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Speaker 1: welcome to tonight presented by FanDuel here at the volume
Speaker 1: help all of you guys had a great week and
Speaker 1: that you're enjoying your weekends. So far, we've got a
Speaker 1: completely packed show. Today. We're gonna continue our top twenty
Speaker 1: five NBA players list with number fifteen through number eleven,
Speaker 1: and then here At the top of the show, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go over the latest proposed Russell Westbrook trade, this
Speaker 1: time involving the Utah Jazz and a couple of really
Speaker 1: interesting potential players heading back towards the Lakers. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go over the details of that trade when I think
Speaker 1: about the players involved, as well as where I would
Speaker 1: rank it compared to some of the other proposed Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook trades that have been thrown out over the course
Speaker 1: of this summer. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the volume's YouTube channel so you
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Speaker 1: to YouTube, we do release them in podcast form wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. Alright, So on
Speaker 1: that note, let's talk about this potential Lakers deal. So
Speaker 1: we've seen the Kyrie deal that's been proposed, which appears
Speaker 1: to be completely on hold depending on what happens with
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. Right. We've also heard of this buddy healed
Speaker 1: in Miles Turner trade with the Indiana Pacers, one that
Speaker 1: I like a lot as a backup option to the
Speaker 1: Kyrie deal too, really good solid NBA starters potentially returning
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. They're both of those deals in the
Speaker 1: immediate future. Appeal to be appeared to be held up
Speaker 1: based on whether or not the Lakers are willing to
Speaker 1: include that second first round draft pick draft pick, which
Speaker 1: who knows whether or not they'll ever be willing to
Speaker 1: include that. I hope that they will if it if
Speaker 1: it comes down to whether or not they have to
Speaker 1: take this roster into camp or not. Um Jovan Buja
Speaker 1: covers the Lakers for The Athletic. A friend of mine.
Speaker 1: He put out a tweet the other day and in
Speaker 1: one of his reports about a proposed closing lineup for
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year, and it was like Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: Troy Brown, Junr Juanta Scotto, Anderson, Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: And then I wanted to be like, okay, Like if
Speaker 1: you don't think you have a contender and you're not
Speaker 1: willing to trade those picks, and this is the lineup,
Speaker 1: you're gonna march out there this year, you might as
Speaker 1: well trade Lebron James and Anthony Davis at that point.
Speaker 1: I really like Austin Reeves. He's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: young players in the league, but he's not ready to
Speaker 1: be a you know, the third best player in a
Speaker 1: closing lineup, right, and Juantaskano Anderson and Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: Are guys who should be coming off the bench their
Speaker 1: NBA players, but they shouldn't be starting for contenders so
Speaker 1: that they're They're just nowhere near where they need to be.
Speaker 1: So you either need to put the picks on the
Speaker 1: table to make a deal happen, or you need to
Speaker 1: punt all of this and just send Lebron and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis somewhere else to a team that actually cares about
Speaker 1: trying to win basketball games. But hopefully this is all
Speaker 1: just about leverage and the Lakers will eventually put that
Speaker 1: second draft pick on the table. So we have a
Speaker 1: third ward potential Russell Westbrook trade, this time involving the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz. Michael Scota of Hoops Hype reported this yesterday.
Speaker 1: The deal would involve It's a three team deal that
Speaker 1: would help facilitate the Jazz sending Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks,
Speaker 1: and in that deal, Patrick Beverley would be coming back
Speaker 1: to the Lakers, and then two additional players for salary filler.
Speaker 1: From the Jazz it would either be Jordan Clarkson, Malik Beasley,
Speaker 1: or Boyan Bogdanovitch, And from the Knicks it would be
Speaker 1: either Derrick Rose or Evan Fournier. So in both cases,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you which players that I prefer, and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why. So I actually really like Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley's game. I just think that the Lakers are in
Speaker 1: desperate need of guys that are taller than six ft six,
Speaker 1: so I don't really see the point of going that route.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them have some more lineup flexibility
Speaker 1: to So right now, with the way that the Lakers
Speaker 1: rosters put together, they've got two decent backup bigs, right
Speaker 1: and Thomas Bryant Damian Jones, and then you've got Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: who really should be playing the five. But with the
Speaker 1: way that the rosters put together, because they have so
Speaker 1: many short basketball players elsewhere on the roster, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: at this point would have to play the vast majority
Speaker 1: of of his minutes at the four, you'd have to
Speaker 1: lean into interior size playing one of Bryant or Jones
Speaker 1: with a D at the four, Lebron and the three.
Speaker 1: That way, you're smaller perimeter players are less damaging because
Speaker 1: you've got good aggregate size with the totality of the
Speaker 1: lineup right, if you get somebody that's taller than six six,
Speaker 1: like a starting level NBA player who's taller than six six,
Speaker 1: into that three spot, that gives you the flexibility of
Speaker 1: downsizing to Anthony Davis at the five while maintaining the
Speaker 1: necessary requisite aggregate size to be able to put together
Speaker 1: a functional, you know, NBA line that that can hold
Speaker 1: up under the physicality, especially when you get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So as much as I like Malik Beasley, I think
Speaker 1: he's just a touch too small. I've never been a
Speaker 1: huge fan of Jordan Clarkson's game, very very inefficient score.
Speaker 1: I think specifically what he does, it can it can
Speaker 1: be some value in the regular season in terms of
Speaker 1: innings eating just because you can get somebody out there
Speaker 1: that can get shots up. But I don't find him
Speaker 1: to be deeply impactful in a playoff setting still a
Speaker 1: negative defensive player at this point, which puts me to
Speaker 1: boy On Begdanovich. Now, you guys have heard me talk
Speaker 1: a lot about boy On over the course of this
Speaker 1: last postseason because he's the kind of player that I
Speaker 1: value as a role player a lot, because he can
Speaker 1: attack mismatches as a big win. He's six eight, but
Speaker 1: he's a big six eight. He can shoot the ball well,
Speaker 1: and he's got a good back to the basket game.
Speaker 1: He's actually a very good isolation player. He's a guy
Speaker 1: that can score, you know, twenty plus points on any
Speaker 1: given night to help you as a you know, as
Speaker 1: an ancillary scoring piece. And then on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, he's not great, particularly when it comes
Speaker 1: to guarding quick perimeter players, but he is good at
Speaker 1: guarding big wings. He can, he's he's a good post offender.
Speaker 1: He's good at guarding your Kais and your Lebrons of
Speaker 1: the world because he's big and strong and he doesn't
Speaker 1: give ground in the physicality of fighting for positions. So again,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get perfect players in a Russell Westbrook trade.
Speaker 1: I've been talking about this NonStop over the course of
Speaker 1: this last six months, but when you're trading so Westbrook
Speaker 1: and you only have distant first round draft picks, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be getting back all stars. Okay, So you've
Speaker 1: got to change your perception of the type of player
Speaker 1: that you're targeting. You're gonna be targeting NBA starter level
Speaker 1: players that have strengths and then have weaknesses. But Bogdanovitch's
Speaker 1: strength is that he can score the basketball, particularly against
Speaker 1: mismatches smaller players on the floor. Specifically with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: That's a great value add because if you've got big,
Speaker 1: strong defenders, they're probably gonna be on Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. So there's a good chance that Bogdanovitch would
Speaker 1: consistently draw smaller defensive players that he'd be able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of. Then, in spot up roles, he's a
Speaker 1: good spot up shooter. Not a great spot up shooter,
Speaker 1: but he's a good spot up shooter. So I like
Speaker 1: him there in terms of the spacing. And then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, he's big, and so like I said,
Speaker 1: you could slot him into that three spot, which allows
Speaker 1: you to line up flexibility of playing Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the four and five there. They need
Speaker 1: more guys like that to be able to consistently play
Speaker 1: that way. But at least you'd have that punch, she'd
Speaker 1: be able to shift gears between playing big and playing small.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you don't have a guy like Bogdanovitch on
Speaker 1: the roster, I'm just not sure that you can play
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the five at all, unless you want
Speaker 1: to go with Stanley Johnson in the closing lineup. And
Speaker 1: I like Stanley Johnson and he's a good basketball player,
Speaker 1: but I ideally you want him coming off the bench
Speaker 1: for you in a smaller role, particularly kind of unleashing
Speaker 1: him as a perimeter defender against some other teams score
Speaker 1: for short bursts over the course of the game. So
Speaker 1: out of those three guys, out of Jordan Clarkson, boy
Speaker 1: On Bogdanovich, and Moli Beasley, I prefer Bogdanovitch. Now Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: who's also included in the deal, I'm not a huge
Speaker 1: fan of him as a as a player and as
Speaker 1: a person. I think he's kind of a jerk. I
Speaker 1: admire the fact that he's grinded his way into the NBA,
Speaker 1: but like stupid things like him shoving Chris Paul in
Speaker 1: the back after a playoff series. I just have no
Speaker 1: respect for that. I think he's a little bit like
Speaker 1: into the antics, and the antics at the antics don't
Speaker 1: interest me. I'm I'm a basketball purist. You guys know that.
Speaker 1: I feel the same way when it comes to ref
Speaker 1: baiting and things along those lines. Not a huge fan
Speaker 1: to Patrick Beverley overall in terms of just the kind
Speaker 1: of guy he is, but as a basketball player, as
Speaker 1: a guy who can defend at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: he's immensely valuable, particularly with this type of roster construct.
Speaker 1: You know, I talk a lot about the difference between
Speaker 1: positional defenders and disruptive defenders. Right, So, positional defenders they're
Speaker 1: not overly aggressive. They give ground, but they make you
Speaker 1: shoot over the top, and they typically are bigger and slower. Now,
Speaker 1: disruptive defenders are typically quicker and smaller, and their role
Speaker 1: is completely different. They are being aggressive defensively. They're trying
Speaker 1: to get into your shooting pocket. They're trying to disrupt
Speaker 1: your handle, and they will give up dribble penetration, but
Speaker 1: they will also force a lot of turnovers. That kind
Speaker 1: of defender is a little bit more feasible alongside great
Speaker 1: rim protection, because when you're going to be giving up
Speaker 1: dribble drive penetration, right and Patrick Beverley is so committed
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor that when he
Speaker 1: does give up dribble drive penetration, he'll either continue trying
Speaker 1: to disrupt from behind or he will get into his
Speaker 1: next spot in rotation. So alongside Galing, Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Bron James, who's a great back line defender when he's
Speaker 1: bought in, I actually really like Patrick Beverley there. He's
Speaker 1: turned into a pretty solid spot up shooter. Like he's
Speaker 1: not an offensive liability by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1: He actually flashed some bits of good offensive creation um
Speaker 1: for Minnesota in that playoff run, albeit against a guard
Speaker 1: and John Muran, who's really bad defensively at this point
Speaker 1: in his career. But Patrick Beverley, say what you want
Speaker 1: about the guy, And again, like I said, not a
Speaker 1: huge fan of the guy, but with the Lakers, he's
Speaker 1: legitimately a good fit, a guy that would help them
Speaker 1: with their current roster construct and much better than any
Speaker 1: option they have at the point of attack in the
Speaker 1: backcourt at this specific point in time, so with the Jazz,
Speaker 1: I would be targeting Patrick Beverley and Boy and Bogdanovitch. Now,
Speaker 1: the three names that have been thrown out from the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks potentially a salary filler are Derrick Rose,
Speaker 1: Evan Fournier, and Cam Reddish. So I'm gonna dismiss Cam
Speaker 1: Reddish out of hand because I just think I typically
Speaker 1: like the taller, athletic, defensive minded wing right but right now,
Speaker 1: he's just too young, and I don't think he'd be usable,
Speaker 1: particularly in a playoff setting. I want, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm running the Lakers, I'm gonna be targeting players that
Speaker 1: I believe can close playoff games for me. And right now,
Speaker 1: I've only got two that I know for sure can
Speaker 1: and Lebron James and Anthony Davis. And I've got a
Speaker 1: third and a maybe in Austin Reeves. If he gets
Speaker 1: his jump shot to the point where it's reliable, which
Speaker 1: I believe he could, it's definitely doable. But and there's
Speaker 1: lots of reporting coming out that Austin Reeves has been
Speaker 1: putting on muscle and and working on a shooting NonStop
Speaker 1: in the off season, so we'll see. But that's that's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a question mark, right. I know
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley can play playoff minutes for me. I know
Speaker 1: Boy and Bagdanovitch can play playoff minutes for me. There,
Speaker 1: so that gives me four players that I can trust.
Speaker 1: So I would like to target a fifth guy that
Speaker 1: I can slide into that lineup. Derrick Rose. I like
Speaker 1: what he's done in the last phase of his career
Speaker 1: after his injury and turning himself into a serviable, serviceable
Speaker 1: backup point guard in the NBA. But to me, he's
Speaker 1: a backup and he's a guy that you bring bringing
Speaker 1: off the bench to run your bench offense, and so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be targ getting him. I'd be targeting Evan Fournier. Now,
Speaker 1: Evan Fournier as a lead shot creator like he was
Speaker 1: for the Knicks for a long time, It's gonna be
Speaker 1: underwhelming from time to time. But if you think of
Speaker 1: him as a second side creator, a guy that's gonna
Speaker 1: be constantly attacking already compromise defense and off ball with
Speaker 1: how good he is as a spot up shooter, I
Speaker 1: really like his fit with the Lakers. So Evan Fournier
Speaker 1: would be the player I'd be targeting from the Knicks
Speaker 1: as salary filler, and then we start to get a
Speaker 1: pretty interesting closing line up there. Patrick Beverley, Evan Fournier,
Speaker 1: Boyan mcdonovitch, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis is a feasible
Speaker 1: closing lineup with plenty of shooting and plenty of size,
Speaker 1: and the hell of a lot better than that proposed
Speaker 1: closing group that Jovon bou hot throughout when he was
Speaker 1: pointing out the inadequacies of the Lakers roster at this point. Overall,
Speaker 1: compared to all of the Lakers trades that I've seen
Speaker 1: thrown out involving Russell Westbrook, I'd brank this third. I'd
Speaker 1: put the Kyrie trade first, because again, you guys gotta think,
Speaker 1: what Kyrie does with the basketball is completely impossible to
Speaker 1: replica eight and defensively, it's completely impossible to scheme for
Speaker 1: prepare for like he's unguardable, right like if what he
Speaker 1: does in the postseason is impossible to replace, so you so,
Speaker 1: for instance, I would rather have Kyrie Irving and Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson in my closing lineup then a buddy healed in
Speaker 1: a Miles Turner, because even though I know Buddy Buddy
Speaker 1: Heild of Miles Turner are both starter level NBA players,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that when they get to the highest
Speaker 1: stages against the best defenses, their impact will be limited
Speaker 1: to a certain extent because they don't have that super
Speaker 1: high end elite skill right that the three the three
Speaker 1: level shot creation that Kyrie has with Stanley Johnson and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. I know Kyrie Irving is gonna bring that
Speaker 1: unguardability to a playoff series, which has a great deal
Speaker 1: of value. And then the third best trade that I've
Speaker 1: seen thrown out there because I would I put Healed
Speaker 1: in Turner second, just because I think Turner brings a
Speaker 1: really interesting defensive dynamic with Turner and Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: the backcourt. Buddy Healed obviously and one of the best
Speaker 1: UH three point shooters that we have in the league
Speaker 1: right now. I've broken it down on the show before,
Speaker 1: but the dynamic of having him running pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis is really interesting to me because they
Speaker 1: can't switch it because of the differences in size, as
Speaker 1: opposed to a Lebron James Anthony Davis pick and roll
Speaker 1: that typically ends in a switch with Buddy Yield run
Speaker 1: and pick and roll with Anthony Davis. You're going to
Speaker 1: have to chase him over the top of the screen
Speaker 1: because he's a shooting threat. So many guards that have
Speaker 1: played for the Lakers over the course of the the last
Speaker 1: few years, like Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroeder and right
Speaker 1: on Rondo, everybody's going underneath those screens, which makes them
Speaker 1: so much easier to guard because they're not willing shooters.
Speaker 1: Getting a guy like Buddy Healed in there as a
Speaker 1: as a knockdown three point shooter coming off the top
Speaker 1: of those screens is a really interesting dynamic to open
Speaker 1: up a lebron excuse me and Anthony Davis, Buddy Healed
Speaker 1: pick and Roll. We've talked about this before and I
Speaker 1: don't I don't want to go too much deeper, but
Speaker 1: it just is so much harder to guard when you
Speaker 1: have to go over the screen versus going under the screen.
Speaker 1: If you go back to my I did I did
Speaker 1: it while I was on vacation, But if you go
Speaker 1: back and look up my video that I did on
Speaker 1: Buddy Healed proposed Trade, check that out. I went further
Speaker 1: into the XS and nose of that specific dynamic, but
Speaker 1: I put that trade second. But third, I would put
Speaker 1: this potential proposed Utah Jazz trade. I like it because
Speaker 1: I'm getting three NBA starters back in Patrick Beverley, boy
Speaker 1: and Bogdanovich and Evan Fournier, all three of them and
Speaker 1: bigger roles are gonna struggle for one reason or another
Speaker 1: when they're being depended on, Like the Utah Jazz were
Speaker 1: depending on Bedonovitch to create offense because of the struggles
Speaker 1: of Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley in that series, right
Speaker 1: Like Patrick Beverley was was put in the basketball on
Speaker 1: the floor and trying to create for himself a lot
Speaker 1: against the Memphis Grizzlies. Evan Fournier was dependent on a
Speaker 1: lot as a creator for the Knicks. With this Lakers team,
Speaker 1: they'd be downsized into roles that are more appropriate for
Speaker 1: their skill set, and I think they'd be good fits.
Speaker 1: There's that's three really solid options there, and all three
Speaker 1: of them I think would absolutely make the Lakers a
Speaker 1: legitimate championship contender. Maybe not a top tier contender, but
Speaker 1: they put them in that second tier where like, if
Speaker 1: things break right, they can win. If Lebron James stays healthy.
Speaker 1: If Anthony Davison Davis recaptured his form and those guys
Speaker 1: are all available, that's a that's a team that can
Speaker 1: win a championship. And so that to me is a
Speaker 1: percent worth it to put those two picks on the table.
Speaker 1: The only thing that is completely inexcusable as an option
Speaker 1: here for the Lakers is letting all three of these
Speaker 1: deals slip away and coming with the current roster into camp.
Speaker 1: All right, without any further ado, let's get started, uh,
Speaker 1: continuing our top twenty players in the NBA list with
Speaker 1: number fifteen Devin Booker. So in this regular season he
Speaker 1: averaged twenty seven five and five on fifty eight fifty
Speaker 1: percent true shooting. That's excellent. In this postseason run, you
Speaker 1: average twenty three five and four on fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, so four point dropping his scoring. One thing
Speaker 1: I'll say in his defense there is he had a
Speaker 1: hamstring injury. Any one of you guys out there has
Speaker 1: had a hamstring injury before. I had one shortly before
Speaker 1: I started playing in college, and I re injured it
Speaker 1: two additional times before I finally got it healed. But
Speaker 1: any of you guys who have had this injury. No,
Speaker 1: it specifically hurts you with explosiveness. You could play a
Speaker 1: lazy brand of basketball and your hamstring will do okay
Speaker 1: if it's somewhere far somewhat far along in its recovery.
Speaker 1: But as soon as you start really trying to explode
Speaker 1: and take long steps, that's where it really tests that hamstring.
Speaker 1: And that's a very important thing to have as a
Speaker 1: as a scorer in the NBA. So him having his hamstring,
Speaker 1: you know, compromised, even if it was just partially, I
Speaker 1: would get I've cut him some slack, especially after how
Speaker 1: good he looked in the playoff run in his final
Speaker 1: five games versus Dallas UM which they lost four of
Speaker 1: the average twenty two five and four on field goals,
Speaker 1: he had twenty assists with twenty four turnovers, so pretty
Speaker 1: ugly and to the Dallas series hard to look entirely past,
Speaker 1: especially because of his shot profile, which will get a
Speaker 1: little bit further into here in a little bit involving
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shooting. But I would like to
Speaker 1: cut him some slack over that hamstring injury. He's as
Speaker 1: well round did of a three level score as we
Speaker 1: have in the league. Now when we you know, I
Speaker 1: use that phrase a lot three level score, but there's
Speaker 1: a difference between the three level score in name and
Speaker 1: the three level score in practice. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: when I'm talking about shooting. You're either a shooter or
Speaker 1: a maker. You know, anybody can be a shooter. You're
Speaker 1: just taking shots, but a maker is someone who can
Speaker 1: consistently make them right. Well, it's the same thing with
Speaker 1: a three level scoring thing. There are guys who have
Speaker 1: the ability to three level score, but it doesn't actually
Speaker 1: manifest in balance scoring. You know, there you have there
Speaker 1: are three level scores out there that rely too much
Speaker 1: on their jump shot. You know, Paul George used to
Speaker 1: be like this, although he's gotten better as as we'll
Speaker 1: talk about when we get to him later on in
Speaker 1: the list. But you actually need to in practice have
Speaker 1: balance in your offense to make yourself difficult to guard.
Speaker 1: If you're good at shooting threes, good at scoring in
Speaker 1: the mid range, good at scoring in the short range,
Speaker 1: and good at scoring around the rim, but you don't
Speaker 1: actually try to get to the rim, then players will
Speaker 1: start to sit up on your jump shot and you'll
Speaker 1: have issues when you start to really dive into Devin
Speaker 1: Booker's numbers, there's remarkable balance, So check this out and
Speaker 1: um In the regular season, he averaged two restricted area
Speaker 1: makes per game at sixty percent, which is really good
Speaker 1: for for a guard, a scoring guard like him, two
Speaker 1: additional paint field goals per game outside of the restricted area,
Speaker 1: that's really good, three mid range jump shots per game
Speaker 1: at that's outstanding, and then three three pointers made per
Speaker 1: game at thirty eight percent. So he's scoring twice in
Speaker 1: the twice in the restricted area, twice in the short range,
Speaker 1: three times in the mid range, and three times from
Speaker 1: the three point line per game. That's outstanding balance. He's
Speaker 1: thirty percent on corner threes thirty eight percent and above
Speaker 1: the break threes. Doesn't really have a weak spot on
Speaker 1: the floor. He's comfortable scoring from absolutely anywhere. That's the
Speaker 1: appeal with Devin Booker, and that's what allowed him to
Speaker 1: have such a dominant playoff run like he had in
Speaker 1: in uh in two thousand one. Now, the one thing
Speaker 1: that can get a little tricky with Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: he does rely heavily on pull up jump shooting. A
Speaker 1: good percentage of those shots regard ordless of where they
Speaker 1: are on the floor involved him getting to his spot
Speaker 1: and elevating over the top of a defender to knockdown
Speaker 1: shots even in the short to midrange that you've probably
Speaker 1: seen it before, but Devin Booker will work you down
Speaker 1: to seven or eight feet, pump fake, pump fake, and
Speaker 1: then rise up over the top and take a jump shot.
Speaker 1: A good percentage of his offense comes from pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting. The tricky thing with that is, even on
Speaker 1: your best day, you're gonna miss some pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: right like you know, any one of you guys out
Speaker 1: there who has any sort of pull up jump shooting
Speaker 1: in your game, even if you're good at it, even
Speaker 1: if you work extremely hard, you're gonna miss more than
Speaker 1: half of them. And what that means is you're gonna
Speaker 1: have hot streaks where you're you know, where you can
Speaker 1: go seven out of ten or make a bunch in
Speaker 1: a row, But then you're also gonna have cold streaks.
Speaker 1: In game six, in game seven versus Dallas, he was
Speaker 1: three for sixteen on pull up jump shots, and when
Speaker 1: that failed him, he didn't have a backup option to
Speaker 1: go to. When you rely on pull up jump shooting
Speaker 1: and the pull up jump shot fails you unless you're
Speaker 1: a great playmaker, or you can live at the rim.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna have a back, a backup punch to
Speaker 1: go to. And Devin Booker has some balance to score
Speaker 1: at the rim, but he is not a guy who
Speaker 1: can live at the rim. And he's an okay playmaker,
Speaker 1: but he is not a good playmaker. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I've always prioritized his scores. Bigger wings, like the bigger, stronger,
Speaker 1: rim pressuring wings, because when their jump shot starts to
Speaker 1: fail them, they can at least put their head down
Speaker 1: and go to the rim and have some impact collapsing
Speaker 1: the defense. And then that's where the playmakers in particular
Speaker 1: can bring great value. That's that's the story of Lebron
Speaker 1: James's career. When he's making his jump shot, there's absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing you can do with him. He's the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. But even when he's missing his jump shot,
Speaker 1: he's gonna go eight for twenty two, which is solid.
Speaker 1: He's gonna score twenty eight points, he's gonna get to
Speaker 1: the foul line eight times, and he's gonna have eleven assists.
Speaker 1: Like That's that's the dynamic of the big rim pressuring forward.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting is they have the ability to impact
Speaker 1: the game in so many different ways beyond that of
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shooter. UH. Devin Booker, to his credit,
Speaker 1: has turned himself into a pretty solid on ball defender.
Speaker 1: He's scrappy, he's physical, he uses his hands. While he's
Speaker 1: kind of a disruptive defender, he's only okay and help
Speaker 1: side defense. That's a little area of opportunity for him.
Speaker 1: And then, just like every other guard in the league,
Speaker 1: he's susceptible to bigger wings and mismatch situations. You saw
Speaker 1: that a lot against Dallas Luca, punishing him under the
Speaker 1: basket for layups and and ones and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: So the question here is can Devin Booker be the
Speaker 1: best player on a championship team. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think he's a number two. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a hot take. I think most of you would probably agree.
Speaker 1: I think you either need to be a great playmaker
Speaker 1: or be a much much bigger, stronger rim protector in
Speaker 1: order to be UH to be a top tier UH
Speaker 1: the best player on a championship team as a score
Speaker 1: in the NBA. That's where I'm gonna lean more towards
Speaker 1: the Kauais and the Jason Tatums of the and the
Speaker 1: Kevin Durance of the world as big scoring wings than
Speaker 1: the smaller guys like Devin Booker, who basically have the
Speaker 1: same type of shot profile as those guys without the
Speaker 1: physicality to get easier shots around the rim and without
Speaker 1: the playmaking ability to make up for their lack of size. Alright.
Speaker 1: Number fourteen Damian Lillard now Dame, is a top ten
Speaker 1: player when he's healthy, but obviously he's dropping here because
Speaker 1: health concerns. He's been saying things about how is abdominal
Speaker 1: muscles has kind of healed itself. He shared some pretty
Speaker 1: crazy stories about having a big lump that he would
Speaker 1: see like in his stomach after games and stuff that's freaky.
Speaker 1: Hopefully that's healed. Hopefully he'll be back on the horse now.
Speaker 1: The two previous seasons combined, he averaged twenty nine points,
Speaker 1: four rebounds, eight assists on sixty three percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: That is ridiculously good on three or excuse me, on
Speaker 1: ten three point attempts per game. In the postseason, he
Speaker 1: averaged thirty four and eight on sixty five percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: He's also arguably the best pull up jump shooter in
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. Over the course of those two seasons,
Speaker 1: he averaged over ten pull up jumpers per game and
Speaker 1: shot on them. Now, there's a huge difference between pull
Speaker 1: up shooting and spot up shooting. I wanted to break
Speaker 1: this down because we're gonna get into it a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper with Paul George, and I've actually been directly
Speaker 1: working on this with one of the college players that
Speaker 1: have been working out with over the course of the
Speaker 1: summer who's going from an off ball roll into an
Speaker 1: on ball roll this season, and so we're working on
Speaker 1: changing the shooting mechanics into the field of shooting off
Speaker 1: the dribble versus shooting and spot up situations. And it's
Speaker 1: super interesting to me because in spot up shooting it's
Speaker 1: very mechanical. You want muscle memory, you want as few
Speaker 1: moving parts as possible, and you want it to be
Speaker 1: as replicable as possible, because at that point it's you're
Speaker 1: you're standing still waiting for the basketball, I mean, the
Speaker 1: basketball comes to you. You want to be able to
Speaker 1: unleash something that is a muscle memory, thing that you've
Speaker 1: done thousands and thousands of times, that is more reliable
Speaker 1: pull up shooting is completely different. There's a fluidity to
Speaker 1: it as opposed to a mechanical field to it. The
Speaker 1: reason why is the ball is always in a different
Speaker 1: spot depending on what you're what work is, and what
Speaker 1: your dribble combination is. In a spot up shooting situation,
Speaker 1: you might catch it wherever you catch it, you're bringing
Speaker 1: it to your shooting pocket and then you're starting your
Speaker 1: routine right. But in off the dribble situation, I might
Speaker 1: be doing it behind the back, dribble to my left
Speaker 1: hand and have the ball out here and have to
Speaker 1: flow right up into a shot, or if I have
Speaker 1: it out here, flow right up into a shot from
Speaker 1: the right side. It's a completely different type of field.
Speaker 1: You can't be mechanical and pull up shooting because if
Speaker 1: you are, if you take time to get set into
Speaker 1: your shot after every single dribble combination, you're never gonna
Speaker 1: have enough time to get the shot off. And so
Speaker 1: what impresses me the most about Damian Lillard and Paul George,
Speaker 1: who we're gonna get into here in a little bit,
Speaker 1: is they have remarkable fluidity into their pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: Dame's go to move and pull up jump shooting situations.
Speaker 1: Is he kind of ULLs you to sleep with the
Speaker 1: dribble in his right hand, and he does a hard
Speaker 1: pound dribble with his right hand and steps back to
Speaker 1: his right, kicks his right foot out to help square
Speaker 1: up in mid air, and he knocks it down. There's
Speaker 1: a I always have. I'm a nerd when it comes
Speaker 1: to the little d tales of skill development, just because
Speaker 1: I personally my archetype was always a scorer, So I'm
Speaker 1: always looking to add a little like scoring moves and
Speaker 1: things to my game. And Dame's pound dribble step back
Speaker 1: to the right is one that I think every score
Speaker 1: should have in their game, and have always been very,
Speaker 1: very impressed by the fluidity in his jump shooting ability.
Speaker 1: Dame is every bit as good as Steph on the ball.
Speaker 1: The numbers are unassailable. Last two playoff runs, thirty points
Speaker 1: per game on sixty true shooting, eight assists per game,
Speaker 1: a knockdown, pull up jump shooter. He's every bit as
Speaker 1: good as step on the ball. But why is he
Speaker 1: usually hovering around the tenth best player in the league
Speaker 1: while Steph is in the conversation for the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. Well, that's the best example of the
Speaker 1: differences between focusing on the aesthetically appealing things in basketball
Speaker 1: and the things that actually impact winning. You guys probably
Speaker 1: remember the Mike James quote that came out the other
Speaker 1: day saying that Steph was one dimensional. A couple of
Speaker 1: different interesting things they're one That's the best example I
Speaker 1: can give you that playing the game of basketball has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with your understanding of the game. Mike
Speaker 1: James is a very successful basketball player who has played
Speaker 1: in the NBA before. If you think Steph is one dimensional,
Speaker 1: you do not understand what you are seeing. Okay. That's
Speaker 1: why I I give a great deal of respect to
Speaker 1: the people out there who have not played the game,
Speaker 1: but that have taken the time to try to learn
Speaker 1: the game. So because it's just it's it's a lot
Speaker 1: easier said than done, and it does take a lot
Speaker 1: of work to understand what you're seeing on the basketball court.
Speaker 1: But even in that specific case, uh, Steph is an
Speaker 1: excellent score and we just talked about that with Dame
Speaker 1: on the same level as step and Steph demonstrated that
Speaker 1: in this playoff run, particularly in the NBA Finals against
Speaker 1: Boston's drop coverage just routinely barbecuing them for going underneath
Speaker 1: screening actions and things along those lines. But Steph has
Speaker 1: always been massively underrated with this winning characteristics, the little
Speaker 1: things he does to impact winning. And that's not just
Speaker 1: his leadership, even though he's one of the best leaders
Speaker 1: in the game of basketball. It's not just his mentality
Speaker 1: and his competitive of nature and any of those things,
Speaker 1: even though that's as good as you'll find in the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. It's actual on the court work. First
Speaker 1: of all, step is considerably bigger than Dame. He's six
Speaker 1: ft three and pretty well built. He's also very committed
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor. That has turned
Speaker 1: step into an above average defensive guard in this league.
Speaker 1: Dame is in the bottom tier of defensive guards in
Speaker 1: the league. He's a good athlete, but he's pretty undersized.
Speaker 1: He's much smaller than Staff. That makes it tougher for
Speaker 1: him to hold his own and positional defensive situations. Guys
Speaker 1: can go through and around him pretty easily. And then, lastly,
Speaker 1: the moving without the basketball. Steph Curry is the best
Speaker 1: off ball guard in the league, and Dame Lillard seems
Speaker 1: pretty uninterested in doing that. Moving without the basketball is
Speaker 1: super important for a bunch of different reasons. First of all,
Speaker 1: it helps create quality shots for yourself. Pull up jumping,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, is hard. The shot profile
Speaker 1: is hard. It's not reliable. Sometimes they'll go in, sometimes
Speaker 1: they won't, So you need to supplement your offense with
Speaker 1: easy He looks for bigger rim pressuring forwards. That's living
Speaker 1: at the rim, that's putting your head down and going
Speaker 1: through people to try to get layups. For a guy
Speaker 1: like Steph, he does it by moving without the basketball.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get himself three or four wide open. Three's
Speaker 1: a game just by constantly staying in motion and capitalizing
Speaker 1: on defenders having brief lapses in attention. And when they
Speaker 1: had that brief those brief lapses and attention, he sparks
Speaker 1: open for a second. Draymond or someone else hits him,
Speaker 1: he knocks down to three. That's how you supplement the
Speaker 1: more difficult areas of your offensive attack with easy shots.
Speaker 1: And then secondly, it's the decoy effect. We've all seen
Speaker 1: this with Steph a million times. But he'll come running
Speaker 1: off the screen and the guy who's setting the screen,
Speaker 1: his man will go out with step and then steps
Speaker 1: Man will go out with Steph and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, whoever set in the screen, and maybe it's
Speaker 1: Kevin Looney or Draymond Green or somebody. They just flashed
Speaker 1: to the basket and they're wide open for a dunk.
Speaker 1: That decoy, the decoy attention that Steph draws moving without
Speaker 1: the basketball creates shots first teammates, and then he also
Speaker 1: creates open shots for himself to help supplement his offense.
Speaker 1: Dame Lillard has everything he needs to do that. He's
Speaker 1: such a deadly shooter that if he embraced that off
Speaker 1: ball movement, he would generate himself easier shots throughout the game,
Speaker 1: and he would get his teammates open looks. But for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he's been pretty uninterested in doing that. And
Speaker 1: so that's that's the biggest area of opportunity for Damon.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he'll ever take advantage of that,
Speaker 1: but if he does, I don't think he could ever
Speaker 1: be in the same conversation as Steff because of his
Speaker 1: defensive limitations, but he could get up into that six
Speaker 1: or seventh best player in the league if he started
Speaker 1: doing those things. You've seen what Steff is capable of offensively,
Speaker 1: He's arguably, I would say he is the best offensive
Speaker 1: engine in basketball right now. Dame could be a nearly
Speaker 1: as impactful offensive engine if he embraced those winning things
Speaker 1: that Steff does without the basketball. So what can the
Speaker 1: Blazers accomplish this year? They're actually putting together They they
Speaker 1: actually have put together a pretty interesting roster. I really
Speaker 1: really like the Jeremy Grant trade. I think he's a
Speaker 1: perfect number two to have alongside Dame. He's he had
Speaker 1: a rough year last year because of the the injuries, but
Speaker 1: the previous year he demonstrated that he can be a
Speaker 1: relatively efficient volume score. So you put him alongside Dame
Speaker 1: Jeremy Granton. Dame Anthony Simmons has blossomed into a pretty
Speaker 1: decent scoring guard in the NBA, so you've got three
Speaker 1: pretty good scoring options. Jeremy Grant is a capable defensive player,
Speaker 1: and they added some really important role players over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of years. The Josh Hart
Speaker 1: acquisition I really appreciated. I think that's gonna help them
Speaker 1: a lot. Josh Hard is a solid three and D
Speaker 1: wing in this league, and Gary Payton the second. This
Speaker 1: is a player that I wanted the Warriors to keep
Speaker 1: I was really disappointed in them for letting him go.
Speaker 1: I pointed out the numbers to you guys, but the
Speaker 1: difference between the way the Warriors played in this postseason
Speaker 1: run with Gary Payton on the floor versus Gary Payton
Speaker 1: off the floor was jarring. He's an impact playoff player
Speaker 1: in the NBA right now, a perfect guy to put
Speaker 1: alongside Dame on the wing or in the backcourt to
Speaker 1: help him with all of the dirty work responsibilities on
Speaker 1: the floor and then use off. Nurkic is a fine
Speaker 1: role players center in this league. Shade and sharp he got,
Speaker 1: he ended up getting hurt. I believe he had like
Speaker 1: a shoulder injury or something along those lines in summer league.
Speaker 1: But he's a really intriguing young player, very high ceiling,
Speaker 1: low floor type of guy. He could be like a
Speaker 1: more athletic version of Devin Booker as a guy who
Speaker 1: creates shots off the dribble, who has a ton of
Speaker 1: fluidity with the basketball and is a fantastic athlete. But
Speaker 1: there's also a version of his story where he becomes
Speaker 1: Kevin Porter Jr. So it's because maybe he just doesn't
Speaker 1: pick up on the maturity necessary to become a winning
Speaker 1: basketball player. So it's an interesting prospect there to kind
Speaker 1: of potentially extend their window. If he pans out into
Speaker 1: a decent player, what does that make them? If Dame
Speaker 1: can recapture what he was before he was hurt, and
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grants the player from two years ago, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Simons is the type of score that he was this
Speaker 1: last year, and if Gary Payton and Josh Hart stay
Speaker 1: healthy on the wing and they do their job defending,
Speaker 1: they're absolutely in the mix as a middle tier UH
Speaker 1: playoff team in the West. I wouldn't put them near
Speaker 1: the Clippers or the Warriors, but they're absolutely UH in
Speaker 1: that tier with like Denver and maybe the Lakers if
Speaker 1: they if they make decent trade this offseason. That's how
Speaker 1: much I respect Dame Lillard and what he can do
Speaker 1: with the basketball alright. Number thirteen John Moran this regular
Speaker 1: season twenty seven six and seven on fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: true shooting. This playoff run twe eight and ten on
Speaker 1: fifty five percent true shooting, shot thirty four percent from
Speaker 1: three in the regular season and in the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: he went up in volume a little bit in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's good in bad. It's good in the sense that
Speaker 1: his stroke translates to the playoffs in terms of his confidence,
Speaker 1: like it's not like a sharp it's not like a
Speaker 1: shot fell apart when he got to the playoffs. The
Speaker 1: bad there is thirty four percent is not good enough,
Speaker 1: so he will eventually need to get that up to
Speaker 1: about thirty seven thirty eight percent to get teams to
Speaker 1: really respect him and guard him more intentionally out there.
Speaker 1: Um I I told you guys about how I thought
Speaker 1: a really interesting element of John Moran's potential development is
Speaker 1: the fact that he's impossible to officiate because he's so skinny,
Speaker 1: and he goes flying through the lane and can fall
Speaker 1: down a lot, and the refs just don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. I compared him to Dwyane Wade in that respect. Now,
Speaker 1: it didn't materialize in a finals run the way it
Speaker 1: did for a championship round, the way it did for
Speaker 1: Dwyane Wade, but he did go up to ten free
Speaker 1: throw attempts per game in the postseason. That's an excellent
Speaker 1: sign of a replicable, dependable offense uh for the Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: and later attempts to to make deeper runs into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: He's just he's just impossible to contain with a live
Speaker 1: dribble at the top of the key. If he gets
Speaker 1: a live dribble and the floors space and he's working
Speaker 1: against any defender in the league, he's getting into the
Speaker 1: paint and he's getting grible penetration. He's gonna make something happen.
Speaker 1: Couple that with his athleticism and the way he flies
Speaker 1: through the lane, He's gonna draw a ton of house.
Speaker 1: He's your classic hyper athletic slashing guard, right in the
Speaker 1: mold of Derrick Rose and John Wall and Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Obviously there's a little differences between those guys and jaw
Speaker 1: Like Wall and Westbrook were more big and strong, Rose
Speaker 1: was a little bit was skinnier, kind of like jaw um.
Speaker 1: John I think is the best passer out of any
Speaker 1: of them, except for maybe Westbrook, although I can be
Speaker 1: critical of Westbrook's passing sometimes because I think it's a
Speaker 1: little reactionary. It's a it's a little bit like, uh
Speaker 1: reactive as the people in the in the comments try
Speaker 1: to tell me last show, Uh, He's he's a little
Speaker 1: bit of like a hill pass when he has to
Speaker 1: kind of guy I find John Moran to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more willing of a passer, and so with
Speaker 1: his ability to collapse the defense by getting into the paint,
Speaker 1: that can be really impactful. And then his room for
Speaker 1: his room, finishing his room, finishing his outstanding. He was uh.
Speaker 1: He was finishing five point three layups in the restricted
Speaker 1: area per game in the regular season, and that only
Speaker 1: dropped to four point three in the playoffs. Now, in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, typically the teams scout more and they packed
Speaker 1: the paint more. That's why you're gonna see that a
Speaker 1: little bit of a drop off, but that's not much
Speaker 1: of a drop off. He was getting into the basket. Now,
Speaker 1: his percentages dropped. He shot sixty seven percent in the
Speaker 1: restricted area in the regular season. That dropped up fifty
Speaker 1: two in the postseason. But that's offset a bit by
Speaker 1: the free throws. Like a lot of those drives are
Speaker 1: ending in him getting foul and going to the foul
Speaker 1: line and that specific free throw in that specific postseason.
Speaker 1: So you'd like to see that a little higher, but
Speaker 1: him getting into the line, him making four point three
Speaker 1: layups per game and getting to the line ten times
Speaker 1: per game, there's no way I can twist that into
Speaker 1: anything but a massive positive for him as one of
Speaker 1: the most dynamic rim attackers that we have in the league. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a crazy stat. So in the clutch in
Speaker 1: this postseason run per thirty six minutes. So if I
Speaker 1: took just his clutch minutes and extrapolated them out to
Speaker 1: what he would typically play in a game, so thirty
Speaker 1: six minutes. His per thirty six minutes in the clutch
Speaker 1: this year in the postseason or fifty five points, thirteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: and seven assists. So his production in his clutch minutes
Speaker 1: mimics that of a player who in the thirty six
Speaker 1: minute game would average fifty five points per game and
Speaker 1: thirteen rebounds and seven assists. In clutch situations in this postseason,
Speaker 1: he shot fifty two percent from the field and fifty
Speaker 1: from three. That's ridiculous. So that's another huge thing if
Speaker 1: you're a Memphis Grizzlies, Memphis cruizes, he's fan to cling to.
Speaker 1: Jaw looks like a comfortable and confident clutch basketball player
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs. But the big negative with Jaw,
Speaker 1: and this is something he's gonna eventually have to figure out.
Speaker 1: He's a little too skinny right now that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a big part, and then a commitment from him
Speaker 1: in terms of of his the way he allocates his
Speaker 1: resources and his energy. He's just flat out bad defensive
Speaker 1: player right now. He's bad at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: he's bad in help. He has some highlight shot blocks
Speaker 1: from time to time, but he's not a like a
Speaker 1: volume miss shot blocker. He in this in this playoff
Speaker 1: series against Minnesota this year, Patrick Beverley was straight up
Speaker 1: looking him in the eye and dog walking him down
Speaker 1: to the rim and scoring like just he couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything to contain Patrick Beverley. That's a problem. Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: is a below average offensive guard in this league, so
Speaker 1: he's absolutely gonna have to figure out that defensive piece
Speaker 1: to reach his ultimate ceiling. So I compared him to
Speaker 1: Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and John wall I think he
Speaker 1: has the potential to be better than any of those guys.
Speaker 1: He already has better shooting form, which I think will
Speaker 1: translate to him being a knockdown three point shooter later
Speaker 1: on in his career. And he's better in the short
Speaker 1: range than any of them, stopping short and getting too
Speaker 1: little floaters and push shots in the lane. He's already
Speaker 1: better than any of those guys were, especially at his age,
Speaker 1: at that specific skill. Right now, he's a better passer
Speaker 1: than Rose and Russ Rose and Wall where I think
Speaker 1: he will be a better passer than Russ in the
Speaker 1: long run. If he can figure out the defensive peace
Speaker 1: and get his jump shot to where I believe he
Speaker 1: can get, he has the potential to win multiple m
Speaker 1: vps and be a better player than any of those
Speaker 1: guys were at any of their peaks. Number twelve. This
Speaker 1: one's gonna be a little controversial for some of you guys,
Speaker 1: but I've always valued this player, particularly Brandon Ingram. So
Speaker 1: in this regular season he averaged twenty three six and
Speaker 1: six one shooting somewhat underwhelming right um, But his breakout
Speaker 1: came in this postseason run. He was there a handful
Speaker 1: of break out players in this post season around Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, you know John Muran obviously in his first
Speaker 1: postseason run, their second postseason run. But Brandon Ingram was
Speaker 1: magnificent in this playoff run, seven six and six on
Speaker 1: fifty percent true shooting against the third ranked defense in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and his primary defender finished second and Defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Year voting. That's Michael Bridges, as was
Speaker 1: his coming out party, really really versatile scoring. You average
Speaker 1: two point five made restricted area field goal attempts made
Speaker 1: restricted area field goals per game at eighty three percent.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievably good. He averaged three point seven made mid
Speaker 1: range shots per game at fifty percent. That's unbelievably good.
Speaker 1: And then the thing that stood out to me the most,
Speaker 1: and you guys will remember me talking about this during
Speaker 1: um during the first round when we were doing our
Speaker 1: post game shows, he flashed high end playmaking. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of wings in this league, guys like Paul George,
Speaker 1: guys like Kawhile Leonard, guys like Kevin Rank, guys like
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum that can pass, but they're clearly like reactive
Speaker 1: passers that are just making reads right, just the basic
Speaker 1: reads that come from the way that defense has collapse
Speaker 1: on them. Brandon Ingram is flashing higher level playmaking than
Speaker 1: even that. Now, what makes it interesting to me is
Speaker 1: his age. Like I've seen Kevin Durant in the late
Speaker 1: stage of his career start to flash this higher level playmaking.
Speaker 1: But for Brandon Ingram at his age to start to
Speaker 1: show this is super impressive. And again it's like Luca
Speaker 1: don chech Lebron James esque high pick and roll reads.
Speaker 1: He's getting the ball screen, he's working it down to
Speaker 1: the elbow. He's being patient, he's putting the defender and
Speaker 1: jail on his backside. He's waiting to bait the rim
Speaker 1: protector into stepping up and waiting for the week side
Speaker 1: corner guy to star to step in to help against
Speaker 1: the lob threat. And he's throwing like a big, looping
Speaker 1: across court pass that hits the shooter in the pocket
Speaker 1: in the week side corner. These are high level reads
Speaker 1: from the best playmakers in the league that I was
Speaker 1: seeing from Brandon Ingram in that playoff series against the Suns.
Speaker 1: That's what excites me the most. To be that good
Speaker 1: around the rim. Two point five makes at to be
Speaker 1: a knockdown mid range jump shooter at three point seven,
Speaker 1: made attempts are made shots at fifty and to be
Speaker 1: flashing that type of high level playmaking, that's like, that's
Speaker 1: top tier superstar stuff. And he's not a top tier
Speaker 1: SuPAR superstar yet he has to be consistent in that regard.
Speaker 1: But that's why I have him all the way up
Speaker 1: here at number twelve. He showed something in that playoff
Speaker 1: run that demonstrated to me that he's poised to take
Speaker 1: a big leap this season, and I believe he will.
Speaker 1: He was an impact defensive player against the Suns in
Speaker 1: that playoff series, albeit as a weakness, he's a little
Speaker 1: bit inconsistent on the defensive end ever since he left
Speaker 1: the Lakers in two thousand nineteen. He had a great
Speaker 1: defensive season and he kind of let go of the
Speaker 1: rope there for a little while, but he flashed that
Speaker 1: potential again against the Sun, So that'll be a huge
Speaker 1: thing for him, his defensive consistency. The one other UH
Speaker 1: weakness that I wanted to point out. He was thirty
Speaker 1: on above the break three's in both the regular season
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. He's knocked down three point shooter from
Speaker 1: the corner, and he's a knockdown mid rain shooter, but
Speaker 1: he struggles above the break. Who does that? Reminds you
Speaker 1: of Mr Dmarda Rosen And if you watch them, they
Speaker 1: both have similar jump shot for him in the sense
Speaker 1: that they shoot high above their head and they catapult forward.
Speaker 1: It's lower arc now, lower arc actually is less of
Speaker 1: an issue the closer you are to the basket because
Speaker 1: you have more margin for error in there. But when
Speaker 1: you get further away from the rim, you need more
Speaker 1: arc on the basketball. That's gonna be something that Brandon's
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure out because, as we pointed out
Speaker 1: with DeMar de Rosen earlier, that inability to score from
Speaker 1: the above the break as a three point shooter, particularly
Speaker 1: off the dribble, will really hurt your ability to get downhill.
Speaker 1: I don't want Brandon Ingram to become the next to
Speaker 1: Mar de Rosen. I want him to show more of
Speaker 1: that Paul George fluidity scoring from the three point line
Speaker 1: above the break. So getting that above the break three
Speaker 1: point shot figured out and getting the getting more consistent defense,
Speaker 1: Civilly showing what he did in that postseason run consistently
Speaker 1: for eighty two games. That's the difference between where he
Speaker 1: is and getting into the top ten. Also his rim finishing.
Speaker 1: He shot extremely well in that playoff series, but he
Speaker 1: was only sixty seven percent in the regular season, And
Speaker 1: as you guys know, when it comes to guy's six
Speaker 1: eight and above, big rim attacking forwards, I like to
Speaker 1: see that number higher than seventy. But he's just a
Speaker 1: little He's a little thin, so that's gonna hurt him
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I'd like to see him getting
Speaker 1: a little bit better at finishing around the rim. So
Speaker 1: I'm super high on Brandon Ingram. Obviously. This is why
Speaker 1: I thought the Pelicans should trade Zion Williamson for Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: I'm worried about Zion's health. I'm worried about Zion's ability
Speaker 1: to eventually become an impact defensive player. I'm worried about
Speaker 1: how long it'll be before he can really really really
Speaker 1: help them on a championship level. And they've got such
Speaker 1: a good roster around that was c J. Mccollin, and
Speaker 1: with Herb Jones and with Trey Murphy. I love the
Speaker 1: way that roster is put together. So I like the
Speaker 1: idea of pairing Brandon Ingram with Kevin Durant. And you
Speaker 1: can do that by trading Zion and and and and
Speaker 1: getting Kevin Durant back. It's a super uh It's a
Speaker 1: super interesting potential dynamic there with the two of them.
Speaker 1: They I'm not sure how it would work with salary
Speaker 1: filler if they'd have to include c J or something
Speaker 1: along those lines. But I'm super high on Brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: The idea of pairing him with Kevin Durant and two
Speaker 1: really good three and D players sounds like a championship
Speaker 1: level roster to me. Um But it seems to me
Speaker 1: like if the Pelicans make the deal, they'd include Brandon,
Speaker 1: which I think would be a mistake, but it is
Speaker 1: what it is alright. Number eleven, our last player that
Speaker 1: did not make the top ten Paul George seven and
Speaker 1: six percent shooting this regular season. In his defense, it
Speaker 1: was completely injury riddled. He only played thirty one games,
Speaker 1: but in one playoffs, so the playoff series before this
Speaker 1: season he averaged twenty seven ten and five on fifty
Speaker 1: eight percent try shooting, which is excellent. He had a
Speaker 1: bad playoff reputation leading into that playoff run. I think
Speaker 1: he had lost five consecutive playoffs series going into that
Speaker 1: playoff run if remember correctly, or going into the Bubble
Speaker 1: when they made it to the second round to lose
Speaker 1: the Denver they had lost five consecutive playoff series, so
Speaker 1: call that six out of his previous seven playoff series
Speaker 1: he had lost. He had struggled in a lot of
Speaker 1: those situations. He got locked up by Joe Ingles in
Speaker 1: a series against the Utah Jazz. It was all bad
Speaker 1: and he had a bad reputation, and in one playoff run,
Speaker 1: he demonstrated that he was no longer that guy. He
Speaker 1: demonstrated that he was capable of being that best guy
Speaker 1: on a championship team level player when he took the
Speaker 1: Clippers within two wins of the NBA Finals without Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: I thought the big change for him that allowed him
Speaker 1: to change that perception of himself was making a concerted
Speaker 1: effort to get to the rent. He averaged one point
Speaker 1: eight made shots in the restricted area in the season,
Speaker 1: he averaged two point nine. That's literally a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty percent of what he did the previous season. That's
Speaker 1: a significant increase. Why does that matter, Because do you
Speaker 1: guys remember when I was talking about the give and
Speaker 1: take with Pascal se at him and with James Harden,
Speaker 1: the need to have a threat to counter your primary
Speaker 1: strength so that players can't sit on your primary strength.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about it in a minute. Paul George
Speaker 1: is one of the best pull up jump shooters that
Speaker 1: I've seen and He's as fluid as it gets at
Speaker 1: getting to his jump shot off the dribble. So if
Speaker 1: players are not scared of him going to the basket,
Speaker 1: they can press up into his jump shot. More that
Speaker 1: get makes it harder for him to get separation, It
Speaker 1: makes it harder for him to knock down shots. Him
Speaker 1: making that concerted effort in to get to the rim
Speaker 1: completely changed the type of basketball player that he was
Speaker 1: and turned him from an inconsistent, unreliable playoff player into
Speaker 1: a dominant playoff basketball player. Two point nine made shots
Speaker 1: in the restricted area per game in the playoffs is outstanding.
Speaker 1: And so that move counter move concept, adding the threat
Speaker 1: of consistently going to the rim transformed Paul George. Now,
Speaker 1: like I talked about earlier, that fluidity in the handle
Speaker 1: and jump shooting compared to spot up shooting, I think
Speaker 1: the best guy to uh to replicate in this specific
Speaker 1: skill as Paul George. Like I told you guys, obviously
Speaker 1: I'm not an NBA player, but the player that I
Speaker 1: think I play closest to when I'm playing pickup is
Speaker 1: Paul George, and that specific concept of fluidity into his
Speaker 1: jump shot is what I try to build in my game.
Speaker 1: The advantage of being able to pull up out of
Speaker 1: any footwork and any dribble combination is it makes it
Speaker 1: so that you can be reactive as an offensive player
Speaker 1: because when you hit a dribble combination, you don't know
Speaker 1: where the defender is gonna buckle. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: I do in and out through the legs to the
Speaker 1: left and behind my back to the right, he might
Speaker 1: lunge at the in and out. He might lunge at
Speaker 1: the cross, he might lunge at the behind the back.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but wherever he is, I need to
Speaker 1: be able to transfer energy from that specific spot to
Speaker 1: either advance the basketball or to go up into a
Speaker 1: jump shot. That's where that fluidity comes in. I need
Speaker 1: to always be a threat at any point in time
Speaker 1: with the basketball to either advance to the basket or
Speaker 1: to go up into a jump shot. And Paul George,
Speaker 1: I think is one of the best in the league
Speaker 1: at this picularly at the wing position, and that fluid
Speaker 1: it he just makes him so much fun to watch
Speaker 1: his dribble combination jumpers. I could watch a highlight film
Speaker 1: of that with Paul George all day long. He's a
Speaker 1: deeply impactful defensive wing. I I'll never forget watching him
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City, just completely locked down. James Harden at
Speaker 1: the peak of his powers, like it just a joy
Speaker 1: to watch him. Defensively, He's somewhat limited as a playmaker,
Speaker 1: but like we talked about earlier, almost every scoring wing
Speaker 1: in the league is like that. We just talked about
Speaker 1: Brandoning where I'm showing flashes of being kind of better
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant being better in the late portion of
Speaker 1: his career, but just for most big scoring wings, it's
Speaker 1: just not something that's a strength for them. He's a
Speaker 1: damn good basketball player, and him being outside of the
Speaker 1: top ten is everything you need to know about how
Speaker 1: talented the league is right now. So the big question
Speaker 1: is this the year the Clippers can win the title.
Speaker 1: So You've got Kawhi Leonard, Reggie Jackson and Paul George
Speaker 1: excellent trio there at the top of the at the
Speaker 1: top of the rosters, offensive creators, and then they have
Speaker 1: as deep a repertoire of three and D wings that
Speaker 1: you'll find in the league. Robert Covington's, Norman Powell, Nick Betune,
Speaker 1: Terrence Man, Marcus Morris, Luke Kennard, and then Zoombaka I
Speaker 1: really like as a center in this league. So they
Speaker 1: can play big and play drop covers with zoo Bach,
Speaker 1: or they can go five out, you know, classic Tyler basketball,
Speaker 1: switch everything and and mismatch attack on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor. They have one of my favorite roster
Speaker 1: constructions in the league. It captures my specific basketball philosophy
Speaker 1: that I believe in so much. I've said it before,
Speaker 1: but I think the Clippers are the biggest threat in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference to beat the Warriors, and I absolutely
Speaker 1: view them as a top tier contender. And Tyler, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, is one of my favorite young coaches
Speaker 1: in the league. I think he's got a very modern approach,
Speaker 1: very uniquely equipped to handle modern basketball, and his roster
Speaker 1: is perfectly catered to the way he likes to coach
Speaker 1: the game. I'm very, very high on the Clippers, and
Speaker 1: Paula George is as good a number eleven that you'll
Speaker 1: find in NBA his tree. Al Right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. Next week we'll be doing
Speaker 1: the top ten. We're gonna be spending a lot more
Speaker 1: time on those guys, especially when we get to the
Speaker 1: top five. I have some special plans. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys of support. We'll see in a couple
Speaker 1: of days. The volume