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Speaker 1: to hoops tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody. Help all of you guys had a
Speaker 1: great week so far. Almost to the weekend. This is
Speaker 1: our last show of the week. We're going over number
Speaker 1: five in our power rankings. Next week it will be
Speaker 1: number four, three, two and one during the Monday through
Speaker 1: Thursday stretch of the week and then we are headed
Speaker 1: right into basketball. When we come back the following Monday
Speaker 1: we'll have a bunch of preseason games. I believe six
Speaker 1: total preseason games worth of footage to react to that
Speaker 1: following Monday. So I'm very, very excited for that. Real
Speaker 1: basketball is right around the corner. Guys. You guys know
Speaker 1: the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the volumes
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Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements. The last but not least,
Speaker 1: if you can't finish one of these videos and you
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Speaker 1: do keep them in podcast form wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts under hoops tonight. And on that note, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So number five, the Philadelphia Seventies sixers last year,
Speaker 1: fifty one and thirty one. They lost in the second
Speaker 1: round to Miami in six games, although it's important to
Speaker 1: mention that Joel emb did miss the first two games
Speaker 1: of that series with an orbital bone fracture that clearly
Speaker 1: was bothering him at least a certain amount in terms
Speaker 1: of just his overall engagement in the physicality of the game.
Speaker 1: They finished the regular season eleventh and offense and twelfth
Speaker 1: and defense, although those metrics, a lot of the metrics
Speaker 1: that we look at for the team are skewed by
Speaker 1: the fact that they added James Harden part way through
Speaker 1: the season and so the entire dynamic of the offense
Speaker 1: changed at that point. Silly things like how often Joel
Speaker 1: embiid was used as a Rollman, the types of offensive
Speaker 1: creation possessions from Tyrese Maxie and Tobias Harris, the defensive
Speaker 1: matchups that those guys were pulling. You know, the best
Speaker 1: defensive player was gonna Guard a Tyrese Maxie on the
Speaker 1: perimeter in there before the trade, and then after the
Speaker 1: trade that guy's going on James Harden and Tyrese Max
Speaker 1: he's getting better matchups. So a lot of that data
Speaker 1: is skewed a certain amounts. So you'll see as we
Speaker 1: get to the offense portion, I'm gonna focus more on
Speaker 1: the players than I do on the team. The Miami
Speaker 1: series was interesting because, again, even even factoring in that
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad was hurt and clearly bothered a little bit
Speaker 1: by the face injury. Overall, um it wasn't a great
Speaker 1: showing and particularly in the mental toughness areas of the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, they seemed to wilt away a little
Speaker 1: bit as the Miami Heat really pressed them. I think
Speaker 1: there's a big part of why they went after P
Speaker 1: J Tucker and Daniel House. James Harden's temperament is not
Speaker 1: that of like a you know, he's got a foxhole
Speaker 1: type of guy that's gonna go down swinging. He's very
Speaker 1: like riding high when things are good and he can
Speaker 1: tend to just kind of like wither away a little
Speaker 1: bit when things start going bad. And Joel Embiad has
Speaker 1: a little bit of that himself. Very very, very, very
Speaker 1: involved in in energetic when things are going well, but
Speaker 1: when things start to go poorly he can be a
Speaker 1: little bit more reserved, and so having an Alpha dog
Speaker 1: type of personality like P J Tucker who will help
Speaker 1: keep them more mentally engaged in those moments, I think
Speaker 1: will go a long way towards helping. And then Daniel House,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is like a lesser version of a
Speaker 1: P J Tucker's addressing some specific needs there. But we
Speaker 1: gotta give a bunch of credits to Miami because I
Speaker 1: frequently called them the Golden State Warriors of the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: I think they have the best coach in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: They're the best at winning the chess matches of NBA
Speaker 1: playoffs series based on what can be controlled outside of talent.
Speaker 1: That's that played a huge role in that particular series.
Speaker 1: They held both Joel Embiid and James Harden under twenty
Speaker 1: points per game. Embiad was percent outside of the restricted
Speaker 1: area in that series, although in fairness that's kind of
Speaker 1: a consistent theme in his career. He's a moderately efficient
Speaker 1: perimeter player in the regular season. He's a dreadfully inefficient
Speaker 1: perimeter player in the postseason. Pretty much anything that's not
Speaker 1: a layup or a dunk in the playoffs he's gonna
Speaker 1: make a third of them or less, and so that's
Speaker 1: somewhat to be expected. The main strategy thing that swung
Speaker 1: that series this is, you know, during the regular season
Speaker 1: The Philadelphia The Philadelphia Seventy Sixers, ran more post ups
Speaker 1: than any team in the entire league and in that
Speaker 1: series Miami employed like a kind of a bracketing front
Speaker 1: approach where they would front Joel Embiad in the post
Speaker 1: and offer backside help to dissuade the over the top
Speaker 1: lob and Phil. They had some counters where they swing
Speaker 1: the ball around and do reverse seals and and working
Speaker 1: around to have someone like, let's say Tobias Harris's man
Speaker 1: was helping on the backside. They'd have him flash to
Speaker 1: the high post and he gets some catches and scores there.
Speaker 1: They had some counters, but the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: was is Miami's bracketing, fronting approach really took philly out
Speaker 1: of their offense and they held him to a hundred
Speaker 1: and five points per one hundred possessions in that series,
Speaker 1: which is a really good defensive number for Miami. And
Speaker 1: again I just want to make sure before we move
Speaker 1: on that we acknowledge the injury to do all embiid
Speaker 1: and then James Harden was dealing with hamstring stuff, although
Speaker 1: a lot of that is related to his own physical care.
Speaker 1: But I have them all the way up at five
Speaker 1: and you know, we talked a lot about you know
Speaker 1: in this list how I value playoffs ceiling in my
Speaker 1: decision making process. Like the Lakers are not the thirteenth
Speaker 1: most talented team in this league. They're probably closer to
Speaker 1: the twenty most talented team this league. After Lebron, James
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. They are devoid of starter level NBA talent.
Speaker 1: Even the two guys they picked up this offseason are
Speaker 1: very small guards, which can be exploited in playoff settings
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. The reason why they're up
Speaker 1: at Thir team is because I believe in their top
Speaker 1: end talent right, we're always going to factor in playoff success.
Speaker 1: The Brooklyn Nets have so many question marks, but if
Speaker 1: any of those things go right, they can beat anybody.
Speaker 1: That's why they're as high as they are. There are
Speaker 1: teams that I really like that are super talented, teams
Speaker 1: like Memphis, teams like Cleveland that I have concerns about
Speaker 1: their ability to reach their ultimate playoffs ceiling. So they're
Speaker 1: lower than their talent would then you would think they're
Speaker 1: talent would put you on this list. I think Philly
Speaker 1: is one of the most talented teams in the league.
Speaker 1: I think they're starting five might be the most talented
Speaker 1: team in the entire league. I am super, super high
Speaker 1: on tyres maxie. I think if Tobias Harris is your
Speaker 1: fourth best player, that's a really good spot to be in. And,
Speaker 1: most importantly, I think James Harden is going to have
Speaker 1: a massive bound back season. I think the two guys
Speaker 1: I keep an eye on for massive bounce back seasons
Speaker 1: this year Anthony Davis and James Harden, although with Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: I think health will ultimately get in the way for him.
Speaker 1: It just consistently does. I think you're foolish if you
Speaker 1: bet on him to stay healthy for seventy plus games.
Speaker 1: If he does, I think he'll be in the conversation
Speaker 1: for the top six or seven players in the league.
Speaker 1: The same goes for James Harden. I I think he
Speaker 1: learned a lesson over the last couple of years, a
Speaker 1: lesson that I'm learning in a more amateur sense right now,
Speaker 1: which is you're in your early thirties, your metabolism is
Speaker 1: not the same. You can't keep living the way you
Speaker 1: were living like I. I joke about this all the
Speaker 1: time with my with my family and friends, but like
Speaker 1: I used to be that I could eat like absolute
Speaker 1: crap and I could even take three or four days
Speaker 1: away from the game of basketball if I needed to,
Speaker 1: if we were going on a trip out of town
Speaker 1: or something, and I'd be fine. And then in my
Speaker 1: late twenties I noticed like when I would get away
Speaker 1: from the game of basketball, I put on weight, but
Speaker 1: then I quickly lose it in the three or four
Speaker 1: days after I got back. And just in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years here, in my early Thirties, I've noticed
Speaker 1: like I put on the weight quickly when I get
Speaker 1: away from the game and then I have to work
Speaker 1: incredibly hard and be very attentive to my diet in
Speaker 1: order to drop the weight. I put on about seventeen
Speaker 1: pounds on a two week vacation to Alaska with my wife,
Speaker 1: getting up to two and thirty seven pounds, and I've
Speaker 1: only worked it down in the months since to about
Speaker 1: two seven to twenty six. So like it's taken me
Speaker 1: forever to get back down where I like to be,
Speaker 1: and I think it's just the realities of aging. And
Speaker 1: you know, I think James Harden lives a difficult life
Speaker 1: on his body. I mean in terms of the way
Speaker 1: that he likes to Party and have fun, which I
Speaker 1: have literally no problem with, but it will impact you
Speaker 1: physically with your health and I think he learned to
Speaker 1: value a lesson over the last couple of years that
Speaker 1: he's no longer capable of living that lifestyle if he
Speaker 1: wants to be at the top of his game as
Speaker 1: an NBA player. I think that we've seen some moderate
Speaker 1: evidence of it this summer and some of the footage
Speaker 1: and and uh pictures that I've seen of him. He
Speaker 1: looks leaner, he looks more fit, he looks he's playing
Speaker 1: a lot more. I think James Harden is going to
Speaker 1: be not quite back to what he was in two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen, but I think James Harden will get very
Speaker 1: close to that level this year. I think this is
Speaker 1: his bounce back season. I think this is the year
Speaker 1: that he cares for his body in a way that
Speaker 1: that will get him back to that level of athleticism.
Speaker 1: I expect a massive year from James Harden and I
Speaker 1: believe at the end of this season we will be
Speaker 1: unanimously considering him a top ten player in this league.
Speaker 1: That is a huge part of where my optimism for
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventies six years ago. I think that they
Speaker 1: have two of the top eight or nine players in
Speaker 1: the league. When James Harden is healthy, that automatically puts
Speaker 1: you very close to the top of any list. We
Speaker 1: have to factor that in when we're looking at potential
Speaker 1: playoff outcomes here. I've never been the biggest James Harden Fan.
Speaker 1: I've never been the biggest fan of the way he
Speaker 1: plays the game or the way his game translates to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But you've got two players in that ilk.
Speaker 1: This is not James Harden and Chris Paul. This is
Speaker 1: not James didn't by himself. This is James Harden with
Speaker 1: Joel embiid and that's where my optimism comes from. There's
Speaker 1: also a really natural basketball fit there between the two
Speaker 1: of them, which we'll get into here in a minute.
Speaker 1: So this offseason they traded Danny Green and a first
Speaker 1: round pick Ford Anthony Melton. He's a really good spot
Speaker 1: up player that played for the Memphis Grizzlies last year.
Speaker 1: Showed some flashes of on ball creation too, but it's
Speaker 1: he's not actually efficient in that department yet, but he's
Speaker 1: a good young spot up player off the bench who's guard.
Speaker 1: I shot forty one percent on catching two jumpers last year.
Speaker 1: That's obviously a natural fit. Only on pull up jumpers
Speaker 1: a lot of his metrics and like pick and roll,
Speaker 1: ball handler, isolation, the Uh you know, dribble handoffs, things
Speaker 1: like that. He didn't put up great efficiency metrics last year,
Speaker 1: but again he's young and uh Um. At the very
Speaker 1: least you're trading Danny Green, a player who will be
Speaker 1: unavailable either all of this year or most of this year,
Speaker 1: for a useful rotation player and I think P J
Speaker 1: Tucker kind of slides into that Danny Green Roll with
Speaker 1: the starting lineup. And now you've given yourself a useful
Speaker 1: player in depth, like I mentioned, they signed P J
Speaker 1: Tucker and Daniel House. These are two really tough forwards
Speaker 1: who consistently play hard and physical basketball. It fits a
Speaker 1: personality need for this roster. They need guys that can
Speaker 1: help uh inject toughness and fight into this group, which
Speaker 1: is a specific weakness of Joel and beat and James Harden.
Speaker 1: So I liked those moves a lot. I think Darryl
Speaker 1: Moore knows James Harden really well and I think he
Speaker 1: knows what kind of roster he needs to build around him.
Speaker 1: Looking at their depth chart right now, at the guard position,
Speaker 1: they have James Harden, the Anthony Melton, Tyrese maxie and
Speaker 1: shake Milton on the wing. And again and again, as
Speaker 1: we get to these top teams in the League, they're
Speaker 1: always so deep on the wing, Tobias Harris, P J
Speaker 1: Tucker fork on Cork, Maz Matisse, Thybul, Daniel House and
Speaker 1: George's kneeing, and then biggs, Joel and beat and Paul
Speaker 1: Reid and we might see a little bit of Charles
Speaker 1: Bassi this year, depending on how things go with health
Speaker 1: for em beat Um. On offense, kind of similar to
Speaker 1: some of the other brute force teams in the League
Speaker 1: like Brooklyn and and Dallas. They don't run as money
Speaker 1: as much in the form in the way of sets
Speaker 1: compared to the rest of the League. They do run
Speaker 1: most of their UH, most of their organization is based
Speaker 1: on four out, one in with them beat at the
Speaker 1: top of the key, or they run some horn stuff
Speaker 1: with Tobias Harris and Joel Embiad at the High Post.
Speaker 1: They everything is some sort of interchange that flows into
Speaker 1: some sort of screening action with them beats. So sometimes
Speaker 1: they'll just have like James Harden run down and screen
Speaker 1: for tyres Maxie, who tyris Maxie will then come up
Speaker 1: off of the dribble handoff with Joe El Embat sometimes
Speaker 1: James Harden will, you know, go do a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: with Tobias Harris, who will then immediately flow into an
Speaker 1: Mbat pick and roll, who will then hand off to,
Speaker 1: you know, uh Tyrius maxie coming out of the corner,
Speaker 1: and then he will come off of a ball screen
Speaker 1: with Joel embiad. It's it's complications of like different ways
Speaker 1: to enter into different screening actions and we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about a lot of different dribble handoffs and pick and
Speaker 1: roll uh metrics and ideas today. Again, remember, dribble handoffs
Speaker 1: are just another way to run a pick and roll.
Speaker 1: It's a way that allows you to get into it
Speaker 1: in an off ball sends to you as a as
Speaker 1: the ball handler, the guard. You can work your defender
Speaker 1: to a spot on the floor and then take off
Speaker 1: from him and get initial separation, whereas if you have
Speaker 1: a live dribble, they could be applying ball pressure. It's
Speaker 1: just different ways to get into those actions. Um, they
Speaker 1: also will run some stuff uh with like Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: and and bead in horns, and then they'll just have
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris like cross screen for Joel Em beat so
Speaker 1: that he might be able to get a better matchup,
Speaker 1: and then usually they'll just flow out of that into
Speaker 1: a post up. Like I said earlier, there were the
Speaker 1: most frequent post up team in the entire league. Um.
Speaker 1: The last one that I mentioned, that that I that
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention, that I saw on tape a
Speaker 1: lot is tyris maxie. They run him off of those
Speaker 1: horn sets like over Harris and him beat a lot
Speaker 1: to get him to curl around because he's so gifted
Speaker 1: at just catching and exploding off of one foot and
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim. In pick and roll they were
Speaker 1: fourth in ball handler efficiency and eighth in Rollman efficiency
Speaker 1: as a team. Again, those numbers are somewhat skewed as
Speaker 1: by the fact that harden didn't join until later in
Speaker 1: the season. They have three different ball handlers that they
Speaker 1: can run pick and roll with. James Harden had a
Speaker 1: down year. He was at zero point eight, two points
Speaker 1: per possession. I expect him to be much better this year.
Speaker 1: Both tyres maxie and Bias Harris were outstanding pick and
Speaker 1: roll ball ball handlers last year in the percentile or better.
Speaker 1: I wanted to spend some time talking about in bead
Speaker 1: rolling to the rim, because it's a huge part of
Speaker 1: why I'm so excited about this particular team, especially with
Speaker 1: James Harden. James Harden is pretty relentless hitting the role man.
Speaker 1: He's he'll make the right read every time, especially because
Speaker 1: he runs so many pick and rolls and, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, a lot of teams don't use their
Speaker 1: role man very frequently. Guards are really quick to look
Speaker 1: for their shot and pick and roll and and bead
Speaker 1: is so good, particularly in the short role, that the
Speaker 1: sixers are smart to use them as much as they do.
Speaker 1: And beat is not a rim runner, he's not a
Speaker 1: vertical space or he's not a guy that you're gonna
Speaker 1: throw libs to, at least not often, but when he
Speaker 1: catches the ball barreling down the lane in that ten
Speaker 1: foot area, he's just damn near impossible to stop. First
Speaker 1: of all, in the regular season he was on shot
Speaker 1: attempts in the paint outside the restricted area. Obviously his
Speaker 1: efficiency there dips in the playoffs, but he's got little
Speaker 1: floaters and push shots and he can make that short
Speaker 1: jump shot in the lane. Most importantly, when he barrels
Speaker 1: down the lane. He's just impossible to stop without fouling.
Speaker 1: He got fouled on twenty three of role possessions, so
Speaker 1: almost one out of every time, at almost one out
Speaker 1: of every four times someone hit and beat in the
Speaker 1: short roll he got fouled. That was the second most
Speaker 1: among centators who had two role Reps. only Gilbert had more.
Speaker 1: But again, Gobert is a bad free throw shooter. So
Speaker 1: many cases teams are just grabbing him with the intention
Speaker 1: of sending him to the line rather than letting him
Speaker 1: get a shot off. Um and beat overall was the
Speaker 1: secon most frequently used Rollman in the entire league, and
Speaker 1: I believe that would be even more this season with
Speaker 1: James Harden in the fold. He averaged one point to
Speaker 1: four points per role possession, which is absolutely outstanding. As
Speaker 1: a team, they were also the second most efficient dribble
Speaker 1: handoff team in basketball. A big part of that is
Speaker 1: they ran a ton of dribble handoffs before James Harden
Speaker 1: got around. It's one of Tobias Harris's favorite actions to
Speaker 1: run um even like I said earlier, it's just another
Speaker 1: way to run pick and roll. Everything that they do
Speaker 1: offensively it's just variations and complications to try to get
Speaker 1: Joel embiid into screening action with one of their perimeter
Speaker 1: players and then rolling down the lane. Um in isolation situations,
Speaker 1: James Harden was still one point zero seven points per
Speaker 1: possession last year, which is really good. Isolation numbers are
Speaker 1: typically a lot lower, and the reason why is he
Speaker 1: still gets fouled on twenty eight percent of his ISOS.
Speaker 1: So again, James Harden was one of the best is
Speaker 1: a players in the league last year at one point
Speaker 1: zero seven points per possession, despite only shooting thirty seven
Speaker 1: percent from the field in those situations, because he gets
Speaker 1: fouled on more almost a third of his possessions. The
Speaker 1: the hardened foul drifting thing is alive and well and
Speaker 1: stronger than it's ever been in the dip in his
Speaker 1: athleticism has had no effect there. Joe Embiad has also
Speaker 1: been solid in isolations this past season. Zero point nine
Speaker 1: five points per possession, slightly above average Um. Moving on
Speaker 1: to post ups. So No team in the NBA runs
Speaker 1: more post ups than the sixers. They were fifth inefficiency.
Speaker 1: Both Joel embiid and Tobias Harris are about the seventy
Speaker 1: five percentile for post efficiency. There are two things that
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about their first of all, Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris and getting favorable matchups. Again, like your most teams
Speaker 1: are running one big four perimeter players. These days, they
Speaker 1: might have a bigger, more athletic forward at the four
Speaker 1: position to guard bigger players, but for the most part
Speaker 1: you're putting your best perimeter defenders on Tyrese Maxi and
Speaker 1: James Harden and you're putting your best post offender on
Speaker 1: Joel embiid and you're offering help wherever Joel embiat is
Speaker 1: on the floor. So all the time, Tobaris, Tobias Harris,
Speaker 1: is gaining favorable matchups, whether that's running the floor in
Speaker 1: transition to get a cross match or as the defense
Speaker 1: gets in rotation, as people calls out on him, or
Speaker 1: against certain teams just in the natural matchups of the game,
Speaker 1: he's got a favorable matchup and he's got a good
Speaker 1: back to the basket game and they'll just throw the
Speaker 1: ball down to Tyrese Maxie and he's scoring down there
Speaker 1: at a very efficient rate. Matchups are the number one
Speaker 1: thing that that drive my optimism about this sixers team. offensively.
Speaker 1: It's not just the James Harden and Joel embat thing,
Speaker 1: it's Tyrese Maxie and Tobias Harris. Again, if Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: is your best player or your second best player, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's woefully underqualified for that role and you're gonna be
Speaker 1: really dissatisfied with the results. That goes without saying. But
Speaker 1: when he's your fourth best player, he gets to be
Speaker 1: more picky with his shot selection and take shots that
Speaker 1: he's more comfortable with. He doesn't have to force the
Speaker 1: action as often and he's gonna draw favorable matchups. And
Speaker 1: and that right there, that that's why, like it always
Speaker 1: drives me nuts. I saw someone on twitter the other
Speaker 1: day say something like, Oh, is Stephen Clay the best
Speaker 1: duo in NBA history because they won four titles? or
Speaker 1: I'll see something, I'll see things like oh, or Stephen
Speaker 1: Katie the best duo, and I want to be like
Speaker 1: those are Duos, those are that's four all star level players.
Speaker 1: Like the part of the success of that team is
Speaker 1: that when you've got Stephen Katie at the top, you
Speaker 1: know Clay Thompson's getting very favorable matchups. And the same
Speaker 1: thing goes for this Philadelphia Seventies sixers thing. This is
Speaker 1: not a duo. Tyrese Maxie is a like. He's not
Speaker 1: an all star, but he's in the tier right below
Speaker 1: all star, and so is to bias Harris. These are
Speaker 1: players that on any given night can give you thirty points,
Speaker 1: that can create their own shot, that are incredibly confident
Speaker 1: and have great strengths. To Bias Harris, mainly as a
Speaker 1: post player and attacking closeouts. Tyrese Maxie as a ridiculous
Speaker 1: transition threat which will get two in a minute, and
Speaker 1: he's shooting the ball pretty well this year. I think
Speaker 1: shot about pull up jump shots last year. That's really
Speaker 1: damn good. So this is a damn good core four
Speaker 1: players here and they're gonna be very difficult to match
Speaker 1: up with any given night, and that's a huge part
Speaker 1: of why I'm optimistic there. The second part of that
Speaker 1: is spot up possessions. Defending the harden and bad pick
Speaker 1: and roll is just a royal pain in the ASS.
Speaker 1: Harden is really good at pinning the defender on his
Speaker 1: backside so he can work down the lane. That dictates
Speaker 1: that the big man screen defender has to corral James Harden.
Speaker 1: That opens up the short role for Joel embid where
Speaker 1: he's gonna kill you, so you almost always have to
Speaker 1: tag him out of the week side corner. That opens
Speaker 1: up that left handed skip pass for James Harden going
Speaker 1: across the floor, and that's a borderline. I'll start level
Speaker 1: level player that's catching that skip pass. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxie or Tobias Harris that's capitalizing on all that
Speaker 1: defensive attention. That's where the talent shows up, in those
Speaker 1: spot up possessions and in the matchups that those guys dictate.
Speaker 1: Tyrs maxie transition. So tyres at ridges a ridiculous one, point, three,
Speaker 1: five points per possession and transition, and he does it
Speaker 1: about three times per game. You see him just absolutely
Speaker 1: hit the jets and dust everybody down the floor and
Speaker 1: make a layup or dunk. He has a ridiculous combination
Speaker 1: of straight line speed with the explosiveness to take off
Speaker 1: when you get there. I do this drill a lot
Speaker 1: with my younger players and I do it all the
Speaker 1: time because it's one of my favorite ways that I
Speaker 1: play the game. But I'll start on the opposite end
Speaker 1: of the floor and I'll throw the ball up off
Speaker 1: the glass and I'll catch it as high as I
Speaker 1: can and then I'll just take off at a full
Speaker 1: sprint and dunk the basketball on the other end and
Speaker 1: I'll just do that time and time again. I'll like
Speaker 1: walk back down the floor do it again, and walk
Speaker 1: back down the floor and do it again, and the
Speaker 1: main reason why is, like going from a full sprint
Speaker 1: into an upward jump at the rim is incredibly difficult.
Speaker 1: It takes an enormous amount of like strength and it's
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that when you see Tyrese can
Speaker 1: make it look easy, but it's very difficult and it's
Speaker 1: it's his rare bit of athleticism that all outs him
Speaker 1: to succeed so much in transition. I wanted to get
Speaker 1: it take a minute to to shout out tyres Maxi there.
Speaker 1: So again my optimism for this team offensively is harden's
Speaker 1: revenge tour, the idea of him getting back to where
Speaker 1: he was. Uh, the natural synergy that exists between James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joel embiide, who, when they're both top ten players,
Speaker 1: will be incredibly difficult to deal with. Tyree's Maxi and
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, attacking matchups and attacking closeouts. It's an incredibly
Speaker 1: talented roster and so I think that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a top five offense this year. I think they're gonna be.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be a really difficult closing five
Speaker 1: and starting five to deal with. That's where my optimism
Speaker 1: comes there. On the defensive end of the floor, they
Speaker 1: were let's look at some metrics, because it doesn't paint
Speaker 1: doc rivers in a very favorable light. Nineteen and defensive rebounding,
Speaker 1: so they don't box out and crash very well, eighteenth
Speaker 1: in defending the paint, so they don't take away layups
Speaker 1: and dunks and things like that. They were twenty nine
Speaker 1: and fast breakpoints allowed per one h possessions, according to
Speaker 1: cleaning cleaning the glass, were the twenty seven ranked transition
Speaker 1: defense overall. That speaks to what you heard from Uh
Speaker 1: Kevin Nurayant after the Brooklyn Nets beat the crap out
Speaker 1: of him in that one nationally televised game. He's like,
Speaker 1: they're not, they're not a good transition team. So we
Speaker 1: ran on him. He was absolutely right. They were not
Speaker 1: a good transition defense last year. That means they're not
Speaker 1: sprinting back, they're not communicating their complaining for fouls too
Speaker 1: much on the other end of the floor. That leads
Speaker 1: to bad transition defense and beats. Foot speed plays a
Speaker 1: little bit of a role there, but we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that in a second. Where the strength of their defense,
Speaker 1: because again this team finished twelfth in defense. The strength
Speaker 1: of their defense was they defended the three point line
Speaker 1: really well. They were fourth and three pointers made allowed
Speaker 1: per get per one possessions and they were ninth and steel.
Speaker 1: So by defending the three point line, which is the
Speaker 1: second most efficient shot in basketball, and by forcing turnovers,
Speaker 1: they took a undisciplined defensive team and turned it into
Speaker 1: the twelfth ranked defense in the League. They did make
Speaker 1: massive improvements on the wing, defensively, in my opinion, by
Speaker 1: bringing in Daniel House and P J Tuck. P J
Speaker 1: Tucker just does a ton of stuff to help you
Speaker 1: win games. He's a great offensive rebounder, he crashes the
Speaker 1: glass relentlessly, he's a good cutter, he can knock down
Speaker 1: corner threes, although that can be hit or miss and
Speaker 1: streaky from time to time, and he can match up
Speaker 1: with the bigger, bruising wings around the League, taking, you know,
Speaker 1: the difficult defensive assignments that other guys on the roster
Speaker 1: do not want to take. So I think that will
Speaker 1: obviously improve things for them defensively. The big my one
Speaker 1: big concern for them defensively is embeat in his slow footedness. Again,
Speaker 1: like sixers fans swear by him beat on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. I think he's good. I think
Speaker 1: he's good when you can keep him around the rim,
Speaker 1: but he does have some weaknesses. One in transition. He's
Speaker 1: a huge part of why they're bad transition defense there.
Speaker 1: This is a very athletic team that gets beat down
Speaker 1: the floor a lot, in large part because he's slow
Speaker 1: footed and he complains for fouls a lot on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, and then when you put
Speaker 1: him in space he struggles to contain ball handlers. There
Speaker 1: was a stretch, I did a video on this during
Speaker 1: that first round series. There was a stretch in one
Speaker 1: of the Games that I want to say it was.
Speaker 1: I want to say it was game five, Um, if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, but uh, in game five or late
Speaker 1: in that series, there was a game in the second
Speaker 1: half where Toronto on six consecutive possessions, targeted Joel embiide
Speaker 1: in isolation with a live dribble and just dusted right
Speaker 1: around him for layups. It's just it's his one key
Speaker 1: weakness defensively is his foot speed. If you can keep
Speaker 1: him around the rim, that's great. That's why he puts
Speaker 1: up great metrics during the regular season. You keep him
Speaker 1: in drop coverage, you keep him around the rim, he
Speaker 1: does okay. But in a playoff setting when you can
Speaker 1: attack him in transition and attack him in space, he
Speaker 1: has some some struggles there. So I think there's somewhat
Speaker 1: of a ceiling on this team defensively. But if they
Speaker 1: can get around the top ten, if they can get
Speaker 1: in that nine ten range while being a top five offense,
Speaker 1: that's where you get the dangerous version of the SIXERS team. So,
Speaker 1: looking at their best case scenario, this is one of
Speaker 1: the most talented starting fives in the league. Like we
Speaker 1: talked about, I expect P J Tucker to slide into
Speaker 1: that Danny Green spot. I expect hardened to have one
Speaker 1: of the best season of his career and to bounce
Speaker 1: back from the rough couple of years. I expect him
Speaker 1: be to have some better health luck he's been. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really unfortunate when you're finally gonna kind of getting
Speaker 1: into a good spot and then someone elbows you in
Speaker 1: the face and kind of makes you dizzy for a
Speaker 1: whole for a couple of weeks. Tyres maxie's blossoming. He's
Speaker 1: just about to turn twenty two and he's one of
Speaker 1: the most talented young guards in this league. The natural
Speaker 1: difficulty of guarding the hardened and Beid pick and roll
Speaker 1: in the bind that it puts you in as a defense,
Speaker 1: and then they address their toughness need by bringing in
Speaker 1: P J Tucker and Daniel House. If all of those
Speaker 1: things manifest the way that I expect them to, especially
Speaker 1: when you factor in the continuity of not having to
Speaker 1: deal with a hardened uh without having to deal with
Speaker 1: getting harden involved in your team in the middle of
Speaker 1: a season, I think that this team's best case scenario
Speaker 1: is absolutely winning the title. They will be able to
Speaker 1: match up with everybody. They're gonna be, uh like I said,
Speaker 1: one of the most talented starting five and closing fives
Speaker 1: in basketball. I absolutely view them as a title threat.
Speaker 1: That's why I have them up here at number five.
Speaker 1: The worst case scenario is that they have a very
Speaker 1: good regular season, like they usually do and that they
Speaker 1: lose in the first or second round again, just like
Speaker 1: you saw last year. In order for that to happen, though,
Speaker 1: it needs to be more of the same from embid
Speaker 1: and hardened. It needs to be embid breaking down and
Speaker 1: shrinking a little bit when things get tough, and it
Speaker 1: needs to be James Harden still being a little bit
Speaker 1: out of shape, you know, struggling with health throughout the
Speaker 1: season and not being explosive enough to get to the rim.
Speaker 1: That explosiveness is everything, and that's why my x factor
Speaker 1: for this team is James Harden. I think the okay. So,
Speaker 1: when James Harden's body started to fail him, it caused
Speaker 1: this cascading effect that limited him offensively, when he can't
Speaker 1: beat people off the dribble as much as he used to.
Speaker 1: There's a balance that changes there. When you're a defender,
Speaker 1: you're either on your toes or you're on your heels
Speaker 1: as a defensive player, and that's more less in terms
Speaker 1: of the physiology of it and technique of it. It's
Speaker 1: more of like a mental thing. You either feel confident
Speaker 1: getting up into an offensive player, knowing that you can
Speaker 1: contain him, or you're terrified of the drive and you
Speaker 1: give space. That's kind of what I'm getting at here.
Speaker 1: And when James Harden went was in his absolute prime.
Speaker 1: He was so damned quick with his first step going
Speaker 1: left and his left to right crossover was so hard
Speaker 1: to guard that he could get to his step back
Speaker 1: jump shot whenever he wanted because the defender was on
Speaker 1: their heels, the defender was giving ground and as a
Speaker 1: result he was just killing teams, shooting like something crazy,
Speaker 1: liket on, like ten step back to easy game right.
Speaker 1: But as his athleticism left him, suddenly it became that
Speaker 1: guys felt more comfortable pressing up on him. Now he's
Speaker 1: not getting as much separation on that step back. Now
Speaker 1: that step back is turning into a lower percentage shot,
Speaker 1: now that threat of the drive isn't there. So him
Speaker 1: getting into shape, him regaining some of that explosiveness will
Speaker 1: put everything back in order for him, where defenders have
Speaker 1: to give him a little bit more space, where in
Speaker 1: pick and roll teams have to account for him exploding
Speaker 1: to the rim more frequently. When that comes back, I
Speaker 1: think everything will open up for this Philadelphia Team and
Speaker 1: James Harden getting back to that level, getting back to
Speaker 1: that you know seventh or eighth best player in the League.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be what puts this team in serious title contention.
Speaker 1: That's why he is the x factor of this team.
Speaker 1: If and beads the eighth best player in the League
Speaker 1: and hardens the Fifteenth Best Player in the League, they're
Speaker 1: not beating anybody at the top, but if and beads
Speaker 1: the eighth best player in the League and hardens the
Speaker 1: seventh or Ninth Best Player in the League, they can
Speaker 1: beat anybody. He's the x factor. He's the guy to watch. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm really it seems kind of backwards right
Speaker 1: because I'm not a huge sixers fan. I don't like him,
Speaker 1: bed and harden and the foul grift ing. I'm not
Speaker 1: especially I I don't really uh think much of their
Speaker 1: personalities as basketball players. They're not my favorite types of guys.
Speaker 1: But this is an incredibly talented team and if anything
Speaker 1: goes right for them this season, they're going to be
Speaker 1: in the mix of things at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: That's why I have him as high as I do.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, I hope you all have a great weekend.
Speaker 1: We will be back on Monday with number four, as always.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support and I'll see you after
Speaker 1: the weekend. The Volume