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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to hoopsinight here at
Speaker 1: the volume, Happy Thursday, everybody hopeful. If you guys are
Speaker 1: having an incredible week, we have a fun show for
Speaker 1: you today. We're gonna breaking down two games. We have
Speaker 1: Raptors Suns and Nuggets. Rockets. Haven't talked much Raptors yet
Speaker 1: this year, so we're gonna do a deep dive on
Speaker 1: the Raptors, and then I have a take about the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets starting lineup that's been kind of crystallizing for
Speaker 1: me over the course of the last few months that
Speaker 1: I want to unleash today. And then we have a
Speaker 1: bunch of mailbag questions for the end of the show
Speaker 1: as well. You guys are the joke before we get started,
Speaker 1: subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a
Speaker 1: lot to me. If you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt
Speaker 1: for the film threads that I do every morning, as
Speaker 1: well as show announcements in the last but not least,
Speaker 1: don't forget to keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them throughout these shows.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So this was a
Speaker 1: game that the Raptors pretty much controlled throughout. The Suns
Speaker 1: briefly took a lead there in the third quarter, but
Speaker 1: it never really felt like the Raptors didn't have control
Speaker 1: of the game. They did an amazing job on Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and Devin Booker and that was really the story
Speaker 1: of the game. They held them to thirteen for forty
Speaker 1: two shooting and stayed out of rotation for the most part,
Speaker 1: which allowed them to hold the Suns as a team
Speaker 1: to forty percent shooting and twenty seven percent from three.
Speaker 1: And this is what they do best, at least on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. You know, they have
Speaker 1: all these big athletic wings right, a lot of like strength,
Speaker 1: so they can struggle navigating screens sometimes and so their
Speaker 1: pick and roll defense is not as good as it
Speaker 1: probably could be, or certainly not as good as some
Speaker 1: of the other teams in the league. But they're outstanding
Speaker 1: on an island, especially against scoring wings. So they hold
Speaker 1: up really well in ISO and post up situations. They
Speaker 1: allow to zero point eighty five points per ISO, which
Speaker 1: ranks eighth in the NBA. They allow zero point nine
Speaker 1: points per post up, which ranks fifth in the NBA.
Speaker 1: And you saw from the start of this game it
Speaker 1: was ogn and O Beyon Devin Booker and Scottie Barnes
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant, and then they occasionally spent time on opposites,
Speaker 1: whether it was cross matches or one guy was on
Speaker 1: the bench or whatever it might have been. But both
Speaker 1: of them did an outstanding job. And one of the
Speaker 1: big things that stood out to me on the screen,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of the advantage of having a defensive
Speaker 1: talent like this is, you know, there's a reason why
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant Devin Booker are so efficient. They take tough shots,
Speaker 1: they make tough shots. There's no doubt they are tough
Speaker 1: shot makers, and they can do the improvisational stuff and
Speaker 1: the creative stuff with the best in the league. But
Speaker 1: there's a reason why they're so efficient. There's a reason
Speaker 1: why these or high volume scorers that are consistently over
Speaker 1: sixty percent through shooting, And it comes down to the
Speaker 1: the muscle memory shots that they can get to by
Speaker 1: getting great separation, right, So they have such great footwork
Speaker 1: and such great counter moves for every move that they
Speaker 1: can usually get to a spot and get up and
Speaker 1: down into their you know, their their muscle memory into
Speaker 1: their energy transfer and it doesn't get disrupted. And at
Speaker 1: that point, it's just like a shot they've practiced ten
Speaker 1: thousand times in their life and they're gonna make it
Speaker 1: a bunch of the time. Right. But one of the
Speaker 1: things you notice in this particular game, especially early, was
Speaker 1: kde and Devin Booker getting to their spots and then
Speaker 1: suddenly realizing like, oh shit, here comes a long arm
Speaker 1: in my face, and all of a sudden, I have
Speaker 1: to adjust my release, and suddenly it becomes one of
Speaker 1: those improvisational, creative shots which nobody in the league is
Speaker 1: going to hit at the same rate that you can
Speaker 1: hit those muscle memory shots. Right. Like, for the most part,
Speaker 1: efficiency comes down a shot selection. You know, like it's
Speaker 1: not there's nobody out there that's like only taking impossible
Speaker 1: shots and has a sixty percent through shooting, you're getting
Speaker 1: like a you're getting like a certain amount of shots
Speaker 1: from the flow of the offense right where you're working
Speaker 1: off the ball. You're getting a certain amount of shots
Speaker 1: that are muscle memory shots where you get a great
Speaker 1: deal of separation and you rise up into a shot
Speaker 1: that you can knock down at a high percentage, and
Speaker 1: then you have your rescue possessions and all of the
Speaker 1: weird creative stuff that you have to do throughout the game.
Speaker 1: But if the ball's not popping around those, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of in the flow of the offense, shots kind
Speaker 1: of retract, right, and if you're not getting as much separation,
Speaker 1: suddenly those start to retract, and suddenly most of your
Speaker 1: shots are these like really tough, creative, improvisational shots. And
Speaker 1: like you'd see Devin Booker like rise up. There was
Speaker 1: playing like the third or fourth possession of the game,
Speaker 1: where like Devin Booker rose up to take a shot
Speaker 1: and then a late contest came and he ended up
Speaker 1: having to default to a pass and throw it away
Speaker 1: at the last second, there were like three or four
Speaker 1: shots from KD where like all of a sudden, here
Speaker 1: comes Scottie Barnes' long ass arm and he has to
Speaker 1: adjust his release point and shoot some kind of like
Speaker 1: janky one handed kind of like like push shot right.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of the type of personnel predicament
Speaker 1: that Toronto can put you in. And for the record,
Speaker 1: that's how good this team has been on the defensive
Speaker 1: end in the half court. They have had some issues
Speaker 1: on defense, which we're going to talk about in a minute,
Speaker 1: but when they have those guys out there on the floor,
Speaker 1: they're really tough to score against. It's not just on
Speaker 1: the ball too, it's help side. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of possessions in last night's game where it seemed like
Speaker 1: one of them got some separation or it seemed like
Speaker 1: a you know, a Jordan Goodwin or Eric Gordon got
Speaker 1: downhill and was going to the rim and here comes
Speaker 1: another freaky athlete over the top to swap the shot. Aside,
Speaker 1: they're just a whole lot of long arms all over
Speaker 1: the floor causing problems for people. This is where I
Speaker 1: want to do a deep dive into the raptors because
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting how good they've been in certain
Speaker 1: areas and on certain nights versus what the actual end
Speaker 1: product has been. They're twelfth in defensive rating in terms
Speaker 1: of total points allowed per one hundred possessions, but according
Speaker 1: to Cleaning the Glass, which we'll filter out to half
Speaker 1: court as well as getting rid of garbage time, they're
Speaker 1: the eighth best half court defense. And honestly, what's hurting
Speaker 1: them in terms of dropping that defensive rating from eighth
Speaker 1: to t twelve comes down to their transition defense, which
Speaker 1: mostly has to do with offense. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of long rebounds and a lot of turnovers. Right. They
Speaker 1: are the twenty sixth best team in the league at
Speaker 1: knocking down three point shots by percentage, so a lot
Speaker 1: of long misses, right, And then they are twenty first
Speaker 1: and turnovers per one hundred possession, So lots of turnovers,
Speaker 1: lots of long rebounds, lots of transition opportunities, right, and
Speaker 1: that puts your defense in a really precarious position. And
Speaker 1: they've given up one point two points per transition possession
Speaker 1: according to Synergy, which ranks twenty sixth in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Synergy has a more broad scope of transition possessions which
Speaker 1: I prefer, Like, like when you look at just fast
Speaker 1: break points, fast breaks are more or less just like
Speaker 1: runouts like one on zhers, two on ones, three on twos,
Speaker 1: and they usually result in really quick shots. But transition
Speaker 1: basketball usually has more flow than that, right, Like there's
Speaker 1: a semi transition phase where the defense isn't set. So
Speaker 1: I actually prefer Synergy's classification for what counts as a
Speaker 1: transition possession, just so that you guys know why I
Speaker 1: use different stats in different situations. But that specifically is
Speaker 1: what hurts their transition defense, and their transition defense is
Speaker 1: what hurts their overall defensive rating as a half court defense.
Speaker 1: The reason why they're eighth instead of higher. They don't
Speaker 1: protect the paint super well, not that goes to be
Speaker 1: that's not exactly a shocking thing. Yaka pertles a solid
Speaker 1: defensive player, but he's not the earth shattering rim protector
Speaker 1: that you see elsewhere around the league. Right. Also, it's
Speaker 1: about scheme. This team is eighth and half court defense.
Speaker 1: Last year they were nineteenth, and a big part of
Speaker 1: it was overhelping. A big part of it was overtrapping
Speaker 1: over aggressiveness, which was very much Nick Nurse's brand. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember one of the things you'll notice they
Speaker 1: allow only thirty four to three point attempts per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions, which is the ninth best mark in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's not a lot of overhelping. It's leaving guys on
Speaker 1: an island, trusting your individual defenders to do their job.
Speaker 1: It gives up some layups, but it also prevents the
Speaker 1: ball from popping around and disrupts the flow of the
Speaker 1: opponent that you're trying to guard. Right biggest areas of
Speaker 1: opportunity that I'm seeing right now on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor for for Toronto is they are a
Speaker 1: mediocre defensive rebounding team. For how much athleticism they have
Speaker 1: on the floor, they should be better, especially with all
Speaker 1: the long rebounds that are available in NBA games. And
Speaker 1: then they don't force enough turnovers considering the kind of
Speaker 1: length that they had. It's something that I'd like to
Speaker 1: see them do better moving forward. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about Scotty Barnes for a minute, because this is a
Speaker 1: guy who kind of stagnated from year one to year two,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were specifically disappointed because you know,
Speaker 1: coming out of his first year, it was like a
Speaker 1: lot of like smaller version of Giannis, who might be
Speaker 1: a more polished score which could be one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the league. Right Like, that's the type
Speaker 1: of potential that Scotty Barnes as Scotty Barnes had and
Speaker 1: then we came into year two and he's pretty much
Speaker 1: the same player, and so it was kind of discouraging, right, Well,
Speaker 1: that can go out the window. He's taken a huge
Speaker 1: leap going into year three, career high nineteen points per game,
Speaker 1: career high fifty five point three percent true shooting, career
Speaker 1: high five point five assists per game, career high nine
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, career high one point six steals per game,
Speaker 1: career high one point three blocks per game, and he's
Speaker 1: a the best jump shooting season of his career. A
Speaker 1: Scottie Barnes jump shot this year has been worth one
Speaker 1: point one four points per shot, which is excellent. He's
Speaker 1: even got a forty eight percent effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers, which is not bad. He had
Speaker 1: a big pull up three in the second half against
Speaker 1: the Suns last night, where like he'd kind of had
Speaker 1: the honest thing going on, or he's bringing the ball
Speaker 1: to the four and everybody's kind of backpedaling, and he
Speaker 1: just kind of walked into an easy pull up three
Speaker 1: and he knocked it down. And that's why kind of
Speaker 1: like in the big pictures doesn't have anything to do
Speaker 1: with this particular Raptors team, but in the big picture,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what Scottie Barnes looks like
Speaker 1: when they finally surround him with shooting, because again, this
Speaker 1: is a team that's twenty sixth and three point percentage
Speaker 1: and you've got a downhill, slashing wing who is an
Speaker 1: excellent passer, Scottie Barnes, Like there was a play where
Speaker 1: he attacked out of the left like kind of elbow
Speaker 1: extended against Yaka Perle, hit him with a hard dribble
Speaker 1: move to the left and then spun back to the right.
Speaker 1: And I can't remember who exactly it was that double teamed,
Speaker 1: but the guard might have been I can't remember exactly
Speaker 1: who it was, might have been Jordan Goowin. Actually I
Speaker 1: think it was Jordan Goodman. I clipped this play. It's
Speaker 1: in my thread from this game. Jordan Goodwin does what
Speaker 1: you're supposed to do. When you double team, you wait
Speaker 1: until the guy has his back turned and it's a
Speaker 1: live dribble. That's the hardest situation to quickly identify a
Speaker 1: double and to handle it by making the right pass
Speaker 1: right and he dives down and Scotty like literally is
Speaker 1: in the spin move, turning, reading the situation and easily
Speaker 1: makes a kickout before Jordan Goodwin can do anything right
Speaker 1: to Gary Trent Junior, who's wide open, he knocks down
Speaker 1: the shot. He's actually more advanced as a passer at
Speaker 1: this point than Giannis was at this phase in his career,
Speaker 1: and so I'm really really excited about seeing what this
Speaker 1: team looks like in the big picture, because as interesting
Speaker 1: as this version is, which is like all this length,
Speaker 1: all this athleticism, we're flying around, there's just you know,
Speaker 1: freak athletes everywhere. That's exciting, But in the big picture,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna do anything until they put real offensive
Speaker 1: talent around Scotty Barnes, particularly the guys who can play
Speaker 1: off the ball, and so I'm kind of excited about
Speaker 1: seeing in the future what they can build around him
Speaker 1: in the big picture. Now, as a unit, the Raptors
Speaker 1: offense has not been good they're twenty fifth and half
Speaker 1: court offense. According to Cleaning the Glass, they are a
Speaker 1: bottom third ISO team and a bottom third pick and
Speaker 1: roll team. Anything going kind of downhill towards the rim
Speaker 1: because the guy's missing shots, and then a lot of
Speaker 1: the bigger wings struggling to kind of like identify what
Speaker 1: they're dribbling into and like getting into four or five
Speaker 1: bodies over penetrating, turning the ball over taking some really
Speaker 1: tough like push shots over the top of the defense.
Speaker 1: The one area they've been really good offense, I shouldn't
Speaker 1: even say really good. The one area they've been above
Speaker 1: average on offense has been in the post. And it's
Speaker 1: a little bit easier for guys to read the floor
Speaker 1: they have their back turn, so it's easier for them
Speaker 1: to protect the basketball, and so they've been a little
Speaker 1: bit above average there, being led mainly by Pascal Siyakum,
Speaker 1: who actually has been the best post up player in
Speaker 1: the league this year minimum of fifty possessions one point
Speaker 1: nine points per Pascal Siakam post up possession. Now, one
Speaker 1: of the things that I appreciate about this Raptor's offense
Speaker 1: is that they have good self awareness. They know they
Speaker 1: struggle to score in the half court, so they hunt
Speaker 1: transition opportunities as much as possible. They actually score off
Speaker 1: of steals according to Cleaning the Glass one point four
Speaker 1: to seven points per possession, which ranks fifth in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and it's a high volume transition offense. They score twenty
Speaker 1: four point two points per game in transition according to Synergy,
Speaker 1: which ranks fifth in the NBA. Now, when I break
Speaker 1: down a team like that, when there's a lot of
Speaker 1: good and there's a lot of bad, it's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're this great individual defense team, but we struggle and
Speaker 1: pick and roll. We're a great transition offense, but we
Speaker 1: struggle in the half court. We can post up really well,
Speaker 1: but we can't knock down open threes and all these
Speaker 1: different things. That's what leads to what you see this season,
Speaker 1: which is a team that hovers around five hundred any
Speaker 1: particular night. If a bunch of things go right, they
Speaker 1: can look like world beaters, and then when those other
Speaker 1: the same things go the opposite direction, they can lose
Speaker 1: even to bad teams. And so like, I don't really
Speaker 1: have high expectations for this particular team. They're gonna hover
Speaker 1: around five hundred, but the leap from Scottie Barnes is
Speaker 1: super exciting, and I'm particularly excited in the long run
Speaker 1: to see what Toronto puts around him, especially when they
Speaker 1: put some more shooting and just higher level offensive talent,
Speaker 1: because that guy has that guy has a chance to
Speaker 1: be really, really really good in the big picture. On
Speaker 1: the Sun's front, it's just about adjusting the length. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, this has actually been one of my like
Speaker 1: personal experiences playing basketball in twoson. It makes me sad
Speaker 1: to talk about basketball because i haven't been playing very
Speaker 1: much lately because I've been dealing with this injury. But
Speaker 1: this week I'm slowly ramping up. I'm actually gonna go
Speaker 1: to the gym and shoot around for the first time today,
Speaker 1: very very excited about that. I even already got my
Speaker 1: shoes on. I've got my uh, I've got my my
Speaker 1: Yenescus shout out, Sabrina Yenescu. I'm gonna be testing these
Speaker 1: out in the gym today. But I when I lived
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, It's funny because I I used to play
Speaker 1: against high level competition every single day because a ton
Speaker 1: of overseas players there, a ton of college basketball players there,
Speaker 1: and so it was like every single day I had
Speaker 1: to be at the top of my game, which is
Speaker 1: something I really appreciated and something I missed about Charlotte.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love two Soon. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna stay here forever or not, but like
Speaker 1: there are days where I wish I lived in a
Speaker 1: better basketball city right here in Tucson, Like I am
Speaker 1: just so much more like big and athletic than most
Speaker 1: of the players I play against. Right but there are
Speaker 1: some good basketball players here, some lanky, athletic wings. And
Speaker 1: then I also play in money tournaments and I go
Speaker 1: out of town sometimes and play, and so every once
Speaker 1: in a while end up in a situation where I'm
Speaker 1: playing against the level of talent that I used to
Speaker 1: play against when I was in Charlotte. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because every single time there's an adjustment. Like my favorite
Speaker 1: example of this is like one of the college players
Speaker 1: that I work out with every summer, when they come
Speaker 1: home and I play against them, it's like, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, like every dribble move you do needs to
Speaker 1: be a little tighter, and you need to move a
Speaker 1: little faster. That swing pass you make or that post
Speaker 1: entry you make like you used to be able to
Speaker 1: just throw it. Now you need to use a pass
Speaker 1: fake or you need to put real pace on it. Right,
Speaker 1: It's like that step back three. The level of intensity
Speaker 1: I used to be able to get away with that
Speaker 1: in against the talent regularly here Tucson is not the
Speaker 1: same as the one I need to use against the
Speaker 1: kids that I'm working out with over the summer. And
Speaker 1: so like every single time I get back into that environment,
Speaker 1: it's an adjustment, and I usually struggle the first day
Speaker 1: or two, and then once I get you know, get
Speaker 1: the timing down and I kind of get adjusted to it,
Speaker 1: it's fine. Like have Devin Booker and Kevin Durant like
Speaker 1: always struggled against long athletic teams, No, like they've succeeded
Speaker 1: against teams like that throughout their NBA careers. This is
Speaker 1: more an example of just like in the dregs of
Speaker 1: the regular season, when it's like a random Wednesday night
Speaker 1: and you show up in Toronto on the road and
Speaker 1: it's like, here comes Scottie Barnes, Here comes Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: Here comes O G N and O B. And it's like, shit, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not ready for this, you know, and like it
Speaker 1: can it can be an adjustment. And that's why, like
Speaker 1: if you were to actually play a seven game series
Speaker 1: between the Suns and Raptors, which will probably never happen,
Speaker 1: like you'd see by like game two or game three,
Speaker 1: KD and Devin Booker would make all those little tweaks
Speaker 1: and adjustments they need to make to get their shots
Speaker 1: off and to get the type of separation that they need,
Speaker 1: and then they would be right at least a hell
Speaker 1: of a lot more fine than they were last night.
Speaker 1: What were they thirteen for forty two or something like that.
Speaker 1: So I don't really want to overthink that. A lot
Speaker 1: of specific Sun's role players missed good looks. Devin Booker
Speaker 1: tweaked his ankle, that was an issue. Grayson Allen didn't
Speaker 1: play in this game. It was just an all around
Speaker 1: bad night. So I don't want to pay too much
Speaker 1: attention to it. Now. There are a couple of schematic
Speaker 1: things that I want to look at. There will be teams,
Speaker 1: particularly at the very top level of competition. So let's
Speaker 1: say it's a Let's say you're in a series against
Speaker 1: Denver and you're facing off against you know, KCP and
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon kind of like last year. Right, Let's say
Speaker 1: you make it to the finals and you have a
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics team that's gonna throw a bunch of athletic,
Speaker 1: you know, perimeter defenders at you. I wonder if there
Speaker 1: is a team that can successfully make all three of
Speaker 1: them work, because that's the thing we keep forgetting about
Speaker 1: brad Beal in this situation. And like, you can have
Speaker 1: a great defender for KD and a great defender for
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. But if Bradley Beale can get the defense
Speaker 1: in rotation by beating his matchup, then everyone's playing in
Speaker 1: the flow of the game. And now, like KDE and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker are attacking with advantages consistently, then it can
Speaker 1: fall apart pretty quickly, right, And so that'll be something
Speaker 1: interesting because I think the way you beat Phoenix is
Speaker 1: you have outstanding perimeter defenders for those two guys, and
Speaker 1: you make them work really hard, and you stay out
Speaker 1: of rotation as much as possible, and maybe you can
Speaker 1: lead them to be less efficient and then beat them
Speaker 1: in every other area of the game. Right, And you know,
Speaker 1: last night was an interesting example of a Raptors team
Speaker 1: that had bodies for KD and Devin Booker, and obviously,
Speaker 1: like it's they have other limitations and I think, like
Speaker 1: I think Phoenix could would beat Toronto in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: I don't think you have enough offensive talent. The Sons
Speaker 1: would just figure out how to get stops. But it
Speaker 1: is such a it's an interesting thing to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on, and it's why the Bradley Beal acquisition in
Speaker 1: particular is so important in the big picture and why
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see them all three play together, which
Speaker 1: we haven't seen yet this year. And then the last
Speaker 1: thing was the offensive rebounds. They give up fifteen offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds in this game. Now they are ninth in defensive
Speaker 1: rebound percentage on the season, so it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a matchup thing. But they did what they kept doing
Speaker 1: is finding ways to pull, you know, the bigger Sons
Speaker 1: players away from the basket. And then suddenly you had
Speaker 1: a six to nine wing that's trying to be boxed
Speaker 1: out by Jordan Goodwin and he just has no chance.
Speaker 1: And that like, that's you know, when we saw that
Speaker 1: in the Denver series. By the way, it has a
Speaker 1: bunch of size on the front line and they the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets got offensive rebounds on thirty one point five
Speaker 1: percent of their own shot attempts in that Sun series,
Speaker 1: which was a problem. So that's something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on as well. Now the Denver Houston game. So
Speaker 1: I Houston, if I'm not mistaken, still hasn't won a
Speaker 1: game on the road, and they really struggled in this game.
Speaker 1: I thought they were really sloppy defensively. They were botching
Speaker 1: switches right and left and missing rotations on the back end,
Speaker 1: which against the Denver team, you're just gonna get absolutely
Speaker 1: killed when you do that. And for whatever reason, Houston
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to get their defense to travel on
Speaker 1: the road the way that it has been at home.
Speaker 1: But I want to focus on Denver in this particular
Speaker 1: game because you know, Jamal Murray was back, Aaron Gordon's
Speaker 1: still out. They played a really tough schedule with this
Speaker 1: stretch where Jamal Murray was out, a lot of good
Speaker 1: opponents on the road, and so now you get Jamal back,
Speaker 1: you come home and suddenly things turn around, right. But
Speaker 1: so I don't really overlook, I don't really over emphasize
Speaker 1: or focus on that stretch there where they because I
Speaker 1: did what They were six and one to start the
Speaker 1: season with Jamal, and then they went six and five
Speaker 1: after that, and I mostly attribute that to just down
Speaker 1: your second best player, really tough schedule with a lot
Speaker 1: of road games against really good teams, but they looked
Speaker 1: just as unguardable as ever last night without Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: by the way, Justin Holiday filling in for him in
Speaker 1: the starting lineup. And I was talking yesterday with the
Speaker 1: Nerd Sesh guys and they asked me, they were like,
Speaker 1: do you think that that Nicole Jokic is the most
Speaker 1: unguardable offensive player in the history of the NBA? And
Speaker 1: I said, like, I can only speak from my personal
Speaker 1: experience in the sense that, like, as someone who's had
Speaker 1: to root against both Steph and NIKOLEA Jokic Lebron, I'm biased,
Speaker 1: but having had to root against Stephan Nikola Jokic, I
Speaker 1: felt more helpless as a fan rooting against Nikola Jokic
Speaker 1: than I did against Steph. And that to me, there
Speaker 1: was an inevitability to the Nikola Jokic experience that was
Speaker 1: straight up painful to watch. And even Lebron, who I
Speaker 1: think at his peak was a better player than Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: but it came from every other area of the game
Speaker 1: just because of what he could do as an athlete.
Speaker 1: Even Lebron James at his absolute peak, I don't think
Speaker 1: had the inevitable nature of offensive success that Nikola Jokic has,
Speaker 1: and that makes him, in my opinion, the most unguardable
Speaker 1: offensive player of all time. But I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about Jokic today because we talked about that. We
Speaker 1: did a deep dive about that with the Nerd Sach
Speaker 1: guys again, go to their YouTube channel and we did
Speaker 1: an hour and a half on a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1: But we talked Jokic for a while. I I was
Speaker 1: texting with Carson this morning because I think that the
Speaker 1: Denver starting lineup is the most perfect basketball lineup ever built.
Speaker 1: And to emphasize this, I asked Carson this morning. I said,
Speaker 1: if you had to take one player away from that
Speaker 1: starting lineup, like a season ending injury that would maintain
Speaker 1: the Nuggets as the championship favorite, who would it be?
Speaker 1: And the problem is is it's a really, really tough
Speaker 1: question because Aaron Gordon is vitally important for a bunch
Speaker 1: of reasons. Took several high leverage defensive assignments last year,
Speaker 1: from Lebron James to Kevin Durant to Jimmy Butler, and
Speaker 1: did an excellent job in literally every single matchup and
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor, the work he
Speaker 1: does out of the dunker spot, just in general, as
Speaker 1: a high IQ offensive player, his vertical spacing is vitally important.
Speaker 1: With how much nikolea Jokic actually operates away from the
Speaker 1: basket right, so it's like you can't do Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 1: So what about Michael Porter Junior. Well, he's an outstanding rebounder,
Speaker 1: averages what eight rebounds a game this year, a career
Speaker 1: high one point eight offensive rebounds per game. He's been
Speaker 1: super active on the offensive glass this season, just torching
Speaker 1: teams off the ball every single time the Rockets missed
Speaker 1: a switch. Last night he knocked down the shot a
Speaker 1: it's something great. I put the number on my on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed. But like a unguarded catch and shoot,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter junior jump shot has been worth over one
Speaker 1: and a half points. Any spot up possession at all
Speaker 1: for Michael Porter Junior has been worth one point two
Speaker 1: eight points, which is off the charts. Good and then
Speaker 1: he's been a really good help defender for them. So
Speaker 1: it's like he's the guy when you double Jokich who's
Speaker 1: making every damn shot. He's the guy who's helping you
Speaker 1: on the glass, helping you in helpside defense. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure you can replace his value with anybody else on
Speaker 1: that roster. And then it's like, Okay, what about Contavious
Speaker 1: Calbo Pope, Well, he's your best perimeter guard defender. He's
Speaker 1: the guy who's gonna guard to Devin Booker, He's the
Speaker 1: guy who's gonna guard to Steph Curry. He's the guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna guard an Austin reevesor whoever it is that
Speaker 1: you're gonna face in these late round playoff series in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. And the drop off offensively from someone
Speaker 1: like him to Christian Brown is pretty significant. And this
Speaker 1: is not I'm not trying to diminish Jokic in any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form. That's not the purpose of this discussion.
Speaker 1: I'm really just shouting out the Nuggets in general and
Speaker 1: the job they've done building this particular lineup, because when
Speaker 1: you combine the synergy between Jokic and Murray as a
Speaker 1: two man game and obviously, we've talked all about everything
Speaker 1: that Jokic does. Jamal Murray I ranked him as a
Speaker 1: top fifteen player in the NBA. I think that he
Speaker 1: I think I've had him at sixteen if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: But I think that he played at a star level
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs last year. I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: make an All Star team this year if he can
Speaker 1: stay healthy long enough. Like Jamal Murray's awesome, But it's
Speaker 1: not just those two. It is perfect complimentary pieces that
Speaker 1: Nuggets have been an excellent defense this year in large
Speaker 1: part because they're anchored by two excellent defensive players, and
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon and Katavias Calboll Pope, and you're getting the
Speaker 1: excellent help side defense from Michael Porter g Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior and KCP are so vitally important to their backside spacing.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon is so vitally important in terms of his
Speaker 1: vertical spacing. I'm actually really curious if anybody has an
Speaker 1: alternative opinion, and I'd like to see those in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. Maybe we can hit him in a mailbag
Speaker 1: question later on this week. But like, can anybody think
Speaker 1: of a five man grouping that more perfectly compliments each
Speaker 1: other on both ends of the floor than the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets that lineup Jokis, Murray Porter Junior kcp in Gordon
Speaker 1: had a plus ten net rating in the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: which is insane, absolutely insane. Playoff basketball against an outstanding
Speaker 1: Timberwolves team that I've been high on for a while
Speaker 1: and it was a top tier contender this year, against
Speaker 1: a Phoenix Suns team who was more limited last Yer
Speaker 1: than they are this year, and a Lakers team that's
Speaker 1: more limited last Yer than they are this year, but
Speaker 1: to very very good teams led by very very good players,
Speaker 1: and then the best coach in basket ball in the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat in Eric Spolstra, and they had a plus.
Speaker 1: They outscored those those groups by ten points per one
Speaker 1: hundred posessions. It's insane. That same group outscored opponents by
Speaker 1: thirteen points per one hundred posessions in the regular season
Speaker 1: and only a slight drop off against the higher level
Speaker 1: competition of the playoffs. I just that's the thing is, like,
Speaker 1: obviously any contender suffers a significant injury, they drop down
Speaker 1: a level, so that this is not a unique problem
Speaker 1: to Denver. But I don't think there's a single guy
Speaker 1: in that starting lineup that you can sacrifice and maintain
Speaker 1: Denver as the championship favorite. But it's because of this
Speaker 1: syenergy of that group that I do view Denver as
Speaker 1: the championship favorite. They don't have the top tier talent
Speaker 1: that Boston has. They don't have the top tier talent
Speaker 1: that like, like Damian Lillard's a better player than Jeal Murray.
Speaker 1: Hate to break it to you, but like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter because the synergy of that group. That's
Speaker 1: what I love about basketball. Shout out Mark Titus. Basketball
Speaker 1: is more art than science, right, But because basketball is
Speaker 1: more art than science, it's not a out adding up
Speaker 1: the talent. It's about the synergy of the group. And
Speaker 1: I can't remember ever seeing a five man grouping have
Speaker 1: better synergy than that Denver Nuggets lineup. All right, Moving
Speaker 1: on to our mailbag. First question, at what point this
Speaker 1: season can we say we know how good a team
Speaker 1: really is? Is it like forty games, all Star break,
Speaker 1: trade deadline. I don't think there's any specific amount of
Speaker 1: regular season games. I look at specific trends. You know,
Speaker 1: it's more important to show what you can do when
Speaker 1: you get to a certain point in the playoffs. I
Speaker 1: can't say forty games because we've seen too many teams
Speaker 1: be bad for forty games and then look great, right
Speaker 1: like we've seen we saw Boston Celtics team in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two start the season extremely mediocre and then just
Speaker 1: start kicking everyone's ass, right like we saw the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers start last year as a team that was
Speaker 1: outside of the play in tournament for most of the
Speaker 1: season and then suddenly made it to the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 1: So I don't think there's any specific span of games.
Speaker 1: All we're trying to do is learn specifically from the schematics. Right.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times, like I'll watch
Speaker 1: a game and I'll just be like shout. I'll be like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: Mo Wagner looked really good on that possession. Oh he
Speaker 1: did a really good job on that. Oh he's bullying
Speaker 1: everybody here. Oh he's knocking down the spot up threes.
Speaker 1: I don't even realize he has twenty seven points because
Speaker 1: I'm not looking at the box score. I'm just watching
Speaker 1: the players playing the game. Because what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: do is, like, really, a regular season result means nothing
Speaker 1: it means absolutely nothing. You know, like you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a hard time getting anybody to any specific regular season
Speaker 1: outcome in terms of what happens on the scoreboard at
Speaker 1: the end to sway me in the big picture. What
Speaker 1: I'm more concerned about is like specific exos and o's
Speaker 1: things that are happening, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you have to beat the team four out of seven
Speaker 1: times to eliminate them in the NBA playoffs, and so
Speaker 1: like a lot of times, I'm not necessarily looking at
Speaker 1: a specific forty game chunk or anything. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: lineup groupings. Oh man, this lineup can really do well.
Speaker 1: Oh man, this lineup struggles with this. Okay, they've won
Speaker 1: all these games, but they're really struggling with XYZ. Right. So,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's necessar about the number of games.
Speaker 1: It's more about just seeing repeated examples of specific lineups
Speaker 1: thriving in versaal situations, right, if that makes sense. Next question,
Speaker 1: what is your opinion on Kamingo with the Warriors. He
Speaker 1: looks great during the preseason, but has not had many
Speaker 1: bright spots since the season started. I felt like he
Speaker 1: often looks a bit nervous on ball and reluctant to
Speaker 1: make a play. Is the Warriors kerr reluctance to let
Speaker 1: him stay on the court as soon as he makes
Speaker 1: some mistake, stunting his confidence in his overall development. Do
Speaker 1: you think the Warriors should just trade him? So, one
Speaker 1: of the things I've noticed with Kaminga is a lot
Speaker 1: of high end potential as an on ball creator. We've
Speaker 1: seen this in the post. He's a freak athlete. He
Speaker 1: draws a lot of fouls. That's always a really good sign.
Speaker 1: A lot of really good stuff there, right. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that Kaminga is struggling with right now
Speaker 1: is playing within the flow of a five man unit.
Speaker 1: And that becomes a problem because he's playing with a
Speaker 1: team in particular with Golden State and a coach and
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr is hyper focused on the flow of a
Speaker 1: five man unit, right. And so it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where I think Kaminga's value as a talent and
Speaker 1: as a trade asset is actually really really high compared
Speaker 1: to what his actual impact is on this particular team.
Speaker 1: And so it really just comes down to aggression. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're wanting me to say, don't trade Kminga. I've
Speaker 1: been saying trade Kaminga literally since before they won the title. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in pushing your chips in, and
Speaker 1: if it were up to me, you'd pair you know,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul's salary with Jonathan Kaminga and you try to
Speaker 1: bring back someone like a Jeremy Grant or one of
Speaker 1: the players from the Toronto Raptors. I had one of
Speaker 1: the guys. The next mail back question actually the upgrade
Speaker 1: at the four for the Warriors between Wiggins and Draymond
Speaker 1: you describe sounds to me like Siakim or Anonobe. Do
Speaker 1: you like the fitting? Could you see the Warriors going
Speaker 1: after them? Those are other examples that are excellent. The
Speaker 1: reason why I didn't throw them out yesterday is like,
Speaker 1: I really think that the Raptors have an outsized value
Speaker 1: of all their players, and I think that specifically, when
Speaker 1: it comes to getting a Siakam or an Anonobi, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to overpay, and at a certain point you
Speaker 1: ask yourself, like, how much better is a Siakam than
Speaker 1: a Jeremy Grant, really? And what if I could get
Speaker 1: him for less? You know what I mean? And those
Speaker 1: are the kinds of decisions you have to make. But
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I'm a big believer in, like, if
Speaker 1: you've got a if you've got Steph Clay, Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and let's just call it Jeremy Grant for the sake
Speaker 1: of this particular discussion, and Draymond Green, and off the bench,
Speaker 1: you have a Kevon Looney. And off the bench, you've
Speaker 1: got a Moses Moody, and off the bench, you know
Speaker 1: you've got Potzamski playing a certain amount, and if Gary
Speaker 1: Payton can come back from his calf injury, and you've
Speaker 1: got Dario sarag I looked at it, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: they are a lot more athletic than they used to be.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot more scoring pop in the starting
Speaker 1: lineup than they used to have. This is now. You've
Speaker 1: now turned Jonathan Kaminga into a veteran forward that like
Speaker 1: has played in big playoff games and has guarded Lebron
Speaker 1: James in the Western Conference finals, and a guy that's
Speaker 1: shooting the shit out of the basketball this year. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just feel a lot more comfortable with
Speaker 1: that unit. Right, do you lose the long term potential
Speaker 1: of Jonathan Jonathan Caminica, Yeah, you do, but it's been
Speaker 1: it's been made abundantly clear that he's not ready to
Speaker 1: be a reliable piece in a playoff rotation. Right, So
Speaker 1: if that's the case, the question becomes what's your goal here,
Speaker 1: because if you don't believe in that core, then it's
Speaker 1: time to start trading the veterans and building around Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga and Moses Moody and Podziemski and Trace Jackson Davis. Right.
Speaker 1: But if that's not the case, if you do believe
Speaker 1: in Steph Curry, which I still do, I still think
Speaker 1: he's one of the best players. I think he's firmly
Speaker 1: in the top three four players in the world. If
Speaker 1: you still believe in that, you invest in it and
Speaker 1: in the plane. The two timelines thing worked for you
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. But like, don't play the results,
Speaker 1: play the process. That was a good result in over
Speaker 1: a process I disagreed with. And you could argue that
Speaker 1: if they had made that sort of trade, because Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga and Moses Moody basically didn't play at all in
Speaker 1: that playoff run, you could argue that they would have
Speaker 1: had a much higher chance of repeating in addition to
Speaker 1: having probably won more comfortably in that particular year, right,
Speaker 1: and they might be in a better position now. And
Speaker 1: so my thing is like, I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: committing to the timeline at least when it comes to
Speaker 1: having significant personnel needs, right. I think that that's you know,
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of Laker fans and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, Ruey Hotchmurrow, we can't trade Ruey hot Chamura.
Speaker 1: He's playing really good basketball. He's really good playoff player
Speaker 1: for us. Last year we just signed him to the
Speaker 1: long term deal. Or they'll say, like, he's your guy
Speaker 1: who plays the four after Lebron James retires. And I
Speaker 1: want to be like, well, you're now talking about after
Speaker 1: Lebron James retires this year, you're one of the top
Speaker 1: six or seven contenders, Like why are you not? You know,
Speaker 1: and Ruey plays the same position as Lebron. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying give it rue way away for nothing, but
Speaker 1: if you have an opportunity to go get a Jeremy Grant,
Speaker 1: you get him. Because Jeremy Grant can play alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis in the starting lineup. There's a
Speaker 1: reason why Ruey hasn't. Ruey's not as good as a
Speaker 1: screen navigator as Jeremy Grant. He's not as good of
Speaker 1: a perimeter defender as Jeremy Grant. He's not as good
Speaker 1: at playing in the flow of the offense as Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 1: Ruey Hachi Mura's a really damn good player, and I
Speaker 1: like him, and I think he's gonna succeed wherever else
Speaker 1: he goes. And if you can't get a high caliber
Speaker 1: player back, you keep Ruey Hachimura. But like, again, look
Speaker 1: at your timeline. Lebron's thirty nine in December, you gotta
Speaker 1: invest steph is thirty five. Now, Like, at a certain point,
Speaker 1: if you don't think Kaminga can help you win a
Speaker 1: championship this season, then all you're really doing is sacrificing
Speaker 1: the potential ceiling of this team to maintain the potential future.
Speaker 1: But you're also hurting that because these guys have value.
Speaker 1: See the point, Like, you're actually better off either investing
Speaker 1: entirely in this group and making and maximizing this era,
Speaker 1: or investing entirely in that future era. Otherwise you might
Speaker 1: have two mediocre eras, if that makes sense, And specifically
Speaker 1: when it comes to Kaminga, and I say, I'd say
Speaker 1: the same thing about Rui is a Ruyacha Muray Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis Frontline winning you the title? I don't think so
Speaker 1: is a Jonathan Kaminga. And I think Jonathan can be
Speaker 1: really good. But is Jonathan Kaminga flashing Jannis Jokic, Anthony Edwards?
Speaker 1: You know, is he shake Gillis Alexander? Is he flashing
Speaker 1: that level of high, high end play. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it's off the table, but it's certainly a much longer shot.
Speaker 1: And so that's the thing is, like it's not like
Speaker 1: you're in it's not like you're being reluctant to trade
Speaker 1: away a franchise cornerstone like Jonathan giving A might be that,
Speaker 1: but it's so up in the air at this point
Speaker 1: and and and there hasn't been that strong of an
Speaker 1: indication in that direction. And so yeah, like I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in like pusher chips, and it just is
Speaker 1: difficult to say at this point who's going to be available.
Speaker 1: You don't want to overpay either, and so it's more
Speaker 1: of a discussion that's easier to get in the weeds
Speaker 1: about when we get closer to February. Next question, I
Speaker 1: agree with your assessment on the current state of refing.
Speaker 1: I have some other thoughts that I'd like your thoughts on.
Speaker 1: How how do you think they should officiate smaller stout
Speaker 1: defenders walking taller, skinnier offensive players out of position even
Speaker 1: when they have the ball. It seems like athletic perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders get away with being overly physical on less athletic
Speaker 1: offensive players as long as they do it in spurts,
Speaker 1: like they'll get physical and force the ball handler to
Speaker 1: pick up the ball, like with a hand check or pressuring,
Speaker 1: but then back off as the offensive player is recovering balance,
Speaker 1: effectively blowing up the play. Finally, it seems like stronger
Speaker 1: offensive players have to be overly cautious of having offensive
Speaker 1: fouls called on them due to flopping, but when they
Speaker 1: play straight up don't initiate contact, they get fouled and
Speaker 1: then don't get calls, which would have been mitigated if
Speaker 1: they could play with more force. So that was actually
Speaker 1: really well thought out. The specific dynamics that you're talking
Speaker 1: about as it relates to, you know, timely physicality and
Speaker 1: then backing off, That to me is gamesmanship and It's
Speaker 1: what all really good defenders do. The difference between the
Speaker 1: best defenders in the league and the lesser defenders is
Speaker 1: they're good at fouling without getting called. Like that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Like Draymond Green has made a career out of fouling
Speaker 1: without getting called, and like he has found every single
Speaker 1: angle in loophole in the rule book to be physical
Speaker 1: and to disrupt offensive players without getting fouls called on him.
Speaker 1: And it's made him one of the best defensive players
Speaker 1: of the generation. And it's not just him, it's all
Speaker 1: of them. You know, who's a serial hand checker, Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: who's considered the best perimeter defender of this generation. You know,
Speaker 1: you know it was a serial hand checker, Andre Gudala.
Speaker 1: And because they were so damned strong, they used to
Speaker 1: do it and it would be super impactful, right, Like
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys do that. They're just good
Speaker 1: at playing within the margins. Now, as far as officiating
Speaker 1: in general, I think the problem is is officials in
Speaker 1: particular fall for flopping because they watch the offensive player
Speaker 1: too much. Now, from what I understand, refs are actually
Speaker 1: trained to focus on the defensive player and watch what
Speaker 1: they're doing and only whistle them when they do things
Speaker 1: that are wrong. But more often than not, they end
Speaker 1: up reacting to what the offensive player is doing. And
Speaker 1: so I think in the big picture, if referees were
Speaker 1: just never paying attention to the offensive player and only
Speaker 1: watching what the defensive player is doing and then being
Speaker 1: more picky about what they decided to call, I think
Speaker 1: that would solve a lot of their problems and to
Speaker 1: some of the grifty stuff that we see around the league. Jason,
Speaker 1: in a previous mail back question, you talked about the
Speaker 1: roster in balance the Pistons currently have, particularly the lack
Speaker 1: of ball handling and a shooting putt power forward, and
Speaker 1: with a losing streak going on, that imbalance is really
Speaker 1: being exposed during these long stretches where we remain competitive
Speaker 1: on defense but can't buy a bucket on the other
Speaker 1: end to capitalize. Troy Weaver has been taking heat for
Speaker 1: not doing anything this offseason to address these imbalances, but
Speaker 1: I understand why no moves were made. The only free
Speaker 1: agent I could have seen helping us was Cam Johnson,
Speaker 1: and Brooklyn was not going to give him up. That said,
Speaker 1: it's becoming evident to this point in time the front
Speaker 1: office has not given Kid the tools to succeed the
Speaker 1: same way as some of his peers have been, like
Speaker 1: Frondz or Mobiley Scottie Barnes. The Pistons are expected to
Speaker 1: have up to sixty million in cap space and a
Speaker 1: deeper pool of free agents that can help address the
Speaker 1: lack of spacing and aggregate ball handling. If you were
Speaker 1: the GM, would you go out and make a move
Speaker 1: for that ball handling for now to help the core
Speaker 1: and re establish an identity, or simply wait until the
Speaker 1: off season and get in play for someone like Siakam,
Speaker 1: Miles Bridges, Tobias Harris, any of those last three names
Speaker 1: would help immensely. But I do fear by waiting too long,
Speaker 1: you're reinforcing bad habits and destroying the core's But that's
Speaker 1: the trick that that last sentence there is like it's
Speaker 1: always a fine line between like being patient to make
Speaker 1: sure you don't waste resources before it really can help you,
Speaker 1: and then the habits thing, because you want your young
Speaker 1: basketball players to learn how to play good basketball. Now. Fundamentally,
Speaker 1: part of the problem is is when you're running out
Speaker 1: Asar Thompson in two bigs, your you're just your offense
Speaker 1: is doomed to fail from the beginning. And Asar has
Speaker 1: been like last I checked, and it's been about a week,
Speaker 1: but he's been basically the worst jump shooter in the
Speaker 1: NBA so far this year, and so that's gonna hurt you.
Speaker 1: And Isaiah Stewart, I know, has made some shots, but
Speaker 1: it's like one of those things where teams don't guard
Speaker 1: him out there, and that that kind of is a
Speaker 1: bigger problem than the the occasional three point shot that
Speaker 1: he makes, right, And so a couple things, boy, and
Speaker 1: Bogdanovic is allegedly coming back soon's that's gonna be something
Speaker 1: that helps you. He is kind of a greaser of
Speaker 1: the wheel, so to speak. I think when it comes
Speaker 1: to the free agent market, you just have to be careful,
Speaker 1: you know, because what you don't want to do is
Speaker 1: bring in a player that's just gonna to kind of
Speaker 1: like hamper that development, right, Like ironically, a guy like
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris. I don't know if he'd be even interested
Speaker 1: in playing at that in that type of rebuilding situation,
Speaker 1: but he's a guy who'd be perfect because he's such
Speaker 1: a smart off ball player who attacks mismatch as well
Speaker 1: and can run the floor and transition and knock down
Speaker 1: open three point shots, although he's been in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a shooting slump as of late. But like
Speaker 1: like Pascal Siakam is a guy like I don't know
Speaker 1: how he helps your specific situation. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's I think, I think lineup construction would
Speaker 1: go a long way. Like I know you're defending better
Speaker 1: with two bigs, but I almost feel like you're better
Speaker 1: off learning how to play better offense with more offensive
Speaker 1: talent on the floor and maybe putting someone like boy
Speaker 1: On at the three ex just me at the four,
Speaker 1: and maybe move us Our Thompson to the bench and
Speaker 1: get Jade and Ivy more reps as much as you can.
Speaker 1: And I at the end of the day, though, like
Speaker 1: they're bad. They're so bad, and they're so far away
Speaker 1: from being good. There is no one thing that's gonna
Speaker 1: fix it. There's no one free agen signed, there's no
Speaker 1: you know, moving boy On into the starting lineup, There's
Speaker 1: no you know, Jade and Ivy finally finds his groove
Speaker 1: and gets more minutes with the starters. There's no anything
Speaker 1: like that. It's like you need total overhaul, you're so
Speaker 1: far back, You're you're very much where like Philadelphia was
Speaker 1: there before Joel Embiid really took off. Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting stuff going on, and like I really
Speaker 1: like Kate, and I really like Jade and Ivy and
Speaker 1: A sar Thompson's like one of the best perimeter defender
Speaker 1: prospects we've ever seen, and Jalen Duran is super exciting,
Speaker 1: but like none of it is meshing into a kind
Speaker 1: of like coherent basketball team. And so at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like like unless the right type of
Speaker 1: shooting four comes you write it out with boy On Bogdanovic,
Speaker 1: and you hope somebody pops in the draft. You hope
Speaker 1: someone like a sar Thompson, Like that's as weird as
Speaker 1: a Star actually was a better shooter than a men
Speaker 1: Thompson coming out of the draft. So like you hope
Speaker 1: maybe he kind of figures it out in the long run.
Speaker 1: But I don't have easy fixes for you, because you're
Speaker 1: just gonna be bad for a long time and that's
Speaker 1: really unfortunate. But at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: not going to take two or three you know fixes,
Speaker 1: It's going to take six or seven decisions by that
Speaker 1: front office to repair the situation that they have. Have
Speaker 1: you taken a shot like the one Steph got called
Speaker 1: for an offensive foul on and what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on protecting the shooter versus kicking out when momentum takes
Speaker 1: you while shooting across your body. It's tough because I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer kicking out is not so much like
Speaker 1: it depends on the footwork, Like if you're the specific
Speaker 1: shot you're referencing where Steph kicked out, he was moving
Speaker 1: to his right, and like you train shooters when they're
Speaker 1: moving to their right to swing their right foot around
Speaker 1: to help them square up when they're in mid air.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like I don't, I think
Speaker 1: you have to give defenses a chance to contest shots.
Speaker 1: And I'm a big believer in your landing area should
Speaker 1: be more or less where you took off from. And
Speaker 1: once you start giving leniencees outside of that landing area,
Speaker 1: it makes it too hard to guard, which I think
Speaker 1: is bad for the league. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call it an offensive foul either. I like
Speaker 1: I would just if if he kicks out any remains
Speaker 1: inside his landing area, I think you call a foul,
Speaker 1: and if he kicks out and ends up going outside
Speaker 1: of the landing area, I think it's a no call,
Speaker 1: and you play on. I think, like the only time
Speaker 1: where I get really where I get really bothered by
Speaker 1: it is when it's like a fake shot. And that's
Speaker 1: like the shit that James Harden used to do, where
Speaker 1: like he would take a shot and land five feet
Speaker 1: in front of where he took off from, and it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: that's not real basketball. But the shooter moving to his
Speaker 1: right and swinging his right leg around a little bit,
Speaker 1: that to me is a normal basketball play that you
Speaker 1: train kids at a young age to do. And so like,
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, I think I agree with you that
Speaker 1: calling in an offensive foul is silly. Two more questions. Guys,
Speaker 1: you mentioned how Ad is regressed with his jump shot.
Speaker 1: Dude to him taking two months off, But how about
Speaker 1: Jokic seems to take a long break every off season
Speaker 1: and he's still incredible. This also moves to your point
Speaker 1: that he and Steph and Lebron are all insane. Jokic
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to have that same obsession. A couple of
Speaker 1: things I think Jokic plays up the lack of obsession thing.
Speaker 1: I don't remember who it was it told. It might
Speaker 1: have been Adam Marris, but the Jokic is obsessive in
Speaker 1: the offseason. Two. I know he puts forward this like
Speaker 1: I don't give a shit personality. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You don't become that good at basketball without giving a shit. He,
Speaker 1: from what I understand, takes coaching clinics over the course
Speaker 1: of the summer. I'm sure he does practice his touch.
Speaker 1: He also, just in terms of natural ability, has transcendently
Speaker 1: great touch, and I think that's a big difference between
Speaker 1: him and Anthony Davis, who's a guy who doesn't have
Speaker 1: great touch, who works really hard to become okay at
Speaker 1: it right. But like, yeah, I don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't buy into Jokic is like fake, I don't
Speaker 1: give a shit attitude. Last question, once, do the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat have to do to be taken seriously as a
Speaker 1: championship contender? Going to the finals and beating the one
Speaker 1: seed clearly is not enough to please the media talking
Speaker 1: heads well will change perception for them. I suspect winning
Speaker 1: a championship isn't even I get it. I understand as
Speaker 1: a Heat fan when you see your team succeed that
Speaker 1: it's frustrating to not see them get the props that
Speaker 1: they get. Here's all I would say. I'll say two things.
Speaker 1: Did anybody think Miami had a chance to beat Denver?
Speaker 1: I did not. I'm curious if there are non Heat
Speaker 1: fans out there who actually think Miami had a chance
Speaker 1: to beat Denver. I would like to hear it, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that was the thing? Is it? Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they made it to the finals, but they upset a
Speaker 1: lot of flawed teams, and then they ran into a
Speaker 1: team that was clearly better than all of them, and
Speaker 1: they had no chance. Right. And so the second piece
Speaker 1: of that is when would I take the Heat seriously
Speaker 1: as a contender? As soon as they trade for more
Speaker 1: offensive talent. It's that simple. Give me a better version
Speaker 1: of Tyler Harrow, like a legitimate backcourt offensive weapon next
Speaker 1: to Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo, and I'm all in.
Speaker 1: I Like they say they're not interested in Zach Lavine,
Speaker 1: I don't know who they're interested in. There's got to
Speaker 1: be somebody. They got to go after somebody, But even
Speaker 1: just to Martin Rosen. Like if the Heat got Demarta Rosen,
Speaker 1: I'd be back on board and view them as a
Speaker 1: championship contender. They just need somebody in that backcourt who
Speaker 1: can provide high level offensive creation. In the playoffs, Heimi
Speaker 1: Hawk has has been incredible. They hit on these fringe
Speaker 1: pieces all the time, and that's how they keep getting
Speaker 1: the next Caleb Martin, the next Max Strews, the next
Speaker 1: Kay Vincent. They keep churning those guys out. But they
Speaker 1: need something at a higher level than that, because those
Speaker 1: role players will be round out the situation. But they
Speaker 1: need more than what they have. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today is always as sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your sport. One more show this week tomorrow and
Speaker 1: then we'll take the weekend off. I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume