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Speaker 1: to new tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody
Speaker 1: hope All If you guys are having a great week,
Speaker 1: we got a jam pack show for you today. We're
Speaker 1: hitting both pn T games from last night as the
Speaker 1: Knicks get a big win on the road against the
Speaker 1: Pacers and then the Grizzlies do the same on the
Speaker 1: road against the Suns. A lot of interesting stuff to
Speaker 1: get into. You guys have the joke before we get started.
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Speaker 1: also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure
Speaker 1: you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
Speaker 1: keepdropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. We can hit
Speaker 1: them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with Nicks Pacers. A very interesting example of
Speaker 1: the role that matchups play in the NBA. The Pacers
Speaker 1: did about as good of a job on Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: in this game that I've ever seen a team do.
Speaker 1: They started with Nemhart on him, but it was a
Speaker 1: steady diet of Nemhard Knee Smith, TJ. McConnell, and they
Speaker 1: were just relentless with physical ball pressure all night long,
Speaker 1: staying attached, swiping at the ball, being physical with him,
Speaker 1: frustrating him. They stayed attached to him on screening actions,
Speaker 1: even the tougher ones. You know, Jalen Brunson's will sometimes
Speaker 1: like get into the middle of the floor and if
Speaker 1: he doesn't like what he's got, he'll pitch the ball
Speaker 1: out to a big flashing up high and then he'll
Speaker 1: sprint off of that for a dribble handoff. But even
Speaker 1: on those he was coming off the dribble handoff and
Speaker 1: just running right into another defender. They closed off passing
Speaker 1: angles on him with length, made it really difficult for
Speaker 1: him to feed the role man when he was getting
Speaker 1: trapped on some of those actions. They kept him off
Speaker 1: the foul line. It's the first time all season that
Speaker 1: a team held Jalen Brunson to zero free throw attempts.
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting and again got him into
Speaker 1: foul trouble. And I thought most of that foul trouble
Speaker 1: actually came down to his own his own frustrations. Three
Speaker 1: of the fouls that he had in this game, he
Speaker 1: basically just either hacked the dude or shoved somebody over
Speaker 1: when he was clearly frustrated. But here's the thing. The
Speaker 1: Pacers match up well with the Knicks on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of guys that they can throw at.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson, Nemhard can do a good job. Nie Smith
Speaker 1: is big and physical and can give him some issues. TJ.
Speaker 1: McConnell a fire hydrant that can beat him to spots.
Speaker 1: Those guys give him some issues. The flip side is, though,
Speaker 1: without Myles Turner, they match up terribly with Carl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns and he absolutely fried Thomas Bryant in every which
Speaker 1: way in this game. It's beating in with the classic
Speaker 1: pick and pop stuff that the Knicks do all the time.
Speaker 1: He beat him several times with drives. He beat him
Speaker 1: out of the post, like Briant looked lost chasing him
Speaker 1: around on the perimeter. There's a big possession in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of this game where they needed to stop
Speaker 1: late shot clock situation. There's like three four seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock and Cat the ball's in the right corner,
Speaker 1: deep in the right corner, and Kat kind of flashes
Speaker 1: to the right wing to get the ball, and Thomas
Speaker 1: Bryant like runs out there to try to deny the pass.
Speaker 1: As soon as Cat catches it, he just rips back
Speaker 1: to the left and goes right by Thomas Bryant gets
Speaker 1: a wide open layup. It's just bad defense. But that's
Speaker 1: the thing. Like a lot of times, Carl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: will put big guys into situations that they're not used
Speaker 1: to being in because he's such a different type of
Speaker 1: outside in center, the Pacers tried all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: They tried a centerless look where they went with Siakam
Speaker 1: and Obi Toppin at the four or five, and Kat
Speaker 1: just promptly got too easy post seal buckets, a transition
Speaker 1: one against Ben mather In, a little post move on
Speaker 1: the right block. Against Obi Toppin, they tried putting a
Speaker 1: wing on him and refusing to switch so that he
Speaker 1: couldn't get open on the pop, but then they just
Speaker 1: used Kat as a screener and ended up getting McHale
Speaker 1: bridges downhill for an easy drop off pass to Josh Hart.
Speaker 1: They couldn't keep him off the offensive glass. They just
Speaker 1: didn't have the bodies to match up with Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 1: and he torched him for it forty points, twelve rebounds,
Speaker 1: and five assists. Such an interesting example of that dynamic though,
Speaker 1: Like the styles make fights, and if you've got the
Speaker 1: guys to match up with a certain type of player,
Speaker 1: you can be in a good spot there. But if
Speaker 1: you don't have a matchup for a different type of player,
Speaker 1: you can be completely screwed. And it didn't matter how
Speaker 1: good of a job they did on Brunson again, the
Speaker 1: best job I've seen someone do on Brunson in a
Speaker 1: long time, and it just didn't matter because they didn't
Speaker 1: have the bodies for Karl Anthony Towns. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: example of that dynamic. Again, injuries play a role in this,
Speaker 1: but I just thought it was a really interesting storyline
Speaker 1: in that game. I thought Josh Hart had a fantastic game,
Speaker 1: a lot of the usual transition pushes where he just
Speaker 1: looks like a bowling ball to the rim. He had
Speaker 1: twelve points in transition in this game. To me, Josh
Speaker 1: hartt represents the consistent second wave of rim pressure when
Speaker 1: the Knicks are an offense on offense in the half court,
Speaker 1: whether it's Jalen Brunson, whether it's Karl Anthony Towns, whether
Speaker 1: it's og In McHale, it doesn't matter who it is
Speaker 1: that's initiating things. As soon as he sees his man
Speaker 1: turn his head, he is cutting to the front of
Speaker 1: the rim, and if he doesn't get the ball on
Speaker 1: the cut, he's there for the offensive glass. He had
Speaker 1: ten points on cuts in this game. He had four
Speaker 1: points on offensive rebounds. Think about how crazy that is
Speaker 1: to have a thirty point game where you have twelve
Speaker 1: in transition, ten on cuts, and four in offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: basically putting up a thirty ball almost entirely on the
Speaker 1: margins just by running his lane and cutting every single
Speaker 1: time someone got to the basket. In the Knicks offense,
Speaker 1: it's that second wave. Right first wave comes in, all
Speaker 1: attention gets direc towards that. Josh is always just sneaking
Speaker 1: in right behind that and doing damage. Overall, I thought
Speaker 1: the Knicks defense did a great job of containing the
Speaker 1: ball in this game too, particularly on Pascal Siakam. Pascal
Speaker 1: had twenty four points, but literally every single one of
Speaker 1: them were either in transition or as a play finisher.
Speaker 1: He didn't get a single bucket or a single point
Speaker 1: in the post or in an ISO, or as the
Speaker 1: ball handler in a ball screen. When he got into
Speaker 1: those situations, guys were walling him up, keeping him in
Speaker 1: front and forcing him to shoot over the top, and
Speaker 1: he was missing. And again, like that's your job. Like
Speaker 1: every one of these star players, you're not gonna stop
Speaker 1: them entirely. And again, Pascal got twenty four because he's
Speaker 1: still a really good basketball player. But if you at
Speaker 1: least make them rely on the tougher shots that are
Speaker 1: in their diet, you can limit their effectiveness gamed game
Speaker 1: based on variants. We all know Pascal can hit those shots,
Speaker 1: but he also can miss them. But the only way
Speaker 1: you can get him into that situation is if that's
Speaker 1: what he's relying on instead of getting easy stuff just
Speaker 1: beating people off the dribble. I thought they did a
Speaker 1: good job on Haliburton, held him to sixteen points and
Speaker 1: force him into four turnovers. I've talked a lot of
Speaker 1: late when we talk NIX about how devastating they can
Speaker 1: be when they play defense and they get stops and
Speaker 1: they force turnovers, and they run out in transition when
Speaker 1: they focus in on getting stops, run out for quick
Speaker 1: shots and then get back and defend again. That's when
Speaker 1: they're at their best, and really I thought that was
Speaker 1: what triggered the run that ended the game. The Pacers
Speaker 1: actually cut this one down to four in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter, but like McHale, Bridges stays attached to Tyrese
Speaker 1: Haliburton on a ball screen forces a missed mid range shot.
Speaker 1: They run out and get a bucket. McHale walls up
Speaker 1: Siakam on an ISO and forces him into an overtop
Speaker 1: shot that he misses. They run out the other way.
Speaker 1: Duce McBride misses a shot, it gets blocked when they
Speaker 1: get an offensive rebound and they get to the foul line.
Speaker 1: Landry Shammitt defends Halliburton really or defends Andrew Nemhard really
Speaker 1: well on a ball screen, forces him into a tough
Speaker 1: mid range fade away that he leaves way short and
Speaker 1: then runs the floor to the left corner, and Shaman
Speaker 1: hits a corner three. In transition. Tyre Saliburn coming off
Speaker 1: of a little ball screen action with Thomas Bryant. It's
Speaker 1: a little miscommunication. He thinks Thomas Bryant's gonna pop, but
Speaker 1: insteady rolls Tyree's just throws it over the top and
Speaker 1: they're running out the other way, and here's campaign with
Speaker 1: a reverse layup on the left side of the basket.
Speaker 1: That is when the Knicks are at their best, stops, rebounds, pushes,
Speaker 1: quick shots in transition. I think that's the important thing
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to rely on, because again, when
Speaker 1: they get into the half court, especially against some of
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league, if you let this
Speaker 1: become a slow down game, there are better slow down
Speaker 1: teams than you. So that's got to be an important
Speaker 1: part of what they do. A couple other knicks I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out. I thought ducemcbride was great. The
Speaker 1: Pacers jumped out to a seven point lead early in
Speaker 1: this game. He hit three threes in his first shift
Speaker 1: that really helped flip the tide of this game back
Speaker 1: towards the Knicks. And then Prescious to chew up like
Speaker 1: Prescious has been getting a lot of opportunities here with
Speaker 1: the starting group since Ojan Andobe got hurt, and there's
Speaker 1: an obvious difference, like he doesn't shoot the ball very well.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of possessions where I'm watching the
Speaker 1: Knicks and someone gets in the lane and they fire
Speaker 1: a kickout pass and it's too Precious in the corner
Speaker 1: and you're like, he clangs it off the side of
Speaker 1: the rim, and you're like, that's a shot that og
Speaker 1: Anobi can make. But you just have to find a
Speaker 1: way to make a positive impact anyway when you're a
Speaker 1: replacement player like that first on the glass. Precious had
Speaker 1: five offensive rebounds last night, twelve overall driving closeouts. When
Speaker 1: you catch in the corner instead of shooting, just rip
Speaker 1: and go to the basket. Try to make something good
Speaker 1: happen that way. He had a big rescue possession rre.
Speaker 1: He ended up with the ball in the late clock,
Speaker 1: like late in the shot clock, just went right at
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam's chest and bodied him and made a little
Speaker 1: left shoulder hook in the lane. That's a positive impact.
Speaker 1: He was active as an off ball screener. He got
Speaker 1: a again, this is a great way to generate spacing
Speaker 1: when you can't shoot. I think it was Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: driving from the top of the key and Campaign was
Speaker 1: on the right wing and Precious to chew over was
Speaker 1: in the right corner and instead of just standing there,
Speaker 1: he just ran up in backscreen campaigns Man Campaign relocated
Speaker 1: to the corner and it was just an easy kickout
Speaker 1: pass to campaign for three. That's creating spacing with your
Speaker 1: screening without needing to actually knock down spot up shots.
Speaker 1: I just thought he played really well, and Tims clearly
Speaker 1: trust him because he's been playing huge minutes as of late.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a really nice road win for
Speaker 1: the Knicks. On the Pacers front. Again, I want to
Speaker 1: compliment them for their defense on Brunson. It's just one
Speaker 1: of the better performances that I've seen a team do
Speaker 1: against him. I thought They're off ball and transition defense
Speaker 1: did them in on this one. Specifically, Tyres Alibert and
Speaker 1: Ben Mathern. They had really rough nights in this department
Speaker 1: against the Knicks. Again, you have to know that they're
Speaker 1: trying to run the floor. They are trying to do
Speaker 1: a lot of crashing, a lot of cutting, a lot
Speaker 1: of running. They are the most efficient transition offense in
Speaker 1: the NBA. They are a top ten offensive rebound scoring team,
Speaker 1: and they are top ten they're top ten in scoring
Speaker 1: off of cuts. It's a huge part of their game plan.
Speaker 1: When you're playing the Knicks, you got to keep them
Speaker 1: off the glass. You got to get back in transition.
Speaker 1: You got to watch those second wave cuts like we
Speaker 1: were talking about with Josh Hart, and yet time and
Speaker 1: time again, the Pacers would have bad floor balance then
Speaker 1: just get beat down the floor in transition just because
Speaker 1: the next were running harder, or in the half court,
Speaker 1: a guy like Josh Hart or Precious to Chew At
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns or some Knicks player would just slash
Speaker 1: to the basket behind the play and clean things up
Speaker 1: while there were Pacers who weren't paying attention. This is
Speaker 1: actually a big picture problem for the Pacers that extends
Speaker 1: beyond last night. The Pacers give up the fifth most
Speaker 1: points per game in the entire NBA off of cuts,
Speaker 1: and they give up the ninth most points directly off
Speaker 1: of putbacks, meaning quick offensive rebound putbacks in the NBA
Speaker 1: perc entergy. It's just something they need to get way
Speaker 1: better at. Ben Mathern in particular, is really bad at it.
Speaker 1: He's always just kind of like standing upright and ball
Speaker 1: watching when he's in off ball situations. It's just a
Speaker 1: recipe for getting beat there. The other thing I want
Speaker 1: to talk about is the Thomas Bryant issue. Again, it's
Speaker 1: hard to overcome a drop off from Miles Turner to
Speaker 1: Thomas Bryant. Brian is just really bad on defense, especially
Speaker 1: in space, but he also doesn't provide any rim protection,
Speaker 1: so it's tough. But he usually makes up for it
Speaker 1: on offense, and he just hasn't been good enough there.
Speaker 1: He had eighteen last night. But I thought one of
Speaker 1: the big things that stood out to me in terms
Speaker 1: of like disrupting the rhythm of the PACER's offense is
Speaker 1: that kickback on the pick and pop where it's usually
Speaker 1: Haliburton and Turner, where Halliburton will come off that screen,
Speaker 1: Miles will pop, He'll pitch it back and Miles will
Speaker 1: either pump fake or drive the clothes out and take
Speaker 1: that pick and pop three. And Thomas just wasn't taking it.
Speaker 1: He was just catching at the top of the key
Speaker 1: wide open, not taking it, but also not driving it.
Speaker 1: He would like catch there and then just turn and
Speaker 1: look the other way for someone else to run action.
Speaker 1: It almost like seemed like a break in the wheel
Speaker 1: of the way that the pacers want to run offense.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of different ways he can do that.
Speaker 1: Shoot it. If you're not going to shoot it, just roll.
Speaker 1: There were a few times in the second half where
Speaker 1: he started rolling and he brought in lowman help which
Speaker 1: opened up the skip pass that they were able to
Speaker 1: get advantages out of. Another thing he was able to
Speaker 1: do he had a shorter jumper around the top of
Speaker 1: the key. Okay, you don't want to take twenty five
Speaker 1: four footer, go in there and take the eighteen nineteen footer,
Speaker 1: right like, do something to be a threat when you're
Speaker 1: popping out of those ball screens, especially when they're playing you,
Speaker 1: because you're specifically a good offensive player. But the Pacers
Speaker 1: are going to have to find a way to make
Speaker 1: better use of Thomas Brian in these minutes when Myles
Speaker 1: Turner is out because it looked rough on both ends
Speaker 1: last night. All right, before we move on to the
Speaker 1: Suns and the Grizzlies, we want to do our segment
Speaker 1: that we have with our partner Microsoft. Welcome to Course Correction,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and
Speaker 1: teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under
Speaker 1: immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to
Speaker 1: the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries
Speaker 1: with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy,
Speaker 1: responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have
Speaker 1: your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore
Speaker 1: the challenges faced by teams or star players and how
Speaker 1: they can turn things around. Whatever challenge your face, seeing
Speaker 1: Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
Speaker 1: This week, we're discussing the challenge faced by Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: after his Achilles injury. I was amazed watching Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: last night. The Suns were an absolute mess. They had
Speaker 1: several guys playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation
Speaker 1: for a serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined,
Speaker 1: one of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They
Speaker 1: gave up twenty offensive rebounds. We're gonna talk all about
Speaker 1: that here in a few minutes when we get into
Speaker 1: that game breakdown. But like a shining light in that
Speaker 1: darkness was Kevin Durant. Thirty four points on eighteen shots,
Speaker 1: only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying
Speaker 1: to box him out on the glass all night long,
Speaker 1: and to top it off, in the process, he enters
Speaker 1: into rare territory. Kevin Durant is only the eighth player
Speaker 1: in NBA history to score thirty thousand points in an
Speaker 1: NBA career. Rarefied air. There a group of guys that
Speaker 1: it's an honor to be associated with. But to me,
Speaker 1: the most part of all of this is the circumstances
Speaker 1: he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the most
Speaker 1: terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer, an Achilles rupture,
Speaker 1: right at the peak of his powers. He was playing
Speaker 1: so incredibly well when he took that little baseline jumper
Speaker 1: that he knocked down where he originally suffered the calf injury,
Speaker 1: and then he played amazing in his first few minutes
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals before he went down, And you
Speaker 1: can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for a
Speaker 1: basketball player. And instead of letting that injury be a
Speaker 1: signal of the end, he came back every bit as
Speaker 1: good as ever on the other side of the injury.
Speaker 1: Seven thousand and sixty eight of those thirty thousand and
Speaker 1: eight points that he scored so far came after the
Speaker 1: Achilles tear, and he's done it on higher volume in
Speaker 1: efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the
Speaker 1: five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged twenty six
Speaker 1: points per game on just under sixty four percent for shooting.
Speaker 1: In the five seasons since, he's averaging twenty eight points
Speaker 1: per game on over sixty four percent for shooting. Any
Speaker 1: drop in his athleticism, he's more than made up for
Speaker 1: with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker
Speaker 1: and as a floor general. I was really amazed by
Speaker 1: this in the Brooklyn Nets days as the league kind
Speaker 1: of shifted to like really good spacing in the spread
Speaker 1: pick and roll attack. He was so incredibly good at
Speaker 1: picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler
Speaker 1: with the Nets, and we've seen that extend throughout this
Speaker 1: late phase of his career. Like he's just the product
Speaker 1: of a consistent pursuit of excellence. He's got a legendary
Speaker 1: work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for
Speaker 1: all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to
Speaker 1: the kids that I train in high school, I talk
Speaker 1: about doing every single rep at game speed, something that
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just Katie is one
Speaker 1: of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that
Speaker 1: has ever come into this league, and I'm thankful for him.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to take a second before we talked
Speaker 1: about that game last night, to congratulate him on overcoming
Speaker 1: the adversity of his injury and to enter into rarefied
Speaker 1: air and NBA history. That's it for this week's course correction.
Speaker 1: Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps
Speaker 1: and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive
Speaker 1: your business forward. If Microsoft as your trusted partner, you
Speaker 1: can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and
Speaker 1: reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to
Speaker 1: learn more. All right, let's talk Grizzlies Sons. Now we
Speaker 1: can go negative. I thought last night was a classic
Speaker 1: example of the difference between a serious team and the
Speaker 1: NBA and an unserious team, both in like basketball character,
Speaker 1: like what the guys in the locker room are willing
Speaker 1: to do, but also in roster building. I thought the
Speaker 1: Suns put forth one of the more embarrassing transition defense
Speaker 1: performances I've seen in the last season, not getting matched up,
Speaker 1: not sprinting back a lot of repeated confusion early on
Speaker 1: in the game between Bull Bull and Kevin Durant about
Speaker 1: who they were guarding, and most of that looked like
Speaker 1: Bull Bull just not paying attention. Katie's constantly pointing telling
Speaker 1: him where to go. But we'll get into that with
Speaker 1: bow Bowl in a minute. They gifted Memphis so many
Speaker 1: advantages without even needing to do anything other than just
Speaker 1: push the ball up the floor. Memphis logged thirty six
Speaker 1: transition possessions last night. That's one of their highest totals
Speaker 1: of this entire season. All of their bigs were great
Speaker 1: running the floor, especially Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark. Santi
Speaker 1: al Dama came right in and scored eleven points in
Speaker 1: like his first two minutes on the floor. A bunch
Speaker 1: of those were in transition. John Morant one of the
Speaker 1: biggest plays of the game. Bu Bull hits a three
Speaker 1: on the left wing, cuts the lead to three. Memphis
Speaker 1: just inbounds to Jaw and Jow races up the court
Speaker 1: for a layup while every Sun is just glued up
Speaker 1: to their man instead of getting into normal help side position,
Speaker 1: making things difficult on the glass. Memphis had twenty offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds In this game, their bigs were great again. All
Speaker 1: their bigs did great. Edie Jackson and Clark each had
Speaker 1: at least three offensive rebounds. Brandon Clark just did a
Speaker 1: ton of damage to Bowl Bull, who just looked like
Speaker 1: he was in La la land literally all night. He
Speaker 1: had a couple of big ones in crunch time two.
Speaker 1: Zach Edy was punishing. Every single time a Phoenix guard
Speaker 1: would get switched on to him, he just bury him
Speaker 1: and get an offensive rebound. Vince Williams Junior relentless corner crashing,
Speaker 1: Jalen Wells great crashing. Santi al Dama had three offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: They just smashed Phoenix on the glass. Meanwhile, on the
Speaker 1: other end, Memphis posted an eighty three percent defensive rebound percentage,
Speaker 1: which is excellent. There are things that serious NBA teams
Speaker 1: do every single game the majority of possessions, just because
Speaker 1: it's a not negotiable to get to where you want
Speaker 1: to go. If you have goals of making a deep
Speaker 1: playoff runt, you have to be willing to run the
Speaker 1: floor all game long, every night. You have to be
Speaker 1: willing to get in there and scrap for rebounds. If
Speaker 1: you don't, you will get utterly smashed on the margins,
Speaker 1: and it will make it nearly impossible for you to overcome.
Speaker 1: These two teams were virtually dead even last night in
Speaker 1: half court efficiency. The margins were literally what cost Phoenix
Speaker 1: the game. And this is where we have to look
Speaker 1: at roster building. When you build your roster around three
Speaker 1: max contract guys mostly through trades instead of through naturally
Speaker 1: in the draft, you inevitably sign yourself up for a
Speaker 1: lot of discounted players surrounding them, and that especially is
Speaker 1: gonna come to the surface. And we've talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot on the show over the years. When one
Speaker 1: of those max contract stars is out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: then you end up having to lean on those guys
Speaker 1: even more. And it shows up even when Beal plays
Speaker 1: simply his Beal is not particularly good at dirty work, right.
Speaker 1: I thought it was very interesting just to see the
Speaker 1: difference and talent on the floor for either team last night.
Speaker 1: Like Bull, Bull started for Phoenix and he put up
Speaker 1: a monster stat line for the record, which is a
Speaker 1: testament to his talent level. Eighteen points, fourteen rebounds, two steals,
Speaker 1: and four blocks. And I thought he was mostly bad,
Speaker 1: And I thought he was mostly hurting his team because
Speaker 1: like his motor just kept shutting off in the middle
Speaker 1: of the gate. He was the primary cause of their
Speaker 1: transition defense issues jogging back. I literally watched him running
Speaker 1: step for step with Jaron Jackson, with Jaron Jackson about
Speaker 1: one step in front of him, and he's clearly running
Speaker 1: right to the front of the rim. And instead of
Speaker 1: Bullwolls sprinting to get in front of Jaron Jackson and
Speaker 1: try to disrupt it, he just was content to jog
Speaker 1: right behind him until a swing pass went right to
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson. He got a dunk, multiple possessions where he's
Speaker 1: just floating around guarding no one. He saw that Santi
Speaker 1: al Dama like up and under, like double pump scoop
Speaker 1: shot that he made just not match up in transition
Speaker 1: Bull Bull just floating around guarding nobody. The like there
Speaker 1: was the two buckets I talked about, the Jaron Jackson dunk,
Speaker 1: there was another transition dunky or floater that he gave
Speaker 1: up to Brandon Clark where he's just floating around guarding nobody.
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, Brandon Clark flashes to the front
Speaker 1: of the rim and by the time bow Bull realizes
Speaker 1: what's happening. Brandon Clark's already shooting a little floater right
Speaker 1: in front of the rim that he makes. He just
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention. Like when he was paying attention, he
Speaker 1: was dominant, blocking shots, getting contested rebounds, making plays on offense.
Speaker 1: But it was literally like a it was like a
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty shot, whether or not he'd be mentally
Speaker 1: or physically engaged in the possession. Like he had fourteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: several plays where he got in the mix and beat
Speaker 1: everyone to the ball because he has ludicrous physical tools,
Speaker 1: but he gave up so many of those offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: to Memphis. I lost caim. He'd just be floating around
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen feet from the rim, while like six
Speaker 1: or seven dudes are under the basket fighting for a
Speaker 1: loose ball. He's just not in there. It's like you've
Speaker 1: got to get in there and go to war with
Speaker 1: your teammates. Possession by possession. It's a crucial one. Late
Speaker 1: in the game. I tweeted the videout. You can go
Speaker 1: to my Twitter feet I underscore JCNLT. You can see
Speaker 1: the example. He's just kind of standing around fifteen eighteen
Speaker 1: feet from the basket on the left side, Brandon Clark
Speaker 1: sprints right by him. There's all these dudes in this
Speaker 1: scrum under the basket. Him and Tyas Jones are both
Speaker 1: just bouncing around eighteen feet from the basket, not guarding anybody,
Speaker 1: while Brandon Clark's getting an offensive rebound put back in
Speaker 1: crunch time. It was a six point game in crunch time.
Speaker 1: But I want to be clear, it's not just bowl
Speaker 1: bull ty Ty Washington zero for six from three. Obviously
Speaker 1: heard he's a career twenty three point five percent from three,
Speaker 1: though on ninety eight attempts as an NBA player, he
Speaker 1: can't shoot. Also the decision making. He took a pull
Speaker 1: up three in the first half when KD was asking
Speaker 1: for the ball. A guy who couldn't shoot took a
Speaker 1: pull up three when KD was asking for the ball.
Speaker 1: He shot a floater in transition when it was a
Speaker 1: two on four when they had no numbers. He back
Speaker 1: room didn't missed it. Mason Plummey out there, who just
Speaker 1: fumbles away easy rebounds and has been a huge part
Speaker 1: of their rebounding problems this season. Like, there's just a
Speaker 1: lot of limited players that probably shouldn't be in the rotation.
Speaker 1: For a serious team. There's a reason why Bull Bull
Speaker 1: was available for the Suns. There's a reason why he
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to find a consistent home in the
Speaker 1: NBA because despite his talent, he's not a possession to
Speaker 1: possession guy that you can trust to do his job.
Speaker 1: So coaches don't trust him, so they don't want to
Speaker 1: play it. But then you like look on the other side,
Speaker 1: and it's like for Memphis, they're built organically through the draft,
Speaker 1: so they can afford to have many more good basketball
Speaker 1: players on their team. They don't have a obvious weak
Speaker 1: link in their top five. Phoenix has like five dudes
Speaker 1: on their entire roster that they can really trust when
Speaker 1: they're healthy, and most of them are redundant and do
Speaker 1: the same job. Memphis is bench just rock solid. Santiel
Speaker 1: dam is awesome, Brandon Clark is better than any center
Speaker 1: on the Sun's roster. Vince Williams can play. GJ. Jackson
Speaker 1: can play, Scotty Pippen Junior can play, Luke Kennark can
Speaker 1: shoot the basketball. It's just you got to look at
Speaker 1: the reality of the roster here. Phoenix has a lot
Speaker 1: of players who aren't very good NBA players. And that's
Speaker 1: why they're discounted, that's why they're available. You know, I've
Speaker 1: thought a lot about this concept from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: like of how to go about the process of getting
Speaker 1: to a championship. You can't skip steps. You can't just
Speaker 1: sign a few stars and go win a title. You
Speaker 1: have to have organizational excellence. That is part of the
Speaker 1: process of you getting those stars. That is part of
Speaker 1: the process of you building out actually talented role players
Speaker 1: to surround those guys with that organizational excellence, from the
Speaker 1: scouting department to the general manager, to the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: to the types of stars you're built around, to the
Speaker 1: guys that end up coming up through the program as
Speaker 1: part of that basketball character you're trying to build. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of group that ends up playing basketball like
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies do. And when you throw together three
Speaker 1: max players and one of them's not good at dirty
Speaker 1: work and Bradley Beal and you're just looking for every
Speaker 1: single discount castaway in the NBA, you're gonna end up
Speaker 1: having something that looks like this Phoenix Suns roster. And like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, as far as the margins go. One
Speaker 1: of the things that makes a good basketball player. A
Speaker 1: good basketball player is their natural inclination to do the
Speaker 1: dirty work. I've noticed this with the Lakers this year.
Speaker 1: They had no interest in doing it. But then here's
Speaker 1: what happened. They traded a bad defender and D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: for Dorian Finney Smith, a good defender. Jared Vanderbilt, who
Speaker 1: was hurt, got healthy. He's a fantastic defender. Those guys
Speaker 1: started guarding suddenly. Lebron got swept into it. Now he's
Speaker 1: guarding now. All of a sudden, there's just more players
Speaker 1: on the team in the rotation that are professionals at
Speaker 1: doing their jobs on the margin, and it's completely galvanized
Speaker 1: a roster that was unwilling to do that work early
Speaker 1: in the season. Again, you cannot skip steps. Organizational excellence
Speaker 1: is the only way from the top down to actually
Speaker 1: get to the finish line in this league. It's okay
Speaker 1: to have a week point, but you can't have multiple
Speaker 1: week points along the line. You can't have a week
Speaker 1: front office and have your entire basketball culture inside the
Speaker 1: inside the locker room built around guys that aren't willing
Speaker 1: to do that work. A couple other Memphis shoutouts before
Speaker 1: we're done. I got Jared Jackson and John Moran and
Speaker 1: desbon Bane all made huge plays in the clutch, and
Speaker 1: this has been a consistent theme. Like when Memphis has
Speaker 1: struggled in the clutch this year, a lot of it
Speaker 1: does come down to that shot making, and when they
Speaker 1: do make shots, they win. Joh huge plays in this one,
Speaker 1: that step back mid ranger that he had kind of
Speaker 1: right around the right elbow, that driving transition layup we
Speaker 1: talked about. Desmond Bain hit a huge pull up three
Speaker 1: coming off a screen at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: Big shot in that game. Jared Jackson like a couple
Speaker 1: of big plays against KD and easy duck in where
Speaker 1: he just kind of bullied him, got to the spot,
Speaker 1: hit a little hook over his left shoulder, then a
Speaker 1: sweeping move across the middle of the lane where he
Speaker 1: drew a foul. Like those guys again, they're gonna go
Speaker 1: as far as those guys go in terms of making shots.
Speaker 1: Sant santial Domo is really impressive. Big part of the
Speaker 1: early stretch that the Grizzlies went on to go on
Speaker 1: a run. He had eleven points in like the first
Speaker 1: two minutes he was on the floor, and then Vince
Speaker 1: Williams and Brandon Clark, they're just in order to punish
Speaker 1: the Suns for playing bad basketball, you had to be
Speaker 1: playing really good, high motor basketball on your end, and
Speaker 1: I thought Vince Williams and Brandon Clark were a huge
Speaker 1: part of that. Shout out to the Grizzlies. That's a
Speaker 1: big win on the road there in Phoenix. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today is always sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We've got two more nights of basketball before we get
Speaker 1: into the trade deadline. We're gonna be covering those games
Speaker 1: here and the next week we'll do some fun stuff
Speaker 1: to kill time before we get back into it again.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for rocking with me and supporting
Speaker 1: the show, and I'll see you tomorrow the volume. What's
Speaker 1: up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
Speaker 1: and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful
Speaker 1: for us if you guys would take a second and
Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
Speaker 1: minute to do that, i'd really appreciate it,