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Speaker 1: to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys had an amazing week and
Speaker 1: that you got big plans for the weekend. I will
Speaker 1: be prepping my house to get painted, so hopefully you'll
Speaker 1: be doing something more fun than what I'll be doing
Speaker 1: this weekend. We've got a jam Pack show for today
Speaker 1: and then tonight we're gonna be covering the Friday Night
Speaker 1: slate and this show, we're hitting Victor Wembinyama's best game
Speaker 1: as a pro thirty eight points, ten rebounds and two
Speaker 1: assists in a fourth quarter barrage that puts the Suns
Speaker 1: below five hundred at two and three. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that game from the perspective of both teams. And then,
Speaker 1: as I've been saying, we're tweaking the format of the
Speaker 1: show a little bit this year. We're gonna do fewer
Speaker 1: game breakdowns and more deep dives on specific teams so
Speaker 1: we can learn a little bit more from more in
Speaker 1: depth film sessions. And so I did an in depth
Speaker 1: film session on the Milwaukee Bucks this morning on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, as they suffered an embarrassing loss
Speaker 1: to the Toronto Raptors the other day to fall to
Speaker 1: two and two, and they've been especially bad on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. So we're gonna do a
Speaker 1: deep dive into what is wrong with the Bucks at
Speaker 1: this point in time.
Speaker 2: You guys are the joke.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, to subscribe to our brand new
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. We're getting this thing launched off the ground.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate all of you have subscribed already. If
Speaker 1: you haven't done so, it would mean a lot to
Speaker 1: me if you guys took a couple seconds just to
Speaker 1: hit down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: a podcast feed wherever you're your podcast under Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 1: Social media TikTok, Instagram as well as Twitter. I've been
Speaker 1: doing my film sessions in the morning on Twitter, but
Speaker 1: I'm doing film content and show announcements on social media.
Speaker 1: And the last, but not least, we need more mailbag questions.
Speaker 1: Keep dropping those in the YouTube comments so we can
Speaker 1: hit them later on in the shows throughout the week.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Spurs jump
Speaker 1: all over the Suns on the road after Remember this
Speaker 1: team just beat the Suns in dramatic fashion, coming from
Speaker 1: behind with that late game steal from Keldon Johnson in
Speaker 1: the layup with just a I think what was served
Speaker 1: less than a second left at that point, So you'd
Speaker 1: think the Suns would be coming out wanting revenge. No,
Speaker 1: the Spurs jumped them early. Victor woman Yama has twenty
Speaker 1: in the first half. Devin Vessel has seventeen in the
Speaker 1: first half. Victor's dribbling down the floor and hitting pull
Speaker 1: up transition threes, and the Suns look like they're in
Speaker 1: some trouble, right, But then the Suns wake up late
Speaker 1: third quarter, early fourth, Devin Booker is still very much
Speaker 1: on fire. Five for seven from three again. In that game,
Speaker 1: he had thirty one points and thirteen assists. He's got
Speaker 1: this like really nice connection and pick and roll with
Speaker 1: Drew Eubanks, who kind of finds that little soft spot
Speaker 1: in between the charge circle and the semi circle and
Speaker 1: just kind of hangs out there and waits as Devin
Speaker 1: like kind of works behind the basket. He'll drop it
Speaker 1: off to him in front of the rim, and he
Speaker 1: can either make that little floater or he can take
Speaker 1: that little hard drop step and then take a little
Speaker 1: hook shot over the top. Devin Booker is off to
Speaker 1: an insane start again, following up his insane playoff run.
Speaker 1: He's averaging thirty two points, eight rebounds, and eleven assists
Speaker 1: on seventy two percent tru shooting. I've been saying that
Speaker 1: I think I think this is one of those situations
Speaker 1: where Devin Booker is ascending to true superstar status, like
Speaker 1: I mean, like joining up with those top tier guys.
Speaker 1: His shot making is becoming as reliable as the best
Speaker 1: shooters in the world, and he's actually earned himself into
Speaker 1: an average too slightly above average defensive player. He's a
Speaker 1: super high level playmaker. That was the big thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to us early in the season, right, and
Speaker 1: then thirteen assists again last night, Keta Bates Job had
Speaker 1: a nice shift there in that fourth quarter run. He
Speaker 1: had two slashing layups, including one where he actually worked
Speaker 1: around Victor Webbin Yama to finish at the rim, which
Speaker 1: was really impressive, and hit a big corner three that
Speaker 1: ended up tying the game late. I thought that was
Speaker 1: an interesting kind of development from a team that needs
Speaker 1: guys that can come off the bench and do dirty
Speaker 1: work stuff as role players. I thought Key Baits shot
Speaker 1: played well. Kdie locked in defensively, made some big defensive
Speaker 1: plays as they got back into the game. Hit a
Speaker 1: big pull up three in that run, so they get
Speaker 1: all the way back and they tie it at one
Speaker 1: sixteen on the Key Debates Job three. And then what
Speaker 1: I really appreciated is like one of the things that
Speaker 1: you hope to see from really smart half court basketball
Speaker 1: players is they do a good job of identifying when
Speaker 1: you really need to find an easy shot, right, Like
Speaker 1: everybody knows, even the you know, like the best guards
Speaker 1: in the world can come off of a ball screen
Speaker 1: and shoot a pull up three. Wemby knows that he
Speaker 1: can probably get a pull up three whenever he wants, right,
Speaker 1: all the best wings in the world can get to
Speaker 1: some sort of turnaround, fade away or step back jump
Speaker 1: shot whenever they want. But usually when they know their
Speaker 1: offense is struggling and they need to get them kind
Speaker 1: of get the lid off the rim, so to speak,
Speaker 1: they usually have something they go to that's a little
Speaker 1: bit more reliable, a little bit higher percentage. Right, And
Speaker 1: like the best players in the world are really good
Speaker 1: at identifying when those moments are. Victor wemen Yama, when
Speaker 1: it's tied at one sixteen, just runs down the floor,
Speaker 1: gets deep post position and ducks in and calls for
Speaker 1: the basketball. They throw the post entry to him, he
Speaker 1: draws a foul, he gets the line, he makes a
Speaker 1: free throw. That's a super high percentage play for Wemby.
Speaker 1: He knows he's either going to get a foul or
Speaker 1: a bucket in that position. When the floor is spaced.
Speaker 1: It was kind of in a semi transition set, so
Speaker 1: the floor was a little spread out. He had plenty
Speaker 1: of room. He's an easy target because of how tall
Speaker 1: he is. It was a really high percentage play. Right,
Speaker 1: he comes down the floor and flashes to the kind
Speaker 1: of like mid post area on the block and shoots
Speaker 1: a quick jumps out over Kevin Durant draws a foul.
Speaker 1: Another smart play where he's working to get close to
Speaker 1: the rim and then he jumps straight up and down
Speaker 1: knowing KD can't block him and if Katie gets into
Speaker 1: his airspace at all, he has a chance to get
Speaker 1: a foul. There makes those two free throws an now
Speaker 1: we're up three. The Spurs are up one nineteen to
Speaker 1: one sixteen. Then they post up Zach Collins on the
Speaker 1: left baseline and Drew u Banks makes the first of
Speaker 1: three pivotal mistakes down the stretch of this game. He
Speaker 1: overhelps as Zach Collins spins towards the baseline. He's pushed
Speaker 1: underneath the basket doesn't really have anything, but u Banks
Speaker 1: goes and offers hard help. Zach Collins drops it off
Speaker 1: to Victor Weminyamu has another one of those like completely
Speaker 1: nonsensical dunks, or he just elevates over everyone and dunks
Speaker 1: it with his left hand. Suddenly, the Spurs are up
Speaker 1: by five.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: U Banks then makes his second big defensive mistake down
Speaker 1: the stretch. Zach Collins catches the ball in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor and takes a drop step and you
Speaker 1: flops to try to draw a foul in the lane,
Speaker 1: falls over, doesn't get the call. Zach Collins just goes
Speaker 1: up with a little easy floater in the lane. He
Speaker 1: makes it. Now the Spurs are up seven, and then
Speaker 1: we get Victor women Yama on the upper right wing
Speaker 1: in a play that I thought was incredibly impressive and
Speaker 1: is specifically an impressive demonstration of high level footwork. So
Speaker 1: most right handed players like to operate out of a
Speaker 1: left foot pivot foot. Why because it's really easy to
Speaker 1: get to a right handed drive from there. Right got
Speaker 1: the ball, hard jab step to the right, I could
Speaker 1: pull up, I can just rip through to the right,
Speaker 1: or I can jab and go to the left right,
Speaker 1: or it's set up for a step back to the
Speaker 1: left if I need to go that way. It's really
Speaker 1: easy to do footwork off of your left foot pivot foot.
Speaker 1: I find this when I'm working with my high school kids,
Speaker 1: Like all the righty's do, just find with their footwork
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts when they're set up with their left foot
Speaker 1: pivot foot. But then I put them on the other
Speaker 1: side of the floor and I force them to do
Speaker 1: their right foot deliberately so that they learn to have
Speaker 1: mirror image footwork right. But they struggle a lot with that.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is because you just don't
Speaker 1: see a lot of right handed players that learned how
Speaker 1: to set up with their right foot pivot foot. It
Speaker 1: just is a mirror image. It's a little more awkward.
Speaker 1: All of the different kind of angles of the way
Speaker 1: your body sets up for jump shots are different that way, right,
Speaker 1: because you like to have your left foot back as
Speaker 1: a right handed shooter right. So it's just a little
Speaker 1: bit weird, But if you learn how to do it, it
Speaker 1: can make you a lot harder to guard. And so
Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting. Victor runs out to
Speaker 1: the perimeter, grabs the ball and drew you. Banks is
Speaker 1: on him, and he's set up with his right foot
Speaker 1: pivot foot with his back to the basket, and he
Speaker 1: does a hard reverse pivot out of it right like
Speaker 1: an over the top I won't even reverse pivot. It
Speaker 1: was over the top pivot. And he turns and faces
Speaker 1: you Banks with his right foot pivot right, and then
Speaker 1: he does like a reverse jab step where he's got
Speaker 1: his right foot set up as the pivot, but he
Speaker 1: jabs like he's going to go to the right, and
Speaker 1: U Banks just bites on the fake and then from there,
Speaker 1: keeping that right foot pivot, he just pushes off to
Speaker 1: the left and then sets his footwork for an easy
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot going to his left. And I
Speaker 1: thought it was really fascinating because again, like I have
Speaker 1: a hard enough time finding right hand guards that know
Speaker 1: how to work with a right foot pivot, and here's
Speaker 1: this nineteen year old seven foot four center that has
Speaker 1: more polished footwork than a lot of the perimeter players
Speaker 1: that you'll see playing basketball. And it was just an
Speaker 1: incredibly impressive move. As he elevates and knocks down the
Speaker 1: jump shot, you could literally hear Eddie Johnson and the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns crew going like, what do you do with that?
Speaker 1: You know, what do you do with that? It was
Speaker 1: a it was kind of like wild. Everybody on the
Speaker 1: floor is in shock watching his Wenbin Yama just completely
Speaker 1: takes over the game. That puts him up by ten.
Speaker 1: He adds one more flash, it flashes to the top
Speaker 1: of the key, knocks down to catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shot to put him up by twelve just for fun,
Speaker 1: but he completely dominated down the stretch. The Spurs actually
Speaker 1: played some pretty impressive defense down the stretch as well.
Speaker 1: You want Nabby at a wide open three in the
Speaker 1: left corner where Victor Wembnyama's kind of uniquely equipped to
Speaker 1: be able to help out of the strong side corner
Speaker 1: on the Devin Booker drive but then still recover out.
Speaker 1: He did this like weird like scissor kick Jordan symbol
Speaker 1: contest on you to want Nabby that just enough to
Speaker 1: get him to miss the shot. Remember, you do want
Speaker 1: to not be shot over fifty percent on corner threes
Speaker 1: last year drew Youubanks his third pivotal mistake down the
Speaker 1: stretch of the game, missed a point blank layup on
Speaker 1: the right side of the basket against that Collins that
Speaker 1: he's got to make. Katie missed a pull up three
Speaker 1: that rimmed in and out, and then Jeremy soch On
Speaker 1: Sohan had a really impressive block on Devin Booker driving
Speaker 1: towards the left, and so a combination of Victor wenbin
Speaker 1: Yama's shot making and a high level defense on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor and the Spurs notch their
Speaker 1: third win of the season as they go to three
Speaker 1: and two. Victor wenbin Yama thirty eight points ten rebounds
Speaker 1: to assist with two blocks in his steal. He's averaging
Speaker 1: twenty one points and eight rebounds in just twenty nine
Speaker 1: minutes per game. If you extrapolated that out to a
Speaker 1: thirty six minute night, like most players do when they
Speaker 1: are in their primes, which I'm sure Victor will eventually
Speaker 1: do when I would imagine they'll keep him down at
Speaker 1: twenty nine as a rookie, but don't be surprised if
Speaker 1: any year or two he's playing, you know, thirty three
Speaker 1: to thirty five minutes a game. But in a per
Speaker 1: thirty six basis, he's scoring two twenty six points and
Speaker 1: ten rebounds on fifty nine percent true shooting. He's also
Speaker 1: fifth in the league in stocks that steals plus blocks
Speaker 1: per game at three point six despite playing just twenty
Speaker 1: nine minutes. Anthony Davis is in first place in that
Speaker 1: stat right now, and after last night another clutch scoring
Speaker 1: broad is third of the season.
Speaker 2: He now is.
Speaker 1: Third in the league in clutch scoring twenty one points
Speaker 1: on seven for ten shooting, just behind Luka Doncic and
Speaker 1: Lebron James. It's the third time the season that he's
Speaker 1: looked really, really comfortable in a close game late on
Speaker 1: a floor with other really comfortable closers, which is just
Speaker 1: an unbelievable, impressive level of confidence. The defensive numbers are
Speaker 1: hilarious with Victor. When he's on the floor for that
Speaker 1: twenty nine minutes a game, the Spurs have a one zero,
Speaker 1: three point six defensive rating, which is the same as
Speaker 1: the third best team in the league right now, the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic. Right so they have a top three defense
Speaker 1: when Victor's on the floor, but in the big picture,
Speaker 1: for forty eight minutes a game, they're twenty seventh in
Speaker 1: defensive rating, giving over one hundred and giving up over
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixteen points per one hundred possessions. So,
Speaker 1: as you can see, they like when Victor's on the floor,
Speaker 1: they have an elite defense already already an elite defense
Speaker 1: with Victor on the floor, but they're just so unbelievably
Speaker 1: atrocious without him that they still have a bad defense
Speaker 1: in the league. But most importantly, the Spurs are three
Speaker 1: and two, so he's putting up unbelievable numbers he's going
Speaker 1: toe to toe with stars at the end of games,
Speaker 1: he's single handedly anchoring a top three level defense when
Speaker 1: he's on the floor and they're winning games, they're three
Speaker 1: and two. This is I just hope everybody who's watching
Speaker 1: this appreciates it for what it is, which is a
Speaker 1: once in a generation type of player and a guy who,
Speaker 1: if he's healthy, is going to be an all time
Speaker 1: great and we're gonna get to watch it and cover
Speaker 1: it from start to finish, and I hope everybody appreciates
Speaker 1: it for what it is. Kevin Durant postgame was asked
Speaker 1: about what elements he sees of himself in Victor's game,
Speaker 1: and he gave this really, really eloquent answer that.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Katie is just like, Katie has such a level of
Speaker 1: respect and love for the game of basketball that he's
Speaker 1: just like the perfect guy to kind of handle these
Speaker 1: kinds of situations because a lot of other people would
Speaker 1: just get jealous or weird.
Speaker 2: Or hate on the kid.
Speaker 1: And like Kevin duran I encourage you guys to go
Speaker 1: listen to it if you haven't listened to it yet.
Speaker 1: But Katie basically goes like like he's gonna carve out
Speaker 1: his own lane, and I guarantee you he's watched and
Speaker 1: has added elements from lots of different players. This is
Speaker 1: a concept I've talked about a lot on the show before.
Speaker 1: But like when everybody asks about a specific player, like
Speaker 1: who does he remind you of? Or who do you
Speaker 1: try to play like? It's like every real hoop head
Speaker 1: that I know tries to play like all the guys
Speaker 1: in various different ways, right Like, But for me personally,
Speaker 1: I've added certain elements in my footwork from Paul George,
Speaker 1: certain elements of my post game from Kawhi Leonard, certain
Speaker 1: elements of my kind of like mid range footwork from
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. My step back three has similar footwork to
Speaker 1: what you see from James Harden and Kyrie Irving. Right Like,
Speaker 1: there's as a fan over the years, I've watched all
Speaker 1: of those guys, all those individual parts of their game
Speaker 1: and tried to add those things to my game. And
Speaker 1: that's that's what all of these young basketball players are doing.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you Victor has wanted to add specific elements
Speaker 1: of Kd's game to his bag. Kyrie's game, did she
Speaker 1: have a video of him handling the basketball before the game.
Speaker 1: It's it's ridiculous. So like, like I agree with KD.
Speaker 1: Like Victor's going to carve his own lane. He's a
Speaker 1: super unique player, and like I feel super fortunate that
Speaker 1: we're going to get to cover his career from start
Speaker 1: to finish. It's going to be a lot of fun
Speaker 1: on the Sun's front. Late game offense continues to be
Speaker 1: a major issue. They are one in three so far
Speaker 1: in clutch games. Mean that means any game that involves
Speaker 1: a score within five points with less than five minutes left.
Speaker 1: They've played sixteen minutes of clutch basketball and they've been
Speaker 1: outscored forty three to thirty one. They're scoring at a
Speaker 1: rate of just they're scoring at a rate of just
Speaker 1: eighty six points per one hundred possessions when the scores
Speaker 1: within five with less than five minutes left, and their
Speaker 1: defense has been atrocious, they're giving up one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty three points per one hundred clutch possession. So bat
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. Big part of it
Speaker 1: is just not having your main guys out there right,
Speaker 1: like Kevin Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker
Speaker 1: out there would help a lot down the stretch. I
Speaker 1: did think they got some good looks, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: want Nobby makes that corner three, You're in some better shape, right,
Speaker 1: Drew Ubanks makes that easy little layup under the rim,
Speaker 1: You're in better shape. Kevin Durant got a pretty good
Speaker 1: look at the top of the key that he missed.
Speaker 1: It's so like, at the end of the day, like
Speaker 1: some of it's shot making, some of it is not
Speaker 1: having your main personnel. There is a problem at the
Speaker 1: center position. And this is something that we talked about
Speaker 1: before the season. Like you could see the reasoning behind
Speaker 1: bringing in Nurkic to kind of help with aggressive ball
Speaker 1: screen coverages. But like Nurkic can't guard, and Drew Eubanks
Speaker 1: just made three crucial mistakes down the stretch of the game,
Speaker 1: and so like they kind of have two problematic options
Speaker 1: there at the center position, and I wonder if that's
Speaker 1: gonna be something that they have to address down the line.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to the Milwaukee Bucks. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a deep dive here again, Like, just by
Speaker 1: structuring the show in this matter, it allows me to
Speaker 1: just really dive into one particular team watch lots and
Speaker 1: lots of film and pull clips and do video breakdowns
Speaker 1: and just kind of give a more in depth perspective
Speaker 1: on individual teams. And so instant reactions are always going
Speaker 1: to be part of the show. God knows, that's literally
Speaker 1: what we do the entire playoffs. Like, that's not like
Speaker 1: we're not going to do instant reactions. I just want
Speaker 1: to kind of have a better balance of reacting to
Speaker 1: games because that's fun, and then also doing deep dives
Speaker 1: on teams so we can actually learn something about these
Speaker 1: teams in the bigger picture. So the Bucks are off
Speaker 1: to two and two start a couple of pretty embarrassing losses.
Speaker 1: They got absolutely crushed at home from the opening tip
Speaker 1: by the Hawks, and then they got absolutely crushed from
Speaker 1: the opening tip on the road to a Raptors team
Speaker 1: that in their other five games is one in four
Speaker 1: and really has struggled to score the basketball, yet had
Speaker 1: no problem scoring against the Bucks. Now, again, like you
Speaker 1: guys might remember, from before the season, I predicted that
Speaker 1: the would struggle.
Speaker 2: During the regular season.
Speaker 1: They are just going to have to take on an
Speaker 1: entirely different identity than what they've had in years past.
Speaker 1: They're not as deep, and they're particularly weak at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. So a lot of the elements of
Speaker 1: the Dame trade are more about the bigger picture what
Speaker 1: they're gonna look like when we get to April and May, right,
Speaker 1: And I would say that it's looked a little worse
Speaker 1: than I've expected, but it is kind of the same
Speaker 1: type of issues that I'm expecting. The offense looks clunky,
Speaker 1: Damon Giannis don't really seem to know how to play
Speaker 1: with each other yet, and on the defensive end, they're
Speaker 1: just they're just terrible, which we're gonna dig into here
Speaker 1: in a minute.
Speaker 2: And like a lot of it's fixable.
Speaker 1: What did I say about the Lakers when they got
Speaker 1: off to when they got off to their bad start,
Speaker 1: What did I say about the Timberwolves when they got
Speaker 1: off to their bad start? Like sometimes basketball teams just
Speaker 1: play bad basketball. And the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is it literally happens all the time throughout the season,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, we always hyper react to it,
Speaker 1: overreact to it at the start of the season, right,
Speaker 1: Like how.
Speaker 2: Often does it?
Speaker 1: Like, for instance, Los Angeles Lakers in the year twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: when they won the title, they once lost four games
Speaker 1: in a row, Like it was started with that Chris
Speaker 1: Stay a game against the Clippers, and then they lost
Speaker 1: like four games after that, or it might have been
Speaker 1: that might have been one of the middle games in
Speaker 1: that starts, but they lost four games in a row.
Speaker 1: Had they started the season zho four, everyone would have
Speaker 1: like been like, oh my gosh, what's wrong with the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers right like, But because it happened in
Speaker 1: the middle of the season, we're just like, oh, they
Speaker 1: just started playing like shit for a week.
Speaker 2: Like, because that's what happened.
Speaker 1: Right Well, guess what if you start a season in
Speaker 1: the middle of October or October twenty fourth or whatever,
Speaker 1: there's thirty teams. There's gonna be some that come out
Speaker 1: the gates playing good basketball, and there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: that come out the gates playing bad basketball. And this
Speaker 1: is a Bucks team that came out out the gates
Speaker 1: playing bad basketball. And we're gonna dive into it because
Speaker 1: I like, there are some things that are real personnel
Speaker 1: limitations that they're gonna have to address over the course
Speaker 1: of the season, and then there are other things that
Speaker 1: are like, hey, just do a better job, Like you
Speaker 1: gotta do a better job. And as that stuff happens
Speaker 1: and they play better in those specific roles, like they'll
Speaker 1: defend a little better, right, And when they defend a
Speaker 1: little bit better, they'll get more transition opportunities, they'll have
Speaker 1: more confidence on the offensive end of the four. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a snowball effect, and you can see
Speaker 1: pretty quickly how it turns things around for a team,
Speaker 1: and it can happen pretty quick. I mean, the Lakers
Speaker 1: played like absolute dogshit for the first four games of
Speaker 1: the season, and then the second four and a half games,
Speaker 1: and then they came out second half against the Clippers
Speaker 1: and some stuff clicked into place and suddenly they looked
Speaker 1: a lot better. And that's what I expect to happen
Speaker 1: with the Bucks and the big picture. But I want
Speaker 1: to dig into the tape for a little bit. So
Speaker 1: first of all, when I'm going over this, I have
Speaker 1: two threads on my Twitter feed, and again my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed is at underscore jsonlt. One of them is on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the four. One of them's on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the four. Defense is more comprehensive,
Speaker 1: but I pulled clips from both. What I want to
Speaker 1: do here is I want to do. I want to
Speaker 1: just go all in on the defense and talk about
Speaker 1: everything that I noticed that went wrong. You're going to
Speaker 1: want to look through that thread because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of really good visual representations of the things that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. But this is the best way that we
Speaker 1: can find out why and how the Bucks defense has
Speaker 1: been as bad as it has been. Now how bad
Speaker 1: has it been? They are twenty ninth in defensive rating
Speaker 1: twenty fourth and half court according to Cleaning the Glass.
Speaker 1: They are the worst transition defense in the NBA by
Speaker 1: a mile. They're giving up a transition play on twenty
Speaker 1: two percent of their defensive possessions, which is dead last
Speaker 1: in the league. And they're giving up one point six
Speaker 1: to two points per transition play, which is dead last
Speaker 1: in the league. On tape, you could see it, and
Speaker 1: I pulled several clips of this that you'll see in
Speaker 1: that thread. But like generally speaking, just guys not running back.
Speaker 1: Dame in particular not picking up the ball in transition.
Speaker 1: That was a big problem with him. With Dennis Schroeder,
Speaker 1: who's good at pushing the pace when they get back
Speaker 1: in transition, a lot of guys are like running back
Speaker 1: to the paint and then just staying there instead of
Speaker 1: spraying out. Transition defense has a very basic principle. You
Speaker 1: run to the paint first and then you find a man, right,
Speaker 1: That's what you do, and generally speaking, you stay in
Speaker 1: the paint until your rim protector gets there, then you
Speaker 1: fan out, right like when brook Lopez gets back in
Speaker 1: the paint, then you go find your shooter. There was
Speaker 1: a play where Marjon Beauchamp and crowd or both were
Speaker 1: just or Bobby Portis, I think it was, we're both
Speaker 1: like standing in the paint and transition as after they
Speaker 1: sprinted back, everyone's in the paint. There's like four bucks
Speaker 1: bodies in the paint and they both just immediately start
Speaker 1: staring at the basketball and stand and watch as the
Speaker 1: ball just gets swung to the top of the key
Speaker 1: to a wide open shooter for three. Like that's just
Speaker 1: bad transition defense. There are transition plays where guys got
Speaker 1: beat from behind, meaning like literally no one protected the
Speaker 1: rim and a guy just ran the right lane the
Speaker 1: ball got dropped off to Scottie Barnes for an easy
Speaker 1: layup underneath the basket. Like in general, they're just not
Speaker 1: doing a good job and like when it comes to
Speaker 1: transition defense. You're always at a disadvantage. You're not expecting
Speaker 1: to lock teams up in transition, but you have to
Speaker 1: limit frequency and limit the efficiency in those situations by
Speaker 1: just doing a better job. Spread back to the rim
Speaker 1: talk get matched up. It's really that simple, and like
Speaker 1: they're just not doing a good enough job. Like one
Speaker 1: of the things that fans do a lot. And trust me,
Speaker 1: I see this with like when I used to cover
Speaker 1: the Lakers. The stot with Laker fans NonStop, Like is
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is the worst coach in the world. Oh,
Speaker 1: Vanham's the worst coach in the world. I've been hearing
Speaker 1: this shit for years. It's what everybody does, right, You
Speaker 1: blame the coach.
Speaker 2: Now. Has Adrian Griffin done a perfect job? No? Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things that we'll talk about
Speaker 1: today that I think schematically they need to do differently. However,
Speaker 1: before we put all of the blame on Adrian Griffin,
Speaker 1: the players are also not doing their jobs. In order
Speaker 1: for his scheme to be properly evaluated, it has to
Speaker 1: be executed properly. I could have the smartest defensive scheme
Speaker 1: in the world for a specific roster. But if the
Speaker 1: guys don't do their jobs, the scheme will fall apart.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of the days, it's complicated.
Speaker 1: All these things are complicated. How does a team with
Speaker 1: Joannison Brook Lopez the best defensive front line, one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive front lines in the league, anchor the
Speaker 1: twenty ninth ranked defense. A lot of things have to
Speaker 1: go wrong. Brook's not doing as good of a job
Speaker 1: as usually does. Giannis isn't doing as good of a
Speaker 1: job as he usually does. Point of attack defense is
Speaker 1: an issue backside of rebounding help. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: all of it, but it's a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: goes wrong. There are different schematic things they need to
Speaker 1: do differently. But again, like fire, you could fire Adrian
Speaker 1: Griffin's but if they don't, if they don't buy into
Speaker 1: whatever the next coach is doing and actually execute whatever
Speaker 1: his scheme is, it's gonna fail anyway. And so again,
Speaker 1: like a lot of times, we get it's easy to
Speaker 1: just point a finger at the coach, but like the
Speaker 1: players are out there playing the games, and they got
Speaker 1: to do their.
Speaker 2: Job as well.
Speaker 1: In the half court and again twenty fourth and a
Speaker 1: half court defense. You can't blame it all in the
Speaker 1: transition defense. It's a failure of execution at every level.
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard, Malik Monk excuse me, Malik Beasley, and Pat
Speaker 1: Connitt's in all. Three of those guys are really really
Speaker 1: struggling and they're getting picked on every single time. They
Speaker 1: are dying on screens. They're switching screens that they shouldn't switch,
Speaker 1: which is getting them into mismatches. Then when the Bucks
Speaker 1: try to scram them out of mismatches, those guards aren't rotating.
Speaker 1: There's a play that you'll see on that thread that
Speaker 1: I put out there, or Damian Lillard switches aside pick
Speaker 1: and roll, probably shouldn't have switched it to begin with.
Speaker 1: Right then he ends up in a post mismatch that
Speaker 1: Yannis SCRAMs him out of. But when Yannis SCRAMs him
Speaker 1: out of the mismatch, now what does that mean to
Speaker 1: scram somebody out of a mismatch? So like the side
Speaker 1: ball screen, Dame switches it. Now he's on a big
Speaker 1: wing right in that position. What you're trying to do
Speaker 1: is before they make the post entry in that gap,
Speaker 1: when the post player is asking for the ball, and
Speaker 1: when they make the post entry, you're trying to basically
Speaker 1: pre rotate out of it. So you want Giannis in
Speaker 1: this case to sprint over and go to Dame's man
Speaker 1: as Dame is running out to the shooter basically allowing
Speaker 1: you it's it's kind of like a wheel and you
Speaker 1: quickly rotate out of it. And then now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the mismatch isn't there and Giannis is in
Speaker 1: the post. Well, on this play, Giannis goes to scram
Speaker 1: Dame out of the switch, and Dame just kind of
Speaker 1: like floats around in the middle of the floor and
Speaker 1: ends up giving up a wide open three in the process.
Speaker 1: Like that's just bad defense, that's just that's that's just
Speaker 1: a guy not doing his job in the scheme. Probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have switched that screen. That should be all side
Speaker 1: ball screens. You want ice, right because especially against a
Speaker 1: team like the Raptors that aren't good pull up shooters,
Speaker 1: if you ice the screen, that means as the guy
Speaker 1: comes to set the ball screen on the wing, as
Speaker 1: the ball handler is trying to come off, you deny
Speaker 1: him the screen. You jump high side and force him
Speaker 1: to go back towards the baseline, and then your dropping Whoever,
Speaker 1: your guy who's guarding the screener sits back in that spot.
Speaker 1: The nobody really on the raptors in the raptors forwards
Speaker 1: is a good enough shooter to justify like panic chasing
Speaker 1: him around, You offer a late closeout.
Speaker 2: That's what you do.
Speaker 1: So, Like, if he drives to the baseline and throws
Speaker 1: a pocket pass to the elbow, you'll offer a lake
Speaker 1: close out. If the ball handler goes towards the baseline
Speaker 1: it takes a pull up jump shot, you offer a
Speaker 1: lake close out. If it's Dennis Schroeder, you live with
Speaker 1: that shot.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But like, so that's an example for Major and Griffin
Speaker 1: where it's a schematic thing, right, Like, probably shouldn't just
Speaker 1: be switching aside pick and roll and putting Dame or
Speaker 1: Maleik onto a big forward, right, But at the same time, like,
Speaker 1: I'm not even one hundred percent sure if that is
Speaker 1: the scheme. It could very well be that Dame just
Speaker 1: died on the screen and said switch. And that's why,
Speaker 1: like it, we don't know what's actually going on now,
Speaker 1: it does inevitably in the big picture come back on coaching,
Speaker 1: because this is game four, right, If it's still happening
Speaker 1: in game twelve, and the scheme is you're supposed to
Speaker 1: ice it, but they're switching it instead. Then that's an
Speaker 1: accountability issue, and now it falls back on the coach
Speaker 1: for the coach not actually making sure that the players
Speaker 1: are aware that they're expected to do their jobs and
Speaker 1: that there's some sort of fallout from that. Not that
Speaker 1: you're gonna remove Dame from the game, but you got
Speaker 1: to somehow get in his ear and get him to
Speaker 1: do his job. If that's the case, but we don't know.
Speaker 1: It could also just be Adrian Griffin calling for a
Speaker 1: switch there. So like that sort of thing is an
Speaker 1: example of a schematic approach that they need to change.
Speaker 1: But that concept of the guards being incapable of navigating
Speaker 1: screens is a problem. There was a play where Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley in a ball screen with Yaka Purtle and Dennis Schroeder,
Speaker 1: saw the ball screen come in, did a nice job
Speaker 1: sidling over the top of the screen. I actually did
Speaker 1: a good job on this possession, chested it up Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroder and cut him off. But then Dennis Schroeder literally
Speaker 1: just hit him with a slight hesitation move and Molik
Speaker 1: froze and Dennis went right by him downhill. And then
Speaker 1: on the play, brook Lopez, who's guarding a non shooter
Speaker 1: in Yaka Pearl, was way too high at the level
Speaker 1: of the screen behind the play. And then when he
Speaker 1: tried to get back into the play to block Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder at the rim, he had to like sell out
Speaker 1: for it, and it was an easy drop off for
Speaker 1: Yaka Purl for a dunk going down the lane. And again,
Speaker 1: like execution, you gotta get a better job at the
Speaker 1: point of attack from Malik Beasley. There schematics, what is
Speaker 1: brook Lopez doing? Why is he not in a deeper drop.
Speaker 1: Yakka Peurl's not gonna hurt you in that situation. I
Speaker 1: saw like there was a I think Brooke thought that
Speaker 1: Malik cut him off and figured it was gonna flow
Speaker 1: into a dribble hand off with Gary Trent Junior coming
Speaker 1: out of the corner, in which case Gary Trent Junior
Speaker 1: is a good pull up shooter and he might have
Speaker 1: to show high. But even then you sit back in
Speaker 1: the drop further back to help on the Dennis Schroeder drive.
Speaker 1: Then if if he gets rid of the basketball, then
Speaker 1: you sprint back up to the level of screen. That's
Speaker 1: that yo, yo, We always talk about you got to
Speaker 1: go back to the rim for help up to the
Speaker 1: level of the screen when the coverage dictates it. Back
Speaker 1: to the rim for help up to the level of
Speaker 1: the screen when the coverage dictates it. So like, in general,
Speaker 1: like that to me, is brook Lopez either being in
Speaker 1: the wrong spot schematically or blowing the coverage. How do
Speaker 1: we know that Adrian Griffin hasn't told him? Hey on,
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder, ball screens sit in a deeper drop like
Speaker 1: we don't know. And so again like that's where it's
Speaker 1: hard to really identify who the culprit is. The execution
Speaker 1: is poor, but at the same time we don't know
Speaker 1: if that's actually what the scheme is calling for. But
Speaker 1: in general, against a team that is not a good
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting team but also your point of
Speaker 1: attack defense this week, you have to sit in more
Speaker 1: conservative ballscreen coverages, meaning your big man has to sit
Speaker 1: further back towards the rim. Way too often they were
Speaker 1: caught up at the level, so when they got b
Speaker 1: there was no help at the rim.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: There was another play like a horn set where Pat
Speaker 1: Conaton and Jay Crowder ran a switch that came right
Speaker 1: out of a dribble handoff. So basically, Pascal Siakam runs
Speaker 1: a dribble hand off with I think it was I
Speaker 1: want to say it was Schroeder, but I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly who it was. But Crowder. Yeah, No, Schroeder has
Speaker 1: the ball and Pascal Siakam runs up and gets the
Speaker 1: ball and then runs another dribble hand off with Schroeder
Speaker 1: right on the play. As Schroeder comes off the dribble
Speaker 1: hand off, Jay Crowder jumps out and switches onto Schroeder
Speaker 1: on the left wing. So imagine, in this case you've
Speaker 1: got Bobby Portis, who's guarding the screener who is Yaka
Speaker 1: Pertl In this case, he's sitting back at the semi circle. Okay,
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder now has the ball up on the left
Speaker 1: wing and Crowder has switched out onto him. So in
Speaker 1: this case, because Crowder switched, Pat Conaton, who is guarding Schroeder,
Speaker 1: now has to switch on to Pascal Siakam, but he doesn't.
Speaker 1: They botched the switch. So as Crowder switches, Conatent stays
Speaker 1: home for just a split second. That gives Yaka Pearl
Speaker 1: the angle to turn and quickly flip the screen the
Speaker 1: backscreen on content. Had Content been paying attention and they
Speaker 1: switched properly, he would have been in position to navigate
Speaker 1: the screen better, but he wasn't, so Yaka Pearl just
Speaker 1: lays the wood on him and hits him with a
Speaker 1: good solid screen. And then Schroeder throws the over the
Speaker 1: top pass to Siakam, who then catches and rips down
Speaker 1: the lane to the basket. So we have poor execution
Speaker 1: on the switch. But then there's the poor schematic approach.
Speaker 1: Because Bobby portis guarding a non shooter in Perdle in
Speaker 1: an action with two other non shooters in Siakam and Schroeder,
Speaker 1: he's way up at the foul line. So when Content's
Speaker 1: trailing the play and Siakam rips through the right, he's
Speaker 1: got an easy lane down to the rim, Whereas if
Speaker 1: yak whereas if Bobby portis is running that conservative drop
Speaker 1: I'm talking about and sitting back, he can offer help
Speaker 1: on the Siakam drive, which then you can rotate out of.
Speaker 1: So again, like it's not just the schematics, there's poor
Speaker 1: execution taking place as well. Right now they're getting really
Speaker 1: poor perimeter defense play out of Malik Beasley, out of
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard, and out of Pat Conaton in particular. But
Speaker 1: you see it elsewhere on the floor as well. Bobby
Speaker 1: Portis one play, just got absolutely toasted on a straight
Speaker 1: up one on one drive by Scotty Barnes, just literally
Speaker 1: just faced him up. Portis is there sitting in a
Speaker 1: stance and he just goes right by him to the
Speaker 1: left and makes a left handed layup off the glass.
Speaker 1: There is another play Chris Middleton guarding Pascal Siakam on
Speaker 1: the right wing. Some of it was bad techniques Pascal
Speaker 1: Siakam's Pascal Siakam has not shot over thirty five percent
Speaker 1: from three since twenty twenty, and Middleton hard closes out
Speaker 1: to his shooting hand and Siakam just rips through the
Speaker 1: base and so like again, Chris Middleton giving up a
Speaker 1: straight line drive to a non shooter probably shouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: Right on the same play, Giannis got switched out on
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder. Jay Crowder was guarding Yaka Peerl in the post.
Speaker 1: Yakaperle posted up on him not just to call for
Speaker 1: the ball, but to clear out the help side Jay
Speaker 1: Crowder instead of fighting around to the front so that
Speaker 1: he could offer help. He just stayed on the backside.
Speaker 1: So when Middleton got beat by Siakam towards the baseline,
Speaker 1: he just went right to the rim and laid it up.
Speaker 1: And there was no help because Jay Crowder didn't do
Speaker 1: his job by fronting the post to get into a
Speaker 1: position where he could help on the drive. So again,
Speaker 1: like most of this is execution, I would argue, and like,
Speaker 1: I don't think you're gonna see some sort of dramatic
Speaker 1: change in defensive scheme until guys just start doing a
Speaker 1: better job. It's been a consistent problem throughout the start
Speaker 1: of the season. There's the help and recover decisions have
Speaker 1: been poor. Like there's another play where Grady Day got
Speaker 1: a wide open three on the right wing because literally
Speaker 1: Malachi Flynn is running a ball screen on the left
Speaker 1: wing and he's kind of working downhill, but brook Lopez
Speaker 1: has it under control and Jay Crowder just sinks all
Speaker 1: the way into the elbow and gives up an easy
Speaker 1: kickout three to Grady Dick. Grady Dick knocks down the three.
Speaker 1: You literally see Jay Crowder go my bad again. That's
Speaker 1: not a schematic thing. That's just a guy doing a
Speaker 1: bad job and then they cannot like for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: they just allowed the Toronto big post players to attack
Speaker 1: their small guards in the post without help. There were
Speaker 1: two clips I pulled in the late second quarter. You
Speaker 1: guys can find him in that thread where Pat Connitton
Speaker 1: and Malik Beasley got posted up by Scotty Barnes. And
Speaker 1: on both plays you can see guys glued up off
Speaker 1: the ball on players like o g nnob in Pascal Siakam.
Speaker 1: There is one in particular where Dame is glued up
Speaker 1: on Schroeder. Siakam has Jay Crowder glued up on him,
Speaker 1: and Scotty Barnes is posting up Malik Beasley and it
Speaker 1: goes on for like five seconds. And on the play
Speaker 1: it would be so easy just for Crowder to double
Speaker 1: team to get the ball out of Scotty Barnes's hands.
Speaker 1: The pass is going to go out to Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: Dame rotates over, which is going to lead to a
Speaker 1: swing back to Schroeder, and Malik Beasley closes out to Schroeder,
Speaker 1: who has one of the slowest releases in the league,
Speaker 1: and you take all of a sudden mismatch gone Crowder's
Speaker 1: now on that post player Siakam's on dame, but you
Speaker 1: can scram out of that one too, Like problem solved. No,
Speaker 1: they just let Malik Beasley on an island try to
Speaker 1: guard a massive Scottie Barnes who shot an easy hook
Speaker 1: shot over the top. And then they did it the
Speaker 1: very next possession against Pat Connaton and did the exact
Speaker 1: same thing and left him on an island. So it's
Speaker 1: a failure at all levels. A failure at the point
Speaker 1: of attack, a failure in your ball screen coverages from
Speaker 1: your screen defenders who are just not doing a good
Speaker 1: job right now, even Brook Lopez just not doing a
Speaker 1: good job right now, failure of your help and recover,
Speaker 1: and the last, but not least, a failure to grab
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds. A consistent problem in that Toronto Raptors game
Speaker 1: was just guys standing around and watching well, guys were
Speaker 1: crashing from the perimeter to get those rebounds. There is
Speaker 1: a play where Gary Trent Junior grabbed an offensive rebound
Speaker 1: from his ass on the ground while multiple Bucks stood
Speaker 1: around and watched like and it led to a wide
Speaker 1: open three on the left wing that went in. So like,
Speaker 1: it's it's a problem. They're fourteenth and defensive rebounding percentage
Speaker 1: so far this year. They were second last year. Most
Speaker 1: of that is just effort, So again, schematically, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of things that got to do a better
Speaker 1: job of protecting their small guys in post mismatches and
Speaker 1: so for starters, don't switch if you can avoid it,
Speaker 1: like especially against teams like that that are power teams
Speaker 1: that don't have good pull up shooting. Just trail your
Speaker 1: smaller player over the top. Don't switch the screen right
Speaker 1: when you do end up in a transition cross match,
Speaker 1: or you have to switch and there's a post mismatch,
Speaker 1: you have to double and rotate out of it. And
Speaker 1: the last, but not least, your ball screen coverages have
Speaker 1: to be more conservative because your perimeter defense is not good.
Speaker 1: You're giving up too many straight line drives and guys
Speaker 1: are getting over the top of ball screens too easy,
Speaker 1: so you have to sit further back. Again, you got
Speaker 1: to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your defense. Your
Speaker 1: strength is your back line. This is not a team
Speaker 1: I don't think that is capable of becoming a top
Speaker 1: five defense, but they might be able to get into
Speaker 1: that ten to fifteen range. If they get elite at
Speaker 1: protecting the rim and elite at grabbing contested rebounds on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, what's.
Speaker 2: The giveaway there?
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to probably give up some three point
Speaker 1: shots on the weak side, and that's gonna stop you
Speaker 1: from being a truly elite defense. But at the very least,
Speaker 1: if you get that worked out and then you work
Speaker 1: out your offensive end, you can still be a very
Speaker 1: very good playoff team, as we've seen with teams like
Speaker 1: Denver right. So, like again, this is not crisis mode.
Speaker 1: It's just everyone in the roster's got to do a
Speaker 1: better job and you've got to make some schematic adjustments
Speaker 1: for your specific group of personnel on the offensive end.
Speaker 2: In the entire first half.
Speaker 1: Against Toronto, when they got their ass kicked, Damiana shared
Speaker 1: the floor for what at least twelve thirteen minutes. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure the exact number, but I watched every single
Speaker 1: possession they ran. Two Damianis picking rolls in the entire
Speaker 1: first half. In the first one because Toronto was not
Speaker 1: blitzing the ball screen. In the first one, og Nanobi
Speaker 1: was guarding Yannis and I believe Schroeder was on Dame,
Speaker 1: and on the play, Giannis comes up and doesn't set
Speaker 1: a screen. He slips out of it. It was almost
Speaker 1: like Damon Giannis just assumed they were gonna blitz. They
Speaker 1: don't blitz. Og stays home, Dennis chases Dame, throws the
Speaker 1: pocket pass as if it's a blitz in a slip,
Speaker 1: and it just gets easily stolen. And then they go
Speaker 1: the other way, and then they went back to it
Speaker 1: a few possessions later on the right wing, and Dame
Speaker 1: identified that it wasn't gonna be a blitz, and Giannis
Speaker 1: set a better pick, and Dame came out off free
Speaker 1: and clear and got a good look at a twenty
Speaker 1: four foot pull up three. He just missed it. Now
Speaker 1: that's gonna be an issue to start the season. Dame
Speaker 1: is out of shape, clearly. He's seven for twenty two
Speaker 1: on pull up jump shots, just forty six percent in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage waited for threes, three for eleven
Speaker 1: on catch and shoot jump shots, and all of them
Speaker 1: are getting left short. He's leaving consistently pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots short on the rim. That one I just told
Speaker 1: you about. That second Yiannis stayin ball screen barely grazed
Speaker 1: the front of the rim, so like he's also fifty
Speaker 1: three percent at the rim, by the way, So like,
Speaker 1: do I think Dame's gonna consistently misshots?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I think that's a problem that's going to be solved
Speaker 1: in the long run just by Dame getting in shape
Speaker 1: and getting his legs underneath him. Right, But make it
Speaker 1: easier on yourself. Why is it that the action that
Speaker 1: we were all terrified of, this Giannis Dame pick and
Speaker 1: roll that's capable of being so devastating, the one that
Speaker 1: I charted in a preseason game at like something crazy
Speaker 1: like a point and a half per possession. Why aren't
Speaker 1: you running that? Why isn't that a thing? If for
Speaker 1: no other he's another than to build the continuity and
Speaker 1: like kind of like experience with that action because they're
Speaker 1: gonna need to lean on it when you get down the.
Speaker 2: Road to the playoffs. Right.
Speaker 1: But like at the end of the day, they're just
Speaker 1: not playing well enough. The two main guys, like Dame
Speaker 1: is out of shape, missing shots, Giannis is in this
Speaker 1: like weird funk right now where he's like in the
Speaker 1: half court trying to play bully ball too much, and
Speaker 1: the teams are just sitting on it and like he's
Speaker 1: missing reads. There were several possessions in the Raptors game
Speaker 1: where he just barreled down the lane and either turned
Speaker 1: it over and got an offensive foul or missed a
Speaker 1: shot while they were open shooters on the wing. And
Speaker 1: like again, that's where getting him in an advantage situation
Speaker 1: operating off of Dame's ball screens is a great way
Speaker 1: to make him a more effective half court player. He's
Speaker 1: settling for a ton of pull up jump shots. Not
Speaker 1: so much in the Toronto game, but it's just because
Speaker 1: they were getting their ass kicked. But in the season
Speaker 1: so far, he's taken thirteen pull up jump shots already.
Speaker 1: Like why why is Giannis taking thirteen pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots already? Like I just shouldn't be the case. So
Speaker 1: like at the end of the day, like dam and
Speaker 1: Giannis just got to play better. Like I said before,
Speaker 1: like sometimes you're just playing shitty basketball, and right now
Speaker 1: your stars are playing shitty basketball. One thing I saw
Speaker 1: that was kind of optimistic. There was an action in
Speaker 1: the first half in the first quarter where Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: and Chris Middleton ran a pick and roll or picking
Speaker 1: like a ball screen and the Raptors switched it got
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder onto Chris Middleton, threw the ball to Chris Middleton,
Speaker 1: and he took an easy left shoulder fade over Dame
Speaker 1: on the baseline or over a Dennis on the baseline
Speaker 1: for an easy bucket. Like that's another way to kind
Speaker 1: of identify an entry point in the defense. Those one
Speaker 1: to three pick and rolls are almost always switches. It's
Speaker 1: a great way to get a small defender onto Chris
Speaker 1: or a bigger defender on the Dame and then you
Speaker 1: can enter the offense from there. But flatly, the Stars
Speaker 1: have to play better on the offensive end. The Stars
Speaker 1: have to play better on the defensive end. Everybody at
Speaker 1: every level, from the coaching staff down to the point
Speaker 1: of attack defense, down to the ball screen defense, down
Speaker 1: to help defense, to the defensive rebounding. Everybody's got to
Speaker 1: do a better job. Am I worried about the Bucks? No,
Speaker 1: this was definitely a worse start than I was expecting though,
Speaker 1: But I did say I said, expect the Bucks to
Speaker 1: struggle throughout the regular season, just because this is a
Speaker 1: team that's gonna have to figure out how to win
Speaker 1: a different way. But make no mistake. If they do
Speaker 1: figure that out at some point before the end of
Speaker 1: the season, they're gonna be a very dangerous playoff team.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be back tonight after the Nuggets Mavericks game
Speaker 1: in the late night ESPN slates, So I'm not sure
Speaker 1: exactly which games will be covering tonight, but we'll do
Speaker 1: two or three instant reactions, then we're gonna take the
Speaker 1: weekend off, and then we'll get back on Monday with
Speaker 1: it some instant reactions and some deep dives at that point.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: later tonight. The volume