Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. We are live on AMPS,
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Speaker 1: continuing our player rankings today with number eighteen, seventeen, and sixteen.
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Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: number eighteen is one of my all time favorite players,
Speaker 1: Paul George. Now again, every single time I say something
Speaker 1: like this, I always want to qualify it with I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm an NBA player, don't think I'm particularly close.
Speaker 1: I have way too much respect for NBA players and
Speaker 1: what they've accomplished making it to that level. So when
Speaker 1: I talk about my game like this. It's never intended
Speaker 1: to be like that. It's just the way I like
Speaker 1: to talk about basketball. This version of myself right now
Speaker 1: here in my early thirties. The player that I try
Speaker 1: to be like the most is Paul George. I'm like
Speaker 1: completely obsessed with his Fluidity is the word that I
Speaker 1: like to use to describe him. Fluidity to me, has
Speaker 1: to do with the basketball concept of energy transfer. It's
Speaker 1: getting the basketball from a dribble combination or a move
Speaker 1: some sort of footwork up into a jump shot. And
Speaker 1: the hardest part of that type of transfer that move
Speaker 1: is getting the ball to the rim. And the only
Speaker 1: way to get it there is you have to have
Speaker 1: a fluidity with the basketball, meaning you have to be
Speaker 1: so sharp with your handle that as you go from
Speaker 1: that crossover. Let's just use crossover as an example. Could
Speaker 1: be anything. It could be an in and out dribble
Speaker 1: between the legs, behind the back, step back, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But let's say in this crossover dribble, getting ball to
Speaker 1: flow directly into the shooting pocket and up into the
Speaker 1: shot without having any sort of hitch, Because a hitch
Speaker 1: breaks that energy transfer and causes you to lose power,
Speaker 1: which makes it harder to get the ball to the rim.
Speaker 1: So energy transfer is the first big part there in
Speaker 1: that fluidity, then there is the power in your legs.
Speaker 1: I always joke with the young players that I work
Speaker 1: with that we focus so much on dunking, but the
Speaker 1: number one thing you'll need leg strength for is having
Speaker 1: the ability to get to your spots and not lose
Speaker 1: power along the way. If I do a crossover step
Speaker 1: back move and I just push hard off my right
Speaker 1: foot and I have to stick my left foot out
Speaker 1: to stop my side to side energy to get myself
Speaker 1: to go straight up and down and to get the
Speaker 1: lift I need out of that shot to get the
Speaker 1: ball to the rim, there's a huge leg strength element.
Speaker 1: So leg strength and fluidity are the two most important
Speaker 1: parts of getting that energy transferred from the dribble combination
Speaker 1: to the top of the shot. I don't think there's anybody,
Speaker 1: or as in terms of a wing, a guy who
Speaker 1: plays at a similar size that is better at doing
Speaker 1: that energy transfer into a pull up jump shot than
Speaker 1: Paul George. I think his ability to get to jump
Speaker 1: shots out of dribble combinations is straight up beautiful basketball,
Speaker 1: and that is why he is one of my favorite players.
Speaker 1: That's why I try so hard to replicate him in
Speaker 1: my own drills and work to try to build that
Speaker 1: into my own game. And I think that's a big
Speaker 1: part of why he's so popular with young basketball players
Speaker 1: around the entire basketball community. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people were surprised at the NBA Draft at how many
Speaker 1: people said Paul George was their favorite player. Famously, Brandon
Speaker 1: Miller said that, and again, I think that's a big
Speaker 1: part of that. Paul George, to me, represents a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of the specific skill traits that basketball
Speaker 1: players strive for, and that's why I'm such a huge
Speaker 1: fan of his now. He would be a lot higher
Speaker 1: on this list if it wasn't for his lack of availability.
Speaker 1: He missed the playoffs last year, and he missed sixty
Speaker 1: one games the year before that, which in large part
Speaker 1: led to them missing the playoffs entirely taking that tough
Speaker 1: loss in the play in tournament. This year, though, in
Speaker 1: terms of production, still as good as he's ever been
Speaker 1: twenty four to six and five on fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, played in fifty six games, but missed the
Speaker 1: final nine games of the regular season and missed the
Speaker 1: entire playoff run. So again, that's why I look at
Speaker 1: Paul George as a guy that is, you know, at
Speaker 1: his very best, closer to that ten to fifteen range,
Speaker 1: but we're dropping him here as a result of availability.
Speaker 1: He did have a very balanced creation season. One point
Speaker 1: zero four points per possession and pick and roll that's
Speaker 1: seventy third percentile, one point zero seven points per possession
Speaker 1: in ISO that's seventy fourth percentile, one point zero seven
Speaker 1: points per possession in the post, sixty third percentile, so
Speaker 1: well over a point per possession in every single static
Speaker 1: half court shot creation situation. He also was one point
Speaker 1: one eight points per possession in spot up situations. That's excellent.
Speaker 1: That's in the top tier that in the NBA. All
Speaker 1: super impressive considering he didn't shoot the ball exceptionally well.
Speaker 1: For all of the talk that I just all of
Speaker 1: the things that I just said about Paul George's fluidity,
Speaker 1: he didn't actually shoot great percentages relative to his fear
Speaker 1: appears at pull up jump shots, So like thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent on pull up jumpers, forty seven percent when you
Speaker 1: wait that for threes. Again, Kevin Durant best in the
Speaker 1: world at it shoots him at about fifty five percent, right,
Speaker 1: So a big part of that though, and this is
Speaker 1: something that I think needs to be considered here. Paul
Speaker 1: George takes a lot of really tough pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: And one of the advantages when you're Kevin Durant is like,
Speaker 1: there's no really, there's not really much of There's not
Speaker 1: really such thing as a tough jump shot for him.
Speaker 1: He's so damn tall that even tougher jump shots for
Speaker 1: him are easy, right, And Paul George is more standard
Speaker 1: in terms of the measurables for a wing, like when
Speaker 1: he's going into a random environment, like if he's going
Speaker 1: on the road to play Brooklyn and he's going against
Speaker 1: Mikale Bridges mcale Bridges, he's not given up. He's not
Speaker 1: that doesn't have much of a physical advantage there. So
Speaker 1: he goes down to New Orleans and Herb Jones is
Speaker 1: guarding him, doesn't have much of a physical advantage there.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of like average size, so to speak,
Speaker 1: at his position, And so when he takes a lot
Speaker 1: of those really really tough, contested pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: that actually kind of nukes his efficiency. He took four
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three pull up jump shots this year.
Speaker 1: That was his most common shot type by far. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, that was forty three percent of
Speaker 1: his attempts overall. I think it's kind of a curse
Speaker 1: of his skill set, and this is something that I
Speaker 1: personally have to fight all the time because I obviously
Speaker 1: just playing in pick up runs and men's leagues in Tucson,
Speaker 1: Like I don't there's maybe ten college level players that
Speaker 1: in the entire city at any given moment, which means
Speaker 1: he might have two or three of them at any
Speaker 1: given run. And so as a result of that, like
Speaker 1: I can be lazy sometimes and I can just take
Speaker 1: a step back three really whenever I want, because it's easy.
Speaker 1: I can just get to it whenever I want. But
Speaker 1: the reality is is like I've better served to be
Speaker 1: more physically aggressive Because'm bigger and stronger than everybody. Right,
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way I look at it. With
Speaker 1: Paul George. It's almost like he's cursed by his own
Speaker 1: skill set. He's so damn talented and so damn good
Speaker 1: at taking and making those tough shots. Like, again, thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent seems low, but when you look at the
Speaker 1: shot quality. I mean, he's hitting thirty eight percent are
Speaker 1: really tough shots, and that goes to show you how
Speaker 1: incredibly skilled he is. And so I think that's the
Speaker 1: thing that he's been fighting for the most part over
Speaker 1: the course of the last half decade. Paul George is
Speaker 1: at his best when he goes to the rim first.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the twenty twenty one playoff run,
Speaker 1: which was kind of his breakout point, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to in a minute, he was getting to the rim
Speaker 1: and finishing in the restricted area three times a game,
Speaker 1: and that was a huge part of what drove his
Speaker 1: big breakout playoff run, right, And so that's always the
Speaker 1: curse with Paul George. I believe he's capable of being
Speaker 1: as efficient as the top guys in the league at
Speaker 1: his position if he kind of tweaked his shot selection
Speaker 1: even a little bit more. But again, despite going thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent on pull of jump shots, he's still at
Speaker 1: a fifty nine percent true shooting this year. A big
Speaker 1: part of that was his incredible spot up shooting, like
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, and then he also got to
Speaker 1: the rim a good amount this year. Two point five
Speaker 1: makes in the restricted area per game sixty nine percent there,
Speaker 1: which is excellent. Also drew a good amount of fouls,
Speaker 1: so he was bolstering his efficiency with all of those
Speaker 1: little things that bolster efficiency. And so if you can
Speaker 1: kind of tweak instead of forty three percent of his
Speaker 1: attempts being pull up jump shots, getting that down to
Speaker 1: thirty five percent, trying to get more advantage situations, attacking
Speaker 1: the basket more, turning his back to the basket, and
Speaker 1: attacking out of the post more. I think those are
Speaker 1: ways that he can bump up into that because like
Speaker 1: all the best pull up jump shooters in the league
Speaker 1: are up above sixty percent truth shooting, like even Devin
Speaker 1: Booker's up above sixty percent true shooting, and Paul George
Speaker 1: has actually never had a season above sixty percent truugh shooting.
Speaker 1: And so I think that is the next step for
Speaker 1: him is just kind of tightening up his shot selection
Speaker 1: a bit. Now. The twenty twenty bubble was a low
Speaker 1: point for Paul George. He was barely getting to the
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, he got to the rim
Speaker 1: less than two times to less than two makes in
Speaker 1: the restricted area per game. That season really fell apart
Speaker 1: in the Denver series in particular, lost his confidence, but
Speaker 1: then it clicked for him. And again, this is why
Speaker 1: I always tell you guys, don't define a basketball based
Speaker 1: a basketball player based on two weeks worth of games.
Speaker 1: That's what I've been telling you about Jaylen Brown. That's
Speaker 1: what I told you about Kevin Durant last year. Right
Speaker 1: after the twenty twenty low point for Paul George in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one was his best playoff run by a mile.
Speaker 1: Like I said, he started prioritizing getting to the rim
Speaker 1: first three makes per game in the restricted area. And
Speaker 1: it again, it's why is it so important to get
Speaker 1: to the rim first? When that is your bread and
Speaker 1: butter and your pull up jump shot is a counter.
Speaker 1: You'll notice defenders will be on their heels versus on
Speaker 1: their toes. Now, imagine I'm guarding you and you are
Speaker 1: prioritizing pull up jump shots and you're taking you know,
Speaker 1: half your shots off the jibble like that. In my
Speaker 1: defensive stance, I'm gonna be up on my toes and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be forward, and I'm gonna be leaning and
Speaker 1: getting my arm into your shooting pocket to try to
Speaker 1: disrupt that energy transfer. Like we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: Right now, if you're getting to the rim a lot
Speaker 1: more and you're only taking a pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: on a third of your possessions, now I'm probably gonna
Speaker 1: be guarding more back in my stance, a little bit
Speaker 1: ready to take quick retreat steps rather than having to
Speaker 1: quick lunge forward to contest a pull up jump shot.
Speaker 1: Now when I'm on my heels and I'm further back,
Speaker 1: when you do take a pull up jump shot, suddenly
Speaker 1: that really tough jump shot that you're taking off the
Speaker 1: dribble becomes a much easier jump shot because the defender's
Speaker 1: not up in your shooting pocket. I would venture to
Speaker 1: guess if you actually sorted through all of Paul George's
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots and looked at quality, the ones
Speaker 1: where he has good separation, I bet you he shoots
Speaker 1: over fifty percent on, and then the ones where he
Speaker 1: doesn't get great super separation, he's probably in the low thirties.
Speaker 1: And that probably dictates where his percentage lies there kind
Speaker 1: of firmly in the middle, right. And so that's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to attack the rim first. You keep
Speaker 1: defenders on your heels, on their heels and you make
Speaker 1: it so that you can get to your pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot at a higher quality in higher quality situations.
Speaker 1: But that rim first approach led to his best playoff
Speaker 1: run ever twenty nine nine four fifty eight per century
Speaker 1: shooting basically knocked out the one seed Jazz, the one
Speaker 1: seed Jazz by himself. They lost in six in the
Speaker 1: Conference finals, and in that series was the Deandrayton game
Speaker 1: winner in Game two that stole a game that the
Speaker 1: Clippers were in good position to win. So he came
Speaker 1: very very close to making it to the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: without Kawhi Leonard. That was his best playoff run ever,
Speaker 1: right after his ugliest playoff moment ever. And the unfortunate
Speaker 1: thing is we just haven't seen him in the playoffs
Speaker 1: since then because of his injury history, so we haven't
Speaker 1: really seen him have an opportunity to demonstrate that he
Speaker 1: can do that consistently. Lastly, Paul George is still capable
Speaker 1: of being an outstanding defensive players, not what he used
Speaker 1: to be a few years ago. He was in the
Speaker 1: top tier of perimeter defenders, but there's been some drop
Speaker 1: off there. However, in a playoff series, you're never worried
Speaker 1: about Paul George, He's going to be in above average,
Speaker 1: a huge positive on that the ball which has to
Speaker 1: be factored in here. You're not gonna be losing that matchup.
Speaker 1: So in summary, he's probably in the second tier of
Speaker 1: three level scores in the NBA. Main thing there is
Speaker 1: just bumping up his efficiency a little bit, and his
Speaker 1: overall volume is typically around twenty four points per game.
Speaker 1: Obviously the best guys are around twenty seven to twenty
Speaker 1: eight points a game. Right. He's also an outstanding off
Speaker 1: ball player, knocks down, catch and shoot threes and attacks
Speaker 1: well with an advantage, and a very good defensive player.
Speaker 1: And the big downside here is his availability. Hasn't played
Speaker 1: a playoff game in over two years, which is what
Speaker 1: keeps him lower on the list at this point. For instance,
Speaker 1: the guy I had ahead him that we're about to
Speaker 1: talk about, Jaylen Brown. I actually think in a healthy
Speaker 1: playoff situation, I'd take Paul George over Jalen Brown. But
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown plays in a million games every year and
Speaker 1: is always available in the postseason, so that has to
Speaker 1: be a difference maker here because once again Paul George
Speaker 1: was unavailable this year and Jalen Brown wasn't he was available,
Speaker 1: and that has to factor in so number seventeen. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown recap career high twenty seven points, career high seven rebounds,
Speaker 1: three and a half assists per game, which matched his
Speaker 1: career high. He was really good for two rounds in
Speaker 1: the NBA Playoffs. Through the first two rounds against Atlanta
Speaker 1: and Philly, averaged twenty five points per game, shot fifty
Speaker 1: four percent from the field and forty seven percent from three.
Speaker 1: But then he completely fell apart in the Miami Heat series.
Speaker 1: Averaged nineteen points per game. In that series, he was
Speaker 1: seven for forty three from three. I spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time I had more turnovers than assists and kind
Speaker 1: of just kind of fell apart, lost his mojo, lost
Speaker 1: his confidence. But I spent a lot of time today
Speaker 1: in particular, diving into that series and trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what specifically went wrong for Jalen Brown. And we
Speaker 1: are going to get to that in a few minutes
Speaker 1: because it was different than what I expected on rewatch,
Speaker 1: But I want to spend some time talking more about
Speaker 1: Jayalen Brown's positive Before that, there were only five players
Speaker 1: in the entire league this year that played in at
Speaker 1: least sixty games, scored at least twenty six points per game,
Speaker 1: grabbed at least six rebounds per game, and dished out
Speaker 1: at least three assists per game. Again, that's not a
Speaker 1: crazy barrier like basement level, right, twenty six six and three,
Speaker 1: So that's that's pretty that's that's below those markers for
Speaker 1: most of the top players in the league. So twenty
Speaker 1: six six and three and just playing over play in
Speaker 1: less than three fourths of the games, playing sixty of
Speaker 1: eighty two games, that's a very low bar Five guys
Speaker 1: did that. So again, as we're talking about the supermacs here,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to what you're getting, and again,
Speaker 1: don't remember, don't forget that he was great through the
Speaker 1: first two rounds of this year's playoffs, and he was
Speaker 1: great for the most part in last year's playoffs when
Speaker 1: they were two wins away from the title. So take
Speaker 1: away that little two week disaster against Miami. He's been
Speaker 1: one of the most reliable and productive guys in the
Speaker 1: whole league. And that's why he deserves the amount of
Speaker 1: money that he makes. That's why he's a definitive top
Speaker 1: twenty player. Even with the weaknesses that he has, so
Speaker 1: don't let two weeks of bad basketball overshadow that. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the Miami Heat series. Really, I thought
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat series, upon rewatch, exposed his inefficiencies as
Speaker 1: an on ball creator. Now, during the regular season, he
Speaker 1: was decent in pick and roll one point zero three
Speaker 1: points per possession sixty sixth percentile, so little above average.
Speaker 1: Not so much in ISO in post up situation zero
Speaker 1: point eighty eight points per io in the regular season.
Speaker 1: That's thirty ninth percentile. Zero point nine points per post
Speaker 1: up in the regular season, that's thirtieth percentile. Remember when
Speaker 1: I give you points per possession data, I'm giving that
Speaker 1: including passes. Most of his success as a basketball player
Speaker 1: right now comes in transition and in spot up situations.
Speaker 1: Transition was his most common playtype. Jalen Brown scored four
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety five points this year just in transition.
Speaker 1: That was third most in the entire NBA. Little trivia
Speaker 1: for you guys, who do you think one ahead of him?
Speaker 1: Number one's obvious, Yannis. Who do you think was second?
Speaker 1: The answer is Shay Gilges Alexander. But and Shay continues
Speaker 1: to just have a bunch of wild stats that don't
Speaker 1: even make sense. But again, the third best transition threat
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA, and then spot up was actually
Speaker 1: his second most common play type. He was super aggressive
Speaker 1: off the catch, especially driving closeouts. Three hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two points scored in spot up situations that ranked twentieth
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA this season. So again, even though
Speaker 1: the production is fantastic, the majority of it is coming
Speaker 1: in advantage situations. Transition is an advantage situation and spotting
Speaker 1: up is an advantage situation. In the Miami Series, Miami
Speaker 1: really shut off his transition opportunities and his jumper failed him,
Speaker 1: so the two easiest baskets that he was getting were
Speaker 1: taken away. To give you an idea, in the regular season,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown averaged seven point four points per game in transition.
Speaker 1: The heat held him to four, so almost half that.
Speaker 1: In the regular season, Jalen had a forty nine percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers. In
Speaker 1: the Miami series, he went just seven for twenty seven
Speaker 1: on catch and shoot threes, including just or ketch and
Speaker 1: shoot jumpers, including just four for twenty four on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes. That's just thirty three point three percent
Speaker 1: an effective field goal percentage. So he lost about half
Speaker 1: of his transition production and he lost about a third
Speaker 1: of his spot up efficiency. And when you took those
Speaker 1: two things away, suddenly the only way he could impact
Speaker 1: the game was in the half court offensively, attacking his
Speaker 1: set defense right, and especially since his defensive commitment and
Speaker 1: production has declined, when that wasn't going well for him,
Speaker 1: those half court set situations, it was a big problem.
Speaker 1: Early in the series, Miami went with small guards on
Speaker 1: him to try to attack his handle, a lot of
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent, Kyle Lowry. He had six turnovers in the
Speaker 1: first game, and then in Game seven, I thought Eric
Speaker 1: Spolster did something really smart. He ended up putting Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler on him from the opening tip, and he just
Speaker 1: sapped him of confidence. He had eight turnovers in the game,
Speaker 1: a lot of just like Jalen Brown trying to drive
Speaker 1: to the left and he you know, we'll talk more
Speaker 1: about his handle in a second, but he's just not
Speaker 1: really good at protecting the ball right now, and so
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler would just reach around the backside of him
Speaker 1: and swat the ball away, and then you could just
Speaker 1: see like it just deflated Jalen Brown. And I think
Speaker 1: those things are connected in the shot result department. Like
Speaker 1: these four for twenty four on catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: He was one for six on wide open threes and
Speaker 1: the defender was at least six feet away. And this
Speaker 1: is a guy who was an outstanding shooter in the
Speaker 1: regular season. He shot over forty percent on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots, you know, forty nine percent effective fielgal percentage
Speaker 1: on catching shoe jumper. So he's a good jump shooter
Speaker 1: who couldn't make a shot against Miami. And I think
Speaker 1: a big part of that was confidence. I will always
Speaker 1: say that feeling good about yourself is just as important
Speaker 1: a part of the game of basketball as anything else. Confidence, rhythm, flow,
Speaker 1: all these intangible things they do matter. I know that
Speaker 1: all of the analytics guys don't like to pretend those
Speaker 1: things exist, but they do. And anybody who's played the
Speaker 1: game of basketball knows that that stuff really matters. And
Speaker 1: Jalen lost confidence as a result of the way Miami
Speaker 1: was guarding him, and then he started to miss his
Speaker 1: easy shots. They took away those transition dunks and easy
Speaker 1: baskets that helped him gain his confidence, and that's where
Speaker 1: he fell apart. And this is where the band like
Speaker 1: in those like static situation, static situations in the half court.
Speaker 1: That is where his ball handling became an issue. Now,
Speaker 1: when I watched Jalen Brown play, I think ball handling
Speaker 1: is more complicated than people think. I don't think Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown doesn't have control over the basketball. Like I bet
Speaker 1: you if you asked Jalen Brown to do a ball
Speaker 1: handling drill, he's gonna look like he's got great control
Speaker 1: over the basketball. The main flaw I was seeing with
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown was exposing the basketball. Now one of the
Speaker 1: most important parts I talk about this with my young players.
Speaker 1: We do a ball pressure drill every single every single
Speaker 1: day now in practice when we do our early morning
Speaker 1: training sessions. And what I tell the bigger guys is
Speaker 1: is like identify your advantage. Like if you're a quicker player,
Speaker 1: then you want to go around people and use your speed.
Speaker 1: But if you're a bigger player and you are exposing
Speaker 1: the ball in front of you and trying to go
Speaker 1: around people, the smaller guys just going to reach in
Speaker 1: and take the basketball away from you. If you're a
Speaker 1: bigger player, you have to protect the basketball. You have
Speaker 1: to turn your body and it's almost like a full
Speaker 1: court post up. Remember Andre Miller. You see Chris Paul
Speaker 1: do this a lot to this day. When you like
Speaker 1: the players that don't have a quickness advantage, they just
Speaker 1: protect the basketball. That's all they do. They just turn
Speaker 1: their back and they kind of do a full court
Speaker 1: post up up the floor kind of spin and spinning
Speaker 1: back and forth to where they get to to where
Speaker 1: they get to a spot where they can do something
Speaker 1: within the offense. And what's great about Jaylen Brown is
Speaker 1: he has such a physical advantage over everybody, like you
Speaker 1: should never be able to get away with putting Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent on Jalen Brown or Kyle Lowry on Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: Now in his defense, Boston in general, and this falls
Speaker 1: on Joe Mizula not do a very good job of
Speaker 1: setting up Jalen and Jason for success in spacing situations.
Speaker 1: Miami is so good at clearing the side and just
Speaker 1: giving Jimmy Butler all the space in the world to
Speaker 1: go to work. And that was part of the issue.
Speaker 1: Even when Jalen Brown did get by his man, there's
Speaker 1: Miami defenders digging down on him. And again, it's not
Speaker 1: that he's losing control of the basketball. It's guys swatting
Speaker 1: down at the basketball, Jimmy Butler reaching from behind, it's
Speaker 1: the gay Vincent and Kyle Lowry digging, digging at the
Speaker 1: ball from down load. That's where he's losing control of
Speaker 1: the basketball. And so I think for Jalen Brown, it's
Speaker 1: a couple of different things. It's seeing the floor better,
Speaker 1: so knowing when not to drive, because sometimes it's like
Speaker 1: there's not really an advantage to be gained, because even
Speaker 1: if you beat your man, you're just getting into traffic.
Speaker 1: And even if there's a pass available for you there,
Speaker 1: everyone's diving at the basketball. There's usually uncalled fouls in
Speaker 1: those situations because the refs can't see anything and you're
Speaker 1: just gonna end up turning the basketball over. So number
Speaker 1: one is just be more deliberate about when to attack.
Speaker 1: And then number two is use your physical advantages. You're
Speaker 1: a bigger and stronger than just about every guy that
Speaker 1: plays your position, and certainly a very good athlete, and
Speaker 1: so using that as he's a very strong player too.
Speaker 1: Turn your back, turn your back and protect the basketball.
Speaker 1: Gave Vincent's on you clear the damn side, get the
Speaker 1: ball in your left hand, work off the bounce by
Speaker 1: bumping Gabe off until you get to a spot where
Speaker 1: you can make something happen. And I think, again, he's
Speaker 1: too talented to not eventually figure this stuff out. He's
Speaker 1: too good of a shooter. He's got a lot more
Speaker 1: of that creative shot making ability even than Jason Tatum does.
Speaker 1: That's why he was over forty percent on pull of
Speaker 1: jumpers during the regular season. He was lights out for
Speaker 1: two rounds of the playoffs this year, and really damn
Speaker 1: good for four rounds last year. It was just a
Speaker 1: perfect storm that led to a bad series, a really
Speaker 1: well coached team that was taking away his easy opportunities.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler bam out of Bio and Eric Spolser kind
Speaker 1: of sapping him of his confidence and leading him to
Speaker 1: even struggling easy opportunities. And then he had to lean
Speaker 1: heavily on his weakness, which is to at a half
Speaker 1: court shot creation that will get developed in time. He's
Speaker 1: too talented, he's still young. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, and I think he's going to be a
Speaker 1: perennial All NBA guy. Now in insummation, he's one of
Speaker 1: the most reliable and productive stars in the league. Again,
Speaker 1: only five players went for twenty six, six and three
Speaker 1: in the last and played at least sixty games this year.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown was one of those five. That's why he
Speaker 1: made second team All NBA this year. That's why voters
Speaker 1: considered him a top ten player in the regular season
Speaker 1: this year. He's also one of the very best transition
Speaker 1: weapons in the entire NBA. And he's one of the
Speaker 1: best athletes in the NBA, which brings me to my
Speaker 1: final point. Jalen just like every Celtic, declined as a
Speaker 1: defensive player this season. It was really the main reason
Speaker 1: they didn't win the championship or have at least a
Speaker 1: better chance to than they ended up with. He has
Speaker 1: the athletic tools to be one of the very best
Speaker 1: and most versatile defenders in the NBA. If he wants
Speaker 1: to be a perennial All NBA player, if he wants
Speaker 1: to be a guy that's making second team third team
Speaker 1: every year, he has to recommit himself to the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. All right, Number sixteen, a guy
Speaker 1: that I still don't think people realize how good he is.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray first season back from a major injury is
Speaker 1: always a bit uneven anybody who suffered a lower extremity injury.
Speaker 1: I broke my foot once, so I have not the
Speaker 1: same type of rehab length, but I have a similar
Speaker 1: kind of experience. I didn't trust my foot to even
Speaker 1: plant on, even when it was healthy. I didn't trust
Speaker 1: it for a long time, and that sucks because in
Speaker 1: that particular season, I was like awful in non conference play,
Speaker 1: and then in conference play I ended up making an
Speaker 1: All conference team. So I played much better as soon
Speaker 1: as I kind of clicked into form, as I kind
Speaker 1: of trusted my foot again. Imagine you had surgery. I
Speaker 1: just walked around in a boot for a couple months.
Speaker 1: Imagine you were in surgery, and not only that, you
Speaker 1: barely moved for months as part of your initial phase
Speaker 1: of your healing. Then you go through this slow, painstaking
Speaker 1: rehab and you're finally back. Obviously there's gonna be hesitation.
Speaker 1: Obviously there's gonna be a lack of trust. That's an
Speaker 1: important part of the recovery process, and that's why I
Speaker 1: think Kay Thompson had a much better regular season this
Speaker 1: year than he did the previous year. It's not exactly
Speaker 1: uncommon when you see guys like Kevin Durant just step
Speaker 1: onto the court after a serious injury and look great.
Speaker 1: That's really rare, and that's kind of what makes Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant an alien. But in sixty five games played in
Speaker 1: this regular season, Jamal averaged twenty four and six fifty
Speaker 1: seven percent true shooting. But he had twenty five plus
Speaker 1: points eighteen times, so it was clear that the ceiling
Speaker 1: was in there. He was just working through the rust
Speaker 1: and building that confidence in his knee. But then he
Speaker 1: goes up a huge level in the playoffs. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: in this playoff run average twenty six, six and seven
Speaker 1: on fifty nine percent true shooting. In a four game
Speaker 1: sweep of the Lakers, he averaged thirty three points, six rebounds,
Speaker 1: five assists on sixty five percent true shooting, including a
Speaker 1: bunch of really big shots in fourth quarters of those
Speaker 1: games to help put the Lakers away. Then he ends
Speaker 1: the season definitively as the second best player on a
Speaker 1: team that hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and that is
Speaker 1: why he deserves to be up as high on this
Speaker 1: list as he is. Winning matters to me and it
Speaker 1: should matter to all of you. It's the reason we
Speaker 1: play this game, and that is why I have Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray as high as I do. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure we reward players who win basketball games. Only three
Speaker 1: players in the entire NBA playoff field this season averaged
Speaker 1: twenty five to five and seven. Only three Jamal Murray's
Speaker 1: teammate Nicole Jokich and Daron Fox, who did it in
Speaker 1: just one series, so twenty five to five and seven.
Speaker 1: When it comes to playmaking and scoring, there aren't many
Speaker 1: players who who produced as well as Jamal Murray does
Speaker 1: on the playoff stage, and he was just as good
Speaker 1: in the bubble. But it really has been a revelation.
Speaker 1: Now we can argue about what Jamal Murray actually is,
Speaker 1: and he will need to be a consistently great regular
Speaker 1: season player to move higher on this list, But simply
Speaker 1: looking at this year's postseason, he produced an impacted winning
Speaker 1: at a superstar level that has to be acknowledged just
Speaker 1: within this off this postseason, if I told you a
Speaker 1: player averaged twenty six, six and seven on fifty nine
Speaker 1: percent true shooting and won the NBA Championship, you'd be
Speaker 1: thinking a lot of big name guards and you'd be
Speaker 1: calling that dude to superstar. That's what Jamal Murray did,
Speaker 1: and again he has to do it in the regular
Speaker 1: season to like truly get recognized at that level. But
Speaker 1: I think he's going to the dude came off a
Speaker 1: knee injury. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he
Speaker 1: averaged twenty three, five and seven this year. It's completely
Speaker 1: on the table. And so that's why I don't think
Speaker 1: he can be any lower than sixteenth on my list.
Speaker 1: We have to acknowledge the winning the winning of an
Speaker 1: NBA championship, Jamal Murrady's half court shot creation in the
Speaker 1: playoffs this year was outrageously good. He ran three hundred
Speaker 1: and nineteen pick and rolls leading to three hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy four points. That is one point one to seven
Speaker 1: points per possession. That was first place out of seventeen
Speaker 1: players in the playoffs this year to run at least
Speaker 1: one hundred pick and roles. Now, of course, he's running
Speaker 1: it with the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic.
Speaker 1: That is obviously a factor here, but Jamal is doing
Speaker 1: his part in those situations the shot making is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and even when he's going one on one, he's successful
Speaker 1: ninety five points on ninety three ISOs and post ups.
Speaker 1: Anything over a point per possession and self creation in
Speaker 1: the playoffs is outstanding. And his shot making is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Forty five percent on catching shoot jumpers, forty six percent
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers, fifty percent on floaters. He had
Speaker 1: ten dunks in the postseason run. Again, all superstars. Again,
Speaker 1: if I told you any of the top shooting guards
Speaker 1: in the league did what he did, we'd be calling
Speaker 1: them a top ten player. Now he's not a top
Speaker 1: ten player, and I think he needs to bridge two
Speaker 1: gaps to get there, and who knows if he ever
Speaker 1: will be able to. But in terms of his playoff production,
Speaker 1: that's top tier stuff. First of all, he needs to
Speaker 1: put up regular season numbers close to this level of production.
Speaker 1: Why because that's what his peers do, and if you
Speaker 1: want to be on the same level as your peers,
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to accomplish what they can accomplish.
Speaker 1: He needs to be able to put up regular seasons
Speaker 1: like what Devin Booker does for instance. Secondly, he was
Speaker 1: a problem defensively for Denver in this playoff run, much
Speaker 1: more so than Nikolea. Jokicever was not in a way
Speaker 1: that over like he raised his positive impact. I thought
Speaker 1: that he was a huge positive, But that is the
Speaker 1: next step for him. Devin Booker actually is a perfect
Speaker 1: comp because Devin Booker was kind of similar to him
Speaker 1: as a defensive player early in his career. But now
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's like a legitimately like solid average defen the
Speaker 1: player at his position. And it's just because he fuels
Speaker 1: himself with competitiveness and gives a shit on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor, and especially on a team like Denver
Speaker 1: that has as much firepower as they do, he should
Speaker 1: be able to devote that much in terms of resources
Speaker 1: in that direction. And this is kind of the way
Speaker 1: I look at it. In these lists, everyone is really
Speaker 1: close to each other. Like I told you guys before,
Speaker 1: Number twelve on my list and number thirty nine are
Speaker 1: really not that far apart. But these little things are
Speaker 1: what differentiate. Winning got him up to this level, and
Speaker 1: playoff production got him up to this level. But he's
Speaker 1: got to produce in the regular season and he's got
Speaker 1: to become at least an average defensive player, but kudo's
Speaker 1: the NBA champion Jamal Murray for rising all the way
Speaker 1: up to sixteenth in this year's player rankings. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with fifteen, fourteen and thirteen. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your spport and I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume