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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody, hope all if you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week so far. We are going to break
Speaker 1: down the return of Ben Simmons with the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 1: as well as the Los Angeles Lakers making their first
Speaker 1: appearance in preseason with both Lebron James Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: the lineup and Austin Reeves first appearance with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: We're gonna break that game down, and then in the
Speaker 1: second half of the show, we're gonna do our season
Speaker 1: preview for the Los Angeles Lakers. They are up next
Speaker 1: in our power rankings at number four, so we'll do
Speaker 1: the usual routine of a season preview on the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers, and then I have two mail bag questions
Speaker 1: for the end of the show as well. You guys
Speaker 1: are the jope for we get started. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt And don't forget any
Speaker 1: more mailbag questions. Keep dropping those in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: All right, So, in the never ending saga of Lakers
Speaker 1: fans trying to figure out who's gonna start at the
Speaker 1: three between Anthony Davis, Lebron, James D'Angelo, Russell, and Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves ended up being Tory and Prince against the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 1: Now doesn't really give us much clarity because Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: the guy who most of us think is gonna start
Speaker 1: at the three, was out with heel soreness, and that
Speaker 1: might have just been a move to essentially keep Ruiy
Speaker 1: Hatcha Mura coming off the bench. They will likely use
Speaker 1: him at the start of the season, So no real
Speaker 1: clarity there, But my guess is they're gonna end up
Speaker 1: going with Jared Vanderbilt. The Lakers dominated the starters did
Speaker 1: at least Anthony Davis on the floor was a plus sixteen.
Speaker 1: They did have a unit they went to at the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter with Christian Wood at the
Speaker 1: center with Lebron that got blitzed. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: in a little bit, but the main thing that was
Speaker 1: killing the Nets early on is they were ducking under picks.
Speaker 1: And this is a big thing that I'm confused about
Speaker 1: just from the strategy standpoint with Brooklyn. They're so athletic,
Speaker 1: and they have so many switchable guys that have length
Speaker 1: and athleticism that can bother ball handlers. I don't understand
Speaker 1: why they're not opting to use more ball pressure. They
Speaker 1: were letting Dangel Russell, Austin Reeves, Lebron James, really everybody
Speaker 1: settle into comfortable pull up jump shots over the top
Speaker 1: of drop coverage and pick and roll, and they, like
Speaker 1: Dangel Russell in particular, got red hot at the start
Speaker 1: of this game. As a team, the Lakers struggled to
Speaker 1: make their pull up jump shots against Golden State, but
Speaker 1: they were making them in a big way against Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Bakers scored thirty three points last night just on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots, even in catch and shoot situations, like
Speaker 1: you'd see Ruey Hatchamura or Lebron James come off of
Speaker 1: a double wide pin down on the right side of
Speaker 1: the floor and they were just coming up and catching
Speaker 1: pretty much unguarded. And you know, you'd see Spencer Dinwood
Speaker 1: he kind of offer a soft close out at Rui,
Speaker 1: but Ruy's just rising up comfortably into shots. And so again,
Speaker 1: like this NETS team doesn't have the offensive talent to
Speaker 1: not be a dominant defensive team. So I did think
Speaker 1: that was interesting. Again, it's early in preseason and we'll
Speaker 1: see over time. There's been a lot of talk from
Speaker 1: the NETS players about how they want to be an
Speaker 1: elite defensive team, but I wasn't super impressed with them
Speaker 1: last night. They got lit on fire. Dangel Russell was awesome.
Speaker 1: Like we said, he got red hot at the start
Speaker 1: of the game. Now, we've all seen de Lo get
Speaker 1: red hot before, but he's been especially good in these
Speaker 1: two preseason games, and hopefully it's a sign of him
Speaker 1: taking that ass kicking at the hands of Bruce Brown
Speaker 1: and the Denver Nuggets last year. Personally in the work
Speaker 1: that he put in over the summer. He was very
Speaker 1: He talked a lot on media day about him working
Speaker 1: hard as a help defender. You're seeing some of that
Speaker 1: show up as he's positioned himself really well in passing lanes.
Speaker 1: He's gotten two steals just by being positioned properly as
Speaker 1: three steals total over the course of the preseason so far.
Speaker 1: But he's been awesome in pick and roll. D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: has run twenty three pick and rolls, leading to thirty
Speaker 1: three points for the Lakers so far in preseason. That's
Speaker 1: one point four to four points per possession. That's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: really nice passing to the roll man. He actually has
Speaker 1: a decent chemistry already with Jackson Hayes, which is an
Speaker 1: interesting thing for bench lineups in the future. His pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots been helping. He's even helping in spot
Speaker 1: up situations. He's three for four so far this preseason
Speaker 1: and catch and shoot threes. So again, just talk at
Speaker 1: media day, but he's so far through two preseason games.
Speaker 1: Delos putting his money where his mouth is. Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: and Ruyhacha Mura both were great. Austin Reeves put up eighteen.
Speaker 1: He got into a good old fashioned shootout with Cam
Speaker 1: Thomas there in the second half, hitting a bunch of threes.
Speaker 1: He's you could tell the confidence is showing up with Austin.
Speaker 1: He had the first bucket of the game for the
Speaker 1: Lakers was a pull up three in transition with Lebron
Speaker 1: running the wing next to him, Like, you know what
Speaker 1: confident you'd have to be to be at his age
Speaker 1: dribbling down the floor in an NBA game with Lebron
Speaker 1: freaking James running the left wing and You're like, nah, dude,
Speaker 1: I got this. I'm shooting a pull up three Like that,
Speaker 1: You could just tell all of the success that he
Speaker 1: had last year at the end of the regular season
Speaker 1: into the postseason into what happened with Team USA is
Speaker 1: flowing into the start of this season, which is exciting.
Speaker 1: Ruy Hachimura putting nineteen points off the bench. His catch
Speaker 1: and shoot three looks great, which once again is going
Speaker 1: to be a vitally important part of his ability to
Speaker 1: stay on the court, especially when they get into the postseason.
Speaker 1: Lebron and AD's jump shooting, this is the most exciting
Speaker 1: part of what I've seen from Lebron and Ad so
Speaker 1: far in the preseason. Those two players have combined to
Speaker 1: take sixteen jump shots so far, and they've scored eighteen
Speaker 1: points on them. Seven points on seven shots for Lebron.
Speaker 1: AD's obviously been a little bit more efficient. But that's
Speaker 1: between the two of them one point one to three
Speaker 1: points per jump shot. Why is that exciting? Because last
Speaker 1: year Lebron in the regular season zero point nine points
Speaker 1: per jump shot, Anthony Davis zero point seven to eight.
Speaker 1: They were both bad jump shooters last year. Now, like Ad,
Speaker 1: it's been several years in a row. Lebron, he has
Speaker 1: a couple of random years last year in the twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen where he shot really poorly. One of the biggest
Speaker 1: questions coming into this year is are they ever going
Speaker 1: to figure that part out? Again? Really small sample size,
Speaker 1: but a good start for the Lakers. If they get
Speaker 1: one point one points per jump shot out of Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad this year, that solves one of the biggest
Speaker 1: problems on this particular roster, which is over the pop,
Speaker 1: over the top shot making, like they need to bolster
Speaker 1: their offense with rescue possessions and tough shot making in
Speaker 1: half court situations. Lebron James hitting a pull up three
Speaker 1: and pick and roll like he did in that first half,
Speaker 1: that's important. He had a one leg fadeaway out of
Speaker 1: a post up on the right block where he kind
Speaker 1: of like took that hard step towards the middle and
Speaker 1: then leaned back off one foot knocked it down. That's
Speaker 1: over the top shot again like that. We talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot on the show, but rescue possessions and
Speaker 1: tough shot making and things like that, those are the
Speaker 1: difference between a bottom tier offense and a top tier offense.
Speaker 1: That's the you know, the three or four shots you
Speaker 1: make every game that the defense is literally giving you
Speaker 1: in a late clock situation or in a coverage situation.
Speaker 1: Those are the shots that could be the difference between
Speaker 1: you being elite and being pretty pedestrian on the offensive.
Speaker 1: Ended four, Anthony Davis has only taken two pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots so far in preseason, and he's missed him both.
Speaker 1: But he's making his threes, and I would argue for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis that's every bit as important as shot making
Speaker 1: because those are shots that defenses are going to concede.
Speaker 1: They're gonna help off of Ad when he's spotting up
Speaker 1: in the corner. They're gonna help off of Ad when
Speaker 1: he picks and pops to the three point line. Him
Speaker 1: making that shot is every bit is important, if not
Speaker 1: more important than the shots that even Lebron James will
Speaker 1: be taking over the top. So again, only two games
Speaker 1: only preseason, a lot of stuff they got to prove
Speaker 1: over the course of the regular season in the postseason,
Speaker 1: but that's a good start. Last note on the Lakers
Speaker 1: in this game, Christian Wood versus Jackson Hayes. So these
Speaker 1: are the two backup centers that the Lakers signed over
Speaker 1: the offseason, and so far, again through two games, Jackson
Speaker 1: Hayes has just looked way better. The one lineup that
Speaker 1: didn't play well for the Lakers in the first half
Speaker 1: against the Nets yesterday when Lebron and ad were playing,
Speaker 1: was that Christian Wood at the center lineup with Lebron James.
Speaker 1: He just looks significantly slower than Christian Wood. He's not
Speaker 1: running the ball or running the floor super well. And
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things is is Jackson Hayes is
Speaker 1: a much like a much more fluid offensive player for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. That doesn't sound right right because Christian Wood
Speaker 1: is the guy that put up big numbers last year,
Speaker 1: but it mainly has to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: the four players around him have an easier time playing
Speaker 1: with him. Why, because he's super predictable, and I mean
Speaker 1: that in a good way. Offensively, if you hit him
Speaker 1: on the roll, he's gonna go up and try to
Speaker 1: shoot right. If you hit him on the perimeter, he's
Speaker 1: going to quickly turn and run a dribble handoff going
Speaker 1: the other way to the other guard coming from the
Speaker 1: other side of the floor. As a result, there's a
Speaker 1: real flow to the offense when Jackson Hayes is on
Speaker 1: the floor. Right now, Christian Wood is being super aggressive
Speaker 1: offensively and trying really hard to get his offense going.
Speaker 1: And so he's catching and he's holding, and he's catching
Speaker 1: and he's isoing, and he's slower to make decisions, and
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of slowing down the flow of the offense.
Speaker 1: And then right now, Jackson Hayes is just a much
Speaker 1: more aware and engaged defensive player. Now. Jackson Hayes had
Speaker 1: a kind of a mixed bag defensively last year with
Speaker 1: the Pelicans. Statistically, he was one of the best pick
Speaker 1: and roll defenders in the league percentergy, but on tape
Speaker 1: it was a lot of high and low, and then
Speaker 1: he really struggled and switches. So like again, like Christian
Speaker 1: Wood can make up this gap, and he's gonna need
Speaker 1: a long runway too, because he's clearly just you know,
Speaker 1: learning how to fit in with this group in a
Speaker 1: way that Jackson Hayes is more naturally figuring out. So
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to write, you know, the death sentence
Speaker 1: on Christian Wood here in the rotation. That's not what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And over the course of the season, Lebron
Speaker 1: and ad are gonna miss him enough time that they're
Speaker 1: gonna play a lot, both of them. I mean, they
Speaker 1: both will play together and they and they did so
Speaker 1: last night. So like all I'm saying is is that
Speaker 1: in the shorter version of the rotation you give the
Speaker 1: advantage to Jackson Hayes at this point because he's better
Speaker 1: defensively and he flows better with the offense. And you
Speaker 1: see that on the scoreboard. By the way, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are minus nineteen so far in Christian Wood's minutes in
Speaker 1: the preseason, in plus nineteen in Jackson Hayes's minutes in
Speaker 1: the preseason, So they're just better so far with Jackson
Speaker 1: Hayes a lot of basketball left. But what that tells
Speaker 1: me is the early indications are that Jackson Hayes looks
Speaker 1: like a guy that you can play two shifts, you know,
Speaker 1: in an important setting as a backup center. There's some
Speaker 1: potential there. Christian Wood looks like a long way away
Speaker 1: from that, and he's going to have to take advantage
Speaker 1: of his opportunities the rest of preseason and in the
Speaker 1: season to prove that he needs that sp that he
Speaker 1: deserves that spot if he wants his offense to have
Speaker 1: a chance to sign through shine through. I should say
Speaker 1: with the nets, Ben Simmons, I thought he looked to
Speaker 1: really spry athletically. He beat Lebron early on a drive
Speaker 1: to his right hand and scooped off the glass when
Speaker 1: Lebron tried to block him. He had a kind of
Speaker 1: runout like a steel where he looked really athletic. Where
Speaker 1: the dead giveaway is like, look at the angle of
Speaker 1: the arms when the guy's dunking the basketball. If he's
Speaker 1: dunking up here, you know he's having to reach for it.
Speaker 1: He's dunking out here. That usually means that his head
Speaker 1: is up and around the rim. And Ben Simmons had
Speaker 1: like that two handed dunkin transition where his arms were
Speaker 1: out in front of him and you're like, oh, like
Speaker 1: he's getting up like he used to. He took a
Speaker 1: little jump shot on the right elbow and he missed
Speaker 1: it long off the left side of the rim. But
Speaker 1: I literally just don't care about his jump shot. I mean,
Speaker 1: at this point that ship has sailed. Ben's never going
Speaker 1: to be an offensive star. What he has to be
Speaker 1: for the Nets is the Ford version of Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: He needs to be an athletic wrecking ball on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, a connective piece on offense that
Speaker 1: primarily operates running dribble handoffs and operating out of the
Speaker 1: high post as other guys are running action and he's distributing,
Speaker 1: screening and rolling hard to the rim, making plays as
Speaker 1: he's rolling to the rim, because he does have the
Speaker 1: ability to finish at the rim and pass. And then
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the or, he needs to
Speaker 1: be the defensive Player of the Year candidate that he's
Speaker 1: capable of being as one of the most versatile backline
Speaker 1: and perimeter defenders that we have in the NBA when
Speaker 1: he's healthy. But that's the key. He needed to get
Speaker 1: his back straight. He needed to get healthy to get
Speaker 1: near at least his former athleticism, and he looks at
Speaker 1: least near at this point. Again, it's early, it's preseason,
Speaker 1: but Ben looks very athletic and that's super encouraging. Cam
Speaker 1: Thomas twenty six points, took twelve jump shots last night,
Speaker 1: May eight of them six for nine on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots. And you know, I heard the announcers talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, how Cam Thomas can stay in the rotation,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, Like, as I look at the
Speaker 1: NETS roster, I don't really see universe where he falls
Speaker 1: out of the rotation. I mean, once you get past
Speaker 1: bencer Dinwoodie and Michale Bridges, it's a pretty big drop
Speaker 1: off to the rest of the shot creation on that roster,
Speaker 1: especially with Ben simmons limitations as a shooter. And so
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you do include Ben Simmons and there,
Speaker 1: Cam Thomas is unquestionably, no, no worse than their fourth
Speaker 1: best shot creator and probably their third best shot creator. So, like,
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna play a lot. And I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. He if he shoots this well, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be an impactful player. I mean, there's a lot.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: on the on the broadcast about how he needs to
Speaker 1: defend to stay in the rotation and things along those lines. Again,
Speaker 1: like they might not necessarily need him to earn a
Speaker 1: spot in the rotation just because they're gonna need his
Speaker 1: shot creation, all right, Moving on to my Lakers season previews,
Speaker 1: so I have them at number four in my power
Speaker 1: rankings quick offseason recap. They lost Mobamba, Malik Beasley, Troy Brown, Junior,
Speaker 1: Nyan Gabriel, Dennis Schroeder, and Lonnie Walker. They added Jalen
Speaker 1: Hood Chafino and Maxwell Lewis and the draft, And for
Speaker 1: you Lakers fans haven't seen my draft scouting report on them,
Speaker 1: go back in my feed to right around the draft,
Speaker 1: and I actually did full scouts on both Jaleno, Chafino
Speaker 1: and Maxwell Lewis at that point, and then I did
Speaker 1: additional scouts of them at summerly. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: for more content on them, you'll find that back in
Speaker 1: the feed. Jackson Hayes, Christian Wood, the two backup centers
Speaker 1: they brought in, Tory and Prince cam Reddish. Toryan Prince
Speaker 1: is what I think is a really interesting option to
Speaker 1: have is forward depth from the standpoint of the fact
Speaker 1: that he kind of functionally operates as a three. Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: can defend like a three and can defend like a one,
Speaker 1: but can defend like a three, which requires what do
Speaker 1: I mean by that. Let's let's let's dig into this
Speaker 1: a little bit. So we've talked about the defensive assignments
Speaker 1: on the show before, and the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: like most teams have two or three shot creators, right,
Speaker 1: these are the guys that have the live dribble that
Speaker 1: are creating shots from the perimeter. Okay, then they're gonna
Speaker 1: have dudes that they they use primarily for defense that
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to tuck away in the weak side
Speaker 1: corner as a way that they can try to not
Speaker 1: gum up the offense a ton. And then they're gonna
Speaker 1: have a screen and roll either fulkroom or threat. So
Speaker 1: either a guy who comes up in set screens and
Speaker 1: rolls to the basket, a guy like Nick Claxton, right,
Speaker 1: or a folkrum a guy like Demana Sabonis, bam Adebayo,
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic who's going to actually be running most of
Speaker 1: the action. Which are handoffs some screens at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, right, So as you match up with
Speaker 1: them defensively, you need a guy who can guard in
Speaker 1: two man game, right, So let's call that Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in this case. You need a guy who can guard
Speaker 1: the lowman. In this case, let's call that Lebron James,
Speaker 1: because he's going to be the guy that's going to
Speaker 1: want to rest on a lot of possessions. And he
Speaker 1: actually is at his best defensively in year twenty one
Speaker 1: as a lowman defender, using his IQ in his ability
Speaker 1: to make plays at the rim defensively, right. So now
Speaker 1: I've got to guard these other three perimeter players, and
Speaker 1: these other three perimeter players are probably all shot creators,
Speaker 1: and so I've got to match up with them with
Speaker 1: point of attack defense. And so that is going to
Speaker 1: be different because now those defenders are going to have
Speaker 1: to navigate screens. Lebron is the low man, probably not
Speaker 1: gonna have to navigate too many screens. Anthony Davis as
Speaker 1: the screen defender, probably not gonna have to navigate too
Speaker 1: many screens. So bigger bodies do better in that position
Speaker 1: because it's more about dealing with physicality, jumping for contested rebounds,
Speaker 1: protecting the rim, that kind of thing, right, that's what
Speaker 1: those guys do on the perimeter. It's very much about
Speaker 1: foot speed and quickness and the ability to navigate ball
Speaker 1: screens and cause problems at the point of attack. And
Speaker 1: so let's look at Ruy Hatcha Mura and Jared Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatchi Mura kind of fits more into that Lebron
Speaker 1: James Mold. He's big, strong, good athlete, but he's a
Speaker 1: little top heavy, not a very laterally quick player. So
Speaker 1: he can be impactful as a defensive rebounder, as a
Speaker 1: help defender, as a guy switching on to bigger players
Speaker 1: in general, banging with bigger bodies, right, that's where he
Speaker 1: can be most useful defensively. But if you ask ruyat
Speaker 1: Tcha Mura to start running around screens, there can be
Speaker 1: some issues there because he's a big body, doesn't slide
Speaker 1: his feet super super well. Right. But then on the
Speaker 1: offensive end, Ruy Hatcha Mura does function like a three
Speaker 1: because he's been shooting the shit out of the basketball
Speaker 1: since he came to the Lakers, and he can attack
Speaker 1: close outs and hit pull up jump shots and then
Speaker 1: he can also do some for stuff offensively in the
Speaker 1: post and duckins and things along those lines. Right, So
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatchamura defensively functions as a four and offensively functions
Speaker 1: as a three to four. Right, then we look at
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt offensively, he also functions as a four. He's
Speaker 1: not a guy that can run, drive and kick basketball
Speaker 1: or reliably knocked down shots from above the break. You
Speaker 1: have to either tuck him in the corner and pray
Speaker 1: he makes thirty six percent of him or he has
Speaker 1: to work out of the dunker spot where he can struggle.
Speaker 1: You saw that against Golden State when he had a
Speaker 1: couple of catches under the basket that he fumbled, right.
Speaker 1: And so the problem with Jared Vanderbilt is he is
Speaker 1: an outstanding perimeter defender. He does defend like a three.
Speaker 1: He can navigate screens. Actually, Jared Vanderbilt, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is either a top tier or second tier perimeter defender
Speaker 1: in the league. That's how impactful he can be in
Speaker 1: that position. But he just has severe limitations on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. And so what I like
Speaker 1: about Torrian Prince is he basically brings kind of like
Speaker 1: the genuine three approach. He's a guy who can knock down,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes at a high rate and attack
Speaker 1: close out, so he can functionally operate on offense like
Speaker 1: a three, and then on defense he's not as good
Speaker 1: defense is Jared Vanderbilt, to be clear, but he can
Speaker 1: navigate over the top of screens and provide back pressure.
Speaker 1: That's his particular strength defensively. But you saw against Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga he can get punished in the post, so he
Speaker 1: can't defend like a four. Right if you put a
Speaker 1: bigger athlete attacking him down low by the basket, he
Speaker 1: can struggle a little bit. So what I like about
Speaker 1: the Torrean Prince acquisition is it kind of gives you
Speaker 1: a more well rounded group of forwards. Now you've got
Speaker 1: two options to defend at the three in Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and Ruy Hatchamura, or excuse me, Jared Vanderbilt and Torrian Prince.
Speaker 1: And you've got two options to defend at the four,
Speaker 1: which is Ruy Hatchamura and Jared Vanderbilt, who can do
Speaker 1: both because he's also pretty big and strunk. So you've
Speaker 1: got a little bit more defensive versatility. And on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the four. If Ruy doesn't have it
Speaker 1: going defensively and you literally can't play him because of
Speaker 1: a specific matchup where he's navigating screens too much. But
Speaker 1: on the other end, you can't afford to have Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: get ignored. You have Torrian Prince as an option, and
Speaker 1: so I really like that pick up, especially the Biannual exception,
Speaker 1: which is an affordable contract range as just a guy
Speaker 1: who can just kind of give them more depth at
Speaker 1: the forward position and versatility in some ways that Ruy
Speaker 1: and Van do have some holes. Cam Reddish, I don't
Speaker 1: expect him to play much this year. I think he
Speaker 1: is still a player who's learning how to play winning
Speaker 1: basketball and his far way away from that. But he
Speaker 1: will have his moments and he will score points when
Speaker 1: he does get minutes. And then Gabe Vincent, who I
Speaker 1: thought was an intentional move away from the Dennis Schroeder archetype,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a little bit. So kind
Speaker 1: of recapping the offseason, they also re signed or extended Ruey, Hatchamura,
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, Dangela Russell, Jared Vanderbilt, Anthony and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and now as a result all five of those guys
Speaker 1: are locked up for at least the next two years,
Speaker 1: and all of them except for Dangela Russell, are locked
Speaker 1: up for at least the next three years. So there's
Speaker 1: going to be continuity. There is security in the group
Speaker 1: of guys that's going to be coming to work every
Speaker 1: day for this team for the next few years. That's
Speaker 1: an advantage that the Lakers have lacked over the last
Speaker 1: few years with all the roster turnover that they've been
Speaker 1: going with. Now, there was a big kind of like
Speaker 1: narrative split in the public over what really happened in
Speaker 1: this Laker off season. You had a lot of people
Speaker 1: saying the Lakers had a great off season, and then
Speaker 1: you had a lot of other people saying, like, well,
Speaker 1: they didn't get any better in the key areas. And like,
Speaker 1: the thing that's funny with that is like they're both right,
Speaker 1: They're just arguing about different things, right, So, like, you're right,
Speaker 1: did they get better at the things they needed to
Speaker 1: beat Denver? Did they get more athletic in the backcourt
Speaker 1: and better at the point of attack? No? Did they
Speaker 1: get better at backup center? I mean, we'll see, did
Speaker 1: they get better with shot making? Definitely not unless Lebron
Speaker 1: and ad magically improve. So, like, did they fix those problems? No,
Speaker 1: So I agree with these people, But the point is is,
Speaker 1: like those weren't really capable of being fixed this offseason.
Speaker 1: Like they made a run at Bruce Brown to improve
Speaker 1: their backcourt athleticism. He was too expensive, He's twenty plus
Speaker 1: million a year. He went to the to the Pacers. Right.
Speaker 1: They made a run at brook Lopez. They needed a
Speaker 1: legit center. They went after brook Lopez. They couldn't get him,
Speaker 1: he was twenty plus million a year, went back to
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Right, And then they didn't have the tradable
Speaker 1: salaries to get involved in the Dame sweepstakes or the
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday sweepstakes and probably didn't have the assets to
Speaker 1: get it done anyway. So like, if you really look
Speaker 1: at it, the magical top end improvement wasn't there for
Speaker 1: the Lakers in the off season. But they did improve
Speaker 1: the things they could do. They had the best offseason
Speaker 1: they could have had under their set of circumstances. They
Speaker 1: didn't get cute. They brought back all of their important
Speaker 1: playoff rotation players on affordable deals, and that continuity is valuable, right,
Speaker 1: They brought in useful depth at positions where they needed it,
Speaker 1: depth at forward Victorian Prince. They have two backup centers
Speaker 1: now when last year they had won who got hurt
Speaker 1: in Mobamba, right, and one of which in Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: has been winning his minutes in preseason and looks pretty solid.
Speaker 1: So like they did the best they could with what
Speaker 1: was available to them this offseason. Even the Gabe Vincent
Speaker 1: for Denil Schroder switch made sense to me, Like Gabe
Speaker 1: is a downgrade at the point of attack by some amount.
Speaker 1: I still think Gabe's a decent point of attack defender,
Speaker 1: but he's a downgrade from Dennis Schroeder theoretically, right, But
Speaker 1: it makes more sense on this roster because with Ruey
Speaker 1: and Lebron and Anthony Davis and D'Angel Russell and Ossin Reeves,
Speaker 1: they actit need someone who's more comfortable playing without the basketball,
Speaker 1: and Gave Vincent's just a better off ball guard than
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder is right, So I kind of like that
Speaker 1: move too. So it wasn't like some massive ceiling raising
Speaker 1: off season like Milwaukee bringing in Damian Lillard, but that
Speaker 1: wasn't available. They did the best with what was available
Speaker 1: and they improved. I look at it as an excellent
Speaker 1: offseason for the Lakers on two fronts. They became a
Speaker 1: regular season they became a better regular season team through
Speaker 1: continuity and depth right, and then two, they maintained flexibility
Speaker 1: if the right trade becomes available down the line. They
Speaker 1: have four salaries now between ten million and twenty million
Speaker 1: that can be pieced together in any way to target
Speaker 1: a player. And they also have the depth at forward
Speaker 1: to where if they need to get rid of a forward,
Speaker 1: they can, like if they have to use a forward
Speaker 1: a salary filler, they can because they've got two others left. Right,
Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example. Let's say, and again,
Speaker 1: Lakers fans love Rui. I love Rui. Maybe it all
Speaker 1: works out and he stays with the Lakers forever. That'd
Speaker 1: be great. But what I'm saying is, let's say a
Speaker 1: great player comes available in the trade market and you
Speaker 1: have to use ruy salary. You can get to thirty
Speaker 1: three million in salary filler with D'Angelo Russell and Ruey
Speaker 1: hat Schimura, and you can do that and still have
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt and Torrian Prints at forward for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. Right, So like some star guard becomes
Speaker 1: available that monumentally improves the Lakers' chances with shot making
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and you can get it done with
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, ruy hat Chimura and two first round picks.
Speaker 1: Now you have the ability to make a move like that.
Speaker 1: That is flexibility that they brought in this particular offseason
Speaker 1: with their strategy. So I thought that was a good strategy. Now, like, again,
Speaker 1: the process from Rob Polink has been great. The only
Speaker 1: real question is, and this is the thing, Lebron had
Speaker 1: his first real decline last year in the postseason, right now,
Speaker 1: that was injury, but injuries related to age. He's now
Speaker 1: in his twenty first season. If the Lakers make it
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals again this year, Lebron James
Speaker 1: will be thirty nine years old, thirty nine and a
Speaker 1: half years old at the time of that series. So, like,
Speaker 1: the real question is is, like Rob's figured out his
Speaker 1: mistakes and he's rectified them, But did you the risk
Speaker 1: here was that you know, Lebron's age thirty seven and
Speaker 1: thirty eight seasons basically went to waste, right, and now
Speaker 1: you're an aged thirty nine season, right, So again I
Speaker 1: want to pay the compliment to Rob for the excellent
Speaker 1: job that him in his front office has done this
Speaker 1: offseason and really since the ruy Haacha Mura trade last
Speaker 1: year before the deadline. But there is it's important to
Speaker 1: tell the full story, and the cost here is that
Speaker 1: Lebron's a lot older as a result, but who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe it'll all work out because of other improvements we'll
Speaker 1: talk about in a little bit. So the depth chart
Speaker 1: as of right now at guard, D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: Gave Vincent and Jalen Chafino. At ford Lebron, James Ruyatcha Murra,
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, Torrian Prince, Max Christi, Cam Reddish, and Maxwell Lewis.
Speaker 1: And at center Anthony Davis, Jackson, Hayesen, Christian Woods. So
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of depth at forward and center, which
Speaker 1: is weird compared to what they've had in earlier seasons.
Speaker 1: And they have three starting caliber guards, but they are
Speaker 1: a little thin at guard. Now, that's a good spot
Speaker 1: to be in because the three guards they have are
Speaker 1: all capable of starting for a legit NBA Championship contender,
Speaker 1: right But the problem is is it's a big drop
Speaker 1: off to Jalen hoo Chafino there and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you look at Damoy Hodge there, maybe you can play
Speaker 1: Max Christy as a as a two guard, but like
Speaker 1: it is a pretty big drop off, and so essentially,
Speaker 1: like they are a little bit thin at guard, and
Speaker 1: that's something to keep an eye on over the course
Speaker 1: of the season, just from the standpoint of injuries, like
Speaker 1: a significant injury to D'Angelo Russell or Austin Reeves could
Speaker 1: cause some problems for the Lakers with their lack of
Speaker 1: backoin depth after those top three guys. Now, there are
Speaker 1: four playoff weaknesses that I see in this particular roster,
Speaker 1: and I want to dive into each of them for
Speaker 1: a second. So the first one is backcourt athleticism. Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves and di'angelo Russell are both reasonably tall, right, like
Speaker 1: six four sixty five between the two of them, but
Speaker 1: neither of them are particularly strong or athletic, and so
Speaker 1: they really struggled with Bruce Brown, especially D'Angelo Russell, like
Speaker 1: really struggled with Bruce Brown. It was one of the
Speaker 1: biggest swing factors in that series. Bruce average twelve four
Speaker 1: and three, but most importantly he sapped de Lo of
Speaker 1: his confidence. D'Angelo Russell scored six points per game in
Speaker 1: that series. I'm thirty two percent shooting and basically got
Speaker 1: removed from the floor by Darvin Hamm. There's a big
Speaker 1: swing factor. And how did he do it? Because he
Speaker 1: was too big, strong and athletic for him on one
Speaker 1: end of the floor, just too physical at the point
Speaker 1: of attack, just basically taking Delo out of rhythm and
Speaker 1: sapping him of his confidence. And then on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor just straight line drives. And so
Speaker 1: my transition hard Dribble moves to his right, knowing that
Speaker 1: Delo is not capable physically of sliding his feet and
Speaker 1: staying in front. Again, like the Lakers backcourt is super skilled,
Speaker 1: super skilled, but athleticism is not a strong point. Now,
Speaker 1: the counterpoint here is the Nuggets lost Bruce Brown, and
Speaker 1: I really like Christian Brown, but he's not as good
Speaker 1: as Bruce Brown, right, So, like, I don't think the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are going to be able to capitalize on that
Speaker 1: specific advantage nearly as much in this offseason or this postseason.
Speaker 1: And I don't see that as an issue with any
Speaker 1: of the other teams they really could face in the
Speaker 1: West except for the Clippers. The Clippers with Terrence Mann
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook could cause serious problems for the Lakers
Speaker 1: with their backcourt athleticism. But again, like the Clippers are
Speaker 1: too hard to take seriously as a threat because of
Speaker 1: their injury history, So I'm not super concerned about the
Speaker 1: backcourt athleticism. But that is definitely a weakness on this roster.
Speaker 1: The backup center position. None of the Lakers backup centers
Speaker 1: last year in the postseason were playable. Whnyion Gabriel is
Speaker 1: way too small, so he basically was just another forward,
Speaker 1: and Lebron basically ended up playing center. And then Mobamba,
Speaker 1: who sprained his ankle right before the postseason and then
Speaker 1: when he was healthy, was not in a position to play. Now,
Speaker 1: will Jackson Hayes and Christian would be up to it,
Speaker 1: We'll see again. Early through two preseason games, Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: looks like the better option. They're plus nineteen in his minutes.
Speaker 1: That's encouraging. You want to be positive. With Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: off the floor right now, some of those minutes were
Speaker 1: with Jackson Hayes. But Jackson's played well, But it's too
Speaker 1: early to tell, so I'm gonna put a big question
Speaker 1: mark by that one. The third biggest weakness of this
Speaker 1: roster for the postseason is over the top shot making.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were twenty ninth and pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: efficiency in the regular season last year, so literally second
Speaker 1: worst in the league. They also had a one toh
Speaker 1: one offensive rating in the clutch in the playoffs. Not good.
Speaker 1: That comes down to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Those
Speaker 1: two guys were awful last year making shots over the
Speaker 1: top of the defense. Look what happened in the Denver series.
Speaker 1: All those games were close, right. Three of the four
Speaker 1: games came down to crunch time. The other the only
Speaker 1: one that didn't come down to crunch time. The Lakers
Speaker 1: had a double digit second alf lete and really the
Speaker 1: Nuggets just did basically a clutch time blitz at the
Speaker 1: start of the fourth quarter. Right. But what happened in
Speaker 1: that series every time the game slowed down, Nikola Jokic
Speaker 1: and Jamal Murray were able to make over the shot
Speaker 1: over the tough over the top shots, right, But Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis were not. That was literally the series.
Speaker 1: They were neck and neck basically the rest of the
Speaker 1: games until it slowed down at the end, and then
Speaker 1: the Nuggets out executed them every single time. Now, so
Speaker 1: far in preseason, they're shooting well. Right, Lebron and Ad
Speaker 1: have taken sixteen jump shots in preseason and they've scored
Speaker 1: eighteen points on them. That's well over a point possession.
Speaker 1: That's really good. But it's early, and that's something that
Speaker 1: they're gonna need to clearly demonstrate throughout the regular season
Speaker 1: and throughout the postseason in ordering to fix. In order
Speaker 1: to fix now, like unless there's a personnel move, a
Speaker 1: specific trade to make, it's up to Lebron or Ad,
Speaker 1: but certainly from a roster standpoint, over the offseason they
Speaker 1: did not get any better there. And then lastly, point
Speaker 1: of attack defense. Now, point of attack defenses have always
Speaker 1: said is one of the most important parts of modern
Speaker 1: NBA defense because of the team's spamming pick and roll
Speaker 1: and how good pull up jump shooters are. Now you
Speaker 1: need a guy who can navigate over the top of
Speaker 1: screens and bother players from behind so that your back
Speaker 1: line can be impactful defensively. It's vitally important. Last year
Speaker 1: they had two really good options. They had Dennis Schroder
Speaker 1: and Jared Vanderbilt, Right, But Dennis Schroeder was a little
Speaker 1: too small, particularly struggled with Jamal Murray, and then offensively
Speaker 1: he was hit or miss, especially off the ball. Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt was outstanding, like just an excellent point of attack defender,
Speaker 1: but had the offensive limitations that caused problems in the postseason. Right,
Speaker 1: And now you've downgraded Dennis to Gabe, who is just
Speaker 1: going to be a lesser version of Dennis with the
Speaker 1: same small weaknesses. Right, So a man again, like if
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt makes a significant offensively that helps to mitigate
Speaker 1: this problem, but even if that does happen, he's really
Speaker 1: your only guy. So this is a roster that has
Speaker 1: a significant weakness in point of attack defense. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: they're excellent back line defense and a lot more athletic
Speaker 1: than I think people think, but they're going to struggle
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. So in summary, it's backcourt
Speaker 1: trained and athleticism. Athleticism which I don't think will matter
Speaker 1: much this year. And then the backup center position, which
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers will figure out before the end
Speaker 1: of the season, and I think Jackson as is a
Speaker 1: good chance so it really comes down to shot making
Speaker 1: and point of attack defense. Those are the two biggest
Speaker 1: weaknesses that could will most likely get them beat at
Speaker 1: this point. So the question is is which is more
Speaker 1: important because they do not have the assets to address
Speaker 1: both in my opinion. So if you could bring in
Speaker 1: a above average starter who is an elite point of
Speaker 1: attack defender or an outstanding over the top shot maker,
Speaker 1: which direction do you go? That's the big question. And
Speaker 1: to me, it really comes down to who the shot
Speaker 1: maker is. So if I was running the Lakers and
Speaker 1: we get to the deadline and those two options are
Speaker 1: on the table, it depends what the options are. If
Speaker 1: the shot maker is let's say, you know, someone like
Speaker 1: Jordan Clarkson, Like, I don't think that's worth it. Right,
Speaker 1: If it's James Harden, I don't think that's worth it.
Speaker 1: But if it's like a real top tier guy, like
Speaker 1: let's say the Mavericks completely self implode this year and
Speaker 1: at the deadline, you know, Luca gets hurt and Kyrie's
Speaker 1: super upset and he just wants to get out, and
Speaker 1: you can make a move for someone like Kyrie. Hell, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do that. You find the salaries. I think it
Speaker 1: would have to take Ruey, it would take de Lo.
Speaker 1: You probably have to use another contract in there as well.
Speaker 1: But like you do that, but if it's anybody below
Speaker 1: that tier, I don't think it's worth it. And the
Speaker 1: reason why is you're not going to beat Denver in
Speaker 1: shot making with a mid level shot creator. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna beat Damon Milwaukee with a mid level shot creator.
Speaker 1: It has to be one of the guys, and so
Speaker 1: if you can get one of the guys, you go
Speaker 1: for it. That's why I lean more towards the point
Speaker 1: of attack position. Be great at what you're great at.
Speaker 1: Don't try to beat Denver at shot making. Don't try
Speaker 1: to beat Milwaukee at shot making. Beat them by being
Speaker 1: the best defense in the NBA. And if you get
Speaker 1: another outstanding point of attack defender out there, with that
Speaker 1: front line and with commitment from the rest of the roster,
Speaker 1: you can be downright destructive defensively. I know the GMS
Speaker 1: all overlooked AD and the best defender category, but like,
Speaker 1: he's the best defender in the league. How do you
Speaker 1: not see that by watching the postseason last year and
Speaker 1: everything you in the second half of the regular season,
Speaker 1: he's the best defender. So if you give him real
Speaker 1: support on the perimeter, that's where you can go up
Speaker 1: against teams like Denver and be like, yeah, you're great
Speaker 1: at that, but we're great at this. Deal with it, right.
Speaker 1: That's the way that I would go about it if
Speaker 1: I was running the Lakers, unless it was a top
Speaker 1: tier shot maker at the deadline, I'd be looking at
Speaker 1: a point of attack guy, And honestly, you don't do
Speaker 1: anything like that unless you need to. It's a judgment
Speaker 1: call you make at that point. If you get to
Speaker 1: February and Lebron, James and Anthony Davis are making their
Speaker 1: jump shots and Jared Vanderbilt is a little more efficient
Speaker 1: from three and a little more efficient from the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: you don't mess with it, and you run it with
Speaker 1: that group, right, It's a judgment call you make at
Speaker 1: the deadline. My prediction for this year, I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are well positioned for a successful regular season. I
Speaker 1: think they'll be a top four seed in the standings
Speaker 1: in the West, barring like a catastrophic injury to Ad.
Speaker 1: I think they can afford for eighty and Lebron each
Speaker 1: to miss twenty games. They're deep now and they're deep
Speaker 1: at the important positions you need to win in the NBA. Like,
Speaker 1: they're actually deep, young and athletic in the front court, right,
Speaker 1: Like eighty and Lebron can both be out, and they
Speaker 1: can run a starting lineup with Austin Reeves, Dangela Russell,
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, Ruy Hatchamurra, and Jackson Hayes. That's a functional
Speaker 1: basketball team that has a real chance to win games,
Speaker 1: especially against bad teams. So you might be able to
Speaker 1: buy rest time there. They didn't have that last year.
Speaker 1: Everyone on the roster other than Lebron, James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is in their twenties. Is a young, athletic team.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that Lebron missing twenty games or
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis missing twenty games is a problem. It's if
Speaker 1: Ads mis fifty games. Now we're talking about a much
Speaker 1: more serious issue. Right. But barring that sort of catastrophic injury,
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are going to be a top
Speaker 1: four seed. But in the playoffs, I think they're clearly
Speaker 1: behind Denver, Milwaukee, and Boston unless they have a significant upgrade,
Speaker 1: and that upgrade can come from two places. An upgrade
Speaker 1: in offensive pote hot and see from Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis right, Lebron and Ad improving his jump shooters,
Speaker 1: or a roster upgrade either targeting a high level shot
Speaker 1: creator or a point of attack defender. If they don't
Speaker 1: upgrade in one of those two ways, I think they're
Speaker 1: destined to lose in the semis of the conference finals. Again,
Speaker 1: all right, let's move on the mailback. First question in
Speaker 1: your video a year ago is Steph Curry top five
Speaker 1: player at NBA history. You divided players into bigs and
Speaker 1: perimeter players. What changed this year and why do you
Speaker 1: have bigs like Ad and Jokic in the rankings with
Speaker 1: other guards and forwards. It's just really the difference between
Speaker 1: ranking all time versus in the league right now all time.
Speaker 1: It's more about how we rank them with their peers,
Speaker 1: and it's purely for fun, right Like ranking them now,
Speaker 1: you're almost looking at it from the perspective of like
Speaker 1: a general manager. Like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you're picking teams, you can pick a center or
Speaker 1: a perimeter player, and if it's a better center, you're
Speaker 1: gonna take the better center over the lesser perimeter player,
Speaker 1: right like you're gonna take Joel Embiid over a guy
Speaker 1: like Jamal Murray, right, for instance, Whereas like if I
Speaker 1: had just guards in a list, you know, Jamal Murray's
Speaker 1: gonna be higher on the list, right, and and and
Speaker 1: beads not even in consideration. So that's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: when Jamal m Murray's career is over, I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: at him and the way he stacks up to other
Speaker 1: two guards. Right. But like in the bigger picture, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, if I'm running a team and centers are available,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna consider that. So essentially, what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is is that, like right now, looking at the league,
Speaker 1: centers and players have to be ranked with each other.
Speaker 1: But in the all time sense, it makes sense to
Speaker 1: separate them because they effectively play different positions and it's
Speaker 1: really hard to compare them all. Right, Last one, what
Speaker 1: team do you think will perform worse than the majority expects?
Speaker 1: This is a great question. I thought really long and
Speaker 1: hard about this one. I have two teams that I'll
Speaker 1: throw out there. First of the Sacramento Kings. A couple
Speaker 1: of reasons why the West is insanely deep this year,
Speaker 1: and they got super lucky with injuries last year. They
Speaker 1: were the least injured team in the league last year.
Speaker 1: So as a result of that, I expect them to
Speaker 1: dip down into the bottom half of the Western Conference
Speaker 1: standings finished, you know, five to six, seven eight in
Speaker 1: that range. The second team I put in there was
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, to be clear, don't take this
Speaker 1: the wrong way. I'm a huge believer in their playoff ceiling,
Speaker 1: but they gave up a lot of depth and they're
Speaker 1: really bad at the point of attack. And so like
Speaker 1: any injury to one of their core four players, like
Speaker 1: if Jannis misses time, they're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: float the ship the way they did in the past.
Speaker 1: If brook Lopez miss his time, they're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to float the ship the way they did in
Speaker 1: the past. God forbid Dame misses time, like, you're gonna
Speaker 1: really miss what Drew Holliday brought at that point. So, like,
Speaker 1: don't be surprised if there are several games behind Boston
Speaker 1: in the standings, like a solid five to six games
Speaker 1: behind Boston in the in the in the standings when
Speaker 1: we get to the end of the regular season. But
Speaker 1: obviously I'm very much pro the Dame trade, and I
Speaker 1: think it will pay dividends when they get to May.
Speaker 1: I just think they a little bit of a regular
Speaker 1: season sacrifice this season for a postseason increase in potential.
Speaker 1: And so again, I think the majority probably viewsed the
Speaker 1: Bucks and Celtics at the top of the East again
Speaker 1: all conference. And don't get me wrong, the Bucks might
Speaker 1: still finish two. I just think it's more gonna be
Speaker 1: like the Celtics runaway with the conference and then everyone
Speaker 1: else is behind them at that point. At the start
Speaker 1: of the NBA season is still about two weeks away,
Speaker 1: two weeks from tonight to be exact. But there's no
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Speaker 1: some basketball. So Victor goes for twenty and five with
Speaker 1: two steals in a block in nineteen minutes. He played
Speaker 1: a shift at the beginning of the third quarter that
Speaker 1: Chet didn't play. Chet goes for twenty one and nine
Speaker 1: with a block in sixteen minutes. I was watching the
Speaker 1: game this morning. Alien shit is happening all over the court,
Speaker 1: Like Victor hit this spin move up and under lefty
Speaker 1: scoop shot off the glass that literally like you're thinking
Speaker 1: to yourself, this guy's just gonna throw. You see any
Speaker 1: other NBA player do that that's at that size and
Speaker 1: you're half expecting them just to launch it off the
Speaker 1: backboard as a brick. But he has that soft touch
Speaker 1: to be able to finish while moving with that crazy
Speaker 1: spin move in through the lane. Chet holmguns running inverted
Speaker 1: pick and rolls and elevating and taking taking the hit
Speaker 1: and double pump finishing like he's a two guard in
Speaker 1: the nineties. It was crazy. The biggest thing that stood
Speaker 1: out to me, just in a big picture sense was
Speaker 1: the level of dexterity. Again, like we see big guys
Speaker 1: try to do little guy stuff right around the league.
Speaker 1: We see Andre Drummond take a step back three occasionally
Speaker 1: we see Javail McGee go with some aggressive move through
Speaker 1: the lane, and as it's happening, you're watching and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is gonna end badly, and it'll Drummonds shot will
Speaker 1: go three feet over the back of the rim, right,
Speaker 1: or Javail will go to that hook shot and literally
Speaker 1: just put a hole on the backboard, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: what you expect from players of that size. But these
Speaker 1: dudes just have the touch and the dexterity and the
Speaker 1: footwork and the polish that you expect to see from guards.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing that's crazy about them as archetypes
Speaker 1: to add to their teams, they're basically wings that can
Speaker 1: provide the defense and rebounding support that you get from
Speaker 1: big old rim protectors right, and both teams are gonna
Speaker 1: be much better as a result. So let's start with
Speaker 1: Victor and on the offensive or on the defensive into
Speaker 1: the four. So on defense, as was the intel going
Speaker 1: into camp, they ended up playing him at the four
Speaker 1: alongside Zach Collins and using him as the lowman, kind
Speaker 1: of similar to the way that the Bucks use Giannis right.
Speaker 1: So have Zach Collins run up and down in that
Speaker 1: yo yo and pick and roll right. So he's got
Speaker 1: to show high on the on the the guys that
Speaker 1: can shoot off the dribble, and then he's got to
Speaker 1: recover back to the role man. And then basically you
Speaker 1: tuck Victor Wembanyamo away on their worst shooter so that
Speaker 1: he can help in the paint. And this in this
Speaker 1: particular game that ended up being lou Dort, and it
Speaker 1: worked in its own way. There's a play in the
Speaker 1: late second, late first half that kind of I thought
Speaker 1: demonstrated this really well where Josh Giddy ran a ghost
Speaker 1: screen I believe with Jalen Williams could have been Case
Speaker 1: on Wallace. I can't remember he was Case on Wallace.
Speaker 1: So Case Wallace comes up and runs a ghost screen
Speaker 1: and on the action, Josh Giddy actually hits Trey Jones
Speaker 1: with this like disgusting behind the back dribble and gets
Speaker 1: just barreling downhill at the lane like nobody in his way,
Speaker 1: and Victor wemen Yama is guarding Dort in the corner
Speaker 1: and he just comes over and just spreads his arms
Speaker 1: wide and makes a big, you know, obstacle in front
Speaker 1: of the rim. Josh Giddy has to kind of go
Speaker 1: up and under with his left hand on the left
Speaker 1: side and he smokes the layup. Those are the types
Speaker 1: of advantages you're gonna see with with Victor Wenbinyama in
Speaker 1: a help side role like that. I think it depends
Speaker 1: on the matchup. Like against outstanding pull up shooters where
Speaker 1: you need people up at the level of the screen,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be able to stay at the rim a lot.
Speaker 1: But obviously in situations where you've got guys rolling downhill
Speaker 1: towards the rim, it could be a little bit trickier
Speaker 1: because Zach Collins is going to be in the way
Speaker 1: there and it's going to be harder for Victor to
Speaker 1: load up and come over into help, right. So it
Speaker 1: depending on the matchup, it'll work really well and then
Speaker 1: in other situations, you're just gonna see really quickly that
Speaker 1: Zach Collins is not nearly as good as a pick
Speaker 1: and roll defender as Victor Wenbnyam is. So like, again,
Speaker 1: I get it. For now. It makes Wemby's job easier,
Speaker 1: and in certain matchups it'll help. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I hope he gets a lot of
Speaker 1: reps this year at center because in the big picture,
Speaker 1: the Spurs will be at their best when Victor Wembinyama
Speaker 1: is defending in pick and roll because he is uniquely
Speaker 1: capable of bothering people up at the level of the
Speaker 1: screen while still staying back far enough to defend the rim.
Speaker 1: That's his superpower, and so I'll be interested to see
Speaker 1: how that looks in the long run. The dig downs
Speaker 1: were crazy. So dig down to me is like if
Speaker 1: I'm in a helpside role and a guy's driving, So
Speaker 1: pretend like the basketball is where the camera is, and
Speaker 1: I'm defending a guy over here and I'm kind of
Speaker 1: like sitting in help and you're trying to drive to
Speaker 1: your right. That goes in my general vicinity. A dig
Speaker 1: down is my ability to reach down in a lunch
Speaker 1: stance and just swipe down at the basketball. Right A
Speaker 1: dig down is my ability to literally just take a
Speaker 1: lunch step and reach down and swipe at the basketball
Speaker 1: while not getting too far away from my shooter so
Speaker 1: I can rotate. And there was a play in particular
Speaker 1: where Cason Wallace was driving towards his right and Victor
Speaker 1: women Yama's defending at the top of the key. His
Speaker 1: left foot is literally at the three point line and
Speaker 1: he does a single step dig down, so he like
Speaker 1: basically goes with his right leg into a lunch step
Speaker 1: and swipes down at the basketball. He makes contact with
Speaker 1: the basketball south of the free throw line with his
Speaker 1: left foot starting at the three point line at the
Speaker 1: NBA three point line at almost twenty four feet right
Speaker 1: or twenty three feet, so like basically he's digging down
Speaker 1: like nine feet away from where he's staining, swipes the
Speaker 1: ball away and gets out in transition for a dunk.
Speaker 1: What's crazy about that is the shooter is not open.
Speaker 1: That's the superpower there. He's not leaving his man. He's
Speaker 1: taking one simple lunch step, a lunch step and swipe,
Speaker 1: and he's forcing a turnover effectively being in two places
Speaker 1: at once. That's deeply impactful defensively. Yet another steal that
Speaker 1: was kind of similar where he got his arms in
Speaker 1: the way and picked the ball free. He was all
Speaker 1: over the place and on the defensive end. He's going
Speaker 1: to be deeply impactful on offense. Now, what was interesting
Speaker 1: is they basically use Victor wembin Yama as a wing.
Speaker 1: It was at Collins that was operating as that folkrum
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, that was setting ball
Speaker 1: screens and popping to the top and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a single shot attempt from Victor webin yam
Speaker 1: in this game that you would expect from a modern center.
Speaker 1: There were no picking pops, there was no dribble handoffs
Speaker 1: and two man game like what you're accustomed to seeing
Speaker 1: the skilled centers in the league do right like Sabonis
Speaker 1: and Nicole Jokic, like even Anthony Davis and when he's
Speaker 1: done is so far in preseason for the Lakers, kind
Speaker 1: of operating out there out of the top of the
Speaker 1: key like Victor just didn't do any of that. It
Speaker 1: was all, you know, spotting up on the weak side
Speaker 1: and attacking closeouts, giving him the ball straight up with
Speaker 1: a live dribble attacking his set defense. He literally operated
Speaker 1: as a wing. There were post ups, there were ISOs.
Speaker 1: It was it was very, very interesting, and you know
Speaker 1: what's funny, it worked like he still went eight for
Speaker 1: thirteen from the field. Even the three point shots he
Speaker 1: took were like wing threes. Right, Like there was that
Speaker 1: sideline out of bounds on the where the inbounderies on
Speaker 1: the left side comes off of a pin down, runs
Speaker 1: to the top of the key, puts his right left
Speaker 1: footwork down and elevates on the move straight up and
Speaker 1: down into a three, which is like the kind of
Speaker 1: shot you expect from Klay Thompson, and Victor's taking that right.
Speaker 1: There was another his other three that he made literally
Speaker 1: came off of a dribble hand off at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and took an escape dribble to his
Speaker 1: side and was drifting to his left and elevated and
Speaker 1: knocked it down. Those are guys you remember when when
Speaker 1: him and Scoot Henderson had that showdown with the G
Speaker 1: League Knight last year. One of the big things that
Speaker 1: stood out to me is I was telling you guys like,
Speaker 1: don't be surprised if he takes five to seven threes
Speaker 1: a game and literally is taking him like Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: because that's the type of three point shot he likes
Speaker 1: to take. He gets his rhythm by doing difficult shit
Speaker 1: when he's taking three point shots. He missed his catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes in this game, So that's kind of
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is like he literally operates as a wing.
Speaker 1: The only real big man offensive stuff he was doing
Speaker 1: is obviously had that one post up where he kind
Speaker 1: of got smothered, and then he had two offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: one over chet Holmgrin on a free throw where he
Speaker 1: just reached over the top and grabbed it. And then
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the second half there was a
Speaker 1: rebound off the back of the rim and he's standing
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor. No one else even
Speaker 1: tried to go for it. They're like, ah, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to jump with this guy just jumped
Speaker 1: over everybody, caught it, kept it high, and shot that
Speaker 1: little flip shot into the basket. That's what's crazy, is
Speaker 1: like he was playing a more difficult brand of offense
Speaker 1: than he probably should have, and he still went eight
Speaker 1: for thirteen from the field, And in the long run,
Speaker 1: he's gonna start doing that easier stuff. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about it in a minute with Chet, and it's only
Speaker 1: gonna go up from there. The one thing that kind
Speaker 1: of stood out to me offensively is he's difficult. He's
Speaker 1: more difficult to handle off the dribble from the three
Speaker 1: point line than he is from the mid post. Right now,
Speaker 1: his mid post catches were not productive and he didn't
Speaker 1: get good looks, and in large part because dudes at
Speaker 1: that point can press up on him because they're closer
Speaker 1: to the basket and he doesn't have the space to
Speaker 1: really mix up off the dribble. You can press up
Speaker 1: on him, and that's where your physicality can be an advantage.
Speaker 1: You struggled a little bit there, not a big thing.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he'll figure that out in the long run,
Speaker 1: but that's definitely the rub on him initially is like
Speaker 1: he's more comfortable with a live dribble from twenty five
Speaker 1: feet and beating people off the dribble against a slower
Speaker 1: footed big man than trying to post up somebody in
Speaker 1: the mid post where guys can really get up underneath
Speaker 1: him and cause them some issues. Let's talk about Chet.
Speaker 1: So Chet was used much more like a modern NBA center.
Speaker 1: He was operating at the top of the key in
Speaker 1: that five out system. He's running dribble handoffs, and he's
Speaker 1: popping of the three point line, and he's running ball screens,
Speaker 1: and when the ball gets kicked out to him and
Speaker 1: he doesn't have an easy look, he's looking to reverse
Speaker 1: the ball to the other side and run a dribble handoff.
Speaker 1: The same kind of stuff that you expect to see
Speaker 1: from the modern NBA center. That's what Demanda Sabonis does,
Speaker 1: That's what Nikola Jokic does, right, Like, that's what we
Speaker 1: see bam Adebayo do. Those are that's the modern NBA
Speaker 1: center attack position, and like it just it was working really,
Speaker 1: really well, and he was super efficient with it. He
Speaker 1: did have a couple of those like slot drives. You
Speaker 1: remember when I was talking about Anthony Davis against Kevon Looney,
Speaker 1: where like they're kind of set up in five out
Speaker 1: and you have shooters in the corners and guy on
Speaker 1: the wing, guy at the top of the key, and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is kind of in that right wing slot
Speaker 1: area and everyone's spaced out and everybody can shoot, and
Speaker 1: so AD's just taking Looney off the dribble and just
Speaker 1: going right at him into the lane and finishing layups
Speaker 1: and spin moves. Right. Well, you got to see Chet
Speaker 1: basically do that to Zack Collins when he would catch
Speaker 1: and he'd be in the slot and the floor wid
Speaker 1: be spaced, he would just put his head down and
Speaker 1: drive at Zach Collins. And he actually had two fouls
Speaker 1: that he drew just by hitting that spin move and
Speaker 1: basically catching Zach reaching down across his arms. And so
Speaker 1: that's kind of like more wing like behavior, but everything
Speaker 1: else was pretty much out of traditional big man actions, right,
Speaker 1: I take that back. There's one other kind of like
Speaker 1: high level thing he did. It was the inverted pick
Speaker 1: and roll. So right right after Wemby gets the the
Speaker 1: and one on I think it was after the dunk,
Speaker 1: actually when he got the steel in the dunk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it was. So he gets the steal, he
Speaker 1: rips down in case On Wallace gets the steal, Victor
Speaker 1: goes down and dunks it. Chet comes down the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor and they run an inverted pick
Speaker 1: and roll. What do I always talk about inverted pick
Speaker 1: and rolls. With inverted pick and rolls, you're taking the
Speaker 1: defenders and putting them into roles that they're uncomfortable with. Right,
Speaker 1: So now the big man who's used to being the
Speaker 1: screen defender now has to navigate a screen. Right, that's
Speaker 1: not something he's used to doing. The guard or wing
Speaker 1: who's used to being the on ball defender and is
Speaker 1: used to navigating screens, is now guarding the screener. And
Speaker 1: so as Dort goes up to set the screen. As
Speaker 1: Dort goes to set the screen, literally, Malachi Branham, I
Speaker 1: think it was, was literally hugged up to Dort on
Speaker 1: the backside. Look at him. He's literally like just trailing
Speaker 1: him in a trail position, not hedging, not helping, not anything,
Speaker 1: just staying glued to Dort because that's what perimeter players
Speaker 1: are used to doing. Don't let your perimeter guy get open.
Speaker 1: And as a result, he basically sets a double screen
Speaker 1: on Zach Collins. Zac Collins has to duck way underneath
Speaker 1: the pick and as a result chet Holmer and gets
Speaker 1: ahead of Steam going downhill. And I don't care how
Speaker 1: good you are, Devent. So that's a really hard play
Speaker 1: to defend when you're kind of in a back pedal
Speaker 1: position at the rim and the offensive players coming right
Speaker 1: at you with a head of steam with a live dribble,
Speaker 1: and he ended up elevating over the top, taking that
Speaker 1: bump and finishing over the top. That's super high level stuff,
Speaker 1: but everything else is pretty standard what you'd expect from
Speaker 1: a big man, right. He had two offensive rebound put
Speaker 1: back similar to Wemby just jumping over the top of
Speaker 1: everybody and putting it in. Even the threes he took
Speaker 1: were what you'd expect from a modern big man, right Like,
Speaker 1: there was that play where Josh Giddy posts up on
Speaker 1: the left side of the floor. I think it was
Speaker 1: against Trey Jones if I remember correctly, but it's posting
Speaker 1: up on the left side of the floor. Chet just
Speaker 1: goes and spots up in the weak side corner and
Speaker 1: Zach Collins kind of gets sucked in into help position
Speaker 1: right around the block, and Josh just throws a rifle
Speaker 1: pass right into the shooting pocket. Chet rises up and
Speaker 1: knocks it down. That's going to be super useful when
Speaker 1: teams switch against the Thunder because they've got all these
Speaker 1: matchup attacking players like Shay Gildas, Alexander and Jalen Williams,
Speaker 1: who was freaking amazing last night, and and Josh gitty,
Speaker 1: and so when you're in that situation, like when they
Speaker 1: switch screens, having the big man be able to go
Speaker 1: spot up on the week side of the floor and
Speaker 1: be a legitimate threat to knock that shot down is
Speaker 1: a huge asset. Then the other three he took was
Speaker 1: a trailer three. Now, trailing threes are one of the
Speaker 1: most common threes you'll see coaches ask big men to take.
Speaker 1: Why because of transition defense principles. What is the thing
Speaker 1: you're preaching to your big man and transition defense all
Speaker 1: the time? Sprint back, get to the rim. Sprint back,
Speaker 1: get to the rim. We call rim running, right like
Speaker 1: a big man is supposed to run the rim. The
Speaker 1: traditional big man is supposed to run the rim both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. And now as the modern offensive
Speaker 1: game has changed, they don't necessarily run to the rim
Speaker 1: every time, but on defense they still do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You run to the rim because you have to build
Speaker 1: a wall to stop whatever the transition attack is. So
Speaker 1: when you're the trailing big offensively, there's usually a little
Speaker 1: gap there between when the big man defensively gets back
Speaker 1: to the rim and then when he recovers back to
Speaker 1: the perimeter. After all of his teammates are back on defense,
Speaker 1: and Chet ended up hitting a three off of a
Speaker 1: pass from Josh Gidty right on the right wing. Same
Speaker 1: type of situation. Zach Collins gets back in transition defense,
Speaker 1: he's considered protecting the paint. Chet runs up in the
Speaker 1: trailing to play knocks down the three, and that's all
Speaker 1: allowing him to be super efficient. He made twenty mad
Speaker 1: He's scored twenty one points on ten shots. That's insane
Speaker 1: now like, and that's what I'm saying on the wemb front.
Speaker 1: I just like to see him do more of that
Speaker 1: because he can do the same stuff right like, and
Speaker 1: he can show all of that high level wing skill
Speaker 1: out of that position, so he can pick and pop
Speaker 1: and on the catch show all of that high level
Speaker 1: ISO skill, pump, fake jab, step hard step to his left,
Speaker 1: step back three, you know, driving to his left, spinning
Speaker 1: all of the high level shot making stuff he's capable of.
Speaker 1: He can do that with an advantage more frequently out
Speaker 1: of picking pops than attacking out of a stagnant wing
Speaker 1: ISO right or like just off of a live dribble.
Speaker 1: So it just there are other ways to do it.
Speaker 1: That dribble handoff keepers right, So like Victor at the
Speaker 1: top of the key faking a dribble handoff and then
Speaker 1: making a move, he can show all that same high
Speaker 1: level stuff, those trailing big plays that I just talked
Speaker 1: about chet Holmgren, Like obviously, if Zach Collin closes out
Speaker 1: on him, he can rip through and beat somebody off
Speaker 1: the dribble and make a play the slot drives the
Speaker 1: plays that chet Holmgren was making against Zach Collins in
Speaker 1: the first few possessions of the game. Wemby can do
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Like I'd like to see him
Speaker 1: operate a little bit more as a big because it's
Speaker 1: easier there. He will score more effectively against the other
Speaker 1: team's big man than he will against another team's wing,
Speaker 1: and if he's lined up at center, he will draw
Speaker 1: the other team's big man in most cases. So it's
Speaker 1: just something to keep in mind. I'm not saying they're
Speaker 1: doing it wrong, because obviously the Victor went eight for
Speaker 1: thirteen with twenty one points or twenty points. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to say he did wrong. I'm just saying in
Speaker 1: the big picture, and when I imagine the future of the Spurs,
Speaker 1: I look at him operating like most modern bigs do.
Speaker 1: And for the record, you can literally be the best
Speaker 1: player in the league doing that. That's what Jokic does.
Speaker 1: That's Jokic's role. He is a folkrum from the top
Speaker 1: of the He primarily is a screener run in two
Speaker 1: man game, but he's such a threat to score that
Speaker 1: it makes it impossible to guard. And that's what I like.
Speaker 1: Wemb can add his own flair. He can add the
Speaker 1: wing scoring stuff too. I just think in terms of
Speaker 1: the alignment of the team, it makes the most sense
Speaker 1: for him to be that way. Chet on defense, fine,
Speaker 1: not overly impactful, but it wasn't a great defensive effort
Speaker 1: from either team. He defended five pick and rolls and
Speaker 1: gave up five points, but there was like a player
Speaker 1: dort foul a three point shooter. The one play where
Speaker 1: I thought he kind of could have done better. There
Speaker 1: was a pick and roll where Trey Jones got downhill
Speaker 1: and made a floater and right at the last second,
Speaker 1: Check kind of backed away. And I'd like to see
Speaker 1: him just be a little bit more active with his hands.
Speaker 1: But this is super nitpicky stuff, Like he's gonna be
Speaker 1: a plus defender almost immediately in the NBA. But that
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun and both of those players
Speaker 1: are insane. I've been trying to tell you guys about
Speaker 1: Chet all the intel this summer is that the dude
Speaker 1: is working harder than just about anybody, and that he
Speaker 1: really really really wants to be good and all the
Speaker 1: right stuff that you hear that you want to hear
Speaker 1: from a young talented player, and so especially since he
Speaker 1: kind of like fits a specific need for OKC. Like
Speaker 1: there was a Jalen Williams finger roll and one I
Speaker 1: posted a video of it on my Twitter feed. You
Speaker 1: guys can see or Chet rolled hard to the rim
Speaker 1: and when he rolled hard to the rim, Zack Collins
Speaker 1: had to take two hard steps backwards to recover at
Speaker 1: the rim and as a result, Jalen Williams had a
Speaker 1: wide open kind of finger roll at the end and
Speaker 1: Chet Zack Collins kind of slapped him at the end
Speaker 1: for the end one, but he was way out of position.
Speaker 1: Because of the role man gravity that Chet Holmgren has,
Speaker 1: they have never had that, at least not in recent
Speaker 1: seasons in Oka. See they have a real vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: a real role gravity creator in Chet Holmgren, And I
Speaker 1: look forward to watching both of these guys. I think
Speaker 1: the Spurs are actually going to be a little better
Speaker 1: than we expect, just because of how impactful Victor is
Speaker 1: going to be right away in a way that I
Speaker 1: don't think people expect. But that was fun, and that's
Speaker 1: all I for today. We're gonna be coming back either
Speaker 1: this afternoon or tomorrow morning with our next season preview,
Speaker 1: which is number four, the Los Angeles Lakers in our
Speaker 1: in our power rankings, and then we have three more
Speaker 1: teams that we're gonna get to kind of depending on
Speaker 1: what the preseason schedule looks like over the next few days.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, that's all I have. I appreciate you,
Speaker 1: and I'll see either later today or tomorrow. The volume
Speaker 1: h