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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Best of Hoops Tonight, featuring my top
Speaker 1: takes from recent shows that I wanted to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the Nicol Jokis, Schaguillos Alexander MVP debate. So
Speaker 1: this ends up being a constant debate over the course
Speaker 1: of the years because there is a lack of consistent criteria.
Speaker 1: In my time following the NBA, everything shifts back and forth.
Speaker 1: Different voters value different things. There are huge portions of
Speaker 1: the voting base for MVP that like dramatically consider, like
Speaker 1: seriously consider catch all metrics, which I vehemently disagree with.
Speaker 1: I think it's a bad way to try to make
Speaker 1: a decision of this caliber that involves such NBA history.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of different things about the MVP
Speaker 1: that I don't like, and that's why I don't spend
Speaker 1: too much time talking about it. That said, I think
Speaker 1: there's a specific issue arising here that is probably not
Speaker 1: that should not be an issue involving whether or not
Speaker 1: Yokic has a real case. Is Yokich the best player
Speaker 1: in the NBA? Yes? Why because that sort of thing
Speaker 1: is determined in the playoffs when we get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the last few years, Jokic is
Speaker 1: the indomitable force that I've seen. He is the one
Speaker 1: guy that reaches a level that no team can reach.
Speaker 1: And even back in that twenty twenty three season, he
Speaker 1: had a very very good defensive season, and he is
Speaker 1: very good defensively on the way to the title that year.
Speaker 1: Jo Kisch is the best player in the league. There's
Speaker 1: nothing that Shae could do in the regular season context
Speaker 1: to take that away. In my opinion, that's it. There
Speaker 1: is this idea that Oklahoma City is overwhelmingly talented and
Speaker 1: that's why they're winning. And as a result, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are writing off Shay and it's like, Shay's
Speaker 1: the guy that's on the overwhelmingly talented team. Jo Kich
Speaker 1: is the guy that's carrying a bunch of bums. He's
Speaker 1: the guy that deserves to win the MVP. Chet Holmgren's
Speaker 1: been out most of the season. His secondary shot creator,
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams, is very young by NBA standards. I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of people saying, like, Shay is surrounded by
Speaker 1: all this all world defensive talent. You're right, Shay is
Speaker 1: surrounded by a very good defensive team. There's no offensive
Speaker 1: player playing off of Shay that's as good as Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray is. There's no shooter that plays for the thunder
Speaker 1: who's as good as Michael Porter Junior is. They the
Speaker 1: Denver's construct is built more around offensive talent. Ogoma City's
Speaker 1: construct has built more around defensive talent. What Shay's job
Speaker 1: this year has been has been to create every single
Speaker 1: shot for his team throughout this entire season. With Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams off the floor. Just playing with a bunch of
Speaker 1: defensive minded young athletes, he's been able to consistently put
Speaker 1: the ball in the basket and keep his team afloat
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. And when you really get down
Speaker 1: to it, they are eleven games better, eleven games better
Speaker 1: in the standings than Denver. Do you have any idea
Speaker 1: how much better Yokich would have to be than Shay
Speaker 1: in the regular season context for eleven games to be overcome.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, to me, MVP should
Speaker 1: come down to three factors. It should come down to
Speaker 1: who's been the best player on the best team in
Speaker 1: the league, so team success, value to your team, how
Speaker 1: your team performs with or without you. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: I personally think it should factor in somewhat what your
Speaker 1: big picture reputation is in the league. Like if you're
Speaker 1: a player that we know can't play in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and is a merchant of regular season basketball, I think
Speaker 1: that should factor in. If there's another player that's pretty
Speaker 1: close but that's a proven we know this is one
Speaker 1: of the dudes in the NBA when we get to
Speaker 1: the playoffs, I do believe that should factor in. I
Speaker 1: do think Jokic has an advantage in that case. I'd
Speaker 1: even argue Jokic is more valuable to the Nuggets than
Speaker 1: Shae is to the Thunder, although I think Shay is
Speaker 1: a lot more valuable to the Thunder than people give
Speaker 1: him credit for. They're a good team without Shay, they're
Speaker 1: a fucking awesome team with Shae. He lifts them to
Speaker 1: that level. I saw people say, like, oh, if you
Speaker 1: take Yokic off the Nuggets, what does that team win
Speaker 1: in take Shae off the Thunder? How many get there?
Speaker 1: They're in the play it. So it really comes down
Speaker 1: to that last piece, which is who's been the best team,
Speaker 1: and there's just such a massive advantage there. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: have very like the Nuggets have had substantial issues on defense.
Speaker 1: They've consistently struggled against good teams in the league. They
Speaker 1: have not been nearly as good as a basketball team
Speaker 1: as the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the gap in value
Speaker 1: and reputation between the two is too small in my
Speaker 1: opinion to make up that gap, And it gets a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper when you start to factor in the
Speaker 1: reasons why Denver has struggled. Denver has been a bad
Speaker 1: defense this year, and it's not all Jokicha's fault. I
Speaker 1: don't want to sit there and make it seem like
Speaker 1: that's the case. There are a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: are struggling defensively on this team. Jamal can be a
Speaker 1: problem at times, Michael Porter Junior can be a problem
Speaker 1: at times. Aaron Gordon's been banged up all year. It
Speaker 1: hasn't been as good defensively. The young guys, guys like
Speaker 1: Julian Strather's been a disaster on defense at times this year.
Speaker 1: There are other guys at fault, but there is a
Speaker 1: simple concept, a simple reality about Denver's construct that limits
Speaker 1: them on the defensive end of the floor. Jokic cannot
Speaker 1: defend and drop coverage, and he cannot switch if he
Speaker 1: defends in drop coverage. He's nowhere near good enough at
Speaker 1: protecting the rim. A guy like that on his heels,
Speaker 1: guys go right around into the basket, and if you
Speaker 1: put him in space to switch, can't slide his feet
Speaker 1: well enough. He'll just give up dribble penetration. So there's
Speaker 1: like two coverages that the Nuggets can legitimately deploy, and
Speaker 1: both of them involve putting two on the ball. They
Speaker 1: can bring Yokic up to the level and they can
Speaker 1: blitz with him. Those are really the only two things
Speaker 1: they can do, and so they exist in rotation. They
Speaker 1: exist in these four on threes off the ball, and
Speaker 1: they're just not very good on the backside rotating out
Speaker 1: of it. That is a reality of why Denver struggles
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. Jokic is a
Speaker 1: big part of it. That's why Phoenix continues to have
Speaker 1: success against this team scoring the basketball, even though obviously
Speaker 1: they've lost their last few against them. But Phoenix can score.
Speaker 1: When the Lakers went in there and won, it was
Speaker 1: just two on the ball, four on threes, easy, wide
Speaker 1: open threes every single time down the floor. Their defense
Speaker 1: struggles because their base concept demands excellent rotations on the
Speaker 1: backside due to Jokic, and they haven't been very good
Speaker 1: on the backside. I think that that is just too
Speaker 1: big of a factor in a gap that is eleven
Speaker 1: games wide in the standings for me to just be like, well,
Speaker 1: Jokic is the best player in the world, so therefore
Speaker 1: he deserves MVP. It's never been that way. The best
Speaker 1: player in the world deserve MVP. Lebron would have ten
Speaker 1: of them. MJ would have ten of them, it'd be
Speaker 1: a completely different story. Kobe'd have five or six of them.
Speaker 1: That's just not how it works. It's never been how
Speaker 1: it works. Shay's having a nearly as good season as
Speaker 1: Jokic for a much better team, and he may not
Speaker 1: be as valuable to them as Yokic is, but he's
Speaker 1: valuable enough that I think he deserves to be the
Speaker 1: favorite to win MVP. At this point, there's what twenty
Speaker 1: something games left. Maybe Shaye falls apart and Yokic is
Speaker 1: amazing and Yokic snatches it, But if the season ends today,
Speaker 1: I think Shaye deserves it, and I hope that he.
Speaker 1: I hope that if the circumstances stay the same, that
Speaker 1: he ends up getting it, because that's the way we've
Speaker 1: done it throughout throughout NBA history. Once again, every time
Speaker 1: I watch these kind of like middle tier teams in
Speaker 1: the league, you know, I kind of I've talked about
Speaker 1: this last night with Colin Coward, but like I kind
Speaker 1: of view the inner circle of the NBA as like
Speaker 1: five teams that I think have like a real chance
Speaker 1: to win the title, and in no particular order, because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna end up doing some stuff involving ordering them
Speaker 1: over the course of the next month. Jackson and I
Speaker 1: were talking this morning about doing very, very in depth
Speaker 1: breakdowns specifically on the Inner Circle contenders, some film and stuff,
Speaker 1: So we're thinking about doing that over the course of
Speaker 1: the next month. But those five teams for me right now,
Speaker 1: or in the Eastern Conference, Boston and Cleveland, and in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference Oklahoma City, Denver and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: If you look at those teams and you watch them
Speaker 1: play every single night, there's a level of seriousness on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor and their execution and their
Speaker 1: attention to detail and just their overall pursuit of maximizing
Speaker 1: their talent and being the best basketball team that they
Speaker 1: can be. And literally as soon as you go below that,
Speaker 1: it's a drop off. Even with a team that has
Speaker 1: a pretty damn good record like the New York Knicks,
Speaker 1: they've been so inconsistent with their defensive execution this year.
Speaker 1: Teams like Milwaukee, teams like Minnesota. There's so many teams
Speaker 1: in that group that have been very, very inconsistent in
Speaker 1: their attention to detail. The one team that's kind of
Speaker 1: below there that I'm keeping my eye on, because I
Speaker 1: don't really know where they're gonna fit. Once we see
Speaker 1: a larger sample of them playing some tougher teams as
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, I think they have a chance
Speaker 1: to enter into the inner circle. There are some teams
Speaker 1: in that group that I think I am keeping my
Speaker 1: eye on over the course of the final month to see.
Speaker 1: But those are the five teams that I see, and
Speaker 1: when you go beyond that, there's a pretty substantial drop
Speaker 1: off in terms of just the level of serious basketball
Speaker 1: that they play. I thought it was really interesting as
Speaker 1: I started to dig through the numbers, like, if you
Speaker 1: look at the margins, these are the areas where all
Speaker 1: of the good teams are always good. The margins are
Speaker 1: the little details that suck. They're hard to do, but
Speaker 1: they're such an important part of winning basketball games, for instance,
Speaker 1: taking care of the basketball and making sure you don't
Speaker 1: give up points off of turnovers. The Thunder, the Calves,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics are all top five and opponent points
Speaker 1: off of turnovers, and the Lakers are top ten giving
Speaker 1: up points off of offensive rebounds. The Calves and Celtics
Speaker 1: are both in the top ten. The Thunder have always
Speaker 1: been a bad defensive rebounding team. That's their Achilles heel.
Speaker 1: So they're out of that group. But the Calves and
Speaker 1: Celtics top ten, and the Lakers since January fifteenth, when
Speaker 1: they kind of became a sit team, they're seventh in
Speaker 1: that department giving up fast breakpoints. The Calves, the Celtics,
Speaker 1: and the Thunder are all in the top eleven in
Speaker 1: limiting opponents fast breakpoints. This is the Lakers Achilles heel.
Speaker 1: That's where they always get beat. They're unathletic in transition
Speaker 1: at times, cleaning the glasses. Overall transition defense stat, the Calves,
Speaker 1: the Celtics, and the Thunder are all top ten. The
Speaker 1: Lakers are top ten since January fifteenth. Makes in the
Speaker 1: restricted area allowed so giving up easy baskets right underneath
Speaker 1: the rim. The Calves, Celtics, and Thunder are all top ten.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are seventh since January fifteenth, total number of
Speaker 1: contested shots this year. This is a hustle stat on
Speaker 1: NBA dot Com. The Calves, the Thunder, and the Celtics
Speaker 1: are all in the top four. These are non negotiables.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a serious basketball team, you
Speaker 1: have to be committed to running the floor in transition,
Speaker 1: making contact on box outs, competing for contested rebounds, making rotations,
Speaker 1: putting your body on the line, making extra efforts contesting shots.
Speaker 1: These are non negotiables and they're hard. I get it.
Speaker 1: There's a reason why there's such a huge swath of
Speaker 1: the league that's bad at this stuff on a nightly basis,
Speaker 1: because it's eighty two games and you're all a bunch
Speaker 1: of millionaires, and it's really really hard to get yourself
Speaker 1: to compete at that level in a night in a
Speaker 1: night out basis. That said, like I said, it's a
Speaker 1: non negotiable if you want to get to the finish line,
Speaker 1: if you want to get the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Every
Speaker 1: time I watch the Bucks, they seem to be heavily
Speaker 1: lacking in these areas. They are mediocre to bad in
Speaker 1: every single one of those statistical categories that I listed,
Speaker 1: except for defensive rebounding. It was jarring again to watch
Speaker 1: as the Cavs just dominated this game by out running
Speaker 1: the Bucks all over the floor twenty four easy points
Speaker 1: in transition, countless possessions where they would defend well and
Speaker 1: get a stop and rebound and run out the other
Speaker 1: way and get an easy one against a Bucks team
Speaker 1: that wasn't willing to run even in the half court.
Speaker 1: It's the same sort of concept whether it was Darius
Speaker 1: Garland or Don and Mitchell or somebody else creating that
Speaker 1: initial advantage. The Calves just sliced and diced the Bucks
Speaker 1: defense with these beautiful drive and kick sequences that often
Speaker 1: ended in wide open looks for very good shooters. You
Speaker 1: could literally see them repeatedly knifing through the lane, not
Speaker 1: just on that initial drive but on closeouts, and as
Speaker 1: a result, they're able to grow that advantage so that
Speaker 1: first close out's only a little bit of a close out,
Speaker 1: that second close outs more of a close out, the
Speaker 1: third one no chance the dudes wide open. The Calves
Speaker 1: generated twenty two unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in
Speaker 1: this game. The Milwaukee Bucks generated just nine. That's the difference.
Speaker 1: The Calves have this beautiful ability to slice and dice
Speaker 1: defenses for these super high quality catch and shoot looks
Speaker 1: and at the same time, on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor keep their defense out of rotation against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the commitment to running, it's the
Speaker 1: commitment off the ball on defense to track king shooters
Speaker 1: being sharp with your closeouts. Cleveland was so attentive and sharp.
Speaker 1: Every catch and shoot look for Milwaukee felt like it
Speaker 1: was smothered with a quick and reactive close out. How
Speaker 1: many times did you see Torrian Prince in the game
Speaker 1: kind of lingering around five six feet away from Max
Speaker 1: Struce and just a quick swing pass and Max Struce
Speaker 1: knocks down a shot. How many times did you see
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez and Janisantana Kumbo just drifting off of Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley and not in position to offer a closeout as
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley made them pay knocking down that catch and
Speaker 1: shoot on the weak side. Prince in particular had a
Speaker 1: really enough rough night in this regard, but as a team,
Speaker 1: the Bucks were not attentive in their off ball defense.
Speaker 1: That's how you end up with such a huge chasm
Speaker 1: in the overall number of wide open catch and shoot
Speaker 1: shots that they generated. The Bucks have a lot of talent,
Speaker 1: but you can't even get to the point where you're
Speaker 1: able to weaponize that talent until you're willing to commit
Speaker 1: to the hard work that is consistent winning basketball that
Speaker 1: is required to get to that level. There are some
Speaker 1: realities with the Bucks regarding their age in overall foot speed.
Speaker 1: This is a size team, not a speed team. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about the difference between the two here
Speaker 1: in a minute, but at the same time, every time
Speaker 1: I watch them, there's just so much fat that can
Speaker 1: be trimmed simple transition defense principles like stopping the ball,
Speaker 1: stopping the basket, and getting matched up. There's a big
Speaker 1: one late in the game where Tory and Prince left
Speaker 1: a wide open shooter right at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: The on defense in the half court like simple ideas
Speaker 1: like making sure that when you're in help side defense,
Speaker 1: positioning yourself in a way where you can see man
Speaker 1: and ball, and make sure that if that pass goes,
Speaker 1: you're already in the closeout while the ball's in the
Speaker 1: air and you're there on the catch. These are details
Speaker 1: that don't necessarily depend on their overall team speed that
Speaker 1: can be cleaned up that they just haven't made the
Speaker 1: requisite effort to do so. Now, getting to the game itself,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about how the combination of speed
Speaker 1: and jump shooting is what actually allows the Cleveland Cavaliers
Speaker 1: to generate so many quality shots. This has been the
Speaker 1: best offense in the NBA this year. They're actually almost
Speaker 1: three points per one hundred possessions ahead of the second
Speaker 1: place Boston Celtics. They're the only team in the league
Speaker 1: getting over a one to twenty offensive rating. The Cavs
Speaker 1: offense is unbelievable. Now, Like we talked about earlier, there's
Speaker 1: a difference between size and speed. There are two easy
Speaker 1: ways to get the defense into rotation through overwhelming speed
Speaker 1: and overwhelming size. For overwhelming size, think like Jokic. Sure,
Speaker 1: guys like Lebron James luka Don said Chason Tatum. Some
Speaker 1: of these bigger, stronger players, they find a defender that's
Speaker 1: too small to guard them. Then they pressure the rim
Speaker 1: until they get easy twos, or they draw in that
Speaker 1: second defender. Speed works the exact same way when you
Speaker 1: have guards that through transition or through ball screens, against switches,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. When they can consistently get screaming downhill
Speaker 1: towards the rim, they either are going to get layups
Speaker 1: or they're going to draw in multiple defenders. This is
Speaker 1: the part of the Cavs roster construct that has really
Speaker 1: shown through this year. And for the record, I was
Speaker 1: originally a couple of years ago completely out on the
Speaker 1: Darius Garland Donovan Mitchell Perry as like a foundation for
Speaker 1: the Cavs. Why because it's two small guards, and when
Speaker 1: you're building around two small guards, it just presents so
Speaker 1: many issues for you on the defensive glass and just
Speaker 1: on the defensive end in general. And by the way,
Speaker 1: they still occasionally have rebounding issues and they still occasionally
Speaker 1: have defense issues. But as Darius Garland has gotten healthy
Speaker 1: this year and as he's blossomed into this like super
Speaker 1: high level guard, we've gotten to see the other side
Speaker 1: of that dynamic, which is that they do have overwhelming speed.
Speaker 1: Garland this year, healthy with his legs underneath him, has
Speaker 1: been one of my favorite players to watch in the
Speaker 1: league this year because of his combination of speed and
Speaker 1: handle in shot making and playmaking, which gives him the
Speaker 1: ability to get wherever he wants to get on the floor.
Speaker 1: His probing and transition off the dribble and in the
Speaker 1: half court is responsible for so much of Cleveland's offensive success.
Speaker 1: The Caves offense all year has been about two two
Speaker 1: points better per one hundred possessions when Darius Garland is
Speaker 1: on the floor versus off. Donovan Mitchell brings the same
Speaker 1: thing He's not at the same level of quickness that
Speaker 1: Darius Garland is at, but he's close, and he's bigger,
Speaker 1: and he's more vertically athletic, and he's a better shot maker,
Speaker 1: and he's got like a bunch of these really fancy
Speaker 1: gatherer moves, like he's been putting on a clinic of
Speaker 1: that like windmill over the top gather that Dwayne Wade popularized.
Speaker 1: And then he's brought back the sham god with a
Speaker 1: vengeance this year. He had another nasty one the other
Speaker 1: nights or Donovan Mitchell's ball handling in the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor has been unbelievable this year, but he also
Speaker 1: has an amazing ability to get wherever he wants on
Speaker 1: the floor. That's the initial first step for any driving
Speaker 1: kick sequence. You've got to generate that initial advantage that
Speaker 1: compromises the defense and generates those kickout opportunities for your
Speaker 1: spot up guys. From there, they just have a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys who are awesome at playing drive and kick basketball.
Speaker 1: Max Tru's lightning quick release can do it on the
Speaker 1: move and is a really good driving kick player, can
Speaker 1: make basic driving kick reads. Dean Wade is good at
Speaker 1: it too, DeAndre Hunter has been brilliant so far as
Speaker 1: a calv as a spot up guy, as a guy
Speaker 1: who can do some advanced scoring in the mid range,
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts. Ti Jerome is good at it, Sam Merrill's
Speaker 1: good at it. Mitchell and Garland can both do it
Speaker 1: when they're off the ball. Just give you an idea.
Speaker 1: Here are some spot up efficiency numbers for Calves players
Speaker 1: according to Synergy. DeAndre Hunter one point three seven points
Speaker 1: per possession. That's outrageous. Ty Jerome one point three to
Speaker 1: six points per possession. That's outrageous. Craig Porter, obviously in
Speaker 1: a smaller role, one point two eight points per possession.
Speaker 1: Max Strew's one point twenty four, Donovan Mitchell one point
Speaker 1: one eight, Sam Marril one point one five. They have
Speaker 1: six players logging over one point one five points per
Speaker 1: possession and spot up situations. As a team, they get
Speaker 1: one point one point one points per any spot up possession.
Speaker 1: Only the Celtics in the NBA are better at converting
Speaker 1: spot possessions than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they generate so
Speaker 1: many of them on the strength of their speed. It's
Speaker 1: that combination speed which is necessary to consistently get the
Speaker 1: defense in rotation and then having players that can extend
Speaker 1: advantages and pay them off. I wanted to just very
Speaker 1: briefly talk about the Lakers and no loss in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's
Speaker 1: not much margin for error with the injuries. Like you
Speaker 1: have no Lebron, no Rui, Hachi Mura, no Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 1: and no Dorian Finney Smith. That's four of your core
Speaker 1: eight playoff rotation players. Lebron's your second best player, Rui's
Speaker 1: probably your fourth best player. So like, you don't have
Speaker 1: much margin for error when you're down that many guys.
Speaker 1: So if Austins and Luka Doncic are also gonna shoot
Speaker 1: eleven for forty from the field, you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: hard time beating anyone. Right, It's just there's too much
Speaker 1: going against you in that sort of situation, and so
Speaker 1: some of this, like, honestly, it's just a really bad
Speaker 1: confluence of events. So Lebron happens to suffer his first
Speaker 1: injury of the year when you're already down two forwards
Speaker 1: and your starting center right Luca happens to be having
Speaker 1: one of the worst shot making stretches of his career,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: has always been a guy that takes a little bit
Speaker 1: of time to get his rhythm when he's been out
Speaker 1: of the lineup for a little bit, And so Austin's
Speaker 1: really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and
Speaker 1: he's been out a rhythm. Luca's having this like brutal
Speaker 1: shot making stretch where he can't make any of the
Speaker 1: jump shots that he typically makes in his it throughout
Speaker 1: the rest of his career, and you're just absolutely brutalized
Speaker 1: by injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot, right,
Speaker 1: And I actually kind of view it as a blessing
Speaker 1: in disguise because the team had been winning a lot. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they've been the best team in the league for almost
Speaker 1: two months, so like it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: you had a little bit of slippage in your execution
Speaker 1: against Boston, right, And souse JJ was able to use
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn loss last night to just basically rip his
Speaker 1: team a new one and essentially like use it as
Speaker 1: a motivator to refocus the team. Like it's not a
Speaker 1: big deal that they lost to the Nets. It's not
Speaker 1: going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where
Speaker 1: they're at in the standings. Like, I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: getting any specific seed other than staying out of the
Speaker 1: play in matters. I think getting to the getting the
Speaker 1: April healthy is really all that matters, and so it's
Speaker 1: more important for you to be sharp. And so if
Speaker 1: you drop a game against the Nets, that is just
Speaker 1: a confluence of events, and you lose against the defending
Speaker 1: champions on their home floor, in a game where a
Speaker 1: bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other
Speaker 1: things don't go your way, it's really nothing to overreact to.
Speaker 1: But JJ can package that as a message to put
Speaker 1: in front of the Lakers, like, we have to be
Speaker 1: better at this stuff, because guess what, if they want
Speaker 1: to win the trophy, they do kind of have to
Speaker 1: be better at that stuff. And it's just a perfect
Speaker 1: excuse to use as a motivator for this team. The
Speaker 1: part that I want to keep an eye on, though,
Speaker 1: is Luca's shot making, because like, this is the part
Speaker 1: that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of
Speaker 1: this team. Austin's been out, he'll eventually get it. Back.
Speaker 1: That will go a long way towards helping this team.
Speaker 1: But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of
Speaker 1: how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca.
Speaker 1: Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys, the
Speaker 1: gap in shot making ability between this version of Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic in the version of Luka Doncic that took the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year. In twelve games
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, Luca has managed to make at least
Speaker 1: ten field goals twice in twelve games. Last year with
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, in seventy games, he made at least
Speaker 1: ten shots fifty times fifty of the seventy games. That's
Speaker 1: the level of shot making that Luca can still get
Speaker 1: to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's
Speaker 1: where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: actually the best defense in the NBA? No, they've been
Speaker 1: defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the
Speaker 1: best defense in the NBA. My guess is they're somewhere
Speaker 1: in the five to ten range given the type of
Speaker 1: personnel that they have, But they can be so so,
Speaker 1: so much better on offense. That is the side of
Speaker 1: the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying
Speaker 1: some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot
Speaker 1: about this. I'm not going to get into it today,
Speaker 1: but one of our next few Laker videos, I'll do
Speaker 1: a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed
Speaker 1: to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much.
Speaker 1: It mostly has to do with putting guys in the
Speaker 1: right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get
Speaker 1: the kinds of shots you want from the players that
Speaker 1: you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing, right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of improvement that they can still make
Speaker 1: on that end, but just Luca getting back to where
Speaker 1: he can be as a shot maker while Lebron and
Speaker 1: Austin are both healthy and in rhythm, will go a
Speaker 1: long way towards lifting this team to a more elite
Speaker 1: level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's
Speaker 1: why I'm not really concerned. I saw enough in the
Speaker 1: Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everyone.
Speaker 1: They're just the safer bet but I saw enough in
Speaker 1: that game from Luca and Lebron attacking the Boston Smalls
Speaker 1: to go like, oh, like, I think they can win
Speaker 1: that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series
Speaker 1: last year, I literally came on the show in my
Speaker 1: series preview and said, I think Boston's gonna blow him out.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues
Speaker 1: with the matchups and the inability that Dallas had to
Speaker 1: create space because of their non shooters on the floor.
Speaker 1: They're pour above the break shooters in the way that
Speaker 1: they could sit rim protection under the basket. The difference
Speaker 1: with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have
Speaker 1: Hatchamura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith, they don't
Speaker 1: have a single player in that five man grouping that
Speaker 1: you can help off of, and so they should be
Speaker 1: able to create more space. Lebron and Lucas should be
Speaker 1: able to punish the Smalls. Again, it was a loss.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of disappointment there, and I think
Speaker 1: they played well. Luca looked bad for most of that game.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of negatives, but I saw enough out
Speaker 1: of that to be like, oh, I think they can
Speaker 1: beat Boston. That was an encouraging thing for me. The
Speaker 1: Nets game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ
Speaker 1: to refocus the team, and it's a reminder for you
Speaker 1: guys that Luca can still come so so so far
Speaker 1: as a shot maker. A brutal from Austin and Luca
Speaker 1: last night eleven for forty from the field that they're
Speaker 1: not going to shoot like that very often. Steph played
Speaker 1: on some really talented teams in the heart of his
Speaker 1: prime with the Golden State Warriors, but it's been brutal
Speaker 1: over the last five years. In the twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: title run, the Warriors had a championship level roster, but
Speaker 1: there wasn't much margin for air. Those of you guys
Speaker 1: listen to the show at the time, We'll remember none
Speaker 1: of their young players were in their rotation. Even I
Speaker 1: was advocating for Joe lacub and Bob Myers to cash
Speaker 1: them in, to trade them to create more margin for
Speaker 1: error in that particular playoff runt. In the short term,
Speaker 1: Joe lacob and Bob Myers were proven right because that
Speaker 1: team was good enough to win the championship. But the
Speaker 1: story in the long run is more complicated. It's become
Speaker 1: precarious because none of that young talent ended up being
Speaker 1: a foundational, cornerstone type of talent. James Wiseman was a
Speaker 1: complete bust, Jonathan Kaminga proved to be super raw, and
Speaker 1: guess what now, Jonathan Minga's do a massive payday. And
Speaker 1: as soon as you start talking about Jonathan Kaminga as
Speaker 1: a thirty plus million dollar player, it becomes a more
Speaker 1: complicated discussion for any basketball team. And I like Moses Moody.
Speaker 1: I think he's a useful young player, but he's a
Speaker 1: role player. And then things got compounded as Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: failed to ever get back to the level he was
Speaker 1: at in twenty twenty two. So the result was a
Speaker 1: limited Warriors roster that didn't really accomplish much over the
Speaker 1: next two and a half years, and honestly got pretty
Speaker 1: sad as you looked around the rest of the league
Speaker 1: at the other sets of stars. I used to earlier
Speaker 1: in the year, I'd do this in the show. I
Speaker 1: would just list out the shop creators on every other
Speaker 1: team in the West, and it was crazy, like you know, okay,
Speaker 1: see it's Shay and j dub and Chet. If you
Speaker 1: go to Denver, it's Jokichen Murray, It's John Morant and
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson. It's Lebron James and Anthony Davis. It's Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and Julius Randall. It's Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: It's Darren Fox and demartiros And it's Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: Luka Donca. Even James Harden had Norm Powell, who was
Speaker 1: great while Kawhi was out. Fred van Vliet with the
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets had Jalen Green and Opera and Shanggun and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry had Andrew Wiggins and Buddy Heel and like, look,
Speaker 1: I Andrew Wiggins got to a really high level in
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two season. I thought he was, you know,
Speaker 1: he's never been back at that level, but I thought
Speaker 1: he was really really good in that in that playoff run.
Speaker 1: But like that's a lot to ask. Steph hurried to
Speaker 1: overcome and like to make matters even worse. The roster
Speaker 1: limitations made them look bad. As they looked bad, everyone
Speaker 1: decided they were bad. As everyone decided they were bad,
Speaker 1: a lot of people just decided the trade wasn't worth it,
Speaker 1: so they passed on Ogan and Obi, and they passed
Speaker 1: on Pascal Siaka. And I mean they may not have
Speaker 1: been able to afford Mikael Bridges with how expensive it was,
Speaker 1: but they just started passing on guys. Even in the
Speaker 1: early part of the year, when Jimmy Butler and Zach
Speaker 1: Lavine were available. I had been hearing that the Warriors
Speaker 1: were not interested in those two, that they were holding
Speaker 1: out for Kevin Duran or Lebron James in a trade.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to have a flawed star. Why because
Speaker 1: they thought they were bad all because of a roster imbalance.
Speaker 1: And part of the issue at that point is they
Speaker 1: had waited so long that their young players had lost
Speaker 1: some value relative to what it was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Johnathan Comingia in twenty twenty two, three years left on
Speaker 1: a rookie deal, young raw prospect, has a lot of intrigue.
Speaker 1: Trade for Johnathan Comingia when you gotta pay him, it's
Speaker 1: a completely different story. It really looked bleak, and you
Speaker 1: could see it in Steph's body language at times. He's
Speaker 1: one of the great competitors in this league, and he
Speaker 1: was losing belief that he'd ever get a chance to
Speaker 1: truly compete for a championship again. There was even a
Speaker 1: press conference where Steph sounded so dejected and made comments
Speaker 1: surrounding the trade deadline that were so like bizarrely defeated
Speaker 1: sounding that he had to come out for his next
Speaker 1: press conference and remind everybody that he's a competitor that
Speaker 1: wants to win a title. But then opportunity knocked. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was the Luca trade that kicked
Speaker 1: them into gear or something else, or just their urgency
Speaker 1: of the moment, but shortly after the Luca trade it
Speaker 1: was announced that there's a lot of intentionality behind Golden
Speaker 1: State's pursuit of a star to bring next to Steph.
Speaker 1: They end up pulling the trigger on Jimmy Butler, who
Speaker 1: had done his part by acting so crazy and playing
Speaker 1: so poorly that he had tanked his value down to
Speaker 1: where he became a very achievable target for Golden State
Speaker 1: without having to give up much more than some salary
Speaker 1: filler to pick. One of the main reasons why I
Speaker 1: was such a big believer in a Jimmy Butler trade
Speaker 1: was that the Warriors were really good in a lot
Speaker 1: of areas. I talked a lot in the early part
Speaker 1: of the year about how they had a ton of
Speaker 1: team speed, which is how they are so excellent defensively.
Speaker 1: Another great rotation team. They were top ten defense all year.
Speaker 1: Steph had shown signs of his superstar upside in some
Speaker 1: high profile games. As a matter of fact, the Warriors
Speaker 1: all year, even before the trade, were one of the
Speaker 1: best teams in the league against the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league. Some signature wins a win in Boston against
Speaker 1: the Celtics, two wins against Oklahoma City Thunder. They had
Speaker 1: shown some real upside. They also had way more role
Speaker 1: player talent than they actually needed. They had fifteen guys
Speaker 1: who can play. They just needed someone to take on
Speaker 1: the responsibilities of a secondary star, and Jimmy Butler did
Speaker 1: that immediately. He fit the offense both with Steph and
Speaker 1: without Steph. They got even better defensively, and it shortened
Speaker 1: the rotation. It cut down on the number of options
Speaker 1: Steve Kerk had. It gave guys more consistent roles. Crystallized
Speaker 1: roles for guys like Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemsky have
Speaker 1: been great with the starters but most importantly, it awakened
Speaker 1: a sleeping giant Steph had been clearly holding something in
Speaker 1: reserve as the team was floundering in mediocrity, and the
Speaker 1: belief that his team could actually reach the mountaintop unlocked
Speaker 1: his ceiling. Since the Jimmy Butler trade in fourteen games,
Speaker 1: averaging thirty points per game, fifty forty two ninety two splits,
Speaker 1: sixty nine percent true shooting, again, thirty points on sixty
Speaker 1: nine percent tru shooting since Jimmy joined the team, his
Speaker 1: MVP season was thirty points on sixty seven percent trough shooting.
Speaker 1: Like it's insane. They're twelve to two in those games.
Speaker 1: They look like a bona fide championship contender. He was
Speaker 1: one of the game's greatest players, hiding in playing sight
Speaker 1: completely like written off due to one roster weakness, an
Speaker 1: imbalance between role player talent and shot creation talent, one
Speaker 1: that frankly was obvious to everyone in the world watching
Speaker 1: this team over the last couple of years. But they
Speaker 1: took care of it. And now we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: see what I wanted to see so badly out of
Speaker 1: a Jimmy Butler trade. And that's Steph Curry playing in
Speaker 1: meaningful basketball games, which I'm very excited for. Volume what's up, guys,
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.