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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume, Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all you guys had an incredible weekend. We got
Speaker 1: a jam pack show for you today. We're gonna start
Speaker 1: with the breakdown of the Cleveland Cavaliers and just their
Speaker 1: second game, having their starting lineup together, watching a huge
Speaker 1: win over the Golden State Warriors yesterday, delivering them their
Speaker 1: first road loss of the entire season. And then, as
Speaker 1: I said last week, we're gonna kind of be changing
Speaker 1: the format of the show for a little while. Now,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be shifting to more deep dives into teams.
Speaker 1: So we're still gonna do game breakdowns, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a part of the show, but I find that we
Speaker 1: learn more about the teams when we take more time
Speaker 1: with one team to really dive into the tape, watch
Speaker 1: multiple games, and look at season long trends. And so
Speaker 1: we're gonna be doing a deep dive of the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Cavaliers in the second half of today's show. And then
Speaker 1: I have three mail bag questions for the end of
Speaker 1: the show as well. You guys are the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel
Speaker 1: as we try to get this thing off the ground.
Speaker 1: Would mean a lot to me if you guys would
Speaker 1: scroll down to take a couple of seconds to hit
Speaker 1: that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: our Instagram, Twitter and TikTok feeds. Twitter in particular are
Speaker 1: putting a lot of video content on in the morning,
Speaker 1: so I put another ten videos or so on there.
Speaker 1: As you guys know, we have some limitations and our
Speaker 1: ability to use footage on YouTube, but I have a
Speaker 1: little bit more freedom with it on social media, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to follow me there in the last
Speaker 1: but not at least keep dropping mailbag questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. We can hit them towards the end of
Speaker 1: the show. Obviously, different setup today. As I told you
Speaker 1: guys last week, I've got painters working in the main house,
Speaker 1: so I'm sequestered back in my master bedroom for the
Speaker 1: rest of this week, which will be a little bit weird.
Speaker 1: With work from home and with my job being mostly
Speaker 1: watching film on a laptop, I'm gonna feel like I'm
Speaker 1: kind of trapped for a little bit. I'm also injured
Speaker 1: right now. I'm dealing with an achilles injury that's stopping
Speaker 1: me from playing basketball. Didn't tear it, but I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with some really bad soreness. I'm taking a break because
Speaker 1: if I tear my achilles, I'll spiral into depression with
Speaker 1: an inability to play basketball. So I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: take it. So so it's gonna be a weird week,
Speaker 1: but bear with me, and then back to the studio
Speaker 1: hopefully here in a couple of days. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So last night we got to see
Speaker 1: an example of the type of matchup that caused the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors problems last year, which is a significant
Speaker 1: amount of rim protection centered around the two non shooters
Speaker 1: in the lineup, right, in this case Raymond Green and
Speaker 1: Kavan Looni. But it doesn't really matter who's in the lineup,
Speaker 1: They're going to find people to help off of with
Speaker 1: rim protection. Essentially understanding that the Warriors are a team
Speaker 1: that basically likes to run these five out actions and
Speaker 1: try to curl over the top and weaponize their shooting
Speaker 1: to generate wide open looks in the paint. And so
Speaker 1: if you have the ability to legitimately protect the rim
Speaker 1: off of a non shooter, it buys your defensive players,
Speaker 1: particularly on the perimeter, a ton of leeway to overplay
Speaker 1: the three point line. And we saw this in the
Speaker 1: Warrior in the Warriors Lakers series last year, this concept
Speaker 1: of like top locking the shooters basically forcing them to
Speaker 1: reject screens or to curl over the top and force
Speaker 1: them downhill into your rim protection, and then from there
Speaker 1: basically bothering shots with length, forcing turnovers, and then it
Speaker 1: down the other way in transition, right, And this was
Speaker 1: kind of a perfect example of that type of matchup.
Speaker 1: We saw Evan Mobley on Draymond Green right from the
Speaker 1: opening tip. We saw Jared Allen on Kevon Looney right
Speaker 1: from the opening tip. It gives that freedom to those
Speaker 1: perimeter players to be aggressive. Cleveland held Golden State to
Speaker 1: just a one oh two offensive rating. Golden State shot
Speaker 1: just thirty six percent from the field. They were just
Speaker 1: twelve for thirty one in the paint, as the Calves
Speaker 1: outscored the Warriors in the paint fifty eight to twenty four.
Speaker 1: And then, obviously, what do we know about missing shots
Speaker 1: in the paint. Usually shots missed in the paint, particularly
Speaker 1: by perimeter players, cause floor balance issues, and as players
Speaker 1: are unexpectedly rejected and don't get a shot up at
Speaker 1: the rim or miss off the side of the rim,
Speaker 1: it ends up leading to a fast break the other way.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time, the Caves scored thirty one
Speaker 1: points in transition. In this game, they were up over
Speaker 1: about a point in a quarter per possession on transition pushes.
Speaker 1: Warriors pulled it in five in the in the early
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, made it look like they might make it again,
Speaker 1: but the Calves quickly pushed it right back out to
Speaker 1: double digits and they ended up winning comfortably. In general,
Speaker 1: this was kind of I wouldn't say this is the
Speaker 1: first look, because we saw a lot of this in
Speaker 1: the second half in Indiana Pacers game, but this was
Speaker 1: a look at the defensive ceiling that this Calves group
Speaker 1: is capable of. Again, Jared Allen had missed a bunch
Speaker 1: of time at the start of the year, and we
Speaker 1: saw some improved perimeter defense from the Calves at the
Speaker 1: start of the year, particularly Donovan Mitchell playing much better
Speaker 1: perimeter defense than were accustomed to seeing him, and then
Speaker 1: Extrus being kind of a seamless fit next to those
Speaker 1: two guys defensively, but they just didn't have the higher
Speaker 1: level rimp protection. Evan Mobley at this point in his career,
Speaker 1: I think he projects to be an excellent five in
Speaker 1: the long run, but at the five, he's a little
Speaker 1: physically overmatched at this phase in his career right. So
Speaker 1: getting Jared Allen out there just kind of brings them
Speaker 1: that classic two big look that is so difficult to
Speaker 1: deal with in the NBA regular season, which is essentially
Speaker 1: you guard and pick and roll with one of the bigs,
Speaker 1: and then you have the other big kind of working
Speaker 1: off a non shooter as the low man kind of
Speaker 1: coming over to help as a rim protector, coming over
Speaker 1: to secure defensive rebounds or to rotate out to the
Speaker 1: weekside corner. With his supreme athleticism. You see a lot
Speaker 1: from Evan Mobley, right, and he's been amazing as a
Speaker 1: help defender really for the entirety of his Calves career.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of the beauty of this whole thing,
Speaker 1: right is those two guys and what they can do
Speaker 1: defensively on the back line paired with the elite perimeter defense.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to dive too deep into it right
Speaker 1: now because because we're going to do a deep dive
Speaker 1: on the Calves in a little bit, but really really
Speaker 1: happy with where the Calves are defensively in their last
Speaker 1: three halves with their starters back. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: the Warriors for a little bit before we get to
Speaker 1: the Calves. So I specifically want to zero in. We've
Speaker 1: talked a ton of Warriors so far to start the season.
Speaker 1: I want to zero in on the bench unit for
Speaker 1: a little bit. Now. To be clear, this is not
Speaker 1: the reason they lost this game. The starters were minus
Speaker 1: eight and in general, or excuse me, when Steph was
Speaker 1: on the floor, the Warriors were minus eight. The starters
Speaker 1: I believe were minus four, So like it's hard to
Speaker 1: blame the bench when that happens. However, the bench didn't
Speaker 1: do as well in this game as they had done
Speaker 1: in earlier games this season. The specific Moody kaminga Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and Darius Sarch lineup was minus seven in
Speaker 1: just four minutes in this game. In general, they were
Speaker 1: minus three without Steph on the floor. So again, it
Speaker 1: wasn't the reason why they lost this game, but it
Speaker 1: was a little bit more of a of the negative
Speaker 1: end of the spectrum from what you got out of
Speaker 1: that lineup. And I want to zoom in on it
Speaker 1: because I think there's a specific thing from this group
Speaker 1: that is starting to come to the surface that could
Speaker 1: potentially be a problem in the long run, not so
Speaker 1: much for the regular season, but more just for the
Speaker 1: ultimate ceiling of this Golden State Warriors team. So, as
Speaker 1: I've talked about throughout the season, the defense of that
Speaker 1: group has been excellent, Right, Gary Payton's taking your primary
Speaker 1: point of attack assignments. He's one of the best in
Speaker 1: the league at it. Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga are
Speaker 1: doing great work flying around in rotation and depending on
Speaker 1: the perimeter as well. That group has been a very
Speaker 1: nice pairing with Dario Sarich in terms of like kind
Speaker 1: of limiting his brim protection issues by containing on the
Speaker 1: perimeter better. Right, But the offense has been an issue,
Speaker 1: and that's something I talked about earlier, Like the I
Speaker 1: think the last time we talked about the bench group,
Speaker 1: they were below one hundred offensive rating at that point.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to zoom in on the lineup because
Speaker 1: in general for the entire season now they are now
Speaker 1: negative eight point five points per one hundred possessions. Now,
Speaker 1: they've run a bunch of different bench configurations, but this
Speaker 1: is the primary one that they've been running, and they
Speaker 1: did not play well against the Calves, and in large part,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because they can't score. So they're only
Speaker 1: scoring throughout the entire season at this point one hundred
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions. And this is where we
Speaker 1: have to look at Chris Paul. I would say that
Speaker 1: the Chris Paul experiment with the Warriors has been a
Speaker 1: resounding success. He's an obvious fit with the bench group,
Speaker 1: he gets them organized. They definitely have let's just say,
Speaker 1: not as low of lows as they did last year
Speaker 1: when Jordan Poole was leading those units. Right, So overall
Speaker 1: it's been a success. I think in the big picture,
Speaker 1: it's going to be success for the entire season. However,
Speaker 1: against this Calves on the road, I think you saw
Speaker 1: an example of what can happen though, if Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is not scoring like this, because Chris Paul is really
Speaker 1: struggling to score the basketball, that's the one kind of gripe,
Speaker 1: so to speak. On the Chris Paul experiment. So far,
Speaker 1: he's averaging a career low seven point six points per game,
Speaker 1: just thirty two percent from the field, just two for
Speaker 1: twenty six from three, just fourteen for forty four on
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots with zero three, so thirty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field and a thirty two percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage because you're not getting any of that
Speaker 1: extra point from threes, right, hasn't hit a single pull
Speaker 1: up three the entire season. He's also only made five
Speaker 1: shots at the rim all season. A Chris Paul pick
Speaker 1: and roll to this point is only worth zero point
Speaker 1: eight points per possession, and on ISOs against switches, he's
Speaker 1: just three for fifteen from the field. Now again, he's
Speaker 1: orchestrating the unit very well. Up until recently, the unit's
Speaker 1: been performing well on the scoreboard despite the offensive limitations.
Speaker 1: But this is an example of what you actually need,
Speaker 1: Chris Ford. Right. So, an elite defense team that protects
Speaker 1: the room really well, that kind of team is always
Speaker 1: going to give young players trouble because young players typically
Speaker 1: struggle against elite defense. Is the kind of figure out
Speaker 1: all those little nuances, right, And what you need in
Speaker 1: that situation is just two or three more times a
Speaker 1: game where Chris can go get a bucket right and
Speaker 1: look to be aggressive when nothing else was working against
Speaker 1: those Cavs coverages because their rotations were so sharp. You
Speaker 1: weren't getting anything at the rim, and you weren't getting
Speaker 1: wide open kickout threes, right, and so at a certain point,
Speaker 1: at least not for your knockdown shooters. So at a
Speaker 1: certain point, what's there is in the drop coverage, you know,
Speaker 1: especially like guys like Darius Garland are out there, like
Speaker 1: you can still get separation against them in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: You gotta have someone who can rise up and knock
Speaker 1: a shotdown, which Chris absolutely can. He just hasn't done
Speaker 1: so yet this season. And again that's the thing to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on. It's not so much that Chris
Speaker 1: can do it, it's just a question of when he will.
Speaker 1: Right now. The counterpoints to that is he's old, right,
Speaker 1: So that's the issue. Is you look at those numbers
Speaker 1: relative to is previous seasons. They're down a lot, right,
Speaker 1: Obviously he's slumping. The question is is he gonna snap
Speaker 1: out of it? I think yes, But I'm saying that
Speaker 1: he needs to. And the main reason why is because
Speaker 1: that's why you make the trade. You make the trade
Speaker 1: so that Chris can especially in that matchup against rim
Speaker 1: protection teams that are packing the paint. You need another
Speaker 1: guy who can run pick and roll to spell Steph
Speaker 1: and consistently generate quality shots. And he can do it
Speaker 1: as a bench shot creator and the day and day
Speaker 1: out of the regular season. But that on the road,
Speaker 1: tough game against an elite defense, that's kind of a
Speaker 1: good kind of microcosm of what a playoff situation would
Speaker 1: look like. That's an example of a game in the
Speaker 1: playoffs where you have to lean heavier on pick and
Speaker 1: roll and spreading the floor out and you desperately need
Speaker 1: Chris to just be a little bit more productive offensively. Again,
Speaker 1: not a big deal at this point in the season,
Speaker 1: just a trend to keep an eye on. The trend
Speaker 1: is the bench unit is struggling to score in large
Speaker 1: part because Chris is struggling to score, and he's specifically
Speaker 1: missing a lot of shots that he normally makes. So
Speaker 1: that's the trend. We'll see what ends up going on
Speaker 1: in the bigger picture. All right, Let's do our deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Cleveland Cavaliers. So they improved a three
Speaker 1: and four after beating Golden State. The Indiana game was
Speaker 1: the other game where we saw all five of the starters.
Speaker 1: That was the first game of the NBA Cup on Friday.
Speaker 1: On the road ran into a buzz saw, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And Indiana is going to do that to teams. They're
Speaker 1: really really fast and athletic, especially on the perimeter, and
Speaker 1: so they're one of those teams where on the road,
Speaker 1: when they're fueled by their home crowd, they can be
Speaker 1: kind of a gigantic pain in the ass to deal with,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, right, they dug themselves
Speaker 1: in a seventy to fifty three hole. But they came
Speaker 1: out in that second half and immediately just put the
Speaker 1: pacers in jail and got out and ran the other
Speaker 1: way and immediately made it a game. They actually took
Speaker 1: a four point lead in the fourth quarter, super super
Speaker 1: impressive defensively in the second half of that game. They
Speaker 1: ended up losing, you know, based on basically like kind
Speaker 1: of typical late game stuff that can happen going either way, right,
Speaker 1: Like Buddy Held ended up catching a heater, making a
Speaker 1: couple of threes. He made one off of a Max
Speaker 1: Strew's turnover where Max was kind of draped over him
Speaker 1: from behind and he just somehow made it. Buddy Heilds
Speaker 1: one of the best shooters in the league. That's what
Speaker 1: he's gonna do sometimes. The Cavs had two crucial late
Speaker 1: game turnovers that killed them where they got stops. One
Speaker 1: where Evan Mobley just inexplicably through like a ninety mile
Speaker 1: an hour bounce pass that was too far ahead of
Speaker 1: Darius Garland and went out of bounds. And then Darius
Speaker 1: Garland did the same thing when he tried to throw
Speaker 1: a swing pass across the floor in transition to Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell that got stolen. But so it's tough because it's
Speaker 1: a loss, and it's a loss in pool play for
Speaker 1: the play in for the the NBA Cup. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I thought that second half was actually
Speaker 1: a really really impressive showing from the Cavalier defense. They
Speaker 1: gave up a one oh two defensive rating in the
Speaker 1: entire game against Golden State, which is like unbelievably good
Speaker 1: against the defense, an offense that's been pretty effective all
Speaker 1: season so far this year and has a player in
Speaker 1: Steph Curry who has been arguably one of the arguably
Speaker 1: the best player in the league to start the year, depending
Speaker 1: on who you ask, right, And then they gave up
Speaker 1: a one four defensive rating in the second half against
Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers. That's what this team is capable of
Speaker 1: when they're really locked in. And again, like there's still
Speaker 1: little things like Darius Garland to me still is the
Speaker 1: easiest entry point into that defense and it can cause problems.
Speaker 1: There was this weird moment at the end of the
Speaker 1: Pacers game where like, uh, Tyrese Halliburton just just he
Speaker 1: was having success, just beating Darius Garland off the dribble
Speaker 1: once in io and then another time he pick and
Speaker 1: roll where he just got by him too easily, but
Speaker 1: he got easy buckets, just just beating Darius Garland off
Speaker 1: the dribble, and then he just randomly decided, actually, I'd
Speaker 1: rather attack Jared Allen, and he started calling for ball
Speaker 1: screens and Jared would switch, and then Jared actually got
Speaker 1: a really nice stop on Tyree's where he blocked him
Speaker 1: on a drive and then Tyree's just made a prayer,
Speaker 1: like an absolute prayer step back three on the right
Speaker 1: wing that arked seventeen feet in the air, it seemed,
Speaker 1: and somehow went in. But in general, like that's that's
Speaker 1: an issue in the big picture, right, Like Jared Allen
Speaker 1: can switch onto the perimeter guard well, soaken Evan Mobley.
Speaker 1: I like Stru's defensively. We're going to talk about him
Speaker 1: more in a minute. Donovan Mitchell's having a good season defensively.
Speaker 1: Carousel Avert is one of their better perimeter defenders. But
Speaker 1: Darius Garland is he competes like I genuinely, I'm impressed
Speaker 1: by how often he puts his body on the line
Speaker 1: to get back in front of people. He does sprint
Speaker 1: around in rotation, and he is a willing participant in
Speaker 1: the defense, but his physical limitations do become an issue
Speaker 1: in late game situations, as you saw with Tyres Sliburton, like, hey,
Speaker 1: get out of the way. I'm just gonna beat Darius
Speaker 1: off the dribble and get into the paint. And that's
Speaker 1: something that we saw a lot in the Knick series
Speaker 1: as they attacked specifically r J. Barrett and Jaylen Brunson
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time attacking Darius Garland. So that's
Speaker 1: the thing, Like, I'm really impressed by the Cavalary defense
Speaker 1: in general there in spite of in spite of the
Speaker 1: injuries to start the year, they're still eleventh in defensive
Speaker 1: rating eighth and half court defense according to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: middle of the pack for transition defense fifteenth, and frequency nineteenth.
Speaker 1: In efficiency, they're allowing the sixth fewest points in the
Speaker 1: paint one hundred possessions, and opponents are shooting just fifty
Speaker 1: eight point five percent on them inside the restricted area,
Speaker 1: which is top five in the league. Middle of the
Speaker 1: pac three pointers allowed fifteenth and the opponent three pointers
Speaker 1: made per one hundred and twenty third in percentage. The
Speaker 1: offensive glass is still a major issue. They're grabbing just
Speaker 1: sixty nine percent of available defensive rebounds. That's twenty seventh
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Now, remember that was one of the
Speaker 1: major things that got them beat in the Knick series too,
Speaker 1: is just an inability to finish off defensive possessions. So like,
Speaker 1: in general, I'm really happy with where the Cavs defense is.
Speaker 1: Their perimeter defense, I think is much better than it
Speaker 1: was last year. Max Strus has been such a great fit.
Speaker 1: Offense has been iffy, right, Like, he's not shooting the
Speaker 1: ball super well. He's nineteen for sixty three on jump shots.
Speaker 1: A big issue with him taking really tough movement jump
Speaker 1: shots all the time, like he's actually dead eye when
Speaker 1: he's spotting up. It's when he's taking these wild, drifting
Speaker 1: threes coming off of screens that he's missing. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, by the numbers, he's shooting sixty percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage in spot up situations one point
Speaker 1: two to three points per spot of possession, which is
Speaker 1: like amazing, But he's just four for fifteen when he's
Speaker 1: coming off the screen. So like, it's been a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mixed bag with Max offensively, but I
Speaker 1: think that can be fixed with approach defensively, I think
Speaker 1: it's been a home run. He's just like he's like
Speaker 1: ninety percent of the Isaac Accorro experience in terms of
Speaker 1: his competitiveness on the defensive end. On the perimeter, teams
Speaker 1: are picking on him and switches because they think he's
Speaker 1: easy to score on, but he's not. As matter of fact,
Speaker 1: teams are just shooting four for fourteen from the field
Speaker 1: trying to attack Max Strews in isolation. So like the
Speaker 1: perimeter defense, Like I said, Donovan Mitchell's having his best
Speaker 1: perimeter defense defensive season as a pro. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: Max Streus has been a great fit. Lavert's competing defensively.
Speaker 1: I even like Dean Wade just with his length and
Speaker 1: help and especially on the defensive glass. The front court
Speaker 1: obviously is one of the best defensive front courts in
Speaker 1: the league. There's just the two things. Darius Garland is
Speaker 1: an entry point still kind of an issue, and then
Speaker 1: the defensive glass. For whatever reason, this team my guess,
Speaker 1: and you can kind of see it on film and
Speaker 1: long rebound situations, but this is a team that has
Speaker 1: athleticism in the front court, but they're a team that
Speaker 1: packs the paint and gives up a lot of threes.
Speaker 1: What happens when you give up a lot of threes,
Speaker 1: you give up a lot of long rebounds. Is this
Speaker 1: a tall perimeter team? No, Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, two
Speaker 1: small guards, even though Darius, even though Donovan's a good athlete, right,
Speaker 1: you know when Carrislovert nax Strew's we're talking about a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys that are not six nine freaky athletes, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: this is not a team that's going to succeed in
Speaker 1: long rebound situations. But those are the two things to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on over the course of the season
Speaker 1: in biggest areas for opportunity at this point. On the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the four, couple of specific things like
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley, we want to keep an eye on him
Speaker 1: in short role situations. Defensively, he's incredible. I clipped a
Speaker 1: couple clips of him today from a couple of games
Speaker 1: from him playing defense and some of just the unbelievable
Speaker 1: help and recover situations that he can turn what looks
Speaker 1: like a compromised possession into all of a sudden he
Speaker 1: blocks a shot and we're running the other way, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's still unbelievable in that regard. But the big
Speaker 1: problem in that in that game or series against the
Speaker 1: Knicks was Mitchell Robinson's ability to kind of split the
Speaker 1: difference in pick and roll defense with him and Jared
Speaker 1: Allen and be able to effectively guard them both. And
Speaker 1: that would allow Julius Randall to basically show high on
Speaker 1: ball screens without having to worry about getting punished on
Speaker 1: the back line. Right, And there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about the perimeter shooting, and it certainly is a big issue.
Speaker 1: Like they're a lot, like we just talked about Max
Speaker 1: Strews in spot up situations, like you're already seeing this
Speaker 1: year the benefit of what it's like having a guy
Speaker 1: at the end of the chain that's a knockdown three
Speaker 1: point shooter. And again, like Max is shooting like shit
Speaker 1: at the rim, and he's shooting like shit and coming
Speaker 1: off of screens, but when it comes to the stuff
Speaker 1: that's like the kind of stuff that you actually need
Speaker 1: from him in the Cavs offense in terms of finishing plays,
Speaker 1: He's doing a really really nice job there and so
Speaker 1: like that, that's definitely a big part of it, and
Speaker 1: that's definitely going to help them in the big picture,
Speaker 1: but you need Evan Mobley in a two big system
Speaker 1: to be an offensive threat. We haven't seen too much
Speaker 1: so far this year. His points per possession in the
Speaker 1: role is up a little bit from last series, at
Speaker 1: one point one point per possession. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: him closer to like one point three as the season progresses.
Speaker 1: He is three for four on hooks and floaters. He
Speaker 1: made less than half of them last year, so he's
Speaker 1: doing a little bit better in a very small sample
Speaker 1: size on that end, but we're gonna want to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on that. Donovan Mitchell's playing insanely well career
Speaker 1: high thirty three points per game on a career high
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent through shooting. His jump shootings up. His
Speaker 1: rim finishing is up. He's up over eighty percent at
Speaker 1: the rim this year, which is insane. His assists are up.
Speaker 1: He's having the best defensive season of his career so far.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell's just last guy in the world you need
Speaker 1: to worry about for the Caves. Darris Garland's having a
Speaker 1: little bit of a rough start, though He's just one
Speaker 1: for twelve from three's turning the ball over a lot
Speaker 1: and again he's the weak link for them on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. So a big area of
Speaker 1: improvement for the Caves is just Darius Garland playing better,
Speaker 1: and he did have a better game against Golden State,
Speaker 1: and so maybe that's a sign of a positive trend
Speaker 1: the core five, so Max Strew, Scarland, Mitchell, with Mobley
Speaker 1: and Allen. They've played forty six possessions so far through
Speaker 1: two games, one twenty two offensive rating and one hundred
Speaker 1: defensive rating for plus twenty two points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: That's amazing as a team. One oh four defensive rating
Speaker 1: against Indy in the second half, one oh two defensive
Speaker 1: rating for the game against Golden State. So a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff trending in a positive direction for the Cavs
Speaker 1: now that they're getting healthy again. Just to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the entry point, Darius Garland defensive rebounding, Darius
Speaker 1: Garland on offense, improving Evan Mobley on the roll. Those
Speaker 1: are the main things we want to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: Everything else looks good. Like Harris Lavert straight up took
Speaker 1: over the end of that Pacers game just beating people
Speaker 1: off the dribble above his isolation attack it's kind of
Speaker 1: a counter to everything Mitchell and Garland bring. Like I said,
Speaker 1: Dean Wade's been an intriguing Tristian Thompson was like, legit
Speaker 1: good on defense against the Warriors, made a bunch of
Speaker 1: big plays. So like they're they're looking like a team
Speaker 1: that's coming together in a in a big way here
Speaker 1: early in the season. All right, guys, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, let's hit the mailbag. First question from
Speaker 1: Miles how does altitude? I love this question. This is
Speaker 1: super interesting. How does altitude effect visiting teams early in
Speaker 1: the year. Do you feel that Dallas's poor transition defense
Speaker 1: partially was because of the atmosphere? So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's altitude is a big part of it, But another
Speaker 1: big part of it's just on the road. Why is
Speaker 1: it the team struggling struggle and transition on the road typically,
Speaker 1: And then just view the Denver Nuggets and their altitude
Speaker 1: is basically an exaggerated version of that. With this from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of altitude, right, here's the thing. When you're
Speaker 1: fueled by your home crowd and the energy that that brings,
Speaker 1: you just naturally run harder. It's just kind of like,
Speaker 1: think about all the times during a basketball game when
Speaker 1: like you don't want to run, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: back on defense or running the floor and transition on offense,
Speaker 1: and you're tired, and so you decide not to and
Speaker 1: so you jog, you know, and God knows in our
Speaker 1: pickup games as US amateur basketball players that we do
Speaker 1: it a ton, right, But like it's even when you're
Speaker 1: taking games seriously, there are times when you decide not
Speaker 1: to run. In their times when you decide to run,
Speaker 1: when you're fueled by the energy of your home crowd,
Speaker 1: you just always run, Like there's no other way to
Speaker 1: put it. Like you just when you're really playing hard
Speaker 1: in front of your home crowd, and like you're fueled
Speaker 1: by that energy. It's like you're sprinting back on defense
Speaker 1: every possession, every time you secure a defensive rebound, you're
Speaker 1: sprinting the lane. And so for really, for the road team,
Speaker 1: it's more about discipline than anything else. It's those decisions,
Speaker 1: those run or don't run decisions that you have to
Speaker 1: decide whether or not you're going to whether or not
Speaker 1: you're gonna go right. And more often than not, on
Speaker 1: the road, there are moments where the young energetic. It
Speaker 1: doesn't even necessarily have to do with age, but the
Speaker 1: energetic home player says screw it, I'm running, and then
Speaker 1: the road dude decides to take that possession off and
Speaker 1: it ends up causing problems. But teams that are really
Speaker 1: good on the road are typically very mentally disciplined teams,
Speaker 1: meaning like, there are teams that are very good at
Speaker 1: forcing themselves to make the same decision every time regardless.
Speaker 1: This is why teams that defend well typically play well
Speaker 1: on the road, because defense travels. It's not about making shots,
Speaker 1: it's about your habits. Do you have a habit of
Speaker 1: every time a shot goes up, sprinting back in transition? Defense?
Speaker 1: Do you have a habit every time a defensive remounl
Speaker 1: gets gathered of running your lane in transition? If you
Speaker 1: have those habits, then you're going to be a better
Speaker 1: road team, because habits are basically something you do involuntarily
Speaker 1: versus something that you have to consciously choose. Right, next
Speaker 1: mail back question and again to tie off the niles
Speaker 1: one again at altitude is just an even tougher version
Speaker 1: of that. Right, Like, when you're tired, you can still
Speaker 1: make the decision to turn it sprint back. It's just
Speaker 1: easier to do when you're fueled by the home crowd,
Speaker 1: and obviously the Nuggets players are in a little bit
Speaker 1: better shape of practicing in those conditions. Next mail back
Speaker 1: question from Jake, how do we parse lineup analytics? The
Speaker 1: Warrior's second team is looking great and often has a
Speaker 1: better plus minus, but they're also mostly playing the opponent's
Speaker 1: bench players. I'm sure someone's crunching the numbers numbers somewhere
Speaker 1: that accounts for matchups. So to me, lineup data, again,
Speaker 1: everything is relative to the circumstance. And we've talked about
Speaker 1: this before. It's not even just about line up data.
Speaker 1: It's also about play type data. So I primarily look
Speaker 1: at box score metra, defensive rating, offensive rating, net rating,
Speaker 1: so like a pace weighted metrics, right, And then I
Speaker 1: really look at play type data. So I love like
Speaker 1: looking at points per pick and roll points per ISO,
Speaker 1: points per spot up possession, that sort of thing. I
Speaker 1: think those are the best indicators of like the scoreboard
Speaker 1: for that individual play type. Right, Like, for instance, in
Speaker 1: a spot up possession, you really are hoping for from
Speaker 1: a good player, A good spot up player about one
Speaker 1: point two points per possession. You want them to be
Speaker 1: able to consistently knock down catch and shoot threes and
Speaker 1: drive closeouts. For a pick and roll player, pick and
Speaker 1: roll is the initiation for every single possession. It's a
Speaker 1: lower percentage play. So like anything over one possession is
Speaker 1: like a home run, right, you know. So it's like
Speaker 1: everything is a little different. Each situation is different, and
Speaker 1: so it doesn't make sense to just look at field
Speaker 1: goal percentage for two players if one of them constantly
Speaker 1: is playing in spot up situations and the others constantly
Speaker 1: running pick and roll, which is just going to be harder, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's the kind of data I like to
Speaker 1: look at. But even then there's context from the same
Speaker 1: point of like how's the spacing off the ball, because
Speaker 1: that's going to directly affect my ability to score and
Speaker 1: pick and roller in ISO, right, same thing even goes
Speaker 1: for spot up situations, So, like all, there's always like
Speaker 1: context to these sorts of things, and specifically with lineup data,
Speaker 1: a bench lineup, for instance, talk about the Warriors. For instance,
Speaker 1: Warriors bench defending really well, but they're defending really well
Speaker 1: against bench lineups. So what that means is it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you should start Moody and kaminga because they're your
Speaker 1: best defenders. No, that's not the case. It's just they're
Speaker 1: doing a really good job within the context of bench lineups,
Speaker 1: guarding opposing benches and everything with that is about kind
Speaker 1: of like parsing together where they're being used. Right, Like
Speaker 1: you know, last year Lebron James was playing without a
Speaker 1: backup center, and so bench lineups got crushed with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean Lebron's bad, it just means that it was
Speaker 1: a lineup construction issue. This year, Christian Wood off the
Speaker 1: bench has been one of the best weapons for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So now Lebron's bench numbers are way better. Is it
Speaker 1: all Lebron. No, obviously the Lebron's great in both situations,
Speaker 1: but there's lineup construction pieces there. Christian Wood has been
Speaker 1: one of the best players for the Lakers this year.
Speaker 1: He also has been coming off the bench primarily in
Speaker 1: those Lebron groups, and so it's kind of influencing the
Speaker 1: plus minus data there. It's not like Lebron suddenly got
Speaker 1: way better than he did last year in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It's about lineup construction. So again, there's context to everything.
Speaker 1: Anytime you ever see a piece of data, you want
Speaker 1: to ask yourself, how is this piece of data actually
Speaker 1: translating to the court, and what's the context there. Anytime
Speaker 1: you see something on film, like let's say a guy
Speaker 1: makes a shot or a guy makes a play, you
Speaker 1: want to go to the numbers to see how often
Speaker 1: he's actually been able to do that. Every everything is
Speaker 1: about like kind of leaning on the opposite for context,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. All right, lastly, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, way too early, MVP race. This person
Speaker 1: in the mailbag said, it's between Steph and Luca. Who
Speaker 1: would you pick right now? I think Luca has a
Speaker 1: slight edge, but Steph is closing the gap. I'd give
Speaker 1: four guys, and I'm not going to pick any one
Speaker 1: of them in first place just because it's way, way,
Speaker 1: way too early, But there are four guys in my opinion,
Speaker 1: that are off to like textbook MVP starts right like
Speaker 1: Luca because of the simple fact that his roster is
Speaker 1: kind of mediocre in terms of talent. They've been winning
Speaker 1: a lot of games to start the year, and he's
Speaker 1: putting up just just absolutely obscene numbers. Right. So, like
Speaker 1: the Kyrie Irving is a co star, but he's not
Speaker 1: viewed throughout the league in terms of value like a
Speaker 1: star in the purest sense of the word, just because
Speaker 1: of the way he's destroyed his own reputation over the years.
Speaker 1: So like as a result of that, like he's got
Speaker 1: like kind of that pilot part of the narrative down
Speaker 1: in general the rosters overachieving. That's there. He's consistently considered
Speaker 1: a top tier superstar talent and with playoff performance to
Speaker 1: back it up, and he's putting up all the numbers
Speaker 1: that you need. So that's textbook Steph obviously just playing
Speaker 1: the best basketball of his career while winning a lot
Speaker 1: of games for a team without a co star. Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokic has been phenomenal as the Nuggets have only lost once,
Speaker 1: So that's an obvious one for me. And then Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: I talked about it like they'd have to win sixty
Speaker 1: plus sixty five games and he'd have to put it
Speaker 1: up insane. You should see thirty plus points per game,
Speaker 1: like Tatum's doing that too. So those are the four
Speaker 1: guys that I have my eye on here early in
Speaker 1: the year, but even then I'm probably missing several guys
Speaker 1: because it's just so early. So again, we won't really
Speaker 1: talk MVP until we get outside of twenty games or so.
Speaker 1: But out the gates there are those four guys are
Speaker 1: the ones that have kind of stood out as like
Speaker 1: a typical MVP starts. Our guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always, I sincerely appreciate your sport.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be back tomorrow breaking down more games from
Speaker 1: Monday night as well as doing another deep dive on
Speaker 1: a team, and then we'll start our nighttime coverage on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you then.
Speaker 1: The volume