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Speaker 1: Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Oh all, if you guys
Speaker 1: are having a great week so far, I got a
Speaker 1: jam packshow for you today. We're going to talk some
Speaker 1: USA basketball off the top. I have three different segments
Speaker 1: that I want to get into surrounding Team USA, how
Speaker 1: they stack up compared to some of the other great
Speaker 1: Team usas in history, like nineteen ninety two, two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, twenty twelve. I want to talk about their
Speaker 1: lineup construction, some of the things that I expect them
Speaker 1: to look like, both in building groups of five for
Speaker 1: their starters and for their bench groups, different looks they'll
Speaker 1: use for different matchups. I want to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the schematics of how this team should work,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna dive into some of the x's and
Speaker 1: o's in that segment, and then in the third segment,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the odds of who's gonna
Speaker 1: win the gold medal. I want to look at some
Speaker 1: of these other teams like France and Serbia and Canada
Speaker 1: and if any of these teams have the ability to
Speaker 1: actually beat Team USA. Tmusa right now is a substantial favorite,
Speaker 1: So we're going to dive into that in the third segment,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of the show, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the WNBA Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year race. There's been a just a crazy stretch
Speaker 1: of games from Angel Reese, who just set the record,
Speaker 1: stole the record from from Kandas Parker set the record
Speaker 1: for most double double consecutively by a rookie in the
Speaker 1: history of the WNBA. She's starting to get some Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year buzz, but according to DraftKings, Caitlyn Clark
Speaker 1: is still minus five hundred to win the award. Is
Speaker 1: on one hell of a stretch herself, averaging over eleven
Speaker 1: assists per game in her last five games. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the WNBA Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year race, why I think Caitlyn Clark is
Speaker 1: still the clear front runner at this point, and I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the different archetypes
Speaker 1: of basketball players and how they impact teams, and why
Speaker 1: the role that Kitlyn Clark is filling is the toughest
Speaker 1: role to replicate anywhere else on the roster, and why
Speaker 1: that is a differentiator for her in that race. You
Speaker 1: guys are the job before we started to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Hoops to Night YouTube channel, so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't miss announcements, don't forget about
Speaker 1: podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on her Hoops
Speaker 1: Tonight and they keep dropping mailback questions in those YouTube comments,
Speaker 1: and we keep hitting them throughout the rest of the
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Speaker 1: from it a little bit as I became an adult,
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Speaker 1: But last year, when the Diamondbacks made it to the
Speaker 1: World Series, it completely reinvigorated my love for baseball I
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Speaker 1: I got into high school. Like I've just always had
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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, with Team USA, the basketball fan in
Speaker 1: me is absolutely loving all this training camp content. Just
Speaker 1: like watching that reel of on Instagram of all the
Speaker 1: guys walking off the bus and it's like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: there's Steph, other's KD. Oh there's Lebron. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: forgot Kawhi Leonards on this team too. Oh yeah, Devin Booker, Oh,
Speaker 1: and it's Joel And like it's just one after the other.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, there's Anthony Edwards. He was the best
Speaker 1: player on the team last summer. Like it's just there's
Speaker 1: so much incredible talent on this team. Part of the
Speaker 1: thing that makes it interesting is Steph, KD and Lebron
Speaker 1: are the old guys, right, They're like kind of like
Speaker 1: what Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were on the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two Dream Team. The difference is is like at
Speaker 1: that point in time, Magic was still really good, but
Speaker 1: Larry was starting to fall apart physically, Steph, KD, and
Speaker 1: Lebron are all still playing at an extremely high level.
Speaker 1: I think they're all still top ten players in the league.
Speaker 1: Steph struggled a little bit at the tail end of
Speaker 1: last season, but I think there were some mitigating factors there,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna have a big bounce back year.
Speaker 1: I will most likely have all three of them in
Speaker 1: my top ten after the end of the summer. So
Speaker 1: those guys are all still playing well enough, but then
Speaker 1: you are adding them to all these in their prime stars,
Speaker 1: guys like Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Booker Kawhi Leonard, Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and so it is. It's just gonna be
Speaker 1: so much fun, and as basketball fans, we couldn't hope
Speaker 1: for a better summer appetizer before we head into next season. So,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned before, there are three major questions that
Speaker 1: I have about this team. Where does it stack up
Speaker 1: with other USA teams? Who should start other lineup questions?
Speaker 1: And can anybody beat this team? Let's start with where
Speaker 1: does this team stack up? Now? In terms of talent,
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to put this team ahead of
Speaker 1: the ninety two team, the eight or the twenty twelve
Speaker 1: team because of the top tier talent. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, Michael Jordan was far and away
Speaker 1: the best player in the world played for Team USA.
Speaker 1: Every single player on first Team All NBA that year
Speaker 1: made Team USA. Four of the five players on second
Speaker 1: Team All NBA made Team USA. So nine of the
Speaker 1: top ten players in the world at that point in
Speaker 1: time we're playing for Team USA. It's hard to match
Speaker 1: that in terms of top end talent. In two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, Kobe and Lebron were the two best players
Speaker 1: in the world. I thought Kobe was the best player
Speaker 1: at that point. I thought Lebron was the second best player.
Speaker 1: They both played on that Olympic team. In twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Kevin Durant were the two best players
Speaker 1: in the world. Lebron is clearly number one, kd was
Speaker 1: number two, but they were both on that team in
Speaker 1: this particular stretch of time in basketball history. Right now,
Speaker 1: in the year twenty twenty four, there are three players
Speaker 1: that are in the top tier of players in the
Speaker 1: world in my opinion. Nikole Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis, and Tennekombo.
Speaker 1: None of those guys play for Team USA. Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: has that type of talent, but as we know, he's
Speaker 1: never really been able to put it together for a
Speaker 1: full season, including the playoffs, so they don't. This Team
Speaker 1: USA doesn't have that like true world altering top tier
Speaker 1: talent that some of the other teams in the past did,
Speaker 1: but they have so many guys immediately below that tier.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, I actually do think this team will
Speaker 1: rival the other Team USA teams in dominance because of
Speaker 1: the fact that they compliment each other so well. This
Speaker 1: to me, mate this team is interesting because they don't
Speaker 1: have one of the top three players in the world,
Speaker 1: but they have a very very well fitting basketball team,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's going to be an interesting
Speaker 1: concept for us to dive into a little bit further,
Speaker 1: which I'm going to do in the next segments. But yeah,
Speaker 1: in terms of talent, just sheer top to bottom talent,
Speaker 1: I think you got to put this one in fourth
Speaker 1: place behind those other three teams just simply because Nikol
Speaker 1: Jokis is best player in the world. Luka, Doncic, and
Speaker 1: and Giannis are right there behind him. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody on this roster has a claim to be in
Speaker 1: that group. Who should start slash? Who is their best five?
Speaker 1: So let's think about it from the perspective of filling responsibilities.
Speaker 1: I always talk about like looking at basketball teams as
Speaker 1: filling five men having to feel responsibilities on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. That is how a team either becomes
Speaker 1: more than the sum of its parts or less than
Speaker 1: the sum of its parts. How well they compliment each other.
Speaker 1: Too many redundancies in one area, not enough in another area,
Speaker 1: that team will underachieve. Really good balance across the board,
Speaker 1: that team has the potential to overachieve. Right, So let's
Speaker 1: look at it from the perspective of filling responsibilities. Who
Speaker 1: is the best skill guard on the team? Skill guard,
Speaker 1: this is the guy that's gonna initiate offense. Usually he's
Speaker 1: gonna run the first action, the first trip up the floor.
Speaker 1: The guy that is going to be usually your most
Speaker 1: skilled player, your best pass or your best shooter, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Right, it's Steph Curry, no question. He
Speaker 1: starts at the point. There's no debate. Steph is your
Speaker 1: guy at the one. Right, who's the best athlete guard
Speaker 1: on the team. Remember, as I structured teams, I kind
Speaker 1: of look at it from like, I want a skill guard,
Speaker 1: I want an athlete guard. I want like a perimeter
Speaker 1: based forward, I want an interior forward, and then I
Speaker 1: want a versatile big man. Right, So if Steph is
Speaker 1: our skill guard, who are we looking at at the two?
Speaker 1: It's probably Anthony Edwards right in terms of the best
Speaker 1: athlete guard, But he has some specific weaknesses that I
Speaker 1: think make him a poor fit with the starters. One,
Speaker 1: he's not great at navigating screens yet. So like I
Speaker 1: look at him, if you were to run some sort
Speaker 1: of drop coverage put him on the opposing guard, I
Speaker 1: think he would do better at TSA because he'd devote
Speaker 1: more resources there because and I do think a lot
Speaker 1: of it is just conserving energy for ant, but I
Speaker 1: don't love that fit. And then in terms of the
Speaker 1: fit alongside other stars, he's still a little bit inconsistent
Speaker 1: at making quick and smart reads in five out, so
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a great fit with the starters.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker I view as another skill guard, so he's
Speaker 1: redundant with Steph on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Stephan Devin Booker would be fine on offense, but I
Speaker 1: don't want two guards that I ideally don't want guarding
Speaker 1: the other team's best guard. That would be an issue. Right.
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday can do that, but he's not good enough
Speaker 1: to start over some of these superstar players, right. Tyrese
Speaker 1: Alliburton is neither good enough nor a complimentary fit. He's
Speaker 1: also redundant with Steph and so that's it for the guards.
Speaker 1: So if Anthony Edwards is not a great fit, Tyres
Speaker 1: Alliburton's not a great fit, Drew's not good enough, Devin
Speaker 1: Booker is not a great fit with the starters, then
Speaker 1: we got to look at the forwards. And if we
Speaker 1: look at the forwards Lebron, James, Kevin Durant, Kwhi, Leonard,
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum, this is where Jason Tatum becomes a
Speaker 1: really natural fit for me. Jason Tatum is the most
Speaker 1: mobile on the perimeter player of all of those forwards.
Speaker 1: Like those other guys might be like Lebron and Kawhi
Speaker 1: might be a little bit more physically imposing, Katie's got
Speaker 1: more length, but Tatum has the best combination of like
Speaker 1: length and actual foot speed to contend on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: but he also has the strength and size to guard
Speaker 1: bigger forwards and centers, and so you can ask him
Speaker 1: to chase and apply back pressure, you could ask him
Speaker 1: to switch in a switching scheme. And for the record,
Speaker 1: and this is where I think it's important for us
Speaker 1: to get to this. The one weakness on this roster
Speaker 1: is perimeter foot speed. If there's a vulnerability in their defense,
Speaker 1: it's too quick guards quickness on the perimeter, right. So
Speaker 1: I actually view this as more of a switching team.
Speaker 1: I think that's primarily what they're going to do with
Speaker 1: their main groups. Now to mention Eric Spolster and Steve Kerr,
Speaker 1: two coaches that philosophically have a lot of belief in
Speaker 1: switching as a defensive scheme, I think it's the best
Speaker 1: fit for this roster. I think it's the natural fit
Speaker 1: with the coaching staff. That's what I expect them to do.
Speaker 1: They really only have one guy on the entire roster
Speaker 1: who is a high level point of attack, chase over
Speaker 1: screens type of guy, and that's True Holliday, who I
Speaker 1: don't expect to play a ton with this group. So
Speaker 1: I look at this as a switching scheme. So if
Speaker 1: it's a switching scheme. Jason Tatum I think is a
Speaker 1: really natural fit at the two because he's quick enough
Speaker 1: to guard some quicker players. You won't ask him to
Speaker 1: navigate a bunch of screens because he'll be switching, but
Speaker 1: he can also switch onto bigger players. So to me,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum is that kind of like shoe in fit
Speaker 1: at the two. He's also the most natural offensive fit
Speaker 1: alongside the other stars. We talked about Tatum whether or
Speaker 1: not he'd be a good fit read and reacting with
Speaker 1: five other or with four other stars. Tatum's great at
Speaker 1: that stuff. The rub on Tatum is if he's the
Speaker 1: one star on the floor, is he aggressive enough and
Speaker 1: effective enough to be an off engine. That's legitimate criticism,
Speaker 1: But we literally watched him be just this perfect cog
Speaker 1: and a system in Boston with lesser stars around him.
Speaker 1: But he was surrounded by a bunch of really high
Speaker 1: level players. He is a quick decision maker, He is
Speaker 1: a ball mover. He doesn't hijack the offense. He didn't
Speaker 1: even hijack the offense with the Celtics, let alone in
Speaker 1: a team like this with all of these stars. He
Speaker 1: had a rough pull up shooting season, but he's an
Speaker 1: excellent catch and shoot guy. He shot forty five percent
Speaker 1: on catch and shoot jumpers this season, including regular season
Speaker 1: in the playoffs one point three to six points per shot.
Speaker 1: Even when he shot poorly in the postseason, he still
Speaker 1: got to one point per shot on catch and shoot jumpers.
Speaker 1: That is his most reliable form of jump shooting. That
Speaker 1: is a natural fit. Tatum gets wide open catch and
Speaker 1: shoot looks. I feel like they're gonna go in. So
Speaker 1: he is a beautiful plug and fit at the two
Speaker 1: because in a switching scheme, he can guard up and down.
Speaker 1: He has the most perimater quickness, and he's a natural
Speaker 1: fit alongside stars on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Tatum's versatil he is a huge value I think on
Speaker 1: this particular team. So now that we have our skill
Speaker 1: guard and we have our athlete guard that's being replaced
Speaker 1: by an athlete forward and Tatum because of fit, who's
Speaker 1: the best perimeter forward on the team. Probably KD. Right
Speaker 1: brings a ton of skill, brings length, He's super easy
Speaker 1: to plug and play with other stars. He's probably the
Speaker 1: best plug and play star ever. Right, But as we know,
Speaker 1: KD is probably going to miss at least. I think
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna miss that scrimmage against Canada on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: which sucks because I'm gonna be there and I would
Speaker 1: love to have excuse me to have seen KD with
Speaker 1: those guys. But I expect he'll be back for the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Apparently this cap strain is something he had before, and
Speaker 1: I just don't think he would have showed up if
Speaker 1: he didn't plan on playing. So my guess is he'll
Speaker 1: be back. But in the short term, I think Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard is the fit in that spot. You plug Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard in at the three, But in the long run,
Speaker 1: I think Kevin Durant is your three. Who is the
Speaker 1: best big forward on the team. It's Lebron and like
Speaker 1: that might have been more clunky as a fit early
Speaker 1: in his career when he wasn't as good of a
Speaker 1: jump shooter, but he's become an excellent catch and shoot guy,
Speaker 1: and especially in the last year with the Lakers with
Speaker 1: their shift to five out. But they started to do
Speaker 1: this last year where Lebron is operating as a screener
Speaker 1: a bunch, but this year with the Lakers in their
Speaker 1: five out system, Lebron became a devastating screen and roll guy.
Speaker 1: He shot sixty one percent on his own shot attempts
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on overall one hundred reps this year.
Speaker 1: As a role man for the Lakers in their five
Speaker 1: out offense. We know how he can operate as a
Speaker 1: passer in that role as well. I think Lebron is
Speaker 1: going to be a guy that actually slots really well
Speaker 1: into that five out system as basically a screener. And
Speaker 1: I think with his combination of size and strength on
Speaker 1: the defensive glass and defensively in general, I just think
Speaker 1: he's the perfect fit there at that four right and
Speaker 1: it just is going to add to that physical profile
Speaker 1: that frontline. He's still one of the best combinations of
Speaker 1: size and strength in the NBA, even at over forty
Speaker 1: years of age. Who is the starting center? I guess
Speaker 1: Lebron is actually turning forty next year. I think he's
Speaker 1: still thirty nine at this point. Who is the starting center?
Speaker 1: To be clear, I do think that Embiid is a
Speaker 1: better basketball player than Anthony Davis. I think he's a
Speaker 1: much better offensive engine, which brings more value to a
Speaker 1: basketball team. It's a similar concept to what we're going
Speaker 1: to be talking about with Caitlin Clark and Angel Raese
Speaker 1: here in a minute. So I do think that Embiid
Speaker 1: is a better player than Anthony Davis. But this is
Speaker 1: not an NBA team. This is an Olympic team. It's
Speaker 1: not about how you can lift up other role players.
Speaker 1: It's about how you can compliment other stars we talked earlier.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember about how I see this as
Speaker 1: a switching team, Embiid cannot defend on the perimeter in
Speaker 1: the same stratosphere as Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis is the
Speaker 1: combination of elite rim protector, elite defensive rebounder, elite pick
Speaker 1: and roll defender, and elite switching perimeter defender that makes
Speaker 1: him the ideal fit in a switching scheme next to
Speaker 1: other big forwards like KD, like Lebron, Jason Tatum, etc.
Speaker 1: So I view Anthony Davis as a really really natural
Speaker 1: fit within this switching scheme on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the flour. On the offensive end of the flour, em
Speaker 1: beads post up and face up attack would actually be
Speaker 1: a rhythm disruptor for the rest of this team. You
Speaker 1: don't want to have Steph and Kadie and all of
Speaker 1: them just standing on the perimeter while a Embiid starts
Speaker 1: unleashing his jab step pump, fake game, trying to draw fouls.
Speaker 1: Right Like, It's just it's gonna be kind of clunky, right.
Speaker 1: Ad would just function basically as a screener and a
Speaker 1: roller as a vertical spacing threat. I think he's a
Speaker 1: more natural fit on the offensive end too, again, and
Speaker 1: Beads a better player, but fitting alongside this team, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is the better fit. I do prefer Embiid for
Speaker 1: specific matchups, like when they play France. France is gonna
Speaker 1: play Victor Wen, Migyama and Rudy Gobert. They're gonna be
Speaker 1: a nightmare in the paint. Embid's three point shooting will
Speaker 1: probably be valuable in that matchup. Against Serbia, who they
Speaker 1: scrimmage next week, and they play in the first Olympic
Speaker 1: game in late July. You need someone who can guard
Speaker 1: Yokich and Embiid is the best equipped player in the
Speaker 1: world for that. So Embiid I think should start certain
Speaker 1: games and will play more than Ad in certain games.
Speaker 1: But I think Ad is the best fit in the
Speaker 1: starting group to make that five play better basketball With
Speaker 1: that F five with Steph, Jason Tatum, KD Lebron and Ad,
Speaker 1: you have four proven great shooters, a screening fulcrum in
Speaker 1: Ad who's one of the best vertical spacers in the world,
Speaker 1: a second screener in Lebron if you need him. And
Speaker 1: then you have a switching look with four big forwards
Speaker 1: who can all guard up and down positions. And Steph
Speaker 1: Curry who you can ask to hedge and recover or
Speaker 1: just ask him to press up on the jump shot,
Speaker 1: knowing you have an absurd amount of length behind him.
Speaker 1: You're going six nine six ten six ' nine seven
Speaker 1: foot with that, With that front line, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of help defense behind Steph to make his job easier.
Speaker 1: And then as far as some bench groups like I
Speaker 1: love the fit of Devin Booker with Anthony Edwards, that's
Speaker 1: your skill guard athlete guard combo. Right, you can go
Speaker 1: small with Drew Holliday out there and Kawhi Leonard at
Speaker 1: the four with Joel Embiid, you can go bigger with
Speaker 1: Kawhi at the three. With bam at Aebaio next to
Speaker 1: Joel Embid, you have a bunch of different looks. I
Speaker 1: like in those bench groups two with Embiid. Embiid will
Speaker 1: actually need to be more aggressive offensively in those groups,
Speaker 1: So it's just a better fit for him to be
Speaker 1: able to come in the game and be Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: whereas if he came into the game and was Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid with the starters, I just think it would be clunky.
Speaker 1: As far as schematically, like we talked about, I think
Speaker 1: you will see a lot of switching. I wouldn't hedge
Speaker 1: and recover with Steph. I would just have him guard
Speaker 1: and then basically just tell him to press up on
Speaker 1: jump shots and know that he has backside help behind him,
Speaker 1: and just ask him to rotate on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. I expect them to run five out.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen enough footage from practice to know what
Speaker 1: they're running yet, but I would have just assumed they're
Speaker 1: running five out, and with that, it's just lots of
Speaker 1: ball and player movement. Get the defense and rotation, trust
Speaker 1: each other. Katie can attack close out, Steph can attack
Speaker 1: close outs, Tatum can attack close outs, Lebron can attack
Speaker 1: close outs. Ad is just always going to be there
Speaker 1: ready to finish all of these other guys. Can slot
Speaker 1: in and fill that role. Devin Booker can come onto
Speaker 1: the floor and provide some of what Steph brings to
Speaker 1: the table and can do the same. Kawhi can do
Speaker 1: the same. That to me, there's gonna be a good
Speaker 1: amount of scheme consistency from group to group, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to put different types of lineups together
Speaker 1: that compliment each other. And that's the beauty of this
Speaker 1: roster and that's why I think they're gonna be very dominant.
Speaker 1: Who can beat this team? Final question starts from the
Speaker 1: standpoint of what are their weaknesses? And I don't think
Speaker 1: this team has any offensive weaknesses at all. They have
Speaker 1: plenty of ways to get the defense into rotation, they
Speaker 1: have plenty of ways to finish plays. They have guys
Speaker 1: that can take over the game. They have guys that
Speaker 1: can bully inside. They have a lead, pull up shooters,
Speaker 1: they can play driving kick like. I think they're fine
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the four. Defensively, the one
Speaker 1: issue because they have a big center, they have a
Speaker 1: rim protecting center. They have tons of forwards like, they
Speaker 1: have tons of length like. The one thing is they
Speaker 1: just don't have a ton of foot speed on the
Speaker 1: perimeter in general, and again it's worth mentioning they have
Speaker 1: more than enough length to make up for it, but
Speaker 1: they could be vulnerable to some really quick guards. So
Speaker 1: with that, let's take a look at the Vegas op
Speaker 1: So these are according to DraftKings, USA is currently favored
Speaker 1: at minus three ninety. It's pretty substantial favor. Not nothing insane,
Speaker 1: but pretty substantial. Canada is the second favorite at plus
Speaker 1: nine hundred. But I don't like the matchup because they
Speaker 1: they're two main offensive threats. Shake Gibs Alexander Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: are pull up shooters, and the US has a ton
Speaker 1: of length to bother pull up shooters like. They're not
Speaker 1: overly quick guys. We know Shay can beat people off
Speaker 1: the dribble, but he's not lightning quick. There's not a
Speaker 1: ton of lightning quickness on that team. It's a pull
Speaker 1: up shooting team. Length is the best counter for pull
Speaker 1: up shooting. They're also undersized on the front line and
Speaker 1: lack rim protection. That feels like a disaster against a
Speaker 1: frontline of Lebron James and Anthony Davis, Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid and and just even just with the inverted
Speaker 1: spacing that Steph Curry provides, right, So I don't really
Speaker 1: view that them as a substantial threat. France plus one
Speaker 1: thousand as the third favorite. They have Wemby and Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: Nick Batoum at the three. That's a lot of length.
Speaker 1: Their backcourt is most gonna be Frank Mila Keina and
Speaker 1: Evan Fournier, right, Like that's they're gonna be a pain
Speaker 1: in the ass to score against in the paint, for sure,
Speaker 1: But how do you counter a team that has a
Speaker 1: lot of length under the basket? Perimeter shooting team USA
Speaker 1: just has a ton of it, Like lebron kd Steph
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum are all really comfortable shooting, not just shooting,
Speaker 1: but shooting from deep, so like that's not gonna be
Speaker 1: They're all comfortable above the break, so like that's not
Speaker 1: an issue. I even think USA could go centerless against
Speaker 1: them because they're frontline, like go bears a non threat offensively,
Speaker 1: and Wemby's kind of thin, so you could even supplement
Speaker 1: that with more shooting and just be like we're not
Speaker 1: gonna go AD, We're gonna go Lebron at center. You know,
Speaker 1: Tatum at the four, KD at the five, at KD
Speaker 1: at the three, and we'll go Booker and Steph, and
Speaker 1: now we just have tons of shooting on the floor.
Speaker 1: Good luck, Steph, Devin Booker, KD lebron and and Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: Just good luck. You know, like no amount of length
Speaker 1: at the rim is going to cause that to be
Speaker 1: a problem, right and so like, again, France has some
Speaker 1: issues that they present, but I I just I think
Speaker 1: I think the USA team presents more issues to France. Serbia.
Speaker 1: They have Nicola Jokich. Serbia right now is plus thirteen hundred.
Speaker 1: They're the fourth favorite to win the win the gold
Speaker 1: medal on DraftKings. They have Jokic, but TOSA has Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: who is literally the best human in the world at
Speaker 1: guarding Nikola Jokic. So like that's another thing that USA
Speaker 1: has a counter for not to mention all the issues
Speaker 1: that USA that the TMOSA could present for Serbia on
Speaker 1: the perimeter right now, Again, single elimination is always a variable.
Speaker 1: Anything could happen when a team goes hot or cold,
Speaker 1: as we know, but I think USA is pretty resilient
Speaker 1: to that, and I think they're gonna be really hard
Speaker 1: to beat even in a single elimination a setup. I
Speaker 1: expect them to win convincingly throughout the tournament, and I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna win the gold. I would be really
Speaker 1: really surprised if they didn't. This is not a team
Speaker 1: that I think presents some of the vulnerabilities that other
Speaker 1: team usas that haven't brought all their players have presented,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, I think they're gonna be really fun
Speaker 1: to watch. I am going to be at the scrimmage
Speaker 1: against Canada Wednesday. I will be live tweeting through the
Speaker 1: whole thing. I'll send some videos out on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed as well, so make sure you guys follow me
Speaker 1: at underscore JSNLT on Twitter.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to the WNBA. So we
Speaker 1: got ourselves a classic Rookie of the Year battle. Both
Speaker 1: players are just exchanging dominant games. Angel Reese is just
Speaker 1: like good, consistently for seventeen ish points and fourteen ish
Speaker 1: rebounds every single night. She's put together the longest streak
Speaker 1: of double doubles by a rookie in WNBA history, breaking
Speaker 1: the record of Candae Parker right and Kaitlyn Clark's coming
Speaker 1: right back at her. She goes for the first triple
Speaker 1: double ever by a WNBA rookie in a really fun
Speaker 1: game against the New York Liberty took over that game
Speaker 1: late too. They were down six with like what three
Speaker 1: and a half minutes left, and she had a driving
Speaker 1: and one bank shot on the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor to bring it to three. Then she had a
Speaker 1: transition kick ahead pass for a wide open three that
Speaker 1: tied the game. Like Kaitlyn was just unbelievable in that
Speaker 1: game is they got a huge win against the New
Speaker 1: York Liberty. And so now we have this debate, right
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people saying Angel reachin Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year, a lot of people saying Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 1: But Vegas, or more specifically DraftKings sees it as very
Speaker 1: much Kitlyn Clark's race to lose. She on DraftKings right
Speaker 1: now is minus five hundred to win Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year and Angel Reese's plus three hundred. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: massive gap. It's not unclosable. But what that means is
Speaker 1: if the season ended today, there would be no debate.
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark would be Rookie of the Year. And I agree,
Speaker 1: I think Caitlin Clark is clearly the Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year at this point. And this is where we have
Speaker 1: to get into the difference between roles. And again there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of talk about counting stats, especially
Speaker 1: because Angel Reese is putting up some incredibly dominant box
Speaker 1: score numbers. Right, like Angel Reese is dominating games as
Speaker 1: an athlete, She's a super disruptive defender, just putting up
Speaker 1: crazy block steal counts every single game. She's a wrecking
Speaker 1: ball on the glass on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Even her rim finishing is trending up, which was one
Speaker 1: of the biggest rubs on her early on in the year. Right.
Speaker 1: Like as mentioned earlier, you can just count on her
Speaker 1: to give you, you know, in the mid teens and
Speaker 1: points in mid teens and rebounds every single night, right,
Speaker 1: And there's a ton of value that comes from them.
Speaker 1: But what Kaitlyn Clark is doing is she's functioning as
Speaker 1: an offensive engine, which is a very different type of role,
Speaker 1: and the box score numbers show it. For the record,
Speaker 1: in their last five games, the Indiana Fever are averaging
Speaker 1: thirty made field goals per Gamely, Clark is either scoring
Speaker 1: or assisting sixteen of those thirty made field goals every
Speaker 1: single game, So either her putting the ball in the
Speaker 1: basket or passing to the person who put the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket more than half their offense in the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. But that doesn't even come close
Speaker 1: to capturing the real impact of Caitlin Clark in this
Speaker 1: offense because her main goal, the main thing she's doing,
Speaker 1: and the reason why the Indiana offense has turned around
Speaker 1: and they've started winning. They've won eight of their last
Speaker 1: thirteen games. The reason this has turned around is she
Speaker 1: is primarily focusing on getting the defense in rotation. They're
Speaker 1: using her a lot in off ball movement as a decoy.
Speaker 1: They're doing a lot of really fun stuff to get
Speaker 1: help her beat ball pressure, where like teams are picking
Speaker 1: her up full court and forcing her into some turnovers.
Speaker 1: Now she's like doing a lot of given gho stuff
Speaker 1: right around half court, where like she'll make a quick
Speaker 1: move against the ball pressure and then throw the ball
Speaker 1: up to like, you know, Aliah Boston at half court,
Speaker 1: and then she'll quick cut off of it and get
Speaker 1: a dribble hand off and get downhill and then she'll
Speaker 1: spin and go right back into a ball screen the
Speaker 1: other way there. She's putting teams in the blender early on,
Speaker 1: and it's generating all of these short role opportunities for
Speaker 1: Leah Boston and Melissa Smith and they're benefiting off of it.
Speaker 1: Rolling to the rim when teams are tagging them. The
Speaker 1: Caitlyn's making the kickout passes in general between hockey assists
Speaker 1: and just getting the defense and rotation then capitalizing on
Speaker 1: the chaos. The box score has her accounting for more
Speaker 1: than half of the offense. In reality, it's like two
Speaker 1: thirds to almost seventy five percent of the offense from
Speaker 1: Indiana that is being generated off of attention that Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Clark is drawing. And this is where I want to
Speaker 1: get back to what I was talking about earlier when
Speaker 1: we were talking about Joel and beat an Ante Davis.
Speaker 1: If you're building a basketball team, the hardest thing to
Speaker 1: replicate is who's the generator of your offense. That is
Speaker 1: why Joel Embiid is a better basketball player than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: AD is a better fit with USA Basketball because they
Speaker 1: just need these specific role player things. Ad is the
Speaker 1: guy that goes out there and puts up you know,
Speaker 1: twenty six and seventeen all the time, right. But as
Speaker 1: we're looking at Joel Embiid, he's the guy that can
Speaker 1: be the fulkrum of a high level offense. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: has not demonstrated that with defense. You can address that
Speaker 1: as a team with lineup construction and attention to detail
Speaker 1: within your scheme with rebounding, you can address that with
Speaker 1: lineup construction. Just put more size and athleticism on the floor,
Speaker 1: even with angels finishing around the rim, which is of value.
Speaker 1: Look at all of the quality rim attempts that Melissa
Speaker 1: Smith and Aliyah Boston are getting because of Caitlin Clark
Speaker 1: consistently bringing their defender up to the level of the
Speaker 1: screen that can be made up four through what Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Clark brings to the table. So again, like all of
Speaker 1: the stuff that Andel Reese is doing is incredibly valuable
Speaker 1: and incredibly important, but it is incredibly difficult to replicate
Speaker 1: what Caitlin Clark is doing for the Indiana Pacers the
Speaker 1: Indiana Fever, what she is doing as a rookie in
Speaker 1: THEWNBA is putting an entire offense on her shoulders and
Speaker 1: consistently generating quality shots and the offen The results have
Speaker 1: been amazing. They have the sixth best offensive. This is
Speaker 1: a crazy stat. So in their first nine games they
Speaker 1: went one in eight. They were the second worst offense
Speaker 1: in the league, in large part because they were just
Speaker 1: using Caitlin like a normal player. Right around thirteen games ago,
Speaker 1: they started actually using Caitlin the way they needed to,
Speaker 1: which is using her as an offensive engine, using her
Speaker 1: as Steve Nash crossed with Steph Curry, and as a result,
Speaker 1: their offense has taken off. Since June first, eight and five,
Speaker 1: they've climbed all the way up to the seventh seed
Speaker 1: and they have the sixth best off offensive rating in
Speaker 1: the league in that span, So they went from the
Speaker 1: second worst offense in the league to a top half
Speaker 1: offense in the league. By leaning into Caitlyn Clark as
Speaker 1: their offensive engine, She's putting teams in the blender. Everyone
Speaker 1: is benefiting from it. And again that doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with Angel Rees. It's not that she's not
Speaker 1: doing enough, so to speak, any other year she'd be
Speaker 1: worthy of Rookie of the Year. But this is an
Speaker 1: all time great WNBA prospect in Caitlin Clark, who's playing
Speaker 1: some special basketball in doing the most important thing that
Speaker 1: an NBA team or a basketball team can get out
Speaker 1: of an offensive player, which is just consistently generating quality shots.
Speaker 1: I think she deserves to win the award. And again
Speaker 1: it's not over if Angel Rees, you know, continues to
Speaker 1: put up seventeen and fourteen every night and Kaitlyn Clark
Speaker 1: tails off hard or gets hurt like yeah, then Angel
Speaker 1: Reese will jump in and get that. That's why she's
Speaker 1: at plus three hundred, which is a reasonable number. But
Speaker 1: Kitlin Clark is the is the favorite for a reason.
Speaker 1: She is the more valuable basketball player. It is easier
Speaker 1: to build a good basketball team around her skill set
Speaker 1: and what she brings to the table. It is the
Speaker 1: most valuable type of player in the league. That's why
Speaker 1: when I look at the NBA, who are the two
Speaker 1: best players right now, Nikole jokicch and Luka Doncic. Why
Speaker 1: offensive engines all the things that Jason Tatum and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and the better athletes bring to the table, they
Speaker 1: can be replaced by role players in a way that
Speaker 1: what an offensive engine cannot do. And that's why I
Speaker 1: have Caitlin Clark as the Rookie of the Year at
Speaker 1: this point, all right, guys, this all I have for today.
Speaker 1: We are going to be unless there's some big news.
Speaker 1: If there's some big news, I'll obviously be reacting, but
Speaker 1: otherwise at this point, plan on Thursday morning, when when
Speaker 1: I give you, guys an instant reaction to the Tmusa
Speaker 1: scrimmage against Canada. I will see you guys, then, the
Speaker 1: volume