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Speaker 1: All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel
Speaker 1: here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys are having a great week so far.
Speaker 1: Quick show, we're gonna be hitting two games from last night,
Speaker 1: the return of Kevin Durant so the Phoenix Suns in
Speaker 1: a big win over red hot Minnesota Timberwolves team. Then
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the Los Angeles Lakers getting revenge
Speaker 1: on the Chicago Bulls, and then we're gonna go into
Speaker 1: a game from the previous night, the red hot Pelicans,
Speaker 1: winners of five in a row, going into Golden State
Speaker 1: getting up to a twenty point lead, but then, once again,
Speaker 1: as has been a recurring theme throughout this season, the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors somehow managed to get red hot in
Speaker 1: the second half themselves and come back to win that game.
Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, I'm gonna give some
Speaker 1: thoughts on the latest straw poll, which has Janis' Lee
Speaker 1: way behind Jokichen Embiid down the stretch here of the
Speaker 1: MVP race. You guys know the drill before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lts. You guys don't miss any show announcements. And if,
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Speaker 1: and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish,
Speaker 1: don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight, All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's reward for getting back onto the basketball court
Speaker 1: is he has to go up against one of the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defenders in the league this season, mister Jaden McDaniels,
Speaker 1: someone that I've had so much fun watching this year.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of talk of his offensive development
Speaker 1: and there's definitely some potential there. But make no mistake,
Speaker 1: Jade McDaniels has been one of the very best unball
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders this year, especially guarding and giving issues to
Speaker 1: NBA superstars. The local broadcast was referring to him to
Speaker 1: him as the seat belt last night, and I think
Speaker 1: he's just served and earned that nickname. It was it
Speaker 1: was a very tough matchup for Kevin Durant his first
Speaker 1: game back, and he ended up having a very uncharacteristic
Speaker 1: poor shooting night. You know what's interesting with KD is
Speaker 1: so many of the players that I followed in my
Speaker 1: time cover in the Game of basketball are rhythm players,
Speaker 1: and so when they come back from an extended absence,
Speaker 1: you almost expect them to struggle for three or four
Speaker 1: games as they try to work their way back into
Speaker 1: the flow and speed of NBA games. Lebron James, my
Speaker 1: personal favorite player, is someone like that, and even in
Speaker 1: his first matchup with the Chicago Bulls, even though he
Speaker 1: did a lot of good things, like you could tell
Speaker 1: the handle wasn't quite there. You could tell the shot
Speaker 1: wasn't quite there. That's pretty common, but interesting, interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's never been that type of guy. He's the
Speaker 1: guy that can miss an extended period of time, and
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he just naturally catches his rhythm the
Speaker 1: minute he steps back onto the court. Most famously, you
Speaker 1: guys might remember in the twenty nineteen finals, before his
Speaker 1: Achilles tear, he had like eleven points in the first
Speaker 1: quarter of that game and looked locked in with his
Speaker 1: handle and his jump shot. It's just kind of one
Speaker 1: of his unique superpowers. But Jade McDaniel's testament to him,
Speaker 1: managed to throw off that trend. It was kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting combination of super aggressive and physical ball pressure
Speaker 1: which forced Kadie not only on his drives to attack
Speaker 1: the rim. But Katie, I've always talked about, is one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league get working off
Speaker 1: the ball as a scorer. So like he'll kind of
Speaker 1: work his man down to the block and kind of
Speaker 1: give him a little shove and then come down like
Speaker 1: a wide pin down, which is just an off ball
Speaker 1: screen and catch at like fifteen feet and go to work.
Speaker 1: But Jaden was doing such a good job of staying
Speaker 1: attached to him on all those actions as well as
Speaker 1: well as his ball screens that he was forcing him
Speaker 1: to curl around those, because it's kind of like you're
Speaker 1: making reads as the as the off ball player, Right,
Speaker 1: I come off of that screen. If he's trailing behind
Speaker 1: me and I got space, I'm catching it. I'm shooting.
Speaker 1: But if he's trailing behind me and he's close to me,
Speaker 1: I want to keep him on that screen as long
Speaker 1: as possible. So I'm going to curl around the screen
Speaker 1: to give myself more opportunity and give my screen or
Speaker 1: more opportunity to flip the angle to try to stop
Speaker 1: him at some point as he's chasing me. Right, But
Speaker 1: if you can stay attached, then you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to apply back pressure. And Jade McDaniels has super long arms,
Speaker 1: and he was giving Katie issues as he would curl
Speaker 1: around those offball actions and get into the lane to
Speaker 1: try to rise up in that little ten fifteen foot area.
Speaker 1: Jaden was able to give him some issues with back pressure,
Speaker 1: just pressuring from behind and forcing him to change his release.
Speaker 1: You know, Kevin Durant, for as good as he is
Speaker 1: at everything else, I think he's made massive strides as
Speaker 1: a playmaker. He's having one of his better defensive seasons
Speaker 1: of his career. Obviously when it comes up, pull up
Speaker 1: shooting and playmaking and pick and roll is at the
Speaker 1: absolute peak of his game. But if there's one thing
Speaker 1: in Kevin Durant's game that you can be a little
Speaker 1: nitpicky about, he does not like to attack the rim.
Speaker 1: Compared to most of the big superstar wings that we
Speaker 1: have in the league, he does not apply rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and so when he's coming off of those curls and stuff,
Speaker 1: he's not looking to go all the way the rim.
Speaker 1: He's looking to pull up. That's where he's most comfortable.
Speaker 1: Even in the short short range like seven eight, nine
Speaker 1: to ten feet, he's looking to rise up and shoot
Speaker 1: a jump shot. So that buys Jaden McDaniels an opportunity
Speaker 1: to get back into the play in a way that
Speaker 1: he might not be able to if Katie kept his
Speaker 1: downhill aggression to go towards the rim. But he did.
Speaker 1: He had a lot of success against Katie in this game.
Speaker 1: He started just two for eleven from the field, finished
Speaker 1: just five for eighteen. Most of Katie's success in this
Speaker 1: game actually came kind of in their ball screen system.
Speaker 1: They had some success popping him to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. You know, classic case of he sets a
Speaker 1: ball screen and the dude who's guarding on the ball
Speaker 1: is trying to fight back into the play. But you know,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker or Chris Paul, whoever it is, is going
Speaker 1: downhill soever's guarded Katie's man is having to kind of
Speaker 1: contain them in the paint, and Katie pops out to
Speaker 1: the three point line. That's where that's open there. You
Speaker 1: can really only guard that by switching, which is something
Speaker 1: Minnesota wasn't doing, and so he got some good looks
Speaker 1: there and I think he had two threes in this game.
Speaker 1: That was where he kind of had the most success.
Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, to Jane McDaniel's credit, I thought, Kate,
Speaker 1: you know, Katie is such a good decision maker, and
Speaker 1: this was an uncharacteristically bad game for Katie from the
Speaker 1: standpoint of making decisions. When he would get the ball
Speaker 1: into his spots rather than moving it, he was kind
Speaker 1: of forcing it a little a bit. And I think
Speaker 1: I think Katie is so it's so unusual for him
Speaker 1: to have games like this that I think he handled
Speaker 1: it a little bit poorly. He's not your typical score
Speaker 1: that goes like hot night off night, hot night off night,
Speaker 1: like he is. He runs red hot all the time.
Speaker 1: His bad nights, he'll go ten for twenty two, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So he's so like relentlessly and
Speaker 1: consistently efficient that I think I think that specific game
Speaker 1: kind of threw him off a little bit. I would
Speaker 1: just crumple it up and throw it out. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if we don't see a bad shooting game
Speaker 1: like that from Katie the rest of the season, even
Speaker 1: through the playoffs. Chris Paul, interestingly enough, because you know,
Speaker 1: this is the thing with Minnesota. Anthony Edwards is going
Speaker 1: to take an assignment, Jade McDaniels is going to take
Speaker 1: an assignment, and those two guys are going to struggle.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker most of his success came against Minnesota's bench groups.
Speaker 1: Jade McDaniels obviously did his job. They kind of took
Speaker 1: those two guys not out of the equation, but severely
Speaker 1: limited them. But Chris Paul was the one who found
Speaker 1: himself coming off of those ball screens open a lot
Speaker 1: and he hit a lot of shots. I think he
Speaker 1: was seven for fifteen in this game. He was the
Speaker 1: one who kind of found himself in the situations where
Speaker 1: he was able to score this physicality though, because like Aunton,
Speaker 1: Jaden really brought the physicality from the opening tip. And
Speaker 1: it kind of came back to bite Minnesota because in
Speaker 1: that third quarter they picked up a bunch of fouls
Speaker 1: early and then they were in the penalty the whole
Speaker 1: third quarter. Phoenix ended up shooting thirteen free throws in
Speaker 1: the quarter. That's how they turned a ten point deficit
Speaker 1: to a seven point lead in that quarter. For the game,
Speaker 1: they had a twenty seven to twelve free throw advantage.
Speaker 1: I wonder if Devin Booker and Monty Williams went to
Speaker 1: the presser after and argued about how they got unfair
Speaker 1: treatment in a positive way. Sorry, no shade necessarily towards
Speaker 1: the Phoenix suns. I just you guys, just know I
Speaker 1: hate when people complained about officiating. It's like one of
Speaker 1: my big pet peeves, my biggest concern with Phoenix. A
Speaker 1: few times that I've watched them, this is the fourth
Speaker 1: game we've seen them with KD. They're a little thin.
Speaker 1: You can push them around physicality. We saw that a
Speaker 1: little bit, and then they're not going to win the
Speaker 1: rim pressure battle. And I'm not talking about points in
Speaker 1: the paint necessarily, because points in the paint is a
Speaker 1: product of a bunch of different things. Like, for instance,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are not a team that drives to the
Speaker 1: basket really ever, but they do get a lot of
Speaker 1: paint points by virtue of attention that they're guards garner
Speaker 1: away from the rim, pulling everything, pulling all the bigs out,
Speaker 1: which actually creates open opportunities for guys like Draymond and
Speaker 1: Kevon Looney's slipping to the rim right. Well, when it
Speaker 1: comes to actual driving rim pressure, I look at that
Speaker 1: as a different type of thing that doesn't necessarily manifest
Speaker 1: in points in the paint. Often it actually manifests in
Speaker 1: higher quality three point shots because when you drive the
Speaker 1: ball to the rim relentlessly, you collapse the defense. That's
Speaker 1: when you get those really high quality stand still, squared up, balanced,
Speaker 1: easy catch and shoot threes on the week side of
Speaker 1: the floor when you've sucked in those help defenders. And
Speaker 1: you know the thing is is, you know, before Kad came,
Speaker 1: the Suns were a heavy pull up jump shooting team.
Speaker 1: They were twenty nine or excuse me second in the
Speaker 1: NBA and pull up jump shots attempted per game, and
Speaker 1: then they added Kad to the roster, who's one of
Speaker 1: the most you know, prolific pull up jump shooters in
Speaker 1: the league. And so the problem is is it's kind
Speaker 1: of similar to the Brooklyn thing. They just rely heavily
Speaker 1: on guys knocking down tough, contested pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: and when they go in, everyone's gonna be helpless. And
Speaker 1: to be honest, it has worked really well since Katie
Speaker 1: started playing with the Suns. But the reality is is
Speaker 1: in the postseason there will be Knights when that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And where are your wide open catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Where are your driving layups and free throw free throw
Speaker 1: attempts that you're gonna get from that rim pressure. Who's
Speaker 1: gonna be the guy that does that for Phoenix Because
Speaker 1: Kevin's driving to pull up, but Devin Booker's driving to
Speaker 1: pull up, and Chris Paul's driving to pull up. And
Speaker 1: I think that something to keep an eye on in
Speaker 1: this postseason run. But that said, early returns Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, Chris Paul and DeAndre Eton lineups are plus
Speaker 1: twenty nine point eight points per one hundred possessions in
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty four possessions. Again, super small sample size,
Speaker 1: only four games, but four now and whooping everybody's asked
Speaker 1: when those four guys are on the floor. That was
Speaker 1: a big part of why I talked about how terrified
Speaker 1: I am of this Phoenix Suns team, especially in the
Speaker 1: long run. The later they get into the postseason, they're
Speaker 1: going to figure out the specific lineups and guys that
Speaker 1: they can plug in that make it work well enough
Speaker 1: that the longer this postseason run goes, the scarier Phoenix gets.
Speaker 1: But next year, forget about it, Like those guys are
Speaker 1: gonna be insane, especially if they can bolster with just
Speaker 1: one or two good you know, higher level defensive players
Speaker 1: with like the mid level exception and maybe a trade
Speaker 1: here there one last note of Minnesota. I love that
Speaker 1: team so much. I know I've talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot on that show, but that combination of perimeter defense
Speaker 1: and downhill force from Anthony Edwards with Rudy Gobert protecting
Speaker 1: the back line is super interesting to me, and I've
Speaker 1: but that said, like I there's obviously a ceiling on
Speaker 1: this for right now. They just continually, game after game
Speaker 1: run into issues in the late portions of the game,
Speaker 1: like late third, late fourth, because of the fact that
Speaker 1: they just can't score in the half courts. There's just
Speaker 1: not enough offensive skill on the floor when you have
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert, when you have Kyle Anderson, when you have
Speaker 1: Jade McDaniels, and Jay McDaniels has had some scoring nights
Speaker 1: he has, but against elite set half court defenses, he
Speaker 1: is a below average offensive player. So is Kyle Anderson,
Speaker 1: so is Rudy Gobert. That's just a lot on Mike
Speaker 1: Conley and Anthony Edwards to create shots or Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns if he's out there. And when you go with
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns, you either have to go with two bigs,
Speaker 1: which then messes up your transition defense and messes up
Speaker 1: your ability to cover ground in rotation because you're too slow,
Speaker 1: or you take Gobert off the flour and put Cadet
Speaker 1: center and then your defense falls to parts falls apart.
Speaker 1: So they definitely have to figure out those pieces on
Speaker 1: the margin, like I was talking about, But that fundamental
Speaker 1: core of Anthony Edwards, Jade McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert continues
Speaker 1: to be one of the most exciting young cores in
Speaker 1: the league in my opinion. Let's move on to Lakers Bulls.
Speaker 1: So what did I say after the last Lakers Bulls game.
Speaker 1: I said that I said that there was a super
Speaker 1: unaggressive Anthony Davis, which is super uncharacteristic. He had great
Speaker 1: matchups all game long, only took eight shots. I said
Speaker 1: that Chicago shot making was off the charts. They were,
Speaker 1: you know, the worst team in the league and making
Speaker 1: three point shots in a game. They were averaging like
Speaker 1: ten Maye threes a game, which was literally dead last
Speaker 1: in the league, and they made like fourteen against the
Speaker 1: Lakers and shot almost fifty percent in the Sunday game.
Speaker 1: So there was some shot making stuff that was off
Speaker 1: the charts for Chicago. And then they the guards. The
Speaker 1: Laker guards, as they've done since the deadline, really struggled
Speaker 1: with Chicago's ball pressure and they had a million turnovers
Speaker 1: in that Sunday game. They were able to flip the
Speaker 1: script in all three of those areas in this game,
Speaker 1: and I predicted that they would go into Chicago and
Speaker 1: win by double digits on Wednesday, and thankfully the Lakers
Speaker 1: made me look smart. That could have gone south with
Speaker 1: some of those bench lineups that we saw, which we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to La Fans. I do want to spend
Speaker 1: some time talking about those all bench groups, but let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the those specific reversals of
Speaker 1: fortune there. So, first of all, the Lakers did just
Speaker 1: bring a better defensive effort on Sunday. They could not
Speaker 1: contain the basketball to save their lives. There was just
Speaker 1: NonStop downhill pressure from guys like Zach Levine and Kobe
Speaker 1: White and even Demarta rozen to a certain extent in
Speaker 1: this game from the opening tip. They just did a
Speaker 1: much better job of containing the basketball. And again, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers play guy actually had a little statement that
Speaker 1: I thought kind of colored this concept in a really
Speaker 1: good way. He called it leveling out the ball handlers.
Speaker 1: But I've talked about this before, but when a straight
Speaker 1: line drive occurs, like when he just absolutely toasts the
Speaker 1: perimeter defender and he's downhill with force, it takes hard help,
Speaker 1: like guys have to fly into the lane to stop.
Speaker 1: That compromises your defense because guys don't even know which
Speaker 1: guy should help because it's such a compromising drive. Now
Speaker 1: there's open shooters, you kick to the shooter. Now that
Speaker 1: guy's driving, and it just becomes an absolute nightmare. But
Speaker 1: if instead of a straight line drive, you level that
Speaker 1: drive out so instead of him going directly to the basket,
Speaker 1: he's fighting past your shoulder and he's taken like a
Speaker 1: banana route kind of wide, that is what makes it
Speaker 1: so that he never gets that true downhill acceleration. And
Speaker 1: it makes it so your help defenders can dig from
Speaker 1: the perimeter and just kind of lungeon and stick a
Speaker 1: hand out, but stay with their man as opposed to
Speaker 1: having to abandon their man to help in the paint.
Speaker 1: That all of a sudden makes it so that those
Speaker 1: kickout passes aren't nearly as open. Maybe a shooter has
Speaker 1: to relocate, or you have to throw a looping pass.
Speaker 1: Now that's an easier close out. It just prevents your
Speaker 1: defense from going into those compromising rotation situations. And in
Speaker 1: this game, just fundamentally from the start, they just did
Speaker 1: a much better job of containing all their ball handlers,
Speaker 1: which lowered the quality of Chicago's three point looks and
Speaker 1: lowered the quality of the pull up shots the guys
Speaker 1: like Zach Levine into Marda Rosen goot. Just like that,
Speaker 1: Chicago started to look like Chicago again. They shot, you know,
Speaker 1: in the twenties from three. They only made nine of
Speaker 1: them in the game to de rose In and Levine,
Speaker 1: They're off. The dribble shop making went down a level
Speaker 1: from where it was on Sunday. They were able to
Speaker 1: flip that script now on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: you know it was. It's a really smart adjustment because
Speaker 1: you know, there's no reason to go against ball pressure
Speaker 1: for no reason at all, Like, like you don't get
Speaker 1: bonus points by giving the ball to your point guard
Speaker 1: and having him bring it up against an on ball defender.
Speaker 1: You just have to get the ball across half court
Speaker 1: right and most importantly, that's just unnecessary fatigue. I see
Speaker 1: this all the time, and when I'm playing here in town,
Speaker 1: like a lot of teams will try to put like
Speaker 1: smaller guards on me to try to pressure the basketball,
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, I could bring it up, but
Speaker 1: why would why Like what matter of pride is that?
Speaker 1: For Like, I'll typically just find the player on my
Speaker 1: team that's being guarded by the worst on ball defender
Speaker 1: or the laziest guy, and I'll be like, hey, bring
Speaker 1: the ball up, and then I'll run down and if
Speaker 1: this little guy is gonna be on me, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: post him up and then I'm just going to demand
Speaker 1: the basketball and then I'll be able to use my
Speaker 1: physical advantages against him without having to try to drip
Speaker 1: in front of him for no reason at all. Even
Speaker 1: if I'm capable of that, it's just a waste of
Speaker 1: effort and it opens up risk that's unnecessary. What did
Speaker 1: the Lakers do from the opening tip of this game?
Speaker 1: Instead of having Austin Reeves and bring the ball up
Speaker 1: against Patrick Beverley or D'Angelo Russell bring the ball up
Speaker 1: against ball pressure, instead of even having Lebron bring the
Speaker 1: ball up against Alex Caruso, who's a great ball pressure guard,
Speaker 1: they just threw the ball to Anthony Davis, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis brought the ball to flour And where was Vussovich.
Speaker 1: Russovich is never guarding guys full court. He's sitting all
Speaker 1: the way back in the paint. So they didn't even
Speaker 1: have to worry about Chicago's ball pressure because ad was
Speaker 1: just bringing the ball up the floor. And then from
Speaker 1: the opening tip, it was clear that their intention was
Speaker 1: to run through the post with Lebron James and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: which is the way that this team should be run.
Speaker 1: And they would have won by forty in this game
Speaker 1: if they didn't get away from it for several stretches,
Speaker 1: which we'll get two in a minute. But they ran
Speaker 1: up to the wing, they inbounded the ball or made
Speaker 1: the post entry to Lebron James, and Lebron would go
Speaker 1: to work on Alex Cruso and he was either drawing
Speaker 1: double teams to get the team into rotation from wide
Speaker 1: open threes, or he was getting to the rim, and
Speaker 1: then they'd flip that and they'd run the same thing
Speaker 1: through Anthony Davis, and they butchered Chicago in the post.
Speaker 1: In this game. They had twenty post ups for twenty
Speaker 1: two points in shooting possessions and countless more opportunities where
Speaker 1: they put Chicago in rotation and were able to play
Speaker 1: driving kick basketball out of that, compared to Chicago who
Speaker 1: had just six post ups for just four points. So
Speaker 1: that was a big swing factor in this game. So
Speaker 1: the Lakers ended up going up big early and then
Speaker 1: almost immediately Chicago brought. I think they went on like
Speaker 1: a twenty seven to five run spanning the late first
Speaker 1: early second quarters. And the big problem there was, not
Speaker 1: only did Darvin Ham not stagger Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis properly. So you had this stretch to end the
Speaker 1: first quarter, We're both Lebron and Ad are off the floor,
Speaker 1: which is inexplicable. But I didn't think that was nearly
Speaker 1: as bad as the staggering of the rest of the group.
Speaker 1: So think of it like this, who were the five
Speaker 1: best players on the Lakers. I would argue it's Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, Deangela Russell, and Dennis Schroeder. I
Speaker 1: think those are the five best overall players on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to offensive initiation. That bench group
Speaker 1: that Darvin Ham went with not just ending the ending
Speaker 1: the first quarter, but even in the early second it
Speaker 1: was just Dennis Schroeder with a bunch of guys or
Speaker 1: be like Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroder was just some
Speaker 1: guys like off the bench. And the problem there is
Speaker 1: when you this is why staggering is so important. I
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the responsibilities on a basketball court
Speaker 1: that a five man unit has to fill. There's ball
Speaker 1: handling responsibilities, there's off ball spacing responsibilities, there is rim
Speaker 1: like lob threat responsibilities, there's guys who can cut and screen.
Speaker 1: That that's all on the offensive end, but then on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, there's like rim protection, perimeter defense, wing defense,
Speaker 1: all those lock and trail, all those different things, right,
Speaker 1: and so role players thrive at certain things right, Like
Speaker 1: role players can guard, role players can lock and trail.
Speaker 1: Role players can knock down spot up shots. Role players
Speaker 1: can you know, they can cut to the basket or
Speaker 1: set a good screen, But what they can't do is
Speaker 1: consistently create high quality shots. And so what's so when
Speaker 1: you have five guys like that, there's never a reason
Speaker 1: to have four of them on the bench and just
Speaker 1: one out there. All you're doing there is you're making
Speaker 1: it so that fewer of the important responsibilities are filled.
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, small roles that role players
Speaker 1: can thrive in become big roles that role players are
Speaker 1: destined to fail in. I talk about this concept all
Speaker 1: the time on this show. When you create small achievable roles,
Speaker 1: role players will knock them out of the park. When
Speaker 1: you ask them to do more than what they're good at,
Speaker 1: they will trip and stumble and fall over themselves because
Speaker 1: that's not what they're meant to do on a basketball court.
Speaker 1: And so if you stagger properly, you should always have
Speaker 1: at least two of those five guys on the floor
Speaker 1: at any given moment. If it's Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroeder,
Speaker 1: that's enough shot creation and rim protection and on ball
Speaker 1: defense to make it so that the other three guys
Speaker 1: have small responsibilities that they can succeed in. Take Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis off that floor all of a sudden on defense,
Speaker 1: Chicago can really key in on Dennis Schroeder on those
Speaker 1: ball screens. Now you've got four guys that are needing
Speaker 1: to create offense that aren't offensive creators, and that's when
Speaker 1: you see things start to fall apart. And so I
Speaker 1: just disagreed with that specific staggering concept from Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: about too often he kept too many of his best
Speaker 1: players off the floor, and that was a huge part
Speaker 1: of how the starters were so dominant in this game.
Speaker 1: But the bench groups in both the first half and
Speaker 1: the second half allowed the lead to shrink several times.
Speaker 1: That said, every single time the Lakers were able to
Speaker 1: respond and close the deal. Lebron was amazing to start
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Anthony Davis was amazing to end the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Deans La Russell made some plays to the
Speaker 1: Lakers look fantastic. The other example where where you'll see
Speaker 1: this that Denver Yoka's MVP case thing where everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's so much better when Yoka is on the floor
Speaker 1: versus when he's off. A big part of that is
Speaker 1: they don't stagger. They basically do line shifts. They have
Speaker 1: a full starter group and they have a full bench group,
Speaker 1: and so of course their full bench group goes out
Speaker 1: there with you know, Reggie Jackson and Jeff Green and
Speaker 1: Zeke Naji and Christian Brown, and they lose because there's
Speaker 1: just a bunch of guys that aren't capable of that.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you staggered it more, then you'd have more
Speaker 1: lineups that had one of Jamal Murray or Nikola Yokis
Speaker 1: or Michael Porter Jr. In with some of those bench guys.
Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, those role players would have
Speaker 1: smaller roles and they'd have a better chance of succeeding,
Speaker 1: but instead they don't and what we end up having
Speaker 1: and it's it's I'm not saying it's intentional for the
Speaker 1: MVP case, but sometimes it feels like that because as
Speaker 1: a result, you've got these ridiculous plus minus numbers for
Speaker 1: the Denver starters and then awful plus minus numbers for
Speaker 1: the Denver bench, which inflates the feeling of value when
Speaker 1: really what it is is just really bad strategy from
Speaker 1: Mike Malone, like you need to find a way to
Speaker 1: give your bench unit's a chance by sacrificing something from
Speaker 1: that starting group. An easy way to do it from
Speaker 1: the Lakers perspective, for instance, is like start with the
Speaker 1: Angelo Russell, Osta Reeves, Lebron, Jared Vanderbilt, and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and then about six minute into the game, like right
Speaker 1: at that first time out, take D'Angel Russell out and
Speaker 1: Lebron and bringing Malik Beasley or bringing Dennis Schroeder and
Speaker 1: bringing Ruey Hatchmura, and then you go with this group
Speaker 1: that has Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves and Dennis Schroeder.
Speaker 1: That group's got a good chance. They go for several minutes,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis checks out at the nine minute mark. Then
Speaker 1: you bring Lebron back in right, like if you stagger it, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have those amazing plus minus numbers with
Speaker 1: your starters just playing twenty minutes a night and kicking
Speaker 1: everyone's ass. But you'll have success in every phase of
Speaker 1: the game. And then it helps with rhythm. When you
Speaker 1: have five really good players in one lineup, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have like you're gonna have even in a dominant like
Speaker 1: that first shift for the Lakers. I think D'Angel Russell's
Speaker 1: he had like one layup in kind of like in
Speaker 1: a semi transition possession, and then he shot a catch
Speaker 1: and shoot three on the left wing that he missed,
Speaker 1: but that was it. Like so Dangel Russell kind of
Speaker 1: got squeezed out of that lineup in the first shift.
Speaker 1: Now he had his moments later on, but he got
Speaker 1: squeezed out of that line up in the first shift.
Speaker 1: That's gonna happen in almost every shift because there's five guys,
Speaker 1: they can't all have the basketball, right And so by
Speaker 1: staggering more, you give D'Angel Russell more minutes with Lebron
Speaker 1: off the floor, or more minutes without Austin Reeves or
Speaker 1: without or without Anthony Davis. In those groups, he has
Speaker 1: more opportunity to be more aggressive, which helps him get
Speaker 1: his rhythm. That's why you stagger. You stagger so you
Speaker 1: give everybody the best opportunity not only to succeed in
Speaker 1: all phases of the game, but to have more opportunities
Speaker 1: to be aggressive. I thought Lebron played a really good
Speaker 1: all around game so far. The Lakers. I had the numbers.
Speaker 1: I tweeted them out yesterday, so I might be misremembering this,
Speaker 1: but I believe they're two games now. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: plus twenty seven when Lebron James is on the floor
Speaker 1: and minus twenty six when he's off the floor. Now, again,
Speaker 1: some of that is that staggering thing we were talking about,
Speaker 1: but also I think Lebron's played well. He's playing straight
Speaker 1: up old man style. He did have two really nice
Speaker 1: hard drives to the rim there the second half, a
Speaker 1: crossover move on Patrick or on I think it was
Speaker 1: on Patrick Williams, but he had a really nice crossover
Speaker 1: mover ut it leap. He had another one where he
Speaker 1: got downhill and someone shoved him in the back. He
Speaker 1: didn't get a call but everything else with savvy stuff,
Speaker 1: scoring out of the post, cutting the basket. He was
Speaker 1: active on the offensive glass in this game. He had
Speaker 1: a really nifty kind of coming along the baseline, offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put back. He just just savvy old man. Game
Speaker 1: got to twenty five points. But then Anthony Davis finally
Speaker 1: brought the aggression that he didn't bring on Sunday. Again.
Speaker 1: I was very critical of him on Sunday because he
Speaker 1: had he had the best matchups all game long, but
Speaker 1: while the guards were struggling with the ball pressure guards
Speaker 1: for Chicago and Lebron, James wasn't quite himself. Although I
Speaker 1: thought he actually played okay in the Sunday game as well,
Speaker 1: this game, Anthony Davis brought the aggression and guess what,
Speaker 1: nobody can guard him? Thirty eight and ten with four assists,
Speaker 1: two blocks. You know, That's why it gets so critical
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis, like like, there's no excuse for taking
Speaker 1: eight shots in a must win game when we all
Speaker 1: know what happens when you take twenty shots against the
Speaker 1: same team, like it. It was an inexcusable performance on Sunday,
Speaker 1: especially under the circumstances. That's why I get so frustrated
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis from time to time. The last thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about with the Lakers is this
Speaker 1: idea of running through their guards versus their bigs. One
Speaker 1: of the big things that I thought really caused issues
Speaker 1: in this Chicago game, this one last night, where Chicago
Speaker 1: is able to shrink the lead. I thought a big
Speaker 1: driving force behind that was just the simple fact that
Speaker 1: too often guards are looking for their own shot versus
Speaker 1: trying to get the ball to Anthony Davis and Lebron.
Speaker 1: It made sense when Lebron was out because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can be inconsistent as an on ball creator. So like
Speaker 1: some nights you throw it to him and at works,
Speaker 1: some nights you don't, And so getting him into pick
Speaker 1: and roll is another way to keep him involved in
Speaker 1: the offense. Right But with Lebron out there, there's so
Speaker 1: much shot creation just out of the post with Lebron,
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis, that like, those two guys need
Speaker 1: to be the focal point of the offense, and way
Speaker 1: too often they get away from that and run things
Speaker 1: through the guards. And the guards are good players, but
Speaker 1: they're at their best when they operate with an advantage
Speaker 1: and when they're attacking set defenses in the half court,
Speaker 1: they're not superstars, and so they're going to be inconsistent,
Speaker 1: whereas Lebron James and Anthony Davis will be more consistent.
Speaker 1: That's why you've got to continue to run the offense
Speaker 1: through them. I disagreed with that. From a strategic standpoint,
Speaker 1: Lakers control their destiny now. They're tied in the lost
Speaker 1: column with Minnesota. They play them on Friday, So if
Speaker 1: they win that game, they won't have the tiebreaker with Minnesota,
Speaker 1: but they'll be one game up on them, and they'll
Speaker 1: control their destiny effectively down the stretch of the season.
Speaker 1: But give them a great chance to end up with
Speaker 1: at least the seventh seed. The seventh seed, to me,
Speaker 1: is like the goal for the Lakers, because I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers can beat Denver, but I don't I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to face them in the first round. So getting
Speaker 1: that seventh seed gives you a home game against probably
Speaker 1: Minnesota and the Plan, and if you win that game,
Speaker 1: then you get to play Memphis, which is a matchup
Speaker 1: I really like for the Lakers because they thrive in
Speaker 1: the paint, and the Lakers have Anthony Davis, which is
Speaker 1: just fundamentally going to disrupt what Memphis likes to do.
Speaker 1: And they have a lot of shooters that Lakers can
Speaker 1: ignore and clogged the paint, which is Darvin Hamm's favorite
Speaker 1: defensive strategy. I really like the Memphis matchup for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Got to get to the seven seed. To do that,
Speaker 1: gotta beat Minnesota on Friday in order to accomplish that.
Speaker 1: It'll be a really interesting matchup. It's going to be
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, so the crowd's going to be crazy. Minnesota's
Speaker 1: gonna see it is like, if we win this, we
Speaker 1: effectively get the seventh seed, because then they'll be a
Speaker 1: game up on the Lakers, and they have the tiebreakers,
Speaker 1: so it's effectively a two game lead at that point.
Speaker 1: So at that it's just vitally important that the Lakers
Speaker 1: win that game, and it's vitally important that the Wolves
Speaker 1: win that game, which should make it an Altimer. And
Speaker 1: we are going to be covering that game on Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: by the way, with the rest of the Thursday and
Speaker 1: Fridays late. All right, quickly, before we get out of here,
Speaker 1: let's talk some Warriors Pelicans. I'm not gonna spend too
Speaker 1: long on this game. I did do another interview with
Speaker 1: the guys at at the game in San Francisco. You
Speaker 1: can find that on their YouTube channel. Yesterday. The Warriors
Speaker 1: really struggled with New Orleans length in this game. It's
Speaker 1: funny because I talked about the different types of defenders.
Speaker 1: We get obsessed with wings a lot, but there's like
Speaker 1: point of attack defenders, and then there's like skinny wings,
Speaker 1: and then there's power wings. I've been talking a lot
Speaker 1: about this concept, but like what's interesting is when you
Speaker 1: have too many skinny lanky wings, sometimes you can really
Speaker 1: struggle to defend on the perimeter because skinny lanky wings
Speaker 1: really struggle to navigate ball screens and off ball screens.
Speaker 1: They're they're big targets and fighting through screens as a
Speaker 1: game of physicality, you need to be strong, you need
Speaker 1: to be active with your hands. It's like swim moves.
Speaker 1: It's like being a defensive end. You're trying to fight
Speaker 1: past that left tackle, and it's a very physical game
Speaker 1: to get over those ball screens and off ball screens.
Speaker 1: So really skinny thin players who are also big targets
Speaker 1: for screens, they typically struggle to get around screens but
Speaker 1: they're amazing in passing lanes and when they stick their
Speaker 1: arms up, if you're not paying attention, you can throw
Speaker 1: the ball away. And the Warriors were just straight up
Speaker 1: ridiculously sloppy with the basketball in the first half. I
Speaker 1: think they had fourteen turnovers in the first half. Is
Speaker 1: a big part of how they got down by twenty
Speaker 1: points in this game. I was frustrated watching it because
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there thinking, like, man, if they can just
Speaker 1: take care of the basketball, they're gonna be fine, because
Speaker 1: Steph is getting open all the time, Like like, whether
Speaker 1: it was c J mccon, whether it was IRB Jones,
Speaker 1: whether it was Trey Murphy, whether it was Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: whoever it was that was getting switched onto Steph. They
Speaker 1: were they were slow with their switches getting out on
Speaker 1: Steff and then he was running them through the ringer
Speaker 1: on these screens and getting wide open looks compared to
Speaker 1: what Steph usually gets right, And so I was like,
Speaker 1: if they could just take care of the basketball, things
Speaker 1: will be fine. And they ended up finally taking care
Speaker 1: of the basketball in the second half. They had just
Speaker 1: five turnovers. There were a couple of big plays in
Speaker 1: the early third quarter that I thought ignited them. Dante
Speaker 1: DiVincenzo on a step missed three on the right wing,
Speaker 1: another wide open shot. Again, if you just go look
Speaker 1: at Stef's shots in this game, you just got great looks.
Speaker 1: But Dante gets a dunk and Stave mean. Gundy actually
Speaker 1: had a really interesting take on the broadcast after that
Speaker 1: that you guys might remember. He basically said, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone talks and people be like, come on, guys, let's
Speaker 1: get going. They'll get in a huddle to scream at
Speaker 1: each other to do all those things. But he's like,
Speaker 1: nothing inspires a team like making a play that gives
Speaker 1: your team a boost that will then become a momentum
Speaker 1: that translates through the rest of the roster. And I
Speaker 1: under agree, like, sometimes whether it's a momentum, like sometimes
Speaker 1: it's just like your best player getting downhill and dunking
Speaker 1: on somebody is a good way to just kind of
Speaker 1: like bring a certain level of confidence to the rest
Speaker 1: of the roster. But role players making hustle plays as
Speaker 1: another big part of that. Like steph misses a three,
Speaker 1: that's a negative play. Long threes. Long miss threes typically
Speaker 1: lead to runouts for dunks or transition plays. Nope, someone
Speaker 1: forgot to box out Dante DiVincenzo, his relentless offensive rebounding
Speaker 1: effort which he's brought all season long. He gets a
Speaker 1: tip dunk, it ignites the Warriors. I thought kevn Looney
Speaker 1: also in that third quarter, just attacking the offensive glass
Speaker 1: inspired the Warriors to pick things up defensively. Then they
Speaker 1: started to get stops, Steph Curry started to finally get
Speaker 1: going again. Just look at Steph Curry's makes in this game,
Speaker 1: just constantly getting guys like IRB Jones caught on screens
Speaker 1: because they're too big, they're too lanky, and it's just
Speaker 1: a great example of how you need more defensive versatility.
Speaker 1: Like it doesn't matter if you have Herb Jones, Trey
Speaker 1: Murphy and brandon Ingram, if CJ. McCollum is out there
Speaker 1: and you don't actually have a guy who specializes in
Speaker 1: point of attack defense. Ideally, what you'd want is you
Speaker 1: want Herb Jones on a wing, and you'd want brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram on someone like like you'd want Herb Jones, brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram and Trey Murphy on your Andrew Wiggins. And you're
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo and you're Clay Thompson because they're less quick
Speaker 1: with the basketball in terms of onball creation or flying
Speaker 1: off of screens. And then you have a bulldog, someone
Speaker 1: who is shorter, better center of gravity, that's lower to
Speaker 1: the ground, stronger, who can fight like hell through screens.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of guy you want on Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: And so it's just a classic example of like when
Speaker 1: you're building a defensive roster. Yeah, wings might be the
Speaker 1: most valuable, but you can't just have wings. You've got
Speaker 1: to have guys that can guard on the perimeter. They
Speaker 1: couldn't do that to see j McCollum, he'd get barbecued.
Speaker 1: So they ended up going with Herb Joe, and he
Speaker 1: struggled to navigate screens. There's your problem. You've got to
Speaker 1: have somebody out there that specializes in guarding on the
Speaker 1: perimeter against guards navigating through screens. But the Warriors completely
Speaker 1: dominated the second half and they won comfortably. Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: had another good game. He's in a good groove right now.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga, I thought, I've played another really nice game,
Speaker 1: kind of slotting into that Andrew Wiggins role, and I
Speaker 1: think they have a good chance to end up with
Speaker 1: the five seed. It's funny because I said this on
Speaker 1: the radio yesterday, but there's kind of like two ways
Speaker 1: to look at this. Like there's the undeniable question mark,
Speaker 1: which is like, hey, if they don't have Wiggins, can
Speaker 1: they beat the best teams in the league, And genuinely,
Speaker 1: right now, I don't think so, and I would imagine
Speaker 1: most Warriors fans would agree, But like, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: beat the best of the best in this league, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need your second best player, and so Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: is kind of this big question mark. But I'm very
Speaker 1: positive as it pertains to where they land in the
Speaker 1: standings right now. The Clippers have a tough schedule here
Speaker 1: down the stretch and they're only a game back. The
Speaker 1: Warriors are only in a game back of them. So
Speaker 1: I think there's a good chance that the Warriors end
Speaker 1: up with the five seed, and I think they're comfortable
Speaker 1: in good position for the sixth seed. But I think
Speaker 1: the five seeds there for the taking, and I actually
Speaker 1: really like their matchup with Phoenix, So for the Suns,
Speaker 1: for the Warrior's sake, I think trying to get into
Speaker 1: that matchup with Phoenix in that five four is your
Speaker 1: best possible spot. You're one of the biggest factors there
Speaker 1: is just what I was talking about, Like the Suns
Speaker 1: have awful point of attack defense. That's a great way
Speaker 1: to get Steph Curry and Clay Thompson good looks with
Speaker 1: the way that their system is because who cares about
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant protecting the rim? Who cares about demandre and
Speaker 1: protecting the rim? It's really just about can Stephan, Clay
Speaker 1: and those guys shake free of their guards, which I
Speaker 1: think they're going to be able to do, all right.
Speaker 1: Last note before we get out of your Hoannis on
Speaker 1: the straw pole. So Tim Bontemp's released a straw pole,
Speaker 1: and basically it's got a slight edge to Mbid right now,
Speaker 1: very slight. I want to say, it's like by two
Speaker 1: aggregate points and yokag is in second, but then there's
Speaker 1: a big gap before you get down at Jannis, and
Speaker 1: I just think this is insane because who's the best
Speaker 1: player in the league. Yannis clearly right, better defensive player
Speaker 1: than both Embiid and Yokichum. Who's the best offensive player
Speaker 1: from that group? Yeah, slight nod the Yokis probably, but
Speaker 1: then like like Embiad and Yannis are right there with him,
Speaker 1: who's got the best team in the league? The Bucks
Speaker 1: by far. They're what two and a half games up
Speaker 1: on or two games two and a half games up
Speaker 1: on the field in that first first place, first overall seed.
Speaker 1: The Bucks have won seventy five percent of their games
Speaker 1: when Yannis plays, The Nuggets of only won seventy two
Speaker 1: percent of their games when Yokis plays, and the Sixers
Speaker 1: have only won sixty six percent of their games when
Speaker 1: Embiad plays. I just to me, it's so clearly honest,
Speaker 1: like it's close, but it's the honest. He's better than
Speaker 1: the other two guys both at basketball and with the
Speaker 1: um um playoff resume, right Like he's got that championship pedigree.
Speaker 1: We know his game translates to the postseason better than
Speaker 1: the other two guys to do, and he's just done
Speaker 1: more within this season the impact winning. I just it's
Speaker 1: to me, the voters are overthinking this. They've been overthinking
Speaker 1: it for decades, but this is especially agree just example
Speaker 1: that like Embiad's case is based purely on narrative, he
Speaker 1: clearly has the worst case of the three. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: Nickel Yokich, it's based entirely on advanced metrics and inflated
Speaker 1: on off numbers that are perpetuated by Mike Malone's rotations.
Speaker 1: Jannis is just a better player, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to punish him just because the Bucks are a little
Speaker 1: bit better of a team that float the situation better
Speaker 1: when Yannis is off the floor. All right, guys, that's
Speaker 1: all I have for today. We're gonna be back later
Speaker 1: tonight Live with Colin Coward after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Celtics Bucks. Keep an eye on Twitter feed. I'll let
Speaker 1: you guys know when that shows about to start. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you later tonight.