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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Happy season opener day. I'm very excited to be back
Speaker 1: doing instant reaction shows late at night, getting the body
Speaker 1: readjusted to this new schedule. I'm very, very excited. Though
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a really fun eight and a half
Speaker 1: months of basketball. We're gonna keep it really simple. Tonight,
Speaker 1: We're gonna got dive into Lakers Warriors, and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna dive into Celtic Celtic Sixers, and then tomorrow I'll
Speaker 1: do a deep dive into the film from both of
Speaker 1: these games. You don't want to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed because I'll have a lot of footage
Speaker 1: from both games there as well, and we'll kind of
Speaker 1: dive more into the intricate details of the game at
Speaker 1: that point. The big difference between doing it like this
Speaker 1: versus going the next day is you just get to
Speaker 1: see and learn a lot more the second time around.
Speaker 1: But thankfully we have plenty of time to do that.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements that
Speaker 1: will be important in this early part of the season.
Speaker 1: Just you know when we're going live at night. That's
Speaker 1: also where I put all of our footage breakdowns because
Speaker 1: we have some limitations about what we can use on YouTube.
Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you
Speaker 1: miss one of these shows and you can't get back
Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish them, you can find them
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, we also
Speaker 1: have one additional announcement tonight, we're going to take starting tonight,
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to get in the habit of doing
Speaker 1: this for every one of these live shows, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna take one or two questions from the chat. Um
Speaker 1: Our producer Ryan's gonna come on and read some of
Speaker 1: those questions at the end of the show. I'll remind
Speaker 1: you guys here in a couple of minutes, but definitely
Speaker 1: get some questions into the chat about this particular game,
Speaker 1: and we will get to them at the end of
Speaker 1: the night. And on that No list talks in basketball,
Speaker 1: So as you guys know, I I I typically like
Speaker 1: to try to find find an overarching theme for any
Speaker 1: particular game, and I thought one of the themes from
Speaker 1: this particular game, this Lakers Warriors game, which was a
Speaker 1: destructive blowout. I don't care about the late comeback from
Speaker 1: the Lakers. All you Laker fans have seen that movie before.
Speaker 1: That happened plenty last year when I thought they were
Speaker 1: even worse than this team was. Uh. Teams, it's just
Speaker 1: human nature. You let your foot off the gas when
Speaker 1: you have a big lead, especially a team like the
Speaker 1: Warriors that at this point is they didn't don't have
Speaker 1: anything to prove during the regular season. This was a
Speaker 1: absolute destructive performance from the Warriors. They embarrassed and humiliated
Speaker 1: the Lakers just a few minutes after getting their rinks.
Speaker 1: And that's the way we're gonna frame this game, not
Speaker 1: as a oh the Lakers got it back down to
Speaker 1: eleven with a few minutes left. Um. But the big
Speaker 1: theme that I wanted to kind of hit on to
Speaker 1: start this this show tonight is the value of talent
Speaker 1: down the roster. Those of you guys who have been
Speaker 1: listening to this show for a while know that this
Speaker 1: is something that have been kind of keying on for
Speaker 1: a while. I don't think it used to be as
Speaker 1: value as valuable as it is now, but as the
Speaker 1: game has changed, I think it's more important than ever
Speaker 1: to have lots of good basketball players, not just a
Speaker 1: couple of really really good basketball players, a concept that
Speaker 1: is completely lost on Rob Blink and Jennie Buzz. If
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d play like I expect him to
Speaker 1: play this year, they're both top ten players, like legit
Speaker 1: top ten players in this league. You probably Lebron I
Speaker 1: have at four right now. Anthony Davis when he's actually
Speaker 1: playing like the Anthony Davis that we know he's capable
Speaker 1: of is probably in that seven to eight range, right,
Speaker 1: He's right up there, you know, right behind Joel and
Speaker 1: beat A Nicola Nicola Yoki's right. But the Warriors, they
Speaker 1: only have one player that I even consider a top
Speaker 1: thirty player in this league. When I did my top
Speaker 1: twenty five player rankings this summer, I had twenty nine
Speaker 1: players that I selected from a pool and then I
Speaker 1: shortened it down to twenty five. There were no Warriors
Speaker 1: on that list outside of Steph Curry. But the Warriors
Speaker 1: are a much much, much better basketball team than the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers. Why is that? Because you don't just
Speaker 1: need top thirty players to win NBA basketball games. You
Speaker 1: need lots and lots of good players. Every Laker not
Speaker 1: named Russe Lebron in a d tonight combined for thirty
Speaker 1: two points. Those are your three big investments on the
Speaker 1: Lakers payroll. Every non Steph Clay Draymond Warrior scored sixty
Speaker 1: eight points. That's more than double. They got utterly and
Speaker 1: completely dominated down the roster. Because in the modern NBA
Speaker 1: you need talent down the roster. It's a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of it has to do with how the game
Speaker 1: has changed from going you know, fifteen years ago, you'd
Speaker 1: have to like a power forward in a center on
Speaker 1: the court, so it's like three out two in versus
Speaker 1: what it is now, where there's a lot more a
Speaker 1: lot more speed and quickness and skill, and it's five out.
Speaker 1: Back in those days, everybody's packing the paint, No one's
Speaker 1: taken a ton of threes. You could just lean on
Speaker 1: size and and strength with those power positions and the
Speaker 1: roles are easier. But as we've gone towards five out,
Speaker 1: it's more important than ever to have five guys on
Speaker 1: the floor that can create their own shot. Five guys
Speaker 1: on the floor, they could put the basketball on the floor,
Speaker 1: knocked down a pull up jump shot or driving kick
Speaker 1: to a teammate. You know, Kendrick Gunns a solid player.
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley, he's a solid basketball player. Austin Reeves solid
Speaker 1: basketball player. Those are the third, fourth, and fifth best
Speaker 1: Lakers in my opinion. Are any of those guys better
Speaker 1: than any of the top five, six seven guys on
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors? No, this is a This is
Speaker 1: a massive talent deficit down the roster. Most of l
Speaker 1: A's rotation outside Lebron and a D wouldn't even get
Speaker 1: minutes for the Warriors want Siskono Anderson. It was completely
Speaker 1: out of the rotation by the time the Lakers made
Speaker 1: it to the players by the time the Warriors got
Speaker 1: to the playoffs last year, and then you see the
Speaker 1: difference in the offseas. He's an approach between these two teams.
Speaker 1: The Warriors are constantly looking for talent on the margins
Speaker 1: to supplement their roster. They place a great deal of
Speaker 1: value in their role players. We just saw two massive
Speaker 1: extensions handed out to Andrew Wiggins and Jordan's Pool. Lakers,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, were obsessed with getting another star
Speaker 1: and shipped off all of their good role players. Contagious
Speaker 1: called Pope and Kyle Kuzma to the Wizards, and then
Speaker 1: in the ensuing salary crunch, they lost Alex Crusoe as well.
Speaker 1: You can even see it in the trade targets this summer.
Speaker 1: It's like they don't want Buddy Healed and Miles Turner.
Speaker 1: They don't want Boyan Bgdonovitch and Rudy Gay and you
Speaker 1: know some some of the quality role players that played
Speaker 1: for the Jazz. They wanted Kyrie Irving, and they keep
Speaker 1: telling you they want they're they're waiting for the right
Speaker 1: trade that makes them a true contender, which is just
Speaker 1: double speak for them wanting another star. The Warriors understand
Speaker 1: the value of role players and the Lakers do not.
Speaker 1: The Lakers run by clutch, think that it's Lebron jay
Speaker 1: Is and Anthony Davis winning basketball games. Guess what they
Speaker 1: combined for fifty eight points Tonight got their ass. Kick's
Speaker 1: just not how it works anymore. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to kind of get hit that like overarching
Speaker 1: topic for a second, because I think it kind of
Speaker 1: paints a picture of the of the difference between these
Speaker 1: two particular franchises. On that note, we can get into
Speaker 1: some of the basketball. I thought one of the the
Speaker 1: key um xs and those concepts that drove the mismatch
Speaker 1: in Tonight's game and the ability to generate quality shots
Speaker 1: was the value of having Kevon Looney, Draymond Green, and
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins in your front line and the fact that
Speaker 1: those three guys not only are they great defensive players
Speaker 1: at their position, Kevon Looney is an outstanding, you know,
Speaker 1: classic center defender. Draymond Green is obviously the Swiss army
Speaker 1: knife that he is, and Andrew Wiggins is kind of
Speaker 1: known as like your you know, stereotypical wing stopper, right,
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is is all three
Speaker 1: of those guys can guard up and down multiple positions.
Speaker 1: Looney holds up well on switches, Draymond can guard one
Speaker 1: through five. Andrew Wiggins could hold his own in post
Speaker 1: mismatches against Anthony Davis. And so what you saw that
Speaker 1: specific concept do was disrupt the Lakers offense. One of
Speaker 1: the big things that Darvin Ham has done when he
Speaker 1: came into the Lakers is in still more actions or motion,
Speaker 1: just the idea of not being so brute force and
Speaker 1: just dribbling the ball down the floor giving it to
Speaker 1: Lebron and being like created shot, but rather, hey, let's
Speaker 1: let's get into a horn set, let's run a couple
Speaker 1: of cross screens, Let's get into a dribble handoff, Let's
Speaker 1: get people moving around a little bit, try to turn
Speaker 1: that corner and get downhill. Then we can get into
Speaker 1: some driving kick. Right. But one of the biggest problems
Speaker 1: of the Lebron A d Russ trio is all three
Speaker 1: of them can be guarded by a big strong forward.
Speaker 1: The big strong forward is like what you have to
Speaker 1: put on Lebron or he's just gonna bully that guy
Speaker 1: every time down the floor. Anthony Davis is a finesse
Speaker 1: big Nine times out of ten, he's not looking to
Speaker 1: bully you in the post. He's looking to shoot fadeaways
Speaker 1: over the top or top hook shots and things along
Speaker 1: those lines. And Russell Westbrook can't shoot and tries to
Speaker 1: pile through your chest and get to the rid. You
Speaker 1: know that everyone expected the Lebron Anthony Davis pick and
Speaker 1: roll to be kind of a staple of that era,
Speaker 1: but it's never been a staple of this era because
Speaker 1: every team in the NBA just switches that action every
Speaker 1: single time. So from the start of this game, and
Speaker 1: for the record, you need the right personnel to do it.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers will run into a lot of teams
Speaker 1: here over the course of the season where they just
Speaker 1: don't have the personnel, and they will bully their way
Speaker 1: to the rim and destroy those teams offensively when they
Speaker 1: have those particular matchups. But when you have Kevon Looney
Speaker 1: and you have Draymond Green and you have Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: they can just switch all that stuff and you could
Speaker 1: really see that, especially early in the game and that
Speaker 1: horrific first quarter for the Lakers offensively, when they kind
Speaker 1: of look stagnant and no one was turning the corner
Speaker 1: coming off of those actions because they're just switching them.
Speaker 1: The only guy really getting downhill was Lonnie Walker because
Speaker 1: they weren't switching it right. You know, they're actually asking
Speaker 1: the guards to chase over the top on that. But
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think the Warriors have the best
Speaker 1: defensive personnel in the league. They don't. Boston does, and
Speaker 1: order talk about that more later, but they do have
Speaker 1: They do have core defensive personnel that is a great
Speaker 1: foundation to build on. And then when you put guys
Speaker 1: like Steph Curry who competes on that end out there,
Speaker 1: and Clay Thompson, who you know, one of the you know,
Speaker 1: one of the undertold stories of the two thousand twenty
Speaker 1: two Finals was the job he did on Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: sliding his feet and taking that contact in the chest,
Speaker 1: shutting down Boston's driving kick. They've got three really good
Speaker 1: foundational defenders, and then everyone else on the roster competes
Speaker 1: and does the best they can. And especially when you've
Speaker 1: got limited offenses like this Lakers team, They're just gonna
Speaker 1: make everything extremely difficult for them. Lakers forced their way
Speaker 1: to the rim a few times and managed to get
Speaker 1: to what fifty two points I think in the first half,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't score easily at all in the second
Speaker 1: half outside of their bizarre fate comeback at the end.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take We're gonna get to a bunch
Speaker 1: of more warrior stuff here in a second, But I
Speaker 1: I you have to talk about the Lakers shooting. I
Speaker 1: said over the summer, this is the worst shooting roster
Speaker 1: in the entire mb A. That was proven tonight. They're
Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of bad shooting nights. You know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers could go into the locker room and be
Speaker 1: like Man, which just didn't make shots tonight. But judging
Speaker 1: by the roster construct, they're gonna not make shots a
Speaker 1: lot of the time. That's just the reality of their predicament,
Speaker 1: you know. And what was funny is in this particular game,
Speaker 1: even they're good to slightly above average shooters, guys like
Speaker 1: Lebron you know, Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nun they didn't shoot
Speaker 1: well early on Patrick in and uh I think Pat
Speaker 1: made one three at the end. Kendrick and Lebron made
Speaker 1: a few threes in the second half when the game
Speaker 1: was over. But when those guys don't shoot well, they're
Speaker 1: gonna start two for twenty from three and they're gonna
Speaker 1: you just can't win basketball games that way. And we
Speaker 1: don't have to go I mean, we like it's it's
Speaker 1: basic spacing stuff. You know. The Warriors, just like the
Speaker 1: Lakers and a lot of other teams, they dig really
Speaker 1: hard out of the strong sides. If Lebron's on the
Speaker 1: left wing, or if steps on the left wing and
Speaker 1: they come off of a ball screen towards the middle,
Speaker 1: the guy on the right wing, the guy who's defending
Speaker 1: him is digging down to the free throw line to
Speaker 1: dissuade that drive, to stop the guy from getting downhill.
Speaker 1: The differences is when the Lakers do that, they're giving
Speaker 1: up threes to above average quality three point shooters against
Speaker 1: most teams in the league. But when the Warriors do
Speaker 1: that to the Lakers, that's Russell Westbrook on the right wing.
Speaker 1: They will live with him shooting that all night long.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you know what, he made one on the
Speaker 1: left wing in the in the in the first half,
Speaker 1: and he did like a you know, unloading the gun celebration. Dude,
Speaker 1: your career three point shooter. They will they they are
Speaker 1: happy you made that because it means you're just gonna
Speaker 1: take more of them. You know. It obviously is gonna
Speaker 1: impact them on spacing. And then a big part like
Speaker 1: the Lakers had good stretches of defense in this game,
Speaker 1: several good stretches of defense. Darvin Ham has them competing.
Speaker 1: They're getting into the ball to make ball handlers uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: They're chasing over the top of screens. They're bigs, are
Speaker 1: packing the paint their to shut down the paint. They're
Speaker 1: gonna make things tough on the ball handler. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: If you brick thirty three point shots in a game,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna set your defense and they're gonna run
Speaker 1: it down your throat and get easy stuff when your
Speaker 1: defense isn't set. And you saw as the wheels came
Speaker 1: off in that game, it largely came from bad offense
Speaker 1: and the Lakers not being able to set up their defense.
Speaker 1: The reality, the reality of that predicament is Rob Polinka
Speaker 1: and Genie buss knew this going into this summer What
Speaker 1: was Rob's response when they question him in training camp?
Speaker 1: He said, Oh, well, they're just gonna have to get better. Well,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. It takes thousands and thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of reps over months and months and months to
Speaker 1: improve as a three point shooter. This team will not
Speaker 1: shoot much better over the course of this season. This
Speaker 1: is what they have. They had the opportunity to package
Speaker 1: us with two first round picks to bring back some
Speaker 1: quality shooting. They opt did not to do so because
Speaker 1: they believe there's some better deal down in the future.
Speaker 1: The problem is is you just lost this game. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be under five hundred through thirteen games because nine
Speaker 1: of those thirteen games are against teams that are better
Speaker 1: than you right now. And so even if you do
Speaker 1: get something better, how does that affect you in the seating,
Speaker 1: How does that affect your continuity? This was the Rod
Speaker 1: Polincoln Jennie Buss set these guys up for failure and
Speaker 1: that that's a huge part of this story in tonight,
Speaker 1: and it needed to be addressed. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about Russ here in a few minutes,
Speaker 1: but I want to you know, the Warriors won the game,
Speaker 1: and they deserve to get more focused. Um, there's two
Speaker 1: guys particular on the Warriors that I wanted to spend
Speaker 1: some time talking about, Andrew Wiggins and James Wiseman. Wiggins
Speaker 1: to me is firmly the second best player on this team.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievably destructive to the Lakers on defense tonight.
Speaker 1: He holds up on switches like we were talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: getting deflections all over the place, applying ball pressure to
Speaker 1: make people feel uncomfortable. He is so much more than
Speaker 1: a three in D player, And it's funny because to
Speaker 1: a contract like he got, you just need to be
Speaker 1: a three D player kind of like Michail Bridges is right,
Speaker 1: But like I mean, this is a This is a
Speaker 1: legit catching shoot three point shooter who also is one
Speaker 1: of the best perimeter defenders in the league. So he's
Speaker 1: got the three and D stuff checked. But he's also
Speaker 1: like a legit score in this league. He hit back
Speaker 1: to back to back is O threes in Lebron's face
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis his face and in Russell Westbrook's face
Speaker 1: to stop that fake come back in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Just stared Lebron in the face, hard step back dribble
Speaker 1: with his left hand, knocked it down, same thing against
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the left wing, and then Russ just
Speaker 1: given him too much space there at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. He is a legitimate scorer in this league.
Speaker 1: He can rescue possessions with complex shop making. He can
Speaker 1: consistently punish mismatches. If you put a smaller defender on him,
Speaker 1: you could take him all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: or He's got a really nice little step back around
Speaker 1: fifteen ft and he's excellent attacking closeouts, and he applies
Speaker 1: a ton of rim pressure. Like I said, with the
Speaker 1: tracking data from last year, he was third in the
Speaker 1: team and drives, and we've talked a ton about all
Speaker 1: the benefits of rim pressure. It's a huge part of
Speaker 1: what makes a basketball team work. So he deserves every
Speaker 1: penny and more of what he got in that deal,
Speaker 1: and he continues to be one of the more undervalued
Speaker 1: players on that team. UM James Wiseman, I thought I
Speaker 1: thought he looked out standing tonight. UM. I was concerned
Speaker 1: a little bit about him after what I saw in
Speaker 1: summer league. I thought he was a little bit afraid
Speaker 1: of the physicality. UM you know, like fading on hook shots,
Speaker 1: things along those lines. But then he had some upsides
Speaker 1: and some downsides, Like it was just classic young player stuff,
Speaker 1: and bigs in general are a little bit slower to develop.
Speaker 1: But from what I've seen in preseason and what I
Speaker 1: saw tonight, like he's right now a legitimate center in
Speaker 1: this league for the role player center, not like the
Speaker 1: MBI yokis kind of thing, but for a guy who
Speaker 1: does what a center needs to do in the modern MBA,
Speaker 1: which is screen and I've hard to the rim, you know,
Speaker 1: defend at the rim and drop coverage, hold your own
Speaker 1: on the occasional switch, punished the occasional mismatch. He's already
Speaker 1: good at that stuff. He's already good at that stuff.
Speaker 1: He defended the rim really well tonight. He stopped Lebron
Speaker 1: a few times in that first half. In particular, he
Speaker 1: was legit causing Lebron problems at the rim. He bothered
Speaker 1: every laker. He was crashing the offensive glass on the
Speaker 1: offensive end, rolling hard to the rim, catching stuff and
Speaker 1: finishing everything. He's already good. If he can figure out
Speaker 1: some isolation scoring and become a knockdown shooter, he could
Speaker 1: be basically like a better version of DeAndre And that's
Speaker 1: a really exciting prospect for the Warriors, especially if this
Speaker 1: Draymond thing ends up crunching him out and he doesn't
Speaker 1: end up getting a deal and they end up having
Speaker 1: to let him go. You know, at this pace, I
Speaker 1: would feel a little bit more comfortable with that in
Speaker 1: the future. Not for this season. You need Draymond this season,
Speaker 1: but in the future, Wiseman is beginning to look like
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that you can plug into that spot.
Speaker 1: It'll be a different team. It's a totally different look.
Speaker 1: He's not the same type of player as Raymond, but
Speaker 1: you can functionally build a basketball team around him as
Speaker 1: an anchor from what I can tell so far. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we gotta hit on the Lakers Big three before
Speaker 1: we move on to the next game. Um Russ had
Speaker 1: some moments tonight. I think at eighteen points. He made
Speaker 1: some plays, he got to the rim and made some
Speaker 1: made some layups. But you gotta look at the total
Speaker 1: picture of the way he impacts the basketball team. Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I was talking about, how do you
Speaker 1: apply a like a value quotient to the fact that
Speaker 1: when he's on the right wing and Lebron has the
Speaker 1: ball that his defender just digs down to the free
Speaker 1: throw line every time, Like, how does that show up
Speaker 1: on the box score? I struggled listening to Reggie Miller tonight,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure many of you guys did, and as
Speaker 1: he's preaching, the Russ plays hard all the time. And oh,
Speaker 1: you know he put up eighteens eight and seven last year.
Speaker 1: You'd be so thrilled if you got eighteen eight and seven.
Speaker 1: It's never been about the counting stats with Russ. It's
Speaker 1: never been about that. It's been about how it's been
Speaker 1: about the fit. It's it's the concept of diminishing returns.
Speaker 1: What Russ is good at offensively, you don't need that
Speaker 1: much because Lebron's just better than him at it. And
Speaker 1: then what they actually need from a complimentary player from
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d he's not good at. He's a
Speaker 1: career three point shooter. The every team in the league's
Speaker 1: gonna live with him taking those shots. Smoked a bunch
Speaker 1: of layups tonight, had some unfortunate turnover, stepped out of
Speaker 1: bounds again, but like like which he's had issues with
Speaker 1: the sideline this entire season so far. Who knows what's
Speaker 1: going on there. But again, like Russ made some plays,
Speaker 1: but it's the concept of diminishing returns. If you flip
Speaker 1: him for two players or three players that actually compliment Lebron,
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis's skill sets, you might find yourself
Speaker 1: in a better position than they were tonight. And I
Speaker 1: don't you guys know my rule. I'm not gonna talk
Speaker 1: much about Russ. I'm gonna try to avoid that topic
Speaker 1: as much as possible, and hopefully he's not a Laker
Speaker 1: soon and we won't have to talk about him. But
Speaker 1: at this point, Robin Genie brought him back. They're putting
Speaker 1: him through this again, and right now they're digging themselves
Speaker 1: in a hole they might not be able to dig
Speaker 1: out of. And hopefully they end up getting rid of
Speaker 1: him sooner than later so that everyone can move on
Speaker 1: from this. Two really quick notes. Lebron had a rough night,
Speaker 1: but he's had a rough night on opening night almost
Speaker 1: every single year since he came to the Lakers. I
Speaker 1: think last year was the only year he played well
Speaker 1: on opening night. He's always a guy that kind of
Speaker 1: plays his way into rhythm, plays his way into shape
Speaker 1: early in the season, he's not as aggressive looking for
Speaker 1: a shot. Although he did score thirty one tonight, most
Speaker 1: of those points were in garbage time when the game
Speaker 1: was actually in question. Lebron wasn't good tonight, but I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about that. He's the last guy on this
Speaker 1: team that you need to worry about. A d looked
Speaker 1: really good in the first half, but I thought he
Speaker 1: struggled in the Warriors physicality in the second half. Everybody's
Speaker 1: playing them with their way into shape. I didn't even
Speaker 1: think the Warriors start played. Warrior Stars played exceptionally well. Um,
Speaker 1: that's all I have from this particular game. Like I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna dive a lot into the film from this tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so keep and I on my Twitter feed. I underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt for film analysis, and then we'll have another show.
Speaker 1: I haven't decided yet when tomorrow's show will be. Got
Speaker 1: to talk to the wife. Maybe we'll try to squeeze
Speaker 1: something in at night. We'll figure it. We'll figure it out,
Speaker 1: but keep an eye on the feeds. Tomorrow will get
Speaker 1: further into this game. Tip off the NBA season with
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Speaker 1: Before we move on to Philly Boston, don't forget we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a couple of questions, one or two questions
Speaker 1: from the chat after talking Philly Boston, so make sure
Speaker 1: you guys drop some questions in there. So, Um, Boston's
Speaker 1: offense looked great tonight. They had a couple of ugly stretches,
Speaker 1: particularly in that first quarter, but overall they looked great.
Speaker 1: And I thought this was a huge part of the
Speaker 1: upside that comes with Robert Williams being out. This is
Speaker 1: a huge part of some of the stuff I talked
Speaker 1: about over the summer and how you know Robert Williams.
Speaker 1: I do think the Celtics are good with him, but
Speaker 1: I think they're just as good without him. And because
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, with what Rob Williams brings, he
Speaker 1: also freelances a lot and can get out of position,
Speaker 1: and he's actually responsible for a lot of their defensive
Speaker 1: breakdowns from last year's playoff run because he'll just randomly
Speaker 1: double a guy who doesn't need to be double, like
Speaker 1: he randomly double Draymond Green a bunch in the finals
Speaker 1: in the post, or he'll just uh, you know, freelance
Speaker 1: randomly to to help too far off of kevn Looney,
Speaker 1: he'll get another offensive rebound like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But also on the offensive end of the floor, vertical
Speaker 1: spacing is real. Vertical spacing is a legit form of spacing,
Speaker 1: but it's nowhere near as good or as effective as
Speaker 1: real five out spacing. And when Robert Williams is out
Speaker 1: because of how good of a shooter Al Horford is,
Speaker 1: they just lean into real five out basketball. And when
Speaker 1: when you're playing a team like the Sixers in particular,
Speaker 1: you know, Joel Embiid is a good defensive center when
Speaker 1: you can keep him around the basket, But if you
Speaker 1: really space him out the way that the Celtics did,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get driving lanes all night long. You know why,
Speaker 1: because Tyrese Maxie is not a good defensive player and
Speaker 1: James Harden is not a good defensive player. So Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad's gonna become a less effective version of himself on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. And I've got two other bad perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: out there. It doesn't matter how good Tobias Harris is,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how good p J. Tucker is you're
Speaker 1: going to give up driving lanes all game long, and
Speaker 1: they did. Though. Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum were fantastic.
Speaker 1: They combined for seventy points. They both had incredible stretches
Speaker 1: of basketball in last year's postseason, and they're picking up
Speaker 1: right where they left off. They didn't play this well
Speaker 1: over the course of last year's season. It was the
Speaker 1: defense that drove everything. They didn't even really shoot that
Speaker 1: well in the spring. You know, consistency is key with them.
Speaker 1: They go through these bad stretches. But if they get
Speaker 1: to the point because the good version of Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: is a fringe top ten basketball player, he's just not
Speaker 1: consistent enough, right. And then Jayson Tatum, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is absolutely a top ten basketball player. If they both
Speaker 1: consistently play like top ten players, they're the best team
Speaker 1: in the league because they have the best defensive personnel
Speaker 1: in basketball, which we'll get two in a minute. You know,
Speaker 1: in order to four Boston, to reveal their ugly side
Speaker 1: on offense, you have to contain the basketball. This is
Speaker 1: what the Warriors did so well in the twenty two
Speaker 1: Finals Finals. Over the last three games, they finally figured
Speaker 1: out how to contain Taintum and Brown, largely through Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson kind of solving Jalen's dribble package and figuring out
Speaker 1: he loves to drive left and he could absorb that
Speaker 1: contact and force him to take bad jumpers. And then
Speaker 1: Wiggins just you know what he did to Luca and
Speaker 1: what he did to take Um over the course the
Speaker 1: last two rounds of the playoffs is you know, one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why the Warriors have the trophy,
Speaker 1: but like if you, if you, you have to contain
Speaker 1: the basketball against Boston to bait them into their ugly
Speaker 1: tendencies where they start to jack up bad shots or
Speaker 1: fail to get into their driving kick, and the Sixers
Speaker 1: just don't have the personnel to do that. It's a
Speaker 1: really really bad matchup for them. And then you know,
Speaker 1: the other thing that was killing Philly in this game
Speaker 1: is for starters, they were throwing the ball all over
Speaker 1: the court. They were They only had four team turnovers,
Speaker 1: which is not terrible, but it led to twenty two
Speaker 1: points because James Harden and Joel them Bead are so
Speaker 1: quick to just kind of let off the gas and
Speaker 1: not spread back in transition defense. They got outscored in
Speaker 1: fast breakpoints twenty four to two in this game. And
Speaker 1: the other thing that keeps killing them on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor is Joel embiad falling down under
Speaker 1: his offensive basket and Boston pushing the ball the other way. Then,
Speaker 1: when Philly was on offense, very very stagnant, very little movement.
Speaker 1: This is a brute force offense. They've never been really
Speaker 1: you know, they've they've never been really inventive with the
Speaker 1: stuff that they try to do with the basketball. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, they've got such talented two stars
Speaker 1: that they're gonna find able four stars with their top
Speaker 1: four players. They've got such talent, so much top and talent,
Speaker 1: that they're gonna find a way to score. And early
Speaker 1: in that game, their shot making saved them. James Harden
Speaker 1: making a ton of shots, Tyrese Maxie made a lot
Speaker 1: of shots, Tobias Harris was playing really well in that
Speaker 1: first half. But that stagnant, that stagnant offense eventually came
Speaker 1: back to bite them in that second half when Boston's
Speaker 1: defense really locked in. And that's where I want to
Speaker 1: get into Boston's defense. You know, every one of the
Speaker 1: top four teams that we talked about you know, Golden State, Boston, Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers. They all have significant strengths and significant weaknesses.
Speaker 1: This is not a league with a perfect team at
Speaker 1: the top. I think Golden States the smartest team, The
Speaker 1: Clippers are the best drive and kicked team, The Bucks
Speaker 1: have the most imposing interior size, and the Celtics have
Speaker 1: the best defensive personnel. That's an oversimplification. There's a lot
Speaker 1: much more. There's a lot more, but those are some
Speaker 1: of their core identities right well. The Boston's Boston just
Speaker 1: flat out as the best defensive personnel in the league.
Speaker 1: Everyone can contain the ball at multiple positions. Even Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart and Derek White can guard up a position. Everyone
Speaker 1: can play the passing lanes. Everyone can help at the rim.
Speaker 1: Everyone can dig down on ball handlers for steels. They
Speaker 1: swarmed Philly from the start and made them feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: They did one of the things that thought was they
Speaker 1: did too particular like strategic things tonight that I thought
Speaker 1: were really smart to keep Philly off balance. One, they
Speaker 1: never stayed consistent with their double teams of Mbat. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they doubled him on the dribble, sometimes they doubled him
Speaker 1: on the catch. Sometimes they doubled him before the post entry,
Speaker 1: and they never did the same thing more than once
Speaker 1: in a row. They just kept changing that coverage to
Speaker 1: keep em beat off of balance, and that that that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a consistent problem that embiads eventually gonna have
Speaker 1: to figure out. But that's just smart defense from Boston
Speaker 1: to kind of switch up their looks to keep them
Speaker 1: off balance. And then they did a lot of pre
Speaker 1: switching with Blake Griffin. I tweeted out a link that uh,
Speaker 1: one of the other people that I follow on Twitter
Speaker 1: put out there. But essentially, every time James Harden would
Speaker 1: pull up Blake Griffin's man to set a ball screen
Speaker 1: to try to get him on a switch, they would
Speaker 1: just run another Celtic up there instead, and Blake would
Speaker 1: rotate to whichever player took his spot. So they're a
Speaker 1: very smart defense, and they have outstanding defensive personnel. That's
Speaker 1: their strength. If you can combine that with two top
Speaker 1: ten players, which requires Tatum and Brown becoming uh consistent,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be a damn tough basketball team to be alright.
Speaker 1: So a couple of quick notes James Harden eight and
Speaker 1: seven nine from fourteen from the field five of nine
Speaker 1: from three, hitting his step back twelve from twelve from
Speaker 1: the free throw line, getting their plenty. There was a
Speaker 1: specific reason why I thought he'd have a revenge season.
Speaker 1: He's thirty two years old, and he hasn't suffered a
Speaker 1: significant joint injury like a torn a, c L or
Speaker 1: achilles or something like that. He got fat, dude, he
Speaker 1: got fat. It happens. Happened to me too, I'm thirty one.
Speaker 1: I'm noticing these changes for myself. I used to be
Speaker 1: able to eat whatever the hell I wanted, never put
Speaker 1: on any way, and then in my late twenties, I
Speaker 1: put on some weight when I stopped playing, but then
Speaker 1: as soon as I'd start playing, I dropped the weight immediately.
Speaker 1: But then I went to Alaska with my wife for
Speaker 1: two weeks this summer, and I came back seventeen pounds heavier.
Speaker 1: And I haven't dropped it since i've I've lost about
Speaker 1: half of it. But it's like it's been like a
Speaker 1: like an incredibly difficult journey to drop this weight because
Speaker 1: my body is just not the same as it used
Speaker 1: to beat. James Harden used to be able to live
Speaker 1: and like work hard, play hard, and what he's learning
Speaker 1: is now that he's in his early thirties, if he
Speaker 1: works hard, plays hard, then his body is going to
Speaker 1: carry a little bit extra weight. His hamstring is not
Speaker 1: gonna hold up as well as it used to. And
Speaker 1: I think he learned that lesson and he had, you know,
Speaker 1: the struggle of humility from having a couple of rough seasons,
Speaker 1: and so I really expected a still firmly in his
Speaker 1: prime James Harden to come back this season in great
Speaker 1: shape and to play great. And again, this is just
Speaker 1: one game, but it's a good start, and I know
Speaker 1: everyone's like, even Charles Barkley at halftime was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's making a step back jumper. That's not real. That's
Speaker 1: not something that they can really take to the big
Speaker 1: I disagree. I think that his legs are a big
Speaker 1: part of why he was making his step back jump
Speaker 1: shot tonight. Having his legs underneath them as a conditioned
Speaker 1: athlete in peak shape, is going to help him in
Speaker 1: every single facet of his game. It gives him that
Speaker 1: little bit of extra burst on that first step. It
Speaker 1: keeps the defender on his heels that in turn opens
Speaker 1: up separation for him to get to his step back
Speaker 1: and then the step back three in and of itself
Speaker 1: is a super athletic move. You have to cover a
Speaker 1: lot of ground and then go straight up and down
Speaker 1: and get really good lift to knock down a twenty
Speaker 1: six ft jump shot. You need your legs for that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. And when he was out of shape
Speaker 1: didn't quite have that burst. Defenders coming up on him more.
Speaker 1: Now he's not getting as much separation and then he's
Speaker 1: not getting as much lift on the shot. So him
Speaker 1: getting his legs back, that's naturally going to lead to
Speaker 1: him getting more separation on those shots getting to the
Speaker 1: rim more. And he had plenty of bursts. There was
Speaker 1: a really nice, nasty like double crossover movie hit on
Speaker 1: Grant Williams to get all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: in the second half. I think he's poised for a
Speaker 1: great season now. His defense was absolutely atrocious. But that's
Speaker 1: kind of a prime James Harden thing too, now, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Um Joel embiid He's got to figure out how to
Speaker 1: handle double teams now. I get that you could make
Speaker 1: a hog ighlight reel from this game with five or
Speaker 1: six passes that he made that were good passes. He
Speaker 1: made some good plays out of the double team. But
Speaker 1: why did Boston continue to do so, because surrounding all
Speaker 1: those plays were a whole lot of post ups where
Speaker 1: nothing happened. Meanwhile, Lebron Luca don Chitch, Nicola Yokich as
Speaker 1: a peer of embiads, never get double teams because they
Speaker 1: consistently make you pay every single time you do so.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's a difference between just getting the
Speaker 1: ball out from a double team and then consistently making
Speaker 1: a pass on time and on target to the shooter
Speaker 1: that can make them pay. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: times where embiad Anthony Davis does this a lot too.
Speaker 1: It's a big problem that I have with big men
Speaker 1: in general. But they get the ball, the double team
Speaker 1: comes and they're kind of just panicking and they're just
Speaker 1: looking for somebody to get rid of the basketball too,
Speaker 1: and every once in a while to make a nice play,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them are just swing passes back
Speaker 1: out to the perimeter and nothing happened. He they you
Speaker 1: could see it in his body language in that fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He's frustrated. He doesn't like playing basketball when it's like that.
Speaker 1: It it frustrates him, and I get that. No one
Speaker 1: wants to just sit there and face double teams all
Speaker 1: night long. But until he shows that he can consistently
Speaker 1: beat that double team, teams will continue to do it
Speaker 1: to him because it's just a way better option than
Speaker 1: letting him on an island flop all over the place
Speaker 1: shoot four teen free throws of games scored thirty seven points,
Speaker 1: and that on time, on target thing is the key
Speaker 1: way to do that. You have to be patient and
Speaker 1: allowing the double to come to you quickly identify who
Speaker 1: the shooter is that's open or the cutter that's open,
Speaker 1: and you have to hit them on a rope in
Speaker 1: the shooting pocket because if you don't, they will rotate
Speaker 1: to the shooter. And now the double team was effective.
Speaker 1: That's the underrated part of passing that we look over
Speaker 1: when we're talking about Lebron, Luca and Nicola, Yo Kitchen,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and guys like that. They are so relentless
Speaker 1: and making the top to pass untime and on target
Speaker 1: that they consistently make you pay. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that can make the reads, but they can't
Speaker 1: make the past because it's just a step too slow.
Speaker 1: They see the read, but it's a split second too slow,
Speaker 1: or because now they've picked up their dribble and the
Speaker 1: double team left and they're rotating that. It just he
Speaker 1: was frustrated by it. But that's not gonna go away
Speaker 1: until he figures it out. He will have to find
Speaker 1: a way to eventually start beating those double teams, or
Speaker 1: every team in the league will do it too, really quickly.
Speaker 1: Before we take our questions that dust up at the end,
Speaker 1: I thought it was hilarious a couple of things. That's
Speaker 1: just flat out dirty play from Joel embiad trying to
Speaker 1: pull out Marcus Smart's shoulder. I thought it was a
Speaker 1: dirty play, but I did think it was hilarious the
Speaker 1: kind of altercation that took place after Smarts quote. He
Speaker 1: said his reaction showed maturity because I could have cracked
Speaker 1: his head open, but I didn't. There was hilarious moment
Speaker 1: where Jalen Browns like pointing at Joel embid while backpedaling
Speaker 1: away from the scrum. The entire higher NBA fan base
Speaker 1: can see through that crap. No one wants to fight.
Speaker 1: You're all a bunch of really successful guys. You have
Speaker 1: too much to lose. There's just just I wish at
Speaker 1: some point NBA players would figure out that we can
Speaker 1: see through that stuff all right, Where you're going to
Speaker 1: bring the secret hero of this show, Mr Ryan Brumley
Speaker 1: on to get some questions from the audience. That's high praise, unnecessary,
Speaker 1: but the very high praise. Um Speaking on Philly, Kyle
Speaker 1: Rector asked a few teams see one piece away from
Speaker 1: being scary good? Philadelphia included what potentially taking team has
Speaker 1: a piece that you can see working with Philly oh Man, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know this is going to be an unsatisfying answer, Kyle,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it's a talent issue. I think
Speaker 1: that the Sixers have the best top four in the NBA.
Speaker 1: James Harden, Joel embiid Um, Tyrese Maxie, and Tobias Harris,
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker and Daniel House directly address some of
Speaker 1: their toughness concerns. The there's no magic piece that fixed this,
Speaker 1: fixes this. The thing that puts the Sixers over the
Speaker 1: top is Joel Embiat and James Harden having a dominant
Speaker 1: playoff run. And I get that that can seem discouraging
Speaker 1: because James Harden is the worst playoff performer of this generation,
Speaker 1: but hey, I used to make fun of Paul George
Speaker 1: for losing five consecutive playoff series, and then he was
Speaker 1: one of the best players that I've seen in a
Speaker 1: in in that playoff run when he dragged the Clippers
Speaker 1: to win two within two games of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: So the reality of the situation is is this is
Speaker 1: a If James Harden plays like I expect him to
Speaker 1: play this season, and Joel Embiat is healthy, learns how
Speaker 1: to manage the double teams, stays active and engaged for
Speaker 1: a whole playoff run, I think they have enough. Now.
Speaker 1: Matchups are gonna be part of it, but that's the
Speaker 1: same for every team in the league. The Warriors beat
Speaker 1: the Celtics, they might have lost to the Bucks, right,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's all about matchups with this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. I don't like that Philly Boston matchup. It's
Speaker 1: a really bad matchup for them because their ability to
Speaker 1: double and recover, their ability to push them out to
Speaker 1: the perimeter and beat them off the dribble. But then again,
Speaker 1: if they run into you know, maybe maybe they're a
Speaker 1: fantastic matchup for Milwaukee, and maybe Milwaukee beats Boston. You know,
Speaker 1: like that there's no perfect team matchups are gonna be
Speaker 1: a big thing here, But I don't I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: like they didn't even use matissetybol tonight really, So I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not a talent issue for Philly. They just
Speaker 1: need their stars to play better. Sticking with Philly here,
Speaker 1: Eugene Isaakov asked, do you think I so heavy playing
Speaker 1: style of hardened Max and Bead could help Philly to
Speaker 1: win a lot or do they need to play more
Speaker 1: team friendly basketball because players stays have been out of rhythm,
Speaker 1: so I think it'll hurt them in the regular season. Um,
Speaker 1: you guys know my general philosophy with that, like brute
Speaker 1: force offenses, offenses that are very simple and rely on
Speaker 1: their stars to create the advantage. Those are impossible to
Speaker 1: stop in the playoffs because there's no magic schematic fix
Speaker 1: for dealing with what James already can do with the
Speaker 1: basketball or with what I mean Joel Embiid can be
Speaker 1: taken out with some doubles, but specifically with guys like
Speaker 1: James Harden, but even go beyond like the Lakers and
Speaker 1: you're looking at Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They were
Speaker 1: one of the worst half court offenses during the regular season,
Speaker 1: but they played that same style in the in the
Speaker 1: playoffs with Lebron and a d just kind of just
Speaker 1: bullying their way to the basket, and it turned out
Speaker 1: that you couldn't stop them in a playoff series. You know,
Speaker 1: I always will advocate for running actions and having more
Speaker 1: offensive organization to make basketball easy during the regular season.
Speaker 1: But aside from a few teams like the Heat and
Speaker 1: the Warriors, actions aren't winning you a title. Skim like,
Speaker 1: offensive sets aren't winning you a title because they're going
Speaker 1: to scout those sets they're going to do, They're going
Speaker 1: to switch everything, they're gonna be ahead of those actions,
Speaker 1: and it's not going to work. So specifically for Philly,
Speaker 1: I'm not super concerned about it because their offense is
Speaker 1: more geared towards a playoff environment. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: back to the Warriors here to underscore g ask Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: do you think that Clay had more popped than his
Speaker 1: jump shot tonight? He will be a significant contributor this year.
Speaker 1: Last year he had moments but was still recovering from
Speaker 1: all of his injuries. I like Clay looked awesome tonight,
Speaker 1: even the jumpers he was missing early pop is a
Speaker 1: really interesting way of describing it. I was, I was trying.
Speaker 1: I was actually uh talking with a friend of mine, Tommy,
Speaker 1: about this earlier, and like it's so we call it
Speaker 1: like a dip and a jump shooter, Like you want
Speaker 1: a natural dip as you rise up into a shot
Speaker 1: because it just kind of builds your rhythm for what
Speaker 1: I call energy transfer. If you don't have if you
Speaker 1: don't have a good pathway of energy from your feet
Speaker 1: all the way up through your release, if there's a hitch,
Speaker 1: if there's anything that stops or makes it clunky, then
Speaker 1: you don't have the transfer of energy and the shot
Speaker 1: doesn't look good. And one of the night one of
Speaker 1: the beautiful things about the way Clay Thompson plays is
Speaker 1: he's so good at getting into that dip so that
Speaker 1: he can transfer his energy. He missed a couple of
Speaker 1: shots early. He also struggled on a handful of possessions
Speaker 1: driving to the rim. But man, like, the other thing
Speaker 1: with Clay's dip is he it's it effectively sells his
Speaker 1: pump bake. And he's so good at like kind of
Speaker 1: dipping and pump baking to get the guy to run
Speaker 1: by and he's like sneaky, one of the best mid
Speaker 1: rain shooters in the league as well. I think Clay
Speaker 1: looks great. If you're a Warriors fan, you should be
Speaker 1: feeling fantastic right now. I didn't even think they played
Speaker 1: well and they beat the ship out of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: so you've gotta be feeling good right now. Alright, last one,
Speaker 1: We'll only do one negative Lakers question because it's a
Speaker 1: long season. In just one game, can you tell the
Speaker 1: difference between Hands Lakers and Vogels Lakers from last year? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: Buying is a big part of it. Um, just having
Speaker 1: the like and this is not entirely Vogel's fault. UM.
Speaker 1: I think this is a phenomenon that happens a lot
Speaker 1: in sports, particularly with coaches that are very demanded. You
Speaker 1: see this with Tom Thimodo Timido a lot in the NFL.
Speaker 1: You see this with Bill Belichick. When you have coaches
Speaker 1: that ask for really like labor intense um, you know,
Speaker 1: expectations from their teams. They either have lots of roster
Speaker 1: turnover or they burn out of a location every couple
Speaker 1: of years for the for the the the Patriots, you
Speaker 1: literally see that with roster turnover. But like, it's just
Speaker 1: I think Vogel burnt out the roster. Ham has them
Speaker 1: bought it now. The other elements of it that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing are strong side help. Um. So Vogel was big
Speaker 1: on chasing teams off the three point line and packing
Speaker 1: the paint. The the Darvin Ham approach is more chasing
Speaker 1: the ball handler and leaving three point shots open, funneling
Speaker 1: to all your help around the basket. It's kind of
Speaker 1: the idea of like, hey, let's be great at two things.
Speaker 1: Let's be great at stopping the ball handler, great at
Speaker 1: protecting the paint, and we'll live with the results of
Speaker 1: these role players making shots, you know, and that can
Speaker 1: that can that can win you a series when guys
Speaker 1: don't shoot well, you know, right, especially if role players
Speaker 1: get sweaty palms and they just can't knock down the
Speaker 1: big shots. But it can also lose you a series,
Speaker 1: like the Bucks did last year when the Celtics made
Speaker 1: like thirty nine threes or something crazy like that over
Speaker 1: the last two games of that series. So you're seeing
Speaker 1: that in there and on the defensive end, and then
Speaker 1: just in general their offensive organization. It looks a lot better.
Speaker 1: Like with Vogel, they just they almost never ran sets. Um,
Speaker 1: you're seeing a ton of stuff out of Horns. Don't
Speaker 1: pay too much attention tonight because Golden State has specific
Speaker 1: personnel to switch all the lebron A d Russ drivel handoffs,
Speaker 1: which kind of shut down the Lakers Horns actions. But
Speaker 1: they do have much better from what I could tell
Speaker 1: in preseason, they do have much better offensive organization as well. Him,
Speaker 1: like Frank Vogel, is an outstanding coach when the situation
Speaker 1: is perfect for him. This situation is no longer perfect
Speaker 1: for him. They made the right move getting rid of him.
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham has done a really nice job so far.
Speaker 1: Like again, it's one game. He's been dealt a terrible
Speaker 1: hand of cards in terms of a roster to work with.
Speaker 1: There's a trade to be made here. I I think
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham is the least of the Lakers problems. I
Speaker 1: think Ron James and Anthony Davis are the least of
Speaker 1: the Lakers problems. It's everything else around that that is
Speaker 1: the issue. Al Right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight, first show in the books. I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys supporting the show. Keep an eye on my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed. Tomorrow morning, I'll have some video footage that
Speaker 1: will be breaking down, as well as some scheduling. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure when we'll go tomorrow because I it would
Speaker 1: be nice to get to at least some of the
Speaker 1: games from tomorrow evenings, so we'll figure that out. We
Speaker 1: might even just release it on Thursday morning, so just
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the Twitter feed and we'll figure
Speaker 1: out those details later. As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a hell of a ride and I
Speaker 1: will see you soon. The volume