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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by Vandal here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: weekend so far. Today we are beginning the top five
Speaker 1: players in the NBA with number five. You guys know
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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight, all right, without any further ado, Number
Speaker 1: five Luca don Shits. So the way we're gonna do
Speaker 1: these the last five names in this list is we're
Speaker 1: gonna split this into five sections. We're gonna do strengths
Speaker 1: and weaknesses that we're gonna do greatest hopes essentially the
Speaker 1: best version of their future, greatest fears, the worst version
Speaker 1: of their potential feature, and then biggest what if, the
Speaker 1: biggest moment in their career that could have gone one
Speaker 1: way or another and been markedly different than what ended
Speaker 1: up actually happening. So we're gonna start. I'll just read
Speaker 1: out Luca's averages from this past season and then we'll
Speaker 1: get into his strength. So in this regular season, he
Speaker 1: averaged twenty eight nine and ninety seven percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: That's just becoming status quo for Luca. You can just
Speaker 1: book him for damn your triple double every single year.
Speaker 1: In the postseason, he averaged thirty two, ten and six
Speaker 1: on true shot true shooting. His assist numbers went down
Speaker 1: a little bit, but a big part of that is
Speaker 1: the strategy that most teams employed against Luca and the Mavericks,
Speaker 1: which basically involved staying home on shooters and trying to
Speaker 1: make Luca into his score. We will get further into
Speaker 1: that once we get to that point. So let's start
Speaker 1: with the strengths. So obviously, Luca's greatest strength is versatile scoring.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest difference. The biggest thing that separates him
Speaker 1: from a guy like James Harden, who is commonly compared to,
Speaker 1: is the fact that he can succeed on so many
Speaker 1: different spots on the floor. The average two point nine
Speaker 1: restricted area makes one. As you guys know, that's what
Speaker 1: I hope for with big, strong guards is at least
Speaker 1: sev at least two makes per game. This is his
Speaker 1: greatest strength. Here three point five paint non restricted area
Speaker 1: makes on fift. So this is the rest of the
Speaker 1: painted area that's not the restricted area. You guys have
Speaker 1: always heard me talk about the difference, like when we
Speaker 1: talk about three level scoring. Too often we talk about
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim, mid range and three point shooting,
Speaker 1: but we don't talk enough about the short range. These
Speaker 1: are not your classic pull up jumpers at ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen feet. These are not you getting all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim and finishing through contact or whatever. These
Speaker 1: are all the little push shots and hook shots and
Speaker 1: funky little uh like like. Almost every one of these
Speaker 1: shots looks different than the last one, but all the
Speaker 1: little bank shots and floaters and short range things that
Speaker 1: you hit before you get to the rim. This is
Speaker 1: Luca's greatest strength because he's got such a big, strong body,
Speaker 1: and almost every defender that he goes against is at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage with strength, so he likes to methodically work
Speaker 1: you down into the lane. But rather than challenging the
Speaker 1: shot blocker, he'll keep you attached, bump you off of him,
Speaker 1: and shoot something off the glass or short floater, hook, push,
Speaker 1: whatever the hell you want to call it inside of
Speaker 1: that like five six seven feet range. And that's what
Speaker 1: allows him to make three point five non restricted area
Speaker 1: paint attempts per game at which is excellent efficiency there.
Speaker 1: It's the one of the most underrated skills in the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. Not enough players work on that specific skill,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the things that is a driving
Speaker 1: force behind Luca's mid range excuse me Luca's offensive scoring success.
Speaker 1: So look at average zero point eight mid range makes
Speaker 1: per game on that's not good, although he was better
Speaker 1: in the regular season, he was up at about I
Speaker 1: believe thirty seven percent with about one and a half makes.
Speaker 1: He did attempt nine pull up threes per game in
Speaker 1: this postseason run at thirty six percent. That's pretty solid.
Speaker 1: In twenty one, he attempted ten pull up threes per
Speaker 1: game in the playoffs and shot forty three on him,
Speaker 1: and then in the bubble he took seven per game
Speaker 1: and made of him. So he's a pretty deadly step
Speaker 1: back pull up three point shooter. Obviously, that's the shot
Speaker 1: that we see him take most frequently. If you asked
Speaker 1: me what Lucas signature move is, I would say that
Speaker 1: it's him working the big on the switch hard step
Speaker 1: back dribble. It doesn't really cover a ton of ground.
Speaker 1: It's just a really quick little dribble and he'll take
Speaker 1: a short step to the back that allows him to
Speaker 1: get the separation and needs to shoot. You know, specifically
Speaker 1: with Luca, he's one of my favorite players for young
Speaker 1: basketball players to watch and try to emulate in their
Speaker 1: skill development. People always were asking during the draft process
Speaker 1: when Luca was available in the draft, you know, is
Speaker 1: he athletic enough to be able to get separation against
Speaker 1: NBA defenders, And it flat out has not been an issue.
Speaker 1: Even though he's pretty slow footed, he can beat just
Speaker 1: about any defensive wing in the league to get into
Speaker 1: the painted area. How does he do that well? He
Speaker 1: is the master of selling every single element of every
Speaker 1: single part of his move with every bit of his body.
Speaker 1: So if he's going to do, for instance, an in
Speaker 1: and out cross between the legs step back to the
Speaker 1: left on the in and out, he's gonna start by
Speaker 1: facing with his entire body to the right and sell
Speaker 1: it like he's going to the right. But then after that,
Speaker 1: when he does it through the legs dribble, he'll drop
Speaker 1: super low and take a hard step that makes you
Speaker 1: think he's driving to the basket, and then he'll pound
Speaker 1: back out of that into his step back. A lot
Speaker 1: of ball handlers and young basketball players will be able
Speaker 1: to do the moves like you'll be able to do
Speaker 1: a crossover dribble or in an out dribble or between
Speaker 1: the legs dribble. But you're just moving the basketball in
Speaker 1: those directions. You're not actually selling the moves with your
Speaker 1: eyes and with your body language. Right, Kobe was also
Speaker 1: one of the best that I've ever seen at this
Speaker 1: specific skill, and that was what allowed him to age
Speaker 1: so gracefully in the league. But with Luca specifically, it
Speaker 1: just watched watch a highlight video of him beating people
Speaker 1: off the dribble, and you will see the methodical way
Speaker 1: that he sells his moves and that allows him, even
Speaker 1: though he's going up against potentially a Paul George who's
Speaker 1: a much more athletic wing, he's getting separation and getting
Speaker 1: him on his hip. And then again, and this is
Speaker 1: where we talked a lot about strength when we were
Speaker 1: talking about Kawhi Leonard. You know, I told you guys,
Speaker 1: I gave you guys the example of a rip through
Speaker 1: on the wing. So if you catch the ball on
Speaker 1: the wing and you rip through the dude, the defender
Speaker 1: is probably gonna put his hands on you in some way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, and it's probably not going to get called.
Speaker 1: And so then it becomes a strength battle. If the
Speaker 1: defender is stronger, he's probably gonna hold you in your
Speaker 1: spot and contain you off the dribble. But if you're stronger,
Speaker 1: you're gonna rip through all that contact and you're gonna
Speaker 1: get all the way to the rim. That's kind of
Speaker 1: the way it works with Luca. His moves, with the
Speaker 1: way he sells them, might only buy him a little
Speaker 1: bit of space. But when it's not, it's not like
Speaker 1: Luca's crossing people over and they're falling off of the frame.
Speaker 1: That's not what's happened. He's not athletic enough for that.
Speaker 1: But he just gets these little cracks of space. And
Speaker 1: when he gets the little cracks of space, he shoots
Speaker 1: the gap with his big, strong frame and gets you
Speaker 1: attached to his hip. Then once you're attached to his hip,
Speaker 1: he can methodically work you into the lane and get
Speaker 1: into a short range game. Like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: it's a very very interesting basketball player to evaluate. And again,
Speaker 1: like I said, young basketball players out there who are
Speaker 1: looking for ways to refine your offensive skill set or
Speaker 1: looking for ways to become more effective with your drible combinations,
Speaker 1: lucas the guy to watch because he makes up for
Speaker 1: his lack of athleticism within an amazing attention to detail
Speaker 1: and his moves a similar like uh, something you guys
Speaker 1: might pick up that our football fans out there. It
Speaker 1: would be like being an outstanding route runner despite not
Speaker 1: being a great athlete, but getting open all the time
Speaker 1: because of how skilled skilled you are running routes, selling
Speaker 1: every little fake and and making it so that no
Speaker 1: one knows where you're going until you're already going in
Speaker 1: that direction. Obviously, Luca is an advanced playmaker. You guys
Speaker 1: have heard me talk about this before, but like, I
Speaker 1: only put four guys in the top tiers of playmakers
Speaker 1: in league Lebron, Luca, Nicola, Yokich, and Chris Paul. There's
Speaker 1: a difference between like the basic reads that almost every
Speaker 1: primary ball handler in the league can make and advance reads. UH.
Speaker 1: Basically that involves manipulating the defense. So understanding the way
Speaker 1: the defensive rotations work and being patient to get the
Speaker 1: ball to the necessary spot two key help defenders to
Speaker 1: make the rotations they're gonna make so that you can
Speaker 1: hit the openings from there. It's about being on time
Speaker 1: and on target. A lot of passers, particularly bigs that struggle.
Speaker 1: So you're Anthony Davis, is your embiides, You're you know,
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Townses and stuff. They'll have openings and they
Speaker 1: might even see them, but they're too slow to make
Speaker 1: that read. And then the past is not on time
Speaker 1: and on target. So by the time it actually gets
Speaker 1: to the shooter, the defense has already rotated and the
Speaker 1: opening is taken away. The advanced playmakers, they will manipulate
Speaker 1: you into a rotation they want you to make, and
Speaker 1: then the passes on time and on target hate the
Speaker 1: shooter in the pocket so that he can make the
Speaker 1: shot before the defense can uh can rotate. The other way,
Speaker 1: I would describe it as like it's being reactive versus anticipatory. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you are if you are reacting to an
Speaker 1: opening that you see, then you're kind of a standard
Speaker 1: level playmaker because you're doing something you see an open man,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh ship and you throw on the ball. Right.
Speaker 1: An anticipatory playmaker understands that defensive rotation before it happens.
Speaker 1: He knows if I get to this spot, this man
Speaker 1: will help. That allows you to see it coming before
Speaker 1: it happens, which allows you the leeway to make the
Speaker 1: pass on time and on target. You know, Lebron, at
Speaker 1: these top tier playmakers, you're Chris Paul's your Lebron's your
Speaker 1: yoga is and your and your lucas. They are relentless
Speaker 1: with their reads. And there's something very important there. You've
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot with Jayson Tatum. Catch
Speaker 1: him on the right night, he might be making the reads.
Speaker 1: You catch him on a different night, he's not making
Speaker 1: the reads. And even on his best night, he's gonna
Speaker 1: miss a lot of reads because that's not his strength. Right,
Speaker 1: Those top tier guys, those four guys, and again there's
Speaker 1: only four of them in the entire league in my opinion,
Speaker 1: everyone else is pretty pretty significantly behind them in all
Speaker 1: those little elements of passing that I was talking about.
Speaker 1: They never miss a red like you'll be stunned, like
Speaker 1: you might two or three times a season watch Lebron
Speaker 1: miss a cutter and you'll be like, whoa Lebron missed
Speaker 1: a cutter? That was weird. And for every one time
Speaker 1: you see that, there will be thirty or forty times
Speaker 1: where you won't even see the cutter until the balls
Speaker 1: in his hands and he's finishing at the rim, and
Speaker 1: you're like, whoa Lebron saw something I didn't see? There?
Speaker 1: See the difference there, That relentless playmaking is what causes
Speaker 1: teams to make to try to turn Luca and Lebron
Speaker 1: into scores. They're sitting there thinking, we can't offer help
Speaker 1: because if we do, he burns us every single time.
Speaker 1: That relentless playmaking is what allows guys like Luca and
Speaker 1: Lebron to operate on an island offensively because for the
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of coaches, the strategy they will
Speaker 1: attempt to implement is, let's turn these guys into scores
Speaker 1: because then maybe they'll fatigue. And what's made Lebron so
Speaker 1: dominant over the course of his career is he's so
Speaker 1: well conditioned and he's so versatile with his scoring package
Speaker 1: that even that burns you nine times out of ten
Speaker 1: with him when you try to make Lebron a score. Now,
Speaker 1: Luca shows some small signs of fatigue and his shop
Speaker 1: making his things go by, but even he does pretty
Speaker 1: well in that specific situation. Like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: Luca's assists dropped to six in this playoff run, and
Speaker 1: a huge part of that was teams like Golden State
Speaker 1: and many others staying home on shooters and trying to
Speaker 1: turn Luca into a score. And then he still went
Speaker 1: off for whatever whatever it was thirty two points per
Speaker 1: game on true shooting, but that that relentless playmaking. It's
Speaker 1: the difference between the guys that make the reads sometimes
Speaker 1: and don't or the guys that make the reads every
Speaker 1: single time, which causes defenses to be hesitant to offer help.
Speaker 1: Um Another strength his size and strength to attack mismatches.
Speaker 1: We talked about this earlier. I'm a huge believer in
Speaker 1: mismatch attacking in the playoffs because most teams go to
Speaker 1: switching defenses, and so when you have bigger wings that
Speaker 1: have the ability to use their physicality to get closer
Speaker 1: to the rim, it's higher percentage mismatch attacking than guys
Speaker 1: who attack mismatches by taking off the dribble, jump shots constantly,
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. And the last, but not least,
Speaker 1: his fearlessness. Obviously, you guys saw what he did to
Speaker 1: Phoenix in this In this playoff run, there's almost like
Speaker 1: a sociopathic behavior with Luca where he doesn't just want
Speaker 1: to win, he wants to snatch your heart and utterly
Speaker 1: destroy you. Going fifty seven to twenty seven in the
Speaker 1: first half of Game seven is an example of that.
Speaker 1: Luca wanted to suck any energy out of that arena.
Speaker 1: He wanted to suck the belief out of the team,
Speaker 1: and he understood that if he did so, they would fold.
Speaker 1: And that's what he did. And there were even some
Speaker 1: wins against the Clippers in the previous two playoff runs
Speaker 1: where he had a similar impact against them, albeit uh
Speaker 1: not before they had an opportunity to actually win the series.
Speaker 1: The other one of my other favorite exam bulls of
Speaker 1: this is the way he picks on stars. Now it
Speaker 1: gets overplayed because what ends up happening is people go like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, look he's picking on Janice or oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, she's picking on Lebron. But it's actually a
Speaker 1: really smart strategy that enough that not enough players attempt
Speaker 1: to implement. Guys like Lebron and Janice are outstanding help defenders.
Speaker 1: Janice is the best help defender in the league obviously,
Speaker 1: so when you leave them in help side, even if
Speaker 1: you've got a good mismatch, if you're attacking that mismatch,
Speaker 1: that Janice factor on the other side of the floor,
Speaker 1: under or in the kind of in the back line
Speaker 1: spot defensively can can dissuade you from getting to the
Speaker 1: spots that you want to get to So one of
Speaker 1: the things that Luca does, which is again sociopathic but
Speaker 1: kind of genius, is he'll call up Janice or call
Speaker 1: up Lebron. I'll give you Honice as an example, because
Speaker 1: I saw this. I did a video on this. But
Speaker 1: he'll call Janice up to guard him, knowing that he's
Speaker 1: not gonna have an easy time scoring on Janice, but
Speaker 1: he can get him on his hip and he can
Speaker 1: work him into the lane. And now that cross court
Speaker 1: pass is with a lesser help defender, and if he
Speaker 1: makes that cross court pass, it'll hit the shooter in
Speaker 1: the shooters pocket and he'll get a good look, whereas
Speaker 1: if the roles were reversed, he'd get into that spot easier.
Speaker 1: But it's Janice rotating on that pass to the corner,
Speaker 1: and Janice isn't alien, so he will block that shot
Speaker 1: or dissuade the person from shooting. And the video that
Speaker 1: I did on this specific concept during the season, you
Speaker 1: saw that I showed some picking rolls where he was
Speaker 1: attacking other players and Janice was he racing reads with
Speaker 1: his athleticism, and then he started attacking Janice making the
Speaker 1: same reads and getting open threes because the health defenders
Speaker 1: weren't capable of rotating out soon enough. Alright, his weaknesses.
Speaker 1: He's very deliberate, which could affect his rhythm. This is
Speaker 1: the different excuse me could have affect his teammates rhythm.
Speaker 1: This is like this is like that pound the air
Speaker 1: out of the basketball, slowly dribbled up the court, cross
Speaker 1: at sixteen seconds, get the mismatch you want by seven seconds,
Speaker 1: and then you work to the spot you want to get,
Speaker 1: and then maybe you throw a past to a shooter
Speaker 1: with three seconds on the shot clock. Now there is
Speaker 1: a huge benefit to that in the sense that it
Speaker 1: also affects the rhythm of the other team. You know,
Speaker 1: when you strangle the pace of the game like that,
Speaker 1: it affects rhythm and flow. And when it when it
Speaker 1: affects that pace and flow of the game, it gets
Speaker 1: other teams out of the rhythm. So teams like Phoenix,
Speaker 1: for instance, that a running gun a little bit right,
Speaker 1: although Chris Paul can be methodical when he has the basketball,
Speaker 1: but the team in general actually likes to push the
Speaker 1: basketball a lot. When Lucas strangles the pace, it gets
Speaker 1: them out of their offensive rhythm. That's part of why
Speaker 1: Devin Booker didn't shoot as well as everybody hoped, or
Speaker 1: some of their role players didn't shoot as well as
Speaker 1: everybody hoped. There is a detrimental impact on the other team,
Speaker 1: but it also can have a detrimental impact on your team.
Speaker 1: When you have players that go and stay in the corner,
Speaker 1: don't do anything for twenty two seconds, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: the balls in their hands and they need to shoot,
Speaker 1: it can affect their rhythm as well. He's not great
Speaker 1: in the mid range right now. Now, I think how
Speaker 1: good he is in the short range makes up for this,
Speaker 1: but this is an example of an area of improvement
Speaker 1: for him. He was thirty eight percent in the regular
Speaker 1: season in the postseason because he's not a great athlete,
Speaker 1: He's not taking your stereotypical pull up jump shots where
Speaker 1: he's getting to a spot and elevating over the top
Speaker 1: of a defender. I think like a Devin Booker type
Speaker 1: of pull up shot or a Bradley Beal type of
Speaker 1: pull up shot. He's more getting you on his hip
Speaker 1: and taking post fades like working you down to ten
Speaker 1: twelve feet and then fading over both shoulders to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, drifting away from the basket. Those are generally
Speaker 1: low percentage shots. I'd like to see him try to
Speaker 1: get a little bit more efficient there. And then the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, he's literally bad at everything.
Speaker 1: He's one of the worst defensive players in the league
Speaker 1: right now. That's something that he's absolutely going to have
Speaker 1: to polish up. He can't contain on the perimeter and
Speaker 1: isolation situations. He's not good in help. You guys saw
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns relentlessly attack him in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: That's a huge area for opportunity. Conditioning. Obviously, Luca has
Speaker 1: been coming into camp each year at about two sixty
Speaker 1: pounds and working his way back down to to thirty
Speaker 1: by the end of the season. That's a huge part
Speaker 1: of something that's a huge part of the factors that
Speaker 1: are causing him to be a bad defensive player. It
Speaker 1: could lead to injuries and things along those lines. And
Speaker 1: then also, like when we talk about shot making and
Speaker 1: teams making Luca score, his stamina in that regard his
Speaker 1: ability to hold up over seven games as a guy
Speaker 1: who has to do a lot of isolation scoring. That's
Speaker 1: another area where his conditioning um UH is a factor,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to see him eventually adopt the level
Speaker 1: of care for his body that the all time great
Speaker 1: athletes in the NBA have, because that will be the
Speaker 1: difference between him being a top five player like he
Speaker 1: already is and potentially being the best player in the
Speaker 1: league greatest hopes. So, Luca, I think is is fastly
Speaker 1: becoming one of my favorite players. Like I talked earlier,
Speaker 1: I his the the the specific attention to detail with
Speaker 1: his dribble combinations and the way that he gets to
Speaker 1: his spot. I think his spots. I think it's such
Speaker 1: a good model for for young basketball players to to follow,
Speaker 1: and so he just has. And then obviously the sociopath behavior,
Speaker 1: the insanity with which he attacks winning basketball games, that
Speaker 1: is always going to be a thing that that draws
Speaker 1: me to him. Um. But I think there's a version
Speaker 1: of this story with Luca where he could be amount
Speaker 1: Rushmore type of player. He's kind of like an evolutionary
Speaker 1: Lebron on offense. He'll never be Lebron on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. That goes without saying he just
Speaker 1: simply does not have the physical tools. However, if you
Speaker 1: remember Lebron at his absolute peak, it was this relentless,
Speaker 1: conditioned like limitless source of energy physical offensive onslaught. There
Speaker 1: was not a player on the floor that could guard
Speaker 1: him in one on one situations, and you were perpetually
Speaker 1: stuck in the pick your poison type of situation. You're
Speaker 1: either leaving Lebron on an island, in which case he's
Speaker 1: going to score thirty five points a game in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and do it efficiently, or you're gonna help off
Speaker 1: of him and he's gonna pick you apart. Finding shooters
Speaker 1: in average twelve thirteen assist per game. That was the
Speaker 1: onslaught of Lebron, and it came with this great level
Speaker 1: of efficiency because he wasn't doing it with your Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant tough shot profile, You're Kyrie Irving tough shot profile.
Speaker 1: He was doing it by getting to the basket at will.
Speaker 1: And then even the jump shots that he was taking,
Speaker 1: players were playing off of him because of his physical onslaught,
Speaker 1: So most of his jump shots are straight up and down,
Speaker 1: balanced in rhythm jump shots. So there's a great deal
Speaker 1: of efficiency that came with Lebron's onslaught. The way, the
Speaker 1: best way that I would describe it is its surgical
Speaker 1: half court precision. He sees this defense in front of him,
Speaker 1: an elite playoff level defense. That playoff level defense has
Speaker 1: a game plan, whether that's taking away the shooters and
Speaker 1: letting Lebron score or sending the kitchens inc at Lebron
Speaker 1: and turning him into a passer, regardless of what which
Speaker 1: one of those strategies the team adopts, or all the
Speaker 1: intricate details of it, specific pick and roll coverages, where
Speaker 1: the help is coming from on the floor, which players
Speaker 1: they're helping off off of, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what that is, Lebron is gonna figure it
Speaker 1: out and surgically dissected. Luca has that potential couple of
Speaker 1: specific things, conditioning getting to the point where he can
Speaker 1: do that over the course of four playoff rounds right,
Speaker 1: getting more efficient with his shot making. He's not close
Speaker 1: to the level of efficiency that Lebron was at his
Speaker 1: peak in the playoffs. If he could figure those specific
Speaker 1: things out, he's capable of reaching that goal. We call
Speaker 1: this greatest hopes. This is a realistic hope he can
Speaker 1: get there, but in only the only way he's going
Speaker 1: to actually get there. Those If he can do those
Speaker 1: things and become a serviceable defensive player, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: he does nothing well on the defensive end. Right now,
Speaker 1: It's like it's a legitimate problem. He's got good size.
Speaker 1: So in theory, you guys who are listening, you probably
Speaker 1: guess what I'm gonna say here. What kind of defensive
Speaker 1: player can he be? He can be a good positional
Speaker 1: defender if he learns the appropriate amount of ground to give,
Speaker 1: knowing that he doesn't have the foot speed, but he
Speaker 1: has the size to contest shots. He will get better
Speaker 1: at dribble contain Teams will be able to shoot over
Speaker 1: the top of him off the dribble because you'll have
Speaker 1: to give ground. But he'll at least be able to
Speaker 1: contain ball handlers a little better if he gives ground
Speaker 1: and becomes a better positional defender. Help defense is all
Speaker 1: about understanding your scheme and just knowing where to be,
Speaker 1: knowing when to help, knowing when not to help, knowing
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to go if the defense gets into rotation.
Speaker 1: Those are little things that he can pick up just
Speaker 1: just by giving it, just by giving a ship, just
Speaker 1: by putting in the requisite effort. But if he can
Speaker 1: become a serviceable defensive player, and if he can become
Speaker 1: more efficient with his scoring and obviously the conditioning that
Speaker 1: it would require to do both of those things. He
Speaker 1: has the ability to become an evolutionary Lebron and offense.
Speaker 1: I said this yesterday on Twitter, and I believe it.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron, him and Steph are the two greatest
Speaker 1: offensive engines of all time. So if Luca can enter
Speaker 1: that conversation, that automatically puts him in a position where
Speaker 1: he can be a type of player that ends up
Speaker 1: on the Mount Rushmore basketball players at the end of
Speaker 1: the day um greatest fears. So the player that Luca
Speaker 1: is most frequently compared to is James Harden. Now there's
Speaker 1: some truth to that in the sense that Harden and
Speaker 1: Luca kind of represent the caricature of heliocentric basketball. Like
Speaker 1: there are a lot of helio centric players out there,
Speaker 1: like Lebron could be helliocentric, right, like Dame's helio centric,
Speaker 1: John Morant helio centric, a lot of helio centric players.
Speaker 1: It's kind of just the style, and honestly, it's the
Speaker 1: best way to go these days with how spaced out
Speaker 1: the floor is. But Harden and Luca kind of take
Speaker 1: that to an extreme, particularly with how long they will
Speaker 1: dribble the basketball. Both Harden and Luca will take sometimes
Speaker 1: twenty dribbles on a possession to get to the spot
Speaker 1: that they want to get to. That obviously, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, can effect rhythm and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: but there are some some key differences between the two.
Speaker 1: Harden does not have versatility and offensive approach. He pretty
Speaker 1: much starts from the same spot on the floor every
Speaker 1: single time either the left wing or the right wing
Speaker 1: goes with a live dribble. He's either gonna go isolation
Speaker 1: or pick and roll, but everything's off the dribble. If
Speaker 1: he can get to a three point shot, he's gonna
Speaker 1: take it, and if you play up on him, he's
Speaker 1: gonna try to go all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: and then obviously he will make reads out of that.
Speaker 1: He does not have the methodical nature of Luca to
Speaker 1: work two different spots on the floor that are closer
Speaker 1: excuse me, closer to the rim. This is what allows
Speaker 1: Luca's efficiency to go up in the playoffs, while James
Speaker 1: Harden's efficiency historically goes down in the playoffs when you
Speaker 1: rely strictly on step back three's and finishing at the rim,
Speaker 1: and the defense is shut down the rim, and now
Speaker 1: guys are pressing up on your step back three, your
Speaker 1: efficiency will tank. It's all also just really difficult to
Speaker 1: make step back three's as your sole offensive. You know,
Speaker 1: go to move, You're just gonna be in fishent in
Speaker 1: that sense. James Harden has a massive decline in his
Speaker 1: step back jump shooting from the regular season to the postseason.
Speaker 1: When Luca is getting to the short range and like
Speaker 1: we said earlier, attempting seven shots per game in the
Speaker 1: paint outside of the restricted area, he can make fifty
Speaker 1: of those because he's big and strong, and he's getting
Speaker 1: two spots on the floor where he feels comfortable. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that's been interesting with James Harden
Speaker 1: is some of you guys have noticed in some of
Speaker 1: the pickup game footage that's been floating around this summer,
Speaker 1: you can tell James Harden is making a concerted effort
Speaker 1: to try to work out of the post more high posts,
Speaker 1: like fifteen ft away from the basket, and then primarily
Speaker 1: as a face up player, he's not really turning his
Speaker 1: back to the basket more. But I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: that that shows that James Harden is at least trying
Speaker 1: to add some of that versatility that Luca has. Will
Speaker 1: see if he ever actually gets to the point where
Speaker 1: he can use it in NBA games. So, by the way, guys,
Speaker 1: that's the pathway. If you want to add something to
Speaker 1: your game, there's three step pathway. Figure out how to
Speaker 1: do it by yourself. Like if you want to add
Speaker 1: a post up fade away to your game, figure out
Speaker 1: how to do it by yourself in the gym to
Speaker 1: the point where you feel like you can make it consistently.
Speaker 1: Then start testing it against defenders and practice situations. If
Speaker 1: you're a college player, if you're just a kid playing
Speaker 1: for fun, see if you can do it in pickup games.
Speaker 1: Then when it becomes uh, when it gets to a
Speaker 1: point where you can comfortably do it in pick up games,
Speaker 1: that's when you can start implementing it in actual game situations.
Speaker 1: If you're playing in college or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: There's kind of a pathway to doing that, and it's
Speaker 1: good to see hard and trying to work along those paths.
Speaker 1: That path but that specific offensive versatility is the key
Speaker 1: difference between James Harden and Luca don Chech. But where
Speaker 1: the hardened ball. Is a legitimate fear for Luca is
Speaker 1: his physical conditioning, not taking care of his body, and
Speaker 1: what he does on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Here we are near the not near the end, but
Speaker 1: over a decade into James Harden's career, and he has
Speaker 1: never figured out the defensive end of the floor. His
Speaker 1: best season was in two thousand and eighteen and he
Speaker 1: was okay like that that That never was something that
Speaker 1: he figured out. And here we are at age thirty
Speaker 1: two and he's coming off back to back reasons where
Speaker 1: his physical health has been declining as a result of
Speaker 1: him not taking care of his body. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be another opportunity for Luca to separate himself from the
Speaker 1: Harden camp if you can figure out the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor and figure out how to take care
Speaker 1: of his body. But right now, that is a legitimate
Speaker 1: fear for Luca with his potential trajectory and the difference
Speaker 1: between him being a top five player of all time
Speaker 1: in something way worse than that is that specific crossroad.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, his conditioning could lead to injury problems
Speaker 1: if he's not comfortable, if he's not careful, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: when you're carrying an extra thirty pounds and you're making
Speaker 1: the same moves that you make when you weigh to
Speaker 1: thirty instead of to sixty, all it takes is a
Speaker 1: wrong step and it could be a torn a c
Speaker 1: l or killes or something along those lines. Knocking would
Speaker 1: you don't want to see anything like that, But conditioning,
Speaker 1: keeping yourself in supreme physical condition is the best way
Speaker 1: to avoid injuries. The biggest one if of Luca's career.
Speaker 1: Do you guys remember when Janice was kind of on
Speaker 1: the fence in Milwaukee. He had a bunch of weird
Speaker 1: quotes talking about how, like how he liked in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: but he might, you know, like it somewhere else to
Speaker 1: One day and there was some noise about a potential
Speaker 1: partnership between Luca Danshi in Janice in Dallas should he
Speaker 1: ever decide to leave Milwaukee. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: that was kind of where all the noise was pointing
Speaker 1: at the time, and then Janice ended up re upping
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee ended up being a great decision. He ended
Speaker 1: up winning an NBA championship shortly after. But we should
Speaker 1: all be thanking our lucky stars that Janice did not
Speaker 1: end up in Dallas alongside Luca, because if he did,
Speaker 1: they would have won all the basketball games. I talk
Speaker 1: a lot on this show about complimentary skill sets. You know,
Speaker 1: when we look at star partnerships, we don't factor in
Speaker 1: enough the way that they can cover for each other's
Speaker 1: strength and weaknesses. Like I talked about all the time,
Speaker 1: a basketball team has a bunch of responsibilities that have
Speaker 1: to be fulfilled by the five man unit. You know,
Speaker 1: there is he finishing a lot of times that's a
Speaker 1: three level score, or a big man who can finish
Speaker 1: around the room and shoot a little bit like a cat,
Speaker 1: Carl Towns or Anthony Davis. Right, and then you need
Speaker 1: you know, guys that are great at getting guys into spots, playmakers,
Speaker 1: game managers, things along those lines, role players who can
Speaker 1: attack closeouts, right and and and then obviously all the
Speaker 1: defensive responsibilities on the floor. Well, what's Luca's greatest weakness
Speaker 1: His inability to impact the game with his physical tools
Speaker 1: On the defensive end of the floor. Janice is the
Speaker 1: best defensive player in all of basketball. Also, Luca simple,
Speaker 1: be honest, and in recent years has been more active
Speaker 1: as a ball handler. But He's had a ton of
Speaker 1: success as the screener and ball screen actions lately. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine Janice running ball screens with Luca and what
Speaker 1: he could do off of the attention that Luca Garner's
Speaker 1: there and with his ability to pass the basketball. Then
Speaker 1: we go look over at j honest, what's Janice's specific
Speaker 1: weakness half court surgery, the ability to decipher top tier
Speaker 1: playoff defenses in the half court, particularly as a shot maker.
Speaker 1: I was actually very impressed by Janice's passing ability in
Speaker 1: this playoff run. Janice is obviously ahead in this list,
Speaker 1: and we will get into that when we get to him,
Speaker 1: But his specific weakness is the ability to consistently knock
Speaker 1: down shots over the top of defenses that packed the
Speaker 1: paint on him. Chris Middleton kind of helps him in
Speaker 1: that regard, but that's Luca. That's arguably Luca's great as skill.
Speaker 1: So the two of them compliment each other so well
Speaker 1: that that would have just been a disaster for the
Speaker 1: rest of the league Luca and Janice playing together. So again,
Speaker 1: we should be thankful that Jannis ended up re upping
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee. But a very interesting what if in the
Speaker 1: early phases of Luca donche career is what would have
Speaker 1: happened had Janice ended up in Dallas. The volume