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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: I Fan Duel here at the volume live on AMP
Speaker 1: Pappy Tuesday. Everybody. I hope you guys as weeks are
Speaker 1: off to a good start. Here's the plan for the
Speaker 1: next couple of days. Tonight, we're gonna be talking about
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons's return to Philly, just focusing in on that
Speaker 1: game and on some of the narratives surrounding Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: and then keep an eye on the feet. Tomorrow we're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing a mail back, so all of you
Speaker 1: guys are sending mail back questions. I really appreciate that
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to a bunch of them. I think
Speaker 1: I picked out seven of them that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: hitting tomorrow. So keep an eye on the feet. And
Speaker 1: then also for those of you who are listening to
Speaker 1: this on YouTube or on the podcast feed, don't forget
Speaker 1: that AMP is the very first place that you guys
Speaker 1: can get these post game breakdowns. So this is a
Speaker 1: good old fashioned ass kicking in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: It felt like Philly was completely in control that entire
Speaker 1: that can have. They really poverized Brooklyn on the glass
Speaker 1: and shot the ball really really well. Now, remember Brooklyn
Speaker 1: has been really good defensively lately their fourth coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: they were fourth and defensive rating since the Kyrie suspension.
Speaker 1: But they are a long and athletic team, but they're
Speaker 1: not a physically imposing team. They're not strong. And when
Speaker 1: you look at that Philly roster and even down three,
Speaker 1: basically they're three best players. Even down those guys, it's
Speaker 1: like p J. Tucker, big strong wing, like physically imposing wing.
Speaker 1: Tobias Hair is big, strong wing. Even you know Montrez Harrold,
Speaker 1: he plays a lot bigger and stronger than he actually is.
Speaker 1: Paul Reid, big strong player, and then they've got enough
Speaker 1: ball handling and shooting with you know, with um, with
Speaker 1: guys like the Anthony Melton that they picked up, and
Speaker 1: and for concork Mas can make plays with the basketball
Speaker 1: in his hands. They've got guys that can play offense.
Speaker 1: And so if you bring a weak effort, you can
Speaker 1: still lose to that team, especially when they're in front
Speaker 1: of a crowd that's highly motivated and that wants to
Speaker 1: beat the Brooklynetts because Ben Simmons plays for them, which
Speaker 1: we'll talk about here in just a second. Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: absolutely dominated the second half of this game. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny when when I coming into the season, I
Speaker 1: talked about Philly's top four players and how they were
Speaker 1: the most talented top four in the league, and everyone,
Speaker 1: you know, seemed to be kind of react in a
Speaker 1: in a very unenthusiastic manner to that, because it's like
Speaker 1: a lot of times guys like Tobias Harris just kind
Speaker 1: of get forgotten, and he is the forgotten member of
Speaker 1: that group. But the reality is that has more to
Speaker 1: do with his role than it does with his actual
Speaker 1: skill set. Tobias Harris is a big, strong wing that
Speaker 1: has a good versatile skill set that allows him to
Speaker 1: score the basketball. He's just on a team alongside Tobias
Speaker 1: or excuse me, alongside Tyrese Maxie who's one of the
Speaker 1: best young guards in the league, James Harden, who's just
Speaker 1: flat out one of the best guards in the league,
Speaker 1: and Joel Empide, who's a top six or seven player
Speaker 1: in the league. So he's relegated down to a role
Speaker 1: where he's doing a lot more spotting up, a lot
Speaker 1: more attacking close outs, a lot more playing on the
Speaker 1: margins rather than doing things with the basketball in his hands.
Speaker 1: And that's that's just an important part of the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. Something that impacted me when I played in college.
Speaker 1: My first couple of years, I was a score I
Speaker 1: was playing on teams that were less talented. They put
Speaker 1: the basketball in my hands. I average double figures, I
Speaker 1: shot a lot better, had a bunch of big scoring games.
Speaker 1: And then I played on a team where I had
Speaker 1: two All American guards and they stuck me in the
Speaker 1: corner and it was a completely different type of role.
Speaker 1: And in that season I had my worst shooting season.
Speaker 1: After shooting like fift in conference play from three the
Speaker 1: previous year. I couldn't make a damn shot to save
Speaker 1: my life in that much smaller role. And you know,
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases like that, when you get
Speaker 1: into a different type of basketball role, you can struggle.
Speaker 1: And I feel like over the years, Tobias Harris has
Speaker 1: gone a little bit under appreciated, and it has become
Speaker 1: that for gott member the team, that has more to
Speaker 1: do with the role that he's in than it does
Speaker 1: his actual skill set. And what did he do that
Speaker 1: entire second half? He picked on the smaller Brooklyn guards
Speaker 1: and wings and scored over the top of them because
Speaker 1: he is a big, skilled wing. And I hope that
Speaker 1: a game like tonight just kind of reminds people that
Speaker 1: he's capable of a lot more than what he has
Speaker 1: shown for the Sixers over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. And really he's a guy who's sacrificing
Speaker 1: to make this particular team work, and that people should
Speaker 1: be a little bit more hesitant to offer criticism towards
Speaker 1: him when he's having a rough night, when he's you know,
Speaker 1: playing on the margins um Brooklyn. Again, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: They've been much better defending and rebounding lately, even since
Speaker 1: the kyriees haspension, they've been twenty three and rebounding, which
Speaker 1: originally before that they were like near the very bottom.
Speaker 1: So again, bad but better than it had been. But
Speaker 1: tonight they completely let go of the rope with both
Speaker 1: and they got their ass kicked. And that's how it's
Speaker 1: gonna go. Um. You know, for Ben Simmons, I really
Speaker 1: didn't think the reception was that bad. And you know,
Speaker 1: there was some booze. You know, when he missed a
Speaker 1: jump pook, there'd be some booze when you know, just
Speaker 1: in general, there was some negative energy that was directed
Speaker 1: towards him, But it wasn't that bad. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I think it's pretty simple. First of all, this
Speaker 1: isn't Lebron coming back to Cleveland as the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. Ben Simmons is a is a bad
Speaker 1: contract right now. He's played a few good games in
Speaker 1: a row, but right now he's not a super desirable
Speaker 1: basketball player. So it's not like the Philly fans horribly
Speaker 1: miss him, if that makes sense. And then secondly, they
Speaker 1: got James Harden back in that deal that he could
Speaker 1: not get James Harden if it wasn't for the Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons trade. And you know, James Harden hasn't been the
Speaker 1: m v P James Harden that we're accustomed that we're
Speaker 1: accustomed to, but he's definitely been a top twentysomething player
Speaker 1: in the league over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of seasons, and a hell of a lot better than
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons has been. And so that saga, the whole
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons saga, worked out pretty damn well for the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventies sixers. So I don't I don't think that
Speaker 1: I don't think that they have a lot of reason
Speaker 1: to be upset at Ben. And even when we go
Speaker 1: further and like, like for instance, when we look at
Speaker 1: the refusal to play, because in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: like I think a big part of why Cleveland fans
Speaker 1: were mad at Lebron was the manner in which he
Speaker 1: went to Miami. Did you look at the decision, there's
Speaker 1: kind of like a he looks really happy, it looks
Speaker 1: like he's a kid in a candy store picking from teams.
Speaker 1: The optics of it were really bad, and so in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, when you saw that and then
Speaker 1: you saw him put on the Miami Heat jersey and
Speaker 1: you see him do that weird party where he's saying
Speaker 1: the not five, not six, not seven. They're you know,
Speaker 1: just Bosh, Wade and Lebron by themselves, not with the
Speaker 1: rest of the team, but just those three in an
Speaker 1: arena doing like a hype event. Like there was a
Speaker 1: lot of objectively really unlikable stuff that was done there
Speaker 1: that made it so that when Lebron came back, he
Speaker 1: was kind of a pariah. And then of course when
Speaker 1: he went into the arena, it was like almost painfully
Speaker 1: awkward to watches. The crowd was treating him horribly and
Speaker 1: he was just lighting them on fire, like he destroyed
Speaker 1: them in that game, particularly with his jump shooting and
Speaker 1: with every passing shot that he made and turned and
Speaker 1: looked at the Calves bench and almost was like more
Speaker 1: and more unlikable. Really, Lebron's redemption didn't happen until he
Speaker 1: got humiliated in the two thousand and eleven playoffs, and
Speaker 1: that kind of humbled him in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and then he became his more likable version of himself
Speaker 1: moving forward. But you know, the Ben Simmons thing had
Speaker 1: a lot of similar hallmarks, right, like, didn't show up
Speaker 1: first to training camp, skipped a bunch of stuff. But
Speaker 1: then he does show up and he's got like his
Speaker 1: phone in his pocket on while he's running through defensive drills,
Speaker 1: and then he's like, you know, he's bringing up mental
Speaker 1: health issues and all these different things. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons for Philly fans to dislike Ben, but
Speaker 1: the dirty little secret is him doing that was the
Speaker 1: best possible thing that could have happened to Philly because
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons had a bad playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks,
Speaker 1: in a really bad playoff moment where he passed up
Speaker 1: on the dunk, right, But for the most part, over
Speaker 1: the previous couple of years, he had been really damn good.
Speaker 1: One He was one of the candidates for Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year, you know, so like Ben Simmons had
Speaker 1: a lot of value, and so him not actually playing
Speaker 1: to start the season last year kept like an aura
Speaker 1: of of mystery surrounding Ben in a good way. It
Speaker 1: was like you were trading for what you thought was
Speaker 1: the previous version of Ben. Had he shown up to
Speaker 1: camp with the back issues that he had been having
Speaker 1: with the knee issues, that he had been having essentially
Speaker 1: in a declined form. Had he been, you know, more
Speaker 1: of a professional and just showed up to work during
Speaker 1: his trade request, he would have probably tanked his own
Speaker 1: value well beyond the point of any hope of bringing
Speaker 1: a James Harden back in a deal like that. So
Speaker 1: the reality is whether it was the disrespect, or the
Speaker 1: mental health issues, or the combination of all those different things.
Speaker 1: Him doing that, that stunt that him and Clutch Sports
Speaker 1: polled hid the fact that he had massively declined as
Speaker 1: a player, which kept his trade value more of a
Speaker 1: you know, a question mark rather than a sure thing.
Speaker 1: That it was definitively a bad contract at that point,
Speaker 1: and it facilitated that particular deal. So the reality is
Speaker 1: is for Philly, it's about as good as it could
Speaker 1: have gone. And I think that's why there's not that
Speaker 1: much negative energy towards him, And I think that's I
Speaker 1: think that's why tonight didn't have that feel of Lebron
Speaker 1: coming back to Cleveland or anything else along those lines.
Speaker 1: On a positive note, for Ben, in Ben's declined form,
Speaker 1: he literally needs a team like Brooklyn to find basket
Speaker 1: to find value on a basketball court right now, A
Speaker 1: big part of it is that inverted spacing concept that
Speaker 1: I talked a lot a lot about. You guys have
Speaker 1: heard me talk about this with Golden State. Every you know,
Speaker 1: people will say like, oh, Draymond won't take that three. Well,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't matter because the paint. They're not actively
Speaker 1: trying to drive the basketball into the paint all that often,
Speaker 1: so spacing doesn't matter to them. Like if Draymond Green
Speaker 1: is unguarded on the right wing and Clay Thompson is
Speaker 1: guarded in the right corner, they'll just kick it to
Speaker 1: Dre and he'll quick do a dribble handoff for Clay
Speaker 1: and he'll get a wide open three. When you have
Speaker 1: teams that are actively trying to take the top off
Speaker 1: of the defense with jump shooting, spacing just doesn't matter
Speaker 1: all that much. So a guy like Ben Simmons, if
Speaker 1: you put him alongside Anthony Davis and Lebron, that could
Speaker 1: be a catastrophe. Lebron James and Anthony Davis are two
Speaker 1: of the top four restricted area finishers in the league
Speaker 1: right now. They're constantly hunting those opportunities that congestion would
Speaker 1: be problematic for them. This is a Brooklyn Nets team
Speaker 1: that has Kevin Dury, one of the best pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooters in the leage, Kyrie Irving one of the
Speaker 1: best pull up jump shooters in the league, Seth Curry
Speaker 1: one of the best shooters in the league, Patty Mills
Speaker 1: one of the the best shooters in the league. Joe Harris
Speaker 1: one of the best shooters in the league. Here's some
Speaker 1: numbers to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. Of
Speaker 1: Brooklyn's shot attempts this year are jump shots. Of them
Speaker 1: are pull up jump shots. So almost a third of
Speaker 1: Brooklyn's offense is an off the dribble jump shot over
Speaker 1: the defense, and then another third of them our catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. So they're just not hunting those
Speaker 1: at the rim opportunities nearly enough for that to matter.
Speaker 1: As a comparison, here's some Lakers numbers. Only of their
Speaker 1: shot attempts are jump shots. Only six of their shot
Speaker 1: attempts are pull up jump shots. So spacing is just
Speaker 1: gonna matter a lot more to them because they're constantly
Speaker 1: trying to force their way to the basket, and congestion
Speaker 1: disrupts those driving lines. On a team like Brooklyn. If
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons defender is ignoring him in Rome, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't hurt nearly as much. And honestly, his ability to
Speaker 1: make plays out of the short roll is significantly more
Speaker 1: valuable for them. It's kind of like with Draymond the
Speaker 1: ability to quickly do something with the basketball that creates
Speaker 1: an advantage for someone else when you're left wide open
Speaker 1: is much more valuable for a jump shooting team. And
Speaker 1: he's doing everything Brooklyn needs that needs him to do.
Speaker 1: He's finding openings around the rim for drop offs and
Speaker 1: quick finishes. He's been having a lot of scoring success
Speaker 1: in this last three or four games in the dunker
Speaker 1: spot just by relocating and staying available and quickly making
Speaker 1: you know, reverse laps and things along those lines. Doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be dunks, although he had a couple of
Speaker 1: dunks and lob situations tonight. Um. But he's also really
Speaker 1: he's still getting the ball in transition and pushing the
Speaker 1: ball and hunting shooters exactly like Draymond Green does, and
Speaker 1: that's always been one of Ben Simmons's best gifts. And
Speaker 1: then in pick and roll situations with Kevin Durant, he
Speaker 1: can make quick decisions out of the short roll, and
Speaker 1: then he's he's not the defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: type of candidate that he was a couple of years. Ag. Oh,
Speaker 1: but he's still a very good plus defender and has
Speaker 1: a knack for defensive playmaking. That there was a play
Speaker 1: there in the uh. You know, playmaking is is such
Speaker 1: a vague term in all sports because it doesn't really
Speaker 1: have like a definition in the sense that like, oh,
Speaker 1: you just did playmaking, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: because we can sort all these plays down to specific types,
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot here, you know it's still here,
Speaker 1: a block here, whatever it is to me, a playmaking
Speaker 1: is a natural feel for the momentum in basketball game
Speaker 1: and like improvisational things on either end of the floor
Speaker 1: that create a momentum shift in a basketball game. For example,
Speaker 1: and of the first half, Ben Simmons, I can't remember
Speaker 1: who's guarding, might have been mat Matisse thyble, but it
Speaker 1: was out by half court and he rips the ball away.
Speaker 1: But when he rips the ball away, the balls loose
Speaker 1: on the ground. Ben Simmons sees Kevin Durant streaking the
Speaker 1: floor because Kevin Durant started streaking because he thought Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons had the basketball, but he didn't. Ben Simmons laid
Speaker 1: out and just punched the basketball into the front court
Speaker 1: and it went right into Kevin Durant's hands and he
Speaker 1: ended up getting a punk. And like, that's playmaking. There's
Speaker 1: no whoever practices punching the basketball like a diving punch
Speaker 1: of the basketball. Nobody does. What that is is that's
Speaker 1: an instinctual, improvisational thing that you do on a basketball
Speaker 1: court that ends up in a momentum shift. Of course,
Speaker 1: the Anthony Melton stole all that momentum by knocking a
Speaker 1: three down right before the end of the half. But
Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is a defensive playmaker for this team that doesn't
Speaker 1: hurt them on the offensive end because of the things
Speaker 1: that he can do in the dunker spot and in
Speaker 1: the short role. Ideal situation for him. So again, happy
Speaker 1: for Philly, they did find in the Ben Simmons saga.
Speaker 1: Happy for Brooklyn because in this now they got snowed
Speaker 1: basically on the James Harden trade. That's a whole other story.
Speaker 1: But as far as Ben Simmons goes, this is pretty
Speaker 1: much the ideal situation for him at this point. This
Speaker 1: is our last show for this week. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: the rest of the week off. I do plan on
Speaker 1: still watching a good amount of hoops and and doing
Speaker 1: the usual stuff that I do in the mornings, watching
Speaker 1: some films, So keep an eye on my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: at Underscore Jason lt in the mornings, that's primarily when
Speaker 1: I'll be getting, you know, just some instant reaction stuff
Speaker 1: on those particular games. And we will not have a
Speaker 1: show until next Monday. We're doing a mail bag episode today,
Speaker 1: so thank you to everyone who contributed to the mail
Speaker 1: bag questions. We have six questions there we are that
Speaker 1: we are going to get to today, covering a bunch
Speaker 1: of different teams. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter I underscore json lts. You guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: show announcements as well as some breakdowns over the course
Speaker 1: of the rest of this week and then last but
Speaker 1: not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of
Speaker 1: these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. All right, question number one,
Speaker 1: this is from zero percent. Do you think there is
Speaker 1: a decent chance the Lakers keep Westbrook for the entire season?
Speaker 1: If so, what trade do you think would make sense
Speaker 1: for them? So is there a chance to keep Westbrook? Yes,
Speaker 1: First of all, there were a million reasons to get
Speaker 1: rid of him last summer and then they didn't. So
Speaker 1: whatever conventional wisdom approach or logical progression we had in mind,
Speaker 1: we gotta throw that out the window because that's just
Speaker 1: not the way this front office works. They had the
Speaker 1: toughest schedule in the league to start the season, and
Speaker 1: they said, let's send him out there and see how
Speaker 1: this goes, and it was a complete disaster. So, like,
Speaker 1: we can't put ourselves in the brain space of Rob
Speaker 1: Polinka and Genie bust because they are two of the
Speaker 1: most incompetent people in the entire league. So we have
Speaker 1: to kind of distance ourselves from that. Secondly, the narrative
Speaker 1: surrounding Russell Westbrook as a sixth man is really powerful
Speaker 1: right now, and he's been good. He's been Russ has
Speaker 1: had a good season off the bench, particularly as a
Speaker 1: pick and roll shot creator. With Anthony Davis. I saw
Speaker 1: ustat today that matches up with what we've seen on film,
Speaker 1: which is that Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis are two
Speaker 1: of the best pick and roll pairings that we have
Speaker 1: in the league right now by points per possession. And
Speaker 1: I've been, you know, talking about that a lot earlier
Speaker 1: in the year, based on the fact that Russ was
Speaker 1: actually trying to get downhill on the screen. Whenever you're
Speaker 1: running pick and roll, you have to engage the screen
Speaker 1: defender to actually open up the passing reads that are available,
Speaker 1: and pick and roll Lebron James was too passive, wasn't
Speaker 1: actually coming over the top of the screens, was picking
Speaker 1: up his dribble earlier, throwing pocket passes to Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: before engaging the screen defender. And so the Lebron a
Speaker 1: d pick and roll has been bad this year, like
Speaker 1: flat out bad. I did a whole video breakdown on
Speaker 1: that particular concept that you can find on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed if you scroll back. I think it was last Thursday,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, but I broke down the good
Speaker 1: Lebron pick and rolls, which is the bad Lebron pick
Speaker 1: and rolls. Russ pick and rolls have been good because
Speaker 1: he's been trying to get downhill and he's just generally
Speaker 1: been doing a good job carving up bench units around
Speaker 1: the league. And he's been better defensively than he was
Speaker 1: last year, although not great. However, I vehemently disagree with
Speaker 1: the strategy of keeping Russell Westbrook. Here's They still desperately
Speaker 1: need a couple of more good role players. A couple
Speaker 1: of guys have rosen from the pile and informed, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty decent sized roles on this team and have become
Speaker 1: solid NBA players. Austin Reeves, Lonnie Walker, who I was
Speaker 1: flat out wrong about this summer, Troy Brown Jr. Those
Speaker 1: three guys have done a good job becoming functional basketball
Speaker 1: players alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. But that's not enough.
Speaker 1: They need more than that. And Russ makes forty seven
Speaker 1: million and he won't be in the closing lineup. He
Speaker 1: hasn't even been in the closing line up every game
Speaker 1: since Lebron went out. When Lebron's back, he's almost never
Speaker 1: gonna be in the closing lineup. You can't tie up
Speaker 1: a forty seven million dollar salary slot on a guy
Speaker 1: that you can't use in your final five. That's just
Speaker 1: a poor use of real of resources. So his salary,
Speaker 1: realistically is still the best vehicle with which to bring
Speaker 1: back multiple good players. Eric Pinkus of Bleacher Report pitched
Speaker 1: a deal yesterday, a three team deal that would involve
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets and the Detroit Pistons that would bring
Speaker 1: back Kyrie, Irving Boy and Bogdanovich, Alec Burk's and New
Speaker 1: Orleans Noel. Obviously, that would be perfect because you get
Speaker 1: back up big, you know, since Damien Jones hasn't really
Speaker 1: panned out, Thomas Bryant remains to be seen. He's been
Speaker 1: pretty good, but it's only been a couple of games
Speaker 1: since he came back. New Orland's Noel gives you a legitimate,
Speaker 1: you know, backup big to throw in there. Alec Burke's
Speaker 1: actually killed the Lakers the other night just because he's
Speaker 1: a big wing that can. He's about six six, but
Speaker 1: he's a good athlete, just because he's bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: than most Laker players, and he was just attacking closeouts
Speaker 1: and getting to the foul line a bunch and causing
Speaker 1: problems for them. He's just a good, a solid NBA
Speaker 1: role player, right that you can throw into the mixed
Speaker 1: boy and Macdonovitch gives them a wing that allows them
Speaker 1: to play a d at the five, and then Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving is the shot making piece that they miss. They're
Speaker 1: one of the best. The Lakers are one of the
Speaker 1: worst pull up jump shooting teams in the league. I
Speaker 1: think they are far and away the worst pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting team in the league. So Kyrie gives you
Speaker 1: a punch there, but that's kind of like a long shot.
Speaker 1: So that I like the idea from Eric Pinkis, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine that specific deal um working out.
Speaker 1: As far as trade options go for the Lakers, they
Speaker 1: have two directions that they can go. They can go big.
Speaker 1: I think like the Indiana Pacers trade. Miles Turner has
Speaker 1: been one of the best defensive bigs in the league
Speaker 1: this year and is routinely throwing out like twenty and
Speaker 1: ten with m a three and a couple of different
Speaker 1: a couple of blocks. That's a big part of how
Speaker 1: Indiana has been so good. Buddy Healed, you know, I've
Speaker 1: been watching a ton of film on Buddy Held in
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, kind of prepping for potential
Speaker 1: Lakers trades, and you know, I like him as a shooter.
Speaker 1: I like the things that he does off of the ball,
Speaker 1: especially in spot up situations, attacking closeouts and stuff. He's
Speaker 1: actually not great handling the ball and pick and roll um,
Speaker 1: So I don't I I don't love that specific aspect
Speaker 1: that that actually has been a little bit worse than
Speaker 1: I expected. But Miles Turner has been so damn good
Speaker 1: that that particular trade is an interesting option for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and it gives them a big punch. It gives them
Speaker 1: the ability to play a D at the four for
Speaker 1: large chunks of the game, which is something they did
Speaker 1: a lot in twenty to alleviate some of the workload
Speaker 1: on Anthony Davis, and then he'd play his primary minutes
Speaker 1: at the five. The other direction they could oh is
Speaker 1: targeting more wings to try to keep a D at
Speaker 1: the five. That's where you're looking for teams like maybe
Speaker 1: if Utah eventually blows it up, if Detroit continues to
Speaker 1: go downhill, you can target a guy like Bogdanovitch. But
Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing Detroit, which is let
Speaker 1: go of Bogdanovitch too, because I think they like his
Speaker 1: veteran presence alongside those young guys. Another team I really
Speaker 1: like targeting athletes on the wing is Charlotte, who has
Speaker 1: been one of the best teams in the league early
Speaker 1: in the year in deflections just because of how much
Speaker 1: length and athleticism they have on the floor. You can
Speaker 1: get a guy um like Kelly Hubray Jr. A guy
Speaker 1: like Gordon Hayward who has been a really good pick
Speaker 1: and roll ball handler this year, to bring wing size,
Speaker 1: to keep a d at the five. But those are
Speaker 1: just two different identities that the Lakers can go. They
Speaker 1: just need to pick one, and they need to go
Speaker 1: in that direction. My guess is that they keep Russ
Speaker 1: because of all this narrative stuff, and then they'll make
Speaker 1: some ancillary move like Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley for
Speaker 1: a wing with maybe one first round pick. But even
Speaker 1: then I don't even think they'll throw a pick on
Speaker 1: the table unless Lebron comes back and starts playing really well.
Speaker 1: Big silver lining Anthony Davis has been fantastic in the
Speaker 1: last week or sub all right, next question. This is
Speaker 1: from n m Z Hoops. The Sacramento Kings, winners of
Speaker 1: sixth straight, averaging a hundred and thirty one point five
Speaker 1: points during this stretch. Is it just a hot stretch
Speaker 1: or is it time to take them serious as a
Speaker 1: sleeper in the West. First of all, before I rain
Speaker 1: on the parade a little bit, let's talk about some
Speaker 1: of the good stuff. They're the best offense in the
Speaker 1: league right now. They're averaging a hundred and eighteen points
Speaker 1: six points per one hundred possessions. Kevin Horders herders shooting
Speaker 1: the laces off the damn basketball. There are thirty two
Speaker 1: players in the league right now that are attempting at
Speaker 1: least seven threes per game, and he's number one in
Speaker 1: percentage at forty nine and a half. He's also doing
Speaker 1: a he's added like a little bit more of like
Speaker 1: a that Clay Thompson like quick relocations, dribble three. So
Speaker 1: he's taken two and a half pull up threes per game,
Speaker 1: and he's making of them. And they're not like you know,
Speaker 1: mixing dudes off the dribble and taking threes. It's close
Speaker 1: out stuff. So like pump fake one, dribble over to
Speaker 1: his left, quick three. That's a staple of the Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson one pump fake hard dribble towards the left, like
Speaker 1: when the closeouts not as hard. Car dribble towards the left,
Speaker 1: like you're going to the rim and then step back.
Speaker 1: He can make that one or an escape dribble coming
Speaker 1: off the screen. So imagine he's in the left corner
Speaker 1: and he's coming off of a couple of wide pin
Speaker 1: downs and he catches the ball, but the defender is
Speaker 1: a little too close to him. He'll just take one
Speaker 1: extra dribble to get a little bit further away before
Speaker 1: he rises up. He's actually doing a really nice job
Speaker 1: creating additional looks for himself doing that. Dear and Fox
Speaker 1: has been a borderline all started to start the year.
Speaker 1: His jump shot looks a lot better than last year.
Speaker 1: He's been very good in pick and roll. We talked
Speaker 1: about this last week. A hundred points on a hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty seven pick and rolls including passes, which is
Speaker 1: in the seventy four percentile in the league. Uh Demonus
Speaker 1: Sabonis is doing all the usual Sabonis Sabonus stuff, bullying
Speaker 1: his way to the rim. He's always been a great
Speaker 1: passer when he passes out of the post. This year,
Speaker 1: the Kings are scoring one point to seven points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is very good. Keegan Murray is a great fit.
Speaker 1: Maliaque Monk and Davean Mitchell have both been really good,
Speaker 1: lots of good for the Kings. But there seven and defense,
Speaker 1: they're just one in three against teams that are five
Speaker 1: hundred or better. In fact, they rank dead last and
Speaker 1: strength of schedule right now. They've just been able to
Speaker 1: outscore teams because they're playing almost exclusively bad teams. The
Speaker 1: realities is eventually their schedule will toughen up and they'll
Speaker 1: have to play more balanced brand of two way basketball
Speaker 1: or they're gonna start losing games. That's just the reality,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna learn a lot more about this team
Speaker 1: in the next couple of weeks. This is their upcoming schedule.
Speaker 1: They're finishing a game against Memphis right now, although Memphis
Speaker 1: is super shorthanded, there down their three best players. Then
Speaker 1: they play Atlanta and Bosta, Atlanta and Boston on the road.
Speaker 1: Then they play Phoenix, then they play that red hot
Speaker 1: Pacers team, Then they play the Clippers, then they play
Speaker 1: the Bulls who just beat the Celtics. Then they play
Speaker 1: the Bucks, and then they play the Calves. So if
Speaker 1: you're a King's fan and you're hating on me because
Speaker 1: I'm pointing out the strength of schedule stuff. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have a chance to rub it in my face if
Speaker 1: they ripped through that next stretch of schedule by going,
Speaker 1: you know, if I win in four or five of
Speaker 1: those games, which we will see, like I said, we
Speaker 1: will know if the Kings are for real in about
Speaker 1: two weeks. All right. Next question, this is from ricks
Speaker 1: moving forward. Who do you think needs to step up
Speaker 1: more for the Warriors? Jordan Poole or Andrew Wiggins. It's
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool, no question. It's having a bad season. He
Speaker 1: scored twenty six on Monday Night, but a lot of
Speaker 1: bad decision making a really kind of like a ballhog
Speaker 1: type of game, just hunting his shot as the Warriors
Speaker 1: were just getting the crap beat out of him. He's
Speaker 1: been super inconsistent offensively and flat out bad defensively. In
Speaker 1: the bench desperately needs him to be better to help
Speaker 1: bolster that unit, while on the other on the other end,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins has just been flat out good as he
Speaker 1: always is. So definitely Jordan Pool is the player who
Speaker 1: needs to step up more for the Warriors. All right,
Speaker 1: This one is from Joshua. What could the MAVs add
Speaker 1: to their offensive scheme given their current person to make
Speaker 1: it less Luca centric? Not a whole lot. You know,
Speaker 1: Christian Wood is having a good offensive season. That was
Speaker 1: the offensive piece they brought in this summer, but it's
Speaker 1: mostly been when he's been created for. He's doing good
Speaker 1: in spot up situations and on the role, but he's
Speaker 1: having a slightly below average season in both is so
Speaker 1: and post up situations. And now he's playing less and
Speaker 1: less because he's so bad defensively. His defensive instincts are
Speaker 1: really bad. He's always up out of his stance, so
Speaker 1: he can't rotate quickly, even though he's actually a pretty
Speaker 1: good athlete with really long arms, just bad instincts over
Speaker 1: helps or hugs up to his defender, his his matchup.
Speaker 1: A lot of bad stuff offensive defensively that's leading him
Speaker 1: to to slip out of the rotation. And then Tim
Speaker 1: Hardaway Jr. Is just having a disaster shooting season. I
Speaker 1: think they were counting on him to be better than
Speaker 1: he's been. The truth is is that the Mavericks have
Speaker 1: a lot of specialists and not a lot of well
Speaker 1: rounded offensive basketball players, which is fine, that's the design
Speaker 1: of the system. There's a lot of guys that can
Speaker 1: make spot up the reason, a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: can defend, but you need your three solid creators, and
Speaker 1: ever since they lost Jalen Brunson, they just don't have that.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the numbers, Spencer didn't what
Speaker 1: He's been good. Luca don Chich has been good both
Speaker 1: in pick and roll in isolation. Both of those guys,
Speaker 1: including passing. They just need that third creator which they
Speaker 1: don't have. And the reality is that they don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of options on the trade market. Um I
Speaker 1: would keep an eye on a Russ buy out here,
Speaker 1: So in the event of a Russell Westbrook trade, there's
Speaker 1: a pretty good chance that he gets bought out. And
Speaker 1: this like the there Eric Pinkinson his Bleacher Report article yesterday,
Speaker 1: UH has said that in the event of a Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook buy out, most of the league thinks he's going
Speaker 1: to the Miami Heat and that's also a good fit
Speaker 1: for him, and we're actually gonna talk about that here
Speaker 1: in a little bit, But I think Dallas is the
Speaker 1: perfect fit for him. And the main reason why is
Speaker 1: there spacing concepts like Russell Westbrook is a Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: racks up assists because of his ability to pressure the rim,
Speaker 1: but he's actually not a great passer. He's more of
Speaker 1: like a He makes simple reads relentlessly and he's just
Speaker 1: so good at getting to the rim that all those
Speaker 1: easy reads to the corners and to the dunker spot
Speaker 1: are just always open because of the pressure that he
Speaker 1: puts on the rim and the way the defense collapses
Speaker 1: around him. So I think his passing would be ideal
Speaker 1: in a system like Dallas that has those concepts nailed down,
Speaker 1: and it's always like Reggie Bullocker, Dorian Phinney Smith or
Speaker 1: maxi Leeve a great shooter in those corners, and if
Speaker 1: it's someone in the dunker spot, it's a Christian Wood,
Speaker 1: it's a Dwight Palette, JaVale McGee, a guy that can
Speaker 1: easily finish down there. So it's a simplified offensive system
Speaker 1: where you put the ball in Russ's hands and it's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: for the next fourteen possessions, I need you to create
Speaker 1: a shot. Well, that's ideal for him. He can just
Speaker 1: play Russ ball. He's got easy passing reads there for him.
Speaker 1: I think that's perfect fit. So one of the easy
Speaker 1: ways for Dallas to bolster their playmaking is hope for
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook trade and hope that he gets bought out
Speaker 1: and then pitch him like, hey, don't go to Miami,
Speaker 1: you know, come to us and and we're just gonna
Speaker 1: you play russ ball. Um. All right, next question this
Speaker 1: is from Miles. Do you think too many people brush
Speaker 1: off Paul George is just another player? Yes, thank you, Miles,
Speaker 1: so glad that you said this. Um. He deserved his
Speaker 1: earlier reputation when he was struggling in the postseason, both
Speaker 1: with the Thunder, you know, struggling with the likes of
Speaker 1: Joe Ingles and then even with the Clippers. Um, really
Speaker 1: struggling in the bubble in particular, he at one point
Speaker 1: lost five playoff series in a row, and he deserved
Speaker 1: a lot of the criticism that went his way there.
Speaker 1: But he's not the same player now that he was then.
Speaker 1: He's much better getting to the room and he's a
Speaker 1: much better passer. Overall, he's an outstanding perimeter defender that
Speaker 1: can score it all three levels, and that can play
Speaker 1: make out of the pick and roll and out of
Speaker 1: the post. So he's on a that automatically puts you
Speaker 1: in the conversation as to whether or not you're a superstar.
Speaker 1: I think he's in that tier right below superstar and
Speaker 1: that like ten to fifteen range with the likes of
Speaker 1: like Brandon Ingram and Jalon Brown and guys like that,
Speaker 1: but definitely better than those two guys. I think he's
Speaker 1: like at the top of the tier that's right below
Speaker 1: the superstars. His passing is probably his most underrated skill
Speaker 1: right now. He's passed out of the pick and roll
Speaker 1: a hundred and nine times this year. That has led
Speaker 1: to a twenty one points, which is in the eighty
Speaker 1: one percentile in the league. He also passes really well
Speaker 1: out of the post. He's a legit dominant two A
Speaker 1: wing whose last playoff front was dominant. Don't forget that
Speaker 1: when Kawai went down, he took the Sons to He
Speaker 1: beat the Jazz and then took the Sons to six
Speaker 1: and came within two wins of an NBA Finals. He's
Speaker 1: capable aout playing any player in the league on any
Speaker 1: given night. He's not just a guy, like Miles said,
Speaker 1: so I appreciated that from Mr Miles. This last question
Speaker 1: is from Mike, what do you believe the Heat need
Speaker 1: to turn around the season. So they've dropped four games
Speaker 1: in a row, three in a row without Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: They were already thin in the front court as soon
Speaker 1: as they lost p J. Tucker to the Sixers. That's
Speaker 1: something that we were on before the season, and you
Speaker 1: know it's manifested in in particular in stretches like this
Speaker 1: where they've had guys out of the lineup, because it's
Speaker 1: mainly a depth issue their core lineups. Before we go
Speaker 1: any further into this, the silver lining with this bad
Speaker 1: Heat start to the season is that when Bam at
Speaker 1: a bio, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry are on the
Speaker 1: floor together, they have a one nineteen offensive rating and
Speaker 1: a one ten defensive rating, which is plus nine per
Speaker 1: one possessions. And that's in a large sample size five
Speaker 1: six possessions. So it's primarily a depth issue. Um. But
Speaker 1: the reality is is because of that thin front court,
Speaker 1: they just can't afford to have Jimmy or Bam miss games.
Speaker 1: Like Nikola Jovich, I was watching a bunch of film
Speaker 1: on him earlier today, He's fine, He's got a he's
Speaker 1: got good form on his jump shot, but he's not
Speaker 1: a very good athlete right now, and he's you know,
Speaker 1: it's been a mixed bag defensively, and even though the
Speaker 1: forum looks good on the jump shot, the jump shots
Speaker 1: not going in, so there's a lot of stuff there. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, he hasn't been good enough to bolster that
Speaker 1: front court in the way they need. They're one in
Speaker 1: four in games that Jimmy Butler has missed, an oh
Speaker 1: in two and games that Bam has missed, and they're
Speaker 1: down to twenty three in offense. You know, lack of
Speaker 1: offensive creation was an issue last year that I constantly
Speaker 1: talked about, but they made up for it with execution.
Speaker 1: They're one of the smartest teams in the league. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler just going otherworldly good in the playoffs, and then
Speaker 1: they were a very good defensive team. They were fourth
Speaker 1: in defense last year. But they're so damn thin in
Speaker 1: the front court that they can't get stops anymore. According
Speaker 1: to Cleaning the Glass this year there in half court defense,
Speaker 1: and then on the offensive creation side of things, especially
Speaker 1: now that Jimmy Butler's out, like Bam has been fine.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he's created forty points on forty post
Speaker 1: ups including passes, which is sixty percentile, so slightly above average.
Speaker 1: Forty one points on thirty eight ISOs, which is in
Speaker 1: the seventy one percentile. But that's all really low volume.
Speaker 1: That's you know, every once in a while we throw
Speaker 1: the ball to Bam and he makes a play. That's
Speaker 1: not like, you know, constructing the offense around him. Bam
Speaker 1: is a Swiss army knife of a defensive forward who
Speaker 1: is a very good offensive player in the Miami Heat
Speaker 1: system because of the things that he can do in
Speaker 1: fake drible handoffs and and how good of a screener
Speaker 1: he is, and how good he is as a vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: and his ability to occasionally create offense and is and
Speaker 1: post ups. But what he's not is the offensive focal
Speaker 1: point for a great team that that ship has sailed
Speaker 1: at this point. Um Kyle Lowry has been a rock
Speaker 1: of availability. He hasn't missed a game, but he's having
Speaker 1: his least efficient scoring season since two thousand fifteen. He's
Speaker 1: shooting just thirty nine from the field. He's having a
Speaker 1: really bad pick and roll season. He's run two hundred
Speaker 1: and twelve pick and rolls this year that have led
Speaker 1: to just one points, which is zero point nine points
Speaker 1: per possession, which is in the thirty seven percentile in
Speaker 1: the league. But again, as we back away the silver lining,
Speaker 1: when Bam and Jimmy and Kyler on the floor their
Speaker 1: plus nine per one hundred possessions and a pretty good
Speaker 1: sample size. So it's really just a depth issue, so
Speaker 1: that they should be super active in the trade market
Speaker 1: looking for front court depth. Jay Crowder is obviously available.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if they're a player when when
Speaker 1: when those Hawks eventually heat up and then teams will
Speaker 1: eventually start tanking. There was a male bad question in
Speaker 1: there that I didn't put on the list, but someone asked, like,
Speaker 1: do you think there's any chance that the Jazz still
Speaker 1: end up trying to tank? And they've won so many
Speaker 1: games at this point that like they're probably gonna even
Speaker 1: if they did try to tank, they're still gonna finish
Speaker 1: with wins. And you know the reality is they just
Speaker 1: have so many good players, Like they could trade Mike Conley,
Speaker 1: and they could trade you know, uh, Rudy gay and
Speaker 1: and Jordan Clarkson. But it's like Colin Sexton still there
Speaker 1: and he's really good over in marketing is really good.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt is a really good player. They just, you know,
Speaker 1: Malik be easily can shoot the ship out of the basketball.
Speaker 1: They just they have so many good players that it's
Speaker 1: kind of not feasible for them to to pull the
Speaker 1: team apart, you know, in a way that would actually
Speaker 1: make them bad. So I don't think the Jazz are
Speaker 1: gonna be tanking anymore, but they might still make some
Speaker 1: players available in trade, but there will be some teams
Speaker 1: out there that eventually start pulling the plug. And when
Speaker 1: they do, I'd expect the Miami Heat to jump into
Speaker 1: those conversations. And then, like I said earlier, Eric Pinks
Speaker 1: from bleacher Report said that the buzz around the league
Speaker 1: is that if Russell Westbrook gets bought out, he's going
Speaker 1: to Miami, and I do like that for Russ a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't like it as much as that Dallas situation,
Speaker 1: but it's a similar type of idea. They have lots
Speaker 1: of shooting with Gay, Vincent, Max Strus, Tyler Harrow, Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 1: I think they're making Duncan Robinson available for trade as well.
Speaker 1: I saw a report about that today, but Russ's ability
Speaker 1: to pressure the rim. You know, the thing with Miami,
Speaker 1: they don't have good offensive creators, but they do have
Speaker 1: guys that can attack close out as well, whether that's
Speaker 1: shooting or extending the advantage. Right, So the key for
Speaker 1: them is they just they don't have enough guys that
Speaker 1: can get the defense into rotation. And say what you
Speaker 1: want about Russell Westbrook, He's got a lot of flaws,
Speaker 1: but his ability to get to the basket does put
Speaker 1: teams into rotation. He will get Max trus you know,
Speaker 1: gave Vincent, Kyle Lowry, those guys close out opportunities. You know,
Speaker 1: Tyler Harroll is one of the best close out attackers
Speaker 1: in the league. You get a bunch of opportunities for
Speaker 1: those guys. That could be something that helps juice up
Speaker 1: their offense. Uh um a little bit. He also plays
Speaker 1: bigger than his size at six three, so that bolsters
Speaker 1: them physically and that's something they desperately need. And then
Speaker 1: Erik Spoelstra is just a really smart coach and uh
Speaker 1: he would probably find a way to use rus effectively.
Speaker 1: So bottom line, this version of Miami Heat is not
Speaker 1: a feasible contender, but they are a mover or two
Speaker 1: away from re entering that conversation. All right, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. I'll have for the rest
Speaker 1: of the week. I hope all of you guys enjoy
Speaker 1: the holiday. I hope you have some good food. I
Speaker 1: helpe you spend some time with family, and I will
Speaker 1: see you guys on Monday. Like I said, keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the Twitter feeds. I'll be doing the occasional.
Speaker 1: I'll just you know, tweet out my thoughts on a
Speaker 1: handful of important games, and um, let's send out some
Speaker 1: video footage and stuff like that. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting the show, and I will see
Speaker 1: you on Monday. The Volume