Speaker 1: The Volume.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 2: Happy Monday, everybody, hopefull if you guys had an incredible weekend.
Speaker 2: We're back to talk some hoops today. Damian Lillard and
Speaker 2: Jannison Tendacumpo made their preseason debut with the Bucks, and
Speaker 2: we're about as impactful as you would expect them to be.
Speaker 2: We're gonna break that game down, and then we're gonna
Speaker 2: dive into two young players who've had great preseasons so far.
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kminga is averaging twenty six points per game for
Speaker 2: the Warriors, a team that desperately needs a forward who's
Speaker 2: ready to play, not just in the season, but in
Speaker 2: the postseason. So we're gonna do a deep dive into
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kminga's preseason what translates to what they need from
Speaker 2: him in the long run. And then Victor Wentbinyama is
Speaker 2: putting up just absolutely staggering numbers so far in preseason
Speaker 2: as well. We're gonna dive into his first two performances
Speaker 2: and then we're back up to number two in our
Speaker 2: power rank. The Milwaukee Bucks are up for a full
Speaker 2: season previews, so we're gonna do a full breakdown of
Speaker 2: everything the Bucks did this offseason and what I expect
Speaker 2: to see from them this season as well. So jam
Speaker 2: packed show. We're gonna be spending a lot of time
Speaker 2: on the Eastern Conference. You guys know the drill. Before
Speaker 2: we get started. We did actually just launch a new
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Speaker 2: last but not least, we need more mailbag questions, so
Speaker 2: keep dropping those under the YouTube comments. All right, let's
Speaker 2: talk some basketball. So it was interesting the Bucks came
Speaker 2: out and we were all waiting for the Dame Jannis
Speaker 2: pick and Roll, which we're gonna spend a lot of
Speaker 2: time talking about today. We're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about it in this particular breakdown. Then I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: a deep dive into the schematics of the Dame Jannis
Speaker 2: Pick and Roll. All the different ways to guard it.
Speaker 2: I each one of those ways probably won't work and
Speaker 2: everything entailing those two playing together when we get to
Speaker 2: the season preview, so stick around to the end of
Speaker 2: the episode for that. But I thought it was interesting
Speaker 2: that they actually opened the game with back to back
Speaker 2: post ups. For Jannis on the left block, he had
Speaker 2: that kind of step through hook shot over Christian Wood
Speaker 2: and then he had to turn around fade away over
Speaker 2: his right shoulder that he missed. But what was interesting
Speaker 2: is they ran a screening action with Dame to get
Speaker 2: Janis the ball on the block. Why is that important?
Speaker 2: That's an easy way to fight for easy post position.
Speaker 2: Now you might say it's Christian wood Yiannis probably doesn't
Speaker 2: need help getting deep post position, and that's true. But
Speaker 2: against certain matchups, especially fire hydrant forwards right like big strong.
Speaker 2: Imagine Grant Williams as an example, a guy that's had
Speaker 2: some success guarding Gianis in the past. Imagine a guy
Speaker 2: like that. It can be hard for Jannis to bully
Speaker 2: down to specific spots closer to the basket. So if
Speaker 2: you run a screening action with a guy like Dame
Speaker 2: that is impossible to help off of, it makes it
Speaker 2: so that that forward has to navigate that screening action
Speaker 2: before they can beat Giannis to that spot. It will
Speaker 2: help him catch deeper post position. I thought that was
Speaker 2: an interesting little wrinkle there that you saw right from
Speaker 2: the opening tip the first pick and roll they ran
Speaker 2: on the left wing, Christian Wood and D'Angelo Russell both
Speaker 2: kind of bracket around Dame. Dame throws that easy pocket
Speaker 2: pass to Giannis rolling down the middle. The Lakers actually
Speaker 2: tagged two guys on the roller, and in the process,
Speaker 2: Ruey Hachimura rotates down to brook Lopez. You have two
Speaker 2: wide open shooters. You've got j Crowder on the right wing,
Speaker 2: who Jannis ended up making the pass too, and then
Speaker 2: you have an even better shooter who was even more
Speaker 2: wide open in the left corder in Malik Beasley at
Speaker 2: just one action with one simple example of how much
Speaker 2: chaos it can cause for the defense, and it goes
Speaker 2: even further than that because Crowder misses the three, but
Speaker 2: on the possession, brook Lopez rolls to the basket to
Speaker 2: crash the offensive glass. But because Ruey kind of rotated
Speaker 2: on that possession, he was out of position. Because ad
Speaker 2: was tagging the roller, he was out of position. So
Speaker 2: what did brook Lopez do. He just went right under
Speaker 2: the basket and boxed eighty out, got an easy offensive rebound,
Speaker 2: and put it back in the basket. That's the kind
Speaker 2: of havoc that is caused when your defense gets put
Speaker 2: into rotation. We're gonna talk about that specific concept a
Speaker 2: lot today, the concept of getting a defense into rotation
Speaker 2: and what that means for how much harder it is
Speaker 2: for them to do that job, especially when we get
Speaker 2: into the season preview. In the game, they ran a
Speaker 2: total of seven pick and rolls together, all in the
Speaker 2: first half, and here were the outcomes. That wide open
Speaker 2: three for Crowder that led to the easy put back
Speaker 2: which I just told you about. Second one on the
Speaker 2: left wing, Dame got doubled, so they just straight up
Speaker 2: doubled and trapped Dame out by the three point line.
Speaker 2: Giannis rolled to the basket. When he rolled to the
Speaker 2: basket for like a post up position, Dame hits him
Speaker 2: with the pass at the block, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: like this weird possession where Ads pinned on his top side,
Speaker 2: in large part because Giannis was rolling to the basket unguarded,
Speaker 2: and Giannice kind of fumbled the ball and went up
Speaker 2: and dunked it. It was ugly, but it's two points, right,
Speaker 2: So we're through two pick and rolls and we have
Speaker 2: four points already. The next one, Dame got fouled onto
Speaker 2: three pointer and he made all three to three points,
Speaker 2: all three free throws. Then we have a Dame missed
Speaker 2: pull up three. Then we had a Dame he got
Speaker 2: downhill on Christian Wood and tried to do like a
Speaker 2: foul grifty kind of pull up jump shot that he missed.
Speaker 2: Then there was a play that Dame rejected the screen
Speaker 2: and got downhill like just toasted Torny and Prince. And
Speaker 2: on the play he had Brook Lopez wide open in
Speaker 2: the corner, but he misread the rotation and he actually
Speaker 2: ended up kicking to Malik Beasily instead, who wasn't as open.
Speaker 2: It got rotated to Lopez, but the close out opportunity
Speaker 2: was gone. Lopez ended up getting into the lane and
Speaker 2: missing like a little tough like kind of like high
Speaker 2: push shot. But still, I mean the action itself generated
Speaker 2: what it was supposed to generate, which was a straight
Speaker 2: line drive and help defense to make a read. Dame
Speaker 2: just missed the read. And then the last one he
Speaker 2: split christian Wood on a pick and roll. So christian
Speaker 2: Wood showed and he split with the dribble, got downhill
Speaker 2: and made an and one layup and made the free throw.
Speaker 2: So he made some bad reads and missed all of
Speaker 2: his pull up jump shots, and they still got ten
Speaker 2: points out of seven Jannis Dame ball screens, So like again,
Speaker 2: ten points on seven ball screens, and it didn't really
Speaker 2: go all that well and was still kind of sloppy.
Speaker 2: So like again, it's just gonna be nearly impossible to guard.
Speaker 2: And again I'm gonna dive into the schematics of it
Speaker 2: later on in the show, because I do think it's interesting,
Speaker 2: because I've tried to think of any different way that
Speaker 2: you could guard it, different types of hedges versus high drop,
Speaker 2: versus blitzing, versus dropping versus switching, and all the different
Speaker 2: ramifications that can come into play there. We are going
Speaker 2: to dive into that later on in the show. Yannis
Speaker 2: looked more and more or less like Yannis. He took
Speaker 2: five jumpers and made one of them, but he did
Speaker 2: make every other shot attempt heam made mostly dunks, as
Speaker 2: per usual. I thought Pat Conaton looked better at the
Speaker 2: two guard spot. Than Malik Beasley. I think he's just
Speaker 2: a little bigger, a little better rebounder, and in general,
Speaker 2: just a more consistent shooter. Something that we'll talk about.
Speaker 2: I covered Malik Beasley very closely with the Lakers last year,
Speaker 2: so we'll talk about that when we get to the
Speaker 2: season preview. But I thought that that was a pat
Speaker 2: Coninton made four threes in the game at eight rebounds.
Speaker 2: I think he just makes more sense than that two
Speaker 2: guard spot in the long run, unless they have a
Speaker 2: trade in mind at some point down the road. And
Speaker 2: then Marjon Beauchamp had a really nice first half. He
Speaker 2: was out working Cam Reddish. There was a play where
Speaker 2: he kind of crashed the glass out of the corner.
Speaker 2: Cam kind of chased him down under the basket, but
Speaker 2: then Marjar just kept going kind of like in a
Speaker 2: banana route around to the front of the rim. Just
Speaker 2: by being a body perpetually staying in motion, he ends
Speaker 2: up getting an offensive rebound put back. He had a
Speaker 2: nice pull up jump shot off of a curl where
Speaker 2: his defender was in a trail position. He got downhill
Speaker 2: made a little fifteen footer. And then there was a
Speaker 2: play later in the first half where he took a
Speaker 2: dribble hand off from Pat Conenton, and the Lakers botched
Speaker 2: the switch and both guys ran with Pat, and he
Speaker 2: actually did a really nice job of looking down, identifying
Speaker 2: that he was open, seeing that he was in two
Speaker 2: point range, but along too, and just took a little
Speaker 2: step back that not only set his rhythm but got
Speaker 2: him to a point where it was a higher value
Speaker 2: shot and he knocked down a three. He's gonna be
Speaker 2: a very important player for this Bucks team, especially with
Speaker 2: some of the depth that they lost in the Drew
Speaker 2: Holiday trade. But overall, I thought it was a really
Speaker 2: encouraging first performance for the Bucks. On the defensive end, Obviously,
Speaker 2: the talk was Dame on defense, what is he gonna
Speaker 2: be able to accomplish compared to what Drew accomplished, And
Speaker 2: you saw some of the downsides of that early on.
Speaker 2: You saw Ruy Hachimura attacking Dame in the post, and
Speaker 2: there was a play where he got a deep seal
Speaker 2: and they were able to throw the pass over the
Speaker 2: top and Ruey got a dunk because Dame tried to
Speaker 2: front him. And then there was a player where they
Speaker 2: double teamed Dame or double teamed Ruey on a Dame
Speaker 2: post up. When Ruy was attacking Dame, Ruey made the
Speaker 2: skip pass that ended up working around back to Anthony
Speaker 2: Davison rotation for an easy layup and one. So there
Speaker 2: are some things they're gonna have to work on, Like,
Speaker 2: for instance, like if Dame is gonna front the post,
Speaker 2: there has to be backside help, right If you're gonna
Speaker 2: double Dame in post up situations, there's got to be
Speaker 2: really sharp rotations. Again, like a lot of people are
Speaker 2: gonna hyper focus on that, And like, here's what I
Speaker 2: would say, Dame is not the only basketball player in
Speaker 2: the league that Ruy, Hatcha Mura, or other big forwards
Speaker 2: around the league can post up. It's very nice that
Speaker 2: Drew was uniquely equipped to be able to kind of
Speaker 2: battle against that stuff, but he's unique in that sense.
Speaker 2: Every team in the league has those problems to some extent,
Speaker 2: some sort of smaller player in the back court that
Speaker 2: if you post him up, you can have problems. Right now,
Speaker 2: this particular Bucks team hasn't had that problem as much
Speaker 2: in years past, but this year that's something they're gonna
Speaker 2: have to sharpen up in their defense. They're gonna have
Speaker 2: to have basically contingencies set up to make it so
Speaker 2: that they can come up or make up for Dame's
Speaker 2: lack of size and specific matchups. Overall, though, like I said,
Speaker 2: I thought it was very encouraging on the Lakers front.
Speaker 2: Another really solid performance from Anthony Davis sixteen points, seven rebounds,
Speaker 2: and five assists with zero turnovers, two steals, and two
Speaker 2: blocks in one half of play. Hard to do much
Speaker 2: better than that. Another one of those plays that just
Speaker 2: kind of demonstrates how incredibly gifted Anthony Davis is defensively.
Speaker 2: Damian Lother comes off a dribble handoff in the right
Speaker 2: corner and he ends up kind of like right worthy
Speaker 2: above the break line, starts and he appears wide open
Speaker 2: if you freeze it. Dame has the ball and he's
Speaker 2: wide open, and Anthony Davis takes one step and rises
Speaker 2: up to contest and blocks a Damian Lillard pull up three.
Speaker 2: I know the nbagms, for whatever reason, have it out
Speaker 2: for him, but I still think he's the best defensive
Speaker 2: player in the league, and that was just an unbelievable
Speaker 2: only he's only he can make that type of play
Speaker 2: performance from Anthony Davis. He is plus twenty five in
Speaker 2: his shifts so far in preseason, He's been a positive
Speaker 2: against every team that he's faced, and his jumper looks great.
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis has taken fourteen jump shots so far in
Speaker 2: preseason that have led to nineteen points. That's one point
Speaker 2: three to six points per shot. Last year in the
Speaker 2: regular season, he was at zero point seven eight. So
Speaker 2: he's almost twice as efficient so far in preseason with
Speaker 2: his jump shot as he was last season. Now, again,
Speaker 2: small sample size preseason obviously, like I won't expect many
Speaker 2: players in the league to maintain that type of jump
Speaker 2: efficiency over the course of a season, but it's a
Speaker 2: really good sign that Anthony Davis has been working on
Speaker 2: that specifically a lot this offseason. His release looks smoother.
Speaker 2: I think it's a very encouraging sign of what's to
Speaker 2: come because they need him to make those jump shots.
Speaker 2: One of our mailback questions later is involving Lebron's jump shot,
Speaker 2: and there's gonna be some talk there and it does matter.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, to me, especially
Speaker 2: at this phase in his career, Anthony Davis, in his
Speaker 2: over the top scoring is going to be the thing
Speaker 2: that kind of like separates their offense from what it
Speaker 2: can be from what it was last year. He did
Speaker 2: hit a nice little step back jump shot over Brook
Speaker 2: Lopez that kind of like over the top shot making
Speaker 2: in particular is going to be super valuable for a
Speaker 2: Lakers team that struggled in the half court, especially in
Speaker 2: clutch situations last year. In the postseason, Torrian Prince as
Speaker 2: a starter is my last Lakers thing, and then we're
Speaker 2: gonna move on to the young guys. So I was
Speaker 2: under the impression before the season. Well, Jovan Buja told
Speaker 2: us in the when he came on the show that
Speaker 2: he thought Ruey Hachimurro was the clubhouse favorite coming into preseason.
Speaker 2: Then after the start of camp and stuff, him and
Speaker 2: I were both leaning towards Jared Vanderbilt. But a couple things.
Speaker 2: Jared Vanderbilt has been a little hurt, and Ruby Hatcha
Speaker 2: Mura makes a lot of sense coming off the bench,
Speaker 2: And as a result of that, Torrian Prince has got
Speaker 2: an opportunity, and Torrian Prince has been playing lights out
Speaker 2: in that starting three position. Now here's the thing. It's
Speaker 2: all about synergy that's making this work. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: and the reason why I think he's got a chance
Speaker 2: to earn this spot. I don't think Torrian does any
Speaker 2: one thing as well as Jared Vanderbilt does defensively on
Speaker 2: the perimeter, or as Ruby Hatchimura can do as a
Speaker 2: scorer in general with his physical tools, right, But he
Speaker 2: does a lot of things pretty well right, and he's
Speaker 2: probably the best stand still jump shooter. Then, out of
Speaker 2: those three guys, here's the thing in a lineup that's
Speaker 2: gonna have. Austin Reeves a high level shot creator, D'Angel
Speaker 2: Russell hi level shot creator, Lebron James a high level
Speaker 2: shot creator, and Anthony Day as a high level shot creator.
Speaker 2: You need a guy who's a specialist when it comes
Speaker 2: to knocking down spot up three point shots right or
Speaker 2: making plays attacking closeouts. And then on the defensive end
Speaker 2: of the floor, He's not as good of a perimeter
Speaker 2: defender as Jared Vanderbilt, but he is a better perimeter
Speaker 2: defender than Ruby Hotcha. Murray is a little thinner, a
Speaker 2: little quicker with his feet, and better at navigating screens.
Speaker 2: And so, in a weird way, it's less about which
Speaker 2: player's best out of those three guys, and better about
Speaker 2: and more about which player compliments the core four players more.
Speaker 2: And it's clear that Torre and Prince compliments the core
Speaker 2: four Lakers starters at a really high level right now,
Speaker 2: and I think as of right now, it appears that
Speaker 2: he will be the starter on opening night at the
Speaker 2: Small Ford. And then here's the thing that just opens
Speaker 2: up the ability to go to bench lineups that have
Speaker 2: Jared Vanderbilt, Ruby hot Chimura in them, which takes even
Speaker 2: further to the concept that I've been talking about with
Speaker 2: the Lakers all preseason, which is about their depth and
Speaker 2: the advantage that that provides over the course of the
Speaker 2: eighty two the ability to have guys out of the
Speaker 2: lineup and have your bench lineups still have guys that
Speaker 2: are high caliber players, Guys like Gabe Vincent who started
Speaker 2: on a final team, Guys like Ruy Hatcha Mura who
Speaker 2: was a very important player on a conference finals team
Speaker 2: last year. Right, Jackson Hayes is a better backup center
Speaker 2: than what they had last year. Jared Vanderbilt is one
Speaker 2: of the better perimeter defenders in the league. So you
Speaker 2: can kind of piece that together and see that just
Speaker 2: from the sheer standpoint of down the roster talent, they're
Speaker 2: in a better position than they were in years past.
Speaker 2: All Right, So a lot of talking the preseason for
Speaker 2: Golden State about what they're going to do at the
Speaker 2: forward position, right, And we saw last year that Steve
Speaker 2: Kerr did not trust Jonathan Kaminga, but he did trust
Speaker 2: Moses Moody. Especially towards the latter portion of that Lakers series.
Speaker 2: He was playing solid point of attack defense, although he's
Speaker 2: committing a few too many fouls, and he shot the
Speaker 2: ball well and that kind of ended up being the
Speaker 2: reason why he got that spot. Now we know they
Speaker 2: brought in Dario Sarich, who's going to be a guy
Speaker 2: who helps with forward death, but that's gonna be matchup dependent.
Speaker 2: There are going to be teams out there where you
Speaker 2: can't afford to have a guy like Dario sarch on
Speaker 2: the floor of some of his limitations defensively, right, And
Speaker 2: so what they're hoping for is for one of these
Speaker 2: forwards to pop. And obviously Moses Moody is like your
Speaker 2: higher floor, lower ceiling option, right. He's a guy that
Speaker 2: is a better standstill, knocked down three point shooter than
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kaminga, but not as good at putting the ball
Speaker 2: on the floor as Jonathan Kminga, right, not as athletic
Speaker 2: as Jonathan Kamina. He's a good physical point of attack defender,
Speaker 2: but he's not as good as Jonathan Kaminga can be
Speaker 2: when he's at his peak at the perimeter. Jonathan Kaminga's
Speaker 2: got a little bit of that and Andrew Wiggins potential
Speaker 2: as a as an athletic perimeter defender, right, But in
Speaker 2: terms of decision making and just what he does well
Speaker 2: that fits alongside the core Warriors players. Moody's been in
Speaker 2: a better position over the course of the last couple
Speaker 2: of years, but Jonathan Kaminga is whooping his ass off
Speaker 2: in preseason. He's averaging twenty six points, six rebounds, and
Speaker 2: three assists so far, fifty five percent from the field,
Speaker 2: forty seven percent from three on six attempts per game,
Speaker 2: and seventy six percent from the line. He's converting spot
Speaker 2: up possessions at one point two points per possession, and
Speaker 2: his half court creation metrics have been outstanding. Nine points
Speaker 2: on eight pick and rolls that's over a point per possession,
Speaker 2: thirteen points on nine ISOs that's way over a point
Speaker 2: per possession, and eight points on six post ups that
Speaker 2: total's at thirty points on twenty three possessions against set
Speaker 2: half court defenses where he's initiating the action, and he's
Speaker 2: at one point three points per possession. That's outstanding. He's
Speaker 2: made ten of his nineteen jump shots. He's taken four
Speaker 2: pull up jump shots and he's made three of them.
Speaker 2: So it's hard to be any better than what Jonathan
Speaker 2: k Ming has been so far in preseason. So the
Speaker 2: next question is what is replicable from that with the
Speaker 2: core lineups? Right, because obviously free preseason has more of
Speaker 2: a free flowing type of feel compared to what you're
Speaker 2: gonna be asking this guy to do in Game three
Speaker 2: against the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, right, Like,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be different, right, So I wanted to take
Speaker 2: a closer look at that. So, first of all, the
Speaker 2: spot up possessions, obviously, whether it's him in the corner
Speaker 2: or cutting along the baseline, which he does pretty well
Speaker 2: for the most part, he needs to be able to
Speaker 2: make defenses pay for not guarding him. Two points for
Speaker 2: spotup possessions so far, that's encouraging. If he can keep
Speaker 2: that up, that's a big step in that direction. Transition possessions.
Speaker 2: The Golden State Warriors are constantly hunting transition possessions, which
Speaker 2: is something they need to do because last year they
Speaker 2: struggled with half court offense against the best defenses right
Speaker 2: So again, the best half court offenses are never going
Speaker 2: to be as efficient as an average transition offense, So
Speaker 2: having guys that can get up and down and run
Speaker 2: the floor and score is a huge value. Second half
Speaker 2: of the Kings game the other night, he blew by
Speaker 2: Kevin Herder and semi transitions coming up the left wing,
Speaker 2: Herders backpedaling. Herders just a smaller, less athletic player, and
Speaker 2: Kaminga just hits him with a hard right handed dribble,
Speaker 2: just blows right by him, lays it up on the
Speaker 2: right side of the rim, right like that's something that
Speaker 2: he can continue to do even with the core guys.
Speaker 2: He's had a couple of baskets trailing the play right,
Speaker 2: like we saw the Gary Payton drop off pass where
Speaker 2: a Kamingo was like floating head above the rim as
Speaker 2: he laid it in, and then he had that lob
Speaker 2: dunk in the in the Lakers game. These are easy
Speaker 2: buckets that he can get in the flow of the
Speaker 2: offense without having to command half court possessions or take
Speaker 2: the ball away from Steph Curry or do something that
Speaker 2: he's not gonna be able to do in some sort
Speaker 2: of key postseason environment. That is a legitimate weapon to
Speaker 2: have an athlete that can run the floor and transition
Speaker 2: and score the matchup attacking I think has been really interesting.
Speaker 2: And again, are they going to run a bunch of
Speaker 2: Kaminga ISOs or post ups at the end of a
Speaker 2: close playoff game. Probably not, but it is a useful
Speaker 2: weapon over the course of the eighty two, and if
Speaker 2: he demonstrates it over the eighty two, you might see
Speaker 2: it in bench runs during the playoffs, like late first quarter,
Speaker 2: early second quarter, late third quarter, early fourth quarter, where
Speaker 2: you might see Jonathan Kaminga get some opportunities to score.
Speaker 2: He's just two damn big, strong and athletic for most
Speaker 2: of these NBA defenders, and they've done some stuff to
Speaker 2: make it easy on him, right, Like I've seen, especially
Speaker 2: against the Kings, they had a couple plays where they
Speaker 2: cleared the side for him. There's a play where he
Speaker 2: cleared the side against Aaron Fox. He was in the
Speaker 2: first half and like he patiently waited for the guys
Speaker 2: to go get spaced out, and then he literally didn't
Speaker 2: do anything fancy. He just looked Darren Fox in the face,
Speaker 2: ripped through to the middle, shouldered him with that left arm,
Speaker 2: bumped him off and made an easy floater in the lane.
Speaker 2: That's easy basketball. Darren Fox is a good defensive player,
Speaker 2: but that's just a bigger, stronger athlete. There's nothing he
Speaker 2: can do about that. Then in the second half, same thing.
Speaker 2: They clear the right side this time and he's going
Speaker 2: against Sasha Vazankov. Same thing, just hard dribble towards the left.
Speaker 2: Vzaykov cuts him off because he anticipated the move. But
Speaker 2: there's just no way in hell he's gonna be able
Speaker 2: to hang with him on the counter move. Hard dribble,
Speaker 2: spin all the way to the basket, easy layup at
Speaker 2: the rim, a layup he's going to literally make one
Speaker 2: hundred percent of the time. That's the type of physical
Speaker 2: advantage he brings to the table. Second half against Alex
Speaker 2: Lenni gets him on a switch. They're spaced out in
Speaker 2: five out spacing. He doesn't even have a cleared side,
Speaker 2: but he just beats Alex Lenne with a really quick
Speaker 2: dribble to the left hand in a layup. And then
Speaker 2: I know you guys all remember the first Lakers game,
Speaker 2: the very first preseason game when he hit that spin
Speaker 2: move against Torrian Prince and the lane for the n one.
Speaker 2: He's just he just has such a physical advantage that
Speaker 2: there's there's points there. And the Warriors again, they're they're
Speaker 2: they're putting him in positions where he has significant physical
Speaker 2: advantages and where he's got good spacing, meaning they are
Speaker 2: either clearing the side or making his reads easy. Why
Speaker 2: is clearing the side important because then you don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about help from one side of the court.
Speaker 2: You can just face the other side. A lot of
Speaker 2: young players and guys that you know aren't accustomed to
Speaker 2: being floor generals, are not as good at kind of
Speaker 2: digesting everything that's happening on the court. So clear aside
Speaker 2: for him, you take away half of his decision making
Speaker 2: process and you make things easier for him. And then lastly,
Speaker 2: he's using his gifts. He's not taking dumb fait aways,
Speaker 2: he's not settling. He is being physically aggressive towards the
Speaker 2: basket and elevating over the top of guys for easy shots.
Speaker 2: Now the question is what will be the keys for
Speaker 2: him to crack the playoff rotation to get more minutes
Speaker 2: than guys like Dario sarach or Moses Because here's the thing,
Speaker 2: Like Moses Moody to me is that higher floor, lower
Speaker 2: ceiling option, right, Like he's gonna be more consistent in
Speaker 2: all likelihood. Dario sariz I would argue even higher floor,
Speaker 2: right because he's just a veteran who's been in a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot. He's just play a lot more basketball, right.
Speaker 2: So obviously the floor is higher for those guys, but
Speaker 2: unquestionably the ceiling is higher for Kaminga. There's a universe
Speaker 2: where if he gets eighteen minutes a game in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: that he could have a twenty point game or two.
Speaker 2: That's the type of ceiling that he has that a
Speaker 2: guy like Moses Moody doesn't have. But in order to
Speaker 2: crack the rotation, he's got to be sharpened some specific areas.
Speaker 2: He has to defend on the perimeter at the same
Speaker 2: level that Andrew Wiggins does, which is something he's more
Speaker 2: than capable of. He has to shoot the ball close
Speaker 2: to as well as he has in the preseason. That's
Speaker 2: something he's capable of. But most importantly, he has to
Speaker 2: consistently make good decisions. That's the big pet peeve for
Speaker 2: the Warriors. Ball stopping missing that extra pass to one
Speaker 2: of their shooters, lack of attention to detail and transition defense,
Speaker 2: help defense, things along those lines. Those are those areas
Speaker 2: where Kamina has to be sharp throughout this season in
Speaker 2: order to earn that spot in the playoff rotation. Now,
Speaker 2: no matter what, I think, it's plainly visible to all
Speaker 2: of us that this kid's going to be a star.
Speaker 2: It's just a matter of when the tools are too insane.
Speaker 2: The leaps that he's making on a season by season
Speaker 2: basis with his specific skill set is you can't You
Speaker 2: can't deny it at this point. It's it might take
Speaker 2: another four or five years, but I think Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 2: has all Star in his future.
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Speaker 2: is yours all right, let's move on to Wembnyama. So
Speaker 2: far in two preseason games, Wemby is scoring at a
Speaker 2: rate of thirty seven points per thirty six minutes on
Speaker 2: sixty four percent shooting. Now, why do I say per
Speaker 2: thirty six Because in preseason you're playing limited shifts, and
Speaker 2: the average NBA player is going to play around thirty
Speaker 2: six minutes per game during the course of the regular season.
Speaker 2: Maybe the Spurs limit him down to thirty two or
Speaker 2: thirty four or something like that. But I like per
Speaker 2: thirty six because it's a way to take small, sample
Speaker 2: sized stuff like, Oh, here's a bench big Let's see
Speaker 2: how he would produce in a bigger role. Oh here's
Speaker 2: a preseason shift. How would this look over the course
Speaker 2: of a full regular season game?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Like, that's why I use per thirty six. So wembn
Speaker 2: Yama is scoring at a rate of thirty seven points
Speaker 2: per thirty six minutes. He's also at three point four
Speaker 2: blocks and one point seven steals per thirty six minutes.
Speaker 2: That's five point one stocks, which is steals plus box
Speaker 2: put together. That's insane. And the crazy part is he
Speaker 2: hasn't even functioned like a big man like I expected
Speaker 2: him to For the most part, he had a couple
Speaker 2: of pick and pop reps against the Heat, but for
Speaker 2: the most part, he's acting like a scoring wing, which
Speaker 2: I did not see coming coming into the disease. I thought
Speaker 2: for sure that Popovich would kind of repurpose him into
Speaker 2: a textbook you know, pick and pop, scoring big and
Speaker 2: get him a lot of advantage situations. And I'm sure
Speaker 2: he still will do a lot of that over the
Speaker 2: course of his career. I just figured his scoring polish
Speaker 2: would be kind of not quite ready to be used
Speaker 2: as a wing. But I couldn't have been more wrong
Speaker 2: about that so far through preseason. He made ten of
Speaker 2: his fifteen shots against the Heat the other night, and
Speaker 2: those ten makes included a pull up jumper at the
Speaker 2: foul line coming off of a dribble handoff. That's a
Speaker 2: wing move. A step back jumper from the elbow in transition.
Speaker 2: That's a wing move. A face up jumper off of
Speaker 2: an iverson cut that's a wing move, a lot dunk
Speaker 2: off of a give and go. One of the craziest
Speaker 2: plays I've ever seen give and go from the wing
Speaker 2: just points to the rim, the guard just throws it
Speaker 2: up and he just catches it with two hands and dunks.
Speaker 2: It was one of the most ridiculous basketball plays I've
Speaker 2: ever seen. And then we had a transition pick and
Speaker 2: roll where Cheddy Osman sets the ball screen forty feet
Speaker 2: from the basket. He gets into the screen defender, hits
Speaker 2: an in and out between the legs, step back jump shot,
Speaker 2: and then on a pick and pop, he had a
Speaker 2: jab step driving left hard dribble with his left hand
Speaker 2: spinning into a left shoulder fade. These are all super
Speaker 2: high level wing scoring plays. And here's the thing again,
Speaker 2: I thought he was going to be a big man
Speaker 2: who slowly learned how to shoot at a high level
Speaker 2: and how to score from the wing at a high level.
Speaker 2: If he's just gonna come into the league and be
Speaker 2: a stretched out Kevin Durant from day one, we need
Speaker 2: to recalibrate everything about what this kid can be, because
Speaker 2: that's the hard stuff. When he's on good basketball teams,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be easy stuff, the pick and pops. He
Speaker 2: had a wide open pick and pop three against Miami
Speaker 2: left shoulder Faid that was attacking a close out out
Speaker 2: of a pick and pop. He's gonna have lots of
Speaker 2: advantage situations that crazy left handed Dunkey had over Thomas Bryant,
Speaker 2: where Thomas Bryant like looked over at the sideline like
Speaker 2: what the hell am I supposed to do with that? Which,
Speaker 2: by the way, is one of my favorite NBA clips
Speaker 2: ever that needs to be in the Webben Yama documentary
Speaker 2: twenty five Years from Now is just Thomas Bryant looking
Speaker 2: over like what am I supposed to do? Guys? You know,
Speaker 2: but that's off. That was off of a drop off
Speaker 2: to the dunker spot someone else was driving. He's standing
Speaker 2: there and the dunker sbody gets the ball and he
Speaker 2: just takes the dribble and goes up and finishes. He's
Speaker 2: gonna get lots of easy stuff in his NBA career,
Speaker 2: especially when he starts playing alongside players that are at
Speaker 2: least nearby his caliber, right, But like, if he's already
Speaker 2: got the hard stuff, that's just like rescue possessions and
Speaker 2: you know, uh like late game, slow down, half court
Speaker 2: situations where that stuff becomes vitally important. Those are ceiling razors.
Speaker 2: When he actually gets to a point where the game
Speaker 2: is super easy for him, that stuff will just push
Speaker 2: him to the next level of impact. But to put
Speaker 2: it simply, he is way way way more polished and
Speaker 2: way way closer to that wing score archetype level of
Speaker 2: skill than I would expect him to be at this point.
Speaker 2: I thought we'd see flashes. We saw flashes, right, We
Speaker 2: saw flashes in Europe. We saw him hit a one
Speaker 2: leg pull up three, we saw him take crazy off
Speaker 2: the dribble jump shots. But like, we never anticipated that
Speaker 2: he'd be able to come into the NBA and then
Speaker 2: just immediately score at that rate, at that level of efficiency.
Speaker 2: And again it's just preseason, but like, it's hard not
Speaker 2: to be excited at this point. We're not seeing flashes.
Speaker 2: We're seeing a super confident score at this point. So far,
Speaker 2: he's at fifty eight percent an effective field goal percentage
Speaker 2: on jump shots. Overall, he's made five of his seven
Speaker 2: pull up jump shot attempts. He's nine for nine at
Speaker 2: the rim, and he's at nine points on seven post
Speaker 2: ups and ISOs, which is well over a point possession.
Speaker 2: It's hard to get off to a much better stop
Speaker 2: than start than that. And again, guys like he don't
Speaker 2: underestimate the defensive impact there. Five point one stocks steals
Speaker 2: plus blocks per thirty six minutes. That's insane. Jaren Jackson
Speaker 2: led the league in stocks per game last year at
Speaker 2: four a little under four. Like, we're talking about an
Speaker 2: unprecedented ability to disrupt NBA offenses with deflections and steals
Speaker 2: and blocks. This is it's not normal. And it's honestly
Speaker 2: funny looking back at the Summer League now, because you
Speaker 2: remember how everybody reacted after that first Victor Wembenyama game,
Speaker 2: And those are you guys who listened to the show.
Speaker 2: Do you remember what I said then? I said, this
Speaker 2: is not what it's gonna look like. When he's playing
Speaker 2: on a real NBA roster, it's gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: easier for him. And I mean, how stupid does that
Speaker 2: all look now? The people that said, oh, it's just
Speaker 2: another Bowl Bowl, how does that look now? Like again,
Speaker 2: I tried to get people not to overthink it, because like,
Speaker 2: this isn't a guy that only showed potential in workouts
Speaker 2: or anything like that. He was a very, very a
Speaker 2: good player playing against grown ass men last year. Professionally,
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaking his team made it to the championship.
Speaker 2: I think they lost in the finals. So like again,
Speaker 2: like there's a lot more that's proven about Victor than
Speaker 2: we thought, but he's also proving to be even better
Speaker 2: than we thought at the same time, and I hope
Speaker 2: everybody gets on board with it pretty quickly, all right,
Speaker 2: Moving on to our season preview for the Milwaukee Bucks,
Speaker 2: so our offseason recap. They lost Grayson Allen, John Carter,
Speaker 2: Goran Rodgers, Drew Holliday, Joe Ingles Myers, Leonard, and Wesley Matthews.
Speaker 2: They added Malik Beasley, Robin Lopez, Campaign, ty Ty Washington,
Speaker 2: and a backup card for the Rockets last year Drew
Speaker 2: Timmy was a Milwaukee Buck and Damian Lillard, who were
Speaker 2: going to talk about in a little bit their depth
Speaker 2: chart as of right now, Damian Lillard, Pat Conaton, Malik Beasley,
Speaker 2: campaign and ty Ty Washington at guard at Ford, Jannison,
Speaker 2: Tenna Kombo, Chris Middleton, marsh On Bouchamp, Jay Crowder, Bobby
Speaker 2: Portis depending on who you ask. And then Brook Lopez,
Speaker 2: Robin Lopez, Andrew Timmy. Now, why was the Damian Lillard
Speaker 2: trade the right move? And before I frame this, I
Speaker 2: want to talk about like kind of the Devil's advocate
Speaker 2: case against it, right because there were some Galaxy Brain
Speaker 2: people out there trying to overthink it. And the case
Speaker 2: was basically, you give up Grayson Allen and the deal
Speaker 2: it was a starting NBA two guard, and he was
Speaker 2: particularly important to the Bucks last year because not only
Speaker 2: was he announced standing spot up player, but he specifically
Speaker 2: was very good at deep above the break threes, So
Speaker 2: like you could position him on the left wing or
Speaker 2: on the right wing, like twenty five twenty six feet
Speaker 2: away from the basket, and he was gonna pull that
Speaker 2: defender away from digging down because he could consistently knock
Speaker 2: that shot down. So he was pretty important, right. And
Speaker 2: then obviously you give up your best and most versatile
Speaker 2: perimeter defender and Drew Holliday, right, and a guy who
Speaker 2: was a huge part of their defensive identity when they
Speaker 2: won the title in twenty twenty one. I'd argue he
Speaker 2: was their second most important defensive right. So like that,
Speaker 2: that's the Devil's advocate case. You give up that depth
Speaker 2: at the starting two guard spot, and you give up
Speaker 2: your defensive identity. But here's the harsh truth. And this
Speaker 2: is again like I talk all the time about NBA
Speaker 2: front offices and being honest with what your predicament is
Speaker 2: even above and beyond wins and losses, because like, whatever
Speaker 2: happened last year, it doesn't necessarily, you know, it doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily have anything to do with what your current predicament is. Right, So, like,
Speaker 2: you won the title in twenty twenty one, and it's
Speaker 2: completely legitimate, but that doesn't mean that your next title
Speaker 2: is going to look like that. It might have to
Speaker 2: look different, right, And see, here's the thing. You won
Speaker 2: your title in twenty twenty one off the strength of
Speaker 2: your defensive identity, but every playoff defeat outside of that
Speaker 2: over the last five years has come down to the
Speaker 2: same thing every single time, half court offense. It's getting
Speaker 2: stuck in the half court against a better half court
Speaker 2: shot creator on the other team and not being able
Speaker 2: to score. Like again, like, there was some hope, especially
Speaker 2: after twenty twenty one, when he had the free throw
Speaker 2: shooting performance in Game six in the finals, there was
Speaker 2: some hope that Giannis would polish up as a score
Speaker 2: right and polish up as a free throw shooter, and
Speaker 2: that would fix the half court offense issues. But instead
Speaker 2: the opposite is happening. Yannis dropped back below sixty five
Speaker 2: percent from the foul line last year, was his worst
Speaker 2: market from the foul line since twenty twenty, and last
Speaker 2: year on shot attempts outside of the restricted area, Yiannis
Speaker 2: was one hundred and seventy one for five hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty that's thirty point five percent. He doesn't even have
Speaker 2: a reliable hook shot. He only made thirteen all season
Speaker 2: last year on thirty five percent, and he was two
Speaker 2: for seven in the playoffs. And this is not a
Speaker 2: young player anymore. He's been in the league ten seasons.
Speaker 2: He's going into his eleventh season, so that ship has sailed.
Speaker 2: And that's what I mean by self awareness and acknowledging
Speaker 2: problems in the front office. You have to you have
Speaker 2: to acknowledge the reality of your specific situation. Self awareness
Speaker 2: is the only pathway to identifying your flaws and making
Speaker 2: whatever changes need to be made so that you can
Speaker 2: be better off in the long run. Right, And it's
Speaker 2: clear to me the Dame trade signifies the Bucks front
Speaker 2: office acknowledging Yiannis is never going to become that guy.
Speaker 2: He's never going to be the guy who's going to
Speaker 2: be able to out execute the best superstars in the
Speaker 2: league in the half court offensively. So that's why it's
Speaker 2: worth giving up your two guard. That's why it's worth
Speaker 2: giving up your defensive identity if you can take the
Speaker 2: biggest flaw in Giannis's game and turn it into something
Speaker 2: that's actually a strength for your team. Again, you won
Speaker 2: the title in twenty twenty one. It was legit, as
Speaker 2: legit as any title in NBA history. I'm not undercutting it,
Speaker 2: but let's talk about what happened. You faced an injury
Speaker 2: riddled Nets team, right with James Harden on a bad
Speaker 2: hamstring and Kyrie Irving out of the lineup. You face
Speaker 2: the Atlanta Hawks, who are good basketball team, but not
Speaker 2: your team, typical conference finalist, right, and then you faced
Speaker 2: a Suns team in the final that did not have
Speaker 2: a top ten player on the roster. So that defensive
Speaker 2: identity was good enough to overcome those circumstances. But usually
Speaker 2: in NBA history, you have to face one of those
Speaker 2: top tier shot creators. You have to face a Lebron,
Speaker 2: you have to face a steph you have to face
Speaker 2: a Jokic, you have to face a Luca. That's usually
Speaker 2: the kind of guy you have to face in those settings. Right,
Speaker 2: You lost in twenty nineteen to a Raptors team that
Speaker 2: had a better half court offense. You lost in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty to a Miami Heat team that had a better
Speaker 2: half court offense. Twenty twenty two, I would say it
Speaker 2: was mostly the Chris Middleton injury, but chances are they
Speaker 2: would have run into Steph and had the exact same problem,
Speaker 2: a half court offense that can't compete with what Steph
Speaker 2: can do right. And then in lot you lost in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three because of your half court offense. Once again,
Speaker 2: the Bucks notched a clutch net rating of minus fifty
Speaker 2: three point eight in their two losses against the Miami
Speaker 2: Heat that involved clutch situations. They had a seventy seven
Speaker 2: offensive rating in those situations. They couldn't score time and
Speaker 2: time again, that's been the issue, and again it doesn't
Speaker 2: take away from the title. The title is the title
Speaker 2: is the title. But if you look at the five
Speaker 2: year window, it's been four losses at the hands of
Speaker 2: half court shot creation or an injury that would have
Speaker 2: eventually lost because of half court shot creation, and then
Speaker 2: your title in the middle where you didn't have to
Speaker 2: face one of those teams. So I think it was
Speaker 2: the right decision to understand the limitations of this roster
Speaker 2: and to make a move that puts your team in
Speaker 2: a better chance to compete at a year in, year
Speaker 2: out basis, because had you run it back, the only
Speaker 2: way you're winning is if all of the top tier
Speaker 2: shot creators somehow get knocked out and you end up
Speaker 2: running into some team like Minnesota in the finals, which
Speaker 2: this isn't gonna happen, right, So I thought, I thought
Speaker 2: this was the right decision. Jianness, in my opinion, is
Speaker 2: by far the best player in the world if you
Speaker 2: remove that slow down half court environment, right, Like, he's
Speaker 2: top five defensive player in the world, by far, the
Speaker 2: best transition player in the world. It's a very very
Speaker 2: good passer. He does all these things exceedingly well, but
Speaker 2: he just can't make shots over the top of the defense,
Speaker 2: right And so like that's where that limitation. And again,
Speaker 2: like Drew Holliday and Chris Middleton were good players, but
Speaker 2: they were never consistently good enough to overcome that. Now, well,
Speaker 2: they have defensive questions to answer with dame of course,
Speaker 2: but now at the very least, when they end up
Speaker 2: in these slow down half court environments against the best
Speaker 2: shot creators in the league, they have one of the
Speaker 2: top tier guys in the League two in that situation,
Speaker 2: not to mention in just in general, throughout the whole
Speaker 2: season and throughout the entire playoff run, You've just given
Speaker 2: a much better offensive fire power to your offense. That
Speaker 2: will make Giannis's job easier, That will allow him to
Speaker 2: devote more resources to what he's best at, which is
Speaker 2: dominating games on the defensive end of the four, which
Speaker 2: is being that freight train and in transition that nobody
Speaker 2: can stop. Do you remember in that Celtics series in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two how tired Giannis looked at the end
Speaker 2: and he still almost won it. Imagine what I imagine
Speaker 2: what he can do as a wrecking ball in games.
Speaker 2: When Dame can take two thirds of those offensive, slow
Speaker 2: down half court possessions, then we have the natural synergy
Speaker 2: of the damieness two man game. And I want to
Speaker 2: dive into this concept for a little bit because I
Speaker 2: think it's it's you know, I've seen a lot of people,
Speaker 2: a lot of people have talked about how it's gonna
Speaker 2: be impossible to guard, including myself, But I wanted to
Speaker 2: dive into it schematically for a little bit, and you know,
Speaker 2: to me, it comes down to getting dribble penetration and
Speaker 2: getting teams into rotation. Like I said at the very
Speaker 2: beginning of the show, getting a defense in rotation is
Speaker 2: kind of the theme of this show, and the reason
Speaker 2: why is because it's just an easier way to play basketball.
Speaker 2: Think of it simply, Okay, I'm guarding you. You're where
Speaker 2: the camera is. If I'm just standing here ready to go,
Speaker 2: sitting in a defensive stands with my hand up, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot harder for you to score than
Speaker 2: if I'm ten feet further back and I'm sprinting at
Speaker 2: you full speed in a closeout.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That's pretty simple concept, right, But the only way you
Speaker 2: were gonna get that situation is if one of your
Speaker 2: other offensive players at the beginning of the possession, when
Speaker 2: the defense is set, can draw a help defender. Because
Speaker 2: once you draw the help defender, that's what leaves you open,
Speaker 2: which allows me to make that pass, and from there,
Speaker 2: the defenses in rotation you pump fake and beat me
Speaker 2: off the dribble. Now you engage another help defender, which
Speaker 2: leaves another open player, right, and then you can drive
Speaker 2: and kick until you get the right shot, which is
Speaker 2: gonna be a wide open three, or a layup or
Speaker 2: a dunk at the basket right. But the only way
Speaker 2: you can get a defense in rotation is to get
Speaker 2: dribble penetration. And again, drill penetration does not have to
Speaker 2: be me beating my guy off the dribble right, and
Speaker 2: we know Yiannis can do that, But there are other
Speaker 2: ways to generate drimal penetration. What if you just beat
Speaker 2: someone back door right standing on the sideline, Guys overplaying
Speaker 2: the passing lane, I cut back door, you hit me
Speaker 2: with bounce pass. I'm gonna draw help defender right. And
Speaker 2: then a big one is slipping ball screens. Come to
Speaker 2: set a ball screen. Then I slip to the basket.
Speaker 2: You throw the ball over the top. If both defenders
Speaker 2: are behind me, you're gonna have to send a help defender.
Speaker 2: Now you're in rotation. So you can find opportunities to
Speaker 2: get the defense in rotation without having to say, Yannis
Speaker 2: beat this guy off the dribble right. And so that's
Speaker 2: where the Damian Lillard Yannis two man game comes into
Speaker 2: the picture. It creates advantage situations and it's just way
Speaker 2: easier to play basketball that way. When you have an
Speaker 2: advantage versus one defenses are set. This is why every
Speaker 2: defense tries to guard ISO's one on one, tries to
Speaker 2: guards post ups, one on one, tries to guard pick
Speaker 2: and roll in dribble handoffs, two on two, tries to
Speaker 2: guard spain pick and roll, and other three man actions
Speaker 2: three on three. They do that because they're trying to
Speaker 2: stay out of rotation, because they know if they're in rotation,
Speaker 2: they're gonna give up open threes, they're gonna give up
Speaker 2: open layups, and they're gonna give up offensive rebounds because
Speaker 2: guys aren't matched up. Talked about that at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the show.
Speaker 1: But that.
Speaker 2: First Damian littler Gianni's pick and roll, they got the
Speaker 2: wide open three for Jay Crowder. At the beginning of
Speaker 2: the Laker game, it was a miss three, but Brook
Speaker 2: Lopez ended up breaking open for the offensive rebound because
Speaker 2: the Lakers were in rotation and they weren't matched up.
Speaker 2: Getting your defense into getting the opponent's defense into rotation
Speaker 2: is the key to any offensive success. And so this
Speaker 2: is where that two man game comes into comes into
Speaker 2: the the picture. So let's talk about all the different ways.
Speaker 2: And when I say two man game, it could look
Speaker 2: at a bunch of different ways, right Like, it could
Speaker 2: be a damianis pick and roll where Janni's just simply
Speaker 2: comes up and sets a ball screen. It could be
Speaker 2: a dribble handoff. It could be off of a wide
Speaker 2: pin down right like, it could just be Brooks standing
Speaker 2: at the top of the key, Dame in the corner,
Speaker 2: Giannis at the elbow, Giannis goes down and sets a
Speaker 2: screen for Dame coming off. Any form of two man
Speaker 2: game involving those two will put you in the same predicament.
Speaker 2: First is a let's talk about the different defensive coverages
Speaker 2: you could run against this action in what would happen
Speaker 2: if you did right? So, first of all, if you
Speaker 2: run a deep drop coverage right meaning we also call
Speaker 2: this a no roller behind coverage, meaning the big man,
Speaker 2: the screen defender in the pick and roll, has to
Speaker 2: keep both the roller and the ball handler in front
Speaker 2: of him. So if the roller is rolling hard, he's
Speaker 2: backing up with him. In that kind of coverage. What's
Speaker 2: gonna happen with Damian Lillard. He's going to come off
Speaker 2: of these ball screens and he's going to hit a
Speaker 2: bunch of pull up threes, pull up twos, and floaters,
Speaker 2: and again, the vast majority of guys in the league,
Speaker 2: you live with that. With Drew holl you live with that,
Speaker 2: he's not gonna make enough of them. He's not gonna
Speaker 2: make enough pull up threes, he's not gonna make enough floaters,
Speaker 2: he's not gonna make enough fifteen footers. Right, But Dame
Speaker 2: is like one of just a small handful of guys
Speaker 2: that it's like, if we give him these shots, he's
Speaker 2: not just gonna make them, he's gonna make them at
Speaker 2: an untenable rate, meaning he's gonna be scoring one point
Speaker 2: two to one point three points per possession. When you
Speaker 2: run a deep drop coverage against him, that's not tenable.
Speaker 2: You will lose playoffs series that way. So that's option one.
Speaker 2: That doesn't work. Now, the upside there is your defense
Speaker 2: stays out of rotation and that might end up being
Speaker 2: the best way to guard them for the simple fact
Speaker 2: that maybe Dame gets tired and he misses shots. But
Speaker 2: that's suicide. You're not gonna see a lot of teams
Speaker 2: run deep drop against Portland or Portland against Milwaukee for
Speaker 2: that reason. So that's option one. Option two is switching. Theoretically,
Speaker 2: they run a two man game, which the action. Now
Speaker 2: they have to ISO or post up. Right, if you
Speaker 2: switch properly and you prevent them from slipping. Here's the problem.
Speaker 2: This isn't Lebron and Ad the Lebron and Ad pick
Speaker 2: and roll. Everyone's like, oh, Lebron and Ad pick and roll.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be so hard to guard. It has never
Speaker 2: been that damaging over the entire era. Why because who
Speaker 2: do you guard Lebron with a big strong forward deck
Speaker 2: can slide his feet? Who do you guard Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: with a big strong forward deck can slide his feet?
Speaker 2: So you could switch, and it's more or less the
Speaker 2: same type of advantage, right, But the type of guy
Speaker 2: you need to guard Dame is extremely different from the
Speaker 2: type of guy you need to guard Giannis. You need
Speaker 2: a big, strong forward who moves his feet well to
Speaker 2: guard Giannis. You need a quick, nimble athlete with long
Speaker 2: arms to guard Dame. And that quick nimble athlete is
Speaker 2: gonna get pulverized in the post by Yannis And that
Speaker 2: big strong forward that moves his feet well is gonna
Speaker 2: get absolutely barbecued by Damian Lillard. And it's either gonna
Speaker 2: be Giannis catching in the post an immediate double team,
Speaker 2: which gets your defense in rotation, or it's gonna be
Speaker 2: Dame beating his man off the dribble, the big man
Speaker 2: off the dribble, which is gonna get your defense in rotation.
Speaker 2: Or you can force da him to take step back
Speaker 2: threes by giving him space, which he's gonna make at
Speaker 2: such a high rate it's untenable anyway, because he's one
Speaker 2: of the small handful of guys in the league that
Speaker 2: you can't afford to give that shot to, so switching
Speaker 2: not gonna work. Last is any sort of aggressive pick
Speaker 2: and roll coverage, so a high drop where you're dropping
Speaker 2: but you're way up at the level of the screen,
Speaker 2: or a show where you actually come out above the
Speaker 2: level of the screen to stop the guard from turning
Speaker 2: the corner and then you recover back, or any sort
Speaker 2: of blitzer trap, and that's where both guys just double
Speaker 2: team and actually forced Dame to get rid of the basketball.
Speaker 2: In any of those situations, Dame has been facing that
Speaker 2: coverage forever because he's been playing with lower quality role
Speaker 2: men than Giannis over the years, and so it's been
Speaker 2: smart for teams to blitz and trap and high high
Speaker 2: hedge and to show to the high drop against Dame right,
Speaker 2: and so he knows how to make the over the
Speaker 2: top pass or the pocket pass to Jannis barreling down
Speaker 2: the basket. And now you put yourself in a predicament
Speaker 2: where if we saw this a bunch of the Lakers
Speaker 2: with Christian Wood right, if Christian Wood's gonna do a
Speaker 2: hedge or a high show or or a high drop,
Speaker 2: that means Giannis is rolling behind him. Now, when that
Speaker 2: pass is made, you have D'Angel Russell and Christian Wood
Speaker 2: on Damian Lillard twenty five feet from the basket. Now
Speaker 2: Jannis is barreling down the hill running a four on
Speaker 2: three and in a lot of cases his role gravity
Speaker 2: is so crazy you'll pull multiple defenders, which he literally
Speaker 2: did against the Lakers. There were multiple pick and rolls
Speaker 2: where there were multiple wide open shooters. That's the predicament
Speaker 2: they put you in. Oh and Giannis is one of
Speaker 2: the best rim finishers in the league and one of
Speaker 2: the best passers for his position. So to put a simply,
Speaker 2: there is no defensive strategy that can successfully guard the
Speaker 2: Janna Stain pick and roll without either conceding a jump
Speaker 2: shot to one of the best jump shooters in the
Speaker 2: history of the NBA, or putting your defense into rotation
Speaker 2: which allows the other team to play, which a lies
Speaker 2: your offense to play with an advantage the entire game. So,
Speaker 2: in short, everyone is screwed. I literally can't. If I
Speaker 2: was coaching against the Bucks, your best bet is to
Speaker 2: find the very best point of attack defender on your roster,
Speaker 2: put him on Dame, and pray to god he misses.
Speaker 2: That's a tough spot to be in. You run a
Speaker 2: deeper drop, take away those four on threes, take away
Speaker 2: those Roman possessions, and you pray he misses. It's just
Speaker 2: it's probably not going to work. But there are some
Speaker 2: questions about this Bucks roster, so let's dig into him
Speaker 2: a little bit. Can the Bucks piece together a functional
Speaker 2: rotation around those two guys? The first question is the
Speaker 2: two guard spot. This was the Grayson Allen's we talked
Speaker 2: better earlier, but he was a deadly spot up threat
Speaker 2: and specifically with deep three point shooting in the value
Speaker 2: that brought. So in the Laker game, they started Malik Beasley.
Speaker 2: I covered him with the Lakers last year. He's just
Speaker 2: not very good. He's he was out of the rotation
Speaker 2: for the Lakers after the Grizzly series. He's a really
Speaker 2: aggressive shooter that just doesn't really make shots, and he
Speaker 2: doesn't attack closeouts really well because he can't put the
Speaker 2: ball on the floor and he doesn't have a mid
Speaker 2: range game. He converted one hundred and four spot up
Speaker 2: opportunities for the Lakers last year into just seventy five
Speaker 2: points at zero point seven to two points per possession,
Speaker 2: and trust me, they were pretty damn good looks as
Speaker 2: teams were loading up on Lebron and Ad and Austin
Speaker 2: and d Lo and all those guys. He was also
Speaker 2: one of the worst defenders on the Lakers last year. Now,
Speaker 2: he did shoot much better a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: so maybe he gets to the point where he shoots better,
Speaker 2: but again, the defense and rebounding limitations I think make
Speaker 2: him not a great option. The second option is Pat Conaton,
Speaker 2: and he had a downshooting year last year, but even
Speaker 2: despite that, he still converted spot of possesion is at
Speaker 2: one point zero five points per possession, which is solid,
Speaker 2: and if you go back two years to the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two season, he was one of the best spot
Speaker 2: up players in the league. Shot sixty percent in effective
Speaker 2: field goal percentage on catch two jump shots. He converted
Speaker 2: spot up possessions at one point one six points per possession,
Speaker 2: which is outstanding. Now, he's not his athletic as Malik Beasley,
Speaker 2: but he's a little bigger and a little stronger. He's
Speaker 2: a better rebounder, and he's a more committed and smarter
Speaker 2: team defender. So I think in the long run, unless
Speaker 2: they make a trade for two guard, I think Pat
Speaker 2: Conton is actually the better option to go in that spot.
Speaker 2: I don't think you can go with Campaign because in
Speaker 2: your way too small, so Pat Contenton to me feels
Speaker 2: like the guy who inevitably ends up starting at the
Speaker 2: two in the long run. The second question is depth,
Speaker 2: and I'm not super concerned here. Campaign is a perfectly
Speaker 2: fine backup guard. He's actually one of the best guards
Speaker 2: in the league at generating dribble penetration, which we just
Speaker 2: talked about for a while how important that is. He's
Speaker 2: just so damn fast guys can't keep him in front.
Speaker 2: Malik Beasley again, for all his flaws, perfectly fine as
Speaker 2: a backup guard. Marjon Beauchamp has looked pretty good in
Speaker 2: preseason so far. Jay Crowder perfectly fine as a backup four, right,
Speaker 2: And those both of those guys kind of are the
Speaker 2: different archetypes, right, Ja crowd are the bigger, stronger for
Speaker 2: Marjhon the longer, more athletic forward right, and then Robin
Speaker 2: Lopez and Bobby Portis are a perfectly fine backup front court.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So I don't necessarily worry too much about their depth.
Speaker 2: Obviously they can't withhold a season full of injuries, but
Speaker 2: there's not a whole lot of teams in the league
Speaker 2: that can. The biggest question is their playoff rotation, right, Like,
Speaker 2: you got to have at least eight guys that you
Speaker 2: can trust. Well, you have four right away, Giannis, Dame,
Speaker 2: Chris and Brook. There's four. Pat I've seen him play
Speaker 2: a role in a playoff team. I think he can
Speaker 2: be fine. I thought he played really well for this
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two bucks. So you really just need three
Speaker 2: more out of Ja Crowder Bobby Portis, who I think
Speaker 2: both of them will be fine. That's seven. So you
Speaker 2: really just need one of campaign Malik Beasley or Marjon
Speaker 2: Beauchamp to pop before the end of the season, and
Speaker 2: or to find someone in the trade or buy out
Speaker 2: market right. So like, again, you need injury luck, but
Speaker 2: NBA history tells us you need injury luck anyway to
Speaker 2: win the title. So I'm not overly concerned about their depth.
Speaker 2: The only real question mark that has me somewhat concerned
Speaker 2: about this team is their point of attack defense. They
Speaker 2: have the star talent, they have the shooting, they have
Speaker 2: the defensive foundation of Giannison Brook in the front court,
Speaker 2: but they are not a good perimeter defense team on paper.
Speaker 2: You know, like if you face there are certain teams
Speaker 2: that it might not matter against. Like if you face
Speaker 2: Miami tomorrow in the playoffs, you're fine with Chris Middleton
Speaker 2: guard and Jimmy Butler. None of those other guards are
Speaker 2: gonna hurt you enough for it to matter. But specific matchups,
Speaker 2: teams like Cleveland, multiple shot creators in the backcourt, right
Speaker 2: teams like Boston, or loaded with shot creation right like
Speaker 2: Philly as a little bit of that with a Tyree
Speaker 2: Smacks and James Harden. Potentially right teams in the Western
Speaker 2: Conference they could see in the finals, teams like you know,
Speaker 2: Golden State, teams like Denver. There are teams like Phoenix.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of teams that are gonna have
Speaker 2: a lot of perimeter options that they can go at
Speaker 2: the bucks with, and so that that's gonna be the
Speaker 2: one thing that I'm gonna have to look at with
Speaker 2: them over the course of the season and whether or
Speaker 2: not that could be a problem. And again, like we
Speaker 2: talked about that defensive rotation concept that goes both ways.
Speaker 2: If your point of attack defenders are giving up too
Speaker 2: easy dribble penetration, then your defense is in rotation all
Speaker 2: the time, which can be a problem. But here's where
Speaker 2: I'm at with it. I think you can guard Cleveland
Speaker 2: just like New York did right because of the Evan
Speaker 2: Mobley Jared Allen problem. A guy like Brook Lopez is
Speaker 2: gonna be able to kind of split that difference and
Speaker 2: guard both of those guys as Evan Mobley's rolling down
Speaker 2: to the basket. So I'm not too worried about Cleveland.
Speaker 2: I know, I know they brought in some shooting, but
Speaker 2: it's the front court that I think makes them easy
Speaker 2: to guard. Miami's not gonna hit enough pull up jump shots,
Speaker 2: not unless they make a trade. Philly I don't think
Speaker 2: is gonna hit enough pull up jump shots. Boston, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think they have enough aggregate ball handling to really
Speaker 2: spread the Bucks out and cause some problems, but their
Speaker 2: execution is so sloppy I ever trust their offense to
Speaker 2: really be a weapon at that phase. It's the West
Speaker 2: where I really start to get concerned. Team like teams
Speaker 2: like Denver, teams like Golden State, teams like Phoenix that
Speaker 2: have a ton of pull up shooting, a ton of
Speaker 2: perimeter talent. Those are the teams that are gonna be
Speaker 2: able to pull Brook Lopez and pull Giannis away from
Speaker 2: the rim and get them into rotation. But again, those
Speaker 2: dynamics play both ways, right Like, if if you've got
Speaker 2: a team that's able to stretch the Bucks out, they're
Speaker 2: gonna be doing the same thing to you on the
Speaker 2: other end with Damon pick and roll. So again, it
Speaker 2: goes both ways. I just think it's something that's worth mentioning.
Speaker 2: You know, Pat Connaton, Malik Beasley, Damian Lillard, Marjon Beauchamp,
Speaker 2: that that's a Jay crowder at this phase in his career.
Speaker 2: Chris Middleton's a pretty good point of attack defender, but
Speaker 2: he's not great, So like that's gonna be a limitation
Speaker 2: for them, And you know, even against a team like Boston,
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to ask Giannis to guard one of
Speaker 2: the Jayson, either Jason Tatum or Jaylen Brown. So they're
Speaker 2: definitely not gonna be as good as they were defensively
Speaker 2: last year. And I mean, as far as predictions go
Speaker 2: for this, and that's where I have to start, because
Speaker 2: I do think that the Bucks will go down a
Speaker 2: level in the regular season, like I think the Celtics
Speaker 2: are gonna run away with the one seed. I bet
Speaker 2: you they have about a five game lead over everybody
Speaker 2: when it's all said and done. They just aren't as
Speaker 2: good defensively and aren't as deep the Bucks, which I
Speaker 2: think is gonna hurt them over the course of the
Speaker 2: regular season. But at the end of the day, you combine,
Speaker 2: you shrink the rotation, you combine the Yiannis Dame factor.
Speaker 2: In a playoff series, I just I just trust them
Speaker 2: a tiny bit more to generate higher quality shots than
Speaker 2: Boston over the course of a seven game series, which
Speaker 2: is going to be a slow down, knockdown, drag out
Speaker 2: fight of a series, right, And I also expect Giannis
Speaker 2: to be much more devastating in the margins of the
Speaker 2: game without the offensive workload he had to carry in
Speaker 2: the past. So that's where I'm at with the Bucks
Speaker 2: right now. I think they're gonna win the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: They might pick to win the East, but as of
Speaker 2: right now, I'm going with the Denver Nuggets at number
Speaker 2: one in my power rankings. I think they're the team
Speaker 2: that has proven but obviously most recently, but I think
Speaker 2: got the best player in the world, the best offense
Speaker 2: in the world, the most unguardable offense in the world.
Speaker 2: I'm going with the Nuggets for right now. We'll do
Speaker 2: a full season preview on them later this week. All right,
Speaker 2: moving on to the mailbag, we have two questions today
Speaker 2: versus from Alejandro. Last year, you were very high on
Speaker 2: James Harden's revenge season, but now after his performance last playoffs,
Speaker 2: you no longer trust his ability to contribute to a
Speaker 2: team in the playoffs. What was the last straw and
Speaker 2: why last season? First of all, great question, al, but
Speaker 2: that's the reason. If there was a season where James
Speaker 2: would finally pop in the playoffs, it was last year.
Speaker 2: Why no longer the best player on his team? So
Speaker 2: it hard embiads getting the line share of the defensive
Speaker 2: coverages and attention. Right the pressures off of him as well,
Speaker 2: and he looked better in the regular season, Like he
Speaker 2: looked in shape and like it looked like the best
Speaker 2: version of James Harden that could have existed within that
Speaker 2: age of his career. Right, and he still was atrocious
Speaker 2: in the playoffs outside of two games. So it's hard
Speaker 2: for me to believe that another year is going to
Speaker 2: suddenly fix that problem. The reality is is the stuff
Speaker 2: that he does, specifically is rim finishing tanked in the postseason,
Speaker 2: but also timely turnovers and decision making like always so
Speaker 2: like again, like, if there was a year where it
Speaker 2: would have come together for him, it was last year
Speaker 2: and it didn't happen, which leaves me utterly discouraged regardless
Speaker 2: of what happens for James Harden this season as to
Speaker 2: what he could potentially accomplish in this postseason. All right,
Speaker 2: last mail back question, This one's from Nelson. How'd you
Speaker 2: settle on PRS guitars as your brand of choice? Which
Speaker 2: one do you use the most? And why? So? I
Speaker 2: got into PRS from the standpoint of like learning of
Speaker 2: its existence through Debt and Company and John Mayer. Right,
Speaker 2: John was playing this guy right here was playing the
Speaker 2: that's the what they call the Super Eagle. It was
Speaker 2: a custom guitar that they made. I think, I want
Speaker 2: to say they were charging like twenty grand for them,
Speaker 2: but they only made like a hundred of them, I think.
Speaker 2: And it was like kind of this cool custom guitar.
Speaker 2: It was a semi hollow and had these this three
Speaker 2: pickup setup. It was supposed to mimic Jerry Garcia's guitars
Speaker 2: that he was using. It also had a preamp built
Speaker 2: into it, like a treble boost, and these like vintage,
Speaker 2: these vintage style pickups that what they call their fifty
Speaker 2: eight fifteen's, And I just fell in love with this guitar.
Speaker 2: But obviously I was never gonna be able to get
Speaker 2: a twenty thousand dollars guitar, so I just started looking
Speaker 2: into prs. It's funny because I always look at sales
Speaker 2: as like a two pronged approach, like you gotta have
Speaker 2: something that catches people's attention, and then you have to
Speaker 2: have the long form sales pitch, which is like, Okay,
Speaker 2: now I have your attention, let me tell you why
Speaker 2: you know, using our product is best. And so obviously
Speaker 2: John Mayer got my initial attention to the guitar. I
Speaker 2: just thought it looked really cool with that, like the
Speaker 2: birds on the neck. I love the way it sounded
Speaker 2: when he was playing it. And so then I started
Speaker 2: doing research and they are made in Maryland, and their
Speaker 2: quality control is just legendary. Every piece of the guitar.
Speaker 2: When they finished the guitar tech who's working that piece
Speaker 2: has to initial in a part that's invisible. They have
Speaker 2: to initial that piece so that if like this guitar
Speaker 2: had an issue and I sent it back, they would
Speaker 2: literally disassemble it and they would be able to basically
Speaker 2: hold the person accountable for making that particular mistake. So
Speaker 2: they have really high level quality control in general. It
Speaker 2: just feel I felt like a real passion from this
Speaker 2: from the whole company in their overall quality and their
Speaker 2: guitar making. And then I've really been a fan of
Speaker 2: their the curly maple stuff that they do. So this
Speaker 2: is what they call CE twenty four, So this is
Speaker 2: one of their lower level pieces of wood. But you
Speaker 2: could just see this like beautiful, like kind of like
Speaker 2: striations in the maple, and all they do is stain
Speaker 2: it and it pulls out all those lines, which gives
Speaker 2: you like that tiger stripe, and then this one above here,
Speaker 2: this one above me here, this is the uh, the
Speaker 2: hollow body two. So it's a whole thing because it
Speaker 2: does the acoustic sound out of the bridge. But this
Speaker 2: is a ten top. So this is one of their
Speaker 2: higher quality pieces of wood. And it's just this beautiful
Speaker 2: maple you can see in there throughout but it and
Speaker 2: it has that kind of like a black color behind it,
Speaker 2: which I think is really pretty. But so I've always
Speaker 2: been drawn to their craftsmanship. But they're also just beautiful
Speaker 2: sounding guitars. And so these are the two that I have.
Speaker 2: The CEE twenty four, this is like their modern pickup.
Speaker 2: This is actually the guitar that I think is the
Speaker 2: best for the price from PRS because you save money
Speaker 2: with a little bit of the cheaper wood, and then
Speaker 2: they do a bolt on neck and they do a
Speaker 2: maple neck, and then they do a steel bridge. So
Speaker 2: it's got some cheaper components, but the key components are
Speaker 2: just as good. It's still a solid piece of mahogany.
Speaker 2: This is still their top tier pickups. I think it's
Speaker 2: called eighty five to fifteen. So you can get this
Speaker 2: guitar for like I think you're right around like twenty
Speaker 2: five hundred bucks. But that's that's all the electron equipment
Speaker 2: that you get from a five thousand dollars guitar and
Speaker 2: something half as expensive. So that was after I did
Speaker 2: a bunch of research. I had a bunch of cheaper guitars.
Speaker 2: I'm surrounded by guitars in here, so like I had
Speaker 2: when I first started playing, I was using epiphone a lot.
Speaker 2: So I've got an SG and un let's Paul over
Speaker 2: here their epiphone, but they're just I was. I was
Speaker 2: ready to get a real guitar, and so that was
Speaker 2: when I saved up and got that one. Really again
Speaker 2: a really good price point. This one. I just really
Speaker 2: wanted the vintage sound and then I wanted to be
Speaker 2: able to play acoustic, and so this one does both
Speaker 2: of those. This guitar is really really cool. Like literally
Speaker 2: you can plug and see how there's two ports on it,
Speaker 2: so that port is just for the acoustic and then
Speaker 2: this is for both, and then there's a switch and
Speaker 2: you can actually blend the two sounds together, so you
Speaker 2: can get like a bunch of really cool sounds out
Speaker 2: of this. And then, in my opinion, the fifty eight
Speaker 2: to fifteen vintage pickups are just unbelievable sounding. But the
Speaker 2: one downside with that one is with the way that
Speaker 2: it's set up, it's a little harder to reach the
Speaker 2: top of the neck. So ironically, this is the easiest
Speaker 2: guitar for me to play, and just in terms of
Speaker 2: like mobility with my hands. But I think this one
Speaker 2: sounds the best. So I kind of alternate through, and
Speaker 2: like I have a Fender stratocaster that's behind the camera.
Speaker 2: Those of you guys who play guitar, No, like there's
Speaker 2: super unique sounds that you get from every guitar type, right,
Speaker 2: Like there's these prs is Like this this PRS I
Speaker 2: can actually pop this tone knob out, which turns this
Speaker 2: into a single coil. But the single coil sound that
Speaker 2: the prs is make when you pop the knob are
Speaker 2: not even remotely close to what a stratocaster sounds like,
Speaker 2: you know, like you just can't replicate a stratocaster neck
Speaker 2: pickup or like neck middle or treble middle right, or
Speaker 2: like you just can't you can't beat those very very
Speaker 2: unique stratocaster sounds. So like I kind of rotate through
Speaker 2: based on what mood I'm in right, and but again
Speaker 2: that's just a hobby of mine. It's not something I
Speaker 2: take in you really as seriously as basketball. I'd say
Speaker 2: it's like a very very clear second place. But it
Speaker 2: is something that I love to do for fun. Great question, Nelson,
Speaker 2: Thank you Alejandro as well. Don't forget to keep dropping
Speaker 2: mailbag questions and the YouTube comments does not have to
Speaker 2: be related to basketball. I actually think it's fun to
Speaker 2: occasionally talk about something different. As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 2: guys for supporting the show, and I will see you
Speaker 2: tomorrow for some more preseason breaking
Speaker 1: The volume