Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, Happy Thursday, everybody. Well, the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: is traded for Chris Paul and suddenly we're going three
Speaker 1: times today. So I'm gonna be breaking down this trade
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the Warriors and then talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Jordan Poole and what we should look
Speaker 1: for from him over the course of the next few
Speaker 1: years with the Washington Wizards. You guys know the job
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels.
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Speaker 1: but not least, don't forget. Earlier today, we did a
Speaker 1: breakdown of the Celtics trade that brought in Chris hops
Speaker 1: Porzingis and sent Marcus Smart to the Boston Celtics. We
Speaker 1: also hit on Scoot Henderson versus Brandon Miller. We also
Speaker 1: hit on Damian Lillard with the Portland Trailblazers, and a
Speaker 1: little bit on the job rates suspension, and then later tonight,
Speaker 1: don't forget, We're going live with the guys from Nerd
Speaker 1: Session and Colin Coward to break down the NBA Draft.
Speaker 1: So the deal, the machinations of the deal send Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole to the Washington Wizards, as well as a heavily
Speaker 1: protected first round pick top twenty protected and a second
Speaker 1: round pick as well. Reports show that the Warriors intend
Speaker 1: to keep Chris Paul and use him on their basketball team.
Speaker 1: No intend to waive him, at least at this point.
Speaker 1: I thought this was a truly bizarre trait from the
Speaker 1: standpoint of the Warriors. These are two big time conflicting
Speaker 1: basketball identities that are going to have to fix fit together.
Speaker 1: So let's start there and kind of branch out. So
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is a very high volume pick and roll
Speaker 1: ball handler. He only played fifty nine games this year
Speaker 1: and still amounted thirty four pick and rolls, and he's
Speaker 1: still very good at it. By the way, one of
Speaker 1: only fifteen players will run over a thousand pick and
Speaker 1: rolls in the league this year. Finished seventh in efficiency
Speaker 1: on pick and rolls on that list, averaging one point
Speaker 1: zero six to six points per possession, which is very good.
Speaker 1: So Chris Paul is a extremely high volume ball handler
Speaker 1: who is still very good at it. The problem is
Speaker 1: is only the Nuggets and Kings run fewer pick and
Speaker 1: rolls than the Golden State Warriors. Do they run a
Speaker 1: motion offense? What does that mean? So instead of dribbling
Speaker 1: about the floor, spacing the floor properly and bringing up
Speaker 1: a ball screen to run, or maybe running something that
Speaker 1: flows into a ball screen like a ram screen where
Speaker 1: he screened down for the screener or some sort of
Speaker 1: off ball action, the most teams in the NBA run that.
Speaker 1: They just bring the ball to the floor, they space,
Speaker 1: They might run something that flows into their pick and roll,
Speaker 1: but they're mostly running pick and roll right. What makes
Speaker 1: the teams like the Warriors, Kings, and Nuggets very unique
Speaker 1: is they usually enter their offense in different ways. So
Speaker 1: the Nuggets do a lot of post ups right through
Speaker 1: Nikola jokicch and they run a lot of dribble handoffs.
Speaker 1: The Kings run just a ton of dribblendoff because they
Speaker 1: want to weaponize demonic Sabonis and his ability to play
Speaker 1: make out of that triple threat and fake handoffs and
Speaker 1: things like that. Right, Well, the Warriors same sort of thing.
Speaker 1: They typically run multiple non shooters on the floor at
Speaker 1: any given time. Right So they'll have Draymond Green out there,
Speaker 1: but they'll also have a guy like Gary Payton or
Speaker 1: a guy like Kevon Looney on the floor at the
Speaker 1: same time. And so what they always try to do
Speaker 1: is invert their spacing. They don't want to space the
Speaker 1: floor with those guys because it's just difficult to do.
Speaker 1: The timing has to be perfect in that pick and
Speaker 1: roll situation. So typically they like to invert and bring
Speaker 1: the two non shooters out to the perimeter and just
Speaker 1: run a ton of screening actions, usually five man screening actions,
Speaker 1: full blown plays. They will run down and run sets
Speaker 1: rather than just free flowing basketball more than any team
Speaker 1: in the NBA by a significant margin. And so with
Speaker 1: the way that they like to play, Chris Paul's a
Speaker 1: very different type of player to try to cram into
Speaker 1: that spot. To give you an idea, Chris Paul took
Speaker 1: a shot coming off of a screen just three times
Speaker 1: all season. Okay, the Golden State Warriors run more off
Speaker 1: screen plays than anybody in the league by a mile.
Speaker 1: They run eleven point seven per game, and no one
Speaker 1: else in the league runs more than nine. So you're
Speaker 1: taking one of the guys that almost never runs an
Speaker 1: off screenplay and bringing him into a team that almost
Speaker 1: only runs off screenplays relative to the rest of the league.
Speaker 1: So it's definitely a very bizarre type of fit there.
Speaker 1: So the question is what are they going to do
Speaker 1: to make Chris Paul fit offensively with this team. Pick
Speaker 1: and roll with the Warriors is more of a break
Speaker 1: glass in case of emergency thing. In a late game situation,
Speaker 1: they might start running STEPH pick and roll. In a
Speaker 1: playoff series, when teams start to scheme away their sets
Speaker 1: and ignore their non shooters, they might start going to
Speaker 1: STEPH pick and roll, but they don't run it very frequently.
Speaker 1: So the question is what's gonna happen. Are the Warriors
Speaker 1: going to change the way they run offense to allow
Speaker 1: Chris to fit or is Chris gonna change the way
Speaker 1: that he plays to fit into what Golden State does.
Speaker 1: My guess is they'll meet in the middle. First of all,
Speaker 1: CP three has a bad injury history. He is he
Speaker 1: has suffered an injury in the playoff run in four
Speaker 1: of the last six seasons. Two of them he played
Speaker 1: through and played very poorly compared to what he played
Speaker 1: like beforehand, and then in the two others he straight
Speaker 1: up had to miss games. And so with his injury history,
Speaker 1: chances are they'll probably just cut his minutes way down.
Speaker 1: With the Suns, he's still running like thirty two minutes
Speaker 1: a game and still playing sixty sixty five games in
Speaker 1: the season. My guess is the Warriors cut him way down,
Speaker 1: bring him down to like fifty five games, bring him
Speaker 1: down to like twenty eight minutes. And if you stagger
Speaker 1: him with Steph, like if Steph plays, if Steph is playing,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty five minutes a game, then that means
Speaker 1: there's thirteen minutes a game when STEP's off the floor.
Speaker 1: So if you run half of Chris Paul's minutes when
Speaker 1: STEP's off, then you only have to try to make
Speaker 1: it work for like seven minutes a half, Right, That's
Speaker 1: what I expect them to do. So the question is
Speaker 1: when they're both on the floor, how will they play?
Speaker 1: Because my guess is when Steph's on and CB three's off,
Speaker 1: they'll just play Warriors basketball, and when CB three's on
Speaker 1: and steps off, my guess is they run a lot
Speaker 1: more pick and roll. But when they're both on the floor,
Speaker 1: that'll be the interesting element. So, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: he did very rarely run off screen plays, very rarely
Speaker 1: run dribble handoffs. He only ran thirty three drible handoffs
Speaker 1: all year, while the Warriors were third in DHO frequency.
Speaker 1: But he's a very good spot up player. Chris was
Speaker 1: one of the best spot up players in the league
Speaker 1: this year. He averaged one point two to nine points
Speaker 1: per possession in spot up situations. That ranked sixth out
Speaker 1: of two hundred and fifty seven players to log at
Speaker 1: least one hundred possessions, and Steph was second on that list. Right,
Speaker 1: Steph is obviously the best shooter of all time and
Speaker 1: was the second best spot up player to log at
Speaker 1: least one hundred possessions last year. So what I expect
Speaker 1: to happen is when they're both on the floor, they'll
Speaker 1: probably lean a little bit more into the pick and
Speaker 1: roll side of their offense for starters. I think that's
Speaker 1: a direction the Warriors have needed to go for a while.
Speaker 1: I think they've leaned too heavily on their motion offense
Speaker 1: at times. Running more pick and roll over the course
Speaker 1: of the season, even with Steph, will help them be
Speaker 1: better prepared when they have to lean heavily on pick
Speaker 1: and roll in the playoffs, which they inevitably have to do. Also,
Speaker 1: Steph and Chris and their inability to play off the
Speaker 1: ball at least in spot up situations, will give them
Speaker 1: the ability to play pick and roll with each other
Speaker 1: on the floor. The question will primarily have to do
Speaker 1: with the defensive end, but we'll get to that in
Speaker 1: a minute. I do think offensively it will work. I
Speaker 1: just think the way they'll have to play will have
Speaker 1: to lean a little bit more towards the way Chris
Speaker 1: likes to play than the way the Warriors like to play,
Speaker 1: which may end up being a good thing simply because
Speaker 1: of the direction the Warriors need to go. The thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna be tricky is like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: Chris can run that much. He's like Chris Paul has
Speaker 1: always been a player who strangles the pace of games,
Speaker 1: brings the ball up, slowly, gets guys in their spots,
Speaker 1: and methodically runs pick and roll, whereas the Warriors are
Speaker 1: like a let's push in transition. If we don't get anything,
Speaker 1: we're going into our motion. And every one of those
Speaker 1: dudes is just running like figure eights the whole damn game.
Speaker 1: There's constantly running off the screens and running and running
Speaker 1: and running and again with inverted spacing, what they're hoping
Speaker 1: is by bringing the bigs out to run dribble handoffs
Speaker 1: and set wide pin downs, they're bringing the screen defenders
Speaker 1: out right because they have to show on players coming
Speaker 1: off of screens and shooting. And that's just an interesting
Speaker 1: situation to throw Chris in because he's never been the
Speaker 1: guy who flies off a screen and takes a shot.
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole would, Steph Curry would, Klay Thompson would, And
Speaker 1: so that's why I think they'll probably lean more into
Speaker 1: pick and roll when Chris is on the floor, even
Speaker 1: with Steph. But there is a lot of potential upside here.
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned before, the Warriors almost always have to
Speaker 1: default to Steph high pick and roll in the late
Speaker 1: playoff rounds, and CP three just gives you a better
Speaker 1: opportunity to lessen Steph's workload, right, You're taking some of
Speaker 1: that some of those responsibilities off of his plate and
Speaker 1: allowing him to take more possessions off. That makes it
Speaker 1: so fatigue plays a lesser role, so that maybe when
Speaker 1: he takes that tough step back one legged shot over
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis or that pull up three over Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: maybe he has a little more lift because he ran
Speaker 1: ten fewer picking rolls in the fourth quarter, and that
Speaker 1: alleviates some of that fatigue and gives him a better chance.
Speaker 1: I think some of that that sharing the loads, so
Speaker 1: to speak, will really help. The tricky thing is gonna
Speaker 1: be is that's kind of what Jordan Poole was doing.
Speaker 1: And so if you look at the Jordan Poole role,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul's probably a more consistent veteran presence. Young players
Speaker 1: are more volatile, older players are more consistent. The difference
Speaker 1: is I thought Jordan Poole was a better fit in
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense. He was a good player in the
Speaker 1: motion offense. You could come off with dribble handoffs and
Speaker 1: get downhill really easily. And Chris Paul's just different. And
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole in particular, was the only Warrior who could
Speaker 1: consistently generate rim pressure because he's so damn fast and
Speaker 1: so I would have rather personally used the Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: contract on a player that can bring real rim pressure
Speaker 1: so intummation it can work, and Chris Paul is a
Speaker 1: super smart player who can figure out how to fit in.
Speaker 1: My concerns are can he stay healthy? How will they
Speaker 1: fit with their different play styles, which we went over,
Speaker 1: and then big the big one for me is does
Speaker 1: he make the Warriors too small? So we already figured
Speaker 1: out from the Jordan Poole experience. If you play Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole with Steph and Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Jerry
Speaker 1: mut Green, they're too small right that the Pool party
Speaker 1: lineup or whatever they call it. That lineup struggled a lot,
Speaker 1: in large part because they were too small and they
Speaker 1: didn't defend well enough. Chris Paul at this phase of
Speaker 1: his career doesn't move well and is not a very
Speaker 1: good defensive player, and so it'll be really interesting to
Speaker 1: see if that becomes a problem. Also, just in general,
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool is a much better athlete than Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: So if you bring in Chris Paul and you're running
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole or excuse me, Steph Curry with Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson in your backcourt? Are you too small
Speaker 1: and too unathletic to compete in the physical areas of
Speaker 1: the game. That's going to be the interesting question that
Speaker 1: we're going to find out the answer to. So, and
Speaker 1: then lastly, like, was it the right use of Pool's contract? Like,
Speaker 1: I understand his values probably lower now than it was
Speaker 1: last year coming off of a rough playoff run, but
Speaker 1: he's still a very interesting young player. And yeah, he's
Speaker 1: gonna make a lot of money, but we're heading into
Speaker 1: a stretch where the NBA salary CAP's going to go
Speaker 1: up significantly in the next few years. So is it
Speaker 1: actually kind of a decent deal to have a player
Speaker 1: like that? And would it have been better off? You know,
Speaker 1: would the Warriors have been better off trying to I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, make a move for a forward,
Speaker 1: a bigger forward that can slot between Andrew Wiggins and
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, give them a better chance to hang physically
Speaker 1: with teams and give them a better opportunity to generate
Speaker 1: shots through something other than a primary ball handler from
Speaker 1: the perimeter. So a guy you could turn his back
Speaker 1: to the basket and back people down and get easy
Speaker 1: shots that way. That would have been the direction that
Speaker 1: I would have gone. As you guys remember me talking
Speaker 1: about this summer, I really wanted them to even if
Speaker 1: it meant be patient, like wait till the deadline. Maybe
Speaker 1: you wait till the deadline and you can make the
Speaker 1: same deal for Kyle Kuzma, you know, or something along
Speaker 1: those lines. But this is the direct they went, and
Speaker 1: so we're gonna have to see how it works. And again,
Speaker 1: really smart franchise, really smart player, they'll probably find a
Speaker 1: way to make it fit on offense. I'm more just
Speaker 1: concerned about their overall sizing athleticism issues, especially in a
Speaker 1: Western Conference that's dominated by the Denver Nuggets. Last, but
Speaker 1: not least, the Jordan Pool to the Wizard side of
Speaker 1: this trade. You guys know how I feel about young
Speaker 1: basketball players. They typically don't know how to win. It's
Speaker 1: rare to get a situation like twenty twenty two where
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole plays well on a championship run, right, and
Speaker 1: obviously Jordan Pool is demonstrated that he can succeed in
Speaker 1: a winning concept, But young players are inconsistent, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me really all that much that one year
Speaker 1: After Jordan Pool plays well on his way to a championship,
Speaker 1: he struggles on his way to losing in the second round.
Speaker 1: It's because he's a young basketball player. They struggle to
Speaker 1: replicate success and to avoid failures. They're young, and over
Speaker 1: time you get better at learning to avoid failures and
Speaker 1: learning to replicate your success. So it's better for players
Speaker 1: like him to be in low stress situations on bad
Speaker 1: teams that have no expectations. And so he can go
Speaker 1: to the Wizards and he can run one thousand pick
Speaker 1: and rolls next year fifteen hundred pick and rolls, and
Speaker 1: he can really learn how to manipulate NBA defenses through
Speaker 1: trial and error, by making mistakes, by having awful games,
Speaker 1: And he can do that for a few years, and
Speaker 1: then the Wizards can find out at that point if
Speaker 1: he's capable of being a foundational star. It's just too
Speaker 1: hard to find out on a Warriors team that rightfully
Speaker 1: would bench him when he was struggling because they had
Speaker 1: championship aspirations. Like most players are afforded the luxury of
Speaker 1: learning how to play basketball in a low stress situation
Speaker 1: before they play in high stress situations. Guys to get
Speaker 1: drafted by winning teams like that, they typically have a
Speaker 1: much different path and Jordan Poole, credit to him. He's
Speaker 1: found a way to succeed with the Warriors for stretches,
Speaker 1: but this will be a nice little stretch for him
Speaker 1: where he can for a couple of years just learn
Speaker 1: how to play the game at a at a professional
Speaker 1: level with no stress. He has one truly elite skill,
Speaker 1: and that's his ability to beat people off the dribble.
Speaker 1: I always like to look at a foundational skill with
Speaker 1: the player. If they're not great at anything, it's going
Speaker 1: to be harder for them to reach a really high ceiling.
Speaker 1: And with Jordan Poole, he's just so damned fast that
Speaker 1: as he puts on a little bit more muscle mass,
Speaker 1: works on his rim finishing, learns how to make reads
Speaker 1: at a higher level, improves his pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: That will all supplement his ability to beat people off
Speaker 1: the dribble and make him better. And then obviously, over
Speaker 1: the years he's just gonna have to learn how to,
Speaker 1: little by little become a better defensive player. But I
Speaker 1: actually really like this move for the Wizards. More details
Speaker 1: came out on the Bradley Beal trade. It turns out
Speaker 1: they got four first round pick swaps out of the deal,
Speaker 1: so the asset return on that deal is a little
Speaker 1: better than it looked. I think they'll re up on
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma and you just run the team through Kuzman
Speaker 1: pool for a few years, and which one of those
Speaker 1: guys that are worth building around in the future. All Right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for right now. I'll see you
Speaker 1: later tonight for Live Draft Dispecial. The volume