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Speaker 1: here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. If all of
Speaker 1: you guys are having an incredible week, we have a
Speaker 1: absolutely jam packed show today. We're gonna start off with
Speaker 1: the Suns, who continue to impress with a big win
Speaker 1: on the road over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevin Durant still
Speaker 1: red hot, big shock. Devin Booker made his return as well.
Speaker 1: We're that game down from the perspective of both teams.
Speaker 1: After that, the Golden State Warriors, for the first time
Speaker 1: this season, one a basketball game without Steph Curry on
Speaker 1: the road against the Spurs, just after they had lost
Speaker 1: to the Spurs without Victor wen Benyam at home. A
Speaker 1: majorly important win considering their situation in the standings and
Speaker 1: again how much they've struggled without Steph this year. After
Speaker 1: that we have not taken an opportunity this year to
Speaker 1: really do a deep dive on Victor wen Benyama's rookie season,
Speaker 1: and so I took a lot of time this morning
Speaker 1: digging into all of the numbers, watching a ton of
Speaker 1: film of all these different play types so that it
Speaker 1: can give you guys a little scouting report on what
Speaker 1: Victor wenbin Yama's rookie season has been like. And then
Speaker 1: after that, we have a fun mail bag about a
Speaker 1: dozen questions, a bunch of different stuff involving NBA history,
Speaker 1: some stuff with the Lakers. We're gonna preview a Nuggets
Speaker 1: bucks potential series should they face in the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: a fun mail bag for the end of the show.
Speaker 1: You guys are the Joe for we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in
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Speaker 2: Don't forget about my Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: I underscore JCNLT where I leave show announcements as well
Speaker 1: as film threads from time to time, and the last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in those
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. We're gonna be doing a few more mail
Speaker 1: bags over the course of this week. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So the Cavs really dominated the Suns
Speaker 1: early in this game. Phoenix came out in a really
Speaker 1: deep drop coverage with use of Nurkic, and their guards
Speaker 1: just weren't really sharp chasing over the top of screens. Again,
Speaker 1: when we talk about like the pick and roll coverages
Speaker 1: is like a bracket, that's usually the analogy that I use,
Speaker 1: in the sense that, like your on ball guy is
Speaker 1: the top half of the bracket and the screen defender
Speaker 1: is the bottom half of that bracket. And when you
Speaker 1: do a deep drop coverage, when you pull that side
Speaker 1: of the bracket further back, this side of the bracket
Speaker 1: has to be especially sharp. You have to be chasing
Speaker 1: over the top extremely well in applying a ton of
Speaker 1: back pressure, because if you do, you can force the
Speaker 1: guy to keep driving into where screen defender is. But
Speaker 1: when you're sloppy at the point of attack and you're
Speaker 1: in a deep drop coverage, you're gonna get killed and
Speaker 1: Darius Garland absolutely torched them in the first half of
Speaker 1: this game, was killing them with pull up three point shooting.
Speaker 1: And then they brought in Drew you Banks towards the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter and they started they put
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal on Darius Garland and started blitzing, and at
Speaker 1: that point he was already in rhythm. So he beat
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal by rejecting the screen once again, Like when
Speaker 1: you bring the screen defender way up to the level,
Speaker 1: he has to pick a side of the screen, and
Speaker 1: so it becomes that much more important for the on
Speaker 1: ball defender to not get beat the other way, because
Speaker 1: if you get beat the other way, you have no
Speaker 1: backside help. Beal got beat the other way once. There
Speaker 1: was a possession where they hard blitzed and Darius Garland
Speaker 1: just hit like a crazy drifting three along the along
Speaker 1: the right corner because at that point he's just already
Speaker 1: in rhythm. Again, like a lot of times, we overlook
Speaker 1: what happens at the beginning of the game, like it
Speaker 1: doesn't set the tone. If you allow a ballhand to
Speaker 1: get comfortable and confident, then even when you ratchet up
Speaker 1: the defensive intensity, that guy's already feeling good. That guy's
Speaker 1: already in rhythm. It's really hard to slow them down
Speaker 1: at that point. There is another play late first half
Speaker 1: where they lost Garland on a baseline out of bounds
Speaker 1: where U banks even though he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: up at the level blitzing, he was way far back
Speaker 1: in the lane on the baseline at of bounds. They
Speaker 1: just did a quick little dribble handoff with Damian Jones
Speaker 1: in the left corner. Darius Garland got another three, so
Speaker 1: just nowhere near good enough defensively to start this game.
Speaker 1: They found themselves down by nineteen points. But then right
Speaker 1: around that middle of the second quarter, the Sun started
Speaker 1: to get going offensively. They really started to attack George's niang.
Speaker 1: And this is one of those things where having Devin
Speaker 1: Booker back has a bunch of positive effects down the roster.
Speaker 1: And it's not just having the ability to have another
Speaker 1: player the quality of Devin Booker to initiate offense. It
Speaker 1: affects the matchups down the core to it affects your
Speaker 1: off ball spacing for actions that KD and Bradley beal
Speaker 1: run right, Like, We're gonna be talking a lot about
Speaker 1: that over the course of the show, but specifically as
Speaker 1: it pertains to them attacking George's kneeing. When you have
Speaker 1: Devin Booker out there and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: are both going to draw a significantly tough perimeter defense
Speaker 1: type of assignment, right in that situation, you just run
Speaker 1: out of bodies. And so the Calves ended up opting
Speaker 1: to put George's kneeing on Kevin Durant straight up, and
Speaker 1: so Kad was doing a lot of work on him
Speaker 1: in ISO any screening action where he would get switched,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant would just point at Devin Booker, a point
Speaker 1: at Bradley Beal and be like go, like go take him.
Speaker 1: And they were just literally taking turns, just cooking George's
Speaker 1: kneeing on an island. George Kneeing's credit like he was competing.
Speaker 1: He was really trying. He's overmatched in those specific situations.
Speaker 1: They're also having a lot of success with Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll. This is an action that the Sons used
Speaker 1: to run a ton back in the Monty Williams e
Speaker 1: era with Chris Paul and it's different players obviously, aside
Speaker 1: from Devin Booker, different coach now but it's more or
Speaker 1: less the same concept. Again, it's just a ball screen,
Speaker 1: but you have a shooter come up to backscreen the Roman,
Speaker 1: the Roman's defender the screen defender as he's relocating to
Speaker 1: the top of the key, which opens up two different things.
Speaker 1: It opens up the lob pass, but it also makes
Speaker 1: it really difficult for the screen defender to get back
Speaker 1: and help protect the rim. So they were having success
Speaker 1: with that as well. And then as they started to
Speaker 1: get going offensively attacking the Aang and scoring in ball screens,
Speaker 1: that triggered their defensive intensity and then from there they
Speaker 1: were able to regain control of the game. After being
Speaker 1: down nineteen, they did a much better job on Darius
Speaker 1: Garland in the second half. They brought use of Nurkic
Speaker 1: up into a high drop instead of a deep drop.
Speaker 1: That's where you're up at the level contesting and then
Speaker 1: just rotating back as best as you can. And Nurkis
Speaker 1: was at like Nurkis every time I watch him. He
Speaker 1: had a a not his best game in this particular matchup,
Speaker 1: and they ended up closing with u Banks instead just
Speaker 1: because of his foot speed and because Nurkis wasn't quite
Speaker 1: as sharp, but Nirkis made some defensive plays in this
Speaker 1: game in his drop coverage, especially at the start of
Speaker 1: the second half. I've been like, honestly, every time I
Speaker 1: watch Nurkics, I'm always impressed by just how much he
Speaker 1: tries to make plays defensively despite his lack of foot speed.
Speaker 1: But bringing him up to the level and then just
Speaker 1: much better on ball defense helped them really cool off
Speaker 1: Darius Garland in the second half of this game. In general,
Speaker 1: their intensity went up to the level where we even
Speaker 1: saw Devin Booker flying around and getting a bunch offensive rebounds.
Speaker 2: In that third quarter.
Speaker 1: He had a possession where he had three offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: on the same possession just shooting in from the wing
Speaker 1: and beating people to the ball ended up hitting like
Speaker 1: a little bank shot on the fourth offensive possession of
Speaker 1: their or fourth shot of that possession.
Speaker 2: He had a four.
Speaker 1: Offensive rebounds in total, had a nice tap out rebound
Speaker 1: later on in the third quarter. So the Suns just
Speaker 1: kind of methodically worked their way back in. They go
Speaker 1: up by nine, but then Cleveland there was again capable
Speaker 1: of real defensive runs as well. They locked in on
Speaker 1: defense and the game just turned into an absolute slog
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. Cleveland briefly tied the
Speaker 1: score at one oh four, but then Phoenix got an
Speaker 1: easy layup for Devin Booker out of another Spain pick
Speaker 1: and roll, and they just had They just had Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen come up and backscreen Jared Allen as they were
Speaker 1: running the ball screen and Devin Booker was able to
Speaker 1: kind of kind of gather through the digging down defender
Speaker 1: out of the left corner and finished with a left
Speaker 1: handed layup. Then a couple of possessions later, they had
Speaker 1: a really good defensive possession where they blitzed Darius Garland
Speaker 1: at the top of the key and got into rotation
Speaker 1: as a Garland hit Jared Allen slipping and Jared Allen
Speaker 1: made a kick out to the left corner and it
Speaker 1: was like bang bang balls getting passed around, but every
Speaker 1: Sun was just on a string flying around. They ended
Speaker 1: up forcing a tough skip pass that Royce O'Neil was
Speaker 1: splitting the difference between two offensive players and was able
Speaker 1: to get a steal. They ran out the other way
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durank got a layup. Sons built a little
Speaker 1: bit of a margin again and they were able to
Speaker 1: kind of stiff arm him from there, got a little
Speaker 1: sketchy late Phoenix got a little sloppy in the late
Speaker 1: fourth quarter here a couple of bad turnovers, gave up
Speaker 1: four offensive rebounds in the corner. They were just a quarter.
Speaker 1: They just weren't boxing out. But Grayson Allen got two
Speaker 1: key stops at the end of the game in ISO
Speaker 1: against Darius Garland. The first time he slid his feet
Speaker 1: really well and stopped him in the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: killed the possession. And then after that there was the
Speaker 1: play where Jared Allen actually had a decent opportunity to
Speaker 1: tie the game with the lob pass. But I want
Speaker 1: to give Grayson Allen some creditors, so I think it
Speaker 1: was one thirteen, one eleven, so it's a two point games.
Speaker 1: Darius Garland had just tried attacking Grayson Allen and couldn't
Speaker 1: beat him. So then on this possession, he's on the
Speaker 1: left wing, Grayson Allen on the island. He's picking on
Speaker 1: him in a switch. They're specifically going after Grayson Allen.
Speaker 1: Here Grayson Allen slides his feet and cuts off like
Speaker 1: four or five different moves from Darius Garland. And then
Speaker 1: finally after like the fifth or sixth move, Garland's able
Speaker 1: to get a angle on Grayson and beat him off
Speaker 1: the dribble. But at that point when he beat him
Speaker 1: off the dribble, he was so sped up by just
Speaker 1: the sheer number of moves he had just made that
Speaker 1: when he threw the lot pass, he threw it too high.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things like you have your
Speaker 1: jobs in when you switch, when you're the weaker defender
Speaker 1: that someone's targeting. No one's expecting you to suddenly turn
Speaker 1: into Jada McDaniels and get a bunch of stops. Like
Speaker 1: what they're expecting you is just to do the best
Speaker 1: you can. And in that situation against a quick guard
Speaker 1: like Darius Garland, especially one that had been shooting the
Speaker 1: three really well, and you got a factor in client
Speaker 1: at a time and score like in a two point game,
Speaker 1: the last thing you want to do is give up
Speaker 1: a step back three to a guy who's been hitting
Speaker 1: his three all night long, and suddenly you're down by
Speaker 1: one and it's a completely different game.
Speaker 2: Trust your backside, help chase him off the line.
Speaker 1: And he just made him make enough moves, made him
Speaker 1: work hard enough that he sped the play up and
Speaker 1: just a little bit of a difference like that passes
Speaker 1: six inches lower and six inches to the right. Jared
Speaker 1: Allen dunks the ball and it's a tie game. But no,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit too high and a little
Speaker 1: bit to the left Jared Allen. The ball was like
Speaker 1: on the backboard when Jared Allen caught it, and that
Speaker 1: kind of disrupted his catch and he fumbled it away
Speaker 1: and they were able to get a stop and they
Speaker 1: escaped with a.
Speaker 2: Huge road win in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And again, like, especially after you cut, like you know,
Speaker 1: this is typical, right, especially on the road, especially against
Speaker 1: a team that I don't think Phoenix sees as particularly threatening,
Speaker 1: especially without Donovan Mitchell in the lineup. Like it's just
Speaker 1: kind of trap game, especially after a couple of really
Speaker 1: tough games against the Nuggets and Celtics, right, and you
Speaker 1: get slapped in the face early and you find yourself
Speaker 1: down big. But they methodically executed their way back into
Speaker 1: the game, and then they were able to close the
Speaker 1: game out in the fourth quarter, which obviously has been
Speaker 1: an issue for them at times this season. Major takeaways
Speaker 1: on the Suns front, A good comeback game for Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: twenty seven points and seven assists on fifty percent shooting.
Speaker 1: Really active as an athlete in the second half, not
Speaker 1: just on the glass, but defensively as well. Interesting adjustment
Speaker 1: from Frank Vogel to go with Drew Eubanks late in
Speaker 1: the game so they had more speed on the floor
Speaker 1: to deal with Garland, especially. They did some switching and
Speaker 1: more blitzing at the end of the game with Garland,
Speaker 1: and they just needed more speed in that situation. Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant still on an absolute heater as this fourth straight
Speaker 1: game with at least thirty five points barbecuing George's kneeing
Speaker 1: like we were talking about. But again, one of the
Speaker 1: key things for Phoenix that I've been paying attention to,
Speaker 1: real defensive runs. We've seen that in the Denver matchup.
Speaker 1: We saw that even for stretches in the Celtics game
Speaker 1: again to get back into the game in that third
Speaker 1: quarter run and then held the Cavs to twenty points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter as well.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Just like really impressive defensive ceiling that they're starting to demonstrate,
Speaker 1: even if it's not as consistent as you would like
Speaker 1: it to be. I saw a video from Koc Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connor from The Ringer. This morning, he was on his
Speaker 1: podcast with Chris Vernon talking about whether or not the
Speaker 1: Suns were the biggest threat to the Nuggets out West,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's interesting. I'm still a little bit
Speaker 1: on the fence because I think the Clippers just have
Speaker 1: better defensive personnel. But the Clippers have been pretty mediocre
Speaker 1: for like a month now, and the Suns are really
Speaker 1: starting to put together some high level basketball. They're starting
Speaker 1: to attach some high level defense to the work that
Speaker 1: they're doing offensively with the three stars, and it's really
Speaker 1: starting to take shape. I'm kind of like, let's just
Speaker 1: put it this way. I still think I leaned slightly
Speaker 1: towards the Clippers, but I'd put the Suns like pretty
Speaker 1: much on that level at this point. Really starting to
Speaker 1: believe in them. I think they have some good matchup
Speaker 1: advantages across the board. Again, specifically like when Kadi is
Speaker 1: making his pull up jump shot, he doesn't really get
Speaker 1: bothered that much by Aaron Gordon. It's just a question
Speaker 1: of whether or not he can make them. And then
Speaker 1: Usuf Nurki, just a big body that can actually bang
Speaker 1: with jokicchen cause them some issues.
Speaker 2: Down there. They do. They are absolutely a threat.
Speaker 1: I'm just not quite sure if I put them on
Speaker 1: the same level as the Clippers at this point on Cleveland,
Speaker 1: Like this is a classic issue I see around the
Speaker 1: league with a lot of these smaller guards, especially ones
Speaker 1: that aren't like absolutely insane athletes. The difference between playing
Speaker 1: against a deep drop coverage versus more aggressive coverages and
Speaker 1: in ISO situations. So like Darius Garland in the first
Speaker 1: half was just absolutely cooking the Suns because they weren't
Speaker 1: very aggressive on the ball. There wasn't a ton of
Speaker 1: ball pressure, and they were in just such a deep
Speaker 1: drop coverage, and so he was able to get going
Speaker 1: with what I call like baked in shots like these
Speaker 1: are shots that are the coverage itself is designed to
Speaker 1: give up. So like in that the point being like
Speaker 1: if you can, if anybody at the like just take
Speaker 1: a random you know, college basketball player is capable of
Speaker 1: hitting a mid range sixteen footer, right like, then if
Speaker 1: this coverage literally concedes that shot, so like anybody can
Speaker 1: make that shot. Now the best players in the world
Speaker 1: can make it at a much higher rate, right And
Speaker 1: Garland is absolutely barbecuing it. But there's a difference between
Speaker 1: the shot that is baked into the coverage versus what
Speaker 1: happens when the intensity picks up and suddenly there are
Speaker 1: no baked in shots and it's shots that you have
Speaker 1: to create yourself. And like, don't get me wrong, Garland
Speaker 1: still had some success getting downhill when they started bringing
Speaker 1: aggressive coverages and hitting the slipper, and that's still creating
Speaker 1: an advantage in those situations. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: scoring the basketball, Darius Garland is definitely one of those
Speaker 1: guys that kind of needs some of the shots that
Speaker 1: are baked into the coverage. He's not a guy that,
Speaker 1: like against really elite locked in physical defense, can consistently
Speaker 1: just generate his own shot on an island. And I
Speaker 1: thought that those last two possessions against Grayson Allen and
Speaker 1: just how difficult it was for Darius Garland to break free,
Speaker 1: I thought was a strong indicator of that because Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen at the guard position is very much an average
Speaker 1: defensive player, right. Just something to keep in mind, And honestly,
Speaker 1: that's why you need a guy like Donovan Mitchell. And
Speaker 1: I've actually come around in a lot of ways on
Speaker 1: the Mitchell Garland back court in the sense that like,
Speaker 1: when Donovan Mitchell is defending the way that he's defended
Speaker 1: this season and really leveraging his athletic gifts, that's where
Speaker 1: it starts to look more like that skill guard athlete
Speaker 1: guard type of mold. It's when Donovan Mitchell leans into
Speaker 1: the skill guard stuff and doesn't compete as an athlete
Speaker 1: that that back court becomes untenable. So like, I actually
Speaker 1: believe more in the Garland Mitchell back court now than
Speaker 1: I used to, just because of Donovan Mitchell's leap that
Speaker 1: he's taken just in the dirty work areas of the
Speaker 1: game this year. But I did think that game last
Speaker 1: night was just an indicator of the ceiling, the certain
Speaker 1: ceiling that Darius Garland has as a score, which depends
Speaker 1: so much on what the defensive coverages are.
Speaker 2: Obviously, no, Evan.
Speaker 1: Mobley just means a lot of george' kneeing, and George
Speaker 1: Knieing was just having one of those games where he
Speaker 1: wasn't hitting shots. And if he's not hitting shots and
Speaker 1: he's such an easy target on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, things can fall apart pretty quickly. But even
Speaker 1: despite all of that, like Jared Allen Better passed from
Speaker 1: Darius Garland on that last possession and Allen it catches
Speaker 1: the ball cleanly. It's it's a one to thirteen to
Speaker 1: one to thirteen game. And the real reason why they
Speaker 1: had that chance is because they are still capable of
Speaker 1: these crazy defensive runs like they went on in the
Speaker 1: late third quarter into the fourth quarter. And that again
Speaker 1: is like defense just will just keep you in basketball games.
Speaker 1: And again like that, that's I think when you factor
Speaker 1: in the improvement that Donovan Mitchell has made and just
Speaker 1: the improvement in terms of the overall amount offensive skill
Speaker 1: on the floor, if they can compete defensively well enough
Speaker 1: to keep these games close as long as Donovan Mitchell's
Speaker 1: hitting shots, so they have a chance to beat anybody.
Speaker 1: It's just a question of whether or not he can
Speaker 1: kind of meet other stars at that level as a
Speaker 1: shot maker. All Right, moving on to our next segment,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be breaking down the Golden State Warriors on
Speaker 1: the road, getting their first win of the season without
Speaker 1: Steph Curry in the lineup another defensive run, the Spurs
Speaker 1: had sixty eight points with ten minutes to go in
Speaker 1: the third quarter. They led by ten, sixty eight to
Speaker 1: fifty eight. And the Spurs had seventy two points with
Speaker 1: a little over three three minutes left in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: so they held him to just four points over a
Speaker 1: seven minute span. At that point, the Warriors were at
Speaker 1: fourteen eighty six to seventy two, so twenty eight to
Speaker 1: four run in about seven minutes of basketball. They logged
Speaker 1: a defensive rating of seventy eight point three in that
Speaker 1: quarter on tape. Just really good game plan, discipline, lots
Speaker 1: of lineups because it spans the middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: multiple lineups for both teams were on the floor during
Speaker 1: that stretch. But the gist of it was any screening
Speaker 1: action that involved Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kminga
Speaker 1: was a switch. They were willing to switch Wiggins and
Speaker 1: Kminga on to Victor wmen Yama in those screening actions
Speaker 1: would shut those particular actions down. Obviously, they had some
Speaker 1: issues like Victor wemen Yama had a drop step dunk
Speaker 1: on Jonathan Kamena in a switch where he just didn't
Speaker 1: really hold his ground well enough. But then when the
Speaker 1: guards were on the ball, So whether it's Pazamski or
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, they were just ducking under picks on Trey Jones,
Speaker 1: so they would live with pull up threes on Trey Jones,
Speaker 1: and then they were chasing like crazy on Devin Vessel,
Speaker 1: and both guys were awesome in the stretch. Both Brandon
Speaker 1: Pazemski and Gary Payton just really controlled that perimeter defense stretch.
Speaker 1: After the middle portion of the fourth quarter when the
Speaker 1: guards checked in, I clipped a specific possession of Gary
Speaker 1: Payton the second just showing him chasing around on Devin Vessel.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the things that Gary Payton
Speaker 1: does super well that's always impressed me is he's so
Speaker 1: incredibly athletic that he's capable of gambling or taking risks,
Speaker 1: jumping into passing lanes, or reaching and getting off a balance,
Speaker 1: but still has the speed to recover. And in this
Speaker 1: specific play that I clip that you'll find on my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed at underscore jsonlt, there's an example of Gary
Speaker 1: Payton lunging on one side of the screen and then
Speaker 1: chasing over the top and reaching in aggressively and yet
Speaker 1: in both situations having the speed to recover. So when
Speaker 1: Devin Vessell got downhill and got to like a little
Speaker 1: pull up fifteen foot or along the left base, line.
Speaker 1: He actually got a great contest on it, just because
Speaker 1: he has the crazy speed to be able to recover
Speaker 1: after being aggressive, and that I think that sort of thing, well,
Speaker 1: it's super frustrating for offensive players because like you have
Speaker 1: these counter move design like when a guy makes an
Speaker 1: aggressive move, I whip it behind my back this way
Speaker 1: and I have an angle. But it's like against the
Speaker 1: best athletes in the world, they can just recover and
Speaker 1: it's like, shit, I did everything right on that possession,
Speaker 1: and he's still right in my face.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And then Tray Jackson Davis was just really a force
Speaker 1: around the rim defensively in the second half of this game.
Speaker 1: Actually had a possession in the fourth quarter where he
Speaker 1: blocked Trey Jones and Zach Collins back to back on
Speaker 1: the same possession. Weirdly enough, didn't get credited for a
Speaker 1: block in the box score, which I thought was really interesting.
Speaker 1: And then on the offensive end of the four, Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson and Chris Paul did a really nice job running
Speaker 1: the offense. Clay was able to hit some jumpers against
Speaker 1: the Spurs and their drop coverage, and you know some
Speaker 1: of those classic like come off of a dribble hand
Speaker 1: off the guy's kind of in a trail position and
Speaker 1: just hits him with a hard like right shoulder step back,
Speaker 1: moving to his left and knock it down like that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Chris has his usual Chris and his
Speaker 1: like Chris and Tray Jackson Davis pick and roll chemistry
Speaker 1: thing just on level ten throughout this entire game, hit
Speaker 1: him for lobs and finishes around there. Trace had a
Speaker 1: ridiculous right handed finish around zat Collins where he jumped
Speaker 1: into him and then like scooped around with his offhand
Speaker 1: to finish. But just a ridiculous play. We haven't even
Speaker 1: got to it yet. But like at the end of
Speaker 1: the game when Victor Wembinyama reached to his right hand
Speaker 1: side and he spun off of him, just one of
Speaker 1: the most ridiculous dunks you'll ever see, as he palmed
Speaker 1: it as best as he could have, just threw it
Speaker 1: over the top of the rim into Victor wemen Yama.
Speaker 1: That's a highlight that Trace will be looking at for
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, I'm sure, especially when Victor's
Speaker 1: running rough shot over the rest of the league in
Speaker 1: five years. I'm sure that'll be a fun one for
Speaker 1: him to look back at but Chris had his mid
Speaker 1: range jump shot going as well. He hit six shots
Speaker 1: and the mid range in this game, which obviously is
Speaker 1: such an important part of Chris being able to navigate
Speaker 1: and pick and roll situations. He has to be a
Speaker 1: threat to score in order to bring the screen defender
Speaker 1: up enough to open up those roleman opportunities. And that's
Speaker 1: what just kind of brings that two man game to fruition,
Speaker 1: is like Chris's willingness and ability to knock down those
Speaker 1: mid range jump shots and then trace after the screen,
Speaker 1: rolling hard to the rim and bringing that vertical spacing.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins had sixteen points on eight shots. He had
Speaker 1: a massive three in the third quarter, kind of moving
Speaker 1: to his right. He's really bringing confidence to the three
Speaker 1: point stroke now that we haven't seen really since the
Speaker 1: playoffs in twenty twenty two, shooting forty nine percent from
Speaker 1: three on three point three attempts per game in his
Speaker 1: last eighteen games, averaging fourteen points and shooting fifty four
Speaker 1: percent from the field overall. So Andrew Wiggins really encouraging
Speaker 1: stretch from him as of late. And johnathankaminga twenty two
Speaker 1: points the usual getting out transition in a couple ISO
Speaker 1: jumpers attacking in face up situations. Big win for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: This was a tough one because again the Spurs have
Speaker 1: been sneaky, tough to play for a while now. As
Speaker 1: the Warriors know very well. They just lost to him
Speaker 1: at home without Victor weman Yama, and so adding Wemby
Speaker 1: on the road really nice bounce back win, a very
Speaker 1: important one for them in the standings as well. So
Speaker 1: obviously we have not taken the time yet this season.
Speaker 1: We've had brief conversations about Wemby, but we haven't really
Speaker 1: talked about his season in totality, and I haven't because
Speaker 1: how bad the Spurs have been. I haven't really taken
Speaker 1: the time to dig into Victor wemben Yama and the
Speaker 1: tape and the numbers this year. So that's what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do here for a few minutes, is just
Speaker 1: kind of do like a deep dive on Victor wemben
Speaker 1: Yama's rookie season. So for the season, averaging twenty one points,
Speaker 1: ten rebounds and three assists, one point three steals, three
Speaker 1: point four blocks on fifty seven percent tru shooting, obviously awesome,
Speaker 1: But since December twenty eighth, Victor took a leap in
Speaker 1: the middle of the season, which is something we'll talk
Speaker 1: about in a little bit. But since December twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: so his last thirty one games, twenty three points per game,
Speaker 1: ten rebounds and four assists, one point two steals with
Speaker 1: three point seven blocks per game, fifty percent from the field,
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from three to eighty two percent from
Speaker 1: the line, so sixty point four percent for shooting. So,
Speaker 1: before we go any further, a rookie averaging twenty three
Speaker 1: to ten to four with five stocks per game on
Speaker 1: over sixty percent for shooting is completely insane, especially when
Speaker 1: you factor in that like most rookies around this time
Speaker 1: of year, start to hit a wall, they start to
Speaker 1: struggle with fatigue because the length of the season is
Speaker 1: just different than what they've dealt with and when they
Speaker 1: were younger. Although overseas, Victor obviously is had a different
Speaker 1: experience than most college players, so Victor is probably more
Speaker 1: capable of handling the physical nature of an eighty two
Speaker 1: game season, but still it's an adjustment. It's different than
Speaker 1: what he was dealing with, but for all rookies, that's
Speaker 1: an adjustment, right, We're seeing Brandon Bazemski run into this
Speaker 1: a little bit with the Warriors, right. Also, teams have
Speaker 1: started to put together a good amount of film. So
Speaker 1: like again, when you look at scouting once you have
Speaker 1: like fifty games worth a sample, these scouting departments, they
Speaker 1: have really good data to look at and they can
Speaker 1: really find out like, Okay, this particular action, if we
Speaker 1: guard it like this, he struggles in ISO. If we
Speaker 1: sit on this hand and we prepare for this counter move,
Speaker 1: we can handle it. Right, Like, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of ways that teams just get better at scouting rookies
Speaker 1: as more film becomes available, and so so many rookies
Speaker 1: run into a wall at this point in the year,
Speaker 1: and instead Victor women Yabas is going up a level.
Speaker 1: And again, twenty three ten four with five stocks and
Speaker 1: over sixty percent shooting is just completely insane for a rookie,
Speaker 1: regardless of the circumstances. So looking into play type data,
Speaker 1: it's having a tough spot up season zero point seven
Speaker 1: to seven points per possession, which is really bad. There
Speaker 1: are one hundred and forty three players in the NBA
Speaker 1: that have logged at least one hundred and fifty spot
Speaker 1: up possessions and that rakes one fortieth. So he's been
Speaker 1: one of the worst spot up players in the league
Speaker 1: combination of a couple of things. He's really struggling in
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations. He's been a good jump shooter,
Speaker 1: decent jump shooter in pull up situations, but he's been
Speaker 1: really bad off the catch. That's a concept that we're
Speaker 1: going to dive into a little bit more when we
Speaker 1: get to the off the dribble shooting, but also just
Speaker 1: when he tax close outs. He has a tendency to
Speaker 1: drive into traffic, and tall guys have issues dribbling the
Speaker 1: basketball in general when it comes into traffic. By the way,
Speaker 1: this is something that happens with Kevin Durant, which is
Speaker 1: why he turns the ball over most more than most
Speaker 1: of his peers that are perimeter ball handlers. It's because
Speaker 1: when you're just dribbling at that high off the ground,
Speaker 1: there's just a larger distance for devenders to get involved
Speaker 1: with disrupting the basketball, right, and so you have to
Speaker 1: be really careful as a tall player about when and
Speaker 1: where you drive the basketball, and so just struggle and shoot,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot and struggle struggling to maintain control of
Speaker 1: the basketball when he drives into traffic. Those are the
Speaker 1: main things that are hurting him in spot up situations.
Speaker 1: He's been very good in ball screens as the screener.
Speaker 1: He's shooting fifty nine percent in effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: when he pops or rolls, which is awesome. He's in
Speaker 1: the sixtieth percentile overall in points per possession on role
Speaker 1: man possessions, which especially when you factor in the spacing
Speaker 1: that he's around, really impressive. There's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: on the spurs that teams just don't need a guard
Speaker 1: at the three point line. They're conceding threes to Keldon Johnson,
Speaker 1: they're ducking under picks on Trey Jones. No one's guarding
Speaker 1: Jeremy Soschein out there. Like there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: like ability to kind of pack the pain on him,
Speaker 1: which can cost some issues for any basketball player, let
Speaker 1: alone a rookie. On the ball, he's run one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty three inverted ball screens, resulting in zero point
Speaker 1: eighty six points per possession including passes. Passes out of
Speaker 1: those ball screens almost like almost about two thirds of
Speaker 1: the time. A lot of turnovers in those situations, he
Speaker 1: turns it over about thirty percent of the time that
Speaker 1: he passes out of ball screens. Really, he just makes
Speaker 1: really aggressive passes to the slipper, So like when he
Speaker 1: sets those inverted ball screens, he's getting pretty aggressive coverages
Speaker 1: and those guards are slipping out of it, and like
Speaker 1: they get a lot of for the record, they get
Speaker 1: a lot of great stuff out of this too, where
Speaker 1: like he'll throw the pocket pass and the guard will
Speaker 1: have like a good angle and get into the paint
Speaker 1: and finish. They had a similar play in the second
Speaker 1: half against the Warriors last night. I want to say
Speaker 1: it was Malchi Branham that slipped, but I can't remember exactly,
Speaker 1: but they hit a little pocket pass, get a lay up.
Speaker 2: In the middle of the lane.
Speaker 1: But he just he kind of throws it every time,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether or not it's open. So that's just
Speaker 1: a rookie thing. Like in time, he'll just get better
Speaker 1: about being more picky about when he makes that pass
Speaker 1: because sometimes it's not open right, or sometimes it's better
Speaker 1: to throw the swing pass and let the swing pass
Speaker 1: guy make the pass if he has a better angle right,
Speaker 1: and then he's personally shooting just forty one percent out
Speaker 1: of ball screens as the handler, similar kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that we were talking about earlier. He's actually been pretty
Speaker 1: good shooting pull up threes in that situation, but when
Speaker 1: he puts on the ball on the floor and tries
Speaker 1: to drive again, when he gets into traffic, he can
Speaker 1: have some issues. It's always been awesome ninety four points
Speaker 1: on eighty eight ISOs, including passes, really deadly face up jumper.
Speaker 1: It's something that he's been shooting really well all season.
Speaker 1: It's funny certain shot types he's been shooting really well.
Speaker 1: He's been really good in face up jumpers, pretty average
Speaker 1: and dribble jumpers, and then bad and catching shoot jumpers.
Speaker 2: Now face up.
Speaker 1: Jumpers are like I catch, I turn in my face,
Speaker 1: maybe I rise up if I have space, or maybe
Speaker 1: I jab step and then I rise up. That's what
Speaker 1: I qualify as a face up jumper. On Synergy they
Speaker 1: classify them as early jumpers, but it more or less
Speaker 1: means the same thing. But he's got in the ISO
Speaker 1: situations a lot of face up jumpers, good step back,
Speaker 1: going both directions. When he drives, he likes to when
Speaker 1: he gets cut off moving towards his right, he likes
Speaker 1: to step back going right or spin back towards his
Speaker 1: left hand side, and sometimes when he gets into that spin,
Speaker 1: he can get into some trouble where he'll turn the
Speaker 1: basketball over. But overall, he's been really good in ISOs
Speaker 1: Okay in the post two hundred and fifty six possessions
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty one points at zero point ninety
Speaker 1: four points per possession. That ranks ninth out of the
Speaker 1: ten guys in the league that are high volume post
Speaker 1: up players over two hundred and fifty possessions. Once again,
Speaker 1: surrounding talent and shooting are the important like kind of
Speaker 1: context there. He's just he's not in a situation where
Speaker 1: guys are gonna make team make him pay consistently, make
Speaker 1: teams pay consistently for throwing second defenders at him. At
Speaker 1: his best in the post, it's when he's quick and decisive,
Speaker 1: like catching second defender, quick kickout pass, just like really
Speaker 1: fast decision making, and then also quick aggressive moves towards
Speaker 1: the rim. It doesn't really need to shoot a hook shot, thankfully,
Speaker 1: just because how tall he is, and he'll just make
Speaker 1: like an aggressive move towards the middle and like almost
Speaker 1: shoot like a sliding scoop shot with his left hand
Speaker 1: into the lane or a sliding scoop shot with his
Speaker 1: right hand in the lane.
Speaker 2: Like, he'll just catch him basically.
Speaker 1: Pivot over that shoulder right away, even if the defender
Speaker 1: bumps him and kind of flattens out the drive, as
Speaker 1: long as he's close enough to the basket.
Speaker 2: And the Spurs do a lot of smart stuff.
Speaker 1: They run him off of a ton of wedge screens
Speaker 1: where like they'll start him at the elbow and like
Speaker 1: screen have him flash to the post to try to
Speaker 1: get him some deeper position, and like again just quickly
Speaker 1: pivoting towards the middle over whatever shoulder that is in
Speaker 1: going to that scoop shot in a lane. He'll get
Speaker 1: a bunch of good stuff out of that. Again, when
Speaker 1: he goes quick, that's when he's best as a tendency.
Speaker 1: Sometimes to settle for unnecessary tough like turnaround jump shots
Speaker 1: off the glass and stuff like that, that's usually where
Speaker 1: he'll have misses in those situations. Had a really good
Speaker 1: post up sequence against Indiana late in a win last week.
Speaker 1: It was one o three to one oh two with
Speaker 1: four minutes left, the Spurs were up. He had an
Speaker 1: aggressive baseline move on Siakam, just one of those quick
Speaker 1: attacks to get a and one. And then he had
Speaker 1: an aggressive move on Turner on the opposite block where
Speaker 1: he drew foul. Now on the next possession, the hard
Speaker 1: double teamed him and he hit Jeremy Socian on a
Speaker 1: cup on a cut and he made a layup at
Speaker 1: the basket. So like spamming an action to close a
Speaker 1: game against a really good team. And again, Indiana's defense
Speaker 1: has not been very good since Siakam came over, but
Speaker 1: that is in terms of personnel, a good defensive front line,
Speaker 1: and Miles Turner and Pascal Siakam and Wenby was just
Speaker 1: going right through him like tissue paper. In terms of
Speaker 1: shot types, he's been a bad jump shooter zero point
Speaker 1: eighty eight points per shot overall. That's a twenty six
Speaker 1: percentile mark for jump shooting, catch and shoot zero point
Speaker 1: eight two points per shot overall, thirty percent field goals,
Speaker 1: forty one percent when you weaight it for threes, when
Speaker 1: he's guarded twenty eight percent, thirty eight percent weighted for threes,
Speaker 1: and when he's unguarded thirty two percent, forty six percent
Speaker 1: weighted for threes. So just all really bad and all
Speaker 1: areas where he'll need to improve in the long run.
Speaker 1: But his pull up jump shot has been really, really
Speaker 1: deadly this year. He's got thirty five point four percent
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pull up jump shots forty nine
Speaker 1: percent weighted for threes, so right around a point per
Speaker 1: possession to give you an idea, he's been about as
Speaker 1: effective hitting pull up jump shots as Jason Tatum, which
Speaker 1: again as a rookie, is a really really impressive mark.
Speaker 1: But again it's the face up jumpers where he's been best,
Speaker 1: shooting forty one percent overall on face up jump shots
Speaker 1: fifty four percent weighted for threes. So question is, why
Speaker 1: is it that Victor woman Yama has struggled so much
Speaker 1: in catch and shoot situations but has been pretty good
Speaker 1: and pull up and face up situations. To me, it's
Speaker 1: all about rhythm and Wemby as a tendency to get
Speaker 1: a little bit loose with his jump shot form in
Speaker 1: the sense that like he's relying a lot on just
Speaker 1: the release at the end, his base gets a little
Speaker 1: funky on these, where like he'll he's drifting a lot
Speaker 1: on his like off the dribble shots, he'll drift to
Speaker 1: the left or drift to the right. There was a
Speaker 1: flashing like kind of like a movement shooter type of
Speaker 1: shot he took against the Warriors in the second half
Speaker 1: last night where Draymond was guarding him and he was
Speaker 1: under the basket, and he flashed up to the left
Speaker 1: wing and he caught and like quick turn and pivot
Speaker 1: and shot literally looked like a movement shooter, but on
Speaker 1: it like he randomly jumped like forward into the left
Speaker 1: quite a bit, even though he was unguarded, he jumped
Speaker 1: like forward to the Draymond got a late contest on it,
Speaker 1: but he jumped like forward into the left a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it's just like different than what he does on
Speaker 1: a bunch of other possessions. And so one of the
Speaker 1: and by the way, this is super typical for young
Speaker 1: basketball players, and like one of the things that that
Speaker 1: he'll just have to you're out in the long run,
Speaker 1: is getting super consistent with his form. And like to me,
Speaker 1: you actually want to build it out out of catch
Speaker 1: and shoot, So like you want to have like this
Speaker 1: perfect muscle memory from the base up in your catch
Speaker 1: and shoot shots.
Speaker 2: And once you.
Speaker 1: Nail that down, you want your your off the dribble
Speaker 1: shots to more or less resemble that in the sense that, like,
Speaker 1: obviously there's going to be some drifting, but when you
Speaker 1: get enough separation to go straight up and down, go
Speaker 1: straight up and down when you're drifting, get great lift
Speaker 1: and at least from the waist up, have the exact
Speaker 1: same type of release and motion as you do when
Speaker 1: you're shooting catch and shoot jump shots. Once you can
Speaker 1: connect those two, then you'll see the numbers more consistent
Speaker 1: across the board. But right now, it's like when he's
Speaker 1: in a rhythm because he's touching the basketball, he shoots well,
Speaker 1: but when he has to catch and shoot not so well.
Speaker 1: When he can actually build out his catch and shoot
Speaker 1: as the foundation of his jump shot and then connect
Speaker 1: that to his off the dribble shooting, that's when I
Speaker 1: think we'll see some real shooting consistency from him. But
Speaker 1: the touch is there. I have no doubt that in
Speaker 1: the long run he's going to be a great shooter.
Speaker 1: Thirty five percent on floaters, only ten makes on the season, though,
Speaker 1: so it's not a shot he takes a lot. Only
Speaker 1: forty three percent on hooks sixteen makes, though on the
Speaker 1: entire season. Like we talked about earlier, doesn't really need
Speaker 1: it because he's so damn tall. So it's more like he'll,
Speaker 1: like most players while on the black like drop step
Speaker 1: and then shoot like a little half hook over their
Speaker 1: left shoulder. Wemby can go out to the side and
Speaker 1: almost like take a scoop shot, so like it's not
Speaker 1: really relevant to him just because it's not a shot
Speaker 1: he needs to take. At the RIM, one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty one dunks. That's tied for the sixth most in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Here's a little trivia. You guys want to
Speaker 1: guess who the six players are that are either tied
Speaker 1: or above him number six, Nick Claxton, number five, Jarrett
Speaker 1: Allen number four, Aaron Gordon number three, Anthony Davis number two,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert number one, drum Roll Joannis, and Tana Kumbo.
Speaker 1: Big shot, I know, but still Victor Wiman yamun limited minutes,
Speaker 1: that's sixth in the most dunks in the NBA. Only
Speaker 1: fifty four percent on layups, obviously a big area of
Speaker 1: improvement for him. Gets knocked off of his base relatively easily,
Speaker 1: and it has some can occasionally have some bad misses
Speaker 1: around the rim, but that again is just something I
Speaker 1: think it comes down to both driving into traffic and
Speaker 1: just being better about his drive pass decisions, and then too,
Speaker 1: just putting on a little bit more bulk. On the
Speaker 1: defensive end, He's already one of the best defensive players
Speaker 1: in the world. He currently has the second best odds
Speaker 1: on DraftKings in the league to win Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year. Leads the league in blocks in limited minutes.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if you extrapolated out to
Speaker 1: a thirty six minute shift, he's averaging four point three
Speaker 1: blocks for thirty six minutes, fourth in deflection rate among
Speaker 1: players who've played at least fifteen hundred minutes this season,
Speaker 1: So just wreaking havoc on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He has this tendency, this ability that most players don't
Speaker 1: have to hang back and make it look like there's
Speaker 1: an opening, but then just take a simple drop step
Speaker 1: in reach and be able to cover like fifteen feet
Speaker 1: of space, and it just makes it so that he
Speaker 1: can really bait players into situations that they don't want
Speaker 1: to get into. Most of the I shouldn't say most,
Speaker 1: but a good percentage of the blocks that victor women
Speaker 1: Yama women Yama have. They're not like a players or
Speaker 1: guys are challenging him. They're plays where they don't even
Speaker 1: think he's around, and then suddenly he's just there. And
Speaker 1: that's just the advantage of his ability to kind of
Speaker 1: disguise whether or not he's coming in help or not.
Speaker 1: So in summary, he's already impacting winning at a high level.
Speaker 1: The Spurs are six point two points better per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions when he's on the court versus when he's off.
Speaker 1: He's already a top twenty five player in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and he can still get so, so,
Speaker 1: so much better on both ends of the floor. Some
Speaker 1: specifics again, improving as a shooter in every phase of
Speaker 1: the game, which we talked about already, so I won't
Speaker 1: get into again limiting turnovers, specifically being more careful that
Speaker 1: when he tries to thread the needle and pick and
Speaker 1: roll passing situations, just being more deliberate. Again, if it's
Speaker 1: not open, you can literally just swing the pass, get
Speaker 1: it back and run another one, like you don't need
Speaker 1: to force it in that specific action. Dribbling into traffic
Speaker 1: as well, just when he's attacking closeouts or driving in
Speaker 1: ball screens or ISO situations, just being more picky about
Speaker 1: when he exposes the basketball. And then lastly, like all
Speaker 1: young players, just kind of shot selection stuff, so like
Speaker 1: finding the right place for tough shot making and then
Speaker 1: maximizing the capitalizing on the low hanging fruit. Right like
Speaker 1: what we talk about Jokic all the time, Like the
Speaker 1: dude is the best in the league at grabbing all
Speaker 1: of the low hanging fruit on offense. And Victor has
Speaker 1: that type of potential to be a guy who gets
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five points a game just on the easy
Speaker 1: stuff that's sitting there right in front of him, and
Speaker 1: so then the tough shot making stuff can push him
Speaker 1: over the top. Now, right now, despite all of these
Speaker 1: classic rookie issues, he's averaging twenty six points and thirteen
Speaker 1: rebounds per thirty six minutes right now for the season,
Speaker 1: and he's still adjusting to the league. So like, there's
Speaker 1: no reason at all why we couldn't see a five
Speaker 1: year run in Victor women Ya's Victor wemen Yama's prime
Speaker 1: where he averages like thirty two, fifteen and seven with
Speaker 1: like six stocks per game, Like that's on the table
Speaker 1: for him, that's not even a long shot that almost
Speaker 1: feels like a certainty, Like, right now, he's getting you
Speaker 1: twenty six and thirteen per thirty as a rookie. That's
Speaker 1: for the season, not including this latest leap that he's
Speaker 1: been on. There's no reason at all to think that
Speaker 1: it's some improved shooting bumping his minutes up, just overall
Speaker 1: better decision making in veteran experience, that he can't be
Speaker 1: up around thirty two points per game. He's already grabbing
Speaker 1: thirteen rebounds per game, that's not a big leap to get.
Speaker 2: Up to fifteen.
Speaker 1: And he's averaging four assists per game over this last
Speaker 1: thirty one game stretch, and he's still learning how to
Speaker 1: read the NBA floor and so, and he's playing around
Speaker 1: guys that struggle to finish plays around him. So it's
Speaker 1: just there's no reason at all to think that he
Speaker 1: can't get up to that type of level. Thirty two
Speaker 1: to fifteen and seven, I think is like an interesting
Speaker 1: kind of goal for Victor to hit during his prime.
Speaker 1: And then again, the last thing I'll say about Victor
Speaker 1: took a big leap in the middle of the season,
Speaker 1: when most rookies go down a level that to me,
Speaker 1: is just a huge indicator of his work ethic and
Speaker 1: his competitiveness, and that to me just that's like the
Speaker 1: swing factor in what if you look at like Victor's
Speaker 1: career as a spectrum of results, meaning like the best
Speaker 1: possible version of his career and the worst possible version
Speaker 1: of his career based on his talent, it's his competitiveness
Speaker 1: and work ethic, along with some injury luck that will
Speaker 1: determine where he lands on that scale. Injury lucks outside
Speaker 1: of your control. But Victor, for the record, works extremely
Speaker 1: hard on pliability and flexibility and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and so he's doing everything he can on his end
Speaker 1: to avoid injuries. Obviously, the Spurs have been really careful
Speaker 1: with his minutes and stuff as well, so that you
Speaker 1: do what you can to control that. But his competitiveness
Speaker 1: and his work ethic I think are going to help
Speaker 1: him hit the high end of that spectrum. Sky's the
Speaker 1: limit for Victor, And it was really fun diving into
Speaker 1: his film this morning. All right, let's get to the mailbag.
Speaker 1: Since the twenties twenty one season, ad bulked up a
Speaker 1: bit to better center position, what are the pros and
Speaker 1: cons of this bigger build and playing center overall. So
Speaker 1: I think it's the pros are in theory it should
Speaker 1: help him bang with other big centers underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: and he for the record, he does do better than
Speaker 1: he used to in that regard, and there are guys
Speaker 1: that he can bully now that he didn't used to
Speaker 1: be able to buoy.
Speaker 2: There's been some upside there.
Speaker 1: Also, I think it's probably helped him a little bit
Speaker 1: with his injury prevention, just by virtue of him just
Speaker 1: being a little bit more sturdy in his joints and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. That said, like I think the cons
Speaker 1: of outweighed the pros on that front, Like his foot
Speaker 1: speed is substantially lower than it was before he bulked up.
Speaker 1: And then also I really think it's led to some
Speaker 1: stiffness in his joints in the sense that he hasn't
Speaker 1: been as fluid as a score and you know, for
Speaker 1: whatever that's worth. Like I tend to think, like lean
Speaker 1: into your advantage, like don't play big guy basketball when
Speaker 1: you're not as good at playing big guy basketball as
Speaker 1: Nukolea Yokich, right, Like, don't you're not good Like you're
Speaker 1: still running into the zubatches and the some bonuses and
Speaker 1: the Nurkices and the Yokitches of the world and struggling,
Speaker 1: and that's the only matchup where that size really makes
Speaker 1: that much of a difference. So if it were up
Speaker 1: to me, I would have leaned more into ads speed
Speaker 1: and been like, yeah, there are gonna be some matchups
Speaker 1: before we struggle, because you know, Ad is getting buried.
Speaker 1: But like, as long as we're playing hard around him
Speaker 1: and we have advantage of his ability to cover ground
Speaker 1: in rotation, there's gonna be so much more good than
Speaker 1: bad that comes from that. Also, I just think the
Speaker 1: Lakers would have been in a much better position offensive
Speaker 1: if they had the Anthony Davis from the bubble that
Speaker 1: was capable of being really a high level perimeter score
Speaker 1: and he's just gone down a massive level in that department,
Speaker 1: which I do think is connected to some of his strength.
Speaker 1: So again, there are pros that have come with it,
Speaker 1: and I understand why, like conceptually why he did it,
Speaker 1: but personally, if I was Anthony Davis, I would have
Speaker 1: lingered more around the body type he was in twenty twenty. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: I love this channel and I think you provide desperately
Speaker 1: needed insightful content, especially for a casual viewer, and keep
Speaker 1: up the great work. Thank you for the kind words
Speaker 1: and for supporting the show. I'm not a guy who
Speaker 1: generally likes plug and play players and certain into certain
Speaker 1: eras and teams, but I cannot help but wonder what
Speaker 1: if someone like Demarta Rosen or Paul George was on
Speaker 1: AI's Final Team Finals Team. I think the type of
Speaker 1: player that would greatly benefit the chances of that series
Speaker 1: being at least more competitive. But then again, who is
Speaker 1: guarding Shaq still? Yeah, Shack still would have been a
Speaker 1: massive problem, But that was a team that grinded it
Speaker 1: out and just depended on Alan Iverson to take and
Speaker 1: make tough shots, and so specific the guy that I
Speaker 1: think would have been an interesting option, there is a
Speaker 1: DeMar de Rozen, just because he was the kind of
Speaker 1: guy that like you could really he's, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: a better like on an island score than Paul George
Speaker 1: can be because Paul George is just a little bit
Speaker 1: too dependent on his three point shot, He's not as
Speaker 1: good at drawing fouls. DeMar de Rozen, I think like,
Speaker 1: is a little bit bigger and sturdier for some of
Speaker 1: the more physical playback then I think Paul George, for
Speaker 1: the record, is a better player than Demarta Rozen. Right now,
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm trying to say, but I just
Speaker 1: think in that like kind of boxed in, like we
Speaker 1: just need someone to grind out points type of environment.
Speaker 1: Alongside that, that Sixers team in two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: I think Demarta Rozen would have been a really interesting fit.
Speaker 1: Next question, Hey Jason. First off, I love the show,
Speaker 1: big Lebron fan here, and I know you are as well.
Speaker 1: I've said for years that I think personally the twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen Cavs were better than the twenty sixteen title team
Speaker 1: and that they just ran into the best team ever.
Speaker 1: I know the regular season wasn't great, but when you
Speaker 1: look at the playoffs, their run was insane. Curious if
Speaker 1: you agree, and if you can provide some context as well.
Speaker 1: So I thought the seventeen Calves were obviously a much
Speaker 1: better offensive team than the twenty sixteen team. Lebron James
Speaker 1: kind of went up a level as a scorer between
Speaker 1: that from twenty sixteen into that twenty seventeen twenty eighteen stretch.
Speaker 1: Lebron really went up a level in terms of his consistency,
Speaker 1: and his jump shot and just his overall feel as
Speaker 1: a score.
Speaker 2: It was Lebron was.
Speaker 1: Really peaking in his offensive skill in that twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen range. Also, like they just had totally nailed
Speaker 1: down all their spacing concepts and the one to two
Speaker 1: punch of Kyrie and Lebron. They were really hunting on
Speaker 1: all cylinders offensively. But it was one of their worst
Speaker 1: seasons of that era in terms of their overall focus
Speaker 1: and energy on the defensive end of the floor. And
Speaker 1: so here's the thing. I don't think it would have
Speaker 1: mattered under any circumstances with how good that twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: Warriors team was. However, had Kevin Durant not gunn to
Speaker 1: the Warriors and twenty seventeen was more or less a
Speaker 1: rematch of the Harrison Barnes Warriors versus the twenty seventeen Calves,
Speaker 1: I think it would have been a great series. But
Speaker 1: the Calves would have been in some trouble in the
Speaker 1: sense that, like even in that playoff run, they didn't
Speaker 1: really need to defend that much, and so I wonder
Speaker 1: if their defense in twenty sixteen they were just much
Speaker 1: sharper defensively overall from start to finish in the season,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know what would have happened if
Speaker 1: the Caves and Warriors rematch in twenty seventeen. I really
Speaker 1: wanted to see that, which is what kind of sucked
Speaker 1: about Kevin Durant going there, is it just kind of
Speaker 1: ruined what would have been a really fun rubber match
Speaker 1: because the twenty seventeen Warriors are the best roster ever
Speaker 1: assembled in my opinion, and they, I mean, the twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen Warriors won fifteen consecutive playoff games. Think about that, like,
Speaker 1: I don't even I don't even know if we've had
Speaker 1: a team won fifteen win fifteen straight regular season games
Speaker 1: this year, and the Warriors literally won fifteen straight playoff
Speaker 1: games in that twenty seventeen run, so like they were
Speaker 1: just completely unbeatable. But I do think that twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: Caves is playing with a little bit of fire, just
Speaker 1: with where they were at defensively at that point in
Speaker 1: the season, and it was really just effort and focus
Speaker 1: and like discipline type stuff. Hey, Jason, I like your
Speaker 1: explanation on why it's a better strategy to lean into
Speaker 1: higher field goal percentage shots at the end close games.
Speaker 1: Is it also better to take higher field goal percentage
Speaker 1: shots when you have a decent lead, to lower the
Speaker 1: variant of the game and lean into the trending outcome.
Speaker 1: So in general, I believe you lean on shot value
Speaker 1: in the large sample at the end of games. Yes,
Speaker 1: you want to hunt high field goal percentage. Also, it's
Speaker 1: about feeling the game. So for instance, like when you
Speaker 1: have a guy that you need to get in rhythm
Speaker 1: that hasn't been involved in the offense, you want to
Speaker 1: find a way to get him in rhythm when the
Speaker 1: other team, let's say you have an eighteen point lead
Speaker 1: and the other team scores three four baskets in a
Speaker 1: row and they're starting to regain control. That's a possession
Speaker 1: where it's really important for you to identify a high
Speaker 1: field goal percentage shot rather than a high shot value
Speaker 1: type of shot. And again, for those of you gus
Speaker 1: who don't understand what I'm saying, like, shooting thirty five
Speaker 1: percent from three is a higher value shot than shooting
Speaker 1: forty five percent on a two, right, But in that
Speaker 1: singular possession, forty five percent is more than thirty five percent.
Speaker 1: So that's what I mean. In the large sample. I
Speaker 1: want to lean into shot value. You want to take
Speaker 1: the highest value shot, but feeling out the game, identifying
Speaker 1: when it's important, and you need baskets those pivotal possessions,
Speaker 1: having really smart ball handlers that will track down high
Speaker 1: value shots within that specific possession. In terms of field
Speaker 1: goal percentage, usually are the teams that manage the flow
Speaker 1: of offense over a game better. Next question, Really want
Speaker 1: to get into podcasting, but I really don't know where
Speaker 1: to start. Love basketball, but I would primarily talk about
Speaker 1: football at the college and professional level. Any tips on
Speaker 1: how to start, So a couple of things. I think
Speaker 1: it's a blessing and a curse. I think it's the
Speaker 1: best possible time in the history of the industry to
Speaker 1: get involved because anybody can do it and you don't
Speaker 1: need a ton in terms of investment upfront, Like, I
Speaker 1: personally have a podcast that I do separate from this
Speaker 1: that I produce myself still to this day, just like
Speaker 1: I used to with my basketball stuff before the volume
Speaker 1: came on board, and for two Suns podcasts, what I'll
Speaker 1: do is like we recorded an episode at my buddy's
Speaker 1: house talking about Showgun the other day and literally I
Speaker 1: set up my phone on a tripod and it automatically
Speaker 1: pairs with my MacBook as a webcam. And then I
Speaker 1: had a microphone that I used to plug a cheap
Speaker 1: plug in microphone that I had, So like, you can
Speaker 1: literally for like you could buy a used MacBook, you know,
Speaker 1: for what three four hundred bucks, and you can use
Speaker 1: whatever iPhone you have and buy a tripod for thirty
Speaker 1: bucks on Amazon, and get a microphone for thirty bucks
Speaker 1: on Amazon and have all the equipment you need to
Speaker 1: produce a podcast you can use like there are apps
Speaker 1: like Spotify for podcasters that allow you literally to host
Speaker 1: a podcast for free, right like there, Like YouTube is
Speaker 1: an incredible tool that is completely free for you to
Speaker 1: distribute content. Social media is an incredible place for you
Speaker 1: to put content out and advertise your podcast, right So, like,
Speaker 1: it has never been a better time for you to
Speaker 1: get involved. The flip side of that, though, is that
Speaker 1: it's a very flooded field. So if you do it
Speaker 1: very casually and you don't invest a ton of time
Speaker 1: into it, you have to be prepared for that process
Speaker 1: to be more slow because there are going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of people out there that are relentless with content.
Speaker 1: That was a big thing that separated for me when
Speaker 1: I was getting into this industry. I covered every single
Speaker 1: Lakers game after the game. We we went live right
Speaker 1: after every single Lakers game, and so like we were
Speaker 1: first and we were going every day basically, and then
Speaker 1: in between, I'd cover the rest of the league by
Speaker 1: myself in these like other podcasts that I would do.
Speaker 1: So like, I was really really grinding at it, and
Speaker 1: I was fortunate I had a flexible job at the time,
Speaker 1: so I was able to kind of just fit it
Speaker 1: in there. I had a wife was very supportive and
Speaker 1: was helping me, you know, pursue my dream of trying
Speaker 1: to make this happen. So like, just keep in mind
Speaker 1: it is flooded. So like if you want to separate yourself,
Speaker 1: you have to separate yourself through quality work and through
Speaker 1: consistency of your work. As far as how to do it,
Speaker 1: like it's really the simple. Set up your shit and record,
Speaker 1: get something out there when you do, distribute it everywhere.
Speaker 1: Have it on a podcast feed, have it on YouTube,
Speaker 1: make sure you take clips of it, put it on
Speaker 1: social media to direct people to those feeds. As far
Speaker 1: as what content you cover, that's a beautiful thing about YouTube.
Speaker 1: You can have a podcast titled whatever, but on YouTube
Speaker 1: you can just target whatever that specific subject matter is.
Speaker 1: So for me my two Sons podcast with my buddy Luke,
Speaker 1: we cover a lot of like TV shows and specific
Speaker 1: and movies, but specifically I'm big into fantasy, right, so,
Speaker 1: like I love Star Wars, I love Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: I love Game of Thrones, Like Showgun is something that's
Speaker 1: right up my alley in terms of what I enjoy
Speaker 1: and appreciate obviously with the history element of it, and
Speaker 1: so like the branding of the episode is surrounding the
Speaker 1: subject matter. It's kind of like these shows, like you
Speaker 1: guys see, like we I just do a show, but
Speaker 1: we have a team of people that is really smart
Speaker 1: about identifying what is most you know, like like interesting
Speaker 1: about whatever we're talking about, and they brand it accordingly.
Speaker 1: But like, make sure you're using YouTube, make sure you're
Speaker 1: using social media. The reason why the algorithms on those
Speaker 1: apps they do the work for you in the sense
Speaker 1: that like, as long as you're talking about something interesting
Speaker 1: and as long as you're being interesting in terms of
Speaker 1: the watch time, those algorithms will continue to push your
Speaker 1: content out to other people, and so the point is
Speaker 1: never been a time to do it. I highly recommend
Speaker 1: that if it's something you're interested in doing, that you
Speaker 1: do it just because, like you can do it on
Speaker 1: the side of another career. It's a hobby for lack
Speaker 1: of a better term, right, But as long as you
Speaker 1: in order to separate yourself, you really have to make
Speaker 1: quality and quantity of content. And that's just something to
Speaker 1: keep in mind because it is a very flooded industry
Speaker 1: at this point. In one last little note on that front,
Speaker 1: what works for me doesn't necessarily work for everybody. This
Speaker 1: is just my own personal experience being in this industry,
Speaker 1: and as is always the case, I think it's important
Speaker 1: to pick the brains of lots of different people that
Speaker 1: bring different perspectives, because again, what works for me might
Speaker 1: not work for you, and what works for you might
Speaker 1: not work for me. It's just, you know, everyone's unique
Speaker 1: in that regard. How important will it improve Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: be in a playoff series. Over the last fifteen games,
Speaker 1: he has a blistering sixty seven percent field goal percentage
Speaker 1: and eight point two half court drives per game, while
Speaker 1: only turning the ball over three point one percent of
Speaker 1: the time, how useful will his paint penetration be in
Speaker 1: a potential mil Milwaukee or Cleveland series. I think Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's improvement is super exciting, mainly just because he's found
Speaker 1: a way to impact games in a way that doesn't
Speaker 1: rely on his skill as much. Obviously, he's playing a
Speaker 1: very high level skill game right now, but he's really
Speaker 1: leveraging his athletic tools on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: both as an on ball defender and also as a
Speaker 1: physical rim pressure guy. As you've been talking, he's been
Speaker 1: one of the main drivers of the Celtics have been
Speaker 1: the third best paint offense in the league of over
Speaker 1: the last seven games so by like two weeks or so,
Speaker 1: and Jenn Brown's been the primary driving force behind that.
Speaker 1: So I absolutely think it's encouraging and I absolutely think
Speaker 1: that it can help in the playoffs. And the main
Speaker 1: reason why is like so much of basketball can be mental,
Speaker 1: and so having the ability to lean on athletic gifts
Speaker 1: when you're not confident mentally is a great way to
Speaker 1: keep impacting winning And I just feel better about Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's resiliency as a playoff impactor this year as a result.
Speaker 2: Thanks question.
Speaker 1: Do you think the NBA would ever consider doing away
Speaker 1: with the one through eight conference separated playoffs and instead
Speaker 1: go for a one through sixteen March Madness style bracket.
Speaker 1: Think it would be incredible to see a seven game
Speaker 1: series between teams and players we wouldn't otherwise see, and
Speaker 1: I think would open up the opportunity for all time
Speaker 1: legends to face off where the otherwise wouldn't. They'll never
Speaker 1: do that just because of travel. It's just too unrealistic
Speaker 1: to be imagine a game five, game four, five, six,
Speaker 1: seven in basically the two cities going back and forth
Speaker 1: like it just it wouldn't work if you were going
Speaker 1: across the country. What do you think is the realistic
Speaker 1: ceiling of the Timberwolves and what is their championship windub?
Speaker 1: This team is clearly well built right now, but it's
Speaker 1: interesting to see that there's an age gap between the
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards, Cat McDaniels group and the Rudy Gobert Mike
Speaker 1: Conley group. I see the issue of relying too heavily
Speaker 1: on ant to generate for us in grind down half
Speaker 1: court offense situations, and I don't see how that is
Speaker 1: improved without some sort of big roster moved via trade
Speaker 1: because the Cold Soda ain't exactly the hottest free agent
Speaker 1: destination in the nation. I've never heard that saying before
Speaker 1: the Cold Soda my wife actually went and played college
Speaker 1: basketball up in Minnesota, though she's told me a little
Speaker 1: bit about it. I just feel like by the time
Speaker 1: ant Man matures enough to make the right decisions and
Speaker 1: is able to be the best player on a championship team,
Speaker 1: it'll be three to four years from now and those
Speaker 1: guys will be too old, and we actually win a
Speaker 1: ship with this group. Given the deepness of the league
Speaker 1: and the odd age gaps with the core guys, a
Speaker 1: couple of things I don't like right now. What's exciting
Speaker 1: is the combination of perimeter defense and Gobert. But when
Speaker 1: you have elite perimeter defense, you don't need as much
Speaker 1: in terms of rim protection. This is something we've seen
Speaker 1: with the Nuggets. Right when you have KCP and Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: it doesn't make Nikola Jokic's limitations matter as much. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it gives him a role that
Speaker 1: he can really thrive in defensively, right, So, like that's
Speaker 1: kind of way I look at it.
Speaker 2: In the long run.
Speaker 1: First of all, Gobert is only thirty one, so like
Speaker 1: in the event that you move on from Gobert, and
Speaker 1: Gobert's not really a tradable contract because of his salary number.
Speaker 1: So it like really as far as Gobert goes, like,
Speaker 1: I actually do think there's a longer window here than
Speaker 1: you think. But after Gobert, the way I look at
Speaker 1: it is you slide Cat to center and then you
Speaker 1: just have to find a Aaron Gordon esque type of
Speaker 1: power forward to put next to him. You got to
Speaker 1: find somebody that can essentially be the low man, that
Speaker 1: can be a rim protector and rebounder that allows Carl
Speaker 1: Towns to be aggressive and pick and roll coverages up
Speaker 1: at the level where he can use his intelligence more
Speaker 1: than the physical gifts that he has, right And so
Speaker 1: from that perspective, From that perspective, like, I actually am
Speaker 1: not really worried about the timeline stuff, And I do
Speaker 1: think Aunt is advancing at a fast enough rate that
Speaker 1: I think you'll be able to capitalize on the go
Speaker 1: Bear window at some point a few more Do you
Speaker 1: feel like it is a lock for the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four Lario Brian Trophy to be hoisted up by a
Speaker 1: Western Conference or Eastern Conference team. I argue that the
Speaker 1: West has arguably been the more difficult conference, particularly this
Speaker 1: season with the amount of tanking, slash unorganized teams in
Speaker 1: the East. So I'm on the fence because I kind
Speaker 1: of look, I look at the Clippers and the Bucks
Speaker 1: as like, I put the Clippers slightly above the Bucks,
Speaker 1: but they've been struggling as of late, and then now
Speaker 1: the Suns are playing better, so I got to kind
Speaker 1: of like kind of factor them into that.
Speaker 2: List a little bit.
Speaker 1: I would say that there's I would say that, like,
Speaker 1: I give it like an eighty percent chance that either
Speaker 1: Denver or Boston wins. They feel like the clear obvious choices,
Speaker 1: and I definitely lean closer towards Denver in that regard.
Speaker 1: So then the question becomes, out of that Phoenix Clippers,
Speaker 1: Bucks group, who's more likely, And I still lean towards
Speaker 1: the West between those two teams versus that one, So
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with the
Speaker 1: Western Conference on that one. I think the Bucks might.
Speaker 1: I think the Bucks might be the best chance to
Speaker 1: beat the Nuggets in the finals. The gap between the
Speaker 1: two teams isn't as large as people make it seem.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of both teams, mainly because of Jannis
Speaker 1: and Jokic are my favorite players to watch over the
Speaker 1: past three years. Can you provide in details advantages that
Speaker 1: either team has if this wants to play out potentially
Speaker 1: in the finals, because I don't believe any other team,
Speaker 1: even the Celtics, can beat Milwaukee in the East. So
Speaker 1: I disagree in the sense that I think Milwaukee has
Speaker 1: their work cut out for them to get out of
Speaker 1: the East. But I do think they have a legitimate
Speaker 1: chance to get out. So with that being the case,
Speaker 1: looking quickly at matchups, Brook Lopez is another guy who
Speaker 1: will struggle to gard nikolea Jokic over the course of
Speaker 1: his series. He's had some success with him over the years,
Speaker 1: but he's got a high enough center of gravity that
Speaker 1: Jokic can kind of bump him off. Aaron Gordon is
Speaker 1: actually a decent matchup for Giannis. I think that on
Speaker 1: the let's look first at the Denver on offense, Jokic
Speaker 1: working against Lopez Giannis on the back line, that's like
Speaker 1: as good of a duo as you can find there.
Speaker 1: Because Giannis has that ability to kind of be in
Speaker 1: two places at once, and I think they will have
Speaker 1: some success there where I worry about Milwaukee's at the
Speaker 1: guard position. We just saw D'Angelo Russell Cook Dame Lillard
Speaker 1: in large part because of the size differential. These bigger
Speaker 1: skill guards are starting to give Milwaukee some issues. This
Speaker 1: has been an issue that we've seen kind of as
Speaker 1: of late in general with Milwaukee. And I worry about
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray just like really really causing problems for their backcourt,
Speaker 1: just because of how much bigger he is than all
Speaker 1: of them. And then I don't think like a guy
Speaker 1: like Jay Crowder can hang with a guy like Jamal either,
Speaker 1: So I worry about that a little bit. You need
Speaker 1: to keep that size on the weak side because Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior is the guy who can really do damage
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass, and then obviously you need a
Speaker 1: guy who can bother him with contests at his height.
Speaker 1: So I like how they match up with Denver in
Speaker 1: the front court, just in the sense that I think
Speaker 1: Giannis is as good of a low man as you
Speaker 1: can have in that situation, kind of helping off of
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon. But I worry about them in the back
Speaker 1: court on the other end of the floor, Yo Kitchen
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon is about as good a frontline as
Speaker 1: you could have to deal with the Yiannis problem, right,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna throw KCP on Dame for the
Speaker 1: entire series. Again, to Aaron Gordon with Yokics behind him,
Speaker 1: is gonna be something they're gonna be able to do
Speaker 1: against Giannis and have some success.
Speaker 2: I've seen even in.
Speaker 1: Euro League basketball, Jokic do a decent job guarding Giannis
Speaker 1: for stretches. So, like I again, I just think the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are a better team. I think they match up
Speaker 1: a little bit better. I think that they're gonna have
Speaker 1: an easier time generating quality shots. That doesn't mean Milwaukee
Speaker 1: can't win. I think it would absolutely utterly depend on
Speaker 1: Dame just being an absolute superstar because in that event,
Speaker 1: you if you can actually force the Nuggets to bring
Speaker 1: Jokic way up to the level of the screen and
Speaker 1: exist in rotation and kill teams with the dam Giannis
Speaker 1: pick and roll, I think they can have some success.
Speaker 1: But I would still lean Denver in that matchup two
Speaker 1: more quick ones. A lot of people upset that I
Speaker 1: didn't mention D'Angelo Russell in the In the last podcast,
Speaker 1: I swear I talked about her. He's the hero of
Speaker 1: the game. He made the biggest play of the game
Speaker 1: at the end with that floater. I mentioned him having
Speaker 1: twenty one points in the fourth quarter. I don't really
Speaker 1: understand there's a segment of Lakers fans I think I
Speaker 1: hate dl which is just completely nonsensical. Delo's won me
Speaker 1: over this year. I'm a huge fan of Dlo. Even
Speaker 1: before the season, I had no issues with Delo. I
Speaker 1: just looked at it as next to Austin Reeves, he
Speaker 1: was the obvious guy that you had to trade, just
Speaker 1: based on his salary number, the years left on his contract,
Speaker 1: and the fact that he wasn't as playable in the
Speaker 1: playoffs last year. Two things have changed. One, I was
Speaker 1: super impressed even when Delo wasn't playing very well. I
Speaker 1: was impressed with his professionalism. And then since he rejoined
Speaker 1: the starting lineup a couple months ago, he's just been
Speaker 1: a better player. And like, again this is something I
Speaker 1: harp about on the show, but like I'm going to
Speaker 1: respond to new information, and so like, Delo is a
Speaker 1: better basketball player now than he was when I was
Speaker 1: saying some of the things I said about him over
Speaker 1: the summer, like that's just a fact, and so I'm
Speaker 1: not married to any opinion. I don't have any personal
Speaker 1: beef with del I like Dlo a lot. He's now
Speaker 1: become one of my favorite players because I've learned to
Speaker 1: love not just his personality and his professionalism, but now
Speaker 1: he's also in roved so much that there's a lot
Speaker 1: to love just on the basketball side of things. So,
Speaker 1: like I did mention him last night, big fan of him.
Speaker 1: Don't really know what else to say. Last question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: do you really think the Bucks defense got so awesome
Speaker 1: just because the Bucks won on a small win streak
Speaker 1: against bad teams except the Clippers. It doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: they are really any better than they were before Doc
Speaker 1: Rivers got there, and the offense is definitely slower.
Speaker 2: And worse off. So a couple things.
Speaker 1: First of all, I actually am more encouraged about their
Speaker 1: offense than I've been all season, just because some of
Speaker 1: the stuff they're figuring out with the dam Giannis pick
Speaker 1: and roll. They're just starting to figure out some stuff
Speaker 1: in terms of their spacing and they're timing on the roles.
Speaker 2: That is really encouraging.
Speaker 1: As for the defense, I wanted to wait for this
Speaker 1: West coach trip to really evaluate them for that very reason,
Speaker 1: and they haven't defended well so like, I still have
Speaker 1: major defensive concerns, but I do think they're trying harder
Speaker 1: since Doc Rivers came, and there's still plenty of time
Speaker 1: here down the stretch of the season to evaluate them further,
Speaker 1: which we will do. So all right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. Is always I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting the show. The plan as of
Speaker 1: right now, we're gonna be going tomorrow with a quick
Speaker 1: instant reaction on a couple of games and another our
Speaker 1: mail bag in the morning, and then we will have
Speaker 1: a live reaction to Kings Lakers tomorrow night on YouTube
Speaker 1: after the final buzzer, I will see you guys. Then
Speaker 1: the volume