Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week so far. We are
Speaker 1: live on AMPS, so if you're watching on YouTube or
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Speaker 1: the very first place that you guys can get these shows.
Speaker 1: We are continuing our player rankings today. We are down
Speaker 1: to the top three. Today we'll be covering number three,
Speaker 1: Yannis Suntanakoopo. You guys know the drill. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: subscribe to the Volume's YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason Lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. And
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Speaker 1: to YouTube to finished, don't forget. You can find them
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. Also, before
Speaker 1: we get started, I'm very excited next week on Monday,
Speaker 1: I get to go see the Grand Turismo movie, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna share you guys with you guys my thoughts
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Speaker 1: Rated PG. Thirteen. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: this top three here is the beginning of my top
Speaker 1: tier of superstars. Like I said before, I've viewed one
Speaker 1: through twelve as superstars, and I kind of use a
Speaker 1: slight separation after the top three. You guys might remember,
Speaker 1: after the beginning of this kind of superstar tier, I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the concept of theoretical basketball, right,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a big difference just between the
Speaker 1: way I do my list versus other people in the
Speaker 1: way that they do their lists. Right Again, if I
Speaker 1: asked every single one of you guys as a listener
Speaker 1: to come up with your own list of one through
Speaker 1: twenty five, there, it'd be extremely unlikely that any of
Speaker 1: you guys would have the same list. Chances are every
Speaker 1: one of us, if we saw another person in the
Speaker 1: in that group's list, we'd have things that we'd vehemently
Speaker 1: disagree about, because that's just the nature of the league
Speaker 1: right now, how incredibly stacked with talent it is, and
Speaker 1: also just the different things that we value in basketball players. Right,
Speaker 1: And I talked a lot about how much winning matters
Speaker 1: to me, because to me, it's the purpose is the
Speaker 1: purpose to why we play the game of basketball like I,
Speaker 1: and when it comes to the NBA, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of pomp in circumstance, and we can love that pomp
Speaker 1: and circumstance. I certainly do. I just like everybody else.
Speaker 1: When I'm scrolling through the NBA dot COM's YouTube page
Speaker 1: and they show their top one hundred dunks of the year, like,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch that, you know, Like I
Speaker 1: love a good ankle breaker, I love a good offseason trade.
Speaker 1: I love all of that. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the Larry O'Brian Trophy is the reason why
Speaker 1: we do all of this. It is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: It is the one thing that drives everything we do.
Speaker 1: Everything else is just the stepping stone on the pathway
Speaker 1: towards that ultimate goal, right And so for me personally,
Speaker 1: even though I have a huge amount of belief in
Speaker 1: what someone like Luka Doncish is capable of, I would
Speaker 1: like to see him do it before I give him
Speaker 1: the same level of recognition that I give to guys
Speaker 1: that are higher on the list, based simply on the
Speaker 1: fact that I value that top tier accomplishment more than
Speaker 1: anything else. There are six active former NBA Finals MVPs
Speaker 1: in the NBA right now, Kawhi, Leonard, Lebron James, Joanna
Speaker 1: sen Antennacumpo, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Nicole Jokich. Those
Speaker 1: are the only six. I'm pretty sure Andrea Gudala is retiring,
Speaker 1: so you're not getting another Finals MVP anywhere else in
Speaker 1: the NBA outside of those six guys. And you'll notice,
Speaker 1: aside from Kawhi who can't play in a playoff game
Speaker 1: because he keeps getting hurt and Lebron James, who's a
Speaker 1: million years old and underwent his first like significant playoff
Speaker 1: decline in this last year, other than those two guys
Speaker 1: who are my top four, they are all guys who
Speaker 1: have done the deed they've do on the actual thing,
Speaker 1: the actual reason why we do all of this. As
Speaker 1: much as everyone likes to be down on Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: the dude is a two time NBA Finals MVP. I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people conveniently forget what happened
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. Jannis, who was a deserving NBA
Speaker 1: Finals MVP, actually said after the second round series with
Speaker 1: Brooklyn when Kevin Durant, to the eyes of most people
Speaker 1: who watched the series outplayed Giannis. Janis went into the
Speaker 1: postgame presser and said that guy's the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. He said, Kevin Durant's the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. And so even though we have a lot
Speaker 1: of people who try to pretend as though he's not
Speaker 1: the same player that he used to be, that was
Speaker 1: just twenty five months ago. Guys, Yannis hoisting the finals
Speaker 1: MVP trophy was less than twenty five months ago, and
Speaker 1: that long ago, he himself considered Kevin Durant to be
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. Now, I think Giannis
Speaker 1: is better than KD. Now, I don't think that's a
Speaker 1: hot take. But my point is is, I'm just kind
Speaker 1: of helping to explain my rationale as to why I
Speaker 1: had Kevin Durantis high as I did at number four.
Speaker 1: To me, one, two, three, four, those guys, there's no
Speaker 1: theoretical basketball there. They've all done the deed. And like
Speaker 1: even as we look at just our top three, Yannis,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, and Nicole Jokic, all three of them have
Speaker 1: done it in the last twenty five months. And that
Speaker 1: is why I have those three guys all a level
Speaker 1: above everybody else in the league right now, with kd
Speaker 1: the last two playoff runs being somewhat underwhelming, it being
Speaker 1: more than five years since he won an NBA championship.
Speaker 1: That's why I have a gap represented between three and four.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, it's just important from the same point
Speaker 1: of recognition to acknowledge that those three guys, Steph, Jokic
Speaker 1: and and Yannis have both recently accomplished the ultimate goal
Speaker 1: without experiencing some sort of significant decline Lebron's significant decline,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant a couple bad playoff runs in a row, right,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to signify with that gap there.
Speaker 1: But even then I told view it as much of
Speaker 1: a gap. But I hope that helps you guys understand
Speaker 1: my ration now a little bit now looking at one
Speaker 1: through three, I ordered them one through three. You guys
Speaker 1: can guess because Giannis is today, and because I've told
Speaker 1: you guys that I think Jokic is the best player
Speaker 1: in the world, you can guess that I have it
Speaker 1: as jokis one, Steph two, Yannis three. The reason he
Speaker 1: was pretty simple. Jokic has to be one because he
Speaker 1: literally just finished dominating everybody and literally ran through two
Speaker 1: of his peers, ran through Man, ran through Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: a defensive pier, and Rudy Gobert ran through him two
Speaker 1: And the Sun's team that took two wins off him
Speaker 1: was Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. So, like Nicole, Jokicz
Speaker 1: ran through everybody. He deserves to be number one. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason why I had steph over Jannis had a
Speaker 1: lot more to do with the way that the Bucks
Speaker 1: lost this year. Now, for the record, Jannis was hurt,
Speaker 1: But the larger concern with me personally surrounding this year's
Speaker 1: playoff run for Yannis was the way that he lost,
Speaker 1: specifically struggling to make shots away from the rim in
Speaker 1: the half court. It kind of felt like Jianis took
Speaker 1: a step backwards this year. He was below fifty percent
Speaker 1: from the free throw line in the playoffs, really really
Speaker 1: struggled to make shots away from the rim. He was
Speaker 1: four for twenty on field goal attempts against Miami outside
Speaker 1: of the restricted area. And really, as we look into
Speaker 1: the future now acknowledging the reality that Yannis is a champion,
Speaker 1: this upcoming sequence of years here with him having to
Speaker 1: compete against the likes of Nikola Jokic. I do think
Speaker 1: that it's a little bit concerning that Yannis has experienced
Speaker 1: a slight decline in terms of some of his skill
Speaker 1: development stuff. But we're going to dive into that a
Speaker 1: little bit later, and even then, it's important for me
Speaker 1: to emphasize that those little bits of criticism that I
Speaker 1: offer or towards Giannis today are meant to be viewed
Speaker 1: within the context of the very best players in the world. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I think Giannis is clearly the best regular season player
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and he's obviously capable of getting the trophy.
Speaker 1: We've seen him do it, so I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: undercut his status as a as a proven, stamped championship
Speaker 1: level player. I'm just looking at him within the context
Speaker 1: of guys like Steph, guys like Nikolajokic, guys at the
Speaker 1: top of the league. In my opinion, if Jannis is
Speaker 1: going to one day unseat Nikola jokicch he's going to
Speaker 1: have to improve in those specific areas. A bunch of
Speaker 1: misfree throws in a non existent touch anywhere away from
Speaker 1: the rim is not going to get it done. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a huge obstacle in that quest, but
Speaker 1: we will talk a little bit more about that later.
Speaker 1: So let's take a little look at his season this year.
Speaker 1: He played in sixty three games, career high thirty one
Speaker 1: points per game to go with twelve rebounds and six
Speaker 1: assists per game sixty one percent through shitting, which is awesome,
Speaker 1: But it was his worst efficiency marks twenty eighteen, so
Speaker 1: he's again, like I said, starting to decline a little
Speaker 1: bit in some of those areas. The play type data,
Speaker 1: transition is still where Janis does the vast majority of
Speaker 1: his damage. He notched five hundred and ninety one points
Speaker 1: in transition in this regular season, which led the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, this is a crazy stat.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight percent, almost a third of Jannis's made field
Speaker 1: goals this year were in transition. One hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: eight out of his seven hundred and seven makes, to
Speaker 1: be exact, were in transition. So no real basketball analysis
Speaker 1: to offer there other than to say that he's just bigger, faster,
Speaker 1: and stronger than everybody, and he weaponizes that a lot
Speaker 1: in transition to generate easy opportunities. Now, isolation was Jiannis's
Speaker 1: second most common play type. He did it about fourteen
Speaker 1: to fifteen percent of his possessions. He logged three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty one ISO possessions this year and scored just
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty seven points zero point ninety four
Speaker 1: points per possession. If you guys remember our high volume
Speaker 1: ISO list, the twenty five players who attempted at least
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty ISOs, he ranked twentieth out of twenty
Speaker 1: five players. He was especially bad shooting out of those situations.
Speaker 1: His passing actually carried him in those situations. He was
Speaker 1: just forty one percent from the field when he attempted
Speaker 1: shots in isolation and just zero point eight four points
Speaker 1: per possession when you include fouls and such like that
Speaker 1: when he shot out of isolation. He was also just
Speaker 1: zero point ninety seven points per possession in post up
Speaker 1: situations when he shot, which is only slightly above average.
Speaker 1: He did, he did pass well out of the post.
Speaker 1: I want to do a whole thing on his passing.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do that in a few minutes, kind of
Speaker 1: zooming in on the shooting here because I think it's informative,
Speaker 1: specifically of his struggles against Miami. And this is where
Speaker 1: I want to take a look at shot making because
Speaker 1: if he's well under a point per possession, when he
Speaker 1: shoots out of ISO in post situations with his physical tools,
Speaker 1: that tells me it's a shot making problem. Now, Giannis
Speaker 1: is the very best rim attacker in the NBA, and
Speaker 1: it's not close. Eight point five restricted areamkes per game
Speaker 1: that he's the NBA seventy five percent shooting there, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: But anywhere away from the rim, Yannis really struggles to
Speaker 1: put the ball in the basket. He shot just twenty
Speaker 1: nine percent on catch and shoot jumpers this year. He
Speaker 1: shot just thirty two percent on pull up jumpers this year,
Speaker 1: hooks and runners. These are all those little pop shots
Speaker 1: in the lane, you know, the ones that Jokic makes
Speaker 1: like two thirds of the time. He was just twenty
Speaker 1: one for seventy five this year on hook shots and floaters.
Speaker 1: That's just twenty eight percent. If I really simplified it down,
Speaker 1: Yanas shot five hundred and thirty six for seven hundred
Speaker 1: and eighteen in the restricted area this year. That's seventy
Speaker 1: five percent. He was just one seventy one for five
Speaker 1: sixty everywhere else on the floor. That's just thirty point
Speaker 1: five percent, So he makes everything around the rim and
Speaker 1: makes a ton of shots there. Anything away from the
Speaker 1: rim is a bad shot for Giannis right now, even
Speaker 1: if you just zoomed in on the paint, just paint
Speaker 1: shots that are outside of the restricted area. He was
Speaker 1: just fifty five for one hundred and ninety seven this year,
Speaker 1: which is just twenty seven point nine percent. Now one
Speaker 1: of my long standing takes with Giannis for those of
Speaker 1: you guys who've been listening to the show for a while,
Speaker 1: I've always believed his passing ability to be more important
Speaker 1: than his jump shot. But not only that, when it
Speaker 1: comes to shots over the top, I could care less
Speaker 1: about a jump shot. I'm talking about that. The stuff
Speaker 1: in the lane is the stuff that matters the most
Speaker 1: to me to and we're gonna talk a lot more
Speaker 1: about this later, But it's the short hook shot, the
Speaker 1: pop shots, the little one handed shots in the lane
Speaker 1: that I think Jannis has to figure out because those
Speaker 1: are way more dependable and easy to get to in
Speaker 1: those situations, especially for him, And it's a shot that
Speaker 1: he's actually capable of becoming good at, and I do
Speaker 1: think his inability to make that shot really hurt him,
Speaker 1: especially in that Miami Miami Heat Series this year. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit more about that in a
Speaker 1: little bit before we get to the Miami Series. I
Speaker 1: want to focus on Gianni's passing for a minute, because
Speaker 1: I think it's actually one of the most underrated parts
Speaker 1: of Gianni's game. Despite not shooting particularly well, Jiannis was
Speaker 1: sixth on a high volume post up list again twenty
Speaker 1: players who ran at least two hundred post ups. He
Speaker 1: was sixth at one point one points per possession. Why
Speaker 1: because he applies so much rim pressure that there's almost
Speaker 1: a comical packing of the paint taking place. And Giannis
Speaker 1: has a gift finding cutters and shooters out of those situations.
Speaker 1: And he holds the ball, palms it in one hand,
Speaker 1: he can see over the top, he can rifle it
Speaker 1: to the right guy on time, on target. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, when Giannis passed out of the post
Speaker 1: this year and happened one hundred and twenty two times,
Speaker 1: they scored one hundred and sixty one points on them.
Speaker 1: That's one point three to two points per possession. When
Speaker 1: Yannis passes out of the post, that's insane, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And again like that's why I talk so much about
Speaker 1: Gianni's passing, Like more important than anything is can you
Speaker 1: get to the rim? And can you make teams pay
Speaker 1: when they pack the paint? And you can make them
Speaker 1: pay either by kicking the shooters or by making shots
Speaker 1: over the top. The reason why I harp on the
Speaker 1: hook shots so much is because eventually you have to
Speaker 1: read the situation to be like, my shooters aren't hitting shots.
Speaker 1: I you know, Wesley Matthews is not hitting today. I
Speaker 1: need to be able to hit this little hook shot, right,
Speaker 1: So that's why I harp on that. But the passing
Speaker 1: is the most important part, and he's great at it.
Speaker 1: Remember how bad he was in ISO. I said he
Speaker 1: was twentyeighth out of twenty five isolation players. That was
Speaker 1: all because he was missing shots. He was great when
Speaker 1: he passed at ISO one hundred and forty points for
Speaker 1: the bucks on one hundred and twenty one Yiannis passes
Speaker 1: out of ISO. That's one point one to six points
Speaker 1: per possession, which is really damn good. So I think
Speaker 1: I think that that kind of like offsets a lot
Speaker 1: of the damage that he does from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: him missing just about everything that he takes away from
Speaker 1: the rim. Yiannis's best and most effective half court play
Speaker 1: type last year was actually pick and roll in terms
Speaker 1: of both passing and shooting. Giannis ran three hundred and
Speaker 1: forty one picking rolls last year, leading to three hundred
Speaker 1: seventy three points. It's one point zero nine points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is in the eighty seventh percentile. He personally shot
Speaker 1: fifty five percent out of pick and roll this year.
Speaker 1: I was really curious about this, so I sat down
Speaker 1: this morning and watched a ton of film on Gianni's
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, and honestly, it was interesting the way
Speaker 1: that it worked. And I put it down to three reasons.
Speaker 1: First of all, teams have to guard Giannis with a big,
Speaker 1: strong forward, and big strong forwards just really struggle with
Speaker 1: screen navigation, not just because they're big and so they're
Speaker 1: a big easy target for a screener, but also because
Speaker 1: they just don't practice it. Guards and other perimeter players
Speaker 1: practice screen navigation from an early age, and especially in
Speaker 1: high school college, they do it NonStop. Forwards don't. They
Speaker 1: don't practice screen navigation. They're bad at it. It's about
Speaker 1: making yourself small, taking really quick nimble steps things that
Speaker 1: big forwards don't usually do. And so you just watched
Speaker 1: these guard, these big forwards guarding Yannis as he's getting
Speaker 1: going and pick and roll and they just die on
Speaker 1: the screen every single time. And then he's either getting
Speaker 1: a ton of separations because they run a ton of
Speaker 1: pick and pop right like it's a lot of Bobby
Speaker 1: port Is popping at the top of the key. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of Brook Lopez popping to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. And so if they don't switch it, Giannis
Speaker 1: is going downhill into the help with like like a
Speaker 1: head of steam and no one can stop him. And
Speaker 1: if they do switch it, now he's got a big,
Speaker 1: slow footed guy on him. So number one is having
Speaker 1: the big strong forwards guard him, they can't navigate. Two,
Speaker 1: they start gi honest with the head of steam from
Speaker 1: half court. If you watch giannest pick and rolls, he's
Speaker 1: not like, you know, coming off a wide pin down,
Speaker 1: catching the ball, setting his man up with some sort
Speaker 1: of countermove and then kind of methodically going over the top. Now,
Speaker 1: screw that. They got him starting from the logo and
Speaker 1: he's like coming at you with the head of steam
Speaker 1: while there's a ball screen and it's just really really
Speaker 1: difficult to guard. And then lastly, the third thing I
Speaker 1: put down once again, his passing ability is just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: In the pick and roll situations, it's mainly kick out
Speaker 1: passes to shooters. You'll notice teams are so paranoid about
Speaker 1: Gianis getting downhill and pick and roll, they'll vacate the
Speaker 1: weekside corner and bring that third man over literally before
Speaker 1: he even gets inside the three point line. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of Giannis picking roles where he hasn't even
Speaker 1: crossed the three point line and he's just throwing that
Speaker 1: rifle pass over the top to the shooters wide open
Speaker 1: on the wing. Again, Like, that's why I put such
Speaker 1: an emphasis on passing ability. Even if you want to
Speaker 1: say Giannis can only go to the rim, that's fair.
Speaker 1: But the only way you're stopping him from getting there
Speaker 1: is by putting all your guys in there. And if
Speaker 1: you put all your guys in there, you gotta leave
Speaker 1: people open. And if Giannis can keep hitting those guys,
Speaker 1: and if they make enough shots, you're gonna lose. And
Speaker 1: if they're missing shots, and he does happen to eventually
Speaker 1: develop some sort of shot that he can make over
Speaker 1: the top of the defense. That's when he has the
Speaker 1: ability to challenge Yokich as the best player in the world. Again.
Speaker 1: All of this, in my opinion, makes Giannis the very
Speaker 1: best regular season player in the NBA. He's the best
Speaker 1: rim attacker in the league. He's a really good playmaker,
Speaker 1: and he's one of the five best defensive play in
Speaker 1: the league. I put it with him, Rudy Gobert, Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: bam Adebaye on Anthony Davis, and you can rank those
Speaker 1: in some order. I think Anthony Davis deserves the number
Speaker 1: one spot this year. I don't think he's as good
Speaker 1: in pick and roll as some of his peers, particularly
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Davis or Draymond Green, but he's still
Speaker 1: really good in those situations, and he's probably the best
Speaker 1: help defender in the league. They like to have Brooke
Speaker 1: defend a lot of pick and rolls and have him
Speaker 1: kind of guard the guy in the weekside corner, and
Speaker 1: then he's kind of coming over as that low man
Speaker 1: because he's kind of uniquely one of the rare athletes
Speaker 1: in the league that can step over and basically guard
Speaker 1: the pick and roll three on two and defend everything
Speaker 1: at the rim, which allows brook Lopez to come out
Speaker 1: higher on his screens, right, But if there's a kickout pass,
Speaker 1: he's one of like two or three guys in the
Speaker 1: entire world that can turn and close out to the
Speaker 1: corner from under the basket and block a three point shooter.
Speaker 1: I famously, I've told the story a bunch of times
Speaker 1: on the show, but famously once I watched Luka Doncic
Speaker 1: pull Yannis into ball screens for the sole purpose of
Speaker 1: getting him out of help, not so he shoots over him,
Speaker 1: but just so that when he makes that kickout pass
Speaker 1: to the corner, it's somebody else closing out and they
Speaker 1: can actually get a shot off, because I watched Giannis
Speaker 1: time and time again swallow that up with his ridiculous athleticism.
Speaker 1: So when you combine his rim pressure, playmaking and being
Speaker 1: a top five defender in the league, that's the best
Speaker 1: regular season player in the league. Especially with his consistent effort.
Speaker 1: He's one of the biggest, you know, motor guys in
Speaker 1: the league, one of the best motor, consistent motor guys
Speaker 1: that we have in the league. But we do have
Speaker 1: to talk about the Miami series, and again, I we
Speaker 1: have to start by pointing out the injuries. Not only
Speaker 1: was he dealing with knee injury all season and probably
Speaker 1: was less than one hundred percent with the knee going
Speaker 1: into that series, but he also had that back injury
Speaker 1: that he suffered in Game one. But while he was
Speaker 1: out on the court, the same lack of touch issues
Speaker 1: that we saw in the regular season manifested in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: In the Heat Series, Giannis was twenty four for thirty
Speaker 1: three in the restricted area. That's seventy three percent. That's
Speaker 1: only a very slight decline in efficiency from his regular
Speaker 1: season numbers, and he really only played two games in
Speaker 1: the series, so that's like twelve makes a game, which
Speaker 1: is a time and a half what he got in
Speaker 1: the regular season. That's not the issue. He was four
Speaker 1: for twenty on any other field goal attempt. He was
Speaker 1: fourteen for thirty one from the free throw line, well
Speaker 1: below fifty percent. And it was a problem because Bam,
Speaker 1: especially in important pivotal moments in late game situations. Bam
Speaker 1: did a nice job sliding his feet and forcing Yiannis
Speaker 1: to take shots over the top. Bam also did really
Speaker 1: a job of giving ground. He was letting Yanis get
Speaker 1: down to like five ten feet, but not letting him
Speaker 1: get past him. So Giannis had to go to one
Speaker 1: of those turnaround hook shots and he just couldn't make him.
Speaker 1: This is where I want to focus on the hook
Speaker 1: shot for a second. As I said earlier, it's the
Speaker 1: hook shot that I thought was Giannis's biggest problem in
Speaker 1: the Miami series. He was two for seven on hook
Speaker 1: shots in the Miami Series. And by the way, I
Speaker 1: did a tweet out a video that has all seven
Speaker 1: of those hook shots, so you can see specific examples
Speaker 1: of the types of looks that he was getting. The
Speaker 1: reason why I want you guys to watch that video
Speaker 1: is I'm going to talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: specific footwork that it takes, because before you think this
Speaker 1: was injury related, Giannis was thirteen for thirty seven on
Speaker 1: hook shots this year, which is like thirty five percent.
Speaker 1: Here's why the hook is important. He's not close to
Speaker 1: having a dependable jump shot like miles and miles away.
Speaker 1: He's not one off season of work away from being
Speaker 1: a good jump shooter. He's not two off seasons of
Speaker 1: work away from being a good jump shooter. He'll be
Speaker 1: lucky to have a dependable jump shot. When he's thirty
Speaker 1: five years old, he just has two. There's too much
Speaker 1: ground to make up. He's not streaky, he's not anything.
Speaker 1: He's just not good at making those shots. But he
Speaker 1: can in one summer become a player who has a
Speaker 1: dependable hook shot. He's capable of that. Why because it's
Speaker 1: an easy shot for him to get. It's a ton
Speaker 1: of separation with how big and strong he is and
Speaker 1: how tall and athletic he is. The footwork is easy.
Speaker 1: It's just try to bulldoze your way to the rim.
Speaker 1: If you get cut off, quick pivot and spin to
Speaker 1: your back to the basket and take a right handed
Speaker 1: hook shot over your left shoulder. And you'll see the
Speaker 1: specific footwork I'm talking about. If you guys watch the
Speaker 1: video I put up. There was the one in game.
Speaker 1: There was two that he took at the end of games.
Speaker 1: One at the end of game four and one at
Speaker 1: the end of game five, and they're both in the video,
Speaker 1: and in both of them, he's starting up top, he's
Speaker 1: bringing the head of team down, Bam cuts him off.
Speaker 1: He pivots over that left shoulder and gets a great look,
Speaker 1: and he just can't make it. But the interesting part
Speaker 1: of those clips is if I saw Giannis dribble down
Speaker 1: and take a pull up eighteen foot or and he
Speaker 1: missed it, you go, okay, Miami wants him to take
Speaker 1: that shot, like he's never gonna make that shot, right.
Speaker 1: But the hook shots, a good shot like that is
Speaker 1: a locked in Miami defense defending like their lives are
Speaker 1: on the line to win a series. And Giannis is
Speaker 1: so damn big and strong and has such good control
Speaker 1: over the basketball that he gets an easy, little seven
Speaker 1: eight foot pop shot in the lane. He's got everything
Speaker 1: there except for the finish. That to me, is way
Speaker 1: more dependable than anything involving the jumper for him, not
Speaker 1: to mention, he can get to it from anywhere, post
Speaker 1: up situations. Just there's a couple of them in there
Speaker 1: that you'll see that he made where he just had
Speaker 1: the ball on the right left block, dribble, dribble, get
Speaker 1: into the lane, easy hook shot, and he makes it.
Speaker 1: He can get to it and pick and roll. He
Speaker 1: can get to it in ISO. Those are more like
Speaker 1: he gets down, he'll get cut off, pivots into a
Speaker 1: spin move and just takes the hook shot out of
Speaker 1: the spin move right especially when he's driving towards his left.
Speaker 1: But even when he drives towards his right, he could
Speaker 1: pivot back and then back over his left shoulder. That's
Speaker 1: the shot he has to add. In my opinion, If
Speaker 1: he adds that, that will make him a much more
Speaker 1: dependable half court scorer in the playoffs. Here's why I'm
Speaker 1: harping so hard on this stuff with Giannis. A championship
Speaker 1: is a championship Giannis has stamped forever in my book.
Speaker 1: But let's be honest, Giannis's next championship will probably be harder.
Speaker 1: Why because you'll probably have to go through more talent
Speaker 1: to get there. Why because the league is just more stacked.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not again. You guys know how I feel
Speaker 1: about undercutting championships. A championship is a championship is a championship.
Speaker 1: That said, we can look at twenty twenty one and
Speaker 1: acknowledge that a Paul George led Clippers team probably won't
Speaker 1: be a conference finalist next year. Trey Young led Hawks
Speaker 1: team probably won't be a conference finalist next year. A
Speaker 1: Devin Booker led with Chris Paul behind Sun's team probably
Speaker 1: won't be a conference finalist next year. In the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: You're most likely going to see Damian Lillard, Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: and bam Adebayo, or something like Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: and Chris tops Porzingis. Those are much more talented teams
Speaker 1: in that Atlanta Hawks team. Right when you get to
Speaker 1: the finals, you're most likely going to see like Devin
Speaker 1: Booker flanked by Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, or Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves, or Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: who has all of the same power in his game
Speaker 1: that Giannis does, manifest it in a different way, more methodical,
Speaker 1: but the same type of relentless, unstoppable power, except for
Speaker 1: he makes all of his shots away from the rim,
Speaker 1: and he's a better playmaker than you. So the point
Speaker 1: is is it's not what he is a has accomplished.
Speaker 1: Giannis is stamped forever. But let's be real about what
Speaker 1: the future is going to look like. As of right now,
Speaker 1: Yannis has to get better in order to have a
Speaker 1: better chance of competing over the course of the next
Speaker 1: five to ten years. I believe he will. For the record,
Speaker 1: I think you saw I think it was somewhat evidenced
Speaker 1: in his social media behavior. But I think Jannis is
Speaker 1: aware of the fact that he knows that he's got
Speaker 1: to go up a level. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: who plays too hard, who works too hard, who cares
Speaker 1: too much. So I expect Giannis to make that improvement.
Speaker 1: But he's got to start making his free throws again.
Speaker 1: Can't regress in that sense, and he's got to figure
Speaker 1: out some sort of shot he can make over the
Speaker 1: top of the defense. If you can figure that out
Speaker 1: and he's healthy, I think he's got a chance to
Speaker 1: go blow for blow with Nicole Jokic over the course
Speaker 1: of the next half decade. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. Is always I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: your support and I will see you next time. The
Speaker 1: volume