Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, god to hoops tonight. Here
Speaker 1: at the Volume Heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope all you guys
Speaker 1: had a great first week. I'm very excited to get
Speaker 1: into our mail bag today. I got caught up on
Speaker 1: three more games from the Wednesday Night Slate. I swear
Speaker 1: my eyes are gonna be squares soon. I watched ten
Speaker 1: of the first sixteen NBA regular season games. It's been
Speaker 1: an absolute grind this week. We had three fun live
Speaker 1: shows over the last few nights. But I'm very excited
Speaker 1: to kind of bounce around and get to the stuff
Speaker 1: that we haven't talked about yet. We do have a
Speaker 1: handful of questions related to some of our regular teams
Speaker 1: that we cover often on the show. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: be breaking down three games from Wednesday Night Slate. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hit Raptors, Hawks, We're gonna hit Clippers, Jazz, We're
Speaker 1: gonna hit six Ers, Celtics. I've got questions from some
Speaker 1: other teams around the league, some big picture basketball kind
Speaker 1: of philosophy questions, all sorts of interesting stuff from you
Speaker 1: guys in today's mail bag. You guys are the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I
Speaker 1: YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts. You guys don't
Speaker 1: miss how announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super
Speaker 1: helpful if you leave a rating in a review on
Speaker 1: that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media
Speaker 1: feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Make sure you guys follow
Speaker 1: us there. Then, the last but not least, keep dropping
Speaker 1: mail bag questions in the YouTube comments again in our
Speaker 1: full episodes. Right, mail bag, colon, write your question. We're
Speaker 1: going to get to them mostly on Fridays, but about
Speaker 1: once a week throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So first question, shout out to
Speaker 1: Harry weston the question that allowed us to get to
Speaker 1: all of these games. Out of the other games on
Speaker 1: opening night, who surprised you the most? I think Charlotte
Speaker 1: and Toronto could have sneaky good seasons and VJ Edgecomb
Speaker 1: looks like the future in Philly. Also, what happened in Utah,
Speaker 1: I would argue Veja was the biggest surprise from that
Speaker 1: Wednesday Night Slate. But I thought that this question was
Speaker 1: a great opportunity for us to just quickly bounce through
Speaker 1: a couple of game reactions. I caught up on Raptors, Hawks, Clippers, Jazz,
Speaker 1: and six or Celtics this morning. I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and give you guys my takeaways on all three
Speaker 1: of those games. So, first of all, I haven't had
Speaker 1: the chance to watch Charlotte yet, although I caught them
Speaker 1: in preseason. I thought they looked good in preseason. I'm
Speaker 1: generally not as high on Charlotte as some of my
Speaker 1: peers are, just because I think they're kind of generally
Speaker 1: unserious and they have a very injury prone set of
Speaker 1: core players. But we will get to the Charlotte Hornets
Speaker 1: at some point in time down the line. Starting with
Speaker 1: Raptors Hawks, I thought Toronto's size, length, and athleticism in
Speaker 1: their starting lineup popped off the screen right away. When
Speaker 1: you have Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes, who are, in
Speaker 1: addition to being two really big forwards, Barnes brings a
Speaker 1: strength and power element, Ingram brings a length element. Ingram's
Speaker 1: more of an over the top shooter. Barnes is more
Speaker 1: of a rim pressuring type of player, but both of
Speaker 1: them are pretty high level playmakers for the forward position.
Speaker 1: Yaka Pertl obviously a big, strong center, kind of an
Speaker 1: underrated player in my opinion, and then RJ. Barrett obviously
Speaker 1: one of the more athletic kind of two three swingmen
Speaker 1: out there at two through five. They're just very physically imposing,
Speaker 1: and they came out with super impressive defensive intensity right
Speaker 1: from the jump, and they it just was a carryover
Speaker 1: from what we saw from the tail end of last season.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, they ran the floor insanely well
Speaker 1: in transition, kind of flipping the script on what Atlanta
Speaker 1: typically likes to do. Toronto had forty three transition points
Speaker 1: in this game. They had an offensive rating over one
Speaker 1: forty on their transition possessions. Just a combination of really
Speaker 1: poor Atlanta transition defense, which we'll get to in a minute,
Speaker 1: and just how athletically imposing they can be when they're
Speaker 1: running the floor and brandon ingram right out. The gates
Speaker 1: came out super aggressive, scoring off of off ball action
Speaker 1: and on ball action, just curling around screens and getting
Speaker 1: into the middle of the floor. His scoring polish was
Speaker 1: immediately apparent. I think he going to make life a
Speaker 1: lot easier for them on that end, especially when they
Speaker 1: get into crunch time, which obviously they did not experience
Speaker 1: in this particular game. I thought RJ. Barrett was fantastic.
Speaker 1: He hit some much needed threes early in the game
Speaker 1: to space the floor, did a great job pressure in
Speaker 1: the rim. He obviously played really really good defense as well,
Speaker 1: and the Raptors just went into Atlanta and smacked them.
Speaker 1: They had seven guys in double figures. Grady Dick had
Speaker 1: twenty off the bench. He hit a bunch of jumpers
Speaker 1: from all sorts of ranges all over the floor. They
Speaker 1: were just six for twenty five from three and yet
Speaker 1: they logged a one twenty two offensive rating. And it
Speaker 1: was a combination to two things. Obviously, the transition pushes.
Speaker 1: When you have over forty transition points in a game,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty unusual number to see there. That's a
Speaker 1: big way to boost your offensive rating. And then the
Speaker 1: second piece of it is when they got in the
Speaker 1: half court, they had a lot of really impressive ball
Speaker 1: in player movement. They got in and out of actions quickly.
Speaker 1: They ran a lot of actions on every possession, and
Speaker 1: one of the things that stood out to me is
Speaker 1: they do have more playmaking talent than you would think,
Speaker 1: like for all the limits in terms of shooting talent.
Speaker 1: We've seen this before with teams like the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Now they weaponize shooting in the form of Steph and
Speaker 1: Buddy Heeled now and Klay Thompson. In the past they
Speaker 1: weaponized shooting to create that initial advantage, but from there
Speaker 1: they tend to have less shooting than most teams, but
Speaker 1: they just break you down with really crisp decision making
Speaker 1: and movement right and obviously for Toronto, they don't have
Speaker 1: the thread of the shooting, so it'll be harder for
Speaker 1: them to break down elite defenses. But one of the
Speaker 1: things I thought they did really well was they just
Speaker 1: passed and moved in and out of their actions well
Speaker 1: and got a lot of really good looks at the
Speaker 1: rim they had. I don't have the number directly in
Speaker 1: front of me. They had a million points in the
Speaker 1: paint in this game. That was a huge part of
Speaker 1: how they controlled the offensive end of the floor. In
Speaker 1: this game, they had assists on two thirds of their baskets. Again,
Speaker 1: anything over sixty five percent and assist percentage to me,
Speaker 1: is really strong. They started up over that to start
Speaker 1: the season. Again, they can't shoot the ball, but they
Speaker 1: have real strengths. They're big, they're athletic, they're great at defense,
Speaker 1: they run the floor and transition well, and when they
Speaker 1: get in the half court, they have really nice playmaking talent.
Speaker 1: It's a good recipe for winning basketball games, even if
Speaker 1: they're shooting will provide issues in certain matchups. Again, Atlanta
Speaker 1: was pretty disappointing, which we'll get into. I wasn't all
Speaker 1: bad for Atlanta. Jalen Johnson really impressed me with his
Speaker 1: passing ability. He lacks that perimeter polish like the jumper
Speaker 1: still isn't there. There's like some tight spaceball handling stuff
Speaker 1: where he can still have some issues. But he pressures
Speaker 1: the rim well, both in transition and in the half
Speaker 1: court when he looks to drive. And then he's just
Speaker 1: got really natural feel for seeing the floor and seeing
Speaker 1: the openings that are generated when he pressures the rim.
Speaker 1: And I was impressed by a lot of his playmaking,
Speaker 1: especially in the first half of that game. He kept
Speaker 1: them in the game despite Toronto out playing them basically
Speaker 1: in every other matchup. To start, But I was pretty
Speaker 1: disappointed in Atlanta for a group that has so many
Speaker 1: great athletes and some guys with some good defensive reputations,
Speaker 1: right with Dyson Daniels and Nakil Alexander Walker, I thought
Speaker 1: they were just super sloppy guarding the act that Toronto
Speaker 1: was running in the half court, Like they botched switches
Speaker 1: constantly in this game, and you want to credit the
Speaker 1: Raptors for their movement, for their passing, and again, like
Speaker 1: you do that kind of stuff, it has the potential
Speaker 1: to lead to defense making mistakes. But I thought Atlanta
Speaker 1: looked like a team that has not been approaching the
Speaker 1: defensive end with much focus through training camp. I was
Speaker 1: definitely disappointed there. And then their transition defense was flat
Speaker 1: out abysmal, which is super strange for such an athletic team.
Speaker 1: They need to be a good transition defense. Nikhil Alexander
Speaker 1: Walker seems to have taken his new role in Atlanta
Speaker 1: as like a high volume ball handling role, which I
Speaker 1: think is a misallocation of what he does well. I
Speaker 1: think he's at his best when he's guarding the ball
Speaker 1: and then playing with an advantage taking catch and shoot
Speaker 1: threes and using more of his ball handling ability, driving
Speaker 1: closeouts and playing when the defense is already compromised rather
Speaker 1: than attacking out front. Now he's going to have to
Speaker 1: do a certain amount of that because Atlanta's not as
Speaker 1: heavy on ball handling as Minnesota was. But I did
Speaker 1: think that his shot selection was a little questionable in
Speaker 1: this game. Atlanta just got out played from the jump.
Speaker 1: So not a good start from the Hawks. They need
Speaker 1: to have a better showing a night two Clippers Jazz.
Speaker 1: This is one of the strangest opening night performances that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. I have a ton of respect for
Speaker 1: the Clippers organization. I think they have one of the
Speaker 1: best coaches in the league. I think they have a
Speaker 1: well run front office that has a good feel for
Speaker 1: how to build a modern NBA team, and I think
Speaker 1: this roster in particular is built for regular season success.
Speaker 1: But holy shit, did they come out flat and in
Speaker 1: the opening minutes. I primarily blame Kawhi, Leonard In Viza
Speaker 1: Zubats for the initial run that Utah went on. Utah
Speaker 1: was basically just running Lori Markinen and off of like
Speaker 1: downscreens from Walker, Kessler and Kawhi and Zoo just defended
Speaker 1: it super poorly. Kawhi was applying little to no pressure
Speaker 1: physicality on market In in his lock and trail. He
Speaker 1: was getting caught on screens and not getting out to
Speaker 1: him when he was shooting. When market In would curl,
Speaker 1: he was just kind of lazily jogging behind. And then
Speaker 1: Zoo like was just essentially not helping Kawhi on either
Speaker 1: side of the action. Wasn't showing up high when Marketing
Speaker 1: would come off the screen, wasn't helping when Marketing would curl,
Speaker 1: but then also leaving Walker Kessler open because Kesler ended
Speaker 1: up hitting two threes early in the game, which shout
Speaker 1: out to Walker Kessler. I know in the game plan,
Speaker 1: you're kind of gonna let him take that, right, but like,
Speaker 1: if you're not gonna help on the curls in on
Speaker 1: the at the level stuff, then you've got it. You
Speaker 1: can't also just leave him wide open. You're basically just
Speaker 1: floating around out there. And so Kawhi and Zoo came
Speaker 1: out super flat defending those actions early, and Marketing and
Speaker 1: Kessler torched them. They take an early double digit lead,
Speaker 1: and then once the bench group started to work their
Speaker 1: way into the game, it turnovers became a massive problem
Speaker 1: for the Clips, like use of Nurkic comes in and
Speaker 1: just starts pressuring the high post entry on Zubats and
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez and forces a couple of turnovers right away
Speaker 1: that led into runouts, and the Clippers had like a
Speaker 1: half dozen of these super bizarre unforced turnovers where like
Speaker 1: you're just throwing the ball right to the other team
Speaker 1: or just throwing it out of bounds because the guy
Speaker 1: you're throwing it to is not paying attention. Just they
Speaker 1: literally looked like they were asleep. And it was crazy
Speaker 1: because the next thing you knew, it was the early
Speaker 1: third quarter and Tyler's calling a time out because the
Speaker 1: Clippers are down by thirty seven on the road in Utah.
Speaker 1: Like it was just bizarre, and Tyler took the blame.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure the Clippers will bounce back with a
Speaker 1: win tonight, but it was pretty crazy. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: They definitely did not look ready for the start of
Speaker 1: the season. I do want to credit Utah like they
Speaker 1: came out and played great basketball. They have a very
Speaker 1: good front court with Kessler and market In. Those are
Speaker 1: talented guys when they're healthy and on the floor, and
Speaker 1: they you know, just a casual reminder that even with
Speaker 1: bad teams in the NBA, there's a lot of talent
Speaker 1: out there, and if you come out and you bring
Speaker 1: a lack of daisical effort, I don't know that you
Speaker 1: can get away with it anymore night to night in
Speaker 1: the regular season. I mean I rooted for the Lakers
Speaker 1: in a game that they lost to the Jazz last year,
Speaker 1: Like this is a bottom feeder that puts some really
Speaker 1: high level basketball players on the floor. I thought Keante
Speaker 1: George was great all night. Bryce Senseibah came in and
Speaker 1: torched them from three. Hit a couple big ones in
Speaker 1: the late third quarter or late second quarter. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: that helps kind of blow the game open. Really nice
Speaker 1: debut for the Utah Jazz, high energy performance to kick
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Speaker 1: Six are Celtics. What a debut for VJ edgecomb thirty
Speaker 1: four points and seven rebounds looked like the perfect compliment
Speaker 1: to Tyrese Maxi. I've always loved the idea of like
Speaker 1: hyper athletic guys alongside skill guards in the backcourt, so
Speaker 1: like essentially the Polish finesse type of guard, even though
Speaker 1: Tyrese I think brings insane speed to the table obviously,
Speaker 1: but that's why he's able to go for forty right,
Speaker 1: he has the skill piece, and then off of him,
Speaker 1: I want an athlete that can rebound, defend, and can
Speaker 1: score with an advantage. And the key kind of storyline
Speaker 1: in the game defensively was that Boston was roaming off
Speaker 1: of VJ edge comb all night and then in his
Speaker 1: on ball reps they were going under his picks. Boston
Speaker 1: essentially dared VJ to beat them all night long, and
Speaker 1: VJ just did. He got six unguarded catch and shoot
Speaker 1: threes and made three of them. He hit two off
Speaker 1: the dribble jump shots versus passive coverages. I thought he
Speaker 1: did a wonderful job of slashing in the half court
Speaker 1: when he had a chance, Like there was a play
Speaker 1: where Peyton Pritchard was nail helping off of I think
Speaker 1: it was Tyrese on the right wing and Peyton Pritchard
Speaker 1: digs down into nail help Vj's just standing on the
Speaker 1: left wing. This was early in the game. Talk about
Speaker 1: those baked in driving lanes all the time. Right when
Speaker 1: there's nail help, he's closing out on one of your shoulders,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is rip the other direction
Speaker 1: and you kind of have guaranteed dribble penetration right swing
Speaker 1: past to VJ. He just ripped left immediately on the catch,
Speaker 1: got a dunk. He in a transition push, ended up
Speaker 1: catching Xavier Tillman in a cross match and the sixers
Speaker 1: of space the floor nasty left or right crossover, went
Speaker 1: up and dunked it because he got there so fast
Speaker 1: at Boston's help, was not able to step over. He
Speaker 1: had some super dynamic transition plays. He got a ridiculous
Speaker 1: lob in the second half that was thrown way behind
Speaker 1: him in traffic where he took off off his right foot,
Speaker 1: caught it with two hands and dunked it from almost
Speaker 1: behind his head. In the first half, one of the
Speaker 1: plays that really got me excited for his potential. He
Speaker 1: had this nasty full speed euro step where he kind
Speaker 1: of like attacks and semi transition, gets a little bit
Speaker 1: of a downhill, gets some momentum going downhill, and Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown steps up to help at the rim and at
Speaker 1: full speed, he like plants his right foot in Euros
Speaker 1: back to the left for like a lefty soft finish
Speaker 1: off the glass. Just a ridiculously athletic play. And even
Speaker 1: on the shots he missed, I thought he got great separation,
Speaker 1: like he was able to just get to these like
Speaker 1: really nice lift and rhythm, little mid range pull ups
Speaker 1: that he just happened to miss because right now he's
Speaker 1: still not quite that polished, and that stuff will come
Speaker 1: in time. And so that's why VJ to me feels
Speaker 1: very safe as a bet to be an All Star
Speaker 1: in this league, because if he can stay healthy, the
Speaker 1: reports about his character and his work ethic are great,
Speaker 1: and he's just a transcendently athletic guard. And so what
Speaker 1: an exciting backcourt partner for Tyrese Maxey, who was amazing
Speaker 1: in this game. His pull up three was dialed in.
Speaker 1: He ended up hitting three in a row in the
Speaker 1: second half that closed a double digit Celtics lead, and
Speaker 1: all three of them were nasty. He had like three
Speaker 1: or four ridiculous like hard drive to the right into
Speaker 1: a pullback, durable quick step back three, or he was
Speaker 1: moving super fast but if you like froze it like
Speaker 1: trimmed out the move before he's straight up and down
Speaker 1: on the pull up jump shot. Just a really impressive
Speaker 1: display footwork and athleticism. He ended up going for forty
Speaker 1: in this game, and then they just have all these
Speaker 1: forwards who just play hard off of them. Obviously, Kelly, Youubray,
Speaker 1: we all know he's been in that starting lineup for
Speaker 1: a little while now. He hit the biggest shot of
Speaker 1: the night, a little action off the right side where
Speaker 1: that Sam Howser made a poor defensive decision. He helped
Speaker 1: off the strong side corner when it was pretty unnecessary,
Speaker 1: and so it was a little easy kickouts. One of
Speaker 1: those things were in the moment you're like, okay, Kelly
Speaker 1: had been off from three for most of the game,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, you stick to your defensive principles.
Speaker 1: Like Quentin Grimes was already wide open at the top
Speaker 1: of the key on this play, in large part because
Speaker 1: his man was already helping. So it was just kind
Speaker 1: of like an unnecessary overhelp from Sam Hauser, And that
Speaker 1: pass back across your body to the top of the
Speaker 1: key to Grimes is a much tougher pass to make
Speaker 1: than like a little five foot shovel pass to a
Speaker 1: wide open man in the corner. Kelly Ubre hits that shot.
Speaker 1: It effectively amounted to the game winner because they were
Speaker 1: down two when he hit that shot. But I was
Speaker 1: also really impressed by Dominic Barlow and Jabari Walker. The
Speaker 1: two of them both just kind of crashing and cutting
Speaker 1: and running constantly and just wrecking havoc at the rim
Speaker 1: just by being big athletes off of the attention that
Speaker 1: was garnered by their guards. Honestly, the only disappointing thing
Speaker 1: if you were a seventy six ers fan was that
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid looked like an absolute shell of himself. Like
Speaker 1: Jackson and I were joking before we started recording, like
Speaker 1: I don't think he made a single move towards the
Speaker 1: best in that entire game. Every time he caught it
Speaker 1: was just kind of like a face up jumper. You
Speaker 1: had Jalen Brown in a post up and like just
Speaker 1: spun over his left shoulder for a super difficult fade away.
Speaker 1: You could tell the lift isn't there. The left shoulder
Speaker 1: fade away. As a classic example, that's one of the
Speaker 1: toughest shots in basketball for a right handed player because
Speaker 1: you have to pivot and like square up in mid
Speaker 1: air and he just didn't get close to enough lift
Speaker 1: and so he kind of just flung it up there
Speaker 1: and it didn't really have much of a chance to
Speaker 1: go in. He had some plays in help side it.
Speaker 1: He has a couple plays, like he had a block
Speaker 1: in transition in the second half where you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that was kind of like a throwback little play. But
Speaker 1: like for the most part, he didn't really seem very
Speaker 1: vertical or mobile around the basket and help on defense.
Speaker 1: He just kind of looked he looked like his knees
Speaker 1: are shot. But let's hope that he's just working his
Speaker 1: way back and then he can continue to get better
Speaker 1: as the season progressive. It made me happy to see
Speaker 1: him out there playing, but it was definitely disappointing to
Speaker 1: see just the level of physical aggression that he had.
Speaker 1: But what a fun backcourt to root for. Now you
Speaker 1: have Quinn Grimes too, Like obviously he was there last year,
Speaker 1: but do you have Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain as well,
Speaker 1: Like you have four really good guards. Grimes had a
Speaker 1: huge three late off the left wing, kind of a
Speaker 1: contested one when they really needed it. Jared mccaina obviously
Speaker 1: will be back eventually when his thumb gets better. It's
Speaker 1: fun team for Sixers fans. I would imagine that the
Speaker 1: edgecomb stuff had to have been the antidote to the
Speaker 1: Joe El embiid frustrations on the Celtics front. They got
Speaker 1: stagnant late. They started spamming Jalen Brown Jalen Brown high
Speaker 1: post ups and he hit one of them, but there
Speaker 1: were some misses in there, and it just kind of
Speaker 1: got stagnant and they got away from some of the
Speaker 1: stuff they were doing earlier in the game. They did
Speaker 1: control the majority of the game, though in large part
Speaker 1: because they do have a lot of talented perimeter players
Speaker 1: like Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, Jalen Brown, and Anthony Simons
Speaker 1: all had moments in the game where they had big
Speaker 1: stretches on offense where they put some points up and
Speaker 1: kind of got into a little bit of a flow.
Speaker 1: Anfrony applied some more rim pressure than he did in preseason.
Speaker 1: He had a big semi transition dunk where he crossed
Speaker 1: his man up and went up off his right foot
Speaker 1: and dunked it with two hands. Yeah, the only thing
Speaker 1: that really stood out to me, They just struggled to
Speaker 1: guard in large part because their front courd is just
Speaker 1: so limited, and that's a fast sixers team, and so
Speaker 1: when you don't have rim protection behind them, it just
Speaker 1: puts your guards in a really tough spot. And man,
Speaker 1: that center rotation looked brutals. Zavi or Tillman missed several
Speaker 1: threes that looked like they had no chance to go in.
Speaker 1: Right at the end of the game late off of
Speaker 1: a miss from Jalen Brown, he had a point blank range,
Speaker 1: little kind of touch floater hook thing that was like
Speaker 1: three feet from the basket that he left short. That
Speaker 1: was a huge miss. In crunch time. Luca Garza couldn't
Speaker 1: hit a shot. Nimi Kuita was probably the best guy
Speaker 1: that we saw last night. He put up a decent
Speaker 1: stat line. Sits on Wednesday put up a decent stat line,
Speaker 1: but it was just jarring to see that core juxtaposed
Speaker 1: with what we saw last year from the Celtics from
Speaker 1: the center position. All right, let's start getting into our
Speaker 1: mail back questions. Jason, I understand you're a Lakers fan
Speaker 1: and also a Lebron fan, but I believe that you've
Speaker 1: too much stock into the stardom of Luca and have
Speaker 1: them ranked too high on your championship contenders list. To me,
Speaker 1: at most, they should be closer to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the puncher's chance tier, behind teams like the Knicks, Clippers,
Speaker 1: t Wolves, and Warriors. Those teams, while they had their flaws,
Speaker 1: are better constructed than the Lakers, And to me, it's
Speaker 1: foolish to be blinded by a potential all time great
Speaker 1: season by LUCA turning into a deep playoff run. In
Speaker 1: the parody era of the NBA, I've yet to mention Lebron,
Speaker 1: who is forty year old star and can be a
Speaker 1: star on offense on any given night, but defensively he
Speaker 1: can be picked on when not going against star power
Speaker 1: against power style offensive players, and can be caught ball
Speaker 1: watching at times. And I feel like that, combined with
Speaker 1: your other two best players in Luca and Reeves not
Speaker 1: being plus defenders, as a recipe for another first round exit.
Speaker 1: So there's an interesting point you're making, which I want
Speaker 1: to get into in a minute. I do disagree with
Speaker 1: some of the specifics, like Lebron was one of the
Speaker 1: best ISO defenders in the league last year and had
Speaker 1: a stretch really for like two thirds of the season
Speaker 1: where he was an all defense level player. He got
Speaker 1: off to a rough start to the year, but like
Speaker 1: to me, Lebron when he's healthy in this actually in
Speaker 1: a role like this alongside Luca where he doesn't have
Speaker 1: to do as much offensively, I think he's one of
Speaker 1: the most important defensive players on the Lakers. To be
Speaker 1: honest with you, I thought you saw the absence of
Speaker 1: him in a big way against the Warriors. He is
Speaker 1: a huge part of their ability to kind of like
Speaker 1: troll the back line off of Golden State's actions. And
Speaker 1: he's just one of the most attentive defenders and better
Speaker 1: communicators on the team. I mean, he was second team
Speaker 1: All NBA last year. I don't know what it is. Like,
Speaker 1: I get it he has sciatica. He's out to start
Speaker 1: the year, But like, he just had two seasons where
Speaker 1: he played seventy games and made the All NBA team twice.
Speaker 1: I somehow he's still underrated. I don't know how that
Speaker 1: keeps happening. But like I'm I don't think the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a Lebron problem. Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1: That said, like I do agree with you that I'm
Speaker 1: the Lakers I'm lower on than when I originally did
Speaker 1: my Contenders video. So to be one hundred percent transparent,
Speaker 1: we recorded our contender rankings in early October. I want
Speaker 1: to say it was like on October second, Okay, so
Speaker 1: it was before I had seen them play any basketball.
Speaker 1: It was based on the fact that the Lakers won
Speaker 1: fifty games last year and they were the three seed,
Speaker 1: and looking at the improved version of the Lakers with
Speaker 1: like Luka Doncic being in better shape and them essentially
Speaker 1: adding three rotation level players for nothing and only losing
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith, who by the way, I think Dorian
Speaker 1: has been very important over the years. But like again,
Speaker 1: this was a team that couldn't even play a center
Speaker 1: against Minnesota. They get a guy like DeAndre and who's
Speaker 1: very flawed but at least can play the position. You
Speaker 1: hit a guy like Marcus Smart, who's a big upgrade
Speaker 1: over someone like Jordan Goodwin, for example. Like that was
Speaker 1: what that was my rationale when I originally put that together.
Speaker 1: But I did a recording with the Nerd Sesh guys
Speaker 1: a couple weeks after that. It was like mid mid October,
Speaker 1: like October fifteenth or sixteenth or so, where I had
Speaker 1: seen them play in preseason a few times, and I
Speaker 1: was pretty underwhelmed, and I talked about how I was
Speaker 1: gonna put a couple teams ahead of them, and right
Speaker 1: now I agree. Like so I originally my contender rankings,
Speaker 1: if you remember, I had Denver, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Then I the Lakers at five after what I've seen
Speaker 1: from preseason in camp, and by the way, this list
Speaker 1: is constantly in a shift throughout the season. My preliminary
Speaker 1: rankings in like early October, those are essentially on paper rankings,
Speaker 1: but on paper means nothing when you throw the ball
Speaker 1: up in the air and we're on the hardwood and
Speaker 1: we're playing basketball, right So, like, we have a bunch
Speaker 1: more data. Now, we have training camps from all these teams,
Speaker 1: We have a handful of regular season games. The two
Speaker 1: teams I would clearly put above them now are Houston
Speaker 1: and Golden State. I think I'm inclined to put Golden
Speaker 1: State at that five spot, potentially even that four spot
Speaker 1: above Minnesota. I kind of have Minnesota, Golden State in
Speaker 1: Houston kind of vying and competing for that next spot
Speaker 1: behind Denver and Oklahoma City at this point. Again, that
Speaker 1: could change in a few weeks, but that's just where
Speaker 1: I'm at right now. But it's a long season and
Speaker 1: I expect a lot to change over the course of
Speaker 1: the year. The Lakers are playing bad basketball right now,
Speaker 1: but they have a lot that they can clean up,
Speaker 1: and they have a bona fide top tier superstar at
Speaker 1: the top at like the peak of his powers, and
Speaker 1: Lebron James will eventu return to this team. I think
Speaker 1: it's certainly possible that he ends up getting traded or
Speaker 1: something or bought out or something like that, but I
Speaker 1: still think it's far more likely than not that he
Speaker 1: plays basketball for the Lakers until he retires. And so
Speaker 1: at some point late October or excuse me, late November
Speaker 1: early December, he's gonna return to this team, and he
Speaker 1: immediately addresses a lot of their biggest concerns in terms
Speaker 1: of just like size and physicality and basketball IQ and
Speaker 1: defensive communication on the back line and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. So like they're gonna have some The Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna have something to say at some point. I
Speaker 1: have no idea what level they'll be able to reach.
Speaker 1: Right now, they look pretty mediocre and unathletic, so I'm
Speaker 1: dropping them to seventh, behind Houston and Golden State, as
Speaker 1: well as the original four teams that I named Denver,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Minnesota. After that point, like, I'm just
Speaker 1: not super high on the Knicks. I know they won
Speaker 1: their first game. I'm keeping an open mind with the
Speaker 1: new coaching staff. I want to see what they've got.
Speaker 1: But like, to me, the Knicks, if you literally just
Speaker 1: remove four wins against the Celtics in the second round,
Speaker 1: were incredibly underwhelming all season law last year. It's gonna
Speaker 1: take a lot for me to kind of turn around
Speaker 1: my opinion on the Knicks. And then the Clippers literally
Speaker 1: went into Utah and got their asses beat. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not about to jump onto to the Clippers bandwagon
Speaker 1: two day of all days, Like, the Lakers have looked disappointing,
Speaker 1: but so have the Clippers so well. We'll continue to
Speaker 1: kind of evaluate that over time. Like if two weeks
Speaker 1: from now we're gonna do power rankings, I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: about contender rankings when I make changes as we kind
Speaker 1: of work our way through the season. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: in early October, October second I had the Lakers at five,
Speaker 1: I'm dropping them to seven at this point, with Houston
Speaker 1: and Golden State moving above them, is there a world
Speaker 1: in which Jonathan Cammingham matures to a point where he
Speaker 1: doesn't get traded off the Warriors? Also, simply calling Steph
Speaker 1: the greatest shooter of all time doesn't do his greatness justice.
Speaker 1: He is one of the greatest scorers and greatest players period.
Speaker 1: I completely agree to me. Steph is the fifth greatest
Speaker 1: perimeter player of all time, just behind Michael Jordan, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson. I agree with you that
Speaker 1: kind of like, like defining his game as just elite
Speaker 1: shooting is a huge, you know, like disservice to what
Speaker 1: he's accomplished in this league. I think he's the best
Speaker 1: off ball mover in the history of the league. He's
Speaker 1: one of the most conditioned athletes in the league. I mean,
Speaker 1: the dude has put in a ton of work in
Speaker 1: his body. Do you guys remember when he hit that
Speaker 1: I just watching the highlight again this morning. He had
Speaker 1: like a thirty seven footer last night to tie the
Speaker 1: game at one twenty. Like it was literally a thirty
Speaker 1: seven footer off of a ball screen, and you know
Speaker 1: he runs over He kind of like signals to call
Speaker 1: the time out to the Denver bench and then he
Speaker 1: runs over and he just flexes, and you're like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: Like Steph is jacked. Like he has clearly worked a
Speaker 1: ton on his body, which is, by the way, has
Speaker 1: helped him to become a better, more useful defender, and
Speaker 1: has helped him to handle off ball contact and just
Speaker 1: in general get open easier. And as the league has
Speaker 1: become more physical, like I saw a bunch of times
Speaker 1: on Opening Night where he's like throwing win moves on
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent and getting open because he's just so damned strong.
Speaker 1: Now he's legitimately much stronger than a guy like Gabe Vincent, right, So,
Speaker 1: like he's putting a ton of work there. He's a
Speaker 1: very good passer. This is a guy who does a
Speaker 1: lot of his work off the ball. But if they
Speaker 1: ran like twenty eighteen Rockets offense or twenty nineteen Rockets
Speaker 1: offense where they just spam Steph high pick and rolls
Speaker 1: spread with shooting, I think Steph could get up around
Speaker 1: eight to nine assists per game easily. I think he's
Speaker 1: a high level passer in that regard, And then I
Speaker 1: think he's one of the best competitors of his era. Like,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that is, you know, wired in
Speaker 1: a way that drives him to a different extent than
Speaker 1: many of the players in this league. So I agree
Speaker 1: with you that kind of synthesizing him down to just
Speaker 1: a great shooter doesn't do him justice. To your question
Speaker 1: about Johnathan Kaminga, I absolutely think there's a world in
Speaker 1: which Jonathan Kminga matures to a point where he doesn't
Speaker 1: get traded off the Warriors. I mean, anybody who's close
Speaker 1: to the Warriors will tell you that. Even though there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people in their basketball operations that have
Speaker 1: been skeptical about him in his fit, Joe Lakub loves
Speaker 1: the guy, Like Joe Lakub is obsessed with Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: and wants to keep him. And so if Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: plays well enough over the course of the next three
Speaker 1: months or so, I think it's more likely than not
Speaker 1: that he doesn't get traded. I'm a big believer and
Speaker 1: let's not overreact to one game or two games under
Speaker 1: any circumstances. We talked about this after the Lakers game,
Speaker 1: Like both the Lakers and Denver are big, slow teams.
Speaker 1: When you're big and slow and you've got Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: you're gonna cut him to pieces in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: I've talked at length about how Steph in particular causes
Speaker 1: massive problems for Denver's pick and roll defense because Jokich
Speaker 1: is slow and he can just get to his spots
Speaker 1: whenever he wants to. That's not me trying to pour
Speaker 1: cold water on the Warriors. It just means I want
Speaker 1: to see them against some different types of matchups, Like
Speaker 1: when you're playing against really and athletic perimeter defenses, the
Speaker 1: job changes and suddenly those reads become like instead of
Speaker 1: having like this big of a window to make a read,
Speaker 1: it's more like this big of a window to make
Speaker 1: or read. Like everything just gets a little bit faster.
Speaker 1: Everything just gets a little bit more difficult to read
Speaker 1: and to process. And so those are the kinds of
Speaker 1: games where we're gonna see a different challenge for Jonathan
Speaker 1: kaminga right. But what we've seen early in the season
Speaker 1: is he's knocking down his catch and shoot threes, which
Speaker 1: is absolutely crucial. He's making good reads in the offense.
Speaker 1: He's being aggressive, but not too aggressive, like he's he's
Speaker 1: not completely shelving Jonathan kaminga the scorer, but he is
Speaker 1: kind of refining it and being picky about when he's
Speaker 1: when he's going, and he's playing great defense. I thought
Speaker 1: he was a monster defensively down the stretch against Denver
Speaker 1: so like, and he got cooked by Luca, but Luca's
Speaker 1: Luca right, so like overall, like he's off to a
Speaker 1: great start. But the Warriors have played two teams that
Speaker 1: kind of like slot nicely into their into their advance.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying this retroactively. I said last year
Speaker 1: after the first time the Lakers played the Warriors with
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic, I was like, Oh, the Warriors are too
Speaker 1: fast for them. This is a bad matchup for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I even said before the playoffs, I was like, if
Speaker 1: the Lakers met the Warriors in a playoff series, I'd
Speaker 1: be inclined to pick the Warriors. That was after they
Speaker 1: played in the regular season and they I think they
Speaker 1: went into La and beat them with Luca Lebron in Austin, right.
Speaker 1: And then I've said before the season at length that
Speaker 1: the kinds of teams that can upset Denver are teams
Speaker 1: that have really high level pick and roll players and
Speaker 1: that have speed. And I mentioned like Luca against Denver,
Speaker 1: and I mentioned Steph against Denver in particular. Those are
Speaker 1: just matchups that I think are favorable for Golden State.
Speaker 1: That's the strength. Like I think Denver is the championship favorite.
Speaker 1: So if you match up well against Denver, that's a
Speaker 1: huge feather in your cap if your goal is to
Speaker 1: win a championship, Like that means that Like let's say
Speaker 1: that Denver meets Oklahoma City in the second round for
Speaker 1: some reason, and they eliminate Oklahoma City and then Golden
Speaker 1: State faces Denver in the conference finals all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like there's like a very significant window for Golden State
Speaker 1: to slip through there and win a title. Now, Golden
Speaker 1: State did provide some issues for Oklahoma City last year.
Speaker 1: We talked about this in our Oka see like who
Speaker 1: can beat Oklahoma City series, And like I think Jimmy
Speaker 1: and Horford and Draymond are just such high IQ defenders
Speaker 1: that they can cause some problems for Oklahoma City's offense.
Speaker 1: But what I specifically worry about the Oklahoma City matchup
Speaker 1: for Golden State is just they have all that speed,
Speaker 1: and that's the kind of thing that I think could
Speaker 1: be a very different type of challenge for a Golden
Speaker 1: State team that does lack offensive firepower once you get
Speaker 1: off of steph. So I'm just curious to see it. Like,
Speaker 1: the Warriors have aced every test so far, but there
Speaker 1: are more tests down the line, and as long as
Speaker 1: Jonathan Minga keeps performing well in those tests, He's going
Speaker 1: to be a Warrior at the end of the season,
Speaker 1: and he very well might be a Warrior long term.
Speaker 1: Next question, you mentioned last season's Lakers team handling the
Speaker 1: Warriors better due to Anthony Davis being able to roam,
Speaker 1: slash protect the rim, allowing the perimeter defenders to overplay
Speaker 1: the three point line. Looking towards the season, which playoff
Speaker 1: teams would give Golden State the most trouble and conversely
Speaker 1: teams who Golden State fans should hope to be a
Speaker 1: match up in May. So again, this is just really
Speaker 1: quick follow up to what we were just talking about.
Speaker 1: I think the teams in particular that worry me for
Speaker 1: Golden State are really fast and athletic perimeter teams that
Speaker 1: are also high IQs. So like, for instance, one of
Speaker 1: the things that always worried me about Minnesota is Minnesota
Speaker 1: has a lot of guys that, despite being good defenders,
Speaker 1: can lose their attentiveness off ball and they can lose
Speaker 1: track of guys like Steph. This was something that happened
Speaker 1: in the regular season in Minnesota Golden State matchups, and
Speaker 1: it was why Golden State I think, in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways presented problems for Minnesota when they were healthy.
Speaker 1: Last year. That series was kind of like a coin
Speaker 1: flip to me if both teams were healthy, But Golden
Speaker 1: State presents a lot of problems with them because Minnesota
Speaker 1: struggles to track off ball shooters. But specifically Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: is a team that I have my eye on. Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City provides that combination of high IQ speed that's not
Speaker 1: going to lose track of Steph and they're not gonna
Speaker 1: botch as many switches as other teams, and they have
Speaker 1: rim protection and Chet Holmgren to roam around the basket.
Speaker 1: They're gonna present some problems. Another team I think is
Speaker 1: the Clippers. They have some really high level perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: in Chris Doun and Derek Jones Junior that can chase
Speaker 1: Steph around while also having high IQ off ball defenders
Speaker 1: and some rim protection with Zoo. We saw that in
Speaker 1: the late regular season game last year. So there are
Speaker 1: teams that I think present a different challenge for Golden State,
Speaker 1: and I am just curious to see what they look
Speaker 1: like when they run into those teams. But I do
Speaker 1: think Golden State matches up well with a team like
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I do think Golden State matches up really
Speaker 1: well with a team like Denver and then Minnesota just
Speaker 1: because of their lack of off ball attentiveness. Do you
Speaker 1: think there's a chance the Spurs don't have to trade
Speaker 1: to in the Chip next season or in any other
Speaker 1: or in other words, what is the lowest limit that
Speaker 1: has to happen for the Spurs to not just be
Speaker 1: one of the contenders, but to really see that it
Speaker 1: could happen like Oklahoma City in Game one last season,
Speaker 1: in game one of the regular season, that was when
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City went into Denver and kick Denver's ass. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember, So, here's the thing. I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: the same thing that I was talking about with Golden State.
Speaker 1: It's very encouraging for showing for the Spurs. You don't
Speaker 1: even have dearon Fox and yet all your young guards
Speaker 1: play pretty well. Your defense just utterly demolishes Dallas. Victor
Speaker 1: women Yama is hoop and his ass off, Steph Castle's
Speaker 1: throwing lobs in transition, and damn near getting a twenty
Speaker 1: point triple double. There's a lot of upside with what
Speaker 1: you saw from that one particular matchup, but it was
Speaker 1: a team that I think was a good matchup for
Speaker 1: san Antonio, right, Like Dallas is super light on shooting
Speaker 1: and ball handling that allows Victor women Yama to roam
Speaker 1: the paint really well right on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor. Like we talked about that night, I think
Speaker 1: Victor can kind of cook any bigger player in the
Speaker 1: league because they're all too big to be able to
Speaker 1: move with him, but they're all not big enough to
Speaker 1: actually bother him because he's so damn tall. So, like,
Speaker 1: I think there'll be different challenges with San Antonio, Like
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City's a classic example where they're going to be smaller,
Speaker 1: quicker up underneath you, and it's going to be a
Speaker 1: lot more about processing and shooting. And you know, this
Speaker 1: is a San Antonio team that's light on shooting, right,
Speaker 1: So I think, like it's ridiculous to overreact to one
Speaker 1: game against a heavily flawed Dallas Mavericks roster. But we'll
Speaker 1: just continue to watch them and see how they develop. Yes,
Speaker 1: if Steph Castle and Devin Vessel and Dylan Harper and
Speaker 1: all these guys just blossom and Deer and Fox is
Speaker 1: a big bounce back season that's closer to two years
Speaker 1: ago rather than last year, then yeah, they might not
Speaker 1: need to make a trade, and they might be able
Speaker 1: to just kind of naturally improve internally and make a
Speaker 1: run for the championship at some point in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years. But I think it's more likely than
Speaker 1: not that over the course of this season, their limitations
Speaker 1: and shooting and just youthful inconsistency lead them to want
Speaker 1: to bring veteran shooting in and just a little bit
Speaker 1: more of like a solid, kind of like higher floor
Speaker 1: option at some of their position groups. Now, the thing
Speaker 1: is is Victor is messing up timeline stuff, because Victor
Speaker 1: very well might be just a legitimate top tier superstar
Speaker 1: this year. It seems likely at this point after what
Speaker 1: we saw on opening night. And so if Victor is
Speaker 1: going to be that guy, all of a sudden, you're
Speaker 1: in your championship window now and so it kind of
Speaker 1: changes your calculus when you're building the team. So it's
Speaker 1: just something to keep an eye on. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: quick through these last ones here. How do you unlock
Speaker 1: BAM's offense? If you're spo I think Bam kind of
Speaker 1: is what he is at this point as an offensive player.
Speaker 1: He is a guy that struggles to make anything that's
Speaker 1: not a dunk and like that. Just yes, he's improved
Speaker 1: as like a standstill three point shooter, but he's not
Speaker 1: a really high level jump shooter by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination. He struggles with hooks, he struggles with floaters,
Speaker 1: he struggles with layups, damn. Similar to Anthony Davis, although
Speaker 1: Ad has done a lot better in terms of his
Speaker 1: short range shot making, like his hooks and his floaters,
Speaker 1: but similar like Bam to an even greater extent, just
Speaker 1: has never added the offensive polish necessary to be a
Speaker 1: super high level offensive player. To me, he kind of
Speaker 1: is what he is at this point. He's a five
Speaker 1: out big. He's a guy that can play on the
Speaker 1: perimeter as a screener, dribble handoff, guy that makes good
Speaker 1: decisions with the basketball, sets good screens, and rolls hard
Speaker 1: to the rim and he's good at hitting backcutters like that,
Speaker 1: to me is just kind of his destiny as an
Speaker 1: NBA player at this point. What kind of season do
Speaker 1: you think Klay Thompson is about to have. It feels
Speaker 1: like he is completely faded out of media discussions. Well, ye,
Speaker 1: he's not the same player used to be. I don't
Speaker 1: think Clay is going to be a super prominent player
Speaker 1: in NBA media discussions because Clay is now at this point,
Speaker 1: you know, not one of the ten or fifteen best
Speaker 1: two guards in the league anymore. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that's going to be tricky with Clay is he's
Speaker 1: the one dead serious shooter on the team and so
Speaker 1: he's going to be accounted for in the in the
Speaker 1: game plan, Like opponents are going to put their most attentive,
Speaker 1: best lock and trail defender on Clay and they're going
Speaker 1: to count for a mall game and just dare everyone
Speaker 1: else to shoot. He's not a guy that's going to
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor and create offense for
Speaker 1: himself at this point, and the lack of playmaking talent
Speaker 1: on the roster is leading him to be like, even
Speaker 1: when he does get left open, whether it's transition chaos
Speaker 1: or offensive rebound chaos, Like they don't always get the
Speaker 1: ball to him, So I just don't really see him
Speaker 1: as a guy that's gonna have too much of an
Speaker 1: impact at this phase in his career. Hi, Jason, my
Speaker 1: brother and I watch basketball like junkies and have had
Speaker 1: this hypothesis that the game is evolving at a rate
Speaker 1: where the skill level will soon turn basketball into a
Speaker 1: punish league. Essentially, I believe that the majority of the
Speaker 1: smallest defensive laps is like a bad head or a
Speaker 1: slow rotation, will be the most important margins for successful teams.
Speaker 1: I wanted your thoughts on that. I love the show
Speaker 1: and your team's contra to the game. I love much
Speaker 1: love from Brooklyn, So first of all, thanks for supporting
Speaker 1: the show and for the kind words. What you're talking
Speaker 1: about is something that I'm a huge believer in the
Speaker 1: idea of, essentially, like capitalizing on the small advantages that
Speaker 1: occur in actions, whether it's like you said, like a
Speaker 1: guy hedges for too long and the guy who slips
Speaker 1: out of its wide open at the three point line,
Speaker 1: or this team is slow in rotation, so if we
Speaker 1: just move the ball around we're going to get open shots.
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit more complicated in the
Speaker 1: sense that like those kinds of advantages happen on almost
Speaker 1: every possession somewhere. It's a lot of it has to
Speaker 1: do with playmaking talent. Like you talk about punish as
Speaker 1: in punishing mistakes. In order to punish mistakes, you need
Speaker 1: two things. You need a high IQ player with the
Speaker 1: ball that will find that mistake and hit the pass
Speaker 1: it hit the opening. And then you need too, a
Speaker 1: guy that's actually going to make the defense pay in
Speaker 1: that opening, whether it's hitting a catch and shoot shot,
Speaker 1: racking a close out and getting all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim, or racking a close out getting to the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor and make the next read in
Speaker 1: that chain. Essentially, it's going to be about reading and reacting.
Speaker 1: It's a copycat league. There's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball operations professionals and coaching professionals that are going
Speaker 1: to look at teams like Indiana. We talked about how
Speaker 1: last night, I think Indiana, irrespective of talent, plays the
Speaker 1: best basketball in the NBA because of all the things
Speaker 1: that you specifically are mentioning. So all these entities around
Speaker 1: the league are going to watch that and they're going
Speaker 1: to go like, we need to do this. Why do
Speaker 1: you think you're hearing every every fucking team in training camp?
Speaker 1: We want to run more. We want to run more.
Speaker 1: We want to know why, because running works, and so
Speaker 1: they want to be better basketball teams, and so they
Speaker 1: know that that's a way to improve their basketball team.
Speaker 1: And so essentially everyone's going to start hunting these things.
Speaker 1: More transition pushes more action in the half court, which
Speaker 1: is going to generate those kinds of small defensive lapses
Speaker 1: like you're talking about. From there, it's going to be
Speaker 1: reading and reacting and play finishing, hitting those gaps with passes,
Speaker 1: making the right decision against the advantage, and then finishing
Speaker 1: the play by hitting shots. Can you see Jaden McDaniel's
Speaker 1: turn into a number two for Ant? No? I don't
Speaker 1: really see that in his future. I see him as
Speaker 1: being a guy that can do some weak side scoring
Speaker 1: forward stuff, you know, hitting threes, driving closeouts, doing damage
Speaker 1: on the glass when he's being ignored. I don't see
Speaker 1: him as a legitimate number two. The kind of player
Speaker 1: that I keep coming back to for Ant is like
Speaker 1: a skill guard. I know it'll never happen. But like
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is an example of a player that I
Speaker 1: think would be a beautiful fit alongside Anthony Edwards. Kind
Speaker 1: of like a skill, finesse guard that's good at getting
Speaker 1: to the foul line, that has like high level mid
Speaker 1: range scoring chops that just in general is like a
Speaker 1: finesse like offensive engine type of player off of ANT.
Speaker 1: Like that's the kind of guy that I look at
Speaker 1: as like a legit number two off of Ant, a
Speaker 1: skill guard alongside Ant's like bulky athleticism in rim pressure. Right.
Speaker 1: But I really like Jayden. I think he looks great.
Speaker 1: I think the jump shot is real. I just think
Speaker 1: once you start talking about number two's, I think they
Speaker 1: just need to be a little bit more refined in
Speaker 1: terms of their offensive skill four more quick ones. As
Speaker 1: you continue to get more and more success in the
Speaker 1: niche of basketball content analysis, will there ever be a
Speaker 1: time where you take your talents to covering the NFL
Speaker 1: as well? I have your post notifications on for X
Speaker 1: and I love your football takes when you have them.
Speaker 1: Keep up the great work. So I love the NFL.
Speaker 1: I've loved it since I was a kid. The long
Speaker 1: and short of it, is is that like every year
Speaker 1: right about now, when the NBA regular season starts, it's
Speaker 1: really hard for me to just give it the attention.
Speaker 1: Right Like, there was a game on last night. I
Speaker 1: was working, so I wasn't gonna watch it, right, And
Speaker 1: same thing goes for Sunday. There are times where like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's Sunday and it's like, Okay, I want
Speaker 1: to sit down and watch. But then it'll be like, well,
Speaker 1: there were some games on the Friday night and Saturday
Speaker 1: night slate that I need to get caught up on,
Speaker 1: and so I'll just get my laptop out and I'll
Speaker 1: just start watching film. And you know, it kind of
Speaker 1: takes me back to the the kind of like that
Speaker 1: like cliche that Lebron uses. It's that keep the main
Speaker 1: thing the main thing, Like I don't want to sit
Speaker 1: there and start talking about the NFL if I haven't
Speaker 1: put in the necessary work. What I like, what allows
Speaker 1: me to cover the game the way that I do
Speaker 1: is that I put an enormous amount of work into
Speaker 1: watching NBA games and learning about how the NBA works
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor and talking to smart
Speaker 1: NBA people. And so it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: I don't want to like take resources from that department
Speaker 1: and dedicate them to the NFL and have my NBA
Speaker 1: work suffer. And so is there a version of this
Speaker 1: in the future where maybe I'm doing it. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say never, but in the short term, I
Speaker 1: think it's far more likely than not that I just
Speaker 1: stay in my wheelhouse and cover the NBA. With the
Speaker 1: Bucks shooting so many threes, I feel like we, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of, lead the team and lead the NBA
Speaker 1: in three point attempts and we can come out of
Speaker 1: the East. Do you see the vision? I did not
Speaker 1: see Milwaukee versus Washington. That was one of the games
Speaker 1: that I did not watch the first through the first
Speaker 1: few games. But we saw this last season towards the
Speaker 1: end the year Steady died of Jannis on the ball,
Speaker 1: a lot of guard screens surrounding him with a ton
Speaker 1: of shooting, and Yanni's just kind of playing driving kick,
Speaker 1: like get to the basket and finish, draw fout or
Speaker 1: spray out to a shooter. Right as far as leaning
Speaker 1: into three point attempts, like again, like when you're not
Speaker 1: good compared to the best teams in the league, you
Speaker 1: want to apply as much variance as possible, right, So
Speaker 1: it makes sense for the Bucks to be a team
Speaker 1: that takes a lot of threes and that gives up
Speaker 1: a lot of threes because essentially, if they protect the
Speaker 1: rim and they force the other team to shoot, they
Speaker 1: might go cold. And if you shoot a ton of threes,
Speaker 1: you might get hot, and you're gonna win on the
Speaker 1: nights when you get hot from three and the other
Speaker 1: team doesn't. But ultimately it comes down to quality. I
Speaker 1: don't believe in inflating your three point attempts just for
Speaker 1: the sake of inflating your three point attempts. A bad
Speaker 1: three point shot isn't worth three points, it's worth zero points.
Speaker 1: You want to generate the highest available shot quality in
Speaker 1: any situation. A lot of it will be game plan
Speaker 1: dependent too, depending on how your opponent is guarding things.
Speaker 1: But if the Bucks end up generating a ton of
Speaker 1: threes with shooting off of Giannis, I think it's a
Speaker 1: smart approach to increase variance to give them more of
Speaker 1: an upset threat. Big fan of the show and have
Speaker 1: learned a ton about the game from your channel, So
Speaker 1: thank you for what you do. Thank you for the
Speaker 1: kind words and for the sport. My question is simple,
Speaker 1: do you think it's insane to think that Wemby genuinely
Speaker 1: might be the best player live right now? And what
Speaker 1: would need to happen for that to be the consensus
Speaker 1: in your opinion? Thanks again. This kind of takes me
Speaker 1: to like the Kobe Lebron debate in the late two thousands.
Speaker 1: If you guys, remember, it's very possible that we're looking
Speaker 1: at this thing in like three weeks and Wemby's averaging
Speaker 1: thirty five, fourteen and six with like five blocks or
Speaker 1: of some insane shit like that, and then all of
Speaker 1: us are like, oh my gosh, this one to be
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. Similarly, Lebron in the
Speaker 1: late two thousands was just a wrecking ball is winning
Speaker 1: sixty games with weak rosters and putting up absurd stat
Speaker 1: lines and crazy highlights every single night. But like when
Speaker 1: it came to slow down playoff basketball against the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league, Kobe still better than him. In
Speaker 1: the late two thousands, no surprise, Lebron was in his
Speaker 1: early to mid twenties. Kobe was in his early thirties
Speaker 1: and was more refined at that point, and he had
Speaker 1: a lot more experience, right, But like the becoming the
Speaker 1: best player in the NBA, becoming the best player in
Speaker 1: the world is a playoff game. It is very much
Speaker 1: about solving the puzzle of four elite opponents in two months,
Speaker 1: having to beat them four times out of seven, when
Speaker 1: all the game planning is geared around your weaknesses. So
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like, there's nothing Wemby
Speaker 1: could do in the regular season that would convince me
Speaker 1: that he's the best player in the world. That is
Speaker 1: an honor that I personally wouldn't consider him for unless
Speaker 1: he was doing it in the playoffs and you know,
Speaker 1: carrying his team to like it's not even so much
Speaker 1: like he has to win the title necessarily, although that
Speaker 1: is the ultimate kind of like, you know, signal that
Speaker 1: you've arrived on that front. But to me, it's more
Speaker 1: just like him thriving in the playoffs and being a
Speaker 1: dominant player off player, and like not experiencing a drop
Speaker 1: off from regular season production to playoff production. When he
Speaker 1: can tie those two things together, which obviously we haven't
Speaker 1: even seen that yet, that's when I would start to
Speaker 1: consider him to be the best player alive. Last question, Jason,
Speaker 1: I enjoy your content, keep up the good work. Fist bump.
Speaker 1: I want to ask as a thunderfan, I'm starting to
Speaker 1: worry about Chet. Obviously, we want him to stay healthy
Speaker 1: and be careful for those bumps he's absorbing, but we're
Speaker 1: also worried about how his offensive skill will only show
Speaker 1: in flashes while other times he just can become a
Speaker 1: non factor, especially in the clutch. What do you think
Speaker 1: you should be working on to stay more consistent? So
Speaker 1: I get triggered with this kind of thing. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's really hard for big lanky dudes that aren't
Speaker 1: super polished, like Kevin Durant for example, to be ball
Speaker 1: handlers in like physical late game environments, especially like I
Speaker 1: think it's one thing when you're big and strong like
Speaker 1: Jokic or Lebron or Luca, when you have like real strength,
Speaker 1: you can thrive in that physicality and get to your
Speaker 1: spot still. But like a lot of the thinner players,
Speaker 1: especially when they're not super polished, they can get kind
Speaker 1: of dislodged and beat up a little bit in those situations.
Speaker 1: And so I don't really ever see Chet as being
Speaker 1: like the guy that you're just gonna run the offense
Speaker 1: through and crunch time, not unless he becomes a dramatically
Speaker 1: better jump shooter, which he just hasn't been to this
Speaker 1: point in his career. But I'm still super high on Chet.
Speaker 1: Like I think he's still one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: defensive players in the league. He's a huge part of
Speaker 1: what they did defensively in last year's playoff run. I
Speaker 1: do want to see him improve as a catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shooter, Like he's got to start beating nail
Speaker 1: help with those above the break threes off of the
Speaker 1: right and left wing. But like, yeah, I think I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say I've learned this lesson with Shay. I
Speaker 1: don't want to put a ceiling on anybody, so I
Speaker 1: don't want to sit here and pretend is though Chet
Speaker 1: is incapable of becoming a guy that can become a
Speaker 1: high usage player in crunch time, But right now he's
Speaker 1: too thin and two and lacks the polish necessary to
Speaker 1: be that kind of guy outside of spurts, especially early
Speaker 1: in games and in regular season context. But the main
Speaker 1: thing for me is, like if he gets to the
Speaker 1: point where he's like a forty percent knockdown, you know,
Speaker 1: above the break three point shooter when he's open, that'll
Speaker 1: be plenty. Offensively, that's all. That's all the thunderneath from him.
Speaker 1: He does enough damages a cutter along the baseline and
Speaker 1: as an offensive rebounder, and with what he does defensively,
Speaker 1: and he can provide little pops of scoring throughout the
Speaker 1: game off the dribble, obviously inconsistently, but he can do that.
Speaker 1: To me, the main like kind of barrier between where
Speaker 1: he is right now and like making the thunder unbeatable
Speaker 1: is like he's got to get to the point where
Speaker 1: he can hit forty percent of his unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes above the break. All right, guys, it's all
Speaker 1: have for today. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting us and supporting the show. But he will
Speaker 1: be back on Monday. Enjoy your weekend. Lots of basketball
Speaker 1: to get into when we get some Monday, I would
Speaker 1: see you guys then