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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Thanduel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far packed show. Today we're
Speaker 1: getting into the top ten players in the NBA. Will
Speaker 1: be doing number ten through number six today and then
Speaker 1: actually when we do the rest of the list to one.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go one player at a time, and I
Speaker 1: really want to take our sweet time as we dive
Speaker 1: into each player, their strengths and their weaknesses, their history,
Speaker 1: their resume. I want to dive into, you know, some
Speaker 1: of the greatest moments throughout their career. I want to
Speaker 1: take our sweet time there. I think it should be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. We're also going to briefly touch
Speaker 1: on the Nets drama some updates. After Josiah sent out
Speaker 1: a tweet having Sewn Marks's back, having Steve nash Is back,
Speaker 1: I thought that was a great indicate or of the
Speaker 1: direction this is all heading. So we're gonna touch on
Speaker 1: those things real quick. You guys know the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our content. Follow me on
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Speaker 1: any show announcements and things along those lines. And last
Speaker 1: but not least, if you can't get over to YouTube
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Speaker 1: you can always find the audio version of these shows
Speaker 1: on our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Under
Speaker 1: Hoops tonight. All right, let's get started. So Joe sigh,
Speaker 1: as I expected, came out in defense of Sean Marks
Speaker 1: and Steve Nash later in the day yesterday after we
Speaker 1: recorded are kind of instant reaction video. That was to
Speaker 1: be expected. It's like the optics of him firing Steve
Speaker 1: Nash and Sean Marks after that report came back, even
Speaker 1: if he wanted to, even if he believed k D,
Speaker 1: it just would have been a really bad look for him.
Speaker 1: He would have come off looking like a week owner
Speaker 1: that was succumbing to the demands of a disgruntled star,
Speaker 1: which would have just said a bad precedent any other
Speaker 1: time in the future that he would try to put
Speaker 1: his foot down with any player. Every relationship with every
Speaker 1: star he'd have in the future would come under the
Speaker 1: consideration that they are running the show as opposed to him,
Speaker 1: and it's just a simple question of principle. He chose principle,
Speaker 1: and that was kind of to be expected. We actually
Speaker 1: heard um from I believe it was Jake Fisher from
Speaker 1: Bleacher Report reported today that Josiah is actually very very
Speaker 1: high on Sean Marks and is very pleased with the
Speaker 1: direction he has gone with the team and is very
Speaker 1: happy with Steve Nash and his ability to maximize the
Speaker 1: talent of the players that have come through Brooklyn. That's
Speaker 1: about his resounding a statement of support as you could find.
Speaker 1: Sham's also reported today that Katie is checked out mentally.
Speaker 1: That obviously is not a shock generally speaking, when you
Speaker 1: think about making some sort of transition in your life,
Speaker 1: Once you've mentally made that transition, it's really hard to
Speaker 1: go back, think back to any time that you um
Speaker 1: made a career change, that you decided to quit a job,
Speaker 1: that you decided in your head, I'm gonna try this,
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna move there, or I'm gonna break up
Speaker 1: with this person, or try to do like whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you're gonna do. When you make that decision
Speaker 1: in your head, you start to envision the other side,
Speaker 1: and then you focus on the positives there, and then
Speaker 1: it becomes really difficult to ever mentally accept coming back
Speaker 1: to your current predicament. It's really hard to buy back in.
Speaker 1: I'm sure many of you guys have similar examples in
Speaker 1: your life that feel that way, So I doubt that
Speaker 1: Katie is just gonna suddenly buy back in to the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn situation. The main reason why I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about this again today. You guys have heard me talk
Speaker 1: a lot about the idea of training camp threats like that.
Speaker 1: You see this all the time in UH when it
Speaker 1: comes to trade requests and trade demands and things along
Speaker 1: those lines. I'll be like, Oh, we're not afraid to
Speaker 1: take him into training camp this year. And what I've
Speaker 1: always said is like, how do you expect on day
Speaker 1: one of training camp when you're attempting to, you know,
Speaker 1: implement a set of core values and principles and an
Speaker 1: offense and a defense and everything. And that's your best
Speaker 1: time to practice if you really think about the path
Speaker 1: of the NBA regular season and how when you really
Speaker 1: get into the grind of it, you might only have
Speaker 1: a handful of practices per month. And a lot of
Speaker 1: teams are scooting skipping shoot around these days in order
Speaker 1: to help teams with legs, especially older teams. So the
Speaker 1: reality is is like training camp is an immensely valuable
Speaker 1: period during the NBA season to implement who you are
Speaker 1: as a basketball team. That's why I actually value things
Speaker 1: like preseason outcomes in a way that a lot of
Speaker 1: other analysts do not. I just really think that that's
Speaker 1: the time that you set the tone for who you
Speaker 1: are going to be, and then that tends to carry
Speaker 1: on throughout the season. Obviously, it's not a harder fast rule.
Speaker 1: There are teams that succeed despite rough starts, kind of
Speaker 1: like the Boston Celtics last year, but it's usually those
Speaker 1: are the few and far between, and the general that
Speaker 1: generally training camp does matter and early season does matter.
Speaker 1: So now I want you to imagine that you're sitting
Speaker 1: with Steve Nash in a video room and they're getting
Speaker 1: ready to lay down their core principles for the year,
Speaker 1: maybe lay down uh some details of their their offense
Speaker 1: before they go out on the court to have their
Speaker 1: first practice of the season. And you're a young player
Speaker 1: and you're sitting in the in the film room and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant two rose behind you, and Kyrie's right next
Speaker 1: to him or nearby, and they're Steve Nash in front
Speaker 1: of the room, and Sean Marks is kind of standing
Speaker 1: on the side with his arms crossed, and everybody in
Speaker 1: the room is thinking the same damn thing. Our two
Speaker 1: best players do not believe in these guys. They do
Speaker 1: not believe in Steve Nash, they do not believe in
Speaker 1: Sean Marks. That's not just reporting, that's essentially on the record,
Speaker 1: and Josiah confirmed that. I actually thought it was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a faux pa on Joe Size part
Speaker 1: to even send that tweet. He could have accomplished that
Speaker 1: with a phone call or a text message privately to
Speaker 1: the parties involved. He publicly stamped that report with that tweet.
Speaker 1: Now every one knows that Katie and Kyrie do not
Speaker 1: believe in Sean Mark's and in Steve Nash. I do
Speaker 1: believe that Kyrie's influence on Katie is different than what
Speaker 1: his actual public position is. Kyrie is saying all the
Speaker 1: right things like oh, I want to be a net,
Speaker 1: I'm here to stay, blah blah blah. But we all
Speaker 1: know why that is. He wanted a long term extension
Speaker 1: this year, he didn't get it because of his reputation
Speaker 1: from the previous two years. Next year, he's gonna want
Speaker 1: a long term extension because he's still pretty young and
Speaker 1: he's still got a lot of money to make in
Speaker 1: the n b A, so he's on the pathway to
Speaker 1: restoring his image. I believe he would say things publicly
Speaker 1: to cultivate that image for the sake of signing a
Speaker 1: deal next year. But you bet your ass behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: he's still the same guy that was yelling that he's
Speaker 1: going to the Lakers soon that on camera earlier in
Speaker 1: this summer. You bet your ass that he's in Kevin Durants.
Speaker 1: You're saying, no, man, we gotta get out of here,
Speaker 1: even if that's privately and under the table. But in
Speaker 1: terms of this specific situation with training camp, I just
Speaker 1: don't see a real listic situation where you, as Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: would want to move forward and start your season in
Speaker 1: the most crucial phase with two people who are effectively
Speaker 1: malcontents in the locker room. I just don't think that'd
Speaker 1: be a good idea. And then again, i've i've see
Speaker 1: it heard people say like, oh, well, what's the rush,
Speaker 1: like they're tanking anyway. No, they're not. They don't have
Speaker 1: their own draft picks. They have some draft picks, but
Speaker 1: they're not their draft picks. They've traded away the vast
Speaker 1: majority of their own draft capital, so they are not
Speaker 1: actually incentivized to lose. There a team that's going to
Speaker 1: be looking to win and win right away. So if
Speaker 1: that's the case, and you're Josiah and Sean Marks, and
Speaker 1: you're looking at this as a basketball culture, and your
Speaker 1: basketball culture is not where you want it to be
Speaker 1: right now, because these two guys are in charge in
Speaker 1: the locker room and they come with this boatload of
Speaker 1: baggageing issues. Right, you're going to want to cultivate a
Speaker 1: new basketball culture that's built around team first, and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: not allowing stars to exert control, and you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to have a basketball focus, not to focus on, you know,
Speaker 1: things off the court. If that's the case, you don't
Speaker 1: actually you're not actually incentivized to wait an additional year
Speaker 1: to do that. You can start that process now, especially
Speaker 1: since your draft picks are not yours. So it's actually
Speaker 1: in their best interest to clean house before training camp
Speaker 1: so they can start fresh and begin the rebuilding of
Speaker 1: their culture this fall and get things started. And they can.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of assets to to start that
Speaker 1: process if they trade Katie, even if like Kyrie is
Speaker 1: worth at least first one first round draft pick as well,
Speaker 1: so they've got plenty to quickly kickstart this thing in
Speaker 1: the in the right direction. So all of that that
Speaker 1: I just said to me makes it pretty clear that
Speaker 1: the Kevin Durant deal is going to go down sooner
Speaker 1: than later. Uh. My guest is still that it will
Speaker 1: be either Toronto or Boston. My guess is that if
Speaker 1: Toronto puts Scottie Barnes on the table, they'll get him.
Speaker 1: My theory is that Messi u Jerry wants him and
Speaker 1: would absolutely do that. But I think he's terrified that
Speaker 1: the Toronto fan base would revolt, and for good reason.
Speaker 1: But I think mass I u Jerry looks at that
Speaker 1: roster and goes, man, if I Kevin Muran here, we
Speaker 1: would win all of the basketball games. I think that's
Speaker 1: where mass eyes had head is at, so he's gonna
Speaker 1: have that decision to make. I think that the fallback
Speaker 1: option for Brooklyn will end up being Boston, and if
Speaker 1: no better option comes around, I think they'll go after
Speaker 1: Jealen Brown. Those of you guys who have listened to
Speaker 1: my player rankings list have seen how high I have
Speaker 1: Jealen Brown ranked. I'm super high on him. I think
Speaker 1: could be a great option for Brooklyn to build around
Speaker 1: in the immediate future. And then and then hey, maybe
Speaker 1: you throw Ben Simmons out there with him and see
Speaker 1: see if it's a good fit there, all right. On
Speaker 1: that note, let's get into the top ten. Number ten
Speaker 1: Kauai Leonard. Now, to be clear, he's not the tenth
Speaker 1: best player in the league. He's probably much higher than
Speaker 1: that if he is healthy. But in this case, I
Speaker 1: felt like this was a smart place to put him,
Speaker 1: or a safe place to put him that applies the
Speaker 1: appropriate respect to what he's done in this league, while
Speaker 1: giving favor to the players in front of him who
Speaker 1: have been more impactful lately because of their health and availability.
Speaker 1: Is apps revolutely on ability. But I do believe that
Speaker 1: people have massively overlooked I should I shouldn't put it
Speaker 1: that way. I think that collectively as a basketball community,
Speaker 1: we've kind of forgotten a little bit just how damn
Speaker 1: good Kawhi Leonard is. So these are his stats from
Speaker 1: one season, uh, the year before he got hurt, obviously,
Speaker 1: or the year that he did get hurt. I should say,
Speaker 1: seven and five on sixty shooting in the regular season.
Speaker 1: In the playoffs, thirty eight and four on sixty eight
Speaker 1: percentury shooting. These numbers that I'm about to read you guys,
Speaker 1: are just preposterous. Everything that you've heard from me in
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. As we've done these player
Speaker 1: rankings pales in comparison to the numbers that I'm about
Speaker 1: to read to you. Four point two made restricted area
Speaker 1: field goal attempts at seventy seven percent. Like I said,
Speaker 1: for a big power wing, I want that around seventy
Speaker 1: on the low end, he's at seventy seven percent. That's
Speaker 1: damn near a rim finisher, like a guy, like a
Speaker 1: big man in the dunker spot. Two point three additional
Speaker 1: paint field goals at forty nine percent. That's incredible. Two
Speaker 1: point nine made excuse me, two point five made mid
Speaker 1: range jump shots per game on sixties six percent shooting.
Speaker 1: That's outrageously good. That's unconscionably good. That doesn't even make sense.
Speaker 1: There's that that's so unbelievably deadly from that range that
Speaker 1: it should take. It takes every analytical argument and just
Speaker 1: throws it out the window. On corner threes and thirty
Speaker 1: on above the break threes, just outrageously efficient. He scored
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent of his post stops. By the way,
Speaker 1: all these numbers are reading are from the postseason. These
Speaker 1: were from playoff series. He scored on fifty percent of
Speaker 1: his post stops resulting in one point to one points
Speaker 1: per possession. He took eighty one pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: off the dribble in that postseason run and made forty
Speaker 1: of them. Damn ne ear half. He's just absolutely insanely good,
Speaker 1: and I'm very, very excited to watch him play basketball
Speaker 1: again this year. You Know, one of the things that
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit on here is the value of
Speaker 1: strength in basketball, because Kwhi Leonard is an extremely strong player.
Speaker 1: I had a food injury after my freshman season in
Speaker 1: junior college. My first season in junior college, I was
Speaker 1: about two hundred and five pounds and uh freaky athlete,
Speaker 1: like give my head at the rim, I was. I
Speaker 1: was above the rim all the time, but I struggled
Speaker 1: to get to the rim as a slasher because I
Speaker 1: was pretty thin. So I suffered a stress fracture in
Speaker 1: that off season and I had to take a couple
Speaker 1: of months off, And during that time, all I did
Speaker 1: was lift weights every single day. And I went into
Speaker 1: my second season at two hundred and twenty five pounds,
Speaker 1: So I add literally twenty pounds of muscle in one
Speaker 1: single off season, and I ended up making an All
Speaker 1: conference team that year, and a large part of that
Speaker 1: was the value of strength. It made me a much
Speaker 1: better rebounder, It made me a much better UH defensive player,
Speaker 1: and it made it so that when I was driving
Speaker 1: to the basket, I had an easier time maintaining my line,
Speaker 1: staying where I was, staying where it was as opposed
Speaker 1: to people bumping me off my line. I think people
Speaker 1: basketball players in general are obsessed with keeping their weight
Speaker 1: down for the sake of mobility, and I do understand that,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. Like there's a balance here. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite examples of this is Andrea Gudala. He
Speaker 1: talks all the time. I think he plays around to
Speaker 1: twenty as well, and like he talks about how like
Speaker 1: to two is about the high end of where he
Speaker 1: feels like he can be an impactful defender, but he's
Speaker 1: actually more comfortable about to twenty and he makes the
Speaker 1: decision to get up to two twenty two when he
Speaker 1: has to guard Lebron James in a playoff series because
Speaker 1: he needs the extra weight. It was from I think
Speaker 1: one of his books a while back, but it's an
Speaker 1: interesting concept. There is a balance, There's a there's a
Speaker 1: healthy balance between strength and carrying extra weight and keeping
Speaker 1: your mobility. But I think strength has vastly become one
Speaker 1: of the most underrated skills in the game of basketball,
Speaker 1: and they're not enough young players putting attention to detail
Speaker 1: into their strength training. Think of it like this. Every
Speaker 1: time you do anything on a basketball court, there's contact.
Speaker 1: Basketball is a contact sport. You're not just running free
Speaker 1: and loose all over the floor. People are grabbing you,
Speaker 1: people are holding you, people are trying to get in
Speaker 1: your way. People are fighting you for position. And in
Speaker 1: those situations, every little bit of muscle that you have
Speaker 1: is is an extra ability to fight and claw for position.
Speaker 1: When you rip through and try to go to the rim,
Speaker 1: if a guy does a little bit of hand checking,
Speaker 1: which is probably not going to get called, it might
Speaker 1: be the difference between him containing you and keeping you
Speaker 1: in front and you ripping right through him and getting
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim. It's an immensely valuable
Speaker 1: skill and it's one of the great reasons why Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard is so so successful in the basketball court. He
Speaker 1: can get to any spot he wants on the floor.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before ages ago, so a lot
Speaker 1: of you guys who have gotten onto the show recently
Speaker 1: won't remember this. But Kawhi Leonard uniquely with his fade away,
Speaker 1: uses his strength to get easy shots. You know, I
Speaker 1: always talked about the difference between making extremely difficult shots
Speaker 1: versus working really hard to get easy shots. You know,
Speaker 1: you'll see guys like Steph Curry do this by moving
Speaker 1: without the basketball. You'll see Lebron James do this by
Speaker 1: quick ducans and seals around the basket to get easy layups.
Speaker 1: For Kawhi Leonard, you see it in his mid range game.
Speaker 1: When he is working you from the perimeter into the
Speaker 1: lane and he's got you on his hip, he'll give
Speaker 1: you a hard bump with his right shoulder and then
Speaker 1: rise up from seventeen feet. It's a wide open shot
Speaker 1: even though he was guarded, because he's so damned strong
Speaker 1: that he bumped you off with his fade away. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this before. There's two different kinds of fade
Speaker 1: away jump shooters. Fade away jump shooters who do it
Speaker 1: with their athleticism and fadeaway jumper jump shooters that do
Speaker 1: it with their strength. Guy like Lebron ironically does it
Speaker 1: with his athleticism. He fades wildly away from the basket,
Speaker 1: almost like comically on his fade away Kawhi Leonard, it's
Speaker 1: like a hard bump with his shoulder before he turns in.
Speaker 1: It's almost straight up and down. But that's why he's
Speaker 1: so deadly from that range. His fade away is not
Speaker 1: a difficult jump shot. It is a short, balanced, easy
Speaker 1: open jump shot that he gets to by using his
Speaker 1: strength to work you to a spot on the floor
Speaker 1: where he's comfortable and then bumping you off with one
Speaker 1: of his big, gass shoulders and getting up into his spot.
Speaker 1: They're getting up into his shot, and then that strength
Speaker 1: obviously continues to help you on the defensive end when
Speaker 1: you're the guy who's applying that physicality to the person
Speaker 1: that you're guarding. More old the story here, work on
Speaker 1: your strength, like it's just like there's a fine line.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure that you're mobile and then
Speaker 1: you can cover the ground that you need to. But
Speaker 1: if you're a young basketball player, do not overlook the
Speaker 1: weight room. It's a very very important part of the game. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a dominant defensive player still, even though he's not
Speaker 1: quite what he was, but that's to be expected as
Speaker 1: he became. You know, he was a defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year once, but that was in an era when
Speaker 1: he was not being used as much offensively, but still
Speaker 1: in high leverage moments, he can be a huge problem there.
Speaker 1: We even saw that as he made Obviously he can't
Speaker 1: shut down Luca, but he's made in his last two
Speaker 1: playoff runs where he went up against Luca Donch, there
Speaker 1: were stretches of those series where he put he got
Speaker 1: onto Luca, made things extremely difficult and had some success there.
Speaker 1: On the playmaking front, he used to be pretty much
Speaker 1: the worst playmaking star in the entire league, like to
Speaker 1: the point where it was a glaring, glaring weakness. He's
Speaker 1: still in that conversation, but he has become respect the bowl,
Speaker 1: like he can make your basic pocket passes and pick
Speaker 1: and roll. If you run drop coverage to Amer, you
Speaker 1: can make basic kickouts. That is definitely a weakness of
Speaker 1: his those though, and then health is obviously a huge
Speaker 1: part of it as well. I've heard mixed intel and
Speaker 1: quiet on Kawai knee. I've heard from people that would
Speaker 1: know that it's the generative and it may never get better,
Speaker 1: and then I've heard people say that, you know, that
Speaker 1: that that that's b s and he's fine. As is
Speaker 1: always the case, Kawhi Leonard keeps such a tight circle
Speaker 1: that it's really difficult to get a feel for for
Speaker 1: the truth coming out of when it comes to reports
Speaker 1: on kauai um. We talked a little bit about the
Speaker 1: Clippers last year their last last show and involving their roster.
Speaker 1: But I do think this is an interesting kind of
Speaker 1: like pivotal year for this era of Clippers basketball. We
Speaker 1: all think of the Lakers as the ship show and
Speaker 1: the Clippers as the team that have it together, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of truth to that. The Clippers have
Speaker 1: a better owner that's willing to spend and that gets
Speaker 1: out of the way of basketball making decision that he
Speaker 1: accepts advice from people that know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1: The way that their rosters put together is extremely modern
Speaker 1: and forward thinking and well rounded in versatile, and they've
Speaker 1: got a really good basketball coach that they're well run
Speaker 1: from the top down. But the reality is is we've
Speaker 1: had three seasons of this battle for l A and
Speaker 1: the Lakers have one championship and the Clippers have zero.
Speaker 1: They and you know, for all you want to say
Speaker 1: about the the the for all you want to say
Speaker 1: about the unprofessionalism or whatever you want to say, the
Speaker 1: chaotic nature of the Lakers, they want a championship. And
Speaker 1: then they had another year that was successful despite injuries,
Speaker 1: and then they had this disaster for the Clippers. They
Speaker 1: had an incredibly ugly, disappointing blown three one lead against
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets, and then they lost in the playoffs
Speaker 1: due to injuries. And they lost in two playoffs due
Speaker 1: to injuries. So the reality is is that they have
Speaker 1: a big old bagel to show for their results, despite
Speaker 1: having for their efforts, despite having a fantastic roster, as
Speaker 1: we've laid out before, at the guard position, they're stacked.
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson, John wall is a backup, Norman Pale is
Speaker 1: another small guard that can dribble, drive on the wing
Speaker 1: that got Paul George Kawhi, Leonard, Marcus Morris, Nicholas Betune,
Speaker 1: Robert Covington's terroris man Luke Kennard. Like, they are absolutely
Speaker 1: stacked there. And then they have a big guy, a
Speaker 1: solid big in Zoobots that can go to when they
Speaker 1: want to play traditional drop coverages and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: The pressure is on now because if Kawai gets hurt
Speaker 1: again or Paul George gets hurt again, it's no longer
Speaker 1: a question of bad luck. It's a question of the
Speaker 1: reality of their bodies and the way that they hold
Speaker 1: up under the grind of the NBA season. Because Paul
Speaker 1: George is a consistent injury history, and so does Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: You have a roster completely stacked full of talent. You
Speaker 1: absolutely are a top tier championship contender when you are healthy.
Speaker 1: You had three shots, three shots, and nothing has come
Speaker 1: from it. This is the year Kawhi Leonard and Paul
Speaker 1: George have to get this done. If they get hurt again,
Speaker 1: it'll be time for the Clippers to consider the real
Speaker 1: lality of the fact that those guys can't hold up
Speaker 1: and if they get if they don't get the trophy
Speaker 1: when healthy, then that brings up an entirely different list
Speaker 1: of concerns. So the Clippers are absolutely under a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure to get it done this year. Number nine
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler in this regular season six and six on
Speaker 1: fifty nine percent shooting and in this playoff run and
Speaker 1: classic Jimmy fashion seven seven and five on six true shooting,
Speaker 1: four point seven restricted area makes on seventy one percent shooting.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic in this postseason run. One point six mid
Speaker 1: range makes ont uh in the mid range, that's pretty
Speaker 1: damn good as well. Takes care of the basketball exceptionally well.
Speaker 1: He's never had a single post season where he's averaged
Speaker 1: over three turnovers per game. There's nothing exceptional in the averages.
Speaker 1: Let me look at Jimmy Butler's numbers throughout his even
Speaker 1: in playoff run, the one that he went to the
Speaker 1: finals and came within two wins of the title. There's
Speaker 1: nothing exceptional going on there in the averages. What happens
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Butler is one of the strangest things that
Speaker 1: I've seen in the game of basketball. On any given night,
Speaker 1: and it's unlikely it's about a one out of every
Speaker 1: four chance, but on any given postseason night, he is
Speaker 1: capable of elevating his game to a level that is
Speaker 1: rivaled only by the all time grades. He is a
Speaker 1: guy that on the vast majority of nights plays like
Speaker 1: a top twenty NBA player, but on any one out
Speaker 1: of every three, one out of every four playoff games,
Speaker 1: he plays like a top five NBA NB NBA player.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: In this playoff run, he scored forty plus four times.
Speaker 1: He also scored fifteen or less four times. Ins he
Speaker 1: scored forty twice. He scored forty in Game five to
Speaker 1: extend the series, and then scored twelve in the elimination game.
Speaker 1: That's is kind of the way it is. He saw
Speaker 1: it in this Boston Celtics series. It was like damn
Speaker 1: good at the beginning of the series, horrifically bad in
Speaker 1: the middle of the series, and then other worldly good
Speaker 1: at the end of the series. It's a magic power.
Speaker 1: I have absolutely no way to describe it or explain
Speaker 1: it to you. It's just playoff Jimmy Butler. It's a
Speaker 1: phenomenon that I cannot possibly explain to you. He doesn't
Speaker 1: shoot the ball well enough consistently. He has legitimate weaknesses
Speaker 1: in his game that are the reason why he's a
Speaker 1: top twenty player, not a top five player. But those
Speaker 1: weaknesses just disappear and he becomes mini Lebron in these
Speaker 1: massive playoff games on occasion. It is it is it.
Speaker 1: I guess if I had to if I had to
Speaker 1: try to explain it to you, I would say it's
Speaker 1: a couple of those specific playoff things that I've always valued, right,
Speaker 1: Like strength. He's strong, so he succeeds in the physicality
Speaker 1: of the playoffs. He's a good playmaker in the right setting,
Speaker 1: although it does again nothing exceptional playmaking in the averages.
Speaker 1: But then he turns into a guy who can get
Speaker 1: you twelve assists a game in the right setting. Right,
Speaker 1: he's clutch shot making, he's he's he can make plays
Speaker 1: at the end of games as a huge deal in
Speaker 1: the finals. Obviously, he's an impact defensive player. He's turned
Speaker 1: into in the Miami heat like ball pressure system, he's
Speaker 1: turned into a menace. And then just the power of
Speaker 1: supreme irrational confidence. When Jimmy Butler gets in the arena
Speaker 1: with Lebron James, he thinks up here that he's every
Speaker 1: bit as good as Lebron James. That's obviously insane, but
Speaker 1: that's what he thinks. I mean, you couple that with
Speaker 1: all those things that I just laid out, you get
Speaker 1: a playoff Jimmy performance. You know, if he could figure
Speaker 1: out how to keep his body healthy and to shoot
Speaker 1: the ball consistently, well, I do believe he would be
Speaker 1: a consistent top six or seven player in the NBA,
Speaker 1: a full blown superstar. But those are the things that
Speaker 1: end up being inconsistent from his body pretty consistently breaks
Speaker 1: down as the season progresses, and his jump shot leaves
Speaker 1: him in a lot of important moments. But I have
Speaker 1: a ton of respect for Jimmy Butler. You know again,
Speaker 1: that supreme confidence is everything. Like you've You've seen Damar
Speaker 1: de Rosen be a better regular season player than Jimmy
Speaker 1: pretty consistently throughout his career. But then he'll get in
Speaker 1: the arena with Lebron James and he'll immediately kind of
Speaker 1: shrink and and fall apart mentally. And then you'll see
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler be Liken, screw that, I'm better than this guy.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it is. It is Heat culture personified.
Speaker 1: Everything about the Miami Heat franchise and what they've tried
Speaker 1: to do with pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: is the embodiment of that, and he's kind of the
Speaker 1: perfect guy to lead their charge. As far as the
Speaker 1: Heat go. They need more offense. I mean that was
Speaker 1: what ended up ultimately holding them back. I think they
Speaker 1: would have absolutely made the finals if they had one
Speaker 1: other guy who could create his own shot. Like I
Speaker 1: said yesterday, I don't really see the realistic path to
Speaker 1: them getting Kevin Durant, Yet their name there the Heat,
Speaker 1: keep getting mentioned in that conversation. God knows why I
Speaker 1: would be targeting Donovan Mitchell if I was the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: because I think that's actually an achievable player that they
Speaker 1: can get with the current assets that they have, and
Speaker 1: that's a much more interesting player to put in the
Speaker 1: backcourt alongside Jimmy Butler as a real scoring threat. I
Speaker 1: also think that Eric Spoelscher and pat Riley would get
Speaker 1: him to commit again to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Number eight, Joel Embiat, This is gonna get me in
Speaker 1: trouble some people, but this is what it is. That's
Speaker 1: how this works. UH. In this regular season thirty one
Speaker 1: twelve and four on six true shooting. UH in the
Speaker 1: playoffs twenty four eleven and two on fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, albeit he did have an orbital bone fracture. UM.
Speaker 1: Before I get any further into this, because Yokich is
Speaker 1: coming up soon as well, I've talked about this before. UM.
Speaker 1: On this show, but I wanted to lay it out
Speaker 1: here for the sake of this list. I value perimmeter
Speaker 1: players more than bis. Like we're gonna get to it
Speaker 1: here in a second, but like I have Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: ahead of and beating Yogis. The reason for that is
Speaker 1: is I value you the role of what Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: does for a basketball team more than the role that
Speaker 1: Joel e Beat or Nikola Yokich fulfills, even though they
Speaker 1: are the best centers that we've seen in recent NBA history.
Speaker 1: First of all, foot speeds. As the game has evolved
Speaker 1: and has become more five out, meaning more perimeter players
Speaker 1: and less interior players, and faster pace meaning more pushing
Speaker 1: the ball in transition, foot speed has become immensely important
Speaker 1: in those situations, slow plotting bigs like Joel Embat and
Speaker 1: Nikola Yokich can be exposed. Also, with the way that
Speaker 1: floor spacing works, it's a lot easier to deny biggs
Speaker 1: the basketball than it is to deny a perimeter player
Speaker 1: the basketball. The ability to dribble the basketball up the
Speaker 1: court against ball pressure allows you to as a perimeter player,
Speaker 1: to to control your own outcome as you initiate the offense.
Speaker 1: As a big man, you have to fight for position
Speaker 1: someplace on the floor and get a post century. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Nikkola Yokich can bring the ball up the floor if
Speaker 1: he has to, but if you put some pressure on him,
Speaker 1: he can struggle with that as well. Big Just in general,
Speaker 1: it's a different dynamic on the basketball court. This is
Speaker 1: why when I do all time rankings, I keep bigs
Speaker 1: in a separate list from perimeter players. They play an
Speaker 1: entirely different position, and for me, I value what a
Speaker 1: perimeter player does more um perimeter shooting the like. Both
Speaker 1: Yogi Chen and Beat are really inconsistent putting the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket from the perimeter. We'll talk about this
Speaker 1: a little bit more with Yogi in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that becomes an issue when it comes to floor
Speaker 1: spacing and the way teams that can guard you. Also
Speaker 1: contact that is allowed in the low post. With the
Speaker 1: way that the game is evolved, perimeter players are officiated
Speaker 1: in a very tiki tack way. You can't touch them,
Speaker 1: you can't get up underneath them, you can't do that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff post players. It's anything goes. And so
Speaker 1: just with the way that the rules are it's disadvantageous
Speaker 1: to be a big man who's operating around the basket.
Speaker 1: So those are and you know, just in general, when
Speaker 1: when it comes to a a confined half court environment,
Speaker 1: a big perimeter player that can dissect the the defense
Speaker 1: from all three levels, I think that's a level of
Speaker 1: a value in the game of basketball that a big
Speaker 1: man cannot replicate. For the record, that's just my philosophy.
Speaker 1: This is just the way I see the game. So
Speaker 1: if you guys are at home and you're like Jason,
Speaker 1: that's stupid. Yoki is the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: or and Be's the best player in the world. Big
Speaker 1: men are going to run the league. You're crazy. That's
Speaker 1: fine as a matter of fact, right it out in
Speaker 1: the comments. I want to see you guys tell me
Speaker 1: why you feel that way. I'm I'm not mr. I
Speaker 1: have everything in the game of basketball figured out. I
Speaker 1: have my belief systems, you guys have yours. I try
Speaker 1: to listen to as many smart basketball minds as I
Speaker 1: can to try to learn. You guys know, I'm not
Speaker 1: married to any sort of ideas. So I want to
Speaker 1: hear why you guys think I'm wrong. If that's the case.
Speaker 1: But just so you know, as an explanation moving forward,
Speaker 1: I value permitter players more so. And bead Uh was
Speaker 1: on four point two restricted area makes in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's excellent. He continues to be completely unguardable in single coverage.
Speaker 1: There are may be three guys that had like their
Speaker 1: chances in that situation, Anthony Davis, Janice Antenna Cumbo and
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert. But even with them, yeah, Joel Embiad's gonna
Speaker 1: have some wins in those situations. The revelation since the
Speaker 1: James Harden trade has been how good Joel Embiid is
Speaker 1: in short roll situations. James Harden, because of his ability
Speaker 1: to shoot off the dribble, forces guards to chase him
Speaker 1: over the top, and even though he struggled to get
Speaker 1: downhill penetration the way he used to, teams are forced
Speaker 1: to bracket him because as he's coming off of that
Speaker 1: ball screen the defenders caught in behind him and so
Speaker 1: the roll man, excuse me, the screen defender, the big
Speaker 1: has to come up to contain James Harden, and so
Speaker 1: Joel Embiads getting all of these opportunities in the short role,
Speaker 1: catching the ball on short lobs or bounce passes righted
Speaker 1: around the semi circle, and he has been absolutely unstoppable
Speaker 1: in that position, getting fouls and finishes at the rim,
Speaker 1: even making some reads out of that situation. Albeit that's
Speaker 1: a specific weakness of his, but that was the revelation
Speaker 1: of this playoff running of this season, the James Harden
Speaker 1: pairing has unlocked Joel Embiid as a short roller. He's
Speaker 1: another guy that has supreme confidence, genuinely believes he's the
Speaker 1: best player in the world that shows up in clutch
Speaker 1: shooting despite him being pretty bad putting the ball in
Speaker 1: the basket away from the basket. Uh as he gets
Speaker 1: further away from the rim, he's pent of believer in
Speaker 1: his ability to make those shots. And you see that
Speaker 1: in big situations, just like it was at the end
Speaker 1: of that Toronto Raptors game that he stole um up
Speaker 1: there in Toronto. And then he's a very good defensive
Speaker 1: anchor as long as he's allowed to stay at the rim.
Speaker 1: But that again brings up the shortcoming that I was
Speaker 1: talking about with Bigs. Any scheme can force any smart
Speaker 1: team that has the personnel can go out there and
Speaker 1: force Joel and Bad to cover on the perimeter pull
Speaker 1: him away from the rim, and that limits his impact.
Speaker 1: Now obviously have Joel e Bead way down at eight.
Speaker 1: So there are some weaknesses that I'm gonna point out here.
Speaker 1: In this playoff run, Joel and Bead shot just thirty
Speaker 1: on all attempts outside of the restricted area. So again
Speaker 1: that's not paint, that's not short range, that's restricted area.
Speaker 1: So if he's not right under the basket, he's missing
Speaker 1: two out of every three shots. That was just in
Speaker 1: this playoff rum. But it's been an issue for him
Speaker 1: throughout his career. And this is what I keep saying
Speaker 1: this on the show, and every time I get people
Speaker 1: that get upset, Joel Embiad is actually not that good
Speaker 1: at putting the ball in the basket. As he gets
Speaker 1: further away, he relies on finishing at the rim and
Speaker 1: drawing fouls. That's where the vast majority of his offense comes.
Speaker 1: He has these highlight players, a dream shake for a
Speaker 1: fadeaway jump shot, a nasty pull up three over the
Speaker 1: top of nicola like nicolayotkitch off of a dribble combo.
Speaker 1: That all looks great, but in the percentages it's not
Speaker 1: actually manifesting in results. That is a specific weakness of his.
Speaker 1: He relies heavily on the whistle. He's a very poor
Speaker 1: playmaker average just to assist per game in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: This is something that I've talked about going into the
Speaker 1: season coming out of the season. It's just a reality
Speaker 1: if you double team Joel Embiad, he's not good at
Speaker 1: making reads. Out of that not a hyper criticism of
Speaker 1: him in general, because almost every big is like that,
Speaker 1: even your kitchen. This postseason, on average, six assists with
Speaker 1: five turnovers. So he's considered the best playmaking big in
Speaker 1: the world, and he had a pretty rough postseason as
Speaker 1: a playmaker. Anthony Davis can't readouble teams, Carl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: can't readouble teams, so and Beads not. It is not
Speaker 1: like uniquely weak at that. It's just the reality of
Speaker 1: the way bigs are. And it also has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with the way floor spacing works in post
Speaker 1: up situations. It's just it's just it's just tough to
Speaker 1: succeed there. He's always gonna put up monster numbers, but
Speaker 1: his impact can be limited in a playoff series due
Speaker 1: to scoutable weaknesses. If you run the floor on him,
Speaker 1: he's gonna struggle. If you double him in the post,
Speaker 1: he's gonna struggle. If you make him guard in space,
Speaker 1: he's gonna struggle. If you defend without fouling away from
Speaker 1: the basket, he's gonna miss shots. So in a playoff setting,
Speaker 1: when when a coach has a chance to scout and
Speaker 1: try out different things with personnel to see what works best,
Speaker 1: you can vast lee limit Joel Embiad's impact. That's why
Speaker 1: he's at number eight despite being potentially the best regular
Speaker 1: season player in the entire game and last but not least.
Speaker 1: And this is this is just a really I have
Speaker 1: to reveal my biases. I'm not a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad in general, and the main reason has to
Speaker 1: do with his foul bating approach. Um, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: lie to you guys about that and act like I'm
Speaker 1: being a percent you know, unbiased. I'm not a huge
Speaker 1: fan of Joel Embiad the way he approaches the game
Speaker 1: that you know, I've I've tweeted out dozens of clips
Speaker 1: over the years of him like being wide open, you know,
Speaker 1: four ft from the basket and like jumping into a
Speaker 1: guy's chest and kicking his legs and falling over and
Speaker 1: me being like, dude, what are you doing? Man? And
Speaker 1: then you watch him in interviews and he genuinely thinks
Speaker 1: he's getting fouled all the time, which, guess what, he
Speaker 1: does get fouled a lot, just like every NBA superstar.
Speaker 1: The difference is is he makes a clown show out
Speaker 1: of himself trying to draw free throws in those situations. Now,
Speaker 1: I would never accuse him of doing this on purpose.
Speaker 1: He absolutely did not do this on purpose. But on
Speaker 1: the play where Joel embiad fell over and ran into
Speaker 1: Danny Green, he is flopping, and he flopped and fell
Speaker 1: with his giant frame on the floor and slid into
Speaker 1: his own teammate and ripped up his knee. Now, in general,
Speaker 1: when we are when when we all go up to
Speaker 1: l a fitness and we play, or you're playing in
Speaker 1: your men's league, or hell, if you're playing a different sport,
Speaker 1: it's generally considered reckless to throw your body on the
Speaker 1: floor around knees and ankles. But to Joel Embid it's
Speaker 1: all about getting those two free throws. And I have
Speaker 1: a I genuinely have a problem with that as a
Speaker 1: basketball fan, so that that I just feel I feel
Speaker 1: like it's important for me to point that out because
Speaker 1: that absolutely is going to color my analysis of him.
Speaker 1: I'm human, just like all of you guys. I'm not
Speaker 1: immune to biases. I have a problem with his fal
Speaker 1: bating approach. I thought he played a role in Danny
Speaker 1: Green's injury, even though it wasn't on purpose. And it's
Speaker 1: just it's just he's just he's just not my favorite
Speaker 1: NBA player, all right. Number seven Nicola yokichen and eight
Speaker 1: on sixty sent try shooting in the regular season, that's insane.
Speaker 1: Thirty one thirteen and six on sixty four percent true
Speaker 1: shooting in that playoff series against against Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: really damn good. Four point seven made restricted area attempts
Speaker 1: one three point four other paint makes on sixty that's great.
Speaker 1: Um more methodical and under control than him, beat uh
Speaker 1: like more, he is more of like a view of
Speaker 1: the full scope of the game. He's I talked about
Speaker 1: flow of the game all the time, but understanding the
Speaker 1: value of sixty possessions over the value of six possessions.
Speaker 1: The best example that I can think of to demonstrate
Speaker 1: this to you, guys. Was their regular season matchup this
Speaker 1: year in Philly, which Denver won by the way. But
Speaker 1: early in the game uh and Bead was having his
Speaker 1: way with yo kich on a handful of isolation possessions.
Speaker 1: There were he was hitting crazy, wild crossover jump shots
Speaker 1: and drawing fouls and just having his way with Yokich
Speaker 1: on a handful of possessions. Then on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor there are a couple of players where
Speaker 1: Yoki tried to score over and beat and struggled against
Speaker 1: his size and length. If you look at that as
Speaker 1: the one on one matchup for a small handful of possessions,
Speaker 1: you might think, oh, Joel embids the better player. But
Speaker 1: each player impacts the game beyond those moments, because there
Speaker 1: are sixty seventy eighty possessions in a game, depending on
Speaker 1: the pace right, and it's actually about what happens with
Speaker 1: your team in the totality of those possessions, not in
Speaker 1: the small handful. I did a video on this, You'd
Speaker 1: have to dig way back into my Twitter mentions to
Speaker 1: find it. But in the regular season, towards the end,
Speaker 1: after uh Phley lost at home to Denver, I did
Speaker 1: a video breakdown of exactly what I'm talking about, so
Speaker 1: you can see some representations of this. But in that game,
Speaker 1: Yokich won it in the second half with little things
Speaker 1: that didn't show up in the box score. He would
Speaker 1: consistently get the rebound after getting stopped and make a
Speaker 1: quick outlet pass to a shrieking Denver nugget who would
Speaker 1: run a quick two on three, two on one break
Speaker 1: or three on two break and get a layout. And
Speaker 1: on most of those plays he did not get an
Speaker 1: assist because there'd be an additional pass after. But Yokich
Speaker 1: one of his best strengths is kick starting a break
Speaker 1: with with quick rebounds and outlet passes. It's a unique
Speaker 1: skill that not many bigs in the league have. It
Speaker 1: used to be Kevin Love one of Kevin Love's greatest
Speaker 1: skills back in the day. But that he won that
Speaker 1: game by kickstarting their fast break, which got bones Highland going,
Speaker 1: and then bones Hiland made a couple of massive threes
Speaker 1: at the end, and then the same way that Embiad
Speaker 1: has always struggled, Denver crowded him and got the ball
Speaker 1: out of his hands at the end of the game
Speaker 1: and he couldn't score, and they lost, so again, like there,
Speaker 1: I've always believed that basketball is a very intricately complicated game,
Speaker 1: that there's a hundred different moving parts and it can
Speaker 1: never be simplified down to one thing like a one
Speaker 1: on one possession. And I say that, I like I'm
Speaker 1: a score. I build my game around things like what
Speaker 1: embid does. I love the footwork and and the fluidity
Speaker 1: that Joel Embiid has. That that to me, I have
Speaker 1: a great deal of respect for the amount of work
Speaker 1: he put in to do those things. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that's one small part of the larger organ him that
Speaker 1: is the game of basketball, and Nicola Yokich is so
Speaker 1: much better at things surrounding that that he's actually a
Speaker 1: better basketball player. You know. I talked about this earlier,
Speaker 1: but most big struggle with playmaking. Yogis had a pretty
Speaker 1: rough postseason. I'll be missing a bunch of his personnel.
Speaker 1: Only had six assists on with five turnovers per game.
Speaker 1: But he is the best playmaking big that we have
Speaker 1: in the league, and there's a great deal of value
Speaker 1: when it comes to playmaking out of the high posts.
Speaker 1: Denver's offense is primarily predicated on Yoki catching the ball
Speaker 1: at the elbow extended up okay and having running dribble
Speaker 1: handoff actions or screening role actions with guys like Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. Guys like Jomal Murray who are both were
Speaker 1: hurt and in this past season lesser guards right. But
Speaker 1: in that situation, the threat of his ability to turn
Speaker 1: and shoot and his the threat of his passing ability
Speaker 1: makes it extremely difficult to guard because most of the
Speaker 1: guards that they play could shoot. So he'd run that
Speaker 1: dribble handoff and the guard would have to chase them
Speaker 1: over the top, and the guards either gonna get ahead
Speaker 1: his team as the role as the Yokis defender has
Speaker 1: to step over to contain, or he's got to stay
Speaker 1: with Yokis, in which case the guard gets easy stuff there.
Speaker 1: The reason why his playmaking is so valuable there is
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor is known in the game
Speaker 1: of basketball is the hardest place to double team. If
Speaker 1: you double team in the low block, there's it's easy
Speaker 1: to kind of set up your spacing in a way
Speaker 1: that you can help out of the week side corner,
Speaker 1: but make them throw a looping skip pass. It's really difficult. Uh,
Speaker 1: It's really difficult to make them pay for double teaming
Speaker 1: there if you double you know, on the perimeter right,
Speaker 1: like if you double uh, you know, on the left
Speaker 1: wing or on the right wing. It there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of ground to cover on the other side of
Speaker 1: the floor that allows you to rotate right. The ball
Speaker 1: has to be thrown in a looping manner across the floor.
Speaker 1: But if I'm dead center of the floor, if I'm
Speaker 1: at the elbow, if they double team me there, it's
Speaker 1: a quick pass to the open man. And that specifically
Speaker 1: is what makes Yoki such an effective playmaker out of
Speaker 1: the high post. It's the location on the floor, the
Speaker 1: way that it makes teams, it makes difficent, makes it
Speaker 1: difficult for teams to double in the way that it
Speaker 1: frees things up for his guards. The one thing that
Speaker 1: that that is a massive red flag for Nikel Yogis
Speaker 1: right now is the deterioration of his perimeter shooting. And
Speaker 1: I was on this a little bit towards the end
Speaker 1: of the regular season, and I thought it was a
Speaker 1: big part of what made him struggle so much towards
Speaker 1: the end of the season, opening the door for other
Speaker 1: m VP candidates, and also what ended up hurting him
Speaker 1: in the Golden State Warrior Series. Not that I thought
Speaker 1: he had a realistic chance to win that series, but um,
Speaker 1: he's a career forty one percent three point shooter in
Speaker 1: the postseason before this year on two hundred and seven attempts,
Speaker 1: So Yokich used to be a deadly three point shooter.
Speaker 1: Something happened, Not sure what it is. He was nineteen
Speaker 1: percent from three over his last twenty one regular season games,
Speaker 1: and he was five for eighteen from three in the playoffs. Overall,
Speaker 1: in this playoff run, I think he was thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent when he got away from the restricted area if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly. Uh, don't quote me on that because
Speaker 1: I didn't put that stat down in my notes, But
Speaker 1: he struggled to shoot as he got further away from
Speaker 1: the basket. What that causes now, that same dynamic I
Speaker 1: was talking about earlier with those dribble handoffs with Yoki.
Speaker 1: Obviously the guard has to chase over the top right
Speaker 1: because of the shooting ability of the guard right. So
Speaker 1: in that situation, the fear is I have to leave
Speaker 1: Yokich as the big man defender in order to help
Speaker 1: my guard get back into the play. On that dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: that's terrifying if Yoki can shoot, But if he becomes
Speaker 1: a non shooting threat, which he was over the course
Speaker 1: of the end of this season, the last quarter of
Speaker 1: the season and in the playoffs, if he's a non
Speaker 1: shooting threat, there's way more freedom for the big man
Speaker 1: who's guarding Yokich to drop back off of Yokitchen help
Speaker 1: in those dribble handoff actions. That is something he's going
Speaker 1: to have to fix in time for this next season
Speaker 1: for Denver to reach their ultimate ceiling. And then last
Speaker 1: se there's some major defensive limitations. He's turned himself into
Speaker 1: a solid drop coverage big against teams that drive right
Speaker 1: into him. But I did another video on this that
Speaker 1: you can find in my Twitter feed if you're willing
Speaker 1: to scroll back far enough, from a game that the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics beat the Denver Nuggets, and in that game,
Speaker 1: Boston was routinely barbecuing Yoki in a drop coverage because
Speaker 1: he was sitting too far back. He lacks foot speed,
Speaker 1: so the only way to utilize him as a defensive
Speaker 1: player is to have him drop back and have him
Speaker 1: hover around the rim so that he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: cover out on the perimeter. You saw this in further
Speaker 1: detail in the Golden State series when they when Steph
Speaker 1: Curry kept attacking him and drop coverage and was just
Speaker 1: going right around him to get to the rim whenever
Speaker 1: he wants. That's not necessarily a Yokich weakness. That's more
Speaker 1: of just a big slow center weakness. It's one of
Speaker 1: the many reasons why I'm kind of anti big slow
Speaker 1: center in general. Um, But that makes him a functional
Speaker 1: regular season defensive big, but a defensive big the has
Speaker 1: some limitations in the playoffs. That's one of the many
Speaker 1: reasons that I have him lower on this list. It's
Speaker 1: time for Nikola Yokes to have his guys, to get
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray back, to get Michael Porter Jr. Back, because
Speaker 1: I'm ready to see him play with some stakes again.
Speaker 1: The last time we saw Yo play with real steaks
Speaker 1: and with a real team, he straight up out played
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard in a playoff series. Now, the unique thing there,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that for a specific reason, I was really
Speaker 1: hard on Anthony Davis when I think I had him
Speaker 1: back at like eight team in this list. That's a
Speaker 1: reminder of just how damn good Anthony Davis was in
Speaker 1: the bubble because in the same way that Yokich outplayed
Speaker 1: Kauai in that first round of second round series, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis outplayed Nikola Yokich in the conference finals. So it's
Speaker 1: just a it's it's a reminder of just how damn
Speaker 1: good Anthony Davis can be when his head is right,
Speaker 1: when he's healthy, when he has his body weight down,
Speaker 1: and when he can actually knock down perimeter jump shots.
Speaker 1: But I'm ready to see Nikola Yokich uh um play
Speaker 1: with some stakes again so we can see what he's got.
Speaker 1: And last note there, my guy Carson thinks that Nicol
Speaker 1: Yokes might be the best player in the league, So
Speaker 1: sincere apologies to Carson for ranking him solo. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I'll be hearing about that soon enough. Um number six
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and four in the regular season on fifty
Speaker 1: percentury shooting six seven and six on fifty six per
Speaker 1: century shooting in the postseason. A lot of that was
Speaker 1: taken away by a bad finals performance. He average seven
Speaker 1: and seven on thirty seven percent from the field from
Speaker 1: three and sixty six percent from the free throw line
Speaker 1: in the finals. That bad series against Golden State kind
Speaker 1: of took away and kind of took the shine off
Speaker 1: the apple from what was an incredibly dominant regular season
Speaker 1: in postseason run, and then that's why I have him
Speaker 1: as high as I do. He's kind of like the
Speaker 1: reverse Dmarda Rosen or Brandon Ingram. I talked to a
Speaker 1: lot about those guys being like three level scores that
Speaker 1: are primarily him in mid range oriented that struggle as
Speaker 1: they get out to, especially above the break. Tatum. Tatum
Speaker 1: is like the opposite of that. He only shoots six.
Speaker 1: He only shot sixty percent in the restricted area in
Speaker 1: this postseason run. That's bad for a player of his
Speaker 1: size and athleticism and strength. Like I always say for
Speaker 1: big wings, I want that number at least in the
Speaker 1: paint non restricted area only that's bad. Uh, mid range scent,
Speaker 1: that's not great. But he was fort on seven above
Speaker 1: the break threes per game. That's outrageous efficiency for overall
Speaker 1: from three in that postseason run. So that's a great
Speaker 1: example for how shot value can overcome shot conversion rate.
Speaker 1: Because those numbers that I threw out, you know, the
Speaker 1: restricted area, in the paint, non restricted area seven percent
Speaker 1: from the mid range. That should not amount to a
Speaker 1: fifty percent shooting percentage. The reason why it does is
Speaker 1: because three pointers are worth fifty more than any other
Speaker 1: shot on the floor, and if you make those ones,
Speaker 1: it will offset a lot of your inefficiencies elsewhere on
Speaker 1: the floor. But that's a great area of opportunity for
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum because what I would tell Jayson Tatum as
Speaker 1: it be like, hey man, you shot from three in
Speaker 1: the postseason, you shot forty one above the break. You're
Speaker 1: probably not going to get much better there. You have
Speaker 1: just about maxed out that ability. If you can polish
Speaker 1: up these other areas of the game, you can be
Speaker 1: the type of offensive engine that a you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: James or Kevin Durantis. That's the next step for him
Speaker 1: in terms of his of his of his three level scoring,
Speaker 1: he had eight plus assists seven times in this postseason run.
Speaker 1: And in those games the Celtics went seven and oh.
Speaker 1: Tatum is an interesting player in the sense that if
Speaker 1: you catch him on the right night, he looks like
Speaker 1: a legitimately great playmaker. But if you catch him on
Speaker 1: the wrong night, he looks like a tunnel vision player
Speaker 1: that doesn't understand and how to run a team. Some
Speaker 1: of that's youth. Some of that is this is still
Speaker 1: really only like his like two and a half seasons
Speaker 1: of him being a primary ball handler, so he just
Speaker 1: needs a lot more reps um. But make no mistake,
Speaker 1: he's got that high endplaymaking potential. Eight plus assists seven
Speaker 1: times in a postseason is a very very good marker,
Speaker 1: and a seven oh record is a demonstration of the
Speaker 1: way that impacts the team. That's why I was pleading
Speaker 1: all postseason long, past the ball of Tatum. Past the ball, Jason,
Speaker 1: That's how you're winning games, you know. Um. I tweeted
Speaker 1: this out earlier today and people were actually pretty receptive
Speaker 1: to it, which I was surprised. Uh. In all of
Speaker 1: my evaluations over the course of this last season, postseason,
Speaker 1: and this summer, I'm not sure that I saw a
Speaker 1: perimeter defensive player better than Jayson Tatum. If you watch
Speaker 1: the tape of the first round against Brooklyn. Yes, there
Speaker 1: was a team defense that was backing him up, an
Speaker 1: outstanding team defense, but the job that Jayson Tatum did
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant was extraordinary. He was kind of this
Speaker 1: unique capability of a lying pressure like getting up and
Speaker 1: being disruptive with Durant while at the same time having
Speaker 1: the lateral quickness to contain his dribble drives. I was
Speaker 1: talking about the difference between positional and aggressive defense. He
Speaker 1: can do both, which is what makes him so damn
Speaker 1: impactful on that end of the floor. Again, he's not
Speaker 1: the best defensive player in the league. I think that's you, honest.
Speaker 1: The best defensive player in the league has to be
Speaker 1: able to succeed as a back line defender, as a
Speaker 1: screening role defender, and as a perimeter defender. He has
Speaker 1: to be able to guard guards, wings and biggs. Janice
Speaker 1: is the only player in the world. Really they can
Speaker 1: do that, really, really well. They're handful of players also
Speaker 1: can Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert. Right, He's not the only one,
Speaker 1: but I think I think Janice is the best. But
Speaker 1: strictly when it comes to like I need someone to
Speaker 1: guard a superstar wing or guard for a playoff series,
Speaker 1: I think Tatum is the best guy you could have
Speaker 1: for that role. It's a testament to the muscle that
Speaker 1: he's put on to become more stout and difficult to
Speaker 1: bully two spots on the floor. It's a testament to
Speaker 1: the length of his arms. It's a testament to his
Speaker 1: a leticism. It's a testament to his basketball i Q
Speaker 1: and his ability to anticipate the moves that people are making.
Speaker 1: And lastly, it's a testament to his effort and focus
Speaker 1: and him devoting resources to being a dominant defensive player.
Speaker 1: The biggest weakness for Tatum right now, and it's the
Speaker 1: reason why he lost in the NBA Finals his offensive process.
Speaker 1: Like I said, he had eight plus assists um seven
Speaker 1: times and when seven and oh in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: He also had four or fewer assists seven times in
Speaker 1: this postseason run and went one and six in those games.
Speaker 1: He had six plus turnovers seven times. Celtics went three
Speaker 1: and four in those games. So him, his focus, you know,
Speaker 1: and this isn't entirely his fault. He grew up a
Speaker 1: classic wing score and he is being he's been grooming
Speaker 1: himself to become a traditional point forward ala Lebron James,
Speaker 1: the player that starts from the top of the key,
Speaker 1: runs you know, forty fifty actions a game and is
Speaker 1: responsible for creating shots first teammates. That's a different role
Speaker 1: than more of like an unlocked perimeter score. That is
Speaker 1: more like the tip of a spear. He's going from
Speaker 1: being the tip of the spear to being the actual
Speaker 1: total total spear. It's a totally different role. So that's
Speaker 1: why he's undergoing kind of like an identity crisis. On
Speaker 1: any given night. Catch him on the right night, he's
Speaker 1: bought into that role. He's passing the ball, the team
Speaker 1: looks great. But if you catch him on the wrong night,
Speaker 1: it's more like the old Jason Tatum. It's really bad
Speaker 1: shot selection, it's all of those things and the team struggles.
Speaker 1: I think he'll get better that with that as things
Speaker 1: as time goes on in his career. His rim finishing
Speaker 1: is another huge weakness. Like I said, like I've always said,
Speaker 1: for big, strong, rim pressuring wings, I want at least
Speaker 1: seventy in the restricted area. He was down to sixty
Speaker 1: percent in this playoff run. Huge part of the problem
Speaker 1: there is him seeking fouls. He does that James Harden
Speaker 1: thing where he constantly like extends his elbows out and
Speaker 1: tries to go up through people to draw fouls. That's
Speaker 1: great when it works and you draw a foul, but
Speaker 1: what ends up mostly happening, especially as you get deeper
Speaker 1: into the playoffs, is they let that stuff go. And
Speaker 1: now what you did is you extended the ball out
Speaker 1: and made it a lot easier for guys to knock
Speaker 1: the ball out of your hands. And so that leads
Speaker 1: to him missing layups, falling into camera row, and complaining
Speaker 1: at the refs while the team is running down the
Speaker 1: other way to get a layoup. And so that's where
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before. But he needs to adopt
Speaker 1: that Lebron James approach. Tuck the basketball like a football
Speaker 1: player as you pick up your dribble ripped through the traffic,
Speaker 1: and then extend with both hands and finish at the rim.
Speaker 1: That's the that will be the difference between him finishing
Speaker 1: in the restricted area and getting back up into the
Speaker 1: seventies where he belongs. And then, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: paint non restricted area seven percent for mid range. That's
Speaker 1: not good enough either. You want you want to be
Speaker 1: as versatile and and you want to be like Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: You wanna be you want to be like Paul George.
Speaker 1: You want to be like these guys where they don't
Speaker 1: really have a weak spot on the floor. You want
Speaker 1: to be comfortable everywhere on the floor. The only way
Speaker 1: to do that is to polish up those short range
Speaker 1: jump shots in the paint and getting more proficient with
Speaker 1: his mid range jump shooting. Um. The last thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to say about Jayson Tatum is it's easy to
Speaker 1: get really down about what happened in that in that
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. It's easy to look at that as a
Speaker 1: huge negative, like, Oh, he's not that guy, or he's
Speaker 1: not ready, or whatever it is that you want to say.
Speaker 1: I view great value in the failure in playing poorly,
Speaker 1: particularly on a big stage. I've talked about this with
Speaker 1: Lebron a lot over the years, but I think the
Speaker 1: best thing that happened to Lebron James and his career
Speaker 1: was losing the two thousand eleven finals. I think he
Speaker 1: was accustomed to a certain level of work and then
Speaker 1: he got humiliated, and then the dominance that followed that
Speaker 1: was directly results to a directly a result of the
Speaker 1: lesson that he learned in two thousand eleven. The Lebron
Speaker 1: post two thousand eleven doesn't even resemble the Lebron pre
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven in demeanor, in professionalism, in work ethic,
Speaker 1: and it showed in the diversity of his offensive attack
Speaker 1: That's what caused him to put in the work to
Speaker 1: become a reliable jump shooter. That's what allowed unlocked his
Speaker 1: low post game, which has become a huge part of
Speaker 1: his career as he's gotten older. That two thousand and
Speaker 1: eleven is viewed as a black mark by most people.
Speaker 1: I don't really think that's the right way to look
Speaker 1: at it. If he had a black mark like that
Speaker 1: and it became like James Harden, what was like that
Speaker 1: year in and year out, that's a different story. But
Speaker 1: he responded to that black mark by putting on a
Speaker 1: stretch of and remarkably dominant NBA basketball. Four championships in
Speaker 1: eight years or whatever it was. I can't remember off
Speaker 1: the top of my head. But the point is is
Speaker 1: that failure could be the catalyst to the next phase
Speaker 1: of his career. Right, that's the way you look at
Speaker 1: it with Jayson Tatum. He got this close to an
Speaker 1: NBA championship. In fact, he should have one. As I
Speaker 1: said after Game three of the Finals, the Celtics were
Speaker 1: the more talented team, not the better team, but they
Speaker 1: were the more talented team. The reason why they lost
Speaker 1: was in large part due to tatum struggles. So he
Speaker 1: there was an Hilarry O'Brian trophy right there for the taking.
Speaker 1: He was this close, and his weakness has led to
Speaker 1: him losing that trophy. He slipped out of his ers.
Speaker 1: I expect him to view that as the cataly as
Speaker 1: a catalyst moment in his career, and I think moving forward,
Speaker 1: he will understand the fact that him being the point
Speaker 1: forward versus the scoring forward was the reason why he
Speaker 1: had so much success in that run. I believe you
Speaker 1: will replicate that, and I think Jayson Tatum is gonna
Speaker 1: have a really dominant stretch of basketball over the course
Speaker 1: of the next few years. All Right, So we are
Speaker 1: going to be doing the top five over the course
Speaker 1: of the next week or so. Again, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: one player at a time. There. I'm also going to
Speaker 1: be doing some not revisionist history, but kind of reviewing
Speaker 1: their history, talking about their major moments and their career,
Speaker 1: their major achievements, uh their their development over the course
Speaker 1: of their career, intricate details of their skill set. I
Speaker 1: want to take my sweet time getting into those players.
Speaker 1: I'll be reading the comments section later tonight. I want
Speaker 1: you guys to drop any suggestions for things that you
Speaker 1: guys would like to see in those videos um, so
Speaker 1: that I can cater them to you guys a little
Speaker 1: bit better. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys in a couple of days. The
Speaker 1: volume