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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Have you Monday, everybody? Hope all

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Speaker 1: of you guys had an incredible weekend. We have a

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Speaker 1: jam packed show for you today. We're gonna start with

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Speaker 1: that absurdly entertaining matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and the

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Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets last night, ended by a legendary Kyrie Irving shot.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna break that game down from the perspective both teams.

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Speaker 1: After that, the Phoenix Suns went on the road into

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Speaker 1: Milwaukee and got their ass kicked. A nuclear shooting performance

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Speaker 1: from them wasn't enough for the even more nuclear performance

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Speaker 1: that gave up from Milwaukee. So we're gonna break that

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Speaker 1: game down After that there was a lot of talk

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Speaker 1: going on yesterday after Tyrie's left handed hook shot to

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Speaker 1: win the game, but also after Damian Lillard said that

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Speaker 1: he's the most skilled player ever about whether or not

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is the most skilled player ever. And so

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Speaker 1: I have a take on that front, kind of diving

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Speaker 1: into what I interpret to mean basketball skill, where I

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Speaker 1: do think Kyrie has an edge who I would name

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Speaker 1: if I had to pick a most skilled We'll do

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Speaker 1: that as our third segment, and like we do every

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Speaker 1: single Monday, at the end of the show, we'll have

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Speaker 1: our latest edition of the Power Rankings. You guys know

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Speaker 1: the Joe Foberge started subscribe to our brand new YouTube

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Speaker 1: channel mean a lot to me. If you guys to

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Speaker 1: take a second scroll down hit that subscribe button. Don't

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Speaker 1: forget about my podcast feed wherever you get your podcast

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Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave

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Speaker 1: a rating and review on that front. Don't forget about

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Speaker 1: my Twitter feed underscore jsonlt where I leave film threat

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Speaker 1: as well as show announcements. I did a film thread

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Speaker 1: this morning on like five or six examples of some

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Speaker 1: of the really really poor defense that Phoenix was playing.

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Speaker 1: Against Milwaukee. You can find out on my Twitter feed.

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Speaker 1: The last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions

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Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them

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Speaker 1: throughout the rest of this week. We'll have a mail

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Speaker 1: bag intomorrow's show, and then before we get started. This

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Speaker 1: is the best time of year to go out and

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Speaker 1: see a basketball game. Obviously, we've got the NBA season

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Speaker 1: heating up going into the playoffs, and obviously playoff basketball

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Speaker 1: is highly entertaining, but we also have college basketball in

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Speaker 1: the tournament. Single elimination basketball, especially when we get to

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Speaker 1: this phase, is the most entertaining basketball that you'll see

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Speaker 1: in person, and specifically when you go to these arenas

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Speaker 1: for these NCAA Tournament games, it's kind of if you've

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Speaker 1: ever been to one. I've been to two myself, and

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Speaker 1: I'm sure some of you guys have had as well.

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Speaker 1: When you're in those arenas, the crazy back and forth

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Speaker 1: vibe of the two fan bases kind of competing with

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Speaker 1: each other at every big play, it really is a

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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So on Nuggets maps. I want

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Speaker 1: to start with the end of the game, and then

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Speaker 1: we'll get to some of the stuff later on, because

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Speaker 1: it really was a super entertaining finish. It basically came

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Speaker 1: down to match up hunting late, the same kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff we're always accustomed to seeing from Denver. Right the

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Speaker 1: Jokich Murray two man game, they were specifically targeting Luka

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Speaker 1: Doncic in every action that they could on that end

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Speaker 1: of the floor, and then on the other end of

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Speaker 1: the floor, Kyrie and Luca were constantly trying to pick

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Speaker 1: on Jamal Murray. And we're gonna dive into this a

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Speaker 1: little bit later when we get into some of the

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Speaker 1: stuff with Denver. But I did not think Denver did

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Speaker 1: a good job trying to avoid those switches. I thought

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Speaker 1: they conceded those switches, and honestly, they got away with

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Speaker 1: it because the Mavericks were up by nine with about

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Speaker 1: four minutes left, and they turned that. Denver turned that

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Speaker 1: nine point deficit into a tie game at one O

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Speaker 1: two in about three minutes. And a big part of

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Speaker 1: that was there were some possessions where Luca and Kyrie

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Speaker 1: got Jamal Murray onto switches, got really good looks for

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Speaker 1: them and missed both of them. The one I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: of is the floater that Kyrie had in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the floor, and then Luca had like a turnaround

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Speaker 1: jump shot kind of one like fadeaway around the foul line.

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Speaker 1: That one went in and out as well, and so

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Speaker 1: like a lot of it was just kind of good fortune.

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Speaker 1: But I thought, I thought Denver could have done a

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Speaker 1: better job of trying to prevent those switches from happening,

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Speaker 1: because it just, you know, they're just they have the

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Speaker 1: ability with Aaron Gordon to keep a big body on

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Speaker 1: Luca and to make it tougher on him. They have

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Speaker 1: the ability with a guard defender like KCP to to

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Speaker 1: make him take tough shots over an excellent defender. And

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Speaker 1: so we'll get a little bit deeper into that into

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Speaker 1: when we get to the Denver side of things. But

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Speaker 1: it was a lot of matchup hunting. And then on

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Speaker 1: the Dallas side they were attacking Jamal Murray and on

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Speaker 1: the Denver side they were attacking Luka Doncicic, and in

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Speaker 1: that stretch they were just getting better stuff. On the

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Speaker 1: other end, Denver scored on almost every single possession during

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Speaker 1: that stretch, just either getting you know, Luca switched onto

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Speaker 1: the Jokic and Jokicic just taking him down in the

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Speaker 1: post and getting an easy basket, or like Jamal Murray

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Speaker 1: in a two man game, getting Maxi Kleebudy. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have all this talk about Kyrie's finished, which obviously

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Speaker 1: was incredible, and we're gonna get to but Jamal Murray

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Speaker 1: had a pretty nasty left handed finish himself where he

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Speaker 1: got Maxi Kleiba on his right shoulder, kind of worked

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Speaker 1: him down the lane. Daniel Gafford came over and he

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Speaker 1: just went way out to the side and scooped in

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Speaker 1: a nasty left handed finish off the glass. And then

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Speaker 1: the final one when it was one O two, one

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Speaker 1: O two, so it's one of two, one or two.

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Speaker 1: Luca gets the switch on Murray misses that little turnaround

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Speaker 1: jump shot, but down on the other end at one

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Speaker 1: O two, one O two, Murray gets Luca on a

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Speaker 1: switch and he makes a really smart play. So Kleiba's

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Speaker 1: back on Jokic at this point. Jamal kind of drags

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Speaker 1: Luka out to the left side and Jokic comes up

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Speaker 1: to set another ball screen and Jamal Murray identifies something

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Speaker 1: where he knew he was gonna be able to get

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Speaker 1: a clean look Luca. When he saw the screen coming

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Speaker 1: from Jokic, Luca backed off and then prepared to go

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Speaker 1: underneath Jokic so that he could switch, but stay in

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Speaker 1: position on Jokic to not give up an easy, you know,

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Speaker 1: over the top pass where he could just rumble into

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Speaker 1: the pain without anybody in front of him. Right, So,

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Speaker 1: Luca's preparing to duck underneath Jokic to switch, and Kleiba's

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Speaker 1: getting ready to jump out on the other side. But

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Speaker 1: again there's a gap there between where Jamal Murray is

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Speaker 1: and where Kleeba is gonna be coming on the other

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Speaker 1: side of the screen and Luca's ducking under. There's a

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Speaker 1: little opening in there, and Jamal Murray really smartly just

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Speaker 1: throws a little bit of a fake with the dribble

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Speaker 1: to get Luca to commit to the switch, and then

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Speaker 1: he pulled back into that opening, got a really good

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Speaker 1: look at three, knocked it down as one oh five,

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Speaker 1: one oh two. We go down to the other end

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Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon makes a huge mistake in my opinion.

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Speaker 1: Luka Doncic comes off of a pin down. He's starting

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Speaker 1: kind of at the right elbow. He comes down and

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Speaker 1: Tim hardaway Junior is setting a screen kind of around

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Speaker 1: the top of the key. Luca's not trying to come

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Speaker 1: off for a shot. Luca's just coming off to try

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Speaker 1: to get the basketball because there's like I think there's

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Speaker 1: like twenty six seconds left or something like that. So

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Speaker 1: Luca pops out catches the ball like thirty feet but

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Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon again, like imagine in the top of the key,

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Speaker 1: there's Tim Hardaway Junior, there's Luca coming out thirty feet

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Speaker 1: from the rim. Gordon's down here as he's gonna trail Luca,

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Speaker 1: but instead of just running out to meet Luca, he

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Speaker 1: tried to duck under Tim Hardaway on the opposite side

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Speaker 1: of the screen, and so as a result, he was

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Speaker 1: taking a weird kind of banana route to get to

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Speaker 1: where Luca was when that screen wasn't really in position

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Speaker 1: to stop him. He could have just sprinted out, and

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Speaker 1: again Luca wasn't looking to shoot there, but Luca caught

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Speaker 1: and he was so wide open because Aaron Gordon tried

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Speaker 1: to go around the other side of the screen. He

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Speaker 1: just had all day and he's like, all right, fine,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna shoot this. And it was catastrophic for two reasons.

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Speaker 1: Not only was it the three point shot that tied

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Speaker 1: the game, but they didn't take any time off the clock,

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Speaker 1: like if that exact same thing, like if Aaron Gordon

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Speaker 1: takes a better angle instead of trying to jump the screen,

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Speaker 1: but just just trails behind Luca the way you're supposed to.

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Speaker 1: He catches, he turns, probably calls for a screen. By

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Speaker 1: the time he actually gets a quality three point shot up,

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Speaker 1: it could be another five to ten seconds. And if

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Speaker 1: it takes five to ten seconds and they make the shot,

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Speaker 1: then it's one oh five, one oh five, But the

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Speaker 1: shot clock is turned off, and then you could take

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Speaker 1: your time to get a great one. And instead there

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Speaker 1: was just a little bit of a gap, which put

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Speaker 1: Denver in the predicament because Dallas had a time out.

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Speaker 1: It put Denver in that predicament where they kind of

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Speaker 1: had to leave some time on the clock. So at

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Speaker 1: that point you just want to get the best possible shot.

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray got a great look. They had another Yokic

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Speaker 1: ball screen. PJ. Washington actually was switching out on Jamal

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Speaker 1: Murray and in his backwards kind of like recovery step,

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Speaker 1: he tripped and fell, and so Jamal got great lift

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Speaker 1: great separation, one of the easiest shots he got all

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Speaker 1: night there around the right elbow, and he just missed it,

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Speaker 1: but again because of the bad angle Aaron Gordon took

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Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor, they were in

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Speaker 1: a position where they had to shoot before the end

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Speaker 1: of the shot clock. So then we go down to

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Speaker 1: the other end. Just a couple seconds left. Kyrie Irving

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Speaker 1: comes off of that ball, off of that off ball action,

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Speaker 1: and Yokic switches and Yokic defends it as perfectly as

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Speaker 1: you possibly can, even given the insane shot that Kyrie took.

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Speaker 1: It was very very good contest form Nikole Jokic. But

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving just goes into that that rip through news

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Speaker 1: left and gets to that left handed floater or half

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Speaker 1: hook or whatever the heck you want to call it,

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Speaker 1: and knocks it down. Crowd goes crazy. Really one of

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Speaker 1: the most impressive game winners that I've seen, because that

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Speaker 1: was not luck. That is something that Kyrie Irving is

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Speaker 1: capable of doing. There are two things that I want

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Speaker 1: to hit about Kyrie's lefty runner that were so interesting

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Speaker 1: to me. First of all, improvisational shot making. When I

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Speaker 1: talk about scoring the basketball, and you know, there's all

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Speaker 1: these different roles that a player has on a basketball team.

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Speaker 1: But to me, one of the specific traits that identifies

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Speaker 1: a player as a scorer is it's kind of like

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Speaker 1: a natural knack for finding ways to put the ball

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Speaker 1: in the basket. To me, that comes down to a

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Speaker 1: combination of obviously the skill set, but there's two additional

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Speaker 1: elements to it. It's audacity and improvisation. Audacity is confidence.

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Speaker 1: Audacity is like, you bet your ass I can take

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Speaker 1: and make this left handed floater, like a Jamal Murray

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Speaker 1: for instance, Like he's playing on a basketball team with

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Speaker 1: the best player in the world, and that dude has

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Speaker 1: the audacity to look him off and take his own

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Speaker 1: shots sometimes and it's the right decision because of his

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Speaker 1: abilities as a shot maker. Again, that first piece is

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Speaker 1: the most important part. You have to have the skill set,

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Speaker 1: but from there, if you have the audacity to confidence

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Speaker 1: and you connect it with the improvisation, which to me

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Speaker 1: is the natural ability of a score to just find

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Speaker 1: kind of funky combinations of skill. So, for instance, you

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Speaker 1: might see that left handed runner and you might think

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Speaker 1: to yourself, Kyrie probably doesn't practice that, and you're right,

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Speaker 1: I doubt sincerely that Kyrie has a drill where he

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Speaker 1: takes a fifteen foot drifting one leg floater moving to

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Speaker 1: his left hand side off of that specific footwork. He

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Speaker 1: probably doesn't, but what he does do is all the

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Speaker 1: individual pieces of that put together. I've talked about this

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Speaker 1: with a step back three before. The step back three

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Speaker 1: looks like a complicated dribble combination and footwork combination in

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Speaker 1: to a shot, but it's really not. Like if I

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Speaker 1: do an in and out dribble and then between the

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Speaker 1: legs dribble and then an advanced dribble, but instead of

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Speaker 1: continuing that step, I plant that right foot and push back,

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Speaker 1: I stick my left foot way out to catch my

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Speaker 1: momentum so that I go straight up and down, and

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Speaker 1: at the end of the shot, I'm just going straight

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Speaker 1: up and down. So as long as I have the

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Speaker 1: handle to be able to do an in and out

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Speaker 1: between the legs dribble and then another in and out

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Speaker 1: on the other side, I'm good. As long as I

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Speaker 1: have the footwork to be able to make all those

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Speaker 1: plants and control my body weight in those angles, and

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Speaker 1: as long as I have good catch and shoot straight

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Speaker 1: up and down jump shooting ability, I can put all

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Speaker 1: of that together and make this advance to play. Now again,

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Speaker 1: does Kyrie practice a drifting left handed floater. Probably not.

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Speaker 1: But what he does practice is a huge variety of

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Speaker 1: left handed shots around the rim, left handed floaters and

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Speaker 1: scoops and high finishes, low finishes, you know, trying to

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Speaker 1: sneak by defenders, trying to finish over the top of defenders.

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Speaker 1: He does a ton of stuff with his left hand.

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Speaker 1: That move is a combination of things that Kyrie does,

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Speaker 1: work on the footwork to get that little bit of

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Speaker 1: separation right the handle, to get the ball into his

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Speaker 1: left hand in a position where he has command of it,

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Speaker 1: and then from there the touch takes over. But that,

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Speaker 1: to me is what improvisational shot making is. And all

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Speaker 1: the best improvisational scorers in the league, they do take

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Speaker 1: shots in games that don't necessarily resemble shots that they

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Speaker 1: take in practice, but it's pieces, little bits and pieces

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Speaker 1: of things that they do practice that they in the

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Speaker 1: moment go, wait, I see this opening, and it's all

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Speaker 1: happening in a fraction of a second. I see this opening.

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Speaker 1: I think I can get to that spot, and then

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Speaker 1: from there I think I can kind of, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe just go into like a left handed kind of

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Speaker 1: half hook, kind of like I do, closer to the rim,

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Speaker 1: but I'll just have to put a little more juice

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Speaker 1: on it, you know that kind of thing. It's it's

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Speaker 1: like an instantaneous interpretation of the situation and then the

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Speaker 1: ability to quickly pick from your skill set to grab

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Speaker 1: these little things that you can piece together into a

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Speaker 1: move to make a shot in that specific situation. And

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Speaker 1: to me, that's what separates the best scores in the

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Speaker 1: world from the guys beneath them is it's they have

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Speaker 1: the skill set, but they also have this overwhelming confidence

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Speaker 1: or audacity as I call it. And then the improvisation,

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Speaker 1: the ability to think quickly on their feet to find

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Speaker 1: ways to get to a shot they can make right.

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Speaker 1: And so that to me is what kind of sets

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Speaker 1: that apart. It's the improvisation and the second thing, the

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Speaker 1: fundamental foundation. That was a crazy shot, but make no mistake,

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Speaker 1: it was about his baseline foundation of ball handling, his

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Speaker 1: baseline foundation of footwork, and his baseline foundation of touch.

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Speaker 1: That is fundamental basketball that has been pieced together into

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Speaker 1: basically an art form. Right, But like, don't don't make

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Speaker 1: the mistake of thinking that that doesn't come from a

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Speaker 1: fundamental foundation, because it absolutely does. Now moving to the

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Speaker 1: rest of the game, I thought the story of the

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Speaker 1: game for Dallas was dominating the bench groups for Denver,

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Speaker 1: specifically on the offensive glass. And Denver's a weird team,

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Speaker 1: like when you look in the big picture, they're sixteenth

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Speaker 1: in defensive rebounding percentage, their bottom half defensive rebounding team,

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Speaker 1: but they're excellent at rebounding with their starters. Even last

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Speaker 1: night with the starting lineup, so Jokic with Gordon, Michael Porter, Junior,

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray and KCP, those guys grabbed almost seventy five

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Speaker 1: percent of available defensive rebounds, which is excellent. So that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the issue. But those bench groups what they do again,

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Speaker 1: like instead of going with a slower, you know, limited

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Speaker 1: center like DeAndre Jordan, they just go with Zignaji. They

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Speaker 1: do a ton of switching, and they just give the

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Speaker 1: ball to Jamal Murray and just basically let him go

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Speaker 1: to work. And again, like they're in a predicament. Denver's

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Speaker 1: been in this predicament for a long time where they

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Speaker 1: they really struggled to kind of maintain leads without Jokics,

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Speaker 1: that's been a thing forever, that was the thing last

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Speaker 1: year when they won the title. This is just their

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Speaker 1: best pathway to try to float the ship without Nicole

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Speaker 1: Jokic is to go small, do a lot of switch

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Speaker 1: and rely on Jamal Murray to make shots. And he

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Speaker 1: just didn't quite have the same shot making game that

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Speaker 1: he's capable of having, and they got absolutely demolished on

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Speaker 1: the glass. In those units, particularly Derek Jones Junior and

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Speaker 1: Derek Lively were doing a ton of damage. Dallas had

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Speaker 1: twenty two offensive rebounds in this game, leading to twenty

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Speaker 1: three second chance points, and as a result, even though

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Speaker 1: they were plus ten, Denver was plus ten in Nikola

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Speaker 1: Jokic's minutes, Dallas was able to get out of there

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Speaker 1: with the win by dominating those specific lineups. Now, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that I did think was interesting, I

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Speaker 1: don't think it's a complete coincidence that Phoenix and Dallas

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Speaker 1: were the two teams that got wins against Denver since

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Speaker 1: the All Star Break, because this again, for people who

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Speaker 1: are not aware, Denver has won every other game they

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Speaker 1: played since the All Star Break. They're eleven to two

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Speaker 1: I think in the thirteen games since then, and their

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Speaker 1: two losses were Phoenix and Dallas, both games where they

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Speaker 1: led by three points with just a few seconds left

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Speaker 1: and then crazy shot making at the end of the

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Speaker 1: game took the game away from them, right. So, Like,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that I think is interesting is

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Speaker 1: Dallas is Dallas and Phoenix both they're uniquely capable of

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Speaker 1: picking on matchups and actually getting some of Denver's more

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Speaker 1: limited on ball defenders into space. Right. So, like, for instance,

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Speaker 1: they're really diligent about getting the switches they want. They

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Speaker 1: make sure that they get the right matchup before they

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Speaker 1: get into their one on one play. Now, again, we've

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Speaker 1: talked about it a little bit on the Denver side.

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Speaker 1: We'll get a little further into it, but I think

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Speaker 1: Denver needs to do a better job of trying to

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Speaker 1: fight against those switches just by you know, we'll get

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Speaker 1: into that in a minute. But like, Dallas was very

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Speaker 1: pretty good about diligently getting the right matchups before they go.

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Speaker 1: In addition to that, they are a team that has

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Speaker 1: some speed advantages, right, Like, I'll give you an example.

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Speaker 1: There's a random play mid fourth quarter where Derrek Jones

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Speaker 1: Junior was on the right wing and he had Michael

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Speaker 1: Porter Junior on him and he just got him with

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Speaker 1: a basic rip through moove to the left and got

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Speaker 1: all the way to the rim for a layup. And

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Speaker 1: then like so when you look at it, and it's

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Speaker 1: like they're getting a lot of shots where it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: they're getting Michael Porter Junior on a switch and then

396
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Speaker 1: going to work. They're getting Jamal Murray on a switch

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Speaker 1: and they're going to work. So they can be very

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Speaker 1: diligent about getting the right types of shots against the

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Speaker 1: right matchups. And I think that's something that Dallas and

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Speaker 1: Phoenix in particular are are really good at. Now both

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00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,560
Speaker 1: of those matchups Denver had extended stretches where they kick

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Speaker 1: their ass because they're so much bigger and there they

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00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 1: do have better personnel that they can kind of go

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00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 1: to on both ends of the floor to kind of

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Speaker 1: get these jobs done. So like I would pick Denver

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Speaker 1: in a series against both of them, but I do

407
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Speaker 1: think it's interesting and something to keep an eye on

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Speaker 1: in terms of like a threat to beat Denver that

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Speaker 1: both Dallas and Phoenix are these like kind of high

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Speaker 1: level matchup attacking teams that rely a lot on helio

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Speaker 1: centric kind of a ball screen attack and that can

412
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Speaker 1: really kind of get Denver's limited defenders in space. On

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Speaker 1: the Denver side of things, getting bullied on the glass

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Speaker 1: and the Yokachov groups is totally normal. Like I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: like they yokichen groups this season have almost a seventy

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Speaker 1: five percent defensive rebound percentage, and they had almost a

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Speaker 1: seventy five percent defensive rebound percentage yesterday. This is kind

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Speaker 1: of just an issue with their bench. And again, they

419
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Speaker 1: won last year under the same circumstances. It's never been

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Speaker 1: about like, oh man, you know, Denver can't overcome its bench.

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Speaker 1: It's like they do overcome their bench. It's like they

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Speaker 1: have a bad bench and then they win. Anyway, That's

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Speaker 1: that's pretty much been the story for Denver forever. Right

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Speaker 1: that said, they need to hold up better on the

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Speaker 1: glass than they did, and I did think a lot

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Speaker 1: of it was just not being as quick to the ball,

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Speaker 1: and that's something I think they have a room for

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Speaker 1: improvement on. And then again, like this game and the

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00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 1: Suns game, they executed perfectly down the stretch in both games.

430
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:32,680
Speaker 1: So like if you remember in the Suns game, there

431
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 1: was a twelve zero run that turned a what was

432
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,640
Speaker 1: it a ninety nine to ninety lead into a one

433
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 1: oh two to ninety nine lead for Denver. And then

434
00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 1: in this game, what was it It was one oh

435
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,920
Speaker 1: nine to one hundred, I think, and then they scored.

436
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,239
Speaker 1: They won on a fifteen to three run to go

437
00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:53,119
Speaker 1: up one fifteen to one twelve. So very similarly in

438
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:55,480
Speaker 1: both games, Denver went on like a dominant run down

439
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,119
Speaker 1: the stretch, but they played better defense on the KD

440
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,480
Speaker 1: shot like that one was like Aaron Gordon ended pretty

441
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:03,480
Speaker 1: damn well and ad just made the shot. I thought

442
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,359
Speaker 1: that they had a couple of execution lapses on the

443
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 1: defensive end at the end of this game, not just

444
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:09,920
Speaker 1: the Aaron Gordon one where he went on the wrong

445
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 1: side of that pick, but they were just way too

446
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,240
Speaker 1: willing to give the right matchups, better matchups to Dallas

447
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,440
Speaker 1: down the stretch offensively. And the last thing before we

448
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 1: move on to the next game, there's a reason why

449
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,680
Speaker 1: I'm not a big believer in just conceding those switches

450
00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:27,919
Speaker 1: so easy. First of all, especially when you're like Denver,

451
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,000
Speaker 1: has the ability to put teams in a predicament where

452
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,399
Speaker 1: if you don't switch, or you hedge and recover, or

453
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:36,880
Speaker 1: you help or you do anything that leaves a shooter open.

454
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,680
Speaker 1: There's such high level shooters that it's a problem, right,

455
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: Whereas you know, some of the offensive talent surrounding Dallas

456
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: in these groups is they're not as good at beating

457
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 1: some of these some of these aggressive defensive coverages. So

458
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: for instance, like there was a play where they doubled

459
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: Luca on a switch and Nexic cleve at airball to

460
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 1: three over the backside of the rint, And like there

461
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,680
Speaker 1: there are guys with Dallas where it's like, yeah, we

462
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 1: don't want to just leave him wide open all game,

463
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 1: but like a late contest we can live with kind

464
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 1: of thing. Whereas you can't do that with Michael Porter Junior.

465
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:10,560
Speaker 1: You can't do that with KCP and Aaron Gordon's under

466
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,959
Speaker 1: the rim where he's not missing much, right, So like

467
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,680
Speaker 1: that is that is one of those things where like

468
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 1: I would be more willing in those situations rather than

469
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 1: having Jamal Murray just switch, I would hedge in those

470
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: situations and essentially rotate on the weak side and make

471
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 1: sure that you're just leaving the right guy open. Because

472
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 1: ky both Kyrie and Luca are aware of the fact

473
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 1: that for them, a tough contested shot is probably better

474
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:37,520
Speaker 1: than an open look for some of these other guys,

475
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: and so they probably will allow you to chase over

476
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 1: the top and to recover and get back in front

477
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: and not give up the switch. Then as the shot

478
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,359
Speaker 1: clock winds down, they'll have no choice but to ISO

479
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 1: Kyrie against KCP or Luca against Aaron Gordon. If you

480
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: chase over the top, I think it'll inevitably end up

481
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: in a Luca Kyrie ISO, just against a better matchup.

482
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:03,360
Speaker 1: I don't think Lucas gonna pass out and just live

483
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 1: with you know, MAXI Kleeba taking threes down the stretch

484
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,160
Speaker 1: of these games like they want to get the right

485
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: player to take the right shot, right, And there's just

486
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,440
Speaker 1: more flexibility with Dallas to leave openings than there is

487
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,320
Speaker 1: against some of these other better teams like Boston or

488
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: like Denver for instance. Right. So, like again, I thought

489
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:21,959
Speaker 1: that was something execution wise that they could have been

490
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 1: better at down the stretch. But we're being nitpicky. I

491
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 1: actually had this in my power ranking segment, but I'll

492
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: just say it right now. They're eleven and two since

493
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 1: the All Star Break, and their two losses are games

494
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: that they led in the final seconds by three points,

495
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 1: and crazy shot making took the games away. So make

496
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,359
Speaker 1: of that what you will, but to me, that's pretty

497
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: scary and it looks a lot like a Denver team

498
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: that is hell bent on repeating, and that's why I

499
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: feel so confident in them, all right. Moving on to

500
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,119
Speaker 1: Sun's Bucks. This was an interesting game because what if

501
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: I told you that Phoenix took fifty jump shots in

502
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 1: this game. They got sixty five points out of them,

503
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,879
Speaker 1: so one point three points per jump shot, and they

504
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: got blown out. And that's because the Bucks took fifty

505
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 1: six jump shots and got eighty eight points out of them,

506
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 1: which is one point five to seven points per shot.

507
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 1: So Phoenix had this incredible shooting performance on the road

508
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee and got killed because Milwaukee shot them out

509
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: of the gym to an even greater extent. Now I

510
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 1: want to I'm gonna start with the Milwaukee side, but

511
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 1: this was one of Phoenix's worst defensive performances of the season.

512
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:28,119
Speaker 1: We'll get a little bit deeper into it in a minute,

513
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 1: but really the story of the game early on was

514
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis. And I've been defending Bobby Portis all year

515
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 1: because there are a lot of Bucks fans that are

516
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 1: low on him just because he's a backup center. And

517
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,640
Speaker 1: you know, backup. Anybody in the league who's a backup

518
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 1: is a backup for a reason, right, Like if Bobby

519
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:47,680
Speaker 1: Portis was everything he is offensively, but like less prone

520
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,240
Speaker 1: to cold spells and just way better defensively, then he's

521
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 1: making twenty five million a year and he's starting for

522
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: somebody Like it's it's unrealistic for people to have those

523
00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 1: levels of expectations, and like, to me, you can't do

524
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 1: much better than Bobby Portis as a backup center. Ask

525
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: Nuggets fans if they'd take Bobby Portis as a backup center.

526
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: Ask Lakers fans if they take Bobby Portis as a

527
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,720
Speaker 1: backup center. Like that, you could do a hell of

528
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: a lot worse than Bobby Portis. And he was incredible

529
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 1: at the start of this game. And for the record,

530
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 1: he's been a good offensive player all season. Just a

531
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: couple quick numbers for you guys. Two hundred and thirty

532
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: points and two hundred and twenty seven post ups including

533
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: passes to over a point per possession one point one

534
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: zero points per spot up possession. That's sixty seven percentile

535
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,439
Speaker 1: so he's a great shooter and close out attacker, picking

536
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: and popping, picking and rolling. He personally shoots sixty one

537
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: point four percent in effective field goal percentage on shots

538
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: on pops and rolls. That's one point two points per possession.

539
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: That's awesome. He personally shoots over fifty one percent on

540
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot jump shots, which is gonna be

541
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,160
Speaker 1: a theme because Phoenix was leaving him open to start.

542
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 1: This game started with the coverage opening. Uh, this was

543
00:25:56,320 --> 00:26:00,400
Speaker 1: when Drew Eubanks came into the game. Well, I've talked

544
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 1: a lot about this concept before, but when you run

545
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 1: drop coverage, and again, drop coverage is real basic. The

546
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: big guy who's guarding the screener is going to drop

547
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:10,879
Speaker 1: back and keep the ball handler and the roll man

548
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: in front of him. Right the on ball guy's chasing

549
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: over the top. So here comes the screen guys chasing

550
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:18,399
Speaker 1: over the top. He's trying to funnel into the screen

551
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 1: defender that's waiting. So if the guy rolls to the rim,

552
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:23,880
Speaker 1: if the guy screens and rolls, he can effectively kind

553
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 1: of guard both, right, especially if he's an elite defensive player,

554
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: and he can kind of kind of lunge and stunt

555
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 1: and be in the right places. But if he pops

556
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: any sort of drop coverage has no counter for the

557
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: drop or for the pop other than just to offer

558
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: a late close out. That's all he can do. So

559
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,159
Speaker 1: the guy comes over the top screener pops right. The

560
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 1: big guy's waiting. As soon as the pass goes, he's

561
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: got to close out, or you have to close out

562
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 1: from the weak side, which leaves another guy short open, right.

563
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 1: So it is a fundamental baked in opening of the coverage.

564
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: You run pick and pop against the drop coverage, you're

565
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 1: going to get wide up in threes for your big man.

566
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: It is just like how it works. That's just how

567
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 1: the coverage works. Right. So Drew youu Banks early is

568
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 1: just getting absolutely barbecued by Bobby Portis screening and popping right.

569
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: But then he gets hot, right, and again when the

570
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: guy gets hot, you kind of have to make a

571
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: certain adjustment. Right at this point, use if Nurkic comes

572
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 1: back into the game and he's doing a better job

573
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: in his coverage of kind of like lingering by Portas,

574
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 1: but he's not offering hard contests. And I'm literally sitting

575
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: here and I'm like, I like, this guy is engulfed

576
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: in flames and is like six for seven from the

577
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: field and all six of his makes have been jump shots,

578
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: or I think five of his first six makes for

579
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 1: jump shots, and you're offering like a like again, uh,

580
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: did you guys remember earlier this year when the uh,

581
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 1: when the San Antonio Spurs scouting report got released or

582
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: the I think it was a Dallas' scouting report of

583
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: the Spurs for a preseason game, and it was like

584
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 1: all the breakdown and they talk about like how you

585
00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: close out on shooters. We had very similar scouting reports

586
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 1: when I was in college at the Naia School, which

587
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: was the best coaching staff that I personally played for,

588
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: and like they do all the research and they tell

589
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 1: you it's like, okay, this guy, you're closing out hard,

590
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 1: meaning like you have to be like completely up in

591
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,400
Speaker 1: disrupting the shooting pocket, Like even a contest doesn't work.

592
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: You have to disrupt the shooting pocket before he gets

593
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: up into his release. When he gets up into the release,

594
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,160
Speaker 1: it's over right. And then they have everything from there

595
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: to like closing out short, which is like I'm literally

596
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: going to run out at you, but I'm purposefully gonna

597
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: stop short and then if you shoot, I'll offer a

598
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 1: late contest. And it's like, Bobby Portis is fifty one

599
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots field goal

600
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 1: percentage not waited for threes. That's like he just makes

601
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: more than half of them. And so like at this point,

602
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: he's already scorching hot and you're throwing short close outs

603
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: at him. And if you guys want to see a

604
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: visual example of what I'm talking about, go to my

605
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: Twitter feed. I underscore jsonlt. I clipped like five or

606
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: six examples of this. But Yusuf Nurkitz was just straight

607
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: up just not paying attention and just letting Bobby Porters shoot.

608
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: There's another one. He comes out Bobby Porter's in a transition.

609
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: Possession cuts through along the baseline and Kevin Durant points

610
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 1: and tells Nurkics to pick him up, and Nurkics just

611
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: doesn't run with him. So Portas catches on the on

612
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 1: the right wing, and then all of a sudden, Nurkis

613
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: is like, oh shit, I left him open again, and

614
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: he sprints out at him. At this point, but Bobby

615
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: just kind of pump fakes and takes a side step

616
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: and knocks down another three. It was bad defense. Then

617
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:27,800
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley hits a couple threes in a row. Now

618
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: we're into that, like late second quarter stretch. There's a play.

619
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: They're running a ball screen on the right side of

620
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: the floor. Dame is and Bradley Beal, who's guarding Malik Beasley.

621
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: Straight up, Malik Bezzy's Malik Beasley's on the left wing.

622
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: Dame's running the ball screen on the right wing. Okay,

623
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal straight up turns his back like like, Malik

624
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: Beasley's behind me, turns his back to go like offer

625
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: a third defender at the ball screen. The ball screen

626
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 1: hasn't accomplished anything. They haven't even run it yet, so

627
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: no one's open. So Beal's helping for no reason. So

628
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: Dame just goes, okay, just throws a swing pass to

629
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: a wide open Malik Beasley. They had already made sixteen

630
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 1: threes to this point, and they're just leaving dudes wide open.

631
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley, by the way, went into the night as

632
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: the ninth best three point shooter in the entire NBA.

633
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: Right after that, Vogel tries a little bit of zone

634
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 1: they were on like a three to two zone, which

635
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: a three two zone. The way it looked like they were,

636
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: I think what Frank Vogel was thinking in this three

637
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 1: two zone was essentially having all five three point shot

638
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 1: spots occupied. But again, it's about execution. Kevin Durantz in

639
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: the left corner guarding in the three two, but because

640
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: it was unoccupied, he kind of started down at the block.

641
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley runs to the corner and Kadie's just too

642
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: slow getting out there, and Malik Beasley gets open again.

643
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 1: He had just made that three, beating Bradley Beal. Now

644
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: they're down twenty two points in the game's over. Like

645
00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 1: it was. It was honestly one of phoenix worst defensive

646
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: performances of the season. And they like again, like we

647
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: talk a lot about shooting luck and and look, I

648
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: want to be clear, I do believe that there's a

649
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: variance element to shooting, and we'd be all foolish to

650
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 1: pretend that like that doesn't exist, But there are so

651
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: many different things that factor into it that go way

652
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: deeper than just like nearest defender. And it's like you

653
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: let a guy get comfortable, you let a team get comfortable,

654
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: with wide open looks, and then even when you do

655
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 1: start offering token contests later that qualify as like a

656
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: the defender got within you know whatever distance, but it

657
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: doesn't matter because they're confident they're in rhythm, and there's

658
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: a difference between being there on time and being there late,

659
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: because like, if you get there and you get the

660
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: hand up, but you didn't actually disrupt the fluidity of

661
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: the of the upward shooting motion, it's gonna go in

662
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: when they're like that. Even further, like, I've seen teams

663
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: that can concede shots into teams missing, but they're get

664
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,960
Speaker 1: They're like teams that drag games down into the mud.

665
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: Teams that like are super physical and they kick your

666
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 1: ass for forty eight minutes to where even when you're

667
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: wide open, you're exhausted and you can't knock the shots down.

668
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: Phoenix is not one of those teams. They're not physically

669
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: imposing like that. They're not going to be a team

670
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: that can get away with packing the paint and leaving

671
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 1: guys open. They're gonna have to be better about getting

672
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: out to shooters. So if Phoenix goes on a run,

673
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: they get it back to six on an Eric Gordon

674
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: kind of like janky pump fake give and go situation

675
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: where he kind of like takes a goes up like

676
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: he's gonna take a bad shot, nearly gets blocked, throws

677
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: it down to the block, cuts down, gets a little

678
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 1: lay up. It's one hundred and ninety four, so they

679
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:40,920
Speaker 1: get it down to six. There was only there was

680
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: like a minute and some change left in the third

681
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: quarter when that shot went in. Milwaukee went into the

682
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: fourth quarter up fifteen. They turned it from six to

683
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: fifteen in less than two minutes, and it was mostly

684
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: dang driving a lot of downhill pressure. Drew a foul

685
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,720
Speaker 1: on Devin Booker, if I remember correctly, drew another foul

686
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: I can't remember who the second one was on. Got

687
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: to the foul one a couple times, and then right

688
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: before the buzzer just kind of takes that same kind

689
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: of drifting to the right pull up three or drifting

690
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: to the left pull up three when he hit the

691
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: game winner a few months ago. But just a quick

692
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: little slurry from Damian Lillard and whatever run or hope

693
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: that Phoenix had to get back in the game was

694
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: gone like that. And I do think it's interesting that

695
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: Dame has looked a lot more in rhythm in these

696
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 1: games that Giannis has been out, and to me, that's

697
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,080
Speaker 1: a strong indicator that more of his issues this year

698
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 1: have been about rhythm rather than about his decline. And

699
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 1: to me, that's super encouraging. And for the record, if

700
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: you go back in this recent stretch, he's he's like,

701
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact stretch of games that I

702
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 1: pulled this morning, but the last sample of the last

703
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: few weeks, he's up around like thirty eight percent from

704
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,560
Speaker 1: three and s field goal percentage is like forty four percent,

705
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: and scoring volume hasn't been great, but he's been knocking

706
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: down shots at a higher cliff than he did to

707
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: start the season. Chris Middleton looked great twenty two points

708
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 1: on only fifteen shots. He had seven assists. Super important

709
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 1: element to Milwaukee reach whatever offensive ceiling they have is

710
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: getting Chris Middleton out there and humming on offense. And

711
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: then here's the thing. They did not defend super well yesterday.

712
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,839
Speaker 1: They gave up a one to twenty eight offensive rating

713
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:15,239
Speaker 1: to Phoenix, so technically they defended bad. There were a

714
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:17,800
Speaker 1: couple of smart things they did, though, like they really

715
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: kind of removed kd's aggression from the game. And one

716
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 1: of the things they did that was really smart is

717
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,280
Speaker 1: when KDI would have his cleared side ISOs, they would

718
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: bring help from the baseline and then pre rotate like

719
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,400
Speaker 1: windshield wiper rotation from the weak side the skip pass.

720
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: So basically normally like you'll see a double team from

721
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,399
Speaker 1: one pass away and it'll be super easy to make

722
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: that hickout pass, right. But because they were doubling from

723
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:48,879
Speaker 1: the baseline side and rotating from the skip pass and

724
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,320
Speaker 1: taking advantage of Phoenix's issues sometimes when beating double teams

725
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: with smart decision making and quick on time and on

726
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: target passes, they were able to kind of effectively rotate

727
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: out of those kt KD double teams without up too much,

728
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: which was though one little silver lining defensively from an

729
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: otherwise you know, you know, mixed bag of defense on

730
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,440
Speaker 1: the Phoenix side. It's really that simple to me, Like

731
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: if they defend like that, they're gonna get beaten in

732
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: the first round. They're not good enough in some of

733
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 1: these other areas to get away with just leaving people

734
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 1: open like that. And and again, like I've seen Phoenix

735
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:24,839
Speaker 1: have really good defensive performances. I know it's in there.

736
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 1: It's just a question of consistency. I mean, I saw

737
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,839
Speaker 1: quote from Kyrie after the MAVs game saying the same

738
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,520
Speaker 1: kind of thing, like, oh, we know we can do that,

739
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, that's great. But like like I

740
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,800
Speaker 1: talked about yesterday when we were talking about the Kings,

741
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,919
Speaker 1: if it's not a habit, then when shit hits the fan,

742
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: I don't trust you to be able to do it.

743
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: It's got to be a habit. It's got to be

744
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 1: something that you It's unusual when you don't do it,

745
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,840
Speaker 1: not unusual when you do do it. And we're getting

746
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: to that point with Phoenix in Dallas where both of

747
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:54,319
Speaker 1: those teams where it's like when they do it, it

748
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 1: looks great, but when they don't, they can lose to anybody,

749
00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:00,040
Speaker 1: and it's it's in. It's a problem, all right. I

750
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,320
Speaker 1: re irving as the most skilled player in the league.

751
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: So obviously Kyrie makes a shot. We did a breakdown

752
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 1: of the shot in our breakdown of the game, so

753
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:10,359
Speaker 1: I won't get into it right here. MAVs fans and

754
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 1: Nuggets fans looking for a breakdown of mapvs. Nuggets, you

755
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:15,040
Speaker 1: can find that on our YouTube feed. In the full

756
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: episode if you happen to be watching a breakout clip,

757
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,879
Speaker 1: but we have Damian Lillard come out after the game

758
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: talking about whether or not Kyrie Irving is the most

759
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 1: skilled player in the NBA. Now, this has been a

760
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 1: debate around the game of basketball for a very long time,

761
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: and specifically, I think this moniker is one that we

762
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:38,359
Speaker 1: use with Kyrie specifically because of the fact that he's

763
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: kind of a confusing player. What I mean by that

764
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: is like Kyrie is like super super good. There's a

765
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: pretty substantial gap, in my opinion, between how good Kyrie

766
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: is and how much he's valued by most basketball fans.

767
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:55,879
Speaker 1: This is something I've been pushing back on for years now.

768
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, so you disagree with some stuff Kyrie

769
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 1: did off the floor. Okay, so he's had some clear

770
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 1: examples of for teammate behavior. But when the dude is

771
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: on the court, he's incredible. He's literally incredible, And like

772
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:15,359
Speaker 1: we literally just saw the other night with Luca out,

773
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: Kyrie almost single handedly hold his team to a win

774
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: like they are they are. Like we over complicate this

775
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: a lot of the times when we talk about basketball players,

776
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,839
Speaker 1: and we overlook because it's It's like it's almost become

777
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:34,760
Speaker 1: an expectation for a player. We overlook what a player

778
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,800
Speaker 1: is actually accomplishing on the court. Kyrie is a guy

779
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: who can straight up be your number one if you're

780
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: great everywhere else. Can he be the number one on

781
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 1: a limited team? No? Is he a floor razer like that? No,

782
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 1: But the dude can run an offense, and he competes

783
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:51,480
Speaker 1: hard enough defensively when he's locked in that he can

784
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: be a positive defensive player. He's a positive defensive player

785
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:56,399
Speaker 1: on the twenty sixteen caves. So I think a lot

786
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: of this is like Galaxy brain, right, And so the

787
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 1: way people counteract that is when they have this half

788
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 1: of their brain that's going like Kyrie's overrated, Kyrie's bad teammate,

789
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: Kyrie's this, Kyrie's that they counteract that with like, oh, well,

790
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 1: you know, he's the most skilled player in the NBA,

791
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 1: instead of just talking about the fact that he's just

792
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,800
Speaker 1: really great at basketball. And to me, that specific phrase

793
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: most skilled, it really just depends on how you're defining that.

794
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: To me, if I had to define what specifically Kyrie

795
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,279
Speaker 1: does better than most players in the league, it's a

796
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: versatility of skills, He has the best combination of footwork,

797
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 1: ball handling, and shot making from all of the various

798
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 1: spots on the floor out of anybody in the league

799
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Like, there are guys who are better

800
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: than him in ball screens, but they're not as good

801
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 1: in the post. There are guys that are better than

802
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: in the post, but they're not as good in ball screens.

803
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 1: There are guys who are better than him in ISO,

804
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 1: but they aren't as good in the other areas. Kyrie

805
00:38:56,719 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: is literally capable of doing every conceivable basketball thing as

806
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: about as well as anybody in the league, but that

807
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily make him the most skilled in my opinion.

808
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,439
Speaker 1: For instance, I think when when people ask me who

809
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: the most skilled player in NBA history was or is,

810
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: it's very obvious to me it's Steph Curry. Who's the

811
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: only player beneath the height of six ' five who

812
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,800
Speaker 1: is a top ten player in NBA history. It's Steph.

813
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 1: I have him as the fifth best perimeter player of

814
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: all time, and he's pretty much definitively a top ten

815
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,120
Speaker 1: player in NBA history. All the other dudes around him

816
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 1: are big guys, either big forwards or centers, right or

817
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: shooting guards that are six ' six and freaky athletic. Right, So,

818
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:46,399
Speaker 1: like Steph has proven just in what he's been able

819
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 1: to accomplish on the court that when it comes to

820
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 1: winning basketball games on the strength of his skill, no

821
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,919
Speaker 1: one's better than Steph. But to me, with Steph, it's

822
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: focused in specific areas. So, for instance, Kyrie Irving in

823
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,879
Speaker 1: my opinion, has a more advanced ISO bag in terms

824
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: of the numbers of moves that he can go to,

825
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: but Steph's just way better than him at shooting, and

826
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: Steph has been able to weaponize that shooting both on

827
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 1: ball and off the ball to a greater effect than

828
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:21,800
Speaker 1: Kyrie has been able to weaponize all of his footwork

829
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 1: and dribble combinations and shot making. So I can't. I

830
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: can't in my right mind say Kyrie's more skilled than

831
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: Steph because Steph's skill beats Kyrie's skill every single time.

832
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 1: And I don't blame Steph like, for instance, Kyrie. Here's

833
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 1: just one simple example. Kyrie Irving is a better vertical

834
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: athlete than Steph. Steph is bigger and stronger, equally quick,

835
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,879
Speaker 1: but Kyrie is a better vertical athlete. He also has

836
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 1: a shot where he shoots at the top of his jump,

837
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 1: where Steph shoots a little bit more at the beginning,

838
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,719
Speaker 1: a little bit like on the way up in his shot. So,

839
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: for instance, doesn't make any sense at all for Steph

840
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: to work on, you know, complicated posts turnaround footwork, because

841
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 1: he's never gonna use that. He's not enough of a

842
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: vertical athlete and his jump shot release is not built

843
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 1: to turn over his left shoulder and elevate over the

844
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: top of a defender in a post up and knock

845
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 1: down a shot. Now, that's not to say Steph has

846
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:22,880
Speaker 1: never hit a turnaround jumper. Of course he has, but

847
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: it's extremely rare. It's not a shot he goes to

848
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: and he usually needs a lot of separation to do it.

849
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: That's not a shot he works on because it doesn't

850
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: make sense for him to work on it. So Kyrie,

851
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 1: because he is a better vertical athlete, and because he

852
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,760
Speaker 1: does shoot at the top of his release or release

853
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,560
Speaker 1: at the top of his jump, he is a guy

854
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 1: that actually can use and does use turnaround jump shots

855
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: all the time. Famously, Game five of the twenty sixteen

856
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, in that four quarter run, I think he

857
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,080
Speaker 1: get two big left shoulder fades over Klay Thompson, where

858
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: he drove hard to the left, planted and turned over

859
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 1: his left shoulder, got great step got great lift, shot

860
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 1: over the contest of Klay Thompson, and shotdown right like

861
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:04,839
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a difference. But at the same time,

862
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 1: like bottom line is Stepford damn near his entire career

863
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 1: has come off of ball ball screens and off ball

864
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: actions and hit threes at like forty five percent on

865
00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 1: massive volume, and and and and he's learned how to

866
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:18,839
Speaker 1: weaponize that into a playmaking element of his game, both

867
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,319
Speaker 1: on and off the ball. And Steph is able to

868
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 1: weaponize his skill into more points and and therefore he's

869
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: a better basketball player, and therefore he's the most skilled

870
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: player in NBA history in my opinion. But if I

871
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: was looking for some sort of claim to fame for Kyrie,

872
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 1: to me, he is the most versatile skill set in

873
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 1: the NBA. He can score like forwards do. He can

874
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: score like shooting guards do. He can score like point

875
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 1: guards do. He can do what Steph does and come

876
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,720
Speaker 1: off of a wide pin down and shoot a movement

877
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: three over his left or right shoulder. He can run

878
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 1: a ball screen and make a variety of pull up

879
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,080
Speaker 1: threes in pick and roll, but he's not as good

880
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 1: at those things as Steph is. And that's why I look.

881
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 1: I look at Steph as the most skilled player in

882
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 1: the NBA. But again, like to me, that really is

883
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: just in the eye of the beholder, and arguing arguing

884
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: about it doesn't really make a ton of sense, just

885
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 1: simply because like, most skilled to one person may not

886
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:15,640
Speaker 1: mean the same thing to another person. For instance, like Steph,

887
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:18,640
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is a much better playmaker than Kyrie,

888
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,240
Speaker 1: But like, like does that factor in as a skill?

889
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:25,440
Speaker 1: Steph is a much better off ball player than Kyrie.

890
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: The ability to move without the basketball and weaponize that

891
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:30,720
Speaker 1: is that a skill? It just depends if you're factoring

892
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 1: it in, because if we're not factoring that in, if

893
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:37,240
Speaker 1: I'm just strictly looking at like one on one play,

894
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: then I might lean more towards Kyrie or I, like

895
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 1: I have to think about it, But like it's it's

896
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 1: a different discussion, right, And that's my point, Like it's

897
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,360
Speaker 1: it's really difficult to kind of nail down the parameters

898
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 1: of this. But what like if I had to based

899
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: on my kind of interpretation of what most skilled is.

900
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 1: It's the one guy in NBA history who's beneath the

901
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: height of six five, who's a top ten player in

902
00:43:57,320 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 1: the history of the game. That's Steph. He won with

903
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 1: the skill and did it better than any other skill

904
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: player in the history of the league. Therefore it's him,

905
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:05,839
Speaker 1: and that's why I give him that title, all right,

906
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:11,240
Speaker 1: Moving on our power rankings. Number ten the new team

907
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:15,280
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks bounce back nicely from their disastrous East Coast

908
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,759
Speaker 1: road road trip in February. They've won five of their

909
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: last six, their eighth in defense over that span. Remember,

910
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:22,720
Speaker 1: their defense really fell apart on the East Coast trip,

911
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:26,600
Speaker 1: so obviously that's encouraging. They legitimize it all with the

912
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 1: gigantic win over the Nuggets yesterday kind of demonstrated some

913
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 1: of the advantages they have in terms of their ability

914
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 1: to capitalize on the lesser defenders in Denver's roster by

915
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: being more deliberate about their matchup, attacking, and some of

916
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,240
Speaker 1: their perimeter speed. Number nine the LA Clippers. The bottom

917
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:43,120
Speaker 1: continues to fall out for them. They've lost four of

918
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,640
Speaker 1: their last five. They are also now just eight to

919
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:49,200
Speaker 1: ten in their last eighteen games, they are seventeenth in

920
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 1: offense and twenty sixth and defense over that span. All

921
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: of a sudden, this what was kind of a slump

922
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:57,239
Speaker 1: is starting to look like something that's a lot worse.

923
00:44:57,280 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 1: This is a quarter of a season where they've been

924
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:03,279
Speaker 1: mostly a bad team, and that's a problem. Last night

925
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:06,239
Speaker 1: against the Hawks, I only checked out the second quarter

926
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:07,960
Speaker 1: of this game when the bottom kind of fell out.

927
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: Bad defense all over the floors, especially in transition, just

928
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,520
Speaker 1: like basic shit like not getting back and protecting the basket,

929
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 1: really stagnant offensively as well. It just kind of looks

930
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: like bad vibes. And like, again, this is one of

931
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: those things you can build good habits, and the Clippers

932
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: did for a long time, but they've now spent a

933
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 1: long time building bad habits. And again, like this is

934
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 1: one of those things where like sometimes it's really difficult

935
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,239
Speaker 1: to regain control of the situation, which is why it's

936
00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 1: so important when you identify your starting to let go

937
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 1: of the rope a little bit, that's when you have

938
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:42,879
Speaker 1: to knuckle down and kind of regain your identity. They've

939
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: let this drag on for a really long time now,

940
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 1: and they could be in some trouble number eight, the

941
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans two in one week. They beat the

942
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,680
Speaker 1: Clippers and the Blazers. They lost the Caves. Zion's last

943
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 1: thirteen games twenty four point seven rebounds and six assists,

944
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 1: fifty eight percent from the field, thirty three percent from

945
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: three to seventy four percent from the line. Really the

946
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 1: season turned around from them on the strength of their

947
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:06,400
Speaker 1: defense and Zion Williamson's offensive leap that he took. It

948
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,840
Speaker 1: kind of seems like circum kind of seemed like a

949
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 1: part of the circumstance of him just kind of getting

950
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:12,800
Speaker 1: into shape over the course of the season as well.

951
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:15,399
Speaker 1: Zion's been one of the best and most versatile shot

952
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 1: creators in the NBA this year. One point zero seven

953
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,000
Speaker 1: points per possession and pick and roll on four hundred

954
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,919
Speaker 1: and fifteen possessions. That's eighty second percentile, one point zero

955
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:26,440
Speaker 1: four points per ISO on three hundred and seventy three possessions,

956
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 1: at seventy first percentile, one point zero five points per

957
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:32,600
Speaker 1: post up, which is in two hundred and forty eight possessions,

958
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 1: which is fifty six percentile. He's personally shooting fifty one

959
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: percent from the field in all of those situations, so

960
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: really impressive shot creation season from Zion to make the mistake.

961
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,160
Speaker 1: They're winning on the strength of their defense, second best

962
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:48,479
Speaker 1: in defensive rating over their last fifteen games and also

963
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:51,359
Speaker 1: second best at forcing turnovers over the course of that

964
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 1: fifteen game span. Number seven the Cleveland Cavaliers. They beat

965
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, but they lost to Houston and Phoenix. Still

966
00:46:56,719 --> 00:46:59,280
Speaker 1: really struggling to score the basketball with Evan Mobley out.

967
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 1: They've put it George' kneeing in at the four, and

968
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 1: it just hasn't go well, gone well on both ends

969
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:05,920
Speaker 1: of the floor. He is getting attacked a lot on defense,

970
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:07,759
Speaker 1: and he's not making enough shots on the other end,

971
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 1: probably in large part because he's having to work so

972
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 1: hard on the defensive end with teams picking on him.

973
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:14,879
Speaker 1: Both Donovan Mitchell and Karris Lavert are slumping right now,

974
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,360
Speaker 1: so a little bit of a downturn going on in Cleveland.

975
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: Number six the New York Knicks three and oh week

976
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 1: right win against Sacramento on Saturday really bullied the Kings physically.

977
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,280
Speaker 1: Ojan Andobi is back first three games the plus minus

978
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: hero keeping it going there plus forty five in Ojan

979
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:33,919
Speaker 1: and Obi's minutes over the last three games. Number five

980
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:36,359
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kind of a light schedule week for them.

981
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 1: They only had two games, super impressive defensive performance against

982
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: the Clippers, Kawhi went down, and then they just strangled

983
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:44,799
Speaker 1: the life out of Paul George and James Harden to

984
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:47,000
Speaker 1: get a win. Then they blew out the Jazz. I

985
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,239
Speaker 1: still don't love Kyle Anderson at the four, but they

986
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:50,799
Speaker 1: got another month to kind of figure out what they

987
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,399
Speaker 1: want to do on that front. I'm sure they will again.

988
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: I still lean towards either going with nas Reed for

989
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: bigger matchups and then going with the kill Alexander Walker

990
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 1: for smaller matchups. I just don't think Hayle Anderson at

991
00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 1: this phase is having enough impact on either end of

992
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,560
Speaker 1: the floor to justify it. Kind of feels like just

993
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:08,240
Speaker 1: putting a forward out there for the sake of putting

994
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:11,040
Speaker 1: a forward out there. Number four the Milwaukee Bucks. The

995
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: West Coast trip was an absolute disaster. They went one

996
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 1: to three and their defense got absolutely shredded. But they

997
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:19,760
Speaker 1: came back. They got a big bounce back win against Philly,

998
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:21,799
Speaker 1: and then their offense broke out in a huge way

999
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 1: against Phoenix. An outstanding jump shooting game from them. Another

1000
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,359
Speaker 1: game where Dame looked really comfortable with higher usage, which

1001
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 1: is encouraging to me, just kind of in terms of

1002
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 1: like whether or not this has to do with his

1003
00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:33,680
Speaker 1: kind of rough season, whether or not it has to

1004
00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:36,359
Speaker 1: do with decline, or just the fit, and I lean

1005
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 1: more towards the fit, which is encouraging because all you

1006
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: really have to do is figure it out by the

1007
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 1: time you get to Boston, and they have plenty of

1008
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: time until then. Chris Middleton's first game back, he looked great.

1009
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: Only thing that's concerning a one to twenty four defensive

1010
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: rating for Milwaukee over the last six games, which is

1011
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 1: really bad, even in the win against Phoenix that got

1012
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:55,400
Speaker 1: lit up defensively of one twenty eight defensive rating in

1013
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 1: that game. So need to gain regain control of the

1014
00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 1: situation on defense. Three Oklahoma City Thunder two in one week.

1015
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:05,600
Speaker 1: They beat Dallas in Memphis, lost Indiana. Jalen Williams missed

1016
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,280
Speaker 1: the Indiana game, so they're loss. Obviously they were short handed,

1017
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: but he came back and was incredible in a big

1018
00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:13,959
Speaker 1: win over that red hot Mavericks team. Just a really

1019
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,399
Speaker 1: interesting example of high level shot making while also getting

1020
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 1: to the rim with his power defensive plays at the

1021
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:22,439
Speaker 1: end of the game, making a big block at the rim,

1022
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: had a nasty dunk in kind of garbage time, I

1023
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 1: should say, like kind of the ice the game on

1024
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 1: a backcut. Just love his combination of talent and competitiveness.

1025
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:32,439
Speaker 1: I think he's a star in the making. Number two

1026
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. They're lost to Dallas and Boston's undefeated

1027
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: week have Denver dropping to two in my power rankings.

1028
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 1: But here's all I'm gonna say. They have two losses

1029
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 1: total since the All Star Break, and both of them

1030
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,320
Speaker 1: were games where they held a three point lead in

1031
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 1: the final seconds and lost basically just on supreme shot making,

1032
00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:56,240
Speaker 1: contested pull up three from Kevin Durant, a thirty foot

1033
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 1: bomb from Luka Doncic, and Kyrie Irving making a crazy

1034
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 1: left handed flav floater. Make of that whatever you will

1035
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 1: in terms of whether or not it's a matchup weakness.

1036
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:05,799
Speaker 1: I go the other way. If you're eleven and two

1037
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:09,720
Speaker 1: with two last second losses and you're the defending champion

1038
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 1: and you're ramping up going into the postseason, that to

1039
00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 1: me is a big box checked for. Like primes to

1040
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:17,600
Speaker 1: repeat and It's a big part of why I'm still

1041
00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:21,359
Speaker 1: so confident in Denver. Number one. Boston Celtics undefeated week

1042
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 1: some light games in their schedule against Portland, Utah, and Washington,

1043
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 1: but they had one of their most impressive wins of

1044
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:30,480
Speaker 1: the season against Phoenix. I thought Al Horford was an

1045
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 1: absolute monster in that game, torching both of pretty much

1046
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:39,120
Speaker 1: every Phoenix big man who played for overhelping in the paint.

1047
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:41,279
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown were both amazing in that game as well.

1048
00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:43,520
Speaker 1: They're clicking on all cylinders. It seems to me pretty

1049
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:46,960
Speaker 1: consistently whenever Boston has a disappointment like those back to

1050
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,720
Speaker 1: back losses to Denver and Cleveland, they tend to bounce

1051
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:52,839
Speaker 1: back in a big way. And they really did. They're

1052
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:54,799
Speaker 1: sitting at number one in our power rankings. All right, guys,

1053
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:56,360
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. Is always I

1054
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:59,239
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Will be

1055
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 1: back from morning with another instant reaction as well as

1056
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:36,040
Speaker 1: a mail bag. I'll see you guys. Then the volume