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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops to Night here at the Volume,
Speaker 2: Happy Sunday, everybody of all of you guys are having
Speaker 2: an incredible weekend. We got a kind of a funky
Speaker 2: schedule over the next couple of days. We're going twice
Speaker 2: today this video. We're just hitting Lakers suns. And then
Speaker 2: the Milwaukee Bucks went into Minnesota and beat the Timberwolves
Speaker 2: pretty soundly on Friday night. We're gonna be talking about
Speaker 2: that game and just some interesting stuff I notice on
Speaker 2: tape as.
Speaker 1: It relates to both teams.
Speaker 2: Later tonight, we're going live after the final buzzer of
Speaker 2: Warriors Nuggets, so keep an eye out for that. Monday,
Speaker 2: we'll be breaking down a couple other games from today
Speaker 2: as well as our power rankings that We're taking Tuesday
Speaker 2: off because I'm going skiing. So just a little bit
Speaker 2: of a funky schedule over the next few days. But
Speaker 2: Lakers Suns and Bucks Wolves over the course of today
Speaker 2: over this particular show, you guys are the Joe four
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Speaker 1: Next week, all right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 2: So this game, the starters played relatively even Lebron had
Speaker 2: it going early to kind of keep the Lakers close,
Speaker 2: But the Sun's just got insanely hot at the end
Speaker 2: of the first quarter. And you know, I watched the
Speaker 2: film and I didn't even necessarily think the Lake the
Speaker 2: Lakers were being lazy or disengaged, Like there were a
Speaker 2: couple of miss rotations, like Austin miss Royce O'Neil on
Speaker 2: a rotation.
Speaker 1: At the top of the key.
Speaker 2: But the Sun's just made shots, and that's what they
Speaker 2: can do. That's their superpower. That's the thing that they
Speaker 2: do better than most teams in the league. Right, Like
Speaker 2: Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both hit really tough pull
Speaker 2: up jump shots in that stretch. Devin Booker hit an
Speaker 2: and one in the middle of the floor. Grayson Allen
Speaker 2: and Royce O'Neil both hit shots. Even bow Bolt hit
Speaker 2: a three out of the left corner, punishing Lebron James
Speaker 2: for helping off of him, and then at another play
Speaker 2: where he drove the baseline off of a closeout out
Speaker 2: of that left corner and hit a little float. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, in the game, the Suns had
Speaker 2: thirty four spot up possessions, which is a ton and
Speaker 2: it converted those into one point one to two points
Speaker 2: per possession, which is outstanding. The Suns went up by
Speaker 2: twenty there in the first quarter. Lakers kind of methodically
Speaker 2: worked their way back into the game, running their solid
Speaker 2: five out offense. Get it, They got out and transition
Speaker 2: a lot off of Sun's turnovers in this game, making
Speaker 2: extra efforts on defense. And then we get to the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, the fourth quarter where the Suns have had
Speaker 2: so many issues throughout the season this year. Even after today,
Speaker 2: the Suns have an offensive rating of one h three
Speaker 2: point five in fourth quarters this year. That is dead
Speaker 2: last in the NBA. It's been a pretty consistent issue,
Speaker 2: but much better in this fourth quarter twenty eight points
Speaker 2: a one to seventeen offensive rating. Now, what typically has
Speaker 2: been an issue for them in the past is Devin
Speaker 2: Booker and Kevin Durant struggling to handle double teams as
Speaker 2: the game progresses, as teams get more and more aggressive
Speaker 2: on him and then off the ball guys failing to
Speaker 2: make teams pay for leaving them open, for giving them
Speaker 2: advantage situations. I thought Kevin Durant was magnificent in this
Speaker 2: fourth quarter. He had one pass to the short roll
Speaker 2: where he didn't see Ad coming from like the left
Speaker 2: elbow extended. Ad jumped in and stole it from a
Speaker 2: blocked or jumped into that passing lane and stole that
Speaker 2: pass to the short roller. But outside of that, Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant was like nearly perfect in that fourth quarter with
Speaker 2: his decision making just you know, coming off of ball screen,
Speaker 2: hard hitting Nurkics with a perfect pocket pass to get
Speaker 2: him downhill to the rim, drawing a double team and
Speaker 2: making that quick swing pass to Roy so'neil, who makes
Speaker 2: that extra pass to the corner to the shooter. Like
Speaker 2: it just it looked a lot more smooth and decisive,
Speaker 2: quick and decisive from Kevin Durant when when KD and
Speaker 2: Devin Booker in those situations have struggled this year, it's
Speaker 2: usually picking up their dribble and then the pressure coming
Speaker 2: up on them and then struggling to get the pass
Speaker 2: over the top to the right spot without a deflection
Speaker 2: or something that slows the pass down so the defense
Speaker 2: can rotate out of it. Quick and decisive, decisive is
Speaker 2: the best way to beat those traps. KD had a
Speaker 2: much much better fourth quarter on that side of the floor.
Speaker 2: Then I thought he had one of the biggest plays
Speaker 2: in the game when it was one ten to one
Speaker 2: oh four. First of all, I want to credit Royce
Speaker 2: O'Neil Lebron. ISO's Royce O'Neil on the right side of
Speaker 2: the floor and just played one of the things I
Speaker 2: talked about with Royce. He just plays physical defense. That's
Speaker 2: what allows him to defend multiple different positional archetypes because
Speaker 2: quick enough and active enough to defend a smaller guard,
Speaker 2: but he also is physical enough to defend a bigger,
Speaker 2: stronger player like Lebron James and Lebron had you know,
Speaker 2: had some success against him throughout the game. He had
Speaker 2: like a spinning baseline dunk on him in the first half.
Speaker 2: But like on this particular play, big, big, big play
Speaker 2: in the game, it's one ten to one.
Speaker 1: Oh four, Lakers aren't a little bit of a run.
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis got that pull up or that catch and
Speaker 2: shoot jump shot from the mid range going. He also
Speaker 2: had a little floater off of a pocket pass from
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves. Looks like we have ourselves a game there.
Speaker 2: Down the stretch, Lebron drives in, Royce gets physical with
Speaker 2: him and gets him to miss the lay up. Again,
Speaker 2: Lebron's probably gonna make that eight out of ten times,
Speaker 2: but how do you get to the two out of
Speaker 2: ten where he's gonna miss by bumping him off of
Speaker 2: his base and making it a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 2: Big play for Royce O'Neil to go to the other
Speaker 2: end of the floor, and in kind of a chaotic situation,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant made a.
Speaker 1: Really really smart play.
Speaker 2: Lebron James was kind of in a bald denial situation
Speaker 2: on the left wing. He cut back door on Lebron,
Speaker 2: something Lebron has done a lot this season to generate
Speaker 2: shots at the end of games. A back door pass
Speaker 2: hits him right on the right on the cut draws
Speaker 2: that second defender makes the kickout pass to Grayson Allen
Speaker 2: in the right corner, who hits the biggest shot of
Speaker 2: the game to put them up one thirteen to one
Speaker 2: oh four. By the way, Royce O'Neil and Grayson Allen
Speaker 2: a twelve threes in this game. Royce made one on
Speaker 2: the next possession because Anthony Davis fell over into camera
Speaker 2: row ended up in an advantage situation. The Suns had
Speaker 2: a five on four. They made Kevin Durant made a
Speaker 2: swing pass to Royce on the left wing. He hit
Speaker 2: the three just dagger after dagger after dagger. I swear
Speaker 2: it felt like every single one of those Royce, O'Neil
Speaker 2: or Grayson Allen threes felt like an absolute backbreaker. Yusef
Speaker 2: Nurkic was incredible in this game, had seven offensive rebounds,
Speaker 2: has pretty consistently given like pretty great two way efforts
Speaker 2: over the course of the last few weeks. A guy
Speaker 2: that I think a lot of times reputation doesn't actually
Speaker 2: match up with reality with basketball players. And here's the thing,
Speaker 2: Like reputation is well earned. Use of Nurkic earned a
Speaker 2: reputation as being a guy who could be a limited
Speaker 2: defensive players. A guy struggles sometimes with the dirty work
Speaker 2: because of what happened in his past, but that doesn't
Speaker 2: mean you can't earn yourself a new reputation. I think
Speaker 2: use of Nrkich has been pretty awesome on the defensive
Speaker 2: end over the course of the last few weeks, getting
Speaker 2: a lot He's just super active with his hands, and
Speaker 2: he's pretty smart at anticipating what's going to happen around him,
Speaker 2: and he gets a lot more in the way of
Speaker 2: deflections in blocks than I think people realize relative to
Speaker 2: what his reputation is around the league. And in addition
Speaker 2: to that, he's an excellent screener. He's a big body
Speaker 2: that can cause problems on the offensive glass against seven
Speaker 2: offensive rebounds in this game, Anthony Davis. For all of
Speaker 2: his things that he's great at, he can struggle with
Speaker 2: the big bodied centers that can bury him underneath the basket.
Speaker 2: It's actually something to keep in mind for the Lakers
Speaker 2: because to get out of the Western Conference, you're probably
Speaker 2: gonna have to go through two of use of Nurkics
Speaker 2: if he Kazubas or you know, Nikole Jokich. These big
Speaker 2: bodied centers and those guys are the kinds of guys
Speaker 2: that can give Ad some issues on the offensive glass.
Speaker 2: But he was burying Ad on the glass. Every time
Speaker 2: Ad had to come off of him to help on
Speaker 2: some sort of screening action, Nurkic would be there to
Speaker 2: clean up the mess on the back line.
Speaker 1: He was awesome.
Speaker 2: Devin Booker after the game was talking about how specifically
Speaker 2: use of Nurkic is of great value to them and
Speaker 2: that every time he's missed a game this year, they've lost,
Speaker 2: and how they've missed that, And like, here's the thing,
Speaker 2: there's no doubt that the Suns will probably need to
Speaker 2: have a KD at center.
Speaker 1: Look just for brief spurts over the course.
Speaker 2: Of the postseason to just kind of change the tone
Speaker 2: of games or maybe close against a specific matchup. But
Speaker 2: Yusuf Nurkic is the anchor of that team on both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor in terms of their physicality. This
Speaker 2: is the team that can struggle a little bit with physicality.
Speaker 2: Nurkics brings a ton of physicality to the table, and I
Speaker 2: gotta say he has changed for me personally, Like the
Speaker 2: way that I view use of Nurkic's basketball has changed
Speaker 2: markedly from training camp to this point, especially as of late,
Speaker 2: just with how much he's competing in the details around
Speaker 2: the floor. Big win for the Suns. They needed that one.
Speaker 2: They had just lost two straight on the Lakers front.
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of negativity from Lakers fans in
Speaker 2: this one, honestly, Like I thought they played really hard
Speaker 2: and like this is kind of what it's like in
Speaker 2: the Western Conference. Phoenix is a really good team. They
Speaker 2: have two of the top fifteen players in the league
Speaker 2: on their team. They had just lost two in a row,
Speaker 2: including three of their last five. They needed a game,
Speaker 2: and when you go on the road in the Western
Speaker 2: Conference to a really good team who needs to win
Speaker 2: a game, sometimes you're just gonna lose. And like there
Speaker 2: were a lot of like, like there were several players
Speaker 2: in particular, I thought D'Angel Russell and Austin Reeves really
Speaker 2: really were making efforts in rotation to contest shots and
Speaker 2: to try to get in there and help on the glass.
Speaker 2: But like, sometimes you just run into a team that's
Speaker 2: really really good at what they do, and no matter
Speaker 2: what you do to try to stop them from doing
Speaker 2: what they do, they make the shots anyway. And they
Speaker 2: kind of just felt like that type of game to
Speaker 2: me on the Lakers front, Like I really wasn't disappointed
Speaker 2: process wise, like they were helping a little bit too much,
Speaker 2: but not in the way that I thought was really
Speaker 2: problematic for the personnel they the Suns made shots. You
Speaker 2: gotta tip the cat. They gave up a lot of offensive rebounds,
Speaker 2: but most of that was personnel. And that brings me
Speaker 2: to my one gride. So in a game where you
Speaker 2: could not grab a rebound to save your life, which
Speaker 2: was basically the difference in the game. Like the Lakers
Speaker 2: outshot the Suns from the field, they outshot them from three,
Speaker 2: They won the points in the paint battle, they took
Speaker 2: good care of the basketball. They turned Phoenix over and
Speaker 2: got out in transition and scored like they did a
Speaker 2: lot of really good things in this game. Phoenix just
Speaker 2: dominated the possession battle. They had fourteen offensive rebounds to
Speaker 2: three for the Lakers. They were up twenty two to ten,
Speaker 2: and second chance points in a game that they won
Speaker 2: by ten points. That was the difference in the game.
Speaker 2: And that's where I have a problem with Darvin Ham
Speaker 2: and his rotational approach because Torrian Prince and Spencer Dinwitty
Speaker 2: played fifty minutes in this game, Ruby Hatchamura and Jackson
Speaker 2: Hayes played thirty two. And this is one of my
Speaker 2: biggest pet peeves when it comes to coaches, when they
Speaker 2: try to inflict their specific basketball philosophy on a roster
Speaker 2: rather than identifying what their roster is capable of and
Speaker 2: just leaning into its strengths. So Darvin Ham has all
Speaker 2: year long overplayed Torrian Prince. It's been a consistent issue,
Speaker 2: and in general has done a lot of like we
Speaker 2: saw this even last year a lot of like three
Speaker 2: guard lineups and things along those lines, so I'm not
Speaker 2: surprised that he leaned on Spencer Dinwitty a lot in
Speaker 2: this game. Here's where I don't understand. Torrian Prince is
Speaker 2: not actually giving you what his archetype typically provides. Like
Speaker 2: I understand the thought process, Darvin Ham is thinking, I
Speaker 2: run a five out offense, and I love to pressure
Speaker 2: the ball and try to funnel guys into.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis right.
Speaker 2: Torrian Prince, in theory, is a wing defender that can
Speaker 2: pressure the basketball, navigate screens, has some length, kind of
Speaker 2: like do his job on the defensive end of the four.
Speaker 2: On the offensive end, In theory, he's a good five
Speaker 2: out wing because he can take and make catch and
Speaker 2: shoot threes. Has a little bit off the dribble pop
Speaker 2: a guy that kind of like knows how to play
Speaker 2: alongside other good players. In theory, it makes some sense.
Speaker 2: The problem is Torrian's not actually very good at any
Speaker 2: of them, and so what ends up like he's a
Speaker 2: bench player. He's good enough to do that in bench
Speaker 2: lineups for small spurts. That's what Torrian Prince's role is
Speaker 2: on this particular team, right, But the problem is he's
Speaker 2: being given in most cases more than he can handle.
Speaker 2: He is being slotted by Darvinham into a role that
Speaker 2: he's going to fail because he's not personally really fit
Speaker 2: for that specific role. And so as a result, like this,
Speaker 2: here's the thing, Ruey Hachimura won't navigate screens as well
Speaker 2: as Torrian Prince. Ruey Hachimura maybe isn't as good at
Speaker 2: like fluid five man, five out basketball as a guy
Speaker 2: like Torrian Prince's, right, But here's the thing, he's just
Speaker 2: a better basketball player. He's a better basketball player, and
Speaker 2: so whatever you're not getting there can help in other areas.
Speaker 1: And for the record, like I think you can do.
Speaker 2: Like I thought at the beginning of the game, they
Speaker 2: started with Ruby on KD and they like switched Nurkic
Speaker 2: KD pick and rolls, and he got burned one time
Speaker 2: where he ended up on the top side and they
Speaker 2: threw the pass over the top to Nurkic and he
Speaker 2: slipped downhill and ended up getting a lay up. But like,
Speaker 2: for the most part, that's a matchup that I actually
Speaker 2: think can work. Switching that action. I think Ruy can
Speaker 2: bang with Nurkic. He actually got him to miss a
Speaker 2: shout out of the post. Obviously ad can work with
Speaker 2: with Kevin Durant on the perimeter. It's just one of
Speaker 2: those things where like I would have leaned into that more,
Speaker 2: but they didn't. They leaned into lesser players. And again
Speaker 2: Jackson Hayes, like I get it, he didn't play well
Speaker 2: in his short burst today, but it's like like I
Speaker 2: would like to see in the big picture, Darvin Ham
Speaker 2: lean more into size, lean more into mainly just because
Speaker 2: that's their best players. Those are their best players. And
Speaker 2: there will be matchups where it makes sense to play
Speaker 2: a Spencer Dinwoodie at the three, or maybe even a
Speaker 2: Toryan Prince at the two next to like Ruya Tchramur,
Speaker 2: depending on the matchup, But for the most part, it's
Speaker 2: gonna have to be based on like how the game
Speaker 2: is progressing. And in this particular game, you weren't getting
Speaker 2: anything on offense out of Torrean Prince or Spencer Dinwide.
Speaker 2: You weren't getting the benefits of what they brought to
Speaker 2: the table, but you were getting the downsides. And like
Speaker 2: I would have been in a situation where I would
Speaker 2: have thought at the very least with Ruey out there
Speaker 2: in a larger dose, I can hold up better on
Speaker 2: the defensive glass, maybe hold up better in the possession battle,
Speaker 2: because in the half court the Lakers and the Suns
Speaker 2: were actually relatively even in this particular game. And so
Speaker 2: just something to keep an eye. And it's something I
Speaker 2: talked about from the moment that I kind of started
Speaker 2: to pick up on Darvin Ham's you know, affinity for
Speaker 2: Torrian Prince this season, doesn't really matter what they trade for,
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter what kind of personnel is on the roster,
Speaker 2: if inferior players are playing over better players that you
Speaker 2: have available to you, And so I thought that was
Speaker 2: kind of like the one gripe that I had. But
Speaker 2: for the record, sometimes like Darbenham might have played Torrian
Speaker 2: Prince fifteen minutes and played Ruy Hachamura thirty eight minutes,
Speaker 2: and they might have still lost, because again, like I said,
Speaker 2: Phoenix is really good. They just lost two in a row.
Speaker 2: They're at home. That's what it's like sometimes in the NBA,
Speaker 2: and so I don't want to overreact to it. Again
Speaker 2: with the Lakers, I don't view them as some sort
Speaker 2: of legitimate title contender. Anymore since they weren't able to
Speaker 2: make an upgrade at the deadline, and so I'm not
Speaker 2: really all that high on them to begin with. And
Speaker 2: this is the kind of game that you almost kind
Speaker 2: of expect them to lose. Right, They do have a
Speaker 2: lot of home games as we head into early March
Speaker 2: against really good opponents. Maybe they can tighten some things
Speaker 2: up there and get a little bit sharper, But like,
Speaker 2: I'm not super optimistic about them in the big picture anyway.
Speaker 2: All right, moving on to Bucks Wolves. So the Bucks
Speaker 2: actually had a huge win today on the road in Philly.
Speaker 2: They won by twenty one points. I didn't actually watch
Speaker 2: that game, though, I did watch them go in on
Speaker 2: Friday night and dominate the Wolves, though, And so that's
Speaker 2: what I want to talk about today's game, so or
Speaker 2: today's show. So, they go on a huge run in
Speaker 2: the third quarter. They get stop after stop after stop,
Speaker 2: they get out in transition. I thought Damon Giannis both
Speaker 2: did an absolutely fantastic job of applying rim pressure and
Speaker 2: making good kickout passes. Then they were working the ball around.
Speaker 2: Malik Beasley was just completely scorching hot. Hit a bunch
Speaker 2: of threes during that run. Dame hit a bunch of
Speaker 2: nasty pull up jumpers in that stretch. Yanni's hit a
Speaker 2: three off the bounce there in the middle of the
Speaker 2: third quarter, and they just blew Minnesota's doors off.
Speaker 1: It was crazy.
Speaker 2: It was like a close game and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, they were up twenty. It was pretty wild.
Speaker 2: But Minnesota made a little bit of a late comeback,
Speaker 2: but it was never truly a game after that. But
Speaker 2: brook Lopez was unbelievable in this game. He dominated on
Speaker 2: the defensive end, which I want to dive deeper into
Speaker 2: here in just a minute, but he also came out
Speaker 2: red hot from three, hit a bunch of big shots
Speaker 2: early in the game. He's averaging two made threes per
Speaker 2: game over his last seven games. I'll be on a
Speaker 2: MASSI volume. He's actually taking six point five four per game.
Speaker 2: It's crazy watching the Bucks now because Brooks like straight
Speaker 2: up playing with a massive green light. But I wanted to.
Speaker 2: I wanted to dive into the Bucks drop coverage in
Speaker 2: this particular game because that was basically the story of
Speaker 2: this game. The like Brooklynpis was guarding Rudy Gobert and
Speaker 2: just sitting comically far back into the paint. So what
Speaker 2: that does is it puts your on ball guy in
Speaker 2: a little bit of a predicament because he's basically playing
Speaker 2: one on two right, like he's trying to guard ant
Speaker 2: or or wherever it, Mike Conley, whoever it is, it
Speaker 2: has the ball, but he's got a screener and he's
Speaker 2: not getting any help at the perimeter. So his only
Speaker 2: real job there is to try to fight over the
Speaker 2: top of the screen and try to get a contest.
Speaker 2: But Rudy Gober is a really good screener and so
Speaker 2: most of the time like he is getting a solid
Speaker 2: screen set on the ball right. But there's a specific
Speaker 2: reason why this works for Milwaukee, and this is actually
Speaker 2: a very similar thing to what I was talking about
Speaker 2: earlier with the Lakers, as it pertains to playing into
Speaker 2: your strengths. Like this particular roster, the strength of their
Speaker 2: defense is on the interior, So it actually doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense to over over index towards the ball handler, to
Speaker 2: try to shut down the ball handler at the expense
Speaker 2: of giving up layups and threes. That's not the strength
Speaker 2: of your defense. You're actually better off allowing the ball
Speaker 2: handler to be more comfortable. But stay home off the
Speaker 2: ball and try to force them into making a lot
Speaker 2: of really difficult shots in the mid range. And so again,
Speaker 2: if I want to start by just looking at it
Speaker 2: from the standpoint of what a drop coverage looks like.
Speaker 2: So I want to look at just the first possession
Speaker 2: of the game. You can actually find this clip on
Speaker 2: my Twitter feed at underscore json LTS from Saturday morning
Speaker 2: if I remember correctly. So, the first play of the
Speaker 2: game was a turnover for Mike Conley in pick and roll.
Speaker 2: So if you watch the play, Mike Conley's being guarded
Speaker 2: by Dame. Rudy Gobert comes up and sets the screen
Speaker 2: to Dame's credit, and he's been doing this really since
Speaker 2: took over. Really good job fighting over the top of
Speaker 2: the screen. But brooklynp has just sitting way back.
Speaker 1: In the paint.
Speaker 2: So even though Conley gets downhill and actually beats Stam
Speaker 2: like again, that's what you expect, right when you have
Speaker 2: a ball screen, it's really difficult to get back in
Speaker 2: front of the ball handler. Right, Mike Conley's going downhill,
Speaker 2: but Brooke is waiting there and he's able to effectively
Speaker 2: split the difference between Conley and go Bear rolling to
Speaker 2: the rint. Now why is this important? Because now you
Speaker 2: can defend the action two on two. Because you can
Speaker 2: defend the action two on two. Jay Crowder, who's on
Speaker 2: the weak side, and I think he was guarding Jade
Speaker 2: McDaniels if I remember correctly, but I'm not a hundred
Speaker 2: percent certain guarding on the weak side, he's able to
Speaker 2: stay on the ball or on his man. And so
Speaker 2: because he's staying on his man, as Mike Conley works
Speaker 2: towards the baseline and he's there getting attacked by Brooke,
Speaker 2: he's got to get rid of the basketball. But now
Speaker 2: he doesn't have an outlet because Jay Crowder doesn't have
Speaker 2: to help. If Brooke is higher in his dry coverage.
Speaker 2: Now Jay Crowder likely has to come over to help
Speaker 2: in the paint. But because Brooke is back, Jay can
Speaker 2: stay out, which takes away those kickout passes. That was
Speaker 2: basically the story of the game. The Bucks played Minnesota
Speaker 2: into their worst tendencies because they are not a very
Speaker 2: good shot making team. They can make threes off the catch,
Speaker 2: they're a good catch and shoot team, but Anthony Edwards
Speaker 2: is a high volume pull up shooter who's not particularly accurate.
Speaker 2: Mike Conley is an accurate pull up shooter who's not
Speaker 2: particularly aggressive, and so as a result of that, it
Speaker 2: played Minnesota into their worst tendencies. And it was a
Speaker 2: lot of playing pick and roll as Brooke sat back
Speaker 2: into the paint and guys missing pull up shots and floaters.
Speaker 2: It was a lot of attacking in ISO while Brooke
Speaker 2: is just sitting in the paint waiting and for all
Speaker 2: the you know, a lot of criticism about Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: over the years defensively is just inaccurate, and I've talked
Speaker 2: about on the show before, so I'm not going to
Speaker 2: get into it. But where Rudy Gobert has struggled in
Speaker 2: the past is he's not enough of a threat offensively,
Speaker 2: Like he can get a few offensive reboundsy presents some
Speaker 2: vertical spacing, but he's not sharp enough when it comes
Speaker 2: to scoring on the role, like he doesn't catch and
Speaker 2: finish super well, and so on offense, it can turn
Speaker 2: into a situation where where Rudy can't actually make Brook
Speaker 2: pay enough for ignoring him, and that leads into a
Speaker 2: lot of their issues. And so I want to tie
Speaker 2: that back into two things. First of all, that is
Speaker 2: Milwaukee's best chance they will never be an elite defense
Speaker 2: because they don't have the perimeter personnel to do so.
Speaker 2: But their pathway to defending as well as they possibly can,
Speaker 2: or well enough for them to get to the trophy
Speaker 2: is that deep drop coverage, because it allows them to
Speaker 2: cover two on two and stay out of rotation, essentially
Speaker 2: taking away layups and taking away threes while conceding comfort
Speaker 2: and rhythm to the ball handler. The next question is
Speaker 2: that in that is which matchups will that work in?
Speaker 2: And this is where it becomes really interesting in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: because a team like New York, maybe Jalen Brunson will
Speaker 2: kill you, and maybe that's not gonna work. A team
Speaker 2: like Miami, they've got a lot of guys like Duncan
Speaker 2: Robinson and Tyler Harrow who can really do some damage
Speaker 2: if you chase over the top, and they get some
Speaker 2: good screens from bam Adebayo. Right, Terry Rozier hasn't played
Speaker 2: super well yet and then he got hurt. But we'll
Speaker 2: see in the long run whether or not Terry Rozier
Speaker 2: fits into that mold. But like they're a team where
Speaker 2: drop coverage might be a little bit of an issue,
Speaker 2: But then you look at teams like Boston. Boston is
Speaker 2: a team where, like Man, you could really bait them
Speaker 2: into their worst tendencies by running a super deep drop right.
Speaker 2: And so that's where I kind of look at it
Speaker 2: as matchup dependent, but even within the view of like
Speaker 2: a Miami matchup or a New York matchup, I still
Speaker 2: think that might be their best chance to win and
Speaker 2: just be like Jalen's gonna average Jalen Bunson's gona average
Speaker 2: thirty eight a game. But we're gonna take everybody else
Speaker 2: out of this thing and then we'll be good enough
Speaker 2: on offense. And again, the nuclear offense is the main
Speaker 2: thing that makes it work. They beat Minnesota. Their drop
Speaker 2: coverage did work. I'm not gonna lie about that. But
Speaker 2: it was close for the most part through three and
Speaker 2: a half quarters. It was close. In the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: they brought it back a little bit close, although Milwaukee
Speaker 2: thought let their foot off the gas a little bit.
Speaker 2: But there at the end of the third quarter they
Speaker 2: went on an absolutely nuclear offensive run where Dame and
Speaker 2: Giannis just time and time again were able to develop
Speaker 2: and create incredibly high quality shots. That's the formula defend
Speaker 2: as well as you can, which the strength of your
Speaker 2: personnel is your interior defense, so it makes sense to
Speaker 2: do it the way they did. And then on the
Speaker 2: other end of the floor, you need to be a
Speaker 2: nuclear potent offense in order to cover the rest of
Speaker 2: that gap there on the Wolves front, I was so
Speaker 2: disappointed in their offensive process in this game because they
Speaker 2: played right into Milwaukee's hands by spamming pick and roll
Speaker 2: in bad isolation basketball. One of the things I'd like
Speaker 2: to see them doing again. This is something I've talked
Speaker 2: about a lot. When it comes to Minnesota. They don't
Speaker 2: have the best decision makers in the world. Mike Conley's
Speaker 2: a high end decision maker. But when you get past that,
Speaker 2: it's like Carl Towns can get a little carried away,
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards can get a little carried away, you know,
Speaker 2: even to Kile Alexander Walker can get a little carried away.
Speaker 2: They can take some tough shots, and they can play
Speaker 2: like Jade McDaniels even can sometimes get a little tunnel
Speaker 2: visiony and take some bad shots right and so Like,
Speaker 2: specifically during that third quarter run, I just thought the
Speaker 2: Wolves play really poor offense. There wasn't a ton of
Speaker 2: like action that they were running. It was a lot
Speaker 2: of like brute force style of basketball, which paid played
Speaker 2: directly into Milwaukee's strengths. Again, in that situation, if you
Speaker 2: allow Milwaukee to sit back, you're gonna have issues. But
Speaker 2: if you have more ball in player movement you can
Speaker 2: have it be more likely that Brook Lopez has to
Speaker 2: direct attention elsewhere, and that's where you can maybe move
Speaker 2: him further out of the coverage and maybe you can
Speaker 2: find more opportunities to generate high quality offense. But that's
Speaker 2: going to be an issue with the Wolves, and that's
Speaker 2: been an issue for the Wolves throughout this season, is
Speaker 2: their ability to consistently execute in the half court on offense.
Speaker 1: It's all right, let's talk some basketball. So I thought this.
Speaker 2: Game in a lot of ways turned in that late
Speaker 2: first half run from the Denver Nuggets, because again, Denver
Speaker 2: is a team that you desperately want to avoid a close,
Speaker 2: slow down, half court execution match at the end of
Speaker 2: a game. And Golden State in particular, especially as of late,
Speaker 2: has kind of struggled in that specific department at least
Speaker 2: in the last couple of months, and so for them
Speaker 2: in particular, you know, kind of the game was starting
Speaker 2: to follow a path that you hope for as a
Speaker 2: Warriors fan in that environment, right, Like you get big
Speaker 2: performance from Klay Thompson in that first half, Steph's not
Speaker 2: playing particularly well, although the Denver defense was very much
Speaker 2: geared towards slowing him down. A couple of early matchup
Speaker 2: things that I thought were interesting. They put Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: on Jonathan Kaminga and so if they had any sort
Speaker 2: of cominga screen, they were able to.
Speaker 1: Just switch it.
Speaker 2: But then on the ball they had KCP just being
Speaker 2: super physical with him following them all around the court,
Speaker 2: and then any other kind of screening action, they're basically
Speaker 2: like hedging or trapping everything. So making the game really
Speaker 2: really hard on Steph and like very attentive to the details,
Speaker 2: not making a lot of mistakes, and so they make
Speaker 2: Steph have a somewhat rough first half. And now Steph
Speaker 2: still has the superpower to hit some tough shots in
Speaker 2: those environments, and he got some solid looks in that
Speaker 2: first half that he wasn't able to make really throughout
Speaker 2: the whole game that he wasn't able to make, and
Speaker 2: we'll talk about that later. But in terms of controlling
Speaker 2: what you can control as a defense, thought Denver did
Speaker 2: a really nice job. But the big part of it
Speaker 2: was Aaron Gordon can actually hold up really well against
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kminga on an island. He's got the athletic tools
Speaker 2: kind of hanging with him. We're gonna spend a lot
Speaker 2: of time talking about Aaron Gordon tonight because I thought
Speaker 2: he was incredible. And then in addition to that, in
Speaker 2: any sort of off ball situation, Aaron and Gordon was
Speaker 2: able to help around the basket and that really junked
Speaker 2: up Golden State's offense, except for the stretch where Klay
Speaker 2: Thompson was hitting shots. But again, based on how the
Speaker 2: game was progressing early, you're kind of stoked as a
Speaker 2: Warriors fan, right you're up fifteen, like you're a hilariously
Speaker 2: good third quarter team. In February, the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 2: had a plus twenty three net rating in third quarters.
Speaker 2: That's when they blow games open, just like the old
Speaker 2: Warriors used to. That's kind of like what you're hoping
Speaker 2: for there is you get into the half around a
Speaker 2: double digit lead, you blow the game open in the
Speaker 2: third quarter, and then who cares about having to execute
Speaker 2: with Denver in the half court. But unfortunately Denver decided
Speaker 2: at the late first half stretch there to completely erase
Speaker 2: Golden State's lead with just a bunch of like high
Speaker 2: level shot making. And for the record, in this particular
Speaker 2: stretch of the game, there were some execution things with
Speaker 2: Denver where especially in that second half where Golden State
Speaker 2: was giving up easy shots just because Denver was executing
Speaker 2: extremely well. But in that late first half stretch, I
Speaker 2: actually thought Golden State defended pretty well. Like Nikole Jokic
Speaker 2: ma a contested pick and pop three at the top
Speaker 2: of the key, Jabal Murray made an insanely like difficult
Speaker 2: fade away over his left shoulder over Andrew Wiggins. Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon just ran the floor really well and got a
Speaker 2: post up mismatch against Clay Thompson and went up and
Speaker 2: got an end one. And then there before the end
Speaker 2: of the half, just a dribble handoff drifting three to
Speaker 2: his left for Jamal Murray that ties the game. And
Speaker 2: on the other end of the floor of the Warriors,
Speaker 2: you know, honestly, they just missed some shots, like Brandon
Speaker 2: Pizemski missed a wide open corner three out of the left,
Speaker 2: Klay Thompson missed a wide open three at the top
Speaker 2: of the key, but other than that, they defended pretty well.
Speaker 2: And again Steph wasn't able to make those like superhero
Speaker 2: shots that he's accustomed to making, right, And so all
Speaker 2: of a sudden we go from the Warriors being up
Speaker 2: I think they led by as much as sixteen in
Speaker 2: that second quarter, to now it's a tie game.
Speaker 1: And then we come out in.
Speaker 2: That third quarter stretch and again Golden State's been out
Speaker 2: executing everybody in that setting, but Denver just strangled the
Speaker 2: pace of the game, played beautiful offense, won the quarter
Speaker 2: thirty to twenty six, and then in the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: they just completely shut down Warriors offense. Not Nikolajokic did
Speaker 2: a beautiful job of playing Draymond's passing angles, just kind
Speaker 2: of like reading plays before they happen and getting in
Speaker 2: front of them. Again, one of nikola Jokic's best defensive
Speaker 2: attributes is just his IQ. You can just see things
Speaker 2: before they happen. And then again Aaron Gordon on the
Speaker 2: back line blowing everything up. And again, like Steph, this
Speaker 2: is one of those environments where Denver's is a better team,
Speaker 2: but Steph has the superpower to potentially overcome that and
Speaker 2: it just was one of those nights where he wasn't
Speaker 2: able to make those shots. And then again especially there
Speaker 2: in that fourth quarter stretch, I thought the Warriors were
Speaker 2: really really competing on the defensive end, and they have personnel.
Speaker 2: Draymond's battling like Andrew Wiggins is battling on the ball.
Speaker 2: They're flying around in rotation, They're doing everything they can.
Speaker 2: But like there's a certain helplessness that you run into
Speaker 2: playing against Denver. They have reached a level of unguardability.
Speaker 2: And so I've talked about this specific dynamic a million
Speaker 2: times on this show as it pertains to what makes
Speaker 2: Denver so difficult to guard. But I wanted to kind
Speaker 2: of dive a little bit deeper into two specific dynamics
Speaker 2: that take place for Denver on the offensive end of
Speaker 2: the floor and what makes them so hard to guard,
Speaker 2: and that is disguising their actions and then pre loaded counters.
Speaker 2: So those are the two concepts I want to get
Speaker 2: into tonight. First, disguising their actions and all you have
Speaker 2: to do to look for a great example of this
Speaker 2: to start with was the first bucket that Denver had
Speaker 2: in this game, which was an Aaron Gordon kind of
Speaker 2: like contested in traffic layup right in front of the
Speaker 2: rim out of a off ball action that they ran.
Speaker 2: So on this play, the Nuggets get to stop and
Speaker 2: Nikole Yoka is bringing the ball up the floor, and
Speaker 2: he's bringing it up point guard style, and he's coming
Speaker 2: up with a good amount of pace, and as he
Speaker 2: brings him off the floor, obviously Draymond's getting ready to
Speaker 2: pick him up. Andrew Wiggins is on Jamal Murray and
Speaker 2: Brandon Pazemski is on Michael Porter Junior, and as Nikole
Speaker 2: Jokic kind of gets up the floor, turns his back
Speaker 2: and he gets ready and you're just expecting to see
Speaker 2: a Jamal Murray dribblehandoff right now. Again, what are you
Speaker 2: doing defensively in that situation? What most teams will do
Speaker 2: that have that kind of personnel, a really good post
Speaker 2: defender like Draymond or ball screen defender like Draymond, and
Speaker 2: a really good on ball defender like Wiggins. What they
Speaker 2: want to do is Andrew Wiggins wants to beat Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray over the top of the screen as best as
Speaker 2: he can, because if he can compete over the top
Speaker 2: of that screen, it will make it so that Draymond
Speaker 2: doesn't have to step over, And if Draymond doesn't have
Speaker 2: to step over, he can stay home on Jokic and
Speaker 2: they can kind of shut the action down right. So again,
Speaker 2: that's a really difficult job. This is a job that
Speaker 2: so many players in the league struggle with that on
Speaker 2: ball screen navigation piece, right, and so Andrew Wiggins has
Speaker 2: his head turned to the left to where Nikole Jokic
Speaker 2: is and Jamal Murray's in front of him, and he's
Speaker 2: getting ready to fight over the top of that screen.
Speaker 2: But all of a sudden, here comes Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 2: and he comes up from the corner and he sets
Speaker 2: a back screen on Wiggins. Doesn't hit him that much,
Speaker 2: but hits him just enough to kind of knock him
Speaker 2: off balance, and Wiggins has to turn and chase Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2: Now Jamal Murray has beat Wiggins back door because Andrew
Speaker 2: Wiggins got backscreen. Right now, Jamal Murray's rolling to the rim. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Nikole Jokic is never gonna miss something like that. When
Speaker 2: he breaks open hits Jamal Murray on the back cut,
Speaker 2: Draymond Green has to drop down to help on Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2: It's an easy drop off pass to Aaron Gordon in
Speaker 2: front of the rim and he lays it in point
Speaker 2: there being you're gearing up to stop one of the
Speaker 2: most unguardable actions in the league, which is the Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray Nicole Jokic two man game, and that's just a decoy.
Speaker 2: That's not actually what they're doing. They're actually running an
Speaker 2: off ball action using Michael Porter Junior to get Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray going back door away from where the dribble handoff
Speaker 2: was gonna be. That's a great example of disguising actions
Speaker 2: and that's something that will Denver will do.
Speaker 1: They never will.
Speaker 2: You know, we talked about this in the earlier video
Speaker 2: today about Minnesota and some of the issues they were
Speaker 2: having against Milwaukee's drop coverage. One of the issues was
Speaker 2: they were just kind of running it up the floor
Speaker 2: and setting a ball screen and going or this guy
Speaker 2: likes his matchup, he's just going to go and drive
Speaker 2: into the help and it really makes it easier for
Speaker 2: the defense to load up on you because there's not
Speaker 2: really a whole lot happening in terms of like ball
Speaker 2: and player movement before you run your core action. Whatever
Speaker 2: ball screen or isopost up, it is right with Denver,
Speaker 2: they are essentially like putting you in a predicament where
Speaker 2: you can't actually load up on any one action because
Speaker 2: if you do, they are prepared to do something else,
Speaker 2: and often they will use their core actions as decoys
Speaker 2: to get other guys open. The second piece that I
Speaker 2: wanted to hit on was the idea of pre loaded counters. Well,
Speaker 2: this is any single time that you run an action,
Speaker 2: there is a defensive scheme that the defense is going
Speaker 2: to implement in that specific situation. So for instance, whether
Speaker 2: it's a deep drop, whether it's kind of like a
Speaker 2: more mid level drop, whether it's a high drop with
Speaker 2: like kind of a show, whether it's a hedge and recover,
Speaker 2: whether it's a trap. Like, there's a number of different
Speaker 2: things you can do. And then even off ball situations,
Speaker 2: maybe you're switching off ball screens, maybe you're pre switching
Speaker 2: when a guy's going up to set a ball screen,
Speaker 2: you're sending a different player up to defend the ball screen.
Speaker 2: There's all these different things you can do right and
Speaker 2: specifically with Denver, that's one of the ways that like
Speaker 2: tea teams will come up with gimmicks to try to
Speaker 2: I shouldn say gimmicks, but different defensive strategies to take
Speaker 2: away Denver's action. So, for instance, like a Jamal Murray
Speaker 2: Nicol Jokic two man game, maybe you're tagging from the
Speaker 2: weak side to try to get to Nikole Jokic when
Speaker 2: he catches on the roll. Maybe you're blitzing Jamal Murray
Speaker 2: on the ball screen. Maybe you're doubling Nikola Jokic in
Speaker 2: the post up. Well, Denver has seen all of these
Speaker 2: coverages so many times that they just have a baked
Speaker 2: encounter to beat you when you do that, and so
Speaker 2: I wanted to provide two examples to kind of demonstrate
Speaker 2: the concept to you guys. So the first one was
Speaker 2: aous call Contavious call of Pope backdoor cut on Steph
Speaker 2: Curry for a layup. So, on this play, Steph Curry
Speaker 2: is guarding Contavious call of Pope. Nikola Jokic has the
Speaker 2: ball on the left elbow. This was in the first half.
Speaker 2: On this play, Steph Curry knows kcp's coming off of
Speaker 2: a dribble hand off from Nikola jokicch So one of
Speaker 2: the things that Steph does is he top locks Contavious
Speaker 2: Cola Pope to try to deny him the use of
Speaker 2: the screen. What that means is if preten Jokic is
Speaker 2: behind me and the camera is KCP, I'm positioning myself
Speaker 2: almost between and he was being physical on the ball
Speaker 2: and he was basically trying to stop KCP from using
Speaker 2: the dribble handoff. So there is a baked in, reloaded
Speaker 2: counter for denver in that situation. Those of you guys
Speaker 2: listening can probably take a guess. KCP just gets a
Speaker 2: little physical with Steph and just cuts back door.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Typically in a situation like that, you'd have a rimp
Speaker 2: protector back there, but that's not the case because Nikola Joki,
Speaker 2: which is the center, and Draymond Green is up on
Speaker 2: him up at the elbow, and so as a result,
Speaker 2: KCP just kind of walks up like he's gonna go
Speaker 2: to the DHO and he just knows, like STEP's denying me.
Speaker 2: My natural counter here is to cut back door, and
Speaker 2: of course, Nicole Jokic, he's sitting there staring at KCP
Speaker 2: waiting for him to come off the dribble handoff, season
Speaker 2: cut back door throws the pass over the top. KCP
Speaker 2: is right there, and then obviously in the event that
Speaker 2: you know, let's say Johnathan Kaminga steps up to help
Speaker 2: out of the back line. They already know. Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: knows I'm sitting there in the dunker spot, and I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't even think Aaron Gordon was in the dunker
Speaker 2: spot on this play. But I'm just providing an example.
Speaker 2: So let's pretend KCP cuts back door and steph and
Speaker 2: you have Jonathan Kaminga step over and help. Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: knows as soon as he steps over, I just jump,
Speaker 2: just jump up near the rim, and KCP knows if
Speaker 2: I turn around and there's help, I'm just floating it
Speaker 2: up around the basket. And it's a big target with
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon because he's such an excellent, you know, vertical
Speaker 2: spacer that they can beat you with the dunk like that.
Speaker 2: And that was actually the second example that I was
Speaker 2: going to provide. It was the Aaron Gordon dunk off
Speaker 2: the baseline there in the end of the game, towards
Speaker 2: the end of the game, in the fourth quarter. All
Speaker 2: it was Jamal Murray coming off a ball screen. There's
Speaker 2: a pass to Nicole Jokic in the role. They step
Speaker 2: up to help. I think it was Kaminga steps up
Speaker 2: to help on nicolea Jokic in the role. Jokic literally
Speaker 2: one time's the pass, meaning like didn't didn't like turn
Speaker 2: to make a read, like he just knew, he just knew.
Speaker 2: Here comes Kaminga. This is the read. I just throw
Speaker 2: it up there. And obviously I think he actually threw
Speaker 2: a pass that was a little bit too far out
Speaker 2: in front of the rim. But Aaron Gordon is such
Speaker 2: a disgustingly good athlete that he's able to like rise
Speaker 2: up and just dunk it anyway, because that's what Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon does, right. But the point is is like between
Speaker 2: not just the basketball continuity of this group, meaning they've
Speaker 2: played together for so long, but the IQ of this
Speaker 2: group and just how smart they are and how well
Speaker 2: they know how to play off of each other. They
Speaker 2: just have all of these They disguise everything, they have
Speaker 2: all of these built in count to go against whatever
Speaker 2: you throw at them defensively, and then to make matters worse.
Speaker 2: Let's say you do everything right and you make every
Speaker 2: rotation just like a perfect windshield wiper sequence and nobody's open. Well,
Speaker 2: then Jamal Murray will just make some really tough turnaround
Speaker 2: jump shot, or Nikole Jokich will just be like, all right, fine,
Speaker 2: I guess I gotta take Draymond Green to the basket
Speaker 2: out of the post and try to shoot a little
Speaker 2: hook shot. And guess what, Jamal Murray. If you're ranking
Speaker 2: tough shot makers in the NBA, I haven't really thought
Speaker 2: about it, but Jamal Murray's way up there on that list.
Speaker 2: And then in terms of like on an island scoring,
Speaker 2: Nikole joki is about as efficient as you'll find in
Speaker 2: the league. So they have this beautifully well oiled offense
Speaker 2: that is inevitable, that is incredibly difficult to guard. You
Speaker 2: literally feel helpless watching it, and then if you do
Speaker 2: everything right, they might just make a tough shot anyway.
Speaker 2: And I mean it literally is hopeless. And like Warriors fans,
Speaker 2: you can relate to this. This is what it was
Speaker 2: like for the most part during the Warriors dynasty. Now,
Speaker 2: it wasn't quite the same extent as Denver because I
Speaker 2: think Golden State was more of a two way team.
Speaker 2: With Golden Save was like one of the best defenses
Speaker 2: in the league every single year. Now, Denver's been been
Speaker 2: a very good defense this year. But like you guys,
Speaker 2: remember the feeling. It was like, run drop coverage on
Speaker 2: Steph He's gonna just hit pull.
Speaker 1: Up the rees all night long.
Speaker 2: Leave him on an island. He can beat his man
Speaker 2: off the dribble and and like either create his own
Speaker 2: shot for himself or draw multiple defenders and pass out
Speaker 2: of it. Throw blitz at him, throw a hedge at him.
Speaker 2: He's gonna hit the role man every single time. And
Speaker 2: it's Draymond Green coming down the middle of the floor.
Speaker 2: He's one of the best short role passers in the league.
Speaker 2: And at that point in time, during the peak of
Speaker 2: the Warriors dynasty, it was Klay Thompson, the second best
Speaker 2: shooter in the world, who was unbelievably deadly off the ball,
Speaker 2: Andre Gudala, who's one of the smartest players in the league. Right,
Speaker 2: Like that was the predicament they put you in. And
Speaker 2: then oh, by the way, Kevin Durant was out there too,
Speaker 2: like so, and there was a similar type of thing
Speaker 2: where if you happened to get in front of the
Speaker 2: action and stop everything, they had two guys that just
Speaker 2: could beat you over the top with crazy tough shot making.
Speaker 2: So like Horriors fans again, you can you can relate
Speaker 2: to this, but there is an inevitability. There's an inevitability,
Speaker 2: there's a hopelessness that Denver puts you in. And I
Speaker 2: thought tonight was was just just a resounding example of
Speaker 2: that on Denver's front. Again, Like you know, I've seen
Speaker 2: a lot of Denver pessimism this year. Like I even
Speaker 2: saw I can't remember exactly who it was that I
Speaker 2: saw on Twitter the other day talking about how like
Speaker 2: even their effective field goal percentages down to like middle
Speaker 2: of the pack this year after it was like number
Speaker 2: one in the league last year.
Speaker 1: And I just don't care.
Speaker 2: I just don't care, like a time and time again,
Speaker 2: when it comes down to it, in any sort of
Speaker 2: high leverage moment, they're able to tighten the screws defensively,
Speaker 2: and they're able to execute to a near near perfection
Speaker 2: on the offensive end of the floor. And that's why
Speaker 2: I keep saying, like, in the event that they're healthy,
Speaker 2: I just I would just be surprised if they lost.
Speaker 2: I have not seen any team in the league that
Speaker 2: can reach a two way height in the slow down, intense,
Speaker 2: physical playoff environment the way that Denver can. Every other
Speaker 2: team in the league has significant question marks in a
Speaker 2: way that Denver does not. The only thing that you
Speaker 2: can really point to is their lack of depth, which
Speaker 2: wasn't an issue that last year when they stayed healthy,
Speaker 2: and that's why I keep adding the healthy qualifier. But again,
Speaker 2: the same can be said for any of these teams.
Speaker 2: There's not a team out there that's in the top
Speaker 2: five or six championship contenders in the league that can
Speaker 2: afford an injury to a starter, you know, like Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: He had an incredible night tonight. Aaron Gordon is legitimately.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this while I was putting my
Speaker 2: notes together. Obviously Aaron Gordon is not a superstar, like
Speaker 2: he's not a guy that we put in the same
Speaker 2: echelon with the great forwards in the league.
Speaker 1: But when you really.
Speaker 2: Put it down to like what his role is on
Speaker 2: this team, meaning like they don't need him to be
Speaker 2: some high level offensive engine, but just operating in the
Speaker 2: role of what the big forward typically does, which means
Speaker 2: on the offensive end of the floor, matchup attacking and
Speaker 2: vertical spacing. And then on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 2: it's the ability to defend bigger forwards on the perimeter,
Speaker 2: the ability to defend bigger forwards and bigs in the post,
Speaker 2: the ability to be an impactful back line defender, meaning
Speaker 2: like helping at the rim in like situations where he's
Speaker 2: got a tag rollers or help on drives, but also
Speaker 2: cleaning up the defensive glass and potentially having to rotate
Speaker 2: with athleticism back out to the weak side to a shooter.
Speaker 2: If you just kind of take the big forward responsibilities,
Speaker 2: not the higher level stuff that superstars have to take
Speaker 2: care but if you just look at the bigger forward responsibilities,
Speaker 2: there aren't many players in the league that are better
Speaker 2: in his position group than him. At that I was
Speaker 2: thinking about it earlier. Today it's like like maybe, maybe, maybe,
Speaker 2: like Giannis is probably for sure in that group, right
Speaker 2: like the five nights of a year that Lebron tries
Speaker 2: really hard, But even that feels like a stress to
Speaker 2: a stretch to me, Like there aren't It's hard to
Speaker 2: think of a forward that plays that foe position who's
Speaker 2: better at low man defensive responsibilities and off ball offensive
Speaker 2: responsibilities out of the four spot. Like the one big
Speaker 2: knitpick with him is like he's an iffy shooter, But
Speaker 2: like time and time again, that just hasn't mattered like that.
Speaker 2: The Warriors ignored him at the three point line all
Speaker 2: night tonight and it just didn't matter.
Speaker 1: So so like.
Speaker 2: Again, like and there's not a team out there that
Speaker 2: can afford an injury. But like to me that that's
Speaker 2: that's an unfair criticism to throw at Denver for that reason,
Speaker 2: they feel inevitable to me. I like I said, I
Speaker 2: just I'm such a big fan of this, of this
Speaker 2: Denver Nuggets team on the Warriors front. Again, Steph and
Speaker 2: Dre had bad knights. You need them to overcome your
Speaker 2: limitations in a matchup like this, and Steph couldn't make
Speaker 2: as tough for three point looks today. I think he
Speaker 2: was one for ten from three and Draymond had six turnovers.
Speaker 2: So like, it's gonna be tough to win a game
Speaker 2: like that in that circumstance. But here's the thing, and
Speaker 2: there's a reason why I have the Warriors in the
Speaker 2: long shot tier. I don't think they're even capable of
Speaker 2: being Denver in a series. That doesn't mean they can't
Speaker 2: win the title, Like you go for it, because what
Speaker 2: if Denver does suffer some sort of injury, What if
Speaker 2: there is some sort of confluence of events where you
Speaker 2: happen to catch some favorable matchups and then you get
Speaker 2: to the finish line, like you go for it. And
Speaker 2: they certainly have that capability, but like at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, they just can't execute in the half
Speaker 2: court nearly as well as Denver on either end of
Speaker 2: the floor, and that, to me is where that pessimism
Speaker 2: comes from. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 2: for tonight. As always, I appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 2: the show. We'll be back tomorrow breaking down a couple
Speaker 2: more games from tonight's slate, as well as our power rankings.
Speaker 2: Then just a heads up, we're taking Tuesday off. I'm
Speaker 2: doing a day trip. There's a this really cool ancient
Speaker 2: volcano that's in northern Arizona. That's a place called flag Staff.
Speaker 2: It's where Northern Arizona University is, and there's some skiing
Speaker 2: up there, and so my wife and I and some
Speaker 2: friends are taking a day trip and do some We
Speaker 2: do these things called day trips where you literally drive
Speaker 2: four hours, wake up at four am, and then we'll
Speaker 2: go ski for eight hours and then drive four hours home.
Speaker 2: So will I literally we'll be gone all day on
Speaker 2: Tuesday but we'll be back on Wednesday with our usual
Speaker 2: game breakdowns and stuff.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys. I'll see it's
Speaker 2: Mark the volume