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Speaker 2: DKG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to tonight.
Speaker 2: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody hopeful, if you
Speaker 2: guys are having a great week, got a jampack show
Speaker 2: for you today. We're hitting both of the ESPN games.
Speaker 2: As the Boston Celtics beat up on the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 2: They're going to talk a little bit about that Drive
Speaker 2: and Kick clinic that they put on tonight, and then
Speaker 2: after that the Los Angeles Lakers win a really funny
Speaker 2: game against the Indiana Pacers. It felt to me like
Speaker 2: the Lakers were in control for most of that game,
Speaker 2: and yet somehow the Pacers had a lead in the
Speaker 2: final minute as the Lakers, you know, kind of had
Speaker 2: a couple of lapses in execution in the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: and nearly cost themselves, but Lebron pulls it out with
Speaker 2: a game winning tip in at the buzzer, the eighth
Speaker 2: game winning buzzer beater of his career. And then at
Speaker 2: the tail end of the show, like we did the
Speaker 2: last time we went live, we're going to do a
Speaker 2: little live mail bag here on the show. Jackson's gonna
Speaker 2: hop on and join us and read some of the questions.
Speaker 2: So remember, all you got to do is subscribe to
Speaker 2: the channel and then drop your questions in the live chat.
Speaker 2: We're going to get to them at the tail end.
Speaker 3: Of the show.
Speaker 2: You guys know the joke before we started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 2: It's also super helpful for leave a rating and a review.
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Speaker 2: We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
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Speaker 2: sure you guys follow us there. Last, not least, keep
Speaker 2: dropping mail bag questions in our YouTube comments for our
Speaker 2: regular mailbags that we do throughout the weeks, we do
Speaker 2: them about once a week and we take those questions
Speaker 2: from the YouTube comments. Make sure you guys drop your
Speaker 2: questions there. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I
Speaker 2: thought the Celtics just put on a driving kick clinic tonight.
Speaker 2: I thought Phoenix had a extremely foolish game plan early
Speaker 2: in the game. They were like strong side zoning with
Speaker 2: Nick Richards. So basically like when Jalen Brown would dribble
Speaker 2: into a post up on the left side of the floor,
Speaker 2: Nick Richards was waiting on the right side of the block.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of overhelp and double team stuff
Speaker 2: with Phoenix early in the game on Jalen Brown. They
Speaker 2: had a lingering double team against Jalen Brown at the
Speaker 2: left wing. They had even just a random drive with
Speaker 2: from Derek White that seemed to be under control where
Speaker 2: Nick Richards just over committed to help and it led
Speaker 2: to another wide open three for Chris ops Porzingis. But
Speaker 2: to Jalen Brown's credit in particular, even though we hit
Speaker 2: a couple threes early, the three coming off of a
Speaker 2: wide screen on the left side, he hit another three
Speaker 2: off of an offensive rebound that was wide open at
Speaker 2: the top of the key. But he didn't really force
Speaker 2: the issue early on. He just took what the defense
Speaker 2: was giving them with those skip passes and the easy
Speaker 2: rotation situations, the easy advantages that were there on the
Speaker 2: week side of the floor, and that again, I just
Speaker 2: thought it was foolish because you're not even making the
Speaker 2: Celtics compromise you by attacking in a certain type of way.
Speaker 2: You're just giving them open shots by loading up on
Speaker 2: the strong side, which is like, absolutely not how you
Speaker 2: want to defend the Boston Celtics. You want to try
Speaker 2: to The Boston Celtics kind of have a little bit
Speaker 2: of a multiple personality type of you know, type of
Speaker 2: characteristic as a basketball team, and over the course of
Speaker 2: the last few years, they've been more onto the like
Speaker 2: where're hunting now, those great catch and shoot looks, We're
Speaker 2: going to move the ball around, but they've had potential
Speaker 2: over the years to kind of slip into.
Speaker 3: Settling and playing a lot of one on one.
Speaker 2: ISO ball, and you're never going to bait them into
Speaker 2: that sort of play if you just load up on
Speaker 2: the strong side and make those reads obvious and easy.
Speaker 2: And that just really set a tone for the rest
Speaker 2: of this game. And I thought everybody, starting from Jalen
Speaker 2: Brown down, just everybody was committed to that process of
Speaker 2: getting great shots, turning good shots into great shots. I
Speaker 2: talk about this concept all the time, but it's a
Speaker 2: simple idea of not falling victim to your talent, you know,
Speaker 2: like it's like you Peyton Pritchard can just walk up
Speaker 2: the floor and just hit a hard step back on
Speaker 2: and in and out dribble and get a three whenever
Speaker 2: he wants. Derek White can come off of a switch
Speaker 2: and a ball screen and just hit that pull up
Speaker 2: three during that switch interchange when there's a gap between
Speaker 2: the defense and look against the best defenses in the league,
Speaker 2: there's a certain amount of those shots that you have
Speaker 2: to make and your goals as a playoff team trying
Speaker 2: to get to to that you know, four playoff rounds
Speaker 2: and to get the Larry O'Brien trophy. But that is
Speaker 2: an order of operations that you follow, and you want
Speaker 2: that sort of shot to be something that you can make,
Speaker 2: that you will take, but it's not what you're actively
Speaker 2: hunting for. We've talked about this when in our last
Speaker 2: mail bag, the idea that your order of operations should
Speaker 2: be wide open, layup, wide open, catch and shoot three
Speaker 2: for the first like fifteen to twenty seconds of the
Speaker 2: shot clock before you even consider taking those unless you're
Speaker 2: in a great rhythm and it just feels good and
Speaker 2: you're in that sort of zone where you're starting to
Speaker 2: be more aggressive for your shot earlier in the clock.
Speaker 2: And like they just stayed relentless with that, and they're
Speaker 2: just so incredibly difficult to handle when they're playing that
Speaker 2: brand of basketball. This is a foundational part of Boston's
Speaker 2: basketball culture that is even separate from Jason Tatum. And like,
Speaker 2: if you're wondering how you win without your star, it's
Speaker 2: about having a basketball identity that is separate from the star. Now,
Speaker 2: the star you should have added to that identity and
Speaker 2: be a part of that identity. But when your team
Speaker 2: has a basketball identity that is separate from the Star
Speaker 2: that's what allows you to have success that this is
Speaker 2: a tough game, guys. This is on the road against
Speaker 2: the Sun's team that has won i think five out
Speaker 2: of six and is playing some of their better defense
Speaker 2: and doing some of their better rebounding over this phase
Speaker 2: of the season. Like, that's not an easy win. And
Speaker 2: you're going in there without Jason Tatum and you beat
Speaker 2: that shit out of them, And that stems from that
Speaker 2: basketball culture. And that's the thing. Like whether it's you know,
Speaker 2: Tatum and Brown and Porzingis with Derek White and Drew Holliday,
Speaker 2: or if it's some random combination of players and guys
Speaker 2: like Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser who will be in
Speaker 2: the playoff rotation. If it's Tory Craig that comes in
Speaker 2: and brings the style, it's Baylor Shiraman has been playing
Speaker 2: a little bit more as of late. Like it's coming
Speaker 2: and it's like, we're gonna expect you to defend, to
Speaker 2: run the floor, to get in your proper spacing, and
Speaker 2: when you get these catches with these advantages, like if
Speaker 2: you got to a catch and shoot, look you take it.
Speaker 2: If not, we're driving these closeouts. We're moving without the
Speaker 2: basketball and staying fluid, finding those openings for those kickouts,
Speaker 2: making those kickout passes, and being relentless about that pursuit
Speaker 2: of the great shot. Again, like that the good shot,
Speaker 2: you can fall victim for your talent to your talent
Speaker 2: and start settling, but the pursuit of that great shot
Speaker 2: is what actually allows you to have sustained success. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of these examples that you'll see where a
Speaker 2: player will come out and this has happened to Jylen
Speaker 2: Brown in his career before, where he comes out and
Speaker 2: he'll hit a couple of really tough early shots and
Speaker 2: you'll have a thirteen point first quarter or something like that.
Speaker 2: But like often those really difficult shot making sequences have
Speaker 2: a quick ending point and all of a sudden it
Speaker 2: turns into, well, like, how are you going to generate
Speaker 2: the great shots that we need to have sustained success
Speaker 2: over the game. The second thing I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about in regarding this specific concept is just how dangerous
Speaker 2: or how different Boston's geometry is offensively because of what
Speaker 2: chrisops porzingis and now Horford can do. They're both knocked
Speaker 2: down three point shooters, hit six more threes in this game,
Speaker 2: but at the same time they can do scoring against
Speaker 2: mismatches in the post. They can be those connective playmakers. Again,
Speaker 2: when we talk about what makes the Boston drive a
Speaker 2: kick attack work, it's not just guys who can drive
Speaker 2: and Tatum and Brown and guys who can hit, catch
Speaker 2: and shoot threes in everyone else. Everybody has to be
Speaker 2: able to do all of the things. Everybody needs to
Speaker 2: be able to hit the shot but also to drive
Speaker 2: to close out, but also be able to make the
Speaker 2: read when the next wave of the defense shows up,
Speaker 2: and often what ends up happening. Like you want to
Speaker 2: know why Nick Richards looked completely lost in this game
Speaker 2: at times. It stems from the fact that it's unusual
Speaker 2: to face a team that has two five men who
Speaker 2: can both block multiple shots in a game like they
Speaker 2: did tonight, like do big man stuff, but also dribbleshoot
Speaker 2: and pass the way that they do, and that just
Speaker 2: puts you in a lot of really uncomfortable positions. Nick
Speaker 2: Richards is gonna want to help at the rim in
Speaker 2: transition defense situations, even when it's not necessarily a straight
Speaker 2: line drive. Why Because he's not used to having to
Speaker 2: account for the seven foot three guy who's trailing in
Speaker 2: transition and can knock down a twenty eight footer. And
Speaker 2: that's what it even gets crazier with Porzingis is he
Speaker 2: can push it even further and further out. But I
Speaker 2: was just really really impressed by the Celtics tonight. I
Speaker 2: thought Jalen Brown played one of his best floor game
Speaker 2: type of games in terms of just his decision making,
Speaker 2: feeling the flow, knowing when to attack, when to keep
Speaker 2: the ball moving. The centers were just absolutely absolutely demolishing them.
Speaker 2: I thought Sam Houser was great off the bench tonight.
Speaker 2: Seven straight wins for the Celtics. They've had a pretty
Speaker 2: light schedule in this face since the Thunder game, they
Speaker 2: had won six in a row, but they put a
Speaker 2: nice signature win on the end of that win streak
Speaker 2: by beating the Suns tonight. Again, that's a hot Suns
Speaker 2: team that was playing some really good basketball, a desperate
Speaker 2: Suns team that needs every single one of these wins,
Speaker 2: and Boston just thoroughly outclassed them on the Phoenix front.
Speaker 3: You know, I've talked a.
Speaker 2: Lot about this, these teams that are in that like
Speaker 2: kind of third tier of championship contenders where it's like
Speaker 2: you have your top tier championship contenders. These are the
Speaker 2: teams that really truly believe they have a great chance
Speaker 2: to win the title. Then there's like that second tier
Speaker 2: teams where it's like these teams, if you catch them
Speaker 2: on the right night, they look terrible, but you catch
Speaker 2: them on a different night, they look amazing. They struggle
Speaker 2: with consistency, but there's always that belief that stems there
Speaker 2: because they have these moments we beat these guys in
Speaker 2: this big game we did, like the Bucks for instance,
Speaker 2: like we you know, won the n Season Tournament and
Speaker 2: we shuck down the Oklahoma City Thunder and really dominated them.
Speaker 2: Like they have things they can point to that are like,
Speaker 2: these are signature wins we've had that add legitimacy to
Speaker 2: our pursuit.
Speaker 3: Of the trophy.
Speaker 2: But in that third tier, it's this group of teams
Speaker 2: that it's like do they even think they can win?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And what ends up happening in that tier is they
Speaker 2: have really sloppy effort and execution, in large part because
Speaker 2: it's hard to get the guys to commit to it
Speaker 2: because they don't even think they can compete with the
Speaker 2: best teams in the league even when they do those things.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing, Like, this is a Sun's team
Speaker 2: that has been defending and rebounding at a top ten
Speaker 2: level over this six game stretch, and they were hopeless
Speaker 2: to guard the Boston Celtics tonight, and so a loss
Speaker 2: like that can be really demoralizing. And their schedule is
Speaker 2: brutal down the stretch. This is going to be a
Speaker 2: tough go here for Phoenix. But as I talked about
Speaker 2: when we talked to Suns on Tuesday morning, I'm a
Speaker 2: strong believer that this is a vitally important phase for
Speaker 2: the Suns right now, this next stretch of ten games
Speaker 2: or so, because this is how you're going to set
Speaker 2: the identity for what you're pursuing next season. If your
Speaker 2: goal is to make some slight tweaks and go at
Speaker 2: it again with Devin Booker and Kevin Ran, it's going
Speaker 2: to start with the basketball culture that you establish now.
Speaker 2: And that's going to be difficult when there's not a
Speaker 2: lot to play for within this particular season. All right,
Speaker 2: let's move on to Lakers Pacers. So the end of
Speaker 2: the game sequence in crunch time, the Lakers went with
Speaker 2: their five shooter lineup, This is the Big Three, so Austin, Luca,
Speaker 2: and Lebron with Dorian Finney Smith and Ruy Hatchimura as
Speaker 2: the other two guys. This, in my opinion, is the
Speaker 2: best lineup that the Lakers can put together in terms
Speaker 2: of their version of the drive in kick talent. I've
Speaker 2: talked about this a lot this year, but the two
Speaker 2: teams with the two lineups that I think, well, the
Speaker 2: Celtics have a couple of different versions of it. But
Speaker 2: the two teams that I see as like true driving
Speaker 2: kick teams that can actually put five players on the
Speaker 2: floor that can all play this style and make it
Speaker 2: work are the Celtics and the Lakers. The difference is
Speaker 2: the Celtics can do it with five guys that are
Speaker 2: all great defenders too, and guess what, That's why I
Speaker 2: think they're the favorite to win the championship this year.
Speaker 2: But the Lakers can put together a similar lineup with Luca, Lebron, Austin,
Speaker 2: Dorian Phinney, Smith and Ruey in terms of you can't
Speaker 2: lead any leave anybody open, but you also have multiple
Speaker 2: players on the floor that if you let them play
Speaker 2: one on one, will torch you. They can actually force
Speaker 2: teams to choose between allowing wide open catch and shoot
Speaker 2: threes or allowing Luca and Lebron to pick on their
Speaker 2: weakest defenders in one on one situations. The conundrum presented
Speaker 2: for the Pacers this specific five man group was who
Speaker 2: does Miles Turner guard and who does Ben Mathern guard.
Speaker 2: Ben was having a really nice offensive nighties the latest
Speaker 2: and a long line of athletic guards that have given
Speaker 2: the Lakers some issues. He was getting into their bodies
Speaker 2: and forcing turnover or excuse me, forcing fouls and getting
Speaker 2: to the foul line, getting into two players at the
Speaker 2: rim and finishing there. He had a big time game, right,
Speaker 2: So they're closing with Miles Turner and Ben Mathern, who
Speaker 2: are they gonna guard? Well, Miles Turner's on Ruey Htchimura
Speaker 2: and Ben Mathern was on Austin Reeves, And so the
Speaker 2: Lakers just started to attack those two every time down
Speaker 2: the floor in the clutch, and they generated four consecutive
Speaker 2: wide open threes, like completely uncontested threes. Ruey brings Luca
Speaker 2: brings Ruey into the ball screen. Miles Turner doesn't want
Speaker 2: to give up the pick and pop three to Ruy,
Speaker 2: so he just throws a quick hedge and then sprints
Speaker 2: back to Ruey. Well, when he throws the hedge, Luca
Speaker 2: is able to turn the corner, gets Downhill, creates a
Speaker 2: wide open kickout three to Austin. Reeves has all day
Speaker 2: to look at this three out of the left corner.
Speaker 2: Next possession they're running off ball screen gets it's Austin
Speaker 2: screening for Lebron. That gets Matherin switched on to Lebron.
Speaker 2: What do they do? Throw the ball in the post
Speaker 2: to Lebron. Bron starts to back Ben Mathurin down Pascal
Speaker 2: Siakam double teams one pass away from Austin Reeves, kick
Speaker 2: out another completely uncontested, wide open three for Austin Reeves.
Speaker 2: After losing Luca Downhill on that Ruey ball screen, Miles
Speaker 2: Turner doesn't want to hedge and recover this time, so
Speaker 2: he stays on Luca. Two on the ball swing swing,
Speaker 2: there's Ruey wide open for three. Very next possession, exact
Speaker 2: same thing happens again, exact same two on the ball sequence,
Speaker 2: pitch it back for Ruey again, completely wide open three.
Speaker 2: Four times in a row, Austin missed both of his
Speaker 2: Ruey made both of his that put him back up
Speaker 2: by six. Now, even if you look at the two
Speaker 2: botched possessions for the Lakers like rue and he got
Speaker 2: Ruey when he got blocked at the rim or Austin
Speaker 2: in his turnover, like there were openings there. The Ruey situation,
Speaker 2: he kind of made the classic young player mistake of
Speaker 2: not just sticking with what's working. He went away from it.
Speaker 2: Miles Turner was kind of trying to jam him on
Speaker 2: the screen, and instead of just forcing his way up
Speaker 2: and setting the screen so that he can run the
Speaker 2: same action, he slipped out of it towards the basket
Speaker 2: and Miles Turner was able to recover and block him there.
Speaker 2: The Austin play ball screen, low Man another wide open
Speaker 2: kickout three to Dorian Finney Smith in the corner. Austin
Speaker 2: just had a bad passing angle and ended up turning
Speaker 2: it over to stop even when Carlisle put in the
Speaker 2: defenders puts in Aaron Nee Smith puts in Jars Walker.
Speaker 2: Dorian Finney Smith drives a close out after Luca curls
Speaker 2: on an off ball screen and gets downhill again draws
Speaker 2: help at the rim.
Speaker 3: Kickouts.
Speaker 2: Dorian Finney Smith dfs rips through the closeout. When he
Speaker 2: rips through the closeout, Austin Reeves is wide open on
Speaker 2: the left wing with like sixteen on the shot clock.
Speaker 2: Dorian just makes a bad decision at the rim and
Speaker 2: tries to shoot through two guys and ends up missing
Speaker 2: the shot. But like they have the ability with that
Speaker 2: lineup to relentlessly create completely uncontested threes. That's the bind
Speaker 2: that the Lakers put you in. Whether it's Jackson Hayes's
Speaker 2: a vertical spacer and more of a four out one
Speaker 2: in look, or it's that DFS RUI group, they can
Speaker 2: put you into some really difficult positions defensively trying to
Speaker 2: guard them into half court and guys, it's only gonna
Speaker 2: get crazier as Lebron gets into a rhythm. This is
Speaker 2: what's been weird about the sequence. When before Lebron's injury,
Speaker 2: Lebron was playing super well, Luca was in the upside down,
Speaker 2: couldn't make a jump shot to save his life. Luca
Speaker 2: gets his rhythm while Lebron's injured. Lebron's back now and
Speaker 2: he didn't make a field goal for the first three
Speaker 2: quarters of this game, and it still felt like the
Speaker 2: Lakers could get whatever they wanted, and so like that
Speaker 2: to me is what is the exciting part of the
Speaker 2: potential of this Lakers team. We're gonna talk about their
Speaker 2: defense in a minute, and there's obviously some problems there
Speaker 2: that they need to work out right now, but they
Speaker 2: should theoretically be able to, even in the playoff context,
Speaker 2: great shots over and over and over and over again,
Speaker 2: and that's gonna be what makes them so difficult to
Speaker 2: deal with. On the game winner, it's an interesting sequence.
Speaker 2: The Pacers get back into the game. I talked about
Speaker 2: the execution lapses, like this was a game where it
Speaker 2: felt like the Lakers were just in control every time
Speaker 2: and he made a run, the Lakers would be able
Speaker 2: to just flex their muscles, get great shots, get stops,
Speaker 2: and regain control of the game. But they damn near
Speaker 2: blew this one. They go up one to eighteen to
Speaker 2: one to twelve late in the fourth quarter, and there's
Speaker 2: just this really pathetic stretch of defense from Luka Dancic
Speaker 2: and Ruey Hachimura, just a bunch of really bad reps
Speaker 2: on of on ball defense where they lost control of
Speaker 2: Angel Emhardt and tyres Halburton and they just gave up
Speaker 2: a bunch of easy shots. And earlier in the game
Speaker 2: the Lakers were doing a lot of helping and rotating
Speaker 2: and doing a great job of shutting down that drill
Speaker 2: penetration against matchup hunting and things along those lines. But
Speaker 2: late in the game the Lakers had completely let go
Speaker 2: of the and they're help and recover and just straight
Speaker 2: up we're giving concession layups, like just we're letting when
Speaker 2: those guys would get dribble penetration, just let them go.
Speaker 2: And so again that's another thing we got to get into.
Speaker 2: But they end up toasting this off and Haliburton gets
Speaker 2: an and one against Luca that puts him up one
Speaker 2: nineteen to one eighteen, and so Carlisle makes a defensive
Speaker 2: sub takes Haliburton out, takes Miles Turner out, puts Jars
Speaker 2: Walker and Aaron Nee Smith. Then the idea here is
Speaker 2: they can do more switching, they can rotate better, and
Speaker 2: it did work for that one possession. They got to
Speaker 2: stop again Dorian Finney Smith just has to make a
Speaker 2: good read on that kick out to Austin and it
Speaker 2: could end up in another wide open three. But they
Speaker 2: ended up through their rotations, through their speed rushing Dorian
Speaker 2: Finney Smith into making a bad decision. Like one of
Speaker 2: the differences between the previous looks before the defense sub
Speaker 2: was the Lakers were able to get the wide open
Speaker 2: three right away off that first action. When Indiana brought
Speaker 2: their better defenders in, they force the Lakers to break
Speaker 2: them down incrementally, and again they did. They run the
Speaker 2: off ball action, they get Luca Downhill, Luca gets Downhill,
Speaker 2: draws help at the rim that forces Andrew Nemhard to
Speaker 2: rotate to the right corner. Luca makes the kickout. Dorian
Speaker 2: Finney Smith drives the closeout. But because there's more links
Speaker 2: in that chain, there's more potential for a mistake. Dorian
Speaker 2: Finney Smith makes a mistake and ends up in a
Speaker 2: stop right like that, in the same way that every
Speaker 2: offensive play you make makes a defender make a decision,
Speaker 2: every rotation you make as a defender makes the offensive
Speaker 2: player make a decision and ends up getting a stop.
Speaker 2: Dorian Finney Smith drives the close out, forces the layup,
Speaker 2: it ends in a miss. Carlisle hangs on to his
Speaker 2: last time out, presumably for just whatever might arise in
Speaker 2: the final minute in a situation where you might need
Speaker 2: a final shot, but it has a catastrophic blowback in
Speaker 2: the form of now you've got this group without Tyrese
Speaker 2: Haliburton on the floor that got to stop but needs
Speaker 2: to score, and that ends poorly as Ben Matherine has
Speaker 2: to throw up that kind of bs double pump jump
Speaker 2: shot at the top of the key, and now it's
Speaker 2: a live ball situation in Carlisle can't stop the clock
Speaker 2: and it's the final possession of the game. Kick ahead,
Speaker 2: Lebron gets Ben Matherin in the post and Lebron just
Speaker 2: makes a really smart read like he just he sits
Speaker 2: there and he goes Luca's trailing the play wide open,
Speaker 2: like there's no reason for me to do anything here.
Speaker 2: That's the second or third best player in the world
Speaker 2: just standing wide open at the top of the key
Speaker 2: because everyone's paying attention to Lebron rifles it to Luca.
Speaker 2: Siakam closes out at him, beats him off the dribble,
Speaker 2: and honestly, I thought Luca's look was great, that little
Speaker 2: floater in the lane. That's a really really high percentage
Speaker 2: shot from Luca. But the other downside of having Myles
Speaker 2: Turner off the floor not enough size around the rim,
Speaker 2: and so Lebron did a really nice job of getting
Speaker 2: inside a rebounding position on Jaris Walker after the kickout
Speaker 2: pass to Luca, and he just went right up and
Speaker 2: tapped it in right at the buzzer. And honestly, it
Speaker 2: masked a bunch of mistakes from the Lakers, because they
Speaker 2: those execution lapses were bad enough to cost the Lakers
Speaker 2: that game, and Lebron just made a play at the
Speaker 2: end and ended up being enough. It's funny because when
Speaker 2: all the drama was going down after the three quarters
Speaker 2: where Lebron didn't have a made field goal and he
Speaker 2: only had three points, I actually thought Lebron was playing
Speaker 2: really well at that point in time. Like if you
Speaker 2: look at the way the flow of the game was going,
Speaker 2: Like Lebron missed some easy shots that he typically makes
Speaker 2: in the early portions of the game. He like smoked
Speaker 2: a left handed layup that's like a layup he never misses.
Speaker 2: He missed an easy floater driving a close out off
Speaker 2: the right wing. Like there were some misses that were uncharacteristic,
Speaker 2: but like he wasn't really forcing the issue and the
Speaker 2: team was scoring well and things were going good. Second
Speaker 2: quarter stretch. It's the Austin Lebron group. Austin was cooking.
Speaker 2: Austin had it going. Lebron was still making plays. They
Speaker 2: were running a lot of two man game at the
Speaker 2: top of the key, and there was some switching, there
Speaker 2: was some uh. There was a two on the ball
Speaker 2: situation where Lebron got a roll and rifled a short
Speaker 2: roll pass to Dorian Finney Smith in the left corner
Speaker 2: and knocked down at three. Like, Lebron was still making
Speaker 2: plays in that stretch, but he just wasn't co opting
Speaker 2: the offense because why would he. Austin Reeves was cooking.
Speaker 2: Austin was crazy good in that second quarter scoring stretch,
Speaker 2: and so Lebron just facilitated as a connective playmaker in
Speaker 2: the offense and focused his energy on defense. That was
Speaker 2: an excellent defensive stretch for the Lakers that they won on.
Speaker 2: I think like a it's like a fifteen to oh
Speaker 2: or a seventeen oh run. Like they were really good
Speaker 2: defensively in that stretch. And so yeah, like, how is
Speaker 2: that going to manifest if if Lebron is going to
Speaker 2: not try to grab the rein so that he can
Speaker 2: allow Austin to get into a rhythm that's gonna hurt
Speaker 2: his scoring totals. Like Lebron could have been aggressive there
Speaker 2: and might have had a better box score performance, but
Speaker 2: it wouldn't have been what was best for the team.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, these things are really COMPLI this
Speaker 2: is why I don't believe in box score watching. Like Luca,
Speaker 2: for the record, had thirty six, seven and seven, I think,
Speaker 2: and I thought he also had a very uneven game,
Speaker 2: Like forget about just the final stretch I talked about.
Speaker 2: Luca was brutally bad on offense or on defense in
Speaker 2: this game. From the start in the first quarter, he
Speaker 2: was like losing track of Obi top In on a
Speaker 2: simple little off ball action or giving up easy dribble
Speaker 2: penetration because he's just not competing on the ball. Like
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about it, because I know Luca can
Speaker 2: be better than that. Like who knows if he's good
Speaker 2: enough to do it against the Celtics we're gonna find out,
Speaker 2: or against the Thunder we're gonna find out, or against
Speaker 2: one of these higher level Western Conference teams. But like,
Speaker 2: he can do better than he did tonight. Luca had
Speaker 2: an uneven game. I didn't think it was Luca's best game.
Speaker 2: They got killed in Luca's minutes. The Luca off groups
Speaker 2: are where the Lakers really took command of this game.
Speaker 2: So like it's one of those things where that's why
Speaker 2: box score watching is so pointless. Luca had thirty six,
Speaker 2: seven and seven, Lebron had thirteen, seven and thirteen or
Speaker 2: whatever it was that he had, and like Lebron was
Speaker 2: just doing it in different ways defensively as a rebounder,
Speaker 2: like timely scoring in various points of the game. So
Speaker 2: that's what's kind of interesting about it. But that said
Speaker 2: ended up being like kind of bad for Indiana that
Speaker 2: Lebron only had three points going into that fourth quarter
Speaker 2: stretch because Lebron had a bunch of favorable matchups in
Speaker 2: that early fourth quarter stretch against Indiana's bench, and he
Speaker 2: just got super aggressive going downhill and quickly got over
Speaker 2: that ten point mark and blew the lead out to
Speaker 2: double digits pretty quickly there. But of course more execution
Speaker 2: lapses were preventing them from gaining complete control of the game.
Speaker 2: But all in all, I thought Lebron, even though he
Speaker 2: didn't score the ball super effectively tonight, I just thought
Speaker 2: he played a really good game. And I mean hell,
Speaker 2: he literally made the play that won it. So again,
Speaker 2: as I always talk about, like no matter how bad
Speaker 2: things are going, just make a play, just make a play,
Speaker 2: and you can make it all go away. There's a
Speaker 2: version of that where they lose and everyone talks after
Speaker 2: the game about how poorly Lebron played looking at the
Speaker 2: box score, and even though that wouldn't be full context
Speaker 2: to everything that he did, he made one play at
Speaker 2: the end and it erased everything and now he's the hero,
Speaker 2: and it's just a reminder of why that resilience is
Speaker 2: so valuable. I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: the Lakers in the big picture before we wrap up
Speaker 2: and head to our mailbag. You saw their offensive potential
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways tonight, right We talked about
Speaker 2: the five out spacing, their consistent ability to generate great shots.
Speaker 2: But they still have a lot to clean up on.
Speaker 2: And this is the exciting part about them putting it
Speaker 2: all together and becoming a true championship contender. Like I
Speaker 2: talked about with Golden State and the Lakers, they're the
Speaker 2: two teams this year because of their substantial changes at
Speaker 2: the deadline. They're basically new basketball teams, especially the Lakers
Speaker 2: because it's such a stylistic shift going away from Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis right, and that means this is training camp. This
Speaker 2: is where you're becoming the team for this team, specifically
Speaker 2: uniquely under the circumstances. This is where they're learning each other.
Speaker 2: This is where they're they're in like the December January phase,
Speaker 2: or excuse me, the November December phase that all of
Speaker 2: the other top tier championship contenders we're in. They're still
Speaker 2: learning about what they need to get better at, learning
Speaker 2: about what their identity is. And some of that is
Speaker 2: problematic in the sense that they don't have a lot
Speaker 2: of time, But at the same time, it's exciting because
Speaker 2: it means there's a lot of potential on defense. For instance,
Speaker 2: Luca and Rui just their attentiveness and their competitiveness on
Speaker 2: the ball. I thought both of them all night, including
Speaker 2: the late game stretch. We're just really sloppy on that
Speaker 2: end of the floor. The consistency of the teams help
Speaker 2: in rot help in recover situations, and how well they
Speaker 2: rotate when they give up dribble penetration. They had so
Speaker 2: many excellent possessions tonight when Lebron is really flying around
Speaker 2: and helping recover every and Dori Infinny Smith is flying
Speaker 2: around and everyone's committed on defense, they can be really,
Speaker 2: really good. Do I think they're going to be a
Speaker 2: top five defense with Luca, No, but they certainly can
Speaker 2: be in that six to ten range.
Speaker 3: They've shown it.
Speaker 2: They've shown it with Luca before Lebron James got hurt
Speaker 2: when they went on that big winning streak, and so
Speaker 2: a lot of this is gonna be you have to
Speaker 2: manage a certain amount the wear and tear on all
Speaker 2: these guys' legs over the course of the final ten
Speaker 2: games of the season. But at the same time, this
Speaker 2: team needs a certain baseline of their habits on defense
Speaker 2: in terms of their commitment for forty eight minutes to
Speaker 2: doing what they need to do and help in recover situations.
Speaker 2: Because they have Austin and Luca out there, Jackson out there,
Speaker 2: Gabe out there, guys that teams will look to attack
Speaker 2: from time to time, and so this is going to
Speaker 2: be its team that's going to have to be really
Speaker 2: sharp in their help and recover situations. And they had
Speaker 2: some real inconsistency with that tonight. That's something you need
Speaker 2: to polish up on offense. I talked about Lebron getting
Speaker 2: in a real rhythm. To me, what's exciting about this
Speaker 2: team offensively is when you get both thirty point per
Speaker 2: game Luca and twenty seven point per game Lebron both,
Speaker 2: you know, sixty sixty three percent true shooting. When they're
Speaker 2: both at that level, that's where the real offensive upside
Speaker 2: is there, and that's what I'm waiting to see over
Speaker 2: the final few weeks. Continuing to improving, continuing to improve
Speaker 2: attacking teams that switch a lot of screens again Indiana,
Speaker 2: one of the big issues there down the stretch was
Speaker 2: their ability to attack a screening action with Miles Turner
Speaker 2: where they were either hedging or doubling that created natural
Speaker 2: openings for them to capitalize on. Their offense has always
Speaker 2: looked great against that sort of defense since the Luka
Speaker 2: Doncics trade. Getting it to the point where they succeed
Speaker 2: well against switching defenses over the course of the next
Speaker 2: few weeks, that's going to be an important part of putting.
Speaker 3: This all together.
Speaker 2: And then, lastly, the overall laps is in execution. This
Speaker 2: has been an issue with this team that I think
Speaker 2: has extended even pre Luca, but has continued under Luca
Speaker 2: where it's like the ninety seconds at the end of
Speaker 2: a quarter where you have a sloppy turnover, a bad shot,
Speaker 2: compounding mistakes like the Austin throws that lob to Lebron.
Speaker 2: This is a huge sequence, Like it's a seven point game.
Speaker 2: If Lebron catches the lob and dunks it, they go
Speaker 2: up nine miles. Turner deflects it, they go out the
Speaker 2: other way and score. Seacom scores on a eurostep that
Speaker 2: cuts it to five. Is a huge four point swing
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter. But Austin goes down right after
Speaker 2: that in Jack's up a step back three early in
Speaker 2: the clock, Like that's compounding the mistake.
Speaker 3: That's the kind of thing that.
Speaker 2: Leads to the bursts of runs that can take what
Speaker 2: look like efforts where you watch the Lakers and it
Speaker 2: looks like they're controlling a game, but somehow the other
Speaker 2: team is lingering. And a lot of that stems from
Speaker 2: these just these lapses in judgment, these compounding mistakes that
Speaker 2: end up undoing a lot of their success. But all
Speaker 2: in all, I was impressed. Every time you have bad
Speaker 2: back to back games like what happened to Chicago against
Speaker 2: Chicago and at Orlando. It's always kind of an inflection
Speaker 2: point for me between the good teams and the bad teams.
Speaker 2: The bad teams tend to spiral. Oh, you're going to
Speaker 2: play the Pacers at home, who have won seven seven
Speaker 2: of eight red hot Pacers team. Then you have to
Speaker 2: on the back to back head to Chicago. Like, that's
Speaker 2: a tough stretch of games. But like the good the
Speaker 2: bad teams will spiral in those situations. The good teams
Speaker 2: are like, fuck that, we're better than the Pacers. Let's
Speaker 2: go beat them. And again, like I thought this game,
Speaker 2: even even with Lebron effectively stealing it at the buzzer,
Speaker 2: I thought the Lakers played a lot of really, really
Speaker 2: good and dominant basketball in this particular game. The question
Speaker 2: is can they continue that on the road in Chicago tomorrow.
Speaker 2: It'll be really interesting to see how they do it
Speaker 2: from the rotation standpoint too, because I'm sure some guys
Speaker 2: are feeling pretty sore.
Speaker 3: After that after that particular game.
Speaker 2: All Right, that's all I have for those For tonight's games,
Speaker 2: We're gonna get into our mail bag, Jackson, what do
Speaker 2: you got for us?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: What is going on? Jason? Everyone in the chat please
Speaker 1: continue to ask your questions. I will be picking some
Speaker 1: from the chat to start with. Let's go with what
Speaker 1: is your favorite type of defensive player to watch? I
Speaker 1: personally love a versatile forward like Tomani Kamara.
Speaker 2: Imani's awesome, and Timani has some characteristics in the archetype
Speaker 2: I'm talking about, too, because he is big and strong
Speaker 2: and has a strong base. But I have always been
Speaker 2: partial to the lower center of gravity, like wider bodied,
Speaker 2: like bigger, stronger, like fire hydrant type of wings. This
Speaker 2: is like like yea you dor, Alex Caruso, Bruce Brown
Speaker 2: kind of fits this mold. Terrence Man kind of fits
Speaker 2: this mold, like even like to a lesser extent for
Speaker 2: Laker fans, like this is what Jordan Goodwin's archetype is.
Speaker 2: He's just a much lesser version of it. But I
Speaker 2: find that they can win battles on the ground more
Speaker 2: than some of the taller rangier wings can. I think
Speaker 2: I think the taller ranger wings are more valuable in
Speaker 2: rotation situations because of their ability to cover ground, But
Speaker 2: I find the the those fire hydrant guys to be tougher.
Speaker 2: Part of it, too, is like I'll just be honest,
Speaker 2: like from my own playing experience, like, I think that
Speaker 2: the most effective form of defense is disrupting the base,
Speaker 2: not disrupting the top of the shot. These guys are
Speaker 2: professional shot makers. They don't see hands in their face,
Speaker 2: but if you bother their rhythm, if you break up
Speaker 2: their ground game leading into the shot, you can force missus.
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm a big believer in that archetype.
Speaker 2: I just think they're good at disrupting bases.
Speaker 1: I like that. I like sort of the the Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: versatile big type who can sort of do the two
Speaker 1: places at ones thing. But in terms of guard wing defenders,
Speaker 1: this is just a personal preference, I think because I
Speaker 1: when I play basketball, I gamble a lot defensively, so
Speaker 1: I like players like Gary Payton and Marcus Smart, who
Speaker 1: You're like, that dude is going to disrupt something. He
Speaker 1: might get lost a time or two making a bit
Speaker 1: too gambly of a gamble, but he is disrupting something
Speaker 1: every possession, and they're like, I've been I'm on the
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, the second hype trained kind of. I think
Speaker 1: that if he could shoot and got thirty plus minutes
Speaker 1: a game would be in the defensive player of the
Speaker 1: Year guard like, you know, not the guards don't hit
Speaker 1: it very often, but he would be in that defensive
Speaker 1: player of the Year guard like conversation because he is
Speaker 1: so disruptive. No one wants to dribble when that guy.
Speaker 1: He has mastered the pick the pocket clean thing. His
Speaker 1: hands are crazy.
Speaker 2: Gary Payton's one of my favorite players because we competed
Speaker 2: against each other a bunch in college and he was
Speaker 2: always just a really nice guy and someone that I
Speaker 2: enjoyed competing against. And he was one of those guys
Speaker 2: too that he was one of those guys too that
Speaker 2: like kind of felt like he was in that same
Speaker 2: archetype we're talking about of like kind of a lower
Speaker 2: center of gravity, groundbound like ball pressure guard. But he
Speaker 2: struggled to find his footing in the NBA there for
Speaker 2: a while. But like Golden State's been such a natural
Speaker 2: fit for him because of his read and react talent
Speaker 2: and that ability to you know, like play in that
Speaker 2: inverted spacing that Steph creates. But yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 2: it is it. It is all about personal preference at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, and like a lot of
Speaker 2: it has to do with scheme too, Like there are
Speaker 2: if you're in a switching scheme, then the range yer
Speaker 2: forwards are more valuable. If you're in a drop coverage scheme,
Speaker 2: then like a certain type of guard defender becomes more valuable,
Speaker 2: or rim protector becomes more valuable. Like so much of
Speaker 2: it depends on the surrounding talent as well.
Speaker 1: I like this one that we just got from Kyle.
Speaker 1: What is the biggest mental advantage matchup you've seen in
Speaker 1: your time watching a basketball? Example being it felt like
Speaker 1: the Nuggets really owned the Lakers in that twenty two,
Speaker 1: twenty three, twenty four phase and it felt like there
Speaker 1: was sort of like a mental block. There are there
Speaker 1: any other ones that you can think of? That's a
Speaker 1: hard question of it.
Speaker 2: I think the obvious one is the the Warriors advantage
Speaker 2: over the Clippers in the mid twenty tens. That was
Speaker 2: the one where, like legitimately, year after year after year,
Speaker 2: it just.
Speaker 3: Felt like they couldn't win in that matchup.
Speaker 2: There are several good ones, though, just kind of a
Speaker 2: funny one starting to bloom here between Minnesota and Denver two. Uh,
Speaker 2: but uh, the Lakers Denver one. I was on the
Speaker 2: wrong side of that one. That's a brutal feeling, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Clippers Warriors.
Speaker 1: I the ones that popped to mind for me because
Speaker 1: I'm a Celtics fans are ones that flipped actually, like
Speaker 1: it did feel like they had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a mental advantage. John lebron Or when he was still
Speaker 1: in Cleveland the first time, and then he gets over
Speaker 1: the hump in Miami and it's like, Okay, there's no
Speaker 1: we have no chance to beat this guy none. And
Speaker 1: the same thing is true. I think of the wait
Speaker 1: to the two ten Celtics against Pagasol, where in eight
Speaker 1: they're like, they just put that in the box. They
Speaker 1: just put that dude on an absolute cage. And then
Speaker 1: you have all the stories about Kobe over the summer
Speaker 1: talking to Pal YadA, YadA, YadA, and it did genuinely
Speaker 1: feel like he was kind of unguardable in twenty nine
Speaker 1: and ten, I was like I hated Pagasol as a
Speaker 1: kid because I was like, this dude dominates us after
Speaker 1: we completely held him in check.
Speaker 2: For dude, it's it's I think getting humiliated is the
Speaker 2: best thing that can happen to you as a basketball player.
Speaker 2: I remember I remember one of the last times that
Speaker 2: I got humiliated. There was a a dude from Toronto
Speaker 2: who was playing with me in this uh this like
Speaker 2: professional league that that they were getting ready to start
Speaker 2: up in India, and we had all signed deals and
Speaker 2: we were like doing this like two week kind of
Speaker 2: like promo thing in the US and then we were
Speaker 2: all about to ship out to India and then the
Speaker 2: league ends up fold the league ends up folding, and
Speaker 2: the whole thing falls apart. But I meet this guy
Speaker 2: from from Toronto, and he was just like better than
Speaker 2: me at everything, Like he was taller, but he was
Speaker 2: also like big and strong, but like a little bit
Speaker 2: bigger and stronger than me, Like he was a little
Speaker 2: bit better at handling, a little bit better at shooting,
Speaker 2: like a little bit better at everything, and the worst
Speaker 2: fucking He was super nice and he was and like
Speaker 2: we because we were together for like two weeks, like him
Speaker 2: and I had like done I talk quite a bit,
Speaker 2: got to know each other a little bit. Like we
Speaker 2: were both working in real estate at the time, as
Speaker 2: like our like day job, and it's just like but
Speaker 2: what ends up happening is you get your ass kicked,
Speaker 2: and like that reinvigorated me in my like player development stuff,
Speaker 2: and I spent most of COVID like adding all these
Speaker 2: little things to my game because I just got sick
Speaker 2: and tired of that dude kick in my ass, Like
Speaker 2: it's it's so good, like like that can be the
Speaker 2: best thing that happens to basketball players get humiliated.
Speaker 1: Someone in the chad also said, Lebronto is another.
Speaker 3: That's a great one, per great example of.
Speaker 1: This, one perfect example of this, of this sort of
Speaker 1: thing we're describing. All right, hey, Jason, what would you
Speaker 1: do if you if you were the new GM of
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks and the goal is to win a
Speaker 1: championship next year or like as soon as possible, love
Speaker 1: the show, keep up the day.
Speaker 2: If the goals to win the championship next year, you
Speaker 2: run it back and you and you lean on the
Speaker 2: concept that you made this trade for to begin with,
Speaker 2: even if we can all agree that it was bad reasoning,
Speaker 2: which is, if you put together these vaunted ad Derek
Speaker 2: Lively PJ Washington lineups with all of this versatility on
Speaker 2: the perimeter, with obviously Kyrie's out there, but you've got
Speaker 2: like a big shooter positional defender in Clay. You've got
Speaker 2: a ball handler and Spencer Dinwoodie or a guy that
Speaker 2: can do a little bit of both in Naji Marshall
Speaker 2: or I don't know why they got rid of Quinton Grimes.
Speaker 2: That was a really weird one and like that that
Speaker 2: kind of feels like the latest and a long line
Speaker 2: of like why did they let him get away?
Speaker 3: Kind of situations?
Speaker 1: But they traded him for Kayleb Martin.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it, man, but like it's it's and
Speaker 2: Kayla Martin's a great defender and and but the thing
Speaker 2: is is that that was something Quentin did pretty well too,
Speaker 2: in addition to his scoringtop But the point is is
Speaker 2: that like, you're not gonna make some sort of sweeping
Speaker 2: change that's gonna bring you championship contention. It's that tiny
Speaker 2: window of Nico Harrison's reasoning when he made the Luca trade,
Speaker 2: which is like, what if we become the best defense
Speaker 2: in the league and give me Kyrie Irving and a huge,
Speaker 2: physically imposing team, and let's see if we can just
Speaker 2: win rock fights. And there's a chance there. I would
Speaker 2: call it a very slim chance, but there is a
Speaker 2: chance there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I suppose the only real other move I could
Speaker 1: think of if you're trying to do something that you
Speaker 1: do sort of haven't I mean not this season because
Speaker 1: they can't stay healthy. They almost have an overabundance of
Speaker 1: bigs and Derek Lively. It's really young, so I'm wondering
Speaker 1: if there's like a way you can trade Lively and
Speaker 1: packaging with a contract for another wing. But you might
Speaker 1: as well just run.
Speaker 3: With what they got. I think.
Speaker 2: I think if Dallas traded Derek Lively, then there would
Speaker 2: be an actual riot.
Speaker 1: Right there is no more than the window is like
Speaker 1: nine months, Like you don't even have a window anymore,
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 3: Is the window that season.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's do this one between the second tier teams,
Speaker 1: second tier title contenders, which potential matchup would be the
Speaker 1: most fascinating from a round one moment?
Speaker 3: Okay, let me pull up the standings here.
Speaker 1: I was gonna do the same.
Speaker 2: So I think that these ones in the middle of
Speaker 2: the Eastern Conference are going to be fantastic. I'm super
Speaker 2: excited for these and it's up in the air a
Speaker 2: little bit. But with the it looked like it was
Speaker 2: gonna be Piston's Nicks, and the Pistons have had some
Speaker 2: success against New York this year, and they had been
Speaker 2: able to do some matchup attacking there. But Milwaukee with
Speaker 2: the Dame injury, is now dropping games and they could
Speaker 2: end up dropping. It's kind of a bummer, and who knows,
Speaker 2: maybe Yiannis will be able to pull them up. But
Speaker 2: like Pacers, Bucks is such a great rivalry already, and
Speaker 2: I think Nicks Pistons Pacers Bucks would have felt like
Speaker 2: an old school Eastern Conference throwdown between the Knicks and Pistons,
Speaker 2: and then like a rivalry between the Pacers and Bucks.
Speaker 2: So let's hope that those two series kind of come
Speaker 2: to fruition out west. I think it would be really
Speaker 2: fun to see denver La in a series that's completely
Speaker 2: different now than Anthony Davis has gone, with all the
Speaker 2: bad blood that exists between those two teams, but I
Speaker 2: still consider them to be upper tier contenders, so I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go with I think I think Golden State Houston
Speaker 2: would be a ton of fun because of the Dylan
Speaker 2: Brooks thing. And yeah, there's the Dylan Brooks thing. There's
Speaker 2: also like talk about his styles, make fights type of series,
Speaker 2: like all the experience, all of the veteran know how
Speaker 2: in IQ is going to be in Golden State's favor
Speaker 2: and then Houston's just going to have an absurd athletic
Speaker 2: and physical advantage at like a bunch of spots on
Speaker 2: the floor. So, like, I think, I think that would
Speaker 2: be a fun one as well.
Speaker 1: That is really fun. Dylan Brooks has now that he
Speaker 1: is not He's somehow not as like present in our lives.
Speaker 1: I think because Houston doesn't get national TV games as
Speaker 1: even as much as Memphis did, he he's become a
Speaker 1: little bit more of like a benign fun figure than
Speaker 1: this kind of like actually kind of grading personality. So
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I think that you're so right
Speaker 1: about the East, and I think any of the three four,
Speaker 1: five six orientation kind of works. The one we have
Speaker 1: actively right now is nix Bucks, Pacers, Pistons and getting
Speaker 1: a Malice at the Palace teams rematch with Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: and Jalen Duran on one of the teams while the
Speaker 1: Pacers are like kind of chip like chirpy. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that there's the way that that series gets really
Speaker 1: physical in a way that I'm not sure if Indiana
Speaker 1: is prepared for, and I'm not sure the NBA referees
Speaker 1: are prepared for and I think that you could have
Speaker 1: a real crazy, really fun Pistons.
Speaker 2: There's upset potential there too because Detroit. Yeah, we talked
Speaker 2: about it earlier with the Lakers, but Kate is Luca light,
Speaker 2: so to speak, and Indiana presents a lot of those
Speaker 2: similar situations that Luca just put them in, where like
Speaker 2: he can get two on the ball or force hedges
Speaker 2: which unlocks his playmaking. Like Detroit's gonna be able to
Speaker 2: get good shots in that series, so that that would
Speaker 2: be a fun one too.
Speaker 4: Detroit's gonna be able to get good shots against most people.
Speaker 4: I think Kate, like in a games slow down. Great
Speaker 4: perfect for Kate Counningham, No issue, zero issue for Kate Counningham.
Speaker 4: All right, let's do how long have we been going here?
Speaker 1: Let's do a couple more and then we can We've
Speaker 1: been going for about twelve minutes.
Speaker 3: Let's do.
Speaker 1: Uh. This is sort of piggybacking off of our episode
Speaker 1: today which had Bucks fans and the comments very upset.
Speaker 1: We're talking about another another NBA, another NBA media personality
Speaker 1: talking about shipping Giannis out. But it was just a
Speaker 1: speculative thing and then everyone's talking about it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm sorry, Bucks fans, but if you don't acknowledge
Speaker 2: that there's a potential Yannis trade in the future, I
Speaker 2: don't know what to tell you. That's not to say
Speaker 2: that it won't happen, like that, it's possible that they
Speaker 2: pivot and get him to recommit, but like it's looking
Speaker 2: bleak right now and so like.
Speaker 1: And we're not rooting for him to go to New
Speaker 1: York or anything. Jason is just commenting on the stage.
Speaker 2: If he becomes available, the thunder ari potential threat because
Speaker 2: they have the necessary assets. If they were to pull
Speaker 2: it off, that would be fucking terrifying. That's literally, That's right.
Speaker 2: That's all we're getting at.
Speaker 1: It, all right. This question, though, is this person said,
Speaker 1: I think giannest is going to ask for a trade
Speaker 1: on the offseason, looking at potential landing spots. I would
Speaker 1: like your thoughts on a Jaw for a Yannis trade,
Speaker 1: and how would Triple J and Yannis sort of pair
Speaker 1: together as a front court duo. That's a complex question,
Speaker 1: but it is an really interesting one because I do
Speaker 1: think I feel like there's some weird like Jaw, the
Speaker 1: vibes around jar are strange in general.
Speaker 2: Two, the Grizzlies have struggled capitalizing on spot up possessions,
Speaker 2: which has been part of their issue with kind of
Speaker 2: like succeeding succeeding as teams get rim protection in front
Speaker 2: of jaw and kind of pack the paint and cause
Speaker 2: their offense to slow down. I think my gut feeling
Speaker 2: is that the Yannis Jaron Jackson fit would be super clunky,
Speaker 2: because I've talked a lot about this, but like when
Speaker 2: it comes to shooting bigs, there's a fine line between
Speaker 2: a guy that shoots, you know, in a certain percentage
Speaker 2: from three and like, oh, we're chasing this guy off
Speaker 2: the line. And if you're gonna pair Giannis with a big,
Speaker 2: it's gotta be someone who is very comfortable out there
Speaker 2: operating almost exclusively. And part of the issue there too
Speaker 2: is Jaron Jackson is at his best when he's playing
Speaker 2: with his back to the basket and taking all those
Speaker 2: little hooks and floaters and spins and all that kind
Speaker 2: of shit. And where's Gianni's gonna stand during that? That
Speaker 2: that's where it gets tricky. I think that's a I
Speaker 2: think that's a tricky matchup or tricky fit.
Speaker 1: I should say, all right, for our last question, let's
Speaker 1: do this one. If Cleveland wins a wins a ring
Speaker 1: this season or at all in this era, would you
Speaker 1: classify Donovan Mitchell as a quote small guy being the
Speaker 1: guy on a championship team. The only ones we've really
Speaker 1: seen before being Isaiah Thomas and Steph Curry, who is
Speaker 1: really good. He's like Dwayne Wade size sort of. So
Speaker 1: it's like and we don't, I don't think of Dwyane Wade.
Speaker 1: That might but it's a really fun question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, they're not the twenty fifteen Hawks where
Speaker 2: it's like nobody's a star, but it's a similar version
Speaker 2: of that with star talent in the sense that, like,
Speaker 2: to me, this is like Donovan's clearly the best player,
Speaker 2: but they all kind of feel on similar tiers for me,
Speaker 2: where it's like Darius Garland has been unbelievable this year
Speaker 2: and has become one of my favorite players in the
Speaker 2: league to watch. Evan Mobley is a defensive Player of
Speaker 2: the Year candidate who runs action for them and can
Speaker 2: go for twenty twenty five on any given night. Jared Allen,
Speaker 2: we talk about your value on your specific role in
Speaker 2: your specific team. Jared Allen's finishing ability in ball screens
Speaker 2: and his ability to switch on defense in pick and
Speaker 2: roll like unlocks so much of their floor on both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor, and so like almost it almost
Speaker 2: reminds me of the Pistons in the sense that, like
Speaker 2: Isaiah Thomas was the tip of the spear that put
Speaker 2: them over the top. But you don't look at those
Speaker 2: teams as like carry jobs. You look at them as
Speaker 2: like you know, by committee, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that was fun as always. We sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2: We got a bunch of content coming out over the
Speaker 2: next couple of days. Between mail bags, we have uh
Speaker 2: we did about forty minutes with Sam as Fondiari on
Speaker 2: a bunch of warrior stuff. I am getting on a
Speaker 2: plane tomorrow for one last bit of respite before the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I'm going to see three nights of Debt and Company
Speaker 2: at the Sphere. I'm super, super, super irrationally excited about that.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna take one last little break and then
Speaker 2: then it's grime time and we're gonna be uh covering
Speaker 2: the playoffs closely. Again, I appreciate you guys for rocking
Speaker 2: with me and supporting the show. We got lots of
Speaker 2: content coming out over the next couple of days, and
Speaker 2: then I will.
Speaker 3: See you again live on Monday.
Speaker 2: What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 2: to and reporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 2: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 2: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 2: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.