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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: presented my fan Wuel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. Gosh, what is this? This is my
Speaker 1: third full day starting here on the lake. We're taking
Speaker 1: a catamaran up further up the lake to go into
Speaker 1: Cascades National Park, um to hit some picnic areas and
Speaker 1: stuff up there. Looking forward to that. It's been a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I tried waters excuse me, wakeboarding for
Speaker 1: the first time ever. Yesterday did not go well. I
Speaker 1: tried at least a half dozen times to get out
Speaker 1: of the water and there's some like fundamental thing that
Speaker 1: I'm missing. Um, I kept getting the boards sucked under
Speaker 1: the water and I just couldn't get up, And uh,
Speaker 1: that was really frustrating for me because typically I've been
Speaker 1: able to pick up athletic things pretty quickly, Like I
Speaker 1: picked up skiing quickly, you know, I pick up sports
Speaker 1: quickly typically. But wakeboarding kicked my ass yesterday. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try it again, hopefully this afternoon. We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1: But vacations going great, having a good time. A couple
Speaker 1: more days on the lake here before we get going
Speaker 1: on the cruise to Alaska. Quick hitter today, don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of time. I want to touch on the
Speaker 1: latest Russell Westbrook report briefly. I want to touch on
Speaker 1: this hardened report about him taking a discount, because I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of getting weird a little bit. I
Speaker 1: was applauding it at first, but out starting to get
Speaker 1: a little weird, and then I'm dying to talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: This this whole phase of this summer reminds me of
Speaker 1: right when I started with the volume, where it was
Speaker 1: like all Star break and the Lakers were tanking and
Speaker 1: we were doing the Lakers Tonight thing, and it was
Speaker 1: like every night was just like Russell Westbrook drama and
Speaker 1: Lakers front office drama and all that kind of crap.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, it's part of the job.
Speaker 1: But you guys know me, I want to talk to basketball.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to get into something basketball related today.
Speaker 1: And so there was a debate going around on Twitter
Speaker 1: having to do with the the ball Don't stop guy
Speaker 1: uh and some of his anti analytics argument, which I
Speaker 1: think is almost like overreaction to that whole situation. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to give my two cents on just the
Speaker 1: way that the role that analytics plays in basketball. Um,
Speaker 1: so that's what we're gonna hit today. Remember, you guys
Speaker 1: know the drill. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: video content that I released, show announcements, things along those lines.
Speaker 1: And the last but not least, if you guys miss
Speaker 1: any portion of this video for any reason, it will
Speaker 1: get re released as a podcast on our podcast feed,
Speaker 1: which is under hoops Tonight. So let's start with the
Speaker 1: Rush report. Now, there were two Rush reports that came
Speaker 1: out yesterday, my friend Jovan Bua with the with the
Speaker 1: Athletic released another report, Uh not not a ton of
Speaker 1: new information, just basically stating that the Russell Westbrook situation
Speaker 1: is about to get a whole lot worse. Then we
Speaker 1: get this Chris Haynes report about a phone call that
Speaker 1: took place betwe Lebron, James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: where they reaffirmed their commitment to one another to try
Speaker 1: to make this work, which had a couple of massive
Speaker 1: red flags right at the beginning. First of all, the
Speaker 1: phone call allegedly took place during the opening weekend of
Speaker 1: NBA Summer League, which is literally when Lebron and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook were sitting on opposite ends of the arena, not
Speaker 1: communicating with each other. So that's strange. If you guys
Speaker 1: had just reaffirmed your commitment to each other, you probably
Speaker 1: would have some kind of interaction on the court. And
Speaker 1: then secondly, it's it kind of reminds me of some
Speaker 1: of the other uh narrative controlling moves that we saw
Speaker 1: in the last couple of weeks, where it's like, how
Speaker 1: stupid do you think we are, Like, you guys just
Speaker 1: played a full NBA season together. How many countless times
Speaker 1: did you guys have conversations about how you might try
Speaker 1: to make things work and try to smooth this out
Speaker 1: and persevere through the trouble? Like this isn't gonna be
Speaker 1: the time that you guys suddenly come together and figure
Speaker 1: it out. You guys had plenty of chances, and we're
Speaker 1: not fallen for that. Um So, to make a long
Speaker 1: story short, it's pretty clear that it's a leverage play.
Speaker 1: I've heard from some people who are connected to the
Speaker 1: situation that it is a leverage play. This report from
Speaker 1: Chris Haynes is a deliberate attempt from the Lakers two
Speaker 1: seed back leverage in the situation. Here's where that's a problem. Uh,
Speaker 1: them fighting for more leverage tells me that they're still
Speaker 1: withholding that second pick, which means they still haven't acknowledged
Speaker 1: the realities of their specific leverage dynamic. We went into
Speaker 1: this and detailed a couple of days ago, so I
Speaker 1: won't go super deep into it again, but the gist
Speaker 1: of it is the Lakers, Ever, it's the worst kept
Speaker 1: secret in the league that nobody on the team wants
Speaker 1: him anymore, that all of these attempts to fluff him
Speaker 1: up our leverage moves, they don't have any sort of
Speaker 1: of real ability to convince the league that they want Russ.
Speaker 1: And then we go to the other side, and with
Speaker 1: Kyrie irving in his trade value being as low as
Speaker 1: it's ever been in the same going for Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: it's actually advantageous for the Nets to bring everybody back
Speaker 1: because if you can get them to play some basketball,
Speaker 1: but probably inflate their trade value. So the trade leverage
Speaker 1: dynamic is very clearly in Brooklyn's favor. And so for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to continually be fighting for to to control
Speaker 1: the narrative of the leverage tells me that they haven't
Speaker 1: acknowledged their reality yet. And that's the problem. Acknowledge the
Speaker 1: reality you have to pay to get rid of Russ.
Speaker 1: You were smart and and and you were sound in
Speaker 1: the sense in your original approach to try to fight
Speaker 1: for the one pick that ship has sailed. Now every
Speaker 1: passing day is a greater risk that Kevin Durant will
Speaker 1: change his mind and decide to return. You just got
Speaker 1: to put the second pick on the table and try
Speaker 1: to make this thing happen. Now, well, they they might
Speaker 1: still wait for the KD move to happen before they
Speaker 1: agree to that deal, but it's just to me it's
Speaker 1: worth throwing it out there, and it's obvious that they haven't.
Speaker 1: Otherwise they wouldn't be fighting for leverage the way that
Speaker 1: they are. Hopefully we're getting to the end of this eventually.
Speaker 1: I have continued to hear from people connected that the
Speaker 1: Lakers want to get rid of us, that that's their
Speaker 1: number one priority. So stop trying to lie to all
Speaker 1: of us. Just bite the bullet and make the thing happen. Um,
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the hard and discounting for a minute.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's the report that came out was
Speaker 1: basically originally heard that he was going to take a
Speaker 1: discount as much as fifteen million dollars. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if that was fifteen million per year or fifteen million
Speaker 1: for the whole contract. Then we get this report that um,
Speaker 1: that he's working closely with Darryl Morey and the rest
Speaker 1: of the franchise to try to make something happen. Then
Speaker 1: we hear yesterday that he wants the Sixers to sign everybody,
Speaker 1: and I'll have what's left over. It's starting and you know,
Speaker 1: hard and having quotes like like, oh, my number one
Speaker 1: goal is winning a championship. Bla blah blah blah. It's
Speaker 1: starting to take on a little bit of like a
Speaker 1: narrative controlling vibe in and of itself, because the reality
Speaker 1: is is, like the Sixers cap situation is not a
Speaker 1: situation where they just have a ton of cap space
Speaker 1: available to go sign an expensive player. That's not the case.
Speaker 1: So I'm not mistaken. As of right now, even without
Speaker 1: Harden on the books at all whatsoever, they have little
Speaker 1: to no cap space available. So they were already operating
Speaker 1: on the margins. They were already operating with things like
Speaker 1: veteran minimum exceptions and UH and taxpayer exceptions and trades
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. They've already signed pieces. They've
Speaker 1: signed Daniel House and p J. Tucker to kind of
Speaker 1: fill in that Danny Green role. There's not some monumental
Speaker 1: change that the Sixers can make to the roster based
Speaker 1: on James Harden taking a discount. That's not that's not
Speaker 1: a real outcome in this situation. So it kind of
Speaker 1: feels preachy at this point, like he's trying to like
Speaker 1: rub in our face. The fact that he's taking a discount.
Speaker 1: My thing is like, that's that's misdirection. That's all not important.
Speaker 1: The Sixers don't have a talent problem. This team has
Speaker 1: tons of talent. I talked about that NonStop during the season.
Speaker 1: Last year they might have had the most talented starting
Speaker 1: five in all of basketball with Tyres Maxie, Danny Green,
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, James Harden, and Joel Embiid. Talents not an issue.
Speaker 1: Tobias I always talk about when I'm like piecing together
Speaker 1: a basketball team, you want like a go to three
Speaker 1: level score. You want like a guy who really understands
Speaker 1: the flow of the game. It can be a playmaker.
Speaker 1: You want a guy who can like be a rim
Speaker 1: pressuring forward that can punish mismatches off the dribble. And
Speaker 1: then you want to have all of the length and
Speaker 1: athleticism defensively to do all the things that you need
Speaker 1: to do. The Sixers have all of that. Joel Embiide
Speaker 1: is a fantastic three level score. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about him here in a minute. James Harden
Speaker 1: is a great playmaker and game manager and a guy
Speaker 1: who can help generate quality shots over the course of
Speaker 1: the game to elevate your shot quality. Tobias Harris is
Speaker 1: a textbook mismatch attack, a mismatch attacking role player forward.
Speaker 1: Obviously there are better scoring forwards in the league, but
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris is as good as you will find in
Speaker 1: a supporting role at being able to create baskets against
Speaker 1: mismatches and to do all the things at that big
Speaker 1: swing forwards can do. You know, they have a ton
Speaker 1: of length and athleticism all over the floor. They've got
Speaker 1: three and D players and guys that can guard multiple positions.
Speaker 1: I really liked the Daniel House and p J. Tucker
Speaker 1: signings to improve the toughness of the team, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's somewhat of a weakness with James Harden and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid. You know, p J. Tucker and Daniel House
Speaker 1: can kind of be that personality for them. This roster
Speaker 1: has everything that they need. This is not a talent issue.
Speaker 1: The reality is is James Harden needs to get healthy,
Speaker 1: figure out the hamstring thing, and try to regain as
Speaker 1: much burst as possible. Why is that Because the Sixers
Speaker 1: have such good supporting players, guys like Tyrese Maxie, guys
Speaker 1: like Tobias Harris obviously, Joel embiid that if if James
Speaker 1: Harden can make that initial dribble penetration more consistent to
Speaker 1: get the defense in rotation, you will be playing against
Speaker 1: a rotating defense with extreme high level offensive talent. With
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie and Joel Embiat and all
Speaker 1: these guys. The problem was last year James Harden could
Speaker 1: not consistently generate that rim pressure because he didn't have
Speaker 1: the foot speed. He's not old enough. I think he's
Speaker 1: only thirty two. He's not old enough to be this slow,
Speaker 1: to be this much on the downslope of his career.
Speaker 1: His injuries haven't been bad enough to explain that type
Speaker 1: of drop off. So as much as I appreciate his
Speaker 1: willingness to take a discount, and I'm not undercutting that,
Speaker 1: even though I think he's playing it up for the
Speaker 1: narrative a little bit, the more important factor here is
Speaker 1: James Harden really diving into taking care of his body
Speaker 1: in a way that he didn't earlier in his career.
Speaker 1: He was younger, he could get away with the lifestyle
Speaker 1: that he lived. No longer the case embraced that, get
Speaker 1: in shape in a way that you haven't in your career,
Speaker 1: regain that foot speed in that first step, the ability
Speaker 1: to because again, if this guys like Tobias Harris and
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxie, if they're attacking a set defense, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have limitations because they aren't superstar level players. But if
Speaker 1: you get to Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie attacking compromise defense,
Speaker 1: attacking a defense, and rotation attacking with an advantage, those
Speaker 1: are those guys are gonna thrive in that setting. So
Speaker 1: you need since Joel embiad is not great at accepting
Speaker 1: double teams and kicking the ball out, you need James
Speaker 1: Harden to create that initial advantage. UM, So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on his physical health over the course of this
Speaker 1: next a couple of seasons. That'll be a much more
Speaker 1: clear indicator of where James Harden's focus is at UM
Speaker 1: With Joel Embiid, I think it's time for him to
Speaker 1: start crafting his game around the postseason. And we've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot. This was an issue James Harden
Speaker 1: that earlier in his career, we haven't really had a
Speaker 1: chance to see him kind of fulfill that need. But
Speaker 1: with Joel Embid the foul baiting. You know, I got
Speaker 1: in trouble with with some embiad fans, But this is
Speaker 1: the truth. He's not as good at putting the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket as his peers. Okay, like guys like
Speaker 1: Nicola Yo Kitchen, other big rim pressuring guys like Janice
Speaker 1: and Lebron. They're shooting in the restricted area, They're shooting
Speaker 1: in the mid from the field, they're They're effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage is between fifty five and sixty. Their true
Speaker 1: shooting percentages over sixty. These guys are remarkably efficient at
Speaker 1: actually putting the basketball in the basket. Okay, Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: manufactures a lot of points through his ability to put
Speaker 1: defenders in a tough spot and draw fouls, but as
Speaker 1: we know, that's not a reliable way to score the
Speaker 1: basketball in the postseason. He needs to get away from
Speaker 1: that a little bit and start crafting his game towards
Speaker 1: actually reliable things in the postseason, which is putting the
Speaker 1: ball in the ba ask it irrespective of what the
Speaker 1: ref gives you with the whistle. That is drawing double
Speaker 1: teams and being able to navigate the double teams so
Speaker 1: that you can keep the defense in rotation so that
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, James Harden and Tyrese Maxie are attacking with
Speaker 1: an advantage. Those are things that are guaranteed to work
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Needs are proven methods, proven that that
Speaker 1: will that you can rely on and lean on in
Speaker 1: hard moments in a playoff series. The make no mistake,
Speaker 1: the only thing standing between the Sixers and winning a
Speaker 1: title is the realized version of James Harden and Joel
Speaker 1: Embiat at the top of their games. It's not James
Speaker 1: Harden taking a discount. You can get one more role player.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be how well Daniel House or p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker play. It's not gonna be what Tobias Harris and
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxie do. If James Harden can recapture what he
Speaker 1: was athletically in two thousand eighteen, and if Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: can man, you can cultivate a place aisle that actually
Speaker 1: succeeds in the postseason geared around putting the ball in
Speaker 1: the basket rather than getting to the free throw line.
Speaker 1: If they do that, the Sixers have more than enough
Speaker 1: talent to win. Those are the guys to watch, don't
Speaker 1: get distracted by all of this, like taking a discount,
Speaker 1: loading up the roster. It comes down to those two
Speaker 1: guys and then getting the job done. All right, let's
Speaker 1: do this analytics stuff and then let's get out of here.
Speaker 1: So again, what the debate was. I can't remember exactly
Speaker 1: the grounds for what caused the conversation on Twitter, but
Speaker 1: I believe the gist of it was was a a
Speaker 1: analytics heavy guy. I believe it was Seth part Now
Speaker 1: said that he would rather have I want to say
Speaker 1: it was Herb Jones in a I can't remember exactly
Speaker 1: what it was, but it was like a three in
Speaker 1: D guy. Oh no, that's what it was. Dorian Phinney Smith.
Speaker 1: He said, in a supporting role on a team, He'd
Speaker 1: rather have a Dorian Phinney Smith than a Brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: And it was based on like the analytics, and then
Speaker 1: of course comes the the ball don't stop guy coming in,
Speaker 1: like just trashing those guys for not watching the games
Speaker 1: and being stuck in the numbers. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: a low brow conversation. And that's why I never engage
Speaker 1: in it, because no one's getting any smarter it's just
Speaker 1: people yelling at each other from two absurd perspectives. But
Speaker 1: that dynamic is very interesting to me because like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not an old man yelling on his port. I'm
Speaker 1: not the guy that's like, um, you know, like this
Speaker 1: is the way that we should do things, and and
Speaker 1: we should never do These young guys in their perspective
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. That's not one of my perspective here. I
Speaker 1: am a big believer in utilizing every resource at your
Speaker 1: disposal to try to gain an edge. And if that
Speaker 1: means that you have a team of of of people
Speaker 1: who are great with statistical analysis in your building, then
Speaker 1: that's great. I think that that should be a part
Speaker 1: of of any well meaning and and and well run
Speaker 1: NBA organization. My issue is the the pursuit of something
Speaker 1: that I don't think is achievable with analytics. So with baseball,
Speaker 1: the situation is far more static. It's a picture of
Speaker 1: as a hitter. There are different types of pictures, right, lefties, right,
Speaker 1: these hard throwers, you know, guys who rely on movement pitches, Um,
Speaker 1: guys that are contact pictures, guys that deliberately throw sinker
Speaker 1: balls and and uh to uh to seeing fastballs and
Speaker 1: things that are designed to get the batter to hit
Speaker 1: groundballs right, to to get ground out, to get through
Speaker 1: the game. Then there are you know, strikeout pittures, guys
Speaker 1: that are heavier on movement and speed and are primarily
Speaker 1: trying to get swinging misses. Right. There's all these different factors,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot easier to try to put those
Speaker 1: factors together into a single number that can quantify the
Speaker 1: impact that a hitter has because of the smaller number
Speaker 1: of factors. Basketball is just too complicated for that. Where
Speaker 1: my my where I separate from analytics, the analytics movement
Speaker 1: in the n b A is the incessant desire to
Speaker 1: assign a single metric to capture a player's impact because
Speaker 1: I think there's too much at play. To me, it's
Speaker 1: almost like basketball blasphemy. It's trying to understand something that's
Speaker 1: impossible to understand. There are ten players on the floor
Speaker 1: that have an impact on a single basketball possession, so
Speaker 1: it is and over the course of a hundred possessions
Speaker 1: in a game. It's not three to four at bats,
Speaker 1: it's a hundred possessions, right, So Like from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's possible to quantify a player's impact
Speaker 1: with one UM with one UH number. To take it
Speaker 1: even further, in baseball, the dynamic never shifts. It's always
Speaker 1: pitch or hit or pitch or hitter, right, It's always
Speaker 1: that same dynamic of trying to UH to make contact
Speaker 1: with the baseball. With basketball, each dynamic can be different.
Speaker 1: A player can be attacking in isolation. A player can
Speaker 1: be attacking and pick and roll. A player can be
Speaker 1: attacking in a post up. A player can be attacking
Speaker 1: in a closeout situation, like for instance, if Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is a primary defender on Lebron James in a post up,
Speaker 1: that is one way that Kauai is a primary defender.
Speaker 1: What if acquires a primary defender and Kyrie Irving just
Speaker 1: drove to the basket and kicked it to Lebron, and
Speaker 1: now Kauai is closing out on Lebron. Lebron has an advantage,
Speaker 1: So lumping that in as a lumping that in and
Speaker 1: Kauai's individual defense number doesn't make any sense because what
Speaker 1: if it happens to be a game where Kyrie is
Speaker 1: getting constant dribble penetration and Kauai's closing out all night long.
Speaker 1: Versus a game where Kyrie doesn't have it going and
Speaker 1: Lebron's isolating Kawhi Leonard all night long. Versus a play
Speaker 1: where Lebron's running high pick and roll with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and their big man can't switch, so they don't switch
Speaker 1: the screens, so they running drop coverage. Now Kauai Leonards
Speaker 1: trying to fight over the top of ball screens all
Speaker 1: night long. None of these possessions are the same. There
Speaker 1: are way more moving parts. It's far more difficult to
Speaker 1: quantify those things, So I I disagree with the the
Speaker 1: I believe it's kind of like, uh, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: fighting a losing battle. In my opinion, trying to quantify
Speaker 1: those things. Where I really like analytics in basketball is
Speaker 1: trying to find static situations. So, for instance, like if
Speaker 1: I know that if I have Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis running pick and roll and it's primarily resulting and switches,
Speaker 1: and as a result, because of the switches, it's ending
Speaker 1: in isolation possessions and we're getting fewer points per possession.
Speaker 1: But if I run the screen and roll with Damian Jones,
Speaker 1: they don't switch it because it's a slower center, so
Speaker 1: we're running drop coverage. So we're getting more more points
Speaker 1: per possession. If a if a analytics guy in my
Speaker 1: office can come into my can come into my office
Speaker 1: and say, hey, you know, we're getting an additional three
Speaker 1: tenths of a point per possession on pick and rolls
Speaker 1: with Damian Jones and we are with Anthony Davis. Because
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis, they're just switching it versus with Damian Jones,
Speaker 1: they're running drop coverage. That's an example of trying to
Speaker 1: focus the power of our statistical analysis at something that
Speaker 1: is quantifiable and going from there. You know, Lebron like, hey,
Speaker 1: when we post up Anthony Davis on the left block,
Speaker 1: he sees the double teams better because he can throw
Speaker 1: the pass, or let's say it's with the right block,
Speaker 1: because he can throw the pass with his right hand.
Speaker 1: He's getting you know, one point four points per possession
Speaker 1: on post ups on the right block, but zero point
Speaker 1: nine points per possessions on the left block because he's
Speaker 1: not passing well out of it. He's not seeing the
Speaker 1: floor as well, or he likes going to his turnover
Speaker 1: turnaround over his right shoulder and he's more comfortable doing
Speaker 1: that towards the middle of the floor, So we want
Speaker 1: to post him on the left block. Using data to
Speaker 1: try to navigate those little details in the game. I
Speaker 1: think it's really smart. That is quantifiable. And also that's
Speaker 1: just the scoreboard. You guys hear me always talk about
Speaker 1: offensive rating, defensive rating, net rating. Those sound like fancy words,
Speaker 1: and they come with fancy fancy uh you know way
Speaker 1: of saying it, right, Like one point four points per
Speaker 1: possession sounds fancy, right. That's the scoreboard. That's all that is.
Speaker 1: That's how many times are you putting the ball in
Speaker 1: the basket versus how many times he tried. That's not
Speaker 1: that's not nearly as convoluted as it sounds. It's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: And and using that kind of data um to me
Speaker 1: is it actually adds real substance to the discussion. And
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, I think it's important for
Speaker 1: us to to, you know, whenever something new comes to
Speaker 1: the table, acknowledge the good parts about it and acknowledge
Speaker 1: the bad parts about It's like with social media. With
Speaker 1: social media can add to our lives in a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways. Hell, it's empowered me to become a
Speaker 1: content creator in a way that I might not have
Speaker 1: been able to ten years ago. Right, But the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is it can cause mental health problems,
Speaker 1: Like I have to do things like be careful with
Speaker 1: how much I read YouTube comments or read mentions because
Speaker 1: you know, obviously I'm a tough guy. I can handle it.
Speaker 1: But like, man, if I look at too much negativity,
Speaker 1: you can wear you down a little bit, right, Like
Speaker 1: there's with anything, you gotta acknowledge the good and acknowledge
Speaker 1: the bad and try to gear yourself towards the good. Right,
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the way I feel about the
Speaker 1: analytics movement, like accept its strengths and weaknesses, apply the strengths,
Speaker 1: but don't waste your energy on the resource on the
Speaker 1: on the weaknesses. And I just I I have I
Speaker 1: have a really hard time personally for me, uh like
Speaker 1: rolling scrolling through Twitter and seeing guys gearing entire basketball
Speaker 1: discussions around like catch all metrics, Like here's this singular
Speaker 1: metric that captures what Nicola Yoki is as a basketball player. No, man, no,
Speaker 1: Nikola Yoks doesn't play anything like any other player in
Speaker 1: the league. He is a complete unicorn. Nobody plays basketball
Speaker 1: the way that he does. If you're trying to assign
Speaker 1: a metric that compares him directly to a Lebron James,
Speaker 1: you're fighting a losing battle. There, there's no point. And
Speaker 1: so I'd like to see I just like to see
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Um, I think I think the
Speaker 1: pendulum has swung too far. It was too old fashioned.
Speaker 1: We've swung too far into leaning too heavily into that stuff.
Speaker 1: Acknowledge that the game of basketball is a beautiful and
Speaker 1: complicated thing. And and and let's direct our resources appropriately
Speaker 1: and never ever ever let basketball, the actu little game
Speaker 1: of basketball itself fall into the background. It should always
Speaker 1: stay in the foreground. Um. All right, that's all I
Speaker 1: have for today. We're gonna I'm gonna keep doing these
Speaker 1: throughout the trip, and I'm gonna I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: counteract as much of the um uh, the drama with
Speaker 1: some basketball, just for the sake of my sanity. Also, guys,
Speaker 1: please suggestions if there are things that you guys want
Speaker 1: me to talk about on the show, If there are
Speaker 1: specific topics that you guys find interesting, I may not
Speaker 1: be able to hit them at the start of the show,
Speaker 1: but I can hit them at the end if if
Speaker 1: they're a little bit more niche in the in their
Speaker 1: in their focus. But um, as always, I appreciate your
Speaker 1: guys support. You guys know the drill. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Volumes YouTube channels so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our content. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason LT. And,
Speaker 1: last but not least, if you miss part of the
Speaker 1: show and you want to hear the podcast version, you
Speaker 1: can check it out on our podcast feed, which is
Speaker 1: under groops Tonight. Al right, guys, we'll see you in
Speaker 1: a couple of days. The Volume