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Speaker 1: well good do you tonight here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Oh love you guys are having a great week. Well,
Speaker 1: we got to cover about three or four nights of games,
Speaker 1: so I thought the best way for us to do
Speaker 1: that today is going to be five big takeaways from
Speaker 1: the weekend. You guys are familiar with this format, We've
Speaker 1: done it before. We're gonna be bouncing around the league.
Speaker 1: Talk a little Boston Celtic, some Grizzlies, some Timberwolves, some Lakers,
Speaker 1: and some Cleveland Cavaliers. You guys know the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops and O
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Speaker 1: also super helpfulf you leave a rating and a review
Speaker 1: on that front, and then keep dropping mail back questions
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments so that we can hit them
Speaker 1: in our Friday videos throughout the remainder of the year.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So Number one, the
Speaker 1: pathway for the Boston Celtics to get out of their
Speaker 1: mid season slump is through not settling. The Celtics absolutely
Speaker 1: smashed the Golden State Warriors. Ain't oracle yesterday. It was
Speaker 1: ugly right away, right when Steph Curry went to the bench.
Speaker 1: That offense has enough trouble scoring even with Steph on
Speaker 1: the floor, but when Steph goes off the floor, it's
Speaker 1: an absolute catastrophe. There was a Buddy Heeled and Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder led unit that completely fell apart, and then when
Speaker 1: Steph came back, they couldn't regain controle. The Celtics defense
Speaker 1: was super sharp all night with their game playing discipline,
Speaker 1: did a great job, unstaff did a great job in
Speaker 1: everybody else, and really, the Warriors without Jonathan Kaminga are
Speaker 1: just utterly devoid of offensive talent and the Celtics just
Speaker 1: took care of them. The Celtics also shot the ball well.
Speaker 1: They were fifteen for thirty six on catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots for one point twenty five points per attempt,
Speaker 1: and they just utterly dominated the game. But I want
Speaker 1: to zoom in specifically on the concept of settling because,
Speaker 1: as we know, the Celtics have been in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a funk right They are eight and seven
Speaker 1: in their last fifteen games. That's about a month's sample
Speaker 1: where you're playing about five hundred basketball Now. It's difficult
Speaker 1: because they're still top five in offense and defense in
Speaker 1: that span, because in their wins they've been so damn good.
Speaker 1: It's just they've had these ugly losses. But what has
Speaker 1: happened in the losses in those seven losses in that
Speaker 1: fifteen game span. Their defense has actually been pretty good.
Speaker 1: It's a one oh four point nine offensive rating that
Speaker 1: is doing them in in those situations. Their offense has
Speaker 1: really stalled out at times. Right, so we need to
Speaker 1: zoom in on this offense. And you know with the
Speaker 1: Celtics again, their matchup attacking offense they are did. They
Speaker 1: refer to it as a killer whale offense, especially against
Speaker 1: teams that are doing a lot of perimeter switching. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of like Jalen Brown and Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum attacking these matchups out of the post or in
Speaker 1: ISO situations. In ISO situations, they pretty standardly turn into
Speaker 1: wing ISOs with the floor spaced out, usually you know,
Speaker 1: occupied corners, guy in the weak side wing and usually
Speaker 1: like something like a guard in the dunker spot with
Speaker 1: some off ball movement. Right in those situations, one of
Speaker 1: two things usually happens. Either Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: will be physically aggressive downhill to start a drive and
Speaker 1: kick possession, or they will settle.
Speaker 2: For some sort of off the dribble jump shot.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, to be clear, settling is it reminds me
Speaker 1: of when when I was young when people analysts used
Speaker 1: to be like, why doesn't Lebron James drive to the
Speaker 1: basket every time? And it's completely unrealistic because for those
Speaker 1: of you guys who have played basketball as a downhill
Speaker 1: type of player, it's exhausting to beat people off the
Speaker 1: dribble every single time down the floor, especially as you
Speaker 1: get older, right, And so settling is a part of
Speaker 1: basketball in the sense that like, if you can find
Speaker 1: a way to create a shot for yourself that is
Speaker 1: reasonably efficient, but that isn't going to take a ton
Speaker 1: of energy, that's a great thing for you to supplement
Speaker 1: your offense with in a way that's going to prevent
Speaker 1: you from getting worn down over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: And as we enter into this discussion, I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, I don't think Jason Tatum should never take
Speaker 1: iso jump shots. He absolutely should. He's gotten a lot
Speaker 1: better at him. He's having his best season shooting them
Speaker 1: since the twenty twenty year, right, So, like you want
Speaker 1: Tatum taking them on occasion, I think there's a time
Speaker 1: and a place, Like I like when he gets centers
Speaker 1: on switches and centers are playing back on their heels,
Speaker 1: that's a great time to go to that little like
Speaker 1: in and out type jump shot there. When he gets
Speaker 1: smaller players on him though, and they're press him up
Speaker 1: a little bit more, I almost prefer him trying to
Speaker 1: be physically aggressive downhill towards the rim. There's kind of
Speaker 1: like a time in a place for that sort of thing, right.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was interesting because as as you
Speaker 1: just look in at the film in that game last night,
Speaker 1: through the first three quarters, because the Warriors put all
Speaker 1: their starters, their good players on the bench in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. In the first three quarters, the Celtics spran
Speaker 1: sixteen ISOs, and on nine of those sixteen ISOs they
Speaker 1: settled for ISO jump shots. In seven of them they
Speaker 1: attempted to get downhill. On the nine settles, both Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown each hit like a tough fade away. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown hit like a tough left over left shoulder fade
Speaker 1: over Kavan Looney, and then Tatum hit like a little
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade in some traffic, and then Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: hit a really tough bank shot kind of around like
Speaker 1: the lane line on the left side of the floor.
Speaker 1: In the second half, those are their only three bucks
Speaker 1: in nine possessions, so six points and nine possessions or
Speaker 1: zero points sixty seven points per possession on the set
Speaker 1: n possessions, or they attempted to drive downhill in those switches.
Speaker 1: They made two easy catch and shoot threes on kickouts,
Speaker 1: They made two easy layups on drop off passes, and
Speaker 1: then Jalen Brown hit kind of like a tough step
Speaker 1: through floater against Buddy. Healed very pump faked, and then
Speaker 1: went towards the rim and made a floater. So they
Speaker 1: got twelve points on seven possessions, or one point seven
Speaker 1: to one points per possession, or almost three times as efficient. Now,
Speaker 1: again that's a small sample. I'm not going to sit
Speaker 1: here and pretend like you won't have games where Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown are hitting those off the dribble jump shots
Speaker 1: and guys are missing some of the catch and suit
Speaker 1: kickouts that will happen in the playoffs sometimes when things
Speaker 1: get tight again. This is not meant to be some
Speaker 1: sort of like sweeping declaration that they should never take
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot. It's just about an order
Speaker 1: of operations. There's this clear evidence in these seven losses
Speaker 1: that you're not scoring the basketball right and that your
Speaker 1: offense has some tendency to cool off in those situations.
Speaker 2: The best way to revert to that.
Speaker 1: Again, we are talking about how to get back to
Speaker 1: the point where the Celtics are playing championship basketball, which
Speaker 1: they have on occasion not consistently enough over the last month.
Speaker 1: In order for them to get back on track, they've
Speaker 1: got to get back to the identity that won them
Speaker 1: the title. It's a simple philosophy, right, It's the philosophy
Speaker 1: that changed from the year that they went to the
Speaker 1: finals in twenty twenty two and the year they won
Speaker 1: it two years later, which was the relentless pursuit of
Speaker 1: great shots. Meaning if there's a certain situation, you're tired
Speaker 1: on this specific possession, you just need to get an
Speaker 1: easier look, or it's a late clock situation, you need
Speaker 1: to create something out of nothing. By all means lean
Speaker 1: on your greatness as an individual shot maker. But if
Speaker 1: the Celtics are going to be good enough to beat
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Cavaliers and be good enough to beat the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder, they are going to have to get
Speaker 1: back to the identity that carried them last year, which
Speaker 1: was Tatum and Brown being physically aggressive on switches trying
Speaker 1: to get downhill so that they can draw multiple defenders
Speaker 1: and break down the defense where they're aggregate talent can
Speaker 1: be in advantage again the Celtics. What makes the Celtics
Speaker 1: as dominant as they were last year isn't just Jalen
Speaker 1: and Jason, they are the original hunters at the head
Speaker 1: of these offensive possessions, but it is the aggregate talent,
Speaker 1: the ability to pop the ball around. The fact that
Speaker 1: all eight guys in their core playoff rotation are good shooters,
Speaker 1: close out attackers, decision makers, ball handlers, passers, that is
Speaker 1: what ties it all together. And the more they settle,
Speaker 1: the more they rely on their own individual greatness, the
Speaker 1: more that they play downhill aggressive, they rely on the
Speaker 1: strengths of the roster. One last note on this front.
Speaker 1: In the fourteen post ups against the Warriors last night,
Speaker 1: the Celtics scored on nine of them, a pretty clear
Speaker 1: indicator to me that like when you bake in physical aggression,
Speaker 1: it's more aggressive, it's more effective as well, and so
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be the key for the
Speaker 1: Celtics moving forward as they try to dig out of
Speaker 1: this little rut that they're in the middle of the season,
Speaker 1: not settling downhill. Physical generate higher quality catch and shoot
Speaker 1: looks that will help your shooters get out of slumps. Again,
Speaker 1: every single Celtic except for Peyton Pritchard is down year
Speaker 1: over year as a three point shooter. That means you
Speaker 1: got to get these guys out of slumps. And the
Speaker 1: only way you're gonna get them out of slumps is
Speaker 1: by generating them.
Speaker 2: Higher quality looks.
Speaker 1: And the only way you're going to generate higher quality
Speaker 1: looks for them is through physical aggression at the point
Speaker 1: of attack when you're in those matchup hunting situations. Number two,
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson has become one of the most underrated players
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I think part of it is the
Speaker 1: fact that he plays with John Morant, who is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest and most you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: famous and kind of resident young American stars in the league,
Speaker 1: right And I think part of it is the way
Speaker 1: that Jaren came into the league.
Speaker 2: Came into the league is more of like a shot
Speaker 2: blocking prospect.
Speaker 1: You guys might remember a few years ago when the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies were first starting to kind of get a notoriety.
Speaker 1: You'd have these crazy five six block games from Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 1: That was kind of like his original stamp that he
Speaker 1: put on this league.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: He also has kind of like an ugly looking jump shot.
Speaker 1: As he leans really far forward, it almost looks like
Speaker 1: a more set version of his floater, And I think
Speaker 1: that's part of why people kind of underrate him a
Speaker 1: little bit. But he has become an absolute monster to
Speaker 1: deal with on the offensive end of the flour Memphis
Speaker 1: got a very impressive come from behind victory against the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves yesterday. Their offense stalled out several times early
Speaker 1: on as the Wolves kind of controlled things, but Jared
Speaker 1: Jackson completely dominated the fourth quarter of this game, and
Speaker 1: he did it by absolutely frying one of his peers
Speaker 1: at his position. And Julius Randall started the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: just repeatedly going right at him. He posted him up
Speaker 1: on the right block, spun off of him, got right
Speaker 1: to the bucket, he caught like a little cross screen
Speaker 1: in the lane, got him into trail position, finished a
Speaker 1: little and one right at the front of the basket
Speaker 1: semi transition. In a kind of a transition push. When
Speaker 1: the defense is and set, he just drives right at
Speaker 1: Julius Randall out of the left slot, bumps him off
Speaker 1: and makes a little floater in the lane. Did the
Speaker 1: same thing to him in the half court on a
Speaker 1: play where he chained multiple counter moves together. That really
Speaker 1: is the thing that makes Jaron Jackson so difficult to
Speaker 1: guard as a downhill player. So he's very big and
Speaker 1: strong and has a good first step going both ways.
Speaker 1: But when you slide over and you cut him off,
Speaker 1: you have to absorb contact right and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys on that first bit of contact are going to
Speaker 1: gets so badly dislodged that Jaren can just go right
Speaker 1: back up to the basket, by the way, on that
Speaker 1: transition kind of that like semi transition drive on the
Speaker 1: left wing. That's literally what happened to Julius Randall. Hit
Speaker 1: the Jets got him good with that shoulder, bumped him off,
Speaker 1: and he went so far back that Jaren was just
Speaker 1: basically able to step through and shoot a little floater
Speaker 1: around like seven eight feet. That was pretty uncontested. But
Speaker 1: let's say that you actually side over and you absorbed
Speaker 1: that contact well, like Julius Randall did on the half
Speaker 1: court slot drive off the left end in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: where he did absorb that contact. Well, Jaren's gotten really
Speaker 1: good at chaining together counter moves and just go in
Speaker 1: the opposite direction. It actually reminds me a little bit
Speaker 1: of Shake Kilders Alexander the way that he can do it,
Speaker 1: where it's like he'll probe one way, get cut off,
Speaker 1: counter move, probe the other way, get cut off counter move,
Speaker 1: probe the opposite way. And basically every time with Jaron Jackson,
Speaker 1: he's bumping you with that shoulder every single time that
Speaker 1: he gets makes that dribble move, and he's hitting you
Speaker 1: and dislodging you, and eventually he's just gonna get either
Speaker 1: close enough to the basket to shoot, or he'll dislodge
Speaker 1: you so much that he can get to a shot
Speaker 1: earlier in the possession. But it's all about his ability
Speaker 1: to spin over both shoulders while controlling the basketball and
Speaker 1: hit behind the back moves. Because again, if you're facing
Speaker 1: this way and I'm leading with my right shoulder and
Speaker 1: I need to get back the opposite way. In contact situations,
Speaker 1: I can't dribble in front of me. If I dribble
Speaker 1: in front of me, I'm probably just gonna turn it over.
Speaker 1: Someone's gonna hit my arm. I'm not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to dribble in that kind of traffic. I need to
Speaker 1: get to my opposite shoulder while protecting the basketball, and
Speaker 1: the only two ways to do that are to spin
Speaker 1: over that left shoulder or to go behind the back
Speaker 1: and then lead with your oppice shoulder right. And so
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like he's just literally
Speaker 1: just hitting you like a battering ram, just changing direction
Speaker 1: each time as you cut him off. And then he's
Speaker 1: got the floater to tie it all together. He's taken
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty nine hooks and floaters this year
Speaker 1: that he's hitting at fifty four percent. So it just
Speaker 1: is has made him into a very very difficult player
Speaker 1: to deal with as just a downhill matchup attacking forward.
Speaker 1: And again that's not even a mismatch. He's doing that
Speaker 1: to Julius randall Right, a guy who's one of the
Speaker 1: other bully ball players in the league at his position.
Speaker 1: He was great down the stretch too. He had this
Speaker 1: ridiculous move in transition in like a bunch of traffic
Speaker 1: and like just a straight runout situation where he did
Speaker 1: a behind the back move and like made a floater
Speaker 1: in traffic, and then he iced the game with one
Speaker 1: of the biggest buckets in crunch time, another post up
Speaker 1: against Julius Randall on the right block where he just
Speaker 1: turned over his left shoulder and hit a little right
Speaker 1: handed hook shot. He finished with fifteen points in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, including three rebounds, a block, and a steal.
Speaker 1: The Wolves have this tendency where their offense can really
Speaker 1: fall apart at the end of games. We're we're talking
Speaker 1: about it in a minute, but one of the things
Speaker 1: that happens is like so many guys are getting ignored
Speaker 1: that it turns into like this kind of like onslaught
Speaker 1: at the rim where it's like, well, or Julius will
Speaker 1: drive into traffic and shoot like through six people and
Speaker 1: miss a shot, but like Rudy Gobert will come flying
Speaker 1: in and slap out the basketball, and then Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: will come flying in and he's trying to grab an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound, and like they try to make up for
Speaker 1: not being guarded by just crashing the glass like absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1: And when they do that, it can be a lot
Speaker 1: to deal with athletically as a team, and you have
Speaker 1: to have waves of athleticism to deal with that. Jaron
Speaker 1: Jackson was great in those scrums at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. That's also part of why Memphis went with
Speaker 1: some two big looks. You know, goes with so many
Speaker 1: two big looks and Zachi d he had a lot
Speaker 1: of success in this game just setting good screens. And
Speaker 1: he's doing the thing too that like the Gortat thing
Speaker 1: where he rolls into the lane and kind of clears
Speaker 1: out space for his ball handlers to get into the paint.
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark, we saw this in years past before Brandon
Speaker 1: Clark got injured. But the Brandon Clark Jaron Jackson combo
Speaker 1: together has that layers of athleticism around the rim that
Speaker 1: allowed them to fight in those contested rebound situations. One
Speaker 1: last Guy wanted the one last guy. I wanted to
Speaker 1: shout out there to that Joam Morant who just at
Speaker 1: the end of these games continues to just find ways
Speaker 1: to create offense. He hit like this crazy and one
Speaker 1: driving to the right where he had dug down on
Speaker 1: nasried and made a wild floater, and then hit a
Speaker 1: pretty tough little like one of his little patented step
Speaker 1: back eurostep one legged floaters along the left lane line.
Speaker 1: And again Memphis' offense has been tricky in certain spots
Speaker 1: this year, especially in crunch time, and a big part
Speaker 1: of it is going to come down to the shot
Speaker 1: making of guys like Jaron Jackson, guys like Desmond Baine,
Speaker 1: Guys like John Moran. Right, and like Desmond Bain hit
Speaker 1: a big movement three on a play where Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: was trailing him at the top of the key. It
Speaker 1: was a big part of their comeback in that second half.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of shot making that you need against
Speaker 1: these elite defenses that can really make things difficult in
Speaker 1: the paint for your driving kick attack.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So just something to keep an eye on as we
Speaker 1: move forward from Memphis number three. We are close to
Speaker 1: the deadline now, and I think we can all agree
Speaker 1: that the Julius Randall experiment has been a massive failure.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember what I said at the time
Speaker 1: of the deal, it had an obvious financial upside, and
Speaker 1: that was kind of the political kind of like description
Speaker 1: of in house of what they did, like, oh, we're
Speaker 1: doing this because we need to have long term flexibility.
Speaker 1: And it had some basketball upside, right, Like Julius Randall
Speaker 1: is in theory a better on ball type of player
Speaker 1: than Karl Anthony Towns, and they don't really have a
Speaker 1: good on ball option off of Anthony Edwards. So it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe this will work out, but it obviously came with
Speaker 1: a ton of risk in that the cat fit was
Speaker 1: just so much better as a shooting threat between Rudy.
Speaker 2: Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.
Speaker 1: And so we looked at it at the time of
Speaker 1: the trade and it's like, this has an obvious potential
Speaker 1: to make them way worse, but it has some potential
Speaker 1: to make them better. And it comes with this financial
Speaker 1: you know, kind of you know back end to it,
Speaker 1: where you gain flexibility by getting off of Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns's deal. Right, So, like that is the case for
Speaker 1: why they did it, but there was an obvious downside,
Speaker 1: and the downside has just come to the service. Two
Speaker 1: realities about Julius Randall on this team have become abundantly
Speaker 1: clear to me through the first half of the season. One,
Speaker 1: there just isn't that much offensive upside with him as
Speaker 1: an on ball player. He's fine on ball player. He's
Speaker 1: getting you know what, nineteen points of games, fifty eight
Speaker 1: ish percent true shooting. He's been a post player that's
Speaker 1: generating about one point two points per post up. It's
Speaker 1: it's not like he's been awful on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, but like it's not exceptionally high volume
Speaker 1: and it's not exceptionally high efficiency. And so with that
Speaker 1: being the best thing that he provides, it just hasn't
Speaker 1: been the upside that it needed to be for this
Speaker 1: whole thing to work out. If this was going to
Speaker 1: work out, you needed something like twenty five points per
Speaker 1: game from Julius Randall on sixty percent true shooting, and
Speaker 1: that just hasn't been the case. He hasn't been able
Speaker 1: to produce enough or efficiently enough to make that trade off.
Speaker 1: Fourth it and then two, he's just an absolutely brutal
Speaker 1: off ball offensive fit. He's converting spot up possessions at
Speaker 1: just zero point nine points per possession. Among the thirty
Speaker 1: six players in the NBA to log at least one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty spot up possessions this year, Julius Randall's
Speaker 1: zero point nine points per possession ranks thirty fourth, so
Speaker 1: the third worst in the league among reasonable volume in
Speaker 1: spot up possessions, and it's totally compounded by the Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert thing. Gobert was just a total offensive nightmare against
Speaker 1: Memphis last night. Every time he was left alone and
Speaker 1: given the basketball, he just runs like an awkward deer
Speaker 1: into traffic and throws some bullshit up that has no
Speaker 1: chance of going in. They fed him in the post
Speaker 1: against Jaron Jackson, right under the rim, like a deep
Speaker 1: post catch, and he got smothered and blocked by Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 1: He got blitzed on a late possession fed to Rudy.
Speaker 1: Gobert on a short roll four on three, had a
Speaker 1: wide open kickout read to the right, instead threw a
Speaker 1: terrible pass to a baseline cutter that just went right
Speaker 1: out of bounds. He had this big offensive rebound late
Speaker 1: and instead of getting the ball to somebody, he just
Speaker 1: threw it out of bounds. Like just absolutely brutal on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor from Gobert. And then
Speaker 1: you're putting him next to you have Julius and then
Speaker 1: the guy next to him is Jada McDaniels. Which, by
Speaker 1: the way, that same list of thirty six players who
Speaker 1: have attempted at least one hundred and fifty spot up
Speaker 1: possessions this year, the one that Julius Raynal ranks thirty
Speaker 1: fourth in well Jada McDaniels ranks thirty second in. So
Speaker 1: you have two of the very worst spot up players
Speaker 1: in the league flanking probably the worst offensive starting center
Speaker 1: in the league, and as a result, every Timberwolves game
Speaker 1: at the end devolves into the exact same thing, which
Speaker 1: is Anthony Edwards playing hero ball. And sometimes they still
Speaker 1: win like that because they defend well enough, and you know,
Speaker 1: they've been going with nas Reid a lot in closing
Speaker 1: closing situations. He's been able to make big plays, made
Speaker 1: several big plays down the stretch last night, and maybe
Speaker 1: Aunt hits a couple crazy step back threes like he's
Speaker 1: done from time to time this year, and maybe you
Speaker 1: get out of there with the win. But like in
Speaker 1: order to win four playoff rounds, this offense just has
Speaker 1: too much of an ability to grind to a halt
Speaker 1: because your three, four and five are all completely incapable
Speaker 1: of playing off the ball offensively, and two of them
Speaker 1: can't play on the ball offensively, and one of them
Speaker 1: can play on the ball offensively but as just an
Speaker 1: incredibly mediocre offensive player. So it's untenable, and like, look,
Speaker 1: it's really difficult because you're a second Apron team and
Speaker 1: if you trade Julius Randall for salary that you end
Speaker 1: up keeping, then you undo some of the upside of
Speaker 1: the financial flexibility that you get from the Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns trades. So like, even if I discuss trades, I
Speaker 1: get there are ways, from what I understand, there are ways,
Speaker 1: even as a second Apron team, to jerry rig the
Speaker 1: trade system to where you can still aggregate salaries. And
Speaker 1: even if you like, I'd like, I'd love to see
Speaker 1: what it looks like to turn Julius Randall and Mike
Speaker 1: Conley and you know, maybe one other salary into Zach Lavine.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd love to see that. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see what it looks like to see Aunt and Zach
Speaker 1: with Jaden and nas Reed with Gobert and just see
Speaker 1: if it can come together. But like, why would any
Speaker 1: of us think that's gonna happen when the entire purpose
Speaker 1: of this destructive trade was for financial flexibility. So I
Speaker 1: just it just kind of seems like a really tough spot,
Speaker 1: and it seems like this is heading for a relatively
Speaker 1: mediocre season with a mediocre finish, and that just feels
Speaker 1: like a step backwards after what.
Speaker 2: They accomplished last year.
Speaker 1: Number four, the Lakers look like a team that is
Speaker 1: losing belief. They had a really ugly loss at the
Speaker 1: Clippers on Sunday night, and it looked like so many
Speaker 1: other Lakers games this year where for a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time they're competing. There's a really nice baseline drive
Speaker 1: for Max Christy out of the left corner where he
Speaker 1: goes right at Zubach and goes right around him, athletic
Speaker 1: up high finishes at the rim, gets it to forty
Speaker 1: three forty one with about seven minutes left in the
Speaker 1: second quarter, and over the next ten minutes of game play,
Speaker 1: just ten minutes, they get outscored twenty nine to eleven,
Speaker 1: and they're down by twenty getting blown out by a
Speaker 1: good team once again. And the thing is, so many
Speaker 1: of the same issues that have plagued them all season
Speaker 1: plagued them in that game. Possessions where you're just not
Speaker 1: running action like oh, it's big, big possession, they're on
Speaker 1: a run. We're down thirteen, we need a bucket. We're
Speaker 1: up the floor and into our offense, but like we're
Speaker 1: just going to stand around and we're gonna have a
Speaker 1: ball screen with Austin and Anthony Davis with no off
Speaker 1: ball movement, no action flowing into that ball screen. Just
Speaker 1: the easiest way for defense to defend a ball screen,
Speaker 1: just a static ball screen at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: Or okay, let's try to run some offense, but no
Speaker 1: one knows where to go, and Max Christy and Dalton
Speaker 1: connect are meandering around the floor as Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: losing as cool and jacking up a mid range jumps.
Speaker 1: I video of all these clips, you can go to
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT and I did
Speaker 1: a full film session on this run from the start
Speaker 1: of the run all the way through the finish of
Speaker 1: the run, where I kind of like laid out video
Speaker 1: examples of all these things so you guys can see
Speaker 1: them there again at Underscore Jason LT. But like not
Speaker 1: running offense, Lebron and Austin just throwing the ball away
Speaker 1: because they're not being careful or they're not being patient.
Speaker 1: There's a play where Austin's been running with Ruey pick
Speaker 1: and pop all season. Ruby always pops when he screens
Speaker 1: with Austin, and he, like Austin, threw a pass into
Speaker 1: a gap as if Ruy is gonna roll, and it's like, obviously,
Speaker 1: Ruey's gonna pop. He's been popping with you all season.
Speaker 1: Lebron trying to force a pass to a cutter that's
Speaker 1: just not open that then then not getting back in
Speaker 1: defense and giving up a dunk to a mere coffee
Speaker 1: as he's just literally just just hemorrhaging a four point
Speaker 1: swing with sloppy effort in transition on defense and a
Speaker 1: sloppy decision making as a ball handler, giving up precarious
Speaker 1: switches that they don't need to and then not having
Speaker 1: a plan with how to deal with them. There was
Speaker 1: one where Kawhi Leonard gets Gabe Vincent in the post
Speaker 1: on the left block and Ad is hard helping on
Speaker 1: the middle side, and Gabe is overplaying that middle shoulder
Speaker 1: from Kawhi, so Kwai just easily spins off of him,
Speaker 1: and there's no baseline help because Ruy's like not paying attention,
Speaker 1: all glued up to Zubas, So it's like, one, you're
Speaker 1: giving up this precarious switch. I think that one was
Speaker 1: a transition cross match, which happens, by the way, like
Speaker 1: I don't care what your defensive scheme is, you will
Speaker 1: end up in precarious switches just because how basketball works,
Speaker 1: you have to have a plan for what to deal
Speaker 1: with there. And we've talked about this, like in other games,
Speaker 1: I've seen them. Austin Reeves gets stuck in the post
Speaker 1: with god who was it, it was bam Adebayo and
Speaker 1: Ruey and ad are crowding him on both ends and
Speaker 1: they're closing out the shooters and they're doing their jobs,
Speaker 1: and then when they don't do that, when they leave
Speaker 1: the guy on the island, he gets beat consistently. They
Speaker 1: have a plan. Okay, Gabe, you have Kawhi Leonard on you.
Speaker 1: We are going to be helping hard from the baseline side.
Speaker 1: So Ruey needs to know Gabe's in this situation. He's
Speaker 1: got to almost like zone up or just be very
Speaker 1: capable and ready to rotate in that position, which means
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis maybe as that one pass away guy is
Speaker 1: is big and long enough to crowd and like dig
Speaker 1: down and recover. But then there's going to be a
Speaker 1: week side two on one that you have to count
Speaker 1: for with somebody ready to rotate on the backside.
Speaker 2: You have a plan for it.
Speaker 1: But it's also in rebounding situations they gave up a
Speaker 1: bunch of offensive rebounds on switches. That was where they
Speaker 1: were getting brutalized by if you can Zoobach, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna end up in a switch. And again,
Speaker 1: by the way, like the Lakers have been trying to
Speaker 1: cut back on that, they still do a ton of it.
Speaker 1: Like they were switching just Rui ad action. So as
Speaker 1: soon as they switch any rue Actually, now you've got
Speaker 1: Ruey on Zubach, and Ruey can't handle Zubachi either. But
Speaker 1: like in those situations, like I don't expect Rui to
Speaker 1: be able to box out the biggest center, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest centers in the league, just like I don't
Speaker 1: expect Jason Tatum to do it for the Celtics. The
Speaker 1: Celtics aren't asking Jason Tatum to go one on one
Speaker 1: against opposing centers when he's guarding a center and he's
Speaker 1: in the in.
Speaker 2: The paint rebounding. It is a team effort.
Speaker 1: I saw plays where Rui's fighting for position and Zubac
Speaker 1: has him sealed and a long rebound comes off the
Speaker 1: back of the rim, and the other four Lakers are
Speaker 1: just standing around watching Zubach grab the ball over the top.
Speaker 1: When you end up in those mismatches, you have to
Speaker 1: have a plan for how to deal with it, both
Speaker 1: in your help and recover and in your rebounding situations
Speaker 1: and beyond that plan, it has to be done. I
Speaker 1: know that plan exists. There's been a lot of criticism
Speaker 1: of JJ Reddick, and like, I don't disagree that it's
Speaker 1: been a less than perfect season from him, but a
Speaker 1: lot of this is like he's telling the guys what
Speaker 1: to do. They're talking a big game behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: they're in the pressers saying all these things about how
Speaker 1: they want to do this stuff, and then they go
Speaker 1: out there and they don't do it, and it's like
Speaker 1: a prerequisite they are not talented enough to not be
Speaker 1: a good execution team.
Speaker 2: I could go on.
Speaker 1: I have so many things on this list, like Austin
Speaker 1: and Max botching switches. They botched one in the second
Speaker 1: half where where Derek Jones Jr. Just slipped out of
Speaker 1: his screen and it's like, Austin and Max, that should
Speaker 1: be a switch. It's been a switch all season, and
Speaker 1: yet they continue to botch these switches and give up
Speaker 1: easy dribble penetration or over the top passes. It was
Speaker 1: an over the top pass to Derek Jones Jr. Easy
Speaker 1: drop off. He missed a floater, but Zubos got in
Speaker 1: there dunk because they had to rotate on the weak side.
Speaker 1: It's just guys not executing. Everybody on defense all game
Speaker 1: just looked lethargic and a step slow. Anthony Davis, he
Speaker 1: had some drop coverage possessions where he's just not protect
Speaker 1: the rim. He was in his own possession where he
Speaker 1: just got absolutely torched by Norman Powell. Like he's just
Speaker 1: not playing very good defense this year compared to what
Speaker 1: he's done in the past. The backside rotations. This is
Speaker 1: the play I want to I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: like use as a final example. So it's a hardened
Speaker 1: zubotch ball screen. Max Christie's on Harden eighties on Zubach,
Speaker 1: Ad comes, Harden comes off the screen. Max is chasing,
Speaker 1: and Harden kind of dribbles along the left lane line
Speaker 1: and slows down for a second. Max chases and follows.
Speaker 1: But instead of Anthony Davis recovering to Zubach when Max
Speaker 1: was right there, Ad calls for a switch, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, probably shouldn't have been a switch. But whatever,
Speaker 1: this used to be your primary defensive scheme. So how
Speaker 1: would you handle this?
Speaker 2: Right? Harden dribbles Anthony Davis out towards the left wing.
Speaker 1: Zubach immediately tries to post up Max Christie. Now what
Speaker 1: you do in this situation when you're fronting the post,
Speaker 1: which is what Max is doing. Max tries to front
Speaker 1: the post. In this situation, you want backside help to
Speaker 1: shrink the passing window. Right, So like the way you
Speaker 1: beat a post front is you try to drive that
Speaker 1: elbow into the guy post fronting you to to push
Speaker 1: him down into the ground so we can't jump, and
Speaker 1: you want to create an over the top passing angle.
Speaker 1: But that angle can get shrunk by another defender coming
Speaker 1: in from this side, shrinking that window, and then there's
Speaker 1: a two on one on the weak side. If you
Speaker 1: execute it properly, you can force a really tight space speed,
Speaker 1: make him catch in a double team where he's frantic,
Speaker 1: and then if the other guy rotates, well you can
Speaker 1: take away any sort of easy opportunity out of that.
Speaker 1: But in this case, Austin was the guy who was
Speaker 1: bracketing with Max and Lebron was the guy who was rotating.
Speaker 1: But Austin was a step slow. Max went to front,
Speaker 1: Austin did nothing. The pass was in the air. Suddenly
Speaker 1: Austin goes to rotate. At that point, Lebron's job is
Speaker 1: to rotate to the cutter Austin's man. Lebron was a
Speaker 1: step slow, wasn't paying attention, and then he did finally rotate,
Speaker 1: but he was too late and it ended up in
Speaker 1: a dunk. So again, they know what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: They know what they're supposed to do, and they're just
Speaker 1: not doing it. Anthony Davison, Max probably shouldn't have switched
Speaker 1: that screen. But whatever, you end up in a bad switch.
Speaker 1: We have a plan for that. We're fronting the post,
Speaker 1: we're bracketing from behind, we're rotating. Except for Max did
Speaker 1: the fronting the post part. Austin was too late on
Speaker 1: his bracket and Lebron was too late on his rotation.
Speaker 1: That's just basic execution details that are limiting the Lakers'
Speaker 1: ability to be successful. There's just no consistency in their
Speaker 1: effort or in their execution, despite the fact that they've
Speaker 1: been talking that big game and it just continues to
Speaker 1: be the biggest barrier to their success and again, like
Speaker 1: there's personnel weaknesses that need to be addressed, and a
Speaker 1: lot of those things are kind of coming to the
Speaker 1: surface now as Lebron and Ad haven't been playing super
Speaker 1: well and Austin hasn't been playing super well. But the
Speaker 1: reality is they're not doing themselves any favor with just
Speaker 1: basic basketball controllables where they're not doing their jobs all right. Lastly,
Speaker 1: number five, the Cleveland Cavaliers have shown a little bit
Speaker 1: of their dark side the second Oklahoma City game. Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City be the shit out of them. Now, that was
Speaker 1: going to be a difficult game to win, regardless of
Speaker 1: the Isaiah Hartenstein injury. Oklahoma City has way more of
Speaker 1: a perimeter identity. That's where the majority of their talent is.
Speaker 1: And of course they continue to bring out good players.
Speaker 1: Brandon Carlson just steps into that game as a backup
Speaker 1: center and just starts hitting threes. But like, the perimeter
Speaker 1: talent is there, Okayse's always going to be a buzz
Speaker 1: saw at home, especially in a game like that where
Speaker 1: they really really are locked in for even the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It's just that's gonna be a really tough game to win.
Speaker 1: That said, I thought the game fell apart for Cleveland
Speaker 1: because of a concerning approach, something that was completely under
Speaker 1: their control. Oklahoma City completely ran away with that game
Speaker 1: with a run that spanned the late first quarter in
Speaker 1: the early second quarter. It was close, close, coast coast close,
Speaker 1: and then the wheels just completely came off. And in
Speaker 1: that stretch it was a lot of bad offense, losing
Speaker 1: their pace, not getting out in transition, and then settling
Speaker 1: for a lot of pull up threes. There was a
Speaker 1: sequence at one point in the run where Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: excuse me, where Cleveland, on back to back to back
Speaker 1: possessions just took off the jubil threes early in the clock.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell did it, Karris Lavert did it, even Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley did it.
Speaker 2: And it's like those are the kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Where like there's clearly I don't want to call it
Speaker 1: multiple personality because like there I do believe that basketball
Speaker 1: players can change and become better. But like a good
Speaker 1: part of what's happened for Cleveland this year is like
Speaker 1: guys embracing roles and playing within what the playing within
Speaker 1: what the team needs them to do right, And Kenny
Speaker 1: Atkinson has implemented a lot of like basic principles that
Speaker 1: weren't there last year in terms of running the floor,
Speaker 1: chasing higher volume three point attack, diversifying their offensive approach,
Speaker 1: to playing through multiple points of entry, all these different
Speaker 1: things to try to make life easier for them. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like if Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: takes a bunch of bad shots in a big playoff game,
Speaker 1: they could lose. If Karris Lavert takes a bunch of
Speaker 1: bad shots in a playoff game, they could lose. If
Speaker 1: there's an ugly side deep down there that has been
Speaker 1: part of these guys' personalities in the past that could
Speaker 1: rear its ugly head, And like that was the one
Speaker 1: thing that was a little concerning to me out of
Speaker 1: that game, other than Donovan Mitchell just really struggling with
Speaker 1: lou Do. Like lou Dort has just done a number
Speaker 1: on Donovan Mitchell in these two games, and it's it's
Speaker 1: started to affect him a little bit. But like in general,
Speaker 1: I think one of the big things for us to
Speaker 1: watch with Cleveland when they get into the postseason is
Speaker 1: their offense getting stagnant and them not relying on the
Speaker 1: same things that they thrived on in the regular season.
Speaker 1: In terms of pushing pace, moving the ball, and hunting
Speaker 1: great shots. I did think that that was a very
Speaker 1: very ugly offensive stretch from Cleveland in.
Speaker 2: That blowout loss. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 2: have for today.
Speaker 1: As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me
Speaker 1: and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more breakdowns,
Speaker 1: probably some trade deadline stuff as well.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
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