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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. We are going to
Speaker 1: be continuing our top NBA players list with number twenty
Speaker 1: through number sixteen today and we're gonna get right into it.
Speaker 1: But before we get started. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason lt. So, you guys don't miss any show
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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. All right, without any further ado,
Speaker 1: let's hop into it. Number twenty Kyrie Irving. Yes, I
Speaker 1: think Kyrie Irving is a top twenty basketball player in
Speaker 1: the world. I'd probably have him a touch higher, closer
Speaker 1: to fifteen if he was a little bit more reliable
Speaker 1: and dependable. I do believe he's going to have one
Speaker 1: of his best seasons on that front this year. I
Speaker 1: think it was a bit of a wake up call
Speaker 1: for him what happened with his contract negotiation. He very
Speaker 1: much wanted a five year deal from Brooklyn this offseason,
Speaker 1: and he didn't get it. For good reason. He demonstrated
Speaker 1: over the previous two seasons that he's not dependable as
Speaker 1: it pertains to fulfilling the obligations of his contract, so
Speaker 1: he had to opt into his player option, and next
Speaker 1: year he's an unrestricted free agent and he's going to
Speaker 1: be seeking a long term deal. The only way he's
Speaker 1: gonna get that is if he demonstrates this season that
Speaker 1: the behavior from the previous seasons is over and then
Speaker 1: he's ready to commit to playing basketball on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: which I believe he will. Well, let's get to the basketball.
Speaker 1: So in this regular season, he averaged twenty seven points,
Speaker 1: four rebounds, and six assists on fifty percent sur shot,
Speaker 1: which is excellent, albeit on a small sample size. I
Speaker 1: think he only played right around thirty games this year.
Speaker 1: The average twenty one five and five on fifty nine
Speaker 1: percent true shooting. In the four game sweep against the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, which we're gonna talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about here in the second because I do think that
Speaker 1: a little bit too much blame is put on Kyrie
Speaker 1: and Katie in that specific series. So he's one of
Speaker 1: the most reliable playoff scorers of this era. If you
Speaker 1: take out that ugly series against Milwaukee in two thousand
Speaker 1: nine team when he was with the Celtics, you can
Speaker 1: pretty much reliably independably book him for twenty plus points
Speaker 1: efficiently every single night. And it's because, as we talked
Speaker 1: about in our criteria, I think three level scoring is
Speaker 1: the second most valuable offensive skill in all of basketball,
Speaker 1: and that is Kyrie's primary elite skill. He's actually not
Speaker 1: great at anything else, really, but he's fantastic at that
Speaker 1: specific skill. So when you get to the playoffs and
Speaker 1: you're attacking switching defenses, and you need guys that can
Speaker 1: attack matchups, and you need guys that can rescue possessions
Speaker 1: right shot clocks winding down, you don't have anything working,
Speaker 1: you throw the ball to Kyrie. He's as good as
Speaker 1: you'll find at those specific things, and so that makes
Speaker 1: him an immensely valuable playoff player. He's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite scorers to analyze and to try to take things
Speaker 1: from from my own game. When I'm talking to young
Speaker 1: players as well, I say the same thing like and
Speaker 1: when it comes to emulating players. Even though Kyrie is
Speaker 1: very esthetically appealing and he has a lot of flashy
Speaker 1: elements to his game, he's also amazingly fundamentally sound with
Speaker 1: his footwork, with his jump shot form, with his ability
Speaker 1: to change pace and speed his his foot speed and quickness.
Speaker 1: He's as good as you'll find at those specific things,
Speaker 1: and and there are a lot of parts to Kyrie's
Speaker 1: game that young players should absolutely try to emulate. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I think he's the best ball handler in the league.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's very close, but I think kyr Irving is
Speaker 1: the best ball handler in the league, probably of all time.
Speaker 1: That allows him to play reactionary basketball instead of, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like predetermining what he's going to do. Because
Speaker 1: of that, it makes him extremely difficult to guard. He
Speaker 1: doesn't predetermined moves. He reacts to what defenses due. He's
Speaker 1: got an unlimited repertoire of counter moves, so he's kind
Speaker 1: of just going one way or the other based on
Speaker 1: which way the defenders leaning, and then what he waits
Speaker 1: to see what you're gonna do, and then he has
Speaker 1: a counter for regardless of what your move is. He
Speaker 1: can finish short from the rim, he can finish at
Speaker 1: the rim, he can pull up long twos, he can
Speaker 1: pull up classic midrange twos, and he has all of
Speaker 1: the off the jibile three point shots in the game.
Speaker 1: He's that it's there in terms of versatility and well
Speaker 1: rounded offensive skill, sets. That's that's what makes Kyrie Kyrie.
Speaker 1: He's as good as you'll find in the league at
Speaker 1: that specific thing. His ball handling also makes him excellent
Speaker 1: at taking care of the basketball. He's always been a
Speaker 1: low turnover player. But outside of those things, which that's
Speaker 1: that skill set at three level, scoring, that that ball handling,
Speaker 1: all of that, Kyrie's as good as you'll find in
Speaker 1: the league. But everything else, literally every other area of
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, he's below average for his position,
Speaker 1: and that's what holds him back from reaching what Steph
Speaker 1: Curry can do as a small guard in the league.
Speaker 1: He's not a great playmaker, he doesn't move well without
Speaker 1: the basketball. He's a poor on ball defender, he doesn't
Speaker 1: do great covering in rotations. When it comes to the
Speaker 1: physicality areas of the game, like fighting for position and
Speaker 1: getting contested rebounds, he's not great compared to other guards
Speaker 1: around the league. Leadership and availability, I don't need to
Speaker 1: say much. Just look at what happened over the course
Speaker 1: of the the last two years. So he's got this lengthy
Speaker 1: list of weaknesses that kind of hold him back. But
Speaker 1: his peak skill is what makes him so valuable. Now,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of unique because as a number two
Speaker 1: with a team like Brooklyn that didn't have great role players,
Speaker 1: his shortcomings become a problem. But then you put him
Speaker 1: on the two thousand sixteen calves alongside a great list
Speaker 1: of role players, all of a sudden, his elite three
Speaker 1: level scoring is the perfect skill set of for for
Speaker 1: a number two alongside Lebron. I've always thought him and
Speaker 1: Lebron's skill sets compliment each other really well. It's one
Speaker 1: of the main reasons why I think the Lakers should
Speaker 1: pay whatever it takes to get Kyrie on board. His
Speaker 1: recent playoff failures are a bit overblown. He was amazing
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, then in Boston he was a number one,
Speaker 1: which just isn't the role that he should have. He's
Speaker 1: not good enough to be a number one. And then
Speaker 1: he was fantastic before he got hurt in that Brooklyn
Speaker 1: playoff run where they lost against Milwaukee. And then last
Speaker 1: year this this, this last season. You know, it's easy
Speaker 1: to get caught up in the numbers. Only twenty one
Speaker 1: points per game, right, but if you actually look at
Speaker 1: the half court scoring, they fared better against Boston than
Speaker 1: anybody else did. And remember I said Boston was one
Speaker 1: of the best defenses I had ever seen. They certainly
Speaker 1: are one of the best half court defenses that I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. You guys probably remember me Ray thinking about
Speaker 1: their transition defense or their inability to take care of
Speaker 1: the basketball in the way that compromised them frequently. But
Speaker 1: in the half court, Boston was unbelievably dominant. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't Golden State that scored the best against them. It
Speaker 1: wasn't Milwaukee, it was in Miami, it was Brooklyn. The
Speaker 1: average about nineties seven points per one hundred half court
Speaker 1: possessions compared to ninety two for Golden State, who is
Speaker 1: the second most effective offense offense against that Boston team.
Speaker 1: And that was with Kevin Durant having one of the
Speaker 1: worst playoff series of his career. So Kyrie, you know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to look at Kyrie and to look at
Speaker 1: KD for what happened in those series, in that series
Speaker 1: and that sweep, But Jana struggled with efficiency. You know,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler was amazing, because Jimmy Butler's just a complete anomaly.
Speaker 1: But like a lot of players struggled against that Boston defense.
Speaker 1: You can't just specifically point at Kyrie and Katie is
Speaker 1: the only guys who struggled in the ultimate team goal
Speaker 1: of putting the ball in the basket. Brooklyn was better
Speaker 1: at that against Boston than any of the other teams
Speaker 1: were the reason why they lost that series. The reason
Speaker 1: why they got dominated in that series is they couldn't
Speaker 1: get stops and they really struggled to hold up under
Speaker 1: the physicality that Boston creates with all of their length
Speaker 1: and athleticism all over the floor. Kyrie absolutely can be
Speaker 1: a number two. We've seen it, like in two thousand
Speaker 1: and sixteen with the Calves. You just need to have
Speaker 1: great role players there. It's one of the main reasons
Speaker 1: why that Brooklyn situation was broken and why they need
Speaker 1: to blow things up. They just don't necessarily have the
Speaker 1: requisite pieces to win with with Kyrie Irving as your
Speaker 1: second best player. Number nineteen James harden So in this
Speaker 1: regular season he averaged twenty two points eight rebounds in
Speaker 1: tennessis on fifty eight percent true shooting. Then in the
Speaker 1: postseason nineteen points per game, six rebounds and nine assis
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent try shooting. His best skill is
Speaker 1: his playmaking. At this point in his career, used to
Speaker 1: be scoring now it's playmaking. I call him a second
Speaker 1: tier playmaker. If you look at like lebron Chris, Paul Yokich,
Speaker 1: and Lucas like your top tier guys, I think James
Speaker 1: Harden's in the group right below them. That's his best skill.
Speaker 1: He's still a very efficient score, just on much lower volume.
Speaker 1: I mean, nineteen points per game in a playoff series
Speaker 1: in a playoff runs just isn't gonna get it done.
Speaker 1: The reality is that he's lost a step. Now. Some
Speaker 1: people will play in the hamstring. It's probably a combination
Speaker 1: of that in his lifestyle, which has led to him
Speaker 1: being out of shape, often not taking great care of
Speaker 1: his body. I think push comes to shove. James Harden
Speaker 1: would probably admit that, but that has led to him
Speaker 1: losing a step. And him losing a step as affected
Speaker 1: every single part of his game. You know, I talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot on this show, especially when we
Speaker 1: talk about skill development. But no move or or offensive
Speaker 1: attack works without the counter also working, because if the
Speaker 1: counter doesn't work, the defender can sit on your strength.
Speaker 1: We talked about this with Pascal Siyak him in the
Speaker 1: last show. If you guys, remember you can't shoot, then
Speaker 1: players will play off of you and take away your
Speaker 1: rim strengths. If you can't beat them off the dribble,
Speaker 1: then they will play up on your jump shot and
Speaker 1: make it harder for you to get to your jump shot.
Speaker 1: So for James Hart, for Pascal Siakim, it was the
Speaker 1: inability to shoot that affects him as a rim score right.
Speaker 1: But for James Harden, it's his inability to get a
Speaker 1: step on defenders into the lane that affects his pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting. So in Philly he averaged two point
Speaker 1: one restricted area finishes per game on As a comparison,
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen, when he won the m v P,
Speaker 1: he wont He finished three point nine layups in the
Speaker 1: restricted area per game at sixty two percent with Houston
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen, So he is half as effective
Speaker 1: at getting to the rim and finishing as he was
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen. That's a significant drop off. This
Speaker 1: past season, he shot thirty three PC on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots with Philly on only six point seven attempts
Speaker 1: per game. In two thousand and eighteen, he shot on
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots on ten attempts per game. So
Speaker 1: as you can see that inability to drive the ball
Speaker 1: to the basket has allowed defenders to step up on
Speaker 1: his step back more he's not getting as much separation.
Speaker 1: More often than not, he's passing on those shots. His
Speaker 1: attempts are way down, and then when he gets to him,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have the requisite separation and he's not knocking
Speaker 1: them down. There's always a given to take to this
Speaker 1: kind of thing. All areas of the game of basketball
Speaker 1: are intricate, intricately connected in all of these ways, and
Speaker 1: James Harden losing a step has directly affected his ability
Speaker 1: to get to his pull up jump shot, which which
Speaker 1: makes it even harder to get to the rim. You know,
Speaker 1: they all just kind of like compound on each other
Speaker 1: like that. So and and the place where you see
Speaker 1: that affect the Sixers so much is guys like Tires,
Speaker 1: Maxie and Tobias Hairs are really good basketball plays, but
Speaker 1: they're not great enough to consistently attack a set defense.
Speaker 1: And it's so important for Philly for James Harden to
Speaker 1: get initial dribble penetration so that guys like Maxie and
Speaker 1: Harris can attack with an advantage. And when those guys
Speaker 1: attack with an advantage, they are deadly, and so James
Speaker 1: Harden trying to recapture some of that athleticism is the
Speaker 1: best pathway towards Philly reaching their ultimate ceiling, because they
Speaker 1: need James Harden to be able to beat people off
Speaker 1: the dribble consistently. Again, last couple of nitpicky things. You know,
Speaker 1: he was great, he turned into a solid defensive player
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight team, but outside of that, it's
Speaker 1: always been pretty bad. He's still a solid post up
Speaker 1: defender because teams foolishly think that he's small so they
Speaker 1: can attack him in the post. But he's a very
Speaker 1: big six five and trunky and has a low center
Speaker 1: of gravity, so trying to post him up as kind
Speaker 1: of a fool's Errand my main beef with James Harden
Speaker 1: has always been like leadership and body language. It's one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why I was a huge fan
Speaker 1: of the PJ. Tucker signing and the Daniel House signing.
Speaker 1: You know, toughness and and like remaining competitive in basketball
Speaker 1: games was one of James Harden's biggest weaknesses. You see
Speaker 1: it all the time. You saw it again in this
Speaker 1: Miami series where remember that play where uh, he kind
Speaker 1: of like was walking the ball up the floor as
Speaker 1: it was rolling on the ground, and then I can't
Speaker 1: remember who it was. I might have been Victori La Depot,
Speaker 1: but they just ran in and grabbed the basketball, win
Speaker 1: and laid it up the other way. You remember the
Speaker 1: end of the two thousand nineteen series against Golden State
Speaker 1: where he's just throwing the ball all over the court,
Speaker 1: like when the going gets tough. James Harden's body language
Speaker 1: is poor, and and that's tough when your best player
Speaker 1: has that type of body language, because the whole team
Speaker 1: will traditionally follow. So hopefully guys like Daniel House and
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker will help the Sixers in that specific
Speaker 1: department and make this team a little bit more capable
Speaker 1: of holding up in some adversity in the playoffs. So
Speaker 1: last question with James Harden is he washed? I don't
Speaker 1: think so. First of all, he's still relatively young. He's
Speaker 1: in his early thirties, is only a couple of years
Speaker 1: older than me, And I think what he's going through
Speaker 1: right now is actually kind of similar to something that
Speaker 1: I'm going through, just in a different way. Like I
Speaker 1: always grew up with an incredible metabolism. I could eat
Speaker 1: whatever the hell I wanted, and I just never put
Speaker 1: on anyway, And I always I always felt like I
Speaker 1: could get away with anything. And as I've noticed, as
Speaker 1: I've gotten earlier, like my digestive system is a little
Speaker 1: bit more sensitive, like if I if I do what
Speaker 1: I did on vacation and eat like crazy and don't
Speaker 1: work out like I put on twelve pounds in fourteen
Speaker 1: days on a lake and on a cruise ship, right, Like,
Speaker 1: It's a lot of you guys who are listening can
Speaker 1: probably relate to that to a certain extent now, But
Speaker 1: James Harden, it's a little bit more intense because it's
Speaker 1: on the on the level of a professional athlete, right.
Speaker 1: So he's a professional athlete, and for him, it's more
Speaker 1: his lifestyle, the clubbing, the late nights, all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, right, And for a long time he could
Speaker 1: get away with it. But I think over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years he's had some glaring examples of the
Speaker 1: fact that he's aging to the point where he can
Speaker 1: no longer live that lifestyle. He might have to turn
Speaker 1: away from the clubbing in the late nights until the
Speaker 1: off season. And I genuinely believe, based on absolutely no
Speaker 1: intel I genuinely believe that James Harden has learned that lesson.
Speaker 1: I believe he will come into camp this year in
Speaker 1: much better shape. I think he understands the urgency of
Speaker 1: what this Philly team is capable of. With Tyres Maxie,
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiide on the roster. I believe
Speaker 1: he will come back and have a bounce back season.
Speaker 1: I expect James Harden to be a dominant top ten
Speaker 1: level player this year. He doesn't deserve that recognition now,
Speaker 1: but I think he's got at least one or two
Speaker 1: great seasons left in him. He'll just have to take
Speaker 1: care of his body, and I think he's learned that lesson,
Speaker 1: that lesson, and I believe we will see a bounce
Speaker 1: back season from James Harden this year. We'll see if
Speaker 1: he makes me look stupid for saying something like that,
Speaker 1: because I mean, here's the thing. When James Harden has
Speaker 1: got it going to the rim, when he's got that burst,
Speaker 1: he is a top ten player. Like in two thousand eighteen,
Speaker 1: he was creeping into that five or six spot. And
Speaker 1: he may not be that good again, but if you
Speaker 1: can get to the ninth or tenth best player in
Speaker 1: the league type of of production. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Philly becomes a much more interesting championship threat. Alright, guys,
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Speaker 1: and conditions. Number eighteen. One that I've been looking forward
Speaker 1: to talking to talking about for a long time because
Speaker 1: I do think this is a super interesting topic and
Speaker 1: it's very, very important to this success of the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers. Number eighteen Anthony Davis. Now I've been for
Speaker 1: all of these other rankings, I've been giving the last
Speaker 1: season's UH stats in last playoff run stats for Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give the last two seasons because it's he
Speaker 1: has been so unavailable that and it's just kind of
Speaker 1: gives a better UH does a better job of capturing
Speaker 1: the way that he's fallen off. So in the last
Speaker 1: two regular seasons, he's averaged twenty three points, nine rebounds,
Speaker 1: and three assists on fifty seven percent tur shooting in
Speaker 1: Games one through three against Phoenix and last year's playoff
Speaker 1: run because he played two additional games, but he barely
Speaker 1: played in both of those games because he got hurt.
Speaker 1: But in games one through three Verse Phoenix, he average
Speaker 1: twenty seven, nine and three, which is great, but on
Speaker 1: forty three percent shooting in from three. I'm gonna compare
Speaker 1: that to the twenty twenty season for you guys real quick,
Speaker 1: so you could see how big of a drop off
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Regular season twenty six points, nine rebounds,
Speaker 1: three assists on six true shooting in the playoffs twenty
Speaker 1: eight points, ten rebounds, four assists on sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: true shooting. It was one of the most dominant playoff
Speaker 1: runs that we've seen. Now, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: gonna say things like, oh, it was the bubble, but
Speaker 1: I encourage to look at Anthony Davis's production in the
Speaker 1: month or so leading into the bubble, before the shutdown,
Speaker 1: and early the very early part of the of the
Speaker 1: following regular season. His jump shot really was coming around.
Speaker 1: He really was developing into a better version of himself,
Speaker 1: and then something happened after that point. It's funny because
Speaker 1: I was watching a Tom Brady or saw a tweet
Speaker 1: come across my timeline the other day of Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Someone was quoting something that happened in training camp and
Speaker 1: Tom Brady was like turning to Leonard four Nett and
Speaker 1: cussing him out because he got tackled for a loss
Speaker 1: on a running play in training camp. And I was
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking, I'm like, man, that dude is such
Speaker 1: a psychopath. Like he's got seven championships, he's undisputed the
Speaker 1: best football player ever, and he's still every bit of
Speaker 1: a psychotically competitive asshole now that he was back then.
Speaker 1: And it's so strange to see that juxtaposed with what
Speaker 1: happened with Anthony Davis, which is after the bubble, you
Speaker 1: could make a solid case that he was as high
Speaker 1: as the second best player in the world. I had
Speaker 1: I think I had him four if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: after that playoff from but he was like unassailably a
Speaker 1: top five NBA basketball player again, ten and four on
Speaker 1: six seven percent true shooting on the way to a title,
Speaker 1: and not so much in the finals, but in the
Speaker 1: previous rounds he was every bit as good as Lebron
Speaker 1: James was. That's how good he was. And then he
Speaker 1: just completely fell off. Now health did play a role,
Speaker 1: but some of it is controlled and some of it
Speaker 1: is out of his control. Landing on someone's foot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you can really do about that. That happened
Speaker 1: late in this past season, but there's great intel out
Speaker 1: there for multiple people that he came into camp in
Speaker 1: one and in two out of shape. I should yeah,
Speaker 1: like in the season in two season, he showed up
Speaker 1: into camp out of shape. He looked big, He visibly
Speaker 1: looked big on the screen, and then you see things like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's having achilles tendinosis, which is a wear and tear injury.
Speaker 1: You know, you see him getting wrist injuries and things
Speaker 1: like that from falling down all the damn time. That's
Speaker 1: stuff that's absolutely under his control. And I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I can't just sit there and be like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis top five player just needs to be healthy. No,
Speaker 1: he showed up into camp out of shape and then
Speaker 1: proceeded to get hurt. That that that's that's the thing
Speaker 1: that tends to happen when you show up into camp
Speaker 1: out of shape. There are two Anthony Davis is. There's
Speaker 1: the defensive Player of the Year candidate who's a knockdown
Speaker 1: three point shooter who has a deadly high post attack
Speaker 1: and is a monster around the rim. That guy's a
Speaker 1: top five player. But then there's the all defense ish
Speaker 1: level big who can't score efficiently anytime. He's a a
Speaker 1: from the basket and is basically Clint Capella around the rim,
Speaker 1: who can roll and dive, and he still is a
Speaker 1: pretty dominant offensive rebounder. So Clint Cappela is probably under
Speaker 1: selling it to a certain extent, but offensively that you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's the kind of player we've seen the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and that's why I call him the
Speaker 1: Lakers X factor. That's why I think he's the most
Speaker 1: important piece to whether or not the Lakers can get
Speaker 1: back to championship contention. There's two Anthony Davis is that
Speaker 1: first Anthony Davis the deep, the defensive player of the year,
Speaker 1: is a perimeter monster and a number under the rim monster.
Speaker 1: That guy is going to take the Lakers back to
Speaker 1: championship contention if it's more of the last two years,
Speaker 1: and it's the guy that doesn't make the extra effort
Speaker 1: plays on defense anymore, who can't score efficiently away from
Speaker 1: the rim, who doesn't take care of his body. The
Speaker 1: Lakers are going to be a you know, a play
Speaker 1: in team. So I mean, yeah, I hope the Lakers
Speaker 1: make some moves to spruce up the roster. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: hope Lebron stays healthy. Yeah, we hope Austin Reeves takes
Speaker 1: a leap. None of that matters unless the old Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis comes back. It's the only it's the only thing
Speaker 1: that matters as it pertains to the Lakers reaching their ceiling,
Speaker 1: because when Anthony Davis is that guy and when Lebron
Speaker 1: is healthy and on the floor, those two guys, it's
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to beat them in a basketball game when
Speaker 1: they're at that level. Now, what do I expect? This
Speaker 1: has been a lot of noise, and he's been consistently
Speaker 1: criticized for two years fairly. I saw a tweet come
Speaker 1: across my feet from some random accounts today it's like,
Speaker 1: why Anthony Davis is a top ten player in the NBA,
Speaker 1: And I wanted to be like, you can't make that
Speaker 1: case anymore. He has absolutely no case to be considered
Speaker 1: among the top ten players in the league. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's insulting to the other players that are in that
Speaker 1: area to put him there. He has massively fallen off
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. I genuinely believe that
Speaker 1: all of that will lead to him waking up and
Speaker 1: having a big bounce back season this year, just like
Speaker 1: what happened with James Harden. But that's in Anthony Davis's hands,
Speaker 1: and it's up to him to make that happen. And
Speaker 1: and and again. I know I've just been really critical
Speaker 1: of him, but he's one of my favorite players, and
Speaker 1: he's so incredibly dominant when he's locked in. I just
Speaker 1: want to see that again. I just I'm trying to
Speaker 1: light a fire under his butt. Man, I want to
Speaker 1: see the old Anthony Davis number seventeen. Demarda Rosen. In
Speaker 1: this regular season, he average twenty five and five on
Speaker 1: true shooting. Damn good playoff run, albeit in a quick
Speaker 1: gentleman sweep to the Bucks, he average twenty one five
Speaker 1: and five on forty percent true shooting. Um. The Bucks
Speaker 1: are really good, and they were a bad matchup for Chicago.
Speaker 1: We talked about this in our playoff previews, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: several months ago, but the Bulls were basically the worst
Speaker 1: three point shooting team in the league. They were dead
Speaker 1: last in three point attempts per one hundred possessions and
Speaker 1: they were twenty nine in makes per one possessions. And
Speaker 1: the Bucks, they are a team that sells out to
Speaker 1: the paint and makes you shoot threes. And so it
Speaker 1: was a really really bad matchup specifically for the Bulls
Speaker 1: and specifically for Demarta Rosen. Like Demarta Rosen average five
Speaker 1: made field goals in the paint this season, the Bucks
Speaker 1: held him to three point to Why because it's just
Speaker 1: completely crowded in there. So a huge part of that
Speaker 1: is the Lonzo ball injury, and I he's just the
Speaker 1: poor kid just can't stay on the court. And he's
Speaker 1: he's a really really talented young guard, particularly on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, and he's turned himself into
Speaker 1: such a good three point shooter that just a Lonzo
Speaker 1: getting healthy and getting back into the lineup will go
Speaker 1: a long way towards alleviating that spacing issue. They need
Speaker 1: Patrick Williams to take a leap, They need to get
Speaker 1: a better front court athlete because Vussovitch struggles in some
Speaker 1: of those things. So I do think that I want
Speaker 1: to cut the Rosen some slack in what happened in
Speaker 1: that uh in that specific playoff matchup against the Bucks.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is that he does need to
Speaker 1: get better as a three level score. Demarta Rosen is
Speaker 1: a great two level score, but he's methodically works as
Speaker 1: a way closer to the basket as a back to
Speaker 1: the basket player, and when you're playing against teams like
Speaker 1: the Bucks that packed the paint, that's just not enough.
Speaker 1: He needs to become a dynamic pull up three point
Speaker 1: shooters so that he can get more slashing opportunities, so
Speaker 1: that he can actually get downhill a little bit more
Speaker 1: instead of methodically working his way into the lane. He's
Speaker 1: always been a very good playmaker, specifically since he went
Speaker 1: to San Antonio, but that took a little bit of
Speaker 1: a step back here in Chicago. I think he averaged
Speaker 1: two fewer assist per game than he did the previous season.
Speaker 1: But a big part of that is the role that
Speaker 1: he's in on this team, and like we said earlier,
Speaker 1: that lack of shooting to kick out to uh to
Speaker 1: allow him to make plays for his teammates. Um On defense,
Speaker 1: he's okay below average comparative most of the better defensive
Speaker 1: wings around the league. His confidence has always been one
Speaker 1: of his biggest issues because the drop off between his
Speaker 1: regular season production and his playoff production has been kind
Speaker 1: of consistent throughout his career, and I've always associated it
Speaker 1: associated it to confidence, Like you just don't see the
Speaker 1: same you know, like moxie from him on the court
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and you do in the regular season.
Speaker 1: But I did see in this last regular season the
Speaker 1: last couple actually, he you saw it, like him start
Speaker 1: to get a lot more comfortable with who he was,
Speaker 1: a lot more confident. I saw him outduel some really
Speaker 1: good basketball players in big moments at the end of games.
Speaker 1: But then that completely faded against Milwaukee after that game,
Speaker 1: to which he was amazing in Game two and basically
Speaker 1: shot the Bucks out of their own building. But the
Speaker 1: rest of the series he really really struggled. And again
Speaker 1: it's because they took away his strength. They packed the
Speaker 1: paint and Dmarda Rosen methodically working his way downhill into
Speaker 1: traffic just wasn't gonna cut it. And and so he
Speaker 1: will eventually again, like him being such a great midrange
Speaker 1: score is uniquely great for this era. Like we've talked
Speaker 1: about so much, NBA defense is prioritized the three point
Speaker 1: line and the rim, so if you can operate in
Speaker 1: that middle area, there's a great deal of value there.
Speaker 1: But you can't be a two level score. You have
Speaker 1: to be a three level score. He did up his
Speaker 1: uh A usage at the three point line a little
Speaker 1: bit this year. I think he went from about one
Speaker 1: point to three point attempts the previous season to one
Speaker 1: point nine, which is okay, but he really needs to
Speaker 1: be a guy who's taken at least three or four
Speaker 1: or three point shots uh per game number sixteen. And
Speaker 1: this is the guy that I think is the breakout
Speaker 1: player of this past postseason. Jalen Brown the average six
Speaker 1: and four ont s percent true shooting in the regular season.
Speaker 1: He average twenty three seven in four on fifty eight
Speaker 1: percent true shooting in the playoffs, so ticking up in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Just like I said with Anthony Edwards, I
Speaker 1: think it's a huge uh indicator of the value of
Speaker 1: size and strength. He's a big, strong wing, which allows
Speaker 1: him to thrive in the physicality of the playoffs. I
Speaker 1: have a couple of wild Jalen Brown stats for you.
Speaker 1: He led all players in the NBA playoffs and fourth
Speaker 1: quarter scoring in total scoring. He shot fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: from the yield in the fourth quarters, fifty six percent
Speaker 1: on threes. He's straight up one a bunch of games
Speaker 1: for Boston and on many nights was their best player.
Speaker 1: He shot a hundred and twenty six pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots that was the revelation from Jalen Brown in this
Speaker 1: playoff run and made fifty four of them, which is
Speaker 1: forty two point nine percent. As a comparison, Tatum took
Speaker 1: a hundred ninety two and only made thirty three percent
Speaker 1: of him the Nightmare pull up shooting UH playoff run.
Speaker 1: Thirty players in this playoff run attempted at least fifty
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots. Jalen was fifth in percentage, seventh
Speaker 1: in effective field goal percentage which waits threes in sixth
Speaker 1: in total makes. Specifically, what he's really great at is
Speaker 1: his pound dribble step back going to the left um.
Speaker 1: This is great for players to have a low center
Speaker 1: of gravity that have a good first step. When you
Speaker 1: beat someone UH, you drive left and the defenders usually
Speaker 1: trying to ride you, but you're bigger and stronger. You
Speaker 1: work him down one or two dribbles and you pound
Speaker 1: the basketball and take step back. Jalen Brown is excellent
Speaker 1: at that. Specific pull up jump shot. At me, it's
Speaker 1: borderline unguardable with how gifted he is at getting to
Speaker 1: the rim. And then the other thing that's interesting with
Speaker 1: his off the dribble shooting is where he releases the shot.
Speaker 1: Because he's a great athlete, he elevates and shoots at
Speaker 1: the top of his shot. There's pretty much like three
Speaker 1: different shot releases that you'll see around the league. Really
Speaker 1: short players will shoot on the way up because they're
Speaker 1: not tall and they typically don't elevate, so they have
Speaker 1: to get the shot off quickly when they have separation.
Speaker 1: Classic examples of this are like Steph Curry and Trey Young.
Speaker 1: Steph Steph Curry is a lightning quick release on the
Speaker 1: way up. Spot up shooters think like Klay Thompson or
Speaker 1: any of the other great spot up shooters around the league.
Speaker 1: They typically shoot just before the apex of their shot,
Speaker 1: so they get lots of elevation to take away how
Speaker 1: much they need to use their arms, which makes it
Speaker 1: easier to do for muscle memory. Right, if you have
Speaker 1: to jacket really if you have to throw the shoot
Speaker 1: the ball really hard with your arm, it's hard to
Speaker 1: control that. But if you elevate, you get good power
Speaker 1: from your legs and then you can be really controlled
Speaker 1: and replicate your release. And then, last, but not least,
Speaker 1: there's elevating jump shooters. One of the only guard that
Speaker 1: does this extremely well that I've seen is Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: But these guys shoot at the top of their shot,
Speaker 1: and the idea there is they're hanging in the air
Speaker 1: waiting for you to come down so that they can
Speaker 1: shoot over the top. And that's the type of pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooter that Jalen Brown is. He It's it's
Speaker 1: really really pretty pretty to watch to see the way
Speaker 1: that he hangs over the defender and shoots. Another great
Speaker 1: example of that is Mr Devin Booker. He was fifth
Speaker 1: in total finishes in the restricted area, only six, though
Speaker 1: he's struggled to finish through contact. That's something he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to to get a little bit better at. For
Speaker 1: a big slashing wing like him, you'd want to be
Speaker 1: higher than seventy. You want to be around seventy. He
Speaker 1: had average three point five assists and had three point
Speaker 1: one turnovers per game. He has a tendency to over
Speaker 1: complicate his dribble and dribble into traffic now you'd see
Speaker 1: people on Twitter say things like, oh, Jalen Brown can't dribble.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown can dribble, fine. It's just there's two different
Speaker 1: elements to ball handling. There's the technical aspect of controlling
Speaker 1: the basketball, and then there's understanding how to avoid situations
Speaker 1: where you can lose the basketball. In the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: you're allowed to do a lot of hand checking, hitting
Speaker 1: and and and body checking and all those things. And
Speaker 1: if you're even if you technically in a very sound
Speaker 1: technical way dribble the ball, well, if someone hits you
Speaker 1: on the arm and the ref doesn't call it, you're
Speaker 1: gonna lose the basketball. And one of the big issues
Speaker 1: that Jalen Brown ran into is he'd get over complicated
Speaker 1: with side to side dribbles when he's a better athlete,
Speaker 1: so he could simplify it and just hit the gaps,
Speaker 1: and then he would dribble into traffic and keep the
Speaker 1: dribble alive and people would slap his arms and stuff,
Speaker 1: and he'd lose the basketball. Simplifying things. Lebron is great
Speaker 1: at this, simplifying things to where it's a rip through
Speaker 1: and you gather early and tuck the basketball and take
Speaker 1: it strong to the ram. That'll be the next step
Speaker 1: to him for him to take care of the basketball.
Speaker 1: So the big question with Jylen Brown can he be
Speaker 1: a number one? And this is a very relevant question
Speaker 1: because of a specific trade that was thrown out, a
Speaker 1: trade possibility that was thrown out while I was on
Speaker 1: vacation involving Jalen Brown going to the Brooklyn Nets. I
Speaker 1: believe he can and I'm so high on Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: that I think the Brooklyn netshould make this particular trade
Speaker 1: if they can't get Zion, if they can't get Scottie Barnes,
Speaker 1: I would get Jalen Brown if I was the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is he's taking care
Speaker 1: of the basketball and becoming a better playmaker away from
Speaker 1: being a bona fide star and a guy who's consistently
Speaker 1: a threat to be considered a top ten player. That's
Speaker 1: how good of a basketball player Jalen Brown is. I'm
Speaker 1: extremely high on him. He's not a number one right now,
Speaker 1: but he absolutely can believe it can be, and I
Speaker 1: think it's realistic that he could be one day, and
Speaker 1: I think Brooklyn should potentially make that move if they
Speaker 1: can't get something better from Toronto or from New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Very very high on Jalen Brown. Uh. It's cool to
Speaker 1: see him this high on the list because I watched
Speaker 1: him play in person when he was at CAL. I've
Speaker 1: watched his career developed and he's become a fine, dependable
Speaker 1: NBA playoff basketball player, and I'm excited to see what
Speaker 1: he can do this last year. All Right, that's all
Speaker 1: I have for tonight. We'll have fifteen through eleven sometime
Speaker 1: this weekend. As always, I appreciate your guys support, and
Speaker 1: I'll see you in a couple of days. The volume