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Speaker 1: Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great weekend. I just got back into town
Speaker 1: last night, flew in from Reno. We were skiing at
Speaker 1: North Star in California by the Lake Tahoe. It was
Speaker 1: my first time ever skiing in that Lake Tahoe area.
Speaker 1: Was a lot of fun, a lot of really good runs.
Speaker 1: I feel like I got a lot better. Uh. Skiing
Speaker 1: is like my second favorite thing to do in the world,
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Speaker 1: up to Breckon Ridge for my second to last trip
Speaker 1: of the year. We have a special trip in April
Speaker 1: from my wife's thirtieth birthday. We're gonna be going up
Speaker 1: to Canada. But doing a lot of skiing this season.
Speaker 1: Like I said, one of my favorite things to do today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep it really simple, talking Laker Celtics and
Speaker 1: that wild game last night, and then Joe l MB
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Speaker 1: what a great game between the Lakers and the Celtics
Speaker 1: last night. And intensity, especially as the crowd was kind
Speaker 1: of working off of each other, where the Laker fans
Speaker 1: are getting loud and then the Celtics fans are trying
Speaker 1: to match that. There was a special intensity in that game.
Speaker 1: I was watching it in the Salt Lake City Airport
Speaker 1: while we were preparing on a layover. Uh, it's still
Speaker 1: a little bit of a funky game. Like Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Ruey Hatch and Muruver is still coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: A d is still nowhere near what he was before
Speaker 1: his injury, Like he played thirty four minutes and only
Speaker 1: managed sixteen points and ten rebounds, although I thought he
Speaker 1: was very good defensively. And then Marcus Smart wasn't playing
Speaker 1: for the Celtics either, So it's just kind of like
Speaker 1: a weird game in a lot of different ways. Um,
Speaker 1: the Lakers really controlled it, led throughout. I thought they
Speaker 1: deserved to win, and then they got burned by three.
Speaker 1: Things is down the stretch once again, Darvin Hamm refusing
Speaker 1: to foul when up three on the final possession. Now again,
Speaker 1: I understand as a basketball mind how you might feel
Speaker 1: like I trust my defense to get a stop here,
Speaker 1: but all of the data clearly suggests that you have
Speaker 1: a better chance to win significantly if you foul up
Speaker 1: three on the final possession. Then if you play it
Speaker 1: out defensively, And it would be one thing if it
Speaker 1: was kind of on the fence and it was a
Speaker 1: matter of ideology, I'd understand. But when the data that
Speaker 1: is that clear about fouling when you're up three, I
Speaker 1: think that refusing to take that strategy is leaving opportunity
Speaker 1: on the table. They end up getting burned by a
Speaker 1: offensive rebound by Jalen Brown and then Patrick Beverley kind
Speaker 1: of hacks him over the top of the head. The
Speaker 1: game is tied. Um then at the end of the
Speaker 1: game that there was a really bad misscall on Lebron.
Speaker 1: You guys have all seen it's been the biggest story
Speaker 1: in the league over the last twenty four hours. Lebron
Speaker 1: gets all the way to the rim, left hand at
Speaker 1: the rim, gets hacked on the forum. He missed it.
Speaker 1: It was an atrocious missed call. I don't know what
Speaker 1: else to say. I mean, the ref's that were in
Speaker 1: that moment should be ashamed. There was a ref on
Speaker 1: the baseline that had a clear view of the call.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, that's why a
Speaker 1: lot of guys settled for jump shots at the end
Speaker 1: of games. I've been saying this on the show for
Speaker 1: a long time. Everyone thinks it's so easy, like, hey,
Speaker 1: why did you settle? Put your head down, try to
Speaker 1: go to the rim. There is a distinct reason why
Speaker 1: players take a lot of pull up jump shots at
Speaker 1: the end of games one. It's a lot harder to
Speaker 1: send help and double team when you're working off with
Speaker 1: the live dribble from the perimeter than it is when
Speaker 1: you're driving to the basket. And two, when you drive
Speaker 1: to the basket, you put the outcome in the ref's hands.
Speaker 1: It even goes further than getting a shot off. It's
Speaker 1: like kind of like that Russell Westbrook play on Joel Ebid.
Speaker 1: He's getting fouled on his way to the rim and
Speaker 1: he lost control of the basketball. So you might not
Speaker 1: even get a shot off, let alone get to the
Speaker 1: rim and have a chance to finish where you might
Speaker 1: get fouled there as as well. When you drive to
Speaker 1: the basket, you put the outcome in the hands of
Speaker 1: the refs, and the refs in many cases don't want
Speaker 1: to be involved with changing the outcome of the game.
Speaker 1: The reason why so many calls get uncalled on the
Speaker 1: final possession at the rim is they'd rather let the
Speaker 1: basketball players dictate the terms of the game, which I get. Now,
Speaker 1: there should be a line like if you're getting clearly
Speaker 1: hacked right in front of the ref on a layup,
Speaker 1: then yeah, you should blow the whistle. But you've got
Speaker 1: to understand human nature. Yes, it makes sense. Hey, if
Speaker 1: we drive to the basket, I might be able to
Speaker 1: get a driving kick opportunity I might be able to
Speaker 1: get a higher percentage shot at the rim, but we
Speaker 1: know through human nature that you're much less likely to
Speaker 1: get a call, which means you have to score or
Speaker 1: pass through physicality illegal physicality that's not going to get called.
Speaker 1: So that's why it's like, Hey, why don't I take
Speaker 1: this pull up jump shot, or why don't I go
Speaker 1: over this ball screen and shoot this three or take
Speaker 1: this turnaround fade way out of the post. The reason
Speaker 1: why is in that situation, the outcomes in my hands.
Speaker 1: The ref can't take it away from me. The defense
Speaker 1: is gonna have a hard time even doubling. My best
Speaker 1: player is going to get a shot that at least
Speaker 1: he's going to make or miss, and we'll live on
Speaker 1: that outcome. That's why a lot of guys do that.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying that there's a right or wrong answer,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot easier for us Monday morning more
Speaker 1: Monday morning quarterbacking from the couch to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you should have driven, or oh he should have taken
Speaker 1: a jump shot, when really, at the end of games,
Speaker 1: there's no good option. You can drive and get fouled
Speaker 1: and it probably won't get called, or you can take
Speaker 1: a lower percentage fade away. In both cases, it's tough, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is exactly why throughout NBA history, in
Speaker 1: the last second possessions, everyone's field goal percentage tanks, like
Speaker 1: everybody does poorly in those situations. You might have outlier
Speaker 1: seasons where one guy shoots really well for a year,
Speaker 1: but all league wide percentages go down in those situations
Speaker 1: because of that specific conundrum that I just broke down
Speaker 1: for you. And then, lastly, the third big mistake for
Speaker 1: the Lakers in overtime, Darvin Ham inexplicably and inexcusably went
Speaker 1: back to Russell Westbrook. Despite the mountain of evidence both
Speaker 1: in data and visual evidence on tape that Russ cannot close,
Speaker 1: Darvin went back to him. It predictably messed up l
Speaker 1: A's offense. They managed just seven points in o t
Speaker 1: and they lost. On the Celtic side of things, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown and Malcolm Brogney were both magnificent. Jayson Tatum once
Speaker 1: again kind of had an uneven night on a big stage.
Speaker 1: He did get over thirty points, but he was just
Speaker 1: eight from the field. He had more turnovers than assists.
Speaker 1: There was that weird moment I mean that that last
Speaker 1: play with Lebron was really weird because Tatum clearly hacks
Speaker 1: him on the left arm, like the one of the
Speaker 1: worst miscalls at the end of a basketball game I've
Speaker 1: ever seen, and he turns and like runs up the
Speaker 1: floor holding one finger up like he just saved the day,
Speaker 1: which was bizarre behavior. And now he did technically, but
Speaker 1: he saved the day by doing something that should have
Speaker 1: actually cost him the game. So it's just kind of
Speaker 1: another yeared on even night from Tatum. But every single
Speaker 1: time that has happened over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown has been the guy who's been aggressive, who's
Speaker 1: been confident, who stepped up and made those big plays.
Speaker 1: Um that that's been a consistent theme over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. Made all the plays down the stretch
Speaker 1: to send it to Ot, including the offensive rebound put back,
Speaker 1: and then Inot just bulling his way to the rim,
Speaker 1: hitting pull up jump shots. He's their late game assassin
Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways. And it's not a
Speaker 1: matter of skill, because I think Jalen Jayson Tatum is
Speaker 1: a better player than Jalen Brown. The Jayson Tatum has
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a passive persona and is
Speaker 1: less confident in those situations. And Jalen Brown is completely
Speaker 1: laser focused on on looking for his own shot and
Speaker 1: and using his physical tools to get higher quality attempts
Speaker 1: at the rim. He does everything right in those late
Speaker 1: game situations that you want from Jayson Tatum and then
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden. I've been from the minute they made the
Speaker 1: trade that last summer. I said it was a home
Speaker 1: run trade. It's specifically addressed one of their biggest weaknesses.
Speaker 1: And you saw again last night what happens when you
Speaker 1: put the basketball in the hands of a very smart player,
Speaker 1: who is very skilled, who's going to make good decisions
Speaker 1: at the end of games. He had eleven points and
Speaker 1: two assists in the fourth quarter in overtime, massive pull
Speaker 1: up three and pick and roll towards the end of
Speaker 1: regulation where the I can't remember whether whether it was
Speaker 1: Dennis or Path, but one of the guards goes underneath
Speaker 1: the screen. He just steps back and hits the three,
Speaker 1: really nice left handed finish in traffic off the glass
Speaker 1: and o t to put the Celtics up by six. Um.
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brown is just playing. I I said to you guys,
Speaker 1: like a week or two ago that in smaller doses
Speaker 1: because his minutes have been somewhat limited, he's been giving
Speaker 1: you superstar level production, Like on a per thirty six
Speaker 1: minute basis, He's doing what superstars do with shot making
Speaker 1: and being the offensive engine and making those decisions and
Speaker 1: keeping their offense moving. So I mean I tip of
Speaker 1: the cap to the Celtics for making that aggressive move
Speaker 1: this offseason, not being complacent when you were that close
Speaker 1: to an NBA championship, because he makes them so much better.
Speaker 1: Darvin ham and the refs, obviously, with that missed call,
Speaker 1: left a little bit of a crack in the door
Speaker 1: on a night when the Lakers were a better basketball team,
Speaker 1: and Malcolm Brogden and Jalen Brown just smashed that door
Speaker 1: open and got the win. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: Russ and overtime for a minute, because at four minutes
Speaker 1: left in ot even though he had played poorly all game,
Speaker 1: and even though he really has been playing poorly for
Speaker 1: most of the last two weeks, Darvin Hamm went back
Speaker 1: to Russ and it was it was funny. I was
Speaker 1: watching it in the in the airport in Salt Lake City,
Speaker 1: and I remember literally thinking in the moment, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can see what his reasoning was. Like Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: and Jitalen Brown were starting to give Dennis Shirter and
Speaker 1: Patrick rever Leys some issues with their size because they're bigger.
Speaker 1: I think he wanted to have a larger player out
Speaker 1: there that could do some more individual defense stuff on
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown. And for the record, that was like
Speaker 1: the one thing he did pretty well in that crunch
Speaker 1: time period was you know, I think he forced two
Speaker 1: turnovers he stripped and Tatum clean once. He's a good
Speaker 1: isolation defender. That's a fact about Russ. But there's all
Speaker 1: the bad stuff that comes with it, and he's on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. We know three things about Russ and
Speaker 1: crunch time situations. They're going to put a center on him,
Speaker 1: so if he's off the ball, he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: take catch and shoot threes, which he won't be able
Speaker 1: to make. And if he's on the ball, the center
Speaker 1: is gonna back off and try to bait him into
Speaker 1: driving into him at the basket where he's gonna struggle
Speaker 1: to finish over that size and physicality. And then third
Speaker 1: decision making, Russ is not a good late game decision maker.
Speaker 1: And all three of those things were on display down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game. But what's funny is I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there in the Salt Lake City Airport thinking,
Speaker 1: this is Darvin playing Roulette, because Russ is a very
Speaker 1: much a Roulette type of player. He's a good playmaker
Speaker 1: and he's a bad playmaker, and if you play the
Speaker 1: game in a large sample size, there's gonna be more
Speaker 1: good than bad, especially if he plays a lot in
Speaker 1: the middle portions of the game, which has been the
Speaker 1: story of the season. There's been more good Russ than
Speaker 1: bad Us, but most of that good is taking place
Speaker 1: in the middle portions of games. At the end of games.
Speaker 1: It's a completely different dynamic. But if when you play roulette,
Speaker 1: sometimes you pick red three times in a row, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it lands on red three times in a row.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because that's how it started. Because the
Speaker 1: Russ checks into the game and Lebron misses a driving
Speaker 1: layup and Russ just comes flying in and gets an
Speaker 1: offensive remail put back and gets fould and you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: there you go. Big time play from Russ. MS is
Speaker 1: the free throw, but a couple of possessions later. Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum picks on Russ on a switch and Russ just
Speaker 1: strips Jayson Tatum clean. Anthony Davis gets the ball, pushes
Speaker 1: it ahead to Russ. Russ goes the length of the
Speaker 1: floor and draws a foul on Malcolm Brogden goes to
Speaker 1: the line and makes both free throws. Boom. We're making plays.
Speaker 1: Three good plays in a row from Russ. That's hit
Speaker 1: and red three times in a row. But what happens
Speaker 1: when you're playing roulette and you hit red three times
Speaker 1: in a row and you pick red on the fourth one,
Speaker 1: Sometimes it goes back to black, and then sometimes it
Speaker 1: goes back to again, and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're in a worst position than you were when you started.
Speaker 1: Boston starts guarding Russ with Luke Cornett a center, in
Speaker 1: a strategy we've seen all season beat the Lakers. Lebron
Speaker 1: drives to the basket. Luke Cornette is ignoring Russ in
Speaker 1: the left corner. Lebron makes the kickout pass to Russ
Speaker 1: in the left corner. He misses the three. If that's
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatchamura, the player who should have been in the
Speaker 1: game in that point, he's a forty two corner three
Speaker 1: point shooter, one of the better corner three point shooters
Speaker 1: in the league, and he has a much better chance
Speaker 1: of making that shot. Russell Westbrook is a twenty eight
Speaker 1: percent corner three point shooter. So Boston is loving that
Speaker 1: shot because even if even if he manages to make it,
Speaker 1: you'll probably take two or three more of him and
Speaker 1: miss him. And Russ predictably missed that shot. Very next possession,
Speaker 1: Russ catches in the right corner, this time Al Horford's
Speaker 1: guarding him. Al Horford concedes the shot to us, but
Speaker 1: Russ doesn't take it. Why because he's a twenty eight
Speaker 1: percent three point shooter on wide open attempts. Again, that's
Speaker 1: the big disc differentiator. It's not on Boyan Bogdanovitch's shot profile.
Speaker 1: It's on stands still completely unguarded threes. Like many of
Speaker 1: you watching this show probably hit wide open threes at
Speaker 1: a higher percentage than Russell Westbrook. That's the concern. So
Speaker 1: he looks at Al Horford doesn't shoot it, instead of
Speaker 1: working it around to Lebron who's on one all game long,
Speaker 1: or Anthony Davis who's not having a great game but
Speaker 1: is a better player than Russ. What does Russ do.
Speaker 1: He does exactly what the other team wants him to do.
Speaker 1: Attempts to bully a center to the basket, and al
Speaker 1: funnels him behind the backboard and he ends up throwing
Speaker 1: it up off the bottom of the rim. Meanwhile, Lebron
Speaker 1: is relocating to the right corner in his wide open
Speaker 1: asking for the basketball. That's why teams guard Russ with centers.
Speaker 1: They can give space, and when he tries to bully
Speaker 1: their way to the rim or his way to the rim,
Speaker 1: they can swallow everything up around the rim because they
Speaker 1: are bigger and stronger than him. I want to be clear,
Speaker 1: Russ has played well enough for long stretches this season
Speaker 1: to be a net positive. I said that earlier. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it again because I don't want to be
Speaker 1: slander us here. But one of the biggest reasons that
Speaker 1: I remain a big advocate for trading Russ at the
Speaker 1: deadline is Darvin Ham has a blind spot for him.
Speaker 1: He does not see those problems in crunch time. And
Speaker 1: we wondered earlier it was like, Okay, Russ is playing
Speaker 1: a lot in crunch time because of injuries. Well, now
Speaker 1: everyone's healthy. He had Lonnie Walker as an option. He
Speaker 1: had Ruey Hatchimura as an option, he had Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: As an option. All three much at our options, then
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook in the crunch time group, and he went
Speaker 1: with Russ anyway. This season, when Russ plays in crunch time,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are eight and thirteen. This season, when Russ
Speaker 1: does not play in crunch time, the Lakers are four
Speaker 1: and no. We have a mountain of data, both in
Speaker 1: the numbers but also in the visual evidence that's on
Speaker 1: film of what happens when he's in crunch time and
Speaker 1: Darvin does not see it. And so even in the
Speaker 1: beautiful you know Lakers fan dream scenario where a d
Speaker 1: gets back to m VP form and they make a
Speaker 1: trade for a shooter at the deadline and everything's clicking,
Speaker 1: and you're in the second round of the playoffs and
Speaker 1: it's Game five and it's two to two and it's
Speaker 1: one oh five, one oh five, and O T. Darvin
Speaker 1: will play Russ again and it might cost them the series.
Speaker 1: The only way to stop that is to get him
Speaker 1: off the rock, Sir. It is now incumbent on Rod
Speaker 1: Polinka to save Darvin Ham from himself. I don't believe
Speaker 1: they will, and I believe that this will continue to
Speaker 1: be an issue throughout the remainder of the season. But
Speaker 1: I think that the actual solution itself is pretty simple. Look,
Speaker 1: it's a heartbreaking loss for the Lakers, and heartbreak is heartbreak.
Speaker 1: It happens to every team. It's a natural part of
Speaker 1: the eight two game season. You're going to lose games
Speaker 1: because of bad calls. You're going to lose games because
Speaker 1: a wild shot making from a random opponent. You're going
Speaker 1: to lose games because you have for a half dozen
Speaker 1: different reasons over the course of an eighty two game season.
Speaker 1: But if you're the Celtics and your thirty six and fifteen,
Speaker 1: say Lebron makes that left handed lay up at the
Speaker 1: buzzer and the Lakers win, Lakers feeling great, But let's
Speaker 1: focus on Boston. They're looking at that, and they're thirty
Speaker 1: five and sixteen, and they're like, man, that sucks. We
Speaker 1: lost Lebron in a final possession. He beat us, damn it,
Speaker 1: in a rivalry game national television. That sucks. Okay, But
Speaker 1: if we turn around and we went on Monday, now
Speaker 1: we're thirty six and sixteen, we still have the best record.
Speaker 1: In the league and who cares but Rob Polinken. Jennie
Speaker 1: Buss sent the Lakers out undermanned to start the season
Speaker 1: at key positions and kept Ross on the roster despite
Speaker 1: the clunky fit. And so they're twenty three and twenty
Speaker 1: seven now, so it's a lot harder for them to
Speaker 1: cope with this sort of thing because they desperately need wins.
Speaker 1: And look, I understand a lot of Lakers fans are
Speaker 1: focusing on the refs, and I understand, I think they're
Speaker 1: being a little dramatic. I can only think of two
Speaker 1: games in particular where I thought they were flat out robbed.
Speaker 1: Some of the other games it was just missed calls
Speaker 1: that could have gone either way, and even in that situation,
Speaker 1: it doesn't guarantee the outcome of the game. The two games.
Speaker 1: I look at her last night because Lebron got fouled
Speaker 1: as the buzzer was sounding on a layup and should
Speaker 1: have gone to the line to win the game. And
Speaker 1: I don't care how bad you are three throw shooting,
Speaker 1: he's gonna make one of two. And then the man
Speaker 1: X game when he did the exact same thing on
Speaker 1: Christian Would. I think it was either at the end
Speaker 1: of o T or the end of regulation drives baseline
Speaker 1: buzzards about to sound. He's at the rim and Christian
Speaker 1: would just hacks the hell out of him on his arm.
Speaker 1: Should have gone to the line, should have made them.
Speaker 1: That's two games, guys, that's two games out of a
Speaker 1: d two. That should not dictate your season. You should
Speaker 1: just be like, oh, crap, I can't believe it happened
Speaker 1: to us twice. But who cares because we're a good
Speaker 1: basketball team and we can weather that. But the Lakers
Speaker 1: have done so much additional damage to themselves that that
Speaker 1: hurts even worse. Again. Four, No, when you close the
Speaker 1: games without Russ should have been five. And though if
Speaker 1: Lebron gets the call that he wanted because Russ was
Speaker 1: out of the game for crunch time in that part
Speaker 1: and eight and thirteen when they closed with Russ, there's
Speaker 1: data there. You're ignoring data. That's self sabotage. You can't
Speaker 1: blame the refs for that. That self sabotage. You lost
Speaker 1: a half dozen games this year just because you simply
Speaker 1: did not have forwards on the floor, and you continually
Speaker 1: gave up offensive rebounds to bigger, taller players and you
Speaker 1: love ust. That's not on the refs. That's on Rob Bolinka.
Speaker 1: So like I, I don't like. That's why I don't
Speaker 1: like blaming refs when we talk about this kind of
Speaker 1: stuff and you can point it out, Yeah, missed call,
Speaker 1: you're right, Yeah, the Lakers should have one. Lebron got robbed.
Speaker 1: The Lakers got robbed. But that's a natural part of
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, especially in a larger sample size,
Speaker 1: and you should be able to weather that. And if
Speaker 1: you can't, you probably have a lot bigger problems than
Speaker 1: getting calls at the end of games. On a glass
Speaker 1: half full level, for the Lakers, the Lakers are good.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that there are even skeptics out there
Speaker 1: who are who have been watching these videos, who have
Speaker 1: been thinking I was ridiculous all year, who are starting
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that the Lakers are good. They're in every
Speaker 1: single game, regardless of who they're playing, even with all
Speaker 1: of the disaster in all of the tricked off games,
Speaker 1: they are still twenty one and seventeen since they're too
Speaker 1: intense start, and they just added Anthony Davis back to
Speaker 1: the lineup and a really good lottery pickful word. So
Speaker 1: they're good. But they've got to get out of their
Speaker 1: own way. They need to get rid of Russ to
Speaker 1: save Darvin Ham from himself. I still think they need
Speaker 1: that one more shooter to really tie things together offensively.
Speaker 1: And here's the other glassful thing. A D was really
Speaker 1: good last night defensively, and he grabbed some key contested rebounds.
Speaker 1: But A D is not even close to back to form.
Speaker 1: He's going to continue to get better and better over
Speaker 1: the next few weeks. So there's a lot to get
Speaker 1: excited about there. All right, let's talk Denver, Philly. I
Speaker 1: watched this game in Reno. Um. You know what's kind
Speaker 1: of funny about this game is through three and a
Speaker 1: half quarters, it was kind of the perfect description of
Speaker 1: why Yokich is the better player, right, Like, he was
Speaker 1: controlling the game the way he usually does. He was
Speaker 1: only shooting when it was in the flow of the offense,
Speaker 1: just creating advantages all game long and being that engine
Speaker 1: that makes everything works. Nothing special was happening, but the
Speaker 1: box score numbers were there and the nuggets were up,
Speaker 1: kind of textbook Denver nuggets. But then Joe l embiid happened,
Speaker 1: and in the same way that the first three and
Speaker 1: a half quarters were evidence of the way that Yokich
Speaker 1: is better. That last half quarter was evidence of y
Speaker 1: I am Bead is better. Just an onslaught of high
Speaker 1: level pull up jump shooting, most of which was in
Speaker 1: Nicola Yokich's face, making him look silly. Joel demonstrated in
Speaker 1: that stretch all the things that he can do that
Speaker 1: Yokis can't do, and he looked helpless while Joel snatched
Speaker 1: the game away from him. So what I want to
Speaker 1: do here is I want to come at this game
Speaker 1: from the angle of the who's better and beat or
Speaker 1: Yokis debate, because I think it's super interesting. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's super subjective. Everybody's entrenched, everybody's on their side, and
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna change anybody's mind, obviously, But I
Speaker 1: do want to take a look at it from that
Speaker 1: angle because I think it's an interesting example of different
Speaker 1: archetypes of players and the way we have to evaluate them.
Speaker 1: So even if we even just looking at yesterday's game,
Speaker 1: it's easy to be like, and Bead whooped yoki Is asked,
Speaker 1: therefore he is better? And for the record, that's what
Speaker 1: happened yesterday. Yoki or and Bead whooped Yoki's ass. That's
Speaker 1: what happened yesterday. But last year, Yokis went into Philly,
Speaker 1: same type of game, didn't do anything extraordinary, box score
Speaker 1: wasn't anything magnificent, but the Nuggets got better shots all
Speaker 1: game long than they want and that I remember in
Speaker 1: that particular game, Yokis was killing them in transition with
Speaker 1: his transition passing. But like again, like if you look
Speaker 1: at one specific game, it's just gonna be about what
Speaker 1: what ended up happening. Yokis played Yoka style last year,
Speaker 1: they won. This year and Bead made all his pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots they won. You see the difference between
Speaker 1: their two archetypes, and that's why I want to start here. So, yes,
Speaker 1: they are both centers, but they are incredibly different. Yokich
Speaker 1: is an advantage creator that can score. Joel Embiide is
Speaker 1: an assassin score like he is a top tier dominant score.
Speaker 1: That's what he does better than most of the players
Speaker 1: in the league. That's not what Yoki does better than
Speaker 1: most of the players in the league. He is a
Speaker 1: offensive engine, creates advantages, scores within the flow of the offense.
Speaker 1: Very different like Yoki can score and be does that
Speaker 1: for a living and be it's also a better defensive player,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, he has some of the
Speaker 1: same limitations that most centers do. He struggles in transition,
Speaker 1: he struggles in space, needs to be kept around the
Speaker 1: rim for him to have the same amount of defensive
Speaker 1: value as some of the better defenders in the league.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean? As soon as we start
Speaker 1: comparing box score numbers with these guys, we've lost the
Speaker 1: plot and we can't make any progress here because they're
Speaker 1: just completely different. They impact the game in different ways.
Speaker 1: They approached the game offensively in different ways defensively, they
Speaker 1: have different levels of impact. So I just the box
Speaker 1: score just doesn't serve any purpose. You have to look
Speaker 1: at the way that they're controlling the outcome of the
Speaker 1: game on the ultimate scoreboard, Like, what does a yokis
Speaker 1: great game look like? Like? What you saw barely take
Speaker 1: in any shots? Like I'll give you some examples of
Speaker 1: the difference in their offensive approach. Uh Nicol Yoker has
Speaker 1: run fifty four ISOs this year. Joel Embiid has run
Speaker 1: three hundred and one ISOs this year. It's pretty different
Speaker 1: offensive approach. Joel Embiad has posted up two fifty three
Speaker 1: times and only passed out of it in nine six times.
Speaker 1: Yokis just posted up four hundred and three times, but
Speaker 1: he's passed out of it a hundred and eight times.
Speaker 1: He's posting to pass every bit as much as he's
Speaker 1: posting to shoot, as opposed to Himbiad, he's posting to
Speaker 1: shoot three times as much as he's posting to pass.
Speaker 1: You can see the difference. But like when you look
Speaker 1: at him, beads great games they look exactly like it
Speaker 1: looked like at the end of the game yesterday, and
Speaker 1: Beads great games are shot making and pull up jump
Speaker 1: shot after a pull up jump shot, and I just
Speaker 1: throw you the ball at the free throw line and
Speaker 1: there's nothing I can do to stop you. That's what
Speaker 1: a yoke and Be good game looks like. The Yokis
Speaker 1: good game is much more subtle. It's much more possession
Speaker 1: by possession impact. And so you're gonna either be the
Speaker 1: guy that sees all that stuff and targets that or
Speaker 1: sees all the shot making and gets wowed by it
Speaker 1: and allows that to sway your opinion. That's why this
Speaker 1: is such a subjective debate. My take on it, I've
Speaker 1: always thought that scores are better stealing razors and offensive
Speaker 1: engines are better floor raizors. So, for instance, I think
Speaker 1: Lebron is a much better player than Kevin Durant all time,
Speaker 1: And if I needed a player for a playoff series tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'd take Lebron in terms of their like equal primes
Speaker 1: right like both take both of them at age thirty three,
Speaker 1: for instance, But on a night where Katie's jumper is
Speaker 1: really going, like where he's just on fire with this
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot, Lebron's never going to beat him
Speaker 1: in that game. Because Lebron's impact is more of a
Speaker 1: possession by possession. We get higher all of these shots
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor type of game, whereas
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant it's like otherworldly pull up jump shooting, and
Speaker 1: some nights he goes ten for thirteen on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots, and the next night he might go for
Speaker 1: for thirteen on pull up jump shots, right, And then
Speaker 1: in the aggregate it ends up being around on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. But the night in night out, possession
Speaker 1: by possession impact is different. And what you saw last
Speaker 1: night is the Mbi Yoki's version of that Ike had
Speaker 1: coming into the season Yokich at seven and then bat
Speaker 1: at eight. That means I viewed them as very close.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I gave Yogas the edge is
Speaker 1: I believe he has more possession by possession impact game
Speaker 1: in and game out over an eight two game season
Speaker 1: in order over a playoff run. But make no mistake,
Speaker 1: if Joel Embi is going to make pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots the way he did last night and do it
Speaker 1: through four rounds of the playoffs, he's absolutely better than Yoki.
Speaker 1: He might be the best player in the world. That's
Speaker 1: why I've been saying so consistently that his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot is everything for this team in the a season.
Speaker 1: If that shot is going in that little fifteen footer
Speaker 1: at the elbow off of seventeen different dribble combinations, no
Speaker 1: one's gonna be able to guard the guy, and the
Speaker 1: Sixers are going to win the trophy. That's what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. But it's not like that every single night,
Speaker 1: and and Joel, Joel has a little bit of a
Speaker 1: reputation for his jump shot, in particular, falling apart when
Speaker 1: he gets to the postseason. I said last year he
Speaker 1: made Joel and beating his two thirds of his shots
Speaker 1: outside of the restricted area last year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and that's been a consistent theme throughout his career. So
Speaker 1: when his ceiling raising isn't there, his overall winning impact
Speaker 1: is lower. Whereas with Yokich, even if he's not making
Speaker 1: his ice so jumpers, he does so many other things
Speaker 1: offensively on the court to keep his team going than
Speaker 1: on a night and night out basis, it's more consistent.
Speaker 1: So that's why I have Yokich is slightly better than
Speaker 1: embed But I'm never gonna sway you because they're two
Speaker 1: completely different players. You either prefer one type or you don't.
Speaker 1: And you guys know, I've been consistent. I've always preferred
Speaker 1: the playmaker archetype over the scoring archetype. I've been consistent
Speaker 1: with that since the beginning. Whether it's me favoring Luca
Speaker 1: over players, favoring Yoki over players, favoring Lebron over players,
Speaker 1: it's always been my that's just my opinion on it,
Speaker 1: and I'm just breaking down why I feel that way.
Speaker 1: But regardless of how you feel about this debate, make
Speaker 1: no mistake and be busted. Nicola Yokis asked on national
Speaker 1: television for the world to see last night, and it
Speaker 1: was it was a cool moment. I'm happy for him,
Speaker 1: beat and make no mistake like I'm not married to
Speaker 1: any take. Yes, I think Yokich just slightly better now.
Speaker 1: But if Embiat plays like this through the end of
Speaker 1: the regular season and goes into the postseason and is
Speaker 1: hitting pull up jump shots and goes on a deep
Speaker 1: playoff run where he's in the conference finals or later,
Speaker 1: and Yokich loses in the first round because he's not
Speaker 1: aggressively looking to score, then that means embiads better. You know.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of Nuggets fans in particular, saying, like,
Speaker 1: man him, I need Yokis to shoot more. Why isn't
Speaker 1: he shooting more? That's not his game. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: go shot for shot with Joel Embiat if and beats
Speaker 1: hitting those pullup jumpers. Yoki isn't just gonna come down
Speaker 1: and mix him up off the dribble for a pull
Speaker 1: up jumper of his of his own. That's not his game.
Speaker 1: And that's why it looked so jarring last night to
Speaker 1: watch him. Bead repeatedly punched Yo Kitch in the face
Speaker 1: proverbially with basketball while Yokis went on the other end
Speaker 1: and seemingly did nothing. That's just it's not his style.
Speaker 1: He can't. He'll never be able to meet and beat
Speaker 1: on that ceiling when he's got it going like that.
Speaker 1: But that's what makes this kind of thing complicated. And
Speaker 1: if it was easy, we'd all be on the same
Speaker 1: side and he would be boring to talk about. But
Speaker 1: it's interesting because it's it's debate, it's you know, it's difficult,
Speaker 1: and there is a lot of personal opinion involved. But damn,
Speaker 1: that was a good basketball game. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today, and we will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow breaking down today's games as always. I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys support, and I'll see you the volume