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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops to night here at the volume,
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 2: Hope all of you guys are having a great week.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: I say sometimes like we're gonna do a quick show,
Speaker 1: and then I end up rambling for forty forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: But today's actually gonna be a quick show because I
Speaker 1: have somewhere I gotta be in about twenty minutes. All
Speaker 1: we're gonna do is we're gonna hit King's Nuggets and
Speaker 1: then After that, I'm gonna hit some mail bag questions
Speaker 1: from last night's show. Big win for the Kings lying
Speaker 1: on their defense late in the game and the Deer
Speaker 1: and Fox with a bunch of superstar plays down the stretch.
Speaker 2: You guys know the Joe fourget started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to our brand in YouTube channel mean a lot
Speaker 1: to me if you guys will take a second to
Speaker 1: scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: It's also really helpful for us if we leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason lt. That's where I
Speaker 1: put film threads like the film thread I did this
Speaker 1: morning on the King's Nuggets game. And then also that's
Speaker 1: where I put show announcements and last minute at least
Speaker 1: keep ropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so
Speaker 1: we can keep hitting them throughout the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So those guys, you remember when
Speaker 1: we talked to King's sons the other night. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about Sacramento's defensive potential and the fact that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, are they ever going to be some top
Speaker 1: tier defense, No, because NBA history tells us to have
Speaker 1: a top tier defense, you have to have a strong
Speaker 1: defensive front line. And what that means is like your
Speaker 1: four and your five typically need to be long athletes
Speaker 1: that can do a good job of cleaning up messes
Speaker 1: on the back line. It's kind of like a foundational
Speaker 1: part of defense. But the second chunk of that is
Speaker 1: perimeter speed, perimeter athleticism, the ability to cover ground in
Speaker 1: short order, and like, those are the two biggest elements,
Speaker 1: and there are some teams that struggle with both. They
Speaker 1: tend to be the terrible defenses around the league. But
Speaker 1: and if you have both, you have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: be truly exceptional on defense. Teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves right,
Speaker 1: or like the Oklahoma City Thunder or another team great
Speaker 1: combination of perimeter speed and athleticism with guys like chet
Speaker 1: Holmgrin on the back line that can kind of clean
Speaker 1: things up. But like, when you have one of those
Speaker 1: two things, you should still be able to put out
Speaker 1: a really good defense. Like if you're a team like
Speaker 1: the Lakers that doesn't have a ton of perimeter speed
Speaker 1: and athleticism but has a ton of length and size
Speaker 1: on the back line, good defensive players on the back line,
Speaker 1: they should be a better defense, right. Same thing with
Speaker 1: the team like the Sacramento Kings. They may not have
Speaker 1: much in the way of length on the back line
Speaker 1: between Sabonis and Harrison Barnes, but they have a ton
Speaker 1: of perimeter speed. And last night, just their ability to
Speaker 1: double team Nicole jokicch in the post, or double team
Speaker 1: or guard screen and roll actions three on two and
Speaker 1: to rotate out of it without giving up high quality
Speaker 1: shots on the back end was basically the story of
Speaker 1: this game. I said in that show after the Sun's game,
Speaker 1: they were twelve and three. After that game when they
Speaker 1: allow fewer than one hundred and ten points, I give
Speaker 1: you guys all the breakdowns of the different kind of
Speaker 1: scoring resholds and how well the Kings play. And last night,
Speaker 1: once again, now they're thirteen and three. When they hold opponents'
Speaker 1: opponents below one hundred and ten points, it is a
Speaker 1: huge part of what makes the Kings successful. You need
Speaker 1: you have advantages when you go on the basketball court,
Speaker 1: and if you only use your advantage, that's fun for you,
Speaker 1: whether that's playing offense or running up and down the
Speaker 1: floor transition or whatever, you're leaving meat on the bone.
Speaker 1: Your perimeter athleticism is a weapon you can use to
Speaker 1: be a successful defense, and they used it in a
Speaker 1: big way against the Nuggets last night. Now, obviously Nuggets
Speaker 1: down their back court, and there were several sequences where
Speaker 1: they were doubling and recovering, but it's a little different
Speaker 1: chasing a Calling Gillespie off of the three point line,
Speaker 1: chasing a Christian Brown off the three point line, chasing
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson off the three point line right, and even
Speaker 1: saw that where with Aaron Gordon doing a lot more
Speaker 1: off the bounce trying to make stuff happen, and Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior being more aggressive just simply because they're trying
Speaker 1: to pick up the slack of their two backcourt partners,
Speaker 1: the guys that they're running. Most of these drible hand
Speaker 1: offs for those guys just weren't weren't in the game, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's certainly a part of it there. But
Speaker 1: Nicoleolkich is the best player in the world, and these
Speaker 1: are players off of him that have the ability to
Speaker 1: capitalize on that. And they just did a much much
Speaker 1: better job than they've been doing of late. Of engaging
Speaker 1: themselves on the perimeter and then from there the big
Speaker 1: matchup on the other side of the floor. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: had an absolute hell of a time trying to contain
Speaker 1: Darreon Fox at the point of attack, and one of
Speaker 1: the consistent things that the that the Kings were doing
Speaker 1: was they were bringing Michael Porter Junior's man into the action. Now,
Speaker 1: one time it shouldn't happen. It was a complete accident
Speaker 1: where there was a miss three and the Kings go
Speaker 1: up the floor and it's not even really a transition push,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, Michael Porter Junior just kicks up
Speaker 1: Dearon Fox and this was the play where the Kings
Speaker 1: took the lead.
Speaker 2: Late.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior is just guarding Darreon Fox in a
Speaker 1: transition cross match that probably should not have been a
Speaker 1: transition cross match. That means guys are sprinting back in
Speaker 1: transition and just grabbing the nearest player rather than grabbing
Speaker 1: their matchup. That's what ends up causing a cross match.
Speaker 1: And on this possession, Darren Fox has the right side
Speaker 1: of the floor against Michael Porter Junior. The Kings just
Speaker 1: clear the side out and he just takes Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior off the bounce and makes a left handed layup
Speaker 1: off the glass. No help on the weak side, just
Speaker 1: not good defense right. So then the final two possessions
Speaker 1: that Darren Fox scores, they try they start with Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon and when Aaron Gordon's on Darren Fox, the Kings
Speaker 1: bring up of Michael Porter Junior into the action and
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior attempts to hetch. This is a big
Speaker 1: thing that a lot of teams do when teams bring
Speaker 1: a weak defender into a ball screen action. Rather than
Speaker 1: switching to give that defensive player a huge mismatch right
Speaker 1: or blitzing and giving up a rotation, what they'll do
Speaker 1: is they'll hedge and recover. What that means is the
Speaker 1: guy's going to come out above the level of the
Speaker 1: screen and basically cut off the driving lane. The idea
Speaker 1: there is now Darren Fox has to take kind of
Speaker 1: a banana route away from the basket to get around
Speaker 1: the hedge. That buys time for the on ball defender
Speaker 1: to get around to the other side and meet Darn
Speaker 1: Fox on the other side of the screen. In that situation,
Speaker 1: there can sometimes be an opening where the screener slips
Speaker 1: out and then Michael Porter Junior might have to close
Speaker 1: out on whoever the screener is, and we've seen Denver
Speaker 1: have some issues with that in the past, but in
Speaker 1: this case never even got to that point because Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: even though there was a hedge waiting, was jumping way
Speaker 1: up on the high side of the screen and just
Speaker 1: giving Dearon Fox a driving lane on this play, the
Speaker 1: specific one I'm talking about. So Kings go up one
Speaker 1: off of the Daron Fox layup on Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: They go down the other end. I think the very
Speaker 1: next possession was a Michael Porter Junior catch and shoot
Speaker 1: three off of a Yokic double team that he just missed,
Speaker 1: and they go They go back down again. Aaron Gordon's
Speaker 1: guarding Fox. They set the screen with an mpj's man
Speaker 1: MPJ hedges out on the right side of the floor
Speaker 1: taking away that drive to the right, but Aaron god
Speaker 1: sits way up on Darren Fox's right hand side. Now
Speaker 1: you can envision if you've got the the hedger on
Speaker 1: the right hand side and the on ball guy on
Speaker 1: the right hand side, what's happening for Darren Fox, one
Speaker 1: of the fastest left handed players in the world. Boom
Speaker 1: right down in the lane. Nikole Jokicic is sitting at
Speaker 1: the rim, but Darren Fox just stops right in front
Speaker 1: of the rim and pops in a floater. Now they're
Speaker 1: up by three. Then after that the Nuggets call time
Speaker 1: out and they run a sequence for Reggie Jackson coming
Speaker 1: off of an action with Jokic, and like literally, Darren
Speaker 1: Fox makes this unbelievable defensive play where he lunges in
Speaker 1: and swipes the ball for he picks him clean, goes
Speaker 1: down the other end and dunks it.
Speaker 2: Now they're up by five.
Speaker 1: And then after Peyton Watson misses a little transition layup,
Speaker 1: we end up in the exact same configuration, except for
Speaker 1: this time Peyton Watson is on Darren Fox and Darren
Speaker 1: Fox is looking to.
Speaker 2: Go to the left.
Speaker 1: This time, Michael Porter Junior hedges on the left, but
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson sits way up on his left hand side,
Speaker 1: just creating an easy driving lane for Darren Fox, who
Speaker 1: just goes to the right. Kind of snakes across the
Speaker 1: middle of the lane. So Bonus throws like a nice
Speaker 1: little pick on Jokic so that he can't help, and
Speaker 1: then he sings a little easy bank shot off the glass.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny because, like Darren Fox has
Speaker 1: gone up a huge level this year in his scoring
Speaker 1: volume and his efficiency has not taken too much of
Speaker 1: a hand. I think he's still around fifty seven percent
Speaker 1: through shooting, which is really nice. He's added a pull
Speaker 1: up three point shot that has been really reliable for
Speaker 1: him this year. He's added like a little bit of
Speaker 1: a back to the basket game. Like Darren Fox has
Speaker 1: taken elite before our eyes and in my opinion, like
Speaker 1: he's he's encroaching on that superstar tier in a real way.
Speaker 1: But you know, I talk about this a lot on
Speaker 1: the show, like you know, the the really impressive shots,
Speaker 1: the really high level shot making stuff that is only
Speaker 1: a small part of what makes a superstar a superstar.
Speaker 1: Like Darren Fox hit a like a in and out
Speaker 1: cross back between his legs at the top of the
Speaker 1: key in the middle of the fourth quarter on Colin Gillespie.
Speaker 1: Colin Gilespie was like damn near out of the frame
Speaker 1: as he did the pullback dribble and hit the three
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. It was disgusting. It
Speaker 1: was a nasty move. But like that's just one small
Speaker 1: part of being a star that hopefully only makes up
Speaker 1: three or four possessions for you in a game. Ideally,
Speaker 1: what a superstar does is what Jokic does, which is
Speaker 1: just surgical precision finding of the easy shots that take
Speaker 1: place in the game. And what was interesting about that
Speaker 1: is Darren Fox won the game. There was a his
Speaker 1: superstar play was the steal him lunging into the lane
Speaker 1: and swiping or lunging in front of Reggie Jackson and
Speaker 1: swiping the ball free and going down the other way
Speaker 1: for a dunk. All of those other three shots, they
Speaker 1: were just really smart easy basketball. Oh, Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: is gonna garden me here in transition. I'm going right
Speaker 1: by his ass and I'm getting into the basket right.
Speaker 1: Oh Aaron Gordon really good defender, but he's just giving
Speaker 1: me a lane to the right hand side. Okay, I
Speaker 1: look there, how about I just hit the jets for
Speaker 1: a second stop short before I get to Jokic. Make
Speaker 1: this little floater in the lane beautiful? Right When when
Speaker 1: they tried the same thing with Peyton Watson and the
Speaker 1: right handed driving lane is open, uses it to get
Speaker 1: into the lane, likes to get back to his strong
Speaker 1: hand right and he also knows that he has Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson trailing him and sneaking the ball screen back over
Speaker 1: to the other side is a great way to create
Speaker 1: additional separation between you and the on ball defender, gets
Speaker 1: into the lane, gets to a sweet spot with that
Speaker 1: little left handed bank shot and makes it nothing exceptional.
Speaker 1: There no highlight plays from Deer and Fox on the
Speaker 1: offensive end there aside from like I said, the steel
Speaker 1: and dunk. That to me is that next phase of superstardom.
Speaker 1: The guys that are consistently productive and efficient. It is
Speaker 1: a combination of high level shot making, but two thirds
Speaker 1: of it or more is typically locating and identifying the
Speaker 1: easy opportunities that are there in the basketball game. Really
Speaker 1: really impressive performance from Deer and Fox just in general,
Speaker 1: really really impressive performance from the Sacramento Kings, especially on
Speaker 1: the defense end.
Speaker 2: Of the floor. The mold is there.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's not so much about what the
Speaker 1: Kings can do on the high at the high end
Speaker 1: of their potential. It's about can they string together an
Speaker 1: extended stretch for a month and a half of really
Speaker 1: good defense that they can lean back on when they
Speaker 1: get to the later phases of the postseason. To me,
Speaker 1: that's a like I said, it's a it's a check
Speaker 1: that it's a box that you have to check if
Speaker 1: you want to be serious about making a late playoff run.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be keeping an eye on their defense here
Speaker 1: down the stretch on the Nuggets front. Really, the two
Speaker 1: things that I would draw attention to are again the
Speaker 1: bad defense down the stretch to some poor configurations that
Speaker 1: didn't make a ton of sense. Like so to put
Speaker 1: it simply, if I know that there's a hedge, I
Speaker 1: don't need to deny the ball screen because even if
Speaker 1: he drives into the ball screen, he's driving right into
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Jr. Or has to take a banana route
Speaker 1: around him.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So my one job there is not to cut off
Speaker 1: that screening angle. It's to meet Darren Fox on the
Speaker 1: other after he goes around Michael Porter Jr. You can
Speaker 1: actually go underneath the pick in that situation because you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about deeron Fox rising up and
Speaker 1: taking a pull up jump shot because he's running right
Speaker 1: into Michael Porter Junior. So in both of those cases,
Speaker 1: what Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon should have done is
Speaker 1: actually sat back a little bit, knowing that MPJ is
Speaker 1: there in the hedge, and if Daron Fox goes in
Speaker 1: the direction of the screen, you duck under the pick
Speaker 1: and meet him on the other side. If he doesn't
Speaker 1: use the screen and he comes at you, you're sitting
Speaker 1: there waiting for him. And so some poor defensive configuration
Speaker 1: down the stretch, some switches and transition cross matches that
Speaker 1: they probably didn't need to give up a lot. Another
Speaker 1: thing that was causing some problems for the Nuggets and
Speaker 1: this game was the pocket pass to Demonis Sabonis, where
Speaker 1: they weren't tagging the roller because they were staying home.
Speaker 1: Some of that's what the Kings do to you. They'll put,
Speaker 1: you know, Kevin Herder in one corner and Keegan Murray
Speaker 1: in the other, and it's like those are the guys
Speaker 1: you need to tag the roller with. And there's like
Speaker 1: this hesitancy to leave a good shooter in the corner
Speaker 1: to tag the roller. But if Jokic is gonna be
Speaker 1: up at the level of the screen, you have no
Speaker 1: choice but to have somebody in the lane because that
Speaker 1: pocket pass is gonna hit Sabonis and he's just gonna
Speaker 1: have too much of ahead. His team, and Sabona's got
Speaker 1: a bunch of easy baskets on the roll where the
Speaker 1: backside defense wasn't there, and maybe you have to rotate
Speaker 1: to that corner shooter rather than Again, anything's better than
Speaker 1: a wide open dunk for a Sabonis going down the
Speaker 1: lane or when he has too much. I mean, Sabonis
Speaker 1: is not as big as Yokich, but he's strong enough
Speaker 1: that if he gets a little bit of an angle,
Speaker 1: he could kind of bump him and get enough of
Speaker 1: an angle to finish a shot. And then lastly, I
Speaker 1: thought it was another example of something I've talked about
Speaker 1: all year, which is like, the Nuggets are my championship favorite.
Speaker 1: They have the best player in the world, but just
Speaker 1: like anybody else, they can't really afford an injury to
Speaker 1: one of their top five players, because when you go
Speaker 1: from KCP and Jamal Murray to Colin Gillespie or Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson and Christian Brown, it's just a big drop off
Speaker 1: an offensive skill. And you could really see that in
Speaker 1: some of those double team situations with Jokics, where those
Speaker 1: pop around that are taking place on the weak side,
Speaker 1: they're just a little bit slow, They're not as sharp
Speaker 1: you need a really good look for the guy to
Speaker 1: take a shot instead of like a slightly contested look
Speaker 1: which you know that Jamal Murray and CACP will rise
Speaker 1: up and knock down. They both are better at the
Speaker 1: one dribble pull up stuff like just going down a
Speaker 1: level in weak side offense makes it so that you
Speaker 1: can throw multiple bodies at Yokich and get away with it.
Speaker 1: And so it's just something to keep an eye on. Like,
Speaker 1: just like anybody else, the Nuggets can't afford a significant injury.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get out here, let's get to
Speaker 1: these mail bag questions. First question, With Ruy improving more
Speaker 1: minutes this season, what would your five man lineup be
Speaker 1: for the Lakers? I like Ruey offensively alongside the starters,
Speaker 1: but defensively, the team looks mismatched on positions one through three,
Speaker 1: with Reeves being forced to be the point of attack
Speaker 1: defenderd Lo being a bad defender overall, and really struggling
Speaker 1: to guard quicker wings. Love the show and also who
Speaker 1: is your favorite under twenty five player to watch this season? Okay,
Speaker 1: so when it comes to the Lakers, everything's got to
Speaker 1: be matchup dependent because they don't have a traditional you
Speaker 1: know three and D type of guy on the wing
Speaker 1: that they can throw out the other team's best player
Speaker 1: at the opening tip and he can coherently function in
Speaker 1: the offense. Everything has to be matchup dependent, and so
Speaker 1: there will be matchups where it's like, Okay, we can't
Speaker 1: get away with the RUI at the three because we're
Speaker 1: playing you know, Dallas, and we need someone to throw
Speaker 1: at Kyrie Irving. Or we're playing Golden State, we need
Speaker 1: someone to throw at Steph Curry. We're playing Sacramento, we
Speaker 1: need someone to throw a deer and fox. We need
Speaker 1: a quicker guard that can defend on the perimeter. Okay,
Speaker 1: now that might be Max Christie, right, Or this is
Speaker 1: a bigger lineup that doesn't run a ton of off
Speaker 1: ball screening action and that three spot is going to
Speaker 1: be more in a help and recover situation. Okay, ruey
Speaker 1: makes a ton of sense here, Or like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: particular team, we're really struggling with their defense. We need
Speaker 1: to find a way to space them out at a
Speaker 1: little bit better, and we feel like on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the four, maybe we can do more switching
Speaker 1: and just kind of contain the basketball. Okay, maybe Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwiddie is our option here at the three, and it
Speaker 1: all has to be matchup based, and that's where a
Speaker 1: lot of it comes down to Darvin Ham And what
Speaker 1: specifically scares me on that front is like he just
Speaker 1: has a default option to go to Torrean Prince when
Speaker 1: he saw that at the end of the first half
Speaker 1: yesterday against the Jazz, when he takes Ruey out of
Speaker 1: the game, goes to Torreon at the four alongside three guards,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers immediately give up a run. So do
Speaker 1: I trust Darvin to kind of toe that line properly?
Speaker 2: No, not really, but you know.
Speaker 1: It's something that he's gonna have to figure out for
Speaker 1: lack of a better term. And honestly, like this is
Speaker 1: where the Jared Vanderbilt injury is just gonna be the
Speaker 1: biggest swing factor for the Lakers this year. I don't
Speaker 1: think they have any chance to win the title unless
Speaker 1: unless they can get Jared Vanderbilt back into the lineup
Speaker 1: and moving as well as he was before the injury.
Speaker 2: Don't have a ton of time.
Speaker 1: So on the under twenty five player to watch the season,
Speaker 1: I'll say, for me personally, Anthony Edwards, he's just been
Speaker 1: a ton of fun to watch as he's kind of
Speaker 1: figured out and not just how to play in this
Speaker 1: league at his position, but also just some of the
Speaker 1: confidence stuff that we're seeing from him. By Jason Green's
Speaker 1: from Australia, you have the best NBA content.
Speaker 2: Keep it up. Thank you for the kind words. Who
Speaker 2: is your MVP? If you had to vote?
Speaker 1: As of now, I feel like Giannis is getting overlooked
Speaker 1: the season due to the coaching change and distractions going
Speaker 1: on at the Bucks. He is on pace to be
Speaker 1: the first player to average over thirty points per game
Speaker 1: on sixty percent field goals while also averaging over one
Speaker 1: steal in block per game. So I saw the I
Speaker 1: saw the straw pole the other day that had Jokic
Speaker 1: way in the lead, And for the record, I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a gap there. I think that Janis and
Speaker 1: Nikolea Jokic have been the two best players in the
Speaker 1: regular season, and I don't think there's the wrong answer
Speaker 1: either way.
Speaker 2: I would probably.
Speaker 1: Lean Yannis because I think Janis has been cleaning up
Speaker 1: more messes this year, and I think Giannis has brought
Speaker 1: more consistent effort this year than Nikola Jokic, and I
Speaker 1: haven't really thought too much about MVP this year, but
Speaker 1: I see your point, and I would probably lean slightly
Speaker 1: toward Yannis. But I do think that Jokic is every
Speaker 1: bit as much in that equation. And there's one thing
Speaker 1: I saw on Twitter yesterday that I do think is true,
Speaker 1: which is like someone said something a the lines of
Speaker 1: like the media or Jokic has the media and a stronghold,
Speaker 1: and there's some truth there. Like I love Nikol Jokic.
Speaker 1: I think he's the best player in the world by
Speaker 1: like a comfortable margin. I think he's significantly better at
Speaker 1: basketball than Yanni Santana Kumbo personally, even though even though
Speaker 1: I think Giannis may be having a better regular season.
Speaker 1: But there's no doubt that in large part because a
Speaker 1: large portion of the media relies on advanced metrics, like
Speaker 1: these catch all metrics, like they actually believe that to
Speaker 1: be like a significant element in these kinds of discussions.
Speaker 1: I personally disagree, but they do. And so between that
Speaker 1: and just a lot a lot of the momentum that
Speaker 1: was behind Jokic when he was kind of rising in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: There's just a ton of media support for Nikola Jokic.
Speaker 1: It's just a fact, and it's very possible that he
Speaker 1: kind of racks up an unprecedented amount of MVPs because
Speaker 1: of that. He's he's just the perfect type of guy
Speaker 1: to sway the modern MVP voter. But to me, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a toss up. Leans slightly towards Giannis at
Speaker 1: this point in time. Next question, who do you think
Speaker 1: is the perfect starting lineup you could build around Wemby
Speaker 1: kind of like how Denver built for Yokis. So Wendy's
Speaker 1: a little bit on the thin side, so I kind
Speaker 1: of leaned towards a big, strong forward similar to what
Speaker 1: I've been talking about for the Thunder as well. So
Speaker 1: just imagine Aaron Gordon Lori marken In type of archetype
Speaker 1: at the four and then from there, I think having
Speaker 1: a legitimate ball handling on the perimeter that can put
Speaker 1: Wemby into spots as a screen and pop screen and roll.
Speaker 2: Guy is huge.
Speaker 1: And so for instance, like you know, I'm not the
Speaker 1: biggest Trey Young fan in the world, but like it
Speaker 1: actually does make some sense to partner him in San
Speaker 1: Antonio with Victor wemen Yama. Tray still relatively young, is
Speaker 1: the ideal screen and role partner. You can imagine in
Speaker 1: a switching scheme, he would just be able to beat
Speaker 1: those a lot easier than the pick and roll partners
Speaker 1: that Trey Young has had over the years. And then
Speaker 1: if I wanted to craft an achievable defensive role for
Speaker 1: Trey Young, it would be in a system where Victor
Speaker 1: wemen Yama is on the back line. So that's where
Speaker 1: I'd lean in that direction. Next question, what do you
Speaker 1: think was the key to the transformation of the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: this season? Giving that their personnel was similar to last season?
Speaker 1: How did Chris Finch unlock the Rudy and Kat pairing?
Speaker 1: So a couple of different things. Cott Newdy's a big
Speaker 1: part of it, just sticking with the same lineup for
Speaker 1: a lot a long time. The Wolves were actually kind
Speaker 1: of picking up steam towards the end of last season.
Speaker 1: I thought they were one of the most impressive teams
Speaker 1: over the final third on the defensive end of the floor. Now,
Speaker 1: not all of that was with both bigs on the floor,
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of that in there as well.
Speaker 1: Then I thought they gave a good fight to the
Speaker 1: Lakers in the playing game. Who did they kicked the
Speaker 1: shit out of it was the thunder Right, and then
Speaker 1: they had an impressive showing against the Nugget. So I
Speaker 1: think some of this did start last year. But then,
Speaker 1: like I think the second big piece of it that
Speaker 1: just needs to be acknowledged is Anthony Edwards was just
Speaker 1: getting better. Anthony Edwards is a future superstar that is
Speaker 1: on the rise in the league, and he's just a
Speaker 1: lot better than he was at this point in the
Speaker 1: season last year. And that goes a long way towards
Speaker 1: elevating the ceiling of this Timberwolves team. And I think
Speaker 1: just in general, there's been a really good commitment to,
Speaker 1: like a championship level commitment to the details from day
Speaker 1: one of training camp.
Speaker 2: A few more, Hey, Jason may have.
Speaker 1: Already answered this in the past, but do you see
Speaker 1: yourself getting to a production point where you will have
Speaker 1: some of these plays you speak about playing in the
Speaker 1: corner while you talk about them, and when you talk
Speaker 1: about these stats, having a top five list pop up,
Speaker 1: et cetera. I love the show, By the way, I
Speaker 1: haven't learned so much and completely and completely change how
Speaker 1: much or how I watch basketball in the best way. Again,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the kind words and for
Speaker 1: supporting the show. I have told my superiors many times
Speaker 1: that that is a goal of mine to have more
Speaker 1: animations on the screen, graphics, things along those lines. We
Speaker 1: are working on it. It's just the volumes growing really
Speaker 1: fast and we're still figuring out some of that stuff
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. I promise you it will eventually happen.
Speaker 1: We just kind of have to figure it out. There
Speaker 1: is a to give you an idea to have plays
Speaker 1: on the screen. It's a lot more labor intensive than
Speaker 1: you would think, and so we are going to figure
Speaker 1: that out. It's just taking some time. And again, every
Speaker 1: time I have an opportunity to kind of pitch that
Speaker 1: to the higher ups, I do so.
Speaker 2: So in time.
Speaker 1: Again, like I'm sure this show will look markedly different
Speaker 1: from a production standpoint when we get at you know,
Speaker 1: a few years into the future. And we'll see when
Speaker 1: we get there. Thanks question. Hey, Jason, love your videos.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you could explain the Warrior struggles
Speaker 1: with maintaining leads throughout the season. I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: this is a Warrior specific issue, as it happens a
Speaker 1: lot around the league, but seems especially prevalent with Golden
Speaker 1: State throughout the season. How or why is it that
Speaker 1: Golden State can never seem to protect a lead. Thank
Speaker 1: you for all you do and keep up the great work. Again,
Speaker 1: thanks for supporting the show. I really really appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: And as I've said, with all the negativity that I
Speaker 1: see in the comments, sometimes like this stuff just outweighs
Speaker 1: it every single time, and every single time I read
Speaker 1: through the comments, it's always an overwhelmingly positive experience because
Speaker 1: of people like you. So what's interesting is the eye
Speaker 1: test would tell you, like, oh, when Steph can't make
Speaker 1: hero shots, they just don't have another option they can
Speaker 1: go to to score. But the reality is Steph has
Speaker 1: been making so many of the hero shots that they've
Speaker 1: still been pretty good. Offensively, they've been they've been okay
Speaker 1: offensively in the clutch, they've been okay offensively in the
Speaker 1: in the half court setting arding to cleaning the glass
Speaker 1: or hovering around that like ten mark in both of
Speaker 1: those areas. But in general fourth quarter offense, I think
Speaker 1: they're like sixth, which is pretty good. So like the
Speaker 1: offense actually by by points per possession, has been pretty solid.
Speaker 1: It's been the defense they're the very worst fourth quarter
Speaker 1: defense in the league. Like they're just the very worst.
Speaker 1: They give up over one hundred and twenty points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. And so for whatever reason, just like
Speaker 1: we saw last night against the Clippers, their point of
Speaker 1: attack defense falls apart, they end up in rotation and
Speaker 1: they just can't get stops when it matters that that's
Speaker 1: been the big one that has been very clearly evident
Speaker 1: in the numbers as we as we get to the
Speaker 1: end of these games, all right, two more and then
Speaker 1: we're out here. This was just a funny comment from
Speaker 1: a Celtics fan. Wax the net at fifty and not
Speaker 1: a peep as expected. I literally just covered the last
Speaker 1: two Celtics wins against the Hawks and against the Heat.
Speaker 1: I didn't cover the nets because the nets are garbage
Speaker 1: and they just traded away some guys at the deadline.
Speaker 1: They're just not very good anymore. So yeah, like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't cover Thiseltics beating the Nets for the same reason
Speaker 1: I wouldn't cover the Celtics beating the Pistons, but I did.
Speaker 1: Just We've done just a shit ton of Celtics content
Speaker 1: over the last week, and so I encourage you Celtics
Speaker 1: fans to go back and look through the channel and you'll.
Speaker 2: See it there if you look all right.
Speaker 1: Last question, what's the win loss record when Steph is
Speaker 1: pushing and playing hero ball and putting up over thirty shots.
Speaker 1: Curious because it seems like they lose more than they
Speaker 1: win in those situations. Seems Steph is trying to get
Speaker 1: Clutch Player of the Year. So I looked earlier. I
Speaker 1: think they're zero to three when he takes at least
Speaker 1: thirty shots. There are three and eight when he takes
Speaker 1: twenty four or more shots. But I don't think that
Speaker 1: has anything to do with Steph Curry and chasing clutch
Speaker 1: Player of the Year or anything like that, like they
Speaker 1: need him to shoot. They do not have reliable offense
Speaker 1: down the stretch of these games, like Kaminga is. You know,
Speaker 1: Kaminga's got the sky's the limit for Kaminga, but he's
Speaker 1: not a half court surgeon yet. Andrew Wiggins is super inconsistent.
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson is super inconsistent. Brandon Piziemski's a rookie. They
Speaker 1: don't have a guy that they can really go to
Speaker 1: as a secondary option. It's the main reason why I
Speaker 1: don't think this Warriors team has like a big championship opportunity.
Speaker 1: They have a small championship opportunity. They are a long shot,
Speaker 1: just like the Lakers, but I don't view them as
Speaker 1: like a significant championship threat because they lack that secondary
Speaker 1: shot creation. And again, like to me, I think Steph
Speaker 1: putting up a ton of shots is the formula. And
Speaker 1: as I've talked about in the earlier mailback question, it's
Speaker 1: not the offensive end that's been the problem. They've been
Speaker 1: a good offense despite the fact that they don't have
Speaker 1: secondary shot creation, because Steph is still one of the
Speaker 1: very best offensive players in the league. To me, it
Speaker 1: comes down to that defensive end of the floor. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
Speaker 2: We'll be back.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow for forty five minutes to an
Speaker 1: hour with the Nerd Sesh guys, and then we'll get
Speaker 1: out of here for the weekend and then we have
Speaker 1: some special stuff planned for the All Star break.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume