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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume, I
Speaker 1: am Jason Timp Happy Monday, everybody. I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: all coming to hang out and talk some basketball with me.
Speaker 1: We are going to start with the Lakers tonight, but
Speaker 1: we're also going to get to the Brooklyn Nets, demolishing
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz, who are frauds, as I always say.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to the Timberwolves finally playing against a
Speaker 1: good basketball team that has all their stars and that
Speaker 1: resulting in a loss, and then we're going to get
Speaker 1: into our power rankings. This week's Timp's Top ten. So
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys come to hang out. Let's
Speaker 1: get started with the Lakers. So this is starting to
Speaker 1: look a little bit like a good basketball team. They
Speaker 1: have fixed their offense. The Lakers have an offensive rating
Speaker 1: of a hundred and twenty six points per one possessions
Speaker 1: in their last three games, which ranks third in the league.
Speaker 1: In a few minutes, I want to get into why
Speaker 1: I think that's the case, because I think it's an
Speaker 1: interesting example of scheming, which is something that has been
Speaker 1: a huge pet peeve of mine with the Lakers over
Speaker 1: the course of the last few seasons. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to start with Lebron because you know, as Lebron fans
Speaker 1: would tell you, I've been very critical of him over
Speaker 1: the course of the last uh like month or so.
Speaker 1: And it's because I hold Lebron to a very high standard,
Speaker 1: because I think he's potentially the greatest basketball player to
Speaker 1: ever play the game. Because I throw his name around
Speaker 1: in conversations about who's the best player in the league,
Speaker 1: and I think there's a list of expectations that come
Speaker 1: with that. And after the All Star break, he came
Speaker 1: out and looked like a guy who didn't believe in
Speaker 1: this team, and and and just essentially didn't provide the
Speaker 1: necessary effort for the Lakers to be competitive. Well, over
Speaker 1: this last stretch of games, he is one thousand percent
Speaker 1: dialed back in, is bought back into everything the team
Speaker 1: needs him to do. I think a huge part of
Speaker 1: it has been a little bit less him at the
Speaker 1: center for stretches of the game, so he doesn't have
Speaker 1: as difficult of a defensive job. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, at the center position, when he's engaged
Speaker 1: and he's actually doing his job defensively, that's when this
Speaker 1: team is at their best. He had an absolutely vintage dunk.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious. I I I got into the game
Speaker 1: a little bit late because it was such an early start,
Speaker 1: and I was fast forwarding like little ten second increments
Speaker 1: as I was trying to work up through the game,
Speaker 1: and I skipped ahead right as he was at the
Speaker 1: top of his dunk, like literally extended over the top
Speaker 1: of Kevin Love, and I was like, hold up, something
Speaker 1: crazy is about to happen. And I rewonded and I
Speaker 1: saw the dunk. It's absolutely wild to me that he
Speaker 1: can make a play that athletic in his nineteen season
Speaker 1: at age thirty seven. That is, he is uh the
Speaker 1: greatest example of athletic longevity that I can remember seeing
Speaker 1: in my time following sports. That was one hell of
Speaker 1: a vintage highlight. But to make a long story short,
Speaker 1: lebron recent search is perimeter shooting coming together, but a
Speaker 1: big part of it is him making a concerted effort
Speaker 1: to get to the rim. The Cleveland Cavaliers are one
Speaker 1: of the best interior defenses in the league. I've laid
Speaker 1: this out on the show before. They block a ton
Speaker 1: of shots. They have a ton of size and their
Speaker 1: length will bother you around the rim. Now, some of
Speaker 1: this was Lebron taking advantage of Evan Mobley when he
Speaker 1: was off the floor, but a lot of it was
Speaker 1: just their five out system. Lebron killed the calves inside
Speaker 1: Lori marken In could not handle him on his drives
Speaker 1: to the basket, and that was the fulcrumb for so
Speaker 1: much of what they did offensively. So much of what
Speaker 1: this whole team has done offensively over the course of
Speaker 1: the last three games has to do with Lebron making
Speaker 1: a concerted effort to get in the paint. I was
Speaker 1: talking about this with some of my family as I
Speaker 1: was family and friends as I was watching the U
Speaker 1: of A get their big comeback. When last night over TCU, like,
Speaker 1: there is no such thing as bad rim pressure. If
Speaker 1: you get into the basket and you attempt shots around
Speaker 1: the rim, even if you miss them, they have the
Speaker 1: positive effect that comes from rim pressure. So for instance,
Speaker 1: last night, the TCU guards kept getting into the rim
Speaker 1: and Christian Coloco had to step over and try to
Speaker 1: block shots, and he kept and TCU was getting offensive
Speaker 1: rebound putbacks. A huge part of what is making this
Speaker 1: offense work for the Lakers is Lebron putting in the
Speaker 1: work it takes, because it takes a lot of work.
Speaker 1: When when when everyone says like, hey, why doesn't Lebron
Speaker 1: drive to the basket every time? Because it's exhausting, That's
Speaker 1: why he does it. Do it every time. But he's
Speaker 1: making a much more concerted effort to apply more rim
Speaker 1: pressure as of late, and that is opening everything up
Speaker 1: for this team. In addition to that, he's shooting from
Speaker 1: three on like nine attempts over the course of the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. That's a huge part of it too.
Speaker 1: He's got it working at every level of the game.
Speaker 1: He made a bunch of mid range jump shots today.
Speaker 1: That little fade away over his right shoulder as he
Speaker 1: drifts through the lane as he's snaking the pick and
Speaker 1: roll is turning into one of his go to moves,
Speaker 1: and he's he's just got it all work on all
Speaker 1: cylinders right now. He is a testament to the the
Speaker 1: ability that that basketball i Q can replace basketball cute
Speaker 1: and skill development can replace waning athleticism. As he's aged,
Speaker 1: As his athleticism has fallen off, he has replaced that
Speaker 1: with remarkable skill and shot making, and he understands the
Speaker 1: angles and the approach to offense so well at this
Speaker 1: phase in his career, it's like he's a step ahead
Speaker 1: of everyone else on the court. For those of you
Speaker 1: are just joining us, this is Hoops Tonight, presented by
Speaker 1: Fandel here on the volume. I wanted to move on
Speaker 1: to Russ for a second. I have some positive things
Speaker 1: to say about Russ. You know, Russ has a ton
Speaker 1: of bad that comes with him that's never gonna go away.
Speaker 1: He's going to drift in and out focus defensively, he
Speaker 1: like even though he played mostly good against the Wizards
Speaker 1: a couple of nights ago, there are a bunch of these,
Speaker 1: like key possessions where he made mistakes that I don't
Speaker 1: think is ever going to go away. We have too
Speaker 1: much evidence of the kind of guy that Russ is
Speaker 1: on the basketball court and where his head's at when
Speaker 1: he's out there for us to expect some sort of
Speaker 1: massive change from him. But as is the case with
Speaker 1: most guys like this, and Russ isn't the only guy
Speaker 1: like this in the league. There are guys that I
Speaker 1: call good play bad play guys their players where they
Speaker 1: bring a lot of good, but they also bring a
Speaker 1: lot of bad, and so whether or not they impact
Speaker 1: winning has a lot to do with that scale shifting
Speaker 1: one way or another. Well, as of late, Russ is
Speaker 1: getting to the rim a lot as well, very similar
Speaker 1: to that rim pressure concept I was talking about with Lebron,
Speaker 1: but with his shot selection in his ability to get
Speaker 1: to the rim, he's slowing himself down. He's starting to
Speaker 1: make layups that he's usually missed. That has added a
Speaker 1: scoring element to Russ's game, which is allowing him to
Speaker 1: create shots for his teammates, spreading the ball out to
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and now he's starting to make a few
Speaker 1: more good plays every game, and over this recent stretch,
Speaker 1: we've tipped into Russ being a positive player, which has
Speaker 1: taken a lot off of what Lebron needs to bring
Speaker 1: to the table in order for them to win. There
Speaker 1: for a while, it was like, if Lebron doesn't score fifty,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are gonna lose. Well, now, how it's starting
Speaker 1: to look a little bit more like a functional basketball team.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to shout out Russ. I can be
Speaker 1: very critical of him at times. He's one of my
Speaker 1: least favorite players in the league. I had a fan
Speaker 1: asked me on Twitter today like, Hey, what does this
Speaker 1: change your opinion about Russ coming back? Hell? No, I
Speaker 1: want him off the team. I cannot wait to be
Speaker 1: done with the Russell Westbrook experience. But while he's here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna compliment him when he plays well, and we
Speaker 1: might as well try to win a championship while we're
Speaker 1: at it. So I wanted to shout out Russ. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to move on to the role players for
Speaker 1: a second, because this is a huge part of why
Speaker 1: the offense is where it's at. So Lebron is obviously
Speaker 1: playing really good offensive basketball of late, but he's been
Speaker 1: playing really good offensive basketball the vast majority of this season.
Speaker 1: But coming into this recent stretch, offense has been a
Speaker 1: massive problem for the Lakers. They just simply haven't been
Speaker 1: able to score the basketball. It's certainly not, you know,
Speaker 1: commensurate to what their talent was. They added all the shooting,
Speaker 1: they added Malikue Monk, they added Carmelo Anthony, they added
Speaker 1: these guys that were allegedly going to help them on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, and none of it materialized.
Speaker 1: A lot of the had to do with personnel, Frank
Speaker 1: playing weird combinations of nonshooters with the group. A lot
Speaker 1: of it had to do with them playing big the
Speaker 1: entire first part of the season. A lot of it
Speaker 1: is Frank not understanding that in the modern NBA that
Speaker 1: five out basketball is what has success. But in five
Speaker 1: out basketball, it's more complicated than just can Lebron get
Speaker 1: to the basket or can Rust get to the basket.
Speaker 1: It's the concept of breaking the defense down. So this
Speaker 1: is where I want to shout out Stanley Johnson and
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves. So if you ask Stanley Johnson and Aston
Speaker 1: Reeves to come down against the set defense and to
Speaker 1: create a shot for a teammate, they would really struggle
Speaker 1: in that department. Austin Reeves doesn't have the talent or
Speaker 1: excuse me, Astan Reaves doesn't have the physical tools, and
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson doesn't have the skill. So those two players
Speaker 1: are gonna struggle with that that type of role. But
Speaker 1: if I let those two guys attack a compromise defense.
Speaker 1: So if Austin Reeves is catching the ball wide open
Speaker 1: on the wing and the dude is sprinting at him
Speaker 1: and the defense is shifted over to the other side
Speaker 1: of the court, all of a sudden, Austin Reeves is
Speaker 1: great at making plays in that environment. Same thing goes
Speaker 1: for Stanley Johnson. So that's where this is so important.
Speaker 1: There is a there is a process to running five
Speaker 1: out basketball. You've gotta have somebody at the beginning that
Speaker 1: can break down the defense and force that first rotation.
Speaker 1: But then you have to have guys after that first
Speaker 1: rotation that can continue to further compromise the defense. That's
Speaker 1: where Stanley Johnson and Ossa Reeves have been so valuable.
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ are playing really good offensive basketball right now.
Speaker 1: To start possessions and they're gonna score a lot of
Speaker 1: the time, as you've seen, but most of the time
Speaker 1: there's gonna be helped sent their way. And in order
Speaker 1: for that whole system to work, that second guy who
Speaker 1: attacks as the defense is compromised, that is the guy
Speaker 1: that is the key to creating the great shot. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers are getting great shots as of late, and
Speaker 1: a lot of it has to do with Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d excuse me, Lebron and Russ at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the possessions, and guys like Stanley Johnson and Austin
Speaker 1: Reaves at the end of possession. Specifically Austin Reeves. I
Speaker 1: wanted to give him a big shout out tonight. He
Speaker 1: what he did to start that game offensively is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: You can tell he's got a whole other set of
Speaker 1: offensive moves and an offensive repertoire that is beyond what
Speaker 1: we've even seen with this team, and as of late,
Speaker 1: he's starting to unleash that little by little. He's very
Speaker 1: gifted at drawing fouls, he's very gifted at using his
Speaker 1: body to gain angles and gain position. He's got little
Speaker 1: floaters and push shots, and he's got the passes he
Speaker 1: was making in that first quarter two open teammates was
Speaker 1: really really impressive to me. I have to shout those
Speaker 1: guys out there a huge part of why this offense
Speaker 1: is humming the way it is. And it's a really
Speaker 1: really interesting example of how you can scheme your way
Speaker 1: around personnel shortcomings, just like the Clippers did last year
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, as without kawhilan Or, they went on
Speaker 1: that run to the Conference fine, as it was all
Speaker 1: about scheming around personnel shortcomings. They had solid players. The
Speaker 1: Clippers are solid, but they didn't have all these stars
Speaker 1: that we're gonna go out and create everything. But it
Speaker 1: all just happened. It all just worked because Reggie, Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson and Paul George could make that first defensive rotation
Speaker 1: and everyone else was just feeding off of that. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers are starting to capture a little bit of that,
Speaker 1: which is something I've been begging for literally four years.
Speaker 1: So it's good to see. So the question becomes, this
Speaker 1: is half of the issue, right because the Lakers were
Speaker 1: a bad offensive team and they were a bad defensive team. Well,
Speaker 1: they seemed to have fixed their offense. Those were two
Speaker 1: of the five best defenses in the East that they
Speaker 1: just went in and just ran over offensively in this
Speaker 1: last three game starts the calves of the second best
Speaker 1: defense in the East and the Raptors are the fifth
Speaker 1: best defense in the East. And the Raptors defense is
Speaker 1: a lot more intimidating than the numbers would have shown
Speaker 1: you because they've dealt with injuries a lot this season.
Speaker 1: But the Lakers offense that seems to be remedied, and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a clean and an easy plug into
Speaker 1: that system. We saw that when he came back from
Speaker 1: the knee injury. I'm not worried about fitting in Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis offensively. So you have this other half of the
Speaker 1: pie here, the defensive end of the floor. The Lakers
Speaker 1: obviously have to make significant strides on that end of
Speaker 1: the floor to have any chance of making it out
Speaker 1: of the plan and beating Phoenix in the first round,
Speaker 1: and obviously they have a lot of work to do
Speaker 1: on that front. But that's where the Anthony Davis potential
Speaker 1: return makes that a much more achievable outcome. There was
Speaker 1: issues with personnel earlier in the season where even when
Speaker 1: those guys were healthy, none of this was getting But
Speaker 1: now Avery Bradley's basically out of the rotation. DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: not even on the roster anymore, Trevor Rees is not
Speaker 1: playing anymore. A lot of the guys that were part
Speaker 1: of the that issue aren't around anymore. We've brought in
Speaker 1: guys like Stanley Johnson, who is a great defensive player.
Speaker 1: We've brought in Austin Reeves, who obviously brings a ton
Speaker 1: of the user reasons around all this this time, but
Speaker 1: he of late is now a consistent guy in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. So that's a big part of it. When
Speaker 1: you in Gabriel raises our athletic profile, so the entire
Speaker 1: roster now has a little bit more athleticism, a little
Speaker 1: bit more foot speed with those lineups. So all you
Speaker 1: gotta do is combine this little bit of magic that
Speaker 1: you've captured here with Anthony Davis coming back and good
Speaker 1: defensive habits, and you can do this again. It's a
Speaker 1: long shot. I would certainly like their chances a lot
Speaker 1: more if they didn't have to go through Phoenix in
Speaker 1: the first round. This is what pisces me off about
Speaker 1: the way they approached the season. If you're a seven
Speaker 1: seed or literally anything other than having to roll into Phoenix,
Speaker 1: then maybe you can weather through these injuries and get
Speaker 1: your stuff together in the playoff run. But that's not
Speaker 1: the case. This is they They they have to basically
Speaker 1: beat the team I'm picking to win the championship, the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, the team I think is clearly the best
Speaker 1: team in the league. The Lakers are gonna have to
Speaker 1: go through them in the first round. So now it
Speaker 1: requires perfection. You need to get Anthony Davis back. You
Speaker 1: need to spend this next month establishing all the habits
Speaker 1: that you let slip by the wayside this entire season.
Speaker 1: But the most important part of this entire thing that
Speaker 1: I'm laying out here is it's a realistic outcome now.
Speaker 1: It was very much not a realistic outcome in the past. Now,
Speaker 1: even if you want to call it a one in
Speaker 1: a million, whatever you want to call it, there is
Speaker 1: a realistic outcome to this Laker team making your run.
Speaker 1: It's Lebron James being the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: It's Anthony Davis being Anthony Davis. It's Russell Westbrook being
Speaker 1: a net positive instead of a net negative, and young, enthusiastic,
Speaker 1: energetic role players that fit within their scheme do their
Speaker 1: jobs and make the five out, dribble driving, driving, kick
Speaker 1: offense work makes sense. Now I can see a light
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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, I wanted to move
Speaker 1: on to the Brooklyn Nets for a little bit, who
Speaker 1: have been one of the most impressive teams in the
Speaker 1: league as of like, they're six in one in their
Speaker 1: last seven games. K D dropped thirty seven nine and
Speaker 1: eight to nine. In his last seven games, he's averaging
Speaker 1: thirty seven rebounds, eight assists on this is insane. Fifty
Speaker 1: six percent shooting from the field, forty three percent from three,
Speaker 1: and from the free throw line. It continues to be
Speaker 1: completely mind boggling to me that Kevin Durant can be
Speaker 1: away from NBA basketball for extended stretches, whether it was
Speaker 1: his achilles injury that kept him out for a couple
Speaker 1: of years or this most recent knee injury that kept
Speaker 1: him out for a much shorter period of time. He
Speaker 1: just doesn't miss a beat. This guy is the most natural,
Speaker 1: like he's the most natural hooper that I can remember
Speaker 1: watching in this league. He just is comfortable all the
Speaker 1: time on a basketball court. And it's leading two wins now,
Speaker 1: but it's it goes beyond KD. So in the last
Speaker 1: seven games, Seth Curry is averaging fifteen points on fifty
Speaker 1: five percent from the field from three and a percent
Speaker 1: from the free throw line and Kyrie Irving, who has
Speaker 1: only managed to play in three games because of his
Speaker 1: vaccination status, is averaging forty four points four rebounds in
Speaker 1: five assists on sixty from the field, sixty three percent
Speaker 1: from three, and eight six percent from the line. So
Speaker 1: what do you get when you have three offensive players
Speaker 1: like this that are playing out of their minds on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. Well, you get a
Speaker 1: team that in their last seven games is averaging a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven points per one possessions. They are
Speaker 1: far and away the best offense in the league over
Speaker 1: this stretch, and they're actually defending a little bit. In
Speaker 1: the seven game stretch, they are eleventh and defense. So
Speaker 1: they are the They are a great example of this
Speaker 1: thing that I'm trying to lay out with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: The Lakers floundered all season with injuries, but they built
Speaker 1: all these bad habits around the way. Well, the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets floundered all season with injuries and bad habits, but
Speaker 1: they kicked out some bad guys like James Harden, Right.
Speaker 1: They kicked out some guys that didn't that weren't a
Speaker 1: good fit with their culture. They brought in some new
Speaker 1: guys and now they're just bought it there. Now they're
Speaker 1: just trying to fix and rectify all of the issues
Speaker 1: that they built over the course of the early parts
Speaker 1: of the season. And it's working. And that's what the
Speaker 1: Lakers have to see. I mentioned in the show UH
Speaker 1: the other night that the Lakers needed to view this
Speaker 1: next stretch of games like a training camp. Well, that's
Speaker 1: what Brooklyn is doing. Brooklyn is approaching this as a
Speaker 1: training camp. They don't care where they are in the standings,
Speaker 1: they don't care about anything that happened earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: They're just trying to become a good basketball team right now.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers have that same opportunity, and the Nets
Speaker 1: have provided a great model for them. The team the
Speaker 1: Nets beat tonight the Utah Jazz. They were fifteen and
Speaker 1: five in their previous twenty games before tonight. They UH
Speaker 1: they have the fifth best record in the league. So
Speaker 1: you would think, with everything that I just said, that
Speaker 1: this team should be someone that we considered a bona
Speaker 1: fide contender and a team that that we should be
Speaker 1: taking very seriously. I continue to think they're frauds. I
Speaker 1: don't trust their defense at all. Anytime they play a
Speaker 1: real offensive team, that can spread them out, their lack
Speaker 1: of perimeter defense becomes lethal to them. I I just
Speaker 1: I've been trying to think of what I would need
Speaker 1: to see from the Utah Jazz to take them seriously,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I can't think of anything. They just simply
Speaker 1: don't have the defensive personnel to hang with the best
Speaker 1: offensive teams in the league. The Brooklyn Nets lit them
Speaker 1: on fire tonight, and every good offensive team is going
Speaker 1: to light them on fire, especially when they have time
Speaker 1: to scheme around all the issues that Rudy Gobert presents
Speaker 1: as a defensive presence. Alright, moving on to the that
Speaker 1: game between the Timberwolves and the MAVs. So, as I
Speaker 1: laid out in our show the other night, the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: had won ten of their last eleven games. They were
Speaker 1: on a big run. They had beat a ton of
Speaker 1: good teams during that stretch. But like I laid out,
Speaker 1: every time they played one of those good teams the
Speaker 1: other two one of the other team's best players sat out,
Speaker 1: Like they beat the Bucks, but they didn't have the
Speaker 1: honest they beat the Acres, but they didn't have Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: It was like that every single time they played a
Speaker 1: contender over the course of that stretch. Well, here was
Speaker 1: your opportunity, Here was your opportunity to add legitimacy to
Speaker 1: your recent stretch of basketball. You're playing a Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: team that's just came home from a very long road
Speaker 1: trip that has been slipping in a lot of areas
Speaker 1: of the game, which we'll get to in a second,
Speaker 1: and that's a completely beatable team. It's on the road,
Speaker 1: but that's a winnable game. To add legitimacy to what
Speaker 1: you're doing, and they couldn't out execute Luca at the
Speaker 1: end of the game, which was what I said was
Speaker 1: their biggest issue. When you're relying on a super young
Speaker 1: and volatile guard and Anthony Edwards and a slightly older
Speaker 1: volatile guard in in D'angela Russell, you're gonna struggle when
Speaker 1: you go against the chess masters, and a guy like
Speaker 1: Luca is a chess master. He even though he had
Speaker 1: a really rough night, Luca looks a little banged up.
Speaker 1: He struggled the other night as well. He's he's in
Speaker 1: a little bit of a slump. He just made all
Speaker 1: the plays that need to be played at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, and there was a weird play right
Speaker 1: at the end, the Dorian Phinney Smith dagger when they
Speaker 1: were up on a four one o three, where Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards is like picking up Luca at forty ft and
Speaker 1: just gives up a straight line drive. And then again,
Speaker 1: that's youth, that's inexperience, that's not understanding the the stakes
Speaker 1: of that possession and understanding that you can't get jan
Speaker 1: Kie against that smart of a player. He's gonna make
Speaker 1: you pay every time. So, very impressive stretch of basketball
Speaker 1: from the Wolves. They're a completely respectable basketball team, so
Speaker 1: I don't want to undercut that by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination, but hey, this is the big boys now.
Speaker 1: If you want to be consistently beating these good teams
Speaker 1: with all their players, there are some things that they
Speaker 1: have to sharpen up. Now. With the MAVs, they've had
Speaker 1: a couple of ugly losses recently. They they're an interesting
Speaker 1: case and fatigue as it pertains to defense, so their
Speaker 1: defense is slipping big time in this last stretch since
Speaker 1: our last power rankings, which we'll get to in a minute.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting is I laid out at length how
Speaker 1: the Mavericks were compensating for a lack of personnel on
Speaker 1: the defensive end with a really smart scheme and a
Speaker 1: ton of effort in buy in from inferior defensive players,
Speaker 1: guys like Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwodie and Luca don Cheich.
Speaker 1: We're simply trying harder on defense than they ever have
Speaker 1: and it was resulting in good defensive results for Dallas.
Speaker 1: But when you don't have defensive personnel, you have to
Speaker 1: make up for it with effort, and effort is really
Speaker 1: difficult to maintain during the dregs of the regular season.
Speaker 1: And so what you're seeing is the MAVs are entering
Speaker 1: a rule where the effort is fading. It's hurting them
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the ball. It's not an
Speaker 1: issue for them in the long run as they get
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. It's just this is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that's gonna happen to a team like this. When
Speaker 1: you have a ton of defensive personnel and all your
Speaker 1: guys are good defensive players, effort is less of an
Speaker 1: issue for them. Defensively. They're gonna they're not gonna have
Speaker 1: as many rules during the season. That's why that Lakers
Speaker 1: team for the previous two seasons was so good defensively,
Speaker 1: night in and night out. They just have personnel, so
Speaker 1: the job is a little bit easier for them, so
Speaker 1: they don't get fatigued as easily. The one other thing
Speaker 1: you gotta look at with Matt with the MAVs is
Speaker 1: Luca looks a little banged up, and at this time
Speaker 1: of year, when we get to the end of March
Speaker 1: early April, there are little details that start to shape
Speaker 1: this whole outlook like we're gonna get to with the
Speaker 1: power rankings, Like I don't have the Warriors in my
Speaker 1: power rankings right now because Steph is hurt. And that's
Speaker 1: how this goes. You're either getting healthy at the right time,
Speaker 1: or you're getting hurt at the right time or the
Speaker 1: wrong time. And Luca looks a little banged up and
Speaker 1: some other teams are getting healthy. That's something that they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to keep an eye on. Really quick note
Speaker 1: this wasn't on our list, but really quickly on the
Speaker 1: that Bulls Raptors game report came out today that a
Speaker 1: Lonzo Ball tried running and his knee is not doing well.
Speaker 1: I talked at length the other day that the only
Speaker 1: chance that the Bulls have to go on a run
Speaker 1: was if a Lonzo Ball and Alex Crusoe were healthy,
Speaker 1: because they carry so much of the defensive load and
Speaker 1: without both of them, um, I don't think that they
Speaker 1: have enough defensive like athleticism to cover for their scores
Speaker 1: so that they can go to work to cover for
Speaker 1: Levine and for DeRos. And they got a good win
Speaker 1: tonight over a good Raptors team. But that Raptors team
Speaker 1: is on the tail end of a back to back
Speaker 1: and they've been, uh, they've been playing a lot of
Speaker 1: games lately. I thought that was fatigue related. One of
Speaker 1: their note with the Bulls Patrick Williams. Just having that
Speaker 1: other six eight athlete on the floor just kind of
Speaker 1: raises that physical profile the team makes them more athletic,
Speaker 1: which is a big deal because they don't have a
Speaker 1: ton of size and athleticism in the front court. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the power rankings. Tip's top ten. You'll
Speaker 1: notice I've dropped out the Warriors, like I said, because
Speaker 1: of their recent struggles, UM, the a couple of other teams.
Speaker 1: I dropped out the Denver Nuggets. They took another beat
Speaker 1: down to the Boston Celtics other and I'll get to
Speaker 1: that in a minute. UM number ten Utah Jazz fifteen
Speaker 1: and six since February, second, fifth in offense, fourth and
Speaker 1: defense over that span, fifth and net rating. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: is attempting eleven threes per game over this stretch, and
Speaker 1: he's making forty of them. So why do I have
Speaker 1: them so low? Because of all the things that I
Speaker 1: laid out earlier. He this team doesn't have a playoff
Speaker 1: translatable attack. In the regular season, you can scheme around
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna get to this with the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: here shortly when we talked about the Boston Celtics. When
Speaker 1: you have a drop coverage big and you have weak
Speaker 1: perimeter defensive players, you can take your sweet time, uh,
Speaker 1: chasing guys around on defense and funneling them into the paint.
Speaker 1: You don't have to put in a ton of effort.
Speaker 1: You can give up drives because Rudy's just waiting down there.
Speaker 1: He's gonna clean everything up for you. But when you
Speaker 1: get into the postseason and a really smart offensive team
Speaker 1: can rotate the ball a couple of times, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Rudy's not under the bat asket anymore, and
Speaker 1: now Jordan Clarkson is getting beat to the basket for
Speaker 1: a layup and there's nobody they're helping. That's been the
Speaker 1: proven downfall of this Utah Jazz team. They've done absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing to address it. So I can't fairly in my
Speaker 1: right mind put them higher on this list, even though
Speaker 1: their results in the regular season would suggest that and
Speaker 1: my power rankings, I'm always going to factor in the
Speaker 1: playoff translatability of a team, and the Utah Jazz, to me,
Speaker 1: are a regular season machine that can't win playoff series.
Speaker 1: Number nine the Dallas Mavericks, like a laid out earlier,
Speaker 1: their defensive slipping in their last six games. Coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: they had a one fifteen point five defensive rating, which
Speaker 1: is a huge drop off from where they were in
Speaker 1: their previous stretch of games. A lot of this has
Speaker 1: to do with them just getting back from a super
Speaker 1: long road trip. Road trips where teams out and then everything.
Speaker 1: Like I just said before, with them on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, they have to make up for
Speaker 1: their lack of personnel with effort, and effort is a
Speaker 1: is a lot harder to maintain over the course of
Speaker 1: an eight two game season. The MAVs are in a
Speaker 1: little bit of a dip right now. I'm a little
Speaker 1: worried about Lucas health, but I still think they are
Speaker 1: in that second tier of contenders. They have a legitimate
Speaker 1: puncher's chance to win the title number eight the Philadelphia seventies.
Speaker 1: So they actually got a big win tonight without Joel
Speaker 1: Embid or James Harden against the Miami Heat. But I
Speaker 1: don't know what to make of that. How do I
Speaker 1: factor in the fake version of the Sixers that doesn't
Speaker 1: even resemble what they're gonna look like and apply that
Speaker 1: to projecting them forward? Uh? You know in the postseason,
Speaker 1: great win. Proud of those guys for fighting without their stars.
Speaker 1: Just hard to really translate anything about that. With James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joel Embid, they've been struggling lately. They lost
Speaker 1: to the Raptors, they lost to the Denver Nuggets, they
Speaker 1: lost to the Nets, all at home in this recent stretch.
Speaker 1: Their defense is bad. Coming into tonight, in this last
Speaker 1: stretch of games, they've got a defensive rating of a
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen point three, which is nowhere year good
Speaker 1: enough given the personnel they have a lot of that
Speaker 1: has to do with James Harden and his laziness on
Speaker 1: the defensive end and Joel Embiid struggling with transition. Teams
Speaker 1: have figured out that you can run on the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: seventy sixers, and when you do, I've laid this out
Speaker 1: in a lot of film on my Twitter feed lately.
Speaker 1: When you run on Joel Embiid, Hey's he can be slow.
Speaker 1: He complains about fouls a lot, He lingers around under
Speaker 1: the basket on the offensive end of the floor. You
Speaker 1: can run on Philly and it makes them beat aful.
Speaker 1: They are not playing anywhere near as well as they
Speaker 1: should be with the amount of talent they have. So
Speaker 1: right now, I've got them at number eight, even though
Speaker 1: they're definitely not the eighth most talented team in the league.
Speaker 1: Number seven, I've got the Toronto Raptors. Recently, they just
Speaker 1: beat the seventies Sixers, the Clippers, the Nuggets, the Sons,
Speaker 1: and the Bulls all on the road. They are they
Speaker 1: are at the UH. Nick Nurse obviously is a great coach.
Speaker 1: But the combination of Nick Nurse UH with Massi Yu
Speaker 1: Jerry and his talent for finding really athletic young talent
Speaker 1: has turned this team into a royal pain in the
Speaker 1: ass to play on a night in, night out basis.
Speaker 1: They make everything difficult on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: They shoot over the top of you on offense, they
Speaker 1: go through you on offense, and then on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, they've got they they'll they'll pick
Speaker 1: you up full court, they'll challenge every swing pass, they'll
Speaker 1: try to front every post up there. They overhelp on
Speaker 1: every single drive. They make you beat them by being
Speaker 1: extraordinarily fundamentally sound, and if you start to force things
Speaker 1: against them, it only gets worse. They're a huge paint
Speaker 1: of the butt uh Scottie Barnes and uh in Pascal
Speaker 1: Siakum in the coming into tonight. In this recent stretch
Speaker 1: of games, we're averaging forty five points per game on
Speaker 1: fifty percent shooting. That they've been doing all this with
Speaker 1: van Fred van Vleet being pretty banged up and with
Speaker 1: O g n and Obi out with a with a
Speaker 1: broken finger. I don't think this team has any chance
Speaker 1: to win the title. I would not put them in
Speaker 1: a tier of contenders, but they are a royal pain
Speaker 1: in the ass and a team that knocks them out
Speaker 1: of the playoffs. Is gonna come out of that banged
Speaker 1: up and worn out and exhausted. Credit to the Raptors.
Speaker 1: Number six, the Miami Heat, who lost again tonight to
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy without James Harden and the beat They
Speaker 1: just recently lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns as well. They're beating their bad teams right now.
Speaker 1: A huge part of it has to do with with health.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is basically playing every other game now. I
Speaker 1: don't know what his deal is. I feel like that
Speaker 1: dude is just never available to play in games. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the deal is. Since the last time
Speaker 1: we did Power rankings, which I believe is in March eight,
Speaker 1: they're twenty five in offense, which was the huge thing
Speaker 1: that I was laying out to you guys at that
Speaker 1: point and the reason why I was pessimistic about this
Speaker 1: team when you play that many non shooters. P J.
Speaker 1: Tucker not a great shooter, team a guy that teams
Speaker 1: are gonna ignore. Jimmy Butler not a great shooter, guy
Speaker 1: that teams are gonna ignore. Bam At a bio. Everyone
Speaker 1: tells me he's a good mid range shooter, but he
Speaker 1: can't make them, and he's shooting terrible percentages there this year,
Speaker 1: and teams aren't guarding him out there, so it's janking
Speaker 1: up everything for their offense. That's gonna be their downfall
Speaker 1: in a playoff series. They they have an outside chance
Speaker 1: of making a run, obviously, if things go great and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler gets healthy and goes on a great playoff run.
Speaker 1: But I think this team is going to be knocked
Speaker 1: out when they can't score against one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Number four, the Memphis Grizzlies, excuse
Speaker 1: me a skift one. Number five the Milwaukee Bucks. So
Speaker 1: the I told you in the last rankings that my
Speaker 1: main concern with the Milwaukee Bucks was that they don't
Speaker 1: defend like a team that can win a championship. We
Speaker 1: have all this history, all of this data in NBA
Speaker 1: history that tells us that if you don't have a
Speaker 1: top ten defense, you are going to lose. That's just
Speaker 1: unless you have an overwhelming talent advantage. With the Bucks
Speaker 1: definitely don't have. Well, I kept saying, eventually, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to show us something. Eventually, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: put together some stretch of good defensive basketball. Well since
Speaker 1: our last rankings, they have a defensive rating of one
Speaker 1: seventeen point four, so they've made negative progress on that front.
Speaker 1: They're losing to the good teams they play. They lost
Speaker 1: to the Warriors in the Minnesota Timberwolves, although Jannas didn't
Speaker 1: play in that game. This season, they are seventeen and
Speaker 1: nineteen against teams that are five or above. Everything would
Speaker 1: tell you this is a bona fide championship contender when
Speaker 1: you look at the roster, in the pieces and what
Speaker 1: we just saw last year. But everything in the results
Speaker 1: and what's actually happening on the court tells us this
Speaker 1: is a team that loses in the first or second round.
Speaker 1: So what's gonna happen? I'm not sure I got them
Speaker 1: at number five right now. Number four the Memphis Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: So they're in a weak part of their schedule right now.
Speaker 1: They had a bad loss in Atlanta the other day,
Speaker 1: but they're taking care of business everywhere else this season.
Speaker 1: They are fourteen in two without John Moran. So stan
Speaker 1: Van Gundi, obviously former coach of the Orlando Magic and
Speaker 1: the Orance Pelicans, tweeted out earlier today basically talking about
Speaker 1: how the Grizzlies pay play better without Job, so I
Speaker 1: dug into that a little bit. They defend better without Jaw,
Speaker 1: which makes sense because Jaw is a not a great
Speaker 1: defensive player, and they have a ton of length and athleticism.
Speaker 1: So if you can substitute a good defensive player in
Speaker 1: where Jaw was, obviously they're gonna guard well. But that
Speaker 1: the fourteen and two is a little misleading. They've played
Speaker 1: almost no good teams during that stretch. They're They're just
Speaker 1: a good basketball team, just like the Philadelphia seventy sixers are.
Speaker 1: So when stars sit out, they just continue to play
Speaker 1: good basketball and they can overwhelm limited teams. To make
Speaker 1: no mistake, John Moran, like I talked about earlier with
Speaker 1: the Lakers in there, you have to have that first
Speaker 1: guy who can compromise the defense. Desmond Bane is a
Speaker 1: good player, but he is a slasher, not a score
Speaker 1: meaning he can attack closeouts, but he's not a guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna isolate and break you down off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson Jr. Is great attacking mismatches, and he can
Speaker 1: attack guys off the dribble and he can get to
Speaker 1: the paint, but he's very reckless. He's got tunnel vision.
Speaker 1: He doesn't see help very well. So that's a little
Speaker 1: bit of fools goal because when they get into a
Speaker 1: playoff series and they play a good defensive team that
Speaker 1: scouts them really well, they're gonna take away all those
Speaker 1: easy opportunities for Jaren Jackson Jr. So what they need
Speaker 1: is for John Brant to be able to make that
Speaker 1: first attack of the defense, that initial breakdown. That's why
Speaker 1: John Moran is indispensable, and that's why I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to hear anything about how this team is better without him.
Speaker 1: Moving on to number three. The Brooklyn Nets like this
Speaker 1: out earlier six and one in their last seven, best
Speaker 1: offense in the league. They are the pinnacle of modern basketball.
Speaker 1: They don't play a ton of front core guys. It's
Speaker 1: all five out. They They'll do a little bit of
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond in the dunker spot, a little bit of
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown in the dunker spot. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: when this team is at their best, it's just Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: Seth Curry and Kyrie Irving just being unbelievably talented offensive
Speaker 1: players playing off of each other. They are a well
Speaker 1: oiled machine, and they're getting enough stops in their last
Speaker 1: seven games. Like I said, they are eleventh in defense.
Speaker 1: That is more than good enough to go on a
Speaker 1: run when you have their type of offensive talent. Like
Speaker 1: I talked about before with the Bucks, you can have
Speaker 1: a little bit of a weaker defense if you have
Speaker 1: an overwhelming offensive talent advantage, and when you're staring down
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving in a series, they're just way
Speaker 1: better than you offensively and they can get away with it.
Speaker 1: I'm nervous about the Ben Simmons thing. This thing with
Speaker 1: his herniated disc in his back is deeply concerning. I
Speaker 1: would bank on him not playing this year, and it
Speaker 1: might actually be the best decision for them because Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: especially with spine stuff. Ben Simmons is an awesome player
Speaker 1: to plug in in training camp next year to make
Speaker 1: a really strong run at things next season, So you
Speaker 1: don't want to bring him back to further exacerbate a
Speaker 1: spine issue just for the sake of this season. They
Speaker 1: have enough talent to do it. I'd like their chances
Speaker 1: more if Ben Simmons was here, but it looks like
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be this is what it looks like
Speaker 1: they're gonna have. They have some details they gotta figure out.
Speaker 1: You can't play Bruce Brown and Andre drumming at the
Speaker 1: same time. They have spacing issues with that little details
Speaker 1: that they got to iron out. But they are trending
Speaker 1: massively in the right direction and they are definitely a
Speaker 1: top tier contender for me. Number two the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: They're also in an easier part of their schedule, but
Speaker 1: there dominating without Chris Paul, so I can't continue to
Speaker 1: undercut that. There's seven and one since the last time
Speaker 1: we did power rankings over that span, Mikhail Bridges and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Aighton are both averaging nineteen points per game on
Speaker 1: over fifty shooting. Like I said, those two guys are
Speaker 1: the future of this franchise. They are really good players
Speaker 1: that are overqualified for the roles that they're in. You're
Speaker 1: starting to see a little bit more of what they're
Speaker 1: capable of with with with Chris Paul out, this is
Speaker 1: the most talented team in the league from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: They are my championship favorite right now. They are at
Speaker 1: number two. Number one the Boston Celtics. The reason why
Speaker 1: I have them at number one of my power rankings
Speaker 1: is as of late, they continue to be playing the
Speaker 1: best basketball. I definitely think they're a top tier contender.
Speaker 1: I just don't think they're quite as talented as the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. Since the last time we did these rankings,
Speaker 1: which was when I laid out just how great the
Speaker 1: Celtics have been in recent stretches. Just since then to today,
Speaker 1: they have the best net rating in the league. They
Speaker 1: have the best defense in the league, their sixth in
Speaker 1: offense just in that span, so they've only continued to
Speaker 1: play better. I mentioned earlier that Jayson Tatum wasn't even
Speaker 1: shooting well and they were winning games. Jalen Brown wasn't
Speaker 1: even shooting well and they were winning games well. Since
Speaker 1: our last rankings, Jason Tamum's shooting from three. So there
Speaker 1: you go. Now, Jayson Tatum is making shots. Wait till
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown does, it's gonna get even nastier. I was
Speaker 1: really impressed with the way they utterly demolished the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets in Denver the other night. This is a great
Speaker 1: example of what I was talking about with drop coverage
Speaker 1: with bigs. Nicola Yokit just turned himself into a good
Speaker 1: drop coverage big in the NBA, which has made him
Speaker 1: a positive defender in the regular season. But it's only
Speaker 1: It only works because on the vast majority of nights
Speaker 1: you're not playing a player the caliber of Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: that can consistently make you pay for running a drop coverage. Well,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum lit them on fire in the first half
Speaker 1: the other night, Nikola Yoki was utterly victimized. If you
Speaker 1: go to my Twitter page and you scroll down, I
Speaker 1: did a video breakdown of this this morning, laying down
Speaker 1: laying out specifically what I was talking about, the really
Speaker 1: interesting element of it. One of the reasons why coaches
Speaker 1: love running drop coverage with guards is guards are really
Speaker 1: good at evading screens and getting over the top, and
Speaker 1: they can apply back pressure which allows your big to
Speaker 1: sit lower. But because Jayson Tatum is six eight, they
Speaker 1: had to guarden with Eric Gordon, excuse me, with Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that we know about basketball
Speaker 1: is that bigger players are much easier to screen. They
Speaker 1: struggle getting around screens. Well, Aaron Gordon was getting caught
Speaker 1: on screens all night long, and it was Nicola Yoki
Speaker 1: camping at fifteen feet and Jayson Tatum shooting practice, you
Speaker 1: shots over the top. They absolutely demolished Denver Nuggets. It
Speaker 1: was a super impressive win. I don't think they have
Speaker 1: enough offense to be my favorite, but they're absolutely in
Speaker 1: my top tier of contenders, and they are number one
Speaker 1: in timp's Top ten for the second edition in a row.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: We will be back Wednesday. I believe the Lakers played
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy sixers on that night. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support and we will see you in
Speaker 1: a couple of days. Volume