Speaker 1: The volume. The NBA season is in full swing, and
Speaker 1: when I can't get enough of the action on the court,
Speaker 1: I spice things up by betting on DraftKings Sportsbook, an
Speaker 1: official partner of the NBA. Right now, new customers can
Speaker 1: bet five bucks and get two hundred instantly in bonus bets.
Speaker 1: I was looking at the lines for making the playoffs today,
Speaker 1: and you can get the Lakers at plus one point
Speaker 1: fifteen to make the playoffs, and the Warriors check this
Speaker 1: out at plus two oh five to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app with code hoops that's hoops.
Speaker 1: New customers can bet five bucks on the NBA and
Speaker 1: get two hundred instantly in bonus bets only on Draftking
Speaker 1: Sportsbook with code hoops that's hops. The Crown is yours.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or visit www
Speaker 1: dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York
Speaker 1: called eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
Speaker 1: hope and Why to four six seven three six nine.
Speaker 1: In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 1: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 1: Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Twenty one plus age
Speaker 1: varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkg dot
Speaker 1: com slash basketball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and
Speaker 1: responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, hop all if you
Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible week. We got another major
Speaker 1: NBA trade today, second one involving the Raptors as well
Speaker 1: as Pascal Siakam is headed to the Indiana Pacers. We're
Speaker 1: gonna bring that trade down from every angle, including some
Speaker 1: of the teams who missed out on Pascal Siakam. Then
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about Joe Lumbiid solidifying his first place
Speaker 1: position in the MVP race by out playing Yo Kitchen
Speaker 1: beating the Nuggets last night. Specifically, he was incredibly impressive
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. I want to
Speaker 1: kind of break that concept down a little bit, and
Speaker 1: then at the end of the show, like I said
Speaker 1: we would, because the Clippers have made it through the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: and thunder Games. We're gonna place them in our contender tiers.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a deep dive on the Clippers and
Speaker 1: talk about where they fit among the list of contenders. Also,
Speaker 1: we did talk about doing a mail bag today, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna push that one more day because the Siacam
Speaker 1: trade kind of threw off my schedule today. So keep
Speaker 1: dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. I'll look through
Speaker 1: all three shows this week and put together a nice
Speaker 1: mail bag for tomorrow's show, and then don't forget that.
Speaker 1: Later tonight, after the final buzzer of MAVs Lakers on ABC,
Speaker 1: will be going live on YouTube, so I hope to
Speaker 1: see you guys there as well. You guys are the
Speaker 1: joefore we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: It mean a lot to me if you guys will
Speaker 1: take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under hoops tonight follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: JSNLT so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not out least, keep dropping mail bag questions. Also,
Speaker 1: if any of you guys had a bad ticket buying experience.
Speaker 1: I remember one time I bought a ticket to go
Speaker 1: see Lebron when he was with the Cavs back when
Speaker 1: I was living in Charlotte, and when I got to
Speaker 1: my seat, it was the visibility was just terrible, and
Speaker 1: I remember being like, man, I wish I would have
Speaker 1: known what this is like, Like I probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: bought the ticket right Like, it can be a frustrating
Speaker 1: process between hidden fees, not really knowing where your seat
Speaker 1: is just complication throughout the ordering process. This is where
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you guys about Game Time.
Speaker 1: Game Time is the only ticketing app that gives you
Speaker 1: complete peace of mind with your purchase. You can see
Speaker 1: your review from the seat before you buy, so you
Speaker 1: know exactly what to expect when you arrive. Also all
Speaker 1: in pricing so you know your total upfront so you
Speaker 1: know you're getting a great deal before you check out.
Speaker 1: There's no surprise waiting at the end of the line,
Speaker 1: and it's a super easy process. You can buy tickets
Speaker 1: in seconds with only two taps. Take the guesswork out
Speaker 1: of buying tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app,
Speaker 1: create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars
Speaker 1: off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account
Speaker 1: and redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off.
Speaker 1: Download game time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So Pascal Siakam headed
Speaker 1: to the Indiana Pacers. Bruce Brown is the trade piece
Speaker 1: going back from the standpoint of salary filler. And then
Speaker 1: there's three first round picks in the deal. That said,
Speaker 1: I absolutely love this deal for Indiana on a couple
Speaker 1: of different fronts. First of all, the two first round
Speaker 1: picks that are coming from Indiana that were Indiana's own picks,
Speaker 1: Indiana is gonna be good, Like they're gonna be a
Speaker 1: mid to late round first laid to mid to late
Speaker 1: first round pick. Those are picks that have a significantly
Speaker 1: high miss rate, right, So like that part. And then
Speaker 1: I guess the third pick is the worst out of OKC,
Speaker 1: the Clippers, the Jazz, and the Rockets, Like that's probably
Speaker 1: gonna end up being okac's pick. So that's another late
Speaker 1: first rounder. So basically three most likely mid to late
Speaker 1: first rounders. And Bruce Brown, who's a good player. Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown's a good player, and we're gonna talk abou him
Speaker 1: a little because I wouldn't surprised if he gets traded
Speaker 1: again or if if they end up moving a different
Speaker 1: one of those guys, because the Raptors have a bunch
Speaker 1: of players at that position. But that was the position
Speaker 1: that the Pacers were, and they have so many guards
Speaker 1: Tyre Salliburt and Buddy Heald, Ben Mathren, TJ McConnell, Andrew Demhard,
Speaker 1: Aaron E. Smith kind of can function as a two
Speaker 1: as well. It does a lot of the same stuff
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown does, so like literally, they just had a
Speaker 1: redundancy at that position. That's not to say Bruce Brown
Speaker 1: is not good or not valuable, but he's less valuable
Speaker 1: to the Pacers than Pascal Siakam is to the Pacers, right, Obviously,
Speaker 1: not to mention Pascal is just a much better player,
Speaker 1: But specifically, Pascal is an awesome basketball fit with the Pacers,
Speaker 1: and I want to dive into that concept for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Let's start on the offensive end of the floor. So,
Speaker 1: as I've said so many times on the show, I
Speaker 1: think Tyr Saliburton is a transcendently great offensive engine. I
Speaker 1: think he's on that trajectory with the Steph curries. The
Speaker 1: Nikolajokich is the Luka. The Luka Dancic is the singularly
Speaker 1: transcendent offensive engines that you just put out on the
Speaker 1: floor and it's like a guaranteed great shot like ninety
Speaker 1: percent of the possessions that he's on the floor. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam helps him both on and off the ball.
Speaker 1: I want to start on the ball first, and in
Speaker 1: this case, meaning when Pascal Siakam has the ball, he
Speaker 1: gives an additional type of offensive shot creation once you
Speaker 1: go past that. Like a lot of the guys on
Speaker 1: the pacers are good advantage extenders like Miles Turner can
Speaker 1: hit picking pop jump shots, and he can attack close
Speaker 1: outs and things along those lines. But he's not a
Speaker 1: guy you're just gonna dump the ball to and have
Speaker 1: him be an offensive engine. Obi Toppin is almost entirely
Speaker 1: a transition runout guy and a back door cutter, right,
Speaker 1: That's pretty much what Obi Topin did in this offense. Buddy,
Speaker 1: healed a lot of ghost screens going to the three
Speaker 1: point line. He's expecting to get set up with high
Speaker 1: quality shots. So really isn't another guy on the roster
Speaker 1: who's a high level individual shot creator. Not only is
Speaker 1: Siakam that, he's a very different version of that. Haliburton
Speaker 1: is very much like he can beat switches. He's a
Speaker 1: great ISO player, but he's very much like a manipulator
Speaker 1: of the defense to generate advantage situations for other players.
Speaker 1: That's his best trait. He's a great pull up shooter,
Speaker 1: really quick guard with an excellent floater, and great touch
Speaker 1: around the rim with his like scooping layups and things
Speaker 1: like that. So I don't want to act like I'm
Speaker 1: I don't want you guys to think that I'm underplaying
Speaker 1: how good Tyres is as an on ball scorer, but
Speaker 1: his best trade is his ability to set up people
Speaker 1: with advantage situations right well, Pascal Siakam is much more
Speaker 1: of that classic mismatch attacking forward right posting up there
Speaker 1: are He's getting one point one to two points per
Speaker 1: possession in post up situations including passes. Among all the
Speaker 1: players in the league who have done it at least
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty times, only Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis have been better. So he's literally been
Speaker 1: one of the very best post up shot creators in
Speaker 1: the league this year, the best that's not one of
Speaker 1: the three Titan centers that we have in the league.
Speaker 1: Right isolation situation, Siakam gets one point zero eight points
Speaker 1: per possession. That's twelve out of fifty players in the
Speaker 1: league who have run at least seventy five. And then
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about the jump shot with Pascal Siakam.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, it's not good, but it's
Speaker 1: not really all that bad either. Like he's fifty five
Speaker 1: percent on in effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoots. It's really not that bad. That's one point
Speaker 1: zero nine points per shot. Like, so if some team
Speaker 1: decides to leave him open, like he's gonna be able
Speaker 1: to make him at a decent enough clip, right, that's
Speaker 1: not a shot that's gonna necessarily hurt your offense. And
Speaker 1: he's a solid closeout attacker. Gets one point zero one
Speaker 1: points per spot up possession. That's firmly in the middle.
Speaker 1: That's firmly average. So again it's it's appropriate to bring
Speaker 1: it up in the sense that he's not a flamethrower,
Speaker 1: but he's not a guy that's necessarily gonna hurt you
Speaker 1: with his lack of shooting either. But where I'm most
Speaker 1: excited with Siakam on the Pacers is off the ball.
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam is one of the very best transition players
Speaker 1: in the NBA. He's made seventy eight field goals this
Speaker 1: year in transition, that's the ninth most in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: And like we all know, Tyree's is an excellent kick
Speaker 1: ahead passer. He's constantly That's how Obi Toppin. Obi Toppin
Speaker 1: has basically made himself a functional starter for the Pacers
Speaker 1: based purely on the fact that he's a good cutter
Speaker 1: and a good good a guy that can run out
Speaker 1: and transition right and that he provides real vertical spacing right.
Speaker 1: That's something Ziakam is going to come in and do
Speaker 1: right away at a really high level. Also, a very
Speaker 1: good cutter. Scored on a cut thirty four times so
Speaker 1: far the season. It's like the thirty second most in
Speaker 1: the NBA, I think, which is definitely a lot right,
Speaker 1: Like not one of the top cutters in the league,
Speaker 1: but a very good cutter. He's also set eighty second
Speaker 1: percentile for efficiency cutting and again with Tyre Saliburton running
Speaker 1: your lane in transition cut with real vertical spacing out
Speaker 1: of the weak side corner. These are things that are
Speaker 1: highly highly valuable alongside a passer of his caliber. It's
Speaker 1: another form of spacing. When you combine that with the
Speaker 1: pretty solid, unguarded catch and shoot shooting, I don't think
Speaker 1: he's going to be a bad off player for them
Speaker 1: at all. That's it. We haven't even got to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the flour. This is a team that
Speaker 1: severely lacked in interior physicality in defense. Right. Miles Turner
Speaker 1: is a really really good defensive player as like a
Speaker 1: shot blocker right, and he can do a little switching
Speaker 1: as well. The thing with Miles, though, is what we've
Speaker 1: seen around the league is like it's no longer protecting
Speaker 1: the rim with your one guy, like it's that four
Speaker 1: or five is so important. The main reason why is
Speaker 1: as pull up jump shooting has gotten become more and
Speaker 1: more prevalent in the league, your big man's had to
Speaker 1: come higher and higher up to the level of the screen,
Speaker 1: which creates an opening on that backside right, and that's
Speaker 1: where the lowman comes in, the guy that can tag
Speaker 1: the roller and pick and roll situations, help at the
Speaker 1: rim in the event that your big man has to
Speaker 1: step up and help elsewhere, right, cleaning up the defensive glass,
Speaker 1: extra efforts. When a guy pump fakes and gets the
Speaker 1: big man off the ground, that second wave is typically
Speaker 1: the low man rotating back out to the perimeter. You
Speaker 1: need an athlete that can bother things on the inside
Speaker 1: and then do you know, two steps in a drop
Speaker 1: step and close out and get a good contest on
Speaker 1: a corner three point shooter. These are all things that
Speaker 1: Sam is going to be a massive, massive upgrade for
Speaker 1: this team. The entire physical profile of the team changes
Speaker 1: with this move. I would presume there. I mean, they
Speaker 1: might stay with Buddy Heel that it could be Ben Matherin.
Speaker 1: But if it's Haliburton and it ends up being something
Speaker 1: along the lines of like a Aaron Nesmith Siakam Turner
Speaker 1: front line, that just becomes way more physically imposing than
Speaker 1: what we've seen elsewhere this season, right, So like it
Speaker 1: just adds a new dynam to the defensive physicality of
Speaker 1: the team. By the way, he's great rebounder to average
Speaker 1: eight rebounds a game over the last five years. Pascal
Speaker 1: Siakam and the Pacers are a bottom five defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: team this year. Seacom's also a very good offensive rebounder,
Speaker 1: so that'll help them on that end of the floor
Speaker 1: as well. But bottom line is like fundamentally increases your
Speaker 1: physical profile on both ends of the floor, improves your
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding, improves your rimp protection and overall defensive capability,
Speaker 1: gives you an additional shot creator that can add some
Speaker 1: variety to what you do offensively, not to mention just
Speaker 1: making tyrese Aliburton's job easier and then in off ball
Speaker 1: situations he is a seamless fit with Tyres Aliburton. Absolutely
Speaker 1: loved the move. Didn't really have to give up anything
Speaker 1: of real consequence. Round of applause to the Pacers. Really
Speaker 1: really well done. Wouldn't be surprised if they're not done either.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if they look to shore up
Speaker 1: that two or that three spot before the deadline as well,
Speaker 1: although salary matching is a little tough there, so we'll
Speaker 1: see how that goes. On the Raptors front, they already
Speaker 1: have RJ. Barrett and Gary Trent Junior, who both like
Speaker 1: r J. Barrett, can play the three, can play the two.
Speaker 1: But to me from a size perspective, and he's actually
Speaker 1: a pretty good point of attack defender. I look at
Speaker 1: him more as a two. Gary Trent Junior is a
Speaker 1: decent point of attack defenders, a pretty solid offensive player
Speaker 1: as well. So different archetype. Bruce Brown obviously different than
Speaker 1: both of them, but very good point of attack defender,
Speaker 1: guy that can provide some rim pressure and transition, decent
Speaker 1: ball handler, really versatile, kind of Swiss army knife type
Speaker 1: of player. But they all kind of play that two
Speaker 1: to three hybrid type of spot right. And so although
Speaker 1: Garry trans Junior is more of a two, So the
Speaker 1: question is is like, at that point, do you want
Speaker 1: to have, you know, two of those guys making twenty
Speaker 1: plus million, you know what I mean? And especially if
Speaker 1: you don't plan on playing both of them together. Bruce
Speaker 1: is having a little bit of a down shooting year,
Speaker 1: and so is RJ. Barrett. So although he's been shooting
Speaker 1: really well with the Raptors, is RJ. Barret's been playing
Speaker 1: so well with the Raptors that they may kind of
Speaker 1: prioritize him. But point being, it might be that Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown is available now at the deadline in a way
Speaker 1: that he might not have been otherwise if he was
Speaker 1: just on the Pacers. Not sure the Pacers would have
Speaker 1: got rid of him, but they had to get rid
Speaker 1: of him to get Pascal Siakam. The Raptors might have
Speaker 1: more need for whatever they could get back from Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown than Bruce Brown himself. I personally, as someone who
Speaker 1: roots for the Lakers, would absolutely love to have Bruce Brown.
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell is a redundancy on the Lakers, but he's
Speaker 1: actually a good basketball player. He makes an affordable salary,
Speaker 1: makes less than twenty million a year, excellent passer, excellent
Speaker 1: off ball shooter. He's a guy that could actually kind
Speaker 1: of connect provide some connectivity and leadership for that Raptors team.
Speaker 1: I think he's a I think Delo is very much
Speaker 1: a middle of the ground asset. Like he's a guy that,
Speaker 1: like some teams would view as a negative asset and
Speaker 1: some teams have view as a positive asset, but only
Speaker 1: slightly so in either direction. And no one would really
Speaker 1: complain if he was in the trade if they were
Speaker 1: getting something else that that's more of like the sweetener, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: what if the Lakers were to give him, like you know,
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell and Jalen Hood Schafino and Maxwell Lewis. That's
Speaker 1: like literally a first round pick from last year who
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to play for the Lakers, right, And
Speaker 1: then Maxwell lewis an interesting little undrafted guy, although I
Speaker 1: think you might have been a second round pick if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly. And then d Lo a veteran that
Speaker 1: could help, and maybe they throw in some second round
Speaker 1: picks or something like that, or maybe maybe if it
Speaker 1: push comes to shove and the Lakers really want him,
Speaker 1: they could throw in a first round pick because they
Speaker 1: have one that they could trade. But Bruce Brown, to
Speaker 1: me is a guy that like is a really useful
Speaker 1: playoff weapon. Specifically, the reason why I'd be so excited
Speaker 1: with him on the Lakers is he would just add
Speaker 1: an entire physical element to this team that they haven't
Speaker 1: had since Alex Crusoe was on the roster. You can
Speaker 1: imagine a lineup that hasn't engaged Lebron James in his
Speaker 1: playoff mode with Anthony Davis and Bruce Brown on the
Speaker 1: floor just being so much more physically imposing than some
Speaker 1: of these lineups that we've seen from the Lakers this year,
Speaker 1: although his shooting has been a little bit of an issue,
Speaker 1: which I you know, obviously would be worried about a
Speaker 1: little bit for the lakers sake, But he did make
Speaker 1: a lot of threes in the postseason last year. But
Speaker 1: Lakers aren't the only team. There are a bunch of
Speaker 1: other teams that could potentially look at Bruce Brown as
Speaker 1: an option. He's going to be a little bit tough
Speaker 1: to match salaries into a Ford, especially if the Raptors
Speaker 1: want draft compensation. So it'll be interesting to see if
Speaker 1: any team gets in on that race. But he's a
Speaker 1: guy keep an eye on the other team I wanted
Speaker 1: to look at here is the Golden State Warriors, because
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors kind of felt like the clubhouse
Speaker 1: favorite for Siakam at least that's what it seemed like
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. And now he's off the table,
Speaker 1: right and I don't think they can afford Lori Markinen
Speaker 1: and I've Jeremy Grant. I'm not even sure if he's
Speaker 1: going to be available, not even sure if he wants
Speaker 1: to go play for a winning team. I'm not even
Speaker 1: sure he wants to leave Portland. Under any circumstances. So
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what the deal is there, and
Speaker 1: so the options are getting loose. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like what I look at with Golden State,
Speaker 1: We've talked about this issue before, but to me, you're
Speaker 1: trying to make one last run at this thing with
Speaker 1: Steph and Draymond as your brackets at the one in five.
Speaker 1: I think Clay at the two is fine as long
Speaker 1: as you're three and four are really good basketball players.
Speaker 1: And so I was actually looking at this today and
Speaker 1: I wonder, because there's a specific guy that I have
Speaker 1: my eye on here from the Brooklyn Nets. What I
Speaker 1: would do is I call Brooklyn and I'd offer them
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, and I'd offer them Jonathan Kaminga, and I'd
Speaker 1: offer them Moses Moody, and i'd offer them draft compensation,
Speaker 1: and I'd ask for mckal bridges and Dorian Finney Smith.
Speaker 1: And I know that that we haven't really heard much
Speaker 1: about mckail bridges being available, but he's now in his
Speaker 1: late twenties, and the Brooklyn Nets thing has been a
Speaker 1: pretty clear, you know, description of the fact that mckail
Speaker 1: bridges is not going to be like a foundational, franchise
Speaker 1: altering type of talent. He's a really, really, really good
Speaker 1: role player who makes a lot of money, because really
Speaker 1: really good role players cost a lot of money. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga has the potential to be a franchise altering player
Speaker 1: right and certainly has a higher ceiling than what we
Speaker 1: That's not to say he will reach that secene, but
Speaker 1: certainly has a higher ceiling than what McHale Bridges has
Speaker 1: been able to reach here heading into his late twenties.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that if you've got those two guys,
Speaker 1: that's two guys that can both defend on the perimeter
Speaker 1: at a really high level, that can both shoot the basketball.
Speaker 1: McKale Bridges provides some legitimate second side creation. He's not
Speaker 1: an excellent passer, but he's a good pull up jump shooter.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that can score when you put him
Speaker 1: on an island a little bit. Now we're looking at
Speaker 1: a lineup with you're foregoing your future, right, You're moving
Speaker 1: on from Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga. That's obviously a
Speaker 1: significant loss. I think the team is probably done with
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins at this point. With everything that's gone down
Speaker 1: since he left the team last year, he'd be basically
Speaker 1: functioning as salary filler in that situation. If you're Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: you're getting a legitimate potential future All Star in Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga and Andrew Wiggins, who's a starting level NBA wing. Right,
Speaker 1: So you're turning two wings into two wings except for
Speaker 1: one that you don't really have much use for, but
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga, who has legitimate long term potential. It's just
Speaker 1: a more of a forward thinking move in terms of
Speaker 1: Brooklyn's perspective. Then I'm working out there with Stephan Clay
Speaker 1: with two excellent perimeter defenders, an additional shot creator in
Speaker 1: Michale Bridges slots, Klay Thompson on easier achievable perimeter defense roles,
Speaker 1: and Draymond Grain anchoring things in the front court. That
Speaker 1: to me, is an example of a type of deal
Speaker 1: that I would make. But I think the Warriors need
Speaker 1: to be aggressive. I think they need to make something
Speaker 1: significant change here. One of the nice things about that
Speaker 1: specific deal too, is it keeps Chris Paul in the fold,
Speaker 1: which allows you to kind of maintain your offensive organization
Speaker 1: and just kind of steadiness in those non steph minutes
Speaker 1: when he gets back from his injury, obviously, But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's an example of a ne move that I'd be
Speaker 1: looking for. But the options are running out. OG's off
Speaker 1: the board, Pascal Siakam's off the board. Options are running out.
Speaker 1: The Warriors got to find something, all right. Moving on
Speaker 1: to Sixers Nuggets, So weird game because neither guy wanted
Speaker 1: to guard each other until the very end. In terms
Speaker 1: of jokicen Embiid, I want to start on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor though, because really, like I think
Speaker 1: if these two teams were to happen to meet in
Speaker 1: an NBA Finals series, they would go down guarding each other.
Speaker 1: They would that keeping them off each other for the
Speaker 1: most part was very much a regular season innings eating
Speaker 1: type of thing. And what do you know, push comes
Speaker 1: to shoves, tie game late, they both start guarding each other, right.
Speaker 1: But I want to start on the defensive end for
Speaker 1: Philly because the Sixers made the Nuggets do something last
Speaker 1: night that you don't see the Nuggets do very often.
Speaker 1: They made them rush and they made them make mistakes.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets played seven and a half minutes excuse me
Speaker 1: with Jokic on the fourth quarter last night and amounted
Speaker 1: a sixty two point five offensive rating, about half worthy.
Speaker 1: You'd like to see them be in that situation, right,
Speaker 1: force them into five turnovers in the fourth quarter, And
Speaker 1: it all comes down to, in my opinion, the job
Speaker 1: they did, specifically Patrick Beverley and Joel Embiid guarding the
Speaker 1: Jokich Murray actions two on two really quickly. On Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley just did an awesome job on Jamal Murray, specifically
Speaker 1: with back pressure. Early in the fourth quarter. He had
Speaker 1: a block on Jamal Murray late clock situation where he
Speaker 1: kind of stripped him from behind, and that's one of
Speaker 1: those plays where like it was a late clock situation too,
Speaker 1: Like Jamal probably misses that shot just because it's a
Speaker 1: really tough shot, but Pat makes an extra effort and
Speaker 1: most importantly plants a seed up here, plants a seed
Speaker 1: that says like, you can't see me, but I'm right
Speaker 1: behind you and I'm coming. I'm gonna be swiping at
Speaker 1: the basketball. I'm gonna be contesting your shot from behind.
Speaker 1: I'd like it gets in the ball handler's head. And
Speaker 1: what ended up happening is when Jamal was coming off
Speaker 1: those ball screens, He's typically a very He's typically a
Speaker 1: very methodical shot creator, right, He's typically a guy that's
Speaker 1: gonna put you in jail uses size, get to spots
Speaker 1: that are like fifteen feet away from the basket. But
Speaker 1: in his two man game the end of the game,
Speaker 1: he was just going downhill. The reason being he's terrified
Speaker 1: that Patrick Beverly's coming from behind, right, because he's just
Speaker 1: such a scrappy player with the way that he competes
Speaker 1: over the top of screens and can provide that rear view,
Speaker 1: you know, that back pressure, right, And he ended up
Speaker 1: turning the ball over twice on these bounce passes where
Speaker 1: he's just going one hundred miles an hour and just
Speaker 1: throwing like a super quick bounce pass at the guy's
Speaker 1: knees and like that. That's that. I want to give
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverly credit for that, because I just haven't seen
Speaker 1: many players kind of speed up Jamal Murray like that,
Speaker 1: especially in a high profile game like that. And then
Speaker 1: on the embied front, one of the things he was
Speaker 1: doing in the fourth quarter that I thought was really
Speaker 1: really smart was he was denying him his usual spots
Speaker 1: where he catches the ball. We talked about this when
Speaker 1: the Clippers played the Lakers a few weeks ago when
Speaker 1: Lebron did the same thing to Kawhi Leonard. A lot
Speaker 1: of these super strong players, they are really good at
Speaker 1: creating easy passing windows. Right Like, if you asked me,
Speaker 1: and I'm a relatively big guy, if you asked me
Speaker 1: to try to deny Nicole Jokic to basketball, I would
Speaker 1: have no chance. I've try to get in front of
Speaker 1: him and just push down in my back. He'd create
Speaker 1: an easy over the top angle, right like. Or he'd
Speaker 1: swim move around and create another angle, and like a
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty pounds right like. He's just so
Speaker 1: damn big that he makes other big humans look small.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is Joel Embiid's one of the
Speaker 1: few guys in the league who's actually big enough to
Speaker 1: contend with Jokic physically, and so he was able to
Speaker 1: get in front and make it so that there was
Speaker 1: no passing angle when he was denying those entries like
Speaker 1: to the elbow or on the post. He basically threw
Speaker 1: the Nuggets offense off and they bailed out of those
Speaker 1: plays and tried to do other things. There was a
Speaker 1: play where Jokic was trying to catch the ball at
Speaker 1: the elbow and Be denies him, and so Reggie Jackson goes,
Speaker 1: oh shit, I gotta do something, and he tries to
Speaker 1: drive downhill and ends up and then e Be. This
Speaker 1: is the crazy part about it. He would be able
Speaker 1: to deny Jokic and then recover to the rint. He didn't.
Speaker 1: I Jokic at the elbow, Reggie decides to drive, he
Speaker 1: just swim moves off. Jokic gets back and meets him
Speaker 1: at the rint, blocks the shot or forces a really
Speaker 1: ugly miss. There's another one. He's fronting Jokic in the post,
Speaker 1: denies the post entry ball gets worked around. Jokic runs
Speaker 1: up to the perimeter and beat just makes an impromptu
Speaker 1: switch back onto Aaron Gordon Patrick Beverly rotates back out
Speaker 1: to Michael Porter Junior and then he's back at the rim.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the ones where Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: ended up forcing one of those rushed bounce passes, even
Speaker 1: though Jamal turned the corner simply because Embiid was waiting
Speaker 1: at the rim. Again. So that concept of denying Jokic's
Speaker 1: normal touches and his normal spots on the floor and
Speaker 1: then also getting back and protecting the rim that literally
Speaker 1: just threw Denver's offense for a loop. And so again
Speaker 1: we can talk about the offense and we're going to,
Speaker 1: but like, to me, the end of that game came
Speaker 1: down to Joel Embiid, specifically with Patrick Beverly's help, just
Speaker 1: single handedly throwing a giant wrench into Denver's offensive process,
Speaker 1: and that allowed the other three guys to kind of
Speaker 1: just like gap and recover, right, so like play kind
Speaker 1: of in that middle ground where they feel comfortable closing
Speaker 1: out to a shooter while also you know, digging down
Speaker 1: and kind of disrupting things inside, and again held the
Speaker 1: Nuggets to a sixty two point five offensive rating with
Speaker 1: Yokic on the floor over the final seven and a
Speaker 1: half minutes of the game. On the other end, continues
Speaker 1: to handle doubles really well. Another tennisis night. That's his
Speaker 1: third time this year that he's had at least ten assists.
Speaker 1: Last year, Joel Embiid had just nine games with at
Speaker 1: least seven assists. He already has thirteen this year. Just
Speaker 1: halfway through the year, Denver was doubling one pass away
Speaker 1: and a lot of Embiid's like face up situations, which
Speaker 1: we'll talk about a minute because it's a strategy I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily agree with. But he was just taking what
Speaker 1: the defense was given him, throwing those quick one handed
Speaker 1: passes to the guy one passed away, and they were
Speaker 1: playing off of that. And then it really came down
Speaker 1: to the face up game. Nuggets down the stretch with
Speaker 1: these like face up jab step jumpers. It's a specific shot.
Speaker 1: He's been making it a really high clip this year.
Speaker 1: He's thirty five for sixty five, so well over fifty
Speaker 1: percent on face up no dribble jump shots this year.
Speaker 1: And like he just just just absolutely picked him apart
Speaker 1: at the end of the game, was doing it there
Speaker 1: and Gordon was doing it to nicolea Jokic from three.
Speaker 1: It was incredibly dominant. Had a big euro step in
Speaker 1: transition around Nikole Jokic for a layup. It was just
Speaker 1: an unbelievably dominant game from Joel Embiid. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: like he said after the game to Nicole Jokic, and
Speaker 1: I appreciated this because it's a respect to the banner.
Speaker 1: You know, you guys know here shout out logan swam
Speaker 1: had a content here at the volume. He calls me
Speaker 1: a loyalist the banner, but like Embiid was being a
Speaker 1: loyalist to the banner, he goes, Jokic is the best player,
Speaker 1: and then he said something like I'll see you in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, which was awesome. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: excited to see that matchup in Denver. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: He's by far the best regular season player in the league,
Speaker 1: and it's not particularly close. There's nobody in the league
Speaker 1: right now impacting winning on a night to night basis
Speaker 1: the way that Joel Embiide is over the course of
Speaker 1: the eighty two He is far and away the MVP
Speaker 1: front runner right now. The next step is go beat
Speaker 1: the allegations. He has a reputation of being a playoff underperformer.
Speaker 1: It's a combination of two things, in my opinion, injuries
Speaker 1: in his jump shot failing him. They probably are connected
Speaker 1: to some extent, right and Sixers fans are constantly pointing
Speaker 1: that out, like give him a healthy playoff run. He
Speaker 1: just hasn't really had a chance to show what he
Speaker 1: can do when he's healthy in that phase and that
Speaker 1: may or may not be true, but that's the reputation.
Speaker 1: The allegations are that he's a playoff underperformer. Go beat them,
Speaker 1: Go show everybody that they're wrong, and everything will flip
Speaker 1: like that. Go show everyone that they're wrong. It's all
Speaker 1: he needs to do. And if it is as simple
Speaker 1: as him being injured, take care of yourself. Who cares
Speaker 1: about the MVP this year. Do what you gotta do
Speaker 1: to make sure you're healthy in April. And then when
Speaker 1: he gets there, it's that jump shot because he's shooting
Speaker 1: extremely well on those jab step jumpers or the no
Speaker 1: dribble jumpers, but the jumper is basically where it was
Speaker 1: last year. Overall, last year zero point nine to seven
Speaker 1: points per Joel emb jump shot. This year zero point
Speaker 1: nine to eight, so he's one percent better than he
Speaker 1: was last year. The difference is last year he went
Speaker 1: from zero point nine to seven points per jump shot
Speaker 1: in the regular season down to zero point five to
Speaker 1: nine points per jump shot in the playoffs. This has
Speaker 1: been a consistent theme on and Beats longer playoff runs.
Speaker 1: Doesn't shoot the jump shot as well as he did
Speaker 1: in the regular season, which becomes a cascading effect. Guys
Speaker 1: no longer have to stunt and deal with that shot
Speaker 1: makes them be able to beat him to the spot better.
Speaker 1: When he makes his post moves, it just causes things
Speaker 1: to fall apart for him offensively, and that's why he
Speaker 1: goes from looking like the MVP to looking like something
Speaker 1: significantly worse than that when he gets to that point.
Speaker 1: And again, injuries play a big role, but get there,
Speaker 1: get their healthy, beat the allegations. That's the next step
Speaker 1: for Joel Embid. I thought Tyree s Maxy had another
Speaker 1: big night for a high profile game. I always want
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on these kinds of games for
Speaker 1: the for the young up and coming stars, because they're,
Speaker 1: you know, reasonable fac similes of what playoff games look like.
Speaker 1: He went for twenty five points and nine assists with
Speaker 1: just one turnover, had a big driving layup to tie
Speaker 1: the game in the in the fourth quarter when they
Speaker 1: weren't matched up in transition. Good showing. And then Tyrese
Speaker 1: excuse me, Tobias Harris. The Nuggets without Nikole Jokis were
Speaker 1: making a little run there in the early fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and Tobias Harris literally single handedly kept the Sixers in
Speaker 1: the game just by attacking the smaller Nuggets players in
Speaker 1: the post and hitting little short jump shots and shots
Speaker 1: around the rim. That matchup attacking forward is such an
Speaker 1: important role in the NBA for that reason, because there
Speaker 1: are so many guys on these floor on these courts
Speaker 1: most of the time, especially in those like kind of
Speaker 1: bridge moments like end of the third, early fourth, end
Speaker 1: of the first, early second quarter, where there's like bench
Speaker 1: players on the floor, there's lots of these smaller players
Speaker 1: on the floor that you can attack if you have
Speaker 1: a matchup, a matchup attacking forward that can get a
Speaker 1: high quality shot close to the rim or draw double
Speaker 1: team and allow you to play out of that. I
Speaker 1: thought Tobias Harris did a really, really nice job of
Speaker 1: that in the early fourth quarter on the Nuggets front
Speaker 1: a lot of really uncharacteristic mistakes that Reggie Jackson drivery
Speaker 1: challenged Joel Embiid at the rim. There are twelve seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock, and when he missed it and
Speaker 1: fell on the floor, the Sixers ran out. That was
Speaker 1: when Embiid had the euro step for the layup. And specifically,
Speaker 1: like I think I saw what Reggie was thinking on
Speaker 1: that play, because so think of it like this, if
Speaker 1: I'm in a drop coverage, I know even if I
Speaker 1: get off of the screen, if they're in a drop coverage.
Speaker 1: If I get off the screen, I know this guy
Speaker 1: waiting for me. But I think he saw Embiid denying
Speaker 1: and was like, oh shit, if I can get around
Speaker 1: this screen and beats down at the rim, he's denying,
Speaker 1: So all I have to do is get over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen and then I'll be at the rim. Well, well,
Speaker 1: he underestimated I think Embiid's speed. And what was crazy
Speaker 1: is as he kind of turned the corner, Embid was
Speaker 1: already there and then he still decided to go into
Speaker 1: him with so much time on the shot clock. So
Speaker 1: I thought that was bad process, right, he should have
Speaker 1: just pulled it out, not to mention it ended in
Speaker 1: a switch and Tyree Smacksy was on Jokic, so he
Speaker 1: could have just you know, Yokic should have probably crashed
Speaker 1: there too, because he probably could have got offensive rebound
Speaker 1: put back or you know that how Jamal Murray always
Speaker 1: does that thing where he kind of gets really deep
Speaker 1: into the lane and then just kind of floats it
Speaker 1: up in front of the rim and Yogic will go
Speaker 1: grab it and then shoot his little pop shot. Right,
Speaker 1: So that was kind of a challenging possession Jamal threw
Speaker 1: two really bad bounce passes on plays where Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: was rushing him from behind. On the second one, it
Speaker 1: was the play where Embiid was denying yokicch in the
Speaker 1: post and the ball got worked around and ended up
Speaker 1: in a Jamal Murray Aaron Gordon ball screen. But Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid made an impromptu switch back onto Aaron Gordon at
Speaker 1: the last second and Patrick Beverly had to rotate out
Speaker 1: to Michael Porter Jr. There was like a two second
Speaker 1: indo there where they ran to jokicch at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and Michael Porter Jr. Was wide open
Speaker 1: on the right wing and Jamal Murray just missed him
Speaker 1: before he ran in and turned it over. Jokic transitioned possession.
Speaker 1: There was a play where Jamal Murray tried to backcut
Speaker 1: on I think Tyree s Maxi and Jokic just threw
Speaker 1: a really bad bounce pass. First of all, the back
Speaker 1: cut wasn't open, and then he also threw a bad
Speaker 1: pass and so it just went out of bound. So
Speaker 1: that was sloppy again. Five turnovers for the Nuggets in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, and then the defense wasn't very good
Speaker 1: they had two possessions where they didn't get matched up
Speaker 1: in transition the first one, Like I clipped both of
Speaker 1: these plays. I took this entire stretch run by the
Speaker 1: Way and did a clip by clip analysis of it
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed at underscore json lts. You guys
Speaker 1: can find that there. But like, because I've had a
Speaker 1: lot of people in the comment say, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: ja's gonna be really nice if we had video underneath
Speaker 1: the clips, and this is what I'm gonna say, I
Speaker 1: know that I'd love to have that right now, We're
Speaker 1: not set up for that. That's just the reality. So
Speaker 1: my counter is every morning when I'm doing a film session,
Speaker 1: I catalog this. Not every morning, but most of the
Speaker 1: mornings that I do a film session, I'm cataloging these
Speaker 1: plays in threads on the feed, and so there you
Speaker 1: can go to try to see some more visual examples
Speaker 1: of the things I'm talking about. I really hope and
Speaker 1: I believe that in the long run, we will be
Speaker 1: able to do that on the show. We're just not
Speaker 1: at that point right now. So I appreciate the feedback.
Speaker 1: I promise you guys, it's something that I really want
Speaker 1: to do. It's just a question of logistics at this point,
Speaker 1: and we'll see when we get to that point. Anyway, though,
Speaker 1: you can see on this particular transition possession, you can
Speaker 1: see Yokic screaming to Reggie Jackson, like go pick up
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxie, what are you doing? Go pick him up?
Speaker 1: And he just didn't get there in time. Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: or Tyris Maxy just shot down the lane and got
Speaker 1: a right in a lamp. That was the one that
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior goaltended. Then there was another one where
Speaker 1: this one was Jokic's fault running out in transition. It
Speaker 1: was the it was after the Reggie Jackson forced layup
Speaker 1: that he missed. Jokic in transition defense is supposed to
Speaker 1: run to the rim. Instead he ran out to Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley in the corner and when no one was at
Speaker 1: the rim, and so then he had to sprint back
Speaker 1: into the play when he saw Embiid coming and it
Speaker 1: was like a close out situation in transition. It's just
Speaker 1: there's no chance. If he's waiting there, he can probably
Speaker 1: force him Bead to pull it out. He wasn't waiting there,
Speaker 1: he was sprinting there. That was when embiad hit him
Speaker 1: with that eurostep and got to the basket. So two
Speaker 1: bad transition defense possessions led to led to easy layups.
Speaker 1: It just again and then the jumpers you got to
Speaker 1: live with. But like there was, they were just sloppy
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. It was an uncharacteristic
Speaker 1: Nuggets performance. That said, I do want to credit the
Speaker 1: Sixers because I thought they kind of played the Nuggets
Speaker 1: into those bad tendencies with really really good defense, especially
Speaker 1: by Joel Embiid. Here's the reality. The Sixers are a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tough matchup for Denver. Embiid is
Speaker 1: big enough to challenge Jokic physically, like we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: in a way that most NBA centers aren't. There were
Speaker 1: only two possessions in the game where Yokic actually posted
Speaker 1: up Joel Embiid individually, and he got good looks on both.
Speaker 1: There's a up and under where he had a left
Speaker 1: handed layup that he missed, and then there was a
Speaker 1: right handed hook shot that he got that was relatively
Speaker 1: easily So hard to say exactly how that matchup would
Speaker 1: look in a bigger picture of this phase of their
Speaker 1: careers because they didn't guard each other that much. That said, like,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that mb does match up better with
Speaker 1: Jokic than most of these centers around the league. And
Speaker 1: then on the other end of the floor, there's just
Speaker 1: nobody on Denver that can guard Joel Embiid. But the
Speaker 1: question is that doesn't matter if Philly's not good enough
Speaker 1: to get out of the Eastern Conference, because right now
Speaker 1: I would pick Boston and Milwaukee over Philly. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a bad matchup for Denver, but unless Philly makes
Speaker 1: some sort of trade to provide some more perimeter talent,
Speaker 1: I just don't necessarily think they're good or or unless
Speaker 1: Joel emb just goes transcendently great in the postseason, I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily see them making the finals, which puts them
Speaker 1: in a situation where where Denver might not even have
Speaker 1: to see that specific matchup. And outside of that, there's
Speaker 1: just like, he doesn't have any problems with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe we'll see if Anthony Davis can reverse
Speaker 1: that trend this year, but he didn't have any problems
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis, doesn't have any problems with any of
Speaker 1: these other centers out West. It's the one guy who's
Speaker 1: kind of big enough to kind of challenge him in
Speaker 1: that sense. Hopefully we'll get to see more examples of
Speaker 1: them on each other one on one when they play
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. A playoff series would be
Speaker 1: fun to see between those two, wouldn't it. They would
Speaker 1: get nasty. I think they would end up guarding each
Speaker 1: other for the most part. That's a series i'd love
Speaker 1: to see. One other note with Denver, if there was
Speaker 1: one kind of crack in the armor that's worth calling
Speaker 1: attention to, it's Jokic's jump shot down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the game. Nicola had I think two wide open threes.
Speaker 1: There was at least one in the corner, one at
Speaker 1: the top, and then maybe one more. But like he
Speaker 1: had some wide open looks and he missed him both.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Last year, in the regular season,
Speaker 1: a Jokic jumper was worth one point one to seven
Speaker 1: points per shot. In the playoffs, it was worth one
Speaker 1: point two to one points per shot. And as I've
Speaker 1: talked so much about on the show, over the Top,
Speaker 1: shot making was a huge part of Denver winning, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers were in every single game of that Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. And then Jokic and Murray shot them out
Speaker 1: of it at the end. That was a big part
Speaker 1: of it. There's a highlight rail going around of Jokic
Speaker 1: just bombing crazy jumpers over the top on their way
Speaker 1: to winning the title. That was a big part of one,
Speaker 1: the only part so much more that Denver does well,
Speaker 1: but that is one of the things that helped them
Speaker 1: get over the top this year. Or Yokiics jump shot
Speaker 1: is worth just one point zero four points per jump shot.
Speaker 1: That's in that like Lebron James territory, right for the record,
Speaker 1: that's seventeen percent down from where it was last year
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Not seventeen percent shooting, but seventeen percent
Speaker 1: relative to where it was last year, from one point
Speaker 1: two to one down to one point oh four. That's
Speaker 1: roughly seventeen percent, right. So there's a significant decline in
Speaker 1: Yokic's jump shot, and we saw that the year before
Speaker 1: last two, and so I would like to see Jokic
Speaker 1: have an extended stretch of hot shooting before the postseason
Speaker 1: just to demonstrate that he still has that in his bag,
Speaker 1: because I do think it's a very very important thing
Speaker 1: to kind of add to that margin and margin of
Speaker 1: error that Denver has all right, before we get out here,
Speaker 1: it's hot Clippers. Big win against Oklahoma City last night,
Speaker 1: as I expected, As I told you guys after this
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves win, my initial kind of interpretation interpretation of
Speaker 1: the Clippers is they're kind of matchup dependent, and they're
Speaker 1: going to struggle a lot with a lot of these
Speaker 1: bigger teams that can kind of bully them. And then
Speaker 1: they're going to especially the ones that have good perimeter defenders,
Speaker 1: that can make long perimeter defenders that can challenge Paul
Speaker 1: George and Qui pull up jump shots. And then I
Speaker 1: thought they would kind of throttle the other perimeter teams,
Speaker 1: the other finesse teams right, and they kind of handled Okay.
Speaker 1: See last night, albeit okay, see on the tail end
Speaker 1: of a back to back Paul George was absolutely magnificent
Speaker 1: down the stretch. Hit a huge pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: over Jaln Williams, a couple of nasty, tough, tight windows,
Speaker 1: short opening catch and shoot jump shots at a big
Speaker 1: reverse dunk and transition at the end of it. Was
Speaker 1: crazy Paul George performance. But as I said before the
Speaker 1: Minnesota game, after these two games, I want to add
Speaker 1: the Clippers to my contender list, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: to see those two games before we got there. In
Speaker 1: those two game, Sames kind of legitimize most of my
Speaker 1: beliefs about this team at this point in the season.
Speaker 1: So let's talk Clippers big picture first, and let's start
Speaker 1: with the good. They have diversity of shot creation. That's
Speaker 1: a major thing for me. They have a finesse wing,
Speaker 1: a power wing, and a pick and roll maestro. Right.
Speaker 1: Paul George is your you know, a dribble dribble drible
Speaker 1: dribble pull up shooter guy. Kawhi Leonard is your fight
Speaker 1: for short range pull up jump shots close to the
Speaker 1: basket that are a little more high percentage, super super efficient. Right.
Speaker 1: I think James Harden is a guy that can set
Speaker 1: them up in advantage situations out of pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They also are an excellent shooting team. They get one
Speaker 1: point one to two points per spot up possession, which
Speaker 1: is the fifth best in the league, and they shoot
Speaker 1: thirty nine point six percent from three, which is the
Speaker 1: best in the league. And play types, they are the
Speaker 1: fourth most efficient post up team in the league. They
Speaker 1: are the second most efficient ISO team in the league,
Speaker 1: and they are the seventh most efficient pick and roll
Speaker 1: team in the league. On the defensive end, they are
Speaker 1: fourteenth in defensive rating. But it's kind of confusing because
Speaker 1: they're the fourth best half court defense according to Cleaning
Speaker 1: the Glass, but they're the third worst transition defense according
Speaker 1: to Cleaning and the Glass. So there are a good
Speaker 1: half court defense an atrocious transition defense, which combines to
Speaker 1: make for an average defense. That said, typically the transition
Speaker 1: defense is something that can get cleaned up in the postseason.
Speaker 1: They're excellent on the perimeter, they're excellent on help recover situations.
Speaker 1: They're just not great in rim protection, but they do
Speaker 1: protect the paint reasonably well. They are eleventh in points
Speaker 1: in the paint allowed. They are also twelfth and three
Speaker 1: pointers made allowed. And again, there are a lot of noise
Speaker 1: there in terms of transition defense. Here's the beat. I
Speaker 1: have three main concerns, and before we go any further,
Speaker 1: every team I have major concerns for except for Denver,
Speaker 1: and even with them, I have the Yokics jump shot thing,
Speaker 1: which I talked about earlier, which is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a concern. Like Boston and Denver, I have little concerns.
Speaker 1: I'm a little concerned about Boston's late game decision making
Speaker 1: and just overall offensive process. I'm a little bit concerned
Speaker 1: about Denver as it pertains to Jokic's jump shooting and
Speaker 1: whether or not he can reach the level he did
Speaker 1: last year in the postseason. But all the other teams
Speaker 1: have major concerns. Like Milwaukee's not as good offensively in
Speaker 1: my opinion, as they need to be in order to
Speaker 1: make up for their defensive deficiencies, and their pick and
Speaker 1: roll or their point of attack defense stuff is a
Speaker 1: real problem. The Lakers are just lifeless right now, so
Speaker 1: it's hard to even tell what they're good and bad at.
Speaker 1: They look terrible one night, awesome the next, and they
Speaker 1: certainly need to make a trade. They're weak in overall
Speaker 1: offensive skill, They're weak in kind of perimeter speed. They've
Speaker 1: got a lot of stuff they got to address at
Speaker 1: the deadline right Like the Phoenix Suns, physicality is a
Speaker 1: major issue. They fall apart offensively in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: as well. Minnesota is a terrible half court offense, so
Speaker 1: they're an excellent defensive team, but they can really struggle
Speaker 1: in the chess match stuff at the end of game.
Speaker 1: So like or in slow down environments. So like every
Speaker 1: team has major issues. So when I talk about these
Speaker 1: major issues for the Clippers, don't take it as like
Speaker 1: me trying to pick them apart. I'm trying to pick
Speaker 1: everybody apart. That's the point. I'm trying to get to
Speaker 1: the point where I can have a better understanding of
Speaker 1: this when we get to April. Here are my three
Speaker 1: concerns for the Clippers. One, they take the second most
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots in the league. Two, they're a
Speaker 1: bottom ten defensive rebounding team. They give up an offensive
Speaker 1: rebound on forty three point three percent of their opponents
Speaker 1: misses in clutch situations too, that's second worst in the league.
Speaker 1: So there are a bad defensive rebounding team who's incredibly
Speaker 1: bad in close game situations late. And Then three, they
Speaker 1: do not score in the paint. They're seventeenth in points
Speaker 1: in the paint per game. Now, let's elaborate that on
Speaker 1: that a little bit. Number one, they take the second
Speaker 1: most pull up jump shots in the league. Why does
Speaker 1: that matter Because they hunt and depend on difficult shot
Speaker 1: making and that's just a tough way to win in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. We've seen that with Phoenix, We've seen that
Speaker 1: with the nets teams, right, like when you rely on
Speaker 1: difficult shot making, not as a counter, not like late
Speaker 1: clock situations, you know, being really picky about when you
Speaker 1: take pull up jump shots based on the coverage, but
Speaker 1: like you lean on interior shot making and advantage creation
Speaker 1: and the shots close to the rim and wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations and stuff like that. It should
Speaker 1: be the other way around, Like you should rely on
Speaker 1: that stuff and then have the pull up shooting be
Speaker 1: a counter or something you're more selective with. That, to me,
Speaker 1: is the best shot profile for a playoff team. The
Speaker 1: Clippers are the other way around. They depend and lean
Speaker 1: into and hunt and rely on difficult shot making, and
Speaker 1: just what ends up happening a lot of times is
Speaker 1: like guys that you see make tough shots in the
Speaker 1: regular season gets more physical, guys start to wear down,
Speaker 1: the grind of the playoffs takes a toll over two
Speaker 1: to three series, and then suddenly it's like he's just
Speaker 1: not quite getting as much lyft on that pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot and he starts to miss him. Right. So
Speaker 1: that's something that's not unique to the Clippers. That's something
Speaker 1: I talk about around the league. For example, four of
Speaker 1: the five champions since Kevin Durant and Steph Curry were
Speaker 1: playing together for the Warriors in one in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: four of the five champions were low volume pull up
Speaker 1: shooting teams. The one high volume pull up shooting team
Speaker 1: was Milwaukee, and they had Giannis bulldozing to the rim
Speaker 1: throughout the entire playoff run. It was Chris and Drew
Speaker 1: taking all the pull up jump shots. So, like NBA
Speaker 1: history tells us, typically high volume jump shooting teams aren't
Speaker 1: going to be the ones who hoisted the trophy at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. Also, Milwaukee wasn't second in
Speaker 1: the league in attempts there. Secondly, rebounding, four of the
Speaker 1: five teams that won the title since Kevin Durant Steph
Speaker 1: hoisted the trophy in twenty eighteen were eleventh or better
Speaker 1: in defensive rebounding percentage, and the Clippers are bottom ten
Speaker 1: and absolutely atrocious and clutch situations. Like we talked about
Speaker 1: the one exception, the one team out of that five
Speaker 1: was Toronto with Kawhi Leonard. They were eighteenth in defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding and they were a much better defensive rebounding team
Speaker 1: than this particular Clippers team. Is. Lastly, lack of paint
Speaker 1: scoring is pretty simple. They don't get a lot of
Speaker 1: easy shots close to the rim. They depend on guys
Speaker 1: making jump shots. There's more variance in jump shooting. You
Speaker 1: can control jump shooting for the most part, but there
Speaker 1: is a variance element to it. And that variance element
Speaker 1: is not there with a round the rim shooting, or
Speaker 1: at least to a much much smaller extent. So NBA
Speaker 1: history tells us that this kind of team construct typically
Speaker 1: doesn't win. That doesn't mean they won't win, doesn't mean
Speaker 1: they can't win, just means it's less likely. Right as
Speaker 1: far as like the you know, the the other narrative stuff,
Speaker 1: like everyone's saying James Harden isn't just called a playoff choker,
Speaker 1: you know, as as some sort of caricature of himself
Speaker 1: like it's it's a basketball thing. He at this phase
Speaker 1: of his career struggles to be people off the dribble
Speaker 1: and finish around the rim in a playoff setting when
Speaker 1: the intensity and physicality goes up a level. Last year
Speaker 1: outside of two games, was downright atrocious in the in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And so that doesn't mean it can't happen.
Speaker 1: And again, Philly fans will tell you he was hurt
Speaker 1: coming off of an achilles thing that was bothering him
Speaker 1: during the regular season. I don't want to deny that,
Speaker 1: but we have a long extended sample that when we
Speaker 1: get to that level, James's efficacy drops a level it's
Speaker 1: worth mentioning. Doesn't not the end all be all, but
Speaker 1: it's worth mentioning. So the question is where do they
Speaker 1: go in my list of contenders. So right now I've
Speaker 1: Denver at one, Boston at two, Milwaukee at three. I've
Speaker 1: decided that the teams below that have bigger question marks.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have to nail their trade, have to rebuy in.
Speaker 1: By tricking off the regular season, they put themselves in
Speaker 1: a situation where if Lebron or Anthony Davisucker suffer a
Speaker 1: significant injury, they will miss the playoffs, so they've removed
Speaker 1: their margin for air. The Warriors same thing, have to
Speaker 1: nail a bunch of trades. Minnesota's half court offense, I
Speaker 1: think is a real issue. I think they're gonna run
Speaker 1: into some problems where they get absolutely shut down at
Speaker 1: some phases of the playoffs. So I'm putting the Clippers
Speaker 1: in at number four. Also, I want to add Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City and Philly to this list eventually, but I want
Speaker 1: to do some deep dives on film and some numbers
Speaker 1: with them, so I'm gonna wait until further down the
Speaker 1: line to do so. But I will be adding Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City and Philly to that as well. But Clippers right
Speaker 1: now my fourth leading championship contender. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today is always. I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you supporting the show. Don't forget. Tonight after Mavericks,
Speaker 1: Lakers will be going live on YouTube and then tomorrow
Speaker 1: will pick like one or two. But I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hit I think it's a Bucks Calves tonight too
Speaker 1: on ESPN, So I'll hit like Bucks Calves tomorrow and
Speaker 1: we'll do a mail bag as well, so I will
Speaker 1: see you guys. Then. I appreciate you guys, See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume