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Speaker 2: Slash Baseball, all right, welcome to Hoops Toight. You're at
Speaker 2: the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody. Oh Paul, you guys are
Speaker 2: having a great start to your week while we're getting
Speaker 2: part two of our free agency reaction today, we have
Speaker 2: three major moves that I want to hit in today's show. ISAIAHRT,
Speaker 2: I'm stigning to the Oklahoma City Thunder. We're gonna be
Speaker 2: spending the majority of time of the time on that one.
Speaker 2: I think it's a super interesting move that fundamentally changes
Speaker 2: both the physical profile and the ceiling of the Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City Thunder. So we're gonna talk about that in extensive detail.
Speaker 2: After that, we're gonna get to Chris Paul headed to
Speaker 2: the San Antonio Spurs, and after that a trade that
Speaker 2: happened a few days ago, to Johntay Murray to the
Speaker 2: New Orleans Pelicans. We're gonna get into all those details.
Speaker 2: We are taking for July fourth, and we're trying to
Speaker 2: get some time off for me and for our staff
Speaker 2: over the weekend. So I tweeted out a question asking
Speaker 2: for mail bag questions. I'm recording that today that will
Speaker 2: be airing over the course of the next few days.
Speaker 2: But unless something major happens, like if we get a
Speaker 2: major trade, I'm gonna get a video out. But unless
Speaker 2: something major happens, we're gonna be taking through Sunday off
Speaker 2: to enjoy the holiday. But we're hitting the three other
Speaker 2: big free agency and trade moves today. We'll have a
Speaker 2: mail bag coming out tomorrow with some breakouts over the
Speaker 2: rest of the week, and then we back with our
Speaker 2: normal schedule starting on Monday. You guys are the drill
Speaker 2: before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight Tube channels.
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Speaker 2: mail bag questions in those YouTube comments so we can
Speaker 2: keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. And then,
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Speaker 2: as I talked about over the those are you guys
Speaker 2: who follow me on Twitter have seen me tweet about
Speaker 2: it a few times, and I've talked about it on
Speaker 2: the show once or twice before this. But like one
Speaker 2: of the guys that I've viewed as like a really
Speaker 2: interesting option for Oklahoma City going into this free agency
Speaker 2: was Isaiah Hartenstein. I was worried about whether or not
Speaker 2: they'd be able to make a move on him, just
Speaker 2: simply because I know Hartenstein enjoyed his time playing for
Speaker 2: the New York Knicks, and I would imagine that there
Speaker 2: was a certain amount of money that if the gap
Speaker 2: wasn't as big, he probably would have stayed, but it
Speaker 2: just the Thunder were able to offer him just a
Speaker 2: whole lot of money, close to thirty million annually for
Speaker 2: the next three seasons. And you know, I want to
Speaker 2: start We're going to talk about the contract details because
Speaker 2: there's a flexibility element to this, because I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: the final year of this deal is unguaranteed, which will
Speaker 2: line up with the Jalen Williams Rookie extension as well
Speaker 2: as the chet Holmgren Rookie extension. So there's a flexibility
Speaker 2: element to this. But I want to focus on the
Speaker 2: basketball first and then we'll get into some of those details. So,
Speaker 2: first of all, the Thunder had two major weaknesses in
Speaker 2: the last season, and those of you guys who have
Speaker 2: been following the show will have heard me talk about
Speaker 2: this ad nauseum throughout the year, but interior physicality. They
Speaker 2: were one of only four teams in the NBA that
Speaker 2: gave up an offensive rebound on more than thirty percent
Speaker 2: of their opponent's missus. They allowed seven point seven points
Speaker 2: per game on putbacks, that was the second most in
Speaker 2: the NBA. They allowed eight point eight points per game
Speaker 2: on post ups including passes, which was the second most
Speaker 2: in the NBA, this was a frontline that you could bully.
Speaker 2: That was the first weakness. The second biggest weakness was experience, right,
Speaker 2: and this year was a huge step forward for them.
Speaker 2: They got two rounds worth of playoff experience for all
Speaker 2: the guys in house. They lost in heartbreaking fashion, which
Speaker 2: I think is actually beneficial to the development of a
Speaker 2: basketball player. Like you were up by one off of
Speaker 2: that ched Holmgren dunk in Game six on the road
Speaker 2: with an opportunity to go home to win Game seven
Speaker 2: and make it to the conference finals and shake Gelvis
Speaker 2: Alexander fouls PJ. Washington in the left corner, which leads
Speaker 2: to the series being over right. That's a heart wrenching
Speaker 2: way to lose, right, And I always talk about like
Speaker 2: there's a difference between loving basketball and hating losing, and
Speaker 2: the greats are usually both. They're genuine fans of the game,
Speaker 2: like they just love playing, they love working on their game,
Speaker 2: they love tinkering with their craft, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: But then they also have this like psycho competitiveness, like
Speaker 2: fear of losing or hatred of losing, And like to me,
Speaker 2: there's a scar tissue that builds up when you take
Speaker 2: those losses that actually motivates you in those situations. You
Speaker 2: find yourself in a big game, in a big pivotal
Speaker 2: playoff moment, and you think back to what happened when
Speaker 2: you blew it last time. It leads to another level
Speaker 2: of focus and intensity because you're terrified that it will
Speaker 2: happen to you again. That kind of that's why there's
Speaker 2: like a process to these teams getting to where they
Speaker 2: want to go. That's why almost every all time great
Speaker 2: team that you see has a really ugly loss early
Speaker 2: on in the process, right, Like that's just kind of
Speaker 2: like inherent in the process. The Nuggets made it to
Speaker 2: the conference finals and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, right,
Speaker 2: but then they conquered them on their way to the title.
Speaker 2: Last year. The Golden State Warriors in twenty sixteen lost
Speaker 2: after winning seventy three games, even going before the twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen title, the loss they suffered against the Clippers in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, the loss that they suffered against the Spurs
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, the Miami Heat losing to the Spurs,
Speaker 2: or to the Dallas Mavericks in twenty eleven, that was
Speaker 2: scar tissue that led to them bringing that level in
Speaker 2: the future. Like there are almost always heartbreaking loss is
Speaker 2: early on in the process. I've missed a big one there,
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight Lakers painful loss before they win
Speaker 2: two championships in a row. Look at all of the
Speaker 2: painful losses for Dirk Novitski before he won in twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of like part of that growth. It's
Speaker 2: part of that process. And so everybody in that locker
Speaker 2: room gets two more rounds worth of experience. You added.
Speaker 2: Alex Caruso, a veteran of six playoff series. He's played
Speaker 2: in thirty one playoff games. He started for the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty Lakers in Game six of the twenty twenty NBA Finals.
Speaker 2: Literally is one of the most you know, dependable type
Speaker 2: of playoff role players that you could have. I think
Speaker 2: that is a huge influx of experience. Hartenstein himself has
Speaker 2: played a major role in four playoff series. In general,
Speaker 2: as this team goes into next season, they are older,
Speaker 2: they are wiser and more experienced. Right, That's not something
Speaker 2: you can like really address through the roster as much
Speaker 2: as just through just through getting through those wars. Because
Speaker 2: even Cruzo and Hartenstein, the main guys who need that
Speaker 2: experience are Shae Yielders, Alexander and Jalen Williams, who both
Speaker 2: got a big dose of it last year. Now, from
Speaker 2: the interior physicality standpoint, there were two routes that they
Speaker 2: could go. They could get a big center to put
Speaker 2: Chet at the four, or they could get a big
Speaker 2: and athletic power forward to kind of anchor Chet at
Speaker 2: the five. And each one of those routes had pros
Speaker 2: and cons. Like going with the center, going the Hartenstein route,
Speaker 2: the pros are you get a bigger look, which will
Speaker 2: help against large front lines, right like against Denver Minnesota
Speaker 2: teams that play really big front court players. You have
Speaker 2: a bigger look there, right, It alleviates some of the
Speaker 2: regular season wear and tear on chet Holmgren from having
Speaker 2: to guard centers and deal with just bigger bodies underneath
Speaker 2: the basket. It's cheaper, Like it's just easier to get
Speaker 2: a center than a power forward. As I talked about
Speaker 2: in our five Biggest Takeaways video after the Finals, I
Speaker 2: think the big athletic forward is the most valuable archetype
Speaker 2: in the league right now that you know Jason tam
Speaker 2: type that Aaron Gordon type that Lebron James. Even. Part
Speaker 2: of the reason why in his old age he's been
Speaker 2: as successful as he is is he just plays an
Speaker 2: incredibly important position in the NBA. It's why I'm excited
Speaker 2: about a guy like Jonathan Minga for the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 2: It's why a guy like I think Jeremy Grant could
Speaker 2: help a team next year in a big way. It's
Speaker 2: why Lori marketIn I think brings a certain amount of
Speaker 2: trade value around the league. There's just that specific position
Speaker 2: is just becoming a very valuable position. The guy who's
Speaker 2: big and strong enough to kind of sort of hang
Speaker 2: with centers, but has the perimeter skill to function in
Speaker 2: a five out offense. That is the key to that
Speaker 2: kind of big power forward position. And so as a result,
Speaker 2: it's just really expensive if the thunder wanted to go
Speaker 2: out and get if they wanted to go out and
Speaker 2: get Lori market In, talk about what at least five
Speaker 2: or six picks right to get that deal done. Like
Speaker 2: that's just it would have been incredibly expensive. They would
Speaker 2: have had to turn around and extend Louri market In
Speaker 2: probably somewhere in the neighborhood of like four years and
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty million dollars right, which fundamentally does
Speaker 2: change the cap situation moving forward. As a basketball fan,
Speaker 2: I'd be lying to you guys about it and say
Speaker 2: that I wanted to see what that looks like, of course,
Speaker 2: just to see Lori Markinen in that group. But it
Speaker 2: was an expensive option to go that way the center position.
Speaker 2: They were able to just go out and sign a
Speaker 2: center to a short term deal in overpay a little bit,
Speaker 2: because who cares, they can afford it on the cap
Speaker 2: in the short term. That was just an easier option
Speaker 2: for them to pull off while maintaining their long term flexibility.
Speaker 2: The cons Chet has to be able to function as
Speaker 2: a high level perimeter player. Now I don't want to
Speaker 2: get into this yet. I want to save this for
Speaker 2: a little bit later in the show. But this is
Speaker 2: my one concern with going with the Isaiah Hartenstein type
Speaker 2: of look. Chet when he's on the floor with Isaiah Hartenstein,
Speaker 2: which won't be all the time, but when those two
Speaker 2: guys are sharing the floor together, Chet now has to
Speaker 2: function as a ball handling wing essentially, and we'll get
Speaker 2: into some of the more of those details. We're going
Speaker 2: to be using the place software today to demonstrate some
Speaker 2: things for the thunder on both ends of the floor
Speaker 2: with Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein. So we'll get more into that.
Speaker 2: But that's one of the cons of going with the center.
Speaker 2: It puts a lot of pressure on Chet's perimeter skill.
Speaker 2: If you go power forward, the pros are spacing is
Speaker 2: always a little bit easier when you have five three
Speaker 2: point shooters on the floor, just is look at the
Speaker 2: Boston Celtics, right. It puts less pressure on Chet's perimeter skills.
Speaker 2: You would continue to be guarded by centers who are
Speaker 2: primarily going to be operating in drop coverage. He's gonna
Speaker 2: have picking pop looks, he's gonna be able to space
Speaker 2: above the break while while his man sinks into the lane. There.
Speaker 2: It's just less pressure on Chet's ball handling and playmaking ability. Right.
Speaker 2: It provides more matchup versatility for when they run into
Speaker 2: teams that really test their ability to contain the ball, right,
Speaker 2: like if they ran into a in the West, a
Speaker 2: team like the New Orleans Pelicans now that they have
Speaker 2: de Jonte Marie Anzion Williamson, or like Sacramento is a
Speaker 2: team like this, Teams like Boston and Indiana out of
Speaker 2: the Eastern Conference teams that have a lot of dribble
Speaker 2: drive speed that having that smaller look with at the
Speaker 2: five and another athletic forward next to him just is
Speaker 2: a little more resilient defensively in those types of situations.
Speaker 2: But quick caveat, it's worth mentioning that most of the
Speaker 2: top teams in the West don't bring that type of
Speaker 2: dribble penetration, right Like Jamal Murray is not a dribble
Speaker 2: drive type of guard. I know the Nuggets want Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 2: which is something I saw yesterday, which it's kind of
Speaker 2: funny to me that Lebron and Nikola Jokic could end
Speaker 2: up making that same mistake. But the teams at the
Speaker 2: top of the West are either like Denver where they
Speaker 2: don't have great dribble penetration, Dallas who doesn't have great
Speaker 2: drible penetration, or teams that have great dribble penetration but
Speaker 2: have lots of non shooters for you to sink into
Speaker 2: the lane on, or at least guys that you're willing
Speaker 2: to live with shooting, like Minnesota and Memphis. John Moran
Speaker 2: and Anthony Edwards are incredible drible drive guys. But that's
Speaker 2: kind of the head of steak and you can really
Speaker 2: pack the paint on them. They're not teams that have
Speaker 2: like like bunches of guys that are going to be
Speaker 2: slashing and challenging your perimeter defense. So there's no doubt
Speaker 2: that having a forward next to chet gives you a
Speaker 2: little bit more defensive versatility against dribble drive teams. But
Speaker 2: they may not even have to deal with that until
Speaker 2: they get to the finals anyway, just by virtue with
Speaker 2: the of the way the Western Conference is laid out,
Speaker 2: cons of going they're out of the forward. Like we
Speaker 2: talked about earlier, getting a forward is super super expensive
Speaker 2: and I don't need to go in any more details there.
Speaker 2: It's just it's the most valuable archetype in the league.
Speaker 2: It's really hard to get, like we talked about earlier.
Speaker 2: So the way I look at it, by going the
Speaker 2: center route rather than going the power forward route, it
Speaker 2: was a low risk way for Oklahoma City to beef
Speaker 2: up their front line while also maintaining some flexibility for
Speaker 2: the future. Now, again, as I mentioned, the initial reporting
Speaker 2: is that I believe that final year is I believe
Speaker 2: that final year is non guaranteed. So again, like they
Speaker 2: can line up the cap sheet to where if they
Speaker 2: need to clear heart and sign off the books when
Speaker 2: they're signing JDub and Chet, they should be able to
Speaker 2: do so. So that's that's where that flexibility piece comes from.
Speaker 2: Whereas if they got a market in and they had
Speaker 2: to extend in four years now, there's just some overlap there.
Speaker 2: I could put them into some issues with the second apron.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the basketball fit though. So it's
Speaker 2: not just that they picked a center. They picked Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2: So where does Isaiah Hartenstein specifically fit within this team
Speaker 2: on both ends of the floor. So the initial reporting
Speaker 2: I've seen is that Oklahoma City does not intend to
Speaker 2: start Isaiah Hartenstein. They intend for him to come off
Speaker 2: the bench. But obviously he's going to play twenty five
Speaker 2: to thirty minutes a night and will have a lot
Speaker 2: of crossover with Chet Holmgren. Inevitably they will play together
Speaker 2: quite a bit. So really it's about having multiple looks.
Speaker 2: They'll have a small look right well, they'll have Shay
Speaker 2: on the floor with Jay Dubb, Alex Crusoe, Loudort, Chet Holmgren.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of perimeter speed there. Five guys who
Speaker 2: can all defend multiple positions and can space the teams
Speaker 2: out on the other end of the floor. That's their
Speaker 2: small look now, without a real forward that will have.
Speaker 2: It's a really small look, but that is a look
Speaker 2: that they will have and it will work in most matchups.
Speaker 2: It's really just some of the bigger teams that will
Speaker 2: give them issues there. But then they'll also have a
Speaker 2: big look where chet and Isaiah Hartenstein will share the
Speaker 2: floor together.
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Speaker 2: What I want to start with, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: go over as a quick monologue for our podcast audience
Speaker 2: and then we'll go over to the clipboard. But defensively,
Speaker 2: what I really like about having Hertenstein and Chet together
Speaker 2: is it gives you the ability to put Sheet in
Speaker 2: a position where he's the lowman rather than the guy
Speaker 2: who's defending ball screens. When you have real length on
Speaker 2: the back line, that buys you flexibility for the ball
Speaker 2: screen defender to come higher up into actions more aggressive
Speaker 2: on the ball because the lowman has has to be
Speaker 2: in two places at once. The lowman the guy that's
Speaker 2: on the back line when your screen defender is running
Speaker 2: up to defend the ball screen. And again I'm going
Speaker 2: to show visual example of this in a minute. He
Speaker 2: is responsible for the role man coming down the lane
Speaker 2: and for the man in the corner right. And so
Speaker 2: there's a certain like stunting and recovering element. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of like really hard closeouts. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: ground coverage both vertically under the rim and in terms
Speaker 2: of covering ground out to the corner that comes from
Speaker 2: that position. And like going from a Josh Giddy in
Speaker 2: that type of role or an undersized you know, a
Speaker 2: guy who's not as big like a Jalen Williams or
Speaker 2: Shake Kills as Alexander. Those guys did decently enough. It's
Speaker 2: not like they're not capable of being the lowman, but
Speaker 2: they just don't bring enough height or athleticism to that position.
Speaker 2: And what that does is that puts a lot of
Speaker 2: pressure on Chet when he's defending those ball screens to
Speaker 2: make sure that he doesn't let the roleman get behind him,
Speaker 2: because if he does, that puts a lot of pressure
Speaker 2: on the back line of Oklahoma City's defense. When you
Speaker 2: have Chet on the back line and Isaiah Hartenstein defending
Speaker 2: the ball screen, you can have Isaiah Hartenstein be aggressive
Speaker 2: out at the level attacking the ball handler because Chet
Speaker 2: brings so much ground coverage and verticality to that lowman position.
Speaker 2: So let's go over to the play software and we're
Speaker 2: going to take a look in more detailed at what
Speaker 2: I was talking about here. So I have a set
Speaker 2: up here in a typical kind of like ball screen setup, right,
Speaker 2: So this number three, the small forward is spacing out
Speaker 2: above the break on this side. This guy's going to
Speaker 2: be in position where you can dig down at the
Speaker 2: nail potentially or stay home. He's going to be somewhere
Speaker 2: in this range. Right, we have the strong side corner shooter.
Speaker 2: This guy might be a little bit up the lane line,
Speaker 2: but this guy is under pretty explicit instructions to not
Speaker 2: overhelp in this particular situation. Out of the strong side corner.
Speaker 2: We have the ball screen coming, and we have our
Speaker 2: ball handler. Right. So in this case, let's imagine that
Speaker 2: this is Chet and this is Josh Giddy. As the
Speaker 2: ball screen comes in the event that they're icing, what
Speaker 2: the main point of attack defender will do is play
Speaker 2: this high side and force this ball handler to work
Speaker 2: downhill this way, right. But what I want to look at,
Speaker 2: I want to start with the ice and then we'll
Speaker 2: look with our regular coverage after that. At that point,
Speaker 2: Chet's responsibility is to basically be to cover both of
Speaker 2: these guys as this ball handler is funneling back this
Speaker 2: way and this guy's pressuring from behind. This guy's rolling
Speaker 2: into this space. Right as he's rolling into this space.
Speaker 2: If this is Josh Gitty, he is gonna have a
Speaker 2: hard time bothering a lob pass here and a skip
Speaker 2: pass to the corner. That's a lot of ground to
Speaker 2: cover for Josh Gitty, and so as a result, he's
Speaker 2: not gonna come up this high. And now Chet has
Speaker 2: to drop a little bit further back to keep this
Speaker 2: roll man behind in front of him. He can't let
Speaker 2: the roll man behind him because if he does, that's
Speaker 2: gonna put a lot of pressure on this lowman here right.
Speaker 2: This guy's gonna keep working downhill. This guy's gonna keep
Speaker 2: pressuring over the top. Chet's kind of working and playing
Speaker 2: that middle ground. Right. But now imagine a situation where
Speaker 2: it's Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren is now the fore man.
Speaker 2: In this case, if this guy is icing the ball
Speaker 2: screen and trying to force him back towards the sideline,
Speaker 2: he can come really high and aggressive because if this
Speaker 2: five man gets behind him into the zone, Jet can
Speaker 2: stand right here and provide a good vertical deterrent to
Speaker 2: any sort of pass over the top. And if this
Speaker 2: guy the ball, he throws a skip pass and it
Speaker 2: gets over here to the foreman. Chet has the length
Speaker 2: and athleticism to cover that ground and recover and while
Speaker 2: he's closing out. While that ball is in the air,
Speaker 2: Hartenstein can recover back into the lane and so again,
Speaker 2: by virtue of having a real height, length speed advantage
Speaker 2: at this foreman position, you can trust him to actually
Speaker 2: be two places at once. Over here, by being aggressive
Speaker 2: on the ball handler, you can get the ball out
Speaker 2: of this guy's hands. Right Whereas if this is Josh
Speaker 2: Gitty and Chet has to be a little bit more
Speaker 2: cognizant of the roleman. Now this guy has some space
Speaker 2: to operate in this part of the floor where he
Speaker 2: can get to floaters mid range games. Maybe try to
Speaker 2: bait Chet up and then hit this guy. Maybe Josh
Speaker 2: Gitty's out of position, or maybe he's just not tall
Speaker 2: enough to bother the rollman. Again, this was an area
Speaker 2: where they struggled last year. So by virtue of having
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein to add to that look, you give yourself
Speaker 2: an aggressive pick and roll coverage because Chet can function
Speaker 2: as the lowman in their defense in general. In general, like,
Speaker 2: we've seen this type of setup work in a bunch
Speaker 2: of different cases, right, Like, this is what the Nuggets did.
Speaker 2: They put Nikola Jokic aggressive up in a high drop
Speaker 2: because they trusted Aaron Gordon to be able to be
Speaker 2: two places at once in the back line. The Milwaukee
Speaker 2: Bucks for years did that with brook Lopez bring Lopez
Speaker 2: into a higher drop coverage. We trust Giannis to be
Speaker 2: able to be both places at once or even when
Speaker 2: brook Lopez would deeper drop against specific matchups, Giannis was
Speaker 2: just able to help off of that week side corner
Speaker 2: and provide another layer of rim return deterrent, excuse me,
Speaker 2: while also being able to recover out to that corner.
Speaker 2: So again, having Chet at the four just gives you
Speaker 2: an entirely different type of athlete at the lowman position
Speaker 2: than what you had beforehand. On the offensive end of
Speaker 2: the four, Isaiah Hartenstein becomes now instead of Chet, basically
Speaker 2: your main screening folkrum in five out, and this is
Speaker 2: something that Isaiah Hartenstein excels at quickly flowing from side
Speaker 2: to side in ball screens. This is one of the
Speaker 2: things I talked about with Dayron Sharp from the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 2: The Denver Nuggets just drafted like that. Quick ball reversal
Speaker 2: is so important from the big man in five out
Speaker 2: in terms of getting the ball from side to side.
Speaker 2: The thread of the back door cut there's a lot
Speaker 2: of like dribbling into dribble handoffs, right, Like Isaiah Hartenstein
Speaker 2: will dribble at the guy who's coming at him, or
Speaker 2: at the two guys who are running action that are
Speaker 2: about to flow into him from there. He's supposed to
Speaker 2: if there's a slip cut out of it, to hit that.
Speaker 2: If the guy goes to set a screen and then
Speaker 2: his man stays on the high side, he gets slip through.
Speaker 2: Hartenstein's job is to hit that cut. If the guy
Speaker 2: who's the primary, the guy who's supposed to be coming
Speaker 2: off the dribble handoff, if he's being top locked, like
Speaker 2: if his defender is just literally denying him the use
Speaker 2: of the dribble handoff and he has to ba cut,
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein has to make that read. If he dribbles
Speaker 2: that way and nobody's open, it's his job to quickly
Speaker 2: interpret that and reverse like like kind of do a
Speaker 2: little half spin move switch ball handling hands, go the
Speaker 2: other way and kind of signal to the two guys
Speaker 2: on the opposite of the floor, Hey, I'm coming your
Speaker 2: way now. There's a lot of decision making and playmaking
Speaker 2: responsibility on the five man in ball screens or in
Speaker 2: the in five out offense, and that is legitimately something
Speaker 2: that Isaiah Hartenstein excels at. As a matter of fact, he
Speaker 2: averaged four point three assists per thirty six minutes in
Speaker 2: this last playoff runt, operating as that type of fulcrum
Speaker 2: for the Knicks. And that was the next team that
Speaker 2: didn't have a ton of ball and player movement by
Speaker 2: virtue of the injuries that took place to them and
Speaker 2: them leaning so much on Jaln Brunson. So let's go
Speaker 2: back over to the play software and we're gonna I
Speaker 2: want to demonstrate this concept for you guys. So we're
Speaker 2: gonna set up in like a typical five out type
Speaker 2: of setup. We'll get all of our defenders matched up here. Now, well,
Speaker 2: most of this stuff will run and flow out of
Speaker 2: like a transition push. So, like, imagine the three man
Speaker 2: dribbled the ball up the floor in transition and the
Speaker 2: five man's trailing. He's going to kick the ball back
Speaker 2: to the five man. Now Hartenstein has the ball. Okay,
Speaker 2: Hartenstein has the ball. Let's imagine this is Shake Gildas Alexander,
Speaker 2: and let's imagine this is Jay dub Right. So let's
Speaker 2: Just imagine like a basic five out motion concept like Chicago,
Speaker 2: and all Chicago is is Hartenstein has the ball, Shay
Speaker 2: is going to run down and set a pin down
Speaker 2: just a screen for j Dub and Ja Dubb is
Speaker 2: going to come off of that screen into a dribble
Speaker 2: handoff with Isaiah Hartenstein. That is a basic Chicago action
Speaker 2: that you will see a lot of times in like
Speaker 2: semi transition after a quick push in five out offense.
Speaker 2: This is five out kind of flow, right, So where
Speaker 2: are the decisions that Hartenstein has to make As Hartenstein
Speaker 2: has the ball and is dribbling this way as Shay
Speaker 2: is setting the sc these guys are probably gonna try
Speaker 2: to switch this screen. So let's say this guy stays
Speaker 2: on the high side. But let's say this the guy
Speaker 2: who's guarding j Dubb just lingers on Jadub as he's
Speaker 2: coming off. Let's say he just lingers on Jadub for
Speaker 2: a split second before this switch occurs and Shay slips it.
Speaker 2: As Shay slips that screen, it's Isaiah Hartenstein's responsibility to
Speaker 2: hit that bounce pass. He's got to be the guy
Speaker 2: that makes that read. Right, Let's say that as Shae
Speaker 2: Let's say that as Shay's going running down, this guy's
Speaker 2: top locking him, and so Jdubb backcuts through, and as
Speaker 2: he back cuts through, this guy clears, and then let's
Speaker 2: say Shay then decides, okay, now I need to run
Speaker 2: the dribble handoff. So now Shae comes up after JDub
Speaker 2: cuts through to come off on the dribble handoff. Let's
Speaker 2: say that his defender is top locking him. If he's
Speaker 2: top locking him and refusing the use of it, he's
Speaker 2: got a backcut. Isaiah Hartenstein is the guy that has
Speaker 2: to make that read. He's the guy that has to
Speaker 2: hit that bounce pass on time and on target. Let's say,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned earlier, if the entire play falls apart,
Speaker 2: so for whatever reason, these guys just do a really
Speaker 2: good job switching and they As Shae goes to set
Speaker 2: the screen, this guy stays on the inside position to
Speaker 2: take away the cut. He quickly switches on to Shay.
Speaker 2: As this guy tries to come off, he top locks him.
Speaker 2: The entire play is butchered. Isaiah Hartenstein is the guy
Speaker 2: has to go, oh shit, this is falling apart. Let
Speaker 2: me dribble this way. He'll point at whoever the three
Speaker 2: man is let's say it's Alex Crusoe or or Lou Dort,
Speaker 2: and he's gonna be like, go set a pin down
Speaker 2: for Chet. Then Chet, He's gonna pin down for Chet,
Speaker 2: and then Chet's gonna come up. That's a decision that
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein has to be able to make. And then
Speaker 2: the last one that will hit is just the big
Speaker 2: man ignoring him. So in the event that this guy,
Speaker 2: the defender guarding Isaiah is just sagging way back in
Speaker 2: the paint and we have our matchups pretty normal over here,
Speaker 2: and this guy's coming down to set this pin down,
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein might need to just attack this man. And
Speaker 2: that was something you saw a bunch in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: If you guys remember he did it to Joel Embiid too,
Speaker 2: or like Embiid would just be playing center field and
Speaker 2: just ignore Hartenstein and sag back into this painted area
Speaker 2: and Hartenstein would just drive at him hard with his
Speaker 2: left hand and get all the way to the rim.
Speaker 2: Those are all the types of reads that your big
Speaker 2: man needs to make in a five out offense. And
Speaker 2: there's a whole other layer to it. When he's already
Speaker 2: set the screen and now he's rolling into space. We've
Speaker 2: talked about like him needing to score in the short role.
Speaker 2: Like literally made sixty percent of his floaters in the
Speaker 2: regular season last year, made sixty six percent of his
Speaker 2: floaters in the playoffs last year, so like he can
Speaker 2: score on the role as well. Like Isaiah Hartenstein, I
Speaker 2: think in a lot of ways, represents kind of the
Speaker 2: quint essential modern five out offensive big. He can set
Speaker 2: good screen, he can make all of the reads, he
Speaker 2: can make the back door passes, He quickly flows from
Speaker 2: side to side. He can score when he's on the roll.
Speaker 2: He can score when the center is ignoring him. He's
Speaker 2: not going to put up massive box score numbers, but
Speaker 2: he's just a really functional cog in that type of
Speaker 2: five out system. And again, like I don't even worry
Speaker 2: about him on the offensive end of the floor with
Speaker 2: this unit. The only guy that I get concerned about
Speaker 2: in terms of how the offense will function when Hartenstein's
Speaker 2: on the floor is Chet Homegerd. And this is something
Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier, but I want to get a little
Speaker 2: bit deeper into it now. Going from being guarded by
Speaker 2: centers who are slower footed, usually dropping in traditional coverages
Speaker 2: on ball screens which allows him to pop free and
Speaker 2: clear to the top of the key. When Chet space
Speaker 2: is above to break his man, the center typically SAgs
Speaker 2: way back into the lane. Going from that to that
Speaker 2: guy guarding Hartenstein, and now Chet's being guarded by a
Speaker 2: forward who is going to apply more ball pressure, who's
Speaker 2: probably going to be quicker footed, at least as quick
Speaker 2: footed as Chet. To a guy who's probably going to
Speaker 2: switch most actions as opposed to dropping in most actions.
Speaker 2: Going from that is going to put a lot more
Speaker 2: difficulty or just challenge on Chet in his perimeter skills.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to go over to the placeoff
Speaker 2: where one more time, and I just want to kind
Speaker 2: of demonstrate this concept. So again, if this is Chet,
Speaker 2: we'll set up We'll just set up in like a
Speaker 2: five out kind of ball screen kind of situation here
Speaker 2: if this is Chet and Chet's guarding the ball screen,
Speaker 2: and this team's going to ice the sideball screen. By
Speaker 2: the way, the guys the reason why I keep talking
Speaker 2: about icing, every single team in the NBA wants to
Speaker 2: ice side ball screens. That's what they try to do.
Speaker 2: Which all that is is this man instead of chasing
Speaker 2: over the top and then funneling into the middle of
Speaker 2: the floor, this man is actually going to stay way
Speaker 2: on the high side of the screen and try to
Speaker 2: force him back towards the sideline. There are times where
Speaker 2: ball handlers in the NBA do get to the middle
Speaker 2: of the floor, and I want to pretend like that
Speaker 2: never happens. They'll just a lot of times like they'll
Speaker 2: dribble down and then this guy will chase, and then
Speaker 2: they'll use a retreat dribble which will get them back
Speaker 2: onto that high side so they can get over. They
Speaker 2: will get over, and when they do get over the
Speaker 2: top of the screen, the same exact kind of coverage
Speaker 2: principles apply. The only difference you'll see is sometimes if
Speaker 2: the ball handler gets way over here, they may ask
Speaker 2: this guy to be the low man. Once the ball
Speaker 2: crosses that midline, this guy becomes the low man, as
Speaker 2: opposed to on an ice when they funnel this way,
Speaker 2: this guy is your low man. Right. So there are
Speaker 2: some differences in the floor contruct but most teams are
Speaker 2: going to try to ice that ball screen and funnel
Speaker 2: him back towards the sideline. Right, So as he funnels
Speaker 2: him towards the sideline, this guy's in his drop coverage,
Speaker 2: he funnels towards the sideline he's chasing. Chet is gonna
Speaker 2: pop right here and he's gonna be wide open, and
Speaker 2: he's gonna have a slow footed center closing out at
Speaker 2: him that he can cook off the dribble and make
Speaker 2: stuff happen. That's gonna be Hartenstein. Now, now this this
Speaker 2: is going to be Chet guarded by a Ford. So
Speaker 2: now what's gonna end up happening is a lot of
Speaker 2: times Chet's gonna have this guy on him ball pressuring
Speaker 2: whenever he has the ball. When Chet goes to set
Speaker 2: a screen. If Chet, like let's say Isaiah Hartenstein goes
Speaker 2: down to the dunker spot and Jalen Williams calls for
Speaker 2: a screen and Chet goes to set it, this is
Speaker 2: probably just going to be a switch. They'll just switch
Speaker 2: the ball screen and now Jadub will be going against
Speaker 2: the Ford and Chet will be going against the two guard.
Speaker 2: That's not going to be a drop or an ice
Speaker 2: the way that you see in most of these ball
Speaker 2: screen coverages when he's at the five. That so that
Speaker 2: inherently is going to prevent some of those openings that
Speaker 2: Chet gets in terms of clean catches on the perimeter.
Speaker 2: The second piece of it is having to run action.
Speaker 2: As we talked about earlier. Let's imagine Isaiah Hartenstein is
Speaker 2: our ball handling Fulkrum right up here right, so he's
Speaker 2: our fulk Crum, and we have Hartenstein getting ready to
Speaker 2: run Chicago action. So Jadub run down. He sets a
Speaker 2: pin screen or a pin down screen for Shae. Shae
Speaker 2: comes off the dribble handoff. These two guys switch. Isaiah
Speaker 2: Hartenstein goes to flow into it. These guys, let's say
Speaker 2: they deny it, or let's just for the sake of
Speaker 2: making it work, look kind of a different look than
Speaker 2: we've already shown. Let's say Shae gets over the screen,
Speaker 2: so Isai Hartenstein's that's a pick. Shae gets over the screen.
Speaker 2: He comes down into this zone. Let's say this guy
Speaker 2: offers Nail help. So there's just a lot of traffic
Speaker 2: in here around Shae. Shae would make the kickout pass
Speaker 2: over here to lou Dort, at which point lou Dort
Speaker 2: would flow down into a dribble handoff where Chet would
Speaker 2: come off. This guy would switch. Now lou Dohrt's defender
Speaker 2: is guarding Chet on the ball, and as as shay
Speaker 2: Kind of cycles through and Jalen cycles up, Hartenstein's going
Speaker 2: to turn and go set the screen. So now Chet
Speaker 2: is running action as the primary ball handler in five out.
Speaker 2: Because of Isaiah Hartenstein being the five man, that is
Speaker 2: going to put Chet in positions where he's going against
Speaker 2: a quicker perimeter defender who's pressuring the ball and testing
Speaker 2: the ability of his handle as he gets into the lane,
Speaker 2: testing his ability to play, playmake as they come off
Speaker 2: of those situations. So that, like I said, in terms
Speaker 2: of the offensive end of the four going with two bigs,
Speaker 2: I don't worry about Hartenstein at all. My only real
Speaker 2: concern is will Chet be able to function offensively in
Speaker 2: more of a perimeter role where the ball is in
Speaker 2: his hands more to be clear, like in the long run,
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in Chet in what he can
Speaker 2: do with the basketball in his hands, but I just
Speaker 2: don't think he's quite ready for that yet. So I'm
Speaker 2: really curious to see how he fares in that role
Speaker 2: next year. And I do expect some lumps in the
Speaker 2: regular season, especially when they go to those big looks,
Speaker 2: but as long as they can figure that out over
Speaker 2: the course of the eighty two and Chet makes enough
Speaker 2: progress before they get to the postseason, that'll be a
Speaker 2: viable look for them, and they will always have the
Speaker 2: option of going back to their small ball look, which
Speaker 2: is going to be better this year because you have
Speaker 2: Alex Cruso instead of Josh Gitty. Under any circumstances, it's
Speaker 2: a better look, and I expect them to be better
Speaker 2: defensively immediately with Hartenstein on the floor alongside Shed, I
Speaker 2: expect those big looks to be stifling on the defensive
Speaker 2: end of the floor. So overall, love to fit, love
Speaker 2: that it gives them more matchup versatility in the long
Speaker 2: run by having a big look. I still think in
Speaker 2: the law, I still think i'd prefer if they had
Speaker 2: a forward look as well, where Chet has a big
Speaker 2: forward next to him, just because I think that that
Speaker 2: would give them a little bit more versatility, because I
Speaker 2: think they've got like a really good small ball look
Speaker 2: and a really good big look, but they don't have
Speaker 2: anything that's kind of in between that's traditional. That is
Speaker 2: something I'd like to see them address in the long run.
Speaker 2: But Hartenstein gives you the ability to have at least
Speaker 2: some of those benefits in the short term, and you
Speaker 2: have the flexibility two years from now by virtue of
Speaker 2: the way that deal is structured, so you can be
Speaker 2: picky and you can be patient in the process of
Speaker 2: trying to hunt down whoever that Foreman was lastly kind
Speaker 2: of talking about the thunder and the big picture. I
Speaker 2: think the addition of Crusoe and Hartenstein makes Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: a top tier championship contender. I probably still have them
Speaker 2: behind Boston and Denver by some small amount, at least
Speaker 2: until we see these guys play. And there are some
Speaker 2: other teams potentially Philly potentially, some other teams that make
Speaker 2: a trade this summer. There are some other teams that
Speaker 2: could be entering into that tier Minnesota and Dallas two
Speaker 2: potentially as we kind of look into it. But I
Speaker 2: definitely view Oklahoma City in that tier right now. They
Speaker 2: just added two quality starting caliber players. They only had
Speaker 2: four of those last year. Now they have six of them,
Speaker 2: just like Boston does. So we'll actually rank our contenders
Speaker 2: later in the summer. We usually do that, like middle September,
Speaker 2: as we kind of get ready for training camp, we'll
Speaker 2: rank our contenders. But I want to wait until all
Speaker 2: of the signings and trades come through before we do
Speaker 2: that just because there's just going to be a lot
Speaker 2: of new information over the course of the next couple
Speaker 2: of months. But I do at this point have Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City in that top tier of contenders by virtue of
Speaker 2: these two moves. I really wanted Hartenstein to the Thunder.
Speaker 2: We got it. It's going to be a lot of fun,
Speaker 2: all right. CP three to the Spurs. I love this
Speaker 2: move because it accomplishes two things. It gives Victor weben
Speaker 2: Yama a high level ball handler to make things easier
Speaker 2: for him on offense. To give you an idea, Victor
Speaker 2: only got two point five rollman possessions per game last year.
Speaker 2: That's the same amount as Rudy Gobert, stonehands, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: and with who doesn't play with passers right, And that's
Speaker 2: half as many as the star bigs at the top
Speaker 2: of the league, guys like Anthony Davis, guys like Joel Embiid,
Speaker 2: because those guys play with high level ball handlers who
Speaker 2: consistently set them up with those opportunities. Here's a crazy
Speaker 2: stat for you, guys. Victor only logged two point two
Speaker 2: cut possessions per game. Those are easy feeds around the
Speaker 2: rim for quick finishes right, Trace Jackson Davis are the
Speaker 2: Warriors who played less than seventeen minutes per game logged
Speaker 2: more cut possessions per game than Victor Webbin Yama in
Speaker 2: about half as many minutes. Guess who was the primary
Speaker 2: guard for most of those Tray Jackson Davis minutes. Chris Paul. So, like,
Speaker 2: is Chris Paul gonna make the Spurs into a championship contender?
Speaker 2: Obviously not, But he's just gonna allow them to function
Speaker 2: more like a normal basketball team on offense. He's going
Speaker 2: to generate those higher quality opportunities for Victor Webbin Yama
Speaker 2: that most of his peers at the position get. And again, like,
Speaker 2: the big thing is, in the long run, they are
Speaker 2: eventually going to have a star ball handler next to
Speaker 2: Victor and we don't know who it's gonna be, and
Speaker 2: we'll talk about that in a minute, but he's eventually
Speaker 2: going to play alongside this type of guy. Why not
Speaker 2: let him get some reps learning how to do that
Speaker 2: in the short term. While the second thing this accomplishes
Speaker 2: maintaining flexibility. Because it's a one year deal, a lot of
Speaker 2: the ball handlers that were available to the Spurs this
Speaker 2: summer didn't make a lot of sense. De Jontay Murray
Speaker 2: isn't good enough to be your primary ball handler. Trey
Speaker 2: Young is good enough, but he comes with a lot
Speaker 2: of other issues as we know, attitude issues, defense issues.
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell just re upped in Cleveland, so he's not
Speaker 2: an option. Darius Garland's kind of an interesting option in
Speaker 2: terms of the fit, but I don't think he's good
Speaker 2: enough to be the best ballhandler on a championship team.
Speaker 2: Paul George was too old. Brandon Ingram isn't good enough either.
Speaker 2: This is the summer for fringe stars to be hunted
Speaker 2: by contenders, not for young teams to look for foundational pieces.
Speaker 2: And so this, for instance, we just talked about the Thunder.
Speaker 2: This is why the Thunder went for Hartenstein instead of
Speaker 2: making some sort of other deal. They're probably looking at it, like,
Speaker 2: you know, we don't view Lori markin In as a
Speaker 2: guy on a max contract that is worth it in
Speaker 2: the context of Jalen Williams and Shay we would rather
Speaker 2: wait for a different type of player, right, So Hartenstein,
Speaker 2: they have the cat flexibility to do it. That was
Speaker 2: them kind of making the same type of decision that
Speaker 2: the Spurs are talking about this. There weren't a lot
Speaker 2: of foundation type of talent available this summer to try
Speaker 2: to go after CP three. Gives the Spurs another year
Speaker 2: to wait things out, and maybe Devin Vessel takes another
Speaker 2: step forward. He had his best scoring volume in efficiency
Speaker 2: year last year. Maybe he takes a step forward. It
Speaker 2: looks like he could be that guy in the long
Speaker 2: run Stefan Castle, who the Spurs drafted at the top
Speaker 2: of the first round, Like, maybe he learns how to
Speaker 2: shoot this year, and maybe that kind of turns into
Speaker 2: a guy that the Spurs project as a ball handler,
Speaker 2: or maybe a different a guy becomes available in the
Speaker 2: trade market and the Spurs can jump in there and
Speaker 2: try to make a move. And like, the one thing
Speaker 2: is Victor is so talented already that he applies more
Speaker 2: timeline pressure in the sense that like, you don't want
Speaker 2: to wait five years to be good, because Victor could
Speaker 2: be a top ten player literally next year, and there's
Speaker 2: a certain pressure that comes with that. Right. But I
Speaker 2: thought this was a savvy move by the Spurs. It
Speaker 2: just again is going to give them that flexibility to
Speaker 2: wait out a better ball handling option while giving them
Speaker 2: a giving Victor at least a facsimile of that to
Speaker 2: practice with for the season. And most importantly, it's gonna
Speaker 2: make the Spurs more fun to watch. These Spurs were
Speaker 2: like watching college basketball last year. Just the ball handling
Speaker 2: capability was so low it made them really difficult to watch.
Speaker 2: Victor women Yamo was the only saving grace of them
Speaker 2: as a television product. Getting a CP three out there
Speaker 2: and having them look more organized on offense will help
Speaker 2: a lot. Last hit for today, Desonte Murray to the
Speaker 2: New Orleans Pelicans. This move was all about rim pressure.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, guy like CJ McCollum, you averaged nine
Speaker 2: point nine drives per game last year for the Pelicans.
Speaker 2: Dejonte by himself averaged fifteen point one. Deshonte attempts over
Speaker 2: eight shots per game in the paint, and so this
Speaker 2: kind of like we talked about earlier, is going to
Speaker 2: go back to what we talked about after the playoffs
Speaker 2: and that five biggest things. One of the things that
Speaker 2: I took as one of my five biggest takeaways from
Speaker 2: that playoff run was rim pressure is the most valuable
Speaker 2: thing for shot quality, right, and there's a bunch of
Speaker 2: different ways to get rim pressure. You can do it
Speaker 2: in the post. You can do it, cutting, you can
Speaker 2: do it crashing the offense of glass. You can do
Speaker 2: it rolling in ball screens. There's a bunch of different ways,
Speaker 2: but the most resilient way in the playoffs to do
Speaker 2: it is dribble drive penetration. Right, the ability to beat
Speaker 2: people off the dribble is the easiest way to generate
Speaker 2: that type of rim pressure. And so in these situations,
Speaker 2: like if you look at the Pelican, Zion Williamson was
Speaker 2: really the only guy for them last year generated sustainable
Speaker 2: rim pressure. Yonis did a bunch on the glass in
Speaker 2: the post, but he was so matchup specific and like
Speaker 2: incapable of being played against certain types of teams that
Speaker 2: it didn't really add up to much in real tangible
Speaker 2: value for the Pelicans. Right, Like Zion was the only
Speaker 2: kind of dependable rim pressure they had. You guys watched
Speaker 2: in that Lakers playing game just how damaging Zion can be,
Speaker 2: just because it can beat people off the dribble. And
Speaker 2: like even CJ and Brandon Ingram, they're like pull up
Speaker 2: shooters who are like in ISO situations, mainly going to
Speaker 2: step back or turn around jump shots. They both need
Speaker 2: screens to get all the way to the rim, as
Speaker 2: Jonte is a guy who can legit just beat the
Speaker 2: man in front of him off the dribble, and that
Speaker 2: is where he's going to bring the most value of
Speaker 2: value for this team on the offensive end of the flour.
Speaker 2: I like this move because when I think of like
Speaker 2: the idealized version of the Pelicans in the long run,
Speaker 2: I view them as a driving kick team. I look
Speaker 2: at them as a team that should use de Jontay
Speaker 2: Murray and Zion Williamson to break down the defense at
Speaker 2: the start to get the defense in rotation, and then
Speaker 2: these guys Trey Murphy is like a professional closeout attacker.
Speaker 2: Herb Jones made a lot of progress this last year
Speaker 2: as a closeout attacker. Like I even prefer CJ. McCollum
Speaker 2: and Brandon Ingram operating with an advantage because of their
Speaker 2: high level of skill and so like to me, this
Speaker 2: is a move in the direction of the Pelicans being
Speaker 2: more of a driving kick team, which I think is
Speaker 2: going to be good for them in the long run.
Speaker 2: And then they can layer their pull up shooting on
Speaker 2: top of that. As we know CJ and Brandon Ingram
Speaker 2: are pull up shooters, but there's not as much resilience
Speaker 2: there you saw in the Thunder series. It's like those
Speaker 2: pull up jumpers start to miss suddenly they both become
Speaker 2: relatively ineffective basketball player, right, And so like there's more
Speaker 2: resilience to drive and kick basketball than pull up three
Speaker 2: point shooting. It's like the difference between the Suns and
Speaker 2: the Boston Celtics, right, Like Boston was more diligent about driving,
Speaker 2: Phoenix wanted to settle for a ton of pull up
Speaker 2: jumpers and ended up being the death of them. Right.
Speaker 2: So like, this to me is a good move in
Speaker 2: that direction. But Dejonte also brings high level pull up
Speaker 2: shooting as well. He shot forty five percent on pull
Speaker 2: up jumpers last year fifty one percent when you weigh
Speaker 2: it for threes one point zero two points per shot.
Speaker 2: He was one of only nine players in the league
Speaker 2: to attempt at least five hundred pull up jump shots
Speaker 2: and to maintain an efficiency over one point per shot.
Speaker 2: He's in a rare group of efficient pull up jump
Speaker 2: shooters in the NBA. He also had the best catch
Speaker 2: and shoot season of his career. He got one point
Speaker 2: one seven points per catch and shoot jumper. He shot
Speaker 2: forty six percent from the field, like just straight field
Speaker 2: goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. So
Speaker 2: if that's a trend and not a blip, then we're
Speaker 2: talking about some real upside to this trade. And Dejonte's
Speaker 2: got like real scoring pop. He was one of the
Speaker 2: best ISO players in the league last year. He got
Speaker 2: one point one points per possession out of ISOs including passes,
Speaker 2: according to Synergy. That ranked sixth out of nineteen players
Speaker 2: to run at least three hundred ISOs. Last year, he
Speaker 2: had thirteen to thirty point games, He had four forty
Speaker 2: point games, he had multiple game winners. He had at
Speaker 2: least eight assists in twenty five games. Like, he's just
Speaker 2: a damn good basketball player. And like again, part of
Speaker 2: it is just Atlanta and their situation, and it's just
Speaker 2: the lack of success, lack of team success that came
Speaker 2: out of that situation. I think put Dejonte in a
Speaker 2: position where he's discounted. But he's a player I was
Speaker 2: a huge believer in. I really wanted him for the Lakers,
Speaker 2: and so I'm really excited for Pelicans fans because I
Speaker 2: think they got a good one here. He's also a
Speaker 2: bit of an asshole, and I mean that in the
Speaker 2: best way, Like you need to have that asshole streak
Speaker 2: to be like an effective basketball player and knockdown, drag
Speaker 2: out fights, and he's just that type of guy, and
Speaker 2: I think Pelicans fans are really gonna like him. I
Speaker 2: have two main concerns and they're the same concerns I
Speaker 2: talked about when Dejonte was first being rumored for the
Speaker 2: Lakers last year around the deadline. Just hasn't been very
Speaker 2: good defensively since leaving San Antonio, but the capability is
Speaker 2: obviously there. It's not like he lost his talent on
Speaker 2: that end of the floor. It's just about commitment. Hasn't
Speaker 2: done it since leaving San Antonio, where he was an
Speaker 2: all defense guy. So he just needs to get that
Speaker 2: piece back, and hopefully by virtue of just being on
Speaker 2: a team that has this much talent and the Pelicans
Speaker 2: have a ton of talent now, just by virtue of
Speaker 2: being on that sort of team, I think that he'll
Speaker 2: have more energy resources to devote to that end of
Speaker 2: the floor. But that'll be a big piece. And then
Speaker 2: the second piece of it is he struggles to make layups,
Speaker 2: shot just fifty two point nine percent on layups last
Speaker 2: year according to Synergy. That ranked thirty seventh out of
Speaker 2: forty four players who attempted at least three hundred layups
Speaker 2: last year. There's pros and cons to that, right, Missed
Speaker 2: layups usually mean occupied rim protectors, right, So like, there
Speaker 2: are opportunities for offensive rebounds that come from that. But
Speaker 2: the Pelicans are not a good offensive rebounding team. They
Speaker 2: were nineteenth in offensive rebound percentage last year and they
Speaker 2: just lost two of their top three offensive rebus in
Speaker 2: Larry Nance Junior and Yonis Valanciuna, So that isn't really
Speaker 2: a value add for the Pelicans. The downside is missed layups,
Speaker 2: specifically from guards, especially when they're driving from above the break.
Speaker 2: That leads to bad floor balance, which can lead to
Speaker 2: transition opportunities that just to put it simply, just imagine
Speaker 2: two guards above the break. If one drives in and misses,
Speaker 2: there's only one guard back, and that can lead to
Speaker 2: some transition opportunities. With Russell Westbrook when he used to
Speaker 2: miss layups, it was an overwhelmingly bad experience for the Lakers,
Speaker 2: So like, really for and to be clear on tape,
Speaker 2: it's mostly about decision making. Dejonte will just over penetrate,
Speaker 2: sometimes drive into rim protectors and try impossible layups that
Speaker 2: end up hurting his percentage. So really it's going to
Speaker 2: be about just better rim decisions, better decisions about when
Speaker 2: to drive, not over penetrating when the help is already there,
Speaker 2: making sure you have a plan when you get on
Speaker 2: the dribble into the lane, making better reads when you
Speaker 2: get there in terms of kick out passes and drop
Speaker 2: off passes. As long as he does those sorts of things,
Speaker 2: he should be able to clean that up. But again,
Speaker 2: those are the two things. Is he's got to recommit
Speaker 2: on the defensive end, and he's got to be able
Speaker 2: to make layups or at least better decisions when he
Speaker 2: gets to the rim. I had a third there. Last
Speaker 2: year's catching shoot season was a little bit of an
Speaker 2: outlier for him. That needs to be a trend and
Speaker 2: not a blip for him to continue to function as
Speaker 2: part of the driving kick that the Pelicans are going
Speaker 2: to try to build out overall. I like the deal
Speaker 2: though Dyson Daniels is a really interesting young player, but
Speaker 2: Dejonte is just a better player within the context of
Speaker 2: trying to win right now, which I think the Pells
Speaker 2: are trying to do. And I'm just generally really high
Speaker 2: on Dejante. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted him for
Speaker 2: the Pelicans, so I'm happy for Pelicans fans that they
Speaker 2: get to root for him this season. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: that is all I have for today. We're going to
Speaker 2: be back tomorrow with a mail bag, probably have a
Speaker 2: couple of mail bag breakouts over the course of the
Speaker 2: time that we're off. I hope all of you guys
Speaker 2: enjoy your holiday weekend and I will see you on Monday. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'll see you on the mail bag, and then I
Speaker 2: will see you after that. On Monday.
Speaker 1: The volume