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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Lakers Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel. Here on the volume, I am Jason
Speaker 1: Tim Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope you're all having a
Speaker 1: great week. We finally got a competitive ish Lakers game,
Speaker 1: like there was at least a stretch of the game
Speaker 1: where it seemed like two NBA teams were playing against
Speaker 1: each other. That's a good sign. We're gonna get to
Speaker 1: everything that happened in that game. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that incredible thriller in Brooklyn between Luca and k
Speaker 1: D and the MAVs and the Nets, and some of
Speaker 1: the interesting things that I noticed in that game, and
Speaker 1: then I've been doing a lot of deep dive into
Speaker 1: the film of the Sixers. As of late, they had
Speaker 1: another somewhat lackluster win on the road against the shorthanded
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. They haven't looked great in the last weeks.
Speaker 1: I wanted to dive in is some of the reasons
Speaker 1: why that is the case, in my opinion, So stick
Speaker 1: around for the end for that. But let's start with
Speaker 1: some Lakers. So you know, as a commonly said over
Speaker 1: the course of this season, leadership involves so many different
Speaker 1: things as it pertains to the way it can't impact
Speaker 1: your team. And I have said on the record on
Speaker 1: this show that even though I Lebron is my favorite player,
Speaker 1: he's always been my favorite player, and I think he
Speaker 1: is probably the number one guy i'd take for a
Speaker 1: playoff series right now if I needed him, and I
Speaker 1: very well think he could be the greatest basketball player
Speaker 1: of all time. But he's one of the worst guys
Speaker 1: that you could possibly have to lead a team that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a real chance to win a championship, because
Speaker 1: while Lebron is psychotically competitive when things are when he
Speaker 1: has a chance, when he can smell blood in the water.
Speaker 1: He's kind of the exact opposite when he can tell
Speaker 1: that the team has no real chance. And over the
Speaker 1: course of this last stretch of game, since the star break,
Speaker 1: he struggled with having consistent effort, particularly on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the ball. And when you have a team
Speaker 1: like this that has a lot of veteran players, guys
Speaker 1: that are established in this league, guys who have a
Speaker 1: lottery background, and there's a bunch of guys like that
Speaker 1: on the team Stanley Johnson, Karmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard. These
Speaker 1: are all guys that were lottery picks at various points,
Speaker 1: and at various points in their careers were considered the
Speaker 1: future of a franchise or even a superstar in the league.
Speaker 1: And so those kinds of guys are not chip on
Speaker 1: their shoulder like self starter type of guys. They're gonna
Speaker 1: follow their leader. And I think that's been a big
Speaker 1: part of how the defense for the Lakers have struggled
Speaker 1: so much in recent weeks. But tonight, in the first
Speaker 1: few possessions of the game, Lebron made a couple of
Speaker 1: key defensive rotations. There was a pick and roll with
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns in D'Angel Russell. Where as Cat was
Speaker 1: rolling down the lane, Lebron put his body on the
Speaker 1: line and took a charge, and almost immediately it's set
Speaker 1: a different tone for the entire game. Now, the Lakers
Speaker 1: still had extended stretches of sloppy defense throughout the game,
Speaker 1: but the overall tone of the game was more serious.
Speaker 1: The Lakers actually made an attempt to try to win,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, even though they
Speaker 1: lost and when they lost it got ugly, at least
Speaker 1: it was a respectable product for the most part that
Speaker 1: they put on the court. Now, after the effort comes
Speaker 1: all of the scheme, After the effort comes all of
Speaker 1: the habits, after the effort comes all of the talent.
Speaker 1: And those are three areas where the Lakers are extremely weak,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna lose games. This is a good Minnesota
Speaker 1: Timberwolves team. This is not the Minnesota Timberwolves teams of
Speaker 1: the previous decade that we're kind of the laughing stock
Speaker 1: of the NBA. This is a team that has a
Speaker 1: good amount of size and athleticism, especially on the wing.
Speaker 1: Guys like Jada McDaniels and Jared Vanderbilt, don't get enough
Speaker 1: credit all the McDaniels. McDaniels is hurt right now, but
Speaker 1: they're very athletic, they're big. The Patrick Beverley has done
Speaker 1: a really good job of transitioning the culture of that
Speaker 1: team from a team that was less competitive and less
Speaker 1: serious in a team that was more serious in their
Speaker 1: home crowd. Is a lot to deal with, and obviously
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns say what you want about the guy.
Speaker 1: He has defensive shortcomings. He's a bit of a ship talker,
Speaker 1: but when he's got to go, and he's one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the league, and he could be
Speaker 1: very difficult to handle, especially for those small Laker lineups
Speaker 1: that are so limited in their ability to handle real
Speaker 1: interior presence is just like we saw the other day
Speaker 1: with DeAndre But the Lakers have an obvious personnel issue
Speaker 1: that was gonna be a problem in in any of
Speaker 1: these matchups against good teams. I think ten of their
Speaker 1: last four teen games are against teams over five hundred.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are gonna be in a personnel disadvantage in
Speaker 1: just about every single one of those games. You know,
Speaker 1: the we talked about habits, right like at the end
Speaker 1: of that game, the Lakers get back within I think
Speaker 1: they got within five. You get back into the game,
Speaker 1: you're right there, and then it's a couple of miss
Speaker 1: defensive rotations. There was a play I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: pick on Russ here. There's a play I shared on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed where Rust gets beat back door because
Speaker 1: he's just standing in a non defensive stance, just airing
Speaker 1: at the ball, and as his man gets beat back
Speaker 1: door and he's late to understand that, Lebron's like screaming
Speaker 1: at him to switch out to the corner. But he
Speaker 1: does it, and the Lakers gave up a wide open
Speaker 1: three that ended up being the dagger that put Minnesota
Speaker 1: back up by ten. And as it was, when you
Speaker 1: have sloppy habits and you have a scheme that doesn't
Speaker 1: work with your specific set of talent, and you don't
Speaker 1: have talent, then yeah, even effort cannot be enough. And
Speaker 1: just like in that first quarter when the Lakers were
Speaker 1: trying so hard on defense, I think they were down
Speaker 1: fifteen at the end of the first quarter. So I
Speaker 1: understand why this team has let go of the rope.
Speaker 1: I understand why Lebron doesn't feel like it's worth it.
Speaker 1: He just sees the writing on the wall. Why why
Speaker 1: would you try harder to just get blown out by
Speaker 1: less than you would have gotten blown out by anyway?
Speaker 1: And I get why that's frustrating for me. It's all
Speaker 1: about establishing something that you can build on for next season.
Speaker 1: Like for instance, like I'm really having a hard time
Speaker 1: watching Russell Westbrook continue in you the flounder the way
Speaker 1: he is when he's not going to be a Laker
Speaker 1: next year. He clearly is distancing himself from the lockerman,
Speaker 1: from the coaching staff, and he's clearly gone through something mentally,
Speaker 1: which again you have to sympathize with him and the
Speaker 1: struggles he's had this season. But he's not going to
Speaker 1: be a Laker next year. So at a certain point,
Speaker 1: what came you gain and what I think is important
Speaker 1: is you have guys coming back. Taylor Horton Tucker is
Speaker 1: under contract next year. He's coming back. Austin Reeves is
Speaker 1: under contract next year. You have Stanley Johnson under a
Speaker 1: team control deal. I would lean as much as you
Speaker 1: can into guys that could potentially come back next year,
Speaker 1: so at least you can get a look at that
Speaker 1: and get a feel for what's usable and what's not.
Speaker 1: For instance, Taylor Horton Tucker over the course of the
Speaker 1: next stretch of games has an opportunity to get a
Speaker 1: lot of on ball reps. He's struggling mightily off the ball.
Speaker 1: I tweeted out earlier today, he's shooting below on wide
Speaker 1: open threes this year with the defender at least six
Speaker 1: ft away. That's not a functional off ball threat. That's
Speaker 1: a real problem. So a th HD is kind of
Speaker 1: more of an on ball player. Get him lots of
Speaker 1: on ball reps, have him build out that part of
Speaker 1: his game, and then maybe it'll raise his value to
Speaker 1: a point where he's either usable as an onball threat
Speaker 1: next year for a title contender, or someone that you
Speaker 1: can trade to a team that has a more future focus.
Speaker 1: But at a certain point here, what you saw tonight
Speaker 1: was the best effort from the Lakers in the last week,
Speaker 1: and they still got rolled. So read the writing on
Speaker 1: the wall, understand the reality of your predicament, and try
Speaker 1: to play into things that are gonna be translatable to
Speaker 1: the future, things that are gonna be usable for next
Speaker 1: year's team. I had one last thing that I wanted
Speaker 1: to touch on with the Lakers before we move on,
Speaker 1: and it just has to do with what I think
Speaker 1: is the most important lesson that the Lakers have to
Speaker 1: learn from this year when it comes to roster building,
Speaker 1: and it has to do with the fact that you're
Speaker 1: operating in the veteran minimum market, so you when you
Speaker 1: are capped out, when you're over the cap, you basically
Speaker 1: have three ways to sign guys for over a veteran minimum.
Speaker 1: You can use bird rights, so if you already have
Speaker 1: a player under contract, you can sign him for more
Speaker 1: than that amount the next year based on how many
Speaker 1: years he's been with the team. You can use a
Speaker 1: mid level exception at a varying level depending on whether
Speaker 1: or not you're in a hardcap your team that lets
Speaker 1: you pay basically double what a veteran minimum contract is
Speaker 1: up to about ten million. If you're willing to hardcap yourself,
Speaker 1: and then you have the veteran minimum markets, you're highly
Speaker 1: limited in what you can do around your superstars when
Speaker 1: you have a hundred and twenty million dollars tied up
Speaker 1: in your three stars in the Lakers this year went
Speaker 1: out of their way to try to bring in shooting
Speaker 1: with those veteran minimum contracts. These guys like Carmelo Anthony,
Speaker 1: guys like Molik Monk, guys like Wayne Ellington, And they
Speaker 1: did this as a reaction to what happened in the
Speaker 1: Phoenix series. You guys remember in the Phoenix series, after
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went down, Phoenix was absolutely abandoning everybody to
Speaker 1: load up in the paint, and both Dennis Shrewder and
Speaker 1: Lebron James were struggling to get to the bast gate,
Speaker 1: which turned them both into jump shooters. And Lebron's a
Speaker 1: good jump shooter, but denishooter is a bad jump shooter,
Speaker 1: and it didn't go well right, So they reacted to
Speaker 1: that by trying to bring in shooting. The problem is
Speaker 1: this season, Frank Vogel has noticed, and all of us
Speaker 1: have noticed, you can't run a functional NBA lineup with
Speaker 1: guys that can't guard. When you have multiple guys on
Speaker 1: the floor that can't guard, and all of these shooters
Speaker 1: the Lakers signed can't guard. So they brought in this
Speaker 1: shooting to try to give space for Lebron to feel
Speaker 1: comfortable going to the basket, for Russ to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: going to the basket, for Anthony Davis to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: going to the basket, and it hasn't worked out because
Speaker 1: they haven't been able to have their shooting on the
Speaker 1: floor because of the obvious defensive shortcomings that's come from that.
Speaker 1: And then this is a separate topic, but the Russ
Speaker 1: problem has been there too. You have shooters on the floor,
Speaker 1: but when RUSS is a complete waste of an off
Speaker 1: ball thread, it kind of puts you in the same
Speaker 1: predicament you'd have if you didn't have shooting on the
Speaker 1: floor anyway. But what's interesting is you what you need
Speaker 1: is guys that can shoot and play defense. Right, But
Speaker 1: if you can shoot and play defense, you're not making
Speaker 1: a veteran minimum contract. You're not making the mid level exception.
Speaker 1: You're not available. If you can shoot and play defense,
Speaker 1: you're making over ten million a year in this league.
Speaker 1: That's what Danny Green got when he came to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: That's what guys like Mikhail Bridges are getting right now.
Speaker 1: That's what guys that Cam Johnson are getting. Right If
Speaker 1: you can play two ways and shoot the ball, you're
Speaker 1: too valuable to be someone that the Lakers can target
Speaker 1: on the fringe. So you have to pick between guys
Speaker 1: that can defend and guys that can shoot. And I
Speaker 1: think the most valuable lesson the Lakers have learned this
Speaker 1: year is you can't take the guys that can shoot
Speaker 1: because the problem because it becomes athletically, you can't hang
Speaker 1: in this five out n b A. I've talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot on the show. When when these teams
Speaker 1: go five out and it's all dribble, drive and attack,
Speaker 1: you have to have guys that can contain on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: Guys that can move their feet and keep their man
Speaker 1: in front, and if they give up a drive, they
Speaker 1: have to be willing to do the necessary work to
Speaker 1: rotate and recover on the back end. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: to that in a little bit here with the Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: this team has been utterly lacking in that area, and
Speaker 1: you're better off bringing I'll give you an example, guy
Speaker 1: like Wesley Matthews. Wesley Matthews played for the Lakers last year.
Speaker 1: Didn't shoot well after shooting pretty well in previous seasons
Speaker 1: with the Milwaukee Bucks, but he was still a very
Speaker 1: productive player because the Lakers understood that he was doing
Speaker 1: the job defensively that they needed him to do in
Speaker 1: relative So let's say Wesley Matthews shoots thirty five on
Speaker 1: wide open threes, but a guy like Malik Monk can
Speaker 1: shoot on him. It's easier to make up for that
Speaker 1: difference in shooting on the offensive end than it is
Speaker 1: to make up for what Wesley Matthews can bring as
Speaker 1: a defensive player as a cog in a system, especially
Speaker 1: alongside players as defensively talented as Lebron and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: So it's been an interesting lesson for the Lakers, and
Speaker 1: I hope this next offseason. They addressed that when you're
Speaker 1: looking for discounted players on the market, favor discounted players
Speaker 1: that can play defense over discount of players that can
Speaker 1: play offense. And to be clear, I was more optimistic
Speaker 1: about this past offseason coming into the year. This is
Speaker 1: a lesson that I've had to learn as well. The
Speaker 1: league is changing. You can't operate without good perimeter defensive
Speaker 1: players anymore. It's okay, you you learned a lesson. You
Speaker 1: messed up with Russ, you messed up on some of
Speaker 1: these other signings on the periphery, Learn your lesson. Move on.
Speaker 1: Just don't make the same mistake again this summer. Bring
Speaker 1: in defensive players, Try to recreate that culture that you
Speaker 1: had in with Lebron and a D make another run
Speaker 1: at it next year, and I like their chances. Start
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Speaker 1: you are just joining us, this is Lakers Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fandel Here at the Volume. I want to move
Speaker 1: on from the Lakers to talk about that nets Maps game,
Speaker 1: which was incredible. This is the second absolutely giant gay
Speaker 1: Antick win in a super competitive, hostile road environment for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. On Sunday they had that huge way
Speaker 1: over the Boston Celtics, and then tonight they went at
Speaker 1: the buzzer against Brooklyn. These are two massive wins for
Speaker 1: this team, and I think it's super interesting to see
Speaker 1: how they're doing this because they're doing it on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. I know they gave up a lot of
Speaker 1: points tonight, but in the fourth quarter when things really
Speaker 1: got grinded to a halt, the Mavericks defended extremely well.
Speaker 1: If you go on my Twitter feed and you scroll
Speaker 1: down on the videos, I did a video three or
Speaker 1: four days ago after that Sunday game where where I
Speaker 1: broke down just how Dallas is getting these stops, and
Speaker 1: it really comes down to doubling and recovering if you
Speaker 1: have personnel like they're the opposite of Boston. Boston has
Speaker 1: all these good defensive players. I just released a video
Speaker 1: about them today for the volume. They always have five
Speaker 1: really good defensive players on the floor, so they don't
Speaker 1: have to double. They switch everything, and it's hey, pick
Speaker 1: your poison. Do you want to guard a guy like
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart who's short but that's a bulldog and keep
Speaker 1: you in front and is super physical, Or do you
Speaker 1: want to attack a taller, slower guy you know, uh,
Speaker 1: but have struggles because he's athletic and can cover ground
Speaker 1: with his link. You know, we've seen that a lot
Speaker 1: with Robert Williams, who's doing a really nice job in
Speaker 1: their switching scheme. They're gonna man you up most of
Speaker 1: the time. A team like Dallas doesn't have that defensive personnel.
Speaker 1: Tha Spencer did what. He's not a great defensive player.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson is not a great defensive player. Luca don
Speaker 1: Che is not a great defensive player. Maxine Kleiba is
Speaker 1: not a great defensive player. But they're getting stops with
Speaker 1: that group because instead of operating in one on one situations,
Speaker 1: they are doubling the other team's best player every time
Speaker 1: down the floor. They doubled Tatum the entire fourth quarter
Speaker 1: in Boston on Sunday. They doubled Kevin Durant on almost
Speaker 1: every single possession in the fourth quarter tonight. And what
Speaker 1: they've done is they've gotten their rotations on the back
Speaker 1: end down to a science, and it's really just about
Speaker 1: effort and focus in communication. My high school team, we
Speaker 1: do this drill to practice this where we basically play
Speaker 1: four on three and the three guys on defense as
Speaker 1: the guys on the offense are swinging the ball around,
Speaker 1: it's chaos. And as I'm coaching the kids, I tell them, like,
Speaker 1: this is supposed to be chaos. There's no exact science,
Speaker 1: there's no place you're supposed to go. You just have
Speaker 1: to talk and play extremely hard and you can make
Speaker 1: up for that ground. And then they do other little
Speaker 1: things like as soon as Tatum will pick up his
Speaker 1: dribble or as soon as Kevin Durant will pick up
Speaker 1: his dribble, one of the guy that guys that's double
Speaker 1: teaming will pre rotate and leave and start rotating around
Speaker 1: to get ahead of that first past. They've done that
Speaker 1: to beat a lot of those first passes out of
Speaker 1: the double team. But I've been really impressed in general
Speaker 1: with the way that Dallas has manufactured a basically what
Speaker 1: amounts to a fake defense, meaning they're achieved. They're massively
Speaker 1: overachieving defensively over what their personnel should be able to do.
Speaker 1: It's a massive credit to Jason Kidd. You know, I
Speaker 1: was talking about this with my father in law earlier.
Speaker 1: You know, the the Jason Kidd had a really rough
Speaker 1: time in Milwaukee and it formed this really nasty reputation
Speaker 1: around him. And it's really not fair because if you
Speaker 1: think throughout sports history, almost every coach in their first
Speaker 1: stint doesn't do well. Bill Belichick didn't do well in
Speaker 1: his first coaching stint in the NFL. Even you know,
Speaker 1: look at Ty Lou. He got fired from the Calves.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a great fit after Lebron left. You have
Speaker 1: to learn as a coach, you have to you have
Speaker 1: to fall on your face to become more adaptable, to
Speaker 1: become more malleable. And Jason Kidd, who was a bad
Speaker 1: coach in Milwaukee and had some bad ideas and kind
Speaker 1: of nuked his reputation a bit, has become a very
Speaker 1: good coach in Dallas, and I think it's a valuable
Speaker 1: lesson for us to learn there. And then lastly, just
Speaker 1: a credit to the players. It's a lot of work
Speaker 1: to constantly be double teaming and rotating. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of sprinting, a lot of cutting. It's exhausting, and those
Speaker 1: guys have just bought in and they're just doing it
Speaker 1: and it's working. And then on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, it's all about Luca with that extra threat.
Speaker 1: In the early fourth quarter, Jalen Brunson did what Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson does, creates offense while lucas off the floor. That
Speaker 1: is very similar to what they had in previous years.
Speaker 1: But Spencer did what he just gives them one more
Speaker 1: guy who might be able to attack a matchup, who
Speaker 1: has the confidence to make shots when they matter. On
Speaker 1: that last possession, the nets double Luca Doncheons at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. They actually did a really nice job.
Speaker 1: As soon as Katie rotated up to double on Luca,
Speaker 1: Gore and Dragice came out of the corner off of
Speaker 1: Dorrian Phinney Smith and was right at Spencer Dinwoodie as
Speaker 1: the past was there. It was perfectly defended. Spencer didn't
Speaker 1: what he should have swung it one more time, but
Speaker 1: because of the way they timed their double team, even
Speaker 1: if Dorian Phinney Smith caught it and shot it out
Speaker 1: of the corner, they might not have had time to
Speaker 1: get it off. So it's a really smartly designed double team.
Speaker 1: But Spencer Dinwoodie is a very confident offensive player. He
Speaker 1: always he's one of those guys that he probably he
Speaker 1: thinks he's one of the best players on the floor,
Speaker 1: and he just rose up over that contest and elevated like,
Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna make this ship. And that's the
Speaker 1: advantage of having those types of alpha dog egos on
Speaker 1: the floor alongside your superstar, so that he has somebody
Speaker 1: that he can count on in those biggest moments. This
Speaker 1: team is dangerous, extremely dangerous because of what they can
Speaker 1: do defensively, the stuff that translates to the postseason, and
Speaker 1: their ability to attack matchups there at the end of
Speaker 1: that game, the shots Luco is getting attacking Gore on
Speaker 1: Drawgice out of those switches, those are fantastic looks and
Speaker 1: those are the kind of looks that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to get in any postseason series. That is very
Speaker 1: reliable stuff. I'm a big believer in Dallas. They are dangerous.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about the Brooklyn Nets for just
Speaker 1: a second before we move on. We had this really
Speaker 1: weird report come out today saying that every time Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons has attempted to ramp up right in that first
Speaker 1: or second day, he's experiencing inflammation in his spine. That's
Speaker 1: really scary. He got an epidural shot, that's really scary.
Speaker 1: He's allegedly not going to come back until there's a
Speaker 1: few games left in the regular season. To me, it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily make it so that the Nets can't win
Speaker 1: the title, but it is a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a concern. As I've talked about in my film studies
Speaker 1: with the Nets, they are struggling a little bit with
Speaker 1: that Bruce Brown, Andre Drummond, Nick Claxton role. When they
Speaker 1: have one or two of those guys on the floor,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of an offensive limitation. Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: is a better defensive player than any of those guys,
Speaker 1: and he's a much, much, much better offensive player. Even
Speaker 1: though we like to slander him, even though we make
Speaker 1: fun of him for not shooting, he is a much
Speaker 1: better offensive player than those guys. So being able to
Speaker 1: get him on the court and use him this year
Speaker 1: is a significant ceiling raiser for them. So if he's
Speaker 1: not available. Of course, that lessens their chances. But look
Speaker 1: at how good Kevin Durant looked tonight. I thought he
Speaker 1: missed a couple of easy shots that he normally makes.
Speaker 1: There's a little one legged fade away he shot from
Speaker 1: the left elbow that he left just barely short. That's
Speaker 1: a really good shot for k D that he's gonna
Speaker 1: make eight times out of ten. He had another fade
Speaker 1: away going to the right along the base line that
Speaker 1: he always makes that he misses. He missed a layup
Speaker 1: right at the rim in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So Katie didn't even make shots that he normally made.
Speaker 1: But he still did enough to win that game, had
Speaker 1: that huge three to take the lead late. They just
Speaker 1: Spencer didn't what he made a huge shot. But I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna write off k D. I think he's the
Speaker 1: best player in the world. I would not write off
Speaker 1: this team. But the lack of Ben Simmons is definitely
Speaker 1: a concern, and it's something that absolutely lowers that ceiling.
Speaker 1: And like I always talked about the difference between these
Speaker 1: teams when you get to that top tier, when we're
Speaker 1: splitting the difference between Milwaukee and Brooklyn and Philly and
Speaker 1: Phoenix and Golden State. When you're with that group, nobody's
Speaker 1: gonna beat anybody in a sweep there. No one's gonna
Speaker 1: run rush shot over any of those teams. Those teams
Speaker 1: are gonna go down in a battle of a playoff
Speaker 1: series and it's gonna be very close. And so having
Speaker 1: every single advantage available is important to giving yourself the
Speaker 1: best chance to win those matchups. And if Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: can't go that lessons those chances all right. Before we
Speaker 1: get out of here, I wanted to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of a deep dive into the Philadelphia seventy sixers.
Speaker 1: I've been watching a lot of film with them late
Speaker 1: of late, uh tomorrow, keep an eye on my Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: I have a video video coming out that's gonna break
Speaker 1: down the Yokich and beat battle and some of the
Speaker 1: lessons that I learned from watching Dad. But Philly stopped
Speaker 1: playing good basketball now, which is ironic because they came
Speaker 1: out game busters in that first week after the trade.
Speaker 1: They lost to Brooklyn ugly. They blew that lead to Denver,
Speaker 1: that that they had Denver dead to rights and blew
Speaker 1: that game and then uh they took overtime to win
Speaker 1: in Orlando, and they were trailing much of the third
Speaker 1: of with quarter tonight against Cleveland, without Jared Allen, and
Speaker 1: with Philly's defense and with Cleveland's lack of offensive creation,
Speaker 1: they should have been able to win that game by
Speaker 1: a lot and they didn't. Billy doesn't look great right now,
Speaker 1: and there's a couple of reasons why, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to get to those really quick. First, to me is
Speaker 1: James Harden being a lesser version of himself. When James
Speaker 1: Harden is at his best, he's primarily trying to get
Speaker 1: to the rim. He is relentless in his rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and everything else plays off of that. His passing plays
Speaker 1: off of that, his floater game plays off of that,
Speaker 1: and his step back plays off of that. But there's
Speaker 1: this alter ego of James Harden when he's not putting
Speaker 1: that kind of pressure on the rim, where it seems
Speaker 1: like he's trying to get to his step back and
Speaker 1: defenders will overplay up into his step back and he
Speaker 1: still won't drive past them, or when he does drive
Speaker 1: past them, either in isolation or out of a pick
Speaker 1: and roll, instead of aggressively attacking the rim, he starts
Speaker 1: to kind of slowly meander into the paint, and he's
Speaker 1: just to pack if he's not applying enough rim pressure.
Speaker 1: And as a result to that, their offense has stilted
Speaker 1: a little bit, especially in big moments. This and the
Speaker 1: only way this is gonna work out, the only way
Speaker 1: Philly is gonna be able to win it all is
Speaker 1: if you get two thousand eighteen James Harden. And the
Speaker 1: only way that's gonna happen is if he gets into
Speaker 1: shape and starts putting his head down and going to
Speaker 1: the basket again. That's something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: Also on the defensive end of the floor, you know,
Speaker 1: against the Knicks and against the Timberwolves and some of
Speaker 1: those weaker opponents that they played right after the trade,
Speaker 1: Harden can kind of float around. But when you're playing
Speaker 1: against these better offensive teams like Denver and like Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: you need to get more out of James Harden. Defensively.
Speaker 1: They were consistently attacking him in screening actions. He always
Speaker 1: dies on every screen. There were some examples in the
Speaker 1: film that I'll show you guys tomorrow where a guy
Speaker 1: wouldn't even run off the screen. He'd run like three
Speaker 1: ft to the left of the screen and instead of
Speaker 1: just chasing him around I've seen hard and just run
Speaker 1: into the screen because it's almost like it gives you
Speaker 1: an excuse to be like, oh, well, I'm not in
Speaker 1: the play. I can't guard him, and they're gonna need
Speaker 1: more out of James Harden defensively if they're gonna really
Speaker 1: have a chance to get the trophy at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. And then uh, moving on to mbiad
Speaker 1: for a quick second, he is really really struggling with
Speaker 1: handling double teams. He does okay when they're one pass away.
Speaker 1: There was a huge play at the end of the
Speaker 1: game tonight where Lori Markenham was guarding him Beat at
Speaker 1: the high post. They were only up by one. I
Speaker 1: think there's about a minute and a half left, and
Speaker 1: the Calves doubled one pass away from the direction and
Speaker 1: Bead was facing and be just through a basic swing
Speaker 1: pass to Tyrese Maxie and Tyrese Maxie made the dagger
Speaker 1: that ended up being the shot that kind of ended
Speaker 1: the game, that kind of thing, and Beat desfined with
Speaker 1: I thought it was a poor scheme there. You guys
Speaker 1: know me, I always say, if you're gonna double one
Speaker 1: pass away, then you have to pre rotate take away
Speaker 1: that first pass so that they you have to make
Speaker 1: the guy who's getting double through across the court because
Speaker 1: that allows you to apply ball pressure and gives you
Speaker 1: a better chance to rotate in those situations. And I'll
Speaker 1: show this in the film tomorrow when you guys see
Speaker 1: the video and Beat is really struggling seeing the open
Speaker 1: man two passes away, especially in the week side corner,
Speaker 1: and it's really limiting them in a lot of these scenarios.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of and be double teams that
Speaker 1: are just getting swung back out to the perimeter and
Speaker 1: reset as opposed to ending in open shots, which is
Speaker 1: what they need to do. The reason why that's so
Speaker 1: important is again, when you're playing the very best teams.
Speaker 1: We were talking about this with Yokis. Yokis did fantastic
Speaker 1: tonight against the Washington Wizard's a horrible defensive team, but
Speaker 1: he struggled like crazy against the Philly defense and against
Speaker 1: the Golden State defense. He struggles against the length. That's
Speaker 1: where he has issues. And Bet it's a similar thing
Speaker 1: when you are in a playoff series against the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat or the Boston Celtics, you're going to face so
Speaker 1: much length and athleticism defensively that there's not gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of openings, and you're going to have to
Speaker 1: be able to make those reads. It's what's made Lebron
Speaker 1: the greatest basketball player potentially of all time. It's why
Speaker 1: I've always leaned towards high end playmakers when I'm evaluating players,
Speaker 1: because in a postseason series, they don't let you operate
Speaker 1: in one on one a lot. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: double teams, it's a lot of help defenses, a lot
Speaker 1: of help defense. And the guys that can read that
Speaker 1: and identify the cracks in the defense and make you
Speaker 1: pay for sending help, those are the guys that succeed
Speaker 1: at the highest level. That's a big part of why
Speaker 1: I think k D has been so much better as
Speaker 1: of late. He's taken leaps and bounds as a passer
Speaker 1: out of double teams and out of drives to the rim,
Speaker 1: and that's open things up for him all over the floor.
Speaker 1: Last little note on the Sixers. They are really struggling
Speaker 1: with Tyrese Maxie and Tobias Harris finding out where they
Speaker 1: fit in the offense. There are a lot of possessions
Speaker 1: where Tobias is like, I think it's my turn. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna go. There are a lot of possessions where
Speaker 1: James Harden wants the ball to run a screening action,
Speaker 1: but Tyrese Maxie just kind of goes and does his
Speaker 1: own thing. Those kinds of things take time to iron out,
Speaker 1: and over time that offensive fit will make sense. Those
Speaker 1: are two guys that are massively, massively overqualified for the
Speaker 1: offensive role they're playing right now. Tyrese Maxie is a
Speaker 1: great perimeter initiator and a great ball handler out of
Speaker 1: pick and roll, He's gonna get fewer opportunities. That's that's
Speaker 1: something you have to work around. That's something he's gotta
Speaker 1: have to learn. He's gotta learn how to be a
Speaker 1: better off ball player because on this team, that's what
Speaker 1: he's gonna need. Saying goes with Tobias Hairs. Hey man,
Speaker 1: you don't get to just break off of the offense
Speaker 1: and do seventeen and do seven post ups every game,
Speaker 1: because it's bad for their offense. With all the talent
Speaker 1: they have on the floor, over time they'll sort that out.
Speaker 1: But those are the big things. Harden's gotta get better
Speaker 1: on defense, Hardon's gotta start getting down to the rim again,
Speaker 1: and Bead's gotta pass better out of these double teams,
Speaker 1: and Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxy have to do a
Speaker 1: better job figuring out where they fit in the offense.
Speaker 1: There trending down right now. I still have them as
Speaker 1: a top tier contender. They just gotta get their ship together,
Speaker 1: all right, guys. That is all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support. As always, we have to
Speaker 1: show Friday and Saturday this weekend. I hope you guys
Speaker 1: will join us then. As always, I appreciate your support
Speaker 1: and we will see you in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: The volume m