Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, good to Hoops Tonight. Here
Speaker 1: at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week so far. Got a
Speaker 1: jam packshow for you guys today. We're continuing our player rankings.
Speaker 1: We have three more players we're getting to today, number
Speaker 1: twenty three, number twenty two, and number twenty one. You
Speaker 1: guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there
Speaker 1: for more content throughout the year. The last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We
Speaker 1: talked about this after the first video, but our mail
Speaker 1: bags over the course of the rest of the summer
Speaker 1: are going to be more geared towards the player.
Speaker 2: Your rankings.
Speaker 1: Obviously, ask whatever questions you have, and if I see
Speaker 1: a very interesting question that's not related to the player rankings,
Speaker 1: we'll get into it. But this is all very subjective
Speaker 1: and all very up for debate. As we talked about
Speaker 1: in our first video, it's very little separating number five
Speaker 1: from number fourteen on my list and number fifteen all
Speaker 1: the way from the fortieth guy that I considered for
Speaker 1: this list. There's a lot of room for argument there.
Speaker 1: And so if you guys disagree with any of my placement,
Speaker 1: a guy too high, a got too low, a guy
Speaker 1: who missed the list who should have made it, a
Speaker 1: guy who made the list who shouldn't have made it,
Speaker 1: anything that you disagree with, right mail bag with the colon,
Speaker 1: drop your kind of like counterpoint, keep it short, keep
Speaker 1: it brief like elevator. Pitch for what you guys disagree with,
Speaker 1: and we'll argue about those in our mail bags throughout
Speaker 1: the rest of the summer.
Speaker 2: Now it's gonna be a little tricky.
Speaker 1: This Friday's mail bag is just going to be reacting
Speaker 1: to our first video because I'm going out of town.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Alaska, and I'm going to be gone
Speaker 1: for like ten days. So the first two Fridays will
Speaker 1: just have the one mail bag this Friday that reacts
Speaker 1: to the first video. But the rest of the list,
Speaker 1: we have like five additional mail bags that will be
Speaker 1: recording over the course of the list, where you guys
Speaker 1: will have plenty of opportunity to argue about what you
Speaker 1: disagree with, so make sure you guys get those into
Speaker 1: the comments. So, without any further ado, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: Number twenty three Bam out of Baio, a guy who
Speaker 1: was dropped from where he was last year in the
Speaker 1: top twenty for me. His season in review, he played
Speaker 1: in seventy eight games, averaged eighteen point one points per game.
Speaker 1: That was his lowest since twenty twenty nine. Point six
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, four point three assists per game is
Speaker 1: highest since twenty twenty one, two point zero stocks per
Speaker 1: game is one point three steals per game last year
Speaker 1: was the second highest total of his career. Now his
Speaker 1: efficiency is where things are going to get pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: and I have a lot of different stuff I want
Speaker 1: to get into with Bam here. So he was just
Speaker 1: forty nine percent from the field last year. That was
Speaker 1: the lowest mark of his career to this point now.
Speaker 1: Part of it was the increase in his three point volume.
Speaker 1: People are going to shoot lower percentages on threes. That's
Speaker 1: going to affect your field goal percentage. He had never
Speaker 1: taken more than one three point attempts per game in
Speaker 1: the first several seasons of his career. Last year was
Speaker 1: the first year that he attempted over one. He attempted
Speaker 1: almost three threes per game, so that obviously plays a
Speaker 1: certain role in the drop in his field goal percentage,
Speaker 1: But he also shot poorly on twos. He shot fifty
Speaker 1: two percent on twos, which is his lowest mark since
Speaker 1: his rookie season. He's had three straight years from twenty
Speaker 1: twenty to twenty twenty two in the past where he
Speaker 1: averaged the same points per game eighteen points per game,
Speaker 1: but shot fifty seven percent on twos over the course
Speaker 1: of those three seasons, so substantially lower this year than
Speaker 1: levels he's reached previously in his career. He's flat out
Speaker 1: regressing as a shot maker inside the arc. He shot
Speaker 1: below forty percent on floaters and hooks last year, which
Speaker 1: is brutal for his position at the center position when
Speaker 1: you do so much work rolling out of ball screens,
Speaker 1: your ability to short range shot make, either beating switches
Speaker 1: with quick quick hook shots or catching on the roll
Speaker 1: and spinning into a quick hook, or making floaters on
Speaker 1: the role. Those are vitally important parts of shot making
Speaker 1: at the center position, and he was below forty percent
Speaker 1: on them last year. He used to just be better
Speaker 1: at it. He's fifty two percent on floaters and hooks
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, fifty five percent on floaters and
Speaker 1: hooks in twenty twenty two. So, for whatever reason, and
Speaker 1: I really don't have an explanation for it, he just
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to recreate what he did in years
Speaker 1: past and elevate from there to that next level. It
Speaker 1: kind of came to the surface, if you guys remember
Speaker 1: as an issue for Bam during the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: finals in the series against Denver, he was consistently getting
Speaker 1: quality short range looks, layups a little bit further away
Speaker 1: from the rim, short hooks, floaters, little bank shots. He
Speaker 1: was getting all of these looks and he just wasn't
Speaker 1: making them against Denver, and he was becoming a problem
Speaker 1: because they were the kind of shots that were open
Speaker 1: in their offense. Often his touch it's not just on
Speaker 1: hooks and floaters. Either on layups, it's been an issue.
Speaker 1: He shot just fifty percent last year on layups. That's
Speaker 1: way below where his peers are at the center position
Speaker 1: again Bam fifty percent, Anthony Davis sixty percent, Carl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns fifty eight percent, if he eats the Zubats fifty
Speaker 1: seven percent, nikolea Jokic sixty seven percent. You guys get
Speaker 1: the point. Compared to his peers, he really struggles on
Speaker 1: short range shot making layups, hooks, floaters, that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and that has ended up being an issue for him
Speaker 1: as he's failed to kind of take that next step
Speaker 1: as an offensive player. There was kind of like this
Speaker 1: inflection point for Bam in right around that twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two to twenty twenty three phase when the Heat made
Speaker 1: those back to back conference finals runs in their NBA
Speaker 1: Finals run, where it kind of felt like he was
Speaker 1: either going to improve as a finisher and become like
Speaker 1: one of those legit second tier stars like Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: or he was gonna plateau, and instead he's kind of regressed.
Speaker 1: This is actually crazy, even with the influx of his
Speaker 1: three point shooting, which is legitimate, like he had never
Speaker 1: attempted more than one three per game. He attempted almost
Speaker 1: three three three pointers per game this year, and he
Speaker 1: made thirty six percent of him, which is very respectable
Speaker 1: as a three point shooter. But even with that influx
Speaker 1: of like a more efficient shot profile, he posted a
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage of just fifty six percent last year,
Speaker 1: which was the lowest mark of his entire career. This
Speaker 1: is a big part of how he slipped out of
Speaker 1: the top twenty for me, despite the fact that Tyrese
Speaker 1: Haliburt and Damian Lillard Jason Tatum have dropped out of
Speaker 1: the list entirely, which should have bolstered him against that.
Speaker 1: But I dropped him because he's just regressing as an
Speaker 1: offensive player and it's preventing the Heat from getting to
Speaker 1: their ultimate goals in the postseason. The lack of shot
Speaker 1: making for Bam is especially frustrating because of how amazing
Speaker 1: he is at everything else, including passing out of the
Speaker 1: center position. When it comes to that part of offense,
Speaker 1: being that five out dribble handoff folkrum, going side to side,
Speaker 1: making reeds at a two million game, being the guy
Speaker 1: that ties everything together for that offense, he's actually great
Speaker 1: at that there are only four centers in the entire
Speaker 1: NBA who meet the following criteria at least twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes per game, so a guy who plays a lot,
Speaker 1: a usage rate of at least twenty percent, so guy
Speaker 1: who has the ball a lot, and an assistant turnover
Speaker 1: ratio of at least two to one. There's four guys
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA at the center position that meet
Speaker 1: those criteria, and the other three guys are not very
Speaker 1: athletic Demonisibonis, Nicola Vucevich. Those guys are right around two
Speaker 1: to one, and then Yokich, who's better than three to one,
Speaker 1: who obviously is kind of the anomaly, but those are
Speaker 1: like skill focused centers who are great playmakers. And then
Speaker 1: it's Bam. Bam is the fourth guy on that list.
Speaker 1: Another way to put it is like this, Bam is
Speaker 1: the only truly athletic center in the NBA who can
Speaker 1: playmake at that elite like at that elite level of
Speaker 1: efficiency and volume or he's not turning the ball over.
Speaker 1: He's top five and assists per game among centers. He's
Speaker 1: the only guy who brings that athleticism in that like
Speaker 1: refined playmaking at that center position in the entire league.
Speaker 1: You combine that with his unbelievable defensive versatility, which we're
Speaker 1: about to get more into in a minute, and you
Speaker 1: have a player that had a truly sky high potential,
Speaker 1: like top tier superstar potential, if he could have just
Speaker 1: added reliable shot making. That's why I've been so keyed
Speaker 1: in on that piece of his game over the last
Speaker 1: few years, and it just kind of feels like a
Speaker 1: missed opportunity. He's regressing when it should be something that
Speaker 1: he's improving on. But again, he's an excellent playmaker. He's
Speaker 1: fifth and assists per game among centers overall. We talked
Speaker 1: about that modern dribble handoff fulkrum in the NBA, like
Speaker 1: when you have guys that can score and pass out
Speaker 1: of action guards having a big who can flow from
Speaker 1: side to side, meaning like run that first action. Oh
Speaker 1: it doesn't work. Quick, make yourself available at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, catch turn, and go to the other
Speaker 1: side of the floor dribble handoff while always being able
Speaker 1: to make the reads out of it, like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: overplaying me. I'm gonna fake the dribble handoff and go
Speaker 1: to the rim or setting the good screens that free
Speaker 1: the guys up passing to guards as they backcut or
Speaker 1: if they get top locked and are forced to backcut.
Speaker 1: The playmaking that you do out of that. There's all
Speaker 1: of this stuff that in terms of decision making and
Speaker 1: playmaking you need from the center position in order to
Speaker 1: run five out offense in the modern NBA, and offense
Speaker 1: that the Heat run more than many teams in the NBA.
Speaker 1: BAM's great at that. And then again the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floors where Bam really separates himself. Bam didn't
Speaker 1: have his best defensive season last year. Zero point seven
Speaker 1: blocks per game were the lowest since his rookie since
Speaker 1: his rookie year in the NBA. Now context there, he's
Speaker 1: playing with more two big looks. That's going to put
Speaker 1: him in some different situations playing alongside Killo where and
Speaker 1: I generally think it was the least motivated he's been
Speaker 1: as a defender since he came into the league. As
Speaker 1: the Heat were just so far away from achieving their
Speaker 1: postseason goals, he finished outside of the top five and
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year voting for the first time
Speaker 1: since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: Last year.
Speaker 1: I do still believe in Bam as an apex defender
Speaker 1: in this league. I think that he will continue to
Speaker 1: operate closer to that top five defensive player of the
Speaker 1: year type of caliber player looking forward in his career,
Speaker 1: I look at last year as more of like an outlier.
Speaker 2: The big differentiator for.
Speaker 1: Bam is that he's essentially a hybrid between a traditional
Speaker 1: rim protecting bit and kind of like a legitimate wing
Speaker 1: in terms of his ability to move his feet on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. He brings the best scheme versatility defensively out
Speaker 1: of any center in the league, aside from maybe Victor Wembanyama.
Speaker 1: I think he's the best switching center in the league, Bam.
Speaker 1: There was a time when I thought it was Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and you could argue Ad is still maybe a better
Speaker 1: defender all around because of how good he is at
Speaker 1: the rim. But Ad put on a bunch of weight
Speaker 1: and hasn't been able to move his feet on the
Speaker 1: perimeter as well. It hasn't been as good defending switches.
Speaker 1: Bam is legitimately awesome switching out onto the perimeter. One
Speaker 1: of the unique things he does that many other big
Speaker 1: struggle with. We're gonna talk about this when we get
Speaker 1: to Evan Mobley. But one of the things that like
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley struggles with is when he gets switched onto
Speaker 1: quicker guards, he gives too much space and those guys
Speaker 1: get really comfortable with their pull up three point shooting.
Speaker 1: Evan got lit on fire on pull up threes in
Speaker 1: ISOs this year, kind of prevented him from being as
Speaker 1: good of an ISO big as as he could have been,
Speaker 1: as good of a switching big as he could have been. Bam,
Speaker 1: You'll see him like two feet out outside the three
Speaker 1: point line picking up pull up shooters way out on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. He's way more active with his hands to
Speaker 1: disrupt the rhythm and flow of pull up shooters so
Speaker 1: they can't comfortably settle into pull up jump shots, while
Speaker 1: also having the speed laterally and the recovery athleticism to
Speaker 1: deal with quickness getting past him. He's unbelievable defending on switches.
Speaker 1: Even last year and what everyone considers to be a
Speaker 1: down year, he was still amazing on the perimeter and switches. Statistically,
Speaker 1: there were one hundred and fifty one players in the
Speaker 1: NBA last year who defended at least fifty ISOs. Bam
Speaker 1: Allouja zero point six to two points per possession in
Speaker 1: ISO that ranked third on that list, third out of
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty one players. He does this while
Speaker 1: also being very good in traditional coverages. He gets up
Speaker 1: to the level of screens quickly and at the level
Speaker 1: coverages and can disrupt pull up shooters. He can contest
Speaker 1: in the mid range. He can protect the rim. He
Speaker 1: obviously is in his protecting the rim as some of
Speaker 1: the taller, longer centers in the NBA, but he's good
Speaker 1: enough at it in conjunction with.
Speaker 2: Being one of those truly elite.
Speaker 1: Top tier switching defenders that he makes life very easy
Speaker 1: for Eric Spolsterras schematically because they can build out any
Speaker 1: defensive scheme that they want. Bam can do literally anything
Speaker 1: you ask him to do. One of the most versatile
Speaker 1: defensive foundations in the game. Bam can be a frustrating player,
Speaker 1: and his lack of developing upside has certainly prevented Miami
Speaker 1: from reaching their ultimate goals, and his regression there is,
Speaker 1: like like I said, downright frustrating, especially if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of Bam in the heat. But you can't do
Speaker 1: a whole lot better in the modern NBA than a
Speaker 1: big man who can legitimately anchor any defensive coverage at
Speaker 1: a Defensive Player of the Year level, giving you an
Speaker 1: enormous amount of flexibility from opponent to ponent, both in
Speaker 1: the regular season and in the playoffs, while also being
Speaker 1: a legitimately good dribble handoff fokram on offense that can
Speaker 1: kind of get guys set up in the right spot. Now,
Speaker 1: his lack of touch, especially around the rim, prevents him
Speaker 1: from reaching that second tier of superstars in the NBA,
Speaker 1: but his overall value is still enough to put him
Speaker 1: at twenty three on this year's list. All right, number
Speaker 1: twenty two Evan Mobley. Nothing says summer like long days,
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Speaker 1: dkang dot co slash audio. Last season in review for
Speaker 1: Evan played seventy one games. Very award heavy season for Evan.
Speaker 1: He won Defensive Player of the Year. He was First
Speaker 1: Team All Defense, second Team All NBA, made the All
Speaker 1: Star Game, and was tenth in MVP voting. It's a
Speaker 1: hell of a breakout season for the young star. His
Speaker 1: averages he averaged nineteen points, nine rebounds, and three assists
Speaker 1: two point five stocks per game. His efficiency used fifty
Speaker 1: six percent from the field, sixty two percent on twos.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have amazing touch on short twos, like forty
Speaker 1: percent on floaters and hooks fifty three percent on layups.
Speaker 1: Those marks are only slightly ahead of where bam Adebayo was,
Speaker 1: but he had one hundred and ninety four dunks last year.
Speaker 1: Bam only had one hundred and forty. Now, some of
Speaker 1: that is that Evan Mobley played with better ball handlers,
Speaker 1: but some of it is also that Evan Mobley is
Speaker 1: a better vertical spacer and that was something that allowed
Speaker 1: him to be way more efficient on twos than bam
Speaker 1: Adebio was last year. He also shot thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: from three on three point two attempts per game last
Speaker 1: year in the regular season, more than double the attempts
Speaker 1: of any previous season in his career, and he shot
Speaker 1: well in the postseason. He shot forty five percent from
Speaker 1: three in the postseason on four attempts per game, so
Speaker 1: the jump shot feels real. He's legitimately a substantially better
Speaker 1: jump shooter than bam Ade Bio. He was sixty percent
Speaker 1: in effective field goal percentage and a career high sixty
Speaker 1: three percent in true shooting, seven percentage points ahead of
Speaker 1: where bam Adebayo was last year. Evan Mobley, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: has become flatly a better offensive player than bam was
Speaker 1: or is. The perimeter jump shot is more reliable. He's
Speaker 1: added some of the ability to run action. I do
Speaker 1: think bam is a better like five out dribble handoff fulkrum,
Speaker 1: but Evan Mobley has closed the gap in terms of
Speaker 1: offensive initiation with some of his ability to run offense,
Speaker 1: to run inverted action, and his superior jump shooting and
Speaker 1: his vertical spacing, like we talked about earlier, it made
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley a very dynamic roleman. Evan Mobley scored one
Speaker 1: point one seven points per roleman possession last year compared
Speaker 1: to just zero point nine seven for bam Ata Bio,
Speaker 1: so twenty points better per one hundred roll man possessions.
Speaker 1: And again, some of that is the gap in ball handling,
Speaker 1: but most of it is just that Mobley has become
Speaker 1: a better offensive player. Evan Mobley shot thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: on pick and pop three's last year. Bam shot twenty
Speaker 1: three percent on pick and pop three, So three is
Speaker 1: when he was slipping out of ball screens. Those are
Speaker 1: generally wide open regardless of who the ball handler is.
Speaker 1: So like that, again, there is an obvious ball handling
Speaker 1: gap between those two teams, but I think there's an
Speaker 1: obvious gap in offensive refinement between Evan Mobley and Bamadabayo
Speaker 1: as well. Here's some play type data for Evan Mobley.
Speaker 1: He's a hyper efficient play finisher. One point one to
Speaker 1: seven points per roleman possession. That's sixty six percentiles of
Speaker 1: pretty far above average.
Speaker 2: One point five.
Speaker 1: Five to nine points possession on cuts that's in the
Speaker 1: ninety second percentile. That's that awesome vertical spacing and his
Speaker 1: good hands around the basket, very good in transition, very
Speaker 1: good in offensive rebound situations.
Speaker 2: In action.
Speaker 1: If you go back two years to twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley ran just one hundred and fifty three pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, ISOs and post ups including passes. Last year
Speaker 1: that skyrocketed up to three hundred and thirty nine, more
Speaker 1: than double Now. The efficiency was only okay, zero point
Speaker 1: nine to one points possession including passes on all three
Speaker 1: play types combined. Again not excellent, but it was his
Speaker 1: first season as like a high volume creator, and that's
Speaker 1: really not bad. He was specifically successful in inverted ball
Speaker 1: screen situations, meaning when he was handling the ball in
Speaker 1: either Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland or one of the
Speaker 1: shooters like Sam Merrill or Max Strew's would come up
Speaker 1: screen for him and then slip out to the three
Speaker 1: point line. It kind of created some very simple reads
Speaker 1: for him, like if the guards screened and the guard's
Speaker 1: man didn't help, he would just turn the corner and
Speaker 1: go downhill and he'd either get all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim or he'd make a kick if someone stepped
Speaker 1: over to help. It was a pretty simple set of reads.
Speaker 1: If the guard lingered in a hedge, then the shooter
Speaker 1: would slip out free and he would just pitch it
Speaker 1: back to the shooter as he got to the three
Speaker 1: point line. It was a very simple kind of order
Speaker 1: of operations for Evan Mobley that allowed him to be
Speaker 1: effective and one of the hardest actions to guard in
Speaker 1: the NBA. That kind of like ghost screen action with
Speaker 1: a bigger ball handler involved. When he passed out of
Speaker 1: inverted ball screens. The Calves got one point zero six
Speaker 1: points per possession last year, which is very good. I
Speaker 1: also thought Mobley played well in the playoffs. His jump
Speaker 1: shot was going in at a higher clip than the
Speaker 1: regular season. He was making his hook shot, his shot
Speaker 1: creation was successful. He ran fifteen of those inverted ball
Speaker 1: screens in the playoffs and got nineteen points. That's great.
Speaker 1: That's a great number. He ran fourteen post ups in
Speaker 1: ISOs for thirteen points, which is not amazing, but it's
Speaker 1: above his regular season efficiency. I thought the Caves held
Speaker 1: up well on the offensive glass in that series, where
Speaker 1: in us past that was something that Evan Mobley and
Speaker 1: Jared Allen both had struggled with. I thought last year
Speaker 1: was just a monumental step forward in Evan Mobley's development
Speaker 1: as a basketball player.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: On the defensive end, I actually think Evan Mobley is
Speaker 1: a tiny bit overrated. I would not have given him
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year last year. I do believe
Speaker 1: that Evan Mobley is a very very good defender, but
Speaker 1: for instance, I do think that bam Adebayo is a
Speaker 1: better defensive player than Evan Mobley. I do not view
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley in the conversation for best defenders in basketball. Again,
Speaker 1: a big part of it is he wasn't very good
Speaker 1: on switches. In that list of one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one players who defended at least fifty ISOs that Bam
Speaker 1: was third place on, Evan Mobley ranked sixty sixth on
Speaker 1: that list. He allowed twenty seven more points per one
Speaker 1: hundred ISOs than bam Adebio did. And his weakness, again,
Speaker 1: we talked about it a little bit earlier when we
Speaker 1: were talking about Bam. Bam was picking up pull up
Speaker 1: shooters outside the three point line and stunting at the ball,
Speaker 1: which allowed him to prevent himself from allowing easy pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots over the top. Evan was consistently back
Speaker 1: on his heels further back behind the three point line,
Speaker 1: and so he contained the ball well. Excuse me, he
Speaker 1: contained the ball well, but he gave up a lot
Speaker 1: of easy pull up three point shots on his heels
Speaker 1: in those ISO situations. He does have a good amount
Speaker 1: of scheme versatility. It's worth mentioning. He does a lot
Speaker 1: of work and two big looks as like a low
Speaker 1: man on the back line. He can do a decent
Speaker 1: job in switches. Again, he's not bad at it. He's
Speaker 1: just not nearly as good as some of the other
Speaker 1: bigs in the league because of him being kind of
Speaker 1: passive and on his heels, and he does protect the
Speaker 1: rim reasonably well. Evan Mobley getting the Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year award again, I disagreed with that. I thought
Speaker 1: that had more to do with the Cavs just winning
Speaker 1: a shit ton of games and being kind of like
Speaker 1: an award geared around team success. I do still believe
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley is an excellent defender overall, even if I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily believe he was deserving of the accolades that
Speaker 1: he got last year on the defensive end. The best
Speaker 1: way for me to explain how I landed with Bam
Speaker 1: at twenty three and Evan Mobley at twenty two is
Speaker 1: to say that I believe Evan Mobley is the better
Speaker 1: offensive player, and I believe Bam is the better defensive player.
Speaker 1: But I believe the gap between how good Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: is on offense and how good BAM is on offense
Speaker 1: is bigger than the gap between how good BAM is
Speaker 1: on defense and Evan Mobley is on defense.
Speaker 2: I think that gap is smaller, and no matter.
Speaker 1: What, it's a really impressive step forward for Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: in his development. The next step it's going to be
Speaker 1: improving as a switch defender and continuing to improve overall
Speaker 1: as an offensive initiator and as a three point shooter.
Speaker 1: All of this lands Evan at twenty two in this
Speaker 1: year's rankings. All Right, number twenty one. Number twenty one
Speaker 1: in this year's player rankings is Jalen Brown. Last season
Speaker 1: interview for Jalen, he played sixty three games. That was
Speaker 1: his lowis in twenty twenty one. He was dealing with
Speaker 1: the knee issue throughout the year, which is going to
Speaker 1: be a big part of the way we framed things
Speaker 1: for Jalen Brown. In this particular segment, he averaged twenty
Speaker 1: two points per game. That was his lowis in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six rebounds four point five assists, which was by
Speaker 1: far a career high from him. The increase in assists
Speaker 1: mainly stemmed from Jalen becoming a much more willing passer
Speaker 1: out of his one on one situations, specifically ISO's and
Speaker 1: post ups. For example, in the twenty twenty four season,
Speaker 1: when he passed out of iso or passed out of
Speaker 1: post ups, he generated just zero point ninety five points
Speaker 1: per possession. In the twenty twenty five season, he passed
Speaker 1: out of ISOs and post ups about a time and
Speaker 1: a half as frequently, so he did it a lot
Speaker 1: more and he generated one point three zero points per
Speaker 1: possession when he passed out of those situations. The specific
Speaker 1: improvement that I noticed the most on tape was him
Speaker 1: passing out of the post. He did a lot better
Speaker 1: job this year when he would get in the post
Speaker 1: of just kind of probing until that second defender would
Speaker 1: come in, making the appropriate kickout passes on time on
Speaker 1: target to shooters. The Celtics did shoot super well on
Speaker 1: his post kickouts this year, but there was also a
Speaker 1: market improvement in the quality of the threes that he
Speaker 1: was generating, and I tend to think those things are associated.
Speaker 1: So obviously a little bit of shooting luck, but a
Speaker 1: lot of shot quality as well. He generated thirty two
Speaker 1: made threes out of post ups for his teammates in
Speaker 1: just sixty three games this year. Last year, in seventy games,
Speaker 1: he generated just twenty. That increase in overall playmaking ability
Speaker 1: from Jalen made up for some of what was a
Speaker 1: pretty down year for Jalen Brown as a shooter. But
Speaker 1: I want to get into some of the specific reasons why,
Speaker 1: because it's very fascinating. First of all, let's just get
Speaker 1: through the numbers. He was forty six percent from the field.
Speaker 1: That's the lowest since his rookie year. He was fifty
Speaker 1: three percent on twos, lowest since his second year in
Speaker 1: the league, thirty two percent from three, lowest since his
Speaker 1: rookie year. Fifty two percent in effective field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: Excuse me the thirty two percent from three that was
Speaker 1: the lowest of his entire career. Fifty two percent in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage, lowest since his rookie year. Fifty
Speaker 1: six percent in true shooting percentage, lowest since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: So why did efficiency dip the way that it did
Speaker 1: this year. I think it mostly had to do with
Speaker 1: his knee. There's this thing that I talk about a
Speaker 1: lot in this show called energy transfer. It's a concept
Speaker 1: for jump shooting in general, shot making in basketball, essentially,
Speaker 1: like if you make a move to get to anywhere
Speaker 1: on the floor, or even if you're just in a
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situation, at the end of that sequence,
Speaker 1: you are transferring energy from your feet up through your knees,
Speaker 1: up through your hips, up through your shoulder, elbow, four arm,
Speaker 1: all the way through the wrist on the snap of
Speaker 1: the snap of the jump shot right. And if you
Speaker 1: get less power, then you usually get out of one
Speaker 1: part of that system. The entire calibration of it gets
Speaker 1: thrown off. I thought it was evidenced by a couple
Speaker 1: of key areas in his shooting efficiency. Take a look
Speaker 1: at this. His jump shooting was down mostly across the board,
Speaker 1: like overall one point zero four points per shot on
Speaker 1: jump shots in twenty twenty four, zero point nine to
Speaker 1: two points per shot in twenty twenty five, so twelve
Speaker 1: points per one hundred jump shots. Worse overall on jump
Speaker 1: shots off the dribble zero point eighty five points per
Speaker 1: shot last year. The year before one point zero zero
Speaker 1: points per shot, so fifteen points per one hundred off
Speaker 1: the dribble jump shots, worse contested catch and shoots twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four one point zero four, twenty two twenty five
Speaker 1: zero point nine to eight six per one hundred worse, right,
Speaker 1: But in wide open catch and shoot shooting he was
Speaker 1: actually up year over year. He was one point one four,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, one point one point eight, and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. Now, before we dig into why that's interesting,
Speaker 1: let's talk about his rim finishing two. In twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: he got to the rim seven point three times per
Speaker 1: game and shot sixty two percent there. According to Synergy
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, just six point seven attempts per game
Speaker 1: and just sixty percent at the rim, So a little
Speaker 1: bit worse in both volume and efficiency. So what does
Speaker 1: it tell us that Jalen has improved as a playmaker
Speaker 1: and improved as a wide open catch and shoot guy
Speaker 1: year over year, but that he struggled on contested jump
Speaker 1: shots off the dribble jump shots and his rim volume
Speaker 1: in efficiency both dropped year over year. It sounds to
Speaker 1: me like the game continues to slow down for him
Speaker 1: and his skill set is continuing to refine, but that
Speaker 1: he was obviously dealing with the struggle to get lift
Speaker 1: and separation, which is going to make a lot of
Speaker 1: sense for a guy who's dealing with the issues. What
Speaker 1: are the shots that are going to require extra oomph
Speaker 1: in your lower body in that energy transfer, contested catch
Speaker 1: and shoot, jump shots, shooting off the dribble and out
Speaker 1: of footwork and getting to and finishing at the rim,
Speaker 1: That's where he saw the drop off. Now, it's at
Speaker 1: least worth mentioning that he's about to turn twenty nine
Speaker 1: years old and he has a ton of miles on
Speaker 1: his body relative to most NBA players his age. For perspective,
Speaker 1: he's played forty five hundred playoff minutes. Lebron James has
Speaker 1: played twelve thousand. So the way to look at it
Speaker 1: is Jalen Brown already at just age twenty eight, has
Speaker 1: played thirty eight percent of the playoff off minutes that
Speaker 1: Lebron James has played, and he's well into his forties now.
Speaker 1: So Jalen's dip in athleticism and the associated struggles, as
Speaker 1: well as the reality of his age and the amount
Speaker 1: of mileage on his body that's a big part of
Speaker 1: how he slipped a little bit down the list For
Speaker 1: me this year, I'll be curious to see if he's
Speaker 1: able to overcome that knee issue and get back to
Speaker 1: one hundred percent next year, or if it's something that
Speaker 1: lingers and that can become a problem as things continue
Speaker 1: throughout his career. Next year will be our first opportunity
Speaker 1: to see Jalen Brown in a truly featured primary shot
Speaker 1: creator role. Last year, Jalen's volume was sizable, especially in
Speaker 1: one on one situations. He ran over five hundred pick
Speaker 1: and roles and excuse me, over five hundred post ups
Speaker 1: and ISOs, but his overall shot creation volume is still
Speaker 1: low relative to his peers at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: He was good, though, one point zero one points per
Speaker 1: possession and pick and roll including including passes on four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty three reps.
Speaker 2: That's slightly above average.
Speaker 1: One point per ISO including passes on pretty high volume
Speaker 1: three hundred and two reps that was the thirteenth most
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA efficiency efficiency for that, once again
Speaker 1: slightly above average. He was one point two eight points
Speaker 1: per possession in post ups including passes, which is excellent.
Speaker 1: That ranked number one. Jalen Brown was number one out
Speaker 1: of the eighteen players to run at least two hundred
Speaker 1: post ups last year. Now, again, some of that is
Speaker 1: influenced by the fact that the Celtics shot super well
Speaker 1: on his kickouts. I think they shot like sixty percent
Speaker 1: on his kickout threes out of post ups. But it's
Speaker 1: worth mentioning again, when I looked at the film, the
Speaker 1: kickouts were happening more frequently and he was generating better
Speaker 1: shots than he did in previous years. So some of
Speaker 1: it was shooting variants, some of it was also the
Speaker 1: quality of shots he was generating. I expect Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: to continue to thrive at volume in ISO and post
Speaker 1: up situations. They tend to present the simplest reads in
Speaker 1: a four out one in system. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you're on a cleared side post up for Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: very easy reads for him. If you put him on
Speaker 1: the left block and he's got the ball in his
Speaker 1: right hand, you double from the top. It's an easy
Speaker 1: kick out up to the wing for a three point shot.
Speaker 1: You double off the opposite wing. He can rifle that
Speaker 1: pass to the opposite wing. I've seen him make that
Speaker 1: specific pass. Many times they could get a little tougher
Speaker 1: when they load up and make the weak side corner available,
Speaker 1: but Jalen will is typically pretty good at getting deeper
Speaker 1: into the paint making the kickouts. They're easier reads ISO,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing, cleared side ISO exact same reads
Speaker 1: we just covered wing ISOs in four out one in.
Speaker 1: It's pretty simple. If the defender's funneling you towards the
Speaker 1: baseline and you drive. If you drive and they don't
Speaker 1: help off the strong side corner, you're gonna face help
Speaker 1: off of the weak side corner if they rotate down
Speaker 1: the reads to the wing. If they don't the reads
Speaker 1: to the corner, it's a pretty simple set of reads
Speaker 1: out of an ISO. If you do get to the middle,
Speaker 1: if they pinch down from the nail, you pinch up
Speaker 1: to you pitch it out to the wing. If they
Speaker 1: stay glued to the wing and you get past that guy,
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna help off the corner.
Speaker 2: You make the kick to the corner.
Speaker 1: It's like those one on one situations present that I
Speaker 1: think Jalen Brown can handle really well.
Speaker 2: So increasing his volume.
Speaker 1: Because he's the primary guy, he's just gonna get into
Speaker 1: a better rhythm, and it'll make him even better at
Speaker 1: making those basic reads. I think he's gonna be fine
Speaker 1: in ISO and post up situations.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Whether or not Jalen Brown has a truly great season
Speaker 1: leading the Celtics will come down to his work and
Speaker 1: pick and roll. That is not a skill set that
Speaker 1: comes naturally to Jalen Brown. When he has to read
Speaker 1: lots of moving parts, navigating a defender behind him and
Speaker 1: in front of him, looking off defenders some of the
Speaker 1: more complex help and recover situations that you see in
Speaker 1: pick and roll, tougher angles, tougher passing reads, that's where
Speaker 1: it can get tough for him. I do think it's
Speaker 1: a coverage he's gonna see quite a lot this year too,
Speaker 1: especially since he'll be surrounded by less talent. Teams will
Speaker 1: switch less against the Celtics, there will be more loaded
Speaker 1: up pick and roll traditional coverages. My guess is that
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown struggle here. I think we'll see a pretty
Speaker 1: high turnover rate from him this year. I think his
Speaker 1: efficiency in pick and roll per per possession including passes
Speaker 1: will flirt with a point and maybe dip below a point.
Speaker 1: But if he can prove me wrong here. He does
Speaker 1: have the potential to have a special offensive season, especially
Speaker 1: if he can get his knee back to one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: But my guess is it's going to be really nice
Speaker 1: in ice in post up situations about that, he'll struggle
Speaker 1: in pick and roll, and then overall it'll be kind
Speaker 1: of a mixed bag from him this year. On defense,
Speaker 1: I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: I think he's just one of the absolute apex perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders in the league when he really locks in there,
Speaker 1: certainly in the top tier. He's just such an amazing
Speaker 1: weapon to have on a roster. He even brings the
Speaker 1: switch ability that gave Boston the championship ceiling they had
Speaker 1: in the past. We talk so much about Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: and his ability to guard centers and how that made
Speaker 1: things work because they could switch. Well, that only works
Speaker 1: that the guy that's guarding the guard can also switch
Speaker 1: on to center, which Jalen Brown could effectively do. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this year will be different, and that you probably have
Speaker 1: way too much offensive responsibility to be that apex defender
Speaker 1: while also doing everything he needs to do on offense.
Speaker 1: But it's still an important part of his skill set
Speaker 1: that we have to factor in when we're considering a
Speaker 1: list like this. Jalen Brown's dropped a bit on this
Speaker 1: list as his body has started to let him down
Speaker 1: a bit in the playoffs, especially, he shot very poorly
Speaker 1: on long jump shots, very poorly at the rim. He
Speaker 1: was just fifty five percent at the RAM in the postseason.
Speaker 1: But again, as an Apex perimeter defender and a bona
Speaker 1: fide secondary shot creator in this league, I think he's
Speaker 1: firmly entrenched in the top twenty five. I have him
Speaker 1: at spot number twenty one this year. All Right, guys,
Speaker 1: This's all I have for today is always to sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting and supporting the show. Remember
Speaker 1: to get your mailbag questions in. It won't be for
Speaker 1: a couple of fridays that we get to this particular
Speaker 1: episode in our mail bags, just because I'm going out
Speaker 1: of town to Alaska. But I do plan on going
Speaker 1: through all the videos and finding all of the arguments
Speaker 1: for our mailbags. So if you disagree with any of
Speaker 1: the rankings in any way, shape or form, give a
Speaker 1: quick elevator pitch and the YouTube comments with as a
Speaker 1: mailbag question, and we'll get to them in our mail
Speaker 1: bags throughout the remainder of the list. Again, as always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2: Now I'll see you guys next time.