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Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight, presented by FANDOL here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week. It is that time of year again.
Speaker 1: We are going to do our player rankings, one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things to do to deal with the hoop
Speaker 1: withdrawals over the summer we're gonna get it down to
Speaker 1: the top five players in the NBA. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you guys my criteria to start off. Then i'm gonna
Speaker 1: go over some of the guys that missed the cut
Speaker 1: and why, and then today we will be doing number
Speaker 1: through number twenty one. So before we get started, you
Speaker 1: guys know the drill. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel
Speaker 1: so you guys don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt S, you
Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements or any other video
Speaker 1: content that I produced. And then, last but not least,
Speaker 1: if you miss some portion of the show and you
Speaker 1: can't get back to YouTube but you're driving around town
Speaker 1: or something, you can always find these in audio form
Speaker 1: on our podcast feeds shortly after they go up on YouTube,
Speaker 1: So you can find that under Hoops Tonight wherever you
Speaker 1: find your podcast. All Right, so this kind of thing
Speaker 1: is entirely subjective, so before we get started, don't get
Speaker 1: emotional about anything. If you disagree about anything, just drop
Speaker 1: it in the comments. I'd love to hear it. All
Speaker 1: of these guys are extremely close to each other because
Speaker 1: the league is at a in a in a era
Speaker 1: where there is more talent than we've ever seen in
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. The gap between the best player
Speaker 1: and the seventh best player is tiny, and on any
Speaker 1: given night, any of those guys can outplay each other.
Speaker 1: So if I have a guy ranked lower than you thought,
Speaker 1: tell me why you disagree. Don't get all emotional and upset,
Speaker 1: because that's the one thing that gets kind of frustrating
Speaker 1: with these lists is just how everyone thinks they've got
Speaker 1: it all figured out, and the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is none of us do, and we're all just doing
Speaker 1: our best to get s and all of these guys
Speaker 1: are incredibly good, and we're just splitting hair. So my criteria,
Speaker 1: it's not a harder fast rule because every player is different, right,
Speaker 1: Like you know, Steph's roll on a team doesn't resemble
Speaker 1: Yokis roll on a team, or and Beads roll on
Speaker 1: the team. So you can't apply the same criteria uniformly
Speaker 1: across the board. But there are general things that I
Speaker 1: value that will lead to some of these decisions, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to lay those out. First of all, size
Speaker 1: is something that I value to a great degree in basketball.
Speaker 1: Steph is the exception to this rule. I spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: I have Steph very high on my list. Okay, but
Speaker 1: he's the one short guy up there, and he's not
Speaker 1: even that short. He's six ft three and he's pretty
Speaker 1: stocky and strong. But the main reason why is everything
Speaker 1: on a basketball court is easier when you're bigger, especially
Speaker 1: if you can move your feet, covering ground on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and rotations, skying for rebounds, being able to hold
Speaker 1: position in box outs, are in post ups, dealing with
Speaker 1: the physicality. That's arguably the biggest reason why I value
Speaker 1: size in the NBA. Think of it like this, Guys,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be watching on October seventeenth or sixteenth or whatever.
Speaker 1: It is, a season opening basketball game, probably on you know,
Speaker 1: one of the major networks that will probably involve the
Speaker 1: Warriors and someone else. Right when that happens, we'll be watching,
Speaker 1: and we'll probably be complaining about the refs and how
Speaker 1: tikie tack they are with their whistle, right, and it
Speaker 1: might be a topic of conversation through a good chunk
Speaker 1: of the season. But make no mistake, come June, there
Speaker 1: will be two teams in a complete and total blood bath.
Speaker 1: It happens every single year. The playoffs are extremely different
Speaker 1: from the regular season, and in that environment, size and
Speaker 1: strength does matter. Steph is just so exceptionally talented that
Speaker 1: he's a top ten player in NBA history in spite
Speaker 1: of the fact that he doesn't have a great set
Speaker 1: of physical tools. That playoff translatability is another huge part
Speaker 1: of this. The game just as different at that level.
Speaker 1: It's not just the physictality, it's the scheming. It's the
Speaker 1: level of defensive attention thrown to the stars, adding a
Speaker 1: great deal of value towards playmaking, which we'll get to
Speaker 1: in a minute. That ability to translate to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: that's something that I'm gonna value heavily on this list.
Speaker 1: If you've got a player that's a dominant regular season player,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't play as well in the playoffs or
Speaker 1: he doesn't get there, I'm gonna have him lower on
Speaker 1: my list. Availability is a big thing being available to
Speaker 1: your team. Don't have to dive any further into that
Speaker 1: defensive versatility. It's a huge difference between the ability to
Speaker 1: defend in one role in the ability to defend in
Speaker 1: multiple roles. That is a huge deal in the playoffs
Speaker 1: when scheming becomes a bigger role in switching becomes a
Speaker 1: bigger role. You're not just going to get to park
Speaker 1: under the basket and block shots. You're not just gonna
Speaker 1: get to guard little guards or guard big forwards. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to guard both, and you're probably gonna have
Speaker 1: to cover a lot of ground in rotations. So defensive
Speaker 1: versatility is gonna matter a lot to me. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, the two big offensive skills that I
Speaker 1: value are playmaking and three level scoring. The reason why is, well,
Speaker 1: let's start with three scoring. With the way that NBA
Speaker 1: teams guard. You know, all these offenses, because of analytics,
Speaker 1: are heading towards rim attempts and three point attempts. Why
Speaker 1: because the rim is the most efficient shot in basketball
Speaker 1: and the three point shot is the second most efficient
Speaker 1: shot in basketball when you account for shot value. But
Speaker 1: because of that, over the last few years, almost every
Speaker 1: defense in the league has leaned heavily in towards in
Speaker 1: towards prioritizing the three point line and the free throw
Speaker 1: in the in the basket right, they will chaotically chase
Speaker 1: guys off the three point line to give up a
Speaker 1: driving lane, knowing that they have a rotation set up
Speaker 1: at the rim, and they can make up for it
Speaker 1: on the back end. They will leave a massive opening
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor to take away those
Speaker 1: threes and to take away the basket. That's why three
Speaker 1: level scoring is so important. The guys that are comfortable
Speaker 1: stopping short after running off the three point line to
Speaker 1: knock down a mid range jump shot, to knock down
Speaker 1: a float, or to score in the mid range, those
Speaker 1: sorts of things. That skill becomes immensely important in the
Speaker 1: postseason when you start playing teams that are scheming away
Speaker 1: all of the analytically, you know the shots at the
Speaker 1: analytics department wants you to take. So I do value
Speaker 1: three level scoring a great deal because of that. I
Speaker 1: do value playmaking a little bit more than three level scoring, though,
Speaker 1: and the main reason for that is the way that
Speaker 1: teams guard superstars in the playoffs. You saw this a
Speaker 1: lot with Jayson Tatum as the as the games went
Speaker 1: along uh in the in this particular playoff run, you
Speaker 1: saw it with Kevin Durant with the way Boston was
Speaker 1: guarding people. You see it all over the league. But
Speaker 1: teams throw the kitchen sink at the stars. They pack
Speaker 1: the paint, they send doubles and stunts, and they dare
Speaker 1: your role players to make shots. So having players that
Speaker 1: are great at making those reads when the defense is
Speaker 1: over playing them that I would say is arguably the
Speaker 1: most important skill on the offensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: in the NBA. So again, really quickly, I value size,
Speaker 1: what translates to the playoffs being available to your team,
Speaker 1: versatility on defense rather than one elite defensive skill, and
Speaker 1: three level scoring, and playmaking with a slight edge towards playmaking.
Speaker 1: That's my criteria. So for this Top twenty five, I
Speaker 1: started by just trying to come up with a list
Speaker 1: of players that I thought were in the running, and
Speaker 1: I ended up coming up with twenty nine players. So
Speaker 1: that means that there are four players that missed the cut.
Speaker 1: That's Chris Paul, Bradley Beale, Trey Young, and Zach Levine.
Speaker 1: I wanted to give a really quick breakdown and why
Speaker 1: I did not include those guys in this list. So
Speaker 1: for CP three, we just had back to back playoff
Speaker 1: runs where he fell apart physically, you know, and that
Speaker 1: just needs to be planned on moving forward. Over the
Speaker 1: last five games of that Dallas series, he averaged nine points,
Speaker 1: six assists, and four turnovers, very unlike anything that we've
Speaker 1: seen from the Chris Paul era. As we heard after
Speaker 1: the series, he apparently had some sort of quad strain.
Speaker 1: When healthy, he's a top fifteen player. I think that
Speaker 1: goes without saying. His unique combination of scoring ability and
Speaker 1: pick and roll in his ability to pass the basketball
Speaker 1: puts him in that list. But he's just never healthy
Speaker 1: when it matters the most. It happened to him again
Speaker 1: the year before in the NBA Finals when he fell
Speaker 1: apart over the last four games. So as much as
Speaker 1: I value CP three and what he does when he's healthy,
Speaker 1: his lack of availability at least the peak version of
Speaker 1: himself drops him out of this list for me. And
Speaker 1: I think I just don't see a universe where he's
Speaker 1: more impactful on the biggest stages than the twenty five
Speaker 1: guys that are ahead of him. Bradley Beale injuries obviously
Speaker 1: are a big role. There has constantly been dealing with
Speaker 1: things on that front. And then lastly, it's just hard
Speaker 1: to evaluate Bradley Beale when he's never in a high
Speaker 1: stake environment anymore. And so again, like when I'm talking
Speaker 1: about how I value things that translate to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and I just don't get to see Bradley Beale in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I'm just naturally gonna fall back, and he's
Speaker 1: just naturally gonna fall back on my list. He has
Speaker 1: a very elite he has a he has an elite
Speaker 1: skill that I value a great deal, which is the
Speaker 1: ability to score the basketball at all three levels, like
Speaker 1: I talked about earlier. But again, it's just hard for
Speaker 1: me to translate that to compare him two guys that
Speaker 1: are fighting and scratching and clawing deep into the playoffs
Speaker 1: every single year. So I left him out of my list.
Speaker 1: Trey Young Uh He averaged fifteen points ont pcent from
Speaker 1: the field and eight percent from three against Miami. He
Speaker 1: had an eight point game, a nine point game, and
Speaker 1: an eleven point game against Milwaukee and Philly in the
Speaker 1: previous playoff run. The average eight, but it was a
Speaker 1: forty percent from the field, percent from three, any average
Speaker 1: five turnovers a game. So against the top, top, top
Speaker 1: tier defenses, the elite, super athletic defenses, he really struggles.
Speaker 1: And one of the things teams are figuring out is
Speaker 1: he's actually a little bit easy to guard because of
Speaker 1: how predictable he is. He comes off a high pick
Speaker 1: and roll and if you drop underneath, he's gonna pull
Speaker 1: up the three. So nobody does that. They chase him
Speaker 1: over the top. What he used to do is try
Speaker 1: to back up into you and draw fouls by falling backwards,
Speaker 1: but the refs removed that from his game. Teams have
Speaker 1: figured out that he struggles to finish over size underneath
Speaker 1: the basket. He only shot thirty percent in the restricted
Speaker 1: area against Miami, and he only shot fifty five percent
Speaker 1: from the restricted area in the playoffs the restrict As
Speaker 1: a point of reference to you, guys, that's about what
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook shot in the restricted area this year for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. So it's really really bad. So they understand
Speaker 1: now that if you stay glued to him over the
Speaker 1: top of those screens and take away those floaters and
Speaker 1: short range shots and funnel him to the basket, he
Speaker 1: won't be able to score at the rim. And so
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a weakness of his that's been exposed.
Speaker 1: He's going to have to become a better rim finisher
Speaker 1: for him to reach his eventual ceiling, whatever that ends
Speaker 1: up being. But for the time being, I have him
Speaker 1: outside of my top twenty five. Uh. And then last
Speaker 1: but not not Lee Zach Lavine. So in in his first
Speaker 1: playoff series the average nineteen points per game on fifty
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage, which is really not great. Um,
Speaker 1: he just needs to adjust to the playoffs. He needs
Speaker 1: to adjust to the different type of separation that you
Speaker 1: need to get scoring over physicality that's not present in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And then most importantly, he's got the athleticism
Speaker 1: to be a more impactful defensive player. That's where he's
Speaker 1: gonna have to improve. Not an insult to any of
Speaker 1: these guys. Again, these were the twenty nine players that
Speaker 1: I picked that could be in the top twenty five.
Speaker 1: These guys just barely missed the cut. But again, the
Speaker 1: gap between Bradley Beal and you know, the twelve or
Speaker 1: thirteenth best player in the league is very small. That's
Speaker 1: just that, that's just the predicament that our league is in,
Speaker 1: all right, Number twenty five, Carl Towns. In the regular season,
Speaker 1: he averaged ten and four on sixty percent shooting. That's amazing,
Speaker 1: And in the playoffs he averaged two eleven and two
Speaker 1: on sixty two percent shooting. That's really damn good. He's
Speaker 1: one of the best scoring bigs that we have in
Speaker 1: the game, an excellent face up player. If he gets
Speaker 1: the ball with the with the with the live dribble
Speaker 1: triple threat you know, excuse me, not a live drible
Speaker 1: with a triple threat on the wing against the slow
Speaker 1: footed big, he's either going to jab step and pull
Speaker 1: up at three or he's going to rip through and
Speaker 1: go all the way to the room and finish. He's
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to handle in those spots on the floor.
Speaker 1: His ability to be efficient from the perimeter, one of
Speaker 1: the best perimeter shooting bigs that we have in the league.
Speaker 1: That will make him a really interesting fit next to
Speaker 1: Go Bear because he's gonna have to spend a great
Speaker 1: deal of his time on the perimeter or to allow
Speaker 1: Gobert to operate as someone who can screen and dive
Speaker 1: to the rim or sit in the dunker spot. But
Speaker 1: his defensive shortcomings. You know, last year they got hit
Speaker 1: into a certain extent because Minnesota's perimeter defense was so great,
Speaker 1: but he's actually pretty bad as a as a rim protector.
Speaker 1: And then as you slide Go Bear into that role. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that will fulfill that role. But with Carl Towns is
Speaker 1: the four next to Gobert. He's going to have to
Speaker 1: guard more in space. He's gonna have to guard quicker players,
Speaker 1: potentially some wings. He's gonna have to do a lot
Speaker 1: more in rotation. You can't slide Gobert into that role
Speaker 1: to guard the wings because that defeats the purpose of
Speaker 1: the trade to begin with. You want Gobert on the
Speaker 1: back line to help you protect the rim. So they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to put um Carl Town's into that specific role,
Speaker 1: and I think his defensive shortcomings will become even more
Speaker 1: glaring at that point. And then his last big weakness
Speaker 1: that I wanted to point out just inconsistency. You guys,
Speaker 1: remember that awful play in game he had with all
Speaker 1: the foul trouble, and then he had an eight point
Speaker 1: game in the first round. He just he struggles. He
Speaker 1: struggles with self control, you know, like some of the
Speaker 1: fouls that he was committing when he was in foul
Speaker 1: trouble in the playoffs. It's like, dude, where is your
Speaker 1: head at? You're just not paying attention to what's happening
Speaker 1: on the floor. You've got four fouls middle of the
Speaker 1: third quarter and your team misses a shot and you're
Speaker 1: just raking across the dude's arms for no particular reason.
Speaker 1: It's an easy foul, cahol, And now you've got to
Speaker 1: go to the bench before the end of the third
Speaker 1: quarter like that. That kind of stuff. Is it just
Speaker 1: it just doesn't make a ton of sense to me.
Speaker 1: Shot selection can get a little rough from time to time.
Speaker 1: You know the question with Carl Towns when you look
Speaker 1: at those numbers again, two eleven and two on shooting,
Speaker 1: that's a that's an incredible statistical achievement. But the question
Speaker 1: is he a winner or is he a good stats
Speaker 1: bad team guy. Good stats bad team guy is a
Speaker 1: real thing. I explained this to you guys when we
Speaker 1: did our when when I did my whole college basketball resume,
Speaker 1: thing like when I averaged almost sixteen points a game,
Speaker 1: our team was terrible, and then when I played on
Speaker 1: a good team, my scoring went way down because I
Speaker 1: was trying to score within a winning concept. It's completely
Speaker 1: different idea, right, And that's gonna be the thing for
Speaker 1: Carl Town's moving forward. It's going to be better for
Speaker 1: him to be at about twenty points per game efficiently
Speaker 1: but functionally doing really well on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, being a dominant physical presence on the interior
Speaker 1: as a rebounder, and you know, getting better with his
Speaker 1: decision making and his self control. Tying all those ends
Speaker 1: off is way more important than him being, you know,
Speaker 1: a thirty point per game guy that that can efficiently
Speaker 1: score in the postseason. We already know he can do
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. He's got to tie off the
Speaker 1: other areas of his game, the winning elements of his game,
Speaker 1: to no longer be a good stats, bad team guy.
Speaker 1: Right now, that's what he is. But I do believe
Speaker 1: he's capable of becoming a winner and hopefully getting alongside
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert and playing in some more high stakes environments,
Speaker 1: like if they stay healthy, they're gonna make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So Carl Town's will get more opportunities to show us
Speaker 1: that he's no longer a good stats, bad team guy.
Speaker 1: He just has to prove it. Number twenty four Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell regular season twenty four and five on fifty seven
Speaker 1: percent true shooting in the postseason this year kind of
Speaker 1: rough twenty six we're in six from the field and
Speaker 1: twenty percent from three. Not great, um, but to zoom
Speaker 1: out a little bit. Over his last three playoff runs,
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty two, five and five on sixty one
Speaker 1: true shooting. He's as good of a playoff score as
Speaker 1: we've seen in the last few years. In those three
Speaker 1: playoff runs, he's attempting ten threes per game in shooting
Speaker 1: fort on them. That's as good of a volume three
Speaker 1: point shooter as you'll see around the league right now.
Speaker 1: So why is it that he's so low on this
Speaker 1: list despite those things that I just said, Well, he's
Speaker 1: kind of like at a crossroads right now. This crossroads
Speaker 1: is is he going to become the next Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: or is he going to become the next Dwyane Wade. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously those are two absurd examples. Donovan Mitchell will never
Speaker 1: be Dwyane Wade. Dyane Wade is one of the greatest
Speaker 1: basketball players of all time. You know, in Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: is I'm just talking in terms of the archetype. Is
Speaker 1: he gonna be the big athletic guard that in braces
Speaker 1: the things that makes him a winner, or is he
Speaker 1: gonna be the big athletic guard that becomes a guy
Speaker 1: who fills the stat sheet? But it just never materializes
Speaker 1: into winning basketball, and that that will come down to
Speaker 1: his ability to manage the game. We talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot on this show, but game management was a
Speaker 1: huge issue with the Boston Celtics as we got deeper
Speaker 1: into that playoff run. It's essentially understanding the value of
Speaker 1: the hundred possessions over the value of the one possession.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell kind of gets a reactionary with the way
Speaker 1: he plays offense, like calls for a highball screen, and
Speaker 1: if the guy goes underneath, he's just pulling every single time,
Speaker 1: And if the guy chases him over the top, he's
Speaker 1: just going downhill every single time. And if he absolutely
Speaker 1: has to get rid of the basketball, he will, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't unless he absolutely has to, you know, and
Speaker 1: from and from that standpoint, him figuring out that it's
Speaker 1: not his job to create shots for himself thirty times
Speaker 1: a game. It's his job to create shots for his
Speaker 1: team sixty seven times per game. When he establishes that
Speaker 1: as his approach to the game, he'll start coming off
Speaker 1: of those ball screens not just thinking about whether or
Speaker 1: not he's open, but thinking about whether or not, you know,
Speaker 1: player A is in a rhythm, you know, depending on
Speaker 1: where he gets traded. Player B is in a rhythm
Speaker 1: how player sees hot. I need to keep feeding him,
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, my big man, he's starting
Speaker 1: to get a little worn out, and he hasn't gotten
Speaker 1: any touches, so maybe we need to get a post
Speaker 1: touch here, you know, like understanding the runs of the game, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: the other teams on an eight oh run, me taking
Speaker 1: a pull up three, even though I know I can
Speaker 1: make it, it's a lower percentage shot. Now is a
Speaker 1: great time to try to force a great look close
Speaker 1: to the basket so that we can stop this run,
Speaker 1: because if I miss this pull up three, it's even
Speaker 1: more deflating for my team. Him figuring out those things,
Speaker 1: those game management details, that's gonna be step one to
Speaker 1: him going the Dwyane Wade route rather than the Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook route. And then the second part of it is
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. When he was in college,
Speaker 1: he was a great defensive player, but he's almost completely
Speaker 1: like go of the row there. His defensive effort against
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz, excuse me, against the Dallas Mavericks, and
Speaker 1: this year's playoff run was downright embarrassing. So if he
Speaker 1: doesn't learn to embrace that end of the floor again
Speaker 1: like the way Dwyane Wade did and like the way
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook did not, then he will go to Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook route. So those are the two things to look at,
Speaker 1: game management and commitment to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: If he can capture those two specific skills and and
Speaker 1: and develop them and dive into them in terms of
Speaker 1: his approach, he will go closer to the Dwyane Wade route.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't, he'll be the next Russell Westbrook, the
Speaker 1: next guy that puts up massive numbers and is constantly
Speaker 1: in the All Star Game and constantly on all NBA teams,
Speaker 1: and his team flames out in the first round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Number twenty three Pascal Siaka So in the
Speaker 1: regular season twenty nine and five on fifty seven percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, in the playoffs twenty three, seven and six
Speaker 1: on fifty six percent true shooting. Nice little consistency there.
Speaker 1: He's your classic two ways slashing wing that can play
Speaker 1: make a little bit right like we see so many
Speaker 1: of these guys in the league. You know, Tatum, Katie Kauai,
Speaker 1: Those kinds of things where it's like they can play make,
Speaker 1: but they're not great at it. Their best ability is
Speaker 1: just to score from the wing as a slasher or
Speaker 1: as a as a guy who can put the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket off the dribble as a jump shooter. Right,
Speaker 1: So what's the difference between him and those guys? Why
Speaker 1: is he twenty three and all those other guys I
Speaker 1: mentioned or top ten players in the league. Well, he
Speaker 1: he has the ability to shoot the basketball. He's not
Speaker 1: a bad shooter, but he's a very streaky shooter, and
Speaker 1: he quickly loses confidence in his jump shot and you
Speaker 1: can see it in his body language. So, and this
Speaker 1: is a phenomenon of scene with a lot of basketball
Speaker 1: players over the year. I personally had this phenomenal this
Speaker 1: weakness when I was when I was younger, when I
Speaker 1: was playing in college, Like when I had it going, like, man,
Speaker 1: it felt good every time it came off the hand,
Speaker 1: but I missed a couple and then like I got
Speaker 1: shaky because I didn't have like really good solid fundamentals
Speaker 1: to fall back on in terms of my shooting form, right,
Speaker 1: And so I had tendencies to go through long extended
Speaker 1: slumps where I couldn't shoot or couldn't make a shot
Speaker 1: or and then that would make me easy to guard,
Speaker 1: because then teams could play off of me and they'd
Speaker 1: let me shoot and I miss, or I'd drive into
Speaker 1: traffic and not have much success. Right, That's kind of
Speaker 1: what I see happened with Pascal Siakum a lot. And
Speaker 1: you saw this against the Sixers. Once they started playing
Speaker 1: off of him and he missed a couple of jumpers,
Speaker 1: you'd see him like take a pull up eighteen footer
Speaker 1: or and miss the hell out of it, like long
Speaker 1: and right and just carrying off the rim, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's almost like the entire arena kind of like
Speaker 1: has an awkward moment, and you can tell it. Just
Speaker 1: the confidence slips away from him, and then he becomes
Speaker 1: really one dimensional as a slasher. He really wants to
Speaker 1: drive left and then pound the basketball with his left
Speaker 1: hand and spin back to his right and finish at
Speaker 1: the rim. So if I don't have to guard him
Speaker 1: on the perimeter because he's in his head about his
Speaker 1: jump shot, and I could sit on that left hand
Speaker 1: to drive and be ready for the spin back to
Speaker 1: the right, I can contain him and that's what causes
Speaker 1: him to be less efficient and to not hit the
Speaker 1: scoring numbers as some of his peers can around the league.
Speaker 1: If he gets consistent with the jump shot. You know,
Speaker 1: I say this all the time. In the show My
Speaker 1: My high school coach they played professionally in Italy for
Speaker 1: like seven years, the one that I I'm an assistant
Speaker 1: coach with UM he talks about how there's the shooters
Speaker 1: and there's makers, and everyone's a shooter, but who's a maker?
Speaker 1: That the makers they never get in their head about
Speaker 1: when they're missing. They always feel like the next one's
Speaker 1: going in. They never lose confidence. If Seacom can get
Speaker 1: to that level, that's where you'll see twenty three points
Speaker 1: per game become twenty eight points per game because of
Speaker 1: the consistent success with the jump shot, which will open
Speaker 1: up his slashing opportunities and make him so much harder
Speaker 1: to guard. Number twenty two Chris Middleton twenty five and
Speaker 1: five on fifty eight percent true shooting in this regular season,
Speaker 1: and then he was hurting the playoffs. He only played
Speaker 1: I think one and a half games Classic three level scorers.
Speaker 1: Very His specific skill is when he can get smaller
Speaker 1: defenders on him. He's really good at working them down
Speaker 1: to five to fifteen feet and making you know, pull
Speaker 1: up mid range jump shots, turn around jump shots over
Speaker 1: both shoulders, hook shots, and push shots in the lane.
Speaker 1: He's your classic miss smatch attacking wing. He's got every
Speaker 1: single pull up jumper in the book. Um, sidesteps, step backs,
Speaker 1: turnovers over his left shoulder, turn turnarounds over his right shoulders.
Speaker 1: Uh um, you know, uh, drifting shots in the lane,
Speaker 1: one like fadeaways. He's got it all right. He even
Speaker 1: has one of the best transition pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: that I've seen in basketball. You guys, all you Bucks
Speaker 1: fans have seen this where you know, the Bucks are
Speaker 1: on a little bit of a run. They're up you know,
Speaker 1: seven oh run, and they get a stop and Middleton
Speaker 1: just will dribble the ball up the floor with some
Speaker 1: pace and then just stop at the three point line
Speaker 1: and rise up and knock it down. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a unique skill that he has. Only handful of guys
Speaker 1: in the league do that really well. Kevin Durant another
Speaker 1: guy who's excellent at that specific skill. Um, but you know,
Speaker 1: just just a really really talented three level score. The
Speaker 1: specific things that hold him back once again. The things
Speaker 1: that keep him down here in twenty two as opposed
Speaker 1: to much higher on the list is he's inconsistent. You
Speaker 1: guys remember this from the title run. It was like
Speaker 1: either he was magnificent and damn near saving the team
Speaker 1: or he was like a complete no show. And those
Speaker 1: are the things that he has to iron out. I
Speaker 1: think that's offinite stuff for him. He just doesn't quite
Speaker 1: have that. You. He almost needs to have that irrational
Speaker 1: confidence to where he feels like he has it every night. Um,
Speaker 1: he's not quite the defensive player that Pascal Siakam is,
Speaker 1: but it's close. So that's why I have him above
Speaker 1: him there, because he's a much better offensive player. The
Speaker 1: big question here that that that I wanted to um
Speaker 1: to kind of approach for some fun. Is Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: over or underrated due to his proximity to Janice. We
Speaker 1: hear about this specific topic a lot. You'll have people
Speaker 1: who dislike Janice who will talk about how Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: is the best player on the team, right, which is absurd,
Speaker 1: And then you'll have Johannes fans who will say somewhat
Speaker 1: of the opposite, right. I tend to think that He's
Speaker 1: properly rated in the sense that he's not a superstar.
Speaker 1: He's not a guy that is better than Jannie or
Speaker 1: at that level, but he is underrated in the way
Speaker 1: that he specifically complements Janice's skill set. I think Janice
Speaker 1: is the best player in basketball spoiler alert will get
Speaker 1: there in the end, you guys, it's not even a
Speaker 1: spoiler upset it on like a half dozen shows over
Speaker 1: the last couple of months. Um. But Janice has all
Speaker 1: of these tremendously elite skills, but he has one specific weakness.
Speaker 1: When the when you're in a half court set in
Speaker 1: the team really packs the paint, he struggles to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top. Okay, Chris Middleton has that skill down
Speaker 1: to a t. That's his greatest strength. So Chris Middleton's
Speaker 1: best strength complements Janice's best weakness, therefore making him immensely valuable.
Speaker 1: Like I talked about earlier, specifically that skill set punishing
Speaker 1: smaller defenders to score in the mid to short range
Speaker 1: is one of the most valuable skills in the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. So the way I look at it, Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton is properly rated a player that deserves the recognition
Speaker 1: that he gets and it's just crazy people on both
Speaker 1: sides that are talking on either end. Just think of
Speaker 1: it this way, guys, Like Game seven UM against the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets, it was Chris Middleton who hit the big
Speaker 1: shot right against UH. I think it was Game one
Speaker 1: against Miami last year they swept him in a crazy
Speaker 1: first game. It was Chris Middleton who at the big
Speaker 1: shot that closed the deal. That is specific skill is
Speaker 1: so immensely valuable to Milwaukee because they're so great everywhere
Speaker 1: else and they just need someone that can make shots
Speaker 1: over the top, and Chris Middleton does that for them. Alright, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, Number twenty one, Anthony Edwards. So you
Speaker 1: average five and four on fifty six percent true shooting
Speaker 1: in the regular season, four and three on six true
Speaker 1: shooting in the postseason. That's incredible. So going up from
Speaker 1: one to twenty five points per game and going up
Speaker 1: from fifty six to true shooting, why does that happen?
Speaker 1: Why does his game translate so well to the playoffs?
Speaker 1: And again, I know that's only one playoffs series, but
Speaker 1: that was against a very good Memphis defense, and I
Speaker 1: believe that is replicable. I believe he will continue to
Speaker 1: do that over the years. So why is that? It's
Speaker 1: size and strength. The very first thing that I pointed
Speaker 1: out in our criteria at the top of the show
Speaker 1: his ability to slash past anybody because he's six ft
Speaker 1: five or six ft six whatever. He is built like
Speaker 1: a truck, ridiculous first step, and if you get in
Speaker 1: front of him, he'll just bullyball you to go through you.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a miniature Lebron in that sense. That
Speaker 1: combination of size and strength and first step makes him
Speaker 1: a devastating physical physical a devastating physical specimen to deal
Speaker 1: with defensively. Then you combine that with the fact that
Speaker 1: he's already at this age a proficient pull up jump shooter.
Speaker 1: You guys probably remember me talking about this a lot
Speaker 1: during the postseason. He shot eight pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: per game in this playoff run and made him That's
Speaker 1: that's awesome, that that is as incredibly efficient pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting. That combination of efficient pull up jump shooting
Speaker 1: with his size and strength and slashing ability will make
Speaker 1: him a devastating playoff player for years to come. I'm
Speaker 1: very very high on Anthony Edwards. That's why I have
Speaker 1: him at twenty one even though he's only played two
Speaker 1: NBA seasons. A couple of things, what what what is
Speaker 1: it gonna take for Anthony Edwards to take the leap? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you only had three assists per game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. So some of the similar stuff that
Speaker 1: I was talking about with Donovan Mitchell, learning game management,
Speaker 1: understanding that it's not your job just to create shots
Speaker 1: for yourself, but it's your job to be the offensive
Speaker 1: engine for a basketball team for forty eight minutes. When
Speaker 1: he understands that, he'll start coming off of these actions
Speaker 1: and and looking for teammates and being mindful of the
Speaker 1: rhythm and and all those things that I talked about
Speaker 1: earlier with Donovan Mitchell, him taking advantage of game management
Speaker 1: and then committing to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have long to go, Guys. I think Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards could very easily be a top ten player in
Speaker 1: the league this year if things break right. If not,
Speaker 1: it'll happen in the next two or three years. I'm
Speaker 1: extremely I'm extremely high on Anthony Edwards alright through twenty
Speaker 1: one all wrapped up. I believe on Thursday we will
Speaker 1: have twenty through sixteen and that one is going to
Speaker 1: be a super entert hating one because I definitely have
Speaker 1: some ones in there that you guys will either agree
Speaker 1: with or disagree with vehemently, so it should be some fun.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, That's all I have for today. I
Speaker 1: appreciate your support as always, and I'll see you in
Speaker 1: a couple of days. The volume