WEBVTT - NBA Week 1 Reaction: Spurs' Wemby top 2? + 76ers' VJ Edgecombe EXPLOSION, Clippers embarrassed 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:16.920 The volume. All right, Well, god to hoops tonight. Here 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.200 at the Volume Heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope all you guys 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.239 had a great first week. I'm very excited to get 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.239 into our mail bag today. I got caught up on 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.080 three more games from the Wednesday Night Slate. I swear 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.400 my eyes are gonna be squares soon. I watched ten 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.040 of the first sixteen NBA regular season games. It's been 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.760 an absolute grind this week. We had three fun live 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:36.720 shows over the last few nights. But I'm very excited 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:38.840 to kind of bounce around and get to the stuff 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:40.839 that we haven't talked about yet. We do have a 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.120 handful of questions related to some of our regular teams 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:45.920 that we cover often on the show. But we're gonna 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.319 be breaking down three games from Wednesday Night Slate. We're 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.199 gonna hit Raptors, Hawks, We're gonna hit Clippers, Jazz, We're 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.960 gonna hit six Ers, Celtics. I've got questions from some 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.600 other teams around the league, some big picture basketball kind 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.160 of philosophy questions, all sorts of interesting stuff from you 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.240 guys in today's mail bag. You guys are the joke 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.760 before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:05.679 YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos, 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.000 follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts. You guys don't 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.360 miss how announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:12.399 you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.000 helpful if you leave a rating in a review on 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:15.880 that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.479 feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Make sure you guys follow 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.160 us there. Then, the last but not least, keep dropping 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.160 mail bag questions in the YouTube comments again in our 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.600 full episodes. Right, mail bag, colon, write your question. We're 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.440 going to get to them mostly on Fridays, but about 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.400 once a week throughout the remainder of the season. All right, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.400 let's talk some basketball. So first question, shout out to 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.240 Harry weston the question that allowed us to get to 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.440 all of these games. Out of the other games on 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.680 opening night, who surprised you the most? I think Charlotte 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.680 and Toronto could have sneaky good seasons and VJ Edgecomb 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:53.160 looks like the future in Philly. Also, what happened in Utah, 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.400 I would argue Veja was the biggest surprise from that 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.360 Wednesday Night Slate. But I thought that this question was 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.120 a great opportunity for us to just quickly bounce through 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.800 a couple of game reactions. I caught up on Raptors, Hawks, Clippers, Jazz, 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.000 and six or Celtics this morning. I'm just gonna go 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.760 ahead and give you guys my takeaways on all three 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.400 of those games. So, first of all, I haven't had 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.160 the chance to watch Charlotte yet, although I caught them 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.280 in preseason. I thought they looked good in preseason. I'm 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.520 generally not as high on Charlotte as some of my 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.639 peers are, just because I think they're kind of generally 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.480 unserious and they have a very injury prone set of 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:29.880 core players. But we will get to the Charlotte Hornets 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.800 at some point in time down the line. Starting with 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.519 Raptors Hawks, I thought Toronto's size, length, and athleticism in 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.040 their starting lineup popped off the screen right away. When 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.400 you have Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes, who are, in 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.280 addition to being two really big forwards, Barnes brings a 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.520 strength and power element, Ingram brings a length element. Ingram's 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.720 more of an over the top shooter. Barnes is more 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.200 of a rim pressuring type of player, but both of 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.480 them are pretty high level playmakers for the forward position. 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.280 Yaka Pertl obviously a big, strong center, kind of an 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.520 underrated player in my opinion, and then RJ. Barrett obviously 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.720 one of the more athletic kind of two three swingmen 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.560 out there at two through five. They're just very physically imposing, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.520 and they came out with super impressive defensive intensity right 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.600 from the jump, and they it just was a carryover 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.880 from what we saw from the tail end of last season. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.119 If you guys remember, they ran the floor insanely well 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.280 in transition, kind of flipping the script on what Atlanta 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:34.040 typically likes to do. Toronto had forty three transition points 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.880 in this game. They had an offensive rating over one 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.640 forty on their transition possessions. Just a combination of really 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.200 poor Atlanta transition defense, which we'll get to in a minute, 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.640 and just how athletically imposing they can be when they're 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.000 running the floor and brandon ingram right out. The gates 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.880 came out super aggressive, scoring off of off ball action 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.440 and on ball action, just curling around screens and getting 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.200 into the middle of the floor. His scoring polish was 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.000 immediately apparent. I think he going to make life a 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.280 lot easier for them on that end, especially when they 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.600 get into crunch time, which obviously they did not experience 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.760 in this particular game. I thought RJ. Barrett was fantastic. 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.360 He hit some much needed threes early in the game 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.280 to space the floor, did a great job pressure in 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.600 the rim. He obviously played really really good defense as well, 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.839 and the Raptors just went into Atlanta and smacked them. 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.080 They had seven guys in double figures. Grady Dick had 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.120 twenty off the bench. He hit a bunch of jumpers 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.240 from all sorts of ranges all over the floor. They 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.640 were just six for twenty five from three and yet 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.320 they logged a one twenty two offensive rating. And it 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.920 was a combination to two things. Obviously, the transition pushes. 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.400 When you have over forty transition points in a game, 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.240 that's a pretty unusual number to see there. That's a 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.840 big way to boost your offensive rating. And then the 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:46.640 second piece of it is when they got in the 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.080 half court, they had a lot of really impressive ball 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.640 in player movement. They got in and out of actions quickly. 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.400 They ran a lot of actions on every possession, and 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:55.760 one of the things that stood out to me is 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.080 they do have more playmaking talent than you would think, 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.440 like for all the limits in terms of shooting talent. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.839 We've seen this before with teams like the Golden State Warriors. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.159 Now they weaponize shooting in the form of Steph and 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.080 Buddy Heeled now and Klay Thompson. In the past they 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.240 weaponized shooting to create that initial advantage, but from there 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.000 they tend to have less shooting than most teams, but 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.960 they just break you down with really crisp decision making 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.479 and movement right and obviously for Toronto, they don't have 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.359 the thread of the shooting, so it'll be harder for 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.960 them to break down elite defenses. But one of the 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.320 things I thought they did really well was they just 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.440 passed and moved in and out of their actions well 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:35.680 and got a lot of really good looks at the 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.800 rim they had. I don't have the number directly in 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.240 front of me. They had a million points in the 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:41.919 paint in this game. That was a huge part of 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.800 how they controlled the offensive end of the floor. In 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.760 this game, they had assists on two thirds of their baskets. Again, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.960 anything over sixty five percent and assist percentage to me, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.560 is really strong. They started up over that to start 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.720 the season. Again, they can't shoot the ball, but they 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.960 have real strengths. They're big, they're athletic, they're great at defense, 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.320 they run the floor and transition well, and when they 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.080 get in the half court, they have really nice playmaking talent. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.440 It's a good recipe for winning basketball games, even if 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.760 they're shooting will provide issues in certain matchups. Again, Atlanta 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.040 was pretty disappointing, which we'll get into. I wasn't all 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.520 bad for Atlanta. Jalen Johnson really impressed me with his 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.680 passing ability. He lacks that perimeter polish like the jumper 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.560 still isn't there. There's like some tight spaceball handling stuff 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.919 where he can still have some issues. But he pressures 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.880 the rim well, both in transition and in the half 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.000 court when he looks to drive. And then he's just 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.479 got really natural feel for seeing the floor and seeing 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.760 the openings that are generated when he pressures the rim. 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:37.960 And I was impressed by a lot of his playmaking, 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.239 especially in the first half of that game. He kept 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.680 them in the game despite Toronto out playing them basically 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.039 in every other matchup. To start, But I was pretty 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.400 disappointed in Atlanta for a group that has so many 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:54.560 great athletes and some guys with some good defensive reputations, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.600 right with Dyson Daniels and Nakil Alexander Walker, I thought 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.799 they were just super sloppy guarding the act that Toronto 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.280 was running in the half court, Like they botched switches 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.200 constantly in this game, and you want to credit the 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.599 Raptors for their movement, for their passing, and again, like 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:10.320 you do that kind of stuff, it has the potential 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.360 to lead to defense making mistakes. But I thought Atlanta 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.800 looked like a team that has not been approaching the 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.000 defensive end with much focus through training camp. I was 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.040 definitely disappointed there. And then their transition defense was flat 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.520 out abysmal, which is super strange for such an athletic team. 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.600 They need to be a good transition defense. Nikhil Alexander 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.360 Walker seems to have taken his new role in Atlanta 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.800 as like a high volume ball handling role, which I 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.200 think is a misallocation of what he does well. I 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.480 think he's at his best when he's guarding the ball 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.880 and then playing with an advantage taking catch and shoot 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.800 threes and using more of his ball handling ability, driving 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.480 closeouts and playing when the defense is already compromised rather 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:49.720 than attacking out front. Now he's going to have to 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:51.760 do a certain amount of that because Atlanta's not as 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.080 heavy on ball handling as Minnesota was. But I did 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.600 think that his shot selection was a little questionable in 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.000 this game. Atlanta just got out played from the jump. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.800 So not a good start from the Hawks. They need 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.440 to have a better showing a night two Clippers Jazz. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.800 This is one of the strangest opening night performances that 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.680 I've ever seen. I have a ton of respect for 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.440 the Clippers organization. I think they have one of the 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:15.920 best coaches in the league. I think they have a 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.040 well run front office that has a good feel for 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.600 how to build a modern NBA team, and I think 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.560 this roster in particular is built for regular season success. 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.320 But holy shit, did they come out flat and in 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.640 the opening minutes. I primarily blame Kawhi, Leonard In Viza 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.080 Zubats for the initial run that Utah went on. Utah 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.199 was basically just running Lori Markinen and off of like 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.120 downscreens from Walker, Kessler and Kawhi and Zoo just defended 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.640 it super poorly. Kawhi was applying little to no pressure 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.440 physicality on market In in his lock and trail. He 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.360 was getting caught on screens and not getting out to 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.840 him when he was shooting. When market In would curl, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.200 he was just kind of lazily jogging behind. And then 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:04.120 Zoo like was just essentially not helping Kawhi on either 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.280 side of the action. Wasn't showing up high when Marketing 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.440 would come off the screen, wasn't helping when Marketing would curl, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.120 but then also leaving Walker Kessler open because Kesler ended 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.920 up hitting two threes early in the game, which shout 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:18.760 out to Walker Kessler. I know in the game plan, 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.040 you're kind of gonna let him take that, right, but like, 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.079 if you're not gonna help on the curls in on 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.400 the at the level stuff, then you've got it. You 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.920 can't also just leave him wide open. You're basically just 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.559 floating around out there. And so Kawhi and Zoo came 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.679 out super flat defending those actions early, and Marketing and 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.200 Kessler torched them. They take an early double digit lead, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.800 and then once the bench group started to work their 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.559 way into the game, it turnovers became a massive problem 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.240 for the Clips, like use of Nurkic comes in and 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.599 just starts pressuring the high post entry on Zubats and 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.920 Brook Lopez and forces a couple of turnovers right away 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.640 that led into runouts, and the Clippers had like a 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.520 half dozen of these super bizarre unforced turnovers where like 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:03.880 you're just throwing the ball right to the other team 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.120 or just throwing it out of bounds because the guy 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.559 you're throwing it to is not paying attention. Just they 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.800 literally looked like they were asleep. And it was crazy 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:13.120 because the next thing you knew, it was the early 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.160 third quarter and Tyler's calling a time out because the 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.480 Clippers are down by thirty seven on the road in Utah. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.640 Like it was just bizarre, and Tyler took the blame. 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.120 And I'm sure the Clippers will bounce back with a 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.520 win tonight, but it was pretty crazy. I'm not gonna lie. 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.520 They definitely did not look ready for the start of 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.679 the season. I do want to credit Utah like they 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.559 came out and played great basketball. They have a very 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.280 good front court with Kessler and market In. Those are 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.360 talented guys when they're healthy and on the floor, and 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.080 they you know, just a casual reminder that even with 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:44.400 bad teams in the NBA, there's a lot of talent 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.080 out there, and if you come out and you bring 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.000 a lack of daisical effort, I don't know that you 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:50.920 can get away with it anymore night to night in 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:52.680 the regular season. I mean I rooted for the Lakers 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.280 in a game that they lost to the Jazz last year, 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.200 Like this is a bottom feeder that puts some really 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.800 high level basketball players on the floor. I thought Keante 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.240 George was great all night. Bryce Senseibah came in and 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.199 torched them from three. Hit a couple big ones in 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.600 the late third quarter or late second quarter. Excuse me, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.240 that helps kind of blow the game open. Really nice 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:12.679 debut for the Utah Jazz, high energy performance to kick 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.200 the Clippers. But today's show is brought to you by 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.440 our new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet. 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Must be twenty one plus 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:51.679 and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.000 or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.840 gambling in Florida called one eight three three play wise 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.719 in Indiana, if you or someone you know has a 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.559 gambling problem and wants help, call one eight hundred and 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.559 nine with it gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:16.720 in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.880 Six are Celtics. What a debut for VJ edgecomb thirty 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.480 four points and seven rebounds looked like the perfect compliment 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.920 to Tyrese Maxi. I've always loved the idea of like 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.320 hyper athletic guys alongside skill guards in the backcourt, so 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.719 like essentially the Polish finesse type of guard, even though 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.400 Tyrese I think brings insane speed to the table obviously, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.640 but that's why he's able to go for forty right, 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.520 he has the skill piece, and then off of him, 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.840 I want an athlete that can rebound, defend, and can 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.160 score with an advantage. And the key kind of storyline 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.400 in the game defensively was that Boston was roaming off 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.720 of VJ edge comb all night and then in his 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.120 on ball reps they were going under his picks. Boston 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.520 essentially dared VJ to beat them all night long, and 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.120 VJ just did. He got six unguarded catch and shoot 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.880 threes and made three of them. He hit two off 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.280 the dribble jump shots versus passive coverages. I thought he 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.920 did a wonderful job of slashing in the half court 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.600 when he had a chance, Like there was a play 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.640 where Peyton Pritchard was nail helping off of I think 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.560 it was Tyrese on the right wing and Peyton Pritchard 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:27.960 digs down into nail help Vj's just standing on the 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.080 left wing. This was early in the game. Talk about 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.200 those baked in driving lanes all the time. Right when 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.920 there's nail help, he's closing out on one of your shoulders, 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.560 all you have to do is rip the other direction 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.640 and you kind of have guaranteed dribble penetration right swing 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.440 past to VJ. He just ripped left immediately on the catch, 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.080 got a dunk. He in a transition push, ended up 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.320 catching Xavier Tillman in a cross match and the sixers 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.480 of space the floor nasty left or right crossover, went 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:56.560 up and dunked it because he got there so fast 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.080 at Boston's help, was not able to step over. He 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.480 had some super dynamic transition plays. He got a ridiculous 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:05.680 lob in the second half that was thrown way behind 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.440 him in traffic where he took off off his right foot, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.680 caught it with two hands and dunked it from almost 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.840 behind his head. In the first half, one of the 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.080 plays that really got me excited for his potential. He 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.920 had this nasty full speed euro step where he kind 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.040 of like attacks and semi transition, gets a little bit 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.360 of a downhill, gets some momentum going downhill, and Jalen 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:29.760 Brown steps up to help at the rim and at 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.320 full speed, he like plants his right foot in Euros 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.840 back to the left for like a lefty soft finish 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.200 off the glass. Just a ridiculously athletic play. And even 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.120 on the shots he missed, I thought he got great separation, 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.320 like he was able to just get to these like 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.160 really nice lift and rhythm, little mid range pull ups 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.200 that he just happened to miss because right now he's 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.480 still not quite that polished, and that stuff will come 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.920 in time. And so that's why VJ to me feels 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.600 very safe as a bet to be an All Star 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.080 in this league, because if he can stay healthy, the 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.760 reports about his character and his work ethic are great, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.760 and he's just a transcendently athletic guard. And so what 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.600 an exciting backcourt partner for Tyrese Maxey, who was amazing 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.680 in this game. His pull up three was dialed in. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:14.600 He ended up hitting three in a row in the 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.920 second half that closed a double digit Celtics lead, and 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.760 all three of them were nasty. He had like three 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.720 or four ridiculous like hard drive to the right into 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.400 a pullback, durable quick step back three, or he was 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.920 moving super fast but if you like froze it like 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.720 trimmed out the move before he's straight up and down 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:35.800 on the pull up jump shot. Just a really impressive 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.160 display footwork and athleticism. He ended up going for forty 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.080 in this game, and then they just have all these 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.840 forwards who just play hard off of them. Obviously, Kelly, Youubray, 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:46.560 we all know he's been in that starting lineup for 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.600 a little while now. He hit the biggest shot of 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.280 the night, a little action off the right side where 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.960 that Sam Howser made a poor defensive decision. He helped 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.440 off the strong side corner when it was pretty unnecessary, 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.640 and so it was a little easy kickouts. One of 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.960 those things were in the moment you're like, okay, Kelly 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.200 had been off from three for most of the game, 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.080 but at the same time, you stick to your defensive principles. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.119 Like Quentin Grimes was already wide open at the top 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.120 of the key on this play, in large part because 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.239 his man was already helping. So it was just kind 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.160 of like an unnecessary overhelp from Sam Hauser, And that 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.119 pass back across your body to the top of the 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:24.560 key to Grimes is a much tougher pass to make 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.200 than like a little five foot shovel pass to a 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.960 wide open man in the corner. Kelly Ubre hits that shot. 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.159 It effectively amounted to the game winner because they were 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:34.440 down two when he hit that shot. But I was 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.359 also really impressed by Dominic Barlow and Jabari Walker. The 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.240 two of them both just kind of crashing and cutting 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.480 and running constantly and just wrecking havoc at the rim 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.879 just by being big athletes off of the attention that 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.119 was garnered by their guards. Honestly, the only disappointing thing 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.800 if you were a seventy six ers fan was that 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.879 Joel Embiid looked like an absolute shell of himself. Like 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.359 Jackson and I were joking before we started recording, like 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.800 I don't think he made a single move towards the 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.879 best in that entire game. Every time he caught it 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.480 was just kind of like a face up jumper. You 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.320 had Jalen Brown in a post up and like just 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.920 spun over his left shoulder for a super difficult fade away. 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.639 You could tell the lift isn't there. The left shoulder 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.320 fade away. As a classic example, that's one of the 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.640 toughest shots in basketball for a right handed player because 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.240 you have to pivot and like square up in mid 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.640 air and he just didn't get close to enough lift 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.240 and so he kind of just flung it up there 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:25.840 and it didn't really have much of a chance to 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:27.960 go in. He had some plays in help side it. 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:29.600 He has a couple plays, like he had a block 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.360 in transition in the second half where you're like, whoa, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.280 that was kind of like a throwback little play. But 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:37.040 like for the most part, he didn't really seem very 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.040 vertical or mobile around the basket and help on defense. 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.000 He just kind of looked he looked like his knees 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.600 are shot. But let's hope that he's just working his 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.480 way back and then he can continue to get better 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.320 as the season progressive. It made me happy to see 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.960 him out there playing, but it was definitely disappointing to 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.320 see just the level of physical aggression that he had. 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.000 But what a fun backcourt to root for. Now you 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.679 have Quinn Grimes too, Like obviously he was there last year, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:02.680 but do you have Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain as well, 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:04.680 Like you have four really good guards. Grimes had a 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:06.600 huge three late off the left wing, kind of a 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.000