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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday again,
Speaker 1: everybody hopbald. You guys are having a great week. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to a couple more game breakdowns in today's episode.
Speaker 1: The Golden State Warriors notch their third road win of
Speaker 1: the season as they are undefeated on the road, a
Speaker 1: big change from last year over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna take a little deep dive into
Speaker 1: the early season stretch from the Pelicans. And then the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks have a wild second half comeback fueled by
Speaker 1: dominant defense from all of their perimeter athletes as they
Speaker 1: come back and take it to the Minnesota Timberwolves to
Speaker 1: notch their second win of the season. We haven't talked
Speaker 1: to Timberwolves yet this year either, so we're going to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about them and their early season
Speaker 1: as well. And then I have one mail bag show,
Speaker 1: one mail bag question for the end of the show
Speaker 1: as well. You guys are the joke for we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. We're trying to
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Speaker 1: That's where I'm doing video content as well as show
Speaker 1: announcements throughout the year. And then last but out at
Speaker 1: least a need more mailback questions, only got one for
Speaker 1: this show, so keep dropping mail back questions in the
Speaker 1: comments and we'll get to them in videos throughout the
Speaker 1: rest of the week. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So Draymond Green turns out a perfect type of a
Speaker 1: defender to guard Zion Williamson did a really nice job,
Speaker 1: especially on Zion's crazy rip throughs and attempts to bully
Speaker 1: his way to the basket, of keeping his body in front,
Speaker 1: knocking him off balance with that low center of gravity
Speaker 1: and strength that he has, and then swiping away from
Speaker 1: the basketball, causing Zion to have an uncharacteristic night from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of losing control and turning the basketball over.
Speaker 1: Having Draymond as a weapon again, because you kind of
Speaker 1: saw it in that bench shift when Dario Sarage came
Speaker 1: in and then it was like Zion layup, Zion layup,
Speaker 1: Zion layup, and it's like, oh, actually, this is what
Speaker 1: it looks like for the vast majority of the league.
Speaker 1: And if you remember, like Zion, when he's healthy, he
Speaker 1: gets to the rim and finishes at a higher rate
Speaker 1: even than guys who were stereotypically at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, guys like Giannis and Lebron usually even the
Speaker 1: level above them. When he's healthy, he's the most gifted
Speaker 1: basket attacker in the NBA right now, and Zion was
Speaker 1: able to kind of thwart that. And when you combine
Speaker 1: that with Brandon Ingram being out of the equation, and
Speaker 1: then the job that a plethora of different Warriors perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders did on CJ. McCollum. They did a nice job
Speaker 1: keeping the Pelicans out of rhythm throughout the night. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, that the Pelicans were
Speaker 1: hard blitzing Steph like crazy, because Steph will lit them
Speaker 1: on fire to start the game. We're to talk about
Speaker 1: this more in a minute, but Steph is like playing
Speaker 1: at the highest level that I've seen him play and
Speaker 1: his time in the NBA right now, and we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about what that means and what that could
Speaker 1: potentially lead to here in a minute. But he was
Speaker 1: shooting like crazy to start the game, just cooking everybody,
Speaker 1: didn't matter who it was. They even tried Dyson Daniels,
Speaker 1: one of their better perimeter defenders, on him off the bench,
Speaker 1: and he just started cooking him too, and so they
Speaker 1: had to just start crazy blitzing him on pick and roll. Now,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans have a lot of athletes, and they did
Speaker 1: a pretty nice job of making it really difficult for
Speaker 1: Steph to hit hit the pocket pass, and so in
Speaker 1: a lot of cases what they were doing, which I
Speaker 1: thought was a really interesting counter Steph would just make
Speaker 1: the swing pass to the wing, and then the swing
Speaker 1: pass from the wing, that player would make the pass
Speaker 1: to the role man coming down the lane as they
Speaker 1: would kick out to the weak side shooter. I actually
Speaker 1: clipped an example of that play that you guys can
Speaker 1: see on my Twitter feed where Steph makes that swing pass.
Speaker 1: I think it was Looney on the wing who then
Speaker 1: hit Draymond coming downhill, who then hit Gary Payton in
Speaker 1: the corner if I remember correctly. Then in the second
Speaker 1: quarter they started spamming that Gary Payton pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Steph like they did against the Lakers, and they
Speaker 1: had a lot of success there as well. It was
Speaker 1: just a steady diet of Steph pick and roll picking
Speaker 1: them apart. I think Steph is up around like one
Speaker 1: point two six points per pick and roll so far
Speaker 1: he's generated. Steph pick and rolls have generated sixty seven
Speaker 1: points so far, which is the fourth most in the NBA.
Speaker 1: And he's been way more efficient than the three guys
Speaker 1: that are ahead of him, and he's running more pick
Speaker 1: and rolls than he has in years past traditionally, especially
Speaker 1: during the regular season, but he's just so damn good
Speaker 1: at it now and I'm kind of pro leaning into
Speaker 1: that a little bit more because it's a counter they
Speaker 1: have to go to when they get to the later
Speaker 1: rounds of the postseason. Anyway, and then the bench was
Speaker 1: awesome once again. They were plus fifteen without Steph again.
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis got a lot of minutes. Jonathan Kmingo
Speaker 1: is out of the lineup and Klay Thompson was out
Speaker 1: of the lineup, so there were some front court minutes available. Also,
Speaker 1: just Sorry was having a lot of trouble guarding zions.
Speaker 1: That was an issue. So again that's kind of the
Speaker 1: matchup flexibility that you have that you haven't had in
Speaker 1: years past. Moses Moody played really well again starting for
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson thirteen points and four assists with zero turnovers.
Speaker 1: He's become one of their more reliable point of attack
Speaker 1: defenders too. And remember his thing is like he's actually
Speaker 1: a good physical point of attack defender, he just commits
Speaker 1: too many fouls. And I thought it was a solid
Speaker 1: night to put up zero fouls in twenty one minutes,
Speaker 1: especially with the defensive effort that he was putting up.
Speaker 1: But let's make no mistake about it, Like obviously the
Speaker 1: bench helps. Obviously, some key guys are stepping up, but
Speaker 1: Deaf is playing every bit as well as anybody else
Speaker 1: in the league right now, potentially the highest level that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen him play. You know, It's funny, it
Speaker 1: kinda I was looking at it because Steph just kind
Speaker 1: of seems like he's in command of his game at
Speaker 1: a level that I've never seen from him in his career.
Speaker 1: Just seems like he's so unbelievably confident. There's no coverage
Speaker 1: that flusters him, there's no defender that keeps him off balance.
Speaker 1: He just seems in complete command of his game at
Speaker 1: an even higher level than I'm used to seeing from him.
Speaker 1: And he's thirty five years old. And I thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting because we've seen some examples recently of players
Speaker 1: kind of like peeking in a big way around that
Speaker 1: age thirty five thirty six season, and like, I've got
Speaker 1: a buddy of mine, a guy, a guy named Josh Colash.
Speaker 1: He actually took over as the head coach at the
Speaker 1: high school that I coach at, and then him and
Speaker 1: I play in this this men's league here in town
Speaker 1: that him and I have won almost every time over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of years and we've been
Speaker 1: playing together for a while and he he just recently
Speaker 1: has gone up a huge level. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's just been in the gym more or if it's
Speaker 1: just like his mastery of the game, but it's been
Speaker 1: fun playing with him because he's playing at the highest
Speaker 1: level I've ever seen Josh play at. And he just
Speaker 1: turned thirty six, and it kind of feels like that
Speaker 1: mid thirties is like that time where the mind is
Speaker 1: at its absolute peak while the body still has something
Speaker 1: left to give. And I mean, I remember Lebron James
Speaker 1: in his twenty eighteen season thirty five years old. I've
Speaker 1: always said to Lebron fans, thirty five is like that
Speaker 1: thirty five twenty eighteen season, in my opinion, was the
Speaker 1: best version of Lebron we ever saw. That was the
Speaker 1: best offensive version of Lebron who still had the ability
Speaker 1: to hit the defensive play making possessions that he needed
Speaker 1: to as an athlete. If you remember, that was the
Speaker 1: year he dunked all over Usuf Nurkic. So it was
Speaker 1: like peak Lebron athleticism mixed with like his peak shot making,
Speaker 1: mixed with like his peak ability to see the floor.
Speaker 1: It just it kind of feels like Steph's kind of
Speaker 1: slotting into that same timeframe here at age thirty five. Right,
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty four points, five rebounds, and four assists
Speaker 1: so far through four games, seventy six percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: seventy one percent effective field goal percentage on jump shots.
Speaker 1: Every Steph Curry jump shot this season is worth one
Speaker 1: point four to one points. That's insane. Eighty six percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: when he is unguarded, a one hundred and seven percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage of pull up jump shots. He's
Speaker 1: right where he was last year sixty one percent, which
Speaker 1: was what led the entire league sixty one percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage, and he's shooting seventy one percent at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is completely off the charts for guard
Speaker 1: in the playtype data I went over pick and rolls earlier,
Speaker 1: one point twenty six points per possession, basically the best
Speaker 1: combination of volume in efficiency in the league right now,
Speaker 1: fifteen points on fourteen ISOs and outrageously coming off of
Speaker 1: off ball screens, he's shooting nine for twelve in those
Speaker 1: situations and a Steph off ball screen is now worth
Speaker 1: two point one points per possession so far through four games.
Speaker 1: I said in my season preview, if you guys remember
Speaker 1: that I viewed Steph as one of the highest value
Speaker 1: MVP candidates in terms of betting odds. And it comes
Speaker 1: down to a bunch of different things. But the gist
Speaker 1: of it is he hasn't won one since twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: so there's like a seven year loll in there in
Speaker 1: terms of optimism from the voters. You know how voters
Speaker 1: get when they've had a recent MVP pick, right, He
Speaker 1: has the playoff success to back it up. He was
Speaker 1: the finals MVP literally like what sixteen months ago, so
Speaker 1: you've got that piece of it. And then he doesn't
Speaker 1: play alongside another star. As a matter of fact, Wiggins was
Speaker 1: the best player, the second best player on the team
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, and he's been a shell of
Speaker 1: himself so far this season. There's other guys playing well,
Speaker 1: for sure, But like the gist of it is is,
Speaker 1: it's Steph and a bunch of really good basketball players,
Speaker 1: no legitimate superstar next to him, and that kind of,
Speaker 1: to me, is the perfect recipe for an MVP campaign.
Speaker 1: They just had to be able to win on the road,
Speaker 1: which they couldn't do last year because they were already
Speaker 1: one of the best teams in the league at home
Speaker 1: last year. You add in the road element. If they
Speaker 1: just could win about fifty percent of their games on
Speaker 1: the road, they can win fifty games. They win fifty games.
Speaker 1: There's no reason in the world why Steph Curry can't
Speaker 1: win MVP. I don't have the odds in front of me,
Speaker 1: but my guess is he's still somewhat of a long shot,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's a good betting opportunity. I
Speaker 1: just look at some of the bigger names up front,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, the MAVs are winning at a super
Speaker 1: high rate. They're a team that we need to cover
Speaker 1: here in the next couple of days, and maybe maybe
Speaker 1: Luca can enter into that conversation. But like I tend
Speaker 1: to think in terms of the best combination of like
Speaker 1: surrounding circumstance, potential team success, and top tier play with
Speaker 1: playoff resume to kind of back it up, Steph is
Speaker 1: kind of shaping up for what could be an MVP season.
Speaker 1: Just in general. Surrounding the Warriors, a bunch of key
Speaker 1: markers are going well for them, young players making significant improvements,
Speaker 1: the bench lineups being able to float and succeed in
Speaker 1: games thanks to the Chris Paul acquisition, and some really
Speaker 1: high level defensive play from the role players off the bench,
Speaker 1: The ability to win games on the road, and then
Speaker 1: Steph Curry playing at that MVP level. All of those
Speaker 1: things to me are big hallmarks that make this team
Speaker 1: a lot more similar to the twenty twenty two team
Speaker 1: that won the title than the twenty twenty three team,
Speaker 1: which was largely a disappointment. So Warriors are in a
Speaker 1: good spot so far through four games. On the Pelicans front,
Speaker 1: Zion struggle with Draymond, and I get it, Draymond's one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive players in the world, but just
Speaker 1: in general, he hasn't looked quite as explosive off the
Speaker 1: bounce as he was last year. His scoring volume is
Speaker 1: down from where you'd expect it to be, especially with
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy out of the lineup and them needing him
Speaker 1: to be more creative and aggressive offensively, He's just not
Speaker 1: beating people off the dribble as smoothly as he used
Speaker 1: to now. I tend to think that it's probably a
Speaker 1: lot of just getting back into the NBA swing of things,
Speaker 1: and I tend to think he'll be fine in the
Speaker 1: big picture. But to start the season, it's just not
Speaker 1: the same Zion that were accustomed to seeing with Brandon
Speaker 1: ingram out, they just really struggled to generate quality shots. CJ.
Speaker 1: McCollum was way off. He was seven for twenty one
Speaker 1: from the field in this game. Was taking some really
Speaker 1: tough shots and I thought missing some reads. He was
Speaker 1: forcing the action a little bit. It's just, again, if
Speaker 1: they don't have all of those guys clicking at a
Speaker 1: high level, they're just not good enough offensively in the
Speaker 1: half court. And then the Trey Murphy acquisition is a
Speaker 1: legitimate loss. He was one of their most aggressive spot
Speaker 1: up shooters. He brought the ability to shoot out to
Speaker 1: like twenty six twenty seven feet, which was important for
Speaker 1: their spacing, which has been an issue here early on.
Speaker 1: I just again, I don't want to really evaluate the
Speaker 1: Pelicans within the big picture until they get everybody back
Speaker 1: in their one hundred percent healthy. They were two to
Speaker 1: zero before this game and wins over Memphis and New York,
Speaker 1: who were a couple of playoff teams from last year,
Speaker 1: but let's just take a look real quick at some
Speaker 1: of their numbers through three games and what they've been
Speaker 1: doing well and what they haven't been doing well. So
Speaker 1: they're twenty eighth in offense again missing Trey Murphy, brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram out last game, Zion not quite operating at the
Speaker 1: same level you're hoping for. CJ's been okay in the
Speaker 1: big picture. They're twenty fourth and three pointers made and
Speaker 1: twenty fourth and three point percentage. Jordan Hawkins really seemed
Speaker 1: to kind of catch some daylight in last night's game.
Speaker 1: Get some confidence. He's shooting forty percent from three here
Speaker 1: in the early season. Matt Ryan has had like these
Speaker 1: brief stretches, particularly in the first half of games, where
Speaker 1: he shot the ball really well. He actually looks a
Speaker 1: lot more mobile in terms of just getting to his
Speaker 1: spots and like using escape dribbles and things like that.
Speaker 1: He seems a lot more mobile now than he did
Speaker 1: when he was with the Lakers, when I was covering
Speaker 1: him at the beginning of last season. So they bring
Speaker 1: some of that more aggressive three point shooting. Trey Murphy
Speaker 1: coming back should help a lot. They are seventh in
Speaker 1: defensive ratings so far this year. Thirtieth in rebounding percentage.
Speaker 1: This is the crazy part, and again, like seventh in defense,
Speaker 1: has something to be encouraged about. You expect this team
Speaker 1: to be a top ten defense with her Jones is
Speaker 1: one of the best perimeter of defense in the league.
Speaker 1: The additional length and athleticism they have, their base coverages
Speaker 1: and their ability to keep yonas Valentchutas around the rim.
Speaker 1: But they're just having a hell of a time on
Speaker 1: the on the glass thirtieth and rebounding percentage. They were
Speaker 1: fifth last year. This was the top five rebounding team
Speaker 1: last year who is now currently dead last in rebounding
Speaker 1: And again that's where I think Trey Murphy and bi
Speaker 1: being out last night in particular hurt them in their
Speaker 1: big picture numbers because Golden State out rebounded them sixty
Speaker 1: four to thirty nine. And again, like in the modern NBA,
Speaker 1: with all of the long distance jump shooting, there's a
Speaker 1: lot more long rebounds, and so wing athleticism and ball
Speaker 1: pursuit is one of the most important elements of defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding in a way that it didn't used to be
Speaker 1: when it was more controlled by the big guys inside right,
Speaker 1: And so that data is a little bit jumbled by
Speaker 1: that awful night against the Warriors, but obviously in the
Speaker 1: big picture, they need to rebound better. Even with Bi
Speaker 1: in the lineup, that's starting lineup, but brandon Ingram Herb Jones, CJ. McCollum,
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson and Yonas Valentiunas is minus eight point three
Speaker 1: net so far this season, only a ninety eight point
Speaker 1: four offensive rating. Their defense has been solid with that
Speaker 1: group of one zero seven defensive rating, which is solid,
Speaker 1: nothing to write home about, but okay, but they're just
Speaker 1: struggling to score the basketball and again, like if Zion
Speaker 1: can't get back to where he was in general, they're
Speaker 1: spacing just looks like shit right now. I don't know
Speaker 1: what they do in the big picture with that Zion
Speaker 1: Yona's front court, because they tend to get in each
Speaker 1: other's way quite a bit. And I know they want
Speaker 1: Yonas to shoot the three, and he's taken it when
Speaker 1: he's open, but it's it's it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things where even when he makes a couple, it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a good thing because he's not being guarded out there,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, that matters. Way
Speaker 1: more than the actual shot result. Because Jonas is not
Speaker 1: gonna take ten threes a game. He's gonna take, you know,
Speaker 1: a handful of them, right, and that handful of him
Speaker 1: making them. Let's say he takes three or four game
Speaker 1: and he scores four or five points a game on him.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna swing the scoreboard. What's gonna matter is
Speaker 1: in the one hundred or so possessions, how is he
Speaker 1: being guarded when he's on the floor. Spacing is an
Speaker 1: issue right now, and like if Zion can't just bulldoze
Speaker 1: his way to the rim the way that is used
Speaker 1: to doing that could be a problem in the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: A lineup I'd like to see more of this Kira Lewis,
Speaker 1: Dyson Daniels, Herb Jones, brandon Ingram and Larry Nance lineup.
Speaker 1: They've played fifteen possessions so far. It's just a ton
Speaker 1: of perimeter defense next to Bi and Herb Jones's wing defenders.
Speaker 1: With a more athletic center on the floor, Dyson Daniels
Speaker 1: can really get into people at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: Kira Lewis is freakously quick on the perimeter. When you
Speaker 1: combine that with the rangy athleticism to rotate on the
Speaker 1: backside with Larry nance As just like a more versatile
Speaker 1: defensive player than Yonas Valanciunas's. They are plus twenty net
Speaker 1: rating in fifteen possessions against small sample size ninety three
Speaker 1: defensive rating. And that's that combination of perimeter defense with
Speaker 1: like rangy ability to rotate. Right. I was sifting through
Speaker 1: the lineup dated this morning, and most of their core
Speaker 1: lineups are not playing particularly well. And ironically, the lineups
Speaker 1: that have done well in decent sample sizes, a lot
Speaker 1: of them were just like little short spurts from the
Speaker 1: bench group against the Warriors last night, with groups of
Speaker 1: guys that probably aren't gonna play in the bigger picture,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I don't think Jordan Hawkins or Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan's gonna be in the rotation when Trey Murphy and
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram are back in the lineup, right when Jose
Speaker 1: Alvarado's back in the lineup. And so it's good to
Speaker 1: get looks at those guys and to see what they're
Speaker 1: good at and where they can help you. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, right now, there's not a
Speaker 1: ton of encouraging lineup data coming out of the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: even with their two to one record. But they have
Speaker 1: a lot that they can get better at, right Trey
Speaker 1: Murphy coming back, Zion getting back to for him in general,
Speaker 1: just shooting the ball better, and then they have to
Speaker 1: rebound at the level that we're accustomed to seeing from them.
Speaker 1: In the big picture, I'm a believer in what this
Speaker 1: team is capable of. The Only thing from a structure
Speaker 1: standpoint I don't like is the Jonas Valanciunas piece. I
Speaker 1: just think in general, the floor speed can be an issue,
Speaker 1: like him getting up and down the floor in transition,
Speaker 1: the fact that teams don't go him when he goes
Speaker 1: out to the three point line. He's a post up
Speaker 1: offensive player who attacks the offensive glass a lot, and
Speaker 1: so there's advantages there when you're leaning into his play style.
Speaker 1: But when you're trying to play spread, pick and roll
Speaker 1: basketball and you're trying to get Zion involved with his
Speaker 1: fake dribble handoffs and his clear ISOs and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's harder for him to get to get to work
Speaker 1: with that fit. So in the big picture, that's the
Speaker 1: one thing I don't like, but that I do love.
Speaker 1: The perimeter core and I do think they can be
Speaker 1: very good when they're healthy and when they're in rhythm.
Speaker 1: I moving on to Wolves Hawks tailor two halves in
Speaker 1: this one. The Wolves won the first half seventy nine
Speaker 1: to sixty, and then the Hawks came back and won
Speaker 1: the second half sixty seven to thirty four to notch
Speaker 1: double digit victory to get to two and two. In
Speaker 1: the first half, the Wolves were just cooking on offense
Speaker 1: and was doing everything well. He was playing like a
Speaker 1: bona fide superstar in the first half. He was sitting
Speaker 1: and pull up threes, he was hitting post up fadeaways,
Speaker 1: he was driving in kicking for threes. Anthony Everards had
Speaker 1: five assists in the first quarter, which was the first
Speaker 1: time he's ever done that in the his career. He
Speaker 1: had this like ridiculous Jordan esque reverse layup where he
Speaker 1: planted right left and then like went up and down
Speaker 1: and under onto the onto the right side of the basket.
Speaker 1: He was absolutely destroying the Hawks. Nas Reed got going.
Speaker 1: He hit three three point shots. He was attacking closeouts,
Speaker 1: he was cutting out of the eastside corner for lob dunks.
Speaker 1: He looked great. Rudy Gobert dominated the second quarter defensively,
Speaker 1: you look up, they're up seventy nine to sixty, and
Speaker 1: it you know. And then on the other end, like
Speaker 1: and we've talked about it with the Hawks, Trey Young
Speaker 1: and de Jontay Murray just haven't been playing that well,
Speaker 1: and they didn't play particularly well in the first half.
Speaker 1: They're pretty mediocre. Then you go a few minutes into
Speaker 1: the second half and then something just clicks into place
Speaker 1: for the Hawks. On both ends of the floor. They
Speaker 1: ratcheted up defensively. Jalen Johnson like kind of locked up
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns, kept him in front, didn't wasn't susceptible
Speaker 1: to Cat's bully ball attack. Then he did the same
Speaker 1: thing to nas Reid when he checked into the game.
Speaker 1: I thought de Jontey Murray did an awesome job keeping
Speaker 1: it in front and baiting him into pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: which he ended up in the second half. And then
Speaker 1: all of their athletes all over the floor were flying
Speaker 1: around in rotation, flying in passing lanes, getting out in transition,
Speaker 1: and then running out the other way for dunks and layups.
Speaker 1: I talked about this in my season preview for the Hawks.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember they were nineteenth last year in
Speaker 1: transition frequency. They are second in transition frequency this year.
Speaker 1: I talked in the season preview, this is an athletic team.
Speaker 1: They need to look to avoid the half court, get
Speaker 1: out and run as much as possible, especially off their defense,
Speaker 1: and they've been doing that at a really high level
Speaker 1: so far to start this season. And then in the
Speaker 1: half court, both Trey Young and Dejonte, but mostly Dejonte
Speaker 1: just took it to the Wolves on the not even
Speaker 1: like in screening actions. For the most part, a lot
Speaker 1: of it was just taking it to their best perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders by beating them off the bounce. Like de Jontay
Speaker 1: Murray was barbecuing Anthony Edwards. And we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: this in a little bit, but ant reaches too much
Speaker 1: and gets himself out of position and doesn't do himself
Speaker 1: any favors. But de Jontay Murray was using pump fakes
Speaker 1: and moves and counter moves to just get around Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and get to his spots. He got his pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot going, he got to the rim. He
Speaker 1: ended up finishing the game with forty one points. He
Speaker 1: was incredible. He's plus twenty five in this game, and
Speaker 1: then Trey Young was pretty good too. He was beating
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels off the dribble and getting the defense into rotation.
Speaker 1: Now Jayden kind of tightened that up in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: but at that point they had already kind of got
Speaker 1: in control of the game. But it was nothing. It
Speaker 1: was nothing fancy. It was just brute force, Like Trey
Speaker 1: Young and DeSante won the shit out of their matchups
Speaker 1: in that second quarter on both ends of the floor
Speaker 1: to and we're gonna talk about the Hawks defense like
Speaker 1: because it's becoming a cultural thing in these short bursts,
Speaker 1: Like in that second half run, even Trey Young was
Speaker 1: like sprinting over the top of screens. There was a
Speaker 1: play where Anthony Edwards got him on a switch and
Speaker 1: tried to post him up, and he fought in front,
Speaker 1: and he fronted the post and denied the post entry,
Speaker 1: like Trey Young was legitimately giving a shit on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. And then just in general,
Speaker 1: the flying around in rotation, all of their athleticism on
Speaker 1: the floor. When you have Dejontey Murray out there with
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter and Jalen Johnson and then with Sidique Bay
Speaker 1: coming in and aj Griffin coming in like they are
Speaker 1: just super fast and rangy and athletic. And then their
Speaker 1: front court players in a Congou and Capella are also
Speaker 1: pretty athletic versaal players that can cover ground, and so
Speaker 1: they're capable of being an elite defensive team like and
Speaker 1: like in the big picture, this has been a run.
Speaker 1: This is a rundown of the Hawks defense so far
Speaker 1: this year. They had a one to twelve defensive rating
Speaker 1: against Charlotte, They lost a one to nineteen defensive rating
Speaker 1: against the Knicks. They lost first half against the Bucks
Speaker 1: an eighty nine defensive rating, and they won. They had
Speaker 1: a one to twenty nine defensive rating in the second half,
Speaker 1: but they had built such a big lead they were
Speaker 1: able to weather that. First half against the Timberwolves a
Speaker 1: one to sixty one defensive rating, found themselves down by
Speaker 1: twenty one points. But second half against the Timberwolves a
Speaker 1: sixty eight defensive rating, and they won the half by
Speaker 1: thirty three points and won the game. So you can
Speaker 1: kind of see a clear formula here. When they lean
Speaker 1: into their defensive potential and they make that the identity
Speaker 1: of their team, they get out and transition more. It
Speaker 1: invigorates like literally, de Jontay Murray got going in his
Speaker 1: rhythm in transition, Like that's the formula defend, get out
Speaker 1: and run, find the easy shots when you're stuck in
Speaker 1: the half court an in rhythm and ty Trey Young
Speaker 1: and Dejontay Murray can take you home. And then one
Speaker 1: other thing I noticed on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: they used a lot of Jalen Johnson, Sidik Bay, and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter as screeners, which is something that it used
Speaker 1: to do because the spacing concerns. When you had John
Speaker 1: Collins and Click Capella on the floor, you almost had
Speaker 1: to bring one of them into screen because you couldn't
Speaker 1: have two non shooters off the ball in your two
Speaker 1: man game. It just made it too easy to guard.
Speaker 1: But now they're actually running a lot of these like
Speaker 1: a four guard screen actions with a wing, a wing
Speaker 1: that can shoot, and they having success there all three
Speaker 1: of them. Jalen Johnson, Sidek Bay, and DeAndre Hunter, each
Speaker 1: of them have hit two pick and pop jump shots
Speaker 1: from the three point line already this season. That's turned
Speaker 1: to a significant chunk of their offense. And again those
Speaker 1: like little ghost screens are picking pops. They also are
Speaker 1: a lot harder to guard at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: and they allowed de Jontay Murray and Trey Young to
Speaker 1: get downhill. And like their offense will go up a
Speaker 1: level as soon as Trey Young and de Jontay Murray
Speaker 1: start being consistently good on that end. But I predicted
Speaker 1: that the Hawks would go up a level this year,
Speaker 1: and again it's been mixed results through two games, through
Speaker 1: four games, but I do think that potential has clearly
Speaker 1: been on display with what they've done on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Moving on to the Wolves, this
Speaker 1: loss drops him to one and two. They haven't been
Speaker 1: good enough on either end of the floor. Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: being out has definitely hurt them. He's been their best
Speaker 1: perimeter defender for a couple of years now, one of
Speaker 1: the top two or three of them in the league,
Speaker 1: to be honest. And it was his first game back
Speaker 1: and you could tell he's getting his legs underneath him.
Speaker 1: He looked good offensively. It was what five for six
Speaker 1: from the field and two for two from three. Definitely
Speaker 1: struggled a little bit keeping Trey Young in front of
Speaker 1: the third quarter, but then you saw him kind of
Speaker 1: get his like second win or whatever in that fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and got some stops there. But like Nikhil Alexander
Speaker 1: Walker wasn't good defensively in that Hawks game, Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: has been pretty bad defensively. He reaches in way too much,
Speaker 1: He takes way too many defensive possessions off. He's having
Speaker 1: an amazing offensive seasons so far, twenty five seven and five,
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent through shooting, shooting the jump shot extremely well,
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent effective field goal percentage on pull up
Speaker 1: jumps or on jumpers, seventy one percent on pull up jumpers.
Speaker 1: But he's only eight for eighteen at the rim, which
Speaker 1: is to be expected, right, this is a team that
Speaker 1: has poor spacing. Rudy Gobert another game where just like
Speaker 1: it's amazing how many times like he'll catch underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and not score like he has stone hands, and
Speaker 1: then he just can't make shots at the rim. He's
Speaker 1: only fifteen for twenty five at the rim. That'd be
Speaker 1: bad for a wing, let alone a center, right, And
Speaker 1: so it's a lot easier for teams to help off
Speaker 1: of him and recover, which hurts their spacing. So like,
Speaker 1: I'm not super concerned about the rim finishing for ant
Speaker 1: I know that's something that's gonna be good for him
Speaker 1: in the long run. The playmaking has been at a
Speaker 1: higher level than we're accustomed to seeing from him. But
Speaker 1: that defensive end is a huge part of this team's identity.
Speaker 1: This team is not good enough offense, especially when you're
Speaker 1: playing guys like the Kyle Alexander Walker who can go
Speaker 1: ice cold shooting, Anthony Edwards who can sell for a
Speaker 1: lot of jump shots, Rudy Gobert, bad hands, bad finishing,
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson, a guy who struggles to space the floor
Speaker 1: from the three point line. Like, with that kind of lineup,
Speaker 1: you're never gonna be a great offensive team. What you
Speaker 1: are is you're a grinded out rock fight team. You're
Speaker 1: supposed to be a top five defense that strangles teams,
Speaker 1: gets out in transition, and relies on Anthony Edwards bully
Speaker 1: ball basically to win games on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the four, that's what they need to do. And so
Speaker 1: like early on in the season, you know, again all
Speaker 1: my optimism around the Wolves was surrounding the defensive end,
Speaker 1: and they just haven't been good enough on that end.
Speaker 1: Twenty second in offense, again, that Gobart piece I just
Speaker 1: talked about with his hands. Kat's not playing well either.
Speaker 1: He's averaging sixteen points a game, thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: the field, twenty four percent from three. He's shooting two
Speaker 1: for fourteen on spot up possessions. That's really hurting their
Speaker 1: spacing as well, four for twenty one on jump shots
Speaker 1: in total so far this season. Kat obviously has got
Speaker 1: to play better as well. I think Jayden needs to
Speaker 1: almost be more aggressive offensively with some of the other
Speaker 1: issues they're having on that end. If Jaden starts being
Speaker 1: more aggressive offensively, gets his legs back underneath him, If
Speaker 1: Carl Towns starts playing more like himself on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: if Anthony Edwards locks in on the perimeter, having Jayden
Speaker 1: backed out there because he wasn't there for the first
Speaker 1: two games, I think they're gonna be fine in the
Speaker 1: big picture. But it's definitely been a disappointing first three
Speaker 1: games on the Wolves front. All right, one male back question,
Speaker 1: then we'll get out of here today. A little shorter show,
Speaker 1: I guess. I guess we did two shows today though.
Speaker 1: How pumped are you for the Ncason Tournament. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: excited about it. I think it's such a great idea.
Speaker 1: As we get closer to it, I am getting excited
Speaker 1: about it. I think the single elimination format is going
Speaker 1: to bring out some really fun NBA games. The biggest
Speaker 1: question is can we get people to care now. I
Speaker 1: think a big part of it is going to be
Speaker 1: like the fact that the games matter for the regular season,
Speaker 1: that matters. That'll help in terms of just keeping a
Speaker 1: baseline level of effort, right, and if we see the
Speaker 1: stars give a shit, And I think a strong indicator
Speaker 1: would be seeing a good team finish one of our contenders, right,
Speaker 1: excuse me. If one of our top six teams, seven teams,
Speaker 1: if you include the Clippers after the hard and trade,
Speaker 1: if one of those teams wins it and one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world plays well and ends
Speaker 1: up poisting the trophy. I think that adds legitimacy to it.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. In keeping an open mind, I still don't
Speaker 1: think it was the best idea in the world. I
Speaker 1: would have always, like you guys know where I stand
Speaker 1: on this stuff. Shorten the season, go down to sixty
Speaker 1: six games. It adds twenty percent urgency. It adds rest
Speaker 1: to prevent guys from having to play four times a week,
Speaker 1: which inevitably leads to stars missing games. Ratings were down
Speaker 1: in the first week of the NBA, and I think
Speaker 1: a big part of it is we just saw an
Speaker 1: eighty two game season where it really didn't matter because
Speaker 1: an eight seed made it to the finals and a
Speaker 1: seven seed made it to the conference finals. And so
Speaker 1: you're seeing teams like just understanding the big picture that
Speaker 1: the regular season doesn't matter that much. And so I
Speaker 1: think pairing it down to sixty six games would improve
Speaker 1: star participation, improve urgency, and lead to at least a
Speaker 1: twenty percent increase in revenue surround owning each individual game.
Speaker 1: But that's just my take on it. Obviously I'm not
Speaker 1: an economist as well, so it could be more complicated
Speaker 1: than that, but like, that's the way I would go
Speaker 1: that said it already happened, trying to keep an open
Speaker 1: mind about it. I think it could be really cool
Speaker 1: watching NBA players play in a single elimination format. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. We are going to
Speaker 1: be back. There's three games tonight. I'm gonna hit you know,
Speaker 1: maybe two of them tomorrow during the day, and then
Speaker 1: we've got our nighttime slate with the jam packed, like
Speaker 1: there's two ESPN games, and there's a bunch of other
Speaker 1: games on Wednesday night that we're gonna hit, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna go Thursday and Friday as well. So I
Speaker 1: will see you guys tomorrow. And a lot of more
Speaker 1: basketball to get to this week. The volume