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Speaker 1: Slash b ball. All right, well come to you tonight.
Speaker 1: You're at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody hope all if
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week. Just a quick
Speaker 1: show for today. We're gonna talk about Celtics Wolves for
Speaker 1: the most part, really entertaining a really interesting game on
Speaker 1: that front. I want to talk about the Celtics and
Speaker 1: the way Jason Tatum is playing. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the Jason Tatum Anthony Edwards debate, which largely centers
Speaker 1: around my player rankings from last summer. And then I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Anthony Edwards in the world, some
Speaker 1: of their issues from the season, and the two part
Speaker 1: reality of their path forward, which is how do you
Speaker 1: fix this problem in the big picture and how do
Speaker 1: you make the most out of this particular season. And
Speaker 1: at the very end of the show, I just want
Speaker 1: to briefly touch on the Sixers Warriors game before we
Speaker 1: get out of here. You guys know the trip before
Speaker 1: we get started. To subscribe to the Hoop Tonight YouTube
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Speaker 1: We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
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Speaker 1: you continue to get content throughout the year. Last but
Speaker 1: not at least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments mailbag on Friday this week because our schedule
Speaker 1: is a little different because I'm leaving to go on
Speaker 1: my first ski trip of the year on Sunday, so
Speaker 1: the mail bag is going to come out on either Saturday, Sunday,
Speaker 1: Monday sometime in that stretch, and then next week will
Speaker 1: actually start for us on Wednesday. But still plenty of
Speaker 1: time to drop mail bag questions, so get those in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: Celtics Wolves. I thought Jason Tatum just played an absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful game. He had all these like different phases in
Speaker 1: the way that he was attacking at different points in
Speaker 1: the game, Like in the early first quarter, he was
Speaker 1: just playing advantage creation basketball, just kind of floating around
Speaker 1: taking the easy reads that are available. That's such an
Speaker 1: important part of this Boston offense, right, because the real
Speaker 1: differentiator from a talent standpoint between like Boston supporting cast
Speaker 1: and a lot of the other supporting casts around the
Speaker 1: league is their ability, via the coaching staff all the
Speaker 1: way down through the roster to generate space and then
Speaker 1: to capitalize on extra attention that is devoted towards the
Speaker 1: guys that have the ball, right, and it's so much
Speaker 1: more complicated than shooting. It was actually really interesting because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of discussions surrounding Minnesota's shooting, and we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that today, but it goes deeper
Speaker 1: than that because there's a lot of like different things
Speaker 1: that happen when you watch other teams play, where like,
Speaker 1: for instance, I have a couple of clips that I
Speaker 1: posted to demonstrate some of these differences on my Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: We're like when Tatum's driving, there's always like shooter left corner,
Speaker 1: shooter right corner, guard in the dunker spot, and shooter
Speaker 1: opposite wing, and so he's just got all of this
Speaker 1: space to work with. And it's not just the shooting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those guys have to be accounted for in terms of
Speaker 1: their ability to knock down shots, but it's also floor placement.
Speaker 1: It's also like having the right guys in the right spot.
Speaker 1: You want to guard in the dunker spot. Why because
Speaker 1: he's usually being guarded by a smaller player. So the
Speaker 1: guy that's helping out the rim, you would prefer to
Speaker 1: be a smaller player. So if you're gonna have somebody
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, if you have a center in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot, you're probably gonna have a center helping
Speaker 1: at the rim. But if you have a guard at
Speaker 1: the dunker spot, you're gonna have a smaller player helping
Speaker 1: at the rim. Right. And then if your corners are
Speaker 1: occupied and your wing opposite wing is occupied. You have
Speaker 1: the distance between the right corner and the opposite wing,
Speaker 1: that whole stretch of three point line to work off
Speaker 1: the dribble and make things happen. I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how many times in that Wolves game it's it goes
Speaker 1: deeper than just Jaden McDaniel's can't shoot, or Julius Randall's
Speaker 1: not a great spot up shooter, or you know, Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert's stonehands around the basket. It extends deeper into floor placement.
Speaker 1: Times where Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert are both standing
Speaker 1: directly underneath the basket. Or you have a guy that's
Speaker 1: in the opposite wing, but he's standing ten feet away
Speaker 1: from the guy that's in the corner, so you can
Speaker 1: effectively guard with two guys, or instead of one guy cutting,
Speaker 1: you have two guys cut to the exact same spot
Speaker 1: make themselves easy to guard. There's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that goes deeper than that. And I'm saying that mainly
Speaker 1: to compliment the Celtics as an organization from the top down,
Speaker 1: because it's not just having it goes it's a thing
Speaker 1: from the front office in terms of the types of
Speaker 1: players that they're targeting, the coaching staff in terms of
Speaker 1: organization on the floor, but the players not just shooting
Speaker 1: but also basketball IQ and like the natural understanding and
Speaker 1: feel of space. There's all these As you're off the ball,
Speaker 1: you're constantly reading what's the ball handler doing, what are
Speaker 1: the other off ball players doing. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: a guy drives into the lane and makes a kickout pass,
Speaker 1: where he decides to relocate is going to directly affect
Speaker 1: where you have to relocate. Right There's a lot of
Speaker 1: like different decisions that you make in those spacing situations.
Speaker 1: And like, again, Boston just does such an amazing job
Speaker 1: organizationally of keeping guys on the floor in the right
Speaker 1: spots and putting the types of guys out there that
Speaker 1: are good with their instincts in their placement off the
Speaker 1: ball while also having the ability to knock down shots.
Speaker 1: And it's just start contrast between the two teams that
Speaker 1: were watching last night. But again, Jason Tatum's within that,
Speaker 1: within that ecosystem. One of the things that he does
Speaker 1: better than most is he'll just call for a guard screen,
Speaker 1: get a inside seal for you know, one of the
Speaker 1: the guy who's setting the screen will get an inside seal,
Speaker 1: and he's big and tall enough and quick enough with
Speaker 1: the decision making to float the ball over the top
Speaker 1: so that'll hands right in the guy's hands so that
Speaker 1: he has a four run three, or making a skip
Speaker 1: pass when Anthony Edwards is leaking into the lane off
Speaker 1: of Derek White in the left corner. Like those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of like little things that Jason Tatum does
Speaker 1: that just greases the wheels for this offense. But then
Speaker 1: he had these two massive jump shooting runs in a
Speaker 1: late second quarter. He had a jump shooting run where
Speaker 1: he hit a bunch of shots that gave the Celtics
Speaker 1: their initial large separation that put them up by fourteen.
Speaker 1: And then the Wolves, after playing some more desperate basketball
Speaker 1: to start the third quarter, they cut the lead down
Speaker 1: to four right around the mid third quarter mark, and
Speaker 1: he had another jump shooting run in that late third
Speaker 1: quarter that put the Celtics back up by thirteen. I
Speaker 1: thought Tatum was fantastic in this game. The Wolves played
Speaker 1: really well in the fourth quarter. In that early fourth
Speaker 1: quarter stretch they went to their spacing group. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like this interesting concept with the way the Wolves
Speaker 1: play basketball. So you have these two stars, and they're
Speaker 1: both stars that like are at their best when they're
Speaker 1: going downhill, right. But Anthony Edwards is one of the
Speaker 1: best jump shooters in the league, particularly off the dribble,
Speaker 1: right he gets, He's up at like one point one
Speaker 1: zero points per jump shot this season, very very good
Speaker 1: jump shooter, especially off the dribble. Julius Randall not so much. Right.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that they're doing is like
Speaker 1: the bench groups are always staggered versions of starters and
Speaker 1: bench players, right. So one of the things that we're
Speaker 1: seeing is like when Anthony Edwards is carrying a bench
Speaker 1: group without Julius Randall, they'll put him out there with
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert, And they do that because
Speaker 1: they know the spacing is shit. But ant is a
Speaker 1: guy that's capable of knocking down shots over the top,
Speaker 1: so we'll put him with that group. But then what
Speaker 1: they'll do with the Julius Randall groups is they know
Speaker 1: he's not as good shooting over the top, so they'll
Speaker 1: put all the spacers with him. So he was playing
Speaker 1: with a group that had Dante DiVincenzo Nikhil Alexander Walker
Speaker 1: nasried at center, and then Josh miy Not I believe
Speaker 1: was the fifth in that group, and he was incredible
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter run. He was blocking shots at
Speaker 1: the rim, driving closeouts and dunking on everybody, hitting corner
Speaker 1: threes like he was incredible too. But it kind of
Speaker 1: is like the best way for them to make use
Speaker 1: of that situation the record. I agree with Chris Finch
Speaker 1: in the overall kind of ethos of that or thought
Speaker 1: process behind that decision making process. There are things that
Speaker 1: disagree with Chris Finch with as it pertains to like
Speaker 1: specific lineup groups that I'd like to see them use
Speaker 1: more in big spots. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of the give and take with the
Speaker 1: Wolves bench groups. It's like Aunt with Jaden and Rudy
Speaker 1: Julius with all the shooters, well Julius with all the
Speaker 1: shooters in that early fourth quarter group. They go on
Speaker 1: a big run and they actually end up briefly taking
Speaker 1: a lead, but then Derek White goes absolutely berserk in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, hit several tough, heavily contested shots and
Speaker 1: it ends up being enough to stiff arm the Wolves
Speaker 1: and they get out of Minnesota with a win. So
Speaker 1: now I want to There's so much big picture stuff
Speaker 1: I want to get into, but before we get into that,
Speaker 1: I want to shout out a couple more Celtics. Sam Hauser.
Speaker 1: I thought his shooting was huge AllGame. He was the
Speaker 1: guy that was paying off the chaos situations that Boston
Speaker 1: was generating, so like transition pushes where he would end
Speaker 1: up with the ball, knocking down a three, threes off
Speaker 1: of offensive rebounds, threes off of mistakes that Minnesota was
Speaker 1: making in their help side defense. He was just paying
Speaker 1: it off a lot. And then the Bigs. I thought,
Speaker 1: specifically Nimi Kuoita just did an amazing job in his bench.
Speaker 1: In his bench shifts as at that backup center spot
Speaker 1: is touched around the basket was important. I thought he
Speaker 1: won some offensive rebound battles, especially on switches where he'd
Speaker 1: get inside position on like Julius Randall and get a
Speaker 1: big tap out rebound or an offensive rebound. I just
Speaker 1: thought he gave really good minutes. It was an impressive
Speaker 1: win for the Celtics again, down Jaylen Brown and down
Speaker 1: Christops Porzingis on the road in Minnesota and again, like
Speaker 1: it was a kind of a showcase of a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things. Like I thought it was a showcase
Speaker 1: of the fact that Jason Tatum right now is just
Speaker 1: a more complete all around basketball player than Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 1: something that I've thought most of this season after I
Speaker 1: was wrong over the summer. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: that in a minute. But I also thought it was
Speaker 1: a demonstration of the gap in organizational competence between Minnesota
Speaker 1: and Boston, like we talked about earlier, in terms of
Speaker 1: their spacing principles and just the way they make things
Speaker 1: easier for their stars. So let's talk about this Aunt
Speaker 1: Tatum debate. So this is something I've been getting absolutely
Speaker 1: shredded for all season. And the funniest thing about it
Speaker 1: is we're talking about two spots. I had Tatum at seven,
Speaker 1: and most Celtics fans have him at five. There are
Speaker 1: a few more intense Celtics fans that have him higher
Speaker 1: at like three or four. But like the point is,
Speaker 1: we're talking about just a couple of spots. I had
Speaker 1: Tatum down at seven. It was a just something that
Speaker 1: Celtics fans got really upset about. I no longer feel
Speaker 1: that way I would now have Tatum at five, and
Speaker 1: then i'd probably have Ant even lower than seven. Now
Speaker 1: i'd probably have him closer to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: top ten. But no, it is not because Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: beat Anthony Edwards last night. It is not because the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics swept the Timberwolves this season. It is not
Speaker 1: because the Boston Celtics are clearly a much much better
Speaker 1: basketball team overall, including the Stars, than the Minnesota Timberlves.
Speaker 1: That is not why I feel that way. The reason
Speaker 1: why I now have Tatum at five when I had
Speaker 1: him at seven this summer is last year, Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: was not a very good jump shooter, especially in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then he completely fell apart as a jump shooter
Speaker 1: with Team USA. In the playoffs, Tatum, when he took
Speaker 1: a jump shot, it was worth zero point eight points
Speaker 1: per tempt. That's really really bad. And then he was
Speaker 1: zero for sixteen on jump shots with Team USA. So
Speaker 1: when I was thinking about Tatum in the context of
Speaker 1: the other stars in the league, I liked his versatility.
Speaker 1: I thought he was integral to the Celtics defense in
Speaker 1: that playoff run, specifically his ability to guard centers. But
Speaker 1: also to be able to switch ball screens, which was
Speaker 1: like the primary foundation of the Boston defensive scheme that
Speaker 1: caused so many problems for people in the postseason run.
Speaker 1: Huge testament to Tatum's versatility. I also thought he he
Speaker 1: just did a wonderful job of initial advantage creation, like
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, creating those tic tac toe situations
Speaker 1: that Boston was so good at turning into points. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is a Swiss army knife of a basketball player,
Speaker 1: which has always been something I'm drawn to because I'm
Speaker 1: a Lebron fan and Lebron was a Swiss army knife
Speaker 1: of a basketball player still is to this day. But
Speaker 1: because of his jump shooting issues, I had him down
Speaker 1: at seven instead of five. I had a feeling he
Speaker 1: was just in a bad slump. I talked about it
Speaker 1: all summer that I expected Tatum to shoot better this year,
Speaker 1: but as I factored all of that in, I landed
Speaker 1: with him at seven. This season, Tatum is having the
Speaker 1: best jump shooting season he's had in five years. He's
Speaker 1: at one point zero seven points per jump shot, he's
Speaker 1: at one point zero two points per off the dribble
Speaker 1: jump shot, and he's at one point two to one
Speaker 1: points per jumper off the catch. He hasn't even come
Speaker 1: close to those numbers as a jump shooter since twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: It's been almost five years, and back then he wasn't
Speaker 1: nearly the all around player that he is now. Right, So, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I combine the Swiss army knife that Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: has been the last few years with the jump shooter
Speaker 1: that Jason Tatum was in the early part of his career, now,
Speaker 1: I do think he is the fifth best player in
Speaker 1: the league. I wanted to cover that separately because too
Speaker 1: much of this has turned into Anthony Edwards versus Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: I get that. I had a rant in the postseason
Speaker 1: that you guys have been pulling back all the time,
Speaker 1: where I said I thought Anthony Edwards was better than
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum at the time when Jason Tatum, or when
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards averaging twenty eight seven and seven on sixty
Speaker 1: percent through shooting, dragging that flawed Minnesota roster to the
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals, at that specific point in time, I
Speaker 1: thought Ant was better than Tatum. I no longer feel
Speaker 1: that way, but we need to remove Ant from this
Speaker 1: discussion for a second, because Ant's a separate issue, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about him in a minute. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Tatum in a vacuum. The reason why
Speaker 1: I had Tatum lower was because of his jump shooting issues.
Speaker 1: He has now rectified that, and when you combine that
Speaker 1: with his all around ability, he is such a deeply
Speaker 1: impactful basketball player. And that's what we've been seeing this year,
Speaker 1: and that's why he is the fringe MVP candidate that
Speaker 1: he is this year. I wanted to cover Tatum separately
Speaker 1: than Ant because they aren't actually connected. So on that note,
Speaker 1: now let's get into Ant. What's going on in Minnesota
Speaker 1: right now is so much deeper than just Anthony Edwards development.
Speaker 1: Ant is struggling right now. We talked about it earlier,
Speaker 1: but the Wolves are having these spacing issues and they're
Speaker 1: confronting them by putting Ant with nonspacers and Julius with spacers.
Speaker 1: So ann is playing the majority of the game with
Speaker 1: a bunch of non shooters on the floor that teams
Speaker 1: can help help off of and send aggressive help. Now
Speaker 1: at other points in the season, when his jump shot
Speaker 1: is following at a super high rate, it's something that
Speaker 1: has worked to a certain extent, but teams are now
Speaker 1: starting to send more doubles, more aggressive ball screen coverages
Speaker 1: late help all the stuff that Anthony Edwards was talking
Speaker 1: about in his post presser last night. And to make
Speaker 1: matters worse, Ant is now in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shooting slope. He's at thirty five point four percent
Speaker 1: from three over his last ten games, which isn't terrible,
Speaker 1: but it's far below where he was to start the year.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. There are two ways to look
Speaker 1: at this solution. There's the big picture, which is confronting
Speaker 1: the obvious reality that this is a flawed roster construct
Speaker 1: and something needs to be changed for the future of
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. But then there's the
Speaker 1: short term reality. And the short term reality is that
Speaker 1: the Wolves are a second Apron team, meaning they are
Speaker 1: heavily handicapped with their ability to make trades this season
Speaker 1: and they may not be able to do much before
Speaker 1: they get to this summer. So we have to focus
Speaker 1: on the short term reality. Because the short term reality
Speaker 1: is this season. You gotta find something you can do
Speaker 1: to make the most out of this season. Then you
Speaker 1: can confront all the issues with the roster when you
Speaker 1: get to June. In July, Ant has been comeling a
Speaker 1: lot about double teams. The reality is that the best
Speaker 1: way for this team to continue is probably to let
Speaker 1: Julius keep leading those spacing groups, and Ant has to
Speaker 1: try to make the non spacing groups work. If you
Speaker 1: put Ant with the spacing groups, those groups will be better.
Speaker 1: But if you put Julius with the non spacing groups,
Speaker 1: those groups will be a disaster. I actually think Ant
Speaker 1: has been making pretty solid passing leads in terms of
Speaker 1: like identifying that there's a double team, throwing those skip passes,
Speaker 1: getting rid of the ball quickly. I actually think he's
Speaker 1: been doing a pretty decent job there. There are two things, though,
Speaker 1: that I think are holding him back right now, beyond
Speaker 1: the obvious slump which he's going to make shots in
Speaker 1: the big picture. One his past location the sharpness of
Speaker 1: those passes. There are a lot of times where Ant
Speaker 1: is getting double teamed or they're loading up in ball
Speaker 1: screens and Ant is throwing a swing pass, throwing a
Speaker 1: pocket pass, throwing a drop off pass, throwing a skip pass,
Speaker 1: but it's not hitting the ball handler or the shooter
Speaker 1: in the post. What happens there is anytime there is
Speaker 1: a slight fumble, a slight guy loses his balance when
Speaker 1: he's trying to catch the ball. Anytime there's anything involving
Speaker 1: the pass being off target, it gives the defense an
Speaker 1: opportunity to rotate. Specifically, it buys them more time to rotate,
Speaker 1: and so then what happens in those situations is the
Speaker 1: advantage disappears. There were a bunch of examples last night
Speaker 1: in that Celtics game where Aunt saw the right read,
Speaker 1: made the pass but threw it off target and Boston
Speaker 1: was able to rotate. It's a big part. I think
Speaker 1: he only had like three or four assists despite the
Speaker 1: fact that Boston was double teaming them all all night.
Speaker 1: Some of that is guy's not making shots, I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, But a big part of it too
Speaker 1: is he could do himself a favor by being a
Speaker 1: little bit more precise with those kickout raads. That is
Speaker 1: a big part of how he can try to make
Speaker 1: the most out of this season is being better attention
Speaker 1: to detail in those passes to make sure they get
Speaker 1: where they need to be on time, on target. And
Speaker 1: then two on defense. Ant is an incredible on ball defender,
Speaker 1: but he has a tendency on ball occasionally to die
Speaker 1: on screens. He lost Jason Tatum on the like where
Speaker 1: he just died on a screen in the It was
Speaker 1: like the early second half if I remember correctly. And
Speaker 1: then off ball in particular, he stands upright and he
Speaker 1: doesn't track man in ball and he can lose shooters.
Speaker 1: How do you make the most out of those lineups
Speaker 1: by virtue of making sharper passes, so at least the
Speaker 1: guys that are limited shooters have a little bit more
Speaker 1: time to knock the shot down or to make a
Speaker 1: uh you know, an advantage extending play like driving a
Speaker 1: close out. And then two, you have to win with
Speaker 1: defense in those groups. If you're gonna have Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels on the floor, you better be locking teams up,
Speaker 1: and you can't be giving up easy buckets because Ant's
Speaker 1: falling asleep off ball, leaving shooters. It's so funny because
Speaker 1: I saw so much discussion last night surrounding Ant as
Speaker 1: a player maker, and there's no doubt that Ant needs
Speaker 1: to improve in some of those areas, Like I talked
Speaker 1: about just little details like past location, but I just
Speaker 1: think they're so far down the list of the other
Speaker 1: things that Minnesota could improve, and even that Aunt can improve,
Speaker 1: and I just think that we're we're kind of missing
Speaker 1: the boat to a certain extent. The Wolf starting three
Speaker 1: four five currently makes one hundred million dollars. Jada McDaniels,
Speaker 1: Julius Randall, and Rudy Gobert makes one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: That is how much of their cap they're taking up
Speaker 1: this season. Those guys are combining to make two point
Speaker 1: nine threes per game on thirty three percent. That's a
Speaker 1: much bigger issue than some of the stuff were nitpicking
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards about before. I talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about that big picture reality though. The one last thing
Speaker 1: that I think that Chris Finch has to consider to
Speaker 1: try to make the most out of this season is
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more willing to go away
Speaker 1: from Rudy Gobert. This is a concept that I've been
Speaker 1: talking about a lot on this show and with regards
Speaker 1: to other teams as well, specifically teams like teams like
Speaker 1: Denver in the early in the past. New York is
Speaker 1: a big team. I've been talking about it this year
Speaker 1: with Karl Anthony Towns at center. You can be a
Speaker 1: good defense without an elite rim protector if you have
Speaker 1: athletes that compete on the perimeter, both containing the ball
Speaker 1: and flying around in rotation. And so this idea that
Speaker 1: and again I understand Gobert is a huge regular season
Speaker 1: floor racer, but there are limitations there. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to think as a thought exercise, I was like, what
Speaker 1: would be the ideal lineup for the Wolves to go
Speaker 1: down with in a big spot? The lineup that I
Speaker 1: think has the most sensical basketball talent within this group
Speaker 1: in the in house, meaning you can't go make a
Speaker 1: trade Anthony Evergs and Julius got to have your two
Speaker 1: best ball handlers. But then nas Reid at center. And
Speaker 1: then I was like, how about the two best three
Speaker 1: and d guys on the roster? And what I came
Speaker 1: up with was Dante de Vincenzo and Nikhil Alexander Walker.
Speaker 1: That group, those five guys, Aunt and Julius nos Rat
Speaker 1: at center flanked by Dante and Nikiel two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two possessions is here, according to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: a one thirty one offensive rating, a one to ten
Speaker 1: defensive rating, plus twenty one points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: That is a lineup that I think Chris Finch should
Speaker 1: explore more and maybe cut Rudy Gobert's minutes down and
Speaker 1: give that group more opportunity to run because it'll feed
Speaker 1: confidence they'll get going on offense, it'll cause them to
Speaker 1: thrive on defense. And again, a one ten defensive rating
Speaker 1: is a good defensive rating. It's not elite, but it's
Speaker 1: a good defensive rating, and it's because you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of athletes on the perimeter that compete and rotate
Speaker 1: and it helps support a weaker rim protector in nas Reed.
Speaker 1: So that's another thing I would do again. AT's got
Speaker 1: to be more sharp with this passing in terms of location,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be more competent off balld defender.
Speaker 1: And I think Chris Finch needs to explore going away
Speaker 1: from Rudy Gobert more, especially when in big spots when
Speaker 1: they need to get more out of their offense. Now
Speaker 1: about the long term reality, as I mentioned, you're starting
Speaker 1: front court makes one hundred million dollars. Jaden McDaniels makes
Speaker 1: twenty three million, and he's literally shooting thirty one point
Speaker 1: five percent on catch and shoot jump shots. Teams just
Speaker 1: don't guard him. That is too much money to pay
Speaker 1: a guy, too much room in your cap being taken
Speaker 1: up by a guy who's a near zero on offense.
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert again one of the best regular season four
Speaker 1: raizers in the league, but in the context of this roster,
Speaker 1: he's a huge part of the spacing problem, and I
Speaker 1: personally think he has a ceiling problem when we get
Speaker 1: too late playoff rounds against elite defenses that can protect
Speaker 1: the rim ie what happened with Dallas and then Julius Randall,
Speaker 1: who can't score off the ball and is really poor
Speaker 1: off ball instincts in general in terms of spacing and cutting,
Speaker 1: is a big part of the problem. Against Boston last night,
Speaker 1: that's one hundred million dollars all for play who make
Speaker 1: it harder on Anthony Edwards when he has the basketball.
Speaker 1: That's a flawed roster construct. And to top it all off,
Speaker 1: you're in the second apron, so you can't aggregate salaries
Speaker 1: and trades. There's a million different restrictions on their ability
Speaker 1: to tweak this roster. They can't even trade him straight
Speaker 1: up for Cam Johnson. They can't even trade Julius Randall
Speaker 1: straight up for Cam Johnson. I'm having a hard time
Speaker 1: even finding trades that makes sense. They almost just have
Speaker 1: to get through this season and then let Julius Randall
Speaker 1: walk to have any real chance to tweak the roster.
Speaker 1: But again, that was the primary purpose of them trading
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns this summer. They deliberately took a risk.
Speaker 1: As I said to the summer, I said, this has
Speaker 1: much lower of a floor, But yeah, there's a ceiling play,
Speaker 1: which is like, what if Julius Randall has an All
Speaker 1: NBA season and your defense is great and aunt and
Speaker 1: Julius just out execute everybody. That was a possibility. That
Speaker 1: was the upside. Hell, it's still the upside. But there
Speaker 1: was a huge downside to this deal, which is that
Speaker 1: you're spacing is dog sit. It makes life harder on Ant,
Speaker 1: but hey, at least you get some cap flexibility moving forward.
Speaker 1: The real problem is you have sixty seven million dollars
Speaker 1: and Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert invested in two guys
Speaker 1: that have to play big minutes because they feel big
Speaker 1: salary slots, but they only play one side of the
Speaker 1: floor and that's too much. It's a flawed way to
Speaker 1: build a basketball team, and they have to find a
Speaker 1: way to fix it. It's not over for the Wolves
Speaker 1: this year, but their window of opportunity is incredibly slim,
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of disappointing because you feel like
Speaker 1: you could grow off of that Western Conference Finals run
Speaker 1: last year, and all you did was tweak things and
Speaker 1: take a gigantic step backwards. All right, quickly, before we
Speaker 1: get out of here, I wanted to talk about Warriors
Speaker 1: Sixers at least for one night, build and say Warriors
Speaker 1: broke out of their slumt Remember I talked about how
Speaker 1: in the Cleveland game, there's all this gloom and doom,
Speaker 1: and it was like they were just clearly, just miserably
Speaker 1: cold from the perimeter. They had fourteen unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots against Cleveland, they made zero. They went
Speaker 1: eleven for twenty one against the Sixers' that's gonna help
Speaker 1: a lot. Steph Curry eight for eight from three. Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder was a huge part of the first quarter run.
Speaker 1: He had three threes just right away, came out guns blazing.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Dennis Schrueder believer. A lot of Warriors
Speaker 1: fans were annoyed with him and how he started anytime
Speaker 1: he changed teams. It takes time to kind of figure
Speaker 1: out your role and get your confidence, get your rhythm.
Speaker 1: I think you guys are gonna love that guy. He's
Speaker 1: a really, really good basketball player. I also thought he
Speaker 1: just like brought some dribble penetration and made some things happen.
Speaker 1: As a team, the Warriors hit twenty two threes and
Speaker 1: shot fifty six percent from behind the three point line.
Speaker 1: And then they followed the game plan that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to follow against Philly, which is like run the floor
Speaker 1: every single damn time you can, because and beat his
Speaker 1: slow and in general, they've got some older, slower guys.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna run the floor. The Warriors had thirty
Speaker 1: eight points in transition. This game was their third highest
Speaker 1: total of the season. Their highest, I want to say,
Speaker 1: was Portland. It was like forty something in the early
Speaker 1: part of the season, and they had another forty something
Speaker 1: in a loss against the Brooklyn Nets earlier this season.
Speaker 1: But that's their third highest transition total this year. And
Speaker 1: they just ran Philly off the floor, controlled it throughout.
Speaker 1: Philly never let in this game I really didn't like
Speaker 1: Philly's offensive approach in this game. They didn't go to
Speaker 1: embid in the post at all with the starters. They
Speaker 1: were just like kind of playing some freelance basketball and
Speaker 1: jacking up bad shots. And then finally when Gershon Yabuseli's
Speaker 1: checked into the game, that's when they started going to
Speaker 1: embat in the post, and they were getting good stuff
Speaker 1: every single time. Yeabucelli was setting up on the opposite
Speaker 1: wing and he was just cutting hard and making himself
Speaker 1: available in the lane and drawing extra attention, getting catches
Speaker 1: there and finishes there. Philly post ups were really good.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting because like Philly's offense this season, when Embiid,
Speaker 1: Paul George, and Maxie are all on the floor together,
Speaker 1: is only generating one hundred and seven points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. And I think there's almost a little you know,
Speaker 1: there are certain teams that I think need to be
Speaker 1: more of a you know, keep the ball moving side
Speaker 1: to side, let's play five out, let's keep everybody involved,
Speaker 1: types of teams. And then there are teams where I'm like,
Speaker 1: you should spam the same damn thing every single damn
Speaker 1: every single time, damn down the floor kind of teams, right,
Speaker 1: like earlier Dallas Mavericks teams before they added all this
Speaker 1: ball handling, Like it was made sense for them to
Speaker 1: play that way, right, Like this Philly team, Like I
Speaker 1: don't want Caleb Martin run in action. I don't want
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubray running action. I don't even want Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: running action. Like what I would like for this team
Speaker 1: to do is to steady diet of and beat pep
Speaker 1: post ups. When Paul George and Maxie are on the floor,
Speaker 1: I want maximba two man game. You know, when you're staggering,
Speaker 1: you can mix it up. That's one thing. But like
Speaker 1: there's way too much dicking around from this Sixers team
Speaker 1: that doesn't play into the talent that they have, and
Speaker 1: it just kind of feels like a wasted opportunity. But anyway,
Speaker 1: Golden State took a big lead early on and they
Speaker 1: just started feeding off the crowd and they got going
Speaker 1: in transition like we talked about, and again it's a
Speaker 1: really bad matchup for the Sixers because when they have
Speaker 1: the Golden State, it's like a blender, not even just
Speaker 1: in transition, but also in the half court. It's just
Speaker 1: all these guys moving and cutting and screening, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's just a lot to deal with. And that's
Speaker 1: a specific thing that Philly has always struggled with, which
Speaker 1: is just basically covering in space, whether that's transition or
Speaker 1: in the half court. Goldenzan ends up pulling away and
Speaker 1: winning by thirty four. Good win too. That six Ers
Speaker 1: team had just recently gone through stretch where they had
Speaker 1: won ten out of thirteen games. I thought Draymond Green
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry were both amazing last night. Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: of course eight for eight for three, but I also
Speaker 1: thought he just did a brilliant job of advantage creation,
Speaker 1: drawing that second defender up at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: a lot of inverted action with Kaminga and Wiggins that
Speaker 1: he was getting good stuff out of. I thought Draymond
Speaker 1: played a brilliant two way game. He had three blocks,
Speaker 1: He was disruptive all night. It was a great playmaking
Speaker 1: game from him. His transition kick add passes were a
Speaker 1: big part of what got Golden State going in transition again.
Speaker 1: Kick adad passes are a vitally important part of transition
Speaker 1: basketball because it forces the defense to turn their head
Speaker 1: So imagine, like in a transition defense situation, all the
Speaker 1: guys that are running back, they're looking back towards the
Speaker 1: basket they're trying to score on right, Like they're looking
Speaker 1: up the floor right, but they're back pedaling back in
Speaker 1: transition defense. So they're running back while looking up the
Speaker 1: floor right. But as soon as you throw a kick
Speaker 1: ahead pass, it forces everyone to turn around and start
Speaker 1: looking at the basket they're defending because the ball is
Speaker 1: now on the other side of them. That is what
Speaker 1: opens up opportunities for the guys that are filling in
Speaker 1: lanes behind them to find openings. And that's where you
Speaker 1: start to get into rotation basketball in transition. And again,
Speaker 1: like if the entire goal of playing offense is to
Speaker 1: generate an advantage, meaning whether that's a four on three
Speaker 1: or even just beating a guy off a dribble and
Speaker 1: it's five on four. When you have that advantage, it's
Speaker 1: much easier to play basketball, right, especially when you have
Speaker 1: the spacing principles like we talked about earlier with the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. So once we're in those driving kick situations,
Speaker 1: if you've got decent talent on the floor, that guy's
Speaker 1: gonna drive, he's gonna kick, he's gonna find the next
Speaker 1: open guy. That guy's gonna drive, he's gonna kick, he's
Speaker 1: gonna find the next open guy in then event, you're
Speaker 1: going to get a wide open three or something at
Speaker 1: their end, right. But the hardest part is getting that
Speaker 1: initial advantage, and if you get into the half court,
Speaker 1: it's much much harder to get that initial advantage. But
Speaker 1: if you can get that advantage just by throwing the
Speaker 1: ball up the floor in transition, like Draymond, just as
Speaker 1: soon as he gets that rebound or as soon as
Speaker 1: he gets that outlet pass, he's immediately firing it up
Speaker 1: to the first opening that he sees among the guys
Speaker 1: running their lanes, because he knows that will get the
Speaker 1: defense in rotation. Then they don't have to play crazy
Speaker 1: half court basketball. They can just play off of that
Speaker 1: advantage until they get something that they like. They literally
Speaker 1: can feed into almost like a semi transition sequence attacking
Speaker 1: in rotation. I thought Draymond was great on that front.
Speaker 1: He also did some surgical work in the half court
Speaker 1: as well. Just like you know, high low feeds to
Speaker 1: guys cutting along the baseline. Things along those lines point
Speaker 1: is Stephan Draymond. These are two guys that have been slumping,
Speaker 1: just as the whole team has been slumping. Draymond and
Speaker 1: Steph have had some truly ugly games over the course
Speaker 1: of the last month. We're not going to beat around
Speaker 1: the bush and pretend that wasn't the case. Memphis game
Speaker 1: in particular was the bottom of the barrel, right, But
Speaker 1: these guys still have a really high ceiling when they
Speaker 1: are right. And I believe that what causes a basketball
Speaker 1: player to reach their individual ceiling is a combination of
Speaker 1: a bunch of factors. It's not just on the player.
Speaker 1: The player is going to do the work behind the
Speaker 1: scenes to take care of their body, to polish up
Speaker 1: their skills, to try to be ready. The coaching staff
Speaker 1: is going to do the best they can to get
Speaker 1: them in rhythm through the way they're organized. But it
Speaker 1: also comes down to the way that the team is
Speaker 1: playing as a whole unit, meaning how well they're defending,
Speaker 1: how well they're running up and down the floor in transition,
Speaker 1: how well guys are capitalizing on the advantages to start
Speaker 1: create and it all feeds on each other. Right, So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like if you defend and you get a stop,
Speaker 1: and then you push the ball up in transition, and
Speaker 1: in the transition chaos, Steph draws three defenders and throws
Speaker 1: a kickback pass to Buddy Yield at the top of
Speaker 1: the key and he knocks down at three or to
Speaker 1: Kaminga cutting along the baseline and he gets a dunk.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, when you run back on defense,
Speaker 1: your team feels good because they just got to stop,
Speaker 1: so they know that works. Your offense just got a bucket.
Speaker 1: Kaminga's feeling more confident, or Buddy Heels feeling more confident.
Speaker 1: Whoever hits the shot. Steph is feeling good because he
Speaker 1: just made a play for a teammate. Now everyone's sitting
Speaker 1: back down in a defensive stance, and they're invigorated by that,
Speaker 1: which causes them to play better defense, which causes them
Speaker 1: to be more likely to get another stop, which causes
Speaker 1: them to be more likely to get out and transition again,
Speaker 1: which causes them to be more likely to score again.
Speaker 1: And it's like this feeding machine, right. It's momentum in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But the same thing can happen
Speaker 1: in reverse. If you don't get a stop and then
Speaker 1: you slowly dribble up the floor and you're in the
Speaker 1: half court and Steph is having a little bit of
Speaker 1: trouble breaking free off of a screening action. But let's
Speaker 1: say he still does and you get a little four
Speaker 1: on three and it ends in a kickout pass and
Speaker 1: the ball ends up in Andrew Wiggins's hand after you
Speaker 1: kicked to Kaminga in the corner, makes an extra pass
Speaker 1: to Wiggins up on the right wing, and he misses
Speaker 1: the three. Uh or like you get an offensive rebound
Speaker 1: and it goes right to Stephanie's wide open and he
Speaker 1: misses the three like he did against the Caps. Steph
Speaker 1: was over four on unguarded catch and shoot threes against
Speaker 1: the Cavs. It's discouraging. Everyone slumps their shoulders a bit.
Speaker 1: You're unback on defense. Yeah, you're still trying because you're
Speaker 1: a team that's an engaged professional basketball team, but there's
Speaker 1: just not quite that oomph on the defensive end on
Speaker 1: that possession because you're a little discouraged, which makes it
Speaker 1: statistically more likely that they'll score, which makes it statistically
Speaker 1: less likely that you'll get out and transition again, which
Speaker 1: makes it statistically less likely that you'll get a good advantage,
Speaker 1: which makes it statistically less likely that your role players
Speaker 1: or your stars will be able to capitalize on that advantage.
Speaker 1: And it can feed on itself and it can become
Speaker 1: this draining thing and it's like, oh, like this is
Speaker 1: just isn't working, And then it gets more discouraging and
Speaker 1: more discouraging, and now guy, they're saying things in press
Speaker 1: conferences and now there's Steve Kurz bitching about shot selection
Speaker 1: and all like it turns into this like momentous thing.
Speaker 1: So that's why I've always been such a big believer
Speaker 1: in like how small tweaks can lead to big results.
Speaker 1: If you go get a player, let's just say Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson for instance. If you were able to go get
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson and he just was able to convert a
Speaker 1: few more of those plays, which fights that momentum more
Speaker 1: in the positive direction more often, then it's more likely
Speaker 1: that you'll be the best version of yourselves when you
Speaker 1: need to be. And we've seen that from what we
Speaker 1: saw from Stephan Draymond last night. Again, that's good Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference team that should beat I know they're out of
Speaker 1: the play in now, but we all know the reasons
Speaker 1: why Philly's in the position they're in. They've been doing
Speaker 1: a lot of winning lately. That's not to say there's
Speaker 1: some top tier contender, but that's a decent win for
Speaker 1: Golden State last night. The point is when Steph and
Speaker 1: Draymond are at their best and everyone else can feed
Speaker 1: off of that, this is still a real machine. And
Speaker 1: like I talked about in the show yesterday, it's about
Speaker 1: this like kind of loser, which is like, do you
Speaker 1: guys want to punt? Do you want to punt and
Speaker 1: just give up on this thing, or do you want
Speaker 1: to go for it? And if you're going to go
Speaker 1: for it, then go for it, no half measures you
Speaker 1: need like that, You'll you will not have a player
Speaker 1: as good as Steph Curry is for a very very
Speaker 1: long time. Statistically, it's very improbable in the next decade
Speaker 1: that you'll have a player as good as Steph Curry is.
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm such a big believer in trying
Speaker 1: to make it work to the best that you're capable
Speaker 1: of in this situation. All right, guys, that's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always as sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow breaking down. I think Nick Thunder is the big
Speaker 1: game that I want to watch tonight. That will be
Speaker 1: covering in tomorrow's show. And then again, I'll keep dropping
Speaker 1: mail back questions. We'll do that either on Sunday or Monday.
Speaker 1: I'll let you guys know, all right, see guys tomorrow
Speaker 1: the volume. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.