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Speaker 1: you're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Oh both, if
Speaker 1: you guys had a good end to your week. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break down both of tonight's games from the perspective
Speaker 1: of both teams. The Clippers pose out the Mavericks at
Speaker 1: home and the Magic win at home against the Cavs.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have Game seven on Sunday as well,
Speaker 1: which should be fun and then special for tonight, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do fifteen minutes of mail bag questions at the end,
Speaker 1: So drop as many male bad questions as you'd like
Speaker 1: in the chat, and Paul, our producer, is gonna be
Speaker 1: sending them to me so that I can get to
Speaker 1: him at the end of the show, and I'll get
Speaker 1: to as many as I can for about fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: or so at the end of the show. You guys
Speaker 1: know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our
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Speaker 1: our videos. Call me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You
Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't forget about our
Speaker 1: podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: don't forget to keep dropping those questions in the chat
Speaker 1: as well as the begin him at the end of
Speaker 1: the show. All right, let's talk some basketball. So that
Speaker 1: looked a lot like Game four. Right, The MAVs are
Speaker 1: just a better basketball team than the Clippers when they
Speaker 1: don't have a healthy Kawhi Leonard, right, Like that was
Speaker 1: the big question mark surrounding the series, was like, is
Speaker 1: Kawhi gonna be healthy? Is he gonna be able to
Speaker 1: bring anything to the table. As soon as he was out,
Speaker 1: this thing was over. The reality is is that once
Speaker 1: we get into super physical and tense environments, Luca and
Speaker 1: Kyrie are just better shot creators than Harden and Paul George.
Speaker 1: Both of these teams have elite perimeter defenders. Both of
Speaker 1: these teams play physical with ball pressure. Both of these
Speaker 1: teams have a lot of athletes that can attack the
Speaker 1: offensive glass. There's no advantage there. The advantage is in
Speaker 1: shot creation. And in Game four, like we talked about,
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie dominated Paul George and James Harden, and
Speaker 1: they did the same thing tonight between Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 1: fifty five points and seventeen assists, Paul George and James
Speaker 1: Harden tonight thirty four points in eighteen assists. We went
Speaker 1: into much more detail in Game four, and I won't
Speaker 1: get into that much detail tonight, but the gist of
Speaker 1: it is is that Paul George and James Harden are
Speaker 1: just simply not athletic enough to get separation from superior
Speaker 1: defensive athletes. Kyrie has the quickness to go with the
Speaker 1: skill that he can get separation with. Luca has the
Speaker 1: size and strength. Those two guys have elite physical traits
Speaker 1: that allow them to break open in a way that
Speaker 1: Paul George and James Harden cannot. Paul George, when he
Speaker 1: was in his athletic prime, back when he was with Indiana,
Speaker 1: had this insane first step. Even just as recently as
Speaker 1: like twenty twenty one, he had a crazy first step
Speaker 1: and he was toasting people off the dribble consistently, But
Speaker 1: at this phase of his career, as he's entering into
Speaker 1: his mid thirties, just not the same. And as you
Speaker 1: kind of look around the landscape of the league, if
Speaker 1: you're making a list of like not just shot creators,
Speaker 1: but shot creators that have reliability in intense postseason environments,
Speaker 1: it's a very short list, and it's basically like a
Speaker 1: handful of guys that are just all time type of
Speaker 1: skill athletes, right like Jalen Brunson is a guy that's
Speaker 1: kind of breaking that mold. Steph Curry is a guy
Speaker 1: who has broken that mold. There are some guys that
Speaker 1: kind of are exceptions to that rule, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, it's the big, strong, fast guys that have
Speaker 1: like superior physical gifts attached to IQ and skill, which
Speaker 1: they use with those physical gifts after they get separation
Speaker 1: to pay plays off. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like I'm watching and when you see Paul George dribbling on,
Speaker 1: when you see Paul George dribbling on Darrek Jones Junior,
Speaker 1: Like he's just not capable of getting free from him
Speaker 1: as easily as you see other higher level shot creators
Speaker 1: around the league. That really is the is the gist
Speaker 1: of it. Kyrie, I want to shout him out. He's
Speaker 1: been amazing all series and once again, like Luca, all
Speaker 1: series long, has just struggled to get back to his
Speaker 1: normal level of efficiency. Some of that I want to
Speaker 1: credit the Clippers. Some of that is shot selection, He's
Speaker 1: taken a lot of really difficult shots, and some of
Speaker 1: that is the neat right, Lucas struggling a little bit,
Speaker 1: Kyrie has been carrying that load. And like, here's the thing,
Speaker 1: I'm wrong about a lot of stuff. I never sit
Speaker 1: up here and try to pretend that I'm Jason Stradamis
Speaker 1: and I just get everything right as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the NBA. That's never been what I've tried to lead
Speaker 1: you guys to believe. But I'm on the right side
Speaker 1: of history. And when it comes to Kyrie Irving, from
Speaker 1: the minute everything was going south again, just really really
Speaker 1: wanted free agency. That mattered to him, right Like he
Speaker 1: got traded to Boston, he wanted free agency. He wanted
Speaker 1: to pick a destination. He picked Brooklyn. I'm not defending
Speaker 1: everything he did. He made some mistakes off the court,
Speaker 1: especially where and on the court in the sense that
Speaker 1: like he abandoned his team in a lot of cases
Speaker 1: and many there was stories about him leaving his team
Speaker 1: without even informing the coach, Like there's stuff that Kyrie
Speaker 1: did that's not okay. But for the most part, like,
Speaker 1: the reason why he left Boston was because he wanted
Speaker 1: to be a free agent, right, And the reason why
Speaker 1: he left Brooklyn is because he wanted an extension and
Speaker 1: because he had burnt the bridge with Brooklyn, Brooklyn wasn't
Speaker 1: going to give it to him, and so he really
Speaker 1: had no choice but to force his way out of
Speaker 1: Brooklyn to go to a different scenario where he could
Speaker 1: get a long term contract, which he did. Not defending
Speaker 1: everything he did in that stretch. But at the end
Speaker 1: of that trade saga, when he got sent to Dallas,
Speaker 1: Kyrie got basically painted as a complete and total, unreliable asshole,
Speaker 1: and that just wasn't true. And most importantly, in all
Speaker 1: of that, people started to rewrite the history on who
Speaker 1: Kyrie was as a basketball player, and like, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: when he's the number one option on a Boston team,
Speaker 1: probably not going to be able to pull you over
Speaker 1: the top. But I don't know about you, guys. I
Speaker 1: never had any delusions about Kyrie being a number one option.
Speaker 1: That was never what I thought he was. I don't
Speaker 1: think you guys felt that way, right. He's always been
Speaker 1: viewed as like the ultimate number two a guy if
Speaker 1: you can put him next to a do everything superstar,
Speaker 1: like a true top tier guy, and he can just
Speaker 1: focus on basically second side shot creation, running units, when
Speaker 1: when your best players on the bench, he's actually an
Speaker 1: extremely useful number two, not just on the offensive end either,
Speaker 1: he competes on the defensive end and can be useful there. Right.
Speaker 1: And so not only did he get painted as this
Speaker 1: like complete and total jerk when really he was a
Speaker 1: guy who made some poor decisions, but also was being
Speaker 1: opportunistic about his situation, like he had never been a
Speaker 1: free agent when he Boston. I'm not gonna hate on
Speaker 1: a guy for wanting to pick a team. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: like I feel like that's the dream for a lot
Speaker 1: of NBA players. It's like, one day I get to
Speaker 1: choose where I want to go. Good for him. He
Speaker 1: chose Brooklyn. Okay, there he burned his bridge that you
Speaker 1: can blame him for. But when it came down to it,
Speaker 1: the nets were not going to give him the money
Speaker 1: he wanted. He wanted the long term security. He had
Speaker 1: no choice but to force his way out at that point.
Speaker 1: The nets were kicking everybody's ass when he demanded that trade.
Speaker 1: He did so because he needed to find financial security.
Speaker 1: And he found it in Dallas. And guess what He's
Speaker 1: learned from his mistakes that he made in Brooklyn. So
Speaker 1: he's on his best behavior and in Dallas he has
Speaker 1: found long term financial security and another role alongside a
Speaker 1: top tier superstar where he is thriving and like no
Speaker 1: matter what the basketball side of it, he always did
Speaker 1: what he was supposed to do as long as he
Speaker 1: was alongside a true top tier superstar the way that
Speaker 1: he needed to to push them over the top. And
Speaker 1: so I'm I'm gonna always defend Kyrie in that specific regard,
Speaker 1: not his specific actions. But I think I think way
Speaker 1: too much was made of the bigger picture of who
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving was as a person. And I'm glad to
Speaker 1: be on the right side of history. There because now
Speaker 1: he's the second best player on a team with genuine
Speaker 1: championship potential and they're headed to the second round for
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. And he was just unfreaking believable
Speaker 1: in this series. In Round one, PJ and Maxi hit
Speaker 1: five more threes. That was a huge swing factor without
Speaker 1: the entire series, those guys hitting shots. And it's been
Speaker 1: a little bit back and forth and alternating, like Maxi
Speaker 1: was the one hitting the shots in Game four, PJ
Speaker 1: is the guy hitting the shots in Game five, maxicalle
Speaker 1: But did me leave the game with a nasty shoulders
Speaker 1: plaint is spraying where he kind of fell really hard
Speaker 1: with his whole body weight on his shoulder. That could
Speaker 1: be big for OKAC, which we'll talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1: I wanted The last guy I wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: for Dallas was Derek Lively. That the third quarter run
Speaker 1: that he went on was crazy. He was doing it all.
Speaker 1: He's defending, he was cleaning up the glass on both ends,
Speaker 1: was really active on the offensive glass, in particular, providing
Speaker 1: that vertical spacing that we know is so crucial to
Speaker 1: the way that Luca likes to play. And then the
Speaker 1: big one making reads out a short role that again
Speaker 1: simple concept. When Luca calls for a ball screen from
Speaker 1: Lively and Luca's defender shows high above the above where
Speaker 1: Lively's role is, He's going to roll into a four
Speaker 1: on three and he's got to catch there, and he's
Speaker 1: got to make the reads quickly. He even had a
Speaker 1: play where he caught on the right block and made
Speaker 1: like a little left shoulder hook off the glass. I
Speaker 1: was thinking a lot about it because not only is
Speaker 1: it truly impressive that Dallas was able to find a
Speaker 1: true contributing player in the NBA draft as a rookie,
Speaker 1: and not only was it impressive that Derek Lively himself
Speaker 1: put in the work to become that type of reliable player,
Speaker 1: but I think he can get so so so much
Speaker 1: better in the long run. And I actually had a
Speaker 1: little moment today when I was watching the game where
Speaker 1: I'm like, I look forward to that moment when we're
Speaker 1: watching the MAVs three four years from now and Lively
Speaker 1: is like a well established, really really good NBA player
Speaker 1: alongside Luka Doncic. She feels like one of those guys
Speaker 1: that like, we're gonna kind of attach to Luca and
Speaker 1: his career in terms of like one of his like
Speaker 1: you know, partners in Crime, so to speak, and like
Speaker 1: it just it just feels like the beginning of an
Speaker 1: era there and Derek was just incredible tonight. Looking forward
Speaker 1: for the MAVs again, Thunder is gonna be a tougher matchup.
Speaker 1: Tougher in some ways and easier in others. But I
Speaker 1: do think the okay See without Kawhi is a with
Speaker 1: the Clippers not having Kawhi. Okay See, he's a better team.
Speaker 1: Okay See's shot creation is substantially better, Like Shake Kildas.
Speaker 1: Alexander is just a much much better player then both
Speaker 1: James Harden and Paul George. So that's a whole other
Speaker 1: challenge that challenges you got sitting in front of you.
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior is gonna have his hands full from
Speaker 1: the start of that series. I think he'll probably get
Speaker 1: the matchup, and then Jalen Williams. He didn't have the
Speaker 1: stature of Paul George or James Harden, but he is
Speaker 1: a much much better at fleet and he brings a
Speaker 1: I've said this before, but I think he has the
Speaker 1: best combination of downhill force, pull up jump shooting and
Speaker 1: playmaking ability of any forward I've seen in a very
Speaker 1: long time. Like there's there are guys that can move
Speaker 1: the way he can and can play make the way
Speaker 1: that he can, but can't shoot the way that he can.
Speaker 1: There are guys that can move and shoot, but can't
Speaker 1: play make the way that he can't. He is a
Speaker 1: rare combination of those three traits. His first ever playoff
Speaker 1: series against an elite defensive team that put elite perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders on him the whole series twenty one, seven and
Speaker 1: five on fifty nine percent from shooting as a rookie.
Speaker 1: Never's done it before, So like that, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a whole other challenge in terms of shot creation from
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. But they don't bring the physical strength that
Speaker 1: the Clippers bring to the table. Now, lou Dort is
Speaker 1: super strong and he's gonna be He's another guy that's
Speaker 1: in that top tier perimeter defenders, and so it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough matchup for Luca to deal with. So Luca,
Speaker 1: he's slumping right now. He's gonna need to figure it
Speaker 1: out for Dort. Dort's gonna have a difficult series ahead
Speaker 1: for him in terms of just how hard he's gonna
Speaker 1: make things for Luca. But Chet is just not the
Speaker 1: type of power player that zubatches A Zubats is, i
Speaker 1: should say, And they don't really have a power forward
Speaker 1: on the roster. They don't have anybody in that like
Speaker 1: Kleiba PJ. Washington type of size profile, right, And so
Speaker 1: it's gonna be about bullyball in a lot of cases.
Speaker 1: And but before we get into that, this is where
Speaker 1: Kleiba and his injury could be an issue. And I
Speaker 1: hope that Kleeba is able to come back because one
Speaker 1: of the big things that I could see Dallas doing
Speaker 1: to try to handle the Shay Chet pick and pop
Speaker 1: and the Jalen Chet pick and pop. As I've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot the for traditional bigs that run drop coverages.
Speaker 1: So for instance, Chet, excuse me, Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively,
Speaker 1: they're in a drop coverage, right, So essentially as the
Speaker 1: ball handlers coming over the top, they're trying to drop
Speaker 1: and keep the roller and the on ball guy in front.
Speaker 1: You know, on a better pull up shooter, they might
Speaker 1: be closer to the level, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: they're they're working kind of from where the ball comes
Speaker 1: off the screen back towards the basket, right, And so
Speaker 1: that works when the ball when the when the guy's
Speaker 1: rolling right, when Zubots is rolling into the paint. You
Speaker 1: can kind of guard to people at once in some way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, right, but as soon as that screen
Speaker 1: or pops it, he's just gonna be open. The pick
Speaker 1: and pop is like the ultimate uh you know, it's
Speaker 1: like the ultimate trump card for any sort of for
Speaker 1: any sort of like basic trump uh drop coverage, you
Speaker 1: can't really like get out there in time, right, And
Speaker 1: so this is where I see Kliba being super important
Speaker 1: and Dallas leaning more into that look they used in
Speaker 1: Game two of the Clipper series, which is Kleiba and PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington together, Because if you do that, you can do
Speaker 1: something like have PJ. Washington on Jalen Williams and Derek
Speaker 1: Jones or you know, it'll be interesting to see too,
Speaker 1: because Jalen's more of a downhill threat and Sha, he's
Speaker 1: more of like a shifty guy. So maybe it'll end
Speaker 1: up being PJ. Washington on SGA and more Derek Jones
Speaker 1: matching athleticism for athleticism on Jalen Williams but either way,
Speaker 1: if you have those two guys there and you have
Speaker 1: Kleiba on chet, then you can switch any ball screen
Speaker 1: between any variation of those two guys. And so I
Speaker 1: think that's something where where Kleiba's value is a little
Speaker 1: bit understated. And so I'm hoping that that shoulder injury
Speaker 1: isn't too serious because that's gonna be something that I
Speaker 1: think that Dallas is going to need. But again, like
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, Bulli ball is gonna be the name
Speaker 1: of the game. Luca is gonna need to hunt the
Speaker 1: thinner Thunder players and take him to the basket. That
Speaker 1: was where he was most efficient in this series was
Speaker 1: right handed drives where he would like kind of get
Speaker 1: down the lane line and then kind of stop right
Speaker 1: around the block and just shoot that little one handed
Speaker 1: push shot slash like half hook over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1: That's a big one I think for him to lean
Speaker 1: on in this series against some of the smaller defenders.
Speaker 1: Attacking the offensive glass like they did tonight, there's a
Speaker 1: huge part of this series for Dallas, and that's a
Speaker 1: big way that you can attack. Okay, see, they're one
Speaker 1: of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league and
Speaker 1: then deep seals for PJ Washington with the other thing
Speaker 1: I wrote down where PJ did this more often during
Speaker 1: the regular season, but like when he gets a smaller
Speaker 1: matchup on him, like if Oklahoma City has to put
Speaker 1: dort on Luca and they have to put Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: on Kyrie Irving, that's gonna leave one of Shay or
Speaker 1: Josh Gitty, probably Josh Gitty on PJ Washington, And so
Speaker 1: deep seals in the paint to try to get quick
Speaker 1: early post touches and easy dump ins for like layups
Speaker 1: and fouls and things like that. Bullyball is gonna be
Speaker 1: a big element of that series. I will have a
Speaker 1: series preview later this weekend. I did my prep for
Speaker 1: Pacers Nicks, but I haven't recorded it yet. I'm recording
Speaker 1: that first thing in the morning, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start doing the prep for this series, so I'll probably
Speaker 1: end up recording that video later in the afternoon, and
Speaker 1: so it'll probably be up either later tomorrow night or
Speaker 1: in the morning on Sunday. But when it does go up,
Speaker 1: I will tweet out the links. You can see it
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT on the Clippers front,
Speaker 1: I don't really know what to say. I don't know
Speaker 1: how you build a team or prepare for a postseason
Speaker 1: run when you're best player is literally not physically capable
Speaker 1: of handling a playoff runt, WHI is on the books
Speaker 1: for one hundred and fifty two million dollars over the
Speaker 1: next three seasons. I can't even get mad at Paul
Speaker 1: George and James Harden for not being able to successfully
Speaker 1: navigate this half court environment against an elite defense, because
Speaker 1: that's never what they were meant to do. They were
Speaker 1: never meant to be depended on to this extent. They
Speaker 1: were designed to be secondary and tertiary shot creators behind
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, who is one of the rare guys when
Speaker 1: he's healthy, who has resilience as a shot creator in
Speaker 1: the slowdown, playoff environment against elite defenses. And so I
Speaker 1: don't really know what to say. You can't blow it
Speaker 1: up because you're about to head to a brand new arena.
Speaker 1: You can't go into your new arena with a rebuilding
Speaker 1: team that seems like a financial disaster. So my guess
Speaker 1: is that they'll let Paul George go to free agency,
Speaker 1: but then match whatever he gets offered, and so they'll
Speaker 1: do whatever they need you to bring Paul George back. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe he'll choose to leave, but I think they'll offer
Speaker 1: Paul George whatever the max is to keep him. I
Speaker 1: think they'll sign James Harden to a long term deal
Speaker 1: at a little bit more of a team friendly number.
Speaker 1: And I think they'll run it back. And I do
Speaker 1: think that's defensible for two reasons. Won the arena, Like
Speaker 1: we mentioned obviously, like it's just the reality of going
Speaker 1: into a new arena. You almost better off giving it
Speaker 1: one good season there with all of this talent to
Speaker 1: at least drive some of the buzz. And then especially
Speaker 1: like if you're selling season ticket packages like they've probably been.
Speaker 1: They've probably been selling season ticket packages, and so you'd
Speaker 1: hat to go back on that by bringing out a
Speaker 1: some sort of rebuilding team or trading a star away
Speaker 1: and not having the talent that you have, right, And
Speaker 1: so like, I think it's defensible to bring everybody back
Speaker 1: under that circumstance. And the second piece of it is
Speaker 1: just the reality of their predicament. They're not one move
Speaker 1: away from figuring this out. They could trade Paul George,
Speaker 1: but it's still gonna be fragile Kawhi and James Harden
Speaker 1: who needs to be a secondary shot creator behind a
Speaker 1: true superstar. Right, So it's the same, it's more or
Speaker 1: less the same predicament. And so that's kind of where
Speaker 1: I tie this off is just as a Clippers fan,
Speaker 1: don't get your hopes up, because even if they do
Speaker 1: run it back, the reality is is twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard looked awesome and then his knee fell apart.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two, he was still recovering from the knee injury,
Speaker 1: couldn't play in the playoffs. Twenty twenty three, he looked
Speaker 1: awesome in the playoffs and then his knee fell apart.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four, looked awesome all season, and then his
Speaker 1: knee fell apart before he got to the postseason and
Speaker 1: he was unable to play. So that and like each
Speaker 1: one of those years, he's getting older. I mean a
Speaker 1: half decade is passed, so like half decade ago, his
Speaker 1: body couldn't handle it, and now he's falling apart before
Speaker 1: he gets there. It's sad. Kawhi Leonard is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite players to watch. A good chunk of my game,
Speaker 1: our moves and things in play style that I've stolen
Speaker 1: from Kawhi Leonard, huge fan of his. It's a huge bummer,
Speaker 1: but it's just the reality of the predicament. He for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, just his body can't make it. His body
Speaker 1: can't make it through this grind. And so maybe you
Speaker 1: get lucky. I mean, you going too the New Arena,
Speaker 1: and by the grace of the basketball guys, you just
Speaker 1: roll in deep next season and everyone hangs tight and healthy,
Speaker 1: and then you get into the postseason, you go on
Speaker 1: some sort of run. Maybe that'll happen, but I just
Speaker 1: don't think anybody should get their hopes up. Moving on
Speaker 1: to Calves Magic. The dynamic of this series is super
Speaker 1: fascinating to me because like it's two very different game
Speaker 1: plans between the two teams. Like the Calves are daring
Speaker 1: the Magic to make jump shots. The Magic were dead
Speaker 1: last in a jump shot attempts per game during the
Speaker 1: regular season and near the bottom in efficiency. They're not
Speaker 1: a good jump shooting team. So the Calves are ducking underscreens.
Speaker 1: They're playing contain on the ball. What that means is
Speaker 1: is like positional defense, so like you're giving ground and
Speaker 1: just prioritizing keeping the offensive player in front no matter
Speaker 1: what it takes. So like, even if you have to
Speaker 1: leave a guy open on the perimeter, you're just beating
Speaker 1: him to a spot, sliding, taking that contact in the chest,
Speaker 1: trying to bait them into taking jump shots. Right, Jalen
Speaker 1: Suggs is really the only guy for Orlando that they're
Speaker 1: really trying to run off the line. And by the way,
Speaker 1: he had a great night twenty two points. Should have
Speaker 1: had twenty five if he didn't kick his legout on
Speaker 1: that one end one that got over or the offensive foul.
Speaker 1: But he had a ton of big momentum shots and
Speaker 1: obviously he's been a defensive force in this series. Jalen
Speaker 1: Suggs continues to be awesome. But the Magic are doing
Speaker 1: the exact opposite to Cleveland. They're chasing Darius Carland and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell and Max Strew's off the line. Then they're
Speaker 1: ignoring the non shooters in the corners, like guys like Mobiley,
Speaker 1: guys like Akorro, and they're trying to funnel the calves
Speaker 1: into the paint. And then from there they're just banking
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be able to get enough stops at
Speaker 1: the rim. Now, the Calves had a great paint knight.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell made eighteen shots in the paint. Garland made eight,
Speaker 1: so they got twenty six made field goals in the
Speaker 1: paint just from their backcourt. Mitchell made nine shots in
Speaker 1: the paint outside of the restricted area. Just a deadly
Speaker 1: eurostep floater. He also does that wade pullover dribble. He
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite moves to use because it
Speaker 1: like automatically gets Essentially, you're driving up the right side
Speaker 1: of the floor and you pound the ball with your
Speaker 1: right hand and you gather a high but when you
Speaker 1: have real downhill force coming, your elbows are up here,
Speaker 1: and so what ends up happening is the back pedaling
Speaker 1: defender who's kind of in your way has a tendency
Speaker 1: naturally as human nature to kind of go to kind
Speaker 1: of like back away from the elbow because you're worried
Speaker 1: about your getting hit, and so usually that gather over
Speaker 1: the top will get you back on to the left
Speaker 1: side towards the rim, and then you just explode off
Speaker 1: that left leg and you can get all the way
Speaker 1: to the basket. Now, Mitchell was using that to set
Speaker 1: up his floater, So he's like doing that high gather
Speaker 1: into the middle of the lane and shooting that floater
Speaker 1: over the top, because once again, that was kind of
Speaker 1: the way Orlando's defense was set up. They were trying
Speaker 1: to take away the paint, take away the three point line,
Speaker 1: very analytically a smart approach to offense, right or defense.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, but Mitchell just made a pay nine shots
Speaker 1: that he made outside of the restricted area, but inside
Speaker 1: of the paint eleven paint field goals for Garland, Mitchell
Speaker 1: gets fifty. Honestly, it made me feel bad because that
Speaker 1: was one of the better playoff performances that I've seen.
Speaker 1: That was a that'll get lost in the mix because
Speaker 1: it was a loss, but given the fact that it
Speaker 1: was on the road, in a close out game where
Speaker 1: his teammates were in a lot of ways letting him down,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into that in a minute, he
Speaker 1: was just unbelievably good. And it just as a bummer
Speaker 1: because he played well enough to win that game and
Speaker 1: he doesn't get a win down the stretch. The Magic
Speaker 1: just made more plays and fewer mistakes than the Caves.
Speaker 1: The shot making was there for both teams. As we
Speaker 1: talked about. Mitchell was hitting shots. Pallo got hot late.
Speaker 1: He had a big pull up three over even Mobley
Speaker 1: on the left wing, and then he had a spin
Speaker 1: move into Moblei Mobiley raked him across the arms, kind
Speaker 1: of a dumb foul. I think Pallo missed the free
Speaker 1: throw anyway, But anytime Paolow saw Mobli on his heels,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing, just hard dribble to the left,
Speaker 1: like spin into either a short fadeaway, short hook shot,
Speaker 1: something along those lines. But Mitchell and Paalow were getting
Speaker 1: into the shot making, but Garland was the guy that
Speaker 1: just couldn't kind of meet that level. Made a few
Speaker 1: huge mistakes down the stretch of the game. Everyone saw
Speaker 1: the eight second violation. That's just completely inexcusable. You're just
Speaker 1: not paying attention. There's no ball pressure. There was no
Speaker 1: ball pressure on that play. He just slow dribbled across
Speaker 1: half court and took an eight second violation. The cole
Speaker 1: Anthony put back along the baseline. This is where I
Speaker 1: want to get into the concept of rebounding as a
Speaker 1: team versus rebounding it as an individual. And this is
Speaker 1: especially important when you don't have physical advantages, which Cleveland
Speaker 1: without Jared Allen is at a huge disadvantage against Orlando.
Speaker 1: So on this play, Franz Wagner comes off of a
Speaker 1: ball screen on the left wing and shoots a pull
Speaker 1: up three. But on the play, Evan Mobley came up
Speaker 1: to the level of the screen. So when Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: came up to the level of the screen, Wendell Carter Junior,
Speaker 1: the guy who set the ball screen, he rolled hard
Speaker 1: to the basket right and as soon as the shot
Speaker 1: goes up, it's not even really a role. It's more
Speaker 1: of a crash. So Franz has taken the three, Mobley's
Speaker 1: out at the perimeter and Wendell Carter Junior is sprinting
Speaker 1: down the lane to go get an offensive rebound. Now,
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley's gonna try to get back in front, but
Speaker 1: he's really out of position, and so Donovan Mitchell, who's
Speaker 1: guarding Cole Anthony in the right corner, he comes down
Speaker 1: and cracks down and boxes out Wendell Carter Junior. So
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell is rebounding as a team. He's looking and going, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got Cole Anthony and he might crash. But Wendell
Speaker 1: Carter Jr. Is crashing and he's got Evan Mobley beat
Speaker 1: right now, I need to get in there and box out.
Speaker 1: So he's thinking within the team concept. Darius Garland, who's
Speaker 1: guarding Jalen Suggs up on the right wing, he's rebounding
Speaker 1: more as an individual, he when the shot goes up,
Speaker 1: just looks at Jalen Suggs, identifies that he's not crashing
Speaker 1: and does nothing. But that's not even just a rebounding rotation.
Speaker 1: That's a defensive rotation. When the lowman tags in any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, whether that's helping. And again, the lowman
Speaker 1: is the player that's guarding the guy in the weak
Speaker 1: side corner, and he is the guy who's responsible for
Speaker 1: the role man in the ball screen when your screen
Speaker 1: defender is up at the level of the screen. So
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell is the low man. Donovan Mitchell is the
Speaker 1: low man in a rebounding situation, went over to tag
Speaker 1: slash box out Wendell Carter Jr. If it wasn't a shot,
Speaker 1: it was just a role, he'd be tagging the roller right.
Speaker 1: Same kind of rotation, though when that happens, the same
Speaker 1: thing is supposed to happen every single time. If you
Speaker 1: were on the wing and you see the low man
Speaker 1: tag or have to crack down and rebound, you have
Speaker 1: to drop to the corner. That is the next rotation,
Speaker 1: and Darius just one paying attention, and so Cole Anthony
Speaker 1: just walked in for an easy offensive rebound put back late.
Speaker 1: Everyone's gonna focus on those two plays, but he had
Speaker 1: two other turnovers in the fourth quarter, over penetrating. He'd
Speaker 1: got Paalo on switches and was just trying to beat
Speaker 1: him off the dribble, but like Pallo once again, like
Speaker 1: trying to protect the rim and take away the three
Speaker 1: point shot, right, So as soon as Darius started driving,
Speaker 1: he was taking really aggressive backward steps, and so what
Speaker 1: was open for Garland was a short step back jump
Speaker 1: or something in the mid range, but instead he over
Speaker 1: penetrated him both times, got himself caught into trouble where
Speaker 1: he was buried underneath the basket with nowhere to go,
Speaker 1: and had to try to worst kickout passes when nobody's
Speaker 1: open because they're staying glued up off the ball, and
Speaker 1: he like it was just a really really rough stretch
Speaker 1: for Darius Garland, and once again, like I feel bad
Speaker 1: for Donovan because he was hooping his ass off and
Speaker 1: his co star was just kind of making mistake after
Speaker 1: a mistake. Darius was good for the first three quarters,
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, but yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: rough fourth quarter from him. Really. The difference in the game, though,
Speaker 1: was offensive rebounding fifteen to two was the second chance
Speaker 1: points advantage for Orlando. And the reality is is without
Speaker 1: Jared Allen, Cleveland is just completely overmatched on the glass,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, like so many of these possessions,
Speaker 1: it's like mobilely under the rim with like Darius Garland
Speaker 1: and Max Struce and like your biggest guy there is
Speaker 1: Mobiley who's a relatively thin and undersized big right, and
Speaker 1: he's trying to get rebounding position or fight for contested
Speaker 1: rebounds with Wendell Carter Junior and Jonathan Isaac and Paala
Speaker 1: Bonco and Franz Wagner, right, So like it's just an
Speaker 1: impossible job and so kind of looking forward to Game seven,
Speaker 1: that problem isn't going away unless Jared Allen is feeling better.
Speaker 1: And apparently he's in pain basically when he does anything
Speaker 1: with his rib injury, So I don't know, maybe he'll
Speaker 1: put on some type of flat jacket and try to
Speaker 1: give it a go. But like, but if Jared Allen
Speaker 1: can't go in Game seven, that problem isn't going away.
Speaker 1: So the Calves are gonna need to ride the home
Speaker 1: crowd hold up better on the glass again, like I
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, rebounding as a team, doing your job,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna need offensive support for Mitchell, which
Speaker 1: is usually better at home. Anyway, on the Orlando front,
Speaker 1: I thought they could just do a better job of
Speaker 1: shrinking the floor on Mitchell when he does get past
Speaker 1: his man, especially on Mitchell in particular, because I think
Speaker 1: he's the one guy who's like really capable of shooting
Speaker 1: you out of the gym, and so they just need
Speaker 1: to do a better job on him in Game seven.
Speaker 1: I know I said after Game two or Game three,
Speaker 1: I should say I said that the home team would
Speaker 1: win every game in the series, and I'm gonna stick
Speaker 1: with that for now, and or I should say for
Speaker 1: good and I'm gonna pick the Calves to win Game seven.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna be honest with you guys. You it
Speaker 1: as more or less as of a coin flip. I
Speaker 1: think it could go either way. So yeah, we'll see
Speaker 1: what We'll see what happens Games seven. I think Jared Allen,
Speaker 1: whether or not he plays, is going to be the
Speaker 1: biggest swing factor. But I really could see that game
Speaker 1: going either way. All right, Well, let's do about fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes of mail back questions here for Okay see vers
Speaker 1: Dallas in the playoffs. How do you weigh talent verse experience?
Speaker 1: So obviously you can't lean entirely on experience, right, And
Speaker 1: we've seen hell, Oklahoma City fans have seen this, right,
Speaker 1: Like the early thunder teams that had Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: James Harden in Russell Westbrook, they were going up against experienced,
Speaker 1: veteran teams and beating them, right Like, So I don't
Speaker 1: want to say that that's completely out of the equation.
Speaker 1: Something to keep in mind, though, when we look back
Speaker 1: through NBA history, like Kevin Durant, top twelve thirteen player
Speaker 1: in NBA history, right, like James Harden. I don't know
Speaker 1: where I'd put James Harden all time, but we know
Speaker 1: what he turned into, right, he turned into a franchise
Speaker 1: cornerstone for a decade. Right. Russell Westbrook obviously played under
Speaker 1: KD for the majority of that time, but while he
Speaker 1: was healthy, was one of the best, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of like engines in the league on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. Right, So like especially truly special team that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City team was. But I do think that Okayc's
Speaker 1: talent has to be factored in here. So Dallas' experience, right,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving NBA finals experience in three different four different
Speaker 1: seasons if you count the brief minute a brief game
Speaker 1: that he played wait, three times. Yeah, he played in
Speaker 1: the NBA finals three times in twenty fifteen, twosy sixteen,
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. So he's been a lot of deep
Speaker 1: playoff runs. Luca's been to the conference finals before. Those
Speaker 1: guys have lost and lost in embarrassing fashion, have lost
Speaker 1: in frustrating fashion, have lost in close fashion. So they
Speaker 1: have a lot of that scar tissue that I talk about, right,
Speaker 1: which I think is so important for winning in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like, Okay, so
Speaker 1: he's just really damn good and so that's not going
Speaker 1: to carry you home, but it could be a differentiator
Speaker 1: when other things are when other things are equal, Let's see,
Speaker 1: why does Luca not seem as dominant as he normally is.
Speaker 1: Talked about this earlier in the show. But I think
Speaker 1: it's a combination of three factors. Obviously, his knees bothering
Speaker 1: him a little bit. Give the Clippers some credit. They
Speaker 1: put their best athletes on him, Terrence Man and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook's pressure in the hell out of him all game long.
Speaker 1: And then three, I didn't like his shot selection. I
Speaker 1: thought he took a lot of really really difficult shots.
Speaker 1: He was actually really efficient when he got closer to
Speaker 1: the basket, and when he was more deliberate he looked
Speaker 1: really good. And for the record, he was deliberate when
Speaker 1: it mattered, and I never thought his sloppy play like
Speaker 1: really cost the team, so to speak. But like I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of all of those factors. Compare
Speaker 1: all the number ones the Kyrie has ever played with, Bron,
Speaker 1: Luca and Katie. How do you compare Kyrie playing with
Speaker 1: Lebron vrus Luca? Is there a difference? So I was
Speaker 1: actually thinking about this when I was working through the
Speaker 1: Kyrie story. But Katie's actually an interesting example of a
Speaker 1: number one that Kyrie played with that didn't work out,
Speaker 1: And Katie's not the same type of Swiss Army knife
Speaker 1: offensively that Lebron and Luca are, and so I wonder
Speaker 1: if that's kind of the mix. Is Like I used
Speaker 1: to think about this and talk about it when when
Speaker 1: I was really active on Twitter before I worked in
Speaker 1: sports media. That was kind of how I got into
Speaker 1: sports media. I won't get into that story right now,
Speaker 1: but like, basically, my wife and friends are not big
Speaker 1: basketball fans, right so, like I would go to Twitter
Speaker 1: to talk about basketball, and I remembers as a person
Speaker 1: rooting for Lebron during those years in Cleveland, like it
Speaker 1: kind of felt like a two thirds one third thing.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is like Lebron was
Speaker 1: just kind of like responsible for the offense two thirds
Speaker 1: of the time, and that meant all types of versatile
Speaker 1: shot creation, high pick and roll, iso post up transition,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously looking to score himself, looking to create
Speaker 1: for others, blah blah blah blah. And I remember there's
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism around Kyrie at the time where
Speaker 1: he'd have these possessions where he'd dribble up the floor
Speaker 1: and dribble, you know, seventeen times and never make a
Speaker 1: pass and then take a shot and people would be
Speaker 1: critical of Kyrie, but it really dawned on me in
Speaker 1: that twenty sixteen series in particular what they were doing
Speaker 1: and what that was is on those possessions Lebron would
Speaker 1: rest while playing Lebron basically every year after twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: with exception of last year in twenty fifteen, was a
Speaker 1: reliable catch and shoot shooter. So Lebron would just park
Speaker 1: his ass, you know, twenty five feet from the basket
Speaker 1: on the wing, and he'd still be a threat because
Speaker 1: he could shoot. But Hyrie would essentially run his own
Speaker 1: action to try to hunt his own shot, and it
Speaker 1: effectively worked out for like a kind of efficient secondary
Speaker 1: shot creation while also buying Lebron opportunity to rest. Lebron
Speaker 1: and Luca are very similar in that regard in the
Speaker 1: sense that they're like total offensive engines. Honestly, I don't
Speaker 1: really see much difference in the fit as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the offensive end. Obviously, they're just different as players
Speaker 1: in terms of Lebron as an athlete in all the
Speaker 1: other ways he can impact winning. Let's see who guards
Speaker 1: Shay for Dallas. So I think they'll probably start the
Speaker 1: series with Derek Jones Junior because they're gonna look at
Speaker 1: that as like kind of lanky versus lanky, and then
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams more of a power player, so the look
Speaker 1: at that as like power verse power with PJ. Washington.
Speaker 1: But I think Derek Jones is quicker, and I think
Speaker 1: that Jalen Williams is quicker. So I wonder if, over
Speaker 1: the course of the series, if they won't try switching
Speaker 1: that and putting PJ on Shae so he can absorb
Speaker 1: that off arm push off that Shay does and offer
Speaker 1: really good contests on his pull up jump shots. And
Speaker 1: if Derek Jones Jr. More focused on beating Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: to spots because he's got better athletic tools. But we'll see.
Speaker 1: I think they'll start with Derek Jones Jr. But we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens over the course of the series. All Right,
Speaker 1: Let's see who are the current players that you think
Speaker 1: can be the number one on a championship team. So
Speaker 1: this is all relative because it's all about how much
Speaker 1: talent you have. Like, for instance, Jason Tatum is a
Speaker 1: guy I would typically not put on this list, But
Speaker 1: the Celtics have the most talented roster in basketball, and
Speaker 1: so of course he can win a championship. So like
Speaker 1: the reality is, is this question in and of itself
Speaker 1: is flawed. I appreciate the question because it's a question
Speaker 1: all basketball fans like to talk about, but it's flawed
Speaker 1: in the sense of, like basketball is a team sport
Speaker 1: under any circumstances, Like in theory, you could have the
Speaker 1: fifteenth best player in the league and still win a title.
Speaker 1: And I don't think Dam's fifteenth. I think he's higher.
Speaker 1: He's in that you know, seven to ten range. But
Speaker 1: like even though, like even if you had like the
Speaker 1: fifteenth best player in the league, when you have you know,
Speaker 1: six above average starters, that's just a lot of that's
Speaker 1: a lot of talent, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 1: I do think that that it can get into a
Speaker 1: little bit of a gray area. But if I had
Speaker 1: to run it down to like players who could be
Speaker 1: number one one on a championship team without an overwhelming
Speaker 1: talent advantage. We pull up my leading scorers this year
Speaker 1: so I can get a little list, so I don't
Speaker 1: forget anybody. Joel Embiid, Yes, Luka Danci, Yes, Joannison, Tennan Kompo, Yes,
Speaker 1: Shay it's too early to tell. We'll see h Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But we'll see Kevin Duran at
Speaker 1: this phase of his career. No, Devin Booker, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Jason Tatum with an overwhelming talent advantage, yes,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, No, Darren Fox. Know. Steph Curry maybe last year.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he could do it anymore. We'll
Speaker 1: see Nikola Jokic, yes, Tyree Spaxy know, Anthony Edwards, yes,
Speaker 1: Trey Young know, Lebron James at this phase of his career. No,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, No John Morant. We'll see with John Morant
Speaker 1: in the long run. Anthony Davis, I don't know. He
Speaker 1: showed a lot this year. The tough thing with him
Speaker 1: is I don't think he's good enough offensively and we're
Speaker 1: kind of past the top there. So that's that's not
Speaker 1: very many, I mean how much. I don't know if
Speaker 1: anybody was counting during that, but that's maybe like a
Speaker 1: half dozen guys. But like it's it's it's a rare
Speaker 1: it's a rare group. It's a it's a small class
Speaker 1: of players that can actually lead a team that doesn't
Speaker 1: have an overwhelming talent advantage. In my opinion, how big
Speaker 1: is coaching in these games. I have no faith in kid,
Speaker 1: and I don't expect to see him coaching in Dallas
Speaker 1: much longer. So this has actually been a huge storyline
Speaker 1: surrounding the last few weeks, especially as it pertains to
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham. And I actually so, I think sometimes you
Speaker 1: fire a coach because you're looking for an additional advantage,
Speaker 1: but he's not like the reason why your team is underachieving,
Speaker 1: and I think that was the main difference between Vogel
Speaker 1: and Darvin Ham. I think the Lakers fired Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: because they wanted to just see if they could find
Speaker 1: something better. I don't think it was like a matter
Speaker 1: of urgency or crisis. A major point in the Vogal
Speaker 1: firing too, that gets lost in the shuffle is Vogel
Speaker 1: and Russ had a falling out, and the Lakers were
Speaker 1: hell bent on keeping Russ for some stupid fucking reason.
Speaker 1: So that's a big part of why Darvin Ham got
Speaker 1: the job was he kind of pitched his utilization of
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook right. Darvin Ham had to be fired because
Speaker 1: he was like he was just legitimately a bad NBA
Speaker 1: coach coach, and I went into excruciating detail, did thirty
Speaker 1: minutes on it today, so you can find that on
Speaker 1: our UH on our YouTube feed. But I put Kid
Speaker 1: more in the in the Frank Vogel class than the
Speaker 1: UH than the Darvin Ham class. Meaning of course you
Speaker 1: can probably find a better coach than Kid, and of
Speaker 1: course he's gonna have moments where you're frustrated as a fan,
Speaker 1: But I do think he has a baseline level of
Speaker 1: game management and at least is going to put the
Speaker 1: outcome in the hands of the players. This is generally
Speaker 1: one of my big kind of beliefs in basketball. I
Speaker 1: do think that the truly elite coaches can dramatically increase
Speaker 1: your odds. We've seen that with guys like Eric Spolster
Speaker 1: and Steve Kerr. Right, Steve Kerr like completely transformed the
Speaker 1: Warriors from a mediocre playoff team into a championship team
Speaker 1: in one season. So like we and we've we've any
Speaker 1: of you guys have read about that. No, it was
Speaker 1: like like Mark Jackson just had st Steph Curry running
Speaker 1: spread pick and roll all the time, and Steve Kerk
Speaker 1: came in and was like, no, we're going to run
Speaker 1: five out motion. We're gonna lead the league in passes.
Speaker 1: They led the league in passes. Their offense took off
Speaker 1: steph one MVP, averaging like twenty three points a game.
Speaker 1: Like the rest is history, right, But outside of that
Speaker 1: top tier, there's only a handful of them. All that
Speaker 1: middle tier, of the guys that are not terrible, I
Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna help or hurt your championship chances
Speaker 1: that much. And the reason why I feel that way
Speaker 1: is like, you see this like you have a game plan,
Speaker 1: but how often do you get a transition cross match?
Speaker 1: How often do you have, you know, an action that
Speaker 1: gets a switch before you run an action All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, your base scheme is kind of out of whack.
Speaker 1: Like so much of basketball is read and react, especially
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA, and so really, so much of
Speaker 1: this is on the players. I'm both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: you know, Like a lot of times, like you are
Speaker 1: in the moment as the ball handlers coming downhill at
Speaker 1: you in a ball screen, You're making a decision on
Speaker 1: the fly, Am I coming up high? Or am I
Speaker 1: staying back on the roll man? Or like you know,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and you know, every guy that's
Speaker 1: guarding a perimeter player. Should I do down hard here?
Speaker 1: Should I stunt? Should I hard double? Should I stay
Speaker 1: home on the shooter? Like there's and obviously there is
Speaker 1: a game plan there, but because of those cross matches,
Speaker 1: so much of it is read and react. Okay, now
Speaker 1: you got the defense in rotation at that point, you're
Speaker 1: not running a set. It's driving kick basketball. That's not
Speaker 1: something that the coaches help you with. That's like the
Speaker 1: basketball players on the floor, how good are they at
Speaker 1: reading and reacting? Same thing goes on the defensive side
Speaker 1: of that. How good are you at closing out? How
Speaker 1: good are you at like closing out on the right shooter, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: they're driving and kicking, and there's a kickout past to Russ, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me not close out on that one. Or like
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I see a bang bang play happening
Speaker 1: with two shooters on the wing, and one shooter is
Speaker 1: a much better shooter than the other, Like maybe I
Speaker 1: should actually close out to the better shooter even if
Speaker 1: the worst shooters catching the ball. Maybe bait on his
Speaker 1: indecisiveness a little bit, Like there's there's so much read
Speaker 1: and react in basketball, and so that kind of mitigates
Speaker 1: a lot of the coaching element of it. Right, Like
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham, I think is legitimately a bad NBA code,
Speaker 1: And the Lakers went to the Western Conference Finals last
Speaker 1: year and legitimately gave Denver some issues this year, but
Speaker 1: it was because of the players. So like for me,
Speaker 1: it's about like making sure that you don't have a
Speaker 1: truly damaging coach. And as bad as Jason Kidd can
Speaker 1: be sometimes I don't necessarily view him as a as
Speaker 1: any sort of like truly damaging coach. And so if
Speaker 1: you're in that middle tier and you got one of
Speaker 1: those guys, So for instance, the Sons with Frank Vogel,
Speaker 1: Like if they fire Frank Vogel and they hire a
Speaker 1: Mike Budenholzer or Kenny Atkinson, they're just gonna be in
Speaker 1: the exact same boat that they were last year. Right,
Speaker 1: But if the Lakers fired Darvin Ham in bringing a
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson or a Mike Budenholzer, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a baseline level of competence which will
Speaker 1: help them avoid some of the major issues. Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: put you in like four guard lineups, you know, cam Like,
Speaker 1: this is the this is the crazy stat I always
Speaker 1: tell with Darvin ham during the three to ten stretch
Speaker 1: host in season tournament, Wind'angelo Russell was playing as many
Speaker 1: minutes as Camra and getting as many shot attempts as
Speaker 1: Torreum prints. That's below the baseline level of competence for
Speaker 1: a head coach, right, So like there is like a
Speaker 1: truly damaging level. I don't think Jason Kidd is there.
Speaker 1: What is the difference between number one options and number
Speaker 1: two options? So a real number one option on a
Speaker 1: championship team is a guy that can consistently generate quality
Speaker 1: shots against an elite locked in defense in an urgent
Speaker 1: and physical and intense environment. There's a very short list
Speaker 1: of those guys, like we talked about, right, a secondary
Speaker 1: option or a secondary shot creator. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: can create shots when the factors are kind of in
Speaker 1: his favor. So a quality matchup. Maybe he has a
Speaker 1: perimeter defender that he happens to be comfortable against. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a defensive scheme. So for instance, like if
Speaker 1: James Harden, let's say the same Clipper series happens, but
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard's healthy, and so PJ. Washington has to guard
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Derek Jones Junior has to guard George
Speaker 1: the entire series and the entire series, James Harden is
Speaker 1: getting more favorable matchups and he's consistently seeing Kyrie. Not
Speaker 1: that Kyrie didn't do a goo job. Kyrie did a
Speaker 1: good job on James Harden. But maybe if James Harden
Speaker 1: never had to see an elite perimeter defender in the series. Oh,
Speaker 1: and they're running a deep drop coverage and they're you know,
Speaker 1: digging down off of shooters and tagging the roller every
Speaker 1: single time, then yeah, James Harden's just gonna be able
Speaker 1: to get downhill and make the plays, the reids, the
Speaker 1: kickout passes, and he'll be able to generate offense. But then,
Speaker 1: like when that intensity ratchets up, when he does see
Speaker 1: a really good perimeter defender, all of a sudden, his
Speaker 1: ability to create shots just falls off of a cliff.
Speaker 1: That's a secondary shot creator. You've got a number one
Speaker 1: has to have a certain amount of resilience when it
Speaker 1: comes to the higher levels of basketball. Let's see, do
Speaker 1: you think Kyrie will be like Lebron and Steph who
Speaker 1: can age one play at such a high level despite
Speaker 1: getting older. So similar to what happened to Paul George,
Speaker 1: because Paul George has got a great handle and pull
Speaker 1: up jumper. Two. I mean Kyrie's is better, but you
Speaker 1: get the point. There will come a point where Kyrie
Speaker 1: can't beat people off the dribble as well as he
Speaker 1: used to, and he will kind of dip into that
Speaker 1: level where he doesn't have that kind of resilience. But
Speaker 1: I don't think he's there yet. Let's see, here's a
Speaker 1: last one for tonight. Do you think Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: similar to two thousand and six Dwayne Wade. That's really
Speaker 1: interesting now, Dwayne Wade. You know, Anthony Edwards is shooting
Speaker 1: really well on pull up jump shots, and Wade had
Speaker 1: some of that in his game, but he was more
Speaker 1: of just like a downhill a downhill force. I also
Speaker 1: think Wade. This is the most underrated thing about Dwayne Wade.
Speaker 1: Wade could change directions at full speed different in a
Speaker 1: different way than any human I've ever watched, And there's
Speaker 1: no way I could really describe it to you. If
Speaker 1: you're a young basketball fan and you haven't really been
Speaker 1: familiarized with Dwayne Wade. Don't watch this stuff with Lebron
Speaker 1: in Miami because his knees had kind of failed him
Speaker 1: at that point. Go back and watch highlights from like
Speaker 1: eighth nine, and you're gonna see Dwayne Wade like be
Speaker 1: able to slice and dice defenses unlike anything you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: The big one that Dwayne Wade was good at. There
Speaker 1: were two specific things that Dwayn Wade would do that
Speaker 1: were amazing. To beat people off the dribble, he was
Speaker 1: the best guy in the league at splitting a ball screen.
Speaker 1: So splitting a ball screen, what that means is if
Speaker 1: I come off of the ball screen, the defender is
Speaker 1: behind me right, but immediately waiting there is the screen
Speaker 1: defender right, and he's at he's going to be at
Speaker 1: a certain level right, So he's either gonna be at
Speaker 1: the level of the screen, way back at the basket,
Speaker 1: or somewhere in between. But what a lot of teams
Speaker 1: would do, because back in the day, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys knew this, I remember this, but the
Speaker 1: most one of the most common pick and roll coverages
Speaker 1: during the late two thousands early twenty tens was a
Speaker 1: hedge you don't really see this much anymore. All high
Speaker 1: drop low drop switch blitz those are like really the
Speaker 1: only coverages you'll see. Hedging is almost exclusively for guard
Speaker 1: guard actions now, and it's designed to protect like a
Speaker 1: Steph Curry or Jamal Murray, like a skill guard that
Speaker 1: is that you want to avoid getting onto bad mismatches. Right,
Speaker 1: But back in the day, it used to be the
Speaker 1: big guys that would hedge. So like when teams would
Speaker 1: run a ball screen, you'd see a big center like
Speaker 1: a pow Gasol or a Zadrounis Olgalaskis or somebody like that.
Speaker 1: You'd see them actually like take a hard defensive slide
Speaker 1: perpendicular to the driving lane. So like imagine, imagine you're
Speaker 1: the ball handler and the basket's there, okay, Like you're
Speaker 1: trying to drive that way. I would actually slide out
Speaker 1: and cut you off this way, and I'd force you
Speaker 1: to pick up your dribble or take a retreat dribble
Speaker 1: that would allow my on ball defender to go underneath
Speaker 1: the screen and meet you, and then I would sprint
Speaker 1: back to the role man. That was like the cover
Speaker 1: that you'd see a lot of the time. And so
Speaker 1: what Wade would do is he'd be able to beat
Speaker 1: the hedge with this like ridiculous change of directions. So
Speaker 1: like he'd come off the ball screen and then he
Speaker 1: would just like quick change direction and split, meaning like
Speaker 1: as I'm here, he would just beat me this way, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is like the one thing you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to allow as a hedge. The one thing you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do in a hedge is prevent the ball
Speaker 1: handler from turning the corner. You're supposed to make him
Speaker 1: go that way around you, the long way, because if
Speaker 1: he takes a negative step, meaning if he goes away
Speaker 1: from the basket up towards half court, that buys time
Speaker 1: for the on ball defender to recover. Right. But Wade
Speaker 1: would split it, so he would be so fast in
Speaker 1: his ability to change direction at full speed was so
Speaker 1: ridiculous that these bigs would have no idea how to
Speaker 1: contain Wade on hedges, And so he'd split it and
Speaker 1: then he'd just come flying downhill and dunk on everybody.
Speaker 1: Then the second thing he would do, and Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: actually does this now more in terms of getting separation,
Speaker 1: but Wade would do it to get downhill Wade would
Speaker 1: start in the corner and he'd come off and catch
Speaker 1: on a dribble handoff, but instead of coming off the
Speaker 1: dribble handoff and using it, he would just catch a
Speaker 1: quick rip back towards the baseline. But he was so
Speaker 1: damn fast with that change of direction, he would routinely
Speaker 1: dust everybody off the dribble and then he would get
Speaker 1: down the lane and wreck havoc. If you guys remember
Speaker 1: the big dunkey hat on Kendrick Perkins, and this was
Speaker 1: when Perkins was in Okay, Okay, see if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: it was on one of those baseline rips. He came
Speaker 1: off of a dho ripped back to the baseline, pounded
Speaker 1: into his spin dribble, and dunked all over Kendrick Perkins's head.
Speaker 1: But like Wade and Ant are different in the sense
Speaker 1: that like Ant's a little bit bigger and stronger. Ant
Speaker 1: has a lot of that downhill force and is a
Speaker 1: better pull up jump shooter, but Wade had better change
Speaker 1: of direction. And the other thing with Wade is Wade
Speaker 1: was a high level playmaker. And we'll see maybe over
Speaker 1: the years off Ant becomes that, But like that was
Speaker 1: a big way that Wade remained effective after his knees
Speaker 1: started to fail him and he no longer could beat
Speaker 1: people off the dribble the way he used to. He
Speaker 1: was a really high level playmaker, and he was always
Speaker 1: a very very good defensive player, and so he would
Speaker 1: have you know, eighteen to twenty points in a playoff
Speaker 1: game would be but would be a huge plus on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor because of those things. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. I appreciate the
Speaker 1: questions and I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Again.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye on the feeds Tomorrow morning. We'll have
Speaker 1: a preview on Knicks Pacers. Obviously, we've got I think
Speaker 1: we have one game tomorrow, right, and that's the game
Speaker 1: one of Nuggets Timberwolves, I believe, yep at seven o'clock Eastern,
Speaker 1: So Timberwolves Nuggets Game one tomorrow will be live on
Speaker 1: YouTube after the final buzzer of that game. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: we'll have Knix Pacers out tomorrow, probably thunder MAVs as well,
Speaker 1: if not by Sunday morning. I appreciate you guys, and
Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow. The volume