Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had a great week. One last video before we
Speaker 1: head into the playoffs tomorrow. I just logistically, with me
Speaker 1: traveling out of the country tomorrow, I can't stay up
Speaker 1: late tonight to wait for the play in games. So
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is kind of similar to what
Speaker 1: i did with the Celtics and Sixers yesterday. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna focus on what I'll be looking for with the
Speaker 1: Bucks and the Nuggets in their first round series. They're
Speaker 1: going to be massive favorites no matter what, very very
Speaker 1: likely to advance to the second round, So the matchup
Speaker 1: doesn't matter so much as what I'll be looking for
Speaker 1: from these teams as they progress into tougher matchups into
Speaker 1: the future. You guys know the drill before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss
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Speaker 1: not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of
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Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, so the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks. I expect the Bulls to win tonight, but
Speaker 1: I'll be rooting for Miami just because I think Miami,
Speaker 1: from a matchup perspective, should be able to give the
Speaker 1: Bucks at least a little bit more of an entertaining series.
Speaker 1: But both teams are gonna get beat. In the season
Speaker 1: series it was a two to two for both matchups.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be picking the Bucks in five, regardless of
Speaker 1: who they face. Generally speaking, I'm gonna go in five,
Speaker 1: regardless of the advantage, just because of home court in
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs and teams riding that wave to an
Speaker 1: upset win. Typically, as you guys noticed the two sweeps
Speaker 1: I picked in the first round, or the Nets and
Speaker 1: the Clippers, teams that I viewed a big disadvantage and
Speaker 1: that don't have a great home court advantage to lean
Speaker 1: on to try to win a big game. A couple
Speaker 1: of things I'm gonna be looking for for the Bucks
Speaker 1: as like indicators of them being prepped or ready for
Speaker 1: a long playoff run. Number one. How does Chris Middleton look?
Speaker 1: We know this Bucks team is much better off the
Speaker 1: ball than they were last year. Right, Obviously, Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: being there after not being there, regardless of what's going
Speaker 1: on with him in his ability to score, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to knock down open threes. Javon Carter is
Speaker 1: shooting better than he did last year. Joe Ingles is
Speaker 1: shooting forty one percent from three in a Bucks uniform.
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder's not the same physical presence that PJ. Tucker
Speaker 1: was a couple of years ago, but he's a better
Speaker 1: offensive player in my opinion. And the Bucks as a
Speaker 1: team are eighth in spot up efficiency. But why I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Chris Middleton is you know, Boston's gotten a
Speaker 1: little bit better. The reality is is last year's series
Speaker 1: with the Celtics really came down to just a very
Speaker 1: slight gap and half court efficiency. When the Celtics could
Speaker 1: keep the Bucks out of transition, they were a better
Speaker 1: team in the half court. And like we've talked about
Speaker 1: all season long, obviously the spot up shooting is a
Speaker 1: part of it, but there are little things you can
Speaker 1: do to grind out additional points over the course of
Speaker 1: a game. You know, I've always talked about the difference
Speaker 1: between like a one to twelve offensive rating and a
Speaker 1: one to seventeen to one to eighteen offensive rating in
Speaker 1: many cases is shot making. Having guys that can rescue
Speaker 1: possessions late shot clock situations or late game situations, or
Speaker 1: a guy when a defense is perfect, because at the
Speaker 1: end of a game, a locked in defense is not
Speaker 1: going to give up anything easy. You need guys who
Speaker 1: can make tough shots. And that's what Chris Middleton does
Speaker 1: for this specific team. That's going to be the difference
Speaker 1: between the Bucks hoisting the trophy and them losing somewhere
Speaker 1: on the way. And my opinion is going to be,
Speaker 1: can Chris Middleton get eighty percent of to where he
Speaker 1: was in that twenty twenty one playoff series. So he's
Speaker 1: got a month to get there, two full series, because
Speaker 1: they're going to be heavy favorites in the first round
Speaker 1: and in the second round. As much as I like
Speaker 1: that Knicks team that I'm picking to beat the Cavs,
Speaker 1: and is much as I like the Cavs team, those
Speaker 1: two teams are not gonna beat the Bucks in all likelihoods.
Speaker 1: So they've got a month here to try to get
Speaker 1: him rounded into shape. He did tweak his knee and
Speaker 1: he had underwent an MRI, But it looks like he's
Speaker 1: gonna play in Game one, so that's good. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be really watching just the way his lift looks,
Speaker 1: and how he's able to get separation, and just how
Speaker 1: he looks overall athletically in that first round series number two,
Speaker 1: can Joe Ingles and Jay Crowder contain on the perimeter specifically,
Speaker 1: I'm worried about this with Boston. Boston's gonna have the ability,
Speaker 1: especially when they go small with Al Horford, to pull
Speaker 1: brook Lopez away from the rim and really attack them
Speaker 1: from a five out standpoint. There's gonna be lineups out
Speaker 1: there where it's gonna be Horford Tatum Brown with like
Speaker 1: Marcus Martin Malcolm Brogden or Marcus Martin Derek White or
Speaker 1: Derek White and Malcolm Brogden. And in those situations like
Speaker 1: conceding corner threes to Al Horford is a errand. And
Speaker 1: it's even possible that Milwaukee may even have to go
Speaker 1: small and put Yannis at center. And in that case,
Speaker 1: so because of that, the further brook Lopez is away
Speaker 1: from the basket or if he's off the floor, the
Speaker 1: more important it is to contain on the perimeter. And
Speaker 1: Joe Ingles, in his absolute athletic prime, was an excellent
Speaker 1: perimeter defender, and so is Jay Crowder. But those both
Speaker 1: of those guys are a little bit on the other
Speaker 1: side of the hill, and I think specifically with Ingles,
Speaker 1: Crowder could end up not playing much at all over
Speaker 1: the course this playoff run we'll see, But specifically with Ingles,
Speaker 1: I think his second side shot creation, his ability to
Speaker 1: run action with the basketball in his hands, and him
Speaker 1: being lights out from three makes him an option that
Speaker 1: needs to be on the table as an offensive adjustment,
Speaker 1: and he needs in order for him to be playable.
Speaker 1: He can't be a target on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor if he can at least provide some resistance
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. If he gets switched onto
Speaker 1: a guard or against against one of the for Boston,
Speaker 1: it could be a problem. So I'm really gonna be
Speaker 1: watching athletically just how Joe Ingles in particular, but also
Speaker 1: a little bit of Jay Crowder, how those two guys
Speaker 1: perform on the perimeter defensively, and last but not least,
Speaker 1: how consistent will Drew Holliday be with his shot making.
Speaker 1: Last year in the playoffs, Drew Holiday went for twenty
Speaker 1: plus five times. He had some big games, made some
Speaker 1: big shots, but he shot below forty percent in seven
Speaker 1: of the twelve games and had some nightmarishly poor shooting nights.
Speaker 1: And again, part of that is Chris Middleton being out
Speaker 1: him being the only real secondary shot creator on that team.
Speaker 1: But Joe Drew Holiday in general tends to be a
Speaker 1: little bit inconsistent with his shot making, and so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be watching him just to see how efficient he is,
Speaker 1: how he can rain things back now that they have
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton. Look at his shot selection Drew Holiday as
Speaker 1: a tendency sometimes to just for no particular reason, take
Speaker 1: extremely difficult pull up jump shots, almost as like a
Speaker 1: regular part of his shot diet, which when you do
Speaker 1: that and you're talented player, sometimes they go in and
Speaker 1: sometimes they don't. Guys who are regularly efficient are guys
Speaker 1: that rely on extremely difficult shot making only when they
Speaker 1: have to. It's a supplementary piece, not a core piece
Speaker 1: of their offense. I'll be watching Drew Holliday. I do
Speaker 1: think that getting the one seed was big time for Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about this during the season, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna be in a series where they're heavily favored
Speaker 1: against the Cavs or Knicks team in the second round,
Speaker 1: while Boston and Philly are beating the shit out of
Speaker 1: each other, and that's a big advantage. So nice work
Speaker 1: from the Bucks to fight for that one seed throughout
Speaker 1: the season. Denver, I think that very similarly to what
Speaker 1: I said about the Bulls and Heat. I think Minnesota
Speaker 1: is gonna win tonight against the Thunder, but I actually
Speaker 1: think the Thunder are the more dangerous team for the
Speaker 1: Nuggets because of their aggregate offensive skill and the trouble
Speaker 1: they can give to defenses that perform well statistically but
Speaker 1: have some personnel limitations, like the Pelicans. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about in this morning's show. If you guys remember,
Speaker 1: I talked about how the Pelicans were third in defense
Speaker 1: or fourth and defense post deadline, sixth and defense for
Speaker 1: the season, but the Thunder just lit them on fire
Speaker 1: because they spaced him out and drove and kicked them
Speaker 1: to death. You know, in the playoffs, your base defensive
Speaker 1: scheme becomes less important than your defensive versatility and the
Speaker 1: overall strength of your defensive personnel. That's gonna be an
Speaker 1: issue here with Denver. Denver overall this season defensively wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough. And one of the big reasons I didn't
Speaker 1: pick them out of the West is that in this
Speaker 1: tail end of the season they really let slip a
Speaker 1: lot of their habits on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor and got sloppy as they kind of punted the
Speaker 1: last you know what twenty percent of the season or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And the problem there is is when
Speaker 1: you don't have outstanding defensive personnel, your details have to
Speaker 1: be extremely sharp. My favorite example of this is the
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen Calves versus the twenty seventeen Calves. That team
Speaker 1: did not have great defensive personnel. Kyrie Irving is an
Speaker 1: average to blow average defender. Jr. Smith is an average
Speaker 1: to blow average defender. You know, Kevin Love is an
Speaker 1: average to blow average defenders. Thompson was only okay. Lebron
Speaker 1: James and whoever they played it like, Richard Jefferson at
Speaker 1: the time were the only two like really good defensive
Speaker 1: players on that team. But as a team, they really
Speaker 1: worked hard during the season to dial up those defensive details,
Speaker 1: and they finished as a top ten defense in the
Speaker 1: regular season. So when they got to the Golden State Series,
Speaker 1: even though they got a little bit shell shocked at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the series, they were locked in enough
Speaker 1: to get the necessary amount of stops for Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving to carry them home offensively. Then in
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen they just said screw it and they stopped trying,
Speaker 1: and the same defensive team that was so good in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen was really bad in twenty seventeen with basically
Speaker 1: the same personnel. And that's because habits matters so much
Speaker 1: more when you don't have great defensive personnel. If you
Speaker 1: have excellent defensive personnel, at a certain point, you just
Speaker 1: flying around athletically is gonna make a lot of things happen.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way I feel about Denver. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Nikol Jokich as a below average rim protector,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have basically two good defensive players in
Speaker 1: your best lineup, which is basically Aaron Gordon and Genthavious
Speaker 1: Calwell Pope, you have three entry points there. So the
Speaker 1: only way that's gonna work. Is if all five of
Speaker 1: those guys are just dialed in and locked in throughout
Speaker 1: the entire season working on those details so they're ready
Speaker 1: to go when the time comes. And that's just not
Speaker 1: what they did this year. That was a big part
Speaker 1: of why I did not pick them out of the West.
Speaker 1: The Thunder in particular, are going to force them to
Speaker 1: guard in a way that goes away from their defensive
Speaker 1: scheme as opposed to Minnesota is going to allow them
Speaker 1: to stay in a lot of the coverages that they
Speaker 1: used throughout the regular season. So Denver should absolutely Denver
Speaker 1: fans should absolutely be rooting for Minnesota tonight. That said,
Speaker 1: regardless of who they face, even with those limitations, I
Speaker 1: still would pick them in five over both of these teams.
Speaker 1: If the Nuggets get exposed offensively, it'll be by Phoenix
Speaker 1: in the next round. But that's step one of what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be watching in this first round series. How
Speaker 1: locked in is Denver gonna be on the defensive details,
Speaker 1: Because this is basically a two week practice. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get probably five games, four or five games here to
Speaker 1: maybe six if you're not sharp enough, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: get two weeks here to sharpen up your defense and
Speaker 1: try to undo the damage that you did during the
Speaker 1: regular season. I'd almost treat it like a training camp
Speaker 1: in that regard. But they're going to have to be
Speaker 1: sharp or they're going to get beat by Phoenix. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be watching their defense at all three levels
Speaker 1: in this series to see how dedicated they are to
Speaker 1: tightening those things up. Nikola Jokic, how high is he
Speaker 1: willing to come out of his drop, because he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to come high out of his drop to have
Speaker 1: any hope of defending against the Phoenix Suns. When he
Speaker 1: does so, can he do so effectively? How active is
Speaker 1: he overall defensively sprinting back in transition and covering ground
Speaker 1: on the floor. How active is Jamal Murray at the
Speaker 1: point of attack? Is he up to that challenge? I
Speaker 1: know Contavius Callwell Pope is up to the challenge. I
Speaker 1: know Aaron Gordon's gonna be up to the challenge as
Speaker 1: a help defender and as a primary wing defender. But
Speaker 1: is Jamal Murray up to the challenge as a point
Speaker 1: of attack defender? Is Michael Porter Junior up to the
Speaker 1: challenge as a help defender? Are they going to have
Speaker 1: to go with options like Bruce Brown because of defensive
Speaker 1: limitations that takes away from their offensive ceiling. Those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that I'm going to be paying
Speaker 1: very close attention to in that first round series. Number two,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's shot making. It's been a very up and
Speaker 1: down season for him. Not his fault necessarily. First chunk
Speaker 1: of the season. He's working his way back from knee injury.
Speaker 1: Second chunk of the season, he had some brief stretches
Speaker 1: where his knee kind of flared up a little bit,
Speaker 1: So I'm not blaming him per se. But the reality
Speaker 1: is is if the Nuggets are going to get out
Speaker 1: of the Western Conference and have a chance to win
Speaker 1: an NBA championship, they need Joal Murray to play at
Speaker 1: a like, not a superstar, but an all star level.
Speaker 1: They need him to efficiently average twenty three to twenty
Speaker 1: four points per game. So I'm gonna be watching him
Speaker 1: and how he looks athletically. Two more things, Jokic's aggression
Speaker 1: when his teammates are missing. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I've been critical of Jokic this year is some of
Speaker 1: that early Lebron stuff where He's playmaking to death, but
Speaker 1: there are some times when like your team just doesn't
Speaker 1: have it. Damn Jokic, you're one of the top five
Speaker 1: players in the league. You need to go make something
Speaker 1: happen off the bounce. And there have been a couple
Speaker 1: of games this year where I've seen him kind of
Speaker 1: continue to pass, and I'm really going to be watching him,
Speaker 1: especially on nights when his teammates are not making shots,
Speaker 1: to see if he steps up his level of aggression.
Speaker 1: And last, but not least, the bench. The bench has
Speaker 1: been a huge issue for the Nuggets all season long.
Speaker 1: The Thomas Bryant acquisition has not worked. Reggie Jackson has
Speaker 1: been really inconsistent since he came aboard. They're going to
Speaker 1: have to play the starters big minutes and do some
Speaker 1: more staggering to bolster that bench unit, or they could
Speaker 1: be in some trouble there as well. But either way,
Speaker 1: I'm picking the Bucks and the Nuggets to win in five.
Speaker 1: So again, predictions are just predictions. Probably gonna get a
Speaker 1: certain amount of them right, probably gonna get a certain
Speaker 1: amount of them wrong. That's just the nature of the business.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll be made. I'm sure all have people
Speaker 1: crying about it my mentions no matter what. But that's
Speaker 1: just life. Final predictions, though, I have the Bucks winning
Speaker 1: their first round series in five games, Celtics in five games,
Speaker 1: Sixers in four games, Nicks in six games. Out in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference, I have the Nuggets in five games.
Speaker 1: I have the Lakers beating the Grizzlies in six games.
Speaker 1: I have the Warriors beating the Kings in six games,
Speaker 1: and I have the Suns sweeping the Clippers. As of
Speaker 1: right now, I have the Golden State Warriors coming out
Speaker 1: of the West, the Bucks coming out of the East,
Speaker 1: and the Bucks hoisting the trophy when it's all said
Speaker 1: and done. That said, like, I don't see any point
Speaker 1: in going down with the ship. With every passing new
Speaker 1: piece of information that we get, I am going to
Speaker 1: tell you what my new opinion is, and maybe at
Speaker 1: the end of the day it'll still be Bucks Warriors,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna react to new information. And so after
Speaker 1: the first round we'll kind of circle back to those
Speaker 1: topics and see where we stand at that point. All right,
Speaker 1: really quickly before we get out of here, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do quick hitters on Hawk Celtics. So Hawk Celtics and
Speaker 1: Net Sixers. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: on these series because I expect them to be over quickly.
Speaker 1: The issue specifically, Like again, I'm going out of town
Speaker 1: on Saturday morning, and I'm gonna be arriving at our
Speaker 1: destination in Canada at like eleven thirty PM, so we're
Speaker 1: still covering the playoffs, but I'm losing my entire day Saturday,
Speaker 1: and it's actually gonna bleed into Sunday morning. We're gonna
Speaker 1: do like a quick instant reaction on Saturday night, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna do a much more in depth reaction
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning after I get some sleep. But we
Speaker 1: don't know the one to eight matchups until tomorrow evening.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a really short video that I'll release tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna spend a ton of time diving
Speaker 1: into these one eight matchups or the Celtic Sixers series,
Speaker 1: just because they're just such big favorites, like the Celtics
Speaker 1: are a minus twelve hundred favorite and the Sixers are
Speaker 1: a minus one thousand favorite ten to one odds, So
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna spend a half hour breaking down those
Speaker 1: particular series, but I'll give you some quick notes. So
Speaker 1: on the Hawk sixers. The Celtics are a gigantic favorite.
Speaker 1: Like I said, minus twelve hundred. They swept the season
Speaker 1: series in March day at a game in Atlanta. They
Speaker 1: played more recently than that, but everyone rested in March.
Speaker 1: They played in Atlanta. Watch that game this morning. The
Speaker 1: entire thing. Oh my god, it was an iesore. There
Speaker 1: was no defense from either team out the gates. Finally,
Speaker 1: in the second half, Boston started switching everything and started
Speaker 1: locking in defensively, and they immediately generated some separation and
Speaker 1: pulled away. But there are a couple of specific things. Atlanta
Speaker 1: did have some success on the offensive glass. Trey Young
Speaker 1: had a lot of success getting to his spots. They
Speaker 1: guarded Jalen Brown with de Jonte Murray, and they guarded
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum with DeAndre Hunter. I do think that that's
Speaker 1: a specific set of matchups that they'll have to tinker
Speaker 1: with a little bit. I'm picking the Celtics to win
Speaker 1: the series in five games. They're just better on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor by mile, and they're athletic enough.
Speaker 1: I think when they really lock in to survive Atlanta's
Speaker 1: offensive rebound attack. However, that's step one to an Atlanta upset.
Speaker 1: Guys like John Collins, Cacapella and Onyeka Congo will have
Speaker 1: to absolutely destroy them on the offensive glass. Obviously, Trey
Speaker 1: Young and de Jontay Murray need to have a massive series.
Speaker 1: I would consider going away from from John Collins early
Speaker 1: in the series and playing Sidik Bay heavily for two reasons. One,
Speaker 1: I think that is a better matchup for Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: and putting sidek Bay and DeAndre Hunter on the two
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics wings. You free up de Jontay Murray to
Speaker 1: save his legs for the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: although those Boston guards are always looking to attack to
Speaker 1: but it's a little bit more of a straightforward matchup.
Speaker 1: And then also with the amount of switching that Boston
Speaker 1: will do, close out attacking is going to be viotently important.
Speaker 1: Like Trey Young and de Jontay Murray just getting a
Speaker 1: little bit of dribble penetration and kicking, and then having
Speaker 1: guys like Sidik Bay extend the advantage, having guys like
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter extend the advantage. Atlanta did not have good
Speaker 1: spacing in the game that I watched earlier today. That
Speaker 1: is something they've gotten a lot better at over the
Speaker 1: course of the end of the season, so I think
Speaker 1: they might have a little bit more success there. But
Speaker 1: it's just from a talent perspective. They're just overmatched in
Speaker 1: this series, especially once you go past the starting lineup
Speaker 1: for the Celtics. Things that I'll be watching is their
Speaker 1: defense as sharp as it was last year in the postseason.
Speaker 1: They came in locked in defensively against Brooklyn. They need
Speaker 1: to defend at that level to win the title. I'll
Speaker 1: be watching that very closely. Secondly, are they gonna make
Speaker 1: good rim decisions. Clint Capella runs a drop coverage for
Speaker 1: the Hawks. He's gonna be around the rim probably most
Speaker 1: of the series unless they go small with Al Horford,
Speaker 1: and even then they'll probably concede those shots to try
Speaker 1: to keep Capella at the rim and try to rotate
Speaker 1: around him. And it's gonna be vitally important, not just
Speaker 1: for this series, but as a process thing as they
Speaker 1: go forward into the rest of the postseason for Boston
Speaker 1: to look to driving kick and not necessarily challenge Copella
Speaker 1: at the rim all series long, which is typically what
Speaker 1: causes them to miss layups and give up transition opportunities.
Speaker 1: So rim decisions. I'm gonna be watching, and is their
Speaker 1: defense as sharp as it was to start last year?
Speaker 1: In the postseason Net Sixers, the Sixers are minus one
Speaker 1: thousand favorite. They swept the season series four oh including
Speaker 1: two oh after the trades. They had a close win
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn and then they beat the hell out of
Speaker 1: them a different time. I'm picking the Sixers to sweep
Speaker 1: this series. The Nets are twenty third in defense or
Speaker 1: in offense post trades, to be expected. Guys like Michal
Speaker 1: Bridges are you know, they can put up numbers, they
Speaker 1: can score efficiently, but they don't attack the rim enough
Speaker 1: or playmake enough to be like a really well rounded
Speaker 1: offensive engine. And then Spencer Dinwoodie has a ceiling to
Speaker 1: what he can do, especially a series get more physical.
Speaker 1: He really struggled last year in the postseason, especially finishing
Speaker 1: around the rim. So it's not a big surprise that
Speaker 1: their offense is fallen off. But here's the big thing.
Speaker 1: They loaded up on wings and this kind of goes
Speaker 1: back to what I was talking about earlier with New
Speaker 1: Orleans and with Toronto. But they loaded up on wings
Speaker 1: and they can't guard. They are seventeenth in defense post deadline,
Speaker 1: and that goes back to what I was talking about
Speaker 1: about balancing point of attack defense with length and athleticism
Speaker 1: on the wing. They have no hope of guarding Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: I think Spencer Dinwoodie, McHale Bridges, and Cam Johnson are
Speaker 1: going to struggle to generate quality shots and they don't
Speaker 1: have much of a home court advantage. It's like I've
Speaker 1: only picked two sweeps in the first round, and it's
Speaker 1: the Clippers and the Nets. And it's because you generally
Speaker 1: would say in five, but you usually get that big
Speaker 1: upset win in Game three or Game four because of
Speaker 1: a raucous home crowd and a high energy environment. The
Speaker 1: Clippers in the Nets probably have the two worst home
Speaker 1: court advantages of any serious basketball teams in the NBA
Speaker 1: except for maybe the Miami Heat, but even the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat that they show up late to the game. But
Speaker 1: they'll get invested in a real way if they once
Speaker 1: they finally make their way to their seats, whenever that
Speaker 1: actually happens. The other thing, too, Nick Claxton is just
Speaker 1: going to allow Joel Embiid to hang out at the
Speaker 1: rim The biggest susceptibility in the Philly defense is if
Speaker 1: you can get em beat on the perimeter. He's not
Speaker 1: good at containing driving like slashing. Toronto had a lot
Speaker 1: of success slashing by him last year, and I just
Speaker 1: with Nick Claxton out there, I just don't think that's
Speaker 1: going to be an option. Here's the path of victory
Speaker 1: for the Nets, the very slim paths of victory. They
Speaker 1: need to double the hell out of Joel Embiid and
Speaker 1: tighten up their rotations over the court of the course
Speaker 1: of the series. They need to leave James Harden on
Speaker 1: an island and turn him into a score. They need
Speaker 1: to get back in transition to make sure Tyrese Maxey
Speaker 1: doesn't get those easy runouts. And they need to completely
Speaker 1: ignore PJ. Tucker and pray to God that he misses
Speaker 1: every shot that he takes out of the corner on offense.
Speaker 1: Just spread him out, spread them out as much as
Speaker 1: you can take advantage of their weak perimeter defense by
Speaker 1: driving and kicking them to death. You can have there
Speaker 1: are spacing concepts within four out one end. You know
Speaker 1: you put you do the best you can to keep
Speaker 1: Guys like Dorian Phinney Smith in one corner as an
Speaker 1: easy outlet at any given moment, and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you go high on offensive skill and play Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: and Spencer Dinwitty because of the little bit of undersized
Speaker 1: Philly backcourt that doesn't play a lot of defense and
Speaker 1: doesn't do a ton of dirty work, and you put
Speaker 1: McHale Bridges in the other corner. Yeah, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to navigate him beat around the rim, but you put
Speaker 1: Claxton in a position where you can catch and dunk
Speaker 1: really quick. He's also excellent offensive rebounder, and you just
Speaker 1: overload on offensive skill and take advantage of Philly's lack
Speaker 1: of perimeter defense. But it's extremely unlikely things I'll be
Speaker 1: watching from Philly. How engaged is James Harden in the
Speaker 1: physicality of the playoffs on both ends of the floor, Like,
Speaker 1: is he ready for a damn war? Because this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a war, not necessarily this series, but next
Speaker 1: series is gonna be a damn war against the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: and Boston is gonna do everything they can to make
Speaker 1: him feel uncomfortable. And if he just tries to do
Speaker 1: the James Harden thing where he kind of floats his
Speaker 1: way through the games, they're gonna lose pretty quick. So
Speaker 1: I'm really gonna be watching James Harden and his overall
Speaker 1: competitive energy. How well does Joel Embiid handle double teams.
Speaker 1: I think this is gonna be a good sample of
Speaker 1: it against the Nets, and I think you're gonna see
Speaker 1: it a lot against the Sixers. Joel and b destroyed,
Speaker 1: excuse me, against the Celtics. Joel andbi destroyed the Celtics
Speaker 1: the last time they played when they left him in
Speaker 1: single coverage and then they started doubling him at the
Speaker 1: end of the game and he made some good reads
Speaker 1: to PJ. Tucker. I think it'll be very important for
Speaker 1: him to demonstrate a capable handling of double teams in
Speaker 1: order to win a championship. And last, but not least,
Speaker 1: Phillies weakness in their defense is perimeter de So I
Speaker 1: just want to look at guys like Tyras Maxey and
Speaker 1: James Harden and just how like I just want to
Speaker 1: see how locked in they are in their ability to
Speaker 1: contain the basketball, because especially against Boston, when the matchups
Speaker 1: work out, you know you're gonna see de Anthony Melton
Speaker 1: guarding one of tayt and Tatum Brown, Right, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see are You're gonna see Tobias Harris and PJ. Tucker
Speaker 1: guard one of Tatum bar Brown, a lot of d
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton too when they go to when they took
Speaker 1: put PJ. Tucker on the bench. But like Derek White's
Speaker 1: gonna be out there, Marcus Smart's gonna be out there,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden's gonna be out there, and guys like Tyras
Speaker 1: Maxey and James Harden are going to have to slide
Speaker 1: their feet. And in that particular game, Derek White and
Speaker 1: the one I mentioned where Joel Embiid went off, Derek
Speaker 1: White and Malcolm Brogden did a lot of damage to them.
Speaker 1: So that's something I'll be keeping an eye on. All Right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. We'll have one last
Speaker 1: video before the playoffs late tomorrow night, just a quick
Speaker 1: little breakdown of the one to eight matchups. Won't spend
Speaker 1: that video will be like ten to fifteen minutes. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna invest a ton of a ton of energy
Speaker 1: in massive favorite playoff series like that, but guys, right
Speaker 1: around the corner two days we are going to be
Speaker 1: in the grind and I'm very, very excited. I thought
Speaker 1: the playing tournament was super entertaining, a nice little teaser
Speaker 1: for what we're getting into. Tons of you guys supported
Speaker 1: the show over the course of this week, and I
Speaker 1: can't tell you how much I appreciate. I've been looking
Speaker 1: at some of our year over year growth from February
Speaker 1: to March and April, and it's been really really cool
Speaker 1: to see this show grow and I have you guys
Speaker 1: to thank for that. So thank you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: me and the rest of the team, and hey, let's
Speaker 1: have some fun over the next couple of months. The
Speaker 1: volume