Speaker 1: The volume. The thrill and excitement of March Mania is here.
Speaker 1: In DraftKings Sportsbook, one of America's top rated sportsbook apps,
Speaker 1: is giving new customers a shot to turn five bucks
Speaker 1: into one hundred and fifty dollars instantly in bonus bets
Speaker 1: with any college basketball bet. You could bet on absolutely anything.
Speaker 1: If you want to bet on Yukon or North Carolina,
Speaker 1: fans can get in on this year to bet them
Speaker 1: to win the title, all the way down to teams
Speaker 1: like Stetson and Longwood to win the title. You can
Speaker 1: even bet individual seeds to win the title. You can
Speaker 1: bet anything on DraftKings for the tournament. Download the Draftking
Speaker 1: Sportsbook app and use code hoops. New customers can bet
Speaker 1: five bucks to get one hundred and fifty dollars instantly
Speaker 1: in bonus bets only at Draftking Sportsbook with code hoops.
Speaker 1: That's hops. The Crown is yours gambling problem called one
Speaker 1: eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia is a www
Speaker 1: dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in New York
Speaker 1: called eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text
Speaker 1: hope and Why to four six seven three six nine
Speaker 1: in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling called eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 1: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 1: Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Twenty one plus age
Speaker 1: varies by jurisdiction, Boyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com
Speaker 1: slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and
Speaker 1: responsible gaming resources. All right, olcome to hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible week. We have a super
Speaker 1: fun show for you guys today. We're gonna start with
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics, who are seventeen and four since the
Speaker 1: All Star break. In our nine points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions better on offense than anybody else has been in
Speaker 1: the league. That's the gap between one and two since
Speaker 1: the All Star break, and it's primarily been fueled, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, by a massive leap in play from Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: who's become an incredibly gifted offensive shot creator in this league.
Speaker 1: Added a post up game that just wasn't there last year.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do in that opening segment, after
Speaker 1: we talk some Celtics, We're going to do a film
Speaker 1: session that dives into Jalen Brown's development as a post
Speaker 1: up shot creator. After that, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors in a very important game for
Speaker 1: the ten seed, go into Houston and put any hope
Speaker 1: of them crawling into the playoff picture out of the
Speaker 1: equation by kicking their butts. Houston did a ton of
Speaker 1: switching in that game, and Golden State had a very
Speaker 1: interesting offensive night to beat Houston's switching attack. We've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about how to beat switching over the course
Speaker 1: of the year. I want to dive into on film
Speaker 1: the different ways that Golden State beat houston switching attack.
Speaker 1: After that, we're going to go into a mail bag.
Speaker 1: I've got looks like three major three topics that we're
Speaker 1: going to hit in our mail bag section. You guys
Speaker 1: are the Joe for we gets to subscribe to a
Speaker 1: brand new YouTube channel, so you guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: json lts. You guys don't miss any show announcements as
Speaker 1: well as the film breakdowns that I do from time
Speaker 1: to time on Twitter. Also a podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
Speaker 1: v lev a rating and a review on that front.
Speaker 1: And last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions
Speaker 1: and those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the season. And before we get started,
Speaker 1: if you guys have ever had a frustrating experience buying tickets,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you guys about game time, especially
Speaker 1: this time of year. This time of year is the
Speaker 1: best time to go out and see a basketball game
Speaker 1: because of the intensity of the men's and women's tournaments. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the Final Four is going on up in Phoenix this weekend,
Speaker 1: but we're also about to head into playoff basketball and
Speaker 1: there's nothing like NBA talent playing with real urgency that
Speaker 1: you get to see when we get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: And game time just has an incredible experience. When it
Speaker 1: comes to buying tickets. They have all in pricing that
Speaker 1: shows your total upfront, so you know what you're getting
Speaker 1: yourself into and you know exactly what you going to
Speaker 1: pay before you check out. It's an easy, non convoluted process.
Speaker 1: You can buy tickets in seconds with this view as
Speaker 1: two taps, and one of my favorite features, you can
Speaker 1: actually see what the view from your seat looks like
Speaker 1: before you show up to the arenas you know exactly
Speaker 1: what to expect when you arrive. They also have really
Speaker 1: cool deals that pop up like they're flash deals and
Speaker 1: sponsored deals on tickets for football and basketball, baseball, concerts,
Speaker 1: comedy theater, and more. And with zone deals you can
Speaker 1: pick the section and game Time picks the seats for
Speaker 1: big time saving, So take the guess work out of
Speaker 1: buying tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app,
Speaker 1: create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars
Speaker 1: off your first purchase. Terms apply again, Create an account
Speaker 1: and redeem code hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off.
Speaker 1: Download Game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, they're seventeen and four since the
Speaker 1: All Star break, so the first team to get to
Speaker 1: sixty wins this season. They're averaging since the All Star
Speaker 1: break and astonishing one hundred and twenty seven point five
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions, and again, like I said
Speaker 1: in the intro, that is nine points better than the
Speaker 1: second best offense in the league over that span, which
Speaker 1: is the Indiana Pacers at one hundred and eighteen point
Speaker 1: five points per one hundred posessions. So even as the
Speaker 1: league has gone way more into physicality and letting contact go,
Speaker 1: Boston's offense is actually getting better and better. Here's some
Speaker 1: crazy stats for you guys. So, as I've talked about
Speaker 1: a lot over the course of the season, I really
Speaker 1: wanted Boston to add more versatility to their attack. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we think of them as the best volume three point
Speaker 1: shooting team in the league, right and that's true. That's
Speaker 1: bared out in the statistics and is a big part
Speaker 1: of what they do offensively. But to start the season
Speaker 1: they were getting very little in the paint relative to
Speaker 1: the rest of the league. And there have been several
Speaker 1: specific changes, a lot of them that I was specifically
Speaker 1: calling for during the middle of the season that have
Speaker 1: helped flush out a more versatile attack from Boston, who
Speaker 1: has actually become a very good paint scoring team over
Speaker 1: this span as well. To give you guys some numbers
Speaker 1: before the All Star break, the Celtics made sixteen point
Speaker 1: three threes per one hundred possessions, which obviously was the
Speaker 1: most in the league or over that span. Though they
Speaker 1: were twenty seventh in points in the paint scored per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions post All Star Break, they're actually making
Speaker 1: more threes eighteen point three made threes per one hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: and despite that, they are still all the way up
Speaker 1: from twenty seventh to start the season. They have moved
Speaker 1: all the way up to twelfth post All Star Break
Speaker 1: in points in the paint scored per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: So they've gone from a team that can make a
Speaker 1: lot of threes but can't score in the paint relative
Speaker 1: to the rest of the league to a team that
Speaker 1: makes the most threes, is making even more threes, and
Speaker 1: is now a top twelve paint scoring offense in the
Speaker 1: league over this span. So several key areas where we're
Speaker 1: seeing changes there. First, on the offensive glass, which is
Speaker 1: one of the things I called for in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the season. If you guys remember, they were eighteenth
Speaker 1: in offensive rebound percentage before for the All Star Break.
Speaker 1: Post All Star Break, ninth in offensive rebound percentage. They're
Speaker 1: also showing better shots selection. Pre All Star Break, they
Speaker 1: took only thirty eight point three shot attempts in the
Speaker 1: paint per game and nine point three mid range jump shots. Okay,
Speaker 1: post All Star Break, up to thirty nine point four
Speaker 1: shot attempts in the paint per game and down to
Speaker 1: eight attempts per game in the mid range, So they
Speaker 1: shaved about a shot per game out of the mid
Speaker 1: range and added that to an inside the paint attempt
Speaker 1: They're also taking fewer pull up jumpers in general, they're
Speaker 1: taking twenty four point six per game before the All
Speaker 1: Star Break, twenty three point three per game after the
Speaker 1: All Star Break, and then lastly, they're getting way better
Speaker 1: shots in transition at the rim. So before the All
Speaker 1: Star Break they had just a one to twenty seven
Speaker 1: point eight offensive rating in transition, which ranked fifteenth in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Big thing I noticed on tape there was
Speaker 1: they'd be running up and down the floor for three
Speaker 1: point shots, and they're running a lot more for dunks
Speaker 1: and stuff at the rim. Now post All Star Break
Speaker 1: has moved up from one twenty seven point eight all
Speaker 1: the way to one forty five point four offensive rating
Speaker 1: in transition possessions that is the second best mark in
Speaker 1: the NBA over that span. So really they're doing all
Speaker 1: the same stuff that they've been doing, except there's been
Speaker 1: a little bit more deliberate about getting into the paint
Speaker 1: and they are a crashing the offensive glassmore and running
Speaker 1: in transition for better looks instead of threes in transition.
Speaker 1: That has been the driving force behind Boston becoming a
Speaker 1: better paint scoring team. That's set. There's a specific player
Speaker 1: that's also taken a leap over the course of this span,
Speaker 1: and that is Jalen Brown. Before the All Star Break,
Speaker 1: he averaged twenty two points per game on forty nine
Speaker 1: percent from the field and thirty four percent from three.
Speaker 1: Post All Star Break, Jalen Brown is at twenty seven
Speaker 1: points per game, fifty two percent from the field in
Speaker 1: forty percent from three. He has substantially improved as a
Speaker 1: shot creator year over year last year in self created possessions.
Speaker 1: Again for me, that's ISO's pick and rolls in post ups,
Speaker 1: including passes those possessions. Last year, he was at zero
Speaker 1: point nine to seven to seven points per possession in
Speaker 1: seven hundred possessions this year and well over eight hundred
Speaker 1: he's at one point zero five to two. So he's
Speaker 1: gone from a comfortably below a point per possession to
Speaker 1: comfortably above a point per possession in one season. And
Speaker 1: the main driving force behind that, as I mentioned in
Speaker 1: the intro, is Jalen Brown attacking out of the post.
Speaker 1: He has one hundred and ninety five post ups this year.
Speaker 1: Last year he posted up just fifty one times. In
Speaker 1: those fifty one post ups, last year, he got just
Speaker 1: zero point nine zero points per possession. This year, in
Speaker 1: four times the volume, he's getting one point zero seven
Speaker 1: points per possession including passes out of post ups. That
Speaker 1: ranks thirteenth out of the thirty players around the league
Speaker 1: that have logged at least one hundred and fifty post ups.
Speaker 1: The only non bigs that are ahead of him are Kawhi,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam, Lebron, James de Rosen, and Luka Doncicch. That's it.
Speaker 1: He's ahead of guys like Jimmy Butler, ahead of guys
Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant, Jannisntenne Kumbo, Jason Tatum. He's having a
Speaker 1: very efficient post up scoring season. And so what I
Speaker 1: want to do here is I want to take a
Speaker 1: look at the film and talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: how Jalen Brown has become such a successful post up player.
Speaker 1: And the first example that we're going to look at,
Speaker 1: and I've got four clips to demonstrate this is Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown doing his work early to get deep post position.
Speaker 1: This is a very very important part of post up basketball.
Speaker 1: The closer you get to the rim at the beginning,
Speaker 1: the less bulleyball you have to play when you actually
Speaker 1: get the ball in your hands, which is the hardest
Speaker 1: time to do it, and when there's more contact allowed. So,
Speaker 1: and that's the flip side is there is more contact
Speaker 1: allowed before you catch the basketball, so you can actually
Speaker 1: work harder to fight for position in those situations. Let's
Speaker 1: take a look at some examples, all right. So first
Speaker 1: here we have Jalen Brown working against Roy O'Neil and
Speaker 1: again look at right here, as he's setting this like
Speaker 1: kind of flare screen here for a hawser to come
Speaker 1: off as a shooter on this end, he actually backs
Speaker 1: into O'Neill and starts fighting for position right away. Look
Speaker 1: at that right as he set his feet to try
Speaker 1: to get in Bobo's way, he held his ground and
Speaker 1: fought for a deep catch right underneath the basket. Now
Speaker 1: he's going to take a turnaround fade away over his
Speaker 1: right shoulder. Here. Now, Jalen Brown is an excellent fadeaway
Speaker 1: jump shooter, but this is as easy a fadeaway as
Speaker 1: you can get. Like this is not like fifteen feet
Speaker 1: from the basket, three drop steps, absorbing contact and rising up.
Speaker 1: He did his work early and then on the catch
Speaker 1: he turned and fade and this is what a seven
Speaker 1: or eight foot jump shot. That's an easy jump shot
Speaker 1: for Jalen Brown. So again it looks tough because it's
Speaker 1: a fadeaway jump shot, but because he did his work
Speaker 1: early to fight for deep position, ends up getting a
Speaker 1: great look out of it. This next one here is
Speaker 1: against the Golden State Warriors. And that complete and utter
Speaker 1: ass kicking that we saw was it a month and
Speaker 1: a half ago or so. And we have a transition
Speaker 1: possession And in transition there's a cross match where Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown I identifies as Drew Holliday's bringing the ball to
Speaker 1: the floor. Watch Jalen Brown identify that Chris Paul is
Speaker 1: the only guy at the rim. He sees Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is the only guy in front of him at the
Speaker 1: rim and just buries him. Look at this sees the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Look at where his position is. He's inside the restricted area,
Speaker 1: so at this point he doesn't have to take any
Speaker 1: sort of difficult shot. This is a layup. He's just
Speaker 1: going to catch and go up and finish. That's again
Speaker 1: doing your work early to get an easy shot out
Speaker 1: of the post. The entire premise of post up basketball
Speaker 1: is using your physical gifts as opposed to your skill gifts.
Speaker 1: You're fighting for position using your tools. And again, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown has just obscene athletic tools for a player in
Speaker 1: his position group, very very similar type of example here
Speaker 1: against Philly or running up the floor in transition, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's going to identify that Kyle Lowry is the man
Speaker 1: back right here. He sees he's got everyone else trailing
Speaker 1: the play around the perimeter. He sees all four sixers
Speaker 1: in front of him. He knows Kyle Lowry's the only
Speaker 1: guy back. He's going to deep seal, get a catch
Speaker 1: there right around the semi circle, and he's going to
Speaker 1: go right through Kyle Lowry's chest to his lefty hook.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, by the way, he only made six hook
Speaker 1: shots all year last year. That's going to be a
Speaker 1: theme when we get into our next little segment here.
Speaker 1: But like, this is a shot that he's added, and
Speaker 1: he's got it with both hands, and he's made a
Speaker 1: lot of these nice little left handed hooks in the
Speaker 1: lane this year, which I think is super impressive. That's
Speaker 1: not an easy shot. And then lastly, very very similar
Speaker 1: example here on an inbounds play, the Celtics are running
Speaker 1: this action here for Howser to come off of the
Speaker 1: sideline out of bounds. They're actually prepping faking. This is
Speaker 1: all a decoy, so they're pretending to set basically a
Speaker 1: double screen for Howser to come off this way. But
Speaker 1: the entire purpose of that is this defender here is
Speaker 1: going to lock and trail on Hawser. These guys are
Speaker 1: both preparing for any sort of hedge and slip, so
Speaker 1: they're both up on the ball. This clears out this
Speaker 1: entire space for Jalen Brown to work. And if you look,
Speaker 1: you can actually see Evan Fourtier's fronting the post. And
Speaker 1: because he he's fronting the post, Jalen Brown's basically creating
Speaker 1: an easy over the top passing angle. His entire thing here,
Speaker 1: once again is doing the work early. He's now pushing
Speaker 1: out on Fournier so that Pritchard can throw this pass
Speaker 1: over the top into this open space so that Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown can get an easy shot. Once again, the shot
Speaker 1: making piece is the easy part there. The work is
Speaker 1: being done physically at the beginning of the possession. So
Speaker 1: now let's say you get a catch and you're you know,
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen feet away from the basket, and it's
Speaker 1: time to go to work in a standard post up.
Speaker 1: For a guy like Jaylen Brown, the key is using
Speaker 1: your physical gifts to be aggressive and play bully ball
Speaker 1: whenever you can. Now these next two clips, these are
Speaker 1: two of my favorite clips from Jalen Brown from this season.
Speaker 1: I loved the way that he went at Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: in this game. Bradley Bual is a very very good athlete,
Speaker 1: one of the best athletes in the league at his position.
Speaker 1: But Jalen Brown's bigger than him, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: send this message to Bradley Beal early and often in
Speaker 1: this game. So here we go. We're all the way
Speaker 1: out the wing. He's gonna turn this ISO into a
Speaker 1: post up by turning his back, using pivots, using pivots.
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal's overplaying that right hand shoulder because he most
Speaker 1: right handed players coming off of the left block are
Speaker 1: gonna try to come over their left shoulder for a
Speaker 1: hook in the lane, and most of them aren't comfortable
Speaker 1: going to their left hand side. Jalen Brown is very
Speaker 1: comfortable going to that side, as we talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: But in this case, Bradley Beal gives him such a
Speaker 1: big angle that he's able to bury him underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and basically get what amounts to a layup. And
Speaker 1: here we go again. We're gonna get on the other end,
Speaker 1: another post up, cleared side post up. Here Bradley bil
Speaker 1: against Jalen Brown. This time he is going to go
Speaker 1: to that right handed hook. Now, he just just beat
Speaker 1: him to the baseline side right, This left foot was
Speaker 1: up higher, this foot was back more. He was squared
Speaker 1: up almost at like this angle instead of at that angle.
Speaker 1: And so now Jalen Brown actually has the ability to
Speaker 1: get back. Bradley Beal's playing him more straight up. So
Speaker 1: now he's going to go to that left shoulder hook
Speaker 1: like we talked about. But again, notice when he took
Speaker 1: that drop step into the lane. He didn't let Beal
Speaker 1: bump him off the spot. Beal's trying to bump him
Speaker 1: and he's holding his ground. You can actually see Beal's
Speaker 1: head jerk back like a foot there. Because Jalen's bringing
Speaker 1: the physicality of that situation. He's almost straight up and
Speaker 1: down on this hook shot. That's a super high percentage shot.
Speaker 1: Here's a clear side post up in transition against Denver.
Speaker 1: He's gonna see Michael Porter Jr. And he's gonna go
Speaker 1: right through his chest to a left handed hook. Very
Speaker 1: physically aggressive play. This is one of my favorite types
Speaker 1: of post up plays. When you see you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked about this with Jokic before, When a player is
Speaker 1: physically engaged with you, that's your best opportunity to make
Speaker 1: a physically aggressive move. When they're playing off of you,
Speaker 1: it's much harder because they can actually take a steps
Speaker 1: to beat you to a spot. So like, for instance,
Speaker 1: if there's like a gap between a player and I
Speaker 1: try to go right, the player can slide and meet me.
Speaker 1: But if they're actually connected with my body, I can
Speaker 1: go right around them and get away with a little
Speaker 1: bit of a chicken wing. So Peyton Watson here is
Speaker 1: gonna get way too connected with Jalen Brown, way too
Speaker 1: far away from the basket. So again Jalen Brown's dribbling,
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson's connected with him like seven eight feet away
Speaker 1: from the basket, and so Jalen Brown sees that as
Speaker 1: an opportunity to go right around him. See how he
Speaker 1: kind of gets away with that little bit of a
Speaker 1: chicken wing because they're already engaged. And then in this case,
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson actually has some size on him. So he
Speaker 1: jumps straight up into Peyton Watson's body and extends his
Speaker 1: left arm out to create the shot angle. But he's
Speaker 1: so far underneath the basket that even though that's a
Speaker 1: tough shot, he's so close that it becomes an easy shot.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, here's one let's see here against Cason Wallace. Now,
Speaker 1: again we've talked about the hook shots, Jalen Brown's also
Speaker 1: one of the best tough shot makers out of the
Speaker 1: post in the league. He's been one of the best turnaround,
Speaker 1: fataway jump shooters in the league. Now, I prefer it
Speaker 1: as a counter and to Jalen's credit, one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why he's been so efficient as a post up
Speaker 1: player this year, he's used it as a counter. He's
Speaker 1: taken it when he's had the right matchups, when he's
Speaker 1: feeling in a groove. This is a difficult shot, but
Speaker 1: one of the things I like about it. Watch how
Speaker 1: quickly he pivots over his right shoulder and how at
Speaker 1: the end he goes straight up and down. So he's turning,
Speaker 1: but like, watch he's going up here right when he
Speaker 1: turns squared right there. Watch he's squared all the way up.
Speaker 1: There's no more spin in his body. He did the
Speaker 1: spin early, and the jumper itself is more or less
Speaker 1: straight up and down. And that's what I talk about
Speaker 1: when I talk about using your leg strength and using
Speaker 1: your athleticism to turn a difficult shot into basically the
Speaker 1: same muscle memory you use when you take other shots
Speaker 1: around the floor. Alrighty, So the next piece taking the
Speaker 1: easy kick out threes when they're there, Jalen Brown is
Speaker 1: going to get a lot of favorable matchups attacking players
Speaker 1: out of the post, and he's going to see double teams,
Speaker 1: and he sees a lot of them, and it's important
Speaker 1: for him to make the right reads when those opportunities
Speaker 1: present themselves. Here, Jalen Brown's looking to attack Aaron Wiggins
Speaker 1: on the baseline side, and as soon as he pivots
Speaker 1: right over his left shoulder, Chet Holmgren doubles down on
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown here and he immediately identifies that chrisops Porzingis
Speaker 1: is the open man. Makes the kickout pass. That's easy basketball.
Speaker 1: Just use your physical tools to draw that second defender
Speaker 1: in to make the kickout pass. Same sort of thing
Speaker 1: here with Jason Tatum against Denver, and this pass is
Speaker 1: kind of off target. You'll see he starts attacking casep
Speaker 1: here out of the left side corner and Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior doubles down. And here's the thing, that pass one pass,
Speaker 1: that double team from one pass away is the hardest
Speaker 1: one to rotate out of. So Jalen Brown doesn't even
Speaker 1: make a good pass here, but it's so much space
Speaker 1: for Jason Tatum to operate with he's able to knock
Speaker 1: down the shot. Last piece, I want to hit the
Speaker 1: concept of using post up double teams to get the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation. So it's this one actually. Okay. So
Speaker 1: one of the things I talk about a lot on
Speaker 1: the show is advantage creation basketball. Those of you guys
Speaker 1: who watched the Phoenix Suns video yesterday will know exactly
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, and specifically, when it comes to
Speaker 1: advantage creation, there's essentially three steps to it, right. The
Speaker 1: first step is the action that gets the defense into rotation.
Speaker 1: The second step is advantage extending, which is like guys
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts and bringing additional help defenders in to get
Speaker 1: the best possible shot. The last piece is play finishing.
Speaker 1: Whether that's a guy knocking down three on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: whether that's a guy driving a close out and making
Speaker 1: a layup, or maybe it's a lob up to a
Speaker 1: vertical space or underneath the basket, or a cutter working
Speaker 1: along the baseline. That's the play finishing piece. But the
Speaker 1: number one piece there. None of that can happen. The
Speaker 1: advantage extending and the play finishing cannot happen unless you
Speaker 1: get the defense into rotation. There are a bunch of
Speaker 1: different ways to get the defense into rotation. The Celtics
Speaker 1: have a bunch. They'll use Tatum, Derek White, two man game,
Speaker 1: They'll use Jalen Brown, Cristops porzingis two man game. Porzingis
Speaker 1: two man game. White, porzingis two man game. All these
Speaker 1: different things that they'll use to get the defense into rotation. Well,
Speaker 1: I love the idea of just using Jalen Brown to
Speaker 1: get the defense into rotation. Here's a great example of
Speaker 1: that right here. So Jalen Brown's gonna look to post
Speaker 1: up against Bogdan Magdonovich, and as soon as he makes
Speaker 1: that post up attempt, DeAndre Hunter ends up essentially doubling
Speaker 1: out of this right corner here. Okay, but does de
Speaker 1: Jontay Murray's going to rotate. But at this point, this
Speaker 1: is classic Celtics basketball. The Celtics all season long have
Speaker 1: made the extra pass, the right extra pass when the
Speaker 1: defense is in rotation to get those wide open threes.
Speaker 1: So this is a wide open three for Derek White
Speaker 1: that he makes that Drew Holliday is going to get
Speaker 1: credit for the assist. For Drew Holliday is essentially the
Speaker 1: advantage extender by making the IQ to the next guy
Speaker 1: in the chain. Derek White's our play finisher. But Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown is the guy that got the defense in rotation there.
Speaker 1: Here's another example. Against the Knicks, We're going to get
Speaker 1: a double team of Jalen Brown at the right corner
Speaker 1: kind of starting in transition. So Jalen Brown is Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson on him, He's backing him down. Dante DiVincenzo comes
Speaker 1: into the double team. Okay, so as the double team comes,
Speaker 1: this is a rotation that's already happening with Precious Techua.
Speaker 1: He is rotating to Derek White. But one of the
Speaker 1: things I talk about a lot on the show are
Speaker 1: the idea of baked in driving lanes. Because Precious Achuwa
Speaker 1: is closing out hard at Derek White's left shoulder, there
Speaker 1: is an automatic baked in driving lane to Derek White's
Speaker 1: strong hand, his right hand side. See how he just
Speaker 1: catches and drives. Precious rotated, but because he's rotating from
Speaker 1: Derek White's left hand side, there's that automatic read there
Speaker 1: for him. So now as Derek White gets through, because
Speaker 1: there was in the rotation, if we go back, look,
Speaker 1: so originally Josh Hart is on Drew Holliday here in
Speaker 1: the corner right. But as soon as the double team happens,
Speaker 1: watch everybody rotate. So Precious goes to Derek White, Isaiah
Speaker 1: Hartenstein goes to Tatum, Josh Hart goes to chrisops Porzingis.
Speaker 1: So now Derek White is now making that advantage extending play.
Speaker 1: He's taking the read, which is the baked in right
Speaker 1: hand driving lane, and he's immediately identifying that Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: in his rotation out of Jalen Brown, has not covered
Speaker 1: much ground, and that Josh Hart is engaged with Porzingis,
Speaker 1: and that Drew Holliday is the wide open shooter on
Speaker 1: the weak side. Makes the read. Drew Holliday makes the
Speaker 1: shot once again. Jalen Brown the advantage creator, Derek White
Speaker 1: the advantage extender, Drew Holliday the play finisher. We got
Speaker 1: one more and then we'll be out of here for
Speaker 1: the Celtics. At least this time, we're going to get
Speaker 1: a post up of of Jalen Brown against Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: here on the left block, same sort of thing. We
Speaker 1: get the double from one pass away, but the Knicks
Speaker 1: pre rotate, so here comes Josh Hart. But as we
Speaker 1: can see, boy On mcdonovich is rotating up to Tatum here,
Speaker 1: and it's the same sort of thing we talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: Tatum now is one of the best offensive players in
Speaker 1: the world that's attacking not only a lesser defensive player,
Speaker 1: but a lesser defensive player that just had to close
Speaker 1: out from the weak side, and so Tatum basically just
Speaker 1: hits him with a basic jab step move. Boom, And
Speaker 1: as soon as he jabs, you can actually see boy
Speaker 1: On take that hard step to the left. Boom, see
Speaker 1: that little stutter step to the left, and then Tatum's
Speaker 1: able to beat him to his left hand side and
Speaker 1: get all the way to the rim for a layup.
Speaker 1: Once again, same sort of thing. We have our advantage creator,
Speaker 1: which is Jalen Brown with the post up double team.
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday the advantage extender by making the read, and
Speaker 1: then Jason Tatum the play finisher by beating a close
Speaker 1: out attack getting all the way to the rim for
Speaker 1: a layup again once again. Once again. We talked so
Speaker 1: much about about Jason Tatum, and we talked so much
Speaker 1: about Derek White and chrisopps Porzingis, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times Jalen Brown kind of falls into the background, especially
Speaker 1: after he had a pretty disappointing playoff run last year.
Speaker 1: But the truth is he's only twenty seven years old
Speaker 1: and he's still getting better. And you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things I talk about a lot on the show
Speaker 1: is you can add talent through the draft. You can
Speaker 1: add talent through free agency, you can add talent through trades, right,
Speaker 1: but one of the best ways to add talent is
Speaker 1: just by improving the guys that you have in house.
Speaker 1: And Jalen Brown is a better basketball player this year
Speaker 1: than he was last year. He's playing better defense this
Speaker 1: year than he did last year, and again he posted
Speaker 1: up less than once per game last year. He's become
Speaker 1: one of the higher volume post up players in the
Speaker 1: league and he's very good at it, better than many
Speaker 1: of his peers at the top of the league. He
Speaker 1: is getting better. That is made Boston better. It's been
Speaker 1: a big part of this and this late surge that
Speaker 1: he's been on. And again we're not talking about like
Speaker 1: last year where it was mostly Jason Tatum and Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown doing the scoring. Christaps Porzingis is still averaging over
Speaker 1: twenty points per game over this post All Star Game stretch.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown has just stepped his game up to an
Speaker 1: additional level from there. I think that again, all of
Speaker 1: this is about margin for air. The Celtics have their weaknesses,
Speaker 1: just like every other team in the league has weaknesses,
Speaker 1: but they've dramatically increased their margin for Air this year
Speaker 1: through the additions of krisps Porzingis and Drew Holliday and
Speaker 1: also through the improvement of Jalen Brown as a shot creator.
Speaker 1: All right, now we are going to move on to
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors and the and their win against
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets. So, as I talked about when we
Speaker 1: talked about the Rockets the last time, I can't even
Speaker 1: remember which team we were covering when we were talking
Speaker 1: about the Rockets. But since since Alpha and Shangun got hurt,
Speaker 1: they've basically brought a Men Thompson into the starting lineup
Speaker 1: and started switching everything. That's been their way of dealing
Speaker 1: with that specific issue. So one of the things that
Speaker 1: is interesting with the switching defense is it's entirely type
Speaker 1: of offensive attack, so there are advantages that come with switching. Right.
Speaker 1: One of the advantages that comes with switching is you
Speaker 1: can theoretically get ahead of screening actions. Right. So, screening
Speaker 1: actions are designed when a player is trailing another player
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form. If you can make contact,
Speaker 1: you can generate separation which can allow that player to
Speaker 1: either get a shot or to get downhill and get
Speaker 1: into the lane and make something happen. If the guy
Speaker 1: comes off the screen and there's just another defender waiting
Speaker 1: for him, it will shut down that action. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the way that you beat that
Speaker 1: offense or defense becomes very different. Against a traditional man
Speaker 1: to man defense, where guys are staying glued to their
Speaker 1: individual man and chasing over screens, it's so much more
Speaker 1: about your execution in your offense. How well are you
Speaker 1: setting screens, how well are guys taking advantage of the
Speaker 1: openings that are created by those screening actions, Whereas when
Speaker 1: we get to a switching attack, it gets very, very different.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to get into some of the
Speaker 1: specific details of how Golden State beat Houston's switching attack
Speaker 1: in that game last night. Now, I know the Warriors
Speaker 1: have another game tonight against the Dallas Mavericks. Obviously we're
Speaker 1: heading into our weekend. Golden State might go into Dallas
Speaker 1: and get smacked tonight. Dallas will be favored, They're a
Speaker 1: team that's been playing really good basketball. But I just
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of even beyond the Warriors, just talk
Speaker 1: about for any team around the league, specific examples of
Speaker 1: how to beat a switching defense. So, first, the most
Speaker 1: rudimentary form of beating a switching defense, which has to
Speaker 1: do with your ability to beat your individual matchup in
Speaker 1: one on one basketball. So this first one, we're going
Speaker 1: to get Steph Curry isolating a men Thompson. So, starting
Speaker 1: in transition, we're working our way down the floor. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start with a little bit of foreshadowing here. So
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson is going to run a ball screen with
Speaker 1: Chase Jackson, Tray Jackson Davis. A men Thompson is on Clay,
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith is on Tray Jackson Davis. We're gonna see
Speaker 1: a little bit of foreshadowing for a concept we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about later having to do is slipping a
Speaker 1: switching action. So in this case, if they're gonna switch,
Speaker 1: Amn Thompson is gonna be guarding Tray Jackson Davis and
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith is gonna be guarding Clay Thompson. Right, But
Speaker 1: look at where Tray Jackson Davis is in terms of
Speaker 1: his positioning. He is already before the switch has even
Speaker 1: finished happening, he has inside position on a men Thompson.
Speaker 1: Because a men Thompson was guarding Clay on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: Trace has automatic room to slip, and so he slips
Speaker 1: into that opening. Now Man is a good athlete, and
Speaker 1: Dylan brooks off for some help, and so they're able
Speaker 1: to kind of rotate out of it. But that's an
Speaker 1: example of slipping out of a switch. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: to a better example of that later. The ball gets
Speaker 1: works back around. As you can see, Fred Van Vliet
Speaker 1: is on Steph Curry, but he sets a little pined
Speaker 1: down Frandrew Wiggins that gets Jalen Green on him, and
Speaker 1: then he runs a little handoff type of thing with
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis here, and then as soon as he
Speaker 1: comes off Tray Jackson Davis, there's a Men Thompson. So again,
Speaker 1: all the actions that Houston ran, or that Golden State ran,
Speaker 1: Houston was able to basically switch, get in front of
Speaker 1: and shut down the advantage. When this sort of thing
Speaker 1: happens and you look down and suddenly there's only seven
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock, the only thing you can
Speaker 1: do is beat your individual matchup. And Steph Curry again,
Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about him is the greatest
Speaker 1: shooter of all time, and that is what he is,
Speaker 1: but that's such a oversimplification of what he does. He
Speaker 1: is also one of the best drivers and finishers of
Speaker 1: the basketball. He's an excellent passer, he's one of the
Speaker 1: best off ball players. All these different things. We can
Speaker 1: go on and on and on. But he just takes
Speaker 1: a Men Thompson who's an excellent perimeter defender who slides
Speaker 1: his feet really well, and just simply toasts him off
Speaker 1: the dribble with the right to left crossover in a
Speaker 1: nifty little shot in the lane. That's just beating your
Speaker 1: individual matchup to beat a switching attack. This next one
Speaker 1: very similar type of deal. Klay Thompson against a Men Thompson.
Speaker 1: This is an offensive rebound out of a free throw.
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson is Dylan Brooks. Dylon Brooks is probably the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defender on Houston. So he's going to call
Speaker 1: for a screen from Trace. We're gonna get another switch.
Speaker 1: Trace is gonna clear. By the way, there was kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit of a slip opportunity there again,
Speaker 1: same type of over the top positioning I was talking about,
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson is just going to go to work
Speaker 1: against a Men Thompson and take a little step back
Speaker 1: jump shot over his right shoulderknock it. Down. Now, you
Speaker 1: can beat your matchup in more than one way. You
Speaker 1: don't have to just beat it scoring the basketball. This
Speaker 1: is an example of Tray Jackson Davis beating his matchup
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass. So he has Jeff Green on
Speaker 1: him at this point in the possession. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: get again a switch between Fred Van Vliet and Jabari Smith.
Speaker 1: And then in that dribble handoff, Trace Jackson Davis gets
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith switched on him. You can just tell by
Speaker 1: looking here. Jabari Smith not as big as Jeff Green is.
Speaker 1: So now Klay Thompson has Jeff Green on him, He's
Speaker 1: going to work. Tray Jackson Davis immediately starts backing his
Speaker 1: way in. Watch what Trace does. I've got this size advantage.
Speaker 1: I'm working my way into the paint. I'm creating rebound positioning.
Speaker 1: So now when the ball gets worked back out to
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, Andrew Wiggins ends up taking a late pull
Speaker 1: up three off the dribble. Here, Tray Jackson Davis once
Speaker 1: again working his way in. Jabari Smith's trying to box
Speaker 1: him out. TRACE's just bigger than him, bigger and stronger,
Speaker 1: gets the offensive rebound, dunks it once again, winning a
Speaker 1: match up one on one, just this time on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass. So one of the core ways to beat
Speaker 1: a switching defense is to beat your individual matchup. Now
Speaker 1: our second way to beat a switching defense. One of
Speaker 1: the things that happens with switching is it kind of
Speaker 1: plays into the laziest tendencies of defenders. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: let's just take a guy running off of a screen.
Speaker 1: For instance, if a guy's running off of a screen
Speaker 1: and he knows he has to chase, he's gonna run
Speaker 1: like crazy to follow him over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: If he's chasing a guy to a screen and they're
Speaker 1: going to switch it, he might stop running and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: my teammate's gonna take over. I can go ahead and
Speaker 1: relax here for a second. And in that split second,
Speaker 1: when teams start to relax in their switching scheme, you
Speaker 1: can find openings. Let's look at some examples here. So
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is going to come off in transition, we
Speaker 1: get a cross match here. Jalen Green is guarding Tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis on the screen. When Tray sets the screen,
Speaker 1: notice Jalen Green jumps way out to the high side.
Speaker 1: He's now way out on Steph Curry's high side. If
Speaker 1: he was guarding Steph in isolation, he'd be positioned like
Speaker 1: right here, but instead he's positioned way on Steph's right
Speaker 1: hand side. So right as Jabari Smith clears out with
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis, Steph takes advantage of this baked in
Speaker 1: driving lane to the left and then gets an easy
Speaker 1: step back jump shot. See, he wouldn't even be able
Speaker 1: to turn the corner like that as easily if Jalen
Speaker 1: Green was actually squared up with him, But in the
Speaker 1: switch he was keyed up on his right hand side.
Speaker 1: Steph saw a baked in left hand driving lane. Now
Speaker 1: look at Jalen Green's body positioning. He's taking a massive
Speaker 1: recovery step towards the basket here, which gives Steph the
Speaker 1: ability to get separation for the step back. Now, Jalen
Speaker 1: Green still gets a contest because he's just an obscene athlete,
Speaker 1: but that's a good look that Steph was able to
Speaker 1: generate by taking advantage of a switch that had a
Speaker 1: defender automatically out of position on his right hand side.
Speaker 1: Here's my favorite example from the film session today. Tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis and Dymonngreen. We're getting all kinds of deflections
Speaker 1: defensively in this game too. I love having both of
Speaker 1: them in the starting lineup. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: that in our mail bag when we get later on
Speaker 1: in the show. All right, so this is a really
Speaker 1: really interesting example of taking advantage of that laziness that
Speaker 1: I talked about. Klay Thompson is right here, Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: is guarding him, Jalen Green is guarding Draymond Green. Draymond
Speaker 1: Green is going to signal for Clay Thompson is going
Speaker 1: to run all the way through to this right hand
Speaker 1: corner to look for a three point shot. But watch
Speaker 1: what happens here. Draymond Green identifies it. Steph has eyes
Speaker 1: on Clay. He sees him running through. Watch Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: Junior immediately start pointing. Watch Jabari Smith here, you got him,
Speaker 1: You got him. I'm done, I've done my job. I'm switching.
Speaker 1: Where's Jalen Green? Though, Jalen Green is standing with Draymond
Speaker 1: Green between him and where Clay's running to. So what
Speaker 1: does Draymond Green do? He just screens his own man.
Speaker 1: He screens his own man because Jabari Smith quit on
Speaker 1: the play and so Klay Thompson's able to break wide
Speaker 1: open in the corner. That's a great example of what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about with laziness. You're capitalizing on the Again,
Speaker 1: if Javari Smith was locking and trailing, there's no way
Speaker 1: he relaxes here. He relaxes here because he's expecting his switch.
Speaker 1: But the problem is Draymond Green. He's seen all this before.
Speaker 1: The Warriors have seen all these schemes before. Draymond Green
Speaker 1: identifies that Jabari Smith is giving up on the play,
Speaker 1: and he knows his only job here is to screen
Speaker 1: the guy that's supposed to switch onto Klay Thompson catch
Speaker 1: him for a wide open three. Here's another very very
Speaker 1: similar example. So Tray Jackson Davis is being guarded by
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks. He's pressuring the basketball bodied up with him
Speaker 1: on his low side. Steph is backscreening for Draymond, which
Speaker 1: is going to force Jabari Smith to switch on to
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and Fred Van Vliet to take Draymond Okay
Speaker 1: now from here. Once again, he's going to capitalize on
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith quitting when he thinks the switch is coming.
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks is not in position to switch here. He's
Speaker 1: engaged physically with Tray Jackson Davis. So Steph all he
Speaker 1: has to do is run off and get the ball.
Speaker 1: Jabari quits again. He quits because he's like, oh, I'm done.
Speaker 1: I just have to get Tray Jackson Davis now. But
Speaker 1: the problem is is Dylan Brooks was engaged with Tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis. This buys Stephan opening for him to get
Speaker 1: a three point shot. Alrighty, now the two more clips
Speaker 1: I want to look at first bringing a second defender
Speaker 1: and using a mismap to get the defense in rotation.
Speaker 1: So Andrew Wiggans runs like he's gonna set a downscreen
Speaker 1: on Fred van Vliet. This forces the switch. So now
Speaker 1: Aman Thompson takes Curry and Wiggins heads Fred van Vliet.
Speaker 1: Watch Steff immediately point he goes, we got our matchup.
Speaker 1: We got Wiggins on Fred van Vliet. If you watch
Speaker 1: it again, you can literally see them quickly identify boom
Speaker 1: switch point give it to him in the post. They
Speaker 1: make the post entry. All Wiggins has to do here
Speaker 1: is back down. He draws Dylan Brooks in rotation. We
Speaker 1: get a wide open three for Klay Thompson. Now Clay
Speaker 1: actually misses this shot, but this isn't again getting the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation. Once they're in rotation, the scheme doesn't
Speaker 1: matter anymore. Right when the defense is loaded up the
Speaker 1: switching versus the traditional coverages, that means everything in terms
Speaker 1: of what you're gonna do next, But as soon as
Speaker 1: the defense is in rotation, it's just driving kick basketball.
Speaker 1: So one of the best ways to attack a switching
Speaker 1: defense is just to find a mismatch and use that
Speaker 1: to get the defense to lean that way or to
Speaker 1: send a second defender over, and then just make the
Speaker 1: appropriate kickout passes and play driving kick basketball from there.
Speaker 1: And then our last one slipping the switch like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier. So Dylan Brooks is gonna miss another
Speaker 1: three here working down the left side of the floor,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get his Steph Tray Jackson Davis ball screen. Now,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, Fred's on Steph Jabbari is
Speaker 1: on Tray Jackson Davis. As soon as the screen is set,
Speaker 1: watch Trace deliberately try to get behind Van vliet Boom,
Speaker 1: not even trying to set a screen. There's no reason
Speaker 1: for him to set a screen because they're gonna switch
Speaker 1: it anyway, as soon as he's done this, Jabari is
Speaker 1: now on Steph. Fred van Vliet is now on him.
Speaker 1: And because of that, because Klay Thompson is here on
Speaker 1: the weak side and there's no room or there's no
Speaker 1: defender here to help on this over the top pass,
Speaker 1: he can slip into this opening. Steph identifies it immediately
Speaker 1: throws the pass over the top. Dylan Brooks is guarding
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson and he has no choice but to step
Speaker 1: over now he stepped. Trace makes the excellent read to
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson in the corner and he nails the three.
Speaker 1: This is a team that's been a good defense most
Speaker 1: of the year and that has been a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass for a bunch of different reasons, and Golden
Speaker 1: State just picked him apart. They had a one thirty
Speaker 1: four point three offensive rating in that game despite having
Speaker 1: twenty one turnovers. As a matter of fact, when you
Speaker 1: actually look at shots that they took in the game,
Speaker 1: that had a seventy three point one percent true shooting percentage,
Speaker 1: which is like completely outrageous. It means in possessions where
Speaker 1: they actually took a shot, their offensive rating was in
Speaker 1: the high one forties. That's completely outrageous, and for a
Speaker 1: team that's been struggling offensively for a while now, a
Speaker 1: big part of it, Steph got going in this particular game.
Speaker 1: That helps really smart high IQ basketball to beat a
Speaker 1: difficult scheme to beat, and a good example too of
Speaker 1: just of just the ceiling this team is capable of
Speaker 1: getting too off the strength of their IQ and how
Speaker 1: much of an advantage that is when you get into
Speaker 1: the postseason. We'll see what ends up happening against Dallas tonight.
Speaker 1: We will be covering that game in the Monday Show
Speaker 1: when we get back from the weekend. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to our mail bag before we get out of
Speaker 1: here for the night. So our first question in a second,
Speaker 1: I'm pulling up something for the mail bag. All right, So,
Speaker 1: similar to how you did a breakdown on the Spurs,
Speaker 1: can you maybe touch on the Bulls? Personally, I think
Speaker 1: it's been time to move on from Zach and Vouch
Speaker 1: and as much as I love him Dbo too, I
Speaker 1: know the whole Lonzo trade slash injury derailed our plans
Speaker 1: as we were the number one seed with everyone healthy,
Speaker 1: and now these past two years have just been ugly. However,
Speaker 1: there's hope. Ac obviously is a stud that can fit
Speaker 1: any team. More importantly, though, I think both Kobe and
Speaker 1: Io have shown that they are capable young backcourt to
Speaker 1: build around. I went to school with Io, and I
Speaker 1: just love to see him and Kobe take the reins
Speaker 1: in a rebuild. I think it's time Chicago takes its
Speaker 1: medicine and tears everything down. Your thoughts one hundred percent agree.
Speaker 1: Let's start with I own Kobe. Obviously, I love the
Speaker 1: dynamic because you guys know how I feel about the
Speaker 1: ideal kind of configuration of a modern NBA backcourt. I
Speaker 1: want a defensive minded guard and I want a skill guard.
Speaker 1: That's the perfect configuration that I Owe and Kobe fall into. Also,
Speaker 1: Kobe's having a really good season, and again when you
Speaker 1: it goes beyond the box score numbers, this is his
Speaker 1: first opportunity really to get high usage. To give you
Speaker 1: an example, he only ran three hundred and twenty pick
Speaker 1: and rolls last year. He's already at almost a thousand
Speaker 1: this year. I think he's at like nine hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety seven. So that goes to show you like this
Speaker 1: is his first real opportunity with the basketball in his
Speaker 1: hand shooting over forty percent on pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: That's substantial. And then also he's going to hit over
Speaker 1: a thousand pick and rolls, and among all the players
Speaker 1: in the league. Remember that's that that thousand pick and
Speaker 1: roll liss is my high volume pick and roll list.
Speaker 1: I look at those players at the end of the
Speaker 1: season as a big indicator of shot creation. He's at
Speaker 1: zero point ninety seven points per possession in like almost
Speaker 1: one thousand pick and roll reps this year. That's really
Speaker 1: good for a first time opportunity to do that. There
Speaker 1: are guys, of course, there are guys that are more
Speaker 1: efficient than him at that, and obviously you want to
Speaker 1: see him crack over a point for possession probably by
Speaker 1: next year, but for his first opportunity to do that,
Speaker 1: to basically be a one point per possession pick and
Speaker 1: roll shot creator, especially on a team that can struggle
Speaker 1: with three point shooting from time to time, which is
Speaker 1: an important part of spacing the floor for a pick
Speaker 1: and roll attack, I think that's really impressive. And so
Speaker 1: I think he has legitimately the potential to be a
Speaker 1: number two on a really good team, but they do
Speaker 1: need a number one. So from there, again, like we
Speaker 1: talked about with the Wemby thing. First step, find out
Speaker 1: who your number one is. Once you have a legitimate
Speaker 1: number one, got to get a number two. Once you
Speaker 1: have your number two. That's where I'm not necessarily a
Speaker 1: believer in the three star build. Once you have two
Speaker 1: legitimate star level players that both that are good enough
Speaker 1: to be slotted the way that they're slotted, then you
Speaker 1: start targeting role players that accentuate their gifts. You don't
Speaker 1: want to get out of order there. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: I know that the Bulls higher ups are super high
Speaker 1: on Alex Cruso. This is a similar thing that I've
Speaker 1: seen around the league. The Brooklyn Nets are very high
Speaker 1: on McHale Bridges. They love him. They view him as
Speaker 1: a culture guy. That's great, you don't have your stars yet,
Speaker 1: and Mikal Bridges is not that guy. I don't think
Speaker 1: Michale Bridges is good enough to be a number two,
Speaker 1: even unless he's alongside like a true top tier type
Speaker 1: of superstar. Alex Crusoe one of my favorite players to
Speaker 1: root for, such an like he was so underrated in
Speaker 1: that Lakers title run. Was devastated when Jeanie Buss let
Speaker 1: him walk for nothing. I'm a huge fan of Alex,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't make sense to have Alex Crusoe on
Speaker 1: your roster when he could be flipped for asset return
Speaker 1: when you don't have a legitimate superstar yet. And so
Speaker 1: that's where I agree with you. It's time to move
Speaker 1: from Zach, move from Bouc, move from Demarto Rosen. Caruso
Speaker 1: can get you a first round draft pick, maybe even two.
Speaker 1: So like from that standpoint, you want to bring in
Speaker 1: as much asset return as you can so that you
Speaker 1: can use those assets either via through the either via
Speaker 1: trade or through the draft to bring in the guy
Speaker 1: who can be the Number one that you put next
Speaker 1: to Kobe White. So I agree. I actually enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls this year. Tomarto Rosen is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite players in the league to watch. He's turned
Speaker 1: into like a really savvy vet, an incredible playmaker. Always
Speaker 1: kind of viewed him as a better basketball player than
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine, but it's just this era has kind of
Speaker 1: reached reached its personal ceiling, right, it's individual ceiling that
Speaker 1: this era can get to, and so from there it's
Speaker 1: time to rebuild. Love the io, Kobe backcourt. There great
Speaker 1: to build around that. Just got to flip everything you
Speaker 1: can for asset return. Again, you ought you either want
Speaker 1: to be young and fun. You don't want to be
Speaker 1: like old and mediocre. That like you want to be
Speaker 1: young and bad as you're progressing towards building assets, or
Speaker 1: young and good as you're progressing towards your future. The
Speaker 1: worst thing you can be is old and mediocre. And
Speaker 1: that's what the Bulls are at this point. It's time
Speaker 1: to pivot towards their youth. All right, And next question,
Speaker 1: do you think the Warriors should keep Trace Jackson Davis
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup with Jonathan Kaminga coming back from
Speaker 1: injury as they have seemed to found something defensively, or
Speaker 1: do you think Kaminga has to start? First of all,
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think who starts matters nearly as much
Speaker 1: as how many minutes you get. I even talked about
Speaker 1: this with Jovan Buja this morning. We were talking some
Speaker 1: Lakers on his podcast and having to do with Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt's return, like, oh, should Jared Vanderbilt start? Oh? Shoul
Speaker 1: ruy Hatcha Mura start? And to me, none of that
Speaker 1: matters as long as all of them are playing really
Speaker 1: big minutes, and as long as you close with the
Speaker 1: right guys right and no one's saying necessarily that you're
Speaker 1: going to close with Tray Jackson, Davis and Draymond every
Speaker 1: single game. That's going to depend on the matchup. But
Speaker 1: that lineup has been killing everybody. They have forty nine
Speaker 1: minutes under their belt so far, and they're outscoring opponents
Speaker 1: by twenty eight point four points per one hundred possessions
Speaker 1: over that span, a one to nineteen point three offensive rating,
Speaker 1: which is off the charts good, in a ninety point
Speaker 1: nine defensive rating, which is way off the charts good.
Speaker 1: So like they're killing everybody with that group. Trace has
Speaker 1: been so good defensively. He's such a good read and
Speaker 1: react player when he catches on the rolls. We talked
Speaker 1: to about some of the reads that he made in
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets game in our film session earlier today.
Speaker 1: Huge believer in Trace Jackson Davis. I would stick with
Speaker 1: that starting lineup. Steve Kerr actually specifically stated in a
Speaker 1: press conference I want to say yesterday that his historical
Speaker 1: preference has been to stick with the group that's working,
Speaker 1: So I expect him to but again, as long as
Speaker 1: Jonathan Coming is still playing big minutes, it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: All righty, our last question before we get out of here,
Speaker 1: This actually isn't a question. I just wanted to throw
Speaker 1: a couple of crazy Laker stats at you. So this morning,
Speaker 1: prepping for my show with Jovan Buha, I wanted to
Speaker 1: pull up some numbers from Lakers rotation stuff. One of
Speaker 1: the things I complained about over the course of the
Speaker 1: season was like, yeah, the Lakers have their issues, but
Speaker 1: they're not making things any easier on themselves by playing
Speaker 1: guys that aren't their best players. The consistent theme this
Speaker 1: year has been Torrian Prince and Cam Reddish in particular,
Speaker 1: are guys that are like way down on their roster
Speaker 1: in terms of their talent level compared to their peers,
Speaker 1: but they were like consistently towards the top and minutes played,
Speaker 1: especially Torrian Prince and Ruy Hachimura, who is definitively one
Speaker 1: of their top five or six players, was like barely
Speaker 1: playing for much of the season. And I just this morning,
Speaker 1: over some coffee, I ran a basic search on Basketball
Speaker 1: Reference and was completely appalled to find the results. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to show that to you, guys. So I'm
Speaker 1: just going to put it on the screen here for
Speaker 1: a second. So this graphic you guys are looking at here.
Speaker 1: These are Ruey Hatcha Mura's eleven lowest point totals this year.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, a minute totals this year. So as you
Speaker 1: can see, in these eleven games he played fewer than
Speaker 1: nineteen minutes. The Lakers went two to nine in those games.
Speaker 1: They are thirty five and seventeen. When he plays more
Speaker 1: than nineteen minutes, big shock. Playing your best players helps
Speaker 1: you win games. This is Torean Prince in his twenty
Speaker 1: six lowest minute outputs this year. What stands out to
Speaker 1: you again, sorded by minute total his twenty six lowest
Speaker 1: minute total games. They literally went twenty two to four,
Speaker 1: twenty two and four. This is again he started more
Speaker 1: than three times as many games this year. Or excuse me,
Speaker 1: he started more games this year than he did in
Speaker 1: the previous three seasons combined. He has been miscast for
Speaker 1: the majority of this season as a high minute starter
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, when he's actually been like a two
Speaker 1: or three shift bench player everywhere else he's been, and
Speaker 1: when he's been used like that the Lakers have been awesome,
Speaker 1: but it's been an issue throughout this season. I just
Speaker 1: thought those stats were interesting. One last stat for you guys.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are twenty and eight since February first, a
Speaker 1: twenty eight game sample size, are roughly a third of
Speaker 1: the season. That's the second best record in basketball over
Speaker 1: that span. And the crazy thing is, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: they were the nine seed at that point, and here
Speaker 1: we are twenty and eight since then, and they're the
Speaker 1: nine seed again. There's one reason why I'm bringing that up.
Speaker 1: You guys might remember that I said a prerequisite for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to be taken seriously as a contender in
Speaker 1: my opinion, and I'll view them in the Boston Denver tier,
Speaker 1: but I do view them in that tier right below that.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is simple. I said they had
Speaker 1: to demonstrate an extended stretch where they kicked everybody's butt
Speaker 1: and had a dominant record. We got that. We have
Speaker 1: a twenty to eight stretch since February first, which is
Speaker 1: literally the second best record in the league over that span.
Speaker 1: Dating further back, going back to January seventh, that is
Speaker 1: a forty one game sample size. They're twenty seven to fourteen,
Speaker 1: which is the fifth best record in basketball. So we
Speaker 1: have extended sample size now of the Lakers being a
Speaker 1: very good basketball team. That doesn't mean their personal personal
Speaker 1: limitations don't matter. I still view them in that group
Speaker 1: below Boston and Denver. I don't think they've done anything
Speaker 1: to rise above that group. They're still firmly just kind
Speaker 1: of in the mix there. But before this stretch, when
Speaker 1: they were struggling as bad as they were post in
Speaker 1: season tournament, I didn't even and view them as someone
Speaker 1: that could be even taken seriously in that tier. They
Speaker 1: needed to demonstrate that they could play dominant basketball for
Speaker 1: an extended stretch, and they have done so, which is
Speaker 1: encouraging for the Lakers. All Right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys supporting the show or taking the rest of the
Speaker 1: weekend off. We'll be back Monday, breaking down a bunch
Speaker 1: of games and doing our power rankings as usual. I
Speaker 1: will see you guys there. The volume