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Speaker 1: b ball. All right, well, come to hoops tonight here
Speaker 1: at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody, Hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had a great weekend. We're gonna get into All
Speaker 1: Star Weekends today with our five major takeaways from this
Speaker 1: year's All Star Weekend. We're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the new format. I want to talk about what
Speaker 1: a one on one tournament would look like in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I actually put together like a sample tournament and like
Speaker 1: talked through it bracket style, which will be a one
Speaker 1: for us. We're talking a little bit about Lebron showing
Speaker 1: up late. We're gonna talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: Dunk contest, and then Draymond Green just went on a
Speaker 1: rampage just shitting on the NBA over the weekend. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about that at the
Speaker 1: tail end, you guys know the jrip before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss
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Speaker 1: on that front. We also have brand new social media
Speaker 1: feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout
Speaker 1: the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. In
Speaker 1: the last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. We're gonna be hitting mail bags on
Speaker 1: Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So first major takeaway out of five today.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on the new format. I actually really liked the
Speaker 1: tournament format with shorter elam ending style games. I'm generally
Speaker 1: a huge fan of the elam ending. I think that
Speaker 1: it turns it into a contest of basketball instead of
Speaker 1: some weird gamesmanship at the tail end of games. I
Speaker 1: also think shortening the games makes it so that there's
Speaker 1: less opportunity for cheap baskets. You know, you're out there
Speaker 1: for a shorter period of time. It just kind of
Speaker 1: like naturally breeds a tiny bit of urgency, and as
Speaker 1: far as the tournament format goes, it advances the teams
Speaker 1: that are playing harder. So like, I think that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Like if there's a couple of All Stars out there
Speaker 1: that don't give a shit, get them eliminated in the
Speaker 1: first game, and then have the guys that want to
Speaker 1: play hard play in the second game, I think the
Speaker 1: format makes sense. I saw Sam Amaco tweet a quote
Speaker 1: from an NBA GM that said, quote, Adam Silver is
Speaker 1: obsessed with tournaments playing in season now All Star They've
Speaker 1: not proven to benefit our league, and I just completely
Speaker 1: disagree with that line of thinking. I think the play
Speaker 1: in tournament is great because it just gives us more
Speaker 1: high leverage basketball. Those have been excellent games. When the
Speaker 1: play in tournament is on, we all want to watch.
Speaker 1: And I think that that is just a case enough
Speaker 1: for it. It gives you just a little bit of
Speaker 1: of interesting basketball to kind of bridge that gap between
Speaker 1: the regular season and the playoffs. The N Season Tournament
Speaker 1: is only two years old, but I already like it,
Speaker 1: and I wish they'd expand it. I'd make it a
Speaker 1: sixteen team tournament, just add another round, same sort of thing.
Speaker 1: I think we get high leverage basketball in December. It's
Speaker 1: a great way to like scratch that itch, so to speak,
Speaker 1: our desire to watch high leverage basketball in the middle
Speaker 1: of a regular season that can drag on like it
Speaker 1: goes October, November, December, January, February, March, April. We're talking
Speaker 1: six months here solid if you count the cut off,
Speaker 1: the half of April and the half of October, six
Speaker 1: straight months of basketball. And if you can bridge it
Speaker 1: so that two months in we have the N Season
Speaker 1: Tournament and two months in we have trade deadline, All
Speaker 1: Star break type of stuff. It just kind of like
Speaker 1: provide some tent poles. You don't have as much slack
Speaker 1: there in the middle where we all get bored, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer that the n season tournament is
Speaker 1: good for the NBA. And as for All Star I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Last night was by far the hardest
Speaker 1: that those guys have played in the last few years.
Speaker 1: Two things that cheapened it a little bit for me,
Speaker 1: Like I agree with Draymond, Like I just don't see
Speaker 1: the point in letting non All Stars play with the
Speaker 1: All Stars, Like I was intrigued by it, like I
Speaker 1: wanted to see what it would what would look Like
Speaker 1: I just wanted to see the young kids come in
Speaker 1: there and play super hard and see if that would
Speaker 1: trigger something. And it did to a certain extent. But
Speaker 1: they're not All Stars. And I think there's a way
Speaker 1: to do the exact same format and instead of doing
Speaker 1: three eight man All Star teams, just do four to
Speaker 1: six man All Star teams and let them run that
Speaker 1: same exact format and you get to see all all
Speaker 1: stars playing. And then also I just get rid of
Speaker 1: the gimmicks, like I was watching Victor wemin Yama and
Speaker 1: Jared Jackson play super hard and try to change the
Speaker 1: dynamic of the All Star game and I'm listening to
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart do stand up in the background or like
Speaker 1: the inside the NBA crew just like shooting the shit.
Speaker 1: I was actually embarrassed for the league during some of
Speaker 1: that stuff, especially the Mister Beast one, where like Mister
Speaker 1: Beasts is out there like distracting the kid while he's
Speaker 1: trying to shoot. He's like making these weird comments about
Speaker 1: Dame missing a couple of jump shots like that. It
Speaker 1: was all just really weird. I saw someone on Twitter
Speaker 1: say the NBA has lost the plot because we just
Speaker 1: want to see the best players in the world play basketball,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't. I could not agree more. Get rid
Speaker 1: of the lower level players, get rid of the gimmicks,
Speaker 1: or at least move them to the periphery if you
Speaker 1: want to do the musical performances and the jokes from
Speaker 1: the studio crew. And here's Kevin Hart given a stand
Speaker 1: up routine. Put them before the event or after the
Speaker 1: event instead of in the middle. Actually have the event
Speaker 1: start on time. Make it to your fans know if
Speaker 1: I turn on the TV at this time, within ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes, I'm going to get to watch my
Speaker 1: favorite players play basketball. Streamline it and again The beauty
Speaker 1: of the tournament style is it helps breed competition. The
Speaker 1: lazier teams will lose in the first round and we'll
Speaker 1: get the two more competitive teams of All Stars playing
Speaker 1: in the in the final. And again, the short the
Speaker 1: shortened games get rid of some of the cheaper baskets.
Speaker 1: You want to bring basketball back to the forefront and
Speaker 1: put the onus on the players to entertain us. Now,
Speaker 1: will it ever be a monument told basketball event? Again,
Speaker 1: probably not, But then again, the All Star Game is
Speaker 1: trash in pretty much every sports league, and it's not
Speaker 1: really a fixable problem. I just am saying that I'd
Speaker 1: rather go down with basketball than go down with gimmicks,
Speaker 1: and I'd put the onus on the players in that regard.
Speaker 1: Second biggest takeaway my thoughts on Mac McClung and the
Speaker 1: Dunk Contest. This is probably one of the biggest things
Speaker 1: that I disagree with the masses about. Like the masses
Speaker 1: are obsessed with this idea, Like we got to convince
Speaker 1: stars to participate in the Dunk Contest, And I think
Speaker 1: even if the NBA could convince John Morant and Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and Zion Williamson and someone like Donovan Mitchell or
Speaker 1: whoever it is to do the dunk contest. It would
Speaker 1: have some intrigue because of the stars, but the actual
Speaker 1: dunk contest itself would be lacking because game dunking and
Speaker 1: contest dunking are two entirely different sports in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and like there are certain there are certain players in
Speaker 1: the NBA that are good at contest dunking, but they
Speaker 1: tend to not be superstars, and there's just not enough
Speaker 1: of them. Professional dunking is like an entirely separate as
Speaker 1: a massive following. There are dozens of excellent professional dunkers
Speaker 1: all over the world. I've seen three of them come
Speaker 1: through Arizona over the years. Two of them I've seen
Speaker 1: them do practice sessions before, and like they just dunk
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over again. They're constantly
Speaker 1: trying new dunks. They'll miss a hundred times before they
Speaker 1: actually master a dunk. It's like, and that's the thing too,
Speaker 1: it's like twenty five percent vertical leap, and like seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of it is like intricacies of coordination and
Speaker 1: timing and creativity and all these different things. It's a
Speaker 1: different sport and it's basically impossible to find four NBA
Speaker 1: All Star level players that can reach that level of
Speaker 1: art in professional dunking. There are a handful of players in
Speaker 1: the NBA that had that gift, right, Like, I thought
Speaker 1: Stefan Cassel last night had a little bit of that
Speaker 1: fla on Saturday Night had a little bit of that
Speaker 1: flare when he had that East Bay where he put
Speaker 1: it through his legs off of the ball coming through
Speaker 1: the net, Like that was a really, really impressive dunk.
Speaker 1: We even had a few years back where had the
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon showdown, Right, But that was
Speaker 1: kind of a flash in the pan kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It was just kind of a confluence of events where
Speaker 1: two of the very best contest style dunkers in the
Speaker 1: NBA happened to kind of meet in that situation. Like,
Speaker 1: that's not a thing that's going to organically happen very often, right, Like,
Speaker 1: and even those guys were like, a, we don't want
Speaker 1: to do this anymore. Right. Mac McClung is an NBA player.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of people talking about how he's
Speaker 1: not an NBA player, he's a fringe NBA player, but
Speaker 1: he is an NBA player. He's played in five games
Speaker 1: for four different teams. I'm of the opinion that once
Speaker 1: you put the jersey on and you step on the floor,
Speaker 1: you're an NBA player. That's sacred to me. If you've
Speaker 1: accomplished that, no one can ever take that away from you.
Speaker 1: I think that that matters. But his main talent, the
Speaker 1: thing that he's best at compared to most people in
Speaker 1: the world, is he is a professional contest dunker type
Speaker 1: of athlete, and he's one of the very best in
Speaker 1: the world at it. And he's kept the event afloat
Speaker 1: in recent years because people are amazed by his creativity
Speaker 1: in his athleticism. I would actually just lean into that
Speaker 1: concept instead of trying to get NBA superstars to participate.
Speaker 1: Going back to that comment I saw earlier in the
Speaker 1: same way that the NBA All Star Game should just
Speaker 1: be the best basketball players in the world playing basketball.
Speaker 1: Let's make the NBA Dunk Contest the best contest dunkers
Speaker 1: in the world competing in a dunk contest. Get Mac
Speaker 1: McClung in there, get seven more of the greatest contest
Speaker 1: dunkers in the world, and hold a contest absolutely loaded
Speaker 1: with the wildest and craziest dunks with real NBA All
Speaker 1: stars standing all around the sideline celebrating and celebrate that sport,
Speaker 1: which is a different sport that probably should be showcased
Speaker 1: as the as a completely separate sport with these different athletes,
Speaker 1: I think it has way more potential to be like
Speaker 1: a must see event every year if you have all
Speaker 1: the best contest hunkers in the world instead of four
Speaker 1: NBA superstars that don't really have the time to practice
Speaker 1: anything other than a windmill or a three sixty or
Speaker 1: a eest bay through the like whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it. Like, I think like that's the thing. You
Speaker 1: go back, go back and look at the stars old dunks.
Speaker 1: Like at the time, we didn't even know what contest
Speaker 1: dunkers looked like. And you know, Kobe'd go through his
Speaker 1: legs or Michael Jordan would jump from the free throw line,
Speaker 1: and it was this beautiful, iconic thing. But now we've
Speaker 1: just seen too much, we've seen too much of the
Speaker 1: top end of real dunking talent, and I think that
Speaker 1: that would be the direction I'd go if I was
Speaker 1: the NBA, I'd be like, Hey, we're doing it. We're
Speaker 1: having all the best contest dunkers in the world on
Speaker 1: Saturday night, come play like I think that. I think
Speaker 1: that makes the most sense, And I mean mac McClung
Speaker 1: in the success he's had there to me as a
Speaker 1: perfect example of that. Number three thoughts on Lebron showing
Speaker 1: up late and then not playing. Here's my take on
Speaker 1: what Lebron was thinking. The Lakers just got Luka Doncic
Speaker 1: and they haven't had any opportunity to really practice and
Speaker 1: implement him into their system. They have a makeup game
Speaker 1: from the Fires this Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets. They're
Speaker 1: the only team that plays on Wednesday. Everyone else is
Speaker 1: waiting until Thursday. I bet they're practicing today, and if
Speaker 1: they're not, they're certainly practicing Tuesday. So Lebron his only
Speaker 1: opportunity to take a break with his family was that
Speaker 1: stretch right before the All Star Game, from Thursday through
Speaker 1: like Saturday night. Right. I don't blame him at all for,
Speaker 1: at forty years old, trying to maximize that time, especially
Speaker 1: since we're probably going to see a more engaged version
Speaker 1: of Lebron than we've seen since twenty twenty once we
Speaker 1: get to the other side of this break. So It
Speaker 1: made sense to me that if he was going to
Speaker 1: try to take a rest, he would do it Thursday,
Speaker 1: Friday Saturday there, right after the Jazz game, And that
Speaker 1: was going to imply that he would be traveling back
Speaker 1: into the Bay Area on Sunday before the game. Right.
Speaker 1: As for not playing in the game, I think he
Speaker 1: was kind of protesting the format. I think he looked
Speaker 1: at it and he thought, why the hell when I'm
Speaker 1: so damn old, am I going to go out and
Speaker 1: play in an exhibition game against Zach Edie and Dalton connect.
Speaker 1: I don't blame him for that at all either. I
Speaker 1: personally didn't agree with that idea from the league. Now
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you want to criticize Lebron for
Speaker 1: getting stars to stop participating in the dunk contest over
Speaker 1: the years, I think that's fair criticism. He was kind
Speaker 1: of the first guy. Now, I mean, I think he's
Speaker 1: maybe started that trend, but you could argue it would
Speaker 1: have inevitably happened. Right. But as far as far as
Speaker 1: the game goes, this isn't even the first year he
Speaker 1: waited till Sunday to show up. It isn't even the
Speaker 1: first year he sat out part of the game, Like
Speaker 1: there was a year recently where he barely played at all.
Speaker 1: So to me, this is like kind of a Lebron
Speaker 1: Rorschach test, Like, if you don't like Lebron, you're gonna
Speaker 1: cling to this. You're gonna make him the villain, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna be the sole reason no one cares about
Speaker 1: the All Star Game. I'm sure we'll see a clip
Speaker 1: of Rob Parker or somebody like that later today, just
Speaker 1: blaming Lebron for the death of the All Star Game.
Speaker 1: But like, if you don't dislike Lebron for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I bet you just don't care. And I'm right there
Speaker 1: with you, guys, I just don't care that Lebron showed
Speaker 1: up Layt and didn't really want to play in that
Speaker 1: specific fort. Let's get to the fun stuff, the one
Speaker 1: on one tournament. I think this is such an interesting
Speaker 1: concept and one that I want to get a little
Speaker 1: deeper into today. First of all, I want to shout
Speaker 1: out in a Visa Collier, who won the WNBA or
Speaker 1: the unrivaled tournament, the one on one tournament against a
Speaker 1: bunch of WNBA players. I was so impressed by her
Speaker 1: in the WNBA finals. I thought she was clearly the
Speaker 1: best player in that series. And then she dropped the
Speaker 1: bar after she won the one on one tournament where
Speaker 1: she said NBA players need to be willing to put
Speaker 1: their name on the line in a tournament like that.
Speaker 1: So someone needs to just like photoshop a cigarette into
Speaker 1: the FISA's mouth just so that she's just one of
Speaker 1: the coolest hoopers on the planet. And she just keeps
Speaker 1: she just keeps showing that time and time again. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to try out this theoretical concept, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna run a simulated tournament today. I chose eight players,
Speaker 1: and I used a list randomizer for seating. First of all,
Speaker 1: some preliminary stuff. I went based on the top ten
Speaker 1: players in the league because I think that's more interesting.
Speaker 1: But in all likelihood, a guy like Jokis would not
Speaker 1: participate in this tournament. Lebron probably would not participate. You're
Speaker 1: going to see a lot more of guys like lower
Speaker 1: level players in the NBA, like a Kyrie Irving, like
Speaker 1: a James Harden, instead of like a Jokich or a Lebron.
Speaker 1: But I want to just for the sake of like
Speaker 1: actually making it look closer to what the WNBA did,
Speaker 1: I wanted to do all the top players in the league. Okay,
Speaker 1: I went with make it, take it, meaning if you score,
Speaker 1: you get the ball back. That's generally the rule for
Speaker 1: one on one basketball around the world, and that's how
Speaker 1: the Unrival Tournament went. And I went with no dribble limit,
Speaker 1: mimicking what the WNBA or the Unrival Tournament did with
Speaker 1: a seven second shot clock, which on that front, like
Speaker 1: on lower levels, like even high major D one and
Speaker 1: like lower level pro hoops, you'll work on a dribble limit,
Speaker 1: like a two dribble limit or a three dribble limit,
Speaker 1: because you're practicing being efficient with movement. Why, Because there's
Speaker 1: only a few dozen players in the world who are
Speaker 1: good enough to just dribble the air out of the
Speaker 1: basketball without having it hurt their basketball team. Right, Like
Speaker 1: most players need to be able to score quickly and
Speaker 1: efficiently as part of a five man context. Right. But
Speaker 1: these guys, the guys who would be playing in this tournament,
Speaker 1: are absolutely in the group of guys who would regularly
Speaker 1: use lots of dribbles to get to their spots. So
Speaker 1: no dribble limit, seven second shot clock. Random list top
Speaker 1: ten players in the world. Make it, take it, you guys,
Speaker 1: get the drill. Here's how the order came out after
Speaker 1: I use the randomizer. So our number one seed is
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokicic two seed is Anthony Edwards, three seed is
Speaker 1: Jannison Tenacumbo, the four seed is Luka Doncic, the five
Speaker 1: seed is Jason Tatum, the sixth seed is Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: the seventh seed is Lebron James, and the eight seed
Speaker 1: is Shay gilgis Alexander. So our one verse eight is
Speaker 1: Jokic versus SGA. I think Jokic takes this matchup relatively easily.
Speaker 1: I think he just plays back off of Sga and
Speaker 1: tries to bait him into jump shots, and as long
Speaker 1: as he doesn't literally make six mid range jump shots
Speaker 1: in a row, Jokic will get the ball. And Shay
Speaker 1: shoots fifty four percent on jumpers inside of seventeen feet,
Speaker 1: but he's probably not going to go six for six,
Speaker 1: So Jokich is going to get the ball. Once Jokic
Speaker 1: gets the ball, Shay has like quite literally no way
Speaker 1: of stopping him from getting just a bunch of layups
Speaker 1: in a row. Like there's no variance, no chance for
Speaker 1: a miss there. So I think Yokich advances relatively easily
Speaker 1: against SGA. Our four versus five matchup Luka Doncics first,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum. This is a much closer matchup in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like Luca would basically have to concede pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots to Tatum because if he plays up on him,
Speaker 1: he'll get blown by just constantly for layups. I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw that a dozen times in the NBA Finals, right,
Speaker 1: But we also saw Luca repeatedly cook Jason Tatum one
Speaker 1: on one in the finals. He's too strong for Tatum,
Speaker 1: and once he gets an angle, he can just work
Speaker 1: closer to the rim and give him issues. I'm going
Speaker 1: to go with Luca here slightly. I think Tatum's value
Speaker 1: is in his versatility, but I just think Luca is
Speaker 1: a more gifted one on one score who would be
Speaker 1: able to work Tatum closer to the rim for higher
Speaker 1: percentage shots. And Tatum, as far as his jump shooting
Speaker 1: goes off the dribble, he's actually a low field goal
Speaker 1: percentage guy. He's a high effective field goal percentage guy
Speaker 1: because he takes a lot of pull up threes, but
Speaker 1: he will miss pull up jump shots, and Luca's going
Speaker 1: to force him into some misses by playing more, playing
Speaker 1: the drive more, and forcing him to shoot. I think
Speaker 1: it would be a very close game. But I think
Speaker 1: Luca is just a more gifted craft yer one on
Speaker 1: one score, a much more reliable shot maker when he
Speaker 1: gets into that short to mid range area. So I
Speaker 1: would go with Luca advancing in that four to five
Speaker 1: matchup are two versus seven. Anthony Edwards versus Lebron James.
Speaker 1: I think Ant takes this one. With Lebron in his prime,
Speaker 1: he would have been able to match ants athleticism in
Speaker 1: a way that would have allowed Lebron's size to carry
Speaker 1: the day. But there are two reasons why I'd take
Speaker 1: Ant at this point. With Lebron at age forty one,
Speaker 1: Ann has put all defenders in the league into a
Speaker 1: bind because he's become one of the best three point
Speaker 1: shooters in the league. You basically have to choose between
Speaker 1: taking away the drive or conceding the jumper, or taking
Speaker 1: away the drive. In conceding the jumper or taking away
Speaker 1: the jumper and conceding the drive, Ant would get great
Speaker 1: looks every single possession. And then two, Ant is a
Speaker 1: bad defender. In a lot of ways, like he's really
Speaker 1: bad at navigating screens, he loses shooters and rebounders off
Speaker 1: ball constantly. But he's absolutely awesome at one thing on defense,
Speaker 1: and that's one on one defense. He's one of the
Speaker 1: most laterally quick players in the league. So you're not
Speaker 1: gonna go around him. You're gonna have to go through him.
Speaker 1: And he's an absolute fire hydrant. It's basically impossible to
Speaker 1: go through him unless you're absolutely massive. And for the record,
Speaker 1: Lebron's a big dude. He would try to bully Ant.
Speaker 1: He would win some of those battles, but I think
Speaker 1: Ant would also win some of those battles. And then
Speaker 1: on the other end, I think Lebron basically has to
Speaker 1: concede jump shots to him, and Ant's one of the
Speaker 1: best jump shooters in the league. So to be clear,
Speaker 1: I would take prime Lebron over Ant, But in this
Speaker 1: format in the year twenty twenty six, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: Ant to advance in a somewhat close game three versus six,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant versus Giannis and Tenna Kombo. This is very interesting.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, this is a terrible format for
Speaker 1: Yannis because He's the opposite of Ant in that like
Speaker 1: he is very little in the way of shot making.
Speaker 1: If guys actually take away the drive and make him
Speaker 1: mix shots over the top, that's not a strength of his.
Speaker 1: And while Ant is great on the ball but terrible
Speaker 1: and everything else on defense, Jannis is great at everything
Speaker 1: else on defense, but he can struggle a little bit
Speaker 1: guarding in space. He's especially struggled guarding KD over the
Speaker 1: years because KD knows how to get him up out
Speaker 1: of his stance with hesitation dribbles or get him leaning
Speaker 1: one way before crossing over and getting dribble penetration. It's
Speaker 1: a matchup that KDE's had a lot of success against.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side, Jannis is probably the best
Speaker 1: power player in the league not named Jokic, and KD
Speaker 1: can struggle with power sometimes. We just talked the other
Speaker 1: day about how Jared Jackson gave him some issues by
Speaker 1: ducking in in the post in that game that they
Speaker 1: lost to Memphis the other night. So I actually do
Speaker 1: think Giannis would give KAD some issues when Giannis had
Speaker 1: the ball. But KD does have the length to bother
Speaker 1: Janis around the rim a bit. We've even seen skinnier,
Speaker 1: longer players like Wemby give Jannis shoes now ONEB be
Speaker 1: obviously a different challenge than KD, but I do think
Speaker 1: Katie would win some of those battles, and I just
Speaker 1: think Katie would do more damage to Giannis when Katie
Speaker 1: as the ball than Giannis would do to Kadi in return.
Speaker 1: So I have KD advancing in a close game our
Speaker 1: second round, our one versus four matchup, NIKOLEA jokicch versus
Speaker 1: Luka Doncics. I actually I view both of these guys
Speaker 1: as kind of similar in this format, and that there
Speaker 1: are two players that would both need to concede jump
Speaker 1: shots to faster players so that they don't give up
Speaker 1: driple penetration and just basically hope they miss. And then
Speaker 1: on the other end, they both have massive strength advantages
Speaker 1: and short range shot making advantages that they could exploit
Speaker 1: to score time and time again close to the rim.
Speaker 1: But Jokic is just so much bigger than Luca. I
Speaker 1: think he'd be able to force Luca into tougher shots
Speaker 1: further from the rim. I think Luca would be more
Speaker 1: susceptible to variants in this matchup, and I still think
Speaker 1: Jokic can bully Luca really close to the rim, So
Speaker 1: I have Jokic advancing cleanly here to the Championship. Our
Speaker 1: two versus six matchup Anthony Edwards versus Kevin Durant, This
Speaker 1: would be an epic matchup. I talked earlier about Ant's
Speaker 1: ability to be a top tier downhill threat while also
Speaker 1: a top tier shooting threat and how that makes players
Speaker 1: make a decision. But Kevin Durant has top tier length
Speaker 1: that gives him the best ability out of any player
Speaker 1: on this list to give space to contain the drive
Speaker 1: while also having the length to contest pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: This is a big part of why Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: consistently one of the very best ISO defenders in the league.
Speaker 1: This year, players are shooting just thirty one percent field
Speaker 1: goal percentage against KD and ISO last year thirty two percent.
Speaker 1: For two years in a row, now players are missing
Speaker 1: more than two thirds of their shots against KD in
Speaker 1: one on one, and the volume is super low because
Speaker 1: players know better and don't really try KD. I think
Speaker 1: Ant would be able to stonewall KD a little bit
Speaker 1: when he's on defense and force KD into some mid
Speaker 1: range jump shots, but Kd's arguably the best mid range
Speaker 1: jump shooter ever. We're going to talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1: Even though I think Ant is excellent in this format,
Speaker 1: I think Kd's kind of is kryptonite in this matchup.
Speaker 1: So I have KD advancing to the championship, and then
Speaker 1: our championship would be Nicole Jokich Vus Kevin Durant. I
Speaker 1: think this is a super interesting one because I don't
Speaker 1: think either player has much of a chance at all
Speaker 1: to guard the other. Katie is shooting a league best
Speaker 1: fifty eight percent on jump shots inside of seventeen feets,
Speaker 1: four percent better than anyone in the league, including Shay.
Speaker 1: Jokic shoots sixty one percent on hooks, so Katie's mid
Speaker 1: range jump shot is nearly as efficient as a Jokic hook.
Speaker 1: I also think KADI would actually be able to get
Speaker 1: past Jokic a few times by using that hesitation dribble
Speaker 1: and some of those crossovers, or Jokic would bite on
Speaker 1: trying to contest one of those short range jump shots.
Speaker 1: Then on defense, now again, Jokic would bury Kad a lot,
Speaker 1: but KD would have the length to get some good
Speaker 1: contests on Jokicic around the rim. The trouble would be
Speaker 1: for KD Jokicic just completely bullying him right under the
Speaker 1: rim for layups. But that's where Kevin Durant's length could
Speaker 1: potentially force a miss. And again, I just think Katie's
Speaker 1: game is just built for this format. He's always been
Speaker 1: one of the best defensive players in the league when
Speaker 1: he's engaged, and I think he's the best one on
Speaker 1: one offensive player in the history of the league. I
Speaker 1: think he barely beats Jokicic, but I think Katie beats
Speaker 1: Jokic with a combination of short jump shots, nasty counter
Speaker 1: moves while just forcing Jokic into one or two misses
Speaker 1: closer to the rim that he would need to survive.
Speaker 1: And as I kind of zoomed back out from this tournament,
Speaker 1: it makes sense Katie's the greatest one on one player
Speaker 1: of all time in my opinion, so it would make
Speaker 1: sense that he would win this type of tournament. I'd
Speaker 1: have KDI winning and man, I really hope we get
Speaker 1: to see it next year. All right, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here for today, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Draymond's comments. So Draymond went like really
Speaker 1: aggressive shitting on the NBA last night. He was very
Speaker 1: critical of the rising Stars playing with the All Stars, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, that part I agreed with as we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier. But then he just randomly decided to
Speaker 1: start shitting on the state of the NBA by like
Speaker 1: just parroting all the same talking points that we constantly
Speaker 1: hear from the old heads. He said, quote it it's
Speaker 1: just who can run faster, who can hit more threes,
Speaker 1: no substance. I think it's very boring. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The NBA regular season does get boring. Sometimes we can
Speaker 1: all admit that there's some ugly basketball. There's a lack
Speaker 1: of urgency. Sometimes it is far from perfect. But I
Speaker 1: promise you it used to be way worse. It is
Speaker 1: crazy to me, the rose colored glasses some folks choose
Speaker 1: to look back at the old MBA with. If you
Speaker 1: think pace in space and spread, pick and roll and
Speaker 1: modern transition basketball is ugly, go back and watch games
Speaker 1: from the early two thousands. Go back and watch games
Speaker 1: from the nineties in the regular season, Watch guys standing
Speaker 1: around in the paint. Watch a million of these horrifically
Speaker 1: ugly post ups between these big bulky forwards and centers
Speaker 1: as guys are just throwing bullshit up at the rint.
Speaker 1: Watch Drew Gooden and David West take a million seventeen footers.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, the game of basketball is different now,
Speaker 1: but it's absolutely better. The thing is is it's far
Speaker 1: more sophisticated both ends of the floor. The sets teams
Speaker 1: run are way more sophisticated than ever. The little off
Speaker 1: ball actions and tricks that teams use to create space,
Speaker 1: like using the roleman as a lead blocker, or like
Speaker 1: using non shooters as screeners, adding a third man to
Speaker 1: ball screens to make them harder to guard on defense,
Speaker 1: the gapping, the passing lane close outs, the crispness of rotations,
Speaker 1: even the strategic quirks like how Boston used Tatum and
Speaker 1: Brown to shut down opponent ballscreen attacks by putting Tatum
Speaker 1: on opponent centers and putting their center on week above
Speaker 1: the break shooters like. The game is far more sophisticated
Speaker 1: now and far more entertaining as a result. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: even though it can get ugly sometimes it's just bullshit.
Speaker 1: The way we look back at the old NBA, I
Speaker 1: don't get it, And the thing is is like I
Speaker 1: personally think Draymond knows this. I think he knows it.
Speaker 1: The whole thing on this weekend like kind of came
Speaker 1: off as like deliberately confrontational to me, and I don't
Speaker 1: really understand why. The one I have with it from
Speaker 1: Draymond's perspective is I think he's one of the biggest
Speaker 1: ambassadors of our game. I think he has a responsibility
Speaker 1: to be an advocate of our game. He should be
Speaker 1: one of the guys going around and like actively fighting
Speaker 1: these false narratives and explaining to the younger generation how
Speaker 1: sophisticated our game has become. And I think he's kind
Speaker 1: of fumbling that responsibility right now, and I hope he
Speaker 1: changes his tone soon. All right, guys, That's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. I'm working the rest
Speaker 1: of today on our updated contender rankings. We'll have content
Speaker 1: surrounding the contender rankings coming out on Tuesday and Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and then we're back to basketball on Thursday morning with
Speaker 1: a breakdown of Hornets Lakers. I'll see you guys then
Speaker 1: the volume. What' so, 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.