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Speaker 1: b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody, hope all if you guys
Speaker 1: are having a great start to your week. Got a
Speaker 1: jampackshow for you today. The Nuggets got revenged on the
Speaker 1: thunder at a very interesting rematch, very interesting defensive adjustment
Speaker 1: from Michael Malone in the second half as the Nuggets
Speaker 1: get a big win there After that, I want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the Atlanta Hawks, who have
Speaker 1: won four out of five and specifically a couple of
Speaker 1: things that really exciting about the bright future that they have,
Speaker 1: even if we all can agree that they have a
Speaker 1: certain ceiling this year. Then at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the show, I just want to briefly talk about the Lakers,
Speaker 1: just so I can tell everyone to take a deep
Speaker 1: breath and relax, because I'm not too worried about their
Speaker 1: disaster in Brooklyn last night. You guys are the job
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribed to Hoops to Night YouTube channels.
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Speaker 1: Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year, and then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions into the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. We are recording a mail bag tomorrow that
Speaker 1: is going to run on Thursday, So this is the
Speaker 1: last episode for you guys to get questions into the comments.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So again I talked
Speaker 1: about how in the Sunday game it was obviously a
Speaker 1: very strong statement for shake yieldess Alexander, for MVP, and
Speaker 1: in general a sign of some weaknesses that the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets had. I listed at the end of the show
Speaker 1: a couple of things that the Nuggets could do better
Speaker 1: to try to flip the script in last night's game,
Speaker 1: and I talked a lot about on defense the issues
Speaker 1: that they had containing the ball, and the solution that
Speaker 1: I presented not really a solution, but the strategy that
Speaker 1: I would recommend was just bring Yokic up to the
Speaker 1: level I thought those were his best looks. Just make
Speaker 1: sure he gets there early enough that Shay can't like
Speaker 1: split him off the dribble or anything like that, and
Speaker 1: pray on Shay's inability to like really really pass well
Speaker 1: out of traps and double teams and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: I did talk about how they should unleash that zone
Speaker 1: look again in the second half, just as a rhythm disruptor,
Speaker 1: but Mike Malone ended up going with something way more aggressive.
Speaker 1: He started with the exact same strategy from the Sunday game,
Speaker 1: in the first half a mix of at the level
Speaker 1: coverages with Jokic and deeper coverages deeper drop coverages with Jokic. Actually,
Speaker 1: my guess is that the actual game plan is for
Speaker 1: Jokic to go up to the level, but that there's
Speaker 1: like kind of an understanding between and Mike Malone that
Speaker 1: when he needs a break, when he's tired, that he
Speaker 1: runs a deeper drop as basically an opportunity for him
Speaker 1: to rest while he's on the court. That's my guess
Speaker 1: as to how that keeps manifesting as a mix between
Speaker 1: the two coverages. The game had a very similar feel
Speaker 1: to the first game. To start, Denver had a little
Speaker 1: lead early. Oklahoma City really controlled the middle portion of
Speaker 1: the game, but they weren't really able to pull away,
Speaker 1: and then in that third quarter, Mike Malone pulls the
Speaker 1: zone card. Except for one little wrinkle. He said, if
Speaker 1: we're going to be a team that has to exist
Speaker 1: in rotation, like we've talked to like we've talked about
Speaker 1: a lot over the last couple of weeks, we might
Speaker 1: as well exist in rotation on our terms in a
Speaker 1: way that we can plan for. So what he did
Speaker 1: is he just had the top two guys in the
Speaker 1: zone just double team Shay as soon as he crossed
Speaker 1: half court. Then they basically set up their back line
Speaker 1: with Jokicic just sitting right under the rim and the
Speaker 1: two bottom guys in the zone coming up and playing
Speaker 1: passing lanes. There's a lot that you can do playing
Speaker 1: passing lanes to prey on indecisiveness for the role player.
Speaker 1: So there's four on three right and when you make
Speaker 1: aggressive rotations, so like let's say, for instance, you double
Speaker 1: team Shay and he floats the ball over the top
Speaker 1: to you know, whoever it is that's on the right wing,
Speaker 1: let's call it Aaron Wiggins. If Jamal Murray, who is
Speaker 1: let's say on the bottom part of the zone where
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso is hiding in the corner, if he just
Speaker 1: sprints up and guards Aaron Wiggins on the wing, then
Speaker 1: Aaron Wiggins can make a simple and easy swing pass
Speaker 1: to the corner and it's either a wide open three
Speaker 1: for Alex Crusoe or you can drive the close out
Speaker 1: if he wants. But what the Nuggets were consistently doing
Speaker 1: in that zone is they were having those bottom guys
Speaker 1: like kind of half close out. But in the lane,
Speaker 1: in the passing lane, so that as Aaron Wiggins or
Speaker 1: whoever it was that would catch in that spot would
Speaker 1: look to read the floor, they'd have this kind of
Speaker 1: hesitancy because they're like, well, I'm kind of open, but
Speaker 1: I'm not really open, and I don't I'm sure that
Speaker 1: coach doesn't want me just shooting on the first pass
Speaker 1: out of the trap, but like, I'm also gonna have
Speaker 1: to throw like a floating pass over the top to
Speaker 1: whoever it is that's in the corner because they're playing
Speaker 1: in the passing lane. And it just prayed on that
Speaker 1: indecisiveness and prayed on some of that lack of refined
Speaker 1: skill that you see from Oklahoma City's role players. And
Speaker 1: again another important context here, Jalen Williams left the game
Speaker 1: with a hip strain, and so it ended up being
Speaker 1: the perfect strategy to really turn that game because they
Speaker 1: gave up seventy three points in the first half. Like
Speaker 1: the Thunder defense eviscerated Denver again in the first half,
Speaker 1: but under the circumstances in that second half with JDub
Speaker 1: being out, it made a lot of sense to basically
Speaker 1: force Shay to give up the basketball early in these
Speaker 1: possessions out by half court and then have a plan
Speaker 1: for how to rotate out of it. By the way,
Speaker 1: the thunder did get some buckets out of those sequences,
Speaker 1: but overall it worked really well. Oklahoma City got one
Speaker 1: point zero nine points per possession versus Denver's man de
Speaker 1: man looks in seventeen possessions in the second half. Against
Speaker 1: that double teaming zone look, they allowed just zero point
Speaker 1: eight eight points per possession as they worked all the
Speaker 1: way back into a two point lead heading into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. That set up perfectly because in that middle
Speaker 1: portion of the game, Okase had led by as much
Speaker 1: as twelve. That zone allowed them to kind of get
Speaker 1: back into a commanding position up by two. And then
Speaker 1: what happens in the fourth quarter if Shake Gildos Alexander
Speaker 1: leaves the game and Jay Dub's not in the game anymore, well,
Speaker 1: now you have to throw out a bench look that
Speaker 1: doesn't have Shay or Jay Dubb. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot of these lesser role players,
Speaker 1: a lot of kise On Wallace on the ball, a
Speaker 1: lot of chet Holm. We'ren taking tougher shots. It turned
Speaker 1: into a very limited offensive group for Oklahoma City, and
Speaker 1: Denver just immediately blitzed them to start the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: They were up by double figures before Gildess Alexander could
Speaker 1: get back into the game. Lots of really impressive shot
Speaker 1: making from Denver in that run to start the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: MPJ hit a tough movement three running to his left
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. Jamal Murray hit a
Speaker 1: tough off the dribble three on the left wing. Jalen
Speaker 1: Pickett confidently posting up in a really nice step through
Speaker 1: move to get a bucket one on one. He had
Speaker 1: a step back three on the right wing in this stretch.
Speaker 1: Forget about just that run. The shot making for Denver
Speaker 1: all night long was amazing. They converted spot up possessions
Speaker 1: at one point eight five points per possession last night.
Speaker 1: It was zero point seven to two on Sunday. That's
Speaker 1: a giant chasm. More than twice as efficient on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot looks if you just refine it to catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. Zero point nine to one points
Speaker 1: per shot on Sunday one point eight to two points
Speaker 1: per shot on Monday. That's double. Lots of key guys
Speaker 1: made shots Westbrook, Peyton Watson and Jalen Pickett combined to
Speaker 1: go nine for twelve from three. Watson and Westbrook in particular,
Speaker 1: both hit multiple threes in the fourth quarters where OKC
Speaker 1: was basically daring them to shoot. I call these coverage beaters, right, like,
Speaker 1: if the coverage is we're gonna concede this. If you
Speaker 1: don't show a willingness and an ability to make that shot,
Speaker 1: then they're gonna stay in that coverage. And they beat
Speaker 1: that coverage consistently. Just Westbrook one pass away double teams
Speaker 1: on Jokic, skip passes in their boss screen action that
Speaker 1: ended up in Peyton Watson in his hands in the
Speaker 1: left corner. Those threes are way more important than even
Speaker 1: just the point value of that shot because they defeat
Speaker 1: a specific coverage and Oklahoma City was never able to
Speaker 1: regain their footing in that fourth quarter, and Denver went
Speaker 1: on to win comfortably by thirteen points. And this is
Speaker 1: the main reason why I haven't been able to quit
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. Jokic is so damn good, and their
Speaker 1: ceiling on offense is outrageous. That's the best defense in
Speaker 1: the league and they hung one forty on them. Their
Speaker 1: defense is bad. Denver's defense is bad. They're down to
Speaker 1: twentieth on the season. We talked earlier in a manna
Speaker 1: man half. They gave up seventy three in the second
Speaker 1: in the second game against Oklahoma City before that double
Speaker 1: teaming zone, and again it's important context that Jadub was
Speaker 1: out of the game when they were able to shut
Speaker 1: them down in that second half. After last night, Denver
Speaker 1: is still just five and thirteen this year, five wins
Speaker 1: and thirteen losses against teams in the top ten in
Speaker 1: point differential according to Cleaning the Glass. And I think
Speaker 1: that matters, like who are the four other teams? Who
Speaker 1: are the Who's my inner circle of championship contenders? It's Denver,
Speaker 1: but it's the Lakers, It's the Thunder, It's the Calves,
Speaker 1: and it's the Celtics. If if you were to go
Speaker 1: to Cleaning the Glass and look at the teams with
Speaker 1: the best records against the teams in the top ten
Speaker 1: in point differential, who do you think the top four are?
Speaker 1: It's the Calves, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Like that, they have all year been consistently great against
Speaker 1: the top teams and Denver has been terrible. Also, by
Speaker 1: the way side, note for Warriors fans. They rank sixth
Speaker 1: on that list in win percentage against teams in the
Speaker 1: top ten in point differential. That's a big part of
Speaker 1: why I have my eye on them as a tea
Speaker 1: that could potentially join my inner circle of contenders before
Speaker 1: the end of the season. But these are major red flags.
Speaker 1: Twentieth in defense and can't beat good teams, are not
Speaker 1: beating good teams often. There are not many teams in
Speaker 1: NBA history who have postseason success when they suck on
Speaker 1: defense and they struggle to beat the good teams. But
Speaker 1: the Nuggets have three things going for them that keep
Speaker 1: them in the inner circle. For me, one, you don't
Speaker 1: have to go any further than Nikola Jokic. He's the
Speaker 1: best basketball player on planet Earth. He had thirty five,
Speaker 1: eighteen and eight last night. This is how insane this is.
Speaker 1: I was looking at his game log this morning, just
Speaker 1: like a list of all the games he's played this season,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I wonder where this game ranks
Speaker 1: among all of the games and all the individual performances
Speaker 1: he's had this year. I don't think it even registers
Speaker 1: in the top ten, probably not even in the top fifteen.
Speaker 1: He has four thirty five point triple doubles this year,
Speaker 1: countless forty point games, a fifty point game like he
Speaker 1: had a thirty five eighteen and eight, And it's kind
Speaker 1: of just like a whatever Jokic game this season. And
Speaker 1: that's just the insane talent level and consistency that Jokic
Speaker 1: brings to the table. The second piece of it is continuity.
Speaker 1: The Jamal Murray connection with Jokich is at such a
Speaker 1: high level of comfortability at this point. He dropped a
Speaker 1: smooth thirty four last night. Everyone off of those two
Speaker 1: knows where to be a threat. They know how to
Speaker 1: be a threat off of Yokic post ups, but they
Speaker 1: also know how to be a threat off of the
Speaker 1: Jokich Murray two man yate. As much as I've talked
Speaker 1: about Denver's defense this year, they're the second best offense
Speaker 1: in the NBA, ahead of even the Boston Celtics. So
Speaker 1: like it's important context that we bring into the picture
Speaker 1: that they are one of the truly elite offenses in
Speaker 1: this league. And the third piece of it, and this
Speaker 1: is where the real optimism comes from. I don't think
Speaker 1: this Nuggets team can be good defensively. They don't have
Speaker 1: the personnel, but they can be better than they are,
Speaker 1: And there is a whole lot of like like kind
Speaker 1: of realities at place here. They're an older veteran team
Speaker 1: that's been playing together forever and that doesn't really care
Speaker 1: about the regular season. Like think about how many times
Speaker 1: Michael Porter, Junior, Jamal Murray and the Cole Jokic have
Speaker 1: gone through the eighty two game regular season together just
Speaker 1: as a unit themselves, and they know all their opponents
Speaker 1: really well. You know, they're not going to bring a
Speaker 1: level of night to night commitment that other teams around
Speaker 1: the league breaks. So like there's a certain amount of
Speaker 1: scaleability for them in the postseason, especially when we've seen
Speaker 1: like we have seen Jokic, Gordon Murray, Jamal an athletic
Speaker 1: guard play good defense and be able to get stops
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Now, they're older and a little slower now,
Speaker 1: so I don't think they'll be able to get to
Speaker 1: the level they were in twenty twenty three, but they've
Speaker 1: been at times this year even better offensively than they
Speaker 1: were in twenty twenty three. Yokic said last night, I'm
Speaker 1: playing the best basketball of my career right. So, like,
Speaker 1: if they can scale up defensively and they're one of
Speaker 1: the top tier offenses in the NBA. There's absolutely a
Speaker 1: version of this where it can all come together. You
Speaker 1: can kind of imagine the scenario. Right they lock in
Speaker 1: in April. They defend at basically an average level. Jokic,
Speaker 1: Murray and Michael Porter Junior have like flamethrower postseason runs.
Speaker 1: And what if Gordon, Westbrook, Brown and Watson all just
Speaker 1: shoot super well from three. And by the way, before
Speaker 1: you tell me they're gonna miss fifteen games now, Christian
Speaker 1: Brown forty one percent from three, Aaron Gordon fifty one
Speaker 1: percent from three, Russell Westbrook thirty six percent from three.
Speaker 1: He's confidently stepping into catch and shoot threes last night
Speaker 1: off of Yokic double teams. Peyton Watson sixty four percent
Speaker 1: from three. Hit some big ones last night. Like the
Speaker 1: idea is you help off those guys and they just
Speaker 1: keep hitting shots. Now, they might not in the postseason,
Speaker 1: and that'll be the big challenge for the record. All
Speaker 1: those things will have to come together. Yokichen Murray are
Speaker 1: gonna have to average damn near thirty on high efficiency
Speaker 1: if they're gonna get where they want to go. Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior is gonna have to have a great playoff run.
Speaker 1: All of those guys are gonna have to shoot super
Speaker 1: well from three, and they're gonna have to get to
Speaker 1: an average level defensively at minimum. But I think all
Speaker 1: of those things are possible. And so point being, I
Speaker 1: can't quit the Nuggets. They have some stuff they absolutely
Speaker 1: must get better at, but there are enough in greedy
Speaker 1: there to win the title. All right, Let's move on
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta Hawks. They beat the Sixers last night
Speaker 1: without Trey Young or Karislovert, and I had watched both
Speaker 1: of their games against the Indiana Pacers, a couple wins
Speaker 1: that they got in the last week. They've won four
Speaker 1: out of five. They have a one to twenty three
Speaker 1: offensive rating in that span. It really starts with Trey
Speaker 1: and Karris Lavert. The two of them has just been
Speaker 1: playing at a really high level during this stretch. I
Speaker 1: was watching Trey versus the Pacers in those two games,
Speaker 1: and I was just amazed. Every time I watched Trey,
Speaker 1: I'm amazed by his ability to throw passes on time
Speaker 1: and on target with his left hand. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this concept when we were talking about Steph
Speaker 1: Curry yesterday. But the difficulties for right handed shooters going
Speaker 1: either direction as they have to square up in mid air. Right,
Speaker 1: so you're running to the left, it's easier because you
Speaker 1: can plant your right foot first and you're already kind
Speaker 1: of naturally squared up to the basket. But if you're
Speaker 1: running to your right hand, to your strong hand, you
Speaker 1: have to like kind of square up in mid air
Speaker 1: by getting more left, and all of those things combine
Speaker 1: in ball handling situations to make things complicated. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: if you're a right handed player, where is it easiest
Speaker 1: to throw passes. It's easiest to throw passes by swinging
Speaker 1: that right hand around with like baseball passes right, We've
Speaker 1: all since we were little kids thrown things with our
Speaker 1: right hand. If we're right handed, it's easy enough to
Speaker 1: make those passes similarly with ballhand like, most right handed
Speaker 1: players are much stronger ball handling with their right hand,
Speaker 1: so when they go to the right, they're better drivers
Speaker 1: and passers, but they can sometimes struggle to shoot. When
Speaker 1: they're going left, they can be better shooters, but they
Speaker 1: can sometimes struggle to drive because they don't ribble as
Speaker 1: well with their left hand. And it's really hard to
Speaker 1: throw those passes with their left hand right But ironically
Speaker 1: a lot of the passing reads are most available going
Speaker 1: to your left because you're a more deadly jump shooter,
Speaker 1: and so the coverages will be more aggressive to try
Speaker 1: to take away that jump shot. And so the ability
Speaker 1: to actually throw these cross court passes in these on time,
Speaker 1: on target bullet passes right into the shooting pocket with
Speaker 1: your left hand is such an incredibly valuable trait for
Speaker 1: a ball handler. And I was watching Trey just pick
Speaker 1: the pacers apart with his left hand as a passer
Speaker 1: in those games. One of the other things that really
Speaker 1: stands out to me when I watch Trey is just
Speaker 1: his relentless screening attack. He never really lets you off
Speaker 1: the hook until the end of the shot clock. He'll
Speaker 1: run a ball screen and then he'll rescreen if he
Speaker 1: doesn't get the separation he wants. If he doesn't get
Speaker 1: the separation he wants on that one, he'll swing it
Speaker 1: to the wing and he'll like cut through the lane
Speaker 1: and he'll end up under the basket. He'll kind of
Speaker 1: slow down and then all of a sudden he'll come
Speaker 1: sprinting off of another dribble handoff, and it's like another
Speaker 1: kind of ball screen concept built out of that DHO
Speaker 1: and you might have to deal with Trey four or
Speaker 1: five times on a single possession in a ball screen action.
Speaker 1: And as all of that's happening, if you make a
Speaker 1: single mistake anywhere along the way, you give a shooter
Speaker 1: too much space, you let a guy cut behind you,
Speaker 1: you leave the role man a runway towards the front
Speaker 1: of the rim, he just makes you pay every single
Speaker 1: time with those passes. Tray's averaging thirteen assists per game
Speaker 1: over this four and one stretch. He's really having a
Speaker 1: brilliant offensive season that I think has been underrated by
Speaker 1: a lot of folks, as he's been setting up a
Speaker 1: lot of high quality shots for his young athlete corps
Speaker 1: around him. Lavert's been very good in the stretch. He's
Speaker 1: averaging seventeen points per game since joining the Hawks, twenty
Speaker 1: per game in this five game stretch for their four
Speaker 1: and one. But I want to focus on Dyson Daniels
Speaker 1: here for a minute. Dyson has a reputation for being
Speaker 1: one of the best defensive players in the league, which
Speaker 1: is well deserved, but he's also blossoming into a very
Speaker 1: good offensive player. As of late, he's scored double figures
Speaker 1: in seventeen straight games. That's pretty wild consistency. It'savaging sixteen
Speaker 1: points per game over that span, fifty four percent from
Speaker 1: the field, fifty five percent from three six rebounds a game,
Speaker 1: and this crazy part, five point four assists per game
Speaker 1: with only two turnovers, basically a two and a half
Speaker 1: over a two and a half assist to turnover ratio.
Speaker 1: He's got this lightning quick first step. He's really good
Speaker 1: at disguising it too, like he'll move slowly with like
Speaker 1: change of pace where he'll kind of like lull the
Speaker 1: defender to sleep, and then he'll just explode forward. He
Speaker 1: can get dribble penetration on just about anyone. He's got
Speaker 1: really good counter move footwork in the short range. These
Speaker 1: are like the he gets downhill and then he can
Speaker 1: like euro back to the opposite side with either foot.
Speaker 1: He's got a good spin move. He gets separation after
Speaker 1: he gets downhill in that short range, and then he
Speaker 1: ties it all together with a floater, which is flat
Speaker 1: out deadly. He's made ninety six of them this year.
Speaker 1: Here's a crazy stat for you, guys. Dyson Daniels has
Speaker 1: made the fourth most floaters in the entire NBA this year,
Speaker 1: more than Darius Garland, more than Ty Jerome. He's deadly
Speaker 1: with it. He's at forty six percent on the season
Speaker 1: in efficiency. But that's been trending way up. I was
Speaker 1: digging back through all the floaters he's been taken. As
Speaker 1: of late. I have him for eighteen of his last
Speaker 1: thirty three on floaters. That's fifty five percent. He's becoming
Speaker 1: a really dynamic shot maker, a shot maker in that
Speaker 1: short range area in the middle of the floor, and
Speaker 1: he's still just barely scratching the surface of what he
Speaker 1: can do. The jump shots coming along, Like we talked about,
Speaker 1: he's over fifty percent from three in this range. There's
Speaker 1: real playmaking potential. He can become one of the better
Speaker 1: two way guards in this league if he continues to
Speaker 1: develop his offensive game. They put the ball in his
Speaker 1: hands a ton last night with against the Sixers, with
Speaker 1: Trey Young and Karis Lavert out, he went for twenty
Speaker 1: five six and nine assists on ten for fourteen from
Speaker 1: the field. They gave him the ball and said, hey,
Speaker 1: can you be a star for us tonight? And he
Speaker 1: was a star. He's a special young player. He's not
Speaker 1: even twenty two years old yet. What a huge swing
Speaker 1: in the franchise history of the Atlanta Hawks that they
Speaker 1: were able to turn Dejonte Murray into draft compensation and
Speaker 1: a player that has the potential to be better than
Speaker 1: Dejonte within a year or two. And then the last
Speaker 1: guy that I wanted to shout out was Zachary Resachet.
Speaker 1: He's coming on super strong as of late. In his
Speaker 1: last eighteen games is averaging fourteen points per game on
Speaker 1: fifty two percent from the field in forty seven percent
Speaker 1: from three I've been talking a lot about this particular archetype,
Speaker 1: and this is the kind of guy that I think
Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons should be hunting in the draft. I've
Speaker 1: been talking about this quite a bit, but there are
Speaker 1: different types of talents that you can go for to
Speaker 1: try to kind of influence your offense. Right, there's ball handling,
Speaker 1: But one of the most common archetypes that I'm seeing
Speaker 1: kind of rise to the surface in the NBA is
Speaker 1: the idea of this like weak side scoring forward. This
Speaker 1: is the guy that's catching the ball in the skip pass.
Speaker 1: Because this guy's man is so frequently tagging rollers, so
Speaker 1: you situate this guy in the week's corner. There's a
Speaker 1: bunch of the examples of this in the league. So
Speaker 1: for the Hawks, it's Zachary Rischet right. For the for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets forever, it was like Michael Porter Junior right.
Speaker 1: For the Lakers, it's Ruey Hatchi Mura, and now with
Speaker 1: Luca it's Lebron James too. This this idea of a
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter does a lot of this. For the Cleveland Cavaliers,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of these types of guys that are
Speaker 1: like three four like the hybrid types of forwards who
Speaker 1: you're not going to run a ton of action for,
Speaker 1: but they get so many close out opportunities. They are
Speaker 1: professional closeout attackers. And all it requires is like a
Speaker 1: good catch and shoot jump shot, and then a couple
Speaker 1: of basic scoring moves, the ability like a like a
Speaker 1: rip through or a jab step, and then a couple
Speaker 1: of basic counter moves euros, spin moves, being able to
Speaker 1: finish with both hands. Zachary rische is like excellent with
Speaker 1: his left hand, like little lefty hooks and lefty floaters.
Speaker 1: That is the set of traits you need in order
Speaker 1: to put it all together. And it was a little
Speaker 1: rough to start the year, was a little rough with
Speaker 1: the shooting, it was a little rough with some of
Speaker 1: the scoring touch. But in his last eighteen games he's
Speaker 1: really starting to put it together as a reliable weak
Speaker 1: side score. And here's the thing. The Hawks aren't gonna
Speaker 1: make any noise this year, but the rise of Dyson
Speaker 1: Daniels and Jalen Johnson, who obviously is hurt right now,
Speaker 1: that gives the Hawks a super bright future. And where
Speaker 1: it looked like last summer, like, oh man, they might
Speaker 1: have to trade Trey Young. Just getting a couple of
Speaker 1: these guys to pan out as young prospects has gone
Speaker 1: a long way to changing the perspective on the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawks future. All Right, before we get out of here
Speaker 1: tonight today, I should say I wanted to just very
Speaker 1: briefly talk about the Lakers and their loss in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's
Speaker 1: not much margin for error with the injuries. Like you
Speaker 1: have no Lebron, no Rui Hacha Mura, no Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 1: and no Dorian Finney Smith. That's four of your core
Speaker 1: eight playoff rotation players. Lebron's your second best player, Rui's
Speaker 1: probably your fourth best player, So, like, you don't have
Speaker 1: much margin for error when you're down on that many guys.
Speaker 1: So if Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are also gonna
Speaker 1: shoot eleven for forty from the field, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a hard time beating anyone. Right, It's just there's too
Speaker 1: much going against you in that sort of situation, and
Speaker 1: so some of this, like, honestly, it's just a really
Speaker 1: bad confluence of events. So Lebron happens to suffer his
Speaker 1: first injury of the year when you're already down two
Speaker 1: forwards and your starting center. Right, Luca happens to be
Speaker 1: having one of the worst shot making stretches of his career,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: has always been a guy that takes a little bit
Speaker 1: of time to get his rhythm when he's been out
Speaker 1: of the lineup for a little bit, and so Austin's
Speaker 1: really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and
Speaker 1: he's been out a rhythm. Luca's having this like brutal
Speaker 1: shot making stretch where he can't make any of the
Speaker 1: jump shots that he typically makes in his throughout the
Speaker 1: rest of his career, and you're just absolutely brutalized by
Speaker 1: injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot, right,
Speaker 1: And I actually kind of view it as a blessing
Speaker 1: in the sky because the team had been winning a lot. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they've been the best team in the league for almost
Speaker 1: two months. So like it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: you had a little bit of slippage in your execution
Speaker 1: against Boston, right, and souse JJ was able to use
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn loss last night to just basically rip his
Speaker 1: team a new one and essentially like use it as
Speaker 1: a motivator to refocus the team. Like it's not a
Speaker 1: big deal that they lost to the Nets. It's not
Speaker 1: going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where
Speaker 1: they're at in the standings. Like I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: getting any specific seed other than staying out of the
Speaker 1: play in matters. I think getting to their getting to
Speaker 1: April healthy is really all that matters, And so it's
Speaker 1: more important for you to be sharp. And so if
Speaker 1: you drop a game against the Nets, that is just
Speaker 1: a confluence of events and you lose against the defending
Speaker 1: champions on their home floor in a game where a
Speaker 1: bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other
Speaker 1: things don't go your way. It's really nothing to overreact to.
Speaker 1: But JJ can package that as a message to put
Speaker 1: in front of the Lakers, to be like, we have
Speaker 1: to be better at this stuff, because guess what, if
Speaker 1: they want to win the trophy, they do kind of
Speaker 1: have to be better at that stuff. And it's just
Speaker 1: a perfect excuse to use as a motivator for this team.
Speaker 1: The part that I want to keep an eye on, though,
Speaker 1: is Luca's shot making, because like, this is the part
Speaker 1: that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of
Speaker 1: this team. Austin's been out, he'll eventually get it back.
Speaker 1: That will go a long way towards helping this team.
Speaker 1: But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of
Speaker 1: how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca.
Speaker 1: Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys, the
Speaker 1: gap in shop making ability between this version of Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic in the version of Luka Doncic that took the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year. In twelve games
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, Luca has managed to make at least
Speaker 1: ten field goals twice in twelve games. Last year with
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, in seventy games, he may at least
Speaker 1: ten shots fifty times fifty of the seventy games. That's
Speaker 1: the level of shot making that Luca can still get
Speaker 1: to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's
Speaker 1: where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: actually the best defense in the NBA? No, They've been
Speaker 1: defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the
Speaker 1: best defense in the NBA. My guess is they're somewhere
Speaker 1: in the five to ten range given the type of
Speaker 1: personnel that they have. But they can be so so
Speaker 1: so much better on offense. That is the side of
Speaker 1: the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying
Speaker 1: some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot
Speaker 1: about this. I'm not going to get into it today,
Speaker 1: but one of our next few Laker videos, I'll do
Speaker 1: a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed
Speaker 1: to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much.
Speaker 1: It mostly has to do with putting guys in the
Speaker 1: right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get
Speaker 1: the kinds of shots you want from the players that
Speaker 1: you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of improvement that they can still make
Speaker 1: on that end, but just Luca getting back to where
Speaker 1: he can be as a shot maker while Lebron and
Speaker 1: Austin are both healthy and in rhythm, will go a
Speaker 1: long way towards lifting this team to a more elite
Speaker 1: level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's
Speaker 1: why I'm not really concerned. I saw enough in the
Speaker 1: Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everyone.
Speaker 1: They're just the safer bet. But I saw enough in
Speaker 1: that game from Luca and Lebron attacking the Boston smalls
Speaker 1: to go like, oh, like, I think they can win
Speaker 1: that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series
Speaker 1: last year, I literally came on the show in my
Speaker 1: series preview and said, I think Boston's gonna blow him out.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues
Speaker 1: with the matchups and the inability that Dallas had to
Speaker 1: create space because of their non shooters on the floor.
Speaker 1: They're pour above the break shooters in the way that
Speaker 1: they could sit rim protection under the basket. Though different
Speaker 1: with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have
Speaker 1: Ruy Hatchimura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith, they
Speaker 1: don't have a single player in that five man grouping
Speaker 1: that you can help off of, and so they should
Speaker 1: be able to create more space. Lebron and Lucas should
Speaker 1: be able to punish the Smalls. Again, it was a loss.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of disappointment there, and I think
Speaker 1: they played well. Luca looked bad for most of that game.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of negatives, but I saw enough out
Speaker 1: of that to be like, oh, I think they can
Speaker 1: beat Boston. That was an encouraging thing for me. The
Speaker 1: Nets game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ
Speaker 1: to refocus the team and it's a reminder for you
Speaker 1: guys that Luca can still come so so so far
Speaker 1: as a shot maker. A brutal from Austin and Luca
Speaker 1: last night eleven for forty from the field that they're
Speaker 1: not going to shoot like that very often. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. As always, as sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow in the evening. We're going
Speaker 1: live on YouTube. At the end, I think it's a Denver, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, then I think it is it
Speaker 1: Celtics Thunder. I think it's Celtics Thunder in the first
Speaker 1: game so jam Packed ESPN Slate tomorrow that we're covering
Speaker 1: on YouTube live. I'm recording a mail bag tomorrow that
Speaker 1: will air on Thursday as well. But again, as always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting
Speaker 1: the show, and I will see you tomorrow night the volume.
Speaker 1: What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
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