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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Monday. Everybody. Hope all of you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend. It is good to be back. I had
Speaker 1: a very fun weekend at the sphere with my wife.
Speaker 1: We went to three Dead shows and just an incredible experience.
Speaker 1: I've seen them. I think I was talking through this
Speaker 1: with my brother last night. I think I've seen nine
Speaker 1: Dead shows now, so I think I officially qualify as
Speaker 1: a deadhead. I've really grown to appreciate that as like
Speaker 1: one of the final opportunities we have to see in
Speaker 1: old school jam band in their prime. And it's been
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. That said, it's time to get
Speaker 1: serious about the NBA. We are three. I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this when I was recording with Colin last night.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you haven't seen that yet,
Speaker 1: go to the Colin Coward podcast YouTube channel. We talked
Speaker 1: last night. We talked a bunch of Celtics, we talked
Speaker 1: a bunch of Thunder, we talked some Lakers, we talked
Speaker 1: to some Cooper Flag. We got to do a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff, so make sure you guys check that out.
Speaker 1: But while we were talking, we were thinking about the
Speaker 1: next time we're gonna record, and it's gonna be in
Speaker 1: two Sundays. Two Sundays from now, we're gonna know four
Speaker 1: of the eight first round series, and that following Sunday
Speaker 1: we're gonna know all eight of them, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: have series previews and we have the play in tournament.
Speaker 1: There's just so much exciting basketball ahead. It feels very
Speaker 1: very much like the calm before the storm. But that's it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I got to take a little bit of
Speaker 1: a break and do some traveling, but I'm excited to
Speaker 1: get back to it. Today. We're going to be talking
Speaker 1: a little bit of Lakers after their uneven road trip,
Speaker 1: which has shown a lot of extended stretches of dominance,
Speaker 1: but also some execution lapses, including a catastrophic loss in
Speaker 1: Chicago to the Bulls. Or we're talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. I want to shout out Zachary Rissache, who
Speaker 1: had a career high thirty six points last night, and
Speaker 1: there was some stuff with him that was popping in
Speaker 1: a film session I did with him surrounding a Hawk's
Speaker 1: Rockets game about a week ago. So I want to
Speaker 1: kind of talk a little bit about Zachary Rissache's rookie season.
Speaker 1: And then at the tail end of the show, I
Speaker 1: think we finally saw the nail, the final nail go
Speaker 1: in the coffin of the Phoenix Suns last night, as
Speaker 1: they just got demolished by the Houston Rockets. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the Suns at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the show, and then we are
Speaker 1: going live tonight after the TNT Slates so we're going
Speaker 1: to be hitting Celtic's Grizzlies as well as Lakers Rockets
Speaker 1: in tonight's show. You guys are the joke before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. Miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos, follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore jsonlt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you
Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review on that front. We
Speaker 1: also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook where Jackson's doing some incredible work this year.
Speaker 1: Make sure you guys follow us there, and then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep getting to them throughout the
Speaker 1: remainder of the season. We're doing a mail bag I
Speaker 1: think I'm recording one tomorrow, so make sure you get
Speaker 1: a bunch of mail bag questions in the comments of
Speaker 1: this video for what we're recording tomorrow, which I believe
Speaker 1: is going to air on Wednesday. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So after the Pacers game, I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the idea of the Lakers having these brief
Speaker 1: catastrophic lapses in execution that are costing them games or
Speaker 1: costing them opportunities to close games out more comfortably. Since
Speaker 1: the Pacers game, they lost an absolutely insane game against
Speaker 1: the Bulls. The Bulls made eleven threes in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: including a half court shot from Josh Giddy to win it.
Speaker 1: And a win in Memphis against the Grizzlies similarly where
Speaker 1: they led by twenty and then ended up trailing in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. And the Grizzlies have been spiraling a
Speaker 1: little bit, and they just fired their coach, but they
Speaker 1: have a ton of talent. Joan Morant was back. They
Speaker 1: were the five seed, I believe at the time, or
Speaker 1: the four to five seed. They had the same record
Speaker 1: as the Lakers, a couple of quality opponents on the
Speaker 1: road that the Lakers dominated for stretches, yet still had
Speaker 1: to manage to almost lose. I talked about those issues
Speaker 1: after the Pacers game, and a couple of great examples
Speaker 1: in the two following games. Again, they've played three good
Speaker 1: teams on the road in this three game span. The
Speaker 1: Pacers had won seven out of eight. The Bulls had
Speaker 1: won eight out of ten. And the Grizzlies were in
Speaker 1: a cold spell, like we said, but their five seed
Speaker 1: and they've been great at home all year. The Lakers
Speaker 1: led by at least seventeen points in all three of
Speaker 1: those games. They led by twenty against Memphis, they led
Speaker 1: by eighteen in the fourth quarter of the Bulls game.
Speaker 1: Yet they trailed in the fourth quarter of every single
Speaker 1: one of those three games. Actually managed to lose one
Speaker 1: of them. And if it wasn't for a Lebron tapping
Speaker 1: at the buzzer against Indiana, they would have gone one
Speaker 1: to two in those three games. Long extended stretches of
Speaker 1: dominance undone with these brief catastrophic laps As an execution
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies game, I was watching it yesterday in the
Speaker 1: morning before we went to the airport. They were up
Speaker 1: fifty to thirty. On a Lebron James shot put them
Speaker 1: up twenty. The Grizzlies cut that twenty point lead to
Speaker 1: six in four minutes. Imagine dominating a team for a
Speaker 1: quarter and a half and losing ninety percent of that
Speaker 1: progress in a four minute span where you let go
Speaker 1: of the rope. It ends up being the same issues
Speaker 1: every single time. One of these two. On offense, they
Speaker 1: walked the ball up the floor slowly. They usually succumbed
Speaker 1: to ball pressure and either get too deep into the
Speaker 1: shot clock and have to take bad shots, or they
Speaker 1: end up having to face a trap or something like that,
Speaker 1: and Lebron, Luca or Austin will be sloppy with the
Speaker 1: way they handle that ball pressure and they'll turn the
Speaker 1: ball over and they'll end up going the other way
Speaker 1: in transition. On defense, and this is one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting things about this Laker defense. Their defense is
Speaker 1: predicated on keeping the ball in front of a defender,
Speaker 1: always keeping someone between them and the rim, so they
Speaker 1: have to make something over the top. You'll see with
Speaker 1: their dribble penetration the way they handle it like the
Speaker 1: guy on the ball has a job to slide his
Speaker 1: feet and contain the ball. Great example I thought from
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies game was Austin Reeves. I thought Austin just
Speaker 1: did an excellent job for most of the game in
Speaker 1: reps against John Moran and against Desmond Bain, sliding his feet,
Speaker 1: absorbing contact, flattening out drives. That's what you want to do,
Speaker 1: but inevitably you're gonna give up dribble penetration. This Lakers
Speaker 1: team is going to give up dribble penetration. They have
Speaker 1: too many of those slower footed guys on the floor.
Speaker 1: Foot speed is not necessarily the strength this Laker team
Speaker 1: outside of a handful of guys, right So from there
Speaker 1: they have a plan. They're always funneling towards the sideline
Speaker 1: and they're offering help from the baseline. And generally speaking,
Speaker 1: if a guy gets beat off the dribble, that guy
Speaker 1: who's guarding the ball will just bail and run to
Speaker 1: the next rotation and there will be somebody almost to
Speaker 1: like it kind of feels almost like catching, like the
Speaker 1: guy is the helper is catching the drive, sitting in
Speaker 1: his stance, arms out wide, right around like that first block,
Speaker 1: second block, waiting for the guy on the drive in
Speaker 1: help as the team rotates around him. And that's how
Speaker 1: the Lakers deal with dribble penetration. They basically switch on
Speaker 1: the drive. If that makes sense that that's the type
Speaker 1: of scheme requires a lot of hard work. The on
Speaker 1: ball guy has to rotate out of it. The helper
Speaker 1: has to be there in time. There are these brief
Speaker 1: openings where guys have to rotate to shooters. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of running, a lot of reading the play, a
Speaker 1: lot of communication. And when the Lakers do those things
Speaker 1: this year, they've been great defensively. They did it consistently
Speaker 1: for a few months there from mid January to early March,
Speaker 1: right and we've seen flashes of it in the last week.
Speaker 1: They hold Chicago to seventeen points in that third quarter
Speaker 1: when they go on their big run to take the lead.
Speaker 1: They shut Indy down in that second quarter when they
Speaker 1: first took their big lead in that game. But since
Speaker 1: Lebron's injury, it's been a we'll do it when we
Speaker 1: feel like it kind of thing. And again like when
Speaker 1: in the two main ways that I see them let
Speaker 1: go of the rope in these like kind of catch
Speaker 1: help type of rotation situations, it are like at the
Speaker 1: end of the Indie game, Lucas starts getting beat off
Speaker 1: the dribble, Ruie starts getting beat off the dribble. The
Speaker 1: catches were not there. The Lakers were just hugging up
Speaker 1: off the ball, leaving dudes on an island, and they
Speaker 1: were giving up easy like concession driving lamps. Again, that's
Speaker 1: a fundamental part. So what makes their defense good is
Speaker 1: they're loaded up, they have their help ready, they rotate
Speaker 1: out of it, and they literally almost blew a game
Speaker 1: in Indiana by completely stopping that at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the game. The second way that you'll end up
Speaker 1: seeing it is in overhelp situations. This we saw in
Speaker 1: the Bulls game. It's okay to acknowledge that the Bulls
Speaker 1: shot eleven for fourteen from three in the quarter. That's
Speaker 1: insane under any circumstances. A lot of impressive shot making, right,
Speaker 1: but you have to find a way as a defense
Speaker 1: to make guys uncomfortable, to make them miss, And there
Speaker 1: were several execution errors in that quarter which are going
Speaker 1: to breed a red hot shooting stretch. They helped off
Speaker 1: of the strong side corner twice in that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: against the Bulls. You guys have probably heard this before,
Speaker 1: this concept of don't help off the strong side corner.
Speaker 1: There's a very specific reason why you don't want to
Speaker 1: help off of the strong side corner. It is the
Speaker 1: easiest pass in the world basketball player to make. You're
Speaker 1: funneling guys towards the sideline. Guys on the left wing,
Speaker 1: he rips to the left, the guy sliding with him,
Speaker 1: he's got dribble penetration. What's the easiest pass in the
Speaker 1: world for that guy to make is if the guy
Speaker 1: in the left corner steps over and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: little ten foot chess pass to a wide open guy
Speaker 1: standing in the corner literally ten feet away, writing clear view,
Speaker 1: it's an easy pass to make. Right what you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do in that situation. That guy, if he wants
Speaker 1: to gap to where he feels comfortable closing out, that's
Speaker 1: one thing where he just reaches and recovers. But that's
Speaker 1: not the guy you ever want to concede the pass to.
Speaker 1: You have help coming from the baseline. When the help
Speaker 1: comes from the baseline, there's a way to beat that help,
Speaker 1: but it is a substantially tougher pass. Now imagine a
Speaker 1: different scenario, left wing rip, left dribble penetration. We have
Speaker 1: Lebron on Kevin Herder in the left corner in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of the Bulls game. Lebron helped off Kevin
Speaker 1: Herder got a wide open three, and he nailed it.
Speaker 1: Let's say Lebron's gapping but stays in control of Herder.
Speaker 1: Now the help comes from Jackson Hayes along the baseline,
Speaker 1: who's open the skip for a left handed dribbler trying
Speaker 1: to go across his body and acrossed helpers covering twenty
Speaker 1: five feet in the air thirty feet in the air
Speaker 1: to get to the open man. That's why you don't
Speaker 1: help off the strong side corner. It's simply about knowing
Speaker 1: where the help is coming from and making the passer
Speaker 1: make a more difficult pass. A more difficult pass over
Speaker 1: a longer stretch of space that's looping or deflected or
Speaker 1: not on target is much easier for your defense to
Speaker 1: rotate out of. That is basketball one oh one. There
Speaker 1: were two strong side corner helps that gave wide open
Speaker 1: threes to Kobe White and Order in that fourth herder
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter. Those are execution errors. Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: overhelped on a drive left Nikole Vusovich wide open at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. Again, we talked about this.
Speaker 1: When a guy has a drive flattened out and under control,
Speaker 1: he now has to take a contested, off balance layup
Speaker 1: substantially lower percentage shot on a two. Like if he
Speaker 1: goes forty five percent on that layup, that's zero point
Speaker 1: nine points per shot. Your defense can live with that
Speaker 1: it's the straight line drives where it's like he's going
Speaker 1: to make a layup every time. That's when you need
Speaker 1: to be there and ready to help. You overhelp, give
Speaker 1: up a wide open three to Vusovich. Luka had a
Speaker 1: very similar one where a driver was contained, left Patrick
Speaker 1: Williams wide open at the top of the key. Lebron
Speaker 1: two awful reps in the final minute uh go screen
Speaker 1: from Kevin Herder that the Lakers were switching all night.
Speaker 1: It was a clear switch. Lebron looked like he was
Speaker 1: on the bus because they're up, you know, five or
Speaker 1: six with less than a minute left. He thinks the
Speaker 1: game is over. It's not over. He's lazy. He's on
Speaker 1: He's standing upright out of his stance. Kevin Herder slips
Speaker 1: out of the screen, hits a wide open three the
Speaker 1: possession before the Kobe White three that gave him the lead.
Speaker 1: Lebron overhelps on Avusvich upper like kind of left wing
Speaker 1: area catch, ends up leaving Patrick Williams wide open in
Speaker 1: the left corner right before he threw the ball away
Speaker 1: throwing the ball to Kobe White. These are execution errors.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of Laker fans saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe the Bulls shot eleven for fourteen from three.
Speaker 1: We have got to get out of this mindset of
Speaker 1: thinking that shooting is all just luck. It is not.
Speaker 1: You can play teams into missus and makes to a
Speaker 1: certain extent, I would argue that process has a much
Speaker 1: bigger role in shot result than luck, even though we
Speaker 1: can acknowledge that luck does play a role. And again,
Speaker 1: like the Lakers, they they have an opportunity to win
Speaker 1: the title this year, but there are certain non negotiables
Speaker 1: things that they absolutely must have tightened up if they're
Speaker 1: gonna get to where they want to go, and one
Speaker 1: of them is they have to be the best defensive
Speaker 1: version of themselves, which is going to require a wire
Speaker 1: to wire level of execution. I know they can do it.
Speaker 1: They held what six or seven straight teams to one
Speaker 1: hundred and two points or fewer. They are capable of
Speaker 1: doing that. They have not been doing that since Lebron
Speaker 1: James came back from injury. I just think it's at
Speaker 1: least worth acknowledging as a trend and something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. The bottom line is the Lakers just
Speaker 1: played three good teams on the road, went in methodically
Speaker 1: dominated them to large leads, and yet they were one
Speaker 1: Lebron tip in from going one and two. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to be all gloom and doom. I'm still super
Speaker 1: high on the Lakers. I was listening while I was
Speaker 1: on the airplane yesterday to Pet and Darius from Laker
Speaker 1: Film Room, and Darius Oreano does great work. He also
Speaker 1: writes for Lakers dot com. He was talking about how
Speaker 1: he viewed these two games, these two kind ugly games
Speaker 1: to Indiana and Chicago, as part of the Lakers returning
Speaker 1: to form before the Lebron injury. I totally agree. I
Speaker 1: do think that these last three games are a sign,
Speaker 1: especially after they looked bad against Orlando and what was
Speaker 1: the of the first Chicago game, they are progressing towards
Speaker 1: being what they were before the Lebron injury. I am
Speaker 1: still super high on this team. I'm still very tempted
Speaker 1: to pick them to win the West when we do
Speaker 1: our playoff predictions in the coming weeks. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to harp on these execution lapses because I do view
Speaker 1: them as a non negotiable thing. If how many champions
Speaker 1: do you know of an NBA history? They had a
Speaker 1: reputation for extended like or like consistent three or four
Speaker 1: minute stretches in every game where they just don't play
Speaker 1: hard and they don't execute and they hemorrhage leads. It
Speaker 1: burns you, it does, don't tell me it doesn't. It's
Speaker 1: happened so many times in NBA history that the Bucks
Speaker 1: Raptors series, when they had that big lead in Game
Speaker 1: four before they blew it the the the Lakers, excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat blowing that game to the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: in Game two back in twenty eleven. There are so
Speaker 1: many examples in NBA history where series who the trophy
Speaker 1: goes to swings on a team blowing a lead, a
Speaker 1: team not finishing the job. Job's not finished until the
Speaker 1: buzzer sounds, and that is a very important hallmark trait
Speaker 1: for NBA champions. And I just would like to see
Speaker 1: before we get to mid April, I would like to
Speaker 1: see a week or two stretch where the Lakers show
Speaker 1: that consistent level of execution from buzzer to buzzer again.
Speaker 1: We are going to be covering the Lakers Rockets game
Speaker 1: tonight on YouTube, including the Celtics Grizzlies game live on
Speaker 1: YouTube after the final buzzer of that last game. Let's
Speaker 1: move on to Zachary Usache in the Hawk. So he
Speaker 1: drops the career high thirty six in a dominant victory
Speaker 1: over the Bucks. So the third game this year he
Speaker 1: scored over thirty points. Zach's played twenty seven consecutive games.
Speaker 1: In those games, he's averaging fifteen point two points per game.
Speaker 1: He's shooting fifty two percent from the field forty three
Speaker 1: percent from three on over five attempts per game. He's
Speaker 1: showcasing a little bit more of a quick release against
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Hit a couple of no dip jumpers. Those
Speaker 1: are where the ball is already is caught in the
Speaker 1: pocket and you flow immediately into the shot instead of
Speaker 1: having to catch somewhere else and then dip down into
Speaker 1: your release and like kind of restart your chain of
Speaker 1: energy from the floor up to the top of the shot.
Speaker 1: He's showing a lot of really high level scoring. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about this concept for a minute because
Speaker 1: I think it's a really important part of team building
Speaker 1: moving forward in the NBA. Scoring is the ultimate compliment
Speaker 1: to playmaking. I've been thinking a lot about this content
Speaker 1: at this season. When you have elite playmaking on your team,
Speaker 1: Guys like Trey Young, guys like Lebron, Luca and Nicola Jokic,
Speaker 1: these really really high level passers. You need elite play
Speaker 1: finishing to pay those sequences off. Whether it's a vertical
Speaker 1: spacer like Aaron Gordon alongside Jokic, or Derek Lively alongside Luca,
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes alongside Luca, or a deadly spot up guy
Speaker 1: someone like Kyle Korter back with Lebron when he was
Speaker 1: with the Cavs, or Malik Beasley playing with Kid Cunningham.
Speaker 1: Guys that can pay off these sequences from your playmakers.
Speaker 1: But one of the manifestations of that type of player
Speaker 1: that I've been talking a lot about this year, I've
Speaker 1: been referring to it as the weak side scoring forward.
Speaker 1: This is why I went into detail about the strong
Speaker 1: side corner help thing that we talked about earlier. The
Speaker 1: same concept is built into pick and roll coverages too.
Speaker 1: There's a reason why they don't offer low man help
Speaker 1: out of the strong side corner. They offer low man
Speaker 1: help out of the weak side corner. Why do they
Speaker 1: do that? So that for the same reason on an
Speaker 1: ISO drive, if a guy's getting downhill in a ball screen.
Speaker 1: The opening for him as a playmaker is across the
Speaker 1: court and across his body. That's the goal. You want
Speaker 1: to make it across the court and across the body,
Speaker 1: across as many help defenders as possible to make that
Speaker 1: past difficult, right, but that is ultimately the opening, and
Speaker 1: all of the best playmakers in the league consistently capitalize
Speaker 1: on those openings. We've talked about this concept a ton
Speaker 1: making reads in pick and roll. What are my reads?
Speaker 1: Big man steps up, I'm making a read based on
Speaker 1: the role man or the weak side corner, based on
Speaker 1: what the low man does. If the loeman steps over,
Speaker 1: I'm skipping it. If the one man stays home, excuse me,
Speaker 1: I'm throwing the lob. If the big man drops back
Speaker 1: and the guard is chasing, my read is to shoot
Speaker 1: in the mid range. My read is to get as
Speaker 1: close to the basket for as high percentage of a
Speaker 1: shot as possible. Those are the pick and roll reads.
Speaker 1: And so when these teams, the majority of teams are
Speaker 1: bringing their big up to the level and bringing the
Speaker 1: low man over, that skip passes open, and those skip
Speaker 1: passes are going to be made, especially by Trey young.
Speaker 1: In these sorts of situations, there's a bunch of different
Speaker 1: ways that you can look to score right. It's not
Speaker 1: just hitting spot up threes. It's running your lane in
Speaker 1: transition as an athlete, it's driving closeouts. It's oh, they
Speaker 1: switched a screen or we ran in transition and got
Speaker 1: a cross match, and now there's a guard on this forward.
Speaker 1: You need that forward to do a lot more of
Speaker 1: this high level scoring. These are professional scorers, but primarily
Speaker 1: in an off ball context. Examples are like Michael Porter,
Speaker 1: Junior og An, Andobi Ruy Hatcha, Mura, DeAndre Hunter, Lori
Speaker 1: Markenen is kind of a high end version of that
Speaker 1: for the Jazz Denny Avdia, even though he's been doing
Speaker 1: more on ball stuff as of late, Kyle Kuzma, PJ Washington,
Speaker 1: this is becoming an extremely important archetype in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Zachary Rissaschet has been doing some of the best week
Speaker 1: side scoring work you'll see out of a rookie four
Speaker 1: starts in transition. I was watching the Rockets Hawks game
Speaker 1: from about a week ago. You can find him on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed. I shared some clips, but Zachary Rissachet
Speaker 1: was amazing in transition in that game, just literally out
Speaker 1: running everybody up the floor, didn't matter if the rebound
Speaker 1: was captured and he was on the baseline. He was
Speaker 1: sprinting and it was so visually jarring that I clipped
Speaker 1: these examples and I put them on my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: for you guys to see. Watch these three clips. Watch
Speaker 1: the way Zachary Rissache runs. Watch when he gets his
Speaker 1: head of steam, how it literally looks like he's moving
Speaker 1: a different speed than everyone else on the floor. He's
Speaker 1: a gazelle. It's crazy. And he'll get two or three
Speaker 1: wide open attempts at the rim every game just by
Speaker 1: running the floor. And that pairs perfectly with Trey Young,
Speaker 1: who's one of the best hit a head passers in
Speaker 1: the league. I had to coach my last year in
Speaker 1: college at Arizona Christian University. Shout out to Jeff Rudder.
Speaker 1: They just won their conference. Turn him in on a
Speaker 1: buzzer beater, crazy buzzer beater, and then they made it
Speaker 1: to the final four before losing Naia tournament. But he
Speaker 1: used to say to all of us that you can
Speaker 1: manufacture twelve points a game just by getting a transition layup,
Speaker 1: running the floor, crashing the offensive glass and getting to
Speaker 1: the foul line once per half. It's such a simple
Speaker 1: way to produce in a basketball game. And even if
Speaker 1: you take the foul line part out, because obviously there's
Speaker 1: some out of your control stuff there with the whistle,
Speaker 1: if you just crash the offensive glass and you just
Speaker 1: run your lane in transition and you get one bucket
Speaker 1: a half each, that's eight points right there. You're one
Speaker 1: bucket away from double figures. It is such a simple
Speaker 1: way to produce in a basketball game. Run every time,
Speaker 1: crash every time. And he presents such a massive passing
Speaker 1: target for Tray because he's so athletic, so rangy and long.
Speaker 1: He caught a behind the back lob from Trey in
Speaker 1: the Bucks game where he dunked it behind his head
Speaker 1: because it's just a massive passing target. Then in the
Speaker 1: half court, as we talked about, when they load up
Speaker 1: the strong side in those skips, it's just like king
Speaker 1: of the court. When you're playing with your buddies on
Speaker 1: short closeouts, you need to knock down threes. He's starting
Speaker 1: to do that at a really high level. In this
Speaker 1: twenty seven game span, he's at forty three percent on
Speaker 1: over five attempts per game. Now, what's gonna start happening.
Speaker 1: If he can maintain that level of shooting for a
Speaker 1: substantial amount of time, he's gonna start getting chased off
Speaker 1: the line. And that's where I think he has a
Speaker 1: ton of potential as a score. He has downhill burst
Speaker 1: attacking close outs. He had a dunk against Shangoon in
Speaker 1: the Rockets game where he drove a close out off
Speaker 1: the left wing and just hammered it with his left
Speaker 1: hand on Shangon's face, a wildly athletic play. He has
Speaker 1: good footwork on like spins in Euros. He had a
Speaker 1: bucket against the Nets. Driving a close out against Nick
Speaker 1: Claxton in the left corner. He jabbed, got back to
Speaker 1: it deep in the corner with a hesitation drib will
Speaker 1: cross back over, got into the lane, pump, faked, pivoted
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder on his step through for a
Speaker 1: left handed finish. That's a really high level scoring move.
Speaker 1: He had one on Harden off the left wing, jabbed left,
Speaker 1: drove right, snatched back to the left, drove high gather
Speaker 1: through zubach and finished at the basket. These are really
Speaker 1: high level scoring moves attacking with an advantage in those
Speaker 1: king of the court situations. He had a left to
Speaker 1: right euro against Zubatch a couple weeks ago where he
Speaker 1: drove out of the corner. Like left to right euro
Speaker 1: is one of the most complex footwork pieces you'll see
Speaker 1: for a right handed player. Most guys don't know how
Speaker 1: to do it, and he still has a ton of
Speaker 1: growth in front of him. Shooting hot for a couple
Speaker 1: of months is not the same as being an elite shooter.
Speaker 1: We've all seen it. This guy's shooting forty three percent
Speaker 1: from three over his last whatever. Games. You gotta do
Speaker 1: it for a long stretch of time before teams game
Speaker 1: plan for you in that way. That that will take
Speaker 1: a few years probably, but that will be what truly
Speaker 1: unlocks his off the dribble game, because I don't think
Speaker 1: like as good as he is in the open court
Speaker 1: as an athlete, he's his start stop quickness isn't quite
Speaker 1: as impressive as his athleticism in the open court, which
Speaker 1: is going to make it so it's a little harder
Speaker 1: for him to beat people off the dribble unless his
Speaker 1: jumper comes around, which again will take some time, but
Speaker 1: that's part of his development. He still needs a lot
Speaker 1: of improvement on the defensive end too. His athleticism has
Speaker 1: not translated yet as like a really high level off
Speaker 1: ball defender. He's often a bit behind the play on
Speaker 1: his help rotations, which prevents him from having an impact.
Speaker 1: That's about processing speed. That's about like learning the actions
Speaker 1: so well that you know what's gonna happen as it's developing,
Speaker 1: so that you can be there a step earlier. And again,
Speaker 1: as we talked about, his start stop quickness isn't as good.
Speaker 1: That's why that processing speed is going to be so
Speaker 1: important for him because he's gonna need to be there
Speaker 1: sooner in terms of the way he's reading these plays.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is he's a rookie that projects
Speaker 1: to be one of the best people at his particular
Speaker 1: job in the NBA, which is being that weak side
Speaker 1: scoring forward, which is verying for Hawks fans. I think
Speaker 1: it might officially be over for the Suns. They got
Speaker 1: absolutely smacked by the Rockets last night. Shane Gouon was
Speaker 1: cooking all their bigs again. Jalen Green poured in another
Speaker 1: thirty three points email Udoka in the second quarter brought
Speaker 1: out that zone defense that they that he's been using
Speaker 1: a bunch for the last month or so, and they
Speaker 1: immediately sparked a massive run in that second quarter and
Speaker 1: they never looked back. It was a complete and total
Speaker 1: physical domination by Houston. They out rebounded them by six,
Speaker 1: They forced nineteen turnovers, They scored thirty four points off
Speaker 1: of those turnovers. They won the fast break points battle
Speaker 1: thirty two to eight. Houston scored forty points in transition
Speaker 1: in total in this game. But I want to focus
Speaker 1: on Phoenix here for a second, because we're gonna hit
Speaker 1: Houston in tonight's show as they play the Lakers again.
Speaker 1: We're going live on YouTube tonight after the T and
Speaker 1: T slate. What did I say about Phoenix a month ago?
Speaker 1: I said they struck me as the stereotypical, older veteran
Speaker 1: team that knows deep down that they don't really have
Speaker 1: a chance to win anything this year. And the way
Speaker 1: that that's gonna manifest is in these short week or
Speaker 1: two long bursts where they compete and they look they
Speaker 1: look decent, they defend their rebound, they do their jobs,
Speaker 1: but that they inevitably let go of the rope because
Speaker 1: they can't sustain it, because they don't believe, and that's
Speaker 1: exactly what just happened. They won five out of six,
Speaker 1: some quality wins versus the Calves and the Bucks. They
Speaker 1: were defending in rebounding top ten and both. I think
Speaker 1: they might have been top five in both over that span.
Speaker 1: But the NBA schedule does not let up. Boston came
Speaker 1: to town without Tatum and kicked their ass. Then it
Speaker 1: was Minnesota, then it was Houston, a couple of these big,
Speaker 1: strong athletic teams that were going to truly test Phoenix's
Speaker 1: commitment to the work, and instead of hanging onto the rope,
Speaker 1: they just completely let go of it. One thirty seven
Speaker 1: point four defensive rating in the last three games, they
Speaker 1: gave an offensive rebound on thirty five percent of opponents misses.
Speaker 1: That's damagingly bad. And now Katie has an ankle sprain,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is back, and the MAVs are climbing in
Speaker 1: the standings. We talked before the year that there was
Speaker 1: going to be a team that had dead serious championship
Speaker 1: aspirations but that would miss the playoffs entirely, and no
Speaker 1: matter who that would be, it would be a catastrophe.
Speaker 1: And it looks like it's going to be the Suns.
Speaker 1: I keep watching them and thinking that it's not a
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and Devin Booker problem. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I do think it's worth mentioning that neither of those
Speaker 1: two guys can really leverage their physical gifts on the game.
Speaker 1: Katie has length and he has mobility that helps him
Speaker 1: on defense, but he carries a massive offensive load, so
Speaker 1: he can't devote too many resources to that end, and
Speaker 1: he's not very strong. He can be pushed around, which
Speaker 1: is very very dangerous quality for a front court player.
Speaker 1: Defensively on the glass duck ins things along those lines.
Speaker 1: It's tough to do that job. Outside of like rangey
Speaker 1: rotating and rim contests. There's just a limitation when you
Speaker 1: can't win the ground battle. And again, it's just one
Speaker 1: of those things where you watch these other teams. It's
Speaker 1: like watching Houston Jalen Green can leverage his athleticism to
Speaker 1: get to spots. Shane Gouon is bullying these dudes. When
Speaker 1: you watch these teams that have these players, where it's like,
Speaker 1: I can inflict myself physically on the game to assist
Speaker 1: my team in these key areas that they need help.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and KD are not necessarily as capable. This
Speaker 1: is why I still believe it's worth exploring the idea
Speaker 1: of keeping those two. They still give you such a
Speaker 1: high offensive floor in terms of shot quality. I would
Speaker 1: still just look to find every discount bruiser I can
Speaker 1: find at every position group and try to breed that
Speaker 1: culture around them, because regardless of what direction you go
Speaker 1: this summer, even if you do choose to get rid
Speaker 1: of Kevin Durant or Devin Booker or both, you still
Speaker 1: need an organizational identity. I talked about this concept after
Speaker 1: the Celtics win against the Suns last week. I talked
Speaker 1: about it with Colin Coward last night on his show.
Speaker 1: You need an organizational identity that is separate from your stars.
Speaker 1: And so regardless of what direction you go, you need
Speaker 1: to begin the process of establishing that new owner, new coach.
Speaker 1: You need to start establishing a basketball culture. This season
Speaker 1: was a massive step back. And so that's the thing, like,
Speaker 1: unless you think there's some magical trade that's going to
Speaker 1: just solve all your problems, which I don't think there is,
Speaker 1: you need to begin the process of changing that culture anyway.
Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, if you tweak things enough
Speaker 1: around those two, that's where Kevin Durant, Devin Booker's upside
Speaker 1: can actually start to lift you to where you want
Speaker 1: to go. But this is a team that is completely
Speaker 1: let go of the rope, and I think I would
Speaker 1: be stunned at this point if we got to see
Speaker 1: them play meaningful basketball here in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today,
Speaker 1: is I should say for this morning. We'll be back
Speaker 1: tonight live on live on YouTube after the T and
Speaker 1: T games. There is always a sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting me and supporting the show, and I will
Speaker 1: see you later tonight. What's so guys? As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They
Speaker 1: would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
Speaker 1: would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
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