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Speaker 1: welcome to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday. Everybody,
Speaker 1: Oh bald guys, had a great weekend, got a jam
Speaker 1: pack show for you Today. We're gonna do two instant
Speaker 1: reactions off the top to a couple of major showdowns
Speaker 1: that we had last night, and bolt the East and
Speaker 1: the West. The Boston Celtics gotta win in Milwaukee against
Speaker 1: the Bucks once again, just like last time. The Bucks
Speaker 1: kind of hang around keep it interesting, but it feels
Speaker 1: like they kind of let go of the rope late
Speaker 1: and lose control of things, dropping them to two and eight.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be breaking that game down from the
Speaker 1: perspective of both teams. Then Nikole Jokich puts up just
Speaker 1: another completely absurd stat line last night as the Nuggets
Speaker 1: improved to seven and three, beating the Dallas Mavericks, who
Speaker 1: are now five and five and sitting at the eleven
Speaker 1: seed in the Western Conference. Here through the first ten
Speaker 1: games of the season. After we break those two games down,
Speaker 1: like we do every Monday, we're gonna go over this
Speaker 1: week's power rankings, raking the teams through the first ten
Speaker 1: games from ten to one. You guys know the dripe
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
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Speaker 1: We're also releasing much of like reels and stuff like
Speaker 1: that on those, so make sure you follow there and
Speaker 1: the last not at least keep dropping mailback questions in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. We're gonna do another long mail bag
Speaker 1: on Friday this week to make sure you drop your
Speaker 1: questions there so we can get to them when we
Speaker 1: get to that point. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So first game, Celtics Bucks. Interesting game. The Bucks jumped
Speaker 1: them early. Kind of reminded me of the games that
Speaker 1: the Bucks played against the Celtics in Milwaukee last year,
Speaker 1: where they kind of jump them early and then kind
Speaker 1: of felt like in last year's games that the Celtics
Speaker 1: just were just too far behind ever really worked their
Speaker 1: way back into the game. Giannis was on an absolute tear.
Speaker 1: You're hitting jump shots. Giannis is shooting forty two percent
Speaker 1: on jump shots this year, which is actually the best
Speaker 1: mark of his career. It's in large part because he's
Speaker 1: cutting way down on the number of threes he's taking.
Speaker 1: Actually hit a three early in this Boston game, but
Speaker 1: he's cutting way down on threes. He's only taking zero
Speaker 1: point seven three point attempts per game, which is his
Speaker 1: lowest three point volume since twenty fifteen, literally almost a
Speaker 1: decade ago. But he's taking so many more of him
Speaker 1: at the elbows, easy hesitating, like sitting in the high
Speaker 1: hesitation dribble, when the guy's on his heels rising up
Speaker 1: into that shot at the elbow, And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: like it's it's just an easier shot for him there, ironically,
Speaker 1: even though again this is the this is the important detail.
Speaker 1: A three point shot is worth more than a two
Speaker 1: point shot, but it doesn't matter if you can't actually
Speaker 1: make it. Jannis is taking more mid range jumpers than
Speaker 1: threes this year, but because he's shooting a significantly higher
Speaker 1: percentage on those twos, he's actually getting more points per
Speaker 1: jump shot this year than he did in the previous
Speaker 1: two seasons. He's at zero point eight six points per
Speaker 1: jump shot this year. He was below zero point eight
Speaker 1: points per shot in each of the previous two seasons,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he was taking more threes. So
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of like working for him. Over the
Speaker 1: top shots, Giannis has been more efficient than usual this year.
Speaker 1: He's on an absolute terror. We're gonna talk more about
Speaker 1: Gianni's here in a minute. But he jumped them early
Speaker 1: in this game. I think he had twenty seven points
Speaker 1: in the first half. Was just crushing the Celtics in
Speaker 1: the paint. The Bucks ended up going up sixteen to two. Again,
Speaker 1: it looked like those those games from last year, but
Speaker 1: then the Celtics settled down. Peyton Pritchard had an incredible
Speaker 1: first half. He had seventeen points. The big thing. I
Speaker 1: talked about this in a radio hit in the Bay
Speaker 1: Area for the for Warriors fans that I did on
Speaker 1: I was, I think it was on Thursday or Friday
Speaker 1: last week, and I talked about how the skill development
Speaker 1: people and the Warriors are very clearly emphasizing the concept
Speaker 1: of movement shooting. Basically like instead of just focusing on
Speaker 1: repping out, catch and shoot threes, let's, you know, still
Speaker 1: work on that, but let's work on the ability to
Speaker 1: shoot on the move for several different reasons. One like
Speaker 1: a good spacing shooter can relocate, meaning like when the
Speaker 1: help defender turns their head and isn't paying attention, you
Speaker 1: move from one pace to a place to another. Pivotal possession.
Speaker 1: At the end of this game, where Tatum hits the dagger,
Speaker 1: three catches Giannis kind of ball watching, slides up the
Speaker 1: line and ends up taking a three closer to above
Speaker 1: the break gets a better look there. Right. Relocating means
Speaker 1: moving while you're shooting right, getting your feet set while
Speaker 1: you're on the move, but also when you're running action,
Speaker 1: if you're coming off of a screening action and you're
Speaker 1: able to if you're a right handed shooter moving to
Speaker 1: your right, if you're able to plant that left foot
Speaker 1: and swing that right foot around and square up as
Speaker 1: you're running and rise up and take a shot, that
Speaker 1: is what causes teams to have to show on screens,
Speaker 1: and that is what develops those four on threes when
Speaker 1: you can start hitting those pocket passes or floating the
Speaker 1: ball over the top while the screener rolls to the rim.
Speaker 1: Right like movement, shooting is a vitally important part of
Speaker 1: being a threat in any sort of screening action. And
Speaker 1: what did you see from Peyton Pritchard in that first half.
Speaker 1: He's flying off of screens, getting his feet set, turning
Speaker 1: on the move and rising up and knocking down shots.
Speaker 1: That's real value. Obviously, Peyton Pritchard has been incredible this year.
Speaker 1: He's the face. I believe he's the betting favorite right
Speaker 1: now to win sixth Man of the Year. He's providing
Speaker 1: excellent ball pressure. He's providing a lot of hustle plays,
Speaker 1: but he's also bringing really high level offense. He's been
Speaker 1: one of the best backup guards in league to start
Speaker 1: this year. But the Bucks were able to hang onto
Speaker 1: the rope and kind of stiff arm the Celtics until
Speaker 1: about one minute left in the first half, and then
Speaker 1: the Celtics had one of their classic runs. The Bucks
Speaker 1: got a little sloppy, the Celtics started hitting shots. The
Speaker 1: Celtics turned a thirteen point deficit into a two point
Speaker 1: lead in four minutes. It's an insane turnaround in this
Speaker 1: game turned into kind of like a back and forth
Speaker 1: second half. Tatum was incredible in the second half. He
Speaker 1: had twenty three points. He got to the foul line
Speaker 1: eleven times in that half, and you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: This season has been a very interesting Jason Tatum season,
Speaker 1: and I think it should be kind of scary to
Speaker 1: a lot of people around the league because he's still
Speaker 1: not really hitting his touch shots at the level that
Speaker 1: I think he's going to over the course of this season,
Speaker 1: like Tatum is shooting only thirty seven percent on jump shots,
Speaker 1: and he's shooting only fifty seven percent on layups, and
Speaker 1: yet he's still, despite that, is averaging thirty one points
Speaker 1: per game on sixty three percent true shooting. So couple
Speaker 1: of different angles to get into their okay. First of all,
Speaker 1: how is he this efficient despite the fact that his
Speaker 1: touch shooting hasn't been as good as he's capable of doing,
Speaker 1: or at least as good as I think he's going
Speaker 1: to in the long run of the season. First of all,
Speaker 1: huge increase in his three point rate. Last year forty
Speaker 1: three percent of his field goal attempts for threes, forty
Speaker 1: three percent this year fifty seven percent. So he's gone
Speaker 1: from taking less than half of his shots as threes
Speaker 1: to more than half of his shots are threes. A
Speaker 1: significant increase in his three point volume. And then, secondly,
Speaker 1: a massive increase in his free throw rate how often
Speaker 1: he's getting to the foul line a career high nine
Speaker 1: free throw attempts per game. The way you calculate free
Speaker 1: throw rate is it's just the number of free throw
Speaker 1: attempts per field goal attempt. Last year he was getting
Speaker 1: zero point three to five free throws per field goal attempt.
Speaker 1: This year it's zero point four to four free throws
Speaker 1: per field goal attempt, So massive increases on both fronts
Speaker 1: in three point volume and in free throw percentage. And
Speaker 1: this is why everyone harps on the ability to get
Speaker 1: to the line and the ability to make volume threes
Speaker 1: as one of the foundational elements to efficient scoring, because again,
Speaker 1: like I think Tatum's going to shoot better. I think
Speaker 1: Tatum's going to probably get closer to sixty sixty two
Speaker 1: to sixty three percent on layups over the course of
Speaker 1: the season. I think He's going to get closer to
Speaker 1: forty percent on jump shots over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: But you can buy yourself a lot of leeway in
Speaker 1: the large sample if you just take the right kinds
Speaker 1: of shots and if you're able to draw fouls by
Speaker 1: getting defenders out of position. Like this is crazy. Tatum
Speaker 1: had twenty three points in the second half despite going
Speaker 1: five to fourteen from the field. That is a great
Speaker 1: example of how you can manufacture efficiency through the right
Speaker 1: approach on the offensive end of the four. He got
Speaker 1: to the foul line eleven times in the second half
Speaker 1: of that game, but again he got eight threes up
Speaker 1: and he got eleven foul shots. That's going to make
Speaker 1: up for a five to fourteen five for fourteen day
Speaker 1: of the week. He also hit the dagger in this game.
Speaker 1: Really beautiful possession of Celtics basketball. So it's like a
Speaker 1: horn set, if I remember correctly, his horn set. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's at the top of the key with Torrian Prince
Speaker 1: on him, and Derek White's on the left elbow, Drew
Speaker 1: Holidays on the right elbow on the right elbow, and
Speaker 1: Jalen just wants to drive. So Derek White just kind
Speaker 1: of clears out to the dunker spot on the left side,
Speaker 1: and as he clears out, there's a little driving lane
Speaker 1: that opens up on the left side, and Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: just rips through hard and tries to get dribble penetration
Speaker 1: on Torrian Prince. And again this is a classic example
Speaker 1: of breaking down the defense in phases rather than trying
Speaker 1: to hit the home run right. So like Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: drives to the left, doesn't shatter the defense right, It's
Speaker 1: not like he just blew by Torreum Prince. Tory Prince
Speaker 1: is riding him like flattening out the drive right and
Speaker 1: then as a result of him making that move, Damian Lillard,
Speaker 1: who's guarding Derek White, steps up and just kind of
Speaker 1: walls up on Jalen Brown. When he walls up on
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown, that leaves Derek White wide open in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot. When they throw the ball out to Derek
Speaker 1: White in the dunker spot, Al Horford's man who's on
Speaker 1: the in the right corner slides down to help. So
Speaker 1: now Derek White throws a swing pass out to Al
Speaker 1: Horford in the right corner. Al Horford swing pass up
Speaker 1: the wing to Drew Holiday. Drew Holliday now has a closeout.
Speaker 1: So all of that so the drive from from Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown to the drop off to Derek White, to the
Speaker 1: kickout pass to Al Horford to the swing pass, all
Speaker 1: of that is. All it did was generate one close out,
Speaker 1: a close out for Drew Holliday. But Drew Holliday beat
Speaker 1: the close out, and when he beat the close out,
Speaker 1: he drew Jannis' attention. Jannis was staring at Drew. That
Speaker 1: allowed Jason Tatum to relocate up to the top of
Speaker 1: the to the wing. Kickout pass knocks down the three.
Speaker 1: Now the game is basically over, so again, it's like
Speaker 1: breaking down the defense and phases, even a limited defense
Speaker 1: like Milwaukee on a key possession at the end of
Speaker 1: a game, they are locked in. They're trying really hard, right,
Speaker 1: so stop trying to hit the home run and just
Speaker 1: play methodical Boston Celtics basket. That's what they did. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown did his job. He created the initial advantage. Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday and Al Horford did their job proper spacing, quick
Speaker 1: decisions on swing passes. Drew Holliday did his job attacking
Speaker 1: a closeout. Jason Tatum did his job relocating when he
Speaker 1: saw the help defender took his eye off of him.
Speaker 1: And then the final job, which is knocking down the
Speaker 1: open shot. That is Boston Celtics basketball advantage, creation, advantage,
Speaker 1: extending play, finishing with great spacing principles, guards in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot, guys making quick decisions. That is the quintessential
Speaker 1: offensive style that Boston runs that has led them to
Speaker 1: a championship and a whole lot of success over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of seasons. I also thought
Speaker 1: the Celtics just did a great job on Damian Lillard.
Speaker 1: They held him to fourteen points on four for fifteen shooting.
Speaker 1: They have the combination of speed and length right so
Speaker 1: Dame can't be too fast to give too many issues
Speaker 1: to their perimeter players. And then they they when Dame
Speaker 1: goes to his pull up jump shot game, they have
Speaker 1: the length to really close that gap and make him
Speaker 1: uncomfortable some of those pull up jump shots. Again, Dame
Speaker 1: had some bad misses in this one, and bad misses,
Speaker 1: to me are more likely to be a result of
Speaker 1: quality defense than anything that the offensive player is doing
Speaker 1: on the Bucks front. Two silver linings if you're looking,
Speaker 1: if you're a Bucks fan and you're just looking for
Speaker 1: something to make you feel better about where you're at
Speaker 1: sitting here two and eight. Number one, Giannis is playing
Speaker 1: some of the best basketball of his career. We talked
Speaker 1: about his jump shot earlier. I won't go into that again,
Speaker 1: but he's averaging thirty two points, thirteen rebounds, and five
Speaker 1: assists sixty one percent from the field. His command of
Speaker 1: the game on offense is at an all time high.
Speaker 1: His passing is better than ever, his assistant turnover ratio
Speaker 1: is higher than ever. He had a couple of these,
Speaker 1: like ridiculous left handed whip passes yesterday there was one
Speaker 1: in a ball screen that he whipped a left handed
Speaker 1: pass that went all the way to the weakside corner you.
Speaker 1: And another one where he drove on the baseline and
Speaker 1: like jumped and left his feet and had to make
Speaker 1: a decision in mid air and just whipped a left
Speaker 1: handed pass to the top of the key to Bobby Portis.
Speaker 1: That was like right in the shooting pocket. His over
Speaker 1: the top shooting is better than ever. You're shooting forty
Speaker 1: two percent on jumpers, that's highest by far in his career,
Speaker 1: fifty six percent on hooks so far, although I'd like
Speaker 1: to see him take higher volume, but that's up about
Speaker 1: ten percent from where he was last year. Giannis is hooping.
Speaker 1: And if you're looking for a second silver lining, if
Speaker 1: you're a Bucks fan, their schedule lightens up in a
Speaker 1: big waight. Now your home for Toronto and Detroit, then
Speaker 1: you're at Charlotte, Then you're home for Houston, Chicago, Indiana
Speaker 1: and Charlotte again. Then you're at Miami, then you're home
Speaker 1: for Washington, at Detroit, and home for Atlanta. So like,
Speaker 1: if you're a serious team, if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan,
Speaker 1: if you're a serious team, you should go no worse
Speaker 1: than seven and four in that stretch. Now you're looking
Speaker 1: at nine and twelve on December fifth, which should put
Speaker 1: you back in the Eastern Conference playing picture, and with
Speaker 1: a couple more good weeks after that, you could be
Speaker 1: sitting in a much better position. Right, And they're capable
Speaker 1: of doing even better than seven and four. They're capable
Speaker 1: of going nine and two in that stretch. They go
Speaker 1: nine to two in that stretch. Now you're back over
Speaker 1: five hundred. You're eleven and ten on December fifth, Right, So,
Speaker 1: like all it takes is a couple of weeks of
Speaker 1: serious basketball here against a limited stretch of your schedule,
Speaker 1: and things should work out. One last note I wanted
Speaker 1: to hit on this game. This was a concept that
Speaker 1: I I wanted to mention earlier when we were talking
Speaker 1: about the final play. Not the final play, but the
Speaker 1: dagger three that Jason Tatum hit on the left side
Speaker 1: of the floor. You know, I tweeted out an example
Speaker 1: of that play the video, So if you want to
Speaker 1: see the video, you can actually just go to my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed and you'll see it there. But on that play,
Speaker 1: a lot of Bucks fans were commenting underneath it or
Speaker 1: quoting it and saying things like, oh, Joannis just took
Speaker 1: Johnny's just made a mistake. He was watching the ball
Speaker 1: too much and he lost Jason Tatum. And what I
Speaker 1: When I see stuff like that, I think people are
Speaker 1: missing the point. Like when an elite defense or any
Speaker 1: defense is like engaged, locked in and in really putting
Speaker 1: the attention to detail that is necessary to cover action.
Speaker 1: You can cover action. They're big. Like every action that
Speaker 1: any team runs there is a there is like a
Speaker 1: plan for it. Pro professional basketball teams have plans for action.
Speaker 1: They know what to do. He supposed to watch man
Speaker 1: in ball and position himself in between so that he
Speaker 1: can be in better position to close out or to
Speaker 1: force some more of a looping pass in the in
Speaker 1: the like when that skip pass is actually made. Teams
Speaker 1: know what to do helping out of the strong side
Speaker 1: quarter versus the weak side corner. Teams know what to
Speaker 1: do when they're dealing with the ball screen at the
Speaker 1: top of the key versus on the sides. Teams know
Speaker 1: what to do with double drag. Teams know what to
Speaker 1: do with stack. They have a plaan for everything. The
Speaker 1: point is is the more organized offense you run, the
Speaker 1: more action you run in each possession, the more times
Speaker 1: you get the ball going side to side, the more
Speaker 1: potential there is for mistakes. Milwaukee did everything right on
Speaker 1: that possession except for one thing. Johannis got caught ball watching,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't until the you know, fifth or sixth
Speaker 1: touch or fifth or sixth play of that singular possession.
Speaker 1: So like by virtue, like again, that's what I mean
Speaker 1: when I say, like you break these defenses down in waves,
Speaker 1: Like it's all about just playing offense and executing until
Speaker 1: they make a mistake. And then when they make a mistake,
Speaker 1: that's when you can capitalize on it and make something
Speaker 1: good happen. Right, And so, like, I think it's just
Speaker 1: an interesting kind of example of like of understanding why
Speaker 1: we run action. You don't run action. That's why a
Speaker 1: lot of times at the end of games, running action
Speaker 1: doesn't work as well, and it becomes more about individual
Speaker 1: shot making because there are fewer mistakes. But you should
Speaker 1: still try to run action because what if they do
Speaker 1: make a mistake. Right, And again, for a team like Boston,
Speaker 1: the action is usually pretty simple at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the possession and then it comes to driving kick. But
Speaker 1: even just simply within the realm of driving kick. If
Speaker 1: you close out properly, you funnel in the right direction,
Speaker 1: your help side's good, and your rotations are good. You
Speaker 1: can contain drive and kick too. But Boston, you know,
Speaker 1: when they get into their to their bag with their
Speaker 1: driving kick stuff, it's just so many interchanges. It's just
Speaker 1: really difficult to not make mistakes. And that's what happened
Speaker 1: to Gianness, who's one of the best defenders in the
Speaker 1: league last night. At the tail end of that Bucks game.
Speaker 1: Moving on to Maps, Nuggets, wild finished to this one.
Speaker 1: The Dallas entire fourth quarter offense was basically just Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving hitting tough, contested jump shots. He was unreal. He
Speaker 1: hit a deep three to break a Denver zone possession
Speaker 1: early in the corner. Early in the quarter, he had
Speaker 1: three additional threes. He hit two tough contested mid rangers
Speaker 1: over Peyton Watson like a jab step from the elbow,
Speaker 1: and then this ridiculous turnaround bank shot that reminded me
Speaker 1: of the shots that Kyrie was hitting over Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: in the twenty sixteen finals. Just unbelievable. Kyrie had sixteen
Speaker 1: of Dallas's twenty six points, in the fourth quarter. Luca
Speaker 1: still just isn't playing up to his standard. He hit
Speaker 1: a big catch and shoot three late in this one
Speaker 1: that he was two for five with two turnovers in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Luca's numbers are way down across the board.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty eight points per game this year. It
Speaker 1: was thirty four points a game last year. Averaging eight
Speaker 1: rebounds a game this year. It was nine rebounds last year.
Speaker 1: He's averaging eight assisp game this year. It was ten
Speaker 1: assists per game last year. His steals and blocks are
Speaker 1: both down. He's shooting forty one percent from the field.
Speaker 1: He shot forty nine percent from the field last year,
Speaker 1: thirty three percent from three. He shot thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: from three last year. He's getting to the foul line less.
Speaker 1: He's making a lower percentage when he gets to the
Speaker 1: foul line. His shot creation data is like abysmal by
Speaker 1: Lucas standards. He's run two hundred and seventy two pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, ISOs and post ups that have generated just
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty one points including passes. That's just
Speaker 1: zero point nine to two points per possession. Last year
Speaker 1: he was at one point one zero points per half
Speaker 1: court creation, possession, including passes. So like, if you're a
Speaker 1: MAVs fan and you're looking for a silver lining from
Speaker 1: this five and five start that has Dallas sitting in
Speaker 1: the eleven seed out West, it's the simple fact that
Speaker 1: Luca is basically guaranteed to play much much better than
Speaker 1: this in the long run. There's other elements to PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington's hurt. You got the the Derek Lively injury, you
Speaker 1: have Klay Thompson still incorporating into the offense. There's there's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of Naji marshallized like, there's other elements
Speaker 1: at play, But the main thing is is that your guy,
Speaker 1: your guy, Luca, who when he's at his best is
Speaker 1: at least at the same tier as the top players
Speaker 1: in the league, is playing more like just another star
Speaker 1: right now. And as long as that's the case, it's
Speaker 1: going to be really tough to hang in a really
Speaker 1: really difficult Western Conference. So if you're, again, if you're
Speaker 1: a MAVs fan and you're looking for silver lining, I
Speaker 1: think it's basically a guarantee that Luca is going to
Speaker 1: play much much much better in the long run. Clearly,
Speaker 1: that calf injury in training camp or contusion or whatever
Speaker 1: it was he had in training camp just kind of
Speaker 1: slowed down his start into the season, and it's affecting
Speaker 1: the team, and I think in the long run that
Speaker 1: will level out. But the Nuggets come out on top
Speaker 1: of this one due to yet another Yokic masterpiece. He
Speaker 1: had eleven points in the fourth quarter. He scored multiple
Speaker 1: times on Gafford. One of the things I thought was
Speaker 1: fascinating is they went to Jokic in the post against
Speaker 1: Gafford and the first time and it was like a
Speaker 1: textbook repost. Right So like Michael Porter Junior is one
Speaker 1: pass away and Michael Porter Junior's man digs way down,
Speaker 1: and so what is a repost? All that is is like,
Speaker 1: oh they're digging down, throw the pass back out, but
Speaker 1: instead of just jacking up a three right away, just repost.
Speaker 1: So like Jokic throws the pass out. As he throws
Speaker 1: the pass out, mpj's man hard closes out back to
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior. Jokic then gets deeper post position. Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior makes the pass again. Now the double team
Speaker 1: is too far away and Jokic is right underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and he's able to go to a quick one
Speaker 1: on one move, gets to an easy hook shot right
Speaker 1: at the rit well. They post him up again on
Speaker 1: the next possession and Gafford actually gets Jokic to miss
Speaker 1: a shot. And so one of the things Mike Malone
Speaker 1: did that I thought was really smart is they go
Speaker 1: back to Jokic against Gafford, but this time they do
Speaker 1: it more in a driving situation. So they have Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson just kind of set like a brush screen around
Speaker 1: the left elbow, and Yokic just cuts to the ball
Speaker 1: right at the elbow and catches and then immediately goes downhill.
Speaker 1: When he goes downhill, he takes those long, lumbering steps,
Speaker 1: waits to find his little opening and makes a layup.
Speaker 1: I think he actually missed the first light, but he
Speaker 1: tapped it in. But it was kind of interesting because
Speaker 1: like they wanted to get him more momentum going downhill,
Speaker 1: so instead of just posting him, they got him more
Speaker 1: on like a flash cut towards the elbow so that
Speaker 1: he could quick look to drive. But he got a
Speaker 1: couple of buckets there. He had a huge pick and
Speaker 1: pop three. His shooting has been insane this year. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that in a minute when we
Speaker 1: get big picture on Jokic. He also had a huge
Speaker 1: steal in pick and roll against Luca where he got
Speaker 1: his hands down, ran the floor Christian Brown Missi lay up,
Speaker 1: but he got an offensive rebound and put back. That
Speaker 1: was a huge sequence in the end of this game
Speaker 1: that put Denver up by two. And then Denver got
Speaker 1: two key stops down the tail end of this game.
Speaker 1: And again like Kyrie had been hitting these crazy contested
Speaker 1: jump shots right like he had two on Peyton wattson
Speaker 1: that jab step around the elbow and then the turnaround
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade away that he banked in off the glass,
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult high Like Kyrie is a specialist at making those,
Speaker 1: but it's an incredibly difficult shot and you really can't
Speaker 1: do any better than that, and it's easy to get discouraged,
Speaker 1: but you have to remember those are tough shots and
Speaker 1: what were you getting on the other end. Jokic lamps
Speaker 1: so like then after those two shots that Kyrie made,
Speaker 1: the next three attempts that Dallas took were all heavily
Speaker 1: contested jump shots. Kyrie heavily contested jump shot over Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson on the left wing finally misses one Luka Doncic
Speaker 1: heavily contested deep three. I wasn't that contested, but it
Speaker 1: was really deep. It was like a twenty eight to
Speaker 1: twenty nine footer from the top of the key. That's
Speaker 1: a low percentage shot. And then Kyrie's last shot against
Speaker 1: Christian Brown, that's a low percented shot. That's a smothered
Speaker 1: three along the left wing. Now we know Kyrie can
Speaker 1: make those, right, we know Luca can make that shot.
Speaker 1: But by the way, they got five of them down
Speaker 1: the tail end of the game and they made too
Speaker 1: So they shot forty percent on these really difficult ISO
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's what you expect, right, The best ISO
Speaker 1: jump shooters in the world are gonna make about forty
Speaker 1: percent of these tough, heavily contested one on one jump shots.
Speaker 1: There are rare examples of guys like Kawhi and kd
Speaker 1: who can shoot in that like fifty five percent range
Speaker 1: around the elbow, but like those are generally speaking shots,
Speaker 1: especially when you get out to the three point line
Speaker 1: like Kyrie's last two shots were, they're just lower percentage
Speaker 1: shots and so really like you could get discouraged while
Speaker 1: Kyrie's making these shots. But if you zoom out for
Speaker 1: a second, it's like Denver had one tough shot in there.
Speaker 1: There was a really nice floater that Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: made when he drove a close out on the right wing.
Speaker 1: It was a tougher shot, but even then I would
Speaker 1: argue that was an easier shot than any of the
Speaker 1: shots that Dallas was getting. But other than that, Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior shot, Like, it's a lot of Jokic right
Speaker 1: at the rim. And so if I zoom out in
Speaker 1: a clutch time situation and one team is getting Jokic
Speaker 1: at the rim again and again and again, and the
Speaker 1: other team is, like, Kyrie is taking these incredibly difficult
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shots like in the larger As
Speaker 1: soon as you kind of zoom out a little bit,
Speaker 1: it's gonna work in your favor. And yeah, Kyrie made too,
Speaker 1: But after that they missed their last three. Denver got
Speaker 1: shots right at the rim and one tough shot for
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior shot out to Mike, and then you
Speaker 1: end up getting a win, right. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting example of like trusting the process, right, Like
Speaker 1: you trust the process, you force them to take tough,
Speaker 1: contested shots. That's what you want. You get closer shots
Speaker 1: at the rim that are more reliable, you end up
Speaker 1: getting a win. Young guys keep stepping up for Denver.
Speaker 1: Christian Brown just continues to show wonderful chemistry with Nicole Jokic.
Speaker 1: He had nine points in the third quarter. Christian Brown
Speaker 1: is averaging sixteen points a game on sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: you shooting. Here's a crazy stat for you. If you
Speaker 1: took KCPS points per game last year in Denver and
Speaker 1: you added it to kcp's points per game in Orlando
Speaker 1: this year, he's at seventeen points per game. Christian Brown's
Speaker 1: giving you sixteen points per game on sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: through shooting this year. Massive win for the front office.
Speaker 1: Clearly just a shoe and fit at that two spot
Speaker 1: in Payne Watson. Here's the thing. He's not Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon is just a lot more defensively versatile, brings
Speaker 1: a post up element as a better cutter, finisher around
Speaker 1: the rim, better rebounder. Right. But Payne Watson is a
Speaker 1: very good functional athlete. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson has been bringing is he's been shooting the
Speaker 1: ball pretty well. He's hit eight threes in the last
Speaker 1: four games. He's shooting sixty three percent on corner threes
Speaker 1: so far this year, shooting thirty nine percent on three overall.
Speaker 1: So like he's not Aaron Gordon, but but through his
Speaker 1: shooting ability, he's closing the gap a little bit and
Speaker 1: allowing Denver to be functional while giving Aaron Gordon the
Speaker 1: opportunity to get healthy. Julian Strather again, like it's not
Speaker 1: like really popping in a major box score way yet,
Speaker 1: but it's just making plays. It's like, oh, here's this
Speaker 1: huge driving layup against the Toronto Raptors, or like last
Speaker 1: night it's like, wow, did he just block Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: on a closeout on a wing three on the right side.
Speaker 1: He had another big help side block against I think
Speaker 1: it was Dwight Powell in the first half. Providing just
Speaker 1: key buckets and key spots. Like again, it's he's not
Speaker 1: providing the same type of impact that Christian Brown and
Speaker 1: Payton Watson are, but he's providing some pretty decent impact.
Speaker 1: He's making some plays. He's getting better again. He was
Speaker 1: a Strather was like an absolute disaster on defense to
Speaker 1: start the year, and he's been a little bit better.
Speaker 1: Hey had, Like, like there was a close out on
Speaker 1: Jayden Hardy in the third quarter where like Jade Hardy's
Speaker 1: aeron the third recorder closes out, forces him to drive,
Speaker 1: beats him to the spot, forces him into like a
Speaker 1: tough contested shot around the kind of short corner area
Speaker 1: and he misses it. And I was like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: you've got some real length and athleticism here, Like these
Speaker 1: are real tools. It just just through hard work, good coaching,
Speaker 1: and better attention to detail, he can become a functional defender.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The young guys are playing better.
Speaker 1: Denver's won five in a row. Throw up to the
Speaker 1: four spot in the conference. Nikole Jokich is the clear
Speaker 1: MVP choice to meet through the first ten games of
Speaker 1: the season. He had thirty seven points, eighteen rebounds, and
Speaker 1: fifteen assists last night on only twenty one shots. That
Speaker 1: is absolutely outrageous. I didn't even watch the game last night.
Speaker 1: I watched it this morning. I that is an outrageous
Speaker 1: stat line. I can't believe what I'm looking at. For
Speaker 1: the season, He's averaging thirty points, fourteen rebounds on twelve
Speaker 1: assists on sixty seven percent true shooting and per cleaning
Speaker 1: the glass. This is insane. The Nuggets are forty four
Speaker 1: points better per one hundred possessions when Nikolejokic is on
Speaker 1: the floor versus one he's off the big thing again, Like,
Speaker 1: I've been keyed in on this for the last several years,
Speaker 1: but the jump shot is such an important part of
Speaker 1: what makes NICOLEA. Jokic the like the just the far
Speaker 1: and away best player in the world. Like even when
Speaker 1: he's not shooting well, like last year, when teams are
Speaker 1: able to just concede picking pop threes to him the
Speaker 1: way that like Team USA did in the semi final
Speaker 1: game or the way that Minnesota did in the conference
Speaker 1: semi finals. When he's that player, I still think he's
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. But in that point,
Speaker 1: I think it's up for debate. I think Giannis and
Speaker 1: Luca and Schay are closer to him at that point,
Speaker 1: and you could understand why players from other teams are
Speaker 1: fans from other teams might feel like those guys are better,
Speaker 1: even though I think Jokic is better. But when Jokic
Speaker 1: is shooting the three the way that he's shooting it
Speaker 1: this year, or the way that he shot it in
Speaker 1: the title year. It unlocks an entirely different part of
Speaker 1: his game, the spacing element in terms of like literally
Speaker 1: guys have to chase him off the line now. And
Speaker 1: not only is he going to hit shots. He had
Speaker 1: a huge pick and pop three last night. He was
Speaker 1: three for three on those threes. On the season, he's
Speaker 1: getting one point five to three points per shot. That's insane.
Speaker 1: But beyond the actual making of the shots, he's drawing
Speaker 1: closeouts again in the conference finals or conference semis. Last
Speaker 1: year in the Team USA game in the semis, it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, Yo kich is popping go ahead shoot
Speaker 1: it will let you because he wasn't making him. But
Speaker 1: like a huge part of Yokich's game is when he
Speaker 1: gets a tiny bit of leverage on you. He's so
Speaker 1: strong and he's so good at using that leverage to
Speaker 1: get an angle that like when he draws a close out,
Speaker 1: he gets great dribble penetration. When he gets dribble penetration,
Speaker 1: he starts lumbering downhill. When he's lumbering downhill, he's either
Speaker 1: going to get to the basket for something easy or
Speaker 1: he's the best passer in the league. So like that's
Speaker 1: that that is the piece that separates him. When yokich
Speaker 1: is shooting and drawing closeouts and making plays driving to
Speaker 1: the basket because of the drible penetration he gets from
Speaker 1: the from the threat of his shot, it takes him
Speaker 1: from the best player in the league to far and
Speaker 1: away the best player in the league. No one's even close.
Speaker 1: Thirty points, it's fourteen rebounds and twelve assists on sixty
Speaker 1: seven percent through shooting. He's off to arguably the best
Speaker 1: offensive start in the history of the league, albe it
Speaker 1: in only ten games. It's unbelievable stuff that we're seeing
Speaker 1: from NIKOLEA. Jokic, And like, again, like this is a team,
Speaker 1: but when you look at how Jamal Murray started the year,
Speaker 1: when you look at how Michael Porter Junior started the year,
Speaker 1: when you look at the Aaron Gordon injury, when you
Speaker 1: look at all the young guys they're relying on, Jokic
Speaker 1: has literally just scaled up his own greatness and now
Speaker 1: they're seven to three in two weeks. They completely turned
Speaker 1: their season around. Unbelievable stuff from Nicole Yokic. I can't
Speaker 1: I literally can't say enough. All right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to our power rankings. So again, once again, this is
Speaker 1: for the because this is not a representation of how
Speaker 1: I viewed the tender list. To be clear, I have
Speaker 1: to say that every single week because there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people that jump on that weren't there the
Speaker 1: first time. But basically, the power rankings are intended to
Speaker 1: be just who's playing the best basketball within the regular season,
Speaker 1: with a special emphasis on recency. Although here in the
Speaker 1: early part of the season, I'm kind of looking at
Speaker 1: the big picture because we're not even a month into
Speaker 1: this thing, all right. Number ten, the Los Angeles Lakers
Speaker 1: throw off to a six and four start. They are
Speaker 1: the fifth best offense in the league, but they are
Speaker 1: the fifth worst defense in the league. It's been a
Speaker 1: tale of two teams this year. The Lakers are five
Speaker 1: and zero at home and they are one in four
Speaker 1: on the road. And that's because, in my opinion, their
Speaker 1: main weakness is perimeter athleticism. Their transition defense has been
Speaker 1: bad all around, but it's been especially bad on the road.
Speaker 1: It seems to me as though when they're at home
Speaker 1: they can ride the crowd to play hard enough to
Speaker 1: compensate for some of their perimeter athleticism issues, But when
Speaker 1: they're on the road, it just feels like they're It
Speaker 1: just feels like the other teams are runaway freight train
Speaker 1: right now, here's the same start to demonstrate that, yes,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are the fifth worst defense in the league,
Speaker 1: but they're actually the thirteenth best half court defense. It
Speaker 1: is strictly off in transition where they're getting killed. I
Speaker 1: expect them to continue to have pretty wild home road
Speaker 1: splits until either Jared Vanderbilt comes back bringing some athleticism
Speaker 1: or if they make some sort of trade just because
Speaker 1: they're so unathletic on the perimeter and they need to
Speaker 1: have some more juice in that department. But I think
Speaker 1: we'll see some pretty hefty home road splits with them
Speaker 1: this season. But off to a good start for the Lakers, again,
Speaker 1: with the schedule that they played to get to be
Speaker 1: off to six and four start is impressive. Number nine
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies. They won three in a row to
Speaker 1: get to seven and four despite being without Desmond Baine
Speaker 1: and Marcus Martin for a while and without John Morant
Speaker 1: for the last two games, Jared Jackson has been hooping
Speaker 1: his ass off, providing the volume scoring that they've needed.
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen Junior has slotted in nicely in jaws absent
Speaker 1: at the point guard's body at a triple double the
Speaker 1: other night. Really has been one of the better backup
Speaker 1: guards in the league to start the year. This year.
Speaker 1: Jalen Wells again is just just shooting the seams off
Speaker 1: the basketball, just really aggressive catch and shoot three point shooting.
Speaker 1: Jay huff is s hoooping. He had a nice revenge
Speaker 1: game against the Lakers the other day, a run in
Speaker 1: the third quarter that was outrageous. They're just super deep
Speaker 1: with a lot of quality young talent. The only reason
Speaker 1: I don't have Memphis higher on this list is they've
Speaker 1: played a favorable schedule. Of their seven wins, only one
Speaker 1: of them is against a team that has a record
Speaker 1: over five hundred so far. Number eight the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: They dropped the game to the Miami Heat last night
Speaker 1: in classic Heat fashion. It's funny. I saw the final score,
Speaker 1: and I think it was like ninety eight to ninety
Speaker 1: four or something. It was a really low final score.
Speaker 1: Right as soon as I saw that, I didn't even
Speaker 1: watch the game last night. As soon as I saw that,
Speaker 1: I was like, bet you the Heat ran a ton
Speaker 1: of zone. As soon as I saw that, I was like,
Speaker 1: this just looks like Eric Spolstra janked up this game
Speaker 1: with like a bunch of defensive scheming. And so then
Speaker 1: when I went back and checked on it this morning,
Speaker 1: the Heat ran eighteen possessions of zone in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: completely wigged out Minnesota's offense. Was up by eight with
Speaker 1: four minutes left, and blew a Minnesota bade two crucial
Speaker 1: mistakes late. Conley drove baseline against the zone and shoveled
Speaker 1: a pass to Julius Randall cutting down the middle, but
Speaker 1: he put too much juice on it and the pass
Speaker 1: one threw his hands and Miami went out and got
Speaker 1: a bucket on it. And then on the final possession,
Speaker 1: when they were up by two and they just needed
Speaker 1: to contain on the inbound, they somehow, I honest to God,
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell they were doing. They lost
Speaker 1: Nikola Jovich in the front court with no help as
Speaker 1: they were trying to deny on the inbounds, and he
Speaker 1: got a layup with an and one, and suddenly Miami
Speaker 1: gets out of there with a win. So definitely a
Speaker 1: classic kind of Miami Heat. Eric Spolsterfest to get a
Speaker 1: win there on the road in Minnesota, but Minnesota had
Speaker 1: won six out of eight before that. They have wins
Speaker 1: against Denver in there, wins against Sacramento in there. Their
Speaker 1: top ten in both offense and defense to start the year.
Speaker 1: Their eighth in offense and eighth in defense. An It's
Speaker 1: jump shot, this has been the big thing, you know.
Speaker 1: I put it as the fifth best player in the
Speaker 1: world coming into the season. A lot of people disagreed
Speaker 1: with me. My main the main foundation of that opinion
Speaker 1: was I think Ant's jump shot is real. I thought
Speaker 1: we had a large sample in last year's playoffs into
Speaker 1: Team USA this summer. We're on one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two attempts to start this year, and Ant's getting one
Speaker 1: point twenty five points per jump shot. He's an apex
Speaker 1: athlete that is adding an apex jump shot to his game. Again. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the zone caused some problems from Minnesota last night, but
Speaker 1: I think Ants off to an incredible star. Julius Randall
Speaker 1: is also averaging a very efficient twenty one points per
Speaker 1: game to start the year. I think Minnesota is only
Speaker 1: going to go up from here. Number seven the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. They won four to a row, including wins
Speaker 1: against Dallas and Sacramento, and they are fourth in defense. Again,
Speaker 1: as I said before the season, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I was so high on the Clippers, not as
Speaker 1: like a championship threat, but as just a team that
Speaker 1: would win a lot of regular season games is that
Speaker 1: they are just loaded with a lot of perimeter speed,
Speaker 1: specifically guys that can guard multiple positions, and I thought
Speaker 1: that would give them such a high defensive floor that
Speaker 1: James Harden would be able to at least do enough
Speaker 1: offensively to win some games and for them to be
Speaker 1: six and four without getting anything from Kawhi Leonard. To
Speaker 1: this point, I think they have three wins against teams
Speaker 1: that are five hundred are better already. Like, even if
Speaker 1: you were to say to me, oh, this Norman Powell
Speaker 1: stretch is unsustainable, and Norman Pale's playing really well. He's
Speaker 1: averaging twenty six points per game on sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: sure shooting. He's probably gonna be a pretty significant trade
Speaker 1: target at some point this season. But even if you
Speaker 1: were to tell me that that's not sustainable, I feel
Speaker 1: like James Harden hasn't been nearly as good as he's
Speaker 1: capable of. And so even if Norman Powell kind of
Speaker 1: comes back down to earth a little bit, James Harden
Speaker 1: should continue to get better. Kawhi Leonard will eventually rejoin
Speaker 1: this team. Got a lot of young guys playing well,
Speaker 1: a mere coffee over the win streak, shooting fifty nine
Speaker 1: percent from three on four point three attempts per game.
Speaker 1: Like this was a team that I've like every year.
Speaker 1: I kind of get like key to keyed in on
Speaker 1: different basketball concepts that I think are really driving the league.
Speaker 1: And anybody who's been listening to my show to start
Speaker 1: this year or even extending back into the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with the concept of perimeter speed. I think
Speaker 1: you have to be fast on the premier. Like look
Speaker 1: at the top defenses in the league. If you look
Speaker 1: at the top like seven or eight defenses in the league,
Speaker 1: it's like, I think I listed them down here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like if you're Oklahoma City, Orlando, Golden State, the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers, the Grizzlies, the Celtics, the Rockets, the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: all super fast. Okahoma City just a ton of fast
Speaker 1: dudes on the perimeter. Orlando Jalen Suggs, you know, Contavious Callwell, Pope,
Speaker 1: you're looking at like they just have like they're just
Speaker 1: so they're so damn fast. Anthony black is fast that
Speaker 1: they're just uh, they're just fast, right. The Golden State
Speaker 1: Warriors just waves and waves of guards, the Clippers, waves
Speaker 1: and waves of speed, the Grizzlies, waves and waves of speed,
Speaker 1: the Celtics, waves and waves of speed, the Rockets, just
Speaker 1: so many young athletic players, the Timberwolves, so many young
Speaker 1: athletic players. It's just you have to be fast on
Speaker 1: the perimeter to guard these modern NBA offenses. And it
Speaker 1: just I think, I think it's been one of the
Speaker 1: biggest lessons I've learned about the pro game here over
Speaker 1: the course the last couple of years. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: was why going into the season I was so high
Speaker 1: on the Clippers. Right now I have them at number seven,
Speaker 1: number six. The Denver Nuggets, they completely stabilize their season
Speaker 1: in two weeks. They won five in a row. They're
Speaker 1: now seven to three, up to the four seed in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. They're sixth in offense, eighteenth in defense.
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic has an absolute stranglehold on the best player
Speaker 1: in the World Title. The young players are starting to pop.
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson, Christian Brown, and Julian Straw. The are all
Speaker 1: playing good basketball. They're starting to look more and more
Speaker 1: like the team that I thought they would look like
Speaker 1: before the season. Number five, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They've
Speaker 1: lost two of their last three to Golden State and Denver,
Speaker 1: although they did lose chet Holmger into a hip injury
Speaker 1: early in the Warriors game. The next few months are
Speaker 1: going to come down to their small ball looks. This
Speaker 1: is going to be really interesting with Isaiah Hartenstein and
Speaker 1: chet Holmger in both out. But this year they've run
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy nine possessions without either of chet Obviously,
Speaker 1: Hartenstein's missed the entire year, but with Chet and with
Speaker 1: their bigs off the floor, they're actually plus twelve per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions and three hundred and seventy nine possessions.
Speaker 1: And again, Golden State's a really bad matchup for them
Speaker 1: in that context because they have the speed to really
Speaker 1: contain on the perimeter and so, like, I'm not overly
Speaker 1: keyed in on that game from last night, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a much larger sample size now of Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City and their small ball looks, and this does leave
Speaker 1: the door cracked open for a Western Conference team to
Speaker 1: take the one seed from them if someone plays well
Speaker 1: well enough here over the next couple of months. Number
Speaker 1: four the Boston Celtics. And again, before you Celtics fans
Speaker 1: freak out, obviously, I think that the Celtics are the
Speaker 1: clear championship favorite to this point in the season. The
Speaker 1: only reason I have them down at four is because
Speaker 1: they're nine to zero against teams that are below five hundred,
Speaker 1: and they are zero and two against teams that are
Speaker 1: five hundred or better. Do I think that's a real
Speaker 1: representation of the Celtics and what they're capable of. No,
Speaker 1: I just think that's small sample size noise. But for
Speaker 1: the purpose of these weekly lists, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: some other teams the nod in these power rankings for
Speaker 1: contender rankings. To me, the Celtics are basically in cement
Speaker 1: at number one, and I don't know what I'd see
Speaker 1: this year that would change my mind. They would have
Speaker 1: to be a very large sample size of another team
Speaker 1: looking like a better basketball team. They dropped a game
Speaker 1: to Golden State last week without Jalen Brown. But they
Speaker 1: did have an impressive come from behind win against the
Speaker 1: Bucks yesterday. We covered that game at the beginning part
Speaker 1: of the show. Peyton Richard Pritchard looks like the clear
Speaker 1: sixth man of the year. I helped them bring back
Speaker 1: come back from a deficit in the first half yesterday
Speaker 1: with seventeen first half points. Tatum is having another one
Speaker 1: of his classic seasons where he's up over thirty points
Speaker 1: a game on over sixty percentury shooting. They're getting really
Speaker 1: good production at animus Quoita, like a legit backup center
Speaker 1: prospect who continues to get a lot of trust in
Speaker 1: a lot of minutes from Joe Miszula. Celtics are fine.
Speaker 1: Just have them down at four for the purposes of
Speaker 1: this list. Number three the Golden State Warriors. They got
Speaker 1: smacked by the Calves, but the Calves are the NBA's
Speaker 1: great enigma right now. We'll get more to them in
Speaker 1: a minute. They went four to one on the road trip,
Speaker 1: and yes, I know that Chet and Jalen Brown were
Speaker 1: out for Boston and Oklahoma City, but I thought the
Speaker 1: road trip was a nice proof of concept for what
Speaker 1: this Warriors team build is, which is like waves and
Speaker 1: waves of speed like we were talking about earlier with
Speaker 1: the Clippers, Like you just have to be fast and
Speaker 1: able to cover ground on the perimeter to pressure the basketball,
Speaker 1: to make teams uncomfortable. And then they have all sorts
Speaker 1: of guys that can come off of screening actions looking
Speaker 1: to score, which has allowed their offense to function at
Speaker 1: a really high level. And then the final piece of
Speaker 1: it all was Steph. Right, I talked about it going
Speaker 1: into the season. Steph didn't look like a top ten
Speaker 1: player to end last year, but my prediction was that
Speaker 1: he would return to that level this year because I
Speaker 1: thought it was just a slump to end last year,
Speaker 1: and two games against two elite defenses in big time
Speaker 1: road situations at Oklahoma City in Boston, he had thirty six,
Speaker 1: five and seven against Oklahoma City twenty seven to seven
Speaker 1: and nine against Boston. That's two high leverage games where
Speaker 1: Steph played like an absolute top tier superstar. And so
Speaker 1: if you piece that together with this team with all
Speaker 1: this depth, with their rock solid foundation in terms of
Speaker 1: their scheme on both ends of the floor, well who
Speaker 1: they have at the head coach, they have a deal
Speaker 1: to make at some point this season if they want
Speaker 1: to bring a legitimate number two next to Steph. Hard
Speaker 1: not to be just incredibly excited if you're a Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors fan number two. The Phoenix Suns KD is
Speaker 1: out for a bit and they dropped a game to
Speaker 1: the Kings in overtime last night. But they're eight and two.
Speaker 1: They're tied for the one seed in the West, and
Speaker 1: even though they haven't been dominating games start to finish,
Speaker 1: they've been methodically walking teams down at the end of games.
Speaker 1: Kdi has been the driving force on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. The Suns are thirteenth and offense, thirteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: but they're seven to one in clutch games. Elite on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, same sort of thing. Kadi
Speaker 1: just flying around protecting the rim in rotation, defending on
Speaker 1: They consistently will put him on the ball and end
Speaker 1: game situations when they need to if there's a specific
Speaker 1: guy that has it going. And then he's just walking
Speaker 1: teams down at the end of game, at the end
Speaker 1: of games with ball screen action with one of the
Speaker 1: Sun's guards to get a smaller defender on him, and
Speaker 1: then just going to the elbow and he's just getting
Speaker 1: easy shots all night long, making good passing reads out
Speaker 1: of it. Son's been playing great basketball to start the year,
Speaker 1: and the number one the Cleveland Cavaliers, the biggest surprise
Speaker 1: of the NBA this season, just beat the living shit
Speaker 1: out of a good Warriors team the other night. We
Speaker 1: talked about the key factors earlier last week, like the
Speaker 1: fact that they're switching more, which is forcing more turnovers.
Speaker 1: They're getting out and running in transition more, there's a
Speaker 1: lot more mobilely on the ball. But to take it
Speaker 1: to an even simpler level, it felt like last year
Speaker 1: that Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen were the only, like,
Speaker 1: really rock solid guys in the starting lineup, and it
Speaker 1: felt like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley was like any
Speaker 1: given night, you didn't know what you were getting. Sometimes
Speaker 1: Darius looked great, sometimes he looked terrible. Sometimes Evan looked great,
Speaker 1: sometimes he looked terrible. This year just feels like both
Speaker 1: of those guys have been way more consistently great, and
Speaker 1: so they went from having two guys who were consistently
Speaker 1: great in their starting lineup to four guys who are
Speaker 1: consistently great in their starting lineup, and it just made
Speaker 1: them feel like they're a different tier of team than
Speaker 1: they were last year on Wednesday. I'm recording it on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: but we're airing it on Wednesday. Carter Rodriguez, half of
Speaker 1: the Chase Down podcast that covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, is
Speaker 1: coming on the show. We're going to do a deep
Speaker 1: dive in the Cleveland Cavaliers, looking forward to a Carter's
Speaker 1: I am still a little skeptical about Cleveland within the
Speaker 1: championship context, and I really just want to get Carter's
Speaker 1: opinion and just have him, obviously as someone who's very
Speaker 1: very very closely following that team through every single possession
Speaker 1: this year, just kind of get his take on things,
Speaker 1: so you guys can look forward to that on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today
Speaker 1: is always that sincerely appreciate you for suporting the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with a bunch of game reactions
Speaker 1: and a bunch of film. I'll see you guys then
Speaker 1: the volume. What's up? Guys? As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.