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Speaker 1: co slash ft ball. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight.

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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. If all of

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Speaker 1: you guys have had a great week so far, we

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Speaker 1: got a jam pack show for you today. JJ Reddick,

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Speaker 1: head coach of the Los Angeles Likers, did his first

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Speaker 1: long form interview since taking the job. Was Zach low

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Speaker 1: Over at ESPN. Got a lot of takeaways from that,

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Speaker 1: so we're going to talk some Lakers off the top.

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Speaker 1: After that, we're going to get back into our power

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Speaker 1: Rankings season preview style with number ten the Phoenix Suns.

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Speaker 1: And at the tail end of that, I've got nine

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Speaker 1: clips of film that we're going to go over all

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Speaker 1: from their first round series as we talked about some

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Speaker 1: of the things that the Suns can improve on heading

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Speaker 1: into next year. So some Lakers off the top, a

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Speaker 1: bunch of Suns after that, jam pack show for today.

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Speaker 1: You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any

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Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore

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Speaker 1: JCNLT so you guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about

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Speaker 1: a podcast feed where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight,

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Speaker 1: and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments

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Speaker 1: so we can keep getting to them over the course

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Speaker 1: of the rest of the year. We had a mailbag

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Speaker 1: on Monday with little light on questions, though I'm doing

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Speaker 1: another mail bag on Friday. No mail bag today, but

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be doing one on Friday, so make sure

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Speaker 1: you drop some questions in the comments. Underneath this video. Again,

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Speaker 1: I'm looking for anything about any of the stuff on

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Speaker 1: this list. If there's a ranking that you disagree with,

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Speaker 1: if this is your favorite team, or if we talked

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Speaker 1: about your favorite team at some point in the last

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and there's a thought that you had

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Speaker 1: about the team that we didn't get into in the

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Speaker 1: season preview that you just want to get into in

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Speaker 1: some more detail. Literally, anything's fair game. Drop those in

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Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. So we're going to get to a

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Speaker 1: mail bag on Friday. All right, let's talk to basketball.

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Speaker 1: So JJ Reddick's first interview with Zach Lobe again his

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Speaker 1: first long form interview since taking the job, so essentially

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Speaker 1: our first opportunity to learn about JJ's philosophy as a coach.

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Speaker 1: And so I have five major takeaways from that interview

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Speaker 1: that I want to get into before we get to

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Speaker 1: the Phoenix Sun. So number one, I think JJ is

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Speaker 1: going to pretty quickly get buy in from the team,

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Speaker 1: and it's going to be on the strength of his

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Speaker 1: work ethic. I was on in ESPN LA radio last

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Speaker 1: night with Andy Kimenenski, a friend of mine that covers

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, and he asked me when I came on like,

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Speaker 1: how is JJ going to get buy in, and then

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Speaker 1: answer to me is very simple. These guys are competitors,

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Speaker 1: and the leader of this team, Lebron James, is one

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Speaker 1: of the greatest competitors of all time, if not the greatest,

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Speaker 1: right and that means winning is what drives them, and

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Speaker 1: people like that are typically very keyed in on the

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Speaker 1: people that are in their corner and whether or not

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Speaker 1: they're doing their part to help the team win. I

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Speaker 1: think this is actually a big part of how Darvin

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Speaker 1: Ham lost the locker room in a lot of ways

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Speaker 1: over the course of the last year. I don't think

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Speaker 1: the players, in particularly the Stars, felt like Darvin was

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Speaker 1: pulling his weight. There were comments in postgame pressers about

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Speaker 1: defensive game plan, a schematic things that they were doing,

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Speaker 1: about some scouting report stuff that was off the kind

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Speaker 1: of passive aggressive comments. I don't think that the Laker

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Speaker 1: players felt like Darvin Ham was one of their foxhole guys,

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Speaker 1: someone that they could count on to contribute to the

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Speaker 1: winning context of the team. If JJ comes in quickly

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Speaker 1: and can make it clear to the players that he

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Speaker 1: is working his ass off behind the scenes and with

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Speaker 1: them to make them a better basketball team. I think

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Speaker 1: there will be immediate buy in, and I think immediately

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Speaker 1: the players will do whatever JJS asks them to do.

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Speaker 1: I think that's literally all it takes. I don't think

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Speaker 1: they care about the personality or the cachet, or whether

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Speaker 1: what your resume looks like, or the fact that he

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Speaker 1: used to play in the league. As long as those

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Speaker 1: guys feel like JJ's in their corner doing everything in

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Speaker 1: his power to help them win games, I think they

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Speaker 1: will buy in. There was an interesting quote from JJ

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Speaker 1: in the interview where he talked about how it's very

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Speaker 1: important for him and his staff to always be able

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Speaker 1: to explain the why they're doing anything. That to me

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Speaker 1: is like where you can, as a coach demonstrate that

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Speaker 1: you've done the work if you can go to your

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Speaker 1: players and you can be like, hey, we're making a

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Speaker 1: tweak to our defensive scheme, or we're gonna shift more

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Speaker 1: of our the percentage of our possessions defensively to this

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Speaker 1: coverage versus that coverage, or this concept versus that concept,

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Speaker 1: or this little detail to that detail, and you can

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Speaker 1: be like, hey, look like here's our defensive rating when

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Speaker 1: we you know, bring ad all the way up to

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Speaker 1: the level versus here's our defensive rating when we sit

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Speaker 1: ad back in a deep drop or when we hard

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Speaker 1: help off the week side versus when we stay home

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Speaker 1: off the ball, or we do this thing on the ball,

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Speaker 1: or we do this different thing on the ball, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, if you can explain, like, hey, here's a

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Speaker 1: bunch of video clips that clearly demonstrate why you know

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Speaker 1: we need to do this, or here's some clear statistical

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Speaker 1: evidence of why we need to do this. Right on

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Speaker 1: the offensive end, the same kind of thing, like, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be pairing you with bench lineups with

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Speaker 1: this group as opposed to this group, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: have you play more like early second quarter instead of

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Speaker 1: late first quarter, because if you look at these numbers,

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Speaker 1: I can see that like when I pair you with

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Speaker 1: these guys, you play really well and the lineup does

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Speaker 1: really well, And when I pair you with these guys,

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Speaker 1: you seem to struggle a little bit and the numbers

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Speaker 1: aren't as productive. If you can make it very clear

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Speaker 1: to your players that you're making your decisions based off

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Speaker 1: of work, off of research, off of data, if they

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Speaker 1: can feel like you're pulling your weight, they're going to

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Speaker 1: buy in even extending to individual game plans, they can

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Speaker 1: feel like every single night JJ's doing his part to

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Speaker 1: help them win individual regular season games with game planning.

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Speaker 1: I think as long as JJ brings that element, the

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Speaker 1: buy in will be there. And that's just not something

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Speaker 1: I'm worried about it. JJ is a psycho competitor who

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Speaker 1: everything he's ever done with the game of basketball has

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Speaker 1: always been about obsessive preparation, and so it's interesting, of

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Speaker 1: all the things with JJ, I'm not worried about him

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Speaker 1: getting buy in from the players. I think that there

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Speaker 1: might be some personality dynamics that he runs into that

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Speaker 1: could be challenging. I think there might be some like

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Speaker 1: lulls over the core so the eighty two game season

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Speaker 1: that he has to deal with, But in terms of

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Speaker 1: overall buy in from the team, I think he's going

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Speaker 1: to earn it quickly by virtue of his work Ethic

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Speaker 1: Number two. The second interesting thing that stood out to

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Speaker 1: me from the interview. JJ seems pretty keen on establishing

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Speaker 1: organizational basketball competence. This has been one of the downsides

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers in recent years, with them constantly having

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Speaker 1: turnover at the head coaching position. Right like, there's kind

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Speaker 1: of like two phases to an NBA team, Right, there's

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Speaker 1: kind of like the ownership front office side, and then

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Speaker 1: there's strictly the basketball side. The ownership front office side,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of business decisions being made. There's obviously

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Speaker 1: payroll and roster decisions being made, and there is basketball

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Speaker 1: philosophy there, and you do want to have connection between

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Speaker 1: those two groups, and we're going to talk about that

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Speaker 1: here in a minute. But then there's just the strict

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Speaker 1: basketball side, which is like, what does practice look like,

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Speaker 1: what does player development look like? What is the standards

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Speaker 1: in practice? What are these and in practices of your

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Speaker 1: basketball organization? Is it consistent down the line? Is it

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Speaker 1: something that the G League team does and the main

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Speaker 1: team does. Is it the same expectation and offseason workout

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Speaker 1: that you get in a morning shoot around somewhere during

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Speaker 1: the season In terms of just professionalism and overall basketball philosophy.

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Speaker 1: I want to see JJ bring that consistency to that

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Speaker 1: organization in a way that hasn't been there in recent years.

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Speaker 1: And he was specifically talking about that in this interview,

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Speaker 1: talking about having consistency with the G League and consistency

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Speaker 1: with player development. I think having a basketball culture get

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Speaker 1: established from the top down will help him squeeze more

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Speaker 1: out of the sponge. And I think one of the

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Speaker 1: big ways that you're going to see that is after

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Speaker 1: the top guys on the roster, right, like having Lebron

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Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis on the floor with Austin Reeves

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Speaker 1: and Dangela Russell is going to go a long way

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Speaker 1: to winning basketball games, regardless of the surrounding context. Darvin

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Speaker 1: Ham got fired after the Lakers looked pretty awesome over

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Speaker 1: the last more than half the season, right, That wasn't why.

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Speaker 1: There was a lot of reasons why Darvin got fired.

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Speaker 1: I got a big one that I'm gonna share with

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Speaker 1: you guys here in a minute. But like the team

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Speaker 1: was winning in spite of that. Where you will see

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Speaker 1: real advantage and organizational culture getting set properly by JJ

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Speaker 1: is after those guys, So like in the time after

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Speaker 1: Lebron is retired in the short term, when guys are

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Speaker 1: in and out of the lineup, like that was a

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Speaker 1: big problem over the last couple of years. Anytime the

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Speaker 1: Lakers lost core rotation pieces, they struggled, and a big

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Speaker 1: part of that was down the organization. There wasn't the

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Speaker 1: same quality of like just basketball approach. And if you

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Speaker 1: have those consistent standards in practices, then there's a better

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Speaker 1: expectation for players to step in from lower levels of

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Speaker 1: the organization into bigger roles and to have some success.

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Speaker 1: And I was really by that in the interview Number three.

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Speaker 1: I do think that JJ will be a useful basketball

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Speaker 1: voice in the front office. This is a front office

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Speaker 1: that is very it's like a mom and pop shot,

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Speaker 1: right like Roblinka is a player agent, it's not necessarily

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Speaker 1: what I would call a basketball expert, right Like, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of people that are in Genie Buss's ear

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Speaker 1: that are making basketball you know, kind of like providing

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Speaker 1: basketball council, so to speak, that aren't necessarily people that

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Speaker 1: are down grinding NBA film and metrics and trying to

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Speaker 1: learn as much as they can about the modern NBA game.

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Speaker 1: And you know, there's Joey and Jesse have done a

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Speaker 1: really nice job and they've been a little boost in

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Speaker 1: that department. But like having JJ Reddick as just a

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Speaker 1: guy that is deeply and profoundly involved in the in

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Speaker 1: the modern game and is nerdy about it and wants

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Speaker 1: to talk about it. And is willing to be a

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Speaker 1: pillar for that front office. I think that will go

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Speaker 1: a long way towards helping them continue in you that

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Speaker 1: basketball philosophy and culture that we talked about, in bridging

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Speaker 1: that over to the front office, because again, there's a

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Speaker 1: style of play, there's a general expectation on the basketball

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Speaker 1: front that extends down the organization. You need to bring

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Speaker 1: in players that fit into that, and there's been a

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Speaker 1: lot of decision making by the front office that has

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Speaker 1: been a lot more about agency politics than about actually

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Speaker 1: fitting a basketball culture in philosophy. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: it's been abundantly clear over the last few years that

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Speaker 1: the Lakers don't really have an organizational basketball philosophy, right Like,

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Speaker 1: they just keep going after different types of players every summer,

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Speaker 1: and that's a clear sign that you don't really have

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Speaker 1: a baseline foundation a basketball belief that you're making these

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Speaker 1: decisions based off of. So that's kind of a combo

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Speaker 1: with the second point that I was making in terms

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Speaker 1: of establishing organizational competence, but it extends over to the

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Speaker 1: front office where I just think JJ is going to

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Speaker 1: help establish a better basketball culture within the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Speaker 1: Number four JJ already seems to have a philosophy for

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Speaker 1: how to get more out of this team. He talked

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Speaker 1: about off ball movement. He talks specifically about Lebron being

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Speaker 1: more active offball as a screener. He talks a lot

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Speaker 1: about generating more three point shots. Now that's a little delicate.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to get too much further into that

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Speaker 1: right now, because I want to talk more about the

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Speaker 1: overarching concept of like hunting three point shots when we

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Speaker 1: get into the Phoenix Suns thing, because they were a

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Speaker 1: very low three point volume team last year, and so

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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking a lot about the three

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Speaker 1: point shot here later on in the show. Well, one

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Speaker 1: of the big ones that stood out to me, he

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Speaker 1: talked about generating margins, and he mentioned the obvious fact

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Speaker 1: that one of the good margins for the Lakers last

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Speaker 1: year was the free throw line. Right, Lakers are a

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Speaker 1: team that doesn't foul and gets to the foul line

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Speaker 1: a lot, and so they constantly have large free throw margins.

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Speaker 1: I know that every conspiracy theorist out there thinks it's

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Speaker 1: because the league is force feeding the Lakers free throws,

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Speaker 1: but that's just not actually what's happening. It's a basketball

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Speaker 1: strength of that team. But as JJ pointed out, that's

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Speaker 1: pretty much their only margin right now. It's the only

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Speaker 1: like little thing that is outside of like typical half

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Speaker 1: court scoring in defense that the Lakers are squeezing extra

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Speaker 1: points out of. Right. And one of the things he

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Speaker 1: talked about was increasing their offensive rebound output. So the

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Speaker 1: Lakers were twenty ninth in offensive rebound percentage last year,

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Speaker 1: and there's a reason for that. The large part had

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Speaker 1: to do with the fact that they were a bad

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Speaker 1: transition defense the previous year, and I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of it was like, if we stop crashing the offensive

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Speaker 1: glass and we just all get back on defense, then

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Speaker 1: we'll stop getting bludgeoned in transition. And like that was

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Speaker 1: just you know, kind of like unplugging one hole to

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Speaker 1: plug another, right, And so that doesn't necessarily move your

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Speaker 1: basketball team forward. One of the specific things he talked

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Speaker 1: about was corner crashes. That is exactly what it sounds like, right,

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Speaker 1: So when the shot goes up, the guys out of

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Speaker 1: the corner will sprint in to try to get an

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Speaker 1: offensive rebound before they go back on defense. That can

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Speaker 1: work and drive additional possessions and can still maintain a

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Speaker 1: quality transition defense as long as you have attention to

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Speaker 1: detail with your floor balance. So, for instance, like if

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Speaker 1: you crash out of the corners and you have a

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Speaker 1: ball screen where Lebron's going downhill and AD's rolling downhill,

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Speaker 1: and there's one guy above the break and he's kind

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Speaker 1: of like fading off to the wing to try to

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Speaker 1: create more space, and you have a missed layup and

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Speaker 1: Ad goes to the offensive glass and both guys crash

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Speaker 1: out of the corner. You could pretty quickly have d

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Speaker 1: lo or Austin be the only guy back as they're

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Speaker 1: sprinting the other way. But if you have your floor

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Speaker 1: balance set up properly, like, oh hey, like Lebron and

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Speaker 1: Ad are both barreling down towards the rim, and Lebron's

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Speaker 1: driving on this left side, so I'm going to relocate

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Speaker 1: out of the corner too, above the break, so that

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Speaker 1: we constantly have two guys that are above the break

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Speaker 1: to be able to get back in transition defense, then

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Speaker 1: you crash with your other three because as long as

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Speaker 1: those guys can stop the ball, that gives you time

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Speaker 1: for the other three guys to recover back spread out too,

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Speaker 1: because again you're taking away the ball first, then you're

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Speaker 1: taking away the basket, and then you're spreading out to shooters.

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Speaker 1: And so as long as you have your first two

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Speaker 1: transition defense players that can take away the ball in

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Speaker 1: the basket, then your guys that crash out of the corner,

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Speaker 1: whoever it is that slashing to the basket can sprint

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Speaker 1: back and spray out to shooters. And so it is

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Speaker 1: possible to be a good offensive rebounding team and a

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Speaker 1: good transition defense as long as you have attention to detail.

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Speaker 1: And so it's like, don't just recklessly crash for the

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Speaker 1: sake of crashing. Those corner crashes they can be part

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Speaker 1: of your sprint back. Right, you're sprinting into the like

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Speaker 1: kind of into that foul line area to see if

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Speaker 1: a long rebound comes off if it's not, their sprint

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Speaker 1: back in defense, right, and just paying more attention to

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Speaker 1: the floor balance piece. A lot of possessions last year

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Speaker 1: where the Lakers had an empty above the break area

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Speaker 1: because they didn't have anybody that likes to pick and pop,

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Speaker 1: and so because Ad doesn't shoot anymore, and so in

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Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes's rolling and Christian Wood was hurt all year,

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Speaker 1: So like they just had a lot of situations where

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Speaker 1: their floor balance was off, and that can cause issues

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Speaker 1: if you're crashing the offensive glass. But if you have

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Speaker 1: that floor balance and you are crashing out of the

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Speaker 1: right spots, you can generate extra margin there. And again,

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Speaker 1: like these games are close a lot at the time,

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Speaker 1: and squeezing an extra three to four possessions out of

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Speaker 1: the game can go a long way towards helping you win.

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Speaker 1: The Lebron off ballpiece, it's interesting because there is value

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Speaker 1: there and Lebron's been an off all a lot, and

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Speaker 1: I like Lebron off the ball. He's a very good screener.

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Speaker 1: He's kind of like souped up Draymond when he rolls

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Speaker 1: into the basket, and he can make plays, you know,

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Speaker 1: with Austin Reeves two man game, and he's got good

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Speaker 1: chemistry with d Angela Russell as well. There's all sorts

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Speaker 1: of stuff that you can do with Lebron as a screener,

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Speaker 1: and obviously having a real movement shooter like Dalton connect

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Speaker 1: can add even another element to that, right, But I

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Speaker 1: actually want Lebron on the ball more. I think it's

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Speaker 1: just about finding ways to use Lebron on the ball

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Speaker 1: in a way that accentuates his regular season strengths. This

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Speaker 1: is another thing I was talking about with the Indy

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Speaker 1: Kamenski last night. Like the Lebron as we know is

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to leverage his athletic gifts very often

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Speaker 1: in the regular season, and that manifested on the ball

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Speaker 1: sometimes on offense, where like I used to complain about

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Speaker 1: this all the time in the last couple of years,

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Speaker 1: where like Lebron will come off of a ball screen

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Speaker 1: and not really look to turn the corner because he's

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Speaker 1: kind of conserving energy, and then he'll just try to

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Speaker 1: jam a pocket pass in that's just not open because

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Speaker 1: he hasn't engaged the screen defender the way you're supposed

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Speaker 1: to by getting downhill, and so it'll be a turnover.

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Speaker 1: AD will catch in a bunch of traffic and AD

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Speaker 1: will turn it over or something like that. And those

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Speaker 1: were just ending some ugly possessions or some of that

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Speaker 1: in the Denver series in Game two, if I remember correctly,

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Speaker 1: that part of that second half run was Lebron getting

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Speaker 1: a little lazy in his pick and roll decisions there

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Speaker 1: in that third quarter stretch, just because like he's fatigued, right,

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Speaker 1: and so if you can find a way for Lebron

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Speaker 1: to weaponize his brain, which is something that is always

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Speaker 1: going to be there for him, then I like the

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Speaker 1: idea of the ball being in Lebron's hands more. What

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Speaker 1: does that mean? That means it's got to be a

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Speaker 1: situation where Lebron is being used the way he was

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Speaker 1: being used with Team USA, which is have Lebron operate

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Speaker 1: as a decision maker from the top of the key

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Speaker 1: while you're running off ball action. That way, it's not

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Speaker 1: about Lebron pressuring the rim. Obviously, he can look to

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Speaker 1: turn and score every once in a while if he's

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Speaker 1: got the like strength and the wherewithal to do it.

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Speaker 1: But if you're running off ball action like a wide

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Speaker 1: pin down with Anthony Davis and Dalton connector Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: and Austin Reeves, and Lebron can just kind of sit

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Speaker 1: at the top of the key and just kind of

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Speaker 1: look to make those passes, just like he was doing

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Speaker 1: with Team USA. Lebron can do a lot of damage

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Speaker 1: there and he did. You saw it with Tim USA.

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Speaker 1: He can pick defenses apart, catching them slipping in their

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Speaker 1: switches or in whatever screen coverage they're running, he can

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Speaker 1: catch team slipping and he doesn't have to move a

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Speaker 1: muscle with his legs. I mean, he doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: run or try to bully his way downhill or post

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Speaker 1: a guy up. He can just sit there and make

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Speaker 1: a pass fake and get the ball where he needs

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Speaker 1: to get it. And so again, I do want to

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Speaker 1: see Lebron off ball, but I think that the the

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Speaker 1: best way to use Lebron at this phase of his

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Speaker 1: career is to have him be a decision maker, and

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Speaker 1: that in a lot of cases kind of calls for

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Speaker 1: him to be on the ball, just in a way

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Speaker 1: that doesn't also require him to pressure the wrint. We

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Speaker 1: all know Lebron can't big moments, clutch or when he's

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Speaker 1: just feeling good. In a big national TV game, Lebron

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Speaker 1: is going to be able to pressure the rim and

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Speaker 1: do all those things on ball that you want, but

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Speaker 1: we also know that he's going to conserve some energy

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Speaker 1: in that department, and so setting him up as the

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Speaker 1: fulkroum of off ball action as opposed to actually being

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Speaker 1: off the ball to go a long way towards weaponizing

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Speaker 1: that strike and then fit the final takeaway that I

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Speaker 1: had from the presser was the big news drop, which

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Speaker 1: is that JJ is going to keep the starting lineup

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Speaker 1: from the end of last year austinvesd Angela, Russell, Ruey, Hatchamura,

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Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Was no hesitation from JJ

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Speaker 1: when he was asked by Zach Low. Here's a crazy

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Speaker 1: stat for you, guys. This is the Darvin Ham point

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Speaker 1: that I was gonna make from earlier. That lineup Austin Dilo, Rui, Lebron,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis did not play a single minute in the

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Speaker 1: first forty three games of the season. They went twenty

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Speaker 1: three and ten when those guys started. That's a seventy

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Speaker 1: percent win percentage, which would have been higher than everyone

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Speaker 1: in the league last year except for Boston, and Darvin

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Speaker 1: did not use them for more than half the season.

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Speaker 1: That's the kind of like straight up sabotage that Darvin

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Speaker 1: Ham was doing to this team last year. Not a

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Speaker 1: single minute, guys, not like, oh he didn't start him,

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Speaker 1: Not a single minute did he put his five best

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Speaker 1: players on the floor together. It's truly confounding stuff. But anyways,

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Speaker 1: some encouraging numbers, right, twenty three and ten when those

433
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,200
Speaker 1: guys started, so that makes sense that JJ would lean

434
00:21:58,240 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: on that as his starting group to start the year

435
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,400
Speaker 1: unlock a lot of stuff on offense. When Darvin did

436
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,560
Speaker 1: finally make the lineup change on January twenty first, the

437
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 1: Lakers from that point forward had the fifth best record

438
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,239
Speaker 1: in all of basketball and an offensive rating of one

439
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 1: to nineteen, which ranked third in the NBA over that span. Now,

440
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: hard to figure out why you're partnering Lebron and Ad

441
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,239
Speaker 1: too incredibly versatile offensive forwards who can play both on

442
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: and off the ball with two really good skill guards.

443
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 1: Austin and Di Lo are very different, but they are

444
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,160
Speaker 1: both really effective skill guards that benefit from the rim

445
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 1: pressure that Lebron and Ad bring to the table. And

446
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:34,880
Speaker 1: then what kind of tied it all together was Ruy

447
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: Hotchimura figuring out his role, just becoming a really reliable

448
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 1: catch and shoot guy on the weak side, and also

449
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 1: understanding when to cut along the baseline. It's very simple

450
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: decision for a baseline cutter, for a spacer from the corner,

451
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,479
Speaker 1: it's if they're running a ball screen. The Lakers run

452
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,160
Speaker 1: a ton of ball screens, and the roleman comes downhill

453
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 1: and Ruy's man goes over to tag the roller. Ruey

454
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: needs to cut along the baseline so that ad or Lebron,

455
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:01,400
Speaker 1: who ever came on the roll, can drop it off

456
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: to Rui and he can dunk it along the baseline.

457
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: It's a higher percentage play than the corner three. Now,

458
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,760
Speaker 1: it's a tough decision because you have to make the

459
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,679
Speaker 1: read based on how much the lowman commits. If the

460
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: lowman just kind of steps over but he's still on

461
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,880
Speaker 1: the baseline, it might end up being too much traffic.

462
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 1: Although Rui's still got some good cuts off of that

463
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: where he cut behind the guy and come around on

464
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: the other side of the basket. That's how where we

465
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: got all those reverse dunks. But like a lot of times,

466
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: you have to make that read where it's like, eh,

467
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,159
Speaker 1: it's still a little clogged in there. I'm going to

468
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 1: stay out here in the corner, or oh man, this

469
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:33,240
Speaker 1: is wide open. I got to make that baseline cut.

470
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,120
Speaker 1: Ruy got really good at that. All those five guys

471
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,520
Speaker 1: kind of fit together perfectly. They really took off offensively.

472
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,160
Speaker 1: So I do think JJ is making the right decision here.

473
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,199
Speaker 1: In the short term, they can win enough regular season

474
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,120
Speaker 1: games with that group, provided they stay healthy. They will

475
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: stay afloat in the regular season. I believe in that group.

476
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,400
Speaker 1: Don't fix what is in broke is basically the ethos there.

477
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: But I want to be clear, I do not think

478
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:00,840
Speaker 1: that that starting lineup can win four or playoff rounds.

479
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 1: It has some glaring issues on the defensive end. Now

480
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: what's interesting this is like really fascinating to me. They

481
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 1: had a really solid defensive rating in the large sample.

482
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: That lineup had a one to ten point five defensive

483
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,399
Speaker 1: rating last year in almost four hundred minutes. That's a

484
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: higher defensive rating than any team in the league had

485
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: last year except for Minnesota. So they were a good

486
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: defense with that group, but it was mostly because they

487
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 1: were really big and because Anthony Davis cleans up a

488
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,080
Speaker 1: lot of messes. In the large sample, they were very

489
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: vulnerable to specific matchups. Like Austin was their best point

490
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:42,200
Speaker 1: of attack defender in that lineup, and he competed did

491
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,199
Speaker 1: the best he could. It was admirable, but he was

492
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:47,919
Speaker 1: only okay at it for obvious reasons. That is a

493
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: role that is typically filled by a professional defender. Just

494
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,680
Speaker 1: go down the Western Conference standings. Who's the guy doing

495
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: that job for the Oklahoma City thunder Lou Dort a

496
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: professional defender. Who's the guy doing that for Denver? Well

497
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 1: was CACP last year? Right, that is a guy that

498
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: maybe isn't a professional defender, but is a professional two

499
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,040
Speaker 1: way player and is a very good guard defender and

500
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,879
Speaker 1: a very good athlete, right Denver. Now, Christian Brown professional

501
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 1: defender right Minnesota? Who's doing that job? Jad McDaniel's professional defender.

502
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: Who's doing that job for the Los Angeles Clippers? Terrence

503
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 1: Mann professional defender who's doing that for the MAVs last year?

504
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior, that's a professional defender right for the Pels,

505
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: Herb Jones for the Kings, Kean Ellis for the Warriors,

506
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins. You guys get the point. Aside from like

507
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 1: the Sons, who were another team that leaned entirely into

508
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: offense and also lost in the first round, like you

509
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 1: have professional defenders doing that job. Austin is a skill guard.

510
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: Deploying him as your best permitter defender is a misallocation

511
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,639
Speaker 1: of resources. Now, you have to right now because you

512
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: don't have any options. But that is something that I

513
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 1: think needs to get addressed in the long run. The

514
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: reason why they don't have any options is because de

515
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: Lo can't do it, sure as how can't do it,

516
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:05,360
Speaker 1: and Ruey is specifically terrible at tracking offensive players around screens.

517
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing that again, it's fascinating that they

518
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,160
Speaker 1: were good in the large sample They even defended Denver well.

519
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: In the first round series. They held Denver to a

520
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: one to thirteen point four offensive rating. That's really good

521
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 1: for against that Denver offense. It's nine points better than

522
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: they did last year. The previous year when they got Sweat,

523
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,120
Speaker 1: they had like a one to twenty two offensive rating,

524
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: So like they did pretty good. Austin did a really

525
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,920
Speaker 1: nice job on Jamal Murray throughout the series, held him

526
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 1: well below his normal amount of his normal like efficiency.

527
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: But Ruey Hatchi Mura got like absolutely worked by Michael

528
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: Porter Junior, constantly losing him off screens for easy three

529
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,920
Speaker 1: point looks, including in massive moments when they couldn't afford

530
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 1: to make mistakes and at the end of games. Regardless

531
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: of how good Jamal Murray did in the short in

532
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 1: the large sample size, in terms of Austin holding him

533
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 1: in check at the end of games, Jamal Murray was

534
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,200
Speaker 1: able to get to his spot's relative hively comfortably against

535
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: Austin because Austin has certain physical limitations. Right, So even

536
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,359
Speaker 1: though they got plenty of stops in the large sample, again,

537
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,159
Speaker 1: good defensive rating in the regular season, good defensive rating

538
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 1: for the entire series against Denver, but in clutch situations

539
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: against Denver, they allowed a one sixty two point five

540
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: offensive rating that is like abysmally bat Remember I can't

541
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: remember the exact stat off the top of my head,

542
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: but in Game two, Jamal's first game winner, the Lakers

543
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: got one stop down the stretch. It was the play

544
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: where Lebron kind of like got that tipped pass on

545
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray and then went out for a dunk. But

546
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 1: I want to say, Denver scored on nine of their

547
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: last ten possessions with that one stop being the Lebron stop. So, like,

548
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how good your defense was in the

549
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 1: large sample. If Michael Porter Junior keeps getting free from

550
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 1: Ruey because Rui doesn't know how to track shooters around screens,

551
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: and if Austin isn't really capable of making the best

552
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: guards in the league feel uncomfortable when he's trying to

553
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: chase them around, no fault of Austin. It's just not

554
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 1: a job that he should be doing right. And so

555
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,160
Speaker 1: even though I think that lineup is JJ's best path

556
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: for the start of the regular season, I still think

557
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: the Lakers inevitably need to convert one of d Lo

558
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: or Rui into a legitimate two way athlete. If Austin

559
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: is the second best perimeter defender on your team, next

560
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 1: to a real athlete, then I think they can reach

561
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 1: the necessary level of defense to win four rounds in

562
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But if they just run it back, I

563
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,479
Speaker 1: do not think they have a championship ceiling. We are

564
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: going to be getting to the Lakers very soon in

565
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 1: our power rankings, and when we get to them, there

566
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: they're in this tier that if things go right tier,

567
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: and for them, the main thing that needs to go

568
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: right is they need to hit on a trade. They

569
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 1: have two first round picks that they have access to,

570
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: some talented young players, some mid level salaries. They've got

571
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: the means with which to do it. They just need

572
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: to hit on that deal. They need a legitimate upgrade

573
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: at one of those starting spots, the starting two or

574
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: the starting three, in a way that's slow everybody into

575
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: more achievable Roles defensively, but overall, I want to be clear,

576
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: I liked the interview. I'm generally very encouraged by J. J. Reddick,

577
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: and I think he's going to do a good job

578
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,479
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. All right, let's move on to our

579
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: power rankings. Number ten, the Phoenix Suns. They lost Drew Eubanks,

580
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon Nase, your Little David Roddy, and Thaddius Young.

581
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 1: They added Ryan Dunn, a late first round pick who's

582
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: looked pretty solid in his summer workouts. Kind of an

583
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: interesting young player, Tys Jones and Monte Morris. The much

584
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: talked about point guard upgrades that the Sons have been

585
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: clamoring for, We're going to talk a lot about that

586
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: concept today. And then they upgraded their backup center position,

587
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: obviously turning Drew you Banks into Mason Plumley's just bigger,

588
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: better athletes, just a better backup center than Drew you

589
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 1: Banks was. So let's start with the point guard concept.

590
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: How much do the Suns need a point guard? It's

591
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: a complicated topic because Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are

592
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: both really high level playmakers in my opinion, but playing

593
00:29:57,560 --> 00:29:59,959
Speaker 1: point guard goes a lot further than just play man.

594
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: The Suns were specifically struggling with ball pressure in the

595
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: World Series, so they averaged over fourteen turnovers per game,

596
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: that was the third worst mark among playoff teams. They

597
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: gave up twenty points per game off of turnovers, that

598
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: was the worst among playoff teams. And even on possessions

599
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 1: where they didn't actually lose control of the basketball, they

600
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: often struggled to get into their sets until laid into

601
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 1: the clock. They constantly looked rushed, they constantly looked out

602
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: of sorts, and then all you got to do is

603
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: look at the offensive rating and realize that they were

604
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: really struggling to score the ball against Minnesota. Right, So,

605
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,040
Speaker 1: having a professional point guard who has spent every day

606
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 1: of his life navigating ball pressure and getting a basketball

607
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: team into their offense, that would certainly help things. Right.

608
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 1: Those types of players, the Ties Jones types, the Monty

609
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: Moores types, they've just been facing physical ball pressure since

610
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 1: they were kids. It's all they've ever done. Whereas Devin

611
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,640
Speaker 1: Booker and Kevin Durant are scorers that have also learned

612
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: to play on the ball and have also faced a

613
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,640
Speaker 1: good amount of ball pressure. But that's not necessarily like

614
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,240
Speaker 1: what they've grown up doing as basketball players, right, Guys

615
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 1: like Monti Morris, guys like Tias Jones, they don't get rushed.

616
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: That's their superpower as point guards. They're going to methodically

617
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: navigate ball pressure and get you into the half court

618
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 1: and get you into your stuff. Here's where that gets tricky, though.

619
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: That's kind of the only benefit the Sun's need from

620
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,959
Speaker 1: a point guard. Once they actually get into their stuff.

621
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:31,000
Speaker 1: You want kd and Devin Booker with the ball. They're

622
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 1: incredible playmakers. You want them running your ball screens, you

623
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 1: want them coming off of your dribble handoff. So it's tricky,

624
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: and the thing is is that Tias Jones is probably

625
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: going to start. In his press release, he specifically used

626
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: the phrase starting point guard. He also said, quote, the

627
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: Sun's opportunity is where I can best maximize my value

628
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: for a return to free agency next year. It's very

629
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: clear Tis picked Phoenix because he thinks he's gonna win

630
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: a lot of games and go on a playoff run,

631
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: but also have a large role as the starting point guard.

632
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 1: That's part of the agreement that was made to get

633
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: him to take a veteran minimum deal to go to Phoenix,

634
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: so he's probably going to start and play a lot.

635
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 1: And that is a large role to give to a

636
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 1: player that essentially ties you into a three guard look

637
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 1: simply so that you can handle ball pressure better. And

638
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I do believe in three guard looks

639
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 1: as long as you have a very physical, imposing front line.

640
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: We were just talking about this with Memphis. I think

641
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: Jaw and Marcus Smart and Desmond Band can all play

642
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: together because you're playing Jaron Jackson at the four next

643
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: to another massive center that can kind of offset some

644
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 1: of the size limitations of that backcourt. Team USA is

645
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: a great example. You're playing Steph Curry, Devin Booker, and

646
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday. It's three guards, but you have Lebron James

647
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiid or Lebron James and Anthony Davis as

648
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,680
Speaker 1: the front line. That offsets the three guard concept to

649
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: a certain extent, right, especially in the small sample when

650
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,720
Speaker 1: Lebron's actually playing hard. Kevin ur and Musef Nurkic are

651
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: not that type of frontline. They're gonna have a lot

652
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: of pressure on them here to play big, to be

653
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: big and physical, to battle on the glass, to do

654
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: a lot of work on that frontline. It's just a

655
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: lot to ask. I do think Tias will really help

656
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. A lot of possessions in the

657
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: Minnesota series died in the hands of Roy O'Neil, or

658
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: died in the hands of Eric Gordon, died in the

659
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: hands of Josha Kog. They'd bring him into the action

660
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: as they were constantly trying to hunt, like Carl Towns

661
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: or Mike Conley, and those guys would hedge and recover.

662
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: There'd be a little delay in the switch and they'd

663
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: swing it over to one of those guys in the

664
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 1: possession just would fall apart from there because they couldn't

665
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: capitalize on it right. Tias Jones will get them up

666
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 1: the floor into their stuff, and he will be better

667
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: at taking advantage of the openings that come his way

668
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: after he gives away the basketball. He shot forty nine

669
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 1: percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes last year forty

670
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 1: nine percent field goals, so he makes half of his

671
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: open threes. He has a nasty floater that he hits

672
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: over fifty percent. He finishes well at the rim for

673
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: a guard. All that's good. He's not the deadly high

674
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: volume three point shooter that Grayson Allen is. But I

675
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: think the ball handling improvement is enough to make it

676
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: an offensive upgrade. Maybe not a massive offensive upgrade, but

677
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: it will be somewhat of an offensive upgrade. But it's

678
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: just also possible that this shift in the way you're

679
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: deploying your resources opens up a bunch of other issues.

680
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,399
Speaker 1: Tyas is not a good rebounder. He's not a guy

681
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,839
Speaker 1: that's gonna move the needle for you on the defensive end.

682
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,319
Speaker 1: And so again, like it might be a marginal offensive upgrade. Again,

683
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 1: don't don't underestimate Grayson Allen in this role here, because

684
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: like what he was doing setting ghost screens and just

685
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 1: being a fucking laser from three was a huge part

686
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: of their offense last year, right, And Tyas Jones is

687
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,439
Speaker 1: a guy that can knock down wide open catches you threes,

688
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 1: but he's not a guy that's going to be sliding

689
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,320
Speaker 1: his feet and quickly getting He's not a movement shooter

690
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: the way that Grayson Allen can be. Right, So, like,

691
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: I do think it's an upgrade overall, but like it's

692
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,440
Speaker 1: just a big role to devote to a player that

693
00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,839
Speaker 1: gives you a marginal offensive improvement while not solving the

694
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 1: real issue. So what is the real issue? What went wrong?

695
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: Versus Minnesota? Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Grayson Allen, Kevin Durant

696
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: Yusuf Nurkic was a great lineup all year. There were

697
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 1: twenty one lineups in the NBA that played at least

698
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: three hundred minutes. Those guys, at plus eleven point one

699
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: points per one hundred posessions ranked fourth out of twenty

700
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,479
Speaker 1: one lineups. They had a one to twenty five offensive rating,

701
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 1: but they got absolutely thrashed by Minnesota. So what happened?

702
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,400
Speaker 1: It mostly came down to physical domination. Some of it

703
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 1: was the ball pressure stuff we were talking about, right, Like,

704
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: just that same lineup had a ninety three offensive rating

705
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,240
Speaker 1: versus Minnesota couldn't score one twenty five in the regular season,

706
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: ninety three in the playoffs. Too many turnovers, too many

707
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: possessions that started too late in the stock clock. It just

708
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: wasn't working. But the physical domination went way deeper than that.

709
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: They gave up an offensive rebound on thirty nine point

710
00:35:55,719 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: two percent of Minnesota's missus. Almost forty percent of Minnesota's

711
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 1: misses ended up back with Minnesota that was dead last

712
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: among playoff teams. They also only rebounded twenty one percent

713
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,839
Speaker 1: of their own misses, that was third worst among playoff teams,

714
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:15,440
Speaker 1: so they weren't getting any of it back on the

715
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: offensive glass. On the other end, they got thrashed in

716
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: the paint. They gave up fifty one points in the

717
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 1: paint per game, that was the second worst mark among

718
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:27,239
Speaker 1: playoff teams. Then we talked about turnovers earlier, just they

719
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,400
Speaker 1: gave up the most points off of turnovers out of

720
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: any of the playoff teams per game. And the real

721
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: damaging piece was their defense was just awful. They allowed Minnesota,

722
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 1: by the way, who was seventeenth in offense in the

723
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:44,360
Speaker 1: regular season, who consistently looked terrible on offense against both

724
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: Denver and Dallas Phoenix, allowed those guys to score one

725
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty three points per one under possessions. It

726
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 1: was by far the worst defensive rating among playoff teams.

727
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:57,359
Speaker 1: Guys were constantly getting worked off the ball, they were

728
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: getting back cut, getting ran by for offensive rebounds. They

729
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: weren't picking up and transition at all. I'm gonnahow you guys.

730
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,319
Speaker 1: A sequence from Game four an elimination game where they

731
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,800
Speaker 1: just straight up forgot to guard their man three times

732
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,279
Speaker 1: in four possessions and gave up a bucket on every

733
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,959
Speaker 1: single one of them. And again, this was a bad

734
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: Minnesota offense and they shredded Phoenix. So we can talk

735
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,640
Speaker 1: about point guards, and we can talk about ball pressure

736
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 1: and offensive talent and all those things all we want,

737
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:27,560
Speaker 1: but they lost to Minnesota because they got bullied physically.

738
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,239
Speaker 1: And the concerning part is all year long, I talked

739
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 1: about Phoenix as a team that was thin and that

740
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 1: would struggle to win rock fights in the postseason, and

741
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:38,320
Speaker 1: that ended up being their downfall. They ran into a bigger,

742
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: stronger team, got punched in the mouth, and they wilt

743
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: it underneath that, And I don't see how anything that

744
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 1: they did over the summer can address that issue. They

745
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: will inevitably run into a team, even if it's not Minnesota,

746
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: they will inevitably run into a big, physical team that

747
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 1: pushes them on that level, and they're gonna have to

748
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,080
Speaker 1: rise to that equation at that occasion. So how does

749
00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: Phoenix unlock their full potential relative to their talent? To me,

750
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: it comes down to two things. One, they have to

751
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: be willing to do the work to win ugly. The

752
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 1: Sun's played some of the prettiest basketball in the league

753
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,359
Speaker 1: last year when they had it going. If so much

754
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 1: offensive skill on the floor, some beautiful advantage basketball, some

755
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,279
Speaker 1: beautiful drive and kick possessions, right, but inevitably they're gonna

756
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,760
Speaker 1: run into a Minnesota or Denver or a different Western

757
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,479
Speaker 1: Conference team that will drag them down into the mud.

758
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 1: They have to be able to win games like that.

759
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: That means taking the defensive end of the floor seriously

760
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: from day one. You can't be making elementary school defensive

761
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 1: mistakes in an elimination game because you're not serious on

762
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:42,319
Speaker 1: that end of the floor. Some of these mistakes I'm

763
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: gonna show you are laughable. Like all I talked about

764
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 1: them not picking up in transition, those are on made baskets.

765
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: Wait till you guys see these clips are crazy. You

766
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,040
Speaker 1: can't be getting sliced and diced by a mediocre offense

767
00:38:56,080 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: like Minnesota. The second piece of that is winning fifty balls.

768
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,240
Speaker 1: You were twentieth in defensive rebounding in the regular season,

769
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:06,320
Speaker 1: so I'm not surprised that you struggled the defensive rebound.

770
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 1: You couldn't defensive rebound all year, so of course you

771
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 1: struggled against Minnesota, and all of that is going to

772
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 1: take a buy in down the roster, all the stars,

773
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:18,240
Speaker 1: all the role players, actively pursuing the basketball whenever it's available,

774
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 1: being willing to get down and get dirty. That's number

775
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 1: one really comes down to. They have to be willing

776
00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 1: to do the work to win ugly. Secondly, on the

777
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: offensive end, they got to play advantage basketball. The Sons

778
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 1: were at their best when they were moving the ball around.

779
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 1: Their assists rate, this was a crazy stat. Their assist

780
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: rate was six percent higher in wins compared with losses.

781
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: It's one of the largest disparities in the league. I

782
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: looked around. Most of the teams are like one or

783
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:49,720
Speaker 1: two percent different, six percent higher in wins than losses.

784
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,759
Speaker 1: When they hunted advantages and played drive and kick, they

785
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 1: looked better. There's an interesting conversation to have about the

786
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:59,440
Speaker 1: running of sets. This was something that we heard from

787
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 1: KD after the Serbia game, right He talked about how like, oh,

788
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,879
Speaker 1: you know, it was really fascinating. We didn't really run

789
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:07,800
Speaker 1: anything down the end of that game. We just trusted

790
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 1: each other and we just played basketball. And here's the

791
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 1: thing that Serbia team that was real, high leverage basketball,

792
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 1: and that Serbia team was legit. They punched Tusa in

793
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 1: the mouth and brought the absolute best out of them

794
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter. They're not Minnesota on defense, and

795
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:28,840
Speaker 1: against that Serbian team, playing kind of freelance basketball was

796
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:33,359
Speaker 1: enough because they were able to consistently get enough advantages

797
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:38,240
Speaker 1: just by playing basketball. But when you're playing against really,

798
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:43,880
Speaker 1: really really dominant, athletic, massive defenses, you're going to have

799
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:47,880
Speaker 1: a harder time finding those advantages. And so to Katie's point,

800
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: like I agree with him that, like you don't necessarily

801
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:56,760
Speaker 1: have to call plays or run intricate five man action

802
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: to run quality offense as long as you're able to

803
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: get an advantage. But against teams that are not giving

804
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: much in the way of advantages, that have the talent

805
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 1: to make things harder on you, you have to find a

806
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: way to make things harder on them. And the way

807
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: to do that is to run more three man action,

808
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 1: to run more side to side, getting multiple interchanges on

809
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 1: the same possession, running off ball action, making it at

810
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: least harder for the defense to do what they're doing.

811
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: And so to Katie's point, it's about balance and about

812
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:37,279
Speaker 1: understanding time and situation. Okay, we're playing really good in

813
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 1: the flow right now, let's stick with it. Or hey, guys,

814
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: we're playing in the flow and we're really struggling to

815
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 1: get advantages. This isn't working. This is where we have

816
00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,520
Speaker 1: to settle down and run our stuff right and kind

817
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: of feeling that out is a big part of what

818
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:56,280
Speaker 1: makes a successful basketball team. Generating more quality three point looks.

819
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,400
Speaker 1: These suns were twenty fifth and three point volume. This

820
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,879
Speaker 1: is also a delicate topic because you can't just take

821
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 1: threes for the sake of taking threes. They need to

822
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,920
Speaker 1: be quality threes. I tweeted this stat out this morning.

823
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 1: Eight of the top twelve three point attempts teams per

824
00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 1: game missed the playoffs last year, eight out of the

825
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: top twelve, So there's no proof that if you just

826
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,439
Speaker 1: take a ton of threes you're gonna win games. Now.

827
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, the top two teams in three point volume

828
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: were Boston in Dallas, and they actually went to the finals, right,

829
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 1: But just go back one previous year and it was

830
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: like Miami was tenth and Denver I think was twenty fifth,

831
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: So there's no real correlation there necessarily, but there's a

832
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: mandatory minimum. Right, Like, just because you don't want to

833
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:44,360
Speaker 1: be jacking up threes for the take of for the

834
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: sake of jacking up threes, doesn't mean you shouldn't be

835
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,240
Speaker 1: looking for opportunities to try to generate more quality threes.

836
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 1: Because again, if we're looking at shot diet, quality rim

837
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: attempts are by far the most valuable shot in basketball.

838
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: It's not close. That's that will always be the best

839
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: shot in the game quality rim attempts, But the next

840
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 1: best thing is a quality three point attempt. And so

841
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: if you can find a way to turn some of

842
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:19,440
Speaker 1: the other things contested rim attempts, contested threes, mid range shots,

843
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 1: post moves, anything that is not one of those two things,

844
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 1: if you can find a way to convert some of

845
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: those possessions into more high quality rim attempts or more

846
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 1: high quality three point attempts, you improve the efficiency of

847
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: your offense. Right. So, again, it's not about just hunting

848
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:39,920
Speaker 1: threes for the sake of hunting threes. It's about hunting

849
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:45,840
Speaker 1: the best possible shot on every possession. Like so, for instance,

850
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:50,800
Speaker 1: if I'm looking for more catch and shoot opportunities for Katie,

851
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, who shot over forty percent

852
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,399
Speaker 1: from three last year. If I'm looking to hunt more

853
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:57,919
Speaker 1: three point shots for them, I need to get into

854
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,280
Speaker 1: drive and kick more often, right, Because if I'm running

855
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 1: two man game and I'm taking a lot of pull

856
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:06,400
Speaker 1: up jump shots, I'm not going to get into that

857
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 1: driving kick very much. Right. So that is a concerted

858
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: effort from the team to identify when you see an

859
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: opportunity to for a closeout. Right, Okay, I'm running this action.

860
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,399
Speaker 1: They're sinking in a little bit off of Bradley Beal

861
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,279
Speaker 1: on the left wing. Swing it to Bradley Beal. He

862
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,200
Speaker 1: rips to the left. He's got that baked in driving

863
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 1: lane because that defensive player is closing out on his

864
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 1: right shoulder. He gets into the lane, draws another defender,

865
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: throws a kickout pass. Now Devin Booker has a close out.

866
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,120
Speaker 1: He beats that dude off the dribble. Now KD is

867
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,279
Speaker 1: standing wide open at the top of the key. Throw

868
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:41,920
Speaker 1: it to KD. He knocks down the three point shot. Right,

869
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:46,600
Speaker 1: you generate a high quality catch and shoot three for KD.

870
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:50,279
Speaker 1: By turning maybe a handful of those pull up jump

871
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: shot possessions into more driving kick possessions. Now, to be clear,

872
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: you got to take a certain amount of pull up

873
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,359
Speaker 1: jump shots to keep the defense honest, right, because that's

874
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 1: how Phoenix gets teams into rotation. They're not a rim

875
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:04,600
Speaker 1: pressure team, they're not driving to the basket a lot.

876
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: They get defenses into rotation because you're terrified of Devin Booker,

877
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:11,839
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant coming off of these screens and shooting. So

878
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:13,839
Speaker 1: the Big comes up to the level. You're gonna see

879
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 1: some examples of that in the film, right. And the

880
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: only way you're gonna get the Big to come up

881
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:19,759
Speaker 1: to the level is if you demonstrate that you can

882
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 1: knock down that pull up jump shot. But it's about balance.

883
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:25,279
Speaker 1: If I can't remember exactly how many they take off

884
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 1: the top of my head, it's something like twenty three

885
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: twenty four pull up jump shots a game. If you're

886
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:30,880
Speaker 1: taking twenty three twenty four pull up jump shots a

887
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:35,399
Speaker 1: game and you cut that down to twenty nineteen and

888
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 1: those all become high quality rim attempts and high quality

889
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes, that's a way to squeeze a

890
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 1: few more points per one hundred possessions out of your offense.

891
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:47,959
Speaker 1: So again, like it really just comes down to playing

892
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 1: the right brand of offense, trusting each other, making those

893
00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 1: kickoutastic passes, playing drive and kick which generates more catch

894
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 1: and shoot three point shot opportunities, which is going to

895
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:02,280
Speaker 1: increase your overall shot volume right, and then lastly, looking

896
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: to run sets, especially against the elite defenses when your

897
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,879
Speaker 1: freelance attack isn't working as well. Those are the main

898
00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: driving forces, but behind improving Phoenix's offensive resilience. We know

899
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: in the large sample they can score, but we got

900
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: to find a way to avoid those really ugly stretches

901
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 1: like they had against Minnesota. So again have to find

902
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 1: a way to do the work and playing advantage basketball,

903
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: playing better and more efficiently on the offensive end of

904
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:32,840
Speaker 1: the floor. I have the Suns as another one of

905
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: the middle of the pack teams out West. I think

906
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 1: they'll probably stay above the plan, but they will generally

907
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: be a part of that race, kind of like they

908
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 1: were last year. So think of them. I have them

909
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 1: in like that five to eight range, and they'll have

910
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 1: to have a lot of things go right for them

911
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: to win the title, right, Like, they'll need to get

912
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 1: some favorable matchups. They might have to have a couple

913
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 1: of other contenders get knocked out, either by injuries or

914
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:53,960
Speaker 1: by upsets, and they're going to need to shoot the

915
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 1: ball really well. They've got some gaping holes that can

916
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:59,360
Speaker 1: get them beat but so does everyone else around the

917
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:01,960
Speaker 1: league except the top four teams. So that's kind of

918
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:03,800
Speaker 1: the definition of this tier, and it's going to be

919
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: the same for every team until we get to number four.

920
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:08,920
Speaker 1: They're all teams that are capable of winning the title,

921
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: but they need some things to go right, they need

922
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: some luck, and they are very beatable, if that makes sense.

923
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into some film. Only nine clips today,

924
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:36,359
Speaker 1: not gonna go too crazy. So this first clip, it's

925
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:39,799
Speaker 1: an example of some five out action to just give

926
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 1: you an example of how you can make yourself harder

927
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:44,399
Speaker 1: to guard by shifting from side to side and by

928
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 1: running multiple interchanges in the same possession. So we're gonna

929
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 1: start by Bradley Bill handing it off to Kevin Durant.

930
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's gonna run into like a dribble pitch with

931
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. Okay, here's the the dribble pitch. Devin Booker

932
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 1: generates just a tiny bit of separation between Jada McDaniels

933
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker. Right now, Devin Booker sees use of

934
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:07,400
Speaker 1: Nurkics flashing this is all part of the set. He's

935
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:09,919
Speaker 1: gonna throw the ball to use of jerkicsh okay. Now,

936
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: at this point, Nurkic is gonna look at Beal to

937
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,479
Speaker 1: basically fake like he's gonna run a dribble hand off there,

938
00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:17,840
Speaker 1: But then Beal is actually gonna fake and cut back

939
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:21,640
Speaker 1: in to screen Jaden McDaniels. He screens Jada McDaniels, which

940
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 1: puts Jayden into a chase position, which allows him to

941
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: get a little bit more separation into the dribble hand

942
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 1: off with use of Nurkic. This forces go Bear to

943
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 1: come out to the level. If Jaden is attached, Gobart

944
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: can sit back. Because Jaden is not attached, Gobar has

945
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 1: to come up. Gobart has to contain Devin Booker. Now,

946
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards has a decision to make. He can either

947
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: stay out on Bradley Bal or he can watch use

948
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 1: if Nurkic. He stays out on Bradley Beal. There's the

949
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 1: pass from Booker to use off Nurkic wide open dunk. Now,

950
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,680
Speaker 1: obviously Carl Anthony Towns could in theory come over and tag.

951
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,279
Speaker 1: But if he comes over and tags, that's where use

952
00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 1: of Nurkic could either make the extra passed Booker or

953
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: to Durant excuse me, or Booker can throw a over

954
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:08,760
Speaker 1: the top like a two handed over the top pass

955
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: that hits Kevin Durant. Now he's got a wide open three.

956
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 1: So again you get a wide open dunk out of

957
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,760
Speaker 1: a complicated interchange. This is an elite defense that makes

958
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:21,880
Speaker 1: freelance basketball pretty damn hard. And by running a set,

959
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 1: you made more things that Minnesota could mess up, more

960
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:30,120
Speaker 1: opportunities for mistakes. They made a mistake, you end up

961
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 1: getting a dunk out of it. Here is two possessions

962
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,879
Speaker 1: later and Bradley Beal, off of a made free throw,

963
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: is just going to dribble up the floor and take

964
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 1: a impossible, contested step back jump shot over Rudy Gobert.

965
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing that has to be kind

966
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 1: of like taken out of this Phoenix offense. You need

967
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:51,399
Speaker 1: to take a certain amount of pullup jump shots. They

968
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,439
Speaker 1: keep the defense honest, but they need to be part

969
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 1: of the larger goal that you're trying to accomplish. So

970
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,160
Speaker 1: if you take a pull up jump shot coming off

971
00:50:00,200 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: of a ball screen because Rudy Gobert is not up

972
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 1: high enough. Now, if you take and make that jump shot,

973
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 1: you're making Rudy Gobert think about what he needs to

974
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 1: do in that coverage. You're not making anybody think about anything.

975
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 1: When you take a transition step back jump shot along

976
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:18,960
Speaker 1: the baseline with a bunch of time on the shot

977
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 1: clock for no reason. That's the type of opportunity that

978
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 1: needs to be turned into a quality offensive possession for Phoenix.

979
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 1: Here's another example of I put this clip in here

980
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 1: just because I wanted to show the kind of setting

981
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 1: of the stage of how you can create openings on

982
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,680
Speaker 1: the back line or openings for pull up jump shots

983
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:43,360
Speaker 1: by targeting the whatever coverage they're using. So, as we

984
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 1: saw in the first clip, Rudy Gobert came up to

985
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: show on Devin Booker and Nurkic slipped behind. Right. Here's

986
00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 1: another example off ball screen. Right, we have Nurkic screening

987
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,680
Speaker 1: down on Carl Towns. Kd comes up, go Beart shows,

988
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 1: so does Kat slips. Nurkic gets another layup, another dunk, right, Okay,

989
00:51:06,239 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 1: So that is the setup for this next play. Gobar

990
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 1: has now gotten burned twice for coming up to the level.

991
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:20,439
Speaker 1: So on this possession, watch Gobert. Nurkic sets the ball screen.

992
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:22,359
Speaker 1: I'm gonna slow it down a little bit. Nurkic sets

993
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 1: the ball screen and dies on it. Go Beart's up,

994
00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 1: but now he's seen Nurkic beat them on this slip twice.

995
00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:33,759
Speaker 1: Watch go Beart take a hop back. He's like, oh shit,

996
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:36,000
Speaker 1: I gotta get back. The reason why he's got to

997
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:38,799
Speaker 1: get back is those two dunks that Nurkic just had.

998
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 1: That is what develops this opening for Devin Booker to

999
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 1: take a wide open pull up three off the dribble. Again,

1000
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 1: that's the type of pull up jump shot that you

1001
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 1: want to take. You want to take it as a

1002
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:55,359
Speaker 1: coverage beater so that you can consistently pull Gobert up

1003
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:57,520
Speaker 1: to the level, so that you can get the defense

1004
00:51:57,520 --> 00:52:00,440
Speaker 1: in rotation and generate openings. That is the order of

1005
00:52:00,440 --> 00:52:04,719
Speaker 1: operations you need in order to maximize this offense. All right,

1006
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 1: the here's I'm gonna show you guys some examples of

1007
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: the bad defense that I talked about. So here we go.

1008
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:13,680
Speaker 1: Made basket son zev I think Katie just hit a

1009
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 1: corner three transition possession. No one's matched up. Jaden's up

1010
00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:20,840
Speaker 1: the floor. No one's guarding my Conley. Jaden grabs it now.

1011
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 1: Nurkic is sinking back, throws to Conley. Conley pump fakes,

1012
00:52:24,920 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 1: gets into the lane, drops it off to go bear

1013
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 1: easy lap. You just gave up an easy rotation situation

1014
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:33,840
Speaker 1: off of a made basket that cannot happen. That is

1015
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: an inefficiency that needs to be closed up very next possession.

1016
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: This is a made basket. No one's back in the paint.

1017
00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: Remember when you're in transition defense, you stop the ball,

1018
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:46,880
Speaker 1: you stop the basket. No one's back in the paint.

1019
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,440
Speaker 1: Ant just takes a hard right hand driving move by

1020
00:52:49,440 --> 00:52:51,960
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal. The defense isn't loaded up. He gets a layup.

1021
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:56,600
Speaker 1: That's bad defense. Two possessions later, on a make, No

1022
00:52:56,640 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 1: one is guarding Anthony Everards Phoenix just scored. No one

1023
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:03,319
Speaker 1: is guarding the best player on the other team who

1024
00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 1: just steps into an easy three. This is all in

1025
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:13,120
Speaker 1: an elimination game consecutively like that's just setting yourself up

1026
00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:15,640
Speaker 1: for failure. That's how you give up a one to

1027
00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:19,000
Speaker 1: twenty three offensive rating to a bad offense. And so

1028
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:23,080
Speaker 1: that's the again, that's the level of seriousness and discipline

1029
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,240
Speaker 1: that Phoenix needs to address at the start of this season.

1030
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:29,920
Speaker 1: And had just hit a three to two before that, Oh,

1031
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 1: I think this is a This is a different bad

1032
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:35,239
Speaker 1: transition defense possession. Ant had just hit a three on

1033
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: the previous possession, a corner three. Look at this jogging.

1034
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:41,439
Speaker 1: No one's getting matched up, and they just let Ant

1035
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,239
Speaker 1: walk into an easy three just to hit one. It

1036
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,319
Speaker 1: just like it doesn't make any sense to me. This

1037
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:48,840
Speaker 1: is a man to man. Look look at this possession. Mando. Man,

1038
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 1: we're dribbling over his ball screen. Bradley Beal's doing this

1039
00:53:53,600 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 1: weird thing where he's like not double teaming Ant, but

1040
00:53:56,280 --> 00:53:58,399
Speaker 1: he's kind of like just standing in the passing lane.

1041
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:03,759
Speaker 1: And uh and sorry, guys, still a little rusty on

1042
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:05,440
Speaker 1: the film front. We're gonna get a little better at it.

1043
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,200
Speaker 1: What's Roy soon Hill doing up here? They're just like

1044
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 1: basically like soft triple teaming Ant. No one communicates a

1045
00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 1: Katie starts pointing through to nas Red. Now Katie decides

1046
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:21,400
Speaker 1: to run through this weird triple team of aunt is

1047
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 1: there now, Jada McDaniels is going to get a wide

1048
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 1: open dunk. I watched this possession a bunch of times

1049
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:28,319
Speaker 1: because I'm like, is that a zone? Look? I'm trying

1050
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: to figure it out. Is that a zone? Look? I

1051
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:32,880
Speaker 1: don't think it's a zone. Why would Nurkics be up

1052
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:35,759
Speaker 1: top and they're following cutters through. This is just like,

1053
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:40,040
Speaker 1: I don't know what principles you're following here. This is

1054
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,280
Speaker 1: just bad defense. So yeah, as you guys can see,

1055
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:46,719
Speaker 1: it wasn't pretty. And so we can talk about the

1056
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:49,960
Speaker 1: offensive end and getting a point guard and all those things.

1057
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:54,000
Speaker 1: But until Phoenix becomes a serious basketball team in those details,

1058
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:56,200
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to win four playoff rounds.

1059
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:58,759
Speaker 1: But they have the talent in house. It's just got

1060
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,080
Speaker 1: to be something that they embrace from day one of

1061
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:03,680
Speaker 1: the regular season. This team has to get a nasty streak.

1062
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,840
Speaker 1: This team has to get a willingness to do the

1063
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:09,799
Speaker 1: dirty work necessary to win basketball games. All right, guys,

1064
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:11,440
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, I

1065
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:13,879
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will

1066
00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:17,359
Speaker 1: be back on Friday with another Power Rankings video as

1067
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:23,280
Speaker 1: well as a mailbag. I'll see you guys. Then the volume.

1068
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:26,400
Speaker 1: What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening

1069
00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:29,239
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really

1070
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:31,160
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second

1071
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:33,920
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I

1072
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:35,680
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take

1073
00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:38,080
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.