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Speaker 1: presented by Fanduel here at the volume. Happy Friday again everyone.
Speaker 1: You might notice that I have a different haircut than
Speaker 1: I did for my last Friday show. That's because I
Speaker 1: actually recorded Friday's show yesterday, expecting to have the day
Speaker 1: off and of course I was getting on top of
Speaker 1: some stuff, just running some errands and got away from
Speaker 1: my phone for a couple of hours and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, there's a new Los Angeles laker coming hand
Speaker 1: in hand with report from Jovon Buha. That's strongly hints
Speaker 1: that Russell Westbrook will still be a laker going into
Speaker 1: training camp next week. Not just a Laker but the
Speaker 1: third best point guard on the roster for day one.
Speaker 1: Super Interesting. I am not gonna go for very long today,
Speaker 1: just about ten fifteen minutes. I have a couple of
Speaker 1: different angles that I want to look at here. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember from the earlier video this afternoon
Speaker 1: when we were talking about the Dallas Mavericks, and then
Speaker 1: I also tweeted some stuff earlier today after Germany lost
Speaker 1: in the semi finals of Eurobasket. I talked about how
Speaker 1: I thought Dennis Shrewder was an excellent fit for the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks and some specific needs that they had on
Speaker 1: their roster. And I've been thinking a lot about it
Speaker 1: because Dallas is kind of system and we talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot earlier today. So I encourage you to
Speaker 1: watch that Dallas Mavericks Video, but they are a isolation
Speaker 1: in pick and roll offense entirely, and it's very similar
Speaker 1: to the two thousand eighteen rockets, where they just space
Speaker 1: you out and they need guys to create advantage with
Speaker 1: a live dribble. And their whole system last year was
Speaker 1: built on having three guards that could do it, you know,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwoodie and Luca Don Chech. They lost
Speaker 1: jalen Brunson didn't replace him. I thought Dennis shooter was
Speaker 1: the obvious fit there. So I was kind of already
Speaker 1: in a Dennis shooter frame of mind today and then
Speaker 1: next thing you know he's a Laker and there's a
Speaker 1: lot to get into their first of all, he is
Speaker 1: a starting level NBA point guard. Before we go any
Speaker 1: further into anything, he's a starting level NBA point guard.
Speaker 1: That automatically makes him a great signing for the Lakers because,
Speaker 1: for any of you who have listened to my show
Speaker 1: over the course of this summer, I've talked about how
Speaker 1: the Lakers have very few rotation level NBA players. Jovan
Speaker 1: Buja in his article talked about how there was a
Speaker 1: starting battle, you know, like for a starting position on
Speaker 1: the roster between Austin Reeves and UH Lonnie Walker, right,
Speaker 1: or Damian Jones and Thomas Bryant from the Washington Wizards
Speaker 1: last year, right. And I was sitting there thinking I'm
Speaker 1: like and I like Austin Reeves and I think he
Speaker 1: will one day, very soon, be a starting level NBA
Speaker 1: two guard, but I don't quite think he's there yet.
Speaker 1: And Thomas Bryant and and Uh Damian Jones are both
Speaker 1: pretty solid. I'm not a huge fan of Lonnie Walker,
Speaker 1: but I was sitting there thinking I'm like all four
Speaker 1: of those guys. Though, even with as much as I
Speaker 1: like Austin Reeves, all four of those guys would have
Speaker 1: been out of the rotation entirely, not just the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: out of the rotation for the Boston Celtics, for the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors, probably for the Milwaukee Bucks too, probably
Speaker 1: for the L A clippers too, when they're healthy and
Speaker 1: at at full strength. And I'm sitting there thinking, like,
Speaker 1: the Lakers just don't have a ton of rotation level
Speaker 1: playoff players and with the Patrick Beverley trade they got one.
Speaker 1: And now you could say like Lebron James, Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley. I'm not a huge fan of Russ for
Speaker 1: all the reasons that we've talked about in the past,
Speaker 1: but I theoretically, if he figures out some role player things,
Speaker 1: he could become that fourth guy. Well, you just signed
Speaker 1: that fourth guy, so at the very least it's an
Speaker 1: influx of talent to a team that doesn't have the
Speaker 1: luxury of turning away talent forfeit. They have to try
Speaker 1: to make it work with Dennis shrouder because they simply
Speaker 1: don't have enough good basketball players to do anything else. Now,
Speaker 1: before we talk about what he's gonna do for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about his strengths and weaknesses in general,
Speaker 1: because I actually was ironic. I was sitting there today
Speaker 1: and I was like man, in that Dallas Mavericks video
Speaker 1: that I recorded, I talked a lot about Dennis Schroder
Speaker 1: and what I expected him to do for the Mavs,
Speaker 1: but I never actually talked about his strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker 1: And I obviously covered him with Raj and with the
Speaker 1: state of the Lakers show during the two thousand one
Speaker 1: season when he was a Laker. So obviously I'd know
Speaker 1: as much about him as anybody else these days, and
Speaker 1: he's got a couple of really good strengths and then
Speaker 1: he's got some pretty big weaknesses. Right, he can get
Speaker 1: to the rim with ease as good as any guard
Speaker 1: in the league, especially against bigs on switches, which is
Speaker 1: a unique thing, especially in a playoff environment. Theoretically, it
Speaker 1: didn't really manifest because he had a pretty rough series
Speaker 1: against Phoenix, but that more had to do with his
Speaker 1: jump shot, which we'll get to Um rim pressure, and
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot on the show. Rim
Speaker 1: pressure is an immensely important aspect of basketball. There are
Speaker 1: all sorts of positives that come from it, the first
Speaker 1: of which is collapsing the defense, and when you collapse
Speaker 1: the defense, that just simply creates openings on the perimeter
Speaker 1: for players to either knock down spot at threes or
Speaker 1: to attack closeouts. That's a huge positive. And when you
Speaker 1: get really good players that are gifted with rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and you saw this a lot with Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Dennis shorter together in teams tend to abandon everything on
Speaker 1: the perimeter and just pack the paint because they know
Speaker 1: that's your bread and butter. In addition to that, rim pressure,
Speaker 1: even when you miss layups. Leads to benefits in offensive rebounding. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, the Lakers will probably play big most of
Speaker 1: the season. That means you're gonna see a lot of
Speaker 1: Damien Jones and Anthony Davis, a lot of Damien Jones
Speaker 1: and Lebron, a lot of Thomas Bryant Anthony Davis, a
Speaker 1: lot of those two bigs and Lebron. Right. You're gonna
Speaker 1: just see huge front lines from the Lakers all season.
Speaker 1: If Dennis shooter gets by his man and gets to
Speaker 1: the Rim and draws the shot blocker over and he
Speaker 1: throws some crazy looping scoop shot up and he misses
Speaker 1: it high off the glass, WHO's there waiting? One of
Speaker 1: those massive bigs who's defender just stepped over to help
Speaker 1: on Dennis Schroeder, there's there's just a monumental, uh positive
Speaker 1: impact that comes with rim pressure. Even when I was
Speaker 1: talking about Russ and all of the negative things that
Speaker 1: he brought this year, his rim pressure was his major
Speaker 1: positive contribution. That is the thing even that Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: fans clung to as his big positive impact. And there
Speaker 1: is no doubt that there is a positive impact that
Speaker 1: comes with rim pressure on the other side of the floor.
Speaker 1: Dennis shooter is an excellent point of attack defender. He's aggressive,
Speaker 1: he applies ball pressure, he makes people feel uncomfortable. He's
Speaker 1: a competitor. He brings it every night. He slides his
Speaker 1: feet and he keeps his man in front. He did
Speaker 1: that all year long with the Lakers and it's a
Speaker 1: huge part of why they were such a good defense
Speaker 1: even without Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the floor.
Speaker 1: If you remember that year, the Lakers finished with the
Speaker 1: number one defense in the league and didn't have a
Speaker 1: single player make the all defense team. They made they
Speaker 1: were the number one defense in the league and they
Speaker 1: didn't have Lebron James and Anthony Davis in the lineup
Speaker 1: for most of that season, and a huge part of
Speaker 1: that was contribution from the role players. contavious called we
Speaker 1: pope had a great defensive season, Kyle Kuzman had a
Speaker 1: great defensive season and Dennis Shrewder. With all of the
Speaker 1: lineup turnal turmoil, with everything that was going wrong with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis, Dennis Shrewder was there every
Speaker 1: night defending his ass off and leading that team to
Speaker 1: win just Enough Basketball Games to cloud a playoff spot
Speaker 1: so that Lebron James and Anthony Davis could come back,
Speaker 1: obviously for nothing as a result of of Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: groin injury. But he has two elite strengths. He can
Speaker 1: get to the Rim as well as any guard in
Speaker 1: the league and he can defend at the point of
Speaker 1: attack as well as most of the guards in the league.
Speaker 1: That automatically makes you a huge net positive over any
Speaker 1: other option that the Lakers have in the backcourt, at
Speaker 1: least among you know, again again, I like Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna play a lot this year. I
Speaker 1: think he will be a long term to guard in
Speaker 1: this league that will play big minutes for good teams.
Speaker 1: But he's young. He doesn't shoot the ball well enough
Speaker 1: right now. He's got a couple of things he's got
Speaker 1: to work out right outside of that, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of young, athletic role players that are pretty, you know,
Speaker 1: up and down and not gonna be dependable and reliable
Speaker 1: in an NBA season. So what what? Moving to his
Speaker 1: weakness is really quick. He's a blow average shooter, both
Speaker 1: in pull up situations and in catching shoot situations. And
Speaker 1: the last two seasons. Uh. In each season he shot
Speaker 1: about four pull up jumpers per game and in both
Speaker 1: seasons shot just under that's below average. Catching shoot threes,
Speaker 1: he shot Um in the low thirties and he did
Speaker 1: shoot on pull up threes with the Lakers. I was
Speaker 1: shocked when I saw that because the eye tests made
Speaker 1: it look worse. I think a huge part of that
Speaker 1: is when Dennis shooter comes off of screens, it doesn't
Speaker 1: look like dame lillard coming over the top of the
Speaker 1: screen and shooting a crazy pull up three with a
Speaker 1: defender draped on his backside. It's them going way under
Speaker 1: the screen on Dennis and him stopping and shooting a
Speaker 1: set shot. And just in terms of the eye test,
Speaker 1: when you see players taking like completely wide open jumpers
Speaker 1: and only shooting for it comes off as less impactful
Speaker 1: than on high volume. And in that Laker season I
Speaker 1: think he was taking fewer than two pull up threes
Speaker 1: per game. So jump shooting can be a problem and
Speaker 1: especially in that Phoenix Sun series, Dennis shooter got to
Speaker 1: the point where he lost confidence in his jump shot
Speaker 1: to such a great extent that he was pump faking
Speaker 1: at ghosts and Lebron would like driving to traffic and
Speaker 1: kick the Dennis. He'd have ten ft between him and
Speaker 1: the defender and he pump fake and then kind of
Speaker 1: like wait for the defender to close out and try
Speaker 1: to drive by him, and so his jump shot is
Speaker 1: absolutely an issue. He's also a little bit undersized and
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with UH issues like that, it can
Speaker 1: really rear its ugly head in the playoffs when teams
Speaker 1: start attacking matchups. If you face the L A clippers,
Speaker 1: you can bet your ask that Paul George and Kawhile
Speaker 1: Leonard Are gonna be hunting a guy like Dennis shrewder
Speaker 1: to get two spots on the floor where they can
Speaker 1: get to their post games, specifically midrange pull ups, you know,
Speaker 1: out of the post, like over their left shoulder and
Speaker 1: right shoulder, things like that. So obviously he's got some
Speaker 1: glaring weaknesses, but he's got some big strengths and again
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't have the luxury being able to turn
Speaker 1: away talent. They have to take him because this is
Speaker 1: not a very talented roster at this point. What do
Speaker 1: you use him with the with the Lakers? How do
Speaker 1: you use him now? My guests from the reporting from
Speaker 1: Joe Ban Buja is. They'RE gonna probably end up starting
Speaker 1: either Austin Reeves or Lonnie Walker at the two, play big,
Speaker 1: with probably Damien Jones at the center, next to Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis, and Patrick Beverley at center, or
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook at center, if he manages to convince Darvin
Speaker 1: him to start. What I would do if I was
Speaker 1: coaching the Lakers, I would go all in on ball
Speaker 1: pressure in the backcourt. People are gonna BE UH concerned
Speaker 1: about size with this concept, because what I'm advocating for
Speaker 1: is Patrick beverlely, it's at point guard, and Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: at the two or who gives? WHO gives a ship
Speaker 1: with the what the positions are called? I would start
Speaker 1: them both in the backcourt. Now you're concerned would be size,
Speaker 1: and I get that, but a couple of things. First
Speaker 1: of all, Patrick Beverley rebounds very well for his position.
Speaker 1: Both Dennis Shrewder and Patrick Beverley are very scrappy and
Speaker 1: make it difficult on players that try to punish them
Speaker 1: with their size. And most importantly, and those of you
Speaker 1: have been listening to the show for a long time
Speaker 1: will pick this up, right away. Aggregate size is what
Speaker 1: matters the most. It's far more important for the total
Speaker 1: lineup size to be able to fulfill all the size
Speaker 1: responsibilities on the floor than for one specific position to
Speaker 1: be an issue. If you are playing big and you
Speaker 1: have Lebron James at the three and Anthony Freak and Davis,
Speaker 1: one of the best defensive players of all time, at
Speaker 1: the four, and you have Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be Damian Jones at the center position,
Speaker 1: you're so big in a front court that you can
Speaker 1: get away with some size issues in the backcourt. Defensive Rebounding. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have have situations where they're boxing a guy
Speaker 1: out and a guy can jump over the top, but
Speaker 1: you have so much size elsewhere compensating there it helps.
Speaker 1: Screaming the amount of post mismatches when you have that
Speaker 1: kind of if they try to post up Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: you've got so much length and athleticism on your back
Speaker 1: line that you can afford to double team him out
Speaker 1: of that because you can recover out of it. It's
Speaker 1: aggregate size, it's aggregate athleticism, it's aggregate defensive talent that
Speaker 1: can cover for those things. So I would lean heavily
Speaker 1: on Patrick Beverley and Dennis shooter together on the back
Speaker 1: line or on the front line. Excuse me, uh, in
Speaker 1: the backcourt, ball pressuring making people feel uncomfortable from the
Speaker 1: opening tip. Imagine a world where you're throwing up the
Speaker 1: opening tip and from the very first possession Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: and Dennis shrewder are up in you and ball pressure
Speaker 1: making everything difficult, picking you up as soon as you
Speaker 1: cross the half court line and, most importantly, funneling you
Speaker 1: when you ball pressure. It automatically the the first instinct
Speaker 1: of every ball handler against ball pressure is to drive
Speaker 1: past them, and that's how you're taught to deal with it.
Speaker 1: You know, make a quick move and go around them.
Speaker 1: If they if they go around them, there's this massive
Speaker 1: front line in Lebron James, Anthony Davis and Damian Jones
Speaker 1: waiting behind them to clean things up. It's very similar
Speaker 1: to what they did in the season when they chase
Speaker 1: teams off the line and tried to funnel them in
Speaker 1: to their shot blockers. So I would start Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: and Dennis shorter together. I'd go all in on ball pressure,
Speaker 1: funneling things into the paint, give up the mid range
Speaker 1: pull ups, give up the floaters and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: and I think you could functionally put together a dominant defense,
Speaker 1: because that's too excellent point of attack defenders. Lebron James,
Speaker 1: who is, when he's engaged, as one of the best
Speaker 1: back line defenders in the league. Anthony Davis is even
Speaker 1: way better than Lebron, and then you have Damian Jones,
Speaker 1: who's a solid starter in this league as an athletic,
Speaker 1: rim protecting, rim running type of center. That's what I
Speaker 1: would do. Secondly, the Lakers did not have a legit
Speaker 1: backup shot creator. If you guys remember, that's why I
Speaker 1: was a big fan of the buddy healed trade. I
Speaker 1: wanted them to go after buddy heal because I was
Speaker 1: scared that Lebron would be the only guy on the
Speaker 1: team that could create his own shot. Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: proven that he can do when he's making jump shots.
Speaker 1: He can do some stuff as an isolation player out
Speaker 1: of the post, but it's not like he's bringing the
Speaker 1: ball up the floor and running your offense for you.
Speaker 1: And Patrick Beverley is not up to that task. And,
Speaker 1: as we talked about, if you guys remember in the
Speaker 1: Lakers video I broke down with the numbers, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: was the worst volume ball handler in all of basketball
Speaker 1: last year, like, if you actually looked in the total
Speaker 1: picture of his pull up, jump shooting, his rim finishing,
Speaker 1: his catching, shoot shooting, like everything that he did on
Speaker 1: the basketball court as a primary shot creator, he was
Speaker 1: one of the worst. So he's not up to that
Speaker 1: task either. So bringing Dennis Shrewder in as a legit
Speaker 1: secondary shot creator who can be a second side creator
Speaker 1: on the floor with Lebron and help run the offense
Speaker 1: when Lebron's on the bench, that would go a long
Speaker 1: way towards adding the shot creation that the Lakers need. So,
Speaker 1: in summation, even though I thought he was a better
Speaker 1: fit for Dallas, even though I'm kind of stunned that
Speaker 1: Dallas couldn't pull this off, and even though I thought
Speaker 1: Dennis probably should have picked Dallas because it was his
Speaker 1: best opportunity to put up great numbers and help get
Speaker 1: a long term deal next summer, I'm glad that the
Speaker 1: Lakers got him because they just need talent. He fits
Speaker 1: that talent. It'll be a very unorthodox team. They'll be tiny,
Speaker 1: in the back court huge in the front court. Their
Speaker 1: spacing is gonna be shipped, but what else is new
Speaker 1: at the Lakers have had terrible spacing for years now.
Speaker 1: The reality is is any influx of talent is a
Speaker 1: positive for the Lakers, so I'm looking at it as
Speaker 1: a positive for the Lakers. So, moving onto the rust
Speaker 1: side of this, Joe Ban Bouha's report, which is in
Speaker 1: line with everything that we've heard in recent weeks, is
Speaker 1: that the Lakers aren't leaning towards keeping Russ and the
Speaker 1: main reason why there is the the the legitimization that
Speaker 1: the Lakers are using is they're keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: next summer because they're gonna have this cap space, which
Speaker 1: completely discounts the fact that they'd have to release roster control.
Speaker 1: Of like if they wanted to hit thirty five million,
Speaker 1: which is what they're shooting for, and in order to
Speaker 1: hit that thirty five million number next summer, they would
Speaker 1: have to cut ties with every single player on the
Speaker 1: roster not named Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That means
Speaker 1: every one of their draft picks from this year they'd
Speaker 1: have to let go. So you know, if you're into
Speaker 1: if you think Cole Spider is a good basketball player,
Speaker 1: say goodbye to Cole Spider. If you think Max Christie
Speaker 1: is a good basketball player, say goodbye to Max Christie.
Speaker 1: You've invested in Austin Reeves, say goodbye to Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: You'd have to say goodbye to all of those guys
Speaker 1: to get to that thirty five million mark. There's no
Speaker 1: guarantee that Kyrie is coming, because why would kyrie leave
Speaker 1: if they have a good season with the nets? If
Speaker 1: they have a good season, he's staying. Okay, yeah, Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton could be a free agent. What makes you think
Speaker 1: he's leaving the bucks? Andrew Wiggins could be a free agent.
Speaker 1: What makes you think he's leaving the war? There's just
Speaker 1: not a lot of good options and betting on that
Speaker 1: I thought didn't make a ton of sense. It was
Speaker 1: the obvious, like recoil defense from the Lakers brass and
Speaker 1: I knew it was coming as soon as they sent
Speaker 1: Ramona shelburn on Zach Low, because Ramona shelburn has always
Speaker 1: been like the advocate for Genie Buss in the media.
Speaker 1: She always goes out and does some sort of big
Speaker 1: appearance on one of the major basketball shows when it's
Speaker 1: time to explain why Genie Buss is doing something, and
Speaker 1: she was all in on that. We're looking at next
Speaker 1: summer and Oh, these trades don't make us a contender.
Speaker 1: where I disagreed with that so much is the simple
Speaker 1: fact that the one time that things worked out for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, if you look back at this whole era,
Speaker 1: the Lebron James and Anthony Davis era, it's been a
Speaker 1: disaster for the most part, but there was one season
Speaker 1: where it worked out. What happened, guys? That was the
Speaker 1: season when the third star didn't work out. That was
Speaker 1: the season when they just had a bunch of role
Speaker 1: players around Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That's the one
Speaker 1: thing we have concrete proof works in the NBA. Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, lots of good role players. So even though
Speaker 1: I understand the hesitancy to take on long term money,
Speaker 1: even though I understand the hesitancy to give up a
Speaker 1: draft pick in nine that you might be able to
Speaker 1: flip for a star in the future, even though I
Speaker 1: understand that, the reality is is if you could flip
Speaker 1: those picks and Russ for role players, the likes of
Speaker 1: boy on bogdanovitch or Malik Beasley or Rudy Gay. That
Speaker 1: brings in role players that are proven to succeed alongside
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That is a proven formula,
Speaker 1: and so what I don't understand about that method is
Speaker 1: you have Lebron James Right now in his twentieth season.
Speaker 1: You Have Anthony Davis right now. Why not invest in
Speaker 1: this right now, banking on Lebron in his twenty onest season?
Speaker 1: We're at a point now with his age where the
Speaker 1: risk is getting exponentially higher with each passing month. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be, what, thirty nine during the age one season?
Speaker 1: He'll turn already nine in that December. That's what you're
Speaker 1: betting on. Is Cap space that you can use when
Speaker 1: Lebron is thirty nine. I really don't understand that thought process. And,
Speaker 1: most importantly, now you're bringing Russ to camp, which we
Speaker 1: already talked about. Was Insane after everything he said in
Speaker 1: his exit interview, after everything that transpired on the court
Speaker 1: last year, with all the toxicity surrounding the fan base
Speaker 1: and God knows what else that was going on in
Speaker 1: that locker room. It was already insane. To bring him back,
Speaker 1: but now you brought in two point guards this summer
Speaker 1: that are better than him. Not to be clear, Russ
Speaker 1: should be better than both of them, but he doesn't
Speaker 1: defend nearly as well as Patrick Beverley and Dennis Schroeder do.
Speaker 1: He's not nearly as efficient as Patrick Beverley and Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder are. He is not as good as at basketball
Speaker 1: right now as those two players are because of his
Speaker 1: weaknesses in the little winning details of the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: So yes, Russ should be better than them both in theory,
Speaker 1: but he's not. So you're bringing him to camp after
Speaker 1: everything that happened with two point guards who are better
Speaker 1: than him. It will probably deserve his starting spot, which
Speaker 1: means one of two things is going to happen. He's
Speaker 1: either going to be benched, which will only further extend
Speaker 1: the toxicity of the situation, or he's gonna be starting
Speaker 1: over players he has no business starting over. That's what
Speaker 1: you're signing up for by bringing him back. All of
Speaker 1: that for cap space for a week free agency class
Speaker 1: headlined by a player that is as flaky as anybody
Speaker 1: in the League and, in all likelihood, will stay in
Speaker 1: Brooklyn if they have anything near a successful season. That's
Speaker 1: the type of decision making process taking place with Lakers
Speaker 1: brass right now. It's something I vehemently disagree with. And Look,
Speaker 1: it might all pay off. Maybe Russ goes to camp
Speaker 1: and is invigorated by the competition between Dennis and Pat
Speaker 1: and finally embraces all of the things that he never
Speaker 1: did in his career here. But I find it extremely
Speaker 1: unlikely and I thought it was a foolish bet on
Speaker 1: the Lakers part to go that route. I would have
Speaker 1: flipped him for that Utah Jazz Package, boyamgdanovitch, Malik Beasley
Speaker 1: and Rudy Gay, or some combination of those role players,
Speaker 1: knowing that, yeah, you sacrifice a little bit of that
Speaker 1: cat flexibility, but that's a sure thing over him. Maybe,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, this is Lebron's twentieth season. This might
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Speaker 1: rankings today with number nine, the Dallas Mavericks, very interesting
Speaker 1: team that had a very successful season last year and
Speaker 1: has made a couple of interesting changes during this off season.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get right into it. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: subscribe to the volume's youtube channel so you don't miss
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Speaker 1: last but not least, if you can't finish one of
Speaker 1: these and you can't get back over to youtube, you
Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: So let's talk some basketball. The Dallas Mavericks last year
Speaker 1: went fifty two and thirty. They lost in five kind
Speaker 1: of ugly, disappointing fashion in the Western Conference finals to
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors. Andrew Wiggins gave Luca a nightmare
Speaker 1: playoff series, the worst playoff series that he's had since
Speaker 1: he came into this league. UH WE'RE gonna talk a
Speaker 1: lot about some of the details of that series later
Speaker 1: on in the show. Um in the regular season there
Speaker 1: were fourteen and offense and seventh in defense. In this
Speaker 1: off season the biggest, the two biggest changes from last
Speaker 1: year's rosters. Obviously they lost jalen Brunson Um to the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks. Now that that makes this a little
Speaker 1: bit tough to project moving forward, because the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: Offensive System is designed on three ball handlers and there's
Speaker 1: always two on the floor at any given moment and
Speaker 1: then they might close with all three, but the ideas
Speaker 1: is they're constantly spelling each other in the rotation and
Speaker 1: so losing jalen Brunson is a pretty significant loss. Now
Speaker 1: over in Europe, Dennis Shrewder is playing some of the
Speaker 1: best basketball of his career for Germany so and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of Intel out there that he will be
Speaker 1: picked up by an NBA roster pretty quickly after this
Speaker 1: tournament over there. So My expectation is that there's a
Speaker 1: great fit here for both sides between the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: and Dennis Schroder. First of all, Dallas desperately needs that
Speaker 1: third ball handler and, second of all, Dennis Schroder in
Speaker 1: terms of what he could do while he's in Dallas.
Speaker 1: This is an excellent place to go, especially in a
Speaker 1: contract year, which obviously is a player who will be
Speaker 1: signing some form of short, short term deal and needs
Speaker 1: to prove himself. This is a great place to go
Speaker 1: to put up numbers because with the way that Dallas's
Speaker 1: offense is set up, and we're gonna get a lot
Speaker 1: deeper into that, Dennis is going to be set up
Speaker 1: to succeed. He's gonna be operating in a lot of
Speaker 1: space and the ball is gonna be in his hands
Speaker 1: and he's going to be asked to run a lot
Speaker 1: of isolation and a lot of pick and roll. So
Speaker 1: I think there's a really natural fit there and I
Speaker 1: think that those are the two sides that will come
Speaker 1: to an agreement. So I expect someone like Dennis Schroeder
Speaker 1: to be a Dallas Maverick, to fill into that role.
Speaker 1: But for this exact moment in time they're down to
Speaker 1: just the two ball handlers with the loss of Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: but they did trade for Christian Wood, losing only players
Speaker 1: who were not in their rotation during the playoffs and
Speaker 1: now Christian would. It's tough because he's a super talented
Speaker 1: forward that can dribble and shoot better than the vast
Speaker 1: majority of big men that we have in this league
Speaker 1: and has a great deal of Athleticism, but he's been
Speaker 1: playing in the losing environments his entire career, and we
Speaker 1: kind of briefly touched on this topic a lot during
Speaker 1: this show. But the concept of winning basketball and it's very,
Speaker 1: very different from just running up and down the floor
Speaker 1: and scoring. I tell this story all the time, but
Speaker 1: when I was a freshman in college I was on
Speaker 1: a really bad team and I averaged sixteen points a game,
Speaker 1: had a bunch of big scoring nights, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: a good basketball player. I was just putting up numbers
Speaker 1: on a bad team. And then my worst statistical season
Speaker 1: was on the best team I played for, and on
Speaker 1: that particular team I had to learn how to contribute defensively,
Speaker 1: learn how to contribute in a spot up role, learn
Speaker 1: how to contribute by running plays correctly and guarding the
Speaker 1: other team's best player. It was a completely different type
Speaker 1: of basketball and roll than I had my first year
Speaker 1: in Duco, even though I was more skilled, even though
Speaker 1: I was older, even though it was more physically developed
Speaker 1: at that point. It's just different doing it in a
Speaker 1: winning concept than it is in a losing concept. So
Speaker 1: over the course of the show, when we get to
Speaker 1: the offense portion and the defense portion, I'll do the
Speaker 1: best I can to guess how Christian would will impact
Speaker 1: winning within this winning concept, because it probably won't look
Speaker 1: anything like what he did in Houston. I was talking
Speaker 1: to my buddy rush Um, who covers the rockets, earlier
Speaker 1: today and he works for ball his life as well,
Speaker 1: and he was telling me like like the kinds of
Speaker 1: shots he was taken. They were using him like Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: like flying off the screens or bringing the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor, taking step back threes. UH, he actually shot
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent on step back three or on off
Speaker 1: the dribble threes last year, on over one attempt per game.
Speaker 1: Chances are he's not gonna be taking a lot of
Speaker 1: those types of shots with Dallas. So that those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that I'm talking about and we
Speaker 1: will get into that further in the show. Um, they
Speaker 1: drafted Jaden Hardy, a scoring guard. I don't think he'll
Speaker 1: be much of a factor this season. Don't know a
Speaker 1: ton of about him either, so as the season progresses,
Speaker 1: if he does get playing time, I'll update I'll update
Speaker 1: you guys on that. And then they signed Javale mcghee.
Speaker 1: Um again. I covered Javale McGee when he was with
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers and, uh, he's a solid backup center. Um,
Speaker 1: different in the sense that he's very up and down.
Speaker 1: Javale McGee's highs are incredibly high, like incredible dunks. Um
Speaker 1: a really gifted rollman and who has good hands, surprisingly
Speaker 1: good hands, and is surprisingly good at finishing around the basket. Defensively,
Speaker 1: he can be a real problem for people underneath the
Speaker 1: basket because of how long he is. He's got great
Speaker 1: length for the position. But the flip side of that
Speaker 1: is that he's kind of a kind of a bowl
Speaker 1: in the China shop. It's not the right word. He's
Speaker 1: kind of just like all over the place, like it's
Speaker 1: kind of aloof a lot of the Times. He leaves
Speaker 1: his feed on almost every single pump fake and we'll
Speaker 1: get himself out of position. Offensively, he'll freelance every once
Speaker 1: in a while and try something crazy and it'll look
Speaker 1: kind of awkward. And ugly. Right that that's kind of
Speaker 1: the Javal McGee experience. But the bottom line is he's
Speaker 1: your classic Rim running center that can play drop coverage
Speaker 1: on one end and screen and real hard to the
Speaker 1: rim on the other. Totally fine and serviceable in a
Speaker 1: backup center role. The big thing that I like specifically
Speaker 1: there for this defense is last year Dallas's defense didn't
Speaker 1: really have a traditional rim protector and they had a
Speaker 1: top ten defense in spite of that. Now there are
Speaker 1: some other factors at play. That will be interesting to
Speaker 1: see how their defense looks this year. But Javale McGee
Speaker 1: at least gives Jason Kidd an option as a rim
Speaker 1: protecting center that he did not have in previous years.
Speaker 1: And then, like I said, Dennis Roder is the guy
Speaker 1: that I keep an eye on as a signing as
Speaker 1: we get closer to camp. So their depth chart right now,
Speaker 1: as it looks at the guard, Luca, I guess you
Speaker 1: can call him a guard. Um usually I say you
Speaker 1: are who you can guard, but Luca can't really guard
Speaker 1: anybody at this point. Maybe maybe he can guard big
Speaker 1: players in the post, but that's about it. Uh, Luca,
Speaker 1: Don Che, Spencer, dinwoodie Reggie Bullock and Frank nickelle Ni Kina, Nilakina,
Speaker 1: I think I pronounced that correctly. Uh. He played a
Speaker 1: little bit for them last year in the playoffs, but
Speaker 1: his inability to knock down jump shots has always been
Speaker 1: a problem in his career. Very gifted defensive player, though.
Speaker 1: Um on the wings, Tim Hardaway Jr should theoretically be
Speaker 1: back from injury this year. Dorian Finney Smith, who's turned
Speaker 1: into a really, really impactful three and D player. Josh Green,
Speaker 1: came through the University of Arizona, similar to uh, similar
Speaker 1: to Frank Niel Quina. Good Defensive Player, good athlete, but
Speaker 1: his jump shot just isn't dependable enough right now. And
Speaker 1: then Davis Paritans, who is an incredibly streaky three point
Speaker 1: shooter at the UH. As far as bigs go, they
Speaker 1: got would I'm calling him a big, but they might
Speaker 1: use him a little bit as a wing this year.
Speaker 1: Javale McGee, Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleiba. So on offense,
Speaker 1: this is an extremely modern pick and roll and matchup
Speaker 1: attacking offense. I talked about this yesterday with the Miami Heat.
Speaker 1: But Um, you know, your offensive process and your defensive
Speaker 1: process needs to be geared towards what your talent is
Speaker 1: on the roster. You can get yourself in a lot
Speaker 1: of trouble when you try to inflict your ideologies on
Speaker 1: a team if that's not their individual strengths. Right Um,
Speaker 1: but in terms in a vacuum, if I could pick
Speaker 1: my personnel, the two systems that I believe the most
Speaker 1: in in terms of what translates best to the postseason are,
Speaker 1: on defense, switching everything, which we talked about yesterday with Miami,
Speaker 1: and on offense, five out, driving kick and the more principle. There, though,
Speaker 1: is advantage creation with a live dribble. Uh. The main
Speaker 1: reason why I believe so much in that is that
Speaker 1: when you get into the postseason, and we've talked about
Speaker 1: this a ton on the show, but your your sets
Speaker 1: don't seem to function as well as they do in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Not a big shock. There's a whole
Speaker 1: lot of scouting, you become deeply familiar with your opponent
Speaker 1: over the course of the two weeks of the playoffs
Speaker 1: series and Um, teams will find a way to get
Speaker 1: in front of your sets. Also, teams tend to switch
Speaker 1: more in the postseason, which allows them to get in
Speaker 1: front of screening actions. So generally speaking, in the playoffs
Speaker 1: it does become about live dribble advantage creation. That's why
Speaker 1: a team like Dallas, who, like was fourteenth and offense
Speaker 1: in the regular season because they didn't get as many
Speaker 1: easy shots from running sets and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: that offense translated better to the postseason and that's a
Speaker 1: huge part of why they were as successful as they
Speaker 1: were and at times looked unguardable, especially against Phoenix Um
Speaker 1: and against Utah. So they they don't like when we
Speaker 1: look at their numbers there, and off screen actions in
Speaker 1: terms of total frequency, eighteenth and dribble handoffs twenty four
Speaker 1: and cutting. They're not running the offenses that you see
Speaker 1: from Golden State in Miami with a ton of motion
Speaker 1: and a ton of screens and a ton of dribble handoffs.
Speaker 1: That's just not what you're gonna get from the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1: They were a brute force, spread you out, high, peak
Speaker 1: and roll at isolation offense and they run it with
Speaker 1: three creators. They it's your turn, my turn. One Guy
Speaker 1: subs out, another guy comes in and it's just more
Speaker 1: and more of the same, and it is a proven
Speaker 1: playoff offense. I've kind of joked that this team reminds
Speaker 1: me a lot of the two thousand eighteen rockets. They
Speaker 1: don't switch as much on defense as the rockets did,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of like their approach. It's supermodern, can
Speaker 1: get ugly at times. It's not the most systhetically appealing basketball,
Speaker 1: especially to basketball purists who like to see passing in
Speaker 1: ball movement, but you can't deny its effect of nous.
Speaker 1: Um I mentioned how they work with the three shot
Speaker 1: creators and kind of rotate them in and out. Off
Speaker 1: of that, it's all play finishers. They either have shooters
Speaker 1: or roll men, you know with Dorian Phinney Smith and
Speaker 1: Reggie Bullock, baxically, but you know Davis Bare Time's they're
Speaker 1: all spotting up looking to shoot, but then they've got,
Speaker 1: you know, Dwight Powell rolling hard to the rim. They've
Speaker 1: added two additional role men this year, um in Javale
Speaker 1: McGee and Christian would, and when we get to the
Speaker 1: numbers you'll see they weren't as good a pick and
Speaker 1: roll team as they were an isolation team. Improving with
Speaker 1: their role men, I think, will open some things up
Speaker 1: for them and pick and roll make them a little
Speaker 1: bit more versatile on that front. Um the the advantages
Speaker 1: that this type of offense creates, like there's there's a
Speaker 1: reason why it translates well to the postseason. You know,
Speaker 1: I can any coach can coach their way ahead of
Speaker 1: an offense. Right, like if you drill things enough, especially
Speaker 1: in a playoff series, and you really get good at
Speaker 1: covering the specific type of sets and concepts that a
Speaker 1: team likes to run, you can get in front. But
Speaker 1: if it's just pick and roll or just isolation, it
Speaker 1: becomes a simple question of picking your poison. As a defense,
Speaker 1: you can either opt to send extra defensive attention to
Speaker 1: the ball handler and make him beat you with the pass,
Speaker 1: or if you play off and stay home, it's about
Speaker 1: that person in their ability to make shots. In that
Speaker 1: isolation or in that pick and roll. It becomes less
Speaker 1: about scheme and more about personnel, and that's a big
Speaker 1: part of why it translates to the postseason. It is.
Speaker 1: There is no magic fix for isolation with Luca Don chees.
Speaker 1: If he's going to pick on your weakest defender, it's
Speaker 1: not like you can coach up that defender to do
Speaker 1: better and better. I mean you might be able to
Speaker 1: get him to do a little bit better over repetition
Speaker 1: in the series. But the truth of the matter is,
Speaker 1: if it's he's too small to guard Luca, he's too
Speaker 1: small to guard Luca and there's no coaching around that
Speaker 1: beyond throwing extra defender is and Luca happens to be
Speaker 1: one of the best passers in basketball. So again, like
Speaker 1: I I appreciate esthetically appealing basketball. I appreciate, you know,
Speaker 1: ball movement and passing and and and that team game
Speaker 1: that everyone, that a lot of old fashioned basketball fans love.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day this works and
Speaker 1: you have to acknowledge it and find the beauty in
Speaker 1: the process. Like I talk a lot about skill on
Speaker 1: this show, specifically like little tips and tricks within ball
Speaker 1: handling and post ups in terms of, you know, how
Speaker 1: to sell each move or body positioning and things like that.
Speaker 1: Find beauty in that from their offense and you'll learn
Speaker 1: to enjoy that a lot more. The manner in which Spencer,
Speaker 1: Dinwittie and Luca done do what they do in terms
Speaker 1: of their offensive skill set, to me is very fascinating.
Speaker 1: One of the downsides to their specific style of offense.
Speaker 1: There you know, kind of heliocentric. Uh advantage creation offense
Speaker 1: is their role players can lose confidence from time to time.
Speaker 1: They're very they're specialists, you know. Um, they don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of guys on their team that can dribble,
Speaker 1: pass and shoot. Um, there's just a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that can either shoot or roll hard to the rim.
Speaker 1: But they're not they don't get a lot of the
Speaker 1: multiple driving kicks system type stuff that can get a
Speaker 1: team in rotation a lot. And more often than not
Speaker 1: they walk the ball up the floor, Cross half court
Speaker 1: at Sixteen seconds, take another four or five seconds to
Speaker 1: get into their pick and roll or to get into
Speaker 1: their isolation, and by the time Luca or Spencer, whoever
Speaker 1: it is, makes the pass, there's only like four seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock and it's like you're either shooting
Speaker 1: that three or you're taking a one dribble pull up,
Speaker 1: or maybe you can kick one more pass to another shooter.
Speaker 1: But they don't. They don't get the multiple driving kick
Speaker 1: possessions that can really get a defense in rotation. That's
Speaker 1: one of their weaknesses and as a result, and it's
Speaker 1: a personnel thing, they don't really have the personnel to
Speaker 1: do that. But as a result, like you know, look
Speaker 1: at the warrior series, Maxie Clee, but his shot stops falling.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have other ways to score, other ways to impact
Speaker 1: the game, so he loses his confidence and the offense
Speaker 1: suffers for it. Like that tends to be the case
Speaker 1: with this type of offense. Is when the role players
Speaker 1: are feeling good and knocking down shots, everything's great, but
Speaker 1: when they start missing, it can kind of snowball from there.
Speaker 1: And if you look at that Golden State series, man
Speaker 1: did thinks snowball, especially from the role players. They had
Speaker 1: some really cold shooting stretches that killed them, not the
Speaker 1: least of which was that second half of game too,
Speaker 1: that they blew Um. So, like I said, twenty seven
Speaker 1: off screen actions, eighteenth and dribble handoffs and twenty four
Speaker 1: and cutting in terms of frequencies. So you're not getting
Speaker 1: any of that. It's all io and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They were fifth in ISO frequency, second in ISO efficiency.
Speaker 1: Luca ran six point three isolations per game, which was
Speaker 1: second in the League in terms of volume. He also
Speaker 1: had one point one one points per possession, which is amazing.
Speaker 1: There were only two players in the league last year
Speaker 1: that ran at least five ISOS and scored at least
Speaker 1: one point one point per possession on them. Take a guess.
Speaker 1: Luca and Kevin Durant. Spencer Dinwoodie also runs about three
Speaker 1: isolations per game and was even more efficient than Luca,
Speaker 1: at one point one five points per possession. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be slotting up into that secondary creator probably will start
Speaker 1: for them this year. There were eight in pick and
Speaker 1: roll frequency in fifth and pick and roll efficiency. Uh
Speaker 1: again that I think that will go up in terms
Speaker 1: of volume with the addition of Christian Wooden Javaial McGee,
Speaker 1: because now they just have real role threats. Luca ran
Speaker 1: thirteen pick and rolls per game last year, which was
Speaker 1: second most in the NBA. He scored zero point nine
Speaker 1: three points per possession, which is only slightly above average.
Speaker 1: Again not having a legitimate role man kind of Dwight
Speaker 1: Pal's an okay Rollman, but not as good as the
Speaker 1: two guys they're bringing in. That I think that I
Speaker 1: think will open things up for him a little bit
Speaker 1: more in that regard. Spe or Din what? He was
Speaker 1: also only slightly above average in pick and roll. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson really carried them in pick and roll last year
Speaker 1: he was in the ninety one percentile and points per possession.
Speaker 1: So with him coming out, obviously you need someone else
Speaker 1: in there, hopefully Schroeder, but also the addition of better
Speaker 1: roll men should kind of make up for some of
Speaker 1: that loss. They used to post up a lot when
Speaker 1: they had Chris Christaps Porzingis on the roster, but they
Speaker 1: ditched that almost entirely after christops left. Luca is really
Speaker 1: the only player on the team that will post up
Speaker 1: at this point. He did it about three times per
Speaker 1: game last year and was relatively efficient. Nothing exceptional, but
Speaker 1: a little bit above average. Um, Christian wood ransom post
Speaker 1: ups with Houston last year. It was slightly above average,
Speaker 1: I think, on about two attempts per games. So I'll
Speaker 1: be interested to see if they dump it down to
Speaker 1: him in the post a little bit. But I I
Speaker 1: doubt it because the League seems to be going away
Speaker 1: from that in general and there's only handful of guys
Speaker 1: in the league that could do it really well. Um.
Speaker 1: So I think they'll probably use him more in a
Speaker 1: perimeter oriented role or as a role man. The efforts
Speaker 1: ran in transition less than any team in the entire league.
Speaker 1: There the fewest transition possessions. This is about Luca strangling
Speaker 1: the pace of the game. Now there's downsides there, because
Speaker 1: when you don't run in transition, you don't get easy
Speaker 1: opportunities that supplement the rest of your offense and, like
Speaker 1: we talked about with the Miami Heat, especially when you're
Speaker 1: a team that can struggle to score a little bit
Speaker 1: in a half court having, you know, handfuls of possessions
Speaker 1: each quarter where you run out for layups can help
Speaker 1: a lot. Now it's about strangling the pace, which is
Speaker 1: which disrupts the rhythm of the other team. You know
Speaker 1: you miss a shot, Luca slowly brings the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor and methodically works the clock down and gets
Speaker 1: a good look and it hits something, or one of
Speaker 1: his teammates makes a shot. Then you bring it back
Speaker 1: up the floor. It's been so long since you had
Speaker 1: the basketball. The game just feels like it's stuck in
Speaker 1: the mud. It makes it hard for offensive players to
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. So that's the upside, but I wouldn't I
Speaker 1: wouldn't hate to see, especially with how gifted of passer
Speaker 1: Luca is and how gifted a rebounder he is, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't hate to see him do a little bit more
Speaker 1: of what Nicola Yoke does, and that's look up the
Speaker 1: floor after the rebounds. Luca can strangle the pace with
Speaker 1: his dribble. That doesn't mean the role players necessarily have
Speaker 1: to walk up the court too. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like Dorian Finnie Smith and
Speaker 1: Reggie Bullock sprinting like crazy up the floor, even a
Speaker 1: little Javale McGee. He did this a little bit when
Speaker 1: he was with the Lakers, with Lebron throwing passes up
Speaker 1: the floor. They're trying to squeeze out a little bit
Speaker 1: more offense and transition. I think would be a good idea.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Christian Wood and how he fits
Speaker 1: in here. So again, in in the in this particular
Speaker 1: type of role with Um, with him being on a
Speaker 1: winning team, he's not gonna have the ball in his
Speaker 1: hands as in as an initiator nearly as much as
Speaker 1: he did in Houston. So that puts him into that
Speaker 1: play finisher role right. Well, let's take a look at
Speaker 1: what he did last year and terms of specific shot profile.
Speaker 1: So he was on wide open threes. That's really good.
Speaker 1: He was on catch and shoot threes, so bad before
Speaker 1: we go any further. He's already gonna fit in this
Speaker 1: system as a spot up threat. He was thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent on pull up threes, one point three attempts per game.
Speaker 1: Interesting in the sense that I don't think he you're
Speaker 1: gonna want him taking pull up threes early in the offense.
Speaker 1: But what that does amount to to me is like
Speaker 1: a late clock threat. You know, Luca goes to a
Speaker 1: step back with five on the shot clock, doesn't get
Speaker 1: enough separation, kind of pump fakes. He can swing it
Speaker 1: to Christian would and Christian would can hit a step back,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a rescue possession type of thing. He was in the
Speaker 1: sixty seven percentile as a rollman. When I was talking
Speaker 1: to my buddy Rouche, who covered the rockets last year,
Speaker 1: again it was a waste of my time because of
Speaker 1: how how much I had to cover the top teams
Speaker 1: in the League. It was a waste of my time
Speaker 1: to watch that much of Christian would. I only watched
Speaker 1: him a handful of times, so I rely a lot
Speaker 1: on on on the tape that I've seen, as well
Speaker 1: as UM people who watched him every single day, like
Speaker 1: my buddy rouge, and then the data we have on
Speaker 1: the on the NBA dot com website. But he said
Speaker 1: that they were actually pretty damn good with Um. With
Speaker 1: Christen Wood is a roll man, but that he was
Speaker 1: hesitant to do so. That translates to the number sixty
Speaker 1: seven percentile. But his volume was pretty low. I want
Speaker 1: to say. He was only registering about two rollman possessions
Speaker 1: per game. So theoretically in this system that translates to
Speaker 1: something he'll do more frequently. He was also a slightly
Speaker 1: above average isolation player and a slightly above average post
Speaker 1: player in terms of points per possession. So what of
Speaker 1: that contributes to winning environment? Obviously the spot up stuff,
Speaker 1: obviously attacking closeouts. Um, his ability to dribble the basketball
Speaker 1: and his athleticism going to the rim might be able
Speaker 1: to open some things up in UH in driving kick
Speaker 1: types of situations. And then also Um, if the post
Speaker 1: up in isolation stuff translates in terms of the winning environment,
Speaker 1: it would be interesting to see him as just another
Speaker 1: option for advantage creation when he has a great matchup. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if Christian would ends up in a pick
Speaker 1: and roll, getting a switch onto Luca's man and Luca
Speaker 1: can pull the ball away and throw it down to
Speaker 1: him in the post or if he you know, even
Speaker 1: just in transition running the floor, if he gets the
Speaker 1: right matchup, it might be interesting to throw to him
Speaker 1: as a primary initiator. I think you'll find out pretty
Speaker 1: quickly in the first ten or so games of the
Speaker 1: season whether or not that's something Christian Wood is capable
Speaker 1: of doing in a winning concept or winning context. I
Speaker 1: should say. Um, he's a player that the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: have never had before, a type of player that the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks have never had before. So I'm just really
Speaker 1: interested to see how they end up using him. Defense
Speaker 1: was where the Dallas Mavericks were most interesting last year. Again,
Speaker 1: they were seventh and defensive writing. But their personnel it
Speaker 1: wasn't very good. Right, like, outside of Reggie Bullock, Dorian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith and Dwight Powell, they didn't really have players
Speaker 1: that were, you know, their reputations weren't that of great
Speaker 1: defensive players. Most of them below average. You know, Jalen Brunston,
Speaker 1: Spencer didn't. What do you look at? Donchech, Maxi, Cleba,
Speaker 1: all these guys were, you know, Dobvi sparit tens. These
Speaker 1: were all below average defensive players before, before this particular season. UH,
Speaker 1: they were. As a team last year they were twenty
Speaker 1: nine and steals the blocks. So they weren't disrupting anything.
Speaker 1: They didn't have an interior defensive presence. Like Dwight Powell
Speaker 1: is a good defensive four, but he's not like he's
Speaker 1: a rim protector right. Neither was Maxi CLEBA. All of
Speaker 1: that stuff was true, but they had the seventh best
Speaker 1: defense in basketball. How do you do that, you know,
Speaker 1: and the answer to me is pretty simple. Do you
Speaker 1: guys remember yesterday when I was talking about the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat Um? I was talking about how, on offense, they
Speaker 1: squeeze things out on the margin to improve their offense
Speaker 1: despite being a weak half court offense. The same goes
Speaker 1: for for the defensive end of the floor. I talked
Speaker 1: about I compared it to football and baseball in terms
Speaker 1: of like special teams or like manufacturing runs with like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, bunting to get a base runner on or
Speaker 1: stealing bases, sacrifice flies, things along those lines. There's like
Speaker 1: the core concept of basketball, you know, which is scoring
Speaker 1: in a half court, five on five environment. But then
Speaker 1: there's all these ancillary things, defensive, rebounding, offensive rebounding, transition defense,
Speaker 1: transition offense, right like Um we we talked. I went
Speaker 1: over all the different things yesterday. But there are this
Speaker 1: particular team, this this Um Um, this Dallas Mavericks Defense,
Speaker 1: despite not having the right personnel, was able to squeeze
Speaker 1: out and above average defense by all of the little things. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, they defended the three point line really well,
Speaker 1: which is just scheming. That's smart. It's math. That's the
Speaker 1: most valuable shot if you that in layup, so the
Speaker 1: most valuable shot. Now, they were a pretty average paint defense,
Speaker 1: to be expected, but if you guard the three point
Speaker 1: line and you guard the paint really well, you'll force
Speaker 1: teams to operate in the mid range and even the
Speaker 1: in no player in the League really, except for the
Speaker 1: top handful, is efficient enough in that range to make
Speaker 1: you pay. So they only allowed ten point nine made
Speaker 1: threes per game, which led the League. They were eight
Speaker 1: and free free throw attempts allowed. So they don't foul. Again,
Speaker 1: that's coaching. Uh. They were an above average transition defense.
Speaker 1: Getting back in transition, communicating with each other who's got
Speaker 1: the paint, spreading out to your shooters after that and
Speaker 1: they were top ten defensive rebounding team. They secured seventy
Speaker 1: three of available rebound, available defensive rebounds. So again, like
Speaker 1: even though they weren't great defensively in the core principles
Speaker 1: of defense, they were excellent and all these ancillary things.
Speaker 1: They had a smart scheme. You know, they guarded the
Speaker 1: three point line well. They double every uh mismatch. They
Speaker 1: double their players out of mismatches when that becomes a problem.
Speaker 1: They rotate really well when things break down by if
Speaker 1: they don't foul, they get back in transition. By doing
Speaker 1: those things they were able to squeeze out and grind
Speaker 1: out a the number seven defense in the league. It's
Speaker 1: about controlling what you can control. You can't control your personnel,
Speaker 1: but you control being well coached. You can control boxing out,
Speaker 1: you can control sprinting back and on defense and transition.
Speaker 1: You can control coming up with a smart scheme by
Speaker 1: paying attention to what's going on around you in the League. Um,
Speaker 1: the unfortunate reality was, and and this is what I
Speaker 1: said all last season. You Mavericks Fans who listened last
Speaker 1: year we'll remember, as their defense was progressing towards the
Speaker 1: tail end of the season I kept pointing out the
Speaker 1: fact that the personnel might end up being a problem
Speaker 1: in a playoff series against a team that can expose them. Well,
Speaker 1: golden state just completely put them in the blender. I
Speaker 1: want to say their defensive rating in the regular season
Speaker 1: was about a hundred nine points per one hund possessions allowed.
Speaker 1: Golden States scored a hundred and twenty point three point
Speaker 1: points per one possessions. So they're disciplined. All of those
Speaker 1: things that we talked about just didn't hold up under
Speaker 1: Golden States motion heavy offense. They fell apart on that front.
Speaker 1: Now some of this is golden state. Golden States are
Speaker 1: really unique team. They do things very differently. It's differently
Speaker 1: than anybody else in the league. So there's not really
Speaker 1: a whole lot you can do to prepare for them.
Speaker 1: And I've talked about this a lot on the show,
Speaker 1: but Golden State tends to have an advantage early in
Speaker 1: playoff series because of the fact that what they do
Speaker 1: is so different and it's not incredibly uncommon to fall
Speaker 1: down two oh to them. That's what happened and they
Speaker 1: weren't able to dig out. Let's look at Christian would
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor for just a second.
Speaker 1: He was a horrible defensive player in Houston, but it
Speaker 1: was for a very bad team. He does have the
Speaker 1: athletic tools. He's tall, he's got long arms, he can
Speaker 1: move his feet. The problem is is that defensive habits
Speaker 1: and you know defensive I Q, takes time to build.
Speaker 1: So it's just gonna be a really interesting challenge for
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd and for Christian Wood himself to make that
Speaker 1: transition quickly, because it's either gonna but Christian woods a
Speaker 1: good basketball player. He's gonna be in this league for
Speaker 1: a long time. My guess is he'll be a very,
Speaker 1: very good role player at a minimum five ten years,
Speaker 1: or like not ten years, but five years from now,
Speaker 1: right like when he's in his early thirties. But the
Speaker 1: question is, is is it going to take him until then
Speaker 1: to learn how to be a productive defensive player or
Speaker 1: is it something that he can figure out in one
Speaker 1: training camp with Jason Kidd? That's a huge swing factor
Speaker 1: for this particular season. I'm really curious to see what happens.
Speaker 1: The best case scenario for this team is basically everything
Speaker 1: that happened in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It's modern basketball personified, you know, maximizing things on the margins,
Speaker 1: slowing the pace down, strangling the game down into a
Speaker 1: isolation contest where it's like you're trying to go punch
Speaker 1: for punch with Luka Don Chich in this slow game
Speaker 1: that's just stuck in the mud. and Luca, Luca is
Speaker 1: one of the best isolation players in the League and
Speaker 1: one of the best pick and role players in the league.
Speaker 1: So he's going to beat you a lot of the
Speaker 1: time in that and that's what he did to Utah
Speaker 1: and that's what he did to Phoenix. But Luca fell
Speaker 1: apart against golden state. He only shot forty one five
Speaker 1: percent in that series. A lot of credit to Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and the job that he did on him. But
Speaker 1: in order for them to heat hit their ultimate ceiling,
Speaker 1: which is holding the Lario de Lario Brian Trophy, and
Speaker 1: I absolutely think the Mavericks had that capability, Luca would
Speaker 1: have to remain hot for four series, for sixteen wins.
Speaker 1: Definitely something he's capable of. He eventually ran out of
Speaker 1: gas in the conference finals last year. Um in order
Speaker 1: to reach this ceiling, I think they absolutely have to
Speaker 1: sign somebody to replace Brunson. I think Dennis Schroeder is
Speaker 1: the obvious choice. I don't think they're a contender unless
Speaker 1: they get that third creator. But I am calling them
Speaker 1: a contender because I sincerely believe they will get that guy,
Speaker 1: even if it's not Dennis Schroeder Um Christian. What if
Speaker 1: ashing wood brings a huge scoring punch and finds a
Speaker 1: way to fit in defensively? That's a big swing factor
Speaker 1: because he's a fringe all star level talent. He's not
Speaker 1: a fringe all star, he's a fringe all star level
Speaker 1: talent in terms of what he brings to the table
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. If all of that comes together,
Speaker 1: they can win the title. But make no mistake, it's
Speaker 1: all on Luca. I've described this tear as the the
Speaker 1: puncher's chance tear, and the puncher in this case is Luca,
Speaker 1: and if he's not at his absolute best for all
Speaker 1: four rounds, they can't get it done. He's the the
Speaker 1: the guy who holds all the pressure in that regard.
Speaker 1: Worst case scenarios they failed to find that their creator
Speaker 1: and they go to it with Spencer, dinwoody and Luca
Speaker 1: and they lack shot creation all season, their defense takes
Speaker 1: a step back, just like it did in the Golden
Speaker 1: State series. Their lack of an interior presence gets them
Speaker 1: killed on the glass. Golden State pulled in fifty seven
Speaker 1: percent of available rebounds in that particular series, although I
Speaker 1: do think Javale McGee will help on that a lot.
Speaker 1: If those sorts of things happen, they're certainly at risk
Speaker 1: to lose in the second round as well, or, excuse me,
Speaker 1: the first round. Just about every team the rest of
Speaker 1: the way, their low side is to lose in the
Speaker 1: first round. There is no world beating roster out there,
Speaker 1: and there there, I would say, only four teams, like clippers, Celtics,
Speaker 1: warriors and Um Bucks, would be like guarantees to win
Speaker 1: their first round series. But even then injuries could take
Speaker 1: them out. And when we're talking about worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: we have to factor in injuries. Just ask the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks with what happened with Chris Middleton last year. So
Speaker 1: for the x factor, what's been the theme for x
Speaker 1: factors throughout this whole series? What kind of player have
Speaker 1: I typically been picking? It's typically been a young player
Speaker 1: who has a ton of talent, but hasn't quite reached
Speaker 1: his ultimate ceiling, thus providing a ton of variants in
Speaker 1: what could happen this season. Well, I'M gonna go with
Speaker 1: Christian would then, because that makes a ton of sense
Speaker 1: for that theme right to be consistent. He's skilled in
Speaker 1: athletic enough to be an all star, but he has
Speaker 1: to learn how to impact winning, and those are two
Speaker 1: completely separate things. I deal with this a lot with
Speaker 1: young players here in town, especially with the high school
Speaker 1: kids that I coach. Like it's there's a bridge that
Speaker 1: goes between being a talented basketball player and a winning
Speaker 1: basketball player. Um, my friend to Lee booked, I was
Speaker 1: an all American when I was at uh at Arizona
Speaker 1: Christian University. He taught me how to win little by
Speaker 1: a little over the course of my last season in college.
Speaker 1: He Uh would take me to these like late night
Speaker 1: three on three runs at the school and and put
Speaker 1: me on his team and just just coached me really
Speaker 1: hard and not on the I was all I was
Speaker 1: always a very talented basketball player. Six, six, six, ten, winks, Ban,
Speaker 1: could jump out of the gym, could dribble, shoot all
Speaker 1: those things, but I was so raw because I started
Speaker 1: really late and so I'd like hit a tough step
Speaker 1: back jump shot or make a really nice driving dunk
Speaker 1: or something along those lines, and and he would never
Speaker 1: say anything about that because he didn't care. He already
Speaker 1: knew I could do that stuff. But like, every time
Speaker 1: that like I'd rolled to the basket on a screen
Speaker 1: and roll and get a dunk, but then on the
Speaker 1: next possession I'd screen and pop. He'd like scream at
Speaker 1: me and be like, what are you doing? What you
Speaker 1: just did worked, why would you not do it again?
Speaker 1: And and over time I would learn like like we
Speaker 1: would relentlessly go to the same action until they figured
Speaker 1: out how to stop it. Every time I I made missed,
Speaker 1: the defensive box out screaming at me defensive rebounds. How
Speaker 1: you win games, Jason, you have to get every single
Speaker 1: defensive rebound, a bad close out, bad defensive possession, whatever
Speaker 1: it was. Over the course of that uh, that year,
Speaker 1: in those nighttime runs, he slowly chipped away at me
Speaker 1: and taught me about the things that make a winning
Speaker 1: basketball player. and Um and like I'll never forget that
Speaker 1: particular year because that was the year that I learned
Speaker 1: how to be a winner on so many different levels,
Speaker 1: going from being a score at the Juco level to
Speaker 1: being a role player at at a alongside to all
Speaker 1: American guards. I'm one of the best uh and ai
Speaker 1: a teams in the country like that was where I
Speaker 1: learned all of that stuff and unfortunately I was able
Speaker 1: to pick it up pretty quickly. But that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the challenge for Christian Wood is how quickly can he
Speaker 1: pick up on those things, because right now, as any
Speaker 1: rockets fan will tell you, he's not good at those things.
Speaker 1: Rockets fans would joke, according to my friend rouge, that
Speaker 1: every time they'd play a big man he'd have his
Speaker 1: career year because Christian would a career game. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: because Christian Wood was guarding him. He he's lacking in
Speaker 1: those areas and so it'll be interesting to see how
Speaker 1: quickly he can pick those up, how quickly can he
Speaker 1: become a serviceable defender and how quickly can he understand
Speaker 1: his role within the Mavericks Offense? The closer he gets
Speaker 1: to that all star level, which obviously he's not that guy,
Speaker 1: but he's going to be somewhere between where he is
Speaker 1: now and that level. The closer he is to that level,
Speaker 1: the Higher Dallas the ceiling is and that's why he's
Speaker 1: such a big ex actor. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have on the Dallas Mavericks. That's all we
Speaker 1: have for this week. We will be back on Monday
Speaker 1: with number eight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys
Speaker 1: support and I'll see you guys next week. The Volume