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Speaker 1: tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. If all
Speaker 1: of you guys are having an incredible week, we got
Speaker 1: a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna hit
Speaker 1: the two TNT games from last night. The Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: went into Boston and kind of got their butt kicked
Speaker 1: a little bit, especially in that third quarter run as
Speaker 1: the Celtics pulled away and went up by twenty. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break down that game from the perspecti of both teams.
Speaker 1: And then after that Dallas Mavericks without Luka Doncic and
Speaker 1: then suffering a couple other injuries along the way, went
Speaker 1: into Oklahoma City and ran into a bit of a
Speaker 1: buzz saw with the hang tight on the strength of
Speaker 1: an incredible Kyrie Irving performance thirty six points and twelve
Speaker 1: assists on just eighteen shots as he kept him close throughout,
Speaker 1: but the Thunder were able to pull away at the end.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna break the break down those two games
Speaker 1: from the perspective of both teams. After that, I've got
Speaker 1: four mail bag questions for you guys. We're gonna hit
Speaker 1: a couple about the Isaiah Thomas, Draymon Green and interviews,
Speaker 1: specifically some of the revisionist history surrounding the twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen Warriors in what would or would not have
Speaker 1: happened if Katie went there, and then also the perception
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry as a point guard. So lots of
Speaker 1: fun stuff for the mail bag as well. You guys
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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So this Sun Celtics game again,
Speaker 1: we just saw them play what was it about a
Speaker 1: week ago in Phoenix, and we got a crazy Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant performance that kept it close. The first quarter. Really
Speaker 1: for the first quarter and a half or so kind
Speaker 1: of felt a little bit like the game in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: like there was a lot of shot making from Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant road att hot streak into that first quarter,
Speaker 1: came out red hot. Bradley Beal hit some shots in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. They were able to keep it close,
Speaker 1: but the Celtics talent advantage just started to take over
Speaker 1: as they got into that tail end of the second quarter,
Speaker 1: Tatum hasn't been shooting super well as of Lake kind
Speaker 1: of got going. He seems to really get invigorated by
Speaker 1: the individual matchup with KD. It seemed like every time
Speaker 1: he had an opportunity in ISO with some space, he
Speaker 1: was trying to hit KD with dribble combinations and to
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, and he was hitting them in
Speaker 1: Phoenix hit him again here in Boston. He had an
Speaker 1: incredible game. Jaylen Brown got off to a little bit
Speaker 1: of a rough start trying to be aggressive in the post,
Speaker 1: but he really started to get going in that second quarter,
Speaker 1: attacking Bradley Beal and Devin Booker going to the rim.
Speaker 1: But I thought the story of the game was Al
Speaker 1: Horford and he stepped in with Chris tops porzingis being out.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, like when we talk about the Suns,
Speaker 1: we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into this. But
Speaker 1: they're just like all the teams that are after the
Speaker 1: Denver and Boston tier, they're pretty matchup dependent, right, And
Speaker 1: so one of the things specifically that Phoenix is good
Speaker 1: with in terms of their interior size is like Nurkic
Speaker 1: is a big body, so when he can play a
Speaker 1: drop coverage and kind of hang out by the basket,
Speaker 1: and when he needs to bang with the other big
Speaker 1: bodied centers in the league, you know, there's real value there.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to defending on the perimeter, especially
Speaker 1: against a team like Boston that picks and pops a lot,
Speaker 1: that puts them in a predicament where Nurkic can struggle
Speaker 1: to defend in space. And so from the opening tip
Speaker 1: of this game it became a problem for Phoenix. Started
Speaker 1: with Horford hitting threes in the first half, a couple
Speaker 1: of early ones, spacing the floor and in picking pop situations.
Speaker 1: Then they come out in the third quarter and Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel tries to address the problem by putting Devin Booker
Speaker 1: on al Horford and then putting use of Nurkic and
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday. I'm assuming making it an easier rotation so
Speaker 1: we can kind of help. And Drew Holiday typically spaces
Speaker 1: to the corner because he's been such a good corner
Speaker 1: three point shooter this year, and so he can maybe
Speaker 1: take an easier couple of steps out to offer a contest.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that was the rationale behind it. But Horford,
Speaker 1: you know, He's had experience as an on ball guy
Speaker 1: in the post a lot in the Atlanta Hawks phase
Speaker 1: of his career. Right like, He's went to work and
Speaker 1: did some damage on the offensive Glass got a couple
Speaker 1: of big offensive rebounds in that third quarter, and then
Speaker 1: there was a play where he just like deep sealed
Speaker 1: on Devin Booker early in an offensive possession, created an
Speaker 1: easy passing angle, got to the foul line, so he
Speaker 1: just started punishing the smaller players for being switched on
Speaker 1: to him. From there, Vogel ends up pulling the plug
Speaker 1: on that, going back to Nurkic John Horford, and then
Speaker 1: he just goes right back to hitting threes and he
Speaker 1: just completely lit up Phoenix and that was the big problem,
Speaker 1: and there was just nothing that Phoenix could do to
Speaker 1: overcome it at that point. And then in the third
Speaker 1: quarter they started to get hot from three again. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown hit a couple, Sam Houser hit a couple. There
Speaker 1: was another Horford play where he got Devin Booker on
Speaker 1: his top side and created a passing angle at the
Speaker 1: foul line, and Jason Tatum made a really nice kind
Speaker 1: of over the top feed as soon as he caught it.
Speaker 1: They had no choice. I think it was Royce O'Neil
Speaker 1: covering Sam Hauser in the corner. He had no choice
Speaker 1: but to step over and help. Horford made the extra pass.
Speaker 1: Horf Hawser was wide open in the corner, knocked it down.
Speaker 1: Howser got a little bit of rhythm from that, came
Speaker 1: flying off of a screening action on the right side
Speaker 1: of the floor and came off and hit a three.
Speaker 1: Broke the game open from there, went up by twenty
Speaker 1: and never looked back. It was just an absurd jump
Speaker 1: shooting game from Boston. They took twenty five threes and
Speaker 1: made fifty percent of them, so twenty five for fifty
Speaker 1: from the field. They took forty eight jump shots overall,
Speaker 1: made seventy or excuse me, scored seventy points on the
Speaker 1: forty eight jump shots one point four to six points
Speaker 1: per shot, which is completely insane. Twenty five points on
Speaker 1: eighteen pull up jumpers two, so they were deadly on
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shots. They converted ISOs at one
Speaker 1: point twenty nine points per possession, so like just all
Speaker 1: their sheer talent stuff shining through in this game, one
Speaker 1: point zero nine points per ISO and post up combined,
Speaker 1: they converted spot up possessions at one point seventy five
Speaker 1: points per possession. Just a completely ridiculous demonstration of skill
Speaker 1: from the Boston Celtics in this game. I was on
Speaker 1: the sport I was on Fox Sports Radio and Phoenix
Speaker 1: this morning, and one of the Benjamin, the guy who's
Speaker 1: hosting the show this morning, asked me. He goes like, hey,
Speaker 1: like like what can the Suns do? Like what was
Speaker 1: it that they were unable to match in this particular
Speaker 1: game from from Boston? And one of the things I
Speaker 1: said to him was like, like, there's two ways to
Speaker 1: look at it. There's the matchup element, like Phoenix is,
Speaker 1: you know, Boston's kind of a tough matchup for Phoenix.
Speaker 1: But there's also just the absurdity of Boston ceiling, which
Speaker 1: is something we've glossed over a lot when we talk
Speaker 1: about the Celtics in general, in terms of the way
Speaker 1: I see the Celtics discussed around the league, Like do
Speaker 1: they have some issues, of course, just like every team
Speaker 1: in the league does, right, But like their issues rear
Speaker 1: their ugly head rarely and more often than not, they
Speaker 1: make the shots they take. They shoot, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: a c fifty something jumpers and convert them at almost
Speaker 1: a damn near point and a half per shot, and
Speaker 1: they kick everyone's ass. And that's always on the table
Speaker 1: as an outcome with this team. And that's why, despite
Speaker 1: the fact that I view Denver as the safe bet
Speaker 1: to win the title, I view Boston on the same
Speaker 1: tier as them, because you can't count out the idea
Speaker 1: that potentially they might just out talent everybody, like they
Speaker 1: have the ability to take eighteen pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: in a game and make twenty five or score twenty
Speaker 1: five points on them, Like they have the ability to
Speaker 1: just get so damn red hot that there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do defensively to cover for it. Like that's the thing,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to Horford and porzingis when they're
Speaker 1: hitting the pick and pop threes and the spacing threes,
Speaker 1: it just completely wrecks any defense because if you're gonna
Speaker 1: have any hope to deal with these rangey wings and
Speaker 1: guards that they have, you're gonna have to have backside help.
Speaker 1: And if you're gonna have backside help, you're typically gonna
Speaker 1: do that from the center position, whether it's in pick
Speaker 1: and roll or even just in off ball situations, and
Speaker 1: most teams you can live with that because they don't
Speaker 1: have the the plethora of shooting at the center position
Speaker 1: that Boston has. But Boston just has a ton of
Speaker 1: shooting at the center position. Like again, this Porzingis didn't
Speaker 1: even play tonight and they torched them with pick and
Speaker 1: pop bass. So like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like we're going to talk about Phoenix in the matchup
Speaker 1: here a little bit more deep, but like the reality
Speaker 1: is is sometimes with Boston you just get to lose
Speaker 1: sometimes when like Jalen Brown's playing like a top ten
Speaker 1: player as of late. He's averaging thirty points and six
Speaker 1: rebounds in his last nine games, two point eighty three
Speaker 1: assist to turnover ratio over that Spansho's taking care of
Speaker 1: the basketball, making good plays. He just did an unbelievable
Speaker 1: job on the ball on Devin Booker last night. He's
Speaker 1: playing legitimately like a superstar over the course of the
Speaker 1: last few weeks. And you're combining that with Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: who's been a top ten player forever, right, and you're
Speaker 1: combining that with Derek White and Drew Holliday, these amazing
Speaker 1: two way guards. You're combining that with what Al Horford
Speaker 1: and Christops Porzinks bring at the center position and what
Speaker 1: Sam Houser brings and shooting off the bench, it is
Speaker 1: just an absurdity of talent and when it's clicking on
Speaker 1: all cylinders, there's literally nothing you can do. All you
Speaker 1: can do is try to play them into their worst
Speaker 1: tendencies and pray that they start getting cold and they
Speaker 1: start to kind of fall apart from there. But again,
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of that that you can't control,
Speaker 1: just with the sheer amount of talent on the floor.
Speaker 1: And it's hard enough to guard any team in the
Speaker 1: NBA when they spread you out, let alone a team
Speaker 1: that has this kind of talent as far as the
Speaker 1: matchup goes for Phoenix, you know, I've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about this specific concept over the last month since the
Speaker 1: All Star breaks. We've been diving deeper into the playoff
Speaker 1: teams and their strengths and weaknesses. In my opinion, once
Speaker 1: you get past Boston and Denver, every team beyond that, Minnesota, Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: the Clippers, the Suns, all those teams, all of them
Speaker 1: have flaws, right, and they have strengths as well. All
Speaker 1: those teams have like absurd strengths. Right, Like, if we
Speaker 1: talk about the Knicks, it's like they just have a
Speaker 1: really physically imposing team one through five when they're healthy. Right,
Speaker 1: You're not going to find a more like like like stout, physical, strong,
Speaker 1: you know, bully ball on both ends of the four
Speaker 1: type of lineup than Jalen Bronson, Dante DiVincenzo with og
Speaker 1: and Andobi, Julius Randall and Mitchell Robbins when they're healthy, right,
Speaker 1: Giannis and Dame for the Bucks. You know, the insane
Speaker 1: amount of shot creation for the Clippers, the insane amount
Speaker 1: of shock creation for the Suns. All those teams have strengths,
Speaker 1: but they also have weaknesses. And what that means is
Speaker 1: who they play is going to play a massive factor
Speaker 1: and who ends up advancing in this playoff run. And
Speaker 1: that's why we're going to continue to build that concept out,
Speaker 1: the matchup strengths and weaknesses of both teams as we
Speaker 1: head into mid April, because once we get to those
Speaker 1: first round series and we start doing our series previews,
Speaker 1: that's going to be a big thing that helps determine
Speaker 1: which teams I picked to advance. It's going to have
Speaker 1: to have a lot to do with matchups. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: we've talked about like teams like Sacramento giving the Lakers
Speaker 1: issues with perimeter speed. Well, they've also struggled with the
Speaker 1: Nuggets because of their interior size. Right, Nicole Jokich can
Speaker 1: bury Anthony Davis under the rim, Sobonus can bury Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis under the rim. Well, Nurkic is actually one of
Speaker 1: the bigger bodied centers in the league, and he can
Speaker 1: hold up really well against that sort of thing, and
Speaker 1: so he can actually make the game a little bit
Speaker 1: tougher for Yokich than a lot of other centers can.
Speaker 1: And so in that specific dynamic, and especially this season,
Speaker 1: because Jokic's jump shot is continued to trend down, He's
Speaker 1: down to zero point nine to nine points per jump shot,
Speaker 1: so he's below a point per jump shot this year,
Speaker 1: when he was at one point one seven points per
Speaker 1: jump shot last year. So they're not as much of
Speaker 1: a pick and pop team as they showed in the
Speaker 1: postseason last year because Jokich is just one of those
Speaker 1: guys now where you don't necessarily have to close out
Speaker 1: as hard on him, at least with the way that
Speaker 1: he's been shooting as of lake, maybe that changes when
Speaker 1: we get to the postseason. So for Phoenix, Nurkic can
Speaker 1: drop back in ball screens, right, they can put speed
Speaker 1: on the ball, like whether that's Bradley Beehler or Royce
Speaker 1: O'Neil or Grayson Allen. Right, they could dig down off
Speaker 1: the on the perimeter because they have the speed in rotation.
Speaker 1: It's a matchup that works well for Phoenix. By the way,
Speaker 1: I'd picked Denver to beat Phoenix in a series. But
Speaker 1: that's why I look at Phoenix as a team that's
Speaker 1: a legitimate threat to knock off Denver. It's a good
Speaker 1: matchup there. Now we go to Boston. Boston is this
Speaker 1: interesting team because they have a not only do they
Speaker 1: have a signific better Arsenal perimeter defenders to throw at
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal in terms of
Speaker 1: just the like Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Derek White, jew Holiday,
Speaker 1: and just the level of perimeter defense talent compared to
Speaker 1: KCP and Aaron Gordon, who are two really good players
Speaker 1: in that regard. Cacp's gonna make an All Defense team
Speaker 1: this year. But there's a certain amount of like they
Speaker 1: just have so much more that they have to do,
Speaker 1: and they don't have continuing options down the roster to
Speaker 1: keep throwing at KD and Bradley Beal on Devin Booker. Right,
Speaker 1: So Boston has these perimeter advantages, but also they are
Speaker 1: a five out team that plays a lot of pick
Speaker 1: and pop basketball, and so that makes it so that
Speaker 1: Nurkic is not gaining the advantage of being able to
Speaker 1: body a bigger center. Nurkic this year has been capable
Speaker 1: of scoring in the post against mismatches, but it also
Speaker 1: can get ugly too. How many times you see last
Speaker 1: night Nurkics try to, you know, bully his way underneath
Speaker 1: the basket, and he just exposes the basketball too much
Speaker 1: and guys cannot get away from him. He tends to
Speaker 1: either mishots or turn it over down there quite a bit.
Speaker 1: So like you're not getting as much of the benefit
Speaker 1: of Nurkic being out there. And then on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, they can just continually uh uh,
Speaker 1: put him in space and put them in pick and
Speaker 1: pop situations and pick them apart from the three point line,
Speaker 1: and so like that that it's just a tough matchup.
Speaker 1: They're they're they're they're gonna make the Suns make a
Speaker 1: ton of pull up jump shots against a team that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really good at defending them. And and yeah,
Speaker 1: so like that that that specific issue is something I'm
Speaker 1: gonna continue to dive in as we get into the
Speaker 1: next month. But like, this is the kind of team
Speaker 1: that Phoenix is gonna struggle with, a real pick and
Speaker 1: pop team. Oklahoma City there's another great example. Like, uh,
Speaker 1: one of the things that kind of reared its ugly
Speaker 1: head in that second half of the Suns is a
Speaker 1: lot of the same stuff that they struggled with all season.
Speaker 1: Like they had some turnovers. They had five turnovers in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, Bradley Beal had three. H Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: kept like poking the ball away as dudes were trying
Speaker 1: to snake and pick and roll, just with this relentless
Speaker 1: back pressure and stuff like that. Like the Thunder do
Speaker 1: that too. The Thunder our team that's really aggressive on
Speaker 1: the ball. They're way better at forcing turnovers than Boston is.
Speaker 1: Austin's actually not all that good at forcing turnovers. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like Ogoma City is playing passing lanes and being super aggressive.
Speaker 1: We've seen what they can do to Phoenix, and same
Speaker 1: sort of thing with chet Holmgren as a pick and
Speaker 1: pop guy, and you know of putting Nurkicchen too a predictament. Now,
Speaker 1: Nurgiic can do a lot of damage on the glass
Speaker 1: in that matchup, but he struggles defensively, and then obviously
Speaker 1: it's a bad matchup for the Sun's perimeter players for
Speaker 1: all the reasons we just talked about. So like again,
Speaker 1: I like, I'm a big believer in Phoenix. I think
Speaker 1: they have a real chance to get out of the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. I would say I'm I was originally on
Speaker 1: the Clippers in this regard, but they continue to play
Speaker 1: some relatively mediocre basketball. So like, I'm kind of on
Speaker 1: the fence between Phoenix and and the Clippers as that
Speaker 1: number two team in the West behind Denver, But I'm
Speaker 1: tempted to pick Phoenix. It just once again, like all
Speaker 1: these teams, it's gonna come down to their matchups and
Speaker 1: who they face along the way. All right, moving on
Speaker 1: a mass thunder, So obviously the Maser down Luka Doncics
Speaker 1: in this game, Dante exem got hurt in the second
Speaker 1: half when kind of a gnarly play Josh Green twisted
Speaker 1: his ankle at the start of the game. So like obviously,
Speaker 1: not a whole lot you can take from the MAVs,
Speaker 1: Kyrie did just play a magnificent game as an offensive
Speaker 1: initiator to keep him in it, thirty six points on
Speaker 1: just eighteen shots, twelve assists. The thunder throwing everything at
Speaker 1: him too. In the third quarter, they started just sending
Speaker 1: straight up double teams when Kyrie was just ribbling thirty
Speaker 1: feet from the basket and single coverage, not even in
Speaker 1: a ball screen. They were just sending a double team.
Speaker 1: They started blitzing him in ball screens, helping hard on
Speaker 1: his drives. But it didn't matter because Kyrie's Kyrie and
Speaker 1: he's incredible, and we'll get a little bit further into that,
Speaker 1: but that kept the game close. But a monster game
Speaker 1: from Jalen Williams on the Oklahoma City Thunderside at twenty
Speaker 1: seven excuse me, at twenty seven points, thirteenth time the
Speaker 1: season he scored at least twenty five in a game,
Speaker 1: had everything going, Several nice driving finishes and scoop shots,
Speaker 1: including a nasty one against Daniel Gafford in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter where gafferd went straight straight vertical it got into
Speaker 1: his body and finished on the side of him. He
Speaker 1: had his catching shoot three going those bump off pull
Speaker 1: up jumpers that he hits where like he just drives
Speaker 1: really hard to the right and then like hits you
Speaker 1: and then squares up mid air and hits that like
Speaker 1: little twelve footer. Jalen Williams actually is up to one
Speaker 1: point one four points per pull up jump shot and
Speaker 1: Harden has gone down a little bit level, So Jaalen
Speaker 1: Williams is now the best high volume pull up shooter
Speaker 1: in the league this year. How crazy is that forty
Speaker 1: players have attempted at least two hundred and fifty of them,
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams is one point one four points per possession,
Speaker 1: ranks first in that group. But it's even bizarre just
Speaker 1: watching it on tape because like he's a twenty two
Speaker 1: year old and he's like bodying grown men in the NBA.
Speaker 1: There's a play where he bodied Dante xhim and took
Speaker 1: like a little fade away, and like Dante Xim is
Speaker 1: a pretty big and strong guard who was like healthy
Speaker 1: into his career like a grown man and in his
Speaker 1: prime athletically, and and Jalen Williams just bullied him to
Speaker 1: get to his spot and then like his competitiveness just
Speaker 1: screams off the screen. He had this block on a
Speaker 1: one on one break with Derek Jones Junior, where he
Speaker 1: blocked him and just screamed to the crowd. He had
Speaker 1: I missed the three with just under a minute left
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter and there was an offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: He cut down the lane that went back door, just
Speaker 1: dunked it and screamed to the crowd, And like that
Speaker 1: was something that stood out to me when I saw
Speaker 1: him in Summer League. But like Jalen Williams, to me,
Speaker 1: the work ethic and the competitiveness combined with the natural
Speaker 1: gifts that he has, the dude's just going to be
Speaker 1: a star. And last night was just another little sneak
Speaker 1: peak of what it's going to be like nightly when
Speaker 1: we get a couple of years further in his career.
Speaker 1: Josh Giddy, the Dallas was really ignoring him all night
Speaker 1: on the three point line of coverage he's seen a
Speaker 1: lot this season, but he did hit two huge ones
Speaker 1: in the second half when he finally found a stroke.
Speaker 1: Shay Gibs Alexander put in an a fish in thirty
Speaker 1: one like clockwork, like he always does. But I want
Speaker 1: to focus on Oklahoma City's defense. They forced Dallas in
Speaker 1: nineteen turnovers. They scored thirty four points on those turnovers.
Speaker 1: They leave the league in turnover turnovers. And this concept
Speaker 1: we've talked about a lot this year. But like they
Speaker 1: ball pressure and then they have a ton of perimeter speed,
Speaker 1: so they're really aggressive in passing lanes. Now there's a
Speaker 1: downside to that. When you get aggressive in passing lanes
Speaker 1: and you miss the basketball, you can leave openings and
Speaker 1: they do give up a lot of three point shots
Speaker 1: as a result. They give up nineteen wide open threes
Speaker 1: per gaming the defenders at least six feet away. That's
Speaker 1: the eleventh most in the NBA. They give up thirty
Speaker 1: six three point attempts to which is eighth most in
Speaker 1: the NBA. But the flip side of that is because
Speaker 1: they're playing the passing lanes and they're so aggressive in
Speaker 1: their coverages, they just force so many turnovers and they
Speaker 1: get out and transition so much that more often than not,
Speaker 1: that transition, that tradeoff works in their favor. Like even
Speaker 1: in k Kyrie had a great game right twelve assists,
Speaker 1: but he had four turnovers, and there were a couple
Speaker 1: ones that he had there in the second half that
Speaker 1: were just pick sixes, where like, here comes the blitz
Speaker 1: and he just throws some looping pass over the top
Speaker 1: that has no chance. Somebody shoots in underneath that sends
Speaker 1: it out the other way, and they're running right like
Speaker 1: they just they they play that trade off game. They're
Speaker 1: gonna give up some offensive rebounds, they're gonna give up
Speaker 1: some wide open threes because of their aggression. But the
Speaker 1: flip side is they just get out in transition. That's
Speaker 1: thirty six points off of tur or thirty four points
Speaker 1: off of turnovers. That's a significant swing in this particular game.
Speaker 1: Really smart adjustment to In the fourth quarter from Mark Dageneld,
Speaker 1: there was a moment where Jaydon Hardy started going and
Speaker 1: pick and roll was really getting downhill and getting to
Speaker 1: the rim and finishing. There's actually kind of a fun
Speaker 1: back and forth between j dub and and I've lost
Speaker 1: my train of thought for there for so Jaden Hardy, sorry,
Speaker 1: there was a fun little back and forth between Jaydeen
Speaker 1: Hardy and Jalen Williams in that early fourth quarter stretch
Speaker 1: Dagenald made an adjustment though, Like again, when you're running
Speaker 1: pick and roll, it's a main and man type of action,
Speaker 1: and he was getting downhill in it just baked in
Speaker 1: with the way the coverage was set up. So by
Speaker 1: going zone and they run like this like kind of
Speaker 1: one two two matchup zone kind of thing. Matchup zone
Speaker 1: meaning like you're in charge of an area, but when
Speaker 1: a guy comes into your area, you guard him like
Speaker 1: he's man to man. Then when he leaves your area
Speaker 1: you pass him off basically right. But by doing that
Speaker 1: it essentially shut down that pick and roll action and
Speaker 1: cooled Jayden Hardy off and they were able to kind
Speaker 1: of regain control of the game. Just a really good
Speaker 1: win broke Glahoma City against the team again like a
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving with all those guys out, it'd be one
Speaker 1: thing to take them lightly and to go light into
Speaker 1: that game, but Hirie threw a great punch. Uh. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of good for Dallas in this game,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna get to in a minute, and they
Speaker 1: overcame it. They got a big win on the mass front.
Speaker 1: Not too much to take away other than it just
Speaker 1: feels like injuries are stacking up again, which is really unfortunate. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Luca's hamstring, Josh Green turned his ankle, Dante Exam took
Speaker 1: a shot in the second half. Always going to be
Speaker 1: hard to win a road game against a really good
Speaker 1: team when you're down that many guys. But there are
Speaker 1: four silver linings that I want to hit for Dallas.
Speaker 1: One Kyrie erving is just incredible. This has been a
Speaker 1: reminder of why you make this trade last year, and
Speaker 1: it's why I looked at it so much as this
Speaker 1: year being the year for Dallas to be a threat
Speaker 1: because they actually had the time to surround them with
Speaker 1: the necessary pieces that they need. But Kyrie's just demonstrating that,
Speaker 1: like when it comes to that skill guard role, the
Speaker 1: ability to score and the ability to play make out
Speaker 1: of ball screens and to just run an offense. He's
Speaker 1: still one of the top fifteen to twenty guys in
Speaker 1: the league that can do that, and it's just a
Speaker 1: rare asset to have on your team. Tim Hardaway Junior,
Speaker 1: he had been in a shooting slump. He got his
Speaker 1: three point shot going. That's encouraging. Talked about Jaydon Hardy's
Speaker 1: rim pressure in the fourth quarter. I thought that was
Speaker 1: a really nice mix up for them and something that
Speaker 1: I think is encouraging in the big picture because obviously,
Speaker 1: like that downhill speed is something that Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 1: don't bring a ton and so jaydon Hardy I thought
Speaker 1: that was an impressive strike from him. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: Derek Glively. There's a play, so you guys might remember.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a broken play transition play for
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. I think Shay or somebody tried to throw
Speaker 1: a skip ahead pass and maxic Leebould jumped up and
Speaker 1: knocked it with his hand, so it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a transition chaos possession. And on the play, Derek Lively
Speaker 1: ended up kiss On Wallace on him, so they were
Speaker 1: on a quick ball screen with Kyrie and Kasson Wallace
Speaker 1: like shows high and Chet's or excuse me, Derek Lively slips,
Speaker 1: and when Derek Glives slips, Kyrie hits him over the top.
Speaker 1: But Chet is the low man in this possession and
Speaker 1: he comes over and he meets Derek Lively right. So
Speaker 1: Lively's got the ball deep post position, but he's got
Speaker 1: a player right behind him, and he just patiently worked
Speaker 1: into a drop step, a drop step hook over his
Speaker 1: left shoulder with his right hand and he knocked it
Speaker 1: down and I was like a member. If you guys,
Speaker 1: remember I was talking about how I think Derek Lively
Speaker 1: has the potential to be kind of like a Tyson Chandler,
Speaker 1: and like one of the things that I think can
Speaker 1: help him really raise his impact overall at the center
Speaker 1: position is just being able to make a quick left shoulder,
Speaker 1: right handed hook over a switch, let alone against another
Speaker 1: center when you have that deep a position. He's up
Speaker 1: to sixteen for thirty on hook shots this year. That's
Speaker 1: fifty three percent for a rookie. That's pretty impressive, albeit
Speaker 1: low volume. And he does have the touch in the
Speaker 1: patience there, which I think is super encouraging. So again,
Speaker 1: tough one for the MAVs. Not too much to take
Speaker 1: away from it considering the circumstances, but some silver linings
Speaker 1: there for you guys. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: our mailbag. We have four questions today, have them on
Speaker 1: my phone today. First one offensively, what does Jonathan Kminga
Speaker 1: need to work on in the off season besides ball
Speaker 1: handling and three point shooting to become a legit number
Speaker 1: two option. So again to become a legit number two option. Offensively,
Speaker 1: it's a lot more complicated than just one specific skill, right,
Speaker 1: Like ball handling and shooting are vague concepts too, Like
Speaker 1: shooting could mean just catching shoot shooting. Shooting could mean movement, shooting.
Speaker 1: Shooting can mean off the dribble shooting right. Ball handling
Speaker 1: that could mean attacking closeouts, that could mean working in
Speaker 1: ISO and post up situations. That could also mean running
Speaker 1: ball screens. Right. A big one too for Golden State,
Speaker 1: which is an important part of this discussion. We got
Speaker 1: into this in the mail bag yesterday, But just the
Speaker 1: difference in the different kinds of offenses, right, So like
Speaker 1: the kinds of skills you need in a four out
Speaker 1: one in offense versus from a role player versus the
Speaker 1: kinds of skills you need in a five out offense, right,
Speaker 1: and just all the players on the perimeter. So in
Speaker 1: the I out offense specifically, the way Golden State plays
Speaker 1: read and react is a huge part of the skill development.
Speaker 1: What that means is like the ability to quickly interpret
Speaker 1: what's happening in front of you and make these decisions.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like option routes in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So like if you remember in the NFL, like you
Speaker 1: might have a guy that reads the linebacker out of
Speaker 1: the tight end spot, and if the linebackers here, he
Speaker 1: quick turns for a hitch. If the linebacker's there, he
Speaker 1: might run a five yard out instead, right, Like, these
Speaker 1: these are read and react plays for the tight end
Speaker 1: where he's coming off the line, reading what the linebacker's
Speaker 1: doing and then making a decision. It's the same kind
Speaker 1: of thing five out basketball, Like you're setting up for
Speaker 1: this screening action, but it's very read and react in
Speaker 1: the sense that like if your guys top locking, you
Speaker 1: you backdoor. If your guys trailing, you want to curl, right,
Speaker 1: Like if your guys ducking under the pick, you want
Speaker 1: to flare. Like there's all these different things that you're reading,
Speaker 1: and especially in three man actions, you might, you know,
Speaker 1: change your mind on who's coming out of the screen right,
Speaker 1: or you might slip out of it entirely. There's so
Speaker 1: many different things that you do read and react basketball
Speaker 1: in five out basketball, and so some of that is
Speaker 1: not even skill development, it's just reps. And like Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kminga just needs lots and lots of reps playing alongside
Speaker 1: Steph in this five out system to just kind of
Speaker 1: learn how to be better at reading and reacting. But
Speaker 1: like if I had to put it simply to be
Speaker 1: a legitimate second side creator, or I should say, a
Speaker 1: second option on a championship team, you have to be
Speaker 1: truly transcendently great at something. Now. To me, for Jonathan Minga,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be an isopost thing. His best skill right
Speaker 1: now is he is so freaky athletic at his size
Speaker 1: that most of the players that are big enough to
Speaker 1: handle him too slow and that are fast enough to
Speaker 1: handle him or too small right, and so he can
Speaker 1: get defenders out of position, he can draw fouls, he
Speaker 1: can get baskets. He's a good on an island score.
Speaker 1: There's real value there now. To push it to the
Speaker 1: elite level where he needs to get, he needs to
Speaker 1: be a great playmaker in those situations. So again, the
Speaker 1: ability to read the floor identify where the help is
Speaker 1: coming from. A lot of teams bring late help on
Speaker 1: Kaminga after he puts the ball on the floor. But
Speaker 1: once he can read those things, he can be a
Speaker 1: truly elite isolation and post up player because you can
Speaker 1: run that action ten to fifteen or like you know,
Speaker 1: five ten times a game, and in those five ten possessions,
Speaker 1: you're going to get consistent, great production regardless of the
Speaker 1: coverage that he faces. Right, But in addition to that,
Speaker 1: he also has to be able to play in the
Speaker 1: flow of the offense. That's one of the big things
Speaker 1: for cominga right now is he's good on an island,
Speaker 1: not so great in the flow, and so that's going
Speaker 1: to be where his areas of improvement are from there,
Speaker 1: It's going to be about like ball handling, specifically ball
Speaker 1: handling in traffic, ball handling in ball screens. So being
Speaker 1: able to what that means is like, let's say he
Speaker 1: brings his man up the floor, but he's got a
Speaker 1: good perimeter defender on it. As before he comes off
Speaker 1: a ball screen, he needs to set him up, meaning
Speaker 1: like he needs to make a move to one side
Speaker 1: of the screen and then do a retreat dribble to
Speaker 1: get the defender into a trailing position on that side
Speaker 1: before he goes and uses the ball screen. That's an
Speaker 1: intricate part of ball handling that I'll have to figure out.
Speaker 1: Right Then, once he's coming off the screen, making those reads, Okay,
Speaker 1: the defender's in a deep drop. I want to get
Speaker 1: a head of steam going to the basket. Okay, Oh,
Speaker 1: the defender's a little bit higher and the on ball
Speaker 1: guy is trailing behind me. I need to use my
Speaker 1: size to put the defender in jail, keep him trapped
Speaker 1: behind me. Start working slowly down the floor until something
Speaker 1: develops in front of me and the developing part that's
Speaker 1: making the reads reading the low man. Okay, I brought
Speaker 1: the screen defender up, which means the guy in the
Speaker 1: dunker spots open hit him, or I brought the screen
Speaker 1: defender up and they rotated out of the corner. I
Speaker 1: got to make this skip pass. Right. All these reads
Speaker 1: that he has to get used to making, those are
Speaker 1: reads that if he wants to be in the five
Speaker 1: out coming off of those dhos and coming up off
Speaker 1: of those impromptu ball screens, that he's going to have
Speaker 1: to get better at. Right, But again, to me, to
Speaker 1: be the legit number two, he needs to be the
Speaker 1: best possible version of the isopost up player that he is,
Speaker 1: which primarily is a play a playmaking thing at this point,
Speaker 1: and then to be able to function normally in their
Speaker 1: five out offense so that he can maintain his impact
Speaker 1: when he's not being super aggressive on the ball, and
Speaker 1: then from there just you know, making the defensive improvements
Speaker 1: that we know he needs to write like, he's a
Speaker 1: good on ball guy right now, but he can be
Speaker 1: a little unfocused off ball. So like, there's lots of
Speaker 1: areas of improvement for a player this young, but to
Speaker 1: become a legit number two, that's just kind of a
Speaker 1: little breakdown of what he needs to do offensively, all right,
Speaker 1: Next question Cavs fan here. I obviously know there's a
Speaker 1: defined second round seiling with them, assuming this happens, what
Speaker 1: do you think they should do this offseason? Personally, I
Speaker 1: think making mobilely bulk up and move to the five
Speaker 1: and replacing Allen with the wing who can shoot and
Speaker 1: move his feet is a good start. So one of
Speaker 1: the things I really find this interesting because it actually
Speaker 1: falls very similarly to some of the issues that I've
Speaker 1: been dealing with as a Laker. Right So, Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: is in this awkward position right now, where like, to
Speaker 1: play the four, he needs to make a significant improvement offensively,
Speaker 1: right just in terms of his skill, ball handling, shooting,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But to play the five, he might
Speaker 1: have some issues in terms of his overall physical bulk. Right,
Speaker 1: even if he puts on muscle, he might run into
Speaker 1: similar issues to Anthony Davis. Now, Anthony Davis, when he
Speaker 1: was at the four and had some success with the
Speaker 1: Lakers in the twenty twenty and twenty twenty one seasons,
Speaker 1: he was a much better offensive skill player, right, a
Speaker 1: guy you could throw the ball to on the block
Speaker 1: and he was gonna iso score and hit a bunch
Speaker 1: of jump shots and all this kind of stuff. Right then,
Speaker 1: what happened was is he had an offensive decline. And
Speaker 1: as that offensive decline happened in twenty twenty one twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, all of a sudden it became untenable to
Speaker 1: run Anthony Davis next to a five, because if you
Speaker 1: ran him next to a five, you were physically imposing,
Speaker 1: but you did and have the skill you needed at
Speaker 1: the four spot to make it work, right, that was
Speaker 1: the issue they'd have because you'd have like a d
Speaker 1: who can't shoot next to some other shooter center who
Speaker 1: couldn't shoot right. And like, even when they did have
Speaker 1: a center who cold shoot, a guy like a you know,
Speaker 1: guys like Thomas Bryant. Briefly there with the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: team or like a Marcus Sool. They weren't teams that
Speaker 1: like there weren't guys that teams were like really guarding
Speaker 1: out there, right, And so the issue is, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna play Evan Mobley at the four, you're gonna deal
Speaker 1: much better physically with teams because mobile at the four,
Speaker 1: next to a legitimate center like Jared Allen, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be really physically imposing at times. Although they did get
Speaker 1: a little bit overwhelmed by the Knicks last year, but
Speaker 1: that only works if Evan Mobley makes the strides offensively.
Speaker 1: And what ended up killing them wasn't just the physical
Speaker 1: stuff that they dealt with Mitchell Robinson, but their inability
Speaker 1: to score and pick and roll because of Jared Allen
Speaker 1: and Evan Mobley operating in the short role and out
Speaker 1: of the dunker spot. They just couldn't score effectively out
Speaker 1: of there. I want to say, Evan Mobley was like
Speaker 1: zero for ten shooting out of the role last year
Speaker 1: in that series. Right, So, like offensive skill is a
Speaker 1: prerequisite to play the four now, but if you play
Speaker 1: the five, you're gonna run into a lot of issues
Speaker 1: in terms of his overall physical books bulk, Right, So
Speaker 1: that's really the turning point for the Calves is like,
Speaker 1: is Evan Mobley gonna develop offensively or is he the
Speaker 1: next to Anthony Davis, the guy that like has offensive
Speaker 1: moments but for whatever reason just never develops in terms
Speaker 1: of his skill set the way that he needs to.
Speaker 1: And that's up to Evan for the record, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: I even feel like with Anthony Davis, like from what
Speaker 1: I've heard behind the scenes, like the dude just out
Speaker 1: of the season just takes like two straight months off,
Speaker 1: and like that's one of those things where like skill
Speaker 1: development in particular is literally a lifestyle. Skill development is
Speaker 1: a twelve month thing, and so like it is a
Speaker 1: like it is something that like Evan Mobley would have
Speaker 1: to commit to and really spend the time to make
Speaker 1: those improvements to be good enough from from an offensive
Speaker 1: standpoint at the four. If not, if you slide him
Speaker 1: to the five, then your four has to be super
Speaker 1: physically posing. You're gonna need somebody of Aaron Gordon's ilk
Speaker 1: at the four to put next to Evan Mobley because
Speaker 1: of his size limitations. Right, That's what makes the lebron
Speaker 1: ad frontline still functional defensively, against most matchups. Albeit he's
Speaker 1: had his issues against those big bodied centers like we've
Speaker 1: talked about, but it's Lebron James. He's a really big center,
Speaker 1: and so when Lebron is really engaged defensively, the two
Speaker 1: of them make for really physically imposing four to five. So, like,
Speaker 1: that's the way I look at it. The crossroads is
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley's offensive development. If he becomes a gifted offensive player,
Speaker 1: you keep him at the four. If he doesn't, you
Speaker 1: have to put him at the five, and you have
Speaker 1: to put some sort of big bodied four next to him.
Speaker 1: All right, next more, we have two questions and then
Speaker 1: we're done. Now, Jason, we need you to address Zeke
Speaker 1: disrespecting Steph Curry on Draymond's pod. Love the Show, by
Speaker 1: the way, thank you for supporting the show. So there's
Speaker 1: two things that I wanted to hit from the Draymond
Speaker 1: Green Isaiah Thomas interview. First, the idea that like Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant saved them when he went in twenty seventeen. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing, I think if Kevin Durant did not sign
Speaker 1: with the Warriors in the summer of twenty seventeen, that
Speaker 1: the that the Warriors still repeat and go and win
Speaker 1: back to back titles in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think they repeat, but they were still one
Speaker 1: of the very best teams in the league. They would
Speaker 1: have been every They would have been every bit as
Speaker 1: likely to win the title as the Cavs in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Like I, my best guess is that if you play
Speaker 1: that same set up again without Kevin Durant going to
Speaker 1: the Warriors, the Cavs split it. They probably get one
Speaker 1: more and the Warriors probably get one more in the
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen twenty eighteen stretch. So like, yeah, Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: put them over the top to being completely unbeatable and
Speaker 1: they won two titles, But that doesn't mean that that
Speaker 1: Warriors team wasn't good. That's ridiculous. They won seventy three
Speaker 1: games the year before. It required absolute heroic basketball from
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Lebron James to barely squeak out a
Speaker 1: seven game win in Golden State in twenty sixteen. So
Speaker 1: like pretending as though they weren't a championship contender without KD,
Speaker 1: that's just something I completely disagree with. Like Kaiti doesn't
Speaker 1: sign with Golden State, goes somewhere else. The Warriors win
Speaker 1: one of those two titles in twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, that's just how good they were. So like,
Speaker 1: I don't really buy into that revisionist history. Like even
Speaker 1: when we evaluate Steph like no KD, I still think
Speaker 1: we look at him as a three time champion and
Speaker 1: probably a two times finals MVP and should have been
Speaker 1: a three time finals MVP. So like, I don't really
Speaker 1: buy into that line of thinking. On the point guard front,
Speaker 1: this is something that I find incredibly silly because everyone
Speaker 1: wants to associate point guard with one specific style of play,
Speaker 1: which is like the guy who brings the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor and makes all the decisions. But like that
Speaker 1: is really a dying breed these days, you don't really
Speaker 1: see that very much in the NBA in general. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, the guys who bring the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor and make all the decisions now are
Speaker 1: the James Hard James Harden in twenty twenty, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one kind of y eighteen twenty nineteen, I mean, kind
Speaker 1: of stretch. And then it's like Luka Doncic and like
Speaker 1: Trey Young, And it's like that's not even like a
Speaker 1: positional thing, that's like a heliocentric play style kind of thing.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is is like the positions
Speaker 1: in the NBA more have to do with who you
Speaker 1: can guard, right Like can you guard a guard? Can
Speaker 1: you guard a six ' five two guard? Can you
Speaker 1: guard a lanky wing who scores on the perimeter like
Speaker 1: a Paul George. Can you guard a power wing like
Speaker 1: an Aaron Gordon or Lebron James or Ruy Hatchamur or whatever.
Speaker 1: In the front court? Can you guard a big bodied center?
Speaker 1: Can you guard a skinny skilled center? Those are the positions.
Speaker 1: But like saying Steph Curry's not a point guard is
Speaker 1: not fair because there's like not that many point guards
Speaker 1: in the NBA by the traditional mold, like what Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas was anyway, And by the way, just go back
Speaker 1: and look at why that position archetype was a thing.
Speaker 1: Back then, the vast majority forwards couldn't dribble in most
Speaker 1: hubs or centers and forwards, so you needed a ball
Speaker 1: handling point guard that could bring the ball up against
Speaker 1: pressure and make a post entry pass or if it's
Speaker 1: a wing scorer if they run an action to get
Speaker 1: that wingscore position somewhere on the floor, you needed the
Speaker 1: point guard to get the ball to him. Nowadays, the
Speaker 1: level of ball handling that we get down the roster,
Speaker 1: including at the forward position, is so insane that you
Speaker 1: no longer need a point guard to make a post
Speaker 1: entry pass. And so as a result of that, like
Speaker 1: that point guard position is actually better to have, like
Speaker 1: a guy who can run pick and roll and score
Speaker 1: right or do more high level playmaking. But like the
Speaker 1: high level playmaking at a pick and roll piece, we
Speaker 1: literally see every position do that, including centers. Now we
Speaker 1: see Giannis and Nikole Yoki's running inverted pick and roll
Speaker 1: all the time now, so like to me, that conversation
Speaker 1: is completely pointless. The bottom line is at it's Steph's archetype,
Speaker 1: which is like your prime Marry offensive hub guard, which
Speaker 1: is more or less what the point guard is now
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA. He's been the best at it
Speaker 1: in this era. No one's done it better at the
Speaker 1: guard position. So like the fact that he's off ball
Speaker 1: more than most players is irrelevant to me. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if you ran a spread pick and roll
Speaker 1: four out one end system and you just spammed ball
Speaker 1: screens with Steph like Trey Young, he would just be
Speaker 1: a better version of Trey Young. Steph can do that too.
Speaker 1: If you let Steph play the way that Tray Young plays,
Speaker 1: he'd average thirty five and twelve, but the Warriors wouldn't
Speaker 1: be as good. Steph embraces five out off ball basketball
Speaker 1: the way he does because it makes the Warriors a
Speaker 1: better team, it makes them more versatile. And then what
Speaker 1: ends up happening is when push comes to shove, what
Speaker 1: does he do? He runs pick and roll? When they
Speaker 1: when the Warriors pushed the Lakers to six games last year,
Speaker 1: they were the lesser team and a lot of guys
Speaker 1: who weren't playing as well as they did last year,
Speaker 1: and so everything fell on Steph. Lakers were playing the
Speaker 1: best basketball they played since they won in the Bubble,
Speaker 1: and they were playing incredible defensive basketball, and the only
Speaker 1: reason the Warriors had any chance to win that series
Speaker 1: was Steph with the ball in his hands, barbecuing them
Speaker 1: in pick and roll. I rewatched every game in that
Speaker 1: series over the summer, and like it was appalling going back,
Speaker 1: just how helpless the Lakers were dealing with him in
Speaker 1: pick and roll. That's all point guard, bring the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor and make decision stuff. He can do that.
Speaker 1: He chooses to play in this five out system off
Speaker 1: ball because it makes the Warriors more versatile. If they
Speaker 1: can run that thirty minutes in a playoff game and
Speaker 1: he only has to spam ball screens for the other
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, it gives him a better chance of holding
Speaker 1: up physically, It gives him a better chance of not
Speaker 1: being repetitive and easy to guard. So like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: disagree vehemently with both of those opinions from Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 1: from that interview. Last question in your opinion, and how
Speaker 1: do you think teams adjusting the playoff pressure will affect
Speaker 1: their play and what major teams do you think will
Speaker 1: be playoff risers or chokers, whether due to game plan
Speaker 1: or roster assembly. Do you think of any playoff chokers
Speaker 1: that can overcome their weaknesses in an extended series. So
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get into specific teams and players in
Speaker 1: this particular part just because it's a mailbag. We will
Speaker 1: get into that when we get into our playoff previews
Speaker 1: in early April. But the main kind of theme behind
Speaker 1: it is in my opinion, experience tends to be more
Speaker 1: resilient in the playoffs. Strength and the ability to hold
Speaker 1: up under physicality tends to be more resilient in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Teams that score a lot in the paint that's resilient
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. And then a diversity of shot creation.
Speaker 1: What that means is if your team that relies solely
Speaker 1: on ball screens to run your offense, you're going to
Speaker 1: run into issues. Look at the Cavs last year. The
Speaker 1: only way they could score was their Darius Garland and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell ball screens. And when they had issues scoring
Speaker 1: out of the role, their entire offense fell apart. Right,
Speaker 1: But when you have versatility, right, Like, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Like the Knicks, like Jalen Brunson just is an incredible
Speaker 1: mismatch attacking switch iso guy, right, Julius Randall in theory
Speaker 1: when he's healthy, can do that kind of thing, right. So, Like,
Speaker 1: if you have a versatility in your shot creation, if
Speaker 1: you have the ability to be like, hey, this isn't working,
Speaker 1: let's try this instead, that to me is something that
Speaker 1: makes a team more resilient when we get into postseason.
Speaker 1: We will when we get to our playoff previews, talk
Speaker 1: about which teams and players I expect to play better
Speaker 1: and worse when we get to that Pointge didn't want
Speaker 1: to hit it in today's mail bag. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all we have for today. As always, a sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting the show. I have a scheduling conflicts,
Speaker 1: and we're no no longer going live after Lakers Warriors
Speaker 1: tomorrow night, but I will be breaking that game down
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning. Uh. Probably gonna hit Nix Kings as
Speaker 1: well on Sunday morning, so keep an eye on the feeds.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys. Then the volume