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Speaker 1: The volume.

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Speaker 2: So when I'm getting ready to take my wife out

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Speaker 2: I got sent some stuff from Mando a while back,

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Speaker 2: and I have been using their Mount Fuji deodorant for

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Speaker 2: Smell fresher, stay dryer, and boost your confidence from head to.

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Speaker 1: Toe with Mando. All right, welcome to tonight. You're at

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Speaker 1: the volume heavy Friday. Everybody.

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Speaker 2: Hope all of you guys had a great We got

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Speaker 2: a jam pack show for you tonight. We're gonna be

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Speaker 2: starting with the Boston Celtics, who really beat up the

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Speaker 2: Philadelphia seventy six ers last night. I want to zoom

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Speaker 2: in on there versatility. After that, the Milwaukee Bucks came

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Speaker 2: back from down thirteen in the fourth quarter to the

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Speaker 2: LA Clippers last night. Kyle Kuzma was amazing on defense.

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Speaker 2: Giannis looked incredible before sitting out the rest of the game.

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Speaker 2: On his minutes restriction. We really want to dive into

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Speaker 2: Kyle Kuzma in the force multiplier that he can be

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Speaker 2: for that group. Then in our third segment, we're going

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Speaker 2: to talk some Lakers who got a big win against

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Speaker 2: the Blazers to get back on track. Last night, Lebron

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Speaker 2: James drops forty points. I want to zoom in on

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Speaker 2: the concept of their defense, the number one defense in

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Speaker 2: the league since January fifteenth, a seventeen games sample. I

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Speaker 2: want to just zoom into that and what it means

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Speaker 2: for the Lakers and what it means specifically within the

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Speaker 2: context of Luca. And then, lastly, like we always do

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Speaker 2: on Fridays, our mail bag questions. Remember, if you guys

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Speaker 2: want to get mailbag questions, drop them in our YouTube comments.

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Speaker 2: Just put mail bag with the call in, write your

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Speaker 2: question and we'll get to it on Fridays throughout the

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Speaker 2: rest of the season. You guys have the Joe before

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Speaker 2: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel

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Speaker 2: so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow

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Speaker 2: me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT. You guys, don't miss

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Speaker 2: you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you

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Speaker 2: get your podcast on our Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful.

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Speaker 2: We leave a rating and a review on that front.

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Speaker 2: We also have brand new social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram,

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Speaker 2: and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there for

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Speaker 2: more content throughout the season. And last but not least,

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Speaker 2: like I mentioned off the top, keep dropping mailback questions

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Speaker 2: and those YouTube comments for our Friday mail bags throughout

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Speaker 2: the rest of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball.

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Speaker 2: So the Celtics beat the shit out of the Sixers

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Speaker 2: last night, really controlled that one from start to finish.

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Speaker 2: And the Sixers with MBD, with Maxi, with Paul George

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Speaker 2: all healthy in the lineup, who continue to look extremely mediocre.

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Speaker 2: We talked about that last week, so I'm not going

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Speaker 2: to get into that today. But what fascinated me was

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Speaker 2: the way that Boston dominated that game. This is a

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Speaker 2: team that only averages thirty three ball screens per game.

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Speaker 2: It's bottom ten in the league. Several reasons for that.

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Speaker 2: Part of that is a lot of their perimeter players

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Speaker 2: are similar size and style, so you'll see a lot

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Speaker 2: of switching against the Boston Celtics. They also have pick

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Speaker 2: and pop bigs in one of the easiest ways to

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Speaker 2: confront a pick and pop, which is always open in

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Speaker 2: a traditional coverage, is to switch. And the Celtics also,

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Speaker 2: just in terms of their talent level, they're a team

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Speaker 2: that has a lot of guys that can punish mismatches,

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Speaker 2: so they're more or less a mismatch hunting type of offense.

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Speaker 2: But last night they ran forty two ball screens against

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Speaker 2: the Philadelphia seventy six ers, and I thought there was

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Speaker 2: a very specific reason why Philly has a severe roster weakness,

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Speaker 2: specifically at the center position in terms of footspeed, the

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Speaker 2: ability to cover ground and change direction on the perimeter.

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Speaker 2: Whether it's Embiid who's been brutally bad as of late

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Speaker 2: on the perimeter, or Quashanyabuseli or Andre Drummond, whoever it is,

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Speaker 2: they're just extremely slow.

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Speaker 1: Footed at that position.

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Speaker 2: So Boston specifically for that matchup, changed the way they

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Speaker 2: played and start guarded spamming ball screens instead of hunting

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Speaker 2: smaller perimeter players. And by the way, they had smaller

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Speaker 2: players that they could attack. Right, there's Tyrese Maxey out

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Speaker 2: there that you can consistently look to hunt. There are smaller,

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Speaker 2: skinnier players, but they just went the route of trying

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Speaker 2: to hunt the Philly Bigs in space, and it was

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Speaker 2: barbecue chicken over and over and over again. Embiid would

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Speaker 2: either be way too far back in his drop coverage.

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Speaker 2: That's a weird thing with Embiid, Like I don't know

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Speaker 2: if it's like a Nick Nurse mixing up coverages thing,

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Speaker 2: or if he just decides possession by possession, whether or

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Speaker 2: not he feels like getting up to the level. But

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Speaker 2: sometimes he's way far back in a drop and guys

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Speaker 2: are hitting pull of jumpers over the top. Sometimes he's

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Speaker 2: running up to the level, but they'll just pop Horford

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Speaker 2: to poor Zingis out to the three point line, or

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Speaker 2: they'll just attack Joel Embiid in space or a big

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Speaker 2: one Inbiad's been really struggling with is rejected screens.

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Speaker 1: Where like guys will get ready to go.

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Speaker 2: Off a bass and Embiid will over commit to one

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Speaker 2: side of the screen and so then when the ball

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Speaker 2: handler crosses back over away from the screen, it's just

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Speaker 2: all this daylight going downhill.

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Speaker 1: In the first half, when the.

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Speaker 2: Celtics scored seventy two points, they got one point five

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Speaker 2: to five points per ball screen.

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Speaker 1: That's insane.

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Speaker 2: In twenty two reps in the first half over one

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Speaker 2: and a half points per possession, including passes in ball screens.

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Speaker 2: Just an insane level of efficiency, and the Sixers really

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Speaker 2: got ran off the floor. And it got me thinking

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Speaker 2: about this concept of versatility. In order to win the title,

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Speaker 2: you have to win four completely different playoff series against

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Speaker 2: four completely different teams, right, Like you might face a

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Speaker 2: dominant rim protector and more of a traditional scheme in

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Speaker 2: one round. Think about a team like Milwaukee. Milwaukee's gonna

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Speaker 2: present a challenge We're going to talk about them later,

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Speaker 2: where they got Giannis and Kyle Kuzma flying around in

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Speaker 2: helpside and Brooks just sitting under the rim waiting for everybody.

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Speaker 2: It's a specific type of challenge, right, But then you

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Speaker 2: might face a team that does a lot more switching

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Speaker 2: in a different round. Think about a team like the

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Speaker 2: Miami Heat, who with all of their big, rangy athletes,

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Speaker 2: especially now that Wigans is in the picture, they can

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Speaker 2: switch a lot of action. Dam Adebayo one of the

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Speaker 2: best bigs in the league at switching ball screens right.

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Speaker 2: Cleveland this year has done a lot of switching because

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Speaker 2: Jared Allen can guard on the perimeter. Evan Mobley can

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Speaker 2: guard on the perimeter. It's a very different type of

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Speaker 2: challenge going against the Cleveland Cavaliers right, and then on

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Speaker 2: the other end of the floor, like the East has

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Speaker 2: a lot of elite guards right, guys like Jalen Brunson,

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Speaker 2: Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, and Darius Garland with the Calves.

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Speaker 2: But then you'll also face these teams that have more

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Speaker 2: dynamic like big wings right teams like the Pistons with

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Speaker 2: Kay Cunningham or Jannison Tenakumpo, who was just bludgeoning the

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Speaker 2: Clippers last night, or Pascal si Yakum, who's been one

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Speaker 2: of the more efficient matchup attackers in the league this year.

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Speaker 2: Pala Bancaro when he's healthy and in rhythm, Franz Wagner

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Speaker 2: when he's healthy in rhythm. Even looking at the center position, again,

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Speaker 2: the Sixers aren't a threat this year, but on any

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Speaker 2: given season, you could run into an issue where it's like, oh,

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Speaker 2: what if you have to face some combination of one

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Speaker 2: or two of Jokic, Anthony Davis or Joe el Embiid right, Alprin, Shanegon,

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Speaker 2: the Victor wembin Yama types of the league I say types,

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Speaker 2: he's the one and only of his kind.

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Speaker 1: But you get the point.

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Speaker 2: These like big unicorn bigs that can cause problems.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: You might face speed in one round and size in

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Speaker 2: the next. A team that tests your ability to defensive

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Speaker 2: rebound like the Detroit Pistons, are a team that tries

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Speaker 2: to run you off the floor in transition, like the

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Speaker 2: Indiana Pacers.

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Speaker 1: Contrary to what Draymond Green.

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Speaker 2: Says and so many of our former NBA players that

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Speaker 2: are content to shit on the league, there are a

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Speaker 2: bunch of teams in the NBA who play different styles.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of uniqueness as you go from team

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Speaker 2: to team around the league. The ability to survive those

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Speaker 2: wild shifts in style from round to round is a

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Speaker 2: big part of what makes an NBA champion. Sometimes you're

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Speaker 2: just so strong with your base setup that no team's

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Speaker 2: able to match it. That happens from time to time.

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Speaker 2: The team I look at as an example of that

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Speaker 2: is the Denver Nuggets in twenty twenty three. They had

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Speaker 2: slight variations, right. They would have stretches of games or

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Speaker 2: specific matchups where they'd bring Jokic up to the level,

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Speaker 2: and then they'd have other matchups where they'd sit Jokic

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Speaker 2: deeper in a drop and offer less low man help

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Speaker 2: from Aaron Gordon. But for the most part, it was

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Speaker 2: traditional coverages and on offense, they just run the same

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Speaker 2: thing just about every single time. There were some differences,

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Speaker 2: like the Miami Heat series, it's like, oh, we're gonna

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Speaker 2: spam Aaron Gordon post ups, right, Like, there are a

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Speaker 2: handful of different things that they would do differently, but

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Speaker 2: that team it was more like just we have this

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Speaker 2: completely unsolvable problem that is Nikola Jokic, and good luck

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Speaker 2: solving it. But there are different types of champions over

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Speaker 2: the year where it comes down more to versatility, the

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Speaker 2: Bucks being able to play Giannis at center or at

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Speaker 2: the four, the Lakers being able to play Anthony Davis

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Speaker 2: at center or at the four. Teams playing through heavy

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Speaker 2: ballscreen attack one night, switching towards more of a post

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Speaker 2: up style attack a different night. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: versatility in the champions as we look back through NBA history,

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Speaker 2: and that's what I like about this Celtics team. There

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Speaker 2: are a lot of teams out there that struggle against

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Speaker 2: switching defenses, but that will thrive against traditional ball screen coverages.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna talk Lakers later.

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Speaker 2: Luca will help them with their switching, but Lebron and

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Speaker 2: Austin have a vulnerability to ball pressure and switching. But

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Speaker 2: then you look at them in the first half against Portland,

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Speaker 2: when Donovan Klingen and Robert Williams are sitting in drop

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Speaker 2: coverages all game, Lebron and Austin are picking them apart

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Speaker 2: right like they thrive on baked in dribble penetration. But

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Speaker 2: when you force them to do it over and over

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Speaker 2: and over again against the set defender in front, they

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Speaker 2: can have some problems. Right, the Celtics are very well

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Speaker 2: equipped to handle both. They have a reputation for being

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Speaker 2: one of the best switch attacking defenses in the offenses

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Speaker 2: in the league, not just because Jason Tatum can attack

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Speaker 2: smaller players, not just because Jalen Brown can attack smaller players,

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Speaker 2: not just because they can pick on bigs in space,

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Speaker 2: but also because of their spacing, also because of their

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Speaker 2: ability to use seals like you'll see Jason Tatum screen

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Speaker 2: for Derek White, but screen the backside of the defender

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Speaker 2: and create that little passing angle over the top and

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Speaker 2: Derek White floats it to him. Suddenly you have a

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Speaker 2: four on three. They do a lot of work attacking

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Speaker 2: switching successfully. But then, as we saw last night, you

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Speaker 2: go up against a drop coverage team, a team that's

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Speaker 2: running a lot more traditional coverage is either the big

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Speaker 2: at the level or sitting back in a drop in

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Speaker 2: that sort of situation, if you don't score the basketball

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Speaker 2: in those ball screens, if you don't score the basketball

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Speaker 2: with the big popping, then you allow Embiid to park

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Speaker 2: his ass underneath the basket. And when Embiid has parked

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Speaker 2: underneath the basket, he can be a problem. And there

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Speaker 2: are a lot of teams that struggle against those kinds

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Speaker 2: of coverages.

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Speaker 1: Right. The Celtics literally just.

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Speaker 2: Change the way they play and annihilated the Sixers, picking

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Speaker 2: on their bigs in those traditional coverages.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot.

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Speaker 2: Of teams out there have a base defensive scheme that works,

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Speaker 2: but it doesn't work against other teams.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: Famous example of this is the Jazz in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 2: You could sit Rudy Gobaar underneath the basket. Everything's great,

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Speaker 2: you start spacing them out with five out spacing. Suddenly

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Speaker 2: it's like ooh, like Donovan Mitchell struggling to guard the ball,

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Speaker 2: Mike Conley's struggling to guard the ball, boy on mcdonovitch

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Speaker 2: is struggling to guard the ball, and Go Bear's not.

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Speaker 1: There to clean things up.

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Speaker 2: And a Clippers team just without Kawhi Leonard just completely

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Speaker 2: picks apart a Utah Jazz defense that dominant throughout the

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Speaker 2: entire regular season. I'm a little worried about that with

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Speaker 2: the Lakers this year. We're gonna talk about it in

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Speaker 2: a little bit. I'm concerned about them being able to

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Speaker 2: handle certain matchups with their defense, even though their base

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Speaker 2: scheme has been defending well and I expect to continue

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Speaker 2: to defend well. Right, how do you have defensive versatility?

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Speaker 1: Well?

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Speaker 2: Can you match teams with size? Yeah, the Celtics can.

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Speaker 2: They can play two big looks with Horford and Porzingis

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Speaker 2: on the floor. Can the Celtics go small and switch everything.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: They had looks last year with Horford at center where

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Speaker 2: they did a lot of damage to teams just by

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Speaker 2: doing a lot of switching. They have bigs that can

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Speaker 2: guard on the perimeter. They have perimeter players that can

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Speaker 2: guard bigs. That was the big thing that unlocked the

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Speaker 2: Celtics defensive scheme in the postseason last year was We're

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Speaker 2: gonna put Jason Tatum on the opponent's center, and we're

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Speaker 2: gonna put Jalen Brown on the opponent's best perimeter player,

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Speaker 2: and we're just gonna switch ball screens. And now all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, your pick and roll attack doesn't work.

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Speaker 2: And oh, by the way, where's porzingis at. He's guarding

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Speaker 2: your weakest above the break three point shooter and just

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Speaker 2: waiting for everybody at the rim, just making a complete

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Speaker 2: mess of things. That's the versatility that Boston has on

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Speaker 2: the defensive end of the floor. Drew Holliday, you spent

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Speaker 2: a bunch of time guarding Joel Embiid last night.

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Speaker 1: One of my.

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Speaker 2: Biggest issues with the way that the game of basketball

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Speaker 2: is analyzed around the league is we hyper focus on

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Speaker 2: what a team's net rating is, or how good their

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Speaker 2: offense is in a large sample, or how good their

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Speaker 2: defense is in a large sample. And I don't want

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Speaker 2: to sit here and pretend like there aren't value in

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Speaker 2: those things. There are, and I think they're important in

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Speaker 2: terms of indicators of a team's level of commitment on

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Speaker 2: the night and night out process of the regular season.

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Speaker 2: If you're serious basketball team. You need to be winning

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Speaker 2: your games by a lot of points, and it needs

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Speaker 2: to manifest in something like net rating, right, Like, if

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Speaker 2: you're not dominating in those areas, then you're probably just

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Speaker 2: not sharp enough in general to get where you want

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Speaker 2: to go. But once you get into a playoff series,

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Speaker 2: those metrics don't mean shit. It becomes can you score

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Speaker 2: against this particular team? Can you get stops against this

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Speaker 2: particular team. I was watching Giannis last night. He was

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Speaker 2: showcasing this like ridiculous spin move, we're going to talk

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Speaker 2: about it here in a little bit, and like two

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Speaker 2: to one, like fadeaways over the top. Was just bludgeoning

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Speaker 2: the Clippers in the paint in that early fourth quarter stretch,

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Speaker 2: which really sparked the run. And it doesn't really matter

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Speaker 2: how good your defense is if you can't guard Giannis.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm concerned about with the Lakers with the Nuggets,

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Speaker 2: right it doesn't really matter if they're switching scheme, can

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Speaker 2: bend but not break and get a lot of stops,

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Speaker 2: if like Nikole Jokic can just get a layup every

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Speaker 2: single time he wants. That's why we have to look

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Speaker 2: at this deeper than just reading net ratings and reading

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Speaker 2: the standings to tell us who the best playoff threats are.

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Speaker 2: The Celtics have great metrics too, top five in both

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Speaker 2: offense and defense. Right now, they're sixth in defensive rebounding.

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Speaker 2: But they also have the ability to shape shift from

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Speaker 2: matchup to matchup, and that's what makes them such a

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Speaker 2: difficult team to contend with. Thought, it's really interesting the

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Speaker 2: way they just spam ball screens to beat the Sixers

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Speaker 2: last night, when that's not really their play style on

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Speaker 2: most nights.

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Speaker 2: on a Clippers Bucks. So the Bucks were trailing at

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Speaker 2: thirteen in the early fourth quarter and Yannis just completely

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Speaker 2: takes over the game. They try to get some stops

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Speaker 2: by running a two three zone with Jericho Simms in

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Speaker 2: the middle of the floor, and Clippers got a couple

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Speaker 2: of buckets out it, but it didn't a nice job

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Speaker 2: of just kind of stagnating and changing the flow of

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Speaker 2: the game. And on the other end of the floor,

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Speaker 2: Giannis was just torching Ben Simmons, torching Nicholas Patom just

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Speaker 2: he was using his spin move over and over again

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Speaker 2: last night disguised it really well too. He had a

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Speaker 2: fun one against Nick Patom where he catches the ball

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Speaker 2: on the left kind of like elbow extended area there

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Speaker 2: in the middle of the of that left side of

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Speaker 2: the floor, and he's facing up in the Clippers are

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Speaker 2: basically zoned up on him, so they're in both driving lanes.

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Speaker 2: Kawhi Leonards kind of doing the little defensive three second

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Speaker 2: dance where he's hopping in and out of the key

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Speaker 2: trying to make sure that he's ready to rotate. They're

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Speaker 2: rotating on the high side and Giannis just kind of

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Speaker 2: waits for as second to kind of read the floor,

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Speaker 2: and then he does a beautiful job of disguising a

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Speaker 2: post up, making it look like he was about to

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Speaker 2: go kind of into a traditional slowdown post up where

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Speaker 2: he turns his back into that high hesitation dribble and

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Speaker 2: then just immediately spun off of it, like disguised it

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Speaker 2: like he was.

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Speaker 1: Going to go for a slow, methodical post up and.

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Speaker 2: Then just immediately spun off of it, went right around

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Speaker 2: Nick patom Kawhi had no chance, he was not even

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Speaker 2: close to being there in time. He's right at the basket.

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Speaker 2: It just reminds everybody that, like when you're dealing with

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Speaker 2: one of those true upper tier guys. This is one

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Speaker 2: of the reasons why I've been excited about Luka Doncic

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Speaker 2: when it comes to the Lakers. Right there are a

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Speaker 2: handful of guys in the league, Nikola Jokic, Shay Gildess,

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Speaker 2: Alexander Jannis, and Tennekumpo, Luka Doncic. I think Jason Tatum

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Speaker 2: has kind of entered into this group where it's like

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Speaker 2: there's really nothing you can do. There's no player that

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Speaker 2: stops them, there's no scheme that stops them. They are

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Speaker 2: world beaters, and when you have one of those guys,

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Speaker 2: you present a problem to the opponent that becomes.

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Speaker 1: Very difficult to solve.

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Speaker 2: So one of the big things that we've underrated when

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Speaker 2: we've talked about the Bucks Andry years, where we think

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Speaker 2: about them as a broken roster. And look, here's the thing.

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Speaker 2: They're not the best roster in the league. We all

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Speaker 2: know that, but there's an important context to their last

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Speaker 2: two playoff exits. Yiannis didn't play. When Yannis played, even

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Speaker 2: on a limited Bucks roster in twenty twenty two because

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Speaker 2: of the Chris Middleton injury, it was just Drew Holliday,

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Speaker 2: a bunch of role players in Giannis, and he still

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Speaker 2: pushed the Celtics to seven games because guess what, when

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Speaker 2: you get into a playoff series, it's over and over

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Speaker 2: and over and over again that he's coming downhill at you.

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Speaker 2: And I remember early in that series it's like Horford

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Speaker 2: would wall him up, you know, like you'd you'd have

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Speaker 2: guys sliding their feet and absorbing contact. Grant Williams played

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Speaker 2: some good minutes on Giannis in that series, but then

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Speaker 2: what happened after, like the tenth, fifteenth, twentieth, twenty fifth

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00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,280
Speaker 2: time that he comes at you, he starts to just

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00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,840
Speaker 2: get through you, and there's literally nothing you can do

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Speaker 2: about it. And he pushed that series to seven games

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00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:03,800
Speaker 2: when it had no business going to seven games. And

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Speaker 2: that's where the optimism comes.

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Speaker 1: That's what.

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Speaker 2: Have the Bucks looked mediocre at times this year? Yeah,

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00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,360
Speaker 2: you shouldn't write off Jannis. Have the Nuggets looked mediocre

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00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,280
Speaker 2: at times at times this year? Yeah, you shouldn't right

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Speaker 2: off Jokic. Have the Lakers looked like they have some

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Speaker 2: obvious roster flaws with their new build, especially at the

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Speaker 2: center position. Yeah, but you probably shouldn't write off Luka,

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Speaker 2: Doncic and Lebron James playing the way that he's playing.

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Speaker 2: And as I was watching that last night, it just

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00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 2: goes to show you, like Giannis is kind of flying

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Speaker 2: under the radar this year because of all the excitement

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Speaker 2: around Shay, all the excitement around Jokic, He's still one

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Speaker 2: of those guys, one of those guys that presents a

432
00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 2: truly unsolvable problem for opponents. When Yanna sat out of

433
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 2: the game, though something really interesting happened, he kind of

434
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,240
Speaker 2: goes out of the game in that mid fourth quarter

435
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 2: stretch on a minute's restriction, obviously coming back from his injury,

436
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 2: and the Bucks won the game with defense and everybody

437
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,679
Speaker 2: was guarded. Dame had a really nice steal where they

438
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 2: were running a ball screen with Zubach and Harden, and

439
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 2: Harden threw a bounce pass to Zubatch on the roll

440
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,359
Speaker 2: and Dame dug down off of a mere coffee and

441
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 2: got a steal that ended up leading to a runout

442
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,840
Speaker 2: and one for Kyle Kuzma. Brook Lopez blocked Kawhi at

443
00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:25,120
Speaker 2: the rim because Kuzma flattened out the drive. I talk

444
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:27,879
Speaker 2: a lot about flattening out drives. When you flatten out drives,

445
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 2: it gives your helpers more time to rotate, and when

446
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 2: Brook has time to kind of read things on the

447
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,959
Speaker 2: back line, he can be devastating there. He had another

448
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,399
Speaker 2: block on another sweeping drive across the middle of the florid.

449
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,399
Speaker 1: He had three blocks in the fourth quarter.

450
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,360
Speaker 2: Kyle Kuzma took a charge, tagging if he can Zubatch

451
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 2: on a roll they were guarding aj Green, Stonewall, Kawhi

452
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 2: Leonard a few times. Kyle Kuzma had multiple stops on

453
00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 2: the ball against Kawhi Leonard and James Harden either them

454
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 2: into bad shots. He forced James Harden into a three

455
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 2: out of the right corner that was like a foot

456
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,160
Speaker 2: and a half over the back of the rim. He's

457
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 2: stonewalled Kawhi Leonard into passing the basketball because he's got

458
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 2: the length to bother that pull up jump shot. Kusma

459
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 2: looks like a Swiss army knife. I've seen him take charges.

460
00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:21,440
Speaker 2: I've seen him battle embiad in the post, in front

461
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,479
Speaker 2: the posts. I've seen him guard guards. I've seen him

462
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 2: guard wings. He's grabbing its on a defensive rebounds. He

463
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 2: is a force multiplier for this defense. And I was

464
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 2: especially excited to see him in the context of playing

465
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 2: alongside Giannis, because again, that's what makes this work when

466
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 2: you're talking about when you're talking about traditional switching schemes,

467
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,919
Speaker 2: it becomes about how many good defenders do you have

468
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 2: on the floor.

469
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: But when it comes to these more.

470
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 2: Traditional pick and roll schemes where you have Brooke waiting

471
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 2: at the basket, where you have Brooke coming up to

472
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 2: the level, sometimes it becomes more off ball defense. It

473
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 2: becomes more about how athletic are you on the back line,

474
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 2: how well can you protect the rim and disrupt things

475
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:11,639
Speaker 2: when the ball gets past brook Lopez against types of

476
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 2: players that are gonna pull him out to the level

477
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 2: and like, yes, Chris Middleton brought a lot of ball

478
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 2: handling to this team, which, by the way, like Kyle

479
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 2: Kuzma's done some of that. He had a big one

480
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 2: of the biggest clutch plays in this game.

481
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: It's one four, one oh four.

482
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 2: Kuzma attacks downhill with the ball, forces Zubats to switch

483
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 2: on him, swings a skip Passatorian Prince Amir Coffee ends

484
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,160
Speaker 2: up switched on brook Lopez because Kyle Kuzma got downhill

485
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,200
Speaker 2: so hard he forced Zubats to switch. Got brook a

486
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,199
Speaker 2: one on one in the post against a mere Coffee.

487
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 2: He just bullied him right under the basket for an

488
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 2: and one. They ended up leading the rest of the

489
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 2: game from that point. You know, I'd already loved the

490
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 2: early returns from the Kyle Kuzma trade. He made it

491
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 2: immediately clear within the first few games that he was

492
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:03,199
Speaker 2: playing on playing winning basketball. Now, adding Gianis to this

493
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,240
Speaker 2: mix gives this team crazy potential and I have my

494
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 2: eye on them as a team that could potentially jump

495
00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 2: considerably higher up my contender rankings after I see them

496
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 2: with Giannis and Cuz together more. It's a physicality thing.

497
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 2: It's a size thing. It's a protecting the rim and

498
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 2: rebounding thing. It's a maybe you just can't handle Jannis

499
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: on Tanacumpo on the other end of the floor kind

500
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 2: of thing that makes me so excited about them in

501
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 2: the big picture. And then Dame, I mean like Dame,

502
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 2: we Dame when he was in the first round last

503
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 2: year with Chris Middleton had to carry such a massive

504
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 2: offensive load within the context of this sort of build.

505
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 2: When they get to the postseason, when Giannis is playing

506
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 2: the way he's playing, when you have this type of defense,

507
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 2: Dame is a really dangerous second option. Has this remarkable

508
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 2: ability to get to the foul line on three point shots.

509
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,439
Speaker 2: He drew two fouls on three point shots in the

510
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, hit another big step back three off the

511
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 2: left wing, just manufacturing points. That is another force multiplier

512
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 2: within the context of what this team is capable of

513
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 2: on the offensive end of the floor. All Right, moving

514
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 2: on the Lakers Blazers. This game looks so similar to

515
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,639
Speaker 2: me to the set of games that we saw between

516
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 2: when Ad got hurt in the Sixers game and when

517
00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 2: Luca joined the team, think about like that when they

518
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 2: beat the Knicks, like in the Clippers, in that kind

519
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 2: of phase of the of the season. The Lakers defense

520
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:32,160
Speaker 2: has just been so good lately. Again, they're number one

521
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 2: in the entire NBA in defensive ratings since January fifteenth.

522
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 2: That's a seventeen game sample, or roughly twenty one percent

523
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 2: of the season. Oh well, Anthony Davis was in there

524
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:44,879
Speaker 2: for some of those games. You're right, he was in

525
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 2: there for seven of those games. In the ten games

526
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 2: since they are second in defensive rating. Now, we'll get

527
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 2: deeper into what that means later, because like, do I

528
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 2: think they're a top tier defense in this league. No,

529
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: But the point is they are guarding to the effect

530
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 2: that they're guarding better than everyone in the NBA.

531
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: Over the course of the last six weeks.

532
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 2: Or so, they've just done a much much better job

533
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 2: of executing JJ Redicks one through five switching scheme. We'll

534
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 2: talk about that when we get into their defense. And

535
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,439
Speaker 2: then on offense, Lebron and Austin have just been in

536
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 2: such a great group. There have been clunky moments, especially

537
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 2: as Luca has been in the picture. And they're trying

538
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,679
Speaker 2: to work that new partnership out. But Lebron in this

539
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 2: thirteen and four stretch twenty seven points, eight rebounds, nine

540
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 2: assists on sixty three percent true shooting. That is MVP

541
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 2: level production from a forty year old in a winning

542
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 2: context with massive games against good teams. Austin reeves in

543
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 2: this thirteen and four stretch twenty one points, four rebounds,

544
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,959
Speaker 2: seven assists, sixty three percent true shooting. That's insane. Forty

545
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,120
Speaker 2: eight points, twelve rebounds and sixteen assists on sixty three

546
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 2: percent true shooting from Lebron and Austin over this seventeen

547
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 2: game span, this game kind of had an interesting flow,

548
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 2: and that's how it also kind of mimicked some of

549
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 2: these other games recently when AD's been out but Luca's

550
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 2: also been out, where like they start the game, there's

551
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 2: a lot of ball pressure. That's like the book on

552
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 2: the Lakers. You want a ball pressure Austin and Lebron

553
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 2: and try to wear them out. That's, by the way,

554
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 2: one of the big reasons why I think Luca is

555
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,440
Speaker 2: so important to this team. He is impervious to that

556
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 2: sort of thing. But in the early part of this game,

557
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:27,679
Speaker 2: it's a lot of ball pressure. But the Blazers were

558
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 2: running a lot of drop coverage with Donovan Klingon and

559
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,160
Speaker 2: Robert Williams, where they're either they're coming up but they're

560
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 2: not that high up at the level, but they're sitting

561
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,880
Speaker 2: back waiting for the ball handler coming off of the screen,

562
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 2: and Lebron and Austin just absolutely torched it getting all the.

563
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: Way to the rim.

564
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 2: Lebron in particular, had some really impressive finishes in traffic

565
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 2: through Klingon. Lebron, by the way, in this seventeen game span,

566
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 2: is shooting eighty two percent in the restricted area, So

567
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 2: how's that for the old man. He's one of only

568
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 2: six players in the league in that span that's making

569
00:28:57,840 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 2: at least three point five shots in the restricted area

570
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 2: on at least eighty percent, and it's all centers. And

571
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 2: then Lebron the short to mid range shot making. Both

572
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 2: Austin and Lebron were great with that. And then again,

573
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 2: when you show a willingness to either attack downhill or

574
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 2: to score and pick and roll, something happens with the

575
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 2: screen defender.

576
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: The ball.

577
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 2: Screen defender starts to engage the ball handler more as

578
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 2: soon as you start to engage the ball handler more.

579
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 2: That's when the roleman gets open. Jackson As and Trey

580
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,239
Speaker 2: Jamison at fifteen points in this game, a lot of

581
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 2: spoon fed baskets right around the rim off of action

582
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 2: that Austin and Lebron were running. But again, every team

583
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 2: has a game plan for the Lakers. Lots of ball pressure,

584
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 2: you wear them down, and then usually over the course

585
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 2: of the game there's more switching and then more aggressive

586
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 2: ball coverages where the bigs coming up to the level.

587
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 2: And what ends up happening is Lebron and Austin start

588
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 2: to get tired, and when they get tired, they get sloppy,

589
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 2: particularly as passers. Those two guys finished with seventeen turnovers.

590
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 2: The team finished with a season twenty four turnovers, and

591
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 2: so many of them were like pick sixes. And this

592
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 2: is the weird part about that game. Lebron and Austin

593
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 2: were brilliant, but they both undercut a lot of their

594
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 2: success with these really sloppy turnovers that literally led to

595
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 2: run out layups and dunks. Again, they had thirty one

596
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 2: points off of turnovers in this game. The Blazers did

597
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 2: Denny Avdia in particular, it was amazing in this game,

598
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,760
Speaker 2: did a ton of damage in those like kind of

599
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 2: runout like six pick six type of types of sequences,

600
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 2: but that allowed the Blazers to kind of slowly and

601
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 2: methodically work their way back into the game. But Lebron James,

602
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 2: once again, just like he did against the Hornets the

603
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 2: night before, goes absolutely bizarre in the early fourth quarter

604
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 2: shift hitting threes against Jeremy Grant, who was going underneath picks,

605
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 2: and Lebron's just shooting the ball too well these days

606
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 2: for you to go under picks. He made Jeremy Grant

607
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 2: pay with two threes that way, hit another one of

608
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 2: those drop covered shots against Donovan Klingen like god Jeremy

609
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 2: Grant in jail, and then hit like a little like

610
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 2: twelve along the left lane line. He hit this crazy

611
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 2: driving floater onto Monty Camarrow was a really impressive defensive

612
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 2: player all season, but was doing a lot of damage

613
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 2: to the Lakers last night. Hit this driving floater on

614
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 2: to moniy Amara. All of a sudden, the Lakers are

615
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 2: up by nine, But then the rest of the way

616
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 2: the Blazers just double team Lebron and there were a

617
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 2: couple more ugly turnovers, a couple more runouts and kept

618
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 2: things kind of close. But when you double team Lebron,

619
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 2: he's just gonna pick you apart. They got good looks

620
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 2: down the stretch. Austin Reeves hit a big three on

621
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 2: the right wing off of a Lebron double that more

622
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 2: or less kind of like ice to the game, so

623
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 2: to speak. And then Austin Reeves a couple of big stops,

624
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 2: got to stop on Scoot Henderson driving off of the

625
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 2: left wing. Got another stop in the post against Jeremy Grant.

626
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 2: I've been telling everybody forever, like Austin will have his

627
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,600
Speaker 2: bad games where he looks bad on defense, especially like

628
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 2: random regular season games against mediocre teams. But when len

629
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 2: when Austin needs to guard, he guards. Austin slides his feet,

630
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 2: he absorbs contact. He's excellent at attacking the basketball. Both

631
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 2: of those stops against Scoot Henderson and Jeremy Grant just

632
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 2: attacked the basketball. He got screw Henderson up high, he

633
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 2: got Jeremy Grant down low. Austin can guard, and he

634
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 2: got a couple of huge stops down the stretch of

635
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 2: that game. Before we get into the Lakers defense, I

636
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 2: just want to shout out a couple of Blazers. I

637
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 2: was really impressed with Smani Kamara. Again, he is just

638
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 2: a really unique combination of like size and strength but

639
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 2: also long arms in lots of mobility.

640
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: Latterly he had five steals in this game.

641
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 2: Was causing a lot of problems Danny Avdia not just

642
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 2: the transition runouts off of steels, but he brings a

643
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 2: good amount of downhill force. He had this off foot

644
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 2: dunk against Lebron, driving a close out off the top

645
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 2: of the key where he literally made Lebron look like

646
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:38,959
Speaker 2: he was stuck in the mud. And Lebron's been guarding

647
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 2: for a couple of months now, it's not as easy

648
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 2: to do as you might think, and he just he

649
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: counters that downhill force with a nice jump shot. It

650
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 2: can be someone in consistent. He's better off the dribble

651
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 2: than he is off the catch. That means he's kind

652
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:51,959
Speaker 2: of like a rhythm player. Makes me think like in

653
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 2: the big picture, he's kind of more of a second

654
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 2: side creator, a guy who should run more action. Robert Williams,

655
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 2: his length and mobility was a problem all night. They

656
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 2: had two blocks and two steals. The Blazers are fun.

657
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 2: They have a nice group of useful role players. It's

658
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,000
Speaker 2: just Anthony Simons and Jeremy Grant leave a lot to

659
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 2: be desired as ball handlers. They would four for twenty

660
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 2: five from the field and that's just really hard to

661
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 2: overcome for anybody. But I want to focus on the

662
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 2: Lakers defense for a bit again. They're number one in

663
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 2: defensive ratings since January fifteenth, a large chunk of the

664
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 2: season here where they've been playing great defense. They've really

665
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: settled into a base scheme that works for them. They

666
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 2: either switch everything or switch almost everything depending on the matchup.

667
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 2: So like last night, for instance, they're not worried about

668
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 2: getting picked apart in ball screens by Portland. Their ball

669
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 2: handlers aren't good enough at scoring or playmaking to do that,

670
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 2: so they had Dorianfhinney Smith some of their perimterive players

671
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 2: gave Vincent chasing over the top of screens while clinging

672
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 2: in Robert Williams role, and it allowed them to make

673
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 2: stay attached to their pull up shooters in bait Shade

674
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 2: and Sharp and bait Anfernie Simon's into these like tough

675
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 2: rear view contested pull up threes coming off of screens,

676
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 2: and it worked. It baited them into a bunch of them.

677
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 2: They took seventeen pull up jumpers last night, made six

678
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,399
Speaker 2: of them. But then you'll see in other matchups where

679
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 2: they're more concerned about ball screens, they'll switch with their

680
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 2: fives as well. And then they do they switch everything

681
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 2: when they go to their small ball groups right when

682
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 2: there's no center on the floor. But their switching scheme

683
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 2: has worked so so much better in the last couple

684
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 2: of months because the Lakers are actually doing the things

685
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 2: that they need to do to make that scheme work.

686
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 2: To JJ's credit, even when those guys weren't executing it,

687
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 2: he stuck with it. He believed in it, and now

688
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,320
Speaker 2: he's reaping the rewards. We've talked about this on the

689
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 2: show before, but there are several key things that you

690
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 2: need to do in order for a switching scheme to work. First,

691
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 2: you need your off ball defenders to be prepared to

692
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 2: jump out immediately when there is a screen to avoid

693
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 2: that interchange gap. We talked about that yesterday with Miles Bridges.

694
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 2: You got to switch right away. You can have a

695
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 2: gap between the switch because that's when a decent player

696
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,319
Speaker 2: can rise up and knock down a jump shot. There's

697
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 2: an example early in the game where you can see

698
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 2: there's a couple of Portland screeners up at the top

699
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,880
Speaker 2: of the key. The Lakers players are glued up on

700
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 2: the backside ready to jump out whenever that screen comes,

701
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 2: so that that interchange gap isn't there. Secondly, you need

702
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:25,399
Speaker 2: your weaker defenders to battle. If you're switching, they're gonna go, Hey,

703
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 2: let's attack Austin Reeves. Hey, let's attack Luka doncich Austin.

704
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 2: You got to compete in those situations. Austin last night

705
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 2: huge stops down the stretch against Scoot Henderson against Jeremy Grant. Third,

706
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,720
Speaker 2: you need to shrink the floor around them by gapping

707
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 2: driving lanes. You'll see possessions where the Lakers have two

708
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 2: guys on either side of the ball arms out in

709
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 2: the driving lane close enough where they feel like they

710
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 2: can close out, shrinking the floor. The Scoot Henderson drive

711
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 2: against Austin Reeves, if you look, there's a Laker on

712
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 2: either side of Austin in the gap, making it like

713
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 2: a narrow lane for Scoot Henderson to try to drive through,

714
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: and so he doesn't really try to go around Austin.

715
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:09,879
Speaker 2: He tries to go through Austin, and Austin takes one

716
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:13,280
Speaker 2: good slide to the left, absorbs that contact and attacks

717
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 2: the basketball and ties Scoot Henderson up. If you don't

718
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 2: have those gaps there, excuse me. If you don't have

719
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 2: those defenders gapping there and they're out of the way,

720
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,560
Speaker 2: you have a wider lane. That is what allows Scoot

721
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,439
Speaker 2: Henderson to really get to mixing Austin up. And once

722
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 2: he starts mixing Austin up, that's where he has more

723
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 2: of a speed advantage that he can take advantage of.

724
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:40,040
Speaker 2: Right fourth, you need to have a plan for dribble penetration.

725
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 2: Which way if I'm gonna get beat off the dribble,

726
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 2: which way do I want to funnel the guy where

727
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:47,840
Speaker 2: I have more help.

728
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 1: There's a big.

729
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,840
Speaker 2: Stop late in this game that Lebron James had on

730
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 2: Anthony Simon's And here's the thing. Simon's is faster than Lebron,

731
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:59,360
Speaker 2: especially at age forty right, So like Lebron is probably

732
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 2: going to give up at least some dribble penetration on

733
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 2: that play. Now, his job again is to flatten out

734
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,880
Speaker 2: the drive, and he did. But watch that play, Lebron,

735
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,840
Speaker 2: he knows Ruy Hatchramura is gapping from the left side

736
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 2: off of Jeremy Grant, and he knows Austin Reeves is

737
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:15,240
Speaker 2: sitting right.

738
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 1: At the left block or the right block, excuse me.

739
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 2: So with Austin on the right block and Ruey gapping

740
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 2: off of that right corner, Lebron knows my best help

741
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 2: is if I funnel him towards the sideline. So if

742
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 2: you look at Lebron, look at his stance. His right

743
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,440
Speaker 2: foot is high, his left foot is back. He's in

744
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 2: position to slide with Anthony Simons, but he is forcing

745
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 2: him towards his right hand.

746
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 1: So what happens.

747
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 2: Lebron knows the drive is going right, the drive happens

748
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 2: to the right, Lebron slides with him. Both him and

749
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 2: Austin end up attacking the basketball and they forced it

750
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,439
Speaker 2: out of bounce. That's a plan that's gonna be big

751
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,319
Speaker 2: when you have Luca. When Luca's in this picture and

752
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,040
Speaker 2: he does start getting attacked, you need to have a

753
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 2: plan for what he's going to do. That doesn't mean

754
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,799
Speaker 2: Luca allows dribble penetration. I heard that a lot from

755
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 2: Mavericks fans, like, Oh, Luca's job was to let guys drive.

756
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 1: Past him into rim protection. No, it's not.

757
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,239
Speaker 2: Your job is to contain the ball as best as

758
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 2: you can. But in the absence of the ability to

759
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 2: actually literally contain the ball, you need to force him

760
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 2: in one direction where you have a plan to handle it.

761
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 2: And then fifth, you have to gang rebound. When you switch,

762
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 2: you're likely going to have smaller players battling bigs underneath

763
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 2: the rim. You have to come flying in from the

764
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 2: perimeter to help that smaller player in those situations.

765
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:39,920
Speaker 1: They've been doing a good job of that.

766
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,760
Speaker 2: In the ten games since Anthony Davis left the team,

767
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,200
Speaker 2: they are thirteenth in defensive rebounding. That's not bad at

768
00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:48,279
Speaker 2: all for a team that's been playing a lot of

769
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 2: small ball over that stretch. Now, the question is how

770
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 2: good is this defense really, especially in the context of

771
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic. To be clear, even without Luca on the floor,

772
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 2: even if we just remove Luca from the equation, this

773
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 2: is obviously not a number one level defense. A lot

774
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 2: of this is February basketball. There have been good wins

775
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 2: in there, so they've played really good defense against some

776
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 2: good teams. They defended the Clippers really well. They defended

777
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 2: the Knicks really well. They defended the Pacers well, but

778
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 2: a lot of bad offenses were in there too. Games

779
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 2: against Utah, games against Charlotte, games against Portland, games against Washington,

780
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 2: those are gonna The Warriors offense has struggled a lot

781
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 2: this year. Those are games that are gonna influence your

782
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:40,320
Speaker 2: defensive rating a certain amount. Right, you add thirty plus

783
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 2: minutes of Luka Doncic into the picture, and yeah, your

784
00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 2: defensive talent goes down a level. So I don't think

785
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 2: this is gonna be some top five dominant defense. I'm

786
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 2: not here today saying Lakers number one defense are gonna

787
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 2: say number one defense, They're gonna win with defense. I

788
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:55,360
Speaker 2: don't think that's gonna be the case. But they don't

789
00:39:55,400 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 2: need to be that type of dominant defense. This team

790
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,600
Speaker 2: absolutely needs to be a dominant top two or top

791
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 2: three level offense. And I do think that's a real

792
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 2: possibility for them with the talent level that they have

793
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 2: on that end of the floor. With Lebron playing at

794
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 2: the level he's playing at, with Luca playing at the

795
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 2: level he's capable of playing at, they can present an

796
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 2: unsolvable problem to teams. But if they're a top two

797
00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 2: or top three level offense. They don't need to be

798
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 2: a dominant defense, they just need to be good enough.

799
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 2: I've talked about this a lot in the context of

800
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 2: like Denver in twenty twenty three, somewhere in that like

801
00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:41,399
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen range of defense is good enough when

802
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 2: you have peak unguardability on the offensive end of the

803
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 2: flour And I absolutely think the Lakers can get to

804
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 2: that point. I think the Lakers can be a slightly

805
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,879
Speaker 2: above average defense with Luca in the picture. They've been

806
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 2: getting too many stops now for a while, Like I'm

807
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 2: seeing so many people just writing the Lakers defense off

808
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 2: and who knows, maybe Luca gets in the pick sure

809
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 2: and they actually can't guard. Maybe everything falls apart, but

810
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,359
Speaker 2: it's all conjecture at this point. There's too many good

811
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,920
Speaker 2: defenders in the lineup. We talked about how Austin's a

812
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 2: better defender than people think. Gabe's a good defender, Drian

813
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,839
Speaker 2: Phinney Smith's a good defender. Lebron for months now has

814
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 2: been a good defender. Jared Vanderbilt when he's right, is

815
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 2: a great defender. They have good defenders in this lineup.

816
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:24,440
Speaker 2: They're gonna get some stops I absolutely think they can

817
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 2: get into that slightly above average range of defense. I

818
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 2: like the switching scheme as like a way for them

819
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,720
Speaker 2: to essentially they bend but not break, shut down screening

820
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 2: actions try to bait teams into running a lot of

821
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 2: inefficient ISOs and post ups, giving up some points but

822
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 2: keeping teams in check enough for their offense to be

823
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,120
Speaker 2: a differentiator. My worry center around specific matchups like I've

824
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:52,240
Speaker 2: been talking about, like we talked about earlier with Boston,

825
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,080
Speaker 2: and the realities of playoff series. Like I do, worry

826
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,760
Speaker 2: about Boston truly spacing them out to where they can't gap,

827
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 2: to where they can't help and it becomes a problem.

828
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,279
Speaker 2: I can see a team like Denver where it's like

829
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,280
Speaker 2: they just can't keep Jokic off of the offensive glass,

830
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:10,800
Speaker 2: and even if they double team him and force teams

831
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 2: into misses, he just waddles his way underneath the basket

832
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 2: and starts shoving guys off and gets offensive rebounds and putbacks.

833
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 2: I can see that being a problem, But I think

834
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 2: in the big picture, they're gonna get a lot more

835
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 2: stops than people think. I don't view them as a

836
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,240
Speaker 2: top tier contender, even if they're at their peak simply

837
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 2: because of the fact that they're gonna have severe matchup weaknesses.

838
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,720
Speaker 2: But if they get their defense into that slightly above

839
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,800
Speaker 2: average range and they get their offense where they're capable

840
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 2: of at the top tier in this league, I absolutely

841
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:44,719
Speaker 2: think they can enter into that second tier in the

842
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 2: league with teams like Denver, with teams like Cleveland, I

843
00:42:47,239 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 2: absolutely think that's in their potential. All right, let's get

844
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 2: into our mail bag. First question, Hey, Jason up from Brazilla.

845
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:09,879
Speaker 2: Loved the show. I've learned a lot from me last

846
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 2: two years, and I usually agree with most of your takes.

847
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 2: I'm always impressed by your knowledge of the game and

848
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:14,839
Speaker 2: how well you break the plays down and analyze them.

849
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 2: Luca is my favorite player since Alan Iverson, and I've

850
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 2: learned to appreciate Lebron, which was hard at first because

851
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,280
Speaker 2: I'm an MJ guy. However, I don't see a world

852
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:25,320
Speaker 2: where the Lakers will be able to take the beating

853
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 2: and win multiple playoff series without a reliable center.

854
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 1: It's just too much to ask.

855
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 2: Luca has really disappointed me as a defender recently, and

856
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 2: has shown some decline in his lateral movement to the

857
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:36,800
Speaker 2: point of becoming a liability at the point of attack,

858
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 2: even though he's an okay post defender and a good rebounder.

859
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 2: I can easily see teams like Minnesota, Denver, Golden State

860
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 2: and others putting Luca and Austin in ball screens and

861
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 2: attacking them without any rim protection in the back line.

862
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 2: To make up for it. What kind of scheme can

863
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 2: they use to avoid being put in rotation all the time?

864
00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:53,160
Speaker 2: I used to hate the Lakers, but now I find

865
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 2: myself rooting for them because of Luca. I just want

866
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 2: to have some hope that they won't be embarrassed in

867
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,600
Speaker 2: a playoff series for their lack of defense. Again, it's

868
00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 2: a bend but not break kind of concept. I like

869
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 2: the idea of switching within the context of this roster,

870
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 2: and again, it's not about letting Austin and Luca get

871
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,319
Speaker 2: run through a million ball screens. You don't want them

872
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,239
Speaker 2: running through screens. You want them switching. And then when

873
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 2: they end up on the ball, there are things you

874
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 2: can do, like you can scram guys out of mismatches.

875
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 2: That was something they tried to do against Charlotte. They

876
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,240
Speaker 2: just botched a rotation at the back. You can gap

877
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 2: and shrink those driving lanes and make it so it's

878
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,360
Speaker 2: harder for them to attack. You can tell them to

879
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:28,960
Speaker 2: play off and try to bait the guy they're guarding

880
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 2: into taking pull up jump shots. And if they're playing

881
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 2: off and there's guys in the gaps, it's like, are

882
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 2: you going to drive into three bodies or are you

883
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 2: going to take.

884
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 1: A pull up three? Right?

885
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 2: And maybe if you bait an opponent into taking a

886
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 2: bunch of pull up jump shots while your offense is

887
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,440
Speaker 2: executing the crap out of them on the other end

888
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:44,840
Speaker 2: of the floor, that can go a long way towards

889
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:48,320
Speaker 2: that base scheme type of that base type of scheme working.

890
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about the center position really outside of

891
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 2: the Yokic matchup, and even then, like Jokic used to

892
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 2: eat Anthony Davis up, so like, I don't see how

893
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 2: that really makes much of a difference within the context

894
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:03,880
Speaker 2: of Lebron in Luca. It's vertical spacing really that you

895
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:06,439
Speaker 2: need from that position, and Jackson does a good job

896
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 2: of that. I think Jackson's been really good since the

897
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis trade. What you hit on, which I am

898
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,720
Speaker 2: actually worried about is the ability to take a beating

899
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:18,760
Speaker 2: like you talked about. I do think they can double

900
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 2: and rotate and get a certain amount of stops against

901
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,440
Speaker 2: Nicole Jokic. I do think that they can switch and

902
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,760
Speaker 2: contain and get a certain amount of stops against other teams.

903
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 2: But the question is can they do it over and

904
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 2: over and over again for two weeks against a team

905
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 2: like Denver, for four playoff rounds against a bunch of

906
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 2: different kinds of teams. And they do have a thin rotation.

907
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 2: They have like seven guys that I really trust, right,

908
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:46,320
Speaker 2: it's like Lebron, Luca Austin, Dorian Phinney Smith, Ruy Gabe

909
00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:47,680
Speaker 2: and who.

910
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:48,760
Speaker 1: Am I missing? And Vando?

911
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 2: Right, and then like even Vando, it's a question mark

912
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 2: Jackson Hayes, there's some question marks there, right, So, like

913
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,479
Speaker 2: you get an injury there, Dorian Phinney Smith goes down,

914
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 2: that's catastrophic. You can't overcome that, Jackson and Hayes goes down.

915
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 2: Now you're playing Jared Vanderbilt or Alex lann or Christian

916
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:08,560
Speaker 2: KloCo or Trey Jemison at the center, that's not something

917
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 2: you can overcome. Like there are a few guys now

918
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 2: in their lineup that are like absolutely vitally important in

919
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 2: terms of if they get injured, you're in big trouble.

920
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 2: And so that's where my major concerns lie is, like

921
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:23,480
Speaker 2: I worry about Jokics just wearing them down over a

922
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:26,600
Speaker 2: playoff series and just destroying them on the offensive glass.

923
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 2: I worry about them getting spaced out by teams like Boston,

924
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 2: and then I worry about them breaking down. If you're

925
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:34,239
Speaker 2: gonna play small ball, you need guys like Lebron to

926
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 2: rebound really well. That's just really exhausting for him to

927
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 2: have to do a lot. Feels like Tatum has been

928
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 2: shooting the ball a lot better this year, but he's

929
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:44,880
Speaker 2: still only shooting thirty six percent from three as he

930
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 2: takes a lot of tough pull ups that drags his

931
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 2: efficiency down. I've seen arguments that even so is tough

932
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 2: pull up is still critical to opening up room for

933
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 2: the whole offense. Do you agree with that view on

934
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 2: a shot diet, Yes, he he has hurt his efficiency

935
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:02,359
Speaker 2: by taking a lot of really tough shots, but there's

936
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 2: two things that's helped overcome it in my opinion. First

937
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 2: of all, he's shooting better off the dribble. He's up

938
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,600
Speaker 2: over a point per shot off the dribble. That's the

939
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 2: key one. It's becoming a situation, especially in ISO, where

940
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 2: like it used to be, it's like, oh, just bait

941
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 2: Tatum and to take in a tough step back and

942
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:21,359
Speaker 2: he'll probably miss most of them. And like, now that's

943
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 2: a battle he's winning more often than not. I think

944
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:25,880
Speaker 2: that will especially become valuable when he gets into the

945
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:31,759
Speaker 2: postseason and late clock shot making increases in value exponentially

946
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,040
Speaker 2: compared to the regular season's That's why we call him

947
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:34,800
Speaker 2: playoff shots.

948
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: Right.

949
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:37,759
Speaker 2: The second piece of it with Tatum is just his

950
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:41,359
Speaker 2: overall command of games. He has gotten so good at

951
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 2: identifying the flow of each game, what each game actually

952
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 2: like demands from Tatum in any specific situation, and adapting

953
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 2: his skill set to fit whatever that demand is. And

954
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 2: that's why, like again, it goes back to what we

955
00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:58,439
Speaker 2: were talking about earlier in terms of evaluating teams based

956
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:00,960
Speaker 2: on ratings, I don't necessarily look get the box score

957
00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:04,240
Speaker 2: as an indicator of how good Jason Tatum is at basketball.

958
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 2: He's been a twenty five, ten and five guy for

959
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 2: as long as we can remember. It's about the impact,

960
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,360
Speaker 2: It's about how he does it. Within the context of

961
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 2: each individual basketball game, Jason, why doesn't Tatum get more

962
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:18,200
Speaker 2: love as a future face of the league. Not that

963
00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 2: the conversation really matters much anyway, but he never gets

964
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,839
Speaker 2: brought up. American grown, twenty six year old champion, top

965
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 2: five guy whose jersey sales have been top three to

966
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:29,359
Speaker 2: five and is quite polarizing, just seems like he doesn't

967
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:31,160
Speaker 2: get any love compared to other guys. Not sure if

968
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:34,000
Speaker 2: it's an anti Celtics bias or what the national media's

969
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 2: reason is. Love the show would love your insight. I

970
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 2: straight up cannot even begin to care or ever be

971
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:48,040
Speaker 2: concerned with who the face of the NBA is. It

972
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,319
Speaker 2: hasn't meant anything in my entire time that I've been

973
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 2: a fan of this game. I've never even felt like

974
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 2: there was a single face of the NBA. Even through

975
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 2: the Lebron era, it felt like Lebron and Kobe, then

976
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 2: Lebron and KD, then Lebron and Steph like it.

977
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 1: It never felt to me.

978
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:11,480
Speaker 2: The marketability of the stars of the league is a

979
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:15,400
Speaker 2: big picture concept that centers around the entire.

980
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 1: Set of stars. Then how marketable all of them are? Now?

981
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:22,399
Speaker 2: I do think that there's a conversation to be had

982
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 2: about the fact that that there just aren't as many

983
00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 2: very popular young American players as years past. And some

984
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 2: of that has been Zion not taking care of his body.

985
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 2: Some of that has been John Morant and his off

986
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:38,040
Speaker 2: court antics getting himself into trouble, and you're right, they're

987
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,319
Speaker 2: like the Ant and Tatum kind of seem like the

988
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 2: only two guys in a lot of ways. Tatum the

989
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:44,839
Speaker 2: reason why he doesn't get as much buzz in terms

990
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:47,959
Speaker 2: of his personality is he's got a very muted personality.

991
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:53,120
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum is a pretty chill guy who doesn't talk

992
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:56,839
Speaker 2: a ton of shit, who doesn't act super you know,

993
00:49:57,239 --> 00:49:59,600
Speaker 2: he's not very performative in the media. He kind of

994
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 2: just takes care of business and goes home, and so like, yeah,

995
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum doesn't have the sort of like big picture

996
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 2: reputation that some of these other players have, but that

997
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:11,040
Speaker 2: has more to do with him than anything to do

998
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 2: with the league.

999
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 1: And frankly, he shouldn't care. I don't care. I don't

1000
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 1: talk to many people who care.

1001
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,840
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that I see it on ESPN,

1002
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 2: I see it on Twitter people arguing about it occasionally,

1003
00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:27,799
Speaker 2: but like, I can't think of any reason why we

1004
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:29,920
Speaker 2: even waste time talking about who the face of the

1005
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:30,440
Speaker 2: league is.

1006
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean anything to me to be.

1007
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 2: Frank, Hey, I love the content you put out and

1008
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:37,320
Speaker 2: the breakdown you do on the game of basketball. Just

1009
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 2: a question about regular season dominance and whether it's an

1010
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:43,239
Speaker 2: overall plus or not. As a Thunder fan, I believe

1011
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 2: they are clearly the best team in the league this year.

1012
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,520
Speaker 2: The Celtics have proven it in the playoffs, but clearly

1013
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,000
Speaker 2: don't care about the regular season as much. I've heard

1014
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 2: you talk about how attacking the regular season every day

1015
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,200
Speaker 2: and building up good habits is a strong indicator for

1016
00:50:54,239 --> 00:50:56,760
Speaker 2: a contender. So I question why you see the Thunder

1017
00:50:56,760 --> 00:50:59,840
Speaker 2: with ten losses in a dominant regular season as inflated

1018
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,200
Speaker 2: and why the Celtics with sixteen losses and disinterested as

1019
00:51:03,239 --> 00:51:05,880
Speaker 2: title favorites. Clearly, the Thunder are building the foundation of

1020
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 2: good habits and have done it while significantly injured, so

1021
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 2: I believe they deserve the top spot in the contender rankings.

1022
00:51:13,640 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 2: What you consider to be the Celtics being disinterested is

1023
00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 2: top five in offense top five and defense sixth and

1024
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:24,120
Speaker 2: defensive rebounding, so like the way I look at Boston

1025
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:27,760
Speaker 2: is a very good regular season team that has punted

1026
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 2: some games, but in the aggregate has been really fucking good.

1027
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:35,040
Speaker 2: Still in the concept of the regular season. In the

1028
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:37,640
Speaker 2: context of the regular season, I should say, and then,

1029
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:40,880
Speaker 2: as I talked about in that opening segment involving the Celtics,

1030
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:45,480
Speaker 2: I look at everything within the context of matchup to matchup.

1031
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 2: How versatile is a team, how capable are they of

1032
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 2: winning four playoff rounds? To me, the regular season performance

1033
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:56,279
Speaker 2: is more of just like a mandatory minimum. If you're

1034
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:58,640
Speaker 2: not one of the top ten records in the NBA,

1035
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:02,400
Speaker 2: if you're not consistently every single night providing a certain

1036
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 2: baseline average performance on either end of the floor that's

1037
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,759
Speaker 2: keeping you sharp as a basketball team, I'm pretty much

1038
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:12,040
Speaker 2: going to disqualify you as a contender in a lot

1039
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 2: of ways in terms of being a serious contender. But

1040
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 2: once you're in that group, to me, now it's like

1041
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:20,719
Speaker 2: you kind of have to parse out things because guess.

1042
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 1: What I talked about this the other day.

1043
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,440
Speaker 2: Every single player in the core eight rotation for the

1044
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:30,480
Speaker 2: Thunder is twenty six or younger. You look at the

1045
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:33,200
Speaker 2: core rotation for the Celtics, and it's a lot of

1046
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:37,719
Speaker 2: older guys. Jason Tatum's twenty six, A lot of the

1047
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:40,920
Speaker 2: other guys are older. They've got guys in their thirties.

1048
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:45,239
Speaker 2: They're not going to be as athletically engaged night in

1049
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:48,200
Speaker 2: night out as Oklahoma City is going to be. You

1050
00:52:48,239 --> 00:52:50,680
Speaker 2: get into a series, Let's pretend it's the NBA Finals.

1051
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 2: Do you think the fact that the Thunder played harder

1052
00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,239
Speaker 2: in December and January is going to matter to the

1053
00:52:57,239 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 2: Boston Celtics when they're in TD and they're playing super

1054
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 2: hard because they have an opportunity to win the trophy. Now,

1055
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, it comes down to parsing out

1056
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 2: the details I still get concerned about, and we're going

1057
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 2: to talk about this, I might as well skip ahead

1058
00:53:14,719 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 2: to it if I can find the question, the one

1059
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:20,160
Speaker 2: about Okay. See here it is, Hey, Jason, love the

1060
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 2: show and you're the truth when it comes to Hoops

1061
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:24,880
Speaker 2: break down. You spoke on how Okac's defense is the

1062
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,479
Speaker 2: ultimate calling card and them having a rating way above

1063
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 2: everyone else is in the league. It reminds me of

1064
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 2: the same discourse around the Celtics in twenty twenty two

1065
00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:34,480
Speaker 2: when they went to the finals. What similarities do you

1066
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,360
Speaker 2: notice between the Celtics and twenty twenty two and the

1067
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 2: OKCE defense. Now Celtics unfortunately lost in the finals, but

1068
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 2: as the defensive rating a full indicator that OKAC will

1069
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:45,359
Speaker 2: get to the finals this year. And would you take

1070
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:48,600
Speaker 2: the Seas twenty twenty two defense or the OKCE defense

1071
00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 2: this year as the best defense as you've seen in

1072
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:53,720
Speaker 2: the current era. They are similar in a lot of ways, right,

1073
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:56,680
Speaker 2: because like that Seas team with Robert Williams had like

1074
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,160
Speaker 2: a rim protection version, but then with Horford at center,

1075
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 2: they had like more of a switching type of version.

1076
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:03,399
Speaker 2: Same sort of thing with the Thunder They have these

1077
00:54:03,640 --> 00:54:05,600
Speaker 2: small groups where they're doing a ton of switching, but

1078
00:54:05,600 --> 00:54:08,000
Speaker 2: then they also have the ability to use chet at

1079
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 2: the basket. Right, There's like a kind of similar vibe there.

1080
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:16,000
Speaker 2: Both teams won games with their defense, but had issues

1081
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:18,400
Speaker 2: from times from time to time on the offensive ended

1082
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 2: FOURD which we'll get to in a minute. I think

1083
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 2: I would personally take the C's defense just because they

1084
00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:27,120
Speaker 2: were bigger on the perimeter. Oklahoma City has a lot

1085
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:29,520
Speaker 2: of guys in the like six four, six five range.

1086
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:33,000
Speaker 2: The Celtics were putting out lineups where you would have

1087
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:35,600
Speaker 2: you know, Derek White and Marcus Smart, but you'd have

1088
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:38,400
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum, you'd have Jalen Brown in addition.

1089
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:39,399
Speaker 1: To their bigs on the floor.

1090
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,400
Speaker 2: So they just had a little bit more size, a

1091
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:44,239
Speaker 2: little bit more strength that I think presented teams with

1092
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:46,759
Speaker 2: more problems on the defensive end of the four. Now

1093
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 2: as far as okay, seeing their specific calling card, the

1094
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:52,879
Speaker 2: thing that I think they do that revolutionizes the game

1095
00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:56,719
Speaker 2: in their own way is aggression. Aggression in rotation. When

1096
00:54:56,760 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 2: you are aggressive on the ball, when you're trapping balls,

1097
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:04,120
Speaker 2: when you're gapping and overhelping and really throwing a lot

1098
00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 2: of resources in the direction of the ball, you create

1099
00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 2: week side two on ones, meaning situations where you have

1100
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:11,840
Speaker 2: a shooter in the corner, shooter on the wing with

1101
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 2: one guy there, and the thunder are just so good

1102
00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 2: at quickly disengaging from their aggressive coverage and recovering out

1103
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 2: to the perimeter. That's like their main thing that they

1104
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:25,319
Speaker 2: do extremely well. But the offensive side of the floor,

1105
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:27,200
Speaker 2: it's very similar to what we saw with Boston over

1106
00:55:27,239 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 2: the years in the sense that like if you remember

1107
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 2: in that game, if you guys remember in that game

1108
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 2: against or that series against the Bucks in twenty twenty two,

1109
00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:40,240
Speaker 2: they repeatedly time and time again kept challenging brook Lopez

1110
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:43,440
Speaker 2: right at the rim instead of taking easy kickout passes.

1111
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 2: When I look back at the Mavericks series last year,

1112
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:48,920
Speaker 2: same sort of thing, Jalen Williams in particular, doing a

1113
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:51,799
Speaker 2: lot of like trying to finish through Daniel Gafford or

1114
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 2: Derek Lively at the basket, and it's just that's a

1115
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:55,960
Speaker 2: really low percentage shot. You need to be making those

1116
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:59,000
Speaker 2: extra kickout passes. There is a thing that happened with

1117
00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:02,880
Speaker 2: the Celtics where they learned between twenty twenty two and

1118
00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:06,360
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four to be more deliberate with their shot selection,

1119
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 2: to get the great shot instead of the good shot,

1120
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,200
Speaker 2: and that is what pushed them over the top. And

1121
00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:14,960
Speaker 2: I still maintain that's the main barrier between the Thunder

1122
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:17,880
Speaker 2: and where they want to get and where they are now.

1123
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:21,200
Speaker 2: It's that offensive process piece. Inevitably, they're going to run

1124
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:23,880
Speaker 2: into some great defense that makes them super uncomfortable and

1125
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:26,919
Speaker 2: they're going to have to really break a defense down.

1126
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:29,879
Speaker 2: This is actually a perfect tee up into our second

1127
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:32,319
Speaker 2: to last question. We have two more what happened to

1128
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 2: all the concerns that everyone, including you, had of the

1129
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 2: Celtics when it comes to offensive execution against an elite defense.

1130
00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 2: They had no real opposition in the East.

1131
00:56:39,680 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 1: Last year.

1132
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 2: Dallas was their best match about West because of how

1133
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:45,400
Speaker 2: bad Luca was defensively, basically granting them an assured advantage

1134
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 2: every possession. Did everyone already forget the last five years

1135
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,360
Speaker 2: of basketball? I've seen way too many occasions where Tatum

1136
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:54,800
Speaker 2: and Brown just settled for contested jumpers when things get tight. Also,

1137
00:56:54,840 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 2: similar to your concerns for Yokid shooting last year, are

1138
00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:58,080
Speaker 2: you not concerned about Brown?

1139
00:56:58,120 --> 00:56:58,520
Speaker 1: In Holiday?

1140
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:01,120
Speaker 2: They're shooting thirty two and thirty three three percent from three.

1141
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 2: That's a legitimate concern. The Celtics aren't shooting particularly well.

1142
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 2: Those guys are gonna have to shoot better if they

1143
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,200
Speaker 2: want to have more margin for error when they get

1144
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 2: to the postseason. I think that's legitimate. However, Jason Tatum's

1145
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 2: twenty six years old. When you say, like, oh, the

1146
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:19,000
Speaker 2: last five years of basketball, you want to you want

1147
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:20,840
Speaker 2: us to factor in Tatum when he was twenty one

1148
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 2: when we're talking about what they can do. I think

1149
00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:27,160
Speaker 2: there's this misconception that when I talk about any concept,

1150
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 2: whether it's boxing out, containing the ball, making good decisions,

1151
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:34,800
Speaker 2: running back in transition defense, that it means you do

1152
00:57:34,840 --> 00:57:38,800
Speaker 2: it every single time. Every team, even the Thunder, even

1153
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:42,160
Speaker 2: the Celtics, even the Cavs, will make bad decisions on offense,

1154
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,800
Speaker 2: miss box outs, not get back in transition defense, just

1155
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 2: in general, make execution errs. Everyone makes executioners. It's about

1156
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 2: a ratio. How frequently are you making those executioners. Yes,

1157
00:57:56,960 --> 00:58:00,560
Speaker 2: Tatum still takes bad shots. Yes, Jalen Brown still takes

1158
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 2: bad shots. Yes, the Celtics have stretches where their offense

1159
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:08,120
Speaker 2: looks bad, It is much fewer and much further between

1160
00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 2: than it used to be, And I'd actually argue the

1161
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:15,560
Speaker 2: Celtics have been particularly great this year at identifying when

1162
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 2: they're losing control of things and re centering themselves on

1163
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:24,760
Speaker 2: offense and making those execution Making those better decisions on

1164
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:27,959
Speaker 2: offense that get them back on track. Kind of felt

1165
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:31,240
Speaker 2: like the opposite in years past, where they would play

1166
00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:34,040
Speaker 2: good basketball and then they would lose sight of it,

1167
00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:37,200
Speaker 2: and especially when things got hard, they would revert to

1168
00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:37,880
Speaker 2: bad habits.

1169
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:38,480
Speaker 1: It feels like the.

1170
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 2: Opposite of that now I'm not saying I don't think

1171
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,960
Speaker 2: the Celtics are impervious. I think they could lose in

1172
00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 2: the East. I think they could lose in the West.

1173
00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:47,520
Speaker 2: I'm not sitting here and viewing them as like the

1174
00:58:47,520 --> 00:58:51,200
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen Warriors or anything like that, but I think

1175
00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:54,480
Speaker 2: they deserve more credit for their offensive development over the

1176
00:58:54,480 --> 00:58:59,080
Speaker 2: course of the last few years. All right, last question, Hey, Jason,

1177
00:58:59,120 --> 00:59:00,480
Speaker 2: love the show. Thank you for taking time to help

1178
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:02,560
Speaker 2: educate us that didn't play basketball at high level. It's

1179
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:04,640
Speaker 2: great to get your perspective, and it's only fitting my

1180
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 2: question is best suited for a player like yourself? When

1181
00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:10,080
Speaker 2: I'm watching Luca the last few games with LA, doesn't

1182
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 2: look like he's just playing bad basketball, looks like he's

1183
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:15,320
Speaker 2: broken mentally. It's crazy, as fans were programmed to be

1184
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:17,280
Speaker 2: upset with players when they leave their teams, but when

1185
00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 2: organizations trade players, it's just business. Because of this, I

1186
00:59:20,600 --> 00:59:22,640
Speaker 2: don't think most people realize how big of an impact

1187
00:59:22,640 --> 00:59:25,160
Speaker 2: this has on an athlete. Watching Luca has bad play

1188
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:28,200
Speaker 2: the last few games has seems psychological. Doesn't look like

1189
00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:29,840
Speaker 2: he's even having fun, and I don't think he's going

1190
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:32,560
Speaker 2: to play any meaningful basketball again until he rediscovers his

1191
00:59:32,600 --> 00:59:34,560
Speaker 2: love for the game. To be clear, I don't think

1192
00:59:34,560 --> 00:59:37,160
Speaker 2: this will be a prolonged thing. I do think he'll

1193
00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:39,040
Speaker 2: get back on track. But I'm curious if you, as

1194
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:40,480
Speaker 2: a player, could take us through your thoughts. Do you

1195
00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:42,000
Speaker 2: agree with me or do you think his poor play

1196
00:59:42,040 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 2: is more of a lack of team chemistry. Thanks again,

1197
00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:46,800
Speaker 2: love the show. I'm not gonna see here and pretend

1198
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 2: like I don't think Luca's mentality or his mental state

1199
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:52,640
Speaker 2: with all of this chaos over the course of the

1200
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:55,800
Speaker 2: last few weeks isn't affecting him. Of course, it's affecting him.

1201
00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:57,720
Speaker 2: I just think it's affecting him more when he's off

1202
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:02,280
Speaker 2: the court. You know, basketball is for guys like this too,

1203
01:00:02,720 --> 01:00:06,000
Speaker 2: like they love the game so much. I would argue

1204
01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:08,560
Speaker 2: that for a guy like Luca, this is when he's

1205
01:00:08,560 --> 01:00:11,520
Speaker 2: having the most fun. It's one of those things where

1206
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 2: it's like when you're going back to a different house

1207
01:00:13,840 --> 01:00:16,080
Speaker 2: than you're, a different apartment than you usually go back to,

1208
01:00:16,880 --> 01:00:19,840
Speaker 2: and friends that you had in your old home are

1209
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:23,240
Speaker 2: not there anymore, and you're building new friendships, but everything's

1210
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:26,080
Speaker 2: still kind of in a fledgling stage. Like I'm sure,

1211
01:00:26,120 --> 01:00:28,680
Speaker 2: he has a lot of moments where he's struggling a

1212
01:00:28,680 --> 01:00:32,680
Speaker 2: bit outside of the Lakers facility, but basketball is the

1213
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:35,400
Speaker 2: happy place for most of these guys. I think it's

1214
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:38,560
Speaker 2: mostly chemistry. One of the things that made things hard

1215
01:00:38,600 --> 01:00:42,760
Speaker 2: for Luca is the Lakers played awesome in the stretch

1216
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:46,160
Speaker 2: before he showed up. After the trade. He like sat

1217
01:00:46,200 --> 01:00:50,440
Speaker 2: there and watched as Lebron and Austin played awesome and

1218
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:54,800
Speaker 2: beat good teams. Luca has come into a situation with

1219
01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:57,120
Speaker 2: a team playing great. Hell, he just sat out last

1220
01:00:57,200 --> 01:01:00,480
Speaker 2: night and they played great again. So like it's one

1221
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:02,440
Speaker 2: of those things for Luca where I think he's reading

1222
01:01:02,440 --> 01:01:05,480
Speaker 2: the situation and he's trying really hard not to step

1223
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:09,200
Speaker 2: on everyone's toes. That's the natural thing that happens every

1224
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:11,720
Speaker 2: time you add a high volume ball handler to a

1225
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:14,919
Speaker 2: team that already had ball handling. Everyone's gonna start looking

1226
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 2: at each other and it's like, is it your turn?

1227
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:19,000
Speaker 2: Is it my turn? I really could feel that at

1228
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:20,800
Speaker 2: the tail end of the Charlotte game, where it's like

1229
01:01:21,920 --> 01:01:22,600
Speaker 2: Lucas in a.

1230
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:24,280
Speaker 1: Terrible rhythm and is playing poorly.

1231
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:28,840
Speaker 2: Lebron clearly has it going, so like Lucas like trying

1232
01:01:28,880 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 2: to feed Lebron more because Lebron's got it going, but

1233
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 2: at the same time, like like the Lakers need Luca

1234
01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:36,040
Speaker 2: to get going in order to get to where they

1235
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:39,000
Speaker 2: want to go. That stuff is all going to take time,

1236
01:01:40,080 --> 01:01:42,320
Speaker 2: and it all what will end up happening is different

1237
01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:45,320
Speaker 2: phases of the game will take on different feels. They

1238
01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:48,200
Speaker 2: will come out the gates. My guess is early on

1239
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:51,960
Speaker 2: in games with the starters, they'll start leaning on Luca more.

1240
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:55,600
Speaker 2: But then as different guys check in and out of

1241
01:01:55,600 --> 01:01:59,320
Speaker 2: the lineup, different guys will become more aggressive. Lebron will

1242
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:01,800
Speaker 2: check out in the mid the first quarter, Austin will

1243
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:04,760
Speaker 2: start to be more aggressive, right, Luca will check out,

1244
01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:07,440
Speaker 2: Lebron will come in for the late first quarter group

1245
01:02:07,760 --> 01:02:10,200
Speaker 2: that's when Lebron will really turn it on. We've seen

1246
01:02:10,240 --> 01:02:12,480
Speaker 2: a lot in recent weeks how in the early fourth

1247
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:15,560
Speaker 2: quarter Lebron is like, this is my time to like

1248
01:02:15,880 --> 01:02:19,160
Speaker 2: really just fire every bullet I've gotten my gun to

1249
01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:20,760
Speaker 2: get us as much of a lead as I can

1250
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:22,959
Speaker 2: so that Luca can come in and close the deal.

1251
01:02:23,240 --> 01:02:25,080
Speaker 1: There will be flows to these.

1252
01:02:24,960 --> 01:02:27,040
Speaker 2: Games and you feel it out like there will be

1253
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:29,680
Speaker 2: games where it's like, hey, Lou Dort's on Luca.

1254
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:31,040
Speaker 1: He's doing a good job.

1255
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:33,520
Speaker 2: Lebron's got Jalen Williams, like, we should probably play through

1256
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 2: Lebron more. There will be other games where it's like

1257
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:39,120
Speaker 2: they've got guys for Luca for Austin, but they don't

1258
01:02:39,160 --> 01:02:41,760
Speaker 2: have guys for Luca and Lebron or vice versa, and

1259
01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 2: they're gonna kind of jerry rig it from game to game.

1260
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:47,000
Speaker 2: But right now, it's a lot of you can tell

1261
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:50,160
Speaker 2: it's a couple of different things. Lucas obviously very big

1262
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:52,880
Speaker 2: and out of shape. That's gonna take time. Luca's jump

1263
01:02:52,880 --> 01:02:55,880
Speaker 2: shot is completely broke right now. That won't be the

1264
01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:57,720
Speaker 2: case in the big picture. He's gonna get it going.

1265
01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:00,120
Speaker 2: He's shooting a lot of really flat jump shots that

1266
01:03:00,160 --> 01:03:02,120
Speaker 2: are either way off the back room or way short,

1267
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:04,400
Speaker 2: like that's just his jumper's way off. That's going to

1268
01:03:04,440 --> 01:03:06,760
Speaker 2: take time to figure out. He's out of rhythm as well,

1269
01:03:06,760 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 2: but he's also trying to figure out those chemistry things.

1270
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:11,840
Speaker 2: It's going to take time. It's interesting as I look

1271
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,760
Speaker 2: at the Lakers, even with the ugly basketball that they've

1272
01:03:14,760 --> 01:03:17,800
Speaker 2: played with Lucas so far, I've already seen enough to

1273
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:19,320
Speaker 2: know that I think they're gonna be a great offense.

1274
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:22,120
Speaker 2: I'm just not worried about that at all whatsoever. As

1275
01:03:22,120 --> 01:03:24,240
Speaker 2: soon as Luca gets it going, I think they're going

1276
01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:26,480
Speaker 2: to take off on offense. The questions are going to

1277
01:03:26,520 --> 01:03:28,280
Speaker 2: be centered around whether or not they can get enough

1278
01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:32,160
Speaker 2: stops in particular matchups to win multiple playoff rounds.

1279
01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:34,320
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today.

1280
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:36,960
Speaker 2: As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me

1281
01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:39,800
Speaker 2: and supporting the show. We're gonna be taking this weekend off.

1282
01:03:39,880 --> 01:03:41,120
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Monday.

1283
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:45,640
Speaker 1: We will see you guys. Then the volume