Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week. Coverage of the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by
Speaker 1: Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Speaker 2: How do you cash back? Well?
Speaker 1: Today, June thirteenth, is the first full calendar day and
Speaker 1: franchise history that the Denver Nuggets are NBA champions. And
Speaker 1: so for today, we're going to entirely focus in on Denver.
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do our Chase three point segment kind of
Speaker 1: focusing on last night's game and just a couple of
Speaker 1: the interesting things that we didn't have a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about last night with Colin Cowhard, So we'll hit
Speaker 1: that at the beginning of the show. Then I want
Speaker 1: to do a deep dive just into what this Denver
Speaker 1: team accomplished, what Nikola Jokic accomplished, of a little bit
Speaker 1: of a brief dip into contextualizing it all time. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go too heavy into it because I
Speaker 1: want to save some of that stuff for this summer.
Speaker 1: And then I want to do a shout out of
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray as well. You guys know the drill before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
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Speaker 1: guys miss one of these videos you can't get back
Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find
Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So for our Chase three point segment,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hit on three things that I found particularly
Speaker 1: interesting in last night's series clinching win by the Denver Nuggets. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, Number one, I thought it was really
Speaker 1: interesting that Spolsra went all in on zone, so to
Speaker 1: give you an idea of kind of the pathway of
Speaker 1: zone throughout the series. And you guys might remember when
Speaker 1: I was breaking down some of the film, I was
Speaker 1: on the Miami side of things saying, I think their
Speaker 1: best chance to win is to go all in on
Speaker 1: zone because they just they weren't having much success at
Speaker 1: all stopping the two man game in man and man
Speaker 1: situations except four in Game two, which was just an
Speaker 1: unbelievable defensive performance from Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo, and
Speaker 1: outside of that, they were kind of getting cooked, but
Speaker 1: consistently against the zone.
Speaker 2: They are.
Speaker 1: With the zone, they had some success slowing Denver down,
Speaker 1: so they ran zoned for thirty nine possessions total in
Speaker 1: games one and two. They were well below a point
Speaker 1: per possession allowed in game one when they ran zone.
Speaker 1: If you remember, in game two when Miami stole that game,
Speaker 1: they got stops in their zone on ten of the
Speaker 1: first thirteen possessions in the fourth quarter as they turned
Speaker 1: a deficit into a I think they went up like
Speaker 1: nine or something like that at that point in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. But then when they went back to Miami
Speaker 1: they barely used it. They used it only twelve possessions
Speaker 1: combined in games three and four, which was an interesting
Speaker 1: decision from Eric Spolstra. In those twelve possessions, once again
Speaker 1: they held Denver well below a point per possession. They
Speaker 1: actually didn't use it at all in Game four. I
Speaker 1: think a big part of that was Denver kind of
Speaker 1: stiff armed them enough that the games never really felt
Speaker 1: like they were gettable for Miami, and I think Spolster
Speaker 1: kind of was holding the zone back. Well, he broke
Speaker 1: it out big time in Game five, thirty two possessions
Speaker 1: by far the most that he used the zone in
Speaker 1: this series. In those possessions, they held Denver to zero
Speaker 1: point six to six points per possession. So if you're
Speaker 1: wondering how Miami did kind of sort of make a
Speaker 1: game of Game five in the way that they couldn't
Speaker 1: in the previous two games, I thought a big part
Speaker 1: of it was Spolster finally leaning one hundred percent in
Speaker 1: on zone. Now would that have change the series? Probably not,
Speaker 1: because the truth of the matter is is lots and
Speaker 1: lots of reps are exactly what a team needs to
Speaker 1: solve his zone. You know, I talk a lot about
Speaker 1: zone as a rhythm disruptor, and there's a reason for that. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, during the in the entire regular season eighty
Speaker 1: two games, the Nuggets faced zone only two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighteen possessions. Think about that, over seven thousand possessions against
Speaker 1: man demand defense, only two hundred and eighteen against zone.
Speaker 1: It's less than three percent of their total offensive possessions.
Speaker 1: So you just don't get a lot of reps against
Speaker 1: it during the regular season. Just in the finals, they
Speaker 1: were hit. They went against it eighty three times total,
Speaker 1: so almost half as much as they did in the
Speaker 1: entire regular season in terms of reps. Just in the
Speaker 1: NBA finals. And you know, you're used to getting your
Speaker 1: shots as a player. There's a rhythm not just with
Speaker 1: the player with his ball handling and shooting, but there's
Speaker 1: a rhythm to a five man unit on offense. You
Speaker 1: get accustomed to getting shots in a certain way, right
Speaker 1: Like Murray and Jokic are accustomed to getting shots in
Speaker 1: pick and roll a certain way. CACP Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: are accustomed to getting certain shots and those kickout situations
Speaker 1: in pick and roll. Obviously, Aaron Gordon's used to getting
Speaker 1: his ducans and his cuts and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: And when you flip it to his zone, suddenly the
Speaker 1: rhythm of the way the team gets those shots changes fundamentally,
Speaker 1: and that can, honestly spu spring some of these shooting
Speaker 1: slumps like what happened last night. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: in spot up situations, Denver scored just fourteen points on
Speaker 1: twenty four spot up possessions. So that was number two
Speaker 1: on my list of most interesting things from last night
Speaker 1: game last night's game, as a result of Spolstra going
Speaker 1: all in on zone, he discombobulated Denver's offense so much
Speaker 1: that they scored just fourteen points on twenty four spot
Speaker 1: up possessions, barely over a half a point per possession. Now, again,
Speaker 1: this is I'm hitting on two Miami positive things here
Speaker 1: to kind of queue up number three on this list,
Speaker 1: which was Denver's defense. Because in spite of all of that,
Speaker 1: in spite of Eric Spolstra's all in on zone approach,
Speaker 1: in spite of throwing off Denver's offense to the tune
Speaker 1: of their spot up shooters barely converting at over a
Speaker 1: half a point per possession, Denver won last night and
Speaker 1: they hoisted the trophy. How did they do that? They
Speaker 1: did it on the defensive end of the floor. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember, and I want to specifically hone in
Speaker 1: on Denver's pick and roll defense. So if you guys
Speaker 1: remember in Game two when Denver was really really sloppy,
Speaker 1: If you guys remember I said it was Denver's worst
Speaker 1: defensive performance of the entire postseason. They allowed almost a
Speaker 1: point and a half per possession in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They held last night, Miami to twenty two points on
Speaker 1: forty two pick and rolls. Think about how insane that is.
Speaker 1: That's including passes, by the way, zero point five to
Speaker 1: four points per possession in pick and roll, basically a
Speaker 1: third of what they allowed in Game two. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about this last night with Colin, but sometimes
Speaker 1: we focus and this is one of the many lessons
Speaker 1: that I've learned in this particular season. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: do one of the off season videos. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: actually this week before I head out of town. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do like kind of like we did last year,
Speaker 1: like a lessons I learned from the season kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And one of the lessons that I learned is, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the ways that we have to evaluate defense
Speaker 1: is not necessarily just what a defense is capable of
Speaker 1: during the regular season in aggregate, but also what they
Speaker 1: are capable of against specific matchups. It's not necessarily can
Speaker 1: you guard at a extremely high level against all thirty
Speaker 1: NBA teams? It's can you guard the Timberwolves, and can
Speaker 1: you guard the Suns? And can you guard the Lakers?
Speaker 1: And can you guard the Heat? Right, It's about matchups,
Speaker 1: and they were able to craft a defense that functioned
Speaker 1: against all four of those teams. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they finished the playoff run with a one to ten
Speaker 1: point two defensive rating, which is pretty damn good. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Golden State last year, which was
Speaker 1: I believe, if I remember correctly, the second best defense
Speaker 1: in the regular season, they finished last year's postseason with
Speaker 1: a one h nine point six defensive rating on their
Speaker 1: way to a championship. So Denver finished just six tenths
Speaker 1: of a point behind last year's champion in their ability
Speaker 1: to get stops on a per possession basis, again because
Speaker 1: they found ways to stop the specific matchups they were
Speaker 1: playing against. They had a lot of Denver fans in
Speaker 1: my mentions over the course of the last couple of days, like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you undervalued Denver's defense.
Speaker 2: They were actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: No, they weren't. They weren't good the season. They were
Speaker 1: outside of the top ten in every single month during
Speaker 1: the regular season except for January. There was one month
Speaker 1: in there in January where they were fourth in defense.
Speaker 1: Every other month they were pretty bad. Post All Star
Speaker 1: Break they were still fifteenth. There was no stretch of
Speaker 1: defense that was significant where the Nuggets really competed during
Speaker 1: the regular season. They were just consistently okay, they were
Speaker 1: consistently a middle of the pack defense during the regular season,
Speaker 1: but they found a way in the postseason to craft
Speaker 1: a defense that functionally got stops against their specific matchups.
Speaker 1: And that's all that matters. And that's what's funny. Golden
Speaker 1: State was a dominant defense last year that defended well
Speaker 1: almost every single month and finished the season second in
Speaker 1: defensive rating, and they on a per possession basis, were
Speaker 1: more or less the same impactful defense as Denver in
Speaker 1: this postseason. To Denver, credit to Mike Malone, credit to
Speaker 1: everybody in that unit for doing their job. And that's
Speaker 1: what I thought was really interesting from a schematic approach,
Speaker 1: bringing Jokic higher out of pick and rolls because he's
Speaker 1: not a great rim protector in a pick and roll scheme,
Speaker 1: although he did really well protecting the rim in ISO.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that in a minute, but in pick
Speaker 1: and roll, asking him to block lobs and defend against
Speaker 1: slashing guys coming down at him at full speed, that's
Speaker 1: not weaponizing his strengths. But Jokic is a high IQ
Speaker 1: player with great hands, so bringing him up in pick
Speaker 1: and roll was really smart because that allowed him to
Speaker 1: kind of slap down at the ball and pull up
Speaker 1: shooters and dissuade those little pocket passes and swing passes
Speaker 1: with his hands rather than having him back at the
Speaker 1: rim where he was going to be of lower impact.
Speaker 1: And Jokic got a ton of deflections over the tail
Speaker 1: half of this particular series up at the level of
Speaker 1: the screen. So Jokic did a great job in his
Speaker 1: individual job. And then they brought Aaron Gordon underneath the
Speaker 1: rim as that low man to kind of take on
Speaker 1: more of those rim protection responsibilit and then they were
Speaker 1: really really sharp on the back end with their rotations.
Speaker 1: That's how they crafted a defense that worked in this
Speaker 1: particular postseason run and then again in isolation in post
Speaker 1: up situations. So Jokic played a cup against a couple
Speaker 1: of guys in Anthony Davis and BAM in particular Little
Speaker 1: Carl Towns as well, guys that actually tried to attack him.
Speaker 1: And again those are those guys aren't the greatest offensive
Speaker 1: bigs in the world. Bam and AD are more known
Speaker 1: for defense, but Jokic is also considered a relatively easy
Speaker 1: target as an isolation at least considered a relatively easy target,
Speaker 1: and it just wasn't the case in this postseason run.
Speaker 1: Players attempted nineteen shots against Jokic in ISO and post
Speaker 1: situations in this playoff run, and they scored just seven
Speaker 1: of those nineteen shots. That's just thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: the field. So even in isolation situations when teams were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we've got Jokic on an island with Bam or we
Speaker 1: got Yokic on an island with Ad, Jokic was stonewall
Speaker 1: those dudes. So again, within the concept of what they
Speaker 1: needed in this playoff run, Denver's defense was more than
Speaker 1: good enough. Now, will there be a team that they
Speaker 1: face in the future, Like, we're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: a little bit later. If you list out the top
Speaker 1: eight records in the league, Like if you took all
Speaker 1: the teams in the regular season and ranked them by
Speaker 1: win percentage from one to thirty, the top eight teams,
Speaker 1: Denver didn't have to play any of those guys they faced.
Speaker 1: The highest seed they faced was a four seed. Now
Speaker 1: that's not their fault. You play who's in front of you.
Speaker 1: And those teams at the top clearly had flaws because
Speaker 1: they got beat. But there will be teams in the
Speaker 1: future that I think will challenge Denver's defense to a
Speaker 1: greater extent. But then again, they dominated this postseason run,
Speaker 1: so we will find out at that point if their
Speaker 1: offense is enough to overcome that in particular, but within
Speaker 1: this particular postseason run, given the competition that they faced,
Speaker 1: they were able to get more than enough stops, which
Speaker 1: is a super interesting trend in NBA history. This is
Speaker 1: the first team in decades that does not have a
Speaker 1: top ten defense in the regular season and was not
Speaker 1: a defending champion that won an NBA title. So that's
Speaker 1: how good this Denver offense was, and that's how smart
Speaker 1: this Denver team was, and what they did defensively, they
Speaker 1: were able to break a decade's old trend in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to shout out all the guys on
Speaker 1: the roster and Mike Malone because we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about details on the show, right like static half court
Speaker 1: situations are a great way to measure talent, but everything
Speaker 1: around that situation is about coaching and effort and focus,
Speaker 1: attention to detail all those particular things. This was a
Speaker 1: great transition defense. They were fourth in transition frequency allowed
Speaker 1: in the regular season, meaning they were the fourth best
Speaker 1: team at preventing teams from getting out in transition, and
Speaker 1: they were third out of all the playoff teams in
Speaker 1: preventing teams from getting out in transition and then rebounding.
Speaker 1: They grabbed fifty three point eight percent of available rebounds
Speaker 1: in this postseason run. That was the best out of
Speaker 1: all of the teams that played in this playoff field.
Speaker 1: So ending defensivesions by preventing teams from getting on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass and keeping them out of transition. Those are
Speaker 1: little details that helped keep those defensive ratings down. Again,
Speaker 1: like if I look at that defensive rating, they finished
Speaker 1: the playoff run at one ten point two, which was
Speaker 1: only six tenths of a point worse than Golden State
Speaker 1: last year. A huge part of that is being really
Speaker 1: really sharp on the details. That's what it's Again. We
Speaker 1: talk like it's like same thing with Jamal Murray. When
Speaker 1: we're talking about Jamal Murray all time. There are gonna
Speaker 1: be people that are gonna be like, oh, well, he's
Speaker 1: playing with Jokic, so it's easier for him. Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: but who cares. This is a basketball team. And Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray contributes to this particular basketball team in terms of
Speaker 1: actual production at a level that is that of a star.
Speaker 1: So even if you don't think he's a star, he's
Speaker 1: sure as hell is for this team. And the same
Speaker 1: thing goes for the defensive end. Like if you're out
Speaker 1: there and you're like, oh, well, Denver didn't play a
Speaker 1: truly great offense, yeah you're right, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: In this postseason run. The teams that won were the
Speaker 1: teams that won, and Denver beat all those guys. So
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, they
Speaker 1: have the Lariyo b and this is just the way
Speaker 1: things shook out. It's not about being a great defense
Speaker 1: in a vacuum. It's about being a great defense against
Speaker 1: your opponents. In that postseason run, Denver was They got
Speaker 1: the deal done. But those were just some notes from
Speaker 1: last night's game. Our three points were brought to you
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Speaker 1: A couple other quick notes from last night. KCP the
Speaker 1: Champion KCP. I told you guys, you Denver fans, that
Speaker 1: I loved rooting for or KCP when he was with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. He was one of my favorite players on
Speaker 1: that team. Made so many big plays for that Laker
Speaker 1: team on their way to an NBA championship. He had
Speaker 1: a massive three on the left wing, and last night's
Speaker 1: game he had a clutch steal on that Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: drive at the end of the game, hit a couple
Speaker 1: of clutch free throws as well. Even though he struggled
Speaker 1: at times during the series as part of Miami's defensive scheme,
Speaker 1: you just could count on KCP to make some huge
Speaker 1: plays in that game, and he did. Bruce Brown a
Speaker 1: nightmare offensive game. I think it was something crazy like
Speaker 1: four to fourteen from the field, but he had that
Speaker 1: massive offensive rebound put back at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And it was an interesting note on Denver size because
Speaker 1: on the play, I can't remember who took the shot
Speaker 1: on the right wing. It might have been Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: I think took a tough fade away, but on that
Speaker 1: play I think it was Jimmy Butler boxing out Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: Lowry's guarding Bruce Brown, and Lowry knows that Jimmy needs
Speaker 1: help with Aaron Gordon because how big he is, so
Speaker 1: Lowry double teams Aaron Gordon on the box out, which
Speaker 1: leaves Bruce Brown a free run to the rim to
Speaker 1: get the offensive rebound put back. So again like that, overall,
Speaker 1: size was just so dominant for Denver throughout this series.
Speaker 1: And this is my last note that I wanted to
Speaker 1: hit the inevitability of Denver. So Miami takes one point
Speaker 1: lead with less than three minutes left on a Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler post up, and Denver goes down and runs a
Speaker 1: two man game. They have Caleb Martin and Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: and bam At a Baio and Nicol Jokich. They switch it.
Speaker 1: On the switch, Murray runs to the right corner, which
Speaker 1: is the strong side corner, which most NBA teams will
Speaker 1: not help out of especially with a good shooter like
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray that pins bam At a Bio out of
Speaker 1: the play to where he can't help. Then Nikole Jokiz
Speaker 1: just attacks that side of the floor on Caleb Martin
Speaker 1: gets all the way to the rim for a wide
Speaker 1: open layup. Literally nothing again, pivotal possession. Down by one,
Speaker 1: final three minutes of an NBA Finals game, and Denver
Speaker 1: just gets this incredibly easy basket by virtue of their
Speaker 1: unguardability because there was just nothing Miami could do. And
Speaker 1: the Bruce Brown put back, same type of thing. Miami
Speaker 1: goes back and takes the lead again. Miami gets a
Speaker 1: stop this time, but because they had to double team
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon on a box out because he's freaking huge,
Speaker 1: you get this easy put back for Bruce Brown and
Speaker 1: they take the lead again. So again, when the Chips
Speaker 1: were down, Denver won with the same strengths that they
Speaker 1: demonstrated all season long.
Speaker 2: And I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that kind of that kind of symmetry in basketball,
Speaker 1: you know, like, you don't win with luck, you win
Speaker 1: with what makes you great. And what made Denver great
Speaker 1: all season long was the unguardable two man game of
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, Nikole Jokic and their overwhelming size on the glass,
Speaker 1: and those were the two pivotal plays that won them
Speaker 1: the trophy. I loved that, a little thing that I
Speaker 1: love about basketball, all right, So let's now kind of
Speaker 1: zoom out a little bit on this particular postseason run,
Speaker 1: starting Nikole Jokich. So finishes the playoff run averaging thirty
Speaker 1: points fourteen rebounds in tennysis on sixty three percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: which is obviously amazing, thirty fourteen and seven in the
Speaker 1: finals on sixty seven percent true shooting. Some play type data.
Speaker 1: One point zero five points per possession in ISO that's great.
Speaker 1: One point one to one points per possession the post
Speaker 1: including passes, that's incredible. One point twenty six points per
Speaker 1: possession in roll man possessions that's incredible. Twenty five offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put back, so we averaged more than one a
Speaker 1: game just grabbing the ball and putting it back in
Speaker 1: the rim off of a miss. Some shot type data.
Speaker 1: He shot forty two percent on catch and shoot jump shots.
Speaker 1: Memember last year with his wrist injury, just couldn't make
Speaker 1: a jump shot to save his life. That was a
Speaker 1: big one that ended up helping them forty six percent
Speaker 1: from three. That's obviously ridiculous rescue possessions. Jokics took twenty
Speaker 1: eight off the dribble jump shots and made fourteen of them,
Speaker 1: So he shot fifty percent on pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: Now a lot of those are those crazy like one legged,
Speaker 1: step back fadeaway shots that he takes. He shot fifty
Speaker 1: percent on floaters, fifty seven percent on hook shots, and
Speaker 1: was sixty five percent at the rim. Crazy passing data,
Speaker 1: The Denver Nuggets scored twenty three point seven points per
Speaker 1: game just on Nikola Jokic assists. How crazy is that?
Speaker 1: So that means that in total, Nikola Jokic generated over
Speaker 1: fifty four points per game in this postseason run between
Speaker 1: scoring and passing. Zooming out kind of looking at things
Speaker 1: all time again. I'm gonna do a ranking of all
Speaker 1: the all time playoff runs later on this summer, so
Speaker 1: I don't want to give it any sort of specific number,
Speaker 1: but just kind of looking at it at first glance,
Speaker 1: it's certainly one of the very best offensive playoff runs
Speaker 1: that you've ever seen in terms of scoring volume, playmaking efficiency,
Speaker 1: and the quality of defenses he faced, going against Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: going against Anthony Davis, going against bam Adebayo, those are
Speaker 1: three of the very best front core defenders that we
Speaker 1: have in the league, and he just thrashed all of them.
Speaker 2: As a team.
Speaker 1: For Denver, I thought this was one of the most
Speaker 1: dominant team playoff runs we've ever seen. They were never
Speaker 1: truly threatened. They had a net rating of eight, meaning
Speaker 1: they outscored teams by eight points per one hundred possessions
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. That is the highest since the Warriors
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: these are fucking these are just crazy numbers. The Warriors
Speaker 1: outscored teams by thirteen points per one hundred possessions in
Speaker 1: the playoffs in twenty seventeen, and they outscored teams by
Speaker 1: eleven points per one hundre possessions in the playoffs in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. So that gives you some perspective on how
Speaker 1: ridiculously good those Warriors teams were. But the Nuggets are
Speaker 1: the highest net rating team since then at plus eight.
Speaker 1: Trivia time, who do you think was the second best
Speaker 1: team behind the Warriors since twenty eighteen. The answer is
Speaker 1: the Lakers in twenty twenty. They were plus seven in
Speaker 1: net rating in that postseason run. Now, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: part of it was the talent they faced. Again, they
Speaker 1: just by virtue of the Bucks having that Yannis injury
Speaker 1: and just kind of being an out rhythm and falling apart,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics regressing so much defensively, they just didn't
Speaker 1: have to face any of the top eight records in
Speaker 1: the league this year. That's not Denver's fault. Again, you
Speaker 1: face who's in front of you. But I do think
Speaker 1: this will probably be the most dominant playoff run that
Speaker 1: this corps will face. I do think they'll face bigger
Speaker 1: challenges in the future, but to me, that's exciting. That,
Speaker 1: to me is what's fun about basketball. Like I talked,
Speaker 1: you guys know how big of a Lebron James fan
Speaker 1: I am. Twenty twenty was Lebron's most dominant playoff run.
Speaker 1: They never got threatened, They never trailed in a series.
Speaker 1: After Game two, his scoring and efficiency numbers were completely
Speaker 1: off the charts, literally by far. His most efficient postseason
Speaker 1: average thirty on something crazy like sixty seven percent true
Speaker 1: shooting in the finals. Lebron is just ridiculous in that
Speaker 1: entire playoff run, and they kicked everyone's ass, and they
Speaker 1: went through a lot of big names, just like Jolkic
Speaker 1: did right, Like went through Damian Lillard, went through James Harden,
Speaker 1: went through Nikola jokicch went through Jimmy Butler. It was
Speaker 1: a dominant playoff run from Lebron. But when you're looking
Speaker 1: at Lebron's four best championship runs, like that's last place
Speaker 1: probably in terms of just the level that he got to.
Speaker 1: Because one of my favorite things about sports is when
Speaker 1: things are stacked against you and there is some adversity
Speaker 1: and your team actually isn't way better than everybody. These
Speaker 1: superstars have to dig deep and they reach something that's
Speaker 1: like another level of greatness that's inside of them. And
Speaker 1: that's what's so exciting to me, is like Jokic has
Speaker 1: another level he can get to. He saw a little
Speaker 1: bit in clutch situations in this playoff run. So Nikola
Speaker 1: Jokic attempted field goals at a rate of twenty eight
Speaker 1: per thirty six minutes when the score was within five
Speaker 1: with less than five minutes left. So in clutch situations,
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic attempted shots at twenty eight per thirty six minutes,
Speaker 1: so he was way more aggressive when games were close.
Speaker 1: Late in those situations, Jokic shot just thirty nine percent
Speaker 1: from the field and seventeen percent from three. So, as
Speaker 1: you know, when things get tough, when things really bog down,
Speaker 1: efficiency tanks because it's harder to score in those situations.
Speaker 1: There will be playoff runs in the future where I
Speaker 1: think Denver will face better teams and Yokic will have
Speaker 1: to be better. And that's what's crazy. He will be
Speaker 1: I think that when we look back at Jokic's career
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, he will have some
Speaker 1: playoff runs that are like that where he had to
Speaker 1: down three to two because you know, like for instance,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, right Chris Bosh pulls an abdominal muscle misses
Speaker 1: the Pacers series. They're down two to one in Indy.
Speaker 1: Lebron drops forty in Game four to bring it back
Speaker 1: to Miami, too too. Bosh comes back in the Celtics series,
Speaker 1: coming off the bench. He's a shell of himself. Cage's
Speaker 1: kicking his ass. They're down three to two in the series.
Speaker 1: Wade's knees acting up. They don't have this overwhelming talent advantage.
Speaker 1: Lebron goes on the road in Game six, down three
Speaker 1: to two, it scores forty five to bring it back
Speaker 1: to Miami for Game seven. Like, those are those moments
Speaker 1: that I think are like there's a difference between a
Speaker 1: dominant playoff run and like, you know, a truly impressive
Speaker 1: playoff run in terms of individual greatness and face of adversity.
Speaker 1: And so I'm not panalizing Yokic in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form there, but I do think Jokic will have
Speaker 1: other playoff runs in the future where he's forced to
Speaker 1: dig deeper.
Speaker 2: And do more.
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to see what level he can reach
Speaker 1: when he's on that level, because you just don't know
Speaker 1: what a players capable of until you see them there, right,
Speaker 1: Like Kyrie gets traded from the And I'm just using
Speaker 1: Lebron as an example because he's my favorite player, and
Speaker 1: I know Jokic is your guys' his favorite player Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets fans, And this is kind of the moments that
Speaker 1: I'm excited for you guys that I got to enjoy
Speaker 1: rooting for Lebron James in twenty eighteen, Kyrie Irving gets traded,
Speaker 1: they don't have a talent advantage against their opponents. Lebron
Speaker 1: thirty four to nine to nine in the postseason, sixty
Speaker 1: two percent true shooting. He hit eight forty point games,
Speaker 1: a fifty point game. So you get the point, Like
Speaker 1: you get to see like this other level of individual
Speaker 1: greatness when the adversity goes up. And who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: this Denver team is so damn dominant, and maybe Jokic
Speaker 1: is so much better than his peers that he never
Speaker 1: has those moments. And if he does that, like trust me, guys,
Speaker 1: if Jokic just rips through the league for the next
Speaker 1: five years and racks up three to four titles and
Speaker 1: never looks bothered, that's where you're in MJ territory. That's
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan in the nineties where he was never threatened.
Speaker 1: But it's because he was just so much better than
Speaker 1: everybody for so many years. I don't think this particular
Speaker 1: season is proof of that in concept. I think it
Speaker 1: needs to be over several years. But I am really
Speaker 1: curious to see what happens over the course of the
Speaker 1: next half decade with Jokic and with this Denver team
Speaker 1: so insummation, I would say that because Lebron didn't win
Speaker 1: the title in twenty eighteen, I would say that this
Speaker 1: is probably the most dominant and unstoppable offensive playoff run
Speaker 1: that I can ever remember seeing in terms of inevitability,
Speaker 1: complete and total unguardability and getting the trophy. I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone's ever done it better than Jokic in this
Speaker 1: particular run on the offensive end of the floor. I
Speaker 1: also think it's one of the most dominant team runs
Speaker 1: of all time. I think this Denver run is gonna
Speaker 1: be remembered fondly. I said before the finals that I
Speaker 1: think this Denver team is better than anybody since the Warriors.
Speaker 1: The net rating data has kind of confirmed at Jokic
Speaker 1: dominated several of his peers along the way, dominated Carl Towns,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert, DeAndre Ayton, Anthony Davis, and bam Adebayo.
Speaker 2: I think he's.
Speaker 1: Clearly solidified himself as the best basketball player in the world,
Speaker 1: and he will be number one on my list when
Speaker 1: we rank players this summer. I'm just saying that when
Speaker 1: we look back at his career twenty years from now,
Speaker 1: I don't think this will be his best playoff run,
Speaker 1: because I do think there will be playoff runs where
Speaker 1: Denver gets threatened by better teams and Jokich has to
Speaker 1: reach another level, and I do believe he'll get to
Speaker 1: that level, and I want to give the proper credit.
Speaker 1: Then I don't want to like pretend this is the
Speaker 1: greatest thing we've ever seen when I genuinely believe Jokic
Speaker 1: is gonna do better in the future.
Speaker 2: Jamal Murray. What I said before the postseason.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember I said, one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things we have to be tracking for Denver in this
Speaker 1: postseason is can Jamal Murray get back to the star
Speaker 1: level he was at in the post in the bubble,
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what he did. He averaged twenty six,
Speaker 1: six and seven on fifty nine percent true shooting. He
Speaker 1: shot forty from three on eight three point attempts per game.
Speaker 1: That's like Splash Brothers shit right there. This is the
Speaker 1: wild part pick and roll shot creation. Jamal Murray was
Speaker 1: the very best pick and roll ball handler in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA in this postseason. He scored one point one
Speaker 1: to seven points per possession when he shot or passed
Speaker 1: out of pick and roll. This year, eighteen players in
Speaker 1: the postseason ran at least one hundred pick and roles
Speaker 1: including passes, and Jamal Murray finished number one, better than
Speaker 1: Steph better than Jalen Brunston, better than Devin Booker, better
Speaker 1: than James Harder. You guys get the point. And again,
Speaker 1: obviously Jokich helps, But like I was talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: nobody cares about in a vacuum I mean, obviously in
Speaker 1: a vacuum manners if you're ranking players and things like that.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is is Jamal Murray's contributions to
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets, regardless of what's happening around him, are
Speaker 1: equal to that of a star player, and so in
Speaker 1: my opinion, that makes him a star player. And I
Speaker 1: will be ranking Jamal Murray as such when we do
Speaker 1: our player rankings. I understand some people see that differently,
Speaker 1: but that's just the way that I see the game.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like what we talked about with Raymond
Speaker 1: over the years, Like, yeah, Draymond has some limitations, but
Speaker 1: strictly with the way he contributes to the Warriors, he
Speaker 1: contributes at a level that goes far beyond box score
Speaker 1: contributions and so I feel the same way about Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: I think he proved himself as a legitimate star. I
Speaker 1: also think he's primed for a breakout season, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna save that for our next topic. I look ahead
Speaker 1: for Denver. I obviously see dynasty potential here for several reasons. One,
Speaker 1: Yokich is the best player in the world and he's
Speaker 1: only twenty eight years old. Two, Jokic is remarkably durable.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior have dealt with nagging
Speaker 1: injuries over the years, but you just throw four dudes
Speaker 1: around Nikole Jokic and you're winning fifty games. So honestly,
Speaker 1: like there's it's very hard to imagine them slipping too
Speaker 1: far in the standings. And they can be very deliberate
Speaker 1: with the way that they managed, you know, like load
Speaker 1: managed guys like Jamal Murray and k and Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: So like it's just easy to see them getting out
Speaker 1: really high seed every single year and being healthy in
Speaker 1: time for the playoffs. Three, Jamal Murray is the perfectly
Speaker 1: complimentary co star to Nikol Joki, and he's on the
Speaker 1: same timeline. Four, the whole starting lineup is locked up
Speaker 1: for two more seasons. KCP has a player option after
Speaker 1: next season, but he should be retainable, especially given the
Speaker 1: number that he's at right now in terms of the
Speaker 1: ability to add raises as long as ownership is willing
Speaker 1: to pay, and even if ownership is not willing to pay,
Speaker 1: he's probably the most replaceable out of the five guys
Speaker 1: in that lineup. Like, obviously, you guys know how much
Speaker 1: I appreciate KCP, but like Michael Porter Junior is a
Speaker 1: six to ten movement shooter that's tough to replicate anywhere
Speaker 1: else in the league. Aaron Gordon is like bam At
Speaker 1: a bio but on the wing that's really difficult to
Speaker 1: to replicate. Obviously, Jokichen Murray is impossible to replicate. So
Speaker 1: like KCP is like that one guy that, like, if
Speaker 1: I swapped him out for a league average two guard
Speaker 1: at some point in the next two or three years,
Speaker 1: like Denver's still gonna be really good. So as a
Speaker 1: result of that, like it's easy to see the core
Speaker 1: of this group. The main basketball identity of this group
Speaker 1: lasting for the better part of a half decade, which
Speaker 1: is a big element to a continuity, is huge. They
Speaker 1: already had continuity going into this particular Poseason run that's
Speaker 1: only going to grow over the years, and they have
Speaker 1: proven playoff traits. They're huge, they score in the paint,
Speaker 1: so pull up jumpers are not their bread and butter.
Speaker 1: It's a supplementary thing for them. And they rebound the
Speaker 1: hell out of the basketball. Those are all things that
Speaker 1: are proven to win in the NBA. I think next year,
Speaker 1: in particular, has the potential to be their most impressive
Speaker 1: season from start to finish. There are a couple of
Speaker 1: reasons why they have the confidence of a champion. This
Speaker 1: is a big thing that Bill Simmons talked about in
Speaker 1: his basketball book that I really liked the idea that
Speaker 1: once you become a champion, it's like the weight of
Speaker 1: the world is lifted off your shoulders.
Speaker 2: You have a new confidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some other stuff, like the disease of more
Speaker 1: and all those different things, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: you're at your peak as a basketball player when you
Speaker 1: feel the confidence of being a champion, and there's no
Speaker 1: moment that can scare you because you've already succeeded at
Speaker 1: the greatest moment in basketball. So I think that'll help
Speaker 1: them a lot too. Jamal Murray and his breakout season.
Speaker 1: So I talked about this earlier. Jamal Murray I thought
Speaker 1: was just dealing with coming off of the bubble in
Speaker 1: his first season after the bubble, then he got hurt.
Speaker 1: Then he obviously missed a season, and it's like this
Speaker 1: season he's working his way back into rhythm as he's
Speaker 1: learning how to play again after the knee injury. Next year,
Speaker 1: I think he's going to have his best regular season
Speaker 1: as a pro. I think he's gonna make an All
Speaker 1: NBA team. I think he's gonna make an All Star team.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be dominant and available throughout the season,
Speaker 1: average close to twenty three, twenty four points a game.
Speaker 1: I think Jamal Murray's gonna have his best regular season
Speaker 1: as a pro next year. That's gonna help Denver a lot.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior, I think learned some valuable lessons in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals about how important it is for him
Speaker 1: to defend and rebound, and how important it is for
Speaker 1: him to be able to score by putting the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor as Miami kind of chased him off
Speaker 1: the three point line. I expect him to address that
Speaker 1: in this offseason I think like him in particular, stands
Speaker 1: to gain the most this offseason from the struggles he
Speaker 1: had in the finals, although he made some huge plays
Speaker 1: last night Lastly, the rest of the league I think
Speaker 1: is going to take a couple of years to catch
Speaker 1: up to what Denver's doing. Milwaukee I think needs to
Speaker 1: completely retool. Boston's best approach is to stan pat and
Speaker 1: hope Jayson Tatum gets better, which might take a cuples.
Speaker 1: Philly's gonna retool. Miami wasn't close out West like Lebron
Speaker 1: is aging, so like the Lakers need to get much better.
Speaker 1: I actually view the Lakers still as the best, the
Speaker 1: biggest threat to Denver next year if you look at
Speaker 1: net ratings. Yeah, I know they got swept, but every
Speaker 1: single one of the four games was closed. The Lakers
Speaker 1: had by far the best net rating against Denver. All
Speaker 1: the other teams kind of got their ass kicked in
Speaker 1: every single one of the games, aside from a couple
Speaker 1: crazy Devin Booker hot shooting performances. Right, but Lebron is aging.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be in his twenty first season next year.
Speaker 1: Like if he makes it to the Western Conference Finals
Speaker 1: next year against Denver, he's gonna be thirty nine years old,
Speaker 1: like thirty nine, like are you kidding?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And so the Lakers would have to get much better
Speaker 1: this offseason to make up for that, but like, maybe
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis can make some improvements again. I see the
Speaker 1: Lakers as probably the biggest threat to Denver next year,
Speaker 1: but I don't view them as much of a threat.
Speaker 1: Phoenix needs like four more good players, and that's really
Speaker 1: hard to do in one offseason. Memphis I don't think
Speaker 1: is close, Sacramento's not close, Golden State needs to retool,
Speaker 1: the Clippers and Jay general. It's just a really tough
Speaker 1: matchup with Denver. They really struggle with their size because
Speaker 1: they don't have interior size and rim protection. So really,
Speaker 1: aside from a massive trade, like a league altering trade,
Speaker 1: I really think Denver has a chance to go sixty
Speaker 1: plus wins and defend their title next year. Now, in
Speaker 1: the long run, I don't view this team as unbeatable,
Speaker 1: and I do think that. I don't view them ripping
Speaker 1: off three four championships in a row or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but I do think repeating is a really really good
Speaker 1: chance for this Denver team. So congrats to Nuggets. Fans,
Speaker 1: You guys have an awesome team. You guys have an
Speaker 1: awesome player in the Kole Jokics that I've really enjoyed watching.
Speaker 1: In the next few years are going to be a
Speaker 1: ton of fun. Again, Like I think the title is sacred.
Speaker 1: I know some of you Nuggets fans are frustrated with
Speaker 1: some of my predictions this year. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: tried my best to explain them to you. Like I
Speaker 1: have rules. I have rules for my show. I'm always
Speaker 1: going to favor champions. So, yeah, did I really think
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was going to play better than Nikole Jokic
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I was hoping he'd keep it close, which he didn't.
Speaker 1: But going into the series eighty's a champion Yokic is not.
Speaker 2: For me.
Speaker 1: That meant something. I understand that for some of you guys,
Speaker 1: you have different rules and you don't see it that way.
Speaker 1: That's totally fair, but that's the way I see it,
Speaker 1: and that same benefit will benefit Jokic in the long run.
Speaker 2: When Luca next year.
Speaker 1: Is having an amazing season and he's in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals against Denver and all these talking heads are like,
Speaker 1: Luca's the best player in the series. I'm gonna be like, no,
Speaker 1: Jokic is the best player. He's a champion, Luca's not.
Speaker 1: That's just my way of kind of working these things out.
Speaker 1: It was never it was never a hate for Yokic thing.
Speaker 1: I had some Milkich fans say, or Denver fans be like, well,
Speaker 1: why did you have him seven before the season? Again,
Speaker 1: I told you guys, I don't typically I typically don't
Speaker 1: value centers very much. So I had Jokic and them
Speaker 1: beat very low. If you guys remember, and I had
Speaker 1: all wings higher up on the list, Well, guess what
Speaker 1: we've learned. Like, my big thing is, like Colin Coward
Speaker 1: used to say this forever on a show, it's not
Speaker 1: about getting it right, it's about being or it's not
Speaker 1: about being right. It's about getting it right. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't care about being right. Predictions are silly. I'll be
Speaker 1: honest with you, Nuggets fans, Like, as wrong as I
Speaker 1: was about Denver, How wrong were you guys about Miami?
Speaker 1: Did you pick Miami to beat Milwaukee? How wrong were
Speaker 1: you guys about the Lakers? Like I know a lot
Speaker 1: of you guys were really down on the Lakers during
Speaker 1: the regular season, said things like they're not going to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs, or they're not capable of beating anybody. Well,
Speaker 1: they made it to the Western Conference finals, you know,
Speaker 1: So like predictions are silly, and that's fine. This is sports.
Speaker 1: I love that sports is unpredictable. If it was predictable,
Speaker 1: we'd all be in Vegas making bets. You guys have
Speaker 1: heard me say that before. So like, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it wasn't any insult to Denver fans.
Speaker 1: It's just the way that I personally make these predictions.
Speaker 1: I always have favored champions. That's why I had Milwaukee
Speaker 1: and Golden State as teams that I thought had a
Speaker 1: better chance to win a title than Denver. This year,
Speaker 1: I favored those teams the Lakers in Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. I had seen those two guys win a
Speaker 1: championship together with good with good role players, so I
Speaker 1: was partial to that particular team. Even with my prediction,
Speaker 1: I picked the Nuggets in every single round except for
Speaker 1: the Lakers round. Even there, I was going with NBA history.
Speaker 1: Every NBA champion in the last several decades has had
Speaker 1: elite rim protection and an elite defensive front line, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers did and Denver did not. Now I was wrong,
Speaker 1: I learned, But what we're gonna do on this show
Speaker 1: is we're going to adjust over the years as we
Speaker 1: learn more information. I used to think centers weren't very valuable,
Speaker 1: so I had Jokic at seven and then beat at eight.
Speaker 1: But then what happened. Jokic clearly demonstrated that he's better
Speaker 1: than all the dudes in front of him. So now
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have Yokic at number one. I'm I'm just
Speaker 1: reacting to new information, and that's what I'm going to
Speaker 1: continue to do over the years. And Jokic, to me,
Speaker 1: has earned a whole lot of leeway going into next
Speaker 1: I don't care if he's averaging fifteen points a game
Speaker 1: in March, and I don't care if Lucas kicking everyone's ass.
Speaker 1: To me, the trophy is sacred. To me, everything about
Speaker 1: what we do in sports is about winning. Now, there
Speaker 1: are other things in the game that we should enjoy
Speaker 1: and appreciate, but winning is always the main thing. And
Speaker 1: if you don't make it sacred, then you cheapen it.
Speaker 1: And I don't want that. When Yokic is sitting there,
Speaker 1: holding the Finals MVP Trophy. To me, that moment is
Speaker 1: so incredibly sacred that if we apply the requisite amount
Speaker 1: of appreciation and respect to it, it makes it mean something,
Speaker 1: which is what I always want. I always want it
Speaker 1: to mean something. I don't want Jokic to be forgotten
Speaker 1: next year just because he's coasting through the regular season
Speaker 1: while other dudes are trying hard because they haven't won
Speaker 1: the trophy yet. That's just the way that we do
Speaker 1: things on this show. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like I always have loved this Nuggets team, I've always
Speaker 1: known they were capable of winning. I had a list
Speaker 1: of eight teams that could win the title going in.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets were on that list. I just gave preferential
Speaker 1: treatment to teams that had won. Now Denver's one of
Speaker 1: those teams, and they're going to be one of those
Speaker 1: teams that I favor moving forward. All right, So before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, I wanted to just kind
Speaker 1: of shout out you guys. So this is the end
Speaker 1: of my third full season covering the league, my second
Speaker 1: season covering the league with the volume. I take this
Speaker 1: shot very seriously, As you guys know, I devote a
Speaker 1: ton of time to it. We did more than one
Speaker 1: show per day during this postseason run. Ryan and I
Speaker 1: Ryan Brumley, and we're going to talk about some of
Speaker 1: the staff here in just a minute, but Ryan's was
Speaker 1: my first producer when I started with the volume. He's
Speaker 1: become a very good friend of mine. Him and I
Speaker 1: sat down in October and we were like, what are
Speaker 1: our goals for this season? And we had a really
Speaker 1: lofty one. We wanted to average over one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: views per day on YouTube in the playoffs. The time,
Speaker 1: it seemed insane because in the playoff run last year,
Speaker 1: like we hit one hundred k a few times, but
Speaker 1: it was pretty rare and we certainly weren't averaging anywhere
Speaker 1: close to that, and it was lofty, and but we
Speaker 1: worked extremely hard at it, and we ended up accomplishing
Speaker 1: that goal. We averaged over one hundred thousand views per
Speaker 1: day in this postseason run. And to me, I'm just
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. I can't believe that. The way
Speaker 1: that you guys care about the way that I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the game, it evalidates some stuff for me, because,
Speaker 1: like I remember when I got into this business, like
Speaker 1: so many people were just focusing on drama and focusing
Speaker 1: on hot takes and debate shows are ruling the business
Speaker 1: right now, and like, I just wanted to come in
Speaker 1: and talk about the game the way that I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about the game, and keep it about basketball
Speaker 1: as much as possible while also sprinkling in some of
Speaker 1: the bigger picture stuff that I've always loved as a kid,
Speaker 1: being a fan end of the league. And to see
Speaker 1: you guys return that to me with your support over
Speaker 1: the course of this year has been a really humbling experience,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it's been one of the greatest joys of
Speaker 1: my entire life to build this show and to have
Speaker 1: your guys' support, And I'm incredibly thankful for you. I'm
Speaker 1: incredibly excited for what we can accomplish in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years. We got to come up with the
Speaker 1: even loftier goal for next year when we're sitting in
Speaker 1: the chair at this point. But I just hope you
Speaker 1: guys know how much I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: I read the YouTube comments almost every single video, so
Speaker 1: if you've said I will say, like this, one of
Speaker 1: the things that sucks about this job is it's sports,
Speaker 1: right like like, let's say, for instance, you're a Denver
Speaker 1: fan and you didn't like something I said about Jokic,
Speaker 1: Like it's just a It's a basketball opinion, right, like
Speaker 1: it's a basketball opinion. I can't tell you how many
Speaker 1: times I get direct messages or or mentions from people that.
Speaker 2: Say awful, awful, awful.
Speaker 1: Things to me about sports opinion, And every single time
Speaker 1: it was evened out by the hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 1: you guys who said incredibly kind things to me and thanked,
Speaker 1: thanked me and told stories about how you've get One
Speaker 1: of my favorite types of comments to receive is when
Speaker 1: you guys say that you love the game more because
Speaker 1: of what I'm saying. That to me is the best
Speaker 1: compliment you can possibly pay me, because I love the
Speaker 1: game so much and I want the game to grow,
Speaker 1: and to see it grow, even just within the context
Speaker 1: of this show is really really cool. And so for
Speaker 1: all of you guys who said kind things to me
Speaker 1: over the years, over the year and sent me kind
Speaker 1: to direct messages in nice YouTube comments, I just want
Speaker 1: you guys to know how much I appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
Speaker 1: Guys the team. So Ryan Brumley, like I said, he's
Speaker 1: our lead producer. He's been incredibly valuable to me personally
Speaker 1: and just helping manage the grind of the season and
Speaker 1: help keep me with the positive attitude and obviously helps
Speaker 1: to kind of focus and funnel my view of basketball
Speaker 1: into a version of the show that actually works and
Speaker 1: is successful in the in the modern media landscape. Paul Farrington,
Speaker 1: he's our big YouTube guy. He again, if I'm working
Speaker 1: two videos a day and three videos a day sometimes
Speaker 1: and staying up super light, He's always staying up super
Speaker 1: late with me to make sure that that content gets
Speaker 1: out and puts all the chapter markers in there and
Speaker 1: does all those things that make the show work. A
Speaker 1: shout out to Paul Carson Breb He was a big
Speaker 1: time guest on the show this year. Helps me a
Speaker 1: lot with some of the nitty gritty stuff that I
Speaker 1: don't get to spend as much time on, particularly like
Speaker 1: the draft and some player development stuff. I think he's
Speaker 1: one of the smartest basketball minds out there, one of
Speaker 1: the best young basketball minds that we have covering the league.
Speaker 1: And I was skiing down in Whistler for my wife's
Speaker 1: thirtieth birthday when I got a call from one of
Speaker 1: my bosses when he told me that Carson and Nerd
Speaker 1: Sessh was getting picked up by the Volume and he
Speaker 1: had a show, and I was I was so so
Speaker 1: happy for Carson because he just deserves it and it's
Speaker 1: really cool to see him have a show at the
Speaker 1: Volume now as well. Shout out to Logan Camden as well,
Speaker 1: to guys are awesome and I'm excited to work with
Speaker 1: you guys covering the draft next week. Josh Rodriguez another
Speaker 1: guy who helped a lot, especially just with filling gaps
Speaker 1: when guys were in and out of town for vacation.
Speaker 1: And then Josh Goldman mainly an idea guy, just helping
Speaker 1: us kind of come up with things to talk about
Speaker 1: during the season. And the lastly, mister Logan Swam, the
Speaker 1: head of content here at the Volume. And then mister
Speaker 1: Colin Coward for making my dream come true by giving
Speaker 1: me this opportunity and every single day I get to
Speaker 1: talk about basketball, which is like literally I just feel
Speaker 1: incredibly lucky and blessed to do so. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: have done it without those two guys, So shout out
Speaker 1: to the team again, Like, I know, it's just me
Speaker 1: here talking on the camera, but there's a lot of
Speaker 1: guys behind the scenes that make this whole thing work.
Speaker 1: Off season plan. This week, we're doing a Lessons we
Speaker 1: Learned video Probably tomorrow or the next day. We might
Speaker 1: hit some trade free agency stuff if something interesting comes
Speaker 1: down over the course of the next couple of days,
Speaker 1: just quickly before I head of town. I go out
Speaker 1: to town on Friday to Montana, and I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: gone through next Wednesday, and unless there's huge breaking news.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna take a break.
Speaker 1: I'm a little burnt out after how much we worked
Speaker 1: over the course of this postseason run, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to take a break. But we will be back on
Speaker 1: Thursday next week for a draft show that night, a
Speaker 1: live draft show. We're gonna be doing it with the
Speaker 1: Nerd SASH guys and callin Cowards, so that should be fun.
Speaker 1: Then free agency on July first, and it'll be a
Speaker 1: little weird because I'm out of town in Texas for
Speaker 1: my cousin's wedding. I had a bunch of people in
Speaker 1: my mentions going like, why are you Cowboys fan? And
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan? Well, I'm a Lakers fan because of Lebron.
Speaker 1: I'm a Cowboys fan because my entire family is in
Speaker 1: the Dallas Fort Worth area. Both of my older siblings
Speaker 1: were actually born there. I was born right after we
Speaker 1: moved to Tucson. But the Dallas Cowboys are a big
Speaker 1: cultural thing in my family. But I'm in Texas, so
Speaker 1: our free agency coverage might be a little delayed, just
Speaker 1: by a few hours. Like I think July first is
Speaker 1: the is when free agency starts, and the weddings that day,
Speaker 1: so I probably won't be covering that until the following morning.
Speaker 1: Then we're doing Summer League. We're actually going out to
Speaker 1: Summer League. I think the Nerd Sash guys are coming to.
Speaker 1: I think Live Moods is coming, so we're gonna do
Speaker 1: a bunch of I think Chris Mannix is out there too.
Speaker 1: We've got the Blue Wires Studio in the win for
Speaker 1: a couple of days, so we're gonna do a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff out in Vegas for summer League. Come say
Speaker 1: hi too if you see me. I'll probably be down
Speaker 1: at the UNLV Rec Center playing some basketball. If you
Speaker 1: guys want to come play some pickup and then I'll
Speaker 1: be always hanging out in the arena. Just follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter, you'll get to see where i'm at. Come by,
Speaker 1: say hi, I really want to meet some of you guys.
Speaker 1: And then I'm going out of town for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks in the middle of July to San Francisco
Speaker 1: for the final Dead and Company show. And then I'm
Speaker 1: going to Japan with my wife for a week, so
Speaker 1: we'll miss some time there in the middle of July.
Speaker 1: But then I'm in town for pretty much the rest
Speaker 1: of the summer. I got a lot of big plans.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be doing all time player rankings, current player rankings, ranking,
Speaker 1: Playoff run, and then once we get into that second
Speaker 1: half of September, that's when we'll start our season preview
Speaker 1: shows focusing on the top teams in the league. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: another season in the books. The volume