Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had
Speaker 1: an incredible week. We are live on AMPS, so if
Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast fees,
Speaker 1: don't forget that AMP is the very first place that
Speaker 1: you guys can get these shows. We are continuing our
Speaker 1: player rankings today with number six Anthony Davis. A big
Speaker 1: resurgent year from him. You guys know the drill before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Underscore json lt so you guys don't miss
Speaker 1: an show announcements, and for whatever reason you miss one
Speaker 1: of these videos and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Last, but not least,
Speaker 1: before we get started, maybe the NBA offseason, and it's
Speaker 1: definitely a little bit of a slower stretch of the
Speaker 1: year when it comes to sports, although we still have baseball,
Speaker 1: and with how difficult it is to find baseball games
Speaker 1: on TV these days, sometimes you have to go to
Speaker 1: an actual stadium to watch your favorite baseball team play.
Speaker 1: But there's also plenty going on in the world world
Speaker 1: of touring musicians and comedians, and the best way to
Speaker 1: get tickets to any of these is on game Time,
Speaker 1: the fastest scoring ticketing app in the United States, for
Speaker 1: last minute, amazing deals on tickets to see your favorite
Speaker 1: baseball team, your favorite band, or comedian. Download game Time Again.
Speaker 1: It's not just sports, guys, August means huge summer concerts
Speaker 1: and comedy shows all across the country, and game Time
Speaker 1: has your tickets. Download the game Time app and redeem
Speaker 1: code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms
Speaker 1: apply again. Download the game Time app, enter the code Hoops.
Speaker 1: That's Hops for twenty dollars off. No matter where you live,
Speaker 1: get out and have some fun this week. Download the
Speaker 1: game Time app. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. This is probably the ranking in
Speaker 1: my top ten that's gonna have people disagree with the most,
Speaker 1: although Luca was one that a lot of people disagreed with,
Speaker 1: But I know that generally speaking around the league, people
Speaker 1: are pretty low on Anthony Davis, and a big part
Speaker 1: of that is he's not nearly the offensive player that
Speaker 1: his peers are on this list. As we look at
Speaker 1: the twelve guys from you know, Devin Booker at the
Speaker 1: twelve spot up the list, every one of those guys
Speaker 1: is a better offensive player than Anthony Davis and it's
Speaker 1: not particularly close, to be honest, And I think that
Speaker 1: that's the most easily digestible basketball trade, you know, the
Speaker 1: ability to put the ball in the basket or to
Speaker 1: help other people put the ball in the basket, and
Speaker 1: so people focus on that a great deal. And it's
Speaker 1: important to acknowledge that Ad is a good offensive player,
Speaker 1: but he's not at the level of those guys. That said,
Speaker 1: I thought he demonstrated after the trade deadline this year
Speaker 1: pretty resoundingly that he is the very best defensive player
Speaker 1: in the league when he is healthy. And you could
Speaker 1: argue that just Anthony Davis's individual value to the Lakers
Speaker 1: as a defensive fulcrum is every bit as important to
Speaker 1: that unit and the way they win basketball games as
Speaker 1: on the offensive end, guys like Steph and Nikola jokichar
Speaker 1: to their individual offenses. The Lakers were one of the
Speaker 1: worst defenses in the league this year when Ad was
Speaker 1: off the floor, they had a one eighteen defensive rating
Speaker 1: to give you an idea that would follow in about
Speaker 1: the twenty seven to twenty eight range out of the
Speaker 1: thirty teams. And when AD was on the floor, they
Speaker 1: were one of the very best defenses in the league.
Speaker 1: For the entire season, regardless of roster makeup. They had
Speaker 1: a one to ten point seven defensive rating with AD
Speaker 1: on the floor, which would have ranked third in the
Speaker 1: NBA compared to the rest of the team. So basically,
Speaker 1: eighties on the floor, top tierior league defense, eighties off
Speaker 1: the floor, absolute garbage defense. That's the level of value
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis brings to that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And that is the entire season. As we zoom in,
Speaker 1: and we will in a little bit on what happened
Speaker 1: after the deadline, he was at even another level above that.
Speaker 1: We're going to do a deeper dive into ads defense
Speaker 1: in general as well, just some of the schematic things
Speaker 1: that make him so dominant on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: But the general theme for today goes back to what
Speaker 1: I was saying about Luka Doncic when I had him
Speaker 1: at ten. I don't like theoretical basketball. We play the
Speaker 1: games for a reason. We get results. It removes subjectivity
Speaker 1: from the equation. Anthony Davis's defensive value wins basketball games,
Speaker 1: end of story, so much so that even Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: a guy who's way above him on this list and
Speaker 1: a guy who I think is the greatest offensive weapon
Speaker 1: of the last decade of NBA basketball, even Steph couldn't
Speaker 1: solve the Anthony Davis defensive puzzle in that second round
Speaker 1: series for the Warriors. AD won that chess match. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Led by Ad, the Lakers held
Speaker 1: Steph to a fifty five percent true shooting percentage in
Speaker 1: that series, which was Steph's lowest mark in a playoff
Speaker 1: series since the twenty nineteen series against the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 1: Now is AD better than Steph? No, But the point
Speaker 1: is is ad superpower has an impact on basketball games
Speaker 1: that was able to overcome even what Steph's superpower was
Speaker 1: within the context of all the other matchups in that series.
Speaker 1: And that is why, even though he's not the same
Speaker 1: level of offensive player as the other guys around him
Speaker 1: on this list, I have him up at number six
Speaker 1: in this year's player rankings. We're going to do a big,
Speaker 1: deep dive into what he accomplished this season, and I
Speaker 1: think after we really look back and zoom in on
Speaker 1: what he accomplished, you guys will probably start to see,
Speaker 1: at least for those of you guys who didn't follow
Speaker 1: the Lakers very closely this year, you'll start to see
Speaker 1: in greater detail just how impactful he was on winning
Speaker 1: this season. So quick season recap. He played in fifty
Speaker 1: six games this year, which was the most he's played
Speaker 1: in since the twenty twenty bubble season. Average twenty six
Speaker 1: points and thirteen rebounds. Now twenty six points on sixty
Speaker 1: three percent true shooting. So again, not the same quality
Speaker 1: offensive player as his peers, no doubt, but still a
Speaker 1: very damn good offensive player. And especially when we zoom
Speaker 1: in a little bit on some of the shot making stuff,
Speaker 1: he still can't make a jump shot to save his life.
Speaker 1: So with where he's at offensively, it's not like you're
Speaker 1: leaving a ton of gap there between his peers, but
Speaker 1: he's just somewhat below them right, also averaged two blocks
Speaker 1: in a steal per game. He was actually third in
Speaker 1: the NBA in stocks that steals plus blocks. He was
Speaker 1: third in the NBA in stocks per game behind Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 1: And who do you guys think is number two? Quick trivia?
Speaker 1: If you guessed Nick Claxton from the Brooklyn Nets, you
Speaker 1: were correct. As a shot creator, not a great year
Speaker 1: as a half court shot creator. He was zero point
Speaker 1: ninety two points per ISO, which is below average. One
Speaker 1: point zero six points per post up among the high
Speaker 1: volume guys. That was middle of the pack. So there's
Speaker 1: twenty players in the NBA last year who ran at
Speaker 1: least two hundred post ups and ad finished eleventh on
Speaker 1: that list and pretty much behind all of his peers
Speaker 1: at the center position. The one guy who's one of
Speaker 1: his peers at his position that he beat it out,
Speaker 1: that he beat out was bam at a bio. Shot
Speaker 1: making was the biggest issue. Shot just thirty five percent
Speaker 1: on jump shots, thirty nine percent when you waited that
Speaker 1: for threes, so thirty nine percent effective field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: Just thirty six percent on pull up jump shots, all
Speaker 1: from the mid range. So every single time you saw
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis take some sort of dribble, step back or
Speaker 1: turn around jump shot or something like that out of
Speaker 1: the post. Anytime he took a shot like that, it
Speaker 1: had about a two out of three chance of missing,
Speaker 1: And so if it felt like that when you were
Speaker 1: watching the Lakers, you were right in the sense that
Speaker 1: that was what the percentage landed out at. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, his jumper was a big issue, particularly
Speaker 1: in spot up situations when he was unguarded. He shot
Speaker 1: just thirty one percent on jump shots. So it's starting
Speaker 1: to look more and more like the bubble was a
Speaker 1: big outlier for Anthony Davis. He had a to give
Speaker 1: you an idea, in the bubble, he had a fifty
Speaker 1: nine percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots, in a forty five percent effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on pull up jumper. So just not the same
Speaker 1: type of shot maker really at any point of his
Speaker 1: career outside of the bubble. There was definitely that thirty
Speaker 1: five percent or thirty nine percent effective fielgal percentage overall
Speaker 1: on jump shots. That's low compared to his career, Like
Speaker 1: he's typically in the low forties and had a lot
Speaker 1: of years there in New Orleans in particular, where he
Speaker 1: was in the low forties, so definitely a bit below
Speaker 1: what his career numbers were. But even as we zoom
Speaker 1: in on the kind of zoom in on individual stretches
Speaker 1: of his career, there never was a stretch where he
Speaker 1: shot as well as he did in the bubble, so
Speaker 1: I think we can pretty safely assume that that was
Speaker 1: an outlier. He shot fifty one percent on floaters this year.
Speaker 1: That's good, not great. It's it's good compared to guards
Speaker 1: who are taking floaters over the top of shot blockers
Speaker 1: and stuff. But for Anthony Davis, with the quality of
Speaker 1: looks he gets with those little pop shots in the paint,
Speaker 1: that's actually pretty low and way below where his peers
Speaker 1: at the position are. As a matter of fact, Nikola
Speaker 1: Jokic was almost seventy percent on floaters this year. It
Speaker 1: goes to show you the difference between those two guys
Speaker 1: in their touch. Ady was sixty one percent on hooks,
Speaker 1: which is very good. As matter of fact, I'd say
Speaker 1: that's great. I mean, Jokic has him beat by about
Speaker 1: five percent there. But again, Jokic has the best touch
Speaker 1: in the league. I'd like to see Ad get the
Speaker 1: floaters up to about sixty percent as well. I just
Speaker 1: think that's such an important shot for him to be
Speaker 1: able to demonstrate that he could score over the top
Speaker 1: of the defense. He is incredible at the rim though,
Speaker 1: five point six makes per game in the restricted area,
Speaker 1: trailing just Yannis at one, Zion at two, and his
Speaker 1: teammate Lebron James at three, so he's the fourth best
Speaker 1: rim attacking player in the league. He was seventy six
Speaker 1: percent in the restricted area on shot attempts, which is
Speaker 1: higher than any of those three guys that are above him. So, like,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where he has all of
Speaker 1: the tools to be that top tier offensive player, does
Speaker 1: a really good job scoring in all of the advantage
Speaker 1: created situations, right, but when it's time for him to
Speaker 1: create for himself, that touch over the top, particularly with
Speaker 1: his floater and his jump shot is the problem. If
Speaker 1: he improves that, if he gets his pull up jumper,
Speaker 1: you know, that mid range pull up up in like
Speaker 1: where he's consistently making in the low forties and that
Speaker 1: have in the mid thirties, that would be help a
Speaker 1: ton and get that floater up to sixty percent. I
Speaker 1: think if he got to there, all of his individual
Speaker 1: creation numbers would go up considerably. Not to mention, that
Speaker 1: would open up things a lot for him to start
Speaker 1: attacking the rim even more than he does. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is a deadly roleman, and the Lakers used him a
Speaker 1: lot as a roleman, especially with all of the guards
Speaker 1: that they have that could run, pick and roll. Ad
Speaker 1: shot the ball on the roll two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two times this year, leading to three hundred and eleven points.
Speaker 1: That one point twenty nine points per possession on roleman
Speaker 1: shots was third out of the eleven players in the
Speaker 1: league to log at least two hundred rollman possessions, which
Speaker 1: you know when you watch the film. It's actually especially
Speaker 1: impressive when you consider he's not a very good screener.
Speaker 1: That's definitely a weakness of his compared to his peers.
Speaker 1: He doesn't set good screens that free up the guard better,
Speaker 1: which inherently free up him better when he's on his role.
Speaker 1: It's just he's so damn quick, and he's got such
Speaker 1: a good handle compared to other bigs, and his touch
Speaker 1: at the rim is so good that Anthony Davis makes
Speaker 1: up for that and is still a great role man.
Speaker 1: But I'd like to see him get a little bit
Speaker 1: better as a screener. He is arguably the best vertical
Speaker 1: spacer in the league. Just a huge target with great hands,
Speaker 1: and dunks everything. And he's also a pretty good short
Speaker 1: role passer. Not not quite as good as Bam, definitely
Speaker 1: not as good as Jokis, but he's a solid short
Speaker 1: role passer. It's not like he's hurting his team team
Speaker 1: when teams kind of gather around him when he's catching
Speaker 1: on the role. It was generally an up and down season.
Speaker 1: Started the year really rough. He in the two to
Speaker 1: ten stretch for the Lakers to start the year, he
Speaker 1: did not score thirty points a single time. He averaged
Speaker 1: just twenty three and eleven during that stretch, which was
Speaker 1: just not good enough. But then he hit the Jets
Speaker 1: for a month and was just absolutely unbelievable. If you
Speaker 1: take out the game that he got hurt against the
Speaker 1: Nuggets when he hurt his foot, if you take that
Speaker 1: game out because he left early, and then there was
Speaker 1: a game where he left early in Cleveland two sick,
Speaker 1: where he played just a few minutes and then left
Speaker 1: he wasn't feeling well. If you take those two games out,
Speaker 1: there was a twelve game span there over the course
Speaker 1: of that month where he scored thirty plus and nine
Speaker 1: of the twelve games he averaged thirty five and fifteen.
Speaker 1: In that twelve game stretch. The Lakers went eight and
Speaker 1: four in that span, and again that was before the
Speaker 1: trade deadline when the reinforcements came. The peak of the
Speaker 1: run was a road game in Milwaukee where he dropped
Speaker 1: forty four, going blow for blow with Giannis and Tenna
Speaker 1: Kumpo in a win. And then he followed that up
Speaker 1: two nights later in Washington, dropping fifty five on the
Speaker 1: Wizards in a win. But then he suffers the foot
Speaker 1: stress injury against the Nuggets. Huge bummer because like for years,
Speaker 1: Laker fans were just praying that Ad would be able
Speaker 1: to get back to the level he was at in
Speaker 1: the bubble, and he kind of was at that level
Speaker 1: during that twelve game stretch. Again, thirty five and fifteen
Speaker 1: is like MVP of the league level production that he
Speaker 1: was putting out there before the injury. But then it
Speaker 1: was like man, here we go again, and he ended
Speaker 1: up missing twenty games. And as you guys remember, Lebron
Speaker 1: really carried the team over that stretch, and then Ad
Speaker 1: comes back and then Lebron gets hurt, probably related to
Speaker 1: the work at the workload he had to put in
Speaker 1: at that point in time. But At that point it
Speaker 1: became Anthony Davis's job to basically do what Lebron did
Speaker 1: and carry the team, and he did that and then some.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, after coming back from the foot stress fracture
Speaker 1: a foot stretch reaction, i should say, missed just three
Speaker 1: games the entire rest of the season, and all of
Speaker 1: them were back to backs. When he was forced to
Speaker 1: miss by the medical staff. He averaged twenty five and
Speaker 1: thirteen overall in that stretch. There was a sixteen game
Speaker 1: stretch from February twenty sixth to April second, where he
Speaker 1: averaged twenty nine and thirteen on fifty nine percent shooting,
Speaker 1: so not quite the level he was at before the
Speaker 1: foot injury offensively, but still really really good. But most importantly,
Speaker 1: this was the stretch post trade deadline where Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: went up a level on defense and it completely re
Speaker 1: established the Lakers as one of the very best defensive
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Over the course of the final
Speaker 1: twenty six games of the season, which is the stretch
Speaker 1: that represents every the game. Every game the Lakers played
Speaker 1: after their trade reinforcements actually were in Jersey. In Jerseys,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were second in the NBA and defensive rating
Speaker 1: over that span. They took that like pick and roll
Speaker 1: identity that they had, where it's like Lebron, James, the
Speaker 1: Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves and Dennis Schroeder just running a
Speaker 1: ton of pick and roll with Anthony Davis as the
Speaker 1: folkrum on the offensive end, and then they added this
Speaker 1: incredible defensive identity that they really haven't had since the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one season, and suddenly they became one of
Speaker 1: the better two way teams in the league. They finished
Speaker 1: the league that stretch of the season, going eighteen to
Speaker 1: eight and getting all the way back to being in
Speaker 1: the playoff picture and having a legitimate path in front
Speaker 1: of them to make a playoff runt and ad. Again,
Speaker 1: this is not twenty twenty. You know. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: Lebron was still running the show. I don't think people remember,
Speaker 1: like especially Lebron fans in particular, because they just insist
Speaker 1: on saying he's the best in the world all the time.
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize how big of a drop
Speaker 1: off there's been since twenty twenty for people who forgot.
Speaker 1: In the twenty twenty playoffs, Lebron averaged twenty eight points,
Speaker 1: eleven rebounds, and nine assists on sixty five percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. Best player in the world production. In the finals,
Speaker 1: Lebron averaged thirty points, twelve rebounds, and nine assists on
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent true shooting. That was Lebron's team. He
Speaker 1: was still the offensive fulkrum. Obviously, Anthony Davis was the
Speaker 1: defensive folkrum, but Lebron was the best player on that team.
Speaker 1: This is not the same Lebron. He's gone from being
Speaker 1: the best player in the world to just a really
Speaker 1: good number two. He's just another one of the superstars now.
Speaker 1: He's not like on a tier by himself atop the
Speaker 1: league the way he used to be. Ad is more
Speaker 1: consistently impactful than him. He's the literal structure that the
Speaker 1: team is built around, both in their pick and roll
Speaker 1: attack offensively and as the rim protector on defense. This
Speaker 1: is Anthony Davis's team now, and it continued into the postseason,
Speaker 1: just until he ran into Nikoliokich. In the Memphis series,
Speaker 1: he averaged four point three blocks per game, completely dominated
Speaker 1: the series defensively. In the Lakers one. In the Golden
Speaker 1: State Series, he completely shut down the Warriors motion offense
Speaker 1: really in the first game. They ran it here and
Speaker 1: there throughout the series, but it never was effect effective
Speaker 1: really just by patrolling the paint. Every adjustment Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: made over the rest of the series was designed to
Speaker 1: try to pull Anthony Davis away from the paint, and
Speaker 1: none of it worked. As we said before, this was
Speaker 1: STEP's most inefficient series since the twenty nineteen series against
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets. They held both Klay Thompson and Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool below one point per shot attempt, so they both
Speaker 1: had more field goal attempts than points in the series.
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, the two to ten Lakers all
Speaker 1: is dead and the season is over. Lakers were in
Speaker 1: the Conference finals. Now, before we talk about what happened
Speaker 1: in the Conference finals, because I want to stay on
Speaker 1: the positive with ad for just a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: let's talk about why Anthony Davis is the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the world. Because, if you remember, I talked
Speaker 1: about how bam Adebio is probably the most versatile defender.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of specific defensive things that bam
Speaker 1: is better at that I think make him a little
Speaker 1: more versatile and makes him such a great fit with
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat, But in terms of the ultimate top
Speaker 1: tier ceiling defensively, I don't think anybody can reach Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's level, even Giannis, who I thought was the best
Speaker 1: defensive player in the world during that stretch when Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis was hurt all of the time. And it really
Speaker 1: hinges on three core skills that make Anthony Davis the
Speaker 1: best drop coverage big in the world. Number One, he's
Speaker 1: excellent at getting up to the level of the screen,
Speaker 1: but also getting back to the rim after his guard recovers. Now,
Speaker 1: remember in the NBA right now, all of these guards
Speaker 1: are insane pull up jumpshooters. Right so you can no
Speaker 1: longer run a traditional drop coverage where you back all
Speaker 1: the way back to the rim and let the guy
Speaker 1: just kind of you because he's not going to drive
Speaker 1: into you. He's gonna rise up and take a jump shot.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people refer to this as the
Speaker 1: yo yo. It's the job of the big to get
Speaker 1: up to the level of the screen to dissuade the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot, recover back to the paint, up
Speaker 1: to the level of the screen, recover back to the paint.
Speaker 1: And the reason why they call it a yo yo
Speaker 1: is now in the NBA, especially for fast paced teams.
Speaker 1: They might run three pick and rolls on the same possession.
Speaker 1: Shut down a pick and roll, they're just resetting and
Speaker 1: running another one. They might swing it to the perimeter
Speaker 1: and have the big run up and set a quick screen,
Speaker 1: and now he's defending a different player in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: And so that's why they refer to as a As
Speaker 1: a yo yo, you have to get up and back
Speaker 1: and up and back, and it requires a great deal
Speaker 1: of mobility. And with AD's combination of mobility and just
Speaker 1: outrageous length, he's one of the best in the world
Speaker 1: at getting up and back in that yo yo to
Speaker 1: dissuade the pull up shot and to get back to
Speaker 1: the rim. Second when he's up at the level of
Speaker 1: the screen, he's got super active hands. Now, the game
Speaker 1: that I think best describes this skill as Game three
Speaker 1: of Warriors series this year. So if you guys, remember
Speaker 1: they run a lot of pick and roll in game two,
Speaker 1: the Lakers bring a pretty poor defensive effort. They get
Speaker 1: killed in game three. If you watch that game, look
Speaker 1: at how many times Anthony Davis got deflections up at
Speaker 1: the screen because when AD's up, Steph's trying to get
Speaker 1: rid of it to the roll man or if they're
Speaker 1: tagging the roller to the weak side right, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is looking and tracking Steph as he's getting ready
Speaker 1: to make that pass, and he's getting deflections, which is
Speaker 1: leading to turnovers and getting the Lakers out the other way.
Speaker 1: The Lakers had a dominant game in Game three of
Speaker 1: that series, and most of the damage was done by
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and his active hands up at the level
Speaker 1: of the screen. Again, if you're up there and you
Speaker 1: don't have active hands, that's actually the worst place you
Speaker 1: can be because if the pass gets through, it's a
Speaker 1: four on three now and you're at the top of
Speaker 1: the key and you're not in a position where you
Speaker 1: can help defensively. But if you have active hands and
Speaker 1: you dissuade the pass, hell, if you get him to
Speaker 1: pick up his dribble, then you get to recover. But
Speaker 1: if you dissuade the pass, or if you deflect it
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form, that's when it's a
Speaker 1: defensive playmaking opportunity to go the opposite end and get
Speaker 1: out in transition, which was such an important thing for
Speaker 1: the Lakers in particular because of some of their half
Speaker 1: court offense struggles. But those are the first two things.
Speaker 1: Getting to the level of the screen, super active fans
Speaker 1: at the level, and then lastly, when he's at the rim,
Speaker 1: there's nobody in the league that is better at blocking
Speaker 1: and changing shots. So when you put those three traits together,
Speaker 1: it makes Anthony Davis the best drop coverage big in
Speaker 1: the league, one of the few bigs that can consistently
Speaker 1: run drop coverage in the NBA playoffs without getting killed. Again,
Speaker 1: drop coverage used to be suicide against Steph Curry. Ask
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics. That's what cost them the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: But with the Lakers, it worked. And that's the advantage
Speaker 1: of having Anthony Davis on your roster. Again, when we're
Speaker 1: talking about why he's with the offensive limitations that he
Speaker 1: has to be up at number six in the league,
Speaker 1: you have to be truly transcend it defensively, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis made a coverage that was there used to be
Speaker 1: a death sentence against Steph Curry into something that literally
Speaker 1: caused him to have his most inefficient series since the
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen playoffs. And so that's the advantage of Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Nothing is quite as difficult in the NBA as trying
Speaker 1: to run pick and roll at Steph Curry. As a
Speaker 1: matter of factor, excuse me at Anthony Davis. And you
Speaker 1: know what's funny is he shut down John Morant two.
Speaker 1: John Moran averaged one point zero four points per possession
Speaker 1: in pick and roll in the regular season ad and
Speaker 1: the Lakers held him to zero point eighty seven points
Speaker 1: per possession in pick and roll. So Anthony Davis, his
Speaker 1: ultimate superpower is shutting down pick and roll in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and it is the foundation to what was a dominant
Speaker 1: Laker defense that made it all the way to the
Speaker 1: conference finals. But and again before we move on, like
Speaker 1: I said before, not quite as good on switches as
Speaker 1: someone like for instance, but he's still pretty good in
Speaker 1: those situations. Also not quite as good in box out
Speaker 1: situations as some of the bigger, stronger players at his
Speaker 1: positions at his position, but he's not a perfect player.
Speaker 1: But I think overall, when you factor all of the
Speaker 1: elements of defense in, I think that he is the
Speaker 1: best defender in the league. I was super disappointed in
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in the Denver series, though not because he
Speaker 1: lost to Yoki Jokic is the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: and sometimes what happens in basketball is you run into
Speaker 1: a guy who's better than you and you just get
Speaker 1: to lose. And I'm not trying to overthink that specific concept,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think Ad fought as hard as he
Speaker 1: was capable of fighting. It was kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: especially visibly. Sometimes it looked as though Jokic kind of
Speaker 1: sapped Ad of his confidence and his like energy, and
Speaker 1: he looked lifeless at times. The Nuggets absolutely shredded the
Speaker 1: Lakers defense. I don't think people realize just how ineffectual
Speaker 1: AD was. Ad in particular, was ineffectual defensively in that series.
Speaker 1: The Lakers had a one to sixteen defensive right in
Speaker 1: that series against the Nuggets. That was by far the
Speaker 1: worst out of the three other opponents that Denver faced.
Speaker 1: With Ad on the floor in the Nuggets series, the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets scored one hundred and twenty five points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. He couldn't stop jokicch in the post.
Speaker 1: He couldn't stop Jokic in face up situations or ISOs,
Speaker 1: including that pivotal basket in Game four, that ended up
Speaker 1: being the game winner. He couldn't slow down the two
Speaker 1: man game. Jokic just absolutely torched him, beat him in transition,
Speaker 1: just running up and down the floor like he always
Speaker 1: does every time the two of him play. It was
Speaker 1: honestly a little embarrassing for Anthony Davis. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: just Denver's offense and an unguardability factor, because we saw
Speaker 1: other teams in the playoffs do a better job. And
Speaker 1: that's where I look at the lack of fight and
Speaker 1: the lethar g and that, like it just is like
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like you're on the ground,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do. You're gonna lay there and
Speaker 1: let the dude keep kicking you or are you gonna
Speaker 1: get up and try to fight? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And I just wished that Ad was was a little
Speaker 1: bit more willing to fight in that specific situation. The
Speaker 1: one thing I want to do to cut him some slack, though,
Speaker 1: is AD had been playing at a playoff level of
Speaker 1: intensity since February because of the predicament. The front office
Speaker 1: put them in, Hey, here's your reinforcements. There's some good
Speaker 1: basketball players. Go Oh, by the way, you're the thirteen seed, like,
Speaker 1: and there's thirty games left, so let's see what you got.
Speaker 1: That was the situation he was put in, and so
Speaker 1: as a result, he was on the Jets like NonStop
Speaker 1: from February all the way to March, all the way
Speaker 1: to April, all the way to May. And usually it's
Speaker 1: not like that, you know, Yo Kitchen, the Nuggets they
Speaker 1: got to chill the last third of the season and
Speaker 1: then hit the Jets for two months. Ad had to
Speaker 1: hit the Jets for four months, and I do think
Speaker 1: that that played a role in the lack of energy
Speaker 1: that Ad had to fight against Jokic harder than he did.
Speaker 1: The one thing that was just kind of a bummer, though,
Speaker 1: is like it just wasn't a good look to see
Speaker 1: Game four and see Lebron like literally leaving his heart
Speaker 1: and soul out on the floor trying to win the game,
Speaker 1: and Ad is just kind of coasting through until the
Speaker 1: last He kind of turned it on in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter a little bit, but that was it. So like,
Speaker 1: I was definitely a little disappointed that he didn't put
Speaker 1: up more of a fight against Jokic, even accounting for
Speaker 1: the fatigue. So in summary, Ady is a super flawed
Speaker 1: offensive player, not a good jump shooter, but he is
Speaker 1: still a good volume scorer. It was very efficient. Biggest
Speaker 1: area of improvement there is he needs to work on
Speaker 1: making shots over the top of the defense. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best role men in the league. Excellent finishing
Speaker 1: at the rim, especially above the rim as a vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: but he's got great touch as well. He's also a
Speaker 1: good passer in short role situations. Tends to be very
Speaker 1: up and down offensively. That was kind of the theme
Speaker 1: of this postseason was like the one night AD would
Speaker 1: have thirty and one night AD would have fourteen the
Speaker 1: one thing I didn't I thought that was fair criticism
Speaker 1: for the record, because inconsistent inconsistency offensively certainly hurts the
Speaker 1: basketball team. But there was important context there. Every conversation
Speaker 1: surrounding AD's inconsistency needed to be framed around the idea
Speaker 1: that he was consistently great defensively, and so, yeah, can
Speaker 1: you be frustrated that he's not more consistent offensively? Sure?
Speaker 1: Is it an area that he needs to work on improving? Yeah,
Speaker 1: mainly conditioning. He needs to condition himself to the point
Speaker 1: where he can devote those resources to the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor while not getting cooked in transition, while
Speaker 1: also having the legs to get up and make shots
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor. But when we're
Speaker 1: having those discussions, let's make sure we remember and frame
Speaker 1: it around the idea that he was the very best
Speaker 1: defensive player in the world that was completely anchoring that
Speaker 1: Laker defense in the main reason why they were winning games.
Speaker 1: And that fact ad being the best defensive player in
Speaker 1: the world, to me is what puts him up as
Speaker 1: high as he is on this list. In order to
Speaker 1: really join conversations for best in the world, I think
Speaker 1: he needs to round out his offensive skill set, become
Speaker 1: a better shot maker over the top, improve his conditioning
Speaker 1: so that he doesn't run into problems with inconsistency and
Speaker 1: in transition. And then, last, but not least, take take
Speaker 1: the Jokic thing as an opportunity to motivate yourself, Like
Speaker 1: that's the way that I would look at that, Like
Speaker 1: Jokic kicked your ass. But the beautiful thing about basketball,
Speaker 1: my favorite thing about basketball is you live to fight
Speaker 1: another day. You know, one day it stops, Yeah, like
Speaker 1: Lebron one day won't be able to go anymore. But
Speaker 1: that's what's amazing about basketball. You have the ability to
Speaker 1: completely change the perception of yourself because you go back
Speaker 1: and play the next day. Lebron James the most upsetting
Speaker 1: and disappointing playoff of failure in the of the probably
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of guys that are in the
Speaker 1: top ten, it's one of the worst ever. Is twenty
Speaker 1: eleven Finals performance against the Dallas Mavericks. Went out the
Speaker 1: next year in Game six against Boston, has that big night,
Speaker 1: gets the trophy. All's forgiven at that point and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, you look back now
Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, almost feels weird to talk about because
Speaker 1: it's like not even the same player. And that's the
Speaker 1: way that I look at it. You got your ass
Speaker 1: kicked by Nicole jokicch but you have a leg up
Speaker 1: on him on the defensive end of the floor. Make
Speaker 1: some improvements on the defensive end of the floor or
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor. Excuse me. You've
Speaker 1: got a good roster, You've got the ability to make
Speaker 1: a move at the deadline to improve. There's a good
Speaker 1: chance that you're gonna have another opportunity in earlier late
Speaker 1: May and the second or third round of the Western
Speaker 1: Conference playoffs to get another crack at jokicen the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get another chance, So take this summer as
Speaker 1: an opportunity to shore those things up and give yourself
Speaker 1: a better chance to win that fight. But right now,
Speaker 1: best defensive player in the world and is still a
Speaker 1: very very good offensive player. I have ad as the
Speaker 1: sixth best basketball player in the world. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: the rest of the weekend off and we will be
Speaker 1: back on Monday with number five.