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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody hopeful. If you
Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible week, got a jampack show
Speaker 1: for you today. The New York Knicks continuing their dominance
Speaker 1: after trading for og Annobi comple just demolished the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets last night. We're gonna be breaking that game down
Speaker 1: and talking about the recent success of the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: After that, I want to talk about Jonathan Kaminga and
Speaker 1: his recent success with the Warriors now complicates their trade
Speaker 1: deadline situation. There is a pretty insane trend from the
Speaker 1: young Jonathan Jonathan Kminga as he is on the rise
Speaker 1: in this league. And then lastly, we have four or
Speaker 1: five mil it looks like six or seven actually mailbag
Speaker 1: questions from yesterday's show that I'm gonna go through so
Speaker 1: tons of stuff to get into around the league today.
Speaker 1: You guys are the Joe before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to our brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot
Speaker 1: to me if you guys would take a second to
Speaker 1: scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: our podcast feeds. If you're more into the kind of
Speaker 1: like a podcast format of this show, you can find
Speaker 1: it wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also,
Speaker 1: as I just found out, very important for you guys
Speaker 1: to review, not just rate the show, but leave a review.
Speaker 1: So it mean a lot to me those of you
Speaker 1: guys who listen on the podcast feed. If you guys
Speaker 1: could take a second to rate the show and leave
Speaker 1: a review there a well, follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason Ltis. Guys, don't misshow announcements as well as
Speaker 1: the film threads that I do in the mornings, and then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 1: the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the
Speaker 1: Nuggets ran into a buzzsaw last night. They the Knicks
Speaker 1: put ogn andob on Jamal Murray and he immediately just
Speaker 1: started putting physical ball pressure on him and funneling them
Speaker 1: into their help scheme. He also ognnob was really impactful
Speaker 1: defensively in this game. He also forced Jokich into a
Speaker 1: couple of turnovers. There was one where he was guarding
Speaker 1: Murray out at the three point line and he took
Speaker 1: just like one single lunch step and dug down at
Speaker 1: the basketball and knocked it free. It was kind of
Speaker 1: a crazy athletic play just from the amount of space
Speaker 1: he covered wall still being able to get back to
Speaker 1: Jamal and he forced a turnover that way. There was
Speaker 1: another one where he was two passes away in a
Speaker 1: rotation and he did what's what I call a windshield
Speaker 1: wiper rotation where you basically see the next defender in
Speaker 1: the chain leaving his man to go and you go
Speaker 1: at the same time as him. And how they can
Speaker 1: throw off an offensive player when Joki is expecting an
Speaker 1: opening to be there, and when he throws into that opening,
Speaker 1: oj Nobi just jumps the gap and gets out in
Speaker 1: transition and gets an and one. He was super impactful
Speaker 1: in this game defensively again, Jamal Murray specifically, he's strong
Speaker 1: and he's an awesome shot maker, but he's not like
Speaker 1: the most athletic guy in the world, and so I
Speaker 1: actually like when teams use bigger, stronger wings on him.
Speaker 1: I remember, even just covering the Lakers last year in
Speaker 1: the postseason run, Dennis Schroeder like had a lot of
Speaker 1: success against Steph and then he ran into Jamal and
Speaker 1: it was like, Oh, he's just like too small. He's
Speaker 1: just not big and strong enough to be able to
Speaker 1: bother Jamal in any serious way. Right, that's where you
Speaker 1: add in a like literally a og Nnobi type big
Speaker 1: strong wing where those like really hard step back moves
Speaker 1: where he's creating contact and stuff just don't generate as
Speaker 1: much separation. The Knicks in general kind of struggled with
Speaker 1: Jokic earlier. Remember Isaai Hartenstein didn't play in this one,
Speaker 1: and Jericho Sims is really good athlete but obviously somewhat
Speaker 1: of a limited defensive player, and he kept like leaving
Speaker 1: Jokic to contest shots elsewhere, and every time he did,
Speaker 1: Jokicic was just getting wide open offensive rebound put backs
Speaker 1: right under the basket, right, So, like Jokics had it going,
Speaker 1: but they basically shut everything else down. That Denver was
Speaker 1: trying to do and then the next offense was cooking.
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo I thought was the big difference maker that
Speaker 1: like Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson were playing well. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson was picking on Jamal Murray and switches and Julius
Speaker 1: Randall was getting buckets on Aaron Gordon at a big
Speaker 1: an one float early in the game. But the big
Speaker 1: like swing factor offensively early on was Dante DiVincenzo. He
Speaker 1: just came out gunning, hit a couple of tough, contested threes,
Speaker 1: and then beat a close out to drive into the lane.
Speaker 1: He's been one of the best closeout attackers in the
Speaker 1: league this year, which we're going to talk about when
Speaker 1: we do our deep dive here in a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But they basically just ran him off the floor, and
Speaker 1: you know, real quickly. On the Denver side of things,
Speaker 1: this is a kind of thing that can happen a
Speaker 1: lot in the NBA regular season. I refer to these
Speaker 1: as buzzsaw games, and it even extends into the playoffs, especially.
Speaker 1: My favorite playoff bet for a buzzsaw game is Game
Speaker 1: three for the team down to oh going back Home,
Speaker 1: because one of the things I've i've you know, really
Speaker 1: focused in on in the last five years on the
Speaker 1: NBA is the idea of like oscillating effort, and essentially,
Speaker 1: like there are in the regular season there's oscillating effort
Speaker 1: and urgency slash desperation. But you get to the postseason,
Speaker 1: everyone's playing hard, but urgency and desperation can kind of
Speaker 1: swap back and forth. Right, So, like in the regular season,
Speaker 1: it's like are you playing hard? How how much does
Speaker 1: the other team need this game? So on and so forth.
Speaker 1: Right get to the postseason, every team needs every game,
Speaker 1: but there is a desperation element and like a lot
Speaker 1: of times you can find betting opportunities where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this team's up three games to one and they're going
Speaker 1: on the road. It's like, okay, so you're you're taking
Speaker 1: a desperate season about to end team at home, Like
Speaker 1: that's just a good bet, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Or down two to zero at home, it's like that
Speaker 1: team has to win that game or they go down
Speaker 1: three to zero, which is the historical death sentence in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Right, So, like it's a little more predictable
Speaker 1: when you get into the postseason, but in the regular season,
Speaker 1: it can still happen. And like, this is a Denver
Speaker 1: team that just went into Boston and beat the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics and then just ran into an absolute buzzsaw in
Speaker 1: New York, a team playing excellent basketball, really wanted to
Speaker 1: win that game to legitimize some of their success that
Speaker 1: they're having, and they end up losing. So this is
Speaker 1: a great example of a game where I want to
Speaker 1: focus on what New York is doing really well rather
Speaker 1: than focusing on Denver, a team that I'm not particularly
Speaker 1: worried about, even though they got blown out in that
Speaker 1: particular game. So oh Jannanobi played his first game for
Speaker 1: the Knicks on January first. Since then, the Knicks are
Speaker 1: eleven and two thirteenth and in offense, number one defense
Speaker 1: in the league by a mile. From the opening tip.
Speaker 1: They are in your jersey in a very phizzy way,
Speaker 1: and a lot of different facets of the game, specifically
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. Dante DiVincenzo and og and
Speaker 1: Obi are too excellent point of attack defenders who also
Speaker 1: are plus offensive players, which is, you know, not relatively
Speaker 1: related to this specific point, but it starts on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. Those two guys are in your jersey, aggressive
Speaker 1: physical ball pressure. They set a tone, They get guys
Speaker 1: out of rhythm, and that's like a vitally important piece
Speaker 1: of that defense because they don't really have rim protection.
Speaker 1: Like I really like the Precious Chewa inclusion in that trade,
Speaker 1: especially in light of the Mitchell Robinson injury. But like
Speaker 1: even with Isaiah Hartenstein and Precious to Chew as your
Speaker 1: two primary centers that you're playing, you're not really all
Speaker 1: that much in the way of like legitimate rim protection.
Speaker 1: And so in that case, it's vitally important to be
Speaker 1: very competitive at the point of attack because you need
Speaker 1: to prevent as many straight line drives as possible to
Speaker 1: prevent to create more achievable help situations for your back
Speaker 1: line guys, because you're back line guys aren't gonna be
Speaker 1: three four feet above the rim like Anthony Davis where
Speaker 1: you can get beat off the dribble because he's just
Speaker 1: such a rim deterrent, right, So, like Dante Devinceenzo Ognnobi
Speaker 1: set the tone early. It's the foundational piece of their defense.
Speaker 1: From there, I think their defense comes from their overall
Speaker 1: physical imposition on the game. Ognnobi and Julius Randall are
Speaker 1: super strong. You know, Dante Devincenzo and Jalen Brunson are
Speaker 1: very strong for guards. They play a physical brand of
Speaker 1: offense too, Right, Like, they crashed the offensive glass more
Speaker 1: aggressively and more successfully than any team in the league.
Speaker 1: They were already the number one offensive rebounding team in
Speaker 1: the league before the Ognnobi trade. They've continued that trend
Speaker 1: into January. They get thirteen offensive rebounds a game. Precious
Speaker 1: to Chua in particular, has been really, really good in
Speaker 1: their offensive rebounding attack. He's getting something crazy like thirteen
Speaker 1: rebounds per thirty six minutes since he came over, and
Speaker 1: I want to say like six offensive remits, like five
Speaker 1: or six offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes. So they've
Speaker 1: just added another layer to that attack. Right, they hit you.
Speaker 1: They hit you, and they hit you and they hit you,
Speaker 1: and you get tired and you miss shots. There's a
Speaker 1: concept I've talked about a lot on this show. Right,
Speaker 1: Opponents are shooting just thirty one percent from three against
Speaker 1: the Knicks since the trade. That's the second best mark
Speaker 1: in the league. They've allowed the fourth fewest wide open
Speaker 1: threes in the league. That means the defenders at least
Speaker 1: six feet away since the trade and teams are shooting
Speaker 1: just thirty six percent on those wide open threes, which
Speaker 1: is the fifth best mark in the league. And this
Speaker 1: is where a lot of guys are gonna be like
Speaker 1: shooting luck, Like, oh, the Knicks are winning games because
Speaker 1: opponents are missing shots, and I just fundamentally disagree with that.
Speaker 1: I do think shooting luck is a factor in shot result,
Speaker 1: but it is a smaller factor than a lot of
Speaker 1: the more controllab controllable factors on the table. I think
Speaker 1: if you're physical at the point of attack, physical chucking
Speaker 1: cutters and boxing out, physical attack like attacking the offensive glass, physical,
Speaker 1: and your like bully ball attack from guys like Julius
Speaker 1: Randall and Ognob and even Jalen Brunson got a little
Speaker 1: bully ball in his game, right, Like when you're hitting
Speaker 1: people all the time. It's a very different type of
Speaker 1: basketball game than the types of basketball games that they're
Speaker 1: playing elsewhere in their eighty two game schedule, and that
Speaker 1: stuff just leads to, in my opinion, a different type
Speaker 1: of shot than what you'd expect. I've said this a
Speaker 1: lot of times on the show, like a wide open
Speaker 1: three for the same shooter in the same spot of
Speaker 1: the floor is never the same, never the same. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's swung in a lot of ways by the
Speaker 1: factors around that that are taking place around you in
Speaker 1: that game. Now, obviously there's luck because let's just say,
Speaker 1: for the sake of making easy math, let's say a
Speaker 1: guy shoots, you know, fifty percent on a wide open
Speaker 1: three against everyone else, and then you know thirty five
Speaker 1: percent on a wide open three against the Knicks. Like, obviously,
Speaker 1: even in that case, some of them are going in,
Speaker 1: some of them are missing, So there is variance there.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, the gap between thirty five and
Speaker 1: fifty is quantified mostly by process and not by luck.
Speaker 1: And so that's just something that I want to point out,
Speaker 1: and it's just a kind of like my personal belief
Speaker 1: system as it pertains to the game of basketball. Like
Speaker 1: I think the Knicks a big part of their defense
Speaker 1: is they just from the opening tip, play a super
Speaker 1: physical brand of basketball. It wears teams out, It changes
Speaker 1: those open shots into more difficult shots, teams shoot more
Speaker 1: poorly in them, and that's a big driving force behind
Speaker 1: their defense. In the success they've had since the trade
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the four. And by the way,
Speaker 1: we've had stretches of dominant Knicks defense early in the
Speaker 1: season as well for similar reason. So that's a pretty
Speaker 1: consistent theme on the offensive end. Geland Bronson is still
Speaker 1: playing like a superstar twenty eight, four and eight in January.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall twenty five eight and six in January. Ohg
Speaker 1: Nnobi has basically been a fifty to forty ninety guy
Speaker 1: on fifteen and a half points per game. Dante DiVincenzo again,
Speaker 1: I wanted to call attention to his close out attacking.
Speaker 1: He's getting one point two to three points per spot
Speaker 1: up possession. For the season, He's been the second best
Speaker 1: high volume spot up guy in the league. Among high
Speaker 1: volume guys. Right, there's been sixteen players that have had
Speaker 1: at least two hundred spot up possessions. Dante Divincenzo's one
Speaker 1: point two to three is second best behind take a guess,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior right where he usually is the best
Speaker 1: spot up guy in the league. Right, So you're getting
Speaker 1: a the guard version of Michael Porter Junior within this
Speaker 1: season for the Knicks in the form of Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: while also getting outstanding point of attack defense on the
Speaker 1: other end of the boy, he's been one of the
Speaker 1: best three and D guards in the league this season.
Speaker 1: A home run signing for the Knicks. And the last
Speaker 1: guy I wanted to shout out was Duce McBride, like
Speaker 1: his minutes of skyrocket ever since the Emmanuel Quickly inclusion
Speaker 1: in the trade for og and Obi, and he's just
Speaker 1: come in and been a guy who's competing at the
Speaker 1: point of attack and knocking down his three point shot
Speaker 1: and like shooting the shit out of the basketball, basically
Speaker 1: doing a really good job of a of a kind
Speaker 1: of like a smaller version of what Emmanuel Quickly did
Speaker 1: as that bench guard. But the best part about all
Speaker 1: of this for the Knicks is they're playing a brand
Speaker 1: of basketball that is proven through NBA history to translate
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. They bring physicality in every level of
Speaker 1: the game. They thrive when things get ugly. That to
Speaker 1: me is a strong indicator of a playoff translatability, right.
Speaker 1: And so what I'm gonna say about the Knicks is
Speaker 1: the same thing I said last year. It's gonna come
Speaker 1: down to Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall going toe to
Speaker 1: toe with the best players in the league, like going
Speaker 1: to to toe with a Tatum and a Derek White
Speaker 1: or a Jalen Brown right going to to toe with
Speaker 1: a Damian Lillard and Giannison Tena Koumpo. And like last year,
Speaker 1: what happened was is Jalen Brunson did he outplayed Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 1: He went to to toe with Jimmy Butler, but he
Speaker 1: didn't have that secondary support from Julius Randall. I think
Speaker 1: Ogannobi will help there as well in his own kind
Speaker 1: of way, but you're gonna need o Jannobi and Julius
Speaker 1: Randall combined to kind of give you the reasonable facsimile
Speaker 1: of a secondary star. And again, like Julius Randall was
Speaker 1: injured last year, I want to be clear, and Julius
Speaker 1: Randall's also very much a rhythm player, so like a
Speaker 1: big indicator of the Knicks kind of like playoff ceiling
Speaker 1: this year is gonna be Can Julius Randall get their
Speaker 1: healthy but not just healthy, but like healthy for a
Speaker 1: while beforehand so that when he steps into those April games,
Speaker 1: he's just in shape and in rhythm rather than kind
Speaker 1: of like what he was last year, where it's like
Speaker 1: he's on the floor, but he's not really Julius Randall,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. But shout out to the Knicks
Speaker 1: playing some really good basketball. Loved that og andnob trayed
Speaker 1: right when it happened to me. It was an excellent
Speaker 1: example of team building in the sense that, like there
Speaker 1: was no superstar available, smaller move on the margins to
Speaker 1: improve the aura of your franchise. Obviously being the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks helps as well. You basically have everything but
Speaker 1: the bona fide superstar. And if they can pull off
Speaker 1: that type of move down the line, that's where they
Speaker 1: can really launch into that like perennial contention kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But I really really like the measured approach to team
Speaker 1: building that the Knicks have gone with over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. All Right, I want to move on
Speaker 1: to the Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Comingo. So the
Speaker 1: Warriors lost a heartbreak game to the Sacramento Kings last night.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Harrison Barnes, who was incredible in that
Speaker 1: particular game. Shout out Dearn Fox who took over the
Speaker 1: game down the stretch. But like there were several key
Speaker 1: mistakes down the stretch from Steve Kerr. I thought, I
Speaker 1: want to point to one particular one. There was a
Speaker 1: sequence where the Warriors were only down by one in
Speaker 1: about the middle of the fourth quarter, and a timeout
Speaker 1: was taken and Steve Kerr decided he wanted to buy
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga some rest, I think, and it was clear
Speaker 1: that's what he was going to do because Jonathan Kamingo
Speaker 1: was playing a great game. But Kamingo had only played
Speaker 1: twenty six minutes up to that point. So I remember
Speaker 1: being like, why does he need rest? He's twenty one
Speaker 1: years old and he's played twenty six minutes. Like, the
Speaker 1: kid's fine, they're six minutes left in the game. You
Speaker 1: need him out there. So they go into Dario Sarge instead,
Speaker 1: and Harrison Barnes was on fire and they put Dario
Speaker 1: Sarge on Harrison Barnes. I'm like, watching the TV, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this seems like a disaster waiting to happen, and ironically
Speaker 1: it wasn't even Barnes. Barnes was actually cooking Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: down the stretch. But there was a transition cross match
Speaker 1: when it was a one point game, and again a
Speaker 1: transition cross match is like anytime there's some sort of
Speaker 1: like chaotic transition possession, the defensive principles change from you know,
Speaker 1: guarding your matchup to guard the nearest guy. Like that's
Speaker 1: the principle of those are the principles of transition defense.
Speaker 1: Sprint back to the basket, fan out to the nearest
Speaker 1: guy basket first, then nearest player, and everyone just kind
Speaker 1: of guards anybody because it's more important to avoid those
Speaker 1: like wide open shots that you can give up in
Speaker 1: transition than to give up a mismatch right which you
Speaker 1: might be able to double and rotate out of right.
Speaker 1: So in this particular play, it's a transition cross match
Speaker 1: where Darren Fox is bringing the ball up the floor
Speaker 1: and no one's there to guard Darren Fox, and so
Speaker 1: Draymond Green and Dario Sarage, in classic transition, they're already back.
Speaker 1: They're communicating to each other. Draymond points Sarge to pick
Speaker 1: up Darren Fox, and so he does, and Darren Fox
Speaker 1: just his eyes light up, and Sarage is kind of
Speaker 1: panicky and backpedaling, which, by the way, is sorrych's job.
Speaker 1: In that position, it's like you're already compromised by virtue
Speaker 1: of this mismatch at least make him take a jump
Speaker 1: shot right, But Darren Fox just settles into like basically
Speaker 1: what amounts to a wide open pull up three. He
Speaker 1: hits it, he celebrates on his way down the floor,
Speaker 1: and then the very next possession he hits another pull
Speaker 1: up three against Brandon Pizemski. And like, I'm a big believer,
Speaker 1: like I was talking about earlier, as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the Knicks, these kinds of things are intricately connected, and like,
Speaker 1: I don't even think Darren Fox attempts that second three
Speaker 1: over Brandon Pazemski if he didn't just make the same
Speaker 1: type of shot over Dario Sarich. And so that substitution
Speaker 1: to get Kaminga out of the game, to bring in
Speaker 1: a player who's completely overmatched defensively under any circumstances, I
Speaker 1: thought was a driving force behind how they dug themselves
Speaker 1: in a little bit of a hole. Because now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're down seven, right, you're down seven
Speaker 1: with not a lot of time left. Then you bring
Speaker 1: Jonathan Minga back and you battle all the way back, right,
Speaker 1: you end up taking the lead and you're up by
Speaker 1: one with the less than a minute left, and there's
Speaker 1: a baseline out of bounds play, by the way, which
Speaker 1: was really interesting. They went with kaminga Wiggins Draymond down
Speaker 1: the stretch of the game and in those last like
Speaker 1: four minutes, and like, theoretically that should be a pretty
Speaker 1: athletic group that can rebound, but like the King's got
Speaker 1: several key offensive rebounds on that final possession, ending in
Speaker 1: Steph kind of landing on the floor and getting an
Speaker 1: out of bounds call and Steve curt doesn't challenge it.
Speaker 1: They come in out of the baseline out of bounds,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Herder and Demonasibonas just running like a basic
Speaker 1: like kind of flares screen action, headed towards the corner,
Speaker 1: the strong side corner where the inbounder is, and so
Speaker 1: basically herders at the top of the key. Sabonis comes
Speaker 1: up and sets a pick. Herder runs to that strong
Speaker 1: side corner. Steph is guarding Kevin Herder, Draymon's guarding Sabonis.
Speaker 1: Steph dies on the screen, and when he dies on
Speaker 1: the screen, Draymon then gets put into predicament. He can
Speaker 1: either go guard Kevin Herder or he can stay home
Speaker 1: and concede that shot. Now, in the event that so,
Speaker 1: Draymond decides to run after Kevin Herder. Now, what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do in that situation is when that switch
Speaker 1: takes place where the big screen defense basically runs out
Speaker 1: to the guard. The guard has to do. It's called
Speaker 1: a peel off switch, where he basically peels off of
Speaker 1: his man and basically decides to box the big man
Speaker 1: as far out of the lane as possible. But instead
Speaker 1: Steph stays on Demonis's high side. So when Draymond runs
Speaker 1: out to the corner, Demonis just slips right down underneath
Speaker 1: the basket, and so both of them messed up there.
Speaker 1: Steph shouldn't have died on the screen, and when he did,
Speaker 1: he should have peeled off onto Demonis Sabonis and tried
Speaker 1: to box him out of the lane. Draymon probably needs
Speaker 1: to be like shit, Steph died on the screen. I'd
Speaker 1: rather give up a drifting jump shot for Kevin Herder
Speaker 1: in the strong side corner than a layup right, But
Speaker 1: that's not what happens Stephan. Draymond botched the coverage. Sabonis
Speaker 1: slips down the middle of the lane, he gets a
Speaker 1: wide open layup. The Kings go up by one on
Speaker 1: the final possession, and again there's a lot there was
Speaker 1: a lot of talk after the game about about like
Speaker 1: should Steve Kurve call the time out? And like, to
Speaker 1: me again, when you when you focus on something like that,
Speaker 1: that's that, to me is kind of missing the plot
Speaker 1: of a game that ends one thirty four to one
Speaker 1: thirty three or whatever. Right, Uh, But like here's the thing,
Speaker 1: there's pros and cons to both. If you call a timeout,
Speaker 1: you give the Kings a chance to game plan for
Speaker 1: you defensively. That means Mike Brown's probably gonna sit down
Speaker 1: in the huddle and be like, how do we make
Speaker 1: sure Steph doesn't take this shot? Right? So there's that
Speaker 1: probably ends in a double team in someone else shooting
Speaker 1: the ball anyway, right, But then the upside for the
Speaker 1: Warriors is they can be better organized. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Kaminga, when Steph got trapped and blitzed and
Speaker 1: was being dragged out to that like left side over
Speaker 1: by half court, Jonathan Kminga was all the way in
Speaker 1: the right corner and so like your second best offensive
Speaker 1: player on this particular night, was in a position where
Speaker 1: he could do absolutely nothing to help you in that
Speaker 1: final possession. Whereas if Steve Kerr draws up the play,
Speaker 1: he probably draws it up in a way that involves
Speaker 1: a two man game for Steph and Jonathan Kamingo or
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga is at least involved in some way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, even maybe just as a as a decoy. Right,
Speaker 1: So like that's the upside to potentially calling a time out, right,
Speaker 1: But like there's a version of that where you call
Speaker 1: a time out, you have Jka set the ball screen,
Speaker 1: here comes the blitz. Steph does the exact same thing
Speaker 1: where he tries to use a behind between the legs, retreat,
Speaker 1: dribble to try to escape the blitz, and maybe he
Speaker 1: turns it over again. Right, So, like to me, it's
Speaker 1: not really worth focusing on. And the whole point behind
Speaker 1: not calling a timeout is your breeding chaos. And like
Speaker 1: Steph is one of the best chaos players in the
Speaker 1: history of basketball. So like, if I was in that
Speaker 1: position as the coach of the team, I'm probably looking
Speaker 1: at that going, you know, six or seven seconds left,
Speaker 1: Steph has the ball, or I think it was like
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty seconds whatever it was, But Steph has
Speaker 1: the ball, it's a chaotic environment, Like I trust him, right, Like,
Speaker 1: if there's one thing you could say, it's like when
Speaker 1: Steph was sprinting away from that blitz, maybe then you
Speaker 1: look to call a time out, just because in general,
Speaker 1: it's really difficult to with six seconds left get the
Speaker 1: ball out of a blitz without the tip pass getting tipped,
Speaker 1: or without the pass having to be super looping and
Speaker 1: allowing a rotation, and then to somehow get a shot
Speaker 1: out of that, right, So like, if anything, he should
Speaker 1: have called the time out after the blitz. But again,
Speaker 1: that's a split second set of circumstances. So again I'm
Speaker 1: not really of the opinion that that's what should be
Speaker 1: focused on. But that ends up being how the Warriors
Speaker 1: lose the game in heartbreaking fashion as Steph dribbles the
Speaker 1: ball off his foot and deeron Fox runs down and
Speaker 1: you know, after the final buzzer attempts a three to
Speaker 1: sixty win mill and gets rim stuffed. But excellent win
Speaker 1: for the Sacramento Kings. First time winning in Golden State
Speaker 1: in the regular season since twenty twenty, which is crazy,
Speaker 1: and the Kings have been a little Jekyll and Hide
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of months, but
Speaker 1: they are a really good team. Darreon Fox is one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league, and especially that
Speaker 1: pull up three point shot has been the driving force
Speaker 1: of so much of his success this season. But what
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about in this particular game was
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga, because he's taken a leap right four eyes
Speaker 1: last five games, averaging twenty six points and six rebounds
Speaker 1: on sixty five percent from the field, fifty six percent
Speaker 1: from three, and eighty one percent from the line, and
Speaker 1: on the basketball side of things, just no one can
Speaker 1: keep him in front off the dribble like he's doing
Speaker 1: most of this in like straight ISOs, straight post ups
Speaker 1: and transition rim runs, like it's all his ridiculous combination
Speaker 1: of size and quickness. Right, it's actually ironic because Kaminga
Speaker 1: turned the ball over in a late post up of
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes on the right block where I almost thought
Speaker 1: he was too quick for his own good. He made
Speaker 1: this aggressive move towards the middle and Harrison Barnes was
Speaker 1: trying to cut him off, but Kaminga spun back to
Speaker 1: his left before Harrison Barnes could get there, and so
Speaker 1: he ended up spinning right into Harrison Barnes while also
Speaker 1: taking contact from Sabonis and middle help, and Kaminga struggles
Speaker 1: to see middle help. Sometimes totally normal for a young player, right,
Speaker 1: and especially one who kind of plays on an island
Speaker 1: the way that Jonathan Kaminga does. He actually had a
Speaker 1: turnover A few possessions earlier were similar play where he
Speaker 1: kind of drove middle and did not see middle help.
Speaker 1: But again, like he's so damn quick that he had
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes beat and counter moved back into Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: before Harrison Barnes could finish being beat, which goes to
Speaker 1: show you just how incredible his athletic tools are. And
Speaker 1: then you combine that with ridiculous rim finishing. He's shooting
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent at the rim this year, which for
Speaker 1: a young wing is incredible. He's great at drawing fouls.
Speaker 1: He's easily been the second best offensive player on the
Speaker 1: Warriors over the course of the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I say all that to say this, things are getting
Speaker 1: really complicated on this Jonathan Kaminga front. Now before Warriors
Speaker 1: fans go like, oh, Jason, you're flip flopping like you
Speaker 1: said you should trade him. This is new stuff. This
Speaker 1: is new information. To give you an idea, Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: has gone for twenty plus points in five straight games.
Speaker 1: He had never even had two in a row before
Speaker 1: this stretch. He had thirteen to twenty point games in
Speaker 1: his career before that point, never consecutively. So this last
Speaker 1: week and a half or two weeks sample of Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga being like twenty six and six, a consistent twenty
Speaker 1: point a game. Guy, this is new. This is not
Speaker 1: This is not some sort of like trend that's been
Speaker 1: taking place forever. And so basically what I'm saying is
Speaker 1: is Jonathan Kaminga is playing himself through his own leap
Speaker 1: into making the Warrior situation complicated now to me because
Speaker 1: I've also been preaching all in a lot on the
Speaker 1: Lakers front, and like the Lakers and the Warriors situations
Speaker 1: are pretty different, right, Like the versions of trades that
Speaker 1: I've been pitching for the Lakers involved D'Angelo Russell. You know,
Speaker 1: it was really good, But like, like Jonathan Kaminga is
Speaker 1: as an asset around the league, like many orders of
Speaker 1: magnitude of higher value. Right, It's like the Lakers are
Speaker 1: looking at giving up d Lo and a distant draft pick.
Speaker 1: It's not the same as giving up jo the Kaminga.
Speaker 1: The Warriors are looking at giving up a guy who
Speaker 1: could be on the rise to superstardom right before our eyes. Right,
Speaker 1: Lebron James is thirty nine years old. Steph Curry is
Speaker 1: thirty five, So there's a little bit different level of urgency, right.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are also just closer to contention, right, Like
Speaker 1: they're higher in the standings. They have twelve wins against
Speaker 1: five hundred to better teams. The Warriors only have seven.
Speaker 1: So for the Lakers, it's pretty simple, like, of course
Speaker 1: you want to trade Dangela Russell and a future draft
Speaker 1: pick to try to win it all this year. But
Speaker 1: for the Warriors it's officially complicated as Jonathan Kaminga has
Speaker 1: continued to get better and better while the trade options
Speaker 1: have gotten worse and worse. It's like og and Obi's
Speaker 1: off the table, right, and then it's like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam's now off the table, you know, like all
Speaker 1: of these little even just Terry Rogier off the table.
Speaker 1: It's like all these options are diminishing while the trade
Speaker 1: value or future potential of Jonathan Kaminga is skyrocketing, and
Speaker 1: as that is happening, it's just making things more and
Speaker 1: more complicated. And now I'm not sure it is worth
Speaker 1: it to make an all in move for the Warrior.
Speaker 1: So the question is what do you do? And in
Speaker 1: my opinion, it's complicated because as Kminga's potential becomes more interesting,
Speaker 1: you have to remember that Steph plays a role in this.
Speaker 1: Steph is one of the ten greatest players of all time.
Speaker 1: I think he's the fifth best perimeter player in modern
Speaker 1: basketball history. I have him just behind Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: Lebron James, and Michael Jordan. And he's thirty five years old.
Speaker 1: He's having a down season, but I'm not necessarily concerned
Speaker 1: about whether or not he's still Steph. I think he's
Speaker 1: still Steph. And so there's like this certain element where
Speaker 1: it's like, you owe it to Steph to try. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, Jonathan Kaminga is officially looking like
Speaker 1: he's too good to be traded, So how do you
Speaker 1: weigh that? And my answer is you got to do
Speaker 1: something a little bit on the kind of like ancillary
Speaker 1: level of moves. And so I got a couple that
Speaker 1: I offered Moses Moody and Gary Payton, the second for
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith. So basically turning bench wing and a
Speaker 1: guard that can't stay healthy into a three and D player,
Speaker 1: like a legitimate three and D player that you could
Speaker 1: start at the three next to Jonathan Kaminga and improve
Speaker 1: the spacing of the team and improve Like I think
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins has been playing pretty well over the last
Speaker 1: couple of games. I thought he did a good job
Speaker 1: on to Jonte Murray in the Hawks game. I thought
Speaker 1: last night he had a couple of huge above the
Speaker 1: break threes and made some plays with his athleticism on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass and around the rim, Like I think
Speaker 1: Wiggins is trying to figure it out, but like Dorian Phinney,
Speaker 1: Smith would just be kind of like more of a
Speaker 1: steady option in that sort of way, and that obviously
Speaker 1: maintains Wiggins on the roster as a bench wing and
Speaker 1: an option you can go to if Jonathan Kanminga does
Speaker 1: turn into a player that struggles in the playoffs. Could
Speaker 1: say other part of this, like, as much as my
Speaker 1: optimism surrounding Kaminga's star potential has improved, do I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be a star in the playoffs this year. No,
Speaker 1: but that's just how NBA history works. Like, you're unless
Speaker 1: you're one of the truly all time greats, you know,
Speaker 1: the guys like Kevin Durant, Right, Like, unless you're one
Speaker 1: of those guys, you don't just walk into the playoffs
Speaker 1: in your early twenties and dominate. This is not how
Speaker 1: it works, right, So, Like, I don't necessarily think Jonathan
Speaker 1: kming is gonna be some playoff star right away, but
Speaker 1: his potential in the long run is what's making this complicated,
Speaker 1: And so having Wiggins on the roster still is a value.
Speaker 1: Drianfinny Smith gives you another wing, so that's option one.
Speaker 1: You could also offer the same package for Tias Jones
Speaker 1: if you're looking for offensive creation, like once again this year,
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Minga being basically your second best offensive player
Speaker 1: not named Steph, although Clay's starting to play better too,
Speaker 1: But like you can argue Clay and Jonathan Kaminga as
Speaker 1: your other offensive options next to Steph is not great,
Speaker 1: right Tyas Jones has been one of the best pick
Speaker 1: and role players in the league this year. He's getting
Speaker 1: one point one to two points per possession that rank
Speaker 1: sixth out of thirty six players to run at least
Speaker 1: four hundred. I think that's a deal that you could
Speaker 1: get done just based solely on the value of him
Speaker 1: Moody and what that could mean for the for the
Speaker 1: for the Wizards. Right, So, like those are just a
Speaker 1: couple of options. Now do those put the Warriors into contention?
Speaker 1: Probably not, But like I said, you owe it to
Speaker 1: Steph to try. You owe it to Steph to try
Speaker 1: to give him more to contend with. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is it's the rise of Jonathan Kminga. Even though
Speaker 1: it complicates this regular season as it pertains the timeline,
Speaker 1: it's undeniably a good thing outside of the context of
Speaker 1: this season. Like he looks to be on a star
Speaker 1: trajectory in a very two way sense, and like to
Speaker 1: put it simply, at the beginning of this year, it's
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Kaminga can be a star. Like that's his
Speaker 1: potential now, Like is like it looks like he's headed
Speaker 1: that way, and that to me is a big leap
Speaker 1: in a positive direction for the Warriors. All Right, moving
Speaker 1: on to our mailbag. First question, in your opinion, what
Speaker 1: has happened to Jordan Poole is his steep decline in
Speaker 1: overall play all about his attitude to his new situation
Speaker 1: or his skills that much heightened by playing with Steph
Speaker 1: in the Warriors system. So, for disclaimer up front, I
Speaker 1: haven't watched a ton of Wizards basketball this year. I've
Speaker 1: only watched a couple of their games. But here's the thing,
Speaker 1: And I started to notice this last year. In the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season, Jordan Poole played a very under
Speaker 1: control brand of basketball. He did occasionally take tough shots,
Speaker 1: but he was playing more within the flow of the offense.
Speaker 1: Starting last year and then extending into this year, Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole has been leaning into like almost like his brand
Speaker 1: as being like this very flashy is the wrong word.
Speaker 1: I hate the negative connotations of it, but let's just
Speaker 1: call it beautiful, like focusing on the aesthetics of basketball, right,
Speaker 1: And like, here's the thing like making tough shots, is
Speaker 1: it looks great, you know, hitting that wild spin move
Speaker 1: into that turnaround fade away. Man, that makes for a
Speaker 1: great Instagram reel. And I'm not downplaying that. I love
Speaker 1: that beauty in the game as well, but basketball is
Speaker 1: usually more productive when it's boring, and Jordan Poole actually
Speaker 1: has a lot of the capability to play some boring
Speaker 1: basketball too, And I just think for him it's typical
Speaker 1: young guard growth in the sense that like he's kind
Speaker 1: of lost track of his priorities a little bit, and
Speaker 1: give him a couple of years and he'll figure out
Speaker 1: that he cares more about winning, because he is a
Speaker 1: champion at the end of the day. But he'll figure
Speaker 1: out that he cares more about winning and being the
Speaker 1: best basketball player he can be than he does about
Speaker 1: some of the more beauty oriented elements of the game.
Speaker 1: And I think he'll get on track. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think the twenty two season was fluky. I
Speaker 1: just think it's more an indicator of inconsistency from a
Speaker 1: young guard, if that makes sense. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: can you please talk about the Sun's recent win streak.
Speaker 1: They've been playing through adversity and deleting huge leads that
Speaker 1: other teams have had doing it with high level defensive
Speaker 1: energy and offensive brilliance. KD should be all defense this
Speaker 1: year with how much effort he's putting in. Thanks for
Speaker 1: all the great content. Reese from Perth Australia. Australia, Reese,
Speaker 1: thank you so much much for supporting the show. I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate it. And it's cool. It's always cool to
Speaker 1: see fans out outside of the United States, especially just
Speaker 1: even beyond the support of this show. Just it's cool
Speaker 1: to see how global of a sport basketball is. It's
Speaker 1: something that I think it's underplayed when we talk about
Speaker 1: NFL versus NBA, and like, you know, the NBA's global sport.
Speaker 1: It's just it's not even on the same playing field
Speaker 1: as the NFL in terms of its potential in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things. And so I again, Reese, thanks
Speaker 1: again for supporting the show, and shout out to Australia.
Speaker 1: My buddy Matt actually played Australian rules football out there.
Speaker 1: He was one of the groomsmen in my in my wedding,
Speaker 1: played center at the University of Arizona and went out
Speaker 1: and played AFL football out there for a little while.
Speaker 1: So the Suns, first of all, they're on my list
Speaker 1: to hit very soon. I just haven't gotten to them yet.
Speaker 1: Obviously my vacations have thrown a giant wrench into things,
Speaker 1: but we will do a more deep dive on the
Speaker 1: Suns soon. They have a tough back to back on
Speaker 1: Sunday Monday against the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: and we'll probably we'd be talking a lot of Suns
Speaker 1: on Monday and Tuesday coming up. But they've won seven
Speaker 1: in a row. Most interesting part is their top ten
Speaker 1: in both defense and rebounding over that span, So really
Speaker 1: encouraging on the dirty work element side of things. Like again,
Speaker 1: like that's when we talk about like how the Suns
Speaker 1: were supposed to look like the twenty twenty one Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets and they have it. Like people forget that the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Brooklyn Nets defended like they guarded, and
Speaker 1: that to me is like it is a two way
Speaker 1: perimeter skill game that ends up winning in the NBA,
Speaker 1: not just a one way perimeter skill game, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. Some impressive wins in that seven game winning streak.
Speaker 1: They went into Los Angeles and smashed the Lakers. They
Speaker 1: went into New Orleans and won easily against the Pelicans.
Speaker 1: But they're really turning a corner when you zoom out,
Speaker 1: Like Bradley Bial's played fourteen straight games. For all to
Speaker 1: talk about his health, He's been available for about a
Speaker 1: month now, they're eleven and three in those fourteen games
Speaker 1: that Bradley bial has played, is they're basically won at
Speaker 1: a fifty three win pace. In games that Bradley bial
Speaker 1: has been available, I think they're thirteen and seven in
Speaker 1: those games easily. The most exciting part of all this, though,
Speaker 1: is Devin Booker has gotten going. He started the season
Speaker 1: hot and then cooled off massively after that injury that
Speaker 1: he had, and like just now in this last you know,
Speaker 1: like month or so, he's starting to look like the
Speaker 1: Devin Booker from the playoffs last year. And that to
Speaker 1: me is you know, kind of a prerequisite to the
Speaker 1: Suns being a real threat because again, like if Devin
Speaker 1: Booker is gonna be what he was a few years ago,
Speaker 1: where he's kind of like a second tier star, I
Speaker 1: shouldn't even say second zer, almost like third tier star,
Speaker 1: because to me, it's like there's the top top guys,
Speaker 1: and then there's like the other superstars, and then there's
Speaker 1: the guys that are right below superstar. And like Devin
Speaker 1: Booker used to be in that tier, but recently he's
Speaker 1: been showing like throughout the regular season last year, in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, last year's starting to show this like higher level.
Speaker 1: Like now he's like kind of like a Tier B superstar, right,
Speaker 1: and like it's important for him to get to that
Speaker 1: level because so is Kevin Durant and two of those
Speaker 1: guys just gives you a much better chance to win.
Speaker 1: I know, big shock, but Devin Booker getting getting going.
Speaker 1: I think he's played a big but they're definitely turning
Speaker 1: a corner and we will talk more about them next week.
Speaker 1: Next question, Jason, would you give us a trade scenario
Speaker 1: on what the Lakers would have to give up to
Speaker 1: get Bruce Brown and de Jonte Murray. So, Yovan Booja
Speaker 1: came on the show yesterday and we aired the show today,
Speaker 1: but it came on the show yesterday and we did
Speaker 1: like an hour on the Lakers trade deadline, and we
Speaker 1: did a bunch of scenarios surrounding to Jontay Murray and
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown and even some other guys. So make sure
Speaker 1: you check that out on our YouTube feed. Also shout
Speaker 1: out to Yovan. He's been awesome for us and we
Speaker 1: just signed him to be on the show twice a
Speaker 1: month through free agency this year, so for Lakers fans,
Speaker 1: basically once every other week. We're gonna have you know,
Speaker 1: forty five minutes or so with Yovonn where we talk
Speaker 1: you know, not just reporting surrounding the trade deadline, but
Speaker 1: also also like just intel coming from within the locker room.
Speaker 1: Yovonn travels around with the team like he's like gonna
Speaker 1: be with them on this Grammy road trip. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to give us some insights of what's happening
Speaker 1: inside the locker room. And then obviously when we get
Speaker 1: outside of the playoffs, he's gonna be big for us
Speaker 1: surrounding the draft in free agency. So shout out to
Speaker 1: jovon officially going to be a recurring guest on The
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight Show for the rest of this season. Bext question,
Speaker 1: what is the value of screen setting in the NBA?
Speaker 1: I feel like one of the reasons for Dame struggles
Speaker 1: can be because Jiannis is not setting good enough screens
Speaker 1: for him like Nurkics used to do in Portland. I
Speaker 1: also feel like it affects you, honest, because since the
Speaker 1: second defender doesn't have to step up as much, it
Speaker 1: clogs the pain for him. Do you think this is
Speaker 1: a reason why their pick and roll has not been
Speaker 1: as great as we thought. So here's the thing I've watched. God,
Speaker 1: I've watched so many Damianis pick and rolls this year,
Speaker 1: and Dave, like Giannis, is not a good screener. It's
Speaker 1: not exactly surprising he you know, hasn't really had a
Speaker 1: ton of practice with it over the years, right, Like
Speaker 1: that was something that early on in you know, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty twenty one, like he just wouldn't do all
Speaker 1: that much, right, And so there's a certain element of
Speaker 1: like kind of like learning how to do it. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the coverage that is
Speaker 1: implemented in most cases against the Bucks kind of dictates
Speaker 1: whether or not a screen is as necessary. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, is screening important in the NBA. Absolutely, It's
Speaker 1: most important in when it comes to pick and roll
Speaker 1: in a drop coverage. The main reason why is, like
Speaker 1: just visualize it. So a drop coverage, the big man
Speaker 1: guarding the screener, if this is the basket, the big
Speaker 1: man guarding the screener is back further towards the basket, right,
Speaker 1: and then the on ball defender is chasing over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen, right, So there's this gap there
Speaker 1: and to give the offensive player an opportunity to work
Speaker 1: in that gap. You need to set a solid enough
Speaker 1: screen so that the offensive player can get over the
Speaker 1: top while dragging this guy behind, so that he can
Speaker 1: operate in this mid range to get to his wide
Speaker 1: open looks or maybe pull the drop coverage big up
Speaker 1: and make something good happen from there. So in that
Speaker 1: specific situation, like screen setting is vitally important, the in
Speaker 1: blitzing situations and in hard hedges and shows and things
Speaker 1: like that, it's actually more important to make yourself available
Speaker 1: on the role quicker. And so a lot of these times,
Speaker 1: like like Giannis, he could set a better screen on
Speaker 1: Dame's man, but even if he did, like Dame's immediately
Speaker 1: running into the hedge, the hedger or the screen defender right,
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times like Giannis is slipping
Speaker 1: out of the screen pretty quick. You'll watch, just just
Speaker 1: watch damianis pick and rolls, and you'll see like he
Speaker 1: runs over to screen the guy and he's immediately bailing
Speaker 1: out of it into the short role which he's just
Speaker 1: trying to make himself available for the pass as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible as Dame is facing a second defender, the
Speaker 1: second part of it is icing. So on ice coverage
Speaker 1: is a pick and roll coverage that you typically see
Speaker 1: on the sides of the floor. And so imagine Dame
Speaker 1: on the like imagine you know the baskets here like
Speaker 1: I said, and here's your arc right and Dame is
Speaker 1: on the right wing and Giannis comes up to set
Speaker 1: a ball. A lot of times, what teams will do
Speaker 1: is ice those side pick and rolls, meaning the guy
Speaker 1: guarding Dame will jump high side and basically stand between
Speaker 1: Dame and the screen and not allow him to use it.
Speaker 1: And so at that point, same exact sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Dame's job there is to quickly reject the screen, meaning
Speaker 1: drive away from the screen, which will then allow him
Speaker 1: to quickly engage the screen defender. And then as the
Speaker 1: on ball guy is now chasing him as he's rejecting
Speaker 1: the screen, Jannis has an opening in that gap created
Speaker 1: by the ice coverage. So once again it's more important
Speaker 1: for him to slip out of it as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: And so again, like, do I think Giannis is a
Speaker 1: fantastic screen or no, But I think specifically with a
Speaker 1: lot of the coverages that Milwaukee is facing, it's more
Speaker 1: important for Giannis and Dame to kind of figure out
Speaker 1: the angles for slipping and how to get the ball
Speaker 1: to him quickly and in space where he can see
Speaker 1: the floor and make quick reads whether or not he
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to drive or to make a pass.
Speaker 1: Great question though, thought that was really interesting. Two more,
Speaker 1: what is the next step for Philly go for depth
Speaker 1: or another all star talent assuming Joel can figure it
Speaker 1: out in the playoffs and Maxie will be effective. So
Speaker 1: those are two big ifs. If Joel can be it
Speaker 1: can figure it out in the playoffs, and if Tyrese
Speaker 1: Maxy can be effective. To me, I look at it
Speaker 1: like this, like, who are the other two best? Kind
Speaker 1: of like front court folk CRuMs? Right, I should say
Speaker 1: three best? Right, it's Anthony Davis, that Tiannas and Tenna
Speaker 1: komb Boats Nicola Jokic. What do those guys have, Like
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has Lebron James and Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russells.
Speaker 1: He's got all of this offensive skill around him to
Speaker 1: kind of set him up in spots. Right, Uh, Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokic is one of the best shot makers in the NBA.
Speaker 1: The guy one of the best guys at making tough
Speaker 1: pull up, step back, iso pick and roll jump shots, right,
Speaker 1: and so that basically puts their their two man game
Speaker 1: in a very u in a position where it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to guard. And specifically the reason why I bring
Speaker 1: those guys as it translates to the postseason. And so
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If Tyrees Maxy can bring the same
Speaker 1: level of volume and efficiency to the playoffs this year
Speaker 1: that he does in the regular season, then yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: And now it's like, you know, I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of rumors surrounding Bruce Brown to the to the sixers
Speaker 1: basically as and I don't know, I guess you're looking
Speaker 1: at him as an upgrade of that two spot right
Speaker 1: of where ded Anthony Milton is. But to me, that
Speaker 1: only works or makes sense if Joel Embiid and Tyree
Speaker 1: Maxy can do what you said, which has reached their
Speaker 1: regular season impact in the postseason. But last year as
Speaker 1: a secondary offensive initiator off of James Harden catching the
Speaker 1: second best perimeter defender tyros Maxsey went down six percent
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage from regular season to the postseason. And
Speaker 1: so that's where it gets complicated. And like that's where
Speaker 1: you have to have tough conversations because Joel Embid is
Speaker 1: still relatively young, but he's got an injury history and
Speaker 1: he's huge, and so like I don't think he's one
Speaker 1: of those guys necessarily that you can I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you can't, but like there's some there's some risk involved
Speaker 1: as it pertains to like can Joel Embiid still be
Speaker 1: at a superstar level when he's thirty three? Right, So,
Speaker 1: like there's a little more urgency surrounding Joel, And so
Speaker 1: there are tough conversations for Darylmulready to have with his
Speaker 1: front office about, you know, is Tyree Maxy good enough
Speaker 1: at it as a young guard to be the number
Speaker 1: two next to Joel and Joel Embiid the same way
Speaker 1: that Jamal Murray is for Nicole Jokic, the same way
Speaker 1: that Lebron James and Austin Reeves is for for Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: the same way that Damian Lillard is for for Giannis
Speaker 1: and Ten and Kumpo. Right, And so that's where that's
Speaker 1: where it gets complicated, because like that's why I actually
Speaker 1: pitched Philly as like an interesting team for Dejonte Murray trade,
Speaker 1: because now you just have a lot more offensive skill
Speaker 1: in your backcourt. Another guy you can consistently beat people
Speaker 1: off the dribble and get the defense into rotation. To me,
Speaker 1: that's more of an offensive minded upgrade of that of
Speaker 1: that two spot. But like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like who's the all star guy you'd be going after.
Speaker 1: I mean, like maybe you go all in for like
Speaker 1: a Lori marking in and you add a lot of
Speaker 1: shooting and size into that front court like there, But
Speaker 1: like that's the thing is, like I'm not necessarily sure
Speaker 1: that there's that type of all in move available. But
Speaker 1: from a philosophical standpoint, it's just important for Daryl Morey
Speaker 1: in the front office to have a conversation about the
Speaker 1: timeline of like Tyrese Maxey's rise as it pertains to
Speaker 1: Joel Anthony and his prime and how I keep seeing
Speaker 1: Joel Anthony, Joel Embiid and his Joel shout out Joel
Speaker 1: Anthony on the Miami Heat back in the early twenty tens.
Speaker 1: But just it's just kind of like weighing that timeline there.
Speaker 1: And you guys know how I feel about trusting young
Speaker 1: players in the playoffs. But that's for the sixers to decide. Lastly,
Speaker 1: before we get out of here, have you been talked
Speaker 1: to by a player that you have covered, If so,
Speaker 1: how was it So, Yes, I have, and it has
Speaker 1: been overwhelmingly positive. I have not I've seen examples of
Speaker 1: players like really going after members of the media that
Speaker 1: to this point hasn't happened to me yet. It's been pleasant.
Speaker 1: People forget, like I've spent my young adulthood around the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, so like I've talked to lots of
Speaker 1: NBA players, have played with lots of NBA players, Like
Speaker 1: there are guys all over the league that I've played
Speaker 1: in games with before, So like, for me, it just
Speaker 1: kind of feels somewhat natural, just because I've had those
Speaker 1: kinds of conversations before. But I will say it's surreal
Speaker 1: from the same point of it being just kind of
Speaker 1: a sign of the show gaining some legitimacy, which is
Speaker 1: obviously something that I don't take for granted. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, like, I know that there's an ugly
Speaker 1: side to that too, and I'm sure, I'm sure event
Speaker 1: it will eventually happen that I'll say something about a
Speaker 1: player and then they'll come after me. But that's just
Speaker 1: kind of the name of the game, right that. Like
Speaker 1: one of the things that I'm most interested in, if
Speaker 1: I ever do player interviews in the future, is picking players'
Speaker 1: brains about the media player relationship, because I think it's
Speaker 1: super fascinating. Like, like, I know, I do the work,
Speaker 1: like I know, I study the film. I know that
Speaker 1: I don't just come up here and talk for the
Speaker 1: sake of talking. But at the same time, like I'm
Speaker 1: not an NBA player, and even though i have a
Speaker 1: basketball background, and even though I have played, and even
Speaker 1: though I think I'm a good basketball player, I'm not
Speaker 1: an NBA player, And so like, imagine the roles were reversed,
Speaker 1: and I'm an NBA player and this dude who played
Speaker 1: in college but didn't make it out of the it
Speaker 1: didn't make it to the NBA is like, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting in his guest bedroom talking shit. You know, Like
Speaker 1: I'd be like, what the hell, dude, you know? Like, so,
Speaker 1: like I do find that dynamic super interesting because on
Speaker 1: one hand, it's like that's my job. My job is
Speaker 1: to not just come up here and praise players, but
Speaker 1: to offer criticism. Like I try to be like incredible.
Speaker 1: I try to just be fair as much as I can,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, like there's a certain like
Speaker 1: respect barrier as it pertains to the NBA, and like,
Speaker 1: I just have so much respect for NBA players and
Speaker 1: what they accomplished, and like, I just think it's fascinating
Speaker 1: and I would love to pick players' brains about that
Speaker 1: in the future, just specifically the relationship between players in
Speaker 1: the media. But yeah, I have talked to NBA players
Speaker 1: since I started the show. It went well, obviously, to
Speaker 1: respect those players privacy, I won't mention anybody by name.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. The game
Speaker 1: plan for the rest of this weekend is we're going
Speaker 1: live on YouTube after Lakers Warriors tomorrow night. That game
Speaker 1: is on ABC, I believe, and then we'll be taking
Speaker 1: Sunday off and then we'll be back on Monday for
Speaker 1: power rankings as well as game breakdowns. I'll see you
Speaker 1: guys tomorrow night. The volume