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Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great start to your week. Moving right along
Speaker 1: with our power rankings today with number seven, the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns Latinama had the best record in the league last
Speaker 1: year and a disappointing, embarrassing loss at home in the
Speaker 1: second round to the Dallas Mavericks. You guys know the
Speaker 1: drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes youtube
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Speaker 1: to finish one of these shows, we do have them
Speaker 1: in podcast form, wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: let's not waste any more time. Let's let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So last year the Phoenix Suns Sixty four and eighteen,
Speaker 1: best record in the league. They were fifth in offense
Speaker 1: and third in defense, first overall in net rating, meaning
Speaker 1: they were the most dominant basketball team on the scoreboard
Speaker 1: throughout the regular season, you know, before the playoffs. For
Speaker 1: those of you guys who, uh, we're following the show.
Speaker 1: Back then I consistently said that I thought they were
Speaker 1: the most talented roster in the league from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: I no longer think that's true that I think Boston
Speaker 1: has barely eclipsed them in terms of in terms of
Speaker 1: overall talent with the acquisition of Malcolm, Malcolm Brogden, but
Speaker 1: they are still among the top tier teams in the
Speaker 1: League in terms of top to bottom talent. The types
Speaker 1: of rotation players they have are just better at the
Speaker 1: things that they do than most of the mid level
Speaker 1: rotation players that you see elsewhere in the league, even
Speaker 1: though don't have the top end talent. Now the question
Speaker 1: that I had going into this playoff run was, if
Speaker 1: you guys remember, there's kind of like a philosophical thing
Speaker 1: that I've been believing in in recent years, and it's
Speaker 1: that as the League has gone more spaced out, as
Speaker 1: the League has gone more in on perimeter players, now
Speaker 1: you're seeing most lineups including four perimeter players and one
Speaker 1: player that's doing dirty work as a big right. Back
Speaker 1: in the day you might see two or three on
Speaker 1: the floor and a lot of bruising players and the
Speaker 1: paint really clogged and it became more important than ever
Speaker 1: to have the best player on the floor that could
Speaker 1: navigate that cramped environment better than your opponent could. But
Speaker 1: as the game has become more spaced out, it's become
Speaker 1: more important than ever to have multiple players on the
Speaker 1: floor that can pass, dribble and shoot, and Phoenix capitalized
Speaker 1: on this throughout the entire regular season. Everyone thinks about
Speaker 1: their high pick and roll, and don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that in depth, but it goes
Speaker 1: deeper than that. It's the players of around them in
Speaker 1: their ability to play off of that attention. You guys
Speaker 1: refer to. I refer to this concept as close out,
Speaker 1: attacking or extending the advantage, basically getting a defense and
Speaker 1: rotation multiple times so that you can get a wide
Speaker 1: open look at the end. And if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: right before the playoffs, I said this would be an
Speaker 1: interesting case study in the direction the League is heading.
Speaker 1: Is the league ready to be less superstar reliant? Is
Speaker 1: the league ready to start to push the teams up
Speaker 1: to the front, the teams that have more talented players
Speaker 1: rather than the most talented player? And I said that
Speaker 1: this playoff run would be a great indicator of that.
Speaker 1: And what ended up happening? Chris Paul struggled, Devin Booker
Speaker 1: got cold and they lost in the second round. So
Speaker 1: the reality is maybe we're heading in that direction still,
Speaker 1: maybe one day soon role players will have, you know,
Speaker 1: as much impact on the game and mass two stars,
Speaker 1: but we're not there yet. Luca, the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor, strangled and destroyed and humiliated the Phoenix Suns,
Speaker 1: even though they had a significantly more talented roster. That
Speaker 1: is where the League is still at and I think
Speaker 1: we're still probably a few years away from any sort
Speaker 1: of change, if there ever is going to be one.
Speaker 1: The Chris Paul Injury ended up being what reird it's
Speaker 1: ugly had. It was very similar to what happened last year.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, or two years ago, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: Pretty much through two games of the NBA finals looked
Speaker 1: like a bona fide superstar and was dominant on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. But then those last four games
Speaker 1: against Milwaukee he looked unrecognizable. Not just not efficient, not
Speaker 1: just struggling to make the shots he usually makes, he
Speaker 1: was straight up being locked down to the point where
Speaker 1: he was struggling even to get shots off. This this
Speaker 1: year's playoff run followed a very similar path. Through his
Speaker 1: first eight playoff games this year, Chris Paul averaged twenty
Speaker 1: three points, five rebounds, tennis sists and shot fifty eight
Speaker 1: percent from the field and in those games the sons
Speaker 1: went six and two. But then over the course of
Speaker 1: the last five games against Dallas, where they lost four
Speaker 1: of those five games, he averaged nine points to go
Speaker 1: with three rebounds and six assists, and shot just from
Speaker 1: the field. So clearly, when that superstar level impact disappears
Speaker 1: from Phoenix, they fall apart. And to be clear, it's
Speaker 1: not just Chris Paul. Devin Booker, who was one of
Speaker 1: the best pull up jump shooters in all of basketball
Speaker 1: last year, shot just three for sixteen on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots in game six and in game seven of
Speaker 1: that series. So his bread and butter, the thing that
Speaker 1: he depends on, depends on so much to create offense
Speaker 1: for himself, left him and he struggled to impact the
Speaker 1: game in other ways. And when the star power fell
Speaker 1: off for Phoenix, the entire team fell apart. And once
Speaker 1: again it's just the latest indicator that, as the game
Speaker 1: has evolved, the best basketball player on the floor concept
Speaker 1: remains incredibly important to winning basketball games, especially at the
Speaker 1: highest levels. In the NBA playoffs. Looking at the off season,
Speaker 1: they signed Damien Lee from the Golden State Warriors. He
Speaker 1: was thirty three percent on catching shoot jumpers last year.
Speaker 1: He drove closeouts really well. Super Good Athlete, really good
Speaker 1: one leg jumper. Kind of reminds me of what I
Speaker 1: was talking about with K CP yesterday talking about the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets. He shot eight two percent at the rim
Speaker 1: last year, which is outstanding. He's a good athlete, capable defender.
Speaker 1: Just adds depth. I'm not sure that he'll play much,
Speaker 1: but it does add depth. They also signed Joshua Cog
Speaker 1: from the Minnesota Timberwolves. He shot just pent on catching
Speaker 1: shoot three is a big part of why he fell
Speaker 1: out of the rotation for Minnesota. He's a better defensive
Speaker 1: player than Damien Lee was. Um, but once again, I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think he's gonna play all that much. I
Speaker 1: just imagine with how deep they are on the wing already,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to here the depth chart, I just
Speaker 1: both of those guys their ancillary pieces. They're in UH
Speaker 1: injury insurance, but I don't see either of them playing
Speaker 1: as significant role this season. Um they traded for Jocquelandale
Speaker 1: from the San Antonio Spurs. They also lost Javale McGee,
Speaker 1: but they did resign bismack Beyonmbo. So they kind of
Speaker 1: a similar three big type of UH type of rotation.
Speaker 1: My guess is Beyonmbo ends up getting more minutes than Landale,
Speaker 1: but we'll see when he gets into training camp. For
Speaker 1: All intents and purposes they're running you back, and I
Speaker 1: don't blame them. They won sixty four games, but they
Speaker 1: did not address the key issue. Now, in their defense,
Speaker 1: I think they saw Kevin Durant as that option, but
Speaker 1: they were unrealistic in their expectation that they could get
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. In my opinion, I never thought that Brooklyn
Speaker 1: would be interested in what they had to offer, and
Speaker 1: so from that standpoint, I I it's unfortunate that they
Speaker 1: didn't address the issue and I'd be really interested to
Speaker 1: see if they try to during this season. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest questions I have for this particular Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: team is whether or not they look even remotely similar
Speaker 1: after the trade deadline. I could see them doing something
Speaker 1: along the line of flipping like a Cam Johnson and
Speaker 1: a Jay crowder for a better wing in hopes of
Speaker 1: getting a more impactful two way wing somewhere on the roster.
Speaker 1: You know, you could see a big part it's gonna
Speaker 1: be how much Michael Bridges Develops as well, because they
Speaker 1: need more offense when Chris Paul and Devin Booker Struggle.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, the this roster
Speaker 1: right now, is currently constructed, does not have enough top
Speaker 1: end talent that's reliable deep into the playoffs to beat
Speaker 1: the best teams in the League. That's why I have
Speaker 1: them down at number seven. You know, this tier. We
Speaker 1: talked earlier about all the tiers of championship contenders, and
Speaker 1: I had the non contenders and then I had the
Speaker 1: puncher's chance contenders, which are the teams that didn't have
Speaker 1: as much talent as the top teams in the league,
Speaker 1: but they just have this world beating star that, if
Speaker 1: he gets hot, he could beat anybody, like a Lebron,
Speaker 1: like a UH Nicol Yogis, like a Donovan Mitchell, like
Speaker 1: a you know like that. That's the type of of
Speaker 1: of team that I was referring to in that tier.
Speaker 1: We are now entering into the second tier, the tier
Speaker 1: that's beneath the top tier contenders, and I'm referring to
Speaker 1: this tier as the if things go right tier. These
Speaker 1: are teams, and I only have three of them and
Speaker 1: I think all three of them will make sense to
Speaker 1: you guys after you hear them, and you'll get to
Speaker 1: both of them this week on Wednesday and Thursday. This
Speaker 1: tier of basketball teams, to me, is teams that have
Speaker 1: unbelievable amounts of talent and absolutely should be able to
Speaker 1: contend based on what they look like on paper. But
Speaker 1: there's big question marks. And the other two teams on
Speaker 1: this tier, their question marks are different and a lot
Speaker 1: of them are related to their stars, which are higher
Speaker 1: level players. But with the sons, it's whether or not
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Michael Bridges and Deandre Ayton together
Speaker 1: can manifest as the impact of a true superstar in
Speaker 1: a playoff series. They have not been able to do
Speaker 1: so in the previous two seasons. This is their big
Speaker 1: wild card this season. There are plenty talented. They have
Speaker 1: enough talented to hang with, talent to hang with the
Speaker 1: best teams in the League, but do they have enough
Speaker 1: star power to get the job done? That's their biggest
Speaker 1: question mark. Looking at the depth chart, at the guard position,
Speaker 1: they have CP three, Devin Booker, Landry Shammitt and campaign
Speaker 1: on the wing, super deep mchaal bridges, Jay crowder, Cam Johnson, Tory,
Speaker 1: Craig Damien, Lee, Josh a cog and then bigs deandre Ayton,
Speaker 1: Bismack Biyombo and Jack Landale. So moving on to the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor, and again, uh, the way
Speaker 1: we do this is we talked about the offense, we
Speaker 1: talked about the defense, we talked about what the best
Speaker 1: case scenario is for this team, what the worst case
Speaker 1: scenario is for this team, and then we talked about
Speaker 1: their biggest x factor, the player or concept that has
Speaker 1: the biggest variance between what the team will end up
Speaker 1: looking like at the end of the day. So obviously
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the four with the with
Speaker 1: the sons, you can't start anywhere. But with pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They were sixth in ball handler frequency in pick and
Speaker 1: roll and seventh and ball handler efficiency in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: That's obviously very good. They were second in Rollman frequency
Speaker 1: in second in rollman efficiency. This is is a big
Speaker 1: testament to Chris Paul. Most of the pick and roll
Speaker 1: teams in the League don't utilize their rollman very much.
Speaker 1: Phoenix US utilizes their rollman a ton and a huge
Speaker 1: part of this is Chris Paul in his ability to
Speaker 1: navigate pick and roll and all of the passing angles
Speaker 1: that he knows and understands to get deandre in the
Speaker 1: ball in places where he can put the ball in
Speaker 1: the basket. Also Testament to deandre. And he's got great
Speaker 1: hands and can catch and finish easily around the rim.
Speaker 1: Both of those are are are deeply important to be
Speaker 1: utilizing a rollman and pick and roll. The most common
Speaker 1: variation of pick and roll that they uses Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll. We did a whole video on this couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I can't remember exactly where it is. Um,
Speaker 1: it was when I had the big ugly dresser behind me.
Speaker 1: It was one of those videos. But I did some
Speaker 1: video breakdown and I actually included some footage, Um, from
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns in that clip. So you can find
Speaker 1: a deeper breakdown of that if you guys go back
Speaker 1: further into our feed. But with Phoenix Suns, with the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, Spain pick and roll is their foundational offensive
Speaker 1: concept and, Um, I'm gonna go too deep into it,
Speaker 1: but the gist of the concept is having a shooter
Speaker 1: underneath the basket when you run pick and roll and
Speaker 1: having that shooter either just simply replaced to the top
Speaker 1: of the key or backscreen for the Rollman on his
Speaker 1: way to the top of the key, and it basically
Speaker 1: makes your makes the defense make a decision about whether
Speaker 1: or not they want to send a second defender towards
Speaker 1: the Rollman or stay home with the shooter, leaving the
Speaker 1: Rollman with a wide open lane running towards the rim.
Speaker 1: It just is a complication in pick and roll that
Speaker 1: makes it extremely difficult to guard. It's one of the
Speaker 1: most common pick and roll concepts that you'll see around
Speaker 1: the league. As I've been doing this uh this series,
Speaker 1: almost every team that we've watched has had a team
Speaker 1: had stretches of the game where they run Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll. It depends on it depends on personnel you
Speaker 1: need in order to run Spain pick and roll properly.
Speaker 1: You need a legitimate pick and roll ball handler that
Speaker 1: can shoot off the dribble that forces the guard to
Speaker 1: chase over the top. From there, that guard needs to
Speaker 1: be able to navigate and make reads, so he also
Speaker 1: needs to be a gifted passer. You need a roll
Speaker 1: man that has vertical spacing and the ability to catch
Speaker 1: and finish around the rim, and then you need a
Speaker 1: legitimate shooter that forces the defense to make decisions. If
Speaker 1: he can't shoot as he's replacing to the top of
Speaker 1: the key, they'll just ignore him and stay home. On
Speaker 1: the Rollman, the Phoenix Suns have the ideal personnel to
Speaker 1: run Spain pick and roll because you've got Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: an outstanding off the dribble shooter and an outstanding passer
Speaker 1: that's gonna work his way down the lane, deandre ating,
Speaker 1: an excellent roleman and DEF and Booker, one of the
Speaker 1: best movement shooters that we have in the league. When
Speaker 1: you put the three of them together, it's a deadly concept.
Speaker 1: Now where the suns deserve extra credit here because, like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna run Spain pick and roll every time
Speaker 1: down the floor, you're gonna run into some issues just
Speaker 1: in terms of predictability and defense is getting used to
Speaker 1: how to guard you. Phoenix is really good at at
Speaker 1: adding complications to their Spain pick and roll to make
Speaker 1: it harder to guard. So the most frequent one that
Speaker 1: I see is just screening actions that flow into the
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll. So a lot of times they'll
Speaker 1: like pre screen for Devin Booker. So Imagine Devin Booker
Speaker 1: on the wing and Paul and Eton are getting ready
Speaker 1: to run a pick and roll. They'll have like Jay
Speaker 1: crowder go and set a cross screen for Devin Booker
Speaker 1: to then cut down to the basket and then immediately
Speaker 1: flow into the Spain pick and roll. Now devin Booker's
Speaker 1: man is already trailing the play. So with him already
Speaker 1: trailing to play, it's like running a three on two
Speaker 1: and a half. You know what I mean, because that
Speaker 1: third defender in the pick and roll is late to
Speaker 1: get there, which makes it way harder for him to
Speaker 1: guard it. The way that the coach is probably drawn
Speaker 1: up as his scheme for how to guard the Spain
Speaker 1: pick and roll right, little complications like that, more screening
Speaker 1: actions just make it harder to defend. It just makes
Speaker 1: your defenders have to to make more decisions in order
Speaker 1: to stop the action. Now the other thing that they'll
Speaker 1: do is it's not as simple as just booker backscreening
Speaker 1: for Eighton as he's rolling down the lane. They'll sometimes
Speaker 1: have eighton screen for Booker as he's rolling down the lane.
Speaker 1: Sometimes booker will go like he's gonna go to the
Speaker 1: top of the key but then flare out to the
Speaker 1: wing really quick. The idea there is booker's defender might
Speaker 1: be prepared to hedge and, like and like, bump and
Speaker 1: Chuck Ayton as he's rolling down the lane and then
Speaker 1: go out, but as he's lunging to tag Aighton, booker
Speaker 1: just sprints out to the wing and he can get
Speaker 1: a shot there. Bottom line is it's it's never the
Speaker 1: exact same thing. It's always these little complications that are
Speaker 1: added into their pick and roll concept to keep defenses
Speaker 1: on their toes and to make it so it's not repetitive.
Speaker 1: But the gist of their entire offense is Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul using deandre Ayton as a screener, rolling
Speaker 1: to the Rim and making reads out of it. It's
Speaker 1: not always Spain pick and roll. They'll also do things
Speaker 1: like they'll have uh, you know, Chris Paul come off
Speaker 1: of a pick and roll with deandre Ayton and then
Speaker 1: immediately flow into a dribble handoff with booker coming out
Speaker 1: of the corner, and then booker will come off of
Speaker 1: eight and and roll down the lane. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like I said, the core concept
Speaker 1: is Eighton as a screener, then rolling to the R
Speaker 1: him and booker and CP three making reads out of that.
Speaker 1: One of the most important aspects to how this entire
Speaker 1: system works, like I said, is their off ball players.
Speaker 1: We talked about this earlier with the importance of role
Speaker 1: players in their ability to dribble, pass and shoot. So
Speaker 1: let's say that UH Phoenix is killing you with their
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll right. So like uh Booker's man
Speaker 1: has to continually hedge or help on the role man
Speaker 1: as bookers replacing to the top of the key. What's
Speaker 1: the most frequent what's the most obvious way to counter that?
Speaker 1: You send a fourth defender. You ask the defender in
Speaker 1: the week side corner to be the one that comes
Speaker 1: in and tags and helps with Aton, and then you
Speaker 1: have booker's man stay home. What does that open up?
Speaker 1: It opens up the skip pass, a pass that CP
Speaker 1: three will relentlessly make if you offer help out of
Speaker 1: the week side. And this is where it's advantageous to
Speaker 1: have players like Mikhail bridges, who's greated attacking closeouts, players
Speaker 1: like you know uh, players like Cam John, who's excellent
Speaker 1: at attacking closeouts. You know even Jay crowd or even
Speaker 1: though he can be very streaky. He's very capable of
Speaker 1: getting hot, knocking down threes and attacking closeouts, things along
Speaker 1: those lines. These sons were fifth in spot up efficiency
Speaker 1: this year, in meaning in those situations where a defender
Speaker 1: is closing out a son's player and driving to the
Speaker 1: basket or shooting. In those specific situations they scored better
Speaker 1: than all but four of the teams in the League,
Speaker 1: and I I put the great the lion share of
Speaker 1: that credit on just the quality of role players that
Speaker 1: they have. In post up situations, they were fifteenth and
Speaker 1: frequency and sixth and efficiency. Most of these possessions were
Speaker 1: deandre Eton punishing mismatches out of pick and roll. So
Speaker 1: they get, I think, about four post ups the game,
Speaker 1: but three of them were deandre and usually that other
Speaker 1: one is either Michail bridges on very rare occasions, or
Speaker 1: a little bit of Devin Booker, but essentially like what
Speaker 1: Chris Paul will do sometimes, and you know Luca actually
Speaker 1: did this to the sons quite a bit and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it here in just a it when we
Speaker 1: get to the defensive end of the floor, but sometimes
Speaker 1: Chris Paul will deliberately, instead of coming over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen and going downhill into the Rollman, the
Speaker 1: the screen defender, the person who's defending the roll man.
Speaker 1: He'll go out wide and drag the screen defender out
Speaker 1: with him to force a switch. And the idea there
Speaker 1: is think of it like this. If Chris Paul goes
Speaker 1: straight downhill towards the rim, then the screen defender can
Speaker 1: somehow split the difference between eight and rolling down on
Speaker 1: his right side and Paul coming towards him on his
Speaker 1: left side. But if Paul goes out towards the wing,
Speaker 1: now I kind of have to corral him because he's
Speaker 1: such a good pull up jump shooter and if I
Speaker 1: don't he's gonna stop and pop from fifteen feet every time. Now,
Speaker 1: as I work my way out, I can no longer
Speaker 1: deal with the rollman and so, as a result, whoever's
Speaker 1: guarding CP three now has to peel off of CP
Speaker 1: three to dive down to the big man and box
Speaker 1: him out of the lane while I go out to
Speaker 1: Chris Paul. Then what happens? Chris Paul will pull the
Speaker 1: ball out to the three point eight and will quick
Speaker 1: seal catch and turn and finish over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1: Eighton posted up three times per game last year and
Speaker 1: scored one point zero four points per possession, which is
Speaker 1: excellent as a post player in this league. I think
Speaker 1: he was right around the seventy five percentile. The other
Speaker 1: big thing that, and again this is a lot of this,
Speaker 1: is coming out of Spain pick and roll, but they
Speaker 1: were one of the most frequent off screen teams in
Speaker 1: the League. They were fourth in frequency and average one
Speaker 1: point zero two points per possession. Some of this is
Speaker 1: like Landry Shammitt in some of the plays that they
Speaker 1: run for him where he's coming off of double screens
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. That's pretty traditional movement. Shooting. Jay
Speaker 1: crowder in a lot of off ball situations will get
Speaker 1: like a pin down and come up to the wing
Speaker 1: and he'll come up and shoot a catch and shoot three.
Speaker 1: That counts as an off screen action. The most frequent
Speaker 1: one here, though, is Devin Booker and Spain pick and roll. Technically,
Speaker 1: if Devin Booker is rolling, is starting under the basket
Speaker 1: and he replaces to the top of the key and
Speaker 1: Eighton on his way down to the rim bumps into
Speaker 1: Booker's man. They call that and off the catch rep
Speaker 1: and booker was getting tons of three point shots out
Speaker 1: of that this season Devin Booker, Landry Shammon and Jay crowder.
Speaker 1: We're all in the sixty five percentile or better as
Speaker 1: off screen players this year. But I wanted to before
Speaker 1: we move on from offense, I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the stars for a second because with Devin Booker, and
Speaker 1: you know for our player rankings I had him at
Speaker 1: fifteen and again I did like fifteen solid minutes on
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. So if you guys want to go over
Speaker 1: into our feed and scroll further down, you can hear
Speaker 1: all of his metrics from the different spots on the
Speaker 1: floor and how efficient he was the season, some stuff
Speaker 1: that I learned on tape about his approach. I went
Speaker 1: a lot deeper into booker in that specific video. All
Speaker 1: I'M gonna say here is he absolutely has an elite
Speaker 1: skill that mimics what a lot of superstar star superstars
Speaker 1: doing this league, and that's free level scoring, particularly as
Speaker 1: an off the dribble shooter. But he's something less than
Speaker 1: a superstar. I don't think that's a hot take. I
Speaker 1: would imagine most of you guys would agree with me.
Speaker 1: He doesn't impact the game enough outside of his off
Speaker 1: the dribble shooting to be that type of player. And
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is when you're off the dribble
Speaker 1: shooting fails you, which it can, and it happens for
Speaker 1: superstars too. I've seen off the dribble shooting fail Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant against the Boston Celtics, a guy who shot fifty
Speaker 1: on off the dribble shots all season and that fell
Speaker 1: into the low thirties against Boston. Kawhi Leonard Against Denver.
Speaker 1: His off the dribble shooting failed him late in that series.
Speaker 1: But those guys impact the game in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways outside of what they do. Kevin Durant as a
Speaker 1: defensive player and as a playmaker, Kawhi Leonard as a
Speaker 1: defensive player. For Devin Booker, even though he does compete
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to that later, when his off the dribble shooting
Speaker 1: fails him, he just doesn't have other punches in his
Speaker 1: bag that he can go to to impact winning. You know,
Speaker 1: I was talking to a buddy of mine, Jeremiah, is
Speaker 1: a huge, huge Suns Fan, this morning and he made
Speaker 1: a really interesting comp he said that he said that
Speaker 1: Devin booker reminds him of Chris Middleton. Now I actually
Speaker 1: think devin booker is a little better than Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: in large part up here, because I think he's more confident,
Speaker 1: which makes him more consistent. But there's a similarity there
Speaker 1: in the sense that, you know, in the way that
Speaker 1: Jeremiah put it, he's like like like. Middleton needs his
Speaker 1: nice right like. If Middleton was the best player on
Speaker 1: his team the with his inconsistency as a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooter, he just wouldn't be able to impact winning
Speaker 1: enough to lead a team to any sort of legitimate goal.
Speaker 1: And the same thing goes for Devin Booker. They need
Speaker 1: that superstar above them that can pull more weight on
Speaker 1: a night in, night out basis so that they're inconsistencies
Speaker 1: don't hurt them. That's not a criticism. I still think
Speaker 1: he's the Fifteenth Best Player in the League. I think
Speaker 1: he's better than Chris Middleton. But I did think that
Speaker 1: was an interesting camp from my friend Jeremiah. That makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense to me. Like devin booker is
Speaker 1: is has an elite skill that can carry you to
Speaker 1: an NBA championship in the right setting, but you're not
Speaker 1: going to get to that setting unless you have a
Speaker 1: superior star level player that can pull more weight during
Speaker 1: the regular season, and with CPF ree it's just the
Speaker 1: physical breaking down. Like I mean what when you look
Speaker 1: at the way he played against New Orleans, that was
Speaker 1: some of the best basketball he's ever played in his career.
Speaker 1: He does take care of his body better than he
Speaker 1: ever has in his career. His game is as well
Speaker 1: rounded and polished than it's ever been in his career.
Speaker 1: The problem is is his body, excuse me, his body
Speaker 1: fails him time and time again, and this year it
Speaker 1: was his quad injury, allegedly, but I mean I believe
Speaker 1: him like that's a ridiculous fall off to go from
Speaker 1: twenty three, five and ten, or your first eight playoff
Speaker 1: games on dropping down to nine, three and six like that.
Speaker 1: He's right, I I believe him, but the reality is
Speaker 1: is he broke down this year. He broke down last year,
Speaker 1: he broke down half of the years before that. It's
Speaker 1: it's the reality of the Chris Paul Experience. At this
Speaker 1: point I think you almost have to count on it.
Speaker 1: which brings us to Eighton and bridges. These are the
Speaker 1: two players that Phoenix has invested heavily and financially after
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Chris Paul. They need those two guys
Speaker 1: to develop and they just simply haven't. I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Michael Bridges later on because
Speaker 1: he's our x factor for this particular team, so I
Speaker 1: don't want to get into the weeds with him there yet.
Speaker 1: But those two guys have to be able to create
Speaker 1: their own shot consistently. It can't just be eighton punishing
Speaker 1: mismatches in pick and roll switches. They need the ability
Speaker 1: to throw the ball down to the block with him
Speaker 1: to initiate offense. It can't just be mcaal bridges attacking
Speaker 1: closeouts and shooting, catching shoot threes. He's one of the
Speaker 1: best close out attackers in the league. He's a great
Speaker 1: catch and shoot player. The problem is is when Paul
Speaker 1: and Booker Start to fail them, they need someone that
Speaker 1: can initiate offense. Micail bridges has that level of talent.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't developed it yet. They need more out
Speaker 1: of Eton and bridges. That's their only hope to ellipsing
Speaker 1: this eclipsing this seventh ranking that I've given them, to
Speaker 1: reach back to what their what everyone uh perceived their perception,
Speaker 1: excuse me, their potential to be earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the defensive end of the four super
Speaker 1: traditional with the rest of the league, they drop with
Speaker 1: Aton and then they switch one through four when necessary.
Speaker 1: You'll see them try to stay home when they can,
Speaker 1: especially with specific matchups, but they are a lot more
Speaker 1: willing to switch on the perimeter. They're one of the
Speaker 1: best teams in the League, in my opinion, at chasing
Speaker 1: over the top of screens. Obviously Chris Paul and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker lead the way in this department. They do the
Speaker 1: best they can. Um The one that I'm most impressed
Speaker 1: with here that I wanted to shout out as Michael
Speaker 1: Bridges that series against Dallas and again, like Luca, ended
Speaker 1: up winning the day, but the job that Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: did chasing uh Luca over the top of screens was
Speaker 1: so incredibly impressive, especially when you factor in the fact that,
Speaker 1: as a bigger player and as a skinny player, that's
Speaker 1: like the two factors that make it hardest to chase
Speaker 1: over the top of screens. The types of players that
Speaker 1: chase over screens really well are usually short and stocky,
Speaker 1: low center of gravity, difficult to bump off their line
Speaker 1: and they fight through contact really well. But that's just
Speaker 1: Michail Bridge and this is why he's one of the
Speaker 1: best defensive players in the league. He's got the physical
Speaker 1: tools of a range e athletic wing with the mobility
Speaker 1: and commitment to the physicality that you see from bulldog
Speaker 1: guards around the league and and that's what makes Michael Bridges,
Speaker 1: you know, the defensive player of the year candidate that
Speaker 1: he is and I just I just find him to
Speaker 1: be extremely impressive and one of the things, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about this a little bit more later, but like
Speaker 1: one of the things that was interesting about that Phoenix
Speaker 1: Sun series with the Dallas Mavericks is early in the
Speaker 1: series Luca was coming off those ball screens trying to
Speaker 1: get downhill, but bridges are staying glued to his backside.
Speaker 1: So the way that they confronted that is, instead of
Speaker 1: trying to go downhill on the screen, he started flaring
Speaker 1: out wide on the screen to force the switch. Liking
Speaker 1: his chances attacking Eighton more than he liked attacking Michael
Speaker 1: Bridges so many. Williams is an excellent defensive coach. He
Speaker 1: Uh is prioritizing the right things on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor and he has a smart scheme. They
Speaker 1: were second in defending the three point line these days.
Speaker 1: Like I say, if you're a smart basketball team, if
Speaker 1: you have defensive limitations, you're either picking the three point
Speaker 1: line or the paint. If you don't have defensive limitations
Speaker 1: and you're an outstanding defensive team, you're guarding both extremely well.
Speaker 1: The son's guarded the three point line better than everybody
Speaker 1: in the League except for the Dallas Mavericks. They were
Speaker 1: seventh in defending the paint. They were ninth in transition defense,
Speaker 1: according to cleaning the glass. That's a big one that
Speaker 1: I look at for coaching too. That's getting your players commitment,
Speaker 1: committed to the job of transition defense, sprinting back every time,
Speaker 1: not complaining to the refs, communicating with each other, knowing Um,
Speaker 1: knowing your responsibilities in those transition scrambles. They're a well
Speaker 1: coached basketball team with a smart defensive scheme. The defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor is typically not an issue for them,
Speaker 1: although it ended up being so against Dallas, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to that here in just a minute. They
Speaker 1: have really good options for matchups. Jay crowder is like
Speaker 1: a big, physical, low center of gravity forward that can
Speaker 1: play your stronger rim pressuring forwards, like your hitl words
Speaker 1: in your Lebron James. But then they also have Michael
Speaker 1: Bridges as like this, longer, more athletic, still pretty stout,
Speaker 1: hold his ground, type of player that can guard that
Speaker 1: type of player but also have success against the shiftier
Speaker 1: players that Jake crowder would struggle with, guys like a
Speaker 1: you know, like a Paul George, a guy's quicker, more athletic,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Um Uh, deandre Ayton as well,
Speaker 1: does well and switches. I mean again, Luca Don Chitch
Speaker 1: was having his way with him, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day that's Luka Don Chitch and he's gonna
Speaker 1: do the same thing to most of the best defensive
Speaker 1: players in the league. But deandre Ayton as a weapon
Speaker 1: that can switch out and pick and roll, also defend
Speaker 1: and drop pretty well. His commitment to defense can wax
Speaker 1: and Wayne over the course of the season, but I
Speaker 1: think he's I personally think he's gotten a lot better
Speaker 1: over the course of the last two years in that regard.
Speaker 1: And then this is where I wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: devin booker because, Um, and I shouted out this during
Speaker 1: the player rankings in in in a little more in
Speaker 1: depth way, but remember when Rudy Gobert was complaining about
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell and talked in comparing him to Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and his commitment to defense? That sort of thing is
Speaker 1: real and it's not just about impact, because obviously having
Speaker 1: devin booker play hard on defense and commit helps them
Speaker 1: get stops. But it's not just that. It's setting the tone,
Speaker 1: and this is something that I talked about all the
Speaker 1: time on the show, and it's so important for stars
Speaker 1: to apply themselves on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: if for no reason then to make it easier for
Speaker 1: you to hold the lower level players accountable to their job.
Speaker 1: You know, too many times I hear Lebron fans say
Speaker 1: things like, oh, Lebron can't play defense, he is too
Speaker 1: big of an offensive role, and I do agree in
Speaker 1: the sense that, like, yeah, you don't want to unleash
Speaker 1: Lebron to guard Kevin Durant for forty eight minutes. Like yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to try to give him a somewhat less
Speaker 1: labor intensive role. I don't want Lebron chasing everybody through
Speaker 1: screens all day long. But the reality is is I
Speaker 1: do want him engaged in play, whatever his role is,
Speaker 1: doing it to the best of his ability, because that's
Speaker 1: what gives you the credibility to hold the rest of
Speaker 1: your team accountable. That's what gives that that's what gives
Speaker 1: your team a culture of defensive commitment and the credit.
Speaker 1: I want to apply a lot of credit to Devin
Speaker 1: booker because even though he's worked hard to become an
Speaker 1: average defensive player in him, being an average defensive player
Speaker 1: at the two isn't gonna Swing any playoff series. It
Speaker 1: does set the tone and I do think Devin Booker
Speaker 1: deserves a lot of credit for that. But they do
Speaker 1: have defensive weaknesses in personnel that got exposed against the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks. So they gave up a hundred and fourteen
Speaker 1: point three points per one hundred possessions against Dallas after
Speaker 1: giving up like something crazy like a hundred and seven
Speaker 1: in the regular season or a hundred and six, something
Speaker 1: like that. A huge part of this is the way
Speaker 1: that Luca was able to target specific matchups. We talked
Speaker 1: about this when we were talking about scheming a couple
Speaker 1: episodes ago. I can't remember exactly which team we were
Speaker 1: talking about, but I told you guys about how, like
Speaker 1: you know, a defensive scheme and defensive scouting can help
Speaker 1: you get in front of sets. So, for instance, Spain
Speaker 1: pick and roll. I uh, you know, any coach, over
Speaker 1: a seven game series is gonna come up with a
Speaker 1: Strat g with which to at least make it more
Speaker 1: difficult than it is during the flow of the regular
Speaker 1: season when they're getting whatever they want out of it
Speaker 1: every single time. You know, uh, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: offensive said is, if you scouted enough times and you
Speaker 1: know where players are gonna go, you can get in
Speaker 1: front of those things. But when it comes to brute
Speaker 1: force offense, in this case Luca Don Chech attacking mismatches,
Speaker 1: there is no scheme for it. Your scheme is leave
Speaker 1: him on the island to attack one on one, in
Speaker 1: which case he might burn you, and he did, or
Speaker 1: you can send help and he might burn you, and
Speaker 1: he will with the pass. That's the reality of playoff
Speaker 1: mismatch attacking offense. It's scheme proof. That's why teams like Dallas,
Speaker 1: who were fourteenth, I think, in offense during the regular season,
Speaker 1: hung a hundred and fourteen points per one hundred possessions
Speaker 1: against one of the best defenses in the League in
Speaker 1: the playoff series because he was able to pull eighton
Speaker 1: out to the perimeter and attack him in isolation. He
Speaker 1: was able to get post mismatches against Chris Paul and
Speaker 1: post mismatches against Devin Booker. Too often we look at
Speaker 1: the team concept and what the team can do against
Speaker 1: the UH, the other team in a five on five setting,
Speaker 1: and we forget the fact that it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: this guy can't guard this guy and all he has
Speaker 1: to do is seek him out and as long as
Speaker 1: he finds that matchup and as long as they space
Speaker 1: the floor pop properly, you're gonna have issues. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like the concept of the weakest link. But this
Speaker 1: is why I gravitate towards your big playmaking wings more
Speaker 1: than any other superstar archetype. I like your three level
Speaker 1: scores that can defend. You know, I like your big men,
Speaker 1: like Yo kitchen embid, but these perimeter players that can
Speaker 1: consistently pick a part of defense with surgery, and I
Speaker 1: only think there's two of them in the League right now.
Speaker 1: Basically Luca and Lebron, but I've always gravitated towards those
Speaker 1: kinds of guys because they just find a way to
Speaker 1: win these playoff chess matches. It's like I was talking about,
Speaker 1: with Luca pulling eight in away. He understood that as
Speaker 1: he navigated into their pick and roll coverage, it wasn't working.
Speaker 1: With Mikhail bridges glued to his backside. He was having
Speaker 1: the most success when he was getting eight non switches,
Speaker 1: and so instead of working downhill, he's coming off these
Speaker 1: ball screens and he's flaring out way wide, dragging eight
Speaker 1: and out with him, forcing bridges to roll down the
Speaker 1: lane with Dwight Powell or Maxi Cleb or whoever it
Speaker 1: was that was in that position at that point in time.
Speaker 1: Luca Don Chitch was able to discover and attack the
Speaker 1: weaknesses in the Phoenix Suns Defense and turned them into
Speaker 1: a below average defense in a playoff series, to the
Speaker 1: point where they couldn't get a stop to save their
Speaker 1: lives in game seven when they fell apart. So it's
Speaker 1: just it's a testament to Luca Don Chich. It's an
Speaker 1: explanation of what's of what works in the modern NBA
Speaker 1: and it's something for us to keep in mind looking
Speaker 1: forward when we're evaluating defenses. If I'm looking at a
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns team that is the, you know, fifth best
Speaker 1: defense in the League, or whatever. They were third, third
Speaker 1: or fifth? Uh, let's see, they were third in defense,
Speaker 1: so we're looking at the third best defense in the league.
Speaker 1: But they have these personnel weaknesses right with like Devin
Speaker 1: Book and and, uh, you know, deandre Ayton on switches,
Speaker 1: or Chris Paul, whoever it is, in post up situations.
Speaker 1: That is something we need to pay more attention to
Speaker 1: than what their actual defensive rating was, whereas like, let's
Speaker 1: say the clippers end up with the tenth best defensive
Speaker 1: rating in basketball, but their key lineups in the big
Speaker 1: moments of the game are like Paul, George Kawhi, Leonard Nick, Patum,
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson. It's like, Oh, they only
Speaker 1: have one guy that can attack there and it's Reggie,
Speaker 1: and they're so athletic around it that they can recover.
Speaker 1: Added that that that needs to be the way that
Speaker 1: we evaluate these kinds of things. We need to pay
Speaker 1: pay more close attention to what, conceptually, the defense will
Speaker 1: look like in a playoff setting. Versus what they're able
Speaker 1: to accomplish over a very large sample size in a
Speaker 1: regular season. The Dallas Mavericks, for another example of this,
Speaker 1: giving up a hundred and twenty points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions against Golden State after being the seventh best defense
Speaker 1: in the regular season. Their personnel, golden state just found
Speaker 1: a way to put them in the blender and attack
Speaker 1: him that way. Um, okay. So let's move on to
Speaker 1: the best case scenario. So they're still gonna win a
Speaker 1: ship ton of games. They're too young, they're too athletic
Speaker 1: and they're too talented not to win a ship a
Speaker 1: ton of games. I would be shocked if they lost
Speaker 1: or I'd be shocked if they won less than fifty
Speaker 1: five games. I feel pretty confident that they'll be okay
Speaker 1: in that department. Um, I have them at seventh because
Speaker 1: of playoff concerns everything that I just explained to you.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and and Chris Paul is struggling to create
Speaker 1: shots the defensive shortcomings of uh in the way that
Speaker 1: really high end superstars can attack them. That's why I
Speaker 1: have them as low as I as I do. But
Speaker 1: even though CP three has been known to break down.
Speaker 1: He just needs to be better than what he's been.
Speaker 1: It's okay, he doesn't have to give you twenty, three,
Speaker 1: five and ten if Devin Booker is great and Mikhail
Speaker 1: Bridges and deandre and make a leap, but he also
Speaker 1: can't give you nine points a game. They need to
Speaker 1: get more out of him than what they got over
Speaker 1: the course of the rest of that series. Devin booker
Speaker 1: needs to stay hot, his pull up shooting can't fail
Speaker 1: him in the biggest moments, and then that offensive development
Speaker 1: from Eton and bridges that I talked about. This is
Speaker 1: why they're the things that can things that have to
Speaker 1: go right, type of contender. If those things go right,
Speaker 1: if if Paul doesn't completely fall apart, if booker stays
Speaker 1: hot and if Eton and bridges continue to develop as young,
Speaker 1: talented basketball players, they absolutely can win a championship. It's
Speaker 1: just those things have to go right and chances are
Speaker 1: they won't, and that's why I don't have them in
Speaker 1: the top tier. And that same reasoning will apply to
Speaker 1: the other teams that talk about later on. Their worst
Speaker 1: case scenario is basically what you've seen the last two years.
Speaker 1: A Better version of the Utah Jazz, a team that
Speaker 1: succeeds a great deal in the regular season but has
Speaker 1: specific playoffs shortcomings. That team's target and relentlessly kick them
Speaker 1: out before they before they get to the trophy Um.
Speaker 1: And then at that point, I mean if something bad
Speaker 1: like that happens again, I think we could be heading
Speaker 1: towards a blow up um, either in the middle of
Speaker 1: the season, if they have some sort of injury, or
Speaker 1: after the season. The biggest x factor on this team
Speaker 1: is Mikhail bridges. He's already one of the best defensive
Speaker 1: players in basketball. He has a really nice jump shot release.
Speaker 1: He shot thirty eight percent on catching shoot threes and
Speaker 1: forty seven percent on pull up jumpers, which is amazing,
Speaker 1: although it's important context, the vast majority, the vast, vast,
Speaker 1: vast majority, of those pull up jump shots came attacking closeouts.
Speaker 1: He's got a really good one dribble pull up um
Speaker 1: going to his left. He also has a really nice,
Speaker 1: like two or three dribble, like short running jump shot
Speaker 1: that he makes kind of around the semicircle in the lane.
Speaker 1: That's really, really pretty looking. He's got all of that skill,
Speaker 1: but he struggles to create his own shot against a
Speaker 1: set defense. He averaged zero points, six points per possession
Speaker 1: and isolation, which is really not nearly good enough. When
Speaker 1: Booker and CP three go cold, which is a possibility
Speaker 1: with this roster, they need someone that can become an
Speaker 1: offensive initiator, and there's two ways that I'd like to
Speaker 1: see Mikhail bridges approach that issue. One, he needs to
Speaker 1: improve as a ball handler so that he can stare
Speaker 1: at defender face to face and hit quick, compact, efficient
Speaker 1: moves to get his defender. especially with his threat as
Speaker 1: a jump shooter and his height and his ability to
Speaker 1: shoot over the top, he should be able to do that.
Speaker 1: The second thing that I'd like to see him do
Speaker 1: more is post up. He was an outstanding post up
Speaker 1: player on a per possession basis this year. It was
Speaker 1: just on ridiculously low volume, but he's got good size,
Speaker 1: he's good at shooting fading over his right shoulder. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him weaponize that post game a little
Speaker 1: bit more, especially since he's gonna draw some smaller defenders
Speaker 1: with the way teams are gonna put their best perimeter
Speaker 1: defender on Devin Booker and they have to have a
Speaker 1: big athlete to deal with Deandre Ayton. He's gonna get
Speaker 1: some good draws on the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: and I'd like to see I'd like to see him
Speaker 1: weaponize that more in the post. If Michael Bridges takes
Speaker 1: a leap to legitimate, to a all star, it would
Speaker 1: fix a lot of their issues that they have on
Speaker 1: the booker and CP three front. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your support and we will be back with number
Speaker 1: six tomorrow and the volume one