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Speaker 1: to HOOPSADI. You're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody, Oh PA.
Speaker 1: If you guys are having a great week so far,
Speaker 1: we got a jam packed show for you today. NBA
Speaker 1: Media Day was Monday, and we've assembled quotes from eight
Speaker 1: different teams that we're going to bounce around the league.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about some of the stuff we
Speaker 1: heard in the season opening press conferences, and then at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the show, we're continuing our season
Speaker 1: preview series power Ranking style with number seven the Minnesota Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: so deep dive on the Timberwolves, and then eight additional
Speaker 1: teams in Media Day quotes off the top. You guys
Speaker 1: know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to Hoops
Speaker 1: Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
Speaker 1: don't miss you announcements, don't forget about our podcast few
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Speaker 1: It's also helpful if you leave a rating and a
Speaker 1: review on that front. And last but not least, keep
Speaker 1: dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We will be
Speaker 1: doing a mailbag on Friday that centers around the media
Speaker 1: day all of the quotes and stuff that we're floating
Speaker 1: around from media Day. So if you have anything related
Speaker 1: to a specific quote that you saw that you thought
Speaker 1: was interesting, or maybe just some notes from the first
Speaker 1: few days of training camp, drop them into comments and
Speaker 1: we'll get to those on Friday. And then, last but
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Speaker 1: Game time? All right, let's talk some basketball. So eight
Speaker 1: different teams were hitting with media Day quotes. I wanted
Speaker 1: to start with the Golden State Warriors. So there's two
Speaker 1: different things I want to hit on. Both actually involved Draymond.
Speaker 1: The first was Draymond and what Kyle Anderson said Draymond
Speaker 1: has been saying to him behind the scenes, which is
Speaker 1: that Kyle anders is a five now, meaning at the
Speaker 1: center position. So there was a little bit of a
Speaker 1: hoopla there from Warriors fans semming around the fact that
Speaker 1: they kind of view themselves as too small at this
Speaker 1: point and the idea of Kyle Anderson playing center not
Speaker 1: being a great idea right now. It remains to be
Speaker 1: seen how often Kyle and Anderson will actually play center.
Speaker 1: I didn't interpret that as like, oh, Kyle Anderson is
Speaker 1: going to be playing the majority of his minutes at center.
Speaker 1: I think Trace Jackson Davis is going to play a
Speaker 1: lot of center. I think Kavon Looney is going to
Speaker 1: play a lot of center. Draymond Green obviously is going
Speaker 1: to play a lot of center. I would imagine all
Speaker 1: three of those guys will play a lot more center
Speaker 1: than Kyle Anderson. I looked at it more as like
Speaker 1: the way that I've always viewed Golden State's offensive system
Speaker 1: is basically three guys who run action and two guys
Speaker 1: that are dribble handoff fulcrums are screening fulcrums from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: This is a kind of a concept within five out
Speaker 1: that we talk a lot about, right Like, if you imagine,
Speaker 1: let's say on the strong side of the floor in
Speaker 1: years past, you got let's say it's Kay Thompson. Actually,
Speaker 1: let's just look forward to this year. So let's say
Speaker 1: it's Steph coming out of the corner, and you've got
Speaker 1: let's say, Andrew Wiggins screening down for him. As Steph
Speaker 1: comes off into a dribble hand off with Draymond right.
Speaker 1: What ends up happening is Draymond throws the dribble hand off,
Speaker 1: then he kind of rolls into open space, right. But
Speaker 1: if Steph comes off that action and nothing's open, like
Speaker 1: he can't get a three, he's not getting downhill into
Speaker 1: the lane, or maybe he gets a little bit downhill
Speaker 1: but doesn't get too much in the way of dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: Draymond's rolling, he's not open. The next read there, Kyle Anderson.
Speaker 1: In this case, the second big would be flashing to
Speaker 1: the high post so that he can catch a swing
Speaker 1: pass from Steph and then flow into a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: on the other side of the floor, right, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna work back and forth. And this is been of
Speaker 1: basically what the Warriors have done offensively for years, whether
Speaker 1: it's Draymond and Kevon Looni, whether it's Draymond and Andrew Boget,
Speaker 1: whether it's Draymon and JaVale McGee, whether it's Draymond even
Speaker 1: with Andre Guidala out there sometimes back in the day. Right. So,
Speaker 1: like Golden State's system is kind of typically built around
Speaker 1: two non shooters who are more dribble handoff Folkrum's and
Speaker 1: then three guys that are typically more aggressive shooters that
Speaker 1: are looking to score coming off of these actions. So
Speaker 1: the way I interpreted that is like, yeah, Kyle Anderson,
Speaker 1: guess what like you're slotting into when you're playing next
Speaker 1: to Draymond, What Kevin Looney did, what Trace Jackson Davis did,
Speaker 1: what Andrew Bogat did, which is functioning as a center
Speaker 1: on offense. That was more the way that I looked
Speaker 1: at it. That said, I do think that Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: will see some minutes at the five, and it's something
Speaker 1: that he's done periodically through his career and done a
Speaker 1: good job of why. He's a very vocal communicator on
Speaker 1: defense and just general, very smart defensive player, and so
Speaker 1: like if he's calling out coverages and dictating when to
Speaker 1: help or when to stay home, he's typically pretty good
Speaker 1: at that sort of thing. He's a good rebounder for
Speaker 1: his position. Kyle Anderson's just a good basketball player, and
Speaker 1: so like, I didn't read too much into that. I think, like,
Speaker 1: trust me, guys like the Warriors are still going to
Speaker 1: be looking if they can see a decent option to
Speaker 1: upgrade somebody at the center position. I still think you're
Speaker 1: going to see a lot of Trace Jackson Davis. I
Speaker 1: still think you're gonna see a lot Kavon Loney. There's
Speaker 1: a rumor that Trace Jackson Davis has grown an inch
Speaker 1: that came out of camp. Now I shouldn't say rumor
Speaker 1: was directly mentioned in interviews, but like you always got
Speaker 1: to take some of that stuff with the grain of salt,
Speaker 1: like the I lost a bunch of weight, or I
Speaker 1: gained a bunch of weight, or I got taller, like
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff I'm always a little bit
Speaker 1: skeptical of. But like, I'm not necessarily worried about the
Speaker 1: center position as much for the Golden State Warriors as
Speaker 1: I am. Just who's going to be the primary second,
Speaker 1: I should say, the secondary shot creator whenever STEP's not
Speaker 1: trying to create offense. That's really where I see issues
Speaker 1: on this particular team. But I'm not worried about Kylie
Speaker 1: Anderson in his fit, and he does function as a
Speaker 1: center in the offensive system that Golden State wants to run.
Speaker 1: The second thing was that heated interaction that Draymond had
Speaker 1: with that reporter, And basically I'm not gonna get too
Speaker 1: far into it. Basically the reporter was kind of beating
Speaker 1: around the bush to confront Draymond on the idea of
Speaker 1: his availability, which has been not related to injury. It's
Speaker 1: been related to his behavior, right, And like last year
Speaker 1: it was an issue they Draymond missing as much time
Speaker 1: as he did hurt the basketball team, and so Draymond
Speaker 1: got kind of defensive and got a little snippy with
Speaker 1: the reporter. Some of this I think, like I think
Speaker 1: like athletes struggle to understand, like like that's his job,
Speaker 1: you know, like that specifically is that reporter's job? Now,
Speaker 1: do some reporters go too far in the way that
Speaker 1: they try to manipulate questions or try to bait guys
Speaker 1: into saying something, Yeah, you're right about that. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like if like in the
Speaker 1: same way that my job is to break down games
Speaker 1: and give my opinions on the teams, for those beat reporters,
Speaker 1: in many cases, they're going into that like they're they're
Speaker 1: going into that press conference with the job of trying
Speaker 1: to get a quote, okay, and typically they're going to
Speaker 1: try to get quotes that are centered around the biggest
Speaker 1: stories of the team, and like it or not, One
Speaker 1: of the stories surrounding the Golden State Warriors in the
Speaker 1: last year was Draymond's availability, in large part because of
Speaker 1: his inability to control his emotions when he's on the floor,
Speaker 1: and so, like my thing. In Draymond's response, he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm here. I've been here for thirteen years now, been
Speaker 1: here pretty much every night for thirteen years, and you're right.
Speaker 1: For the most part. Over the course of his career,
Speaker 1: he has been available, but in big spots he's been unavailable.
Speaker 1: Right twenty sixteen makes himself unavailable for Game five of
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. Obviously last year misses substantial chunks of time.
Speaker 1: And so my thing is, like, it's fair, Draymond, for
Speaker 1: reporters and for your teammates and for coaching people in
Speaker 1: the coaching staff to be like, hey, like, dude, are
Speaker 1: you going to be professional on a night in a
Speaker 1: night out basis this year so we don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about whether or not you're gonna be available to play.
Speaker 1: I think it's a reasonable question. This isn't like I
Speaker 1: can't remember what her name is. The female reporter who
Speaker 1: like questioned Dejona Carrington about like a celebration that she
Speaker 1: had with one of her teammates and like trying to
Speaker 1: insinuate that it was like mimicking her poking Caitlin Clark
Speaker 1: in the eye, which, in addition to just being wrong,
Speaker 1: was like a blatant false attempt to try to like
Speaker 1: bait Dejeona Carrington into saying something that was damaging that
Speaker 1: to me has like crossed the line, right, But like
Speaker 1: questioning Draymond on his ability to be available for his team,
Speaker 1: I think is completely fair and quite frankly, he should
Speaker 1: have expected as he went into that press conference that
Speaker 1: that was something that was going to be asked of him.
Speaker 1: And you know what, it wouldn't hurt to just sit
Speaker 1: there and be like, yeah, you know what, I let
Speaker 1: my team down last year. This year, it's not going
Speaker 1: to happen. You guys can count on me. Boom. End
Speaker 1: of story. There's a quote for you. It's a quote
Speaker 1: that everyone takes to the article and it makes you
Speaker 1: look like a self aware and dedicated teammate. So, like,
Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed in that, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I do think Draymond gets it.
Speaker 1: Even if that even if that interaction with the reporter
Speaker 1: was a little nasty, I do think Draymond gets it,
Speaker 1: Like I think he knows that he can't do what
Speaker 1: he did last year, that this team isn't talented enough
Speaker 1: to compete when he's not there. Moving on to the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six ers, a quote from Joel Embiide, I
Speaker 1: think me, Daryl will tell you this. As soon as
Speaker 1: we lost last year, I texted him. Embiid said, I
Speaker 1: was like, we got to do whatever it takes to
Speaker 1: make sure I'm in the postseason healthy. This year, there's
Speaker 1: no agenda, no All Star, there's no All MBA, there's
Speaker 1: none of that. There's whatever it takes to make sure
Speaker 1: that I get to that point and that I'm ready
Speaker 1: to go. Embid also insinuated that he has lost somewhere
Speaker 1: between twenty five and thirty pounds. Now, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: the weight loss, the weight gain that I put on muscle,
Speaker 1: the I grew taller stuff. I'm always a little bit
Speaker 1: skeptical of that. But let's just say for the sake
Speaker 1: of argument, that this is Embiid's approach, that he's improved
Speaker 1: his physical conditioning, and that his order of operations in
Speaker 1: terms of what he've used as important within this season
Speaker 1: is just simply get to the postseason healthy rather than
Speaker 1: pursuing regular season accolades. That's exactly what their approach should be.
Speaker 1: The team is built in a way that kind of
Speaker 1: managed that right. Like Andre Drummond is one of the
Speaker 1: better backup center options that you have in the league.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that could certainly start thirty forty games
Speaker 1: at center if you needed him to. You've got tons
Speaker 1: of shock creation with Paul George and Tyrese Maxi. You
Speaker 1: hit on some veteran minimum signings that I liked. That
Speaker 1: team is built to be able to withstand and be
Speaker 1: missing games and for them to float around five hundred,
Speaker 1: which is all you really need in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: to be a team that's above the play in And
Speaker 1: so if that's the approach and they combine that with
Speaker 1: himb being in better physical conditioning from the start, I
Speaker 1: think that makes it more likely that he is ready
Speaker 1: to go when he gets to the postseason. And there's
Speaker 1: like everything's theoretical with Embiid, Like Embiid's always struggled in
Speaker 1: the postseason, but it's been a combination of like injuries
Speaker 1: and some of his shortcomings and his approach right relying
Speaker 1: on the jump shot, relying on foul drifting right, not
Speaker 1: having too much of a physical aggressive play towards the basket, right,
Speaker 1: And it's not any one thing or the other. Like,
Speaker 1: I do believe that Embiide has consistently dealt with injuries
Speaker 1: and that that would certainly be a benefit to him
Speaker 1: if he could get to April and be ready to
Speaker 1: rock and roll. Right. But the flip side of that is, like,
Speaker 1: there are some legitimate shortcomings for him in the postseason,
Speaker 1: but step one is he's got to get their healthy,
Speaker 1: and that's something that we haven't seen in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. So I did think that that was
Speaker 1: an encouraging sign of Philly's approach coming into the season,
Speaker 1: even if it was the obvious direction that they needed
Speaker 1: to go. On the Lakers front, there was kind of
Speaker 1: a weird a bunch of interesting stuff. I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about D'Angel Russell off the top,
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk a little bit more about some
Speaker 1: of the other quotes that we saw. So quote from
Speaker 1: dlo I think for me, honestly, I think I really
Speaker 1: wanted to apologize in the sense of showing a lack
Speaker 1: of professionalism at times, showing a lack of team first
Speaker 1: perception at times. So for me, I think just kind
Speaker 1: of keeping that maturity in that professionalism throughout the year,
Speaker 1: no matter the ups and downs. I guess I appreciate
Speaker 1: that Delo wants to be better, But like I didn't
Speaker 1: think a lack of professionalism was an issue for dl
Speaker 1: last year. Like I thought, you know, I said before
Speaker 1: the season last year, and I was wrong. But I
Speaker 1: said before the season last year, I thought the safest
Speaker 1: bet in the NBA was that Delo would get traded.
Speaker 1: I just like I still feel like a Delo trade
Speaker 1: is coming down the pipeline simply because he's not a
Speaker 1: part of the big picture for the Lakers. He's a
Speaker 1: large expiring salary, but most importantly him and us and
Speaker 1: or redundant. It's a matter of like you need to
Speaker 1: pair Austin with somebody that actually compliments his skill set
Speaker 1: more than he actually does. It's a lot of people
Speaker 1: talk about the you know I have I have comments
Speaker 1: still to this day from people are like, why you
Speaker 1: sit down on Delo? Why so down on Dela? I
Speaker 1: my opinion of de Lo has skyrocketed since he joined
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I do. I think that he has major
Speaker 1: shortcomings that consistently show up in the postseason. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the dude is a good leader. He is. He absolutely
Speaker 1: handled it with professionalism last year. As I said, I
Speaker 1: said it was a safe bet that he got traded
Speaker 1: all year long, he was in trade rumors, and he
Speaker 1: kind of just handled that like a champ and just
Speaker 1: handled it like a professional. So like I didn't see
Speaker 1: that as being an issue. And then as far as
Speaker 1: Dela as a player, I still think he's a very
Speaker 1: very good regular season player, a very useful regular season player.
Speaker 1: Spaces the floor, can run action, can kind of be
Speaker 1: an offensive hub for stretches if you want. In general,
Speaker 1: just a very very good off ball player with really
Speaker 1: with a knack for like screening and cutting and slipping
Speaker 1: and all those little different read and react things that
Speaker 1: make a good basketball player. My opinion of Dlo as skyrocket,
Speaker 1: And as far as the trade thing goes, I don't
Speaker 1: even necessarily think Dlo needs to be traded this year.
Speaker 1: I just think his spot or Rui's spot needs a
Speaker 1: massive upgrade, Like if one of those two becomes a
Speaker 1: supreme athlete who can play on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: That makes the Lakers demonstrably better. So if it's like
Speaker 1: Austin Dilo and then a massive upgrade at the three
Speaker 1: and then Lebron and Ad, I think that can work.
Speaker 1: If it's Austin Ruey, Lebron and Ad and then a
Speaker 1: massive upgrade of Delo spot, I think that could work.
Speaker 1: But like all of my talk about trading Dlo, has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with who Dilo is as a player.
Speaker 1: It has everything to do with just finding more roster
Speaker 1: balance within the Lakers. I am a huge fan of
Speaker 1: d Lo. I'm excited to watch him this year. He's
Speaker 1: a big part of why I'm optimistic about the Lakers
Speaker 1: to start this season. I think the Lakers are going
Speaker 1: to be a good team right away this year. In
Speaker 1: A big part of that is the continuity and the
Speaker 1: offensive firepower, of which a big chunk is D'Angelo Russ.
Speaker 1: Do I have issues with them as a potential team
Speaker 1: that could win four playoff rounds? Yeah, And one of
Speaker 1: the pathways to fix that is via d Loo. But
Speaker 1: I don't think he needs to apologize. I don't think
Speaker 1: he needs to do anything different. If he came out
Speaker 1: and had the exact same season he had last year.
Speaker 1: I would be pleased. Obviously, it would help for him
Speaker 1: to be a little bit better on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: a little bit more attentive, fewer mistakes, and I think
Speaker 1: he will have a better defensive season on the strength
Speaker 1: of some of the structure that JJ Reddick is putting in.
Speaker 1: But like I thought, dlo is a little too hard
Speaker 1: on himself with the way that he approached that specific concept.
Speaker 1: A couple other just notes from Laker media Day, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of positivity coming around, just the vibes. Yovann Bouja.
Speaker 1: You guys know, he comes on the show quite a bit.
Speaker 1: We're actually looking at potentially having him back on here
Speaker 1: in the next couple of weeks. But Yovan is an example,
Speaker 1: said that he's been covering the team for five years
Speaker 1: and that it was the best like kind of vibes
Speaker 1: and positivity that he had seen in his time covering
Speaker 1: the team. That's encouraging, right, talk about structure, a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about systems being put in, a lot of
Speaker 1: talks about productivity and their practice approach, a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about emphasizing shooting more threes. A lot of really
Speaker 1: encouraging stuff out of Lakers camp. I'm really really excited
Speaker 1: to watch that team start playing some games. The Celtics.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum had an interesting quote. He said, I just
Speaker 1: always feel like, overall, I can still get better. You
Speaker 1: haven't seen the best version of Jason Tatum, and you shouldn't, right,
Speaker 1: I'm only twenty six. I should continue to keep getting better.
Speaker 1: I one hundred percent agree with him. I generally am
Speaker 1: of the opinion that a basketball player hits their peak
Speaker 1: between age thirty and thirty two. I think that's the
Speaker 1: sweet spot, where like their physical gifts are still like
Speaker 1: ninety ninety five five percent of what they were when
Speaker 1: they were young, but they have a decade of experience
Speaker 1: playing professional basketball and now just their overall understanding of
Speaker 1: how to read and react at the NBA level, little
Speaker 1: details about how to win basketball games, all of the
Speaker 1: ups and downs of losing to a team that's a
Speaker 1: bad matchup, or experiencing the highs and the lows. The
Speaker 1: I talk about that scar tissue of losing, Like Tatum's
Speaker 1: just seen so much already, all the big games that
Speaker 1: he's been in, and I think Tatum will hit his
Speaker 1: ceiling a little earlier just because he's been playing in
Speaker 1: really big games for so long, So for Tatum, it's
Speaker 1: probably more like twenty eight to thirty. But I do
Speaker 1: think there's a better version of Jason Tatum in there.
Speaker 1: There's a Jason Tatum in there that takes fewer bad shots.
Speaker 1: I think Jason Tatum has clearly made a commitment to
Speaker 1: becoming a good pull up shooter. He is not a
Speaker 1: good pull up shooter. But eventually, just by process of repetition,
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that by the time he's twenty
Speaker 1: eight to thirty that eventually he'll come around and at
Speaker 1: least become a little bit better. Will he ever become
Speaker 1: the type of pull up shooter that some of his
Speaker 1: small forward piers around the leagues are around the league are?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Probably not, but like he certainly will
Speaker 1: be able to come. I think there's still a considerable
Speaker 1: amount of improvement that he can show there, just by
Speaker 1: virtue of the fact that he's working so hard at it.
Speaker 1: Like you know, he's working hard at he's taken so
Speaker 1: many every single game, the repetition will eventually lead to improvement,
Speaker 1: and then just again, like the by age twenty eight
Speaker 1: age thirty, he's going to have a decade of NBA
Speaker 1: experience and just he's gonna have been in so many wars. Hell,
Speaker 1: he's already been in so many wars. I do think
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum will be a better basketball player in the
Speaker 1: next you know, three four years. Will he ever be
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. I don't think that
Speaker 1: is really in the potential outcome for him. I think
Speaker 1: the players at the top are just they have like
Speaker 1: just these true super like superpowers that kind of reach
Speaker 1: a level that that Tatum can't reach. But I do
Speaker 1: think that Jason Tatum will continue to improve over the
Speaker 1: next several years, and that is scary for a Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics team that I believe has by far the most
Speaker 1: talent in the NBA. Denver Nuggets a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: stuff surrounding Russell Westbrook. Mike Malone had some quotes. He said,
Speaker 1: russ was in the gym yesterday and there was just
Speaker 1: a different energy. I can't explain it. His voice, his leadership,
Speaker 1: his competitive spirit are all things that are not only
Speaker 1: going to help this team, but they're really going to
Speaker 1: help individual players achieve their potential and push them to
Speaker 1: be the best that they can be. I love that
Speaker 1: he's here. I love guys that bring it every single night,
Speaker 1: and that's what he's done every single game he's ever played.
Speaker 1: Jokic said, I know who he is a little bit
Speaker 1: outside of the court, great teammate, vocal leadership, the guy
Speaker 1: you want to listen to, the leader you want to
Speaker 1: follow in the gym. So one additional I have two
Speaker 1: additional Westbrook kind of topics that I want to get to,
Speaker 1: but before we move forward, I want to just hit
Speaker 1: touch on these really quick. Is the energy piece is
Speaker 1: always the thing that people are initially drawn to with Russ,
Speaker 1: and anybody who's actually covered Russ very closely or rooted
Speaker 1: for him on a team that he was actually playing for,
Speaker 1: you know that like Russ does every single night have
Speaker 1: moments where he gets very emotionally worked up and brings
Speaker 1: a lot of energy. And so that consistency can lead
Speaker 1: to a reputation of being a guy who plays hard
Speaker 1: every single game that he's played in. Right, Like Mike
Speaker 1: Malone said, but the issue with Russ isn't about whether
Speaker 1: or not he can get to that level every night.
Speaker 1: It's whether or not he can get to that level
Speaker 1: every possession. Russ has a tendency to float on defense
Speaker 1: off the ball, he'll kind of drift into the paint
Speaker 1: to hunt defensive rebounds, consistently loses a track of shooters,
Speaker 1: consistently falls asleep within the game plan discipline, and it
Speaker 1: can be damaging because there are always like there will
Speaker 1: be dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of highlights
Speaker 1: this year, I should say low lights of Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: where like he's standing out of the defensive stands, not
Speaker 1: paying attention and a dude just swoops right behind him
Speaker 1: and gets an offensive rebound or backcuts him for a
Speaker 1: or like he's guarding the ball and he just isn't
Speaker 1: paying attention to the guy just drives right around him,
Speaker 1: or like just in general, like a lack of attention
Speaker 1: to detail. There's we're gonna talk about Russ's defense in
Speaker 1: a minute. Russ is still when he's trying, not just
Speaker 1: a good point of attack defender, like a devastatingly good
Speaker 1: point of attack defender. And that's the real upside here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to that in a minute. But in
Speaker 1: terms of like this idea of like I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to warn Denver fans, like if you're under the impression
Speaker 1: that Russ is going to play hard every single possession
Speaker 1: and avoid mistakes. That is not who he is. It
Speaker 1: just never has been. He is a guy that brings
Speaker 1: emotion every night, that comes in waves, but he has
Speaker 1: actually really poor possession to possession focus and it will
Speaker 1: drive you crazy. I'm just saying that from experience. Talk
Speaker 1: to Clippers fans will say the same thing. Talk to
Speaker 1: Rockets fans will say the same thing. Talk to thunder
Speaker 1: fans will say the same thing. Talk to Wizards fans,
Speaker 1: they'll tell you the same thing. It's a consistent thing,
Speaker 1: and and he's been in the league for so long now.
Speaker 1: I just don't see it as something that he's going
Speaker 1: to dramatically change at this point in his career. A
Speaker 1: specific quote from Westbrook talking about previous teams. To be honest,
Speaker 1: it was unique. They just didn't put me in position
Speaker 1: to make it unique. I was in a position where
Speaker 1: I was not playing my position. Being able to be
Speaker 1: here and Coach Malone allowing me to be able to
Speaker 1: use my speed, use my transition skill to be able
Speaker 1: to make other guys better, makes the game easy for
Speaker 1: everybody surrounding me. And that's what I love to do best.
Speaker 1: The idea that the Lakers and Clippers didn't give Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook opportunities to be Russell Westbrook is completely asinine. Both teams,
Speaker 1: at extended stretches gave Russ the keys. Both teams also
Speaker 1: asked Russ to do things off the ball. Those were
Speaker 1: a struggle. The on ball reps with Russ are a
Speaker 1: mixed bag. You'll have stretches where it looks great. You'll
Speaker 1: have games where it looks great, but in the large sample,
Speaker 1: there's just as many mistakes as there are productive plays,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't really net out to a quality offensive hub.
Speaker 1: Not at this point in his career. He's lost a
Speaker 1: little bit of a step. His rim finishing is atrocious,
Speaker 1: and he can't shoot the basketball. He's a very gifted
Speaker 1: playmaker still at this point in his career, and you
Speaker 1: will have stretches where it looks really good. But the
Speaker 1: idea that the Lakers and Clippers didn't give Russ an
Speaker 1: opportunity is completely asinine. He will be asked to do
Speaker 1: the exact same stuff with Denver that he was asked
Speaker 1: to do with the Lakers and Clippers, and his success
Speaker 1: and efficiency in those situations I expect to look roughly
Speaker 1: the same. So let's look at one other quote and
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about the upside with Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Michael Lohan said, it's funny. I think when people talk
Speaker 1: about Russell Westbrook, no one really mentions defense. When we
Speaker 1: went back and watched as a staff as defense last
Speaker 1: year with the Clippers, end of games, he was on
Speaker 1: the opposing team's best player every night. So you have
Speaker 1: a guy that you can close games with. You have
Speaker 1: a guy that you can close games with, Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: who knows the league, knows personnel, and has the respective officials,
Speaker 1: and has competitive I'm going to get in your mindset
Speaker 1: that I love. So again, as we talked about, it's
Speaker 1: all about making sure that Russ is on the right
Speaker 1: type of matchup. Russ at this point in his career
Speaker 1: is still a devastatingly good on ball defender, especially against
Speaker 1: players that have athletic traits, because he's got really quick
Speaker 1: feet and he's got a low center of gravity and
Speaker 1: he's super strong, so he will beat you to spots
Speaker 1: and disrupt your base as well as anybody in the league.
Speaker 1: He's excellent guarding forwards. He's excellent in his back pressure
Speaker 1: to Mike Malone's point when I watched Russ's playoff footage
Speaker 1: from both of the last two years with the Clippers,
Speaker 1: the on ball defense is legitimately terrifyingly good, Like that
Speaker 1: is legitimately real. But everything I said about him off
Speaker 1: the ball is also real. His attention to detail within
Speaker 1: the defensive game plan, the lapses, they are damaging. And
Speaker 1: so have you asked me, like, what does it look
Speaker 1: like for Russell Westbrook within Denver for everything to work,
Speaker 1: work and to come together. It is about on the
Speaker 1: offensive end, when he's playing with the starters. I want
Speaker 1: to kind of like shelve that for a second, Okay,
Speaker 1: but it's about just within those bench units when he
Speaker 1: gets handed the keys, making fewer mistakes, having the good
Speaker 1: plays outweigh the bad plays. And then on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, it's about unleashing him in an
Speaker 1: on ball roll because when he is on the ball,
Speaker 1: he makes fewer mistakes and he leverages his athletics gifts
Speaker 1: at a higher level. Russ like takes it personal, and
Speaker 1: so he gets very very focused on a possession by
Speaker 1: possession basis when he's on the ball. But if you
Speaker 1: put him on an off ball roll to track a shooter.
Speaker 1: That's where you're going to start to get some of
Speaker 1: the negative plays that come with Russell Westbrook. Let's zoom
Speaker 1: in on Russ with the starters though, because this is
Speaker 1: the other thing, Like to Russ's point about like playing
Speaker 1: his style and being allowed to be unique, you can't
Speaker 1: do that with the starters. When it's Aaron Gordon and
Speaker 1: nikoliokicch and Michael Porter Jr. And Jamal Murray. He's not
Speaker 1: going to be playing Russell Westbrook basketball. He's going to
Speaker 1: be sliding into the KCP role or the Christian Brown role,
Speaker 1: right and in that specific role, it is so much
Speaker 1: about off ball read and react, meaning like screening for
Speaker 1: a guy like Michael Porter Junior, or screening for a
Speaker 1: guy like Jamal Murray, reading where the defenders are going
Speaker 1: and slipping to the basket. Over the course of the
Speaker 1: last three seasons with the Lakers and the Clippers, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of moments where where Russ when he
Speaker 1: was off the ball, teams were like both of those teams,
Speaker 1: the Lakers and the Clippers, were trying and begging Russ
Speaker 1: to function more as an off ball screener and cutter
Speaker 1: and he simply would not do it. He didn't do
Speaker 1: it with the Lakers, he didn't do it with the Clippers.
Speaker 1: And so again, like this is my last kind of
Speaker 1: thing on the Russell Westbrook stuff, there is a version
Speaker 1: of this that works. There is a version of this
Speaker 1: where Russ with the core lineups, works hard as an
Speaker 1: off ball screener and cutter. Make sure that he only
Speaker 1: takes wide open corner threes instead of above the breakthrees,
Speaker 1: and doesn't hunt them but looks more to take really
Speaker 1: really high quality ones. You focus him on an on
Speaker 1: ball defensive role, and you get a positive outcome out
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook. But his personal history tells us that
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to do that stuff. And so let's
Speaker 1: just put it this way. If it worked, and this
Speaker 1: is the one I'm just saying this in defense of
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Clippers. If it does work out with
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook this season in Denver, it will be because
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook changed who he was as a basketball player
Speaker 1: and became more focused on the things that Denver specifically
Speaker 1: needed him to do. It is not because Denver finally
Speaker 1: unleashed Russ when the Lakers and the Clippers and the
Speaker 1: Rockets and all these other teams couldn't. That's not what
Speaker 1: it is. It like both of those teams. Like as
Speaker 1: much as you want to talk about Darvin Ham and
Speaker 1: some of his limitations as a coach, tylou is one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in the league. That team needed
Speaker 1: a point guard and it still had all of the
Speaker 1: same issues that you saw with the Lakers, and like,
Speaker 1: and I even thought it fit a little better with
Speaker 1: the Clippers within the Lakers because they needed his specific
Speaker 1: position group, but it still had all of those same
Speaker 1: specific issues. So again, like, maybe it works, but stop
Speaker 1: blaming everybody else for the issues that have perpetually plagued
Speaker 1: you over the course of the tail end of your career.
Speaker 1: Russ needs to change in order for things to work
Speaker 1: in Denver. We have three more teams win him pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: The Milwaukee Bucks quote from Lillard. When I look back
Speaker 1: at last year, I was just trying to get through
Speaker 1: the year. My teammates, my coaches, they're going through the
Speaker 1: real They're going to get the real version of me.
Speaker 1: I definitely feel more on the same page with him
Speaker 1: now than I did last year regarding the honest So
Speaker 1: that was one of the big stories from last year,
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard obviously going through a bunch of stuff in
Speaker 1: his personal life, substantial decreases in scoring volume and efficiency,
Speaker 1: him getting back to form and looking like the real me,
Speaker 1: as he mentions, that would be a big swing factor
Speaker 1: for the Bucks. So hopefully those aren't just words and
Speaker 1: that's the reality of what the Bucks get to get
Speaker 1: out of Dame this year. Several quotes about the Bucks
Speaker 1: being overlooked. Doc said, well, we all pay attention to it.
Speaker 1: On the Bucks being overlooked in the East, Giannis said,
Speaker 1: I think we've always been overlooked. Look, here's the thing, guys, Like,
Speaker 1: if you win forty nine games in the in the
Speaker 1: Weak Eastern Conference, with dam and Giannis both playing seventy
Speaker 1: three games, like, it's going to affect the way teams project.
Speaker 1: I should say people in the like fan bases, media,
Speaker 1: they're going to project you based on the basketball that
Speaker 1: they saw. And last year you had plenty of opportunity
Speaker 1: to make sure that people didn't overlook you and you
Speaker 1: were a mediocre team. So like again, like I understand
Speaker 1: why internally they may feel like they're better than their reputation.
Speaker 1: I think they're probably a little better than their reputation,
Speaker 1: but they don't don't have the pedigree with this group,
Speaker 1: not the past, they don't have the pedigree with this
Speaker 1: group in recent play. To justify being lumped in with
Speaker 1: the top tier contenders in the NBA, Clippers, James Harden
Speaker 1: said aggressive, aggressive on his mentality entering this season. We
Speaker 1: tried last year to where I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: guys the roles. It was kind of difficult when you
Speaker 1: get that high caliber of players or Hall of famers
Speaker 1: and basically the same position with everybody trying to figure
Speaker 1: out the roles. It was pretty difficult. But this year
Speaker 1: for me, I got a clear space on what I
Speaker 1: need to be doing on fitting in with Kawhi and Russ.
Speaker 1: Last year, I got a clear space on what I
Speaker 1: need to be doing. End quote that was relating to
Speaker 1: his fit with Kawhi and Russ last year. I'm excited
Speaker 1: about having an opportunity to be who I am again.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you one thing. It is definitely
Speaker 1: going to involve a lot of me, not just because
Speaker 1: I can create a shot and get guys involved. There's
Speaker 1: always going to be tough. There was talk when I
Speaker 1: was in Houston when I was doing what I was doing.
Speaker 1: You can't win like that. You just seen a guy
Speaker 1: last season make it to the Finals playing the exact
Speaker 1: same way that I play. So there is a way.
Speaker 1: Your team has to be constructed very well, and you've
Speaker 1: got to have a little bit of luck and make
Speaker 1: sure that you are healthy. So this is interesting because,
Speaker 1: like I actually see upside with this approach for the
Speaker 1: regular season. If you build the offense around James Harden
Speaker 1: and you have the type of perimeter defense personnel that
Speaker 1: the Clippers have and a rock solid starting center like
Speaker 1: i Vikazubats, I think that they're gonna win a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball games. I've said this before, but like I
Speaker 1: think if they get just like kind of like baseline
Speaker 1: health out of James Harden and Kawhi, like even just
Speaker 1: like fifty games out of Kuhi and sixty five games
Speaker 1: out of James Harden, I think that they're going to
Speaker 1: stay out of the plane. I think that James Harden's
Speaker 1: just a really good kind of baseline offensive engine, and
Speaker 1: I think they're just a scrappy, athletic young team on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and I think that that's going to drive
Speaker 1: a lot for them. Right. However, there's a huge difference
Speaker 1: between James Harden and Luka Doncic, and like, there is
Speaker 1: a reason why that the Harden style hasn't worked at
Speaker 1: the highest level of the NBA playoffs, And there's a
Speaker 1: reason why people say you can't win like that in
Speaker 1: respect to James Harden in a different way than they
Speaker 1: say with Luka Doncic. And this is a take that
Speaker 1: I've had many times on this show, But there is
Speaker 1: a huge difference between Luca and James Harden's attack. Luca
Speaker 1: has so much variety in his offensive attack and can
Speaker 1: score from so many different places on the floor, with
Speaker 1: so many different types of shots that he has more
Speaker 1: resilience to different types of defenders and defensive coverages. James
Speaker 1: Harden is a step back jumper, almost always going to
Speaker 1: his right, or a hard dribble drive to the left,
Speaker 1: or a crossover to the right, an occasional floater. Everything
Speaker 1: else is at the rim. It is nowhere near the
Speaker 1: level of variety that Luca has, and that is why
Speaker 1: James Harden has the reputation that he has. So even
Speaker 1: though I was encouraged by that in the sense that
Speaker 1: that's the right way for the Clippers to go about
Speaker 1: this regular season in order to rack up wins and
Speaker 1: just pray that Kawhi's healthy come April. I thought it
Speaker 1: was all also kind of an interesting little example of
Speaker 1: a lack of self awareness for James Harden in realizing
Speaker 1: what makes him different from a guy like Luka Dawcic.
Speaker 1: Last one the Spurs, Greg Popovich talking about there was
Speaker 1: kind of like a little bit of a difference between
Speaker 1: some of the ways the players were talking about their
Speaker 1: expectations versus the coaching staff. So Popovich says, our expectations
Speaker 1: are the same as they've been from the first year
Speaker 1: that I coached. We want to be the best possible
Speaker 1: team that we can be. That's individually, as far as
Speaker 1: development goes, that's obviously been a big factor of the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. Then team wide learning how to
Speaker 1: play and what it takes to win. So Popovich is
Speaker 1: a little bit more reserved, a little bit more talk
Speaker 1: about development, a little bit talk about this being a process.
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel said, playoffs, that's it, That's all I see,
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul said, I'm going to be away from
Speaker 1: my family, then I want it to be meaningful. I
Speaker 1: want to play and compete. This was the best opportunity
Speaker 1: to do that, and I feel like this would be
Speaker 1: the best fit. So I don't read too much into
Speaker 1: popovich comments because I think he's just being realistic. And
Speaker 1: I obviously think that Greg Popovic's approach is going to
Speaker 1: be a try to win every single game. As far
Speaker 1: as the overall idea about like the Spurs and going
Speaker 1: for it at this phase, I never think there's a
Speaker 1: bad reason to try to win every game, Like, can
Speaker 1: you potentially stunt development to some degree when you don't
Speaker 1: give guys opportunities even though it might not be the
Speaker 1: best thing for the team. Yeah, there's some diminishing returns
Speaker 1: that you can get there. However, the counter is you
Speaker 1: have to you have to account for the fact that
Speaker 1: like actually playing winning basketball, actually teaching young players winning concepts,
Speaker 1: and everything built around the idea of like a hatred
Speaker 1: of losing and losing attitudes and losing behaviors being unacceptable
Speaker 1: to me is a rock solid foundation to build an
Speaker 1: organization on, and so like, even if the Spurs internally
Speaker 1: don't think that they have championship potential, approaching it as
Speaker 1: though that you're going to try to make a playoff
Speaker 1: run is the right way to go because it's about
Speaker 1: character building, and when you're in this kind of like
Speaker 1: fledgling state of a franchise, as you're getting ready to
Speaker 1: move into an era of contention with Victor wiman Yama,
Speaker 1: it's very important. It's very important for you to build
Speaker 1: that character in this particular phase. All right, Let's get
Speaker 1: into our season preview from Minnesota Timberwolves. So they lost
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin, Monty Morris, and Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 1: They added Rob Dillingham, who's a scoring guard that the
Speaker 1: guy with the eighth overall pick, Joe Ingles, Dante DiVincenzo,
Speaker 1: and Julius Randall as the returns in the Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns trade. I also found out that Key Debates Job
Speaker 1: is coming over as well, a guy that I'm not
Speaker 1: sure will play that much, but he does play at
Speaker 1: the forward position, which is probably the area that they're
Speaker 1: least deep, so there's some value there, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how much of an NBA rotation player he is.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at the Cat trade real quick. So,
Speaker 1: as I talked about a little bit on the Monday Show,
Speaker 1: I understand why they did it. Julius Randall has a
Speaker 1: player option after this year for thirty one million dollars
Speaker 1: that he will most likely decline and try to work
Speaker 1: out some sort of long term deal a new deal. Right.
Speaker 1: Carl Anthony Towns has a sixty one million dollar player
Speaker 1: option in twenty twenty seven that he will almost certainly
Speaker 1: pick up. So Kat's contract is three additional years longer
Speaker 1: and almost twice as expensive. That is just really difficult
Speaker 1: to deal with financially, right. Dante DiVincenzo at twelve million
Speaker 1: a year is just a more manageable salary as well
Speaker 1: to work with, So there's substantially more financial flexibility in
Speaker 1: the next few years after this deal. Let's look at
Speaker 1: the payroll real quick, even without Carl Anthony Towns. If
Speaker 1: Gobert picks up his player option, that's forty seven million
Speaker 1: dollars on the book books next year. If he doesn't
Speaker 1: pick up the player option and you resign him. Judging
Speaker 1: by what Jared Allen got this summer and what Isaiah
Speaker 1: Hartenstein got the summer, Isaiah Hartenstein got almost thirty million.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen got more than thirty million. Rudy Gobert even
Speaker 1: I personally would rather have Jared Allen as my center
Speaker 1: than Rudy Gobert, but because he's just more functional as
Speaker 1: an offensive piece. But like Rudy Gobert in terms of reputation,
Speaker 1: is considered by many to be a better player than
Speaker 1: both of those guys. So you're looking at like thirty
Speaker 1: five million to forty million a year in some sort
Speaker 1: of four year deal for Rudy Gobert after this season,
Speaker 1: So like that's expensive. Anthony Edwards makes forty six million
Speaker 1: dollars next year. Jaden McDaniels makes twenty five million dollars
Speaker 1: next year. Mike Conley is on the books for ten
Speaker 1: million dollars next year. Nas Reed is doing a new deal.
Speaker 1: So it was a sacrifice. You sacrifice to run a
Speaker 1: chance to run it back with a Western Conference finals
Speaker 1: team and a young superstar that will improve year over
Speaker 1: year for long term flexibility. I personally don't like the
Speaker 1: Julius rand. We'll go into more detail about that later,
Speaker 1: but most star trades don't bring back a star, so
Speaker 1: to get real long term flexibility comparatively to your other situation,
Speaker 1: also have the potential upside. Again, I don't like the fit,
Speaker 1: but there's potential upside because he's a star of Julius
Speaker 1: Randall and then depth with Dante DiVincenzo. If there was
Speaker 1: some sort of directive from ownership to shed money, get
Speaker 1: out of the second apron, build long term flexibility. If
Speaker 1: that was a directive from ownership, this is about as
Speaker 1: good as you can do because you've got a star back,
Speaker 1: you got a depth piece back, and you built in
Speaker 1: that flexibility. So even if we don't necessarily like the
Speaker 1: fit of the star, if you were in the same
Speaker 1: position where you were asked to trade a star for
Speaker 1: financial flexibility, it's difficult to do much better than Tim
Speaker 1: Connolly did. Right. So now from that perspective, let's look
Speaker 1: at the basketball. So Julius Randall, the upside is what
Speaker 1: he can do on the ball. And I told you guys,
Speaker 1: I promised i'd get into more detail in the season previous.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about some of these
Speaker 1: specifics with Julius Randall on the ball. The last time
Speaker 1: Julius Randall was healthy for a whole season was twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. Played seventy seven games. He averaged twenty five points,
Speaker 1: ten rebounds, and four assists on fifty eight percent for shooting,
Speaker 1: which is obviously very good. He made the All Star
Speaker 1: team and he was third team All NBA. He was
Speaker 1: also an efficient, high volume shot creator over at point
Speaker 1: per possession on pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups
Speaker 1: including passes. To give you an example of the difference
Speaker 1: in volume and efficiency, Karl Anthony Towns ran five hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty four pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups
Speaker 1: last year for five hundred and thirteen points including passes.
Speaker 1: That's just zero point nine to eight points per possession.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall in that twenty twenty three season, ran nine
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety six pick and rolls, ISOs and post
Speaker 1: ups including passes, got one thousand and thirty eight points,
Speaker 1: which is one point zero four points per possession. So
Speaker 1: Julius in his last time healthy season basically did twice
Speaker 1: the volume of shot creation that Kat did last year
Speaker 1: and was considerably more efficient. So like Julius is just
Speaker 1: a much better on ball shot creator than Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns is. He's a deadly face up player. On like
Speaker 1: face up jabstep jump shots, he got over a point
Speaker 1: per possession. He shot sixty four percent at the rim
Speaker 1: he shot fifty six percent on floaters and hooks. He's
Speaker 1: got like a really efficient little left shoulder fade when
Speaker 1: he's posting up on that left block and he kind
Speaker 1: of gets into the middle of the floor, And that
Speaker 1: specific type of on ball shot creation beyond Ant is
Speaker 1: something that Minnesota didn't have last year, and it's a
Speaker 1: big part of why they struggled offensively. If you look
Speaker 1: at the numbers, when Ant was on the floor, the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves had a one to eighteen offensive rating. That's very good.
Speaker 1: It's not elite, it's not like the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league, but it's very good. When Ant was off
Speaker 1: the floor, they had a one to eleven point four
Speaker 1: offensive rating that's very bad. So improved secondary shot creator.
Speaker 1: An improved secondary shot creator like Julius Randall, will one
Speaker 1: give you a better chance of scoring when Ant's off
Speaker 1: the floor, and will two, when Ant is off the ball,
Speaker 1: give you a better opportunity to create quality shots. So
Speaker 1: I think Julius two and two man game like. He's
Speaker 1: not going to be the pick and pop player that
Speaker 1: Cat was, But when they face any sort of switching,
Speaker 1: Julius is a better matchup attacker in terms of using
Speaker 1: his size to bullie smaller defenders. I like that fit
Speaker 1: in terms of Julius as an on ball creator. The
Speaker 1: downside of this particular fit is when Ant has the ball.
Speaker 1: Last year, even with Kat in the lineup, the Wolves
Speaker 1: struggled to space the floor for Ant. Jada McDaniel's converted
Speaker 1: spot up possessions at just zero point ninety nine points
Speaker 1: per possession. Teams were comfortable helping off of Jaden and
Speaker 1: just throwing a late close out at him. Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: as I've said so many times on the show, everyone
Speaker 1: talks about him on the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: and low lights of him getting scored on in isolation.
Speaker 1: That's not the issue with Rudy. I still think he's
Speaker 1: an awesome defensive player. The issue with Rudy is he
Speaker 1: basically has to be completely open to finish around the
Speaker 1: basket anything that's in traffic. He's so bad at catching
Speaker 1: and finishing surrounded by bodies in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: That's the real reason Rudy deserves criticism. That's the real
Speaker 1: reason that France benched him with the Olympics. That's the
Speaker 1: real reason why at stretches it seems like, oh man like,
Speaker 1: this doesn't work offensively with Rudy on the floor. It
Speaker 1: comes down to him being able to catch and finish
Speaker 1: in traffic, and so with Jaden Kat and Rudy it
Speaker 1: already was kind of janky. Now you're subbing in cat,
Speaker 1: subbing out cat for Julius Randall, and he's just not
Speaker 1: a good off ball player on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. His spot of efficiency has been way below
Speaker 1: average basically every season of his career. He did peak
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty three season at one point zero
Speaker 1: seven points per possession, which is slightly above average, but
Speaker 1: he dipped right back down to the thirty third percentile
Speaker 1: last year to zero point nine to three points per possession,
Speaker 1: and in all of the previous seasons he was well
Speaker 1: below a point per possession. So he's not a good
Speaker 1: point like spot up guy. He's basically a one point
Speaker 1: per possession catch and shoot guy. He shoots about thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent when he's unguarded on jump shots, but he
Speaker 1: shoots poorly when he's guarded. He scores on a cut
Speaker 1: maybe once every two games. He's in the twenty fifth
Speaker 1: percentile for frequency, so he's never been a high volume cutter.
Speaker 1: He did some pick and popping with Brunson. He had
Speaker 1: a decent pick and pop season in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't as effective last year. So, like, there's
Speaker 1: some issues there with how you can make use of
Speaker 1: Julius Randall off the ball. It's not going to be
Speaker 1: easy for Anthony Edwards. His development is a pull up shooter,
Speaker 1: which really came to the surface in the postseason last year.
Speaker 1: That's going to be huge for this team's potential and
Speaker 1: hopefully that translates forward into this season. But again, like
Speaker 1: that fits specifically, having Jaden, Julius, and Rudy all on
Speaker 1: the floor at the same time, that could be an
Speaker 1: absolute disaster for spacing, and so I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: concerned about that. Health is also an issue for Julius.
Speaker 1: He's a rhythm player, so when he gets out of
Speaker 1: the lineup for a while, it takes some time to
Speaker 1: get back to form. In addition to missing a bunch
Speaker 1: of time this year, if you go back to the
Speaker 1: previous year, he missed some time right before the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then when he came back, he just didn't look
Speaker 1: like Julius Randall. He looked really bad. But then At
Speaker 1: the same time, I don't really view that as a
Speaker 1: factor in this trade because Karl Anthony Towns has a
Speaker 1: lot of the same health question marks that Julius Randall did.
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo I think he's just a rock solid starting
Speaker 1: NBA guard and he may not even start on this
Speaker 1: particular team. He's a very good athlete at the guard position.
Speaker 1: He's six ' four, he's strong, he runs and jumps well.
Speaker 1: He's very good on ball defender. He's got a great motor.
Speaker 1: He always plays hard. He gets good physical ball pressure
Speaker 1: on the ball handler, and then he turned into one
Speaker 1: of the best shooters in the league. He shot over
Speaker 1: forty nine to three point attempts per game last year.
Speaker 1: He was one of only three players in the entire
Speaker 1: NBA to attempt at least eight threes per game and
Speaker 1: to hit at least forty percent of them, him Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and CJ. McCollum. He converted spot up possessions at
Speaker 1: one point two to three points per possession. Thirty seven
Speaker 1: players in the NBA logged at least thirty three hundred
Speaker 1: spot up possessions. Dante ranked fourth on that list. He's
Speaker 1: just a very, very good offensive off ball guard. He's
Speaker 1: an absolute gamer, plays both ends of the floor, plays
Speaker 1: hard leverages, athletic gifts. I think Wolves fans are going
Speaker 1: to love him. I think he's a better player than
Speaker 1: Nikhil Alexander Walker, for instance. Like I think that's a
Speaker 1: legitimate upgrade. So in summary, looking at the trade, very
Speaker 1: rarely can you trade a star and get a star
Speaker 1: back while also getting a legit depth piece and get
Speaker 1: the financial flexibility, Like if you were under this directive,
Speaker 1: it's about as good as you can do. My concerns
Speaker 1: about this trade mostly center around fit. Again, kat is
Speaker 1: a much better offensive fit with Anthony Edwards off the ball,
Speaker 1: but there is upside to the Randall fit with his
Speaker 1: on ball creation. Right, add that starting two way caliber
Speaker 1: guard in starting caliber two a guard in Dante DiVincenzo. Right,
Speaker 1: So like it's about as I would have preferred if
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves ran it back, because you got a really
Speaker 1: bad matchup in the conference finals. Anthony Edwards is ascending,
Speaker 1: You've got this beautiful front court to fight against the
Speaker 1: against the Nicole Jokic problem. I would have preferred if
Speaker 1: they run it back, And I'm sure some Wolves fans
Speaker 1: feel the same, but I understand why they did it,
Speaker 1: and they did about as good a job of doing
Speaker 1: it as you could do under that type of directive.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about ants development, because this is a huge
Speaker 1: piece of the Wolves this year. The postseason leap last
Speaker 1: year was real. He entered into that like bona fide
Speaker 1: top tier superstar territory. In the playoff run, he averaged
Speaker 1: twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent Troy shooting,
Speaker 1: which is insane. Took his team in the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 1: Really special stuff right. What facilitated that rise his combination
Speaker 1: of jump shooting and playmaking. He took seven threes of
Speaker 1: games a game in the playoffs and made forty percent
Speaker 1: of them. He shot forty three percent on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots, getting one point zero eight points per shot,
Speaker 1: which is great. Did a really nice job though, in
Speaker 1: the playmaking front, driving and kicking to generate advantage opportunities
Speaker 1: for a season, averaging six and a half assists per
Speaker 1: game in a playoff run that's three rounds long. That's
Speaker 1: a legitimate playmaking leap from Anthony Edwards. Now, the question
Speaker 1: is how much of that was real? I believe most
Speaker 1: of it was, But the reality is they're going to
Speaker 1: need it to be real. Teams are going to consistently
Speaker 1: pack the paint on him and force him to hit
Speaker 1: shots over the top of the defense. That's going to
Speaker 1: be an important counter for him. So that jump shot development,
Speaker 1: that being real goes a long way to confronting some
Speaker 1: of the spacing issues. Because this is a clunky fit.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a challenging season for Ant on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. How much is he
Speaker 1: up to that challenge because if he can overcome a
Speaker 1: lot of that, that's where you can get the upside
Speaker 1: of Julius Randall when he's on the ball. And I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about Ant off the ball at all. He's
Speaker 1: just turned into too good of a shooter. At this point.
Speaker 1: I have one last little kind of like a point
Speaker 1: that I want to hit before we get into more
Speaker 1: of a big picture summary the backup forward spot. The
Speaker 1: Wolves bench got better with the addition of Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1: You're actually really deep at bench guard, right, Like given
Speaker 1: Nakil Alexander Walker, you have Dante DiVincenzo, Rob Dillingham, he's
Speaker 1: top ten picks. You gotta find minutes for him there,
Speaker 1: right you actually have five guards in the rotation. That's
Speaker 1: something that I think will be interesting to watch the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. You have an excellent backup center
Speaker 1: nas Reads, about as good as you can do in
Speaker 1: the backup center's position in the NBA. But with the
Speaker 1: loss of Kyle Anderson, you're now looking at Joe Ingles,
Speaker 1: Luca Garza, and Keida Bates job basically as your backup forwards,
Speaker 1: and none of those are great options. Right. So, like,
Speaker 1: I think the initial setup is fine. I think having
Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels, Julius Randall, Rudy Gobert, nas Red, I think
Speaker 1: you're you got enough there to fill most of the
Speaker 1: front court minutes. It's more of a depth issue. If
Speaker 1: one of those four guys goes down with injury, that's
Speaker 1: where you could be looking at twenty plus minutes a
Speaker 1: night for guys like Joe Ingles, Luca Gar's key debates job.
Speaker 1: That's where it could get a little bit tricky. Right, So,
Speaker 1: there's two ways to confront that. One is a balancing trade, Like,
Speaker 1: you have five guards that are all really good rotation players.
Speaker 1: If you could turn one of them, let's say the
Speaker 1: worst one, like Nikhail Alexander Walker, if you could turn
Speaker 1: him into a full word, that balances things a little
Speaker 1: bit right. Another direction they could go is look to
Speaker 1: build out some three guard looks. Dante plays bigger than
Speaker 1: he is. He rebounds really well for a guard, and
Speaker 1: he's strong and is a good center of gravity, so
Speaker 1: he could slide his feet well. So like, I think
Speaker 1: you could like kind of account for the fact that
Speaker 1: he plays a little bigger than he is. And then
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards is one of the most physically imposing guards
Speaker 1: in the league. So like, I actually think in Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 1: Mike Conley, Dante DiVincenzo lineup with Gobert and one of
Speaker 1: Julius Randall or JD. McDaniels could work. So like keep
Speaker 1: an eye on the backward of the backup forward spot.
Speaker 1: But one of the ways they could confront that outside
Speaker 1: of a trade is just trying to build out some
Speaker 1: more three guard looks. All right, segment, why don't you
Speaker 1: have Minnesota with the top tier contenders. I have Minnesota
Speaker 1: in the if things go right tier. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: ant fan. I'm rooting for this team to succeed. So
Speaker 1: this is not about any sort of like personal Vendetta.
Speaker 1: I actually really like Anthony Edwards. I think he might
Speaker 1: be my favorite player of this next era. Right, but
Speaker 1: they have some gaping holes and specific matchup weaknesses that
Speaker 1: could get them beat, specifically teams that do a really
Speaker 1: good job of protecting the rim. We saw this in
Speaker 1: the Dallas series. Right. In the Denver series, Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: attempted seven point one restricted area shots per game and
Speaker 1: shot seventy four percent there. In the Dallas series, he
Speaker 1: attempted just five point eight restricted area shots per game
Speaker 1: and shot just fifty five percent there. So, going from
Speaker 1: a guy who is having a bad rim protection postseason
Speaker 1: run in Jokic to legit rim protection and Gafford and
Speaker 1: Lively completely changed Minnesota's ability to get into the basket,
Speaker 1: specifically with ants. Then it also extended into the regular season.
Speaker 1: The top eight opponent point in the paint team. So
Speaker 1: let's call that rim protection teams the top eight rim
Speaker 1: protection teams, not counting Minnesota in the league, where the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, the New Orleans Pelicans,
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: in the Boston Celtics. The Timberwolves went ten to ten
Speaker 1: against that group, and they went forty six and sixteen
Speaker 1: against everyone else. So that's like a pretty substantial sample
Speaker 1: size that demonstrates that the teams that can really pack
Speaker 1: the paint and protect the rim are going to bog
Speaker 1: down this Minnesota offense and cause them to be vulnerable
Speaker 1: in a real way. So like now we can kind
Speaker 1: of exacerbate that concept by swapping in Julius Randall for
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns. So like that, that to me is
Speaker 1: like a legitimate matchup weakness that could get them into
Speaker 1: some trouble there are like they if they run into
Speaker 1: teams that can really protect the rim, they could end
Speaker 1: up getting beat in the playoffs. Teams that I look
Speaker 1: got there, Like if they faced Dallas again, I think
Speaker 1: they'd lose. If they face Oklahoma City, I think they'd lose.
Speaker 1: Even some of the lower teams in the West, like
Speaker 1: a team like the Lakers that has Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: that front line. That's a team that could really pack
Speaker 1: the paint against Minnesota and cost some issues for their defense.
Speaker 1: The Lakers struggled to guard on the perimeter, but they
Speaker 1: have guys in Minnesota that don't necessarily need to be
Speaker 1: accounted for on the perimeter that they can stash bad
Speaker 1: defensive players on. So like, I think that's a significant weakness.
Speaker 1: The second big weakness that I want to talk about
Speaker 1: is trapping ant. This was something we saw towards the
Speaker 1: tail end of the Denver series and then a lot
Speaker 1: in the Dallas series. It's copycat league, right. Denver showed it,
Speaker 1: Dallas copied it and kind of perfected it with rim protection.
Speaker 1: Ant got blitzed in ball screens twenty two times in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. The Wolves scored just ten points on those possessions,
Speaker 1: and they shot just three for sixteen from the field.
Speaker 1: It is. It is a copycat league. Teams will all
Speaker 1: of the good coaching staffs in the league, when they're
Speaker 1: game planning for Minnesota will watch that footage and go, man,
Speaker 1: just put two on an There's nothing they can do,
Speaker 1: So what is your game plan for that. I'm a
Speaker 1: huge believer in their defense. Yes, they struggled in the
Speaker 1: Luca matchup, but there's really only a small handful of
Speaker 1: guys in the league that can really make Luca uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of ways that this offense
Speaker 1: can be really bogged down by packing the paint, by
Speaker 1: trapping Ant in his ball screens, and it could potentially
Speaker 1: be worse now that Cat is gone, and so like
Speaker 1: that's something that they got to have a game plan for.
Speaker 1: Whether that's aligning things so that you have a good
Speaker 1: playmaker as the first read for Ant when he gets
Speaker 1: into the trap, whether that's just a lot of internal
Speaker 1: improvement for guys like Jaden McDaniels, whether that's Julius Randall
Speaker 1: improving as a spot up player. They've got to find
Speaker 1: a way to convert those four on threes into easy shots.
Speaker 1: Because the book is out. With Minnesota pack the paint,
Speaker 1: trap Ant, you can bog down their offense. So in summary,
Speaker 1: I think this team is built to win regular season games.
Speaker 1: They've got young, energetic talent. I think they will likely
Speaker 1: end up in the three or the four seed this year,
Speaker 1: but I think they need to catch some matchup luck
Speaker 1: in order to win four playoff rounds. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: there are some teams in the Western Conference that I
Speaker 1: think would just beat them because of their ability to
Speaker 1: protect the rim. So that puts them in the mix
Speaker 1: with all of these teams below the top tier for me.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Ant. I think he's ready to
Speaker 1: do this. I just think the rest of the roster
Speaker 1: has some holes that are tough to account for. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: That is all I have for today is always is
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll see
Speaker 1: for Friday. We might have some preseason reaction depending on
Speaker 1: what happens in that Denver Boston game. If not, we
Speaker 1: will have another season preview as well as a mailbag.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
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