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Speaker 1: to whom tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
Speaker 1: hope all of you guys have had a great week
Speaker 1: so far. Got a jam pack show for you today.
Speaker 1: We had a crazy Wednesday night slate. We had two
Speaker 1: fifty point games, a crazy Lebron James Tree. We'll double
Speaker 1: a couple other guys at big time nights. So what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. We're gonna go over five great performances
Speaker 1: from Wednesday so I can bounce around those games. And
Speaker 1: then at the tail end of the show, I have
Speaker 1: eighteen clips for a film session that I want to
Speaker 1: go over some stuff with Karl Anthony Towns in the
Speaker 1: way he's been unlocking things for the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Steph Curry's just ridiculous performance
Speaker 1: down the stretch against the Dallas Mavericks. And then at
Speaker 1: the tail end we're gonna go over some stuff with
Speaker 1: Giannis and how he's been using inverted ball screens to
Speaker 1: cause problems for opposing bigs that try to guard him.
Speaker 1: So film session at the tail end, five great performances
Speaker 1: from Wednesday off the start, and then we're out of
Speaker 1: here for the day. You guys have the joke before
Speaker 1: we started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You
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Speaker 1: We're also tweeting out show links there every day and
Speaker 1: some show announcements as well. In the last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail bag questions into the YouTube comments. The
Speaker 1: questions for Friday I've already chosen, but we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: doing mail bags on every Friday, and I go back
Speaker 1: through the week to find questions in the YouTube comments,
Speaker 1: So make sure you keep dropping them there for next
Speaker 1: week's mail bag. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: five great performances from Wednesday. Let's start number one. Jannis
Speaker 1: I'm tennant Kompo fifty nine points, fourteen rebounds, and seven assists.
Speaker 1: Three things that I want to hit on from this
Speaker 1: particular game. First of all, posting mismatches, doing the work
Speaker 1: early in possessions to get the right guy that you're
Speaker 1: trying to attack in space. Did a lot of that
Speaker 1: with Paul Reid in the first half, right, like just
Speaker 1: because like like one of the things we've seen with
Speaker 1: a lot of teams with Yannis, and this has been
Speaker 1: for a while, dating all the way back to I
Speaker 1: remember watching a FEBA game where nikolea Jokic did a
Speaker 1: pretty good job on Yannis, because like, if you give
Speaker 1: him enough space to make those left right slides to
Speaker 1: meet him at spots, and you're strong enough to absorb contact,
Speaker 1: you can at least force him to shoot shots over
Speaker 1: the top right. And like we've seen teams try that,
Speaker 1: like let's put a big, huge athlete on him, sit
Speaker 1: further back, beat him to spots and absorbed contact. Well,
Speaker 1: there's no reason to do that if you don't have to,
Speaker 1: if you can get him switched off of you earlier.
Speaker 1: In possessions. The second piece of it is inverted ball screens,
Speaker 1: and this is a concept I've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: on this show because it the inversion is in the
Speaker 1: defensive roles, and that is where it changes what is
Speaker 1: strengths for two players into weaknesses. So like guards that
Speaker 1: are guarding ball handlers are pretty used to getting screened,
Speaker 1: so they're good at navigating screens, they're good at seeing
Speaker 1: them coming, they're good at like preparing for screens while
Speaker 1: also simultaneously keeping their attention on the ball handler. That's
Speaker 1: what they do for a living. Right, screen defenders big guys,
Speaker 1: they're really good at seeing a guy coming off of
Speaker 1: a screen and being able to corral someone at them
Speaker 1: in those situations. But as soon as you invert that process,
Speaker 1: suddenly you have big guys that don't know how to
Speaker 1: navigate screens, that don't know how to be aware of
Speaker 1: where screens are coming from while also being aware of
Speaker 1: the ball handler, and they can be kind of mixed
Speaker 1: up in those situations. And then a smaller guard who
Speaker 1: is going to struggle with someone coming heads with the
Speaker 1: head of steam at them when they're in more of
Speaker 1: like a drop coverage situation, or in many cases, they
Speaker 1: don't even think to help because they're usually staying glued
Speaker 1: to the screener because they're so fixed on the ball
Speaker 1: handler because that's what they've been doing since they were
Speaker 1: young basketball players. It inverts all of those roles. The
Speaker 1: main way you saw that in this game because Gianni's
Speaker 1: got both Jalen Dura and Isaiah Stewart with inverted ball screens.
Speaker 1: In those situations, you're watching Duran and Stuart looking left
Speaker 1: to right like trying to figure out where the screen
Speaker 1: is coming from, and they're just not able to quickly
Speaker 1: process what's happening and how to react to it. And
Speaker 1: next thing you know, Joanna's assuming that on them at
Speaker 1: a down pass them at full speed and it's either
Speaker 1: a dunk or another easy kickout pass. Those inverted actions
Speaker 1: and they did a lot with aj Green, they did
Speaker 1: a lot with Pat Conaton in this game. Those inverted
Speaker 1: actions just give Yannis the ability to get downhill again.
Speaker 1: If he's attacking Isaiah Stewart in a one on one situation,
Speaker 1: he might just give him five feet, beat him to
Speaker 1: a spot and force him to shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: But if you're able to get him mixing up into
Speaker 1: screening actions, it's more than likely that he's going to
Speaker 1: be going to be able to get more easy dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: And then the third piece of it is the hesitation jumper.
Speaker 1: So one of the most interesting kind of subplots of
Speaker 1: the season. I've talked about it a few times, but
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting subplots of the season is
Speaker 1: that Giannis has cut way down on his three point volume.
Speaker 1: He's taking zero point eight threes per game, which is
Speaker 1: his lowest since twenty fifteen. But he's way more effective
Speaker 1: from the mid range this year than he's been in
Speaker 1: his entire career. And this is like the other piece
Speaker 1: of it. Right in those one on one situations when
Speaker 1: the guy's giving him tons of space to try to
Speaker 1: beat him to the spot and absorb that contact in
Speaker 1: the chest, that's where Yannis can actually get into that
Speaker 1: little hesitation jumper and knock it down. And it's counterintuitive
Speaker 1: because you think, oh, it'd be better offer Gianis to
Speaker 1: work on threes because all he has, all he has
Speaker 1: to do is get to thirty three percent and now
Speaker 1: he's getting one point per shot. Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Jannis can't make threes. That's the problem. So like it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what any whatever analytical advantage you get or
Speaker 1: mathematical advantage you get from taking threes, if you can't
Speaker 1: make them. It is clear that Yannis is capable. We've
Speaker 1: seen it various points through phases like twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: where he shot free throws extremely well to this year
Speaker 1: with the mid range, like he's just more comfortable with
Speaker 1: his release in that fifteen foot range, and so like
Speaker 1: many times last night he had fifteen points just on
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shots last night. So he gets
Speaker 1: into that high hesitation and again the high hesitation. Just
Speaker 1: imagine like it's it kind of looks a little bit
Speaker 1: like a carry where you're like sitting in between dribbles
Speaker 1: with the ball with your hand kind of a little
Speaker 1: bit on the side, a little bit underneath the ball.
Speaker 1: It is a bridge move. It's a move I teach
Speaker 1: for my high school kids where it's like, you can
Speaker 1: go anywhere from this move. If you're in the high hesitation,
Speaker 1: you can rise into a jump shot. You can cross
Speaker 1: back over to the left, you can go between the
Speaker 1: legs to the or to the right. I should say
Speaker 1: you can go between the legs to the right. You
Speaker 1: can go behind the back to the right. You can
Speaker 1: throw an in and out dribble, you can go into
Speaker 1: a step back dribble. You can launch yourself forward into
Speaker 1: a driving move, or you can just rise up into
Speaker 1: a jump shot. And so it's the They call it
Speaker 1: a hesitation move because it usually gets the defender to hesitate.
Speaker 1: In a lot of cases, right like you're hesitating, the
Speaker 1: defender's hesitating, everyone freezes for a second, and you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to rise up into a jump shot, and
Speaker 1: so Giannis uses it almost to set his rhythm right.
Speaker 1: The defender is playing off of him, so it's not
Speaker 1: like Yannis needs to make some sort of move to
Speaker 1: get to a jump shot. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: having a move anyway that you go to will help
Speaker 1: you set your rhythm. So, for instance, if he just
Speaker 1: walks into a jumper, it might feel clunky and awkward,
Speaker 1: but if he's in the gym going I took, you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred hesitation mid range jump shots per day the
Speaker 1: entire summer, he can ground himself mentally in a way
Speaker 1: that goes, I'm going to sit in this hesitation dribble
Speaker 1: and then rise up into this jump shot and it's
Speaker 1: gonna feel like I'm in the gym by myself. And
Speaker 1: so he's actually gotten pretty damn efficient with that shot.
Speaker 1: He's shooting forty nine percent on off the dribble jump
Speaker 1: shots field goal percentage overall, forty five percent on jump shots,
Speaker 1: and he's getting zero point nine to five points per
Speaker 1: jump shot attempt, which is by far the best of
Speaker 1: his career. That has been a huge thing that has
Speaker 1: helped piece together a reliable over the top game for Giannis.
Speaker 1: This year. He's also shooting a higher percentage of hook
Speaker 1: shots two. Although he's not using him as much as
Speaker 1: I'd like, Giannis is playing some of the best basketball
Speaker 1: of his career. He's absolutely hooping his ass off. It
Speaker 1: was kind of funny last night watching Isaiah Stewart. Every
Speaker 1: time Yiannis would make a shot in the early part
Speaker 1: of the game, he'd throw one of those like kind
Speaker 1: of condescending waves at him, and then Giannis just kept
Speaker 1: making him. And then Isaiah Stewart had yet another characteristic,
Speaker 1: complete and total breakdown on the court as he yanks
Speaker 1: Janis out of this guy and ends up getting a
Speaker 1: flager at two and getting ejected. But that's Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: for you. A big shot. One other thing with Giannis
Speaker 1: that I thought was really impressive last night. Sometimes, like
Speaker 1: making simple basketball plays doesn't get the attention that it deserves.
Speaker 1: And there were a couple of big plays in this
Speaker 1: game where Yannis just hit Torreon prints on like swing passes,
Speaker 1: meaning like he's dribbling at the top of the key
Speaker 1: and Torreon's guy's kind of digging down to the nail
Speaker 1: to try to help contain Giannis's drives, and Yanis just
Speaker 1: rifles a swing past to Torrean prints right in the
Speaker 1: shooting pocket, and he's able to rise up and shoot.
Speaker 1: It's not anything special. He's not running a fancy pick
Speaker 1: and roll and whipping a cross court pass, or like
Speaker 1: drawing a double team and making some beautiful read It's
Speaker 1: just simple basketball. I'm dribbling at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: This dude's digging down into the lane. If I throw
Speaker 1: this pass on time and on target, we can get
Speaker 1: a three point shot. I don't have to put wear
Speaker 1: and tear on my body. We don't have to put
Speaker 1: everybody else through all these different screening actions. Like the
Speaker 1: entire purpose of running a screening action or any sort
Speaker 1: of five man action is to try to get a
Speaker 1: close out. Here's one that's being drafted to us, just
Speaker 1: by the way that they're guarding to Orian Prints. Let's
Speaker 1: lean on that. Those are little things that make you
Speaker 1: a more efficient basketball player. A lot of times we
Speaker 1: think of dramatic improvement when it comes to improving as
Speaker 1: a playmaker as a score. Many times it's just the
Speaker 1: simple things. A lot of times, improving as a score
Speaker 1: can be generating three, four, five additional easy looks a
Speaker 1: game just by improving your basketball instincts getting open jumpers
Speaker 1: off of a decent relocation, or running off of a screen,
Speaker 1: or running in transition, or getting two to three back
Speaker 1: cut layups a game just by beating overplays like they
Speaker 1: become better scores by just finding more easy stuff. Same
Speaker 1: thing goes with playmaking. A lot of times, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: like a lot of the best playmakers in the world
Speaker 1: have four or five assists a game that are just easy.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I dribbled off this ball screen and
Speaker 1: just whipped it behind the back pass to the popping
Speaker 1: big because he's wide open every single time that you
Speaker 1: run a pick and pop against the drop coverage, like,
Speaker 1: I don't need to do something surgical here, Let's just
Speaker 1: take the easy reads that are available in the game.
Speaker 1: And I thought that those swing passes to Torian Prince
Speaker 1: were a classic example of that. Last night, Bucks get
Speaker 1: two wins in a row. The Bucks are now one
Speaker 1: point five games back of the four seed in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. This is why, with all these questions surrounding
Speaker 1: trades for the Bucks, I've kept saying the same thing.
Speaker 1: It is way too soon to bail on the season
Speaker 1: for Milwaukee. It's been a disaster, no doubt, you should
Speaker 1: feel lower on this team than you did to start
Speaker 1: the year. They haven't looked good. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: change that. But this is not over. There is so
Speaker 1: much time left. There's a lot of different things that
Speaker 1: could go one way or another over the course of
Speaker 1: this season. Who knows what kind of trades that could
Speaker 1: be available to them, who could become available in the
Speaker 1: buy out market, like, who knows what this looks like
Speaker 1: in the long run. They're one point five games back
Speaker 1: to the four seed, and most importantly, they're starting to
Speaker 1: show more competitiveness. I'm seeing more fight out of them,
Speaker 1: even in their last couple of losses. There's just more fight.
Speaker 1: There's fight in the next game, there's fight in the
Speaker 1: Celtics game. There's just fight coming from this team. And
Speaker 1: look at their next eleven games. They have Charlotte, Houston, Chicago, Indiana,
Speaker 1: Charlotte again, Miami, Washington, Detroit in Atlanta. It's completely reasonable
Speaker 1: to think that they could be right back in the
Speaker 1: mix of things by the end of that stretch. Second
Speaker 1: big performance from last night, Victor Webbin Yama goes for
Speaker 1: fifty points eighteen for twenty nine from the field all
Speaker 1: about the jump shot. Right with Victor, he had eight threes.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight of his fifty last night came off of
Speaker 1: jump shots. Some of it's about action, right, like the
Speaker 1: picking and popping again is like I've been harping on
Speaker 1: the pick and pop. It's always open. It's literally always open.
Speaker 1: The only time it's ever not open is if teams
Speaker 1: don't run a traditional coverage, like if they switch or
Speaker 1: if they rotate from the weak side. And if they
Speaker 1: rotate from the weak side, you have easy kickout passes
Speaker 1: for threes. And if they switch, that's where you can
Speaker 1: get mismatches that you can look to attack, especially when
Speaker 1: you have the type of talent that Victor wimben Yama
Speaker 1: is right, But like when you pick and pop against
Speaker 1: a traditional screening coverage, meaning like the big sets the screen,
Speaker 1: the guard comes off and the big pops to the
Speaker 1: top of the key, he's always open. It's literally always
Speaker 1: open because of the assignments of the the guard is
Speaker 1: chasing over the top, he's staying attached to the ball handler.
Speaker 1: The big man is dropping and containing the ball handler.
Speaker 1: So if the big slips out of the screen to
Speaker 1: the top of the key. He is literally always open,
Speaker 1: and that's why I love that action so much for centers.
Speaker 1: That's what Carl Anthony Towns has been doing so well
Speaker 1: with the sixers, which we'll talk about. Last night in
Speaker 1: the Laker game, Anthony Davis once again picking pop. It's
Speaker 1: just literally always open. And so if you have a
Speaker 1: guy who's willing and able to take and make that shot,
Speaker 1: it's such a thing that opens up things for your offense.
Speaker 1: And then trailing and transition is another big one I've
Speaker 1: talked about. I'll show you guys an example in the
Speaker 1: film session with Carl Towns, but he did. Victor did
Speaker 1: a lot of that last night, like trailing the play,
Speaker 1: catching at twenty five feet and then just rising and shooting.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is you can't do anything with Wemby.
Speaker 1: If he's making his jump shot. The action's cool and
Speaker 1: he gets open, sure, but like it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: he's open or not because the release point is too high.
Speaker 1: And then at this point too, when you start hitting
Speaker 1: the way Victor has been over the last couple of games,
Speaker 1: guys start chasing him off the line. Now he can
Speaker 1: drive closeouts. He had a bunch of baskets driving closeouts
Speaker 1: for like dunks and stuff. Last night. This goes to
Speaker 1: the stuff I've been talking about with Nicole Yokich all season,
Speaker 1: like the big man shooting threes. You want to know
Speaker 1: what else biggs don't do. Remember when we talked about
Speaker 1: the inverted ball screens and how big guys can struggle
Speaker 1: to navigate screening actions. You know what else? Big guys
Speaker 1: suck at closing out because you know what, when they
Speaker 1: were kids, they weren't closing out often to the three
Speaker 1: point line. Most of the time. They're containing working more
Speaker 1: about like helping behind on the back line in the paint. Right.
Speaker 1: So guess what, there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunity for Victor women Yama with the Alex Sar types
Speaker 1: of the world sprinting out at him to beat them
Speaker 1: off the dribble and to get dribble penetration that way.
Speaker 1: Victor had just six points in the first ten games
Speaker 1: of the season out of spot up situations. He hit
Speaker 1: fourteen in the last two games. And again, they're not
Speaker 1: all just catching shoot threes. There's a lot of those
Speaker 1: that are driving closeouts, and so like, with how high
Speaker 1: his release point is, I just think this is really fascinating.
Speaker 1: This is an interesting trend that I'm seeing around the league,
Speaker 1: really athletically gifted athletes that are investing in the jump
Speaker 1: shot as their foundation. I put down five examples Victor Wemnyama,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Green, and Houston deeron Fox
Speaker 1: and Sacramento. These are guys that are apex athletes in
Speaker 1: one way or another. Victor with his insane length and
Speaker 1: mobility for his size, Tatum with that combination of size
Speaker 1: and strength, Ant is like freaky athletic and strong. Jalen
Speaker 1: Green freaky athletic, dearon Fox, potentially the fastest player in
Speaker 1: the league. These are guys that have insane physical traits
Speaker 1: that should, in theory, be weaponized more aggressively towards the basket.
Speaker 1: And all of those guys are taking more than ten
Speaker 1: jump shots a game. Ant's taken over fourteen, Tatum's taken
Speaker 1: over thirteen. They're taking tons and tons of jump shots,
Speaker 1: and I think this is really, really fascinating. It's an
Speaker 1: interesting trend that we're seeing around the league that these young,
Speaker 1: freaky athletic players are investing so heavily into the jump
Speaker 1: shot as their foundational skill, and again, I think it
Speaker 1: mostly comes down to the analytics side of things. It's
Speaker 1: hard to argue with the results. I mean, if Victor
Speaker 1: Weben yam I got twenty four points at the three
Speaker 1: point line last night on sixteen attempts, there's a point
Speaker 1: where the math comes into your favor, Like had a
Speaker 1: really bad jump shooting game last night, but like over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, the jump shot is taking
Speaker 1: a jump shot has been one of the most efficient
Speaker 1: shots that the Minnesota Timberwolves can get this season in
Speaker 1: any type of situation. And so again there's a conversation
Speaker 1: to be had about like, Okay, well what about when
Speaker 1: we get into the small sample size and like all
Speaker 1: these dudes are taking threes and then they can go
Speaker 1: you know again, like there's a sixty ish percent chance
Speaker 1: that you're going to miss a shot like that in
Speaker 1: a big situation, in a big situation at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, And there's a complicated conversation to be
Speaker 1: had about that. And yes, I do think these players
Speaker 1: need balance for that reason, but I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of it, like Tatum's working a lot closer to the basket,
Speaker 1: attacking mismatches in the mid range at certain points in
Speaker 1: the games. This year, I've seen Victor webin Yama do
Speaker 1: it when he needs to. These guys can do it.
Speaker 1: I just think it's really interesting that these players are
Speaker 1: investing so much in the jump shot is a foundational
Speaker 1: skill for them. In the regular season, Victor is starting
Speaker 1: to get it, going first nine games eighteen points and
Speaker 1: ten rebounds on forty one percent from the field twenty
Speaker 1: three percent from three, his last three games thirty six
Speaker 1: and twelve on fifty nine percent from the field fifty
Speaker 1: four percent from three, and the Spurs have won five
Speaker 1: out of eight and are up to six and six
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. Man, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: good teams out West. Number three from our five great performances.
Speaker 1: Last night, Jatum thirty six points, nine rebounds in tennis.
Speaker 1: That a lot of the same stuff that he's been
Speaker 1: doing all year. He had twelve points in like straight
Speaker 1: ISO situations. That's the most he's had in a game
Speaker 1: since the Knicks game on Opening Night. He's becoming so
Speaker 1: great at using his super strong upper body to win
Speaker 1: leverage battles, to get dribble penetration, and then he's getting
Speaker 1: defenders out of position and drawing a lot of fouls.
Speaker 1: He drew two more fouls and ISO situations last night,
Speaker 1: and then the jump shot just continues to go in
Speaker 1: at a high clip. Twenty one of his thirty six
Speaker 1: points last night came on jump shots. He's getting one
Speaker 1: point zero nine points per jump shot for the whole season.
Speaker 1: That's up from last year one point three to three
Speaker 1: points per catch and shoot jump shot. That's insane. The
Speaker 1: big one there is he's he's doing what I call
Speaker 1: like a delayed closeout shot where and this almost exclusively
Speaker 1: works for taller players, but like it's where a lot
Speaker 1: of times when guys close out, they will close out
Speaker 1: hands high, but then they'll sit low when they get there,
Speaker 1: and there's like a little bit of like a hesitation
Speaker 1: as the defender goes shot first, then worry about the
Speaker 1: drive right. And one of the things you'll see Tatum
Speaker 1: do is he'll catch on the perimeter and actually like
Speaker 1: let the dude close out, but then like look down
Speaker 1: as if he's going to drive, and then he'll just
Speaker 1: rise up into that jump shot. So it's like it's
Speaker 1: like a catch and shoot with just the slightest hesitation
Speaker 1: on the catch that lets the defenders sit low in
Speaker 1: a stance thinking he's gonna drive for second, and it
Speaker 1: turns into a little bit of a delayed hand up
Speaker 1: on the shot, And as a result, he's hitting a
Speaker 1: lot of contested ketch and shoot jump shots this year.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he's hitting fifty percent of
Speaker 1: his guarded catch and shoot jump shots this year. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a super interesting element of like turning
Speaker 1: like spot up situations that aren't necessarily the highest quality
Speaker 1: spot up situations into points anyway, by weaponizing his height
Speaker 1: and using that hesitation to get the defender to sit
Speaker 1: down into his stance, still only getting zero point nine
Speaker 1: to six points per off the dribble jump shot. But
Speaker 1: I've maintained all season I do believe that Tatum. I
Speaker 1: just think he's a much better jump shoter than he
Speaker 1: showed last year. And I just think that I think
Speaker 1: that even what we've seen to start this year isn't
Speaker 1: close to what he's going to be. I think he's
Speaker 1: going to probably finish the year closer to like one
Speaker 1: point one five points per jump shot overall, in one
Speaker 1: point zero five points per off the dribble jump shot,
Speaker 1: Let's keep an eye on it. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: where I see this season ending for him. I just
Speaker 1: think I still think he's not hitting it the way
Speaker 1: that he's going to over the course of this season.
Speaker 1: But I want to dig into the playmaking for a bit.
Speaker 1: Tennisis last night, he's averaging a career high five point
Speaker 1: six assists per game, six or more assists in each
Speaker 1: of the last four games, and he's doing it every
Speaker 1: which way. He's doing a lot of like passing folkrum
Speaker 1: stuff for off ball action. We're seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: this from stars around the league right now, and a
Speaker 1: lot of teams are using their center for this as well.
Speaker 1: But like he'll be the hub while like Derek White's
Speaker 1: coming off of a screening action, He's hitting him with
Speaker 1: the pass right away. Or like they'll run action to
Speaker 1: try to get Jalen Brown a post up matchup that
Speaker 1: they like right in front of the rim, and like
Speaker 1: the Tatum will either like make a nice post entry
Speaker 1: or like the guy will try to front Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: and then Tatum will throw like a really nice over
Speaker 1: the top pass. Tatum had a really nice over the
Speaker 1: top feet to Jalen Brown last night, for instance, Right,
Speaker 1: So a lot of like off ball passing, fulcrum stuff,
Speaker 1: short roll passing is a big one, like screening for
Speaker 1: the guards, but screening on the inside so you can
Speaker 1: get inside position and just throwing that hand up ball
Speaker 1: comes over the top. And then they just formed these
Speaker 1: like three on twos on the baseline, usually where there's
Speaker 1: like shoot in the corner, shoot her in the corner,
Speaker 1: and like Mimi Queda just sitting under the basket for
Speaker 1: a lob and then there's usually like one guy steps
Speaker 1: up and then there's like two guys kind of splitting
Speaker 1: the difference there, and then Tatum has to make the read.
Speaker 1: If one of them sinks in on the lob, then
Speaker 1: he's got to throw the corner pass, or if he
Speaker 1: stays out in the corner, he's got to throw the
Speaker 1: lob pass. And he's just gotten really good at making
Speaker 1: those reads and then lastly whipping kickout passes on drives,
Speaker 1: and he had a couple of really nice ones last
Speaker 1: night to skip passing a ball screen, like a two
Speaker 1: hand over the top cross court pass to Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: in the right corner that went in. You know, another
Speaker 1: one where he drove along the baseline and just whipped
Speaker 1: a right handed pass beautifully to a relocating Sam Houser
Speaker 1: who was kind of looping around to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. A lot of the same stuff that I
Speaker 1: talked about from yamis where it's like a lot of
Speaker 1: the best playmakers in the world they supplement their playmaking
Speaker 1: with like four or five like really simple easy reads
Speaker 1: a game, like just a smart kick ahead in transition
Speaker 1: to a guy that has an advantage. Now he's getting
Speaker 1: a three year layup or a swing pass when a
Speaker 1: guy's digging too much down into nailhelp. A lot of
Speaker 1: those simple things that supplement those playmaking numbers. But again,
Speaker 1: I think he's gone up a level in a real
Speaker 1: way as a playmaker this year. Tatum's off to a
Speaker 1: great start. Another great game for him last night, Number
Speaker 1: four Karl Anthony Towns crazy game between the Bulls and
Speaker 1: the Knicks. The Bulls jumped them, went up by twenty
Speaker 1: two in the late third quarter. Zach Lavine is sneaky,
Speaker 1: looking kind of good this year. I'm really curious to
Speaker 1: see if there's a team that talks themselves into Levine
Speaker 1: being a legitimate trade target. I would still be terrified
Speaker 1: because one, he makes so much money that you have
Speaker 1: to put out a lot of contracts that could be
Speaker 1: quality role players to try to get someone like Levine,
Speaker 1: and then the health risk to me is still just
Speaker 1: too big for the type of risk that would be.
Speaker 1: But who knows, you might be able to get Zach
Speaker 1: Levine without having to give up draft compensation. And so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if there's some team that talks
Speaker 1: themselves into and especially a team that has a large
Speaker 1: contract or two that they can afford to get rid of.
Speaker 1: But Zach Larvine looks kind of spunky this year. That's
Speaker 1: an interesting trend coming out of Chicago. But the Bulls
Speaker 1: jump them, They go up twenty two in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter. The Knicks battle back really fast with this
Speaker 1: crazy late third quarter run, and then it turns into
Speaker 1: this back and forth dog fight. In the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Dale Brunson hits a little mid range jump shot that
Speaker 1: should have been the game winner, but then Josh Hart,
Speaker 1: trying to get a rearview contest on Kobe White, ends
Speaker 1: up bowling him. I was talking about this with Paul
Speaker 1: r Our, producer, he's a huge Knicks fan, earlier this morning,
Speaker 1: and like you know, I understand that the want to
Speaker 1: make someone feel uncomfortable in a situation like that. But like,
Speaker 1: you got to be so careful in those situations because
Speaker 1: guys flop. And I don't like this, but NBA officials,
Speaker 1: for whatever reasons, seem hell bent on like microanalyzing three
Speaker 1: point attempts when it's on a last second possession. There's
Speaker 1: just so many if he calls that get made in
Speaker 1: those situations, and so like, you gotta be very, very
Speaker 1: careful in those situations. And Josh Hart just took it
Speaker 1: a little too close and picked up a foul, and
Speaker 1: then the Bulls hit three free throws, and then Jalen
Speaker 1: bruns Ha got a decent look on a little left
Speaker 1: shoulder fade, but it literally went as close to going
Speaker 1: in as it possibly could without going in, and it
Speaker 1: pops out and the Nicks end up getting a loss.
Speaker 1: But Karl Anthony Towns finished with forty six points and
Speaker 1: ten rebounds. It's his second forty point game of the year.
Speaker 1: It's his fifth thirty point game of the year. He's
Speaker 1: averaging a career high twenty seven points per game a
Speaker 1: career best sixty five percent through shooting. He was absolutely
Speaker 1: barbecuing Nikolavusevich last night, especially in closeouts, just driving right
Speaker 1: by him and getting to the basket. But he was
Speaker 1: also torching him, just like facing up, hitting jump shots,
Speaker 1: feeding him as the trailer and transition, a lot of
Speaker 1: pick and pop stuff, like we talked about. I've got
Speaker 1: a couple examples. I'm going to show you guys in
Speaker 1: the film, not from that game, but from the game
Speaker 1: against Philly on Tuesday. He is he had twenty four
Speaker 1: points in the Bulls game just on spot ups and rolls.
Speaker 1: Here's what's crazy. Karl Anthony Towns has been converting roles
Speaker 1: and spot ups, both over one point five points per
Speaker 1: possession to start the year. It's been a huge part
Speaker 1: of the Knicks offense to start. We will get a
Speaker 1: little bit further into that in the film session and
Speaker 1: the last, but not least, for our five big performances
Speaker 1: from last night, Lebron James thirty five points, twelve rebounds,
Speaker 1: fourteen assists for the guy who turns forty in a month.
Speaker 1: I a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about
Speaker 1: the Lakers after they had a couple of bad losses
Speaker 1: in a row on their road trip, and one of
Speaker 1: the things I said was like, yeah, Lebron hasn't been
Speaker 1: too good to start this year, and when the Lakers
Speaker 1: come out flat like they had on the road in
Speaker 1: a lot of those games like it certainly is going
Speaker 1: to manifest in like a lot of issues that Lebron
Speaker 1: can exacerbate when he's not playing as hard as he's
Speaker 1: capable of playing, or when he doesn't have the athletic
Speaker 1: juice that he's capable of having. But what I said
Speaker 1: in that situation was, He's not the one I'm worried about.
Speaker 1: Lebron is He's just such a smart player and such
Speaker 1: a competitive player that no matter what's going on with him,
Speaker 1: I always feel like he's going to find a way
Speaker 1: to get to a really, really high level of impact.
Speaker 1: He's never been the one that I'm worried about. Well,
Speaker 1: Lebron's last seven games twenty seven points, nine rebounds, tenn
Speaker 1: asists on fifty seven percent from the field, fifty percent
Speaker 1: from three, eighty four percent from the line. That's sixty
Speaker 1: eight percent intro shooting percentage. So Lebron's putting up MVP
Speaker 1: numbers now over the course of the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: That didn't take long for him to get back up
Speaker 1: to speed. Again, He's never the one I'm worried about what.
Speaker 1: Am I worried about Delo? Sometimes? Yes? Am I worried
Speaker 1: about Ruiey? Sometimes? Am I worried about Gabe? Am I
Speaker 1: worried about a lot of different guys on the Laker roster? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But Lebron and Ad I just trust them to be
Speaker 1: at the level they need to be at. That's why
Speaker 1: I look at this team as such a trade candidate,
Speaker 1: because like, the foundation has been so rock solid since
Speaker 1: January of this year, in twenty twenty four, that I
Speaker 1: feel like it has to be invested in at some point.
Speaker 1: Lebron's shot creation data has been insane. Lebron has been
Speaker 1: the best pick and roll player in the league to
Speaker 1: start the year. He's getting one point three zero points
Speaker 1: per pick and roll including passes. That's number one in
Speaker 1: the league by a mile among the forty players that
Speaker 1: have run at least one hundred pick and rolls this year.
Speaker 1: So among those high volume pick and roll players, he's
Speaker 1: been the best by a lot. The guy in second
Speaker 1: place is like nine one hundreds of a point behind,
Speaker 1: almost a full tenth of a point behind him. He's
Speaker 1: at one point one zero points per ISO including passes,
Speaker 1: that's seventh among the nineteen players to run at least
Speaker 1: fifty and he's at one point zero nine points per
Speaker 1: post up, which is fifth among the fifteen players to
Speaker 1: run at least forty. So Lebron just has completely turned
Speaker 1: a season around, just like just like we talked about
Speaker 1: with Yokich the Nuggets, Lebron has completely turned the season
Speaker 1: around over the course of the last few weeks and
Speaker 1: is playing once again at that superstar level, which is
Speaker 1: what the Lakers have needed out of him so badly.
Speaker 1: How his jump shot continues to be dead. He's at
Speaker 1: one point two to one points per jump shot this year,
Speaker 1: but especially off the dribble. He's getting one point two
Speaker 1: to one off the catch, but he's also getting one
Speaker 1: point two to one points per off the dribble jump shot.
Speaker 1: He's off to his best pull up shooting start of
Speaker 1: his career, bullying smaller players. He was torching Jalen Wells
Speaker 1: last night, who got the Lebron matchup from the opening
Speaker 1: tip for the injured Memphis Grizzlies team. And then one
Speaker 1: of the other big things that's really turned things around,
Speaker 1: uh or I shouldn't say turn things around, but like that.
Speaker 1: Has been different this year for the Lebron and the
Speaker 1: Lakers compared to last year is we saw a lot
Speaker 1: more of what I begged for this summer. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember from the Olympics, Lebron operated a lot as
Speaker 1: that passing fulcrum for the top of the key as
Speaker 1: off ball action was happening around him. And in those situations,
Speaker 1: Lebron is able to conserve his legs but weaponize his
Speaker 1: brain on the offensive end of the floor. In my
Speaker 1: go listen to the season preview that I did for
Speaker 1: the Lakers before the year, this was something I begged for.
Speaker 1: Take the lesson from the Olympics. Lebron chills athletically for
Speaker 1: extensive stretches in the regular season, but meant lead. He
Speaker 1: is still incredibly locked in as a competitor, one of
Speaker 1: the highest basketball IQ guys in the league, in one
Speaker 1: of the top two or three passers in the league.
Speaker 1: So if you put him at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and you put the ball in his hands and
Speaker 1: you have everybody running action around him, he can make
Speaker 1: the reads to either one, make the kill pass. So
Speaker 1: like a guy gets open on a cut and he's
Speaker 1: gonna hit him for a lamp or a guy get
Speaker 1: breaks open at the three point line, he's gonna hit
Speaker 1: him for a shot. But at the very least, Lebron
Speaker 1: will set up the other offensive players for the Lakers
Speaker 1: with advantage situations, opportunities to drive closeouts, opportunities with the
Speaker 1: defenders sprinting at them instead of geared up on them
Speaker 1: with ball pressure, which again, this has been an issue
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about in a minute with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers have struggled with ball pressure consistently this year,
Speaker 1: consistently for a couple of years now. If you can
Speaker 1: have Lebron operate and let d Lo and Austin, these
Speaker 1: guys that can struggle with pressure move around off the
Speaker 1: ball and maybe get a catch for the defenders sprinting
Speaker 1: at them instead of hand checking them full court, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have better opportunities to score that way. And that's
Speaker 1: been a huge part of how leb like. That's been
Speaker 1: a huge part of what's made this offense work this
Speaker 1: year is they are using Lebron in a way that
Speaker 1: makes sense for his age. He can pick his spots
Speaker 1: and be aggressive. He had his plays where he looked
Speaker 1: to bully last night he had his plays where he
Speaker 1: looked to slash last night, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: it's knocking down jump shots and operating as a passing
Speaker 1: fulcrum from the top of the key, which weaponize Lebron's
Speaker 1: skills that he will bring every night, as opposed to
Speaker 1: relying on the skills that are very dependent on how
Speaker 1: his legs are feeling on any given night or how
Speaker 1: hard he feels like playing on any given night. I
Speaker 1: think it's been a really smart approach from the Lakers
Speaker 1: this year and something I've been calling for all summer.
Speaker 1: On the Lakers front, big picture, they've won three in
Speaker 1: a row against some bad teams since they're bad road trip,
Speaker 1: so the season has basically come down to they're undefeated
Speaker 1: at home. In the home games, they've beat three good
Speaker 1: teams and three bad teams, and then they had an
Speaker 1: abysmal road trip and that leaves them sitting at seven
Speaker 1: and four. So like, it's weird because if you told
Speaker 1: me of looking at their schedule and they've played one
Speaker 1: of the harder schedules in the league to start the year,
Speaker 1: if you told me looking at their schedule, like they're
Speaker 1: gonna be seven and four through eleven games, you would
Speaker 1: think that I'd be higher on them than I was
Speaker 1: to start the year. But I'm kind of in a
Speaker 1: weird spot with the Lakers because I'm actually lower on
Speaker 1: them than I was to start the season because of
Speaker 1: that lack of speed. I think there's been so much
Speaker 1: that I've learned. I've talked so much about the concept
Speaker 1: of like ground coverage and covering ground and rotation, covering
Speaker 1: ground and transition, all the elements that speed bring to
Speaker 1: the table, dribble penetration, all that kind of stuff. Another
Speaker 1: big one is like, hey, you got a double team
Speaker 1: these best players in the league. It's like the only
Speaker 1: thing you can do. And so if you can successfully
Speaker 1: double team but rotate out of it, then you can.
Speaker 1: You can get away with getting the ball out of
Speaker 1: the stars hands while still forcing lesser players to take
Speaker 1: contested shots. But the only way you can do that
Speaker 1: is if you have the requisite amount of speed in
Speaker 1: the lineup to cover the ground you need to get
Speaker 1: out of those double teams looking at like a team
Speaker 1: like the Warriors against the Celtics. Usually putting two on
Speaker 1: the ball against Tatum is an absolute death sentence. But
Speaker 1: if you have the speed to recover out of it,
Speaker 1: you can still bog things down in those situations. And
Speaker 1: so my kind of like influx of appreciation or understanding
Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it of the way
Speaker 1: that speed excuse me leads to success in the NBA.
Speaker 1: That specifically has caused me to be lower on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that they've been seven and four, because
Speaker 1: they still just have too many stretches where basically, this
Speaker 1: is what happens with the Lakers. If Lebron and AD
Speaker 1: don't engage themselves athletically like what they like what they
Speaker 1: did in the fourth quarter last night. If they don't
Speaker 1: do that, the team looks dreadfully on athletic because Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad are the athletes. Lebron and AD are the
Speaker 1: guys that bring that for this group. So there are
Speaker 1: stretches last night where you know, maybe Lebron's not battling
Speaker 1: on the glasses hard or AD is not super engaged,
Speaker 1: and then they just get absolutely mauled on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: They gave up thirty four more points in transition last night.
Speaker 1: They've been basically the worst transition defense in the league.
Speaker 1: Like whenever Lebron and Ad aren't engaged athletically, the rest
Speaker 1: of the team looks dreadfully slow and the wheels fall off.
Speaker 1: Ball pressure continues to big down their guards every single time.
Speaker 1: Their guards can't beat it off the dribble and actually
Speaker 1: create penetration off of it. They struggle with it right.
Speaker 1: But then when Lebron and Ad engage themselves, they look
Speaker 1: like a real basketball team because they can cover for
Speaker 1: some of the athletic limitations of their team. But so
Speaker 1: many of these games are coming down to Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad flexing their individual muscles to regain control of these games.
Speaker 1: And last night was such a great example of that,
Speaker 1: And I think that's a dangerous build for a team
Speaker 1: that has an older star in Lebron James at age
Speaker 1: thirty nine. If there was more athleticism to balance out
Speaker 1: the skill among because the role players have a lot
Speaker 1: of skill, Ruby is skilled, Austin is skilled, Dilo is skilled,
Speaker 1: Dalton connect is skilled. They have a lot of skill
Speaker 1: in their role player corps, but there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of athleticism there. If they had more athleticism to balance
Speaker 1: out the skill among the role players, then they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to rely on their stars to leverage their athletic
Speaker 1: gifts as much as they do. So that's why I'm
Speaker 1: in a weird spot because on one hand, I'm lower
Speaker 1: on them than I was to start the year. But
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I'm also optimistic in the sense that,
Speaker 1: like if they hit on a trade and if they
Speaker 1: get Jared Vanderbilt back and they become a faster team.
Speaker 1: I still love the Lebron and Ad duo at the top.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves once again hit just a ridiculous step back
Speaker 1: three on the left wing last night that ended up
Speaker 1: being one of the more important shots in the game.
Speaker 1: Austin's a hooper, He's a gamer. I count on that
Speaker 1: guy to make plays. They just need athleticism, and so
Speaker 1: I'm lower on them. But if they can supplement that
Speaker 1: athleticism at some point during the season, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they become a very interesting and dangerous team. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I do love the Ad shooting element this second game
Speaker 1: last night, where he Ad basically closed the game popping
Speaker 1: to the three point line. Love that he's confident in
Speaker 1: those situations. I think it's such an important thing for
Speaker 1: them to lean on because one like I talked about
Speaker 1: earlier in the show it is always open. The pick
Speaker 1: and pop is always open in two like make things
Speaker 1: easier on yourself. Once you start when eighty's constantly rolling
Speaker 1: and not popping, it just gets kind of complicated with
Speaker 1: the spacing and it makes life more difficult for everybody
Speaker 1: ad being willing to pop, especially if he continues to
Speaker 1: hit them over the large sample. That could be something
Speaker 1: that continues to open up those off ball actions for
Speaker 1: the guards to get to work and for more opportunities
Speaker 1: to cut into the painted area. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: into our film session, then we'll be out of here
Speaker 1: for the day. If you're listening on the podcast, Feen,
Speaker 1: you're going to want to head over to YouTube to
Speaker 1: see that part to actually get the visual representations of
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. All right, so we are starting.
Speaker 1: We are starting with the Philly Knicks game from Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: So this is an example of trailing bigs in transition.
Speaker 1: So again, this is where we're working against the instincts
Speaker 1: of a big. Joel Embiid is the guy guarding Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns. Watch the way he runs down the floor.
Speaker 1: He's thinking transition defense like a big, right, So he's
Speaker 1: gonna sink into the paint or into the well inside
Speaker 1: the arc. When he catches he's like look at him.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh shit, because he forgets that Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns is willing to shoot out here. But it's his
Speaker 1: natural instinct. His natural instinct is to drop into this
Speaker 1: area in transition, and Kat's able to just kind of
Speaker 1: settle into an easy trailing three. It's one of the
Speaker 1: big ways that Cat's been burning bigs around the league
Speaker 1: to start this year is transition trailing action. Here's the
Speaker 1: action that I've been seeing all around the league this year,
Speaker 1: which is like, let's put our center at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and let's throw them the ball. So
Speaker 1: let's do that first. Here's a high post entry and
Speaker 1: then basically what you do is you have your two
Speaker 1: guards up top screen for each other. So in this case,
Speaker 1: brunts in for Bridges. That puts Kelly Ubra into trail position.
Speaker 1: Now Michale Bridges sprints, Ubre's still in trail position. So
Speaker 1: now Karl Anthony Towns, because he can shoot, has embiid
Speaker 1: right up on him in Bridges, is going to come
Speaker 1: right down into this area. Right there's that over the
Speaker 1: top pass as Kelly's in trail position. Now we have
Speaker 1: our three on two. Bam, here's our three on two right,
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Lowry actually steps up and technically
Speaker 1: he could have thrown this kickout pass to Og, but
Speaker 1: Lowry's small, So mcaale bridge is like, screw it, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna go up with this, and he does and
Speaker 1: he gets a lay up. That's the type of action
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing all the way around the league to
Speaker 1: start this year, and I think it's just such a
Speaker 1: smart approach to using your center and creating space underneath
Speaker 1: the basket. This is one of the things I talked
Speaker 1: about in the show on Tuesday Night, where like Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse has been having in these ball screens just having
Speaker 1: Embiid stay glued on Cat. So basically, here's our ball screen, right,
Speaker 1: we have our ball screen and Embiid instead of dropping
Speaker 1: look at him, he's just staying attached. Why because Cat's
Speaker 1: wide open on the damn pop every single time. Then
Speaker 1: they're forcing the help from an off ball parte player. Right.
Speaker 1: So now as Brunston's going downhill, Paul George is basically
Speaker 1: functioning as the drop player, right, He's functioning as the
Speaker 1: drop big where Embiid would typically be here, these guys
Speaker 1: would all be matched up and then Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: would be wide open. Instead, they're having Embiid stay home.
Speaker 1: Paul George helps That forces Kyle Lowry to sync down
Speaker 1: on Josh Hart. Now we have our kickout pass. Here's
Speaker 1: our closeout. We got our close out pump fake two dribble,
Speaker 1: pull up, nice and easy shot for og Ananobi. So
Speaker 1: like that's the thing. It's just really difficult to guard
Speaker 1: that pick and pop because if you guard it the
Speaker 1: way that the Sixers did, you're gonna end up causing
Speaker 1: other problems elsewhere in your defense. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: into the end of that Warriors MAVs classic from Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: I was talking in the postgame show about how like
Speaker 1: guys just keep making big plays. I thought this was
Speaker 1: a random one last night. So we have a transition
Speaker 1: cross match here, right, So transition defense, everyone grabs the
Speaker 1: nearest man. It's less about matchups and it's more just
Speaker 1: grabbing the nearest man. You Basically in transition defense, it's
Speaker 1: off the ball, guard the basket, then just get matched
Speaker 1: up regardless of who you're guarding. And so that puts
Speaker 1: Lively on Buddy Heeled, So then Buddy Heel gets the
Speaker 1: ball and actually hits a really nice Look at this
Speaker 1: dribble combination. I'm gonna slow it down a bit. Look
Speaker 1: at this dribble combination on Lively between the legs. Left
Speaker 1: handed crossover back to the right gets him off the dribble.
Speaker 1: And then that little step. Look at the little gather
Speaker 1: step that he takes into Lively space. If he just
Speaker 1: goes straight to the rim, Lively is the superior athlete
Speaker 1: and he's gonna beat him up top. But watch, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna slow it down even further. Watch the step that
Speaker 1: he takes into the lane right on his gather right here.
Speaker 1: Watch look how he gathers in right there into Lively
Speaker 1: space to make it so that Lively can't just go
Speaker 1: straight b line to the rim. Then he extends out
Speaker 1: and takes the layup. Really savvy basketball from Buddy Heeld
Speaker 1: big bucket in that game. This was some of the
Speaker 1: things I was talking about in the post game two
Speaker 1: about Moses Moody overhelping in a ball screen. So like
Speaker 1: Moody's way in the paint here early in the possession,
Speaker 1: it's just an easy skip pass to Klay Thompson on
Speaker 1: the opposite side. But that's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things too, where I was talking about with the MAVs
Speaker 1: with their spacing, if they situate it so that the
Speaker 1: low man is obviously coming off of Clay, they can
Speaker 1: generate a lot of those skip passes for him. Luca
Speaker 1: had a really rough defensive night. This was a classic
Speaker 1: example of that. Watch as Steph is running through, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get a ball screen first, Buddy drives. Here's the
Speaker 1: Steph cut. Okay, so we have Quentin Grimes on Steph,
Speaker 1: we have Luca on Moody. Watch Luca, this whole possession
Speaker 1: just stands there and again, like look, there's all they're
Speaker 1: doing is slipping this screen, and like Quintin Grimes is
Speaker 1: chasing and Luca's just standing and Moody just slips right
Speaker 1: behind him. Now, again, you could argue that's supposed to
Speaker 1: be a switch. But let's say it's a switch. Luca's
Speaker 1: not ready for Steph either. He's too flat footed. He's
Speaker 1: not in position to do anything even if he switches
Speaker 1: that Steph's running off of Draymond and getting an either
Speaker 1: an open three. He's got to be lower in a stance, active,
Speaker 1: ready to move, and Moody just ends up getting an
Speaker 1: easy dunk. Again, Steph gravity does that to a lot
Speaker 1: of people. But if you're going to guard that properly,
Speaker 1: you need both defenders one hundred percent engaged. This I
Speaker 1: thought it was a really interesting ISO bucket for Clay
Speaker 1: against Andrew Wiggins. So the straight ISO against an elite defender,
Speaker 1: but a simple action gets gets him the bucket. So
Speaker 1: first let's watch it full speed and then i'll show
Speaker 1: you what I noticed in the slow down, which was
Speaker 1: super fascinating. So Clay's gonna just drive pump fake and
Speaker 1: drive past Wiggins and get all the way to the basket.
Speaker 1: So Wiggins should, in theory be athletic enough to show
Speaker 1: a little bit on a pump fake and not get toasted.
Speaker 1: But what I want you to watch is his right foot.
Speaker 1: In order to push off your right foot, it's got
Speaker 1: to be planted on the ground. If it's in the air,
Speaker 1: you're not pushing anything off right So watch Wiggins is
Speaker 1: right foot on the pump fake. So we get to
Speaker 1: the ISO and we fast forward a little bit. Here's
Speaker 1: our ISO. Watch the pump fake. Watch Wiggins right foot
Speaker 1: so he's played. So if Wiggins were to if Clay
Speaker 1: were to rip to the right now, Wiggins would be
Speaker 1: able to easily push off of his foot and beat
Speaker 1: him to the spot. But watch as Clay pump fakes
Speaker 1: his right foot come off the ground. Watch so when
Speaker 1: his right foot comes off the ground, he loses his
Speaker 1: leverage in that spot. And look at how often his
Speaker 1: right foot comes off the ground. It comes off the
Speaker 1: ground three times. Watch on the pump fake once twice,
Speaker 1: three times. And so as a result, his weight isn't
Speaker 1: on that right leg and you can literally see as
Speaker 1: he tries to push. Watch as Wiggins tries to push,
Speaker 1: he has to actually drag himself with his left leg
Speaker 1: rather than push with his right, and that makes him slow.
Speaker 1: Watch right here right there, See there's no weight on
Speaker 1: that leg. So now he's dragging himself with his left
Speaker 1: leg to try to recover. And then he finally gets
Speaker 1: a plant with his right foot there to try to recover,
Speaker 1: and he's dead to right. So such an interesting example
Speaker 1: of how a pump fake, just a simple pump fake,
Speaker 1: got Clay just barely enough of a leverage advantage to
Speaker 1: beat a much faster player off the dribble. Fascinating little
Speaker 1: example of basketball fundamentals. This I thought was an interesting
Speaker 1: example of Steph's gravity that goes under the radar a
Speaker 1: lot of the time. So Steph's working in ISO against
Speaker 1: Grimes and gets to a step back, but watches the
Speaker 1: action is happening. Watch Gafford. Gafford is ignoring Looney to
Speaker 1: basically offer a soft double. He's not double teaming Steph,
Speaker 1: but he's making it so that if Steph drives past Grimes,
Speaker 1: he's running right into Gafford. Notice from the beginning, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play the whole thing. Notice from the beginning, Gafford
Speaker 1: never actually drops to Looney. He's on Steph the whole time.
Speaker 1: Right then he looks to Looney. So what's the problem here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you force Steph into a jump shot, but you gifted
Speaker 1: Looney inside position. Looney's able to easily box out, and
Speaker 1: now that Looney has inside position, he's able to get
Speaker 1: the easy offensive rebound put back. I think he just
Speaker 1: draws a foul in this one. But yeah, again, so
Speaker 1: like that's an example of Steph's gravity that won't show
Speaker 1: up in the box score for him as anything positive.
Speaker 1: It's a missed shot, but he basically Gayve Looney easy
Speaker 1: offensive rebound position because he was gathering Gafford into help.
Speaker 1: This I thought was the biggest play of the game
Speaker 1: last Tuesday night that went completely under the radar. It's
Speaker 1: one twelve, one oh five with four minutes left. The
Speaker 1: maps are up seven. This thing looks like it's close
Speaker 1: to over. Luca has Steph in miss a mismatch in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor. Watch Steph pokes the ball away,
Speaker 1: gets a steal from Luca in the mismatch, sprints down
Speaker 1: the floor and the ensuing chaos will speed up a
Speaker 1: little bit. In the ensuing chaos, d Anthony Melton gets
Speaker 1: a wide open three, big time shot for d' anthony two.
Speaker 1: But that changed the complexion of the game. Now it's
Speaker 1: one twelve, one oh eight. It's one twelve one o
Speaker 1: eight now instead of one twelve one oh five. Completely
Speaker 1: changed the game. And that was a mismatch that could
Speaker 1: have been a bucket for Dallas. Huge defensive play from
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. This was just an insane shot that Steph
Speaker 1: Curry hit against Quinton Grimes. Again, one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things that I took away from this game. Above and
Speaker 1: beyond anything else going on with the Warriors, is Steph
Speaker 1: just looks great. Like I said, I looked at the
Speaker 1: end of last year as a slump. I expected him
Speaker 1: to have a bounce back year, having a big time
Speaker 1: bounce back year. Look at this superstar move against Quintin Grimes.
Speaker 1: Rip through over the top, step back, get enough separation,
Speaker 1: knock it down. This was another play where I thought, Steph.
Speaker 1: So they ran a lot of this action last night,
Speaker 1: where they would run an initial screen to get Luca
Speaker 1: onto Steph. So they get they run the initial screen
Speaker 1: to get Luke onto Staff. Then they bring Gafford up
Speaker 1: into the screen. This was the action they spam down
Speaker 1: the stretch. But again, this is bad defense from Luca.
Speaker 1: So you know there's a switch coming. I get it,
Speaker 1: you know there's a switch coming, but this is too
Speaker 1: soft of a switch on both ends. Watch Luca just
Speaker 1: go okay, you go ahead, Steph. See how he just quits.
Speaker 1: Luca just says, you got it, Steph. And then Gafford's
Speaker 1: too far back, and Steph just settles into the gap
Speaker 1: between them and takes the shot. At the very least,
Speaker 1: if you're Luca, you've got to stay attached with Steph
Speaker 1: up until the moment that Gafford is there. Luca was
Speaker 1: gifting Steph the transition between the switch and Steph Burndham.
Speaker 1: But look at again all these things. Technically there's an explanation.
Speaker 1: Okay Luca was switching or the slip from Moody, Okay,
Speaker 1: Luca was expecting to switch out on to Clay in
Speaker 1: the corner. I'm not debating that. The problem is it's
Speaker 1: not about what he's doing. It's about the fact that
Speaker 1: he's not actually actively athletically engaged in the game on defense.
Speaker 1: He is sitting and doing the bare minimum, and that
Speaker 1: is what teams are capitalizing on at the end of
Speaker 1: these games and hunting him for and they're getting buckets
Speaker 1: and it's costing the MAVs games. It's a real problem.
Speaker 1: It's something that continues to be a problem, extending from
Speaker 1: last year in the finals. This was crazy, this defensive
Speaker 1: play from Draymond. Look at how he's able to offer
Speaker 1: high help. So he's helping around this free throw line
Speaker 1: area and able to while offering that high help recover
Speaker 1: to Gafford at the basket. Notice once again, Gaffer too
Speaker 1: goes up with two hands. Draymond leads with his left hand. First,
Speaker 1: watch leads with his left but then he sees Gafford
Speaker 1: double pump, and as soon as he double pumps, he
Speaker 1: switches to his right hand and goes after the exposed ball.
Speaker 1: Really really high level defensive play from Draymond. Takes a
Speaker 1: little moment to talk his shit, and these things are
Speaker 1: all connected, guys, because like here's the very next possession.
Speaker 1: Watch this. Draymond is once again a little too high
Speaker 1: and Gafford is behind him. But the fear of Draymond
Speaker 1: in his wingspan and his instincts causes Klay Thompson to
Speaker 1: overcook this pass too high. He throws it too high
Speaker 1: because Draymond is the issue there. If Draymond is not there,
Speaker 1: if it's anybody else, you throw a lower pass. Here
Speaker 1: we go with this same exact action that I was
Speaker 1: talking about earlier. We get the Wigans screen to get
Speaker 1: Luca switched on to Steph. Now we're going to run
Speaker 1: into the ball screen. This is just embarrassing defense from Luca.
Speaker 1: Steph just literally just does a simple double cross and
Speaker 1: just goes right around Luca easily to the basket, tows
Speaker 1: him off the dribble and gets an had one on
Speaker 1: the scoop shot. Just every time down the floor. They're
Speaker 1: going at him every time down the floor. This was
Speaker 1: the biggest stop of the game in my opinion. Look
Speaker 1: at the defense from Wiggins on Luca. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot on Tuesday Night's show about Luca's ability to absorb
Speaker 1: body blows from Luca without getting completely dislodged and actually
Speaker 1: knocking Luca a little off balance. This one right here,
Speaker 1: that blow, he just absorbs the blow. You can look
Speaker 1: at this last one here, this last bump boom. Notice
Speaker 1: on that last bump Luca doesn't gain any additional space
Speaker 1: right here, not this one. The next one ready right here,
Speaker 1: Luca holds him off, and now it turns into this
Speaker 1: one legged fade away from fifteen feet Again. We all
Speaker 1: know this a shot Luca can take and make, but
Speaker 1: he's forcing him into the lowest efficiency shot that Luca takes,
Speaker 1: which is the contested long too. And then in this
Speaker 1: case we get the exact same sequence Wiggans screen get
Speaker 1: Luca switch. This time Steph uses the screen switch onto
Speaker 1: Lively beats him with that little left to right crossover boom.
Speaker 1: Game over, fun fun game from the Warriors there on
Speaker 1: Tuesday night. All right, I just wanted to show you
Speaker 1: guys a couple of examples of inverted ball screens that
Speaker 1: Yiannis was running. Once again, I talked about how big
Speaker 1: guys just struggled to identify and navigate screens. Watch Isaiah
Speaker 1: Stewart here, Just watch him, watch his head. He's like,
Speaker 1: is he over here? Wait? Wait? No, is he on
Speaker 1: the left side? Where is he? Oh? Wait, no, he's
Speaker 1: on the other side. Now Jannis is dunking. Look at
Speaker 1: look at how all Pat Connton had to do was
Speaker 1: fake that he was running to set a screen on
Speaker 1: the right and then switch and set it on the left,
Speaker 1: and it got Isaiah Stewart out of position. The other
Speaker 1: thing too, look at Kate Cunningham on the hedge. So
Speaker 1: Content fakes like he's setting the screen on the right side.
Speaker 1: That makes Cad think, oh, my hedge is over here.
Speaker 1: So Caid goes to hedge, but Pat actually sets the
Speaker 1: screen on the opposite side. CAD's hedge is actually supposed
Speaker 1: to be over here, it's not. Now Pat effectively can
Speaker 1: screen both guys and then Jannis gets the dunk. But again,
Speaker 1: it's all about putting guys into positions that they're not
Speaker 1: normally in. Exact same thing here with Jalen Duran watch
Speaker 1: the watch the flip of the screen, this time with
Speaker 1: Connaton again fakes like he's gonna set it on the
Speaker 1: left side, causes the hedge on the left side, but
Speaker 1: then turns and screens the opposite side, and Giannis is
Speaker 1: able to get downhill easily. All about putting people in
Speaker 1: roles that they're not typically in. All right, guess that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. Is always a sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show. I'm
Speaker 1: recording a mail bag later this afternoon that will go
Speaker 1: up on I think it's going up on Saturday and
Speaker 1: Sunday again. Keep dropping mail back questions. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: to them on the upcoming Fridays throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the season. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. Now, I'll see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow the volume What's up guys? As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting Oops tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: appreciate it.