Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible week so far. We are live
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Speaker 1: We're continuing our power rankings today with number seventeen, the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks. I've got a full season preview of the
Speaker 1: Hawks for you guys, and then I've got three mail
Speaker 1: bag questions for the end of the show as well.
Speaker 1: You guys on the job before we get started, subscribe
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Speaker 1: get started. The start of pro basketball is still about
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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So we're gonna start with an
Speaker 1: offseason recap for the Atlanta Hawks. They lost John Collins,
Speaker 1: traded him to the Utah Jazz, and they also lost
Speaker 1: Aaron Holliday. They added in the draft Kobe Buffkin Combo
Speaker 1: lefty like kind of like shifty guard out of Michigan.
Speaker 1: Good spot up player. He's up over a point per
Speaker 1: possession fifty five percent effective field goal percentage on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. He also was sixty eighth percentile
Speaker 1: and pick and roll is good pick and roll playmaker
Speaker 1: in large part because he was one of the best
Speaker 1: finishing guards at the rim in the country. Last year.
Speaker 1: He shot seventy two percent at the rim according to Synergy.
Speaker 1: That's outrageous. Over sixty percent is good for a guard
Speaker 1: just has all of the craft around the basket to
Speaker 1: finish over contests, and he has a decent pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. He was forty one percent in effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage on pull up jumpers. Again, obviously you want
Speaker 1: to be closer to fifty, but for a young player,
Speaker 1: that skill typically devotes you know, develops later on in
Speaker 1: their skill development. So nice little pick up there in
Speaker 1: Kobe Buffkin. They also got Mohammed gouie A in the
Speaker 1: early second round, just a big athletic forward for athleticism
Speaker 1: off the bench. They also signed Wesley Matthews, a short,
Speaker 1: kind of stocky two guard that covered in very closely
Speaker 1: when he was with the Lakers a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Very very good defensive player, but has some offensive limitations,
Speaker 1: an inconsistent shooter and has a hard time beating people
Speaker 1: off the bounce. But you know, when it comes to
Speaker 1: having a guy who can guard on the perimeter off
Speaker 1: the bench, he brings a certain amount of value. They
Speaker 1: also got Patty Mills. He did not play much last
Speaker 1: year and didn't shoot particularly well, and then he didn't
Speaker 1: shoot very well with the Australian national team this summer either,
Speaker 1: so I don't know how much he's gonna play, but
Speaker 1: this is a team that desperately needs shooting. So, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna see one of the theme every team preview
Speaker 1: that we do, there's like a theme, a general weakness,
Speaker 1: something they need to address, and by far the biggest
Speaker 1: weakness in this Atlanta Hawks team is their spacing. They
Speaker 1: struggle to create space for their stars to create and
Speaker 1: when you factor in the fact that they were seventh
Speaker 1: in offense last year, you know, that just goes to
Speaker 1: show you what they could be capable of if they
Speaker 1: got the necessary spacing, and Paddy Mills could in theory
Speaker 1: help with that. I just wonder if he's too old
Speaker 1: to be able to help at this point. Look at
Speaker 1: their depth chart at the guard position. Trey Young, Dejante,
Speaker 1: Murray bogdan Bogdanovich Kobe Buffkin, Patty Mills, Wesley Matthews, and
Speaker 1: Garrison Matthews. At the forwards, DeAndre Hunter one of my
Speaker 1: favorite young forwards in the league, that classic big stocky forward,
Speaker 1: Sadiq Bay, Aj Griffin and Jalen Johnson. And then they're
Speaker 1: bigs right now, Clint Capella and Yakakongu, Bruno Fernando and
Speaker 1: Mohammad Guie. Their starting lineup is gonna be an interesting
Speaker 1: thing to see this year. Obviously they're gonna start Trey Young,
Speaker 1: Dejante Murray, DeAndre Hunter, and Clint Cappella. But who's gonna
Speaker 1: start in John Collins spot? And I think there's two
Speaker 1: potential directions they can go there. They can go with
Speaker 1: Aj Griffin or Sadik Bay. But most importantly, they're gonna
Speaker 1: need shooting out of that position. All right, Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the offensive end of the floor for a minute.
Speaker 1: This is a heavy, heavy pick and roll offense in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: They ran over thirty five hundred of them last year.
Speaker 1: Only only the Chicago Bulls ran more pick and roll
Speaker 1: than the Atlanta Hawks last year. That said, they were
Speaker 1: middle of the pack in efficiency. They scored just one
Speaker 1: point zero zero one points per possession in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: which ranked seventeenth in the NBA. Their primary pick and
Speaker 1: roll ball handler is Trey Young. By himself, he ran
Speaker 1: seventeen hundred and twenty six pick and rolls, by far
Speaker 1: the most in the NBA. Luka Doncic was second on
Speaker 1: that list with one thousand, three hundred and seventy five,
Speaker 1: so literally almost four hundred fewer than Trey Young ran,
Speaker 1: So he's by far the highest volume pick and roll
Speaker 1: player in the league. Trey was not particularly efficient one
Speaker 1: point zero five points per possession Among the fifteen players
Speaker 1: in the league last year to run at least a
Speaker 1: thousand pick and rolls, Trey finished ninth in efficiency. Now,
Speaker 1: the main reason for that, like I said, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be the theme of this particular show, is
Speaker 1: that the Hawks are not a very good spacing team.
Speaker 1: They're not good at converting kickout passes to spot up
Speaker 1: shooters into catch and shoot threes, are attacking closeouts into
Speaker 1: better opportunities. They don't convert those into points very well.
Speaker 1: Converted spot up positions possessions last year at zero point
Speaker 1: nine to eight points per possession, that was the third
Speaker 1: worst mark in the entire NBA. They were bottom five
Speaker 1: and three pointers made, they were bottom ten in three
Speaker 1: point percentage, and they weren't attacking closed out as well
Speaker 1: when they put it on the floor. Part of this
Speaker 1: was lineup construction. They were running two bigs and neither
Speaker 1: of them can shoot. John Collins, for the record, was
Speaker 1: the worst spot up player in the entire NBA last year.
Speaker 1: There were sixty eight NBA players last year to log
Speaker 1: at least two hundred and fifty spot up possessions, and
Speaker 1: John Collins finished dead last on that list, sixty eight
Speaker 1: out of sixty eight players, scoring to zero point eight
Speaker 1: to six points per possession every time he got a
Speaker 1: chance to attack in a spot up situation. The problem there,
Speaker 1: too is Dejonte Murray and DeAndre Hunter were both also
Speaker 1: below point per possession. So you've got three guys, four
Speaker 1: guys if you count Clinck Capella in the starting lineup
Speaker 1: that were all bad spot up players. Trey Young was
Speaker 1: the only good spot up player in the starting lineup.
Speaker 1: So from the perspective of lineup construction, you've got Dejontay Murray,
Speaker 1: who's a good pull up shooter but not a good
Speaker 1: spot up shooter. You've got Trey Young was good at both. Right,
Speaker 1: then you've got DeAndre Hunter who's a good spot up
Speaker 1: player but just not quite good enough attacking close outs
Speaker 1: and knocking down catch and shoot shots to be over
Speaker 1: a point per possession. And then you've got Clint Capella
Speaker 1: who can't shoot either. So you're in a situation where
Speaker 1: teams are really packing the pain. And when you watched
Speaker 1: the Hawks last year, you could see that they were
Speaker 1: primarily a team that would attacking pick and roll or
Speaker 1: attack switches in pick and roll, right like Dejonta Murray
Speaker 1: or Trey Young ending up switched onto a big man,
Speaker 1: and what you would see is defenders digging down into
Speaker 1: the driving lanes knowing that if they kick out to
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter, he had a little bit of a slower release,
Speaker 1: so he would be someone you could close out on
Speaker 1: and force him to put the ball on the floor.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for Dejontay Murray. You get the drill here,
Speaker 1: and then John Collins is the worst spot up player
Speaker 1: in the league, right, So it just really started to
Speaker 1: cause problems for them in their spacing, and it's a
Speaker 1: miracle that they were seventh in offense in spite of
Speaker 1: all of that. But I think a lineup change is
Speaker 1: going to go a long way. By getting John Collins
Speaker 1: out of the picture, you're going to bring in a
Speaker 1: wing into that position, someone who's comfortable playing from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: And both Sadik Bay and aj Griffin were well over
Speaker 1: a point per possession in spot up situations last year,
Speaker 1: So both of them are going to be comfortable catching
Speaker 1: and shooting and catching and ripping from the perimeter off
Speaker 1: of kickout passes in pick and roll, something that they
Speaker 1: didn't get enough of out of the starting lineup last year.
Speaker 1: That should allow them to run more traditional four out
Speaker 1: one in spacing and allow their ball handlers to have
Speaker 1: better opportunities to score in pick and roll. Now, de
Speaker 1: Jontay Murray and DeAndre Hunter also need to improve. That's
Speaker 1: part of the process there. Hopefully they identified that, their
Speaker 1: analytics department hopefully identified that. Hopefully Quinn Snyder has identified that,
Speaker 1: and they will emphasize that throughout this season. Quick look
Speaker 1: at their other shot creators. De Jontay Murray, remember that
Speaker 1: one one thousand pick and roll lists, so the fifteen
Speaker 1: players ran at least one thousand pick and rolls. De
Speaker 1: Jontay Murray finished fourteenth out of fifteen on that list.
Speaker 1: The only player in the NBA high volume pick and
Speaker 1: roll who was worse than de Jontay Murray last year
Speaker 1: was Jalen Green, so he just in general needs to
Speaker 1: be a lot better. De Jhonta Murray was also well
Speaker 1: below a point per possession in ISO situations three hundred
Speaker 1: and twelve points on three hundred and thirty ISOs on tape.
Speaker 1: Once again, the biggest issue identified was spacing. It's Dejontay
Speaker 1: Murray in those high hesitations looking to attack, and this
Speaker 1: is a guy who's a freak athlete who has the
Speaker 1: ability to get to the basket and guys are just
Speaker 1: digging down into driving lanes and de Jontay Murray's having
Speaker 1: to take these tough pull up jump shots over the
Speaker 1: top of the defense because he's not getting to the
Speaker 1: rim in that clogged paint situation. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: De Jontay Murray actually shot forty five percent on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots last year, but they're all a long twos.
Speaker 1: He's not a guy who takes pull up threes and
Speaker 1: makes them consistently. So that means we talked about this
Speaker 1: lot when we were talking about unguardability, Like forty five
Speaker 1: percent sounds good on paper, like yoh, he's making almost
Speaker 1: half of his pull up jump shots, but when they're
Speaker 1: all two's, that's only nine tenths of a point per possession.
Speaker 1: That's something that the defense is going to live with
Speaker 1: and something that's going to hurt your efficiency on a
Speaker 1: per possession basis in the long run over the course
Speaker 1: of the season. And so again, getting more traditional spacing
Speaker 1: should make things easier on everybody, not just Trey Young,
Speaker 1: but also Dejonte Murray as well, and then Desonte just
Speaker 1: has to learn how to play off the ball. He
Speaker 1: shot just fifty percent an effective field goal percentage on
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jumpers. That's not good forty seven percent
Speaker 1: when he was unguarded. So like literally, he's under a
Speaker 1: point per possession on catch and shoot jump shots when
Speaker 1: they're leaving him wide open. That's something that he's got
Speaker 1: to rectify. If he's going to play on a system
Speaker 1: like this, that a heavy pick and roll system where
Speaker 1: his teammate is the guy who's running more pick and
Speaker 1: rolls than anybody in the entire NBA, he's got to
Speaker 1: be able to catch and shoot or at the very
Speaker 1: least do what Dwayne Wade did in the early twenty
Speaker 1: tens and learn how to drive close outs and work
Speaker 1: as a cutter. He's got to find some way to
Speaker 1: be a better threat off the basketball. Football is back
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Speaker 1: after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. DeAndre Hunter a
Speaker 1: very impressive shot creation for a twenty five year old
Speaker 1: as a third option, a career high fifteen point four
Speaker 1: points per game on fifty six percent true shooting, and
Speaker 1: he was at a point per possession in self creation
Speaker 1: situations one hundred and seventy one points, one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy one pick and rolls, sixty four points on sixty
Speaker 1: five ISOs, forty eight points on forty eight post stuffs.
Speaker 1: Almost perfect symmetry there, right, So anytime you can toss
Speaker 1: the ball to your third option and he's good for
Speaker 1: a point per possession against the static half court defense.
Speaker 1: That's excellent and so that's an exciting element to the
Speaker 1: development process of this Atlanta Hawks team is DeAndre Hunter
Speaker 1: continues to get better and by far the most impressive
Speaker 1: part of the DeAndre Hunter process of his development is
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shot. It's actually crazy. I'll give
Speaker 1: you guys a wild stat here. There were three players
Speaker 1: in the NBA last year who attempted at least two
Speaker 1: hundred pull up jump shots and made more than half
Speaker 1: of them. Take a guess to who those players are.
Speaker 1: The first two are obvious, Kevin Durant Kawhi Leonard, the
Speaker 1: two most efficient mid range pull up jump shooters in
Speaker 1: the league. DeAndre Hunter is the third guy. He shot
Speaker 1: fifty four percent in effective field goal percentage on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots overall, made more than half of them,
Speaker 1: and that's a huge part of what makes him successful
Speaker 1: in his self creation situations. And like on tape, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of redundancy there. Like a lot of
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooters, it's like they're only comfortable out
Speaker 1: of a left handed hesitation pull up right. DeAndre Hunter's
Speaker 1: got at all. He's got a little a hard step
Speaker 1: back in his left hand. He's got a step back
Speaker 1: in his right hand. He can hit him out of
Speaker 1: hesitations in his right hand and is in his left hand.
Speaker 1: You can tell he's got you know, either a very
Speaker 1: good skills coach or he's worked really really hard with
Speaker 1: the player development team with the Atlanta Hawks, and he
Speaker 1: has done a great job building out a reliable pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot from the mid range. Again, he just
Speaker 1: has to improve as a spot up player. By the way,
Speaker 1: remember that sixty eight player list of guys who ran
Speaker 1: at least two hundred and fifty spot up possessions. DeAndre
Speaker 1: Hunter finished fifty third out of sixty eight, which is
Speaker 1: not good enough, so obviously he's got to get better.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, in that sixty eight player list,
Speaker 1: you've got DeAndre Hunter at fifty three, de Jontay Murray
Speaker 1: at sixty and then John Collins at sixty eight, so
Speaker 1: you can kind of see where the spacing issues came from.
Speaker 1: Their starting lineup just was full of a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys who didn't know how to play off the basketball.
Speaker 1: So that's the biggest area of improvement right now for
Speaker 1: de Jontay Murray. A few things I'd like to see
Speaker 1: from the Hawks offensively from a process stand point. This year,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them running transition more. This is
Speaker 1: a super athletic team. Clincapella is one of the best
Speaker 1: bigs in the league at running the floor. DeAndre Hunter
Speaker 1: is an outstanding athlete. De Jontay Murray's an outstanding athlete,
Speaker 1: Sadiq ba or aj Griffin, whoever they put in there
Speaker 1: as an outstanding athlete. Trey Young is a great passer
Speaker 1: who can throw kick aheads. They need to run. Last year,
Speaker 1: they were nineteenth in transition frequency. That's leaving points on
Speaker 1: the table. That's being too methodical and attacking his set
Speaker 1: defense too frequently. So I'd like to see them run more,
Speaker 1: and then I'd like to see them add more complications
Speaker 1: to their pick and roll attack. The Atlanta Hawks were
Speaker 1: one of the most boring teams to watch last year,
Speaker 1: in large part because they were very stagnant in their
Speaker 1: offensive approach, and you'd see it, I mean, and it
Speaker 1: extended into the Celtics series. It'd be like, here's Trey
Speaker 1: Young like screen rescreen, screen rescreen, try to get something open,
Speaker 1: and the other three guys are just standing around. That
Speaker 1: makes you easy to guard. So the question is what
Speaker 1: are complications in pick and roll. Now, for the record,
Speaker 1: I know Quinn Snyder's on top of this. He is
Speaker 1: a much smarter basketball mind than me. I know that
Speaker 1: he's picked up on this and his time being around
Speaker 1: the team, and my guess is he's going to with
Speaker 1: a full training camp now being with the team for
Speaker 1: a full season from start to finish, I am convinced
Speaker 1: that he's going to add these things. But I want
Speaker 1: to talk about what they are and how they can
Speaker 1: help for a couple of minutes. So to me, a
Speaker 1: complication to your pick and roll attack is an action
Speaker 1: that you run either before or during the pick and
Speaker 1: roll to make it harder to guard. So let's give
Speaker 1: you some examples. A before example would be like a
Speaker 1: pistol action. A pistol action is a dribble handoff that
Speaker 1: flows into the ball screen. Imagine the primary ball handler
Speaker 1: that you want running the ball screen, starting in the corner.
Speaker 1: Imagine a horn set, okay, where you've got your two
Speaker 1: bigs at the elbows and your primary your point guards
Speaker 1: up at the top of the key. He's going to
Speaker 1: go down and run a dribble handoff with the man
Speaker 1: in the corner. Then the man in the corner as
Speaker 1: Trey Young is going that's that big man at the
Speaker 1: elbow is going to turn and set a ball screen
Speaker 1: as de jhn Te Murray is grabbing the drible handoff
Speaker 1: and coming off of that ball screen. Why is that
Speaker 1: important Because Trey young defender and Dejontay Murray's defender now
Speaker 1: have to either switch or fight through a screen before
Speaker 1: the pick and roll, which makes it harder because obviously
Speaker 1: an astatic pick and roll situation. Let's say I'm guarding
Speaker 1: Trey Young, he's dribbling on the left wing, and here
Speaker 1: comes Clint Capella to set a screen. I see it coming.
Speaker 1: I'm guarding Trey. I can prepare to sidle up over
Speaker 1: the screen, get over the top of it, and apply
Speaker 1: that back pressure. Right. But if I have Trey Young
Speaker 1: and I'm running down and he runs a quick dripple
Speaker 1: handoff and suddenly I'm guarding de Jontay Murray and Dejonta
Speaker 1: Murray's in full speed and I'm not in position, I
Speaker 1: can get caught on that ball screen more frequently. Right.
Speaker 1: That's an example, pistols an example of that type of complication.
Speaker 1: Another one I put down is ram action. Raym action
Speaker 1: is when you have your ball screen or start under
Speaker 1: the basket and you have an off ball guard, set
Speaker 1: a pin down on the screen defender so that your
Speaker 1: ball screener can come up with separation from the big man.
Speaker 1: Because in a lot of cases, especially against pull up
Speaker 1: shooters like Trey Young and de Jante Murray, you want
Speaker 1: your screen defender up there at the level of the screen.
Speaker 1: Why so that if he gets over the top of
Speaker 1: the screen, you can contest the pull up jump shot. Right.
Speaker 1: But if the big man is getting hit by an
Speaker 1: off ball screen, they're not gonna want to switch it
Speaker 1: because it's a guard on a big right and you
Speaker 1: want your screen defender to guard pick and roll. So
Speaker 1: if you can land a screen on that guy, now
Speaker 1: your ball screener is going up to set the screen
Speaker 1: and the screen defender is trailing the play because he
Speaker 1: got screened. And now that either buys an opportunity for
Speaker 1: that pull up jump shot or now is the screen
Speaker 1: defender I have to close out, which might open opportunities
Speaker 1: for the split to snake the pick and roll or
Speaker 1: to hit the pocket pass right. So those are just
Speaker 1: two examples of an action that flows into a pick
Speaker 1: and roll that make it harder for the for the
Speaker 1: on ball defenders in the case of pistol action, or
Speaker 1: harder for the screen defenders in the case of ram action.
Speaker 1: But those are two examples during the action. What kind
Speaker 1: of complications can you have during an action to make
Speaker 1: pick and roll harder to guard? One is just having
Speaker 1: weak side action. So say, for instance, you're running pick
Speaker 1: and roll on the left side of the floor. On
Speaker 1: the right side of the floor, you just run a
Speaker 1: pin down for a shooter. Why is that important Because
Speaker 1: now those two help defenders are occupied guarding that action.
Speaker 1: If they're just standing, if one's standing in the corner
Speaker 1: and the other standing on the wing, their defenders can
Speaker 1: have a foot in the paint and be watching your
Speaker 1: pick and roll. But if they're interchanging, now they're at
Speaker 1: the very least having to pay some attention to what's
Speaker 1: happening behind them, which will occupy them and make it
Speaker 1: more likely for you to be able to get into
Speaker 1: the paint. Then the second one is one we've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot on the show, which is Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll having a shooter underneath the basket that relocates
Speaker 1: to the top of the key as the big man
Speaker 1: is rolling to the rim. They also can screen for
Speaker 1: each other in that action, either the rollman screening for
Speaker 1: the shooter or the shooter back screening on the roll man.
Speaker 1: But no matter what, generally speaking, just the roll gravity
Speaker 1: of the big man is he's rolling towards the basket
Speaker 1: generally will occupy the shooters defender and you typically get
Speaker 1: an opportunity for a catch and shoot wide open shot
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, or at least an
Speaker 1: opportunity to attack a close out there. But those are
Speaker 1: just examples of things that you can do to not
Speaker 1: be so stagnant, to not be so predictable. And for
Speaker 1: the record, this is not earth shattering stuff here. I'm
Speaker 1: not discovering how to fix the Atlanta Hawks offense. This
Speaker 1: is stuff I guarantee you Quinn Snyder has already noticed,
Speaker 1: and I guarantee you him and his staff are putting
Speaker 1: together as we speak, a bunch of things to try
Speaker 1: to make things easier for this offense, because this is
Speaker 1: a team that has too much firepower to only be
Speaker 1: seventh in offense, especially with all of the different things
Speaker 1: that are holding them back at this point. The last
Speaker 1: thing I think they should add is a little bit
Speaker 1: more variety in their attack too much pick and roll,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, find other ways to generate offense. You've
Speaker 1: got guys that can attack switches. Both DeAndre Hunter and
Speaker 1: Sadik Bay were well over a point per possession in
Speaker 1: post up situations last year. So run a one to
Speaker 1: three pick and roll instead of a one to five
Speaker 1: pick and roll that's almost certainly gonna end in the
Speaker 1: switch then instead of just having it because like right now,
Speaker 1: they're running the one five pick and roll or two
Speaker 1: to five pick and roll, and it's always an ISO
Speaker 1: in the switch situation, and when they switch, it's de
Speaker 1: Jonte Murray and Trey Young taking pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: over the top most of the time because everyone's digging
Speaker 1: down off the ball, right. But if you run a
Speaker 1: one three pick and roller, a one four pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Sadik Bay or with DeAndre Hunter, you get
Speaker 1: to switch. You dump it down to the block and
Speaker 1: you're getting something different looking just something different. Then the
Speaker 1: same two guys running the same ISOs are the same
Speaker 1: two guys running the same pick and rolls, And these
Speaker 1: are guys that are good at it. Not to mention
Speaker 1: that sort of thing pays dividends when you get to
Speaker 1: the postseason, especially when you have the opportunity to attack
Speaker 1: matchups in those particular situations. But more than anything else,
Speaker 1: I just think they should do that to become less predictable.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the defensive end for a little bit.
Speaker 1: The Hawks were a bad defense last year. They were
Speaker 1: twenty second in defensive rating twenty second and half court
Speaker 1: defense according to Cleaning the Glass. They were the fourth
Speaker 1: worst paint defense in the league. They gave up fifty
Speaker 1: three paint points per one hundred possessions, which ranked twenty
Speaker 1: seventh in the NBA. They gave up twenty point four
Speaker 1: restricted area makes per game, that was the third most
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Most of it comes down to two things,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, dribble penetration. So the guards like and
Speaker 1: Dejontae Murray used to be an all defense level player
Speaker 1: and he hasn't made an all defense teams since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: and he's become more of an offensive minded player. Trey
Speaker 1: Young's one of the worst defenders in the league. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's going to lead to a lot of dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: And then the other big thing that's killing them right
Speaker 1: now is Rollman possessions. So they gave up four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty eight made baskets to the roleman in pick
Speaker 1: and roll last year, which was the fourth most in
Speaker 1: the entire NBA. What does that tell us to me?
Speaker 1: The roleman getting lots of touches also can be attributed
Speaker 1: to point of attack defense. What causes the roleman to
Speaker 1: be open if the screen defender is engaged by the
Speaker 1: ball handler right, screen defender Clint Capella in this case
Speaker 1: has to show high or has to come away from
Speaker 1: the paint to contain a ball handler. More frequently, that
Speaker 1: is what opens up the pocket pass and the lob
Speaker 1: pass right. So that's one of those things where it's
Speaker 1: the rollman getting the basket, but it's not necessarily the
Speaker 1: screen defender's fault. That's a point of attack thing. If
Speaker 1: you stay attached more at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: or at least get over the top of the screen
Speaker 1: and funnel better, then your big can drop further back.
Speaker 1: And if he drops further back, now he can contain
Speaker 1: the rollman while protecting the rim against the ball handler.
Speaker 1: So point of attack defense is the main point of
Speaker 1: weakness in the Hawks defense. In my opinion, they also
Speaker 1: were not a very good rebounding team. They were eighteenth
Speaker 1: and defensive rebounding, they gave up two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: six putbacks last year, which was the ninth most in
Speaker 1: the NBA. They were also bottom half of the league
Speaker 1: in both transition defense frequency and transition transition defense efficiency. Really,
Speaker 1: the only thing the Hawks did well was guard to
Speaker 1: the three point line. They were top ten in opponent makes,
Speaker 1: opponents attempts per one hundred possessions and an opponent three
Speaker 1: point percentage. So that's the one thing they do well
Speaker 1: defensively is guard three guard the three point line. But
Speaker 1: when you do everything else poorly, it's gonna be really,
Speaker 1: really hard to be a very good defense. Let's talk
Speaker 1: personnel for a second, though, because they have a solid
Speaker 1: rim protector, they have legit wing athleticism. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's Trey Young and de Jonte Murray. Those two guys
Speaker 1: have to lead the way. Dejonte has to recommit to
Speaker 1: the defensive end, and Trey Young just has to do
Speaker 1: a job. Quinn Snyder is going to craft a job
Speaker 1: for him. Hey, dude, this is all I need you
Speaker 1: to do. Just do it like you don't have to
Speaker 1: keep your man in front. It doesn't matter if guys
Speaker 1: shoot over the top, but you have to do at
Speaker 1: the very least be able to provide something for me
Speaker 1: within this defense. And whatever that is, he's got to
Speaker 1: be bought in that will help them everywhere else. Again,
Speaker 1: if they if their point of attack defense improves, Clint
Speaker 1: Capella will be able to stay at the rim more.
Speaker 1: If Clint Capella can stay at the rim more, you
Speaker 1: can guard pick an two on two more. If you're
Speaker 1: guarding two on two more and pick and roll, you're
Speaker 1: gonna give up fewer baskets to the role man right,
Speaker 1: And then in general, it's gonna help you a lot
Speaker 1: in rebounding because if you can guard actions two on
Speaker 1: two instead of three on two, you're gonna be in
Speaker 1: rotation less. If you're in rotation less, then you're gonna
Speaker 1: be matched up for box outs. A lot of times
Speaker 1: when you're in rotation is when you give up offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds because guys aren't matched up. They're running and flying around.
Speaker 1: Everything comes down to point of attack defense. As I've
Speaker 1: said a lot on this show over the years, point
Speaker 1: of attack defense is becoming one of the most important
Speaker 1: elements of NBA defense because of how spread out things are,
Speaker 1: and when your point of attack defense is weak, everything
Speaker 1: else suffers. And look, Klinkapel is not Anthony Davis, but
Speaker 1: he's a good rim protector. You can have a good
Speaker 1: paint defense, You're capable of that, you just have to
Speaker 1: improve at the point of attack. So in summary, this
Speaker 1: will never be a great defensive team with Trey Young
Speaker 1: in the lineup, but they can be closer to fifteen
Speaker 1: if they work on those specific things that I mentioned.
Speaker 1: On offense, they were seventh last year despite horrific spot
Speaker 1: up play. Getting rid of John Collins should help that,
Speaker 1: and then just in general their main starters improving as
Speaker 1: off ball players. Last year the Hawks were forty one
Speaker 1: and forty one. My prediction is that they end up
Speaker 1: with closer to forty five wins this year. I do
Speaker 1: think the Hawks are gonna be better this year than
Speaker 1: they were last year. And I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: in that group kind of fighting to get out of
Speaker 1: the plan so in that like five, six, seven, eight range,
Speaker 1: and again they're all gonna be this close. The league
Speaker 1: is so deep this year, you're not gonna see big
Speaker 1: spread out standings. In my opinion, I think everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: be really crunched up on each other, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be one of those things where you
Speaker 1: can easily predict seeding. I think they're gonna be around
Speaker 1: forty five wins, and I think they're gonna be right
Speaker 1: around the upper edge of the play in tournament, if
Speaker 1: not out of the play in All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: male bag questions. I've got three of them for you
Speaker 1: guys today. The first one is from Jordan. If you
Speaker 1: could play big minutes on an NBA team for this
Speaker 1: next year, which one would it be and why? So
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some fun with this one. First of all,
Speaker 1: I would never be able to play in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I'm a very good basketball player, but I'm not an
Speaker 1: NBA player. If you put me into an NBA training
Speaker 1: camp tomorrow, I would get eaten alive by those guys. Again,
Speaker 1: I've worked really hard to become a good basketball player,
Speaker 1: but there's levels to this shit. I'm good enough to
Speaker 1: go play overseas, I'm not good enough to play in
Speaker 1: the NBA. And even when I say good enough to
Speaker 1: play overseas, I'm not one of those guys would be
Speaker 1: over there making millions if I would have stayed over
Speaker 1: there and played, I probably could have made a living
Speaker 1: and played. Maybe if I got lucky, I could have
Speaker 1: made it to one of the top leagues. But I
Speaker 1: never would have been one of the guys that was
Speaker 1: like a fringe NBA player that's over there making millions.
Speaker 1: There's levels to this shit. I'm not an NBA player
Speaker 1: that said. If I absolutely had to play for one
Speaker 1: NBA team this year and I had to pick one
Speaker 1: that i'd have the best chance to earn minutes, It'd
Speaker 1: be the Golden State Warriors. And the main reason why
Speaker 1: is because they're small. I am six six and I
Speaker 1: have a six to eleven wing span. I jump really well,
Speaker 1: and I always was a really good rebounder. I finished
Speaker 1: three my conference and rebounds twice. I actually had a
Speaker 1: twenty twenty rebound game when I was in college, a
Speaker 1: bunch of like, you know, you know, eighteen point sixteen
Speaker 1: rebound games, like twenty four point fourteen rebound games. Like
Speaker 1: I was a very good rebounder when I was in college.
Speaker 1: And so that combined with the fact that the Warriors
Speaker 1: make basketball easy for people, and the fact that Steph's
Speaker 1: gonna get chased by multiple guys, and I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: like wide open opportunities to attack closeouts and take catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes. Like that would be my best opportunity
Speaker 1: because I could help them on the glass and maybe
Speaker 1: make some plays on offense. But to be clear, if
Speaker 1: you put me in the Warriors training camp here in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, those guys would eat me alive.
Speaker 1: That's just the reality of NBA basketball. But it's fun
Speaker 1: thing to have fun and think about here. Second mail
Speaker 1: back question from Prince Samurai. You said shortening the season
Speaker 1: to sixty six games would help with urgency and participation.
Speaker 1: What would we do for individual NBA records? Wouldn't Lebron's
Speaker 1: scoring records, Steph's three point record and others like it
Speaker 1: be forever out of reach for new players? Honestly, I
Speaker 1: just don't care. I mean, what about expansion. There were
Speaker 1: guys who made All Star teams in all NBA selections
Speaker 1: when there were many fewer teams in the league, right,
Speaker 1: Like does that diminish the credit that should go to
Speaker 1: a championship team? Like what about what if we start
Speaker 1: accepting the fact that during Michael Jordan's titles the league
Speaker 1: was smaller and then they expanded and had a bunch
Speaker 1: of expansion teams, right, Like, there's a bunch of conversations
Speaker 1: we could have as the game has changed. So the
Speaker 1: reality is the game has changed. Like Ray Allen played
Speaker 1: in a league where three point shooting wasn't is emphasized.
Speaker 1: That's not to take away Steph. Steph is the greatest
Speaker 1: shooter of all time, and I think he would have
Speaker 1: been a better shooter than Ray Allen even if they
Speaker 1: played in the same era. But the point is is,
Speaker 1: like the game changes, and shortening the regular season would
Speaker 1: just be another way for the game to change. Even
Speaker 1: if we stay at eighty two games forever, it's possible
Speaker 1: that Lebron's scoring record gets broke because I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe they had a four point line. Maybe pace
Speaker 1: gets even crazier, Maybe skill level goes up another level,
Speaker 1: and maybe NBA games start finishing around one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty points a team, and maybe dudes are averaging forty
Speaker 1: and in fifteen years some guy passes Lebron. Like, that's
Speaker 1: just the reality of the changing game. So, like, I understand,
Speaker 1: it's a good question, But my counter to that would be,
Speaker 1: who cares like you know, obviously, in a perfect world,
Speaker 1: if we could keep static circumstances and track everything equally,
Speaker 1: but that's just not how it works. Like Lebron's scoring record,
Speaker 1: he didn't go to college. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: the dudes that he passed on that list went to college.
Speaker 1: That's not fair either, right, So if you if you're
Speaker 1: just in general in life and this goes well beyond basketball,
Speaker 1: if you're hoping for fair, you're gonna be disappointed because
Speaker 1: it's just not gonna end up that way. Last question
Speaker 1: from Felipe, what do you make of Anthony Davis saying
Speaker 1: he wants to play the four. This is something that
Speaker 1: I saw the other day, and I think my friend
Speaker 1: Jovan Bujas said that that ad will probably start at
Speaker 1: the five, but then just spend some of his shifts
Speaker 1: at the four. Here's where I get concerned with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis at the four. It's a simple question of defensive responsibilities, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have your primary point of attack defender who's
Speaker 1: gonna guard their on ball guard. You're going to have
Speaker 1: your lock and trail defender that's gonna guard their two
Speaker 1: guard who's probably gonna be running off of off ball
Speaker 1: action more frequently right, more dribble handoffs, more off screen action.
Speaker 1: Then you're going to have a pick and roll screen defender, right,
Speaker 1: that's your big man, typically your five. Then you're gonna
Speaker 1: have a low man. It's gonna be the guy that
Speaker 1: you put on their worst shooter that they're typically gonna
Speaker 1: tuck away in the week side corner, and your man's
Speaker 1: that man. The lowman is going to be primarily helping
Speaker 1: at the paint at the rim out of that position.
Speaker 1: In between those four spots, though, is the three and
Speaker 1: the three in the modern NBA is more like another
Speaker 1: two guard, if not a smaller, more perimeter oriented small
Speaker 1: forward right. And so in that situation, that guy's going
Speaker 1: to have to navigate a lot of screen actions and
Speaker 1: chase around on the perimeter a lot. And so, if
Speaker 1: you have a situation where you want to play Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and a center at the same time, presumably
Speaker 1: you're asking the center to be your pick and roll defender,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis to be the role man or the lowman.
Speaker 1: Now I'm asking Lebron to chase around on the perimeter
Speaker 1: at is twenty first season, or Anthony Davis to chase
Speaker 1: around the perimeter so Lebron can stay as the lowman,
Speaker 1: or Lebron's off the floor. Is that Murah is he
Speaker 1: now chasing threes around? You get the point Like it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where fundamentally as a team, like
Speaker 1: whoever plays the three has to be willing to chase
Speaker 1: around on the perimeter. Everything makes more sense if you
Speaker 1: slot Anthony Davis at the five, because if Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is at the five, it's gonna be Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Ruy Hatcha Mura playing the four. Those two are gonna
Speaker 1: split those minutes, right, They're gonna primarily be low man.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is gonna have Jackson Hayes or Christian Wood
Speaker 1: come off the bench for him, right if he If
Speaker 1: they come off the bench, they become your pick and
Speaker 1: roll defender, your threes. The guy who chase threes around,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be your Jared Vanderbilt, that's gonna be your
Speaker 1: I'm blanking on his name. The guy they picked up
Speaker 1: from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Torian Prince, right and uh. And
Speaker 1: then as you go to the two guards and one guards,
Speaker 1: that's where you get your lock and trail defenders and
Speaker 1: your point of attack defenders. But everything slots better in
Speaker 1: terms of defensive responsibilities of eight, he's at the five. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are gonna play Ad at the four, you
Speaker 1: have to play him next to Christian Wood. Why because
Speaker 1: Ad can't shoot anymore. Christian Wood is a very good
Speaker 1: three point shooter, and so at the very least, you
Speaker 1: can run a four out one in concept with Christian
Speaker 1: Wood on the floor at the five. But in that situation,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna run Ad at the four, the way
Speaker 1: you would have to look is Lebron would have to
Speaker 1: be on the bench. So this would have to be
Speaker 1: when Lebron subs out of the game halfway through the
Speaker 1: end of the halfway through the first quarter, You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to bring in a three, a legit three, either
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt or Jared Vanderbilt is like a four offensively,
Speaker 1: but he's like a three defensively. But you need to
Speaker 1: put Jared Vanderbilt in there, and you Oratrium Prince, and
Speaker 1: then Anthony Davis becomes your low man. Christian Wood's gonna
Speaker 1: have to be your pick and roll defender, and Christian
Speaker 1: Woods not a very good pick and roll defender. So
Speaker 1: even in that case, you're probably gonna have to have
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis behave defensively as a five, and that defeats
Speaker 1: the purpose. So like again, I understand it why Adi
Speaker 1: wants to because more size on the floor means you know,
Speaker 1: less physical ask for Anthony Davis. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like everything slots better with this Laker
Speaker 1: roster with Ad at the five because they have an
Speaker 1: amazing forward core between Lebron, James, Ruey Hotcha Murrah, Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and Torrian Prince. They've got really good forwards and
Speaker 1: the only way you're gonna find minutes for all those
Speaker 1: guys is if Ad plays most of his minutes at
Speaker 1: the five. Again, think of it this way. If you're
Speaker 1: ranking the top four Lakers, it's Lebron, James, Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: Ruey Hotchi Mura, and Austin Reeves. Right, Austin Reeves is
Speaker 1: probably the third best, Lebron's probably the second best eighty one,
Speaker 1: and Ruey Hatchamura is probably your fourth best player. So
Speaker 1: in this case, two of your top four players are
Speaker 1: power forwards or play that traditional big forward look, right,
Speaker 1: instead of that skinny forward who chases around on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: So just in terms of slotting, if you think of
Speaker 1: a ten man rotation, which the Lakers will probably use
Speaker 1: in the regular season, or maybe a nine man rotation,
Speaker 1: but maybe a ten man rotation in the regular season,
Speaker 1: you need two centers, two big forwards, too small forwards
Speaker 1: to you know, off ball guards, and two on ball guards. Right,
Speaker 1: And so as soon as you move AD into the four,
Speaker 1: Lebron's playing thirty four minutes a night, is AD gonna
Speaker 1: play fourteen minutes at the four? Okay? Now where does
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatchamura play? You can kind of see how that
Speaker 1: gets more complicated. So like, even though it's what AD wants,
Speaker 1: it's very obviously not what's best for the team. And
Speaker 1: so I don't know how they're gonna rectify that, but
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham's gonna have to deal with it, apparently if
Speaker 1: his star wants to play that way. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today is always I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. I hope you guys have an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend, and we will be back on Monday with
Speaker 1: number sixteen. The volume