per possession number, while also acknowledging that Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: is way better than him on the offensive end, Like
Speaker 1: it's it's just a fact, Like Dame's gonna put up
Speaker 1: the same level of efficiency in pick and roll against
Speaker 1: hyper aggressive coverages that are blitzing him and showing like
Speaker 1: crazy and like like literally in a Yanna's Dame pick
Speaker 1: and roll, you probably still are going to just concede
Speaker 1: roleman possessions, to be honest, like that, that's how insanely
Speaker 1: deadly that pairing can be. So like, again, Drew's a
Speaker 1: good basketball player. There's just levels to this. There's there's
Speaker 1: levels to this, like like Drew's really damn good. Dame
Speaker 1: is clearly way better than him, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was clear in the in the in the videos. But
Speaker 1: in case you didn't understand that, I wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of clarify that really quick. First, male, bad question, love
Speaker 1: this question. With parody increasing in the league and the
Speaker 1: amount of talent at an insane level right now, do
Speaker 1: you think luck will become a major factor more a
Speaker 1: more major factor than before And if so, do you
Speaker 1: think it will be bad for the league. First of all,
Speaker 1: I never think parody is bad for the league. I
Speaker 1: see a lot of talk like this. I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of talk like this from Warriors fans when the
Speaker 1: when KD was there. Oh, we need a big, bad
Speaker 1: guy villain. Like, no, you don't like bad guy villains
Speaker 1: are good for the league as well, Like you want,
Speaker 1: you want to have teams that you hate, but parody
Speaker 1: is always best. Look at the NFL. The NFL literally
Speaker 1: has become monumentally more popular in the United States because
Speaker 1: of parody in a lot of ways. Like you watch
Speaker 1: any Sunday and any team can beat any team, and
Speaker 1: that that's the any teams capable of winning the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: That's the advantage with the NFL, right, And like with
Speaker 1: the NBA, I think they're in a better place than
Speaker 1: they've been in a long time with parody, which is great,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it's bad for the league. I
Speaker 1: think I think you can have but I think you
Speaker 1: do have both. I think there are villains. I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers are villains. I think the Warriors are villains.
Speaker 1: Like the teams that have won multiple championships in the year.
Speaker 1: Over the years, they're villains. But you also have parody,
Speaker 1: which is great. Now is it luck a little bit? Injury?
Speaker 1: Luck will play a role. Injury luck always plays a role,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of stuff that's not luck. Continuity
Speaker 1: is gonna matter more than ever before. We talked about
Speaker 1: that after the Nuggets won. Natural basketball fit will matter
Speaker 1: a lot, Like we have a lot of teams that
Speaker 1: like look at the Suns. We're gonna find out a
Speaker 1: lot this year about total talent versus natural basket ball
Speaker 1: fit and how much that matters coaching. That's a big differentiator.
Speaker 1: Look at Eric spols for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Star performances can yo if Yokich just kicks Anthony Davis's ass,
Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter what else is going on, right,
Speaker 1: Like individual matchups among stars can make a big difference.
Speaker 1: That's why Steph Curry and the Warriors is the sixth
Speaker 1: best team can't be written off because if Steph just
Speaker 1: monumentally outplays any of the other teams, like they're gonna win, right,
Speaker 1: commitment to the dirty work, these are all things that
Speaker 1: are gonna be separators. That that's something that could be
Speaker 1: an issue for the Suns if they're not careful. So
Speaker 1: like all of these things matter. You know that the
Speaker 1: star performances thing the Lakers have, like this beautiful deep roster,
Speaker 1: but like Lebron is declining and Anthony Davis is not
Speaker 1: as good as some of the guys at the top
Speaker 1: of the league. So like the Lakers might lose just
Speaker 1: because of their top tier stars. Like we're gonna do
Speaker 1: a Lakers video a couple of them later in the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, and it's like, what really, what
Speaker 1: it really comes down to for the Lakers is candle
Speaker 1: Lebron the out execute in the half court some of
Speaker 1: these other stars, and if he doesn't find his jump shot,
Speaker 1: and get to that point with his foot healthy, they're
Speaker 1: not beating anybody, right, So like that's where that's where
Speaker 1: all those little things are gonna become differentiators. When then
Speaker 1: you've got talent parody at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: Next mail back question, who do you think are the
Speaker 1: next stars slash all Stars that could be on the move?
Speaker 1: Obviously Harden wants out, but who could be a mid
Speaker 1: season Trey Trey Trey Trey Young is one of the
Speaker 1: names I put down. Joel Embiid is a guy to
Speaker 1: watch out for with the situation in Philly, and then
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns is another guy that I could see
Speaker 1: getting moved this year. All right. Lastly, this offseason, Boston
Speaker 1: has in essence switched up its guard core by replacing
Speaker 1: Smart with Drew Holliday. Defensively, how do the two compare
Speaker 1: and how much of an upgrade is Drew over Smart? Now,
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of archetype, I think Drew and Marcus
Speaker 1: Smarter like incredibly similar basketball players. Like they're both a
Speaker 1: little over aggressive sometimes where you're like, yeah, I wish
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have taken that shot. They're both like kind
Speaker 1: of versatile guards in the sense that they can play
Speaker 1: in the post right defensively, they're both elite point of
Speaker 1: attack defenders that have the flexibility to play in switching
Speaker 1: schemes because they can guard up. So they're very similar.
Speaker 1: Drew's just a better version of Marcus in my opinion,
Speaker 1: at all of those things. I think he's just a
Speaker 1: little bit better than Marcus at everything, and I think
Speaker 1: that makes him an upgrade. And so it kind of
Speaker 1: worked out beautifully for the Celtics because you needed Smart's
Speaker 1: contract to get Porzingis, and then you ended up using
Speaker 1: Robert Williams, who was another big that you got to
Speaker 1: bring back to bring back Drew Holiday, and so now
Speaker 1: you and again Malcolm Brogden good player. I like Malcolm.
Speaker 1: He is going to help somebody this year, but I
Speaker 1: didn't see him as like that big of a needle
Speaker 1: mover for Boston, especially since Derek White just kind of
Speaker 1: ended up being better than him in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: especially on the defensive end. So like I tend to
Speaker 1: look at it as like, really, the only major sacrifice
Speaker 1: is a couple of things. Robert Williams. Losing him hurts
Speaker 1: your center depth. That's gonna be an issue we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that in the Celtics video. Grant Williams obviously didn't
Speaker 1: need him much last year, but against teams like the Bucks,
Speaker 1: he could be serious value because he can guard Giannis
Speaker 1: a little bit. Right against a team like the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: he could be the foundation for your guard yokitch with
Speaker 1: a forward and help from behind scheme that everybody likes
Speaker 1: to use. Right. So, like, I do think that they've
Speaker 1: cost themselves a little bit of front court depth and versatility.
Speaker 1: But bottom line is they brought in a better version
Speaker 1: of Marcus Smart and if Porzingis can stay healthy, he's
Speaker 1: a better big than the bigs you were playing last year.
Speaker 1: So again, as long as you have the health luck
Speaker 1: that you're gonna need, I think Boston is actually significantly
Speaker 1: better today than they were last year. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today is always a
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. Tomorrow we're probably gonna do because
Speaker 1: we got like three and a half weeks before we
Speaker 1: get to the season, So our last five season preview
Speaker 1: videos we're still gonna do them. They're just gonna be
Speaker 1: a little more spaced out. So like tomorrow, I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna do a Media Day reaction just to all of
Speaker 1: the interest quotes and stuff I saw Media Day, and
Speaker 1: then we'll probably do number five on Wednesday, and then
Speaker 1: we might do on Thursday a preseason reaction to the
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi games, and then we might do number four
Speaker 1: on Friday. Right, So like they're gonna be a little
Speaker 1: more spaced out over the course the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but hopefully by the end of the next week we'll
Speaker 1: be through our season previews and then we'll just be
Speaker 1: covering preseason games at that point. And then three and
Speaker 1: I think exactly three weeks from Thursday, I believe is
Speaker 1: the season opener, So right around the corner, we're getting
Speaker 1: to NBA basketball. All right, guys, I appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: I will see you tomorrow. The volume