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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Vanduel here at the volume we are live on AMP.
Speaker 1: It is time for our bi weekly power rankings. And
Speaker 1: don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or on our
Speaker 1: podcast feed, that AMP is the very first place that
Speaker 1: you guys can get our live breakdowns like this, so
Speaker 1: you guys know the drill We're gonna remember. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be I'm gonna mention a lot today, things along the
Speaker 1: lines of in the last two weeks or since our
Speaker 1: last list or in the last chunk of games, and
Speaker 1: the main reason why is I I don't want to
Speaker 1: be just a standard power rankings list that primarily focuses
Speaker 1: on the on the postseason for starters. I just want
Speaker 1: to do something different. And then secondly, I just don't
Speaker 1: really change my opinion that much based on regular season
Speaker 1: basketball unless I see some things super drastic, like for instance,
Speaker 1: with the Warriors. Yeah, it's been a rough start. I
Speaker 1: still think they are a top tier contender. If I
Speaker 1: was doing a playoff power rankings, they'd probably still be
Speaker 1: in my top three right now. They're not even on
Speaker 1: the list this week. So the way that these power
Speaker 1: rankings lists are gonna work because I really want to
Speaker 1: take it as an opportunity to focus on who's playing
Speaker 1: well right now just to kind of help us keep
Speaker 1: things interesting during the regular season. So here are the
Speaker 1: teams that dropped off the list from last week. First
Speaker 1: is the Warriors. I had them up at ten two
Speaker 1: weeks ago based on respect as the defending champs, and
Speaker 1: their starting lineup was still playing really well. And then
Speaker 1: they went three and four since that list. Their seventh
Speaker 1: in offense during that span, but defense continues to be
Speaker 1: their issue, their sixteenth over that span. And I talked
Speaker 1: last night about how it's not just the bench, it's
Speaker 1: the starters that are having issues too. That starting lineup
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and
Speaker 1: Covan Looney. Over the course of the first six games,
Speaker 1: that grouping had a deep sense of rating of one
Speaker 1: oh three and since that East Coast road trip their
Speaker 1: last seven games, they have a defensive rating of a
Speaker 1: hundred and ten. So they just you know, we can
Speaker 1: talk about the bench all we want. We could talk
Speaker 1: about Clay Thompson missing shots. We could talk about Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool missing shots. The core five guys are also not
Speaker 1: defending the way they did to start the season. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls, I had them at nine after their
Speaker 1: five and four start. They were defending really well. Well,
Speaker 1: the bottom is fallen out of their defense. Their twenty
Speaker 1: fifth and defense over the last two weeks and they
Speaker 1: dropped five out of their last six games. The Toronto
Speaker 1: Raptors there four and four in the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: I was concerned about their inability to score and defend
Speaker 1: in the half court. If you guys remember like they
Speaker 1: were third in offense, but and there their third in
Speaker 1: offense and eighth and defense. But if you looked at
Speaker 1: cleaning the glass and looked at their half court numbers,
Speaker 1: they weren't good at all. Well, it seems like other
Speaker 1: teams have figured that out. They were third in offense
Speaker 1: the first two weeks, seventeenth and offense the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: eighth in defense the first two weeks eighteenth and defense.
Speaker 1: The last two weeks they were fourth and net rating.
Speaker 1: The first two weeks they were twenty second in net
Speaker 1: race eating the last two weeks. They did get a
Speaker 1: nice little win at home last night over the Heat.
Speaker 1: No Gna Nobi was awesome on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: So this is where I enjoyed this particular structure. We
Speaker 1: might never talk about a team like the Indiana Pacers
Speaker 1: over the course of the season, but with this type
Speaker 1: of structure and power rankings, we get to talk about them.
Speaker 1: This week. At number ten, I have the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 1: They were four and one. Since our last list, they've
Speaker 1: won six out of eight overall, pushing them up over
Speaker 1: five day are now seven and six on the season.
Speaker 1: They beat the Raptors, they beat the Pelicans, they beat
Speaker 1: the neat the Heat and the nets in that span.
Speaker 1: They're also fourth in defense. Since our last list, anchored
Speaker 1: by Miles Turner has been fantastic. He had and ten
Speaker 1: with three blocks last night in a win over the Hornets.
Speaker 1: One of the revelations here in the early part of
Speaker 1: the season has been Benedict Mathin. You know, and I
Speaker 1: liked him at Arizona. Remember I'm from Tucson, so I
Speaker 1: followed the Wildcats closely, and you know, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of things I liked. He was an obvious NBA athlete.
Speaker 1: He already was pretty built into his grown man body,
Speaker 1: and he was really competitive. You could see that fire
Speaker 1: in him, which you know, manifested in his work, ethic
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. So I liked him as
Speaker 1: a prospect. But my main concern was his jump shot.
Speaker 1: I thought his form was a little funky. It's got
Speaker 1: a hitch in it. It's kind of off to the
Speaker 1: side of his head. But he's shooting on pull up
Speaker 1: jumpers this year, including on pull up threes. I remember
Speaker 1: when I started coaching high school basketball. I I coach
Speaker 1: with a really good coach here in Tucson as one
Speaker 1: of his assistants. Obviously, because my availability in the evenings
Speaker 1: is tough, so I primarily hope in the morning, help
Speaker 1: in the mornings with like skill development and stuff, and
Speaker 1: our head coach. He played professionally in Italy for like
Speaker 1: seven years. He's point guard, just a basketball genius. And
Speaker 1: one of the things he told me was like, don't
Speaker 1: worry so much about form, especially with young players, because
Speaker 1: that it's just gonna get in their heads. Focus on
Speaker 1: things that are more controllable, like their base, making sure
Speaker 1: they get good lift every time, making sure they ditch
Speaker 1: unnecessary movement, and things along those lines. And we could
Speaker 1: talk about Bennedic Natherin's release all we want, but he's
Speaker 1: always had a really good bass, he gets great lift,
Speaker 1: there's not a ton of wasted movement, and that's why
Speaker 1: he's knocking down shots right now. So a fun little
Speaker 1: stretch of basketball from the Indiana Pacers, and both Buddy
Speaker 1: Yild and Miles Turner look excellent. I still I still
Speaker 1: remain shocked that the Lakers didn't see those guys as
Speaker 1: people that would um give Lebron and Anthony Davis a
Speaker 1: real fighting chance. Number nine the Dallas Mavericks. There are
Speaker 1: four and three since our last list. They did drop
Speaker 1: a game without Luka donchitch last night. They started the
Speaker 1: year grade on offense and poorly on defense, and it's
Speaker 1: been the exact opposite since. So since our last power rankings,
Speaker 1: there twenty eight in offense and fifth in defense. I
Speaker 1: watched the Clippers game yesterday from I believe it was
Speaker 1: Monday night, might have been Sunday. Dallas jumped out to
Speaker 1: a huge lead. Then you know, the Clippers methodically worked
Speaker 1: their way back in by playing good defense, forcing Luca
Speaker 1: and a bunch of mrs getting out on the other
Speaker 1: end and scoring. John Wall had a really nice game
Speaker 1: um getting getting to the basket, knocking down, pull up
Speaker 1: fifteen footers and stuff like that. The game was tied
Speaker 1: at ninety three late and both teams were double teaming
Speaker 1: the Stars, So the Mavericks were double teaming Paul George
Speaker 1: and the Clippers were double teaming Luca don che It's.
Speaker 1: But in this four possession sequence, the Clippers went down,
Speaker 1: they double team Paul George. He turned it over. Then
Speaker 1: the Mavericks went down, the double team Luca don che
Speaker 1: It got a wide open three for Reggie Bullock because
Speaker 1: Luca made the play right. Then they went down and
Speaker 1: they double team Paul George again. He turned it over again,
Speaker 1: and then they went down and the double team Luca
Speaker 1: don Chech. He made the right play, Dwight Powell on
Speaker 1: the short roll, hit Reggie Bullock on the left wing.
Speaker 1: He hit another big shot and the game was over.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of an interesting game back and forth
Speaker 1: where Luca just made the right plays at the end
Speaker 1: of the game and PG turned it over twice. It's
Speaker 1: also good to see Reggie Bullock finally get going hitting
Speaker 1: those massive three's. Christian Wood is also averaging twenty points
Speaker 1: per game in their last three, and they're toning back
Speaker 1: Luca's usage a bit. It's only thirty six percent since
Speaker 1: our last list, when it was up over fort to
Speaker 1: start the season. Alright, number eight the Memphis Grizzlies there
Speaker 1: four and three since our last list, twenty one and
Speaker 1: offense and third in defense. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Desmond Bain for a second. He heard his big toes,
Speaker 1: who's gonna be out for a few weeks, but he's
Speaker 1: having a fantastic season, fueled by his improvements as a
Speaker 1: shot creator. If you guys remember I I always really
Speaker 1: like Desmond Bain's spot up shooting and a little bit
Speaker 1: of his relocation shooting, you know, some of that stuff's
Speaker 1: off the dribble, but not too much more, mostly attacking
Speaker 1: closeouts right. And I love his competitiveness. He competes on
Speaker 1: the defensive end as well. Lots to love about Desmond Baine.
Speaker 1: But I've never thought he's a little too upright, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a great first step and so, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't handle the ball super well. So I was
Speaker 1: concerned about his shot creation. Well, he's put a ton
Speaker 1: of work over the course of the off season. I
Speaker 1: was listening to a Grizzlies broadcast the other day and
Speaker 1: they were talking about this. He um relentlessly focused on
Speaker 1: his off the dribble shooting and just his ball handling
Speaker 1: in general. Well, look at this. He's forty six percent
Speaker 1: on seven pull up jumpers for per game, including forty
Speaker 1: percent from three, And he's getting into the restricted area
Speaker 1: to attempt shots four point three times per game, up
Speaker 1: from two point seven last year. So he's just getting
Speaker 1: to the basket a lot more, although he is missing
Speaker 1: some layups right now. Memphis desperately needed a second legit
Speaker 1: shot creator. If Desmond Baine becomes that, that's huge for them.
Speaker 1: Um number seven is number seven, the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 1: They're five and three since our last list. Wins over
Speaker 1: Chicago twice, they beat Memphis. They also beat the Warriors
Speaker 1: ninth and offense and tenth and defense since our last list.
Speaker 1: Really balanced attack, They've got six guys averaging double figures
Speaker 1: in this stretch. They've also been really good in crunch
Speaker 1: time closing games. They're three and one in games that
Speaker 1: involved crunch time with a one seven offensive rating in
Speaker 1: a nine five defensive rating when the game is within
Speaker 1: five with less than five minutes left. UM the Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings at number six. They're five and one since our
Speaker 1: last list, seven and two since their own four start,
Speaker 1: their second in offense and nineteenth and defense over the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. Daron Fox's improvement as a jump shooter
Speaker 1: is one of the main things that is driving this resurgence.
Speaker 1: From the King's last year, He's got thirty four percent
Speaker 1: on catching shoot jumpers. This year he's shooting fifty on
Speaker 1: catching shoot jumpers. Obviously a big deal, especially with Demonic
Speaker 1: Sabonis on the floor and the attention that he commands
Speaker 1: around the basket. Demonus has also been fantastic over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of weeks, and then tarn
Speaker 1: Fox is up to on eight point four pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots per game, which is really solid. He's been
Speaker 1: going to that pull up to a lot at the
Speaker 1: end of games and it's been going in for him alright.
Speaker 1: Number five the Phoenix Suns. They are three and four
Speaker 1: since our last list, but they've been decimated by injuries.
Speaker 1: CP three has a heel issue, Cam Johnson tours meniscus. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Jake Crowder has been out the entire season because he
Speaker 1: demanded a trade. So they're just a little thin right now,
Speaker 1: but they're still thirteenth in offense and fourteenth and defense
Speaker 1: over this stretch and manufacturing some wins, including an impressive
Speaker 1: win last night against the Golden State Warriors. I was
Speaker 1: really impressed by Devin Booker last night, yet again passing
Speaker 1: the basketball. That's been something that I've been on all season.
Speaker 1: I think has been the biggest driver of his success
Speaker 1: as he's been rising up the league over the course
Speaker 1: of the last couple of seasons. And then Campaign is
Speaker 1: doing a really nice job filling in for Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: He's averaging nineteen points and six assists. He gets a
Speaker 1: ton of dribble penetration. Last night, I was talking about
Speaker 1: how he's like the fastball to Chris Paul's change up.
Speaker 1: You know, Chris Paul methodically works in the lane and
Speaker 1: dries debate defenders into getting out of position so that
Speaker 1: he can make passes to advantage situations. Campaign it's a
Speaker 1: lot more straightforward than that. He's just getting downhill and
Speaker 1: drawing help kicking out with Everything with Phoenix is about
Speaker 1: getting to that backside so you can have guys like
Speaker 1: Damian Lee and Michaal Bridges making plays um because they're
Speaker 1: really talented and when you give them advantages, they're gonna score.
Speaker 1: And Damian Lee, for instance, is shooting seventeen for thirty
Speaker 1: from three since our last list, number four. The Portland Trailblazers.
Speaker 1: They're five and two since our last power rankings with
Speaker 1: wins over the Pels, The Heat and the Sun's are
Speaker 1: eighteenth in offense and twelfth and defense. They're doing it
Speaker 1: in crunch time. They've won three games in crunch time
Speaker 1: during this span. Is a team. They're shooting fifties fifty
Speaker 1: percent from the field in sixty from three in clutch
Speaker 1: situations over the last two weeks. Jeremy Grant is playing
Speaker 1: incredibly well in this span despite some injuries, you know,
Speaker 1: because Dame has been in and out of the lineup
Speaker 1: with that calf issue. He's averaging twenty seven, six and
Speaker 1: three in this five and two stretch on fifty six
Speaker 1: percent shooting from the field and six from three. You know,
Speaker 1: I was kind of uh intrigued by Jeremy Grant a
Speaker 1: lot over the last couple of years. I wanted the
Speaker 1: Lakers to get him when I was covering the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You know, when he went to Detroit, he from Denver
Speaker 1: for the same amount of money that Denver offered him.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be a lead ball creator, right, So
Speaker 1: he goes to Detroit and he has a pretty productive season.
Speaker 1: I think he averaged somewhere around twenty four points per game,
Speaker 1: and he was relatively efficient. Next year, he was kind
Speaker 1: of injury plagued, right. But what you're seeing is, you know,
Speaker 1: when someone goes that route transitioning from off ball to
Speaker 1: on ball type of creation, there's an adjustment period and
Speaker 1: then there's like a comfortability that builds over time. And
Speaker 1: what are seeing is a player that that is only
Speaker 1: in his third season really in this type of role,
Speaker 1: and he's thriving in it now because he's getting a
Speaker 1: lot more reps, he's a lot more comfortable. You're seeing
Speaker 1: development as a pull up jump shooter. His handle looks great.
Speaker 1: There was that game against the Pels that we covered
Speaker 1: i think last week where he was hitt and pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots to get the defender to come up
Speaker 1: on him and then using counter moves to get to
Speaker 1: the rim and make him big plays to lead his
Speaker 1: team to a win without Damian Lillard or use of
Speaker 1: Nurkics on the floor. So a really really nice pick
Speaker 1: up for Portland. And hey, they're top four team here
Speaker 1: early in the season. Number three. The Denver Nuggets there
Speaker 1: five and two since our last list, and they're one
Speaker 1: of those two losses was without Local, without Nickel Yokich.
Speaker 1: This has been a weaker stretch of their schedule though,
Speaker 1: um just for a little bit of context, the only
Speaker 1: really good team they played during this fan was Boston
Speaker 1: and they did get rolled in that game. But they're
Speaker 1: making some progress on defense there, up to up in
Speaker 1: the league in defense over their last seven games. And
Speaker 1: then Jamal Murray just looking a little bit more like himself.
Speaker 1: Every single day. Um hit some big shots last night
Speaker 1: against the Knicks. He's up to nineteen points per game
Speaker 1: on fifty three percent shooting in his last seven games
Speaker 1: and forty one on ten pull up jumpers per game.
Speaker 1: Like to see that closer to forty percent. But once
Speaker 1: he gets there, that's when we'll really know that Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray is back to what he used to be because
Speaker 1: he's one of the best pull up jump jump shooters
Speaker 1: in the league. Bones Highland, after a rough start to
Speaker 1: the season, is also starting to get going. He made
Speaker 1: three massive threes uh in the late third quarter in
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter against the Knicks last night. He had
Speaker 1: one to start the fourth quarter where he got an
Speaker 1: and one falling forward. It was one of the most
Speaker 1: bizarre um you know and one threes that I've ever seen. Uh.
Speaker 1: That gave him a big lead. I think they went
Speaker 1: up like eighty, but they ended up falling apart. Just
Speaker 1: without Yokich, they just don't have the interior presence that
Speaker 1: they need, especially against the Knicks team that has a
Speaker 1: good amount of interior size. Bones Highland is shooting on
Speaker 1: five pull up threes per game since our last list.
Speaker 1: All right, number two, the Milwaukee Bucks. They are four
Speaker 1: and three since our last list, but still just a
Speaker 1: half game back of the best record in UH in
Speaker 1: the entire league, and injuries are really the driver of
Speaker 1: this current little, somewhat um less impressive stretch. Janice smissed
Speaker 1: three games he had a foot ankle issue. He's also
Speaker 1: only averaging twenty four points on thirty nine percent shooting
Speaker 1: UH in the four games that he did play, so
Speaker 1: he's obviously a little banged up right now. Now. Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday is out with an ankle issue. So they went
Speaker 1: in the last night's game down three starters and with
Speaker 1: one of their starters not quite a hundred percent yet.
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis was starting, Javon Carter started, who's been really good,
Speaker 1: and then uh bou Champ. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a rookie and he had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a rough shooting night last night, but he shows a
Speaker 1: lot of flashes defensively and he's got a good frame.
Speaker 1: They're still just finding a way to win games. How
Speaker 1: is that? Because they defend their sixth and defense since
Speaker 1: our last list, despite being down all of those players,
Speaker 1: and Brook Lopez is one of the early season favorites
Speaker 1: for defensive Player of the Year this year. He made
Speaker 1: seven threes in block three shots last night in that
Speaker 1: win against Cleveland. And so despite all that bad luck,
Speaker 1: despite Janice being you know, hurt and out of the
Speaker 1: lineup a little bit, just bit, Drew being out, despite
Speaker 1: Pat Connaton being out, just by Chris Middleton being out,
Speaker 1: despite all of that, they went four and three because
Speaker 1: that's what teams with championship aspirations do. They have a
Speaker 1: real identity that they can lean on when there's lineup turmoil.
Speaker 1: There is a large chasm for me between the top
Speaker 1: two teams Boston and Milwaukee, and the rest of the
Speaker 1: league right now. I expect some other teams to join
Speaker 1: that level over the course of the season, but right
Speaker 1: now Boston and Milwaukee look like they're in a class
Speaker 1: of their own. Number one in the Boston Celtics. They
Speaker 1: had a defensive clinic versus Atlanta last night to bring
Speaker 1: them to eight and oh since our last list, their
Speaker 1: first an offense since our last list, and first an
Speaker 1: offense for the season with a comfortable margin. They're up
Speaker 1: to eleventh and defense over their last eight games, driven
Speaker 1: in large part because of their really good defensive performance
Speaker 1: last night against Atlanta. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are
Speaker 1: still killing it. They're averaging fifty and eight in the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. And then I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart for a second, because you know, I've been
Speaker 1: a little as good as Jason Tatum has been offensively.
Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed because he kind of stopped
Speaker 1: being the playmaker that he was towards the end of
Speaker 1: the year last year. Now, I wanted him to do
Speaker 1: that because he wasn't a great isolation player and he
Speaker 1: wasn't getting to the basket and finishing well enough, and
Speaker 1: he needed to improve more in those areas, and he
Speaker 1: was already showing some high showing some promise as a playmaker,
Speaker 1: so I thought it made more sense for him to
Speaker 1: take that role and for Jalen Brown to kind of
Speaker 1: be your, you know, point him and shoot him type
Speaker 1: of of score well. As Tatum has kind of gone
Speaker 1: into this season, he's been much better isolating, much better
Speaker 1: getting to the rim, much better scoring efficiently. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of worked out that he let go of some
Speaker 1: of that playmaking rope and the guy who slotted into
Speaker 1: that role as Marcus Smart, Um, he's he's been I
Speaker 1: want to say, he's averaging a career high and in
Speaker 1: assist right now, he's averaging like eight or nine assists
Speaker 1: per game since our last Power rankings, and he is
Speaker 1: taking on that specific role of getting dribble penetration, starting
Speaker 1: the advantage creation process for Boston that they do such
Speaker 1: a good job of extending because they have so many
Speaker 1: good players, and Grant Williams and Jaylen Brown and Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum and and uh and uh, you know Malcolm brogged
Speaker 1: in on the back end, Al Horford, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: spotting up in the corners, whatever it is. They just
Speaker 1: have so many guys that can expand the advantage that
Speaker 1: they just need that guy to get that initial dribble
Speaker 1: penetration and kick out. And right now Marcus Smart is
Speaker 1: the guy that's filling that role. And then lastly, Grant Williams,
Speaker 1: He's on four threes per game and has been excellent defensively. Um,
Speaker 1: in the last couple of weeks. You know, like I
Speaker 1: said last night, he bet on himself turning down that
Speaker 1: extension to try to get more and he's been so
Speaker 1: good to start the season that he's probably gonna get
Speaker 1: it um and then Luke Cornette has done a really
Speaker 1: nice job filling in for Robert Williams. They look like
Speaker 1: the best team in the world right now, and they
Speaker 1: deserve the top spot on our list. You might notice
Speaker 1: next to me here on the screen, good friend, Mr Carson.
Speaker 1: We've had no Carson for a while because we've been
Speaker 1: waiting on a specific piece of equipment that we finally
Speaker 1: got installed so that we can functionally make this whole
Speaker 1: thing work. But dude, it is good to see you man.
Speaker 1: How are you today? Oh Jason, it is just a
Speaker 1: joy to be here and I'm great, very happy. Some
Speaker 1: great basketball going on. Hell yeah, We've got five questions
Speaker 1: from the early chunk of the season here really quickly.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, Please subscribe to the YouTube channels
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter and underscore Jason lt s. You guys
Speaker 1: don't miss show announcements or any film breakdowns that we do.
Speaker 1: And if you miss one of these episodes and you
Speaker 1: can't get back to YouTube, remember you can find them
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops tonight. And on
Speaker 1: that note, Carson, let's get to question number one. What
Speaker 1: do you got question number one. Despite their struggles, the
Speaker 1: Warriors and the Clippers are still co favorites to get
Speaker 1: out of the West Jason. They're both plus three thirty
Speaker 1: on fandel to win the Western Conference. Does that make
Speaker 1: sense to you? Are they still deserving favorites? Yes, because, well,
Speaker 1: specifically with the Warriors, I'll say yes. I don't feel
Speaker 1: nearly as optimistic about the Clippers. I mean, for starters,
Speaker 1: there's nobody else in the Western Conference that's really blowing
Speaker 1: anybody away. Like Portland's off to a good start, but
Speaker 1: then they drop a game at home to the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets last night. You know, like the Nuggets. They're nine
Speaker 1: in five, but they have lost a lot of games
Speaker 1: too good teams, and their defense isn't nearly where you
Speaker 1: expect it to be. So no one's really impressing in
Speaker 1: a way that would lead you to believe that the
Speaker 1: Clippers or Warriors are in trouble out West now? Is
Speaker 1: there a chasm forming between them and the Bucks and Celtics. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think everybody would agree with that. But in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, I'm not overly concerned with the Warriors. They've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of issues. Their defense is falling off
Speaker 1: a cliff, their seventeenth in their last seven games. Their
Speaker 1: starters have a one ten defensive rating during that span
Speaker 1: as well, which is not good. Clay Thompson and Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool are both struggling a bit offensively, and then their
Speaker 1: bench has trouble holding leads. They're getting outscored by thirteen
Speaker 1: points per one Hunter possessions with Steph off the floor,
Speaker 1: when they're outscoring teams by seven when Steff is on
Speaker 1: the floor, which is a twenty point swing. But everything
Speaker 1: is fixable. The starters aren't defending, but we know they
Speaker 1: can and we know they will. They were one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive units in the league to start the season,
Speaker 1: and they were outstanding in the playoffs last year, so
Speaker 1: they will again be outstanding soon. It's just a matter
Speaker 1: of commitment. Clay Thompson is shooting on a wide open threes.
Speaker 1: Hot take here, Carson. I think those are gonna start
Speaker 1: going in eventually. Yes, he's had some shot selection stuff,
Speaker 1: but if really you want Clay to be aggressive, if
Speaker 1: you just want him to be making shots, people are
Speaker 1: really only complaining about the shots because they're not going in.
Speaker 1: And then Jordan pools a young players are gonna occasionally
Speaker 1: gonna have some cold stretches, but they're gonna find a
Speaker 1: way to bolster the bench. They've got trades they can
Speaker 1: make um involving the young players. They're gonna be a
Speaker 1: buyout destination because they'll have minutes available. It's a great culture,
Speaker 1: you know, a West Coast and uh chance legitimately to
Speaker 1: win a title. They're gonna get a good buyout wing somewhere.
Speaker 1: And then they could always do things like dusting off
Speaker 1: on Drake Gudala or increasing the starters minutes as we
Speaker 1: get closer to the playoffs to just make the bench
Speaker 1: less important. And then with the Clippers, like they're playing better,
Speaker 1: but they're twenty seven and offense in this last ten
Speaker 1: game stretch, even when they've gone seven and three, they
Speaker 1: can't score. And then Kauai, like, dude, Kauai was doing
Speaker 1: jan Kie stuff like playing one first half shift to
Speaker 1: try to limit his minutes, and he still broke down.
Speaker 1: So like, what what universe is he gonna suddenly survive
Speaker 1: the rest of the season, let alone ever look like
Speaker 1: the old Kauai. So with with the Clippers, I'm a
Speaker 1: lot more pessimistic. But the Warriors issues I think are fixable.
Speaker 1: I think the Warriors are certainly in an interesting spot,
Speaker 1: and I think you've been a big advocate of make
Speaker 1: the mid season move. Go out there, put all your
Speaker 1: pieces in, because this is a title caliber core with
Speaker 1: an all time gray player and the future entry you
Speaker 1: get from the Moody's. The commingas the Wiseman's just does
Speaker 1: not compare and value to the immediacy of hey, we
Speaker 1: can win a title right now, and I completely agree
Speaker 1: with that. I also think it is absolutely necessary because
Speaker 1: this top six is title caliber. We saw it last year.
Speaker 1: That is undeniable. I don't think anybody's really significantly regressed here.
Speaker 1: Steph looks even better. Clay is playing very poorly, but
Speaker 1: it's like you said, I mean, for most of his career,
Speaker 1: Clay's job has been to make contested shots. And guess what,
Speaker 1: He's been inconsistent since coming back from injury. But I
Speaker 1: still think he'll shoot thirty seven percent from three. He'll
Speaker 1: be okay. But the reality is that the loss of
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, the second Auto Porter junior, have really completely
Speaker 1: changed the outlook of this bench. And you know, Anthony
Speaker 1: Lamb is the best bench player outside of Jordan pool
Speaker 1: right now, and so I like Dante DiVincenzo, he has
Speaker 1: not looked like the same player he was before his injury.
Speaker 1: In Milwaukee, Jamichael Green has been very mess So I
Speaker 1: just don't think you can count on this ben rotation
Speaker 1: right now to be good enough to really make a
Speaker 1: meaningful push in the playoffs. But they're not that far away,
Speaker 1: so I think they have to make a move. But
Speaker 1: it's not a move that's at all impossible to make,
Speaker 1: especially with the assets they have, which are decreasing in value.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure still holds some intrigue. Yeah, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the options, you know, because I've had Warriors
Speaker 1: fans asking the comments like hey, can you provide some options,
Speaker 1: And it's the same kind of trade targets that you're
Speaker 1: seeing elsewhere around the league. They could go the route
Speaker 1: of trying to poach a couple of the role players
Speaker 1: that are playing for the Utah Jazz. Right They could
Speaker 1: go after you know, Yaka Purdle and Doug McDermott from
Speaker 1: the San Antonio Spurs, giving them a legit because like
Speaker 1: right now, they're one front court injury away from the
Speaker 1: season basically being over. Like if kevn Looney or Draymond
Speaker 1: Green goes down, they're gonna have an extremely hard time
Speaker 1: winning any games. Um, you know, I I look at
Speaker 1: you know, Miles Turner for instance, as a guy who
Speaker 1: you know, was playing really good basketball this season, and
Speaker 1: yes he's been mentioned with the Lakers, but the Lakers
Speaker 1: don't seem to want him, so someone else is probably
Speaker 1: gonna get him because of Pacers aren't gonna you know,
Speaker 1: ride this out. Yeah, they're over five now, but they're
Speaker 1: eventually going to pull the plug out of all of this,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna, you know, take a first round pick
Speaker 1: or something along those lines, and you might be able
Speaker 1: to get him from one of those young players if
Speaker 1: you're Golden State, especially since I'm sure Indiana would like
Speaker 1: to get a good wing in there alongside their their
Speaker 1: new backcourts. So you know, there's options out there. They
Speaker 1: just have a bunch of different directions they can go.
Speaker 1: If Anthony Lamb pans out, which he's been playing really well,
Speaker 1: shooting the ball well, guarding multiple positions. If Moses Moses
Speaker 1: Moody gets it together, they dust off Andrey Gudala, they
Speaker 1: increase minutes for the starters. They might not need to
Speaker 1: do anything, but when the time comes in February, they'll
Speaker 1: have the flexibility with a bunch of different ways that
Speaker 1: they can go. And so I think, I mean that's why, like,
Speaker 1: of all the teams to be concerned about, I just
Speaker 1: wouldn't be like it. It's not there. Like you said,
Speaker 1: Steph looks better than ever. There's the best lineup for
Speaker 1: the Warriors. This isn't guarding the way they used to,
Speaker 1: and it's it's only been like four months. It's not
Speaker 1: like they've lost that capability. They're just this is classic,
Speaker 1: you know, title defense malaise. Right. The Clippers are also
Speaker 1: interesting to me because they have been so great defensively
Speaker 1: number two in defensive writing on the year, and that
Speaker 1: is probably, I would say, actually certainly the more reliable
Speaker 1: predictor of if you're looking at which end of the floor,
Speaker 1: which can we trust more Certainly it's the defense compared
Speaker 1: to the offense without Kauai, because so much of what
Speaker 1: the Clippers do is predicated on the isolation, the drive
Speaker 1: and kick, trusting their perimeter guys to go out there
Speaker 1: and get buckets like their third in isolation percentage there
Speaker 1: twenty nine and passes made, which is just how they've
Speaker 1: always played basketball. But when Reggie Jackson has not been great,
Speaker 1: when Norman Powell has not been great, when John Wall
Speaker 1: hasn't been great, and when you don't have Kauai, that's
Speaker 1: basically their entire offensive identity kind of thrown out the windows.
Speaker 1: So I'm not overly confident that Kauai is gonna be
Speaker 1: himself or healthy. We just don't know, so I think
Speaker 1: right now I would certainly put the Suns in the
Speaker 1: Nuggets right in that same tier. I think all these
Speaker 1: teams are flawed. I think there's uncertainty with all of them,
Speaker 1: and I don't think any of them compare to the
Speaker 1: top tier of teams out East. Certainly agree on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I put the Nuggets as the one team that I
Speaker 1: would put as a legitimate Western Conference threat. They're nine
Speaker 1: in four when Yoki's plays, and that was despite at
Speaker 1: the start of the season. Jamal Murray is still kind
Speaker 1: of working his way back, and Bones Hiland did not
Speaker 1: shoot well to start the season, but Jamal looks a
Speaker 1: little bit more and more like himself each and every
Speaker 1: game that he plays. Bones Highland is shaking off that
Speaker 1: rough start. Now he's making his shots again in this
Speaker 1: recent stretch from the Nuggets, he's shooting like pull up
Speaker 1: threes or something insane like that. Their defense is still
Speaker 1: just terrible, but we know that they're capable of playing
Speaker 1: better than they have. They're never gonna be a top
Speaker 1: five defense, but they should be closer to fifteen, and
Speaker 1: I think they're twenty three right now. So they've just
Speaker 1: got a bunch of different ways that they can improve.
Speaker 1: And then, to put it simply, the Clippers and the Warriors,
Speaker 1: that Yo Kitch matchup is just really tough for them,
Speaker 1: you know. The the the Warriors have beaten the Nuggets
Speaker 1: in the playoffs with the injuries that they've sustained, but
Speaker 1: they've suffered some losses to the fully healthy version of
Speaker 1: the Nuggets during the regular season because it's just a
Speaker 1: different matchup for them physically. And then obviously we've seen
Speaker 1: what happens when Yoki comes into contact with the Clippers.
Speaker 1: So I put the Nuggets as my biggest threat to
Speaker 1: those two teams. I would agree with you there Sons
Speaker 1: have looked good, but I think their depth is a
Speaker 1: bit of an issue, and the Nuggets have the potential
Speaker 1: of being the best offense in basketball on any given night,
Speaker 1: and that gives you a pretty high ceiling. Let's flip
Speaker 1: here from some teams that have struggled, but overall there's
Speaker 1: still a pretty high confidence level. And I mean certainly
Speaker 1: Vegas is still respecting them to a team that has
Speaker 1: been a complete circus this entire year, and it seems
Speaker 1: that every not even weak, every few days there's a
Speaker 1: new obstacle thrown at them. So Jason, does the next
Speaker 1: season get more ridiculous or less ridiculous as the year
Speaker 1: goes on? You know, because the Nets have so much
Speaker 1: talent on paper, there's always the chance that it could improve.
Speaker 1: You know, like if what we saw from Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: last night is the way he plays the rest of
Speaker 1: the season, that's encouraging. Katie plays like an m v P.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving comes back. They defend the way they defended,
Speaker 1: you know, getting what you're getting from you don't want
Speaker 1: Nabby for instance, who by the way, did a really
Speaker 1: nice job defending Damian Lillard on switches. He's just super
Speaker 1: tall and super long and can knock down threes and
Speaker 1: he's actually a pretty decent athlete, right, Like, you know
Speaker 1: that there's a bunch of good there. But as I'm
Speaker 1: putting that all together. It kind of feels like one
Speaker 1: of those like same game parlays where I make a
Speaker 1: two dollar bet that has like a payout, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it could all go that way and we could all
Speaker 1: get rich. Or the far more likely scenario is that
Speaker 1: one or two of those things go wrong, which leads
Speaker 1: to the domino effect of everybody else going off the
Speaker 1: rails and then it goes south, you know, like the
Speaker 1: we we've just we've just seen in this movie before.
Speaker 1: They can play good basketball and the right matchups two
Speaker 1: or three games in a row, like last night, I
Speaker 1: was an impressive win. They defended Damian Lillard extremely well.
Speaker 1: They down the stretch of that game kind of strangled
Speaker 1: the pace, got better shots, and it looks good. But
Speaker 1: it's a lot of its matchup dependent. You know, they
Speaker 1: struggle against the Kings because they've got a couple front
Speaker 1: court players that are more physical, right, you know, and
Speaker 1: then Portland's not so much. And then you know, there's
Speaker 1: also the reality of the Celtics box matchups like uh,
Speaker 1: no matter what the idealized version of this NETS team is,
Speaker 1: specifically uh specifically, Boston and Milwaukee are equipped to not
Speaker 1: just beat the nets but kind of snatch their heart
Speaker 1: with the way that they play on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. So like you know what, Josiah never stops
Speaker 1: believing and he's like the X, the X that's still
Speaker 1: are the guy who's still in love with his X,
Speaker 1: and did no matter how often she stabs him, stabs
Speaker 1: him in the back, he just keeps going back. You know.
Speaker 1: It's one of those types of deals. But my guess
Speaker 1: is it gets more ridiculous, but there's it's always on
Speaker 1: the table that Kyrie comes back. Ben Simmons turns into
Speaker 1: Wing Draymond. Kevin dray plays like an m v P.
Speaker 1: Seth Curry does his thing, Joe Harris makes a bunch
Speaker 1: of threes, like you did you get a couple of
Speaker 1: key role player performances. Yeah, there's there is a ceiling here,
Speaker 1: but that same ceiling has existed all season for various reasons,
Speaker 1: and it just continues to go up and down the
Speaker 1: way that it has. I don't know how much more
Speaker 1: ridiculous things can get, but I also wouldn't really predict
Speaker 1: them to get less ridiculous. And I agree that last
Speaker 1: night was outside of that Knicks game, maybe they're best
Speaker 1: all around effort of the year. I still think Portland,
Speaker 1: I mean clearly just felt to me like a more
Speaker 1: talented team. It was kind of an issue of shot
Speaker 1: making for them in spots, but the nets were locked
Speaker 1: in defensively, Like you said, Watanabe was great, Joe Harris
Speaker 1: was finally making shots. But it's still just feels far
Speaker 1: too ambitious to bet on everything consistently coming together and jelling,
Speaker 1: especially when you're reintroduced Kyrie, even though obviously he elevates
Speaker 1: your offensive ceiling. It's just like the defense was abysmal
Speaker 1: when he was out there. We have no reason to
Speaker 1: have any sort of confidence in the chemistry, in the
Speaker 1: cohesion of this team. Simmons. I mean, he finally scored
Speaker 1: fifteen points, and you know, he attacked a couple of
Speaker 1: times downhill and out of the post, but he's just
Speaker 1: so clearly not the same athlete. He's not the same defensively,
Speaker 1: and he's still in his head. I mean, he only
Speaker 1: took six shots. A couple of them were like one exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like he is just so so far from what
Speaker 1: he was, what we could have ever expected him to be.
Speaker 1: So I think we should just buckle in and not
Speaker 1: invest in any nets success and invest in a lot
Speaker 1: more hijinks in mayhem, because I really I don't see
Speaker 1: this team winning a playoff series. It's like to be
Speaker 1: fully healthy and committed and together and like each other
Speaker 1: and play both ends against a really good top tier
Speaker 1: out east. I just think, no way. Well, that's the key,
Speaker 1: because bad things happen to every basketball team. That's a
Speaker 1: dirty little secret. There's two different kinds of teams out there.
Speaker 1: There's the teams that complain as the bad things happen,
Speaker 1: as they spiral out of control, and then the teams that,
Speaker 1: like you're you're just looking. It's like, oh, the Bucks
Speaker 1: won again last night, and whoa two starters were out
Speaker 1: and six for seventeen, Like what in the world? Like
Speaker 1: like you you look at it, and it's like like
Speaker 1: like Janice messed up his foot and is is been
Speaker 1: like below from the field in his last four games,
Speaker 1: has missed three of the last seven games, and Drew
Speaker 1: Holidays out with an acle issue. Pat Connaughton's out, Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton's out, and they're just winning games because they're just
Speaker 1: in the locker room. There's such a buy in down
Speaker 1: the roster that every night you're getting a consistent product.
Speaker 1: And yeah, even in the downsides like this past two
Speaker 1: weeks stretch, all that went wrong for the Bucks and
Speaker 1: they went four and three, you know, and they beat
Speaker 1: a Calves team um the other day that was you know,
Speaker 1: obviously down Jared Allen, but had everybody else available. So like,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just the difference between the top and
Speaker 1: the bottom. Like the Nets have demonstrated that a little
Speaker 1: bit of adversity kind of causes them to fracture, you know,
Speaker 1: and and that sort of thing isn't going to suddenly
Speaker 1: change in this case. Yeah, I completely agree. And before
Speaker 1: the Nets started destroying themselves and embarrassing themselves, they were
Speaker 1: destroyed and embarrassed by the Boston Celtics in the playoffs
Speaker 1: last year, who have been really exceptional this year. They're
Speaker 1: twelve and three, they're on pace to have the best
Speaker 1: offense in basketball history, and obviously they've done this all
Speaker 1: without email Doca. So, Jason, do you think that his
Speaker 1: impact on the Celtics was overrated? Not necessarily, but I
Speaker 1: do think that in general, when we see things like this,
Speaker 1: we don't give enough credit to the other party. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like Emma Udoka is a tough guy, and
Speaker 1: he was brought in to help specifically with toughness with
Speaker 1: a core of players and Mark Smart, Jayson Tatum and
Speaker 1: Jaylen excuse me, and Jaylen Brown who had struggled a
Speaker 1: little bit with toughness over the course of the years. Right,
Speaker 1: And yes, Judoka helped with that transition that led to
Speaker 1: that finals run last year, But you also got to
Speaker 1: give those guys credit for changing. To me, it reminds
Speaker 1: me of like Kobe and pal Gasol. You know, the
Speaker 1: narrative is like Kobe changed Palkasol, and like, I don't
Speaker 1: doubt that Kobe's competitiveness and toughness had an impact on him,
Speaker 1: but give Pal Gasol some credit for just toughening up
Speaker 1: as he got into late round playoff series consistently. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of times it's the pain and suffering
Speaker 1: of the loss that helps lead to that toughness as well.
Speaker 1: And again, so it's it's kind of that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: like I give a good chunk of the credit to Kobe,
Speaker 1: and I give a good chunk of the credit to
Speaker 1: Pal in this case, what did I say all summer
Speaker 1: after the email, Udoka said, a thing came down. I
Speaker 1: was like, yes, Emay helped with this, but I think
Speaker 1: the change has already been made by the core players
Speaker 1: and they will continue to exhibit that toughness now that
Speaker 1: email Udoka has gone. And that's exactly what has happened.
Speaker 1: And you know, give those guys credit. They just you know,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown came out uh three or
Speaker 1: four months after an embarrassing loss in the finals, and
Speaker 1: they both look like better players than they were last year.
Speaker 1: That's a credit to that. Jayson Tatum was a bad
Speaker 1: isolation player last year. This year he's been a good
Speaker 1: isolation player. He's increased his efficiency in a bunch of
Speaker 1: very important areas. He was a bad mid range scorer
Speaker 1: last year. This year he's a good mid range scorer.
Speaker 1: You know, like you're just seeing improvement from those guys.
Speaker 1: Give them credit. Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown two in
Speaker 1: key moments of this series in the season. Even though
Speaker 1: the team defense hasn't been as good as you'd hope,
Speaker 1: they've locked in and there's still two of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in the entire league. And then dude, Marcus Smart,
Speaker 1: what he's done for them offensively as a dribble creator.
Speaker 1: Just getting into the gaps of the defense and creating
Speaker 1: that initial advantage is super impressive. He's one of the
Speaker 1: best pick and roll ball handlers in the league this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you put it very well. My thought kind
Speaker 1: of what Udoka did last year was extremely important and
Speaker 1: extremely impressive. But I also thought this year, bringing in
Speaker 1: Joe Massoula, who has been there, it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to sustain that defensive culture once it's been established. Those
Speaker 1: offensive principles, once they've been established. It's like how Luke
Speaker 1: Wallon could come in and coach the Warriors to being
Speaker 1: thirty nine and four because they had already done the
Speaker 1: handiwork behind Steve Kerr in establishing those habits, those principles,
Speaker 1: and then of course it's difficult to sustain those things.
Speaker 1: But then it's a matter of the commitment by the players.
Speaker 1: They're aware of what they need to do, and clearly
Speaker 1: the Celtics players are committed in continuing to improve. So
Speaker 1: I don't really think that that will ever come back
Speaker 1: to bite them. Do you think right now if you
Speaker 1: had to pick between the top teams out East, are
Speaker 1: the Celtics the team that you would trust the most
Speaker 1: to win it all. No, I still get I still
Speaker 1: give an edge to the Bucks. Um, but I do
Speaker 1: think that the Celtics have gained ground in a sense
Speaker 1: compared to where you might have felt about those two
Speaker 1: teams after their Eastern Conference in my final last year. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wanted to give one last story to
Speaker 1: just kind of like hammer this point home. When I
Speaker 1: was in junior college, when I was playing up in Utah,
Speaker 1: I had a coach. His name was Carter Roe. Now
Speaker 1: he coaches at Arizona Western UH, which which is in
Speaker 1: a conference here in Arizona, And like he was one
Speaker 1: of the guys who really targeted my lack of toughness
Speaker 1: when I was a young basketball player. And I remember
Speaker 1: like vividly, like ice cold Utah mornings doing planks on
Speaker 1: the soccer field where the grass is frozen, and I'm
Speaker 1: like quitting on the drill and stuff, and he's like down,
Speaker 1: just screaming in my face, telling me I'm not tough
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and like he worked on me
Speaker 1: really hard over the course of that season. And it's
Speaker 1: like he hasn't been my coach since that season for
Speaker 1: obvious reasons, but his impact has lingered with me, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that changed about me as
Speaker 1: a player that year are still a part of my
Speaker 1: basketball identity to this day. And that's kind of like
Speaker 1: the way that a coach can impact any basketball player.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of the way I see the
Speaker 1: Udoka thing. He came in, he worked with those guys
Speaker 1: for a year, He targeted some specific weaknesses for them
Speaker 1: in terms of mental toughness. That impact is there even
Speaker 1: now that he's gone, And now that role in your
Speaker 1: life is taken on by producer Ryan Bromley, who's yelling
Speaker 1: at you when you're down there in the gold all right.
Speaker 1: So one of the main stories of this season are
Speaker 1: one of the most fun stories I think has been
Speaker 1: the explosion of shape Gil just Alexander and You've talked
Speaker 1: about it recently. He's now had thirty seven plus in
Speaker 1: three straight games. He's averaging thirty two on the year.
Speaker 1: Is he a top ten player in the league now?
Speaker 1: So this is a delicate conversation because I I've been
Speaker 1: doing I've been going out of my way for this
Speaker 1: season to really focus on evaluating players based on this
Speaker 1: season because I have some like long standing philosophies like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to put younger players over experienced players
Speaker 1: that have and there and done that in terms of
Speaker 1: the way I ranked them in the grand scheme of things,
Speaker 1: you know, Like, for instance, I had Lebron fourth before
Speaker 1: the season. I will not adjust that in my grand
Speaker 1: scheme rankings until after the playoffs this year, right, But
Speaker 1: as we zoom in on this season, has Lebron been
Speaker 1: a top top four player? Absolutely not. He's been somewhere
Speaker 1: between fifteen and eleven, right, Like you know, Tatum, I
Speaker 1: had him down at six. He's actually been better than
Speaker 1: that this season in terms of just in the vacuum
Speaker 1: of this season, you know, like that, as we go
Speaker 1: down that list, there's kind of a difference between talking
Speaker 1: about what's going on this year versus the grand scheme
Speaker 1: of things. Has shay Gil just Alexander been a top
Speaker 1: ten player in this season? Unquestionably, maybe even top five? Right,
Speaker 1: But as I'm ranking him against the other players in
Speaker 1: the league in the grand scheme of things, I would
Speaker 1: wait until after the season. I would want like, how
Speaker 1: am I supposed to? For instance, I had Paul George
Speaker 1: somewhere around like eleven right in the in the list
Speaker 1: before the season. Why would I put s g A
Speaker 1: over Paul George, who two years ago when Kauai went down,
Speaker 1: dragged his team with two within two wins of an
Speaker 1: NBA Finals birth Like, that's not fair in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So just remember, in general, for everybody who's listening, when
Speaker 1: I'm having these kinds of conversations and talking about these
Speaker 1: kinds of lists, if it's during the regular season, it's
Speaker 1: a different type of kind of like measuring system than
Speaker 1: what I would use outside of the season. But he's
Speaker 1: unquestionably been a top five, top ten, top five ish
Speaker 1: player this year. He's a top tier rim finisher, Like,
Speaker 1: he finishes at the rim better than just about everybody
Speaker 1: except for the the usual guys you'd expect at the top.
Speaker 1: He's a top tier pull up jump shooter. He's shooting
Speaker 1: the high forties on huge volume. He's excellent pick and
Speaker 1: roll he's eighty four percentile among pick and roll ball handlers.
Speaker 1: And he's a massively disruptive defender, gets a ton of
Speaker 1: steals in blocks for a hundred pound guard. You can't
Speaker 1: you can't argue with the results this season. I think
Speaker 1: that that's very sound logic, and I'm generally pretty tenant,
Speaker 1: if at least I try to be to lift people
Speaker 1: above somebody else because of a regular season are certainly
Speaker 1: only a stretch of regular season play. But he looks
Speaker 1: like a top ten player right now, and I think, honestly,
Speaker 1: there might only be concretely like seven or so guys
Speaker 1: who I would say they're better than s. G A
Speaker 1: right now. I think that you hit on it. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a top three paint guard in the league. Unequivocally.
Speaker 1: He's always had that unbelievable change and pace and slinkiness
Speaker 1: to his game. His paint footwork is ridiculous, the variety
Speaker 1: of finishes in there, and then now he's paired it
Speaker 1: with this elite midrange pull up jump shooting game where
Speaker 1: he's fifty one for mid range and everyone's terrified of s.
Speaker 1: G A getting all the way downhill, and he just
Speaker 1: has this incredible ability to stop on a dime, to
Speaker 1: step back, and to make all those shots. And it's
Speaker 1: also just incredible that now we have a couple of
Speaker 1: guards in the league, him even more so than Job,
Speaker 1: but guys who they're both shooting well from three this year,
Speaker 1: and they have that a bit in their game. But
Speaker 1: really guards who are predicated on getting downhill into the bucket,
Speaker 1: and that's their greatest strength, and they are truly among
Speaker 1: the best players on the planet. Let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about the okay, see approach around
Speaker 1: s g A when they have maybe a top ten player.
Speaker 1: When he's on the floor, they outscore opponents by four
Speaker 1: points per a Hunter possessions. There are eleven points per
Speaker 1: a Hunter possessions better with him, and yet still obviously
Speaker 1: the roster is so far away from accomplishing anything of significance.
Speaker 1: Is that justifiable to you at this point? Is that
Speaker 1: going to become an issue in your eyes? Like, what's
Speaker 1: your take on that? Well, I think we can make
Speaker 1: that call from this point looking forward, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we knew SA was good. We
Speaker 1: didn't know he was this good, you know, Like, I
Speaker 1: like the way we're talking about this. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: the front office is talking about this too, like they're
Speaker 1: having new conversations now, Like, Okay, it turns out we
Speaker 1: have one of the ten best basketball players alive. What
Speaker 1: do we do about this? You know, like there's Chad
Speaker 1: Holmgren potentially coming back. Actually hate sneaky have a bunch
Speaker 1: of really good wings um including lu Doer, who's one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive wings that we have in the league.
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren and Alexei post Polkashovski represent two really interesting
Speaker 1: stretch bigs, so they can consistently play five out basketball
Speaker 1: in a way that a lot of teams can't functionally play.
Speaker 1: You know there, Uh, it's like specifically with s G
Speaker 1: A two what you said, that's so interesting we have
Speaker 1: we have a lot of guards who are excellent downhill
Speaker 1: and then we have a lot of guards that are
Speaker 1: excellent pull up jump shooters. What we don't have is
Speaker 1: like a guard who's both you know, the Bradley Beal's
Speaker 1: and the Devin Bookers and the Jamal Murray's of the world.
Speaker 1: They'll get in the lane and they'll make one or
Speaker 1: two shots a game, right Like I could beat you
Speaker 1: to the basket if you're if if things shake up
Speaker 1: a certain way. Shay is like finishing at the rim
Speaker 1: more frequently than John Morant while taking in taking eleven
Speaker 1: something pull up shots of game and making like for
Speaker 1: pcent of them. Like that is the thing that is
Speaker 1: kind of unheard of here is he's got the all
Speaker 1: the pull up jump shooting with all of the downhill stuff,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes him so and so exciting. But
Speaker 1: my guess is that whatever approach the Thunder had, which
Speaker 1: was to absorb as many picks as possible, you know,
Speaker 1: develop these young wings and give s g A plenty
Speaker 1: of time to to develop his skill set well at
Speaker 1: the same time not wearing him out physically because they're
Speaker 1: resting him all the time and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: They were doing that now they've got to change their approach.
Speaker 1: Chats coming back now, they'll probably target more veteran players
Speaker 1: to surround s g A and them. You know, they
Speaker 1: might look to that. I know they signed door to
Speaker 1: an extension. They might try to piece a couple of
Speaker 1: these guys together and target a star wing out there
Speaker 1: for a couple of picks and and and try to
Speaker 1: go at it with you know, Chet and some kind
Speaker 1: of star wing and s g A. But I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be critical of okay SE's front office necessarily unless
Speaker 1: we're looking at them this time next year and SJA
Speaker 1: is putting up massive numbers on a garbage team again,
Speaker 1: I think that's when we could start having that conversation.
Speaker 1: But I mean, what were they gonna do, go go
Speaker 1: all in on s g A last year when he
Speaker 1: wasn't this good, you know, like and he was good
Speaker 1: last year, But this is different. What we're seeing right
Speaker 1: now is a whole other level. It's completely different. And
Speaker 1: you talk about blending the skill set of the pull up,
Speaker 1: jump shooting and the finishing. Just one stat that I
Speaker 1: think is remarkable on that the short mid range pull
Speaker 1: up game, especially in terms of people who are leading
Speaker 1: league in field goals made from ten to fourteen feet
Speaker 1: sa second. He's only in a tier with Katie right now.
Speaker 1: Last year he was not even in the top twenty five.
Speaker 1: He's over two and a half times as many makes
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent shooting from that range. So I
Speaker 1: agree with you, he has completely taken a leap. He
Speaker 1: has still been for three years now though young of course,
Speaker 1: but head and shoulders above everybody else in Okay. See,
Speaker 1: so it is a strange dynamic, But I agree with you,
Speaker 1: this is a different tier. Like now you're looking at
Speaker 1: young star to superstar. That adjust your outlook. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we have a guy who's also in that young star
Speaker 1: category though already, I think, and that's Paolo Bankaro, who
Speaker 1: is dealing with an injury right now, so he's missed
Speaker 1: a few games, but has been one of the most
Speaker 1: prolific rookies that we have seen in a long time. Jason,
Speaker 1: he was your favorite guy in this draft ended up
Speaker 1: going number one. Have you been surprised by his immediate
Speaker 1: success in the league. Absolutely, I mean I knew he
Speaker 1: could score, but it's more just the sheer, the sheer
Speaker 1: efficiency of his scoring that is so unusual for a rookie.
Speaker 1: Um He's he's averaging one point one one points per
Speaker 1: is so including passes, which is seventy percentile in the league.
Speaker 1: He's averaging this is insane, Carson one point for one
Speaker 1: points per post up including passes, which is in the
Speaker 1: percentile in the league. I went back this morning and
Speaker 1: I watched every single Pala Bunk arrow is so a
Speaker 1: post up from this season, and like Okay, starting with
Speaker 1: the ISO, everything's built out of this high hesitation in
Speaker 1: his left hand. He actually prefers to drive left because
Speaker 1: he likes to drop his right shoulder. But what's wild
Speaker 1: is there's clips in this in this set where he's
Speaker 1: going in. Some of the best perimeter defenders in the
Speaker 1: league who just can't handle him when he drops that
Speaker 1: right shoulder. You know, there's not really a player like
Speaker 1: him in the league right now. We have guys who
Speaker 1: are bowling balls but that are kind of unpolished, so
Speaker 1: I kind of think like Julius randall right. And then
Speaker 1: we've got like you know, Janice, which is just an
Speaker 1: alien and an entirely doesn't even really compare to anybody
Speaker 1: else in the league. And then we have a lot
Speaker 1: of really skinny wings and forwards that have some good
Speaker 1: footwork and pull up jump shooting ability and a good handle.
Speaker 1: He's really the only I of his archetype in the
Speaker 1: league who's like giant, like just a grown man on
Speaker 1: the basketball court as a rookie who's got the handle
Speaker 1: to keep guys off balance and and kind of he's
Speaker 1: always just kind of dribbling and waiting for you to
Speaker 1: lean one way, and then as soon as you lean
Speaker 1: one way, he's just punching that gap with physicality, dropping
Speaker 1: his shoulder and getting to the rim. And then when
Speaker 1: you're sending extra defenders, he's making the easy reads that
Speaker 1: are there in the post, he's going, like what's really
Speaker 1: interesting about him in the post is He's doing it
Speaker 1: in every single conceivable way. He's balanced on which side
Speaker 1: of the floor he's attacking from. He's going over his
Speaker 1: left shoulder just about the same amount as he's going
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder. He'll turn and face and he
Speaker 1: does like kind of this violent ripped through where he
Speaker 1: brings his elbows up high and and dribbles on the
Speaker 1: right side of his body and then drops his left
Speaker 1: shoulder and then tries to go physically to the basket.
Speaker 1: He's got so much versatility there that he's unpredictable. And
Speaker 1: you know what's wild about it, Carson is like he's
Speaker 1: a rookie, doesn't know doesn't really kind of field the
Speaker 1: game yet doesn't really necessarily see the floor super well.
Speaker 1: Yet over time, he's just gonna get better and better
Speaker 1: and better and better at this stuff. And just wait
Speaker 1: until the jumper is really polished. He's gonna put on
Speaker 1: a number another like five pounds of lean muscle, like
Speaker 1: he'll probably be right around the same weight but be
Speaker 1: more lean, and like this kid is gonna be so
Speaker 1: damn good scoring the basketball. Obviously, there's all these other
Speaker 1: different things we got to look at, like how he
Speaker 1: develops as a pastor over the years, how competitive he
Speaker 1: is as a defensive player. What does he like just
Speaker 1: in terms of his demeanor on a night and night
Speaker 1: out basis, in terms of bringing good effort and energy.
Speaker 1: There's always that kind of stuff that could be the
Speaker 1: things that derail him or prevent him from being, you know,
Speaker 1: instead of a top ten player, he ends up being
Speaker 1: a top thirty player. Like, those are all the little
Speaker 1: forks in the road for him. But he is massively
Speaker 1: except exceeding any potential expectations as a scorer in this league.
Speaker 1: In fact, he's already one of the best io and
Speaker 1: post guys that we have. He has a remarkable skill
Speaker 1: set and in terms of just his product and historically
Speaker 1: he's scoring the most points per game by any rookie
Speaker 1: since David Robinson in and by the way, he was
Speaker 1: twenty four, he was kind of cheating in the rookie
Speaker 1: categories so and still an all time great player. So
Speaker 1: I was really high on him. I think that you
Speaker 1: look at just the prospects we're getting overall, these are
Speaker 1: super evolved freaks who like didn't used to exist before.
Speaker 1: I thought he could score close to twenty This is
Speaker 1: twenty three and a half on league average efficiency as
Speaker 1: a rookie is so impressive. When he is the complete
Speaker 1: focal point of the Magic offense, it is remarkable and
Speaker 1: like he's been better in probably just about every way
Speaker 1: than we could have expected, but still was a prospect.
Speaker 1: This guy was a six ten two fifty crazy powerful
Speaker 1: athlete with a pretty darn good handle, who could look
Speaker 1: like a wing in spots with the pull up jump shooting,
Speaker 1: who could attack out of the post, who could roll,
Speaker 1: who could push in transition, and he's even, you know,
Speaker 1: overachieved those expectations. I think the post game has been
Speaker 1: one of the most impressive things. I don't remember him
Speaker 1: demonstrating that kind of variety in college. It's been really impressive,
Speaker 1: and I think with the playmaking, you want to see
Speaker 1: it be more consistent. But his best moments as a passer,
Speaker 1: he does some pretty advanced stuff. Sometimes he makes some
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable fines in the corners, the ability to sort
Speaker 1: of adapt mid air and still get the ball out
Speaker 1: with velocity and accuracy. So I agree he has to
Speaker 1: develop there, but I think he really will because the
Speaker 1: moments that you see are so tantalizing, so impressive. The
Speaker 1: guy's a freak. I was a believer in Chet over him.
Speaker 1: I thought they were both great prospects. And Chet's gonna
Speaker 1: have to do a lot to validate that opinion right now,
Speaker 1: because I'd be pretty confident that Paulo is going to
Speaker 1: be an all NBA guy. Yeah. I've seen him get
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins off the dribble and just dog walk him
Speaker 1: to the basket. I've seen him in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of a close game just bully Jason take him to
Speaker 1: the rim with the spin, move a basket like he
Speaker 1: The physical tools that he possesses are legitimate problems for people,
Speaker 1: and not only that it translates to the postseason specifically,
Speaker 1: because we know that the bullyball stuff always translates better
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Then pull up jump shooting and things
Speaker 1: along those lines, because everyone loses their legs and the
Speaker 1: shot accuracy and stuff goes down. Um, he's got good
Speaker 1: passing chemistry already with Wendell Carter Jr. Where like he'll
Speaker 1: kind of work into the lane as he's posting up
Speaker 1: and then wen Dell will just kind of cut behind
Speaker 1: the basket and he'll just elevate like he's going up
Speaker 1: for a shot, and then just dumping down for an
Speaker 1: easy lay up underneath the rim. He's good man. I
Speaker 1: got to see him up close and personal when I
Speaker 1: was in Vegas this year, and I remember sitting there
Speaker 1: thinking like, Okay, Jade and Ivy was the most impressive
Speaker 1: player in the sense that, like I came away from
Speaker 1: that thing being like, wow, I can't believe how good
Speaker 1: he is. I didn't expect that. And we can talk
Speaker 1: about Jade and Ivy some other day, but like, but yeah,
Speaker 1: like even in spite of that, the hollow thing just
Speaker 1: was just hitting everybody in the face in that arena
Speaker 1: because he's huge, just bigger than everybody. It's like he's
Speaker 1: he's he's kind of an archetype of player that we
Speaker 1: haven't seen in a long time. He is an invitable mismatch.
Speaker 1: Go ahead. Yeah, I was just saying, you're completely right.
Speaker 1: We don't see people like him. No matter who you
Speaker 1: try to guard him with, he's a mismatch. He will
Speaker 1: overpower your wings, he will get by your fours and bigs.
Speaker 1: He's just a monster, Yes, he is, and I'm very
Speaker 1: much looking forward to watching him. This was fun, Carson.
Speaker 1: We gotta do this more often, and we gotta get
Speaker 1: into some more of these young guys. Alright, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all we have for today. As always, we sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your support. We are off for the weekend and
Speaker 1: then we're going Monday Tuesday next week before we take
Speaker 1: some time off for Thanksgiving. As always, I appreciate your
Speaker 1: support and we will see you on Monday. The Volume