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Speaker 1: slash basketball terms. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of
Speaker 1: you guys had a great start to your week. The
Speaker 1: n Season tournament quarterfinals were last night, or at least
Speaker 1: the first round of them, and they were highly, highly entertaining.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be breaking down both games from the perspective
Speaker 1: of all four teams. It's going to be a double
Speaker 1: show day. We're also going to be coming back later
Speaker 1: tonight to break down Nicks, Bucks and Lakers' sons. You
Speaker 1: guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: our brand new YouTube channel. It would mean a lot
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Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt so you guys don't miss any film threads
Speaker 1: or show announcements. I did a couple of film threads
Speaker 1: on both games from last night, this morning, and then
Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them at
Speaker 1: the end of the Show's no mail bag today, but
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: Just a big picture about the N Season tournament. My
Speaker 1: takeaway when it first happened was, as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the actual as it pertains to the actual tournament itself,
Speaker 1: I wanted to have a wait and see approach, meaning like,
Speaker 1: let's see what it looks like before we come up
Speaker 1: with an opinion. However, what I did say is like
Speaker 1: I did think it was the wrong kind of idea
Speaker 1: in terms of what's wrong with the regular season. Like,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, when you have this many back to
Speaker 1: back in your schedule, and you have teams not valuing
Speaker 1: the regular season the way that you'd hope, and it's
Speaker 1: leading to stars sitting out games, it hurts the total
Speaker 1: product so much in my opinion, that any sort of
Speaker 1: financial benefit that you have from more games is canceled
Speaker 1: out by just lower quality games as teams just don't
Speaker 1: seem to care as much, and so I've said this
Speaker 1: many times on the show. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: dropping the season down to sixty six games because it
Speaker 1: gets rid of back to backs, makes it far more
Speaker 1: likely that stars will play, not only from a rest perspective,
Speaker 1: but also every game is twenty percent more valuable to
Speaker 1: the standings at the end of the day. So in
Speaker 1: the big picture, that's one of the things that I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them do. However, as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the nd season tournament itself, I was interested to see
Speaker 1: how it would actually play out in practice, and we've
Speaker 1: seen now through the regular season games and through this
Speaker 1: first round of quarterfinals that it's just making something different
Speaker 1: happen during this phase of the season. If you really
Speaker 1: look at the NBA regular season, it basically is like
Speaker 1: the first two thirds or so just go off the
Speaker 1: same every single week. Right It's October same thing, November
Speaker 1: same thing, December same thing, January same thing, first week
Speaker 1: of February same thing. Right. Then there's like this brief
Speaker 1: kind of chaotic stretch where it's like we have the
Speaker 1: trade deadline, and after the teams make their trades, they
Speaker 1: play one or two games with their new guys, and
Speaker 1: then we head into the All Star break, and now
Speaker 1: the All Star breaks a little bit longer, so there's
Speaker 1: that kind of weird stretch there. But then we go
Speaker 1: into like kind of the ramp up into the playoffs
Speaker 1: and the Super Bowls over and all the football fans
Speaker 1: kind of dial into basketball, and it kind of takes
Speaker 1: off from there, right, But for the first you know,
Speaker 1: two thirds of the season, it gets super repetitive and redundant,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of the same stuff, right, And
Speaker 1: so having something like this where we've played, you know
Speaker 1: a little over a fourth of the season and we
Speaker 1: can just do something different for a week. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate that. And like even in the month leading up
Speaker 1: to this, when we played the the seeding games, those
Speaker 1: Tuesday Friday in season tournament, you know pool play games.
Speaker 1: Actually we're pretty entertaining from just adding some differences in
Speaker 1: the way the games looked in terms of the courts
Speaker 1: all the way to just the level of intensity that
Speaker 1: the teams were playing with. It's clear that people want
Speaker 1: to win this. Did you see the Pacers bench last night?
Speaker 1: It like those guys were going absolutely crazy down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game, and so I applaud Adam Silver
Speaker 1: just simply from the perspective of like trying something that, like,
Speaker 1: even if it doesn't necessarily fix the big picture issues
Speaker 1: of the regular season, at least gives us something different
Speaker 1: to kind of break things up. Because now it's like
Speaker 1: we go a month or so of regular basketball and
Speaker 1: then you get kind of breakups with the pool games,
Speaker 1: and then you have this exciting tournament the first week
Speaker 1: of December. Then we'll go rest of December January, another month,
Speaker 1: month and a half of things kind of settling back
Speaker 1: down into that cycle, right, but then it'll be broke
Speaker 1: up by the trade deadline. And so I think it
Speaker 1: just kind of breaks up and partitions out the NBA
Speaker 1: season in a more palatable way. And so I've really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it so far, and I think it's only going
Speaker 1: to get better as we head further into this week.
Speaker 1: So Celtics Pacers is where we're gonna start. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start with this third quarter run. So the Celtics were
Speaker 1: up I think seven at halftime, a late run there
Speaker 1: right before the half to kind of build the lead.
Speaker 1: As the Pacers, I think we're up by one with
Speaker 1: about three four minutes left. But in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: Tyres Haliburton completely takes over and I put together a
Speaker 1: full thread of the way he was picking apart the
Speaker 1: Celtics defense in that third quarter run. So I want
Speaker 1: you guys to go take a look at that again
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed out and underscore Jason lt But
Speaker 1: it started with Buddy Heeld's ghost screens. Now, last time
Speaker 1: we did a Pacers video, we talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this specific concept, but it's one of the pet actions
Speaker 1: that the Pacers run a lot. And it's a very
Speaker 1: simple concept, right, Like, you're gonna put a point of
Speaker 1: attack type of dude that is going to guard a
Speaker 1: dribble drive guy on Tyrese Haliburton, and you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: put one of your lesser defenders on Buddy Heeld. There's
Speaker 1: going to be more of a lock and trail position, right,
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times in those situations, if
Speaker 1: they're not switching, it's gonna be a hedge and recover
Speaker 1: situation and Tyreese might be able to get downhill. And
Speaker 1: if they switch, you're gonna get Tyree's or Buddy Heeld
Speaker 1: operating with a little bit of an advantage because there's
Speaker 1: always that little kind of lag in between switches. There's
Speaker 1: a specific play where I put it in the film
Speaker 1: Thread where Buddy Hild missed the three on the left
Speaker 1: wing on a ghost screen where Drew Holliday was originally
Speaker 1: guarding Tyrese Haliburton and Derek White was guarding Buddy Heeld.
Speaker 1: But as Buddy Heeld ran the screen and then slipped it,
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday was chasing Halliburton this way, and so when
Speaker 1: Buddy Hild cut across his face, he had to turn
Speaker 1: to go back, and by the time he turned and recovered,
Speaker 1: the ball was already in Buddy Heald's shooting pocket and
Speaker 1: he was elevating into a shot. So it's just a
Speaker 1: difficult action to guard in general. Now. To start in
Speaker 1: this third quarter stretch, the Celtics were not switching this action,
Speaker 1: and so as a result of that, Tyre's kept getting
Speaker 1: downhill because Drew Holliday, just in that little interchange, kept
Speaker 1: giving up an angle, and Tyrese is a little bit faster,
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger, and he was able to get
Speaker 1: past me and get downhill, and then from there they
Speaker 1: were able to get good stuff out of it. The
Speaker 1: first one that I wanted to point out. This was
Speaker 1: the one where he kind of switched. He jumped up
Speaker 1: with his right hand into Horford and then switched into
Speaker 1: his left hand and laid it in on that play,
Speaker 1: This was a great example of why it's important to
Speaker 1: run weak side action. There was a weakside action between
Speaker 1: I think Nie Smith and Brown if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: but in that week side action, Al Horford actually was
Speaker 1: Miles Turner and Bruce Brown. Miles Turner just said a
Speaker 1: flare screen for Bruce Brown down towards the corner on
Speaker 1: the weak side of the ball, and as a result,
Speaker 1: because of that action, Horford's attention is directed in that way, right,
Speaker 1: because he's got a coverage for any sort of off
Speaker 1: ball screening action. Right, So as Tyree's turns the corner
Speaker 1: coming off of that ghost screen as he gets around
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday because the Celtics weren't switching it, which again
Speaker 1: I disagree with from a strategy standpoint, because we're talking
Speaker 1: Derek White and Drew Holliday. There's no reason to make
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday navigate a screen and have to try to
Speaker 1: beat ty resee when he's got that type of advantage
Speaker 1: when you can just switch it. And Derek White's a
Speaker 1: capable of just as capable of a perimeter defender as
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday is right, and then Drew Holliday obviously can
Speaker 1: handle the buddy heel issue, but they weren't switching it right.
Speaker 1: So Tyreese gets downhill. Because Horford's watching that backscreen for
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown, He's a second late to get back to
Speaker 1: the rim and help, which gives ty Resee the angle
Speaker 1: to get into his body and then switch into his
Speaker 1: left hand and then make it right. And then there
Speaker 1: was another one on the right side of the court,
Speaker 1: just a couple possessions later, same sort of thing goes screen,
Speaker 1: no switch, Drew's a little out of position. Tyreese gets
Speaker 1: all the way downhill, engages Jason Tatum and help drops
Speaker 1: off a perfect pass to Obi Top in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: who rises up and lays it in right. So then
Speaker 1: from there the Celtics starts switching. When they start switching,
Speaker 1: immediately Tyrese Halliburton catches it was I want to say,
Speaker 1: Derek White in the post on Al Horford. It arches
Speaker 1: me on Miles Turner and they just dump it into
Speaker 1: Myles turner who quickly just turns and scores right at
Speaker 1: the basket. Right then there was a there was another
Speaker 1: screen on the left side of the floor where now
Speaker 1: this is a semi transition possession, And the Pacers do
Speaker 1: a lot of this kind of stuff, and I think
Speaker 1: it's really really smart, where like they will just if
Speaker 1: tyresee is coming down the floor with pace and he's
Speaker 1: got that little hop in his step, they'll just run
Speaker 1: and set that ball screen from somebody way out, like
Speaker 1: thirty thirty five feet from the basket, and it just
Speaker 1: kind of spreads everything out and makes even more room
Speaker 1: for him to make those reads. And like, Tyre Haliburton
Speaker 1: is not like this outstanding vertical pop type of athlete,
Speaker 1: but he is a very quick lateral athlete, and so
Speaker 1: when he has that kind of space to change direction
Speaker 1: and kind of snake through the lane and make reads,
Speaker 1: he's really really tough to guard. And so on this
Speaker 1: particular play, and again this one's in that film thread
Speaker 1: Obi Topping, the Haliburton's coming up to the floor in
Speaker 1: a semi transition set up the left side. Topping comes
Speaker 1: up to set the screen on that left side, and
Speaker 1: you see Drew Holliday kind of open up to prepare
Speaker 1: to run over the top of that screen. It's also
Speaker 1: possible that he was expecting a different coverage from Horford.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly what was happening in that possession,
Speaker 1: but he just quickly cuts back over to the right
Speaker 1: and drew his way out of position, gets way downhill,
Speaker 1: Obi top and just pops back to the top. Horford
Speaker 1: comes over and helps. He just slings it back over
Speaker 1: his head to Obi Toppin on the left wing. You
Speaker 1: get the point here, depending not it didn't matter which coverage.
Speaker 1: It was like they ran a pick and pop with
Speaker 1: Miles Turner, just a basic pick and pop action that
Speaker 1: the Celtics iced, which means Drew Holliday basically denied him
Speaker 1: the screen. He just cut back to the left and
Speaker 1: got downhill, engaged Horford and help easy drop off past
Speaker 1: to Miles Turner at the top of the key for
Speaker 1: a wide open three. And like this is like separating
Speaker 1: process from results is important because, especially with a team
Speaker 1: like the Celtics, you can have stretches where they score
Speaker 1: a shit ton of points taking bad shots because they're
Speaker 1: that good. That's how much talent they have. But this
Speaker 1: is what's interesting about watching this Pacers team. Miles Turner
Speaker 1: is a good offensive player, not a great offensive player.
Speaker 1: You know, Obi Toppen is a below average NBA offensive players.
Speaker 1: Brown is a very good defensive player, very good athlete.
Speaker 1: He's not a great offensive player, right Like, It's not
Speaker 1: like you're he's out there surrounded by tons of offensive talent.
Speaker 1: But what he's doing is he's setting these guys up
Speaker 1: with great looks like Obi Toppins. Not a guy that's
Speaker 1: going to pick you apart in a half court set
Speaker 1: and post ups and pick and rolls and stuff. But
Speaker 1: if you just get him stay and still catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes, you can knock him down. If you get
Speaker 1: him wide open catches underneath the basket in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: he can rise up and finish. If you give Miles
Speaker 1: Turner wide open catch and shoot threes at the top
Speaker 1: of at top of the key, he can score. In
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, which we haven't even talked about yet.
Speaker 1: A big part of it was Aaron Nesmith and his
Speaker 1: ability to attack closeouts. But what do you have to
Speaker 1: do to give Aaron nee Smith the ability to attack
Speaker 1: a closeout? You have to consistently have the defense in rotation,
Speaker 1: which happens as a result of Tyrese Halliburton in his
Speaker 1: ability to consistently generate dribble penetration regardless of the coverage
Speaker 1: that the Celtics employed against him. So then at this point,
Speaker 1: I want to say, in the run, like the Pacers
Speaker 1: had gone up by like three, four or five points
Speaker 1: in that area. TJ McConnell comes in and there's this
Speaker 1: brief bench stretch there to end the third quarter where
Speaker 1: TJ is incredible. He ends up beating Cornett on a
Speaker 1: switch with his nifty kind of step through move. He
Speaker 1: has a play and pick and roll where he draws
Speaker 1: multiple defenders, engages the low man and makes a kickout
Speaker 1: pass to Ben Mathern in the left corner, and then
Speaker 1: he had a big steal on the This entire lineup,
Speaker 1: this was TJ McConnell, Obi Top and Aaron Nei Smith,
Speaker 1: Buddy Yield and Ben Mathern. They had an awesome defensive
Speaker 1: stretch there to end that third quarter. Was rough offense too,
Speaker 1: from Drew Holliday and from Jalen Brown. By the way,
Speaker 1: random statf for U Celtics fans, the Celtics have had
Speaker 1: the second worst offense in the league in third quarters
Speaker 1: this season. This has been a pretty consistent theme for them.
Speaker 1: But a lot of after the TJ mcconnal gets a
Speaker 1: steal and throws it ahead and Buddy Field ends up
Speaker 1: getting a dunk. A lot of scoring, pop and effective
Speaker 1: defense from that Pacers unit, and they actually built the
Speaker 1: lead up a little bit. I thought it was a
Speaker 1: really really impressive, you know, a stretch from that group
Speaker 1: to just kind of extend and expand the lead at
Speaker 1: that point. Then down the stretch the Celtics, predictably with
Speaker 1: all the talent they have to make a little run
Speaker 1: turns into a close game down the stretch. And I
Speaker 1: want to really paint for you guys the difference in
Speaker 1: the quality of shots that the Pacers were getting, and
Speaker 1: what I appreciate about it is, like, you know, Tyres
Speaker 1: Haliburton is a really good score, right, and he had
Speaker 1: two massive pull up threes down the stretch. I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, but like Tyree's understood that, like in
Speaker 1: this large sample size of fifteen ish clutch possessions in
Speaker 1: the last five six minutes of the fourth quarter, it's
Speaker 1: more important just to continually generate quality shots and trust
Speaker 1: that a certain amount of them are going to go
Speaker 1: in than any singular possession and trying to punish a
Speaker 1: specific matchup or whatever it might be. Now, what they
Speaker 1: went with was guard to guard screens. It wasn't always,
Speaker 1: but healed a lot of it was Bruce Brown as well,
Speaker 1: but they were using guard to guard screens to get
Speaker 1: tyres Haliburton Downhill. In the event of a switch, he
Speaker 1: would have just attacked the switch defender downhill. If they
Speaker 1: lagged in their switch or didn't make a switch, he'd
Speaker 1: get Downhill out of that. But he was making kickouts
Speaker 1: to Aaron Nesmith with an advantage, and Aaron Nesmith was
Speaker 1: just all fourth quarter, was just ripping through to the
Speaker 1: right as hard as he could all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim. There were even a couple of players that
Speaker 1: weren't close outs where he did it off the dribble,
Speaker 1: one where Jaln Brown swatted him out of bounds and
Speaker 1: another where he drew a foul on it. But like
Speaker 1: Aaron Nei, Smith actually was producing a lot of the
Speaker 1: rim pressure that the Pacers were coming up within that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter run. And by the way, Nie Smith had
Speaker 1: a had two closed out attacks down the stretch he
Speaker 1: had one on the right wing where he kind of
Speaker 1: did a nice job relocating out of the corner, which
Speaker 1: created a better angle for him to beat Tatum. Tatum
Speaker 1: jumped out of his shoes on the pump, fake ripped through,
Speaker 1: easy floater off the glass. Another one kick out to
Speaker 1: the left corner. Nie Smith just racks to the right right,
Speaker 1: gets into Tatum's chest and finishes athletically at the rim.
Speaker 1: By the way Aaron Neith Smith this year sixty two
Speaker 1: closeout opportunities he's converted into ninety points ninety one point
Speaker 1: four to five points per possession. And then obviously the
Speaker 1: two big shots of the game from Tyres Halliburton nasty
Speaker 1: left to right crossover on Drew Holliday into a pull
Speaker 1: up three, and then the one against Jalen Brown, which
Speaker 1: is crazy because he had Horford on a switch and
Speaker 1: Haliburn's been cooking switches all year long. He's been up
Speaker 1: over like one point three points per ISO, which is insane.
Speaker 1: And then Buddy Heild is Jalen Brown on him, and
Speaker 1: Buddy Hild runs over to set another ghost screen and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh no, what are you doing, Like, don't
Speaker 1: do that. He's got the right matchup, don't bring an
Speaker 1: extra defender into it, which is exactly what happened. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown just peels off a Buddy Heeld and contests the
Speaker 1: Tyrese Haliburton pull up three and actually got a really
Speaker 1: good contest out. He just fouled him right, But Tyre's
Speaker 1: makes it anyway, because guess what, a Tyre's Halliburton pull
Speaker 1: up three has been worth one point two six points
Speaker 1: per possession so far this year. He's been one of
Speaker 1: the best pull up jump shooters in the league. We're
Speaker 1: talking that's over sixty percent in effective field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: That's like steph territory that we're seeing out of Tyres
Speaker 1: Saliverton as a pull up jump shooter. It didn't matter
Speaker 1: even though Buddy Hild made a bizarre decision, he just
Speaker 1: made the shot anyway. And then the Pacers ended up
Speaker 1: icing the game with an inbounds play where Buddy Hill
Speaker 1: came up to the top of the key, Tatum and
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday kind of miscommunicated on a switch and Buddy
Speaker 1: Hill hits a three at the top of the key
Speaker 1: and the game is basically over. One thing I want
Speaker 1: to point out on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of switches where they ended up
Speaker 1: getting Tyre's Halliburton onto Jason Tatum, and Jason Tatum did
Speaker 1: them favors by settling for jump shots, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to in a minute. But for the most part, I
Speaker 1: thought Aaron Nesmith did a really nice job on Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: navigating those screening actions and avoiding switches as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Every single post up iso that Jason Tatum had on
Speaker 1: aaron Ne Smith down the stritch of that game, he
Speaker 1: forced him into a tough, long contested too. Not a
Speaker 1: single time did he get downhill to the rim in
Speaker 1: an on ball set. There was that one horn set
Speaker 1: where he kind of slipped to the basket and drew
Speaker 1: a foul when he was off ball, but he did
Speaker 1: not beat aaron Ne Smith off the dribble a single
Speaker 1: time down the stretch of that game. It was again
Speaker 1: and this is this to me, is like, what's what's
Speaker 1: so exciting about this team in the long run, This
Speaker 1: team so badly needs like an athletic wing defender, right,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Smith, good player who played a great game
Speaker 1: last night, But like, now, just imagine what that would
Speaker 1: look like if you had a above average starter caliber
Speaker 1: three and D guy on the wing, right, if you
Speaker 1: actually had like a like an Herb Jones or Jaden
Speaker 1: McDaniels type on the wing alongside Tyres Haliburt, And that's
Speaker 1: what you're seeing there is like Aaron Neith Smith is
Speaker 1: providing a version of that for the Pacers, and it
Speaker 1: brings great value because they have such a need of
Speaker 1: that position type. I've been talking about this with the
Speaker 1: Lakers fans like, oh my gosh, look at Max, Max
Speaker 1: Christie or Cam Reddish and it's like, yeah, they're showing
Speaker 1: you how bad this team needs point of attack defense.
Speaker 1: So that these bench level guys are producing at a
Speaker 1: high level because that's what the team needs, right, And
Speaker 1: they're playing alongside a good rim protector, right that like,
Speaker 1: ideally you have a better version of that and you
Speaker 1: get that much more impact out of that position. Right.
Speaker 1: I mean you could even say that the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: upgrading Jeremy Grant into Aaron Gordon a better version of
Speaker 1: all of the dirty work things that Jeremy Grant did
Speaker 1: push them over the top in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And so again, shout out to Aaron neies Smith. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to undercut him, but that, to me was
Speaker 1: an interesting look ahead at just how important that specific
Speaker 1: piece is for the Pacers and a team that struggled
Speaker 1: defensively and has struggled on the glass throughout this season,
Speaker 1: having like, if you could slot Aaron Nesmith properly as
Speaker 1: an off the bench wing, that could even push you
Speaker 1: guys to a higher level at that point. In general,
Speaker 1: I was really impressed by the Pacers defense down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game, and I think it's a strong
Speaker 1: indicator of what I said during the Pacers deep dive
Speaker 1: last week. They are an awful defensive team and an
Speaker 1: awful rebounding team, and some of it is personnel, right.
Speaker 1: Tyree Salliburton is a really weak point of attack defender,
Speaker 1: Buddy Healed is a really weak point of attack defender.
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown is good, but he's not having a great season.
Speaker 1: And then on the back line, Obi Toppin and Miles
Speaker 1: turn Of Miles Turner is just running around trying to
Speaker 1: clean up messes all game long, and Obie Toppin is
Speaker 1: not the best low man in the world, right, So,
Speaker 1: like there's some personnel limitations there, but the Pacers have
Speaker 1: a lot of speed. They're capable of rotating better, They're
Speaker 1: capable of defending at the point of attack better. They
Speaker 1: are capable of doing a better job. And so that's
Speaker 1: the thing. Do you want to be the Sacramento Kings
Speaker 1: or do you want to be a serious team? And
Speaker 1: if they play and compete in the dirty work details
Speaker 1: of the game the way they did down the stretch
Speaker 1: against Boston, they do have a chance to make noise
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Why because Tyre's Halliburton is playing like
Speaker 1: a top ten player in the league. That's just the
Speaker 1: level he's at right now. His pull up shooting is real.
Speaker 1: I was on with the Watch playback guys last night
Speaker 1: and we were breaking down the game and somebody in
Speaker 1: the comments asked like, Hey, is there any parallel between
Speaker 1: Tyres Haliburt and Steph Curry in twenty fifteen? And the
Speaker 1: answer is yes on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is Steph Curry and Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: were coming off of that twenty fourteen Feebo World Cup
Speaker 1: where they both engaged on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and that Warriors team was the best defense in the
Speaker 1: league and Stephan Clay did their part to contribute to that,
Speaker 1: and so that's the next step is like Tyree's has
Speaker 1: Steph Curry twenty fifteen type potential as an offensive creator.
Speaker 1: He's faster, he's taller, He's showing some similar shooting capability.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't put him in the same conversation as Steph.
Speaker 1: I think that's blasphemy. But he's kind of trending in
Speaker 1: that direction, you know, like in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and he's such a gifted on ball passer, Like he
Speaker 1: has the potential to kind of lead to that type
Speaker 1: of renaissance in Indy. But from the top down, there
Speaker 1: needs to be a commitment to the defensive end, like
Speaker 1: what you saw in that Celtics game. They can't do it.
Speaker 1: They don't have to be the best defense in the league,
Speaker 1: but they need to be closer to that fifteen mark,
Speaker 1: right and it's something that they have to personnel to do.
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Speaker 1: type of fan. Netflix turns us all into fans. On
Speaker 1: the celt front, I have been saying forever, even including
Speaker 1: this season, that the Celtics could win forty games in
Speaker 1: a row and I would still be skeptical of their
Speaker 1: ability to win on the biggest stages at the highest
Speaker 1: level of the NBA Playoffs. You'll notice the Celtics are
Speaker 1: number one or work number one in my power rankings yesterday,
Speaker 1: but in my contender list. I've consistently had them behind Denver,
Speaker 1: regardless of the fact that they've looked better this season,
Speaker 1: and it's just because time and time again, specifically, when
Speaker 1: they get alpha dogged by a star, they fail to
Speaker 1: regain control of a basketball game, specifically with offensive execution. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can beat the Sixers. Why because Joel Embiid specifically
Speaker 1: really struggles in the playoff setting and James Harden specifically
Speaker 1: really struggles in the playoff setting. Yeah, you beat Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler once. You beat Jimmy Butler once, and he still
Speaker 1: came this close to beating you a pull up three
Speaker 1: in Game seven that literally would have sent you home.
Speaker 1: And then the next year he did send you home.
Speaker 1: And then when you ran into Steph Curry in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, he alpha dogged you, guys, and he sent
Speaker 1: you home. This is a consistent problem with this team.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch of that game, I had Tyres Halliburton
Speaker 1: consistently generating great offensive opportunities for lesser offensive players, and
Speaker 1: then on the other end of the floor, Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: could not generate quality shots. He made a couple, he
Speaker 1: made a step back mid range jump shot over Aaron E.
Speaker 1: Smith on a clear side post up on the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor. He made like a jab step
Speaker 1: jumper against Aaron Smith about a twenty one footer up
Speaker 1: on the kind of right elbow extended out right. He
Speaker 1: made a couple of tough shots. But where was the
Speaker 1: Where was the easy shot? Where was the I'm going
Speaker 1: to back Aaron Nee Smith down, draw a second defender
Speaker 1: and make a kickout pass to a high quality three
Speaker 1: point shot. Where was he? He had Tyre's Halliburton twice
Speaker 1: on switches, once with a cleared side and ten seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock, and he literally stood there and
Speaker 1: waited for the shot clock to run down and jacked
Speaker 1: up a jumper and he missed it. There was another
Speaker 1: one Tyres Halliburton switch left wing, this time like twelve
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock. Now I would have had
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown clear out the side, but it would have
Speaker 1: been easy enough to have Jalen Brown just run through
Speaker 1: to the other side, and then Tatum just ripped through
Speaker 1: to the left, turn his back post up, back down,
Speaker 1: draw the second defender, make the kick got pass, get
Speaker 1: a wide up in three. Nope, he stood there, dribbled
Speaker 1: until the shot clock ran out and took a pull
Speaker 1: up three and he missed it. And by the way,
Speaker 1: like this is the concern with Jason Tatum. One of
Speaker 1: the things I said before the season is like the positive,
Speaker 1: you know spin of this situation is Tatum keeps getting better. Right,
Speaker 1: And Tatum made some steps at the end of the
Speaker 1: Heat series last year, clearing the side, working out of
Speaker 1: the post. But to start this season he was posting
Speaker 1: up more and he was making the threes. But his
Speaker 1: post up attempts per game has been trending downwards, and
Speaker 1: now his pull up jump shots falling apart. You remember
Speaker 1: at the beginning part of the season when he was
Speaker 1: making all his pull up jump shots. He's now back
Speaker 1: down to zero point eighty seven points per pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. So a Tatum pull up jump shot is
Speaker 1: objectively a bad shot for this team. It was a
Speaker 1: bad shot in this regular season so far. It was
Speaker 1: a bad shot last year in the regular season. He
Speaker 1: cannot even get more than one point per pull up jumper,
Speaker 1: yet is a consistent part of his shot diet. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: he's had success backing down in the post, drawing fouls,
Speaker 1: getting closer to the rim. And what I need to
Speaker 1: see is in a big game like last night, when
Speaker 1: he's getting alpha dogged by Tyrese Slliburton, when he needs
Speaker 1: to arrest control of the situation, he can't go generate
Speaker 1: a quality shot. And that's what's discouraging to me, because
Speaker 1: he holds the keys. I've said this to Celtics fans
Speaker 1: NonStop over the years. It's not about a trade. It's
Speaker 1: not about bringing another guard in. It's not about you know,
Speaker 1: I miss miss a diagon the situation after the the
Speaker 1: the after the Warriors series, that it wasn't about aggregate
Speaker 1: ball handling. I was like, Oh, they just need to
Speaker 1: go get another guard. They got Malcolm Broggett. No, that's
Speaker 1: not the trick. What dawned on me last year is like,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't matter because the ball ends up in
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum's hands at the end of the day. That's
Speaker 1: where it ends up. And so it really is up
Speaker 1: to him. And this was again He's gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot more chances, especially as we get close, as we
Speaker 1: get into the postseason. Right, But this was a high
Speaker 1: leverage game, single elimination, first n season tournament on the road,
Speaker 1: tough crowd, top ten player in the league, at least
Speaker 1: in terms of the level of play he's playing at
Speaker 1: right now, and Tyre Saliburton is taking it to him
Speaker 1: and like he can't regain control of the game on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor. And again, I'm a
Speaker 1: big process over a results guy. This wasn't it. This
Speaker 1: wasn't Oh the Celtics just missed their open threes. No,
Speaker 1: that's not what happened. The jumpers that got down the
Speaker 1: stretch were tough jumpers. Jaln Brown tough mid range pull
Speaker 1: up over Bruce Brown missed it. Jaln Brown tough step
Speaker 1: back three out of the left side corner overl over
Speaker 1: Miles Turner missed it. Jason Tatum tough fadeaway right shoulder
Speaker 1: fade that over Aaron Neith Smith that he got bailed
Speaker 1: out on and drew a foul. Another tough fadeaway over
Speaker 1: Aaron Smith on the left side that he missed. He
Speaker 1: made a tough one legged fade away out of the
Speaker 1: right block. He made a tough jab step pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot he may he missed another tough pull up
Speaker 1: three point shot over Tyre's Halliburton. It's not like I
Speaker 1: can point to, oh, they did this process thing correctly
Speaker 1: and generated high quality shots, and they just missed him. No.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch of that game, Tyris Haliburton generated significantly
Speaker 1: higher shot quality than Jason Tatum over a large sample
Speaker 1: of like fifteen twenty possessions to determine a single elimination game,
Speaker 1: and so the Pacers won comfortably. It's literally that simple. Like,
Speaker 1: and here's the thing, Jason, Tyris Haliburton took two pull
Speaker 1: up threes. Why don't you get mad at him? A
Speaker 1: couple things. Tyre's Halliburton's just way better at pull up threes.
Speaker 1: A Tyre's Haliburton jump, pull up three or pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot is worth about forty percent more than a
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum pull up jump shot. So just from the
Speaker 1: simple standpoint of shot value, it's much better. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: he only took two of them. What did he do
Speaker 1: the rest of the time running his pet actions, whether
Speaker 1: it was ball screens like traditional ball screens or ghost
Speaker 1: screens with Buddy Yield, getting downhill, making kickout passes to
Speaker 1: guys who had an advantage. It empowers the whole system.
Speaker 1: Everybody's in a flow, they get better shots, they make them.
Speaker 1: It's that simple. Now, one thing can Chris tops Porzingis
Speaker 1: help the Celtics issues in lit game situations because obviously
Speaker 1: he didn't play last night. Yes, but only if they
Speaker 1: execute properly. So, for instance, like I was at last
Speaker 1: night on the broadcast, what do you think is the
Speaker 1: Celtics pet action like the thing they're gonna run if
Speaker 1: they need a bucket? And what I said was Tatum
Speaker 1: Derek White ghost screen, which ended up being primarily what
Speaker 1: they ran at the end of the game, which was
Speaker 1: how they got Haliburton switched on to him a few times.
Speaker 1: Aaron Nesmith in general did a good job of avoiding
Speaker 1: those switches, but that was the primary action they ran
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game, and they actually did
Speaker 1: get into some good matchups, even in the Aaron Neismith stuff,
Speaker 1: Like Aaron Neismith is a lesser perimeter defender, a lesser
Speaker 1: wing defender than the vast majority of the guys that
Speaker 1: are going to be guarding Tatum in late game situations
Speaker 1: in the postseason. And so what I like about the
Speaker 1: Porzingis piece is he's gonna draw a big in all likelihood,
Speaker 1: which means they're not going to switch. They're gonna run
Speaker 1: probably a traditional drop coverage, which is going to allow
Speaker 1: him to make kickout passes to Porzingis wide open at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. And that's good question, is it.
Speaker 1: Let's say that Tatum identifies that as his advantage. Let's
Speaker 1: say they're playing the Calves in a playoff series, and
Speaker 1: it's like it's a there. He knows Jared Allen is
Speaker 1: going to in all likelihood run a drop and you
Speaker 1: know it's Knax Strews on the ball and he's chasing
Speaker 1: over the top, and he knows he can consistently get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation by just hitting Porzingis at the
Speaker 1: top of the key into pick and pop. Will he
Speaker 1: do it? Will he spam it? Will he go down
Speaker 1: the floor five times in a row and just draw
Speaker 1: the second defender and kick make the drop off pass
Speaker 1: to Porzingis so that he can extend the advantage or
Speaker 1: knock down the shot or whatever it is. Will he
Speaker 1: do that? Because like I watched him have Haliburton cleared
Speaker 1: side plenty of time on the shot clock and just
Speaker 1: stand there and do nothing. And so that's the concerning
Speaker 1: thing to me is it's like something has to click
Speaker 1: there with Tatum to where because we've all seen him
Speaker 1: do it for bursts. We saw him just pick on
Speaker 1: the sixers down the stretch of Game seven. We saw
Speaker 1: him in Game five and six of the Celtics Heat
Speaker 1: series last year clear the side work methodically generate quality shots.
Speaker 1: We know he can do it, but will he do
Speaker 1: it and do it consistently. That's the thing that we
Speaker 1: have to keep an eye on moving forward. And the
Speaker 1: last note on the Celtics. I was really confused in
Speaker 1: general by their defensive process in this game. They were
Speaker 1: really sloppy on their switches and they blew a bunch
Speaker 1: of them they got. Obviously, Buddy Yield's final three point
Speaker 1: shot that he made was on a blown switch. They
Speaker 1: had this weird play where aaron Ne Smith got an
Speaker 1: easy bucket on a baseline out of bounds because Al
Speaker 1: Horford like did this wildly aggressive show on a Buddy
Speaker 1: Heald screen when Buddy Hill was running like thirty feet
Speaker 1: away from the basket and aaron Ne Smith just slipped
Speaker 1: it and got a wide open layup. All of those
Speaker 1: actions where where Tyres Haliburton was getting Downhill, a lot
Speaker 1: of those were coming out of actions the Celtics should
Speaker 1: have been switching, especially the guard to guard actions. Now,
Speaker 1: I get it, like even in switching guard to guard actions,
Speaker 1: it is difficult, but I think it's an easier goal
Speaker 1: than asking Drew Holliday to stay in front of Tyres Haliburton.
Speaker 1: Somehow he's getting ghost screened, right, And you know, again
Speaker 1: with the ghost screen action, more often than not, it
Speaker 1: just forces the defensive player to open up a little
Speaker 1: bit as he kind of works his way around, and
Speaker 1: just that little bit of advantage is all a speed
Speaker 1: guard like Tyrese Haliburton needs to beat him off the dribble.
Speaker 1: And so in general, I didn't think it was their
Speaker 1: best defensive effort, but like with the offensive quality of
Speaker 1: a shot they were getting, it didn't matter. They weren't
Speaker 1: gonna win that game, and that to me is the
Speaker 1: more concerning part. Moving on to Pelicans Kings. The Kings
Speaker 1: are nine and four in their last thirteen games, and
Speaker 1: they've beat a bunch of good teams in that span.
Speaker 1: They beat the Thunder, they beat the Cavs, They went
Speaker 1: into LA and beat the Lakers, blew them, ount went
Speaker 1: into Dallas and blew out the MAVs, went into Minnesota
Speaker 1: and blew out the Timberwolves. Then they had that wild
Speaker 1: twenty plus point comeback against Golden State to win on
Speaker 1: the Molik Monk game winner. They even beat the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: That was as impressive a nine wins in thirteen span
Speaker 1: as you can find around the lead right now. But
Speaker 1: the four losses they lost to the Clippers on a
Speaker 1: back to back after the Warriors game, and then three
Speaker 1: losses to the Pelicans. And it's interesting to me because
Speaker 1: after last night obviously the third loss. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: to me because it's an interesting example of basketball matchups
Speaker 1: because the Pelicans have been pretty mediocre team, just lost
Speaker 1: to the Bulls last they just lost two games in Utah.
Speaker 1: They have been pretty mediocre right twelve and ten this year.
Speaker 1: They've had to Cejim McCollum injury, but there's a case
Speaker 1: to be made that they've been better without him just
Speaker 1: in terms of overall point of attack defense with Dyson
Speaker 1: Daniels in the starting lineup right. And what's interesting to
Speaker 1: me is like that is, how does a team that's
Speaker 1: that mediocre have the number of a Kings team that's
Speaker 1: dominated most of the good teams in the league. And
Speaker 1: to me, that's where it's This is why I always
Speaker 1: talk about basketball being more art than science. This is
Speaker 1: why you could never just assign a single catch all
Speaker 1: metric to quantify the abilities of a basketball player. Matchups matter.
Speaker 1: The specific reason why the King struggle so much against
Speaker 1: the Pelicans is they have this specific type of defensive
Speaker 1: personnel to bother them at all three levels of their offense.
Speaker 1: So like it starts with the point of attack guys,
Speaker 1: whether it's Herb Jones or it's Dyson Daniels, or it's
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall or it's Jose Alvaredo, it is just a
Speaker 1: steady diet of outstanding point of attack defenders on Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and Darren Fox. Then even if you do get switches,
Speaker 1: guys like Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy are not slouches
Speaker 1: in that area. They've got the lankedin athleticism to at
Speaker 1: least do a decent job. I even thought CJ. McCollum
Speaker 1: did a really good job on the ball in this game,
Speaker 1: had several deflections he was locked in, and with how
Speaker 1: high they bring Yonis Malachunus up in their drop, it's
Speaker 1: a doable job. And again this is where this is
Speaker 1: what I meant by when I'm talking about all three levels,
Speaker 1: because then you end up with this backside situation where
Speaker 1: it's brandon Ingram or Zion Williamson or Trey Murphy usually
Speaker 1: two of those three guys at any given possession. So
Speaker 1: I've got six ' nine athlete with long arms, I've
Speaker 1: got Zion Williamson, one of the most freaky athletes in
Speaker 1: the NBA right now, and I've got try Murphy Trey Murphy,
Speaker 1: a six eight sixty nine long armed freak athlete that
Speaker 1: are on the backside. And so those guys are just
Speaker 1: blowing plays up. Zion Williamson once again two possessions that
Speaker 1: he blew up as a lowman. He reached in and
Speaker 1: ripped Keegan murray on on a on a play where
Speaker 1: he was coming out of the the low man spot
Speaker 1: there in the out of the left corner. He had
Speaker 1: that play where I think it was I'm trying to
Speaker 1: remember who's fronting, but they uh. There was that play
Speaker 1: where you saw uh uh Sabonus get the deep seal
Speaker 1: in transition, and I want to say it was somebody.
Speaker 1: It was one of the one of the Pelicans guards.
Speaker 1: I think that was fronting the post and Zion's way
Speaker 1: up on the left wing, and Fox or Monk, whoever
Speaker 1: it is, throws the over the top pass to Sabonas
Speaker 1: and it looks like the sides cleared behind him. Zion
Speaker 1: just comes flying in from the wing and just snatches
Speaker 1: the basketball out from over the top, and like that,
Speaker 1: to me is what makes that defense so exciting. Is
Speaker 1: it's like like Zion has that kind of potential. He's
Speaker 1: got the anticipation, he's got the instincts, he's got the athleticism.
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy bring that same type of disruption,
Speaker 1: and so when you've got that athleticism on the weak
Speaker 1: side and you've got that sort of point of attack personnel,
Speaker 1: you can afford to bring yonus up in ball screens.
Speaker 1: This is the Denver Nuggets thing. Everybody's wondering, how is
Speaker 1: it the Denver Nuggets are getting stops when they have
Speaker 1: a weak grim protector. And it's literally because they can
Speaker 1: do whatever they want with Jokic. They can drop him deep,
Speaker 1: they can drop him up at the level of the screen.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter because Contavious Callbo Pope is getting over
Speaker 1: the top of that screen and he's applying back pressure.
Speaker 1: Christian Brown is getting over the top of that screen
Speaker 1: and he's applying back pressure right and then on the
Speaker 1: weak side at leets like Michael Porter Junior and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon are blowing actions up by anticipating and using their
Speaker 1: length and athleticism, and it has allowed them to not
Speaker 1: need Jonas Valentinas to clean up all the messes. It's
Speaker 1: allowed the Nuggets to not need Nicole Jochic to clean
Speaker 1: up all the messes. And that's what's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: to me about modern defense is like you kind of
Speaker 1: have to be strong in two of your cores, right.
Speaker 1: One of the things, like the Lakers have been one
Speaker 1: of the best defenses in the league over the last
Speaker 1: month or so, they've been top five, and a big
Speaker 1: part of that is they have outstanding rim protection and
Speaker 1: their help defense has been good. They've been they like
Speaker 1: the point of attack has been a little bit of
Speaker 1: a mess. Austin's a little rough, Delos a little rough.
Speaker 1: You've been getting stretches out of maxim cam. But it's
Speaker 1: been a little rough, right, But the weak side, the
Speaker 1: Ruy Hatcher, Mura, the Lebron James, the Christian Wood, the
Speaker 1: weak side help and the and the rim protection of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has allowed them to be a great defense
Speaker 1: despite having below average point of attack personnel. And that's
Speaker 1: what's exciting about Jared Vanderbilt coming back, is they could
Speaker 1: potentially then take a leap up to the next level
Speaker 1: from there. But I think it's an interesting example of that.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you have strong point of attack
Speaker 1: personnel and strong help personnel, you can get away with
Speaker 1: the weak rim protector if you have you know, like
Speaker 1: if you're excellent at the point of attack and you're
Speaker 1: excellent in rim protection, you don't even need to send
Speaker 1: a third defender into ball screens and so now your
Speaker 1: weak side defense isn't as important. You guys kind of
Speaker 1: get the point. I think it's an interesting example of that.
Speaker 1: But this defense is given the Kings in particular a
Speaker 1: lot of issues. To give you an idea in the
Speaker 1: three games against the Pelicans, Darren Fox, but by the way,
Speaker 1: he's been playing like an MVP against everyone else. Twenty
Speaker 1: three points per game, forty percent from the field, nineteen
Speaker 1: percent from three and more turnovers than assists in three games.
Speaker 1: Malik Monk three games versus the Pels thirteen points per game,
Speaker 1: thirty six percent from the field, thirty eight percent from three.
Speaker 1: They've consistently given this team issues. And then on the
Speaker 1: other end, I mean, I thought the Kings did a
Speaker 1: better job swaring, swarming Zion Williamson in this game, keeping
Speaker 1: him under control. And the first two losses, Zion Wimpson
Speaker 1: just sliced and diced him. But this time Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: just completely picked them apart thirty points, six assists, Kings
Speaker 1: got within five, and then Brandon just took the game over.
Speaker 1: He hit like this really nice jab step pull up
Speaker 1: jumper going left over Keegan Murray. Then he had this
Speaker 1: ball screen where he drew a second defender, so bonus
Speaker 1: up to the level of the screen, and it's actually
Speaker 1: this really cool possession where Jonas rolls and Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: comes over and stands right under the basket and basically
Speaker 1: like takes away that easy roll pass and Brandon, like Jonas,
Speaker 1: gives him a window that's kind of out to the side,
Speaker 1: and Brandon throws a beautiful pass that hits Jonas in
Speaker 1: that side so that he could just quick turn and
Speaker 1: shoot the hook shot over Harrison Barnes, who has no
Speaker 1: chance of blocking the hook shot. He catches it and
Speaker 1: makes it. I thought it was a really nice play
Speaker 1: from Brandon Ingram to get a high quality shot out
Speaker 1: of a good defensive possession from Zacramento. And then it
Speaker 1: ended with a just a simple double team. Brandon Iso
Speaker 1: out of the right wing, gets downhill, gets down to
Speaker 1: kind of like the dunker spot area draws, the second
Speaker 1: defender makes a kickout pass. Hockey assist Trey Murphy on
Speaker 1: the left wing knocks down the three, and the game
Speaker 1: is over. But like it was just methodical, beautiful shot
Speaker 1: creation from Brandon Ingram with excellent defense on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor closing things out. A couple of guys,
Speaker 1: I want to shout out herb Jones he had. Herb Jones,
Speaker 1: I should say, had I'm trying to work on pronouncing
Speaker 1: names correctly, so please keep correcting me when I when
Speaker 1: I mess that up. Herb Jones had twenty three points.
Speaker 1: Had a huge offensive rebound. After the Kings Malik Mont
Speaker 1: goes down, he hiss a pull up three. He gets
Speaker 1: it to five, and then the Kings have a great
Speaker 1: defensive possession and for CJ. McCollum into a tough step
Speaker 1: back jump shot that he misses. But herb Jones is
Speaker 1: just a completely unboxed out underneath the basket, gets an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back, which is a lot of that's
Speaker 1: on the kings, which we'll talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1: And then he's we talked about this when we covered
Speaker 1: a Pelicans game a week or two ago, but he's
Speaker 1: doing a lot of work putting the ball on the floor.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of huge possessions putting the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor in this game. He converted nine spotted
Speaker 1: possessions in this game into thirteen points. And I think
Speaker 1: that that's just again with it. When you have that
Speaker 1: specific skill set that he has, which is he's an
Speaker 1: outstanding perimeter defender. Right when you have that, if you
Speaker 1: can be a not just a guy you can knock
Speaker 1: down a three, but also be a dribble shooting pass guy,
Speaker 1: if you can actually be a connective piece in a
Speaker 1: driving kick system, that just pushes your value that much higher,
Speaker 1: and that you know, that's the different like Herb Jones.
Speaker 1: If he can get on that Jaden McDaniels track where
Speaker 1: he's got a little bit more of that off the
Speaker 1: dribble pop, it can just push him up to that
Speaker 1: next level. Un raised the ceiling of this team. And
Speaker 1: then last thing, I wanted to shout out Trey Murphy.
Speaker 1: I've been shouting out this type of guy around the
Speaker 1: league a lot lately. It's this, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: Sam Houser, it's Duncan Robinson, or it's Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: But like the taller, spot up guy on the weak
Speaker 1: side has a has a little bit off the dribble
Speaker 1: pop in his hyper aggressive and catch and shoot situations
Speaker 1: even when he's not really open. I think that brings
Speaker 1: a ton of value. Trey Murphy the season's five for
Speaker 1: eleven on guarded catch and shoot threes, which is a
Speaker 1: huge asset. Like he hit a couple of them in
Speaker 1: this game where it's like the guy's there and it
Speaker 1: just doesn't matter. And I think that having Trey Murphy
Speaker 1: back has been a lot this team. This team has
Speaker 1: potential to be really, really great with the defensive personnel
Speaker 1: that they have if they can continue to get high
Speaker 1: level shot creation at of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson
Speaker 1: on the King's front. I don't want to, like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to overdo it because I think some of
Speaker 1: this is in their head, Like there were some good
Speaker 1: looks down the stretch of that game that they missed
Speaker 1: some good catch and shoot threes that they missed, so
Speaker 1: Bonus like smoked a lefty hook right at the rim
Speaker 1: that he shot way long off the back of the
Speaker 1: rim that would have cut it to like four, I
Speaker 1: think down the stretch. So I think some of it's
Speaker 1: in their head. They were sloppy on the glass, Like
Speaker 1: the Kings have been the best defensive rebounding team in
Speaker 1: the league over the last month, and they just had
Speaker 1: a bunch of mistakes on the glass in this game
Speaker 1: thirteen offensive rebounds. So, like, I don't want to overthink it,
Speaker 1: but I think one of the things you'll see happen
Speaker 1: in basketball is especially with the bad matchup, a team
Speaker 1: will struggle with some of the mental elements of it,
Speaker 1: and you almost just kind of like need to get
Speaker 1: the monkey off your back, right, You need to get
Speaker 1: a big win against this team just to kind of
Speaker 1: reset your confidence. And I'm not now that they've played
Speaker 1: three times, I would assume. I would assume, because they're
Speaker 1: both in the West, will play at least one more
Speaker 1: time this year. But I think, especially because you don't
Speaker 1: want to run into a playoff series, with that problem
Speaker 1: if they were to catch each other in a matchup.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's important for the Kings to
Speaker 1: nach a win against the Pelicans at some point this season.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's all I have for this part
Speaker 1: of today. We're gonna be back later tonight for a
Speaker 1: breakdown of the Knicks, Bucks, as well as the Suns
Speaker 1: and the Lakers. I will see you guys. Then the
Speaker 1: volume