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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented here at the volume Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope you guys are having a great week. I'm really
Speaker 1: excited for this show. We are going to be ranking
Speaker 1: all thirty NBA teams, not individually by number, but by tears.
Speaker 1: I'm sorting them into tears based on where they're at
Speaker 1: in their current development slash path towards an NBA championship.
Speaker 1: I have the top tier contenders. Those are the teams
Speaker 1: that obviously have the best chance to win the championship
Speaker 1: this year. That I have the fatal flaw contenders, teams
Speaker 1: that I do believe are contending for a championship but
Speaker 1: have a significant flaw that I expect to get them beat.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna have the if they make the right
Speaker 1: trade contenders. These are teams that are not good enough yet,
Speaker 1: but if they address specific needs they have a chance.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna get into the lack of self awareness tier.
Speaker 1: These are the teams that think that they have a
Speaker 1: chance to win a championship but definitely do not. Then
Speaker 1: we have the interesting and scrappy tier. These are the
Speaker 1: teams that definitely don't think they're gonna win a championship,
Speaker 1: but are playing really good basketball and are fun to
Speaker 1: watch on any given night. And then lastly, we'll have
Speaker 1: the actively and intentionally terrible tier. So we're gonna be
Speaker 1: working on all thirty NBA teams today. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: fun one. We're gonna be going pretty fast, though, you
Speaker 1: guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts,
Speaker 1: you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these videos and you can't get over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: these are the top tier contenders. Now again, nobody is perfect.
Speaker 1: There is no two two thousand seventeen Warriors or two
Speaker 1: thousand one Lakers in this mix, but all four of
Speaker 1: these teams are a clear cut above the rest and
Speaker 1: should feel confident in their championship odds. This particular season.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks in the Golden State Warriors. Not to
Speaker 1: be clear, as I'm going through these tears, the tears
Speaker 1: are the ranking. The individual teams within the tears are
Speaker 1: not in order, so I just have them in a list,
Speaker 1: but the tears are where they are ranked. For instance,
Speaker 1: I have the Celtics first in this first tier. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't actually have them as the best championship contender. I'd
Speaker 1: probably ranked them Golden State than Milwaukee, Den Boston, then Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna work. I'm just gonna keep them in
Speaker 1: tears because I think it's more interesting that way. So,
Speaker 1: starting with the Boston Celtics, I think that the humiliation
Speaker 1: from last year's NBA Finals flame out has helped a lot.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum has clearly spent a ton of time in
Speaker 1: the offseason working on his handle. Uh He's has He
Speaker 1: has his lowest turnovers per thirty six minutes since two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty. Then obviously they added Malcolm Brogden. So the
Speaker 1: general growing up an improvement of the roster plus the
Speaker 1: influx of Malcolm Brogden seems to have addressed their ball
Speaker 1: handling concerns. They are the fourth best team in the
Speaker 1: league right now at taking care of the bat basketball
Speaker 1: at just thirteen point four turnovers per one possessions. But
Speaker 1: then we had that Golden State game or that Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets game where just time and time again we've seen
Speaker 1: at the biggest stages and a little bit of those
Speaker 1: high stakes environments, they kind of lose their identity a bit.
Speaker 1: They're sloppy on defense and the way you wouldn't expect
Speaker 1: them to be, like, for instance, last year, great transition
Speaker 1: defense all year, horrible transition defense in the playoffs when
Speaker 1: the stakes get heavy, they just lose their identity a
Speaker 1: little bit. And so the real question is can they
Speaker 1: keep their focus this year through four rounds of the
Speaker 1: playoffs and not lose that identity. They have to beat
Speaker 1: their own demons. The biggest enemy of the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: is the Boston Celtics. I think they actually have the
Speaker 1: most talented team in the n B A second team
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets. They are top five in offense, top
Speaker 1: ten in defense. I think Kevin Durant is the m
Speaker 1: v P of the league if the season ended today.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is having an excellent season. And then a
Speaker 1: lot of their important offseason moves have panned out. That
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil trade that they made for that first round
Speaker 1: pick from the Jazz, that was a home run trade.
Speaker 1: T J. Warren has fit in really nicely with his
Speaker 1: bit of ball handling and shooting. And then you do
Speaker 1: what Naby getting him um uh this summer. Previously he
Speaker 1: was with the Raptors. That him just providing another big,
Speaker 1: long wing that can knock down threes at a high
Speaker 1: rate and play a little bit of a bit of defense.
Speaker 1: That is giving them a really functional basketball team. Now,
Speaker 1: my two main concerns with the Brooklyn Nets are they
Speaker 1: rely heavily on pull up shooting, and we saw what
Speaker 1: happened last year against Boston when those pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots stopped going in. How suddenly their offense loses a
Speaker 1: great deal of effectiveness. So that would be one of
Speaker 1: my concerns. The second concern is their lack of physicality.
Speaker 1: They are a great defensive team, but they are very thin,
Speaker 1: and so there are specific matchups teams specifically to have
Speaker 1: a great deal of strength on the perimeter, teams like
Speaker 1: Boston that I think are really bad matchup for Brooklyn
Speaker 1: that could get them into some trouble. That top of
Speaker 1: the East is very matchup dependent, Like I really like
Speaker 1: Brooklyn's chances of beating Milwaukee, but I really like Milwaukee's
Speaker 1: chances of beating Boston, but I really like Boston's chances
Speaker 1: of beating Brooklyn. So it's kind of matchups could be
Speaker 1: a big indicator of how things go out East this year.
Speaker 1: But they are top three. The Brooklyn Nets are top three,
Speaker 1: and both half court offense and half court defense, they
Speaker 1: are built for these slow down NBA playoff games. They
Speaker 1: can execute in the half court, so they are definitely
Speaker 1: a top tier contender in my opinion. Alright, Milwaukee Bucks,
Speaker 1: they really have done a masterful job this year of
Speaker 1: floating things despite really bad injury luck with Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday. The biggest issue with them is their
Speaker 1: spot up shooting. There the nineteen best team in the
Speaker 1: league at converting spot up opportunities at just one point
Speaker 1: per possession. But we're starting to see some encouraging stuff.
Speaker 1: As I expected, Joe Ingles has been a perfect fit.
Speaker 1: They're not just attacking closeouts and doing stuff in spot
Speaker 1: up situations, but also um his ability to make reads
Speaker 1: on ball so they can run some actions with him
Speaker 1: as a second side creator. Chris Middleton getting healthy and
Speaker 1: getting a good stretch of basketball games where he gets
Speaker 1: his rhythm will go a long way towards remedying those
Speaker 1: spot up issues as well. And you know, just in general,
Speaker 1: I think I can't shake the feeling that the NBA
Speaker 1: world as a whole is kind of writing off your
Speaker 1: honest right now. He is having kind of an ify
Speaker 1: season from a shooting perspective and from a metric perspective.
Speaker 1: The Bucks are flying under the radar right now. And
Speaker 1: we've seen even without Joe ingles Is support, even without
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton's support, we've seen how hard it is to
Speaker 1: beat Janice in that group of guys in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: even for a team is good at the as the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, even with all those personnel limitations, because Janice
Speaker 1: Antenna Combo in a seven game series is going to
Speaker 1: put his damn head down and run you over. Time
Speaker 1: and time again for every bit of those seven games
Speaker 1: to try to get to the rim. And if you're
Speaker 1: not prepared to hold up to that, you'll lose. And
Speaker 1: even if you do hold up to that, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be difficult. And if you throw in some real spot
Speaker 1: up shooting with Chris Middleton and Joe Ingles, that fortification
Speaker 1: there on the wing could make the really difficult to beat.
Speaker 1: I still think they're a top tier contender. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors. I just think that I think
Speaker 1: the Warriors are dealing with a really, really, really bad
Speaker 1: case of championship malaise. Yes, they have some roster issues.
Speaker 1: I think they could use a backup center. I think
Speaker 1: they could use another wing off the bench, But I
Speaker 1: think the vast majority of their issues come down to
Speaker 1: inconsistent effort. They just put up a defensive rating of
Speaker 1: one eighteen point three against the Orlando Magic or a
Speaker 1: bottom ten offense, the Detroit Pistons who are a bottom
Speaker 1: five offense, and the Phoenix Suns, who literally can't score
Speaker 1: without Devin Booker on the floor. They're just not playing
Speaker 1: hard enough right now. So I do think that eventually
Speaker 1: they'll snap into gear. Now that steps back, I think
Speaker 1: the veterans are gonna get on everybody's case and snap
Speaker 1: into focus. I expect them to have a twenty game
Speaker 1: stretch at some point over the course of the next
Speaker 1: couple of months where they rip off, you know, seventeen
Speaker 1: and three or sixteen and four, And when they do that,
Speaker 1: all of their issues and the standings will go away
Speaker 1: and they'll kind of recapture that identity. I also expect
Speaker 1: them to finish with the top ten defense when it's
Speaker 1: all said and done, because I think that will be
Speaker 1: the driving force of their turnaround. And make no mistake
Speaker 1: once again, like we were talking about with the honest,
Speaker 1: if you want to beat the Warriors in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: which is something you'll probably have to do, if you
Speaker 1: want to get out of the Western Conference, you're going
Speaker 1: to have to beat Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney four times out of seven games. Yes,
Speaker 1: their bench has some issues. Yes they've had inconsistent defensive
Speaker 1: effort in the regular season, but you know damn well,
Speaker 1: because we just saw it against the Celtics last year,
Speaker 1: and you just saw it against the Mavericks last year.
Speaker 1: When they are in those settings, they just execute on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor at a higher level than
Speaker 1: anyone else in the league right now, and they're not
Speaker 1: gonna care about them sucking on the road during February
Speaker 1: when they get to that point. They are the one
Speaker 1: team in this entire field that has earned the benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt as it as it pertains to UH
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what their ultimate ceiling is. We
Speaker 1: know what it looks like, we know what these players
Speaker 1: are capable of. They just have the worst case of
Speaker 1: championship malays that I can remember seeing, which makes some
Speaker 1: sense that this is a late term championship. This was
Speaker 1: a championship at the end of most of these guys' careers,
Speaker 1: so it's a little bit harder for them to get
Speaker 1: the engine started. I do eventually think they'll get the
Speaker 1: engine started. As of right now, to be clear, I
Speaker 1: still have the Golden State Warriors winning the championship, all right.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the next tier, This is the fatal
Speaker 1: flaw contenders. These are teams that legitimately have good reason
Speaker 1: to believe that they can win a championship, and they
Speaker 1: should feel confident in their locker room. But I expect
Speaker 1: these teams to get beat because of significant flaws that
Speaker 1: are historically proven throughout NBA history to get team speed
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Starting with Denver, they have the best
Speaker 1: offense in the league, or more accurately, they're tied for
Speaker 1: the best offense in the league at one seventeen point
Speaker 1: one points per one hundred possessions, which is just what
Speaker 1: I expected before the season. I told you guys, I
Speaker 1: expected Denver to be the number one offense, but I
Speaker 1: said that didn't matter if they didn't get enough stops. Defensive,
Speaker 1: there is a historic precedent in the NBA in this millennium,
Speaker 1: you do not win a championship unless you have a
Speaker 1: top ten defense. The only two exceptions are the Shack
Speaker 1: Kobe Lakers and the k D Staph Warriors in two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen, who, by the way, were the eleventh best
Speaker 1: defense in the league. So we have two examples where
Speaker 1: that wasn't true. One they were eleventh and they had
Speaker 1: two of the top three players in the world, and
Speaker 1: the other one they had the two best players in
Speaker 1: the world and Kevin in a Kobe and Shack. That's
Speaker 1: not a luxury that the Nuggets have. Functionally, when you
Speaker 1: get to the playoffs, teams target your weaknesses. That's just
Speaker 1: a fact. Strategically, over seven games, when you have that
Speaker 1: much time to scout and you're running, you know, over
Speaker 1: the course of a series five offensive possessions, you're targeting
Speaker 1: the defensive weaknesses every single time that you can. Now
Speaker 1: Denver has loaded up on some solid defenders. Really like
Speaker 1: the Bruce Brown acquisition. I thought flipping Will Barton for
Speaker 1: k CP was really smart. Said that before the season.
Speaker 1: I think he's a perfect fit with Yokich and he
Speaker 1: has been erin Gordon's having a great defensive season. But
Speaker 1: they're best lineups. Denver's best lineups feature three players that
Speaker 1: will relentlessly be attacked in a playoff series. Nicola Yokich
Speaker 1: through spamming pick and roll with players that force him
Speaker 1: to come up to the level of the screen and
Speaker 1: try to drive about around him or just attacking him
Speaker 1: and switches when they have out opportunities, Jamal Murray attacking
Speaker 1: and switches, and Michael Porter Jr. They will get attacked
Speaker 1: and NBA history tells us they will lose as a result.
Speaker 1: They've been a bottom ten defense this year when they
Speaker 1: play against the top ten offenses in the league. They
Speaker 1: are twentieth in defensive rating according to Cleaning the Glass.
Speaker 1: I expect them in a playoff series to be put
Speaker 1: in a predicament where they're best players are attacked, and
Speaker 1: I think it will result in their in them losing
Speaker 1: like Shack and Kobe, like Katie and Steath. You only
Speaker 1: win a championship with a bad defense if you have
Speaker 1: an otherworldly talent advantage, and the Nuggets do not, and
Speaker 1: so that's the biggest thing standing in their way. Memphis Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: they cannot score in the half court. They are a
Speaker 1: great team. They're tied for the second best record in
Speaker 1: the league. They're probably the most physically imposing team in
Speaker 1: the league. They're damn good on the glass. They have
Speaker 1: the number one defense in the league, but they lack
Speaker 1: total offensive skill and ball handling and shooting in most
Speaker 1: of their lineups. John Mary is the only guy who
Speaker 1: can consistently create shots for himself and his teammates at
Speaker 1: an extremely high level. So as a result, they have
Speaker 1: the seventh worst half court offense in the entire league.
Speaker 1: When they get into the playoffs, teams will find a
Speaker 1: way to trap them in the half court, and when
Speaker 1: that happens, I expect them to struggle to score, which
Speaker 1: I think will get them beat. Uh. The only real
Speaker 1: chance they have is if Desmond Bane comes back and
Speaker 1: some of that off the drible stuff he flashed. Now
Speaker 1: he is back, but gets back to what he was
Speaker 1: earlier in the season, which is a really high level
Speaker 1: dribble creator. And if that translates to the playoffs, it
Speaker 1: might improve them um in those half court situations. But
Speaker 1: right now to this point in the season, through half
Speaker 1: the season, they've been a really bad half court offense.
Speaker 1: That's going to be an issue when they get to
Speaker 1: the late rounds of the playoffs. Next to Cleveland Cavaliers. Again,
Speaker 1: lots of reasons to be excited. Second best defense in
Speaker 1: the league, seventh best record in the league. The Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell trade was an absolute home run, but their best
Speaker 1: lineup features two small guards and Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: both of which are bad defensive players. Despite the fact
Speaker 1: that the Calves as a team have a great defense, again,
Speaker 1: when we get into the postseason, we see these things
Speaker 1: get attacked. The best example I can give you, guys
Speaker 1: is the Utah Jazz the Utah Jazz. Functionally, in the
Speaker 1: regular season a couple of years ago, UM had an
Speaker 1: excellent defense. I think there were third in defensive rating
Speaker 1: two years ago. But then what happened It might have
Speaker 1: been last year. Was either last year the year four,
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly, but they had the third best
Speaker 1: defense in the regular season. I think it was last
Speaker 1: year against the MAVs UM. But when they get into
Speaker 1: the postseason, it turns out that all those small guards
Speaker 1: that they have can get attacked. And so what ended
Speaker 1: up happening. They got attacked all of a sudden. Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert isn't just hanging out by the paint blocking shots. Instead,
Speaker 1: he's covering ground in rotation and being dragged away from
Speaker 1: the rim, and teams are either getting high quality three
Speaker 1: point shots or rim attempts. When Rudy gets pulled away
Speaker 1: from the rim. Next thing, you know, their defense falls apart.
Speaker 1: I want to say that the Jazz had like a
Speaker 1: one thirty defensive rating um UH in that playoff run
Speaker 1: after being the third best defense in the league to
Speaker 1: start the year. There's a difference between you know, what
Speaker 1: you can functionally like kind of like do what kind
Speaker 1: of defense you can put out as a fac simile
Speaker 1: of defense in the regular season versus what actually works
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. It's kind of the difference between defensive
Speaker 1: versatility and you know, a defensive base concept, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like in the playoffs, you need to
Speaker 1: have defensive versatility, you need to be able to go
Speaker 1: to different defensive coverages. And you know, when you have
Speaker 1: two small guards like Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, when
Speaker 1: you get into the postseason, I don't care how good
Speaker 1: defensively they were in the regular season. Teams will find
Speaker 1: a way to attack those guys. And the big guy
Speaker 1: that I've seen them get attacked, they seem get attacked
Speaker 1: most frequently in these late game situations. In particular has
Speaker 1: been Darius Garland because he's so incredibly small, and you
Speaker 1: know what you're seeing it is in those clutch situations.
Speaker 1: Calves are second in defense, but they're seventeen in defense
Speaker 1: and clutch situations, and it's because clutch situations mimic playoff basketball.
Speaker 1: It's a lot more matchup attacking, and that's where those
Speaker 1: small guards end up presenting problems. As I've been preaching
Speaker 1: all year, I expect that Eventually, the Calves will have
Speaker 1: to consider flipping Darius Garland for a wing so that
Speaker 1: they can get away from that specific fatal flaw. Next
Speaker 1: is the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, their fourth in defense,
Speaker 1: sixth best record in the league. I think they have
Speaker 1: the most talented top four in the league, between James
Speaker 1: hard and Joel and beat Tyres, Maxie and Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: and Joel Embied and James Harden both look fantastic this year,
Speaker 1: but Olan Bead and James Harden have a history of
Speaker 1: not playing well in the NBA playoffs. Joel Embiid his
Speaker 1: perimeter jump shot consistently falls apart in the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: as we've seen, that has become a huge part of
Speaker 1: his game. So if that happens again, that's gonna be problematic.
Speaker 1: And then James Harden, we don't have to get into
Speaker 1: his playoff resume, but just consistently like probably the most
Speaker 1: consistent example of playoff decline in NBA history from a
Speaker 1: superstar player. So again, if they do play at that
Speaker 1: same level, if m B does continue to knock down
Speaker 1: his perimeter shot in the playoffs, if James Harden does
Speaker 1: continue to play at this level in the playoffs. I
Speaker 1: think the Sixers have a damn good chance to win,
Speaker 1: But the best indicator of future performances, past performance, and
Speaker 1: what we've seen in the past is that those two
Speaker 1: guys experience is significant decline when they get into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Then the last two teams I have in this team
Speaker 1: tier are the l A Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans. Again,
Speaker 1: two teams that I absolutely have think have chances to
Speaker 1: win the championship, but health is their biggest concern. Kauai,
Speaker 1: Paul George, Zion Williamson brandon Ing just can't stay on
Speaker 1: the floor and stay healthy. Makes it really difficult to
Speaker 1: evaluate them, makes it really difficult for that team to
Speaker 1: build any continuity. They're gonna have to play a certain
Speaker 1: way when they get in the postseason that they're not
Speaker 1: gonna have enough reps from the regular season to lean on.
Speaker 1: That to me, um takes them off of real championship
Speaker 1: contention and puts it puts them more on the fringes Alright.
Speaker 1: The next tier is the if they make the right
Speaker 1: trade contenders. Again, these are teams that have incredible star
Speaker 1: talent but monster roster deficiencies that need to be addressed
Speaker 1: at the deadline to give them any chance to compete
Speaker 1: for a championship. The first team I have in this
Speaker 1: tier is the Dallas Mavericks. They have everything you need
Speaker 1: except for that third drible creator. I think Luca is
Speaker 1: more than good enough to be the best player on
Speaker 1: a championship team. Their defense has been bad as of late,
Speaker 1: but you gotta look at the personnel at Mexicaliba being hurt.
Speaker 1: That's one of their best back line defenders. You know,
Speaker 1: Josh Green has been a very important defensive player this year.
Speaker 1: Dorian Phinney Smith is literally their best defensive wing. When
Speaker 1: those guys come back, I expect their defense to stabilize, um,
Speaker 1: but they need to address that backup creation role. I'd
Speaker 1: be looking to flip Christian Would at the deadline for
Speaker 1: a creator because I don't really like Christian Wood's game,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he's a guy that you can
Speaker 1: really rely on in a playoff setting. UM, you can
Speaker 1: go super aggressive and pair him with like Tim Hardaway Jr.
Speaker 1: And some draft picks and try to go after Zach Levin.
Speaker 1: That'd be an interesting piece, but you better be convinced
Speaker 1: that he can be your secondary star. Otherwise you're tied
Speaker 1: up to him for a long time. UM Or you
Speaker 1: could just flip Christian Wood straight up for you know,
Speaker 1: someone like Jordan Clarkson from the Utah Jazz to try
Speaker 1: to give yourself some backup um ball hand like you
Speaker 1: could either go with a heavily protected first round pick
Speaker 1: if you think that's what he's worth, or try to
Speaker 1: go for something like two second round picks. Another guy
Speaker 1: would be looking at his Terry Rosier from the New
Speaker 1: Orleans or from the Charlotte Hornets. If you can get
Speaker 1: him in there in that third creation role alongside Luca
Speaker 1: and Spencer Dinwoody, I think you have a better chance
Speaker 1: no matter what. Just somebody that can help them run
Speaker 1: coherent offense when Luca is off the floor and lower
Speaker 1: Lucas usage. Right now, this season, the Dallas Maverick score
Speaker 1: d and twenty one points per one h possessions when
Speaker 1: Luca is on the floor and just one oh six
Speaker 1: when he's off the floor. It's a significant drop off
Speaker 1: offensively when he's off. They can address that. That's their
Speaker 1: big need at the deadline. Next the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: They have everything they need except for competency with wing size,
Speaker 1: They've got all the star power in the world. Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis I think are definitively top ten players
Speaker 1: in the league. Uh. The Ringer just released their NBA
Speaker 1: rankings the other day and they have Lebron and A
Speaker 1: d both as top ten players in the league. I
Speaker 1: sent out a poll the other day just seeing what
Speaker 1: the um pulse was of the fan the all of
Speaker 1: the basketball fans that follow me and over of the
Speaker 1: people who voted in the poll said that they believe
Speaker 1: Lebron and A d were both top ten players. So
Speaker 1: there you go. You're checked in the star department. Their
Speaker 1: guard corps actually really solid. Dennis Reuter has been one
Speaker 1: of the best veteran him them signings in the league
Speaker 1: this year. Austin Reeves is an excellent backcourt piece. Lonnie
Speaker 1: Walker has had a very good season for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn is even starting to play better after a
Speaker 1: nightmares start to the season, and then Russell Westbrook. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a complicated and polarizing topic, but as a bench guard,
Speaker 1: he's not the worst option in the world. I think.
Speaker 1: I think as long as the Lakers don't ever play
Speaker 1: him in a closing lineup, it's fine to keep him around. Um,
Speaker 1: you guys know how I feel about USS. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get into it any further. And then when you
Speaker 1: look at the front court, they're actually really solid between
Speaker 1: Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Thomas Bryant has shown that he
Speaker 1: could be an excellent backup center for that group. And
Speaker 1: then when you Gabriel flies around and just does stuff
Speaker 1: with his length in athleticism. But at the forward position
Speaker 1: on the wing, they're incredibly thin. The only two forwards
Speaker 1: they really have or Troy Brown Jr. Who's really undersized
Speaker 1: and does better guarding guards than he does guarding wings,
Speaker 1: and want Toscano Anderson, who can guard upon opposing wings,
Speaker 1: but he really can't shoot, so he hurts you on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. So they desperately need
Speaker 1: somebody in that seven to six nine range, preferably two
Speaker 1: guys that can shoot the ball competently on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor and that can play defense on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, particularly against bigger wings. If I was running
Speaker 1: at the if I was running the Lakers, I'd go
Speaker 1: after both Kyle Kuzman Boy and Begdanovitch. Both are reportedly
Speaker 1: valued for right around the first round pick. The Lakers
Speaker 1: have two first round picks that are both extremely highly
Speaker 1: valued around the league because of the incompetence of Genie
Speaker 1: Buss and Rob Polinka. Now, matching salaries would be a
Speaker 1: little bit challenging. Kyle Kuzma makes thirteen millions. You could
Speaker 1: go straight across with a guy like Patrick Beverley for
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma, But if you wanted to get Boy and Begdanovitch,
Speaker 1: you might have to get a little bit more creative.
Speaker 1: You might have to loop in a third team to
Speaker 1: get some cap space to help absorb salary. But I
Speaker 1: think that they should go after both because if you
Speaker 1: put that backcourt with that front court with Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzman, Boy and Begdanovitch on
Speaker 1: the wing, that to me is a contender that is
Speaker 1: just below that top tier. And if Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis play to the level they're capable of, then
Speaker 1: they're absolutely top tier can tenders. And I have to
Speaker 1: keep reminding everybody because people don't understand, but the Lakers
Speaker 1: have been damn good at pretty much ever since they
Speaker 1: beat the Brooklyn Nets back on November or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: They've been one of the top ten teams in the league.
Speaker 1: So whatever your impression is of the Lakers, it's probably
Speaker 1: been poisoned by a two intense start to the season
Speaker 1: when Dennis Shrewder wasn't available, Thomas Bryant wasn't available, Lebron
Speaker 1: is playing like crap, and Anthony Davis wasn't making any
Speaker 1: jump shots. So it's a different team now than what
Speaker 1: they were to begin the season, and we gotta adjust
Speaker 1: our expectations there. But even if they couldn't get both
Speaker 1: of those guys just one, if they could just flip
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley in a lightly protected first for Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: that would monumentally improve their opportunity to win this season.
Speaker 1: They have the eighth best record in the league over
Speaker 1: the last thirty games, despite Lebron and Anthony Davis missing
Speaker 1: significant stretches. There, if you get both of those guys
Speaker 1: back on the floor and you fortify that wing position,
Speaker 1: you have a championship contender. End of story. Um next
Speaker 1: Miami Heat. They have ton to get excited about. Their
Speaker 1: ten and five over the last few team games, just
Speaker 1: one and a half games back of the sixth seed
Speaker 1: to get out of the plane. Bama to Bio has
Speaker 1: gone up a level, particularly as a score, but they're
Speaker 1: still way too thin on the front line. They definitely
Speaker 1: need to look to try to get a big, strong forward,
Speaker 1: kind of a different archetype. The Lakers are more in
Speaker 1: the market for a skilled forward. I'm for the heat.
Speaker 1: I'm more concerned with a physical forward, So I'd be
Speaker 1: looking at guys like O g N and Obi on
Speaker 1: the aggressive end, and guys like Jake Crowder on the
Speaker 1: less aggressive end, but a big, strong forward that can
Speaker 1: help fortify their interior presence. Okay, so we're moving on
Speaker 1: to the next year. From this point forward through the
Speaker 1: rest of the show, it's gonna be much more rapid fire. Obviously,
Speaker 1: these are lower level teams, so I'm not gonna spend
Speaker 1: as much time talking about them. This is the lack
Speaker 1: of self awareness here. Every single one of these teams
Speaker 1: is trapped in mediocrity and unwilling to admit it. They
Speaker 1: probably have some sort of, you know, misperception that they
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to win this year when they actually
Speaker 1: don't and they have severe, you know, severe severe flaws
Speaker 1: that would need to be dry before they could ever
Speaker 1: even hope to contend. First the Chicago Bulls. Their stars
Speaker 1: do not compete physically, especially on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. Secondly, the Atlanta Hawks. They have major locker
Speaker 1: room issues. Their energy seems off half the time I
Speaker 1: watched them. Feels like any moment now Nate McMillan could resign.
Speaker 1: There's just a major chemistry issue in that locker room.
Speaker 1: Next to Portland Trailblazers, they have the sixth worst record
Speaker 1: in the league over the last twenty six games. Dropped
Speaker 1: another game at home last night to the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 1: Next the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their best players can't play together.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards lineups are way better when D'Angelo russell is
Speaker 1: off the floor. All of their one center lineups are positive.
Speaker 1: So if it's just nas read positive, just Carl Town's positive,
Speaker 1: just Rudy Gobert positive, but any combination of the two
Speaker 1: of them is negative, which goes right back to one
Speaker 1: of the fundamental team building things that I always talked
Speaker 1: about on this show. Don't build your team around two
Speaker 1: centers on the floor at the same time. You need
Speaker 1: to be able to um compete in the up and
Speaker 1: down nature of the modern b A. I think Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and Rudy Gobert make an interesting core, but I
Speaker 1: think they need to reconfigure the rest, probably resulting in
Speaker 1: then moving Carl Town's Indiangelo russell Um. Next is the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. They lost two years in a row in
Speaker 1: UH Deep playoff runs because their stars couldn't compete with
Speaker 1: the likes of Janice or Luca don chich Well. Now
Speaker 1: CP three is worse than ever and Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: having health issues, so that fundamental flaw that they have
Speaker 1: is only worse now than it's ever been. Plus they've
Speaker 1: lost a lot of depth on the wing with the
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson injury and the Jay Crowder trade request. They're
Speaker 1: just a worse version of a team that was already
Speaker 1: fatally flawed. Next is the New York Knicks, kind of
Speaker 1: a similar predicaments of the Phoenix Suns. They have lots
Speaker 1: of talent. Mitchell Robinson's really good, Quentin Grinds is really good,
Speaker 1: are j Barrett is really good. They defended a high level,
Speaker 1: but you're not beating any of those top teams in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference of Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall are
Speaker 1: making all your offensive decisions for you. Next is the
Speaker 1: Sacramento Kings. They don't play any defense, and as a
Speaker 1: result they can't beat any good teams. They're just eight
Speaker 1: and and against teams that are five are better. Next
Speaker 1: to Washington Wizards, everyone of the team is overslotted. Bradley Beal,
Speaker 1: I really like if he's the second best player on
Speaker 1: your team, but on the Wizards, he's the best player
Speaker 1: on the team. I really like Kyle Kuzma if he's
Speaker 1: the third or fourth best player on your team, but
Speaker 1: he's the second best player on your team, and so
Speaker 1: as a result, everyone's kind of uh playing, you know,
Speaker 1: above their pay grade, and as a result they can't
Speaker 1: win games. And then lastly, the Toronto Raptors. They just
Speaker 1: don't have nearly enough ball handling and shooting and so
Speaker 1: as a result they can't score in the half court
Speaker 1: and they can only win if it's a track meet,
Speaker 1: which just is never going to happen when you get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Alright, Moving on to the interesting and
Speaker 1: scrappy tier. These are teams that are further along in
Speaker 1: their development than the tanking teams and have multiple good
Speaker 1: NBA players that are young and exciting, but they are
Speaker 1: close to being good enough to like push their chips
Speaker 1: in to try to go after contention. And there's no
Speaker 1: misconception in the front office where they think they're contending
Speaker 1: right now when they're not. Um. The front offices for
Speaker 1: these teams probably know that they're gonna lose in some
Speaker 1: early play round, but they look at it as a
Speaker 1: valuable experience and part of that process towards getting to
Speaker 1: the next level. The three teams that I have in
Speaker 1: this yere are the Indiana Pacers, the Utah Jazz, and
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. I just did a deep dive
Speaker 1: on the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. You can find that
Speaker 1: they're I'm not gonna talk anymore about them today. The
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz, it's basically team made up of trade filler
Speaker 1: from the Rudy Gobert and the Donovan mettal trades, and
Speaker 1: this season is basically a tryout for the front office
Speaker 1: to decide which one of these pieces they want to
Speaker 1: hold onto for the future and which one of these
Speaker 1: pieces they want to ship off for um for resources
Speaker 1: over the trade deadline. But they're young talented, exciting LORI
Speaker 1: market in looks like a franchise cornerstone piece. UM. Really
Speaker 1: excited to see what Danny Angel does with that group
Speaker 1: over the next decade, half decade, I should say. And lastly,
Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers, Um, it makes sense for them to wait,
Speaker 1: they're I think they're all in trade would be for
Speaker 1: a wing right now. They're way too heavy young guards
Speaker 1: and Miles Turner love would love to see them get
Speaker 1: a legitimate wing in there that can take wing de
Speaker 1: pensive assignments and give them a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a rim pressuring element. But they have such an exciting
Speaker 1: young backcourt that they can even afford to trade some
Speaker 1: of them for assets. Um, They're definitely a really exciting
Speaker 1: young team. Tyrese Haliburton in his past First Culture has
Speaker 1: transformed that backcourt all right. Lastly, the actively and intentionally
Speaker 1: terrible tier. These are teams that basically serve one purpose,
Speaker 1: giving young players low pressure reps so that they can
Speaker 1: evaluate and see what they project to be as NBA players.
Speaker 1: They're bad, and they know they're bad, and they're playing
Speaker 1: the long game. First is the Houston Rockets. They desperately
Speaker 1: need a veteran ball handler to get in there and
Speaker 1: teach their young guards game management. This is an important
Speaker 1: detail of being a ball handler that I think goes underrated,
Speaker 1: especially in young players. You know, I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the important skills of beating coverages in the NBA, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you've got to have a certain amount of ball handling
Speaker 1: off the dribble, shooting, finishing at the ram, and making
Speaker 1: reads right. But it's not just as simple as that.
Speaker 1: There is a that's what you do on a single possession,
Speaker 1: but over the course of a game, let's say, let's
Speaker 1: to make the Matthew easy. Let's say there's a hundred
Speaker 1: possessions in an NBA game. Well, in addition to those
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions, let's say that I am on the
Speaker 1: floor for a thirty two minute shift out of the
Speaker 1: forty eight, So that's like roughly seventy possessions. And then
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sharing those possessions with my teammates. So like,
Speaker 1: maybe I've got forty initiation possessions if I'm jailing green right, Um,
Speaker 1: in those forty possessions, it's important for me to feel
Speaker 1: the value of all forty of them versus the value
Speaker 1: of any one particular of them, So there is a
Speaker 1: time and a place for specific types of shots. Like
Speaker 1: higher difficulty shots are better reserved for when you've built
Speaker 1: your rhythm and you're feeling very confident and you feel
Speaker 1: very good about that shot when you're rising up to
Speaker 1: take it, whereas like early in the game, when you're
Speaker 1: building your rhythm, it's better to make reads to try
Speaker 1: to get your teammates going so they feel confident throughout
Speaker 1: the game, or to seek out and hunt out easy
Speaker 1: shots so you can build your rhythm to be able
Speaker 1: to make the tougher ones at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: But no matter what, there's a feel of the game,
Speaker 1: especially as it pertains to the scoreboard. Down eight up eight,
Speaker 1: close game. You're on a run, they're on a run.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, those ebbs and flows of the game,
Speaker 1: and many in many ways are controlled by the ball
Speaker 1: handlers and their ability to slow the game down when
Speaker 1: the other teams on a run to really execute and
Speaker 1: get a good shot, for instance, right or the transition
Speaker 1: pull up three. When you're on a run, you're feeling
Speaker 1: confident and you feel an opportunity to take to snatch
Speaker 1: the other team's heart. That's maybe an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: more aggressive, but that feel is something that Kevin Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: And Jaalen Green really struggle with, and so getting in
Speaker 1: a a legit veteran ball handler kind of a similar
Speaker 1: thing to what we were talking about earlier with Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: I should say yesterday with Oklahoma City, like I'd love
Speaker 1: to see them target a Kyle Lowry or at Chris
Speaker 1: Paul or something in the late end of their career
Speaker 1: just to bring in not to do anything specific for
Speaker 1: them on their team, but do what like Ray John
Speaker 1: Rondo did for the and A Hawks, which is like,
Speaker 1: just go in there and be a mentor to some
Speaker 1: of these young players and help them feel the game out.
Speaker 1: Um the Detroit Piston, Charlotte Hornets, and San Antonio Spurs,
Speaker 1: no specific thoughts there, but they're also in this tier.
Speaker 1: And then the last team in this tier is the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic. And my one note there is I expect
Speaker 1: them to jump into that interesting and scrappy tier next
Speaker 1: season because of the level of talent they have on
Speaker 1: the wing and just how good they're young players are
Speaker 1: in the sense that they're too good to continue to
Speaker 1: lose basketball games, and they're becoming a very difficult team
Speaker 1: to beat on any given night. They've been over five
Speaker 1: hundred for the past like month or so. They just
Speaker 1: won last night in Portland, so I expect them to
Speaker 1: move up to that next tier. All right, that was
Speaker 1: fun all thirty teams. How about that? Um? You guys
Speaker 1: know the drill. I'm gonna be h taking. I have
Speaker 1: one other video this week. It's going to be five
Speaker 1: burning questions for next season. I believe that one airs
Speaker 1: on Saturday, so keep an eye on the feeds there.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your support and I will see
Speaker 1: you guys next time. The volume