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Speaker 1: presented by Fan Duel here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend.
Speaker 1: We got a jam packed show for you Today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about this latest Trey Young drama, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little bit about the Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics game yesterday and some of the stuff with
Speaker 1: recent Brooklyn Nets basketball because they sneak E've been one
Speaker 1: of the best teams in the league up until that
Speaker 1: butt kicking at the hands of the Celtics. Yesterday, which
Speaker 1: seems to be a little bit of a recurring theme.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk some Lakers after Anthony Davis dropped a
Speaker 1: double nickel yesterday to beat the Washington Wizards. He's been
Speaker 1: the best player in the world for the last three
Speaker 1: weeks and I want to do a deep dive into that.
Speaker 1: And then, last, but not least, a big shout out
Speaker 1: today to the New Orleans Pelicans. After kicking the ship
Speaker 1: out of the Denver Nuggets yesterday, they are now up
Speaker 1: to second in the West. Zion Williamson is playing incredible,
Speaker 1: but they're doing a lot of spreading the wealth. It's
Speaker 1: an equal opportunity offense over there. A lot of good
Speaker 1: Pelicans talk coming at the tail end of this show.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: Jason Lts, you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss
Speaker 1: one of these shows and you can't get back over
Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So Trey Young, he's dealing with a little
Speaker 1: bit of a shoulder injury. Basically, the gist of this
Speaker 1: drama is Nate McMillan wanted him to show up to
Speaker 1: shoot around if you wanted to play in the game
Speaker 1: that night. Trede decided just to completely no show the
Speaker 1: shoot around and the game. And then Sham Sharania came
Speaker 1: out and reported that a couple of the specific quotes
Speaker 1: from the port that I think color the situation pretty well.
Speaker 1: Quote the Hawks have held multiple team meetings early in
Speaker 1: the season to resolve various conflicts, sources with knowledge of
Speaker 1: the situation set so clearly this is not the first
Speaker 1: time this has happened for Young, who's strained relationship with
Speaker 1: former Hoax Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce played a large role
Speaker 1: in his firing in March. It is the latest sensitive
Speaker 1: situation that has caused many people within the Hawks organization
Speaker 1: to question Young's leadership approach spicy um and then lastly
Speaker 1: here quote keep personnel around the team believe that Young
Speaker 1: simply must find a way to become any more productive
Speaker 1: and positive face of the franchise. One last note, this
Speaker 1: wasn't from his report, but sham's Um tweeted this out
Speaker 1: this morning from his show. He also said that from
Speaker 1: what he's hearing, the franchise is completely behind Nate McMillan
Speaker 1: and that his job is safe. So I don't really
Speaker 1: have a ton of thoughts here. I'm gonna keep this
Speaker 1: really simple. I am pro player empowerment. Player empowerment as
Speaker 1: it pertains to the c B A like negotiating with
Speaker 1: the owners, building brands and businesses off the court, player movement,
Speaker 1: the ability to go wherever you want to go. I'm
Speaker 1: uh pro player empowerment with all of that stuff. Why
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, yes, this is
Speaker 1: a you know, kind of an ecosystem where everyone is
Speaker 1: kind of playing a part. The media plays apart, the
Speaker 1: fans play apart, the owners play apart, the players play apart.
Speaker 1: But the players obviously play the biggest part, so they
Speaker 1: probably should have more player and more power than everyone else.
Speaker 1: And also it's kind of just like a product of
Speaker 1: the way that the league works, right, because basketball is
Speaker 1: unique in the sense that your best player can single
Speaker 1: handedly change the outcomes of games and your outlook for
Speaker 1: the whole season. Like look at Anthony Davis, the dude
Speaker 1: started playing like the best player in the world, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the Lakers went from one of
Speaker 1: the worst teams in the league to their playing as
Speaker 1: good on both ends of the floor as anybody right now,
Speaker 1: that's how much power one player has, and so I
Speaker 1: support that to a certain extent. The players are powerful
Speaker 1: for good reason. But as the cliche goes, with great
Speaker 1: power comes great responsibility, and there is a responsibility that
Speaker 1: comes with being the best basketball player on your team
Speaker 1: that involves leadership. This is why, in my opinion, Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is the best leader in the NBA. He probably
Speaker 1: hates this two timelines thing. You think he enjoys playing
Speaker 1: basketball with James Wiseman, do you do? You don't. Don't
Speaker 1: you think he'd rather they flip some of those guys
Speaker 1: for a veteran player that gives Steph the best chance
Speaker 1: to win the title. I'm sure he's not happy about that.
Speaker 1: I would imagine he doesn't agree with everything Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: has done over the years, stuff with the rotation, stuff
Speaker 1: with playing style, asking him to be off the ball,
Speaker 1: probably more even than Steph wants to be. He probably
Speaker 1: he probably has plenty of reasons too vent or to
Speaker 1: lash out, but he never, ever, ever has. You haven't
Speaker 1: even heard the slightest inkling of the slightest bit of
Speaker 1: disgruntled behavior from Steph. He is an extension of the
Speaker 1: leadership of the franchise because he understands that that's important.
Speaker 1: The other players on the team will not fall in
Speaker 1: line unless he falls in line, and so he sets
Speaker 1: that example and everyone else follows him. For instance, the
Speaker 1: shoot around thing with Trey Young guys like, don't let
Speaker 1: the name fool you. Every one of you who's played
Speaker 1: basketball at any level knows this already. But for those
Speaker 1: of you who don't shoot around, is not just shoot around.
Speaker 1: You don't just go to the gym and shoot around, Okay,
Speaker 1: when every single college that I played at, you you
Speaker 1: would do some shooting. Usually typically we treat that as
Speaker 1: a warm up. So like we have an hour long
Speaker 1: shoot around. You'd go in and you do a bunch
Speaker 1: of shooting drills for maybe twenty minutes and would get
Speaker 1: a lot of shots of But then guess what would happen.
Speaker 1: Then you'd get together and you'd start to rehearse the
Speaker 1: game plan. Like shoot arounds are more dress rehearsal for
Speaker 1: game plan stuff than they are shooting the basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it's a specific defensive scheme that you have for
Speaker 1: that specific opponent, whether it's some new offensive sets that
Speaker 1: you've gone through in practice, but maybe they aren't sharp
Speaker 1: enough yet and you want to wrap them out a
Speaker 1: few more times. Maybe it's just strictly implementing a new set.
Speaker 1: Especially in the NBA regular season where you don't get
Speaker 1: much practice time, those shoot arounds are the time they
Speaker 1: have to implement stuff. They are monumentally important. Asking Trey Young,
Speaker 1: hey dude, if you're gonna play in the game tonight,
Speaker 1: during which we are going to have a game plan,
Speaker 1: you need to be there for the game plan. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's a ridiculous thing to ask. Now, some
Speaker 1: teams are more relaxed about it, and that's fine, but
Speaker 1: clearly Nate McMillan is not relax about it, and that's
Speaker 1: also fine. Generally speaking, when I hear about guys missing
Speaker 1: shoot around, it's usually like flu like symptoms, where it's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: stay in bed so that maybe you can play tonight.
Speaker 1: That's not the case with Tray, and I get it.
Speaker 1: He was doing treatment but you could have taken an
Speaker 1: hour out of the day to go sit and learn
Speaker 1: about the game plan before you go and get your treatment. So,
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of reminds me of like, you know,
Speaker 1: Colin Coward used to have this take about divorce where
Speaker 1: he'd say, like, you know, if it happens to you once,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna say a thing. It happens to you twice,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe someone might be like, hmm, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: But it happens to you three times, maybe people are
Speaker 1: just gonna start saying like, oh, something's that person might
Speaker 1: just be difficult, you know what I mean. That was
Speaker 1: one of Colin's old old takes that always resonated with me,
Speaker 1: and this particularly seems like one of those situations. You
Speaker 1: run Lloyd Pierce out of town, maybe people just think okay,
Speaker 1: bad fit, or maybe Lord Lord Pierce just wasn't the guy.
Speaker 1: Now you're running Nate McMillan out of town. If that
Speaker 1: happens people, you know, it's gonna start to look like
Speaker 1: Trey Young might be the issue here. Now. Trey Young
Speaker 1: is not my favorite player, but he's a hell of
Speaker 1: a player. He's once again one of the best pick
Speaker 1: and roll ball handlers in the league. This year, he's
Speaker 1: generating one point zero four points per possession when he
Speaker 1: passes out of pick and roll, which is one of
Speaker 1: the better numbers in the league. But he's got to
Speaker 1: grow up and he's got to accept the responsibility that
Speaker 1: comes with his power as one of the best players
Speaker 1: in the league and as the best player on his team,
Speaker 1: and the team's investing in him. They went out of
Speaker 1: their way to get you, to john Ty Murray. They've
Speaker 1: drafted really well. You've got wings, you've got athletes all
Speaker 1: over the place, you've got shooting. You know, Nate McMillan
Speaker 1: is not going anywhere, and they're not gonna trade Trey Young,
Speaker 1: so the only thing to do is make it work.
Speaker 1: So you know it, Trad is not the first super
Speaker 1: talented basketball player to struggle with some you know, attitude
Speaker 1: stuff early in his career. You know, even amously Lebron
Speaker 1: James had some stuff like that when he was younger.
Speaker 1: But we're getting to that point now, Ture. You've been
Speaker 1: in the league long enough, you gotta figure out, like
Speaker 1: it's for every star in the league, just like with
Speaker 1: Steph and what he's dealing with with the young players
Speaker 1: and what he's dealing with with the rotation and some
Speaker 1: of the responsibilities that he has. No one's in absolute paradise.
Speaker 1: Everyone's got good and bad things that they're dealing with.
Speaker 1: You can't use those bad things as an excuse to
Speaker 1: rock the boat. That's not what the that that that
Speaker 1: goes beyond what your responsibilities are as a leader. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to the Celtics and the Nets. So
Speaker 1: the Nets had been the second best team in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA after their one in five start. Believe it
Speaker 1: or not, they were twelve and six from October thirty
Speaker 1: one to defend to December two, which was the before
Speaker 1: this last game, and only the Celtics had a better record.
Speaker 1: They were tenth in offense, fourth and defense over that span,
Speaker 1: and Katie was playing like a straight up m v P.
Speaker 1: Not just on the offensive end, but he's also having
Speaker 1: one of his best defensive seasons of his career. In
Speaker 1: the spin He's averaging nine, seven and six shooting, He's
Speaker 1: twelveth in the league and blocks over that span, and
Speaker 1: his creation stats for the season are off the charts.
Speaker 1: He's in the percentile and pick and roll to three
Speaker 1: points on a hundred eighty one possessions eight percentile, and
Speaker 1: isso two hundred points and a hundred eighty nine possessions
Speaker 1: seven percentile in post offs hundred nineteen points on a
Speaker 1: hundred one possessions all including passes. He is playing incredibly
Speaker 1: well rounded basketball for what had been over that stretch
Speaker 1: the second best team in the league. They had figured
Speaker 1: out a lot of stuff, you know, getting Seth Curry
Speaker 1: back in the mix and what he brought offensively you
Speaker 1: to want Nabby is turned into like a pretty damn
Speaker 1: interesting three and D player and one of the best
Speaker 1: lower volume three point shooters that we have in the
Speaker 1: league this year. Five other Nets were averaging double figures
Speaker 1: over this twelve and six span. You do want to
Speaker 1: be shooting fifty seven percent from three, which leads the
Speaker 1: entire league for players attempting at least three three three
Speaker 1: pointers per game. Now, i Will at Utah and Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons were both out for this Boston and Celtics game.
Speaker 1: But this Boston Celtics game was kind of an interesting,
Speaker 1: like benchmark test for the Nets to see if some
Speaker 1: of that legitimate basketball they've been playing for the previous
Speaker 1: month was real. And it went just like it usually
Speaker 1: does when the Nets play Celtics. The Celtics played stifling,
Speaker 1: physical defense, making everything difficult. Kyrie and Katie combined for
Speaker 1: ten turnovers. They warmed down to the point where all
Speaker 1: those longer jump shots stopped following a lot of times
Speaker 1: people pay attention to shot quality and they go like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just missed my shots today. A lot of times
Speaker 1: those things are related to defensive pressure. When a team
Speaker 1: wears you down with physicality, you get a wide open
Speaker 1: look and you don't quite get the unnecessary lift and
Speaker 1: you leave it short. Katie and Kyrie were two for
Speaker 1: ten from three. Kyrie was three for ten overall and
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, and meanwhile, Jayson Tatum and jy
Speaker 1: Leon Brown got everything they wanted and the Celtics won comfortably.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked a lot about UM Boston's defensive
Speaker 1: ceiling last week and how their numbers don't look that great.
Speaker 1: They're actually fourteenth and defense this year, even after that
Speaker 1: defensive performance they put on against Brooklyn. But they have
Speaker 1: these stretches where they look really good. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: quarter here, maybe it's a crunch time there. They mess
Speaker 1: around for thirty minutes or so and then they put
Speaker 1: together like a four or five minute stretch where they
Speaker 1: lock in the other team can't score. If they scored
Speaker 1: ten fifteen points in the game is over. And last
Speaker 1: night's game was just one giant example of that switch
Speaker 1: flipping that they've done. Now they from a schematic standpoint,
Speaker 1: they did a ton of switching. And this is the
Speaker 1: advantage of having Robert Williams out of the lineup. You know,
Speaker 1: when Robert Williams is in there, and really all their
Speaker 1: backup bigs as well, they run drop coverage and I
Speaker 1: hate drop coverage, as you guys know for those of
Speaker 1: you have been following the show for a while, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a big mistake that they ran
Speaker 1: drop even with al Horford uh so much during the
Speaker 1: finals last year. But in this particular game, they just
Speaker 1: did a boatload of switching, including the Al Horford actions,
Speaker 1: which really took Brooklyn and turned them into an isolation team.
Speaker 1: And kadd did an okay job in ISA and Kyrie
Speaker 1: did a tough did a bad job and ISA and
Speaker 1: then their offense fell apart. And there were two things
Speaker 1: in particular that Boston was doing that I thought were
Speaker 1: really interesting that kind of helped lead to this bad
Speaker 1: night for the nets. They were denying the easy passes,
Speaker 1: so like swing passes along the perimeter and entry passes
Speaker 1: to like the high post or the low post. They
Speaker 1: were you know, if Jalen Brown or Jayson Tatum was
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant or Grant Williams is on Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: There like Kevin Durant's ceiling and calling for the basketball
Speaker 1: right and what's happening is Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: are leaning on Katie and doing a three quarter front,
Speaker 1: extending the right arm as far out into the passing
Speaker 1: lane as they can, making it so that you have
Speaker 1: to throw that pass further away from Katie. Katie has
Speaker 1: to almost like push off a little bit to go
Speaker 1: get it. Now he's catching the ball further away from
Speaker 1: the basket, then he wants to same thing on. It
Speaker 1: wasn't even just post ups. It was like if Katie
Speaker 1: was on the wing and Joe Harris had the ball,
Speaker 1: and Katie's just calling for the ball because there's twelve
Speaker 1: on the shot clock and he wants to try to
Speaker 1: make a play, he'd have to like v cut or
Speaker 1: fight for post position and just to get the basketball,
Speaker 1: those little details that helps wear out the legs, that
Speaker 1: helps lead to the team feeling generally uncomfortable and their
Speaker 1: shots missing. That helps lead to turnovers and sloppiness and
Speaker 1: things like that. And then the other big thing I
Speaker 1: thought was impactful in this game was mixing up their
Speaker 1: helps and doubles. So like sometimes on Katie they double
Speaker 1: on the catch, but not very often. Sometimes they would
Speaker 1: double as soon as he started dribbling. That was the
Speaker 1: most frequent one that I'd see. Katie would put them
Speaker 1: all on the floor to kind of go towards the middle,
Speaker 1: and then they would collapse on him. And then sometimes
Speaker 1: it'd be like right as you hit his counter move,
Speaker 1: so he dribble left, hit like behind the back dribble
Speaker 1: and start going right, and then someone would sneak from
Speaker 1: behind to come in and disrupt him. They mix that
Speaker 1: up a lot, and then other times they just wouldn't
Speaker 1: throw a double. And so by keeping that, you know, inconsistent,
Speaker 1: it made it so that the reeds were inconsistent, and
Speaker 1: as a result, you know, it was more reactionary from Katie,
Speaker 1: and he really struggled with it and kept Katie and
Speaker 1: Kyrie off balance all night long, which again led to
Speaker 1: most of those turnervers. D had eight of those turnovers,
Speaker 1: which is becoming a problem in this specific matchup. And
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think Katie has a handle issue. It's
Speaker 1: more of a a difficult matchup because Boston attacks the
Speaker 1: basketball and plays passing lanes well, has their hands up
Speaker 1: all the time. So from a dribbling standpoint, Katie is
Speaker 1: so damn tall that the ball just has to cover
Speaker 1: more distance as it's going down to the ground and back,
Speaker 1: so it's a little bit more susceptible there. And then
Speaker 1: they're just a really good doubling, stunting, gambling team, and
Speaker 1: they made Katie pay for a lot of sloppy passing
Speaker 1: in this game as well. I still think Boston has
Speaker 1: the best half court defensive ceiling i've ever seen. Goes
Speaker 1: a lot deeper than that. Their decision making on offense
Speaker 1: can throw them into bad transition situations, and they were
Speaker 1: a bad transition defense and last year's playoffs, which is
Speaker 1: different than some of the best defenses we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: But they're when they're in the half court and they're
Speaker 1: locked in and they're switching everything and they've got the
Speaker 1: right lineup out there it's the best half court defense
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. So Jaylen Brown thirty were in ten
Speaker 1: last night with four blocks. And by the way, if
Speaker 1: you don't think the Celtics take extra pleasure and beating
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets, how's this first at Jalen Brown didn't
Speaker 1: have a single blocked shot for seventeen games before last night,
Speaker 1: and he had four blocks last night. Little little extra
Speaker 1: adrenaline for that matchup. Jalen Brown's last six games thirty
Speaker 1: two points, eight rebounds, and four assists, fifty seven percent
Speaker 1: from the field from three percent from the free throw line.
Speaker 1: That's a sixty for shooting percentage, and he's one of
Speaker 1: the best pick and roll creators in the league. This year,
Speaker 1: he's generated a hundred and forty nine points on a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty possessions, which is in the eighty nine percentile.
Speaker 1: He's made a lot of improvements as a passer, averaging
Speaker 1: three and a half assist per game this year, which
Speaker 1: ties his career high. When he's passed out of pick
Speaker 1: and roll this year, fifty six times, he's generated fifty
Speaker 1: seven points, which is in the sixtycentile, which is above average.
Speaker 1: He used to be a well below average passer, So
Speaker 1: for him to make that type of improvement is big.
Speaker 1: His ascension has made that Tatum Brown pairing the best
Speaker 1: duo in the NBA in my opinion. All right, let's
Speaker 1: tack some Lakers so solid road win in Washington. The
Speaker 1: Wizards had been eight and four at home before yesterday's game.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have now won eight out of ten. Should
Speaker 1: be nine out of ten. Their fourth and offense eighth
Speaker 1: and defense fourth and net rating. Lebron and Russ are
Speaker 1: both playing really good basketball. Russ is probably in his
Speaker 1: best three or four game stretch, three game stretch since
Speaker 1: he came to the Lakers, Lebron's best two game stretch
Speaker 1: of this entire season. The Lakers are good, Like, uh,
Speaker 1: let's just get right to it. I know it sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: and if you look at the standings and all the
Speaker 1: slander that's been thrown their way over the years, it
Speaker 1: sounds ridiculous to say, but the Lakers are good all three,
Speaker 1: all three of their stars will have to maintain this
Speaker 1: level of play to stay good, and they'll definitely need
Speaker 1: to make a trade if they want to really compete
Speaker 1: for a title. But they defend really, really well, especially
Speaker 1: in the half court. All three of their stars are
Speaker 1: playing really well, so they're scoring the ball really well
Speaker 1: as well as anybody in the NBA. They took that
Speaker 1: Bucks d defense in their home arena, the best defense
Speaker 1: in the NBA, the best half court defense in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and they hung a one thirty three on them. The
Speaker 1: catalyst for everything is A D. It's been a weird
Speaker 1: few years for A D. So I wanted to take
Speaker 1: some time to talk about, like how A D has
Speaker 1: gone from being what he was in to what he
Speaker 1: was the last couple of years to what he's become
Speaker 1: this season, because I think it's kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: path and and it and it kind of is a
Speaker 1: is a lesson to a lot of young basketball players
Speaker 1: and just how important it is to keep your foot
Speaker 1: on the gas as you're rising through the league. So
Speaker 1: in almost immediately when he came in, he was an
Speaker 1: impact defensive player, really started holding Lebron James accountable. He
Speaker 1: finished second and Defensive Player of the Year that year,
Speaker 1: but he should have been first. Kind of similar to
Speaker 1: the Lebron m v P case, Janice in the Bucks
Speaker 1: just had a preposterously easy schedule and Eastern Conference that year.
Speaker 1: So all of their metrics were just completely off the
Speaker 1: charts because like the bottom seven teams in the East
Speaker 1: were all tanking, and the Bucks just beat the living
Speaker 1: ship out of them every single time they played them,
Speaker 1: which inflated everything. The Lakers were a better defense, They
Speaker 1: were the best defense in the Western Conference, which was
Speaker 1: the by far the better conference, and a D just
Speaker 1: simply was a better defensive player that year. He should
Speaker 1: have been Defensive Player of the Year. Lebron should have
Speaker 1: been MVP that year. It's actually the only m v
Speaker 1: P that I think Lebron got robbed of, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis damn Shure deserved to get that Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year aboard. But it was kind of a weird
Speaker 1: offensive season to start the year. They were really forced
Speaker 1: feeding him in the post. He was taking all of
Speaker 1: these like weird jump shots, like difficult jump shots, tough
Speaker 1: turnaround fadeaway step backs, and things along those lines. Laker
Speaker 1: fans were all like, what's going on? Like A D
Speaker 1: is like trying to be like k D. He's never
Speaker 1: been Kadi k D. That's so strange. What is what's
Speaker 1: up with this? And he wasn't making any of them
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the season through New Year's Day,
Speaker 1: he shot just thirty five sent from mid range from three,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden everything started going in.
Speaker 1: I remember joking at the time it almost reminded me
Speaker 1: of like that pathway to implementing high level offense. If
Speaker 1: you have a move you're working on a step back,
Speaker 1: for instance, or a fade away out of the post.
Speaker 1: Step one, work on it in the gym by yourself.
Speaker 1: Step two, work on it in practice. Step three, work
Speaker 1: on it in games. And all three of those phases
Speaker 1: come with a stretch where you're missing him. And it
Speaker 1: kind of seemed like a d was working on how
Speaker 1: to build out that high post, low post jump shot
Speaker 1: scoring game and he was just missing them. But then
Speaker 1: it clicked, and when it clicked, he was making everything.
Speaker 1: After New Year's Day, you shot forty one percent from
Speaker 1: mid range and from three, and then he destroyed everyone
Speaker 1: in the bubble. These numbers are insane from mid range
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, thirty eight percent from three. He was
Speaker 1: deadly in ISO and and post up. He ran sixty
Speaker 1: eight ISOs in that playoff run for seventy five points,
Speaker 1: which was in the nine percentile, and he ran a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty post ups for a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two points, which was in the nine percentile, So top top,
Speaker 1: top tier is SO and post player in that postseason run,
Speaker 1: and then it was arguably the best defensive playoff run
Speaker 1: from any player ever, culminating with the utter destruction of
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat in Game six of the finals when
Speaker 1: they had no idea what to do with him hanging
Speaker 1: around the rim. I thought he was clearly in the
Speaker 1: conversation for the best player in the best player in
Speaker 1: the world at that point. I ended up ranking him
Speaker 1: fourth behind Lebron Stephen k D. But then he came
Speaker 1: into camp completely out of shape. You know, It's funny.
Speaker 1: At the time, no one really thought much of it.
Speaker 1: The Lakers had a really quick turnaround. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: it was something bizarre like a month and a half,
Speaker 1: like they had like forty five days between because I
Speaker 1: think they started just before Christmas if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: and then it was like early October when they won
Speaker 1: the trophy, So it's like a month and a half. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Lakers quick turnaround. He had a heavy workload
Speaker 1: in the finals or through that whole playoff run. He
Speaker 1: was dealing with have like an ankle thing at that
Speaker 1: point during the playoffs, so like it was defensible that
Speaker 1: he would show up to camp out of shape, but
Speaker 1: it hurt him in a lot of different ways. He
Speaker 1: looked heavy, he looked like he had lost a significant
Speaker 1: chunk of mobility, and he completely lost his jump shot.
Speaker 1: He shot. He was back down to thirty five percent
Speaker 1: from the mid range for the season, down to twenty
Speaker 1: from three, and he kind of just declined into a
Speaker 1: defensive anchor that wasn't as good as he was the
Speaker 1: previous year, who could vertically space and do some of
Speaker 1: the usual A D stuff, but you know, he wasn't
Speaker 1: even nearly the same player that he was. He was
Speaker 1: also constantly dealing with nagging injuries, including this like weird
Speaker 1: to kill these tend to noses thing, which is a
Speaker 1: wear and tear injury, not a you know, it's not
Speaker 1: a bad luck type of injury, and that can be
Speaker 1: associated with your conditioning. He ended up playing a couple
Speaker 1: of really good playoff games against Phoenix in game two,
Speaker 1: in game three, and then he broke down pulled his
Speaker 1: groin in the l because were eliminated. So his big
Speaker 1: follow up season two, securing a top a spot in
Speaker 1: the top tier of the league was a clunky, banged up,
Speaker 1: out of shape, injury plagued season where he lost a
Speaker 1: huge portion of his offensive skill set and finished the
Speaker 1: season averaging two and eight. Not the same player, and
Speaker 1: so how did he follow that? How did he follow
Speaker 1: up that tough campaign? It was widely reported that he
Speaker 1: showed up in training camp out of shape again and
Speaker 1: there was no excuse this time. The Lakers had six
Speaker 1: months off and he couldn't shoot again. He had one
Speaker 1: of his worst defensive seasons of his entire career. He
Speaker 1: was plagued with injuries again, finished the year averaging three
Speaker 1: and ten thirty seven percent from mid range from three
Speaker 1: had turned into literally one of the worst jump shooters
Speaker 1: in the league at volume compared to what he had
Speaker 1: done in the bubble, which is insane. In the Lakes
Speaker 1: were terrible. They got outscored with Anthony Davis on the court.
Speaker 1: The lineups in in the previous season when Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis were off the floor performed better then
Speaker 1: the Lebron and A D together lineups during last season,
Speaker 1: The A D of old felt like a distant memory.
Speaker 1: So how did it? How did we go from there
Speaker 1: to what it was two back to what we have now?
Speaker 1: And I attribute it to three things. First of all,
Speaker 1: he's returned to that defensive player of the year for
Speaker 1: he showed up in shape to training camp this year
Speaker 1: and completely committed on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He leads the entire league in stocks, which is steals
Speaker 1: plus blocks. You know, one of the most underrated things
Speaker 1: about Anthony Davis's defense is what he does with interior passing.
Speaker 1: We always think of drop coverages in like funneling to
Speaker 1: the basket and trying to block layups or contest midrange
Speaker 1: pull ups or defend the role man right, and one
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis's biggest gift is the disruption of interior
Speaker 1: passing drop passes, pocket passes, skip passes, swing passes. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is just getting deflections and blowing up plays constantly
Speaker 1: that are open for other teams in the league. It's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things that separates him from your
Speaker 1: traditional defensive anchors like a Brook Lopez or a Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 1: It's also the same thing that makes Draymond Green so
Speaker 1: great despite being less of a of a physical presence
Speaker 1: around the rim is what he does, disrupting interior passing.
Speaker 1: This year, Anthony Davis is anchoring the fourth best half
Speaker 1: court defense in the entire NBA, despite having one legit
Speaker 1: wing defender Lebron who until recently it was giving really
Speaker 1: inconsistent defensive effort. These legit six eight athletic wings with
Speaker 1: long arms that can move and they have good instincts.
Speaker 1: Those guys are arguably the most important defensive weapon in
Speaker 1: the NBA these days, and the Lakers have one of
Speaker 1: them who's thirty seven years old and on a lot
Speaker 1: of nights doesn't care to do it. That's what he's
Speaker 1: been set up with. It's a lot of short guys
Speaker 1: that are scrappy and compete in the aggregate. It's a
Speaker 1: blow average defensive set of role players, and he's got
Speaker 1: them at the fourth best half court defense in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's not flanked by Jannis and Drew Holiday, He's doing
Speaker 1: it with some pretty average personnel. He got back to
Speaker 1: what he does best, and I think he's the defensive
Speaker 1: player of the year at this point. I think that
Speaker 1: was the first catalyst, and then that in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, drives confidence when you're messing up other teams
Speaker 1: with what you're doing on defense, you start to feel
Speaker 1: good about who you are as a basketball player, which
Speaker 1: fuels your ability to do things on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. The second biggest thing that catalyzed that
Speaker 1: got this Anthony Davis trained back on the tracks was
Speaker 1: the high quality shots that he was able to get
Speaker 1: in pick and roll as a product of Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook. So Lebron is pretty good last year,
Speaker 1: but a d was never available. Russell Westbrook had an
Speaker 1: atrocious season last year. This year, both Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis are available along side Anthony Davis, and both
Speaker 1: of them are having much better seasons as pick and
Speaker 1: roll creators. Lebron had a rough start to the season,
Speaker 1: but in the last few games he's been very, very good.
Speaker 1: And it's so important because you know, I call this,
Speaker 1: I refer to this as supplementary offense. So you know,
Speaker 1: you have your offensive skill set what you do as
Speaker 1: a basketball player. Maybe that's creating shots and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's isolation, maybe that's pick and pop. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: you know, uh, posting up. Whatever that is. You've got
Speaker 1: all these different things that are your fundamental basketball abilities,
Speaker 1: but you can supplement that in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's getting into the foul line, Maybe that's offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's running the floor and transition for layups in threes.
Speaker 1: For Anthony Davis, the one of his big pieces of
Speaker 1: supplementary offense is finishing as the rollman in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He scored a hundred and fifty one points in a
Speaker 1: hundred and eight rollman possessions this year, which is in
Speaker 1: the eight six percentile, and some of it is dunks.
Speaker 1: Right eight is probably the best vertical spacer in the league.
Speaker 1: He's probably the best lob catcher and dunker in the
Speaker 1: entire league. But it's not just that he's got this
Speaker 1: like little like pop shot where he just kind of holds.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a floater, but like the big man
Speaker 1: version of a floater, where he catches, turns and just
Speaker 1: puts the ball up as high as he can and
Speaker 1: just kind of flips his wrists a little bit and
Speaker 1: puts it in. I always gonna be careful when I'm
Speaker 1: trying to demonstrate my shots and I end u knocking
Speaker 1: the microphone. But that that's such a huge thing because
Speaker 1: like what will end up happening is Lebron and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook will get downhill, and that downhill piece is so important.
Speaker 1: You've got to engage the screen defender. You've got to
Speaker 1: get the big man to step up and help in
Speaker 1: order to drop the ball off to Anthony Davis for
Speaker 1: one of those shots. But it's not always a dunk.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they send a little guard or wing out of
Speaker 1: the week side corner to help on Anthony Davis. There.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna dunk that. But what he can do
Speaker 1: is he can quick catch it and finish pretty much
Speaker 1: anywhere within five to seven ft from the basket. And
Speaker 1: that's what separates him as a rollman from your usual
Speaker 1: um vertical spaces that we have around the league. That's
Speaker 1: that supplementary offense that gets you to thirty seven points
Speaker 1: per game or what ever it is um uh that
Speaker 1: that he scores on any given night. And then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, he's making his perimeter shot in this
Speaker 1: nine game stretch. In this nine game stretch, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is fifty from mid range from three and it's helping
Speaker 1: in two particular ways. Some of it is just spacing
Speaker 1: there was a specific play last night against the Washington
Speaker 1: Wizards in the fourth is third or fourth quarter, I
Speaker 1: can't remember. I think it was fourth um, but Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzman Daniel Gafford were running an ice coverage on Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d on the left side of the floor.
Speaker 1: So a nice coverage is a typical um pick and
Speaker 1: roll covers that's used in the NBA and at all levels.
Speaker 1: That involves usually the sides of the floor. You usually
Speaker 1: don't run it in the middle, you run it on
Speaker 1: the sides. And the idea is the screen is coming
Speaker 1: to try to get the ball handler towards the middle,
Speaker 1: and so that's the on ball defender will essentially force
Speaker 1: the offensive player to reject the screen, so he'll get
Speaker 1: way up high, says he's on the left side, He's
Speaker 1: gonna get way up on his right shoulder so that
Speaker 1: Lebron has no choice but to go towards the baseline.
Speaker 1: Then Daniel Gafford will drop right in front of the
Speaker 1: block to basically corral that there. And they're basically saying,
Speaker 1: you're not going to use the screen, You're gonna drive
Speaker 1: into Daniel Gafford. We've got all this help to deal
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis in the lane. Good luck. There is
Speaker 1: one thing that beats an ice coverage consistently, and that's
Speaker 1: a pick and pop. Because if the ball handler is
Speaker 1: being funneled towards the baseline by the on ball defender
Speaker 1: and the screen defender is waiting at the block, nobody
Speaker 1: is there to guard Anthony Davis or the screener if
Speaker 1: he pops. And there was a play in this game,
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh, they're icing it.
Speaker 1: They're icing it, and Lebron and and a D kind
Speaker 1: of looked at each other for a second, but then
Speaker 1: A D simply just popped the three point line. Lebron
Speaker 1: took a hard dribble towards the baseline, passed it back
Speaker 1: to Anthony Davis, and he nailed the three. You sometimes
Speaker 1: need perimeter shooting to beat specific coverages. And then look
Speaker 1: at the Look at those base threes that he made
Speaker 1: against Milwaukee in the fourth quarter to bade two of him.
Speaker 1: I think there was one in the right corner, and
Speaker 1: then I think the other one was on the left wing.
Speaker 1: But hey, guess what Brook Lopez is doing. He's sitting
Speaker 1: at the basket. Sometimes just to keep him honest, You've
Speaker 1: got to demonstrate your ability to knock that shot down.
Speaker 1: But the second big important part of this shot making
Speaker 1: piece is the iso released valve factor. So the best
Speaker 1: versions of Lebron James teams ever have had a player
Speaker 1: that Lebron can just throw the ball to and he
Speaker 1: can go get a basket. Think Dwyane Wade, Think Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: think Anthony Davis. In the Bubble, Lebron controls so much.
Speaker 1: Now he can share some of those responsibilities with Rust,
Speaker 1: but he controls so much there's a fatigue element to it.
Speaker 1: And so when you have the ability not just to
Speaker 1: rescue possessions in late shot clock situations or to attack
Speaker 1: the occasional mismatch that might pop up, but also just
Speaker 1: to throw the ball to Anthony Davis and know, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a point per possession here, because
Speaker 1: he's just gonna create his own shot. In order for
Speaker 1: him to do that, he has to be able to
Speaker 1: make the jump shot because a lot of teams have
Speaker 1: started to put big, strong centers on him knowing that
Speaker 1: he can't bully them towards the basket. This Christaps Porzingis
Speaker 1: and Brook Lopez matchups are great examples of that, and
Speaker 1: a d lit those guys on fire with step backs
Speaker 1: and turnarounds and pull up jump shots. And it was
Speaker 1: that release valve. And that's what's the difference between the
Speaker 1: Lakers being an average offense and then being the fourth
Speaker 1: best offense in the league over the last ten games.
Speaker 1: Getting some shot making in those isolation situations. So with
Speaker 1: all that coming together, him locking in on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: getting high quality shots and pick and roll from Lebron
Speaker 1: and Russ, and him finally getting his perimeter shot going,
Speaker 1: what do we have as a result in this ten
Speaker 1: game stretch eights played nine of them, he's averaging thirty
Speaker 1: five and sixteen on seventy true shooting, and he's been
Speaker 1: the best defensive player in the world. Nobody in the
Speaker 1: world is playing better basketball right now than Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in these last two weeks or three weeks. If you
Speaker 1: combine that guy with a top ten version of Lebron James,
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be what Lebron James was in
Speaker 1: If he's just a top ten player and you get
Speaker 1: them quality role players, you can win a championship with
Speaker 1: that group. Now, Lonnie Walker has turned out to be
Speaker 1: a solid signing. Austin Reeves from last year has been
Speaker 1: a solid role player for this team, and Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: Has been a solid role player for this team. Even
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook has won me over this season with what
Speaker 1: he's done in that bentroll. I'm my only concern with
Speaker 1: Russ really is the occasional bad night that can be
Speaker 1: you know, downright sabotage, but then also crunch time lineups.
Speaker 1: When you put him out there with Lebron James, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of a clunky fit. It's almost better when
Speaker 1: they're staggered. But overall, he's been very good this season,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even sure they can afford to lose him,
Speaker 1: especially with Lebron and some of his injury history. But
Speaker 1: no matter what, they need one more really good role player,
Speaker 1: preferably a wing, because I think you know with what
Speaker 1: you're getting from when you and Gabriel and Thomas Bryant,
Speaker 1: and with how well Anthony Davis is playing at the five,
Speaker 1: I don't think you need another big necessarily. I think
Speaker 1: it'd be ideal to find they could get Kyle Kuzma.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine that's the type of player that would
Speaker 1: just round out this roster perfectly. But I just need
Speaker 1: one more really good role player. I would say package
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley and another minimum contractor two with
Speaker 1: both picks for a wing and you'll let the chips
Speaker 1: fall ward. They may give these guys a chance to
Speaker 1: win the title. Alright. The New Orleans Pelicans. Long time
Speaker 1: since we talked about them, but they deserve a good
Speaker 1: shout out here. So they had some early trouble with
Speaker 1: Denver yesterday, but then they completely dominated them in the
Speaker 1: second half. The Pelicans are nine in two in their
Speaker 1: last eleven games. They're tied with Boston for the best
Speaker 1: record in the league during that span. Their sixth and
Speaker 1: offense and second in defense over that span. Despite having
Speaker 1: a lot of guys missed a lot of games. Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram's missed four of those eleven games, Zion's missed three
Speaker 1: of them, CJ's miss four of them. They're just so
Speaker 1: deep with talent that guys just kind of slot into
Speaker 1: the roles that they need to and they just keep winning.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Zion for a second. So
Speaker 1: in the span, he's only averaging seven and four, but
Speaker 1: it's very efficient. Six century shooting. And again, even though
Speaker 1: the scoring might seem low, you gotta look at the
Speaker 1: way that this team is actually put together because New
Speaker 1: Orleans as a unit has a ton of ball handling.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of guys on this team that
Speaker 1: can make decisions like Brandon Ingram, CJ. McCollum and Jose
Speaker 1: Albreda are literally or Alvarado are literally three of the
Speaker 1: best pick and rollball handlers in the league on a
Speaker 1: per possession basis this year. So you've got three outstanding
Speaker 1: creators and Zion is the one who's primarily featured, so
Speaker 1: those responsibilities are getting shared a lot. So I wouldn't
Speaker 1: look so much at volume with any individual player on
Speaker 1: this team, like Brandon Ingram's individual stats don't look amazing,
Speaker 1: but he's playing great basketball right now, and so it's
Speaker 1: just it's just one of those things we gotta look.
Speaker 1: You gotta look beyond that. Um Zion, C J. B I,
Speaker 1: and Jose are all averaging between four and six assists.
Speaker 1: Nobody on the team in this span is taking more
Speaker 1: than fifteen shots per game. Zion has been one of
Speaker 1: the best is players in the entire league this year.
Speaker 1: He Zion has scored a hundred nineteen points on nine,
Speaker 1: which is percentile, and a big part of it is passing,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna get to a second um and then
Speaker 1: posting up same type of deal a hundred thirty points
Speaker 1: on a hundred nineteen possessions, which is in the seventy
Speaker 1: three percent time. One of his most impressive offensive traits
Speaker 1: right now is passing. You know, you gotta start from
Speaker 1: the foundation piece, which is that he gets to the
Speaker 1: rim as much as anybody in the league not named Benas.
Speaker 1: He averages eight restricted area makes per game, which is
Speaker 1: second in the league. TI honest, So teams are treating
Speaker 1: him like Janice when he's bringing the ball up the
Speaker 1: floor and when he gets the ball and one of
Speaker 1: his spots gets ready to attack, they're packing the paint
Speaker 1: like crazy, even like good shooters like Trey Murphy. They're
Speaker 1: digging four or five ft off of him into the
Speaker 1: lane to try to contain Zion. That's how much trouble
Speaker 1: he's causing for teams, causing teams in the paint. You know, specifically,
Speaker 1: what makes Zion a great passer, it's part of it's
Speaker 1: the reads, and he makes a lot of high level reads.
Speaker 1: There was a specific play where um, I want to
Speaker 1: say it was against it was either against Denver, it
Speaker 1: was against the Spurs, I can't remember. It was last week.
Speaker 1: But Trey Murphy was on the right wing and Zion
Speaker 1: wanted to go to work, but he didn't like the
Speaker 1: space sing there because they were digging off of him,
Speaker 1: so he had to relocate to the corner. And then
Speaker 1: Larry and Anson ended up sending like a flare screen
Speaker 1: and Zion just kind of like took a stutter step
Speaker 1: dribble and elevated and throw a rifle pass to the
Speaker 1: corner to Trey Murphy and he knocked down to three.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there and I'm like, that's really high
Speaker 1: level passing that we're seeing from this kid. But it's
Speaker 1: not just the reads. It's also you know, there's a
Speaker 1: cliche in in basketball on time on target. It's not
Speaker 1: even just in basketball's in all sports. But you know,
Speaker 1: a big part of passing is if there's a read.
Speaker 1: So say, for instance, the paint is packed and you
Speaker 1: have a shooter that's clearly open in the weak side
Speaker 1: corner on the right wing or whatever it is, when
Speaker 1: you make the pass, the defense will rotate right someone's
Speaker 1: gonna close out on the shooter. The entire defense is
Speaker 1: gonna shift because the ball has crossed the midline. New
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be in different spots and help. Everything
Speaker 1: kind of shifts, right. There is a contingency in the
Speaker 1: defense for how to handle that skip pass. So essentially,
Speaker 1: there is a a fine line between how much space
Speaker 1: that person has and what his individual skill set is.
Speaker 1: You know, certain shooters need more time, you know, because
Speaker 1: they have a slow gather, and then other shooters have
Speaker 1: a lightning quick release. You know, some shooters have no
Speaker 1: drive threat other shooters, if you chase them off the line,
Speaker 1: they'll dunk on your head. You know. So everyone that
Speaker 1: that's a delicate balance. But one of the ways that
Speaker 1: you can buy every single one of your role players
Speaker 1: at her opportunity to capitalize on that is to get
Speaker 1: the ball to them quickly and in a spot where
Speaker 1: they don't have to waste time gathering the basketball. And
Speaker 1: Zion just throws these rifle passes. He's so damned strong,
Speaker 1: and it's not just like you know, because a lot
Speaker 1: of players can throw slingshot pass is hard because it's
Speaker 1: like a baseball pass. You can generate a lot of
Speaker 1: power and torque there. But Zion will like throw like
Speaker 1: like flip of the wrist over his head, passes on
Speaker 1: a dime to somebody on a rope, bounce passes, chest
Speaker 1: passes that got like some some pace to them. That
Speaker 1: are hitting these shooters in the shooting pocket accurately where
Speaker 1: they can either quickly rise up or they can make
Speaker 1: a play, and that kind of opens up so much
Speaker 1: more for them, not not just passing at ice or
Speaker 1: passing out of the post. He's also been pretty solid
Speaker 1: passing out of pick and roll this year and the
Speaker 1: last week or so. He's also been much more active
Speaker 1: defensively that was the rub on him for a long time.
Speaker 1: He's averaging five point five stocks, steals plus blocks per
Speaker 1: game in his last four games, which is incredible. A
Speaker 1: couple of the guys that wanted to shout out. Trey Murphy,
Speaker 1: who was one of my favorite rookies in the league
Speaker 1: last year, is just classic big long athlete with like
Speaker 1: a really nice jump shot and I love his form.
Speaker 1: He's got one of my favorite jump shot forms that
Speaker 1: I've seen in the league this year, in this last
Speaker 1: few years, there's no wasted movement his body doesn't have
Speaker 1: any like weird jankie hitch going on. It's compact, it's quick,
Speaker 1: it's high and soft. He shoots the ball with plenty
Speaker 1: of arc. And he's also comfortable out to like thirty
Speaker 1: thirty five ft, which I've always said is a huge deal.
Speaker 1: When you're comfortable to shoot a few feet behind the line,
Speaker 1: or even five ft behind the line, it extends spacing
Speaker 1: further out, and it's like, generally speaking, the further you're
Speaker 1: willing to shoot, the less the defender is willing to
Speaker 1: go out there. Excuse me, you get higher shot quality.
Speaker 1: So like, yeah, if you're in a gym by yourself,
Speaker 1: you'll shoot better at twenty three ft than you would
Speaker 1: at twenty seven ft. That's a fact. But in a
Speaker 1: game setting, if all the twenty three footers are mildly contested,
Speaker 1: in all the twenty seven footers are barely contested, you know,
Speaker 1: might be a shot that you make at a higher rate.
Speaker 1: Trays averaging fifteen points per game in this span on
Speaker 1: from the field, from from the line, and in the
Speaker 1: last few games, he's been demonstrating a lot of really
Speaker 1: high level clothes out attacking. I'm sure you guys saw
Speaker 1: that play in the Denver game where he did that
Speaker 1: like double pump dunk um attacking a close out. But
Speaker 1: he had a similar play against San Antonio, the same
Speaker 1: type of thing. Pump fake, drove towards the middle, elevated
Speaker 1: off two ft and just cocked it back with two
Speaker 1: hands and dunked it. That's at like next level stuff
Speaker 1: and spotting up that will get because this spot up.
Speaker 1: His actual spot up numbers are not great this year.
Speaker 1: He's in like the sixty percentile or something like that.
Speaker 1: You'll get higher as he gets even better in that
Speaker 1: closing out they're closeout attacking. But he's been demonstrating a
Speaker 1: lot of that too high level during this span. Um.
Speaker 1: David Griffin has done an outstanding job of loading this
Speaker 1: team up at the wing position, brandon Ingram the unsung
Speaker 1: hero here. You know, it's it's funny because his numbers
Speaker 1: don't look as good. He's player that has a lot
Speaker 1: of um. He's a player that has a lot of
Speaker 1: like negative energy surrounding him from like the weird debate
Speaker 1: between Pelicans and Lakers fans about the trade that happened
Speaker 1: forever go which who cares? And then anybody who's ever
Speaker 1: been a Laker always gets slandered any time to go
Speaker 1: anywhere else. It took forever from people to realize that
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzmo was a good basketball player. For instance, I
Speaker 1: had brand In Ingram up at like twelve in my
Speaker 1: player rankings this year because that's how much I value
Speaker 1: what Brandon Ingram does on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: But he's quietly doing just an outstanding job initiating offense
Speaker 1: for them in the lower volume, in this equal opportunity offense.
Speaker 1: He's always been an underrated passer. I think he's he's
Speaker 1: above and beyond what you typically see from wings, like
Speaker 1: he's among the best wing passers that we have in
Speaker 1: the league when he passes out of pick and roll.
Speaker 1: This year, the Pelicans have scored seventy nine points on
Speaker 1: sixty nine possessions, which is in thee percentile. He's nine
Speaker 1: four percentile overall and pick and roll creation. Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: is a damn good basketball player. And then see Jim
Speaker 1: McCollum and Jose Alvarado both also been great. The Pelicans
Speaker 1: are for real. They have a ton of ball handling.
Speaker 1: All of their ball handlers are above average passers. They
Speaker 1: have a ton of spot up shooting their seventh in
Speaker 1: the league and three point percentage this year. They completely
Speaker 1: dominate the painted area their fourth and paint points per
Speaker 1: one possessions, and they're an elite defensive team with a
Speaker 1: ton of lanky wings that that pressures the ball and
Speaker 1: makes you feel uncomfortable all night long. They're up a
Speaker 1: third in defensive rating for the season, and then they
Speaker 1: have an awesome bench. This is crazy. Listen to this.
Speaker 1: Three of the top fifteen lineups in the entire league
Speaker 1: that have played at least twenty minutes are Pelicans bench
Speaker 1: groups Larry Nance, Davante, Graham, Zion, uh Zion, Williamson, Naji
Speaker 1: Marshall and Jose Alvarado plus seventy net rating and twenty
Speaker 1: one minutes c J. McCollum, Larry Na, Zion, Williamson, Trey Murphy,
Speaker 1: Jose Alvarado plus fifty nine and twenty six minutes c J. McCollum,
Speaker 1: Larry Nance, Devanta, Graham, Nagi Marshall, Trey Murphy plus sixty
Speaker 1: eight in twenty minutes overall this year. When Brandon Ingram, Zion, Williamson,
Speaker 1: Jonas Valanciunas and Herb Jones are all off the floor.
Speaker 1: The team is plus four point three per one possessions
Speaker 1: in a hundred and eighty seven possessions. That's insane. They're
Speaker 1: deep and they're good at everything. I trust them more
Speaker 1: than I trust the Clippers. Right now, I put them
Speaker 1: right with Phoenix in Denver as the three teams that
Speaker 1: are the biggest threat to Golden State to get out
Speaker 1: of the West. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always I sincerely appreciate your support.
Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow breaking down tonight's slate of games,
Speaker 1: and I will see you guys. Then the volume