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Speaker 1: All right, we'll coome to tonight here at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Thursday. Everybody hope on. You guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. Just got a quick show for you guys today.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give my initial impressions on the two n
Speaker 1: Season Tournament quarterfinal games last night, as the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks pretty much controlled things against the Atlanta Hawks for
Speaker 1: about two and a half quarters before they completely lose
Speaker 1: control and the Hawks run away with that one. And
Speaker 1: then the uh Houston Rockets straight up steam game from
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors are really bad. Call that I
Speaker 1: disagree with at the end, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: a lot of self sabotage on behalf of the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. We're going to get into both of those
Speaker 1: games briefly from the perspective of both teams. You guys,
Speaker 1: remember the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the
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Speaker 1: where we're dropping more content. Make sure you guys follow
Speaker 1: those feeds, and then, last but not least, keep dropping
Speaker 1: mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can
Speaker 1: keep hitting them in our mail bags on Fridays. Too
Speaker 1: late for mailbag questions for this Friday's mail bag, but
Speaker 1: plenty of time to get questions in for next Friday's
Speaker 1: mail bag. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again,
Speaker 1: really bad call out to tail end of the game.
Speaker 1: We'll get into more detail on that in a minute.
Speaker 1: That said, you guys know how I feel about this
Speaker 1: sort of thing. You need to go into any game,
Speaker 1: especially on the road, with the under standing that you're
Speaker 1: probably going to be the victim of a few bad calls,
Speaker 1: and so you have to enter that game with the
Speaker 1: perspective that you need to build in a margin for
Speaker 1: that type of that type of variable. Right, And here's
Speaker 1: the reality. Regardless of the fact that the Warriors, I
Speaker 1: think got kind of robbed by a bad call at
Speaker 1: the end of that game, they made so so many
Speaker 1: mistakes down the stretch and they absolutely should have gotten
Speaker 1: out of there with a win. Draymond biting on a
Speaker 1: Shannggoon pump fake around the right elbow. Shangun's shooting thirty
Speaker 1: two percent on jump shots this year. He's shooting twenty
Speaker 1: six percent on unguarded jump shots this year. Leaves his feet,
Speaker 1: has to like straight up tackle Shangoun on a drive,
Speaker 1: sends him to the foul line. Right when Fred van
Speaker 1: Vliet hit that corner three in the right corner, Brandon
Speaker 1: Pazemski went underneath the pick. When you go underneath the
Speaker 1: pick on a shooter, especially in a situation like that
Speaker 1: where they need a quick bucket. He's going to be
Speaker 1: way too comfortable you chase him over the top. Probably
Speaker 1: a very different game. The Warriors had a shot clock
Speaker 1: violation with a minute and thirty nine seconds left where
Speaker 1: they didn't even get a shot up. A little Steph
Speaker 1: Draymond two man game. They were a little sloppy with
Speaker 1: some of their passes. Draymon had passed up on an
Speaker 1: opportunity to drive when he was unguarded, ended up in
Speaker 1: a shot clock violation. Twice down the stretch of the game,
Speaker 1: Warriors tried to slap at rebounds instead of just grabbing them,
Speaker 1: once Draymon and once Brandon Pazemski. Both times they just
Speaker 1: slapped it out of bounds and they retained possession. One
Speaker 1: of them directly led to that Fred Van Vliet corner three.
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr randomly when it was ninety to eighty seven,
Speaker 1: subs in kevon Looney for Brandon Pajemski and takes Draymond
Speaker 1: off of Shangoon, moves him off to a different I
Speaker 1: think moved him on to Jabari Smith. Kevon Looney's on
Speaker 1: Shangoon Hagoon just immediately just toasts him off the dribble
Speaker 1: and gets an easy layup. Steph taking a shot with
Speaker 1: nine seconds on the game clock when he had plenty
Speaker 1: of time to work it down more or to try
Speaker 1: to work closer to the end of the game clock,
Speaker 1: and then on the final possession, for like the half
Speaker 1: dozen time of the game, the Warriors literally could not
Speaker 1: get a shot off. And so again, like anything that
Speaker 1: you look at involving the call is just excuse making
Speaker 1: in the context of all of the in your control
Speaker 1: mistakes that you made down the stretch. Again, a ref
Speaker 1: making a bad call, that is a variable that is
Speaker 1: completely outside of your control. All of those execution mistakes
Speaker 1: Golden State made down the stretch, those are things that
Speaker 1: are completely within their control. And so you should leave
Speaker 1: a game like that not thinking about the officials, but
Speaker 1: rather that you cost yourself an opportunity. Now, I will
Speaker 1: say on the talk about Steph going early and again
Speaker 1: there was a three second gap between the game between
Speaker 1: the game clock and the shot clock. It is more
Speaker 1: complicated than it was being discussed. In my opinion with
Speaker 1: what I saw people saying on Twitter last night, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of factors at play. Like, for instance,
Speaker 1: and Steph got a good look about as good a
Speaker 1: look as the Warriors got down the stretch. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of bad looks in that stretch, the shot clock violation,
Speaker 1: Brandon Bajemski gets blocked on a three in the right corner,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green driving layup that he airballs, like, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of bad shots that ended up in late
Speaker 1: clock situations in that crunch time period. Steph's little step
Speaker 1: back over Dylan Brooks was one of the best looks
Speaker 1: that Golden State got in the second half of that game. Right,
Speaker 1: So here's the reality. Late clock shots, when you're working
Speaker 1: against the end of the shot clock or the game clock,
Speaker 1: they tend to be bad shots. The Warriors had multiple
Speaker 1: shot clock violations, air balls, block shots, right, So you
Speaker 1: have to at least factor in or consider the fact
Speaker 1: that Steph not waiting did lead to him getting a
Speaker 1: better look. So let's go through both scenarios real quick.
Speaker 1: Let's say Steph goes late into the clock, makes no
Speaker 1: real attempt to just hunt the best shot, but rather
Speaker 1: just make sure you get something up in the last
Speaker 1: second or two of the shot clock. If he does that,
Speaker 1: I have a feeling it's not going to be as
Speaker 1: good of a look. Let's say it ends in a miss,
Speaker 1: just for the sake of this argument. If the Rockets
Speaker 1: get the rebound and call a timeout to advance the ball,
Speaker 1: they probably have somewhere between two and five seconds. Right now,
Speaker 1: let's look at what actually happened. Steph gets a pretty
Speaker 1: good look. If he makes it, it ends the game,
Speaker 1: puts the Warriors up four. He misses it, though there's
Speaker 1: a scrum. Let's say he may Udoka gets a timeout
Speaker 1: call instead of the foul call or instead of the
Speaker 1: jump ball. If he may Udoka gets the timeout call,
Speaker 1: there's five and a half seconds left when that scrum
Speaker 1: was going down five and a half So how much
Speaker 1: of a difference does it really make in Golden State's
Speaker 1: ability to get a stop. If Houston has five and
Speaker 1: a half seconds after advancing the ball or two or
Speaker 1: three seconds, it makes some difference. It's a difference between
Speaker 1: being able to like maybe driving kick once or twice
Speaker 1: versus the guy catching and having to put the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor make a play right away. So it
Speaker 1: makes some difference. But you can't just factor that, and
Speaker 1: you have to also factor in that Steph got a
Speaker 1: better look on the other end of the floor. So, like,
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot more complicated than just Steph
Speaker 1: should have waited to the end of the shot clock.
Speaker 1: I do think that's a little bit more complicated. What
Speaker 1: really went wrong in that sequence for the Warriors was
Speaker 1: that the refs called a loose ball foul, and I
Speaker 1: thought that that was complete and total bullshit. And again,
Speaker 1: for the record, like always, that's not why Golden State
Speaker 1: lost the game. They lost the game because their execution
Speaker 1: was terrible down the stretch, and because Steph wasn't creating
Speaker 1: good shots, and because they didn't have another option to
Speaker 1: help create good shots down the stretch. That's why the
Speaker 1: Warriors lost to the Rockets last night. That said, I
Speaker 1: cannot believe that that situation resulted in free throws for
Speaker 1: the Rockets. That game was a physical bloodbath. There were
Speaker 1: fouls going uncalled all over the floor on every single possession.
Speaker 1: There is a play where Steph just a few minutes earlier,
Speaker 1: gets clearly hacked on the forearm on a jump shot,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't get called because again, nothing is getting
Speaker 1: called in this game. So how is it that in
Speaker 1: the flow of this game, you're allowing the players to
Speaker 1: dictate everything. It's a bloodbath, and then you step in
Speaker 1: and you have the nerve to call a loose ball
Speaker 1: foul on the type of contact that you were letting
Speaker 1: go all night. It speaks to the much larger problem
Speaker 1: with NBA officiating, which is that at their core as
Speaker 1: an organization, NBA officials don't understand their role in NBA games.
Speaker 1: They are not there to enforce the rule book. They
Speaker 1: are there to facilitate basketball games. This is a media product.
Speaker 1: There is an economy surrounding this sport. It is entertainment
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, and so there is
Speaker 1: a natural flow that every basketball tip game takes. Some
Speaker 1: of them are super physical, get dragged down into the mud.
Speaker 1: Some of them are more free flowing and turn into
Speaker 1: skill contests. An official's job is to feel out how
Speaker 1: that game is going and officiate accordingly. Okay, this game's
Speaker 1: a physical bloodbath. We're gonna be letting a lot of
Speaker 1: hand checking. Go. We're gonna be letting a lot of
Speaker 1: like bumping on the base go. We're gonna be letting
Speaker 1: a lot of like off ball holding and grabbing. Go.
Speaker 1: When things are loose balls, defensive rebounds, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a scrum and we're gonna let stuff go. And then
Speaker 1: there are games where it's a lot more freedom of movement,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of physical contact, and so when
Speaker 1: somebody does foul, it makes more sense to call the game.
Speaker 1: Takes precedence over anything else, and rests have to feel
Speaker 1: out that situation and subjectively apply the rule book. That's
Speaker 1: always been the way that it goes. We cannot sit
Speaker 1: here with the straight face and pretend like every NBA
Speaker 1: game is officiated the same. They're not. And so that's
Speaker 1: the problem. Everyone understood the assignment last night until that
Speaker 1: last possession, and somebody just decided it was their chance
Speaker 1: to put their imprint on that situation. I thought it
Speaker 1: kind of like it was an ugly ass game, but
Speaker 1: it was a fun game. I was enjoying watching that game.
Speaker 1: And what a fucking terrible ending to what was a
Speaker 1: really fun game. And again, Golden State has no one
Speaker 1: to blame but themselves for tricking that game off, but
Speaker 1: that call definitely frustrated the hell out of me. Four
Speaker 1: big takeaways that I wanted to get into from that
Speaker 1: game before we move on to Hawks Knicks. One Houston's
Speaker 1: defense is awesome. I really enjoyed watching them, especially when
Speaker 1: Shan Gun was off the floor, when they could be
Speaker 1: a little bit more switchy, not give up as many
Speaker 1: like passes in the pocket or just like four on
Speaker 1: threes and stuff like that, and they could lean more
Speaker 1: into their switching and ball pressure. Their defense is just
Speaker 1: unbelievably awesome though the waves of athletes coming. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be talking about that with the Hawks here in a
Speaker 1: minute too. But their offense can be so bad at
Speaker 1: times that, like I view Houston as basely incapable of
Speaker 1: winning multiple playoff series. Do I think they could get
Speaker 1: one series? Yeah? Absolutely. There's so many Western Conference playoff
Speaker 1: teams that are flawed that there are a few of
Speaker 1: them that I would even favor Houston against, especially teams
Speaker 1: without rim protection. But any team that has rim protection
Speaker 1: is going to eventually be able to grind that Houston
Speaker 1: offense to an absolute halt, and it won't matter how
Speaker 1: good their offense is. So it's all fine because you know,
Speaker 1: there's a big picture development. There's probably a trade or
Speaker 1: two in the future for Houston, and I really do
Speaker 1: think they have super bright future. I amen Thompson when
Speaker 1: I watch him, like, I don't even I don't even
Speaker 1: know what kind of player he's going to be in
Speaker 1: the big picture, but I'm so excited to find out.
Speaker 1: I think he has the potential to be so damn good.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about Houston's future. But this is this year's
Speaker 1: high seed, exciting regular season team, but their their half
Speaker 1: court offensive execution is so just so terrible at times
Speaker 1: that I just don't think they're capable of beating multiple
Speaker 1: teams four times in two weeks. They might expose somebody
Speaker 1: in the first round that's too flawed to make a
Speaker 1: deep playoff run, but whoever they run into that second
Speaker 1: round is gonna be a serious team that's gonna grind
Speaker 1: their offense to a halt and they're gonna end up losing.
Speaker 1: But exciting future for Houston. As I said two, I'll
Speaker 1: print Shangun has the potential to be awesome. This was
Speaker 1: once again just like he did in the Go Bear game,
Speaker 1: and just like he's done multiple times this season, going
Speaker 1: right at Draymond Green at times, really the only guy
Speaker 1: that seems to facilitate coherent half court offense for the Rockets.
Speaker 1: He was the one guy who had a big impressive
Speaker 1: box score game last night. He is the grease that
Speaker 1: makes that whole engine work for Houston. There are two
Speaker 1: main things that he needs to improve though, one the
Speaker 1: defensive end. Again, he's the one week point. He's the
Speaker 1: one pathway with which you can break down Houston's defense.
Speaker 1: That's something he's gonna have to get better at. And again,
Speaker 1: just like what happened with Jokic, it's about using your
Speaker 1: brain and active hands to make up for your athletic limitations.
Speaker 1: And then to the jump shot. If he can get
Speaker 1: the jump shot up to a place where it's more
Speaker 1: reliable and he can improve on the defensive end, I
Speaker 1: think he has the potential to be an All NBA
Speaker 1: player in this league. Number three. It always has fascinated
Speaker 1: to me. It fascinated me how well athletes thrive in
Speaker 1: environments like that game last night, Like when games get
Speaker 1: super super physical and there's all these good defenders on
Speaker 1: the floor and everything just grinds to a halt. I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was a coincidence that the two guys
Speaker 1: on the floor that were having the easiest time getting
Speaker 1: to their spots were guys like Jalen Green and Jonathan Kaminga.
Speaker 1: Now they had uneven games, I mean Jalen Green would
Speaker 1: like five or fifteen, but like he was able to
Speaker 1: get to his spots, Jonathan Kiminga was able to beat
Speaker 1: people off the dribble, win some of those confrontations, even
Speaker 1: like Jabari Smith Junior and some of the work that
Speaker 1: he did in this game. Like these, It's always fascinating
Speaker 1: to me how as the league has leaned more towards this,
Speaker 1: like athletic perimeter speed, ball pressure, flying around in rotation,
Speaker 1: just physical athletic blood baths that all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: those tools matter. They just matter at a super super
Speaker 1: high level. And again, like I think both of these
Speaker 1: guys have the potential to get traded within the next
Speaker 1: couple of seasons because maybe they don't fit into this timeline. Like,
Speaker 1: do I think Jonathan Kaminga is ready to be a
Speaker 1: star on a really good, really serious team that intends
Speaker 1: to win the title. No, do I think Jalen Green
Speaker 1: is ready to be a primary ball handler on a
Speaker 1: team that has serious playoff aspirations in the short term. No,
Speaker 1: those guys need time, those guys need reps. They probably
Speaker 1: should be on different timelines. Johnathan Kaminga, I actually think
Speaker 1: has even more potential than Jalen Green does. Jalen Green,
Speaker 1: it's just there's some stuff with him at this phase
Speaker 1: in his career that you wish he was a little
Speaker 1: sharper with. That said, those two guys, I still you'll
Speaker 1: think have the potential to be top thirty, top thirty
Speaker 1: five MAX level players that are worth the MAX and
Speaker 1: that you want to have on your team. And so somebody,
Speaker 1: if those two guys do end up getting traded in
Speaker 1: the next couple of years, somebody who's smart has the
Speaker 1: opportunity to jump on those teams, get them in the
Speaker 1: right situation, get them the right jump on those players,
Speaker 1: excuse me, get them in the right situation, get them
Speaker 1: in the right development trajectory. And I think those guys
Speaker 1: do have potential. Point being that athleticism to me is
Speaker 1: tantalizing in the modern MBA. It's just something that I
Speaker 1: think has It's just something that I think teams should
Speaker 1: be betting on in the long run. Doesn't mean it
Speaker 1: makes sense for the Warriors with their short term pressures
Speaker 1: for a championship, but somebody can fit into that timeline
Speaker 1: nicely and make good use of those players. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: this is why the Warriors so badly need a big
Speaker 1: scoring forward in settings like I'm gonna give you guys
Speaker 1: an example. I remember I was watching a regular season
Speaker 1: game in two thousand eighteen, middle of season. It was
Speaker 1: Calves versus was it Timberwolves, I can't remember. I think
Speaker 1: it was when Jimmy Butler was with the Timberwolves. But
Speaker 1: it was the Calves versus Jimmy Butler. And on the
Speaker 1: final possession, the Calves needed to come up with a shot,
Speaker 1: and so Lebron just kind of like leaned on Jimmy Butler. So,
Speaker 1: by the way, Jimmy Butler at this point in time especially,
Speaker 1: it was one of the best defensive players in the league.
Speaker 1: And Lebron just leans on him around the y elbow
Speaker 1: and there's just like a little entry pass over the top.
Speaker 1: Lebron catches and just turns over his right shoulder and
Speaker 1: fades away off one leg and gets a little the
Speaker 1: seventeen footer and knocks it down for the win. Because
Speaker 1: one of the advantages with having a big forward that
Speaker 1: can really beat matchups and shoot over the top is
Speaker 1: that in the super physical, super intense environments, you can't
Speaker 1: deny them the ball, you can't stop them from getting
Speaker 1: a shot off because their size and strength is such
Speaker 1: an advantage in those situations. So when I talk about
Speaker 1: somebody like Golden State going after a brandon Ingram or
Speaker 1: a Jimmy Butler, or even the pipe dream of Lebron James,
Speaker 1: that's why. It's because in those types of situations, you
Speaker 1: ended up in a lot of late clock situations, a
Speaker 1: lot of shot clock violations, a lot of air balls,
Speaker 1: a lot of black shots. If you could convert let's
Speaker 1: say there's ten of those ugly possessions, If you can
Speaker 1: convert six of those into decent looks for a big
Speaker 1: scoring forward and he makes two of them out of six,
Speaker 1: you win that game like that. That's the difference. The
Speaker 1: difference is you couldn't convert or win any of those
Speaker 1: situations because this has been something that's become an issue
Speaker 1: Steph over the last two seasons or so. When he
Speaker 1: runs into really athletic perimeter defenses last year with teams
Speaker 1: like the Kings, like the Pelicans, right, this was something
Speaker 1: that showed up a few times last year. When Steph
Speaker 1: goes against really athletic perimeter defenses, he can struggle to
Speaker 1: get separation, to get quality looks, you have to support
Speaker 1: him in that regard, and the way to do that
Speaker 1: is to bring in a big scoring forward, because again,
Speaker 1: Steph still does so much well that if you just
Speaker 1: maybe don't need to rely on him in those specific situations,
Speaker 1: you can alleviate that concern to a great extent. Just
Speaker 1: something to keep in mind, and that's why I've been
Speaker 1: advocating so much for trade with the Warriors throughout this season.
Speaker 1: All Right, real quickly, Hawks Knicks. That third quarter run
Speaker 1: was crazy. The Knicks control all the game, and then
Speaker 1: it started to slip. Started with some transition stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: just typical Atlanta athleticism in waves like Jalen Brunson just
Speaker 1: beats Jalen beats Dyson Daniels off the dribble. Zachary Rissosche
Speaker 1: just comes flying in and blocks it off the glass.
Speaker 1: They run out the other end. Jalen Johnson gets an
Speaker 1: and one in transition. Then Jalen Johnson misses his free
Speaker 1: throw and Dyson Daniels comes flying in and taps in
Speaker 1: the free throw for two more points. Jalen Johnson another
Speaker 1: transition or to lay up all of a sudden it's
Speaker 1: a two point game, right, and then just like the
Speaker 1: entire tone and tenor of the game has shifted. Steady
Speaker 1: died of Trey Young pick and roll in the half
Speaker 1: court where he's hitting floaters and pull up threes and
Speaker 1: generating advantages. A lot of really nice cutting from guys
Speaker 1: like Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels, a lot of good
Speaker 1: short role playmaking from guys like a Yaka Coongu, and
Speaker 1: Atlanta has the ability to really tighten the screws on defense.
Speaker 1: This has been a top ten defense over the last
Speaker 1: fifteen games. Dyson Daniels did an amazing job on Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: had him all out of sorts, had him faking even
Speaker 1: when he did get separation, missing easier shots. That's when
Speaker 1: you know he started to get bothered by the length
Speaker 1: and the quickness that Dyson Daniels brings to the table.
Speaker 1: And then they just have waves of athletes off the ball.
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Zachary Ressage combined for five
Speaker 1: blocks in this game. And then like it literally just
Speaker 1: went completely off the rails for the Knicks, like they
Speaker 1: started badly missing open shots mckail Bridges and Ognnobi both
Speaker 1: missed really good looks during that run. Duce McBride missed
Speaker 1: a really good look during that run. The Knicks offense
Speaker 1: is capable of scoring against elite defenses. We've seen it
Speaker 1: this year. I've shared this stat the other day, but
Speaker 1: the Knicks have the fourth best offensive rating in the
Speaker 1: league against top ten defenses and again Atlanta eighteenth and
Speaker 1: defensive rating on the season, but they're top ten over
Speaker 1: their last fifteen games. And so like a lot of
Speaker 1: that was the Knicks just kind of entered into a
Speaker 1: funk and they were never really able to get out
Speaker 1: of it. But I want to credit the Hawks because
Speaker 1: when they tightened the screws, that's how basketball. Like this
Speaker 1: is why I say basketball is more art than science.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of times, like it's a teetering kind
Speaker 1: of momentum scale, and like when you kind of shift
Speaker 1: things back in your direction, a lot of factors just
Speaker 1: continue to go that direction. All of a sudden, it's
Speaker 1: like the open like Dyson Daniels is hitting the open
Speaker 1: three at the top of the key, and Ojan Andobi's
Speaker 1: missing the open three at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, jan Anoby's a better shooter, but
Speaker 1: like the tenor and tone of the basketball game shifted
Speaker 1: in momentum towards Atlanta. How do you quantify that? It's
Speaker 1: it's really really difficult to quantify. And that's why, like again,
Speaker 1: basketball is more art than science, right, but the game
Speaker 1: completely goes off the rails, and now the Atlanta Hawks
Speaker 1: are advancing to the semi finals. Their formula is super
Speaker 1: fascinating to me. I did a deep dive on the
Speaker 1: Hawks last week after my Lakers rant, so I think
Speaker 1: it was the Thursday video last week. But the main
Speaker 1: thing that I'm looking at with the Hawks as I
Speaker 1: viewed them as like the Eastern Conference version of the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Clippers in the sense that you lose a star. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Jontey Murray are two very different types
Speaker 1: of stars. And but the flip side of that is
Speaker 1: Atlanta got returned for de Jontay Murray. The Clippers have
Speaker 1: just lost Kawhi Leonard for nothing at this point in
Speaker 1: the season, right, But what became the formula after the
Speaker 1: star was gone for the Clippers. It's like this like
Speaker 1: crazy offensive floor raising point guard and James Harden, Trey Young, right,
Speaker 1: this guy that he's got a ton of pick and
Speaker 1: roll chemistry with that can kind of anchor things on
Speaker 1: defense and on the glass. In if you Gazubach and
Speaker 1: Clint Cappella, and then it's like athlete athlete athlete down
Speaker 1: the line, you know, and the clippers of d injuries,
Speaker 1: but it's been like, you know, Terrence Man and Derek
Speaker 1: Jones Junior are like, it's athlete, athlete, athlete right for
Speaker 1: the Hawk, Zachary Rissosche, Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, DeAndre Hunter.
Speaker 1: It's just wave and wave and wave of athlete. It's
Speaker 1: important because when you've got elite playmakers like Trey Young
Speaker 1: and James Harden, a lot of their playmaking ability gets
Speaker 1: unlocked with guys that can cut and run the floor,
Speaker 1: because again, a lot of the rudimentary basic playmaking in
Speaker 1: basketball is like, oh, i'd be this guy off the dribble,
Speaker 1: this guy steps up and help. Here's an easy kickout
Speaker 1: pass to a three point shooter on the win. And
Speaker 1: those are important reads to make. But the advanced reads
Speaker 1: that the best passers in the league can make are
Speaker 1: reads that don't appear to be open like a guy
Speaker 1: cuts back door. You can't throw the ball when he's
Speaker 1: already open. You got to throw it before he's open, right,
Speaker 1: because that window is very tight vertical spacing like lobs
Speaker 1: and stuff like that again doesn't look open. You have
Speaker 1: to read the play and you have to position the
Speaker 1: ball to where the player can run and jump into
Speaker 1: that window. And so like James Harden and Trey Young
Speaker 1: have the basketball iq, the natural instincts to capitalize on
Speaker 1: those opportunities, and now they're surrounded by all these athletes
Speaker 1: that are just constantly running and cutting and running and
Speaker 1: cutting and running and cutting, and they're just picking people apart.
Speaker 1: Both of those guys have had issues with scoring volume
Speaker 1: relative to their historic scoring volume, but who the hell cares.
Speaker 1: They're defending better, keeping the games close, and Trey Young
Speaker 1: and James Harden are making just enough plays to make
Speaker 1: things work, and they're getting just enough contributions through Kazubach
Speaker 1: and Norman Powell, right through guys like Bogdan mcdonovich, Jalen Johnson,
Speaker 1: who's done a bunch more high level on the ball
Speaker 1: work in the last couple of weeks compared to the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, and DeAndre Hunter, who's really having
Speaker 1: a nice season off the bench for the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 1: And so again, the formula is real. The defense is everything,
Speaker 1: though it's all They did not defend super well in
Speaker 1: the early part of the season. They lost a lot
Speaker 1: of games to some bad teams. Now that has stabilized,
Speaker 1: they're getting consistent defensive effort, and now they're starting to
Speaker 1: rack up wins. And my guess is that their success
Speaker 1: over the course of the season will kind of oscillate
Speaker 1: back and forth based on their defensive commitment. But really
Speaker 1: really fun team and most importantly, just the latest example
Speaker 1: of a basketball concept that I've been preaching. Like some
Speaker 1: annoying dude like that you see out on the streets
Speaker 1: who's just like screaming at the top of his lungs
Speaker 1: on a microphone all all day on a Sunday. That's
Speaker 1: been me for two years. Screaming speed, athletic, covering ground
Speaker 1: in rotation, pressuring the ball, winning defensive rebound battles, winning
Speaker 1: the transition defense and transition offense battle. All of that
Speaker 1: comes down to big, strong, fast, quick That is the
Speaker 1: stuff that is winning in the modern NBA. On the
Speaker 1: perimeter in Atlanta, starting to have this success as of late,
Speaker 1: to me, is just like the latest in a long
Speaker 1: line of examples of why that's been working on the
Speaker 1: Knicks front. Obviously a super disappointing loss, but I wouldn't overreact.
Speaker 1: Like again, they straight up entered a funk like Brunson
Speaker 1: out of play where he drove and like just threw
Speaker 1: a swing pass between two players, because he's just clearly
Speaker 1: just in a funk based on that defensive job that
Speaker 1: Dyson Daniels did on him, all the missed open shots,
Speaker 1: the bad transition defense. Again, it sucks. It's disappointing, but
Speaker 1: that can be cleaned up. And again, like I talked about, basketball,
Speaker 1: games are weird. Like sometimes it's like, oh, everything's fine,
Speaker 1: we're doing well, look at our offense, and then it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we're out of well, you completely lost
Speaker 1: control of this game, and now we're down eleven with
Speaker 1: four minutes left and we're gonna lose, you know, like
Speaker 1: it can. It can slip on you quickly, and especially
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA with how much shooting result is
Speaker 1: tied to the outcome of games. And so again, they
Speaker 1: have their issues, but like they're I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in New York's offense even against elite defenses, and they
Speaker 1: just kind of entered into a major funk in that game. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we have we have Hawks Bucks in our semi final game.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and pick the Hawks in that
Speaker 1: game just because their athleticism provided major problems for the
Speaker 1: Bucks in their last matchup, just out running them down
Speaker 1: the floor in transition. They had something crazy like thirty
Speaker 1: seven or thirty eight transition points in their last matchup
Speaker 1: going out West, I think the Thunder are going to
Speaker 1: handle Houston. They ended up in a big blood bath
Speaker 1: type of game a couple of weeks back, but I
Speaker 1: think the Thunder are going to really strangle that Houston offense,
Speaker 1: and I just think they have more offensive skill of
Speaker 1: their own to counter Houston's defense. So that means I'm
Speaker 1: predicting Thunder versus the Hawks, and the finals should be
Speaker 1: a fun one. The semi finals are on Saturday. We'll
Speaker 1: be covering them on the Monday Morning Show, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the championship championship game is on Tuesday, which would
Speaker 1: be covering next week. All right, guys, this all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. I am recording a
Speaker 1: mail bag later today that will be up and up
Speaker 1: on tomorrow morning for our Friday show, and then, as
Speaker 1: you know, after the weekend, we'll be back on Monday
Speaker 1: with power rankings and some in season tournament reaction. How
Speaker 1: so you guys, then the volume. What's up? Guys? As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.