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Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: weekend so far, although technically I'm recording this shortly before
Speaker 1: midnight on Saturday night. We have a jam packed show tonight,
Speaker 1: a highly entertaining game between the Lakers and the Warriors,
Speaker 1: despite Steph Curry and Lebron James both missing the game.
Speaker 1: I also have some thoughts about the Gary Peyton fiasco
Speaker 1: surrounding that trade and some of the shenanigans that the
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers may or may not have been engaging in.
Speaker 1: And then in the back half of the show, Luca
Speaker 1: and Kyrie make their debut together in an overtime loss
Speaker 1: to the Sacramento Kings, and I've got a lot of
Speaker 1: thoughts on just the initial impressions on Kyrie irving with
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks as well as the Sacramento Kings, who,
Speaker 1: on the strength of a big performance from Deer and Fox,
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So Lebron James was out.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis did not play well really in any facet
Speaker 1: of the game. Was losing contested, rebounded battle or rebound battles.
Speaker 1: He could not finish around the rim, could not make
Speaker 1: his jump shot, just was having a nightmare game. Aside
Speaker 1: from a handful of big defensive plays down the stretch,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers won a game on the road against
Speaker 1: the team that was twenty one and six at home
Speaker 1: coming into the night. Now, obviously Steph was out, but
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have you're not gonna hear that excuse
Speaker 1: get thrown thrown around in the Warrior's locker room when
Speaker 1: Lebron James missed the game. And this is a Lakers
Speaker 1: team that was what and thirty one coming into the game.
Speaker 1: But you know the theme of this, uh show as
Speaker 1: it pertains to or theme of this game, I should say,
Speaker 1: as it pertains to the Lakers, is margin for air.
Speaker 1: When I covered the Lakers before I worked for the Volume,
Speaker 1: I used to always say on my show, I would
Speaker 1: say that if the role players played well alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis, they would beat the ship out
Speaker 1: of you. And then if the role players played okay,
Speaker 1: they'd win by ten fifteen points. And if the role
Speaker 1: players played poorly, the game could go either way. But
Speaker 1: that was based on the roster before the Russell Westbrook trade. Now, again,
Speaker 1: I way too much blame has been associated with Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook as it pertains to the Lakers struggles as opposed
Speaker 1: to the Russell Westbrook trade and the talent that was
Speaker 1: sent out again in that deal, they lost Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: a big forward that was a great two way player.
Speaker 1: Contavious called Pope one of the best role player two
Speaker 1: guards in the league. In the ensuing salary crunch, they
Speaker 1: lost Alex Caruso, one of the best guard defenders in
Speaker 1: the league who had great offensive chemistry with Lebron James
Speaker 1: shadow from three his last year with the Lakers was
Speaker 1: great cutting to the rim, off the ball, lots of
Speaker 1: of synergy that those players had alongside Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. And when those guys went out, that talent
Speaker 1: level dipped below whatever that, you know, absolute minimum they
Speaker 1: needed to be a functional basketball team. And Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: in his declined phase of his career, was not good
Speaker 1: enough to make up for that talent that went out
Speaker 1: the window. And what happened with the trades, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about the downside of them
Speaker 1: waiting this long here in a little bit, but what
Speaker 1: happened with those trades is you brought back in enough
Speaker 1: talent on the from the role players to bring them
Speaker 1: back above that minimum level, and now they look a
Speaker 1: lot more like a functional basketball team. Now. The role
Speaker 1: players are not always going to play that well. Role
Speaker 1: players are always a little bit more inconsistent than stars are.
Speaker 1: That just kind of comes with the territory. But what
Speaker 1: you saw tonight was with them playing really well, they
Speaker 1: were able to allow Anthony Davis to struggle in all
Speaker 1: of those phases of the game and to allow Lebron
Speaker 1: James to rest his foot hopefully up until the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: if they excuse me, the All Star break. If they
Speaker 1: can rest him to the All Star Break, they can
Speaker 1: get him twelve full days off through the Sunday of
Speaker 1: the All Star Game, then ramp him up for a
Speaker 1: few days before the rematch rematch for the with the
Speaker 1: Warriors the following Thursday. But that margin for error did
Speaker 1: not exist before this trade deadline, And and you're seeing
Speaker 1: why I've been preaching so much about that, because as
Speaker 1: a result of not having that margin for air before this,
Speaker 1: you had to run Lebron James into the ground. And
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that later,
Speaker 1: but this is why it's so important to have all
Speaker 1: of that talent in the other areas of the roster.
Speaker 1: I always talked about all the different responsibilities that have
Speaker 1: to be filled on a basketball court. Role players are
Speaker 1: monumentally important in those areas, and you saw that tonight
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. Now, um, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the game plan that the Lakers used
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk about the specific role players. So tactically,
Speaker 1: in basketball, every coach goes into a game with the
Speaker 1: game plan right, and for this particular game, especially since
Speaker 1: Steph Curry it was out, it opened up some options
Speaker 1: for the Lakers to be particularly aggressive on defense. And
Speaker 1: so what they did in this game is they took
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and Ruey Hachimura and then in the bench
Speaker 1: line of Jared Vanderbilt and when you when you Gabriel,
Speaker 1: and they basically had them completely ignore Kevan Luny and
Speaker 1: Draymond Green when they were on the floor, and also
Speaker 1: to Michael Green and Jonathan Comingo when they were on
Speaker 1: the floor, so they were lingering around the paint. Then
Speaker 1: what they did with all of the guards is they
Speaker 1: denied them the ability to come off of those dribble
Speaker 1: handoffs and wide pin downs. Now in basketball, they call
Speaker 1: it top locking. But basically what that means is is,
Speaker 1: like screens over here, I'm guarding this guy. Rather than
Speaker 1: locking and trailing, which would mean I'd get behind him
Speaker 1: and try to stay attached, I'm top locking, which means
Speaker 1: I'm getting between him and the screen and basically giving
Speaker 1: up a back cut at the expense of taking away
Speaker 1: his ability to come off the screen. Now, in theory,
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna get back cut all day long,
Speaker 1: But what's happening behind those back cuts? Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: waiting there, Ruby Hatchmer's waiting there, Jared Vanderbilt and why
Speaker 1: Gabriel are waiting there. So essentially, the Lakers ignored Draymond
Speaker 1: Green and Kevan Luni and the other Warriors nonshooters to
Speaker 1: allow their guards to overplay every single screening action that
Speaker 1: Golden State used in the game, and it shut down
Speaker 1: most of their motion offense. I thought it was really
Speaker 1: really smart on their end, and it actually led the
Speaker 1: Lakers to holding the Warriors to twenty six or fewer
Speaker 1: points in three of the four quarters. And then they
Speaker 1: made just enough offensive plays down the stretch. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: made a couple of big defensive plays they ended up
Speaker 1: getting the win. Now, I have some specific ideas in
Speaker 1: mind for how to counter that sort of thing. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that when they talk when we talk about
Speaker 1: the Warriors. But I do want to stay on the
Speaker 1: Lakers for a little bit. Lots of the older Lakers
Speaker 1: played well, like Dennis Schroder had twenty six points, Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves like completely shut down Clay Thompson down the stretch
Speaker 1: of this game. He's always been an underrated defensive player
Speaker 1: in this league. But I want to focus on each
Speaker 1: of the brand new Lakers for just a minute. So
Speaker 1: that D'Angelo Russell was really good. He defended well, started
Speaker 1: the game on Clay, made enough plays offensive to be
Speaker 1: in net positive. Uh. Anthony Davis was not screening well
Speaker 1: for him. Again, we talked about this earlier. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: struggled in every single phase of the game. UM, so
Speaker 1: he wasn't getting those downhill opportunities that really opened up
Speaker 1: the pick and roll for him. But he still made
Speaker 1: quite a few plays. I was talking with Carson you
Speaker 1: guys have seen him come on the show before, uh,
Speaker 1: in a text message thread during the game, and he
Speaker 1: was just saying how Dangel Russell never looks rushed when
Speaker 1: he's in his screen, and I noticed that two in
Speaker 1: the game because Golden State was pressuring the hell out
Speaker 1: of the ball. And and to the credit, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about Anthony davis is screening. I want to
Speaker 1: credit the Golden State guards as well, because they did
Speaker 1: a really nice job staying attached and fighting over those screens.
Speaker 1: But even with that, D'Angel Russell did a really nice
Speaker 1: job just staying slow, staying under control, and making just
Speaker 1: enough offensive plays to be in that positive. He made
Speaker 1: a huge three down the stretch of this game. He
Speaker 1: had a really nice and one in traffic down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game. Honestly, it was a breadth of
Speaker 1: fresh air to see a real skill guard in that backcourt. Again,
Speaker 1: D'Angel Russell's not my favorite skill guard in the NBA,
Speaker 1: but it's about fit and it's about need, and just
Speaker 1: seeing that type of offensive skill put into a backcourt
Speaker 1: that completely lacked it was really refreshing tonight. Um Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt I said on I can't remember which episode of
Speaker 1: our our show I set it in, but he was
Speaker 1: my favorite player in that trade deadline deal because he's
Speaker 1: a real athletic forward like Ruby Hotchermer is more of
Speaker 1: an offensively minded big forward. But Jared vanderbilts like a legit,
Speaker 1: like dirty work, just monster of an athlete that plays
Speaker 1: at the power forward position. And you saw him just
Speaker 1: completely wreck that game on both ends of the floor. Um,
Speaker 1: he had four I told you guys coming into the
Speaker 1: uh when we did our first preview of the Lakers
Speaker 1: trade that he was averaging four offensive rebounds per thirty
Speaker 1: six minutes. He grabbed two of them tonight in just
Speaker 1: seventeen minutes and played excellent defense. Finished the game with
Speaker 1: twelve points, eight rebounds, and four assists in just seventeen minutes,
Speaker 1: which is an outrageous box score if I would extrapolate
Speaker 1: that out to a thirty six minute shift seventeen and eight.
Speaker 1: I told you guys right when the trade went down
Speaker 1: that I thought he was a much better version of
Speaker 1: Winning Gabriel, and you guys all got to see what
Speaker 1: that looks like tonight. Lakers fans are going to love him,
Speaker 1: and honestly, Darvin Hamm needs to find more than seventeen
Speaker 1: minutes for him. He just played him two shifts in
Speaker 1: this game, one in the middle of each half. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them find a way to just kind
Speaker 1: of fit him into the game a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: Uh Ruey also played extremely well. Sixteen points and seven rebounds.
Speaker 1: UM doesn't seem like much in the box score, but
Speaker 1: it was deeply impactful. You know, one of the things
Speaker 1: that I really liked about bringing in Jared Vanderbilt is
Speaker 1: it creates a positional battle. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: So like when I signed at Arizona Christian after my
Speaker 1: second year in junior college, I was an All conference
Speaker 1: player in JUCO. They brought me into Arizona Christian and
Speaker 1: I took a starting spot away from a player that
Speaker 1: had an All conference selection the previous year at the
Speaker 1: small forward position UM, and his name was Jordan's very
Speaker 1: good player. He ended up starting a bunch of games
Speaker 1: that year. I ended up starting a bunch of games
Speaker 1: that year. But we battled every single day in practice
Speaker 1: and in the games. We all brought our absolute very
Speaker 1: best because we knew that, like, if I didn't have
Speaker 1: it that night, Jordan was getting the minutes, And if
Speaker 1: Jordan didn't have it that night, I was getting the minutes.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. It was like a real
Speaker 1: positional battle. Between two really good forwards that had track
Speaker 1: records of success in the past, and so as a result,
Speaker 1: that actually forced us all to be on the top
Speaker 1: of our game at all times. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: the way I looked at it, Like, no, Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: Ruey Hotchmur is really the only forward on the roster.
Speaker 1: He's getting all the minutes, so there's less motivation to
Speaker 1: be dialed in on the glass or or to defend
Speaker 1: at an extremely high level. And I thought this was
Speaker 1: Ruey Hotchmer's best defense and rebounding game of his entire
Speaker 1: Lakers tenure so far. And I think a big part
Speaker 1: of that is that positional battle with Jared. You know,
Speaker 1: if he's not playing well, if he's missing those shots
Speaker 1: and he's not contributing on the defensive end and he's
Speaker 1: not grabbing rebounds, Darvin Ham's gonna pull him and Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt is gonna get those minutes. And like, just like
Speaker 1: in any industry, competition is good. It actually drives success
Speaker 1: from everybody involved. Another thing that Ruy did really well
Speaker 1: tonight was just rescuing possessions. He had a couple of
Speaker 1: late clock three's, a couple of wonderable pull ups on
Speaker 1: possessions that broke apart. I always talk about rescue possessions
Speaker 1: or offensive players in their ability to rescue possessions as
Speaker 1: the difference between good offenses and great offenses. Just squeezing
Speaker 1: an extra four or five points out of game is
Speaker 1: the difference between a one eleven offensive offensive rating in
Speaker 1: a one seventeen offensive read rating, right, And that's the
Speaker 1: difference between a middle of the pack offense and a
Speaker 1: great offense, right. So getting that type of offensive production
Speaker 1: from Ruey is really going to help this team, especially
Speaker 1: when they get in the playoffs and the easy opportunities
Speaker 1: go away. Malik Beasily had a rough shooting night, like
Speaker 1: he's over six from three, but even he made some
Speaker 1: big plays attacking the rim. He had a nice little
Speaker 1: floater push shot in the first half, and then in
Speaker 1: the second half he made a drive driving layup and
Speaker 1: then missed another that occupied the rim protector, allowing Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt to get an easy offensive rebound put act. And
Speaker 1: his shot quality was great uh um, So in the
Speaker 1: long run, I do believe he's gonna make a lot
Speaker 1: of shots and fit really well. So a lot to
Speaker 1: be optimistic about for Laker fans after tonight, obviously winning
Speaker 1: a big game on the road and must win without
Speaker 1: Lebron with Anthony Davis not playing well. Um, but I
Speaker 1: do want to talk really quick about Lebron's foot because
Speaker 1: I think it was Chris Haynes reported that Lebron's foot
Speaker 1: has been experienced. He's been experiencing quote unquote unbearable pain. Now,
Speaker 1: Rob Polinka did come out and say that the imaging
Speaker 1: that they recently got done was clean, So I think
Speaker 1: it's mainly just soreness. But I do you know this.
Speaker 1: I I want to be clear. Rod Polinka did an
Speaker 1: amazing job at this trade deadline, zooming out to the
Speaker 1: Ruby Hat to mr trade, to what happened at the deadline.
Speaker 1: Rob did a great job. So I want to I
Speaker 1: want to set that as our our initial kind of
Speaker 1: like basement for this conversation. Um. But a couple of things.
Speaker 1: The mo Bamba trade who Mobamba didn't play tonight, But
Speaker 1: the Mobamba trade was unrelated to the summer. That could
Speaker 1: have been made even if they made a deal this summer.
Speaker 1: The Ruby Hotch Murray trade was unrelated to this summer.
Speaker 1: They could have made that trade at this deadline, even
Speaker 1: if they didn't make it during the summer. So the
Speaker 1: only real differences is like, let's compare you know, Buddy
Speaker 1: Healed and Miles Turner versus D'Angel Russell, Malik Beasley and
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt. Now, Jared Vanderbilt is very good. I think
Speaker 1: Miles Turner is a little bit better. Uh, Malik Beasley
Speaker 1: is very good. I think Buddy Heals is a little
Speaker 1: bit better. So the real swing piece in that trade
Speaker 1: is d'angela Russell and you save one pick. Now, what
Speaker 1: did I say coming into the season, If you guys remember,
Speaker 1: I was clear. I said, I understand the thought process
Speaker 1: behind the Lakers waiting. Maybe you get a better deal.
Speaker 1: But what did I say was the risk? I said,
Speaker 1: the risk was that you were going to dig yourself
Speaker 1: a hole in the standings and put yourself in a
Speaker 1: situation where you have to have a bad uphill climb
Speaker 1: to get out of. That situation ended up being even
Speaker 1: worse than that. And thirty one Lebron James experiencing foot
Speaker 1: pain and the reason why he is experiencing those foot
Speaker 1: issues is that when Anthony Davis went down, Lebron had
Speaker 1: to absolutely hit the Jets to a damn near m
Speaker 1: v P level just to keep the team afloat, and
Speaker 1: he did. To be clear, the Lakers net rating this
Speaker 1: year with Lebron James on the floor is I think
Speaker 1: plus two point seven per one possessions. To give you
Speaker 1: some perspective, the Milwaukee Bucks for all teams, are sixth
Speaker 1: in net rating at plus two point nine. So that's
Speaker 1: the level of play that Lebron has been giving you
Speaker 1: this year, just to float you to six games below
Speaker 1: five hundred. So all I'm saying is like, this might
Speaker 1: all work out. The team looks great, but Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis have to play at a playoff level now
Speaker 1: from the middle of February all the way until the
Speaker 1: end of the season, and you're asking a thirty eight
Speaker 1: year old to do that in an injury prone center.
Speaker 1: To do that. Again, results tell the story. I say
Speaker 1: this all the time. The winner tells the story. So
Speaker 1: this might all work out and the Lakers might win
Speaker 1: the title this year, in which case Rob Polinka looks
Speaker 1: like a genius. But let's say that they Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: breaks down because he has to play at a playoff
Speaker 1: level this whole time, or Lebron James breaks down because
Speaker 1: he has to play at a playoff level this whole time,
Speaker 1: while the Celtics can ease their way into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: while the Bucks can ease their way into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: while the Nuggets can ease their way into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Now we have to push things forward to next year.
Speaker 1: And Rob Polinka's deals did a nice job providing future flexibility.
Speaker 1: But I've always said that the urgency is Lebron's late prime.
Speaker 1: And why because if you don't do it this year,
Speaker 1: you gotta do it next year. And if you make
Speaker 1: it to the finals in Lebron is thirty nine and
Speaker 1: a half years old, and it's it's very likely that
Speaker 1: at thirty nine and a half he's not quite as
Speaker 1: capable of carrying YouTube Championship ceiling as he was in
Speaker 1: the bubble. In so ro Rod got his wish, he
Speaker 1: got a better package, but he paid dearly in the standings,
Speaker 1: and he paid dearly and where and tear on his
Speaker 1: thirty eight year old SuperStar's body and results will tell
Speaker 1: the story. But if Lebron James and Anthony Davis breakdown,
Speaker 1: I do believe it is associated with the fact that
Speaker 1: you did not give them this margin for error throughout
Speaker 1: the season. And that's why I disagreed with that strategy.
Speaker 1: That's why I would have gone, uh, made the deal
Speaker 1: this summer, this previous summer, and maybe they're sitting at
Speaker 1: thirty one and instead, and now you're more concerned about
Speaker 1: just getting to the playoffs as opposed to you literally
Speaker 1: have to go you know, twenty and six or whatever
Speaker 1: just to have an opportunity to get out of the plane,
Speaker 1: or asking Lebron James and Anthony Davis to win a
Speaker 1: must win game on the road at Golden State potentially
Speaker 1: like that, that's the predicament that they're in that has
Speaker 1: to be factored into your calculus of the way that
Speaker 1: you interpret this trade. But to be clear, having waited,
Speaker 1: Rob did some really nice work around the deadline, bringing
Speaker 1: good players in on the Golden State front. Now. I
Speaker 1: talked a lot earlier in the show about the Lakers
Speaker 1: top locking and not allowing the shooters to come off
Speaker 1: the screen, forcing them to back cut into the rim protection. Um.
Speaker 1: I would have adjusted to that by doing what the
Speaker 1: Warriors did to the Boston Celtics, which is lean heavily
Speaker 1: into pick and roll in isolation. Pick and roll was
Speaker 1: their most effective play type in the game by far.
Speaker 1: The Warriors ran thirty three pick and rolls tonight for
Speaker 1: thirty four points. Every other play type was below a
Speaker 1: point per possession. Off screen plays zero points six nine
Speaker 1: points per possession, handoffs zero point four six points per possession,
Speaker 1: post ups zero point six seven points per possession. All
Speaker 1: that data is courtesy of Synergy. By the way, um
Speaker 1: I would have leaned into the pick and roll, which
Speaker 1: obviously was what was working, because in that case, when
Speaker 1: you have a live ball dribbler coming down off of
Speaker 1: a ball screen, first of all, Anthony Davis isn't drops,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna get some good looks potentially for pull
Speaker 1: up shooters guys like Lay Thompson and Jordan Pool, right,
Speaker 1: but most importantly all of your off ball players, because
Speaker 1: they're not preparing for coming off the pin downs and stuff.
Speaker 1: They're sucked into traditional help position. So now if they
Speaker 1: ignore Draymond and you make that pitch out to him,
Speaker 1: or if they know Looney and you make that pitch
Speaker 1: out to him, they can quickly flow into those dribble
Speaker 1: handoffs that get those wide open shots because it's not
Speaker 1: like they're locked up to the shooters off the ball
Speaker 1: in pick and roll. That would just give Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: way too much space to operate. They're in traditional help side,
Speaker 1: they're not locked onto their man. That is what opens
Speaker 1: up those dribble handoffs for those opportunities. So I would
Speaker 1: have made that adjustment personally, But to be honest, it's
Speaker 1: a regular season game and you're not always going to
Speaker 1: see those types of adjustments in that setting. And we
Speaker 1: literally saw in the finals last year the Warriors go
Speaker 1: heavy into pick and roll to adjust to Boston running
Speaker 1: that drop cover schemes. So it's not a criticism of
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr, it's just the reality of regular season basketball,
Speaker 1: like sometimes you're just gonna lean into a game plan
Speaker 1: because it's not worth diving that far into the wheats.
Speaker 1: And then, honestly, it was also just a poor shooting night.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson and Jordan Pool combined to go six for
Speaker 1: three from three UM, so you kind of just throw
Speaker 1: it away at that point. And credit to the the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they played really really well tonight. UM. Thoughts on the
Speaker 1: Gary Payton situation super weird. Apparently Golden State thinks Portland
Speaker 1: didn't properly disclose the injury. There may or may not
Speaker 1: have been toward all shots being shot into Gary Payton's
Speaker 1: abdomen every single day just so he can play, which
Speaker 1: is obviously a major, major scan. I think it's a major,
Speaker 1: major scandal. But it seems to me that the league
Speaker 1: is basically just saying take it or leave it. I
Speaker 1: I haven't I'm not a percent sure, but I've seen
Speaker 1: some reporting that they're not going to let them adjust
Speaker 1: the pit compensation, and so it's a really tough position.
Speaker 1: And it really sucks because the bridge between James Wiseman
Speaker 1: and the Warriors was already in pretty rough shape, and
Speaker 1: trading him seems to have, you know, you would think
Speaker 1: theoretically burned that bridge completely. UM. I still think this
Speaker 1: ends up with the Warriors just accepting the deal, but
Speaker 1: who knows. We'll see. We we're gonna find out tomorrow. Um.
Speaker 1: And in theory, Gary Payton should be available for a
Speaker 1: postseason run. I've talked a lot about how much I
Speaker 1: value him, so I'm not gonna get into that today.
Speaker 1: But the Warriors are going to have to pivot to
Speaker 1: the buy out market. Now. What's interesting is the last
Speaker 1: few years, the buyout market has not been very good. Um,
Speaker 1: but this season it actually shapes up to be pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a byproduct of how busy the
Speaker 1: trade market was. Um I'd be keeping on eye on
Speaker 1: guys like Danny Green, who potentially could be healthy for
Speaker 1: a playoff run. Um. I I keep an eye on
Speaker 1: new Lands Noel potentially getting bought out. Patrick Beverley, Although
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not a huge fan of his fit
Speaker 1: in Golden State, his name got brought up on the
Speaker 1: national broadcast tonight. I first of all, I think Golden
Speaker 1: States cards are excellent and too He's Patrick Beverley's little
Speaker 1: bit of a ball stopper, which doesn't work super well
Speaker 1: in the Golden State scheme. He doesn't make quick decisions.
Speaker 1: He kind of catches on the wing and hill jab
Speaker 1: step and do that sort of thing. Um. Another guy
Speaker 1: keep an eye on is Dwayne Deadman. The Warriors need
Speaker 1: a big and I'm not a huge Dayne Deadman fan,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of one of the only ones that
Speaker 1: could come available this year. UM. So I do think
Speaker 1: the Warriors will be active in that market, and that
Speaker 1: might have to be the way that they show her
Speaker 1: up their depth before Gary Payton can come back. They
Speaker 1: have a big game at home on on Monday against
Speaker 1: Washington that they have to win. Alright, Moving on to
Speaker 1: Mavericks King, So Dear and Fox really took this game
Speaker 1: over down the stretch, making all sorts of little short
Speaker 1: jump shots in the lane and and made a huge
Speaker 1: defensive play in a trap on Luca where he shot
Speaker 1: the passing lane and got a dunk and made a
Speaker 1: couple of floaters as well. I was pulling some data
Speaker 1: on floaters because it seems like every single Deer and
Speaker 1: Fox floater that he takes goes in. He's shooting fifty
Speaker 1: four percent on floaters this year. Uh, there are seventy
Speaker 1: four players in the n b A who have taken
Speaker 1: at least fifty floaters, and darn Fox's sixth in percentage
Speaker 1: out of seventy four. Again, a little trivia, who do
Speaker 1: you guys think is best in the league at floaters?
Speaker 1: Nicola Yokich just take a wild guess at what the percentages?
Speaker 1: It's seventy. Nikolayoka just shooting sevent on floaters. Every every
Speaker 1: single Nicola Yoka stat is is just is just amazing
Speaker 1: to me. Um. The reason why I bring that up
Speaker 1: is downhill guards, in particular, really fast downhill guards. They
Speaker 1: need something to check up before they get to the
Speaker 1: rim for a couple of different reasons. One, it's about
Speaker 1: wear and tear. You don't need to be flying into
Speaker 1: bodies all the time and trying to finish in traffic.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get you into some trouble and to your rimp.
Speaker 1: Your rim finishing will go down if the rim protector
Speaker 1: can linger around the rim. Um. So having that float
Speaker 1: of the ability to check up short, especially with your
Speaker 1: athleticism too then short to take that little short pop
Speaker 1: floater in the lane is a great counter to that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. I see John Murant do this out
Speaker 1: as well. UM. But the other big part of it
Speaker 1: is the midrange shooting UM and Darren Foxes shooting on
Speaker 1: two's jump shot twos that are inside the three point
Speaker 1: line this year, which is excellent, and the Mavericks just
Speaker 1: couldn't do anything with him down the stretch of this game.
Speaker 1: Another huge element to the U King's late game success
Speaker 1: in this game I thought was Terrence Davis. He did
Speaker 1: a really nice job ball pressuring Luca, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was some poor strategy on Dallas's part, which we'll
Speaker 1: get to here in a minute. But just by pressuring
Speaker 1: Luca and having him slowly bring the ball off the
Speaker 1: floor made it really hard for Dallas to get into
Speaker 1: situations where they can actually run something like a specific
Speaker 1: pick and roll or a specific post up or things
Speaker 1: along those lines, because by the time they got the
Speaker 1: ball at the floor, Luca had to do something quickly,
Speaker 1: and more often than not he was just trying to
Speaker 1: go downhill on Terrence davis um. But you know, for
Speaker 1: a guy that was giving up a lot of weight
Speaker 1: to Luca, just by keeping a good strong base and
Speaker 1: sliding his feet, well, he did a really nice job
Speaker 1: impact in the game with his ball pressure. What I
Speaker 1: would have done there is I would have just given
Speaker 1: the ball to Kyrie and then and had him bring
Speaker 1: the ball off the floor and worked from there. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I thought the Mavericks best stuff that they were getting
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game was when Luco was
Speaker 1: in the post on that right block, you know, with
Speaker 1: his left hand dribbling getting ready to shoot over his
Speaker 1: right shoulder because the Kings were doubling out of it,
Speaker 1: and the Mavericks did a nice job of putting Kyrie
Speaker 1: irving one passed away. And you know, I I noticed
Speaker 1: this a lot when Kyrie was with the nets, where
Speaker 1: they would have, you know, because Kevin Durant was one
Speaker 1: of the best pick and roll ball handlers in the
Speaker 1: league with the nets, and what they would do is
Speaker 1: they'd have they'd have Kyrie s at the pick because
Speaker 1: then when the trap comes, Katie's making that quick pass
Speaker 1: to Kyrie on the short roll and it's a four
Speaker 1: on three, but you have one of the best offensive
Speaker 1: players in the league making that first decision in the
Speaker 1: four on three and they would just torch teams with that,
Speaker 1: And I thought the Mavericks were getting really good shots
Speaker 1: when they would post up Luca have Kyrie one pass away,
Speaker 1: so when the double comes, it's that four on threety,
Speaker 1: but Kyrie is making that first play and they got
Speaker 1: some really good stuff out of that, and then they
Speaker 1: completely went away from it, which was confusing to me.
Speaker 1: But um, one of the easiest ways to do that
Speaker 1: is have Kyrie bring the ball up the floor so
Speaker 1: that you have time for Luca to just jog down
Speaker 1: to the block and then fight for position against Terrence Davis.
Speaker 1: But credit to Terrence Stavis, he did a really nice
Speaker 1: job impact in the game with this ball pressure. He
Speaker 1: also hit a huge three and ot um after the
Speaker 1: Mavericks jumped out to a three point lead. The King's
Speaker 1: defense has now given up a hundred and twenty plus
Speaker 1: points in four straight games. They are twenty three in defense. UM. Again,
Speaker 1: the Kings are really fun. I always enjoy watching them
Speaker 1: when I watched them play, but there's a clear ceiling
Speaker 1: here with their inability to get stops, which really comes
Speaker 1: down to the front court in my opinion. UM. One
Speaker 1: note on the MAVs two with their final shot. You know,
Speaker 1: there's this debate like who gets the last shot? And
Speaker 1: it's to me, the decision is so simple when you've
Speaker 1: got two really great shot creators like that, it's who's
Speaker 1: got it going, who's in a rhythm? And what I
Speaker 1: didn't like about Luca taking that step back three and
Speaker 1: you know again like for Luca, it's a make a
Speaker 1: ball shot, sure, but like and I saw just an
Speaker 1: inkling of frustration on Kyrie after the game. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys noticed that, but uh, Kyrie had
Speaker 1: it going. He had just hit a while three before.
Speaker 1: He's been freaking amazing on the offense events since he
Speaker 1: put on the jersey. That's one of those moments where
Speaker 1: it's like you get you put the ball in Kyrie's
Speaker 1: hands to try to tie the game there um, But
Speaker 1: we'll see how that shakes out over the coming months.
Speaker 1: Big picture, what I really like about Kyrie's fit with
Speaker 1: Dallas is he brings real pace and tempo to their offense.
Speaker 1: Everything Luca does is slow, and you know, Kyrie is
Speaker 1: a live ball shot creator that does it out of
Speaker 1: ice so and pick and roll similar to Luca does,
Speaker 1: but he's much much quicker with the way that he
Speaker 1: does that. You know, if you throw the ball to
Speaker 1: Luca with eighteen seconds left on the shot clock on
Speaker 1: the left wing, it might take him nine seconds to
Speaker 1: decide what he's gonna do, whether that's a step back
Speaker 1: or beating his man off the a bill or backing
Speaker 1: him down into the lane. Because he's gonna use a
Speaker 1: bunch of dribbles, he's gonna turn and pivot a bunch
Speaker 1: of times. He's gonna be very methodical in the way
Speaker 1: that he does it. And one of the nice things
Speaker 1: about Kyrie is he does play with real tempo. He's
Speaker 1: very quick with his decision to attack or to shoot,
Speaker 1: and there's a couple of different ways that I've seen
Speaker 1: that help. One. It's kind of like a change of
Speaker 1: pace when lucas off the floor. You saw that a
Speaker 1: little bit tonight, and you saw that a lot in
Speaker 1: the two wins, Like Kyrie just immediately walks into Dallas
Speaker 1: and goes on the road to the Clippers and wins,
Speaker 1: and goes onto the road on the road to the
Speaker 1: Kings and wins. That's why you make the superstar trade.
Speaker 1: And what blew my mind about everything surrounding the Kyrie
Speaker 1: discussion when his he was when he was available for
Speaker 1: trade is people continually glossed over the fact that the
Speaker 1: dude is freaking incredible at basketball, and like, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you want to have a conversation about the off court stuff,
Speaker 1: that's fine, But like, as a basketball player, the dude
Speaker 1: is an all world talent and that immediately changes everything
Speaker 1: about the geometry of your basketball team. That's what allows
Speaker 1: you to sit Luca to rest an injury and went
Speaker 1: on the road against the Western Conference playoff team and
Speaker 1: then do it again a couple of nights later. Um,
Speaker 1: but fundamentally on the basketball court though you could even
Speaker 1: see it when Luca and Kyrie were together, just Luca
Speaker 1: making quicker decisions in the ball, popping around more. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I said about
Speaker 1: Luca when all this was going down, I said, don't
Speaker 1: just assume that he can't play a different style. Yes,
Speaker 1: Luca is very hellocentric and slow paced when he's been
Speaker 1: running the Mavericks the last few years, but this dude
Speaker 1: grew up playing professional basketball in Europe. This dude is
Speaker 1: accustomed to ball movement and passing screen away and running sets.
Speaker 1: He's done all of that ship his entire life. So
Speaker 1: I have no idea why people were just assuming that
Speaker 1: Luca would be incapable of playing that style. And I
Speaker 1: loved seeing that. A little bit of different tempo and
Speaker 1: pace to the way that the Mavericks play aid with
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie on the floor together. One other guy
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about with the MAVs was Josh Green.
Speaker 1: You know, he came into the league is like a
Speaker 1: really great athlete, but that was a good, strong athlete
Speaker 1: that's kind of like the modern day wing that's a
Speaker 1: little bit shorter, but you know, quicker and more stout
Speaker 1: and has a lower center of gravity. But he was
Speaker 1: a real liability in last year's playoffs, and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd had some tough decisions in that bench guard
Speaker 1: role to go with either Frank Nilikina or Josh Green,
Speaker 1: and neither of them were making the corner threes that
Speaker 1: the Mavericks were generating for them, and it was a
Speaker 1: whole thing. Um. But early in the season, I told
Speaker 1: you guys, you could tell immediately that Josh Green was
Speaker 1: in the lab all dayn summer because he had made
Speaker 1: so many improvements as a ball handler and a shooter.
Speaker 1: And you saw it every single time you watched the
Speaker 1: mass watched the Maps play. But I pulled some data
Speaker 1: today to show you, guys just how ridiculous the improvement is.
Speaker 1: So last year, there were two and fifty seven players
Speaker 1: in the league to have at least one spot up opportunities,
Speaker 1: and Josh Green ranked two hundred and two out of
Speaker 1: two fifty seven, scoring just zero point nine two points
Speaker 1: per possession and spot up rolls or spot up situations.
Speaker 1: This year, he's averaging one point two points per spot
Speaker 1: up possession. There are a hundred and nine players who
Speaker 1: have run at least a hundred and he's twenty four.
Speaker 1: So in one summer, he literally went from being one
Speaker 1: of the very worst spot up players in the league
Speaker 1: to one of the very best spot up players in
Speaker 1: the league. So tip of the cap to Josh Green,
Speaker 1: because I thats just the sheer thousands and thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of reps that took this summer to make that
Speaker 1: type of improvement. I think is really really impressive. As
Speaker 1: a team, the Mavericks are still really small, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if they can hold up physically in a
Speaker 1: playoff series. But if Maxi Kleiber can get healthy and
Speaker 1: you look at a lineup of you know, they went
Speaker 1: heavy with Reggie Bullocks to night, so theoretically would probably
Speaker 1: be like Maxi Kleiba. They could theoretically go with Powell there,
Speaker 1: but I think they're spacing is better with Cliba. Do
Speaker 1: you go kliba um with Josh Green, Reggie Bullock, Luca
Speaker 1: Luca Donche and Kyrie Irving. If they can just keep
Speaker 1: games close, that five is gonna be a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass to deal with at the end of games
Speaker 1: and they're gonna get great shots all the time. So again,
Speaker 1: I don't have them as a top tier championship contender
Speaker 1: or anything like that I'm more interested in the Mavericks
Speaker 1: in the long run, but man, are they gonna be
Speaker 1: fun to watch, and I'm looking forward to watching the
Speaker 1: MAVs the rest of the year. Al Right, guys, we
Speaker 1: are taking the next two days off for Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but we'll be covering Monday night's games on Tuesday morning,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be doing a show on Tuesday night,
Speaker 1: breaking down. I believe that one is Celtics Bucks that
Speaker 1: night that will be live on AMP. The Warriors play
Speaker 1: the Clippers that night, will be breaking that game down
Speaker 1: on Wednesday morning. So that's just kind of a little
Speaker 1: look at our first three shows next week. But I
Speaker 1: enjoy the Super Bowl. I'm on the Eagles. I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna win. We're about a touchdown. Um excited to
Speaker 1: hang out with some friends and enjoy I watched the
Speaker 1: game and we've done It's been a busy week. I
Speaker 1: was telling my wife this morning, I think we've done
Speaker 1: eight shows in the last seven days. So I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to a couple of days off, but I'm also
Speaker 1: very very excited for the stretch run with you guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate the sport and I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys next time. The volume