Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible week. We are also live on AMPS,
Speaker 1: so if you're listening on the YouTube feed or on
Speaker 1: the podcast feed, don't forget that AMP is the very
Speaker 1: first place that you guys can get these shows. We
Speaker 1: are finally at long last three weeks later, at the
Speaker 1: end of our player rankings, we're gonna be paying homage
Speaker 1: to the great Nicola Jokic today, who has the most
Speaker 1: solid case for number one that we've seen in a
Speaker 1: long time. You guys know the drill. Before we get started,
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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight, last but not least, before we get started.
Speaker 1: Next Monday, I'm actually going to see the Grand Tarismo
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Speaker 1: doing a full review of it here on the show
Speaker 1: I'm excited to do that for you guys. The new
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Speaker 1: Medecui as Jon martin Borough. Some of the most famous
Speaker 1: racing competitions in the world are recreated through the use
Speaker 1: of actual Nissan GTS, drones and practical effects. The racing
Speaker 1: sequences are so realistic that the real life Jon martin
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Speaker 1: This is a movie that needs to be seen on
Speaker 1: the big screen. Grand Turismo is an inspiring, thrilling, an
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Speaker 1: rated PG thirteen. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
Speaker 1: as I said in the intro, this year was as
Speaker 1: definitive a case for number one as you'll see in
Speaker 1: the modern NBA. He was actually the front runner to
Speaker 1: win his third consecutive MVP about two thirds of the
Speaker 1: way through the season before he basically punted that award.
Speaker 1: Not anything we can be critical of him for. I
Speaker 1: thought it was more just Jokic just identifying that it
Speaker 1: was already kind of like a politic oriented award that
Speaker 1: a lot of people didn't want him to win, and
Speaker 1: I think he just took the opportunity to rest up
Speaker 1: for the playoff run. And in that playoff run, he
Speaker 1: had an incredibly dominant run, especially dominant over his peers.
Speaker 1: He ran through six players that were on my top
Speaker 1: fifteen list, Anthony Edwards, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, and Jimmy Butler. Just ran through those guys,
Speaker 1: never was even remotely threatened. The only team to even
Speaker 1: take two games off of them was the Suns, and
Speaker 1: the Nuggets whipped their ass so thoroughly in the other
Speaker 1: four games that they outscored him by fifty seven points
Speaker 1: in the series, which was by far their largest margin
Speaker 1: of victory in the playoff run. So the keyword there
Speaker 1: is dominant. Most importantly, Nikole Yokuch was by far the
Speaker 1: primary driver of their success throughout the season and in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, the Nuggets were an
Speaker 1: extremely talented championship roster. You do not win in the
Speaker 1: NBA if you do not have a good team. Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray produced like a superstar in this playoff run, and
Speaker 1: I actually think I had him at sixteen in the
Speaker 1: list this year. Aaron Gordon had just this unbelievable defensive
Speaker 1: playoff run where he took all these primary assignments between
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Lebron James Jimmy Butler. Did a great job
Speaker 1: at all those assignments, all while shooting thirty nine percent
Speaker 1: from three and bringing a bunch of other little dirty
Speaker 1: work things to the table. Bruce Brown played so well
Speaker 1: he got a forty five million dollar contract over two years.
Speaker 1: He's now a twenty plus million dollars a year player.
Speaker 1: And I could keep going down the line, but you
Speaker 1: guys get the point. The Nuggets were a very good team.
Speaker 1: That said, it was incredibly apparent to anybody watching the
Speaker 1: games that Nikole Jokic was the singular cog that made
Speaker 1: the entire system work. On offense, he demonstrated what I
Speaker 1: consider to be supreme unguardability that flummixed every defense that
Speaker 1: he ran into. He flummixed the best defense in the
Speaker 1: league in my opinion, and the Lakers took the best
Speaker 1: defender in the league and Anthony Davis and made him
Speaker 1: look utterly worthless. It was just as dominant as it gets.
Speaker 1: We will get more to the unguardability element here in
Speaker 1: a few minutes, because I want to spend a good
Speaker 1: chunk of time breaking down what exactly makes NIKOLEA. Jokic unguardable,
Speaker 1: because I think there are two specific traits that a
Speaker 1: player has to have, and I think there's only two
Speaker 1: players in the league that have those traits. But to
Speaker 1: make a long story short, Nikola Jokic kicked everyone's ass
Speaker 1: and got the trophy. No matter what he's he's got
Speaker 1: the top spot on my list through to next June. Yes,
Speaker 1: that means that even if he plays poorly for some
Speaker 1: stretch of the regular season or misses some stretch of
Speaker 1: the regular season with injury. And let's just say Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is averaging forty and just kicking everyone's ass in
Speaker 1: the regular season. I don't care. You know, I said
Speaker 1: this about Jokic before when I had it, because I
Speaker 1: had a much lower last year. Because again, and you
Speaker 1: guys know how I feel about this stuff. I have
Speaker 1: my like kind of existing worldview of basketball, but I'm
Speaker 1: not married to it. I'm gonna adjust that worldview based
Speaker 1: on new information. Right, So, like I had Embiiden Jokicic
Speaker 1: both very low last year. I had him I think
Speaker 1: seven and eight respectively. Why because I believed that you
Speaker 1: could not win in the NBA with a really slow
Speaker 1: footed center. I thought that the teams would run you
Speaker 1: off the floor in transition, spread you out and driving
Speaker 1: kick you to death. I didn't think it'd be possible
Speaker 1: to do it. It turns out I was wrong, Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokicic proved that that's no longer the case now. Well,
Speaker 1: it remains to be seen in the long run whether
Speaker 1: or not he's kind of an outlier among centers. But
Speaker 1: you'll notice I even moved and beat up this year
Speaker 1: because now I actually see that you can structurally win
Speaker 1: a championship with a slow footed center. We react to
Speaker 1: new information, right. But again, like I was slower to
Speaker 1: give Jokic, you know, a big picture credit because you
Speaker 1: guys know how much I value championships. Well, now Jokic
Speaker 1: has the championship, which makes him enter in an entirely
Speaker 1: different class of conversation for me personally. And I know
Speaker 1: everyone've used the game differently, that's just for me. I
Speaker 1: I'm cool with being slow to give credit to guys
Speaker 1: who are not champions, because you know, when you get
Speaker 1: the trophy, that's when we layer all the praise and
Speaker 1: the respect and the credit onto you. And that's what
Speaker 1: we're doing to Nikole Jokic today. So quick season recap.
Speaker 1: You played in sixty nine games this year, averaged twenty
Speaker 1: five points twelve rebounds in tennisis seventy percent through shooting percentage.
Speaker 1: Guess what. That was the highest true shooting percentage in
Speaker 1: the entire league among any player who played at least
Speaker 1: twenty five minutes per game, including big guys who just
Speaker 1: stand under the basket and dunk everything. Nikol Jokic most
Speaker 1: efficient player in the NBA this year to play significant minutes.
Speaker 1: Some play type data for you guys. The post up
Speaker 1: was by far to Koli Jokic's most common play type.
Speaker 1: In fact, Kolokis ran six hundred and thirty four post
Speaker 1: ups this year, which was by far the most in
Speaker 1: the league. To give you guys, actually, I'll just let
Speaker 1: you guys, guess who do you think was second in
Speaker 1: the league and total post ups ran. The correct answer
Speaker 1: is Nikola Vucevich. He ran four hundred and forty nine.
Speaker 1: So to give you an idea, Nikola Jokic ran almost
Speaker 1: two hundred more post ups than anybody else in the
Speaker 1: entire league. He scored a staggering one point two to
Speaker 1: two points per possession on post ups including passes. On
Speaker 1: our high volume post up list, which is a minimum
Speaker 1: of two hundred reps, there were twenty players on that list.
Speaker 1: Jokic ranked second. Here we have another trivia question for
Speaker 1: you guys. Who do you think finished first? And it's
Speaker 1: not who you'd think and it's not a big guys,
Speaker 1: only about six foot six. The correct answer is DeMar
Speaker 1: de Rosen, who just had an absurd post up season.
Speaker 1: He had an absurd iso season two but he averaged
Speaker 1: one point three points per possession on post ups on
Speaker 1: high volume, which is just outrageous, So kudos to DeMar
Speaker 1: de Rosen. Second most common play type for Nicole Jokich
Speaker 1: was rollman possessions, obviously as a product of the two
Speaker 1: man game that he frequently runs with not just Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: but with KCP and Michael Porter Junior as well. Joki
Speaker 1: shot sixty eight percent on rolls to the rim. That
Speaker 1: efficiency number is key. We're going to get to that
Speaker 1: more when we talk unguardability. But he averaged one point
Speaker 1: three to seven points per possession in those situations, which
Speaker 1: is in the ninety first percentile. Just a deadly floater
Speaker 1: there in the mid range, deadly pick and pop, you know,
Speaker 1: jump shot catching, rip, that kind of situation. He's also
Speaker 1: one of the top tier passers in the league, which
Speaker 1: is vital in the short role as the defense coalesces
Speaker 1: around you. One point two points per spot up possession.
Speaker 1: He shot sixty four percent in EFFECTI field goal percentage
Speaker 1: and spot up situations. Once again, that's just your classic
Speaker 1: stretch big as well, which opens up a bunch of
Speaker 1: things for your offense. Inverted pick and roll was another
Speaker 1: big one I wanted to hit on. You did it
Speaker 1: mostly with Aaron Gordon, but he'd sometimes use guards as well.
Speaker 1: This was a significant play type for Yo kid. You
Speaker 1: ran it almost two hundred times this year. It was
Speaker 1: you know, again, we talked about this yesterday with Jannis
Speaker 1: because Jannis, you know, we think of him as a
Speaker 1: perimeter ball handlers, so we don't call it inverted pick
Speaker 1: and roll, but technically it's kind of like an inverted
Speaker 1: pick and roll because Yannis functions as a as a
Speaker 1: big man in their system most of the time. But
Speaker 1: I talked about how for Yannis it works really well
Speaker 1: because what you're doing is you're taking you know. So
Speaker 1: for instance, like Trey Young ran almost two thousand pick
Speaker 1: and rolls this year, right, Like we had fifteen players
Speaker 1: in the league ran over a thousand pick and rolls.
Speaker 1: Right for guards, it's such a common play type that
Speaker 1: guess what guard defenders are constantly doing. They're constantly chasing
Speaker 1: over the top of screens, right, That's what they do
Speaker 1: from the collegiate level, primarily up through the pros. They
Speaker 1: are just every single day practicing and in games chasing
Speaker 1: over the top of screens, and so it's something that
Speaker 1: they're good at. The gigantic forwards that you have to
Speaker 1: put on guys like Giannis and on guys like Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: they don't do that. They practice defending in the post,
Speaker 1: they practice being the screen defender, operating in some form
Speaker 1: of drop coverage. They guard on the wing against wing scorers.
Speaker 1: They do not chase over the top of screens very often,
Speaker 1: and so they're not very good at it. And so
Speaker 1: inverted pick and roll basically takes defenders and puts them
Speaker 1: in positions that they're not comfortable with. It's funny because
Speaker 1: when we talk about matchup hunting, we always think about isolation,
Speaker 1: but every single one of those matchup hunting situations brings
Speaker 1: The goal is to bring a defender into a situation
Speaker 1: where he's uncomfortable. Right, So, if we're attacking a big
Speaker 1: on a switch, it's because big guys are not used
Speaker 1: to guarding quicker players on the perimeter. Right. If we're
Speaker 1: attacking a small guy in the post, it's because the
Speaker 1: small player is not particularly good at post step defense
Speaker 1: because he doesn't practice it a lot. Right. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times screen navigation gets targeted in a
Speaker 1: bunch of different situations. If a guy really struggles to
Speaker 1: just guard a wide pin down, you'll see a team
Speaker 1: spam a wide pin down because the guy keeps dying
Speaker 1: on the screen or whatever. Pick and roll, same type
Speaker 1: of situation, and inverted pick and roll, you're taking advantage
Speaker 1: of the fact that the actual on ball defender is
Speaker 1: not good at navigating screens, and so nikolea. Jokicz brings
Speaker 1: up Aaron Gordon into the screen. Now I've got two big,
Speaker 1: slow guys trying to guard an inverted pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and it's just an extremely difficult task for guys that
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of practice with that. So you'll
Speaker 1: see in those situations Yokic will either just get downhill
Speaker 1: because his man will dive on this die on the
Speaker 1: screen and he's just getting really close to the rim,
Speaker 1: or there's a botched interchange which leaves Aaron Gordon wide
Speaker 1: open on a lob, or they have to bring the
Speaker 1: third defender in and Yokic just hitting the corner the
Speaker 1: pass of the week side corner. He just picks people
Speaker 1: apart in those situations. He ran one hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: two inverted pick and rolls this year, amounting to one
Speaker 1: point zero nine points per possession, which is in the
Speaker 1: eighty seven percent toime. Now, once again, whenever we see
Speaker 1: super top tier half court shot creation, it's almost always
Speaker 1: foundationally led by unbelievable shot making. These are the shot
Speaker 1: making numbers for Jokic this year. Fifty seven percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, fifty nine
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers although
Speaker 1: we only took forty four of them this season. Sixty
Speaker 1: seven percent on runners, sixty seven percent on hooks. That's
Speaker 1: the shot that makes Jokich completely unstoppable. Table that we're
Speaker 1: gonna get back to that in a few minutes. Seventy
Speaker 1: five percent in the restricted area on four point six
Speaker 1: makes per game. All top tier numbers for those shots,
Speaker 1: some of them off the charts, specifically the runners in
Speaker 1: the hooks, which we'll get to in a little bit. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the unguardability thing. So yesterday, those of
Speaker 1: you guys who listened in the Steph Curry Show, I
Speaker 1: talked about how Steph and and Nicola are the only
Speaker 1: two truly unstoppable offensive players in the league in my opinion,
Speaker 1: And so I want to dive into that concept a bit. First,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it takes two things to be truly
Speaker 1: unguardable on the offensive end of the floor. First of all,
Speaker 1: you have to have a shot that you can consistently
Speaker 1: get to, either in one on one coverage or two
Speaker 1: on two coverage, meaning like in an action or in
Speaker 1: an isolation or post up situation. But you have to
Speaker 1: be able to get to and make that shot not
Speaker 1: just at an efficient rate, but at at a rate
Speaker 1: so efficient that it becomes painful and unsustainable for the
Speaker 1: defense to accept. Okay, So, for instance, I'll give you
Speaker 1: guys an example. There are a lot of players in
Speaker 1: this league that can get to and make tough mid
Speaker 1: range pull up jump shots at about forty five to
Speaker 1: fifty percent right, And in those situations a lot of times,
Speaker 1: like you'll a guy will make a tough shot and
Speaker 1: you'll run back on defense and it can be slightly discouraging,
Speaker 1: but you'll see the coaching staff of the defense be like,
Speaker 1: we'll live with that. Why Because let's say, for instance,
Speaker 1: like that Paul George on tough contested pull up twos
Speaker 1: is having a crazy hot night where he's making them
Speaker 1: a lot more than usual and like, generally speaking, he's
Speaker 1: in the low forties there, Let's say he's making fifty
Speaker 1: percent of them. That means that he's scoring one point
Speaker 1: per possession, and in a league where offensive ratings are
Speaker 1: well over a point per possession, that's a trade off
Speaker 1: that the defense can live with. And so if you're
Speaker 1: forcing guys into tough shots and they're not hitting them
Speaker 1: at a high enough clip to be truly damaging, that's
Speaker 1: a trade off the defense can live with. That extends
Speaker 1: to different spots on the floor. So for instance, if
Speaker 1: you got a heavy basket attacker who's only shooting fifty
Speaker 1: percent at the rim. A lot of our hyper athletic
Speaker 1: guards do stuff like that. That's kind of like the
Speaker 1: predicament that Russell Westbrook is in right now. Right pull
Speaker 1: up thirty point shooters that shoot in the mid thirties
Speaker 1: like low thirties, like Trey Young, for instance, Trey Young
Speaker 1: just shoots a ton of pull up threes and just
Speaker 1: makes them at a percentage in the mid to low thirties.
Speaker 1: So that means that in effective field goal percentage, once
Speaker 1: you extrapolate that out to a point percent per possession basis,
Speaker 1: it's only about a point per possession. The defense can
Speaker 1: live with that. But if you have a shot that
Speaker 1: you can convert well over a point per possession, one
Speaker 1: point two to one point three points per possession, it
Speaker 1: gets so damaging that the defense has no choice but
Speaker 1: to take drastic measures to stop you. So for Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: that's his pull up three point shooting is movement three
Speaker 1: point shooting. Right, he's hitting those in the mid forties.
Speaker 1: So if you let Steph get decent looks in those situations,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get you close to one point three points
Speaker 1: per possession. Because around forty five forty to forty five
Speaker 1: percent in field goal percentage from three is in the
Speaker 1: load to mid sixties in effective field goal percentage. So
Speaker 1: it's not just efficient, it's damaging efficient, and there's nothing
Speaker 1: they can do about it other than throw the kitchen
Speaker 1: sink at right, Nikole Jokic, it's the floaters in the
Speaker 1: hook shots, because he hits them at damn near sixty
Speaker 1: seven percent. That you find yourself in a situation where
Speaker 1: if you let Jokic catch in the short roll, he's
Speaker 1: gonna take a pop shot. He's gonna make two out
Speaker 1: of three of them, and it's unsustainable. It is too damaging.
Speaker 1: You have to send multiple defenders towards him. If you
Speaker 1: leave him in single coverage in the post, he's going
Speaker 1: He's two damn big, two damn strong. His footwork is
Speaker 1: too polished, his control of the ball is too good.
Speaker 1: He's going to work his way close to the rim,
Speaker 1: get to a little hook shot over his left shoulder,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna make two thirds of them. Sixty seven
Speaker 1: percent on hooks comes out to one point three to
Speaker 1: four points per possession. That is downright damaging to defense,
Speaker 1: and they're going to have to take drastic measures to
Speaker 1: stop it. That is step one. You have to have
Speaker 1: a truly damaging shot that you can consistently get to
Speaker 1: Step two. To be unguardable, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to consistently capitalize on those drastic measures from the defense
Speaker 1: by generating quality shots for your defense, for your teammates.
Speaker 1: So Nikole Jokic is killing you with his mid range
Speaker 1: little floaters, and he's killing you in the post. You
Speaker 1: send multiple defenders at him. What happens next. Nikolejokic just
Speaker 1: on ball as a passer, is constantly aware of where
Speaker 1: all the defenders are. He sees plays developed before they happen.
Speaker 1: He's big enough and his ball control is good enough
Speaker 1: that he can get the ball on time and on
Speaker 1: target to the kill pass, the specific pass that beats
Speaker 1: the drastic measure from the defense. And for Steph Curry
Speaker 1: it's obviously different. Like for Steph it's less on ball
Speaker 1: and more off right, it's him flying off of a
Speaker 1: screen and two defenders chase after him. We've referred to
Speaker 1: this as the gravity concept. And the reality is is
Speaker 1: the Warriors get better rim looks than anybody in the league.
Speaker 1: They were third in restricted efficiency restricted area efficiency this year.
Speaker 1: They were first last year, first in twenty nineteen, second
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, first in twenty seventeen. You guys get
Speaker 1: the point. The Warriors get better looks at the rim
Speaker 1: than anybody in the league. That's because of Steph, even
Speaker 1: though it doesn't even though the assists get registered to
Speaker 1: w However, the big guy is at the top of
Speaker 1: the court that's making those reads. As Steph and Claire
Speaker 1: running off of screens. The actual fear of Steph is
Speaker 1: what generates those open looks. And then Steph also is
Speaker 1: a great on ball passer as well. We talked yesterday
Speaker 1: about his fourteen assist game in Game four against the Lakers,
Speaker 1: where they threw the kitchen sink at him. He could
Speaker 1: make a three point shot to save his life, and
Speaker 1: he still generated thirty eight points in twenty eight picking
Speaker 1: rolls with his on ball passing. But you get the point.
Speaker 1: For both guys, you just have to pick the lesser
Speaker 1: of two evils. If you let them work in traditional coverages,
Speaker 1: they're not just going to beat you. They're going to
Speaker 1: beat you to the tune of a point in a
Speaker 1: third per possession, which is going to cost you the game.
Speaker 1: And then if you send the kitchen sink at them,
Speaker 1: you're gonna stand there and watch them pick you to
Speaker 1: pieces with their peers. The trade off is much more simple. Okay,
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid is crushing us in post up situations, Let's
Speaker 1: throw the kitchen sink at him. Doesn't handle double teams. Well,
Speaker 1: there's an option there that's clearly better than the main option. Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: Trey Young's hitting one out of every three pull up threes,
Speaker 1: Like you know, like, what are we gonna do? Stay
Speaker 1: in your traditional drop coverage. He's just not gonna make
Speaker 1: enough of them for it to be truly damaging, especially
Speaker 1: over the course of a playoff series. Every player down
Speaker 1: the line has some sort of weakness in that department
Speaker 1: where you can theoretically go with a path to guarding
Speaker 1: them that should limit their efficiency enough to give your
Speaker 1: team a chance to win. Now, at any given one night,
Speaker 1: those guys might beat you either with the pass or
Speaker 1: with the shot, but in terms of consistently night in
Speaker 1: and night out, even because that's the thing with you,
Speaker 1: Even if Jokic is missing a couple of those shots,
Speaker 1: even if Steph is missing some of his threes, They're
Speaker 1: still guarded like they're going to make them consistently because
Speaker 1: the fear is still there. And those two guys are
Speaker 1: the only two that I can think of in the
Speaker 1: league that truly resoundingly check both of those those boxes.
Speaker 1: You saw everything that Nikola Jokic did translate to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: His efficiency and floaters and hook shots went down just
Speaker 1: to touch, but he made up for that by making
Speaker 1: every damn three point shot they took, and just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous arsenal of one legged fadeaways and funky leaners and
Speaker 1: all these different shots. The shot making maintained as he
Speaker 1: went into the playoffs, his aggression went up a level
Speaker 1: he went into the playoffs, which led to the increase
Speaker 1: in points per game production. He was up at thirty
Speaker 1: points per game in the playoffs. It was as impressive
Speaker 1: an offensive playoff run that I've ever seen. The only
Speaker 1: one I can think of that I thought was more
Speaker 1: impressive was Lebron in twenty eighteen, and he didn't win
Speaker 1: the title, which makes Nikola Jokic is more impressive. Every
Speaker 1: series I watched, from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Suns,
Speaker 1: to the Lakers to the Heat, none of nothing those
Speaker 1: four teams could do even came remotely close to making
Speaker 1: Yokic feel uncomfortable, let alone to make him actually fail
Speaker 1: to succeed. It was just utter dominance. There's two final
Speaker 1: things I want to hit on with Nikola Yokis before
Speaker 1: we get out of here today. One, Yokic as a screener.
Speaker 1: Every time I watch Nikola Jokic footage, his ability to
Speaker 1: set quality screens always pops off the screen to me. Now,
Speaker 1: this is something I work on with my young players
Speaker 1: all the time. In our morning sessions, our training sessions
Speaker 1: for the school that I coach at. We work a
Speaker 1: ton of pick and roll right now, because it's something
Speaker 1: that prepping on for this particular season. And in these situations,
Speaker 1: I'm always telling the guard the big guys, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'd rather us get two or three illegal screens called
Speaker 1: on us per game, but generate better openings than to
Speaker 1: never get called for an illegal screen. But can ever
Speaker 1: set a good pick and the guard's consistently getting over
Speaker 1: the top and staying attached. When you set a quality screen,
Speaker 1: it generates a gap between the ball handler and the
Speaker 1: on ball defender. When you generate that, that's what forces
Speaker 1: the defense to warp. If the guard can stay attached,
Speaker 1: then he can't take the pull up three. If he
Speaker 1: can't take the pull up three, then the big guy
Speaker 1: doesn't have to come out to contest the pull up three.
Speaker 1: If the big guy doesn't have to contest the pull
Speaker 1: up three, he can linger back at the rim, which
Speaker 1: allows the guard as he's defending, to funnel him over
Speaker 1: the top into the rim protection. Then you don't have
Speaker 1: to bring the third defender over because the big is
Speaker 1: back in a position where you can guard both the
Speaker 1: roll man and the on ball the on ball guard.
Speaker 1: Right now, if I set a solid pick and I
Speaker 1: actually generate separation between the guard and the on ball defender.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, everything in terms of the pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot and the floater and everything from the
Speaker 1: three point line into the mid range as we work
Speaker 1: downhill is open. And if there's a good guard there,
Speaker 1: say Jamal Murray, who's gonna consistently make those shots. Now
Speaker 1: the big man has to show up at the level
Speaker 1: of the screen. If the big man has to show
Speaker 1: up at the level of the screen, that opens up
Speaker 1: the role. If the role is open, you're either gonna
Speaker 1: get dunks or you're gonna bring the third defender over
Speaker 1: to tag the roller, which is gonna open up the
Speaker 1: week side corner. All of the openings, whether it's the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot, the pocket pass to the big man,
Speaker 1: or the skip pa the weekside corner, entirely depend on
Speaker 1: the separation generated from the guard. And the only way
Speaker 1: you're gonna generate that separation against NBA level point of
Speaker 1: attack defenders is if you set solid screens. And this
Speaker 1: is something that I constantly get, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: nitpicky with with Anthony Davis because he has a tendency
Speaker 1: to run up and kind of like act like he's
Speaker 1: set in a screen, but like not actually hit anybody
Speaker 1: and then and slip early into his role. It's a
Speaker 1: weakness for Anthony Davis. And it's crazy because I watch
Speaker 1: him and I'm like, man, you're already so damn good
Speaker 1: with your vertical spacing and you've got a decent little
Speaker 1: pop shot yourself. Not as good as Jokis, but you've
Speaker 1: got a decent little pop shot yourself. Dude. Like, if
Speaker 1: you start setting solid screens, the whole world could open
Speaker 1: up for you in pick and roll. But when you
Speaker 1: watch nicoll A Jokis, he makes it a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass every single time for the on ball defender
Speaker 1: to get over the top of the screen, which is
Speaker 1: such a small thing that so many people don't pay
Speaker 1: attention to, but it is the fundamental part of generating
Speaker 1: openings in pick and roll. You absolutely must set solid screens.
Speaker 1: Kolok is one of the best in the world at it. Lastly,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Yokic on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. So first of all, Jokic defended really
Speaker 1: well for him for his little individual standard in this
Speaker 1: particular postseason run. He wore tie out of Pick and roll,
Speaker 1: kept his hands active, did a lot of little things
Speaker 1: that helped make the Denver defense work. A big part
Speaker 1: of it too, that a lot of people don't pay
Speaker 1: close attention to his defensive rebounding. Nikol Joki is one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive rebounders in the league. That is
Speaker 1: the absolute necessity to close the defensive possession. You don't
Speaker 1: get a stop until you get a defensive rebound. It is.
Speaker 1: It is a huge part of the process that gets
Speaker 1: glossed over, and it's an important part of defense, especially
Speaker 1: for a guy like the Jokich that can actually grab
Speaker 1: and go and bring the ball to the floor himself
Speaker 1: and make the necessary kick ahead passes, which is a
Speaker 1: huge part of Jokic's defensive value that I don't think
Speaker 1: it's enough credit, however. I one of my long standing
Speaker 1: basketball opinions has been defense matters, but offense matters more.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is as a coach, schematically I
Speaker 1: can get you in the right spot and get you
Speaker 1: playing hard and make up for a lot of your
Speaker 1: defensive shortcomings. I can't get you to play harder way
Speaker 1: into being a better offensive player. And yeah, I might
Speaker 1: be able to organize some sets that will get you
Speaker 1: some better looks, but you're somewhat limited by your shot making, right,
Speaker 1: and especially when you get to certain parts of the
Speaker 1: playoffs where defenses can get in front of sets. Now,
Speaker 1: even that doesn't work so offensively. Your individual greatness matters
Speaker 1: so much more than the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: especially within the team concept. That's always been one of
Speaker 1: my long standing opinions, and Nikole Jokic kind of established this,
Speaker 1: Like now, I want to emphasize a couple of different
Speaker 1: things because I've always believed you have to be a
Speaker 1: top ten defense to win the title. Nuggets kind of
Speaker 1: broke that mold, right, and they're the exception that proves
Speaker 1: the rule in my opinion. That's within the team concept.
Speaker 1: But I'm zooming in on Jokic for a second, because
Speaker 1: Jokic specifically didn't hurt the Nuggets on defense this year.
Speaker 1: Why Jokic still has slow feet, He's still a below
Speaker 1: average rim protector. So how did they manage to coherently
Speaker 1: play defense with nikolea Jokic on the floor. It's because
Speaker 1: they were schematically able to make it work. They brought
Speaker 1: Jokic up high to the level of the screen, and
Speaker 1: they had Aaron Gordon essentially as the low man function
Speaker 1: as the rim protector, and then they were just really
Speaker 1: sharp around that. And so as a result, they were
Speaker 1: able to coach up a functional defense around a limited
Speaker 1: rim protector well enough to win the title. So I
Speaker 1: kind of looked at that as like a vindication of
Speaker 1: that opinion, which is and we can translate that to
Speaker 1: guys like Luka Doncic for instance. I mean Steph Curry
Speaker 1: is a great example of this as well over the US,
Speaker 1: and he was kind of where I got this original
Speaker 1: opinion from, Like, how do you win titles with Steph?
Speaker 1: You just surround him with good defensive players, put him
Speaker 1: in a position where he has a job to do
Speaker 1: within the scheme, and get him to play hard. If
Speaker 1: you can do those things, you can defend well enough
Speaker 1: to win at a championship level. Now, the Warriors had
Speaker 1: so much defensive talent around him that they were still
Speaker 1: a top ten defense. And that's what makes this Nuggets
Speaker 1: team so unique, is like they kind of did that
Speaker 1: with a bunch of guys, Like they did that with
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray as well, Right, they did that with Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior as well. They just gave him a job
Speaker 1: and they got him to do it well. And then
Speaker 1: guys that Contavio's Callbo Pope and Bruce Brown and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon were so dominant defensively it allowed him to get
Speaker 1: enough stops within the playoff context. But I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it was a good proof of concept of
Speaker 1: the simple idea that like as a when we are
Speaker 1: evaluating star players like Luka Doncic, his defensive shortcomings do
Speaker 1: not mean he can't be a champion. It just means
Speaker 1: as we look back, the two guys who broke this
Speaker 1: because Giannis in twenty twenty one was arguably the best
Speaker 1: defender in the world. Lebron James in twenty twenty that
Speaker 1: was that unbelievable Laker defense. He was an outstanding defender
Speaker 1: in that season. Lebron James in twenty sixteen, still a
Speaker 1: top tier defensive player when he blocked three shots a
Speaker 1: game over that three three game span to come back
Speaker 1: and beat the Warriors. Right Kawhi Leonard in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year. Right Lebron James twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen First Team All Defense. You guys get the point.
Speaker 1: All of them are defensive, you know, weapons except for
Speaker 1: Stephan Nikola Jokic, the two players that I considered to
Speaker 1: be the most unguardable offensive players in the league at
Speaker 1: this point. Right. So the point is, as we look
Speaker 1: at Luka Doncic, can you win a title without being
Speaker 1: a top tier defender? Absolutely, as long as he becomes
Speaker 1: truly unguardable on the offensive ended four. So I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of an interesting concept that Nikola Jokics
Speaker 1: proved in this playoff run. But congratulations to NICOLEA. Jokics.
Speaker 1: Just like you guys know how much I value the
Speaker 1: winning piece, and I in particular was one of the
Speaker 1: final people to kind of get on the Yokich bandwagon
Speaker 1: because I was waiting for this in particular. But I
Speaker 1: think he's proven a lot. I don't see a solution
Speaker 1: for him in this particular season. That's why he's going
Speaker 1: to be my championship favorite again this season. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to watch him play again. I've become a fan of
Speaker 1: his game. Shout out to Nicole Yokich, number one on
Speaker 1: our player rankings this year. We will be back on Monday,
Speaker 1: going into another top twenty five player list, this time
Speaker 1: covering legacies and careers. Surrounding the top twenty five players
Speaker 1: of the last twenty five years. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys, and I will see you on Monday. The
Speaker 1: volume