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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops and out here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend. We've got a fun show for you today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna lead off with a game breakdown of MAVs
Speaker 1: Pacers from last night. The Pacers have won six of
Speaker 1: their last eight, showing them some encouraging signs on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. And then the Mavericks had their
Speaker 1: first test on the road in this four game road
Speaker 1: trip that they have of their defense and it did
Speaker 1: not hold up super well. So we're gonna be breaking
Speaker 1: that game down from the perspective of both teams. After that,
Speaker 1: as we always do, on Monday, we'll have our power rankings,
Speaker 1: and then after that, I've got about that looks like
Speaker 1: about ten mailbag questions for us to hit. Get some
Speaker 1: good content out there before I head out of town tomorrow,
Speaker 1: before we come back on Wednesday, you guys know the Joe.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also really helpful if you
Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about my Twitter feed out underscore json lt. I
Speaker 1: threaded some clips of MAVs Pacers there today. I also
Speaker 1: will put show announcements there and then, last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep drop mail back questions and those YouTube comments.
Speaker 2: We're gonna hitting some later on this week. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So the Pacers are a real test for the Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks defense. Remember the Dallas Mavericks had won seven in
Speaker 1: a row going into that Pacers game, and they had
Speaker 1: been the very best defense in the league over that span. Well,
Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers have the second best offense in the league,
Speaker 1: and they're particularly potent at home. They have a one
Speaker 1: twenty three offensive rating at home this season that is
Speaker 1: just completely off the charts good. And so here we
Speaker 1: have an example of what's it an unstoppable force versus
Speaker 1: immovable object, and the Pacers just completely lit them up.
Speaker 1: They had a one to twenty seven offensive rating in
Speaker 1: the game. Early in the game, the issue I thought
Speaker 1: was overhelping, specifically with Derek Lively. Pascal Siakam was being
Speaker 1: really aggressive physically, especially in like semi transition. Whenever he
Speaker 1: saw a little bit of a space alongside him on
Speaker 1: the perimeter to try to hit the gap on PJ. Washington,
Speaker 1: he would just like hit him with the hard in
Speaker 1: and out dribble and try to get downhill to his
Speaker 1: right hand, or he'd attack him in the post. And
Speaker 1: in those situations, Derek Lively's in a spot there where
Speaker 1: Miles Turner. You know, most of the time in these situations,
Speaker 1: Miles Turner was sitting in the dunker spottle, though there
Speaker 1: was a couple of them where he was on the
Speaker 1: three point line too. But Derek Lively's in a position
Speaker 1: there he's got to make a decision. His decision that
Speaker 1: he has to make is am I going to help?
Speaker 1: Or am I going to stay home? And that decision
Speaker 1: is one of the most important decisions for rim protectors
Speaker 1: and defensive anchors to make, because here's the problem. When
Speaker 1: you look at shots that an offensive player is taking
Speaker 1: in a matchup, it kind of depends on what the
Speaker 1: defense is doing the individual defender on the ball as
Speaker 1: to whether or not it's a high percentage shot or not. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if PJ Washington gets absolutely dusted off the dribble,
Speaker 1: then you have to help because if you don't help,
Speaker 1: it's a layup, which is a one hundred percent shot,
Speaker 1: and yeah, you're gonna be leaving Miles Turner. But maybe
Speaker 1: if you get lucky, you know PJ can get back
Speaker 1: into the play and rebound, or someone else on the
Speaker 1: team can rotate and you know, clean up the miss.
Speaker 1: If you're lucky, bet option there is to take the
Speaker 1: shot away. But let's say PJ Washington is sliding with
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam and he's kind of chesting him up and
Speaker 1: he's forcing him into like a tougher scoop shot over
Speaker 1: the top, which maybe in this case a really well
Speaker 1: defended possession, maybe it's only gonna go in half the time. Well,
Speaker 1: at that point, it's your job, as the rim protector
Speaker 1: defensive anchor to make the decision that actually it's more
Speaker 1: important for me to keep Miles Turner off the glass here,
Speaker 1: because if I sell out to try to block the shot,
Speaker 1: I might drop the percentage chance of him making it
Speaker 1: from fifty to something.
Speaker 2: Slightly below that.
Speaker 1: But if the shot gets over the top and misses
Speaker 1: anywhere around the basket, Miles Turner's just gonna.
Speaker 2: Grab it and put it back in.
Speaker 1: And Miles Turner made him pay several times in the
Speaker 1: early stretch of the game just for overhelping. There was
Speaker 1: a player where Pascal's driving along the right side, Pj's
Speaker 1: right there with him, Derek like damn near zones up,
Speaker 1: goes like all the way outside the right block, and
Speaker 1: Pascal just hits Miles Turner with a little bounce pass
Speaker 1: right there in front of the rim. Miles Turner goes
Speaker 1: up and finishes with a with an and one. There
Speaker 1: was another one where he just jumped out of his shoes,
Speaker 1: even though PJ. Washington was right there on Siakam and
Speaker 1: forced him into a really difficult scoop shot that he missed.
Speaker 1: But as a result, Miles Turner was able to just
Speaker 1: go up and get the offensive rebound. And then there
Speaker 1: was another one where I thought that PJ. Washington was
Speaker 1: completely in position and he hard helped, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was more of a three point look for Miles
Speaker 1: Turner because he was in the corner, and some of
Speaker 1: that is schematic, And I could tell just by watching
Speaker 1: the MAVs throughout the rest of the game, you could
Speaker 1: tell Jason Kidd kind of had them under the impression
Speaker 1: that specific guys like Miles Turner they were kind of just.
Speaker 2: Gonna let him shoot.
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam, they were kind of just gonna let him
Speaker 1: shoot when they caught on the perimeter. So that one
Speaker 1: I thought was more scheme related. But Miles Turner was
Speaker 1: really active early in the game, punishing Derek Lively for overhelping.
Speaker 1: And then in the second quarter, Tyrese Halliburton just completely
Speaker 1: took over the game in pick and roll and was
Speaker 1: just picking the Mavericks part hit a. This was a
Speaker 1: stretch where Daniel Gafford was on the floor, which we'll
Speaker 1: get into in a minute, but Daniel Gafford was running
Speaker 1: like a really like it was like a really weak
Speaker 1: drop coverage where he wasn't exactly bothering the ball handler
Speaker 1: or bothering the roll man. Will get a little bit
Speaker 1: further into that in a second, but started with the
Speaker 1: pocket pass to Miles Turner right up to the basket
Speaker 1: for an and one on the left side of the rim.
Speaker 1: After that it was a pick and pop to the
Speaker 1: top of the key, knocks down a three, and then
Speaker 1: the very next possession in this case, obviously Jason kidds
Speaker 1: asking for more help on the back line. Tim Hardaway
Speaker 1: Junior basically abandons Andrew Nemhart in the left corner to essentially,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming help tag the roller, although I didn't think
Speaker 1: he did a particularly good job of it. And Tyres Haliburton,
Speaker 1: because he's literally the guy in the league, one of
Speaker 1: the four or five guys in the league that just
Speaker 1: makes perfect reads, damn here every single time down the floor,
Speaker 1: hits Andrew Nemhard in the corner, knocks down a three.
Speaker 1: That run was what kind of built the gap because
Speaker 1: it was very back and forth there in that first half,
Speaker 1: because specifically Luca was like red hot to start the game.
Speaker 1: He picked up the Ben Matherin matchup from the opening
Speaker 1: tip and just was isoing him every sing a single
Speaker 1: time down the floor. I think he scored on him
Speaker 1: four of the first five sessions of the game, So
Speaker 1: that kind of kept the game close. But that little
Speaker 1: pick and roll run from Tyris Halliburton there in the
Speaker 1: second quarter built that like initial little gap in on
Speaker 1: the scoreboard. They end up going into the half up
Speaker 1: by seven, and then in the third quarter kind of
Speaker 1: back and forth. The game hovers in that seven to
Speaker 1: eleven point range. But in their fourth quarter, Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: gets Doug McDermott on a switch hits him with a
Speaker 1: nasty step back jump shot to cut the lead to four,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, we have ourselves a basketball game.
Speaker 1: And then Ben Sheppard and Obi Toppin hit back to
Speaker 1: back massive threes. Ben Sheppard off of a coming out
Speaker 1: of the right corner, just a little kind of wide
Speaker 1: pin down where he comes up to the wing and
Speaker 1: catches and shoots a three, and then Obi Topen actually
Speaker 1: hit one turning over his left shoulder above the break
Speaker 1: a pretty high difficulty catch and shoot shot from Obi topping,
Speaker 1: but both of those guys hit timely shots all night,
Speaker 1: and those two particular threes pushed the double to push
Speaker 1: the lead back up to double digits. To shout out
Speaker 1: Ben Shepard for a second, because I thought he had
Speaker 1: two really important two way sequences in this game. In
Speaker 1: the first half, there was a sequence where he hit
Speaker 1: a three on the right wing, and then on the
Speaker 1: very next possession, as Kyrie's pushing the ball at the floor,
Speaker 1: in transition, he offers smart help as Kyrie's kind of
Speaker 1: got his head down engaged on the on ball defender,
Speaker 1: and he ends up picking Kyrie clean, which leads to
Speaker 1: a dunk on the other end of the floor. So
Speaker 1: like a little five to zero run basically by himself,
Speaker 1: which was a big stretch in that game. I think
Speaker 1: it was tied when he did that too, and it
Speaker 1: pushed it up to put them up five, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly. And then in the second half we talked
Speaker 1: about that huge three coming off the wide pin down.
Speaker 1: On the very next possession, he had Kyrie in an iso.
Speaker 1: Kyrie was sizing him up and he Kyrie opted for
Speaker 1: the jab step jump shot and Ben's got some long arms,
Speaker 1: got a very good contest and forced Kyrie into a wedgie,
Speaker 1: like the ball stuck into the side of the rim,
Speaker 1: so an ugly miss, which you don't typically see from
Speaker 1: Kyrie irving all that offen. So credit to Ben Shepard
Speaker 1: some really good two way sequences in this particular game.
Speaker 1: And so at that point, Tyrius Aliberton checks back into
Speaker 1: the game and he just closes the deal, picking the
Speaker 1: Mavericks apart in pick and roll again just like he
Speaker 1: did in the second quarter. In this stretch, he was
Speaker 1: really picking on Maxi Kliba and again remember Dallas, Like
Speaker 1: they run to drop with Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively,
Speaker 1: but with Maxie they do a lot more switching depending on,
Speaker 1: you know, how successful the screen was, and Maxi just
Speaker 1: could not handle Tyres Aliburton on the switch. He got
Speaker 1: beat to a step back three going to the right,
Speaker 1: he got beat to the basket for a scoop shot.
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, you look up to the scoreboard
Speaker 1: and the Pacers are up by twenty and the game
Speaker 1: is over. So really really impressive win for the Pacers
Speaker 1: to get their sixth win and eight tries. A couple
Speaker 1: of other elements on the Pacers offense that I wanted
Speaker 1: to hit on. They ran the floor super well in transition,
Speaker 1: something they've done well all season long. Their bigs were
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor, but they always have
Speaker 1: corner shooters.
Speaker 2: Running their lanes on the wing.
Speaker 1: And then their guards just do a really good job
Speaker 1: of every single time they see somebody up the floor,
Speaker 1: they make the kick ahead pass. And there's real value
Speaker 1: in that for two reasons. One, you know, if you
Speaker 1: kick the ball up the floor in the guy's open,
Speaker 1: he can shoot it. Ben Sheppard actually his third three
Speaker 1: second three of the game, but the one of the
Speaker 1: three threes he hit we talked about the other two
Speaker 1: was on the left winning in transition. Just you watch him,
Speaker 1: he's they get the defensive rebound, he's just sprinting up
Speaker 1: the floor like head down and then he turns around
Speaker 1: of the ball just in his hands, and then he's
Speaker 1: already got a speed set all game long. And I've
Speaker 1: noticed this with Ben, just out really good footwork moving
Speaker 1: off the move at getting straight up and down nice
Speaker 1: and balanced. But they just run the floor and transition
Speaker 1: super super well. And then again I talked about the
Speaker 1: other advantage of kick ahead passes. Let's say that Ben
Speaker 1: Shepherd doesn't have a shot there because the Mavericks defensive
Speaker 1: transition defense rotates out to him. In that situation, all
Speaker 1: Dallas defenders are suddenly looking up the floor to the
Speaker 1: corner where Ben.
Speaker 2: Shephard is right.
Speaker 1: So even if they rotate, now all of the trailing
Speaker 1: offensive players have the advantage of the ball being in
Speaker 1: a situation where their defender is going to be looking
Speaker 1: away from them, and that creates opportunities for trailers to
Speaker 1: get open. Maybe the maybe you're a trailing shooter and
Speaker 1: your defender is looking up the floor at Ben, you
Speaker 1: might be able to change your angle a little bit
Speaker 1: and find a little soft spot for three or maybe
Speaker 1: a catch a guy not looking with the screen. That's
Speaker 1: where that's where you can find a lot of opportunities
Speaker 1: in transition and in semi transition. But in order to
Speaker 1: do that, you have to make the kick ahead pass. Now,
Speaker 1: the reverse of that is guys are running their lanes
Speaker 1: and the on ball guy just brings the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor off the dribble. Now the defense can essentially
Speaker 1: backpedal and transition and everything is in front of them.
Speaker 1: So that kind of gives you an idea of the
Speaker 1: difference between or just an idea of the value of
Speaker 1: making those kick ahead passes. The other big thing that
Speaker 1: sit out to me two other things Pascal Siakam's rim pressure.
Speaker 2: It's really really.
Speaker 1: It's another way to get the defense in transition. But
Speaker 1: I really like it because it brings a physical imposition
Speaker 1: to the game.
Speaker 2: It's something that they.
Speaker 1: Didn't really have before that trade, and it's something I
Speaker 1: think that translates really well to the playoffs. That's why
Speaker 1: I put in my notes brute force Like brute force
Speaker 1: offense is like an important thing to have in your
Speaker 1: bag when you get to the postseason. And there were
Speaker 1: a lot of possessions where they got great shots, not
Speaker 1: by running some sort of action, not by using Tyres
Speaker 1: Halliburton's offensive genius, but just by Pascal Siakam being bigger
Speaker 1: and faster than the guy guarding him and able to
Speaker 1: just kind of get downhill into the lane, make the
Speaker 1: defense collapse and make good things happen from there. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, a lot of really smart actions from Rick
Speaker 1: Carlisle that they were running to take advantage of specific
Speaker 1: issues in Dallas's defense. One thing that I noticed a
Speaker 1: lot in the first half is they were screening Luca
Speaker 1: and then using Luca's man it was Ben Mathern in
Speaker 1: this case, to then set the ball screen. So a
Speaker 1: very common basketball action that we see is what's called
Speaker 1: a ram screen, which is basically where you screen the
Speaker 1: screener to go set a ball screen. And usually it
Speaker 1: involves big men. And the main reason why is big
Speaker 1: guys struggle to navigate screens right. And the reason why
Speaker 1: you do that is if you can create a separation
Speaker 1: between the big man and the big man's defender, it
Speaker 1: makes it easier for you to get an advantage in
Speaker 1: the ball screen. Imagine I'm the big guy who's on
Speaker 1: defense and there's the big guy that's on on offense
Speaker 1: next to me. He runs up to go set a
Speaker 1: ball screen, and it's Tyre's Halliburton. So you have to
Speaker 1: be up at the level because he's such a good
Speaker 1: pull up shooter. I'm just gonna run right up there
Speaker 1: behind him, right and whatever my coverage is, whether it's
Speaker 1: a hedge and recover, whether it's a high drop, whether
Speaker 1: it's a blitz, whatever it is, I'm just gonna run
Speaker 1: up and go get into my spot right then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna communicate call out the angle of the screen, and
Speaker 1: it'll give us a better chance to defend the action.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But let's say someone screens down on me. As the
Speaker 1: guy is running up to go set the screen. I
Speaker 1: know have to navigate a screen to get to my
Speaker 1: spot in the pig and roll coverage, and so a
Speaker 1: lot of times you can find openings there by creating
Speaker 1: a gap between the screen defender and the screener, and
Speaker 1: then that guy can set a ball screen. Now, when
Speaker 1: Tyre's Haliburton comes off the screen, he's coming off into
Speaker 1: open space instead of coming off into where that you
Speaker 1: help defender is supposed to be.
Speaker 2: So they were basically doing that with Luca.
Speaker 1: Now, the reason why you do it with the Big
Speaker 1: typically is with the Big they struggle to navigate screens
Speaker 1: well Luca, especially in game. And I thought Luca and Kyrie,
Speaker 1: who have been pretty good defensively for the most part
Speaker 1: this season, we're both pretty bad in this one. Luca
Speaker 1: just dies on the screen. When he dies on the screen,
Speaker 1: Ben Mathurin runs up and he's now setting a free
Speaker 1: and clear screen on Tyre's Hallburn and he's able to
Speaker 1: come off, and you know, get to his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot or get to the next help defender in
Speaker 1: line to try to make a read. So really smart
Speaker 1: actions there. Last thing I noticed that they were doing
Speaker 1: was they were doing a lot of backscreening the role
Speaker 1: man in their Spain in their pick and roll action,
Speaker 1: which is a variation of Spain pick and roll. So
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll is basically you have a shooter
Speaker 1: underneath the basket while the big man's setting the screen,
Speaker 1: and then they basically roll in replace, so as the
Speaker 1: big man's rolling to the basket, the shooter is relocating
Speaker 1: to the top. And the two variations of it are
Speaker 1: sometimes the role man will intentionally run into the shooters
Speaker 1: man to try to get the shooter open, and sometimes
Speaker 1: the shooter will intentionally run into the screeners man, which
Speaker 1: will get the screener open.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So like that's like the two variations that you'll see.
Speaker 1: But they were able to get downhill and get to
Speaker 1: the basket for easy layup just by backscreening Lively and
Speaker 1: backscreening Daniel Gafford with whoever it was that was under
Speaker 1: the basket. Sometimes it was Tyre Slibert with Andrew Nemhart
Speaker 1: on the ball. Sometimes it was Andrew Nemhard with Tyres
Speaker 1: s Aliburton on the.
Speaker 2: Wall on the ball.
Speaker 1: A lot of really really smart stuff from Indiana to
Speaker 1: keep their offense humming again one twenty seven offensive rating
Speaker 1: in this game against a Dallas Mavericks defense that has
Speaker 1: been dominant over the course of the last or the
Speaker 1: previous seven games. Pacers last eight games, they're six and two,
Speaker 1: a couple of quality wins in there against the Knicks
Speaker 1: and the MAVs. Fourth and offense, thirteenth in defense and
Speaker 1: eighteenth in defensive rebounding, so some of the best defense
Speaker 1: and rebounding stretches that we've seen from the Pacers this season.
Speaker 1: Playing some solid basketball. They have a tough schedule coming up, though.
Speaker 1: They have the Pels in a home and home, and
Speaker 1: then they go to Dallas for a rematch, and then
Speaker 1: they're home for Minnesota, and then they're at Orlando and
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma City. So a bunch of bigger, more physical
Speaker 1: front lines. It's going to be a good test for them.
Speaker 1: On the Dallas front, they were scoring well enough to
Speaker 1: keep pace with Indy for most of the game, but
Speaker 1: then they went ice cold in the fourth court. They
Speaker 1: had a six minute span after Kyrie's pull up jump shot.
Speaker 2: That cut the ball to cut the score to four.
Speaker 1: They had a six minute span after that where they
Speaker 1: scored just four points, missed a bunch of good looks
Speaker 1: from three, had some bad turnovers, so their offense just
Speaker 1: kind of stalled out. I was more worried about them
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor in this particular game.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Dallas's ability to score, especially against
Speaker 1: a team like Indiana. They were never even really able
Speaker 1: to slow down Indiana's offense. They gave up at least
Speaker 1: thirty two points in every single quarter. They could not
Speaker 1: find a coverage that worked. They I wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of dive in on the Gafford and Lively thing. They're
Speaker 1: both very different. I think Lively is actually a better
Speaker 1: pick and roll defender than Daniel Gafford right now. Daniel Gafford,
Speaker 1: you know, I talked about this after the trade, and
Speaker 1: I used the concept that the comp of like a
Speaker 1: Montrez Harald type of guy. Daniel Gefford's, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is bigger and stronger and longer and a better athlete
Speaker 1: than Montrez Harrel. So it's not like really that clean
Speaker 1: of a camp. But the reason why I use that
Speaker 1: comp is, I mean, Montrez Haral is an excellent rule
Speaker 1: man with great hands who goes up around the rim actively,
Speaker 1: is good offensive rebounder, right, but on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, the dude was just was just tissue paper.
Speaker 1: Now Daniel Gafford has the potential to be much much
Speaker 1: better because he's got the physical tools that a guy
Speaker 1: like Montrez didn't have.
Speaker 2: But that is like the archetype that I look at.
Speaker 1: It's like a really good athlete, like like pick and
Speaker 1: roll guy who's like an excellent score on the role,
Speaker 1: who has real vertical spacing, but is kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: problematic on the defensive end of the floor. And one
Speaker 1: of the specific things that Daniel Gafford will get himself
Speaker 1: caught into in terms of trouble is he'll get caught
Speaker 1: in no man's land and pick and roll. So imagine
Speaker 1: in it ball screen, there are two threats right in
Speaker 1: the two on two action that's taking place. Obviously there
Speaker 1: are threats all but in the two the two threats
Speaker 1: that are on the ball are the guy coming over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen and you have to worry
Speaker 1: about a pull up three. You have to worry about
Speaker 1: a floater, and you have to worry about him getting
Speaker 1: downhill all the way to the rim, right. And then
Speaker 1: there's a role man that's coming off the others after
Speaker 1: he's has the screen is rolling hard down the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor. There you're worried about, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: a pocket pass and a little floater or a mid
Speaker 1: range jump shot or any sort of lob pass at
Speaker 1: the basket. You know, if you step up too high,
Speaker 1: Tyree's gets to pass over the top. There's dunk there, right.
Speaker 1: So you kind of have to do one of two things.
Speaker 1: You have to either concede whatever the ball handler is
Speaker 1: doing to take away the role or you have to
Speaker 1: take away whatever the ball handler's doing and concede the
Speaker 1: role man, right. And it's a difficult job. Some of
Speaker 1: the very best defensive players in the world can be
Speaker 1: both the Go Bears and the Anthony Davis and bam
Speaker 1: adebios and such Victor Wimanyama. Those guys they cover so
Speaker 1: much ground that sometimes they can like stunt up and
Speaker 1: bother the ball handler while also getting back and making
Speaker 1: plays at the rim. And one of the problems that
Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford was having a problem with today or last
Speaker 1: night is when he would come up high out of
Speaker 1: his drop coverage on a guy like Tyre's Halliburton, he
Speaker 1: wasn't coming up high enough to actually bother Tyrese at all,
Speaker 1: and so Tyree's was able to make easy over the
Speaker 1: top passes. But then at the same time, he's not
Speaker 1: back far enough to do anything to the roleman. And again,
Speaker 1: like if you are active on the ball, like if
Speaker 1: he steps up higher and he uses his length to
Speaker 1: get up more into Tyrese Haliburton, he can force that
Speaker 1: pass to either be deflected or to take a funky
Speaker 1: angle or to maybe he has to double pump or
Speaker 1: throw it super high like something to disrupt that pass
Speaker 1: to make it so that it's easier for the back
Speaker 1: line guys to rotate.
Speaker 2: Let's say PJ. Washington's your low man in this sort
Speaker 2: of situation. PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington has a better chance to get over and blow
Speaker 1: that play up. Or even a guy like Tim Hardaway Junior,
Speaker 1: who they were using as a lowman during that stretch.
Speaker 1: He's got the athleticism that if you buy him enough time,
Speaker 1: he might be able to jump up high and try
Speaker 1: to make some sort of play on the basketball. But
Speaker 1: if you're not bothering Tyreese Haliburtal, the pass is easily
Speaker 1: getting over the top at that point. If you're also
Speaker 1: not bothering the role man at all, you're effectively in
Speaker 1: no man So there's like no man's land and pick
Speaker 1: and roll coverage if like the best in the world
Speaker 1: can kind of do both. But like your job is,
Speaker 1: you've got to make something difficult there. You either have
Speaker 1: to get up higher on the ball handler to bother
Speaker 1: him more, or backpedal to take away the role and
Speaker 1: hope he misses his floater, right, like you got to
Speaker 1: do something and too frequently. And again, I want to
Speaker 1: be clear with Daniel Gafford. He's got the tools to
Speaker 1: be a lot better than he has been. It's just
Speaker 1: more often it's just schematic him being in no man's land.
Speaker 1: And then two just a little bit slow to kind
Speaker 1: of read and react to some of this stuff. And
Speaker 1: so but just by upping his activity and then just
Speaker 1: by being a part of a better defensive team where
Speaker 1: he can like kind of pick up what's happening around him,
Speaker 1: I think he can get better. And then again the
Speaker 1: clave switching didn't work. That's an important anchor of Dallas's defense,
Speaker 1: and then their transition defense was bad. Indiana was just
Speaker 1: running out on them all night long. For the record
Speaker 1: Dallas's transitions defense, I want to say they're twenty third
Speaker 1: in defense transition defense points allowed per possession according to Synergies.
Speaker 1: That's pretty bad. This road trip was always going to
Speaker 1: be a test for Dallas and this is just the
Speaker 1: first test. But they failed their first test and so
Speaker 1: their next chance is at Cleveland tomorrow night to right
Speaker 1: the ship. All right, let's get to our power rankings
Speaker 1: like we do every Monday. So we had two teams
Speaker 1: drop out this week. The Suns dropped games to the
Speaker 1: MAVs and the Rockets, coming out of the break offense
Speaker 1: has a tendency to stall out for them when Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal is out, although they did have an encouraging fourth
Speaker 1: quarter against the Lakers the other night. But they are
Speaker 1: out of the ear yesterday, I should say, but they're
Speaker 1: out of the power rankings for this week. And then
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Pelicans. Every time I swear that I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm about to jump on the Pelicans bandwagon,
Speaker 1: they go and drop a couple of games to mediocre teams.
Speaker 1: And they just dropped back to back games to the
Speaker 1: Heat and the Bowls, so they're out of the power
Speaker 1: rankings for this week. Number ten the Dallas Mavericks. The
Speaker 1: additions of Daniel Gafford and PJ. Washington have up to
Speaker 1: the athletic profile of the team. They are also healthy
Speaker 1: now and they are competing better defensively and on the
Speaker 1: glass than they have all season. Last night notwithstanding, but
Speaker 1: they did fail the first trip, the first test of
Speaker 1: their road trip in Indiana, and their defense got absolutely shredded.
Speaker 1: Two more tests on this trip in Cleveland and in Boston.
Speaker 1: Number nine the Indiana Pacers. They've won six of their
Speaker 1: last eight games, capped off like I said, with the
Speaker 1: big win over the MAVs yesterday. They are also, like Dallas,
Speaker 1: defending and rebounding better than they have most of the season.
Speaker 1: Tyres Halliburton is looking a little bit more like himself
Speaker 1: with each passing game. I've been talking about this, but
Speaker 1: like soft tissue injuries and then like bone issues, and
Speaker 1: like feet and knees or boner ligament issues and feet
Speaker 1: and knees, there's always like a two phase recovery. There's
Speaker 1: recovery once, which is like getting healthy, but then recovery
Speaker 1: too is like actually trusting your body again, because when
Speaker 1: you make really explosive moves, it takes a certain amount
Speaker 1: of comf in your body to hold up, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times you will kind of hold back if
Speaker 1: you don't trust your body to hold up. And so
Speaker 1: I just remember this personally happening to me when I
Speaker 1: broke my foot when I was in college. Like I
Speaker 1: just I went through half the season where I just
Speaker 1: didn't even trust myself to take off off my right
Speaker 1: foot right and specific I had any of you guys
Speaker 1: who have had hamstring issues, I buy a hamstring issue
Speaker 1: when I was younger. I was like twenty, like nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty years old. But like hamstring issues in particular, like
Speaker 1: you're so nervous you're going to reinjure it that like
Speaker 1: it causes you to kind of play with a certain
Speaker 1: amount of hesitancy. Played on a minute's restriction in his
Speaker 1: first six games coming back from the hamstring, only fourteen
Speaker 1: points and six assists per game on fifty percent from
Speaker 1: the field thirty five percent from three. How these last
Speaker 1: five games back to playing big minutes, twenty points and
Speaker 1: twelve assists per game, forty eight percent from the field
Speaker 1: and forty two percent from three, so looking a little
Speaker 1: bit more like Tyrese Halliburton with each passing Game number eight.
Speaker 1: The New York Knicks, they're still in a free fall
Speaker 1: without their frontline down through because of injury. They did
Speaker 1: beat the Sixers, but they got handled by the Celtics
Speaker 1: the other night most of yesterday. I should say, most
Speaker 1: of the data and film that we're getting out of
Speaker 1: the Knicks right now is completely useless as it pertains
Speaker 1: to their playoff potential, because this whole team is about
Speaker 1: like incredibly physically imposing frontline plus Jalen Brunson, and right
Speaker 1: now it's like Jalen Brunson with none of their frontline guys.
Speaker 1: So it just doesn't really give you much to work
Speaker 1: with in terms of learning about this team. A couple
Speaker 1: of silver linings, though, I think Precious to Chew is
Speaker 1: actually doing a really nice job filling in at power forward,
Speaker 1: and then Dante DiVincenzo is shooting the shit out of
Speaker 1: the basketball in super high volume. He's scaling up his
Speaker 1: offense with guys out with injury, and he's doing well.
Speaker 1: He's really been a great pick up for them. This season.
Speaker 1: Big shout out to the Knicks, who've just completely turned
Speaker 1: around their their fortunes over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. Number seven the Cleveland Cavaliers. They've lost
Speaker 1: three of their last five. Donovan Mitchell missed two of
Speaker 1: those games with an illness. It was good to see
Speaker 1: him back out on the court against the Wizards yesterday.
Speaker 1: In this five game span, though ironically it's been there
Speaker 1: defense that's been the issue. They have a one twenty
Speaker 1: defensive rating in their three losses. Here's their silver lining though.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen has been absolutely crushing as of late. His
Speaker 1: last fifteen games nineteen points and eleven rebounds per game
Speaker 1: on sixty percent shooting from the field. And then Darius Scarland.
Speaker 1: He's another guy who's really rhythm oriented, and typically when
Speaker 1: he comes back from injuries it can get to a
Speaker 1: slow start. First five games coming back, eleven points and
Speaker 1: five rebounds per game excuse me, five assists per game
Speaker 1: on forty six percent from the field and thirty percent
Speaker 1: from three. His last seven games sixteen points in eight
Speaker 1: assists per game, forty seven percent from the field and
Speaker 1: thirty four percent from three. So starting to get it going.
Speaker 1: Three point shots looked really good over the last four games,
Speaker 1: forty percent in his last four. Number six the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: They bounced back against the Nets on the tail end
Speaker 1: of a back to back on Saturday, but they're pretty
Speaker 1: lost to the Bucks on Friday. That exposed a lot
Speaker 1: of issues with their half court offense. Bucks ran a
Speaker 1: super deep drop. They were not able to hit the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots and floaters necessary to get the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation. But even above and beyond any of that,
Speaker 1: because some of that is just their personnel, Like I
Speaker 1: really do think that that's kind of the way that
Speaker 1: you can kind of play Minnesota into some issues.
Speaker 2: However, the other.
Speaker 1: Concern that I had in that particular game was just
Speaker 1: their offensive approach as things started to kind of go
Speaker 1: off the rails for them. A lot of rushed shots,
Speaker 1: a lot of unnecessary one on one, a lot of
Speaker 1: like walking into a pick and roll without any sort
Speaker 1: of other action to set it up or just do
Speaker 1: something to try to put Milwaukee in the blender before
Speaker 1: you run that type of action. And again, that's been
Speaker 1: my issue with the Timberwolves all season. There's a little
Speaker 1: bit on the predictable and kind of inconsistent decision making
Speaker 1: side of things when it comes to their half court offense,
Speaker 1: and I did not think their performance against the Bucks
Speaker 1: was very encouraging on that front. Number five, the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers, they're sleepwalking out of the All Star break.
Speaker 1: They got smacked by the Thunder and they got smacked
Speaker 1: by the Kings. Although Kawhi Leonard was out for that
Speaker 1: particular game, Tyler himself said that the next few days
Speaker 1: of practice will be mainly about getting the team mentally
Speaker 1: focused again. The Clippers have alternated wins and losses over
Speaker 1: their last eight games, and they are twenty ninth in
Speaker 1: defense over to that span.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 1: The LA Clippers, who've been a dominant defense for most
Speaker 1: of the year, especially in the half court, they're really
Speaker 1: really struggling defensively as of late.
Speaker 2: Hitting a little bit of a loll here.
Speaker 1: So again, this has been a team that's been really
Speaker 1: attacking the regular season. It's completely unrealistic to expect a
Speaker 1: team to do that for all eighty two, So I'm
Speaker 1: not I don't think it's unusual for a team to
Speaker 1: hit a role. The big thing to watch is how
Speaker 1: quickly they can get out of it and how frequently
Speaker 1: that happens down the stretch of the season. Number four,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks. They had two huge wins over the
Speaker 1: Sixers and the Wolves to start their post All Star stretch.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier against Minnesota, a lot of downhill
Speaker 1: athleticism on that team, a lot of power players. They
Speaker 1: perfectly executed their deep drop coverage. Brook Lopez dominated the
Speaker 1: game defensively, but the Sixers game in particular was a
Speaker 1: very different challenge. I was watching some film on that
Speaker 1: this morning. Tyrese Maxi brings that downhill speed, but he's
Speaker 1: one of the best shooters in the league, and so
Speaker 1: much more of a challenge for their perimeter defense against
Speaker 1: the drop coverage. I thought Malik Beasley had one of
Speaker 1: his best defensive games of the season, specifically making Tyree's
Speaker 1: work hard to get to his spots, applying really good
Speaker 1: back pressure. He's been getting better and better each game
Speaker 1: because again, he's got decent athletic tools. He's not overly big,
Speaker 1: but he is fast like he does have the ability
Speaker 1: to move. He's just been a guy that hasn't been
Speaker 1: that focused on the defensive end in his career, and
Speaker 1: you're actually watching him kind of learn on the fly
Speaker 1: how to be this guy, and I thought he did
Speaker 1: a really nice job against Tyrese Maxey. I also wanted
Speaker 1: to shout out Jay Crowder. I thought he had a
Speaker 1: bunch of good possessions on Tyres Maxie, especially in the
Speaker 1: first half. And like, here's the thing, Like Jay Crowder,
Speaker 1: I think has been written off by most people as
Speaker 1: being a little bit too old, but like this is
Speaker 1: the best I've seen him look physically on defense in
Speaker 1: a couple of years too, And I think that that's
Speaker 1: been kind of an underrated pickup. Underrated by myself too,
Speaker 1: because I didn't think he had anything left in the tank,
Speaker 1: and he's just been He's just been particularly solid for
Speaker 1: them on defense as of late. But most importantly, the
Speaker 1: Bucks offense is humming again. If you guys remember during
Speaker 1: the gosh, I can't even remember which video it was.
Speaker 1: I think it was the Uh. I think it was
Speaker 1: right before the break, But I talked about how I
Speaker 1: had a goal that I hoped the Milwaukee Bucks would
Speaker 1: hit for the tail end of the season as an
Speaker 1: indicator of like kind of like a benchmark that they
Speaker 1: need to hit to feel like they're on track. And
Speaker 1: that was a one twenty offensive rating and a one
Speaker 1: fifteen defensive rating. For those of you guys who were listening,
Speaker 1: one twenty being like, we're humming on all centers offense,
Speaker 1: a cylinders offensively in the one to fifteen being like,
Speaker 1: we are a solid defense, which I think is all
Speaker 1: they really need to be is if they can reach
Speaker 1: that level offensively. Well, the defense has been incredible ever
Speaker 1: since Dockword took over post deadline. So far they have
Speaker 1: a one to twenty offensive rating in a one oh
Speaker 1: five defensive rating, and if they can sustain that, forget
Speaker 1: about it, Like then now we're talking about a team
Speaker 1: that's on the same tier with Boston In Denver, now
Speaker 1: we'll see it's too small of a sample size to
Speaker 1: really judge it at this point, but they are on
Speaker 1: track to hit those specific markers that I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: watching here down the stretch of the season. Number three
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. They had an undefeated week. They
Speaker 1: beat the Clippers, the Wizards, and the Rockets over this span.
Speaker 1: A one to twenty six offensive rating and a one
Speaker 1: oh two defensive rating that's outrageous plus twenty four net.
Speaker 1: Really impressive win over the Clippers. Just ran them off
Speaker 1: the floor in the third quarter. They scored thirty six points.
Speaker 1: In transition, all five starters scored at least twelve points.
Speaker 1: They blocked eleven shots. The Clippers had no shot guarding
Speaker 1: them in ball screens. The thunder scored one point four
Speaker 1: to eight points per possession in pick and rolls, including passes,
Speaker 1: which is outrageous. They had one point one six points
Speaker 1: per half court possession in that game. So just completely
Speaker 1: picked the Clippers apart. Big week for them. Umber two
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. They look laser focused coming out of
Speaker 1: the break. They had an undefeated week as well. He
Speaker 1: half court two way dominance that we expect from Denver,
Speaker 1: and that get win against Golden State last night. They
Speaker 1: got hit with some paymakers in that game too, and
Speaker 1: it just didn't matter. Klay Thompson was red hot earlier
Speaker 1: in the game, and Golden State has been a famously
Speaker 1: good third quarter team, and it just didn't matter. And
Speaker 1: then Nicole Jokic with a preposterous thirty two points, sixteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: and sixteen assists in that game, only been done three
Speaker 1: other times in NBA history. James Harden had a fifty
Speaker 1: three sixteen and seventeen once, which is completely ridiculous, and
Speaker 1: then Oscar Robertson did it twice back in the old days.
Speaker 2: Number one. Though.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics beat the Bulls and the Knicks this
Speaker 1: week to extend their streak to eight games. I really
Speaker 1: thought the Knicks game in particular was a positive step
Speaker 1: for them. We've talked a lot about the Knicks or
Speaker 1: the Celtics offense as of late, as it pertains to
Speaker 1: their kind of shot selection and them leaning too much
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, not getting enough easy stuff around the basket. Well,
Speaker 1: they had fifty eight points in the paint against the Knicks.
Speaker 1: They only averaged forty six points in the paint per game,
Speaker 1: which is twenty seventh in the NBA. We did a
Speaker 1: deep dive on this just a few days ago, and
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, I talked about specific things, four
Speaker 1: specific things that they could do to up their points
Speaker 1: in the paint, running out for layups and dunks. They
Speaker 1: had seven possessions against the Knicks where they ran out
Speaker 1: in transition and made a two point shot, hosting up
Speaker 1: for bowlly ball shots at the rim instead of constantly
Speaker 1: fading away. Jalen Brown is the guy's a really good
Speaker 1: fatoa jump shooter over both shoulders. I thought he set
Speaker 1: the tone early in the first half, back like backing
Speaker 1: guys down and getting layups at the rim out of
Speaker 1: the post. And then Chrisops, Sporzingis and Al Horford also
Speaker 1: had post up baskets right around the rim. The third
Speaker 1: one was cutting instead of spotting up all the damn time.
Speaker 1: So like again, spotting up an important thing to do.
Speaker 1: Three point shots have high value, but when a defender
Speaker 1: turns his back on you, it helps. You can also
Speaker 1: get a one hundred point shot or one hundred percent shot.
Speaker 1: That's funny, Okay, you get a one hundred percent shot,
Speaker 1: which is if you cut back door, you can get
Speaker 1: something easy around the basket. And again, like a really
Speaker 1: good spot up shooter, the best in the world are
Speaker 1: going to convert spot up possessions at like one point
Speaker 1: five points per possession, right one point four points per possession.
Speaker 1: I think that's where Norman Powell's at this year. It's
Speaker 1: usually in that one point three to one point four range.
Speaker 1: But like a backdoor cut for a layup is going
Speaker 1: to get you two points the vast majority of the time,
Speaker 1: and so It's not something that's open all the time,
Speaker 1: but when you see those opportunities, you can get baskets there.
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday had a basket and I think it was
Speaker 1: a Jalen Brown post up where he cut along the
Speaker 1: baseline when he saw his man turn his head instead
Speaker 1: of waiting at the three point line, Jalen Brown had
Speaker 1: to cut off of the left wing out of a
Speaker 1: I think it was a Porzingis post up. Just slashed
Speaker 1: down the middle of the floor.
Speaker 2: They hit him. He had an easy lift.
Speaker 1: That's a great way to generate points in the paint
Speaker 1: in the flow of the offense. Then the last one
Speaker 1: was crashing the offensive glass. They had eleven points offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put backs in this game. They typically only average
Speaker 1: six per game. So just scaling up in some specific
Speaker 1: possession types to drive some more offense in the paint
Speaker 1: to add more offensive versatility. They also hit fifteen threes
Speaker 1: in this game, but they also added some versatility. They
Speaker 1: were able to score in the paint more effectively than
Speaker 1: they have for most of the season. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a really encouraging game for the Celtics. They are
Speaker 1: at number one in our power rankings for God knows
Speaker 1: how many consecutive weeks. Now, all right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to our mail bag. Hey, Jason, can you discuss how
Speaker 1: you would suggest defending a team like Denver. You always
Speaker 1: mention about how fluent and unstoppable Denver's offense is, but
Speaker 1: if you do, but if you had to strategize a
Speaker 1: defensive game plan for Denver, how would you do that?
Speaker 1: Awesome job in the show, I always enjoy your basketball knowledge,
Speaker 1: best in the business. Thank you so much for the
Speaker 1: kind words.
Speaker 2: So here's the deal.
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, not really a good option, and most
Speaker 1: of it has to do with personnel too. Like if
Speaker 1: you are a team that has you know, really really
Speaker 1: bad amter defense and really really bad like not don't
Speaker 1: have the quality of help defender or I shouldn't say
Speaker 1: help defender post defender. To really match up with Nikole Jokic,
Speaker 1: you might have to be just really sharp in your
Speaker 1: double teaming in rotations, right, But if you can't have
Speaker 1: ball personnel in the post and on the perimeter, it
Speaker 1: might reflect differently.
Speaker 2: In the event.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that I have an average NBA defense,
Speaker 1: I'll just pick a particular matchup. For example, let's say
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors. If I was coaching the Warriors
Speaker 1: and I was trying to get stops against the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: what I would do is I would try as often
Speaker 1: as possible to make Nikol jokicch and Jamal Murray score.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. They will do it sometimes. They
Speaker 1: did last night in large doses the Boston game. The
Speaker 1: game in Boston where Jamal Murray and Nikole Jokic just
Speaker 1: made shot after shot after shot after shot. But in
Speaker 1: my opinion, your best chance to beat Denver is Nikole
Speaker 1: jokicch and Jamal Murray hopefully fit taguing at some point
Speaker 1: and starting the misshots, because tough shot making is all
Speaker 1: about leg strength and getting a lift in physicality, right,
Speaker 1: and so in my opinion, I would rather There's there's
Speaker 1: two specific reasons why I would rather try to defend
Speaker 1: Marie and Jokis one on one and two on two
Speaker 1: versus sending multiple defenders. One fatigue, like I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: wear them out hopefully they miss shots. But two, it
Speaker 1: keeps the other three players out of rhythm. So if
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, the ball does end up in a
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior's hand in a transition three situation, or
Speaker 1: the ball does end up in post up of Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon on a random possession here or there. Maybe just
Speaker 1: because they haven't touched the ball as much in that
Speaker 1: particular game as they usually do, they won't be as
Speaker 1: confident as in rhythm as they usually are. And again
Speaker 1: that strategy that I'm the strategy that I'm pitching, which
Speaker 1: is basically defending them two on two and one on
Speaker 1: one and just forcing them to make tough shots. Teams
Speaker 1: have tried that against Denver and it doesn't work. So
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to sit or an act like I've
Speaker 1: solved Denver. But as a like, if I was a
Speaker 1: coach thinking about it from the same point of what
Speaker 1: strategy I would want to implement over the course of
Speaker 1: a playoff series, I would try to leave them on
Speaker 1: an island as much as possible. But there's another side
Speaker 1: to that. I also am a big believer in disguising coverages,
Speaker 1: flipping coverages, trying to disrupt rhythm just by keeping them
Speaker 1: off balance. So like, I would probably do a good
Speaker 1: amount of two on two, one on one coverage, but
Speaker 1: I probably would have Looney on the ball with Raymond
Speaker 1: roaming on the back line sometimes ignoring Aaron Gordon to
Speaker 1: offer more help. Jokic was killing Looney with the chicken
Speaker 1: wing drop step in that game, and it's like he
Speaker 1: needs to be chicken wing drop stepping right into Draymond
Speaker 1: Green just like they're ready physical, trying to get a
Speaker 1: deflection something like that. Right I throw Zone looks at
Speaker 1: him like I would do all sorts of things and
Speaker 1: randomly blitz Jamal Murray like five times a game, you know,
Speaker 1: like you just just tried to find ways to kind
Speaker 1: of just keep them off balance a little bit. But
Speaker 1: the primary coverage that I would go with is a
Speaker 1: two on two or one on one with my best
Speaker 1: on ball defender on Jamal chasing over the top, and
Speaker 1: with my most physical post defender on nakodijokicch and just
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, yeah, that's a really tough shot you hit.
Speaker 1: Got to keep making them again. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: pretend like that's going to work. Hi, Jason Bigfenners show,
Speaker 1: keep up the work. We all know that Jokic is
Speaker 1: by far the best player in the world today and
Speaker 1: maybe has been for two plus years, But how does
Speaker 1: this version of Jokic compare to the best versions of
Speaker 1: other great players in the last ten to fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Hard to pick him over prime Lebron, who would beat him,
Speaker 1: who would beat him in most categories apart from half
Speaker 1: court offense. But do you think this version of Jokic
Speaker 1: is better than any version of Katie and Steph? I
Speaker 1: think this version of Jokic is much better than Katie
Speaker 1: and Steph. To put it simply, Katie and Steph, neither
Speaker 1: of them ever had a point in time where you
Speaker 1: could definitively stay they were the best player in the league.
Speaker 1: There were Kevin Durant fans during the prime of his
Speaker 1: career who thought he was better than Lebron, and a
Speaker 1: lot of those people were just people who didn't like
Speaker 1: Lebron but like And then there was Warrior fans. Like
Speaker 1: Warriors fans think Steph is the best player in the
Speaker 1: world and has been for the better part of a decade.
Speaker 1: But you were not finding many people outside of the
Speaker 1: Golden State fan base that thought Steph Curry was the
Speaker 1: best player in the world. That's the difference between Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokicic and those guys like I would I'd venture to
Speaker 1: guess if I hold one hundred random NBA fans of
Speaker 1: all thirty NBA fan bases, including some casual fans that
Speaker 1: don't really have a team, I'd venture to guess more
Speaker 1: than ninety percent of them would say Nikole Jokic is
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. That just never was
Speaker 1: the case for Steph Curry, and that just never was
Speaker 1: the case for Kevin Durant. So you have to go
Speaker 1: back to guys like Lebron kobemj Like, like, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Jokic isn't on that level because he hasn't accumulated the
Speaker 1: accomplishments yet, but he is on that trajectory. Nikol Jokic
Speaker 1: is very firmly on a goat level trajectory. It's just
Speaker 1: a question of whether or not he can sustain this
Speaker 1: dominance over the course of the next decade. But if
Speaker 1: he does, like if nikoliokicch sustains his dominance, and what
Speaker 1: is he like twenty six, twenty seven years old. Now
Speaker 1: if he goes like six or seven years and wins
Speaker 1: you know, four titles, four additional titles and wins you know,
Speaker 1: one or two more MVPs, like he just automatically cracks
Speaker 1: into that like top five six players of NBA history,
Speaker 1: you know, and Steph has gotten into that conversation because
Speaker 1: of his longevity and his accumulation of accolades. But again,
Speaker 1: there was never a version of Steph Curry where definitively
Speaker 1: around the league everyone thought he was the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. Like I briefly got on that train
Speaker 1: in like twenty twenty two, but it didn't last. It
Speaker 1: just it's just one of those things where you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta, you gotta a compliment Nicole Yokic on the dominance,
Speaker 1: The dominance is just like like like literally you watch
Speaker 1: him and you're like, Wow, this dude's just way better
Speaker 1: than everybody. Now, again, the dominance has to extend the
Speaker 1: season to season to season, Like if Jokic goes into
Speaker 1: the postseason this year and gets outplayed by somebody and
Speaker 1: gets beat, you know that that question changes. But I
Speaker 1: do think, I do think the overarching opinion of the
Speaker 1: basketball community is that Nicole Jokic is by far the
Speaker 1: best player in the world. Right now, do you know
Speaker 1: why Curry has struggled to score against Denver in the
Speaker 1: last two years. I find it funny that a funny
Speaker 1: that KCP keeps clamping his ass up and he really
Speaker 1: isn't doing anything. So I don't think it really Here's
Speaker 1: the KCP is a really good perimeter defender. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to undercut that. But I don't think it's any
Speaker 1: one thing that's slowing Curry down. I think it has
Speaker 1: to do with just the configuration of Denver's defense, Denver's
Speaker 1: back line. Denver's defense has good on ball personnel at
Speaker 1: the forward position and in the card spot, right, like
Speaker 1: KCP and Aaron Gordon. But the flip side of that
Speaker 1: is like they're other guys. They're all just like do
Speaker 1: their job guys. So, for instance, guys like Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior and Nikole Jokic are really good help defenders, right,
Speaker 1: and so as long as they can stay in help,
Speaker 1: they can be a really impactful defense. But the problem
Speaker 1: is Golden State doesn't have enough off ball offensive talent
Speaker 1: to consistently punish help and so Steph Curry is in
Speaker 1: this predicament where Denver's defense is kind of built to
Speaker 1: slow him down because they can have KCP just ball
Speaker 1: pressure the hell out of him, be super physical off
Speaker 1: the ball, and they can trap and hedge in all
Speaker 1: of his ball screens, and there's just not enough offensive
Speaker 1: talent to make them punish, to punish them on the
Speaker 1: back line, because Aaron Gordon is an excellent health defender
Speaker 1: and Michael Porter Junior is an excellent health defender. Nicole
Speaker 1: Yoka is really active with his hands in ball screens
Speaker 1: and is really good at reading the Golden State off
Speaker 1: ball actions and jumping in front of me. Had a
Speaker 1: bunch of steels. I think he had four steals last night, right,
Speaker 1: So like, I don't blame Curry for that. I just
Speaker 1: think it's a bad matchup for the team and it
Speaker 1: manifests in curry offensive struggles. Next one, my man hates
Speaker 1: TORYN Prince. I had my producer, of one of our producers,
Speaker 1: Paul was complaining, I mean joking about this last night.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, I don't have any issue
Speaker 1: with Torrian Prince. I actually was really excited when the
Speaker 1: Lakers signed him this summer. I don't blame him at
Speaker 1: all for what's happened this season. This is a textbook
Speaker 1: example of a guy who for like the better part
Speaker 1: of a half decade was a bench player in the NBA.
Speaker 2: That's what he is.
Speaker 1: He's a bench NBA wing and Darvin Ham has miscast
Speaker 1: him as a high you know, high minutes in many
Speaker 1: cases starting forward, and he just has struggled there because
Speaker 1: that's that's not what his place. And I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, I have no issues with Torrean Prince by
Speaker 1: all indicators. He's a great guy who really coachable, plays hard.
Speaker 1: He's just being I talk about slotting a lot on
Speaker 1: this show, and this is like intentional horse slotting from
Speaker 1: the Lakers because they have better players than him that
Speaker 1: they can play better in higher minutes. But Torrian Prince
Speaker 1: is being slotted into a role that's kind of above
Speaker 1: what he's capable of. If you slot him properly, then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden things start to make more sense.
Speaker 1: I have four more questions and then we're done. Hey
Speaker 1: love the show and have been watching for so long
Speaker 1: that even if I don't watch the games every day,
Speaker 1: I'll still watch her show. Thank you again, even though
Speaker 1: you don't cover the lower teams in the league. What
Speaker 1: do you think happened to Jordan Pool? His work ethic
Speaker 1: was insane, for being a terrible player's first two years
Speaker 1: to being a key piece in the finals run. He
Speaker 1: also led the Warriors as number as the number one
Speaker 1: when Curry was out. He can easily be the number one,
Speaker 1: So what's up with him? I love the guy, but
Speaker 1: it's hard getting moved to the bench on the Wizards.
Speaker 1: I am so not off the Jordan pool train yet.
Speaker 1: I think he is a really really good combination of
Speaker 1: like aid with skill, but also audacity, which I think
Speaker 1: is actually a good thing when it comes to guards.
Speaker 1: I don't think his success in Golden State was an accident.
Speaker 1: I don't have the numbers in front of me, but
Speaker 1: I tweeted them out the other day because I kind
Speaker 1: of had. The reason why I pulled this question is
Speaker 1: I was actually thinking about this the other day. But like,
Speaker 1: for three straight seasons in Golden State before he went
Speaker 1: to Washington, he was like a good efficient score and
Speaker 1: you're right, like he led the units in most cases
Speaker 1: when Steph was off. There were stretches where Steph got hurt,
Speaker 1: and he carried the team to being good enough to
Speaker 1: kind of float the ship. So like a couple of things.
Speaker 1: I attribute it to two things. One, he's a young
Speaker 1: guard who just got paid, So like, think about all
Speaker 1: the think about where your headspace was. Those of you
Speaker 1: guys who are older, think about where your headspace was
Speaker 1: when you were in your early twenties and your priorities
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. Like he's got he's
Speaker 1: learning how to be a pro in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and you know, like I just think it's way too
Speaker 1: early to jump off that bandwagon. And the second piece
Speaker 1: of it, the Warrior the Wizards are a shit show.
Speaker 1: Like like what if we took Jordan Poole and we
Speaker 1: dropped him in Dallas and like in like Jaden Hardy's
Speaker 1: role and he was like the third ball handler for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. You don't think he'd be awesome there.
Speaker 1: I think he'd be awesome there. So like part of
Speaker 1: it's just bad organization, bad team. And then another part
Speaker 1: of it is like he's gotta grow up a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's got to grow up a little bit and kind
Speaker 1: of tighten up his decision making, tighten up like his
Speaker 1: overall like shot selection and just his approach to the game.
Speaker 1: And another big thing with Jordan Pool is like I
Speaker 1: think he makes things unnecessarily difficult on the floor sometimes,
Speaker 1: and so just by kind of like learning how to
Speaker 1: identify the easy ways that he can impact when leaning
Speaker 1: more into those and using his like you know, that
Speaker 1: audacity that I was talking about more as a counter
Speaker 1: rather than as like the foundational part of his offense.
Speaker 1: I think that would go a long way to turning
Speaker 1: his slump around. I had multiple comments along this line.
Speaker 1: Pretending like a deep drop of work against Boston is
Speaker 1: pretty funny.
Speaker 2: Not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I hope the Bucks try it, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: sit here and pretend like the Bucks can't beat a
Speaker 1: deep drop. Of course they can't. Derek White can hit
Speaker 1: pull up threes. Jale Miron can hit pull up threes.
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum can hit pull up threes. Some Boston fans
Speaker 1: in the comments rightly pointed out that a great counter
Speaker 1: to drop coverage is a pick and pop with chrisops
Speaker 1: porzingis the reason why I talked about it is because
Speaker 1: the Celtics have a tendency to occasionally go very cold,
Speaker 1: and so, like I said, if I was coaching against Boston,
Speaker 1: and by the way this, I want to be clear
Speaker 1: up front, I don't think. I don't think the Bucks
Speaker 1: are gonna beat the Celtics in a series. I've picked
Speaker 1: Boston ever since that early stretch of the season when
Speaker 1: Milwaukee really struggled. If Boston played Milwaukee in a series tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I picked Boston every single time I'm talking about that
Speaker 1: would be their best chance to play Boston into their
Speaker 1: worst tendencies. Would you be incredibly shocked if Tatum and
Speaker 1: White just missed a bunch of pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: and Porzingis only shot thirty two percent on pick and
Speaker 1: pop threes instead of thirty eight percent forty two percent
Speaker 1: or something like that, and they had a few cold nights,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, it's a series tied at two,
Speaker 1: and there's a game in Boston and they start three
Speaker 1: for fifteen from three, and all of a sudden, Milwaukee's
Speaker 1: up seven, and Giannis is bullying his way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and like it's not inconceivable, right, That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm saying deep drop is probably Milwaukee's best chance to
Speaker 1: play Boston into their worst tendencies, which is to settle
Speaker 1: for jump shots from the perimeter, particularly off the dribble.
Speaker 1: That's all I meant by that. That doesn't mean it's
Speaker 1: going to work. It's just their best available strategy. Whereas
Speaker 1: the Knicks and the Heat in particular, they are teams
Speaker 1: that that actually kind of plays into their strengths.
Speaker 2: If you let Tyler Harrow.
Speaker 1: And Robinson Comfrey and clear off the screens all night,
Speaker 1: that's literally their favorite way to play. And they're not
Speaker 1: a team that can beat you know, switching coverages and
Speaker 1: things like that, because they're not great at beating guys
Speaker 1: off the dribble, right like that, That's kind of what
Speaker 1: I meant. Jalen Brunston, if you run a deep drop
Speaker 1: coverage against him, Dude's gonna average thirty seven to thirty
Speaker 1: eight points a game in a series, because that's just
Speaker 1: that's like his best way to play the game, right,
Speaker 1: That's all I meant by that, And I Celtics fans
Speaker 1: to have really like Celtics fans have really struggled to
Speaker 1: differentiate the difference between like me talking about what they
Speaker 1: need to do to win the title versus criticism. Those
Speaker 1: are two completely different things, like all of these teams have,
Speaker 1: Like Denver is the only team that you guys will
Speaker 1: hear me talk about that I don't like really nitpick,
Speaker 1: and it's because I trust them at a different level.
Speaker 1: But like all the other twenty nine teams in the league,
Speaker 1: I cover them the exact same way, Here's what they're
Speaker 1: good at, Here's what they're bad at, Here's what they
Speaker 1: need to fix in order to reach their individual ceiling.
Speaker 1: That's all we're talking about with Boston. For them, it's
Speaker 1: their shot selection approach, trying to get into the paint more.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to be overarching because I know
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of Celtics fans that have been
Speaker 1: that have not only been receptive to it, but that
Speaker 1: have also provided really good feedback in the comments that
Speaker 1: have helped me understand the team better. So like, I'm
Speaker 1: just more referring to a certain segment of Celtics fans,
Speaker 1: But I want to be clear, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: be overly negative or undercut their title chances. I think
Speaker 1: this Celtics would beat the Bucks. I'm just literally talking
Speaker 1: about strengths and weaknesses, which is kind of the point
Speaker 1: of the show, if.
Speaker 2: That makes sense. Two more.
Speaker 1: You used to love watching you and Newman hoop back
Speaker 1: in the day. Brandon Newman was my point guard, one
Speaker 1: of our two point guards at Arizona Christian my last
Speaker 1: year playing in college. He ended up making an All
Speaker 1: American team the year after I left. He was kind
Speaker 1: of in and out of the lineup with injuries of
Speaker 1: the year that I was there because he was coming
Speaker 1: off of an acl there, But Brandon Newman was the
Speaker 1: closest thing that I played with to a guy that
Speaker 1: kind of played like Chris Paul in terms of just
Speaker 1: like super methodical pick and role play with outstanding passing
Speaker 1: ability and the ability to hit all of those like
Speaker 1: kind of in between shots. Brandon's an outstanding player. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Brandon. If you leave another comment, tell me
Speaker 1: how you tell me how you know him?
Speaker 2: Last one.
Speaker 1: This is a quote from Jason the Milwaukee Bucks will
Speaker 1: never be an elite defense end quote. Milwaukee Bucks ranked
Speaker 1: sixth and in defense since the Griffin fire.
Speaker 2: Lol.
Speaker 1: I think they were looking consistently solid on defense. That's
Speaker 1: a fifteen game sample size. First tough opponents. I have
Speaker 1: said many times on the show that they're defending way
Speaker 1: better since Doc Rivers took over the head coaching job.
Speaker 1: In large part, they're just competing better. Jay Crowder and
Speaker 1: Malie Beasley are doing a better job on the perimeter
Speaker 1: than they've been getting early in the season. That said,
Speaker 1: what an elite defense is about personnel. An elite defense
Speaker 1: is like Minnesota, who has Anthony Edwards and Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: like two top tier perimeter on ball defenders, and Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: a like op tier rim protector. The Bucks have an
Speaker 1: elite defensive front line, but their perimeter personnel is average
Speaker 1: at best and closer to below average. What that means
Speaker 1: is they will have stretches ten fifteen games at a
Speaker 1: time where they defend better by defensive rating. But to me,
Speaker 1: an elite defense is about personnel. I don't think Milwaukee
Speaker 1: needs to be an elite defense to win the title
Speaker 1: because I think they can be a transcendently elite offense.
Speaker 1: So it's not about what their ultimate ceiling is. I
Speaker 1: think this team what they're doing right now in this
Speaker 1: ranking sixth then defense since the Adrian Griffin firing, they
Speaker 1: are building out the good defensive habits that will give
Speaker 1: them the best chance of being a good enough defense
Speaker 1: when they get to the postseason to beat the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league. But I think you're fooling yourself
Speaker 1: if you think Milwaukee's one of the best defenses in
Speaker 1: the league just giving their personnel. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting the show. No show Tomorrow, I'm
Speaker 1: headed up to northern Arizona to do some skiing for
Speaker 1: just the day. We'll be back on Wednesday for some
Speaker 1: game breakdowns and probably another mail back to drop some
Speaker 1: more mail back questions. The volume