Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody, hopeful of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great end to your week. We are starting
Speaker 1: our top twenty five player rankings finally today. Hopefully you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed our episode on Wednesday where we went over
Speaker 1: the rules and like how the list works, as well
Speaker 1: as our seven honorable mention players that we went over
Speaker 1: in that video. Today we're hitting twenty five, twenty four,
Speaker 1: and twenty three. You guys are the Joe Porgy started.
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Speaker 1: to be doing mail bags on Fridays that cover the list.
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Speaker 1: without any further ado, let's talk some basketball. Number twenty
Speaker 1: five Cooper Flag impressive Rookie of the Year campaign. Twenty
Speaker 1: one points, seven rebounds, and five assists per game, fifty
Speaker 1: five percent true shooting, two point one stocks per game.
Speaker 1: Some huge games too, three forty five plus point games,
Speaker 1: six thirty five plus point games, eleven double doubles. He
Speaker 1: had a thirteen game stretch late in the year where
Speaker 1: averaged twenty six points, seven rebounds, and six assists with
Speaker 1: two point seven stocks per game. Got to the foul
Speaker 1: and a ton in that stretch. Seven free throw attempts
Speaker 1: per game is downhill attack earned him quite a few
Speaker 1: trips to the free line. The shooting his jump shot
Speaker 1: not good, zero point eight three points per shot, broken
Speaker 1: down by distance when he was inside of seventeen feet
Speaker 1: forty three percent, twos outside of seventeen feet thirty three percent.
Speaker 1: Threes just under thirty percent, like twenty nine and a
Speaker 1: half break down by type twenty eight percent off. The
Speaker 1: catch really struggled when he was unguarded, just under twenty
Speaker 1: seven percent on catch and shoot threes when he was
Speaker 1: open and on film. One of the big things that
Speaker 1: stood out to me when I was prepping for this,
Speaker 1: he really slows down his.
Speaker 2: Release on catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Like if you watch the difference between when Coop takes
Speaker 1: a pull up pull up threes or pull up twos,
Speaker 1: he really takes off and gets a bunch of lift.
Speaker 1: I'm talking like you'll see you freeze frame in He's
Speaker 1: got his legs extended in there, like two two and
Speaker 1: a half feet off the ground, Like he jumps on
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shots, then on his catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes, he like really slows himself down. He barely jumps,
Speaker 1: and it's almost like he's taking a set shot. And
Speaker 1: one of the things you'll notice is he leaves a
Speaker 1: lot of those catch and shoot threes short off the
Speaker 1: front of the rim because of that kind of difference
Speaker 1: in his lift. Now, what ends up happening when you
Speaker 1: do that when you jump really high on one and
Speaker 1: then like set shot on the other. You know, between
Speaker 1: catch and shoot and off the off the dribble jump shots,
Speaker 1: you end up having problems with both because there's no
Speaker 1: consistency between the two. Like I've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: like when you're taking a catch and shoot three or
Speaker 1: you're taking a step back three. If I take the
Speaker 1: step back three video, and let's say you know, you
Speaker 1: do an in and out to a crossover hard step
Speaker 1: to your left, you plant that left foot way out
Speaker 1: to catch your momentum, and then you rise in fire.
Speaker 1: If I pause right there on, when your feet gets
Speaker 1: set and I play the video, it should look exactly
Speaker 1: like your catch and shoot jump shot, with exception of
Speaker 1: Like obviously, there are certain situations like post fades, you know,
Speaker 1: mid range fades where like you know you're snaking a
Speaker 1: pick and roll in your taken off at the elbow
Speaker 1: and landing damn near at the other elbow. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: are certain types of shots, especially in the mid range
Speaker 1: where you're like drifting, but specifically threes. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you're taking it against the drop coverage just like
Speaker 1: off a hesitation dribble, or you're taking it off of
Speaker 1: a side step step back, whatever it might be. If
Speaker 1: you're taking it off of the catch, if you're taking
Speaker 1: it off the move off of the catch, if I
Speaker 1: freeze frame off of you, like right when your feet
Speaker 1: gets set and play the video, they should all look
Speaker 1: the same. That's your best chance to have consistency there.
Speaker 1: And again, I'm not trying to be overly critical of
Speaker 1: Coop here, like this is actually a super common trend
Speaker 1: among like young basketball players, aspiring shooters, players that are
Speaker 1: still learning how to shoot. But I think that's gonna
Speaker 1: be what kind of helps turn around things for Cooper
Speaker 1: with his jump shot is just getting some consistency in
Speaker 1: the amount of lift that he uses on both his
Speaker 1: off the catch shots as well as his off the
Speaker 1: dribble shots. He was thirty eight percent on pull up
Speaker 1: twos broke down, like we talked about earlier, is better
Speaker 1: when he was inside of seventeen feet on pull up threes.
Speaker 1: Now the jump shot is a real swing skill for Cooper.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk more about specific play types in
Speaker 1: a few minutes, but one of the consistent things that
Speaker 1: really stood out to me when I was watching Cooper's
Speaker 1: film is that his size, the downhill force that he
Speaker 1: plays with, and then his vertical pop make it really
Speaker 1: easy for him to get good looks at pull of
Speaker 1: jump shots. Like there's a certain unguardability to being that big,
Speaker 1: that athletic, that aggressive towards the rim, but also having
Speaker 1: the ability to rise and fire from any spot on
Speaker 1: the floor. Cooper was getting good looks at jump shots,
Speaker 1: he just wasn't making them. Once he becomes an elite
Speaker 1: jump shooter, the sky's the limit, and he had some
Speaker 1: really strong indicators from his rookie season, like he was
Speaker 1: eighty three percent at the foul line, he was fifty
Speaker 1: two percent on over one hundred and fifty floaters like
Speaker 1: that shows that he has really good touch. So it's
Speaker 1: just about tying together all those details, thousands of reps
Speaker 1: to continue to refine the touch, some just slight changes
Speaker 1: to his form to get some more consistency between the
Speaker 1: different types of shots that he takes. He's going to
Speaker 1: have to pay the price at the gym over the
Speaker 1: next few summers, just thousands and thousands and thousands of reps.
Speaker 2: But if he does, he'll reap those rewards.
Speaker 1: And I think he's going to reach a level of
Speaker 1: unguardability with that pull up jump shot short range scoring.
Speaker 1: Like we mentioned, fifty two percent one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one attempts on floaters, had a little hook shot, didn't
Speaker 1: take a ton of them. Who's sixteen for twenty seven,
Speaker 1: that's fifty nine percent. Had some really impressive work in
Speaker 1: low volume in the post, which we'll talk about in
Speaker 1: a minute, and then at the rim fifty eight percent,
Speaker 1: which really is a respectable number for a rookie, a
Speaker 1: high volume in poor spacing. He also got there a
Speaker 1: ton six point seven attempts per game. That's really strong volume.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he ranked twenty first. Cooper
Speaker 1: flag ranked twenty first in the entire NBA in the
Speaker 1: volume of attempts at the rim. He got to the
Speaker 1: rim more than Shako's Alexander. As a counter examples, really
Speaker 1: really impressive aggressiveness from Cooper driving the basketball. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about all the different ways here in a minute. Let's
Speaker 1: get into play times. Really effective in transition one point
Speaker 1: two two points per possession on over three hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: so three hundred and sixty six total transition points last year,
Speaker 1: which ranked twenty fourth in the entire NBA. Twenty fourth
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA, and transition points spot up possessions Cooper.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't shoot well like twenty eight point
Speaker 1: six percent on spot up threes, but he showed real
Speaker 1: upside attacking closeouts last year and finishing in the short
Speaker 1: range on wonderful pull ups in at the rim, which
Speaker 1: really boosted his his spot up efficiency despite poor jump shooting.
Speaker 1: He's just really good at taking those closeouts, turning that like,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like throwing that little pump fake
Speaker 1: and turning his shoulder, getting that leverage and just going
Speaker 1: screaming downhill. This is what's so impressive about that to
Speaker 1: shoot twenty eight point six percent on spot up threes,
Speaker 1: but because he made fifty seven twos driving closeouts and
Speaker 1: shot almost sixty percent on them, he actually converted spot
Speaker 1: ups at zero point ninety nine points per possessions is
Speaker 1: below average, but only barely like just barely below average,
Speaker 1: and better than you'd think considering he couldn't make catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes like he was a legitimate threat in
Speaker 1: spot up situations because of his drives. And another thing
Speaker 1: where if he figures out that catch and shoot piece,
Speaker 1: he can become even more devastating attacking in off ball
Speaker 1: situations when he gets to catch on the perimeter against
Speaker 1: a closeout pick and roll.
Speaker 2: Now this I.
Speaker 1: Actually thought this was one of the more impressive parts
Speaker 1: of Coop's game. Last year he ran seven hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen pick and roll. It's pretty high volume. Got zero
Speaker 1: point nine to three points per possession including passes forty
Speaker 1: fourth percentile, so just below average. But on film you
Speaker 1: can really see the vision of him eventually becoming a
Speaker 1: very efficient, very talented pick and roll player. First of all,
Speaker 1: it gives him his best ability to get downhill as
Speaker 1: an initiator in the half court. Like we'll talk more
Speaker 1: about ISO in a minute, but Io was one of
Speaker 1: the uglier parts for me when I was watching Coop's
Speaker 1: film because his first step quickness is not like a
Speaker 1: strength of his right, Like, he's not dusting good defenders
Speaker 1: off the dribble unless they're closing out at him, you know,
Speaker 1: in some sort of advantage situation. But the ball screen
Speaker 1: pretty naturally gets the defender into trail position as he's
Speaker 1: chasing you over the top of the screen, right, And
Speaker 1: he's really talented when he gets into those circumstances. He
Speaker 1: can start and stop his speed, you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: is patient with his attacks, doesn't rush into the lane,
Speaker 1: puts the defender in jail. He's big and strong enough
Speaker 1: to kind of pin the defender on his backside. He
Speaker 1: has really good footwork, man Like.
Speaker 2: There were there were some plays.
Speaker 1: There was one I can't even remember which team he
Speaker 1: was playing against, where he kind of gets over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen, has the defender and trail position,
Speaker 1: stops and puts him in jail for a second, drives
Speaker 1: down the left lane line, engages the big. The big
Speaker 1: steps over and he just like pivots into a spin
Speaker 1: move through the second defender who's trying to trap him
Speaker 1: from behind, and then goes all the way to the
Speaker 1: right side of the basket and finishes with the layup.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man like the way that he could cause. Again, like,
Speaker 1: athleticism is one thing, but footwork is the tool that
Speaker 1: allows you to use your athleticism. Footwork is what gets
Speaker 1: you from point A to point B right Like, think
Speaker 1: of it more like natural talent versus technique. Athleticism is
Speaker 1: a natural talent. Footwork is a technique. You can have
Speaker 1: great athleticism but not have a usefulness on the basketball
Speaker 1: court if you don't know how to move from one
Speaker 1: spot to the other. Cooper has excellent footwork on all
Speaker 1: of his counters, spin move step throughs, euro steps, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. He just has excellent footwork on
Speaker 1: his drives. And then he has the short range scoring piece.
Speaker 1: This is huge, the huge upside for him in the
Speaker 1: short term. Right, like I talk about his jump shot,
Speaker 1: his jump shot is gonna come around eventually, but like
Speaker 1: right away, he can stop short of the rim and
Speaker 1: make these floaters and make them at a pretty high clip,
Speaker 1: and so that makes him a very very good pick
Speaker 1: and role player already, with a lot of potential to
Speaker 1: improve as the jump shot continues to come around.
Speaker 2: Now, he's not the most high level.
Speaker 1: Playmaker you'll ever watch, Like he'll sometimes get into trouble
Speaker 1: on his drives and like leave his feet early to
Speaker 1: throw a reckless pass or force something to the roller
Speaker 1: that's not there. But he's always been very good at
Speaker 1: taking easy reads that show up in these actions. He
Speaker 1: showed he'd like through some really impressive skip passes to
Speaker 1: the opposite court out of double teams and you know
Speaker 1: ball screens where a low man comes over, not just
Speaker 1: in pick and roll but also in ISO's He had
Speaker 1: a couple ISO post ups where like he faced doubles
Speaker 1: and like dribbled away to get some space and then
Speaker 1: like through a beautiful crosscourt pass to the opposite corner
Speaker 1: that some Mavericks player would miss because no one on
Speaker 1: that team could shoot last year. But uh, like the
Speaker 1: the it's the easy reads where he excels. Like when
Speaker 1: there's like a guy getting left open as part of
Speaker 1: the coverage, he'll take advantage of it. Nail help simple
Speaker 1: swing pass, you know, like lob passes. If the big
Speaker 1: steps up in ball screen, he'll hit the occasional lob
Speaker 1: pass to like Musasise or you know Marvin Bagley before
Speaker 1: he left the team. But he'll he'll run inverted screens
Speaker 1: with guards too, and like he'll just throw a little
Speaker 1: pitch to you know Max Christy or Klay Thompson slipping
Speaker 1: out of the screen and like a guard guard screen.
Speaker 1: Like he makes all the simple reads. It gets him
Speaker 1: downhill where he's very good at changing pace and using
Speaker 1: advanced footwork to get to his spots. Has the short
Speaker 1: range scoring to kind of tie it off in the
Speaker 1: short term. Once again, the jumper will be the swing skill.
Speaker 1: If he can get the pull up three into the
Speaker 1: high thirties, the pull up two into the low fifties.
Speaker 1: I think the rim pressure, the short range scoring, the playmaking,
Speaker 1: I think he could all come together and he could
Speaker 1: become a really high level pick and.
Speaker 2: Roll player ISO.
Speaker 1: These were probably the ugliest reps I watched from him
Speaker 1: in my film study, out of any of the play types.
Speaker 1: The numbers are actually okay, zero point nine points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is like, you know, just a little bit below average,
Speaker 1: kind of like pick and roll for him. But it's
Speaker 1: more about the film here, Like when he's going against Smalls,
Speaker 1: he can just relatively easily overpower his way close to
Speaker 1: the basket for one of his floaters that he shoots
Speaker 1: pretty well. It did pretty well against Smalls, But anytime
Speaker 1: he runs into a player, he can't overpower like a
Speaker 1: bigger forward, He can kind of struggle to turn the
Speaker 1: corner in ISOs with his first step, and then it
Speaker 1: turns into a lot of contested mid range jump shots.
Speaker 1: Now once again, the upside there is if he can
Speaker 1: become a better jump shooter because he does have the
Speaker 1: ability to get the pull up off because of his
Speaker 1: height in the threat of his drive. So really again
Speaker 1: it's just the thing is is like he does have
Speaker 1: a foundational trait which is a size strength and athleticism
Speaker 1: when he's downhill. So pick and roll has a foundational
Speaker 1: trait for him because it kind of has a baked
Speaker 1: in angle for him by virtue of the screen. Right
Speaker 1: ISOs are tougher for him because he doesn't have access
Speaker 1: to his foundational trait as much, but he still has
Speaker 1: the ability to shoot over the top. So that's why
Speaker 1: the jump shot such a such a swing skill for him.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: Post ups, though, are another angle that don't are another
Speaker 1: kind of like situation that take the emphasis off of
Speaker 1: his first step quickness and put the emphasis on his size,
Speaker 1: which is a strength for him. The post ups look
Speaker 1: flat out awesome and are a really exciting part of
Speaker 1: his development and something that I think MAVs fans should
Speaker 1: be really excited about and that the MAVs coaching staff
Speaker 1: should be looking to explore more. One point one seven
Speaker 1: points per attempts on points per possession on fifty four
Speaker 1: reps including passes, that's in the seventy ninth percentile inefficiency.
Speaker 1: He personally shot sixty one percent on his own shot
Speaker 1: attempts out of the post.
Speaker 2: This year.
Speaker 1: Again, the post up unlocks three of Cooper's best traits.
Speaker 1: His size is excellent footwork like we talked about, and
Speaker 1: he's short range scoring a lot of times, Like he'll
Speaker 1: just get into those spots and he will literally just
Speaker 1: rather than backing a dude down, he'll catch on the
Speaker 1: left block with the ball in his right hand and
Speaker 1: he'll just dribble into the lane and take a floater.
Speaker 1: But again, like he's already close to the basket, he
Speaker 1: doesn't need to turn the corner. He's just trying to
Speaker 1: like get a little bit of an angle to take
Speaker 1: a little floater right. But like he can pivot over
Speaker 1: either shoulder. He's got like a little short turnaround jump
Speaker 1: shots where he's more efficient there than he is when
Speaker 1: he's further away from the basket. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: upside for Cooper there out of the post that I
Speaker 1: want to see him continue to explore. And again he's
Speaker 1: got a nice little hook shot too that I think
Speaker 1: he could use even more. On defense, I thought it
Speaker 1: was a really solid first campaign showcase high level off
Speaker 1: ball defense as a secondary rim protector as well as
Speaker 1: jumping passing lanes. Had some really impressive blocks on rotations
Speaker 1: at the rim. He can, like even on some of
Speaker 1: these ISOs where he's defending, he can like get beat
Speaker 1: on the ground, but just recover and block that shit,
Speaker 1: just simply because of the athletic tools that he has. Statistically,
Speaker 1: he was a great on ball defender. He defended sixty
Speaker 1: two ISOs according to Synergy and allowed just sixteen made
Speaker 1: shots and just four additional shooting fouls. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: they scored on him just twenty times in sixty two
Speaker 1: tries in ISO this season. It's really impressive. The main
Speaker 1: guys he struggled with, if you look at the times
Speaker 1: he did give up baskets, mostly power players like Pallo
Speaker 1: went through his chest, you know, Jaylen Brown went through
Speaker 1: his chest, Kawhi Leonard went through his chest. Like those
Speaker 1: kinds of guys can power through him. As he's still
Speaker 1: a smaller version of himself. He'll put on muscle, but
Speaker 1: those are the only guys he's really struggling with there.
Speaker 1: But even then, like he can cause problems with his
Speaker 1: length there, Like he had one where Nazried was trying
Speaker 1: to bully him and he like pulled the chair and
Speaker 1: then met him on the other side of the basket
Speaker 1: and just blocked him off the glass or brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: tried to like bury him on a post up towards
Speaker 1: the short corner, and he just like overplayed the strong
Speaker 1: hand and used his length to like knock the ball
Speaker 1: away from him and get his steel. This is ultimately
Speaker 1: what put Cooper into the top twenty five for me.
Speaker 1: I just think he has an extremely high floor. He's
Speaker 1: a weapon in transition. He's a useful off ball player
Speaker 1: because he can slash closeouts. He's a really good post
Speaker 1: up player already. He's average and pick and roll right now,
Speaker 1: but he's showing a lot of upside there that I
Speaker 1: think he'll continue to figure out and their flaws that
Speaker 1: I think are fixable for him. And he's a good
Speaker 1: defensive player both on and off the ball. That's the
Speaker 1: floor and the upside is crazy. Like I think he's
Speaker 1: going to improve as a jump shooter. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a really good year as a pick and
Speaker 1: roll player. His tools are outrageous. I think his post
Speaker 1: up volume is going to get increased. I think we
Speaker 1: can book Cooper for twenty three, seven and six this
Speaker 1: year with high level defense, and I wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: least bit shocked if he got up to twenty five
Speaker 1: points per game. A lot of that just depends on
Speaker 1: how healthy Kyrie Irving is and whether or not he
Speaker 1: gets traded and how much.
Speaker 2: Usage he gets.
Speaker 1: But like, if he gets the ball anywhere near as
Speaker 1: much as he got it last year, he's gonna get
Speaker 1: to twenty five points a game. I'm a huge believer
Speaker 1: in Cooper Flag. I think he's going to be several
Speaker 1: spots higher than twenty five when we redo these rankings
Speaker 1: a year from now. Today's show is brought to you
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Speaker 2: Jersey, or Tennessee Number twenty four. Chet HomeGrid.
Speaker 1: An award filled third campaign for Chet, second Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year voting. We should probably just call this
Speaker 1: the non Wemby Defensive Player of the Year because no
Speaker 1: one's taking that from Wemby for a while. But second
Speaker 1: in Defensive Player of the Year, his first All Star selection,
Speaker 1: third team All NBA, First Team All Defense. Hell of
Speaker 1: a season for Chet seventeen nine and two were his
Speaker 1: averages with two point five stocks per game, career high
Speaker 1: sixty five percent true shooting, and this was fueled by
Speaker 1: a nine percent increase in his efficiency at the rim.
Speaker 1: There was no increase in his free throw volume or
Speaker 1: three point efficiency volume, anything like that. It was all
Speaker 1: at the rim. Nine percent better at the rim this
Speaker 1: year than he was last year. It was mainly fueled
Speaker 1: by the offense, Like he was just fed so many
Speaker 1: more opportunities to finish cuts and rolls this year. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Chet in the twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: campaign got just one point one to six makes per
Speaker 1: game on cuts and rolls. In this twenty twenty six campaign,
Speaker 1: he got one point eight four per game, So almost
Speaker 1: double the opportunity to finish cuts and rolls this season
Speaker 1: than he did last year. A product of the continuity
Speaker 1: and like all the reps that him and these guys
Speaker 1: have together, but also just the wonderful basketball fit between
Speaker 1: him and Isaiah and Stein. And again, like I just
Speaker 1: think about the play that eliminated the Lakers in the
Speaker 1: second round series with that, you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of this week, Blitz's shay on the ball screen, short
Speaker 1: roll past Isaiah Hartenstein, easy little drop off past to
Speaker 1: chat who gets the dunk. Like the tic tac toe
Speaker 1: sequences that Okasee got to take advantage of Chet as
Speaker 1: a vertical spacer were really dialed in this year. And
Speaker 1: he's just a really gifted vertical spacer. Super high standing reach,
Speaker 1: very quick off the ground, great hands, just made him
Speaker 1: really difficult to handle there shooting. He's kind of like
Speaker 1: plateaued a little bit as a pro. As a jump shooter,
Speaker 1: he's stayed right around four attempts per game every season
Speaker 1: of his career thirty seven percent as a rookie, thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent as a sophomore, thirty six percent last year.
Speaker 1: So no real trajectory there either direction. Uh shot just
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent from three in the Spurs series.
Speaker 2: There's some struggles there. I want to talk about. We'll
Speaker 2: get to.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the Spurs series really at
Speaker 1: the end of this of this segment, breakdown of the
Speaker 1: jump shooting by distance forty nine percent inside seventeen feet,
Speaker 1: forty eight percent on long tows, thirty six percent from three.
Speaker 1: Huge difference between when he was guarded and unguarded forty
Speaker 1: four percent when he was opened thirty four percent when
Speaker 1: he wasn't. Kind of a slow release, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: more about when we talk about the Spurs series. In
Speaker 1: the playoffs thirty eight percent when he was opened, thirty
Speaker 1: two percent when he was guarded.
Speaker 2: Hooks and floaters.
Speaker 1: Doesn't really take many twenty seven all season, just five
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, but he shot well sixteen for twenty
Speaker 1: seven in the regular season, four for five in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: probably something he should explore more again twenty for thirty two,
Speaker 1: let's bump that volume up. That's something he's very good at, right,
Speaker 1: just those little short you know, hooks, floaters, short turnaround
Speaker 1: jump shots, things like that. Very modest self creation leap
Speaker 1: last year. If you look at twenty twenty five campaign
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, ISOs post up so like anything. He
Speaker 1: would create about twice per game twenty twenty five, about
Speaker 1: four times per game in twenty twenty six, so still
Speaker 1: low volume, but trending in the right direction. He doubled
Speaker 1: his volume year over year, below a point per possession
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, just about a point per possession,
Speaker 1: just over a point for possession in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: So significantly more efficient and double the volume, but he
Speaker 1: does have a long way to go there to be
Speaker 1: like a legitimate scoring option or shot creation option. The
Speaker 1: main reason that Chet is on this list at twenty four,
Speaker 1: despite being a pretty flawed offensive player and coming off
Speaker 1: of an extremely disappointing playoff run, is that I view
Speaker 1: him as one of the best defensive anchors in the league.
Speaker 1: Chet was the best non and wemb defender in the
Speaker 1: entire league last year, like we talked about earlier, very
Speaker 1: gifted rim protector, good at doing it without fouling as well,
Speaker 1: like uses verticality extremely well. We'll talk about it in minute.
Speaker 1: Probably could stand it fut a little bit more. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit. But great timing, great
Speaker 1: mobility on his rotations to the rim. But he's also
Speaker 1: an excellent switch defender, and that's really the key with
Speaker 1: him is the versatility, right, Like if you have him
Speaker 1: in a drop coverage, he can protect the rim. If
Speaker 1: you have him in helpside, like if Isaih Hartenstein's defending
Speaker 1: pick and rolls and he's the low man, devastating rim protector,
Speaker 1: but he also can switch, which is a really useful
Speaker 1: weapon against pick and rolls, right, especially when Isaiah Hartenstein's
Speaker 1: on the floor too and they don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about size on the back line. Chet defended eighty six
Speaker 1: ISOs last year and allowed just zero point eighty five
Speaker 1: points per possession. That was seventeenth out of the fifty
Speaker 1: players who defended at least seventy five ISOs last year.
Speaker 1: A lot of reps, really solid defense from him on
Speaker 1: an island, just really good at like navigating that like
Speaker 1: special balance as a tall player between like giving space
Speaker 1: to kind of bait players into jump shots, but knowing
Speaker 1: you have the length to recover, but also giving space
Speaker 1: in a way that allows you to beat them to
Speaker 1: spots when they try to drive. That's really the combination
Speaker 1: of fluidity like athletic fluidity like mobility and length with
Speaker 1: Chet that makes them so devastating in switch situations. But
Speaker 1: that versatility is what makes them so valuable. You can
Speaker 1: run from the five spot any pick and roll coverage
Speaker 1: you need, deep drop, high drop, you know, switching things
Speaker 1: along those lines. And then also from the four spot,
Speaker 1: he's like a devastating lowman, you know when he's on
Speaker 1: the floor with Isaiah hartenstein Er, with Jalen Williams right,
Speaker 1: and again, aside from a fluky hip injury which was
Speaker 1: again a crazy rim confrontation from Andrew Wiggins, just kind
Speaker 1: of a bizarre play, he's been overwhelmingly available to his
Speaker 1: team and he hasn't missed a single playoff game, which
Speaker 1: is a huge boost on a list like this, Right,
Speaker 1: just having Chet on the floor gives your defense a
Speaker 1: great chance to get stops. Combine that with elite play
Speaker 1: finishing as a vertical spacer. On offense, he's a knockdown,
Speaker 1: wide open three point shooter. He shoots him well when
Speaker 1: he gets lots of space, and he has some ability
Speaker 1: to put the ball on the floor and score. Put
Speaker 1: all that together, he just has an extremely high floor
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, and that's what keeps him on
Speaker 1: this list despite the rough end of the season. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about this San Antonio series. There are three
Speaker 1: things from that series that I think are worth talking
Speaker 1: about that if Chet can fix, he can flip the script.
Speaker 1: And the first part is just mental. It's confidence. The
Speaker 1: most disappointing thing about what Wenby did to Chet is
Speaker 1: how he responded mentally, like there just wasn't really much
Speaker 1: of a fight from him. It looked like Wemby kind
Speaker 1: of sapped him of his confidence. They will play the
Speaker 1: Spurs in the playoffs again at some point and Wemby
Speaker 1: will try to do it to him again. And step
Speaker 1: one is stay in the fight mentally, stay locked into
Speaker 1: who you are as a basketball player. Hang onto the rope,
Speaker 1: don't stop throwing punches. The numbers from this are crazy.
Speaker 1: Chet took ten shots forty nine times in the regular season,
Speaker 1: and six times in the first two rounds of the
Speaker 1: playoffs six times in eight games. Just once in seven
Speaker 1: games against the Spurs did he attempt ten field goals.
Speaker 2: That can't happen.
Speaker 1: That's you losing who you are as a basketball player
Speaker 1: as a product of what's taking place in the mental
Speaker 1: dynamic of the game. So that's the first part. He
Speaker 1: just has to stick with it mentally, stay in the fight.
Speaker 1: Second piece has to speed up his catch and shoot release.
Speaker 1: Perhaps the most disappointing statistical thing about Chet's performance in
Speaker 1: the final or in the Western Conference finals was his
Speaker 1: lack of three point volume. The Spurs closed out hard
Speaker 1: on his catches, mainly with guards, and he was constantly
Speaker 1: spooked out of his release into like pump fakes or
Speaker 1: drives when he was supposed to be spacing the floor.
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is his release is
Speaker 1: just slow and he has like a big wind up.
Speaker 1: So as a result, his volume drops against elite defenses,
Speaker 1: and his efficiency when he's contested drops off. Like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, massive drop offs for Chet in his
Speaker 1: three point percentage when there's a contest versus when there's
Speaker 1: not a contest.
Speaker 2: At his size, He's got.
Speaker 1: To get quicker and more fluid with his release at
Speaker 1: the very least, if all of the other parts of
Speaker 1: his game fail him, he needs to be a thread
Speaker 1: outside the three point line, especially considering Isaiah Hartenstein is
Speaker 1: such an important part of how the Spurs of how
Speaker 1: the thunder Half to compete against that particular Spurs team.
Speaker 1: I actually think in general he could benefit from playing faster,
Speaker 1: like even in his one on ones, like, he's never
Speaker 1: gonna win a leverage battle is too upright, too skinny, right,
Speaker 1: So he's got to win on the floor with his
Speaker 1: speed and with his length, and so just in general,
Speaker 1: like catch and rip, catch and go quick, catch and
Speaker 1: shoot quick. I just want everything with Chet to be
Speaker 1: kind of like sped up a little bit. I think
Speaker 1: that will help him a lot. The third piece of
Speaker 1: it is actually the defensive end of the flour. I
Speaker 1: also thought that Chet allowed the dynamic with Wenby to
Speaker 1: negatively affect his aggressiveness around the rim. Defensively, we talked
Speaker 1: about this during the series. He was nowhere near physical enough,
Speaker 1: and the Spurs guards consistently finished through his chest and
Speaker 1: around him at the rim. And this is where I
Speaker 1: think Check could actually stand to pick up more fouls,
Speaker 1: be more physically aggressive in his contests, meet players further out,
Speaker 1: hold his ground more. Rim battles can be one on
Speaker 1: the ground every bit as much as they can be
Speaker 1: one in the air, And I thought last year there's
Speaker 1: a little too much of this. Just go vertical and
Speaker 1: don't bring any aggressiveness to those rim confrontations. Spurs players
Speaker 1: went right through him. Overall, I think the series would
Speaker 1: be very good for Chet's career. Obviously, you never want
Speaker 1: to lose, and you certainly never want to be embarrassed,
Speaker 1: but embarrassment can be a great motivator. And I think
Speaker 1: Chet's gonna have a great offseason, and I think he's
Speaker 1: going to come into next season as a very different
Speaker 1: basketball player. Last player for Today number twenty three og
Speaker 1: An Andobi, fresh off of an incredible championship winning postseason,
Speaker 1: Ognob cracks our top twenty five list for the first
Speaker 1: time in his career. We very rarely get like role
Speaker 1: players on a list like this. Usually our list is
Speaker 1: dominated by ball handlers and like defensive centers that are
Speaker 1: in that like eighteen to twenty two points per game list.
Speaker 1: So you know, Chet Holmgrin bam Adebayo like that, kind
Speaker 1: of guy. But the reason why og is on this
Speaker 1: list actually has a lot to do with this ball
Speaker 1: handling ability, But that's a postseason question. Let's quickly go
Speaker 1: through his regular season stuff. Modest regular season seventeen to
Speaker 1: five and two two point three stocks per game, sixty
Speaker 1: two percent true shooting, was second team All defense, so
Speaker 1: like good but nothing like spectacular, right, okay shooting. He
Speaker 1: was very good off the catch for two percent catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes, forty eight percent unguarded catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Brutal pull up shooting season, though, He's just twenty eight
Speaker 1: for one oh four on pull up jump shots, one
Speaker 1: for nine on hooks and floaters, So some dark spots
Speaker 1: in his you know, some uh inefficient spots in his
Speaker 1: shooting numbers. Sixty five percent at the rim, though, which
Speaker 1: is very good play type stuff. Like really a bad
Speaker 1: year for him as a shot creator. He's well below
Speaker 1: point for possession in pick and rolls, ISOs and post
Speaker 1: ups this year. But Ojananobi is one of the best
Speaker 1: playoff risers in the NBA, and last year was his
Speaker 1: biggest rise yet. He's built for playoff basketball right, combination
Speaker 1: of size and strength as well as speed that allows
Speaker 1: him to basically just win physical battles all over the floor,
Speaker 1: leverage battles, speed battles, vertical battles like you know, on offense,
Speaker 1: when he's trying to turn the corner on somebody, he
Speaker 1: blows through that shoulder because he's so strong on defense,
Speaker 1: when a guy's trying to turn the corner on him,
Speaker 1: he regains control with his physical leverage, right fighting for
Speaker 1: rebound positioning, you know, getting through screw all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. Speed battles like just having to get up
Speaker 1: and down the floor and transition, keeping up with small guards.
Speaker 1: He's garden deeron fox in the finals for stretches right.
Speaker 1: And then vertical battles like to tip in in the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, like the block shots. E's seven blocks in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals, Like just he wins all sorts of
Speaker 1: battles because of his physical tools, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: him a playoff riser. He's also just in general, always
Speaker 1: been very good at making shots when he can get separations.
Speaker 1: So like when you piece those two things together, it's
Speaker 1: it's generally the what makes a playoff riser is like
Speaker 1: a guy who can physically handle all of the confrontations
Speaker 1: and get to his spots. But that's also capable of
Speaker 1: finishing plays when he gets there. Og Nnob averaged twenty
Speaker 1: points per game in that playoff run on seventy two
Speaker 1: percent true shooting. But it wasn't just knocking down threes,
Speaker 1: although he was a preposterous sixty percent on open threes
Speaker 1: in that playoff run. Just ridiculous, but og I thought
Speaker 1: was New York's second most reliable shot creator in the
Speaker 1: half court. If it felt like when you were watching
Speaker 1: the Knicks this year, if it felt like like ogn
Speaker 1: Andobi just would like get the ball with five on
Speaker 1: the shot clock and just go get a big bucket
Speaker 1: over and over again every time the Knicks needed him,
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened. He took forty one shots out
Speaker 1: of picking rolls in his one on ones, and he
Speaker 1: scored fifty three points on them, one point two to
Speaker 1: nine points per possession. Ognnobi is the only role player
Speaker 1: on this list because he's very simply the best role
Speaker 1: player in the NBA. He's a great perimeter defense option
Speaker 1: both against quick guards but also power wings. His rim
Speaker 1: protection is a huge part of that title run for
Speaker 1: the Knicks in transition and in help side. He saved
Speaker 1: them a game in the NBA Finals with the transition
Speaker 1: block again, block seven shots in those five games, average
Speaker 1: six point three rebounds per game in the playoffs, great
Speaker 1: rebounder play Finisher scored one hundred ninety one points in
Speaker 1: transition and spot up situations, all on absurd efficiency, almost
Speaker 1: a point and a half per possession. But you can
Speaker 1: also give him the ball and ask him to create
Speaker 1: a shot and he'll do it at a level of
Speaker 1: surgical efficiency. He was simply amazing in that title run
Speaker 1: for the Knicks. Deserves a boatload of credit. And again,
Speaker 1: I mean we didn't even he won an NBA Finals
Speaker 1: game with an offensive rebound tampin. He's the best role
Speaker 1: player in the NBA. I feel like it's under selling
Speaker 1: him to even call him a role player with the
Speaker 1: work he can do off the bounce. Just an incredible
Speaker 1: basketball player. I'm just really happy for him to have
Speaker 1: the moment that he did, and he very much belongs
Speaker 1: in our top twenty five this year at number twenty three.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, it's all I have for today is
Speaker 1: always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us in
Speaker 1: supporting The show will be back on Monday with twenty
Speaker 1: two to twenty one and twenty I will see you
Speaker 1: guys then