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Speaker 1: Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you guys have
Speaker 1: had a great week so far. Weekend is right around
Speaker 1: the corner, well out of nowhere. These Cleveland cavaliers end
Speaker 1: up stealing Donovan Mitchell. Now I shouldn't say completely out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, because they were briefly mentioned in the discussions,
Speaker 1: but Ian Bagley had reported late earlier this week I
Speaker 1: believe that the Calves had dropped out of that race,
Speaker 1: So we had all kind of viewed them as out
Speaker 1: of sight, out of mind. But as it turns out,
Speaker 1: Danny Age wanted draft compensation, and the Calves were willing
Speaker 1: to give more draft compensation than the next war. They
Speaker 1: circled back to him that this was reported by Jake Fisher. Uh.
Speaker 1: They circled back and asked the Knicks for their final
Speaker 1: best offer, and they were only willing to give two picks,
Speaker 1: and they ended up losing the race. So a lot
Speaker 1: of really interesting perspectives to look at from this deal.
Speaker 1: We're gonna look at it from the Cavs perspective, from
Speaker 1: the Jazz perspective, from the Knicks perspective, and then the
Speaker 1: Lakers as well, because now they become an interesting candidate
Speaker 1: to steal some of these veteran role players from the Jazz.
Speaker 1: Now that we know that Danny Age wants draft picks, um,
Speaker 1: then for those of you guys who are fans of
Speaker 1: the shows, stick around after I have to update my
Speaker 1: Bulls season preview because some of you guys in the
Speaker 1: comments pointed out that I had missed Gore on Dragics
Speaker 1: as one of their signings. They're had there every offseason,
Speaker 1: hundreds of personnel transactions around the league, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to miss some. So please, if you guys can help me,
Speaker 1: If you guys see me in my season previews, forget
Speaker 1: a name, especially an important one, dropping in the comments,
Speaker 1: and I'll make sure that I update that as we
Speaker 1: get further along. I'm also I watched Lithuania versus Slovania
Speaker 1: this morning, which was an amazing basketball game, one of
Speaker 1: the more entertaining basketball games that I've watched in this year.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give a short breakdown on that as well.
Speaker 1: At the end, I'm gonna do a video breakdown on
Speaker 1: Spain pick and Roll, a concept that we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about a lot on this show and I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you guys have a good understanding of
Speaker 1: it so that I can reference it throughout the year
Speaker 1: and you guys know what I'm talking about. Um, you
Speaker 1: guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt.
Speaker 1: So you guys don't miss any show announcements. And last
Speaker 1: but not least, if you miss one of these videos
Speaker 1: and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them,
Speaker 1: you can find them wherever you get your podcasts and
Speaker 1: audio form under hoops tonight. A couple other things too,
Speaker 1: I'd appreciate bear you guys could, If you guys could
Speaker 1: bear with me today, I have terrible allergies and so
Speaker 1: that's been driving me nuts. So this will be a
Speaker 1: little sniffle e and a little uh, a little weak voiced. Also,
Speaker 1: I know some of you guys have been complaining about
Speaker 1: this ancient history. I don't even know what you call
Speaker 1: this thing that's behind me, the ancient piece of furniture.
Speaker 1: My studio is getting remodeled. It is almost done, probably
Speaker 1: our next video. I'll be back in the studio. Just
Speaker 1: wanted to get some permanent adjustments and stuff made so
Speaker 1: that it's better for this whole season. So again I
Speaker 1: apologize for the setup. But just just one more show, guys,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be back to normal. All right, Let's
Speaker 1: start from the perspective of the calves so before the trade,
Speaker 1: the Calves were an excellent defensive team when Evan Mobiley
Speaker 1: and Jared Allen were on the floor. That was the
Speaker 1: really interesting dynamic of last year's team. It was like
Speaker 1: Darius Garland and Colin Sexton, these two dynamic guards, and
Speaker 1: then you had Lori markin In, this huge forward that
Speaker 1: could shoot on the wing, and then Jared Allen and
Speaker 1: Evan Mobiley, and they were a very good team with
Speaker 1: those five on the floor. And then the injuries start.
Speaker 1: It's stacking up. Evan mobile or excuse me, Lori Markin
Speaker 1: ended up getting hurt. Evan Mobiley missed some time in
Speaker 1: the middle of the season, Jared Allen had that finger
Speaker 1: injury at the end of the season, and so things
Speaker 1: kind of fell apart because of that. But when we
Speaker 1: got into the postseason you saw pretty quickly and really
Speaker 1: it was it was a situation throughout the season. As
Speaker 1: good as they were defensively, their shot creation just wasn't
Speaker 1: up to what the rest of the league had to offer.
Speaker 1: They were twentie in offense um this season. In that
Speaker 1: Atlanta playing game, the single elimination game after they lost
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn, they only scored forty points in the second
Speaker 1: half as they blew a ten point lead. They just
Speaker 1: don't have enough shot creation to hang with the better
Speaker 1: teams in the league. So the obvious move there was
Speaker 1: do you extend callin Sexton and think of that as
Speaker 1: the guy that can feel that role, or do you
Speaker 1: target someone better, And that's basically what they're doing. They're
Speaker 1: flipping calling Sexton in addition to draft compensation and Lori
Speaker 1: Marken in for a much much better guard to have
Speaker 1: as a partner alongside Darius Garland. Darius Garland is a
Speaker 1: really good guard in this league and a very different
Speaker 1: type of guard than Donovan Mitchell. He's a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a playmaker out of high pick and roll
Speaker 1: as opposed to looking to score like we did. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you those of you guys who remember, I can't
Speaker 1: remember where he was on the list. He might have
Speaker 1: been twenty four three, but when we did our top
Speaker 1: twenty five players, Uh, Donovan Mitchell. When I his ability
Speaker 1: to score the basketball is unassailable. He's one of the
Speaker 1: best scoring guards that we have in this league. He
Speaker 1: in his last three postseason runs is averaging ten three
Speaker 1: point attempts per game and shooting them at forty one.
Speaker 1: He out of all players in the NBA to run
Speaker 1: at least three hundred pick and rolls. Last year, he
Speaker 1: was third in points per possession, which is incredibly impressive,
Speaker 1: especially when you factor in the type of role man
Speaker 1: that he had in Rudy Gobert, who's really flawed. So
Speaker 1: but his one weaknesses is he doesn't really see the
Speaker 1: totality of the Game's not a good game manager. Doesn't
Speaker 1: understand the players rhythm around him and when to shoot
Speaker 1: versus when to look to get his teammates involved. Darius
Speaker 1: Garland is much better in that area. The average nine
Speaker 1: assists per game last year, still can score the basketball
Speaker 1: two points per game on fifty eight percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: an excellent playmaker out of high pick and roll. It'll
Speaker 1: be it'll be a really interesting one to punch with
Speaker 1: the two of them because they have different approaches. And
Speaker 1: then the most interesting part about that Mobile and Allan,
Speaker 1: they were excellent defensively, Like I said, they had a
Speaker 1: one oh three point seven defensive rating with the two
Speaker 1: of them on the floor. But they're also significantly better
Speaker 1: role meant than Donovan Mitchell is used to playing with.
Speaker 1: You know, the big issue with Rudy Gobert is when
Speaker 1: they would switch pick and roll. When teams would switch,
Speaker 1: he'd run down to the Raymond call for the basketball,
Speaker 1: but nobody on the Jazz would pass him the basketball.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is he struggled with the
Speaker 1: simple concept of a quick seal and a short hook shot.
Speaker 1: That that little skill not a difficult thing to do.
Speaker 1: The inability to do that is what makes Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: such a limited offensive player. It's why I viewed him
Speaker 1: as a negative asset. That's why I was so stunned
Speaker 1: that Minnesota paid as much for him as they did.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen is ten times the offensive player that Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert is because he can do that. When you switch
Speaker 1: a pick and roll, he can take the smaller defender
Speaker 1: down to the block, quick seal, demand the basketball, catch,
Speaker 1: turn over his left shoulder, and make a right handed
Speaker 1: hook shot. Just that that is the the must. You
Speaker 1: can't just be a vertical space or rudygal Gobert is
Speaker 1: a great vertical spacer. The problem is, as most defensive
Speaker 1: schemes and pick and roll coverages do a good job
Speaker 1: of taking the lab pass away either by offering help
Speaker 1: out of the week side corner to tag the roller,
Speaker 1: or by using a drop coverage and keeping the big
Speaker 1: back by the rim. So when you take away those lobs,
Speaker 1: you have to find other ways to score and pick
Speaker 1: and roll in. One of the easiest ways to do
Speaker 1: it is if you drag the big in the drop
Speaker 1: away from the play. It forces them to switch, at
Speaker 1: which point the guard will run and dive to the
Speaker 1: big man. That's when you can throw the ball to
Speaker 1: Rudy or whoever it is to score. So Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: is now going to have a dynamic rim roller and
Speaker 1: Jared Allen Evan Mobley is really raw, but he actually
Speaker 1: projects to be even more dynamic than that. He's got
Speaker 1: the vertical spacing, he's got the skill around the rim
Speaker 1: to attack switches. But he also has the ability with
Speaker 1: how skilled he is and how well he passes the
Speaker 1: ball to be good in the short roll. This is
Speaker 1: where you know, instead of rolling hard to the rim,
Speaker 1: you just kind of go to the semicircle and ask
Speaker 1: for the basketball. Then when you catch there, you can
Speaker 1: either make reads or you can short shoot short jump
Speaker 1: shots or little floaters and things like that. He also
Speaker 1: shows some uh potential as a pop big who can
Speaker 1: pop to the three point line knockdown three point shots.
Speaker 1: Didn't shoot the ball well last year, but his form
Speaker 1: looks good. He should shoot the ball well over the years,
Speaker 1: and then also attacking closeouts and driving to the basket.
Speaker 1: He's got potential. Who talked about this um during the
Speaker 1: season last year. But the big difference between him in
Speaker 1: like an Anthony Davis, is he's got such quick feet
Speaker 1: that he's actually gonna be more dynamic driving the basketball
Speaker 1: than Anthony Davis was. Obviously, he's got a long way
Speaker 1: to go to get to that point, but Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: is a super super interesting player UM to have as
Speaker 1: another pick and roll partner. So you've got two dynamic
Speaker 1: pick and roll ball handlers into dynamic pick and roll
Speaker 1: roll men. That should make them a lot more interesting
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor than they were
Speaker 1: obviously Defensively, it's gonna it's gonna be tricky. They're excellent
Speaker 1: in the front court, but they've lost a wing in
Speaker 1: Lori marking In. They've got good athletes on the wing.
Speaker 1: I actually really like Isaac a Coro, but uh, they're
Speaker 1: a little bit limited in that in that regard. But
Speaker 1: it shoot didn't matter with how big they are on
Speaker 1: the front line, and they're they're deep in the front
Speaker 1: line too. They've got Robin Lopez, They've got Kevin Love there.
Speaker 1: This is an incredibly deep basketball team. Hopefully Ricky Rubio
Speaker 1: will be coming back as a backup in the backcourt.
Speaker 1: They've got Carris Laverte. This suddenly looks like as deep
Speaker 1: and as talented a team as we see in the league.
Speaker 1: The weakness will be they don't have you know, what,
Speaker 1: what do you guys when I'm talking about teams, what's
Speaker 1: the one thing that I talked about that The Cavs
Speaker 1: don't have that big mismatch attacking forward right, But maybe
Speaker 1: Evan Mobile will develop into that for them this year.
Speaker 1: Um A lot is gonna be on Donovan Mitchell and
Speaker 1: Darius Garland on the defensive end. Donovan Mitchell was on
Speaker 1: an atrocious defensive player for Utah last year. He's gonna
Speaker 1: have to get that together. Daris Garlands not great either,
Speaker 1: But with as good as they are on the back line,
Speaker 1: they should still as a team be a better defensive team.
Speaker 1: They'll just have to figure some of that stuff out
Speaker 1: to reach their ultimate playoff ceiling. My My one major
Speaker 1: concern would be when you're running into let's call it
Speaker 1: a Jimmy Butler out east or a Janice out east,
Speaker 1: or say you make it to the finals and you
Speaker 1: run into a Steph Curry or Lebron James or Luca
Speaker 1: don Che or a Nicol Yokich. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to out execute those guys down the stretch of
Speaker 1: pivotal playoff games. And that is a lot to ask
Speaker 1: for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. So my initial take,
Speaker 1: and I want to marinate on this longer, and again,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna we have to make some adjustments
Speaker 1: to our power rankings because I did not have the
Speaker 1: calves in the top fifteen. I mean, look, here's the deal, guys.
Speaker 1: We had an option, we have a month a month
Speaker 1: from today to the start of the preseason. We had
Speaker 1: an option to either continue doing stupid offseason filler content
Speaker 1: or to start talking about this year. And I really
Speaker 1: wanted to get forward into talking about this year. So
Speaker 1: we started early. And obviously there was a risk that
Speaker 1: some stuff could happen and mess up our list, and
Speaker 1: there you go. So we're just gonna call the bulls
Speaker 1: fifteen A and today was supposed to be the Pelicans
Speaker 1: at fourteen. I'm gonna have the Pelicans at fifteen B,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, and then obviously the
Speaker 1: Calves will be vaulting up higher up into that list.
Speaker 1: We knew that was a risk. Like, guys, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna make some big trade, So whenever the Lakers
Speaker 1: make their trade, I'm gonna have to change where they
Speaker 1: show up in the power rankings. Right So, but with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the roster, I obviously
Speaker 1: had to have them on my list. So it's an
Speaker 1: imperfect system. But anytime anything changes, anytime new information comes out,
Speaker 1: I promise we'll do a full, deep dive, breakout breakdown
Speaker 1: into it. When we get to the Calves higher on
Speaker 1: this list, I will do a much much more in
Speaker 1: depth breakdown of what I expect the Calves to do
Speaker 1: on both sides of the ball, because I do think
Speaker 1: it'll be a lot different with Donovan Mitchell in the
Speaker 1: mix and without Lori marking in as that huge wing
Speaker 1: that they had last year. So looking forward to the Jazz,
Speaker 1: they're in a full rebuild now, and you know it's
Speaker 1: funny because Danny Ainge has this reputation as being a
Speaker 1: guy who's very stingy and trade negotiations, which is why
Speaker 1: he never made the big deal when he was with
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics. Right and to his credit, his stingy
Speaker 1: nous has paid off in this summer because he's gotten
Speaker 1: two massive hauls for two players that you wouldn't think
Speaker 1: would pull those kinds of halls. Like Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 1: a better basketball player than Rudy Gobert, but like I
Speaker 1: didn't think he'd get this type of package. Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 1: I was stunned, and I've been wrong about a few
Speaker 1: things this summer. That to look at, that's the part
Speaker 1: of the deal. When you make predictions and when you
Speaker 1: have analysis, especially when you do it as often as
Speaker 1: I do, you're gonna be wrong about stuff. Um, I
Speaker 1: did not expect Rudy Gobert to get a big deal.
Speaker 1: You have four first round draft picks in a pick swap,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell three more draft picks and two more pick swaps,
Speaker 1: So just from Rudy, just from Rudy Gobert and from
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, they got seven first round picks and three swaps. So, look,
Speaker 1: we can talk shit about Danny Age all we want,
Speaker 1: but the dudes kicking ass this offseason, you gotta give
Speaker 1: him some credit for that. Um. There was a tweet
Speaker 1: that came out that they view all of the pieces
Speaker 1: that came back from Cleveland as projects that they plan
Speaker 1: on keeping. I thought that was interesting because I thought
Speaker 1: Lori market it would be a guy that'd consider moving
Speaker 1: because he's kind of a known commodity at this point.
Speaker 1: I think he turns twenty five this year. Um. Them
Speaker 1: getting sexed in at less than twenty million a year
Speaker 1: for four years is really interesting because, especially towards the
Speaker 1: tail end of that deal, if if the salary cap
Speaker 1: goes up significantly, he could be a really affordable like
Speaker 1: backup scoring guard or second side scoring guards. So my
Speaker 1: guess is Utah ends up flipping Colin Sexton at some
Speaker 1: point during that contract for a couple more picks. They've
Speaker 1: got all these veteran players on the roster that are
Speaker 1: available for picks. We're gonna get to that more with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. But when it's all said and done, this
Speaker 1: rebuild could could could end up netting Utah over ten
Speaker 1: first round draft picks. So huge shout out to Danny
Speaker 1: Ainge for really impressive offseason. Look, he stood up for
Speaker 1: what he believed in, something that we've all roasted him for.
Speaker 1: And he he's winning. Guys, he's winning not real basketball games,
Speaker 1: but he's winning at the GM game of rebuilding. Um.
Speaker 1: The Knicks, so they didn't want to overpay for Mitchell.
Speaker 1: That's fair. Someone else might be right around the corner,
Speaker 1: Like you just have to be willing to pay when
Speaker 1: that right guy comes along, you know. Like there was
Speaker 1: some debate when Kawhi Leonard became available with the with
Speaker 1: the Spurs as to whether or not the Lakers could
Speaker 1: get them. There was intel that said the Spurs didn't
Speaker 1: want to do a deal with the Lakers. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is that the Lakers were also
Speaker 1: being stingy on price. They missed out on Kauai. Then
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis came along. They actually threw the kitchen sink
Speaker 1: of assets and they got Anthony Davis and they won
Speaker 1: a championship. So that's getting the kind of approach. You
Speaker 1: gotta look at it from the perspective of the Knicks.
Speaker 1: You didn't you didn't get Donovan Mitchell. Someone else might
Speaker 1: be around the corner when that guy comes along. Don't
Speaker 1: be cheap, because if you're cheap, you could end up
Speaker 1: missing out. Looking forward to the Lakers, so the intel was,
Speaker 1: as you guys remember, after the Patrick Beverley trade, I
Speaker 1: really thought the Lakers would turn towards the Indiana trade
Speaker 1: because I just thought that was a better fit for
Speaker 1: the direction they were going with the roster, especially with
Speaker 1: how small Rudy excuse me, um, Patrick Beverley is, and
Speaker 1: with the fact that they lost Stanley Johnson at the
Speaker 1: time their biggest and most athletic wing. But they were
Speaker 1: waiting aroun on. It looked like from what I had
Speaker 1: heard that the reason why they weren't going to Indiana
Speaker 1: route is Indiana wanted two first round picks and they
Speaker 1: thought they could get involved in a potential Jazz Knicks
Speaker 1: three teamer for one first round pick. That's why they
Speaker 1: were looking that way. Well, that three teamers now off
Speaker 1: the table, so now you gotta look at potentially talking
Speaker 1: to Ange now that you know he wants draft picks.
Speaker 1: Maybe you get something like Malik Beasley and Rudy Gay
Speaker 1: and Boyan Bogdanovich to six eight wings and another really
Speaker 1: good shooting guard for maybe two first and Russ again
Speaker 1: two first round draft picks. That's something that we know
Speaker 1: Danny Ainge is gonna put a lot of value on.
Speaker 1: That might be interesting. Maybe they do end up circling
Speaker 1: back to Indiana now that the three team trade is
Speaker 1: off the table. Excuse me, um, but all I hope
Speaker 1: is that the Lakers don't end up using this as
Speaker 1: an excuse to bring Russ back into camp. There's been
Speaker 1: more intel on that front. Mark Stein reported that Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham has been really pushing for a big role for
Speaker 1: Russ on this team. I I just think that would
Speaker 1: be an absolute catastrophe, and if they did that, I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers would deserve everything that's coming to them. Hell,
Speaker 1: I'd probably end up turning this season into an opportunity
Speaker 1: to just scold the Lakers after every loss for self
Speaker 1: sabotage at that point. But hopefully they end up circling
Speaker 1: back and making a deal either with with Utah or
Speaker 1: with um the Indiana Pacers. I would imagine the Charlotte
Speaker 1: Hornets are still available as an option there as well.
Speaker 1: They just need to do something whatever the whatever the
Speaker 1: deal is, they cannot bring back Russell Westberg. That would
Speaker 1: just be a disaster. Alright. So what I had planned
Speaker 1: on talking about today was the New Orleans Pelicans. Um,
Speaker 1: but I was going to do a uh an adjustment
Speaker 1: to my Bulls preview because I missed out on Corn
Speaker 1: Tragic again, Guys, hundreds of personnel moves. If I miss something,
Speaker 1: please let me know. I might direct messages open on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You can do that there, or you can do it
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments. Just let me know if I
Speaker 1: miss something, or if you're a fan of one these
Speaker 1: teams and there's a specific dynamic that you think I'm
Speaker 1: missing that I need to dive deeper in, just remember
Speaker 1: to let me know. Um. Gore and Joges just Alonzo insurance.
Speaker 1: That's what he is. After Alonzo went down last year.
Speaker 1: But he's kind of risky in and of himself. Over
Speaker 1: the last four years, he's only average forty one and
Speaker 1: a half games played. Last year, he was awful. It
Speaker 1: was the second worst scoring season of Gor and Jdges
Speaker 1: his career. He ran fifty three pick and rolls and
Speaker 1: only scored thirty five points. When he's healthy, I really
Speaker 1: like what he can do with the basketball. He's good
Speaker 1: off the dribble shooter, a great passer and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He's excellent in the midrange specifically, he's got this He's
Speaker 1: got a good amount of size for compared to a
Speaker 1: lot of pick and roll guards in the league. And
Speaker 1: so you can do this thing where he kind of
Speaker 1: gets into the lane, gets you on your hip and
Speaker 1: just as a pound dribble and like step shoots like
Speaker 1: a step back, like a high arching pull up twelve
Speaker 1: thirteen footer. He's a very very interesting pick and roll player.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't been himself lately. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was watching him in the in the euro the euro
Speaker 1: Basket today and same thing, Like just doesn't quite look
Speaker 1: like he has that burst that he used to have.
Speaker 1: Although he did make some big plays, hit a couple
Speaker 1: of huge um jump shots, hit a dagger three pointer
Speaker 1: today as well. Um uh. This last season he shot
Speaker 1: only thirty eight percent from the field from three. So like, look,
Speaker 1: best case scenario, he gets back to what he was,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of years ago with Miami and
Speaker 1: he becomes you know, because I talked about Alex Crusoe
Speaker 1: and Alonzo Ball as guys who can attack closeouts and
Speaker 1: make reads Alonzo's great making reads in the open floor,
Speaker 1: but neither of them are above average creators against the
Speaker 1: set defense. So having gore on Dragic Dragic as you know,
Speaker 1: an alternative to to the Levine de Rosan stuff where
Speaker 1: he can attack a set defense, because you can have
Speaker 1: Drawgics when he's healthy, attacking in high pick and roll
Speaker 1: against the set defense and he can get you good
Speaker 1: stuff typically, so that on the best case scenario, you
Speaker 1: could he could end up being that for him. The
Speaker 1: other thing too, is he would immediately be their worst
Speaker 1: defender in the backcourt. So I mean it's Alonzo insurance.
Speaker 1: But if he gets if Alonzo gets hurt, I mean
Speaker 1: that's curtains for Chicago anyway. Um, moving on to Luthuania
Speaker 1: ever Slovania, this is a really interesting game. It was like,
Speaker 1: for those of you guys who have been listening to
Speaker 1: the show for a while, this was like the textbook
Speaker 1: Biggs Verse perimeter players game, right because you've got Luca
Speaker 1: don Chechen, Gordon Drag it's too high level NBA ball
Speaker 1: handlers versus an undermanned Lithuania backcourt. And then going the
Speaker 1: other way, you've got Jonas Valanchutas and Domonta Sabonis literally
Speaker 1: going against an Undermann front court for Sylvania. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like the classic example of that debate. And
Speaker 1: it was so back and forth because there it was
Speaker 1: tied seventy three seventy three late in the like mid
Speaker 1: midway through the fourth quarter, early fourth quarter, and a
Speaker 1: Valancutas and Sabonis just started cooking in the post and
Speaker 1: Jonahs Valancionas ends up drawing a foul, and then Sabonus
Speaker 1: ends up getting Luca Donche on a switch and hitting
Speaker 1: an easy hook shot over the top. They go up
Speaker 1: seventy seventy three, and they called time out, and you're
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking like, oh, well, maybe the Bigs are
Speaker 1: gonna win. But almost immediately Luca just starts spamming Spain
Speaker 1: pick and roll where we're gonna talk about more in
Speaker 1: a in a in a minute, and he gets Sabonus
Speaker 1: on these switches and he starts attacking Sabonus and he
Speaker 1: starts drawing fouls on Sabonus. And once he starts drawing fouls,
Speaker 1: then Luthuwaenia starts sending extra help towards Luca and he
Speaker 1: starts picking him apart hitting cutters underneath the basket for layups,
Speaker 1: and just methodically executes every trip down the floor to
Speaker 1: uh to build the lead. On the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor. They did what I talked about all the time.
Speaker 1: They just started scramming and crowding Sabonus and Valancotis out
Speaker 1: of their post ups. If I'm not mistaken, the rest
Speaker 1: of the game, they only had one post up, which
Speaker 1: was Sabonus, and he drew an offensive foul because he
Speaker 1: elbowed Luca in the face. So the point is, like
Speaker 1: I always talk about, with bigs, it's just harder to
Speaker 1: get them to their spots where they can be effective
Speaker 1: than it is for perimeter players. There was a nasty
Speaker 1: play I think it was one to eighty and Lucas
Speaker 1: attacking off the dribble and he drives right and gets
Speaker 1: the defender kind of leaning that way, does this nasty
Speaker 1: pullback dribble, gets tons of separation, just peaks at the
Speaker 1: rim for a second defender, lunges up, he advances, gets
Speaker 1: the defender on his hip, slowly works into the lane,
Speaker 1: just waits just long enough for Jonas Valanciunas to commit,
Speaker 1: and then wraps it around to his big man for
Speaker 1: a layup, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is surgery. He's performing half court surgery on Lithuania, which
Speaker 1: is my favorite thing about that big playmaking forward, which
Speaker 1: is why I've always viewed that specific archetype as my
Speaker 1: favorite archetype of player. Um. But like it was, it
Speaker 1: was just an interesting game, and it came down to
Speaker 1: the Lithuania punish them with their size or was Slovenia
Speaker 1: going to pick them apart with their perimeter talent? In
Speaker 1: the perimeter talent one just once. Obviously, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: games where the bigs win, that's you know, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be guys who will say use that as an
Speaker 1: example to argue that bigs are more valuable. But today,
Speaker 1: for me, it was confirmation of my personal basketball worldview.
Speaker 1: There were three interesting things that I wanted to hit
Speaker 1: really quickly from this game. First of all, Luthuania's ball pressure.
Speaker 1: So to start the game, Lithuania was getting up into
Speaker 1: dragics and Luca full court. And I've talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot on the show, but this concept of like
Speaker 1: comfort from perimeter players. You know, NBA players are so
Speaker 1: damn skilled that if you allow them to be comfortable,
Speaker 1: they will get hot every single time. You know, when
Speaker 1: you think about the idea of like hot shooting nights
Speaker 1: versus poor shooting nights, the poor shooting nights almost never
Speaker 1: happen when they're comfortable. If they're comfortably getting to their spots,
Speaker 1: they will naturally build rhythm throughout the game. They will
Speaker 1: shoot well, and they'll beat you. And your your job
Speaker 1: as a defense is to try to make them uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And when you make them uncomfortable, they might still beat you,
Speaker 1: but you might force them into bad shooting nights because
Speaker 1: they struggle to build their rhythm because they're not operating
Speaker 1: with enough comfort. And I thought it was a really
Speaker 1: interesting strategy from Lithuania to pressure the heck out of
Speaker 1: Luca and gore On just to make them speed up
Speaker 1: and to be uncomfortable get to their spots but more
Speaker 1: rushed than they want to or not with the pace
Speaker 1: that they want to. And as a result, I mean
Speaker 1: Luca in particular didn't have a great scoring game, right um.
Speaker 1: But the second thing I want to talk about, there's
Speaker 1: an interesting counter from UM Slovenia. In that third quarter,
Speaker 1: they just started posting Luca don chitch every time down
Speaker 1: the floor because he's huge, and he has a side
Speaker 1: miss seize mismatch against every perimeter player on the Lithuanian roster, right,
Speaker 1: and immediately they want on a run. Ended up taking
Speaker 1: I think like an eight point lead in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: First as a score, he spun off of a guy
Speaker 1: and got a dunk. Then he was passing the ball
Speaker 1: out of there to get a wide open shots. You know,
Speaker 1: this is when I talk about heliocentric players. Heliocentric players
Speaker 1: are guys that love to attack with live dribble and
Speaker 1: command every possession. Right. But the difference between Luca and
Speaker 1: Lebron and the other helio centric players around the league
Speaker 1: that art is effective the Tray Young's and the James
Speaker 1: Hardens of the world, and there's a lot of them now.
Speaker 1: But the reason why is, you know, the James Harden
Speaker 1: and Tray Young types, it's all high isolation, it's all
Speaker 1: high pick and roll. They can't attack from different spots
Speaker 1: on the floor. So even if they do have a
Speaker 1: certain amount of success for a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: especially in a playoff series, when a defender gets to
Speaker 1: see that same action, dozens and dozens and dozens of times.
Speaker 1: It just ends up becoming predictable and they end up
Speaker 1: having more success defensively, right, And that's the advantage of
Speaker 1: of what Luca, excuse me, what Luca can do and
Speaker 1: what Lebron can do. It's like, oh, you know, they're
Speaker 1: kind of figuring out the high isolation thing. They're kind
Speaker 1: of figuring out the high pick and roll thing. I'll
Speaker 1: take him to the post. Maybe it's a back to
Speaker 1: the basket, slow, methodical post up. Lebron will do a
Speaker 1: lot of face up stuff, catching at the elbow and
Speaker 1: turning and facing. Luca can do that too. The variety
Speaker 1: in their attack makes it so that they have more
Speaker 1: counters when defenses start to figure stuff out. They had
Speaker 1: some success against Luca ball pressuring in full court, so
Speaker 1: he gave up the damn basketball and he ran to
Speaker 1: the post, demanded the basketball and made plays from there.
Speaker 1: And again. Big guys, especially a lot of you younger
Speaker 1: big players that want to be ball handlers, the easiest
Speaker 1: counter for a big player that handles the basketball is
Speaker 1: to put a small, quick guard on you that can
Speaker 1: get into your dribble pocket and make you uncomfortable, and
Speaker 1: he can beat you to spots. You can't just drive
Speaker 1: right or drive left because he's gonna slide with you
Speaker 1: because he's quicker. Right, So if you can give up
Speaker 1: the basketball and make plays with your back to the basket, look,
Speaker 1: it doesn't you don't have to dribble anymore. You're fighting
Speaker 1: for position. You can use your arms to shield the
Speaker 1: player off and get position too, then turn and face
Speaker 1: with a triple threat. You don't have to dribble the basketball,
Speaker 1: and you can work him further to the ask it
Speaker 1: by backing him down. That that that is just it's
Speaker 1: a bit of versatility that I think is almost a
Speaker 1: lost art in the league these days because post ups
Speaker 1: are are so few and far between. But I I
Speaker 1: think it's still a really important way to be a
Speaker 1: well rounded basketball player. And I thought it was impressive
Speaker 1: that Luca did that. Um all right last thing for
Speaker 1: the night, um Spain pick and roll. So at the
Speaker 1: end of the game, the Lithuania was spamming Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll every time down the floor, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they were getting switches onto sabonus and they were getting
Speaker 1: lots of good stuff. Now, uh, Spain pick and roll
Speaker 1: is one of the most common NBA actions, and I
Speaker 1: referenced it a lot on the show, so I wanted
Speaker 1: to take a second to demonstrate it to you guys,
Speaker 1: so with some video so that you have a really
Speaker 1: good idea of what I'm talking about every time I
Speaker 1: mentioned that for the rest of the season. So first,
Speaker 1: let's take a look at some video. Let's watch this
Speaker 1: once in real time, and then we're gonna slow it down.
Speaker 1: As you can see, Booker ends up getting a wide
Speaker 1: open three and knocking it down. So as Aden is
Speaker 1: rolling to the rim, watch Devin book back screen Jonas Valanciunas,
Speaker 1: which forces Brandon Ingram right here to lunge backwards to
Speaker 1: help on that lab pass, which allows Devin Booker to
Speaker 1: break open to the three point line. Spain pick and
Speaker 1: roll is all about making your defenders make decisions about
Speaker 1: whether or not to help or to stay with their man,
Speaker 1: and it gives your ball handler more options. The Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns are one of the best Spain pick and roll
Speaker 1: teams in the league, probably the best, and the main
Speaker 1: reason why is because they have the perfect combination of
Speaker 1: players to do it. You have Chris Paul, the pick
Speaker 1: and roll ball handler, who is an outstanding passer, and
Speaker 1: if you give him space, he can knock down shots.
Speaker 1: You have DeAndre Ayton, who's an outstanding role man with
Speaker 1: great hands, who's a problem when he catches the ball
Speaker 1: within a few feet of the rim, right, and then
Speaker 1: you have Devin Booker, this amazing shooter, especially on the move,
Speaker 1: that is the guy who's relocating to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. So again it's all about the threats and
Speaker 1: the combined threats of all three players within that action.
Speaker 1: If you play off of Chris Paul to deal with
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton, he's gonna get to his
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot. If you help on that back
Speaker 1: screen on the roll man, then Devin Booker is gonna
Speaker 1: get a wide up in three. If Brandon Ingram ignores
Speaker 1: the that screen and just runs out on Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton is probably catching a lob underneath the rim.
Speaker 1: It's an extremely difficult action to defend, especially when you
Speaker 1: have the right type of personnel to make people pay.
Speaker 1: These are the little types of of of complications within
Speaker 1: the NBA that happened in almost every single game, and
Speaker 1: one of my goals for this season is to help
Speaker 1: everybody understand that really really well, so that when we're
Speaker 1: doing our breakdowns, I can mention these things and you
Speaker 1: guys know exactly what I'm talking about. Alright, on that note,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. I believe we're taking the rest
Speaker 1: of the weekend off, so plan on Monday evening getting
Speaker 1: a full breakdown on the New Orleans Pelicans and us
Speaker 1: continuing to work our way through these uh through these
Speaker 1: season previews. The other thing to the Lakers, they Robertlinka's
Speaker 1: fame us for you know, having that that move in
Speaker 1: his holster, that backup plan. When his Plan A fails,
Speaker 1: he usually goes to plan and be quickly. So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers made a made a
Speaker 1: move sooner than later. Al Right, guys, that's all I have.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys after the weekend. M the volume