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Speaker 1: for by Fan Duel here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys had a great weekend,
Speaker 1: a very boring All Star weekend, and we're not going
Speaker 1: to talk about that today. The players didn't seem to
Speaker 1: care much, so I don't see why we should. The
Speaker 1: game itself was not entertaining in the least, not quality basketball,
Speaker 1: not interesting in any way, shape or form. And we
Speaker 1: had a very interesting basketball story come down this morning.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook is going to be a Los Angeles Clippers.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do today, it's just dive into
Speaker 1: the basketball elements of russ is fit with a major
Speaker 1: Western Conference playoff contender. You guys know the drill before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason lts. You guys, don't miss
Speaker 1: show announcements, and last but not least, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: you guys miss one of these videos and you can't
Speaker 1: get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You
Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, on Saturday morning, we released a video
Speaker 1: that was a footage breakdown of the five greatest scoring
Speaker 1: moments of Lebron's career. It's kind of a fun trip
Speaker 1: down memory lane with a bunch of major playoff moments,
Speaker 1: and we went went through the way we do on
Speaker 1: this show in the weeds, looking at the schematics, looking
Speaker 1: at um the skill set stuff, from the footwork stuff,
Speaker 1: and all the little details of those major moments in
Speaker 1: Lebron's playoff career. I thought, I'm super proud of our team.
Speaker 1: They did such an amazing job producing it on the
Speaker 1: back end and getting the footage to where it needed
Speaker 1: to be. I think it's one of our best projects
Speaker 1: that we've done since I started with the company a
Speaker 1: little over a year ago. Want you guys to check
Speaker 1: that out, So scroll back on our YouTube channel feed
Speaker 1: to Saturday morning, five greatest scoring moments of Lebron's career.
Speaker 1: I think you guys will really like it. But let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball so you know it's funny right before
Speaker 1: I'll star break. The last game I watched was on
Speaker 1: Friday morning. I watched the Clippers play the Suns, and
Speaker 1: we didn't cover the game because there wasn't enough to
Speaker 1: put a full show together. But I watched the game
Speaker 1: and I was incredibly impressed by the Clippers. They put
Speaker 1: on a defensive clinic, shutting down the Sun's pick and
Speaker 1: roll offense. Everybody looks great. Quite didn't shoot the ball
Speaker 1: well in this particular game, but he's been looking great
Speaker 1: for a while. Paul George looks great. They've been going
Speaker 1: with Terrence Man basically since the beginning of the year
Speaker 1: as their starting point guard, and that's been working well.
Speaker 1: They've really taken off since then. Since January, which is
Speaker 1: a full month, the Clippers are ten and four, which
Speaker 1: is the third best record in the league over that span.
Speaker 1: They're also second in offense over that span, so they're
Speaker 1: really clicking right now. Um, now, did they need to
Speaker 1: look at bringing in a point guard? Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: thought they tried to do that at the deadline, swapping
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson for bones Highland. I didn't see anybody in
Speaker 1: the buyout market that released it out. To me, that
Speaker 1: made sense. And the main reason why is, you know,
Speaker 1: the point guard position as the Clippers need it is
Speaker 1: not what Russell Westbrook is in my opinion. To me,
Speaker 1: a point guard is about consistency and stability, especially for
Speaker 1: the way that the Clippers need that position filled. That's like,
Speaker 1: can you bring the ball up the floor against ball
Speaker 1: pressure every single possession and get the team into your sets?
Speaker 1: Can you run you know, respectable second side action when
Speaker 1: Kauai and Paul George gave the basketball up and you
Speaker 1: need someone to further the action. Can you on the
Speaker 1: can you be a threat off the ball? Can you
Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor guard the other
Speaker 1: team's opposing point guard and run your pick and roll
Speaker 1: coverage is properly That's the stability they need from that position.
Speaker 1: And Russ is just way more volatile. Russ is like
Speaker 1: adding a bunch of alcohol to any sort of social situation.
Speaker 1: It can lead to like the best night ever, or
Speaker 1: it could lead to a complete in total disaster. It's
Speaker 1: a force multiplier. It just brings out extreme outcomes on
Speaker 1: either end of the spectrum, and it's kind of like
Speaker 1: an emotional roller coaster. As someone who rooted for the
Speaker 1: Lakers of the last couple of years, it was really
Speaker 1: stressful on a night in, a night out basis. So
Speaker 1: I didn't like this move for the Clippers simply because
Speaker 1: this is a team that was clicking and trending in
Speaker 1: the right direction for a good a good chance of
Speaker 1: getting out of the Western Conference on a playoff run.
Speaker 1: And what you've done is you fundamentally changed the profile
Speaker 1: of your team and you've thrown a massive wild card
Speaker 1: into the mix, and you know it has the it
Speaker 1: could work. There's a version of this story where this
Speaker 1: ends up pushing the Clippers over the top, but it
Speaker 1: also could be the thing that puts them under as well. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I, even though I don't like the move,
Speaker 1: it is what happened. And so what we're gonna do
Speaker 1: today is we're gonna look at the basketball fit for
Speaker 1: Russ on both ends of the floor. Again, you guys know,
Speaker 1: Russ is not my favorite player, but I take my
Speaker 1: job very seriously and I do see the good things
Speaker 1: that Russ does. So I want to talk about how
Speaker 1: that fits with the Clippers. So let's start with the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor, and let's talk about what
Speaker 1: Russ does well. Russ is very good at pushing the pace,
Speaker 1: which is a very intriguing thing with this particular team
Speaker 1: because this team likes to play slow. Now, I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna cause some issues if they play him with
Speaker 1: the starters a lot, but in bench groups, I like
Speaker 1: the idea of adding a change up and having the
Speaker 1: team play with a lot more pace. And Russ is
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the league at consistently
Speaker 1: pushing the pace. Every time he gets a rebound or
Speaker 1: a kick out, he brings the ball to the floor relentlessly,
Speaker 1: probably better than anybody in the league. But it's volatile.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of turnovers. He's gonna push the ball
Speaker 1: in transition when there's opportunities that aren't there, and he'll
Speaker 1: drive into traffic and turn it over. He'll throw bad passes,
Speaker 1: he'll miss a lot of layups. But on a points
Speaker 1: per possession basis, that's an effective offense in the in
Speaker 1: the aggregate over many possessions. To have Russ pushing the
Speaker 1: ball in transition, The Lakers were seventh in transition frequency
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the glass and Russ played a huge
Speaker 1: part in that, but the volatility of it makes it
Speaker 1: so that you don't want that sort of thing at
Speaker 1: the end of games. And there were a lot of options,
Speaker 1: a lot of situations, particularly last year for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: where Russ would engage in those reckless transition pushes at
Speaker 1: the end of games and it would lead to disastrous outcomes.
Speaker 1: So it kind of serves the Clippers better in the
Speaker 1: middle portions of games to have him pushing the pace
Speaker 1: when they get into the half court. When Russ has
Speaker 1: good matchups, He's been an effective ball handler this year
Speaker 1: a lot more than I think people realize. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best rim pressuring perimeter players that we have
Speaker 1: in the league. And rim pressure just causes a bunch
Speaker 1: of positive outcomes. That leads to offensive rebounds because you're
Speaker 1: occupying rim protectors. That leads to you know, drop offs
Speaker 1: and kickouts for easy dunks out of the dunker spot
Speaker 1: or two shooters in the corner. It collapses the defense
Speaker 1: and opens things up. There's a ton of value and
Speaker 1: rim pressure, and you do see that with Russ. Uh
Speaker 1: the Lakers scored six hundred and fifty three points on
Speaker 1: six hundred and eighteen pick and rolls this year. That's
Speaker 1: one point one at one point zero six points per possession.
Speaker 1: There are forty two players in the league have run
Speaker 1: at least five hundred picking rolls this year. That's it's
Speaker 1: pretty solid. He's also been the best post up player
Speaker 1: in the league to run at least fifty post ups,
Speaker 1: scoring one point three one points per possession. There are
Speaker 1: sixty three players who have run at least fifty and
Speaker 1: Russ is number one. But that's typically when he gets
Speaker 1: good matchups. That's posting up smaller guards that are usually
Speaker 1: coming off the bench for teams, and then pick and
Speaker 1: roll against a backup center, which usually is a very
Speaker 1: poor pick and roll defender. You know, think of like
Speaker 1: the way the way that Thomas Bryant was for the
Speaker 1: Lakers or DeAndre Jordan was for the Nuggets. That there
Speaker 1: there is those backup ring protectors are typically the easiest
Speaker 1: guys to score on and pick role. So again, it
Speaker 1: seems to make the most sense in bench lineups. You
Speaker 1: can kind of see a trend that I'm that I'm
Speaker 1: hinting at here, and then off the ball, this is
Speaker 1: where his weaknesses are. He's shooting below from three on
Speaker 1: outrageously good shot quality. So even when the defenders at
Speaker 1: least six ft away, which NBA dot com classifies is
Speaker 1: wide open, he's shooting thirty point seven percent on almost
Speaker 1: three attempts per games, so on stands still wide open
Speaker 1: completely conceded threes, he's making less than a third of them,
Speaker 1: which is a major problem. That's what allows teams to
Speaker 1: completely ignore him. So what allows teams to put their
Speaker 1: center on them? And you'll see that a lot, and
Speaker 1: you might think to yourself self like, oh, well, that
Speaker 1: means that we can get zoobots with a better matchup,
Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter if your center is ignoring us
Speaker 1: to help on that said post up. Right, So, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of issues that come with Russ off the basketball,
Speaker 1: and the only way to counter that is a nonshooter
Speaker 1: to be relentless as a cutter and as an offensive
Speaker 1: rebounder and as a screener, which those are three things
Speaker 1: that Russ has done on occasion, but is never bought
Speaker 1: fully into enough to make himself a positive as an
Speaker 1: off ball player. So as I loop all of that together,
Speaker 1: there's an obvious role that takes shape. You want him
Speaker 1: in the middle portions of games, when you can put
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands so the off ball stuff
Speaker 1: is not a problem. And you let him run the
Speaker 1: show for one shift each half, bridging the end of
Speaker 1: the first and early second, and bridging the end of
Speaker 1: the third and early fourth. You let him run those
Speaker 1: two shifts. You put the ball in his hands, he
Speaker 1: pushes the pace, he does all of those things. That's
Speaker 1: when you can get real positive outcomes out of Russ.
Speaker 1: He's going to bully all the smaller guards to come
Speaker 1: off the bench for teams. He's gonna bully all of
Speaker 1: the lesser rim protectors in the league that come off
Speaker 1: the bench for teams. That's where he can have some
Speaker 1: success and the Lakers. For the Lakers did not have
Speaker 1: a very good shooting roster. In fact, I said before
Speaker 1: the season, and I still believe up until the deadline
Speaker 1: they had the worst shooting roster in the entire league.
Speaker 1: The Clippers are an excellent jump shooting team, and Mason Plumley,
Speaker 1: that who they brought in at the deadline to be
Speaker 1: their bench big, runs the floor really well. So this
Speaker 1: could even be a better version of what the Lakers
Speaker 1: had when Russ was coming off the bench. But if
Speaker 1: they start games with him and they close games with him,
Speaker 1: I suddenly view this as a huge net negative. First
Speaker 1: of all, when you give Russ the basketball, you're taking
Speaker 1: touches away from better players like Paul George and Kawhi Leonards,
Speaker 1: so you feel the need to put him off the ball.
Speaker 1: But then off the ball, he will hinder their offense,
Speaker 1: not as much as it did the Lakers. Kauai and
Speaker 1: Paul George are professional pull up jump shooters, so they
Speaker 1: will be able to have more success with Russ on
Speaker 1: the floor than the Lakers did. But still you prefer
Speaker 1: if Kauai has a rim driving threat or if Paul
Speaker 1: George has a rim driving threat to balance out that
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting so defenders can't press up on
Speaker 1: them as much. It absolutely will hurt them in some ways,
Speaker 1: just not as much as it hurts the Lakers. And
Speaker 1: then in crunch situation, crunch time situations, if you play Russ,
Speaker 1: that's where his volatility can become a problem. Like I
Speaker 1: said in the large sample size, the up and down
Speaker 1: nature of Russ's game is not as big of a
Speaker 1: deal because if he's running, you know, thirty five possessions
Speaker 1: in a game off the bench, and he makes, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen good plays in ten dad plays, it's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: But if you put him in a crunch time situation
Speaker 1: where it's just a small handful of possessions, his mistakes
Speaker 1: become so much more damaging. And I'll give you some example.
Speaker 1: So like, there was a play earlier this year against
Speaker 1: Portland at the end of a game, Lebron and Adre
Speaker 1: on the floor. I think the Lakers were down one
Speaker 1: at this point and are up one at this point,
Speaker 1: and they basket basically seals the game. And Russ just
Speaker 1: goes off script and dribbles up the floor on the
Speaker 1: right wing and takes a pull up jump shot. And
Speaker 1: he's like the worst pull up jump shooter in the league.
Speaker 1: There's no basketball case for him to take that shot.
Speaker 1: It's a pivotal possession at the end of a game.
Speaker 1: But up here Russ goes, I'm shooting this, and that
Speaker 1: sort of volatility can cost you games. There were a
Speaker 1: couple of key late game mistakes against Boston and Philly
Speaker 1: this year where Russ decided to play isolation basketball against
Speaker 1: excellent centers. He did it against Joel Embiid, and then
Speaker 1: he did it against al Horford, going off script instead
Speaker 1: of giving the ball to his better players to attack
Speaker 1: the other team's best defensive player under the basket, and
Speaker 1: too he threw the ball into the bottom of the
Speaker 1: rim against al Horford, and then he got fouled against
Speaker 1: Joel Embid. But you know, those kinds of falcohols don't
Speaker 1: usually get made at the end of games, and he
Speaker 1: didn't have an advantage in that situation, and had he
Speaker 1: not been Vould, Joe would have blocked him up top.
Speaker 1: That sort of volatility and decision making at the end
Speaker 1: of games could really hurt them. The one other thing
Speaker 1: that concerns me is the Clippers core players, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, Kawhile, Leonard Paul George uh Marcus Morrison,
Speaker 1: evicazoo Bach, they don't like to play fast. Those are
Speaker 1: slow basketball players. The Clippers have been one of the
Speaker 1: slowest teams in the league this year. So it makes
Speaker 1: sense off the bench when you put him with Norman
Speaker 1: Powell and you put him out there with um Mason
Speaker 1: Plumbly and they're sprinting up and down the or in
Speaker 1: they're getting great shots. That kind of makes sense. But
Speaker 1: with that core group, there's some there's some clash just
Speaker 1: in their overall play styles, which will be a problem.
Speaker 1: Like those core Clipper lineups are gonna like to play
Speaker 1: in the half court, and that's where Russ is at
Speaker 1: his least level of impacts. So you know, overall, so
Speaker 1: much of it will come down to the role. If
Speaker 1: Tyler uses Russ in the middle portions of games, two
Speaker 1: shifts a night, one in the first half, one in
Speaker 1: the second half, in bench groups against bench guards and
Speaker 1: against bench rim protectors, I think he could be a
Speaker 1: significant net positive that raises the ceiling of the Clippers.
Speaker 1: But if they play him to start games, if they
Speaker 1: play him to close games with the style clash of
Speaker 1: the slow style that the Clippers like to play, and
Speaker 1: with him having to do more things off the ball,
Speaker 1: I think it could quickly shift into being a massive negative.
Speaker 1: I do like the influx of athleticism though, like even
Speaker 1: in Russ's decline state, he's very fast, and the Clippers
Speaker 1: do not have a ton of speed on the roster.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of length, they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of offensive skill, but they don't have a lot of speed.
Speaker 1: So I like the different physical profile that he brings,
Speaker 1: and you'll really see that on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. He's been a very good on ball defender
Speaker 1: this year, particularly when bigger players try to take advantage
Speaker 1: of him by backing him down in the post. He's
Speaker 1: been killing All Star Wings all season long in post defense.
Speaker 1: Off the ball, it's a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: mixed bag. He's a freelancer, so he will blow up
Speaker 1: plays like flying around with his athleticism, but then he'll
Speaker 1: also give up offensive rebounds or to lose a shooter
Speaker 1: because he's too much of a freelancer and he forgets
Speaker 1: his baseline responsibility within the defensive scheme. But overall, I
Speaker 1: do like the physical force he brings to the team.
Speaker 1: This move is entirely gonna come down to how Tyler
Speaker 1: uses him, and if he uses him well. I do
Speaker 1: believe it can work. But my prediction is that there
Speaker 1: will be a lot of pressure internally, just the same
Speaker 1: pressure that lead the Clippers to make this signing. There
Speaker 1: will be a lot of pressure inter internally to play
Speaker 1: Russ with the core lineups. Um. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Tyler will be able to fight that off. You'll probably
Speaker 1: get roped into it as well, and and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a roller coaster. There will be nights where RUSS
Speaker 1: wins the Clippers games, there will be knights with RUSS
Speaker 1: loses the Clippers games. And overall, I think that volatility
Speaker 1: hurts the team. So I do feel less optimistic about
Speaker 1: the Clippers chances after this move, and I wish they
Speaker 1: would have just stood pat. And yes, it sucks that
Speaker 1: you don't have a point guard, but there's nobody in
Speaker 1: the buyout market that really stands out. Patrick Beverley is
Speaker 1: a defensive point guard, but he's not an offensive point guard.
Speaker 1: That doesn't really solve the problem. Even then, though, I'd
Speaker 1: rather have Patrick Beverley on this Clippers team than Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: So it was a confusing move, but hopefully this video
Speaker 1: gives you guys a better idea of just how it
Speaker 1: will fit offensively and defensively. Here's our plan for the
Speaker 1: rest of the week. UM. I'll tweet out the the
Speaker 1: actual schedule UM as soon as I finalize some things,
Speaker 1: but we're planning uncovering the top five or six players
Speaker 1: in this year's NBA draft over the course of the
Speaker 1: next couple of days, and then dude, We're like, look
Speaker 1: at the slates. The slate starting Thursday get incredible. Uh,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be covering a lot of basketball, a lot
Speaker 1: of instant reaction breakdown nights where we do four or
Speaker 1: five six games at a night starting Thursday, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a grind the rest of the regular season
Speaker 1: and heading into the playoffs. I'm very, very excited for it.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys rocking with me and
Speaker 1: I'll see you in a couple of days. The volume